RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO CIVIL SOCIETY. 41

Christianity itself must have appeared as an erroneous opposition to the world, as an outrageous, repulsive tendency in assuming the supervision of human life; in short, as a religious extravagance. Christians of the stricter class, when they kept aloof from those diversions which were inconsistent with Christian principles and habits, were told that "such gratifications for the eye and ear could not injure the religion of the heart. God would not be offended by those indulgences which men might enjoy in the right time and place without detriment to religion. They were the gifts of God which furnished mankind with these pleasures." (See Tertullian's treatise De Spectaculis.)

But Tertullian says, in vindication of the Christians, in answer to the reproach cast upon them for rendering life useless by their contempt of the world: "We are said to be unprofitable in the common concerns of life. How can this be said of men who live with you, have the same food, dress and furniture, the same wants of daily life? For we are not Brachmans, nor the gymnosophists of India, dwelling in the woods, and exiles from life. We remember our obligations to God our Lord and Creator; we reject no enjoyment of his works: certainly we refrain from using them immoderately or wrongfully. Wherefore we live with you in this world, not without a forum, not without shambles; not without your baths, taverns, shops, inns, markets, and other places of traffic. We voyage, moreover, with you, serve in your armies, labour in your fields, and trade with you."-Apol.

ch. 42.

CHAPTER IV.

THE VIEW TAKEN BY CHRISTIANS OF THEIR CALLING.

As the whole life of the Christian, from the beginning to the end, is a conflict with the world and the powers of darkness, a conflict within and without, the kingdom of God in this world must appear as militant, and must make its way by conflict; so that often, in Holy Writ, the calling of the Christian is compared to that of the military life, and the

Christian is represented as the soldier of his Lord. This image was very clear and familiar to the first Christians. Though Christians, in later ages, may have been led to forget the nature of their calling as one of conflict, amidst external tranquillity and prosperity, yet in primitive times their entire outward condition served to remind them of the spiritual warfare; for the church found itself on all sides in conflict with the heathen world, and the public profession made by Christians compelled them to take a share in this conflict. Christians rejoiced to consider themselves as the soldiers of God and Christ (milites Dei et Christi), against the hostile powers of darkness, against everything which appeared to them as belonging to the kingdom of Satan, against the service of sin and of false gods. Whoever united himself by baptism (the signaculum Christianorum) to the Christian church, gave his hand to the president of the congregation, as a pledge that he renounced Satan and his angels and all his works, by which was intended not merely all idolatry and its accompaniments, magic, soothsaying, heathenish diversions, &c., but all sinful indulgences. The positive side of their vow was an obligation to a life consecrated to God, and corresponding to the doctrine of Christ. This vow was called the Christian military oath (the sacramentum militiæ Christiana). The confession of faith, which Christians learnt by heart and repeated at their baptism, was regarded as the Christian watchword (tessera militiæ Christianæ symbolum). The sign of the cross, as the sign of their general's victory, the sign of the sufferings by which he overcame the kingdom of darkness, the sign on their forehead, they likened to the character (stigma militare) which was stamped on the arm or the hand, when a soldier was taken into the ranks. With this sign they were wont to rise in the morning from their beds, and in the evening to go to rest; thus their waking and their sleeping, their acting and their resting, were consecrated. All transactions and employments were begun with it. It was their safeguard against all evil; trusting in this sign of their Lord's victory, they faced every danger with confidence. Indeed, though we are here shown how the gospel had been received by those who overcame the world and the powers of darkness, even Christians in flesh and blood; yet a fondness for what was external, leading

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to superstition, was combined with the deep sentiments of Christian piety, and a divine power was ascribed to outward signs, which ought only to have been ascribed to the spiritual realities they symbolised. And by such examples we are led to reflect on the warning of the Apostle Paul, that we should not end in the flesh, having begun in the Spirit. (Gal. iii. 3.) To this comparison of the christian with the military profession, the beautiful words refer in the epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp: "Strive to please Him in whose service you are fighting, for from him you will receive the pay. Let none of you prove deserters." Augustin, in his sermons, frequently makes beautiful use of the same comparison. We will quote a few specimens. In his 302nd sermon, he says: "Thou art a Christian, thou carriest on thy forehead the cross of Christ. The mark of service thus impressed on thee, shows for what end thou hast made a profession. When He hung on the cross, which cross thou carriest on thy forehead, (he adds, in order to warn against that dependence on externals, 'make not the sign of the cross thy joy, but the sign of Him who hung on the cross,') he looked round on his raging foes, he bore with those who insulted him, he prayed for his enemies. The Physician healed the sick by his blood, even when he was dying, for he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And this was no empty word; it was in the power of this word, that afterwards thousands believed on Him whom they had put to death, and learnt to suffer for Him who had suffered for them and by them. From this sign we learn why we are Christians."Let the baptised," he says in another passage, look into his own heart, whether that has been accomplished in his heart which has symbolically taken place in his body; let him see whether he carries love in his heart, and then let him say, I am born of God. But if he has not this, he may indeed have the mark of service stamped upon him, but he wanders about with it as a deserter." In another sermon he says: "Compare thyself with a soldier; when thou art standing in the service, bearing the mark of thy commander, thou canst, with full confidence, perform thy service. But when thou bearest it out of service, the mark will not only be of no use for the service, but thou wilt be punished as a deserter." He applies this to the Christian who, by apostacy to a worldly

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life, has become unfaithful to his Lord, and against whom the symbols of the sacred service, to which he was pledged, bear witness.

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Christians were always reminded of their baptismal vow, when they were exhorted to fidelity in their Christian duties. Tertullian writes, when exhorting Christians to stedfastness under persecution: "We were called to the service of the living God (ad militiam Dei vivi), when we took our military oath by answering in the affirmative to the questions, Dost thou renounce,' &c. proposed at our baptism, (cum in sacramenti verba respondimus.) No soldier takes luxuries with him; he marches to battle not from his sittingroom but from the camp, where all kinds of hardship and inconvenience are to be met with. Even in peace soldiers learn by labour and heavy tasks to endure war, since they are always under arms, perform their exercise in the open field, and dig trenches. Therefore, ye blessed ones, regard

all

your hardships as exercise for your powers of body. You are engaged in a good conflict, in which the living God is your judge, where the Holy Spirit directs your exercises, and the reward of victory is an angelic life in heaven, eternal glory."

As the calling of Christians, in relation to the world, or on its negative side, is represented as a military calling, so in its own nature, or on its positive side, it appears as a priestly calling. Christians, according to Psalm cx., are a nation of warriors and priests. There is a close connection between the two. By their priesthood their conflict with the world is consecrated; they carry on a holy war as priests. Since they are called, as priests, to consecrate everything to God, to keep at a distance all that is ungodly, they are thereby called to the conflict, without which their priesthood cannot subsist, nor be preserved in its purity.

This idea of the universal priesthood was one deeply rooted in the original Christian consciousness, as it stood in essential connection with the entire peculiarity of the Christian stand-point, with that which distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Christianity has broken down the wall of separation between priests and laity, spiritual and secular persons. By Christ, the one true Priest, all who believe in him are consecrated to the heavenly Father; as his brethren

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they become priests with him, connected with him by faith; filled through him by the spirit of adoption, they rise to the heavenly sanctuary, whither he has gone before them, and to which he has opened the entrance for them; hence they need no human being as a priest to describe for them the sanctuary, which is revealed to them no more in shadows and types, but in truth and reality, or to lead them as children in the leading-strings of ordinances. They are dependent on no one to deal out to them, according to his wisdom, as steward of the heavenly treasures, what they can all receive in an equal manner from the hands of Eternal Love, or to tell them what it is necessary for them to know, for they are all taught of God. They learn from the same Spirit who guides into all truth, and have the same inward anointing; for all, there is one spirit, one divine life, one faith, one hope, one Redeemer, who alone will be called Master, before whom all who wish to be regarded as his disciples must, in the same manner, confess themselves sinners, in order to receive redemption and sanctification immediately from Him alone, and not from or through any man whatever. The time was gone by in which they worshipped dumb idols, as they were led by their priests; they had now attained their majority in religon. The high-priest of humanity who conducted them, not to dumb idols, but to the living God, led them not blindly, but gave them an inward light which never forsook them, one Spirit who revealed Himself in manifold gifts.

As no particular priestly class is established among Christians, but all are comprehended in one priestly generation, so also the priestly office and the worship of God are no longer confined to this or that special act, but all acts are now considered as having a priestly character, as a kind of divine service for the worship of God in spirit and in truth. And thus the calling pointed out to every Christian by his peculiar station which God has assigned him, must be his special priesthood. Accordingly, every Christian, in virtue of his peculiar nature, animated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, as the common principle of life to all Christians, receives his special gifts of grace to operate with them in his own particular calling as a member for the advantage of the whole body. Justin Martyr says: "While the prophets of the old covenant received only special gifts and powers from the