of persecution for so we find in a Law of Constantine and Licinius where giving liberty of Religion to Christians and restoring them freely to the Churches which had been taken from them and disposed of by former Emperours they further add and because say they the same Christians had not only places wherein they were wont to assemble but are also known to have had other possessions which were not the propriety of any single person but belonged to the whole body and community all these by this Law we command to be immediately restored to those Christians to every Society and Community of them what belonged to them And in a rescript to Anulinus the Proconsul about the same matter they particularly specifie whether they be Gardens or Houses or whatever else belonged to the right and propriety of those Churches that with all speed they be universally restored to them the same which Maximinus also though no good friend to Christians yet either out of fear of Constantine or from the conviction of his conscience awakened by a terrible sickness had ordained for his parts of the Empire Afterwards Constantine set himself by all ways to advance the honour and interests of the Church out of the Tributes of every City which were yearly paid into his Exchequer he assigned a portion to the Church and Clergy of that place and setled it by a Law which excepting the short Reign of Julian who revoked it was as the Historian assures us in force in his time Where any of the Martyrs or Confessors had died without kindred or been banished their native Country and left no heirs behind them he ordained that their Estates and Inheritance should be given to the Church of that place and that whoever had seized upon them or had bought them of the Exchequer should restore them and refer themselves to him for what recompence should be made them He took away the restraint which former Emperours had laid upon the bounty of pious and charitable men and gave every man liberty to leave what he would to the Church he gave salaries out of the publick Corn which though taken away by Julian was restored by his Successor Jovianus and ratified as a perpetual donation by the Law of Valentinian and Marcianus After his time the Revenues of Churches encreased every day pious and devout persons thinking they could never enough testifie their piety to God by expressing their bounty and liberality to the Church I shall conclude this discourse by observing what respect and reverence they were wont in those days to shew in the Church as the solemn place of Worship and where God did more peculiarly manifest his presence and this certainly was very great They came into the Church as into the Palace of the great King as Chrysostom calls it with fear and trembling upon which account he there presses the highest modesty and gravity upon them before their going into the Church they used to wash at least their hands as Tertullian probably intimates and Chrysostom expresly tells us carrying themselves while there with the most profound silence and devotion nay so great was the reverence which they bore to the Church that the Emperours themselves who otherwise never went without their Guard about them yet when they came to go into the Church used to lay down their Arms to leave their Guard behind them and to put off their Crowns reckoning that the less ostentation they made of power and greatness there the more firmly the imperial Majesty would be entailed upon them as we find it in the Law of Theodosius and Valentinian inserted at large into the last edition of the Theodosian Code But of this we may probably speak more when we come to treat of the manner of their publick adoration CHAP. VII Of the Lords-Day and the Fasts and Festivals of the ancient Church Time as necessary to religious actions as Place Fixed times of Publick Worship observed by all Nations The Lords Day chiefly observed by Christians Stiled Sunday and why Peculiarly consecrated to the memory of Christs Resurrection All kneeling at prayer on this day forbidden and why Their publick Assemblies constantly held upon this day Forced to assemble before day in times of persecution thence jeered by the Heathens as Latebrosa Lucifugax Natio The Lords day ever kept as a day of rejoycing all fasting upon it forbidden The great care of Constantine and the first Christian Emperours for the honour and observance of this Day Their Laws to that purpose Their constant and conscientious attendance upon publick Worship on the Lords Day Canons of ancient Councils about absenting from publick Worship Sabbatum or Saturday kept in the East as a religious day with all the publick Solemnities of Divine Worship how it came to be so Otherwise in the Western Churches observed by them as a Fast and why This not universal S. Ambrose his practice at Milain and counsel to S. Augustine in the case Their solemn Fasts either Weekly or Annual Weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays held till three in the Afternoon Annual Fast that of Lent how ancient Vpon what account called Quadragesima Observed with great strictness The Hebdomada Magna or the Holy Week kept with singular austerity and the reason of it Festivals observed by the Primitive Christians That of Easter as ancient as the times of the Apostles An account of the famous Controversie between the eastern and Western Churches about the keeping of Easter The intemperate spirit of Pope Victor Irenaeus his moderate interposal The case sinally determined by the Council of Nice The Vigils of this Feast observed with great expressions of rejoycing The bounty of Christian Emperours upon Easter-day The Feast of Pentecost how ancient Why stiled Whitsunday Dominica in Albis why so called The whole space between Easter and Whitsuntide kept Festival The Acts of the Apostles why publickly read during that time The Feast of Epiphany anciently what Christmas-day the ancient observation of it Epiphany in a strict sense what and why so called The Memoriae Martyrum what When probably first begun The great reverence they had for Martyrs Their passions stiled their Birth-day and why These anniversary Solemnities kept at the Tombs of Martyrs Over these magnificent Churches erected afterwards What religious exercises performed at those meetings The first rise of Martyrologies Oblations for Martyrs how understood in the ancient Writers of the Church These Festivals kept with great rejoycing mutual love and charity their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common Feasts Markets held for that purpose in those places The ill use which after-times made of these memorials TIme is a circumstance no less inseparable from religious actions than Place for man consisting of a soul and body cannot always be actually engaged in the service of God that 's the priviledge of Angels and souls freed from the fetters of mortality so long as
we are here we must worship God with respect to our present state and consequently of necessity have some definite and particular time to do it in Now that man might not be left to a floating uncertainty in a matter of so great importance in all Ages and Nations men have been guided by the very dictates of Nature to pitch upon some certain seasons wherein to assemble and meet together to perform the publick offices of Religion What and how many were the publick Festivals instituted and observed either amongst Jews or Gentiles I am not concerned to take notice of For the ancient Christians they ever had their peculiar seasons their solemn and stated times of meeting together to perform the common duties of Divine Worship of which because the Lords-Day challenges the precedency of all the rest we shall begin first with that And being unconcern'd in all the controversies which in the late times were raised about it I shall only note some instances of the piety of Christians in reference to this day which I have observed in passing through the Writers of those times For the name of this day of Publick Worship it is sometimes especially by Justin Martyr and Tertullian called Sunday because it hapned upon that day of the week which by the Heathens was dedicated to the Sun and therefore as being best known to them the Fathers commonly made use of it in their Apologies to the Heathen Governours This title continued after the world became Christian and seldom it is that it passes under any other name in the Imperial Edicts of the first Christian Emperours But the more proper and prevailing name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dies Dominica the Lords-day as 't is called by S. John himself as being that day of the Week whereon our Lord made his triumphant return from the dead this Justin Martyr assures us was the true original of the title upon Sunday says he we all assemble and meet together as being the first day wherein God parting the darkness from the rude chaos created the world and the same day whereon Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead for he was crucified the day before Saturday and the day after which is Sunday he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples by this means observing a kind of analogy and proportion with the Jewish Sabbath which had been instituted by God himself For as that day was kept as a commemoration of Gods Sabbath or resting from the work of Creation so was this set apart to religious uses as the solemn memorial of Christs resting from the work of our redemption in this world compleated upon the day of his resurrection Which brings into my mind that custom of theirs so universally common in those days that whereas at other times they kneeled at prayers on the Lords day they always prayed standing as is expresly affirmed both by Justin Martyr and Tertullian the reason of which we find in the Authour of the Questions and Answers in J. Martyr it is says he that by this means we may be put in mind both of our fall by sin our resurrection or restitution by the grace of Christ that for six days we pray upon our knees is in token of our fall by sin but that on the Lords day we do not bow the knee does symbolically represent our resurrection by which through the grace of Christ we are delivered from our sins and the powers of death this he there tells us was a custom deriv'd from the very times of the Apostles for which he cites Irenaeus in his Book concerning Easter And this custom was maintained with so much vigour that when some began to neglect it the great Council of Nice took notice of it and ordained that there should be a constant uniformity in this case and that on the Lords day and at such other times as were usual men should stand when they made their prayers to God So fit and reasonable did they think it to do all possible honour to that day on which Christ rose from the dead Therefore we may observe all along in the sacred story that after Christs resurrection the Apostles and primitive Christians did especially assemble upon the first day of the week and whatever they might do at other times yet there are many passages that intimate that the first day of the week was their more solemn time of meeting on this day it was that they were met together when our Saviour first appeared to them and so again the next week after on this day they were assembled when the Holy Ghost so visibly came down upon them when Peter preached that excellent Sermon converted and baptized three thousand souls Thus when S. Paul was taking his leave at Troas upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread i.e. as almost all agree to celebrate the holy Sacrament he preached to them sufficiently intimating that upon that day 't was their usual custom to meet in that manner and elsewhere giving directions to the Church of Corinth as he had done in the like case to other Churches concerning their contributions to the poor suffering Brethren he bids them lay it aside upon the first day of the week which seems plainly to respect their religious assemblies upon that day for then it was that every one according to his ability deposited something for the relief of the poor and the uses of the Church After the Apostles the Christians constantly observed this day meeting together for prayer expounding and hearing of the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and other publick duties of Religion Vpon the day called Sunday says J. Martyr all of us that live either in City or Country meet together in one place and what they then did he there describes of which afterwards This doubtless Pliny meant when giving Trajan an account of the Christians he tells him that they were wont to meet together to worship Christ stato die upon a set certain day by which he can be reasonably understood to design no other but the Lords day for though they probably met at other times yet he takes notice of this only either because the Christians whom he had examin'd had not told him of their meeting at other times or because this was their most publick and solemn convention and which in a manner swallowed up the rest By the violent persecutions of those times the Christians were forced to meet together before day so Pliny in the same place tells the Emperour that they assembled before day-light to sing their morning hymns to Christ Whence it is that Tertullian so often mentions their nocturnal convocations for putting the case that his Wife after his decease should marry with a Gentile-Husband amongst other inconveniencies he asks her whether she thought he would be willing to let her rise from his Bed to go to their night-meetings
Correspondent to which the Canons called Apostolical and the Council of Antioch ordain that if any Presbyter setting light by his own Bishop shall withdraw and set up separate meetings and erect another Altar i. e. says Zonaras keep unlawful Conventicles preach privately and administer the Sacrament that in such a case he shall be deposed as ambitious and tyrannical and the people communicating with him be excommunicate as being factious and schismatical only this not to be done till after the third admonition After all that has been said I might further show what esteem and value the first Christians had of the Lords day by those great and honourable things they have spoken concerning it of which I 'll produce but two passages the one is that in the Epistle ad Magnesios which if not Ignatius must yet be acknowledged an ancient Authour Let every one says he that loves Christ keep the Lords day Festival the resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death conquered by our Lord and Saviour The other that of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who speaks thus that both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honour the Lords day and keep it Festival seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ compleated his resurrection from the dead Next to the Lords day the Sabbath or Saturday for so the word Sabbatum is constantly used in the Writings of the Fathers when speaking of it as it relates to Christians was held by them in great veneration and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnities of Religion For which we are to know that the Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews they being generally the first Converts to the Christian Faith they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaick Institutions and especially for the Sabbath as that which had been appointed by God himself as the memorial of his rest from the work of Creation setled by their great Master Moses and celebrated by their Ancestors for so many Ages as the solemn day of their publick Worship and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times as in others of the Jewish Rites so in this to indulge the humour of that people and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices Hence they usually had most parts of Divine Service performed upon that day they met together for publick Prayers for reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and such like duties This is plain not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens his Constitutions but from Writers of more unquestionable credit and authority Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assembled on Saturdays not that they were infected with Judaism but only to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and Socrates speaking of the usual times of their publick meeting calls the Sabbath and the Lords day the weekly Festivals on which the Congregation was wont to meet in the Church for the performance of Divine Services Therefore the Council of Laodicea amongst other things decreed that upon Saturdays the Gospels and other Scriptures should be read that in Lent the Eucharist should not be celebrated but upon Saturday and the Lords day and upon those days only in the time of Lent it should be lawful to commemorate and rehearse the names of Martyrs Upon this day also aswel as upon Sunday all Fasts were severely prohibited an infallible argument they counted it a Festival day one Saturday in the year only excepted viz. that before Easter-day which was always observed as a solemn Fast Things so commonly known as to need no proof But though the Church thought fit thus far to correspond with Jewish Converts as solemnly to observe the Sabbath yet to take away all offence and to vindicate themselves from compliance with Judaism they openly declared that they did it only in a Christian way and kept it not as a Jewish Sabbath as is expresly affirmed by Athanasius Nazianzen and others and the forementioned Laodicean Synod has a Canon to this purpose that Christians should not judaize and rest from all labour on the Sabbath but follow their ordinary works i. e. so far as consisted with their attendance upon the publick Assemblies and should not entertain such thoughts of it but that still they should prefer the Lords day before it and on that day rest as Christians but if any were found to judaize they should be accursed Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church in those of the West we find it somewhat different amongst them it was not observed as a religious Festival but kept as a constant Fast the reason whereof as 't is given by Pope Innonocent in an Epistle to the Bishop of Eugubium where he treats of this very case seems most probable if says he we commemorate Christs resurrection not only at Easter but every Lords day and fast upon Friday because 't was the day of his passion we ought not to pass by Saturday which is the middle-time between the days of grief and joy the Apostles themselves spending those two days viz. Friday and the Sabbath in great sorrow and heaviness and he thinks no doubt ought to be made but that the Apostles fasted upon those two days whence the Church had a Tradition that the Sacraments were not to be administred on those days and therefore concludes that every Saturday or Sabbath ought to be kept a Fast To the same purpose the Council of Illiberis ordained that a Saturday Festival was an errour that ought to be reformed and that men ought to fast upon every Sabbath But though this seems to have been the general practice yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike In Italy it self 't was otherwise at Milain where Saturday was a Festival and 't is said in the life of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of that See that he constantly dined as well upon Saturday as the Lords day it being his custom to dine upon no other days but those and the memorials of the Martyrs and used also upon that day to preach to the people though so great was the prudence and moderation of that good man that he bound not up himself in these indifferent things but when he was at Millain he dined upon Saturdays and when he was at Rome he fasted as they did upon those days This S. Augustine assures us he had from his own mouth for when his Mother Monica came after him to Millain where he then resided she was greatly troubled to find the Saturday Fast not kept there as she had found it in other places for her satisfaction he immediately went to consult S. Ambrose then Bishop of that place who told him he could give him no better
not presently evil because it crosses our ease and interest as Arnobius answers passing by these I shall take notice only of two things which the Christians pleaded in this case First That the Gentiles should do very well to seek the true causes of these things nearer home and to enquire whether 't was not for their own sakes that the Divine Providence was thus offended with them there being very just reasons to think so Tertullian points them to such causes as these First their horrible affronting their natural notions of God that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things as S. Paul had told them long before and that therefore 't was reasonable to suppose that God was more angry with them who instead of him worshipped pieces of wood and Statues or at best Genii and Devils than with those who sincerely paid their adorations to him alone Secondly Passing by God the great Master of all goodness and innocence and the severe revenger of all impiety they tumbled themselves in all manner of vice and wickedness and what wonder if the Divine Justice followed close at their heels You are angry says Cyprian that God is angry as if in living ill you deserved well and as if all that has happened to you were not less and lighter than your sins and thou Demetrian who art a Judge of others but in this a Judge of thy self inspect the retirements of thy conscience and behold thy self now who shalt one day be seen naked by all and thou wilt find thy self enslav'd and led captive by some sins or other and why then shouldst thou wonder that the flames of the divine anger should rise higher when the sins of men do daily administer more fuel to it an answer which he there prosecutes to very excellent purpose Thirdly Their prodigious unthankfulness to God for all the former blessings they had received from him so far as they were ingrateful they were highly guilty and God could not but punish them had they sought him whom in part they could not but know and been observant of him they would in this case have found him a much more propitious than an angry Deity as Tertullian tells them Upon these and such like accounts they might well conclude it was that the vengeance of God did press so hard upon them and that therefore they had no true reason to lay the fault at any other door but their own Secondly As to the thing it self as 't was charged upon them they point blank denied it to be true and that for two reasons especially First Because the world had been sadly and frequently pestered with such evils and miseries long before the Christian Religion appeared in it I pray says Tertullian what miseries did overwhelm all the world and even Rome it self before the times of Tiberius i. e. before the coming of Christ have we not read of Hierapolis and the Islands of Delos and Rhodes and Cos destroyed with many thousands of men does not Plato speak of the greatest part of Asia and Afric swallowed up by the Atlantic Sea an Earthquake drank up the Corinthan Sea and the force of the Ocean rent off Sicilia from Italy not to ask where were the Christians the great contemners of your gods but where were your gods themselves when the Flood over-ran the world Palestine had not yet received the Jewish Nation out of Egypt much less had the Christians sat down there when Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent parts were burnt up by a shower of fire and Brimstone of which the Country smells to this day Nor could Tuscia and Campania complain of the Christians when a fire from Heaven destroyed the Vulsinii and the Pompeii None as yet worshipped the true God at Rome when Hannibal at Cannae made such a slaughter of the Romans that the very Rings that he took which were the honourable Badges of none but Roman Knights were measured by the Bushel they were all your gods that then had the general worship when the Gauls took the Capitol it self So smartly does that grave man retort their own arguments upon themselves Arnobius fully and elegantly pursues this that in this respect the former times were no better than these which they so much complained of and bids them run over the Annals and Records that were written in all languages and they would find that all Nations had frequently had their common miseries and devastations the clearing of which was likewise the great design Orosius proposed to himself in drawing down the History of the world through all the Ages and Generations of it Secondly Because since the coming of Christianity the world had been in a better and more prosperous state than it was before especially when ever the Christian Religion met with any favour and encouragement the reason of it Tertullian gives although we should compare present with former miseries yet they are much lighter now since God sent Christians into the world for since then innocency has ballanced the iniquities of the Age and there have been many who have interceded with Heaven The Author of the Questions and Answers in Justin Martyr for that it was not Justin himself I think no man can doubt that reads him the man betraying himself openly enough to have liv'd in the times of prevailing Christianity putting this question whether paganism was not the better Religion forasmuch as under it there was great prosperity and abundance whereas 't was quite otherwise since Christianity came in fashion he answers among other things that besides that plenty was no argument of the goodness of any Religion Christians being to be judged of rather by the holiness than the prosperity of their Religion there was so much the more abundance in these times of Christianity by how much there were fewer Wars than was while Paganism governed the world Never were wars more succesfully managed never was prosperity more triumphant than when Christians met with kind entertainment Melito Bishop of Sardis in an Oration which he presented to the Emperour M. Antoninus in behalf of the Christians part whereof is yet extant in Eusebius tells him that Christianity commencing under the Reign of Augustus was a good 〈◊〉 of the prosperity of the Empire and that ever since the majesty of the Roman Empire had encreased of whom he being the Heir and Successor he could not better assure it to himself and his Son than by protecting that Religion that had been born and bred up together with the Empire and for which his Ancestors amongst other Religions had had an esteem and honour that there could be no better argument that this Religion contributed to the happiness of
to an Image lest thereby they should give occasion to others to think that they ascribed divinity to them for this reason they shunn'd all community with the Rites and Customs of the Heathens abstaining from things strangled or that had been offered to Idols from frequenting the publick Bathes or going to the Sights and Shows because they seemed to owe their original to idolatry and were the occasion of many gross enormities they refused to wear Crowns of Laurel lest they should seem to patronize the Custom of the Gentiles who were wont to do so in their sacred and solemn Rites as appeared eminently in the Solemnities of the Emperours Severus and Caracalla when the Tribune delivering the donative to the Souldiers and all came to receive it with Crowns upon their heads one of them brought his in his hand and being demanded the reason answered that he was a Christian and could not do it which was the occasion of Tertullian's Book de Corona Militis wherein he sets himself to defend it Secondly They were willing to put themselves upon the strictest trial and to undergo the severest penalties if found guilty of those Crimes that were charged upon them So their Apologist bespeaks the Emperours we beseech you says he that those things that are charged upon the Christians may be enquired into and if they be found to be so let them have their deserved punishment nay let them be more severely punished than other men but if not guilty then 't is not reasonable that innocent persons should suffer meerly upon report and clamour And speaking of those that only took sanctuary at the name of Christians he adds that those who lived not according to the Laws of Christ and were only called by his name they begg'd of them that such might be punished To the same purpose Athenagoras in his Embassy taking notice how their Enemies laid wait for their lives and fortunes loaded them with heaps of reproaches charging them with things that never so much as entred into their minds and of which their accusers themselves were most guilty he makes this offer let but any of us be convict of any crime either small or great and we refuse not to be punished nay are ready to undergo the most cruel and heavy penalty but if we be only accused for our name and to this day all our accusations are but the sigments of obscure and uncertain fame no Christian having ever been convict of any fault then we hope it will become such wise gracious and mighty Princes as you are to make such Laws as may secure us from those wrongs and injuries But alas so clear was their innocency that their bitterest adversaries durst not suffer them to come to a fair open tryal if you be so certain that we are guilty says Tertullian to the Heathens why then are we not treated in the same nature with all malefactors who have leave both by themselves and their advocates to defend their innocency to answer and put in pleas it being unlawful to condemn any before they be heard and have liberty to defend themselves whereas Christians only are not permitted to speak any thing that might clear their cause maintain the truth and make the Judge able to pronounce righteous sentence 't is enough to justifie the publick odium if we do but confess our selves Christians without ever examining of the crime contrary to the manner of procedure against all other Delinquents whom 't is not enough barely to charge to be murderers sacrilegious or incestuous or enemies to the Publick the titles you are pleased to bestow upon us unless they also take the quality of the fact the place manner time partners and accessories under examination But no such favour is shewn to us but we are condemned without any inquisition passed upon us And good reason there was that they should take this course seeing they could really find nothing to condemn them for but for being Christians This one would think strange especially amongst a people so renowned for justice and equity as the Romans were and yet in these times nothing more ordinary therefore when Vrbicius the Prefect of Rome had condemned Ptolomeus meerly upon his confessing himself a Christian one Lucius that stood by cryed out What strange course is this what infamous misdemeanour is this man guilty of that when he 's no adulterer fornicator no murtherer no thief or robber thou shouldst punish him only because he calls himself a Christian certainly Urbicius such justice as this does not become the piety of the Emperour or the Philosophy of Caesar his Son or the sacred and venerable Senate And Tertullian tells us 't was the common accusation they had in their mouths such or such a one is a goodman only he is a Christian or I wonder at such a one a wise man but lately turned Christian So Cyprian I remember reduces his adversary to this unavoidable dilemma chuse one of these two things to be a Christian either is a fault or 't is not if it be a fault why dost thou not kill every one that confesses it if it be not why dost thou persecute them that are innocent Hence we find nothing more common in the old Apologists than complaints concerning the unreasonableness of being accused condemned and punished meerly for their name this being the first and great cause of all that hatred and cruelty that was exercised towards them 't was the innocent name that was hated in them all the quarrel was about this title and when a Christian was guilty of nothing else 't was this made him guilty as Tertullian complains at every turn The truth is they mightily gloried in this title and were ambitious to own it in the face of the greatest danger therefore when Attalus the famous French Martyr was led about the Amphitheatre that he might be exposed to the hatred and derision of the people he triumphed in this that a tablet was carried before him with this Inscription THIS IS ATTALUS THE CHRISTIAN And Sanctus another of them being oft asked by the President what his name was what his City and Country and whether he was a Free-man or a Servant answered nothing more to any of them than that he was a Christian professing this name to be Country Kindred and all things to him Nay so great was the honour and value which they had for this name that Julian the Emperour whom we commonly call the Apostate endeavoured by all ways to suppress it that when he could not drive the thing he might at least banish the name out of the world and therefore did not only himself constantly call Christians Galilaeans but made a Law that they should be called only by that name But to return the sum is this the Christians were so buoy'd up with the conscience of their innocency that they cared not who saw them were willing and
we do before all things instil into them a dislike and contempt of all Idols and Images and lift up their minds from worshipping Creatures instead of God to him who is the great Creator of the world If any through weakness chanced at any time to lapse into this sin how pathetically did they bewail it So Celerinus in his Epistle to Lucian giving him an account of a woman that to avoid persecution had done sacrifice and thereby fallen from Christ he bewails her as dead tells him that it stuck so close to him that though in the time of Easter a time of festivity and rejoicing yet he wept night and day and kept company with sackcloth and ashes and resolved to do so till by the help of Christ and the prayers of good men she shouled by repentance be raised up again The better to prevent this sin wherein weaker Christians were sometimes ensnared in those times of cruelty and persecution the discipline of the ancient Church was very severe against it of which we can have no better evidence than to take a little view of the determinations relating to this case of that ancient Council of Illiberis held some years before the time of Constantine there we find that if any Christian after Baptism took upon him the Flamin-ship or Priesthood of the Gentiles an Office ordinarily devolved upon the better sort and which Christians sometimes either made suit for to gain more favour with the people or had it forc'd upon them by the Laws of the Country so that they must either undergo it or flye and forfeit their Estates such a one no not at the hour of death was to be received into the Communion of the Church The reason of which severity was because who ever underwent that Office must do sacrifice to the gods and entertain the people with several kinds of Sights Plays and Sports which could not be managed without murders and the exercise of all lust and filthiness whereby they did double and treble their sin as that Council speaks If a Christian in that Office did but allow the charges to maintain those Sports and Sights although he did not actually sacrifice which he might avoid by substituting a Gentile Priest in his room he was indeed to be taken into communion at last but was to undergo a very severe penance for it all his life Nay although he did neither of the former yet if he did but wear a Crown a thing usually done by the Heathen Priests he was to be excluded from communion for two years together If a Christian went up to the Capitol probably out of curiosity only to see the sacrifices of the Gentiles and did not see them yet he should be as guilty as if he had seen them his intention and will being the same as the learned Albaspine and I think truly understands the Canon and in such a case if the person was one of the faithful he was not to be received till after ten years repentance Every Master of a Family was commanded to suffer no little Idols or Images to be kept in his house to be worshipped by his Children or Servants but if this could not be done without danger of being betrayed and accused by his Servants a thing not unusual in those times that then at least he himself should abstain from them otherwise to be thrown out of the Church Being imbued with such principles and train'd up under such a discipline as this 't is no wonder if they would do or suffer any thing rather than comply with the least symptom of Idolatry they willingly underwent banishment and confiscation amongst several of which sort Caldonius tells Cyprian of one Bona who being violently drawn by her Husband to sacrifice they by force guiding her hand to do it cryed out and protested against it that 't was not she but they that did it and was thereupon sent into banishment They freely laid down their greatest honours and dignities rather than by any idolatrous act to offer violence to their consciences Whereof Constantius the Father of Constantine made this wise experiment he gave out that all the Officers and great men of the Court should either do sacrifice to the gods or immediately quit his service and the Offices and preferments which they held under him whereupon many turned about while others remained firm and unshaken upon this the prudent and excellent Prince discovered his Plot embraced commended and advanced to greater honours those who were faithful to their Religion and their conscience reproaching and turning off those who were so ready to quit and forfeit them Thus Jovianus a man of considerable note and quality and an Officer of great place in Julian's Army when the Emperour sent out his Edict that all the Souldiers should either sacrifice or lay down their Arms presently threw away his belt rather than obey that impious command though the Emperour at that time for reasons of State would not suffer him to depart And after the death of Julian when by the unanimous vote of the whole Army he was chosen Emperour he utterly refused it 'till the Army had renounced their Pagan idolatry and superstition And though 't is true that life is dearest to men of all things in this world yet how chearfully did they chuse rather to shed their blood than to defile their consciences with Idolatry of which Eusebius gives us many instances and indeed this was the common test in those times either sacrifice or die Phileas Bishop of Thmuis in a Letter to his people giving them an account of the martyrdoms that hapned at Alexandria tells them that many after having endured strange and unheard of torments were put to their choice whether they would sacrifice and be set at liberty or refuse and lose their heads whereupon all of them without any hesitation readily went to embrace death knowing well how the Scripture is that whoever sacrifices to strange gods shall be cut off and again thou shalt have no other gods but me And in the next Chapter Eusebius tells us of a whole City of Christians in Phrygia which together with all the men women and children was burnt to ashes for no other reason but because they universally confessed themselves to be Christians and refused to obey those that commanded them to worship Idols instances of which kind there are enough to be met with in the Histories of the Church And so fix'd and unmoveable were they in this that no promises or hopes of reward no fears or threatnings could either tempt or startle them memorable a passage or two that we meet withal to this purpose it was a custom amongst the Romans to show some respect and honour not only to the Emperours themselves but even to their Statues and Images by bowing the body or some other act of external veneration Now Julian the Emperour whose great design was to reduce
and circumstances of it as will easily appear if we consider what care they had about the place time persons and both the matter and manner of that Worship that they performed to God under each of which we shall take notice of what is most considerable and does most properly relate to it so far as the Records of those times give us an account of it Place is an inseparable circumstance of Religious Worship for every body by the natural necessity of its being requires some determinate place either for rest or motion now the Worship of God being in a great part an external action especially when performed by the joint concurrence of several persons does not only necessarily require a place but a place conveniently capacious of all that join together in the same publick actions of Religion This reason put all Nations even by the light of Nature upon erecting publick places for the honour of their gods and for their own conveniency in meeting together to pay their religious services and devotions But my present enquiry reaches no farther than the Primitive Christians not whether they met together for the discharge of their common duties which I suppose none can doubt of but whether they had Churches fixed and appropriate places for the joint performance of their publick offices And that they had even in those early times will I think be beyond all dispute if we take but a short survey of those first Ages of Christianity in the sacred Story we find some more than probable footsteps of some determinate places for their solemn conventions and peculiar only to that use Of this nature was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vpper Room into which the Apostles and Disciples after their return from the ascension of our Saviour went up as into a place commonly known and separate to that use there by fasting and prayer to make choice of a new Apostle and this supposed by a very ancient tradition to have been the same room wherein our Saviour the night before his death celebrated the Passover with his Disciples and instituted the Lords Supper Such a one if not which I rather think the same was that one place wherein they were all assembled with one accord upon the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost visibly came down upon them and this the rather because the multitude and they too strangers of every Nation under heaven came so readily to the place upon the first rumour of so strange an accident which could hardly have been had it not been commonly known to be the place where the Christians used to meet together and this very learned men take to be the meaning of that Act. 2. 46. they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as we render it from house to house but at home as 't is in the margin or in the house they ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart i.e. when they had performed their daily devotions at the Temple at the accustomed hours of prayer they used to return home to this Vpper Room there to celebrate the holy Eucharist and then go to their ordinary meals this seems to be a clear and unforc'd interpretation and to me the more probable because it immediately follows upon their assembling together in that one place at the day of Pentecost which Room is also called by the same name of house at the second Verse of that Chapter and 't is no ways unlikely as M. Mede conjectures but that when the first Believers sold their Houses and Lands and laid the money at the Apostles feet to supply the necessities of the Church some of them might give their houses at least some eminent Room in them for the Church to meet and perform their sacred duties which also may be the reason why the Apostles writing to particular Christians speaks so often of the Church that was in their house which seems clearly to intimate not so much the particular persons of any private Family living together under the same band of Christian discipline as that in such or such a house and more especially in this or that room of it there was the constant and solemn convention of the Christians of that place for their joynt celebration of divine Worship And this will be farther cleared by that famous passage of S. Paul where taxing the Corinthians for their irreverence and abuse of the Lords Supper one greedily eating before another and some of them to great excess What says he have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God Where that by Church is not meant the Assembly meeting but the place in which they used to assemble is evident partly from what went before for their coming together in the Church verse 18. is expounded by their coming together into one place verse 20. plainly arguing that the Apostle meant not the persons but the place partly from the opposition which he makes between the Church and their own private houses if they must have such irregular Banquets they had houses of their own where 't was much fitter to do it and to have their ordinary repast than in that place which was set apart for the common exercises of Religion and therefore ought not to be dishonoured by such extravagant and intemperate feastings for which cause he enjoins them in the close of that Chapter that if any man hunger he should eat at home And that this place was always thus understood by the Fathers of old were no hard matter to make out as also by most learned men of later times of which it shall suffice to intimate two of our own men of great name and learning who have done it to great satisfaction Thus stood the case during the Apostles times for the Ages after them we find that the Christians had their fixed and definite places of Worship especially in the second Century as had we no other evidence might be made good from the testimony of the Authour of that Dialogue in Lucian if not Lucian himself of which I see no great cause to doubt who lived under the Reign of Trajan and who expresly mentions that House or Room wherein the Christians were wont to assemble together And Clemens in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians assures us that Christ did not only appoint the times when the persons by whom but the places where he would be solemnly served and worshipped And Justin Martyr expresly affirms that upon Sunday all Christians whether in Town or Country used to assemble together in one place which could hardly be done had not that place been fixed and setled the same we find afterwards in several places of Tertullian who speaks of their coming into the Church and the House of God which he elsewhere calls the House of our Dove i.e. our innocent and Dove-like Religion and
and in the case of persecution he tells Fabius that if they could not celebrate Dominica solennia their Lords-Day Solemnities in the day time they had the night sufficiently clear with the light of Christ This gave occasion to their spightful Adversaries to calumniate and asperse them the Heathen in Minucius charges them with their night-Congregations upon which account they are there scornfully called latebrosa lucifugax natio an obscure and skulking Generation and the very first thing that Celsus objects is that the Christians had private and clancular Assemblies or Combinations to which Origen answers that if it were so they might thank them for it who would not suffer them to exercise it more openly that the Christian Doctrine was sufficiently evident and obvious and better known through the world than the opinion and sentiments of their best Philosophers and that if there were some mysteries in the Christian Religion which were not communicated to every one 't was no other thing than what was common in the several Sects of their own Philosophy But to return They looked upon the Lords-Day as a time to be celebrated with great expressions of joy as being the happy memory of Christs resurrection and accordingly restrained whatever might savour of sorrow and sadness fasting on that day they prohibited with the greatest severity accounting it utterly unlawful as Tertullian informs us It was a very bitter censure that of Ignatius or whoseever that Epistle was for certainly it was not his that who ever fasts on a Lords-Day is a murderer of Christ however 't is certain that they never fasted on those days no not in the time of Lent it self nay the Montanists though otherwise great pretenders to fasting and mortification did yet abstain from it on the Lords-day And as they accounted it a joyful and good day so they did what ever they thought might contribute to the honour of it No sooner was Constantine come over to the Church but his principal care was about the Lords-day he commanded it to be solemnly observed and that by all persons whatsoever he made it to all a day of rest that men might have nothing to do but to worship God and be better instructed in the Christian Faith and spend their whole time without any thing to hinder them in prayer and devotion according to the custom and discipline of the Church and for those in his Army who yet remained in their Paganism and infidelity he commanded them upon Lords-days to go out into the Fields and there pour out their souls in hearty prayers to God and that none might pretend their own inability to the duty he himself composed and gave them a short form of prayer which he enjoin'd them to make use of every Lords-Day so careful was he that this day should not be dishonoured or mis-imployed even by those who were yet strangers and enemies to Christianity He moreover ordained that there should be no Courts of Judicature open upon this day no Suits or Tryals at Law but that for any works of mercy such as the emancipating and setting free of Slaves or Servants this might be done That there should be no Suits nor demanding debts upon this day was confirmed by several Laws of succeeding Emperours and that no Arbitrators who had the Umpirage of any business lying before them should at that time have power to determine or take up litigious causes penalties being entail'd upon any that transgressed herein Theodosius the Great anno 386. by a second Law ratified one which he had passed long before wherein he expresly prohibited all publick Shews upon the Lords-Day that the worship of God might not be confounded with those prophane Solemnities This Law the younger Theodosius some few years after confirmed and enlarged enacting that on the Lords day and some other Festivals there mentioned not only Christians but even Jews and Heathens should be restrained from the pleasure of all Sights and Spectacles and the Theatres be shut up in every place and whereas it might so happen that the Birth-day or inauguration of the Emperour might fall upon that day therefore to let the people know how infinitely he preferred the honour of God before the concerns of his own majesty and greatness he commanded that if it should so happen that then the imperial Solemnity should be put off and deferred till another day I shall take notice but of one instance more of their great observance of this day and that was their constant attendance upon the Solemnities of publick Worship they did not think it enough to read and pray and praise God at home but made conscience of appearing in the publick Assemblies from which nothing but sickness and absolute necessity did detain them and if sick or in prison or under banishment nothing troubled them more than that they could not come to Church and join their devotions to the common Services If persecution at any time forced them to keep a little close yet no sooner was there the least mitigation but they presently returned to their open duty and publickly met all together No trivial pretences no light excuses were then admitted for any ones absence from the Congregation but according to the merit of the cause severe censures were passed upon them The Synod of Illiberis provided that if any man dwelling in a City where usually Churches were nearest hand should for three Lords Days absent himself from the Church he should for some time be suspended the Communion that he might appear to be corrected for his fault They allowed no separate Assemblies no Congregations but what met in the publick Church if any man took upon him to make a breach and to draw people into corners he was presently condemned and a sutable penalty put upon him When Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia a man petending to great strictness and austerity of life began to cast off the Discipline of the Church and to introduce many odd observations of his own amongst others to contemn Priests that were married to fast on the Lords day and to keep meetings in private houses drawing away many but especially women as the Historian observes who leaving their Husbands were led away with errour and from that into great filthiness and impurity No sooner did the Bishops of those parts discover it but meeting in Council at Gangra the Metropolis of Paphlagonia about the year 340. they condemned and cast them out of the Church passing these two Canons among the rest If any one shall teach that the House of God is to be despised and the assemblies that are held in it let him be accursed If any shall take upon him out of the Church privately to preach at home and making light of the Church shall do those things that belong only to the Church without the presence of the Priest and the leave and allowance of the Bishop let him be accursed
advice in the cause that to do as he did When I come to Rome said he I fast on the Saturday as they do at Rome when I am here I do not fast So likewise you to whatsoever Church you come observe the custom of that place if you mean not either to give or take offence With this answer he satisfied his Mother and ever after when he thought of it looked upon it as an Oracle sent from Heaven So that even in Italy the Saturday Fast was not universally observed Nay a very learned man and a Bishop of the Roman Church thinks it highly probable that for the first Ages especially Saturday was no more kept as a Fast at Rome than in the Churches of the East though the great argument whereby he would establish it viz. because some Latine Churches who must needs follow the pattern of the Church of Rome did not keep it so is very infirm and weak and needs no more than that very instance of the Church of Millain to refute it which though under the Popes nose did not yet keep that day as a Fast although this was many years after it had been so established and observed at Rome And now that I am got into this business I shall once for all dispatch the matter about their Fasts before I proceed to their other Festivals 'T is certain the ancient Christians had two sorts of solemn Fasts weekly and annual Their weekly Fasts called Jejunia quartae sextae seriae were kept upon Wednesdays and Fridays appointed so as we are told for this reason because on Wednesday our Lord was betrayed by Judas on Friday he was crucified by the Jews This custom Epiphanius how truly I know not refers to the Apostles and elsewhere tells us that those days were observed as Fasts through the whole world These Fasts they called their Stations not because they stood all the while but by an allusion to the military Stations and keeping their Guards as Tertullian observes they kept close at it and they usually lasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius informs us till the ninth hour i. e. till three of the Clock in the Afternoon at which time having ended their Fast devotions they received the Eucharist and then broke up the Station and went home whence it is that Tertullian calls them stationum semijejunia the half Fasts of Stations and he seems to censure the practice of some who having privately resolved upon an entire Fast of the whole day refused to receive the Eucharist at the publick stationary Fasts because they thought that by eating and drinking the sacramental Elements they put a period to their fasting for it was usual in those times with many after the stationary Fasts were ended to continue and hold on the Fast until the evening The Historian tells us that it had been a very ancient custom in the Church of Alexandria upon these days to have the Scriptures read and expounded and all other parts of Divine Service except the celebration of the Sacrament and that it was chiefly in those days that Origen was wont to teach the people whether the omitting of the Sacrament then might be a peculiar custom to that Church I know not certain I am 't was upon those days administred in other places So S. Basil enumerating the times how oft they received it every week expresly puts Wednesday and Friday into the number The remains of these primitive Stations are yet observed in our Church at this day which by her 15. Canon has ordained That though Wednesdays and Fridays be not holy days yet that weekly upon those times Minister and People shall resort to Church at the accustomed hours of prayer Their Annual Fast was that of Lent by way of preparation to the Feast of our Saviours Resurrection this though not in the modern use of it was very ancient though far from being an◠Apostolical Canon as a learned Prelate of our Church has fully proved From the very first Age of the Christian Church 't was customary to fast before Easter but for how long it was variously observed according to different times and places some fasting so many days others so many weeks and some so many days on each week and 't is most probably thought that it was at first stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima not because 't was a Fast of forty days but of forty hours begun about twelve on Friday the time of our Saviours falling under the power of death and continued till Sunday morning the time of his rising from the dead Afterwards it was enlarged to a longer time drawn out into more days and then weeks till it came to three and at last to six or seven weeks But concerning the different observations of it in several places let them who desire to know more consult Socrates and Sozomen who both speak enough about it This Quadragesimal Fast was kept in those times with great piety and Religion people generally applying themselves with all seriousness to acts of penance and mortification whence Chrysostom calls Lent the remedy and Physick of our souls and to the end that the observation of it might be more grave and solemn Theodosins M. and his Colleague Emperours passed two Laws that during the time of Lent all Process and enquiry into criminal actions should be suspended and no corporal punishments inflicted upon any it being unfit as the second of those Laws expresses it that in the holy time of Lent the body should suffer punishment while the soul is expecting absolution But with what care soever they kept the preceeding parts 't is certain they kept the close of it with a mighty strictness and austerity I mean the last week of it that which immediately preceded the Feast of Easter this they consecrated to more peculiar acts of prayer abstinence and devotion and whereas in the other parts of Lent they ended their fast in the evening in this they extended it to the Cock-crowing or first glimpse of the morning to be sure they ended it not before midnight for to break up the Fast before that time was accounted a piece of great prophaneness and intemperance as Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria determines in a Letter to Basilides wherein he largely and learnedly states the case This was the Hebdomada Magna the great or holy week so called says Chrysostom not that it has either more hours or days in it than other weeks but because this is the week in which truly great and ineffable good things were purchased for us within this time death was conquered the curse destroyed the Devils tyranny dissolved his instruments broken Heaven opened Angels rejoyced the partition-wall broken down and God and man reconciled For this cause we call it the great week for this cause men fast and watch and do Alms to do the greater honour to it
the Emperours themselves to shew what veneration they have for this time commanding all Suits and Processes at Law to cease Tribunal-doors to be shut up and Prisoners to be set free imitating herein their great Lord and Master who by his death at this time delivered us from the prison and the chains of sin meaning herein those Laws of Theodosius Gratian and Valentinian which we lately mentioned We proceed now to enquire what other Festivals there were in those first Ages of the Church which I find to be chiefly these Easter Whitsuntide and Epiphany which comprehended two Christmass and Epiphany properly so called I reckon them not in their proper order but as I suppose them to have taken place in the Church Of these Easter challenges the precedence both for its antiquity and the great stir about it that in and from the very times of the Apostles besides the weekly returns of the Lords day there has been always observed an Anniversary Festival in memory of Christs Resurrection no man can doubt that has any insight into the affairs of the ancient Church all the dispute was about the particular time when it was to be kept which became a matter of as famous a Controversie as any that in those Ages exercised the Christian world The state of the case was briefly this the Churches of Asia the less kept their Easter upon the same day whereon the Jews celebrated their Passover viz. upon the 14. day of the first Month which always began with the appearance of the Moon mostly answering to our March and this they did upon what day of the week soever it fell and hence were stiled Quartodecimans because keeping Easter quarta decima Luna upon the 14. day after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appearance of the Moon The other Churches and especially those of the West did not follow this custom but kept Easter upon the Lords day following the day of the Jewish Passover partly the more to honour the day and partly to distinguish between Jews and Christians the Asiaticks pleaded for themselves the practice of the Apostles Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna who had lived and conversed with them having kept it upon that day together with S. John and the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus who himself knew Polycarpus and doubtless had it from his own mouth speaks in a Letter about this very thing though himself was of the other side And Polycrates in a Letter to the same purpose instances not only in S. John but S. Philip the Apostle who himself and his whole Family used so to keep it from whom it had been conveyed down in a constant and uninterrupted observance through all the Bishops of those places some whereof he there enumerates and tells us that seven Bishops of that place in a constant succession had been his Kinsmen and himself the eighth and that it had never been kept by them upon any other day this we are not so to understand as if S. John and the Apostles had instituted this Festival and commanded it to be observed upon that day but rather that they did it by way of condescension accommodating their practice in a matter indifferent to the humour of the Jewish Converts whose number in those parts was very great as they had done before in several other cases and particularly in observing the Sabbath or Saturday The other Churches also says Eusebius had for their patronage an Apostolical Tradition or at least pretended it and were the much more numerous party This difference was the spring of great bustles in the Church for the Bishops of Rome stickled hard to impose their custom upon the Eastern Churches whereupon Polycarpus comes over to Rome to confer with Anicetus who was then Bishop about it and though they could not agree the matter yet they parted fairly After this Pope Victor renewed the quarrel and was so fierce and peremptory in the case that he either actually did or as a learned man inclines rather to think probably to mollifie the odium of the Fact severely threatned to excommunicate those Eastern Churches for standing out against it this rash and bold attempt was ill resented by the sober and moderate men of his own party who writ to him about it and particularly Irenaeus a man as Eusebius notes truly answering his name both in his temper and his life quiet and peaceable who gravely reproved him for renting the peace of the Church and troubling so many famous Churches for observing the customs derived to them from their Ancestors with much more to the same purpose But the Asian Bishops little regarded what was either said or done at Rome and still went on in their old course though by the diligent practices of the other party they lost ground but yet still made shift to keep the cause on foot till the time of Constantine who finding this controversie amongst others much to disquiet the peace of the Church did for this and some other reasons summon the great Council of Nice by whom this question was solemnly determined Easter ordained to be kept upon one and the same day throughout the world not according to the custom of the Jews but upon the Lords day and this Decree ratified and published by the imperial Letters to all the Churches The Eve of Vigils or this Festival were wont to be celebrated with more than ordinary pomp with solemn watchings with multitudes of lighted Torches both in the Churches and their own private houses so as to turn the night it self into day and with the general resort and confluence of all ranks of men both Magistrates and people This custom of lights at that time was if not begun at least much augmented by Constantine who set up Lamps and Torches in all places as well within the Churches as without that through the whole City the night seemed to outvye the Sun at Noonday And this they did as Nazianzen intimates as a Prodromus or forerunner of that great light even the Sun of righteousness which the next day arose upon the world For the Feast it self the same Father calls it the holy and famous Passover a day which is the Queen of days the Festival of Festivals and which as far excels all other even of those which are instituted to the honour of Christ as the Sun goes beyond the other Stars A time it was famous for works of mercy and charity every one both of Clergy and Laity striving to contribute liberally to the poor a duty as one of the Ancients observes very congruous and sutable to that happy season for what more fit than that such as beg relief should be enabled to rejoice at that time when we remember the common fountain of our mercies Therefore no sooner did the morning of this day appear but Constantine used to arise and in imitation of the love and kindness of our blessed Saviour to bestow
Worship of God we are next to see wherein their Worship it self did consist which we shall consider both as private and publick that which they performed at home and that which was done in their solemn and Church-Assemblies only let it be remembred that under the notion of Worship I here comprehend all those duties of piety that refer to God the duties of their private worship were of two sorts either such as were more solemn and stated and concerned the whole Family or such as persons discharged alone or at least did not tye up themselves to usual times For the first which are properly Family duties they were usually performed in this order at their first rising in the morning they were wont to meet together and to betake themselves to prayer as is plainly implied in Chrysostoms exhortation to praise God for the protection and refreshment of the night and to beg his grace and blessing for the following day this was done by the Master of the house unless some Minister of Religion were present 't is probable that at this time they recited the Creed or some confession of their Faith by which they professed themselves Christians and as 't were armed themselves against the assaults of dangers and temptations however I question not but that now they read some parts of Scripture which they were most ready to do at all times and therefore certainly would not omit it now That they had their set hours for prayer the third sixth and ninth hour is plain both from Cyprian Clem. Alexandrinus and others this they borrowed from the Jews who divided the day into four greater hours the first third sixth and ninth hour three last whereof were stated hours of prayer the first hour began at six in the morning and held till nine the third from nine till twelve and at this hour it was that the Apostles and Christians were met together when the Holy Ghost descended upon them the sixth hour was from twelve till three in the afternoon and at this time Peter went up to the house top to pray the ninth was from three till six at night and now it was that Peter and John went up to the Temple it being the ninth hour of prayer this division was observed by the Christians of succeeding times though whether punctually kept to in their Family devotions I am not able to affirm About noon before their going to dinner some portions of Scripture were read and the meat being set upon the Table a blessing was solemnly begged of God as the fountain of all blessings and so religious herein was the good Emperour Theodosius junior that he would never taste any meat no not so much as a Fig or any other Fruit before he had first given thanks to the great Soveraign Creator and both meat and drink set apart with the sign of the Cross a custom they used in the most common actions of life as is expresly affirmed both by Tertullian and Origen where he also gives a form of such prayers as they were wont to use before meals viz. that lifting up their eyes to Heaven they prayed thus Thou that givest food to all flesh grant that we may receive this food with thy blessing thou Lord hast said that if we drink any thing that is deadly if we call upon thy name it shall not hurt us thou therefore who art Lord of all power and glory turn away all evil and malignant quality from our food and what ever pernicious influence it may have upon us when they were at dinner they sung Hymns and Psalms a practice which Clem. Alexandrinus commends as very suitable to Christians as a modest and decent way of praising God while we are partaking of his Creatures Chrysostom greatly pleads for it that men should be careful to teach them their Wives and Children and which they should use even at their ordinary works but especially at meals such divine Songs being an excellent antidote against temptations for says he as the Devil is never more ready to ensnare us than at meals either by intemperance ease or immoderate mirth therefore both before and at meals we should fortifie our selves with Psalms nay and when we rise from the Table with our Wives and Children we should again sing Hymns to God They used also to have the Scriptures read and as I have elsewhere noted out of Nazianzen every time they took the Cup to drink made the sign of the Cross and called upon Christ Dinner being ended they concluded with prayer giving thanks to God for their present refreshment and begging his continued provision of those good things which he had promised to them So great a place had Religion in those days even in mens common and natural actions and so careful were they not to starve the soul while they were feeding of the body Much after the same rate they spent the rest of the day till the night approached when before their going to rest the Family was again called to prayer after which they went to bed about midnight they were generally wont to rise to pray and to sing hymns to God this custom was very ancient and doubtless took its original from the first times of persecution when not daring to meet together in the day they were forced to keep their religious Assemblies in the night and though this was afterwards antiquated as being found inconvenient for the generality of Christians yet did it still continue in the nocturnal hours of Monasteries and religious Orders But besides these stated and ordinary devotions performed by a joint concurrence of the Family the Christians of those days were careful to spend all the time they could even when alone in actions of peity and religion they were most frequent in prayer Eusebius reports of S. James the just that he was wont every day to go alone into the Church and there kneeling upon the pavement so long to pour out his prayers to God till his knees became as hard and brawny as a Camels the same which Nazianzen also tells us of his good Sister Gorgonia that by often praying her knees were become hard and did as 't were stick to the ground Constantine the Great though burdened with the cares of so vast an Empire did yet every day at his wonted hours withdraw from all the company of the Court retire into his Closet and upon his knees offer up his prayers to God and to let the world know how much he was devoted to this duty he caused his Image in all his Gold Coins in his Pictures and Statues to be represented in the posture of a person praying with his hands spread abroad and his eyes lift up to Heaven Their next care was diligently and seriously to read the Scripture to be mighty in the Divine Oracles as indeed they had an invaluable esteem of and reverence for the Word
love of Christ 't is more than probable they communicated every day or as oft as they came together for publick Worship insomuch that the Canons Apostolical and the Synod of Antioch threaten every one of the Faithful with Excommunication who came to Church to hear the holy Scriptures but stay not to participate of the Lords Supper the eye of their minds was then almost wholly fixed upon the memory of their crucified Saviour and the oftner they fed at his table the stronger and healthier they found themselves and the more able to encounter with those fierce oppositions that were made against them This custom of receiving the Sacrament every day continued some considerable time in the Church though in some places longer than in others especially in the Western Churches from Cyprian we are fully assured 't was so in his time We receive the Eucharist every day says he as the food that nourishes us to Salvation The like S. Ambrose seems to intimate of Milan whereof he was Bishop nay and after him S. Hierom tells us 't was the custom of the Church of Rome and S. Augustine seems pretty clearly to intimate that it was not unusual in his time In the Churches of the East this custom wore off sooner though more or less according as the primitive zeal did abate and decay S. Basil telling us that in his time they communicated four times a week on the Lords-day Wednesday Friday and Saturday yea and upon other days too if the memory or festival of any Martyr fell upon them Afterwards as the power of Religion began more sensibly to decline and the commonness of the thing begat some contempt Manna it self was slighted after once it was rained down every day this Sacrament was more rarely frequented and from once a day it came to once or twice a week and then fell to once a month and after for the most part to thrice a year at the three great Solemnities of Christmas Easter and Whitsontide to so great a coldness and indifferency did the piety and devotion of Christians grow after once the true primitive temper and spirit of the Gospel had left the World Concerning the third circumstance the Place where this holy Supper was kept much need not be said it being a main part of their publick Worship always performed in the place of their religious Assemblies 'T was instituted by our Saviour in a private house because of its Analogie to the Jewish Passover and because the necessity of that time would not otherwise admit by the Apostles and Christians with them 't was celebrated in the houses of Believers generally in an upper room set apart by the bounty of some Christian for the uses of the Church and which as I have formerly proved was the constant separate place of religious Worship for all the Christians that dwelt thereabouts Under the severities of great persecutions they were forced to fly to the mountains or to their Cryptae or Vaults under ground and to celebrate this Sacrament at the Tombs of Martyrs and over the Ashes of the dead Churches growing up into some beauty and regularity several parts of the divine offices began to have several places assigned to them the Communion-service being removed to the upper or East end of the Church and there performed upon a table of wood which afterwards was changed into one of stone and both of them not uncommonly though metaphorically by the Fathers styled Altars and the Eucharist it self in later times especially the Sacrament of the Altar This place was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was fenced in with Rails within which the Clergie received the Sacrament as the Laity did without Here it was that they all used to meet at this heavenly Banquet for out of this place they allowed not the celebration of the Sacrament a thing expresly forbidden by the Laodicean Council unless in cases of great necessity and therefore 't was one of the principal Articles for which the Synod of Gangra deposed Eustathius from his Bishoprick that he kept private Meetings perswading some that were averse to the publick Assemblies of the Church that they might communicate and receive the Sacrament at home We come last of all to consider the Manner how the Eucharist was celebrated in the ancient Church but before we describe that we are to take notice that after the Service of the Catechumens and before the beginning of that of the Faithful at which the Eucharist was administred the custom was to present their offerings every one according to his ability bringing some gift as the first-fruits of his increase which was by the Minister laid upon the Altar or Communion-table none of them then thinking it fit to appear before the Lord empty and therefore S. Cyprian severely chides a rich Widow of his time who came without giving any thing to the poor mans Box and did partake of their offerings without bringing any offering of her own These Obleations were designed to the uses of the Church for the maintenance of the Ministry and the relief of the Poor especially out of them were taken the Bread and the Wine for the Sacramental Elements the bread being no other than common bread such as served for their ordinary uses there being then no notice taken of what has for so many hundred years and still is to this day fiercely disputed between the Greek and the Latine Church whether it ought to be leavened or unleavened bread Out of these oblations also 't is probable they took at least sent provisions extraordinary to furnish the common Feast which in those days they constantly had at the celebration of the Sacrament where the rich and the poor feasted together at the same Table These were called Agapae or Love-feasts mentioned by S. Jude and plainly enough intimated by S. Paul because hereat they testified and confirmed their mutual love and kindness a thing never more proper than at the celebration of the Lords Supper which is not only a Seal of our peace with God but a sign and a pledge of our Communion and fellowship with one another Whether this Banquet was before or after the celebration of the Eucharist is not easie to determine 't is probable that in the Apostles time and the Age after them it was before it in imitation of our Saviours institution who celebrated the Sacrament after supper and S. Paul taxing the abuses of the Church of Corinth reproves them That when they came together for the Lords Supper they did not one tarry for another but every one took his own supper i. e. that provision which he had brought from home for the common feast which was devoured with great irregularity and excess some eating and drinking all they brought others the poor especially that came late having nothing left one being hungry and another drunken all this 't is plain was done
manner of his being born into the world common with other men were to uncover what shame and modesty require should be conceal'd in the profoundest silence And dost thou not blush thou statue of earth who art shortly to be crumbled into dust who bubble-like containest within thee a short-liv'd humour dost thou not blush to swell with pride and arrogance and to have thy mind stuffed with vain idle thoughts Hast thou no regard to the double term of mans life how it begun and where it will end Thou pridest thy self in thy juvenile age and flatterest thy self in the flower the beauty and sprightliness of thy youth that thy hands are ready for action and thy feet apt to dance nimble measures that thy locks are wav'd by the wanton motions of the wind and a soft down overgrows thy cheeks that thy purple-robes put the very roses to the blush and thy silken vestures are variegated with rich embroidery of of battels huntings or pieces of ancient history or brought down to the feet artificially set off with black and curiously made fast with strings and buttons These are the things thou look'st at without any regard to thy self But let me a little as in a glass shew thee thy own face who and what thou art Hast thou not seen in a publick Charnel-house the unvailed mysteries of humane nature bones rudely thrown upon heaps naked skulls with hollow eye-holes yielding a dreadful and deformed spectacle Hast thou not beheld their grinning mouths and gastly looks and the rest of their members carelesly dispersed and scattered If thou hast beheld such sights as these in them thou hast seen thy self Where then will be the signes of thy present beauty that good complexion that adorns thy cheeks and the colour of thy lips that frightful Majesty and supercilious loftiness that once resided in thine eyes or thy nose that once beautifully grac'd thy cheeks Where are thy locks that were wont to reach thy shoulders the curles that used to adorn thy temples What are become of those arms that used to draw the bow those leggs that used to bestride thy horses Where 's the purple the silken garments the long robe the belt the spurs the horse the race the noise and pransings and all the rest of those things that now add fuel to thy pride Tell me where then will those things be upon the account whereof thou dost now so much boast and bear up thy self Was there ever any dream so fond and inconstant any thing more phantastick that ever appeared to a man asleep What shadow was ever so thin so incapable of being grasp'd within the hollow of the hand as this dream of youth which at once appears and immediately vanishes away Thus the Holy Man treats the young vapouring gallant and levels his pride with the sober considerations of mortality In his following discourse he deals with persons of riper years and such as are in places of authority and power and shews how absurd and uncomely pride is in them which it might not be impertinent to represent but fearing to be tedious I forbear CHAP. II. Of their Heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the World The Soul rightly constituted naturally tends upwards especially when assisted with the aids of Religion The first Christians much above the World Not wrought upon by temptations of advantage They accounted it the greatest honour to be Christians Contented with a very mean portion of outward things The story of some of our Saviours Kindred brought before Domitian The Sect of the Apostolici and Apotactici the Fathers of the Mendicant Orders in the Church of Rome The little care which Christians then had of rich furniture and costly provisions Their denying to go to publick feasts and sports made for the pleasure of the people This charged upon them by the Heathens The case of the woman that was seiz'd upon by an evil spirit while she was at the Theatre Their chearful parting with any worldly comforts Estate Relations c. A strange Heroick speech of Melania at the loss of her Husband and two Sons mentioned by St. Hierom. Eager for Martyrdom as what would presently send them to Heaven Their frequent supporting themselves under sufferingâ—s with discourses of the Kingdom above Thence accus'd as treasonable affectors of the Empire Their contempt of the world much promoted by the opinion that the day of judgement was near at hand Christians in the world like sojourners in a strange Country THe Soul of man being Heaven-born cannot but partake of the nature and disposition of that Country and have a Native inclination to that place from whence it borrows its Original And though 't is true in this corrupt and degenerate state it is deeply sunk into matter clogg'd and overborn with the earthly and sensual propensions of the lower appetites the desires and designs of men creeping up and down like shadows upon the surface of the earth yet does it often especially when assisted with the aids of Religion attempt its own rescue and release The mind of a good man is acted by manly and generous impulses it dwells in the Contemplations of the upper Region tramples upon those little projects of profit or pleasure which ensnare and enslave other men and makes all its designs subservient to the interests of a better Country A temper of mind never more triumphant in any than in the Christians of old whose Conversations were in Heaven and whose spirits breath'd in too free an air to be caught with the charms of the best enjoyments this world could afford They looked upon the delights and advantages of this life as things not worthy to arrest their affections in their journey to a better Justin Martyr discoursing with Trypho the Jew tells him that they were careful with all fear to converse with men according to the Scriptures not greedily desiring to gain Riches or Glory or Pleasure to themselves concerning any of which no man could lay any thing to their charge and that they did not live like the great men of his people of whom God himself has left this reproachful character That their Princes were companions of thieves every one loving gifts and following after rewards Nay Trypho himself bears them this testimony though doubtless he intended it as a reproach to them that having from a vain report chosen Christ to be their Master they did for his sake foolishly undervalue and throw away all the enjoyments and advantages of this world Amongst us says Tatian there is no affectation of vain-glory no diversity of sentiments and opinions but separating our selves from all vulgar and earthly thoughts and discourses and having given up our selves to the commands of God to be govern'd by his Law we abandon whatever seems but a-kin to humane glory They never met with opportunities to have advantaged and enriched themselves but they declined and turned them off with a noble scorn When Abgarus the Toparch of Edessa offered
and professors of vowed poverty which swarm so much in the Church of Rome at this day But to return The Christians of those dayes did not study those Arts of splendor and gallantry which have since over-run the world stately Palaces costly furniture rich hangings fine tables curious beds vessels of Gold and Silver the very possession of which as Clemens Alexandrinus speaks creates envy they are rare to get hard to keep and it may be not so accommodate to use Will not a knife cut as well says he though it have not an Ivory-haft or be not garnished with silver or an earthen bason serve to wash the hands will not the table hold our provisions unless its feet be made of Ivory or the Lamp give its light though made by a Potter as well as if 't were the work of the Goldsmith may not a man sleep as well upon a mean couch as upon a bed of Ivory upon a Goats skin as well as upon a purple or Phoenician carpet Our Lord ate his meat out of a common dish made his followers sit upon the grass and washed his Disciples feet without ever fetching down a silver bowle from Heaven he took the water which the Samaritaness had drawn in an earthen pitcher not requiring one of gold shewing how easie it was to quench his thirst for he respected the use not the vain and superfluous state of things This and much more he there urges to this excellent purpose to let us see how little a Christian need be beholden to the world if he be content with what 's enough for the necessary uses of humane life To this let me annex some part of that discourse which Gregory Nyssen has upon this subject The fluid and transitory condition of mans life says he calls for a daily reparation of the decays of nature he therefore that looks no further than to minister to the desires of nature and troubles not himself with vain anxious thoughts for more than 's necessary lives little less than the life of Angels whilst by a mind content with little he imitates their want of nothing For this cause we are commanded to seek only what 's enough to keep the body in its due state and temper and thus to address our Prayers to God give us our daily bread Give us bread not delicacies or riches not splendid and purple vestures or rich golden ornaments not Pearls and Jewels silver vessels large fields and great possessions not the government of Armies the conduct of Wars and disposal of Nations not numerous flocks and herds of cattle or multitudes of slaves and servants not splendor and gallantry in publick not marble pillars or brazen statues or silken Carpets or quires of Musick or any of those things by which the soul is diverted and drawn from more Noble and Divine thoughts and cares But only Bread which indeed is the true and common staff of mans life Nor were they more studious of pleasures and recreations abroad than they were of fineness and bravery at home They went not to publick feasts nor frequented the shews that were made for the disport and entertainment of the people and this was so notorious that the Heathens charg'd it upon them as part of their Crime Observe how he in Minutius Foelix draws it up The Romans says he govern and enjoy the world while you in the mean time are careful and mopish abstaining even from lawful pleasures you visit not the shews nor are present at the pomps nor frequent the publick feasts you abhor the holy games the sacrificial meats and drinks crown not your heads with Garlands nor perfume your bodies with sweet odours a ghastly fearful and miserable people which by that time that Octavius the Christian comes to answer he grants it all to be true and tells him there was very good reason why they should abstain from their shews pomps and divertisements at which they could not be present without great sin and shame without affronting their modesty and offering a distast and horrour to their minds and indeed they reckon'd themselves particularly oblig'd to this by what they had vow'd and undertaken at their baptism when they solemnly engaged to renounce the Devil and all his works pomps and pleasures i. e. says St. Cyril the sights and sports of the Theatre and such like vanities The truth is they look'd upon the publick sports and pastimes of those dayes as the Scenes not only of folly and lewdness but of great impiety and Idolatry as places where the Devil eminently rul'd and reckon'd all his Votaries that came thither Accordingly Tertullian tells us of a Christian woman who going to the Theatre was there possessed by the Devil and when the Evil Spirit at his casting out was ask'd how he durst set upon a Christian he presently answered I did but what was fit and just for I found her upon my own ground Being thus affected towards the world they could very willingly part with any thing that was dearest to them Friends Estate Liberty or Life it self We are not mov'd says one of their Apologists with the loss of our Estates which our enemies wrest from us nor with the violence that 's offer'd to our credit and reputation or if there be any thing of greater concernment than these for although these things are mightily priz'd and valued amongst men yet can we despise and sleight them nay we cannot only when beaten refrain from striking again and make no resistance against those that invade and spoil us but to them that smite one cheek we can turn the other and to them that take away the coat we can let them take the cloak also And I remember Nazianzen tells us that of those excellencies and endowments which God had given him health wealth esteem and eloquence he reaped this only benefit that he had something which he could contemn and by which he could shew that he infinitely valued Christ before them The greatest endearment of this life is Relations and yet these too they could quietly resign when God called for them Memorable it is what St. Hierom reports of Melania a Lady of great Piety in his time in whose commendation Paulinus Bishop of Nola spends a very large Epistle especially commending her for her generous and heroick mind tam viriliter Christiana that she was something above a woman and had the Masculine spirit of a Christian of this Lady St. Hierom tells us that her Husband lying dead by her she lost two of her sons at the same time and when every one expected that she should break out into a violent passion tear her hair rent her garments and burst into tears she stood still and at last falling down as 't were at the feet of Christ broke out into this pious and Christian resentment Lord I shall serve thee more nimbly and readily by being eased of the weight thou
than at others to the advantageous use of a thing respect being to be had not only to the thing it self but to the time occasion and manner of it that therefore our meals for the main should be light and easie not mixed with variety of dainties but such as may prepare for fasting and the exercises of Religion Upon this account S. Cyprian in an Epistle wherein he gives directions about Prayer advises them and to make the counsel more effectual tells them that he was warn'd of it by immediate revelation from God to eat and drink soberly and sparingly that outward snares might not enfeeble that heavenly vigour and sprightliness that was in their breasts lest their minds being over-charged with too plentiful meals might be less watchful unto prayer The same counsel S. Hierom gives to Laeta about the Education of her Daughter that her diet should be thin and mean and that she should never eat more than she might arise with some appetite so as that after meals she might be presently fit either to read or sing Psalms When at any time invited to publick solemnities as marriages and the like the prudence of the Church thought fit to lay restraints upon them and to forbid them light and ludicrous actions as leaping or dancing but that they shoud dine and sup gravely and modestly as becomes Christians The chief care of Christians then was to become partakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus styles it of that divine food that is from above and that only is capable to give real satisfaction little regarding what provisions they had so they had but any for that part that dwelt here below When Julian the Emperour to raise money for his Wars began to squeeze and oppress the Christians he sent amongst others to S. Basil who had formerly been his fellow-student at Athens for one thousand pounds the answer he sends him was that it could not be expected there where he had not so much provision before-hand as would serve for one day that there were no arts of cookery at his house nor knives stain'd with the blood of slaughtered provisions that his greatest dainties were a few pot-herbs a piece of bread and a little soure vapid wine no such exceedings as to stupifie his senses with fumes arising from a loaded stomach and to render them incapable to discharge their functions through intemperance and excess Chrysostom commends Olympias not more for the modesty of her Garb than the meanness and sobriety of her diet to which she had so us'd her self that she had got the perfect mastery over all undue appetites and inclinations and had not only bridled the horse but tamed and reduced him into an intire subjection and taught her stomach to receive only so much meat and drink as was enough to keep her alive and in health This indeed was the great end of their signal abstinence in those days that by subduing the flesh they might keep the stricter hand over the inordinate motions of corrupt nature When Celsus accused the Jews and in them obliquely the Christians for needlessly abstaining from swines flesh and some other sorts of food affirming this to be no such great matter when the Pythagoreans wholly abstain'd from eating any living creature who yet were never thought the better or the more dear to God for it Origen answers that what-ever reason the Jews did it for God having appointed the difference this concern'd not Christians that 't is not what enters in at the mouth that defiles the man nor does meat commend us to God nor do we think this abstinence any such great matter nor yet do we so indulge the belly as to affect or pursue such delights that there 's a vast difference between us and the Pythagoreans in this affair they indeed abstain upon the account of their absurd and fabulous doctrine of the souls transmigration or passing out of one body into another and so forbear to kill or eat any living creature lest haply they may destroy and devour their own friends or children but we in all our abstinence do it only to keep under the body and to bring it into subjection endeavouring to mortifie the deeds of the body to expel and extinguish our members that are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection and every evil concupiscence and desire where he fully vindicates the Christians in their abstemiousness and temperance from doing it out of any vain and foolish affectation any nice and singular Opinion any base and sordid morose or unsociable temper they were careful to keep the mean and to avoid sordidness as well as Luxury nor did they profess themselves enemies to the provisions of humane life any further than as they were inconsistent with the ends of sobriety and religion As may appear from a memorable passage related by Eusebius out of the letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vien in France to those in Asia Alcibiades one of those who shortly after suffer'd Martyrdom had accustom'd himself to a very rigid and sordid kind of life rejecting all other sorts of food except only bread and water and this he did both before and after he was in prison which it seems had an ill influence upon others whereupon Attalus one of the most eminent of those famous Martyrs the day after his first being exposed in the Amphitheatre had it reveal'd to him for as yet says the Historian the Divine Grace had not withdrawn it self but they had the Holy Spirit as their immediate Councellour to instruct them which by the way may give countenance to those frequent visions and divine condescentions which Cyprian speaks of in his Epistles To this Attalus it was reveal'd that Alcidades did amiss in refusing to use the Creatures of God and in thereby giving a scandal and an offence to others upon which he laid aside his singularity and with all thankfulness to God promiscuously ate any kind of food From the whole of what has been said it 's very evident what little reason the Heathens had to accuse the Christians in their agapae or love-feasts especially of excess and prodigality for that they did Tertullian expresly affirms Our little suppers says he besides as being guilty of other wickedness they traduce as prodigal saying of us as Diogenes did of the people of Megara that they supp'd as if they meant to dye to morrow Nay what were infinitely horrid and barbarous they commonly charg'd them with Thyestean suppers and eating mans flesh To the first part of the charge concerning their prodigality Tertullian answers that they could easilier see a mote in anothers eye than a beam in their own if they look'd home they would find that 't was their own tribes and precincts wherein the very air was corrupted with the unsavoury fumes of their loaded tables and over-charged stomachs and yet all this was passed by and only the poor Christians
and I cannot sacrifice to your gods do therefore what you are commanded as for me in so just a cause there needs no consultation and when the sentence was pronounced against him he cried out I heartily thank Almighty God who is pleased to free me from the chains of this earthly carcass Had torments and the very extremities of cruelty been able to sink their Courage it had soon been trodden under foot but it was triumphant in the midst of torments and lift up its head higher the greater the loads that were layd upon it whereof there are instances enough in the Histories of the Church nay in this triumph even the weaker Sex bore no inconsiderable part Eusebius tells us among others that suffered in the French persecution under M. Aurelius of one Blandina a good woman but of whom the Church was afraid how she would hold out to make a resolute confession by reason of the weakness of her body and the tenderness of her education that when she came to 't she bore up with such invincible magnanimity that her tormentors though they took their turns from morning to night and plied her with all kinds of racks and tortures were yet forced to give over and confess themselves overcome and wondring that a body so broken and mangled should yet be able to draw its breath But this noble Athleta gain'd strength by suffering she eased and refreshed her self and mitigated the sense of present pain by repeating these words I am a Christian and No evil is done by us Nor did they only generously bear these things for the sake of their Religion when they were layd upon them but many times freely offered themselves confessing themselves to be Christians when they knew that their confession would cost their lives So did those noble Martyrs whom Eusebius saw at Thebais multitudes having been executed every day with all imaginable cruelties sentence was no sooner pass'd against one party of them but others presented themselves before the Tribunal and confessed that they were Christians receiving the fatal sentence with all possible expressions of chearfulness and rejoycing The same which he also reports of six young men that suffered in Palestine spontaneously addressing themselves to the Governour of the Province owning that they were Christians and ready to undergo the severest punishments In the Acts of S. Cyprian's passion we are told that the President having caus'd a mighty furnace to be filled with burning lime and fire with heaps of frankincense round about the brim of it gave the Christians this choice either to burn the frankincense in sacrifice to Jupiter or to be thrown into the furnace Whereupon three hundred men being arm'd with an unconquerable faith and confessing Christ to be the Son of God leaped into the midst of the fiery furnace with whose fumes and vapours they were immediately suffocated and swallowed up There wanted not some who in the hottest persecutions durst venture to undertake the cause of Christians and to plead it before the face of their bitterest enemies thus did Vettius Epagathus a man full of zeal and piety who seeing his fellow-Christians unjustly dragged before the Judgment-seat required leave of the President that he might plead his brethrens cause and openly shew that they were not guilty of the least wickedness and impiety but not daring to grant him so reasonable a request the Judge took the advantage of asking him whether he was a Christian which he publickly owning was adjudged to the same Martyrdom with the rest Of Origen we read that though then but eighteen years of age yet he was wont not only to wait upon the Martyrs in prison but to attend upon them at their tryals and the times of their execution kissing and embracing them and boldly preaching and professing the faith of Christ insomuch that had he not been many times miraculously preserved the Gentiles had pelted him to death with stones for they mortally hated him for his industrious and undaunted propagation of the Faith Nay when but a Boy and his Father Leontius was seized upon he wrote to his Father most earnestly pressing him to persevere unto Martyrdom and not to concern himself what might become of his wife and children nor for their sakes to decline that excellent cause he was ingaged in By this free and chearful undergoing the greatest miseries rather than deny or prejudice their Religion Christians evidently demonstrated the goodness of their Principles and shewed they were no such persons as their enemies commonly look'd upon them that a Christian as Ignatius observes is not the child of fancy and perswasion but of true gallantry and greatness of spirit having so much hatred of the World to graple and contend with Those who are Malefactors as Tertullian argues desire to be concealed and shun to appear being apprehended they tremble being accused they deny being racked do not easily nor always confess the truth however being condemn'd they are sad search into and censure themselves are unwilling to acknowledge their wickednesses to be their own and accordingly impute them either to their fate or Stars But what is there like this to be found in Christians Amongst them no man is asham'd none repents him of being a Christian unless it be that he was no sooner so if marked out he glories if accused he stands not to defend himself being interrogated he confesses of his own accord being condemn'd he gives thanks what evil then can there be in this which is so far from having any shadow of evil any fear shame tergiversation repentance deplorableness to attend it What evil can that be of which he that is guilty rejoyces of which to be accused is their vote and desire and for which to be punished is their happiness and felicity This likewise Arnobius lays down as a grand evidence of the divinity of the Christian faith that in so short a time it had conquered so much of the world subdued men of the greatest parts and learning made them willing to quit their belov'd opinions to forfeit their estates to part with their ease and pleasures and to submit to torments rather than violate the faith of Christ or start from the station they had entred upon By this excellent temper and carriage they admirably triumphed over the best men amongst the Gentiles none of whom durst engage so deep for the defence of their dearest sentiments as the Christians did for theirs witness Plato who set up the Academy and brought in an obscure and ambiguous way of delivering his opinions lest by speaking out he should fall under the sentence and the fate of Socrates Thus Origen puts Celsus in mind of Aristotle who understanding that the Athenians intended to call him to account for some of his as they thought them un-orthodox opinions immediately remov'd his School saying to his Friends Let 's be gone from Athens lest we give them an occasion of being guilty
Conquerours August Pious together with the whole Senate have by common consent decreed thus Whereas we have received the gifts and blessings of the gods by whom we enjoy victory over our enemies as also temperate seasons and fruits in great plenty and abundance since we have found them our great benefactors and to supply us with those things that are universally beneficial to all We therefore unanimously decree that all orders of men as well children as servants souldiers as private persons shall offer sacrifices to the gods doing reverence and supplication to them And if any shall dare to violate our divine order thus unanimously agreed upon we command that he be cast into prison and afterwards exposed to several kinds of torments if by this means he be reclaimed he may expect no mean honours from us But if he shall persist contumacious after many tortures let him be beheaded or thrown into the sea or cast out to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey But especially if there be any found of the Religion of the Christians As for those that obey our Decrees they shall receive great honours and rewards from us So happily fare ye well To this we may add that short Rescript of Valerian Valerian the Emperour to the Ministers and Governours of Provinces We understand that the precepts of the Laws are violated by those who in these days call themselves Christians Wherefore we will that apprehending them unless they sacrifice to our gods you expose them to divers kinds of punishments that so both justice may have place without delay and vengeance in cutting off impieties having attain'd its end may proceed no further This course they prosecuted with so much vigour and fierceness that some of them boasted that they had absolutely effected their design Witness those Trophies and Triumphal Arches that were every where erected to perpetuate the memory of their Conquest over Christianity whereof these two Inscriptions found at Clunia in Spain are a sufficient evidence DIOCLETIANUS JOVIUS ET MAXIMIAN HERCULEUS CAES. AUGG. AMPLIFICATO PER. ORIEN TEM ET OCCIDENTEM IMP. ROM ET NOMINE CHRISTIANORUM DELETO QUI REMP. EVER TEBANT The other DIOCLETIAN CAES. AUG GALERIO IN. ORI ENTE ADOPT SUPERS TITIONE CHRIST UBIQ DELETA ET CUL TU DEOR. PROPAGATO The meaning of both which is to shew that Diocletian and his Colleague Maximianus had every were extinguished the wicked Superstition of Christ so pernicious to the Common-wealth and had restor'd Paganism and the worship of the gods But long before them we find Nero the first Emperour that raised persecution against the Christians as Tertullian notes so active in the business as to glory or some flatterers in his behalf that he had done the work Witness an Inscription found also in Spain NERONI CL. CAIS AUG PONT MAX. OB. PROVINC LATRONIB ET HIS QUI NOVAM GENERI HUM SUPER STITION INCULCAB PURGATAM This Inscription was set up in memory of his having purged the Country of Robbers and such as had introduc'd and obtruded a new superstition upon mankind The Christians it's true are not particularly nam'd in it probably the Gentiles so much detested the very name of Christian that especially in publick Monuments they would not mention it yet can it be meant of no other For besides that this Character of Inculeating their Superstition admirably agrees to Christians who sought by all means to instill their Principles into the minds of men besides that superstition was the common Title by which the Gentiles were wont to denote Christianity besides this there was not as Baronius observes any other New Religion at that time or long before or after that appeared in the world to be sure none that could be the object of Nero's persecution And how he entertain'd this Tertullian sufficiently intimates bidding them search their own Records and they would find And from this very Inscription alone it 's evident they thought that at least in that part of the world they had wholly extirpated and rooted it out By all which we may guess what hot service the Christians had on 't under those Primitive Persecutions Indeed their sufferings were beyond all imagination great which yet did but so much the more exercise and advance their Patience the bitterness of their sufferings making their patience more eminent and illustrious Of which that we may take the truer measures 't will be necessary to consider these two things the greatness of those torments and sufferings which the Christians generally underwent and then the manner of their carriage under them For the First the greatness of those torments and sufferings which they underwent they were as bad as the wit and malice of either Men or Devils could invent in the consideration whereof we shall first take a view of those punishments which were more standing and ordinary familiarly used amongst the Greeks and Romans and then of such as were extraordinarily made use of towards the Christians Amongst their ordinary methods of Execution these six were most eminent the Cross the Rack the Wheel Burning wild Beasts condemning to Mines I. The Cross deserves the first place in our account not only as having been one of the most ancient and universal ways of punishment amongst the Gentiles and from them brought in amongst the Jews but as being the instrument by which our Blessed Saviour himself was put to death Omitting the various and different forms and kinds of it which were all used towards the Primitive Christians I intend here only that that was most common a straight piece of wood fixed in the ground having a transverse beam fastned near the top of it not unlike the letter T though probably it had also a piece of wood arising above the top of it and there were two things in this way of punishment which rendred it very severe the pain and ignominy of it Painful it must needs be because the party suffering was fastned to it with nayles driven through his hands and feet which being the parts where the nerves and sinews terminate and meet together must needs be most acutely sensible of wounds and violence and because they were pierced only in these parts so far distant from the Vitals this made their death very lingring and tedious doubled and trebled every pain upon them Insomuch that some out of a generous compassion have caused malefactors first to be strangled before they were crucified as Julius Caesar did towards the Pirates whom he had sworn to execute upon the Cross But no such favour was shewed to Christians they were suffered to remain in the midst of all those exquisite pangs till meer hunger starved them or the mercy of wild beasts or birds of prey dispatch'd them Thus S. Andrew the Apostle continued two whole days upon the Cross teaching the people all the while Timotheus and his wife Maura after many other torments hung upon the Cross nine days together before
the publick treasury and themselves for ever reduc'd into the condition of slaves These were some of the more usual ways of punishment amongst the Romans though exercis'd towards the Christians in their utmost rigour and severity I omit to speak of Christians being scourg'd and whip'd even to the tiring of their executioners especially with rods called plumbatae whereof there is frequent mention in the Theodosian Code which were scourges made of cords or thongs with leaden bullets at the end of them of their being ston'd to death their being beheaded their being thrust into stinking and nasty prisons where they were set in a kind of stocks with five holes their legs being stretch'd asunder to reach from one end to the other We shall now consider some few of those unusal torments and punishments which were inflicted only upon Christians or if upon any others only in extraordinary cases Such was their being tied to arms of trees bent by great force and strength by certain Engines and being suddainly let go did in a moment tear the Martyr in pieces in which way many were put to death in the persecution at Thebais Sometimes they were clad with coats of paper linnen or such like dawb'd in the inside with pitch and brimstone which being set on fire they were burnt alive Otherwhiles they were shut into the belly of a brazen Bull and a fire being kindled under it were consumed with a torment beyond imagination Sometimes they were put into a great Pot or Caldron full of boyling pitch oyl lead or wax mixed together or had these fatal liquors by holes made on purpose poured into their bowels Some of them were hung up by one or both hands with stones of great weight tied to their feet to augment their sufferings others were anointed all over their bodies with honey and at mid-day fastned to the top of a pole that they might be a prey to flies wasps and such little cattle as might by degrees sting and torment them to death Thus besides many others it was with Marcus Bishop of Arethusa a venerable old man who suffered under Julian the Apostate after infinite other tortures they dawb'd him over with honey and jellies and in a basket fastned to the top of a pole expos'd him to the hottest beams of the Sun and to the fury of such little Insects as would be sure to prey upon him Sometimes they were put into a rotten ship which being turn'd out to sea was set on fire thus they serv'd an Orthodox Presbyter under Valens the Arrian Emperour the same which Socrates reports of fourscore pious and devout men who by the same Emperours command were thrust into a ship which being brought into open Sea was presently fir'd that so by this means they might also want the honour of a burial And indeed the rage and cruelty of the Gentiles did not only reach the Christians while alive but extend to them after death denying them what has been otherwise granted amongst the most barbarous people the conveniency of burial exposing them to the ravage and fierceness of dogs and beasts of prey a thing which we are told the Primitive Christians reckon'd as not the least aggravation of their sufferings Nay where they had been quietly buried they were not suffered many times as Tertullian complains to enjoy the Asylum of the grave but were plucked out rent and torn in pieces But to what purpose is it any longer to insist upon these things sooner may a man tell the stars than reckon up all those methods of misery and suffering which the Christians endured Eusebius who himself was a sad spectatour of some of the later persecutions professes to give over the account as a thing beyond all possibility of expression the manner of their sufferings and the persons that suffered being hard nay impossible to be reckoned up The truth is as he there observes and Cyprian plainly tells Demetrian of it their enemies did little else but set their wits upon the tenters to find out the most exquisite methods of torture and punishment they were not content with those old ways of torment which their forefathers had brought in but by an ingenious cruelty daily invented new striving to excel one another in this piece of hellish art and accounting those the wittiest persons that could invent the bitterest and most barbarous engins of execution and in this they improved so much that Vlpian Master of Records to Alexander Severus the Emperour and the great Oracle of those Times for Law writing several Books de Officio Proconsulis many parcels whereof are yet extant in the body of the Civil Law in the seventh Book collected together the several bloody Edicts which the Emperours had put out against the Christians that he might shew by what ways and methods they ought to be punished and destroyed as Lactantius tells us But this Book as to what concern'd Christians is not now extant the zeal and piety of the first Christian Emperours having banished all Books of that nature out of the World as appears by a Law of the Emperour Theodosius where he commands the Writings of Porphyry and all others that had written against the Christian Religion to be burned The reason why we have no more Books of the Heathens concerning the Christians extant at this day Having given this brief specimen of some few of those grievous torments to which the Primitive Christians were exposed they that would have more must read the Martyrologies of the Church or such as have purposely witten on this subject we come next to consider what was their behaviour and carriage under them this we shall find to have been most sedate and calm most constant and resolute they neither fainted nor fretted neither railed at their enemies nor sunk under their hands but bore up under the heaviest torments under the bitterest reproaches with a meekness and patience that was invincible and such as every way became the mild and yet generous spirit of the Gospel So Justin Martyr tells the Jew We patiently bear says he all the mischiefs which are brought upon us either by men or devils even to the extremities of death and torments praying for those that thus treat us that they may find mercy not desiring to hurt or revenge our selves upon any that injures us according as our great Law-giver has commanded us Thus Eusebius reporting the hard usage which the Christians met with during the times of persecution tells us that they were betrayed and butchered by their own friends and brethren but they as couragious Champions of the true Religion accustomed to prefer an honourable death in defence of the truth before life it self little regarded the cruel usage they met with in it but rather as became true Souldiers of God armed with patience they laughed at all methods of execution fire and sword and the piercings of nails wild beasts and the bottom of
prejudice to their souls he resolved to shew them the way by his own example and himself first retiring out of the reach of danger retreated to the mountainous parts there-abouts that were freest from the rage and malice of the enemy Nor was this any impeachment of their zeal and readiness for suffering but only a prudent gaining a little respite for a time that they might suffer with greater advantage afterwards They did not desire to save their heads when the honour of their Religion call'd for it nor ever by indirect means screw'd themselves out of danger when once engaged in it though they did sometimes prudently prevent it reserving themselves for a more convenient season Thus Cyprian withdrew a little not out of fear of suffering but a desire to prevent his being put to death in an obscure place which his enemies had designed being desirous his Martyrdom should happen in that place where he so long liv'd and so publickly preached the Christian faith Secondly They were so far from declining suffering and being terrified with those miseries which they saw others undergo that they freely and in great multitudes offered themselves to the rage and fury of their enemies embracing death as the greatest honour that could be done them they strove as Sulpitius Severus observes speaking of the ninth persecution which should rush first upon those glorious conflicts men in those days as he adds much more greedily seeking Martyrdom in the cause of Christ than in after-times they did for Bishopricks and the preferments of the Church Lucian who certainly had very little love to Christians yet gives this account of them The miserable wretches says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do verily perswade them i. e. those of their own party that they shall surely be immortal and live for ever upon which account they despise death and many of them voluntarily offer themselves to it Indeed they did ambitiously contend who should be first crown'd with Martyrdom and that in such multitudes that their enemies knew not what to do with them their very persecutors grew weary of their bloody offices Tiberianus the President of Palestine in his relation to the Emperour Trajan recorded by Joannes Matela mentioned also by Suidas gives this account of his proceedings against them I am quite tir'd out in punishing and destroying the Galileans call'd here by the name of Christians according to your commands and yet they cease not to offer themselves to be slain Nay though I have laboured both by fair means and threatnings to make them conceal themselves from being known to be Christians yet can I not stave them off from persecution So little regard had they to sufferings nay so impatient were they till they were in the midst of flames This made Arrius Antoninus the Proconsul of Asia when at first he severely persecuted the Christians whereupon all the Christians in that City like an Army voluntarily presented themselves before his Tribunal to be surpriz'd with wonder and causing only some few of them to be executed he cried out to the rest O unhappy people if you have a mind to die have you not halters and precipices enough to end your lives with but you must come hither for an execution so fast did they flock to the place of torment faster than droves of beasts that are driven to the shambles They even long'd to be in the arms of suffering Ignatius though then in his journey to Rome in order to his execution yet by the way as he went could not but vent his passionate desire of it O that I might come to those wild beasts that are prepar'd for me I heartily wish that I may presently meet with them I would invite and encourage them speedily to devour me and not be afraid to set upon me as they have been to others nay should they refuse it I would even force them to it I am concern'd for nothing either seen or unseen more than to enjoy Jesus Christ Let fire and the cross and the rage of wild beasts the breaking of bones distortion of members bruising of the whole body yea all the punishments which the devil can invent come upon me so as I may but enjoy Christ They even envied the Martyrdom of others and mourned that any went before while they were left behind When Laurentius the Deacon espied Sixtus the Bishop of Rome going to his Martyrdom he burst into tears and passionately call'd out Whither O my Father art thou going without thy Son Whither so fast O holy Bishop without thy Deacon Never didst thou use to offer spiritual sacrifice without thy Minister to attend thee what have I done that might displease thee Hast thou found me degenerous and fearful Make trial at least whether thou hast chosen a fit Minister to wait upon thee To this and more to the same import the good Bishop replied Mistake not my Son I do not leave thee nor forsake thee Greater tryals belong to thee I like a weak old man receive only the first skirmishes of the battle but thou being youthful and valiant hast a more glorious triumph over the enemy reserv'd for thee Cease to weep thy turn will be presently for within three days thou shalt follow me So pious a contention was there between these â—ood men which of them should first suffer for the name of Christ 'T is memorable what we find concerning Origen though then but a youth that when a great persecution was raised at Alexandria wherein many suffered he was so eagerly inflamed with a desire of Martyrdom especially after his Father had been seized upon and cast into prison that he expos'd himself to all dangers and courted torments to come upon him and had certainly suffered if his Mother after all other intreaties and perswasion to no purpose had not stoln away his clothes by night and for meer shame forced him to stay at home To these I shall add but one Example of the weker Sex When Valens the Arrian Emperour who persecuted the Orthodox with as much fury and bitterness as any of the Heathen Emperours came to Edessa and found there great numbers of them daily meeting in their publick assemblies he severely check'd the Governour and commanded him by all means to rout and ruine them The Governour though of another perswasion yet out of common compassion gave them private notice of the Emperours commands hoping they would forbear But they not at all terrified with the news met the next morning in greater numbers which the Governour understanding went to the place of their assembly as he was going a woman in a careless dress leading a little child in her hand rush'd through the Governours Guard who commanding her to be brought before him asked her why she made so much hast That I may the sooner come said she to the place where the people of the Catholick Church are met together Knowst thou not said he
Father Constantine the Great a peculiar honour when he obtained to have him buried in the Porch of the Church which he had built at Constantinople to the memory of the Apostles and wherein he had earnestly desired to be buried as Eusebius tells us and in the same many of his Successors were interred it not being in use then nor some hundreds of years after for persons to be buried in the body of the Church as appears from the Capitula of Charles the Great where burying in the Church which then it seems had crept into some places is strictly forbidden During the first ages of Christianity while the malice of their enemies persecuted them both alive and dead their Coemeteria were ordinarily under ground imitating herein the custome of the Jews whose Sepulchres were in Caverns and holes of rocks though doubtless the Christians did it to avoid the rage and fury of their enemies not so much upon the account of secrecy for their frequent retiring to those places was so notorious as could not escape the observation of their enemies and therefore we sometimes find the Emperours Officers readily coming thither but it was upon the account of that Sacredness and Religion that was reckon'd to be due to places of this nature it being accounted by all Nations a piece of great impiety Manes temerare Sepultos to disturb and violate the ashes of the dead They were large vaults dug in dry sandy places and arched over and separated into many little apartments wherein on either side the bodies of the Martyrs lay in distinct Cells each having an Inscription upon Marble whereon his Name Quality and probably the time and manner of his death were engraven Though in the heats of Persecution they were forced to bury great numbers together in one common grave LX Prudentius tells us he observ'd and then not the names but only the number of the interred was written upon the Tomb. Indeed the multitudes of Martyrs that then suffered required very large conveniencies of interrment And so they had insomuch that the last publisher of the Roma Subterranea assures us that though those Coemeteria were under-ground yet were they many times double and sometimes treble two or three stories one still under another By reason hereof they must needs be very dark having no light from without but what peep'd in from a few little cranies which filled the place with a kind of sacred horror as S. Hierom informs us who while a youth when he went to School at Rome us'd upon the Lords day to visit these solemn places Built they were by pious and charitable persons thence called after their names for the interrment of Martyrs and other uses of the Church for in these places Christians in times of persecution were wont to hide themselves and to hold their Religious Assemblies when banished from their publick Churches as I have formerly noted Of these about Rome only Baronius out of the Records in the Vatican reckons up XLIII and others to the number of threescore We may take an estimate of the rest by the account which Baronius gives of one called the Cemeterie of Priscilla discovered in his time An. 1578 in the Via Salaria about three miles from Rome which he often viewed and searched It is says he strange to report the place by reason of its vastness and variety of apartments appearing like a City under ground At the entrance into it there was a principal way or street much larger than the rest which on either hand opened into diverse other wayes and those again divided into many lesser ways and turnings like lanes and allies within one another And as in Cities there are void open places for the Markets so here there were some larger spaces for the holding as occasion was of their Religious Meetings wherein were placed the Effigies and Representations of Martyrs with places in the top to let in light long since stopt up The discovery of this place caused great wonder in Rome being the most exact and perfect Cemeterie that had been yet found out Thus much I thought good to add upon occasion of that singular care which Christians then took about the bodies of their dead If any desire to know more of these venerable Antiquities they may consult onuphrius de Coemeteriis and especially the Latin Edition of the Roma Subterranea where their largest curiosity may be fully satisfied in these things Many other instances of their Charity might be mentioned their ready entertaining strangers providing for those that laboured in the Mines marrying poor Virgins and the like of which to treat particularly would be too vast and tedious To enable them to do these charitable offices they had not only the extraordinary contributions of particular persons but a common stock and treasury of the Church At the first going abroad of the Gospel into the world so great was the Piety and Charity of the Christians That the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need But this community of goods lasted not long in the Church we find S. Paul giving order to the Churches of Galatia and Corinth for weekly offerings for the Saints that upon the first day of week when they never fail'd to receive the Sacrament they should every one of them lay by him in store according as God had prospered him This custome Justin Martyr assures us still continued in his time for describing the manner of their assemblies on the Lords day he tells us that those who were able and willing contributed what they saw good and the collection was lodg'd in the hands of the Bishop or President and by him distributed for the relief of Widows and Orphans the sick or indigent the imprison'd or strangers or any that were in need In the next age they were reduced to monthly offerings as appears from Tertullian who gives us this account of them in his time That at their Religious Assemblies upon a monthly day or oftner if a man will and be able every one according to his ability laid by somewhat for charitable uses they put it into a kind of poor mans box call'd Arca that stood in the Church this they did freely no man being forced or compelled to it leaving it behind them as a stock to maintain piety and religion for 't is not spent says he upon feasts or drinking-bouts or to gratifie gluttony and intemperance but laid out in relieving the needy burying the dead providing for
Orphans supporting the aged recruiting the spoyled supplying the imprisoned and those that were in mines bonds or slavery for the profession of Christianity This was the fruit of Primitive devotion Palladius tell us of two Brother Paesius and Esaias Sons of a wealthy Merchant that their Father being dead and resolving upon a more strict and religious course of life they could not agree upon setling their Estates in the same way at last dividing their Estates they disposed them thus The one gave away his whole Estate at once setling it upon Monasteries Churches and Prisons for the relief of such as were in bonds and betaking himself to a Trade for a small maintenance for himself gave himself up to prayer and the severer exercises of Religion The other kept his Estate in his own possession but built a Monastery and taking a few Companions to dwell with him entertain'd all strangers that came that way took care of the sick entertained the aged gave to those that needed and every Saturday and Lords day caused two or three tables to be spread for the refreshment and entertainment of the poor and in this excellent way spent their life Now that this account that we have given of the admirable bounty and charity of the antient Christians is not precarious and meerly what the Christians tell us of themselves we have the testimony of two open enemies of Christianity Julian and Lucian both bitter enemies to Christians and the fiercer because both as 't is supposed apostates from them and their testimony is considerable upon a double account partly because having lived amongst the Christians they exactly knew their ways and manners and partly because being enemies to them they would be sure to speak no more in their commendation than what was true Julian speaking of the Galileans tells us that by their charity to the poor they begot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest admiration of their Religion in the minds of men And in an Epistle to the High-Priests of Galatia bewailing the desolate state of the heathen-world the ruine of their Temples and the great declension of Paganisme at that time notwitstanding all his endeavours to make it succeed under the influences of his Government he advises the High-Priest to promote the Gentile-interest by the same method which the wicked Religion of the Christians did thrive by i. e. by their bounty to strangers their care in burying of the dead and their holiness of life and elsewhere The poor says he having no care taken of them the wicked Galileans know very well how to make their advantage of it for they give themselves up to humanity and charity and by these plausible and insinuative ways strengthen and encrease their wicked and pernicious party just as men cheat little children with a cake by two or three of which they tempt them to go along with them till having got them from home they clap them under hatches transport and sell them and so for a little seeming pleasure they are condemned to bitterness all their life and no otherwise says he ' t is with them they first inveagle honest minded men with what they call their feasts of Love banquets ministry and attendance upon tables and then seduce them into their wickedness and impiety This as at once it shews his venom and malice according to the humour of the man so it openly bears witness out of the mouth of an emeny to the most excellent and generous spirit of the Gospel The other testimony is that of Lucian who if not a Christian himself for Suidas his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does no way intimate him to have been a Christian Preacher notwithstanding what the generality of Writers have inferred thence was yet however intimately acquainted with the affairs of Christians who bringing in his Philosopher Peregrinus amongst other Sects joyning himself to the Christians tells us what care they took of him when cast into prison they improved all their interest to have him released But when this could not be granted they officiously used all possible service and respect towards him in the morning old women widows and children flock'd early to the prison-doors and the better sort got leave of the Keepers to sleep with him in the prison all night then they had several sorts of banquets and their sacred discourses Nay some were sent in the name of the rest even from the Cities of Asia to assist and encourage him who brought him great sums of mony under pretence of his imprisonment it being incredible what readiness they shew when any such matter is once noys'd abroad and how little they spare any cost in it After which he tells us of them in general that they equally contemn all the advantages of this life and account them common foolishly taking up their principles about these things without any accurate search into them insomuch that if any subtle and crafty fellow that knows how to improve his advantage come amongst them he grows very rich in a little time by making a prey of that simple and credulous people There 's one circumstance yet behind concerning the love and charity of those times very worthy to be taken notice of and that is the universal extent of it they did good to all though more especially to them of the houshold of faith i.e. to Christians they did not confine their bounty meerly within the narrow limits of a party this or that sect of men but embraced an object of love and pitty where-ever they met it They were kind to all men yea to their bitterest enemies and that with a charity as large as the circles of the Sun that visits all parts of the World and shines as well upon a stinking dung-hil as upon a pleasant Garden 'T is certainly the strange and supernatural doctrine of our Saviour you have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you This indeed is the proper goodness and excellency of Christianity as Tertullian observes it being common to all men to love their friends but peculiar only to Christians to love their enemies And Athenagoras I remember principally makes use of this Argument to prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion and challenges all the great Masters of Reason and Learning amongst the Heathens to produce any either of themselves or their Disciples of so pure and refin'd a temper as could instead of hating love their enemies bear curses and revilings with an undisturbed mind and instead of reviling again to bless and speak well of them and to pray for them who lay in wait to take away their lives And yet this did Christians they embraced their enemies pardoned and prayed for them according to the Apostles rule when their
enemy hungred they fed him when he thirsted they gave him drink and would not be overcome of evil but overcame evil with good When Nazianzen then Bishop of Constantinople lay sick a young man came to his beds feet and taking hold of his feet with tears and great lamentation passionately begg'd pardon of him for his wickedness the Bishop asking what he meant by it he was told that this was the person that had been suborned by a wicked party to have murdered him and now being stricken with the conscience of so great a wickedness came to bewail his sin The good man immediately prayed to Christ to forgive him desiring no other satisfaction from him than that henceforth he would forsake that Heretical party and sincerely serve God as became a Christian Thus when Paul the Martyr was hastening to his execution he only begg'd so much respite till he might pray which accordingly he did not only for the peace and happiness of Christians but for the conversion of Jews and Samaritans for the Gentiles that they might be brought out of errour and ignorance to the knowledge of God and the true Religion he prayed for the people that attended his execution nay such his vast goodness and charity for the very Judge that condemned him for the Emperours and the very Executioner that stood ready to cut off his head earnestly begging of God not to lay that great wickedness to their charge Nay they did not think it enough not to return evil for evil or barely to forgive their enemies unless they did them all the kindness that lay in their power Polycarp plentifully feasted the very Officers that were sent to apprehend him the same which S. Mamas the Martyr is also said to have done treating the Souldiers with the best supper he had when sent by Alexander the cruel President of Cappadocia to seize upon him And we read of one Pachomius an Heathen Souldier in the first times of Constantine that the Army being well near starv'd for want of necessary provisions and coming to a City that was most inhabited by Christians they freely and speedily gave them what-ever they wanted for the accommodation of the Army Amazed with this strange and unwonted charity and being told that the people that had done it were Christians whom they generally prey'd upon and whose profession it was to hurt no man and to do good to every man he threw away his arms became an Anchoret and gave up himself to the strictest severities of Religion This also Julian the Emperour plainly confesses for urging Arsacius the chief Priest of Galatia to take care of the poor and to build Hospitals in every City for the entertaining of poor strangers and travellers both of their own and other Religions he adds for it 's a shame says he that when the Jews suffer none of theirs to beg and the wicked Galileans relieve not only their own but also those of our party that we only should be wanting in so necessary a duty So prevalent is truth as to extort a confession from its most bitter and virulent opposers Of this I shall only add one instance or two more proper enough to be inserted here Eusebius speaking of that dreadful plague and famine that happened in the Eastern Parts under the Emperour Maximinus wherein so many whole Families miserably perished and were swept away at once he adds that at this time the care and piety of the Christians towards all evidently approved it self to all the Gentiles that were about them they being the only persons that during this sad and calamitous state of things performed the real offices of mercy and humanity partly in ordering and burying of the dead thousands dying every day of whom no care was taken partly in gathering together all the poor that were ready to starve and distributing bread to every one of them The fame whereof fill'd the ears and mouths of all men who extolled the God of the Christians and confessed that they had shewed themselves to be the only truly pious and religious persons And indeed the charity was the more remarkable in that the Christians at this very time were under a most heavy persecution Thus in the terrible plague that in the times of Gallus and Volusian raged so much through the whole world and that more or less for fifteen years to gether especially at Carthage when innumerable multitudes were swept away every day and the streets filled with the carcases of the dead which seemed to implore the help of the living and to challenge it as their right by the common Laws of humane nature but all in vain every one trembling flying and shifting for themselves deserting their nearest friends and kindred none staying unless it was to make a prey In this sad and miserable case Cyprian then Bishop of the place calls the Christians together instructs them in the duties of mercy and charity puts them in mind that it was no great wonder if their charity extended to their own party the way to be perfect was to do something more than Heathens and Publicans to overcome evil with good to imitate the divine benignity to love our enemies and according to our Lords advice to pray for the happiness of them that persecute us that God continually made his Sun to rise and his rain to fall not only for the advantage of his own children but for all other mens and that therefore they should imitate the example of such a father who professed themselves to be his children Immediately upon this they unanimously agreed to assist their common enemies every one lending help according to his rank and quality Those who by reason of their poverity could contribute nothing to the charge did what was more they personally wrought and laboured an assistance beyond all other contributions By which large and abundant charity great advantage redounded not to themselves only of the houshold of faith but universally unto all I shall sum up what hath been said upon this Argument in that elegant Discourse which Lactantius has concerning works of mercy and charity Since humane nature says he is weaker than that of other creatures who come into the world armed with offensive and defensive powers therefore our wise Creatour has given us a tender and merciful disposition that we might place the safeguard of our lives in the mutual assistances of one another For being all created by one God and sprung from one common parent we should reckon our selves a-kin and obliged to love all mankind and that our innocency may be perfect not only not to do an injury to another but not to revenge one when done to our selves for which reason also we are commanded to pray for our very enemies We ought therefore to be kind and sociable that we may help and assist each other For being our selves obnoxious to misery we may the more comfortably hope for that help in case
the time of penance might be shortned In what sence communion is denied by some antient Canons to penitents at the hour of death This discipline administred primarily by Bishops By his leave Presbyters and in necessity Deacons might absolve The publick penitentiary when and why instituted when and why laid aside Penitents taken into communion by Martyrs and Confessors This power abused to excess Cyprian's complaint of the excessive numbers of Libells of peace granted by the Martyrs to the lapsed without the knowledge of the Bishop The form of these Pacifick Libells exemplified out of Cyprian other sorts of Libells The Libellatici who Thurificati Several sorts of Libellatici The Libellatici properly so called Their manner of address to the Heathen Magistrate to procure their exemption from sacrificing That they did not privately deny Christ proved against Baronius The piety and purity of the Primitive Church matter of just admiration HAving travelled through the several stages of the subject I had undertaken I should here have ended my journey but that there one thing remains which was not properly reducible under any particular head being of a general relation to the whole and that is to consider what Discipline was used towards offenders in the antient Church only premising this that the Christian Church being founded and established by Christ as a Society and Corporation distinct from that of the Common-wealth is by the very nature of its constitution besides what positive ground and warrant there may be for it in Scripture invested with an inherent power besides what is borrowed from the Civil Magistrate of censuring and punishing its members that offend against the Laws of it and this in order to the maintaining its peace and purity For without such a fundamental power as this 't is impossible that as a Society it should be able to subsist the very nature of a community necessarily implying such a right inherent in it Now for the better understanding what this power was and how exercised in the first Ages of the Church we shall consider these four things What were the usual crimes that came under the discipline of the antient Church what penalties were inflicted upon delinquent persons in what manner offenders were dealt with and by whom this discipline was administred First What the usual crimes and offences were which came under the discipline of the antient Church in the general they were any offences against the Christian Law any vice or immorality that was either publick in it self or made known and made good to the Church For the holy and good Christians of those times were infinitely careful to keep the honour of their Religion unspotted to stifle every sin in its birth and by bringing offenders to publick shame and penalty to keep them from propagating the malignant influence of a bad example For this reason they watched over one another told them privately of their faults and failures and when that would not do brought them before the cognizance of the Church 'T is needless to reckon up particular crimes when none were spar'd Only because in those days by reason of the violent heats of persecution the great temptation which the weaker and more unsettled Christians were exposed to was to deny their profession and to offer sacrifice to the Heathen-gods therefore lapsing into Idolatry was the most common sin that came before them and of this they had very frequent instances it being that which for some Ages mainly exercised the Discipline of the Church This sin of Idolatry or denying Christ in those times was usually committed these three ways Sometimes by exposing the Scriptures to the rage and malice of their enemies which was accounted a virtual renouncing Christianity This was especially remarkable under the Diocletian persecution in the African Churches For Diocletian had put forth an Edict that Christians should deliver up their Scriptures and the Writings of the Church to be burnt This command was prosecuted with great rigour and fierceness and many Christians to avoid the storm delivered up their Bibles to the scorn and fury of their enemies Hence they were styled Traditores of whom there is frequent mention in Optatus and S. Augustin with whom the Orthodox refusing to joyn after the persecution was over the difference broke out into Schism and faction and gave birth to that unhappy Sect of the Donatists which so much exercised the Christian Church Otherwhiles Christians became guilty of Idolatry by actual sacrificing or worshipping Idols these were called Thurificati from their burning incense upon the altars of the Heathen Deities and were the grossest and vilest sort of Idolaters Others again fell into this sin by basely corrupting the Heathen Magistrate and purchasing a warrant of security from him to exempt them from the penalty of the Law and the necessity of sacrificing and denying Christ These were called Libellatici of whom we shall speak more afterwards Secondly What penalties and punishments were inflicted upon delinquent persons and they could be no other than such as were agreeable to the nature and constitution of the Church which as it transacts only in spiritual matters so it could inflict no other than spiritual censures and chastisements 'T is true indeed that in the first Age especially the Apostles had a power to inflict bodily punishments upon offenders which they sometimes made use of upon great occasions as S. Peter did towards Ananias and Saphira striking them dead upon the place for their notorious couzenage and gross hypocrisie And S. Paul punished Elymas with blindness for his perverse and malicious opposition of the Gospel and this doubtless he primarily intends by his delivering over persons unto Satan for no sooner were they excommunicated and cut off from the body of the faithful but Satan as the common Serjeant and Jaylor seized upon them and either by actual possessing or some other sign upon their bodies made it appear that they were delivered over into his power This could not but strike a mighty terrour into men and make them stand in awe of the censures of the Church and questionless the main design of the divine providence in affording this extraordinary gift was to supply the defect of civil and coercive power of which the Church was then wholly destitute and therefore needed some more than ordinary assistance especially at its first constitution some visible and sensible punishments to keep its sentence and determinations from being sleighted by bold and contumacious offenders How long this miraculous power lasted in the Church I know not or whether at all beyond the Apostles age The common and standing penalty they made use of was Excommunication or suspension from communion with the Church the cutting off and casting out an offending person as a rotten and infected member till by repentance and wholesome discipline he was cured and restored and then he was re-admitted into Church-society and to a participation of the ordinances and priviledges of Christianity This way of punishing