Hermas, who was brother to Pius bishop of Rome. CENT. I. This whimsical and visionary writer has taken the liberty of inventing several dialogues or conversations between God and the angels, in order to insinuate, in a more easy and agreeable manner, the precepts which he thought useful and salutary, into the minds of his readers. But indeed, the discourse, which he puts into the mouths of those celestial beings, is more insipid and senseless than what we commonly hear among the meanest of the multitude 5.

XXII. We may here remark in general, that these The general apostolic fathers, and the other writers, who, in the character of the apostolic infancy of the church, employed their pens in the fathers. cause of Christianity, were neither remarkable for their learning nor for their eloquence. On the contrary, they express the most pious and admirable sentiments in the plainest and most illiterate style h. This, indeed, is rather a matter of honor than of reproach to the Christian cause, since we see, from the conversion of a great part of mankind by the ministry of weak and illiterate men, that the progress of Christianity is not to be attributed to human means, but to a divine power.

This now appears with the utmost evidence from a very ancient fragment of a small book, concerning the canon of the Scriptures, which the learned Lud. Anton. Muratori published from an ancient manuscript in the library at Milan, and which is to be found in the Antiq. Italic. medii Ævi, tom. iii. diss. xliii.

8 We are indebted, for the best edition of the Shepherd of Hermas, to Fabricius, who has added it to the third volume of his Codex Apocryphus N. Testamenti. We find also some

account of this writer in the Biblioth. Græca of the same learned author, book v. chap. ix., and also in Ittigius' dissertation de Patribus Apostolicis, sect. 55.

h All the writers mentioned in this chapter are usually called apostolic fathers. Of the works of these authors, Jo. Bapt. Cotelerius, and after him Le Clerc, have published a collection in two volumes, accompanied with their own annotations and the remarks of other learned men.

CENT. I.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church in this Century.

I. THE whole of the Christian religion is comThe nature prehended in two great points, one of which regards of the Chris- what we are to believe, and the other relates to our tian religion. conduct and actions; or, in a shorter phrase, the

Method of

tures.

Gospel presents to us objects of faith and rules of practice. The apostles express the former by the term mystery, or the truth, and the latter by that of godliness, or piety. The rule and standard of both are those books which contain the revelation that God made of his will to persons chosen for that purpose, whether before or after the birth of Christ; and these divine books are usually called the Old and New Testament.

II. The apostles and their disciples took all possiinterpreting ble care, in the earliest times of the church, that the Scripthese sacred books might be in the hands of all Christians, that they might be read and explained in the assemblies of the faithful, and thus contribute, both in private and in public, to excite and nourish in the minds of Christians a fervent zeal for the truth, and a firm attachment to the ways of piety and virtue., Those who performed the office of interpreters, studied above all things plainness and perspicuity. At the same time it must be acknowleged, that, even in this century, several Christians adopted the absurd and corrupt custom, used among the Jews, of darkening the plain words of the Holy Scriptures by insipid and forced allegories, and of drawing them violently from their proper and natural meanings, in order to extort, from them, mysterious and hidden significations. For a proof of this, we need go no farther than the Epistle of Barnabas, which is yet extant.

1 Tim. iii, 9; vi. 3. Tit. i. 1.

Of teaching

III. The method of teaching the sacred doctrines CENT. I. of religion was, at this time, most simple, far removed from all the subtile rules of philosophy, and all the religion. precepts of human art. This appears abundantly, not only in the writings of the apostles, but also in all those of the second century, which have survived the ruins of time. Neither did the apostles, or their disciples, ever think of collecting into a regular system the principal doctrines of the Christian religion, or of demonstrating them in a scientific and geometrical order. The beautiful and candid simplicity of these early ages rendered such philosophical niceties unnecessary; and the great study of those who embraced the Gospel was rather to express its divine influence in their dispositions and actions, than to examine its doctrines with an excessive curiosity, or to explain them by the rules of human wisdom.

IV. There is extant, indeed, a brief summary of The apostles' the principal doctrines of Christianity in that form creed. which bears the name of the Apostles' Creed, and which, from the fourth century downwards, was almost generally considered as a production of the apostles. All, however, who have the least knowlege of antiquity, look upon this opinion as entirely false, and destitute of all foundation ". There is much more reason in the opinion of those who think, that this creed was not all composed at once, but, from small beginnings, was imperceptibly augmented in proportion to the growth of heresy, and according to the exigencies and circumstances of the, church, from which it was designed to banish the errors that daily arose'.

See Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, lib.i. cap.ii. sect. 2. p. 441, as also Walchii Introductio in libros Symbolicos, lib. i. cap.ii. p.87. 1 This opinion is confirmed in the most learned and ingenious manner by Sir Peter King, in his History of the Apostles' Creed. Such, however, as read this valuable work with pleasure, and with a certain degree of prepossession, would do well to consider, that its author, upon several occasions, has given us conjectures instead of proofs, and also that his conjectures are not always so happy, as justly to command our assent.

CENT. I.

The distinc

V. In the earliest times of the church, all who professed firmly to believe that Jesus was the only tion between Redeemer of the world, and who, in consequence catechumens of this profession, promised to live in a manner conlievers. formable to the purity of his holy religion, were

and be

The cate

chumens differently

But,

immediately received among the disciples of Christ.
This was all the preparation for baptism then
required; and a more accurate instruction in the
doctrines of Christianity was to be administered to
them after their reception of that sacrament.
when Christianity had acquired more consistence,
and churches rose to the true God and his eternal
Son, almost in every nation, this custom was
changed for the wisest and most solid reasons. Then
baptism was administered to none but such as had
been previously instructed in the principal points of
Christianity, and had also given satisfactory proofs
of pious dispositions and upright intentions. Hence
arose the distinction between catechumens, who were
in a state of probation, and under the instruction of
persons appointed for that purpose; and believers,
who were consecrated by baptism, and thus initiated
into all the mysteries of the Christian faith.

VI. The methods of instructing the catechumens differed according to their various capacities. Ta instructed. those, in whom the natural force of reason was small, only the fundamental principles and truths, which are, as it were, the basis of Christianity, were taught. Those, on the contrary, whom their instructors judged capable of comprehending, in some measure, the whole system of divine truth, were furnished with superior degrees of knowlege; and nothing was concealed from them, which could have any tendency to render them firm in their profession, and to assist them in arriving at Christian perfection. The care of instructing such was committed to persons who were distinguished by their gravity and wisdom, and also by their learning and judgement. Hence the ancient doctors generally divide their flock into two classes; the one comprehending such as were solidly

and thoroughly instructed; the other, those who were acquainted with little more than the first principles of religion; nor do they deny that the methods of instruction applied to these two sorts of persons were extremely different.

CENT. I.

the first

VII. The Christians took all possible care to The care of accustom their children to the study of the Scriptures, Christians and to instruct them in the doctrines of their holy in the edureligion; and schools were every where erected for cation of their youth. this purpose, even from the very commencement of the Christian church. We must not, however, confound the schools designed only for children, with the gymnasia or academies of the ancient Christians, erected in several large cities, in which persons of riper years, especially such as aspired to be public teachers, were instructed in the different branches, both of human learning and of sacred erudition. We may, undoubtedly, attribute to the apostles themselves, and to the injunctions given to their disciples, the excellent establishments, in which the youth, destined to the holy ministry, received an education suitable to the solemn office they were to undertake ". St. John erected a school of this kind at Ephesus, and one of the same nature was founded by Polycarp at Smyrna" but these were not in greater repute than that which was established at Alexandria, commonly called the the catechetical school, and generally supposed to have been erected by St, Mark P.

m 2 Tim. ii. 2.

n

" Irenæus, adv. Hæres. lib. ii. cap. xxii. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. xx.

∞ • The Alexandrian school was renowned for a succession of learned doctors, as we find by the accounts of Eusebius and St. Jerom; for, after St. Mark, Pantænus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and many others, taught in it the doctrines of the Gospel, and rendered it a famous seminary for Christian philosophy and religious knowlege. There were also at Rome, Antioch, Cæsarea, Edessa, and in several other cities, schools of the same nature, though not all of equal reputation.

P See the dissertation of Schmidius, de Scholâ Catecheticâ Alexandrinâ; as also Aulisius, delle Scuole Sacre, book ii.