INNER LIFE OF CHRISTIANS. 57 be an imitator of his goodness. And do not marvel if man is able to be an imitator of God. Whoever takes the burden of his neighbour on himself, or who in what he is superior seeks to benefit his inferior, and communicates to the needy what he has received from God, he becomes as it were a god to those who receive from him; he is an imitator of God." (ch. 10.) 66 We are Tertullian regarded the entire life of Christians as a thankoffering of the redeemed, which is presented to God by the eternal Priest of the human race. Comparing Christians purified from sin to the cleansed leper, according to Lev. xiv., he says, "The sinner purified by the word presents to God his gifts in the temple, prayer and praise in the congregation through Christ, the universal priest of the Father." Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, says to Christians, Let us know and consider that we are members of God's temple. the priests and ministers of that temple. Let us serve him to whom we have begun to listen. Let us, who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, evince our obedience by rendering every possible service to the government of the Redeemer, and let us take all the care in our power that nothing impure or unholy remain in the temple of God, that he may not be provoked to forsake the place of his habitation. These are the words of the Lord, who heals and warns, "Behold, thou art made whole; go and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee.' (John v. 14.) After he has restored to soundness, he commands to abstain from sin; he allowed him not to wander about without restraint, but spoke a severe word of threatening to him-to the man, who, having been healed by him, was bound to serve him." The same writer says, "We must strive after the eternal and the divine; we must do all things according to the will of God, in order to tread in the footsteps and teaching of our Lord, who says, 'I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.' But if the servant be not greater than his lord, and if the freed-man is bound to obey him who sets him free, so must we, who wish to be Christians, imitate what Christ has said and done. It stands written; we read and hear it; the church enjoins it upon us: 'He who saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.' (1 John ii. 6.) Only then does our walk correspond 999 to the name to which we have confessed; only then will the faithful obtain their reward when they practise in the life what they believe." "Not merely he who sacrifices to idols," writes the same bishop to Antonianus, "but every one who goes on in sin, and does Satan's will, serves evil spirits and false gods." He says to Christians, "If we are the children of God, if we have already begun to be the temple of God, if we have received the Holy Spirit, in order to live holy and spiritually, if we have raised our eyes from earth to heaven, if we have directed a heart full of God and Christ to heaven and divine things, then let us do nothing but what is worthy of God and Christ, as the apostle exhorts and urges us (Col. iii. 1-4). Let us, who have risen again with Christ by heavenly regeneration, think and act Christianly, as the same apostle exhorts us, 'As is the heavenly, so are they who are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthly, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly.' These words of the apostle in 1 Cor. xv. 49, do not in their literal application belong to this subject; but yet Cyprian might in a spiritual sense make use of them, for, according to the apostle's doctrine, only that will come to perfection at the resurrection which has already been preparing in this temporal life, and has begun in the germ which must be developed more and more; namely, renovation after the image of the heavenly man, Christ, in virtue of the inward reception and appropriation of this heavenly man; hence Cyprian might justly add. But we cannot bear the image of the heavenly unless we can already show that the likeness of Christ is begun, for that the old walk is laid aside, and the new one must be proved by the divine truth being apparent in thee. There must be a divine course of conduct corresponding to God, the heavenly Father; and God must be glorified by the lives of men; for only to those who glorify him has He promised that He will glorify them again. DELINEATION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 59 CHAPTER VII. GENERAL DELINEATION OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. THIS divine life could be manifested in all the diversified relations and conditions of society; it allowed all outward human arrangements to remain as they were, as far as they involved nothing contradictory to the laws of morality and the pure worship of God, but infused a new spirit into them. While Christians outwardly submitted to all existing laws and social institutions, they elevated themselves by a life resting in God, by their heavenly conversation, above all that was limiting in these earthly regulations. "We do not speak great things, but live them,” says Cyprian.* Let us hear how the author of the epistle to Diognetus describes the life of Christians in this respect:† "Christians are not separated from other men by country, nor by language, nor by customs. They dwell not in cities of their own, nor make use of a * Non loquimur magna, sed vivimus. - Cyprian. de Bono Patientia, p. 247. ονται. + Χριστιανοὶ γὰρ οὔτε γῇ, οὔτε ἔθεσι διακεκριμένοι τῶν λοιπῶν εἰσὶν ἀνθρώπων. . . . κατοικοῦντες δὲ πόλεις Ελληνίδας τε καὶ βαρβα ρους, ὡς ἕκαστος ἐκληρώθη, ἐν τοῖς ἐγχωρίοις ἔθεσιν ἀκολουθοῦντες ἔν τε ἐσθῆτι καὶ διαίτῃ καὶ τῷ λοιπῷ βίῳ, θαυμαστην καὶ ὁμολογουμένως παράδοξον ἐκδείκνυνται τὴν κατάστασιν τῆς ἑαυτῶν πολιτείας. Πατρίδας οικοῦσιν ἰδίας, ἀλλ ̓ ὡς πάροικοι· μετέχουσι πάντων ὡς πολῖται, καὶ πανθ ̓ ὑπομείνουσιν ὡς ξένοι. Πᾶσα ξένη πατρίς ἐστιν αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶσα πατρὶς ξένη. Γαμοῦσιν ὡς πάντες· τεκνογονοῦσιν, ἀλλ ̓ οὐ ῥίπτοῦσι τὰ γεννώμενα. . . . Ἐν σαρκὶ τυγχανοῦσιν, ἀλλ ̓ οὐ κατὰ σάρκα ζῶσιν. Ἐπὶ γῆς διατρίβουσιν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν οὐρανῷ πολιτεύΠείθονται τοῖς ὡρισμένοις νόμοις, καὶ τοῖς ἰδιόις βίοις νικῶσι τους νόμους. ̓Αγαπῶσι πάντας, καὶ ὑπὸ πάντων διώκονται. ̓Αγνοοῦνται καὶ κατακρίνονται· θανατοῦνται καὶ ζωοποιοῦνται. Πτωχεύουσι, καὶ πλουτίζουσι πολλούς. Πάντων ὑστεροῦνται, καὶ ἐν πᾶσι περισ σεύουσιν. ̓Ατιμοῦνται, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἀτιμίαις δοξάζονται· βλασφημοῦνται, καὶ δικαιοῦνται· λοιδοροῦνται, καὶ εὐλογοῦσιν· ὑβρίζονται, καὶ τιμῶσιν. ̓Αγαθοποιοῦντες ὡς κακοὶ κολαζονται· κολαζόμενοι χαίρουσιν ὡς ζωοποιούμενοι. Ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων ὡς ἀλλόφυλοι πολεμοῦνται, καὶ ὑπὸ Ἑλληνων διώκονται· καὶ τῆν αἰτίαν τῆς ἔχθρας εἰπεῖν οἱ μισοῦντες οὐκ ἔχουσιν. ̔Απλῶς δε εἰπεῖν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἐν σώματι ψυχὴ, τοῦτ ̓ εἰσὶν ἐν κόσμῳ Χριστιανοί.—Epistola ad Diognetum, 5, 6. 66 66 pecular dialect, nor affect a singular mode of life. They live in the cities of the Greeks or the barbarians, as each one's lot may be; and with regard to dress and food, and other matters of every-day life, they follow the customs of the country; yet they show a peculiarity of conduct, wonderful and striking to all. They dwell in their own native land as sojourners. They take a part in everything as citizens, and yet endure all things as if strangers. Every foreign country is as a fatherland, and every fatherland as a foreign country. They marry like all men, and beget children; but they do not expose their children." (A frequent custom among the heathen in that age.) They live in the flesh, but not according to the flesh. They pass their time on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the established laws, and yet raise themselves above the laws by their lives. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned, They are killed and made alive;" (that is, their death leads them to life; they enter through sufferings on an eternal life; hence the death-day of the martyrs was called their birth-day.) They are poor, and make many rich. They are in want of all things, and abound in all things. They are dishonoured, and amidst their dishonour are glorified. . . . In a word, what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world. As the soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, so are Christians dispersed through all the cities of the world. The soul, indeed, dwells in the body, but it is not of the body; and so Christians live in the world, but are not of the world. The invisible soul is inclosed in the visible body; so Christians are known as being in the world, but their piety remains invisible. The flesh hates and makes war against the soul (though the soul does the flesh no injury), because it forbids the indulgence of its pleasures; and the world hates Christians, not because they refuse it, but for opposing its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and the members of the body; and Christians love those who hate them. The soul is inclosed in the body, and yet holds the body together; and Christians are detained in the world as in custody, and yet they hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in the mortal tabernacle, and Christians dwell as sojourners in mortal things, expecting immortality DELINEATION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. in the heavens 61 God has assigned them so important a post which it is not lawful for them to quit." 66 Justin Martyr gives the following description of the lives of Christians: We who were once slaves of lust, now delight in purity of morals; we who once practised magical arts," (the various deceptions and tricks of a pretended magic then so common among the heathen,) "have consecrated ourselves to the good and uncreated God; we who once prized riches and possessions above all things, now contribute what we have to the common use, and distribute to every one who is in want; we who once hated and murdered one another, and on account of our differences would not have a common hearth with those who were not of the same tribe, now, since Christ has appeared, live in common with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly, that living according to the admirable counsels of Christ, they may enjoy a good hope of obtaining the same blessings with ourselves from God the ruler of all." The great moral effects of Christianity required no splendid array of outward circumstances in order to make them evident, like the great effects of patriotism in antiquity, which yet was a sentiment confined with the limits of egoism.* Christian virtue, quiet and unpretending, going forth with fear and trembling, but under the form of a servant, having in its bosom the consciousness of the dignity of the divine relationship of the children of God, which raised it above all earthly glory-this virtue could find its place in the meanest cottage as well as in the palace, or more easily in the former, since there it met with less opposition from the deceptive glare of worldly grandeur; and in contrast to earthly poverty, the hidden glory beamed forth with greater brightness when lodged in a mean receptacle. The slaves, also, among whom Christianity in early times made many converts, acquired the same exalted dignity of the children of God, and were acknowledged by their fellow Christians as brethren. They appeared in the public meet * In all well ordered polities, if we may judge from the experience of past ages, the attachment of men to their country is in danger of becoming an absorbing principle, inducing not merely a forgetfulness of private interests, but of the immutable claims of humanity and justice."-Robert Hall, Works, i. 372. [TR.] |