theirs and ours; "'* 66 "nor is our religion," he indignantly adds, "the worship of dead men."t It is the devil who has introduced this homage of angels," says Chrysostom; and the Council of Laodicea, (A. D. 361,) forbade their invocation as idolatrous and a forsaking of Christ. §

We now turn from these polemical subjects to the consideration of the doctrines, common to Christendom, of the trinity of the Godhead and the divinity of Jesus Christ. We know from ecclesiastical history that numerous heresies sprang up in the early centuries with reference to these august themes; but no evidence accuses the church in the Catacombs of departure from the primitive and orthodox faith in these important respects. Frequently, indeed, the belief in these cardinal doctrines is so strongly asserted as to suggest, that it is in designed and vigorous protest against the contemporary heretical notions.

The doctrine of the essential divinity of the Son of God is repeatedly and strikingly affirmed. Not only are the symbolical letters Alpha and Omega often associated with the sacred monogram, in allusion to the sublime passage in the Revelation descriptive of the eternity of

* Nec... sacrificemus martyribus, sed uni Deo et martyrum et nostro.-De Civ. Dei., 22, 10.

Non sit nobis religio cultus hominum mortuorum.-De Ver. Relig., c. 55.

† Ὁ διάβολος τὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐπεισήγαγε.—Hom., 9.

§ Οὐ δεῖ Χριστιανοὺς ἀγγέλους ὀνομάζειν.—Can., 35. The “Saints” of the primitive church, says Schaff, were the whole body of believers, and not a narrow spiritual aristocracy, as in the Romish church. The Council of Constantinople, A. D. 712, decreed that "Whosoever will not avail himself of the intercession of the Virgin Mary, let him be accursed." May God Almighty forgive your sin by the merits of Our Lady," said Gregory VII. to Beatrice and Matilda.- Harduin vi, 1235.

Christ, but his name and Messianic title are variously combined with that of the Deity so as to indicate their identity. Thus we have the expressions ZнCHC IN DEO XPICTO, (sic)-EN OEN KYPEIN XEICTO, (sic)—VIBAS IN CHRISTO DEO-IN DOMINO IESV- -"May you live in God Christ-in God, the Lord Christ-in Christ Godin the Lord Jesus." Or the divine attributes are still more strongly expressed as follows: AEOYC XPICTOYC OMNIIIOTEC, (si)—“ God Christ Almighty;" DEO SANC XRO VN LVC, (sic)—“ God, holy Christ, only light; " DEO SANC VNI, (sic)—“To Christ, the one holy God." We have seen the impression in the plaster of a grave whereby some orthodox believer, probably in protest against the Arian heresy, has "set to his seal" that "Christ is God." Fig. 119, page 386.*

Mention is made of the three persons of the Trinity separately in several epitaphs in which the deceased is

*We have frequent evidence of the zeal of the early Christians in the study of the Scriptures. The Bible was not the sealed book that it is in modern Rome. Jerome counsels that it be frequently read and scarcely ever laid aside, that it be studied not as a task but for delight and instruction, and that some of it be learned by heart every day.—Divinas Scripturas sæpius lege, imo nunquam de manibus tuis sacra lectio deponatur.-Ep. ad Nepotian., 7. Non ad laborem, sed ad delectationem et instructionem animæ.-Ep. ad Demetriad, 15. Nec licebat cuiquam sororum ignorare psalmos, et non de Scripturis sanctis quotidie aliquid discere.—Ep. ad Eustoch, 19.

We find no traces in the early period of the church of the fierce intolerance and dreadful anathemas that mark modern Romanism. Tertullian in golden words asserts that liberty of conscience which a Dominic and Torquemada afterward so ruthlessly trampled under foot. "It is a fundamental human right," he exclaims, "that every man should worship according to his own conviction. It is no part of religion to compel religion."-Ad Scap., 2. Compare also the wise words of Cassiodorus: "Cum divinitas patiatur multas religiones esse, nos unam non audemus imponere. Retinemus enim legisse, voluntarie sacrificandum esse domino, non cujusquam cogentis imperio."

said to sleep IN DEO-IN CHRISTO-IN SPIRITV SANCTO, and collectively in the following of date 403, QVIN

TILIANVS HOMO DEI CONFIRMANS TRINITATEM AMANS

CASTITATEM RESPVENS MVNDVM-" Quintilianus, a man of God, holding fast the doctrine of the Trinity, loving chastity, contemning the world." In later examples from Aqueilia and other places we find the formulæ,

IN NOMINE SANCTAE TRINITATIS-PATRIS ET FILII ET

SPIRITVS SANCTI-"In the name of the Holy Trinityof the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.' ""*

Patristic evidence informs us that both these doctrines were firmly held by the primitive Christians. The doxologies, benedictions, and baptismal formulæ, of the ancient liturgies are all in the name of the triune God. The divinity of the three persons and at the same time the unity of the Godhead are distinctly and

* The pagan Lucian satirizes the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, " one in three and three in one ”—Ἓν ἐκ τριῶν, καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία.—Philopatr., ad fine. Pliny mentions the Christian worship of Christ as God, "Carmenque Christo quasi Deo.”—Ep. ad Had. In response to the heathen accusation of worshipping a mere man, a crucified impostor―ávěσкoλoπioμévìv ondiotǹv, (Luc., de Mort. Pereg.,) the Christians reply that he is also God: Υἱος καὶ πατὴρ εἰς ἄμφω κύπιος -Clem., Paed., iii, 12; "Deus est et Dei Filius, et unus ambo.”—Tertul., Apol., 30. In contrast to Christian monotheism, Tertullian ridicules the polytheism of the heathen, and compares the contests of the gods in Homer to those of gladiators.—Ad. Nat., 10. Imitating the keen irony of Isaiah, he exclaims, "You make a cooking pot of Saturn a frying pan of Minerva. Even the mice gnaw, the spiders defoul your gods."—Ibid., ii, 12. The trinity of Plato and the Hindoo sages was a mere speculative subtlety. Tertullian spurned the fusion of philosophy and Christian doctrine. "Away with such mottled Christianity," he exclaims.-De Præscrip. Hæret., c. 7. Compare his noble confession of faith in God, the eternal Spirit, an incorporeal essence, the true Prometheus who gave order to the world, concluding with the noble words, "We say, and before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures we cry out, 'We worship God through Christ.""-Apol., 17-22.

often asserted. This is also affirmed in frequent Christian inscriptions "to the one God”—DEO VNO. (sic.)

66

Such, then, is the testimony of the Catacombs concerning the doctrines of the early believers—a testimony more favourable to the general character of ancient Christianity than the writings of the Fathers and ecclesiastical historians of the times; probably, as Dr. Maitland remarks, because the sepulchral tablet is more congenial to the expression of pious feeling than the controversial epistle, or even the much needed episcopal rebuke." We know, indeed, from these latter sources, that heresy, strife, recrimination, and mutual anathemas early disgraced the religion of peace and love. But no sounds of this profane controversy disturbed those quiet resting-places of the Christian dead. The expression of faith and hope and joy and peace-the peace of God that passeth all understanding-every-where appears. The stricken and sorrowing believer burst not forth like the heathen in passionate complainings and impotent rage against the gods, but bowed in meek submission to His will who doeth all things well. With devout and chastened spirit he bore the ills of life, and with calm confidence and holy joy he met the doom of death,

Not like the quarry slave, at night

Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approached his grave,

Like one who wrapped the drapery of his couch
About him, and lay down to pleasant dreams.*

* Bryant's Thanatopsis.

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER AS READ IN THE CATACOMBS.

THE inscriptions of the Catacombs give us many interesting indications of the social position, domestic relations, and general character of the primitive Christians, as well as of their religious belief. They lift the veil of ages from the buried past and cause it to live again, lit up with a thousand natural touches which we seek in vain from books. They bridge the gulf of time, and make us in a sense contemporaries of the early church They give us an insight into the daily life and occupations of the ancient believers, of which no mention is made in the crowded page of history. The winding Catacombs are the whispering gallery of the bygone ages. Their humble epitaphs are echoes thrilling with a deep and tender meaning, too low and gentle to be heard across the strife of intervening years. In their touching pathos we seem to hear the sob of natural sorrow for the loved and lost, "the fall of kisses on unanswering clay," the throbbings of the human heart in the hour of its deepest emotion, when the parting pang unseals the founts of feeling in the soul. We read of the yearnings of an affection that reaches beyond the grave, and hungers for reunion with the dear departed above the skies; the expression of an inextinguishable love that death itself cannot destroy. We see the emblematic palm and crown rudely scratched upon the grave wherein the Christian athlete, having fought the fight