indeed by the special Assignation of a Reason for the time of a Synod before Lent that it was first fix'd there by this Council of Nice However after all the Forty Season there must stand for Forty Days and we cannot but observe That it is not set down as any newly rais'd word but as one already well known and of as common a Signification as Spring or Autumn From whence what we have before suggested plainly now appears That such a Number of Days had been in much Use before in many places at least in the last Age tho' no mention of them happen'd to occur in the few Writings that remain a Athan. ad Afr. Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b So Socrates understands For after he has given an Account of the Astatick Custom against which Victor declar'd he proceeds to peak of the Usage this Council rectified in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. l. 5. c. 22. Beside it is plain from that Homily of St. Chrysostome we shall presently cite notwithstanding what is said to the contrary by Mr. Daille de Quadrages pag. 422 that those of Antioch in his time who did not conform to the Council of Nice did however keep their Easter on a Sunday For he tells them That were the Calculation of the Jews never so exact c. yet they could not keep the precise Day because the First of Vnleavened Bread and a Friday would not always come together Edit Savil. Tom. 6. p. 383. l. 7. and it is in that Case says he impossible for us you or my one else to hit the very Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. p. 384. l. 33. He lays the Difference too in the different Reckoning of the Months as Socrates does when he says That they should be careful of coming to the Sacrament worthily and with the Wedding Garment but that they need not be so fearful of keeping their Easter after the Christian Account were it less accurate For they were to Answer and should be Punished for the other Neglect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 382. l. 32. bâ—â— no man was ever punished or so much as found fault with for keeping Easter in this Month and not in another c Eus de Vit. Const l. 3. c. 17 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in this place to be understood properly and exclusive of the Asia Proconsularis if the Bishops of Asia Minor strictly so termed continued to observe the 14th Day as Anatolius affirms for his time and Socrates seems to assert for the time of the Nicene Council Though it be hard to think that the Churches of the Proconsular Asia if they had still retain'd the old Quartodecimarian Errour should not have been included in this mention and that the Council would have been so silent concerning this Errour kept up against the Ancient Determination in so near and famous a Countrey when we find them so zealous against those who were at a greater distance and whose Practice was less Judaical e Euseb de Vit. Constantin l. 4. c. 18. ex emendatione Valesâ—i Sozom. l. 1. c. 7. f Concil Nicen. Can. V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tomo Sexto Savil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 381. CHAP VIII § I. This Forty Season particularly observed by the Candidates for Baptism § II. And by Penitents § I. FOR the time that follows we shall have little Dispute about the Practice of Forty Days that there was such a Solemn Time before Easter some way or other observed in all the Churches none will deny This is evident and absolutely unquestionable from St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. Ambrose of Milan St. Chrysostome St. Jerome and St. Augustine who expresly mention Forty Days as the Council of Laodicea and Athanasius speak of more Weeks than one of the Forty Season I shall not therefore trouble the Reader with the unnecessary Allegation of all those Testimonies but only with such who inform us That this Lent was still most particularly observed by those two kinds of Men we heretofore intimated (a) Ch. 2. §. II. the Candidates for Baptism and the Penitents Of a Fast before Baptism I gave there a very early Testimony from Justin Martyr and what was then further intimated might have been confirmed from Tertullian That for Baptism the Paschal Season afforded a solemn Day And now in this Age we cannot but think That the Lent of Forty Days which is acknowledged to have been kept commonly by all the Faithful was more particularly observed by those who were to be baptized at the conclusion of it On this Subject therefore it will be enough to produce the single Evidence of St. Cyril of Jerusalem He is judg'd to have been made Bishop there in the Year 350 and was Presbyter Catechist before whose Duty it was to instruct and prepare those Candidates and whose Catechistical Lectures are still preserved In the Prologue he forewarns them to take care and provide the Wedding-Garment I admonish you says he b now before the Bridegroom of our Souls comes and sees your Dress There is a large Time given you You have the Penance before you of Forty Days sufficient Space and Opportunity to put off the old Garments and to wash off their Filth and to put on the new ones and to come in Likewise the first Sermon to them he thus begins c You Disciples of the New Covenant and Partners of the Mysteries of Christ by Call and Invitation now and within a little while by actual Gift and Grace make to your selves a new Heart and a new Spirit Then he tells them That they shall have a new Name and he that was called a Catechumen before shall now be stil'd Faithful But though this Grace is freely given they must not therefore be negligent the present Season is a Season of Confession All worldly Cares are to be laid aside for you strive says he for your Souls Adding And you that have been busie about the things of the World troubled in vain so many Years Will ye not bestow Forty Days in Prayer for the Salvation of your Souls And when the Catechumens had in this manner spent the Forty Days abstaining from Flesh and Wine d and had passed over the Friday and the Saturday of the Passion Week in Vigils and a continued Fast e they were then in the Evening before Easter baptized This was unquestionably the Practice of the Fourth Century and now I shall leave the Reader to observe how much of this Tertullian in his Book of Baptism describes as done in his time After he had said what we now cited That there was in the Paschal Season a more solemn Day for Baptism he adds in the next Chapter f Those who are going to be baptiz'd ought to pray with frequent Prayers with Fastings and Kneelings and Watchings and wth the Confession of all their former Sins For by this Affliction of the Flesh and the Spirit we
Occasion for such a mention the Church having been generally imployed hitherto either in Apologies for their Religion against the Heathens or the Defence of it against Heathenish Heresies or the suffering of Persecution for it But now in the next Age when Christianity comes to be owned and countenanced by the Government their Writings will be more frequent and more copious and express and amongst other Observations of our Religion we shall not fail to find sufficient Information of this after which we are inquiring But before we come to those happy Days the last fierce Persecution it self began by Diocletian in the East according to Baronius in the Year 302 and there continued by the Cruelty of those who governed that part of the Empire gave occasion for some sort of mention of Forty Days which it may be to our Purpose to observe Before the Persecution began and in the beginning of this Century the Episcopal Chair of that great Christian City Alexandria in which the above-nam'd Dionysius had sate was now fill'd by one Peter a very venerable Person Eminent for his Knowledge and Sanctity and who at last suffered Martyrdom in the Year 311. And upon the rising of this sharp Persecution the Christians had behaved themselves very differently some had endured to the last with admirable Constancy some yielded and deni'd their Religion after the suffering of grievous Torments some upon the offer of Torture after they had undergone the Pains of Imprisonment and some at the first Accusation Of those too who had not renounc'd some had escaped by Flight some by buying off the Prosecution and some by hiring Witnesses to attest to some Idolatrous Act of theirs which had been never done Of all these sorts there were many who desired to be re-admitted to the Communion of the Church and some had now long sought it with much Lamentation to whose various Circumstances different Rules were therefore to be suited such as this Peter after deliberation had with his Brethren delivered in a Discourse now lost but from which some Excerpts had been made in form of Canons and by that means preserved to us The first Canon as Zonaras and Balsamon give it is thus a Whereas now the fourth Easter is come upon this Persecution it may suffice for those who were accused and imprisoned and indured insufferable Tortures and intolerable scourgings and many other grievous Cruelties but after all were betrayed by the Weakness of the Flesh for those I say though they were not admitted into Communion at first by reason of that their great Apostasie yet because they strove much and resisted a long while for they fell not upon Choice but were betrayed by the Weakness of the Flesh and because they bear still in their Bodies the Marks of their Lord and some of them have been mourning these three Years for these I say it may suffice That a Penance of Other Forty Days to be reckon'd from after their Admission should be additionally inflicted on them for their Admonition which Forty days tho' our Saviour had fasted after Baptism yet He was tempted of the Devil in which they too being exercised super abundantly and more earnestly sober may watch unto Prayer continually meditating on that Answer given by our Lord when he was urged by the Tempter to fall down and worship him Get thee behind me Satan for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve This is the first Canon and for the better understanding of it we only add That the second imposes another Year's Penance upon those who had suffered the Pain and Misery of Imprisonment but did not resist Torture and that the third puts those off to the End of another Year for Trial and not till then to receive their Sentence who out of Fear and Cowardliness had yielded presently § II. Forty Days of Fasting and strict Devotion are here singularly and eminently mentioned but in what part of the Year they were plac'd it is not here certainly determined If by the fourth Easter is come as I have render'd it may be understood is now coming and the Bishop's Discourse may be dated before Easter those Forty Days would then be in all probability before Easter too and the very Lent which we are now looking after They must undoubtedly have some near Aspect upon Easter For why else is it mentioned and the Years of Persecution reckoned by it And no time was so proper to re-admit Penitents solemnly to Christian Communion as this of the Passover when the Pardon of our Sins was recogniz'd by the solemn Memory of our Saviour's Death on the Friday and the Holy Communion the Sacrament of his Death was so solemnly frequented on the Sunday neither was any Season of the Year more fit for the stricter Humiliation of the Penitent than that on which all good Christians were ready to join in something of the like Devotion For this Reason we may justly suppose St. Cyprian (b) Ep. 56. Edit Oxon. was consulted before Easter about the same Case the Reconciliation of those who had been Penitents three Years that if he had answered favourably they might have been admitted at the approaching Festival So have we under this Supposition a Lent of Forty Days for Penitents at least to be kept throughout by them and with great Severity while the rest beginning as early and using such Abstinence as their Discretion directed and the Necessities of their Conscience required equalled generally the Austerities even of those at the latter End And this way if we are allowed to conceive the Canon the Other Forty Days there mentioned may then respect the former Three Lents that had gone before except any one would rather understand that one particular Lent to be intimated which had been kept by these Christians just before they were Baptized which too was done generally at Easter and which they were now ordered to keep in the same manner again before they should be again received into the Church And thus the Forty Penitential Days will be the very Forty Days of Lent if we suppose the Synod to be held before Easter as the Nicene Council did order afterwards But if it was not and they did not concur with such a Lent they will however infer It. Let us then suppose the Synod to have been assembled after Easter And very probably it was for it is not unlikely that the Order of the Council of Nice in this Particular was a Change of the old Practice which Order was reversed in a little time by the Council of Antioch and besides we see that the Synod of Ancyra a Synod held on occasion of the same Persecution and much about the same time did meet after Easter for they speak of the Great Day the Day of Easter and seem to reckon it to be about a Year before it would come again Under this Supposition that Synod of Ancyra will help us to understand the other of
numerus qui ponitur à Septuaginta non convenit Poenitentiae satis miror cur ita translatum sit cum in Hebreo nec Literarum nec Syllabarum nec Accentuum nec Verbi sit ulla Communitas Alioqui de Judea tanto itinere missus Propheta in Assyrios dignam suae Praedicationis Poenitentiam flagitabat ut antiqua putrida vulnera diu apposito curarentur Emplastro Porro Quadragenarius numerus convenit Peccatoribus Jejunio Orationi Sacco Lachrymis Perseverantiâ—e deprecandi ob quod Moyses quadraginta diebus jejunavit in Monte Sina Helias fugiens Jezabel Dei desuper ira pendente quadraginta dies jejunasse describitur Ipse quoque Dominus verus Jona missus ad Praedicationem Mundi jejunavit quadraginta dies haereditatem nobis Jejunii relinquens ad esum Corporis sui sub hoc numero nostras animas praeparat h Greg. Nyss Ep. Can. ad Letoium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. IX § I. A Lent always and every where observed though not of Forty Days § II. Mr. Daillé's Objections against it from Cassian § III. From St. Jerome § IV. From St. Chrysostome § I. THE Reader may perceive by the liberty we have taken of this Digression concerning Baptism and Penance that we are now at leisure and free of all Difficulties concerning the Actual Observation of the Forty Season And indeed about the Fast of it Mr. Daillé henceforth gives us no trouble but against the Apostolical Right he is still looking out for Evidence But in that Point the Reader may have already understood how little we are concern'd who do not pretend to prove That a Lent of so many certain Days was observ'd in the latter end of the Apostolical Age but that some Lent there then was generally kept by all and probably of Forty Days by some in the second Century a thing that will not I presume appear so strange when we come to the Second Part of this Discourse Though therefore I am inclinable to believe that there was very anciently some regard had to the Number Forty and that this in process of time increased very much so as to have been the Solemn Number of Lent in many Churches by the End of the Third Century yet I am willing to allow from what we have seen of St. Chrysostome That this Observation grew so universal from the Recommendation of the Nicene Fathers Those Forty Days too though regarded and observed yet I do not say that they were all of them fasted and every where equally but am ready to allow what St. Chrysostome intimates (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 15. that in his time at Antioch some fasted Two some Three and some all the Weeks of them at their own Discretion and what Socrates will hereafter tell us of the same kind § II. That also which Cassian a Disciple of St. Chrysostome's says and is us'd to be produc'd upon this Argument as an unanswerable Objection against the Antiquity of Lent I have no need to dissemble It is to be known says he b that this Observation of forty days as it is now strictly injoyn'd had no being as long as the Perfection of the Primitive Church continued For those who enlarged the Fast throughout the whole Year were not confined by the necessity of this Ordinance nor within such narrow bounds of Fasting as if under a Legal Restraint But when the Multitude of Believers daily falling off from that Apostolical Devotion began to grow worldly then it was thought fit by the Bishops of the Vniversal Church That Men immersed in the Cares of the World and wholly ignorant if I may so say of any such thing as Abstinence and Repentance should be reduced to the Holy Duty by this Canonical Injunction of Fasts and compelled to it as it were by the Imposition of a Legal Tenth c An Injunction advantageous to the weak and which cannot be prejudicial to the perfect those who being under the Grace of the Gospel by their voluntary Devotion already exceed the prescribed Law I shall not now observe what some might venture to say That Cassian speaks all this upon Mistake supposing with Eusebius here what he evidently does in another place d That the Aegyptian Essenes describ'd by Philo were Disciples of St. Mark and that the Primitive Christians lived all at first in that Austerity I shall only remark that Cassian speaks here of the forty days and not of a Lent in general and of their being fasted by Injunction and not at Discretion And therefore those Perfect Men of his who fasted the whole Year might however have fasted some peculiar time before Easter with a more peculiar Devotion for that they fasted all the Days cannot be meant by him much less with an equal Abstinence and they might too some of them have so particularly fasted Forty Days though not by Legal Direction yet by their own Choice notwithstanding any thing said in this place If too we understand the time when these Forty Days were first imposed by common Consent to have been that of the Nicene Council this is no more than we before had from his Master St. Chrysostome But if he means some elder Times and he may the very first Age For they began to be luke-warm very early as we learn from some parts of the New Testament we have then a Testimony from Cassian of a much higher Antiquity for this Quadragesimal Institution However that which he adds concerning the Imposition of Forty Days whenever it began that it was no hinderance to the Perfect is very observable and to be consider'd by all Pretenders to Perfection For the Injunction he intimates though not made for the Perfect would however be kept by them and they would shew they were under Grace by Exceeding and not by Transgressing the Ecclesiastical Law In as much as he that fasts every day will not fail to fast forty and he that is ready to offer his whole Time will not hold back the Tenth § III. WE see how far Cassian's Expressions are from any Reflexion upon the Institution of Lent and those of St. Jerome alledg'd usually for the same Purpose apparently require the same Construction and need only to be seen if the Reader will bear the length of the Passage e Some may say if it be not lawful to observe Days and Months c. we then are under the like Guilt who observe Wednesday and Friday and the Lord ' s Day and the Fast of the Forty Season and the Holy Days of the Passover and the Joy of the Pentecost and the several Days that are kept in several Countries in Honour of Martyrs To this he that will give the plain Answer will reply That the Days the Jews observe are not the same with ours For we do not celebrate the Passover of Vnleavened Bread but of the Resurrection and the Cross neither do we in Pentecost reckon the Seven Weeks with the Jews
a Viris Prudentibus constitutos qui magis seculo vacant quam Deo nec possunt immo nolunt toto in Ecclesia vitae suae tempore congregari Quotus enim quisque est qui saltem bâ—co pauca quae staâ—uta sunt vel Orandi tempora vel Jejunandi semper exerceat CHAP. X. § I. Sozomen's Account of the keeping of Lent in his Time about Ann. Chr. 440. § II. What Additions have been made since § III. Socrates his Account of the Practice of the same Age I suppose by the Novatians § IV. His Wonder That Lents of differing Lengths should all of them be called the Forty Season § V. The Conclusion § I. THE Novatians who held it unlawful to re-admit any into the Church who had either renounc'd the Faith in time of Persecution or had committed some other grievous Crimes and who had on this account themselves renounc'd the Communion of the Church in St. Cyprian's time about the middle of the Third Century were now greatly divided among themselves in this Age about the Observation of Easter the same Dispute which the Authority of the Nicene Council had composed among the Catholicks now breaking out among those Schismaticks and making a new and very angry Schism between them This Quarrel of theirs Sozomen relates and upon occasion of it he mentions the peaceable Behaviour of Anicetus and Polycarp remembred on the same Subject by Ireneus and in Imitation of the same Author and to shew that it is not fit to break Communion about such Traditional Differences he represents at large the great Variety of Usages in the Churches of his time professing the same Faith a That among the Scythians there is but one Bishop over all their Cities whereas in Arabia c. there are Bishops in Villages That in Rome there are no more than seven Deacons and they sing Halleluiah there but once in the Year on Easter Sunday that there either b the Bishop preaches or some one else but in Alexandria the Bishop only c. And he adds the Forty Season as it is called before Easter in which the People use to fast some reckon by six Weeks as those of Illyricum do and all Europe westward and those of Africk and Aegypt and Palestine some by seven as in Constantinople and the Countries about it as far eastward as the Phoenicians And some fast three of the six or seven Weeks discontinued and some the three before Easter together and some two as the Followers of Montanus That the Followers of Montanus kept their Lent the Fortnight before Easter we find here and have observed in its proper place § II. WHAT the Author says concerning the different Reckoning of the Forty Season in the West and in the East is not only observable for the History of his time but for the understanding of modern Practice The Western Empire with Aegypt and Palestine accounted the Forty two Days of six Weeks to be their Forty Season as the LXXII Interpreters are commonly called the LXX but of these they fasted only Thirty six all the Sundays being exempted The Eastern Empire Palestine and Aegypt then excepted call'd seven Weeks that is Forty nine Days their Forty Season for they were still under the Number Fifty But then because they did not think it fit to fast on the Sabbath no more than on the Sunday unless only on the Saturday of Passion-Week they likewise deducting their seven Sundays and six Saturdays fasted effectually no more than thirty six Days Since that time the Greek Church that they may in some sort be nearer to the Number Forty have added an Eighth Week of previous Abstinence beginning on those five days to fast from Flesh though they allow themselves the use of Eggs and Milk and Cheese and Butter things from which in the seven following Weeks they strictly forbear And they besides for an Introduction to this whole Fast set apart another ninth Week wherein they specially prepare for it by Confession of their own Sins and Forgiveness of the Sins of others against themselves This is the additional Practice of the Greeks And the Latines likewise have enlarg'd their Lent and whereas before they rather adjusted the space of Time within which they kept their Fast than the number of Days they did actually fast to the Number Forty forty two being nearer to Forty than thirty six they have since thought it better to make up the Number Forty precisely of such fafling Days and have therefore added Four to the former beginning on the Wednesday of the seventh Week as is well known § III. WHAT we have from Sozomen is express and without Dispute what follows from Socrates is more confus'd and ambiguous but may serve however to give us some light He writing at the same time with Sozomen and taking the same occasion from the Novatian difference to enter upon the like Discourse says among other things b 2 Those of the same Faith differ in their Vsages The Fast for Example before Easter is differently observed in different places For those in Rome fast Three continued Weeks before Easter except Saturdays and Sundays But the Illyrians and Grecians of Europe and Alexandrians keep a Fast of Six Weeks before Easter calling it the Forty Season And besides these there are others who beginning seven Weeks before and fasting by Intervals only Three Weeks of five Days a-piece call that space of Time nevertheless the Forty Season And I can't but wonder how those who differ so in the Number of the Days should agree to give them that common Name of which Denomination several inquisitive Men have given several Accounts Neither is there a difference only about the Number of Days but about the Abstinence of their Diet. Some abstain from all that has Life some eat of no Animal but Fish some of Birds too some abstain from Fruits and Eggs some take only dry Bread and some admit not that but others Eating not till Three in the Afternoon after that use their Liberty And infinite are the differences about these things concerning which we have no written Precept and thence it is plain that they are left by the Apostles to every one 's own Judgment and Choice that every one may voluntarily do what is Good not for Fear or out of Necessity This Account of Socrates has been much question'd in what relates to Rome it being apparent from Sozomen and otherwise That in that time not Three Weeks but Six were observed in that City He himself too afterwards says that they fasted there all Saturdays as they are known to have done in that Age from other hands excepting that before Easter only The Author for this has met with a very hard Censure from some others have endeavoured to salve the Matter with new Readings and Valesius stands so much on his side as to take up the Paradox and justifie every Tittle he is supposed to say against all Opponents But it may be the fairer way would be
if they reckoned by different Years or by different Beginnings of the same sort of Year So those Montanists in Sozomen (e) Lib. 7. cap. 18. who went by the Solar Year and kept the Resurrection-day on some Sunday near the sixth of April would no more agree with those who placed it by the 14th day of the first Lunar Month of the Jews than the 14th day of the Moon 's Age would always be upon the same day of April And so those who agreed to use the Year of the Moon 's according to the Jewish Form might still differ among themselves if some followed the erroneous Calculation of their cotemporary Jews and begun their Year sooner than Moses had directed as the Christians of Cilicia Mesopotamia and Syria did before the Council of Nice and if others amending the Jewish Calendar stayed till the Aequinox according to the Original Appointment as the rest of the World did to whom those Easterns therefore by the direction of that Council in a little while conformed And further those who were so far agreed as to keep their Easter-day on a Sunday and to observe the same Reformed Jewish Year might yet differ in their placing of the Sunday in that Year Some as the Latines (f) Buch. in Victorii Can. Pasc c. 11. assigning it to the 16th day of the first Month on which day our Saviour was by them supposed to have arose and thenceforth to any of the six days after on which the Sunday should happen and some to the 15th day the first and great day of the Jewish Paschal Feast and thenceforward to any of the six days after of the same Jewish Solemnity a Practice to which the Western Church has since agreed as the Alexandrians used to do who supposing the Resurrection to have been on the 17th f might think they came near enough to it when the Sunday was never to be further from it than two days before or four after And some might allow it to be on the 14th day the day in which the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed as amongst others the old Brittish Inhabitants of our Isle were found to do who if they thought our Saviour to have risen on the 16th day placed their Easter-Sunday as exactly near it as the Alexandrians plac'd theirs and if they thought he rose on the 17th they were yet more exact than any and put it as near as was possible so as never to be more distant from it than three days either before or behind it For such Reasons our old Predecessors might have thought fit thus to keep their Easter however they were blamed by our Austin for it and afterwards call'd Hereticks and Quartodecimani a term of Dislike more justly given to those of whom we are going to speak and who occasion'd this too nice and too long Digression which the Reader therefore finds in another Letter that he may if he pleases pass it over § III. THE most likely Question to happen concerning the Place of the Yearly Resurrection-Day whether it should be always kept on a Sunday or no was the great Controversie between the Churches of Lesser Asia and Rome and in which all Christendom became ingag'd a Dispute managed by the Bishop of Rome too warmly but which has done so much good as to give occasion for the preserving some Records relating to this part of the History of Christianity by which we are certainly inform'd of the Great and Universal Antiquity of Easter and its preceding Fast. Those Asiatick Churches besides their singularity in breaking off their Fast on the 14th day celebrated the Solemnity of the Resurrection on a fixt day of the first Month of the Jews whatever day of the Week it prov'd to be and the rest of the Christian World if it happened not to be a Sunday observed it on some Sunday near it But both the Parties kept the Festival and each of them contended That it had been so kept in their several Churches from their first Plantation For about this Matter at the Request of Victor Bishop of Rome the several Bishops of Christendom met in their several Synods and all of them except those of Asia properly so called agreed on these two Points as deriv'd to them from Apostolical Tradition 1. That the Solemnity of our Saviour's Resurrection was not to be celebrated on any other day but the Lord's Day 2. And that the Paschal Fast ought not to be ended till that Day This was the Answer of all those Synods to the Questions in difference and the Returns of many of them are mentioned by Eusebius to have been extant in his time g The general Result of those Synodical Determinations which Eusebius gives us is sufficient to satisfie us That the Bishops of both sides were fully possess'd of the Apostolical Tradition of their different Customs of observing Easter And such an uniform Concurrence of so many venerable Persons from such distant Places about such a solemn and observable a Practice and at a time no more remote from the Age of the Apostles cannot but induce us to give credit to this their single Affirmation as it is by him Authentically reported For as to the time of this Dispute it is well judg'd to have been agitated about the Year 190 of our Lord's Birth not 160 after his Passion and Resurrection the Memorial of which we now speak of not much above 120 Years from the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul nor above 90 after the Death of St. John § IV. GREAT Regard is therefore to be had to the Judgement of the whole Christian Church of that time which Eusebius summarily reports to us g of their Tradition concerning Easter Had indeed the several Answers the Bishops of the Provinces sent remain'd to our days or had Eusebius given us more Extracts of them we could not have fail'd of many remarkable Particularities alledged by them in Favour and Justification of this general Assertion But they are all lost neither was it agreeable to that Historian's purpose to fill his Books with Proofs for the Antiquity of this Solemnity a Matter in his days never doubted by any For which Reason neither does he give us out of them any Instances in Confirmation of that particular Usage in which the great part of the World agreed with Victor and which afterwards generally prevail'd He rather thought fit at a time when the Asiatick Custom was left off to preserve some little Account of what they had to say for their singular Fashion and even out of that little we shall be able to see how well the general Tradition was grounded Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus the chief of the Asiaticks in his Letter to Victor a Fragment of which Eusebius gives (h) Euseb Eccl. Hist 5.24 professes That they kept the true Day unfalsified and then says in answer I suppose to Victor who had boasted of the Sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul and other Saints from whose Authority he might have
recommended the Custom of his side That there were too deposited in Asia the Remains of very great Saints and Martyrs Philip and his three Daughters St. John who lay in our Lord's breast Polycarp Thraseas Sagaris and Melito who all had kept the 14th day of the Passover according to the Gospel and so adds he have I according to the Tradition of my Kinsmen or Countrymen or my Predecessors in this See i with some of whom I conversed They were seven and I am the eighth and they always kept the Day when Leaven was forbid I therefore who am now 65 Years old in the Lord and have conversed with our Brethren of the whole World and have perused all holy Scripture am not at all moved at those who trouble and threaten me For my Betters have said God is rather to be obeyed than Man This Holy Man was himself a great Evidence of the Antiquity of the Custom for which he stands He was about the 8th Bishop from St. John for however the Word is to be rendered about so many sate in the same interval at Rome and writes this about 90 Years after his Death when he himself had been a Christian 65 Years of them and able to testifie of all those Years if he was baptized Adult as they then generally were We may too think that he had some particular Instances in his View of the Practice of those Persons whose Names he vouches if we may infer from what we chance to know of two of them Melito and Polycarp For Melito who was Bishop of Sardes had as Eusebius tells us in another place (k) Hist Eccl. 4.26 some twenty Years before wrote a Treatise of the Lord's Day and two Books concerning the Passover or the Christian Solemnity at that time of the Year there having been a great Dispute raised about it at Laodicea then when Sagaris the Bishop of that Place named here by Polycrates received his Martyrdom a Dispute I suppose of the same nature with This. And in it Polycarp here too mentioned had been engaged before who went to Rome as St. Jerome (l) Catal. Scâ—ip Eccl. expresses it about some Questions concerning the Paschal Observation in Anicetus his Pontificate And the Conversation which he had with Anicetus about that Subject we have related by Irenaeus a Disciple of Polycarp's and who had been bred up in Asia He now Bishop of Lyons in France though declaring for Victor yet interposing and endeavouring to moderate the Heat of the Controversie in a piece which Eusebius has sav'd of that Letter (m) 5.24 among other things told Victor as follows And the Presbyters before Soter who presided in the Church which you now govern I mean Anicetus and Pius and Hyginus and Telesphorus and Xystus neither kept the 14th day themselves nor permitted those of their Church to do it And nevertheless they not keeping it held Communion with those who came from other Dioceses where it was kept Although then when they were together in Rome the keeping it was more contrary to those who kept it not n And none were ever refus'd Communion for this Matter But the Presbyters before you who kept it not sent the Eucharist to those of the Dioceses who kept it And when Blessed Polycarp was at Rome in Anicetus his time and there were some Differences between them about other things They presently agreed never proceeding to have any Contention on this Subject Anicetus not prevailing with Polycarp to forego a Custom which he had all along observ'd with St. John the Disciple of our Lord and the other Apostles with whom he had conversed and Anicetus alledging That he for his part ought to keep the Custom of the Bishops his Predecessors And these things standing so they communicated together and in the Congregation Anicetus gave Polycarp the Respect of Celebrating the Eucharist and they departed from each other in Peace in all the Churches those who kept and those who did not keep preserving Peace and Communion one with another Here then we have Polycarp a Disciple of St. John attesting to the Asian Tradition an undeniable Witness of its Apostolical Antiquity We know too that this Discourse of his with Anicetus must be at farthest in the year 161 if we reckon Anicetus his Death with Bishop Pearson and in the year 153 if with Mr. Dodwell between 30 and 40 years before this Dispute of Victor's And indeed it seems plain from the same piece of Irenaeus his Letter that this Difference had been taken notice of almost from St. John's time though mutually tolerated For to that purpose he mentions the behaviour of Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Xystus all Bishops of Rome up to the year of our Lord 101 by Bishop Pearson 102 by Mr. Dodwell very near the time of St. John's Decease From all which we see not only what good Authority the Asiaticks disputing with Victor had for their Tradition but that this matter had been long before brought into Question and made so remarkable very early that those of both sides must have had some distinct and more than general remembrance of the successive Practice of their several Customs convey'd down to them Neither indeed could those of Victor's Judgment have ever oppos'd the Asiatick Observation whose Antiquity was so well prov'd if they had not produc'd on their side as good Evidence for their own such Evidence I say as they might well be furnisht with from the elder Memorials of the same debate And thus did both sides of this Great Dispute however they differ'd in the particular manner of their Paschal Observation absolutely agree in the general concerning the Apostolical Antiquity of it A little while after this time Clemens of Alexandria wrote a Treatise concerning the Paschal Observation and some Dissertations concerning Fasting all which are lost And the Design of his Paschal Book as Eusebius tells us (o) Eus Eccl. H. l. 6. c. 13. was to deliver down the Traditions which he had receiv'd from those before him about that subject and in it he made mention of Melito and Irenaeus whose Relations he set down Hippolitus likewise a Bishop and Martyr a Disciple of Irenaeus in the year 221 wrote a Book of the Paschal Season in which (p) Eus E. H. lib. 6. c. 22. as Eusebius says he gives an Account of the past Times by a repeated Cycle of 16 Years concluding in the first Year of Alexander the Emperour's Reign which Book is wanting But a Table of his engraven in Stone was happily dug up at Rome the last Age which beginning at that first Year of Alexander gives all the Easter Days which were then to come for 112 Years with as much Formality and Method as they have been us'd to be calculated since (q) Apud Bâ—â—her in Vidorium Such express Accounts of the Paschal Season there have been heretofore given very near the Apostles times which had they been preserved might have more particularly informed us
end at the Time of our Saviour's Resurrection A Bishop of the Neighbourhood having been troubled about this Nicety sends to Dionysius the Famous Bishop of that Capital City for a Resolution and his Answer here follows d You wrote to me right Trusty and most excellent Son inquiring what Hour of Easter-Day the Fast should end For some Brethren you say think it ought to end at Cock-Crow and some the Evening before For the Brethren of Rome as they say wait for the Crowing of the Cock and those here you tell me are something sooner But you desire me to give you the exact Hour and that very precisely and scrupulously determin'd a thing troublesomely nice and in which it is easie to mistake This indeed will be agreed by all That we ought to begin our Festival Joy after our Saviour's Resurrection Humbling our Souls with Fasting till that time comes But you have proved in your Letter very well from the Holy Gospels That it is not very exactly determined there at what Hour it was that he arose Those places of the Gospels he then considers and infers thus That the Setting out and the Going of the Disciples to the Sepulchre was in the deep of the Morning and very early but that they spent in their Going and about the Sepulchre to Sun-Rising This says he being the State of that Case To those who are so scrupulous as to inquire for the very Hour or Half or Quarter of an Hour when to begin the Festival we Answer thus We blame those who make too much haste and give over before Midnight And those who hold out longer and continue till the Fourth Watch we commend But to those who leave off in the mean time as their Inclination or Ability has served them we are not severe For not to be nice about Hours the Six Days of Fasting themselves are not kept equally and alike by All. Some continuing without Food pass over e the whole Six Days some Two some Three some Four and some not One. Now to those who have endured such Passings over without Sustenance and grow unable to hold out and are ready to faint to them leave is to be given for an earlier Refreshment But if there be any who have been so far from thus passing over the preceding Four Days that they have not so much as fasted f nay it may be have feasted and then coming to the Two last and onely Days and passing over the Friday and Saturday think they do a great thing if they hold on to Day-Break As to these I cannot think that they have strove alike for the Mastery with those who had been engaged in the Exercise more Days before Here is from great and unquestionable Authority a very accurate Account of the Manner in which the Christians of Alexandria and that Country passed the Week before Easter Nor is it to be doubted but that those generally of other Places observed it with more than ordinary Abstinence though they might not come up to all this Austerity and though the Aegyptian Christians as well as Jews for so I take Philo's Essenes to have been may have been the greatest Fasters each of their own Religion Some we are told wholly abstain'd from Food or pass'd over all the Six Days some Four beginning with Wednesday some Three and some Two And these last did the least of those who pretended to Pass Over for he mentions none who thought fit to begin on the Saturday and so to pass over but One whole Day He mentions indeed some who pass'd over not so much as One but it is plain that these were very few in comparison of the Rest and it is besides observable that those who did not Pass over a day altogether might however in the Language of this Author have Fasted a day till the Evening and in this manner it is probable they that Pass'd not over one day did however Fast more than one and possibly all the Six in the self-same Manner in which we now keep the most solemn of our Fasts Such Abstinence was us'd in the Passion-Week at Alexandria and in probability in most other Churches for the Account of Dionysius begins with the mention of Rome and Other places and does not at all seem to appropriate the Practice to that single City When therefore St. Cyprian a Cotemporary and Correspondent of Dionysius speaks occasionally of the first Solemnities of the Passover which detained his Brethren the Bishops at their own Churches g we may very well understand them to be the Devotions of the Holy Week and suppose that the Season of Seven Days before Easter and Seven after which by the Law of Theodosius the Great was made a Vacation in the Courts of Justice h had been before kept holy by the pious Usage of the elder Christians And this will seem the less strange if we reflect upon the Practice of the Jews about the same Season We shall hereafter endeavour to shew that very much of the Christian Usages were derived from them and it will not be deny'd by any That our Easter answers in some sort to their Passover-Day and the Seven Holy-days after the one to the Seven after the other This is acknowledg'd but it is not improbable that the Days before Easter had some such regard too The Monday of that Week we have seen in the last Chapter was supposed to be the Day in which the High-Priests resolved on our Saviour's Death as it was appointed in their Law for the Day in which they were to single out their Paschal Lamb and this as we there observed may have seemed sufficient Reason to the Ancient Christians to begin their stricter Devotion then But it is besides observable and remarked by Theophylact i That the Jews commonly began to make Entertainments and commenced their Festivity the Day before that on which he supposes our Saviour was entertained at Bethany the sixth day before the Passover if they did not earlyer And this in the general is the more probable from the Appellation the Jews now give the Sabbath before the Passover calling it the Great Sabbath a Greatness I suppose in which the rest of the days of that Week had their share For as the Scripture tells us (k) John 11.55 That many came up before the Passover to purifie themselves and to offer Sacrifices for their Sins so too we may presume many came to pay the Peace-Offerings they had vow'd and of them the most solemn the Eucharistical were not capable by reason of their Leavened Bread which accompanied them (l) Levit. 7.13 to be offered on any of the latter seven days and made up therefore as we have reason to think the Solemnity of the Season before Now if those days before the Passover were thus distinguished among the Jews by their Festivity they might be among Christians as much distinguished by their Abstinence according to the Rule of that Apostolical Constitution produc'd by the Audaeans for
not to understand him of the Practice of the Catholicks of which Sozomen and others speak but of the Novatians of whose Affairs all own that he had a particular Knowledge if he was not inclined to their Sect. From their Dispute it was he enter'd upon this Discourse and from some Memorials of theirs he may have drawn up something of this Account which otherwise might easily have been as plain and full as that of Sozomen had it not been wrote in a different View And so if we suppose the Regard to Forty Days to have first prevail'd universally from the Council of Nice we may suppose that the Novatians having had no share in that Council continued at least at Rome in their old Custom and kept on their Three Weeks If this Conjecture pass for the Three Weeks I should then either think that the Romans had not begun to fast on Saturday till after the Novatians had left them Or that a Word or rather a Numeral Letter c should be supplied in the Original and Thursday be understood a Day as St. Augustine tells us d not commonly fasted in his Time and possibly not in Lent by the Romans in the Time of Novatian § IV. BUT on this I lay no stress and shall only take notice of the Remark which Socrates makes with some Wonder That Numbers of Days so different should all have the same Denomination and be call'd from the Number Forty It is plain that neither the Western nor Eastern Church of his Time did measure adequately either the Days they fasted or the Term of Days within which they fasted by the Number of Forty but however a regard they had to it and a Forty Season they all pretended to keep We have withal seen how that Denomination obtain'd so much that all spaces of Fasting and in all Seasons of the Year were call'd by it For so St. Jerome term'd the Two Fasts instituted by Montanus (e) Ch. 4. Note g though they were but of a Week each of them and in other times of the Year What Reasons were then assigned for this Common Name Socrates tells us not and I wish we knew It should seem at first sight That the Christians aspired in a Fast of so great Devotion to the Imitation of the most Solemn Fasts recorded in Scripture those of Moses and Elias and that particularly of their blessed Master And then when the Church had once fix'd upon that Number of Days for their Example in general the Fasts of lesser duration might well go under the same Name by an easie Metonymie But all this will be yet more natural if those Fasts so recorded were rather miraculous in the Manner than singular in the Extent of Days and the Number Forty had been always with the Jews the proper Number for an extraordinary Humiliation a Conjecture we are to offer hereafter in the other Part of this Discourse § V. AND thus have we viewed the Practice of Lent through the first 400 Years We have seen in the last of those Centuries when Christianity came to be more openly professed under the Christian Emperours and abounded in Writers many express and undeniable Testimonies of the general Observation though in a different manner of the Forty Season then commonly so called from Forty Days In the next Age above it the Third and as high too as the middle of it a time that affords us not many Authors and when there was little occasion to speak of this Matter we have however a very punctual Account of their strict Manner of keeping the Passion-Week from one of the greatest Men of the Church who happen'd to be consulted about a Nicety of Ending this Lent And that their great Strictness in the Holy Week equal to any that was used after may well induce us to imagine That these Men had not left the Devotion of all the preceding Weeks to be added by the very next Generation Especially when we find the Forty Season expresly mentioned in Origen a Master of this Dionysius as consecrated to Fasting For that place of Origen though we have it only from the Version of Ruffinus and he none of the most exact Translatours yet certainly if he was not the worst that ever was is much more likely to be truly render'd than wrong there being no reason to fasten the Falsity on this Word more than on any other of the Sentence nor any wonder to find that spoke of now which not long after was celebrated so much But to proceed we have seen further from Tertullian an Author to be reckon'd to the Second Century as well as to the Third that the Days in which our Lord was taken away Good-Friday and the Holy Saturday at least if not the whole Week were in the Opinion of the Church of his Time to be fasted by all from Apostolical Authority and that no other Days were to be fasted necessarily and as by Divine Precept but at Discretion only and as Christians should think fit in Godly Prudence Upon the account of which Discretionary Uncertainty the Argument he was engag'd in made it not proper for him to say any more concerning them nor to tell us the several Customs of several Churches about that Arbitrary part of Lent though it may otherwise be collected even from him that there was then such an Additional Time observed But to go yet higher and nearer to the Apostolical Age about the Year 190 and not 90 from the Death of St. John Irenaeus a Venerable and now a very Old Bishop who had conversed familiarly with the great Polycarp as Polycarp had with St. John and other Apostles has happened to let us know though incidentally only the various observation of his Time that some thought they ought to fast One some Two and some More Days and some Forty as we have learn'd too in the general both from him and the Bishops of almost the whole Church concurrently with him that some such Ante-Paschal Fast had been all along observed in all Places up to the Time of the Apostles themselves a Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b In this place that our Witness may be the more credible hereafter in our Cause I have ordered at a small Correction of the Text to reconcile it to the Truth of the Fact For it has been abundantly proved and particularly by Quesnel in his Edition of Leo That the Bishop of Rome preached there very often in Sozomen's time who is therefore commonly delivered up here to a Charge of â—gaerâ—â—â— anâ— Negligâ—â—ce whereas a very slight Change of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing in which Criticks are not used to be difficult in Favour of any Author would have saved his Credit and rectifiâ—d â—he whole Matter b 2 Socrat. Hist Eâ—â—les 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e The Guess I intimate is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
People and as they had Moses for their Leader and Law-giver under God their King and also Chief Priest for he consecrated Aaron and his Sons so are we a Society or Body united in One Head our Lord Jesus who under the Father is our King and High Priest And accordingly we succeed to the Stile and Title of the Children of Israel (a) Exod. 19.5 6. Deut. 7.6 and their Dignity and Privileges are devolved upon us For so are we become a peculiar People which Christ has purified to himself (b) Tit. 2.14 We are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father (c) Rev. 1.6 We are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation (d) 1 Pet. 2.9 § II. THIS his People Our Prince and High-Priest himself still Governs but by such subordinate Officers below as are denominated from the Jews and also with the same Discipline as far as was consistent with his Empire which was to be neither Local nor Temporal not dependent upon any one place nor regarding Worldly Interests The Officers of the Christian Church mentioned in the Scripture are Apostles Bishops Elders and Deacons and what signification such Titles did bear in the Church of Israel we are now to see Only I am to premise That as we shall find all those Titles in several significations so we are to observe the same of the Words Church and Synagogus to whom those Titles belong For each of these as is well known signifies either the People united under the same Covenant a Society or a Local Assembly of those of that Society or the Place where they are to Assemble The highest Office of the New Testament is that of the Apostles and it is a term of large signification both in Greek and Hebrew or Chaldee It is in both Languages the same as Sent a and so may stand for a common Messenger Deputy or Mandatary or for an Envoy from some great Person for an Embassador Ordinary or Extraordinary or any Plenipotentiary-Commissioner With the Jews therefore the Minister of the Synagogue who takes care of the Business of it under the Superiour Governours and reads the Prayers and who is call'd now more commonly Chazan (b) See §. VI. is also known by this Name as being the Deputy of the Congregation It is said too c that he goes by that Name with them who was sent by the Priests to collect their Dues the First-Fruits and Tenths and so they are term'd in the Imperial Law Neither do I find that the Talmud speaks of any higher Authority under that Style nor I suppose will the Rabbins themselves pretend that they have a compleat Information of all their former Government But however it is certain from Epiphanius that it was the Name of such Plenipotentiary-Commissioners as were sent by the chief of the Jews the High-Priest or Patriarch not only to gather Money but to visit and reform a Province and to confirm and displace its Officers For so he says d of one Josephus who was sent with that Power from their Patriarch then residing in Palestine into Cilicia that he brought back to him the Tenths and First Fruits of the Province and besides had displac'd there many of their Rulers of the Synagogues and of their Priests and of their Elders and of their Azanites which are their Deacons or Ministers And before d 2 Apostles are describ'd to be Men of great Authority who are Assessors to the Patriarch Answerable in some manner to this different acception of the Word with the Jews is the Use of it in the Christian Church For it is observ'd that Epaphroditus is call'd by St. Paul (e) Phil. 2.25 an Apostle of the Philippians in an inferior Sence for the Office he discharg'd of conveying their Contribution to him their great Apostle and as it were Patriarch And such it is justly suppos'd those Brethren were who are spoke of to the Corinthians in a Discourse concerning Contributions and are term'd (f) 2 Cor. 8.23 the Apostles of the Churches the Glory of Christ But this Name imported a higher Dignity and greater Power when it was attributed to the Twelve or to St. Paul They were as Assessors to Christ our Priest and our King hereafter in the places of the Princes of the Tribes to sit on Twelve Thrones and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel (g) Matt. 19.28 and in the mean time endued with Power from above to Act and Speak in his Name and to Govern his Church appointing Officers and prescribing Orders Of this sort was Saint Paul and such an Apostle he professes himself (h) 1 Cor. 15.9 not worthy to be call'd And further as They all were in this manner Apostles of Christ so is Christ himself said (i) Heb. 3.1 to be our Apostle as well as High-Priest being (k) John 20.21 SENT by the Father as they were sent by Him § III. NEXT to the Apostles are Bishops And this too is a Word that signifies at large both in the Hebrew and Greek a of the Old Testament In the Greek of the Septuagint it is said of the Officers of an Army both Captains over hundreds and Captains over thousands (a 2) Nu. 31.14 2 Kings 11.15 of the Provost or Alderman of a Ward (b) Neh. 11.9 of Overseers of Works and Payments (c) 2 Chr. 34. And so the Office is an Oversight or Charge as Eleazar had the Oversight and Charge of all the Tabernacle (d) Num. 4.16 and his Office or Charge let another take (e) Psal 109.8 The word answering to this in the Hebrew denotes a Steward over a Houshold (f) Gen. 39.5 a Superintendant over a City (g) 41.34 and in the Temple it stands for the Head and Director of any Office And the Overseer or Officer of the High-Priest (h) 2 Chr. 24.11 is said by Rabbi Salomon on the place to be the High-Priest's Vicegerent usually call'd the Sagan (i) Jer. 20.1 as also the chief Governour in the House of the Lord k is understood to be by Jonathan the Targumist l whom Kimchi m therefore stiles the High Overseer under the High-Priest Thus is this Word found to signifie in the Old Testament but the Talmudists as far as I can see take no notice of its Office and leave us to be informed of this as well as of the Apostleship from other hands The same Word in the Greek of the New Testament is taken in some Latitude too First of all our blessed Lord himself is call'd the Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls (m) 1 Pet. 2 25. as having the chief Oversight and Care of the Flock In a lower degree the Office of Bishoprick mention'd in the 109th Psalm is apply'd to the Apostleship which Judas lost and Matthias took (n) Acts 1.20 And yet lower Those also who are called Presbyters are at the same time named Bishops as those Presbyters or Elders which S. Paul sent for
are to read such a one as that Minister is suppos'd to be to whom our Saviour when he had clos'd the Book gave it again And this Minister has commonly under him another Servant of the Synagogue a Sacristan who looks to it and keeps all things safe and clean § VII TO these Civil and Religious Officers of the Jewish Synagogue Deacons I suppose are answerable Bishops and Deacons or Presbyters and Deacons being join'd together in the New Testament as Judges and Officers were in the old Now in the Christian Use the word Deacon or Minister is very differently applied according as the Services are different in which he is imploy'd Our Saviour is the Minister of Circumcision (a) Rom. 15.8 a King the Minister of God (b) Rom. 13.14 And the Apostles Ministers of Christ (c) 1 Cor. 4.1 But a Minister or Deacon absolutely so call'd in the New Testament is an Officer under the Bishop or Presbyter and the first appointed were the seven (d) Act. 6. Ordain'd by the Apostles with Imposition of hands These were Men of Honest Report who were to ease the Apostles of the Administration of the Charitable Revenue of the Church not to be Gatherers of the Basket I suppose or Servers of Tables for that the Apostles sure did not do before but to be Treasurers and Superintendants such as were the Seven of the Temple or the Goodmen above-mention'd of a City For though the Greek word for Ministring does sometimes signify to wait and serve at a Table yet as we just now noted it is by no means restrain'd to that low sense but is said as well of the Office of our Blessed Lord and of his Apostles and also of Kings that is of any the Noblest Administrations and may therefore answer the word Parnas in its Highest meaning Neither is it at all necessary that the Office of a Deacon should be wholly Oeconomical because it was first erected in the Christian Church on that occasion While the whole Church was yet but as one Family under the immediate Government of the Apostles and they had not yet Created any other Officers the first Officers were indeed instituted upon the first emergent want and were order'd then especially to take care of that and to manage the publick expence but they were also to be as we may well suppose subservient to the Apostles in other administrations and to Publish and Execute all their Orders For the Qualification of them was to be full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom and certainly a Wisdom beyond that of common managery and a Spirit more than Oeconomical was then understood Though therefore those Deacons were not to give themselves up to Prayer and the word only yet they might have had their part even in those Functions as St. Stephen we find had whose Preaching the Scripture records more than his Good Husbandry and who speaking by that Wisdom and Spirit for which he was but now chosen into his Office became the first Martyr as well as first Deacon of the Gospel These Deacons it should seem were Extraordinary attending Ministerially upon the Apostles as upon the twelve Princes of Israel having been created before the appointment of any Bishops or Subaltern Presbyters But afterwards in every City where Bishops or Presbyters were plac'd the Officers of this Order were constantly subjoin'd So the Epistle to the Philippians is addressed to the Saints there with the Bishops and Deacons and so in the Epistle to Timothy after Directions given concerning Bishops there follow others immediately concerning Deacons Likewise must the Deacons (e) 1 Tim. 3.8 And there we may observe the Qualifications of the lower Office are near the same with those of the Higher and as much almost requir'd in the Deacon enough to induce us to think that some Spiritual Duty was also to be discharg'd by Him So much Reason there is from Scripture to conclude that Christian Deacons did not only Keep and Dispense the Publick Contributions as the Jewish Parnasim but that they serv'd under their Superiors even in the Ministery of the Word and Prayer as we shall certainly find them hereafter (f) Chap. VIII to be Attendant upon their Bishops upon all other Business and particularly employ'd in Assemblies in the Office of a Jewish Chasan § II. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Grot. in Matth. c. 10. v. 5. d Epiphan Haeres 30.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. Haeres eâd. § IV. § III. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitavit Praefecit cui respondet Arabicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conjugat octav Inquisivit Inspexit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponitur per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l The Chaldee of the Targum is much the same with the Hebrew of Rabbi Salomon m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § IV. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senatus Seignieur Alderman Vid. Selden de Synedr l. 1. c. 14. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De quibus consuli poterit Rhenfordius Dissertat Philolog 1. de decem Oâ—iosis Synag § 109. c. § VI. a Upon those Words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Salomon expounds the last by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Aben Ezra by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And upon this occasion I would only offer whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.28 may not be understood of this Office as it was supply'd by the Deacons of the New Testament according to what is propos'd in the next Section And this the rather because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned just before these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well be taken for Presbyters the Word in the Old Testament by which their Duty is express'd and which we translate Bear the Burden with thee Exod. 18.22 Numb 11.17 being in both places render'd in the Septuagint by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Offices I would suppose had in the Beginning of the Gospel the Spiritual Gifts of proper Abilities as the first Seventy Elders were endued with a Portion of Moses his Spirit which is judged too by the Jews not to have rested upon them long much less to have continued to the Order For as to the Higher Degrees with which the Apostle there begins of first Apostles secondarily Prophets to which Evangelists are subjoin'd in the Enumeration made Ephes 4.11 and thirdly Doâ—tours these also may well be taken to bear Proportion to the different Distributions of the Holy Spirit which the Masters of the Jews observe to have been made to the Authors of the Old Testament and according to which they are known to divide its Volumes The First consisting of the Five Books of Moses their great Apostle the Next of the Prophets whom they distinguish by the First as Joshua Judges c. and by the Latter as Isaiah Jeremiah c.
abesse sub dio versari cum pecoribus suis procul ab hominibus pastum recedere these Two Sorts of People with those that liv'd in Wall'd Houses making up the whole Number of the Children of Israel CHAP. VI. § I. Circumstances ralating to Baptism under Five Heads practis'd in the Church of Christ in the Second Century § II. These all agreeable to Jewish Custom and First in General as to the Persons baptiz'd and Baptizing and the Solemn Time of Baptism § III. In Particular Secondly as to the Distinction and Instruction of its Candidates § IV. Thirdly As to the Action of Baptism § V. Fourthly Its Confirmation § VI. And Lastly the Sequel and Close of the whole Ceremony § I. HOW much the Ordinances of Christianity Recorded in the Scripture agree with those of the Jewish Church we have seen Now several Circumstantials of those Ordinances are remembred to have been practis'd in the next Age as well as several other Usages of which the Scripture is silent and whether they were not deriv'd from the Jews also we now come to consider I begin with the Rituals and Circumstances of Baptism many of which were undoubtedly practis'd very early in the second Age being mention'd by Tertullian at the latter end of it as used then by the Church time out of Mind Now this Author in his Treatise which he writ expresly of Baptism and besides scatteringly in other places hath happily inform'd us both in general concerning the Persons capable of Receiving this Sacrament Those Able to give it and the Common Time of Administring it and also particularly concerning the Administration of it letting us know some Circumstantials of the Preparation to the Action of the Action it self of the Seal or Confirmation of it and of the Solemnity that afterwards attended it First What I have added in this Column for Explication is taken out of other Authors not later than the IVth Century The Church at that time Baptized Children their Godfathers undertaking for 'em a as well as Grown Persons and the Solemn Time for the Administration of that Sacrament was b the Paschal Season 1 Saturday in the Evening before Easter-Day Cyril Cat. Myst 1. Ambr. de Sacram. 1.1 The High Priest who is the Bishop had the Right of conferring it and the Presbyters and Deacons by his Authority tho' the Lay-Men in Case of Necessity had Right to give it also c Secondly The Church then made a Distinction d between the common Gentile or Jew and one of them in some measure perswaded to Christianity called a Hearer or one under Instruction who profess'd Repentance for his past Life as well as between the last sort and a perfect Christian 2 Those of the Middle Kind and not yet Christians were also at least afterwards subdistinguished The Hearers were such as had been informed of some general and Preliminary Points of the True Religion e and were half come over if Heathens having renounc'd their Idolatry and gross Immorality and if Jews acknowledging the True Messia but not yet intirely satisfied in all Points necessary suffered therefore to hear the Scriptures and Sermons for their further Conversion The Catechumens or those under Instruction were willing to become Christians and resolv'd it but either did not esteem themselves worthy as yet or were not fully approv'd by the Church and these had their particular Instruction from whence they were called and professing Repentance for the Sins of their Unconverted State had the Privilege to stay after Sermon and to have the Prayers of the Congregation for them and to be dismiss'd with a Blessing And lastly when they were admitted to stand for Baptism they then entered into a stricter Course of Repentance and had the peculiar Articles of the Faith more plainly inculcated called now the Enlightned and after frequent Examination and Scrutiny were at last Received into the Body of the Faithful f And those were not promiscuously admitted in its Assemblies but had their distinct places assign'd 'em 3 The Places of Assembly or Churches had commonly an Area or Court before them Cloyster'd on either Hand Fig. 2. aa beyond the Court to the East generally was the Building which we may conceive at present to have been in Three Divisions whether they were separated or not within by any Rais'd Partitions or distinguished without by any Difference of Structure The Lowermost next the Outer Doors we may call the Ante-Church Fig. 2. AB the Next was the Church CD and the Last the Apartment of the Altar or Sanctuary EF Now the Ante-Church was also subdivided into Two Parts and in the Lowermost Part or Portico A and next to the Court was the Place of the Hearers properly so call'd The Catechumens Station B was above them next to the Church And in the Head of them the Enlightned or Immediate Candidates were I suppose posted being those who were in a little while to proceed further and to be taken into the Church it self the Place of the Faithful And so the Faithful themselves were orderly disposed according to the Difference of their Sex and Age and the Church was likewise in Two distinct Parts having the Desk or Pulpit S in the Middle that Below the Desk answering near to the Body of our Collegiate Churches C belonging to the Women chiefly who were seated in the Sides of it beneath and in Galleries above cc and the Upper Part D belonging to the Men the Whole or the greater Portion of which is now taken up by our Choir g Thirdly The Person to be Baptized protested first among other things before the Congregation That he Renounc'd the Devil his Pomp and Angels h Thence he went to the Water and made the same Renunciation again 4 For being come to the Porch of the Baptistery he turned to the West and stretching out his Hands spoke to Satan as if present I renounce thee Satan c. Cyr. Cat. Myst and then turning to the East he said the Creed and going into the Baptistery he was stripp'd ibid. and then he dipp'd thrice with solemn Responses h 5 For being ask'd whether he believ'd in God the Father c. he answer'd I believe and was dipp'd and so at the second and third Questions concerning the other two Persons of the Trinity Cyrill Cat. M. 2. Ambr. de Sacr. 3.2 Fourthly When he came out of the Water he both tasted h of a mixture of Milk and Honey and was anointed i with the Blessed Oyntment the Chrism as heretofore the Sons of Aaron had been anointed to the Priesthood He was also sign'd k or seal'd with the Sign of the Cross on the Forehead 6 Some Difference of Practice there was here between the Latin and Greek Church In the Greek the Chrism was given by the Person that officiated on the Forehead as well as on the other Parts of the Body Cyril C. M. 3. as now their Priest Anoints the Baptiz'd signing them with the
Cross in the Forehead and Eyes and Nostrils and Ears and upon the Breast and on their Hands and Feet and leaves only Impositio of Hands to be conferr'd by the Bishop at any time afterward the Practice as I conceive of our Church l Whereas in the Latin Church the Priest anointed the other Parts pouring the Chrism upon the Head but it was reserv'd to the Bishop's confirmation to sign the Forehead with the Chrism at the same time he laid on his Hands Innoc. ad Decent And this signing they call'd the Spiritual Seal Ambros de Sacram. 3 2. the Holy Ghost being suppos'd to be given by that and the Imposition of Hands And this Confirmation the Bishop when present at the Baptism administer'd to the Baptiz'd when he had put on the white Garments after his first Anointing Ambros de â—is qui Myst Init. c. 7. And lastly Hands were laid upon him with a Blessing calling and inviting down the Holy Ghost m and as the same Author expresses it he was overshadowed by the Imposition of Hands n Fifthly The next Morning if not immediately on Easter-day they proceeded to the Eucharist k 7 In the Greek Church even the Infants receiving it and wore their white Garments all the next Week not allowing themselves the Use of Bathing for that time h 8 When also they had more perfectly expounded to them the Nature of those two great Mysteries the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist to which they had been lately admitted as we see in the Mystagogick Discourses of Cyril of Jerusalem made for that purpose § II. WITH so many Circumstances was the Initiation into the Church begun and perfected in those early days of Christianity neither is it to be imagin'd that all these Rituals were the pure Invention of such Simple Plain men as the first Christians appear to have been much less can it be thought that they were borrowed by those pious men from the Heathen Idolatry Whence therefore should most of these Circumstantials be deriv'd but from the same Religion from which the Sacrament it self was taken And whence else should They derive them who had been originally of that Religion or Well-willers to it as most of the first Christians were This conjectural Conclusion the account given above of Jewish Baptism (a) Ch. I. § 2 3. which we suppose the Reader to remember will confirm and it may be so far as to make us willing to suppose that a more exact Correspondence would have appear'd if the Information from the Jews had been less defective For First That the Jews proselyted Children by Baptism we have there seen and also that they requir'd Sureties for them which we shall the less doubt when we know that they do not Circumcise a Natural Jew withâ—ut a Godfather and Godmother (b) Buxt Syn. Jud. â— 4 The Passover also was their chief Festival and their Converts in probability capacited themselves by Baptism then particularly for its celebration neither could the natural Jews themselves (c) Maim de Sacrific Tract 1. cap. 9. § 9. partake of it if they had any Servant of their House Uncircumcis'd and as I suppose consequently Unbaptiz'd These sorts of men therefore I presume were amongst those who purified themselves before the Feast and added to the Solemnity of the Week or Fortnight before (d) Part 1. ch 5. § 3. And lastly tho' any Three would serve to confer it yet regularly it was to be done by commission from the Consistory and I presume by the Appointment of the Father or President of it to whom we suppose the Bishop to answer (e) Ch. 4. § 5. § III. Secondly There was likewise a great Distinction of Persons made by the Jews There was a Common Gentile and there was one who believ'd the Unity of God and took upon him to observe the Precepts to be kept by all the Descendants of Noah (a) Maim Tract de Regibus cap. 8. § 11. tho' he did not oblige himself further yet and this was a degree of approach into which he was solemnly admitted being call'd a Proselyte of their Gate as one permitted to live amongst them in the Holy-land Further there were those who profess'd their desire to become Jews (b) Ibid. § 10. and this Profession we find was solemn and they reputed by it of another rank for if they did not proceed to make it good within a Twelvemonth they were degraded we are told and to be esteem'd as a meer Heathen There was too yet as it should seem a further Class of such Stranger Servants as were Circumcis'd and Baptiz'd in the Quality of Servants (c) Maim Tract de Proh Congressu cap. 13. § 11. but wanted still a further Baptism to compleat them Jews as there were others who were Circumcis'd and Baptiz'd into perfect Judaism but not yet Sanctified by a Sacrifice (d) Above Ch. 2. §. 2. The Proselytes of the Jews were distinguish'd by these Advances and it is plain that their Proselyte of the First kind the Proselyte of the Gate was of the same rank with a Hearer and also that he who undertook to become a Jew was in the nature of a Christian Catechumen as he who was in immediate Preparation to be Circumcis'd or was Circumcis'd but waiting to be Baptiz'd was in a like Class to that of the Immediate Candidates and Probationers for our Baptism and he too who was actually Baptiz'd into Judaism but not yet Expiated by Sacrifice was in the Condition of one Baptiz'd a Christian but yet Vnconfirm'd and not admitted to full Communion So were the Steps made by a Convert of the Jews agreeable to those of a Proselyte to Christianity The Instruction also by which he was gradually brought on (e) The same §. was much alike to that recommended in the Apostolical Constitutions (f) See Note e of the former §. proceeding gently and by easie ascents Neither is it to be doubted but that the Jews were severe enough in their Scrutiny of him since they were so shy of Proselytes (g) The Section above cited of the Second Chapter and that a solemn Profession of Repentance for his former Heathenism was requir'd of him Now it is probable likewise that these different sorts of Persons with the Jews had their different Places and liberties of Access For the Apostolick Constitutions themselves suppose the placing of the Faithful in the Assembly according to their Sex and Age to be after the pattern of the Temple h And as a Christian Church has been describ'd to be separated in two Partitions whereof the Vpper part D Fig. 2 belongs to Men or the Chief of them and such as peculiarly attend on the Sacred Offices and the Lower part C to Women who are dispos'd of on either side of it leaving the middle for a Passage and to be taken up by Ordinary men or such who are not provided to go higher so we see (i) Ch.
when he says (d) Hebr. 13.10 11 c. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle for they eat not of the Oblation made for their Sins as we do of our Blessed Saviour by whom by whose Body and in whose Name we offer the Sacrifice of Praise Thanksgiving to God continually that is the Fruit or Oblation of our Lips or which our Lips have Vowed to return as well as what we do return with our Li ceasing not to do Good and to Distribute both out of our Oblations and the rest of our Substance for with such Sacrifices such Offerings of our Praise and Goods in the general and at the Eucharist in particular God is well pleased § I. d Of this I needed not have given an Instance but there is one that will likewise serve to another purpose De Coron Cap. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum in tempore Victus Omnibus mandatum à Domino etiam Antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quam Praesidentium sumimus e The word is often us'd even in one Chapter the 34th of his Fourth Book Adversus Haeres and I shall give but one Instance in that fam'd Passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Just Mart. Apol. secunda uti vulgo numeratur prope finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise do g Examples will appeat in those Passages to be produc'd in the next Chap § 2. i Tertullian Apolog. Cap. 39. Coena nostra de nomine rationem sui oftendit Id vocatur quod Dilectio penes Graecos k Epist ad Smyrnaeos After a general prohibition against the doing any thing in the Church without the Bishop and after a particular mention of the Eucharist there follows further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m This Order of Oblation and Invocation is not only to be seen in the Antient Liturgies but is plainly express'd by that Antient and Venerable Author Irenaeus in the Chapter above-cited e § III. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maim de Cult Divino Tract 5.9.5 e Nehem. 12.31 Then I brought up the Princes of Judah upon the Wall and appointed two great Companies of them that gave Thanks Whereof one went upon the right hand of the Wall c. By this Procession the Jews suppose the Bounds of the Holy City to have been determin'd and that the Bread of Thanksgiving which was not to be carried out of Jerusalem was therefore carried about now to mark its utmost Limits And accordingly by two great Thanks as it is in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they understand two great oblations of Bread of Thanks making the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the whole Sacrifice of Thanks to stand here for the Bread only and that only the Leaven'd So Rabbi Salom on the place And Maim in the Book above mention'd Tract 1. Cap. 6. § 12. § IV. a I confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in t is Case where we translate it a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving is rendred most commonly in the Greek of the Septuagint so call'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and never by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is notorious that the sence is the same Neither do they always interpret that word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the fame subject they once put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levit. 22.29 and in another place we shall meet in the next Section Jerem. 33.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name by which our Christian Sacrament is also known The truth is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found in the Septuagint in no sense but it is frequent in the Apocrypha and in the New Testament and Aquila in his Translation of Amos 4.5 uses it for this very matter CHAP. VIII § I. The Distinction of Clergy and Laiety specified by Tertullian That of Bishops Priests and Deacons by Him Irenaeus also being his Leader for the Apostolical Authority of Bishops § II. And by Ignatius as the other at least of the Laiety and Clergy by St. Clemens of Rome § III. The First Distinction deriv'd from the Language of the Old Testament The Offices of the Second from those of the Jewish Sanhedrim and likewise of the Temple the Upper parts of our Churches being also suppos'd to answer the Temple Courts of the Priests and the Altar § I. WE come next to the Officers of the Christian Church expressed in the Scripture under general Names and which answer'd sufficiently to those us'd by the Jews but whose signification was not in some Cases so well distinguish'd as to make out the Parallel exactly Now the Writings of the Primitive Christians speak on these occasions more expresly and clear up the Confusion caus'd by ambiguous words determining their sense by such a distinction of Offices as had all along obtain'd from the days of the Apostles Certain it is from what we have already seen of Tertullian that in his time at the end of the Second Century the Offices of Bishop and Presbyter and Deacon were the principal Offices of the Church and notoriously Distinct The Power says he (a) Ch. 6. §. 1. c of Conferring Baptism the High Priest hath who is the Bishop then the Priests and Deacons but not without the Authority of the Bishop to keep up the Honour of the Church without which Peace cannot be preserv'd otherwise even the Laiety have a power to do it Now whatever becomes of the controversy of Baptism by Lay hands it is manifest from our Author that there was a Distinction of the Laiety and the Clergy b and among the Clergy between the Bishop and the Priests and Deacons and that the Bishop had a singular supereminent Authority over the Presbyters as well as the Deacons And that he understood this separate Authority to have been deriv'd from the hands of the Apostles is as plain from his Treatise of Prescribing against Hereticks (c) De Praeser ◠32. There to Bar some Heresies which were as old as the Apostles from pleading that they were taught by the Apostles he bids them Shew the Origine of their Churches and deduce a series of their Bishops with such a continued Succession from the beginning as that the first Bishop of them may have some Apostle or Apostolical Man who continued in the Communion of the Apostles to vouch for his Author and Predecessor For so the Apostolical Churches bring down their Pedegree as the Church of Smyrna reckons Polycarp placed there by St. John and the Church of Rome Clemens ordain'd by St. Peter and as other Churches name those who were made Bishops by the Apostles and to whom the Seed of the Apostolical Doctrine was transmitted This is Tertullian's Opinion and as it appears from his manner of delivering it was the general acknowledg'd Opinion of that Time But on the same Argument Irenaeus
had before said the same thing (d) Iren. Lib. 3. Cap. 3. where he names the Succession of the Bishops of Rome down to Eleutherius of his own time the twelfth from the Apostles presupposing the same succession of such single Persons in all the Apostolick Churches and giving it as a Truth in matter of Fact on which he might found the Truth of the Catholick Doctrine and which the Hereticks themselves could not gainsay This plain Testimony of so Learn'd and Venerable a Person at no longer a distance from the Apostles seems unexceptionable but for the Church of Smyrna it is absolutely Unquestionable For there he speaks almost from his own personal Knowledge having himself been acquainted with Polycarp who was immediately ordain'd by the Apostles And as sure as this Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna so plain it is there that Anicetus was of Rome in his time and from their very Conference together reported by this Irenaeus as we have seen (e) Part 1. Ch. 1. §. 4. it also evidently appears that such Bishops had been always there presiding of whom we know as many are mention'd in that place on occasion of the Paschal Dispute as reach'd up to the very beginning of the Second Century Neither need I dissemble that those Bishops are stil'd Presbyters in the place last mention'd since they are known to be Presbyters of the more eminent Degree and to be the same single Persons with the same superiour Character the same distinction still remaining between them and the inferiour Presbyters § II. I might well be content with the Evidence Tertullian and Irenaeus give for the Apostolical Distinction between the Bishop and the other Presbyters and may therefore presume that what I have further to say of the same nature from Ignatius will not fail to be credited For how unreasonable it is to suspect his Writings for the peculiar Dignity he attributes to Bishops and that is the greatest Argument of Suspicion they have has already appear'd from the little I have produc'd as the Reader may find both that and all the lesser Cavils at large and unanswerably refuted by our Bishop Pearson (a) Vind. Ignat. This Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being in his Journey through Asia the less to his Martyrdom at Rome about the year 116 at farthest (b) Dodw. Diss in Ir. 1. sect 17. wrote several Letters to the adjacent Cities thanking the Churches there for their Christian Courtesie to him which they had shew'd by their Messengers and express'd by other Tokens of Fraternal Love and taking at the same time occasion to make them some effectual return and confirm them in the Faith and Discipline of Christ These Letters as all others even the Apostolical would be much better understood by us if we distinctly knew the particular Circumstances of those Churches to which no doubt he speaks very properly tho' we now out of the same words can make but a general and sometimes a very ordinary sence But however something of the Circumstances of those Times and of his Intention in those Letters appears thro' them And as his Design seems to be to fortifie them against the Fears of the present Persecution and to warn them of the dangerous Heresies sprung from Simon Magus and then prevailing so he manifests a particular care against Schism and for the preserving the Government of the Church Before this time the Divisions of the Church of Corinth about their Governors had occasion'd a Letter from the Church of Rome by Clemens's Hand and now in Asia when St. John himself the surviving Apostle was dead and the supreme controuling Authority was extinct it is very likely that the Orders before establish'd were in some danger of being subverted by the Ambition and Unruliness of such whom the Spirit by St. Paul had expresly foretold to Timothy the Bishop of their capital City (c) 1 Tim. 4.1 Now that such Attempts were then made upon the Authority of Church-Officers and to the confusion of their Distinction may be gather'd from this Ignatius as it also appears from his manner of Expression that such a Distinction was no novel thing and of modern erection nor was it of slight concern In this view as we may suppose he tells the Ephesians That they ought to glorifie Jesus Christ who had glorified them to be of one mind and to say the same thing and to be subject to the Bishop and to the Presbytery that they may be wholly sanctified You ought says he to concur with your Bishop as you do for your Presbytery is as consonant to him as strings to an Instrument And let no Man be deceiv'd he that is not within the Altar falls short of the Bread of God and he that does not come to the Assembly is Proud and it is written God resisteth the Proud d Let us not then resist the Bishop that we may be subject to God And the more modest and condescending your Bishop is the more he is to be reverenc'd for he is to be look'd on as the Lord himself And lastly he speaks of their Concurrence with Christ that they may obey the Bishop and the Presbytery with an undistracted Mind breaking that one Bread which is the Medicine for Immortality the Antidote against Death This it seems was necessary to be said on this subject to the Ephesians amongst whom as amongst the other Asiatick Churches to whom he writes the Peace of the Church which St. John's presence had hitherto secur'd began to be disturb'd Whereas therefore in his letter to the Roman Church whose zeal in this case was so well known he makes no mention of their obedience to spiritual Governours in all his other letters to the Asiaticks he enlarges much on the same Topick and was it seems oblig'd to press that Duty even upon the Smyrneans where Polycarp himself was Bishop He does it after this manner Fly Divisions as the beginning or cause of Evils All of you follow the Bishop as Christ Jesus the Father and follow the Presbytery as the Apostles and reverence the Deacons as the Commandment or Mandatories e of God Let no one do any thing appertaining to the Church without the Bishop Let that be esteem'd a good Eucharist which is under the Administration of the Bishop or such as He shall appoint Where the Bishop appears there let the People be as where Jesus Christ is there is the Catholick Church It is not lawful without the Bishop neither to Baptize nor keep the Love-Feast but what He approves that is it which is acceptable to God So to the Philadelphians after Exhortation to Unity under the Bishop he adds Take care therefore to use one Eucharist For there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ one Cup wherein his Blood is united one Altar as there is one Bishop with the Presbytery and my Fellow Servants the Deacons As also in that to the Magnesians he directs Endeavour to do all things in the Vnanimity of God
the Bishop Presiding in the place of God and the Presbyters in the place of the Consistory Synedrium of the Apostles and the Deacons being intrusted with the Ministry of Jesus Christ. And speaking of Deacons to the Trallians he says expresly they are not Ministers of Meats and Drinks but Servants of the Church of God I know well that these now Unusual expressions and High Comparisons have been construed into a prejudice against the Authority of these Letters But it is not reasonable to judge either Antient Practice or Phrase by the Modern for possibly those Primitive Christians would be at as great a loss to understand some later Divinity The Passage that may appear the most strange is that to the Smyrneans Follow your Bishop as Christ Jesus followed the Father But we are to remember that the Hereticks whom he warns them to avoid were those who deny'd the reality of our Saviour's Flesh saying that He Suffer'd and Rose again in Appearance only themselves also dispensing with the Reality of their Duty as he tells them and being Christians only in Appearance High-minded and puffed up These he Commands them to avoid and for the same intent he cautions them to shun Divisions among themselves as the beginning of those and most other evils and to Follow the Bishop Polycarp a Faithful Servant of Christ Approv'd and intrusted with the Charge of them by the Blessed St. John adding as Christ Jesus the Father a comparison that no more equals the Bishop to the Father than it does the other Christians of that Church to Jesus Christ It imported only that they should not be high-minded and conceited but should be subject to their Bishop for Christ also himself was in reality found in the form of a Servant and obedient unto the Father even unto the Death of the Cross and that they should receive the Commandments from Polycarp and act as they saw him to act for as St. John lately departed from them had inform'd them Christ also did or spoke (d) 8.28.12.49 nothing from himself and he both Taught and kept the Commandments of the Father (e) 15.10 This seems to be the occasional Analogy of that Expression And as for the others that the Bishop presides in the place of God or is to be look'd on as our Lord these speak him only as a Substitute and lower Representative of God and Christ invested with some degree of Authority from them as when St. Paul Commands Christian Servants to obey even Heathen Masters as Christ (f) Eph. 6.5 neither were the Presbyters to be follow'd as the Apostles for the Parity they held but for the similitude they bore being Assistants to the Bishop as the Apostles were to our Saviour For so was Moses heretofore put in the place of God (g) Exod. 7.1 and as in Ignatius the Presbyters are said to preside in the place of the Consistory or Sanhedrim of the Apostles so the Apostles themselves may be suppos'd to succeed in the place of the Twelve Princes the Chief Assistants to Moses Neither has this Language of Ignatius to Christians any other meaning than it might have had if a Jew should have admonish'd his Brethren Jews to have obey'd their Nasi or Patriarch as God for so they were to have obey'd Moses their first Nasi and his Assessors as they would have done the Assessors of Moses for to those in some manner they succeeded Thus Ignatius concerning Church Officers And to go higher yet up into the first Age for then St. Clemens of Rome undoubtedly wrote his Epistle if not before the Destruction of the Temple h there if we have not an Authority for the Distinction of them by proper names one from another yet we have a certain instance of the use of the word Lay before mention'd whereby they were discriminated from the rest of the Congregation The place whether speaking of the Jewish or of the Christian Church and of the Christian in likelyhood it does runs thus i To the High-Priest proper Offices are given and to the Priests a proper Place is appointed and on the Levites proper Ministries are incumbent The Layman is bound to Lay Duty Let every one of you Brethren in his own Station give Thanks or celebrate the Euchari to God having a Good Conscience and not transgressing the Rule of his own Office as he ought to do in Holy Decency § III. This was the certain Distinction in the Antient Church betwixt the Laiety and the Clergy and among the Clergy betwixt the Bishops Priests and Deacons and that it was deriv'd from the Language and Polity of the Jews we may have already discern'd in part from the account above given (a) Ch. 4. As to the Denomination of Laiety as distinct from the Tribe of Levi it must be directly understood to have been in use with the Jews by those who will understand the passage from St. Clemens last cited concerning the Jewish Priesthood And those too who will have it taken of the Christian Priesthood must conclude from the ordinary and current manner of using this Phrase in the beginning of Christianity that it had been receiv'd before and was as well known as that of Priest and Levite But besides the Ground also of this Appellation is from the Old Testament For there as the Nation of the Israelites is contradistinguish'd to other Nations and is separated for the Peculiar Propriety (a 2) Ex. 19.5 Deut. 14.2 and Inheritance (b) Deut. 4.20 of God the signification of the Greek word Clerus and they might all therefore have been properly stil'd the Clergy of God in respect of other People the meaning of the word Lay for in that regard they all are call'd Priests (c) Exod. 19.6 So in this Holy Nation one Tribe of it was more particularly Chosen and Holy and separated from the rest God not only claiming them to be his Own yet more Peculiarly and in the place of the First Born (d) Numb 3.45 but declaring Himself also to be their Peculiar and Inheritance (e) Num. 18.20 and might well therefore have been appropriately stil'd the Clergy even in respect of the rest of the Holy People who were then for distinction to be call'd the People Neither was this term the People at all dishonourable to the other Tribes for it appears by the Phrase of St. Luke (f) Acts 26.17 2◠to have been the name whereby they chose to distinguish themselves from the Gentiles or Nations and the disparaging acception which the Pharisaical Rabbins give it when they oppose it to the Disciples of the Learn'd and make it to signify the Illiterate and Rude seems to be rais'd by them for their own honour since they have come in to the room of the Priests and usurp'd their Privilege (g) See Ch. 4. §. 4. Next I am come to compare the several Officers of the Christian Church so distinguish'd as above with the several Officers of the
Jewish But in this as for the Synagogue-Discipline and Worship of the Jews I am prevented by what has been said before and the Parallel must have manifestly appear'd betwixt the Bishop Priest and Deacon and between the Chief of the Sanhedrim or Synagogue the Elders and their Ministerial Officers For as every City had its Consistory in that manner Officer'd with the Jews so had it with the Christians though with no Subordination to any other higher Court as at Jerusalem in as much as that Local Dependance was now abolish'd The Chief of the Consistory with the Jews was either the Prince or his Deputy the Father of the Assembly Now the Title of Prince was I suppose in the Christian Church every where appropriated to Christ and the Bishop was as the Father in whom the Principal Directive Power was lodged The other Elders were his Councellors and Assistants in the Governing and Teaching of the Assembly and the Deacons had the management of Affairs Execution of Orders and Distribution of Alms belonging to their part as is notoriously known Thus was a Christian Church govern'd conformably to the Synagogue as a Society it was likewise as a Congregation The Instruction and Exhortation belong'd to the Bishop or else by his leave to the Presbyters or it was perform'd by such other proper Person as the Bishop should appoint Likewise Prayers were said either by the Bishop or Presbyters or else by the Deacons For these last answering the Jewish Chazans directed the People in their Devotions either repeating the Prayers before them or calling upon them to hearken to those repeated by others and also either Read the holy Scriptures or assisted those who were to Read them Neither do the Elders of a Christian and a Jewish Church agree only so far but farther yet For as the Jewish Elders since the Destruction of Jerusalem have thought fit to assume to themselves much of the Sacerdotal Honour and Privilege so have the Christian succeeded into the like Dignity nay are call'd by the same Name as we have seen in Tertullian's expression (h) See Ch. 6. §. 1. The High Priest who is the Bishop and as he phrases it discoursing about those Hereticks who making little distinction between the People and the Church Officers committed Sacerdotal Offices to the Laiety i and as we may in general have collected even from the discretive Appellatives themselves of Laiety and Clergy But the Elders of the Christian Church derive not those their style and Privileges from the Calamities of Jerusalem and the Usurpation of the Rabbins nor are they esteem'd Priests in vertue of their Presbytery though the English word Priest happens to come by the French Prestre from the Latin Presbyter On the contrary by Original appointment a Christian Priest corresponds as directly to a Priest of the Jews as a Presbyter does to their Elder or rather to speak more generally the Bishops Priests and Deacons of the Gospel answer not more to the Officers of the Sanhedrim or Synagogue than they do to those of the Temple to the High Priest or as we conceive his Great Vicar to the Priests and to the Levites For this is not only intimated by the Sacerdotal Titles the Governours of the Church immemorially had as we learn'd from Tertullian but plainly declar'd by their Office and all along allow'd and own'd by more Antient Authors They having as hath appear'd an Eucharistical Sacrifice still remaining to be celebrated by them a Pure Offering to be offer'd in every place and every where Holy Tables or Altars erected for that Service And this is what St. Jerom has said much to our purpose in that Letter of his which has been often miscited to the Prejudice of Episcopacy (k) Ad Eâ—â—gâ— And says he that you may understand the Ecclesiastical Traditions to be deriv'd from the Old Testament we are to know what Aaron and his Sons were in the Temple that Bishops Priests and Deacons are to challenge to themselves in the Church This Remembrance of St. Jerome was we see well founded and is if I mistake not attested by the structure of an Antient Christian Church such of which we have been speaking before (l) Ch. 6. §. 1 3. For whereas the first four Partitions of it wherein the Laiety were dispos'd have been seen to answer to the four first Courts of the Temple beyond which none but those of the Tribe of Levi ordinarily could go there yet remain two other Partitions the places heretofore of our Clergy to answer to the two remaining Courts of the Priests and of the Altar For so that part E Fig. 2. of a Christian Church which is next beyond the Upper Place of the Faithful now call'd the Quire D and reaches to the Rails of the Altar space stil'd by the Western Church Presbyterium and by the Greek Solea m where the Readers are said to have had a place n corresponds aptly enough with the Court of the Temple where the Priests stood who were not actually on Duty and where the Doukans Desks of the Singers were likewise placed (o) Lightf T. Service Ch. 23. And then the Higher space F Fig. 2. inclosed with Rails or Lattice where the Lord's Table or Christian Altar G stands apparently agrees to the Court of the Altar in the Temple F. Fig. 1. which was fenc'd in like manner And possibly the rais'd Seat T behind the Altar as the Archiepiscopal Chair at Canterbury now is where the Bishop sat with the Chief of the Clergy on either side answer not only to the Seats of the Elders in a Synagogue (p) Ch. 6. §. 3. but to the Place where the High Priest stood compassed with his Brethren round about as a young Cedar in Libanus by the Palm Trees (q) Eccles 50.12 either at the Altar it self G Fig. 1. or in the Porch H which was as high and from whence after the Burning of the Incense the Blessing was pronounc'd (r) Iâ—â—juf Ib Ch. 36. Maim de Cult Diâ—â— Tract 6. Câ—p. 6. §. 4. And this concerning the Agreement of the upper part of a Church with the upper Courts of the Temple I have added on this Argument not so much to confirm the Sacerdotal Title of Christian Priests for that seems to be otherwise sufficiently secur'd as to complete the Parallel already begun in the sixth Chapter and by which a new account is offer'd of the Modelling of these Christian Aedifices I know Architects derive the Design of our Churches from the Fabricks of the Heathen Basilicae or Publick Halls (Å¿) Pallad lib. 4. c. 5. lib. 3. c. 19. the upper end of which was rais'd and had a Semicircle in which Governours and Judges sat for Audience having before them a Table as we may presume and a space separated and Raild in and beyond that without the Bar a place something lower where those stood who attended the Court the remaining and lowest part of the Hall being open to
the consideration of our Saviour's and the Mercy of his Expiation more sensibly Ador'd in the consideration of those Sins whose Pardon we implore For that Double Reason and with this Double Duty has Good Friday been always observ'd Nor will the Devout Practice be blam'd by any Regular Church or Christian Regular I say not speaking of those who will not keep the Day because the Papists do for by the same reason they may refuse to keep Sunday or because it is injoin'd to the Prejudice they say of their Christian Liberty for so they may refuse to yield to an Argument because it convinces them § III. NOW these two Great Duties when they are once fix'd upon their proper Day which they will fully imploy will also require that we should come in some measure Fit for so weighty an Office and should be Prepar'd in a more than Ordinary manner for the Extraordinary Performance For according to the Supposition I now us'd were we to celebrate the Anniversary of our Lord's Passion only and with no respect to our Sins since our Baptism yet we should come upon the solemn Day too Rashly and Unworthily if we did not appoint some others to go before it and usher it in and should seem to have too low thoughts of the sacred Mystery if we did not take care to rise up to the high Consideration by the steps and ascents of some previous Meditations To the keeping of the Great Memorial rightly such Preparatory Remembrances would be wanting that we may bring to it a fuller and livelier Perception of the Mercies of God in Christ may the better comprehend with all Saints the Dimensions of that surpassing inestimable Love may more profoundly Adore more gratefully Thank and more zealously Devote our selves and our Service having before-hand endeavour'd to Confirm and Actuate our Faith to Raise and Quicken our Hope and to Oblige and Inflame our Charity But such a Preparatory Season is still more needful for the other the Penitential part that we should afore begin to Recollect our past Transgressions to Reflect upon their Guilt and to dispose our Minds to an Abhorrence of them that we should beseech God humbly for his Grace to promote this Holy Work should review our Baptismal Covenant bewail its Breaches and Repair them by Confession to God and Restitution to Men Renewing our Vows and Mortifying our Lusts and recovering and improving our virtuous Habits against that Friday when we are solemnly to appear in the Divine Presence Contrite and truly sorrowful for our Sins stedfastly resolv'd to Forsake them and as much as in us lies Qualified for their Pardon Thus would a Preparation have been Necessary to either of those Two Offices Apart but much more justly will they expect it when join'd together when we are to be Provided both fitly to Contemplate the Mystery and effectually to be Benefited by its Expiation For these Holy and Important purposes Lent is instituted a solemn and large space of time to be Religiously imploy'd by each private Christian at his Discretion as the condition of his Soul shall require and the circumstances of his Worldly Affairs permit Accordingly the First Day of it gives Warning of the then distant Propitiation Day and calls us early to our Duty actually entring us on the Godly Work by Reflection on our Sins and Acknowledgment of Divine Justice by Fasting and Prayer and engaging us to go on and to make use of the following Intermediate Season for the perfecting our Repentance and for our Increase in the Knowledge of the Cross of Christ that Wisdom and Power of God A notice very necessary to those who want a solemn Monitor and which by the Grace of God may some time or other serve to Awaken and Reclaim them but always Acceptable and Welcome to the Good Christian who the more sensible he is of his own Offences and of the Mercy of God in Christ the more ready he will be to comply with the Advice and the more glad of the occasion Some days therefore of those many that follow are presum'd to be set apart for such Preparatory Thoughts and Actions Wednesdays we may suppose and Fridays those Weekly Passion Days when also Opportunities of Publick Devotion are every where presented and in our Great City Exhortations likewise and Instructions are administer'd by the Wife and Pious Order of the present Diocesan But the last Week is more particularly Dedicated to this Office and then the Church expects its devout Members daily to appear before God together to meditate on the Passion of their Lord and with Penitent Hearts and earnest Resolutions of Dying likewise unto Sin to Attend thenceforth upon him to his Cross and wait till his Resurrection and also Directs us to pass the time not in such Rigorous Austerities as unprofitably afflict the Body but in such an Abstinence from divertive Pleasures and even from common Liberties of Food and Pursuits of Business as may speak our Thoughts and Affections to be otherwise imploy'd and freeing them from Avocation and Distraction may Cherish and Improve them By this Orderly and Natural Method we are design'd to be brought at last to the Memorial of our Expiation with such a sence of our Sins and of the Mercy of our Suffering Saviour as may procure from God the Pardon of what is Past and his Grace and Assistance for the Future that the following Years may have reason to bless those Forty Days and still successively advancing may every Lent find Fewer and Lighter Sins to Confess and be still more ready to Lament them This is the Innocent and Godly Intention of that Time which those of us who Understand will certainly Commend and those who Commend should take care to Pursue FINIS Books Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1. INstitutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonica Meso-Gothicae Aâ—ctore Georgio Hicksio Ecclesiae Anglicanae Presbytero 4 to 2. Christ Wasit Senarius five de Legibus Litentia veterum Poetarum 4 to 3. Misna Pars Ordims primi Jeraim titul Septem Latine vertit Commentario illustravit Gulielmus Guistâ—â—s Accedit Mosis Maimonidis Praesatio Edvardo Pocockio Interprete 4 to 4. Joannis Antiocheni Cognomento Mallalae Hist Chronica è M.S. Bibliothecae Bodleianae Praemittitur Dissertatio de Authore Per Humph. Hodium D. D. 8 vo 5. Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book 1606. concerning the Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole World 4 to 6. True Conduct of Persons of Quality Translated out of French 8 vo 7. A Treatise relating to the Worship of God divided into Six Sections Concerning First The Nature of Divine Worship Secondly The peculiar Object of Worship Thirdly The true Worshippers of God Fourthly Assistance requisite to Worship Fifthly The Place of Worship Sixthly The solemn Time of Worship By John Templer D. D. 8 vo 8. A Defence of revealed Religion in six Sermons upon Romans 1.16 wherein it is clearly and plainly