| Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church. CHAPTER XIII. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS*. BAPTISM AND ABSOLUTION - 5 |
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Page 6 of 6 Inasmuch as St. Augustine speaks of absolution in connection with excommuni- cation and restoration, I am glad to be able to cite a Presbyterian form of absolution from John Knox's Liturgy, or " Book of Common Order," originally published in Edinburgh, A. D. 161 1. It is this: " In the name and authority of Jesus Christ, I, the minister of His blessed Evangel, with consent of the whole ministry and Church, absolve thee, N, from the sentence of excommunication, from the sin by thee com- mitted, and from all censures laid against thee for the same before, according to thy repentance ; and pronounce thy sin to be loosed in heaven, and thee to be received again to the society of Jesus Christ, to His body the Church, to the participation of His Sacraments, and, finally, to the fruition of all His benefits: In the Name of The Father y The Son, And the Holy Spirit. So Be It y* Again I say, here is the trumpet tone of the Discipline of the Church militant as it was in the Apostolic and Primitive ages of Christianity, summoning the whole negligent Protestantism of our times to its restoration ; so that stragglers may fall into line, the cowardly be stim- ulated with courage, the insubordinate be taught obedience to orders, laymen be made to know and keep their proper place in subjection to lawful authority, and traitors to Christ and his Church be disposed of by excommunication, or the pen- itent be restored to duty and privilege in fighting their Lord's battles. And this is the true Charity which makes an end of sins,* or as St. Peter expresses it, " Charity will cover the multitude of sins ; " (I. Pet. iv. 8 ;) and which, also, while it suffereth long, and is kind ; yet seeketh not her own, and rejoiceth not in iniquity. (L Cor. xiii.) If parental discipline in the family is based in love; and if God Himself loves those whom He chastises, surely the Church has need of some godly and parental Discipline for the exercise of Her Charity towards Her children. The early Church, on every monument where the Orante Bride of Christ is shown, was careful to exhibit her Charity, in this respect ; for that loving Mother of us all stands with arms ever wide open to pronounce her absolution and ' TVttc/. in yoH, Evan, 50, c la, III. pp. 1764-3. • Reprint, Edin. x868. p. 69. •St. Augustine, Enchiridion, c. 121, VI. p. 288. 39^ Monumental Christianity. receive her penitent and returning lapsed ones; nay, weary in the gracious and con- stant work of so doing in the days of persecution, the Apostles hold up her flagging hands, as Aaron and Hur did those of Moses. But now an erring brother or a fallen sister is dropped, and allowed to sink into contempt, obscurity, and ruin. Shame and sin, this is, for which some severe reckoning is in store. I pass now to the consideration of sin as represented in both Pagan and Christian monuments. The sin which caused the fall of our first Parents was, doubtless, sensuality, inordinate lust, known in Scripture as "evil concupiscence," and as prompted by vain and idle curiosity.' Eve, like Pandora, would know more than God saw to be good for her. The limit of human knowledge was fixed in Eden, and with her husband. Evil suggestions came from some other quarter, and she was not satisfied with restrictions. The imperfect nature was enticed to explore the mysteries of the perfect Being of God and of all His Creation. It was part of the vanity of all sciences, which, Cornelius Agrippa says, ** Are evil as well as good, and bring us no other advantage to excel as deities, more than what the serpent prom- ised of old, when he said, * Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.* '* * What Godsf There is but one Living and True God. What other god could there be? Again Agrippa answers, "The Serpent, type of fire and of medicine, of Vulcan and of Esculapius, the sensual god, worshipped from the beginning among human kind, whose science was proffered to our first Parents. Let him then boast the author- ity of this Serpent, that boasts in worldly knowledge.** Worldly knowledge, mere science, idle curiosity, disconnected from religion and virtue, always leads to luxury, sin, and vice. Boys and girls who read the obscene literature of the day, in pref- erence to a pure one, are corrupted ; women who spend their time in novel reading, gossip, flirtation, and attendance on plays of questionable character, are not made better mothers and sisters, wives and daughters thereby ; and men of a science wholly materialistic, soon learn to doubt the existence of a Personal God, and question the truth of Christianity itself. "This Serpent god, then, who boasts himself in knowledge, which we read the Heresie of the Ophites not a little unbe- seemingly to have done, who worshipped a Serpent, amongst the rest of their superstitions, as being the creature that first introduced the knowledge of Virtue into Paradise.'** This mere knowledge was then reputed to be the true wisdom — virtue itself; it was that vain philosophy of St. Paul's day, and of all time, which misled the conscience, inflated the imagination, darkened the heart and made such fools of men, that they not only became gross idolaters, but corrupted themselves * See Donaldson's Jashar. * Vanity and Uncertainty of the Arts and Sciences, cc. X and zoz. Lond. 1569. » Agrippa, c 3. The Forgiveness of Sins : Baptism and Absolution, Pig. 177^— Babylonian Tree and Serpent with unbridled and unnatural lust. (Rom. I. 21-24.) And the same kind of intel- ligent and refined sensuality still characterizes many a rich man and woman in all the cities of Christendom, who do too much reading and too little thinking — reading only to kill time, and thinking only how best to amuse themselves. The Nicolaitans of the Apocalypse, or the Balaamites, were such refined sensualists; and the Ophites or Serpent worshippers, of the second century, were their de- scendants.* There was a good serpent and a bad one, which made sects and parties even of the Ophites. The garden of Eden was !_^ \^ VilI the original scene of serpent worship, and Adam \y^ ^^^l^r^ ^^ and Eve were the first Ophites. A fallen angel (( r \^:K3C2^^ a a\1 of God, and His subordinate agent, was permitted to be its author. The tree and the serpent have been its symbols, or fire and the serpent, in all countries where it has existed. This Babylonian cylinder of yellow earth, (Fig. 177,) published by Lajard,* is a very early representation of the whole subject, perhaps even older than the Mosaic account of it in Genesis. Fergusson makes light of its age, but its archaic style speaks for itself.* The man and woman are seated, as if about to pluck the forbidden fruit. The serpent rises up behind the woman, as the more apt to be enticed and persuaded. Seven branches of the tree would seem to indicate the seven spirits that wait on the chief deity of Babylonia. It is, therefore, a tree of knowl- edge and of life, in that impure system of idolatry, of which Satan is the chief minister and guardian. The Greeks sought after wisdom, we are told, Le,^ worldly wisdom, mere knowledge; and it is here represented in a very remarkable man- ner. (Fig. 178.) Jupiter, with just such a man- tle as the Good Shepherd of the Catacombs sometimes wears, stands on one side of the tree, lifting up the fulmen in one hand, and holding to a vine with the other. His left Fic X78.-Greek Tree and serpent. * Burton's Bamp/ Lect. V. note 64. King's Gnostics, pp. 26-33. •Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 75. ist Ed. ^Miihra, pi. 16. Na 4. Monumental Christianity. foot is on a rock, with his nurse, the she-goat Amaltheia, under it. Miaerva is on the other side of the tree, with her helmet on, but without her aegis, and clad in tunic and robe; and she seems to be pointing to the serpent at the base of the tree, biting it. Two horses, two lions, and a bull are be- low, and two birds are in the tree, one over the head of Jupiter, and the other over Minerva, probably the Eagle and Owl, sacred to each, respectively. But the most remarkable thing about this precious agate is the Hebrew legend all round the border, which is this: " The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes," (Gen. iii. 6,) which Lafitau discusses at ^iG. 179.— Adam and Bve taking uiefoitidddir some length, and decides that the whole \s th^ frnlt. work of Paganism, and anterior to Christianity Jupiter being substituted for Adam, and Minerva for Eve.' The esoteric meaning is not hard to find. Like the Apamean medal respecting the flood, this is a Pagan Greek embodiment of the story in Genesis respecting the fall of Adam and Eve. That repre- sentation is of such frequent occurrence on the Christian monuments, that I here select one, somewhat unique, to illustrate the subject. (Fig. 179.) It is the only one I find which shows Eve receiving the fruit ; all the rest repre- sent the after consequences. I copy it from Bosio,* as he found it in the Cemetery of St. Callixtus. The guilty pair always thus appear to- gether at the fatal tree, not one to the exclusion the other; and, therefore, his- torical accuracy is not ob- served. It is meant rather to indicate the equal guilt of both, as though both were present together at the same moment. The narra- tive in Genesis gives us a Fig. z8o.— Hercules and Cerberus : Tree and Serpent 1 Mceurs Des Sauv.^ &c. I. pi. xi. and Explication. » P. 273. The Forgiveness of Sins : Baptism and Absolution. different impression. For it says that Eve was first tempted, and took the fruit, and that she gave it to her husband ; and St. Paul expressly says that, *' Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression.** (I. Tim. ii. 14.) Another Pagan conception of the matter is given above from Lafitau,' who copies it from Montfaucon.* (Fig. 180.) On his return from Hades, Hercules here leads the monster, Cerberus, whether Dog or Dragon, it matters not, but here it is a dog, with three heads, symbol of the trinity of evil; and the fatal tree and serpent are here, with a man, and a woman holding a cup or vase in her hand as if to receive something, or as an offering. Can all this be a type of what is so often grouped to- gether on the Christian monuments, Christ, after his resurrection, subjugating the powers of darkness, and doing His work of human restoration in founding His Church by Apostolic commission to preach the Gospel to all nations, and thus undoing the effects of the first human transgression? As Samson, in carrying off the gates of Gaza, is a type of Christ removing the gates of Hades, so Hercules, carrying his two columns to erect at the straits of Gibraltar,* may have some reference to the Hebrew story ; just as Hercules was three days in the belly of the fish as the Pagan counterpart of Jonah. Whatever may be intended, certain it is, that here is Her- cules, after his descent into Hades, at the fatal tree, as if to counteract its evil effects. I have already given an example of serpent worship, from a Christian Sar- cophagus, in Chapter XI* Fig. 158, and here produce another of about the same date. It is on a Vatican Sar- cophagus, probably of the fifth or early part of the sixth century, and copied from Bosio.* It is grouped with such scenes as Christ healing the woman who touched the hem of His garment ; Christ multiplying Bread and Fish ; the Orante Biide, jewelled, and occu- pying the central panel ; Christ, at what seems to be the tomb of Lazarus; Christ laying His hand on the head of a child; and Christ turning water into wine, at Cana. It is just as strange a mixture of Christianity and Pagan- ism as in the case above alluded to ; and the sarcophagus was probably the design of some Ophite, or half-con- verted Christian. For it represents a young priest or priestess offering cakes to a serpent coiled round a palm tree, over a blazing altar. Surely the toleration must Fic. x8i.— Serpent Worship. ' Mceurs^ &c. pL xi. and ExplUatum. ^Antiquity Ex., I. p. 126 ; part II. pi. 63, No. 12. * Antiquity Explcdfud, I. p. 137 ; part II. pi. 66, Na 6. ^Rom, Sott.,^. 57. 4cx> Monumental Christianity. have been ample and far too generous, which allowed such a thing as this in a Christian Cemetery; but the secular court and a now secularized Church may have relaxed the discipline of earlier and purer ages, when the Church was poor and persecuted and free. And yet it must be said, that these are the only kno\)irn or published examples. Thousands upon thousands of such like monuments, executed during four centuries of unbridled surrounding Pagan depravity and licentiousness, and only two or three tainted ! What a record of purity for the Primitive Church, as she was taught the Word of God chiefly by symbols ; fed by a weekly Eucharist; celebrating the Communion of Saints by solemn Liturgies at the tombs of the martyrs, and with prayers for the faithful departed ; believing in Baptismal Regeneration ; holding fast to the faith and order of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; and abhorring heresy and schism with all her might. " (pht{isi lotted the (phuqch, and gave |l{n$ell foq it ; ihat We might $iiiwtif|| and cleanse it with the washing of wateii by the Moii<l." Efk, T. 25-28. '' Jtcoot|ding to Hie meitcy |le eaveil ue, by the washing of i[egenei[at!on| and Renewing of the Holy ((host." '' lie said unto them (the ten lepetie), ($0 ehew youiieelvee nnto the piileett. JInd it came to pass, that, as they went, they wei{e cleansed.'^ St. Luke^ xviu 14. Pig. i8a.— The Royal Good Shepherd, ad Centurr. Resurrection: Life Everlasting. • 401 |