In the preceding pages the history of the ancient Church for the first
three centuries has passed under review, and a few general observations
may now be not inappropriately appended to this concluding chapter. The
details here furnished supply ample evidence that Christianity was
greatly corrupted long before the conversion of Constantine. It is true,
indeed, that much of the superstition which has since so much disfigured
the Church was yet unknown. During the first three centuries we find no
recognition of the mediatorship of Mary, or of the dogma of her
immaculate conception, [650:2] or of the worship of images, or of the
celebration of divine service in an unknown tongue, or of the doctrine
of the infallibility of the Roman bishop. But the germs of many
dangerous errors were distinctly visible, and when the sun of Imperial
favour began to shine upon the Christians, these errors rapidly reached
maturity. The Eucharistic bread and wine were viewed with superstitious
awe, and language was applied to them which was calculated to bewilder
and to confound. A system of penitential discipline alien to the spirit
of the New Testament was already in existence; rites and ceremonies
unknown in the apostolic age had now made their appearance; and in the
great towns a crowd of functionaries, whom Paul and Peter would have
refused to own, added to the pomp of public worship. Some imagine that
in the times of Tertullian and of Cyprian we may find the purest faith
in the purest form, but a more intimate acquaintance with the history of
the period is quite sufficient to dispel the delusion. A little
consideration may, indeed, convince us that, in the second or third
century, we could scarcely expect to see either the most brilliant
displays of the light of truth or the most attractive exhibitions of
personal holiness. The waters of life gushed forth, clear as crystal,
from the Rock of Ages; but, as their course was through the waste
wilderness of a degenerate world, they were soon defiled by its
pollutions; and it was not until the desert began "to rejoice and
blossom as the rose," that the stream flowed smoothly in the channel it
had wrought, and partially recovered its native purity. At the present
day we would not be warranted in expecting as high a style of
Christianity in a convert from idolatry as in one who had been trained
up from infancy under the care of enlightened and godly parents. By
judicious culture the graces of t