Four Lectures on Some Epochs of Early Church History; Delivered in Ely Cathedral (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...part in the pride and glory of the present life. With this dispensation they were in the main content, nor did they look for any change in it. The ruler of the Pagan world, they deemed, must of necessity be a Pagan. They esteemed it to be his place in God's creation to represent the secular life as contrasted with the spiritual. It was his function to maintain the Empire, which secured the peace of mankind, and gave scope to the progress of Christian sentiment within it; and above all to maintain the grandeur and solid strength of the imperial city, which was the appointed type of the Empire and of the world in general. Tertullian, in the third century, never imagined that a Caesar could be converted to the Faith. Lactantius, in the fourth, would have shuddered at the idea of Rome ever ceasing to be the imperial ruler of the nations. Thoughtful Churchmen could not fail to see, even in the flourishing era of Constantine, that she was environed with awful perils, and to apprehend perhaps that her days were numbered; but beyond the fall of Rome they could see nothing, they could imagine no future upon earth. They were convinced that with the end of Rome would come the end of the world. As years went on, and these perils thickened, this was the idea which impressed itself most strongly upon the minds of the believers. Here at last the adherents of the rival persuasions were in accord. Both proclaimed that Rome was necessary to the world, and would last as long as the world lasted, and perish with it. No doubt both Pagan and Christian were oppressed with sad misgivings, as they saw the swarms of barbarians closing around them, their emperors fled, their legions withdrawn and scattered. But the Pagans, for their part, still clung to their faith in Roine herself, ...