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for the most part are no longer in existence ; it is well , therefore , if the legend states , that they confirmed their testimony by their death ; for on such an assurance the faith of men can rest . 6 , in this confidence , the first Christian altars were erected over graves . At graves the believers assembled : in the catacombs themselves there were altars , on which the Lord ' s Supper was
partaken of , the Christian confession made , and the vow renewed , to be as true to it as the deceased . Over graves the earliest churches were built , or the remains of martyrs were conveyed under the erected altars ; till at last it was thought necessary for the altar to be consecrated with at least one bone of a martyr . Baptism , too , which was a symbolical confession of faith , was solemnized over the graves of confessors ; till latterly the
baptisteries were raised over them , or believers , as a proof that they died in the faith professed at baptism , were buried under the baptisteries . One thing arose out of another ; and almost the whole form and character of the usages of our western churches sprang from this worship and confession at graves * . ' Altogether there was something exceedingly touching in the practice
of the early Christians thus pledging themselves to fidelity and obedience at the grave . When they assembled at day-brfeak , as Pliny informs us , to sing praises to Christ , and to renew their vows , the silent grave of a departed brother must have been to them as a speaking symbol of constancy even to death , and a foundation for their faith in that resurrection , to which their Lord ,
himself a martyr , had already attained . They must have felt this mortal life vain and transitory , death , as a sequel to their Saviour's death , delightful and honourable , and the future world , ever dwelling on their thoughts , more real and certain than the present . The oldest Christian writings wholly breathe this spirit . Meantime , with such incentives , the zeal for martyrdom could not
fail to be often unseasonably roused , when men , weary of this passing life , courted with unnecessary eagerness the baptism of fire and blood , as procuring them the crown of Christian victory . It could not but happen that , in the course of time , the bones of the martyrs experienced almost divine honours , and were superstitiously abused to the purpose of expiations , healings , and a
* Book XVII ., ch . iv ., p . 102 . Herder observes , in a note , that a history of these usages , drawn from an inspection of the oldest churches and monuments , and combined throughout with a contemporaneous view of ecclesiastical history , would place the fact , recorded in the text , in the clearest light . Valckenaer { Animadvert , ad Ammon . Lib . II " ., c . 19 . ) very pertinently confirms the observation of Herder , in his remarks ou the word < r * xog : « IUustriorum hominum sepulchra septo , cvkm cingebuntur .
Hinc petenda videtur ratio , cur in < rnKois culti fuerint , qui ob praestantiora merita post obitum in Deos referebantur . Istaec religio ad Christianos etiam homines , a priscA simplicitate sensim delapsos , pervasit . Hi surhirium Deum augustioris moliminis templis , ejus veluti inte . rnuntios , heroas , excellent ! morura puritate claros , sacellis , honorare caeperunt . Superstitioni originem prajbuere martyrum re / iquits , maxima cum curft custoditw , et in < rrjtco 7 f eum in fiuem in teroplorum recesau primom constructis , repositoo . '
Untitled Article
The Philosophy of the History of Mankind . 227
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 227, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/11/
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