CHAPTER 8
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk.
CHAPTER
That the Chrislian Life is of Tivo Distinct Characters.
(b) The one wrote on lifeless tables, the Other wrote the perfect commandments of the new covenant on livnig minds.
And His disciples, accommodating their teaching to the minds of the people, according to the Master's will, delivered on the one hand to those who were able to receive it, the teaching given by the perfect master to those who rose above human nature.^ While on the other the side of the teaching which they considered was suitable to men still in the world of passion and needing treatment, ihey accommodated to the weakness of the majority, and handed over to them to keep sometimes in writing, and sometimes by unwritten, ordinances to be observed by them.
Two ways of life were thus given by the law of Christ to His Church, The one is above nature, and beyond common (fl) humanliving ; it admits not marriage, child-bearing, property nor the possession of w^ealth, but wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone in its wealth of heavenly love I And they who enter on this course, apjiear to die to the life of mortals, to bear with them nothing earthly but their body, and in mind and spirit to have passed to heaven.
Like some celestial beings they gaze upon human life, pjrforming the duty of a priesthood* to Almighty God for the wliole race, not with ^ Trjc f|ii'
Sia;36)3r;ico(Ti :
?|ij is the settled peruianent condilion either of miii'l or body of an adult human being: this is transcended by llie Cliri-.liaii Saint, as lie escapes from tiie tyranny of the lower nature.
Cf. P.E. 528
Kara. e|ii', "in a permanent state."'
* For ip-jos of sacred love, cf. 6 ^ju(>s tfidiz ia-ravpaiTat, Ignatius, Koiiians vii. (which however Li_.;h'foot translates "my lust, " not "the one I love.") ; tpanrrii tf>i\oiTo(pias of Justin, Hus., //.£. iv. S.
St. Dionysius, jilaced by llarnack after A. i>. 350, uses much erotic language, quoting the words of Ignatius (W.
Inge.
Christian Afysfiii.uii, p. no).
Inge agie s witli Ki;jg {Ratnplot Lectures, Intr. pp. viii., ix.^ that Ignatius refers to our Lord.
' This interesting passige is a strong proof of the firm cst.Tblisluuent of the ascetic ideal in the Church before the recognition of mon.asticism.
The (loctiine of "the two vocations'' is plainly slated as part of the law of Christ: one iuii)lying a renunciation of property and m.irriage, a priesthood for the whole lace ; the other, a life involved in all secular interests.
Asceticism had its roots in our Lord's teaching and
Ch. 8.
THE
T^^•0 VOCATIONS
sacrifices of bulls and blood, nor with libations and unguents, nor with smoke and consuming fire and destruction of bodily things, but with right principles of true holiness, and of a soul purified in disposition, and above all with virtuous deeds and words : with such they propitiate the Divinity, and celebrate their priestly rites for themselves and their race.
Such then is the perfect form (30) of the Christian life.
And the other more humble, more human, permits men to join in pure nuptials and to produce children, to undertake government, to give orders to soldiers fighting for right ; ^ it allows them to have minds for farming, for trade, and the other more secular interests in that of the Aposlk-s.
There were devotees in the sub-apostolic age.
{Dida(he 6 ; cf. i Clem, t^, Ign. ad Polyc. 5, and Eusebius' description of Justin, 11. E. iv.
38.) Traces of a semi -separation from the wo: Id are found after a. n.
150 (Alhenngoras, Apol. pro Chr.
.xxviii.
129; Irenxus, aji. Eus., H.E. v.
; Clem.
Alex., ^^ Qitt's dives/" 36; Clem.
Shvrii. viii.
15.) The incident of Dionysius of Corinth and Pinytm, Bishop of the Ciiossians, shews the growing tendency to rigour.
(Euseb., H.E. iv.
21.) The Gnostic sects were rigorously ascetic.
Consecration to virginity by a solemn vow was customary for women in Cyprian's time.
Egyptian retirement to solitude was organized by St. Anihony about 305, and was probably due to the pressure of the Decian persecution, and the ideas of the Alexandrian School.
I'achomius beyan a "Coenobium," or common monastic life under rule about 320.
Ili'arion, a little later, introduced monaslicism into Palestine.
Thus the movement was, as E.'s words suggest, new and captivating from its novelty and apjiarent harmony with (itispel prfcept, at a time when the Church was conscitus of a great victory and escape from danger.
Cf. Clarke, St. flas-// the Great, pp. 26 42 ; lAJiisiae History of Palladius, jjp. 20-24 ; Butler, chapter on " Monasticism," Cambridge Medieval History,
I. 521 f)'.
; Duchesne, Histoire Aiuieittie h PEglise, ii. 485 f.
: E.K.E., art. " Monasticism."
^ This seems to recognize Christians .>-crving in magistracies and as officers in the anny, th<5Ugh the expression is |>cculiar.
Though in ihe second century Tcrtullian (./'<f Idol. c.
19, de C<ron.
.Mil. c. li), ami Origen (<•.
Cels. viii.
73), and later Laclantius {/ristitutiones. vi. c. 2o), consider that Clnistians should not bear aims, yet there is no doubt they did.
Cf Tertullian, Apolo^i^et. c.
37, 42, and Euscb.
, H.E. v. 5
(" The Thundering Legion ").
By this lime the duties of holding magistncies, and sersing in the army were freely admitted, and the doctrine of " the two vocations," as expressed here, no doubt witnessed to the change of Christian opinion on this as on other matters.
For the relation of the Curia to the Church cf. C. Bigg, The Church"
Task under the Roman Empire, pp.
ff.
, and for an historical survey of the Christian attitude to war up to Augustine, Moffat', D.A.C. vol. ii. pp. 646-673.