Volume 1. Number 10. May 3, 1824, pp. 61-64.

• Essays on Ecclesiastical Characters, Councils, Creeds, and Sects.--No. II. by Alexander Campbell, pp. 61-63.
• Our Essay on Experimental Religion by Alexander Campbell, pp. 63-64.
• Awful Calculations by N. A. Eagle, p. 64.

      HAVING in the preceding number introduced the opinions and speculations of the philosophical religionists, before and at the christian era, we will now give our readers an account of the corruption of the christian religion by those opinions and philosophical religious teachers. This we shall do in the words of one who cannot be much suspected for an extraordinary attachment to primitive christianity. Mosheim, from the mass of evidence upon this subject to which he had access, satisfactorily shows that the first "theological seminary," established at Alexandria in Egypt, in the second century, was the grave of primitive christianity. Yes, it appears that the first school instituted for preparing christian doctors was the fountain, the streams whereof polluted the great mass of christian [61] professors, and completed the establishment of a paganized christianity in the room of the religion of the New Testament. But let us hear a popular doctor tell the awful tale in his own words:--

      "Towards the conclusion of this century, a new sect of philosophers arose of a sudden, spread with amazing rapidity throughout the greatest part of the Roman empire, swallowed up almost all the other sects, and was extremely detrimental to the cause of christianity. Alexandria in Egypt, which had been for a long time the seat of learning, and, as it were, the centre of all the liberal arts and sciences, gave birth to this new philosophy. Its votaries chose to be called Platonics, though far from adhering to all the tenets of Plato. They collected from the different sects such doctrines as they thought conformable to truth, and formed thereof one general system.

      "This new species of Platonism was embraced by such of the Alexandrian christians as were desirous to retain, with the profession of the gospel, the title, the dignity, and the habit of philosophers. It is also said to have had the particular approbation of Athenagoras, Pantænus, Clemens the Alexandrian, and all those who, in this century, were charged with the care of the public school¹ which the christians had at Alexandria. These sages were of opinion that true philosophy, the greatest and most salutary gift of God to mortals, was scattered in various portions through all the different sects; and it was, consequently, the duty of every wise man, and more especially of every christian doctor, to gather it from the several corners where it lay dispersed, and to employ it, thus reunited, in the defence of religion, and in destroying the dominion of impiety and vice.² The christian eclectics had this also in common with the others, that they preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the christian doctrine.

      "This philosophical system underwent some changes, when Ammonius Saccas, who taught with the highest applause in the Alexandrian school about the conclusion of this century, laid the foundation of that sect which was distinguished by the name of the New Platonics. This learned man was born of christian parents, and never perhaps gave up entirely the outward profession of that divine religion in which he had been educated. As his genius was vast and comprehensive, so were his projects bold and singular; for he attempted a general reconciliation or coalition of all sects, whether philosophical or religious, and taught a doctrine which he looked upon as proper to unite them all, the christians not excepted, in the most perfect harmony.³ And herein lies the difference between this new sect and the Eclectics, who had, before this time, flourished in Egypt. The Eclectics held that in every sect there was a mixture of good and bad, of truth and falsehood; and accordingly they chose and adopted out of each of them such tenets as seemed to them conformable to reason and truth, and rejected such as they thought repugnant to both. Ammonius, on the contrary, maintained that the great principles of all philosophical and religious truth were to be found equally in all sects; that they differed from each other only in their method of expressing them, and in some opinions of little or no importance; and that, by a proper interpretation of their respective sentiments, they might easily be united into one body. It is further to be observed, that the propensity of Ammonius to singularity and paradox, led him to maintain that all the gentile religions, and even the christian, were to be illustrated and explained by the principles of this universal philosophy; but that, in order to this, the fables of the priests were to be removed from paganism, and the comments and interpretations of the disciples of Jesus from Christianity.

      "This arduous design, which Ammonius had formed of bringing about a coalition of all the various philosophical sects, and all the different systems of religion that prevailed in the world, required many difficult and disagreeable things in order to its execution. Every particular sect and religion must have several of its doctrines curtailed or distorted before it could enter into the general mass. The tenets of the philosophers, the superstitions of the heathen priests, the solemn doctrines of christianity, were all to suffer in this cause, and forced allegories were to be subtilely employed in removing the difficulties with which it was attended. How this vast project was effected by Ammonius, the writings of his disciples and followers that yet remain, abundantly testify. In order to the accomplishing his purpose, he supposed that true philosophy derived its origin and its consistence from the eastern nations; that it was taught to the Egyptians by Hermes; that it was brought from them to the Greeks, by whose vain subtleties and litigious disputes it was rendered somewhat obscure and deformed; but was, however, preserved in its own original purity by Plato, who was the best interpreter of Hermes and of the other oriental sages. He maintained that all the different religions that prevailed in the world, were, in their original integrity, conformable to the genius of this ancient philosophy; but that it unfortunately happened that the symbols and fictions under which, according to the eastern manner, the ancients delivered their precepts and their doctrines, were, in process of time, erroneously understood, both by priests and people, in a literal sense; that, in consequence of this, the invisible beings and demons whom the Supreme Deity had placed in the different parts of the universe as the ministers of his providence, were, by the suggestions of superstition, converted into gods, and worshipped with a multiplicity of vain ceremonies. He therefore insisted that all the religions of all nations should be restored to their original purity, and reduced to their primitive standard, viz. "the ancient philosophy of the east;"⁴ and he affirmed that this his project was agreeable to the intentions of Jesus Christ, whose sole view in descending upon earth was to set bounds to the reigning superstition, to remove the errors that had crept into the religions of all nations, but not to abolish the ancient theology from whence they were derived.

      "To this monstrous coalition of heterogeneous doctrines, its fanatical author added a rule of [62] life and manners which carried an aspect of high sanctity and uncommon austerity. He, indeed, permitted the people to live according to the laws of their country and the dictates of nature; but a more sublime rule was laid down for the wise. They were to raise above all terrestrial things by the towering efforts of holy contemplation, those souls whose origin was celestial and divine. They were ordered to extenuate, by hunger, thirst, and other mortifications, the sluggish body, which confines the activity and restrains the liberty of the immortal spirit; that thus, in this life, they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after death, active and unencumbered, to the Universal Parent, to live in his presence forever.⁵ As Ammonius was born and educated among the christians, he set off, and even gave an air of authority to these injunctions, by expressing them partly in terms borrowed from the sacred scriptures, of which we find a vast number of citations also in the writings of his disciples. To this austere discipline, he added the pretended art of so purging and refining that faculty of the mind which receives the images of things, as to render it capable of perceiving the demons, and of performing many marvellous things by their assistance. This art, which the disciples of Ammonius called theurgy, was not, however, communicated to all the schools of this fanatical philosopher, but only to those of the first rank.

      "This new species of philosophy, imprudently adopted by Origen and many other christians, was extremely prejudicial to the cause of the gospel, and to the beautiful simplicity of its celestial doctrines.⁶ For hence it was that the christian doctors began to introduce their subtle and obscure erudition into the religion of Jesus, to involve in the darkness of a vain philosophy, some of the principal truths of christianity that had been revealed with the utmost plainness, and were indeed obvious to the meanest capacity, and to add to the divine precepts of our Lord many of their own, which had no sort of foundation in any part of the sacred writings.⁷ From the same source arose that melancholy set of men, who have been distinguished by the name of Mystics, whose system, when separated from the platonic doctrine concerning the nature and origin of the soul, is but a lifeless mass, without any vigor, form, or consistence. Nor did the evils which sprung from this Ammonian philosophy, end here. For, under the specious pretext of the necessity of contemplation, it gave occasion to that slothful and indolent course of life, which continues to be led by myriads of monks retired in cells, and sequestered from society, to which they are neither useful by their instructions nor by their examples. To this philosophy, we may trace, as to their source, a multitude of vain and foolish ceremonies, proper only to cast a veil over truth, and to nourish superstition; and which are, for the most part, religiously observed by many even in the times in which we live.⁸ It would be endless to enumerate all the pernicious consequences that may be justly attributed to the new philosophy, or rather to this monstrous attempt to reconcile falsehood with truth and light with darkness. Some of its most fatal effects were, its alienating the minds of many in she following ages, from the christian religion; and its substituting, in the place of the pure and sublime simplicity of the gospel, an unseemly mixture of platonism and christianity.

      "The number of learned men among the christians, which was very small in the preceding century, grew considerably in this. Among these there were few rhetoricians, sophists or orators. The most part were philosophers attached to the eclectic system, though they were not all of the same sentiments concerning the utility of letters and philosophy. Those who were themselves initiated into the depths of philosophy, were desirous that others, particularly such as aspired to the offices of bishops or doctors, should apply themselves to the study of human wisdom, in order to their being the better qualified for defending the truth with vigor, and instructing the ignorant with success.⁹ Others were of a quite different way of thinking upon this subject, and were for banishing all argumentation and philosophy from the limits of the church, from a notion that erudition might prove detrimental to the true spirit of religion. Hence the early beginnings of that unhappy contest between faith and reason, religion and philosophy, piety and genius, which increased in the succeeding ages, and is prolonged even to our times, with a violence that renders it extremely difficult to be brought to a conclusion. Those who maintained that learning and philosophy were rather advantageous than detrimental to the cause of religion, gained, by degrees, the ascendant, and, in consequence thereof, laws were enacted, which excluded the ignorant and illiterate from the office of public teachers.¹⁰ The opposite side of the question was not, however, without defenders; and the defects and vices of learned men and philosophers contributed much to increase their number, as will appear in the progress of this history."¹¹

Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. p. 163-173.      

      Let the reader bear in mind that a high churchman unequivocally represents primitive christianity as having been buried in the rubbish of Egyptian philosophy by the first doctors of divinity in the first theological seminary that ever existed in the christian church; and that many of those vanities, ceremonies, mysteries, and Ammonian institutes are come down to our times, and inserted in our creeds. Christians, read your bibles, and be admonished to explode from your religious faith and practice what you cannot find in the scriptures. The New Testament is the creed, discipline, and formula of christianity. Most of the popular schemes, and dogmas, and institutes are Egyptian, Babylonish, or Roman.

      HAS been received with considerable diversity of feeling. Some are pleased with it, others displeased, and not a few know not whether to [63] approve or disapprove. We are sorry to find that almost all the objections we have heard against it have arisen from a misunderstanding of our design and meaning. It is said that we have taught that there is no necessity of being born again by the Spirit of God; that we have denied that Christians are new creatures, and that we have confined all divine grace to the apostolic age. Now we must confess that we did not intend to communicate such ideas; nor do we think that such can be fairly gathered from our words. But so consecrate is the phrase "experimental religion," that if you make the least freedom with it every feeling is excited, and it is like calling in question a man's title to his estate.

      But in exposing the vain conceits of many about the nature and manner of this renovation, we were led, as we hinted, into a species of the same kind of metaphysical reasoning, which we feared would lead to mistakes. It is universally acknowledged by those who have attended to the operation of their own minds, that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to form any tolerable idea of the nature or manner of those operations. But it is agreed that the mind operates in its own way, whether we adopt a right or a wrong theory about its method of operating. Just so with respect to divine operation., or the operation of supernatural intelligences. We know such operations exist, but the modus or manner of these operations is inscrutable; and let our theory be right or wrong, these operations proceed in their own way--neither guided, controlled, nor prevented by our theories. But wrong views of this subject may greatly injure both the peace and happiness of those that entertain them. And whenever any theory leads us to disregard the written word of God, or to neglect the constant reading and examination of it, and the practice of its plain injunctions, that theory is erroneous and dangerous.

      As to the effects attendant upon the truth believed, we are clearly taught that these are such as to fitly characterize the believer as a new man. He is possessed of three principles of action, the most powerful and triumphant: these are faith, hope, and love. All revealed truth is the matter, or, as some call it, the object of faith. Future good things promised by God are the object or matter of hope, and the Lovely One, and every one that is like him, are the object of the christian's love. These principles purge, purify, elevate, and ennoble the mind that possesses them. "The gospel," as one in a certain place beautifully observed, "presents a faithful testimony to be believed, good things to be hoped for, and the most amiable one to be loved." The purification of our hearts, the refinement of our feelings, the elevation of our character, the reformation of our lives, are the inseparable fruits of the belief of the one fact, upon the evidence contained in the faithful record.

      We have been censured for our manner of treating the enthusiastic and sectarian religion of our times. Perhaps, in this instance, we were too much in the spirit of Elijah, who thus addressed the false teachers of his time, and in relation to their god, said to them, "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleeps and must be awaked." 1 Kings, vii. 29. Yet this Elijah was one that feared, and loved, and served the God of Israel, though "a little profane," as some would say, on this occasion. Paul, in the same spirit, said, "Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise;" and also besought the Corinthians to "forgive him the wrong" he had done them, in not being burdensome to them. On sundry occasions he speaks thus "profanely," especially when he said, "The things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God." It was also "very impudent" in him to say, "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."

      We have discovered that something under the name of "experimental religion," is the very soul of the popular system, and that this subject is worthy of a very serious and profound discussion; we will therefore promise our readers a series of essays on the office assigned to the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men, as this is developed to our view in the holy scriptures. Every thing called grace in the heart, christian experience, experimental religion, regeneration, &c. will come under this head. Patience, however, will be necessary on the part of our readers; and let those who are disposed to know what is truth upon this subject, as well as every other, in the mean time devoutly examine the scriptures for themselves.

      We have just got out of our hands a heavy job of writing, which has engrossed much of our time and attention during the winter and spring. We hope to be able to bestow more time and labor on this work than we have hitherto been able to bestow on it.

EDITOR.      

      AN ingenious, authentic, and valuable statistical work, published a few years since, calculates that the number of inhabitants who have lived on the earth amount to about 36,627,843,275,075,846. This sum, the writer says, when divided by 3,096,000, the number of square leagues on the surface of the globe, leaves 11,830,698,732 persons to each square league: There are 27,864,000 square miles of land, which being divided as above, give about 1,314,522,076 persons to each square mile. Let the miles be reduced to square rods, and the number, he says, will be 2,853,273,600,000, which being divided as above, gives 1283 inhabitants to each square rod, which rod being reduced to feet and dividing as above, it will give about 5 persons to each square foot of terra firma on the globe. Let the earth be supposed to be one vast burying ground, and, according to the above statement, there will be 1283 persons to be buried on each square rod; and a rod being capable of being divided into 12 graves, it appears that each grave must have contained a hundred persons, and the whole earth have been one hundred times dug over to bury its inhabitants, supposing they has been equally distributed! What a lesson to human pride, vanity, and ambition!--N. A. Eagle.

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