of persecution for so we find in a Law of Constantine and Licinius where giving liberty of Religion to Christians and restoring them freely to the Churches which had been taken from them and disposed of by former Emperours they further add and because say they the same Christians had not only places wherein they were wont to assemble but are also known to have had other possessions which were not the propriety of any single person but belonged to the whole body and community all these by this Law we command to be immediately restored to those Christians to every Society and Community of them what belonged to them And in a rescript to Anulinus the Proconsul about the same matter they particularly specifie whether they be Gardens or Houses or whatever else belonged to the right and propriety of those Churches that with all speed they be universally restored to them the same which Maximinus also though no good friend to Christians yet either out of fear of Constantine or from the conviction of his conscience awakened by a terrible sickness had ordained for his parts of the Empire Afterwards Constantine set himself by all ways to advance the honour and interests of the Church out of the Tributes of every City which were yearly paid into his Exchequer he assigned a portion to the Church and Clergy of that place and setled it by a Law which excepting the short Reign of Julian who revoked it was as the Historian assures us in force in his time Where any of the Martyrs or Confessors had died without kindred or been banished their native Country and left no heirs behind them he ordained that their Estates and Inheritance should be given to the Church of that place and that whoever had seized upon them or had bought them of the Exchequer should restore them and refer themselves to him for what recompence should be made them He took away the restraint which former Emperours had laid upon the bounty of pious and charitable men and gave every man liberty to leave what he would to the Church he gave salaries out of the publick Corn which though taken away by Julian was restored by his Successor Jovianus and ratified as a perpetual donation by the Law of Valentinian and Marcianus After his time the Revenues of Churches encreased every day pious and devout persons thinking they could never enough testifie their piety to God by expressing their bounty and liberality to the Church I shall conclude this discourse by observing what respect and reverence they were wont in those days to shew in the Church as the solemn place of Worship and where God did more peculiarly manifest his presence and this certainly was very great They came into the Church as into the Palace of the great King as Chrysostom calls it with fear and trembling upon which account he there presses the highest modesty and gravity upon them before their going into the Church they used to wash at least their hands as Tertullian probably intimates and Chrysostom expresly tells us carrying themselves while there with the most profound silence and devotion nay so great was the reverence which they bore to the Church that the Emperours themselves who otherwise never went without their Guard about them yet when they came to go into the Church used to lay down their Arms to leave their Guard behind them and to put off their Crowns reckoning that the less ostentation they made of power and greatness there the more firmly the imperial Majesty would be entailed upon them as we find it in the Law of Theodosius and Valentinian inserted at large into the last edition of the Theodosian Code But of this we may probably speak more when we come to treat of the manner of their publick adoration CHAP. VII Of the Lords-Day and the Fasts and Festivals of the ancient Church Time as necessary to religious actions as Place Fixed times of Publick Worship observed by all Nations The Lords Day chiefly observed by Christians Stiled Sunday and why Peculiarly consecrated to the memory of Christs Resurrection All kneeling at prayer on this day forbidden and why Their publick Assemblies constantly held upon this day Forced to assemble before day in times of persecution thence jeered by the Heathens as Latebrosa Lucifugax Natio The Lords day ever kept as a day of rejoycing all fasting upon it forbidden The great care of Constantine and the first Christian Emperours for the honour and observance of this Day Their Laws to that purpose Their constant and conscientious attendance upon publick Worship on the Lords Day Canons of ancient Councils about absenting from publick Worship Sabbatum or Saturday kept in the East as a religious day with all the publick Solemnities of Divine Worship how it came to be so Otherwise in the Western Churches observed by them as a Fast and why This not universal S. Ambrose his practice at Milain and counsel to S. Augustine in the case Their solemn Fasts either Weekly or Annual Weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays held till three in the Afternoon Annual Fast that of Lent how ancient Vpon what account called Quadragesima Observed with great strictness The Hebdomada Magna or the Holy Week kept with singular austerity and the reason of it Festivals observed by the Primitive Christians That of Easter as ancient as the times of the Apostles An account of the famous Controversie between the eastern and Western Churches about the keeping of Easter The intemperate spirit of Pope Victor Irenaeus his moderate interposal The case sinally determined by the Council of Nice The Vigils of this Feast observed with great expressions of rejoycing The bounty of Christian Emperours upon Easter-day The Feast of Pentecost how ancient Why stiled Whitsunday Dominica in Albis why so called The whole space between Easter and Whitsuntide kept Festival The Acts of the Apostles why publickly read during that time The Feast of Epiphany anciently what Christmas-day the ancient observation of it Epiphany in a strict sense what and why so called The Memoriae Martyrum what When probably first begun The great reverence they had for Martyrs Their passions stiled their Birth-day and why These anniversary Solemnities kept at the Tombs of Martyrs Over these magnificent Churches erected afterwards What religious exercises performed at those meetings The first rise of Martyrologies Oblations for Martyrs how understood in the ancient Writers of the Church These Festivals kept with great rejoycing mutual love and charity their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common Feasts Markets held for that purpose in those places The ill use which after-times made of these memorials TIme is a circumstance no less inseparable from religious actions than Place for man consisting of a soul and body cannot always be actually engaged in the service of God that 's the priviledge of Angels and souls freed from the fetters of mortality so long as
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
of them and think them happy that they are intrusted by God to manage the conveniencies of mans life but yet do not give them that honour that is only due to God for this neither does God allow of neither do they desire it but equally love and regard us when we do not as if we did sacrifice to them And when Celsus a little before had smartly pressed him to do honour to Daemons he rejects the motion with great contempt away says he with this counsel of Celsus who in this is not in the least to be hearkned to for the great God only is to be adored and prayers to be delivered up to none but his only begotten Son the first born of every creature that as our High-Priest he may carry them to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 'T is true that the Worship of Angels did and that very early as appears from the Apostles caveat against it in his Epistle to the Colossians creep into some parts of the Christian Church but was always disowned and cryed out against and at last publickly and solemnly condemned by the whole Laodicean Council it is not lawful says the thirty fifth Canon of that Council for Christians to leave the Church of God and to go and invocate Angels and to make prohibited assemblies if therefore any one shall be found devoting himself to this private Idolatry let him be accursed forasmuch as he has forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and has delivered up himself to Idolatry From which nothing can be more clear than that it was the sense of these Fathers that the worshipping of Angels was not only down-right Idolatry but a plain apostasie from the Christian Faith Nor were they more peremptory in denying divine honour to Angels than they were to Martyrs and departed Saints for though they had a mighty honour and respect for Martyrs as we shall take notice afterwards as those that had maintained the truth of their Religion and seal'd it with their blood and therefore did what they could to do praise and honour to their memories yet were they far from placing any thing of Religion or divine adoration in it whereof 't will be enough to quote one famous instance The Church of Smyrna writing to the Churches of Pontus to give them an account of the martyrdom of Polycarpus their Bishop tells them that after he was dead many of the Christians were desirous to have gotten the remains of his body possibly to have given them decent and honourable burial but were prevented in it by some Jews who importun'd the Proconsul to the contrary suggesting that the Christians leaving their crucified Master might henceforth worship Polycarpus whereupon they add that this suggestion must needs proceed from ignorance of the true state of Christians this they did say they not considering how impossible 't is that ever we should either forsake Christ who died for the salvation of mankind or that we should worship any other We adore him as the Son of God but the Martyrs as the Disciples and Followes of our Lord we deservedly love for their eminent kindness to their own Prince and Master whose Companions and Fellow-Disciples we also by all means desire to be This instance is so much the more valuable in this case not only because so plain and pertinent but because so ancient and from persons of so great authority in the Church For this is not the testimony of any one private person but of the whole Church of Smyrna according as it had been trained up under the Doctrine and Discipline of Polycarpus the immediate Disciple of S. John This was the Doctrine and practice of Christians then and it held so for some Ages after even down to the times of S. Augustine when yet in many other things the simplicity of the Christian Religion began to decline apace we set apart says he no Temples nor Priests nor divine services nor sacrifices to Martyrs because they are not God but the same who is theirs is our God indeed we honour their memories as of holy men who have stood for the truth even unto death that so the true Religion might appear and those which are false be convinc'd to be so but who ever heard a Priest standing at the Altar built for the honour and worship of God over the body of the holy Martyr to say in his Prayers I offer sacrifice to thee Peter or Paul or Cyprian for in such commemorations we offer to that God who made them both men and Martyrs and has made them partners with holy Angels in the heavenly glory and by these solemnities we both give thanks to the true God for the victories which they have gain'd and also stir up our selves by begging his assistance to contend for such crowns and rewards as they are possessed of so that whatever offices religious men perform in the places of the Martyrs they are only ornaments to their memories not sacrifices or divine services done to the departed as if they were Deities More to the same purpose we may find in that place as also in infinite other places of his Works where were it worth the while I could easily shew that he does no less frequently than expresly assert that though the honour of love respect and imitation yet no religious adoration is due either to Angels Martyrs or departed Saints But the great instance wherein the primitive Christians manifested their detestation of Idolatry was in respect of the idolatrous Worship of the Heathen world the denying and abhorring any thing of divine honour that was done to their gods They looked upon the very making of Idols though with no intention to worship them as an unlawful trade and as inconsistent with Christianity how have we renounced the Devil and his Angels says Tertullian meaning their solemn renunciation in baptism if we make Idols nor is it enough to say though I make them I do not worship them there being the same cause not to make them that there is not to worship them viz. the offence that in both is done to God yet thou dost so far worship them as thou makest them that others may worship them and therefore he roundly pronounces that no Art no Profession no service whatsoever that is employed either in making or ministring to Idols can come short of Idolatry They startled at any thing that had but the least shadow of symbolizing with them in their Idolatry therefore the Ancyran Council condemned them to a two years supension from the Sacrament who sat down with their Heathen friends upon their solemn Festivals in their Idol-Temples although they brought their own Provisions along with them and touched not one bit of what had been offered to the Idol Their first care in instructing new Converts was to leaven them with the hatred of Idolatry those that are to be initiated into our Religion says Origen
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
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
Triclinium call'd in question that if they had any feast it was a love-feast and what-ever cost was laid out upon it was expended not for vain-glory but upon the accounts of Piety and Religion not to nourish Parasites and flatterers but to refresh the Poor that the order of the feast was as sober and regular as the cause was honest going no further than modesty would admit they prayed to God before they ventur'd upon his Creatures ate but what suffic'd hunger drank no more than consisted with sober and modest men and fed so as remembring they were to rise at night to worship God when they had done they sung Psalms either of their own composure or out of the Holy Volumes and as they begun so they ended the feast with Prayer and then departed with the same care to preserve their modesty and chastity so that they appear'd not so much to have feasted at supper as to have fed upon discipline and order So he For the other part of the charge their feeding upon mans flesh at this common supper 't was a suggestion so savage and barbarous as could have found belief with nothing but the very spirit of malice we shall again meet with this objection in another place and shall therefore here only note out of their Apologist that it was charge never offer'd to be made good against them nor prov'd in any of those many thousand tryals which the Christians had had in all parts of the Empire that it was very unlikely they should be guilty of eating humane flesh who did not think it lawful to be present at the gladiatory-sports where men were slain or so much as to tast any blood at all So Biblias the Martyr told her enemies when being reproached with this in the midst of her torments she cryed out how is it possâ—be that we should devour Infants as you charge us who think it not lawful so much as to tast the blood of any Creature For even till then and a long time after they observ'd that Canon of the first Apostolick Council to abstain from things strangled and from blood So far were they from being either barbarous or luxurious No our feasts as he says in Minutius Foelix are not only chast but sober we indulge not our selves in banquets nor make our feasts with wine but temper our chearfulness with gravity and seriousness And indeed their often watchings and fastings and their constant observance of the strictest parts of devotion sufficiently shewed how little they pamper'd or indulg'd the flesh the signs whereof they every where carried in their very faces and this was so notorious that their very enemies reproached them with their trembling joynts and their pale ghastly looks And Lucian giving an account of the Christian Assembly into which he tells us Critias was brought to be made a Proselyte describes them to be a company of persons with their heads hanging down and pale faces which certainly did not arise from their fear of suffering for no men in the world were ever so willing nay so desirous of laying down their lives as they but from their frequent abstinence and fasting To which purpose S. Basils Comment is most apposite where commending temperance or as he calls it Continence using the word in its largest sense other Vertues says he being mainly exercised in secret are not altogether so visible to the eyes of men whereas continence where-ever it is will at first sight betray it self for as a good complexion and an excellent constitution of body peculiarly design a man to be an Athletes or Champion so leanness of body and that paleness which is the fruit of continence evidence a Christian to be a real Champion for the commands of Christ vanquishing his enemy in the weakness of his body and shews how able he is to contend in the cause of Piety and Vertue The very sight of such a man must needs be of great advantage to affect us to behold him sparingly and moderately using even those things that are necessary not paying nature its tribute without some regret begrutching the little time that he spends about it and therefore making hast to get from the table to return to his better exercises and imployments CHAP. V. Of their singular Continence and Chastity Their admirable Continence discovered in several particulars Their abstinence from marriage Their marrying only to comply with the end of the institution Seldom married more than once Their continence admired by Heathens The Fathers generally severe against second marriages The moderate judgement of Clemens Alexandrinus in the case The Canons of several Councils concerning it Three sorts of digamy or second marriages Their shunning all occasions and appearances of lightness and immodesty abstaining from publick meetings feasts plays c. Constantine's Law that no widow should be forced to appear at publick Tribunals Another of Theodosius that none should marry within twelve compleat months after her husbands decease The promiscuous use of Baths forbidden both by Canon and Civil Laws Vnmarried persons especially of Ecclesiastick relation not familiarly to converse together Mulieres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who How brought in condemned by the Council of Antioch and that of Nice Clandestine marriages dis-allowed Their abhorring all immodest pictures and discourses The great modesty of Gorgonia Their valuing chastity above life submitting to any kind of death rather than violate it Many chusing to kill themselves rather than be deflour'd Several instances of it Impurity in Christians bewail'd as a great scandal punished by the Church with very severe penalties Several passages out of the Fathers and Councils noted to that purpose Christians accused by the Heathens of incest and adultery The summe of the charge Their Answer The Heathens very unfit to bring in this charge being themselves so notoriously guilty whole Nations their wisest Philosophers their very Gods themselves this fully proved against them The very Gentiles tacitly confessed the Christians innocent by condemning them to be forcibly prostituted A part of their religion not to give way to wanton looks or unchast desires The eminent prevalency of Christianity in converting persons from uncleanness and debauchery pleaded and asserted The original of the accusation enquired into Found to arise from the beastly practices of the Gnosticks c. who though guilty of the most notorious villanies and of these in particular yet shrowded themselves under the general name of Christians Some forced through fear to confess the Christians guilty of these crimes A Third considerable instance of that sobriety and moderation for which the Christians were so renowned of old was their Continence and abstaining from all manner of uncleanness which is that Vertue that we properly call Chastity a Vertue for which how eminent they were notwithstanding what their enemies heavily charged upon them to the contrary of which afterwards we shall take notice of in some few particulars First The Christians of those
that was overlaid with Gold where he beheld nothing but a company of persons with their bodies bow'd down and pale faces I know the design of that Dialogue in part is to abuse and deride the Christians but there 's no reason to suppose he feigned those circumstances which made nothing to his purpose As the times grew better they added more and greater ornaments to them concerning two whereof there has been some contest in the Christian world Altars and Images As for Altars the first Christians had no other in their Churches than decent Tables of wood upon which they celebrated the holy Eucharist these 't is true in allusion to those in the Jewish Temple the Fathers generally called Altars and truly enough might do so by reason of those Sacrifices they offered upon them viz. the commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the blessed Sacrament the Sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving and the oblation of Alms and Charity for the poor usually laid upon those Tables which the Apostle expresly styles a Sacrifice These were the only Sacrifices for no other had the Christian world for many hundreds of years which they then offered upon their Altars which were much of the same kind with our Communion-Tables at this day For that they had not any such fixed and gaudy Altars as the Heathens then had in their Temples and Papists still have in their Churches is most evident because the Heathens at every turn did charge and reproach them for having none and the Fathers in their answers did freely and openly acknowledge and avow it asserting and pleading that the only true sacred Altar was a pure and a holy mind and that the best and most acceptable Sacrifice to God was a pious heart and an innocent and religious life Haec nostra sacrificia haec Dei sacra sunt these say they are our oblations these the sacrifices we give to God This was the state of Altars in the Christian Churches for near upon the first three hundred years till Constantine coming in and with him peace and plenty the Churches began to excel in costliness and bravery every day and then their wooden and moveable Altars began to be turned into fixed Altars of Stone or Marble though used to no other purpose than before and yet this too did not so universally obtain though severely urged by Sylvester Bishop of Rome but that in very many places Tables or moveable Altars of wood continued in use a long time after as might easily be made appear from several passages in Athanasius and others yea even to S. Augustine's time and probably much later were it proper to my business to search after it No sooner were Altars made fixed and immoveable but they were compassed in with Rails to fence off rudeness and irreverence and persons began to regard them with mighty observance and respect which soon grew so high that they became Asylums and refuges to protect innocent persons and unwitting offenders from immediate violence and oppression an instance whereof Nazianzen gives us in a Christian Widow a woman of great place and quality who flying from the importunities of the President who would have forced her to marry him had no other way but to take sanctuary at the holy Table in S. Basils Church at Caesarea she was demanded with many fierce and terrible threatnings but the holy man stoutly refused although the President was his mortal Enemy and sought only a pretence to ruine him Many such cases may be met with in the History of the Church nor was this a priviledge meerly founded upon custom but setled and ratified by the Laws of Christian Emperours concerning the particular cases whereof together with the extent and limitation of these immunities there are no less than six several Laws of the Emperours Theodosius Arcadius and Theodosius junior yet extant in the Theodosian Code But how far those Asyla's and Sanctuaries were good and useful and to what evil and pernicious purposes they were improv'd in after-times is without the limits of my present task to enquire But if in those times there was so little ground for Altars as us'd in the present sense of the Church of Rome there was yet far less for Images and certainly might things be carried by a fair and impartial tryal of Antiquity the dispute would soon be at an end there not being any one just and good authority to prove that Images were either worshipped or us'd in Churches for near upon four hundred years after Christ and I doubt not but it might be carried much farther but that my business lyes mainly within those first Ages of Christianity Nothing can be more clear than that the Christians were frequently challenged by the Heathens as for having no Altars and Temples so that they had no Images or Statues in them and that the Christian Apologists never denied it but industriously defended themselves against the charge and rejected the very thoughts of any such thing with contempt and scorn as might be abundantly made good from Tertullian Clem. Alexandrinus Origen Minucius Faelix Arnobius and Lactantius many of whose testimonies have been formerly pointed to Amongst other things Origen plainly tells his Adversary who had objected this to the Christians that the Images that were to be dedicated to God were not to be careed by the hand of Artists but to be formed and fashioned in us by the Word of God viz. the virtues of justice and temperance of wisdom and piety c. that conform us to the Image of his only Son These says he are the only Statues formed in our minds and by which alone we are perswaded 't is fit to do honour to him who is the Image of the invisible God the prototype and architypal pattern of all such Images Had Christians then given adoration to them or but set them up in their places of Worship with what face can we suppose they should have told the world that they so much slighted and abhorred them and indeed what a hearty detestation they universally shew'd to any thing that had but the least shadow of Idolatry has been before prov'd at large The Council of Illiberis that was held in Spain some time before Constantine expresly provided against it decreeing that no Pictures ought to be in the Church nor that any thing that is worshipped and adored should be painted upon the walls words so clear and positive as not to be evaded by all the little shifts and glosses which the Expositors of that Canon would put upon it The first use of Statues and Pictures in publick Churches was meerly historical or to add some beauty and ornament to the place which after Ages improved into Superstition and Idolatry The first that we meet with upon good authority for all the instances brought for the first Ages are either false and spurious or impertinent and to no purpose is no elder than the times of
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
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
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
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
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
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
up the blood and ravenously tear off and snatch away the several parts of it and with this sacrifice their confederacy and combination is made and by the conscience of so great a villany they are mutually obliged to silence Such sacred rites as these being more horrid and barbarous than the highest sacriledges in the world To this monstrous and horrid charge the Christians returned these answers That they appeal'd to the common Faith of mankind whether they could really believe them to be guilty of these things so abhorrent to all the principles of Humane Nature and to the Christians known Principles and practices in all other things that they should measure the Christians by themselves and if they themselves could not be guilty of such things they should not suspect it by the Christians who were endued with the same Principles of humanity with other men that they were so far from being friends to murder or man-slaughter that they held it unlawful to be present at the Gladiatory sports where mens lives were so want only sacrificed to the pleasure and curiosity of the people that they accounted it murder for any woman by evil arts to procure abortion to stifle the embryo to kill a child in a manner before it be alive it being much at one to hinder life as to take it away to kill a man or destroy what would be one seeing he truly destroys the fruit that kills it in the seed that it was not likely they should delight in mans blood who never tasted any blood at all abstaining from things strangled and from blood And that the very Heathens themselves confessed this when amongst the several arts they used to discover whether men were Christians they used to offer them bladders full of blood knowing that they held it unlawful to taste any and therefore it was mightily improbable they should thirst after humane blood who abhorred even the blood of beasts That they heartily believed the Resurrection of the dead and therefore would not make themselves the Sepulchers of those bodies which were to rise again and feed upon them as they did upon other bodies which were to have no resurrection that the truth was if this charge was true of any it was true only of the Gentiles themselves amongst whom these things were daily allowed and practised That Saturn one of their chief deities did not only expose but eat his own children to him infants in Africk were offered in sacrifice by their own parents a custome that openly continued till the Proconsul-ship of Tiberius which though he abolished it yet it continued still in corners in Tertullians days To his Son Jupiter they offered humane sacrifices even in Rome it self and that even to the time of M. Foelix as he himself testifies which is no more than what Porphyry himself after he had reckoned up in how many parts of the world Humane sacrifices were in use confesses was done at Rome in the Feast of Jupiter Latialis even in his time Many other instances of such barbarous practices are there produced by those two Apologists which they urge with great advantage upon their adversaries whom they challenged to make any such thing good against them And no sooner did discipline begin to be regularly setled but their principles herein were every where confirmed by the Canons of the Church either private or publick the woman that industriously made her self miscarry was adjudged to be guilty of murder and condemn'd to the same punishment a ten years penance which was adjudg'd to be the case of any that brought forth upon the way and exposed her Infant By the law of the State made by the Emperour Valentinian whosoever whether man or woman kill'd an Infant was to be subject to the same capital punishment as if he had kill'd an adult person which may very well be understood even of Infants kill'd in the womb the punishment whereof was formerly for the most part no more than banishment He that was guilty of wilful murder was by S. Basil's rule to undergo a twenty years penance before he was admitted to the Sacrament though by several passages in Tertullian it appears that Homicides in his time were more severely treated by the Church for they were not only bound to a perpetual penance but were not absolv'd at death But this severity shortly after began to relax and such persons though obliged to acts of repentance all their life yet at death were absolved and admitted to Communion as is expresly provided by the decree of the Ancyran Council Thus clear did the Christians all along stand from any just suspicion of that gross piece of inhumanity which their enemies so confidently charged upon them As for the rise and occasion of this malicious charge it was doubtless of the same growth with that of their incestuous mixtures spoken of before both springing from the abominable practices of some filthy Hereticks who sheltred themselves under the name of Christians Epiphanius particularly reporting of the Gnosticks what the Heathens generally charged upon the Christians for he tells us of them that at their meetings they were wont to take an Infant begotten in their promiscuous mixtures and beating it in a mortar to season it with honey and pepper and some other spices and perfumes to make it palatable and then like swine or dogs to devour it and then to conclude all with prayer and this they accounted their perfect pass-over I am not ignorant that a learned man will by no means believe that any of the ancient Hereticks did ever arrive to so much barbarousness and immanity as to be guilty of such things and conceives them to have been feigned meerly out of hatred to those pestilent hereticks but there 's little reason to suspect the truth of it Epiphanius assuring us that he had the account that he gives from the mouths of the Gnosticks themselves and that many of the women who were deceiv'd into those abominable errours did not only discover these things to him but that he himself in his younger years while he was in Egypt had been assaulted by them and by all the arts of flattery and perswasion of wantonness and immdesty had been set upon to joyn himself to them And certainly 't is not imaginable that a person so venerable for learning and piety as Epiphanius was should impose upon us by feigning so gross and notorious a falshood Besides whoever reads Irenaeus in whose time these heresies were most riâ—e and predominant and considers the account that he gives of them which he mainly received from persons of their own party after they were returned back to the Church will see little reason either to think any wickedness too great for them to boggle at or to doubt of the truth of what he reports concerning them CHAP. II. Of their admirable Love and Charity The excellent temper of the