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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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182 THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.was nationalism still; and the proselyte who wouldenter into the full worship <strong>of</strong> the God <strong>of</strong> Abrahamand all its privileges had to become a Jew. Butnow, ' instead <strong>of</strong> this bond another was substituted,signifying that the King <strong>of</strong> the Jews who had appearedwas come as the saviour <strong>of</strong> man, not <strong>of</strong>this or <strong>of</strong> that nation. <strong>The</strong> bond is thereforeplaced at the point which constituted the salvation<strong>of</strong> the whole race, that is in the Person <strong>of</strong> the God-man, and by this the corporation was put beyondthe bounds <strong>of</strong> a nationality, and made coextensivewith the world. <strong>The</strong> Christian creed was formedround the Person, the actions, and the sufferings<strong>of</strong> Christ. Now here, precisely in what constitutedthe character, the greatness, and the glory <strong>of</strong> theChristian faith, was seated the principle and thebeginning <strong>of</strong> the persecution which it encounteredfrom the Roman empire. In that empire everyspecies <strong>of</strong> idolatry3 had a right <strong>of</strong> homestead asthe national or tribe religion <strong>of</strong> any one <strong>of</strong> its constituentparts; and the worship <strong>of</strong> even one God,exclusive as that Jewish worship was <strong>of</strong> the wholeheathen pantheon, was allowed by the laws <strong>of</strong>Rome to the Jews, because he was considered3 With an appeal to this fact Ath tomerors Marcus Aurelius and Commfhxrias Kardyov(nv £s Uv edcAdWU' &vQpwKQL Kal oirrrnoL Kal al\ovpovs Kal KpoKO$¬i\ovs Kal otyOeovs v<strong>of</strong>JLifyvffi. /cat To\rrois iruatv tTreTpeTrcre Kal fyuets Kal ol v6p.otrifuv 8e (Kal/ur; irapaKpovaOrJTe, us ol TroAAol, e£ aK<strong>of</strong>js) T$ ov6/j.ari aTre^Od-. Ch. i. See also Kellner's Hellenismus und Christentlium, p. 79;and Ckampagny, Les Antonins, ii. 189.

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