Chap. 3. Death of Augustine. 187 make all conquests serve the interests of his religious party. Great were the cruelties practised by him and his army. In the year 430, he invaded Africa, and among other places, Hippo, the see and the residence of Augustine, fell a victim to the besieging adversary. During this afflictive event, multitudes of distressed ministers, and their people, crowded round the old bishop, to seek his counsel and his prayers. These things pressed so heavily upon his mind, that in the third month of the siege he was seized with a fever, which took him to his rest in a very short time, beloved and lamented by all that loved the truth. The whole of Africa soon fell into the hands of the invader. Christianity, long before this, had been sadly corrupted by worldly-minded clergy, and so detrimental to vital godliness had been the effect of this spirit, that a time of affliction and persecution was loudly called for. This necessary and salutary scourge Providence furnished in the triumphs and desolations attending the arms of Genseric. On his conquests he shut up or pulled down churches, banished, or enslaved, or killed the pastors. The congregations he doomed to various punishments: the richest of them lost their goods, and the rest, if obstinate in their attachment to their profession, were driven into exile, or miserably tortured. As in former cases, so in this, the exiles became missionaries to the poor benighted people among whom they were cast, and God blessed their message to the conversion of many. But this was their crime, and, in consequence, their cruel persecutor commanded the more zealous of them to be put to death. These dreadful excesses were practised upon the Trinitarians during the whole reign of Genseric, which terminated with his life, A. D. 477. In his government he 188 Arian Persecution. Cent. 5. was succeeded by his son Huneric. His reign com. menced with a look somewhat favourable to the sufferings Christians; but this breathing interval did not last long, he soon followed the example of his barbarous and bloody father. At one stroke, he banished to the desert four thousand nine hundred and seventy-six people, among whom were many pious and zealous pastors. At another time, he commanded a promiscuous multitude of these offenders to be thrown into a dungeon, where they were confined till they were covered with filth. At length they were removed, and to render their removal less acceptable, it was contrived to be on the Lord's day. They were committed to an escort of Moors, who were appointed to march them into the desert, whither they were driven, at the point of the sword, goaded with javelins, pelted with stones, and such as were not able to walk were tied by the feet, and dragged along by the merciless soldiers. Many died under their sufferings, and those that arrived at the desert were scarcely alive. In the year 483, Huneric issued orders for the assembling a conference, to consist of both Arian and Trinitarian ministers. This proved but a trap, and concluded in the degradation and death of many who had courage enough to attend the mock synod. Whipping, hanging, burning, banishing, and enslaving the poor Christians, were the great delights of this barbarous prince. Among the sufferers were many "Women, who out of weakness were made strong, and through faith accepted not deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." Among other cruelties exercised by this monarch, he commanded the tongues of certain bishops to be cut out, and their right hands to be cut off; this sentence was executed in the public market Chap. 3. Decline of Religion. 189 place. And what is very remarkable, it is asserted, upon authority, for which I dare not vouch, that after the loss of their tongues, they spoke as plain as before, and bore testimony to the Trinitarian faith. But we lay no stress upon this; there is another thing more worthy of remark, and in which we discover, more plainly the Divine Hand. Hunerie, by cruelties, seemed to copy after Galerius, the imperial persecutor of the last century, and God marked his death with the same tokens of his vengeance. He was, after a reign of seven years, smitten with a disease in the intestines, which continued till his vitals were devoured by worms. A signal mark of Divine Justice ! From this period to the close of the century, the spirit of persecution rather declined, and the faithful were enabled to prosecute their labours in the church; but as superstition had so much obtained, vital godliness was a rare thing. A few characters exerted themselves in the common cause; but the greater part of men in office were destitute of the grand qualifications. Religion is rather to be sought among individuals in private life, than to be found in large and populous congregations, especially among those congregations at the head of which appear metropolitans, archbishops, and dignitaries. Upon a review of the century, we are struck with vast revolutions in the Roman empire, and the most sad defection in the church. The very best of men in their day, such as Chrysostom, Augustine, and some others, though their faith, upou the whole, was sound and scriptural, yet their holy duties were attended with so much superstition, that their characters must be given with great abatements. Their high views of the episCopal and priestly office, strongly mark the coming in of 190 Review of the Century. Cent. 5. the beast, and the scarlet whore. Rome does not yet appear to have assumed infallibility, but she is taking rapid strides towards supremacy; and the principal struggle in the church is who shall be greatest.* This century concludes with the overthrow of idolatry, and with the general spread of the Christian name. Among these contenders for power, Leo, surnamed the great, stands forward. He, by intrigue, and by violence, and by every thing but the armour of righteousness, contributed in no small measure to the aggrandizement of the Roman see. Being surnamed the great, great things have been said about him; but we discover nothing in him, nor done by him, worthy to entitle him to a place in this history; therefore he must be content to stand in the margin, in order to make room for men that will doubtless take the right-hand of him another day. SIXTH CENTURY. CHAPTER I. Constitution of the Hierarchy-Monkery-Clerical Orders-Superstition-Antichrist-State of Learning. THE history of the nominal church is now become so connected with circumstances altogether irrelative to the progress and establishment of real Christianity, that to pursue it would be to adopt a plan not congenial with the design of this work. But as some few monuments of the pure religion of Jesas are found even amidst the imagery of Babylon, a brief outline of the corrupt system must, for the sake of connexion and order, be con tinued. The state of the empire was far from being settled. Those warriors who had destroyed the Western government, and seized upon the territory, had not agreed about the division of it. These things were the perpetual occasions of war; but the influence of the clergy over the great body of the people was a circumstance not unobserved by these conquering princes, nor did they forget to avail themselves of it. They were bent upon the establishment of their several interests, and to them it mattered little what were the means, so that they obtained the end. To embrace Christianity was to facilitate their operations; and Christianity was now so corrupted and assimilated to heathenism, that they |