advice in the cause that to do as he did When I come to Rome said he I fast on the Saturday as they do at Rome when I am here I do not fast So likewise you to whatsoever Church you come observe the custom of that place if you mean not either to give or take offence With this answer he satisfied his Mother and ever after when he thought of it looked upon it as an Oracle sent from Heaven So that even in Italy the Saturday Fast was not universally observed Nay a very learned man and a Bishop of the Roman Church thinks it highly probable that for the first Ages especially Saturday was no more kept as a Fast at Rome than in the Churches of the East though the great argument whereby he would establish it viz. because some Latine Churches who must needs follow the pattern of the Church of Rome did not keep it so is very infirm and weak and needs no more than that very instance of the Church of Millain to refute it which though under the Popes nose did not yet keep that day as a Fast although this was many years after it had been so established and observed at Rome And now that I am got into this business I shall once for all dispatch the matter about their Fasts before I proceed to their other Festivals 'T is certain the ancient Christians had two sorts of solemn Fasts weekly and annual Their weekly Fasts called Jejunia quartae sextae seriae were kept upon Wednesdays and Fridays appointed so as we are told for this reason because on Wednesday our Lord was betrayed by Judas on Friday he was crucified by the Jews This custom Epiphanius how truly I know not refers to the Apostles and elsewhere tells us that those days were observed as Fasts through the whole world These Fasts they called their Stations not because they stood all the while but by an allusion to the military Stations and keeping their Guards as Tertullian observes they kept close at it and they usually lasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius informs us till the ninth hour i. e. till three of the Clock in the Afternoon at which time having ended their Fast devotions they received the Eucharist and then broke up the Station and went home whence it is that Tertullian calls them stationum semijejunia the half Fasts of Stations and he seems to censure the practice of some who having privately resolved upon an entire Fast of the whole day refused to receive the Eucharist at the publick stationary Fasts because they thought that by eating and drinking the sacramental Elements they put a period to their fasting for it was usual in those times with many after the stationary Fasts were ended to continue and hold on the Fast until the evening The Historian tells us that it had been a very ancient custom in the Church of Alexandria upon these days to have the Scriptures read and expounded and all other parts of Divine Service except the celebration of the Sacrament and that it was chiefly in those days that Origen was wont to teach the people whether the omitting of the Sacrament then might be a peculiar custom to that Church I know not certain I am 't was upon those days administred in other places So S. Basil enumerating the times how oft they received it every week expresly puts Wednesday and Friday into the number The remains of these primitive Stations are yet observed in our Church at this day which by her 15. Canon has ordained That though Wednesdays and Fridays be not holy days yet that weekly upon those times Minister and People shall resort to Church at the accustomed hours of prayer Their Annual Fast was that of Lent by way of preparation to the Feast of our Saviours Resurrection this though not in the modern use of it was very ancient though far from being an◠Apostolical Canon as a learned Prelate of our Church has fully proved From the very first Age of the Christian Church 't was customary to fast before Easter but for how long it was variously observed according to different times and places some fasting so many days others so many weeks and some so many days on each week and 't is most probably thought that it was at first stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima not because 't was a Fast of forty days but of forty hours begun about twelve on Friday the time of our Saviours falling under the power of death and continued till Sunday morning the time of his rising from the dead Afterwards it was enlarged to a longer time drawn out into more days and then weeks till it came to three and at last to six or seven weeks But concerning the different observations of it in several places let them who desire to know more consult Socrates and Sozomen who both speak enough about it This Quadragesimal Fast was kept in those times with great piety and Religion people generally applying themselves with all seriousness to acts of penance and mortification whence Chrysostom calls Lent the remedy and Physick of our souls and to the end that the observation of it might be more grave and solemn Theodosins M. and his Colleague Emperours passed two Laws that during the time of Lent all Process and enquiry into criminal actions should be suspended and no corporal punishments inflicted upon any it being unfit as the second of those Laws expresses it that in the holy time of Lent the body should suffer punishment while the soul is expecting absolution But with what care soever they kept the preceeding parts 't is certain they kept the close of it with a mighty strictness and austerity I mean the last week of it that which immediately preceded the Feast of Easter this they consecrated to more peculiar acts of prayer abstinence and devotion and whereas in the other parts of Lent they ended their fast in the evening in this they extended it to the Cock-crowing or first glimpse of the morning to be sure they ended it not before midnight for to break up the Fast before that time was accounted a piece of great prophaneness and intemperance as Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria determines in a Letter to Basilides wherein he largely and learnedly states the case This was the Hebdomada Magna the great or holy week so called says Chrysostom not that it has either more hours or days in it than other weeks but because this is the week in which truly great and ineffable good things were purchased for us within this time death was conquered the curse destroyed the Devils tyranny dissolved his instruments broken Heaven opened Angels rejoyced the partition-wall broken down and God and man reconciled For this cause we call it the great week for this cause men fast and watch and do Alms to do the greater honour to it
prejudice to their souls he resolved to shew them the way by his own example and himself first retiring out of the reach of danger retreated to the mountainous parts there-abouts that were freest from the rage and malice of the enemy Nor was this any impeachment of their zeal and readiness for suffering but only a prudent gaining a little respite for a time that they might suffer with greater advantage afterwards They did not desire to save their heads when the honour of their Religion call'd for it nor ever by indirect means screw'd themselves out of danger when once engaged in it though they did sometimes prudently prevent it reserving themselves for a more convenient season Thus Cyprian withdrew a little not out of fear of suffering but a desire to prevent his being put to death in an obscure place which his enemies had designed being desirous his Martyrdom should happen in that place where he so long liv'd and so publickly preached the Christian faith Secondly They were so far from declining suffering and being terrified with those miseries which they saw others undergo that they freely and in great multitudes offered themselves to the rage and fury of their enemies embracing death as the greatest honour that could be done them they strove as Sulpitius Severus observes speaking of the ninth persecution which should rush first upon those glorious conflicts men in those days as he adds much more greedily seeking Martyrdom in the cause of Christ than in after-times they did for Bishopricks and the preferments of the Church Lucian who certainly had very little love to Christians yet gives this account of them The miserable wretches says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do verily perswade them i. e. those of their own party that they shall surely be immortal and live for ever upon which account they despise death and many of them voluntarily offer themselves to it Indeed they did ambitiously contend who should be first crown'd with Martyrdom and that in such multitudes that their enemies knew not what to do with them their very persecutors grew weary of their bloody offices Tiberianus the President of Palestine in his relation to the Emperour Trajan recorded by Joannes Matela mentioned also by Suidas gives this account of his proceedings against them I am quite tir'd out in punishing and destroying the Galileans call'd here by the name of Christians according to your commands and yet they cease not to offer themselves to be slain Nay though I have laboured both by fair means and threatnings to make them conceal themselves from being known to be Christians yet can I not stave them off from persecution So little regard had they to sufferings nay so impatient were they till they were in the midst of flames This made Arrius Antoninus the Proconsul of Asia when at first he severely persecuted the Christians whereupon all the Christians in that City like an Army voluntarily presented themselves before his Tribunal to be surpriz'd with wonder and causing only some few of them to be executed he cried out to the rest O unhappy people if you have a mind to die have you not halters and precipices enough to end your lives with but you must come hither for an execution so fast did they flock to the place of torment faster than droves of beasts that are driven to the shambles They even long'd to be in the arms of suffering Ignatius though then in his journey to Rome in order to his execution yet by the way as he went could not but vent his passionate desire of it O that I might come to those wild beasts that are prepar'd for me I heartily wish that I may presently meet with them I would invite and encourage them speedily to devour me and not be afraid to set upon me as they have been to others nay should they refuse it I would even force them to it I am concern'd for nothing either seen or unseen more than to enjoy Jesus Christ Let fire and the cross and the rage of wild beasts the breaking of bones distortion of members bruising of the whole body yea all the punishments which the devil can invent come upon me so as I may but enjoy Christ They even envied the Martyrdom of others and mourned that any went before while they were left behind When Laurentius the Deacon espied Sixtus the Bishop of Rome going to his Martyrdom he burst into tears and passionately call'd out Whither O my Father art thou going without thy Son Whither so fast O holy Bishop without thy Deacon Never didst thou use to offer spiritual sacrifice without thy Minister to attend thee what have I done that might displease thee Hast thou found me degenerous and fearful Make trial at least whether thou hast chosen a fit Minister to wait upon thee To this and more to the same import the good Bishop replied Mistake not my Son I do not leave thee nor forsake thee Greater tryals belong to thee I like a weak old man receive only the first skirmishes of the battle but thou being youthful and valiant hast a more glorious triumph over the enemy reserv'd for thee Cease to weep thy turn will be presently for within three days thou shalt follow me So pious a contention was there between these â—ood men which of them should first suffer for the name of Christ 'T is memorable what we find concerning Origen though then but a youth that when a great persecution was raised at Alexandria wherein many suffered he was so eagerly inflamed with a desire of Martyrdom especially after his Father had been seized upon and cast into prison that he expos'd himself to all dangers and courted torments to come upon him and had certainly suffered if his Mother after all other intreaties and perswasion to no purpose had not stoln away his clothes by night and for meer shame forced him to stay at home To these I shall add but one Example of the weker Sex When Valens the Arrian Emperour who persecuted the Orthodox with as much fury and bitterness as any of the Heathen Emperours came to Edessa and found there great numbers of them daily meeting in their publick assemblies he severely check'd the Governour and commanded him by all means to rout and ruine them The Governour though of another perswasion yet out of common compassion gave them private notice of the Emperours commands hoping they would forbear But they not at all terrified with the news met the next morning in greater numbers which the Governour understanding went to the place of their assembly as he was going a woman in a careless dress leading a little child in her hand rush'd through the Governours Guard who commanding her to be brought before him asked her why she made so much hast That I may the sooner come said she to the place where the people of the Catholick Church are met together Knowst thou not said he
that the Governour will be there to day and kill all whom he finds there I know it well answered the woman and therefore make so much hast lest I come too late and be depriv'd of the Crown of Martyrdom And being asked why she carried her little Son along with her she answered That he also may partake of the common sufferings and share in the same rewards The Governour admiring the courage of the woman turn'd back to the Palace and disswaded the Emperour from his cruel resolution as what was neither honourable in it self nor would conduce to his purposes and designs Thirdly When they were condemned though it was by a most unjust sentence and to a most horrid death they were so far from raging or repining that instead of bitter and tart reflections they gave thanks to their enemies for condemning them A Christian being condemn'd says Tertullian thanks his Judges he takes it for a favour to dye for so good a cause That they persecute us says Clemens of Alexandria it is not because they find us to be wicked but because they think we wrong the world by being Christians and by teaching and perswading others to be so as for us they do us no harm death does but the sooner send us to God if therefore we be wise we shall thank them that are the occasion of our more speedy passage thither And elsewhere he tells us of S. Peter that seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom he exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour and that she was now returning home encouraging and exhorting of her and calling her by her name bad her to be mindful of our Lord Such says he was the wedlock of that blessed couple and their perfect disposition and agreement in those things that were dearest to them When Lucius one of the Primitive Martyrs was charged by Vrbicius the Roman Prefect for being a Christian only because he offer'd to speak in behalf of one that had very hard measure he immediately confess'd it and being forthwith condemned he heartily thanked his Judge for it that by this means he should be deliver'd from such unrighteous Governours and be sooner sent home to his Heavenly Father No joyfuller message could be told them than that they must dye for the sake of Christ Though we contend with all your rage and cruelty as Tertullian tells the President Scapula yet we freely offer our selves and rejoyce more when we are condemned than when we are absolved and released by you In despite of all the malice of their enemies they accounted the instruments of their torment the ensigns of their honour and their happiness When the Heathens reproached them for dying such an infamous death as that of the Cross and in derision styled them Sarmenticil and Semaxii for being burnt upon a little stake to which they were bound with twigs Tertullian answers for them This is the habit of our victory this the embroidered garment of our conquest this the triumphant chariot wherein we ride to Heaven When in prison they looked upon their Chains as their Ornaments as adding a beauty and a lustre to them with which they were adorn'd against the time of their sufferings as the bride is with fringes of gold and variegated ornaments against the day of her espousals For this reason Babylas the Martyr commanded that the Chains which he had worn in prison should be buried with him to shew that those things which seem most ignominious are for the sake of Christ most splendid and honourable imitating therein the great Apostle who was so far from being ashamed of that he took pleasure in Bonds Chains Reproaches Persecutions Distresses for Christs sake professing to Glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ. Fourthly When ever they were actually under the bitterest torments they never discovered the least sign of a furious or impatient mind but bore up with a quietness and composure which no sufferings could overcome Cyprian exhorting the Martyrs to courage and constancy tells them this of those that had gone before them that in the hottest conflict they never stirred but maintained their ground with a free confession an unshaken mind a divine courage destitute indeed of external weapons but armed with the shield of Faith in torments they stood stronger than their tormentors their bruised and mangled limbs proved too hard for the instruments wherewith their flesh was rack'd and pull'd from them the blows though never so oft repeated could not conquer their impregnable Faith although they did not only slice and teare off the flesh but rake into their very bowels and let out blood enough to extinguish the flames of persecution and to allay the heats of the everlasting fire And in another place speaking of the persecution under Decius at Rome he tells us that the Adversary did with an horrible violence break in upon the Camp of Christ but was repulsed with a strength as great as that wherewith he came upon them that then he craftily attempted the more rude and weak and subtilly endeavoured to set upon them singly hoping the easilier to circumvent them but that he found them like a well-compacted army sober and vigilant and prepared for battel that they could dye but could not be overcome yea therefore unconquerable because not afraid to dye that they did not resist those that rose up against them being ready not to kill them that assaulted them but to lay down their own lives and to lose their blood that they might make the more haste to get out of a cruel and malicious world Indeed so admirable was their patience and readiness to dye that their very enemies stood amaz'd at it When Simeon the second Bishop of Jerusalem and of our Saviours kindred according to the flesh had by the command of Atticus the Governour of Syria been tortur'd with all the arts of cruelty for many days together he bore it with such courage that the Proconsul himself and all that were present greatly wondred that a man of an hundred and twenty years of age should be able to undergo so many miseries and torments Of the Martyrs that suffered together with S. Polycarp the Church of Smyrna gives this account That all that were present were astonished when they saw them whipp'd till the cords made way to the inmost veins and arteries till the bowels and the most hidden parts of the body appeared They were rak'd with shells of fishes laid all along upon sharp-pointed stakes driven into the ground exercised with all sorts of torments and at last thrown to be devoured of wild beasts all which they bore with a mighty patience and constancy Nay as we find it in the first part of that Epistle contracted by Eusebius but published at large by Bishop Vsher so great was their patience and magnanimity that in all these sufferings not any of them gave a sigh or a groan The holy
that is next to God we sacrifice for his safety but 't is to his and our God and so as he has commanded only by holy prayer for the great God needs no blood or sweet perfumes these are the banquets and repast of devils which we do not only reject but expel at every turn But to say more concerning this were to light a candle to the Sun Julian the Emperour though no good friend to Christians yet thus far does them right that if they see any one mutinying against his Prince they presently punish him with great severities And here we may with just reason reflect upon the iniquity of the Church of Rome which in this instance of Religion has so abominably debauched the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith For they not only exempt the Clergy where they can from the authority and judgment of the secular powers whereby horrible enormities do arise but generally teach that a Prince once excommunicate his Subjects are absolv'd from all fealty and allegiance and he may with impunity be deposed or made away How shall such a Prince be thundred against with curses and deprivations every bold and treacherous Priest be authorized to brand his sacred person with the odious names of Infidel Heretick and Apostate and be Apostolically licensed to slander and belibel him and furnished with Commissions to free his Subjects from their duty and allegiance and to allure them to take up arms against him And if these courses fail and men still continue loyal they have disciples ready by secret or suddain arts to send him out of the world And if any man's conscience be so nice as to boggle at it his scruples shall be removed at worst it shall pass for a venial crime and the Pope perhaps with the help of a limitation that it be done for the interest of the Catholick cause by his omnipotence shall create it meritorious Cardinal Bellarmine whose wit and learning were imployed to uphold a tottering cause maintains it stiffly and in express terms that if a King be an Heretick or an Infidel and we know what they mean by that nay he particularly names the reformed Princes of England amongst his instances and seeks to draw his Dominions unto his Sect it is not only lawful but necessary to deprive him of his Kingdom And although he knew that the whole course of antiquity would fly in the face of so bold an assertion yet he goes on to assert that the reason why the Primitive Christians did not attempt this upon Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and the like was not out of conscience or that they boggled out of a sense of duty but because they wanted means and power to effect it A bold piece of falshood this and how contrary to the plain and positive Laws of Christ to the meek and primitive spirit of the Gospel But by the Cardinals leave it could not be for want of power for if as Seneca observes he may be Master of any man's life that undervalues his own it was then as easie for a Christian to have slain Nero or Dioclesian as it was of later times for Gerard to pistol the Prince of Orange or Ravillac to stab the King of France Nay take one of his own instances Julian the Apostate a Prince bad enough and that left no method unattempted to seduce his Subjects to Paganism and Idolatry yet though the greatest part of his Army were Christians they never so much as whispered a treasonable design against him using no other arms as we noted out of Nazianzen but prayers and tears Had S. Paul been of their mind he would have told the Christian Romans quite another story and instead of bidding them be subject to Nero not only for wrath but for conscience sake would have instructed them to take all opportunities to have murdered or deposed him But I shall not reckon up the villanies they have been guilty of in this kind nor pursue the odious and pernicious consequences of their doctrine and practice thus much I could not but take notice of being so immediately opposite to the whole tenor of the Gospel and so great a scandal to Christianity And I verily believe that had the Primitive Christians been no better Subjects than their Emperours were Princes had they practised on them those bloody artifices which have been common amongst those that call themselves the only Catholicks that barbarous dealing would have been a greater curb to the flourishing of the Gospel than all the ten persecutions For how could an impartial Heathen ever have believed their doctrine to have been of God had their actions been so contrary to all principles of natural Divinity Sure I am Pagan Rome was in this case more Orthodox and their Pontifices far better Doctors of Divinity Their Lex Julia as Vlpian their great Lawyer tells us allotted the same penalty to sacriledge and treason placing the one the very next step to the other thereby teaching us that they looked upon treason against the Prince as an affront next to that which was immediately done against the Majesty of Heaven And Marcellus the great Statesman in Tacitus lays it down for a Maxim that Subjects may wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And shame it is that any should call themselves Christians and yet be found worse than they their principles and practices more opposite to the known Laws of God and nature more destructive to the peace and welfare of mankind CHAP. V. Of their Penance and the Discipline of the Antient Church This why last treated of The Church as a Society founded by Christ has its distinct Laws and Priviledges What the usual offences that came under the Churches discipline All immorality open or confessed Lapsing into Idolatry the great sin of those times How many ways usually committed The Traditores who what their crime What penalties inflicted upon delinquent persons Delivering over to Satan what this extraordinary coercive power why vested in the Church The common and standing penalty by Excommunication This practised amongst the antient Gauls an account of it out of Caesar In use amongst the Jews Thence derived to the Christians This punishment how expressed by Church-writers Managed according to the nature of the fault The rigour of it sometimes mitigated Delinquent Clergy-men degraded and never admitted but to Lay-communion instances of it An account of the rise of Novatianism and the severity of its principles styl'd Cathari condemn'd by the Synod at Rome Offenders in what manner dealt with The Procedure of the action described by Tertullian Penitents how behaving themselves during their suspension The greatest not spar'd the case of Philippus and Theodosius This severity why used Penances called satisfactions and why The use of the word satisfaction in the antient Fathers Penitents how absolved After what time In the power of Bishops to extend or shorten these penitentiary humiliations Four particular cases observed wherein