THE
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY;
IN A
COURSE OF LECTURES,
DELIVERED AT VIENNA,
BY FREDERICK VON SCHLEGEL.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,
WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR,
BY JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, ESQ.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.
MDCCCXXXV.
B. BENSLEY, PRINTER.
CONTENTS
OF VOL. II.
LECTURE X.
On the Christian point of view in the Philosophy of History.--The
origin of Christianity, considered in reference to the
political world.--Decline of the Roman Empire. 1
LECTURE XI.
Of the ancient Germans, and of the invasion of the Northern
tribes.--The march of Nature in the historical development
of Nations.--Further diffusion and internal consolidation of
Christianity.--Great corruption of the world.--Rise of
Mahometanism. 40
LECTURE XII.
Sketch of Mahomet and his religion.--Establishment of the
Saracenic Empire.--New organization of the European West,
and Restoration of the Christian Empire. 78
LECTURE XIII.
On the formation and consolidation of the Christian Government
in modern times.--On the principle which led to the
establishment of the old German Empire. 117
LECTURE XIV.
On the struggles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines.--Spirit of
the Ghibelline age.--Origin of romantic poetry and
art.--Character of the scholastic science and the old
jurisprudence.--Anarchical state of Western Europe. 152
LECTURE XV.
General observations on the Philosophy of History. On the
corrupt state of society in the fifteenth century.--Origin
of Protestantism, and character of the times of the
Reformation. 194
LECTURE XVI.
Further development and extension of protestantism, in
the period of the religious wars, and subsequently
thereto.--On the different results of those wars in the
principal European countries. 228
LECTURE XVII.
Parallel between the religious peace of Germany and that
of the other countries of Europe.--The political system
of the Balance of Power, and the principle of false
Illuminism prevalent in the eighteenth century. 268
LECTURE XVIII.
On the general spirit of the age, and on the universal
Regeneration of Society. 300
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.
LECTURE X.
On the Christian point of view in the Philosophy of
History.--The origin of Christianity, considered in
reference to the political world.--Decline of the Roman
Empire.
A regular history of the life of our Saviour, recounted like any other
historical occurrence, would in my opinion be out of place in a
philosophy of history. The subject is either too vast for profane
history, or in its first beginnings too obscure, whether we consider
its internal importance, or in a mere historical point of view, its
outward appearance. A thinking, and in his way well-thinking Roman,
when he had obtained a more accurate knowledge of the life of our
Saviour from the accounts of the Roman Procurator, or other Roman
dignitaries in Palestine, might have expressed himself respecting the
whole transaction in the following terms: "This is a very
extraordinary man, endued with wonderful and divine power, [for such
vague and general admiration might well be indulged in by a Heathen,
who yet adhered to the fundamental doctrines of his ancestral
faith,]--a man, who, he would continue to say, has produced a great
moral revolution in minds, and was, according to the most credible
testimony, of the purest character and most rigid morals, who taught
much that was sublime on the immortality of the soul and the secrets
of futurity; but who was accused by his enemies, and delivered over to
death by his own people." Such, perhaps, would have been the judgment
of a Tacitus, had he drawn his information from better and less
polluted sources. So long however as all these transactions were
confined to the small province of Judea, the soundest and best
constituted Roman mind could have scarcely felt a more than passing
regret at the perpetration of so signal an act of private injustice;
and would, in other respects, have not regarded it as an event which
could, in a Roman point of view, be termed historical, or worthy to
occupy a place in the more extended circle of his own world.
It was only when Christianity had become a power in the world--the
principle of a new life, and of a new form of life totally differing
from all preceding forms of existence, that it began to attract the
attention of the Romans, as a remarkable historical occurrence. How
perfectly unintelligible, strange and mysterious this mighty event at
its origin, and for a long time afterwards, appeared to the Romans;
how erroneous and absurd were their opinions and conduct in regard to
the Christian religion, we have already shewn by some characteristic
examples.
On the other hand, when we view the whole transaction with the eye of
faith--when we consider all that has since grown up in the world out
of beginnings apparently so small--the case changes its aspect in our
regard; and we are then inclined to believe that the mysteries and
miracles of our Saviour's life and death, nay, the whole system of his
doctrine, which is intimately connected with those mysteries and
miracles, and is itself the greatest mystery and miracle, should be
abandoned exclusively to religion, and, as they transcend the ordinary
sphere of history, would be misplaced in a work of this nature. I will
therefore pre-suppose a knowledge of these sacred mysteries, and,
without entering into any examination of them, will endeavour to
describe the state of the world, and the aspect of society, when the
Christian religion first made its appearance. A notice of some
particular points of doctrine, connected with politics and history,
either in respect to the past or to the future, is by no means
incompatible with my plan; but a complete examination of the whole
system of Christian doctrines, as of any other great system of
doctrine or philosophy, would, for the reason I have alleged, be quite
misplaced in a work of this description. I will in the next place
endeavour to shew the historical influence which this divine power has
exerted, and point out how from its very origin, and still more in its
progress, it entirely renovated the face of the world.
Doubtless the philosophy of history forms an essential part of the
science of divine and human things--things which in the mode of
conceiving or treating them, should be rarely and even never entirely
separated. For how is it possible to attain to a just and correct
knowledge of human things, in any department of life and science,
unless they be viewed in relation to and connection with the divine
principle, which animates or directs them? A certain medium, however,
is to be observed, and the limits must be clearly and accurately
traced between divine and human things, lest the one department should
be confounded with the other. For as it is very prejudicial to
religion to make it merely a matter of learned historical research; so
it is inconsistent with the object of historical philosophy to
transform it into a mere series of religious meditations. Undoubtedly
historical philosophy can and ought to assume the divine principle in
man--the divine image implanted in the human breast--as the great
pivot of human destiny, the main and essential point in universal
history, and the restoration of that Image as the proper purpose of
mankind.
Thus the philosophic historian may endeavour, as I have attempted, to
point out the divine truth contained in the primitive revelation, the
original word which was current among the nations of the primitive
age: in the second period of the world--the decisive crisis between
ancient and modern times--he will discover in the Christian religion,
the sole principle of the subsequent progress of mankind; and the
distinctive character and intellectual importance of the third or last
epoch of the world, he will find only in that light, which, emerging
from the primitive revelation, and the religion of love established by
the Redeemer, has shone ever clearer and brighter with the progress of
ages, and has changed and regenerated not only government and science,
but the whole system of human life. Here is the principle which
furnishes the plan of classification for all the great epochs of
history. From this philosophic survey of history, the historian, in
the accomplishment of his task, may with great propriety point out and
illustrate the ways and views of divine Providence in the conduct of
particular nations and ages, and in the destiny of remarkable
personages, or historical characters, when those views and ways are
strikingly perceptible to our feelings. Yet it is better that this
train of observations should not be too systematically prosecuted, but
should be introduced occasionally only, and as it were episodically,
in those passages of history, where such reflections naturally present
themselves; and they should ever be confined within the limits of a
modest suggestion; for all these reflections are only the esoteric
spirit--the internal religious idea of history. Otherwise the
historian will be exposed to the danger of introducing a system of
Providential designs prematurely formed according to human insight and
human sagacity, into the yet unfinished drama of the world's history,
whose comprehensive vastness and hidden mysteries, besides, far exceed
the narrow limits of all that man can conceive, judge and know with
certainty. And this is a defect which many writers have not entirely
avoided in their otherwise very religious meditations on universal
history. So far, however, as the historian confines his train of
reflections within the modest limits of a mere partial explanation,
and does not prematurely anticipate the general scheme of divine
polity, or plunge too deeply, and with presumptuous confidence into
its details; he will find much and obvious matter for such
considerations, in the visible selection of particular individuals,
and particular nations and even ages for the accomplishment of certain
ends, for the attainment on their part of prosperity, glory, or some
high object in some particular sphere. But this power thus allotted to
particular individuals or to particular nations, exerts even at the
time a general influence on the fate of mankind, and evidently
accomplishes the designs of Providence with regard to the world at
large; forms a point of transition from past ages, or opens a passage
to some manifestation of divine power, with respect to the future. In
the progress of human civilisation, such designs are frequently
manifest. Nay, on the great question of the permission of evil, when
it exerts a widely destructive influence in the moral and physical
world, and on the views of God in that permission; the enlightened
historian may sometimes succeed, if not in penetrating into the hidden
decrees of divine wisdom, yet at least in uplifting a corner of the
mysterious veil which covers them. In particular phenomena of
history--such for example as the destruction of a whole nation, the
Jews for instance; or in the overwhelming calamities, the general
miseries inflicted on a corrupt age, manifesting, clearly as they do,
the retributive justice of God--calamities which, when regarded from
this point of view (and it is only from this point of view they can be
rightly judged), appear like a partial judgment of the world--in all
such historical phenomena, a modest reference to the final causes of
such events may be exceedingly appropriate. This idea of divine
justice, and of God's judgments on the world exemplified in history,
belongs undoubtedly to the province of historical philosophy; and, as
man's resemblance to his Maker constitutes the first foundation-stone
of history, this more practical principle, relating as it does, to
real life and all its mighty phenomena, forms the second.
But the Mystery of grace in the divine Redemption of mankind,
transcends the sphere of profane history. The Christian philosophy of
history must indeed tacitly pre-suppose the truth of that mystery, and
assume it as known, and indeed as self-evident to all well-thinking
persons--it must even, under the inspiration of this faith, refer to
it very many, the greater part, indeed almost all, of the facts and
phenomena of history--but it should forbear to introduce it into its
own province, and should leave it to the sanctuary of religion. In the
same way, whenever philosophy attempts to incorporate and rank this
mystery with her own speculative conceptions, the consequence must
ever be hurtful to religion; for, as philosophy thus attempts to
explain and, as it were, deduce this mystery from her own
speculations, the mystery of Redemption ceases to be a divine fact,
and it is only as such that it is and can be the true and eternal
foundation of religion. I wish here expressly to do away with an
opinion which is completely unhistorical, and even subversive of all
history. I cannot more truly and succintly designate this opinion,
than by stating it as follows:--Christ, to say it in one word, was a
Jewish Socrates; and this purest, noblest, and sublimest of all
ethical teachers (according to the rationalists' interpretation of his
history) met with a fate no less deplorable for mankind than that
which befel the Athenian philosopher, and the wisest of all the
Grecian sages. In reply to this, one observation only need be
made--_If Christ were not more than a Socrates, then a_ _Socrates He
was not._[1] But this opinion is not only unhistorical, or, to speak
more properly, _anti-historical_, because it is in utter opposition
to all covenants, testimonies, authentic records, and even Christ's
express declarations; but fully as much, and even still more on this
account, that if we once remove this divine keystone in the arch of
universal history, the whole fabric of the world's history falls to
ruin--for its only foundation is this new manifestation of God's power
in the crisis of time--this hope in God abiding unto the end. For,
although I do not consider a formal demonstration of the truth of the
Christian religion as falling within the province of profane history;
yet the belief of its truth--a faith in its dogmas, is the only clue
in such investigations. Without this faith, the whole history of the
world would be nought else than an insoluble enigma--an inextricable
labyrinth--a huge pile of the blocks and fragments of an unfinished
edifice--and the great tragedy of humanity would remain devoid of all
proper result.
Confining myself within those limits which the very nature of the
subject, and the force of circumstances prescribe, and which I have
here thought it necessary to mark out with exactness, I shall now, in
order to see under what circumstances Christianity first arose in the
world, and appeared on the domain of history, direct your attention
more immediately to the Jewish state.
Dependant at first on the Grecian dynasty of Egypt, and at a
subsequent period subdued by the Soverigns of the new Syrian monarchy,
which sprang out of the dismemberment of the Macedonian empire, the
more virtuous portion of the Hebrew people evinced under the religious
persecution they had to sustain from the latter monarchs, much
constancy in the old faith of their fathers; for which indeed several
of the heroic family of the Maccabees had the courage to lay down
their lives. From these rulers they were rescued by the Romans, who
took them under their powerful protection, which, with the Jews, as
with all other nations, was soon transformed into a systematic and
very oppressive domination. The Jewish people were so far involved in
the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, that each party favoured that
aspirant to the throne of Judea, most favourable to its own designs.
Under the monarchy of Augustus, Herod, who was created tributary
sovereign of Palestine about forty years before the Christian æra, was
the last who had been promoted to sovereignty amid this conflict of
parties. The temple of Jerusalem, that had been rebuilt with the
permission of Cyrus, still remained in all its pomp and grandeur. If a
profane curiosity had tempted Crassus and Pompey to intrude within its
sanctuary, on the other hand, the munificence of Herod had added to
its size and increased its decorations. Although Herod ever retained a
partiality for Roman customs, and still more for Grecian opinions, yet
the temple of Jerusalem considered, not as the august sanctuary of
Heaven's revelations to the chosen people, but as the centre of
attraction for the Jewish nation, situated as it was in the midst of a
great commercial city, (one of the largest in all Western Asia), and
forming at once the treasury, and by its close proximity to the
citadel, the rampart, of the city and of the state, must have been
regarded by Herod as the seat of his power, and the nearest object of
his ambition. There were at that period among the Jews two parties,
which, like those of the Patricians and Plebeians in the civil wars of
Rome, bear some resemblance to the parties that at present divide the
world: although in their relative position towards each other, as well
as in their internal character and tendency, there are many important
points which distinguish them from the parties at present existing.
Though from the predominant spirit and peculiar constitution of the
Jewish people, the subjects of contention between the two parties
related chiefly or more immediately to matters of religion; yet
politics were not entirely excluded from their disputes, which
embraced in general the whole of human life and its various relations.
The Pharisees were the chief scribes and doctors of the law, and in
the state, the honoured Patricians of the Hebrews, who sought to
maintain the ancient faith and ancient constitution of their country
with its rights and jurisprudence, adhering indeed with a rigid
scupulosity, and a contentious subtilty to the letter of the old law,
while they had long forgotten its divine spirit, and were notorious
for their attachment to their own interests, their selfish feelings,
and false and contracted views. As they acknowledged, and respected
with the most scrupulous fidelity all existing laws, they sided,
apparently at least, with the Romans; though they never entertained a
cordial attachment for those conquerors; and indeed they ever
cherished the hope of being able to ensnare the great Teacher, so
beloved by the Jewish people, into a declaration against the Roman
rule, as in their limited views they conceived He must, sooner or
later, be necessarily driven to that expedient in order to sustain his
popularity. But it cannot be doubted that the cause which the
Pharisees defended was, on the whole, the legitimate cause of the
Hebrews of that period, since our Saviour himself expressly
acknowledged this, when he said of the Pharisees,--"They sit in the
chair of Moses, and whatsoever they command you, that do ye." It was
precisely because they had made the old law, and the cause of God,
their own cause, that so much was exacted of them; and that they were
judged with so much severity by our Saviour, apparently with greater
severity than were the Sadducees themselves, who by an Epicurean
philosophy, and a latitudinarian system of morals, had fallen almost
entirely from the faith, had affixed a mere human interpretation to
Scripture, and had even called in question the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul. If in this sect there were individuals
entertaining purer and more exalted notions of the truth, we must
regard them rather as happy and honorable exceptions. We must not,
besides, forget that the severe judgments on the Pharisees, which
occur in Scripture, refer only to the more degenerate among them,--a
great portion, doubtless, perhaps the greater part; but by no means
include the whole sect or body, among whom were many worthy
individuals.
We ought also to recollect that the apostle Paul was a Pharisee, and
though a well-intentioned, yet a very zealous, one, for all his
writings shew the man who had sat at the feet of Gamaliel: the latter
again was the grandson of the illustrious Hillel, who is named as one
of the last great doctors of the Hebrews, who was profoundly versed
in their sacred traditions, and was indeed one of the last pillars of
the Synagogue. The Jewish history or tradition mentions seven species
of false Pharisees, to whom all the reproaches of our Saviour are
perfectly applicable. Many other Pharisees, besides the apostle Paul,
are mentioned with honour in Holy Writ, as friends and disciples of
our Redeemer, though they had not the courage openly to declare
themselves his followers.
Whenever, in the history of mankind, we arrive at some epoch of great
crisis, or momentous collision, we find invariably, and in all
countries, two contending parties like these, appearing at once on the
historical arena, though in forms or positions variously modified. The
party defending antiquity, often adheres only to the dead letter of
rigid law, forgetting its inward sense and living spirit; while the
opposite party, which has a strong conviction that the world stands in
need of a new legislation, and that the epoch of a new legislation
approaches, is not entirely in the wrong. But when the members of the
latter party have lost all faith in the sacred traditions of the past,
and have consequently forgotten that the great work of regeneration
can emanate from God only; they conceive that it is in their power to
accomplish this work, nay, they fancy they have already succeeded in
their enterprise, while all their futile attempts can accomplish
nought but a total revolution in the past--a revolution brought about
either by external violence, or, in its best and mildest form, by the
internal ruin of moral principle and feeling. Between these extreme
and conflicting parties, individuals are often found who fly from the
field of contention, and seek out a higher asylum, at least for
themselves. Such were those small communities of holy contemplatives
that then existed among the Jews, the Essenians in Palestine, and the
Therapuntæ in Egypt; but these ascetics, limited in number, formed a
trifling exception by the side of the two great predominant sects. It
was between these two leading parties--on one hand, the narrow-minded
and selfish Jewish legitimatists--stiff adherents to the letter of the
law,--and, on the other hand, the liberal illuminés;--between the old
promises and expectations of the Hebrews, and the Roman dominion, now
become and acknowledged to be legitimate, that our Saviour had to
steer; and it required a more than human prudence to traverse this
critical period, unaffected by the spirit of contending factions.
"Give unto Cæsar what belongs to Cæsar," was his simple declaration,
when men sought to entrap him by their worldly cunning: and this
declaration has remained a fundamental precept of Christianity, and
will continue unchanged to the end of time. So will that other oracle,
"Thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my church;" in this
there is a clear and distinct precept how Christians were to treat
those Pagan pretensions of the Romans which regarded acts of
political idolatry, such as the sacrifice before the image of the
Emperor, and acts of a similar kind; and how, as witnesses of the
truth, against all the powers of earth, they were to seal their
testimony with their blood. The capital error of the Jews lay in this,
that in the Deliverer, promised to them of old, they now generally
expected an earthly liberator destined to emancipate them from the
oppressive yoke of the Romans, and to restore their national empire to
its highest glory and splendour. And, indeed, had they not carried
their notions on this point to such extreme lengths, and with such
unyielding obstinacy, much might have been alleged in their excuse.
According to the usual character of prophetic speech, the portrait of
a spiritual Deliverer, invested with real glory and pomp, had been
drawn in such vivid colours in those ancient prophecies, that the
description might, in many passages at least, be easily mistaken for
one of an earthly monarch. Or, to express my meaning with greater
accuracy and precision, as it is the peculiar character of sacred
prophecy to represent events about to follow, in immediate contact
with the ultimate objects to which they tend, there are often in those
prophetic descriptions of the future prosperity of the chosen people,
many passages on the remote period of the last ages of the world, and
on the universal triumph of Christianity throughout the earth at the
end of time; there are often, we say, many of those passages which
also refer and indeed contain the closest allusions to the
commencement of the Christian redemption. In the same way, although in
a different sort of subject, we see our Saviour himself foretell the
impending ruin of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation, while his
lamentations are closely linked, and almost confounded with, prophetic
warnings respecting the awful and terrific scenes of latter times, and
the approaching day of general account; although both these events,
the ruin of the temporal Jerusalem, and the last glorious
transformation of nature, when creation shall be consummated, and a
new heaven and a new earth shall spring into existence, are to be
strictly regarded as real and historical. So close an attention, and
so great a power of discrimination are requisite to distinguish
between parts, to combine the whole, and place each particular fact in
its proper point of view. But the best excuse that can be offered for
the Jews, in this respect, is the fact, as the scripture clearly
showeth, that all the followers of our Saviour, and his most trusty
disciples, were at first under the same delusion, and for a long time
believed that, though the right moment had not yet arrived, still
their master would certainly appear as the earthly Deliverer and
Monarch of his nation; and indeed the idea of his sufferings and death
was so abhorrent to their feelings, that they even dared to express
their disapprobation, and upbraid their Saviour for entertaining such
thoughts; for it was only at a much later period the bandage fell
from their eyes. And the great reproach which we are to make the Jews
is that they should have adhered with such obstinacy to an error, very
excusable under certain circumstances, and that after all they had
heard, seen and experienced, they should have still closed their eyes
against the light. The conduct of our Saviour towards the Jews is
often represented in a manner little conformable to historic truth,
and to the spirit and character of this mighty revolution, when it is
said that he entirely abrogated the whole system of the Mosaic law.
The outward scaffolding was indeed removed, when it had ceased to be
necessary; such were all those laws which applied only to that state
of strict separation from Heathen nations, which at an earlier period
had been of such absolute importance. Very many things were still
retained; and all now received in the fulfilment a higher spiritual
signification; and this was natural, when we consider that in Judaism
itself every thing which had not been designed merely for local and
temporary wants, from the very commencement of that dispensation, was
typical of Christianity. The twelve apostles, as well as the first
seventy-two disciples, were taken exclusively from the chosen people,
and even, in this respect, the divine promises were completely
fulfilled, and literally observed. The constitution of the ancient
hierarchy has very evidently furnished the pattern for that of the
Christian priesthood; though this of course has been adapted to the
wider circle of a higher and more spiritual system. The expression,
"My kingdom is not _of_ this world," does not imply that it was
not to be _in_ this world a real and effective power, with a form
and organization clearly defined. Many have read so much, or inferred
so much, from this declaration, that they could not adopt an easier or
more polite method of shutting out this divine empire of truth from
the world. In the hours of the greatest solemnity, the divine Master
revealed to his disciples the hidden sense of the ancient revelation
in all the plenitude of its mysteries. As the Saviour himself said
that every word and syllable of the old law must be literally
fulfilled; as in general the spiritual interpretation of the divine
oracles is by no means inconsistent with their literal truth and
inviolable sanctity; so the same remark will apply to the new
revelation, in which every word and every syllable of prophecy will
receive a full and practical accomplishment before the consummation of
time. Even in another point of view, particularly worthy the
consideration of the historian, Christianity must be regarded only as
a divine continuation, a higher and more expansive form, or spiritual
renovation, of the Mosaic institution; and was so intended by its
divine Founder; namely in those aspirations after futurity, which now
so exclusively directed the whole of human life, and its various
views.
That law of divine wisdom, by which earthly existence is to be looked
upon only as a state of expectation, of preparation, and of
struggle--a view of life alone accordant with human nature--that law
has retained its full force in the new covenant. For the primitive
Christians, death was what the Saviour said of himself, a return, a
passing unto the Father, but life was one ceaseless struggle. For him
who unto the end fought steadfast in this struggle, the angel of death
was divested of his terrors; he was a celestial messenger of peace,
that brought to the Christian the bright garland of victory, and the
crown of eternal life; in this faith and in these sentiments, did the
Saints live, and the martyrs die. And as every human soul is conducted
to the realms above by the gentle hand of its divine guardian; so the
Saviour himself has announced to all mankind, in many prophetic
passages, that when the period of the dissolution of the world shall
approach, he himself will return to the earth, will renovate the face
of all things, and bring them to a close. So lively an assurance had
the first Christians of the immediate presence of their invisible lord
and guide, so vivid a hope did they entertain of his speedy return to
the earth; that, in order to check the aspirations of a zeal that
would accelerate the period of consummation so ardently desired,
divine Providence judged it necessary that the Prophet of the New
Testament should close the volume of eternal revelation with that long
succession of ages that were to witness the progressive struggle of
humanity--all those centuries of Christianity that mankind was yet to
traverse, before the promise should be fulfilled, and in the fulness
of time the final and universal triumph of Christianity throughout the
earth should be accomplished, for all mankind must be gathered into
one fold, and under one Shepherd. According to the spirit and precept
of the Christian religion, man must at every moment be prepared; but
he must not, in a presumptuous ardour, accelerate the term of
existence fixed by the wisdom of Almighty God. Thus all those
Christians who, during the times of the most violent persecution of
the church under the Romans, courted the danger, and would not await
the honour of martyrdom, were warned that such conduct was by no means
conformable to the will of God; as it often happened that those who,
by such an overweening confidence in their own strength, had wantonly
rushed to the field of danger, succumbed under their torments, and
fell from the faith.
Had the Jews but opened their eyes in the right time; had they
acknowledged the divine fulfilment of ancient promises in the mission
of Christ, which was in fact far more exalted and more splendid than
any thing they had expected; and had all, or even the greater part, of
the nation embraced Christianity; they would have become the mighty
stem--the great foundation--the central point of all modern history,
and all modern life. But as they did not correspond to this call of
divine Providence, a call fully justified by their circumstances,
their early history, and the prerogatives which the Almighty had once
accorded to them above all other nations; the justice of God required
that they should now receive a signal chastisement, that they should
be deprived of their national existence, dispersed among all the
nations of the earth; and that, in this state of ruin and dispersion,
they should serve as a memorable example to the world. But this
humiliation of the Jews, which was calculated to draw down the
contempt of the Heathen, who looked only to outward things, should
have never given rise to oppression or ill-treatment among Christian
nations; and the more so, as it is still a problem whether any other
people placed in a similar situation, and warped by selfish
prejudices, and old and deep rooted errors, would have done better; or
whether mankind in general, subjected to a similar trial, would have
come off more successfully.
The old temple of the holy city was not, like the idolatrous temples
of the Heathens, a mere magnificent monument of national glory,
adorned with all the splendour of art; but the idea and plan of the
whole structure, its minutest parts, every stone, and every cipher,
were clearly indicative and profoundly symbolical of that invisible
temple, that mighty city, that divine kingdom of peace, which Christ
was to establish on earth, and which he had now at length come to
establish. Even the name of Jerusalem, according to the Hebrew
signification of the word, has the emblematic sense of revelation and
foundation, or city of peace, by which is understood not a mere
earthly and transitory peace, but that higher and divine peace which
forms the subject of all the promises made unto the chosen people.
This prophetic sense and typical design of the holy city is so closely
connected with the origin and whole idea of the city, that in some
passages of the Old Testament such figurative expressions are used, as
if the whole business, nay the whole life, of man had no other object
"than to build up the walls of Jerusalem;" in the same sense as if a
Christian moralist were to say; the proper end and ultimate object of
mankind, and of the history of all nations and ages, is the kingdom of
God, that is to say, the ever wider diffusion and firmer consolidation
of Christian truth and Christian perfection throughout the world. When
the spiritual and internal sense of this mighty and historical
hieroglyph of the Jewish people was no longer understood; when the
mighty truths which it embodied, at the very moment they were about to
receive their full explanation and perfect development, were
misunderstood and rejected; what was more natural than that the
emblem, which had lost its meaning, should be effaced, the temple
destroyed, and the city itself levelled and razed by the arm of divine
justice? This is the view which the Christian historian must take of
that mighty and fearful catastrophe which now befell Jerusalem, and
the whole Jewish people under Vespasian; and indeed the impression
which this event made on the Jews, though somewhat diversified by
national sentiments, is in all essential points conformable to our own
feelings. That in every such widely destructive disaster, which by
divine permission may afflict any portion of the human race, the
loving wisdom of God will know how to take each individual soul under
its special protection, and will guard and spare it, at least, in its
immortal part, is a truth so evident to every religious mind, that it
is unnecessary to enforce it at any length. If, as the Scripture
saith, "the hairs on a man's head are numbered," so will each day, nay
each hour, each pulsation of human existence be counted; yea, every
heartfelt tear the eye of sorrow shall shed, will be reckoned by the
guardian spirit of eternal love. But this religious regard for the
fate of individuals, and this humane sympathy with their misfortunes,
must be kept within its proper sphere in historical disquisitions,
where the principal design is to study and observe, as far as the
limited perception of man will permit, the mighty course of divine
justice, through all ages of the world.
When the Jews were disappointed in the hope they had entertained of a
liberator, who was to be sent from above, armed with divine power to
deliver them from the stern yoke of Roman domination; exasperated by
the ever increasing tyranny of their masters, after several partial
insurrections, the whole nation, three and thirty years after the
death of our Lord, broke out into open rebellion; and the whole
country, torn by infuriated factions, which fanatic hate inspired with
the courage of despair, exhibited all the horrors of the most terrific
revolution. The savage warfare of the Romans in such a deadly
struggle, we have already learned from the example of Carthage; for
however mild and benevolent might be the personal character of Titus,
it was out of his power to introduce any change in the system of war;
and the number of men that perished in the siege and ravage of the
holy city is estimated at 1,300,000; including the small number that
were led away captives, or reserved to grace the triumph of the
conqueror. The Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city, which had been
totally destroyed, under the new and Pagan name of Ælia Capitolina,
and even erected within it a temple to Jupiter: but no Jew was
permitted to enter within its walls. At a later period the Emperor
Julian had intended to re-establish the Jews in their ancient city,
and in all probability it was his hostility to Christianity which had
inspired him with the design; but unexpected events and physical
obstacles[2] opposed the execution of this plan.
The Jewish covenant and the old revelation of the Hebrews formed the
chief corner-stone on which Christianity was founded; and the first
apostles of the new religion were all chosen from among that people.
The scriptures of the new covenant were composed in the Greek tongue,
and the first apologies, and other expositions of faith, or books of
instruction by the primitive fathers, were mostly written in the same
language. We may therefore consider this language as forming the
second foundation-stone of the Christian edifice. Though the political
consequences of the Macedonian conquests in Asia were not of any
permanence, yet the influence which these conquests have exerted on
the intellectual character of nations, the ascendancy which they gave
to the Greeks over the whole civilized world of that period, were by
no means unimportant. It was by means of these conquests that the
philosophy and literature of the Greeks became, along with their
language, predominant in Egypt and the Western countries of Asia; and
hence this language was adopted as the original tongue of
Christianity; because no other at that period had attained such
intellectual refinement, or such general diffusion. As in human
society every class and condition of life, nay, every individual, by
the peculiar rights and advantages which each exclusively enjoys,
still serves the community, and contributes to the weal of others,
unconsciously and without precisely wishing it; so in the history of
the world, and in the progress of nations, all things are closely
interlinked, and one serves as the instrument, auxiliary, or bond of
union to the other; and it was not one of the least important results
of the Greek science and language, that the two points wherein that
nation had risen to the greatest eminence, and was endowed with the
greatest power, should both have been so nearly allied with the cause
of Christianity, even from its origin. The Roman empire was the third
foundation-stone of the Christian religion; for its vast extent
facilitated in a singular manner the early and very rapid diffusion of
Christianity, and formed indeed the ground-work on which the fabric of
the new church was first constructed.
In the history of the primitive church, historians are wont to
separate the different branches of their subject, which form so many
different parts of a single whole, and thus to describe separately the
dogmas and doctrines of the church, its holy rites and sacraments, its
liturgies and festivals, and next its moral condition and external
relations; and this division of the subject may, no doubt, very well
answer the special design of such ecclesiastical histories. But if we
wish to take a more general view of the subject, to seize the spirit
of Christianity, and form a just, true and lively conception of the
primitive church, we must be particularly careful not to forget in the
investigation of those several heads, that they formed one undivided
and living whole in the eyes of the first Christians, amid the
overflowing fulness of a new moral life; and of this spirit of unity,
as well as of the wonderful energy of faith and love which was its
never-failing source, it is almost impossible for us to form a full
and adequate notion. Christianity in its primitive influence, was like
an electric stroke, which traversed the world with the rapidity of
lightning--like a magnetic fluid of life, which united even the most
distant members of humanity in one animating pulsation. Public prayer
and the sacred mysteries formed a stronger and closer bond of love
among men, than the still sacred ties of kindred and earthly
affection. Some persons have affected to compare the secret assemblies
of the primitive Christians with the pagan Mysteries; and undoubtedly
it was only in secret, and in the retired and obscure oratory, that
the first followers of Christ could gather together amid the fury of
general persecution. But, from a competent knowledge which we possess
of the import of those pagan Mysteries, they had about as much
resemblance to the religious assemblies of the primitive Christians,
as the divine sacrifice of holy commemoration, and the chalice
consecrated with the blood of the eternal Covenant, bore to the human
sacrifices of the Cainites. The Christians saw and felt the presence
of their invisible King and eternal Lord; and when their souls
overflowed with the plenitude of spiritual and heavenly life, how
could they value earthly existence, and how must they not have been
willing to sacrifice it in the struggle against the powers of
darkness; for that struggle formed the whole and proper business of
their lives?--Hence we can understand the reason of the otherwise
incredibly rapid diffusion of Christianity through all the provinces,
and even sometimes beyond the limits, of the vast empire of
Rome;--like a heavenly flame, it ran through all life, kindling, where
it found congenial sympathy, all that it touched into a kindred
fervour. Hence, along with that mighty spirit of love which produced
so rapid a spread of the Christian religion, and which united in the
closest bonds the first Christian communities, that energy of faith
which inspired such heroic fortitude under the dreadful and oft
renewed persecutions of the Romans. The first persecution under Nero
was only a momentary freak of blood-thirsty tyranny--a passing trait
of that monster's cruelty. The first regular edict against the
Christians in the Roman empire was passed by Domitian in the 87th year
of our era, and, according to a custom which had been borrowed from
the Jews, he assimilated the offence of dissent from the national
religion to the crime of high treason. The better Nerva softened the
rigour of this law, and declared that the denunciations of slaves
against their masters were not to be received, but, on the contrary,
such informers were to be severely punished. Trajan also, on the
before-mentioned report of the younger Pliny, decided, in the 120th
year of our era, that the Christians, who were then uncommonly
numerous, were not to be sought after, but that, when denounced, they
should be punished according to the law existing against such
religious associations and communities. But notwithstanding all these
apparent mitigations of severity introduced by the better emperors,
the criminal jurisprudence of the Romans, like their foreign warfare,
ever remained most atrocious; and the passages and allusions which are
to be found in ancient historians, concur with the general voice of
Christian tradition in stating the prodigious cruelties inflicted on
the Christians in those persecutions. In general Hadrian pursued that
milder and middle course of policy which Trajan had commenced before
him; he approved of legal and judicial persecutions against the
Christians, but he strictly prohibited those tumultuary attacks which
were the mere ebullitions of popular hatred. With many vicissitudes,
Christianity remained in this state until the reign of Diocletian,
who, pursuing a far more systematic plan than most of his
predecessors, attempted entirely to root it out; but this was no
longer possible, and the growing church received its first formal
edict of pacification at the hands of the emperor Constantine. The
pagan enthusiast Julian attempted a second time to subvert it, but it
was now too late. In the struggle against pagan cruelty and Roman
persecution, Christianity had come off victorious; in bondage, and
under every species of suffering, it had proved the invincible might
of the divine arm;--and, next to the apostles, the martyrs, so highly
revered by the gratitude of Christians, must occupy the second place
among those who were instrumental in bringing about this mighty
renovation of society, and who sealed their efforts with their blood.
But we must not imagine that the martyrs, as mere men, and by their
unassisted strength, could have endured such dreadful torments with
such unshaken constancy; or, again, that they were the mere
unconscious instruments of a divine fatality, without the co-operation
of their free, clear and steadfast will. By the side of those who were
constant, many individuals were found that were not so,--many, who,
overcome by suffering, delivered up the holy scriptures, or entirely
apostatized from the faith and sacrificed to idols; so that it was
afterwards a matter of dispute, how far the _lapsed_ could be
pardoned and received again into the church.