infidels, of conveying by insinuation and sarcasm opinions and sentiments which it was not convenient openly to avow. Without leaving the subject he has in hand, he can always find occasion to suggest doubts and ridicule. When the outline of the likeness he is painting is correct and accurate, he can produce the most objectionable effects by the choice of attitude and expression, and especially by colouring. Often when we cannot deny the resemblance, we can say emphatically that it conveys a false or most inadequate conception of the original. Mahomet is painted with all the luxuriance of Venetian art; Cyril and Bernard are rude caricatures. Constantine and Theodosius are heavy and ungracious; while all the resources of his skill are lavished upon Julian. Thus the reader of the " Decline and Fall" is defrauded of the fruits of human experience, and receives a deadly poison instead of the precious nourishment which is the natural produce of history, and especially of the history of the church.

It is really curious to observe how thoroughly Gibbon's work is saturated with his infidelity. The venom has been distilled into every part. His scepticism, and malevolence, and impurity, meet us everywhere. It is strange that any one could ever have supposed it possible to counteract its mischievous tendency by controverting particular statements, or refuting particular views. It is not easy to conceive how any one could read it, and fancy that any good could be done in this way. It mocks such an antidote. No one could make it anything else than an infidel book without actually taking it to pieces. Little is gained even by expunging the most obnoxious passages; for an epithet sometimes presents a licentious picture, a conjunction often suggests an embarrassing doubt.

If these remarks have given a fair character of this celebrated work, it is almost needless to deduce a formal conclusion. In such case there can be but one opinion. It must be regarded as an antichristian book, which exhibits great powers misemployed, and which no one can read but at his peril. If the estimate now attempted of its literary value be at all correct, the young and inexperienced student may well spare it from his library. It is not less calculated to vitiate his taste, and to weaken his judgment, than to corrupt his moral and religious principles. A spacious field of historical reading is open to him, in which he may safely expatiate. He will be better employed in qualifying himself to obtain genuine information, than in perusing the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

TESTIMONY OF IRENEUS TO CERTAIN FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.

IRENEUS asserts that the church in his time was spread throughout the world; and particularly specifies the churches in Germany, Iberia, (i. e., Spain,) amongst the Celts, (i. e., in Gaul,) in the East, in Egypt,

(a) I. x. 1, 2.

in Lybia, and in the centre of the world, by which he no doubt means Palestine. He likewise incidentally shews that the gospel had been preached in Ethiopia. He furnishes no evidence concerning the first missionaries, except in the case of Ethiopia, to which he informs us the eunuch baptized by Philip was sent ; but he declares explicitly that all the churches through the world, although differing in usage, had but one faith, which was delivered to them at baptism.

He speaks of the churches in general as having been settled by the apostles; and particularly specifies that the church of Rome was founded by St. Peter and St. Paul, who appointed its first bishop, Linus; that Polycarp was made bishop of Smyrna by apostles; and that St. John watched over the church of Ephesus down to the time of Trajan. He informs us, that the successors of the first bishops might be reckoned up in many churches down to his own time,i particularly specifies the churches of Rome and Smyrna, and gives a catalogue of the bishops of Rome, as follows:-Linus, mentioned by St. Paul in his epistles to Timothy ;k Anencletus; Clement,m who had seen and conferred with the apostles; Evaristus; Alexander; Xystus, or Sixtus; Telesphorus, who suffered martyrdom; Hyginus; Pius; Anicetus; Soter; Eleutherius; and we have a fragment of a letter of his own to Victor, the successor of Eleutherius.° He had preserved an anecdote of St. John-viz., that upon one occasion entering a bath, and seeing Cerinthus there, he withdrew precipitately, saying that he was afraid lest the building should fall, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, was in it. This anecdote is indeed at variance with the notion of Christian charity current at the present day, but it rests upon the testimony of Polycarp, who knew St. John well; and it is strictly in accordance with the spirit of the directions he himself gave to "the elect lady," not to receive heretical teachers into her house, or bid them God speed. "

We are likewise indebted to Irenæus for some particulars respecting Polycarp. He states that he had been favoured with familiar intercourse with St. John, and the rest who had seen Jesus, and had heard from them particulars respecting him, and his miracles and teaching. He mentions his having spent some time in Rome in the

(a) I. x. 2.
(c) Frag. iii.

(ƒ) III. iii. 1.

(i) III. iii. 1.

(b) III. xii. 8; IV. xxiii. 2.
(d) I. x. 2, 3.

(g) III. i. 1; iii. 2.

(j) III. iii. 1. 4.

(e) I. ix. 4.

(h) III. iii. 4.
(k) 2 Tim. iv. 21.

(1) Anencletus is called Anacletus by the ancient translator of Irenæus, and Cletus by Epiphanius and the Canon of the Mass. Later writers than Epiphanius make him two persons, but their accounts are contradictory. See Pearson's Posthumous Works, Dissert. de Serie et Successione Episcoporum Romanorum, II. 1; and Nourry, Apparatus ad Biblioth. Patrum. VI. v. 5.

(m) Clement is mentioned by Tertullian (De Præscrip. Hær. 32) as ordained by Peter. It is probable that this might have taken place in the slight interval which elapsed between the death of St. Paul and that of St. Peter, both of which took place in the same persecution.

(p) III. iii. 4.

(n) III. iii. 3.
(q) 3 John, 10.

(0) Fragm. iii.

(r) Frag. ii.

days of Anicetus. He does not, indeed, state the cause of his visit ; but Eusebiusa and Jerome distinctly say that it was on account of the Paschal controversy. This subject, amongst others, our author states to have been discussed between them, and that Polycarp rested his adherence to the Jewish practice upon his having always kept Easter in that way with St. John and the other apostles, and consequently declined to change it; whereupon, to shew that this inflexibility had produced no breach of amity, Anicetus thought proper to request Polycarp to officiate for him, and to take his place at the holy communion. During his stay thered he met Marcion, who inquired if he recognised him. His reply was, "I recognise the first-born of Satan." This severity (or bigotry, as it would now be called) does not appear to have operated in his disfavour; for he was instrumental in recovering to the church many who had been led away by the gnostic delusions. Irenæus likewise mentions Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians, and other epistles to other churches. 8

Respecting Clement, whom Eusebiush identifies with the compa nion of St. Paul, he states that he wrote a very effectual letter to the Corinthians, to allay the dissensions which had arisen amongst them, and to restore the integrity of their faith. This is, of course, the first epistle of Clement, to the genuineness of which his mention of it is a powerful testimony.

He speaks of the church of Rome not only as having been founded and settled under its first bishop by St. Peter and St. Paul, but as being one of the greatest and most ancient, well known to all men, preserving the true doctrine by the resort of persons from all quarters, and possessing from this circumstance a more powerful pre-eminence; and states, that all churches must on that account resort to it. It is well known that this is a passage upon which Romanists very much rely, as establishing the claims of their church to be the mistress of controversies to all Christendom; and I have chosen to give it the utmost force of which it is fairly capable, in order to avoid the charge of slurring it over, and in order to shew that even thus it states nothing inconsistent with the doctrine of the church of England respecting the present church of Rome. I will therefore copy the passage, give a translation of it, and make some remarks upon that translation - Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam, (hoc est, eos qui sunt undique fideles,) in qua semper ab his, qui sunt undique, conservata est ea quæ est ab apostolis traditio." "For every church (that is, the faithful from all quarters,) must on account of its more powerful pre-eminence resort to this church, in which the apostolical tradition is preserved by those who are on all sides."

There are several words in this passage which must influence the sense of it. The first I shall notice is the word potentiorem, the

(a) Hist. Eccl. IV.

(d) That it was at Rome rests upon the testimony of Jerome.

(e) III. iii. 4.

(i) Phil. iv. 3.

(b) De Viris Illustribus, 27.

(ƒ) III. iii. 4.

(g) Frag. ii.

(j) III. iii. 3.

(c) Frag. iii. De Vir. Ill. 17. (h) Hist. iii. 15. (k) III. iii. 2.

more especially as there is a various reading upon it. One MS., (the Clermont,) of considerable value, reads potiorem; but Massuet, who examined it, says that it had been written pontiorem, (but altered to potiorem,) which is almost certainly a contraction for the common reading. We must therefore, I conclude, sit down with the common reading; although Massuet, in the Benedictine edition, and Griesbach, in some remarks upon this passage, prefer the other. But what Greek word potentiorem represents must be matter of conjecture; and no one who is acquainted with the manner in which the translator has rendered Greek words will be inclined to lay much stress upon it. It may have been put for ἱκανωτέραν, or κρείττονα ; or, in short, the comparative of any adjective which admits of being rendered potens. We then come to the word principalitatem. This we know that Irenæus uses to signify ȧpx. Putting these two together, Griesbach has rendered KpEίTTOVα ȧpxiv, potiorem initium, and thus got rid of the idea of authority altogether. But there is no need of this. Principalis is used by Irenæus as the rendering of yeμovinds (III. xi. 8); principaliter, of рonyovμévws (I. ix. 3), and ponynriKws (V. xxvii. 2); principalitatem habeo, of pwreÚw (IV. xxxviii. 3). We know that all the apostolical sees had a kind of principality or pre-eminence above the surrounding churches; a more powerful pre-eminence than other churches equally ancient with themselves. Nay, we know that the church of Rome had at that time, in point of fact, a more powerful pre-eminence than any other church. The next word to be considered is convenire, which may be rendered either resort or agree; and I confess I should have been disposed, with Massuet, to render it agree, were it not for a perfectly parallel passage in the 32nd Oration of Gregory of Nazianzum, delivered at the first council of Constantinople. Speaking of Constantinople, he says, εἰς ἣν τὰ πανταχόθεν ἄκρα συντρέχει, καὶ ὅθεν ἄρχεται ὡς ἐμποριον κοινοῦ τῆς πίστεως. Here Constantinople is spoken of then under the very same terms as Rome by Irenæus, as the common repository of the faith; other parts of the Christian world are said to be governed (apxerai) by it; and distant churches are said to resort from all quarters: συντρέχει πανταχόθεν. Are not these words an exact parallel to the convenire and undique of the translator of Irenæus? I therefore feel bound to give convenire the sense of resort. The next word to be noticed is undique, the application of which is disputed, some, as Barrow and Faber,d applying it only to the immediate neighbourhood of Rome-i. e., Italy and the adjacent parts of Gaul; others, and of course the Romanists, to the whole Christian church. According to the former plan, the clause, "hoc est.... fideles" is a limitation of the expression, "omnem ecclesiam," con

(a) Prog. de potentiore, Eccl. Rom., principalitate. Jenae. 1780. 4to. (b) II. xxx. 9. "The faithful who are all about." (d) Difficulties of Romanism, B. I. chap. iii. sect. iv. 2. (4.) "To this church, on account of the more potent principality, it is necessary that every church should resort that is to say, those faithful individuals who are on every side of it. In which church, by those who are on every side of it, the tradition which is from the apostles has always been preserved." 3 c

(c) Pope's Supremacy, V. ix. p. 234, edit. 1680.

VOL. XV.-April, 1839.

fining it to the churches immediately surrounding Rome; and consequently the pre-eminence of the church of Rome would be equally narrowed by this interpretation of undique. I am far from contending that this interpretation is not correct; and the very fact of the passage admitting it, without any force whatever, shews how little the papal cause can be made to rest upon it. But as Gregory, in the parallel passage I have quoted, uses the term Tarraxódεy, I am disposed to take undique as its representative; the more especially as we have seen that, whatever influence it gives to Rome, the selfsame influence had Constantinople in an after age.

There are one or two more words still to be mentioned. Necesse est is one of them. It may imply that it is the duty of every church to resort to Rome; but its more natural and usual meaning is, that, as a matter of course, Christians from all parts, and not strictly the churches themselves, were led to resort thither, by the superior eminence of that church.

I have hitherto taken this passage as though it must be applied definitely to the church of Rome. But this is by no means necessary; for it may be a general observation applicable to all the most eminent churches, as may be seen by the following translation and arrangement of it :- For every church, (that is, the faithful all around,) must necessarily resort to that church in which the apostolical tradition has been preserved by those on all sides of it, on account of its more powerful pre-eminence:" that is, Christians must have recourse each to the most ancient and most eminent church in his neighbourhood. And this agrees with a passage of Tertulliana in which he refers southern Greeks to Corinth, northern to Philippi and Thessalonica, Asiatics to Ephesus, Italians and Africans to Rome. The only objection which occurs to me lies in the word hanc, which, if the passage is to be taken in this application, must be translated that; but as it was in all probability the representative of ruúrny, this word can scarcely present any difficulty.

I will close this whole discussion with two remarks: first, that unless we could recover the Greek text of this passage, it is plainly impossible to ascertain its true sense; and secondly, that the strongest sense we can attach to it, consistently with history, is, that Christians of that period from all parts of Christendom must, if they wish to ascertain traditions, have recourse to the church of Rome, because, as the first church in Christendom, the common traditions were preserved there by the resort of Christians from all quarters. This twofold reason for resorting thither has long ceased to exist; and consequently this passage of Irenæus can afford no support to the claims of modern Rome, until it can be proved that those portions of the Christian world which are not in communion with her are no part of the catholic church.

There is another subject which has caused much discussion, which is adverted to by Irenæus-viz., the miraculous powers of the church; he declares that in his time powers of this kind were possessed by

(a) De Præscr. Hær. 36.

1