OF

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

THE

BOYLE LECTURES

FOR THE YEAR 1864,

DELIVERED AT THE CHAPEL ROYAL, WHITEHALL.

BY

CHARLES MERIVALE, B.D.,

RECTOR OF LAWFORD: CHAPLAIN TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE ROMANS UNDER THE EMPIRE."

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

443 & 445 BROADWAY.

1866.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

(Page 17.)

CHRISTIAN BELIEF CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN UNBELIEF.

ACTS XVII. 32.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and

others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.

LECTURE II. (Page 37.)

HEATHEN BELIEF DIRECTED TOWARDS A TEMPORAL PROVIDENCE

ACTS XVII. 22.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I

perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

LECTURE III.

(Page 56.)

EXPANSION OF HEATHEN BELIEF BY THE TEACHING OF THE

PHILOSOPHERS.

ACTS XVII. 26.

God hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face

of the earth.

LECTURE IV. (Page 81.)

EXPANSION OF HEATHEN BELIEF BY THE IDEAS OF ROMAN

JURISPRUDENCE.

GALATIANS III. 24.

The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.

LECTURE V.
V. (Page 102.)

THE HEATHEN AWAKENED TO A SENSE OF HIS SPIRITUAL DANGER.

1 JOHN IV. 21.

And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his

brother also.

LECTURE VI.

(Page 123.)

EFFORTS OF THE HEATHEN TO AVERT SPIRITUAL RUIN.

ST. MARK IX. 24.

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord,

I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.

LECTURE VII. (Page 147.)

THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS

OF THE HEATHENS.

ST. MATTHEW XXVIII. 19.

The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

LECTURE VIII. (Page 167.)

THE GODLY EXAMPLE OF THE CHRISTIANS COMPLETES THE CON-

VERSION OF THE EMPIRE.

ACTS XVII. 6.

These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.

PREFACE.

THE conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity is a very comprehensive subject of inquiry. It is a subject not for a dissertation but for a history, for it involves a progressive change extending over three or more centuries, and is marked by a series not only of moral and intellectual, but of political revolutions. It embraces a multitude of events, and presents to us a long gallery of individual characters. It points backward to the origin and progress of thought and feeling on religious questions; and forward almost to the farthest expansion that they have hitherto attained. It is in itself the history of religion brought into one focus, for there is little probably in the later course of human speculation on the most interesting of all questions, of which the germ and often the full development may not be traced in