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    CHAPTER XV. THE GREAT APOSTASY (CONTINUED)

    Closely connected with the sign of the cross as a preservative against every form of evil, is the use of charms and divinations. This also was practiced by very many of the early Christians. After mentioning the various forms of auguries among the ancients, Bingham says (book 16, chap. 5):—
    “The old Romans were much given to these superstitions, insomuch that they had their colleges of augurs, and would neither fight, nor make war or peace, or do anything of moment without consulting them. The squeaking of a rat was sometimes the occasion of dissolving a senate, or making a consul or dictator lay down his office, as begun with an ill omen. Now, though Christianity was a professed enemy to all such vanities, yet the remains of such superstition continued in the hearts of many after their conversion.”
    FACC 269.1

    “But there was one sort of enchantment, which many ignorant and superstitious Christians, out of the remains of heathen error, much affected; that was the use of charms, and amulets, and spells, to cure diseases, or avert dangers and mischiefs, both from themselves and the fruits of the earth. For Constantine had allowed the heathen, in the beginning of his reformation, for some time, not only to consult their augurs in public, but also to use charms by way of remedy for bodily distempers, and to prevent storms of rain and hail from injuring the ripe fruits, as appears from that very law where he condemns the other sort of magic, that tended to do mischief, to be punished with death. And probably from this indulgence granted to the heathen, many Christians, who brought a tincture of heathenism with them into their religion, might take occasion to think there was no great harm in such charms or enchantments, when the design was only to do good, and not evil.”FACC 269.2

    This custom prevails in the Catholic Church to-day. It is true that Bingham places its introduction into the church this side of the time of Constantine; but from what we have already learned of the superstitious reverence of the cross, and from what we shall yet learn of their devotion to relics, it will be evident to all that the use of charms and divination came into the church as soon as the heathen began to come into it in very great numbers. The reader will notice that all the perversions of gospel ordinances, and all the additions that were made to the number of the ceremonies, were for the purpose of attracting the heathen. This being the case, we would naturally expect that considerable deference would be paid to heathen philosophy, and such we find was the case. Mosheim says:—
    “The Christian teachers were well aware of what essential benefit it would be in promoting their cause, not only with the multitude, but also amongst men of the higher orders, could the philosophers, whose authority and estimation with the world was unbounded, be brought to embrace Christianity. With a view, therefore, of accomplishing this desirable object, they not only adopted the study of philosophy themselves, but became loud in their recommendation of it to others, declaring that the difference between Christianity and philosophy was but trifling, and consisted merely in the former being of a nature somewhat more perfect than the latter. And it is most certain that this kind of conduct was so far productive of the desired effect, as to cause not a few of the philosophers to enroll themselves under the Christian banner. Those who have perused the various works written by such of the ancient philosophers as had been induced to embrace Christianity, cannot have failed to remark, that the Christian discipline was regarded by all of them in no other light than as a certain mode of philosophizing.”—Ecclesiastical Commentaries, cent. 2, sec. 26, note 2.
    FACC 270.1

    The writings of Justin Martyr, Clement, Tertullian, and Origen afford ample evidence of this.FACC 271.1

    Prof. J. H. Pettingell, in “The Gospel of Life in the Syriac New Testament” (p. 9), says:—
    “The Christian church came early, after the days of the apostles, under the influence, not merely of the Greek language, but of the philosophy of the Greeks. The tendency in this direction was apparent even in the times of the apostles. It was against this very influence that Paul so often and earnestly warned the early Christians: ‘Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and not after Christ.’ ‘Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing, have erred concerning the faith.’ ‘I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.’ ...It was not long before the Grecian philosophy had become dominant and controlling. Their schools of literature, and especially of theology, were Grecian schools. Grecian philosophers became their teachers and leaders.”
    FACC 271.2

    Prof. George Dunbar, in his Appendix to Potter’s “Antiquities of Greece,” says of Plato:—
    “His opinions were eagerly adopted by many of the first Christian philosophers, and aided them in forming those bold and whimsical theories about the economy of the future world, which injured the simplicity and purity of the Christian faith.”
    FACC 271.3

    If the reader will refer to what has been written concerning the Greek philosophy and its demoralizing tendency, its highest conception of good being depraved human nature, he will speedily arrive at the conclusion that just to the extent that the study of philosophy,—“science falsely so called,”—was encouraged in the church, to the same extent would heathen superstition and immorality exist in the church, even if such things were not encouraged by any other means.FACC 272.1

    One of the errors which was brought into the church as the direct result of the study of Greek philosophy, is the doctrine ofFACC 272.2

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