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to the spirit of Christianity, for Christianity would have the dignity of humanity acknowleged in all, even the least, and this is plainly not the case with slavery. This is indeed the most unnatural barbarity, the sin that cries most to heaven, which man can commit against man; for slaves are treated not as persons, but as things. Thus, among the Romans, all the terrors of torture might be employed against innocent slaves, and if a master happened to have been murdered by one of his slaves, hundreds of the slaves in his service, even though their innocence were as clear as day, were executed together with the culprit. Christianity first paved the way to an alteration of this whole system, for it taught the originally equal rights and destination of all men; it revealed God as the Father, Christ as the Redeemer of all men, and laid down this principle, that " with God is no respect of persons." Masters and servants were accordingly compelled to confess themselves sinners before God, and to receive their deliverance from the bondage of sin, the true and highest freedom, the freedom of the children of God, as to both alike, a gift of the free grace of God. Believing servants and masters became brothers in Christ, members of one body, heirs of the same heavenly goods. They prayed and sang together, sat next to each other at the holy love-feasts, received together the body and blood of Christ in the holy sacrament. Thus, were the old relations quite remoulded by the spirit of Christianity, and the outward differences of rank, and station, and property, removed before God, and all Christians united in one body under Christ, the common head. But this change in the idea of property was gradual, and not by sudden revolutions, or violent alterations. Servants were therefore urged to willing obedience, and reminded of the true, higher liberty, without which external liberty is nothing. "Let every man continue in the calling whereunto he is called," taught St Paul. "He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman." The servant was to make a situation of liberty out of his service, while with a free spirit and heart he served his master

for God's sake, and showed himself faithful and obedient to him in all things which were not contrary to God's law. But yet he was permitted to use the opportunity of becoming free. "If thou mayest be free," said the same apostle, 66 use it rather." Only if such an opportunity did not offer, Christian slaves were not to stand on their rights, and exalt themselves over their heathen masters, but serve in the spirit of love, humility, and self-denial, and thus let their light shine before their master, in order, if possible, to win him for the Lord and heaven. In the same spirit of love, too, should masters walk as regards their servants. "Ye masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven."

In this point, also, my brethren, let us walk worthy of the gospel. Are we called to be masters, let our rule be one of love, and let our care be wholly for the bodily and spiritual welfare of those who serve us. May we have an eye to our master in heaven in all that we do. But do you, who by God's will are called to serve, remember that in Christ there is neither bond nor free, that we are all equal before God, and prove yourselves truly free, by serving your master according to the flesh with willing obedience, not by compulsion, not "with eye-service as men-pleasers, but from fear of God. Forget not that you serve the Lord Christ! Let that lighten the burden of your situation, let that arouse you to a due fidelity, that you may one day receive from the Lord "the reward of the inheritance."

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Here we close our meditations on the life of Christians in the first centuries of the church. May the Lord give his grace and blessing to us all, that we may zealously follow these patterns of faith and holiness, which have so often edified us, and " grow up in all things unto him, which is the Lord," Jesus Christ the Lord, to whom be honour, for ever and ever! Amen.

APPENDIX.

SHORT NOTICES OF THE LIVES AND ACTIONS OF THE TEACHERS OF THE CHURCH, INTRODUCED IN THE FOREGOING DISCOURSES.

WE shall conclude our picture of the Life of Christians in the Three First Centuries, by a short notice of the teachers of the church whom we have mentioned, for the instruction of readers ignorant of their history. The apostolic fathers commence the list of these teachers, so called, because they were the immediate successors of the apostles of the Lord. The most celebrated

were:

1. CLEMENT OF ROME.

Whether this was he whom St Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Philippians, iv. 3, is uncertain. He was bishop of Rome at the end of the first century, where he was highly esteemed. It is said that Peter himself made him head of the community. We have a letter in his name to the Corinthians, and a fragment of a second. The first was in the early centuries read in many old churches at divine service, together with the canonical writings. It contains brotherly exhortations to concord and a religious life. There are, indeed, other writings in his name, but they were doubted, even by the oldest teachers of the church. Clement died probably at the beginning of the second century.

2. IGNATIUS,

A disciple of the apostle John, was bishop of the church of Antioch, and was distinguished for doctrine, life, and firmness in the profession of the gospel. Under the emperor Trajan he was carried a prisoner to Rome, and there thrown to wild beasts.(Sermon ix). On the way there, he is said to have written seven letters, six to different churches in Lower Asia, and one to bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. They bear in places the stamp of antiquity, but it is doubtful which and how much of these epistles was really written by him.

3. POLYCARP,

Bishop of Smyrna, like Ignatius a disciple of John, died ninety years old in the persecution under the Roman emperor Aurelius, in the year 176.-(Sermon ix). A letter to the church at Philippi is ascribed to him, and there is no good reason to question it.

The oldest and most famous teachers of the church after the so-called apostolic fathers are the following:

1. FLAVIUS JUSTINUS,

Commonly called Justin Martyr, was born in Flavia Neapolis, the old Sichem, in Samaria, and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Marcus Aurelius in the year 163, or a little later. He sought for the truth with an earnest and upright heart, until at last he found rest for his soul in belief on the gospel, which he from that time professed most zealously by word, deed, and writing. He relates his own conversion thus: "When I found all my joy in the teaching of Plato (the most famous of Greek philosophers), and heard the Christians reviled, but saw them fearless and constant in death, and every thing which men consider dreadful, I was convinced that it was impossible that they lived in sin and lusts. I mocked at the opinion of the masses; I boast of being a Christian, and strive with all my powers to remain so." He wrote several apologies in favour of the Christians against the the false and unjust accusations of the heathen.

2. IRENEUS,

He

A pupil of the venerable Polycarp. He went from Asia to France, where he was bishop of the oppressed church at Lyons and Vienne, during the bloody persecution of the year 177, having succeeded their teacher Pothinus, who died a martyr. was particularly remarkable for his zeal for the maintenance of pure doctrine. We know many of his writings only by name. His chief work, which has for the most part only reached us in an old literal Latin translation, with many important hiatûs in the original Greek, contains a refutation of the Gnostic errors.

3. THEOPHILUS,

Lived in the second half of the second century. He was bishop of the church of Antioch, the capital of the eastern part of Roman Asia, under the emperor Marcus Aurelius. After the death of this emperor, under Commodus, he wrote a work in three

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