in victims, (the materials of augury,) may perhaps have been connected with the notion of the soul, the divine principle, migrating through the bodies of these animals; a doctrine not unknown to the ancient Etrurians, to whom is attributed the invention of this art.23 cessation of Of all these, the influence of oracles, originally the greatest, was Cause of the the earliest overturned. Their extinction at the period of the Advent Oracles. has been attributed to the miraculous expulsion of the spirits which presided over them on the appearance of Christ in the world. But there are natural causes to which it might certainly be referred. The machinery employed in them was more complicated and clumsy, and less easily disguised, than that used in the other similar arts, except perhaps magic. Besides which, all the arts of prescience had at some period or other enjoyed the patronage of the great empires and ruling powers of the world, and through their influence had been spread and upheld. Such had been the case with oracles in Greece, with magic in Egypt, astrology in Chaldæa and the East, with augury at Rome. At the commencement of the Christian era, Rome was all and sole powerful. Augury being the national art, was patronized by the government; astrology and magic (although contrary to law) received a still more powerful support from the secret practice of individuals of rank, even of the Emperors themselves.24 Oracles alone, having lost all accidental support, fell into disrepute and disuse. Something like an allusion to this capricious transfer of credulity may be observed in those lines of Juvenal: errors of the correction Philosophy As long as the learning of the Gentile world was confined to the whether the priest, the statesman, and the lawgiver, it was uniformly employed Heathen in these and whatever other superstitious practices tended to main- received any tain the popular religion, and, through that, order and decorum. from The Brachmans and the Magi might have despised the vulgar before the errors of their countrymen, but their more enlightened views were rise of the kept to themselves, or else cautiously communicated through the Sects. interior doctrine of the Mysteries. But, in truth, as far as there is any ground for conjecture, the wise men of old, comprehending 23 Cicero de Divinat. Lib. I. C. 2. Ovidii Met. Lib. XV. 558. The connexion, which has been here suggested, between augury and the belief that life, in man and brute alike, was a particle of the Divine essence, seems to be countenanced by the fact, that the entrails were examined whilst in the act apparently of parting with, and exhibiting, as it were, this imaginary subtle principle, "Spirantia consulit exta." There is a ghastly description in Strabo, of the mode Grecian How far these were influenced in the publication of their opinions by ancient custom. The double doctrine of the Philosophers. Their speculations on the divine and human nature not always of a Religious character. per the Magi, the Brachmans, the Druids, and even the far-famed sages of ancient Greece, exercised their reasoning powers but little, in investigating the truths of religion. They were occupied petuating and expounding immemorial traditions, rather than in pursuing independent inquiries by the light of nature. They were priests and politicians, not philosophers. To this latter character none have any claim before the rise of those celebrated schools of Greek philosophy, which divided the learned world at the period of the Advent. 26 Yet even with these so strongly did the old custom operate, that in their teaching and writing they preserved a distinction similar to that which obtained in the Mysteries, and always framed an exoteric, as well as an esoteric system. Their genuine opinions on religion were intrusted as secrets to a few, whilst publicly they maintained the grossest doctrines of the popular creed. Nay, to such an extent did they carry this sense of duty as good citizens, that when Euemerus made the alarming discovery of the secret of the Mysteries, the philosophers were the most active in replacing the veil which had been drawn aside; and much of that allegorical interpretation of the more absurd parts of the popular theology was applied to this purpose, 27 which has since exercised the ingenuity of one greater than the ancient sages." 28 Owing to this double doctrine, the religious views of the philosophers exhibit an endless tissue of inconsistency, which renders it (even with this key) not always easy to discover what was their opinion as philosophers, what their doctrine as good citizens; and to the age for which they wrote, it doubtless answered the purpose of keeping their light under a bushel. Besides, although they speculated much on the nature of God and of man, yet these speculations were not always applicable to religion. All religious inquiry, strictly speaking, is directed to the nature of God as connected with man, or again to the nature and condition of man as connected with God. Metaphysical discussions on the Divine nature, similar to those in which an attempt is made to analyze or arrange the principles of the human mind, are sometimes indeed confounded with religious views, but are really compatible with the most complete denial of all religion. Religious obligation arises not from the absolute nature of God, but from its relation to us. Accordingly Epicurus and his followers were content to admit the existence of a divine Being, as a philosophical truth, provided it was granted that he had no connexion with the world.29 Now much of the speculation of the philosophers was directed to this object, that is, to the absolute nature of God. It was indeed the chief, because it seemed the more scientific inquiry, and the other was only incidental. an period of The world, at the period in which Christianity was published to Prevailing it, was divided by the opinions of Epicureans, the Stoics, the Aca- Sects at the demics, and the Oriental philosophy; which last had arisen out of the Advent. alliance between the school of Plato and the eastern creed. To these may be added the Alexandrian school, although it was not until the close of the second century, that this last assumed its peculiar character and importance, in attempting to combine in one Eclectic system, as it was termed, the Christian doctrines, the tenets of the Greek philosophy, and the fanciful theories of Egypt and of the East. Sects. Of these, the Epicureans, denying the existence, or, what amounts Epicureans. to the same, the authority and providence of God, contributed nothing to the general stock of religious knowledge. The remaining sects, however at issue in other respects, agreed thus far, that the relation between the divine and human nature was that of a whole to its parts; a doctrine which may be considered under two heads. First, as to the divine essence; that it was the source of the Theistical human soul, and the principle into which it would, either immediately after death, or ultimately after certain stages of purification, return and be absorbed. Secondly, as to human nature; that it was partly mortal, partly immortal; destined in one sense to survive death, in another to be destroyed by it. Now both these views fell very far short of what is commonly understood, when the ancients are said to have admitted or discovered the existence of the one true God, and the immortality of the soul. As far as the mere expres- Their view sion goes, they doubtless acknowledged the existence of one God as divine unequivocally as a Jew or a Christian; but if by the term God they nature. understood a being of a different nature from him acknowledged by Jew and Christian, their mode of expression cannot be reasonably urged as a proof that they coincided with enlightened believers in this fundamental article of faith. Now that this was the case is plain. Taking the human soul as a portion and a sample of the Godhead,30 their view of a divine source could not have differed essentially from their view of the human soul; it was necessarily endued with parts and passions, and its nature measured and judged of by reference to ours. The Stoics, indeed, (as was before observed,) are by some understood to have gone so far, as to deem a body requisite for the existence of the Divine mind. 29 Cicero represents Velleius as tracing the evils of a belief in religion, not to the doctrine that there is a God, but to the doctrine that he is Lord of the universe. 66 Imposuistis in cervicibus nostris sempiternum dominum, quem dies et noctes timeremus, quis enim non timeat omnia pro videntem et cogitantem, et animadverten- 30 Μύρια Θεοῦ καὶ ἀποσπασμάτια. Arriani of the Of the Their notions on the second point, were still further removed immortality from what we are apt to understand, when it is asserted that the ancients admitted the immortality of the soul. In truth, the immortality which they inculcated was even inconsistent with the future existence of man as man. Far from implying any future consciousness of separate existence, of happiness or misery, it amounted to this, that a portion of the divine essence had gone forth, (which process some illustrated by the image of emanations and rays proceeding from the fountain of light, until they nearly confounded the thing represented with its emblem,) that whatever substance it pervaded became endued with some modification of life or reason; and that the withdrawing and resuming this vital ray occasioned the phenomena of death. This taking place, the deserted mass of matter went to annihilation, or else returned to a chaos, to await another union with another portion of creative virtue. What has all this in common with the Christian doctrine of the resurrection? Was it not natural that men should consider that doctrine when preached to them as somewhat new, and contradicting all their pre-conceived opinions? The discussion subjects by the Greek philosophers to the credit of the Gentile Religion. From this view of the philosophical creed of the Gentile world, it will not appear essentially to have differed from the esoteric doctrines of the Mysteries. The credit and authority of those doctrines were nevertheless greatly shaken by their appearance in this new form. Removed from the old basis of tradition, mystery, and state authority, the unsoundness of their foundation became more apparent to vulgar eyes; and the endless variety of opinion which prevailed, without any acknowledged standard, gave a doubtful character to the subject, and deprived every view of it alike of the appearance of divine sanction. Accordingly, with the rise and diffusion of philosophy, a disbelief and contempt of religion increased and spread abroad. The ruin of of Religious social order began to be predicted in the further growth of scepticism so produced. The wisdom of other nations was extolled, unfriendly because they did no more than expound the traditions of their fathers, and the Greek philosophy was stigmatized as the source of innovation, and as tending to unsettle men's minds. "Can one do otherwise," exclaims Ælian, " than commend the wisdom of the Barbarians? Amongst them, no one ever fell into atheism; amongst them there are no controversies about the gods, no questioning whether there are really such things or not, and whether they are interested about us or not. In the same spirit Diodorus Siculus complains of the perpetual innovations of the Greek philosophers in the views of their predecessors, even on the most important topics: "The Barbarians," he observes, " Igo on in one unvarying course, and are firm to their principles; but the Greeks, who consider "31 31 Var. Hist. Lib. II. C. 31. philosophy as a gainful profession, are for setting up new sects, and opposing theory to theory on the most momentous subjects, so that their pupils only acquire the habit of doubting, their minds wander in perpetual uncertainty, and become in short incapable of any firm conviction." 32 the heathen nevertheless Not that the belief of the Gentile world was then first shaken, or The popular only by these means. The behaviour of professed believers, under systems of circumstances wherein faith is put to the test, is every where deci- Religion generally sive against the existence of such a principle, to any great extent at disbelieved. least.33 Thus the Athenians are represented by their observant and faithful historian and fellow-citizen, as becoming more and more irreligious, as the ravages of the famous plague at Athens increased;34 and Pliny, in his account of the eruption of Vesuvius, in which his uncle perished, records amongst the striking events of that awful scene, a general distrust of Divine aid, arising from the notion that the gods themselves were possibly involved in the impending ruin.35 Powerful ties there were which bound men to the religion of their why they fathers; ties which only a Divine hand could have unloosed, but were they were not the result of conviction. Religion had become, partly adhered to. through accident, partly through the policy of legislators, interwoven into the whole system of public and private life. Never separated from the glories of war, or the repose of peace, it came to be considered inseparable from each. Its genius haunted every path of life, and adapted itself to every change of manners and circumstances. In the theatre, the circus, and the midnight revel, it continued as familiar to the degenerate Romans, as when it gave a zest to the rustic festival, or animated the rude pageantry of a triumph, in their days of simple hardihood. The tasteful and imaginative Greek believed it, if belief it may be called, not for its own sake, but for the sake of Homer, and Phidias, and Apelles,-for the sake of the bard whose song was voucher for its truth, and the monuments of art, in which it stood embodied and enshrined. When the suppliant seated himself beside the household gods, and placed on his knee the child of his enemy, he calculated wisely on the principle, which sanctified the gods themselves in the eyes of the father and the master of the family: nor did Julian display less policy, when in his endeavours to restore the reign of paganism, he directed his efforts, not so much to the conviction of men's minds, as to the renewal of these broken associations.37 36 With this view of the Gentile world before us, we shall be able to estimate how far they stood in need of a revelation, what reception they might be expected to give to Christianity, and how the first Christian preachers were likely to shape their teaching, so as to 32 Biblioth. Hist. Lib. XI. C. 29. 33 See Whately's Essays on some Peculiarities of the Christian Religion. 34 Thucyd. Lib. II. C. 53. 35 Epist. Lib. VI. Ep. 20. H. 36 See the description of Themistocles taking refuge with Admetus. Thucyd. Lib. I. C. 136. 37 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. IV. C. 23. C |