his particular lot and portion comprehending the body of the people in general But afterwards this title was confin'd to narrower bounds and became appropriate to that Tribe which God had made choice of to stand before him to wait at his Altar and to minister in the services of his Worship And after the expiration of their Oeconomy was accordingly used to denote the ministry of the Gospel the persons peculiarly consecrated and devoted to the service of God in the Christian Church the Clergie being those qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt as they are defin'd in a Law of the Emperour Constantine who are set apart for the ministeries of Religion in matters relating to the Divine Worship Now the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is often called in the Apostles Canons the roll of the Clergie of the ancient Church taking it within the compass of its first four hundred years consisted of two sorts of persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were peculiarly consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of the Worship of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were set apart only for the more mean and common services of the Church Of the first sort were these three Bishops Presbyters and Deacons The first and principal Officer of the Church was the President or Bishop usually chosen out of the Presbyters I shall not here concern my self in the disputes whether Episcopacy as a superior order to Presbytery was of divine institution a controversie sufficiently ventilated in the late times it being enough to my purpose what is acknowledged both by Blondel and Salmasius the most learned defenders of Presbytery that Bishops were distinct from and superior to Presbyters in the second Century or the next Age to the Apostles The main work and office of a Bishop was to teach and instruct the people to administer the Sacraments to absolve Penitents to eject and excommunicate obstinate and incorrigible offenders to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers in the Church to call them to account and to suspend or deal with them according to the nature of the offence to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws and to appoint and institute such indifferent Rites as were for the decent and orderly administration of his Church In short according to the notation of his name he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Watchman and Sentinal and therefore oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and carefully to inspect and observe to superintend and provide for those that were under his charge This Zonaras tells us was implied in the Bishops Throne being placed on high in the most eminent part of the Church to denote how much 't was his duty from thence to overlook and very diligently to observe the people that were under him These and many more were the unquestionable rights and duties of the Episcopal Office which because it was very difficult and troublesom for one man to discharge especially where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diocess as we now call it was any thing large therefore upon the multiplying of Country Churches it was thought fit to take in a subordinate sort of Bishops called Chorepiscopi Country or as amongst us they have been called suffragan Bishops whose business it was to superintend and inspect the Churches in the Country that lay more remote from the City where the Episcopal See was and which the Bishop could not always inspect and oversee in his own person These were the Vicarii Episcoporum as they are called in Isidores Version of the thirteenth Canon both of the Ancyran and Neocaesarean Council the Bishops Deputies chosen out of the fittest and gravest persons In the Canon of the last mentioned Council they are said to be chosen in imitation of the seventy not the seventy Elders which Moses took in to bear part of the Government as some have glossed the words of that Canon but of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord made choice of to send up and down the Countries to preach the Gospel as both Zonaras and Balsamon understand it and thereupon by reason of their great care and pains are commanded to be esteemed very honourable Their authority was much greater than that of Presbyters and yet much inferior to the Bishop Bishops really they were though their power confin'd within narrow limits they were not allowed to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons unless peculiarly licens'd to it by the Bishop of the Diocess though they might ordain sub-Deacons Readers and any inferiour Officers under them They were to be assistant to the Bishop might be present at Synods and Councils to many whereof we find their subscriptions and had power to give Letters of peace i. e. such Letters whereby the Bishop of one Diocess was wont to recommend any of his Clergy to the Bishop of another that so a fair understanding and correspondence might be maintained between them a priviledge expresly denied to any Presbyter whatsoever But lest this wandring employment of the Chorepiscopi should reflect any dishonour upon the Episcopal Office there were certain Presbyters appointed in their room called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters often mentioned in the ancient Canons and Acts of Councils who being tied to no certain place were to go up and down the Country to observe and correct what was amiss And these doubtless were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the thirteenth Canon of the Neocaesarean Council those rural Presbyters who are there forbid to consecrate the Eucharist in the City Church in the presence of the Bishop or the Presbyters of the City As Christianity encreased and overspread all parts and especially the Cities of the Empire it was found necessary yet farther to enlarge the Episcopal Office and as there was commonly a Bishop in every great City so in the Metropolis as the Romans called it the Mother City of every Province wherein they had Courts of Civil Judicature there was an Archbishop or a Metropolitan who had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all the Churches within that Province He was superior to all the Bishops within those limits to him it belonged either to ordain or to ratifie the elections and ordinations of all the Bishops within his Province insomuch that without his confirmation they were looked upon as null and void Once at least every year he was to summon the Bishops under him to a Synod to enquire into and direct the Ecclesiastical affairs within that Province to inspect the lives and manners the opinions and principles of his Bishops to admonish reprove and suspend them that were disorderly and irregular if any controversies or contentions happened between any of them he was to have the hearing and determination of them and indeed no matter of moment was done within the whole Province without first consulting him in the case Besides this Metropolitan there was many times another in the same
those times did generally pray towards the East and the Sun-rising which the Heathens themselves also did though upon different grounds and partly because they performed the Solemnities of their Religion upon the day that was dedicated to the Sun which made the Gentiles suspect that they worshipped the Sun it self They were next charged with worshipping Crosses a charge directly false as for Crosses says Octavius we neither desire nor worship them 't is you who consecrate wooden gods that perhaps adore wooden Crosses as parts of them for what else are your Ensigns Banners and Colours with which you go out to war but golden and painted Crosses the very Trophies of your Victory do not only resemble the fashion of a simple Cross but of a man that 's fastned to it the very same answer which Tertullian also returns to this Charge The occasion of it no doubt was the Christians talking of and magnifying so much their crucified Master and their almost constant use of the sign of the Cross which as we shall see afterwards they made use of even in the most common actions of their lives but for paying any adoration to a material Cross was a thing to which those times were the greatest strangers otherwise understanding the Cross for him that hung upon it they were not ashamed with the great Apostle to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to count it the matter of their highest joy and triumph But the absurdest part of the Charge was that they worshipped the head of an Ass I hear says the Heathen in Minucius Faelix that being seduced by I know not what fond perswasion they worship the consecrated head of an Ass one of the filthiest Creatures a Religion fitly calculated for persons of such a dull and stupid disposition Hence Tertullian tells us that Christians were called Asinarii Assworshippers and that Christ was painted and publickly exposed by the bold wicked hand of an apostate Jew with Asses ears one of his feet hoof'd holding a Book in his hand and having a Gown over him with this Inscription DEVS CHRISTIANORVM ONONYCHITES The Asse-hoof'd God of the Christians A most ridiculous representation and the issue of the most foolish spite and malice when I saw it says he I laughed both at the title and the fashion This Octavius tells his Adversary was the result and spawn of lying same begot and nourished by the Father of lyes for who says he can be so silly as to worship this or who can be so much more silly as to believe that it should be worshipped unless it be that you your selves do consecrate whole Asses in the Stable with your Goddess Epona and religiously adorn them in the Solemnities of Isis and both sacrifice and adore the heads of Rams and Oxen you make gods of a mixture of a Goat and a Man and dedicate them with the faces of Dogs and Lions More he has there to the same purpose as Tertullian also had answered the same thing before him The true ground of this ridiculous Charge as Tertullian observes was a fabulous report that had been a long time common amongst the Heathens that the Jews when wandring in the wilderness and almost ready to die of thirst were conducted by wild Asses to a Fountain of water for which great kindness they formed the shape of an Ass and ever after worshipped it with divine honours This is confidently reported both by Tacitus and Plutarch as it had been many years before by Appio the Alexandrian in his Books against the Jews and by this means the Heathens who did frequently confound the Jews and Christians came to form and fasten this Charge upon them when it was equally false in respect of both for as Tertullian observes the same Tacitus who reports this tells us in another place that when Pompey at the taking of Jerusalem presumptuously broke into the Holy of Holies whither none but the High-Priest might enter out of a curiosity to pry into the most hidden secrets and arcana's of their Religion he found no Image at all there whereas says Tertullian had they worshipped any such thing there had been no likelier place to have met with it and therefore brands him with the charge of the most lying Historian in the world And thus we see how the ancient Christians manifested and maintained their love and piety towards God by a most vigorous and hearty opposition of that Idolatry that reigned so uncontroulably in the Heathen world CHAP. VI. Of Churches and places of Publick Worship in the primitive times Place a circumstance necessary to every action The piety of Christians in founding places for the Solemnities of Religion They had distinct and separate places for their Publick Assemblies even in the Apostles times Prov'd out of the New Testament as also in the succeeding Ages from the testimonies of the Fathers and Heathen Writers The common objection of the Gentiles that Christians had no Temples considered and answered Churches encreased as Christianity met with favourable entertainment restored and repaired by Dioclesian Maximinus Constantine The fashion of theri Churches oblong built towards the East The form of their Churches described The Vestibulum or Porch the Narthex and what in it The Nave or body of the Church the Ambo or Reading-Pew the station of the faithful The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chancel the Altarium or Lords Table The Bishops Throne and Seats of the Presbyters The Diaconicon what the Prothesis Christians then beautified their Churches Whether they had Altars in them Decent Tables for the celebration of the divine offices those frequently by the Fathers stiled Altars and in what sense They had no such gaudy Altars as the Heathens had in their Temples and the Papists now in their Churches Altars when begun to be fixed and made of Stone Made Asylum's and places of refuge and invested with many priviledges by Christian Emperours No Images in their Churches for above four hundred years prov'd out of the Fathers Pictures in Churches condemned by the Council of Illiberis An account of Epiphanius his tearing the Picture of Christ in the Church of Anablatha and the great force of the argumemt thence against Image-Worship Christian Churches when first formally consecrated the Encoenia of the ancient Church Our Wakes or Feasts in memory of the dedication of particular Churches What Incomes or Revenues they had in the first Ages Particular Churches had some standing Revenues even under the Heathen Emperours These much increased by the piety of Constantine and the first Christian Princes their Laws noted to that purpose The reverence shewed at their going in t Churches and during their stay there even by the Emperours themselves THE Primitive Christians were not more heartily zealous against the idolatrous Worship of the Heathen-gods than they were religiously observant of whatever concerned the honour and Worship of the true as to all the material parts
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
Coemeteria or Church-yard distinct in those times from their places of Publick Worship and at a great distance from them as being commonly without the Cities Here their burying places where in large Cryptae or Grots under ground where they celebrated these memorials and whither they used to retire for their common devotions in times of great persecution when their Churches were destroyed or taken from them And therefore when Aemilian the Governour of Egypt under the Reign of Valerian would screw up the persecution against Christians he forbad their meetings and that they should not so much as assemble in the places which they called their Church-yards the same priviledge which Maximinus also had taken from them By reason of the darkness of these places and their frequent assembling there in the night to avoid the fury of their Enemies they were forced to use Lights and Lamps in their publick meetings but they who make this an argument to patronize their burning of Lamps and Wax-Candles in their Churches at Noon-day as 't is in all the great Churches of the Roman Communion talk at a strange rate of wild inconsequence I am sure S. Hierom when charged with it denied that they used any in the day time and never but at night when they rose up to their night-devotions He confesses indeed 't was otherwise in the Eastern Churches where when the Gospel was to be read they set up Lights as a token of their rejoycing for those happy and glad tidings that were contained in it light having been ever used as a symbol and representation of joy and gladness A custom probably not much elder than his time Afterwards when Christianity prevailed in the world the devotion of Christians erected Churches in those places the Temples of the Martyrs says Theodoret being spacious and beautiful richly and curiously adorned and shining with great lustre and brightness These Solemnities as the same Author informs us were kept not like the Heathen Festivals with luxury and obsceneness but with devotion and sobriety with divine Hymns and religious Sermons with fervent prayers to God mixed many times with sighs and tears Here they heard Sermons and Orations joined in publick prayers and praises received the holy Sacrament offered gifts and charities for the poor recited the names of the Martyrs then commemorated with their due elogies and commendations and their virtues propounded to the imitation of the hearers For which purpose they had their set Notaries who took the acts sayings and sufferings of Martyrs which were after compiled into particular Treatises and were recited in these annual meetings and this was the first original of Martyrologies in the Christian Church From this custom of offering up prayers praises and alms at those times it is that the Fathers speak so often of oblations and sacrifices at the Martyrs Festivals Tertullian often upon an anniversary day says he we make oblations for them that are departed in memory of their Natalitia or Birth days and to the same purpose elsewhere As oft says Cyprian as by an anniversary commemoration we celebrate the passion days of the Martyrs we always offer sacrifices for them and the same phrases oft occur in many others of the Fathers By which 't is evident they meant no more than their publick prayers and offering up praises to God for the piety and constancy and the excellent examples of their Martyrs their celebrating the Eucharist at these times as the commemoration of Christs Sacrifice their oblation of alms and charity for the poor every one of which truly may and often is stiled a sacrifice or oblation and are so understood by some of the more moderate even of the Romish Church and with good reason for that they did not make any real and formal sacrifices and oblations to Martyrs but only honour them as holy men and friends to God who for his and our Saviours honour and the truth of Religion chose to lay down their lives I find expresly affirmed by Theodoret. These Festivals being times of mirth and gladness were celebrated with great expressions of love and charity to the poor and mutual rejoycings with one another Here they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts every one bringing something to the common Banquet out of which the poor also had their share These Feasts at first were very sober and temperate and such as became the modesty and simplicity of Christians as we heard before out of Theodoret and is affirmed before him by Constantine in his Oration to the Saints But degenerating afterwards into excess and intemperance they were every where declaimed against by the Fathers till they were wholly laid aside Upon the account of these Feasts and for the better making provisions for them we may conceive it was that Markets came to be kept at these times and places for of such S. Basil speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markets held at the memorials and Tombs of Martyrs these he condemns as highly unsuitable to those Solemnities which were only instituted for prayer and a commemoration of the virtues of good men for our incouragement and imitation and that they ought to remember the severity of our otherwise meek and humble Saviour who whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple when by their marketings they had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves And the truth is these anniversary commemorations though in their primitive institution they are highly reasonable and commendable yet through the folly and dotage of men they were after made to minister to great superstition and idolatry so plain is it that the best and usefullest things may be corrupted to bad purposes For hence sprung the doctrine and practice of prayer and invocation of Saints and their intercession with God the worshipping of Reliques Pilgrimages and visiting Churches and offering at the Shrines of such and such Saints and such like superstitious practices which in after Ages over-run so great a part of the Christian Church things utterly unknown to the simplicity of those purer and better times CHAP. VIII Of the persons constituting the body of the Church both people and Ministers The people distinguished into several ranks Catechumens of two sorts Gradually instructed in the principles of the Christian Faith Accounted only Christians at large The more recondite mysteries of Christianity concealed from persons till after baptism Three reasons assigned of it How long they remained in the state of Catechumens The several Classes of Penitents the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the faithful Their particular stations in the Church Their great reverence for the Lords Supper The Clergie why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two sorts the highest Bishops Presbyters and Deacons Bishops as superiour to Presbyters how ancient by the most learned opposers of Episcopacy Their office and priviledge what Chorepiscopi who Their power and priviledge above Presbyters
The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters in every Diocess Of Metropolitans what their power and authority above ordinary Bishops their antiquity Of Patriarchs and in what respects superiour to Metropolitans and Archbishops An account of conforming the external jurisdiction of the Church to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire Presbyters their place and duty Whether they preached in the presence of the Bishop Deacons their Institution office number The Arch-Deacon Of inferiour orders The Subdeacon The Acolythus The Exorcist The Reader The Door-keeper What the nature of their several places Ordination to these Offices how managed The people present at and consenting to the Ordination Sacerdotes praedicarii what The Christian discipline in this case imitated by the Emperour Severus in appointing Civil Officers Great tryals and testimonials to be had of persons to be ordained Clergie-men to rise by degrees The age usually required in those that were to be promoted to the several orders Of Deaconesses their antiquity age and office The great honour and respect shewed to Bishops and Ministers Looked upon as common Parents Nothing of moment done without their leave Their welcome and the honour done them where-ever they came this made good by several instances Bishops invested with power to determine civil controversies The plentiful provision made for them The great priviledges and immunities granted by Constantine and his Successors to the Bishops and Clergie noted out of the Theodosian Code FRom the consideration of time and place we proceed to consider the Persons that constituted and made up their Religious Assemblies and they were either the body of the people or those who were peculiarly consecrated and set apart for the publick ministrations of Religion For the Body of the people we may observe that as Christianity at first generally gain'd admission in great Towns and Cities so all the Believers of that place usually assembled and met together the Christians also of the Neighbour-Villages resorting thither at times of publick Worship But Religion encreasing apace the publick Assembly especially in the greater Cities quickly began to be too vast and numerous to be managed with any order and conveniency and therefore they were forced to divide the body into particular Congregations who had their Pastors and spiritual Guides set over them but still were under the superintendency and care of him that was the President or Bishop of the place And according as the Church could form and establish its discipline the people either according to their seniority and improvement or according to the quality of the present condition they were under began to be distinguished into several ranks and Classes which had their distinct places in the Church and their gradual admission to the several parts of the publick Worship The first were the Catechumens and of these there were two sorts the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more perfect such as had been Catechumens of some considerable standing and were even ripe for Baptism these might stay not only the reading of the Scriptures but to the very last part of the first Service The others were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more rude and imperfect who stood only amongst the Hearers and were to depart the Congregation as soon as the Lessons were read these were as yet accounted Heathens who applied themselves to the Christian Faith and were catechized and instructed in the more plain grounds and rudiments of Religion These principles were gradually delivered to them according as they became capable to receive them first the more plain and then the more difficult Indeed they were very shye of imparting the knowledge of the more recondite Doctrines of Christianity to any till after Baptism So S. Cyril expresly assures us where speaking to the illuminate or Baptized if during the chatechetical exercise says he a Catechumen shall ask thee what that means which the Preachers say tell him not for he is yet without and these mysteries are delivered to thee only The weak understanding of a Catechumen being no more able to bear such sublime mysteries than a sick mans head can large and immoderate draughts of Wine And at the end of his Preface he has this note These Catechetical discourses may be read by those that are to be baptized or the faithful already baptized but to Catechumens or such as are no Christians thou mayst not impart them for if thou dost expect to give an account to God S. Basil discoursing of the Rites and Institutions of Christianity divides them into two parts the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those parts of Religion which might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be familiarly preached and expounded to the people The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the more sublime and hidden Doctrines and parts of the Christian Faith and these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not rashly and commonly to be divulged but to be lock'd up in silence Of this nature were the Doctrines of the Trinity and Hypostatick Vnion and such like especially of the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper For though they acquainted their young hearers with so much of them as was necessary to stir up their desires yet as to the main of the things themselves the sacramental Symbols the manner of their celebration the modus of the divine presence at the holy Eucharist the meaning of all those mystical Rites and Ceremonies that were used about them these were carefully concealed both from Strangers and Catechumens and communicated only to those who were solemnly initiated and baptized Hence that ancient form so common in the Sermons and Writings of the Fathers whereby when accidentally discoursing before the people of any of these mysterious parts of Religion they used to fetch themselves off with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are initiated know what is said This was so usual that this phrase occurs at least fifty times in the Writings of S. Chrysostom only as Casaubon hath observed who has likewise noted three reasons out of the Fathers why they so studiously concealed these parts of their Religion First the nature of the things themselves so sublime and remote from vulgar apprehensions that they would signifie little to Pagans or Catechumens not yet fully instructed and confirmed in the faith and would either be lost upon them or in danger to be derided by them Secondly that hereby the Catechumens and younger Christians might be inflamed with a greater eagerness of desire to partake of the mysteries and priviledges of the Faithful humane nature being desirous of nothing more than the knowledge of what is kept and conceal'd from us To help them forwards in this S. Augustine tells us that in their publick prayers they were wont to beg of God to inspire the Catechumens with a desire of baptismal regeneration The same account Chrysostom gives us this
before the celebration of the Eucharist which was never administred till the wole Church met together That therefore which the Apostle reproves and corrects is their indecency and intemperance commanding both rich and poor to wait for one another and to eat this common meal together that they might the more orderly and unanimously pass to the celebration of the Lords Supper In after Ages this Feast was not till the Communion was over when the Congregation feasted together and so departed and so Chrysostom expresly tells us 't was in his days besides nothing is more obvious than that it was customary in those times for persons to fast till they had received the Communion I know a very learned man is of opinion that these Love-feasts were not kept at the same time with the celebration of the Eucharist but besides that his Arguments are not conclusive the whole stream of learned Writers runs full against him These Feasts continued for some Ages till great inconveniences being found in them they were prohibited to be kept in Churches by the Laodicean Synod and after that by the Council of Carthage which though but Provincial or National Councils yet the Decrees were afterwards ratified by the sixth Trullan Council and the custom in a short time dwindled into nothing These things being premised the sacramental elements prepared and all things ready they proceeded to the action it self which following for the main the account that is given us by S. Cyril of Jerusalem and taking in what we find in others was usually managed after this manner First the Deacon brought water to the Bishop and the Presbyters that stood round about the Table to wash their hands signifying the purity that ought to be in those that draw nigh to God according to that of the Psalmist I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass thine Altar O Lord then the Deacon cryed out aloud mutually embrace and kiss one another this holy kiss was very ancient commonly used in the Apostles times and in the succeeding Ages of the Church but especially at the Sacrament as a sign of the unfeigned reconciliation of their minds and that all injuries and offences were blotted out according to our Lords command When thou bringest thy gift to the Altar and remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift this being done they fell to prayer the whole Congregation praying together with the Minister which therefore Justin Martyr calls the Common Prayer the form whereof in the Apostolical Constitutions is described at large for the universal peace and welfare of the Church for the tranquillity and quietness of the world for the prosperity of the age for wholesom weather and fruitful seasons for all sorts of persons for Kings and Emperours and all in authority for Souldiers and Armies for believers and unbelievers for friends and companions for the sick and distressed and in short for all that stood in need of help This general prayer is frequently mentioned by the ancient Fathers as that which was at the beginning of the Communion Service though S. Cyrill place it a little later as doubtless it was in his time After this followed the mutual salutation of the minister and people the Minister saying the Lord be with you to whom the People answered and with thy spirit the Minister cryed lift up your hearts nothing being more sutable says S. Cyrill at this time than that we should shake off all worldly cares and exalt our hearts to God in heaven the people truly assenting and yielding to it answered we lift them up unto the Lord the Minister proceeded let us give thanks unto the Lord for what more fit than thankfulness to God and a high resentment of such favours and blessings to this the people returned it is meet and just so to do Whereupon the Minister proceeded to the prayer of Consecration the form whereof we have in the Apostolical Constitutions wherein he express'd huge thankfulness to God for the death resurrection and ascension of his Son for the shedding of his blood for us and the celebration of it in this Sacrament for condescending to admit them to such mighty benefits and praying for a closer unity to one another in the same mystical body concluding usually with the Lords Prayer and the hearty and universal acclamation of Amen by all that were present this done the Minister cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy things belong to holy persons the people answering there is one holy one Lord Jesus Christ then he exhorted them to a due participation of the holy mysteries which Cyrill tells us was done by way of a divine Hymn singing come taste and see that the Lord is good After this the Bishop or Presbyter took the sacramental elements sanctified then by a solemn benediction the form of consecration we have in S. Ambrose Lord make this oblation now prepared for us to become a reasonable and acceptable sacrifice this which is the figure of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ who the day before he suffered took the bread in his sacred hands looked up to heaven giving thanks to thee O holy Father almighty and everlasting God blessed it and having broken it gave it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take eat all of it for this is my body which is broken for many likewise also after Supper he took the Cup that very day before he suffered looked up to heaven giving thanks to thee holy Father almighty and everlasting God and having blessed it gave it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of it for this is my blood After this he first brake the bread and delivering it to the Deacon he distributed it to the Communicants and after that the Cup which was likewise delivered to them for the custom of communicating under one kind only as is used in the Church of Rome was then unknown to the world nay and for above a thousand years after Christ. In some cases 't is true they dipt the Bread in the Wine as in the case of baptized infants to whom they administred the Eucharist in those primitive times and to very weak dying persons who would not otherwise have swallowed the bread and that by this means they might keep the Sacrament at home against all emergent occasions and this probably might in time make the way easier for introducing the Sacrament under the kind of Bread only Their sacramental Wine was generally diluted and mixed with water as is evident from Justin Martyr Irenaeus Cyprian and others Cyprian in a long Epistle expresly pleads for it as the only true and warrantable tradition derived from Christ and his Apostles and
more than ordinary rank and dignity or of a more tender and delicate Constitution Chrysostome determines that in chastising and punishing their offences they be dealt withal in a more peculiar manner than other men lest by holding them under over-rigorous penalties they should be tempted to fly out into despair and so throwing off the reins of modesty and the care of their own happiness and salvation should run headlong into all manner of vice and wickedness So wisely did the prudence and piety of those times deal with offenders neither letting the reins so loose as to patronize presumption or encourage any man to sin nor yet holding them so strait as to drive men into despair The fourth and last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom this discipline was administred now though 't is true that this affair was managed in the Publick Congregation and seldom or never done without the consent and approbation of the people as Cyprian more than once and again expresly tells us yet was it ever accounted a ministerial act and properly belonged to them Tertullian speaking of Church censures adds that the Elders that are approv'd and have attain'd that honour not by purchase but testimony preside therein and Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia in a Letter to S. Cyprian speaking of the Majores natu the Seniors that preside in the Church tells us that to them belongs the power of baptizing imposing hands viz. in penance and ordination By the Bishop it was primarily and usually administred the determining the time and manner of repentance and the conferring pardon upon the penitent sinner being acts of the highest power and jurisdiction and therefore reckoned to appertain to the highest order in the Church Therefore 't is provided by the Illiberine Council that penance shall be prescribed by none but the Bishop only in case of necessity such as sickness and danger of death by leave and command from the Bishop the Presbyter or Deacon might impose penance and absolve Accordingly we find Cyprian amongst other directions to his Clergy how to carry themselves towards the lapsed giving them this that if any were over-taken with sickness or present danger they should not stay for his coming but the sick person should make confession of his sins to the next Presbyter or if a Presbyter could not be met with to a Deacon that so laying hands upon him he might depart in the peace of the Church But though while the number of Christians was small and the bounds of particular Churches little Bishops were able to manage these and other parts of their office in their own persons yet soon after the task began to grow too great for them and therefore about the time of the Decian persecution when Christians were very much multiplyed and the number of the lapsed great it seem'd good to the prudence of the Church partly for the ease of the Bishop and partly to provide for the modesty of persons in being brought before the whole Church to confess every crime to appoint a publick penitentiary some holy grave and prudent Presbyter whose office it was to take the confession of those sins which persons had committed after baptism and by prayers fastings and other exercises of mortification to prepare them for absolution He was a kind of Censor morum to enquire into the lives of Christians to take an account of their failures and to direct and dispose them to repentance This Office continued for some hundreds of years till it was abrogated by Nectarius S. Chrysostomes predecessor in the See of Constantinople upon the occasion of a notorious scandal that arose about it A woman of good rank and quality had been with the Penitentiary and confessed all her sins committed since baptism he enjoyn'd her to give up her self to fasting and prayer but not long after she came to him and confessed that while she was conversant in the Church to attend upon those holy exercises she had been tempted to commit folly and leudness with a Deacon of the Church whereupon the Deacon was immediately cast out but the people being excedingly troubled at the scandal and the Holy Order hereby exposed to the scorn and derision of the Gentiles Nectarius by the advice of Eudaemon a Presbyter of that Church wholly took away the Office of the publick Penitentiary leaving every one to the care and liberty of his own conscience to prepare himself for the Holy Sacrament This account Socrates assures us he had from Eudaemon's own mouth and Sozomen adds that almost all Bishops follow'd Nectarius his example in abrogating this Office But besides the ordinary and standing office of the Clergy we find even some of the Laity the Martyrs and Confessors that had a considerable hand in absolving penitents and restoring them to the communion of the Church For the understanding of which we are to know that as the Christians of those times had a mighty reverence for Martyrs and Confessors as the great Champions of Religion so the Martyrs took upon them to dispense in extraordinary cases for it was very customary in times of persecution for those who through fear of suffering had lapsed into Idolatry to make their address to the Martyrs in prison and to beg peace of them that they might be restored to the Church who considering their petitions and weighing the circumstances of their case did frequently grant their requests mitigate their penance and by a note signed under their hands signifie what they had done to the Bishop who taking an account of their condition absolved and admitted them to communion Of these Libelli or Books granted by the Martyrs to the lapsed there is mention in Cyprian at every turn who complains they were come to that excessive number that thousands were granted almost every day this many of them took upon them to do with great smartness and authority and without that respect that was due to the Bishops as appears from the note written to Cyprian by Lucian in the name of the Confessors which because 't is but short and withall shews the form and manners of those pacifick Libells it may not be amiss to set it down and thus it runs All the Confessors to Cyprian the Bishop Greeting Know that we have granted peace to all those of whom you have had an account what they have done how they have behaved themselves since the commission of their crimes and we would that these presents should by you be imparted to the rest of the Bishops We wish you to maintain peace with the holy Martyrs Written by Lucian of the Clergy the Exorcist and Reader being present This was looked upon as very peremptory and magisterial and therefore of this confidence and presumption and carelesness in promiscuously granting these letters of peace Cyprian not without reason complains in an Epistle to the Clergy of Rome Besides these Libells granted by the Martyrs there
of the expiation of his crimes embraced Christianity being told that in the Christian Religion there was a promise of cleansing from all fin and that as soon as ever any closed with it pardon would be granted to the most profligate offenders As if Christianity had been nothing else but a Receptacle and Sanctuary for Rogues and Villains where the worst of men might be wicked under hopes of pardon But how false and groundless especially as urged and intended by them this impious charge was appears from the whole design and tenour of the Gospel and that more than ordinary vein of piety and strictness that was conspicuous in the lives of its first professors whereof we have in this Treatise given abundant evidence To this representation of their lives and manners I have added some account concerning the ancient Rites and Usages of the Church wherein if any one shall meet with something that does not jump with his own humour he will I doubt not have more discretion than to quarrel with me for setting down things as I found them But in this part I have said the less partly because this was not the thing I primarily designed partly because it has been done by others in just Discourses In some few instances I have remarked the corruption and degeneracy of the Church of Rome from the purity and simplicity of the ancient Church and more I could easily have added but that I studiously avoided controversies it being no part of my design to enquire what was the judgment of the Fathers in disputable cases especially the more abstruse and intricate speculations of Theology but what was their practice and by what rules and measures they did govern and conduct their lives The truth is their Creed in the first Ages was short and simple their Faith lying then as Erasmus observes not so much in nice and numerous Articles as in a good and an holy life At the end of the Book I have added a Chronological Index of the Authors according to the times wherein they are supposed to have lived with an account of the Editions of their Works made use of in this Treatise Which I did not that I had a mind to tell the world either what or how many Books I had a piece of vanity of which had I been guilty it had been no hard matter to have furnish'd out a much larger Catalogue But I did it partly to gratifie the request of the Bookseller partly because I conceived it might not be altogether unuseful to the Reader the Index to give some light to the quotations by knowing when the Author lived especially when he speaks of things done in or near his own time and which must otherwise have been done at every turn in the body of the Book And because there are some Writings frequently made use of in this Book the Authors whereof in this Index could be reduced to no certain date especially those called the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions it may not be amiss here briefly to take notice of them And first for the Canons as I am far from their opinion who ascribe them to the Apostles so I think their great Antagonist Mr. Daillé bends the stick as much too far the other way not allowing them a being in the world till the year 500 or a little before The truth doubtless lies between these two 'T is evident both from the Histories of the Church and many passages in Tertullian Cyprian and others that there were in the most early Ages of Christianity frequent Synods and Councils for setling the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church though their determinations under that notion be not extant at this day Part of these Synodical Decrees so many of them as concern'd the Rites and Discipline of the Church we may conceive some person of learning and judgment gathered together probably about the beginning of the third Century and put them especially the first Fifty for I look not upon the whole eighty five as of equal value and authority if not into the same into some such form and method wherein we now have them stiling them Ecclesiastical or Apostolical Canons not as if they had been composed by the Apostles but either because containing things consonant to the Doctrines and Rules delivered by the Apostles or because made up of usages and traditions supposed to be derived from them or lastly because made by ancient and Apostolic men That many if not all of these Canons were some considerable time extant before the first Nicene Council we have great reason to believe from two or three passages amongst many others S. Basil giving rules about Discipline appoint a Deacon guilty of Fornication to be deposed and thrust down into the rank of Laicks and that in that capacity he might receive the Communion there being says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Canon that they that are deposed should only fall under this kind of punishment the ancients as I suppose following herein that command Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault This Balsamon joins with the twenty fifth Canon of the Apostles which treats of the very same affair and indeed it cannot in probability be meant of any other partly because there was no ancient Canon that we know of in S. Basils time about this business but that partly because the same sentence is applied as the reason both in the Apostolical and S. Basils Canon Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault which clearly shews whence Basil had it and what he understands by his ancient Canon Theodoret records a Letter of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria to another of the same name Bishop of Constantinople this Letter was written a little before the Council of Nice where speaking of some Bishops who had received the Arians whom he had excommunicated into Communion he tells him that herein they had done what the Apostolical Canon did not allow evidently referring to the twelfth and thirteenth Canon of the Apostles which state the case about one Bishops receiving those into Communion who had been excommunicated by another To this let me add that Constantine in a Letter to Eusebius commends him for refusing to leave his own Bishoprick to go over to that of Antioch to which he was chosen especially because herein he had exactly observed the rule of Ecclesiastical Discipline and had kept the commands of God and the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Canon meaning doubtless the fourteenth Apostolick Canon which treats about such removes Nay learned men both formerly and of late have observed divers passages in the Nicene Canons themselves which plainly respect these Canons as might be made appear notwithstanding what Daillé has excepted against it were this a proper place to discourse of it This for the Canons For the Constitutions they are said to have been composed by S. Clemens at the instance and by the direction of the Apostles And this wild and extravagant
of them and think them happy that they are intrusted by God to manage the conveniencies of mans life but yet do not give them that honour that is only due to God for this neither does God allow of neither do they desire it but equally love and regard us when we do not as if we did sacrifice to them And when Celsus a little before had smartly pressed him to do honour to Daemons he rejects the motion with great contempt away says he with this counsel of Celsus who in this is not in the least to be hearkned to for the great God only is to be adored and prayers to be delivered up to none but his only begotten Son the first born of every creature that as our High-Priest he may carry them to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 'T is true that the Worship of Angels did and that very early as appears from the Apostles caveat against it in his Epistle to the Colossians creep into some parts of the Christian Church but was always disowned and cryed out against and at last publickly and solemnly condemned by the whole Laodicean Council it is not lawful says the thirty fifth Canon of that Council for Christians to leave the Church of God and to go and invocate Angels and to make prohibited assemblies if therefore any one shall be found devoting himself to this private Idolatry let him be accursed forasmuch as he has forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and has delivered up himself to Idolatry From which nothing can be more clear than that it was the sense of these Fathers that the worshipping of Angels was not only down-right Idolatry but a plain apostasie from the Christian Faith Nor were they more peremptory in denying divine honour to Angels than they were to Martyrs and departed Saints for though they had a mighty honour and respect for Martyrs as we shall take notice afterwards as those that had maintained the truth of their Religion and seal'd it with their blood and therefore did what they could to do praise and honour to their memories yet were they far from placing any thing of Religion or divine adoration in it whereof 't will be enough to quote one famous instance The Church of Smyrna writing to the Churches of Pontus to give them an account of the martyrdom of Polycarpus their Bishop tells them that after he was dead many of the Christians were desirous to have gotten the remains of his body possibly to have given them decent and honourable burial but were prevented in it by some Jews who importun'd the Proconsul to the contrary suggesting that the Christians leaving their crucified Master might henceforth worship Polycarpus whereupon they add that this suggestion must needs proceed from ignorance of the true state of Christians this they did say they not considering how impossible 't is that ever we should either forsake Christ who died for the salvation of mankind or that we should worship any other We adore him as the Son of God but the Martyrs as the Disciples and Followes of our Lord we deservedly love for their eminent kindness to their own Prince and Master whose Companions and Fellow-Disciples we also by all means desire to be This instance is so much the more valuable in this case not only because so plain and pertinent but because so ancient and from persons of so great authority in the Church For this is not the testimony of any one private person but of the whole Church of Smyrna according as it had been trained up under the Doctrine and Discipline of Polycarpus the immediate Disciple of S. John This was the Doctrine and practice of Christians then and it held so for some Ages after even down to the times of S. Augustine when yet in many other things the simplicity of the Christian Religion began to decline apace we set apart says he no Temples nor Priests nor divine services nor sacrifices to Martyrs because they are not God but the same who is theirs is our God indeed we honour their memories as of holy men who have stood for the truth even unto death that so the true Religion might appear and those which are false be convinc'd to be so but who ever heard a Priest standing at the Altar built for the honour and worship of God over the body of the holy Martyr to say in his Prayers I offer sacrifice to thee Peter or Paul or Cyprian for in such commemorations we offer to that God who made them both men and Martyrs and has made them partners with holy Angels in the heavenly glory and by these solemnities we both give thanks to the true God for the victories which they have gain'd and also stir up our selves by begging his assistance to contend for such crowns and rewards as they are possessed of so that whatever offices religious men perform in the places of the Martyrs they are only ornaments to their memories not sacrifices or divine services done to the departed as if they were Deities More to the same purpose we may find in that place as also in infinite other places of his Works where were it worth the while I could easily shew that he does no less frequently than expresly assert that though the honour of love respect and imitation yet no religious adoration is due either to Angels Martyrs or departed Saints But the great instance wherein the primitive Christians manifested their detestation of Idolatry was in respect of the idolatrous Worship of the Heathen world the denying and abhorring any thing of divine honour that was done to their gods They looked upon the very making of Idols though with no intention to worship them as an unlawful trade and as inconsistent with Christianity how have we renounced the Devil and his Angels says Tertullian meaning their solemn renunciation in baptism if we make Idols nor is it enough to say though I make them I do not worship them there being the same cause not to make them that there is not to worship them viz. the offence that in both is done to God yet thou dost so far worship them as thou makest them that others may worship them and therefore he roundly pronounces that no Art no Profession no service whatsoever that is employed either in making or ministring to Idols can come short of Idolatry They startled at any thing that had but the least shadow of symbolizing with them in their Idolatry therefore the Ancyran Council condemned them to a two years supension from the Sacrament who sat down with their Heathen friends upon their solemn Festivals in their Idol-Temples although they brought their own Provisions along with them and touched not one bit of what had been offered to the Idol Their first care in instructing new Converts was to leaven them with the hatred of Idolatry those that are to be initiated into our Religion says Origen
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
opposing the plain and simple way of the Orthodox Assemblies to the skulking and clancular Conventicles of the Hereticks who Serpent-like crept about in holes and corners says he the house of our Dove-like Religion is simple built on high and in open view and respects the light as the figure of the Holy Spirit and the East as the representation of Christ It cannot be thought that in the first Ages while the flames of persecution raged about their ears the Christian Churches should be very stately and magnificent but such as the condition of those times would bear their splendour encreasing according to the entertainment that Christianity met withal in the world till the Empire becoming Christian their Temples rose up into grandeur and gallantry as amongst others may appear by the particular description which Eusebius makes of the Church at Tyre mentioned before and that which Constantine built at Constantinople in honour of the Apostles both which were incomparably sumptuous and magnificent I shall not undertake to describe at large the exact form and the several parts and dimensions of their Churches which varied somewhat according to different times and Ages but briefly reflect upon such as were most common and remarkable at the entrance of their Churches especially after they began to arrive at more perfection was the Vestibulum called also Atrium and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Porch in greater Churches of somewhat larger capacity adorned many times with goodly Cloysters marble Columns Fountains and Cisterns of water and covered over for the conveniency of those that stood or walked there Here stood the lowest order of Penitents beging the prayers of the faithful as they went in For the Church it self it usually consisted of three parts the first was the Narthex which we have no proper word to render by it was that part of the Church that lay next to the great door by which they entred in in the first part of it stood the Catechumens or first learners of Christianity in the middle the Euergumeni or those who were possessed by Satan and in this part also stood the Font or place of baptismal initiation and towards the upper end was the place of the Hearers who were one of the ranks of Penitents The second part contained the middle or main body of the Church called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latins Navis from whence our term the Nave of the Church comes where the faithful assembled for the celebration of Divine Service where the men and the women had their distinct apartments lest at such times unchast and irregular appetites should be kindled by a promiscuous interfering with one another of which pious and excellent contrivance mention is made in an ancient Funeral Inscription found in the Vatican Coemetery at Rome such a one buried SINISTRA PARTE VIRORUM on that side of the Church where the men sat In this part of the Church next to the entring into it stood the Class of the Penitents who were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because at their going out they fell down upon their knees before the Bishop who laid his hands upon them Next to them was the Ambo the Pulpit or rather reading-desk whence the Scriptures were read and preached to the people Above that were the Faithful the highest rank and order of the people and who alone communicated at the Lords Table The third part was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separated from the rest of the Church by neat Rails called Cancelli whence our English word Chancel to denote the part of the Church to this day into this part none might come but such as were in holy orders unless it were the Greek Emperours who were allowed to come up to the Table to make their Offerings and so back again within this division the most considerable thing was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Altar as they metaphorically called it because there they offered the commemorative Sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood o◠the Communion-Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is frequently styled by the Greek Fathers behind which at the very upper end of the Chancel was the Chair or Throne of the Bishop for so was it almost constantly called on both sides whereof were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seats of the Presbyters for the Deacons might not here sit down the Bishops Throne was raised up somewhat higher from the ground and from hence I suppose it was that he usually delivered his Sermons to the people therefore Socrates seems to note it as a new thing in Chrysostoms that when he preached he went to sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Pulpit he means that in the body of the Church for so Sozomon tells us that he sat in the Reading Desk in the middle of the Church that by reason of his low voice he might be better heard of the people Adjoining to the Chancel on the North-side probably was the Diaconicon mentioned both in the Laodicean Council though I know both Zonaras and Balsamon and after them the learned Leo Allatius will have another thing to be meant in that place as also in a Law of Arcadius and Honorius against Hereticks and probably so called either because peculiarly committed to the Deacon of the place or as the great Commentator upon that Law will have it because set apart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to some sacred services It was in the nature of our modern Vestries the Sacristy wherein the Plate Vessels and Vestments belonging to the Church and other things dedicated to holy uses were laid up and where in after times Reliques and such like Fopperies were treasured up with great care and diligence On the other side of the Chancel was the Prothesis or place where things were prepared in order to the Sacrament where the Offerings were laid and what remained of the Sacramental Elements till they were decently disposed of And this may serve for a short view of the Churches of those first times after they began to grow up into some beauty and perfection But though the Christians of those times spared no convenient cost in founding and adorning publick places for the Worship of God yet were they careful to keep a decent mean between a sordid slovenliness and a too curious and over nice superstition In the more early times even while the fury and fierceness of their Enemies kept them low and mean yet they beautified their Oratories and places of Worship especially if we may believe the Authour of the Dialogue in Lucian whom we mentioned before and who lived within the first Age who bringing in one Critias that was perswaded by the Christians to go to the place of their Assembly which by his description seems to have been an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vpper-Room tells us that after they had gone up several stairs they came at last into an House or Room
Epiphanius and then too met with no very welcome entertainment as may appear from Epiphanius his own Epistle translated by S. Hierom where the story in short is this Coming says he to Anablatha a Village in Palestine and going into a Church to pray I espied a Curtain hanging over the door whereon was painted the Image of Christ or of some Saint which when I looked upon and saw the Image of a man hanging up in the Church contrary to the authority of the Holy Scriptures I presently rent it and advis'd the Guardians of the Church rather to make usd of it as a Winding-sheet for some poor mans burying whereat when they were a little troubled and said 't was but just that since I had rent that Curtain I should change it and give them another I promis'd them I would and have now sent the best I could get and pray' entreat them to accept it and give command that for the time to come no such Curtains being contrary to our Religion may be hung up in the Church of Christ it more becoming your place solicitously to remove whatever is offensive to and unworthy of the Church of Christ and the people committed to your Charge This was written to John Bishop of Jerusalem in whose Diocess the thing had been done and the case is so much the more pressing and weighty by how the greater esteem and value Epiphanius then Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus for his great age and excellent learning had in the Church of God This instance is so home and pregnant that the Patrons of Image-Worship are at a mighty loss what to say to it and after all are forced to cry out against it as supposititious Bellarmine brings no less than nine arguments if such they may be called to make it seem probable but had he been ingenuous he might have given one reason more true and satisfactory than all the rest why that part of the Epistle should be thought forged and spurious viz. because it makes so much against them More might be produced to this purpose but by this I hope 't is clear enough that the honest Christians of those times as they thought it sufficient to pray to God without making their addresses to Saints and Angels so they accounted their Churches fine enough without Pictures and Images to adorn them Their Churches being built and beautified so far as consisted with the ability and simplicity of those days they sought to derive a greater value and esteem upon them by some peculiar consecration for the wisdom and piety of those times thought it not enough barely to devote them to the publick services of Religion unless they also set them apart with solemn Rites of a formal dedication This had been an ancient Custom both amongst Jews and Gentiles as old as Solomons Temple nay as Moses and the Tabernacle When 't was first taken up by Christians is not easie to determine only I do not remember to have met with the footsteps of any such thing in any approved Writer for the Decretal Epistles every one knows what their faith is till the Reign of Constantine in his time Christianity being become more prosperous and successful Churches were every where erected and repaired and no sooner were so but as Eusebius tells us they were solemnly consecrated and the dedications celebrated with great festivity and rejoycing an instance whereof he there gives of the famous Church of Tyre at the dedication whereof he himself made that excellent Oration inserted into the body of his History About the thirtieth year of his Reign he built a stately Church at Jerusalem over the Sepulchre of our Saviour which was dedicated with singular magnificence and veneration and for the greater honour by his imperial Letters he summoned the Bishops who from all parts of the East were then met in Council at Tyre to be present and assisting at the Solemnity The Rites and Ceremonies used at these dedications as we find in Eusebius were a great confluence of Bishops and Strangers from all parts the performance of divine offices singing of hymns and Psalms reading and expounding of the Scriptures Sermons and Orations receiving the holy Sacrament prayers and thanksgivings â—iberal Alms bestowed on the poor and great gifts given to the Church and in short mighty expressions of mutual love and kindness and universal rejoycing with one another What other particular Ceremonies were introduced afterwards concerns not me to enquire only let me note that under some of the Christian Emperours when Paganism lay gasping for life and their Temples were purged and converted into Christian Churches they were usually consecrated only by placing a Cross in them as the venerable Ensign of the Christian Religion as appears by the Law of Theodosius the younger to that purpose The memory of the dedication of that Church at Jerusalem was constantly continued and kept alive in that Church and once a year to wit on the 14. of September on which day it had been dedicated was solemnized with great pomp and much confluence of people from all parts the Solemnity usually lasting eight days together which doubtless gave birth to that custom of keeping anniversary days of commemoration of the dedication of Churches which from this time forwards we frequently meet with in the Histories of the Church and much prevailed in after Ages some shadow whereof still remains amongst us at this day in the Wakes observed in several Counties which in correspondence with the Encoenia of the ancient Church are annual Festivals kept in Country Villages in memory of the dedication of their particular Churches And because it was a custom in some Ages of the Church that no Church should be consecrated till it was endowed it may give us occasion to enquire what Revenues Churches had in those first Ages of Christianity 'T is more than probable that for a great while they had no other publick incomes than either what arose out of those common contributions which they made at their usual Assemblies every one giving or offering according to his ability or devotion which was put into a common stock or treasury or what proceeded from the offerings which they made out of the improvement of their Lands the Apostolick Canons providing that their First-fruits should be partly offered at the Church partly sent home to the Bishops and Presbyters the care of all which was committed to the President or Bishop of the Church for who says the Authour of the fore-cited Canons is fitter to be trusted with the riches and revenues of the Church than he who is intrusted with the precious souls of men and by him disposed of for the maintenance of the Clergie the relief of the poor or whatever necessities of the Church As Christianity encreased and times grew better they obtained more proper and fixed revenues houses and lands being setled upon them for such 't is certain they had even during the times
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
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
the richest and most noble gifts and to diffuse the influences of his bounty over all parts of his Empire And his example herein it seems was followed by most of his Successors who used upon this Solemnity by their imperial Orders to release all Prisoners unless such as were in for more heavy and notorious crimes high Treason Murders Rapes Incest and the like And Chrysostom tells us of a Letter of Theodosius the Great sent at this time throughout the Empire wherein he did not only command that all Prisoners should be released and pardoned but wished he was able to recal those that were already executed and to restore them to life again And because by the negligence and remissness of messengers or any accident those Imperial Letters might sometimes happen to come too late therefore Valentinian the younger provided by a standing Law that whether order came or not the Judges should dispence the accustomed indulgence and upon Easter day in the morning cause all Prisons to be open the Chains to be knock'd off and the persons set at liberty The next Feast considerable in those primitive times was that of Whitsunday or Pentecost a Feast of great eminency amongst the Jews in memory of the Law delivered at Mount Sinai at that time and for the gathering and bringing in of their Harvest and of no less note amongst Christians for the Holy Ghosts descending upon the Apostles and other Christians in the visible appearance of fiery cloven tongues which hapned upon that day and those miraculous powers then conferred upon them It was observed with the same respect to Easter that the Jews did with respect to their Passover viz. as the word imports just fifty days after it reckoning from the second day of that Festival it seems to some to have commenced from the first rise of Christianity not only because the Apostles and the Church were assembled upon that day but because S. Paul made so much haste to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost which they understand of his great desire to keep it there as a Christian Feast But the argument seems to me no way conclusive for the Apostle might desire to be there at that time both because he was sure to meet with a great number of the Brethren and because he should have a fitter opportunity to preach the Gospel to the Jews who from all parts flock'd thither to the Feast as our Saviour himself for the same reason used to go up to Jerusalem at all their great and solemn Feasts But however this was 't is certain the observation of it is ancient 't was mentioned by Irenaeus in a Book which he wrote concerning Easter as the Author of the Questions and Responses in J. Martyr tells us by Tertullian and after him by Origen more than once This Feast is by us stiled Whitsunday partly because of those vast diffusions of light and knowledge which upon this day were shed upon the Apostles in order to the enlightning of the world but principally because this as also Easter being the stated time for Baptism in the ancient Church those who were baptized put on white Garments in token of that pure and innocent course of life they had now engaged in of which more in its proper place this white Garment they wore till the next Sunday after and then laid it aside whence the Octave or Sunday after Easter came to be stiled Dominica in Albis the Sunday in white it being then that the new-baptized put off their white Garments We may observe that in the Writers of those times the whole space of fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday goes often under the name of Pentecost and was in a manner accounted Festival as Tertullian informs us and the forty third Canon of the Illiberitan Council seems to intimate During this whole time Baptism was conferred all Fasts were suspended and counted unlawful they prayed standing as they did every Lords day and at this time read over the Acts of the Apostles wherein their sufferings and miracles are recorded as we learn from a Law of the younger Theodosius wherein this custom is mentioned and more plainly from S. Chrysostom who treats of it in an Homily on purpose where he gives this reason why that Book which contained those actions of the Apostles which were done after Pentecost should yet be read before it when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christs Resurrection and those miracles recorded in that Book it was therefore most proper to be read next to the Feast of the Resurrection Epiphany succeeds this word was of old promiscuously used either for the Feast of Christs Nativity or for that which we now properly call by that name afterwards the Titles became distinct that of Christs Birth or as we now term it Christmas-day was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nativity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearance of God in the flesh two names importing the same thing as Nazianzen notes For the antiquity of it the first footsteps I find of it are in the second Century though I doubt not but it might be celebrated before mentioned by Theophilus Bishop of Caesaria about the time of the Emperour Commodus but if any credit might be given to the Decretal Epistles it was somewhat elder than that Pope Telesphorus who lived under Antoninus Pius ordaining Divine Service to be celebrated and an angelical Hymn to be sung the night before the Nativity of our Saviour However that it was kept before the times of Constantine we have this sad instance That when the persecution raged under Dioclesian who then kept his Court at Nicomedia amongst other acts of barbarous cruelty done there finding multitudes of Christians young and old met together in the Temple upon the day of Christs Nativity to celebrate that Festival he commanded the Church doors to be shut up and fire to be put to it which in a short time reduced them and the Church to ashes I shall not dispute whether it was always observed upon the same day that we keep it now the twenty fifth of December it seems probable that for a long time in the East it was kept in January under the name and at the general time of the Epiphania till receiving more light in the case from the Churches of the West they changed it to this day sure I am S. Chrysostom in an Homily on purpose about this very thing affirms that it was not above ten years since in that Church i. e. Antioch it began first to be observed upon that day and there offers several reasons to prove that to be the true day of Christs Nativity The Feast of Epiphany properly so called was kept on the sixth of January and had that name from a
Province who enjoyed nothing but that name and title his Episcopal See being by the Emperours Pragmatic erected into the dignity of a Metropolis He was only an Honorary Metropolitan without any real power and jurisdiction and had no other priviledge but that he took place above other ordinary Bishops in all things else equally subject with them to the Metropolitan of the Province as the Council of Chalcedon determines in this case When this Office of Metropolitan first began I find not only this we are sure of that the Council of Nice setling the just rights and priviledges of Metropolitan Bishops speaks of them as a thing of ancient date ushering in the Canon with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customs still take place The original of the institution seems to have been partly to comply with peoples occasions who oft resorted to the Metropolis for dispatch of their affairs and so might fitly discharge their Civil and Ecclesiastical concerns both at once and partly because of the great confluence of people to that City that the Bishop of it might have preheminence above the rest and the honour of the Church bear some proportion to that of the State After this sprang up another branch of the Episcopal Office as much superiour to that of Metropolitans as theirs was to ordinary Bishops these were called Primates and Patriarchs and had jurisdiction over many Provinces For the understanding of this it 's necessary to know that when Christianity came to be fully setled in the world they contrived to model the external Government of the Church as near as might be to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire the parallel most exactly drawn by an ingenious person of our own Nation the sum of it is this The whole Empire of Rome was divided into Thirteen Dioceces so they called those divisions these contained about one hundred and twenty Provinses and every Province several Cities Now as in every City there was a temporal Magistrate for the executing of justice and keeping peace both for that City and the Towns round about it so was there also a Bishop for spiritual order and Government whose jurisdiction was of like extent and latitude In every Province there was a Proconsul or President whose seat was usually at the Metropolis or chief City of the Province and hither all inferiour Cities came for judgment in matters of importance And in proportion to this there was in the same City an Archbishop or Metropolitan for matters of Ecclesiastical concernment Lastly in every Diocess the Emperours had their Vicarii or Lieutenants who dwelt in the principal City of the Diocess where all imperial Edicts were published and from whence they were sent abroad into the several Provinces and where was the chief Tribunal where all Causes not determinable elsewhere were decided And to answer this there was in the same City a Primate to whom the last determination of all appeals from all the Provinces in differences of the Clergie and the Soveraign care of all the Diocess for sundry points of spiritual Government did belong This in short is the sum of the account which that learned man gives of this matter So that the Patriarch as superiour to Metropolitans was to have under his jurisdiction not any one single Province but a whole Diocess in the old Roman notion of that word consisting of many Provinces To him belonged the ordination of all the Metropolitans that were under him as also the summoning them to Councils the correcting and reforming the misdemeanours they were guilty of and from his judgment and sentence in things properly within his cognizance there lay no appeal To this I shall only add what Salmasius has noted that as the Diocess that was governed by the Vicarius had many Provinces under it so the Praefectus Praetorio had several Diocesses under him and in proportion to this probably it was that Patriarchs were first brought in who if not superiour to Primates in jurisdiction and power were yet in honour by reason of the dignity of those Cities where their Sees were fixed as at Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem a title and dignity which they retain to this day The next Office to Bishops was that of Presbyters to whom it belonged to preach to the people to administer Baptism consecrate the Eucharist and to be assistent to the Bishop both in publick ministrations and in dispatching the affairs of the Church The truth is the Presbyters of every great City were a kind of Ecclesiastical Senate under the care and presidency of the Bishop whose counsel and assistance he made use of in ruling those Societies of Christians that were under his charge and government and were accordingly reckoned next in place and power to him thus described by S. Gregory in his Iambics 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The venerable Senate of Presbyters that preside over the people and possess the second Throne i. e. the place next to the Bishop they are called Clerici superioris loci and otherwhiles unless we understand it of the Chorepiscopi Antistites in secundo ordine and accordingly in Churches had seats of eminency placed for them next to the Bishops Throne Whereby was implied says Zonaras that they ought to use a proportionable care and providence towards the people to inform and teach them to direct and guide them being appointed as Fellow-labourers with and Assistants to the Bishop But though Presbyters by their ordination had a power conferred upon them to administer holy things yet after that the Church was setled upon foundations of order and regularity they did not usually exercise this power within any Diocess without leave and authority from the Bishop much less take upon them to preach in his presence This custom however it might be otherwise in the Eastern Church we are sure was constantly observed in the Churches of Afric till the time of Valerius S. Augustine's Predecessor in the See of Hippo. Who being a Greek and by reason of his little skill in the Latine tongue unable to preach to the edification of the people admitted S. Augustine whom he had lately ordained Presbyter to preach before him Which though at first 't was ill resented by some Bishops in those parts yet quickly became a president for other Churches to follow after After these came Deacons What the duty of their place was appears from their primitive election the Apostles setting them apart to serve or minister to the Tables i.e. to attend upon and take charge of those daily provisions that were made for poor indigent Christians but certainly it implies also their being destinated to a peculiar attendance at the service of the Lords Table And both these may be very well meant in that place it being the custom of Christians then to meet every day at the
observed the Apostolick Canon not to chuse a Novice but of an age competent to that Office that he was chosen to though it varied according to times and persons and the occasions of the Church For that of Bishops I find not any certain age positively set down Photius in his Nomo-Canon speaks of an Imperial constitution that requires a Bishop not to be under thirty five but the Apostolical Constitutions allow not a man to be made a Bishop under fifty years of age as having then passed all juvenile petulancies and disorders 'T is certain they were not generally some extraordinary instances alter not the case promoted to that Office till they were of a considerable age and thence frequently stiled majores natu in the Writings of the Church Presbyters were commonly made at thirty yea the Council of Neocaesarea decreed that no man though otherwise of never so unquestionable a conversation should be ordained Presbyter before that age the reason whereof they give because Christ himself was not baptized nor began to preach till the thirtieth year of his age The Council of Agde requires the same age but assigns another reason not before thirty years of age because then say they he comes to the age of a perfect man Deacons were made at twenty five and the like distance and proportion observed for the inferiour Officers under them I take no notice in this place of Monks Hermits c. partly because although they were under a kind of Ecclesiastical relation by reason of their more than ordinarily strict and severe profession of Religion yet were they not usually in holy Orders and partly because Monachism was of no very early standing in the Church begining probably about the times of the later persecutions and even then too Monks were quite another thing both in profession habit and way of life from what they are at this day as will abundantly appear to him that will take the pains to compare the account which S. Hierom Augustine Palladius Cassian and others give of those primitive Monks with the several Orders in the Church of Rome at this day I shall only add that out of the Monks persons were usually made choice of to be advanced into the Clergie as is evident not only from multitudes of instances in the Writers of the fourth and following Centuries but from an express Law of the Emperour Arcadius to that purpose the strictness of their lives and the purity of their manners more immediately qualifying them for those holy Offices insomuch that many times they were advanced unto the Episcopal Chair without going through the usual intermediate Orders of the Church several instances whereof Serapion Apollonius Agatho Aristo and some others Athanasius reckons up in his Epistle to Dracontius who being a Monk refused a Bishoprick to which he was chosen But because we meet in the ancient Writings of the Church with very frequent mention of persons of another Sex Deaconesses who were employed in many Offices of Religion it may not be amiss in this place to give some short account of them Their original was very early and of equal standing with the infancy of the Church such was Phebe in the Church of Cenchris mentioned by S. Paul such were those two Servant-maids spoken of by Pliny in his Letter to the Emperour whom he examined upon the Rack such was the famous Olympias in the Church of Constantinople not to mention any more particular instances They were either Widows and then not to be taken into the service of the Church under threescore years of age according to S. Paul's direction or else Virgins who having been educated in order to it and given testimony of a chast and sober conversation were set apart at forty what the proper place and ministry of these Deaconesses was in the ancient Church though Matthew Blastares seems to render a little doubtful yet certainly it principally consisted in such offices as these to attend upon the Women at times of Publick Worship especially in the administration of Baptism that when they were to be divested in order to their immersion they might overshadow them so as nothing of indecency and uncomeliness might appear sometimes they were employed in instructing the more rude and ignorant sort of women in the plain and easie principles of Christianity and in preparing them for Baptism otherwhiles in visiting and attending upon Women that were sick in conveying messages counsels consolations relief especially in times of persecution when it was dangerous for the Officers of the Church to the Martyrs and them that were in Prison and of these women no doubt it was that Libanius speaks of amongst the Christians who were so very ready to be employed in these offices of humanity But to return Persons being thus set apart for holy Offices the Christians of those days discovered no less piety in that mighty respect and reverence which they paid to them that the Ministers of Religion should be peculiarly honoured and regarded seems to have been accounted a piece of natural justice by the common sentiments of mankind the most barbarous and unpolished Nations that ever had a value for any thing of Religion have always had a proportionable regard to them to whom the care and administration of it did belong Julian the Emperour expresly pleads for it as the most reasonable thing in the world that Priests should be honoured yea in some respects above civil Magistrates as being the immediate attendants and domestick servants of God our intercessors with Heaven and the means of deriving down great blessings from God upon us But never was this clearlier demonstrated than in the practice of the primitive Christians who carried themselves towards their Bishops and Ministers with all that kindness and veneration which they were capable to express towards them S. Paul bears record to the Galatians that he was accounted so dear to them that if the plucking out their eyes would have done him any good they were ready to have done it for his sake and S. Clement testifies of the Corinthians that they walked in the Laws of God being subject to them that had the rule over them yielding also due honour to the seniors or elder persons that were amongst them That by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place he should mean Civil Magistrates as some have told us I can hardly be perswaded both because 't is the same word that 's used by the Author to the Hebrews obey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that have the rule over you and submit your selves and indeed both Eusebius and S. Hierom of old observed such a mighty affinity in the phrase between this and the Epistle to the Hebrews as certainly to conclude S. Clemens to have been if not the Author at least the Translator of that Epistle and also because the sole occasion of S. Clements writing this Epistle was a mutiny which they had
made against their spiritual Guides and Governours and therefore according to the right art of Orators he first commends them for their eminent subjection to them that he might with the more advantage reprove and censure them for their schism afterwards which he does severely in the latter part of the Epistle and towards the end of it exhorts those who had laid the foundation of the Sedition to become subject to their Presbyters and being instructed to repentance to bow the knees of their hearts to lay aside the arrogant and insolent boldness of their tongues and to learn to subject and submit themselves The truth is Bishops and Ministers were then looked upon as the common Parents of Christians whom as such they honoured and obeyed and to whom they repaired for counsel and direction in all important cases 'T is plain from several passages in Tertullian that none could lawfully marry till they had first advised with the Bishop and Clergy of the Church and had asked and obtained their leave which probably they did to secure the person from marrying with a Gentile or any of them that were without and from the inconveniencies that might ensue upon such a match No respect no submission was thought great enough whereby they might do honour to them they were wont to kiss their hands to embrace their feet and at their going from or returning home or indeed their coming unto any place to wait upon them and either to receive or dismiss them with the universal confluence of the people Happy they thought themselves if they could but entertain them in their houses and bless their roofs with such welcome guests Amongst the various ways of kindness which Constantine the Great shewed to the Clergie the Writer of his life tells us that he used to treat them at his own Table though in the meanest and most despicable habit and never went a journey but he took some of them along with him reckoning that thereby he made himself surer of the propitious and favourable influence of the divine presence What honours he did them at the Council of Nice where he refused to sit down till they had given him intimation with what magnificent gifts and entertainments he treated them afterwards the same Author relates at large The truth is the piety of that devout and excellent Prince thought nothing too good for those who were the messengers of God and ministers of holy things and so infinitely tender was he of their honour as to profess that if at any time he should spye a Bishop overtaken in an immodest and uncomely action he would cover him with his own imperial Robe rather than others should take notice of it to the scandal of his place and person And because their spiritual authority and relation might not be sufficient to secure them from the contempt of rude and prophane persons therefore the first Christian Emperours invested them with power even in Civil cases as the way to beget them respect and authority amongst the people Thus Constantine as Sozomon tells us and he sets it down as a great argument of that Princes reverence for Religion ordained that persons contending in Law might if they pleased remove their cause out of the Civil Courts and appeal to the judgment of the Bishops whose sentence should be firm and take place before that of any other Judges as if it had been immediately passed by the Emperour himself and cases thus judged by Bishops all Governours of Provinces and their Officers were presently to put into execution which was afterwards ratified by two Laws one of Arcadius another of Honorius to that purpose This power the Bishops sometimes delegated to their inferior Clergy making them Judges in these cases as appears from what Socrates reports of Silvanus Bishop of Troas that finding a male-administration of this power he took it out of the hands of his Clergie and devolved the hearing and determining causes over to the Laity And to name no more S. Augustine more than once and again tells us how much he was crowded and even oppressed in deciding the contests and causes of secular persons It seems they thought themselves happy in those days if they could have their causes heard and determined by Bishops A pious Bishop and a faithful Minister was in those days dearer to them than the most valuable blessings upon earth and they could want any thing rather than be without them when Chrysostom was driven by the Empress into banishment the people as he went along burst into tears and cryed out ' t was better the Sun should not shine than that John Chrysostom should not preach and when through the importunity of the people he was recalled from his former banishment and diverted into the Suburbs till he might have an opportunity to make a publick vindication of his innocency the people not enduring such delays the Emperour was forced to send for him into the City the people universally meeting him and conducting him to his Church with all expressions of reverence and veneration Nay while he was yet Presbyter of the Church of Antioch so highly was he loved and honoured by the people of that place that though he was chosen to the See of Constantinople and sent for by the Emperours Letters though their Bishop made an Oration on purpose to perswade them to it yet would they by no means be brought to part with him and when the Messengers by force attempted to bring him away he was forced to prevent a tumult to withdraw and hide himself the people keeping a Guard about him lest he should be taken from them nor could the Emperour or his Agents with all their arts effect it till he used this wile he secretly wrote to the Governour of Antioch who pretending to Chrysostom that he had concerns of moment to impart to him invited him to a private place without the City where seizing upon him by Mules which he had in readiness he conveyed him to Constantinople where that his welcome might be the more magnificent the Emperour commanded that all persons of eminency both Ecclesiastical and Civil should with all possible pomp and state go six miles to meet him Of Nazianzen who sat in the same Chair of Constantinople before him I find that when he would have left that Bishoprick by reason of the stirs that were about it and delivered up himself to solitude and a private life as a thing much more suitable to his humour and genius many of the people came about him with tears beseeching him not to forsake his Flock which he had hitherto fed with so much sweat and labour They could not then lose their spiritual Guides but they looked upon themselves as Widows and Orphans resenting their death with a general sorrow and lamentation as if they had lost a common Father Nazianzen reports that when his
punctual account of what was done at their religious Assemblies as might sufficiently appear from this one thing that the first of them in those places speaks not any thing of their Hymns and Psalms which yet that they were even in the times wherein they lived a constant part of the Divine Service no man that is not wholly a stranger in Church-Antiquity can be ignorant of I shall therefore out of them and others pick up and put together what seems to have constituted the main body of their publick duties and represent them in that order wherein they were performed which usually was in this manner At their first coming together into the Congregation they began with Prayer as Tertullian at least probably intimates for I do not find it in any besides him we come together says he unto God that being banded as 't were into an Army we may besiege him with our prayers and petitions a violence which is very pleasing and grateful to him I do not from hence positively conclude that prayer was the first duty they began with though it seems fairly to look that way especially if Tertullian meant to represent the order as well as the substance of their devotions After this followed the reading of the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament both the Commentaries of the Apostles and the Writings of the Prophets as J. Martyr informs us How much of each was read at one meeting in the first time is not known it being then unfixed and arbitrary because their meetings by the sudden interruption of the Heathens were oft disturbed and broken up and therefore both Justin and Tertullian confess that they only read as much as occasion served and the condition of the present times did require but afterwards there were set portions assigned both out of the Old and New Testament two Lessons out of each as we find it in the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions Nay not only the Canonical Scriptures but many of the Writings of Apostolical men such as were eminent for place and piety were in those days publickly read in the Church such was the famous Epistle of S. Clemens to the Corinthians of which and of the custom in like cases Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived about the year 172. gives Soter Bishop of Rome this account to day says he we kept holy the Lords-day wherein we read your Epistle which we shall constantly read for our instruction as we also do the first Epistle which Clemens wrote to us The like Eusebius reports of Hermas his Pastor a Book so called and S. Hierom of the Writings of S. Ephrem the famous Deacon of Edessa that in some Churches they were publickly read after the reading of the holy Scriptures About this part of the service it was that they sung Hymns and Psalms a considerable part of the Divine Worship as it had ever been accounted both amongst Jews and Gentiles and more immediately serviceable for celebrating the honour of God and lifting up the minds of men to divine and heavenly raptures 'T was in use in the very infancy of the Christian Church spoken of largely by S. Paul and continued in all Ages after insomuch that Pliny reports it as the main part of the Christians Worship that they met together before day to join in singing Hymns to Christ as God these Hymns were either extemporary raptures so long as immediate inspiration lasted or set compositions either taken out of the holy Scriptures or of their own composing as Tertullian tells us for it was usual then for any persons to compose divine Songs to the honour of Christ and to sing them in the Publick Assemblies till the Council of Laodicea ordered that no Psalms composed by private persons should be recited in the Church where though by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two Greek Scholiasts will have certain Psalms ascribed to Solomon and others to be understood yet it 's much more reasonable to understand it of private constitutions usual a long time in the Church and here for good reason prohibited By this Council it was likewise appointed that the Psalms should not be one entire continued service but that a Lesson should be interposed in the midst after every Psalm which was done as Balsamon and Alexius Aristenus tell us to take off the weariness of the people whose minds might be apt to tire in passing through those prolix offices all together especially the Lessons being so large and many In this duty the whole Congregation bore a part joining all together in a common celebration of the praises of God afterwards the custom was to sing alternatim course by course answering one another first brought in as we are told by Flavianus and Diodorus in the Church of Antioch in the Reign of Constantine but if we may believe Socrates some hundreds of years before that by Ignatius who was Bishop of that Church who having in a vision heard the Angels praising the holy Trinity with alternate Hymns thereupon introduced the use of it in that Church which from thence spread it self into all other Churches and whether Pliny who lived about that time might not mean some such thing by his secum invicem canere that the Christians sung Hymns one with another or in their courses may be considered by those who think it worth their labour to enquire In the mean time we proceed the Reader having done they are the words of Justin the martyr the President of the Assembly makes a Sermon by way of instruction and exhortation to the imitation and practice of those excellent things that they had heard And indeed Sermons in those times were nothing else but the expositions of some part of the Scriptures which had been read before and exhortations to the people to obey the doctrines contained in them and commonly were upon the Lesson which was last read because that being freshest in the peoples memory was most proper to be treated of as S. Augustine both avers the custom and gives the reason Hence in the Writers of the Church Preachers came to be called Tractatores and their Sermons Tractatus because they handled or treated of such places of Scripture as had been a little before read unto the people According as occasion was these Sermons were more or fewer sometimes two or three at the same Assembly the Presbyters first and then the Bishop as is expresly affirmed in the Apostolical Constitutions then i.e. after the reading of the Gospel let the Presbyters exhort the people one by one not all at once and after all the Bishop as it is fitting for the Master to do And thus Gregory Nyssen excuses himself for not introducing his Sermons with a tedious Preface because he would not be burdensom to the people who had already taken pains to hear those admirable discourses that had been made before him This course
also orthodox in the Faith This became matter of great bustle in the Church hence sprang that famous controversie between Cyprian and Stephen Bishop of Rome concerning the re-baptizing those that had been baptized by Hereticks of which there is so much in Cyprians Writings Cyprian asserting that they ought to be re-baptized the other as stifly maintaining it to be both against the doctrine and practice of the Church This begot great heats and feuds between those good men and engaged a great part of the whole Christian Church in the quarrel Cyprian endeavouring to strengthen his cause not only by arguments from Scripture but by calling a Council at Carthage of eighty seven African Bishops who all concluded for his opinion How truly Cyprian maintained this I am not concerned to enquire only I take notice of two things which he and his Followers pleaded by way of abatement to the rigour of their opinion First that hereby they did not assert re-baptization to be lawful this they expresly deny to receive any patronage from their practice for they looked upon that baptism that had been conferred by Hereticks as null and invalid seeing Hereticks being out of the Church could not give what they had not and therefore when any returned to the union of the Church they could not properly be said to be re-baptized seeing they did but receive what lawfully they had not before Secondly that they did not promiscuously baptize all that came over from heretical Churches for where any had been lawfully baptized by Orthodox Ministers before their going over to them these they received at their return without any other Ceremony than imposition of hands baptizing those only who never had any other baptism than that which Hereticks had conferred upon them Cyprian being thus severe against baptism dispensed by heretical Ministers we may wonder what he thought of that which was administred by meer lay-unordained persons which yet was not uncommon in those times for that Lay-men provided they were Christians and baptized themselves might and did baptize others in cases of necessity is so positively asserted by Tertullian Hierom and others that no man can doubt of it A custom ratified by the Fathers of the Illiberine Council with this proviso that if the persons so baptized lived they should receive confirmation from the Bishop This without question arose from an opinion they had of the absolute and indispensable necessity of Baptism without which they scarce thought a mans future condition could be safe and that therefore 't was better it should be had from any than to depart this life without it for excepting the case of Martyrs whom they thought sufficiently qualified for heaven by being baptized in their own blood insisting upon a twofold Baptism one of water in time of peace another of blood in the time of persecution answerable to the water and blood that flowed out of our Saviours side excepting these they reckoned no man could be saved without being baptized and cared not much in cases of necessity so they had it how they came by it As for that act of Athanasius mentioned by the Author of his life in Photius and more largely related by Sozomen when a Boy playing with the rest of his Companions they formed themselves into a kind of Church-society Athanasius was chosen Bishop and others personated the Catechumens ready to be baptized and were accordingly with all the usual formalities baptized by Athanasius This juvenile Ceremony being ended they were brought before Alexander the then Bishop of Alexandria who had himself beheld the whole scene who enquiring into the reasons and circumstances of the action and having consulted with his Clergy that were about him concluded that those Children ought not to be rebaptized and therefore only added his confirmation to them But this being only a particular case and the like not mentioned that I remember by any Writer of those times I only relate it as I find it But though this power in cases of necessity was allowed to men who were capable of having the ministerial office conferred upon them yet was it ever denied to women whom the Apostle has so expresly forbidden to exercise any ministry in the Church of God and accordingly censured in the Apostolical Constitutions to be not only dangerous but unlawful and impious Indeed in the Churches of the Hereticks women even in those times took upon them to baptize but it was universally condemned and cried out against by the Orthodox and constantly affixed as a note of dishonour and reproach upon the heretical parties of those times as abundantly appears from Tertullian Epiphanius and others who records the heretical doctrines and practices of those first Ages of the Church however afterwards it crept in in some places and is allowed and practised in the Church of Rome at this day where in cases of necessity they give leave that it may be administred by any and in any language whether the person administring be a Clergie or a Lay-man yea though under excommunication whether he be a Believer or an Infidel a Catholick or an Heretick a man or a woman only taking care that if it may be a Priest be preferred before a Deacon a Deacon before a Subdeacon a Clergie man before a Laic and a man before a woman together with some other cases which are there wisely provided for From the persons ministring we proceed to the persons upon whom it was conferred and they were of two sorts Infants and adult persons how far the baptizing of Infants is included in our Saviours institution is not my work to dispute but certainly if in controverted cases the constant practice of the Church and those who immediately succeeded the Apostles be as no man can deny it is the best interpreter of the Laws of Christ the dispute one would think should be at an end for that it always was the custom to receive the Children of Christian Parents into the Church by Baptism we have sufficient evidence from the greatest part of the most early Writers Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Cyprian c. whose testimonies I do not produce because I find them collected by others and the argument thence so forcible and conclusive that the most zealous opposers of Infant Baptism know not how to evade it the testimonies being so clear and not the least shadow that I know of in those times of any thing to make against it There was indeed in Cyprians time a controversie about the baptizing of Infants not whether they ought to be baptized for of that there was no doubt but concerning the time when it was to be administred whether on the second or third or whether as Circumcision of old to be deferred till the eighth day for the determining of which Cyprian sitting in Council with sixty six Bishops writes a Synodical Epistle to Fidus to let him know that it was not
signified his entring upon a new course of life differing from that which he lived before that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life But though by reason of the more eminent significancy of these things immersion was the common practice in those days and therefore they earnestly urged it and pleaded for it yet did they not hold sprinkling to be unlawful especially in cases of necessity as of weakness danger of death or where conveniency of immerging could not be had in these and such like cases Cyprian does not only allow but plead for it and that in a discourse on purpose when the question concerning it was put to him Upon this account it is that immersion is now generally disused in these parts of the world and sprinkling succeeded in its room because the tender bodies of most Infants the only persons now baptized could not be put under water in these cold Northern Climates without apparent prejudice to their health if not their lives and therefore in this as in other cases God requires mercy rather than sacrifice especially considering that the main ends of Baptism are attained this way and the mystical effects of it as truly though not so plainly and significantly represented by sprinkling as by putting the body under water This immersion was performed thrice the person baptized being three several times put under water a custom which Basil and Sozomon will have derived from the Apostles 't is certain that it was very early in the Church being twice mentioned by Tertullian as the common practice By this trine immersion they signified say some their distinct adoring the three persons in the blessed Trinity and therefore the custom was in repeating the words of institution at the naming of every person the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to plunge the party under water as Tertullian tells us and S. Ambrose more expresly 'T was done say others to represent the death burial and resurrection of our Saviour together with his three days continuance in the Grave S. Augustine joins both these together as the double mystery of this ancient rite as he is cited by Gratian to this purpose It cannot be denied but that the Ceremony is very significant and expressive and accordingly the Ancients laid great weight upon it insomuch that the Canons that go under the name of Apostolical command him whether Bishop or Presbyter that baptizes any without the trine immersion to be deposed from his Ministry But though this custom was in a manner universal yet in some places in after times especially it was otherwise particularly in Spain where they used it but once lest they should gratifie the Arrians who made use of the trine immersion to denote the persons in the Trinity to be three distinct substances and gloried that the Catholicks did and held the same with them Upon this account they were content to immerge but once and when differences and controversies did still remain about it the fourth Council of Toledo out of a Letter of Gregory the great thus determined the case that they should still use their single immersion and that this would sufficiently express the mysteries of Baptism the diving under water would denote Christs death and descending into Hell the coming out his resurrection the single immersion would express the unity of the Godhead while the Trinity of persons would be sufficiently denoted by the persons being baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost The person baptized being come out of the water was anointed a second time as S. Cyril tells us and indeed whatever becomes of the unction that was before 't is certain that that which Tertullian speaks of as a part of the ancient discipline was after the person was baptized which being done he had a white Garment put upon him to denote his having put off the lusts of the flesh his being washed from the filth and defilement of his former sins and his resolution to maintain a life of unspotted innocence and purity according to that solemn and strict engagement which in Baptism he had taken upon him In this they alluded to that of the Apostle that as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ i. e. have engaged in that strict and holy course of life which he both by his doctrine and example has left to the world accordingly persons baptized are both by the Apostle and by the Greek Fathers frequently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the enlightned because they now professed that they were become the children of the light and of the day and would not return to works of darkness any more and this as they expected mercy from Christ at the great day therefore the white Garment was wont to be delivered to them with such a charge as this Receive the white and immaculate garment and bring it forth without spot before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ that thou mayst have eternal life Amen From the wearing of these white Vestments as we have observed before Pentecost which was one of the two annual times for Baptism came to be called Whitesunday as also the Sunday after Easter which was the other time Dominica in Albis because then they laid this white Robe aside for it was the custom for persons baptized to wear this Garment for a whole week after they were baptized and then to put it off and lay it up in the Church that it might be kept as an evidence against them if they violated or denied that Faith which they had owned in Baptism whereof we have a memorable instance under the Arrian persecution in Africk Elpidophorus a Citizen of Carthage had lived a long time in the communion of the Church but apostatizing afterwards to the Arrians became a most bitter and implacable persecutor of the Orthodox party amongst others whom he summoned to be put to the Rack was one Miritas a venerable old Deacon who had been the Vndertaker for him at his Baptism who being ready to be put upon the Rack plucked out the white Vestment wherewith Elpidophorus had been clothed at his Baptism and with tears in his eyes thus openly bespake him before all the people These Elpidophorus thou minister of error these are the Garments that shall accuse thee when thou shalt appear before the majesty of the great Judge these I will diligently keep as a testimony of that ruine that shall depress thee down into the lake the burns with fire and brimstone these are they that were girt upon thee when thou camest pure out of the holy Font and these are they that shall bitterly pursue thee when thou shalt be cast into the place of flames because thou hast clothed thy self with cursing as with a Garment and hast cast
off the sacred obligation of thy Baptism and the true faith which thou didst then profess and take upon thee Thesese were the main and most considerable circumstances wherewith Baptism was administred in the primitive Church some whereof were by degrees antiquated and disused other rites there were that belonged only to particular Churches and which as they were suddenly taken up so were as quickly laid aside others were added in after-times till they encreased so fast that the usage and the number of them became absurd and burdensom as may appear by the office for Baptism in the Romish Ritual at this day As a conclusion to this Chapter I had once thought to have treated concerning Confirmation which ever was a constant appendage to Baptism and had noted some things to that purpose but shall supersede that labour finding it so often and so fully done by others in just discourses that nothing considerable can be added to them only I shall give this brief and general account of it all persons baptized in the ancient Church according to their age and capacity persons adult some little time after Baptism Children when arrived to years of competent ripeness and maturity were brought to the Bishop there further to confirm and ratifie that compact which they had made with God in Baptism and by some solemn acts of his ministry to be themselves confirmed and strengthned by having the grace and blessing of God conferred upon them to enable them to discharge that great promise and engagement which they had made to God This was usually performed with the Ceremony of Vnction the person confirmed being anointed by the Bishop or in his absence by an inferiour Minister and indeed Unction was an ancient rite used in the Jewish Church to denote the conferring of gifts or graces upon persons and thence probably amongst other reasons as many other usages were might be derived into the Christian Church though a learned man is of opinion that unction was never used in confirmation but where the person being in case of necessity baptized by some of the inferior Clergy had not been before anointed otherwise those who had received compleat Baptism were not afterwards anointed at their confirmation for which the Council of Orange is most express and clear And indeed that Confirmation was often administred without this unction no man can doubt that knows the state of those times being done only by solemn imposition of the Bishops hands and by devout and pious prayers that the persons confirmed might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and be enabled to perform those vows and purposes and that profession of Faith which they had before embraced in Baptism and then again owned before the whole Congregation Till this was done they were not accounted compleat Christians nor admitted to the holy Communion nor could challenge any actual right to those great priviledges of Christianity whence it is that the Ancients so often speak of Confirmation as that which did perfect and consummate Christians as being a means to confer greater measures of that grace that was but begun in Baptism upon all which accounts and almost exactly according to the primitive usage it is still retained and practised in our own Church at this day and happy were it for us were it kept up in its due power and vigour sure I am 't is too plain that many of our unhappy breaches and controversies in Religion do if not wholly in a great measure owe their birth and rise to the neglect and contempt of this excellent usage of the Church CHAP. XI Of the Lords Supper and the administration of it in the ancient Church The persons dispensing this Ordinance who The persons Communicating the Baptized or the Faithful Suspension from this Ordinance according to the nature of the offence The Eucharist sent home to them that could not be present The case of Serapion A custom in some places to give the Sacrament to persons when dead if they dyed before they could receive it and why The Eucharist kept by persons at home Sent abroad This laid aside and in its stead Eulogiae or pieces of consecrated Bread sent from one Church to another as tokens of communion The time of its administration sometimes in the morning sometimes at night varied according to the peace they enjoyed How oft they received the Eucharist At first every day This continued in Cyprian's time Four times a week Afterwards less frequented The usual place of receiving the Church ordinarily not lawful to consecrate it elsewhere Oblations made by persons before their communicating Their Agapae or Love-Feasts what Whether before or after the Sacrament How long continued in the Church The manner of celebrating this Sacrament collected out of the most ancient Authors The holy Kiss The general prayer for the Church and the whole world The consecration of the Sacrament the form of it out of S. Ambrose The Bread common Bread The sacramental Wine mixed with Water This no necessary part of the institution Why probably used in those Countries The posture of receiving not always the same Singing Psalms during the time of celebration Followed with prayer and thanksgiving The whole action concluded with the Kiss of peace THE holy Eucharist or Supper of our Lord being a rite so solemnly instituted and of such great importance in the Christian Religion had place accordingly amongst the Ancients in their publick offices and devotions In speaking to which I shall much what observe the same method I did in treating concerning Baptism considering the persons the time the place and the manner of its celebration The persons administring were the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church those who were set apart for the ministration of holy offices the institution was begun by our Lord himself and the administration of it by him committed to his Apostles and to their ordinary successors to the end of the world We find in Tertullian that they never received it from any but the hand of the President which must either be meant of the particular custom of that Church where he lived or of consecration only for otherwise the custom was when the Bishop or President had by solemn Prayers and blessings consecrated the sacramental elements for the Deacons to distribute them to the people as well to those that were absent as to them that were present as Justin Martyr expresly affirms and as the custom generally was afterwards For the persons communicating at this Sacrament at first the whole Church or body of Christians within such a space that had embraced the doctrine of the Gospel and been baptized into the faith of Christ used constantly to meet together at the Lords Table As Christians multiplied and a more exact discipline became necessary none were admitted to this ordinance till they had arrived at the degree of the Faithful for who ever were in the state of the Catechumens i.
e. under instruction in order to their Baptism or by reason of any hainous crime under the censures and suspension of the Church and not yet passed through the several stages of the Penitents might not communicate and were therefore commanded to depart the Church when the rest went to the celebration of the Sacrament for looking upon the Lords Supper as the highest and most solemn act of Religion they thought they could never take care enough in the dispensing of it accordingly who ever was found guilty of any scandalous fault was according to the nature of the offence debarred the Communion a shorter or a longer time and sometimes all their life not to be reconciled and taken into the communion of the Church till they had continued their repentance to their death-bed As for those persons that could not be present either through distance of place sickness or any other just cause the Eucharist was wont to be sent home to them some little pieces of the consecrated bread dipt in the sacramental Cup which were usually carried by the Deacon or some inferior Officer of the Church or in cases of necessity by any other person as in the case of Serapion of whom Dionysius of Alexandria relates that having been all his life a good man at last lapsed in a time of persecution and though he oft desired reconciliation yet none would communicate with him not long after he was seized upon by a mortal sickness depriv'd of the use of his speech and senses but coming to himself after four days he sends his Nephew a little Boy late at night for one of the Presbyters to come to him the Minister was at that time sick but considering the exigence of the case gives the Boy a little piece of the Eucharist bids him to moisten it with a little water and so give it him in his mouth which he did and immediately the old man chearfully departed this life For the better understanding of which we are to observe that those who had lapsed into Idolatry were to undergo a very long time of penance and were not many times admitted to the Communion till they were near their death and because it sometimes hapned that they were overtaken with sudden death before the Sacrament could be administred to them thence a custom sprung up to give it them after they were dead which they did doubtless upon this ground that they might give some kind of evidence that those persons died in the peace and communion of the Church though this usage was afterwards by many Councils abrogated and laid aside I take no notice in this place of their giving the Eucharist to new-baptized Infants the case being so commonly known and obvious In those early times nothing was more common than for Christians either to carry or to have sent to them some parts of the Eucharist which they kept in some decent place in their houses against all emergent occasions especially to fortifie and strengthen their faith in times of persecution and to encrease kindness and amity with one another whence one that was well versed in Church-Antiquities conjectures that when ever they entertained Friends or Strangers they used before every meal first to give them some parts of the holy Eucharist as being the greatest badge the strongest band of true love and friendship in the world Besides these parcels of the sacramental Elements there were wont at the celebration of the Communion to be pieces of bread which remained of the Offerings of the people which being solemnly blessed by the Bishop might be given to those who had no right to be at the Lords Table as to the Catechumens and such like and were to them instead of the Sacrament These pieces were properly called Eulogiae because set apart by solemn benediction and were sent up and down the Towns and Villages round about to testifie and represent their mutual union and fellowship with one another nay and sometimes from Churches in one Country to those that were in another which was also done by the Eucharist it self for so Irenaeus in a Letter to Pope Victor tells us that the Ministers of Churches though differing in some little circumstances did yet use to send the Eucharist to one another Which custom is also taken notice of by Zonaras but because the carrying the Sacramental Elements up and down the World was thought not so well to consist with the reverence and veneration that is due to this solemn Ordinance therefore it was abolished by the Laodicean Synod and these Eulogiae or pieces of bread appointed at Easter to be sent up and down in their room For the Time the next circumstance when they met together for this solemn Action it was in general at their publick Assemblies on the Lords day always or the first day of the week as we find it in the History of the Apostles Acts besides other days and especially Saturday on which day all the Churches in the World those of Rome only and Alexandria excepted used to celebrate this Sacrament as the Historian informs us What time of the day they took to do it is not altogether so certain our blessed Saviour and his Apostles celebrated it at night at the time of the Jewish Passover but whether the Apostles and their immediate Successors punctually observed this circumstance may be doubted 't is probable that the holy Eucharist which S. Paul speaks of in the Church of Corinth was solemnized in the morning the Apostles calling it a Supper as Chrysostom thinks not because 't was done in the evening but the more effectually to put them in mind of the time when our Lord did institute those holy Mysteries Tertullian assures us in his time 't was done in tempore victus about Supper-time as all understand him and very often in the morning before day when they held their religious Assemblies of which Pliny also takes notice in his Letter to the Emperour for in those times of Persecution when they were hunted out by the inquisitive malice of their enemies they were glad of the remotest corners the most unseasonable hours when they could meet to perform the joynt offices of Religion But this communicating at evening or at night either lasted only during the extreme heats of Persecution or at least wore off apace for Cyprian expresly pleads against it affirming that it ought to be in the morning and so indeed in a short time it prevailed over most parts of the World except in some places of Egypt near Alexandria of which Socrates tells us that after they had sufficiently feasted themselves in the evening they were wont to receive the Sacrament Under this circumstance of time we may take occasion to consider how oft in those days they usually met at this table And at first while the Spirit of Christianity was yet warm and vigorous and the hearts of men passionately inflamed with the
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
souls to recover them out of the snare of the Devil and the paths of ruine by making them Christians and bringing them over to the knowledge of the truth for this they pray'd daily and earnestly We Christians says Cyprian to the Proconsul serve the one and true Cod that made Heaven and earth and pray to him night and day not only for our selves but for all men and for the safety of the Emperours themselves From this no injuries or unkindnesses could discourage them Justin Martyr tells the Jew that they pray'd for them and all others that unjustly were their enemies that repenting of their wickednesses and ceasing to blaspheme Christ Jesus who by the greatness of his works the uncontroulableness of the miracles performed in his name the excellency of his doctrines and the clearness of the prophecies fulfilled in him appeared to be altogether innocent and unblameable and that rather believing in him they might together with Christians be saved by him at his second glorious coming and not be condemned by him to everlasting flames We pray for you says he that Christ would have mercy upon you for he has taught us to Pray for our enemies to love them and be merciful to them And afterwards when he had reckoned up all those wicked and malicious artifices which the Jews had used both against Christ and Christians yet notwithstanding all this says he we are so far from hating either you or those who at your suggestion believe these things of us that we pray that all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God the gracious and compassionate Parent of the world The Gnosticks were the greatest scandal that ever was to Christianity and the occasion of many of those persecutions and most of those horrible calumnies which the Heathens brought upon the Christians and yet see how Irenaeus treats them We pray for them says he and beg of them not to continue in the pit which they have digged to themselves but to depart from their sottish and idle vanities to turn to the Church of God that Christ may be formed in them and that they may know the only true God the Creatour of the world This we beg of them loving them to better purpose than they think they love themselves for our love is true and wholesome if they will receive it like a sharp plaister indeed but it will eat away the proud flesh take down the swelling and vanity of their minds for which cause we will not cease by all means to apply it to them The same Origen tells Celsus that though both Jews and Gentiles turn'd their backs upon the doctrine of Christ and charged them for being Impostors and deceivers yet they would not give over thus honestly to deceive men to make them of loose persons to become sober and temperate or to bring them on towards it of dishonest to make them righteous of unwise to make them prudent at least to bring them into the way to these things of fearful and timorous to render them hearty and couragious especially as oft as they are to contend for their Religion and Piety towards God How earnestly and passionately does Cyprian beg of the Proconsul Demetrian and the Gentiles to provide for their happiness and safety to accept of the counsels and assistance which the Christians offered who loved them not the worse for all the torments and sufferings they laid upon them that they returned kindness for hatred and by the miseries they endured shewed to them the way to Heaven that now was the time to make their peace with God and to secure salvation that there was no place for repentance on t'other side the grave the stations of the other world being fix'd and unchangeable that therefore they should believe and live that so they might eternally rejoyce with them whom they did now so afflict and persecute In pursuance of this design they spared neither pains nor cost that they might instruct men in the way to Heaven 'T is said of Pamphilus the Martyr that amongst other instances of his charity he used freely and readily to bestow Bibles upon all that were willing to read for which purpose he had alwayes great numbers of those holy volumes by him that as occasion serv'd he might distribute and bestow them By this means mercifully furnishing those with these divine treasures whose purses could not otherwise reach to the price of the Scriptures far dearer in those dayes than they are since Printing came into the world We find S. Chrysostome so zealous for converting the Gentiles to Christianity that for this very end he maintained many Presbyters and Monks in Phoenicia partly at his own charge and partly by the assistance of pious and well-disposed persons whose only work it was to Catechise and instruct the Heathens in the Principles of the Christian Faith and that the business might succeed more effectually he procured a law from the Emperor Arcadius yet extant in the Theodosian Code directed to Eutychian Prefect of the East that the Pagan Temples should be orderly taken down that so they being destroyed the whole matter of the Gentile superstition might be abolished Upon the executing of which Law great mutinies were raised by the Country people many of the Monks wounded and some slain and the rest wholly disheartned to proceed in the business these doubtless being those very Monks against whom Libanius so severely declaims for so mercilesly destroying the Pagan Temples Whereupon Chrysostome who who then in banishment writes to them to bear up with a Christian and invincible patience encourages them resolutely to go on in so good a work tells them that God would not be wanting to stand by them and to reward them in this and the other life and promises them though his incomes at this time were very small that their former pensions should be paid them and all things necessary provided for them And indeed with how much care and solicitude the good mans mind was filled about this business he sufficiently intimates in a letter written to another person whom he had employed about this affair Nor did they in those times regard case or fafety any more than they did cost and charges in this matter exposing themselves to any dangers that they might do good to the souls of men I might easily shew that this consideration had a great influence upon the sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs willingly running any hazards chearfully enduring any miseries that they might gain others to the faith and prevent their eternal ruine But that famous story of S. John the Apostle shall serve instead of many the sum of which is this Coming to a place near Ephesus in his visitation of the Churches he espied a Youth of a comely shape and pregnant parts and taking hold of him delivered him to the Bishop of the place with this charge which he repeated once
him he shews him his company Behold said he these are the treasures of the Church those eternal treasures which are never diminished but increase which are dispersed to every one and yet found in all This passage brings to my mind though it more properly belongs to the next instance of charity what Palladius relates of Macarius a Presbyter and Governour of the Hospital at Alexandria There was a Virgin in that City very rich but infinitely covetous and uncharitable She had been oft attempted and set upon by the perswasions of good men but in vain at last he caught her by this piece of pious policy He comes to her and tells her that a parcel of Jewels Emraulds and Jacinths of inestimable value were lodg'd at his house but which the owner was willing to part with for five hundred pieces of mony and advises her to buy them She catching at the offer as hoping to gain considerably by the bargain delivered him the mony and intreated him to buy them for her knowing him to be a person of great piety and integrity But hearing nothing from him a long time after till meeting him in the Church she asked him what were become of the Jewels He told her he had laid out the mony upon them for he had expended it upon the uses of the Hospital and desired her to come and see them and if the purchase did not please her she might refuse it She readily came along with him to the Hospital in the upper rooms whereof the women were lodged in the lower the men He asked her which she would see first the Jacinths or the Emraulds which she leaving to him he brought her first into the upper part where the lame blind and Cripple-women were disposed and see said he the Jacinths that I spoke of Then carrying her down into the lower rooms he shewed her the men in the like condition and told her These are the Emraulds that I promised and Jewels more precious than these I think are not to be found and now said he if you like not your bargain take your mony back again The woman blushed and was troubled to think she should be hal'd to that which she ought to have done freely for the love of God Afterwards she heartily thanked Macarius and betook her self to a more charitable and Christian course of life Next to this their charity appeared in visiting and assisting of the sick contributing to their necessities refreshing their tired bodies curing their wounds or sores with their own hands The sick says the antient Authour of the Epistle in Justin Martyr if it be not Justin himself are not to be neglected nor is it enough for any to say I have never learnt to serve and give attendance For he that shall make his delicacy or tenderness unaccustomed to any hardness to be an excuse in this case let him know it may soon be his own and then he 'l quickly discern the unreasonableness of his own judgment when the same shall happen to him that he himself has done to others But there were no such nice and squeamish stomachs in the good Christians of those times S. Hierom tells us of Fabiola a Roman Lady a woman of considerable birth and fortunes that she sold her estate and dedicated the mony to the uses of the poor she built an Hospital and was the first that did so wherein she maintained and cured the infirm and miserable or any sick that she met withal in the streets here was a whole randezvouz of Cripples hundreds of diseases and destempers here met together and her self at hand to attend them sometimes carrying the diseased in her arms or bearing them on her shoulders sometimes washing and dressing those filthy and noysome sores from which another woud have turned his eyes with contempt and horrour otherwiles preparing them food or giving them physick with her own hand The like we read of Placilla the Empress wife to the younger Theodosâ—us that she was wont to take all possible care of the lame or wounded to go home to their houses carry them all necessary conveniencies and to attend and assist them not by the ministery of her servants and followers but with her own hands She constantly visited the common Hospitals attended at sick beds for their cure and recovery tasted their broths prepared their bread reached them their provisions washed their cups with her own hands and underwent all other offices which the very meanest of the servants were to undergo Thus also the Historian reports of Deogratias the aged Bishop of Carthage under the Vandalic persecution that having sold all the plate belonging to the Church to ransom the Captive Christans and wanting places conveniently to bestow them he lodged them in two large Churches provided for the needy took care of the sick himself every hour visiting them both by day and night with Physicians attending him to superintend their cure and diet suitable to their several cases going from bed to bed to know what every one stood in need of Nay how often did they venture to relieve their brethren when labouring under such distempers as seemed immediately to breath death in their faces Thus in that sad and terrible plague at Alexandria which though it principally raged amongst the Gentiles yet seiz'd also upon the Christians Many of the bretheren says the Historian out of the excessive abundance of their kindness and charity without any regard to their own health and life boldly ventured into the thickest dangers daily visiting attending instructing and comforting their sick and infected brethren till themselves expired and died with them Nay many of them whom they thus attended recovered and lived while they who had looked to them died themselves as if by a strange and prodigious charity they had willingly taken their diseases upon them and died themselves to save them from death Thus 't was with the Christians while the Gentiles in the mean time put off all sense of humanity when any began to fall sick amongst them they presently cast them out shun'd their dearest friends and relations left them half-dead in the high-ways and took no care of them either alive or dead And that this work of charity might be the better managed amongst Christians they had in many places and particularly in this of Alexandria certain persons whose proper office it was to attend and administer to the sick They were called Parabolani because especially in pestilential and infectious distempers they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast themselves into an immediate hazard of their lives and were peculiarly deputed ad curanda debilium aegra corpora as the law of the younger Theodosius expresses it to attend and cure the bodies of the infirm and sick Their numbers it seems were very great insomuch that upon any tumultuary occasions they became formidable even to the Courts of Civil Judicature upon complaint whereof made to the Emperour Theodosius reduced
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
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
by excommunication was not originally instituted by our Lord or his Apostles but had been antiently practised both amongst Jews and Gentiles 'T was commonly practised by the Druids as Caesar who lived amongst them informs us who when any of the people became irregular and disorderly presently suspended them from their sacrifices And the persons thus suspended were accounted in the number of the most impious and exercrable persons All men stood off from them shun'd their company and converse as an infection and a plague they had no benefit of Law nor any honour or respect shewn to them and of all punishments this they accounted most extreme and severe So far he giving an account of this Discipline amongst the antient Gauls In the Jewish Church nothing was more familiar their three famous degrees of Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niddui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shammatha are so commonly known that 't were impertinent to insist upon them From the usage of the Jewish it was amongst other rites adopted into the Christian Church practised by the Apostles and the Churches founded by them whereof we have instances in the New Testament but brought to greater perfection in succeeding times 'T is variously expressed by the antient Writers though much to the same purpose Such persons are said Abstineri to be kept back a word much used by Cyprian and the Synod of Illiberis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be separated or be separated from the body of Christ as S. Augustin oft expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be wholly cut off from Communion as 't is in the Apostolick Canons Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Laodicean Synod calls it to be thrown out of the Church to be anathematiz'd and without the Communion and pale of the Church as the Fathers of the Council of Gaugra have it This suspension and the penance that accompanied it was greater or less longer or shorter according to the nature of the crime sometimes two three ten fifteen twenty or thirty years and sometimes for the whole life nay in some cases it was not taken off at death but persons were left to the judgment of God without any testimony of their reconciliation to the Church Though herein the severity was mitigated not only by private Bishops but by the great Council of Nice which ordain'd that penitent persons should not be denied the Communion at the hour of death of all which cases or the most material of them we have in the foregoing discourse produc'd particular instances in their proper places If the person offending hapned to be in Orders he forfeited his Ministry and though upon his repentance he was restored to Communion yet it was only as a lay-person never recovering the honour and dignity of his office Thus Cornelius Bishop of Rome giving Fabius of Antioch an account of the clancular and Schismatical Ordination of Novatian tells him that one of the Bishops that ordain'd him return'd after to the Church with tears bewailing his offence whom at the instance of the people he receiv'd unto Lay-communion The same Cyprian writing about this very case relates of Trophimus who was either the very Bishop mentioned by Cornelius or one of his Colleagues that returning to the Church with great demonstrations of repentance he was re-admitted but no otherwise than in the capacity of a Lay-man and speaking elsewhere of Basilides his repentance he tells us he had no thoughts of retaining his Bishoprick making account he was very well dealt with if upon his repentance he might but communicate as a Laick and be received amongst the number of the Faithful This S. Basil tells us was an ancient Canon and practice of the Church and accordingly ordains that a Deacon guilty of fornication should be deposed from his office and being thrust down into the rank of the Laity should in that quality be admitted to Communion Indeed they strove by all ways imaginable to discourage sin never thinking the curb strong enough so they might but keep persons within the bounds of order and regularity insomuch that by some the string was stretched too far and all pardon denied to them that had sin'd This uncomfortable doctrine was if not first coin'd yet mainly vended by the Novatian party For Novatus S. Cyprians Presbyter being suspended by him for his vile enormities fled over to Rome and there joyn'd himself to Novatian a Presbyter of that Church these two names are frequently confounded by the Greek Writers who ambitiously sought to make himself Bishop and to thrust out Cornelius newly elected into that See but not being able to compass his design between them they started this amongst other heretical opinions that the lapsed who through fear of suffering had fallen in the time of persecution were not to be admitted to repentance and that though they should never so oft confess their sins and never so sincerely forsake them yet there was no hope of salvation for them at least-wise for so I incline to understand them that it was not in the power of the Church to absolve or give them any hopes of pardon leaving them to the judgment of God styling themselves and not only as Balsamon affirms ironically styl'd by others by the name of Cathari the pure and undefiled party But they were herein presently condemned by a Synod of sixty Bishops and more than as many Presbyters and Deacons gathered at Rome and the Decree consented to and published by the rest of the Bishops in their several Provinces concluding that Novatus and his party and all that had subscribed to his most inhumane and merciless Opinion should be cast out of the Church and that the brethren who in that sad calamity had fallen from their profession should be healed and restored by the arts and methods of repentance Which brings us to consider 〈…〉 Thirdly How and in what manner offenders were dealt with both as to their suspension and penance and as to their absolution This affair was usually managed after this order At their publick assemblies as we find in Tertullian amongst other parts of their holy exercises there were exhortations reproofs and a divine censure for the judgment is given with great weight as amongst those that are sure that God beholds what they do and this is one of the highest praeludiums and forerunners of the judgment to come when the delinquent person is banished from the Communion of Prayers Assemblies and all holy Commerce By this passage we clearly see that the first thing in this solemn action was to make reproofs and exhortations thereby to bring the offender to the sight and acknowledgement of his faults then the sentence or censure was passed upon him whereby he was suspended not only from the Communion of the Holy Eucharist but from all holy commerce in any especially publick duty of religion We cannot imagine that in every person
and confession and fulfilled the regular customs and orders of the Church The time of penance being ended they addressed themselves to the Governours of the Church for Absolution hereupon their repentance was taken into examination and being found to be sincere and real they were openly re-admitted into the Church by the imposition of the hands of the Clergy the party to be absolv'd kneeling down between the knees of the Bishop or in his absence of the Presbyter who laying his hand upon his head solemnly blessed and absolved him whence doubtless sprang that absurd and senceless calumny which the Heathens laid upon the Christians that they were wont Sacerdotis colere genitalia so forward were they to catch at any reproach which the most crooked and malicious invention could insinuate and suggest The penitent being absolved was received with the universal joy and acclamation of the people as one returned from the state of the dead for such 't is plain they accounted them while under a state of guilt especially the lapsed as Cyprian positively affirms them to be being embraced by his brethren who blessed God for his return and many times wept for the joy of his recovery who upon his absolution was now restored to a participation of the Lords Supper and to all other acts of Church-Communion which by his crimes he had forfeited and from which he had been suspended till he had given satisfactory evidence of his repentance and purpose to persevere under the exact discipline of Christianity This was the ordinary way wherein they treated criminals in the Primitive Church but in cases of necessity such as that of danger of death they did not rigidly exact the set time of penance but absolved the person that so he might dye in the peace and communion of the Church The story of Serapion at Alexandria we have formerly mentioned who being suddainly surpriz'd with death while he was under the state of penance and not being able to dye till he had received absolution sent for the Presbyter to testifie his repentance and absolve him but he being also at that time sick sent him a part of the Consecrated elements which he had by him upon the receiving whereof he breathed out his soul with great comfort and satisfaction that he now died in Communion with the Church The truth is the time of these Penitentiary humiliations often varied according to the circumstances of the case it being much in the power of the Bishops and Governours of the Church to shorten the time and sooner to absolve and take them into Communion the Medicinal vertue of repentance lying not in the duration but the manner of it as S. Basil speaks in this very case A learned man has observed to my hand four particular cases wherein they were wont to anticipate the usual time of absolution The first was what I observed but now when persons were in danger of death this was agreed to by Cyprian and the Martyrs and the Roman Clergy and the Letters as he tells us sent through the whole World to all the Churches this also was provided for by the great Council of Nice That as for those that were at the point of death the ancient and Canonical rule should be observed still that when any were at the point of death they should by no means be deprived of the last and necessary Viaticum i.e. the Holy Sacrament which was their great Symbol of Communion And here for the better understanding some passages it may not be unuseful once for all to add this note that whereas many of the ancient Canons of the Illiberine Council especially positively deny communion to some sorts of penitents even at the hour of death they are not to be understood as if the Church mercilesly denied all indulgence and absolution to any penitent at such a time but only that it was thought fit to deny them the use of the Eucharist which was the great pledge and testimony of their communion with the Church The second case was in time of eminent persecution conceiving it but fit at such times to dispense with the rigour of the discipline that so Penitents being received to the Grace of Christ and to the communion of the Church might be the better armed and enabled to contend earnestly for the Faith This was resolved and agreed upon by Cyprian and a whole Council of African Bishops whereof they give an account to Cornelius Bishop of Rome that in regard persecution was drawing on they held it convenient and necessary that communion and reconciliation should be granted to the lapsed not only to those that were a dying but even to the living that they might not be left naked and unarmed in the time of battel but be able to defend themselves with the shield of Christs body and blood For how say they shall we teach and perswade them to shed their blood in the Cause of Christ if we deny them the benefit of his blood How shall we make them fit to drink the cup of martyrdom unless we first admit them in the Church to a right of communication to drink of the cup of the blood of Christ A third case wherein they relaxed the severity of this discipline was when great multitudes were concerned or such persons as were likely to draw great numbers after them in this case they thought it prudent and reasonable to deal with persons by somewhat milder and gentler methods lest by holding them to terms of rigour and austerity they should provoke them to fly off either to Heathens or to Hereticks This course Cyprian tells us he took he complied with the necessity of the times and like a wise Physician yielded a little to the humour of the patient to provide for his health and to cure his wounds and quotes herein the example of Cornelius of Rome who dealt just so with Trophimus and his party and elsewhere that out of an earnest desire to regain and resettle the brethren he was ready to connive at many things and to forgive any thing and did not examine and exact the greatest crimes with that full power and severity that he might insomuch that he thought he did almost offend himself in an over-liberal remitting other mens offences Lastly in absolving penitents and mitigating the rigours of their repentance they used to have respect to the person of the penitent to his Dignity or Age or Infirmity or the course of his past life sometimes to the greatness of his Humility and the impression which his present condition made upon him Thus the Ancyran Council impowers Bishops to examine the manner of mens Conversion and Repentance and accordingly either to moderate or enlarge their time of penance but especially that regard be had to their Conversation both before and since their offence that so clemency and indulgence may be extended to them So for the case of persons of
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