much farther concerning them word for word saying This sort of Men indeed is diffused far and wide over the whole World For it was requisite that both Greeks and Barbarians should be partakers of so excellent a Benefit Egypt especially is full of them throughout all its Divisions but most of all about Alexandria But from all places the principal of them retire themselves into a most commodious place above the Lake Maria situate upon a little rising Hill excellently well seated both for Wholsomeness of Air and Conveniency of Abiding as into the Country of the Therapeutae Then after he has described their Houses after what manner they were built he speaks thus of the Churches they have in divers Places In every House there is a Chappel called a Semnaeum and Monasterium in which alone by themselves they perform the Mysteries of an Holy Life They bring in thither neither Meat nor Drink nor any Corporal Provisions or Necessaries but only the Law and the divine Oracles of the Prophets and Hymns and such like whereby Knowledge and Piety are increased and perfected And a little while after he says All the interval of time from Sun rising to the Evening they spend in Meditations of Philosophy For reading the Holy Scriptures they Philosophize after their Countrey way and expound Allegorically For they suppose that the Words are only Notes and Marks of some things of a Mystical Nature which are to be explained Figuratively They have Writings of some ancient Persons who have been heretofore famous Leaders of their Sect and have left them many Monuments of that Learning which consists in dark and secret Expressions which they using as original Platforms do imitate thereby that Course of Study These certainly seem to be the Words of such a Man as had heard some of our Religion expounding the Holy Scriptures And it is very likely that the Writings of those ancient Persons which he says they had were the Gospels and Writings of the Apostles and certain Expositions of the ancient Prophets of which sort many are contained both in other Epistles of Paul and also in that written to the Hebrews Afterwards Philo thus writeth concerning the New Psalms composed by them They do not only spend their time in Contemplation but they compose Songs and Hymns to the Praise of God of all sorts of Meeter and Musical Verse which they write in grave and seemly Rhymes He relates many other things of them in that Book I mentioned But I judged these fittest to be selected and pickt out in which certain Marks of Church Discipline are proposed But if any one should think what Philo here says to be in no wise proper to the Evangelical Politie but may be adapted to others besides those I have mentioned he will certainly be convinced by Philo's following Words in which if he shall duly weigh the Matter he will receive a most undoubted Testimony of this thing Now he writes thus Having first laid Temperance as a certain foundation they build thereupon the other Virtues For none of them takes either Meat or Drink before Sun-set for they hold it requisite to spend the Day in the Study of Philosophy and the Night in making necessary Provision for the Body Therefore they allot the whole Day to study but allow a very small portion of the Night for Bodily Provision Some of them forget to eat for Three Days together so great is the desire of Knowledge that possesses them But some others of them are so well pleased with and feed so richly and deliciously upon the Banquets of Wisdom which sets before them wholsome Precepts as a most sumptuous Feast that they are wont scarce to tast any necessary Food in twice that space to wit in Six Days time We suppose these Words of Philo to be evidently and without all doubt spoken concerning those of our Religion But if after all this any one shall still persist in a peremptory denyal of these things he will at length recede from his obstinate difficulty of Belief being perswaded to submit to such manifest Demonstrations as are no where to be found but in the Christian Religion composed according to the Rule of the Gospel Philo says further therefore That among these Men of whom we speak there are certain Women conversant many of which continue Virgins being old not out of Necessity like some of those amongst the Grecian Priests but voluntarily preserving their Chastity out of an ardent Affection to and Desire of Wisdom in the Embraces and Familiarity whereof they earnestly affect to spend their Lives having despised all Bodily Pleasures and desiring earnestly not a Mortal Issue but an Immortal which that Mind only that loves and is beloved of God can of it self bring forth After many other Expressions he speaks yet more plainly thus Their Expositions of Holy Writ are figurative by way of Allegories For these Men suppose the whole Law to be like a Living Creature the bare Words whereof are as it were the Body and the invisible Sense that lies hid under the Words resembles the Soul Which sence this Sect have and do make it their Religion earnestly to search into and contemplate beholding in the Words as in a Glass the admirable beauty of the Meaning There is no necessity of adding farther here an account of their Assemblies of the distinct Apartments of their Men and Women and of their several Studies and Holy Exercises now in use amongst us more especially about the Feast of our Lord's Passion when we are wont to practise them in Fastings Watchings and attentive Reading of Holy Scriptures All which the Man we have so often mentioned does relate in his Writings accurately after the same manner in which we only at this time observe them Especially he mentions the Vigils of the great Solemnity the Holy Exercises therein and the Hymns we are wont to recite And how when one has begun to sing a Psalm harmoniously and gravely the rest silently hearkening do after sing out in Chorus the latter parts only of the Verses And how throughout those Days lying in Straw upon the Ground they wholly abstain from Wine as he has said in these express Words and eat nothing that has Blood in it Water is their only Drink and their Food is Bread with Salt and Hyssop Farther he describes the Order and Degrees of their Governours to wit those who perform the Ecclesiastical Offices then the Ministrations of the Deacons and lastly the Episcopal Presidency over all He that desires to know these things more accurately may be therein informed from the fore-mentioned History of Philo. It is therefore apparently evident to every one that Philo writing thus did mean thereby those first Preachers of the Evangelical Doctrin and Discipline at the beginning delivered by the Apostles Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus concerning the same Har. 29. § 5. HAving said that the Christians were at first called Nazarens as Act. 24.5.2.22 and for some time Jesseans whether from the
their Faces turn'd towards the Altar After whom the others according to their Orders in a very decent manner do also sing the rest hearing with deep Silence except when the last Lines or the short after-Hymns are to be sung for then they all sing out both Men and Women When every Precentor has finish'd his Hymn the Juniors bring in the Table as was just above-mentioned upon which they have all their Holy Loaf of Bread leavened with Salt and Hyssop mingled together They have Hyssop in the Hall-Loaf out of Reverence to their Holy Table in the Church-Porch for on this Table they have Loaves and Salt without Sauces the Loaves unleaven'd and the Salt unmix'd For 't was fitting that the simplest and purest things should be allotted to the Principal part of the Sacra as the Reward of the Ministration and that others should imitate the same and abstain from those Loaves that their betters may have them as their Prerogative After Supper they keep a Holy Vigil all Night They keep the Vigil thus They all rise together and in the middle of the Hall make two Choirs one of Men and the other of Women each choosing their Eminentest person for Musick for a Precentor and then they sing some Hymns made in the Praise of God with variety of Measures and Stanza's sometimes singing all together and sometimes alternately with peculiar Gestures and dancing about as those who are struck with a Divine Fury Sometimes they sing Processional sometimes Stational Hymns altering their Postures with respect to the Altar as they see occasion Then when each of them has been separately and by themselves entertain'd just as though they had been drinking some Divine Wine they both mingle together and make one Choir in imitation of the Choir at the Red-Sea upon the account of the Miracles wrought there which exceeded the Thought and Hope of the Israelites and made them all in one Company exult as though they were beside themselves and sing Eucharistical Hymns to God their Deliverer the Prophet Moses being the Mens Precentor and Miram the Prophetess Precentress to the Women The Choir of the Therapeuts and Therapeutesses is just like it singing with different Notes for the treeble Voice of the Women mingled with the Base of the Men makes a lovely and truly Musical Harmony Their Thoughts are truly fine their Words are fine and their Choiristers are comely in short the Thoughts the Expressions and Choiristers are all pious and devout After they have continu'd their Holy Transport till the Morning they don't feel their Heads disorder'd or their Eyes heavy but they are more wakeful than they came and as soon as they see the Sun rise with their Eyes and their whole Body towards the East and their Hands lifted up towards Heaven they pray for Lightsomness of Mind and Truth and Rational Quick-sightedness After these Prayers every one of them retreat to their own Oratories to cultivate and traffick in their usual Philosophy Since therefore the Therapeuts have embrac'd the Theory of Nature and liv'd together with one Soul and were Citizens both of Heaven and Earth and were truly commended and conformed to the Father and Maker of all things by Vertue which procur'd them that Friendship which is the truest Honour do thou by applying thy Mind to a Prosecution of Vertue which is better than all Prosperity reach the Top and Perfection of Felicity The Judgment and Observations of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea in his Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 16. and other Ancient Writers concerning Philo 's Book of the Therapeuts and that they were Christians MARK the Evangelist going into Egypt is reported to have been the first Publisher there of the Gospel he had written and to have settled Churches in the very City of Alexandria And furthermore that so great a Multitude both of Men and Women who there embraced the Faith of Christ professed from the very beginning so severe and so Philosophical a Course of Live that Philo vouchsafed in his Writings to relate their Converse their Assemblies their Eating and Drinking together and their whole manner of Living It is reported that this Philo in the times of Claudius came to be familiarly acquainted with Peter at Rome who then Preached the Word of God there neither is this unlikely For that Work of his of which we speak being by him elaborated a long time after does manifestly contain all the Ecclesiastical Rules which are to this present observed among us And seeing he describes evidently the Lives of the Ascetae amongst us he does make it sufficiently perspicuous that he did not only see but also very much approve of and admire the Apostolical Men of his time who being as it is probable originally Jews upon that account did then observe in a great measure the Judaical Rites and Customs First of all therefore in that Book which he intituled Of Contemplative Life or Of Suppliants having professed that he would insert nothing disagreeable to Truth or of his own Head into that Account which he was about to give he says That the Men were called Therapeutae and the Women that were conversant among them Therapeutriae And he adjoyns the reason of that Appellation either because like Physicians they healed the Minds of those that resorted to them curing them of their vitious Affections or because they worshipped the Deity with a pure and sincere Service and Adoration Further whether Philo himself gave them this Name devising an Appellation agreeable to the Manners and Dispositions of Men or whether they were really so called from the beginning the Name of Christians not being every where spread and diffused it is not necessary positively to affirm or contend about it But he attests that in the first place they part with their Goods saying That as soon as they betake themselves to this course of Philosophizing they put over their Wealth and Possessions to their Relations Then casting away all Care of Wordly matters they leave the Cities and make their Abode in Gardens and solitary Places well knowing the Conversing with Men of a different and disagreeing Perswasion to be unprofitable and hurtful Which thing the Christians of that time seem to me to have instituted out of a generous and most fervent Ardour of Faith endeavouring to emulate the Prophetical severe Course of Life Therefore in the Acts of the Apostles which contain nothing but the perfect Truth it is shewed That all the Disciples of the Apostles selling their Possessions and Goods divided the Price among the Brethren according as every one had need that so there might not be any indigent Person amongst them For as the Word says As many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had Need. After Philo has attested the very same things with these of the Therapeutae he adds thus
Name of Jesse or from the Name of our Lord Jesus because they were his Disciples he adds But thou may'st find this in the Writings of PHILO in the Book by him intituled Of the Jesseans who describing their Politie and Commendations and recounting their Monastries near about the Lake Maria he relates it of no other than of Christians For he when he was in that Region called Mariotis and was by them themselves conducted to the Monastries of that place got much Profit by it For being there in the Days of Easter he saw both their Lives and how some lived without Eating all the Holy Week of Easter some Two Days and some until the Evening But all these things were done by this Man for the treating of the Subject concerning the Faith and Manners of the Christians St. Hierom concerning the same in his Book de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis PHILO the Jew Born at Alexandria of the Race of the Priests is therefore by us placed among the Ecclesiastical Writers because writing a Book of the first Church of Mark the Evangelist at Alexandria he discourseth in Praise of our People the Christians there recounting that they were not only there but also in many other Provinces and calling their Habitations Monastries Whence it appears that such was the Church of the first Believers in Christ as now the Monks endeavour and desire to be that nothing may be any one 's own that is that none claim a Propriety in any thing that there be none amongst them Rich none Poor their Patrimonies be divided among those who need that they all attend to Prayer and Psalms also to Doctrin and to Continence such as Luke relates were the first Believers at Hierusalem It is reported that under Caius Caligula he was in some Danger at Rome whither he was sent Legate for his Nation that when he came a second time to Claudius he there in the same City spake with the Apostle Peter and held Friendship with him and for this Cause also wrote in Praise of the Followers of Mark the Disciple of Peter at Alexandria A little after recounting the Works of Philo among the rest he puts in One Book concerning the Lives of our People that is concerning Apostolick Men of which we have spoken before which he intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. because they did contemplate Heavenly things and prayed continually Johannes Cassianus concerning the same lib. 2. de Institut cap. 5. IN the Beginning of the Faith there were indeed but few but those most approved Persons reckoned under the Denomination of Monks who as from Mark the Evangelist of Blessed Memory who first presided Bishop in the City of Alexandria they received their Rule of Living did not only retain those Great things which we read in the Acts of the Apostles that the Church or Crowd of Believers at first made so famous viz. The Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed were his own but they had all things Common Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were Possessors of Land or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Feet of the Apostles and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had need But they even built up more sublime things upon them For retiring into the most secret parts of the Suburbs they lead a Life of so great Rigour of Abstinence that so severe a Profession of Life was an amazement to others For they applied themselves with so much Fervour to the Reading of the Divine Scriptures and to Prayer and to the Work of their Hands Day and Night that neither the Appetite or Memory of Meat unless after two or three Days did interrupt them by Hunger of the Body And they received Meat and Drink not as what they desired but what was necessary and not that neither before Sun-set that they might conjoyn the time of Light with the Studies of Spiritual Meditations but the Care of the Body to the Night and other things did they effect more sublime than these concerning which he who is not sufficiently informed by the People of the Countrey may satisfie himself in the Ecclesiastical History Sozomen concerning the same 1 Hist Eccl. c. 12. HAving spoken of the Glory of the Christian Religion by reason of the Virtue of its Professors and of the Confessors then living and of the Famous Bishop Spiridion he adds But most of all did they illustrate the Church with their Virtues and propagated the Christian Doctrin who exercised the Monastick Discipline For this kind of PHILOSOPHY coming from God with the greatest Benefit to Men despiseth indeed many Sciences and the Artifice of Logick as a matter of Curiosity and by which the Exercise of better things is supplanted nor is any thing of Advantage for a right kind of Life conferred by it and with a more natural Prudence void of Curiosity teacheth those things which remove wholly Vitiousness and effect better things but the Middle things between Vertue and Vice it reputes not among the Good but delights in only Good things and holds him for an ill Man who although he abstains from Evil yet doth no Good For it doth not make shew but exerciseth Vertue and makes no account of the Glory which is of Men resisting the Affections of the Mind with great Fortitude nor doth it yield to the Necessities of Nature nor stoop to the Infirmities of the Body but having obtain'd the Powers of a Divine Mind it looks perpetually at the Creator of all whom it worshippeth Day and Night and appeaseth with Prayers and Supplications But having begun a pure Religion with Purity of Mind and the Exercise of Good Deeds it makes light of Washings and such like Purifications For it judgeth Sins only to be Impurities and being Conquerour of those things which happen from without and as I may so say Mistress of all is not diverted from her purpose neither by the Confusion of those things which fill the Lives of Mortals nor by any Necessity neither is it provoked with Contumelies nor being injured doth it revenge it self nor doth it sink being pressed either with Sickness or with Penury of Necessaries but doth rather triumph over those in which she exerciseth Patience and Meekness and Contentation of Mind all the Life long and as far as is possible to Humane Nature becomes near to God using this present Life as in a Passage is neither anxious for the acquest of Earthly things nor doth so much as think of things present even in urging Necessity but perpetually prizing a Life frugal and discharged of temporal Furniture respects the Felicity which it hath from thence and is always disposed for a Blessed End But incessantly breathing out Piety towards God it abhors the Defilement of filthy Speaking not so much as enduring in