The Epistles of St. John : the Greek text, with notes and essays

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tianio

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ino bolie in the

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Evon in this latost expression of the belles, tho fiath in Christ a chrisi

gations, designed to embrace the Whole Worid, started together in the ih. i Vosrat centuo. rae one appeared in tho completonsas of iis forini tho B PV'' other only in the fidit embodiment of the vitai principio .Hohincludod ali aftemgromth. But the t o Empirea had nothing ineominon except their potnt of departum and their cliam to univorsali . In principie, in mode os notion, in sanctions, in Mope, in history they offer an absoluto contrast. The Roman Empire Was

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ni t have come over the mild indisserenoe of antiquity' it Wo aro tor eive the Popular accounts of the persecutio . Appeia is madeto Atho univerint toleration os polytheiam' as is that mould havo naturalty admitted Christiani at lo t to tho privilege of conni-vanco. Mainuations are thrown out that is tho Christiana susserinthoy more thoniselum to blanie.

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an antagonistic and not With a co-ordinate belles The martyre mighthave oacaped torturea and death bu tho affectation or somblance of Chri uanitu consorini to popular customa, but auch conforini ty Would have involvod a complete morifice of theis Mith. Christiana Wero notcontented With perinisaion to exercise their personat religion mithout molestation : thv demandod freedom for expansion and conquent.

Is indoed a vistinct conception bo forinod os What Christianio is, Risi lis ovident that a sincere and Malous pagan could not but peram ouis it. Tho Christian Faith is uuiveraal : it is absoluto: it is aggressive; and orice moro it is spiritual and not only temporaL On alltheae Mounda re noce Mily carne into collision rarith the Roman lam. I. Christiani ia univerint. Thia characteriatio placea it at 1. Chris

tho condition es the prosperiw of the family and of tho Stato.

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soms of the ligastare of the Empire in pris-Christian timas, Augustine asha: Talis itaque vanitas qualem serimus eique respondere compellimur, quid horum non Christianae rellivioni tribueret si temporibus Christianis videret ' Et tarnon diis suis non ista tribuunt: quomun ideo cultum requiruntns ista vel minora patiantur cum ea majora pertulerint a quibus antea oolebantur fAug. de Civ. tu. 3I . 3 Irion Casa. m. 36.

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univereariam gentium sacra suscipiunt etiam regna meruerunt)'. '

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sanctioned the morahip of atrange deities, in Which case any citigennuot practiso the foreim ritea mithout reproach. Even Isis and Sorapis found at laat an achnowledged place in the public servico ;and it mas the popular belles Arnong Christiana at tho end of thoaecond centu that Tiberius and pectapa Hadrian, like Alexander Severita at a later dato, had designed to extend thia recognition to Christ'. But thia coordination os nem deities With thoold brouot no relies Dorn tho original obligationa of the Roman. ΗΘ could no more legalty divest himaeis of his religion than of his Mountry. Τo resuae homage to the goda os the State mas essentially

tiona

uiniost Which ancient modes of thought could concede to it. Thoidea os toleration exproming a respect for permnal conviction m ulterly unknown to the stateamen os the old morid. It found noetear expression in the ne v xvorid illi tho seventeenin uentu . The toleration of the Empire suas in essect not unlike toleration in Rumia nom : it accepted diversities Which h tablishod inem lues by actuat existence, but it allo ed no change a V seram the national aith. And yot more than this at iis fidit appearunce ChristianityQould receive no benefit Which Auch toleration this could conser. It was a rebellion against the principie on Which the toleration m founde l. It was a neW Mith and theresoro abaolutet, to be condemned. Judaiam hia at linat the attribute os antiquity. But nocrime could bo greater in theseos a Roman legislator than to callagain into question What had once been sotiled and mined generat cur-