History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

from demoniacal possession (which probably includes, in the language of that age, cases of madness,

deep melancholy, and epilepsy) and other diseases, by the invocation of the name of Jesus.

113

12

Justin Martyr speaks of such cures as a frequent occurrence in Rome and all over the world, and

Origen appeals to his own personal observation, but speaks in another place of the growing scarcity

of miracles, so as to suggest the gradual cessation theory as held by Dr. Neander, Bishop Kaye,

and others. Tertullian attributes many if not most of the conversions of his day to supernatural

dreams and visions, as does also Origen, although with more caution. But in such psychological

phenomena it is exceedingly difficult to draw the line of demarcation between natural and

supernatural causes, and between providential interpositions and miracles proper. The strongest

passage on this subject is found in Irenaeus, who, in contending against the heretics, mentions,

besides prophecies and miraculous cures of demoniacs, even the raising of the dead among

contemporary events taking place in the Catholic church;

114

13 but he specifies no particular case

or name; and it should be remembered also, that his youth still bordered almost on the Johannean

age.

4. The moral effect of Christianity upon the heart and life of its professors. The Christian

religion has not only taught the purest and sublimest code of morals ever known among men, but

actually exhibited it in the life sufferings, and death of its founder and true followers. All the

apologists, from the author of the Epistle to Diognetus down to Origen, Cyprian, and Augustin,

bring out in strong colors the infinite superiority of Christian ethics over the heathen, and their

testimony is fully corroborated by the practical fruits of the church, as we shall have occasion more

fully to show in another chapter. "They think us senseless," says Justin, "because we worship this

Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, as God next to the Father. But they would not say

so, if they knew the mystery of the cross. By its fruits they may know it. We, who once lived in

debauchery, now study chastity; we, who dealt in sorceries, have consecrated ourselves to the good,

the increate God; we, who loved money and possessions above all things else, now devote our

property freely to the general good, and give to every needy one; we, who fought and killed each

other, now pray for our enemies; those who persecute us in hatred, we kindly try to appease, in the

hope that they may share the same blessings which we enjoy."

115

14

5. The rapid spread of Christianity by purely moral means, and in spite of the greatest

external obstacles, yea, the bitter persecution of Jews and Gentiles. The anonymous apologetic

Epistle to Diognetus which belongs to the literature of the Apostolic Fathers, already thus urges

this point: "Do you not see the Christians exposed to wild beasts, that they may be persuaded to

deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the

greater becomes the number of the rest? This does not seem to be the work of man: this is the power

of God; these are the evidences of his manifestation."

116

15

Justin Martyr and Tertullian frequently

go on in a similar strain. Origen makes good use of this argument against Celsus, and thinks that

so great a success as Christianity met among Greeks and barbarians, learned and unlearned persons

113

They are analogous to the "faith-cures, " real or pretended, of our own age.

114

Adv. Haer. II. 31, (S) 4: 

Ἢδη δὲ καὶ νεκροὶ ἠγέρθ̓σαν καὶ παρέμεινον σὺν ἡμῖν ἱκανοῖς ἕτεσι. These two passages can

hardly be explained, with Heumann and Neander, as referring merely to cases of apparent death.

115

Apol. l.c. 13 and 14.

116

Ad Diogn. c. 7.

76

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

---

in so short a time, without any force or other worldly means, and in view of the united opposition

of emperors, senate, governors, generals, priests, and people, can only be rationally accounted for

on the ground of an extraordinary providence of God and the divine nature of Christ.

6. The reasonableness of Christianity, and its agreement with all the true and the beautiful

in the Greek philosophy and poesy. All who had lived rationally before Christ were really, though

unconsciously, already Christians. Thus all that is Christian is rational, and all that is truly rational

is Christian. Yet, on the other hand, of course, Christianity is supra-rational (not irrational).

7. The adaptation of Christianity to the deepest needs of human nature, which it alone can

meet. Here belongs Tertullian’s appeal to the "testimonia animae naturaliter Christianae;" his

profound thought, that the human soul is, in its inmost essence and instinct, predestined for

Christianity, and can find rest and peace in that alone. "The soul," says he, "though confined in the

prison of the body, though perverted by bad training, though weakened by lusts and passions, though

given to the service of false gods, still no sooner awakes from its intoxication and its dreams, and

recovers its health, than it calls upon God by the one name due to him: ’Great God! good God!’—and

then looks, not to the capitol, but to heaven; for it knows the abode of the living God, from whom

it proceeds."

117

16

This deep longing of the human soul for the living God in Christ, Augustin, in whom

Tertullian’s spirit returned purified and enriched, afterwards expressed in the grand sentence: "Thou,

O God, hast made us for thee, and our heart is restless, till it rests in thee."

118

17

CHAPTER IV:

ORGANIZATION AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH.

I. The chief sources for this chapter are the Epistles of Ignatius, the works of Irenaeus, Tertullian,

and especially Cyprian, and the so-called Constitutiones Apostolicae,

II. See the Literature in vol. I. § 58 (p. 481 sqq. ), particularly the works of Rothe, Ritchsl, Lightfoot,

and Hatch.

§ 41. Progress in Consolidation.

In the external organization of the church, several important changes appear in the period before

us. The distinction of clergy and laity, and the sacerdotal view of the ministry becomes prominent

and fixed; subordinate church offices are multiplied; the episcopate arises; the beginnings of the

Roman primacy appear; and the exclusive unity of the Catholic church develops itself in opposition

to heretics and schismatics. The apostolical organization of the first century now gives place to the

old Catholic episcopal system; and this, in its turn, passes into the metropolitan, and after the fourth

century into the patriarchal. Here the Greek church stopped, and is governed to this day by a

hierarchical oligarchy of patriarchs equal in rank and jurisdiction; while the Latin church went a

step further, and produced in the middle ages the papal monarchy. The germs of this papacy likewise

117

Tert. Apolog. c. 17. Comp. the beautiful passage in De Testim Animae, c. 2: "Si enim anima aut divina aut a Deo data est,

sine dubio datorem num novit, et si novit, utique et timet .... O testimonium veritatis, quae apud ipsa daemonia testem efficit

Christianorum."

118

Aug. Confess. I. 1: "Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in Te."

77

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

---