Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A31421
|
Primitive Christianity, or, The religion of the ancient Christians in the first ages of the Gospel in three parts / by William Cave.
|
Cave, William, 1637-1713.
|
1675
(1675)
|
Wing C1599; ESTC R29627
|
336,729
|
800
|
in the Ages either before or since the Divine Providence doubtless permitting it to be so that by this means there might be a fairer occasion of commending Christianity to the world and there is nothing which we more commonly meet with in the Writings of the ancient Fathers than testimonies concerning their triumphant power over evil spirits Justin Martyr discoursing of the end of Christ's coming into the world for the salvation of men and the subversion of Devils tells the Senate that these things are so you may know by what is done before your eyes for many that were possessed by Devils throughout the whole world and even in this City of yours whom all your Inchanters Sorcerers and Conjurers were not able to cure many of us Christians adjuring them by the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified under Pontius Pilate have perfectly cured and do still cure disarming and driving out of men those Daemons that had seized upon them and the same he affirms more than once and again in his discourse with Trypho the Jew Ironaeus arguing against the Hereticks tells us that the true Disciples of Christ did in his name many strange things for the good of others according as every one had received his gift some so signally expelling Devils that those out of whom they were cast came over to the Faith others foretelling future events others curing men of the most grievous distempers by putting their hands upon them and restoring them to their former health many that have been raised from the dead and afterwards lived many years amongst us and indeed innumerable says he are the gifts which God has every where bestowed upon his Church whereby in the name of the crucified Jesus many and great miracles are daily done to the great advantage of the world Tertullian appeals to the Heathens as a thing commonly known amongst them that they daily restrained the power of Devils and cast them out of men and he tells Scapula the President that he might be satisfied of this from his own Records and those very advocates who had themselves reaped this benefit from Christians as for instance a certain Notary and the Kinsman and Child of another besides divers other persons of note and quality not to speak of the meaner sort who had been recovered either from Devils or from desperate Diseases nay Severus the Father of Antoninus having been cured by being anointed with Oyl by Proculus a Christian he kept him in his Palace till his death whom Antoninus knew well having been himself nursed by a Christian and in his Apologie he challenges the Heathens to produce any possessed person before the publick Tribunals and the evil spirit being commanded by any Christian shall then as truly confess himself to be a Devil as at other times he falsely boasts himself to be a god And elsewhere putting the case that the Christians should agree to retire out of the Roman Empire he asks them what protection they would then have left against the secret and invisible attempts of Devils who made such havock both of their souls and bodies whom the Christians so freely expelled and drove out that it would be a sufficient piece of revenge that hereby they should leave them open to the uncontrouled possession of those evil spirits 'T were endless to produce all the testimonies of this nature that might be fetch'd from Origen Minucius Faelix Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius and all the old Apologists for the Christian Religion some whereof I have briefly noted in the Margin who constantly pleaded this as a mighty and uncontroulable argument of the truth and divinity of their Religion and of their great usefulness to mankind nay this miraculous power continued in the Church some considerable time after Constantine and the world was become Christian as appears from S. Basil Nazianzen and others and though I do not give heed to all the miracles which are reported by S. Hierom in the lives of Hilarion Paulus and some others or by Palladius in his Historia Lausiaca yet doubtless many of them were very true and real God withdrawing this extraordinary power as Christianity gained faster footing in the world and leaving the Church to those standing methods by which it was to be managed and governed to the end of the world And yet notwithstanding the case was thus plain and evident how much the world was beholden to Christians yet were they looked upon as the pests of humane society counted and called the common enemies of mankind as Tertullian complains that they were the causes of all publick calamities and that for their sakes it was that vengeance did so often remarkably haunt the Roman Empire This was the common out-cry if the City be besieged says Tertullian if any thing happen ill in the Fields in the Garrisons in the Islands presently they cry out ' t is because of the Christians they conspire the ruine of good men and thirst after the blood of the innocent patronizing their hatred with this vain pretence that the Christians are the cause of all publick misfortunes and calamities if Tiber overflow the walls if the Nile do not as 't is wont overflow the fields if the Heaven do not keep its accustomed course if an Earthquake happen if a Famine or a Plague presently the cry is away with the Christians to the Lions Thus Demetrian the Proconsul of Afric objected to S. Cyprian that they might thank the Christians that wars did oftener arise that Plagues and Famines did rage so much and that immoderate and excessive rains hindred the kindly seasons of the year The same Arnobius tells us the Heathens were wont to object at every turn and to conclude it as sure as if it had been dictated by an Oracle that since the Christians appeared in the world the world had been well-nigh undone mankind has been over-run with infinite kinds of evil and the very gods themselves had withdrawn that solemn care and providence wherewith they were wont to superintend humane affairs Nay so hot and common was this Charge amongst the Pagans that when the Goths and Vandals broke in upon the Roman Empire S. Augustine was forced to write those excellent Books De Civit. Dei purposely to stop the mouth of this objection as upon the same account and at his request Orosius wrote his seven Books of History against the Pagans Omitting some of the answers given by the Fathers as being probably less solid and not so proper in this case such as that 't was no wonder if miseries happened and things grew worse in this old age of time the world daily growing more feeble and decrepit and that these things had been foretold by God and therefore must necessarily come to pass two arguments largely and strongly pleaded by S. Cyprian that those evils were properly resolvable into natural causes and that every thing is
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