of them and think them happy that they are intrusted by God to manage the conveniencies of mans life but yet do not give them that honour that is only due to God for this neither does God allow of neither do they desire it but equally love and regard us when we do not as if we did sacrifice to them And when Celsus a little before had smartly pressed him to do honour to Daemons he rejects the motion with great contempt away says he with this counsel of Celsus who in this is not in the least to be hearkned to for the great God only is to be adored and prayers to be delivered up to none but his only begotten Son the first born of every creature that as our High-Priest he may carry them to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 'T is true that the Worship of Angels did and that very early as appears from the Apostles caveat against it in his Epistle to the Colossians creep into some parts of the Christian Church but was always disowned and cryed out against and at last publickly and solemnly condemned by the whole Laodicean Council it is not lawful says the thirty fifth Canon of that Council for Christians to leave the Church of God and to go and invocate Angels and to make prohibited assemblies if therefore any one shall be found devoting himself to this private Idolatry let him be accursed forasmuch as he has forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and has delivered up himself to Idolatry From which nothing can be more clear than that it was the sense of these Fathers that the worshipping of Angels was not only down-right Idolatry but a plain apostasie from the Christian Faith Nor were they more peremptory in denying divine honour to Angels than they were to Martyrs and departed Saints for though they had a mighty honour and respect for Martyrs as we shall take notice afterwards as those that had maintained the truth of their Religion and seal'd it with their blood and therefore did what they could to do praise and honour to their memories yet were they far from placing any thing of Religion or divine adoration in it whereof 't will be enough to quote one famous instance The Church of Smyrna writing to the Churches of Pontus to give them an account of the martyrdom of Polycarpus their Bishop tells them that after he was dead many of the Christians were desirous to have gotten the remains of his body possibly to have given them decent and honourable burial but were prevented in it by some Jews who importun'd the Proconsul to the contrary suggesting that the Christians leaving their crucified Master might henceforth worship Polycarpus whereupon they add that this suggestion must needs proceed from ignorance of the true state of Christians this they did say they not considering how impossible 't is that ever we should either forsake Christ who died for the salvation of mankind or that we should worship any other We adore him as the Son of God but the Martyrs as the Disciples and Followes of our Lord we deservedly love for their eminent kindness to their own Prince and Master whose Companions and Fellow-Disciples we also by all means desire to be This instance is so much the more valuable in this case not only because so plain and pertinent but because so ancient and from persons of so great authority in the Church For this is not the testimony of any one private person but of the whole Church of Smyrna according as it had been trained up under the Doctrine and Discipline of Polycarpus the immediate Disciple of S. John This was the Doctrine and practice of Christians then and it held so for some Ages after even down to the times of S. Augustine when yet in many other things the simplicity of the Christian Religion began to decline apace we set apart says he no Temples nor Priests nor divine services nor sacrifices to Martyrs because they are not God but the same who is theirs is our God indeed we honour their memories as of holy men who have stood for the truth even unto death that so the true Religion might appear and those which are false be convinc'd to be so but who ever heard a Priest standing at the Altar built for the honour and worship of God over the body of the holy Martyr to say in his Prayers I offer sacrifice to thee Peter or Paul or Cyprian for in such commemorations we offer to that God who made them both men and Martyrs and has made them partners with holy Angels in the heavenly glory and by these solemnities we both give thanks to the true God for the victories which they have gain'd and also stir up our selves by begging his assistance to contend for such crowns and rewards as they are possessed of so that whatever offices religious men perform in the places of the Martyrs they are only ornaments to their memories not sacrifices or divine services done to the departed as if they were Deities More to the same purpose we may find in that place as also in infinite other places of his Works where were it worth the while I could easily shew that he does no less frequently than expresly assert that though the honour of love respect and imitation yet no religious adoration is due either to Angels Martyrs or departed Saints But the great instance wherein the primitive Christians manifested their detestation of Idolatry was in respect of the idolatrous Worship of the Heathen world the denying and abhorring any thing of divine honour that was done to their gods They looked upon the very making of Idols though with no intention to worship them as an unlawful trade and as inconsistent with Christianity how have we renounced the Devil and his Angels says Tertullian meaning their solemn renunciation in baptism if we make Idols nor is it enough to say though I make them I do not worship them there being the same cause not to make them that there is not to worship them viz. the offence that in both is done to God yet thou dost so far worship them as thou makest them that others may worship them and therefore he roundly pronounces that no Art no Profession no service whatsoever that is employed either in making or ministring to Idols can come short of Idolatry They startled at any thing that had but the least shadow of symbolizing with them in their Idolatry therefore the Ancyran Council condemned them to a two years supension from the Sacrament who sat down with their Heathen friends upon their solemn Festivals in their Idol-Temples although they brought their own Provisions along with them and touched not one bit of what had been offered to the Idol Their first care in instructing new Converts was to leaven them with the hatred of Idolatry those that are to be initiated into our Religion says Origen
whole Religion is to live without spot or blemish from whence they might easily gather had they any understanding that piety is on our side and that they themselves are vile and impious And Eusebius tells us that in his time the Christian Faith had by gravity sincerity modesty and holiness of life so conquered all opposition that none durst bespatter it or charge it with any of those calumnies which the ancient Enemies of our Religion used to fasten upon it What Religion says Arnobius can be truer more useful powerful just than this which as he elsewhere notes renders men meek speakers of truth modest chaste charitable kind and helpful to all as if most nearly related to us and indeed this is the genuine and natural tendency of the Christian Doctrine and which it cannot but effect where-ever 't is kindly embraced and entertained So true is that which Athenagoras told the Emperours that no Christian could be a bad man unless he were an hypocrite and Tertullian openly declares that when men depart from the discipline of the Gospel they so far cease amongst us to be accounted Christians and therefore when the Heathens objected that some that went under that name were guilty of great enormities and enquired how comes such a one to be a cheat if the Christians be so righteous how so cruel if they be merciful he answers that by this very thing they bore witness that they who were real Christians were not such that there 's a vast difference between the crime and the name the opinion and the truth that they are not presently Christians that are called so but cheat others by the pretence of a name that they shunn'd the company of such and did not meet or partake with them in the offices of Religion that they did not admit those whom meer force and cruelty had driven to deny Christianity much less such as voluntarily transgressed the Christian Discipline and that therefore the Heathens did very ill to call them Christians whom the Christians themselves did disown who yet were not wont to deny their own party CHAP. V. Of the positive parts of their Religion and first of their piety towards God The Religion of the ancient Christians considered with respect to God themselves and other men Their piety seen in two things their detestation of Idolatry and great care about the matters of divine Worship What notion they had of Idolatry their abhorrency of it Their refusing to give divine honour to Angels and created Spirits this condemned by the Laodicean Council Their denying any thing of divine honour to Martyrs and departed Saints The famous instance of the Church of Smyrna concerning S. Polycarp S. Augustine's testimonies to this purpose Their mighty abhorrence of the Heathen Idolatry The very making an Idol accounted unlawful Hatred of Idolatry one of the first principles instilled into new Converts Their affectionate bewailing any that lapsed into this sin Several severe penalties imposed by the ancient Council of Illiberis upon persons guilty of Idolatry They were willing to hazard any thing rather than sacrifice to the Gods Constantius his plot to try the integrity of his Courtiers A double instance of the Christian Souldiers in Julian's Army Their active zeal in breaking the Images of the Heathen gods and assaulting persons while doing sacrifice to them this whether justifiable Notwithstanding all this the Christians accused by the Heathens of Idolatry of worshipping the Sun whence that charge arose Of adoring a Cross Of worshipping an Asses head Christians called Asinarii The absurd and monstrous Picture of Christ mentioned by Tertullian The occasion of this ridiculous fiction whence HAving thus seen with how much clearness the ancient Christians vindicated themselves from those unjust aspersions which their spightful and malicious adversaries had cast upon them we come now to take a more direct and positive view of their Religion which according to S. Pauls division we shall consider as to their piety towards God those virtues which more immediately concern'd themselves and those which respected their behaviour and carriage towards others Their piety towards God appeared in those two main instances of it a serious and hearty detestation of Idolatry and a religious care about the concerns of Divine Worship Idolatry in those times was the prevailing sin of the world the principal crime of mankind the great guilt of the Age and the almost sole cause of mens being brought into judgment as what in a manner contains all sins under it as Tertullian begins his Book upon that subject a crime of the first rank and one of the highest sorts of wickedness as 't is called by the most ancient Council in Spain They looked upon it as a sin that undermined the very being of the Deity and ravished the honour of his Crown Before we proceed any further we shall first enquire what was the notion they generally had of Idolatry and they then accounted that a man was guilty of Idolatry when he gave divine adoration to any thing that was not God not only when he worshipped a material Idol but when he vested any creature with that religious respect and veneration that was only due to God Idolatry says Tertullian robs God denying him those honours that are due to him and conferring them upon others so that at the same time it does both defraud him and reproach him and a little after he expresly affirms that whatever is exalted above the Standard of civil Worship in imitation of the divine excellency is directly made an Idol thus S. Gregory for his solid and excellent learning call'd the Divine a title never given to any besides him but to St. John the Apostle defines Idolatry which says he is the greatest evil in the world to be the translation of that worship that is due to the Creator upon the Creature Accordingly we find them infinitely zealous to assert divine adoration as the proper and incommunicable prerogative of God alone and absolutely refusing to impart religious Worship to any though the best of Creatures surely if any one would think Angels the first rank of created beings creatures of such sublime excellencies and perfections might have challenged it at their hands but hear what Origen says to this we adore says he our Lord God and serve him alone following the example of Christ who when tempted by the Devil to fall down and worship him answered thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve which is the reason why we refuse to give honours to those spirits that preside over humane affairs because we cannot serve two Masters to wit God and Mammon as for these Daemons we know that they have no administration of the conveniencies of mans life yea though we know that they are not Daemons but Angels that have the Government of fruits and seasons and the productions of Animals committed to them we indeed speak well
which he there makes good by particular instances and the same answer St. Ambrose gives to Symmachus if nothing but ancient Rites will please you how comes it to pass that there has been a succession of new and foreign Rites even in Rome it self of which he gives him many particular examples In short Arnobius wittily argues thus Our way of Religion you say is new and yours ancient and what does this either hurt our cause or help yours If ours be new 't will in time become old is yours old there was a time when it was new the goodness and authority of Religion is not to be valued by length of time but by the excellency of its worship nor does it become us to consider so much when it begun as what it is we Worship It may not be impertinent in this place to take notice of what the Heathens objected as a branch of this charge that if God's sending Christ into the world was so great a blessing why did this Saviour of mankind come no sooner to reveal this Religion to lead men into the truth to tell the world who this true God was and to reduce us to the adoration of him if so why did God suffer him to stay so long and to be born as 't were but a few hours before in comparison of the preceding Ages of the world To this Arnobius answers with a great deal of modesty and reason that he could not tell that 't were easie to retort the same captious question upon them if 't were so much to the benefit of the world that Hercules Aesculapius Mercury c. should be gods why were they born and deified no sooner that not only posterity but antiquity might have reap'd advantage by them If there was reason in one case then there was also in the other but to assign proper and particular reasons was not possible it not being within the power of such a short-sighted Creature as man is to fathom the depth of the Divine Councils or to discover by what ways or methods he disposes his affairs these things being known only to him who is the grand Parent the Soveraign Lord and Governour of all things that although we are not able to assign the cause why a thing comes to pass in this or that particular manner yet this concludes never a whit the more that the thing is not so or that it is less credible when it has otherwise the most clear and unquestionable evidence and demonstration More particularly he answers that our Saviour cannot be said to have been lately sent in respect of God because in respect of eternity there is nothing late where there is neither beginning nor end there can be nothing too soon nothing too late Time indeed is transacted by parts and terms but these have no place in a perpetual and uninterrupted series of eternal Ages what if that state of things to which he came to bring relief required that season of time to come in what if the condition of ancient and modern times were in this case not alike or call'd for somewhat different methods of cure it may be the great God then chose to send Christ when the state of mankind was more broken and shatter'd and humane nature become more weak and unable to help it self this we are sure of that if what so lately came to pass had been necessary to have been done some thousands of years ago the supream Creator would have done it or had it been necessary to have been done thousands of years hence nothing could have forc'd God to have anticipated the setled periods of time one moment for all his actions are managed by fix'd and eternal reasons and what he has once determined cannot be frustrated by any change or alteration And thus we see how easily and yet how satisfactorily the primitive Christians wip'd off that double imputation of impiety and novelty which the Gentiles had so undeservedly cast upon their Religion CHAP. III. Things charged upon the Christians respecting their outward condition The Christians look'd upon and despis'd by the Heathens as a company of rude and illiterate persons mechanicks silly women and children This Charge considered and largly answered by Origen Christianity provides for the truest and best knowledge it excludes none learned or unlearned Christians not shy of communicating the knowledge of their mysteries to men sober and inquisitive The efficacy of Christianity in prevailing upon men of the acutest parts and greatest learning The Christians accused for being poor and mean This charge universally false Christianity entertain'd by persons of all sorts of the highest as well as the lowest rank Several instances of such Fl. Clemens and Fl. Domitilla Domitian's near kindred Christians another Domitilla Domitian's Neece Acil. Glabrio the Consul Apollonius the Senator and others Philip the Emperour proved to be no Christian the rise of the story whence Though Christianity had had no such persons under its profession this had been no just reasonable prejudice External pomp and grandeur not necessary to Religion The advantages Christians reaped from their meanness and contempt of the world Of their being charged as a people useless and unserviceable to the publick This disowned The opinion that it was not lawful for Christians to bear Arms or Offices particular only to some persons and in some cases and why How much the world was beholden to Christians for reclaiming men from vice and wickedness The Gospel greatly instrumental that way its general influence upon those whom it did not convert the Writings of Philosophers generally better after Christianity appeared and why The excellent Prayer of Simplicius Christians very useful by frequent working beneficial miracles curing diseases raising the dead dispossessing Devils c. This miraculous power continued for several Ages in the Church Christians further traduced as pernicious to the world as the cause of all publick evils and calamities This objected at every turn The occasion of S. Augustine's and Orosius his writing a vindication of it This Charge justly retorted upon the Heathens and they sent to seek the cause of publick calamities nearer home Some few hinted by Tertullian Christians unjustly charged with it because the world was pestered with such evils before Christianity appeared in it The publick State better and more prosperous since Christianity than before It s prosperity ebb'd or increas'd according to the entertainment Christianity found in the world THE second sort of arts which the Enemies of Christianity made use of to render Christians vile and despicable related to the circumstances of their external state and condition in the world where two things were laid to their charge that they generally were a very mean and inconsiderable sort of men and that they were an useless and unserviceable people nay pernicious and mischievous to the world They were looked upon as the lowest and meanest rank of men persons neither considerable for their parts and learning nor for
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
there describes the very form and fashion of it and in another place speaking of their going into the water to be baptized he tells us they were wont first to go into the Church to make their solemn renunciation before the Bishop About this time in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperour who began his Reign about the year 222. the Heathen Historian tells us that when there was a contest between the Christians and the Vintners about a certain publick place which the Christians had seiz'd and challenged for theirs the Emperour gave the cause for the Christians against the Vintners saying ' t was much better that God should be worshipped there any ways than that the Vintners should possess it If it shall be said that the Heathens of those times generally accused the Christians for having no Temples and charged it upon them as a piece of atheism and impiety and that the Christian Apologists did not deny it as will appear to any that will take the pains to examine the places alledged in the margin to this the answer in short depends upon the notion which they had of a Temple by which the Gentiles understood the places devoted to their gods and wherein their Deities were inclosed and shut up places adorned with Statues and Images with fine Altars and ornaments and for such Temples as these they freely confessed they had none no nor ought to have for that the true God did not as the Heathens supposed theirs dwell in Temples made with hands nor either needed nor could possibly be honoured by them and therefore they purposely abstained from the word Temple and I do not remember that 't is used by any Christian Writer for the place of the Christian Assemblies for the best part of the first three hundred years and yet those very Writers who deny Christians to have had any Temples do at the same time acknowledge that they had their meeting places for divine Worship their conventicula as Arnobius calls them and complains they were furiously demolished by their Enemies If any desire to know more concerning this as also that Christians had appropriate places of Worship for the greatest part of the three first Centuries let him read a Discourse purposely written upon this subject by a most learned man of our own Nation nor indeed should I have said so much as I have about it but that I had noted most of these things before I read his Discourse upon that subject Afterwards their Churches began to rise apace according as they met with more quiet and favourable times especially under Valerian Gallienus Claudius Aurelian and some other Emperours of which times Eusebius tells us that the Bishops met with the highest respect and kindness both from people and Governours and adds but who shall be able to reckon up the innumerable multitudes that daily flocked to the Faith of Christ the number of Congregations in every City those famous meetings of theirs in their Oratories or sacred places so great that not being content with those old Buildings which they had before they erected from the very foundations more fair and spacious Churches in every City This was several years before the times of Constantine and yet even then they had their Churches of ancient date This indeed was a very serene and Sun-shiny season but alas it begun to darken again and the clouds returned after rain for in the very next Chapter he tells us that in the Reign of Dioclesian there came out Imperial Edicts commanding all Christians to be persecuted the Bishops to be imprisoned the holy Bible to be burnt and their Churches to be demolished and laid level with the ground which how many they were may be guessed at by this that as Optatus tells us there were about this time above forty Basilicae or Churches in Rome only Upon Constantines coming into a partnership of the Empire the Clouds began to dispense and scatter and Maximiâ—us who then govern'd the Eastern parts of the Empire a bitter Enemy to Christians was yet forced by a publick Edict to give Christians the free liberty of their Religion and leave to repair and rebuild 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Churches which shortly after they every where set upon raising their Churches from the ground to a vast height and to a far greater splendour and glory than those which they had before the Emperours giving all possible encouragement to it by frequent Laws and Constitutions the Christians also themselves contributing towards it with the greatest chearfulness and liberality even to a magnificence comparable to that of the Jewish Princes towards the building of Solomons Temple as Eusebius tells them in his Oration at the dedication of the famous Church at Tyre And no sooner was the whole Empire devolved upon Constantine but he published two Laws one to prohibite Pagan Worship the other commanding Churches to be built of a nobler size and capacity than before to which purpose he directed his Letters to Eusebius and the rest of the Bishops to see it done within their several jurisdictions charging also the Governours of Provinces to be assisting to them and to furnish them with whatever was necessary and convenient insomuch that in a short time the world was beautified with Churches and sacred Oratories both in Cities and Villages and in the most barbarous and desart places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Historian from whence our Kirk and Church the Lords Houses because erected not to men but to the honour of our Lord and Saviour 'T were needless to insist any longer upon the piety of Christians in building Churches in and after the times of Constantine the instances being so vastly numerous only I cannot omit what Nazianzen reports of his own Father who though Bishop of a very small and inconsiderable Diocess yet built a famous Church almost wholly at his own charge Thus we have seen that from the very infancy of the Gospel the Christians always had their setled and determinate places of divine Worship for the form and fashion of their Churches it was for the most part oblong to keep say some the better correspondence with the fashion of a Ship the common notion and metaphor by which the Church was wont to be represented and to put us in mind that we are tossed up and down in the world as upon a stormy and tempestuous Sea and that out of the Church there 's no safe passage to Heaven the Country we all hope to arrive at They were generally built towards the East towards which also they performed the more solemn parts of their Worship the reasons whereof we shall see afterwards in its due place following herein the Custom of the Gentiles though upon far other grounds than they did and this seems to have obtained from the first Ages of Christianity sure I am 't was so in Tertullian's time who
threefold apparition or manifestation commemorated upon that day which all hapned though not in the same year yet upon the same day of the year The first was the appearance of the Star which guided the wise men to Christ The second was the famous appearance at the baptism of Christ when all the persons in the holy Trinity did sensibly manifest themselves the Father in the voice from Heaven the Son in the River Jordan and the Holy Ghost in the visible shape of a Dove This was ever accounted a famous Festival and as S. Chrysostom tells us was properly called Epiphany because he came in a manner into the world incognito but at his baptism openly appeared to be the Son of God and was so declared before the world At this time it was that by his going into the River Jordan he did sanctifie water to the mystical washing away of sin as our Church expresses it in memory whereof Chrysostom tells us they used in this Solemnity at midnight to draw water which they looked upon as consecrated this day and carrying it home to lay it up where it would remain pure and uncorrupt for a whole year sometimes two or three years together the truth whereof must rest upon the credit of that good man The third manifestation commemorated at this time was that of Christs divinity which appeared in the first miracle that he wrought in turning water into Wine therefore 't was called Bethphania because it was done in the house at that famous Marriage in Cana of Galilee which our Saviour honoured with his own presence All these three appearances contributed to the Solemnity of this Festival But beside these there was another sort of Festivals in the primitive Church kept in commemoration of Martyrs for the understanding of which we are to know that in those sad and bloody times when the Christian Religion triumphed over persecution and gained upon the world by nothing more than the constant and resolute sufferings of its professors whom no threatnings or torments could baffle out of it the people generally had a vast reverence for those who suffered thus deep in the cause of Christianity and laid down their lives for the confirmation of it They looked upon Confessors and Martyrs as the great Champions of their Religion who resisted unto blood and dyed upon the spot to make good its ground and to maintain its honour and reputation and therefore thought it very reasonable to do all possible honour to their memories partly that others might be encouraged to the like patience and fortitude and partly that virtue even in this world might not lose its reward Hence they were wont once a year to meet at the Graves of Martyrs there solemnly to recite their sufferings and their triumphs to praise their virtues and to bless God for their pious examples for their holy lives and their happy deaths for their Palms and Crowns These anniversary Solemnities were called memoriae martyrum the memories of the Martyrs a title mentioned by Cyprian but certainly much older than his time and indeed when they were first taken up in the Church is I think not so exactly known the first that I remember to have met with is that of Polycarp whose martyrdom is placed by Eusebius anno 168. under the third Persecution concerning whose death and sufferings the Church of Smyrna of which he was Bishop giving an account to the Church of Philomelium and especially of the place where they had honourably entomb'd his bones they do profess that so far as the malice of their Enemies would permit them and they prayed God nothing might hinder it they would assemble in that place and celebrate the Birth-day of his Martyrdom with joy and gladness where we may especially observe that this Solemnity is stiled his Birth-day and indeed so the primitive Christians used to call the days of their death and passion quite contrary to the manner of the Gentiles who kept the Natalitials of their famous men looking upon these as the true days of their nativity wherein they were freed from this Valley of tears these regions of death and born again unto the joys and happiness of an endless life The same account Origen gives if that Book be his a very ancient Authour however we keep says he the memories of the Saints of our Ancestors and friends that dye in the faith both rejoycing in that rest which they have obtained and begging for our selves a pious consummation in the faith and we celebrate not the day of their nativity as being the inlet to sorrow and temptation but of their death as the period of their miseries and that which sets them beyond the reach of temptations And this we do both Clergie and People meeting together inviting the poor and needy and refreshing the Widows and the Orphans that so our Festival may be both in respect of them whom we commemorate the memorial of that happy rest which their departed souls do enjoy and in respect of us the odour of a sweet smell in the sight of God Under Constantine these days were commanded to be observed with great care and strictness enjoining all his Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces to see the memorials of the Martyrs duly honoured and so sacred were they accounted in those days that it was thought a piece of prophaneness to be absent from them therefore S. Basil thought he could not use a more solemn argument to perswade a certain Bishop to come over to him upon this occasion than to adjure him by the respect he bore to the memories of the Martyrs that if he would not do it for his yet he should for their sakes towards whom it was unfit he should shew the least disregard Hence it is that Libanius sometimes takes notice of the Christians under no other character than this Enemies to the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that haunt and frequent Tombs and Sepulchers For the time of these assemblies it was commonly once a year viz. upon the day of their martyrdom for which end they took particular care to keep Registers of the days of the Martyrs passions So Cyprian expresly charges his Clergie to note down the days of their decease that there might be a commemoration of them amongst the memories of the Martyrs Theodoret tells us that in his time they did not thus assemble once or twice or five times in a year but kept frequent memorials oftentimes every day celebrating the memorials of Martyrs with hymns and praises unto God But I suppose he means it of days appointed to the memory of particular Martyrs which being then very numerous their memorials were distinctly fixed upon their proper days the Festival of S. Peter or S. Paul Thomas Sergius Marcellus c. as he there enumerates them For the places these Solemnities were kept at first at the Tombs where the Martyrs had been buried which usually were in the
Martyrs of Christ says the Epistle evidently shewing us that during this sad hour of suffering they were strangers to their own bodies or rather that our Lord himself stood by them and familiarly conversed with them and that being partaker of his Grace they made light of these temporal torments and by one short hour delivered themselves from eternal miseries The fire which their tormentors put to them seemed to them but cool and little while they had it in their thoughts to avoid the everlasting and unextinguishable flames of another world their eyes being fixed upon those rewards which are prepared for them that endure to the end such as neither ear hath heard nor eye hath seen nor hath it entred into the heart of man but which were shewn to them by our Lord as being now ready to go off from mortality and to enter upon the state of Angels Thus reason'd those forty Martyrs in S. Basil that suffered at Sebastia in Armenia in the Reign of Licinius when the Governour to contrive a new method of Torment had commanded them to stand naked all night in cold frosty weather which in those more Northerly Countries is extream sharp and bitter it being then the depth of winter and the North wind blowing very fierce in a pond of water they first gave thanks to God that they put off their cloaths and their sins together and then comforted one another by balancing their present hardships with their future hopes Is the weather sharp said they but Paradise is comfortable and delightful Is the frost cold and bitter the rest that remains is sweet and pleasant let us but hold out a little and Abrahams bosome will refresh us we shall change this one night for an eternal age of happiness let our feet glow with very cold so as they may for ever rejoyce and triumph with Angels let our hands sink down so as we may have liberty to lift them up to God How many of our fellow-souldiers have lost their lives to keep faith to their temporal Prince And should we be unfaithful to the true King of Heaven How many have justly died for their crimes and villanies And shall we refuse it in the cause of righteousness and Religion 'T is but the flesh that suffers let us not spare it since we must die let us die that we may live Thus generously did they bear up under this uncomfortable state their ardent desires of Heaven from within extinguishing all sense of cold and hardship from without Nay when a little before their Commander had set upon them both with threatnings and promises assuring them that if they would but deny Christ they should make their own terms for riches and honour they told him that he laid his snares at a wrong door that he could not give them what he endeavoured to take from them nor could they close with his offers without being infinitely losers by the bargain that 't was to no purpose to profer a little of the world to them who despised the whole of it that all these visible advantages were nothing to what they had in hope and expectation all the beauty and glory of Heaven and Earth not being comparable to that state of blessedness which is the portion of the righteous the one being short-liv'd and transitory the other permanent and perpetual that they were ambitious of no gift but the Crown of Righteousness nor sought after any other Glory but what was Heavenly that they feared no torments but those of Hell and that fire that was truly terrible as for those punishments they inflicted they accounted them but as the blows of children and the ill usage that their bodies met with the longer 't was endured the more way it made for a brighter crown Such was the temper such the support of these Christian Souldiers these true Champions of the Christian Faith Indeed this consideration was one of the greatest Cordials that kept up their spirits under the saddest sufferings that they were assured of a reward in Heaven Amongst us says Cyprian there flourishes strength of Hope firmness of Faith a mind erect amongst the ruines of a tottering age an immoveable vertue a patience serene and chearful and a soul always secure and certain of its God As for want or danger what are these to Christians to the servants of God whom Paradise invites and the favour and plenty of the heavenly Kingdom expects and waits for They are always glad and rejoyce in God and resolutely bear the evils and miseries of the world while they look for the rewards and prosperities of another life The great Philosophers as Eusebius observes as much as they talk'd of immortality yet by their carriage they shewed that they looked upon it but as a trifling and childish fable whereas says he amongst us even girles and children the most unlearned and measured by the eye the meanest and most despicable persons being assisted by the help and strength of our blessed Saviour do rather by their actions than their words demonstrate and make good this doctrine of the immortality of the Soul This Julian confesses of the Christians though according to his custome he gives them bad words calls them Atheists and irreligious persons that being acted by some evil spirits they perswade themselves that death is by all means to be desired and that they shall immediately fly to Heaven assoon as their souls are freed from the fetters of the body Hence it was that in those times Christians were wont to sing Hymns and Psalms at the Funerals of the dead to signifie that they had attain'd their Rest the end of their labours the retribution of their troubles the reward and the crown of their conflicts and sufferings as Chrysostome tells us part of which Psalms he elsewhere tells us were Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and I will fear no evil because thou art with me and again thou art my refuge from the trouble that compasses me about For the same reason as being a sign of joy and chearfulness he there tells us that they carried lights burning before the corps by all which he tells us they signified that they carried forth Christians as Champions to the grave glorifying God and giving thanks to him that he had crowned the deceased person that he had delivered him from his labours that he had taken him to himself and set him beyond the reach of storms and fears But to return There was scarce any one instance of Religion wherein Primitive Christianity did more openly approve it self to the world and more evidently insult over Paganism than the generous courage and patience of its professors By this they commended both the Truth and Excellency of their Religion and conquer'd their very enemies into an embracing of it Hear how Lactantius pleads the argument and triumphs in the goodness of his cause By reason
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