of it both by affixing some kind of Penalties Tac. An. iii. v tit cod de infirm paen coelib v. Baron an 57. n. 44 c. upon those who continued unmarried after such a Term of Years and rewards to those who in lawful Matrimony encreased the number of the People The Christians knew but two states that of Marriage or Continence They preferred the latter as knowing its Excellencies and they often found the means Tertul. ad uxor c. vi de Resur car c. 8. of Reconciling them both in one for there were many Married Persons who yet lived in Continence But all Christians in general abstained from the use of the Bed on the Feasts and Fasts of the Cypr. de sing Cle. Church as well as at other times when according to the Apostles Rule they were disposed more Freely to give Cor. vii themselves to Prayer Second Marriages were looked upon as a weakness insomuch as in some Churches they enjoined Hier. ad Salvin in fi the Persons so remarrying Penance But how highly soever they esteemed Continence they had an esteem for Marriage as being a great Sacrament They had honourable Thoughts of it considering it as an Emblem of that Union which is between Christ and his Church and that Blessing Pronounced by God upon Mankind at the first Creation which Orat. in Bened. Spons neither Original Sin nor the Deluge hath taken away that is of encreasing and multiplying They knew that the relation of Father and Mother was an high Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. c. x. and honourable Character as being the Images of God in a more peculiar manner and Co-operating with him in the Production of Men. 'T is certain by the Gospel that St. Peter was a Married Man and Tradition as St. Clemens Alexandrinus relates it tells the same of Clem. iii. strom the Apostle St. Philip that they had both of them Children and particularly of Euseb iii. Hist. 30. St. Philip 't is observed that he gave his Daughters in Marriage Among other Directions for the Education Const Ap. iv c. x. of Children this is one That they should to secure their Vertue timely dispose of them in Marriage and they who had Charity enough to take upon them the charge of breeding up Orphans were advised to Match them as soon as Ibid. c i. they came of Age and rather to their own Children than to Strangers a Proof how little the Christians of those days Ignat. Ep. ad Polycar regarded Worldly Interest in the matter of Marriage They advised with their Bishop about Marriages as indeed they did about all Affairs of greater Importance that so saith Ignatius they might be made according to God and not according to Concupiscence When the Parties were agreed the Marriage was publickly and solemnly performed in the Church and Tertul. ii ad ux in fi there Consecrated by the Benediction of the Pastor and Confirmed by the Oblation of the holy Sacrifice The Bridegroom gave his Hand to the Bride and the Bride received from her Husband a Ring engraved with the Sign of the Cross or at least having on it some Symbolical Figure representing some Christian Vertue as a Dove an Anchor or a Fish for of such Clem. Alex. iii. Paedag. c. xi Figures did the Christians make their Seals and among the Antients their Rings were also their Seals or Signets HITHERTO have we considered XII The Union of Christians Christians in their Private Capacities let us now take a view of them as United into a Body and making a Church The name of Ecclesia i. e. Church signifies no more than an Assembly and was taken in the Cities of Greece for a meeting of the People who commonly came together in the Theatre for the dispatch of Publick Affairs We have in the Acts of the Apostles an Example of this profane Acts xix 32 Ecclesia or Assembly in the City of Ephesus and therefore the Christians by way of distinction from these profane Ecclesias where called the Ecclesia or Church of God Origen in his Dispute against Celsus compares these two sorts of Assemblies together and lays it down as a thing certain and manifest that the less Zeal of the Christians who were but few in comparison of the rest did somuch excel other Men That the Christian Assemblies appeared in the World like Stars in the Firmament The Christians therefore of every City made up but one Body and this was one principal pretence of Persecuting them Their Assemblies were represented as Illegal Meetings not being Authorized by the Laws of the State Their Unity and Love passed fot a Crime and was Objected against them as a dangerous Confederacy And indeed all the Christians living in the same Place were well known to each other as it could not be otherwise considering how often they joined in Prayer and other exercises of Religion upon which occasions they met together almost every Day They all maintained a Friendly Correspondence among themselves often met and conferred together and even in indifferent matters conformed to one another Their Joys and their Griefs were in common If any one had received of God any particular Blessing they all shared the satisfaction If any one were under Pennance they all Interceeded on his behalf and begged that Mercy might be shewn him They lived together as kindred of the same Family calling one another by the Name of Father or Child Brother or Sister according to the difference of Age or Sex This Unity was maintained by that Authority which every Master of a Family had over those of his own House and by the Submission that all of them paid to the Priests and their Bishops a Duty so earnestly recommended to Christians in the Epistles of the holy Martyr St. Ignatius But above all the Bishops were most closely United among themselves They all knew one another at least by their Names and Characters and held a constant Epistolary Correspondence which was easy to be done at that time by reason of the vast extent of the Roman Empire Bardesan apud Euseb vi Praepar c. 8. which God in his Providence seems to have so ordered as it were on purpose for the Propagation of the Gospel But as the Church was extended far wider than the Empire reaching to all the Nations round about it that uniformity of Faith and Manners which was found among all the Christians was still the more wonderful considering the Diversity of Nations among whom they were scattered And herein appeared the Power of true Religion Correcting in all that embraced it all those Barbarous and unreasonable Euseb i. Praep. c. iv Customs in which they had been educated In short the universal Church was in reality but one Body all the Members whereof were United to each other not only by the same Faith but also by the same most Comprehensive Charity EVERY Particular Church met together XIII
first Words the Priest gave them were some short Prayers like the Collects of the Mass or Office Happy was the Man that could have but somuch as a Deacon lodging in his House or eating at his Table They never entred upon any Important Affair with out taking Ignat. Passim in Epist the advice of the Pastor who was the sole Director of his whole Flock They loked upon him as a Man of God and as the Vicegerent of Jesus Christ So that they were not without some fears Const Apost viii c. i. upon the account of their Priests and Bishops least they should not be Able to withstand the great Temptation they lay under of the Pride and contempt of others They were apprehensive of the same Miscarriage in those that had the gift of Prophecy or working Miracles for these gifts were as yet common in the Church 'T was the filial Love and Respect which their Flock bare to them that made their Pastors so well obeyed Chrysost Sacerd. lib. ii For they had no other way of Commanding their Obedience but the methods of Perswasion or Spiritual Penalties They could use no other Constraint upon them then to over awe their Consciences and they who were Impious enough to despise their Censures were in no danger of any Temporal Corrections THUS upon the matter the Christians XXVI The Discretion Patience of the Christians Lived during the times of Paganism and Persecution This condition obliged them for the most part to great Circumspection to be always waiting upon God and watching over themselves For when once the Persecution began a Man had nothing else to expect but to be the next hour Impeached even by his own Wife or by his nearest Relation who either out of Covetousness to get his Estate or out of a bigotted Zeal for their Idolatries might be prompted to Betray them This Martyr xxx Jul de S. Julitea was a ready way for Debtors to get rid of their Creditors or Slaves of their Masters If a Pagan fell in Love with the Daughter of a Christian he either put her upon the sad necessity of compliance or of exposing her self to Torment St. Justin gives us an Instance of a Wife that was informed against Just i. Apol init by her own Husband only because she would no longer be a party to his Wickedness and of another who was put to Death Himself for daring to ask the Judge why he Sentenced another Man who was the Person had Converted that Woman Barely upon the name of a Christian without any other Accusation somuch as pretended against him Though the Church had its short Intervals of Peace yet they were always in expectation of the War breaking out again Nor was the Peace ever so entire but that in the most Quiet times many Christians suffered either by Popular Commotions or other means For we find a great number of Martyrs even under the Emperors who would not be ingaged in Persecuting the Church St. Melito complains to the Emperor Antonine Ap. Euseb 4. Hist. xxvi that the Christians were without controul Robb'd and Plunder'd at Noon-day under pretence of an Order from the Emperor when he knew nothing of the matter Or if they did enjoy some little Respite from Persecution and open Violence yet they still were exposed to the utmost contempt and Hatred Every one had the liberty of Speaking against the Christians whatever he pleased True or False of Discoursing and Writing against them of Ridiculing and exposing them and their Religion upon the open Theatre All this was not only Connived at but Authorised and Encouraged And the passages of Celsus quoted by Origen are sufficient proofs with what Scorn they were Treated They could not avoid seeing the profane Ceremonies of the Pagans every Day meeting where ever they went with their Infamous Statues and publick Places of Debauchery having their Ears filled with their Lewd and Impious Discourses The Christians of these times must of necessity have had a more then ordinary Strength and firmness of Mind in the Midst of so many Difficulties and Temptations to keep up their Faith and Practice so lively and Unexceptionable It required also agreat Discretion to Moderate themselves and to keep within due Bounds that liberty of the Children of God and that Boldness of Spirit 1 Pet. ii 16. which arises from the Testimony of a good Conscience They knew how to Contemn Contempt unjustly cast upon them to bear the most Injurious Calumnies without quarreling those that aspersed them without either hatred or Complaint They were very cautious of doing any thing that might draw Persecution upon them They Rom. xii 18. 1 Pet. ii 15. Studyed as far as was possible and as much as in them lay to Live Peaceably with all Men and by well doing to put to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men. To this End they found it necessary to refrain from all things the Indispensable Duties of their Religion Excepted which might give occasion of Offence to the Heathens or Provoke their Displeasure and on the contrary to study all Honest means of obliging them The Necessary Practices of a Christian Life did sufficiently Distinguish them from the rest of the World without their Affecting any Superfluous Singularities So that as to their outward Form of Living in all things not contrary to Piety and good manners they conformed themselves to the Customs and Manners of the Romans or Greeks or the People of the other Countrys where they Lived They never forced themselves upon Disputing or Preaching to those whom they found not Disposed to Regard them They contented themselves with Praying for them and strove to Edifye them by the Example of their Patience Epist ad Rom. and good Works never ceasing to return Good for Evil. St. Ignatius Speaking of the Soldiers who were his Keepers I am saith he Tied to ten Leopards who are the Worse for being obliged But their Malice is my Instruction St. Polycarp Epist Eccles Smyrn gave a friendly Welcome to those who came to Apprehend him made them Sup and Lodge with him and entertained them with all manner of Civility and Respect St. Cyprian ordered twenty pieces of Gold to be given to the Executioner Martyr vii Sept. de S. Eupsychio that was to Strike off his Head Another Ancient Martyr having been accused of being a Christian and thereupon cast into Prison upon his Discharge Sold all that he had and gave it part to the Poor and part to his Enemies as if they had been his Benefactors Another being Condemned to lose his Head desired xxv â—ul de S. Paulo some little time to Pray which was granted and he Pray'd to God for his Friends and Neighbours for the Jews for the Gentiles for all the Spectators and in the last place for the Judge who had Condemned him and the Executioner who was to give the Stroak But more remarkable was their Patience towards their
Princes Magistrates and the secular Authority They were never heard complaning against the Government nor ever spake contemptuously of the Civil Power They gave them all the honour and obedience they could on this side Idolatry they paid their Tributes not only without resisting but without repining and rather then defraud them of their Rights if they had not otherwise to answer they made it up out of the labour of their Hands So far were they from raising Sedition Tertul. Apol. c. xxxv xxxvi xxxvil or Rebellions that in all the many Conspiracies which were formed against the Emperors one after another for the space of three hundred years no Christian was ever found to have had an Hand in any of them tho' the Emperors were never so bad and the Persecutors never so cruel The Christians were the only Persons who did not make it their business to get rid of Nero Domitian Commodus Caracalla and so many other Tyrants Opprest and Harrassed as they were with all sorts of injuries and groaning under the most unheard of Cruelties Yet it never entered into their Thoughts to resist the Powers or to take up Arms in their own Defence though they were numerous enough to have made up a greater Body of Men than any of the Nations could that made War against the Romans Nay more than that of so many Christian Soldiers with which the Roman Armies were filled none ever made use of the Sword they had in their Hands but to Execute the Orders of their Prince or their Commanders and we read of entire Legions as that of St. Mauritius that without the lest resistance suffered themselves to be cut to pieces rather than to fail of doing their Duty either to God or Caesar Scarce could they perswade themselves so much as to open their Mouths in their own Defence and Publish some answers to those horrid Calumnies most wrongfully laid to their Charge For near the Orig. Cont. Cels init space of an Age they were content to suffer with silence after the Example of their Master who answered nothing to his Accusers but without resistance submitted himself to the unrighteous Judge v. 1 Pet. ii 21. They were content to be justifyed by their works and let their Actions plead their Cause 'T was not till the Emperor Adrian that they began to Write some Apologies but those in so respectful a manner so Solid and so Grave as made it v. Euseb iv Hist iii. xxv plainly appear that it was only Zeal for the Truth made them take Pen in Hand This invincible Patience at last surmounted all opposition and forced the Powers of this World to submit to the Power of the Gospel Even under the Persecutions the number of Christians was grown Prodigiously great We are saith Tertullian but of Yesterday and Apol. c. xxxvii yet the World is filled with us your Cities your Houses your Garrisons your Villages your Colonies your very Camps your Tribes your Pallaces your Senate your Courts of Justice And indeed there were Christians of all Degrees and some of the first Martyrol 18. Apr. x. c. 19 Ma. xix Aug. xiii Sept. viii Oct. Martyrol Martii xii xxvi Mai. xvii xix Jun. xx Jul. Quality We see in the Martyrology Senators Prefects Proconsuls Tribunes Quaestors and even Consuls themselves we find Christians in the Court and among the Domesticks and principal Officers of the Emperors as under Nero Trajan Alexander Decius Valerian Diocletian The Court of Diocletian served also iii. Sept. v. Oct. xviii Euseb vi Hist xxviii Act. S. Sebast S. Susan sometimes for a safe retreat to the most Zealous Confessors of Rome The Pope St. Gaius and St. Gabinius the Father of St. Susanna were his own Nephews and St. Serena his Empress was a Martyr The People affected with these vertues of the Christians and with the many Miracles wrought among them began at length to do them Justice loudly declaring that great was the God of the Christians Acta S. Bonif an 305 Martyrol Ja. iii. Feb. xvi xvii xxvii Mar. ix xxvii 30. Mai. 31. Jun. 30 Jul. 7. Aug. 21. Sept. 20 25. Oct. 10. 19. Nov. 26. Dec. 3. and that the Christians were Innocent Persons It sometimes happened that as they were Tormenting the Martyrs the common People themselves whom this sight had drawn together took part with the Christians on their own accord and Pelted the Magistrate with Stones off this Tribunal and made him fly the Court. The Clerks of the Court the Goalers the Soldiers the Executioners were many times all on a suddain Converted openly calling out that they were Christians too and offering themselves to the same Punishments Even Comaedians themselves as they were in Derision Martyrol 25. Aug. 15 Sept. Baron an 303. n. 118 acting upon the Stage the sacred My steries have been Converted on the spot and made Illustrious Martyrs Hence proceeded the extream violence of the last Persecution They saw the whole World turning Christian And this last Persecution also as all the former had done served only to spread it farther and give it the deeper Rooting So that all the World bare a favourable Aspect toward Religion when Constantine declared himself the Protector of it Part III. I AM now come to the third part of my Work where I am to represent the XXVII The Church out of Persecution Behaviour of the Christians when the Church came to be in a state of Peace and Liberty For three hundred years they had been longing and sighing after these happy Days of serving God without any lett or hindrance But experience as sad as it was taught them that Persecution was more for the advantage of Religion than Liberty Not but that the same Manners before described continued yet a long time after So that I have nothing to do here but to observe those differences which the free exercise of Religion forthwith produced Though they had always used great The Examination and Preparation for Baptism care in Examining such as demanded Baptism yet there was now required a far greater Circumspection when there was no longer any danger to become a Christian For Worldly Interest and diverse other bad Motives might make Men desirous of taking upon them that Name Therefore every one that presented himself v. Methodedos Pere c. iii. ix to Baptism was in the first place taken into strict Examination and obliged to give an account of the causes of his Conversion of his Condition in the World whether he was a Slave or a Freeman of his Behaviour and of his past Life They who lived in any unlawful Const Ap. viii c. 32. S. Aug. xi de serm dom in mont Calling or in a customary way of Sinning were not admitted till they had actually renounced that course of Life Thus they rejected all common Women and those that made a Trade of Prostituting their Bodies Actors upon the Stage Gladiators Racers in the Circus
made an Exhortation to them putting them in mind of the mercies of God and of that newness of life which they ought to live in for the time to come requiring them in token of their Confent S. Elig hom viii 11. and promise thereunto to hold up their Hands At length suffering himself to be prevailed upon by the intreaties of the Church and being perswaded of the sincerity of their Conversion he gave them Solemn Absolution Then they shaved and polled themselves quitted their Penitential habits and began to live like the other Faithful There was without doubt great diversity in these outward Ceremonies according to the difference of times and places But they all tended to the same end and had a powerful Effect to make the offender sensible of the Enormity of sin and of the difficulty of recovering out of it and to keep those still within bounds who as yet had preserved their Innocence Should a Man saith St. Austin too easily return Serm. xxiv de divers to the Happiness of his first Estate he would look upon the falling into Mortal sin as a meer Triffle NO PERSON how great soever in XXXVII Christian Princes the World was exempt from Pennance Princes were as Subject to it as private Persons and the Example of Theodosius will never be forgotten in the Church In the foregoing Ages none could have believed that the great ones would ever have submitted themselves to the severity of the Churches Discipline They could not possibly conceive how the Humility and Mortification of a Christian could have been reconciled with absolute power and vast possessions 'T was this undoubtedly that made Tertullian say that Apol. c. xxi the Caesars had become Christians long before if they could have been at the same time Caesars and Christians and Origen Cont. Cels. L. viii speaks of it much after the same manner This strange work hath God at last brought to pass in the sight of the whole World And this is that mighty Change that gave Date to the Liberty of the Church that period of time I am now speaking of Presently upon the Conversion of Constantine the name of Jesus Christ was written upon the Roman Ensigns and his Cross displayed in the midst of their Armys That Instrument of the most Infamous Punishment was now turned into the most glorious Ornament of the Imperial Diadem The Emperor had an Oratory in his Palace where he shut himself up whole Days together to read the Holy Scriptures Observing the stated Euseb iv vita Const c. xvii xxi hours of Prayer and more especially on Sundays upon which he obliged the Heathens themselves to rest from their Labours He caused to be carryed in his Sozom. i. Hist c. viii Army a Tent in the form of a Church for singing Divine Service in and Administring the Sacraments to the Faithful and to that purpose he was always attended by some Priests and Deacons He Euseb iii. vita Const c. xlvii made Constantinople a City perfectly Christian The Eve of Easter was Celebrated there with a most magnificent Illumination not only within the Churches but without All over the City there were set up lighted Tapers or rather Pillars of Wax which gloriously turned the Night into Day In the principal Squares of the City one might have seen the Fountains adorned with the Images of the good Shepherd or of Daniel in the Lion's Den. There were no Idols or Temples of the false Gods to be found within her Walls Who knows not how Magnificenly Constantine treated the Fathers of the Nicence Council and the Honours he did them He furnished them with carriages Euseb iii. Vita Const c. vi vii to bring them from the most Remote parts of that vast Empire he defrayed their Expences all the time of their Session and sent them home Loaded with Presents He burn't the Bills of Accusation that had been preferred to him against the Bishops he Kissed the Scarrs of the Confessors that still had upon them the Socrat hist i. c. v. viiii marks of the Persecution he entred the Council without his Guards appeared there with a Modest and Respectful Air and did not sit down till the Bishops gave him a sign At the Conclusion of the Council he made a great Feast for them in his Palace and sate at Table with them Then it was that Jesus Christ was manifestly seen Reigning over the Kings of the Earth Theodosius the Great did yet more Honour to Religion and that by the practice of those vertues it requires He was much in Prayer apply'd himself to God in his greatest Affairs and ascribed to him the success of his Armes He had suffered himself to be transported into a Passion against Theod. hist Eccle. iv c. 17. the Inhabitants of Thessalonica The Sin was great but his Repentance was Proportionable and he valued none of the Bishops so highly as St. Ambrose because he found none that less flattered him His Empress hath also an high Character given her in History for her Piety and for her Charity towards the Poor The same Spirit run through the Family but shined forth most brightly in St. Pulcheria their Grand-daughter who at the Age of fifteen together with her two Sisters Consecrated herself to God by a Vow of Virginity and who without quiting the Court led a Life in it so retired so full of Business so Religious that the Writers of those times compared the Palace to a Monastery the Holiest thing they could think of In this School of vertue she caused to be brought up the young Emperor Theodosius Socr. vii c. 22. her Brother making him practice the same exercises of Religion with her self He rose constantly at the dawn of Sozom. ix c. i. Theod. iv c. 36. the Day to join with his Sisters in singing the Praises of God Prayed often frequented the Churches and presented them largely He fasted often principally on Wednesdays and Fridays His Palace was furnished with a choice Library of Ecclesiastical Writers He had the Holy Scripture by Heart and discoursed of it with the Bishops as readily as if he had been one of them himself He gave a great respect to them and had an honour for all good Christians He caused the Reliques of many Saints to be translated with great Pomp. He founded many Hospitals and many Monasteries His Sister did not only exercise him in the Practices of Religion but caused him to be taught with the greatest care all the Accomplishments proper for an Emperor He had the best Masters to instruct him in Learning and others to teach him the Exercises of Riding and Arms. He was used to the bearing of heat and Cold Hunger and Thirst She her self Tutored him in all the Rules of Decency and Deportment in his Habits in his Gestures in his Gate and Posture of walking She brake his practice of falling into loud and suddain fits of Laughter taught him how to
of the City To these we may subjoin the Liberalities he bestowed on the ibid. iv 28. Churches throughout the Empire We may add further the Donations of the following Emperors the Gifts of the Governours of Provinces and of all the other great Lords who became Christians the Benefactions of those Religious Matrons who quitted great Estates to embrace Christian Poverty as St. Paula at Rome and St. Melania St. Olympias at Constantinople and many others to these in the last place we may reckon the Gifts of the Bishops between whom there was a Pious Emulation of exceeding each other in adorning and enriching their Churches After all this one may judge how rich the Churches of the Capital Cities were in those large Provinces which we now count for great Kingdoms Thus we may see that the Church of Alexandria was Prodigiously rich in the time of St. John the Almoner by the account we have of his Pious management of those vast Revenues and the large Charities he bestowed out of them We may see in St. Gregories Epistles what pains and trouble the Patrimonies of the Church of Rome gave him dispersed abroad in so many Countries in Sicily in Spain in France the care he took that the Slaves who were employed Vita Greg per Jo. Diac lib. ii c. 55 c. in the Tillage of them should be well used and the Revenues applied to the Relief of the Poor of the Countries where they lay Nothing of all this will appear incredible to any one that is the least acquainted with the Grandeur and Wealth of the Roman Empire where it was a common thing for private Persons to Bequeath to F. de instr instrum leg their Friends whole Towns Inhabitants and all besides there were great Estates Appropriated to the Worship and Ornamenting of the Idols There were great sums yearly expended upon their Sacrifices Plays and other Ceremonies of the false Religion It was easy for a Christian Government to enrich the Church with what used to be flung away upon these Vanities But one of the grand Funds out of which the Churches were endowed were the Christians Estates Euseb vita Const ii c. 35 c. which had been Confiscated during the Persecution These Goods and great Estates belonging Con. Antioch an 341 can ult to the Church were entirely at the disposal of the Bishops But the holy Prelates of those times were so far from being over pleased with their Possessions that they complained of them and would Thom. Dis part i. l. iii. c. xi have been glad to have seen those Days again in which the Church stood in need of no more than the daily Offerings of the Faithful for the supporting of their Poor their Clergy and for all the other occasions of the Church St. Austin frequently offered to restore his Church-lands but his People would not accept of them St. John Chrysostom upbraids the Christians of his Time that they had by their Covetousness and hard Heartedness forced the Bishops to procure settled Revenues to their Churches least their Virgins Widows and other Poor should Perish for want if as in the Primitive times they had nothing else to depend upon but casual Alms From hence saith he come Chrysost in Mat. xxvii 10. hom 85. two inconveniencys You your selves live unprofitably and the Priests of God are busied in concerns Foreign to their-Function And a little after You make Stewards Farmers and Overseers of your Bishops and instead of minding nothing but the saving of your Souls they are every Day disturbed with what ought to be the business of Receivers and Treasurers And again Your uncharitableness makes us Ridiculous for we are obliged to leave our Prayers instructing the People and other Parts of our Holy Employment to be always treating with Vintners Corn Marchants and those who sell other Provisions So that People have given us names which are fitter for Men of a Secular Character Yet they found out ways to disengage themselves from the trouble of managing their temporal Affairs They entrusted the care of them at first with Arch-deacons and afterwards with Stewards appointed for that very purpose And to ease themselves even in the works of Charity its self they procured of their Princes to have establish'd Conc. Carthag in every City a defender of the Church and the Poor whose Office it was to protect the Church and sollicit for the Poor A CONSIDERABLE part of the Goods of the Church was employ'd in the founding XL. Hospitals and maintaining of Hospitals For now it was they began The Government of the Greeks and Romans went a great way in making Laws against Idleness and keeping their Countries clear of sturdy Beggars and Vagrants but we find no pulick Provision for such poor Creatures as were able to do nothing They thought it was better for them to dye than live unprofitably and wretched and that if they had any thing of Spirit or Courage in them they would fairly dispatch themselves The Christians aiming principally at the saving Peoples Souls neglected none of them and those who were most abandoned by others they thought best deserving of their Care They provided not only for their own Poor but even for those also of the Heathen This Julian the Apostate testifies Julian ep ult Asacio of them not without shame commanding Hospitals to be erected and Contributions raised for the maintenance of the Poor after the manner of the Christians There were two ways of relieving the Poor the one by distributing Alms among Baron ad Marryrol viii Aug. them leaving it unto themselves to shift for their Lodgings To this purpose there was in every quarter of Rome a place called the Diaconium which was a sort of Office for the management of these Alms. A Deacon always resided there Greg. ix epist 24. and received from time to time a certain sum of Money to be faithfully distributed by him amongst the Poor for which he was accountable The other way of relieving the Poor and that far better too was both to lodge and to feed them together in Common For this purpose as soon as the Church had its Liberty there were several Houses of Charity built all which we call by the common name of Hospitals but in Greek they had different Appellations according to the different Qualities of the Poor for whom they were appointed The House for Infants exposed or otherwise wanting that Relief was called V. l. 19. l. 21. Cod. de Sacros Ec. cl the Brephotrophium that of Orphans Orphanotrophium the Nosocomium was an Hospital for the Sick Xenodochium Logings for Strangers or Passengers And this is that which in Latin is properly called Hospital an House of Entertainment for Strangers The Gerontocomium was a retreat for Aged Persons Ptochotrophium was common to all sorts of Poor But there were also such Houses of Charity Aug. in Jo. tract 97. before they had these names given them
There were many of them quickly erected in all great Cities It was ordinarily some Priest that had the Overseeing of them As at Alexandria St. Isâ—dorus under the Patriarch Theophilus At Constantinople St. Baron ad 31. Dec. 27. Jun. Zoticus and after him St. Sampson There were also some private Persons who erected Hospitals at their own Expences as St. Pammachius at Porto and St. Gallicanus at Ostia This St. Gallicanus was a Patrician Martyr 25 Jun. and had been Consul and 't was a sight that drew Spectators from all parts to see a Person of his Rank and Quality one that had worn the Triumphal Ornaments and could have boasted of his Friendship with the Emperor Constantine to see I say such a Person washing the Feet and the Hands of the Poor waiting upon them at Table and giving the Sick all sort of assistance The holy Bishops thought no expences too great that were bestowed upon so good purposes Besides they took great care about the Burial of their Poor and the Redemption of Captives who had been taken by the Barbarians as it often happened in the Declension of the Roman Empire For these two last sorts of Charity they sold even the communion Plate notwithstanding the Priviledge of Appropriation The instance of St. Exuperius Bishop Hiron ad Rustic 〈◊〉 Sept. of Tholose is very remarkable who reduced himself upon this score to such a degree of Poverty that he carried the Body of our Saviour in a little Basket and his Blood in a Calice of Glass And St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola having sold all Gregor iii. Dialog c. i. ii made himself a Slave to ransom the Son of a certain Widow so that those vast Treasures of the Churches the Gold and Silver with which they were Ornamented were deposited in the nature of a Trust till pressing Occasions as a publick Calamity a Petilence a Famine or the like should require it every thing gave place to the providing for the living Temples Jo. Diac. vita S. Greg. lib. iv cap. xliii of the Holy Ghost They redeemed also such as lived in Slavery at home or within the Empire especially such as were Christian Slaves to Pagan or Jewish Masters IN the last place it was after the XLI Monasteries Church had gained its Liberty that they began to found Monasteries Under the Persecutions many Christians had retired into the Deserts Principally those adjoyning to Aegypt and some passed the remainder Hier. vita S. Pauli of their Lives in them as St. Paul who is reckoned the first Hermit St. Anthony having for some time lead the Ascetique life near the place of his Nativity withdrew himself afterward into the Desert that he might with greater freedom and security pursue his religious Exercises upon being removed out of the Reach of all Temptations which might be occasioned by Society He was the first that gathered Disciples together in the Wilderness and there obliged them to live in common They were now no longer called simply Asceticks though in effect they led the same Life but went by the name of Monks that is to say Solitaries or Hermits to wit those that inhabit the Wilderness Those who lived together were termed Caenobites and those who having lived a long time in common and there learn't to conquer their Passions and afterwards retired to a more absolute Solitude they called Anchoretes And yet the Caenobites themselves lived very Solitary seeing no Soul but their own Fraternity being at the distance of many Days Journy from all inhabited Places in sandy Deserts whither they were forced to carry all necessaries even their very Water Nor did they so much as see one another save only in the evening and in the Night at their stated hours of Prayer spending all the Day at work in their Cells either alone or two and two together and always in profound Silence Besides as in those vast Solitudes they were not streightned for want of Room so their Cells stood at a considerable distance one from another St. Anthony St. Hilarian St. Pacomus and the others that followed their Examples did not pretend to introduce Novelties or outdoe all that ever went before them Their design was only to keep up the exact practise of the Christian Religion which they saw every Day more and more declining They always proposed the Asceticks that went before them for their Examples As in Aegypt those Disciples of St. Mark who as Cassian relates lived in the Suburbs of Cass ii Jnst v. 18 Coll. v. Alexandria close shut up in their Houses Spending all their time in Praying and Meditating upon the Holy Scriptures labouring with their Hands all Day and never eating but at Night They proposed for their imitation the Primitive Church of Jerusalem the Apostles themselves and the Prophets T was not an Hier. ad Paulin. item ad Rustic Affectation to make themselves admired for the extraordinariness of their Methods but an honest intention of leading the lives of good Christians This one may see through the whole Rule of St. Basil which is indeed no more than an Abridgement of the Duties of a Christian who would lead his Life according to the Precepts of the Gospel and which he lays down in general to all sorts of Persons He saith S. Basil reg fas n. xxii for example as to Habits that a Christian ought to content himself with such Cloathing as is sufficient for Decency and to defend the Body against Cold and the other injuries of the Air but to be as little incumbred as possible And therefore to be content with one Garment both for Day and Night a thing in the Country where he lived not impracticable There is very little in his Rule which is perculiar to Monks separate from the rest of the World That which was singular in the Monks was their Renouncing of Marriage and Chrysost ad fidel patr the Possession of Temporal goods and their Separating themselves from conver sation with the rest of the World either of the Faithful themselves or their nearest Relations As to the rest they acted but the part of good Laicks living by their Cass Instit v. c. 12. 16. c. 6. c. 7. Labours in silence and exercising themselves in getting the Mastery over their Passions by degrees So that having as 1. Cor. ix 25. 2 Tim. ii 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. v. viii St. Paul expresses it like resolute Combatants Striven for the Mastery and Striven Lawfully they might arrive to that Purity of Heart which might render them fit to see God Upon these Principles were all their Methods and Practises founded St. Chrysostom gives us a Memorable History of a Young Man whose Mother Ad fidel patr was desirous that he should become a good Christian and prevailed with a Vertuous Monk to take him into his Tuition This Holy Man to Instruct him more perfectly in the Duties of Religion causes
those who had presented them to Baptism as also by the Priests who for a long time after overlooked them that they might improve in the practice of Christianity AND now they began a new Life a Life V. The Christian Life Prayer 1 Tim. 2. 8. altogether Spiritual and super-natural The first and principal thing to which they applied themselves was Prayer as being that which St. Paul also in the first place recommended And as the Apostle according to the Precept of Jesus Christ exhorts Christians to pray without ceasing i Thes v. xvii so they avoided as much as was possible all Avocations that might interrupt their Devotions or take off the Soul from God and Heavenly things They Prayed as Ignat. Ep. ad Ephes al. Tertul. Apol. c. 39. often as they could in Common as believing that the more they were who joined together in puting up the same Petitions to God the more prevailing would they prove to obtain the grant of them according to that saying of our Saviour If two Mat. xviii xviii xix of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Besides the presence of their Pastors gave more solemnity to their Prayers and the reciprocal Examples of each others Fervour and Humility mutually heightned their Devotions Of their Publick Prayers the most usual and most frequented were those of Morning and Evening now called Matins and Vespers Thus were they taught Const Ap. 2. 59. to sanctiâ—fy the beginning and ending of the Day and not allowed to excuse themselves upon the pretence of Business these Spiritual concerns being a business of that Importance that all other ought to give place to it The Matins or Morning service now called Lauds from those Hymns there rehearsed that seem to have succeeded in the room of the Morning Sacrifice of the old Law It still continues one of the most solemn Parts of the Office as appears by the Commemorations the Lumiary and the Incense The Vespers stand in stead of the Evening Sacrifice and were appointed to Sanctify the beginning of the Night They are sometimes called the Lucernarium Prayer of the Lamps being performed at the close of the Day or toward Candle-light O Lux. beata Trinit Lucis Creator Opt. Conditor alme sid Verg. mundi vespere Ad caenam Agni prov And in the Hymns yet used in these Vespers we find mention of Light and of Supper which generally followed soon after the end of these Prayers Such as could not pay their attendance upon the Publick Prayers of the Church as Persons Sick Imprisoned or Travelling met together as many as could in Private or if they were wholly alone yet every one observed to make his Prayers at the stated Hours For besides these Matins and Vespers v. Baron an 34. n. 251 c. Const Ap. 8. 34 35 c. Tert. adv Psych c. 10. Cypr. de Orat. dom in fine Athan. de virg they had their Prayers also at the Third Sixth and Ninth Hours and within Night Tertullian St. Cyprian and St. Athanasius make express mention of all these Prayers founding them upon Examples taken out of the Old and New-Testaments and giving Mysterious Reasons for the several Appointments These Hours were reckoned according to the usage of the Romans who divided the whole Day from Sun-rising to Sun-setting into twelve Hours equal in every Day but unequal in the course of the Year always changing their Proportions according to the length or shortness of the Days The Night they also divided into twelve Hours and four Parts which they named watches or Stations because in their Armies the Guards were relieved but four times a Night so that reducing their Hours to the present computation and taking an Aequinoctial Day to do it by the Prime or first Hour of the Day with them begins at our Six at Morning their Third at our Ninth their Sixth at our Twelvth their Ninth at our Three in the Afternoon and their Twelvth at our Six at Night So that their daily Prayers returned every third Hour They had also their Midnight Prayers Bar. an 51. n. 68 c. Ps 119. 62. Act. 16. 25. Tertul. 2. ad uxor c. 4. Cypr. de Or. in fine Cle. Alex. 2 paed c. 9. Chry. Hem. 26. in Acta 14. in ep Rom. according to the president set them by the Psalmist and by St. Paul and Silas who after having been Scourged and cast into Prison were heard Praying and Singing Praises unto God at Midnight Turtullian makes mention of this Night Prayer St. Cyprian highly applauds it and this practice of Watching unto Prayer is recommended by all the Fathers as an excellent means of Mortifying the Flesh and of lifting up the Soul to God more freely in that still Season They were also taught to make the best use of their waking Intervals in Meditating upon the Psalms and the Lord's Prayer and every Morning or when ever they were threatned with any danger to repeat the Creed In a Word to take all occasions of making still fresh and fresh Applications to God and to come as near as possibly they could to the rule of Praying always they had their particular Prayers for every action taking their rule from Col. iii. vii the Words of St. Paul whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus givâ—â—â—ing thanks to God the Father by him Thus all their Country labours as Plowing the Ground Sowing it Reaping their Corn gathering their Fruits were all begun and ended with Prayer The building of an House the entring to inhabit it the making a piece of Cloath or Suit of Cloths the putting it on and so of the rest even the most common Actions of Life were in like manner begun with Prayer We have still remaining in the Chrys Hom v in Ep. ad Thess Rituals some of those Prayers in several sorts of Benedictions The Salutation at the beginning of an Epistle at the first Interview or upon other such like occasions was not only a Testimony of Friendship but also a real Prayer Upon all the most inconsiderabe occasions they Tertul. de Cor. c. iii. made use of the sign of the Cross as being a more compendious way of a Prayer and Blessing They Crossed themselves St. Cyr. Hierosol Catech iv de Aseens et xiii circa fin Tertull ad uxor v. Martyrol Rom. xii Janu. de S. Satyro upon the Forehead and that almost every Minute at every coming in and going out beginning a walk sitting down rising up going to Bed at Night dressing themselves in the Morning putting on their Shoos Eating Drinking c. Upon any Temptation they added to it the Sufflation to drive away the Devil THE greatest part of their Prayers was
domum me Ad porri ciceris refero laganique catinum lib. i. Sat. 6. Nec modica caenare times olus omne patella i. ep v. Suet. in Aug. 76. and by the Writings of Porphyry Horace as great an Epicurean as he was names only some Pulse and Herbs as his ordinary Diet and inviting his Friend to Supper Promises him no better Chear The Emperor Augustus lived mostly on Brown-Bread Cheese Figs Dates Raisons and small Fish One might produce a Multitude of like Examples Their common usage was to make but one set Meal a Day and that at Night when all the Business of the Day was over and every one was retired to his Home this was their Supper or Caena For as for that which they called Prandium it was rather a Breakfast than a set Dinner after the manner of our Dinners since it Pransus non avide quintum interpellet inani ventre diem durare Hor. i. lat vi was only a light repast to support Nature throughout the whole Day following and many made no Dinner at all 'T is reckoned as an high instance of the Intemperance of the Emperor Vitellius that he often made four Meals a Day but always Suet in Vitel c. 13. three The Christians lived at least as regularly as the Heathens I mean as the wisest among them and used only a very simple Diet rather of such things as did not require Fire or much dressing than such as could not be eaten without being first prepared by Fire They made at most but two Meals a Day absolutely Gal. v. 21. condemning according to what the Apostles had taught them those Revellings Rom. xiii 13. or Collations after Supper which were called Comessations by means of which i Pet. iv 3. the Nights were commonly passed away in Debauches The Meal how simple and light soever it might be both began and ended with long Prayers And Prudentius Cathemer iii iv hath composed two Hymns to this purpose in which we may see the Spirit of these first Ages set forth in lively Colours It was in these times a common Custome to have something read to them as Pli. iii. ep v. Sat. xi they sat at Meals Pliny always used it and Juvenal inviting one of his Friends to sup with him promises that he should have Homer and Virgil Read to him at Table Instead of those profane Songs and Buffooneries with which the Heathens heightned Clem. ii Paedag. iv the Pleasure of their Entertainments The Christians at theirs had the Holy Scriptures read to them and the Singing of Spiritual Hymns sett to Grave and Composed Airs For they were not against Musick nor did they condemn Mirth provided it was an holy Joy and had God for its Object They never eat together with Hereticks or Persons Excommunicated i Cor. v. 10. 11. ibid. x. 27. nor so much as with the Catechumens But with the Infidels they sometimes did Eat and Converse THE same Modesty and Moderation X. The Modesty Gravity and Seriousness of Christians did the Christians maintain in all their Actions and throughout the whole Course of their Lives They sought after no other greateness but the greateness and nobleness of Spirit coveted no other Riches but their Spiritual Treasure the Riches of the inner Man They could not approve of those profuse Extravagances which had been introduced into the World by the Prodigious Wealth of the Roman Empire as the vast expences of their stately Buildings and costly Furniture their Tables of Ivory Bedsteads Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. iii. of Silver and Hangings of Purple and Gold Gold and Silver Plate enchased and ornamented with Precious Stones When the Persecutors searched the Lodgings Acta Martyr Nicom ap Bar. an 293. where St. Domna a vast rich Virgin of Nicomedia kept her self and together with the Eunuch St. Indus were shut up from the rest of the World this was the rich Furniture they found in it a Cross the Acts of the Apostles two Mats lying upon the Ground an earthen Censer a Lamp a little Wooden-box where they kept the Holy Sacrament to Communicate themselves With the like Modesty did the Christians decline all gaudy Habits and above all the wearing of Silk a Commodity in those Days so precious that it was Sold for its weight in Gold All over-costly Ornaments as Rings beset with precious Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. S. xi xii and iii. i. ii iii. Const Ap. i. c. iii. and v. c. ix Stones Jewels and the like Curled Locks Perfumes and Unguents the too frequent use of the Bath and the too great Affectation of Modishness in a Word all that might tend to excite sensual desires or gratify a voluptuous Inclination Prudentius as one of the first marks of the Peri. steph Hymn xiii Conversion of St. Cyprian observes the change of his outward Deportment and the Neglect of his Dress Apollonius an ancient Ecclesiastical Author Writing against the Montanists and speaking of Ap. Euseb v. Hist xviii their pretended Prophets thus reproves them Tell me saith he doth a Prophet Dye his Hair Doth he Paint his Eye-Brows Doth he love gay Cloaths Doth he play at Dice Doth he lend upon Usury Let them Speak Are these things Justifiable For I can prove that they Practise them An Act. St. Sebast apud Baron an 289. n. xvi xvii Holy Martyr to prove by matter of Fact that a certain Impostor who took upon him the name of a Christian was no better than a Cheat Represented to the Judges that this pretender Curled his Locks Haunted the Barbers-Shops looked too Affectingly upon the Women Fed high and smelt of Wine Sufficient evidence that he could be no Christian As for their whole outward Garb and what Figure they made in the World the Christians shewed themselves very indifferent and Incurious at least very plain and Grave Some of them quitted the common Habit to take upon them that of the Philosophers as Tertullian and Tertull. de Pall Eureb vi Hist xx St. Heraclas the Disciple of Origen There were but few Divertisements which they would allow themselves the use of They were obliged to shun all the Publick Shews whether of the Theatre of the Amphitheatre or of the Circus At the Theatre were acted Tragedies and Comedies on the Amphitheatre were seen the Combating of the Gladiators and the Fighting with Wild-Beasts the Circus was for the Racing of Chariots All these Const A post ii Lxii Tertull. do Spect. Spectacles with the Heathens made part of the Worship of the false Gods which had been of its self sufficient to have kept the Christians from coming near them But they considered them also as a Poisonous Fountain of Debauchery and Dissoluteness that tended only to the Corruption of Manners The Theatre was a School of Immodesty the Amphitheatre of Cruelty and the Plays fomented all Augus vi Confes. cap. vii sort of Passions Even those of the Circus
which appeared the most Innocent were detested by all the Fathers because of the Factions that there Reigned and the Quarrels and Animosities every Day created by them which often ended in Bloody Frayes In short they could not Clem. iii. Paedag. ii but disapprove of the vast Expences thrown a way upon these Spectacles the Idleness Cypr. de oper et Clem. they cherished the Indiscriminate Herding together of Men and Women at these publick Entertainments and the suspicious Consequences of so Promiscuous and familiar an Interview The Christians condemned also Dice Clem. Paed iii. c. xi and other such like sedentary Plays looking upon the loss of time as but one of the least of the Mischiefs that attend them Apollon ap Euseb lib. v. c. xviii They censured intemperate Fits of Laughter and every thing that tended to raise Idem ii Paedag. v. vi vii them as ridiculous Words or Actions merry Tales Buffoonerys foolish Jestings fantastick Tricks and Gambols Ambros. i. Off. xxiii Much more did they Loath all kind of unseemly Words or Gestures or such Const Apost v. c. ix which might savour of Immodesty They were for having a Christian maintain the Eph. v. 4. Scurrilitas Dignity of his Character and that therefore he should take care in all his Behaviour to discover nothing Indecent Base or Unbecoming an Ingenuous Person nor did they allow of those unsavoury Discourses and unprofitable Tattle to which the meaner sort of People and especially the Female Sex are so much addicted expressly condemned by St. Paul when he directs that our Speech should be always Col. iv 6. seasoned with the salt of Grace 'T was to cut off these Excesses of the Tongue that silence was so highly recommended to Christians This Discipline would appear now a Days very Severe Yet why should it If we consider how expressly Scoffers and Scorners are condemned in the Scriptures Prov. iii. 34. ix 7. 12. xii xxix 9. and the theatning Denounced against them and how Grave and Serious was the Life of Jesus Christ and his Disciples Besides Chrysost Hom. vi in Matt. Mor the tasting pleasure in the things I have mentioned is Vicious or at least Dangerous and a Christian even in the most Innocent matters ought to Regulate himself with the greatest Sobriety and Moderation Indeed the whole Life of a Christian should be taken up in little else than in expiating his past Sins by Repentance and in Guarding himself against the like for the future by the Mortification of his Passions The true penitent to Chastise himself for having Abused the Pleasures of sence must begin by denying himself even the Lawful use of them and to extinguish or at least weaken natural Concupiscence must as much as is possible deny all its Cravings So that a true Christian must never make it his business to seek the pleasures of Sence but just take somuch of them as the necessities of Life require and which cannot be withheld as Eating Drinking and necessary Repose if ever he take any Recreation it must be a Recreation properly so called that is to say a Refreshment and Ease to Recreate or relieve the weakness of Nature which would sink under the weight were the Body always kept up to hard Labours or the Mind always bent upon close Thinking But to seek Pleasure for Pleasures Sake and as making it our end Nothing can be more contrary to the Obligation we lye under of Renouncing our selves which is the very Life and Soul of all Christian Vertues This Serious and mortifyed Disposition of the true Christians appears even from the Genius of the Heresies of these first times which for the most part were occasioned by an excess of Discipline and corporal Austerity The Marcionites and after them the Manichees held that the Flesh was an Evil thing as being the work of the evil Principle and therefore concluded that it was not lawful either to eat Flesh or to multiply it by Procreation and that the Resurrection of the Flesh was a thing neither to be expected nor desired This contempt of the Body this Abstinence and Continence made a very specious Appearance The Montanists added many other Fasts as of necessary Obligation to those apointed by the Church condemned second Marriages and wholy disallowed of Pennance as not granting that the Church had Power to restore them who had after their Baptism fallen into the commission of any grievous Sin He that should now a Days advance Errors of thsi Nature would scarce gain many Proselytes But how severe soever the Life of those Primitive Christians may appear to have been yet we are not to imagine it was sad and Melancholy St. Paul required no Phil. iii. 1. iv iv impossible thing of them when he bid them rejoyce if they denied themselves those Excesses of Pleasure which other Men hunt after they were freed also from all that Chagrin and other Passions which are so very troublesom leading a Life free from Ambition from Covetousness and all Fond doating upon the things of this Life They enjoyed the Peace of a good Conscience the Reflexions of a well spent Life and the assurance thereupon following of their being in the Favour of God and above all the blessed hopes of the Life to come which they always looked upon as near at Hand For they knew that this World must suddenly pass away and the Persecutions seemed to be but forerunners of the universal Judgment So that they little troubled their Thoughts about what would become of their Families after their Death If they left their Children Orphans as was often the Case of the Martyrs they knew that the Church would be their Mother and that they should want for nothing They lived for the most part only from Hand to Mouth upon their Labour or upon their Estates which they divided among the Poor without distraction of Thought without the hurry of Business standing off not only from all sordid Methods of Gain or whatsoever might bear the least suspicion of injustice but also from the very desire of heaping up Treasures and enriching themselves so that the Prelates complain of it as a great disorder and a Cpyr de Laps new thing among Christians that in the intervals of the Persecutions they began to forget themselves and fell to getting Estates as if they were for establishing to themselves Mansions upon Earth And they that stood thus indifferent to Earthly Possessions could have no great hankering after sensual Pleasures and if in these things we do not at least in the sincerity of our Desires emulate them we are no good Christians WITH all this indifferency to the things XI Marriages of this Life yet the Christians generally made choice of the Married State They could have no good opinion of the Celibacy of the Heathens since they saw it founded only upon Licentiousness and Debauchery So that the Civil Laws themselves aimed at the restraint
Learning And indeed this was a thing altogether new to them For there was no Provision made by the Aug. de vera Rel init Heathens for the Instruction of the common People in matters of Religion They had only the Lectures of their Philosophers who Read to them the precepts of Orig Contr. Cels. Morality but never meddled with the proper Offices of Religion Besides as all the Hereticks passed under the name of Christians they ascribed to the whole Body of Christians all the Wild Fancies of the Velentinians and the other such like Visionaries encountred by Irenaeus The Heathens confounded all these Extravagancies with the Catholick Faith so that the Religion of the Christians appeared V. Baron an cl xxix n. 17. and 28. to them a meer mess of Infatuations vented by a parcel of Ignorant Crack-Brain'd Fools For what reason said they can you Euseb Praepar i. cap. ii give us why we should quit the established Religions Pleading so long a Prescription of Time recommended with such a pomp of Ceremonies confirmed by the Authority of so many Kings and Legislators and received by the Consent of all People both Greeks and Barbarians and that to embrace a Novel Invention of we know not who and run our selves a ground upon the Jewish Fables Or if you have a mind to turn Jews why are you not Jews thorow out But your Extravagancy is unaccountable in Worshiping the God of the Jews whether they will or no and in Worshipping him in such a manner as the Jews themselves Condemn as much as we and in pretending to their Law with which you have nothing to do 'T is true the Morals of Christians were very Exact and their Practises answered their Principles But all the World was then full of Philosophers who pretended no less than the Christians both to the teaching of Vertue and to the Practising of it There were among them also many who in the first Ages of the Church perhaps in Imitation of the Christians ran about the World from Place to Place pretending to make it their business to reform Mankind and thereupon submitting themselves to many Hardships and undergoing a kind of Persecution by the ill Treatment they sometimes met with as Apollonius Tyanaeus Musonius V. Baron an l xxv n. 6. Damis Epictetus and some others The Philosophers had for many Ages before been in great Reputation 'T was taken Orig. Con. Cels. for granted that nothing more could be added to what had already been said by some of them They could not imagin that Barbarians should have any thing better to offer than Pythagoras Socrates Plato or Zeno. They concluded that if these new Pretenders had any thing that was good in them 't was but somewhat which they had borrowed from those Old Sages Besides the Philosophers were a more Agreeable sort of Professors and their Principles better Accommodated to the inclinations of Mankind than those of the Christians The greatest part of them did not condemn Pleasure nay some of them made Pleasure the Sovereign good They left every one to enjoy his own Opinion and take his own way of Living If they could not perswade Men their method was to rally and dispise them and that was all the trouble they gave them But above all they took care not to pick Quarrels with the established Religions Some believed them and gave Mystical Explications of the most Ridiculous Fables Others troubled their Heads no farther about matters of Religion then to Acknowledge some first being the Author of Nature leaving the publick Superstitions to those whom they believed incapable of higher attainments Even the Epicureans who of all others discovered themselves the most Openly against the popular opinions concerning the Gods Assisto Divinis Horat yet freely Assisted at the Sacrifices and in what part of the World So ever they were joyned with the rest in the outward Forms of Religious Worship there Practised In this all their Wise Men agreed not to oppose the Customes established either by the Laws of the Countrey or Prescription of Time Their Belief of a Plurality of Gods went so far that they imagined every Nation every City every Family had Gods of its own who took a more peculiar care of them and whom therefore they were to Worship after a more peculiar Manner So that they counted all Religions good in such Places where they had been of a long time Received But the Superstitious Women among them and other Weak and Ignorant People were always hunting after new Religions imagining that the more Gods and Goddesses they worshipped and the greater number and varietie of Ceremonies they observed the more Devout and Religious they were The Wise Men among Liv. xxix them and their Politicians did what they could to Restrain this restless Humour and keep it within some Bounds and therefore were against all Innovations in matters of this Nature Above all they Forbad all strange and Forreign Religions and this the Romans made a Fundamental Principle of their Politicks To perswade their People to believe that 't was to the Beneficence of their Titlar Deitys that Rome was beholding for all its Glorious Successes and the Grandeur of its Empire That their Gods must needs have been more Puissant Deitys than any of the rest since they had brought under their Subjection all the Nations of the World Thus when the Christian Religion was entirely established the Pagans failed not to Impute to this Change of Religion the Fall of the Empire which Succeeded soon upon it And to answer these False Suggestions was St. Augustin obliged to compose his large Treatise entituled De Civitate Dei The Contempt the Christians had of Death was not by the Heathens looked upon as any great matter They saw every Day their voluntier Gladiators who for some inconsiderable Reward or perhaps for just nothing at all but to shew their own Bravery fearlessly exposed themselves to the Swords of their Antagonists and ventured having their Throats Cut in the open Amphitheatre They had Dayly examples before them of Persons and those of the best sort who upon any little Disgust would fairly Dispatch themselves out of the World Some of Vel jactatione ut quidam Philosophi l. vi §. vii F. de injusto rump ire their Philosophers as the Lawyers report of them did the like purely out of Vanity of which Lucian's Peregrinus is a famous Instance And therefore seeing the Christians Prosessing a Renunciation of the Enjoyments of this Life and placing all their happiness in that to come they rather wondered that they did not kill themselves They tell us Saith St. Justin Justin Ap. ◠init Go then kill your selves without any more ado get you gone to your God and let us hear no more of you And Antoninus Pro-Consul of Asia seeing the Christians Crowding the Court and offering themselves to Martyrdom cryed out to them Ah! Tertul. ad Scap. c. ult Wretched Creatures
as you are if you are so fond of dying can you not find Ropes to hang your selves or Praecipices from whence you may break your Necks Thus all the World were set against the Christians the People and the Magistrates the Ignorant and the Wise By the one they were abhorred as Impostors and abominable Impious Wretches by the other they were dispised as a company of Man haters Visionary Foolish and Melancholick People Intoxicated with an unaccountable Frenzy of throwing away their Lives for nothing So Odious and Despicable were they in the sight of the World that scarce any one would vouchsafe somuch as to change a Word with them such was the Prejudice all Men had conceived against the Christians that the very Name of Christians was sufficient for their Condemnation and destroyed BonusVâ— C. Seius tantum qùod Christianus Tertul. Ap. c. iii. whatsoever else of good was found to be in them Such a one was their common saying is an Honest Man were it not for the misfortune of his being a Christian THAT the Christians being so universally XVI The Persecutions the maner of proceeding against them Their Punishments hated should be Persecuted is not strange but this one may justly wonder at That the Romans who in their Laws and Government and in their other Conduct gave such Proofs of their Wisdom and Equity should practice against their fellow Romans or indeed against any human Creatures such cruelties as we read of in the History of the Martyrs That the Judges should cause the Person accused to be put to the Torment in their own Presence in open Court in the view of the whole World that they should employ such different sorts of Tortures upon them and that as for all that appears meerly Arbitrary It may be worth our while therefore to observe in all this what was owing to the standing Customs and Constitutions of their Government and what was supperadded thereto by a false Zeal for Religion and Reasons of State The Romans tried all Causes in open Court all their Processes as well Criminal as Civil the Charge as well as the Sentence was given in some publick place where under a covered Gallery the Magistrate Cic. iv Ver. i. l. c. xl seated himself in his Tribunal raised on high above the rest of the People and surrounded with the Officers of the Court the Lictors with Axes and Bundles of Rods in their Hands attending him and the Soldiers standing by always in a readiness to execute his Orders For the Roman Magistrates had in their own Hands the Power of the Sword as well as the Administration of Justice The Penalties for every Crime where fixed by â— 6. § 2. Fâ—de Paen. l. 9 §. 11. l. x. l. xxviii c. ibid. the Laws but so as to vary according to the Quality of the Offenders and always more rigorous against Slaves than against Freemen against Foreigners than against the Roman Citizens Therefore St Paul was Beheaded as being a Denizen of Rome and St. Peter Crucified as a Jew The Cross was the most infamous of all their Punishments and they that suffered that Death were generally first beaten with Rods and had their sides burned with red hot Irons or flaming Torches before they were nailed to the Cross their putting to the Rack was done in Publick and the manner of it was extreamly Cruel but it was seldom exercised Cic. ver ult n. lxiii upon any save Slaves or Persons of the lowest consideration The Martyrology Martyrol Rom. xii Janu. observes it as a thing Extraordinary that St. Marinus being one of the Senatcâ—ian Order was put upon the Eouleus and Tormented with the Vngulae Ferreae or Iron Pincers with which they pinched or burnt the sides of Malefactors upon the Rack And yet 't was after this way of Proceeding that most of the Martyrs were Tormented The Roman Laws as well as ours of France permitted none to be put to the Rack save only for Examination sake But they used the same means to make Christians deny their pretended Crimes as they did to make others confess their real ones The same manner of trying Criminals by putting them to the Rack of stretching out their Limbs with Pullies whipping them tearing and Searing their Flesh continued in use under Christian Emperors as appears by the Examples of St. Eutropius and St. Tigrius who were thus Tortured under other Sozom. viii Hist c. xxiv pretences but really out of spight to St. Chrysostom It was an ordinary thing to condemn l. viii §. iv v c. §. xi F. de paen the meaner and more infamous sort of People to the Mines as now to the Gallies or to expose them to be torn to peices by wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre for the diversion of the People 'T is not unlikely but that there were several other kinds of Punishments used in the Provinces nor can it be denied but that the Magistrates invented several new ones against the Christians especially in the latter Persecutions when their vexation to see the number of Christians still multiplying upon them doubled their Fury and when the Devil Suggested to them the means of destroying rather their Souls than Martyr Rom. xxviii Jul. their Bodies I believe the being Condemned to Prostitution is a kind of Punishment never thought of in the World but against the Christian Virgins The extraordinary Admiration which they saw the Christians had for Chastity put them upon that lewd of Persecution And of the like nature was that which St. Jerome Hier. init vitae S Paul relates of a young Martyr whom they gently tied to a Bed of Roses and under the most delightsome Circumstances with an Immodest Harlot placed by his side but so far was he from being overcome with the Temptation that he bit of his Tongue and spit in her Face in short there were a multitude of Martyrs Massacred or put to Torments without any form of Justice either by the Fury of the enraged Populace or by the revenge of their particular Enemies The Persecution generally opened with some Edict forbidding the Assemblies of the Christians and condeming to certain Penalties all those who refused to Sacrifice to the Gods The Bishops presently gave Cypr. Ep. xv c. notice thereof Exhorting each other both to redouble their Prayers to God and to Encourage their People Many of the Christians hereupon took the advice given by Jesus Chrst to his Disciples and fled Mat. x. 23. for it The Pastors and Priests divided themselves the one part withdrew the other part remained with the People they kept themselves concealed with great care for they were the Persons the most sought after as being those upon whose loss the Flock would be scattered Some of them Acta S. Pion. Bar. an 254. n. x. Can. xii Petri Alex. to i. Concil the better to keep themselves unknown changed their Names others were content to purchase their quiet and
the House of God or the House of the Lord they rarely made use of the name of Temple and never within the Compas of my reading of Delubrum or Fanum The names of Particular Churches were often taken from their Founders as at Rome the Titulus Pastoris the Basilica of Liberius or Sixtus which is now St. Mary the great or from the Ancient Name of the House as Basilica Laterana Afterwards they came also to make use of Churches built by the Heathens when they found them fit for the use of Religion So in Rome they Converted the Pantheon the Temple of Minerva of Fortuna Virilis with some others into Christian Churches The Churches were not only large and Beautiful as to the make of them but also looked after with great care and always kept Neat and Clean. St. Jerome Epist de fun Nepot gives a special Commendation of Nepotian the Priest for the care he took of keeping his Church in good order The Walls dry and free from Smut and Mould the Pavements rubbed the Sacristy clean the Vessels shining the Door-keeper always upon his Office This was the busines of the inferior Officers under what Name soever they went as Door-keepers Mansionaries Camerarii Sacristans and Cubiculari Aeditui there was a great number of these Officers in the larger Churches We may see Pontific Rom. V. Baron an lviii n. 102. yet in the form of Ordination what was the proper charge of the Ostiaries They were at the Regular Hours to give notice for Prayers and consequently it belonged to them to Ring the Bells when once the use of Bells was brought into the Church which was about the seventh Age. It was their business to open the Church Doors at the usual time and to stand at them upon their Duty to keep Infidels or Excommunicated Persons from Entring They kept the Keys and took care that nothing was lost We find in Dial. i. c. v. iii. c. xxiv Paul Nat. iii. vi the Dialogues of St. Gregory that the Mansionaries had the charge of the Lamps 'T was these Inferior Officers that Dres't up the Church against the more solemn Festivals either with Silk Tapesteries or other rich Hangings or only with Boughs and Flowers In a Word they were to do every thing that was necessary to keep the Holy Place fit for making Impressions of Reverence and Piety upon those who approached it All these Functions appeared too Considerable to be permitted to pure Laicks So that 't was thought necessary to Establish these new Orders of Minor Clerks on purpose to ease the Deacons and to take off some part of their Charge THOUGH t' is true the Christian XXIX Devotion assisted by Sense Religion is altogether Inward and Spiritual yet Christians are Men as well as others and therefore not above the power of Sence and Imagination Nay we may say that the greatest part of Man-kind scarce Act or Live upon any other Principle How few apply themselves to Operations purely Intellectual and they that do so find their thoughts easyly Diverted from Spiritual Objects Devotion therefore must be assisted by the Impressions of Sense Were we Angels we might Pray in all places alike in the hurry of the Roads in the Crowd of the Streets in the Noise of the Guard-Chamber in the Roaring and Riots of a Tavern over the Stenches of a Common-Shore Why then do we shun these places of Distraction and when we would be Devout seek after Silence and retiredness but only as a Remedy against the Impotence of Sense and Imagination 'T is not God that hath need of Temples and Oratories but We. He is equally present in all Places and always equally ready to hear us everywhere but we are not always in a frame of Spirit fit to Speak to him So that 't is a needless and useless peice of Work to Consecrate particular places to his Service unless they be also put into a Condition proper to assist our Devotion Let us Suppose for Example that which we see too often in these later Times a Church so ill Scituated that it Ecchoes with the Noises of an Adjacent Street or a Neighbouring Market and so nastily kept that one can scarce sit down or kneel in it for Dirt suppose it thron'd with such a Herd of People promiscuously crowded together that they who attend upon Prayer are every Moment justled and trampled upon by others pushing on their way through them and continually interrupted with Children's Crying or Playing Loud Beggars Bawling about their Ears Add to this that you have nothing before your Eyes but disagreable Objects the Walls covered over with a filthy Smut and Mouldiness the Pictures disfigur'd with Dust and Cobwebbs and placed in an ill Light the statues of a deformed Make or half of them broken off and the other Ornaments in as ill a condition In fine to omit nothing offensive to sense for Incense an horrid fume of stinking Vapours and for Musick a multitude of untuned Voices jumbled together in Croaking Sounds It will be much easyer for a Man to Pray in an open Field or in a lone uninhabited House then in such a Church as this On the contrary let a Man go into a Church well built beautifully adorned and neatly Kept where all things are still and quiet the People well placed and the Clergy performing the Office in a regular manner and with a becoming Reverence and Humility he will find himself insensibly Engaged to attend the Service he is upon with a composedness of Thought and be able to Pray with the Heart at the same 1 Cor. xiv 14. time he speaks with his Lips Of this the Bishops of the First Ages were very sensible Those Holy Persons were either Greeks or Romans many of them great Philosophers all of them trainep up in the nicest observance of all the Rules of Decency They knew that the order Grandeur and agreeableness of exteriour Objects have a natural Efficacy in them of exciting in the mind Noble pure and well regulated Thoughts and that the Affections follow those Thoughts But that 't is next to impossible to keep the Soul Intent upon that which is good while the Body is uneasy or the Imagination disobliged They thought Devotion a matter of that Importance that it required all the assistance which could handsomly be given it and therefore took care to have the publick Services of the Church especially that of the Sacrifice Celebrated with all possible Majesty and the People assisting at it accommodated with all imaginable Conveniencies that so they might be brought on to take delight in the House of Prayer and to approach it with Reverence And they were at the same time sufficiently Cautions also to keep out of the Holy Places all the Extravagances of a Worldly Pomp all the appearances of a wanton Vanity or whatsoever might have a tendency to Effeminate the mind or strike the Senses with dangerous Impressions 'T was not their design to
convenient that every Monastery should have in it one Priest at least and one or two Deacons and this Priest was often their Abbot Thus having no occasion to go abroad they were shut up in their Monasteries as the Dead in their Sepulchres This was the pretence that Arch-Heretick Eutiches made for his not appearing at the Con. Chalc. Act. Council of Chalcedon There were also Monasteries for Women or Nunneries in the Deserts where they abode within Convenient distance of the Monks to receive mutual assistance from each other by their Neighbourhood yet so far asunder as to avoid all danger and Scandal The Monks built the Nuns their Cells and helped them in their most laborious Works the Nuns made the Monks Cloaths and did them other such-like Services But all this Commerce of Charity was managed by some aged Persons appointed for that purpose none else being suffered to go near the Nunneries There were also many of these Nunneries founded in Cities where all the Virgins Consecrated to God lived in Community who before lived separate in private Houses The Nuns of Aegypt and Syria Hier. epist 48. ad Sabinian Baron ad Martyr 20 Sept. cut off their Hair for cleanliness sake in other places they kept it on The practice of Antiquity in these Cases being different The Bishops who made their Clergy live in common took their Method of living from the Monks and as much as the active Life of the Clergy would permit they conformed themselves to it so that these Communities were often called also by the name of Monasteries and in time they were quite confounded one with the other In the Fifth Age the greatest part Thom. Disc ii part l. i. c. 34 35 36. of the Bishops and Priests of Gaul and of the West practiced the Monastick Life and wore the Habit. The Pope St. Gregory was taken out of a Monastery where upon quitting the grandeur of this World Jo. Diac. lib. ii c. xi he had shut himelf up but notwithstanding his Advancement he still kept to the Monastick Life and filled his Palace with Pious Monks out of whom he made many of his great Bishops and among the rest St. Austin the Monk with the other Apostles of England The true use of the Monastick Life was to improve and perfect such unspotted Souls as had preserved the Innocence of their Baptism or such Converted Sinners as desired to Purify themselves by Repentance 'T was for this end they received into their Monasteries Persons of all Ages and Conditions Young Children whom their Parents were for placing early out of the danger of the World Old Persons who desired to end their Lives Religiously Marryed Men whose Wives also had consented to the same way of Living In the Rule of St. Fructuosus Cod. Regul Arch-Bishop of Braga we find Regulations for all these Persons They who for their Sins were obliged by the Canons to do Penances of many Years found it undoubtedly much more Commodious to pass them in a Monastery where the example of Living in Common and the Consolations received from those more advanced in Years might somewhat ease their Sorrows than to Live at large under them in the wide World where they could not avoid being singular and Pointed at So that the Monastery became a kind of Prison or Exile with which great Persons were often punished of which we have examples in France under the two first Lines of our Kings and in the East from the sixth Age. THE Monastick Life is a sensible XLII The Monastick life compared with that of the first Christians proof of the Providence of God and of the care he hath taken to preserve in his Church to the end of all Ages not only purity of Doctrine but also Holiness of Life If we call to mind what hath been said of the Christian Life in the second part of this Treatise and compare it with the Rule of St. Bennet and with the present usages of the well-regulated Monasteries we shall find that there is but little difference between them I have prov'd there that those Christians looked upon Religion as their main Concern making all the Affairs of this Life subservient to it And thus it is with the Monks who sequester themselves from the world that they may be at more liberty to mind the most necessary Poynt And for this Reason they are called The Religious a name common at first to all good Christians The Monks Asceticks and Virgins had also the name of Devotes given them from their being entirely Devoted to God Those first Christians were very frequent both in Publick and private Prayer coming as near as possibly they could to the Rule of Praying always the Psalmody is no-where better Regulated nor more exactly observed than in the Monasteries where it still continues the same as St. Benet set it above eleven hundred Years ago The Monks having nothing to divert them from the exercises of Religion have kept up the Practice more exactly than even the Clergy themselves 'T is supposed they reduced the Office into the form in which it hath stood now for a long time at least they added the Prime and Complin which at first were only private Prayers for every Christian Family or every Monastery to make use 3 Instit iv vi of at their own Houses to sanctifie the beginning and ending of the Day Cassian declares that this Establishment was but new in his Days In all this the Canons are to be esteemed as a sort of Monks and so indeed in the beginning they were being then all of them Regulars The Primitive Christians received the Communion very often fo do the Monks for the most part Ruffinus tells us the Disciples of St. Apollonius Communicated S. Basil ep 289 ad Caesar Patr. every Day The Monks kept up for a long time the Ancient custom of having the Eucharist always lying by them to Communicate themselves when they should want a Priest to Administer it 'T was perhaps for want of this Precaution Chrysost Hom. xvii in Epist ad Hebr. that some continued for the space of two whole Years without receiving the Sacrament Those Primitive Christians spent much of their time in Reading the Holy Scriptures The Rule of St. Benet prescribes Reg. S. Ben. c. xlviii the same to his Monks and more particularly that all the time of Lent and on all Sundays they should apply themselves wholly to this Exercise For on other Days they spent much of their time in the labour of their Hands of which Practice some traces are still remaining though it must be confessed that of all the Monastick customs this is the least continued Silence was necessary as is said before to avoid the common sins of the Tongue so frequent amongst Men and yet so much condemned in the Scriptures as Reviling evil Reports indecent Rallery foolish Jesting vain Impertinent and unprofitable Discourses and 't is observable that the
Paganism and to that end underpropped it with the Allegorical explications of some Philosophers Fables These were the Platonicks of those times far from the good Sense and Solidity of Plato and the ancient Academicks his Disciples These fanciful Wits picking up what was most weak in the Doctrin of Plato and mixing it with that of Pythagoras and with the Mysteries of the Aegyptians patch't up a kind of Religion which at the bottom was founded upon Magick and which under the pretence of Worshiping good or bad Spirits authorized all sorts of Superstitions Such was the Religion of Julian the Apostate and we see somewhat of it in the Maxims of Apuleius in Porphyry and Jamblichus But there were few that penetrated into these subtilties and Paganism sunk every day more and more into Contempt Among so great a multitude of new Christians it was impossible that some should not pass in the Crowd drawn in only by Temporal Considerations upon the hopes of making their Fortunes under Christian Princes Complaisance to their Friends and Relations the fear of displeasing their Masters and in a word upon August in Jo. vi 26. tract ii all those Motives which now a Days make Hypocrites and false Zealots But these for the most part contented themselves with the bare Character of Catechumens and being loath to submit themselves to that strictness of Life which Christianity requires they were for deferring their Baptism as long as they could and often to the point of Death that so they might to the last continue the unhappy liberty of committing Sin without Subjecting themselves to the Discipline of Pennance Others proceeded even to Baptism and were V. Aug. de Catechiz c. xvii Cyr. Hier. Procatech not in their Hearts true Converts Some light inquisitive People were drawn in purely out of a curiosity to know the Mysteries which were revealed to none but the Faithful Their Superstition made them greedy after Religion and ambitious of being initiated into all sorts of Ceremonies and to participate in every thing which bore the name of Sacred without distinguishing the true God or the true Religion Among so many pretenders to Christianity what caution soever the Prelates could use They were but Men and it was impossible they should not sometimes be mistaken Many even of those that were Christians in good earnest grew every Day more and more remiss The fear of Martyrdome Leo. Serm. 6. in Epiph c. iii. Cypr. de Lapsis Dionys. Alex apud Euseb vi Hist 34. Euseb viii Hist c. ii was removed and Death did not now appear to them so near at hand Their security from outward danger betrayed them into that great hazard of Laying aside their Watchfulness Even in the state of persecution during the Intervals of their Troubles there was perceived a sensible abatement of Christian fervour Of this the Fathers very much complain ascribing the hottest Persecutions to this remisness of Zeal when ever they enjoyed the least Respite from their Enemies How must it then have been with them in a sure and settled Peace when t was not only not dangerous to be a Christian but also Honourable and advantageous The Princes and Magistrates being Converted to the Faith still maintained their Secular Grandeur and were never the less good Christians for looking after their temporal concerns and exercising their Charges So the common sort of Believers seeing Religion and Worldly greatness so fairly reconciled in these examples began to think there was no such great danger in Honours Riches and other enjoyments of this Life Thus the Love of pleasure Covetousness and Ambition revived in them The World was now become Christian yet still the World was the same They began now to Distinguish between Christians and Saints and Religious We find St. John Chrysostom frequently complayning of it that Chrysost ad fidel patr Idem Hom. i. in Matth. â—or in fi his Hearers to excuse their Earthly mindedness and too great Solicitude about the affairs of this World were wont to tell him We are no Monks we have Wives and Children to provide for and Families to look after As if the Christians of Rome or of Corinth whom St. Paul calls Saints and to whom he ascribes so high a Perfection were not Marryed Persons and led in the concerns of this World the same common life with other Men. To this add the Corruption of Nature that turns Food into Poyson The Church had in her publick Offices some kind of Observances more agreeable to outward Sense These were easily abused to the Flesh and applyed to wrong Ends contrary to the Iustitution of them The Sunday Rejoycings and those of the other Grand Solemnyties exceeded sometimes the Bounds of Sobriety and Basil Orat. de Ebriet Christian Moderation So that in the fourth Age they were obliged as I have Aug. ep xxix nov before observed to abolish the custome of making Entertainments at the Feasts of the Martyrs and the Clergy were also Prohibited from being present at those of Marryages Origen hath well observed Orig. cont Cels. how difficult a thing it is to reconcile sensible Pleasure with Spiritual joy The Body is a Slave which if too much Humour'd and Pamper'd with Food Sleep or other such like Indulgences will presently become Insolent and grow upon us Usurp upon the better part take off the mind from applying it self to Spiritual things and weaken its power of bearing up against Temptation Nor can the Spirit maintain its dominion over the Flesh but by a severe Conduct and continual Application I speak here of the same times I have just now described in the third part and do rip up in them also the least Faults that so I may the better trace out the very first beginnings of the Declension of Christian Piety without designing in the least to invalidate what I there said of the Manners of the Church in general or of its Discipline which was still preserved in its full vigor And above all the Sanctity of their Clergy was extraordinary However it must be granted there were some Prelates too sensible of the great Honours that were paid them And some also were accused of having misemployed the great Estates of which they had the Disposal One may see what Complaints were preferred to the Council of Chalcedon against Dioscorus and Ibas upon this account I believe Conc. Chalc. Act. iii. x. there can scarce be found any of the Orthodox Bishops of those times justly charged with the same Reproach But as the Arrians and other Hereticks had also their Bishops and Priests Their Passionate Conduct lessened in the eyes of the World the Honour of the order it self 'T was a great scandal to the Pagans and weak Christians to see Persons that had such Venerable Titles Masters of so little Temper and disputing with such heat against the other Bishops and Priests outraging them with Injuries and aspersions both in their Discourses and Writings Coming to the
War with the Bishop himself They were forced therefore to be content with the private Masses of their Chaplains or the Office of the Neighbouring Monasteries But the Monks were never designed for the business of Preaching nor could they without their own Walls exercise any thing of Discipline or Correction In the ninth Age we find the Conc. Ticin an 855. c. iv Agob de priv Sacerd Theodulph c. xlv 46. Hom. Leon. P. P. iv Bishops complaining that all the People of Estate and Quality had forsaken the Parish Churches and earnesty pressing it upon them that they would vouchsase to shew themselves there at least at the solemn seasons So they called those Feasts on which they thought all Christians obliged to Communicate which were these four viz. Christmas Holy Thursday Easter and Whitsontide Nor were the common People better instructed than their Nobility except in some Citys where they had good Bishops For most of the Bishops themselves Preached so very seldom that we find there were many Canons made requiring them to explain to the People in the Vulgar Language the Creed and the Lords Prayer that is to say the first Rudiments of Religion or as we now call it the Catechism In this gross darkness who could have imagined how far Ignorance and Credulity might improve but that we have the Marks of it still extant in the Old Legends of those times The Priests and Clergy were in too mean a Capacity themselves to be able to instruct others Under those Universal Hostilities with which the World was then Harassed they were also forced to take up Arms in their own Defence and with Sword in Hand to secure the temporalities of the Church by which they Subsisted Many of them were by their Poverty necessitated to betake themselves to sordid Employments or else to travel about from Province to Province till they could meet with some Bishop or Lord to entertain them Being Reduced to such a Condition how could they pursue their Studies or lead Lives Conformable to their orders 'T was only in some few Cathedrals and Monasteries that a regular Course of Studying and the exact Rules of a Religious Life were preserved and maintained All this while the Monks Conc. Aquisgran an 817. and Canons were notoriously degenerated from their Primitive Constitution as one may see by those excellent Regulations which Lewis the Debonnaire made to reestablish their Discipline But the Confusions following put them into a worse state than they were in before The greatest part of the Monasteries were Plunder'd Burnt and Ruin'd by the Normans the Monks and Canons Massacred or dispersed and forced to Live in the World again This Ignorance and Poverty to which the Clergy and Monks were reduced so debased their Spirits that they soon became insensible of the Sufferings of the Church in general and little minded any thing else than how to secure their own Stakes and Live at Ease themselves Thus Simony came to be a common practise Concubinage was so too and often maintained with great Impudence especially in Germany where Religion ever had a weak footing These Ignorant Clerks who never looked upon their Ministry as any thing else than meerly a Trade to get a Livelihood who Lived every one by themselves without applying to their Studies or their Prayers but very much to their secular Affairs did not uuderstand the reasons of Celibacy and looked upon the enjoyning it as an Insupportable Tyrany This was the cause of the Rage they expressed against Pope Gregory the Seventh and all others who were for taking away this occasion of Offence Under these Publick Calamities one may easily imagin ho wmiserably the Poor were neglected How could they be releived by the Clergy who had so much ado to live themselves or where could they receive Alms in the times of such dreadful Famines as happened in these Ages where we often read of Mens being reduced to feed on human Flesh Nor was Commerce in those Days sufficiently open to have the wants of one Country supplyed out of the abundance of Conc. Calchut in Ang. 787. Tribur 89â— de consecr dist i. c. 45. another The Church found it difficult to perserve its Consecrated Plate 'T is in these times we see the Prohibition of the use of Calices of Horn Glass Wood or Copper and the permission of them of Tin Not but that the Churches had still vast Patrimonies but that served only as a Bait to the Princes and Lords the more greedily to invade them The Bishopricks were often usurped by Persons altogether unqualified who seized them by violence Many times a Neighbouring Lord would by main force of Arms place a Son of his under Age in the Episcopal See to Plunder the Church under his Name Rome its self was not secured from these disorders the Petit Neighbouring Tyrants insulted her most and during the tenth Age we meet with nothing but violent Intrusions and Expulsions in this principal See where till now Ecclesiastical Discipline had been all along maintained in its Genuine Purity Councils were very rarely held by reason of the difficulty of their meeting and the universal Commotions which were such that they could not safely pass from one City to another Thus not only the Diseases of the Church were desperate but even the Remedies were hard to come at The Precedents and Rules of the former Ages were by little and little lost and forgotten by seeing Crimes pass unpunished Men ventured more boldly upon them and thus they were at first accustomed to them and at last hardned in them It was now no longer an ordinary Distemper but a plain loss of Sense and a Spiritual Lethargy Every one was a Christian but in such a manner as if they had thought it a bare priviledge of Nature and the Christian and the Man had been the same thing There was now no longer a distinction Christianity was little more than a Custom of the Country and scarce discovered it self in any thing else than in some external Formalities As for Vertues and Vices there was hardly any difference between Christians and Jews or Infidels but only in Ceremonies which have not force sufficient for the reforming Mens Manners HAD not the Christian Religion been the work of God it could never have XLIX The preservation of Religion Ps xlvi 5. weathered out so violent a Storm But he hath plainly shewn That he is in the midst of his Church and that all the Revolutions of Affairs are not able to overthrow her on the contrary the power of the Gospel in a most wonderful manner shined forth in these miserable times How much soever ignorance prevailed yet all the World acknowledged and adored the one only God Creator of the universe and Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind All the World believed a future Judgment and the Life to come all the great principles of Morality were every where received and acknowledged whereas in the most enlightned times of ancient Greece they
here laid down will be always true what Origen in his Book against Celsus so often inculcates that Jesus Christ hath reformed the World and filled it with vertues unknown to former Ages And this is what I had to say concerning the Manners of the Israelites and of LVII The Conclusion the Christians such was the outward appearance of the Lives of the faithful of the Old and of the New-Testament In my Opinion the first Discourse shews us The Manners of the Israelites published also in English 1683. but without taking any notice of the Author the best use of Temporal advantages and the most accountable Methods of living up to Innocence and Nature In this latter I have endeavoured to shew what was the life of those whose Conversation was in Heaven and who while they were in the Flesh lived yet by the Spirit This Life perfectly Spiritual and Supernatural was the peculiar effect of the Grace of Jesus Christ If what I have Written proves Instrumental to give a right notion of the Life which is truly reasonable and Christian and to make any one apply himself seriously to the practice of it If matters prove thus I shall not at all be disturbed at the different Censures of the Reader or the Faults with which the Work may be Charged THE END A TABLE OF THE HEADS Chap. I. THE Division of the Whole Page 1. PART I. II. The Church of Jerusalem 2. PART II. III. The time of the Persecutions The State of the Gentiles before their Conversion 33. IV. Preaching Teaching and Baptism 40. V. The Christian Life Prayer 44. VI. The Study of the Holy Scripture 48. VII Their Employments Occupations and Professions 55. VIII Their Fasts 58. IX Their Eating 62. X. The Modesty Gravity and Seriousness of Christians 66. XI Marriages 74. XII The Vnion of Christians 77. XIII Their Church-Assemblies Liturgy and outward Form of Worship 80. XIV The secret of the Mysteries 85. XV. The Reasons of the general Odium against the Christians 86. XVI The Persecutions The manner of proceeding against the Christians Their Punishments 101. XVII Prisons 112. XVIII Their Care of Relicks 115. XIX The Confessors 119. XX. Excommunication and Penance 120. XXI Asceticks Virgins Widows Deaconesses 127. XXII Their Care of the Poor 132. XXIII Their Hospitality 136. XXIV Their care of the Sick and Burial of their Dead 140. XXV Bishops Priests Clerks Ordinations 144. XXVI The Discretion and Patience of the Christians 158. PART III. XXVII The Church freed from Persecution The Examination and Preparation for Baptism 166. XXVIII The Form of their Churches and their Ornaments 171. XXIX Devotion assisted by Sence 184. XXX Their Liturgy and outward Form of Worship 188. XXXI Their Sermons 192. XXXII The Sacrifice and Sacred Habits 200. XXXIII Consecration Communion 204. XXXIV The Singing and Magnificence of the publick Service 207. XXXV The Solemnity of the Feasts of the Church Pilgrimages 211 XXXVI The Ceremonies of Penance 217. XXXVII Christian Princes 224. XXXVIII The Manners of the Clergy 229. XXXIX The Riches of the Church 240. XL. Hospitals 248. XLI Monasteries 251. XLII The Monastick Life compared with that of the first Christians 262. XLIII The Reasons of the External Singularities in the Monks 265. PART IV. XLIV The decay of Christian Piety in the Fourth and following Ages with the Causes thereof 274. XLV The Incursions of the Barbarians and their Manners 288. XLVI The mixture of the Romans and the Barbarians 294. XLVII The Manners of the Christians in the East from the Fifth Age. 299. XLVIII The Manners of the West The Disorders of the Tenth Age. 305. XLIX The Preservation of Religion 313. L. The Re-establishment of Piety and Discipline 316 LI. Alterations in Penance 320. LII Croisades and Indulgences 325. LIII The Multitude and Variety of Doctors 329. LIV. A Succession of sound Doctrine and good Examples in all times 334 LV. Some Abuses Tolerated in the Church and how they came to be so 339. LVI The use of this Work 342. LVII The Conclusion 346. Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleet-Street Folio THE Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ An Heroic Poem Dedicated to her most Sacred Majesty In ten Books Attempted by Samuel Wesley M. A. Chaplain to the most Honourable John Lord Marqucss of Normanby and Rector of Epworth in the County of Lincoln Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes Explaining the more difficult matters in the whole History Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry The Second Edition Revised by the Author and Improved with Addition of a large Map of the Holy Land and a Table of the principal Matters With Sixty Copper-Plates by the Celebrated Hand of W. Faithorne Resolves Divine Moral Political With several new Additions both in Prose and Verse not extant in the former Impressions In this Eleventh Edition References are made to the Poetical Citations heretofore much wanted By Owen Feltham Esq Quarto Mechanick Powers Or the Mystery of Nature and Art Unvail'd shewing what great things may be performed by Mechanick Engines in removing and raising Bodies of vast Weights with little Strength or Force and also the making of Machines or Engines for raising of Water Dreining of Grounds and several other Uses Together with a Treatise of Circular Motion Artificially fitted to Machanick use and the making of Clock-Work and other Engines A work pleasant and Profitable for all sorts of Men from the highest to the lowest Degree And never Treated of in English but once before and that but Briefly The whole Comprized in 10 Books and Illustrated with Copper Cuts By Ven. Mandey and J. Moxon Philomat