which doctrine flattered human pride, but was, furely, ill adapted to our natural imbecility and to fcriptural views of innate depravity. The combination of Stoicifm with Chriftianity in the fyftem of Pantænus must have very much debased the facred truths; and we may be affured that those who were difpofed to follow implicitly the dictates of fuch an inftructor, must have been furnished by him with a clouded light of the Gofpel;-ftill, it is not improbable but that many of the fimple and illiterate Chriftians might happily escape the infection, and preserve, unadulterated, the genuine fimplicity of the faith of Chrift:The bait of reafoning pride lies more in the way of the learned; and, in all ages, they are more prone to be caught by it.

Pantænus always retained the title of the Stoic philofoper, after he had been admitted to eminent employments in the Chriftian church *. For ten years he laboriously discharged the office of Catechift, and freely taught all that defired him: whereas the school of his predeceffors had been more private.

Certain Indian ambaffadors,-it is not eafy to determine from what part of India they came,-intreated Demetrius, then bishop of Alexandria, to fend them fome worthy person to preach the faith of Jefus in their country. Pantænus was chofen; and the hardships he muft have endured were, doubtlefs, great. But there were at that time †many Evangelifts, who had the apoftolical spirit to propagate the faith at the hazard of their lives. And, as Pantænus very freely complied with this call, we have here one of the best proofs of his being poffeffed of the fpirit of the Gofpel. His labours among ignorant Indians, where neither fame, nor ease, nor profit were attainable, appear to me much more fubftantial

• Cave's Life of Pantænus.

+ Eufeb. B. 5. C. 9.

tial proofs of his godlinefs, than any which can be drawn from his catechetical employments at Alexandria. The former would oblige him to attend chiefly to Chriftian fundamentals, and could afford little opportunity of indulging the philofophic fpirit. We are told he found in India the Gospel of St. Matthew, which had been carried thither by the Apoftle Bartholomew, who had first preached amongst them.-I mention this, but much doubt the truth of it.-Of the particular fuccefs of his labours we have no account: He lived to return to Alexandria, and refumed his catechetical office. He died not long after the commencement of the third century. He wrote but little: Some Commentaries on the Scriptures are all that are mentioned as his, and of them not a fragment remains.

Candour, I think, requires us to look on him as a fincere Chriftian,-whose fruitfulness was yet much checked by that very philofophy for which Eufebius fo highly commends him.-A blafting wind it furely was; but it did not entirely deftroy Christian vegetation in all whom it infected.-Let us now turn our eyes to his difciple, from whom we may collect more clearly what the Mafter was, because we have more evidence concerning him.But the Christian reader must be prepared to expect a declenfion in divine things, in the ftate of the Church before us.

CHA P. IV

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

E was, by his own confeffion, a scholar of Pantænus, and of the fame philosophical caft of mind. He was of the eclectic fect. It is fincerely to be regretted that Clemens had any acquaintance with them: for fo far as he mixed their notions with Chriftianity, fo far he tarnished it and though we may admit, that by his zeal, activity, learning, and reputation, he did good to many in inftructing and inducing them to receive the fundamentals of the divine religion, it is nevertheless not to be denied that he clouded the pure light of the Gofpel:-Let us hear himself:

*I efpouse neither this nor that philofophy, neither the Stoic, nor the Platonic, nor the Epicurean, nor that of Ariftotle; but whatever any of these fects hath faid, that is fit and juft; whatever teaches righteoufnefs with a divine and religious knowledge, all this I felect; and call it phi, lofophy."

Is it not hence very evident, that from the time that this philofophizing fpirit had entered into the Church through Juftin, it had procured to itself a refpect to which its merit no way intitled it? For what is there even of good ethics in all the philofophers, which Clement might not have learnt in the New Teftament; and much more perfectly, and without the danger of pernicious adultera

* Strom. L. 1. See Cave's Life of Clemens.

tions? Doubtless many valuable purposes are anfwered by an acquaintance with thefe writers;but to dictate to us in religion, Clement should have known, was no part of THEIR business. "The world by wifdom knew not God;"—" Beware of philofophy." The Chriftian world was now gradually learning to neglect these Scriptural cautions, and divine knowledge is certainly much too high a term for any human doctrine whatever..

He fucceeded his mafter Pantænus in the cate chetical school, and under him were bred the famous Origen, Alexander bishop of Jerufalem, and other eminent men. I read the following paffage of Clemens with no pleasure," As the husbandman firft waters the foil, and then casts in his feed, fo the notions which I derive out of the writings of the Gentiles ferve first to water and foften the earthy parts of the foul, that the fpiritual feed may be the better caft in, and take vital root in the minds of men."

This, certainly, is not a Chriftian dialect: The Apoftles neither placed gentile philofophy in the foundation, nor believed that it would at all affift in raifing the fuperftructure of Christianity, On the contrary, they looked on the philofophical religion of their own times as fo much rubbish; but, in all ages, the blandifhments of mere reafon on fuch fubjects deceive us;" VAIN MAN WOULD BE

WISE."

Befides his employments in the office of Cate chift, he was made Prefbyter in the Church of Alexandria. During the perfecution under Severus most probably, he vifited the Eaft and had a peculiar intimacy with Alexander bishop of Jerufalem, who seems to have been a holy man. This laft fuffered imprisonment for the faith; and in that fituation he wrote a letter to the Church of Antioch,

Antioch, which was conveyed by Clemens. Something of the spirit of Chriftianity appears in the fragment of this letter. "Alexander, a fervant of God, and a prifoner of Jefus Chrift, to the bleffed Church at Antioch, in the Lord, greeting. Our Lord has made my bonds, in this time of my imprisonment, light and eafy to me; while I understood that Afclepiades, a perfon admirably qualified by his eminency in the faith, was, by divine providence, become bifhop of your holy Church of Antioch. Thefe letters, brethren, I have fent you by Clemens the bleffed Prefbyter, a man of approved integrity, whom ye both do know already and fhall ftill further know: He hath been here with us according to the good will of God, and hath much eftablished and augmented the Church of Chrift." From Jerufalem Clemens went to Antioch, and afterwards returned to his charge at Alexandria.-The time of his death is uncertain.

The myftic philofophy, to which he was fo much addicted, would naturally darken his views of fome of the most precious truths of the Gospel. In particular, the doctrine of justification by faith in Jefus Chrift will always fuffer from a connexion of this kind: Human philofophical doctrines admit no righteousness but what is a man's own.There is, however notwithstanding, good proof of the folid piety of this learned man. Little is known of his life; but his religious taste and spirit may be collected from his writings.

His exhortations to the gentiles is a difcourfe written to convert the Pagans from their religion, and perfuade them to embrace that of Jesus Christ. In the beginning of it he fhews what a difference there is between the defign of Jefus Chrift, and

Dupin Clement.

that