for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." If his word is not received in one place, he must make experiment of another, in dependence on divine providence and grace. Meekness, patience, submission to civil authority must attend him in every step. Such were the apostolic missionaries; such in a good degree were the missionaries of the dark ages, which we are reviewing. And I am apt to think, that those, who object to missions in general, have had their eye on the political craft of the jesuits, or the furious factions of enthusiasts. For I can scarce believe we are grown so totally callous to every christian sensation, as deliberately to condemn all missions conducted in the spirit of the gospel. Do we expect that the kingdom of Christ shall spread through all nations, according to numerous prophecies? and are no means to be employed to promote it? Shall we complain of the want of universality in the best religion, and discourage every attempt to effect that universality? With what an ill grace do objectors to the propagation of the gospel make such complaints? Are human efforts concerned in all other works of divine providence? and are they in this, the most important of all, to be excluded? Are we to sit still, and expect some sudden and miraculous providential interposition? and is this the only instance, in which socinians and men, who call themselves rational christians, will use no rational methods, in order to produce the most desirable effects? Or . have we learned to despise the importance of christianity itself? and do we think that the present comfort and future felicity of mankind are no way connected with the subject before us? I propose these few questions, leaving the resolution of them to the consciences of those, who have had it in their power to encourage christian missions in our times, and who have opposed them. To have been particularly active in extending the Redeemer's kingdom, forms no part of the glory of this country. Denmark, a poor impotent government, compared with VOL. III. 54 ours, has, it is well known, effected in this way what may cause Britons to blush, and what should stir us up to virtuous emulation. With every advantage in our hands, for the propagation of the gospel, we have done very little indeed; and the annals of the several dark ages, we have reviewed, have exhibited a spirit of adventurous charity unknown to those, who now boast themselves as the most enlightened and the most philosophic of mankind. CHAP. IV. Writers and Eminent Men in this Century. IN a dearth so excessive, there are few, who will deserve to be noticed either for knowledge or for piety; and fewer still for both. My chief view, in this chapter, is to give the reader an idea of the state of true religion in these times; nor will the picture here exhibited be materially erroneous, though it could be proved, that Theophylact, one of the authors, whom I shall quote, belonged to the next century, as Mosheim thinks. For the spirit and taste of the tenth and eleventh centuries are so similar, that what illustrates the one, will illustrate the other. The very toleration of the Roman popedom itself, after the detection of its flagitiousness before all the world, evinces the uncommonly low condition of christian knowledge in this age: proofs, however, will appear, that the Spirit of God had not forsaken the church, and that there were those, who reverenced and felt the power of her doctrines. It is not in Rome, but in the more recent churches, that this power appears. Whether it was practically exemplified by Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, in Germany, is not very evident. But, in knowledge and learning, he was very eminent. He was brother to Otho I. and, by the desire of the people of Cologne, was fixed by that great prince in the archbishopric. We must not expect much regard to ecclesiastical discipline in these times; and therefore are not to be surprised, that a prince, so religious as Otho was, should invest his relation also with the civil power of a dukedom. Bruno is remarked, however, to have been among the first, who united, offices so discordant in the same person.* This was to secularize the church; and Cologne continues in a similar state to this day. Bruno was nevertheless an assiduous promoter of religion. Normans, Danes, and various others, who travelled in his province, he brought over to the profession of christianity. He restrained the luxury both of clergy and people; and was himself a shining example of modest and frugal manners. He died about the year 965. Unni, a far more decided character, has been already celebrated. As archbishop of Hamburg, he acted with a vigor and a piety worthy the importance of that see. He was highly reverenced by the German emperors of his time; and that a person so opulent should choose to labour as a missionary in such countries as Denmark and Sweden, argues a zeal of no common degree. He died at Stockholm in 936.† By the advice of Adolvard, bishop of Verden, Adeldagus, who had discharged some petty office in the church, was sent for to court by the great Otho, and made his chancellor. On the death of Unni, he was appointed archbishop of Hamburg, but was so acceptable, by his talents and industry, to the emperor, that he still continued in the same secular employments. Adeldagus sent a number of pastors into Denmark, and was present with Otho at Rome when the popedom was reformed. His flock, however, at Hamburg complained, and not without reason, of his absence from them. The emperor, at length, gave him liberty to return home. His care of the poor, and many rather princely than pastoral virtues, were remarkable. But I can form no great idea of the spirituality of a man, who neglects residence among his flock, and continues to act in a secular capacity under three successive princes, while he holds a bishopric. He served Otho II. and III. with the same success and ability with which he had done Otho I. and after he had held his bishopric 53 years, he died under Otho III. in the year 988.* Libentius, an Italian, by the desire of Adeldagus, was appointed his successor. Much is said in praise of this prelate. He often visited the Vandals, a barbarous people in Poland, about the Vistula, and taught them the way of salvation. He sent pastors to distant nations, and was a shining exemplar of piety and beneficence. He died in 1013.† Adolvard, bishop of Verden, who, as we have mentioned, recommended Adeldagus to the patronage of Otho I. was himself an excellent pattern of piety and probity. He discharged the office of a faithful pastor in his diocese, and took pains to instruct the ignorant Vandals in the way of salvation.‡ Of Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, I can find no more than has been already mentioned; though his labours deserve to have been minutely recorded. That the true doctrines of the gospel, and some true knowledge of their experimental use and power, were not lost in the church altogether, the following quotations will abundantly evince; though of the authors themselves no particular account can be given, nor is it very clear at what exact period of time some of them lived: the passages selected from them will serve, however, to show the religious taste of the times. Ansbert, speaking of the effect of the divine word, observes; "There is no doubt, but by the holy preaching of the word the faithful receive the grace of the holy Spirit, the Lord bearing witness to this, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." † Id. *Cent. Magd. cent. x. vol. iii. + Id. The value of the inward teaching of the holy Spirit, has been frequently attested in these memoirs, and in a language very similar to the following passage of Smaragdus on the same subject. "Our sense is renewed by the exercises of wisdom, meditation on the word of God, and the understanding of his statutes; and the more proficiency any person daily makes by reading, and the deeper hold the truth has upon his understanding, the more the new man grows day by day. Let no man attribute to the teacher, that he understands from his mouth; for unless there be an INTERNAL TEACHER, the external one labours in vain. The Jews heard Christ preach in one manner, the apostles in another; those to judgment, these to salvation: for the Spirit taught these in the heart, what those heard outwardly by the ear. Unless the Lord shine into the heart of the hearer, the teacher labours in darkness. For the faith of the nations comes not by the wisdom of the composition, but by the gift of divine vocation."* "If thou wouldst have thy sons obedient to thee," says Theophylact, "instruct them in the divine word. Say not, that it belongs only to persons professionally religious to read the scriptures. It is the duty of every christian, particularly of those, who are in the midst of secular employments: they need the greatest help, as they live in a tempest. It is for thy own interest, that thy children be well versed in scripture; thence they will learn to reverence their parents. "Let modern sceptics and infidels attend to the voice of a writer who lived in a dark age of the church; for he was a luminary of these dark ages. He most probably lived in the eleventh century; and the plain precepts just mentioned deserve, from gentlemen of the eighteenth century, more serious attention than whole volumes of metaphysical subtilities, or political speculations. Speaking of the state of man after the fall, Theo |