IV. The Ethical Standard is, of course, according to Christianitv, to be found in the Scriptures, but there is still in the sphere of science a wide diversity as to their meaning. But when the standard is supposed to be understood on a given question, and the con- science submits to it, there must follow a perfect self- abnegation ; degradation must result from disobedi- ence. In the case of a conflict between the conscience and the law of the state, for example, in which case the conscience of the lawgiving majority collides with the individual conscience, who shall yield .' The an- swer, from the very nature of the case, is neither. They must fight it out. The state, from its nature, is supreme, and cannot j'ield ; but for the man the con- science is also supreme. The man can only die, or make some other atonement, and thus maintain alle- giance to the highest tribunal.
V. History of Ethics. — (a.) The sources of knowl- edge here are Christ, his person and teaching ; also the writings of the apostles, as shown in the New Tes- tament. In the Old Testament the whole contents are authoritative, except as modified or repealed hy the New Testament. By the side of these objective sources we have a subjective source in the New Cov- enant ; it is the influence of the Holy Spirit in the faithful. To this Barnabas, Justin, and Clement of Alexandria bear witness. This life of the Spirit in the Cluirch was by-and-by supplanted by the sup- posed efficacy of ordination, liy which the Spirit was bound to the priesthood exclusively. There came now an outward law of the Church to modify the New Testament, and it controlled the ethical consciousness of ('hristendom until the Reformation.
(?;.) Abundance of ethical material is found in the apostolical fathers, who base ethics on individual per- sonality, on marriage, the family, etc. The most ef- fective of the earlier writers was Tertullian (220). His ethical writings were verj' numerous, such as concern- ing spectacles ., concerning the veiling of virgins, monoqj- 7ny, penitence, patien"e, etc. His idea of Christianifj^ was that it was a vast and defiant war power, separated from all the heathen customs of the Old World, and re- solved to bring upon that world the judgment of Heav- III.— X
en. Cyprian, with his high claims for the episcopate, exercised great influence on the ethical spliere of the Church. He concentrated the truth of the Church in the episcopacy, in which he saw the vehicle of the Holy Ghost, and the instrument bj' which unity and the Holy Spirit should be assured to the Church for- ever. He carried this idea of the dignity' of the epis- copate, and the sanctit_y and sanctifying power of or- ders, to a ridiculous extent. His doctrine of the effica- cy of orders and the dignity of bishops was set over against certain sects — Novatians, Montanists, Dona- tists — who held that the holiness and unity of the Church demanded that none but holy persons should be members. Augustine fell heir to this controversy. As the Church grew into an earthly kingdom, her eth- ics took more and more the direction of a so-called higher virtue, whose chief fonns were celibacy, pov- erty, conventual life, and self-imposed torture.
Asceticism not on!}' formed a part of the Church life, it became also the centre from which the Christian life was forced to receive rule and law. It determined what was sin, and what was right and good : it dicta- ted to councils ; and, getting control of the state, it dispensed at will its spiritual and temporal awards; penitential books in great numljers were compiled, and, bad as the system was in itself, it became a jjowerful instrument in bringing to order the various heathen peoples. For the books and writers on these subjects, see Herzog's Real-Encyldop. iv, .194, where the rela- tion of asceticism to mysticism is well presented, and it is shown that all these terrible struggles had their root in the consciousness of the infinite demerit of sin, and found their happy solution in Luther's doctrine of faith.
The Keformation not onlj' conquered the prevailing errors by leading men back to the holy Scriptures, but it established positively the real principle of Chris- tian ethics. It did this through justifying faith, which, working by love, creates the possibility of Christian etiiics. Love, springing from faith, is the fulfilling of the law. It is ethics in the soul, ready to take shape in noble action. This, working in the community inwardly, proceeds to mould all relations, priv^ate and public — marriage, family, church, state, science, art, and culture. The great reformers did not write complete ethical treatises, though they dis- cussed many ethical subjects, such as prayer, oaths, marriage, etc. ; but the}' especially discussed ethics in their explanations of the Decalogue in the Cate- chism. Indeed, the original form of Christian ethics is the Catechism. See Paul of Eitzen, Ethicce doc- ti-in(E, lib. iv (1751), with later additions ; also David Chytriius, IGOO, Virtutum descriptiones in jiracepta Dec- alogi distribut(c (1555) ; Lambert Dancaii (f 1590), Ethi- ces Christiana}, lib. iii (Geneva, 1577); Thomas Venato- rius, De Virtute Christiana, lib. iii ; comp. Schwarz, Thomas Venatorius, and the beginnings of Protestant ethics, in conn'ection with the doctrine of just if cation, Stud. u. Krit. (1850), heft. i. See also Melancthon, in his Philosophia Moralis (1539), his Enarratio aliquot lihroiiwi Aristotelis (1545), and his Physica. Add to these Keckermann, Systema ethicce tribus lihris ad'irna- tuni (Geneva, 1614) ; Weigel, Johann Arndt, Valentin Andrea, Spener, Nitzsch, Henry Miiller, Scriver, and others, all mystics. The Reformed have also done something in this line, especially G. Voetius, C. Vi- tringa, H. Witsius, Amesius, Amyraldus {Morale Chre- tienne, 6 vols. 1652-1600).