The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters in every Diocess Of Metropolitans what their power and authority above ordinary Bishops their antiquity Of Patriarchs and in what respects superiour to Metropolitans and Archbishops An account of conforming the external jurisdiction of the Church to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire Presbyters their place and duty Whether they preached in the presence of the Bishop Deacons their Institution office number The Arch-Deacon Of inferiour orders The Subdeacon The Acolythus The Exorcist The Reader The Door-keeper What the nature of their several places Ordination to these Offices how managed The people present at and consenting to the Ordination Sacerdotes praedicarii what The Christian discipline in this case imitated by the Emperour Severus in appointing Civil Officers Great tryals and testimonials to be had of persons to be ordained Clergie-men to rise by degrees The age usually required in those that were to be promoted to the several orders Of Deaconesses their antiquity age and office The great honour and respect shewed to Bishops and Ministers Looked upon as common Parents Nothing of moment done without their leave Their welcome and the honour done them where-ever they came this made good by several instances Bishops invested with power to determine civil controversies The plentiful provision made for them The great priviledges and immunities granted by Constantine and his Successors to the Bishops and Clergie noted out of the Theodosian Code FRom the consideration of time and place we proceed to consider the Persons that constituted and made up their Religious Assemblies and they were either the body of the people or those who were peculiarly consecrated and set apart for the publick ministrations of Religion For the Body of the people we may observe that as Christianity at first generally gain'd admission in great Towns and Cities so all the Believers of that place usually assembled and met together the Christians also of the Neighbour-Villages resorting thither at times of publick Worship But Religion encreasing apace the publick Assembly especially in the greater Cities quickly began to be too vast and numerous to be managed with any order and conveniency and therefore they were forced to divide the body into particular Congregations who had their Pastors and spiritual Guides set over them but still were under the superintendency and care of him that was the President or Bishop of the place And according as the Church could form and establish its discipline the people either according to their seniority and improvement or according to the quality of the present condition they were under began to be distinguished into several ranks and Classes which had their distinct places in the Church and their gradual admission to the several parts of the publick Worship The first were the Catechumens and of these there were two sorts the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more perfect such as had been Catechumens of some considerable standing and were even ripe for Baptism these might stay not only the reading of the Scriptures but to the very last part of the first Service The others were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more rude and imperfect who stood only amongst the Hearers and were to depart the Congregation as soon as the Lessons were read these were as yet accounted Heathens who applied themselves to the Christian Faith and were catechized and instructed in the more plain grounds and rudiments of Religion These principles were gradually delivered to them according as they became capable to receive them first the more plain and then the more difficult Indeed they were very shye of imparting the knowledge of the more recondite Doctrines of Christianity to any till after Baptism So S. Cyril expresly assures us where speaking to the illuminate or Baptized if during the chatechetical exercise says he a Catechumen shall ask thee what that means which the Preachers say tell him not for he is yet without and these mysteries are delivered to thee only The weak understanding of a Catechumen being no more able to bear such sublime mysteries than a sick mans head can large and immoderate draughts of Wine And at the end of his Preface he has this note These Catechetical discourses may be read by those that are to be baptized or the faithful already baptized but to Catechumens or such as are no Christians thou mayst not impart them for if thou dost expect to give an account to God S. Basil discoursing of the Rites and Institutions of Christianity divides them into two parts the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those parts of Religion which might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be familiarly preached and expounded to the people The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the more sublime and hidden Doctrines and parts of the Christian Faith and these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not rashly and commonly to be divulged but to be lock'd up in silence Of this nature were the Doctrines of the Trinity and Hypostatick Vnion and such like especially of the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper For though they acquainted their young hearers with so much of them as was necessary to stir up their desires yet as to the main of the things themselves the sacramental Symbols the manner of their celebration the modus of the divine presence at the holy Eucharist the meaning of all those mystical Rites and Ceremonies that were used about them these were carefully concealed both from Strangers and Catechumens and communicated only to those who were solemnly initiated and baptized Hence that ancient form so common in the Sermons and Writings of the Fathers whereby when accidentally discoursing before the people of any of these mysterious parts of Religion they used to fetch themselves off with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are initiated know what is said This was so usual that this phrase occurs at least fifty times in the Writings of S. Chrysostom only as Casaubon hath observed who has likewise noted three reasons out of the Fathers why they so studiously concealed these parts of their Religion First the nature of the things themselves so sublime and remote from vulgar apprehensions that they would signifie little to Pagans or Catechumens not yet fully instructed and confirmed in the faith and would either be lost upon them or in danger to be derided by them Secondly that hereby the Catechumens and younger Christians might be inflamed with a greater eagerness of desire to partake of the mysteries and priviledges of the Faithful humane nature being desirous of nothing more than the knowledge of what is kept and conceal'd from us To help them forwards in this S. Augustine tells us that in their publick prayers they were wont to beg of God to inspire the Catechumens with a desire of baptismal regeneration The same account Chrysostom gives us this
Province who enjoyed nothing but that name and title his Episcopal See being by the Emperours Pragmatic erected into the dignity of a Metropolis He was only an Honorary Metropolitan without any real power and jurisdiction and had no other priviledge but that he took place above other ordinary Bishops in all things else equally subject with them to the Metropolitan of the Province as the Council of Chalcedon determines in this case When this Office of Metropolitan first began I find not only this we are sure of that the Council of Nice setling the just rights and priviledges of Metropolitan Bishops speaks of them as a thing of ancient date ushering in the Canon with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customs still take place The original of the institution seems to have been partly to comply with peoples occasions who oft resorted to the Metropolis for dispatch of their affairs and so might fitly discharge their Civil and Ecclesiastical concerns both at once and partly because of the great confluence of people to that City that the Bishop of it might have preheminence above the rest and the honour of the Church bear some proportion to that of the State After this sprang up another branch of the Episcopal Office as much superiour to that of Metropolitans as theirs was to ordinary Bishops these were called Primates and Patriarchs and had jurisdiction over many Provinces For the understanding of this it 's necessary to know that when Christianity came to be fully setled in the world they contrived to model the external Government of the Church as near as might be to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire the parallel most exactly drawn by an ingenious person of our own Nation the sum of it is this The whole Empire of Rome was divided into Thirteen Dioceces so they called those divisions these contained about one hundred and twenty Provinses and every Province several Cities Now as in every City there was a temporal Magistrate for the executing of justice and keeping peace both for that City and the Towns round about it so was there also a Bishop for spiritual order and Government whose jurisdiction was of like extent and latitude In every Province there was a Proconsul or President whose seat was usually at the Metropolis or chief City of the Province and hither all inferiour Cities came for judgment in matters of importance And in proportion to this there was in the same City an Archbishop or Metropolitan for matters of Ecclesiastical concernment Lastly in every Diocess the Emperours had their Vicarii or Lieutenants who dwelt in the principal City of the Diocess where all imperial Edicts were published and from whence they were sent abroad into the several Provinces and where was the chief Tribunal where all Causes not determinable elsewhere were decided And to answer this there was in the same City a Primate to whom the last determination of all appeals from all the Provinces in differences of the Clergie and the Soveraign care of all the Diocess for sundry points of spiritual Government did belong This in short is the sum of the account which that learned man gives of this matter So that the Patriarch as superiour to Metropolitans was to have under his jurisdiction not any one single Province but a whole Diocess in the old Roman notion of that word consisting of many Provinces To him belonged the ordination of all the Metropolitans that were under him as also the summoning them to Councils the correcting and reforming the misdemeanours they were guilty of and from his judgment and sentence in things properly within his cognizance there lay no appeal To this I shall only add what Salmasius has noted that as the Diocess that was governed by the Vicarius had many Provinces under it so the Praefectus Praetorio had several Diocesses under him and in proportion to this probably it was that Patriarchs were first brought in who if not superiour to Primates in jurisdiction and power were yet in honour by reason of the dignity of those Cities where their Sees were fixed as at Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem a title and dignity which they retain to this day The next Office to Bishops was that of Presbyters to whom it belonged to preach to the people to administer Baptism consecrate the Eucharist and to be assistent to the Bishop both in publick ministrations and in dispatching the affairs of the Church The truth is the Presbyters of every great City were a kind of Ecclesiastical Senate under the care and presidency of the Bishop whose counsel and assistance he made use of in ruling those Societies of Christians that were under his charge and government and were accordingly reckoned next in place and power to him thus described by S. Gregory in his Iambics 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The venerable Senate of Presbyters that preside over the people and possess the second Throne i. e. the place next to the Bishop they are called Clerici superioris loci and otherwhiles unless we understand it of the Chorepiscopi Antistites in secundo ordine and accordingly in Churches had seats of eminency placed for them next to the Bishops Throne Whereby was implied says Zonaras that they ought to use a proportionable care and providence towards the people to inform and teach them to direct and guide them being appointed as Fellow-labourers with and Assistants to the Bishop But though Presbyters by their ordination had a power conferred upon them to administer holy things yet after that the Church was setled upon foundations of order and regularity they did not usually exercise this power within any Diocess without leave and authority from the Bishop much less take upon them to preach in his presence This custom however it might be otherwise in the Eastern Church we are sure was constantly observed in the Churches of Afric till the time of Valerius S. Augustine's Predecessor in the See of Hippo. Who being a Greek and by reason of his little skill in the Latine tongue unable to preach to the edification of the people admitted S. Augustine whom he had lately ordained Presbyter to preach before him Which though at first 't was ill resented by some Bishops in those parts yet quickly became a president for other Churches to follow after After these came Deacons What the duty of their place was appears from their primitive election the Apostles setting them apart to serve or minister to the Tables i.e. to attend upon and take charge of those daily provisions that were made for poor indigent Christians but certainly it implies also their being destinated to a peculiar attendance at the service of the Lords Table And both these may be very well meant in that place it being the custom of Christians then to meet every day at the
more than ordinary rank and dignity or of a more tender and delicate Constitution Chrysostome determines that in chastising and punishing their offences they be dealt withal in a more peculiar manner than other men lest by holding them under over-rigorous penalties they should be tempted to fly out into despair and so throwing off the reins of modesty and the care of their own happiness and salvation should run headlong into all manner of vice and wickedness So wisely did the prudence and piety of those times deal with offenders neither letting the reins so loose as to patronize presumption or encourage any man to sin nor yet holding them so strait as to drive men into despair The fourth and last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom this discipline was administred now though 't is true that this affair was managed in the Publick Congregation and seldom or never done without the consent and approbation of the people as Cyprian more than once and again expresly tells us yet was it ever accounted a ministerial act and properly belonged to them Tertullian speaking of Church censures adds that the Elders that are approv'd and have attain'd that honour not by purchase but testimony preside therein and Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia in a Letter to S. Cyprian speaking of the Majores natu the Seniors that preside in the Church tells us that to them belongs the power of baptizing imposing hands viz. in penance and ordination By the Bishop it was primarily and usually administred the determining the time and manner of repentance and the conferring pardon upon the penitent sinner being acts of the highest power and jurisdiction and therefore reckoned to appertain to the highest order in the Church Therefore 't is provided by the Illiberine Council that penance shall be prescribed by none but the Bishop only in case of necessity such as sickness and danger of death by leave and command from the Bishop the Presbyter or Deacon might impose penance and absolve Accordingly we find Cyprian amongst other directions to his Clergy how to carry themselves towards the lapsed giving them this that if any were over-taken with sickness or present danger they should not stay for his coming but the sick person should make confession of his sins to the next Presbyter or if a Presbyter could not be met with to a Deacon that so laying hands upon him he might depart in the peace of the Church But though while the number of Christians was small and the bounds of particular Churches little Bishops were able to manage these and other parts of their office in their own persons yet soon after the task began to grow too great for them and therefore about the time of the Decian persecution when Christians were very much multiplyed and the number of the lapsed great it seem'd good to the prudence of the Church partly for the ease of the Bishop and partly to provide for the modesty of persons in being brought before the whole Church to confess every crime to appoint a publick penitentiary some holy grave and prudent Presbyter whose office it was to take the confession of those sins which persons had committed after baptism and by prayers fastings and other exercises of mortification to prepare them for absolution He was a kind of Censor morum to enquire into the lives of Christians to take an account of their failures and to direct and dispose them to repentance This Office continued for some hundreds of years till it was abrogated by Nectarius S. Chrysostomes predecessor in the See of Constantinople upon the occasion of a notorious scandal that arose about it A woman of good rank and quality had been with the Penitentiary and confessed all her sins committed since baptism he enjoyn'd her to give up her self to fasting and prayer but not long after she came to him and confessed that while she was conversant in the Church to attend upon those holy exercises she had been tempted to commit folly and leudness with a Deacon of the Church whereupon the Deacon was immediately cast out but the people being excedingly troubled at the scandal and the Holy Order hereby exposed to the scorn and derision of the Gentiles Nectarius by the advice of Eudaemon a Presbyter of that Church wholly took away the Office of the publick Penitentiary leaving every one to the care and liberty of his own conscience to prepare himself for the Holy Sacrament This account Socrates assures us he had from Eudaemon's own mouth and Sozomen adds that almost all Bishops follow'd Nectarius his example in abrogating this Office But besides the ordinary and standing office of the Clergy we find even some of the Laity the Martyrs and Confessors that had a considerable hand in absolving penitents and restoring them to the communion of the Church For the understanding of which we are to know that as the Christians of those times had a mighty reverence for Martyrs and Confessors as the great Champions of Religion so the Martyrs took upon them to dispense in extraordinary cases for it was very customary in times of persecution for those who through fear of suffering had lapsed into Idolatry to make their address to the Martyrs in prison and to beg peace of them that they might be restored to the Church who considering their petitions and weighing the circumstances of their case did frequently grant their requests mitigate their penance and by a note signed under their hands signifie what they had done to the Bishop who taking an account of their condition absolved and admitted them to communion Of these Libelli or Books granted by the Martyrs to the lapsed there is mention in Cyprian at every turn who complains they were come to that excessive number that thousands were granted almost every day this many of them took upon them to do with great smartness and authority and without that respect that was due to the Bishops as appears from the note written to Cyprian by Lucian in the name of the Confessors which because 't is but short and withall shews the form and manners of those pacifick Libells it may not be amiss to set it down and thus it runs All the Confessors to Cyprian the Bishop Greeting Know that we have granted peace to all those of whom you have had an account what they have done how they have behaved themselves since the commission of their crimes and we would that these presents should by you be imparted to the rest of the Bishops We wish you to maintain peace with the holy Martyrs Written by Lucian of the Clergy the Exorcist and Reader being present This was looked upon as very peremptory and magisterial and therefore of this confidence and presumption and carelesness in promiscuously granting these letters of peace Cyprian not without reason complains in an Epistle to the Clergy of Rome Besides these Libells granted by the Martyrs there
those times did generally pray towards the East and the Sun-rising which the Heathens themselves also did though upon different grounds and partly because they performed the Solemnities of their Religion upon the day that was dedicated to the Sun which made the Gentiles suspect that they worshipped the Sun it self They were next charged with worshipping Crosses a charge directly false as for Crosses says Octavius we neither desire nor worship them 't is you who consecrate wooden gods that perhaps adore wooden Crosses as parts of them for what else are your Ensigns Banners and Colours with which you go out to war but golden and painted Crosses the very Trophies of your Victory do not only resemble the fashion of a simple Cross but of a man that 's fastned to it the very same answer which Tertullian also returns to this Charge The occasion of it no doubt was the Christians talking of and magnifying so much their crucified Master and their almost constant use of the sign of the Cross which as we shall see afterwards they made use of even in the most common actions of their lives but for paying any adoration to a material Cross was a thing to which those times were the greatest strangers otherwise understanding the Cross for him that hung upon it they were not ashamed with the great Apostle to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to count it the matter of their highest joy and triumph But the absurdest part of the Charge was that they worshipped the head of an Ass I hear says the Heathen in Minucius Faelix that being seduced by I know not what fond perswasion they worship the consecrated head of an Ass one of the filthiest Creatures a Religion fitly calculated for persons of such a dull and stupid disposition Hence Tertullian tells us that Christians were called Asinarii Assworshippers and that Christ was painted and publickly exposed by the bold wicked hand of an apostate Jew with Asses ears one of his feet hoof'd holding a Book in his hand and having a Gown over him with this Inscription DEVS CHRISTIANORVM ONONYCHITES The Asse-hoof'd God of the Christians A most ridiculous representation and the issue of the most foolish spite and malice when I saw it says he I laughed both at the title and the fashion This Octavius tells his Adversary was the result and spawn of lying same begot and nourished by the Father of lyes for who says he can be so silly as to worship this or who can be so much more silly as to believe that it should be worshipped unless it be that you your selves do consecrate whole Asses in the Stable with your Goddess Epona and religiously adorn them in the Solemnities of Isis and both sacrifice and adore the heads of Rams and Oxen you make gods of a mixture of a Goat and a Man and dedicate them with the faces of Dogs and Lions More he has there to the same purpose as Tertullian also had answered the same thing before him The true ground of this ridiculous Charge as Tertullian observes was a fabulous report that had been a long time common amongst the Heathens that the Jews when wandring in the wilderness and almost ready to die of thirst were conducted by wild Asses to a Fountain of water for which great kindness they formed the shape of an Ass and ever after worshipped it with divine honours This is confidently reported both by Tacitus and Plutarch as it had been many years before by Appio the Alexandrian in his Books against the Jews and by this means the Heathens who did frequently confound the Jews and Christians came to form and fasten this Charge upon them when it was equally false in respect of both for as Tertullian observes the same Tacitus who reports this tells us in another place that when Pompey at the taking of Jerusalem presumptuously broke into the Holy of Holies whither none but the High-Priest might enter out of a curiosity to pry into the most hidden secrets and arcana's of their Religion he found no Image at all there whereas says Tertullian had they worshipped any such thing there had been no likelier place to have met with it and therefore brands him with the charge of the most lying Historian in the world And thus we see how the ancient Christians manifested and maintained their love and piety towards God by a most vigorous and hearty opposition of that Idolatry that reigned so uncontroulably in the Heathen world CHAP. VI. Of Churches and places of Publick Worship in the primitive times Place a circumstance necessary to every action The piety of Christians in founding places for the Solemnities of Religion They had distinct and separate places for their Publick Assemblies even in the Apostles times Prov'd out of the New Testament as also in the succeeding Ages from the testimonies of the Fathers and Heathen Writers The common objection of the Gentiles that Christians had no Temples considered and answered Churches encreased as Christianity met with favourable entertainment restored and repaired by Dioclesian Maximinus Constantine The fashion of theri Churches oblong built towards the East The form of their Churches described The Vestibulum or Porch the Narthex and what in it The Nave or body of the Church the Ambo or Reading-Pew the station of the faithful The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chancel the Altarium or Lords Table The Bishops Throne and Seats of the Presbyters The Diaconicon what the Prothesis Christians then beautified their Churches Whether they had Altars in them Decent Tables for the celebration of the divine offices those frequently by the Fathers stiled Altars and in what sense They had no such gaudy Altars as the Heathens had in their Temples and the Papists now in their Churches Altars when begun to be fixed and made of Stone Made Asylum's and places of refuge and invested with many priviledges by Christian Emperours No Images in their Churches for above four hundred years prov'd out of the Fathers Pictures in Churches condemned by the Council of Illiberis An account of Epiphanius his tearing the Picture of Christ in the Church of Anablatha and the great force of the argumemt thence against Image-Worship Christian Churches when first formally consecrated the Encoenia of the ancient Church Our Wakes or Feasts in memory of the dedication of particular Churches What Incomes or Revenues they had in the first Ages Particular Churches had some standing Revenues even under the Heathen Emperours These much increased by the piety of Constantine and the first Christian Princes their Laws noted to that purpose The reverence shewed at their going in t Churches and during their stay there even by the Emperours themselves THE Primitive Christians were not more heartily zealous against the idolatrous Worship of the Heathen-gods than they were religiously observant of whatever concerned the honour and Worship of the true as to all the material parts
Epiphanius and then too met with no very welcome entertainment as may appear from Epiphanius his own Epistle translated by S. Hierom where the story in short is this Coming says he to Anablatha a Village in Palestine and going into a Church to pray I espied a Curtain hanging over the door whereon was painted the Image of Christ or of some Saint which when I looked upon and saw the Image of a man hanging up in the Church contrary to the authority of the Holy Scriptures I presently rent it and advis'd the Guardians of the Church rather to make usd of it as a Winding-sheet for some poor mans burying whereat when they were a little troubled and said 't was but just that since I had rent that Curtain I should change it and give them another I promis'd them I would and have now sent the best I could get and pray' entreat them to accept it and give command that for the time to come no such Curtains being contrary to our Religion may be hung up in the Church of Christ it more becoming your place solicitously to remove whatever is offensive to and unworthy of the Church of Christ and the people committed to your Charge This was written to John Bishop of Jerusalem in whose Diocess the thing had been done and the case is so much the more pressing and weighty by how the greater esteem and value Epiphanius then Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus for his great age and excellent learning had in the Church of God This instance is so home and pregnant that the Patrons of Image-Worship are at a mighty loss what to say to it and after all are forced to cry out against it as supposititious Bellarmine brings no less than nine arguments if such they may be called to make it seem probable but had he been ingenuous he might have given one reason more true and satisfactory than all the rest why that part of the Epistle should be thought forged and spurious viz. because it makes so much against them More might be produced to this purpose but by this I hope 't is clear enough that the honest Christians of those times as they thought it sufficient to pray to God without making their addresses to Saints and Angels so they accounted their Churches fine enough without Pictures and Images to adorn them Their Churches being built and beautified so far as consisted with the ability and simplicity of those days they sought to derive a greater value and esteem upon them by some peculiar consecration for the wisdom and piety of those times thought it not enough barely to devote them to the publick services of Religion unless they also set them apart with solemn Rites of a formal dedication This had been an ancient Custom both amongst Jews and Gentiles as old as Solomons Temple nay as Moses and the Tabernacle When 't was first taken up by Christians is not easie to determine only I do not remember to have met with the footsteps of any such thing in any approved Writer for the Decretal Epistles every one knows what their faith is till the Reign of Constantine in his time Christianity being become more prosperous and successful Churches were every where erected and repaired and no sooner were so but as Eusebius tells us they were solemnly consecrated and the dedications celebrated with great festivity and rejoycing an instance whereof he there gives of the famous Church of Tyre at the dedication whereof he himself made that excellent Oration inserted into the body of his History About the thirtieth year of his Reign he built a stately Church at Jerusalem over the Sepulchre of our Saviour which was dedicated with singular magnificence and veneration and for the greater honour by his imperial Letters he summoned the Bishops who from all parts of the East were then met in Council at Tyre to be present and assisting at the Solemnity The Rites and Ceremonies used at these dedications as we find in Eusebius were a great confluence of Bishops and Strangers from all parts the performance of divine offices singing of hymns and Psalms reading and expounding of the Scriptures Sermons and Orations receiving the holy Sacrament prayers and thanksgivings â—iberal Alms bestowed on the poor and great gifts given to the Church and in short mighty expressions of mutual love and kindness and universal rejoycing with one another What other particular Ceremonies were introduced afterwards concerns not me to enquire only let me note that under some of the Christian Emperours when Paganism lay gasping for life and their Temples were purged and converted into Christian Churches they were usually consecrated only by placing a Cross in them as the venerable Ensign of the Christian Religion as appears by the Law of Theodosius the younger to that purpose The memory of the dedication of that Church at Jerusalem was constantly continued and kept alive in that Church and once a year to wit on the 14. of September on which day it had been dedicated was solemnized with great pomp and much confluence of people from all parts the Solemnity usually lasting eight days together which doubtless gave birth to that custom of keeping anniversary days of commemoration of the dedication of Churches which from this time forwards we frequently meet with in the Histories of the Church and much prevailed in after Ages some shadow whereof still remains amongst us at this day in the Wakes observed in several Counties which in correspondence with the Encoenia of the ancient Church are annual Festivals kept in Country Villages in memory of the dedication of their particular Churches And because it was a custom in some Ages of the Church that no Church should be consecrated till it was endowed it may give us occasion to enquire what Revenues Churches had in those first Ages of Christianity 'T is more than probable that for a great while they had no other publick incomes than either what arose out of those common contributions which they made at their usual Assemblies every one giving or offering according to his ability or devotion which was put into a common stock or treasury or what proceeded from the offerings which they made out of the improvement of their Lands the Apostolick Canons providing that their First-fruits should be partly offered at the Church partly sent home to the Bishops and Presbyters the care of all which was committed to the President or Bishop of the Church for who says the Authour of the fore-cited Canons is fitter to be trusted with the riches and revenues of the Church than he who is intrusted with the precious souls of men and by him disposed of for the maintenance of the Clergie the relief of the poor or whatever necessities of the Church As Christianity encreased and times grew better they obtained more proper and fixed revenues houses and lands being setled upon them for such 't is certain they had even during the times
his particular lot and portion comprehending the body of the people in general But afterwards this title was confin'd to narrower bounds and became appropriate to that Tribe which God had made choice of to stand before him to wait at his Altar and to minister in the services of his Worship And after the expiration of their Oeconomy was accordingly used to denote the ministry of the Gospel the persons peculiarly consecrated and devoted to the service of God in the Christian Church the Clergie being those qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt as they are defin'd in a Law of the Emperour Constantine who are set apart for the ministeries of Religion in matters relating to the Divine Worship Now the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is often called in the Apostles Canons the roll of the Clergie of the ancient Church taking it within the compass of its first four hundred years consisted of two sorts of persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were peculiarly consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of the Worship of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were set apart only for the more mean and common services of the Church Of the first sort were these three Bishops Presbyters and Deacons The first and principal Officer of the Church was the President or Bishop usually chosen out of the Presbyters I shall not here concern my self in the disputes whether Episcopacy as a superior order to Presbytery was of divine institution a controversie sufficiently ventilated in the late times it being enough to my purpose what is acknowledged both by Blondel and Salmasius the most learned defenders of Presbytery that Bishops were distinct from and superior to Presbyters in the second Century or the next Age to the Apostles The main work and office of a Bishop was to teach and instruct the people to administer the Sacraments to absolve Penitents to eject and excommunicate obstinate and incorrigible offenders to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers in the Church to call them to account and to suspend or deal with them according to the nature of the offence to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws and to appoint and institute such indifferent Rites as were for the decent and orderly administration of his Church In short according to the notation of his name he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Watchman and Sentinal and therefore oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and carefully to inspect and observe to superintend and provide for those that were under his charge This Zonaras tells us was implied in the Bishops Throne being placed on high in the most eminent part of the Church to denote how much 't was his duty from thence to overlook and very diligently to observe the people that were under him These and many more were the unquestionable rights and duties of the Episcopal Office which because it was very difficult and troublesom for one man to discharge especially where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diocess as we now call it was any thing large therefore upon the multiplying of Country Churches it was thought fit to take in a subordinate sort of Bishops called Chorepiscopi Country or as amongst us they have been called suffragan Bishops whose business it was to superintend and inspect the Churches in the Country that lay more remote from the City where the Episcopal See was and which the Bishop could not always inspect and oversee in his own person These were the Vicarii Episcoporum as they are called in Isidores Version of the thirteenth Canon both of the Ancyran and Neocaesarean Council the Bishops Deputies chosen out of the fittest and gravest persons In the Canon of the last mentioned Council they are said to be chosen in imitation of the seventy not the seventy Elders which Moses took in to bear part of the Government as some have glossed the words of that Canon but of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord made choice of to send up and down the Countries to preach the Gospel as both Zonaras and Balsamon understand it and thereupon by reason of their great care and pains are commanded to be esteemed very honourable Their authority was much greater than that of Presbyters and yet much inferior to the Bishop Bishops really they were though their power confin'd within narrow limits they were not allowed to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons unless peculiarly licens'd to it by the Bishop of the Diocess though they might ordain sub-Deacons Readers and any inferiour Officers under them They were to be assistant to the Bishop might be present at Synods and Councils to many whereof we find their subscriptions and had power to give Letters of peace i. e. such Letters whereby the Bishop of one Diocess was wont to recommend any of his Clergy to the Bishop of another that so a fair understanding and correspondence might be maintained between them a priviledge expresly denied to any Presbyter whatsoever But lest this wandring employment of the Chorepiscopi should reflect any dishonour upon the Episcopal Office there were certain Presbyters appointed in their room called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters often mentioned in the ancient Canons and Acts of Councils who being tied to no certain place were to go up and down the Country to observe and correct what was amiss And these doubtless were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the thirteenth Canon of the Neocaesarean Council those rural Presbyters who are there forbid to consecrate the Eucharist in the City Church in the presence of the Bishop or the Presbyters of the City As Christianity encreased and overspread all parts and especially the Cities of the Empire it was found necessary yet farther to enlarge the Episcopal Office and as there was commonly a Bishop in every great City so in the Metropolis as the Romans called it the Mother City of every Province wherein they had Courts of Civil Judicature there was an Archbishop or a Metropolitan who had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all the Churches within that Province He was superior to all the Bishops within those limits to him it belonged either to ordain or to ratifie the elections and ordinations of all the Bishops within his Province insomuch that without his confirmation they were looked upon as null and void Once at least every year he was to summon the Bishops under him to a Synod to enquire into and direct the Ecclesiastical affairs within that Province to inspect the lives and manners the opinions and principles of his Bishops to admonish reprove and suspend them that were disorderly and irregular if any controversies or contentions happened between any of them he was to have the hearing and determination of them and indeed no matter of moment was done within the whole Province without first consulting him in the case Besides this Metropolitan there was many times another in the same
made against their spiritual Guides and Governours and therefore according to the right art of Orators he first commends them for their eminent subjection to them that he might with the more advantage reprove and censure them for their schism afterwards which he does severely in the latter part of the Epistle and towards the end of it exhorts those who had laid the foundation of the Sedition to become subject to their Presbyters and being instructed to repentance to bow the knees of their hearts to lay aside the arrogant and insolent boldness of their tongues and to learn to subject and submit themselves The truth is Bishops and Ministers were then looked upon as the common Parents of Christians whom as such they honoured and obeyed and to whom they repaired for counsel and direction in all important cases 'T is plain from several passages in Tertullian that none could lawfully marry till they had first advised with the Bishop and Clergy of the Church and had asked and obtained their leave which probably they did to secure the person from marrying with a Gentile or any of them that were without and from the inconveniencies that might ensue upon such a match No respect no submission was thought great enough whereby they might do honour to them they were wont to kiss their hands to embrace their feet and at their going from or returning home or indeed their coming unto any place to wait upon them and either to receive or dismiss them with the universal confluence of the people Happy they thought themselves if they could but entertain them in their houses and bless their roofs with such welcome guests Amongst the various ways of kindness which Constantine the Great shewed to the Clergie the Writer of his life tells us that he used to treat them at his own Table though in the meanest and most despicable habit and never went a journey but he took some of them along with him reckoning that thereby he made himself surer of the propitious and favourable influence of the divine presence What honours he did them at the Council of Nice where he refused to sit down till they had given him intimation with what magnificent gifts and entertainments he treated them afterwards the same Author relates at large The truth is the piety of that devout and excellent Prince thought nothing too good for those who were the messengers of God and ministers of holy things and so infinitely tender was he of their honour as to profess that if at any time he should spye a Bishop overtaken in an immodest and uncomely action he would cover him with his own imperial Robe rather than others should take notice of it to the scandal of his place and person And because their spiritual authority and relation might not be sufficient to secure them from the contempt of rude and prophane persons therefore the first Christian Emperours invested them with power even in Civil cases as the way to beget them respect and authority amongst the people Thus Constantine as Sozomon tells us and he sets it down as a great argument of that Princes reverence for Religion ordained that persons contending in Law might if they pleased remove their cause out of the Civil Courts and appeal to the judgment of the Bishops whose sentence should be firm and take place before that of any other Judges as if it had been immediately passed by the Emperour himself and cases thus judged by Bishops all Governours of Provinces and their Officers were presently to put into execution which was afterwards ratified by two Laws one of Arcadius another of Honorius to that purpose This power the Bishops sometimes delegated to their inferior Clergy making them Judges in these cases as appears from what Socrates reports of Silvanus Bishop of Troas that finding a male-administration of this power he took it out of the hands of his Clergie and devolved the hearing and determining causes over to the Laity And to name no more S. Augustine more than once and again tells us how much he was crowded and even oppressed in deciding the contests and causes of secular persons It seems they thought themselves happy in those days if they could have their causes heard and determined by Bishops A pious Bishop and a faithful Minister was in those days dearer to them than the most valuable blessings upon earth and they could want any thing rather than be without them when Chrysostom was driven by the Empress into banishment the people as he went along burst into tears and cryed out ' t was better the Sun should not shine than that John Chrysostom should not preach and when through the importunity of the people he was recalled from his former banishment and diverted into the Suburbs till he might have an opportunity to make a publick vindication of his innocency the people not enduring such delays the Emperour was forced to send for him into the City the people universally meeting him and conducting him to his Church with all expressions of reverence and veneration Nay while he was yet Presbyter of the Church of Antioch so highly was he loved and honoured by the people of that place that though he was chosen to the See of Constantinople and sent for by the Emperours Letters though their Bishop made an Oration on purpose to perswade them to it yet would they by no means be brought to part with him and when the Messengers by force attempted to bring him away he was forced to prevent a tumult to withdraw and hide himself the people keeping a Guard about him lest he should be taken from them nor could the Emperour or his Agents with all their arts effect it till he used this wile he secretly wrote to the Governour of Antioch who pretending to Chrysostom that he had concerns of moment to impart to him invited him to a private place without the City where seizing upon him by Mules which he had in readiness he conveyed him to Constantinople where that his welcome might be the more magnificent the Emperour commanded that all persons of eminency both Ecclesiastical and Civil should with all possible pomp and state go six miles to meet him Of Nazianzen who sat in the same Chair of Constantinople before him I find that when he would have left that Bishoprick by reason of the stirs that were about it and delivered up himself to solitude and a private life as a thing much more suitable to his humour and genius many of the people came about him with tears beseeching him not to forsake his Flock which he had hitherto fed with so much sweat and labour They could not then lose their spiritual Guides but they looked upon themselves as Widows and Orphans resenting their death with a general sorrow and lamentation as if they had lost a common Father Nazianzen reports that when his
punctual account of what was done at their religious Assemblies as might sufficiently appear from this one thing that the first of them in those places speaks not any thing of their Hymns and Psalms which yet that they were even in the times wherein they lived a constant part of the Divine Service no man that is not wholly a stranger in Church-Antiquity can be ignorant of I shall therefore out of them and others pick up and put together what seems to have constituted the main body of their publick duties and represent them in that order wherein they were performed which usually was in this manner At their first coming together into the Congregation they began with Prayer as Tertullian at least probably intimates for I do not find it in any besides him we come together says he unto God that being banded as 't were into an Army we may besiege him with our prayers and petitions a violence which is very pleasing and grateful to him I do not from hence positively conclude that prayer was the first duty they began with though it seems fairly to look that way especially if Tertullian meant to represent the order as well as the substance of their devotions After this followed the reading of the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament both the Commentaries of the Apostles and the Writings of the Prophets as J. Martyr informs us How much of each was read at one meeting in the first time is not known it being then unfixed and arbitrary because their meetings by the sudden interruption of the Heathens were oft disturbed and broken up and therefore both Justin and Tertullian confess that they only read as much as occasion served and the condition of the present times did require but afterwards there were set portions assigned both out of the Old and New Testament two Lessons out of each as we find it in the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions Nay not only the Canonical Scriptures but many of the Writings of Apostolical men such as were eminent for place and piety were in those days publickly read in the Church such was the famous Epistle of S. Clemens to the Corinthians of which and of the custom in like cases Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived about the year 172. gives Soter Bishop of Rome this account to day says he we kept holy the Lords-day wherein we read your Epistle which we shall constantly read for our instruction as we also do the first Epistle which Clemens wrote to us The like Eusebius reports of Hermas his Pastor a Book so called and S. Hierom of the Writings of S. Ephrem the famous Deacon of Edessa that in some Churches they were publickly read after the reading of the holy Scriptures About this part of the service it was that they sung Hymns and Psalms a considerable part of the Divine Worship as it had ever been accounted both amongst Jews and Gentiles and more immediately serviceable for celebrating the honour of God and lifting up the minds of men to divine and heavenly raptures 'T was in use in the very infancy of the Christian Church spoken of largely by S. Paul and continued in all Ages after insomuch that Pliny reports it as the main part of the Christians Worship that they met together before day to join in singing Hymns to Christ as God these Hymns were either extemporary raptures so long as immediate inspiration lasted or set compositions either taken out of the holy Scriptures or of their own composing as Tertullian tells us for it was usual then for any persons to compose divine Songs to the honour of Christ and to sing them in the Publick Assemblies till the Council of Laodicea ordered that no Psalms composed by private persons should be recited in the Church where though by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two Greek Scholiasts will have certain Psalms ascribed to Solomon and others to be understood yet it 's much more reasonable to understand it of private constitutions usual a long time in the Church and here for good reason prohibited By this Council it was likewise appointed that the Psalms should not be one entire continued service but that a Lesson should be interposed in the midst after every Psalm which was done as Balsamon and Alexius Aristenus tell us to take off the weariness of the people whose minds might be apt to tire in passing through those prolix offices all together especially the Lessons being so large and many In this duty the whole Congregation bore a part joining all together in a common celebration of the praises of God afterwards the custom was to sing alternatim course by course answering one another first brought in as we are told by Flavianus and Diodorus in the Church of Antioch in the Reign of Constantine but if we may believe Socrates some hundreds of years before that by Ignatius who was Bishop of that Church who having in a vision heard the Angels praising the holy Trinity with alternate Hymns thereupon introduced the use of it in that Church which from thence spread it self into all other Churches and whether Pliny who lived about that time might not mean some such thing by his secum invicem canere that the Christians sung Hymns one with another or in their courses may be considered by those who think it worth their labour to enquire In the mean time we proceed the Reader having done they are the words of Justin the martyr the President of the Assembly makes a Sermon by way of instruction and exhortation to the imitation and practice of those excellent things that they had heard And indeed Sermons in those times were nothing else but the expositions of some part of the Scriptures which had been read before and exhortations to the people to obey the doctrines contained in them and commonly were upon the Lesson which was last read because that being freshest in the peoples memory was most proper to be treated of as S. Augustine both avers the custom and gives the reason Hence in the Writers of the Church Preachers came to be called Tractatores and their Sermons Tractatus because they handled or treated of such places of Scripture as had been a little before read unto the people According as occasion was these Sermons were more or fewer sometimes two or three at the same Assembly the Presbyters first and then the Bishop as is expresly affirmed in the Apostolical Constitutions then i.e. after the reading of the Gospel let the Presbyters exhort the people one by one not all at once and after all the Bishop as it is fitting for the Master to do And thus Gregory Nyssen excuses himself for not introducing his Sermons with a tedious Preface because he would not be burdensom to the people who had already taken pains to hear those admirable discourses that had been made before him This course
him he shews him his company Behold said he these are the treasures of the Church those eternal treasures which are never diminished but increase which are dispersed to every one and yet found in all This passage brings to my mind though it more properly belongs to the next instance of charity what Palladius relates of Macarius a Presbyter and Governour of the Hospital at Alexandria There was a Virgin in that City very rich but infinitely covetous and uncharitable She had been oft attempted and set upon by the perswasions of good men but in vain at last he caught her by this piece of pious policy He comes to her and tells her that a parcel of Jewels Emraulds and Jacinths of inestimable value were lodg'd at his house but which the owner was willing to part with for five hundred pieces of mony and advises her to buy them She catching at the offer as hoping to gain considerably by the bargain delivered him the mony and intreated him to buy them for her knowing him to be a person of great piety and integrity But hearing nothing from him a long time after till meeting him in the Church she asked him what were become of the Jewels He told her he had laid out the mony upon them for he had expended it upon the uses of the Hospital and desired her to come and see them and if the purchase did not please her she might refuse it She readily came along with him to the Hospital in the upper rooms whereof the women were lodged in the lower the men He asked her which she would see first the Jacinths or the Emraulds which she leaving to him he brought her first into the upper part where the lame blind and Cripple-women were disposed and see said he the Jacinths that I spoke of Then carrying her down into the lower rooms he shewed her the men in the like condition and told her These are the Emraulds that I promised and Jewels more precious than these I think are not to be found and now said he if you like not your bargain take your mony back again The woman blushed and was troubled to think she should be hal'd to that which she ought to have done freely for the love of God Afterwards she heartily thanked Macarius and betook her self to a more charitable and Christian course of life Next to this their charity appeared in visiting and assisting of the sick contributing to their necessities refreshing their tired bodies curing their wounds or sores with their own hands The sick says the antient Authour of the Epistle in Justin Martyr if it be not Justin himself are not to be neglected nor is it enough for any to say I have never learnt to serve and give attendance For he that shall make his delicacy or tenderness unaccustomed to any hardness to be an excuse in this case let him know it may soon be his own and then he 'l quickly discern the unreasonableness of his own judgment when the same shall happen to him that he himself has done to others But there were no such nice and squeamish stomachs in the good Christians of those times S. Hierom tells us of Fabiola a Roman Lady a woman of considerable birth and fortunes that she sold her estate and dedicated the mony to the uses of the poor she built an Hospital and was the first that did so wherein she maintained and cured the infirm and miserable or any sick that she met withal in the streets here was a whole randezvouz of Cripples hundreds of diseases and destempers here met together and her self at hand to attend them sometimes carrying the diseased in her arms or bearing them on her shoulders sometimes washing and dressing those filthy and noysome sores from which another woud have turned his eyes with contempt and horrour otherwiles preparing them food or giving them physick with her own hand The like we read of Placilla the Empress wife to the younger Theodosâ—us that she was wont to take all possible care of the lame or wounded to go home to their houses carry them all necessary conveniencies and to attend and assist them not by the ministery of her servants and followers but with her own hands She constantly visited the common Hospitals attended at sick beds for their cure and recovery tasted their broths prepared their bread reached them their provisions washed their cups with her own hands and underwent all other offices which the very meanest of the servants were to undergo Thus also the Historian reports of Deogratias the aged Bishop of Carthage under the Vandalic persecution that having sold all the plate belonging to the Church to ransom the Captive Christans and wanting places conveniently to bestow them he lodged them in two large Churches provided for the needy took care of the sick himself every hour visiting them both by day and night with Physicians attending him to superintend their cure and diet suitable to their several cases going from bed to bed to know what every one stood in need of Nay how often did they venture to relieve their brethren when labouring under such distempers as seemed immediately to breath death in their faces Thus in that sad and terrible plague at Alexandria which though it principally raged amongst the Gentiles yet seiz'd also upon the Christians Many of the bretheren says the Historian out of the excessive abundance of their kindness and charity without any regard to their own health and life boldly ventured into the thickest dangers daily visiting attending instructing and comforting their sick and infected brethren till themselves expired and died with them Nay many of them whom they thus attended recovered and lived while they who had looked to them died themselves as if by a strange and prodigious charity they had willingly taken their diseases upon them and died themselves to save them from death Thus 't was with the Christians while the Gentiles in the mean time put off all sense of humanity when any began to fall sick amongst them they presently cast them out shun'd their dearest friends and relations left them half-dead in the high-ways and took no care of them either alive or dead And that this work of charity might be the better managed amongst Christians they had in many places and particularly in this of Alexandria certain persons whose proper office it was to attend and administer to the sick They were called Parabolani because especially in pestilential and infectious distempers they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast themselves into an immediate hazard of their lives and were peculiarly deputed ad curanda debilium aegra corpora as the law of the younger Theodosius expresses it to attend and cure the bodies of the infirm and sick Their numbers it seems were very great insomuch that upon any tumultuary occasions they became formidable even to the Courts of Civil Judicature upon complaint whereof made to the Emperour Theodosius reduced
by excommunication was not originally instituted by our Lord or his Apostles but had been antiently practised both amongst Jews and Gentiles 'T was commonly practised by the Druids as Caesar who lived amongst them informs us who when any of the people became irregular and disorderly presently suspended them from their sacrifices And the persons thus suspended were accounted in the number of the most impious and exercrable persons All men stood off from them shun'd their company and converse as an infection and a plague they had no benefit of Law nor any honour or respect shewn to them and of all punishments this they accounted most extreme and severe So far he giving an account of this Discipline amongst the antient Gauls In the Jewish Church nothing was more familiar their three famous degrees of Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niddui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shammatha are so commonly known that 't were impertinent to insist upon them From the usage of the Jewish it was amongst other rites adopted into the Christian Church practised by the Apostles and the Churches founded by them whereof we have instances in the New Testament but brought to greater perfection in succeeding times 'T is variously expressed by the antient Writers though much to the same purpose Such persons are said Abstineri to be kept back a word much used by Cyprian and the Synod of Illiberis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be separated or be separated from the body of Christ as S. Augustin oft expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be wholly cut off from Communion as 't is in the Apostolick Canons Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Laodicean Synod calls it to be thrown out of the Church to be anathematiz'd and without the Communion and pale of the Church as the Fathers of the Council of Gaugra have it This suspension and the penance that accompanied it was greater or less longer or shorter according to the nature of the crime sometimes two three ten fifteen twenty or thirty years and sometimes for the whole life nay in some cases it was not taken off at death but persons were left to the judgment of God without any testimony of their reconciliation to the Church Though herein the severity was mitigated not only by private Bishops but by the great Council of Nice which ordain'd that penitent persons should not be denied the Communion at the hour of death of all which cases or the most material of them we have in the foregoing discourse produc'd particular instances in their proper places If the person offending hapned to be in Orders he forfeited his Ministry and though upon his repentance he was restored to Communion yet it was only as a lay-person never recovering the honour and dignity of his office Thus Cornelius Bishop of Rome giving Fabius of Antioch an account of the clancular and Schismatical Ordination of Novatian tells him that one of the Bishops that ordain'd him return'd after to the Church with tears bewailing his offence whom at the instance of the people he receiv'd unto Lay-communion The same Cyprian writing about this very case relates of Trophimus who was either the very Bishop mentioned by Cornelius or one of his Colleagues that returning to the Church with great demonstrations of repentance he was re-admitted but no otherwise than in the capacity of a Lay-man and speaking elsewhere of Basilides his repentance he tells us he had no thoughts of retaining his Bishoprick making account he was very well dealt with if upon his repentance he might but communicate as a Laick and be received amongst the number of the Faithful This S. Basil tells us was an ancient Canon and practice of the Church and accordingly ordains that a Deacon guilty of fornication should be deposed from his office and being thrust down into the rank of the Laity should in that quality be admitted to Communion Indeed they strove by all ways imaginable to discourage sin never thinking the curb strong enough so they might but keep persons within the bounds of order and regularity insomuch that by some the string was stretched too far and all pardon denied to them that had sin'd This uncomfortable doctrine was if not first coin'd yet mainly vended by the Novatian party For Novatus S. Cyprians Presbyter being suspended by him for his vile enormities fled over to Rome and there joyn'd himself to Novatian a Presbyter of that Church these two names are frequently confounded by the Greek Writers who ambitiously sought to make himself Bishop and to thrust out Cornelius newly elected into that See but not being able to compass his design between them they started this amongst other heretical opinions that the lapsed who through fear of suffering had fallen in the time of persecution were not to be admitted to repentance and that though they should never so oft confess their sins and never so sincerely forsake them yet there was no hope of salvation for them at least-wise for so I incline to understand them that it was not in the power of the Church to absolve or give them any hopes of pardon leaving them to the judgment of God styling themselves and not only as Balsamon affirms ironically styl'd by others by the name of Cathari the pure and undefiled party But they were herein presently condemned by a Synod of sixty Bishops and more than as many Presbyters and Deacons gathered at Rome and the Decree consented to and published by the rest of the Bishops in their several Provinces concluding that Novatus and his party and all that had subscribed to his most inhumane and merciless Opinion should be cast out of the Church and that the brethren who in that sad calamity had fallen from their profession should be healed and restored by the arts and methods of repentance Which brings us to consider 〈…〉 Thirdly How and in what manner offenders were dealt with both as to their suspension and penance and as to their absolution This affair was usually managed after this order At their publick assemblies as we find in Tertullian amongst other parts of their holy exercises there were exhortations reproofs and a divine censure for the judgment is given with great weight as amongst those that are sure that God beholds what they do and this is one of the highest praeludiums and forerunners of the judgment to come when the delinquent person is banished from the Communion of Prayers Assemblies and all holy Commerce By this passage we clearly see that the first thing in this solemn action was to make reproofs and exhortations thereby to bring the offender to the sight and acknowledgement of his faults then the sentence or censure was passed upon him whereby he was suspended not only from the Communion of the Holy Eucharist but from all holy commerce in any especially publick duty of religion We cannot imagine that in every person
and confession and fulfilled the regular customs and orders of the Church The time of penance being ended they addressed themselves to the Governours of the Church for Absolution hereupon their repentance was taken into examination and being found to be sincere and real they were openly re-admitted into the Church by the imposition of the hands of the Clergy the party to be absolv'd kneeling down between the knees of the Bishop or in his absence of the Presbyter who laying his hand upon his head solemnly blessed and absolved him whence doubtless sprang that absurd and senceless calumny which the Heathens laid upon the Christians that they were wont Sacerdotis colere genitalia so forward were they to catch at any reproach which the most crooked and malicious invention could insinuate and suggest The penitent being absolved was received with the universal joy and acclamation of the people as one returned from the state of the dead for such 't is plain they accounted them while under a state of guilt especially the lapsed as Cyprian positively affirms them to be being embraced by his brethren who blessed God for his return and many times wept for the joy of his recovery who upon his absolution was now restored to a participation of the Lords Supper and to all other acts of Church-Communion which by his crimes he had forfeited and from which he had been suspended till he had given satisfactory evidence of his repentance and purpose to persevere under the exact discipline of Christianity This was the ordinary way wherein they treated criminals in the Primitive Church but in cases of necessity such as that of danger of death they did not rigidly exact the set time of penance but absolved the person that so he might dye in the peace and communion of the Church The story of Serapion at Alexandria we have formerly mentioned who being suddainly surpriz'd with death while he was under the state of penance and not being able to dye till he had received absolution sent for the Presbyter to testifie his repentance and absolve him but he being also at that time sick sent him a part of the Consecrated elements which he had by him upon the receiving whereof he breathed out his soul with great comfort and satisfaction that he now died in Communion with the Church The truth is the time of these Penitentiary humiliations often varied according to the circumstances of the case it being much in the power of the Bishops and Governours of the Church to shorten the time and sooner to absolve and take them into Communion the Medicinal vertue of repentance lying not in the duration but the manner of it as S. Basil speaks in this very case A learned man has observed to my hand four particular cases wherein they were wont to anticipate the usual time of absolution The first was what I observed but now when persons were in danger of death this was agreed to by Cyprian and the Martyrs and the Roman Clergy and the Letters as he tells us sent through the whole World to all the Churches this also was provided for by the great Council of Nice That as for those that were at the point of death the ancient and Canonical rule should be observed still that when any were at the point of death they should by no means be deprived of the last and necessary Viaticum i.e. the Holy Sacrament which was their great Symbol of Communion And here for the better understanding some passages it may not be unuseful once for all to add this note that whereas many of the ancient Canons of the Illiberine Council especially positively deny communion to some sorts of penitents even at the hour of death they are not to be understood as if the Church mercilesly denied all indulgence and absolution to any penitent at such a time but only that it was thought fit to deny them the use of the Eucharist which was the great pledge and testimony of their communion with the Church The second case was in time of eminent persecution conceiving it but fit at such times to dispense with the rigour of the discipline that so Penitents being received to the Grace of Christ and to the communion of the Church might be the better armed and enabled to contend earnestly for the Faith This was resolved and agreed upon by Cyprian and a whole Council of African Bishops whereof they give an account to Cornelius Bishop of Rome that in regard persecution was drawing on they held it convenient and necessary that communion and reconciliation should be granted to the lapsed not only to those that were a dying but even to the living that they might not be left naked and unarmed in the time of battel but be able to defend themselves with the shield of Christs body and blood For how say they shall we teach and perswade them to shed their blood in the Cause of Christ if we deny them the benefit of his blood How shall we make them fit to drink the cup of martyrdom unless we first admit them in the Church to a right of communication to drink of the cup of the blood of Christ A third case wherein they relaxed the severity of this discipline was when great multitudes were concerned or such persons as were likely to draw great numbers after them in this case they thought it prudent and reasonable to deal with persons by somewhat milder and gentler methods lest by holding them to terms of rigour and austerity they should provoke them to fly off either to Heathens or to Hereticks This course Cyprian tells us he took he complied with the necessity of the times and like a wise Physician yielded a little to the humour of the patient to provide for his health and to cure his wounds and quotes herein the example of Cornelius of Rome who dealt just so with Trophimus and his party and elsewhere that out of an earnest desire to regain and resettle the brethren he was ready to connive at many things and to forgive any thing and did not examine and exact the greatest crimes with that full power and severity that he might insomuch that he thought he did almost offend himself in an over-liberal remitting other mens offences Lastly in absolving penitents and mitigating the rigours of their repentance they used to have respect to the person of the penitent to his Dignity or Age or Infirmity or the course of his past life sometimes to the greatness of his Humility and the impression which his present condition made upon him Thus the Ancyran Council impowers Bishops to examine the manner of mens Conversion and Repentance and accordingly either to moderate or enlarge their time of penance but especially that regard be had to their Conversation both before and since their offence that so clemency and indulgence may be extended to them So for the case of persons of
IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino Gilberto Archiep. Cantuar. à sac dom Ex Aedibus Lambeth Septemb. 12. 1672. Primitive Christianity in 3 parts Learn of me Math. 11. 29. London Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose Crown in St Pauls Churchyard Primitive Christianity OR THE RELIGION Of the Ancient Christians In the first Ages OF THE GOSPEL In Three Parts By WILLIAM CAVE D D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Paraenes ad Graec. p. 33. Nos non habitu Sapientiam sed mente praeferimus Non eloquimur magna sed vivimus Minuc Foel dial pag. 31. The Second Edition LONDON Printed by J. M. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1675. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD NATHANAEL Lord Bishop of OXFORD And Clerk of the Closet to his MAJESTY My Lord WHen I first designed that these Papers should take sanctuary at your Lordships Patronage the Hebrew Proverb presently came into my mind Keep close to a great man and men will reverence thee I knew no better way next to the innocency and if it may be usefulness of the subject I have undertaken to secure my self from the censures of envy and ill nature than by putting my self under your protection whose known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sweetness and obligingness of whose temper is able to render malice it self candid and favourable Encouraged also by this consideration I hardned my self into the confidence of this Address which I had not otherwise attempted but that your Lordships kindness and generous compassion and the mighty condescention wherewith you were always pleased to treat me while I had the happiness of your Lordships neighbourhood did at once invite and oblige me to it I say no more lest I should affront that modesty that is so innate to your temper or come within the least suspicion of flattery so repugnant to my own One thing only there is which I cannot but remark the great honour which your Lordship has done not to the Episcopal only but to the whole ministerial order that a person of your Rank and Education would stoop to an employment so little valued and regarded in this unthankful and degenerate Age. And herein your Lordship has been a happy Precedent your example being already followed by some and will shortly by more persons of Noble Descent and Pedigree a thing for which the Church of England was never more renowned since the Reformation than it is at this day My Lord There was a time within the compass of our memmory when the Bishops amongst other things were accused by one of the House of Peers though one that had not the most reason to bring in a charge of that nature to be in respect of their Parentage de faece populi of the very dregs and refuse of the people malice will play at small games rather than not at all A charge as false as it was spiteful though had it been true it had been impertinent seeing the very order is enough to derive honour upon the person even when he cannot as your Lordship bring it along with him And indeed so honourable an Order has Episcopacy ever been accounted even when there have been no visible advantages either of riches or grandeur to attend it as there were not in the more early Ages of Christianity that persons of the greatest Birth and Fortunes have not thought it below them to exchange the Civil Tribunal for the Bishops Throne and to lay down the publick Rods and Axes to take up the Crosier and the Pedum Pastorale If we may credit that Catalogue of the Bishops of Constantinople recorded by Nicephorus we find Dometius Brother to the Emperour Probus and after him his two Sons Probus and Metrophanes successively sitting in that Chair As afterwards Nectarius S. Chrysostoms Predecessor was of a Senator made Bishop of that See Thalassius became Bishop of Caesarea when he was a Senator the Praefectus Praetorio or the Emperours Lieutenant one of the highest places both of trust and honour in the Roman Empire of Illyricum and rising to greater dignities being designed by the Emperour for the Government of the East S. Ambrose whose Father was an illustrious person the Praefect of France was made Governour of Liguria and Aemilia and sent thither with Consular power and dignity during which employment he was made Bishop of Milain Petronius Bishop of Bononia is said to have been first a Praefectus Praetorio and to descend of the Family of Constantine the Great Sidonius Apollinaris descended for many Generations of noble and illustrious Parents his Father the Praefectus Praetorio of Gaul himself Son-in-Law to Avitus a person of extraordinary honour and employment and afterwards Consul and Emperour and yet in the midst of this disdained not to become Bishop of Clermont in France More such instances I could give not to speak of multitudes that were in the middle and later Ages of the Church especially in our own Nation But I return My Lord I beheld Religion generally laid waste and Christianity ready to draw its last breath stifled and oppressed with the vices and impieties of a debauched and profligate Age. To contribute towards the recovery whereof and the reducing things if possible to the ancient Standard is the design of the Book that is here offered to you The subject I assure my self is not unsuitable either to your Lordships Order temper or course of life if my ill managery of it has not rendred it unworthy of your Patronage However such as it is it 's humbly presented by him who is Your Lordships faithfully devoted Servant WILLIAM CAVE THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Know not whether it may be any satisfaction to the curiosity of the Reader to understand the birth and original of these Papers if it be let him take this account No sooner did I arrive at years capable of discerning but I began to enquire into the grounds of that Religion into which I had been baptized which I soon found to be so noble and excellent in all its laws so just and rational in all its designs so divine and heavenly so perfective of the Principles so conducive to the happiness of humane nature a Religion so worthy of God so advantageous to man built upon such firm and uncontroulable evidence back'd with such proper and powerful arguments that I was presently convinc'd of the Divinity that resided in it and concluded with my self and I thought I had reason so to do that surely the Disciples of this Religion must needs be the most excellent persons in the world But alas a few years experience of the world let me see that this was the conclusion of one that had convers'd only with Books and the reasonings of his own mind I had not been long an observer of the manners of men but I found them generally so debauched and vitious so corrupt and contrary
their estates and quality Inconsiderable they were accounted in respect of parts and learning you scorn and spit us out as rude and simple and think that the treasury of all divine and excellent knowledge is open only to your selves as Arnobius tells them Thus Celsus objected that amongst the Christians no wise and learned men were admitted to the mysteries of their Religion let no man come that is learned wise and prudent for these things says he they account evil and unlawful but if any be unlearned an infant or an ideot let him come and welcome openly declaring that none but Fools and such as are devoid of sense and reason Slaves silly Women and little Children are fit Disciples for the God they worship We may observe says he these trifling and Mountebank Impostors bragging great things to the vulgar not in the presence and company of wise men for that they dare not but where-ever they espye a flock of Boys Slaves and weak simple people there they presently crowd in and boast themselves you shall see as he goes on in this charge Weavers Taylors Fullers and the most rustick and illiterate Fellowes at home when before their elders and betters as mute as Fishes but when they can get a few Children and silly Women by themselves then who so wise and learned who so full of talk and so able to teach and instruct as they Much to the same purpose Cecilius discourses in Minucius Faelix that the Christians were men of a desperate and unlawful faction who gathering a company out of the very dregs and refuse of the people of silly easie credulous Women who by reason of the weakness of their Sex are easily imposed and wrought upon combine them into a wicked confederation a people mute in publick but in corners talkative and full of prattle Now to this part of the accusation Origen answers that 't is for the main false and proceeds from the spirit of malice and reproach the sum of his answer as he delivers it to the several parts of the Charge take thus That the Christian Doctrine invites and calls men to wisdom as appears both from the Writings of the Jews of old and the Scriptures of the New Testament wherein we find many singularly eminent for wisdom and learning Moses Solomon Daniel and such like of old and the blessed Jesus made choice of such Disciples as whom he judged fittest to communicate the secrets of his Religion to and privately opened and explained to them what he only delivered in parables and similitudes unto others that he promised to send forth Prophets wise men and Scribes for the divulging and propagating of his Doctrine that S. Paul reckons wisdom and knowledge in the first rank of the gifts of God and that if he any where seem to reflect severely upon wisdom or humane learning which probably may be the first rise of this Charge he only censures the abuse never intending to blame the thing it self that when he prescribes the properties of a true Bishop or Governour of the Church he requires this as one necessary qualification that he be apt to teach and able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers that we are so far from prohibiting any that come who will wise learned and prudent provided the rude simple and unlearned be not excluded for to them also the Gospel does promise and provide a remedy making them meet for God that no man but must confess that 't is an excellent thing to study the best arts and discipline and that learning the study of Arts and prudence are so far from being anâ— hinderance to the knowledge of God that they mightily help it and advance it that it 's a great calumny to compare us to wandring impostors who by our reading and expounding the Divine Oracles do only exhort the people to piety toward the great God and to the rest of those virtues which are its individual companions endeavouring to rescue men from a contempt of the Deity and all brutish and irregular passions a thing which the very best Philosophers of them all could wish for that Christians are so far from admitting any hand over head that they first pre-examine the minds of those that desire to become their auditors and having privately had tryal of them before they receive them into the Congregation when they perceive them fully resolved to lead a pious and religious life then they admit them in their distinct orders some that are newly admitted but not yet baptized others that have given some evidence and demonstration of their purpose to live as becomes Christians amongst whom there are Governours appointed to inspect and enquire into the life and manners of those who have been admitted that they may expel and turn off those candidates of Religion who answer not their profession and heartily entertain those that do and by dayly converses build them up and make them better that it 's false to say that we apply our selves only to Women and Children and that in corners when we endeavour what we can by all means to fill our Societies with wise and prudent persons and to such we open the more sublime and recondite principles of Religion otherwise accommodating our discourses to the capacities of meaner persons who stand more in need of milk than strong meat that we desire that all men may be trained up in the Word of God and that Servants and Children may have such instructions given them as are sutable and convenient no them the Ministers of our Religion professing themselves to be debtors both to the Greeks and Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise that as much as may be they may outgrow their ignorance and attain to the best kind of wisdom and whereas we are accused to seduce and circumvent silly Women and little Children and to draw them away from more weighty and serious counsels let him produce any such and enquire of them whether ever they heard better Masters than ours or if they did why they would leave so grave a discipline and suffer themselves to be seduced into a worse but he 'll find no such thing to fasten upon us but that on the contrary we reclaim Women from immodesty from falling out with their Husbands and parting from them from the wild extravagancies of the sports and Theaters and from all superstition whatsoever the youth who are prone to vice and luxury we restrain by telling them not only how base and degenerous a thing it is to indulge their lust but into how much danger they precipitate their souls and what punishments the divine vengeance lays up for such profligate offenders we openly not in corners promise eternal happiness to those who live according to the rules of the divine Law who set God always before their eyes and whatever they do endeavour to approve themselves to him and is this the discipline these the
there describes the very form and fashion of it and in another place speaking of their going into the water to be baptized he tells us they were wont first to go into the Church to make their solemn renunciation before the Bishop About this time in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperour who began his Reign about the year 222. the Heathen Historian tells us that when there was a contest between the Christians and the Vintners about a certain publick place which the Christians had seiz'd and challenged for theirs the Emperour gave the cause for the Christians against the Vintners saying ' t was much better that God should be worshipped there any ways than that the Vintners should possess it If it shall be said that the Heathens of those times generally accused the Christians for having no Temples and charged it upon them as a piece of atheism and impiety and that the Christian Apologists did not deny it as will appear to any that will take the pains to examine the places alledged in the margin to this the answer in short depends upon the notion which they had of a Temple by which the Gentiles understood the places devoted to their gods and wherein their Deities were inclosed and shut up places adorned with Statues and Images with fine Altars and ornaments and for such Temples as these they freely confessed they had none no nor ought to have for that the true God did not as the Heathens supposed theirs dwell in Temples made with hands nor either needed nor could possibly be honoured by them and therefore they purposely abstained from the word Temple and I do not remember that 't is used by any Christian Writer for the place of the Christian Assemblies for the best part of the first three hundred years and yet those very Writers who deny Christians to have had any Temples do at the same time acknowledge that they had their meeting places for divine Worship their conventicula as Arnobius calls them and complains they were furiously demolished by their Enemies If any desire to know more concerning this as also that Christians had appropriate places of Worship for the greatest part of the three first Centuries let him read a Discourse purposely written upon this subject by a most learned man of our own Nation nor indeed should I have said so much as I have about it but that I had noted most of these things before I read his Discourse upon that subject Afterwards their Churches began to rise apace according as they met with more quiet and favourable times especially under Valerian Gallienus Claudius Aurelian and some other Emperours of which times Eusebius tells us that the Bishops met with the highest respect and kindness both from people and Governours and adds but who shall be able to reckon up the innumerable multitudes that daily flocked to the Faith of Christ the number of Congregations in every City those famous meetings of theirs in their Oratories or sacred places so great that not being content with those old Buildings which they had before they erected from the very foundations more fair and spacious Churches in every City This was several years before the times of Constantine and yet even then they had their Churches of ancient date This indeed was a very serene and Sun-shiny season but alas it begun to darken again and the clouds returned after rain for in the very next Chapter he tells us that in the Reign of Dioclesian there came out Imperial Edicts commanding all Christians to be persecuted the Bishops to be imprisoned the holy Bible to be burnt and their Churches to be demolished and laid level with the ground which how many they were may be guessed at by this that as Optatus tells us there were about this time above forty Basilicae or Churches in Rome only Upon Constantines coming into a partnership of the Empire the Clouds began to dispense and scatter and Maximiâ—us who then govern'd the Eastern parts of the Empire a bitter Enemy to Christians was yet forced by a publick Edict to give Christians the free liberty of their Religion and leave to repair and rebuild 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Churches which shortly after they every where set upon raising their Churches from the ground to a vast height and to a far greater splendour and glory than those which they had before the Emperours giving all possible encouragement to it by frequent Laws and Constitutions the Christians also themselves contributing towards it with the greatest chearfulness and liberality even to a magnificence comparable to that of the Jewish Princes towards the building of Solomons Temple as Eusebius tells them in his Oration at the dedication of the famous Church at Tyre And no sooner was the whole Empire devolved upon Constantine but he published two Laws one to prohibite Pagan Worship the other commanding Churches to be built of a nobler size and capacity than before to which purpose he directed his Letters to Eusebius and the rest of the Bishops to see it done within their several jurisdictions charging also the Governours of Provinces to be assisting to them and to furnish them with whatever was necessary and convenient insomuch that in a short time the world was beautified with Churches and sacred Oratories both in Cities and Villages and in the most barbarous and desart places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Historian from whence our Kirk and Church the Lords Houses because erected not to men but to the honour of our Lord and Saviour 'T were needless to insist any longer upon the piety of Christians in building Churches in and after the times of Constantine the instances being so vastly numerous only I cannot omit what Nazianzen reports of his own Father who though Bishop of a very small and inconsiderable Diocess yet built a famous Church almost wholly at his own charge Thus we have seen that from the very infancy of the Gospel the Christians always had their setled and determinate places of divine Worship for the form and fashion of their Churches it was for the most part oblong to keep say some the better correspondence with the fashion of a Ship the common notion and metaphor by which the Church was wont to be represented and to put us in mind that we are tossed up and down in the world as upon a stormy and tempestuous Sea and that out of the Church there 's no safe passage to Heaven the Country we all hope to arrive at They were generally built towards the East towards which also they performed the more solemn parts of their Worship the reasons whereof we shall see afterwards in its due place following herein the Custom of the Gentiles though upon far other grounds than they did and this seems to have obtained from the first Ages of Christianity sure I am 't was so in Tertullian's time who
and in the case of persecution he tells Fabius that if they could not celebrate Dominica solennia their Lords-Day Solemnities in the day time they had the night sufficiently clear with the light of Christ This gave occasion to their spightful Adversaries to calumniate and asperse them the Heathen in Minucius charges them with their night-Congregations upon which account they are there scornfully called latebrosa lucifugax natio an obscure and skulking Generation and the very first thing that Celsus objects is that the Christians had private and clancular Assemblies or Combinations to which Origen answers that if it were so they might thank them for it who would not suffer them to exercise it more openly that the Christian Doctrine was sufficiently evident and obvious and better known through the world than the opinion and sentiments of their best Philosophers and that if there were some mysteries in the Christian Religion which were not communicated to every one 't was no other thing than what was common in the several Sects of their own Philosophy But to return They looked upon the Lords-Day as a time to be celebrated with great expressions of joy as being the happy memory of Christs resurrection and accordingly restrained whatever might savour of sorrow and sadness fasting on that day they prohibited with the greatest severity accounting it utterly unlawful as Tertullian informs us It was a very bitter censure that of Ignatius or whoseever that Epistle was for certainly it was not his that who ever fasts on a Lords-Day is a murderer of Christ however 't is certain that they never fasted on those days no not in the time of Lent it self nay the Montanists though otherwise great pretenders to fasting and mortification did yet abstain from it on the Lords-day And as they accounted it a joyful and good day so they did what ever they thought might contribute to the honour of it No sooner was Constantine come over to the Church but his principal care was about the Lords-day he commanded it to be solemnly observed and that by all persons whatsoever he made it to all a day of rest that men might have nothing to do but to worship God and be better instructed in the Christian Faith and spend their whole time without any thing to hinder them in prayer and devotion according to the custom and discipline of the Church and for those in his Army who yet remained in their Paganism and infidelity he commanded them upon Lords-days to go out into the Fields and there pour out their souls in hearty prayers to God and that none might pretend their own inability to the duty he himself composed and gave them a short form of prayer which he enjoin'd them to make use of every Lords-Day so careful was he that this day should not be dishonoured or mis-imployed even by those who were yet strangers and enemies to Christianity He moreover ordained that there should be no Courts of Judicature open upon this day no Suits or Tryals at Law but that for any works of mercy such as the emancipating and setting free of Slaves or Servants this might be done That there should be no Suits nor demanding debts upon this day was confirmed by several Laws of succeeding Emperours and that no Arbitrators who had the Umpirage of any business lying before them should at that time have power to determine or take up litigious causes penalties being entail'd upon any that transgressed herein Theodosius the Great anno 386. by a second Law ratified one which he had passed long before wherein he expresly prohibited all publick Shews upon the Lords-Day that the worship of God might not be confounded with those prophane Solemnities This Law the younger Theodosius some few years after confirmed and enlarged enacting that on the Lords day and some other Festivals there mentioned not only Christians but even Jews and Heathens should be restrained from the pleasure of all Sights and Spectacles and the Theatres be shut up in every place and whereas it might so happen that the Birth-day or inauguration of the Emperour might fall upon that day therefore to let the people know how infinitely he preferred the honour of God before the concerns of his own majesty and greatness he commanded that if it should so happen that then the imperial Solemnity should be put off and deferred till another day I shall take notice but of one instance more of their great observance of this day and that was their constant attendance upon the Solemnities of publick Worship they did not think it enough to read and pray and praise God at home but made conscience of appearing in the publick Assemblies from which nothing but sickness and absolute necessity did detain them and if sick or in prison or under banishment nothing troubled them more than that they could not come to Church and join their devotions to the common Services If persecution at any time forced them to keep a little close yet no sooner was there the least mitigation but they presently returned to their open duty and publickly met all together No trivial pretences no light excuses were then admitted for any ones absence from the Congregation but according to the merit of the cause severe censures were passed upon them The Synod of Illiberis provided that if any man dwelling in a City where usually Churches were nearest hand should for three Lords Days absent himself from the Church he should for some time be suspended the Communion that he might appear to be corrected for his fault They allowed no separate Assemblies no Congregations but what met in the publick Church if any man took upon him to make a breach and to draw people into corners he was presently condemned and a sutable penalty put upon him When Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia a man petending to great strictness and austerity of life began to cast off the Discipline of the Church and to introduce many odd observations of his own amongst others to contemn Priests that were married to fast on the Lords day and to keep meetings in private houses drawing away many but especially women as the Historian observes who leaving their Husbands were led away with errour and from that into great filthiness and impurity No sooner did the Bishops of those parts discover it but meeting in Council at Gangra the Metropolis of Paphlagonia about the year 340. they condemned and cast them out of the Church passing these two Canons among the rest If any one shall teach that the House of God is to be despised and the assemblies that are held in it let him be accursed If any shall take upon him out of the Church privately to preach at home and making light of the Church shall do those things that belong only to the Church without the presence of the Priest and the leave and allowance of the Bishop let him be accursed
advice in the cause that to do as he did When I come to Rome said he I fast on the Saturday as they do at Rome when I am here I do not fast So likewise you to whatsoever Church you come observe the custom of that place if you mean not either to give or take offence With this answer he satisfied his Mother and ever after when he thought of it looked upon it as an Oracle sent from Heaven So that even in Italy the Saturday Fast was not universally observed Nay a very learned man and a Bishop of the Roman Church thinks it highly probable that for the first Ages especially Saturday was no more kept as a Fast at Rome than in the Churches of the East though the great argument whereby he would establish it viz. because some Latine Churches who must needs follow the pattern of the Church of Rome did not keep it so is very infirm and weak and needs no more than that very instance of the Church of Millain to refute it which though under the Popes nose did not yet keep that day as a Fast although this was many years after it had been so established and observed at Rome And now that I am got into this business I shall once for all dispatch the matter about their Fasts before I proceed to their other Festivals 'T is certain the ancient Christians had two sorts of solemn Fasts weekly and annual Their weekly Fasts called Jejunia quartae sextae seriae were kept upon Wednesdays and Fridays appointed so as we are told for this reason because on Wednesday our Lord was betrayed by Judas on Friday he was crucified by the Jews This custom Epiphanius how truly I know not refers to the Apostles and elsewhere tells us that those days were observed as Fasts through the whole world These Fasts they called their Stations not because they stood all the while but by an allusion to the military Stations and keeping their Guards as Tertullian observes they kept close at it and they usually lasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius informs us till the ninth hour i. e. till three of the Clock in the Afternoon at which time having ended their Fast devotions they received the Eucharist and then broke up the Station and went home whence it is that Tertullian calls them stationum semijejunia the half Fasts of Stations and he seems to censure the practice of some who having privately resolved upon an entire Fast of the whole day refused to receive the Eucharist at the publick stationary Fasts because they thought that by eating and drinking the sacramental Elements they put a period to their fasting for it was usual in those times with many after the stationary Fasts were ended to continue and hold on the Fast until the evening The Historian tells us that it had been a very ancient custom in the Church of Alexandria upon these days to have the Scriptures read and expounded and all other parts of Divine Service except the celebration of the Sacrament and that it was chiefly in those days that Origen was wont to teach the people whether the omitting of the Sacrament then might be a peculiar custom to that Church I know not certain I am 't was upon those days administred in other places So S. Basil enumerating the times how oft they received it every week expresly puts Wednesday and Friday into the number The remains of these primitive Stations are yet observed in our Church at this day which by her 15. Canon has ordained That though Wednesdays and Fridays be not holy days yet that weekly upon those times Minister and People shall resort to Church at the accustomed hours of prayer Their Annual Fast was that of Lent by way of preparation to the Feast of our Saviours Resurrection this though not in the modern use of it was very ancient though far from being an◠Apostolical Canon as a learned Prelate of our Church has fully proved From the very first Age of the Christian Church 't was customary to fast before Easter but for how long it was variously observed according to different times and places some fasting so many days others so many weeks and some so many days on each week and 't is most probably thought that it was at first stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima not because 't was a Fast of forty days but of forty hours begun about twelve on Friday the time of our Saviours falling under the power of death and continued till Sunday morning the time of his rising from the dead Afterwards it was enlarged to a longer time drawn out into more days and then weeks till it came to three and at last to six or seven weeks But concerning the different observations of it in several places let them who desire to know more consult Socrates and Sozomen who both speak enough about it This Quadragesimal Fast was kept in those times with great piety and Religion people generally applying themselves with all seriousness to acts of penance and mortification whence Chrysostom calls Lent the remedy and Physick of our souls and to the end that the observation of it might be more grave and solemn Theodosins M. and his Colleague Emperours passed two Laws that during the time of Lent all Process and enquiry into criminal actions should be suspended and no corporal punishments inflicted upon any it being unfit as the second of those Laws expresses it that in the holy time of Lent the body should suffer punishment while the soul is expecting absolution But with what care soever they kept the preceeding parts 't is certain they kept the close of it with a mighty strictness and austerity I mean the last week of it that which immediately preceded the Feast of Easter this they consecrated to more peculiar acts of prayer abstinence and devotion and whereas in the other parts of Lent they ended their fast in the evening in this they extended it to the Cock-crowing or first glimpse of the morning to be sure they ended it not before midnight for to break up the Fast before that time was accounted a piece of great prophaneness and intemperance as Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria determines in a Letter to Basilides wherein he largely and learnedly states the case This was the Hebdomada Magna the great or holy week so called says Chrysostom not that it has either more hours or days in it than other weeks but because this is the week in which truly great and ineffable good things were purchased for us within this time death was conquered the curse destroyed the Devils tyranny dissolved his instruments broken Heaven opened Angels rejoyced the partition-wall broken down and God and man reconciled For this cause we call it the great week for this cause men fast and watch and do Alms to do the greater honour to it
the Emperours themselves to shew what veneration they have for this time commanding all Suits and Processes at Law to cease Tribunal-doors to be shut up and Prisoners to be set free imitating herein their great Lord and Master who by his death at this time delivered us from the prison and the chains of sin meaning herein those Laws of Theodosius Gratian and Valentinian which we lately mentioned We proceed now to enquire what other Festivals there were in those first Ages of the Church which I find to be chiefly these Easter Whitsuntide and Epiphany which comprehended two Christmass and Epiphany properly so called I reckon them not in their proper order but as I suppose them to have taken place in the Church Of these Easter challenges the precedence both for its antiquity and the great stir about it that in and from the very times of the Apostles besides the weekly returns of the Lords day there has been always observed an Anniversary Festival in memory of Christs Resurrection no man can doubt that has any insight into the affairs of the ancient Church all the dispute was about the particular time when it was to be kept which became a matter of as famous a Controversie as any that in those Ages exercised the Christian world The state of the case was briefly this the Churches of Asia the less kept their Easter upon the same day whereon the Jews celebrated their Passover viz. upon the 14. day of the first Month which always began with the appearance of the Moon mostly answering to our March and this they did upon what day of the week soever it fell and hence were stiled Quartodecimans because keeping Easter quarta decima Luna upon the 14. day after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appearance of the Moon The other Churches and especially those of the West did not follow this custom but kept Easter upon the Lords day following the day of the Jewish Passover partly the more to honour the day and partly to distinguish between Jews and Christians the Asiaticks pleaded for themselves the practice of the Apostles Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna who had lived and conversed with them having kept it upon that day together with S. John and the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus who himself knew Polycarpus and doubtless had it from his own mouth speaks in a Letter about this very thing though himself was of the other side And Polycrates in a Letter to the same purpose instances not only in S. John but S. Philip the Apostle who himself and his whole Family used so to keep it from whom it had been conveyed down in a constant and uninterrupted observance through all the Bishops of those places some whereof he there enumerates and tells us that seven Bishops of that place in a constant succession had been his Kinsmen and himself the eighth and that it had never been kept by them upon any other day this we are not so to understand as if S. John and the Apostles had instituted this Festival and commanded it to be observed upon that day but rather that they did it by way of condescension accommodating their practice in a matter indifferent to the humour of the Jewish Converts whose number in those parts was very great as they had done before in several other cases and particularly in observing the Sabbath or Saturday The other Churches also says Eusebius had for their patronage an Apostolical Tradition or at least pretended it and were the much more numerous party This difference was the spring of great bustles in the Church for the Bishops of Rome stickled hard to impose their custom upon the Eastern Churches whereupon Polycarpus comes over to Rome to confer with Anicetus who was then Bishop about it and though they could not agree the matter yet they parted fairly After this Pope Victor renewed the quarrel and was so fierce and peremptory in the case that he either actually did or as a learned man inclines rather to think probably to mollifie the odium of the Fact severely threatned to excommunicate those Eastern Churches for standing out against it this rash and bold attempt was ill resented by the sober and moderate men of his own party who writ to him about it and particularly Irenaeus a man as Eusebius notes truly answering his name both in his temper and his life quiet and peaceable who gravely reproved him for renting the peace of the Church and troubling so many famous Churches for observing the customs derived to them from their Ancestors with much more to the same purpose But the Asian Bishops little regarded what was either said or done at Rome and still went on in their old course though by the diligent practices of the other party they lost ground but yet still made shift to keep the cause on foot till the time of Constantine who finding this controversie amongst others much to disquiet the peace of the Church did for this and some other reasons summon the great Council of Nice by whom this question was solemnly determined Easter ordained to be kept upon one and the same day throughout the world not according to the custom of the Jews but upon the Lords day and this Decree ratified and published by the imperial Letters to all the Churches The Eve of Vigils or this Festival were wont to be celebrated with more than ordinary pomp with solemn watchings with multitudes of lighted Torches both in the Churches and their own private houses so as to turn the night it self into day and with the general resort and confluence of all ranks of men both Magistrates and people This custom of lights at that time was if not begun at least much augmented by Constantine who set up Lamps and Torches in all places as well within the Churches as without that through the whole City the night seemed to outvye the Sun at Noonday And this they did as Nazianzen intimates as a Prodromus or forerunner of that great light even the Sun of righteousness which the next day arose upon the world For the Feast it self the same Father calls it the holy and famous Passover a day which is the Queen of days the Festival of Festivals and which as far excels all other even of those which are instituted to the honour of Christ as the Sun goes beyond the other Stars A time it was famous for works of mercy and charity every one both of Clergy and Laity striving to contribute liberally to the poor a duty as one of the Ancients observes very congruous and sutable to that happy season for what more fit than that such as beg relief should be enabled to rejoice at that time when we remember the common fountain of our mercies Therefore no sooner did the morning of this day appear but Constantine used to arise and in imitation of the love and kindness of our blessed Saviour to bestow
threefold apparition or manifestation commemorated upon that day which all hapned though not in the same year yet upon the same day of the year The first was the appearance of the Star which guided the wise men to Christ The second was the famous appearance at the baptism of Christ when all the persons in the holy Trinity did sensibly manifest themselves the Father in the voice from Heaven the Son in the River Jordan and the Holy Ghost in the visible shape of a Dove This was ever accounted a famous Festival and as S. Chrysostom tells us was properly called Epiphany because he came in a manner into the world incognito but at his baptism openly appeared to be the Son of God and was so declared before the world At this time it was that by his going into the River Jordan he did sanctifie water to the mystical washing away of sin as our Church expresses it in memory whereof Chrysostom tells us they used in this Solemnity at midnight to draw water which they looked upon as consecrated this day and carrying it home to lay it up where it would remain pure and uncorrupt for a whole year sometimes two or three years together the truth whereof must rest upon the credit of that good man The third manifestation commemorated at this time was that of Christs divinity which appeared in the first miracle that he wrought in turning water into Wine therefore 't was called Bethphania because it was done in the house at that famous Marriage in Cana of Galilee which our Saviour honoured with his own presence All these three appearances contributed to the Solemnity of this Festival But beside these there was another sort of Festivals in the primitive Church kept in commemoration of Martyrs for the understanding of which we are to know that in those sad and bloody times when the Christian Religion triumphed over persecution and gained upon the world by nothing more than the constant and resolute sufferings of its professors whom no threatnings or torments could baffle out of it the people generally had a vast reverence for those who suffered thus deep in the cause of Christianity and laid down their lives for the confirmation of it They looked upon Confessors and Martyrs as the great Champions of their Religion who resisted unto blood and dyed upon the spot to make good its ground and to maintain its honour and reputation and therefore thought it very reasonable to do all possible honour to their memories partly that others might be encouraged to the like patience and fortitude and partly that virtue even in this world might not lose its reward Hence they were wont once a year to meet at the Graves of Martyrs there solemnly to recite their sufferings and their triumphs to praise their virtues and to bless God for their pious examples for their holy lives and their happy deaths for their Palms and Crowns These anniversary Solemnities were called memoriae martyrum the memories of the Martyrs a title mentioned by Cyprian but certainly much older than his time and indeed when they were first taken up in the Church is I think not so exactly known the first that I remember to have met with is that of Polycarp whose martyrdom is placed by Eusebius anno 168. under the third Persecution concerning whose death and sufferings the Church of Smyrna of which he was Bishop giving an account to the Church of Philomelium and especially of the place where they had honourably entomb'd his bones they do profess that so far as the malice of their Enemies would permit them and they prayed God nothing might hinder it they would assemble in that place and celebrate the Birth-day of his Martyrdom with joy and gladness where we may especially observe that this Solemnity is stiled his Birth-day and indeed so the primitive Christians used to call the days of their death and passion quite contrary to the manner of the Gentiles who kept the Natalitials of their famous men looking upon these as the true days of their nativity wherein they were freed from this Valley of tears these regions of death and born again unto the joys and happiness of an endless life The same account Origen gives if that Book be his a very ancient Authour however we keep says he the memories of the Saints of our Ancestors and friends that dye in the faith both rejoycing in that rest which they have obtained and begging for our selves a pious consummation in the faith and we celebrate not the day of their nativity as being the inlet to sorrow and temptation but of their death as the period of their miseries and that which sets them beyond the reach of temptations And this we do both Clergie and People meeting together inviting the poor and needy and refreshing the Widows and the Orphans that so our Festival may be both in respect of them whom we commemorate the memorial of that happy rest which their departed souls do enjoy and in respect of us the odour of a sweet smell in the sight of God Under Constantine these days were commanded to be observed with great care and strictness enjoining all his Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces to see the memorials of the Martyrs duly honoured and so sacred were they accounted in those days that it was thought a piece of prophaneness to be absent from them therefore S. Basil thought he could not use a more solemn argument to perswade a certain Bishop to come over to him upon this occasion than to adjure him by the respect he bore to the memories of the Martyrs that if he would not do it for his yet he should for their sakes towards whom it was unfit he should shew the least disregard Hence it is that Libanius sometimes takes notice of the Christians under no other character than this Enemies to the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that haunt and frequent Tombs and Sepulchers For the time of these assemblies it was commonly once a year viz. upon the day of their martyrdom for which end they took particular care to keep Registers of the days of the Martyrs passions So Cyprian expresly charges his Clergie to note down the days of their decease that there might be a commemoration of them amongst the memories of the Martyrs Theodoret tells us that in his time they did not thus assemble once or twice or five times in a year but kept frequent memorials oftentimes every day celebrating the memorials of Martyrs with hymns and praises unto God But I suppose he means it of days appointed to the memory of particular Martyrs which being then very numerous their memorials were distinctly fixed upon their proper days the Festival of S. Peter or S. Paul Thomas Sergius Marcellus c. as he there enumerates them For the places these Solemnities were kept at first at the Tombs where the Martyrs had been buried which usually were in the
Coemeteria or Church-yard distinct in those times from their places of Publick Worship and at a great distance from them as being commonly without the Cities Here their burying places where in large Cryptae or Grots under ground where they celebrated these memorials and whither they used to retire for their common devotions in times of great persecution when their Churches were destroyed or taken from them And therefore when Aemilian the Governour of Egypt under the Reign of Valerian would screw up the persecution against Christians he forbad their meetings and that they should not so much as assemble in the places which they called their Church-yards the same priviledge which Maximinus also had taken from them By reason of the darkness of these places and their frequent assembling there in the night to avoid the fury of their Enemies they were forced to use Lights and Lamps in their publick meetings but they who make this an argument to patronize their burning of Lamps and Wax-Candles in their Churches at Noon-day as 't is in all the great Churches of the Roman Communion talk at a strange rate of wild inconsequence I am sure S. Hierom when charged with it denied that they used any in the day time and never but at night when they rose up to their night-devotions He confesses indeed 't was otherwise in the Eastern Churches where when the Gospel was to be read they set up Lights as a token of their rejoycing for those happy and glad tidings that were contained in it light having been ever used as a symbol and representation of joy and gladness A custom probably not much elder than his time Afterwards when Christianity prevailed in the world the devotion of Christians erected Churches in those places the Temples of the Martyrs says Theodoret being spacious and beautiful richly and curiously adorned and shining with great lustre and brightness These Solemnities as the same Author informs us were kept not like the Heathen Festivals with luxury and obsceneness but with devotion and sobriety with divine Hymns and religious Sermons with fervent prayers to God mixed many times with sighs and tears Here they heard Sermons and Orations joined in publick prayers and praises received the holy Sacrament offered gifts and charities for the poor recited the names of the Martyrs then commemorated with their due elogies and commendations and their virtues propounded to the imitation of the hearers For which purpose they had their set Notaries who took the acts sayings and sufferings of Martyrs which were after compiled into particular Treatises and were recited in these annual meetings and this was the first original of Martyrologies in the Christian Church From this custom of offering up prayers praises and alms at those times it is that the Fathers speak so often of oblations and sacrifices at the Martyrs Festivals Tertullian often upon an anniversary day says he we make oblations for them that are departed in memory of their Natalitia or Birth days and to the same purpose elsewhere As oft says Cyprian as by an anniversary commemoration we celebrate the passion days of the Martyrs we always offer sacrifices for them and the same phrases oft occur in many others of the Fathers By which 't is evident they meant no more than their publick prayers and offering up praises to God for the piety and constancy and the excellent examples of their Martyrs their celebrating the Eucharist at these times as the commemoration of Christs Sacrifice their oblation of alms and charity for the poor every one of which truly may and often is stiled a sacrifice or oblation and are so understood by some of the more moderate even of the Romish Church and with good reason for that they did not make any real and formal sacrifices and oblations to Martyrs but only honour them as holy men and friends to God who for his and our Saviours honour and the truth of Religion chose to lay down their lives I find expresly affirmed by Theodoret. These Festivals being times of mirth and gladness were celebrated with great expressions of love and charity to the poor and mutual rejoycings with one another Here they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts every one bringing something to the common Banquet out of which the poor also had their share These Feasts at first were very sober and temperate and such as became the modesty and simplicity of Christians as we heard before out of Theodoret and is affirmed before him by Constantine in his Oration to the Saints But degenerating afterwards into excess and intemperance they were every where declaimed against by the Fathers till they were wholly laid aside Upon the account of these Feasts and for the better making provisions for them we may conceive it was that Markets came to be kept at these times and places for of such S. Basil speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markets held at the memorials and Tombs of Martyrs these he condemns as highly unsuitable to those Solemnities which were only instituted for prayer and a commemoration of the virtues of good men for our incouragement and imitation and that they ought to remember the severity of our otherwise meek and humble Saviour who whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple when by their marketings they had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves And the truth is these anniversary commemorations though in their primitive institution they are highly reasonable and commendable yet through the folly and dotage of men they were after made to minister to great superstition and idolatry so plain is it that the best and usefullest things may be corrupted to bad purposes For hence sprung the doctrine and practice of prayer and invocation of Saints and their intercession with God the worshipping of Reliques Pilgrimages and visiting Churches and offering at the Shrines of such and such Saints and such like superstitious practices which in after Ages over-run so great a part of the Christian Church things utterly unknown to the simplicity of those purer and better times CHAP. VIII Of the persons constituting the body of the Church both people and Ministers The people distinguished into several ranks Catechumens of two sorts Gradually instructed in the principles of the Christian Faith Accounted only Christians at large The more recondite mysteries of Christianity concealed from persons till after baptism Three reasons assigned of it How long they remained in the state of Catechumens The several Classes of Penitents the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the faithful Their particular stations in the Church Their great reverence for the Lords Supper The Clergie why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two sorts the highest Bishops Presbyters and Deacons Bishops as superiour to Presbyters how ancient by the most learned opposers of Episcopacy Their office and priviledge what Chorepiscopi who Their power and priviledge above Presbyters
being part of the form used in their publick Service Let us pray that the most gracious and merciful God would hear the prayers of the Catechumens and what it was they prayed for he presently add viz. that they might no longer remain in that state Upon these accounts initiation by Baptism but especially admission to the Lords Supper is amongst other titles in the Writers of those times called Desiderata because so earnestly desired and sought for by those that were not yet taken in The truth is till persons arrived at this state they were not accounted Christians or but in a large sense as Candidates that stood in order to it and therefore could not satisfie themselves either to live or dye in that condition wherein they wanted the great seals and pledges of their Christianity Thirdly to beget in mens minds the higher esteem and veneration for these religious mysteries nothing producing a greater contempt even in sacred things than too much openness and familiarity So that a little obscurity and concealment might seem necessary to vindicate them from contempt and secure the majesty and reverence that was due to them This made the Fathers Seniors of the Church says S. Basil in prescribing Rites and Laws leave many things in the dark behind the vail and curtain that they might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserve the sacredness and dignity that was due to the mysteries of Religion For a thing says he cannot properly be said to be a mystery when 't is once expos'd to every vulgar and common ear But of this enough if not too much And as they were careful to keep the higher parts of Christianity within the cognizance of the faithful so they were not less careful to teach and instruct the Catechumens in all those principles they were capable of being taught This at their first coming over was done privately and at home by persons deputed on purpose to that office by the Bishop as Balsamon clearly intimates till they were sufficiently instructed in the first and more intelligible principles of the faith Then they were admitted into the Congregation and suffered to be present at some parts of the Divine Service especially the Sermons which were made for the building them up unto higher measures of knowledge which being ended they were commanded to depart the Church not being suffered to be present at the more solemn Rites especially the celebration of the Lords Supper and in this manner they were trained up till they were initiated by baptism and taken into the highest form of Christians How long persons remained in the state of the Catechumens is difficult to determine it not being always nor in all places alike but longer in some and shorter in others and probably according to the capacity of the persons The Apostolick Constitutions appoint three years for the Catechumen to be instructed but provide withal that if any one be diligent and virtuous and have a ripeness of understanding for the thing he may be admitted to Baptism sooner for say they not the space of time but the fitness and manners of men are to be regarded in this matter The next sort were the Penitents such as for some misdemeanours were under the censures and severity of the Church and were gradually to obtain absolution from it Of these there were several degrees five especially mentioned by S. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea who liv'd about the year 250. The first were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as wept and lamented and were rather Candidates to be received into the order of Penitents than Penitents properly so called These usually stood in a squalid and mournful habit at the Church-Porch with tears and great importunity begging of the Faithful as they went in to pray for them The second were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hearers who were admitted to hear the holy Scriptures read and expounded to the people Their station was at the upper end of the Narthex or first part of the Church and were to depart the Congregation at the same time with the Catechumens The third Class of Penitents was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prostrate because service being ended they fell down before the Bishop who together with the Congregation falling down and making confession in their behalf after rais'd them up and laid his hands upon them These stood within the body of the Church next the Pulpit or Reading-Pew and were to depart together with the Catechumens The fourth were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Consistentes such as stayed with the rest of the Congregation and did not depart with the Catechumens but after they and the other Penitents were gone out stayed and joined in prayer and singing but not in receiving the Sacrament with the faithful These after some time were advanced into the fifth and last order of the Communicantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Gregory calls it and were admitted to the participation of the holy Sacrament This was the state of the Penitents in the primitive Church Persons having fully passed through the state of the Catechumenate became then immediate Candidates of Baptism presented their names to the Bishop and humbly prostrating themselves begged that they might be entred into the Church These were called Competentes because they did Competere gratiam Christi sue for the grace of Christ conferred in Baptism The last rank was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Faithful who having been baptized and confirmed and having approved themselves by the long train and course of a strict pious life were then admitted to the participation of the Lords Supper which being the highest and most venerable mystery of the Christian Religion was not then rashly given to any but to such only as had run through all other degrees and by a course of piety evidenced themselves to be such real and faithful Christians as that the highest mysteries and most solemn parts of Religion might be committed to them This was the highest order and looked upon with great regard and for any of this rank to lapse and be overtaken with a fault cost them severer penances than were imposed upon the inferiour forms of Christians This in short was the state of the people But because 't is not possible any body or community of men should be regularly managed without some particular persons to superintend direct and govern the affairs of the whole Society therefore we are next to enquire what persons there were in the primitive Church that were peculiarly set apart to steer its affairs and to attend upon the publick Offices and Ministrations of it That God always had a peculiar people whom he selected for himself out of the rest of mankind is too evident to need any proof Such were the Patriarchs and the holy seed of old such the Jews chosen by him above all other Nations in the world This was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Lords Table where they made their offerings for the poor and when poor and rich had their meales together And hence it was ever accounted part of the Deacons Office as to take care of the poor and to distribute the monies given for their relief and maintenance so to wait upon the celebration of the Eucharist which being consecrated by the Bishop or Presbyter the Deacon delivered the Sacramental elements to the people Besides this they were wont also to preach and to baptize and were employed in many parts of the publick Service especially in guiding and directing of the people The number of them in any one place was usually restrained to seven this being the number originally instituted by the Apostles and which might not be altered although the City was never so great and numerous as 't is in the last Canon of the Neocaesarean Council As the Presbyters were to the Bishop so the Deacons were to the Presbyters to be assistent to them and to give them all due respect and reverence And therefore when some of them began to take too much upon them to distribute the Sacrament before the Bishop or Presbyter and to take place amongst the Presbyters the Council of Nice took notice of it as a piece of bold and saucy usurpation severely commanded them to know their place and to contain themselves within their own bounds and measures and neither to meddle with the Sacrament but in their order nor to sit down before the Presbyters unless it be by their leave and command as 't is expressed by the Laodicean Synod Accordingly the first Council of Arles forbids the Deacons to do any thing of themselves but to reserve the honour to the Presbyters Out of the body of these Deacons there was usually one chosen to overlook the rest the Arch-Deacon an Office supposed to have been of good antiquity in the Church and of great authority especially in after times being generally styled the Eye of the Bishop to inspect all parts and places of his Diocess This was he that in the Church of Rome was called the Cardinal Deacon who as Onuphrius tell us was at first but one though the number encreased afterwards While Churches were little and the services not many the Deacons themselves were able to discharge them but as these encreased so did their labours and therefore 't was thought fit to take in some inferiour Officers under them This gave being to Subdeacons who were to be assistent to the Deacon as the Deacon to the Presbyter and he to the Bishop One great part of his work was to wait at the Church-doors in the time of publick Worship to usher in and to bring out the several Orders of the Catechumens and Penitents that none might mistake their proper stations and that no confusion or disorder might arise to the disturbance of the Congregation When he was first taken in I cannot find but he is mentioned in an Epistle of the Roman Clergie to them of Carthage about S. Cyprians retirement and elsewhere very often in Cyprian's Epistles Where he also speaks of the Acolythus what his proper business was is not so certain by some his Office is said to have been this to Follow as the world implies or to go along with the Bishop in the quality of an honourable attendant to be ready at hand to minister to him and to be a companion and witness of his honest and unblameable conversation in case any evil fame should arise that might endeavour to blast his reputation But by others he is said to have been a Taper-bearer to carry the Lights which were set up at the reading of the Gospel And this seems to be clear from the fourth Council of Carthage where at his ordination he is appointed to receive at the Archdeacons hand a Candlestick with a Taper that he may know 't is the duty of his place to light up the Lights in the Church This might very well be in those times but 't is certain the Office of Acolythus was in use long before that custom of setting up Lights at the reading of the Gospel was brought into the Church By Cyprian also is mentioned the Office of the Exorcist whose business was to attend the Catechumens and the Energumeni or such as were possessed of the Devil For after the miraculous power of casting out Devils began to cease or at least not to be so common as it was these possessed persons used to come to the out-parts of the Church where a person was appointed to exorcise them i.e. to pray over them in such prayers as were peculiarly composed for those occasions and this he did in the publick name of the whole Church the people also at the same time praying within by which means the possessed person was delivered from the tyranny of the evil spirit without any such charms and conjurations and other unchristian forms and rites which by degrees crept into this Office and are at this day in use in the Church of Rome Besides to the Exorcists Office it belonged to instruct the Catechumens and to train them up in the first principles of the Christian Faith in which sense the Exorcist is by Harmenopulus explained by Catechist and to exorcise says Balsamon is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to instruct unbelievers Next to the Exorcist was the Lector or Reader mentioned frequently by S. Cyprian whose business was to stand near the Ambo or Pulpit and to read those portions of holy Scripture which were appointed to be read as principal parts of the Divine Service This Office Julian who was afterwards Emperour when a young Student at Nicomedia took upon him and became a Reader in that Church which he did only to blind his Cousin Constantius who began to suspect him as inclining to Paganism to which he openly revolted afterwards and became a bitter and virulent enemy to Christians making an ill use of those Scriptures which he had once privately studied and publickly read to the people I know not whether it may be worth the while to take notice of the Ostiarii or Door-keepers answerable to the Nethinims in the Jewish Church who were to attend the Church Doors at times of publick meetings to keep out notorious Hereticks Jewes and Gentiles from entring into the Christian Assemblies it doubtless took its rise in the times of persecutions Christians then being forc'd to keep their meetings as private and clancular as they could and to guard their Assemblies with all possible diligence lest some Jew or Infidel stealing in should have gone and accused them before the Magistrate What other Officers there were or whether any at all in those times in and about the Church will not be worth our labour to enquire To these Offices they were set apart by solemn rites of prayer and imposition of hands a ceremony so far as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is
observed the Apostolick Canon not to chuse a Novice but of an age competent to that Office that he was chosen to though it varied according to times and persons and the occasions of the Church For that of Bishops I find not any certain age positively set down Photius in his Nomo-Canon speaks of an Imperial constitution that requires a Bishop not to be under thirty five but the Apostolical Constitutions allow not a man to be made a Bishop under fifty years of age as having then passed all juvenile petulancies and disorders 'T is certain they were not generally some extraordinary instances alter not the case promoted to that Office till they were of a considerable age and thence frequently stiled majores natu in the Writings of the Church Presbyters were commonly made at thirty yea the Council of Neocaesarea decreed that no man though otherwise of never so unquestionable a conversation should be ordained Presbyter before that age the reason whereof they give because Christ himself was not baptized nor began to preach till the thirtieth year of his age The Council of Agde requires the same age but assigns another reason not before thirty years of age because then say they he comes to the age of a perfect man Deacons were made at twenty five and the like distance and proportion observed for the inferiour Officers under them I take no notice in this place of Monks Hermits c. partly because although they were under a kind of Ecclesiastical relation by reason of their more than ordinarily strict and severe profession of Religion yet were they not usually in holy Orders and partly because Monachism was of no very early standing in the Church begining probably about the times of the later persecutions and even then too Monks were quite another thing both in profession habit and way of life from what they are at this day as will abundantly appear to him that will take the pains to compare the account which S. Hierom Augustine Palladius Cassian and others give of those primitive Monks with the several Orders in the Church of Rome at this day I shall only add that out of the Monks persons were usually made choice of to be advanced into the Clergie as is evident not only from multitudes of instances in the Writers of the fourth and following Centuries but from an express Law of the Emperour Arcadius to that purpose the strictness of their lives and the purity of their manners more immediately qualifying them for those holy Offices insomuch that many times they were advanced unto the Episcopal Chair without going through the usual intermediate Orders of the Church several instances whereof Serapion Apollonius Agatho Aristo and some others Athanasius reckons up in his Epistle to Dracontius who being a Monk refused a Bishoprick to which he was chosen But because we meet in the ancient Writings of the Church with very frequent mention of persons of another Sex Deaconesses who were employed in many Offices of Religion it may not be amiss in this place to give some short account of them Their original was very early and of equal standing with the infancy of the Church such was Phebe in the Church of Cenchris mentioned by S. Paul such were those two Servant-maids spoken of by Pliny in his Letter to the Emperour whom he examined upon the Rack such was the famous Olympias in the Church of Constantinople not to mention any more particular instances They were either Widows and then not to be taken into the service of the Church under threescore years of age according to S. Paul's direction or else Virgins who having been educated in order to it and given testimony of a chast and sober conversation were set apart at forty what the proper place and ministry of these Deaconesses was in the ancient Church though Matthew Blastares seems to render a little doubtful yet certainly it principally consisted in such offices as these to attend upon the Women at times of Publick Worship especially in the administration of Baptism that when they were to be divested in order to their immersion they might overshadow them so as nothing of indecency and uncomeliness might appear sometimes they were employed in instructing the more rude and ignorant sort of women in the plain and easie principles of Christianity and in preparing them for Baptism otherwhiles in visiting and attending upon Women that were sick in conveying messages counsels consolations relief especially in times of persecution when it was dangerous for the Officers of the Church to the Martyrs and them that were in Prison and of these women no doubt it was that Libanius speaks of amongst the Christians who were so very ready to be employed in these offices of humanity But to return Persons being thus set apart for holy Offices the Christians of those days discovered no less piety in that mighty respect and reverence which they paid to them that the Ministers of Religion should be peculiarly honoured and regarded seems to have been accounted a piece of natural justice by the common sentiments of mankind the most barbarous and unpolished Nations that ever had a value for any thing of Religion have always had a proportionable regard to them to whom the care and administration of it did belong Julian the Emperour expresly pleads for it as the most reasonable thing in the world that Priests should be honoured yea in some respects above civil Magistrates as being the immediate attendants and domestick servants of God our intercessors with Heaven and the means of deriving down great blessings from God upon us But never was this clearlier demonstrated than in the practice of the primitive Christians who carried themselves towards their Bishops and Ministers with all that kindness and veneration which they were capable to express towards them S. Paul bears record to the Galatians that he was accounted so dear to them that if the plucking out their eyes would have done him any good they were ready to have done it for his sake and S. Clement testifies of the Corinthians that they walked in the Laws of God being subject to them that had the rule over them yielding also due honour to the seniors or elder persons that were amongst them That by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place he should mean Civil Magistrates as some have told us I can hardly be perswaded both because 't is the same word that 's used by the Author to the Hebrews obey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that have the rule over you and submit your selves and indeed both Eusebius and S. Hierom of old observed such a mighty affinity in the phrase between this and the Epistle to the Hebrews as certainly to conclude S. Clemens to have been if not the Author at least the Translator of that Epistle and also because the sole occasion of S. Clements writing this Epistle was a mutiny which they had
Father who was Bishop of but a little Diocess lay very sick and all other remedies proved unsuccessful the people generally flocked to Church and though it was then the joyful time of Easter broke out into mournful and passionate complaints and with the most earnest prayers and tears besought God for his life And of Basil Bishop of Caesarea he tell us that when he lay a dying the whole City came about him not able to bear his departure from them praying as if they would have laid hands upon his soul and by force detained it in his body they were says he even distracted with the thoughts of so great a loss nor was there any who would not have been willing to have been deprived of part of his own life might it have added unto his His Funeral was solemnized with all possible testimonies of love and honourable attendance and with the abundant tears not only of Christians but of Jews and Heathens the confluence so vast that many were pressed to death in the crowd and sent to bear him company to his long home And that we may see that their respect did not lye meerly in a few kind words or external protestations they made it good in more real and evident demonstrations by providing liberal maintenance for them parting at first with their own estates to supply the uses of the Church and after that making no less large than frequent contributions which could not but amount to very considerable sums the piety of Christians daily adding to their liberality of which we may make some estimate by what the Heathen Historian with a little kind of envy relates only of the Church of Rome and doubtless it was so in some proportion in other places that the profits of the Clergie arising from oblations chiefly was so great as to enable them to live in a Prince-like state and plenty And not long after it became the object not only of admiration but envy insomuch that Chrysostom was forced to make one whole Sermon against those that envied the wealth of the Clergie It was also the great care of those times to free them from what might be either scandalous or burthensom to their calling Constantine decreed that the Orthodox Clergy should be exempt from all Civil Offices or whatever might hinder their attendance upon the services of the Church his Son Constantius that Bishops in many cases should not be chargeable in the secular Courts but be tryed in an Assembly of Bishops which privilege was extended by Honorius to all the Clergie that they should be tryed before their Bishops before whom also he ordained that all causes properly belonging to Religion should be brought and be determined by them and by another constitution that for the veneration that is due to the Church all Ecclesiastical causes should be decided with all possible speed And to name no more that the persons of Ministers might be secured from foreign attempts he and his Colleague Arcadius made a Law that whosoever did offer any violence to them should upon conviction or confession of the fact be punished with death and that the ministers of Civil justice should not stay till the Bishop complained of the injury that was done it being probable that he would rather incline to mercy and forgiveness but that every one in this case should be admitted and encouraged to prefer and prosecute the charge and in case the rude multitude should by arms or otherwise obstruct execution and that the powers of that place could not see it done that then they should call in the assistance of the Governour of the Province to see Justice put into execution And because next to his person nothing is so dear to a Clergie-man as his credit and reputation therefore the Emperour Honorius took care by a Law that whosoever be he a person of the highest rank should charge any Clergie-man with Crimes which he was not able to make good he himself should be publickly accounted vile and infamous it being but just and equal says the Law that as guilt should be punished and offenders reckoned as spots and blemishes to the Church so that injured innocency should be righted and maintained How infinitely tender the first general Council of Constantinople was in this case to secure the honour and good name of Bishops and Clergie-men against the malicious insinuations and charges of false accusers may appear by the large provision which they make about it in the sixth Canon of that Council and because it sometimes so happens that a mans enemies are those of his own house therefore the Apostolical Canons ordain that if any Clergy-man reproach and defame a Bishop he shall be deposed from his Ministry for thou mayest not says the Canon speak evil of the Ruler of thy people but if it be a Presbyter or Deacon whom he thus reproaches he shall be suspended from the execution of his Office So sacred and venerable did they then account the persons and concernments of those who ministred in the affairs of Divine Worship CHAP. IX Of their usual Worship both private and publick The Christians worship of God in their Families discovered Their usual times of prayer Praying before and after meals Singing of Psalms and reading the Scriptures at the same time Frequency in prayer noted in divers instances Their great reverence for the holy Scriptures in reading expounding committing them to memory Several instances of it Their care in instructing their Families in divine things Singing of Psalms mixed with their usual labours An account of their publick Worship The order of the Service in their Assemblies Prayer Reading the Scriptures Two Lessons out of each Testament Clemens his Epistle and the Writings of other pious men read in the Church Singing a part of the publick Service How ancient What those Hymns were The Sermon or discourse upon what subject usually Such discourses called Tractatus and why More Sermons than one at the same time Sermons preached in the afternoon as well as in the morning The mighty concourse and confluence of people to these publick Solemnities The departure of the Catechumens Penitents c. The Missa Catechumenorum what The Missa Fidelium The word missa or masse whence and how used in the Writers of those times The singular reverence they shewed in these Duties Great modesty and humility Praying with hands lift up in the form of a Cross why They prayed either kneeling or standing Sitting in prayer noted as a posture of great irreverence Praying towards the East The universality of this Custom The reasons of it enquired into Their reverence in hearing Gods Word The people generally stood Standing up at the Gospels The remarkable piety and devotion of Constantine the Great No departing the Congregation till the blessing was given THus far we have discovered the piety of those ancient times as to those necessary circumstances that relate to the
and modesty we are to remember that we are under the eye of God whom we are not to offend either in the habit of our body or the manner of our speech for as 't is the fashion of those that are impudent to clamour and make a noise so on the contrary it becomes a sober man to pray with a modest voice when therefore we come together with our brethren into the Assembly to celebrate the divine Sacrifices with the Minister of God we ought to be mindful of order and a reverent regard and not to throw about our prayers with a wild and confused voice or with a disorderly prattling to cast forth those petitions which ought with the greatest modesty to be put up to God The men prayed with their heads bare as not ashamed to look up to heaven for what they begged of God the women covered as a sign of the modesty of that Sex and therefore Tertullian severely checks the practice of some women in his time who in time of worship had no covering on their heads or what was as good as none what reproof says he do they deserve that continue unvailed in singing Psalms or in any mention of God or do they think it 's enough to lay some thin and slight thing over their heads in prayer and then think themselves covered Where he manifestly refers to those rules which the Apostle prescribes in this case and concludes at last that they should at all times and in all places be mindful of the rule being ready and provided against all mention of the name of God who if he be in womens hearts will be known on their heads viz. by a modest carriage and covering of them in their addresses to him Their hands they did not only lift up to heaven a posture in prayer common both among Jews and Gentiles but they did expan and spread them abroad that so by this means they might shadow out an image of the Cross or rather a resemblance of him that hung upon it as Tertullian more than once and again informs us Prayer says another is a conversing with God and the way to heaven and to stretch out our hands is to form the resemblance of Christ crucified which whoever prays should do not only as to the form and figure but in reality and affection for as he that is fastned to the Cross surely dyes so he that prays should crucifie the desires of the flesh and every inordinate lust and passion In the performing of this duty they either kneeled which was most usual or stood which they always did upon the Lords day for a reason which we have spoken of before fitting was ever held a posture of great rudeness and irreverence nay Tertullian falls heavy upon some that used presently to clap themselves down upon their seats as soon as ever prayer was done and down-right charges it as against Scripture if it be an irreverent thing as he argues to sit down before or over against a person for whom thou hast a mighty reverence and veneration how much more does it savour of irreligion to do so in the presence of the living God while the Angel is yet standing by thee to carry up the prayer to heaven unless we have a mind to reproach God to his face and tell him that we are weary of the duty Another custom which they had in prayer was that they constantly prayed towards the East this was so universally common that there 's scarce any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer but speaks of it though not many of them agree in assigning the reason of it the custom doubtless begun very early and is generally ascribed to the Apostles so the Author of the Questions and Answers assures us and tells us it was because the East was accounted the most excellent part of the Creation and seeing in prayer we must turn our faces towards some quarter 't was fittest it should be towards the East just says he as in making the sign of the Cross in the name of Christ we use the right hand because 't is better than the left not in its own nature but only in its positure and fitness for our use S. Basil likewise reckons it amongst the traditions that had been derived from the Apostles but tells us the Mystery of it was that hereby they respected Paradise which God planted in the East begging of him that they might be restored to that ancient Country from whence they had been cast out This might probably be with those who dwelt in the Western parts of the world but how it could be done by those who lived East of the Garden of Eden suppose in any parts of India I am not able to imagine Clemens Alex. tells us that herein they had respect to Christ for as the East is the birth and womb of the natural day from whence the Sun the Fountain of all sensible light does arise and spring so Christ the true Sun of righteousness who arose upon the world with the light of truth when it sat in the darkness of errour and ignorance is in Scripture stiled the East and therefore our prayers are directed thither For which reason Tertullian calls the East the figure or the type of Christ but whatever the true reason was I 'm sure 't is a sober account which Athanasius gives of it we do not says he worship towards the East as if we thought God any ways shut up in those parts of the world but because God is in himself and is so stiled in Scripture the true light in turning therefore towards that created light we do not worship it but the great Creator of it taking occasion from that most excellent element to adore that God who was before all elements and ages of the world This was their carriage for prayer nor were they less humble and reverent in other parts of Worship they heard the Scriptures read and preached with all possible gravity and attention which that they might the better do they were wont to stand all the while the Sermon continued none sitting then but the Bishop and Presbyters that were about him so Optatus expresly tells us that the people had no priviledge to sit down in the Church though whether the custom was universally so in all places I much doubt nay S. Augustine tells us that in some transmarine I suppose he means the Western Churches it was otherwise the people having seats placed for them as well as the Ministers But generally the people stood partly to express the reverence partly to keep their attentions awake and lively Hence it was part of the Deacons Office as Chrysostom tells us and the same we find in the ancient Greek Liturgies to call upon the people with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us duly stand upright respecting the decent posture of their bodies though withal principally intending the
elevation of their minds the lifting up their thoughts from low sordid objects to those spiritual and divine things they were then conversant about But what ever they did in other parts of the publick Service they constantly stood up at the reading of the Gospel a custom generally embraced in all parts of the Christian world Therefore Sozomen discoursing of the various rights observed in several Churches notes it as an unusual thing in the Bishop of Alexandria that he did not rise up when the Gospels were read a thing says he which I never saw nor heard of in any other place and Philostorgius tells us of Theophilus the Indian Bishop that amongst several irregularities which he corrected in those Churches he particularly reformed this that the people were wont to sit while the Lessons out of the Gospel were read to them Nor did the greatest personages think themselves too high to express this piece of reverence in their attendance upon the King of Kings 'T is very memorable what we read concerning the great Constantine that when upon occasion Eusebius was to make a Panegyrick concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour though it was not in the Church but in the Palace yet he refused to sit all the time and when Eusebius beseeched him to sit down in his Throne that was hard by him he would not but attentively heard judged and approved those things that were spoken and when after a good while the Sermon having been prolix Eusebius out of compliance would have broken off and done he called to him to go on till he came to the full end of his discourse whereupon he was again sollicited to sit down but refused affirming it to be unfit to attend upon any discourse concerning God and much more at this time with ease and softness and that it was very consonant to piety and religion that discourses about divine things should be heard standing So great a reverence had that excellent Prince for the solemnities of divine Worship In the discharge of these holy Exercises as they carried themselves with all seriousness and gravity so they continued in them till they were compleatly finished there was then no such airiness and levity as now possesses the minds of men no snatching at some pieces of the Worship tanquam Canis ad Nilum and gone again no rude disorderly departing the Congregation till the whole Worship and Service of God was over And therefore when this warmth and vigour of the first Ages was a little abated the Council of Orleans thought good to re-establish the primitive devotion by this Canon That when the people came together for the celebration of divine Service they should not depart till the whole Solemnity was over and the Bishop or Presbyter had given the blessing CHAP. X. Of Baptism and the administration of it in the Primitive Church Four circumstances considered Baptism by whom administred By none usually without the leave of the Bishop The great controversie about re-baptizing those that had been baptized by Hereticks An account of it out of Cyprian Laymen how suffered to baptize The opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism The case of Athanasius his baptizing when but a Child Women never permitted to baptize Persons to be baptized who Infants Sufficient evidence for Infant-baptism in the ancient Writers of the Church Some passages out of Cyprian noted The baptized most-what adult persons The stated times of Baptism Easter and Whitsuntide and why Especially upon Easter Eve and why In cases of necessity at any other time Clinici who Clinic-baptism accounted less perfect why Vsual to defer Baptism till a death-bed and the reason of it noted in Constantine and others Being baptized for the dead what probably The usual place of Baptism in or near the Church always before the Congregation The Baptisterium or Font where it stood and how large It s distinct apartments for men and women A curiosity in many in those times of being baptized in Jordan and why The manner of the Administration The person baptized looked towards the West and why Their answering as to the profession of their faith Their solemn abrenunciation made twice and the form of it Sureties in Baptism Persons baptized exorcised what meant by it Vnction upon what account used several reasons of it assigned by the Fathers The sign of the Cross made in Baptism evident out of the ancient Fathers Of immersion or putting the person under water what it shadowed out Generally in use in those Countries not absolutely necessary in others Trine immersion different reasons of it assigned by the Fathers It obtained not in Spain and why A second Vnction Persons after Baptism clothed in white garments and why These kept in the Church as a testimony of their solemn engagement a memorable instance out of Victor Uticensis A brief account of confirmation the neglect of it bewailed OUR Lord having instituted Baptism and the Lords Supper as the two great Sacraments of the Christian Law they have accordingly been ever accounted principal parts of publick Worship in the Christian Church we shall treat first of Baptism as being the door by which persons enter in the great and solemn rite of our initiation into the faith of Christ concerning which four circumstances are chiefly to be enquired into the persons by and upon whom the time when the place where the manner how this Sacrament was administred in the ancient Church For the persons by whom this Sacrament was administred they were the Ministers of the Gospel the Stewards of the mysteries of Christ baptizing and preaching the Gospel being joined together by our Saviour in the same Commission usually 't was done by the Bishop the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in J. Martyr the Antistes in Tertullian the President or chief Minister of the Congregation the summus sacerdos qui est Episcopus as he calls him without whose leave and authority neither Presbyters nor Deacons might take upon them to baptize as not only Ignatius but Tertullian expresly tells us and if they did it was only in case of necessity as is affirmed by an ancient Author who lived in or near the time of Cyprian the same S. Hierom assures us was the custom in his time though otherwhiles we find the Bishop to begin the action and the Presbyters to carry it on and finish it But as Christianity encreased this became a more familiar part of the Presbyters and the Deacons office and doubtless had been more or less executed by them from the beginning though out of reverence to the Bishop and to preserve the honour of the Church as Tertullian gives the reason they did it not without his leave and deputation and 't is certain that Philip baptized the Eunuch who yet was of no higher order than that of Deacon Nor was it accounted enough by some in those times that Baptism was conferred by a person called to the Ministry unless he was
also orthodox in the Faith This became matter of great bustle in the Church hence sprang that famous controversie between Cyprian and Stephen Bishop of Rome concerning the re-baptizing those that had been baptized by Hereticks of which there is so much in Cyprians Writings Cyprian asserting that they ought to be re-baptized the other as stifly maintaining it to be both against the doctrine and practice of the Church This begot great heats and feuds between those good men and engaged a great part of the whole Christian Church in the quarrel Cyprian endeavouring to strengthen his cause not only by arguments from Scripture but by calling a Council at Carthage of eighty seven African Bishops who all concluded for his opinion How truly Cyprian maintained this I am not concerned to enquire only I take notice of two things which he and his Followers pleaded by way of abatement to the rigour of their opinion First that hereby they did not assert re-baptization to be lawful this they expresly deny to receive any patronage from their practice for they looked upon that baptism that had been conferred by Hereticks as null and invalid seeing Hereticks being out of the Church could not give what they had not and therefore when any returned to the union of the Church they could not properly be said to be re-baptized seeing they did but receive what lawfully they had not before Secondly that they did not promiscuously baptize all that came over from heretical Churches for where any had been lawfully baptized by Orthodox Ministers before their going over to them these they received at their return without any other Ceremony than imposition of hands baptizing those only who never had any other baptism than that which Hereticks had conferred upon them Cyprian being thus severe against baptism dispensed by heretical Ministers we may wonder what he thought of that which was administred by meer lay-unordained persons which yet was not uncommon in those times for that Lay-men provided they were Christians and baptized themselves might and did baptize others in cases of necessity is so positively asserted by Tertullian Hierom and others that no man can doubt of it A custom ratified by the Fathers of the Illiberine Council with this proviso that if the persons so baptized lived they should receive confirmation from the Bishop This without question arose from an opinion they had of the absolute and indispensable necessity of Baptism without which they scarce thought a mans future condition could be safe and that therefore 't was better it should be had from any than to depart this life without it for excepting the case of Martyrs whom they thought sufficiently qualified for heaven by being baptized in their own blood insisting upon a twofold Baptism one of water in time of peace another of blood in the time of persecution answerable to the water and blood that flowed out of our Saviours side excepting these they reckoned no man could be saved without being baptized and cared not much in cases of necessity so they had it how they came by it As for that act of Athanasius mentioned by the Author of his life in Photius and more largely related by Sozomen when a Boy playing with the rest of his Companions they formed themselves into a kind of Church-society Athanasius was chosen Bishop and others personated the Catechumens ready to be baptized and were accordingly with all the usual formalities baptized by Athanasius This juvenile Ceremony being ended they were brought before Alexander the then Bishop of Alexandria who had himself beheld the whole scene who enquiring into the reasons and circumstances of the action and having consulted with his Clergy that were about him concluded that those Children ought not to be rebaptized and therefore only added his confirmation to them But this being only a particular case and the like not mentioned that I remember by any Writer of those times I only relate it as I find it But though this power in cases of necessity was allowed to men who were capable of having the ministerial office conferred upon them yet was it ever denied to women whom the Apostle has so expresly forbidden to exercise any ministry in the Church of God and accordingly censured in the Apostolical Constitutions to be not only dangerous but unlawful and impious Indeed in the Churches of the Hereticks women even in those times took upon them to baptize but it was universally condemned and cried out against by the Orthodox and constantly affixed as a note of dishonour and reproach upon the heretical parties of those times as abundantly appears from Tertullian Epiphanius and others who records the heretical doctrines and practices of those first Ages of the Church however afterwards it crept in in some places and is allowed and practised in the Church of Rome at this day where in cases of necessity they give leave that it may be administred by any and in any language whether the person administring be a Clergie or a Lay-man yea though under excommunication whether he be a Believer or an Infidel a Catholick or an Heretick a man or a woman only taking care that if it may be a Priest be preferred before a Deacon a Deacon before a Subdeacon a Clergie man before a Laic and a man before a woman together with some other cases which are there wisely provided for From the persons ministring we proceed to the persons upon whom it was conferred and they were of two sorts Infants and adult persons how far the baptizing of Infants is included in our Saviours institution is not my work to dispute but certainly if in controverted cases the constant practice of the Church and those who immediately succeeded the Apostles be as no man can deny it is the best interpreter of the Laws of Christ the dispute one would think should be at an end for that it always was the custom to receive the Children of Christian Parents into the Church by Baptism we have sufficient evidence from the greatest part of the most early Writers Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Cyprian c. whose testimonies I do not produce because I find them collected by others and the argument thence so forcible and conclusive that the most zealous opposers of Infant Baptism know not how to evade it the testimonies being so clear and not the least shadow that I know of in those times of any thing to make against it There was indeed in Cyprians time a controversie about the baptizing of Infants not whether they ought to be baptized for of that there was no doubt but concerning the time when it was to be administred whether on the second or third or whether as Circumcision of old to be deferred till the eighth day for the determining of which Cyprian sitting in Council with sixty six Bishops writes a Synodical Epistle to Fidus to let him know that it was not
though he recovered afterwards To this custom of Clinic Baptism some not improbably think the Apostle has reference in that famous place where he speaks of those that are baptized for the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they expound with reference to the state of the dead and that 't is meant of such who in danger of death would be baptized that it might fare well with them after death This Epiphanius thinks the truest interpretation that it 's meant of Catechumens who being suddenly surprised with death would be baptized that so their sins being remitted in Baptism they might go hence under the hope of that eternal life which awaits good men after death and testifie their belief and expectation of their future happy resurrection Others think it may refer to the place of Baptism those who are baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Graves or Sepulchres of the dead it being an ancient and general custom to have their religious meetings and to perform their publick exercises at the Tombs of Martyrs there being numerous instances in the acts of the Martyrs of such as were baptized in the Coemeteria over the Monuments of the dead Which soever of these is most sutable yet certainly either of them is far more probable than that which many talk so much of as if the Apostle meant it of a custom common in those primitive times amongst the Cerinthians and other Hereticks where when any died without Baptism they used to place another under his Bed who was baptized for him in his stead whence Tertullian calls it a vicarious Baptism it being highly improbable that the great Apostle would fetch an argument to confirm so solemn and fundamental a principle of the Christian Faith as the doctrine of the Resurrection is from such an absurd and ridiculous rite used only by the worst of Hereticks But this only by the way For the Place where this solemn action was performed it was at first unlimited any place where there was water as Justin Martyr tells us in Ponds or Lakes at Springs or Rivers as Tertullian speaks but always as near as might be to the place of their publick Assemblies for it was seldom done without the presence of the Congregation and that for very good reason both as 't is a principal act of religious Worship and as 't is the initiating of persons into the Church which therefore ought to be as publick as it could that so the whole Congregation might be spectators and witnesses of that profession and engagement which the person baptized then took upon him and this they so zealously kept to that the Trullan Council allows not Baptism to be administred in a private Chappel but only in the publick Churches punishing the persons offending if Clergy with deposition if Laity with excommunication which yet as both Zonaras and Balsamon expound the Canon is to be understood unless it be done with the leave and approbation of the Bishop of the Diocess for this reason they had afterwards their Baptisteria or as we call them Fonts built at first near the Church then in the Church-Porch to represent Baptisms being the entrance into the mystical Church afterwards they were placed in the Church it self they were usually very large and capacious not only that they might comport with the general custom of those times of persons baptized being immersed or put under water but because the stated times of Baptism returning so seldom great multitudes were usually baptized at the same time In the middle of the Font there was a partition the one part for men the other for women that to avoid offence and scandal they might be baptized asunder Here it was that this great rite was commonly performed though in cases of necessity they dispensed with private Baptism as in the case of those that were sick or shut up in prison of which there were frequent instances in times of persecution Many there were in those days such especially as lived in the parts near to it whom nothing would serve unless they might be baptized in Jordan out of a reverence to that place where our Saviour himself had been baptized this Constantine tells us he had a long time resolved upon to be baptized in Jordan though God cut him short of his desire and Eusebius elsewhere relates that at Bethabara beyond Jordan where John baptized there was a place whither very many even in his time used to resort earnestly desiring to obtain their Baptism in that place This doubtless proceeded from a very devout and pious mind though otherwise one place can contribute nothing more than another nothing being truer than what Tertullian has observed in this case that it 's no matter whether we be haptized amongst those whom John baptized in Jordan or whom Peter baptized in Tyber The last circumstance I propounded concerns the manner of the celebration of this Sacrament and for this we may observe that in the Apostles Age Baptism was administred with great nakedness and simplicity probably without any more formality than a short prayer and repeating the words of institution and indeed it could not well be otherwise considering the vast numbers that many times were then baptized at once But after-ages added many rites differing very often according to time and place I shall not undertake to give an account of all but only of the most remarkable and such as did generally obtain in those times keeping as near as I can to the order which they observed in the administration which usually was thus Persons having past through the state of the Catechâ—mens and being now ripe for Baptism made it their request to the Bishop that they might be baptized whereupon at the solemn times they were brought to the entrance of the Baptistery or Font and standing with their faces towards the West which being directly opposite to the East the place of light did symbolically represent the Prince of darkness whom they were to renounce and defie were commanded to stretch out their hand as it were in defiance of him in this posture they were interrogated by the Bishop concerning their breaking of all their former leagues and commerce with sin and the powers of Hell the Bishop asking dost thou renounce the Devil and all his works powers and service to which the party answered I do renounce them dost thou renounce the world and all its pomps and pleasures Answer I do renounce them This renunciation was made twice once before the Congregation probably at their obtaining leave to be baptized and presently after at the Font or place of Baptism as Tertullian witnesses Next they made an open confession of their Faith the Bishop asking Dost thou believe in God the Father almighty c. in Jesus Christ his only Son who c. dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church and in one Baptism of
off the sacred obligation of thy Baptism and the true faith which thou didst then profess and take upon thee Thesese were the main and most considerable circumstances wherewith Baptism was administred in the primitive Church some whereof were by degrees antiquated and disused other rites there were that belonged only to particular Churches and which as they were suddenly taken up so were as quickly laid aside others were added in after-times till they encreased so fast that the usage and the number of them became absurd and burdensom as may appear by the office for Baptism in the Romish Ritual at this day As a conclusion to this Chapter I had once thought to have treated concerning Confirmation which ever was a constant appendage to Baptism and had noted some things to that purpose but shall supersede that labour finding it so often and so fully done by others in just discourses that nothing considerable can be added to them only I shall give this brief and general account of it all persons baptized in the ancient Church according to their age and capacity persons adult some little time after Baptism Children when arrived to years of competent ripeness and maturity were brought to the Bishop there further to confirm and ratifie that compact which they had made with God in Baptism and by some solemn acts of his ministry to be themselves confirmed and strengthned by having the grace and blessing of God conferred upon them to enable them to discharge that great promise and engagement which they had made to God This was usually performed with the Ceremony of Vnction the person confirmed being anointed by the Bishop or in his absence by an inferiour Minister and indeed Unction was an ancient rite used in the Jewish Church to denote the conferring of gifts or graces upon persons and thence probably amongst other reasons as many other usages were might be derived into the Christian Church though a learned man is of opinion that unction was never used in confirmation but where the person being in case of necessity baptized by some of the inferior Clergy had not been before anointed otherwise those who had received compleat Baptism were not afterwards anointed at their confirmation for which the Council of Orange is most express and clear And indeed that Confirmation was often administred without this unction no man can doubt that knows the state of those times being done only by solemn imposition of the Bishops hands and by devout and pious prayers that the persons confirmed might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and be enabled to perform those vows and purposes and that profession of Faith which they had before embraced in Baptism and then again owned before the whole Congregation Till this was done they were not accounted compleat Christians nor admitted to the holy Communion nor could challenge any actual right to those great priviledges of Christianity whence it is that the Ancients so often speak of Confirmation as that which did perfect and consummate Christians as being a means to confer greater measures of that grace that was but begun in Baptism upon all which accounts and almost exactly according to the primitive usage it is still retained and practised in our own Church at this day and happy were it for us were it kept up in its due power and vigour sure I am 't is too plain that many of our unhappy breaches and controversies in Religion do if not wholly in a great measure owe their birth and rise to the neglect and contempt of this excellent usage of the Church CHAP. XI Of the Lords Supper and the administration of it in the ancient Church The persons dispensing this Ordinance who The persons Communicating the Baptized or the Faithful Suspension from this Ordinance according to the nature of the offence The Eucharist sent home to them that could not be present The case of Serapion A custom in some places to give the Sacrament to persons when dead if they dyed before they could receive it and why The Eucharist kept by persons at home Sent abroad This laid aside and in its stead Eulogiae or pieces of consecrated Bread sent from one Church to another as tokens of communion The time of its administration sometimes in the morning sometimes at night varied according to the peace they enjoyed How oft they received the Eucharist At first every day This continued in Cyprian's time Four times a week Afterwards less frequented The usual place of receiving the Church ordinarily not lawful to consecrate it elsewhere Oblations made by persons before their communicating Their Agapae or Love-Feasts what Whether before or after the Sacrament How long continued in the Church The manner of celebrating this Sacrament collected out of the most ancient Authors The holy Kiss The general prayer for the Church and the whole world The consecration of the Sacrament the form of it out of S. Ambrose The Bread common Bread The sacramental Wine mixed with Water This no necessary part of the institution Why probably used in those Countries The posture of receiving not always the same Singing Psalms during the time of celebration Followed with prayer and thanksgiving The whole action concluded with the Kiss of peace THE holy Eucharist or Supper of our Lord being a rite so solemnly instituted and of such great importance in the Christian Religion had place accordingly amongst the Ancients in their publick offices and devotions In speaking to which I shall much what observe the same method I did in treating concerning Baptism considering the persons the time the place and the manner of its celebration The persons administring were the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church those who were set apart for the ministration of holy offices the institution was begun by our Lord himself and the administration of it by him committed to his Apostles and to their ordinary successors to the end of the world We find in Tertullian that they never received it from any but the hand of the President which must either be meant of the particular custom of that Church where he lived or of consecration only for otherwise the custom was when the Bishop or President had by solemn Prayers and blessings consecrated the sacramental elements for the Deacons to distribute them to the people as well to those that were absent as to them that were present as Justin Martyr expresly affirms and as the custom generally was afterwards For the persons communicating at this Sacrament at first the whole Church or body of Christians within such a space that had embraced the doctrine of the Gospel and been baptized into the faith of Christ used constantly to meet together at the Lords Table As Christians multiplied and a more exact discipline became necessary none were admitted to this ordinance till they had arrived at the degree of the Faithful for who ever were in the state of the Catechumens i.
love of Christ 't is more than probable they communicated every day or as oft as they came together for publick Worship insomuch that the Canons Apostolical and the Synod of Antioch threaten every one of the Faithful with Excommunication who came to Church to hear the holy Scriptures but stay not to participate of the Lords Supper the eye of their minds was then almost wholly fixed upon the memory of their crucified Saviour and the oftner they fed at his table the stronger and healthier they found themselves and the more able to encounter with those fierce oppositions that were made against them This custom of receiving the Sacrament every day continued some considerable time in the Church though in some places longer than in others especially in the Western Churches from Cyprian we are fully assured 't was so in his time We receive the Eucharist every day says he as the food that nourishes us to Salvation The like S. Ambrose seems to intimate of Milan whereof he was Bishop nay and after him S. Hierom tells us 't was the custom of the Church of Rome and S. Augustine seems pretty clearly to intimate that it was not unusual in his time In the Churches of the East this custom wore off sooner though more or less according as the primitive zeal did abate and decay S. Basil telling us that in his time they communicated four times a week on the Lords-day Wednesday Friday and Saturday yea and upon other days too if the memory or festival of any Martyr fell upon them Afterwards as the power of Religion began more sensibly to decline and the commonness of the thing begat some contempt Manna it self was slighted after once it was rained down every day this Sacrament was more rarely frequented and from once a day it came to once or twice a week and then fell to once a month and after for the most part to thrice a year at the three great Solemnities of Christmas Easter and Whitsontide to so great a coldness and indifferency did the piety and devotion of Christians grow after once the true primitive temper and spirit of the Gospel had left the World Concerning the third circumstance the Place where this holy Supper was kept much need not be said it being a main part of their publick Worship always performed in the place of their religious Assemblies 'T was instituted by our Saviour in a private house because of its Analogie to the Jewish Passover and because the necessity of that time would not otherwise admit by the Apostles and Christians with them 't was celebrated in the houses of Believers generally in an upper room set apart by the bounty of some Christian for the uses of the Church and which as I have formerly proved was the constant separate place of religious Worship for all the Christians that dwelt thereabouts Under the severities of great persecutions they were forced to fly to the mountains or to their Cryptae or Vaults under ground and to celebrate this Sacrament at the Tombs of Martyrs and over the Ashes of the dead Churches growing up into some beauty and regularity several parts of the divine offices began to have several places assigned to them the Communion-service being removed to the upper or East end of the Church and there performed upon a table of wood which afterwards was changed into one of stone and both of them not uncommonly though metaphorically by the Fathers styled Altars and the Eucharist it self in later times especially the Sacrament of the Altar This place was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was fenced in with Rails within which the Clergie received the Sacrament as the Laity did without Here it was that they all used to meet at this heavenly Banquet for out of this place they allowed not the celebration of the Sacrament a thing expresly forbidden by the Laodicean Council unless in cases of great necessity and therefore 't was one of the principal Articles for which the Synod of Gangra deposed Eustathius from his Bishoprick that he kept private Meetings perswading some that were averse to the publick Assemblies of the Church that they might communicate and receive the Sacrament at home We come last of all to consider the Manner how the Eucharist was celebrated in the ancient Church but before we describe that we are to take notice that after the Service of the Catechumens and before the beginning of that of the Faithful at which the Eucharist was administred the custom was to present their offerings every one according to his ability bringing some gift as the first-fruits of his increase which was by the Minister laid upon the Altar or Communion-table none of them then thinking it fit to appear before the Lord empty and therefore S. Cyprian severely chides a rich Widow of his time who came without giving any thing to the poor mans Box and did partake of their offerings without bringing any offering of her own These Obleations were designed to the uses of the Church for the maintenance of the Ministry and the relief of the Poor especially out of them were taken the Bread and the Wine for the Sacramental Elements the bread being no other than common bread such as served for their ordinary uses there being then no notice taken of what has for so many hundred years and still is to this day fiercely disputed between the Greek and the Latine Church whether it ought to be leavened or unleavened bread Out of these oblations also 't is probable they took at least sent provisions extraordinary to furnish the common Feast which in those days they constantly had at the celebration of the Sacrament where the rich and the poor feasted together at the same Table These were called Agapae or Love-feasts mentioned by S. Jude and plainly enough intimated by S. Paul because hereat they testified and confirmed their mutual love and kindness a thing never more proper than at the celebration of the Lords Supper which is not only a Seal of our peace with God but a sign and a pledge of our Communion and fellowship with one another Whether this Banquet was before or after the celebration of the Eucharist is not easie to determine 't is probable that in the Apostles time and the Age after them it was before it in imitation of our Saviours institution who celebrated the Sacrament after supper and S. Paul taxing the abuses of the Church of Corinth reproves them That when they came together for the Lords Supper they did not one tarry for another but every one took his own supper i. e. that provision which he had brought from home for the common feast which was devoured with great irregularity and excess some eating and drinking all they brought others the poor especially that came late having nothing left one being hungry and another drunken all this 't is plain was done
careful to shun all occasions and appearances of lightness and immodesty what-ever might tend to inveagle their senses and to debauch their mind and manners nay what-ever might but give a suspicion of wantonness and incontinence They declin'd as much as might be going to all Publique Meetings such as Feasts Plays Shews c. Therefore Cyprian severely chides with some Virgins for being present at Weddings where they laughed freely could not but hear loose discourses see uncomely carriages feed upon luxurious dishes all which must needs not only kindle but add fuel to the fire and fill their minds with indecent thoughts and desires S. Hierom on the other hand does as much commend some whom he knew who always kept at home on festival days to avoid the crowd and gazes of the people and would never go abroad at those times when they could not venture into the publick without the greatest care and custody over themselves For this reason Constantine made a Law that Matrons should not be forc'd upon the account of debt to come out of their own houses to appear before the publick tribunals but that the business should be decided in such way as might not betray the modesty of that Sex and when afterwards the fervour of Christianity began to abate apace and persons had in a great measure lost that huge reverence which former times had for continence and chastity Theodosius to restrain them a little within the bounds of decency provided by a Law that no woman of what quality or rank soever should marry again within a year at least i.e. within twelve full months whereas under the old Roman Laws the time of mourning was but ten as a Learned Interpreter of that Law observes after her husbands death and this he ratified by a double penalty a note of perpetual infamy to be set upon the offending person and the loss of her whole dower and what-ever estate her husband had bequeathed her which was to go to the children she had by him or if none to his next of kin By the Laodicean Council not only Clergy-men and such as have entred upon a state of continency but all Christian men whatsoever are forbidden to use the same common baths with women And for very good reason it being a thing as Zonaras observes both shameful and uncomely in it self and pernicious in its consequence for how easily does an unlawful flame kindle from such a spark and when humane nature is of it self so ready to boyl over who would pour oyl upon the fire a thing ever look'd upon as repugnant to all the Laws of modesty yea even by them that are without this being says the Council one of the chiefest things which the very Heathens condemn and for which they censure and reproach us Parallel to this Photius and his Commentator Balsamon tell us of a Law of the Emperour Justinian making it a sufficient cause of divorce and losing her dowry for a woman either to feast or bath in the company of other men without the leave and consent of her husband Indeed in the first and purer times they took all imaginable care that unmarried persons especially such as were of Ecclesiastical cognizance or had devoted themselves to a severer course of piety should not commonly converse together Cyprian writing to Pomponius about the Virgins that had taken profession of continence upon them but lived too familiarly with some persons that belonged to the Church charges him that Men and Virgins should not only not sleep near one another but not dwell together in the same house lest the infirmity of their Sex and the slipperiness of their youth should betray them into the snare of the devil Wherefore he commends Pomponius for having suspended the Deacon and the rest that had kept such familiar correspondence with those Virgins and ordered that they should not be absolved till they had sufficiently testified their repentance and made it appear by satisfactory evidence that no unlawful familiarity had passed between them and that if ever they returned to the like co-habitation greater penalties should be inflicted upon them The foundation of which ill custom doubtless sprung or at least took encouragement from hence in those first times of Christianity it was usual for Clergy-men such especially as were sent up and down to preach the Gospel to have some grave and sober woman along with them who might be helpful and assisting to them and who was neither Wife nor Concubine but taken in either upon the account of necessary attendance or the pretence of piety These women in the writings of the Church wherein there is frequent mention of them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were brought in taken into the house as Domestick assistants to Ecclesiastick persons But this proving matter of scandal and inconvenience was not only cried out against by private Fathers but by publick Synods the Council of Antioch held in the Reign of Aurelian the Emperour Anno two hundred seventy and two in a Synodical Epistle wherein they censure the doctrines and practices of Paulus Samosatenus condemn this among the rest that he and his Presbyters and Deacons kept these introduced women whereby horrible inconveniencies did arise for besides the snare and temptation of it although they should keep themselves innocent yet they could not avoid the suspicion and scandal that would arise and the danger of drawing in others by their bad example For which reason S. Basil writes to an old Presbyter in his Diocess to abstain from the company of a woman with whom he was wont to cohabit not so much to avoid temptation to incontinence the man being then seventy years of age as that he might not lay a stumbling stone and occasion of offence in his brothers way The same was universally forbidden by the great Council of Nice and no man within the Clergy allowed to have any woman near him unless his Mother his Sister or his Aunt or such only of whom there could be no suspicion as we find it in the third Canon of that Council in the antient version whereof these mulieres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are styl'd extraneae strangers by which name they are also call'd in a Law of the Emperour Honorius prohibiting any Clergy-man whatsoever to keep company with these strange-women limiting their converse and cohabitation within the very same relations to which they are restrain'd by the Nicene Canon which 't is not to be doubted that Emperour had in his eye when he made that Constitution And because Bishops were the highest order in the Church therefore that their honour might be especially secured care was taken that no Bishop under penalty of being deposed should entertain or cohabit with any woman whatsoever either relation or stranger that so all pretence either of temptation or scandal might be cut off For the
lodgings of the women When although they should be free from actual adultery yet even in this 't would be a fault of a mighty aggravation that by their scandalous example others might be seduced into ruine S. Basil writing to a Monk who had been overtaken with this fault elegantly bewailes the greatness of his sin as a dishonour to the strictness of his former profession a reproach to those lips which had kiss'd the mouths of so many Saints to those hands which so many devout persons had embrac'd as pure and undefiled to those knees before which so many servants of God had fallen down as a being caught in the snare of a crafty Devil a perfidious violation of his promises a being become a sport and scorn to Jews and Gentiles a confuting what in him lay that triumphant speech of Christ that he had overcome the world filling even to the place where he liv'd a cup of infamy and reproach In the next Epistle he deals with the Woman and treats her with the same elegant severity though in both he so aggravates the case as to excite them to repentance and to a speedy recovery of themselves out of the snare of the Devil But because good words and perswasions were not cords strong enough to restrain some mens irregular lusts and passions they twisted with them the Discipline of the Church And therefore Sixthly They were wont to punish the breach of Chastity by inflicting severe penalties upon incontinent persons Amongst all the sins that were most sharply punished in the ancient Church Adultery was one of the chief who-ever was convicted of it was immediately cast out of the Church and dis-owned as a rotten member This Tertullian tells us first made Marcion turn Heretick for being found guilty of lying with a Virgin and for that thrown out of the Communion of the Church he betook himself to one Cerdon a Master Heretick and espoused his Doctrines and Opinions The truth is in those first times the punishment of Adultery was very great perpetual penance all a mans life and scarce being admitted into Communion at the very hour of death till Pope Zephyrinus about the year two hundred and sixteen considering the great inconveniencies of so much severity persons hereby being oft driven into despair and others discouraged from coming over to the Christian Faith ordered that Penance in this case should be limited to a shorter time which being ended such persons might be received again into the bosom of the Church This Decree gave great offence to the African Churches most whereof stood up for the strictness of the ancient Discipline Tertullian more especially inveighs against it with much bitterness and animosity as a thing unfit in it self and an innovation in the Church The same Cyprian also plainly intimates though he himself was for the more mild Opinion By the Ancyran Council held Anno three hundred and fifteen it was Decreed That whoever was guilty of Adultery should be punish'd with a seven years Penance before they were admitted to the Communion By the Synod of Illiberis if a man after having done his Penance for the first fault fell afterwards into the same sin again he was not to be taken into Communion no not at the hour of death The same punishment they inflicted upon Bawds and such persons as for gain prostituted the bodies of their Children by selling them or themselves rather of whom their children were a part to lust and ruine S. Basil writing to Amphilochius rules for the conduct of Discipline and the measures of repentance sets Adultery at fifteen years Penance Fornication at seven and then to be admitted to the Holy Sacrament His Brother Gregory Bishop of Nyssa treating about the same affairs appoints Fornication to be punished with no less than nine years Penance and suspension from the Sacrament and Adultery and all other species of uncleanness with double that time though allowing a liberty to the Spiritual Guide to contract this time as the circumstances of the Case or Person might require But both these last mention'd being but private Bishops their Canons could be no further obligatory than to those particular Diocesses that were under their charge And indeed the censures of the Church in this case did much vary according to time and place in some more rigid and severe in others more laxe and favourable though in all such as did abundantly shew what hearty enemies they were to all filthiness and impurity whatsoever What has been hitherto said of the Modesty the chast and sober carriage of the Primitive Christians will receive further light if we consider how clearly they vindicated themselves from that malicious charge of Incest and Adultery which the Heathens commonly charg'd upon them so commonly that we scarce find any of the ancient Apologists but takes notice of it and confutes it The sum of the charge as 't is more formally drawn up by the Heathen in M. Foelix take thus That the Christians knew one another by certain privy marks and signs and were wont to be in love with almost before they knew one another that they exercised lust and filthiness under a pretence of Religion promiscuously calling themselves Brothers and Sisters that by the help of so sacred a name their common Adulteries might become incestuous that upon a solemn day they meet together at a feast he means their love-feasts with their Wives Children Sisters Mothers persons of every Age and Sex where after they have well eaten and drunk and begun to be warm and merry heated with the excess of wine a piece of meat is thrown for the dogs who being tied to the Candlesticks begin to leap and frisk about till they have run away with and put out the lights and then nothing being left but darkness the fit cover and shadow for impudence and villany they promiscuously run amongst one another into filthy and incestuous embraces and if they be not all alike guilty of incest 't is not the faults of their will but the good fortune of their chance seeing what actually happens to one is intentionally the lot of all This is the tale which however absurd and incredible yet strangely found belief or at least was pretended to be believ'd amongst the enemies of Christianity Now though it be sufficiently refuted by what has been already said yet we may observe the Christians of those times further pleading these Four things in their own vindication First That if the Charge had been true yet the Heathens had little reason to object it to the Christians being themselves so notoriously guilty in this kind For Adultery nothing more common amongst them and for Incest 't was a general indictment of whole Nations the Persians usually lying with their own Mothers the Macedonians and Egyptians marrying with their own Sisters and this done even at Athens it self their Histories full of them their Plays and Tragedies which they
the Sea cutting and burning of limbs putting out eyes and mutilation of the whole body hunger and digging in Mines chains and fetters all which for the great love that they had to their Lord and Master they accounted sweeter than any happiness or pleasure whatsoever Nay the very women in this case were as couragious as the men many of whom undergoing the same conflicts reaped the same rewards of their constancy and vertue But this will more distinctly appear in a few particular cases First When ever they were sought for in order to their being condemned and executed they cared not to make use of opportunities to escape Polycarp at his apprehension refused to fly though going but into the next house might have sav'd his life Cyprian writing to the Confessors commends them that when they were oft desired I suppose he means by their Gentile-friends and relations to go out of prison they chose rather to abide there still than to make their own escape telling them they had made as many confessions as they had had opportunities to be gone and had rejected them Though 't is true he himself withdrew from Carthage when the Officers were sent to take him and carry him to Vtica yet he did it as he tells his people by the advice of some friends but for this reason that when he did suffer he might suffer at Carthage whereof he was Bishop and that those truths which he had preach'd to them in his life he might seal before them with his blood a thing he earnestly and daily begg'd of God and which was granted to him afterwards And if they did not run away from suffering much less did they oppose it and make tumults and parties to defend themselves no they were led as Lambs to the slaughter and as sheep before the shearers are dumb so opened not they their mouth but committed their cause to him that judges righteously and who has said vengeance is mine and I will repay it None of us says Cyprian to the Governour when apprehended makes resistance nor though our party be large and numerous revenges himself for that unjust violence that you offer to us we patiently acquiesce in the assurance of a future vengeance the innocent truckle under the unrighteous the guiltless quietly submit to pains and tortures knowing for certain that what-ever we now suffer shall not remain unpunished and that the greater the injury that is done us in these persecutions we endure the more just and heavy will be that vengeance that will follow it never was any wicked attempt made against Christians but a divine vengeance was soon at the heels of it But though they thus resolutely stood to 't when the honour of their Religon lay at stake yet it must not be denied that in some cases they held it lawful and convenient to fly in times of persecution Tertullian indeed in a Book purposely written on this subject maintains it to be simply and absolutely unlawful for Christians to fly at such a time an assertion which with all the subtilties of his wit and the flourishes of his African eloquence he endeavours to render fair and pausible But besides the strictness and rigid severity of the man at all times this Book was composed after his complying with the Sect of the Montanists whose peculiar humour it was to out-do the Orthodox by overstraining the austerities of Religion as appears not only in this but in the case of marriages fasts pennances and such like Otherwise before his espousing those opinions he seems elsewhere to speak more favourably of shunning persecution But whatever he thought in the case 't is certain the generality of the Fathers were of another mind that Christians might and ought to use prudence in this affair and at some times withdraw to avoid the storm when it was a coming especially in these two Cases I. When persons were of more than ordinary use and eminency the saving of whom might be of great advantage to the Church Thus S. Paul was let down the wall in a basket when the Governour of Damascus sought his life Thus Cyprian withdrew from Carthage and lay hid for two years together during which time he gave secret orders for governing of the Church Thus Athanasius when Syrianus and his Souldiers broke into the Church to apprehend him was by the universal cry both of Clergy and people perswaded and in a manner forced to retire and save himself in which retirement he continued so long that the Arrians charg'd him with fear and cowardise insomuch that for his own vindication he was forced to write an Apology for himself wherein he learnedly and eloquently discourses the whole affair justifying himself from the instances of the Old Testament of Jacob Moses David Elias from the example of Christ himself and his Apostles in the New from the plain and positive allowance of the Gospel when they persecute you in one City flee into another and that when they should see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place i. e. the miseries that were to come upon Jerusalem by the Roman Army they should fly unto the mountians and if upon the house top or in the field not turn back to fetch any thing that was left behind that 't was necessary for the Apostles to shun the storm because they were the instruments immediately deputed to propagate and convey the Gospel to the World that they were herein imitated by the Primitive Saints and Martyrs who wandred about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth being equally careful to avoid the two extreams of rashness and cowardise they would neither thrust themselves upon danger nor basely run from death when call'd to it like wise Physicians reserving themselves for the use of those that needed their assistance All which and a great deal more he rationally urges in that Apology II. Another case wherein they accounted it lawful for persons to retire under persecutions was when being but new Converts and as yet weak in the faith they look'd upon them as not likely to bear the shock and brunt of the persecution in this case they thought it better for them to withdraw for the present than to put them under a temptaion of being drawn back to Paganism and Idolatry Thus when Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea saw the Decian persecution grow extream hot and violent considering the frailty and infirmity of humane nature and how few would be able to bear up under those fierce conflicts that must be undergone for the sake of Religion perswaded his Church a little to decline that dreadful and terrible storm telling them 't was a great deal better to save their souls by flying than by abiding those furious trials to run the hazard of falling from the faith and that his counsel might make the deeper impression upon them and he might convince them that in thus doing there was no danger or
they knew the seller did not understand the true price and value and that if he did he would not part with it at such a price To this purpose S. Augustine tells us he knew a man probably he means himself though out of modesty he conceals it who having a Book offered him to be sold by one that understood not the price of it at a very small under-rate took the Book but gave him the full price according to its just rate and value which was a great deal more than the seller asked for it And the truth is in such cases advantage cannot honestly be taken of mens weakness or mistake because no man if he understood the true worth and value of his commodity can be supposed willing to part with it at a too-under rate And if they were thus far from craftily over-reaching much more from secretly or openly invading of what was anothers right and property no cheating or couzenage no acts of dishonesty and deceit were allowed or practised amongst them or if any such were discovered they were immediately protested against by the whole Society of Christians Cornelius Bishop of Rome giving Cyprian an account of Novatus the Heretick and his companions tells him of one Nicostratus that not only cheated his Lady and Patroness whose estate and revenues he managed but carried away a great part of the treasures of the Church whereof he was Chief Deacon the portion and maintenance of poor Widows and Orphans a crime says he reserved for perpetual punishment i.e. for the judgement of God in the other world being too great for any in this whereupon he was forced to fly from Rome into Africk to avoid the shame and prosecution of his rapine and sacriledge though when he came there they did not only refuse to admit him into communion but openly exposed the wickedness of him and his confederates to the abhorrency of all men By which may appear the falsity of that charge of Sacriledge which the Gentiles brought against the Christians to which though certainly it primarily respected their declared enmity against the Idolatrous Temples and worship of the Heathens yet Tertullian answers You look upon us says he as Sacrilegious persons and yet never found any of us guilty of wrong or injury of any rapine and violence much less of sacriledge and impiety No they are your own party that swear by and worship your gods and yet rob their temples that are no Christians and yet are found to be sacrilegious And afterwards he adds this further vindication of them As for us says he we deny not any pledge that 's left with us we adulterate no mans marriage-bed we piously educate and train up Orphans and relieve the necessities of the indigent and render no man evil for evil If there be any that dissemble our Religion let them look to 't we disown them for being of our party why should we be worse thought of for others faults or why should a Christian answer for any thing but what concerns his own Religion which no man in so long a time has prov'd to be cruel or incestuous Nay when we are burnt and most severely dealt with 't is for the greatest Innocency Honesty Justice Modesty for our Truth and Faithfulness and our Piety to the Living God And that these were not a parcel of good words which the Christians spoke in their own behalf will appear if we consider the testimony which Pliny who was far from being partial to them gives of them for being commanded by the Emperour Trajan to give him an account of the Christians he tells him that after the strictest examination which he could make even of those that had renounc'd Christianity he found this to be the greatest fault that they were guilty of that they used harmlesly to meet to worship Christ and at those meetings to bind themselves by a Sacrament or an oath that they would not do any wickedness that thy might be firmlier obliged not to commit thefts robberies adulteries not to falsify their words or to deny any thing wherewith they were intrusted when 't was required of them Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea in a Canonical Epistle which he wrote to rectifie several disorders and irregularities which had happened amongst the Christians of those parts by reason of the inroads and devastations which the Goths and other barbarous nations had made amongst them does amongst other things especially take notice how uncomely in it self how unsuitable to Christians it is to covet and to grasp what is another mans how inhumane to spoyle the oppressed and to enrich our selves by the blood and ruines of our miserable brethren And whereas some might be apt to plead they did not steal but only take up what they found He tells them this excuse would not serve the turn that whatever they had found of their Neighbours nay though it were their enemies they were bound to restore it much more to their brethren who were fellow-sufferers with them in the same condition Others thought it warrant enough to keep what they found though belonging to others having been such deep losers themselves but this he tells them is to justifie one wickedness with another and because the Goths had been enemies to them they would become Goths and Barbarians unto others Nor did they only keep themselves from doing injuries to others they were ready to do them all the right all the kindness that lay in their power especially to vindicate the poor and helpless from the power and violence of those that were too mighty for them Therefore when the Fathers of the Synod of Sardis took notice that some Bishops used to go to Court upon by-errands and private designs of their own they ordain'd that no Bishop should go to Court unless either immediately summoned by the Emperours letters or that their assistance was required to help the oppressed to right Widows and Orphans and to rescue them from the unjust grasps of potent and merciless oppressors and that in these cases they should be ready either by themselves or some deputed by them to present their petitions to plead their cause and to lend them all the assistance they were able to afford I should not in this place have taken any notice how far the ancient Christians were from murder and offering violence to any mans life but that it was a common charge brought against them by the Gentiles that they used to kill and devour an Infant at their Christian meetings especially when any was first to be initiated into their assemblies the story is thus dressed up by the acute Heathen in M. Foelix An Infant being covered all over with meal the better to deceive the unwary is set before him that is to be initiated and taken in he ignorant of what it really is is appointed to cut it up which he effectually does by many secret and mortal wounds whereupon they greedily lick
others to the true Religion and that they did not this out of any designs of gain or interest to themselves was plain because they often refus'd to receive necessary accommodations from others or if they did they were such only as were barely and absolutely necessary for the present turn when as far greater liberalities have been offered to them Nay some of the antient Canons expresly require that no man who has either Hereticks or Infidels in his Family shall be admitted to the order either of Bishop Presbyter or Deacon who has not first converted those persons to the true Christian faith Having seen what kindness and charity they expressed to mens souls we come next to that which respected their bodies and the necessities of the outward life this they shewed in several instances we shall consider some of the most material In the first place they took special care to provide for the poor and such as were unable to help themselves this Cyprian in his retirement gave especially in charge to the Presbyters and Deacons of his Church that by all means they should mind the poor and furnish them with whatever was necessary for them Dionysius Bishop of Corinth testifies of the Church of Rome that they did not only eminently provide for their own poor but with great liberality administer to the necessities of other Churches plentifully relieving whatever indigent brethren came to them or where-ever they were though at the greatest distance from them And of the Church of Antioch Chrysostom tells us that in his time though the revenues of it were but small yet besides its Clergy besides strangers lepers and such as were in bonds it daily maintain'd above three thousand Widows and Maids Indeed the bounty of those times was almost incredible S. Cyprian upon his turning Christian sold his estate to relieve the wants of others and could not be restrained from it either by the perswasions of others or the considerations of what he might be reduced to himself After his entrance upon the Ministry his doors were open to all that came from whom no Widow ever returned empty to any that were blind he would be their guide to direct them them that were lame he was ready to lend his assistance to support them none were oppressed by might but he was ready to defend them Caesarius S. Basil's brother made only this short will when he died I will that all my estate be given to the poor Nazianzen reports of his Father that he was so kind to the poor that he did not only bestow the surplusage of his estate upon them but even part of what was reserv'd for necessary uses of his Mother that an Ocean of wealth would not have filled her unsatisfied desire of doing good and that he had often heard her say that if it were lawful she could willingly have sold her self and children to have expended the price upon the uses of the poor and of his Sister Gorgonia that she was immensely liberal Job-like her gate was open to every stranger she was eyes to the blind feet to the lame and a mother to orphans her estate was as common to the poor and as much at their need as every ones is to himself dispersing and scattering abroad and according to the counsel of our Saviour laying up her treasure in heaven They gave not only according to but beyond their ability trusting to the goodness and fidelity of heaven to supply what wanted which many times made the return with overplus by ways uncommon and extraordinary Sozomen relates of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus that having spent all his own estate in pious and charitable uses in relieving the needy and such as were by shipwrack and the mercy of the sea cast upon the coast he freely dispensed and distributed the goods and treasures of his Church which by the bounty of charitable persons from all parts who thought they could not better lodge their estates than in the hands of so good a man was very rich and wealthy and that with so liberal a hand that the Steward or Guardian of the Church finding its stock begin to grow very low with some resentment told him of it charging him as too profuse and open-handed All which notwithstanding he remitted nothing of his accustomed bounty to the poor At length all being spent a stranger on a suddain comes into the Stewards lodgings and delivers into his hand a great purse of gold without any discovery either who 't was that brought it or who 't was that sent it And indeed so vast and universal was the charity of this good man that it sometimes made him liable to be imposed upon by crafty and designing persons whereof the Historian in the same place gives this remarkable instance A couple of beggars meeting Epiphanius and knowing the charitableness of his temper to draw the greater alms from him agreed to put this trick upon him One of them lies along upon the ground feigning himself to be dead the other standing by him passionately bewailed the death of his companion and his own poverty not able to give him burial Epiphanius pitied the man perswaded him to bear his loss patiently and not to expect that his companion should in this world rise any more bid him take care for his burial and withal gave him what was sufficient for it No sooner was he gone out of sight but the beggar comes to his companion jogs him with his foot and commends him for so ingeniously acting the cheat Rise said he and with what we have got let 's be merry and jolly to day But alas the Comedy was turned into a tragick scene the man was really dead and could not be recovered by all his cries or stirring which his companion no sooner perceived but with all hast makes after the Bishop cries and tears his hair confesses the cheat and begs that his companion might be restored to life but all in vain the Bishop bids him be content and tells him that God would not undo what he had done Leaving a fair warning to men says the Historian that the great God who sees and hears all things reckons those â—â—â—â—keries that are put upon his servants as if done to himself But this only upon occasion of that great charity which they then upon all occasions extended to the poor The truth is they then looked upon the poor as the treasure and ornament of the Church by whom as by bills of Exchange they returned their estates into the other world When Decius the Emperour demanded of Laurentius the Deacon of the Church of Rome the Churches treasures he promised after three days to produce them in which time having gathered together the blind and the lame the infirm and the maim at the time appointed he brought them into the Palace and when the Emperour asked for the treasures he had promised to bring with
their number to five hundred which being found too little by a second Constitution he enlarged it to six hundred The truth is these Parabolani were a kind of Clergy-Physicians for that they were under an Ecclesiastical cognizance is plain being reckon'd up with the Clergy and accordingly by the latter Constitution of Theodosius are appointed to be chosen by and to be immediately subject to the Bishop of the place A third instance of their Love and Charity and which S. Ambrose calls the highest piece of liberality was their care of those that were in captivity groaning under the merciless tyranny and oppression of their enemies to relieve them under to redeem them out of their bondage and slavery Cyprian in a letter to the Bishops of Numidia about this very thing the redemption of those Christians amongst them that had been taken captive by the Barbarians elegantly bewails their misery and earnestly presses their redemption and as a help towards it sent them Sestertium centum millia nummûm which Rigaltius computes to twenty five thousand pounds French though others more truly reduce it to a much lower sum viz. seven thousand five hundred or two thousand five hundred Crowns which he and his people had liberally contributed to it Of Acacius Bishop of Amida we read in Socrates that when the Roman Army had taken seven thousand Persians captive and would neither release them without a ransom nor yet give them food to keep them alive this good Bishop with the consent of the Clergy of his Church caused all the Gold and Silver Plate and vessels that belonged to their Church to be melted down ransom'd the wretches fed them and then freely sent them home to their own Prince with which generous Charity the King of Persia as he well might was strangely amaz'd finding that the Romans knew how to conquer an enemy by kindness no less than by force of arms The like S. Ambrose relates of himself that he caused the Communion Plate of his Church to be broke in pieces to redeem Christians taken captive by the enemy for which though he was blam'd by the Arrian party yet he elegantly defends the fact as not only a justifiable but a proper and eminent act of charity And indeed 't is the only case wherein the Imperial Constitutions make it lawful to sell or pawn the Plate and gifts belonging to the Church it being otherwise made sacriledge to receive them and the things absolutely forfeited by those that bought them This was very great but yet we meet with a stranger Charity than this in the Primitive Church some that have parted with their own liberty to purchase freedome unto others So S. Clemens assures us in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians We have known many amongst our selves says he who have delivered themselves into bonds and slavery that they might restore others to their liberty many who have hir'd out themselves servants unto others that by their wages they might feed and sustain them that wanted Of which this one strange instance shall suffice Under the Vandalic persecution many Christians were carried slaves out of Italy into Africk for whose redemption Paulinus then Bishop of Nola had expended his whole estate at last a widow comes to him intreats him to give her as much as would ransome her only Son then slave to the King of the Vandals Son-in-law he told her he had not one penny left nothing but his own person and that he would freely give her to make her best of and to procure her sons ransome this the woman look'd upon from a person of his quality as rather a deriding her calamity than a pittying of her case but he assur'd her he was in earnest and at last induced her to believe him whereupon they both took shipping for Africk whither they were no sooner come but the good Bishop addressed himself to the Prince beg'd the release of the widows Son and offer'd himself in his room The issue was the woman had her Son restor'd her and Paulinus became the Princes slave who imployed him in the dressing and keeping of his Garden How he afterwards ingratiated himself into the favour of his Master and came to be discovered to him who he was how the Prince set him at liberty and gave him leave to ask what he would which he made no further use of than to beg the release of all his Country men then in bondage which was accordingly granted and all joyfully sent home with their ships laden with Corn and Provisions I omit as not pertinent to my purpose they that are desirous to know more of it may read it in the Dialogues of S. Gregory from whence I have borrowed the story This certainly was Charity with a witness an act that will find more to admire and commend it than to imitate and follow it A fourth instance of Primitive Charity was the great care they took about the bodies of the dead in giving them decent and where they could honourable burial all men naturally have a kindness for their bodies and therefore desire that what has so long been the mansion of an immortal tenant may upon its dis-lodging be orderly taken down and the ruins of it laid up with honour and safety Mans body besides that 't is the cabinet of an invaluable jewel is a curious piece of artifice fearfully and wonderfully made the excellent contrivance of the divine omniscience and in that respect challenges not to be carelesly thrown aside or rudely trampled in the dirt This seems to be the common sence of mankind it being the care and practice of almost all Nations in the world religiously to enshrine the remains of their deceased friends in Tombs and Sepulchres thinking it but reasonable to testifie so much kindness to their departed friends as to honour their memories and to secure from rude barbarous violence what they left behind them when they put off mortality Sure I am this was eminently the care of Christians no dangers or threatnings could affright them from doing this last office to their deceased brethren especially such as had been Martyrs and Champions for the Truth The Roman Clergy in an Epistle to them of Carthage reckons it as one of the greatest instances of Charity above that of relieving the poor ministring to the sick or the rest which they there enumerate and reckon up tells them that it could not be neglected without great danger and that fidelity in this matter would be highly acceptable to God and rewarded by him Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria speaking of the Plague that raged there which we mentioned but now commends the Christians for assisting their sick dying brethren that they closed their eyes laid them out washed their bodies dressed and adorned them up for burial and carried them out upon their own shoulders which they chearfully did notwithstanding the imminent danger that attended it and that it was not
that were amongst men This Argument Eusebius particularly prosecutes and shewes that while the Nations were under Paganism and Idolatry they were filled with wars and troubles and all the effects of barbarous rage and fury but that after the divine and peaceable doctrine of our Saviour came abroad those differences and calamities began to cease according to the predictions that were of him that there should be righteousness and abundance of peace in his days that men should beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks that Nation should not lift up sword against Nation nor learn war any more that this must needs be in some measure the effect of his appearance his doctrine being so fitly calculated to soften the rough and brutish manners of men and to train them up in milder and more humane institutions And a little after he makes it an uncontroulable argument of the truth and excellency of the Christian doctrine that it teaches men to bear the reproaches and provocations of enemies with a generous and unshaken mind and to be able not to revenge our selves by falling foul upon them with the like indignities and affronts to be above anger and passion and every inordinate and unruly appetite to administer to the wants and necessities of the helpless and to embrace every man as our kindred and countrey-man and though reputed a stranger to us yet to own him as if by the law of Nature he were our nearest friend and brother How much their Religion contributed to the publick tranquillity by forbiding Pride Passion Covetousness and such sins as are the great springs of confusion and disturbance Justin Martyr tells the Emperours As for peace says he we above all men in the world promote and further it forasmuch as we teach that no wicked man no covetous or treacherous person no good or vertuous man can lye hid from the eye of God but that every man is travelling either towards an eternal happiness or misery according to the desert and nature of his works and did all men know and believe this no man would dare for a few moments to deliver up himself to vice and wickedness knowing 't would lead him on to the condemnation of everlasting fire but would rather by all means restrain himself and keep within the bounds of vertue that he might obtain the rewards that are dispens'd by God and avoid the punishments that are inflicted by him The truth is our blessed Lord came not to inspire men with principles of revenge and passion to teach them to return evil for evil but to encourage love and gentleness to teach men to overcome by suffering and to obtain the reward by meekness and patience Isidore the Pelusiote treating of that place to him that smites thee on the right cheek turn the other also has this short discourse upon it The great King of Heaven came down from above to deliver to the world the laws of an heavenly conversation which he has proposed in a way of conflict and striving quite contrary to that of the Olympick games There he that fights and gets the better receives the Crown here he that is stricken and bears it meekly has the honour and applause there he that returns blow for blow here he that turns the other cheek is celebrated in the Theatre of Angels for the victory is measured not by revenge but by a wise and generous patience this is the New Law of Crowns this the new way of conflicts and contentions Such was the temper such the carriage of Christians towards their enemies and them that were without within themselves they maintained the most admirable peace and harmony and were in a manner of one heart and soul They liv'd in the strictest amity and abhorr'd all division as a plague and fire-brand But because mens understandings not being all of one size nor all truths alike plain and evident differences in mens Judgments and Opinions must needs arise no Schism ever arose in the Church about any of the more considerable principles of Religion but it was presently bewailed with the universal resentment of all pious and good men and the breach endeavoured to be made up no ways left unattempted no methods of perswasion omitted that might contribute to it When Novatus or rather Novatian had made some disturbance in the Church of Rome concerning the receiving the lapsed into Communion Dionysius the good Bishop of Alexandria writes to him to extinguish the Schism tells him 't is better to suffer any thing than that the Church of God should be rent in pieces that it 's no less glorious and probably more illustrious to suffer Martyrdom to keep division out of the Church than to dye for not sacrificing to Idols for in the one case a man suffers martyrdom only upon his own account but in the other he suffers for the advantage and benefit of the whole Church And Cyprian positively asserts according to the Apostles resolution of the case that without this unity and charity a man cannot enter into Heaven and that although he should deliver up himself to the flames or cast his body to wild beasts yet this would not be the crown of his Faith but the punishment of his falshood not the glorious exit of a religious vertue but the issue of despair such a one may be killed but he cannot be crowned He that rents the Unity of the Church destroys the Faith disturbs the Peace dissolves Charity and profanes the Holy Sacrament How severely they branded all schism division in the Church how industriously they laboured to take up all controversies amongst Christians and to reconcile dissenting brethren to maintain concord and agreement amongst themselves and to prevent all occasions of quarrel dissention might be easily made to appear out of the Writers of those times Hence those Canonical Epistles as they called them wherewith persons were wont to be furnish'd when going from one place to another of which there were especially three sorts First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Commendatory Epistles mentioned by S. Paul and were in use amongst the Heathens They were granted to Clergy-men going into another Diocess by the Bishop that ordained them testifying their ordination their soundness and orthodoxy in the Faith the innocency and unblameableness of their lives To those that had been under or had been suspected of Excommunication declaring their absolution and recommending them to be received in the number of the faithful Lastly they were granted to all whether Clergy or Laity that were to travel as Tickets of Hospitality that whereever they came upon the producing these letters they might be known to be Catholick and Orthodox and as such received and entertained by them A piece of prudence which Julian the Apostate admired in the Christian constitution the like whereto he endeavoured to establish in his Pagan reformation The Second sort were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Letters Dimissory
whereby leave was given to persons going into another Diocess either to be Ordained by the Bishop of that place or if ordain'd already to be admitted and incorporated into the Clergy of that Church Upon which account the ancient Councils every where provide that no stranger shall either receive ordination at the hands of another Bishop or exercise any ministerial act in another Diocess without the consent and dimissory Letters of the Bishop of that place from whence he comes The third were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 letters of Peace granted by the Bishop to the poor that were oppressed and such as fled to the Church for its protection and assistance but esp ecially to such of the Clergy as were to go out of one Diocess into another it being directed to the Bishop of that Diocess that he would receive him that so he might take no offence but that peaceable concord and agreement might be maintained between them By these arts the prudence of those times sought to secure the peace of the Church and as much as might be prevent all dissentions that might arise And where matters of any greater moment fell out how quickly did they flock together to compose and heal them Hence those many Synods and Councils that were conven'd to umpire differences to explain or define Articles of Faith to condemn and suppress the disturbers of the Church and innovators in Religion What infinite care did the good Emperour Constantine take for composing the Arrian controversies which then began first to infect and over-run the world How much his heart was set upon it his sollicitous thoughts taken up about it how many troublesome days and restless nights it cost him with what strong and nervous arguments what affectionate intreaties he presses it may be seen in that excellent Letter yet extant in his Life which he wrote to the Authors of those impious and unhappy controversies But when this would not do he summon'd the great Council of Nice consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops and in his Speech at the opening of that Council conjur'd them by all that was dear and sacred to agree and to compose those dissentions which were risen in the Church which he seriously protested he looked upon as more grievous and dangerous than any war whatsoever and that they created greater trouble and inquietude to his mind than all the other affairs of his Empire And when several of the Bishops then in Council had preferred Libells and Accusations one against another without ever reading them he bundled and seal'd them all up together and having reconciled and made them friends produc'd the papers and immediately threw them into the fire before their faces So passionately desirous was that good Prince to extinguish the flames and to redeem the peace of the Church at any rate Were any ejected and thrown out of the Church of which there might be a suspicion of private grudges or designs the Nicene Council wisely provided That in every Province a Synod should be held twice a year where all the Bishops meeting together might discuss the case and compose the difference Or as Joseph the Egyptian in his Arabick version of that Canon tells us an Arbitrator was to be appointed between the differing parties to take up the quarrel that it might not be a scandal to Religion Nor did there want meek and peaceable-minded men who valued the publick welfare before any private and personal advantage and could make their own particular concerns strike sail when the peace and interest of the Church called for it When great contests and confusions were raised by some perverse and unquiet persons about the See of Constantinople then possest by Gregory Nazianzen he himself stood up in the midst of the Assembly and told the Bishops how unfit it was that they who were preachers of peace to others should fall out amongst themselves beg'd of them even by the Sacred Trinity to manage their affairs calmly and peaceably and if I says he be the Jonas that raises the storm throw me into the Sea and let these storm and tempests cease I am willing to undergo what ever you have a mind to and though innocent and unblameable yet for your peace and quiet sake am content to be banished the throne and to be cast out of the City only according to the Prophets counsel be careful to love truth and peace And therewith freely resigned his Bishoprick though legally setled in it by the express command and warrant of the Emperour and the universal desires and acclamations of the people The same excellent temper ruled in S. Chrysostome one of his successours in that See when having elegantly pressed the unity of the Church and refuted those petty cavils which his adversaries had against himself But if you says he to his people suspect these things of us we are ready to deliver up our place and power to whomsoever you will only let the Church be preserved in peace and unity This was the brave and noble disposition of mind to which S. Clemens sought to reduce the Corinthians after they had fallen into a little Schism and disorder Who is there among you says he of that generous temper that compassionate and charitable disposition Let him say if this Sedition these Schisms and contentions have arisen through my means or upon my account I 'le depart and be gone whithersoever you please and will do what the people shall command only let Christs sheep-fold together with the Elders that are placed over it be kept in peace Nay when good men were most zealous about the main and foundation-articles of Faith so as sometimes rather to hazard Peace than to betray the Truth yet in matters of indifferency and such as only concern'd the rituals of Religion they mutually bore with one another without any violation of that Charity which is the great law of Christianity Thus in that famous controversie about the keeping of Easter so much agitated between the Eastern and Western Churches Irenaeus in a Letter to Pope Victor who of all that ever sat in that chair had raised the greatest stirs about it tells him that Bishops in former times however they differed about the observation of it yet alwayes maintain'd an intire concord and fellowship with one another the Churches being careful to maintain a peaceable communion though differing in some particular Rites and Ceremonies yea even when their rites and customs seemed to clash by meeting together at the same place Thus when Polycarp came to Rome from the Churches of the East to treat with Pope Anicetus about this and some other affairs though they could not satisfie each other to yield the controversie yet they kissed and embraced one another with mutual endearments received the Holy Communion together and Anicetus to do the greater honour to Polycarp gave him leave to celebrate and consecrate the Eucharist in his Church and at last they parted in
that stood under this capacity a formal sentence was always denounced against him it being many times sufficient that the fact he had done was evident and notorious as in the case of the lapsed that had offered sacrifice for in this case the offender was look'd upon as ipso facto excommunicate and all religious commerce forborn towards him 'T is true that in some cases the Martyrs as we shall see more anon finding such lapsed persons truly penitent did receive them into private Communion so did those Martyrs Dionysius Alexandrinus speaks of in his Letter to Fabius Bishop of Antioch they took the penitents that had fallen into idolatry into their company and Communicated with them both at Prayers and Meals but to publick Communion they were never admitted till they had exactly fulfilled the discipline of the Church which principally consisted in many severe acts of repentance and mortification more or less according to the nature of the offence During this space of penance they appeared in all the formalities of sorrow and mourning in a sordid and squalid habit with a sad countenance and a head hung down with tears in their eyes standing without at the Church doors for they were not suffered to enter in falling down upon their knees to the Ministers as they went in and begging the prayers of all good Christians for themselves with all the expressions and demonstrations of a sorrowful and dejected mind reckoning the lower they lay in repentance the higher it would exalt them the more sordid they appeared the more they should be cleansed and purified the less they spared themselves the more God would spare them at these times also they made open confession of their faults this being accounted the very spring of repentance and without which they concluded it could not be real Out of confession says Tertullian is born repentance and by repentance God is pacified and therefore without this neither riches nor honour would procure any admission into the Church Thus Eusebius reports that when Philippus the Emperour would have gone in with the rest of the Christians upon Easter-eve to have partaked of the prayers of the Church the Bishop of the place would by no means suffer it unless he first made confession of his sins and passed through the order of the Penitents being guilty of very great and enormous sins which 't is said he very willingly submitted to testifying by his actions his real and religious fear of the Divine Majesty This story though as to the main of it it might be true yet as fastened upon Philip the Emperour I have formerly shewed it to be false and that it 's rather meant of one Philippus who was Governour in Egypt and professed himself a Christian but however this was 't is certain that a person as great as he Theodosius the Great for his bloody and barbarous slaughter of the Thessalonians was by S. Ambrose Bishop of Millain suspended brought to publick confession and forced to undergo a severe course of penance for eight months together when after great demonstrations of a hearty sorrow and sincere repentance not more rigidly imposed upon him than readily and willingly received by him after his usual prostrations in the Church as if unworthy either to stand or kneel crying out in the words of David My soul cleaveth unto the dust quicken thou me according to thy word after having oft torn his hair beat his forehead water'd his cheeks with tears and humbly beg'd peace and pardon he was absolved and restored to Communion with the Church of which passage they who would know more may find the story largely related by Theodoret. This severity was used towards offenders partly to make them more sensible of their sins partly to affright and deterr others but principally to give satisfaction both to God and his Church concerning the reality and sincerity of their repentance Hence it is that these Penances in the Writings of those times are so often called satisfactions for whenever those Fathers use the word 't is either with respect to men or God if to men then the meaning is that by these external acts of sorrow and mortification they satisfie the Church of their repentance and make reparation for those offences and scandals which they had given by their sins If to God then 't is taken for the acknowledgement of a mans fault and the begging of pardon and remission Thus Cyprian speaking of the state of impenitent sinners aggravates it by this that they do peccare nec satisfacere sin but make no satisfaction i.e. as in the very next words he explains it they do not peccata deflere confess and bewail their sins and before discoursing about Gods being the only object of tears and sorrow for sin which is to be addressed to God and not man he tells us 't is God that is to be appeased by satisfaction that he being greatly offended is to be intreated by a long and full repentance as being alone able to pardon those sins that are committed against him So that the satisfaction which they reckon'd they made to God consisted in seeking to avert his displeasure and to regain his forfeited favour by a deep contrition and sorrow for sin by a real acknowledgement and forsaking of their faults and by an humble giving to God the glory both of his mercy and his justice Thence confession is called by Tertullian the Counsel or Intendment of satisfaction And a little after he describes it thus Confession says he is that whereby we acknowledge our offence to God not as if he were ignorant of it but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is forwarded by confession repentance is produced and by repentance God is appeased The same both he Cyprian and others frequently use in the same sence which I note the rather because of that absurd and impious doctrine so currant amongst the Papists and which they pretend to derive from these very Fathers that by works of penance compensation is made to God for the debt of punishment that was contracted whereby at least the temporal penalties due to sin are meritoriously expiated and done away But this besides that it is flatly repugnant to the doctrine of antiquity how much 't is derogatory to the honour of divine grace and the infinite satisfaction of the Son of God I shall not now stand to dispute To return therefore This term of penance was usually exacted with great rigour and seldom dispensed with no indulgence or admission being granted till the full time was compleated Therefore Cyprian smartly chides with some Presbyters who had taken upon them to absolve the lapsed before their time and that whereas in lesser offences men were obliged to the just time of penance and to observe the order of discipline they in a crime of so heinous a nature had hand over head admitted them to Communion before they had gone through their penance
Correspondent to which the Canons called Apostolical and the Council of Antioch ordain that if any Presbyter setting light by his own Bishop shall withdraw and set up separate meetings and erect another Altar i. e. says Zonaras keep unlawful Conventicles preach privately and administer the Sacrament that in such a case he shall be deposed as ambitious and tyrannical and the people communicating with him be excommunicate as being factious and schismatical only this not to be done till after the third admonition After all that has been said I might further show what esteem and value the first Christians had of the Lords day by those great and honourable things they have spoken concerning it of which I 'll produce but two passages the one is that in the Epistle ad Magnesios which if not Ignatius must yet be acknowledged an ancient Authour Let every one says he that loves Christ keep the Lords day Festival the resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death conquered by our Lord and Saviour The other that of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who speaks thus that both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honour the Lords day and keep it Festival seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ compleated his resurrection from the dead Next to the Lords day the Sabbath or Saturday for so the word Sabbatum is constantly used in the Writings of the Fathers when speaking of it as it relates to Christians was held by them in great veneration and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnities of Religion For which we are to know that the Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews they being generally the first Converts to the Christian Faith they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaick Institutions and especially for the Sabbath as that which had been appointed by God himself as the memorial of his rest from the work of Creation setled by their great Master Moses and celebrated by their Ancestors for so many Ages as the solemn day of their publick Worship and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times as in others of the Jewish Rites so in this to indulge the humour of that people and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices Hence they usually had most parts of Divine Service performed upon that day they met together for publick Prayers for reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and such like duties This is plain not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens his Constitutions but from Writers of more unquestionable credit and authority Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assembled on Saturdays not that they were infected with Judaism but only to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and Socrates speaking of the usual times of their publick meeting calls the Sabbath and the Lords day the weekly Festivals on which the Congregation was wont to meet in the Church for the performance of Divine Services Therefore the Council of Laodicea amongst other things decreed that upon Saturdays the Gospels and other Scriptures should be read that in Lent the Eucharist should not be celebrated but upon Saturday and the Lords day and upon those days only in the time of Lent it should be lawful to commemorate and rehearse the names of Martyrs Upon this day also aswel as upon Sunday all Fasts were severely prohibited an infallible argument they counted it a Festival day one Saturday in the year only excepted viz. that before Easter-day which was always observed as a solemn Fast Things so commonly known as to need no proof But though the Church thought fit thus far to correspond with Jewish Converts as solemnly to observe the Sabbath yet to take away all offence and to vindicate themselves from compliance with Judaism they openly declared that they did it only in a Christian way and kept it not as a Jewish Sabbath as is expresly affirmed by Athanasius Nazianzen and others and the forementioned Laodicean Synod has a Canon to this purpose that Christians should not judaize and rest from all labour on the Sabbath but follow their ordinary works i. e. so far as consisted with their attendance upon the publick Assemblies and should not entertain such thoughts of it but that still they should prefer the Lords day before it and on that day rest as Christians but if any were found to judaize they should be accursed Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church in those of the West we find it somewhat different amongst them it was not observed as a religious Festival but kept as a constant Fast the reason whereof as 't is given by Pope Innonocent in an Epistle to the Bishop of Eugubium where he treats of this very case seems most probable if says he we commemorate Christs resurrection not only at Easter but every Lords day and fast upon Friday because 't was the day of his passion we ought not to pass by Saturday which is the middle-time between the days of grief and joy the Apostles themselves spending those two days viz. Friday and the Sabbath in great sorrow and heaviness and he thinks no doubt ought to be made but that the Apostles fasted upon those two days whence the Church had a Tradition that the Sacraments were not to be administred on those days and therefore concludes that every Saturday or Sabbath ought to be kept a Fast To the same purpose the Council of Illiberis ordained that a Saturday Festival was an errour that ought to be reformed and that men ought to fast upon every Sabbath But though this seems to have been the general practice yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike In Italy it self 't was otherwise at Milain where Saturday was a Festival and 't is said in the life of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of that See that he constantly dined as well upon Saturday as the Lords day it being his custom to dine upon no other days but those and the memorials of the Martyrs and used also upon that day to preach to the people though so great was the prudence and moderation of that good man that he bound not up himself in these indifferent things but when he was at Millain he dined upon Saturdays and when he was at Rome he fasted as they did upon those days This S. Augustine assures us he had from his own mouth for when his Mother Monica came after him to Millain where he then resided she was greatly troubled to find the Saturday Fast not kept there as she had found it in other places for her satisfaction he immediately went to consult S. Ambrose then Bishop of that place who told him he could give him no better
souls to recover them out of the snare of the Devil and the paths of ruine by making them Christians and bringing them over to the knowledge of the truth for this they pray'd daily and earnestly We Christians says Cyprian to the Proconsul serve the one and true Cod that made Heaven and earth and pray to him night and day not only for our selves but for all men and for the safety of the Emperours themselves From this no injuries or unkindnesses could discourage them Justin Martyr tells the Jew that they pray'd for them and all others that unjustly were their enemies that repenting of their wickednesses and ceasing to blaspheme Christ Jesus who by the greatness of his works the uncontroulableness of the miracles performed in his name the excellency of his doctrines and the clearness of the prophecies fulfilled in him appeared to be altogether innocent and unblameable and that rather believing in him they might together with Christians be saved by him at his second glorious coming and not be condemned by him to everlasting flames We pray for you says he that Christ would have mercy upon you for he has taught us to Pray for our enemies to love them and be merciful to them And afterwards when he had reckoned up all those wicked and malicious artifices which the Jews had used both against Christ and Christians yet notwithstanding all this says he we are so far from hating either you or those who at your suggestion believe these things of us that we pray that all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God the gracious and compassionate Parent of the world The Gnosticks were the greatest scandal that ever was to Christianity and the occasion of many of those persecutions and most of those horrible calumnies which the Heathens brought upon the Christians and yet see how Irenaeus treats them We pray for them says he and beg of them not to continue in the pit which they have digged to themselves but to depart from their sottish and idle vanities to turn to the Church of God that Christ may be formed in them and that they may know the only true God the Creatour of the world This we beg of them loving them to better purpose than they think they love themselves for our love is true and wholesome if they will receive it like a sharp plaister indeed but it will eat away the proud flesh take down the swelling and vanity of their minds for which cause we will not cease by all means to apply it to them The same Origen tells Celsus that though both Jews and Gentiles turn'd their backs upon the doctrine of Christ and charged them for being Impostors and deceivers yet they would not give over thus honestly to deceive men to make them of loose persons to become sober and temperate or to bring them on towards it of dishonest to make them righteous of unwise to make them prudent at least to bring them into the way to these things of fearful and timorous to render them hearty and couragious especially as oft as they are to contend for their Religion and Piety towards God How earnestly and passionately does Cyprian beg of the Proconsul Demetrian and the Gentiles to provide for their happiness and safety to accept of the counsels and assistance which the Christians offered who loved them not the worse for all the torments and sufferings they laid upon them that they returned kindness for hatred and by the miseries they endured shewed to them the way to Heaven that now was the time to make their peace with God and to secure salvation that there was no place for repentance on t'other side the grave the stations of the other world being fix'd and unchangeable that therefore they should believe and live that so they might eternally rejoyce with them whom they did now so afflict and persecute In pursuance of this design they spared neither pains nor cost that they might instruct men in the way to Heaven 'T is said of Pamphilus the Martyr that amongst other instances of his charity he used freely and readily to bestow Bibles upon all that were willing to read for which purpose he had alwayes great numbers of those holy volumes by him that as occasion serv'd he might distribute and bestow them By this means mercifully furnishing those with these divine treasures whose purses could not otherwise reach to the price of the Scriptures far dearer in those dayes than they are since Printing came into the world We find S. Chrysostome so zealous for converting the Gentiles to Christianity that for this very end he maintained many Presbyters and Monks in Phoenicia partly at his own charge and partly by the assistance of pious and well-disposed persons whose only work it was to Catechise and instruct the Heathens in the Principles of the Christian Faith and that the business might succeed more effectually he procured a law from the Emperor Arcadius yet extant in the Theodosian Code directed to Eutychian Prefect of the East that the Pagan Temples should be orderly taken down that so they being destroyed the whole matter of the Gentile superstition might be abolished Upon the executing of which Law great mutinies were raised by the Country people many of the Monks wounded and some slain and the rest wholly disheartned to proceed in the business these doubtless being those very Monks against whom Libanius so severely declaims for so mercilesly destroying the Pagan Temples Whereupon Chrysostome who who then in banishment writes to them to bear up with a Christian and invincible patience encourages them resolutely to go on in so good a work tells them that God would not be wanting to stand by them and to reward them in this and the other life and promises them though his incomes at this time were very small that their former pensions should be paid them and all things necessary provided for them And indeed with how much care and solicitude the good mans mind was filled about this business he sufficiently intimates in a letter written to another person whom he had employed about this affair Nor did they in those times regard case or fafety any more than they did cost and charges in this matter exposing themselves to any dangers that they might do good to the souls of men I might easily shew that this consideration had a great influence upon the sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs willingly running any hazards chearfully enduring any miseries that they might gain others to the faith and prevent their eternal ruine But that famous story of S. John the Apostle shall serve instead of many the sum of which is this Coming to a place near Ephesus in his visitation of the Churches he espied a Youth of a comely shape and pregnant parts and taking hold of him delivered him to the Bishop of the place with this charge which he repeated once
and again I commend this person to thee to be looked to with all care and diligence and that in the presence of Christ and the Church The Bishop undertook the charge received the young man into his house instructed him and at last baptized him Which being done he thought he might remit a little of the strictness of his care but the young man making an ill use of his liberty fell into bad company by whose arts and snares he was seduced into ways of riot and wickedness till despairing of all hope of pardon from God he let loose the reins to all manner of exorbitancy and agreeing with his confederates they combin'd themselves into a society of highway-men and made him their Captain who quickly became as far beyond the rest in fierceness and cruelty as he was in power and authority S. John upon occasion returning some while after to the same place after he had dispatched his other business required from the Bishop thâ— pledge he had left with him who wondring and not knowing what he meant I mean said S. John the young man 't is the soul of my brother that I require The old man with a dejected look and tears in his eyes answered he 's dead and being demanded by what kind of death answered he 's dead to God for alas he 's become a villain and instead of the Church is fled with his companions to the mountains to be a thief and a robber The Apostle renting his cloaths and bewailing that he had so ill betrusted his brother's soul immediately call'd for a horse and a guide and made haste to the Mountains where being taken by those that stood Sentinel he beg'd to be brought before their Captain who stood ready arm'd some way off but assoon as he perceived 't was S. John that was coming towards him he began to be ashamed to run as fast as he could The Apostle not regarding his own age and weakness followed after with all his might and when his legs could not overtake him he sent these passionate exclamations after him Why O my Son dost thou fly from thy aged and unarmed father take pity of me and fear not there is yet hope of salvation for thee I will undertake with Christ for thee if need be I will freely undergo death for thee as our Lord did for us and lay down my own life to ransom thine only stay and believe me for I am sent by Christ With that he stay'd and with a dejected look throwing away his Arms he trembled and dissolved into tears he embraced the aged Apostle with all possible expressions of sorrow and lamentation as if again baptized with his own tears S. John assured him he had obtain'd his pardon of Christ and having fasted and prayed with him and for him and with all the arts of consolation refreshed his shattered and disconsolate mind brought him into and restored him to the Church This story though somewhat long I was the willinger to produce both because so remarkable in it self and so great a testimony of that mighty tenderness and compassion which they had for the souls of men for whose sake they thought they could never do never venture far enough S. Augustine tells us what infinite pains his Mother Monica took about the conversion of her husband Patricius how unweariedly she sought to endear her self to him by all the arts of a meek prudent and sober carriage how submissively she complied with his rigorous and untoward humours how diligently she watched the aptest times of insinuation never leaving till at last she gained him over to the faith Nor was her care and solicitude less for her Son Augustine who being hurried away with the lewdnesses of youth and intangled with the impieties of the Manichean Heresie was the hourly subject of her prayers and tears She plyed him with daily counsels and intreaties implored the help and assistances of good men and importuned heaven for the success of all not being able to gain any quiet to her mind till S. Ambrose with whom she had oft advised about it sent her away with this assurance that it was not possible that a child of so many tears should perish No sooner was his conversion wrought but her spirit was at ease and she now desired no more Himself tells us that discoursing with her alone some few days before her death concerning the state of the blessed and the joys of heaven she at last broke off with this farewel For my part Son I have now no further hopes or pleasures in this world there was but one thing for which I desired to live that I might see thee a Catholick Christian before I died This my good God has abundantly blessed me with having let me see thee despising the selicities of this life and entred into his family and service so that what do I make any longer here Nay so great a zeal had they for the good of souls in those days that many did not stick to engage themselves in temporal slavery for no other end but to deliver others from spiritual bondage Thus Serapion called Sindonites because he never wore more than one poor Linnen garment one of the Primitive Asceticks sold himself to a Gentile-player that served the Theatre with whom he liv'd underwent the meanest offices till he had converted him his wife and whole family to Christianity who upon their baptism restored him to his liberty whereupon he freely returned them back the mony which he had receiv'd as the price of his servitude which by mutual consent was given to the poor Coming afterwards to Lacedaemon and hearing that a principal person of the City a very good man otherwise was infected with the Manichean Heresie one of the first things he did was to insinuate himself into his Family selling himself to be his slave in which condition he remained for two years together till he had brought his Master and his whole Family off from that pernicious Heresie and restored them to the Church who did not only bless God for it but treated him not as a servant but with that kindness and reverence that is due to a Brother and a Father This was the good spirit and genius of those days they intirely studied and designed the happiness of men were willing and desirous freely to impart the treasuries of the Gospel and wished that in that respect all mankind were as rich and happy as themselves So far were they from that malicious imputation which Celsus fastned upon them that if all men would become Christians they would not admit it to which Origen flatly returns the lie and tells him the falseness of it might appear from this that Christians as much as in them lay were not backward to propagate their doctrine through the whole world and that some of them had peculiarly undertaken to go up and down not only in Cities but in Towns and Villages to bring over