"et Dominus vocaretur, quia filius Dei et "Dominig."

Our Author's difpofition discovers itself in his tracts addreffed to Chriftians, which contain exhortations of great harshness and severity, inculcating ftrict rules of h penance and bodily aufterities. A rigid censor of female manners and dress, he separated from his wife by mutual consent that they might lead lives of more holiness to God. At a public donative to the Roman army, a Christian soldier carried his laurel crown in his hand, instead of wearing it, as was the custom, on his head; and for this contempt he was scourged and imprisoned, but found in Tertullian1 a ftrenuous defender of thofe fcruples, which however unneceffary, arofe from an abhorrence of idolatrous practices. None of these productions are more characteristic than that entitled De Spectaculis, which after violent invectives against a compliance with the licentious indulgences and profane cuftoms of the Heathen world, in pomp and ornamental dress and fecular amusements, concludes with this fervid description of the true pleasures of a Chriftian: "Jam nunc fi putas delectamentis exigere spa

Adverfus Prax. cap. 13.

i De Patientia, cap. 13. 1 De Corona Militis.

h De Pænitentia, cap. 9.

k Ad Uxorem, lib. i.

"tium hoc, cur tam ingratus es, ut tot et tales voluptates a Deo contributas tibi fatis non habeas, neque recognofcas? Quid enim ju"cundius quam Dei patris et Domini recon

ciliatio, quam veritatis revelatio, quam erro"rum recognitio, quam tantorum retro crimi"num venia? quæ major voluptas quam fafti"dium ipfius voluptatis, quam feculi totius " contemptus, quam vera libertas, quam con"fcientia integra, quam vita fufficiens, quam "mortis timor nullus? quod calcas Deos na"tionum, quod dæmonia expellis, quod medi"cinas facis, quod revelationes petis, quod Deo "vivis? Hæ voluptates, hæc fpectacula Chrif"tianorum fancta, perpetua, gratuita. Si fce"nicæ doctrinæ delectant, fatis nobis literarum eft, fatis verfuum, non fabulæ fed veritatis, non ftrophæ fed fimplicitates. Vis et pugillatus et luctatus? præfto funt, non parva "fed multa. Afpice impudicitiam dejectam a caftitate, perfidiam cæfam a fide, fævitiam a mifericordia contufam. Vis autem et fanguinis aliquid? habes Chrifti. Quale autem spectaculum in proximo eft, adventus Do"mini jam indubitati, jam superbi, jam triumphantis? Quæ illa exultatio angelorum, quæ gloria refurgentium fanctorum "?"

Tertullian's temper led him to join the fect

m De Spectaculis, cap. 29. The remainder of this defcription is a favage picture of horrid torments.

of Montanus, a Phrygian, who inculcated great austerities, and either from hypocrify or fanaticism, claimed extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghoft; and, it has been fometimes thought, the exprefs office of the Paraclete or Comforter.

After this junction with the Montanists, though our author exhibited no doctrinal errors, yet his ftern, ferocious, and dismal notions of difcipline were pushed to greater excefs. It seems that a sentence of excommunication was paffed upon him by the Catholic Church, and he now ftigmatizes the members of that body as Pfychicos or animal", by a phrase borrowed from the Gnostics; because their fafts were not fo rigid as thofe prefcribed by Montanus. Sufferings and martyrdom°.

in the cause of Chrift feem to have been always deemed by him a fubject of congratulation rather than pity: but Tertullian the Montanist condemns any attempt at escape or flight in time of perfecution. Monogamy, Virginity no longer fatisfy his fanctimonious fuperftition: nor can he find any place of repentance or pardon for the unchafte1.

Here are the beginnings of those errors, which introduced as Chriftian duties an abfti• Ad Martyras.

n De Jejuniis, cap. I.

P De Fuga in Perfecutione.

9 De Monogamia, Exhortatione Caftitatis, et Pudicitia.

nence from meats and marriage, and a renunciation of focial intercourfe. From the afcetic institutions of the Solitudes of Egypt, the cradle of monks and hermits, adopted gradually by the western nations, these aufterities spread over the Chriftian world; and being established in the public opinion, in little more than a century, as marks and criteria of true religion, unfortunately were confidered characteristics of the ecclefiaftical profeffion, and ftill retain an undeferved preeminence over active virtues in the Church of Rome.

In

St. Benedict, one of their models of fanctity, retires from human fociety into a wilderness of woods and ftreams, to live among beafts, and fowl, and creeping things. the description of Fleury', you may still behold him stretched on the bare earth, fqualid and emaciated; he hardens himself against the seasons and the elements, and the calls of natural appetite and feeling. He is forrowing for his fins but repentance is most truly manifested by amendment of life and good actions, not by apathy and useless floth. He is atoning for them by a facrifice of his worldly, affections: rafh, proud, profane thought! Can man, the thoughts of whose heart are impure continually; who, when he has performed his

1 Vol. vii. p. 296. A.D. 529.

utmoft, is an unprofitable fervant, claim merit towards his God? Can he hope to expiate guilt committed, by omitting to do what ought to be done? What account will he render of the talents entrusted to his care, noble birth and abundant poffeffions, an inheritance and stewardship which he has by wilful abdication caft away? That capacity of intellect which can measure the heavens and the earth, that dexterity of hand which shapes and subjects the material world to its purposes, thofe feelings glowing with the flame of universal charity, are all these gracious endowments, which in the human compofition reflect the image of God, to lie waste like an uncultivated garden? Is it to love God with all the strength, and mind, and heart, when strength is turned into weakness, the reafoning powers are unexercifed, and the affections are dried up in their fource?

We do not indeed deny, that this romantic piety was useful in taming a barbarous age to habits of peace and order. But we contend that, abstractedly confidered, a rule of piety and morals is both redundant and deficient, which comprehends a rigid abftinence from things indifferent in themselves, and overlooks the obligation to real duties and active usefulnefs. The virtue enjoined by the precepts, and recommended by the example, of our Lord, is