manner of his being born into the world common with other men were to uncover what shame and modesty require should be conceal'd in the profoundest silence And dost thou not blush thou statue of earth who art shortly to be crumbled into dust who bubble-like containest within thee a short-liv'd humour dost thou not blush to swell with pride and arrogance and to have thy mind stuffed with vain idle thoughts Hast thou no regard to the double term of mans life how it begun and where it will end Thou pridest thy self in thy juvenile age and flatterest thy self in the flower the beauty and sprightliness of thy youth that thy hands are ready for action and thy feet apt to dance nimble measures that thy locks are wav'd by the wanton motions of the wind and a soft down overgrows thy cheeks that thy purple-robes put the very roses to the blush and thy silken vestures are variegated with rich embroidery of of battels huntings or pieces of ancient history or brought down to the feet artificially set off with black and curiously made fast with strings and buttons These are the things thou look'st at without any regard to thy self But let me a little as in a glass shew thee thy own face who and what thou art Hast thou not seen in a publick Charnel-house the unvailed mysteries of humane nature bones rudely thrown upon heaps naked skulls with hollow eye-holes yielding a dreadful and deformed spectacle Hast thou not beheld their grinning mouths and gastly looks and the rest of their members carelesly dispersed and scattered If thou hast beheld such sights as these in them thou hast seen thy self Where then will be the signes of thy present beauty that good complexion that adorns thy cheeks and the colour of thy lips that frightful Majesty and supercilious loftiness that once resided in thine eyes or thy nose that once beautifully grac'd thy cheeks Where are thy locks that were wont to reach thy shoulders the curles that used to adorn thy temples What are become of those arms that used to draw the bow those leggs that used to bestride thy horses Where 's the purple the silken garments the long robe the belt the spurs the horse the race the noise and pransings and all the rest of those things that now add fuel to thy pride Tell me where then will those things be upon the account whereof thou dost now so much boast and bear up thy self Was there ever any dream so fond and inconstant any thing more phantastick that ever appeared to a man asleep What shadow was ever so thin so incapable of being grasp'd within the hollow of the hand as this dream of youth which at once appears and immediately vanishes away Thus the Holy Man treats the young vapouring gallant and levels his pride with the sober considerations of mortality In his following discourse he deals with persons of riper years and such as are in places of authority and power and shews how absurd and uncomely pride is in them which it might not be impertinent to represent but fearing to be tedious I forbear CHAP. II. Of their Heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the World The Soul rightly constituted naturally tends upwards especially when assisted with the aids of Religion The first Christians much above the World Not wrought upon by temptations of advantage They accounted it the greatest honour to be Christians Contented with a very mean portion of outward things The story of some of our Saviours Kindred brought before Domitian The Sect of the Apostolici and Apotactici the Fathers of the Mendicant Orders in the Church of Rome The little care which Christians then had of rich furniture and costly provisions Their denying to go to publick feasts and sports made for the pleasure of the people This charged upon them by the Heathens The case of the woman that was seiz'd upon by an evil spirit while she was at the Theatre Their chearful parting with any worldly comforts Estate Relations c. A strange Heroick speech of Melania at the loss of her Husband and two Sons mentioned by St. Hierom. Eager for Martyrdom as what would presently send them to Heaven Their frequent supporting themselves under sufferingâ—s with discourses of the Kingdom above Thence accus'd as treasonable affectors of the Empire Their contempt of the world much promoted by the opinion that the day of judgement was near at hand Christians in the world like sojourners in a strange Country THe Soul of man being Heaven-born cannot but partake of the nature and disposition of that Country and have a Native inclination to that place from whence it borrows its Original And though 't is true in this corrupt and degenerate state it is deeply sunk into matter clogg'd and overborn with the earthly and sensual propensions of the lower appetites the desires and designs of men creeping up and down like shadows upon the surface of the earth yet does it often especially when assisted with the aids of Religion attempt its own rescue and release The mind of a good man is acted by manly and generous impulses it dwells in the Contemplations of the upper Region tramples upon those little projects of profit or pleasure which ensnare and enslave other men and makes all its designs subservient to the interests of a better Country A temper of mind never more triumphant in any than in the Christians of old whose Conversations were in Heaven and whose spirits breath'd in too free an air to be caught with the charms of the best enjoyments this world could afford They looked upon the delights and advantages of this life as things not worthy to arrest their affections in their journey to a better Justin Martyr discoursing with Trypho the Jew tells him that they were careful with all fear to converse with men according to the Scriptures not greedily desiring to gain Riches or Glory or Pleasure to themselves concerning any of which no man could lay any thing to their charge and that they did not live like the great men of his people of whom God himself has left this reproachful character That their Princes were companions of thieves every one loving gifts and following after rewards Nay Trypho himself bears them this testimony though doubtless he intended it as a reproach to them that having from a vain report chosen Christ to be their Master they did for his sake foolishly undervalue and throw away all the enjoyments and advantages of this world Amongst us says Tatian there is no affectation of vain-glory no diversity of sentiments and opinions but separating our selves from all vulgar and earthly thoughts and discourses and having given up our selves to the commands of God to be govern'd by his Law we abandon whatever seems but a-kin to humane glory They never met with opportunities to have advantaged and enriched themselves but they declined and turned them off with a noble scorn When Abgarus the Toparch of Edessa offered
his liberty against Kings and Princes and only yielding to God whose he wholly is coming off from all the attempts of adversity with victory and triumph So argues that excellent person and who ever reads him in his native language must confess it with equal strength of eloquence and reason where he also briefly touches that objection so common amongst the Heathens that if Christians were so dear to God why then did he suffer them to be oppressed with so many miseries and troubles and not come in to vindicate and relieve them an argument fully cleared by Arnobius Lactantius and other ancient Apologists for the Christian Faith But this was not all they were charged as a very useless and unserviceable people that contributed nothing to the happiness of the Common-wealth nay as destructive and pernicious to humane society and as the procuring cause of all those mischiefs and calamities that befel the world In answer to the first their being useless as to the common good hear what Tertullian says in the case How can this be says he when we live amongst you have the same diet habit manner and way of life we are no Brachmans or Indian Gymnosophists who live in Woods and banish themselves from all civil life we are not unmindful of what we owe to our great Creator and therefore despise none of his Creatures though careful to use them with temperance and sobriety wherefore we live not in the world without the use of your Markets Shambles Bathes Taverns Shops Stables your Marts and other ways of humane commerce we go to Sea with you bear Arms till and improve the ground use merchandize we undergo Trades amongst you and expose our works to your use and how then we can seem unserviceable to your affairs with which and by which we live I see not Certainly says he if any have cause truly to complain of our being unprofitable they are Bawds Panders Pimps Hectors and Ruffians sellers of poyson Magicians Southsayers Wizards and Astrologers and to be unserviceable to these is the greatest serviceableness But besides this they pleaded for themselves that their Religion was highly beneficial to the world and in its own nature contributed to the peace and happiness of mankind it cannot be denied but that some of the Primitive Christians were shie of engaging in Wars and not very forward to undergo publick places of authority and power but besides that this was only the opinion of some private persons and not the common and current practice or determination of the Church it arose partly from some mistaken passages in the Gospel turning Evangelical Counsels into positive precepts but principally because such Offices and Employments were usally clogg'd with such circumstances and conditions as obliged them to some things repugnant to the Christian Law otherwise where they could do it without offering violence to their Religion and their Conscience they shunn'd it not but frequently bore Arms and discharged such Publick Offices as were committed to them as cannot be unknown to any that are never so little vers'd in the History of the first Ages of the Church never were there better more faithful and resolute Souldiers more obedient to the Orders of their Commanders more ready to attempt the most hazardous enterprises never boggling at any thing which they could do without sin of which amongst many others I shall instance only in that of the Thebaean Legion who being commanded upon a bloody and unlawful butchery to destroy and cut off the Christians their brethren meekly returned this answer to the Heathen Emperour Maximianus under whom they served we offer our hands against any Enemy but count it unlawful to embrue them in the blood of the innocent our Swords know how to strike a Rebel or an Enemy but not to wound those who are Citizens and guiltless we remember that we took up Arms for not against friends and fellow Citizens we have always fought for justice and piety and for the safety of the innocent these have been hitherto the price of those dangers that we have run upon we have fought for fidelity which how shall we be able to keep to you if we do not first keep it to our God So far were the Christians of those times from refusing to engage in the service of their Prince Nay those of them who were so bound up by their private sentiments as not to think it lawful yet reckoned they otherways made equivalent compensation thus when Celsus press'd the Christians to undergo publick Offices and to help the Emperours in their Wars Origen answers that they did so though by a divine not humane help by praying for their persons and their prosperity and success above all men says he we fight for the Emperour while we train our selves in exercises of piety and contend by prayers for him But besides these there were several other instances which the Christians pleaded to vindicate themselves from being unserviceable to the good of mankind amongst which I shall at present take notice only of these two First That they really sought to reclaim men from vice and sin to a good and a virtuous life by which means besides that they provided for mens highest and nearest interest the interest of their souls and their eternal happiness in another life they greatly consulted the peace and welfare of the places where they lived for vicious and wicked men are the pests and plagues of humane society that taint and infect others by their bad examples or perswasions and entail vengeance upon the places of their residence whilst good men engage the favour and blessing of heaven and both by their counsels and examples bring over others to sobriety and virtue whereby they establish and strengthen the foundations of Government and the happiness of civil life and none so eminent for this as the Christians of old this is the great triumphant argument wherewith Origen at every turn exalts the honour of Christianity this says he we find in the multitudes of those that believe who are delivered from that sink of vices wherein before they were wont to wallow enquire into the lives of some of us compare our former and our present course and you 'll find in what filthiness and impieties they tumbled before they entertained the Christian Doctrine but since the time that they entred into it how gentle and moderate how grave and constant are they become and some so inflam'd with the love of purity that they forbear even what lawfully they might enjoy how largely are the Churches of God founded by Christ spread over all Nations consisting of such as are converted from innumerable evil ways to a better mind And elsewhere vindicating the Doctrine of Christ from the mischievous cavils of his adversary he tells us how 't was impossible that could be pestilent and hurtful which had converted so many from their vices and debaucheries to a course most agreeable
that was overlaid with Gold where he beheld nothing but a company of persons with their bodies bow'd down and pale faces I know the design of that Dialogue in part is to abuse and deride the Christians but there 's no reason to suppose he feigned those circumstances which made nothing to his purpose As the times grew better they added more and greater ornaments to them concerning two whereof there has been some contest in the Christian world Altars and Images As for Altars the first Christians had no other in their Churches than decent Tables of wood upon which they celebrated the holy Eucharist these 't is true in allusion to those in the Jewish Temple the Fathers generally called Altars and truly enough might do so by reason of those Sacrifices they offered upon them viz. the commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the blessed Sacrament the Sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving and the oblation of Alms and Charity for the poor usually laid upon those Tables which the Apostle expresly styles a Sacrifice These were the only Sacrifices for no other had the Christian world for many hundreds of years which they then offered upon their Altars which were much of the same kind with our Communion-Tables at this day For that they had not any such fixed and gaudy Altars as the Heathens then had in their Temples and Papists still have in their Churches is most evident because the Heathens at every turn did charge and reproach them for having none and the Fathers in their answers did freely and openly acknowledge and avow it asserting and pleading that the only true sacred Altar was a pure and a holy mind and that the best and most acceptable Sacrifice to God was a pious heart and an innocent and religious life Haec nostra sacrificia haec Dei sacra sunt these say they are our oblations these the sacrifices we give to God This was the state of Altars in the Christian Churches for near upon the first three hundred years till Constantine coming in and with him peace and plenty the Churches began to excel in costliness and bravery every day and then their wooden and moveable Altars began to be turned into fixed Altars of Stone or Marble though used to no other purpose than before and yet this too did not so universally obtain though severely urged by Sylvester Bishop of Rome but that in very many places Tables or moveable Altars of wood continued in use a long time after as might easily be made appear from several passages in Athanasius and others yea even to S. Augustine's time and probably much later were it proper to my business to search after it No sooner were Altars made fixed and immoveable but they were compassed in with Rails to fence off rudeness and irreverence and persons began to regard them with mighty observance and respect which soon grew so high that they became Asylums and refuges to protect innocent persons and unwitting offenders from immediate violence and oppression an instance whereof Nazianzen gives us in a Christian Widow a woman of great place and quality who flying from the importunities of the President who would have forced her to marry him had no other way but to take sanctuary at the holy Table in S. Basils Church at Caesarea she was demanded with many fierce and terrible threatnings but the holy man stoutly refused although the President was his mortal Enemy and sought only a pretence to ruine him Many such cases may be met with in the History of the Church nor was this a priviledge meerly founded upon custom but setled and ratified by the Laws of Christian Emperours concerning the particular cases whereof together with the extent and limitation of these immunities there are no less than six several Laws of the Emperours Theodosius Arcadius and Theodosius junior yet extant in the Theodosian Code But how far those Asyla's and Sanctuaries were good and useful and to what evil and pernicious purposes they were improv'd in after-times is without the limits of my present task to enquire But if in those times there was so little ground for Altars as us'd in the present sense of the Church of Rome there was yet far less for Images and certainly might things be carried by a fair and impartial tryal of Antiquity the dispute would soon be at an end there not being any one just and good authority to prove that Images were either worshipped or us'd in Churches for near upon four hundred years after Christ and I doubt not but it might be carried much farther but that my business lyes mainly within those first Ages of Christianity Nothing can be more clear than that the Christians were frequently challenged by the Heathens as for having no Altars and Temples so that they had no Images or Statues in them and that the Christian Apologists never denied it but industriously defended themselves against the charge and rejected the very thoughts of any such thing with contempt and scorn as might be abundantly made good from Tertullian Clem. Alexandrinus Origen Minucius Faelix Arnobius and Lactantius many of whose testimonies have been formerly pointed to Amongst other things Origen plainly tells his Adversary who had objected this to the Christians that the Images that were to be dedicated to God were not to be careed by the hand of Artists but to be formed and fashioned in us by the Word of God viz. the virtues of justice and temperance of wisdom and piety c. that conform us to the Image of his only Son These says he are the only Statues formed in our minds and by which alone we are perswaded 't is fit to do honour to him who is the Image of the invisible God the prototype and architypal pattern of all such Images Had Christians then given adoration to them or but set them up in their places of Worship with what face can we suppose they should have told the world that they so much slighted and abhorred them and indeed what a hearty detestation they universally shew'd to any thing that had but the least shadow of Idolatry has been before prov'd at large The Council of Illiberis that was held in Spain some time before Constantine expresly provided against it decreeing that no Pictures ought to be in the Church nor that any thing that is worshipped and adored should be painted upon the walls words so clear and positive as not to be evaded by all the little shifts and glosses which the Expositors of that Canon would put upon it The first use of Statues and Pictures in publick Churches was meerly historical or to add some beauty and ornament to the place which after Ages improved into Superstition and Idolatry The first that we meet with upon good authority for all the instances brought for the first Ages are either false and spurious or impertinent and to no purpose is no elder than the times of
made against their spiritual Guides and Governours and therefore according to the right art of Orators he first commends them for their eminent subjection to them that he might with the more advantage reprove and censure them for their schism afterwards which he does severely in the latter part of the Epistle and towards the end of it exhorts those who had laid the foundation of the Sedition to become subject to their Presbyters and being instructed to repentance to bow the knees of their hearts to lay aside the arrogant and insolent boldness of their tongues and to learn to subject and submit themselves The truth is Bishops and Ministers were then looked upon as the common Parents of Christians whom as such they honoured and obeyed and to whom they repaired for counsel and direction in all important cases 'T is plain from several passages in Tertullian that none could lawfully marry till they had first advised with the Bishop and Clergy of the Church and had asked and obtained their leave which probably they did to secure the person from marrying with a Gentile or any of them that were without and from the inconveniencies that might ensue upon such a match No respect no submission was thought great enough whereby they might do honour to them they were wont to kiss their hands to embrace their feet and at their going from or returning home or indeed their coming unto any place to wait upon them and either to receive or dismiss them with the universal confluence of the people Happy they thought themselves if they could but entertain them in their houses and bless their roofs with such welcome guests Amongst the various ways of kindness which Constantine the Great shewed to the Clergie the Writer of his life tells us that he used to treat them at his own Table though in the meanest and most despicable habit and never went a journey but he took some of them along with him reckoning that thereby he made himself surer of the propitious and favourable influence of the divine presence What honours he did them at the Council of Nice where he refused to sit down till they had given him intimation with what magnificent gifts and entertainments he treated them afterwards the same Author relates at large The truth is the piety of that devout and excellent Prince thought nothing too good for those who were the messengers of God and ministers of holy things and so infinitely tender was he of their honour as to profess that if at any time he should spye a Bishop overtaken in an immodest and uncomely action he would cover him with his own imperial Robe rather than others should take notice of it to the scandal of his place and person And because their spiritual authority and relation might not be sufficient to secure them from the contempt of rude and prophane persons therefore the first Christian Emperours invested them with power even in Civil cases as the way to beget them respect and authority amongst the people Thus Constantine as Sozomon tells us and he sets it down as a great argument of that Princes reverence for Religion ordained that persons contending in Law might if they pleased remove their cause out of the Civil Courts and appeal to the judgment of the Bishops whose sentence should be firm and take place before that of any other Judges as if it had been immediately passed by the Emperour himself and cases thus judged by Bishops all Governours of Provinces and their Officers were presently to put into execution which was afterwards ratified by two Laws one of Arcadius another of Honorius to that purpose This power the Bishops sometimes delegated to their inferior Clergy making them Judges in these cases as appears from what Socrates reports of Silvanus Bishop of Troas that finding a male-administration of this power he took it out of the hands of his Clergie and devolved the hearing and determining causes over to the Laity And to name no more S. Augustine more than once and again tells us how much he was crowded and even oppressed in deciding the contests and causes of secular persons It seems they thought themselves happy in those days if they could have their causes heard and determined by Bishops A pious Bishop and a faithful Minister was in those days dearer to them than the most valuable blessings upon earth and they could want any thing rather than be without them when Chrysostom was driven by the Empress into banishment the people as he went along burst into tears and cryed out ' t was better the Sun should not shine than that John Chrysostom should not preach and when through the importunity of the people he was recalled from his former banishment and diverted into the Suburbs till he might have an opportunity to make a publick vindication of his innocency the people not enduring such delays the Emperour was forced to send for him into the City the people universally meeting him and conducting him to his Church with all expressions of reverence and veneration Nay while he was yet Presbyter of the Church of Antioch so highly was he loved and honoured by the people of that place that though he was chosen to the See of Constantinople and sent for by the Emperours Letters though their Bishop made an Oration on purpose to perswade them to it yet would they by no means be brought to part with him and when the Messengers by force attempted to bring him away he was forced to prevent a tumult to withdraw and hide himself the people keeping a Guard about him lest he should be taken from them nor could the Emperour or his Agents with all their arts effect it till he used this wile he secretly wrote to the Governour of Antioch who pretending to Chrysostom that he had concerns of moment to impart to him invited him to a private place without the City where seizing upon him by Mules which he had in readiness he conveyed him to Constantinople where that his welcome might be the more magnificent the Emperour commanded that all persons of eminency both Ecclesiastical and Civil should with all possible pomp and state go six miles to meet him Of Nazianzen who sat in the same Chair of Constantinople before him I find that when he would have left that Bishoprick by reason of the stirs that were about it and delivered up himself to solitude and a private life as a thing much more suitable to his humour and genius many of the people came about him with tears beseeching him not to forsake his Flock which he had hitherto fed with so much sweat and labour They could not then lose their spiritual Guides but they looked upon themselves as Widows and Orphans resenting their death with a general sorrow and lamentation as if they had lost a common Father Nazianzen reports that when his