CHAPTER III. THE REAL CAUSES WHICH DISPOSED THE EMPIRE TO ITS FALL, TRACED TO ITS HEATHEN DEPRAVITY...GOTHS... THEIR CAPTURE OF THE CITY PREPARED BY EARLIER SUCCESSES WHILE THE EMPIRE WAS PAGAN ...VINDICATION OF THE GOSPEL. THE subject has been hitherto discussed through a reference to the character and temper of Paganism. We have seen, that its pretension to reward its votaries with temporal prosperity, was the united effect of superstition and malice; superstition, enamoured of its own gods, and malice, enraged at the successful propagation of the Gospel. Hence it has appeared, that the argument so passionately urged against the faith of Christ, on account of the capture of Rome by the Barbarians, was unfounded. A similar spirit of animosity and crimination had prevailed in earlier times; and turbulence and intolerance were the common features of idolatry. The success of Alaric, therefore, was not to be imputed to the recent establishment of Christianity. It will now be proper to ascertain the real causes of those temporal evils which ended in the overthrow of the Western empire, and which were falsely attributed to our holy religion. For this purpose it is necessary to refer to the Roman history. This will teach us, that the seeds of the public misfortunes were sown by Rome herself, in a state of heathenism; and that, notwithstanding appearances, the strength of the empire was effectually broken before the government became Christian. I intend, therefore, to lay before you some of those circumstances which predisposed the empire to its fall; and some of those earlier successes of the Gothic nations, which naturally led to their final possession of Italy. When Christ began his ministry upon earth, the power of the empire seemed to be at its height. Its boundaries had been fixed by Augustus, at a triumphant extent its internal troubles were appeased; and its supreme dominion was fully acknowledged by the subject nations. To these appearances of prosperity nothing was wanting but permanence; and this the Pagans fondly promised themselves from the supposed power of their gods, whose past protection of their country was habitually assumed as a certain pledge of the happiness which awaited it in ages yet to come. But a secret blow had been given to the power of Rome, the consequences of which might be disguised, but could not be averted. That relaxation of principle which began before the third Punic war, increased with a fatal rapidity, after the too prosperous conclusion of it. Sallust, who seems to confess the existence of an earlier tendency to depravity, dates the extraordinary growth of the civil disasters of the state, from the overthrow of Carthage.* A rapacious pursuit of wealth now took place; and the success with which it was unhappily attended, soon led to a profuse indulgence of vicious pleasures. This never ceased, but profligately grew in proportion to the decay of the empire, to which indeed it materially contributed. From private degeneracy, necessarily arose public corruption. The unprincipled acquisition of immoderate riches was followed by the mad and insatiable love of power; and the com * Discordia, et avaritia, atque ambitio, et cætera secundis rebus oriri sueta mala, post Carthaginis excidium maximè secuta sunt. Apud Aug. Civ. Dei, lib. ii. c. 18. mon tranquillity was sacrificed to the desperate efforts of ambitious chiefs contending for the sovereignty of their country. Concord, says Augustin,* could not consist with a corrupt prosperity, and the extinction of an enemy which had so long exercised the patience and the valour of Rome. Seditions began, which were soon increased to civil wars. And now it appeared that the loss of principle was more destructive than foreign hostility. They who had hitherto feared mischief only from the enemy, were suddenly overwhelmed by the contentions of their fellow citizens. The vicious love of dominion which had hitherto actuated the people at large, seemed now to centre in the * Deletâ Carthagine, magno scilicet terrore Romanæ Reipublicæ repulso et extincto, tanta de rebus prosperis orta mala continuò subsequuta sunt, ut, corruptâ diruptâque concordiâ, priùs sævis cruentísque seditionibus, deinde mox, malarum connexione causarum, bellis etiam civilibus tantæ strages ederentur, tantus sanguis effunderetur, tantâ cupiditate proscriptionum ac rapinarum, ferveret immanitas, ut Romani illi, qui, vitâ integriore, mala metuebant ab hostibus, perditâ integritate vitæ, crudeliora paterentur à civibus; eáque ipsa libido dominandi, quæ inter vitia generis humani immoderatior inerat universo R. P. posteaquàm in paucis potentioribus vicit, obtritos fatigatósque cæteros etiam jugo servitutis oppressit. Civ. Dei, lib. i. inflamed bosoms of a few aspiring chiefs; and the fatal success of these was the subjugation of all other men. Cruelty, disdainful of every restraint on its sanguinary purposes, and regardless of the common welfare in its determined execution of them, was the natural attendant on these struggles for political ascendancy; and no safety was supposed to be attained, till every opponent was cut off, by poison or the sword, by open violence or secret treachery. Nay, power, no longer disputed by a rival, indulged a wantonness of rage, and drew a savage delight from the blood of friends and foes sacrificed together. We are informed by Valerius Maximus, that the ears, and the hearts of the people of Rome, were pierced at once by the expiring cries of the four legions,* which had thrown themselves on the mercy of Sylla, and were, in consequence, deliberately murdered. To these Orosius adds some thousands of other victims, not only of the quiet and unoffending citizens, but even of the party of Sylla himself! Such * Quarum lamentabiles quiritatus trepidæ civitatis aures receperunt. Lib. ix. c. 2. In the epitome of Livy, lib. 88, the number is said to have been eight thousand. + Plurimi tunc quoque, ut non dicam innocentes, sed etiam |