Fly therefore Schism Ad Smyrn p. 36. as the beginning of all mischief He that is not within the Sanctuary cannot partake of the Bread of God Ad Ephes p. 3. for if the prayer of one or two be so powerful how much more the conjoined supplications of a Bishop and his whole Flock He therefore that shuns the publick Assemblies is proud and hath cut himself off from the holy Communion for it is written that God resists the proud Let us therefore studiously decline opposing the Bishop that we may not be guilty of Rebelling against God Vse your utmost endeavour that you may meet often to praise and magnifie your Maker Ibid. p. 6. for by such frequent Assemblies the powers of Satans Kingdom are weakened and his design to ruine you for ever blasted by the Vniformity of your Faith There is no greater blessing than peace by which all the quarrels in Heaven and Earth are composed Such are his severe remarques on all the disturbers of Ecclesiastick Union and yet no man a greater adviser to Christian Condescension and Compassion than Ignatius Ibid. p. 5. Overcome says he the fury of such men by meekness their proud boastings by Humility their railings by Prayers their Errours by continuing stedfast in the Faith and their wild and ungoverned manners by a gentle and Christian demeanour XXXV Nor does he only discover the Distemper but prescribes a Remedy by enjoining a strict submission to Episcopal Authority in every Epistle For as our Master Christ never did any thing either by himself or by his Apostles without his Father Ad Magnes p. 12. so neither undertake ye any thing without the Bishop and his Presbyters nor do ye indulge to any private Fancies of your own how plausible or reasonable soever but in the same Assembly let there be one Prayer and Supplication one mind one hope in charity and joy unblameable for there is one Jesus Ad Trall p. 1 6 7. than whom nothing can be better Vndertake nothing without your Bishop and be subject to your Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ and honour the Deacons as the Ministers of the Mysteries of Jesus for without these there can be no Church Ad Philadelph p. 30. I cry aloud and speak it with an audible Voice be obedient to the Bishop Presbyters and Deacons Some men suspected that I spake this as if I had foreseen the Schismatical Designs of some but he is my Witness for whom I am bound with this Chain that I had not the notice from flesh and blood but the Spirit of God revealed these things unto me telling me Do nothing without your Bishop keep your Body undefiled as the Temple of God love Vnity fly Divisions be Imitators of Christ as he is of his Father My soul for theirs who obey the Bishop Ad Polycarp Presbyters and Deacons he that honoureth the Bishop is honoured of God he that does any thing without his Privity is a servant to the Devil Let nothing belonging to the Church be done without the Prelate Ad Smyâ—n p. 36. Think that Encharist only valid which the Bishop consecrates or some one by him deputed it is not lawful without him either to Baptize or Celebrate the Love-Feasts where the Bishop is let the Congregation be as where Christ is there is the Catholick Church And lest he might seem to impose all the stress on the Laity and prescribe no holy Cautions to the Governours of the Church how to demean themselves the beginning of the Epistle to Polycarp is wholly spent in advices to that Apostolical Bishop and giving a Character of the Episcopal Office I will only instance in one memorable saying more of his that famous passage which Theophilus Origen S. Basil Hierom and others borrow from him Ad Ephes p. 8. that there were three things whereof the Prince of the Air was ignorant the Virginity of the Blessed Mother of God the Incarnation of her Son and his death and Crucifixion three venerable Mysteries that were now publickly proclaimed to the World in their accomplishment but were contrived by God in eternal silence and secresie XXXVI And whereas some doubt hath been made how under so strict a custody he could find leisure to write so many Letters and make so many holy Sermons and Exhortations as he did we answer a Baron Tom. 2. an 109. p. 34. Pearson part 2. c. 11. p. 139. that he bought every moment of that holy leisure from his Guards every stay of his being their Market where they made him purchase each hours freedom from their inspection and restraints with greater Sums growing more fierce and untractable on their gentle treatment that they might extort new and larger Compositions for such was the Charity of that Age that they accounted nothing dearer than the concerns of their Religion and therefore grudged at no cost to purchase better usage for the Confessors thereof and of this b De Mort. Peregr p. 996. Lucian is a sufficient witness and such questionless was their Zeal and Love towards Ignatius and by this means he purchas'd his hours of Privacy notwithstanding Eusebius seems to oppose the Opinion c Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 30. implying that he did it rather by stealth than their Connivance XXXVII It is also proposed as a great difficulty by the acute a Not. in Euseb Chron. an MMCXX III. p. 189. Scaliger how it came to pass that Ignatius should not be martyred at Antioch but carryed thence to Rome telling us that none but Denizens of that great City used to appeal from the Governour of the Province as S. Paul did and if we assert this concerning Ignatius then could he not have been thrown to the Wild Beasts the b L. 48. Tit. 8. ad leg Cornel. de Sicar Venef Law forbidding to punish any Citizen in that manner it being in truth a Death decreed to the vilest and most profligate of Malefactors only and at last professes That he is ignorant how to solve it and therefore proposes it that others might try their wits about it And though I pretend not to unriddle Mysteries yet we may give more than one reason why Trajan who himself and not the Governour of the Province condemn'd the holy man ordered him to suffer at Rome c Lib. 48. Tit. 19. 〈◊〉 ad â—esâ—â—â— It was usual in all the Provinces to send the Heads and Leaders of Factions famous Thieves and Murtherers or any that had Excellencies more than ordinary as strength of Body or Skill to suffer at Rome Now Ignatius was the most remarkable man among the Christians of that Country a Patriarch of a famous See venerable for his Age and Piety for his Zeal and Humility for his Gallantry and Courage in freely offering himself to the Emperour and reproving his Idolatrous Worship To this d Tom. 5. p. 502 503. S. Chrysostom subjoins That it was the Devil's Policy to
the Government of the Church by Bishops as superiour to Presbyters been intimated in every Epistle and a submission to their Authority so instantly prest these Sacred Remains had never fallen under such rude Attacques but been reckoned among the most precious Treasures of the most Primitive Antiquity X. This set Blondel first on work says the immortal Grotius in his Epistle to Gerhard the Father of Isaac Vossius to decry these admirable Writings although in the former Edition which past through the hands of Videlius at Geneva Blondellus magnae vir diligentiae sed suae parti super aequum addictus Ignatii Epistolas quas filius tuus ex Italia attulit puras ab omnibus iis quae eruditi hactenus suspecta habuere ideo admittere non vult quia Episcopatuum vetrustati clarum praebent Testimonium Grot. Ep. Ger. Voss who could not be suspected to be partial for the Episcopal Cause there be enough left uncensur'd to shew us the Face of the Church of that Age. This also is Doctor Owen's Charge against them in his Preface to his Book of the Saints Perseverance that frequently causelesly absurdly in the midst of Discourses quite of another nature and tendency the Author of these Epistles or some Body for him breakes in on the commendation of Church-Officers Bishops and Presbyters Nor is a Apparat. ad lib. de Primat Pap. p. 55. Salmasius backward in the same Impeachment and I am apt to imagine that Mr. H. so thinks since else he would have mentioned some of those many Passages that give an account of the Church Government then in use as he hath done in the lives of some of the other Fathers where any thing might seem to make for him and which would have served as an excellent Comment on that rational Paragraph of his Preface That as to the Face and State of the Church both as to sound Doctrine and wholesom Discipline it may be presumed that they i. the Fathers were better acquainted with than most others and could give us the fullest and truest Information it having been their special work to publish and defend the one and they having had the chiefest hand in the management of the other for it was a solemn act of Divine Providence says the famous b Annal T. 2. an 109. p. 36. ex Euseb Hist Eccles lib. 3. cap. 30. Cardinal that these Epistles should be written but a greater that amidst that Tempest which wrack'd so many of the Writings of the Primitive Fathers these should escape in which we have such a lively draught of the Beauties of the Oriental Church for what the Apostles Peter and Paul taught the Church of Antioch and S. John instituted in the Churches of Asia that hath Ignatius preserved and transmitted to Posterity For that in S. John's time who dyed but eight years before our Martyr writ his Epistles the Church should be Govern'd by a Common Council of Presbyters or by every distinct Priest as absolute over his own Flock and presently on his death all the world of Christians should conspire to betray the Institution of Christ and c Chillingw of Episcopacy Sect. 11. p. 5. no man wish so well to the Gospel-Discipline as to oppose it is so wild a sancy that when I shall see all the Fables in the Mâ—tamorphoses acted and prov'd Stories when I shall see all the Democracies and Aristocracies in the World lye down and sleep and awake into Monarchies then will I begin to believe That Presbyterial or Independent Discipline having continued in the Church during the Apostles time should presently after against the Apostles Doctrine and will of Christ be whirled about like a Skreen in a Mask and transform'd into Episcopacy XI And I could wish that our Brethren of the Separation would consider how much they hereby both prejudice their own Cause since in no ancient Writer can they find so honourable a mention of the Presbyterate as in Ignatius and administer advantage to the common Enemy and how they can answer that Objection of a Ubi supr p. 39. Baronius who challenges all the Protestants to be tryed in point of Ecclesiastical Polity by this Father as if instead of a beautiful Church they had groan'd for a most deform'd Monster But blest be our great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Naz. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Polycarp and Clemens Alex. call him that the Church of England is able to retort the Calumny and lay it at the door of the Objectors being ready to be try'd for its Discipline by the Fathers of the first Ages of the Church consonant to whom it can show three Orders of the Clergy in opposition to the defects of the Conventicle and the superfluity of the Conclave But this Question hath been so accurately handled by so many learned men of our Church that it were folly in me to light my Candle where their Sun shines XII But Mr. H. is not without his own Reasons why these Epistles are not pure though he disallow Dailleés why they should not be Ignatius's of which before we examine particulars it will not be amiss to consider how many different Copies of the Greek Epistles have been made use of for as to the three Latine ones mentioned and disallowed per ¾ b Apud Usserii prolegomen de Epist Ignat cap. 5. p. XXIX Baronius and the Roman Index clear the Martyr from being the Author of them and this I do to mind Mr. H. of another slip of his p. 8 9. from his haste or mistake of the Reverend Primate who in his c Cap. 6. p. XXXIII Dissertation prefixt to his Edition of Ignatius reckons three several Editions of these Epistles in use among the Ancients the first of the seven genuine Epistles only or six as he would have them which Eusebius c. saw and used the second of the same Epistles but interpolated and so used by Stephanus Gobarus Anastasius the Patriarch of Antioch and the Author of the Chronicon Alexandrinum for they were not the Authors of the Connection of the five spurious Epistles as Mr. H. imagines the third consisted of the genuine and supposititious Epistles all in one Volume used by Johannes Damascenus Antonius in his Melissa and Anastasius Presbyter whom I suppose Mr. H. mistook for him of the same name that was Patriarch of Antioch and so fell into his errours And I am apt to think with a Ep. 1. p. 9. ad fin vindic Pearson Isaac Vossius That the genuine Epistles were adulterated and the spurious annext under the Emperour Anastasius circ an 510. who also supprest the Gospels as if writ by Idiots and unlearned men and commanded others to be writ in their stead This third Edition b Proaem c. 6. p. 28. Bishop Pearson divides into two one whereof had only four spurious Epistles added to the seven genuine and untainted as the Medicean Copy of
504. Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To. 5. p. 515. To. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Genes p. 64. To. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Act. App. p. 856. Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 200. Gregory Nyssens Homilies on the Canticles imply that he preacht on that Book of the inspired Solomon every day and this appears also by more than a few passages in St. Chrysostom's Homilies in as much as it was expresly commanded all Bishops g Can. 19. by the sixth General Council that every Prelate on every day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but especially on the Lords days should instruct both his Clergy and People by which we may judge of the Acumen of those Franciscan Fryers at Basil among the Switzers who affirmed it h Mâ—â—ch Adain Vit. Pellican p. â—92 to be a Lutheran trick to preach on any other but holy-days But this Law was not so indispensibly binding but that many days in the year wanted their Sermons only this we may aver that unless in case of great necessity the Christians had their Homilies constantly on Sundays on Festivals and their Eves throughout the whole Lent and the twelve days the Octaves of Easter and Whitsuntide and the Rogation-Week on Wednesdays and Frydays in most places and at other times frequently according to the discretion of the Prelate or the fulness of the Congregation XXIII But above all they had their Lectures of Discipline every day throughout the Lenten Fast and that not only in S h Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 381. ubi supr Chrysostomes time but even in the Infancy of the Aegyptian Churches this practice was introduc'd among those Convert Jews whom i Hist lib. 2. cap. 16. Eusebius out of Philo describes who through the whole seven Weeks of Lent were imployed in Fastings Watchings and among other duties in hearing the Word of God which Custom it were to be wisht that the Protestant Churches had retain'd as well as the Romanists who have their preachings every day in that holy time the same person being obliged to continue the exercise as long as his strength shall permit him Nor had the Ancients their Sermons only for one part of the day only or but one at once but it was usual very early in some places for the †Constitute Apost lib. 2. cap. 57. Presbyters with the Bishops leave to preach each one in his turn or as many as were thought fit and then the Bishop himself closed up all with a sober and grave exhortation and sometimes if a b Gaudent Brixiens tract 14. Nyssen Tom. 1. p. 872. forreign Prelate came occasionally to a Church he was desired to preach and sometimes the same Person preacht c Aug. in Psal 86. reficite vires refecti à cibis c. nunc ad reliqua Psalmi de quo in matutino locuti sumus animum intendite Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 6. p. 525. tit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. T. 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Laz. p. 229. twice a day for which sometimes that most admirable and desired Preacher S. Chrysostom was forc'd to make his Apology and free himself from the imputation of introducing a novel Custom XXIV And as the Governours of the Church took on them to appoint set times for hearing the Word of God explain'd so also they took care that every man might not be left to his own choice but that fit places might be appropriated to this duty for in those days none but the Hereticks had their separate meetings the Apostles at first preacht from * Act. 2.46 â—â— 5.42 house to house for as long as they had extraordinary assistances and no ordinary charge the whole world was every Apostles Diocess but afterward when they were fixt on setled and ordinary charges the Bishop being attended with his Deacons was the only person that preacht and for some time the converted Christians had not above one Sermon in a Diocess which the Prelate preacht in his Cathedral in the Principal place of his charge and therefore to ordain throughout every City Tit. 1.5 is the same with to ordain throughout every Church Act. 14.23 thither all the scattered Christians of the Neighbourhood resorted and when the Offices were over each man went home and instructed his Family as God enabled him as in truth all the Ordinances of the Church were celebrated in the mother-Mother-Church only and none but the Bishop officiated therein or some other by leave from him but when the number of the Brethren encreast and a third Order of Ecclesiastical persons were instituted a Colledge of Presbyters to attend the Bishop as his Council and Assistants I suppose that not long after the date of their erection the Churches of the Mother-Cities encreasing in number the Presbyters had their several Titles confer'd on them by the Bishop that every one might know his several part of that flock which he was to instruct Hence in the Pontifical it is said that Pope Euarestus was the first that at Rome divided the Churches and Cemeteries among the Presbyters it was also very antiently practised at a Epiphan haeres 69. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. apud Sozom. hist l. 1. c. 5. Alexandria And thus it continued in the Cities some years before the Country were so well provided for the first Country Presbyter that I meet with being to be found in b Epist 28. p. 34. St. Cyprian who mentions Gajus the Presbyter or Curate of Didda and c Haeres 66. vide Ep. Episc ad Dionys c. apud Euseb lib. 7. cap. 24. Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 27. Conc. Ancyran Neo-Caes Epiphanius takes notice of Trypho the Presbyter of Diodoris a Village under Archelaus Bishop of Caschara in Mesopotamia who with his Ordinary were great Opponents of the Heretick Manes when he fled out of Persia into Romania and after this the name commonly occurs in the Councils but this excellent Custom came later into some other parts of the World than into the East and South for it was after the year 630. before this Kingdom of our Nativity was divided into Parishes and * Vid. Concil Valens Can. 4. probably after the year 400 that it was so ordered in France XXV Every person or every Clergy-man was not at first thought fit to take the cure of Souls on him none but the immediate Successors of the Apostles the Prelates of the Church who in truth discharg'd this and all other parts of the Ministerial Function till his burthen increasing the Bishop permitted some Presbyters to discharge that duty but neither durst they preach without their Ordinaries leave as we find the Apostles cautiously expecting a License from the President of the Jewish Assembly Act. 13.15 and seldom in his presence but supplyed his room when he was necessarily absent at a Synod or in time of persecution or
〈◊〉 7. p. 537. that if the Neighbour of an Elect person sin the good man himself is the offender for if the holy man had demean'd himself as the word or right reason directed his evil Neighbour would have stood in so much awe of his pious and well-governed life that he durst not offend XXXII Sect. 5. p. 94. Mr. H. reckons that passage of the Paedagogus as an excellent sentence that this is to drink the blood of Christ to be made partaker of the incorruption of the Lord which h De fundam S. Caenae p. 109. Chemnitius but I remember that he was a Lutheran calls a Novel Opinion and never heard of and in good truth if it be allowable to make Allegorical interpretations of the plain words of the Sacraments what evils may not thence ensue so in i Lib. 2. c. 2. the same Book S. Clem. thus expounds our Saviours words This is my blood i. the blood of the Vine which is shed for the remission of sins for as Wine refresheth the heart and maketh merry so the remission of sins is the glad tidings of the Gospel which Position the same learned Lutheran terms but too severely a prophane as well as a Novel Assertion And having thus mentioned his Censure I leave the Reader to judge XXXIII And so must I beg him to determine between me and Mr. H. in another question of moment relating to the Government of the Primitive Church by Bishops of which I find him tacitly endeavouring to supplant the belief and insinuating as if in those early days there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter while here p. 99. he quotes Clemens that there were in his time only three Orders Bishops Elders and Deacons as if that mixt and amphibious Animal call'd a Lay-Elder had been in those Primitive days a Church-officer who was never heard of till yesterday and as if Bishops were no more than Parish-Ministers and Deacons their Church-wardens and so he explains himself commonly Bishop or Pastor p. 2.17.21 c. and p. 6. Pastor Overseer or Bishop and p. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pastor or Chief President which word a Resp ad Sacar cap. 25. annot in Phil. 1 1. in 1 Tim. 1.19 in Apocal. 2.1 Beza is willing to acknowledge that it did antiently signifie a Bishop in the sense of the Church of England and which b Tom. 5. p. 499. S. Chrysostom twice in one page uses to denote the Eminency of S. Ignatius's Archiepiscopal and Patriarchal Dignity and had Mr. H. Englisht the Fathers as they explain'd themselves in those early days he might better have rendred it in some places Bishop or Elder c Hier. ad Ocean To. 2. p. 325. the one being a name of their Age the other of their Authority Nor can I but admire the prejudices of some men who in this case appeal to Antiquity as Salmasius Blondel and others have done forcing it to speak the sense of the Vestry Tribunal by the most unreasonable deductions I will only instance in that of d Praefat. ad Apolog. p. 59. Blondel who has found out a new Heresie of Aerius unknown to all former Ages till this infallible Dictator in Divinity appear'd not that he affirm'd that Bishops and Presbyters were the same Order for that says he was the Opinion of S. Hierome and all the Antients but that from these premises he argued a necessity of separation and that no man could safely communicate with any of the other Opinion a device not worth the confutation which having to shadow of Antiquity to countenance it hath yet grown into practice at Geneva if we may believe Danaeus a Professor there who as Beza calls the Episcopal Government under the Papacy a devillish tyranny e Danae Isag part 2. lib. 2. c. 22. so affirms that it was their custome to re-ordain by their Presbytery any that came over to them and had been ordain'd by a Popish Prelate before as if every irregularity in the Ordainer blotted out the Character and their ill Government if nothing else were enough to countenance a Schism XXXIV I had therefore once thoughts to have deduc'd the Episcopal Pre-eminence through the three first Centuries from the works of those ten Fathers of whom Mr. H. writes the Lives but on maturer thoughts I conceived it to be unnecessary only I will mind my Reader that f De praescript adv haer p. 39. F. Edit Rhen. Tertullian reckons it as a mark of a Heretick that he is a man that pays no reverence to his Prelate and close the Paragraph with the counsel of a Tom. 1. p. 955. Ed. Paris 1627. S. Athanasius to Dracontius who refused this holy Office If the Institutions of the Church displease thee and thou imagine that there is no reward annext to the just discharge of this duty thou despisest that Saviour who gave being to this Jurisdiction Such thoughts are unworthy a sober and wise man for those things which our great Master hath ordain'd by his Apostles cannot but be good and practicable and notwithstanding any opposition shall continue firm I shall end this Section when I have mention'd that Mr. H. b P. 45. alibi in his Book of Confirmation hath rob'd the Bishops of their power in Confirmation that he might confer it on every Presbyter and ranking the Papist and Prelatical party together hath called their ways of proof blasphemous Arguments not considering that the concurrent suffrage of Antiquity makes the c Bishop Taylor of Confir sect 4. Bishop the only Minister of this Rite and that herein the Jesuite and Presbyterian are united more genuinely than the Romanist and Prelatical For when Smith Bishop of Chalcedon was sent into England by Vrban 8. as an Ordinary here the Jesuites would never submit to him and at last wrought him out of the Kingdom and presently publisht two Books in English against Episcopal Government and Confirmation disputing both into contempt d Mystery of Jesuitism let 3. p. 150 151. which Books having been sent by the English Clergy to the Sorbon there were thirty two Propositions in them censured and condemn'd by that Colledge Febr. 15. 1631. XXXV The design of S. Clemens in his Stromata is to instruct his Gnostick i. his accomplisht Disciple a man extraordinarily acquainted with the Principles of Christianity in which sense e Apud Socrat hist Eccles lib. 4. c. 18. Evagrius entitles one of his Books which he writ of the Monastick Institution Gnosticus wherein he calls the Society of more eminent and contemplative Monks the Sect of the Gnosticks for much after that rate that Plato does instruct his wise man does this Alexandrian Presbyter instruct his Gnostick whom he presumes to be a man elevated above the common pitch and fit to be intrusted with the Mysteries of Scripture such as he and his Scholar Origen were pleas'd in their Allegorizing way to make describing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
anothers Province but where both of them preacht the Gospel in the same City and founded a Church it was divided into two Coetus or Assemblies under their respective Bishops as h In Gal. 1. 22. to 9. p. 214. Ed. Eras Seorsim qui ex Judaeis erant Ecclesiae habebantur nec his qui erant è Gentibus miscebantur S. Hierom or who-ever put out those Comments in his name So * Apud Euseb Hist lib. 2. cap. 24. Dionysius of Corinth seems to imply was his Church founded and so without doubt was the Church of Rome where Linus succeeded S. Paul and Cletus S. Peter till both the Coetus had their coalition under Clemens and that there were two such distinct parts of their first Plantation seems plain to me from Rom. 14. where the Gentile Church is advised not to censure the Jewish who observed days and abstained from meats And after this manner had the Church of Antioch its Original for it appears by Act. 15.23 that the Synodical Epistle of the Apostles was directed to the Brethren which were of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia who were distinct from the Jewish Converts as appears from v. 28. And this I am apt to think was the Model of Government in all Churches where those two Chiefs of the Apostles came whereas at Alexandria where they had only S. Mark for their Apostle and Instructer Epiphan Haeres 68. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had but a single Bishop So that in this City both the Apostles laying the foundation committed the raising of the Superstructure each to a distinct Successor Ignatius succeeding S. Peter Euodius S. Paul till on the death of Euodius there was a coalition of both the Coetus under the surviving Bishop And I suppose this happened providentially in all places just upon the ruine of Jerusalem under Titus that the Apostles having buried the Synagogne with honour there might no longer be the distinction of Jew or Gentile in the Lord Jesus and this may help to strengthen the Conjecture of the most learned a Ubi supr Pearson and to reconcile Eusebius and his Translator S. Hierom that Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch more than 30 years for so long he exercised the Jurisdiction after Euodius his decease as appears by Eusebius and how long before as the Bishop of the Jewish Christians is uncertain VII Sect. 2. p. 3. Mr. H. says that Ignatius is altogether the most ancient of all now extant first of Writers as I understand him in the Christian Church Where certainly he must allow us to except S. Barnabas who writ his Catholick Epistles or if that be controverted S. Clemens his Golden Remains to the Corinthians the Author whereof was martyred the third year of Trajan whereas the first of Ignatius's Epistles was not writ till an 10. of that Emperour and from this consideration we are naturally led to Sect. 3. p. 4 5 c. VIII In the Discourse of the Writings of this Martyr he at first gives them their due Eulogy Vide Baron T. 2. an 109. p. 31. and Not. ad Martyrol Feb. 1. that as a certain well-drawn Picture they do excellently represent and give us a lively Image of him and so they are in the Opinion of all Learned and Unprejudiced Persons having had the Approbation of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Councils and had our Author stopt here in a just Admiration of this holy Man and his Writings I should have been content to have seconded his Design and offer'd my Veneration and Esteem on the same Altar But what this one fit of passion gives us is by another snatch'd from us and the Epistles so commended are presently attempted to be debas'd by an heap of Inconcludencies Nor can I but a little admire that Mr. H. writing a large Diatribe à p. 4. ad p. 15. on these Epistles never remembers any Edition of them later than that of the most Reverend Vsher who by an ingenious and successful sagacity rescued this great man from the vile Abuses of his Interpolators who had interwoven their coarse Thread with his Purple never taking notice of the Edition of Isaac Vossius who out of the Medicean Library at Florence Ann. 1646. furnisht the World with a genuine Copy of the seven Epistles the same I suppose which a Pro Epist Pontif lib. 2. c. 10. comm in constit Apost l. 9. c. 17. Turrianus saw and so much and so justly boasts of terming it a most ancient and emendate Copy the number being the same with the computation of the Ancients in which also the Passages quoted by them are found which are wanting in the Vulgar Copies and which exactly agrees to those two barbarous Latine Translations which the Reverend Primate met with here in England the one in the Library of Cains College in Cambridge the other among the Books of that Prelate of Universal Learning Bishop Montague which Transcript of Vossius when it was first communicated to the World was acknowledged by b Apolog. pro sent Hieron praefat p. 40. Blondel the bitter Adversary of those Epistles to be the same which for above a thousand three hundred years since Eusebius and after him the other Fathers used and since him by Dailleé in his set Tract to evince their spuriousness of which undertaking of that Learned Frenchman Mr. H. in his Mantissa takes notice and could not but see that it had Relation to the Medicean Copy and the emendate Edition of Vossius a Book that hath been unanswerably silenc'd by the incomparable Bishop Pearson in his Vindiciae Epistolarum Ignatii a Tractate that I wonder is never mention'd in a Discourse so suitable but this is not the first over-sight Mr. H. hath been guilty of IX And if the Censure be not too severe there is some reason why this Edition purg'd of all the foisted Passages is not mention'd which is because of the Episcopacy therein asserted when by sticking to the interpolated Copies a Crime I find willingly committed by the Assemblers and Dr. Owen against Dr. Hammond by the Accurate Dailleé himself and I will not say by our Author they might decry every Sentence that made gainst their darling Discipline as foisted in contrary to the mind of the holy Ignatius this Mr. H. more than intimates in these Passages a Life of Ignat. p. 7. vide p. 14 15. They i. the genuine Epistles which he before mentions have not escaped the hands of those which have offered no small Injury to them having most unworthily corrupted these ancient Reliques partly by Addition and Interpolation of what never fell from the Pen of Ignatius and partly by Diminution and Substraction of what they saw would prove of disadvantage and prejudice to them so that even those genuine Epistles through the foul abuse that hath been offered unto them have lost much of that Authority which they had of old And I may safely dare to affirm that had not
the Angels were they that said in Scripture let us make man and having given him a Soul that did not enable him to stand upright but still he crept like a Worm God took pity on the decrepit Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sent down a Spark of Life and made the man perfect and that this is that Spark that after the dissolution of the Creature goes back again to God that gave it Which distinction of his seems to me to be the same with that of Apollinaris between the Soul and Mind but this I propose only as a Conjecture XVI His second Argument is That the Passage in Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is left out of our Ignat us not to answer him that this Passage being found in b Usser prolegom c. 3. p. XV. XVI three of our English Writers Woodford Tissington and Bishop Grosthead while it was not in the Vulgar Copies set the curious Primate on searching for those Copies which he afterwards found this very Passage is still extant in the c P. 35. edit Usser Medicean Copy only with a small variation in Theodoret it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in Vossius's Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab eucharistia oratione recedunt as the d P. 220. ancient barbarous Translation XVII His last Argument is from a mistake of e L. 3. adv Pelag. to 2. P. 301. Ed. Eras S. Hierom how confidently soever it be said that the Father had the Passage out of one of the genuine Epistles of Ignatius that our Saviour chose the greatest of Sinners for his Apostles For though the Answer of Dr. f Uhi supr c. 3. sect 1. n. 15. Hammond be sufficient that it might be spoken by the Martyr though not recorded as our Saviour spake many things not writ in the Gospel some whereof were recited in the Acts of the Apostles others by some of the Apostles Followers yet we have a better that this was only a slip of S. Hierom's memory quoting Ignatius for S. Barnabas in whose Catholick Epistle the words are now extant and as the words of Barnabas did Origen quote taem long before S. Hierom nor are such mistakes uncommon among the Fathers so g Vide Pears vindic part 1. c. 3. p. 29. Clemens Alexandrinus quotes Barnabas for Clemens Romanus and Theodoret the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans instead of that to the Church of Smyrna and S. h C. 27.9 Matthew the Prophet Jeremy instead of Zechary as i Act. 7.16 S. Stephen does Abraham for Jacob. XVIII in the next place he proceeds to the consideration of those Epistles which he calls dubious but we except the Epistle to Polycarp which even a Apolog. pro Ignat. cap. 3. Vedelius himself doth confess to be one of the seven genuine reject as spurious being over and above the number of Epistles which Eusebius and S. Hierome attribute to our Martyr So that notwithstanding what b To. 2. an 109. p. 35. Baronius pleads for them I am of our Country-man Cook 's mind who in his c Pag. 57 c. Censura Patrum gives the same reasons which Mr. H. uses only I cannot subscribe to that one that because in the Epistle to Polycarp he mentions a Letter-Carrier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore he must have been an Ecclesiastical Officer the argument being enervated by d Not. Critic in Ep. Ignat. p. 139. Vedelius the word certainly implying no more than a Messenger in the stile of Ignatius whom he advises Polycarp to send to Antioch such as Burrhus was that came to him at Smyrna from Troas and such as Phoebe and others were to S. Paul for all the e Cyrys To. 5. p. 502 503. Cities round about sent to the Martyr and provided him with necessaries and gave him the assistance of their Prayers and Embassies Now these Offices were many times undertook by the Clergy so Irenaeus being a Presbyter carried the Letters of the Church of Lyons to Pope Eleutherius though the Office did properly belong to the sub-Deacon says f Tom. 2. an 179 p. 146 Baronius Nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Epistle signifie any imposition of hands but barely an appointment or civil designation XIX As to the Apostrophe in the Epistle to Polycarp from the Bishop to the People it is not unusual in the Epistles of the Apostles and may be seen in those to the seven Churches of Asia and notwithstanding the most reverend g Not an Epist ad Polycarp p. 85 86. Vsher after what the learned Is Vossius hath pleaded for this Epistle be still of his old Opinion yet here S. Chrysostom's Authority prevails more with me who in his h To. 6. p. 645. Oration de Vnico Vet. N. Test Legislatore quotes this Epistle as the genuine Ignatius's and that that Oration is S. Chrysostom's Bishop i Ubi supr part 1. cap. 9. p. 132 c. Pearson hath fully vindicated but this consideration hath been already adjusted XX. For the Latine words made Greek all which will amount to but four in seven Epistles whereof three are in that one Epistle to Polycarp it will appear the poorest of Arguments to him that remembers how many more such there be in the New Testament which he that will look into the end of Pasor's Lexicon shall find gathered to his hand though Blondel only takes notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fragment of Hegesippus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning Polycarp's Martyrdom and that in the most elegant and polite Writer S. Chrysostom in one a To. 7. p. 93 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epistle viz. the 13th of those ad Olympiadem we have eight such words together and some of them twice and oftner and in the Writers of Tacticks or Law vaster numbers six hundred at least in Vrbicus an Author of the same Age with Ignatius who writ the Tacticks of the Emperours Trajan and Adrian But this is an Exception which Dailleé was asham'd of who never mentions it as our Author is of another which that learned Frenchman uses viz. his compound words b Vid. D. Ham. Pears ubi supr which also hath been over and above answered XXI P. 13. He avers of the three Latine Epistles whereof one to the Virgin Mary the other to S. John the Apostle that they were added by Antiochus the Monk circ an 630. to the other twelve Epistles But this also is a great mistake for no man ever yet saw those three Epistles in Greek nor are they quoted by any Greek Writer as Antiochus was nor any of the Latines till S. Bernard as Mr. H. p. 14. out of Baronius confesses which how it can be reconciled with his former assertion I am not Oedipus enough to unriddle But suppose that this also did arise from
as it must have been if introduc'd by Flavianus S. Basil's Cotemporary i Tom. 2. a◠152. p. 136. Baronius informs us That the Angelick Hymn Gloria in excelsis c. was enjoyn'd by Pope Telesphorus circ an 152. to be sung at the Consecration of the Eucharist and I am apt to think it was done alternately if not I am sure k Lib. 10. Epist 97. Pliny who lived with Ignatius impeaches the Christians of that Age of no other Crime save that they were wont to meet at a set time before day and to sing among themselves invicem alternately a Song to Christ whom they account a God which is a plain description of the practice of that Age. And a Hist Eccl. lib. 2. c. 16. Eusebius out of Philo makes the observance coaevous with the Church of Alexandria under S. Mark affirming that among the Primitive Christians when one began to sing the rest quietly hearkned to him and then sung together the remainder of the Hymn probably bably in imitation of Moses and Miriam Exod. 15.1 21. So that it is likely that the usage may be ancienter in some Churches than our Martyr but not improbable that his Vision might be the occasion of bringing in the Custom into the Church of Antioch and as the Custom prevailed so early in the East and in Aegypt so also in the Southern parts of Africk and at Carthage for b Lib. 2. ad uxor cap. 6. Tertullian mentions this mutual singing wherein they provok'd one another to Emulation who should Sing best And c Dc Orat. dominic p. 160. Cyprian quotes the Hymn at the Celebration of the Eucharist begun by the Priest with sursum corda and answered to by the People with habemus ad dominum and the practice carries its own Vindication with it for I remember somewhere Greg. Naz. calls Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature made answerable to the Angels and that d Tom. 2. Homil. 55. in Matth. p. 355. S. Chrysostom relates and vindicates the Hymns of the Monks those Angels of the Desart as he calls them wherein they intermix'd the Doxology and then went to the Hymn again herein following the Laws of the Apostles beginning with the Doxology and ending with it and beginning with it again So that it seems by him to have been an Apostolical Tradition XXIV Here was also a fair Occasion offer'd to have instructed the World not only that Episcopacy was then a venerable Order in the Church but that the Bishop had Power to impose a Liturgy from that famous place of the e P. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epistle to the Magnesians nor can I think that it was a Novel Usurpation of the Prelates in those early days but that set Forms of Prayer are of Apostolical Institution who herein followed the Example of their infallible Master who as he made the Jewish Baptism a Christian Sacrament and took the Symbols of the Eucharist from their Custom of Blessing the Bread and the Cup at their Passeover so was not ashamed to collect the Petitions of his most incomparable Prayer out of the several set Forms of Petition in use among that people 'T is true they had in that happy saeculum the miraculous Spirit or Gift of Prayer which enabled the Apostolical Priest without praemeditation to compose Prayers according to the perpetual or emergent occasions of the Christian Congregation whereof he was the Guide where we may observe what the Apostle means when he mentions Prayers by the Spirit and that this was given to cross the design of our Modern Pretenders to it that every man might not take what Liberty himself pleased to pour out his own Effusions yet this extraordinary Charisma and Afflatus soon ceas'd and as it abated was succeeded by some of those very Forms which the holy Spirit had so prodigiously dictated collected either by the Apostles themselves or their immediate Successors The Greek Church have an undisputed Tradition among them that whereas the Apostles spent whole Days and Nights in their holy Offices the length of those Devotions gave occasion to S. James to omit those Prayers that were used only on extraordinary and emergent occasions and yet even in those the Apostles did not disdain to follow ancient Precepts for the Prayer Act. 4. from v. 24. to 31. is nothing but an Abstract of Psalm the second and the glorifyed Saints Apocal. 15.3 4. were not ashamed to sing an Eucharistical Hymn composed of the Songs of Moses David and Jeremy and to chuse and cull out the most pertinent of those Prayers for the dayly use of the Church which is since called his Liturgy and was afterward again shortned by S. Basil and S. Chrysostom and if any man should dispute the Authenticalness of his or S. Mark 's or S. Peter's Liturgies in that Church they would first admire and then deride him though it cannot be denyed but that there are many Additions and Interpolations in them as now extant which are not of equal Authority with those Collects which are truly Primitive but that also is an Argument that there were anciently such Liturgies left to the Church as they came out of the Apostles hands till they fell into the hands of evil men And for this notion of the Spirit of Prayer we are obliged to a Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. Rom. 26. p. 120. S. Chrysostom who plainly affirms That to them that were newly Baptiz'd God was pleas'd to give many miraculous Donatives which were called Spirits for he saith Let the Spirit of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets for one had the Spirit of Prophesie and he foretold Futurities another of Wisdom and he instructed the World in the Laws of Piety a third of Healing and he cured the Sick a fourth of Miracles and he did raise the Dead another of Tongues and he spake divers Languages and among all these there was also the Cift of Prayer which also is called the Spirit of Prayer and he that was so endowed prayed for the whole Congregation for whereas we are ignorant of many things that are necessary for us and apt to ask what is unnecessary therefore fell this Spirit of supplication on one certain person and he stood up and made known the common necessities of the Church and instructed others to pray and this he did with much compunction and many groans Of which usage the Embleme is yet retain'd in the Deacons bidding of Prayers a Selden not in Eutych p. 41 42. So when the Spirit of Prophesie ceas'd in the Jewish Church Ezra and the great Consistory instituted certain Forms of Devotion of dayly use from which no man might dare to recede XXV Among these setled and establish'd Forms of the Apostles we may suppose none were so likely to be retain'd as those at the Celebration of the Eucharist which then the good men receiv'd every day For in all the ancient Liturgies
we find the same Form admitting a few Alterations which the Church of England uses in that tremendous Sacrament and indeed is the same abating a few Circumstances in the Liturgies of the whole Christian World among the Oriental and Western Christians the Syrians and Aegyptians the Abassines and Armenians the Melchites Jacobites and Nestorians who though in other things they disagree are herein united which makes me imagine their Ceremonies at this Sacrament so uniformly observed could flow from no other Fountain than that of the Apostles according to that Maxime of S. Austin that what is univerfally practised and was never instituted by a General Council must be imputed to the Apostles b Aug. Ep. 59. Paulino resp ad quaest 6. For the Vniversal Church had a set Service which she constantly used at the Celebration of the Sacrament whereof a part was perform'd before the Consecration of the Elements another during the Consecration and Distribution the Solemnity being alwayes concluded with the Lords Prayer the Eucharistical Hymns and the Priests benediction and that it was so from that passage Lift up your hearts to the end of the Communion Service I shall adventure to make appear from the most profound Antiquity XXVI For c Chrysost Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Cor. p. 647. after the Prayers of the Church which we call the first Service were finish'd and the Catechumens Energumeni and Paenitentes were dismist then began another Collect which only the Faithful said being prostrate on the Ground which I suppose was like that General Confession in our Books Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. then they arose and gave the holy kiss each to other after which the Priest being about to handle the tremendous Mysteries prayes over the people and the people pray for the Priest for what else mean those words and with thy spirit and when he returns with his new Invocation the people say it is meet and right so to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then he begins not the Consecration of the Eucharistical Elements but the Angelick Hymn therefore with Angels and Arch-Angels c. and this is excellently agreeable to the Liturgy of that a Liturg. Chrysost Tâ—â— 6. p. 996 997. L. 8. c. 16. eminent Father I will brieflâ— consider the several parts XXVII The Sursum cordais mentioned by the b Author of the Apostolical Constitutions and he would poorly have made good his pretence who-ever put on that Mask had not this Hymn been instituted by those holy men and the Testimony will be very considerable if the Author of those Books be as some men conjecture Clemens of Alexandria We meet with it also as an Hymn of Universal Practice in c De Orat. Dominic p. 160. S. Cyprian in d Catech. mystagog 5. p. 241. S. Cyril of Hierusalem and in e Ep. 57. Ep. 120. c. 19. Ep. 156 de spirit lit c. 11. de bono perseverant c. 13. de vera relig c. 13. c. Vide Dr. Hamm. Letters to Cheynel p. 26 27. S. Austin frequently that we may omit Dionysius the Areopagite because not so ancient as pretended the famous Bishop of Hippo affirming That they were verba ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita words derived to the Church from the days of the Apostles and S. Cyril telling us that they were traditionally derived down to his time and what was Tradition in his days could be little less than Apostolical and it is observable That the Liturgy which that ancient Father so largely and Learnedly explains in his Catechetick Lectures was the Liturgy of S. James which was then in use in his Church of Hierusalem then followed the Hymn therefore with Angels c. the Prayer which the Greek Churches call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which S. Chrysostom means when he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thou singest and joinest Consort with those blest Spirits and Gregory f Tom. 1. p. 957. Nyssen says they are the words which the Seraphims with six Wings say when they sing the Hymns with the Christian Congregation and was doubtless the g Just M. Apol. 2. p. 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Eucharistical Hymn which was sung when the Christians brought Bread and Wine to the Priest which he receiving return'd Praises to God in the name of the Son and the holy Ghost The Form of Consecration of the Elements was says h Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. in 2 Timoth. p. 339. S. Chrys of indispensible necessity and what was then retain'd in the Church was the same which Peter and Paul and Christ himself used at the Consecration of the sacred Symbols The Form is at large in i Tom. 4. lib. 4. de sucra cap. 4 5. p. 377. Edit Erasm S. Ambrose after this manner In what Form and in whose words is the Consecration made in the words of the Lord Jesus For in all the other Additionals thanks are given to God Suppliplications made for the people for Kings and all Orders of men this also k Apoleg c. 39. Tertullian mentions and l ubi supr Justin Martyr and S. m Ep. 119. c. 18. Austin call properly the Common Prayer like our Collect for the whole State of Christ's Church militant here on Earth but when he comes to Consecrate the venerable Sacrament then he no longer uses his own words but the words of Christ Which Form of Consecration he thus expresses a Ambr. ibid c. 5. the Priest says Make this Oblation prepared for us a reasonable and acceptable Sacrifice which is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Master Jesus Christ who the day before he suffered took the Bread in his hands and look'd up to Heaven giving thanks to the Holy Father Almighty Eternal God he blessed it brake it and being so broken gave it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of it for this is my Body which shall be broken for many Likewise the day before he suffer'd after Supper he took the Cup and look'd up to heaven giving thanks to the holy Father Almighty eternal God he blessed it and delivered it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of it for this is my Blood See all these words are the words of the Evangelist till you come to Take my Body or my Blood Observe every particular he says who the night before he suffered took Bread in his sacred hands c. therefore it is to very great purpose and advantage that thou sayest Amen So S. Ambrose largely and to the parpose XXVIII The Form of administration was the same with ours b Cyrilaibi supra The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life and to this the people said Amen with a loud Voice After the Celebration of the Mysteries c
Ambr. ubi supra lib. 5. cap. 4. p. 380. Hier. lib. 3. adv Pelag. Tom. 2. p. 309. both Priest and People said the Lord's Prayer which was of the entireness of the Mystery and so our Church uses it though in the Eastern Churches it preceeded the Prayer of Consecration for this Prayer was thought so necessary and indispensible a part of the Christian Sacrifice that the d Apost Conslit l. 7. cap. 25 26. Ancients were obliged to use it three times every day but especially in the Eucharist as say all the Liturgick Writers and therefore e Tert. de Orat. cap. 1. praemiss◠legitimâ ordinariâ oratione quasi fundamento accidentium Vide eund de fug in persec init Tertullian rationally calls this the ordinary and lawful Form of Devotion which must be laid as a Foundation on which we may build our Petitions for our particular necessities But I cannot believe Gregory the Great in this particular when he f Lib. 7. indict 2. Epist 63. affirms That the Apostles used no other Form of Devotion but this in the Consecration of the Sacrament for I cannot but suppose that there were some Additional Collects and Hymns subjoined such as what I have already mention'd although in truth that very Prayer contain all things in it g Aug. Ep. 121. c. 12. for whatever else we can say either may raise our Spirits or heighten our Devotion but can never out do the efficacy of this Form To this succeeded a Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 10. c. 6. the Prayer like that in our Liturgy We offer unto thee our selves our Souls and Bodies c. and then the Priest dismist the Communicants with his Benediction XXIX And of this sort also am I apt to think was that custom of saying at the naming of the Gospel Glory be to thee O Lord agreeable to that of Acts 11.18 where the People when they heard of the Conversion of the Gentiles glorifyed God and under this head I suppose I could muster some other Collects of our own and the ancient Church but I forbear I know there are many Objections against the ancient Liturgies by reason of some Additions and the mention of some Ecclesiastick Practices not coaevous with the Apostles but this Argument is not of so great weight for we may as well say that our Common-Prayer-Book is not the same with that of Queen Elizabeth because we have a new Form of Baptism of those of riper years a new Form for the thirtieth of January c. and for Seamen some few Collects added that were not then in use the Doctrine of the Sacraments added to the Catechism and a new Translation of Scripture introduc'd and that we pray for King Charles and Queen Katherine whereas they pray'd for Queen Elizabeth these things being alwayes varied according to the present Exigencies of the Church and yet the Liturgy the same I will close all with that of b DeDogm Eccl. c 30. Gennadius who speaks the sence of the fifth Century observationum Sacerdotalium Sacramenta respiciamus c. Let us pay our Veneration to the Mysteries of the Priestly Prayers which being established and delivered to the Church by the Apostles are with a strict Vniformity celebrated in the whole Catholick Church that an Vniformity of Devotion may go along with the Vniformity of Faith For when the holy Prelates do become Ambassadors in the behalf of the Congregation to the Divine Clemency they undertake the Interests of Mankind and with the assistance of the whole Church that sighs and prayes with them desire that the Infidels may be made Converts the Idolatrous reclaim'd from their Impiety that the veil may be taken from the hearts of the Jews that they may be Partakers of the Light of truth that Hereticks may become penitent and return to thebosome of the Catholick Church that Schismaticks may be endowed with the Spirit of peaceableness and humility that the Lapsi may be restored to the Church-Communion and the Catechumeni admitted to Baptism and that these things are not perfunctorily and in vain desired from God the effects have made manifest for out of every one of these sorts God hath made Proselytes to the Truth whom he hath rescued from the Powers of Darkness and translated into the Kingdom of his Son XXX When the famous Confessor was brought to his journeys end and heard the Lyons roaring with an uncommon joy says S. a Catal. v. Ignat. Hierom he thus exprest himself I am Gods bread c. This Dailleé would use as an argument to invalidate the authority of these Epistles and the so often and justly celebrated Prelate b Part 1. cap. 6. p. 84. cap. 9. p. 130 131. part 2. c 16. p. 217. Bishop Pearson vigorously opposes the entertainment of the Opinion as if the words had never been spoken in the Amphitheatre and the assertion would too much depreciate the Epistles But the authority of S. Hierom inclines me to be of another belief who plainly affirms that Ignatius thus exprest himself when he heard the Lyons roaring and although I am not ignorant that that acute Father through haste hath committed many faults by mistaking Eusebius yet I can hardly believe him deceiv'd in this while c To. 5. p. 504. S. Chrysostom avers the same as I understand him who praising Ignatius for his resolution in dying with the greatest satisfaction and willingness asks this Question And how know you this and answers himself We know it from the words he spake when he was about to dye I wish I could enjoy these beasts For though he were about to dye from the time of his condemnation yet this implies to me that he was nearer his death than when at Antioch And d Act. S. Ignat. apud Surium Febr. 1. Simeon Metaphrastes tells us that he thus bespake the Romans though there be no such thing in the ancient acts of his Martyrdom O you Spectators of this my combate know that these things have befallen me not for any crime of mine but that I might follow my God and enjoy him whom I insatiably long for for I am his Corn and must be ground by the teeth of the Beasts that I may become pure Bread And of this mind is the great e To. 2. an 110 p. 50. Cardinal though no man more vigorous than he to assert the genuineness of these Epistles for to urge f Pears part 1. cap. 6. p. 87. that he might hear the Lyons roar at Smyrna as well as at Rome is to me a far-fetcht conjecture This therefore I suppose was a speech common in his mouth and a testimony that he was not driven but went willingly out of the world and in what that g Ubi supr p. 83. c. great man affirms that Maximus was the first that dreamt of any words used proverbially by our Martyr he seems to me to answer himself by vindicating him against Dailleé
in their Shapes and Colours is troubled about the first that he sees and then about the second every thing that he looks on requiring him to fasten his Eyes there So is it with us that enter into the spiritual Garden of the Archievements of Ignatius where we see not the fading Flowers of the Spring but variety of the Fruits of the holy Spirit in this great mans soul that we are perplext and full of doubtings not being assurâ—d to which we should incline our thoughts every particular thing which we have seen in this excellent person withdrawing us from the consideration of any other of his Vertues and using a pleasant violence to the Eyes of the soul to engage them to look only on its peculiar beauties For behold he govern'd this Church among us generously and with the same exactness that Christ requires for what that great Bishop of souls made the chiefest Maxime and Canon of Episcopal Regiment that did he demonstrate in his actions and hearing Christ say a a Joh. 11.14 that the good Shepherd lays down his life for the Sheep with a great deal of courage he offered his for his Flock he truly converst with the Apostles and by their Ministry was baptized What an excellent man then must we needs think him to be who was brought up with them and lived in their company and was made a partaker both of their b b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common and mystical discourses and was by them thought worthy of this Government Again the time is at hand that requires fortitude and a soul that overlooks all present things burning with the divine love and preferring things that are not seen to those that do appear And with the same ease he divested himself of mortality as a man puts off his Cloaths What therefore shall I first treat of his proficiency in Learning under the Apostles which appeared in all his actions or his scorn of this present life or his exact vertue with which he managed the Government of his Church which shall we first praise the Martyr or the Bishop or the Apostle For the holy Spirit 's liberality having wove it in this manner put on his holy head this triple or rather this manifold Crown for if any one should accurately unfold every one of these Chaplets he shall find new Coronets budding out to us ' But with your favour we will first enter on the praise of his Episcopal Authority nor doth this seem only to be one Crown Let us therefore unfold it in our Discourse and you shall see two three or more arising out of it For I do not only admire this man that he was thought worthy of such a Dignity but that he was ordained to it by those holy persons and that the hands of the blest Apostles were laid on his sacred head this is greatly conducive to his praise not because more Excellencies did accompany this Grace from above nor only because they procured a more abundant efficacy of the Spirit to descend on him but because they bore witness to all those vertues in him which could be in a man And how this comes to pass I will describe S. Paul writing to Titus and when I name Paul I do not only speak of him but of Peter and James and John and the whole College of Apostles for as in a ††〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lute the Strings are diflerent but one harmony so in this Quire of Apostles the persons are divers but the Doctrine the same because they had the same Master the holy Spirit that made the impulse on their souls and this S. Paul means 1 Cor. 15.11 when he says Whether it be they or I so we preach this same Apostle therefore writing to Titus Th. 1.7 c. and shewing what manner of person a Bishop ought to be saith A Bishop must be blameless as the Steward of God not self-willed not apt to be angry not given to Wine no striker not covetous but a lover of hospitality a lover of good things sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful Word which he hath been taught that he may be able to exhort others by sound Doctrine and to reprove Contradictors And writing to Timothy about the same matter he thus speaks 1 Tim. â— He that desires a Bishoprick desires a good work a Bishop therefore must be blameless the Husband of Wife watchful sober modest a lover of Hâ— spitality able to teach Seest thou what eminâ—nt Vertues he requireth in a Bishop For as an excellent Painter tempering divers Colours being ready to draw the exact Form of a King sets about his work with all imaginable accuracy that all persons that would imitate and transcribe it might have an exact Pattern So the blessed Paul as if he were drawing a Prince's Picture and adorning such an Exemplar mixing the several Colours of Vertue hath delineated to us the perfect Characters of Episcopacy that every one that attains to this honour looking on this Image might order all things belonging to himself with the like circumspection I will therefore speak it boldly that the blessed Ignatius had accurately imprinted all this Vertue on his Soul being innocent and blameless neither morose nor angry nor a Drunkard nor a Quarreller but without any love of Contention or love of Money being just holy temperate and holding fast the faithful word of Doctrine being watchful sober and modest and Master of all the other Vertues that S. Paul requires And what proof of this say some the same persons that spoke these things ordained him nor could those that with so much exactness advise others to make tryal of them that should ascend to the Episcopal Throne themselves perfunctorily do this act for unless they had seen all these Vertues planted in the Soul of this Martyr they would never have ordain'd him to the managery of this Dignity for they certainly knew what danger threatned those that made such Ordinations slightly and as it might happen And this also doth the same S. Paul again show writing to the same Timothy bidding him a a 1 Tim. 6.32 Lay hands suddenly on no man nor partake of other mens sins What sayest thou Hath another man sinned and do I partake of his Crime and his Punishments Yes truly he that adds Authority to Wickedness even as when one puts a Sword into the hands of a Mad-man whatsoever Murder the Frantick person shall do he that gave the Sword shall answer the Crime So if any should confer the Power that ariseth from this Dignity on a man that lives wickedly he pulls down all the Fire of his wicked and bold undertakings on his own head for he that gives the root is without doubt the cause of all things that spring from it Dost thou see how this double Crown of his Episcopacy hath hitherto appeared and that the eminency of those that ordain'd him hath added lustre to his dignity while
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. c. 7. The Jews were commanded by Moses says Philo to meet together in some convenient place where they might hear the Law of God read to them and expounded by the Priest or some of the Elders these places were afterwards called Synagogues and Proseuchae and for this end God divided Levi in Jacob and scattered him in Israel turning his Father's Curse into a Blessing that he might be instrumental to the instructing of the people and for this end also the wise-men of the great Consistory divided the Law into 54 Sections or Parascha's of which they ordered the four shortest to be read two at a time that so the whole might be read over once every year To this Custom did our blessed Saviour in his life conform himself for I never find him scrupling any innocent Rituals of the Jews and as it was their usage out of reverence to the Author of those holy Oracles both Priest and People b Nehem. 8.4 5. to stand up at the reading of them so when the sacred Jesus took into his hands the Book of the Prophet Isaiah c Luc. 4.16 20. he stood up read the Paragraph on which he intended to preach and sate not down until he had closed the Book and according to his example did the Apostles regulate themselves in Ecclesiastical Affairs not only introducing that very good Custom of standing up at the New Law the Gospel which was early practised in all Churches and by all men but by the d Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. Patriarch of Alexandria who only of all his Congregation of all his Patriarchate sate at the reciting of the Gospel but in ordering that in all Religious Assemblies there should first be read a e Origen Hom. 15. in Jos Portion out of the Law and with this they contented themselves before the writing of the New Testament their Homilies being only an explanation of Moses and the Prophets and a Confirmation of our Saviour's Divinity and Doctrine from thence f All. 26.28 saying no other thing than Moses and the Prophets foretold should come to pass but when the Gospels and Epistles were writ they then took order that some parts of the New Testament especially the History of our Saviours life should have a place in the Service that the Truth might answer the Types So g Hypotypos lib. 6. apud Euseb lib. 2. c. 14. Clemens Alexandrinus and Papias affirm that S. Peter decreed that the Gospel of S. Mark should be publickly read in the Christian Churches and h 1 Thess 5.27 S. Paul took care that his first Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read to all the Brethren XXI These Books of the holy Canon being collected into one Code during the Apostles residence on Earth the reading thereof continued in the Church after the dissolution of that Family of our Saviours own immediate constitution a Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Corinth p. 54. the employment devolving on the first-fruits of the converted City or Country where the Apostles preach'd whom they left to raise a Superstructure on the Foundation which they had layd and to cultivate what their industry had planted So b Apel. 2. p. 98. viâ—e Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. p. 502. Tert. Apolog c. 39. S. Justin describes the state of their Christian Conventions All the people that dwelt in the City or adjacent Country met together in one Assembly on the Sunday and then the Commentaries of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets are read and when the Reader a Church Officer very early instituted in the Church for this purpose hath done then the Bishop who is the President of the Society makes an Oration to encourage and exhort his Auditory to the Love Imitation and Practice of those blest Precepts And when c De anima cap. 9. Tertullian undertakes to enumerate the Solennia Dominica as he calls them the solemn Offices of that Festival he mentions the reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Sermon and holy discourses and then the offering up their prayers to God Which Expositions on holy Writ as a part of the service of the Lords day grounded on the custom of the Jews and the practice of the Apostles d Act. 20.7 S. Paul inures himself to as a necessary Method of instructing his Neighbours in the Laws of Christian Obedience and a great incentive and preparative to Devotion and the Eucharist in which the Apostles had this advantage of their Successors that they could express themselves both in their Supplications and Sermons without premeditation e 1 Cor. 14.30 being assisted by a peculiar afflatus of the Spirit of God the Spirit of Prayer and Prophecy whereas their Successors wanting those miraculous assistances took on them to inform their Flocks according to the several measures of their Learning and Industry only those who were well furnished with the Arts of demonstration and holy perswasives frequently spake ex tempore to the Congregation as we may see in many of the Homilies of the ancient Fathers S. Chrysostom especially And that we may make a more regular proceeding in this disquisition I shall speak to the time when and how often these Sermons were made the places where the persons who undertook this tremendous employment and the manner how it was performed and by this course we may take a brief view of the ancient practices in this case XXII We take it for granted that thâ— Lords day was not without its share in thiâ— Honour and that it was lookt on as a necessary part of the duty of every Prelate personally then to teach his people the Rules of Peace and Purity It was the practice of the Apostles Act. 20.7 and from them continued in the Church a Chrys To. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. p. 31. Aug. Confess lib. 6. c. 3. as a Law not to be dispens'd with and besides this solemn duty of the Sunday in some Churches they had constant Sermons every Wednesday and Fryday in the Week particularly at b Socrat. Hist lib. 5. c. 21. Alexandria where by an ancient custom all the offices of the Lords day were then performed except the celebration of the Eucharist and that probably was omitted because those were fasting-days stationum semi-jejunia as Tertullian calls them in c Id. Ibid. Cappadocia and Cyprus and probably in all other Countries where the Saturday was not a Fasting-day they had Sermons on the Sabbath-day as well as on the Sunday nay at Alexandria d Hom. 9. in Isai apud Centur. 2. c. 6. Origen seems to imply that they had Sermons every day as the Centurists understand him and this e De bono pudicit vide Holdsworth part 1. Lect. 4. p. 30. St. Cyprian terms the Bishops daily imployment nor was this Custom only used in the Southern Churches but in the Churches of the East too St. f Homil. 3. p.
for any other reason and at last sometimes were allowed to preach in his presence which Custom began to prevail every where till Arius being but a private Presbyter at Alexandria began against the Injunctions of his Ordinary to spread his Doctrine and scatter Heresie in his Sermons whereupon he having so disturbed the Church it past into a Law for the c Socrat lib. 5. cap. 21. Sozom. lib. 7. c. 19. African Churches that none but the Bishop should dare to preach and so it continued for a considerable time inasmuch as when Valerius Bishop d Possidon vit Augustin c. 5. of Hippo being unfit personally to instruct his Flock called S. Austin his Presbyter and Successor to his Assistance and permitted him to preach it made a great deal of noise and created both the good Prelate and his Priest much envy though Valerius pleaded for himself that it was customary in the Oriental Churches but when S. Austin had thus broke the Ice the Southern Churches in a small time did also embrace the usage And there is still somewhat equivalent retain'd among us not only in that our Liturgy calls all the Clergy of the Diocess the Bishop's Curates but that when we are made Priests we have Authority given us to preach the Gospel when we shall be thereunto lawfully called i. e. licensed by our Ordinary XXVI The subject of the Sermon was commonly a Aug. serm 237. de temp the Gospel for the day which being the last of the Portions out of holy Scripture then read might be presumed to have made its strongest Impressions upon the Auditory though I find some very learned men affirming that till the fourth Age the Sermon had no other Text than what the Preacher thought fit and it is most certain that the sacred and wise men did not always tye themselves expresly to a Text of Scripture but took any subject themselves thought fit and enlarged on it and that not only in their Panegyricks but on several other occasions as may be seen in the Homilies of S. Chrysostom S. Austin and Chrysologus and of late days in Dr. Clark's Sermons and some others and very lawfully without doubt though I heartily abhor the Impudence of that b Apud Sixtin Amama orat de barbarie ex Melanch Schoolman who like the rest of that Herd that knew no more Scripture than what they found in S. Hierom or Gratian being to preach at Paris where Melanchthon was his Auditor took his Text out of Aristotle's Ethicks But the Fathers were very chary in suiting their Discourses to the capacities and wants of their Auditory not entertaining them with trifling Notions but with the knowledge of their biggest and most momentous concerns S. c Tom. 1. Apologet 1. p. 15 16. Gregory the Divine describes the duty of a Preacher in this case He is to treat of the World and its formation of the Soul and Angels as well those that kept as those that lost their Integrity of Providence and its wise Laws and Constitutions of the Creation of Man and his restoration of the two Testaments the Types of the Old and the Antitypes of the New of Christ's first and second coming of his Incarnation and Passion of the general Resurrection and end of the World of the day of Judgment of the rewards of the Just and the punishment of the disobedient and above all of the blessed Trinity And S. John d Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 523 524. Chrys bids his people call to remembrance what he discours'd to them of the Nature of the Soul of the Fabrick of the Body and the state of immortality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Torments of Hell of the long-suffering of God and the Methods of pardon of the powers of Repentance of Baptism and the forgiveness of sins of the Creation of the superiour and inferiour World the nature of Men and Angels the subtilty of Satan and his Methods and Policies of the different Opinions in the Christian World of the true Faith and the gangrene of Heresies with many other such Mysteries which it behoves a Christian to be acquainted with and who is sufficient for these things These Notions made men wise and rational devout and obedient while the airy speculations of the School serve only to swell the brains with a Fantastick Tympany And I must profess it seems to me to be one of the best Sentences in a In supputat annor mundi millenar 1. Martin Luther's large Tomes when he says that the ante-diluvian Patriarchs did not entertain themselves and Children with gay discourses of inconsiderable things de lana caprina but that they disputed of the cunning of the Serpent and the sad effects of his Temptation of the nature of sin and death and the miseries of Hell of the promised Seed that should ruine the Devil of the Laws of Justice and Mercifulness of Life and Paradise XXVII Nor were these Sermons always though commonly new and unheard of discourses and the genuine Off-spring of the Preachers brains the products of his study and industry but many times the works of other famous men For thus b Euseb lib. 3. cap. 3. Hermas's Pastor was publickly read in the Church and c Id. lib. 4. cap. 22. Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians together with that of Pope Soter to Dionysius and so was d Hieron Catalog v. Polycarp Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians as likewise the e Id. v. Ephraem works of Ephraem Syrus read in the Churches of Syria and in f Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 19. some of the Orthodox Conventions in Palestine till the time of Sozomen the Church Historian the Revelation of S. Peter was read once every year And I suppose that that which gave occasion to this appointing the Writings of Apostolical men to be read publickly in the Assembly was that order of S. Paul Colos 4.16 That the Epistle from the Church of Laodicea should be read in the Church of Colosse Such also were the Acts of the Martyrs which were always read on the Anniversaries of their Martyrdoms and probably sometimes supplyed the want of a Sermon and at last this gave occasion to the introducing of Homilies into the Church which g Tom. 1. Apologet. 1. p. 21. S. Greg. Naz. intimates were sometimes used in his days but were commanded by the Council h Can. 4. of Vaux an 444. to be read by the Deacon if the Presbyter who was imployed in that duty both in the City and Country were hindred by sickness or any other way that he cannot preach XXVIII And though the name Homily be grown odious to the half-witted Tribe of Zealots who by an unlimited liberty of venting what they pleased in a Pulpit opened a Gap to so many Heresies yet it hath been applauded as a piece of good policy in the Grand h Gaguin rer Muscovit c. 2. Olear Itiâ—er lib. 3. p. 133. Duke
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Lazar Tom. 5. p. 242. did frequently use to give his Auditory an account some days before of the subject which he next intended to treat of that they might in the mean time exercise their Meditations thereupon and bring with them minds prepar'd for the entertainment of the truth and at his next return to preach he gave them encouragement to be more accurate in the performance of their present duty c Id. Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Genes p. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 90. by rendring them his thanks for their sedulous attention to his last Discourses and d Nyss Tom. 2. p. 931. hom in 40 Martyres for their thronging to Church and e Chrys To. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 72⅔ complaining when they saw the house of God thin and empty and in truth so much were the people taken with the Piety and Gravity of the man with the Reason and Eloquence of his Discourses that there needed nothing else to make them serious for they were so transported by his holy Rhetorick that they f Vide Dr. Cave's Primit Christ part 1. c. 9. p. 28 9 1. not only flock'd in infinite quantities to the Church when such accomplish'd men preach'd but put a great estimate on those sacred Embassadors of the glad Tidings of Peace and testified much reverence at the reading of the Scriptures g Chrys To 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Thessal p. 234. for when the Reader stood up and said Thus saith the Lord and the Deacons standing by bid all the people keep silence for he read a Lesson first out of the Prophets then out of the Evangelists and then out of the Epistles they presently obeyed him as men that were sensible that they convers'd with that God who speak by such earthly Instruments and by their Embassy sent his Mysteries and Epistles every day from Heaven to the Sons of men XXXII The Apostles whose strength and abilities were prodigious knew no limits but as the emergent occasion of their own and flocks necessities required so they enlarged or contracted their discourses the Apostle S. Paul lengthen'd one Sermon that it lasted from Morning till Evening Act. 28.23 another till midnight Acts 20.7 but this was miraculous and the Church thought fit to limit the time afterward and to h Cyril Jerus Cateches 13. allow not above an hour for the Sermon and sometimes the Fathers Homilies took up a much less space not for want of matter but because they would not impose on the patience and memories of their Auditories so beside many short Sermons of S. Chrysostom S. Basil St. Austin Fulgentius Maximus Ambrose and others I find Chrysologus especially hath more than one Homily on the whole Creed and other such comprehensive Subjects where he could not possibly want matter and yet the largest of them will hardly find a slow and deliberate man a quarter of an hours talk and for this a Regul c. 9. Isai 10.23 Rom. 9.28 St. Francis thought he had found a Text of cripture that expresly authoriz'd him to command his Fryers to make short Sermons quia verbum abbreviatum fecit Dominus super terram and as acceptable as the most Eloquent Fathers were to their Auditors that admir'd them yet they b Chrys Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Lazar. p. 221. were conscious to themselves that they sometimes trespast on their patience by being too long and tedious in their Sermons and therefore they tyed themselves for the most part to a set time when the extraordinariness of the Subject might have enclined them to continue their holy discourse longer c Id. Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Roman p. 845. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Tom. 1. horn 2. in Ps 14. p. 157. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. hom 23. p. 564. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concionator non ultra horam nè fastidium pariat auditoribus Can. Hungaric and this time was generally an hour as appears not only by what the Fathers themselves mention in the case but particularly by that observation of d Chrys Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 724. Vide Orig. hemil. 2. in Numer St. Chrysostom that the whole service took the space of but two hours and I am sure that their Liturgies in those days were so long and full of variety of Collects Lessons and Responses and such other Offices that that alone could not take up less than one hour of the two XXXIII And I am sorry that I must say that sometimes such was the vanity of those first Ages that they fell into the same error with us of the present time imagining the whole of Religion to consist in preaching What shall I go to Church for says the Objector in the golden mouthed e Id. Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Thess p. 234. Father if I cannot hear a Sermon To which the good Patriarch answers this one excuse hath ruin'd and destroyed all Piety for what need is there of a Preacher unless the Necessity take its Original from our sloth and negligence for what end must we have Homilies All things are clear and open in the holy Scriptures all things necessary are plainly revealed But men are ensnared by their ears and their fancy and therefore seek after Novelties Tell me what pompous Train of words did S. Paul use and yet he converted the World What Eloquent Harangues did the illiterate Peter make But there are many difficult places of Scripture God hath given thee a view of so many plain places that thou mayest take pains to understand the rest Oh but we have the same things read to us every day out of the Scriptures while the Preacher entertains us with novelties and this in truth is the material argument As if the same sights were not your entertainments every day at the Theatre and Horse-races as if we durst not do the business of the day unless every morning a new Sun rise on us nor eat unless we had every day variety of Chear So that admirable man and with his words I close this digression XXXIV The Chiliast Dogma is § 6. reckoned as the first of this Saints erroneous opinions and a Orat. de lect s s Patr. in Justine Chemnitius says it was a fundamental one and an error it is but in the sence of S. Justin so innocent and inoffensive that I think it severe to brand it as b Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. in Nepote some have done with the name of Heresie especially since it seems to have been the general belief of the Fathers of the second Century and not a few of the third the learned c Life of S. Justin sect 22. p. 156. Dr. Cave reckons Papias Irenaeus Apollinaris Tertullian Nepos Victorinus Lactantius and Sulpitius Soverus to whom we may add Melito Bishop of Sardis
converted the Prison into a Tavern where they were only restrain'd in name and show but in truth injoyed there their Feasts and Baths and all the volupruous conveniencies that could be desired These Collections for their suffering Brethren were made every b Just M. apolog 2. p. 97. Cypr. de oper eleemos p. 180. vid. Ep. 26 p. 32. Lords day besides an extraordinary Monthly gathering as I am apt to understand c Apolog. c. 39. Tertullian and deposited in the hand of the Priest who was the common Father of the Orphans and Guardian of the Widows and Almoner of the Poor d Cypr. Ep. 5. p. 12. Const Apost l. 5. c. 1. but above all the Treasurer of those that were in durance And by this means the Candidates of Immortality were plentifully provided for with all sort of necessaries and this found materials for their Agapae which it is more than probable were as at other times and places preceded by the Eucharist which the Christians of those early days often received and was questionless long'd for as a Viaticum for Eternity by those holy Men. * Aug. op brevic collat cum Donatist die 3. c. 5.11 And there also was Baptism frequently Administred VII These compassionate Offices were many times perform'd by the Prelates of the Church who personally discharg'd the duty Vid. Cypr. Ep. 37. p. 43. So Onesimus and other neighbor Bishops waited on St. Ignatius at Smyrna from Ephesus and the adjacent Cities sometimes the Presbyters but f Id. Ep. 11. p. 20. the Deacons of the Church were particularly employed in these Messages to attend the Martyrs to know and relieve their wants that no Specimen of care and compassion might be omitted And when the rage of the persecution made it dangerous for the Church-Officers to appear publickly then the g Liban orat de vinctis p. 56. Deaconesses did those charitable Offices And for those that were hindred from paying them their personal attendances they not only passionately became suiters to the Martyrs for their prayers when they came to Heaven as h Cypr. Ep. 16. p. 25. deLaud Martyr p. 253. believing that God would deny them nothing but gave them the noblest assistances of their prayers for them i Id. Ep. 16. p. 24. Vide Cypr. Epp. ad Confess Mart. Tertull. Exhort ad Martyr Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. both night and day in their publick and private devotion and withal sent them rational and Christian Exhortations to chear their minds and raise their courage in which with the most a Tert. exhort ad Mart. init Cypr. de Laud. Mart. p. 252. c. profound humility they express their sentiments as if they were not worthy to make their Addresses to men so beloved of God VIII And as the Church paid them constant Visits so it allowed them the honour and priviledge of reconciling penitents and admitted the Lapsi to the participation of the holy Ordinances without that solemn and strict penance that else was required on their Testimony and recommendation for there was an honourable estimate set on all their writings in as much as b Catal. v. Pamphil. S. Hierom seems ravish'd with an uncommon joy when he met with the works of the Martyr Pamphilus because one Epistle from so sublime a Saint was preferrable to a Treasure the form of these Libels are to be seen in c Ep. 17. p. 26. S. Cyprian and it is also well known what a dispute arose in this very case between that excellent Prelate and Lucian and some other pragmatical Confessors Nor was the custom begun in the days of that African Father but was as old as d Exhort ad Mart. init de pudicit c. 22. Tertullian and e Epist Eccles Vien Lugd. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 2. Irenaeus the former of which Fathers sarcastically abuses the Church for this Indulgence IX There was also a select order of men deputed to attend and record the acts of their passion their Speeches and demeanor with all exactness and fidelity Notaries who purchas'd from the Secretary of the Proconsul or some other Officer a Copy of what passages commenc'd privately but with an incredible agility and nimbleness writ down the account of the publick Transactions it is probably believed that S. Clemens was the first that begun this custom and for that end divided the City of Rome into seven Regions though in the Civil Notitia it contained twice as many and appointed the seven Deacons of that Church who should either themselves be imployed to be Notaries or oversee those who took care to Copy out the last discourses of the dying Confessors which being reviewed by the Bishop of the See were as he thought fit laid up in the publick Archives of his Church which when so collected and allowed were afterward digested into a Book which f De Coron c. 13. Tertullian calls Census Fasti Ecclesiastici and in process of time the Martyrs of other Churches were admitted to a place in that Martyrology every one recorded on the day of his passion g Greg. M. l. 7. Indict 1. Ep. 29. till at last every day of the year had its peculiar Saint X. They were exactly curious in paying them their last respects and the Ceromony of a solemn Funeral It is true that herein their Heathen Adversaries turn'd every stone to prevent these instances of their Love and for the most part adjudged the reputed Criminals to the Fire not so much because that was the highest degree of punishment a Tert. Exhortat ad Mart. p. 167. L. Id. ad Scapul c. 3. pro Deo vivo cremamur quod nec sacrilegi nec hostes publici nec tot majestatis rei pati solent summa ignium poena nor yet because they look'd on the holy men of that Age to be b Baron Not. ad Martyrolog Febr. 27. p. 156. Magicians and by an Assistant Daemon to perform their Miracles and so punisht them c Paul lib. 5. sentent rit 23. accordingly but as I am inclin'd to believe because the Christians should not collect their Ashes in order to a decent Burial and to prevent what they saw was their constant practice their caressing those remains of their sacred Predecessors with that veneration and respect which they constantly paid their Reliques Thus d Martyr Polycarp p. 27. apud Euseb l. 4. c. 14. they used their utmost endeavours to hinder the interrment of S. Polycarp and what they then only intended they punctually effected in the case of the French Martyrs of Lyons and Vien e Epist Eccles Lugd. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 1. Aug. de cura pro mort cap. 8. vide Lactantii Instit lib. 5. c. 11. Sozom. lib. 5. c. 8. de Martyrio S.S. Eusebii c. Gazae those imbitter'd Adversaries of theirs not being content to have expos'd multitudes of
the disturbances of the Church Tert. adv Valentin c. 4. p. 139. solent amini pro prioratu exciti praesumptione ultionis accendi Id. de baptism p. 273. Ed. Rhen. aemulatio enim schismatum mater est the baffled pretender out of revenge venting his malice against the Church that slighted him So b Hegesip apud Euseb lib. 4. c. 21. when S. Simeon Cleophae was admitted to the Episcopal Chair at Jerusalem in the room of S. James the Just Thebuthis began to corrupt the Church by introducing Heresie because he was not made S. James's Successor So c Tert. adv Valent. c. 4. p. 251. Edit Paris 1664. Valentinus broach'd his new Hypothesis and the d Apollinaris apud Euseb l. 1. c. 15. Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. sect Montanus ambition of Montanus first occasioned his deserting the Church e Cornel. apud Euseb hist lib. 6. c. 35. Novatus turn'd Schismatick being denied the Popedome f Theodoret. ubi supr lib. 4. sect Arius Arius became the Father of that most pernicious Heresie of his because Alexander was preferred to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and himself slighted and g Socrat. Eccles hist lib. 1. cap. 24. Asterius became his follower because on the account of his sacrificing in the days of persecution he was denied a Bishoprick which he greedily gap't after h Theodor. Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 4. Apollinaris also expos'd his Darling Dogma failing of the Bishoprick of Laâ—dicea i August de haeres cap. 69. Donatus his for missing the See of Carthage and k Epiphan haeres 75. Aërius on the same score turn'd Leveller and because being only a Presbyter he could not be a Bishop was resolved if he could have done it that no Bishop should have been greater than a Priest as Marcion forbad honest Marriage when himself had been cast out of the Church for prostituting the Chastity of a Virgin and I have it from a very worthy person that Hugh Broughton the Patriarch of the Puritans his own Brother should aver that he first went over to the discontented party having been denied some valuable preferment which he desired in the Church and l Doctrin fid lib. 2. cap. 6. Waldensis quotes the Bishop of Salisbury affirming in a full Assembly of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury that Wickliff aim'd at the Mitre of Worcester and being deceived of his expectations grew discontent nay even the very Conventicles of the Hereticks were subdivided by this spirit of ambition for m Sâ—crat lib. 7. c. â— Sabbatius made a new Schism among the Schismatical Novatians being strongly possest with this Daemon and the desires of a Crosier VIII But this thought I cannot be perswaded to entertain of Tertullian so great a lover of Mortification and Abstinence and one that so little valued external grandeur and the pompous shadows of honour I am therefore inclin'd to believe that it was a passionate and ungovern'd zeal which sway'd him and that his intentions were very just and honourable but misguided that his aim was though he took a wrong course to keep up the reputation of the Primitive Severities and holy Discipline of which he was an eager Assertor for we cannot find him charg'd with any erroneous sentiments in matters of Faith but a scrupulous studiousness to maintain the antient practices a Rigalt not in Tertull adv Prax. p. 501. quae Tertulliani dicuntur haereses c. his greatest Heresies were no other than a stronger love of Martyrdome than ordinary greater frequency in fastings and stricter holiness an injunction of continuing in the estate of Coelibate or at most a contentedness with one Marriage And if these were his Vices good God what can we call his Virtues for it is probable that he held the Opinions of Montanus as that Impostor first propos'd them to the World in a taking dress and such as was very agreeable to the severer sort of Christians not as they were afterward adulterated by his followers the Phrygians acu Phrygiâ interpolatum as Mons Rigaud elegantly terms it whose additional dotages occasion'd his separation from them and setting up his own Congregation of Tertullianists and yet these Phrygians if we may take b Lib. 4. c. 23. Socrates's testimony were the most regular in their lives of all the Asiaticks men very temperate and chaste never heard to swear or seen to be angry or delighted with the toys and pleasures of the world and this I suppose inclin'd them so easily to become Novatians which Schism renewed the discipline of Montanus but was not so fully agreed among themselves in some particulars for the c Apud eund lib. 5. c. 21. Novatians in Phrygia did condemn second Marriages those at Constantinople did neither allow nor disallow them but the Occidental Disciples of that Sect publickly approv'd them IX Nor did Tertullian in this case want enough to plead in his own behalf he being the Champion of the Apostolical Institution but the Church on the principles of Christian prudence remitting her former strictnesses allowing second Marriages dispensing with extraordinary fastings and receiving Penitents before the times of extremity for it appears to have been the Opinion and Practice of the most Venerable Antiquity that gross sinners as Apostates Murtherers Adulterers and such like should be wholly excluded from Penance And this makes d de pudicit p. 555. Ed. Paris Tertullian object to Pope Zepherinus the corruption of the antient discipline and e Ep. 52. p. 59. S. Cyprian confesses that many of his Predecessors did deny communion to such Offenders and the judicious f Of the right of a Church in a Christ Sâ—ate ch 1. pag. 19 c. Thorndike says That if we compare the writings of the Apostles with the Original practice of the Church it will appear that those rigours were brought in by them and that these were the sins unto death which might not be pray'd for abating by little and little till that Discipline was lost but that the Reformation of the Church consists in the retaining it And this he there proves largely and so saves me the labour X. And for the noted Dogma which Mr. H. p. 118. adventures to say made him a Heretick g De Monogam p. 533 Tertullian's argument to prove the unlawfulness of second Marriages is taken from that of the Apostle that a Bishop must be the Husband of one Wife i. as the Fathers generally understood it only once married not the Husband of two Wives either together or successively but says Tert. all the Lords people are his Priests a Royal Priesthood and therefore must so abstain Nay among all the Fathers Monogamy was lookt on as one of the excellent Counsels of Scripture if not as an obligatory Precept and had Tertullian only recommended but not enjoyn'd it I know no man could have blam'd him and in truth in Tertullian's sense the Opinion was countenanc'd
interests of their souls and lose their wealth to secure their consciences such actions being a publick preferring God to Mammon and his service to worldly concerns and a fulfilling of that piece of Scripture Prov. 13.8 that a man's Estate is the ransom of his life and a complying with our Saviour not to serve God and Mammon Act. 17.9 a course recommended by the example of Jason and Sosthenes and others paying a sum for their release at Thessalonica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our translation reads it giving security And if it be objected that in the days of S. Peter of Alexandria the Church discipline was more relax'd than in S. Cyprians it seems to appear by the usages of the Catholick Church in Tertullian's time that it was recommended as a piece of Christian prudence and policy as well as to fly in time of persecution d De fuga in persecut cap. 12 13. Tertullian for this reason smartly upbraiding the Orthodox with their remisness and cowardise and sarcastically girds them that with Taverns and Bawdy-houses they paid a Tribute for their toleration The different usages being considerable in the same Church in so small a space nor will it be so easie to reconcile the Master and his Scholar unless we shall say that the Catholick custome had its relation only to the purchasing their quiet while those who enjoyed the benefit of such protection still publickly owned themselves Christians but the criminals in S. Cyprian were such who to obtain this security were content to have their names registred among those that did sacrifice though they did not actually sacrifice of which Apostates from their holy Profession it seems by Pliny they kept a Catalogue whereby they could not be altogether guiltless while notwithstanding the retention of their Innocence they were numbred among the Transgressors being guilty of the most notorious Hypocrisie while they were willing that the Judges should make the Emperors believe that they had sacrificed though in truth they did not not carrying it with that clearness and openness that resolution and constancy that became Christians VI. In the account of this Martyrs Virtues p. 262. Pont. Vit. Cypr. circ med Mr. H. hath omitted one of the most signal Testimones of his Humility in declining the Episcopal Honour when offered him as also of his Charity and Compassion when the cruel Plague raged at Carthage incouraging the Christians both by his Example and Discourses to be assistant to the needs of their Brethren and of their Heathen Fellow-Citizens too preparing them by his excellent Tractate concerning Mortality to reflect on and make provision for another life But this and several other remarkable passages omitted by Mr. H. are accurately recorded by the so often and so justly praised Dr. Cave in his life of this Father although the Martyr's own Epistles give us a full account of his Excellencies and Traverses but above all of the ancient Church-Discipline wherein a Is Casaub â—p ad Card. Perron p. 41. we find a more full account of the Ecclesiastical Polity than in many Authors of the Fourth Saeculum VII The foul usage which this Father hath met with at the hands of Pamelius will find in me an easie assent on the account of so many Manuscript Copies that want the Interpolations yet I cannot but remarque that the most acute and judicious Primate of Armagh b Answ to Baxt. Gret relig ch 6. p. 96 c. Bramhall does give his Opinion differently from others in these words Every one is free for me to make what Exceptions he pleases to the various Lections of any of these places which are the same that Mr. H. p. 277. quotes but there seems to me to be enough in S. Cyprian to declare his own mind without taking any advantages from any supposititious practises meaning that it was correspondent to his c P. 92 93. former Corollaries 1. That S. Peter had a fixt Chair at Rome which S. Cyprian Epist 52. and Ep. 55. calls The Seat and Chair of S. Peter 2. That S. Peter had a Primacy of Order among the Apostles this being the unanimous vote of the Primitive Church and our own the prime Romanists themselves granting that he had no Supremacy or Jurisdiction over any other Apostle he not having that Commission as an Ordinary Pastor the rest as Delegates for term of life 3. Some Fathers and School-men no sworn Vassals to the Pope affirm That this Primacy of Order is fixt to S. Peter's Chair and his Successors for ever i. not to the person of any particular Pope but to the Office and that this is S. Cyprian's meaning but this Primacy not due by Christ's Institution nor the Chair fixt at Rome by Divine Right as d De Pont. Rom. lib. 4. cap. 4. Bellarmine confesses and for any other Title whatsoever is constituted by Humane Right may be repealed by Humane Right So that excellent Primate and I leave the Reader to judge of his reasonings Nor will this Concession any thing advance the Interest and Grandeur of the present Roman Court the difference being so vast between Primacy and Supremacy which Usurpations none of the Ancients with so much vehemence oppugn as S. Cyprian which might be proved by many hundred Arguments out of his Writings VIII A great part of this Fathers works owe not only their Ornament and Beauty but their very Substance and Being to Tertullian which is so palpable that it needs no proof as his Book de Idolorum vanitate is an Epitome of Octavius his reasonings in Minutius Foelix and this also is another Argument to perswade me that the Caecilius there mention'd was the Converter of S. Cyprian his Tractates De exhortatione Martyrii ad Fortunatum Testimoniorum adversus Judaeos c. are undoubtedly his whatever Erasmus Scultetus or our Country-man Cook say to the contrary a different style not being a sufficient Argument to mis-father any writing for then S. Cyprian's second Epistle should not be his being penn'd in a more florid and sublime style than any other of his Epistles or Tractates the Greek Forms of Speech in his third Book of Testimonies ad Quirinum are allowable in a discourse which wholly consists of Quotations out of Scripture most out of the old Testament which this Father as all the Ancients usually quote according to the Translation of the Septuagint and the constant use of such passages might easily have some influence and leave a tincture on his other Language in the same Book IX His style shows him to be Tertullian in a more pleasing and gentile dress in more familiar and elegant Expressions retaining the Majesty of his Speech and abating the haughtiness of it making it smooth and palatable The Christian Caesar Alsted calls him others the Christian Cicero and Dr. Holdsworth Demosthenes among the sacred Orators all men acknowledging him a neat and admirable Writer His vein of writing is very fluent and his notions
taking but the piety of his discourses is transcendent not a page in him but what is full of peculiar recommendations of Holiness and Obedience many of which Mr. H. hath collected very judiciously and I should say so of all had not the love of a Party the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betray'd him and the Dream of a Congregational form of Church-Discipline in these early days imposed on his Intellect Hence p. 302. he tells us That the People had their voice in the Election of their Bishop even in Rome it self And p. 303. That such was their Interest in the managery of the Affairs of the Church that the Bishop did nothing without their Counsel and Consent which last passage p. 270. he reckons among those Sentences which are remarkable and of use in these Epistles X. And happy had it been for Mr. H.'s Reader if the Father had appear'd in his own dress while the Garb he is now put in makes him look very strangely and of this I make all learned men Judges whether the words of the a Cypr. Ep. 68. p. 96. 68th Epistle and Mr. H.'s Translation do so exactly agree It was the Custom at Carthage and in most other Provinces says this learned Prelate according to Divine Tradition and Apostolical Observation that in a regular Ordination of a Bishop ad eam plebem cui praepositus ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus delegatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissimè novit This Mr. H. thus Translates The Bishops of the same Province next unto the People over whom the Chief Officer is ordained do convene or meet together and then the Bishop be chosen in the presence of the people who mosh fully know the Life and Conversation of every one Which how distant it is from the genuine Construction let the Grammarians determine the words being thus to be English'd That in Canonical Ordinations every one of the Neighbour-Bishops of that Province meet ad eam plebem among that people or at that City over which a new Prelate is to be ordain'd who is chosen in the presence of all the people c. and so convenire ad aliquem in Cicero signifies to meet at such a place ad signa conveniunt milites in Caesar the Souldiers are gather'd to their Standard or are drawn up about their Ensigns And as we have here a wrong Translation wilfully I fear falleninto so p. 303. the Father is as much abused by an imperfect account of his Judgment For when he says That the People have in an especial manner a power of chusing worthy Priests or refusing the unworthy and that this Custom descended from the Divine Authority he there puts a period omitting the subsequent words that fully explain his meaning Vt sacerdos plebe praesente c. That the Bishop should be publickly chosen in the presence of the people that the worthy and fit Person might be approved by universal Testimony as God commanded Moses to take Aaron and Eleazar his Son into the Mount Hor in the sight of all the Congregation Num. 20.27 28. and strip Aaron of his Garments and put them on Eleazar God commanded it to be done before all the Congregation to instruct us that the Ordinations of Bishops ought not to be made but with the knowledge and assent of the People present that before the multitude the Evil actions of wicked men who aspire to that dignity might be detected and the Vertues of the deserving duly praised and so the ordination might be just and lawful which was examined and confirm'd by the Suffrage and Judgment of all persons By which we see that the Power of Elections was still in the Bishops of the province but of making just exceptions to the Conversation of the Candidate in the people XI It is true Vide Spalatens lib. 3. cap. 3. per totum that the People were always present at such Solemnities that a Bishop or Priest might not be imposed on them against their consents The consent of the People says a Homil. 6. sup Levit. Origen is required in the ordination of a Priest that all men may be ascertained that he is chosen to that sacred Office who excels the people in learning in holiness and all manner of Virtue And this is done in the presence of the People to prevent all future scruples and that this is what the Apostle enjoyns that a Bishop must have a good Testimony of them that are without The Custom being when the name of the Bishop Elect was proposed by the Deacon b Id. lib. 8. contr Cels ad fin whose Office it was that the People should cry out such a Person is worthy such unworthy So the Politiae Patrum informs us that when Alexander was chosen to the see of Constantinople the multitude for many hours together cryed out ΑΞΙΟΣ he is worthy and when d Philostorg lib. 9. tm 10. p. 127. Demophilus was to be Elected to the same Patriarchate the people instead of crying out ΑΞΙΟΣ cryed out ἈÎΑΞΙΟΣ he is unworthy of so sublime a Throne XII This was the common practice but in some places and on some peculiar Emergencies the people did also give their suffrages as in the case of e Aug. Ep. 120. Eradius who succeeded S. Austin it being the Custom in Africk in Spain and other places and continued till the days of the Emperour Lewis in the West and in those days it was very reasonable f Cod. lib. 1. tit 3. de Episc Clero l. 31. the law requiring that he who should be intrusted with the Episcopal Charge quaeratur cogendus c. should be a man of unparalled modesty one that fled from the dignity and was forc'd to assume the honour But that the people should impose on their superiors to consecrate whomsoever they should nominate or that their suffrages in the Election was a Catholick Custom cannot be true For this is the difference between the Church of England and Mr. H. Blondel Owen and others not that the Bishops out of condescension when they wanted a fit person to be made a Priest or Deacon advised the people to choose one whom they might lay hands on as the Apostles did Act. 6.1 nor that they proposed the name of that person to the People whom themselves elected that they might either applaud or object against his manners but that the Peoples acceptation was a necessary condition and that no Rulers of the Church were duly ordered but whom the people elected For this was expresly forbidden in the Council of a Can. 12 13. Laodicea which allows the peoples testimony of the laudable life of the person to be consecrated but directly requires that he be elected and constituted by the Metropolitan and Bishops of the Province but by no means to be chosen by the people And b Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Tim. p. 371.
S. Chrysostome decrys it from that of the Apostle they heap to themselves teachers than which there can be nothing more emphatical says he the Apostle blaming the evil custome that their teachers were ordained by their disciples And Pope c Cit. à Pamel in not ad Cypr. p. 97. Leo particularly allots all persons concerned their stations in this employ the Citizens were allowed to desire a Bishop the people to give their testimony of his life the Nobless to be Arbiters but the Clergy alone to elect and d Theodoret. hist l. 4. c. 20. Vide Liberati breviar c. 14. de Proterio Alexandr Flor. fragm apud Baron tom 12. in Append. an 813. Peter the Patriarch of Alexandria Athanasius's Successor complains of Lucius the Arian usurper of his See that he had neither the confirmation of his neighbour Bishops nor the suffrages of the Clergy nor the desires of the People as the Canons did require but that he purchas'd that honour by unjust and simoniacal means And if there did arise any quarrel the Arch-bishop of the Province was to decide the controversie or the Metropolitan or a Provincial Synod and sometimes a general Council as in the case of Meletius and Paulinus Patriarchs of Antioch and of Ignatius and Photius Archbishops of Constantinople XIII For all the publick Acts of the Church in the Apostles times and some while after were done at the publick assemblies of the same so were Ordinations Excommunications and other Ecclesiastical proceedings and so is it now used in our Church where in Ordinations the by-standers are called to testifie what they have to object against the person who is a candidate for the imposition of hands and the bannes of Matrimony are publish'd in the face of the congregation to give satisfaction to the people of their Superiors integrity and to prevent their jealousies by this Act of condescension and to oblige their superiors to that integrity by making their proceedings publick and by these means to preserve the unity of the Church but as such acts were past at the Assemblies of the whole Church so were they advised and resolved on at the Consistories of the Clergy the People having no power but a right to be satisfied of the right use of that power by them that had it e Vide Thorndyke of the right of a Ch. in a Christ State ch 3. p. 159 c. for as to Ordinations they were regularly to be made at a Synod of Bishops Hence f Ad Corinth p. 57. S. Clemens Romanus that those who were constituted by the Apostles or Apostolical men were admitted to this Office with the good liking of the whole Church which I suppose he interprets afterwards saying That they were men well spoken of by all persons For that those words cannot mean their Election by the People is plain from what immediately precedes That the Apostles in what places soever they preached made their first converts Bishops of those places not of the people already converted but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such as should for the future believe and this they did by a peculiar afflatus and guidance of the holy spirit and by the same supernatural revelation they left a Catalogue of what persons should succeed in those Sees to prevent the quarrels that should arise about this authority XIV So Timothy was ordained by Prophecy 1 Tim. 4.14 i. not by any humane constitution but by the holy Ghost as Chrysostom and Oecumenius understand the place And so in after ages was a Nyss tom 2. p. 976. Gregory Thaumaturgus elected when he was in the Wilderness not by the People for then there were only 17 Christians in the City of Neo-Caesarea but by Phoedimus a Bishop of Amasea a neighbor City acted as I conjecture by some Prophetick and Divine impulse as b Euseb hist l. 6. c. 9. Alexander the Bishop of Jerusalem was chosen to that Patriarchate by Revelation And at other times the Emperors took on them the nomination for c Sozom. l. 7. c. 8. Theodosius the Great chose Nectarius Patriarch of Constantinople and d Id. lib. 8. cap 12. Arcadius nominated Chrysostome his Successor and Nestorius was deputed to the same honour by e Socrat. l. 7. c. 29. the Junior Theodosius when there were great disputes between Philip and Proclus for that Patriarchate And at f Hieron Ep. 85. Alexandria it was the custome from S. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius for the Presbyters to chuse a new Patriarch out of their own College and this presently on the death of their former Bishop g Epiphan haeres 69. for peace sake that there might be no contentions among the people which custome was after ward altered to gratifie the vulgus in as much as the want of these Popular suffrages was objected against Athanasius by the Arrians from which he is cleared not only by the Prelates of his own Province in their Synodical Epistle but by h Orat. 31. p. 377. vide eund Orat. 19. p. 310. S. Chrysost de Sacerdot Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 23. who expresly and with vehemence decry such popular Elections S. Gregory Nazianzen affirming that he was advanced to the throne of S. Mark by the votes of all the People after the Apostolical and Spiritual manner but not after that ill custom which afterward crept in by blood and tyranny XV. Which mischiefs that attended these popular proceedings were enough if there were no other reason to discountenance their continuance when we remember what seditions were made at i Naz. Orat 19. p. 308. Caesarea in the choice of their Arch-bishop and at k Ruffin hist lib. 2. c. 11. Millain on the death of Auxentius but especially what scandal was given to the Heathen World in the quarrel between Damasus and Vrsicinus for the Popedome there being in this feud a Amian Marcel lib. 27. found the bodies of no less than 137 persons slain and that in the Church of Sicininus in one day and between b Symmach Epp. lib. 10. Ep. 71 72 c. Boniface and Eulatius for the same title both recorded by the Enemies of our Holy Faith In which last story among the Epistles of Symmachus who was concerned in the affair and gave the Emperor an account of it we have one writ by the Roman Clergy to Honorius and Theodosius wherein we may see the peoples interest in this affair more than what they tumultuously usurp'd while they assure those Princes c Ep. 74 p. 340. Edit Schiop that at the election of Boniface were present 9 Bishops of the Province and 70 Presbyters which subscribed and that he was chosen by the consent of the better sort of Citizens and acclamations of the common people the election which was by subscription being the act of the Priests and Bishops only XVI So much in the general and for S. Cyprian's own case that he would do nothing without
was to testify the union of the Divine and humane Nature in the Person of the Mediator of mankind In missa Lat. Edit Argent 1557. operd Illyrici Deinde Diaconus accipiat à subdiacono vinum miscent cum aqu◠in calice dicens Deus qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti mirabilius reformâsti da nobis quaesumus per hujus aquae vini mysteria ejus divinitatis esse consortes qui humanitatis nostrae dignatus est fieri particeps Jesus Christus For it is not a little observable that besides what the antient Liturgies mention of this nature as soon as the Armenians by the perswasion of Jacobus Syrus imbrac'd the errors of Eutyches condemn'd the Council of Chalcedon and would acknowledge only one Nature in the second Person of the Trinity they left off the use of intermixing Water with the Wine in the Sacrament and under Johannes Ozniensis their Patriarch with leave from the Caliph of Babylon and Omir the General of the Saracens who had overrun Armenia by the consent of his own Suffragans and six Bishops of Assyria it was past into a Synodical decree that no longer Water should be mixt with Wine in the Eucharist they pretending the Authority of S. Chrysostom for their so doing Which determination of that Church was presently after condemn'd by the Fathers of the sixth general Council at Constantinople f Can. 32. and every Prelate or Presbyter transgressing the Apostolical practice was to be depos'd for his pride and contumacy Notwithstanding which they still continue the usage and so do g Abuda Hist Jacobit c. 13. p. 18. the Jacobites in Egypt and elsewhere to this day But the Greeks are so far from countenancing the practice of such Schismaticks as they stile them that they make this mixture twice in the Sacrament For while the sacred Elements are preparing the h Goar Not in Liturg Chrysost n. 167. Smyth de hod Gr. Eccl. statu p. 90. Priest with the Knife they call it the holy lance is to prick the bread and to say these words One of the Soldiers thrust a Lance into his side and presently there flowed out Water and Blood And at the same time the Deacon is to pour out the Wine and put to it some cold Water and again after the consecration of the Elements just as they are to be given to the Communicants the Deacon after the Priest hath blessed it poureth warm water into the chalice and so delivers it to the Communicants and this to testify that that water which issued from the side of Christ came out miraculously warm as if he had been alive exhibiting to us a Type of our union to that Saviour thereby and withal to exemplify the fervour of Faith and the holy Spirit which should accompany all those that approach the holy table and I find in the order for the Communion under K. Edward the sixth That the Priest is required to bless and consecrate the biggest Chalice or some fair and convenient Cup or Cups full of Wine with some Water put to it Which Custom was afterward I know not for what reason altered And this was thought so necessary that many were apt to run into the other extream and to think that the mixture was not duly made till there were as much or more Water than Wine in the Chalice bordering on the Heresie of the Aquarii who adminstred this mystery only in Water or rather on that sort of them i Ubi supr which Cyprian treats of who in the Evening celebrated the Sacrament as Christ instituted it mixing Water with Wine in the Chalice but in the morning used only Water out of caution lest the smell of the Wine might betray them to be Christians to their Gentile Adversaries k Bernard Epist 69. Others thought Water indispensably necessary to the integrity of the Sacrament and for that reason perhaps the Church of England hath omitted the usage but even the Church of Rome it self is not so rigid allowing the consecration to be valid without it XXII Hitherto lasted the Age of Miracles the Divine Goodness and Omnipotence using extraordinary Methods to countenance and propagate its supernatural truths that the Infancy of the Church might be assisted with as strong and convictive encouragements to believe the Doctrine of Jesus as rational and perswasible persons could desire But the several sorts of these stupendous Charismata were not equally long liv'd but according to the divers necessities of the Proselytes to Religion some expired sooner and some later took their leave of the Christian World The gifts of speaking with and interpretation of divers Tongues suddenly ceast on the Conversion of the greatest part of the then known world and the modelling of Churches in every Nation because before their Christian assemblies were made up of men of diverse Nations and Languages though e Lib. 2. c. 57. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 7. Irenaeus affirms that these miraculous gifts were extant in his time the spirit of Prayer ceas'd on the forming and establishing set Liturgies for the use of the Church which we have already probably evinc'd were of Apostolical appointment The power of discerning spirits whether men were sincere and orthodox in their profession or the Pretenders to Miracles were truly endowed with that supernatural faculty was left to the Governours of the Church for a while till the sacred Canon of the Scripture was collected by which after-Ages were to be guided though a De cura pro mort c. 16. ad fin cap. S. Austin seems to imply That that power was not wholly lost in his time The infliction of temporal punishments on Offenders lying under the Churches curse which sometimes extended to the loss of life or health or the like sufferings and other times to an actual delivery into the hands of Satan if we may believe the Tradition of the whole Greek Church is yet communicated to the Servants of God b Vid. Crusii Turco-Graec apud Dr. Ham. Power of the Keys ch 6. sect 5. p. 147 148. who tell us that no man among them dyes excommunicate but he swells like a Drum looks black and cannot return to his primitive Dust till he receive his absolution But whether this be so or no we will not at present discuss while we positively assert that Prophecie casting out of Daemons and prodigious cures even to the raising the dead lasted till this age of S. Cyprian and after XXIII The prophetick Sun after a long Eclipse that vail'd its face and beauties from the time of the Captivity till the coming of the Messias broke forth with a greater lustre under the Evangelical Oeconomy That the immediate Family of Jesus were so endowed no man doubts since by that afflatus they were assisted in conferring Orders and leaving a List of their Successors in fore-telling the times of Antichrist and the revolutions of the Church till Peace should mantle
was so necessary to the Apostle nor would he have advised Timothy to drink wine for his stomachs sake had he always been indowed with this speedier way of baffling a disease XXXII 3. That Miracles are not a sign of the true Church as the Romanists boast Athenagoras grants that the Magicians of his time by virtue of their idols produc'd such strange effects and S. Chrysostome says that the Hereticks of his time frequently did the like how consident soever therefore the brags of the Romanists may be that their ridiculous and impossible Miracles are a mark of their Orthodoxy it makes no impression on me though were it so the cure of the King's-Evil by our Prince is a more authentick and truer Miracle to vindicate the Protestant Doctrine than all that they can produce in confirmation of their novelties Nor is there need of such sort of proof now a Chrys to 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 605. the holy spirit in these days manifesting it self in an ordinary way not as formerly by raising the dead and cleansing the lepers but by conferring Grace in the Sacraments XXXIII 4. That a holy life is a more becoming accomplishment than ability to work Miracles Mat. 7.22 23. To prophesie to cast out Devils and do wonders is an admirable and sublime ornament says b Dâ—unita 〈◊〉 Eccles p. 152. S. Cyprian but he that possesses all these excellencres if his life â—o not holy and just must notwithstanding fail into Hell When therefore men are bid says c Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 278. vid. p. 277. S. Chrysostome to imitate S. Peter or S. Paul to be followers of S. James or S. John let them not retort We cannot it is beyond our sphere to raise the dead to cleanse the lepers sâ—ifle that shameless Apology Miracles give not a title to Heaven but a holy life imitate therefore their pious conversation and thou art not beneath the Apostles For Miracles make not an Apostle but Sanctity doth And this is demonstrated by that of our Saviour John 13.35 who characterizing the virtue of a Desciple says In this shall men know that you are my disciples in this in what that ye can work Miracles that ye can raise the dead No. But in this that ye love one another Now love is not reducible to Miracles but to holy conversation for love is the fulfilling of the law And thus you see the picture of a Disciple and an Apostle And with this Remarque we end this digression XXXIV I have no more in the life of this Father to animadvert but 〈…〉 whereas Mr. H. p. 313. out of Nice 〈◊〉 as he out of Procopius mentions 〈…〉 Church erected to his memory d 〈…〉 Victor the Bishop of Vtica who lived near the place tells us of two very splendid and 〈◊〉 Temples erected to his name one at the place called Sexti where he was beheaded which whether it were so called because Sextus his field or 6 miles from Carthage I dispute not the other in the Mappalian way where he was buried the first being intitled e Serm. 113. de divers Mensa Cypriani says S. Austin not because he did eat there as that Father judges but because there he was Martyred the last called Sepulchrum Cypriani used by the Vandals as a place of meeting for the Arians when they had razed the other Church till under Justinian it was restored to the Catholicks XXXV a Homil. 72. 73. inter Ambros p. 235. Ed. Raynaud His Martyrdome happened about the time of Vintage says S. Maximus of Turin more than once the Festival dedicated to his memory which b Ep. 120. cap. 5. S. Austin calls the Solemnity of the most blessed Cyprian was stiled Cyprianaea The Heathens despitefully term'd him c Lactant. lib. 5. c. 1. Copreanus and Capreanus as the Arians nick-nam'd the great Patriarch of Alexandria Sathanasius but the Christians thought so well of him as to give his name to their children of which name we find one a Martyr at Nicomedia under Dioclesian whom Nazianz. c. confound with this Bishop of Carthage another a Bishop in Africa martyred in the Vandalick persecution under Hunnerick to omit many more XXXVI The Fathers also give him a most honorable character he is d Tom. 3. p. 822. a holy man in S. Chrysostome a most pious and eloquent martyr in e In Isai 60. S. Hierome an incomparable man and of most excellent and transcendent accomplishments in f De bapt cont Donat l. 6. c. 2. S. Austin the name of Cyprian is venerable among all persons and that not only among the lovers of Jesus but his enemies too says g Tom. 1. orat 18. p. 84. S. Gregory Nazianzen h Apud eund p. 276. admirable was his humility and his elo quence prodigious in which he exceeded other men as much as men do beasts for he presided not only over the Churches of Carthage and Africk but his Bishoprick extended over the Western part of the World and the Oriental Churches were a part of his Diocess the North and South and where-ever his wonders had been heard of and his name spread were under his inspection i Pont. Diac in fin pass Cypr. For he was the man whom the Christians by way of eminency called their Bishop or Pope Quem Christiani suum Papam vocant To his Memory we have an Hymn in Prudentius an Oration in Nazianzen one Homily in Chrysologus four in Austin one in Fulgentius and two in S. Maximus Among all which having once thoughts to insert that excellent Panegyrick of S. Gregory the Divine I have omitted those resolutions because his Discourse is so perplext and in a great part applyed to a wrong person and have annext that of his great admirer S. Austin S. Austin's Homily on the Holy Martyr Cyprian ' SO acceptable and religious a Solemnity in which we celebrate the passion of a blest Martyr commands this discourse from us as a Tribute due to your ears and hearts Without question the Church was at that time melancholy and clad in sables not so much for his loss that was dying as out of a desire that they might not be robb'd of him being always willing to enjoy the society and presence of so pious an Instructer so good a Prelate But those whom the sollicitude of his Encounter afflicted were re-inspirited with comfort by the Crowns and Triumphs of his Victory and now not only without any sorrow but with the most profuse joy do we read and reflect on those Transactions and it is conceded to us to exult not to fear in that day For we do not fear that day that came with terrour but expect the return of it with a serene chearfulness It is pleasing therefore with gladness to remember the Sufferings of that most faithful couragious and glorious Martyr now the passion is past for which then the Brethren were so concern'd
and prayed for many nights together omitting no form of Devotion that might be suitable to that occasion but that the most pertinent Collect was this Grant O my God that if the Opinion of Arius must be accounted Orthodox my Soul may be taken out of the World before the day of disputation but if what I believe be the true Faith let him suffer the punishments which his Impiety merits Which acts of Mortification and Devotion were no question doubled the Eve before that fatal day when God appeared to the vindication of the eternal verity and that great disturber of Christendom by an exemplary stroak of the divine Vengeance near the publick Market which was call'd by the name of the August Emperour Constantine yielded up the Ghost the very place becoming infamous on his death no man approaching it for the ease of nature but all that past by pointed at it as the Stage whereon that Villain acted his last till a long time after a wealthy and potent Disciple of that Sect bought the place of the Republick and built a house there that the memorable accident might be buryed in the ruines of the Stage whereon it was acted but Blasphemy and an ungodly life give the Wretch a miserable immortality VI. On the introducing of a Epiph. haer 69. Socrat. l. 2. c. 6.7.8 Sozom. l. 3. c. 5 6. Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 773. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 784. Gregory into the Throne of S. Athanasius when Eusebius Emesenus had refused the honour being offered him by the Synod of Antioch the people of Alexandria were so incens'd that they burnt the Temple of Dionysius down to the ground him his Patrons the Arians finding slow and negligent in propagating their Heresie and hated by the people six years after his instalment deposed in the Synod of Sardica and ordain'd George the Cappadocian in his room who and not the first Gregory as Theodoret asserts was afterwards cruelly slain at Alexandria Naz. crat 21. p. 389. Epipâ— haer 76. Socr. l. 3. c. 2. â—â—â—om l. 5. c. 7. script vit Athanas apud Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 788. Philostorg l. 7. tom 2. p. 86. Julian Imp. Ep. 10. Am. Marcellind 22. Baron Tom. 4. an 362. p. 70 71. the particulars of which famous Attempt besides the account which we have from the Ancients may be read at large in Baronius and briefly in Billius his notes on the 21st Oration of S. Greg. Naz. VII The Argument of Scultetus mustered p. 361. to the discarding that Tract of Athanasius which contains Testimonies out of the sacred Scriptures of the Communion of the Divine Essence between the three persons in the Trinity because many passages here and in the Questions ad Antiochum are the same and therefore these stoln thence seems to me to evince the contrary that that counterfeit Author took those passages out of this genuine Treatise of Athanasius that so he might be the more readily entertain'd as the true Patriarch and though Mr. Perkins denys that the Epistle to Marcellinus concerning the Interpretation of the Psalms and the Sermon of Virginity be his yet S. Hierom's Authority weighs more with me who entitles Athanasius to two Books one de Psalmorum titulis another de Virginitate Nor is it but the most unconcluding of Arguments that the Homily de semente must be spurious because found only in an English Book Manuscripts are common enough now in this Kingdom and one Copy makes not a Book spurious for then the Oration of Athenagoras de resurrectione must not be his because a Ep. ante Athen. Nannius tells us that his Copy was the only one in Europe and the Lexicon of Hesychius must be rejected because there was never another Copy of it found but what b Manut. Epist ante Lex Hesych Bardellonus sent to Aldus Manutius but there lyes a more material and weighty Argument against the Homily de semente than what Mr. Perkins uses and that is because the Author of it whom I suppose some Eastern Prelate of the same Age mentions the Celebration of the holy duties on Saturday as well as on the Sunday Now the c Socrat. l. 5. c. 21. Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. Church-Historians inform us that Saturday was anciently a Fasting-day at Alexandria as well as at Rome this practice therefore does not suit with the usages of that Church where Athanasius was Patriarch VIII Nor is it any wonder that two so distant Churches as Rome and Alexandria should agree in those Rituals wherein they differ'd from almost all other Churches when we consider that the first planter of holy Religion in Aegypt S. Mark was S. Peter's Disciple and Amanuensis and so would be easily inclined to write after his Masters Copy The success of the Fast which was observ'd at Rome before S. Peter's Encounter with Simon Magus so fully answering expectation in the ruine of that Impostor gave an occasion to that Church to make it a perpetual sanction and of constant use which at first look'd no farther than the present exigence of the Servants of God or rather it had its Original from a cause of more general consideration that whereas the holy Jesus was crucified on Fryday and the next day the Apostles were overwhelm'd with grief for their Masters loss and fear of the Jews therefore out of a becoming sympathy and to keep the transactions of those gloomy days fresh in memory was this Fast appointed IX But the observance prevailed but in a few Churches for even in Italy it self S. Ambrose conform'd to the Oriental usages and he that fasted every day else d Paulin. in vit S. Ambr. dined constantly on the Sabbath and Lords-day and the Festivals e Illiberit Conc. can 26. nor would the old Custom be superseded in Spain by a less Authority than that of a Council And though at Alexandria they followed S. Mark 's steps yet in all f Socrat. Eccles hist l. 5. c. 21. other parts of Aegypt in the Country near that Metropolis and through all Thebais they made the Saturday a Festival and on it had their Sermons and celebrated the Eucharist And whereas in the days of a Ep. 86. ad Casul S. Austin there was no steady Rule by which those Churches acted for in one and the same Church says that Father some fasted and others dined on the last day of the Week yet it was otherwise there anciently for b Adv. Psychic c. 15. Tertullian avers that herein the Montanists those great admirers and practisers of abstinence conform'd to the Catholick Rites not to fast on any Saturday in the year but on Easter-Eve the great Sabbath day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna more than once calls it and the Custom so prevailed over all the East c Tom. 2. p. 744. that S. Gregory Nyssen calls the two days Twin-Sisters nor can any man
says he honour the Lords day who despiseth the Saturday And d Homil. an liceat dimittere ux p. 56 57 Edit Raynandi Asterius Amisenus styles them the Nurses of devotion and the Parents of Church assemblies which summon the holy Priest to instruct his Congregation and command his Congregation to frequent the house of God and both to have a due care of their Souls Which observances had their confirmation not only in the Canons father'd on the e Can. 66. Can. 16 49 51. Apostles and the Provincial Council of f Laodicea but in the g Can. 55. sixth general Council at Constantinople which from all the parts of the Catholick Church commands an uniform submission to the Sanction which the Latines refusing this among other things help'd to widen the breach between them X. And to this day the h Smyth p. 29. Greek Church i Gaguin dereb Muscovit the Muscovites the k Abudac hist Jacebit c. 7. p. 10. Jacobites in Aegypt the Melchites in Syria and the l Breerwood's Enquir c. 16. c. 23. Abassynes keep this Festival not in conformity to the Jews which they expresly deny and which the same m Lacdic c. 29. Council that commands its Christian observation does expresly condemn as S. Basil does censure Apollinaris for the same Crime in his seventy sourth Epistle but in honour of the blest Jesus who is the Lord of the Sabbath And the Aethiopian Christians plead for it the Authority of the Apostles in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Claudius the King of that Country expresly declares in his n Apud Hottinger topogr Eccles orient c. 3. p. 47. vid. ejusd primit Heidelb p. 306. Confession by which he questionless means the Apostles Constitutions which in more than one place injoyn it as a preparation to the great day of the remembrance of our Saviours Resurrection the Christian Sabbath the Abassynes call it as they do call the other the Jewish Now the Apostles successors forbad fasting on this day say some because the primitive Hereticks Menander Saturnitus Cerinthus Basilides and others believing that the world because corruptible was not made by God but by the Devil fasted on that day when the Creation was consummated Others that it was done out of complyance with the Jews who were very numerous in the Eastern part of the World and very tenacious of the Mosaical Ceremonies so Circumcision was for a while retained to bury the Synagogue with honor others to testifie Christs resting in the grave that day and perhaps it proceeded from an unwillingness suddenly to cancel and abrogate that Festival which had by God himself been set apart for religious Exercises and which not only the bless'd Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath kept while here on earth but his Apostles for a very considerable time after his ascension and so much for that usage XI The Questions ad Antiochum are undoubtedly the off-spring of some other father and in this I assent to Mr. H. p. 370. But that therefore all the opinions therein mention'd must not be Orthodox I cannot imagine for as to the nine Orders of Angels the belief thereof is as antient as the genuine Athanasius for presently after him I find them distinctly reckoned by a Apolard◠Ruff◠l. 2. p. 220. vid. ej com in Is 63. S. Hierome for the Western Churches under the title of Cherubim and Seraphim throni principatus dominationes virtutes potestates Archangeli angeli and by b Orat. 39. p. 207. Ed. Paris 1622. S. Basii of Seleucia for the Churches of the East I will says he run through the Orders of Angels and leave the Princes thereof i. e. the Arch-angels behind me I shall be carried above the most pleasing company of the thrones above the height of powers and the eminence of principalities and the force of virtues above the most pure and perspicacious Cherubim and the quick Seraphim adorned with six wings And if we may confide in the conjectures of those learned men that place the Epocha of the Pseudo-Dionysius in the beginning of the fourth Century and make him coevous with Eusebius the Church-Historian then the Opinion will justly claim more Antiquity nor was the notion unknown to the Platonists of that age c De Myster Aegypt Segm. 2. c. 3. Jamblichus who was Pophyry's Scholar and flourisht under Julian the Apostate naming the several Orders of the Heavenly Hierarchy and Scutellius his Translator in the Margin reckons them XII And in truth I am perswaded that the Opinion is as old as Origen not only because S. Hierome where he enumerates these nine Orders of Spirits treats of Origen's errors but because I find the father himself numbring them under the names d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 6. of Angels Virtues Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions e Hom. 3. 4. in S. Luc. Seraphim and Arch-angels and these he there stiles divers Orders nay Clemens of Alexandria in his Excerpta out of the Oriental doctrine of Theodotus gives an account of the different Offices and Dignities of Angels and f Ep ad Smyrn S. Ignatius before him discourses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divers ranks and Orders of Angels as not only Baronius but our most learned Pearson understand him And why this notion should be so strange when holy Writ defends it I know not in that we have an account of Angels frequently of Arch-angels 1 Thes 4.16 of Cherubim Gen. 3.24 of Seraphim Is 6.2 of Principalities Powers Virtues and Dominions Eph. 1.21 of Thrones Col. 1.16 Nor can I fancy that these are divers names of the same thing for a To. 2. adv Jovin l. 2. p. 90. sinè causa diversitas nominum est ubi non est diversitas meritorum says S. Hierome in this very case it is in vain to use different names where the things are not distinguish'd XIII That the Saints departed know all things we leave as a novel assertion to its Patrons the Romanists in the mean time believing that the Saints pray for us for the whole Church in general which no sober man denies and sometimes and on some occasions for some persons in particular of which the History of Potamiaena in b Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 4. Eusebius is a sufficient evidence So S. Ignatius promises the Church at c Ep. ad Tralli p. 20. Trallis that he would pray for them not only while he was alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also when he came to Heaven And when the Fathers tell us that S. Paul's Conversion was owing to S. Stephen's Prayers may it not relate not only to the Lord lay not this sin to their charge but to his Supplications for him in Heaven thus did d Hom. 3. in Cant. Origen believe and e Ep. 57. p. 78. vid. eund de disc hab virg p. 139. de mortalit p. 177. S. Cyprian writing to
Cornelius and the Confessors mentions a solemn agreement made between those good men that whoever went first of them into another World should testifie his love to his friends on earth by his prayers for them at the throne of Grace so f Confess l. 9. c. 3. S. Austin believ'd that his dear friend Nebridius dealt with him and g Epist 1. To. 1. p. 2. S. Hierome promises himself the same kindnesses from Heliodorus to omit other instances and does not S. Peter promise to do so for the Jews to whom he writes 2 Pet. 1.15 That he will endeavour that after his decease they might have those things in remembrance I am sure so h In Loc. To. 2. p. 534. Oecumenius understands it and his reason is because the Saints after their departure carry their remembrances of things on earth with them and become Advocates for those that are left alive and before him i To. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 994. S. Chrysostome affirms the same Nor is the intercession of the holy Jesus hereby imposed on for if the prayers of the Saints on earth do no way prejudice the honour of our Mediator and Advocate and S. Paul begs those prayers frequently Ephes 6.19 Colos 4.3 c. why should the prayers of the Saints in Heaven be an usurpation on his priviledges That the glorified Saints pray for us the Scripture avers Jer. 15.1 Ezck. 14.14 Rev. 5.8 and ch 8.3 and that God does give many blessings to his Servants on earth for the sake of those that are in bliss is also plain from Gen. 26.4 5 24. Exod. 32.13 1 Reg. 11.33 c. And if so what should make the tenet unorthodox I cannot imagine which hath the Scripture Fathers and Catholick consent to confirm it XIV The adoration of images we execrate as idolatrous but the retention of them if not adored the whole body of the Lutheran Churches will defend nor does the Church of England disown it and I think there is no more danger in seeing a picture than in reading a History if imitation be the end of both The distinction of sins into venial and mortal will find few opponents if rightly understood not as if some enormities deserv'd the torments of Hell others only temporal punishments for the wages of every sin is death but that some crimes either in respect of the matter wherein the offence is committed or the intention of the offender who transgresses either through ignorance or weakness are not so inconsistent with a salvable condition No sin in its self being venial says a Moral Tract 3. c. 20. apud Heyl. Theolog Vet. l. 3. c. 5. Jacobus Almain out of Gerson but according to the condition and state of the subject that sins Some transgressions necessarily implying an exclusion of Grace others ex genere imperfectione actûs may be said to be venial negativè per non ablationem principii remissionis and so b Enchirid. c. 70. S. Austin is to be understood that the saying that Petition Forgive us our trespasses does propitiate Gods mercy for such sins XV. The divers Orders of Monks were frequent in S. Athanasius's time and in his Province of Aegypt above all other places There S. Anthony became the first Angel of the desart whose life Athanasius writ and there for a while lived Hilarion one of his Scholars in that country Pachomius retired to Tabennesus and Ammon to Mount Nitria and the Desart of Scetis in as much as The bais and Aegypt were covered with their multitudes and to this Classis of men does our Patriarch write his Epistle Ad solitariam vitam agentes XVI The necessity of Baptisms hath been already considered and the Sacrament of penance must be left at the Popes door though take penance to include all the offices of repentance and Sacrament in its largest signification so c Ep. 180. ad Honorat S. Austin calls Baptisme and penance Sacraments and so does d Div. dogmat Epit. cap. de paenitentia Theodoret subjoyning that the washings and sacrifices of old were only types of these Sacred Mysteries And if we may take Cardinal e Tom. 2. contr 4. l. 1. c. 9. Bellarmines word for it Luther Melancthon and the Apology of the Confession of Auspurgh make Baptisme the Eucharist and Absolution i. Penance properly and truly Sacraments and such as were instituted by Christ But there I must desert them XVII Of what sort the prayers for the dead were in the primitive Saecula and that till Athanasius's time and long after they had no relation to Purgatory since in their Liturgies they prayed for Patriarchs and Prophets for Apostles and Martyrs and the Virgin Mary her self the reverend Vsher in his f Pag. 197 198. answer to the Jesuite will give him full satisfaction nor does the Church of England do less in her Collect at Funerals where we pray for the hastening the kingdom of Christ that we together with all those that are departed in the faith and fear of Gods holy name may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and Soul in his Eternal and Everlasting glory Or as it is in a P. 10. the form of bidding prayer prescribed in the injunctions of King Edward 6th Anno 1547. Ye shall pray for them that be departed out of the world in the faith of Christ that we with them and they with us may rest at the day of judgment both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of heaven And did I think says an b Lord Câ—arendon's Answ to Cressy p. 167. honourable person that my prayers or any thing else I could do could purchase the least ease to the Souls of my friends or enemies I would pour them out with all my heart nor should I fear reprehension from the Church of England who says nothing in it unless comprehended in the Article of Purgatory and there only calls it a fond thing XVIII Why Anti-Christ should not be a particular person but a Society or Kingdom opposite to the Kingdom of Christ I profess my ignorance Vide Montag Appel cap. 5. or that the Pope rather than the Grand Signior should be the man since Constantinople is built on seven hills and the Church of Saint Sophia is made a Mosque I know what the Fathers say of Anti-Christ what the Romanists and what the Protestant Churches affirm Powel in his e Christ Lectori Epistle before his book de Antichristo tells the world that he is as sure that the Pope is the great Anti-Christ and the Roman Church his Synagogue as that God is in heaven or Christ our Saviour And the French Synod at Gap decreed it for an Article of Faith An. 1603. On the other hand d De Apost Eccles de homine peccati p. 24. Kit Angelo pretends a vision that the Grand Signior is he and the late Bishop of Ossory Doctor Griffith Williams in
Baptism This also was the Opinion of Origen S. Basil Orig. hom 5. in Josh to 1. fol. 154. L. ed. Merlin Basil exhort ad Baptis init Naz. tom 1. Orat. 40. p. 658. Athan. tom 2. quaest 38. ad Antioch p. 345. Gregory Nazianzen and others as well as of Athanasius So that I cannot but wonder at this extravagant Censure but all this stir about this dangerous Opinion arises at last such is Mr. H's unhappiness from a mistake of Scultetus out of whom this whole discourse of this Father's failings is transcribed for e Synthes doct Athanas c. 17. p. 157. he makes this to be our Patriarch's Errour not that the Sacraments of the old Testament were Types of the Sacraments of the new but that Circumcision and the Sabbath c. did only typifie but not confer grace contrary to that of the Apostle Rom. 4.11 who calls Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Abraham's Faith XLII That Virginity is an Example of Angelical Purity is plain from that of S. Matthew 22.30 that the Saints shall be like the Angels and that explain'd by they shall neither marry nor be given in Marriage nor was it amiss to say that they are marryed to Christ who disengage themselves from the World the more readily to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and such admirable chastity cannot fail of getting it self veneration and respect every where and this may serve to apologize for the excessive praises of Virginity to which the Ancients every where give an extraordinary Eulogy XLIII The death of this great man happened not an Chr. 371. as Mr. H. wrongly quotes Baronius but an 372. Maii. 2. p. 297. annal to 4. an 372. pag. 33½ as the Cardinal both in his Martyrology and Annals doth fix it and his Festival was celebrated in both Churches on the second of May but in the Oriental Churches he had two Holy-days the last on the 18th of January a Festival dedicated to him and his Successor S. Cyril it being the day as Baronius conjectures of his Consecration to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and in the same celebrated Historian you may find that his Body was afterward brought into Europe and deposited at Venice he is styled in the Coptick Kalendar publish'd by a De Spâ—â—drio l. 3. c. 25. p. 398. Mr. Selden Athanasius the Apostle by b Chruâ—â—p 314. cais Scalig. Nicephorus the Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasius the Martyr and to this day by all the Greeks Athanasius the great XLIV Of this name were many famous men Prelates of the Church c Basâ—â— 53. 67. Soâ—on l. 6. c. 12. Philostorg l. 5. tem 1. one a Bishop of Ancyra a Contemporary with our Patriarch the d Phâ—â—esiorg l. 3. tom 15. p. 50. second an Arian of the same Age Bishop of Anazarbum in Cilicia a e Menolog Cr. Aâ—g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 third Bishop of Tarsus a Martyr under the Emperour Valerian a f Evâ—gr hist lib. 3. c. 23. fourth this eminent Confessor's Successor in his own See circ an 490. whose immediate Predecessor was Peter Mongus but he was a Heretick and a great Patron of the Acephali There were also many others of the name whom I purposely omit And having thus tyred my Reader I leave him to refresh himself with the Panegyrick of the most Eloquent S. Gregory of Nazianzum On the great Athanasius Arch-Bishop of Alexandria Greg. Naz. Tom. 1. Orat. 21. p. 373. c. 'TO praise Athanasius is to make a Panegyrick on Virtue for when I name that admirable man it is the same as if I celebrated Virtue while a Constellation of those best qualities did shine in him or to speak more truly do still exert their Lustre for all they that have lived according to the Laws of God do still live to God although they have left this evil World For which reason God is called the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob not the God of the dead but of the living and when I write an Encomium of Virtue I shall magnifie God whose Donative to the Sons of men Virtue is that by that congenial light men may be led to the knowledge and embracing of himself For whereas the largesses of Heaven are many and eminent and beyond description the greatest and most merciful of his Favours are the Inclinations which he works in us towards himself and the Familiarity he blesseth us with For what the Sun is to sensible Beings that is God to rational Creatures the one sheds his Rays on the visible the other illustrates the invisible world the one illuminates the eyes of the body that it may see Heaven the other the Opticks of the mind that it may contemplate God And as the Sun whereas it confers on the eyes and all things visible powers that the one may see the other be seen while it self is the most beautiful and accomplish'd of visible Objects so God as he gives power to understand and a possibility of being comprehended is himself still the chiefest and most perfect of Intellectual Beings in whom all our desires terminate and above whom they cannot soare for neither can the most Philosophick aspiring and curious Intellect aim at any thing more sublime than God for he is the choicest of admirable Beings whom when men enjoy their Speculations are at their height for that man that breaks through his earthly Prison by the assistance of reason and contemplation and dispelling all carnal Clouds and Mists can converse with God and be united to the most illustrious light as much as humane frailty is capable of that man is happy both in that he can ascend to that glorious place and also there enjoy that Union with the Divine Nature which true Philosophy procures and a mind exalted above this inferiour world to the contemplation of the Unity of the Trinity But he whose Soul is debas'd by its Society with the Body and is yet immers'd in Clay so that it cannot look upon the Beauties of Truth nor exalt it self above earthly things though its Original were from Heaven and its Native tendencies thither that man is in my esteem blind and miserable though blest with the affluence of Worldly Felicities and so much the more wretched in that he is mock'd by his prosperity and deluded into the Opinion that there can be any thing good besides the chiefest and truest good gathering evil Fruit of an evil Sentiment to be confined to darkness to feel him as a consuming Fire whom he would not entertain as a comfortable light This was the study only of a few of the former Ages and the present saeculum for there are few Servants of God though all are his Creatures this wisdom being courted by a small company of Law-givers and Captains Priests Doctors and the rest of the Society of Spiritual persons and among them by this venerable Patriarch whom we now applaud And who were those brave Souls that
ill to affirm that he was banish'd by both Synods which was impossible or if he meant otherwise the rules of Grammar would have obliged him to have set the Synod of Arles before that of Besieres in order of writing as in that of time VI. This excellent man is seldom mentioned by the Church-Historians who writ in Greek or by the Greek Fathers whom I have met with Only I find Theodoret styling him the holy Hilary Bishop and Confessor But the Latine Fathers are more frequent in his due Encomia Vide Socrat. Eccles hist lib. 3. c. 8. Sozom. l. 3. c. 13. lib. 4. c. 8. l. 5. c. 12. Theodor. dial 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. contr Julian l. 1. c. 2. Ecclesiae Catholicae adversùs haereticos acerrimum defensorem venerandum quis ignorat Hilarium Episcopum Gallam virum tantâ in Episcopis Catholicis laude praeclarum tantâ notitiâ famâque conspicuum vid. cund de nat grat c. 61. c. Hieron in Isai c. 60. Cyprianus nostri temporis Confessor Hilarius â—nne tibi videntur excelsae quondam in saeculo arbores aedificâsse Ecclesiam Dei Id. Apolog. adv Ruff. l. 2. virum eloquentissimum contra Arianos Latini sermonis tubam c. he is called by S. Austin the holy blessed and venerable Hilary a man famous in the judgment of all the Christian world the most Reverend and acute Defender of the Catholick Church against the Hereticks by S. Hierome a most eminent and eloquent man whose Books with those of Athanasius he highly commends in his 7th Epistle to the reading of that good woman Laeta some of which himself had transcribed with his own hand at Triers And Ruffinus who in other places is not so just to him yet in his a Lib. 1. cap. 30. History commends him for his excellent morals his meekness and sedate temper and for his learning and eloquence adding of him and Eusebius Vercellensis That they were the illustrious lights of the world and with their rays did illuminate all Illyricum Italy and France to omit Sulpitius Severus Venantius Fortunatus and others VII § 3. p. 399. We are told that the Tractate De numero septenario is S. Hilary's because it is dedicated unto Fortunatus but that is not an argument strong enough to deprive S. Cyprian for there were more than one Clergy-man of that name in the time of that African Primate for instance there was Fortunatus à Tuccabori who subscribed in the Synod of Carthage and probably was the same to whom S. Cyprian writ his 53d Epistle and his Exhortation to Martyrdome Nor could there be that actual friendship between Venantius Fortunatus and S. Hilary which Mr. H. mentions for S. Hilary is p. 414. affirm'd to die An. 366. But Venantius Fortunatus flourish'd not till circ An. 570. nor was he a French-man by Birth but an Italian Born in Marchia Tarvisana and bred at Ravenna who being oppress'd with sore eyes travel'd to the shrine of S. Martin famous for such Miracles where finding his cure for a testimony of his gratitude he writ the life of that famous man and intending a further visit to his reliques he came to Tours and thence to Poictiers where making a halt he was first made a Priest and then Bishop of that See VIII His Book of Hymns is acknowledged to be lost unless as b Epist dedic ante opera Hilarii Erasmus conjectures those Hymns Crux fidelis and that on S. John Baptist Vt queant laxis c. be some of them But that this great man was the first among the Catholicks that set forth Hymns and Verses as is said p. 400 I cannot grant For the world is not ignorant that Tertullian writ against Marcion in Verse and other Poems are father'd on him on Cyprian and Lactantius and if he means it only of Hymns how can he reconcile his position with that of c Hist Eccles lib. 5. cap. ult Eusebius from a much Antienter Author who living circ an 200. and writing against the heresie of Artemon uses this as an argument to disprove that disturber of the Church that many faithful Brethren from the very infancy of Christianity had writ Psalms and Hymns to the praise of Christ the Son of God in which they attributed Divinity to him IX His Books concerning the Trinity are said by d Ubi supr Erasmus to be his Master-piece as Tully's Books de Oratore or S. Austin's de Civitate dei or S. Hierom's Comments on the Prophets are theirs But withal he wishes that that great wit had undertook a subject that would better have comported with his sublime and transcendent Eloquence and Acumen But I cannot believe that he was the first among the Latines who writ on that subject as is affirmed p. 401. for Mr. H. himself p. 143. acknowledges a Discourse of Tertullian's in defence of the Trinity which the whole Greek Church says Baronius ascribe to that Father others to S. Cyprian a third sort to Novatian the Roman Schismatical Presbyter Cyprian's Cotemporary and Antagonist who as a Catal. v. Novatian S. Hierome informs writ a great Volume of the Trinity an Epitome of what Tertullian had before-hand said on that subject the youngest of which lived some years before this French Prelate and whereas he may explain himself that he means it of defending the Doctrine of the holy Trinity against the Arians we know that that Alexandrian Incendiary did only revive and polish the decryed and condemned Opinions of Artemon Photinus Paulus Samosatenus and others though I think it were not impossible to prove that b Id. ibid. v. Lucif Lucifer Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia undertook this Controversie against the Arian Faction before Saint Hilary X. As I cannot subscribe to Cardinal Bellarmine and Possevine that the Epistle that is extant in the name of S. Hilary to his Daughter Abra is undoubtedly his so neither can I think that so indulgent so good a Father could be forgetful of his Family during his banishment but that he writ both to his Wife and Daughter which Epistles being lost this was foisted in for one as writ on that famous occasion of Abra's consulting him about her Marriage which Story is elegantly rendred into English by the Seraphick Prelate c Holy dying ch 3. sect 7. p. 102. Bishop Taylor and to him I remit the Reader XI The Epistles to S. Austin and the Poem called Genesis have been adjusted to their true owners already and as to the Fragment concerning the Transactions of the Council at Ariminum p. 405. I would not have had Mr. H. so tamely to have subscribed to Baronius whose interest it was to decry that piece and who is herein followed by his Epitomator d An. 352. sect 4. an 357. sect 9. Spondanus and the learned e Resp ad Reg. Jacob lib. 1. cap. 27. Perron The passages in that fragment being too severe and peremptory to be
k Nyss To. 2. vit Gr. Thaum p. 1006. S. Gregory of Neocaesaria returned from his retirement in the Decian persecution he commanded the Festivals of those that had been martyred during his recess to be observ'd and all the people annually met at the places of their Burial and made that day a holy-day and to take them off from their old Heathenish Customs that prudent Prelate permitted them on those Solemnities to chear themselves and recreate their drooping Spirits with the several kinds of innocent mirth out of an intention to induce them by those sensible joys to the rellish of more spiritual and nobler pleasures For the Christians did not observe their Festivals as the Heathens did theirs with a pompous train of obscene and impudent observances and all the Arts of Debauchery but with a Feast l Theod. ubi supr whence all Drunkenness and Gluttony and immoderate laughter were banish'd and where all things were perform'd with a modest chaste and temperate decorum m Naz. Orat 6. p. 139 140. consul loc The Fathers severely cautioning the people on such occasions not to indulge to voluptuousness intemperance and luxury and other pleasurable satisfactions that vanish in a moment For what conformity is there between carnal pleasures and the Combats of the Martyrs The one becomes a Theatre the other the Church He who will celebrate the Festival as he ought must imitate their Combats and their Victories and stedfastness to the interests of truth must dread nothing but to dishonour God and pollute his Image and this is a Festival kept according to the mind of Christ XVIII It is true what the Fathers foresaw and would have prevented fell out at last to the prejudice of Religion every man a Conc Carthag ' 5. Can. 14 pretended a Vision and on the strength of that built an Altar to an imaginary Martyr the people in those Meetings gave the reins to all sort of unbecoming and irregular mirth to Intemperance and Lasciviousness and treated themselves with Wine and Dainties and set up b Basil reg fusior disput interr 40. Markets near the Coemeteries for the sale of necessaries for those luxuriant Banquets till the c Aug. contr Faust Manich l. 20. c. 21. Manichees objected it to the Catholicks that they did appease the Manes of the dead thereby This set the Prelates of the Church by degrees to discountenance and bring into disuse these conventions the d Conc. Illiberit Can. 34 35. Council of Elvire forbiding the burning of Torches in the Coemeteries by day and Womens watching there by night the making the Feasts there was prohibited by the Council of e Can. 28. Laodicea the Markets severely decry'd by S. Basil the Oblations of the Bread and Wine and other conveniences for the Feast disallowed by S. f Aug. ubi supr de C. D. l. 8. c. 27. Confes l. 6. c. 2. Ambrose and other holy and wise Bishops because of the intemperance in which most men then wallowed And yet the people were not of a sudden wholly converted from this distemper but that g B. Foelicis Natal 9. p. 668 669. Paulinus complains that they retained a spice of their old Heathenisme serving their Belly as their God and spending the whole night by Torch-light in sports and drinking and luxury But to the Festivals when soberly and Christianly observ'd the Bishops of the Church used to invite their Neighbour-Prelates So h Ep. 336. S. Basil engages one of the Bishops of his Province to be present at the Anniversary of some Martyrs and i Naz. Tom. 1. Orat. 6. p. 139. S. Gregory Naz. was invited by S. Gregory Nyssen and Nicetas a Dacian Bishop was a Guest to k Paulin. ubi supr p. 664. S. Paulinus on the Feast of S. Foelix XI To the honor of the Martyrs did the Primitive Christians very early l Theod. ubi suprd Asterius Amisen Homil. de avarit p. 51. Edit Rayn build Churches Platina says that Pope Fabianus began the custom they were called Martyria by the Chalcedon Council Confessiones Memoriae Martyrum by the Latines Caius the antient Ecclesiastical Writer mentioning the Trophies as he calls them of S. Peter in the Vatican and S. Paul in the Via Ostiensis which Baronius will have to be Churches built to their honour and it agrees to the account of m De 7. Urbis Eccles c 4. p. 45. c. Onuphrius that there was a little Oratory erected over S. Peter's Grave in the Vatican near the Via Triumphalis which was afterward destroyed by Elagabalus that profligate Emperour n Catalog v. Clemens S. Hierome also informs us that there was a Church built at Rome to the memory of S. Clemens that continued till his time a Vic. de persec Vandalic l. 1. two Churches were built to the memory of S. Cyprian presently on his Martyrdom which were the one rased the other usurpt by the Arrians b Naz. Orat 21. p. 386. another to the Virgin Thecla in the City of Seleucia and probably it was so done in other places but when the Christian Faith was acknowledged by the Governours of the world and Constantine submitted his Scepter to the Cross nothing was so usual as the enquiries after the Reliques of the Martyrs and erection of stately beautiful and well-adorn'd Fabricks to their memories the building Temples and erecting Altars c Aug. de C.D. l. 22. c. 10. where they facrificed not to the Martyrs but to that God who is equally the Patron of the Church Triumphant and Militant that great man built a noble Church over S. Paul's Grave at Rome another at Constantinople to the honour of the twelve Apostles and d Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14 15. the Divine gives us a memorable instance how God was pleas'd with the hearty zeal of those pious persons for when both Gallus and Julian before his Apostasie were wonderfully concern'd and careful in testifying their love to the holy Jesus by their beautifying and endowing the Monuments of the Martyrs and building Churches to them the God of the Martyrs publickly testified his acceptance of the unfeigned devotions of Gallus by prospering the work till it was compleated but miraculously demonstrated his disrelish of Julians hypocritical pretences as he despis'd Cain 's Sacrifice for the Earth where he laid the foundation of his Temple spued up the materials and though he more than once eagerly endeavour'd to fix a Basis it still continued as if a perpetual Earthquake had resided there to overthrow and scatter what was built Heaven taking care by this instance not only to vindicate it self from the godly pretences of that Infidel but to caution the World what a future Enemy he would be to the Martyrs For the e Sozomen l. 5. c. 19. Historian reckons it as a great Specimen of his spleen and malice that he commanded the Churches of the Martyrs
to be burnt XX. These Temples in the days of peace were f Aster Amisen ubi supr pompous and beautiful and magnificently adorn'd and that not only in the curiosity of the Structure but in new and additional Ornaments the good Presbyter g Hier. Epitaph Nepot Tom. 1. p. 25. Nepotian spending much of his time in sprucing the Martyria with divers Flowers and Boughs and Branches of the Vine and with whatever lookt handsomely and decorous and to this was added afterward in some places h Paulin. Natal 9. S. Foelic the History of the Old and New Testament or of the Martyrs Life done in picture but the greatest Ornament that they boasted of were the Reliques of the good man there deposited for as it was i Conc. Carth. 5. Can. 14. unlawful to meet at any Coemetery where no Martyrs Reliques were entomb'd so k Paulin. Ep. 11. ad Sever. p. 149. Ep. 12. p. 168 172 c. without some or other such remains of the Saints they would seldome in the fifth Saeculum consecrate a Church and probably the day of the Martyrs death was pitcht on for the time of its dedication for those times the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were also made Festival and observ'd a Naz. Orat 43. p. 697. by an antient and excellent Law at which time says S. b Ibid. p. 704. Greg. of Nazianzum the Martyrs are more than ordinarily pleasant and from their bright Thrones convene the people that love Jesus to hear an account of their generous and Christian demeanour And this gave the first rise to our Wakes which like the Agapae at the Coemeteries are now much degenerated from their Original Institution XXI They were also curious in instructing the world how benign and compassionate God was to them in easing their pains in plaguing their persecutors in revealing their Reliques and working miracles at their Tombs their torments were so far from sitting uneasily on them that they voluntarily courted them and rejoyc'd under them and when they were condemn'd usually cry'd out Deo gratias God be praised S. Ignatius resolv'd and S. Germanicus actually did incite and allure the wild beasts to devour them and Apollonia leapt into the fire S. Laurence felt no pain on his Gridiron nor Theodorus the acute twitches of his Rack and other inflictions but full of joy continued singing a Psalm and how could he but be chearful c Sezoâ—â— â—â—la supâ— that had his Assistant-Angel at his side wiping off his sweat and refreshing his tired and parcht limbs by pouring a cooling shream on him God gave them wisdome to confound their Adversaries and that prudence and courage made them active and bold and enabled them to d Chrys Tom. 5. p. 491. tread on burning Coals as on a Bed of Roses and sport themselves in the midst of the flames like those that danc't at a Revel so unconcern'd were they at all the contrivances of Satan they flockt to Martyrdome as Bees to a Hive and were more passionately eager to die for Jesus than men now-adays are for Preferment or a Bishoprick their Reliques were reveal'd by Miracle so e Naz. Orat 18. p. 284. S. Cyprian's Body was discover'd the remains of S. Gervasius and Protasius were reveal'd to f Aug. Confess l. 9. cap. 7. S. Ambrose S. Stephen's to g Phot. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 199. Lucian the Presbyter of Cephargamata the Prophet h Sozom. l. 9. c. 17. Zecharies to Calamerus and the forty Martyrs to the Empress i Id. l. 9. c. 2. Pulcheria to omit many other examples That Miracles were there wrought hath been already evinc't for even in the days of k De C. D. l. 22. c. 8. S. Austin such supernatural effects succeeded in the Name of Christ at the memories of his Saints and he makes it good by the story of a Daemoniack cured at the Church built to the memory of the two forementioned Saints of Millain in the Village Victoriana but thirty miles from his own See Hippo and how God punisht their Persecutors is every where obvious in the antient story XXII Besides their Anniversaries the Church gave them daily an honourable commemoration at the holy Altar and that by an Apostolical Tradition says a Chrys Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Act. p. 736. Tom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 928. Tert. de Coron Mil. c. 3. pass Cypr. Ep. 34. p. 37. Aug. contr Faust Manich. lib. 20. c. 21. l. 22. c. 10. c. S. Chrysostome not as the Dead are now prayed for in the Church of Rome for so neither do they make supplications for the Martyrs says b Proleg in Martyrol Rom. p. 7 8. Baronius for the Sacrifices there offer'd for the Martyrs had relation to the Eucharist then administred for when in that Sacrament the death of Christ is remembred the death of his Martyrs is also minded as of Souldiers with their Captain to testifie their inseparable union to their Master and the Church Triumphant to the Srcrifice of Alms then given to the Poor and of solemn Thanksgiving to God for the example of the Martyrs hostiae Jubilationis as c Ep. 12. ad Sever. p. 175. Paulinus elegantly expresses it and wishing themselves partakers of their Crowns the prayers of the Church then used for them relating to the joyful Resurrection of the whole man at the day of Judgment and the Consummation of bliss d Field of the Church append 1. p. 754. vide Calvini Ep. 87. ad Prot. Angl. p. 167. For it was an ordinary thing with the Antients in their prayers to acknowledge and profess that the thing was already granted and perform'd which they desired and that the Martyrs were already carried into Heaven in a Chariot like Elijah and yet beseech'd God notwithstanding to accept of their voluntary devotions and affections So S. Austin prays for his Mother Monica Nazianzen for his Brother Caesarius and S. Ambrose for Valentinian the Antients using to pray for their Brethren and Friends on the days of their Obits and for the Martyrs on their Anniversaries as if they had been but then in departing and in danger of Hell for as on the day of the Nativity and Circumcision c. we speak to God as if God had then sent his Son into the world c. and yet mean not as the words may seem to import that Christ doth then newly take flesh c. but that he is born to us and we are made partakers of his Birth so they desire that which is then wanting to the holy men as if the Anniversary were the day of their actual Martyrdom This was the belief of the ancient Church till e De verb. Apest ser 17. St. Austin introduc'd a new Opinion that who so prayed for a Martyr did an injury to a Martyr which place f Decret l. 3. tit 33. c. 5. Pope Innocent the