to the rules of this holy Religion that if a modest and honest Heathen was to estimate Christianity by the lives of its Professors he would certainly proscribe it as the vilest Religion in the world Being offended hereat I resolved to stand in the ways and see and enquire for the good old way the Paths wherein the ancient Christians walk'd for I could not think that this had always been the unhappy fate and portion of Christianity and that if the footsteps of true Christian piety and simplicity were any where to be found it must be in those times when as S. Hierom notes the blood of Christ was yet warm in the breasts of Christians and the faith and spirit of Religion more brisk and vigorous In pursuance of this design I set my self to a more close and diligent reading of the first Fathers and ancient monuments of the Church than ever I had done before especially for the three or four first Centures for much lower I did not intend to go because the life and spirit of Christianity did then visibly decline apace noting as I went along whatever contributed to my satisfaction in this affair Had I consulted my own ease and quiet I might have gone a nearer way to work and have taken up with what I could have pick'd up of this nature in Baronius the Centuries c. But I could not satisfie my self and I presume it would as little have satisfied the Reader with shreds with things taken upon trust and borrowed at the second hand For the same reason I made little use of the Lives of the Saints especially in such instances whereof there was the least cause to doubt and the spurious and suppositious Writings of the Fathers seldom making use of any but such as are of unquestionable credit and authority And because the testimony of an enemy is ever accounted of great moment and regard I have been careful to add the testimonies that have been given to Christians and to their Religion by the known and professed Adversaries of the Christian Faith such as Pliny Lucian Porphyry Julian c. more whereof we might have been furnished with had those Writings of theirs against the Christian Religion been extant which the zeal of the first Christian Princes industriously banished out of the world What other Authors of later date I have borrowed any light from in this discourse I have faithfully produced in the margent Two Books indeed I met with which at first sight I well hoped would have wholly saved me the labour of this search the one written by a person of our own Nation the other by a Florentine of great name and note but my hopes were very much frustrated in both For the first I no sooner looked into it but found my self wretchedly imposed upon by the Title his Elder times and Christians not to say any thing of his intermixtures of things nothing to his purpose seldom reaching any higher than the middle-Ages of the Church little or nothing being remark'd of the first Ages of Christianity the only thing I aimed at For the other which I met not with till I had almost finished this search I found it miserably thin and empty containing little else but short glosses upon some few passages out of Tertullian from whence I did not enrich my self with any one observation which I had not made before There is indeed an Epistle of Fronto's the learned Chancellor of the Vniversity of Paris concerning this Affair but it contains only some general intimations and seems to have been designed by him as appears from that and some other of his Epistles as the ground-work of a larger and more particular discourse But his death happening some few years after the date of that Epistle cut off all hopes of prosecuting so excellent a design These are all that I know of who have attempted any thing in this subject none whereof coming up to the curiosity of my design I was forced to resume the task I had undertaken and to go on with it through those ancient Writers of the Church the result of which search is laid together in this Book Whether I have discharged my self herein to the satisfaction of the Reander I know not sure I am I have endeavoured what I propounded to my self viz. a Specimen of Primitive Christianity in some of the most considerable branches and instances of Religion Here he will find a Piety active and zealous shining through the blackest clouds of malice and cruelty afflicted innocence triumphant notwithstanding all the powerful or politick attempts of men or Devils a patience unconquerable under the biggest persecutions a charity truly Catholick and unlimited a simplicity and upright carriage in all transactions a sobriety and temperance remarkable to the admiration of their enemies and in short he will here see the divine and holy Precepts of the Christian Religion drawn down into action and the most excellent genius and spirit of the Gospel breathing in the hearts and lives of these good old Christians Here he will find a real and evident confutation of that senseless and absurd calumny that was fastned upon Christianity as if it required no more than an easie and credulous temper of mind as if under a pretence of kindness and indulgence to sinners it ministred to all vice and wickedness Celsus confidently begins the charge There be some amongst the Christians says he that will neither give nor receive a reason of their faith who are wont to cry out don't examine but believe and thy faith will save thee the wisdom of this world is evil but foolishness good and useful Julian carries on the charge somewhat higher as if the Christian Religion were not only content with a naked and an empty Faith but gave encouragement to sin by assuring its most desperate Proselytes of an easie pardon In the conclusion of his Caesars after he had assigned the Roman Emperours their particular Tutelar Deities he delivers over Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour to the Goddess of Pleasure who having effeminately trick'd and dress'd him up brought him to the Goddess Asotia or intemperance where he finds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Son Constantius probably for the passage is a little disturbed and obscure for which reason probably the Translator passed it by and took no notice of it making this universal Proclamation Whoever is an adulterer or a murderer whoever is an impure profligate wretch let him come boldly for I declare that being washed in this water Baptism he shall immediatly be cleansed nay although he again commit those sins let him but knock his breast and beat his head and I will make him clean Much to the same purpose Zosimus as good a friend to Christianity as either of the former spitefully charges it upon Constantine the Great that being haunted with the conscience of his prodigeous Villanies and having no hopes given him by the Gentile Priests
of God as the Book which they infinitely prized beyond all others upon which account Nazianzen very severely chides his dear friend Gregory Nyssen that having laid aside the holy Scriptures the most excellent Writings in the world which he was wont to read both privately to himself and publickly to the people he had given up himself to the study of foreign and prophane Authors desirous rather to be accounted an Orator than a Christian S. Austine tells us that after his conversion how meanly soever he had before thought of them the Scriptures were become the matter of his most pure and chaste delight in respect whereof all other Books even those of Cicero himself which once he had so much doted on became dry and unsavoury to him In the study of this Book it was that Christians then mainly exercised themselves as thinking they could never fully enough understand it or deeply enough imprint it upon their hearts and memories Of the younger Theodosius they tell us that rising early every morning he together with his Sisters interchangeably sung Psalms of praise to God the holy Scriptures he could exactly repeat in any part of them and was wont to discourse out of them with the Bishops that were at Court as readily as if he had been an old Bishop himself We read of Origen though then but a child that when his Father commanded him to commit some places of Scripture to memory he most willingly set himself to it and not content with the bare reading he began to enquire into the more profound and recondite meaning of it often asking his Father to his no less joy than admiration what the sense of this or that place of Scripture was and this thirst after divine knowledge still continued and encreased in him all his life S. Hierom reporting it out of a Letter of one that was his great companion and benefactor that he never went to meals without some part of Scripture read never to sleep till some about him had read them to him and that both by night and day no sooner had he done praying but he betook himself to reading and after reading returned again to prayer Valens Deacon of the Church of Jerusalem a venerable old man had so entirely given up himself to the study of the Scriptures that it was all one to him to read or to repeat whole pages together The like we find of John an Egyptian Confessor whom Eusebius saw and heard that though both his eyes were put out and his body mangled with unheard of cruelty yet he was able at any time to repeat any places or passages either out of the old or new Testament which when I first heard him do in the publick Congregation I supposed him say he to have been reading in a Book till coming near and finding how it was I was struck with great admiration at it Certainly Christians then had no mean esteem of took no small delight in these sacred Volumes for the sake of this Book which he had chosen to be the companion and counsellor of his life Nazianzen professes he had willingly undervalued and relinquished all other things this was the mine where they enriched themselves with divine treasures a Book where they furnished themselves with a true stock of knowledge as S. Hierom speaks of Nepotian that by daily reading and meditation he had made his soul a Library of Christ and he tells us of Blesilla a devout Widow that though she was so far over-run with weakness and sickness that her foot would scarce bear her body or her neck sustain the burden of her head yet she was never found without a Bible in her hand Nor did they covetously hoard up and reserve this excellent knowledge to themselves but freely communicated it to others especially were careful to catechise and instruct their Children and Servants in the principles of Religion S. Clemens praises the Corinthians that they took care to admonish their young men to follow those things that were modest and comely and accordingly exhorts them to instruct the younger in the knowledge of the fear of God to make their children partakers of the discipline of Christ to teach them how much humility and a chast love do prevail with God that the fear of him is good and useful and preserves all those who with pure thoughts lead a holy life according to his will The Historian observes of Constantine that his first and greatest care towards his Sons was to secure the happiness of their souls by sowing the seeds of piety in their minds which he did partly himself instructing them in the knowledge of divine things and partly by appointing such Tutors as were most approved for Religion and when he had taken them into a partnership of the Government and either by private admonitions or by Letters gave them counsels for the steering themselves this was always the first and chief that they should prefer the knowledge and worship of God the great King of the world before all other advantages yea before the Empire it self For this Nazianzen peculiarly commends his Mother that not only she her self was consecrated to God and brought up under a pious education but that she conveyed it down as a necessary inheritance to her Children and it seems her Daughter Gorgonia was so well seasoned with these holy principles that she religiously walked in the steps of so good a pattern and did not only reclaim her Husband but educated her Children and Nephews in the ways of Religion giving them an excellent example while she lived and leaving this as her last charge and request when she died This was the discipline under which Christians were brought up in those times Religion was instilled into them betimes which grew up and mixed it self with their ordinary labours and recreations insomuch that the most rude and illiterate persons instead of prophane wanton Songs which vitiate and corrupt the minds of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom calls them Songs of the Devils composure used nothing but spiritual and divine Hymns so that as Hierom relates of the place where he lived you could not go into the field but you might hear the Plowman at his Hallelujahs the Mower at his Hymns and the Vine-Dresser singing Davids Psalms Thus they carried themselves at home what they did in publick in their Church-Assemblies on the Lords-day especially is next to be considered the manner whereof I shall briefly represent as it generally and for the most part obtained in those Ages for it could not but vary something according to time and place And here I should save my self the trouble of any further search by setting down the account which Justin Martyr and Tertullian give of their publick Worship in their Apologies for the Christians but that I am satisfied they did not design to give a perfect and
of the expiation of his crimes embraced Christianity being told that in the Christian Religion there was a promise of cleansing from all fin and that as soon as ever any closed with it pardon would be granted to the most profligate offenders As if Christianity had been nothing else but a Receptacle and Sanctuary for Rogues and Villains where the worst of men might be wicked under hopes of pardon But how false and groundless especially as urged and intended by them this impious charge was appears from the whole design and tenour of the Gospel and that more than ordinary vein of piety and strictness that was conspicuous in the lives of its first professors whereof we have in this Treatise given abundant evidence To this representation of their lives and manners I have added some account concerning the ancient Rites and Usages of the Church wherein if any one shall meet with something that does not jump with his own humour he will I doubt not have more discretion than to quarrel with me for setting down things as I found them But in this part I have said the less partly because this was not the thing I primarily designed partly because it has been done by others in just Discourses In some few instances I have remarked the corruption and degeneracy of the Church of Rome from the purity and simplicity of the ancient Church and more I could easily have added but that I studiously avoided controversies it being no part of my design to enquire what was the judgment of the Fathers in disputable cases especially the more abstruse and intricate speculations of Theology but what was their practice and by what rules and measures they did govern and conduct their lives The truth is their Creed in the first Ages was short and simple their Faith lying then as Erasmus observes not so much in nice and numerous Articles as in a good and an holy life At the end of the Book I have added a Chronological Index of the Authors according to the times wherein they are supposed to have lived with an account of the Editions of their Works made use of in this Treatise Which I did not that I had a mind to tell the world either what or how many Books I had a piece of vanity of which had I been guilty it had been no hard matter to have furnish'd out a much larger Catalogue But I did it partly to gratifie the request of the Bookseller partly because I conceived it might not be altogether unuseful to the Reader the Index to give some light to the quotations by knowing when the Author lived especially when he speaks of things done in or near his own time and which must otherwise have been done at every turn in the body of the Book And because there are some Writings frequently made use of in this Book the Authors whereof in this Index could be reduced to no certain date especially those called the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions it may not be amiss here briefly to take notice of them And first for the Canons as I am far from their opinion who ascribe them to the Apostles so I think their great Antagonist Mr. Daillé bends the stick as much too far the other way not allowing them a being in the world till the year 500 or a little before The truth doubtless lies between these two 'T is evident both from the Histories of the Church and many passages in Tertullian Cyprian and others that there were in the most early Ages of Christianity frequent Synods and Councils for setling the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church though their determinations under that notion be not extant at this day Part of these Synodical Decrees so many of them as concern'd the Rites and Discipline of the Church we may conceive some person of learning and judgment gathered together probably about the beginning of the third Century and put them especially the first Fifty for I look not upon the whole eighty five as of equal value and authority if not into the same into some such form and method wherein we now have them stiling them Ecclesiastical or Apostolical Canons not as if they had been composed by the Apostles but either because containing things consonant to the Doctrines and Rules delivered by the Apostles or because made up of usages and traditions supposed to be derived from them or lastly because made by ancient and Apostolic men That many if not all of these Canons were some considerable time extant before the first Nicene Council we have great reason to believe from two or three passages amongst many others S. Basil giving rules about Discipline appoint a Deacon guilty of Fornication to be deposed and thrust down into the rank of Laicks and that in that capacity he might receive the Communion there being says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Canon that they that are deposed should only fall under this kind of punishment the ancients as I suppose following herein that command Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault This Balsamon joins with the twenty fifth Canon of the Apostles which treats of the very same affair and indeed it cannot in probability be meant of any other partly because there was no ancient Canon that we know of in S. Basils time about this business but that partly because the same sentence is applied as the reason both in the Apostolical and S. Basils Canon Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault which clearly shews whence Basil had it and what he understands by his ancient Canon Theodoret records a Letter of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria to another of the same name Bishop of Constantinople this Letter was written a little before the Council of Nice where speaking of some Bishops who had received the Arians whom he had excommunicated into Communion he tells him that herein they had done what the Apostolical Canon did not allow evidently referring to the twelfth and thirteenth Canon of the Apostles which state the case about one Bishops receiving those into Communion who had been excommunicated by another To this let me add that Constantine in a Letter to Eusebius commends him for refusing to leave his own Bishoprick to go over to that of Antioch to which he was chosen especially because herein he had exactly observed the rule of Ecclesiastical Discipline and had kept the commands of God and the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Canon meaning doubtless the fourteenth Apostolick Canon which treats about such removes Nay learned men both formerly and of late have observed divers passages in the Nicene Canons themselves which plainly respect these Canons as might be made appear notwithstanding what Daillé has excepted against it were this a proper place to discourse of it This for the Canons For the Constitutions they are said to have been composed by S. Clemens at the instance and by the direction of the Apostles And this wild and extravagant
opinion has not wanted its Patrons and defenders Turrianus Bovius c. but herein deserted by the more modest and moderate of their own party besides that their Apostolicalness in this sense is by the learned Daillé everlastingly shattered and broken But then he sets them at too wide a distance assigning them to the latter end of the fifth Century when 't is as clear as the Sun that they were extant and in credit with many before the times of Epihanius though somewhat altered now from what they were in his time compiled probably out of many lesser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Books containing the Doctrines and Rites that had been delivered and practised by ancient and Apostolical persons or at least vented under their names but whether as some conjecture composed by Clemens Alexandrinus and thence by an easie mistake ascribed to Clemens Romanus I am not at leisure to consider In this Class of Writers I may reckon Dionysius the Areopagite absurdly enough asserted by many to be genuine by Daillé thrust down to the beginning of the sixth Century but most probably thought to have been written about the middle of the fourth Age as a person amongst us deservedly of great name and note has shewn in his late Vindication of Ignatius Epistles These are the principal of those Authors who could not be fix'd upon any certain year the rest have in the Index their particular and respective times To which I have added the account of the Editions for the more ready finding if occasion be of any passage quoted out of them One thing indeed there is which I cannot but take notice of it looks so like a piece of vanity and ostentation that the margent is charged with so many quotations but whoever considers the nature of my design will quickly see that it was absolutely necessary and that it concerned me not to deliver any thing without good authority the reason why I have where I could brought them in speaking their own words though to avoid as much of the charge as was possible I omitted the citing Authors in their own Languages and only set them down in English faithfully representing the Authors sense though not always tying my self to a strict and precise translation How pertinent my quotations are the Reader must judge I hope he will find them exact being immediately fetched from the fountain-head here being very few if any that have not been examined more than once For the method into which the Book is cast I chose that which to me seemed most apt and proper following S. Pauls distribution of Religion into piety towards God sobriety towards our selves and righteousness towards others and accordingly divided the discourse into three parts respecting those three great branches of Religion though the first is much larger than either of the other by reason of some preliminary Chapters containing a vindication of the Christians from those crimes that were charged upon them that so the rubbish being cleared and thrown out of the way we might have a fairer prospect of their Religion afterwards The Book I confess is swell'd into a greater bulk than I either thought of or desired but by reason of somewhat a confused Copy never design'd for the Press no certain measures could be taken of it And now if after all this it shall be enquired why these Papers are made publick as I can give no very good reason so I will not trouble my self to invent a bad one It may suffice to intimate that this discourse long since drawn up at leisure hours lay then by me when a tedious and uncomfortable distemper whereby I have been taken off from all publick Service and the prosecution of severer studies gave me too much opportunity to look over my Papers and this especially which peradventure otherwise had never seen the light Indeed I must confess I was somewhat the easilier prevailed with to let this discourse pass abroad that it might appear that when I could not do what I ought I was at least willing to do what I could If he that reads it shall reap any delight and satisfaction by it or be in any measure induced to imitate these primitive virtues I shall think my pains well bestowed if not I am not the first and probably shall not be the last that has written a Book to no purpose THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. Things charged upon the Primitive Christians respecting their Religion CHAP. II. Of the Novelty that was charged upon Christianity CHAP. III. Things charged upon the Christians respecting their outward condition CHAP. IV. The Charges brought against them respecting their life and manners CHAP. V. Of the positive parts of their Religion And first Of their piety towards God CHAP. VI. Of Churches and places of Publick Worship in the primitive times CHAP. VII Of the Lords-Day and the Fasts and Festivals of the ancient Church CHAP. VIII Of the persons constituting the body of the Church both people and Ministers CHAP. IX Of their usual Worship both private and publick CHAP. X. Of Baptism and the administration of it in the Primitive Church CHAP. XI Of the Lords Supper and the administration of it in the ancient Church PART II. The Religion of the Primitive Christians as to those virtues that respect themselves CHAP. I. Of their Humility CHAP. II. Of their Heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the World CHAP. III. Of their sobriety in respect of their Garb and Apparel CHAP. IV. Of their great Temperance and Abstinence CHAP. V. Of their singular Continence and Chastity CHAP. VI. Of their readiness and constancy in professing their Religion CHAP. VII Of their Patience and Exemplary Carriage under Sufferings PART III. Of their Religion as respecting other men CHAP. I. Of their Justice and Honesty CHAP. II. Of their admirable Love and Charity CHAP. III. Of their Vnity and Peaceableness CHAP. IV. Of their Obedience and Subjection to Civil Government CHAP. V. Of their Penance and the Discipline of the Ancient Church Primitive Christianity OR THE RELIGION OF THE Ancient Christians In the first Ages of the Gospel PART I. CHAP. I. Things charged upon the Primitive Christians respecting their Religion Christian Religion likely to meet with opposition at its first setting out Chiefly undermined by Calumnies and Reproaches Three things by the Heathens charged upon the Christians some things respecting their Religion some their outward condition others their moral carriage and the matters of their worship Their Religion charged with two things Impiety and Novelty The charge of Atheism considered and answered out of the Fathers The Heathens excepted against as incompetent judges of the affairs of Christianity In what sense Christians confessed themselves Atheists The wretched and absurd Deities that were amongst the Heathens and the impure manner of their worship Atheism properly such disowned and denied by Christians The account they gave of their Religion and the God whom they worshipped NO sooner did the Son
all men but especially his Army back to Paganism and Idolatry made use of this crafty project he placed the Pictures of Jupiter and other Heathen gods so close to his own Statues that they could not bow to the one but they must also to the other politickly reducing them to this strait that either they must refuse to pay civil honour to their Prince which had been a sufficient crime against them or seem at least to do honour to the gods with this device the less wary and cautelous were entrapped but others that were more pious and purdent chose rather to deny the Prince that civil homage and fall into the arms of martyrdom than by such an ambiguous adoration to seem to patronize Idolatry At another time he fell upon this stratagem upon a solemn day when the Emperours were wont to bestow Largesses upon the Souldiers he caused the Army to be called before him sitting then in great pomp and splendour and a large donative of Gold to be laid on the one side and a heap of Frankincense with fire by it on the other proclamation being made that they that would sacrifice the one should have the other By this means many of the Christian Souldiers were ensnared performed the Sacrifice received the Donative and went home jolly and secure But being at Dinner with their Companions and drinking to each other as the custom was with their eyes lift up and calling upon Christ and making the Sign of the Cross as oft as they took the Cup into their hands one at the Table told them he wondred how they could call upon Christ whom they had so lately abjur'd Amazed at this and asking how they had abjured him they were told that they had sacrificed which was all one as to deny Christ Whereupon starting up from the Table they ran up and down the Market-place in a furious and frantick manner crying out we are Christians we are Christians in heart and truth and let all the world take notice that there is but one God to whom we live and for whom we 'll dye we have not broken the faith which we swore to thee O blessed Saviour nor renounced our profession if our hands be guilty our hearts are innocent 't is not the Gold that has corrupted us but the Emperours craftiness that deceived us and with that running to the Emperour they threw down their Gold before him with this address we have not Sir received a donative but are condemned to dye instead of being honoured we are vilified and disgraced take this Largess and give it to your Souldiers as for us kill us and sacrifice us to Christ whom alone we owne as our highest Prince return us fire for fire and for the ashes of the sacrifice reduce us to ashes Cut off those hands which we so wickedly stretched out those feet that carried us to so great a mischief give others the Gold who may have no cause to repent on 't for our part Christ is enough for us whom we value instead of all things With this noble and generous resolution though the Emperour was highly enraged yet because he envied them the honour of martyrdom he would not put them to death but banished them and inflicted other penalties which might sufficiently evidence his rage against them Nay with so warm a zeal were they acted against Idolatry that many of them could not contain themselves from falling foul upon it where-ever they met it though with the immediate hazard of their lives So Romanus Deacon and Exorcist of the Church of Caesaria seeing great multitudes of people at Antioch flocking to the Temples and doing sacrifice to the gods came to them and began very severely to reprove and reproach them for which being apprehended after many strange and cruel usages he was put to death with all imaginable pain and torture Thus Apphianus a young man when the Cryers by proclamation summoned all the Inhabitants of Caesaria to sacrifice to the gods the Tribunes particularly reciting every mans name out of a Book to the great terrour of all that were Christians privately and unknown to us says Eusebius who lived at that time in the same house with him stole out and getting near Vrbanus the President who was then compassed about with a Guard of Souldiers just as he was about to offer Sacrifice caught hold of his right hand which he grasped so fast that he forced him to let fall the Sacrifice gravely admonishing him to desist from such errours and vanities Clearly shewing says the Historian that true Christians are so far from being drawn from the Worship of the true God that by threatnings and torments they are rather heightened into a greater and more ingenuous freedom and boldness in the profession of the Truth For this fact the young man was almost torn in pieces by the Souldiers whose rage and fierceness could scarce suffer him to be repriev'd for acuter tortures which were exerised towards him with all possible cruelty and when all could do no good upon him he was thrown half dead into the Sea The like we read of three famous Christians at Merum a City in Phrygia where when the Governour of the Province under Julian the Apostate had commanded the Heathen Temple to be opened they got by night into the Temple and broke to pieces all the Statues and Images of the gods Whereupon when a general persecution was like to arise against all the Christians of the City that the ignorant and innocent might not suffer the Authors of the fact came of their own accord to the Judge and confessed it who offered them pardon if they would sacrifice which they rejected with disdain and told him they were much readier to endure any torments and death it self than to be defiled with sacrificing and accordingly were first treated with all sorts of torments and then burnt upon an Iron Grate retaining their courage to the last and took their leave of the Governour with this sarcasm If thou hast a mind Amachius to eat rost meat turn us on the other side lest we be but half rosted and so prove ungrateful to thy taste So mightily did a restless passion for the divine honour possess the minds of those primitive Christians And though 't is true such transports of zeal are not ordinarily warrantable for which reason the Council of Illiberis justly prohibited those who were killed in the defacing and demolishing Idols to be reckoned in the number of Martyrs yet do they sufficiently shew what a spirit of eagerness and activity ruled in those times against the false Religions of the world By all this we may see how unjustly the Christians were traduced and accused for Idolaters three things were commonly charged upon them that they worshipped the Sun the Cross and an Asses head For the first their worshipping the Sun Tertullian answers that the mistake arose from a double cause partly that the Christians of
we are here we must worship God with respect to our present state and consequently of necessity have some definite and particular time to do it in Now that man might not be left to a floating uncertainty in a matter of so great importance in all Ages and Nations men have been guided by the very dictates of Nature to pitch upon some certain seasons wherein to assemble and meet together to perform the publick offices of Religion What and how many were the publick Festivals instituted and observed either amongst Jews or Gentiles I am not concerned to take notice of For the ancient Christians they ever had their peculiar seasons their solemn and stated times of meeting together to perform the common duties of Divine Worship of which because the Lords-Day challenges the precedency of all the rest we shall begin first with that And being unconcern'd in all the controversies which in the late times were raised about it I shall only note some instances of the piety of Christians in reference to this day which I have observed in passing through the Writers of those times For the name of this day of Publick Worship it is sometimes especially by Justin Martyr and Tertullian called Sunday because it hapned upon that day of the week which by the Heathens was dedicated to the Sun and therefore as being best known to them the Fathers commonly made use of it in their Apologies to the Heathen Governours This title continued after the world became Christian and seldom it is that it passes under any other name in the Imperial Edicts of the first Christian Emperours But the more proper and prevailing name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dies Dominica the Lords-day as 't is called by S. John himself as being that day of the Week whereon our Lord made his triumphant return from the dead this Justin Martyr assures us was the true original of the title upon Sunday says he we all assemble and meet together as being the first day wherein God parting the darkness from the rude chaos created the world and the same day whereon Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead for he was crucified the day before Saturday and the day after which is Sunday he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples by this means observing a kind of analogy and proportion with the Jewish Sabbath which had been instituted by God himself For as that day was kept as a commemoration of Gods Sabbath or resting from the work of Creation so was this set apart to religious uses as the solemn memorial of Christs resting from the work of our redemption in this world compleated upon the day of his resurrection Which brings into my mind that custom of theirs so universally common in those days that whereas at other times they kneeled at prayers on the Lords day they always prayed standing as is expresly affirmed both by Justin Martyr and Tertullian the reason of which we find in the Authour of the Questions and Answers in J. Martyr it is says he that by this means we may be put in mind both of our fall by sin our resurrection or restitution by the grace of Christ that for six days we pray upon our knees is in token of our fall by sin but that on the Lords day we do not bow the knee does symbolically represent our resurrection by which through the grace of Christ we are delivered from our sins and the powers of death this he there tells us was a custom deriv'd from the very times of the Apostles for which he cites Irenaeus in his Book concerning Easter And this custom was maintained with so much vigour that when some began to neglect it the great Council of Nice took notice of it and ordained that there should be a constant uniformity in this case and that on the Lords day and at such other times as were usual men should stand when they made their prayers to God So fit and reasonable did they think it to do all possible honour to that day on which Christ rose from the dead Therefore we may observe all along in the sacred story that after Christs resurrection the Apostles and primitive Christians did especially assemble upon the first day of the week and whatever they might do at other times yet there are many passages that intimate that the first day of the week was their more solemn time of meeting on this day it was that they were met together when our Saviour first appeared to them and so again the next week after on this day they were assembled when the Holy Ghost so visibly came down upon them when Peter preached that excellent Sermon converted and baptized three thousand souls Thus when S. Paul was taking his leave at Troas upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread i.e. as almost all agree to celebrate the holy Sacrament he preached to them sufficiently intimating that upon that day 't was their usual custom to meet in that manner and elsewhere giving directions to the Church of Corinth as he had done in the like case to other Churches concerning their contributions to the poor suffering Brethren he bids them lay it aside upon the first day of the week which seems plainly to respect their religious assemblies upon that day for then it was that every one according to his ability deposited something for the relief of the poor and the uses of the Church After the Apostles the Christians constantly observed this day meeting together for prayer expounding and hearing of the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and other publick duties of Religion Vpon the day called Sunday says J. Martyr all of us that live either in City or Country meet together in one place and what they then did he there describes of which afterwards This doubtless Pliny meant when giving Trajan an account of the Christians he tells him that they were wont to meet together to worship Christ stato die upon a set certain day by which he can be reasonably understood to design no other but the Lords day for though they probably met at other times yet he takes notice of this only either because the Christians whom he had examin'd had not told him of their meeting at other times or because this was their most publick and solemn convention and which in a manner swallowed up the rest By the violent persecutions of those times the Christians were forced to meet together before day so Pliny in the same place tells the Emperour that they assembled before day-light to sing their morning hymns to Christ Whence it is that Tertullian so often mentions their nocturnal convocations for putting the case that his Wife after his decease should marry with a Gentile-Husband amongst other inconveniencies he asks her whether she thought he would be willing to let her rise from his Bed to go to their night-meetings
Thaddaeus one of the Seventy Disciples great summs of Gold and Silver for the pains he had taken and the great things he had done amongst them he refused them with this answer To what purpose should we receive good things from others who have freely forsaken and renounced our own As indeed in those times friends and relations houses and lands were chearfully parted with when they stood in competition with Christ they could content themselves with the most naked poverty so it might but consist with the profession of the Gospel When Quintianus the President under Decius the Emperour asked Agatha the Virgin-Martyr why being descended of such Rich and Illustrious Parents she would stoop to such low and mean Offices as she took upon her She presently answered him Our Glory and Nobility lies in this that we are the Servants of Christ To the same purpose was the answer of Quintinus the Martyr under the Dioâ—lesian Persecution when the President asked him how it came about that he being a Roman Citizen and the Son of a Senator would truckle under such a Superstition and worship him for a God whom the Jews had Crucified the Martyr told him That it was the highest Honour and Nobility to know and serve God that the Christian Religion which he call'd Superstition ought not to be traduc'd with so base a name seeing it immediately guided its followers to the highest degrees of happiness for herein in it is that the Omnipotent God is revealed the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord by whom all things were made and who is in all things equal to his Father The simplicity of Christians then kept them from aspiring after honour and greatness and if at any time advanced to it their great care was to keep themselves unspotted from the world as Nazianzen reports of his brother Caesarius chief Physician to the Emperour Constantius that though he was very dear to him as he was to the whole Court and advanced by him every day to greater honours and dignities yet this says he was the chief of all that he suffered not the Nobility of his soul to be corrupted by that Glory and those delights that were round about him but accounted this his chiefest honour that he was a Christian in comparison of which all things else were to him but as a sport and Pageantry he looked upon other things but as Comick Scenes soon up and as soon over but upon Piety as the most safe and permanent good and which we can properly call our own regarding that Piety especially which is most inward and unseen to the world The like he relates of his Sister Gorgonia as the perfection of her excellent temper that she did not more seem to be good than she did really strive to be so peculiarly conversant in those secret acts of piety which are visible only to him who sees what is hidden and secret to the Prince of this world she left nothing transferring all into those safe and coelestial treasuries that are above she left nothing to the earth but her body changing all things for the hopes of a better life bequeathing no other riches to her children but an excellent pattern and a desire to follow her example The truth is as to estate they were not concern'd for more than what would supply the necessities of nature or the wants of others not solicitous to get or possess such revenues as might make them the objects either of mens envy or their fear as may appear amongst others by this instance Domiâ—ian the Emperour being inform'd that there were yet remaining some of Christs Kindred according to the flesh the Nephews of Judas the Brother of our Lord of the Race and Posterity of David which the Emperour sought utterly to extirpate he sent for them enquired of them whether they were of the Line of David they answered they were he ask'd what possessions and estate they had they told him they had between them thirty nine acres of land to the value of about nine thousand pence out of the fruits whereof they both paid him Tribute and maintained themselves with their own hard labour whereto the hardness and callousness of their hands which they then shew'd him bore witness He then ask'd them concerning Christ and the state of his Kingdome to which they answered that his Empire was not of this world but Heavenly and Angelical and which should finally take place in the end of the world when he should come with glory to judge both the quick and the dead and to reward men according to their works which when he heard despising the men upon the account of their meanness he let them go without any severity against them Of Origen we read that he was so great a despiser of the world that when he might have liv'd upon the maintenance of others he would not but parted with his Library of Books to one that was to allow him only four oboli a day the day he spent in laborious tasks and exercises and the greatest part of the night in study he always remembred that precept of our Saviour Not to have two coats not to wear shooes not anxiously to take care for to morrow nor would he accept the kindness of others when they would freely have given him some part of their estate to live on Not that the Christians of those times thought it unlawful to possess estates or to use the blessings of Divine Providence for though in those times of persecution they were often forc'd to quit their estates and habitations yet did they preserve their Proprieties intire and industriously mind the necessary conveniencies of this life so far as was consistent with their care of a better There were indeed a sort of Christians call'd Apostolici who in a fond imitation of the Apostles left all they had and gave up themselves to a voluntary poverty holding it not lawful to possess any thing hence they were also call'd Apotactici or renouncers because they quitted and renounc'd whatsoever they had but they were ever accounted infamous Hereticks They were as Epiphanius tells us the descendants of Tatian part of the old Cathari and Encratitae together with whom they are put in a Law of the Emperour Theodosius and reckon'd amongst the vilest of the Manichaean Hereticks mentioned also by Julian the Apostate as a branch of the Galilaeans as he calls the Christians by him compar'd to the Cynic Philosophers amongst the Heathens for the neglecting of their Countrey the abandoning of their estates and goods and their loose and rambling course of life only herein different that they did not as those Galilaean Apotactistae run up and down under a pretence of poverty to beg alms The truth is by the account which both he and Epiphanius give of them they seem to have been the very Patriarchs and primitive founders of those Mendicant Orders
hast taken from me Nay so little kindness had they for this world that they cared not how little they stayed in it and therefore readily offered themselves to Martyrdom at every turn Tertullian tells his adversaries that all those plagues which God sent upon the world what damage soever they might do their enemies could not hurt them because they had no other concernment in this world than as soon as they could to get out of it This he elsewhere tells us the very Gentiles assign'd as one reason why the Christians were train'd up in a defiance of all the sports and pleasures of this life that they might be more willing to dye and that the cords being cut by which they were tedder'd to this world they might be more nimble and expedite for their passage hence Their main designs were intent upon the happiness of another world and therefore they regarded not what they went thorough to come sooner to it Being inflamed sayes Justin Martyr with the desire of a pure and an eternal lâ—fe we breath after an intimate converse with God the great Parent and Creator of the world and make hast to seal our confession with our blood being certainly perswaded that they shall attain to this state who by their actions study to approve themselves to God that they follow after him and are heartily desirous of communion with him in that life where no malice or wickedness shall take place This was the mighty support they lean'd upon the great cordial with which they kept up their spirits in those sad times of suffering and persecution the firm belief and expectation which they had of enjoying God in a better life They knew that the more hast their enemies made to break open the cage of their bodies the sooner their souls would be at liberty to fly to the regions of blessedness and immortality And indeed so much were their thoughts fixed upon this so oft did they use to comfort one another by discoursing of that Kingdom which they expected hereafter that some of their enemies over-hearing and mistaking them accused them as treasonable affectors of the Empire when alas as Justin Martyr assures the Emperours they meant nothing less which they might know by this that being brought to tryal they freely confessed themselves to be Christians though they certainly knew they must dye for it whereas says he did we expect an humane Kingdome we would dissemble and deny it to avoid death and so expect a more convenient season to accomplish our designs but since our hopes are not placed in any thing in this world we regard not those that take away our lives well knowing they take nothing from us but what we must needs lay down our selves It was their care then continually to keep company with dying thoughts and to dwell within the prospect of eternity it being generally true of all what St. Hierom particularly reports of Marcella that she lived so as alwayes believing that she should immediately dye and never put on her garments but it put her in mind of her grave and of the sheet that should wrap her up in the house of silence But besides the influence which the expectation of their particular dissolutions had upon them there was one thing which I doubt not did mightily contribute to their being wean'd from the world and did strongly animate them to a quick and speedy diligence about the affairs of the other life and that was the Opinion they generally had of the day of judgment being near at hand An Opinion started early as appears by that caution which St. Paul gives the Thessalonians about it and it lasted for some Ages after as is evident from several passages in Tertullian who always improves it to this purpose that men should not unnecessarily encounter themselves with the affairs of this life but carry themselves as those that were immediately passing hence I conclude with that of Justin Martyr Christians says he dwell in their own countries but as inmates and forreigners they have all things common with other men as fellow-Citizens and yet suffer all things as strangers and forreigners every forreign Region is their Country and every Country is forreign to them They marry like other men and beget children but do not expose or neglect their Off-spring they feast in common but do not exceed like other men they are in the flesh but do not live after the flesh dwell upon earth but their conversation is in Heaven Therefore he compares Christians in this world to the soul in the body as for other reasons so especially for this that as the soul lives in the body but is not of the body so Christians dwell in the world but are not of the world an immortal spirit dwells in a mortal tabernacle and Christians while they sojourn in these corruptible mansions expect and look for an incorruptible state in Heaven CHAP. III. Of their sobriety in respect of their Garb and Apparel Much of the temper of the mind shewn in the outward garb The great ends of clothes for honesty necessity distinction The Primitive Christians accommodated themselves to these Carefull to avoid both singularity and excess Generally conformable to the sober fashions of the places where they liv'd Whether when they turn'd Christian they left off the Roman gown and took up the Pallium or Cloak à Toga ad Pallium the occasion of Tertullians writings his excellent Book on that subject the Pallium principally worn by those that entred upon a life of more than ordinary strictness Their great care to keep a medium between costliness and sordidness This accounted part of that pomp and vanity which they renounc'd in baptism The vanity of excessive garbs and finery complain'd of by the Fathers in some of those times Especially invective against methods of artificial beauty what pleaded in defence of it by some persons in those dayes considered and answered out of the Fathers That they were rich no sufficient argument to patronize the doing of it Better ways of imploying their estates Nor that they could do it without violating their chastity The inconveniencies of it with respect to others That they did it to please their Husbands Answered This needless every wise and good man content without it Such Arts savour'd too much of lewd wanton Prostitutes Painting and such Arts injurious to God and disparagement of his workmanship This largely prosecuted out of Tertullian and Cyprian A memorable story which Theodoret relates of his own Mother True beauty accounted to lye in a holy and vertuous mind and a pure and pious life Gay and phantastick persons fitly represented by the Aegyptian temples Nazianzen's description of his good Sister Gorgonia THe Primitive Christians being thus eminent for their contempt of the world 't is easy to imagine that they were very temperate and abstemious in the use of all the pleasures and conveniences of humane life which we shall
more particularly consider in these three instances their Sobriety in respect of Garb and Apparel their Temperance in regard of food and diet and their Continence or chastity For the first the care about our Garb and Dress it is one of those instances of Sobriety which are to be conducted by the rules of Religion and Reason and which very much discover a vertuous or a vicious temper There are three things as the Son of Syrach well observes that shew a man what he is his Attire excessive Laughter and his Gate There is not certainly a more open evidence of a vain mind than a vain garb and habit St. Basil discoursing what habit does best beseem a Christian tells us in general that it ought to be such as most lively expresses the meekness and humility of the mind that good men of old were so attired and that we are commanded having food and raiment to be therewith content not studying variety and which most commonly follows it softness and elegancy which are but instruments to minister to excess and luxury introduced into humane life through the idle and unnecessary Arts of loosness and effeminacy 'T is not enough says Tertullian that a Christian be chast and modest but he must appear to be so a vertue of which he should have so great a store and treasure that it should flow from his mind upon his habit and break from the retirements of his conscience into the superficies of his life as he there expresses it More particularly St. Basil tells us that the habit of a Christian ought to be suitable to the two great ends of cloathing instituted by God viz. Honesty and Necessity honesty to hide the less comly parts of the body and to cover that shame which sin has brought upon mankind in Paradise Innocency was mans only robe 't was sin brought in the fig-leav'd coat and what should more induce us to be modest in our apparel than to remember that our clothes are Monitors of our apostasie and that there 's little reason we should pride our selves in that which is only a cover for our shame Necessity and so clothes were designed to keep the body in convenient warmth and to defend it from those injuries and extremities of the air and wether which would otherwise soon rot down this house of clay Now to both these ends he tells us we ought to accommodate our garments not striving for variety having some for uses at home others for oftentation when we go abroad but that whatever attains these ends is enough But besides these there is a third Vse and end of clothes noted by Clemens Alexandrinus and that is for distinction not only of Sexes but of different ranks and degrees of men such as agree best to mens age persons shape nature or their several states and employments in these respects men may use different and distinguishing habits nay he grants that in some cases men may recede from the strict rule and discipline of this affair and that such women as cannot otherwise gain upon their husbands may if they require it go a little more trim and neat provided as he there limits it it be done only to please and gain upon their husbands and that they do not practise any Artifices of unlawful beauty Now that the ancient Christians govern'd themselves by these rules in this affair is plain in that they avoided both singularity on the one hand and excess on the other generally conforming themselves to the decent and orderly customes and fashions of the times and places where they liv'd Justin Martyr giving his friend an account of the Christians tells him that they differ'd not from other men either in their Country or Speech or the usages of the civil life they dwell in their own Cities use the same language with other men nor have they any singular and extraordinary way of life they are not in any thing affected or phantastick but inhabiting partly amongst Greeks partly in barbarous Cities as every ones lot is fallen they follow the customes of their Countrey and both in clothes and diet and all other affairs of outward life shew the excellent and admirable constitution of their discipline and conversation I am not ignorant of what some learned men would have us to believe that in those times when any turn'd from Paganism to Christianity they were wont to change their habit to leave off the Toga or Gown the common habit almost in all parts of the Roman Empire and to take up the Pallium or Cloak and this they think sufficiently countenanc'd by the instance of Tertullian who laying aside the Gown and putting on the Cloak was accused of lightness and inconstancy by the people of Carthage and bitterly persecuted with the common sarcasm à Toga ad Pallium as one that had want only skipp'd from the Gown to the Cloak i. e. from one profession to another insomuch that he was forc'd to write an Apology for himself which he did in his book de Pallio where with a great deal of satyrical and sarcastick wit he retorts upon them and vindicates himself from their charge and cavils But that there was any such change of habit at persons first coming over to Christianity I can see no reason to believe and for the case of Tertullian it makes nothing to the purpose unless it could be prov'd that he left off the gown at his first entrance upon the Christian Religion which will be hard to make out for I am clearly of the mind of the learned Salmasius that he altered his habit and assumed the cloak not when he first became Christian but when he was made Presbyter of the Church of Carthage whence it is called by him according to his dialect Sacerdos habitus for so it is in all ancient Manuscripts and in the first Edition of B. Rhenanus and not sacer habitus as later Editions have it the Priests habit because the Christian Priests usually wore it after their entrance upon Holy Orders For the better understanding of which we are to consider a little that amongst the Greeks the Pallium or Cloak was not commonly worn but was the proper habit of Philosophers who profess'd a more severe and accurate course of life Acordingly amongst the Christians those who professed themselves to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more strict and exact observers of the Christian discipline whether they were Laity or Clergy assumed this habit to themselves and because the Clergy in those times generally took upon them this austere and philosophick way of life this garb was most peculiar to them and this probably they did the rather not only because this was the most plain and simple garment in it self but because they supposed the Apostles whom they strove to imitate wrote this habit as is plain they did as from other passages in the New Testament so from St. Pauls sending for the Cloak
which he left at Troas therefore the Author of the Apostolical History who shelters himself under the name of Abdios Babylonius certainly forgot himself when describing the habit of St. Bartholomew the Apostle he made it so trim and fine Vestitus says he Colore doubtless it should be Colobio albo c. he was clothed in a white coat beset with studs of purple over which he had a white Cloak having purple gems at each corner of it a piece of gallantry unknown to the plainness of those times and unsuitable to the profession of that Holy man Indeed as plenty and prosperity began to flow in upon the Church this simple and modest garment was laid aside and the Clergy took upon them a more rich and splendid garb insomuch that when Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia took upon him to wear the Philosophick Cloak and perswaded his followers also to use it he was for this very reason deposed by his own Father Eulalius Bishop of Caesarea because wearing a habit unsuitable to the Ministerial Order which sentence was not long after ratified by the Synod of Gangra and a Canon made against it From what has been said it may appear that although the Clergy and such as entred upon a more strict and ascetick course of life had a habit peculiar to themselves yet the generality of Christians differed not from the common garb They were indeed exceeding careful to avoid all such as savoured of costliness and finery choosing such as expressed the greatest lowliness and innocency The garment that we should wear says Clemens of Alexandria ought to be mean and frugal not curiously wrought with divers colours the emblem of craftiness and deceit but white to denote our embracing and professing simplicity and truth our outward clothing is an indication of the temper of our manners that 's true simplicity of habit which takes away what 's vain and superfluous that the best and most solid garment which is furthest from art and curiosity and most apt to preserve and keep warm the body S. Cyprian ever observ'd a due decorum in his garb as well as his countenance his aspect was grave and yet chearful neither a frowning severity nor an over-pleasant merriness but such a happy mixture of both that it was hard to say whether he was more to be fear'd or lov'd but that he equally deserv'd both and just such was his garb sober and moderate keeping a just distance both from slovenliness and superfluity it neither argued him to be swell'd with pride nor infected with a miserable and sordid mind Chrysostome amongst other things especially commends Olympias a woman of great birth and estate and of no less piety for the incredible modesty and meanness of her attire not much better than that of the poorest beggar having nothing in her garb or gate that was feigned or gaudy nothing elaborate or artificial which things says he were the colours the bright and beautiful representations of her vertue whereby that wisdom and divine Philosophy that lay hidden in her mind was externally painted and shadowed out So far were they then from the vanity and affectation of pomp and bravery of dazling the eye with rich costly ornaments that they thought they could never seem mean enough and this they look'd upon themselves as especially bound to by the promise which they had made at Baptism when they renounc'd the Devil and his whole pomp and service as the same Father elsewhere informs us It cannot be denied but that the Fathers frequently complain of and smartly declaim against the vanity and folly of some in those times women especially by the weakness of their sex more propense to the excesses of pride and superfluity who gave up themselves to all the arts of fineness and gallantry and out of an emulation to the Ladies amongst the Heathens amongst whom they liv'd they affected all manner of pomp and elegancy striving to be as rich and gaudy not as they ought but as they could make themselves whose excessive prodigality Tertullian does thus no less elegantly than sarcastically describe A great estate says he is drawn out of a little pocket it 's nothing to expend many thousand pounds upon one string of pearls a weak tender neck can make a shift to carry about whole Woods and Lordships vast summs of money borrowed of the Banker and noted in his account book to be repay'd every month with interest are weighed at the beam of a thin slender ear so great is the strength of pride and ambition that even the weak feeble body of one woman shall be able to carry the weight and substance of so many pounds taken up at Vsury This was look'd upon as a very great sin Clemens Alexandrinus censures it very deep that though gluttony and intemperance be great vices yet not to be compar'd with a nice over-curious study of fineness and bravery I suppose he means in respect of its insatiable and unbounded nature For so he adds A well-furnish'd table and cups that go round may quickly stop the mouth of a hungry stomach but where there is a nice affectation of bravery of Gold Purple or Jewels there not the treasures of the Creation not what 's above or under ground not the spoyles of the Tyrian Sea not the fraights from India or Ethiopia no nor Pactolus with his golden streams would suffice Nay such persons though as rich as Midas would not yet think themselves rich or fine enough But that which the Fathers do most severely censure and cry out against is not only the expence and costliness of their cloths and jewels but the arts which they used to add greater beauty and handsomness to themselves than God and Nature had bestowed upon them This it seems the pride and folly of some Christian women had arriv'd to which the zeal and piety of those times did vehemently condemn and protest against It may not be amiss to consider what the Gallants of those times pleaded for themselves and what was returned in answer to them Sometimes they pleaded that they were rich and had great estates and ought therefore to live like themselves and to make use of the estates that God had given them To this Cyprian answers that they only are truly rich that are rich in and towards God that the world ought to be despised the pomps and delights whereof we then renounc'd when we happily turn'd to God with the love of whom all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not consistent that the use of riches in this case is to be governed by just and moderate measures the Apostle commanding all women how rich soever to adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidred hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becomes women professing Godliness with good works S. Peter
they knew the seller did not understand the true price and value and that if he did he would not part with it at such a price To this purpose S. Augustine tells us he knew a man probably he means himself though out of modesty he conceals it who having a Book offered him to be sold by one that understood not the price of it at a very small under-rate took the Book but gave him the full price according to its just rate and value which was a great deal more than the seller asked for it And the truth is in such cases advantage cannot honestly be taken of mens weakness or mistake because no man if he understood the true worth and value of his commodity can be supposed willing to part with it at a too-under rate And if they were thus far from craftily over-reaching much more from secretly or openly invading of what was anothers right and property no cheating or couzenage no acts of dishonesty and deceit were allowed or practised amongst them or if any such were discovered they were immediately protested against by the whole Society of Christians Cornelius Bishop of Rome giving Cyprian an account of Novatus the Heretick and his companions tells him of one Nicostratus that not only cheated his Lady and Patroness whose estate and revenues he managed but carried away a great part of the treasures of the Church whereof he was Chief Deacon the portion and maintenance of poor Widows and Orphans a crime says he reserved for perpetual punishment i.e. for the judgement of God in the other world being too great for any in this whereupon he was forced to fly from Rome into Africk to avoid the shame and prosecution of his rapine and sacriledge though when he came there they did not only refuse to admit him into communion but openly exposed the wickedness of him and his confederates to the abhorrency of all men By which may appear the falsity of that charge of Sacriledge which the Gentiles brought against the Christians to which though certainly it primarily respected their declared enmity against the Idolatrous Temples and worship of the Heathens yet Tertullian answers You look upon us says he as Sacrilegious persons and yet never found any of us guilty of wrong or injury of any rapine and violence much less of sacriledge and impiety No they are your own party that swear by and worship your gods and yet rob their temples that are no Christians and yet are found to be sacrilegious And afterwards he adds this further vindication of them As for us says he we deny not any pledge that 's left with us we adulterate no mans marriage-bed we piously educate and train up Orphans and relieve the necessities of the indigent and render no man evil for evil If there be any that dissemble our Religion let them look to 't we disown them for being of our party why should we be worse thought of for others faults or why should a Christian answer for any thing but what concerns his own Religion which no man in so long a time has prov'd to be cruel or incestuous Nay when we are burnt and most severely dealt with 't is for the greatest Innocency Honesty Justice Modesty for our Truth and Faithfulness and our Piety to the Living God And that these were not a parcel of good words which the Christians spoke in their own behalf will appear if we consider the testimony which Pliny who was far from being partial to them gives of them for being commanded by the Emperour Trajan to give him an account of the Christians he tells him that after the strictest examination which he could make even of those that had renounc'd Christianity he found this to be the greatest fault that they were guilty of that they used harmlesly to meet to worship Christ and at those meetings to bind themselves by a Sacrament or an oath that they would not do any wickedness that thy might be firmlier obliged not to commit thefts robberies adulteries not to falsify their words or to deny any thing wherewith they were intrusted when 't was required of them Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea in a Canonical Epistle which he wrote to rectifie several disorders and irregularities which had happened amongst the Christians of those parts by reason of the inroads and devastations which the Goths and other barbarous nations had made amongst them does amongst other things especially take notice how uncomely in it self how unsuitable to Christians it is to covet and to grasp what is another mans how inhumane to spoyle the oppressed and to enrich our selves by the blood and ruines of our miserable brethren And whereas some might be apt to plead they did not steal but only take up what they found He tells them this excuse would not serve the turn that whatever they had found of their Neighbours nay though it were their enemies they were bound to restore it much more to their brethren who were fellow-sufferers with them in the same condition Others thought it warrant enough to keep what they found though belonging to others having been such deep losers themselves but this he tells them is to justifie one wickedness with another and because the Goths had been enemies to them they would become Goths and Barbarians unto others Nor did they only keep themselves from doing injuries to others they were ready to do them all the right all the kindness that lay in their power especially to vindicate the poor and helpless from the power and violence of those that were too mighty for them Therefore when the Fathers of the Synod of Sardis took notice that some Bishops used to go to Court upon by-errands and private designs of their own they ordain'd that no Bishop should go to Court unless either immediately summoned by the Emperours letters or that their assistance was required to help the oppressed to right Widows and Orphans and to rescue them from the unjust grasps of potent and merciless oppressors and that in these cases they should be ready either by themselves or some deputed by them to present their petitions to plead their cause and to lend them all the assistance they were able to afford I should not in this place have taken any notice how far the ancient Christians were from murder and offering violence to any mans life but that it was a common charge brought against them by the Gentiles that they used to kill and devour an Infant at their Christian meetings especially when any was first to be initiated into their assemblies the story is thus dressed up by the acute Heathen in M. Foelix An Infant being covered all over with meal the better to deceive the unwary is set before him that is to be initiated and taken in he ignorant of what it really is is appointed to cut it up which he effectually does by many secret and mortal wounds whereupon they greedily lick
more than ordinary rank and dignity or of a more tender and delicate Constitution Chrysostome determines that in chastising and punishing their offences they be dealt withal in a more peculiar manner than other men lest by holding them under over-rigorous penalties they should be tempted to fly out into despair and so throwing off the reins of modesty and the care of their own happiness and salvation should run headlong into all manner of vice and wickedness So wisely did the prudence and piety of those times deal with offenders neither letting the reins so loose as to patronize presumption or encourage any man to sin nor yet holding them so strait as to drive men into despair The fourth and last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom this discipline was administred now though 't is true that this affair was managed in the Publick Congregation and seldom or never done without the consent and approbation of the people as Cyprian more than once and again expresly tells us yet was it ever accounted a ministerial act and properly belonged to them Tertullian speaking of Church censures adds that the Elders that are approv'd and have attain'd that honour not by purchase but testimony preside therein and Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia in a Letter to S. Cyprian speaking of the Majores natu the Seniors that preside in the Church tells us that to them belongs the power of baptizing imposing hands viz. in penance and ordination By the Bishop it was primarily and usually administred the determining the time and manner of repentance and the conferring pardon upon the penitent sinner being acts of the highest power and jurisdiction and therefore reckoned to appertain to the highest order in the Church Therefore 't is provided by the Illiberine Council that penance shall be prescribed by none but the Bishop only in case of necessity such as sickness and danger of death by leave and command from the Bishop the Presbyter or Deacon might impose penance and absolve Accordingly we find Cyprian amongst other directions to his Clergy how to carry themselves towards the lapsed giving them this that if any were over-taken with sickness or present danger they should not stay for his coming but the sick person should make confession of his sins to the next Presbyter or if a Presbyter could not be met with to a Deacon that so laying hands upon him he might depart in the peace of the Church But though while the number of Christians was small and the bounds of particular Churches little Bishops were able to manage these and other parts of their office in their own persons yet soon after the task began to grow too great for them and therefore about the time of the Decian persecution when Christians were very much multiplyed and the number of the lapsed great it seem'd good to the prudence of the Church partly for the ease of the Bishop and partly to provide for the modesty of persons in being brought before the whole Church to confess every crime to appoint a publick penitentiary some holy grave and prudent Presbyter whose office it was to take the confession of those sins which persons had committed after baptism and by prayers fastings and other exercises of mortification to prepare them for absolution He was a kind of Censor morum to enquire into the lives of Christians to take an account of their failures and to direct and dispose them to repentance This Office continued for some hundreds of years till it was abrogated by Nectarius S. Chrysostomes predecessor in the See of Constantinople upon the occasion of a notorious scandal that arose about it A woman of good rank and quality had been with the Penitentiary and confessed all her sins committed since baptism he enjoyn'd her to give up her self to fasting and prayer but not long after she came to him and confessed that while she was conversant in the Church to attend upon those holy exercises she had been tempted to commit folly and leudness with a Deacon of the Church whereupon the Deacon was immediately cast out but the people being excedingly troubled at the scandal and the Holy Order hereby exposed to the scorn and derision of the Gentiles Nectarius by the advice of Eudaemon a Presbyter of that Church wholly took away the Office of the publick Penitentiary leaving every one to the care and liberty of his own conscience to prepare himself for the Holy Sacrament This account Socrates assures us he had from Eudaemon's own mouth and Sozomen adds that almost all Bishops follow'd Nectarius his example in abrogating this Office But besides the ordinary and standing office of the Clergy we find even some of the Laity the Martyrs and Confessors that had a considerable hand in absolving penitents and restoring them to the communion of the Church For the understanding of which we are to know that as the Christians of those times had a mighty reverence for Martyrs and Confessors as the great Champions of Religion so the Martyrs took upon them to dispense in extraordinary cases for it was very customary in times of persecution for those who through fear of suffering had lapsed into Idolatry to make their address to the Martyrs in prison and to beg peace of them that they might be restored to the Church who considering their petitions and weighing the circumstances of their case did frequently grant their requests mitigate their penance and by a note signed under their hands signifie what they had done to the Bishop who taking an account of their condition absolved and admitted them to communion Of these Libelli or Books granted by the Martyrs to the lapsed there is mention in Cyprian at every turn who complains they were come to that excessive number that thousands were granted almost every day this many of them took upon them to do with great smartness and authority and without that respect that was due to the Bishops as appears from the note written to Cyprian by Lucian in the name of the Confessors which because 't is but short and withall shews the form and manners of those pacifick Libells it may not be amiss to set it down and thus it runs All the Confessors to Cyprian the Bishop Greeting Know that we have granted peace to all those of whom you have had an account what they have done how they have behaved themselves since the commission of their crimes and we would that these presents should by you be imparted to the rest of the Bishops We wish you to maintain peace with the holy Martyrs Written by Lucian of the Clergy the Exorcist and Reader being present This was looked upon as very peremptory and magisterial and therefore of this confidence and presumption and carelesness in promiscuously granting these letters of peace Cyprian not without reason complains in an Epistle to the Clergy of Rome Besides these Libells granted by the Martyrs there
were other Libelli granted by Heathen-Magistrates of which it may not be impertinent to speak a little whence the lapsed that had had them were commonly called Libellatici and they were of several sorts some writing their names in Libellis in Books and professing themselves to worship Jupiter Mars and the rest of the Heathen Gods presented them to the Magistrate and these did really sacrifice and pollute not their souls only but their hands and their lips with unlawful sacrifices as the Clergy of Rome expresses it in a letter to S. Cyprian these were called Thurificati and Sacrificati from their having offered incense and sacrifices Somewhat of this nature was that Libell that Pliny speaks of in his Epistle to the Emperour Trajan presented to him while he was Proconsul of Bithynia containing a Catalogue of the names of many some whereof had been accused to be Christians and denied it others confessed they had been so some years since but had renounc'd it all of them adoring the Images of the gods and the Emperours Statue offering sacrifice and blaspheming Christ and were accordingly dismissed and released by him Others there were who did not themselves sign or present any such Libells but some Heathen-friends for them and sometimes out of kindness they were encouraged to it by the Magistrates themselves and were hereupon released out of prison and had the favour not to be urged to sacrifice Nay Dionysius of Alexandria speaks of some Masters who to escape themselves compelled their servants to do sacrifice for them to whom he appoints a three years penance for that sinful compliance and dissimulation A third sort there was who finding the edge and keenness of their Judges was to be taken off with a sum of money freely confessed to them that they were Christians and could not sacrifice pray'd them to give them a Libell of dismission for which they would give them a suitable reward These were most properly called Libellatici and Libellati Cyprian acquaints us with the manner of their address to the Heathen Magistrate bringing in such a person thus speaking for himself I had both read and learnt from the Sermons of the Bishop that the servant of God is not to sacrifice to Idols nor to worship Images wherefore that I might not do what was unlawful having an opportunity of getting a Libell offered which yet I would not have accepted had it not offered it self I went to the Magistrate or caused another to go in my name and tell him that I was a Christian and that it was not lawful for me to sacrifice nor to approach the altars of the Devils that therefore I would give him a reward to excuse me that I might not be urged to what was unlawful These though not altogether so bad as the Sacrificati yet Cyprian charges as guilty of implicit Idolatry having defiled their consciences with the purchase of these Books and done that by consent which others had actually done I know Baronius will needs have it and boasts that all that had written before him were mistaken in the case that these Libellatici were not exempted from denying Christ nor gave mony to that end that they only requested of the Magistrate that they might not be compelled to offer sacrifice that they were ready to deny Christ and were willing to give him a reward to dispence with them only so far and to furnish them with a Libell of security and that they did really deny him before they obtained their Libell But nothing can be more plain both from this and several other passages in Cyprian than that they did not either publickly or privately sacrifice to Idols or actually deny Christ and therefore bribed the Magistrate that they might not be forced to do what was unlawful And hence Cyprian argues them as guilty by their wills and consent and that they had implicitly denied Christ how by actually doing it No but by pretending they had done what others were really guilty of Certainly the Cardinals mistake arose from a not right understanding the several sorts of the Libellatici the first whereof of as we have shewn did actually sacrifice and deny Christ And now having taken this view of the severity of discipline in the antient Church nothing remains but to admire and imitate their piety and integrity their infinite hatred of sin their care and zeal to keep up that strictness and purity of manners that had rendred their Religion so renowned and triumphant in the world A discipline which how happy were it for the Christian world were it again resetled in its due power and vigour which particularly is the Judgment and desire of our own Church concerning the solemn Quadragesimal Penances and Humiliations In the Primitive Church say the Preface to the Commination there was a godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such persons as stood convicted of notorious sin were put to open penance and punished in this world that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more afraid to offend Which said Discipline it is much to be wished might be restored again FINIS A Chronological Index OF THE AUTHOURS Cited in this BOOK According to the Vulgar Computation with an account of the Editions of their Works Christian or Ecclesiastical Writers Flourish'd An. Dom. Books Editions ApostoloruÌ„ Canones   Par. 1618 ApostoloruÌ„ Constitutiones    Clemens Romanus 70 Epist ad Cor. Oxon. 1633 Dionysius Areopagita  Opera Antw. 1634 Ignatius Antiochenus 101 Epistolae Amster 1646   Append. Usher Lond. 1647 Polycarpus 130 Epistol apud Euseb Abdias Babylonius  Histor Apostol Par. 1566 Justinus Martyr 155 Opera Par. 1636 Smyrnensi Ecclesia 168 Epistol apud Euseb Melito Sardensis 170 Orat. Apolog. apud Euseb Athenagoras 170 Legat. pro Christ Par. 1636 Dionysius Corinth Episc 172 Epistolae apud Euseb Theophilus Antioch 180 Lib. 3. ad Autolyc Par. 1636 Tatianus 180 Orat. ad Graecos Ibid. Hegesippus 180 Commentar apud Euseb Irenaeus 184 adv Haereses Par. 1639 Polycrates Ephes Episc 197 Epistol apud Euseb Tertullianus 198 Opera Par. 1664 Clemens Alexandrinus 204 Opera Par. 1641 Minutius Foelix 230 Octavius Par. 1668 Origenes 230 Opera Lat. Par. 1522   Contr. Cels Cantab. 1658 Gregorius Neocaesar 250 Opera Mogun 1604 Cyprianus 250 Opera Par. 1668 Cornelius Papa 250 Epist apud Cypri 〈◊〉 250 Epist apud Cypri 〈◊〉 Diaconus 258 Vit. Cyprian apud Cypri Dionysius Alexandrinus 260 Epist apud Euseb Arnobius 297 adv Gentes Par. 1668 Lactantius 3â—0 Opera L. Bat. 1660 Commodianus 320 Instructiones Par. 1668 Constantinus M. 325 Orat. ad SS apud Euseb Eusebius Caesariensis 329 de praep Evang. Par. 1628 Eusebius Caesariensis 329 Histor Eccles Par. 1659 Eusebius Caesariensis 329 de locis Hebrai Par. 1631 Eusebius Caesariensis 329 Chronic. Amster 1658 Athanasius 350 Opera Heidel 1601 Julius Firmicus 350 de