speak in an Ecstasie as do the Books of Pope Miltiades and Apollonius which Eusebius mentions That the Montanist Enthusiasts had their Ecstasies Tertullian grants but denies that they fell into any rageings and fits of fury and would undertake to a Tert. adv Marc. l. 4. c. 22. prove that the true Prophets were so acted from the example of S. Peter who on the Holy Mount Luke 9.33 would have three Tabernacles rear'd one for his Master another for Moses and a third for Elias not knowing what he said for says he how was he ignorant was it from the erroneous notions that then possess'd his mind or from some extraordinary grace and assistance that threw him into an Ecstasie For that man who is acted by the spirit of God especially when he sees the glory of God or God speaks by him must necessarily be deprived of his senses being overshadowed and amazed by the brightness of the divine power And this says he is the Question between us and the Psychici i. the Orhthodox But herein Tertullian went alone it being apparent that S. Peter's mistake proceeded from his ignorance of the state of glorified bodies and that the Masters among the Jews and all the Fathers acknowledge that the Prophets had a clear light and apprehension of what was communicated unto them and that correspondent thereunto their deportment was grave and their demeanour sober Tertullian therefore was very happy when he more than once renders Ecstasis by Amentia their raptures being nothing else but fits of madness wherein they were acted by an assistant Daemon to reveal strange things Melancholy and a busie swelling fancy with a little help from Satan the great pretender to Oracles easily setting up a confident cheat to imitate the dictates and inspirations of the true Prophets XVI Secondly The false Prophets of Montanus were of very vitious lives and conversations notwithstanding their great pretences to extraordinary strictness and mortifications but the true spirit of God will not dwell in unhallowed minds b Talmud Gemar Joma c. 2. Abarban pref in 12. prophet Maimon Mor. Nev. p. 2. c. 32. c. Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 424. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Orig. contr Cels lib. 7. the Jewish Masters affirming that he that will be a true Prophet must be acted by a spirit of true probity and piety must be an humble man a man of wisdom and fortitude and who hath gotten a conquest over his passions And to this agrees S. Peter 2 Ep. 1. ch v. 21. That they were holy men that spake as they were inspired by God And so the Fathers did believe that those that had such uncommon assistances of the spirit of God were men whose souls were purified by the light of a sublime reason and whose lives were guided by that light But a Apollin aâ—ud Euseb â— 5. c. 15. Montanus himself was a man of unsatiable ambition and covetousness of an ungovern'd wildness and impudency and his b Apollonius â—pud eund â— 5. c. 18. Prophetesses were Adulteresses so far from being Virgins as was boasted that they deserted their Husbands to follow this Pseudoparaclete they were addicted to the use of Fucus and painting to gawdery and intemperance and unlawful games to putting their money to use and to what not and Theodotus Themison and Alexander and other of their followers were notorious profligate wretches and at last Montanus and his two female Proselytes fell into the condemnation of Judas and were their own executioners and now let the tree be judg'd of by the fruit XVII Thirdly The Predictions of the true Prophets were always fulfill'd but the Revelations of Maximilla were like the old Oracles at best dubious and many times very false she undertaking to threaten the world with Wars and Seditions that should scourge the Church if her dotages were not embrac'd c Apollinaris ubi supr whereas the Father observes that from the death of that Impostress to the time of his Writing there had past 13 years in which there was a profound peace over all the World but more especially the Church enjoyed her serene and quiet days and was free from Persecution and she also d Epiphan haeres 48. Prophesied that after her decease there should not arise another Prophet but the consummation of all things should commence whereas the World yet continues Fourthly True Prophecy is a spirit which descending from above is not to be controll'd by any thing but that supreme power that gives the inspiration who bestows and retrieves it at his pleasure but when these Ecstatick cheats appear'd in the World the good Fathers of that age undertook to exorcise the Daemoniack and cast out the evil Guest e Serapion Apollinaris Apollonius apud Euseb l. 5. c. 15 17 18. Zoticus Bishop of Comana in Pontus resolving to undertake the action but the Montanists oppos'd it XVIII Fifthly The true Prophets had never granted them against the ordinary and establisht Government of the Church the Prophets of the old Testament being to be judged by the Consistory and of the New by the Church against which I can only find one instance of Elijah at Mount Carmel superseding a positive law but these men were guilty of introducing new doctrines of opposing and reviling their Ecclesiastical Superiors and broach'd Opinions that contradicted the word of God Montanus himself says a Ubi supr Epiphanius affirming That the righteous at the day of judgment shall be a hundred times brighter than the Sun and the wicked a hundred times brighter than the Moon And what makes me most of all suspect the cheat is that this Afflatus made it self appear only at set times by Tertullian's own confession usually on the Sunday and that only during the celebration of Divine Service when the people were gather'd together like our Modern Quakers pretences to the spirit to assist them in their publick discourses as that thought fit which now no longer acts them but at set intervals and that the subject of the Prophecy was hinted to the Enthusiast from some passage or other in the Prayers or Lessons or Sermons of the Church whereas the true spirit of God tyed not its self to such Methods nor could be confin'd within such limits and needed not such concurrent circumstances from whence it might take the measures of its discoveries but as a free and uncontroll'd agent shed its influences on the mind of the Prophet at what seasons and in what degrees were best lik'd of by the supreme Inspirer Thus the Devil as they say can take upon him the shape of a man Naz. Orat. 25. p. 441. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Orat 14. p. 221. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but cannot so wholly play the counterfeit but that by a Satyrs tail or a cloven foot he will be betray'd to a severe and diligent inspector so when he seizes the Prophets Mantle to abuse the World there are some peculiar
and hardly an Enemy of the Church and her Orthodox Sentiments but was scourg'd and confuted by his Tongue and Pen. XXII Nor were the Sons of the Church his only Encomiasts the Adversaries of our Faith having been just to his Merit d R. Gedaliah in Schalschel haccabbala p. 93. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Hotting Smegon Orient p. 268. the Jews themselves giving him a good Character and e Apud Eus l. 6. c. 13. Porphyry even where he rails at it being forc'd to sacrifice on the Altar of Truth and to commend his learning and industry And though the Grandees of the Alexandrian Church were his Enemies yet the multitude ador'd his memory for when f Phot. Cod. pinâ—ubi suppletur locus ab Haesckel in not p. 940. Pierius on the account of his indefatigable industry acute Disputations and florid Sermons was much cryed up by them they could not find out a more Honourable Title to bestow on him than that of the Juâ—ior Origen XXIII Thus is he brought to his last Essay his preparations for Heaven and Eterâ—â—ity a place he could not but long for were there nothing there but a freedome from his Earthly troubles and in him we may observe some things peculiar 1. His Preaching frequently without Orders a thing not unknown in that Age and I could wish never had been practis'd in ours but unless an extraordinary occasion justifie it little allowable it being a just punishment of Heaven on him for this Usurpation to suffer him to fall into so many gross mistakes says a Loc. com part 3. Sect. de Eccles p. 130. Chemnitius 2. That when he was ordain'd the Ceremony was perform'd not by his own Diocesan which was usual nor by a Neighbour Bishop with Letters dimissory which was sometimes practised but by two Bishops the one of Jerusalem the other of Caesarea it being the first example that we meet with in Church-History of a Presbyter that had Imposition of hands to that sacred imployment from more than one Prelate 3. That his great Enemy S. Hierome who so roundly taxes Ruffinus for defending him notwithstanding the heat of his declaiming does b Praefat. quaest in Genes Tom. 3. p. 204. soberly protest that he could be well content to undergo the envy that befel him could he be but Master of his skill in the Scriptures and that he would scorn those Mormo's and little shadows that surrounded him whose fashion it was only to affright Children and make a great noise in a Corner XXIV Envy therefore it was in the Opinion of his profest Adversary that occasioned his Condemnation and made him fall under the Censures of c Euseb l. 6. c. 7. Pamphil Apolog apud Phot. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 260. two Synods at Alexandria convened by the procurement of Demetrius whose spleen was grated to see a Presbyter make greater and more honourable Conquests than the Patriarch of the Province like David's ten thousands to Saul's thousands And the same Evil Spirit vext and haunted him at d Ruffin invect 2. in Hieron Tom. 4. p. 288. Rome because themselves were shadows while he was admired and his glory eclips'd their minor fames as when the Sun shines it is night with the Stars 4. That so great a lover and Zealot of Martyrdome should in an Age of Persecutions die in peace for I cannot believe a Apud Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 159. Pamphilus though he says there were many others of his Opinion that he suffered an honourable Martyrdome at Caesarea in the Persecution under Decius for then he could not have lived to that age which S. Hierome allows him nor been Author of those Epistles which says Photius he writ after the death of that Emperour unless we suppose the Letters to have been written after he had left the World as the b 2 Chron. 21.12 Jews say Elijah sent a writing to Joram King of Judah nine years after his death and conveyed it miraculously by the Ministry of an Angel XXV But perhaps by that celebrated Martyrdome he means no more but an honourable confession of the name of Christ in those evil times which he never seal'd with his blood the title in the days of Persecution being usually given to those who having profess'd the Christian Faith before the Gentiles with the hazard of their lives suffered but out-lived the tortures inflicted on them so c Ad Philadelph p. 45. Edit Vossii S. Ignatius calls Philo his Deacon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. not a man of known probity but as d Not. in loc p 284. Vossius renders it one that had been a Martyr in designation and e Adv. Valent cap. 1. Tertullian says Valentinus expected a Bishoprick but it was conferr'd on one who had a better right to it because a Martyr in preparation and resolves though not actually and S. Athanasius's many banishments and sufferings for Orthodoxy got him that title too Athanasius the Martyr f Catal. p. 314. Edit Sealig Nicephorus stiles him Martyres designati in g De Martyr init Tertullian h Ep. 2. ad Victric p. 284. Martyres vivi i Natal 3. S. Faelicis p. 573. sine sanguine Martyr in Paulinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. p. 319 and S. Cyprian directs many of his Epistles to the Martyrs and Confessors Nemesianus c. The Martyrs of God the Father Almighty for the three children says he k Cypr. Ep. 58. p. 79. were nevertheless Martyrs though they escap'd the flames of the Babylonish furnace the deferring of the Confessors Martyrdome does no way lessen the merit of his generosity and bravery but makes manifest the Magnalia of the Divine protection For there are two sorts of Martyrs says l Hemil. 36. in Evang. S. Gregory the great one in the intention only the other in the intention and action both So our Saviour tells the sons of Zebedee that they should be baptized with his baptism and drink of his cup by which is meant Martyrdome whereas S. John did not actually suffer but yet was a Martyr in will and resolution though his body escap'd XXVI And in truth the title was promiscuously bestowed on those that dyed in durance that were banish'd or imprison'd for the sake of Jesus or that had but their estates confiscated it was given to those charitable Christians who by visiting the sick of the Plague at Alexandria got the infection and lost their lives in that pestilential disease nay any man who was unjustly condemn'd and executed got that title if we may believe the Heathen Historian a L. 27. vide Baron not in Martyrol p. 266. Ammianus Marcellinus for I cannot allow of b Tom. 2. an 253. p. 458. Baronius his nice distinction that none of those who escap'd death were called Martyrs but who had undergone the Rack and other torments in prison while the Confessors were only those who had
exact but in point of Chronology not so accurate †Euseb lib. 1. c. 6 7. lib. 6. cap. 24. Julius Afri canus undertook the rectifying the accounts of Times and adjusting proper Epocha's to every remarkable accident And by this means the Church History grew up and gather'd strength till it attain'd to its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its full maturity and growth under Eusebius Hist l. 1. c. 1. who complaining of his being engaged in a desart and untrod way with signal accuracy and unwearied diligence gives us the best prospect could be expected of the three first Centuries and so in some measure satisfied the World for the loss of those forementioned Writers which Method was continued but with less skill and accuracy by Socrates Sozomen Theodoret Euagrius and Cassiodore in whom we find the six first Saecula of Christianity well delineated but when afterward the Imployment devolv'd on Nicephorus and others among the Greeks on Vincentius Antoninus Jacobus de Voragine c. among the Latines what a Deluge of Fopperies Legends Miracles and Visions broke in and overwhelm'd the Church The whole aim of those Biographers and Chroniclers being to experiment not how truly but how honourably they could write of the persons whom they mentioned being ignorant how different an Encomium is from a History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lucian ubi supr p. 350. of whose Books we may affirm what Lucian does of some of the Historians of his Age that they deserve rather to be call'd an Ecclesiastical Poem or Romance than a History the enterprise being as suitable as the introducing a Wrestler in the habit of an Eunuch or a General of an Army with his Face bedawb'd with Paint and Ceruse and adorn'd with the little arts of Effiminacy under which Spiritual Scorbute which had emasculated all that was generous among Christians the Church for a long time insensibly languish'd the whole Common-wealth of Learning being disfranchiz'd and its last breath expiring among the Monks who by reason of their confinement to the Melancholy loneliness of a Cell were the unfittest men in nature to be Historians till Religion and the Muses had their restoration together and the Sacred and Secular Sciences were introduc'd from behind the Skreen and shewn to mankind cloath'd in their native Dress and Beauties among which productions of that benign providence the holy History began to look like it self the Winter Tales of the Fryars were hist off the Stage De Magdeburgens videsis Casaub Ep. Dedic ante exercit in Baron Montacut apparat Sect. 52 54. Cave 's Lives of the Apostoliciâ— ad Lector and men grew inquisitive after what really had been done in the days of their Fathers and after a few previous attempts of Melancthon and others to rectify the dis-joynted Series of Times the Divines of Magdeburg or rather Flacius Illyricus in the name of the rest adventured on the writing of the Church History whose Centuries when first they came forth alarm'd the whole Romish Faction and employed them in the moving every Stone to secure their Proselytes from believing that the Reformed was the most antient Religion and that the greatest pretenders to Antiquity were the veriest Novellists to this end a Countryman of theirs first takes up the Cudgels against them William Eysengreen in his Centenarius primus adversus Magdeburgenses but I never found that he went farther than that one Book being conscious to himself of his own impotence and contented to have given his Holiness such a specimen of his Obedience and good will to the Cause Nibbled at the Centuries were by Harpsfield Turrianus Canisius and others but never seriously and in good earnest undertook till Baronius set himself to the writing of his Annals a design which Onuphrius Panvinius had some thoughts of Hieron Barnab vit Baron l. 1 c. 18. but was by Death prevented in which by digesting his Memoires into a better order not of Centuries but of Years by reading through the Body of Ecclesiastick History seven times in his own private Oratory before he publish'd any thing the Centurists never reviewing their Labours nor bringing them to a more accurate Edition by the extraordinary advantage of the Vatican and access to all the learned Libraries and Men at Rome together with a stupâ—â—dous wit and industry he became the great Patron of the decayed Papal Interest and shoar'd up that Church which was just before tottering his Tomes were wonderfully cryed up translated into the German Polish and other Langunges epitomiz'd by Spondanus and by all men greedily sought after and read to the answering of him was the learned Isaac Casaubon design'd by King James who went through no more than the Apparatus of the Cardinal and our blest Saviour's Life and at that period was summon'd to a better Employment in Heaven while the abortive attempt mist not its Antagonists in Julius Caesar Bulingerus Lanselius and others most of whose quarrelâ— were rather in matter of Philology than History but that wise Patron of learning King James was not so content but devolv'd the Province on the most a cute Critick Doctor Montague who waâ— afterward Bishop of Norwick whose design as himself informs us was to reform the Magdeburg Divines on onâ— hand and the Cardinal on the other and how happily and succesfully 〈◊〉 would have managed it his Apparatus and the two Tomes of his Origines Ecclesiasticae are a pregnant demonstration to the World nor would that learned Prelate have there sat down had not that most elaborate work been obstructed by a Domestick Faction when all its foreign enemies could not supersede it At first loud out-cryes and hard words were his portion and for asserting Orthodoxy he was nick-nam'd Heretick till at last the bigger noyse of our unmanly Civil contentions made him earnest to beg his quietus from the Court of Heaven which heard his Prayers and rescued him from the evil to come and I have been credibly inform'd that whereas at his death there was a vast heap of Collections piled up in his Study as materials for the continuation of that Work they were all in the hurry of the Wars ravish'd by one of his Chaplains who had been perverted to the Roman Belief and so lost for ever an injury to the Church of God and Common-wealth of Learning not easily to be repair'd nor do I know of any person who hath undertook the same or a like design since that venerable Prelates decease for as to Hottinger's Historia Ecclesiastica it is too brief to be accounted a just and exact History the whole story of the sixteen Centuries being couch'd in five small Octavo's and the affairs of the nine first Saecula of Christian with the Synchronisms of the Jewish Gentile and Mahometan History cramm'd into one of them viz. the first part or Eneas I have thus more largely than perhaps I ought deduced this account to the present time that the World may the
〈◊〉 and so Ruffinus after S. Hierom Translates it the Passage containing a Vindication of the Catholick Doctrine against the Docetae the Followers of Simon Magus who held That our Saviour took only a fantastick body which reading the judicious c Exercit. adv Bar. 16. n. 126. Isaac Casaubon and the immortal d Comment in Mat. 18. Grotius follow III. And yet there is no impossibility in the Assertion nor is it in it self altogether improbable though e Ubi supr Casaubon doubts of it whose Dissertation on the Subject I wish that Learned Man had lived to finish were there any thing of greater Antiquity to countenance the Tradition than Anastasius Bibliothecarius For Ignatius was martyred but eight years after S. John's Death when he had sate Patriarch of Antioch thirty years says f Chronic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— p. 66. Eusebius thirty nine as S. Hierom reckons it forty says g P. 21. Mr. H. out of Baronius at least thirty years says our most Learned h Vindic. Epist Ignat part 2. cap. 1. p. 2. Pearson Now S. John was a Man and a Disciple when this Child was taken up into the Holy Arms of Jesus and Simeon Cleophae our Saviour's Kinsman mentioned also in the Gospel who was the Second Bishop of Jerusalem was Martyred but the year before Ignatius So that nothing could hinder but that this excellent man might have been blest with the sight of Jesus as i Of Episcopacy Sect. 34. Bishop Taylor affirms did not k T. 5. Hom. in S. Ignat. p. 503. edit Savil. S. Chrysostom contradict the Opinion expresly asserting that Ignatius never saw nor converst with Christ Of which Passage the most acute l Ubi supr c. 10. p. 120. Bishop of Chester gives his Judgment that he was ignorant on what grounds that Eloquent Father built his Assertion IV. But grant we the certainty of this Position that S. Ignatius lived in our Saviour's time and might see him yet to argue from thence that he must have been that Child that Christ set in the midst of his Disciples is a wild way of arguing there being no congruity between the passages m Id. ubi supr c. 12. p. 148. c. this latter story therefore rose from another original from a mistake of that name which was always used by Ignatius as an addition to his own viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the birth of this story must be placed higher than Nicephorus who lived but a few Centuries since circ an 1300. for we find it in Simeon Metaphrastes who lived circ an 1000. and before him in Anastasius Bibliothecarius who I suppose first learnt it from the Greeks when he was a member of the eighth General Council where the great Quarrel was decided between the most accurate Critick Photius and another Ignatius whom they stiled the junior Theophorus and the Church of Rome Canoniz'd about the Patriarchate of Constantinople in which Council Photius was depos'd and this story I believe coyned to gain some greater honour to his Opponent and the accent translated from the second to the third syllable thereby quite altering the signification of the word the one signifying actively the other passively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deum portans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Deo portatus sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matricida 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à matre occisus c. And this I the rather mention because Mr. H. though he calls the story a Fable yet always terms Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the use of the ancient Greeks and all Latine Translators who render it by Deifer or Deum vel crucifixum circumferens or qui Christum habet in pectore In which story what makes it most of all suspitious is that for this reason say they the Apostles made him a Bishop without laying on of hands because Christ had already laid his on him against the express testimony of S. Chrysostom Theodoret P. Foelix and other Fathers and against Reason too for had our Saviour laid his hands on him in the Rite of Confirmation as we might suppose was done Matth. 18. yet this hinders not the reiteration of the same Rite to another end and purpose in Ordination V. We are told p. 2. that Theodoret and to him might have been joined S. Chrysostom and others records that S. Peter ordained Ignatius his Successor whereas Eusebius and Dorotheus affirm that Euodius preceded him in that Chair and that it is true Ignatius was the third Bishop there if we reckon S. Peter for one but because he made a small stay there the Catalogue begins in Euodius and so ignatius is justly reckoned the second Bishop But this doth not salve the Objection how he could be ordain'd by S. Peter as his Successor and yet Euodius come between them who on all hands is acknowledged to have been Bishop of Antioch and to have dyed long before Ignatius his Name being inserted in that large interpolation of the a p. 97. ed. Uâ—â—er Epistle to the Philadelphians as also in the spâ—rious b p. 157. Epistle to the Church of Antioch which tells us of his Ordination to the Government of that See by the Apostles The first that I find bidding any thing toward a solution of this Question is c â—â—â—â—ent 〈…〉 lib. 7. c. â—6 Turrianus and out of him d Not. in Mâ—râ—yrel Feb. 1. p. 9â— 100. Baronius who inform us that on the dissention that happened at Antioch between the Jews and Gentiles hinted Galat. 2. each party had their own Bishop allotted them but on the re-union-of the Churches they were again setled under one Prelate and that during this breach Ignatius having been ordained by S. Peter and Euodius by S. Paul contrary to the e Lib. 7. c. 46. Apostolical Constitutions which say that Ignatius was S. Paul's Successor and Euodius S. Peter's on the re-union Ignatius modestly gave place to Euodius till his death and then succeeded him as Clemens being ordain'd at Rome by S. Peter did to Linus and Cletus and so was both the Second and Third Bishop of that See On this ground as I suppose the Learned f Dissert de Episcopat 4. c. 10. Dr. Hammond hath built the Opinion which I profess to embrace and which excellently solves the Question VI. Whereas in the dispersion of the Apostles the g Gal. 2.7 Gospel of the Circumcision i. the Conversion of the Jews was S. Peter's Province and that of the Uncircumcision or the Gentiles was S. Paul's accordingly they applyed themselves to the persons design'd for their peculiar Flock on which account S. Peter writes his first Catholick Epistle to the Jews disperst in the several parts of Asia whose Diocesan he properly was and not to the Gentiles and S. Paul writing to the Hebrews conceals his name lest he might be censur'd as a busie man in
for when Maximus says of those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my love is crucified that perhaps it was a familiar sentence to him so it looks says that eminent Prelate and might be used by him in his speeches as well as writings and adds that Dailleé's argument from thence that because the words are in one of his Epistles therefore they could not be spoken by him though it be the same argument which himself after uses is a frivolous distinction and unworthy of Dailleé But who will believe continues he that this was a familiar expression of Ignatius I answer S. Hierom did and Sophronius and I think S. Chrysostom Simeon Metaphrastes Baronius the Lord Primate and others But who can imagine that ever these words were spoken by him before his Condemnation I answer that no man certainly is so mad as to suppose this Apophthegm used before his Sentence but that between it and his Execution in which time he writ all his Epistles both that speech My love is crucified and this I am Gods Corn c. might be frequent in his mouth as testimonies of his courage and love to Heaven first written by him and afterward on all occasions spoken which at last that a Ubi supr p. 87. si quâ—â— fuerint post ea decantata c. excellent man seems to grant And this answer both vindicates the Ancients and yet gives no assistance to Dailleé's Hypothesis and of this opinion after I had finisht this did I find the Learned b Life of S. Ignat. sect 8. p. 106. Dr. Cave to whose industry and diligence the Church owes the reparation of many of her ancient ruines XXXI In his Epistles I am accosted with unaccustomed demonstrations of Christian gallantry and an ardent zeal and such longings for Martyrdom as argue a soul strongly transported with the love of Jesus and immortality an infinite care of his disconsolate and widowed Church of Antioch which in every Letter he recommends to the prayers and assistances of those Churches to whom he writes but especially to S. Polycarp but above all a most holy vigour and earnestness against Heresie and Schism there being not one Epistle wherein he takes not care to condemn the Heresies of that age to discountenance Schism and Faction and passionnately to recommend Obedience to the Prelates of the Church And since The View of Antiquity handling this subject ex professo hath given us so poor an account I will take leave to transcribe a few passages to that purpose XXXII The great design of his Epistle to the Romans is to engage the Christians of that Church Epist ad Rom. p. 21 23 24 25. Ed. Usser Lond. 16â—7 not to use any means to hinder the consummation of his course by Martyrdom telling them that such an act of Charity would be a great piece of injustice to him that he never till the sentence of condemnation past on him began to be a true Disciple of Christ beseeching them by their prayers to hasten the day of his dissolution assuring them that he would invite the wild beasts to devour him that neither the fire nor the Cross nor the teeth of those ravenous and untamed Lyons that neither the breaking of his bones the racking of his joints the bruising of his body and on the head of all this the utmost torments that Satans malice could inflict would signifie any thing so he might enjoy his Master Jesus that were he Lord of the ends of the earth and all the Kingdoms of the world combined into one Empire for him they neither could tempt nor profit him that he had rather dye for his beloved Jesus than be Monarch of the Vniverse for what is a man profited to gain the world and lose his soul that he longed for no one but him that dyed for him and rose again that he was a passionate lover of death for his love was crucified that he was not satisfied with corruptible nourishment or the pleasures of this life but only desired the bread of God which came down from heaven the bread of life which is the flesh of Jesus Christ the Son of God born in the latter age of the world of the seed of David and Abraham that he longed for no other drink but his blood the great testimony of the invincible Charity of Jesus and the means of attaining to life Eternal Which last passage I am inclinable to believe hath its relation to that good old Custom of giving the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a Viaticum to dying persons XXXIII Id. ad Ephes p. 7 8. Against the Heresies of the Age he is very smart Be not deceived my Brethren Adulterers shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and if they shall dye who do these things in the flesh how much more they who by impure Doctrines corrupt and prostitute the honour of the holy and chaste Faith for which Jesus was crucified Such a polluted person shall be thrust into unquenchable fire and all they that hearken to him I beseech you therefore Brethren and yet it is not I but the Love of Christ which intreats you make use of no other but Christian Food and abstain cautiously from the strange Plant which is Heresie There are many Time-servers who embrace the Lord Jesus and believe proportionably to the advantages they receive by the Faith Men that give an envenom'd draught Ad Trallian p. 18. mingled with what makes it luscious and palatable which he that is ignorant greedily swallows to his own Damnation keep your selves charily from such which is easily done if you avoid Pride and self-conceit and unite your selves inseparably to the Lord Jesus to your Prelate and to the Ordinances of the Apostles Ad Smyrn p. 35. Of which Hereticks he tells us that they denyed the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour and as they had forfeited the Faith so they had lost their Charity took no care of the Poor of the Widows or the Orphans had no Prayers or Celebration of the Eucharist among them of whom though Mr. H. p. 19. tells us that Menander Basilides and others are named by Ignatius yet I must aver that though he means them yet he no-where expresly mentions them but rather professes Ibid. that he will omit the giving a particular account of them not thinking it fit to remember the names of such Infidels till they had repented XXXIV Nor is his Pen less keen against Schism Ad Phâ—adelph p. 28. 30. You being children of the light flye all Schisms and false Doctrines where your Shepherd is there do ye as Sheep follow him for there are many Wolves Abstain from all noxious Plants which the Son of God never cultivated because they were not planted by his Father Be not deceived Brethren if any man be a follower of a Schismatick that man hath no inheritance in the Kingdom of God for where there is division and wrath in that place God hath no residence
illustrious by much additional Magnificence and Ceremony and was constantly celebrated till the days of f Ubi supr Evagrius But perhaps Mr. H. would not mention these things being loth to acknowledge that in those early days the Reliques of Martyrs were reverenced and the Anniversaries of their Death 's celebrated with Sermons and other Christian Offices to both which I 'll speak a few things that it may serve for a view of the ancient usages in that kind and vindication of S. Chrysostom whose Panegyrick I subjoin in which we find him copious on this subject XLI The Primitive Church did call the days of their Martyrdoms their birth days Natalitia hereby testifying that whereas they were born in sin but at their dissolution went into Abraham's bosom that they believed that the day of a mans departure is better than the day of his birth Eccles 7.1 and though they seem'd to be lost to all hopes in the eye of the world Ps 116.15 yet that the death of the righteous is precious in the sight of the Lord. So the Church of Smyrna in their g P. 28. Edit Usser apud Euseb lib. 4. c. 15. Gr. 14. Lat. Epistle concerning S. Polycarp's death to the rest of the Christian Churches We say they plac'd his bones in a fit Repository where we meeting together God will give us ability to solemnize the birth-day of this Martyr with exultations and rejoycings that we may both celebrate the memories of former Martyrs and prepare and incourage others for the future to the same undertakings So h Scorpiac p. 279. E. Edit Rhenan Tertullian says of S. Paul that he was born at Rome because there martyred and after him the name occurs frequently in a Comment in Job lib. 3. Origen b Epist 37. Cyprian and c Tom. 3. Homil. 70. S. Ambrose but above all in d Homil. 129. in S. Cyprian p. 117. Edit Raynaud Peter Chrysologus who gives the reason of the name Natalem ergo Sanctorum cum auditis c. The birth-day of a Martyr hath its denomination because the good man is born not a child of this world but a son of Heaven rescued from labour and temptations and introduc'd into the region of rest and quiet from a state of misery and torments to the delicacies of the superiour Palace which do not for a while please the senses and then disappear but are firm and everlasting And in this was the care of the Church in those dangerous times exerted in ordaining Notaries to record the acts of their Martyrs and this was all the Ecclesiastical History till Hegesippus which they enjoyed And I am not a little glad that I find this acknowledged by the learned and modest e De Re dempt lib. 1. cap. 13. Thes 1. p. 304. Eait Neostad 1597. Hierome Zanchy that the primitive Votaries used to meet at the Tombs of the Martyrs on the Anniversaries of their Sufferings where God wrought many miracles to testifie that those his Servants were in Heaven and to engage others to the like resolution and the Christians paid a veneration to their Reliques Which reverence f De Idol Rom. lib. 1. cap. 9. sect 1. Dr. Reynolds doth also acknowledge and allow and of which I shall more particularly treat viz. of the honour done to their dead bodies by God and men by Miracles wrought at their Sepulchres and veneration paid to their Remains although I heartily profess my detestation of the superstitious usages of the Romanists in this point and their many wheadling impositions on the deluded Laity being only willing to adjust a due respect to those Remains of the Primitive Martyrs but from my soul abhorring their adoration XLII Of Ignatius g To. 5. p. 504. S. Chrysostom is a sufficient Testimony how joyfully his bones were received in every City and how reverently entertained The h Epist ubi supr p. 28. Church of Smyrna collected the Bones of S. Polycarp of more value than precious stones and purer than Gold and laid them in a place convenient So the i â—aâ— 6. cap. 29. vide Concil Gangrens can 20. Apostolical Constitutions affirm that the Reliques of those who dwell with God are not without their due honour it was customary in the days of k Praepar Evang. lib. 13 cap. 7. Hist lib. 2. c. 25. Eusebius to meet at the Monuments where the sacred Tabernacles of the Apostles and other good men were fixt there to make their prayers to God and to honour those blest Souls Heretofore says a Tom. 1. Hom. in Ps 115. p 319. S. Basil the Priests and Nazarites were enjoined not to desile themselves by a dead body which if any did he should be unclean and must wash his cloaths but now he that toucheth the bones of a Martyr receives some holy influences from that grace that is in the body and b Ibid. p. 318. for this cause the Reliques of the Saints are honourable For c Ambr. To. 3. Scr. 92. de Nazar Celso p. 323. Edit Costert why should not the faithful pay respect to that body which even the Devils reverence which they punisht in its tortures but admire in its Sepulchre I honour therefore that body which Christ honoured when it was under the Sword and which shall reign with him in Heaven d Hom. in Theodor. Mart. Gregory Nyssen e Adv. Vigdant Epist 53. Hierom f Epist 10â— Augustine g De S. Laurent Prudentius and others are full to this purpose but I omit them being content to mention that h Vit. Aeâ—â—â— p. 65. Eunapius derides the Christians for honouring the salita capita the embalmed heads of those men who were as he spightfully and falsly objects put to death for their execrable Villanies meaning the Martyrs and it was one of the methods of cruelty in the i Theodoret. lib. 3. cap. 6. â—â—â—lostorg lib. 7. cap. 4. Nicepl 10. c. 3 Apostates time to prostitute the Reliques of the Martyrs But I will shut up my Quotations on the subject with the opinion of the Church of the fifth Century out of k C. 7. Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiae We believe that the Bodies of the Saints but especially the Reliques of the holy Martyrs are to be sincerely honour'd as the Members of Christ and that the Churches called by their Names are to be approached with piety and devotion as places dedicated to the Worship of God and whoso thinks otherwise is no Christian but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius For why should we stick to honour what God hath honoured by Miracles So the l Quaest 28. Author of the Questions under the name of Justin Martyr The Bodies of the sacred Martyrs are preservatives against the snares of Satan and cure Distempers that have baffled Physick And thus does m Greg. Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Julian p. 36. Edit
Magistrate as a Christian and an Enemy to their Gods all which the good Prelate slighted and told him that by the help of his God he question'd not but to confine the Daemon to what place he pleased which the Priest catching at desired him to restore his Familiar to his Temple S. Gregory cutting out a piece of the Leaf of a Book writ on it these words ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΣ ΤΟ ΣΑΤΑÎΑ ΕΙΣΕΛΘΕ Gregory to Satan Enter Which Paper when the Priest had laid on the Altar and used the accustomed Rites the Daemons enter as before On this and the sight of another Miracle done by this wonderful man he became a Christian S. Gregory's Deacon and afterward a Martyr b Nyss ubi supr p. 1004 1005. who also a little before his Death three several times by the same sign secured himself from the Assaults of the Devil and dispossest him of a Bath which he before had fatally haunted So when a Eudoxia Orat. 1. in Cypr. Mart. apud Phot. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 215. the junior Cyprian the Magician who lived under Diocletian sent the most furious of his Familiars to disturb the holy Justina who would not yield to his love they returning confest that they were shamed and overcome by the sign of the Cross XIV Thus the Son of God appeared to his own vindication and that not only when his Servants have been his Instruments but sometimes when his greatest Enemies b Sozom. l. 5. c. 2. Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Julian p. 29. the Church Historian affirming that on a certain time the Apostate Julian went down into one of those dreadful Vaults where the Novices were to be initiated and met with some of those dismal Spectres which the Priests by their Magick Art made appear there and being afraid and unwittingly signing himself as he was wont when a Christian with the sign of the Cross of a sudden all the Phantasmata vanish'd the sign prevail'd it dispers'd the Devils and cancell'd the fears of that desertor c Aug. de C. D. l. 22. c. 8. I could also reckon the Cures wrought by this means on Innocentia and others at Carthage Tiburtius his walking safely over hot burning Coals the Woman in the Baths at Gadara that thus preserv'd her chastity with many other Examples but I forbear to surfeit my Reader Aut hoc testium satis est aut nescio quid satis sit vobis XV. By these Methods came the Cross of Christ to exalt it self into the Banners of Armies and to get a place on the Crowns of Monarchs and so venerable a respect did the succeeding Emperours pay to this solemn Representation of the sacred passion that d L. 1. Tit. 8. Leg. unic Theodosius and Valentinian made it a Law That this Symbol should not be put to trifling and unworthy uses nor engraven or painted on the ground or on Pavements where it might be trod upon And Heaven appeared to reward this piety in e Paul Diacon addit 18. ad Eutropium Tiberius junior who walking one day and taking notice of a Cross under his Feet commanded it to be removed to a more honourable place which being done a vast Treasure was found hid under it and though Constantine the Great hath been censur'd by some for his too frequent use of this sign as an Amulet against all harms and his causing so many Crosses to be made yet it is enough to me that the God who was crucified so commanded him if we may believe his f Vit. Constant l. 1. c. 22. Historian who had it from that August Emperors own mouth showing it to him first in the Air with this Motto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conquer in this sign and afterwards in a Vision expresly enjoyning him to make such another for his Standard Royal and his reasons why he stampt this Figure on his Money an next it to his Pictures placed it in his Standards and on the Arms of his Souldiers were very just says a De Orig. Templ l. 2. c. 9 p. 47. Hospinian That to the Christians it might be a Badge of their Profession and to the Heathens an encouragement insensibly to draw them to desert their former Superstitions and to worship a crucified Saviour and this Example of his was quickly followed Ruffinus telling us that the Alexandrians who in the days of their Idolatrous Ignorance commonly had the picture of their God Serapis on their Walls and over their Porches and in their Windows as soon as they were converted blotted them all out and set up the Cross in their stead XVI And all this while no person dream'd that these Miracles were wrought only by this sign but by the power of him that dyed on the Cross as b Apud Greg. Nyss ubi supr the Devil himself was forc'd to confess much less durst any man worship it it is dis-owned by all the Apologists by c Apolog. c. 16. Tertullian d Octav. p. 97. Minutius Faelix e L. 6. cont Julian S. Cyril and others cruces nec colimus nec optamus we neither worship the Cross as our God says Minutius nor desire it as our Punishment and in Constantine's Banner this was the Motto says f L. 8. c. 2. Nicephorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus is the Conquerour and for the Church of England she hath unanswerably vindicated her self to all rational men in her g An. 1603. thirtieth Article and by her redoubted Champion the profound h Eccl. polit lib. 5. Sect. 65. Hooker XVII These were the ancient Triumphs of the holy Cross such as not only commenc'd since but long before the Incarnation of Jesus i Just M. Tertul. Cypr. Ambr. Hier. Chrys Naz. Athanas c. apud Montag appel Caes c. 28. the Fathers expresly asserting that Joshua routed the Amalekites rather by this sign than by his Sword as Abraham also vanquish'd the four Kings and it shall go on conquering and to conquer to be the Glory of good men and the Confusion of its Enemies for as k Tom. 2. Orat 1. in Resurr Christ p. 830. Gregory Nyssen in his Mystical Way of commenting hath it This is that löta in the Gospel which is seen with a stroak athwart it the figure of a Cross which is firmer than Heaven and Earth and the whole Creation for Heaven and Earth shall pass away and the fashion of the whole World shall fade but one jet our tittle of this Law shall not pass away for our Saviour chose that kind of Death that the Cross might supply the want of a Divine and the Figure it self be an Instructor to the more perspicuous to describe the Power and Triumphs of him who being nailed to it overcame all things l Chrys Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 880. this being the sign that in the days of our Fore-fathers opened Doors when they were shut quench'd the force of the most
this Opinion once had and that I cannot yet think it an Heresie though for my self I subscribe to the dictates of the Church in b De Dogm Eccles cap. 54 55. Gennadius In the divine promises we expect nothing earthy or transitory as the Militani do no renewal of Marriages as Cerinthus and Marcion dote no sensualities of Meat and Drink as Papias Irenaeus Tertullian and Lactantius do believe nor do we hope for a future reign of Christ for a thousand years after the Resurrection to commence here on Earth and that the Saints shall reign with him in pleasures as Nepos taught who first found out a distinction between the first Resurrection of the Just and the second of the Wicked and that in the interval between these two Resurrections of the dead That the Nations that know not God shall be kept in the flesh in the Corners of the Earth who after the thousand years reign of the Just on Earth by the instigation of the Devil shall fight against the Righteous and be overcome by a shower of Fire rain'd from God that shall fight for the Just by which the Wicked being slain shall have another Resurrection in incorruptible Bodies with the rest of the Sinners that before-hand dyed in their Iniquity to be confin'd to eternal Torments XXXVIII Nor is the Opinion of the Angels begetting Gyants on the Daughters of men without many a venerable Author to assert it whom we may find quoted by c Life of S. Justin sect 24. p. 157. Dr. Cave to whom among the Ancients d Ser. de Resurrect apud Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 480. Methodius adds Origen refuting his Assertion that the Angels after their Apostasie falling in love with flesh and were intermix'd with the Daughters of men and besides the Authority of the Translation of the Seventy which the Fathers not understanding Hebrew constantly used or had they the Sons of God signifie the Angels in that holy Language Job 1.6 where the Septuagint also renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angels of God what did much perswade to the Belief of this Opinion was the conceit they had entertain'd of the Authority of the Book of Enoch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning Guardian Angels where there is a formal story told of this matter which he that hath leasure and patience may read in a Pag. 244 245. Scaligers Notes on Eusebius an Apocryphal piece quoted by S. Jude and consequently thought afterward the genuine product of the Patriarch So says b Legat. pro Christian p. 31. Edit Stephani Athenagoras Know ye that we speak nothing without Witnesses but what is declared in the Prophetick Writings as also is affirm'd by c Apud Scalig p. 243. Zosimus Panopolites in his Book of Chymistry The Book it self being Antiently had in such estimation that it is not unreasonably conjectured by some a Thorndyke's Review ch 5. p. 15¾ learned men from its being quoted in the Epistles of S. Peter and S. Jude that it was primitively read in their Publick Assemblies and that S. Paul in 1 Cor. 11.10 affirming that the Woman ought to have power over her head because of the Angels alludes to that Legend as to a passage publickly known though not true as 1 Cor. 10.4 he seems to allude to another fabulous story among the Jews that the Water followed the Israelites in the Wilderness over Mountains and Rocks till they came to the Land of Canaan This doubtless wrought on d De habitu mulicbr Edit Rhen. p. 180. G. Tertullian who undertakes to prove the Book to be genuine and he on his Scholar S. Cyprian nor did it only make Proselytes among the Christians it captivated the two most learned Jews Philo and Josephus XXXIX The Martyr is next charg'd with affirming the salvability of the Heathens and attributing too much to the Writings of Plato and other Philosophers as to the last of which I declare that many truths look so lovely in the dress of that wise man that I cannot but admire the clearness of his reason and sublimeness of his Natural Divinity especially their consonancy to the Articles of our Christian Belief he acknowledging but one God confessing him infinitely wise and infinitely powerful that he made the World and governs it that the Soul is immortal and shall after death enjoy God and many other such excellent Notions above all plainly confessing a e Vide Aug. de C.D. sect 10. c. 23. Trinity or three Principles the Platonick Notion being adaequately consonant to the Description in the first Chapter of S. John's Gospel which a great f Apud eund c. 29. Philosopher of that School told Simplicianus Bishop of Millain deserv'd to be writ in Letters of Gold and which g Apud Euseb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 11. c. 19. Amelius confidently but falsely asserted That that Barbarian meaning S. John had stole out of the Books of his Master Plato and it was observable that most of the Academicks especially h Aug. Epist 56. Dioscoro the School of Plotinus either suffered themselves to be enslav'd to the love and practice of curious Arts and Magick or being truly in love with Wisdom became Christians as it happened to many of that Philosophick Family in S. Austin's time who i Id. de vera relig cap. 4. affirms that a little alteration of Opinion and the mode of speaking would easily make a Platonist a Christian And I must profess my self so much ravish'd with the morality of that Divine Man's Discourses that would my Religion permit it as it will not I could yet joyn my Devotion to the Petitions of k Poem p. 32. Edit Etonens Johannes Euchaitensis for the Salvation of Plato and Plutarch But I am apt to think that there is no need to pray for that which for ought I know to the contrary may be already accomplish'd XL. l Exercit. 1. n. 1. Isaac Casaubon and after him m Life of S. Justin sect 20 21 p. 154. c. Dr. Cave affirm that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Justin Martyr mentions signifies no more but every mans reason and natural notices of good and evil which are given us from him that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father and so they that live according to this Natural Light in some sense may be said to partake of Christ and to be Christians and so come within the reach of that Text That the name of Jesus is the only name under Heaven by which men can be saved Nor hath this Doctrine but gotten many an Assertor among the Moderns Erasmus Ludovicus Vives Zuinglius and Luther with many a learned Schoolman and others as they are cited by a De animab paganor l. 7. c. 6. Collius b Tom. 3. disp 1. qu. 2. p. 4. Gregory de Valentia and c Orthodox fid Explic. l. 3. resp ad
and Martyrdom Eusebius is silent but c Tom. 2. an 165. p. 159 160. Baronius out of the Acts of his Martyrdom gives us an exact account both of his Examination his being first scourged and then beheaded d Apolog. 1. p. 46. though himself seems to expect to be crucified saying That he look'd that some of his Enemies would accuse him and that he should dye his Master's death And he there particularly mentions Crescens that vile and profligate that debauch'd and ignorant Cynick who was the cause of his Martyrdom at what time whatever e Haeres 46. Epiphanius mistakes or rather his Transcriber he must needs be above 30 years of Age. So dyed this generous Apologist for the Laws and Religion of Jesus an 165. says Baronius but Dr. Cave in his Chronology makes it to have fallen out a year if not two sooner and the Church hath dedicated a Festival to his memory on the first of June in the Greek Church but in the Western on the 13th of April and may his name be had in everlasting remembrance THE LIFE OF S. Irenaeus BISHOP OF LYONS I. IN the Memoirs of this grave and learned Prelate I cannot find much that may justly be reprehended unless the Reader may be as I have been inclined to wish that Mr H. had spoken more fully to some passages of his life but withal I acknowledge my longings genuinely satisfied by the Reverend Dr. Cave who among other things accurately related acquaints us with Irenaeus's mission from the Churches of Lyons and Vien to Eleutherius and the Asian Churches not to the Asian Churches only in which journey he occasionally took Rome in his way as Mr. H. p. 53. avers out of a Vit. Irenaeiâ—nte opera Feuardentius nor to Rome only without any Letters at all to the Asian Churches as b Tom. 2. an 179. p. 246 247. Baronius would have it but to both to the Eastern Churches to compose the differences there rais'd by the followers of Montanus and to Pope Eleutherius not because it was the duty of that Oecumenical Pastor to decide all Controversies as the Cardinal would have it for himself was infected with the same heresie says c adv Praxeam c. I. Tertullian but to ratifie his authority with the Letters of that Patriarch and perhaps that he might without disturbance imploy his time and pains in the confutation of Florinus and Blastus two Presbyters of that Church but excommunicate whose falling into the heresie of Valentinus so grieved the good man that it occasion'd him to d Theod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. seci Florinus Blastus write his books against that heresie which we now have And that he went this Journey I am perswaded by e apud Dr. Caves life of Iren. p. 165. Eusebius and St. Hierome whatever the acut Valesius says to the contrary II. At his return from the East he was chosen successor to Pothinus who had been Martyred in his absence in a dangerous time that needed a man of spirit and courage of learning and piety the persecution raging violently without and the Church being as furiously assaulted within by Marcus one of the Scholars of Valentinus of whom whereas f Not. in Euseb p. 200. Scaliger wonders that neither Eusebius nor Hierome make any mention yet not only g lib. 1. cap. 8 9. Irenaeus himself and h Praescript adv haeres cap. 29. Tertullian names him with Heracleon and Colarbasus the upholders of the School of the Gnosticks but also i lib. 4. c. 10. Vide Theodoret. ubi supr in Marco Eusebius gives his Character and St. k Ep. 29. to 1 p. 198. comment in Isa 64. f. 112. D. Hierome avers that he was a Scholar of Valentinus and first brought that heresie into France into those parts of the Country through which the Rhoan and the Garonne run and thence passing the Pyrenée Mountains he went into Spain and that his chief employment was by Magick and other lustful privacies to creep into the houses of great men and debauch their Wives Women who are led about with divers desires always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth III. And here it may not be amiss to observe that the greatest enemies to Christianity have been Satans privadoes and admitted to some more familiar intimacies than ordinary with the Prince of Darkness and this will visibly appear if we inspect the Catalogues of the Primitive Hereticks or the lives of the Emperors who were the most active persecutors of the interests of Jesus whom we shall find acted by a more than humane impulse to uphold the reputation and grandeur of that tottering and ruinous Kingdom The first disturbers of the Churches peace and introducer of damnable Dogmata was Simon Magus whose name bespeaks what acquaintance he had with the Devil nor were his followers any more averse from his practices than his principles a Theodor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. sect Simonis haeresis their chief imployment lying in Charms Philtres Amulets and such magical and unlawful Mysteries his most active and acute Disciple was Menander a b Id ubi suprà Aug. de haeres c. 6. Tertull. praescript ad fin Euseb lib. 3. c. 20. Iren. l. 1. c. 21. Master also in this infernal Art after whom were Saturninus and Basilides his Scholars the first the more open villain and a plain asserter of his Masters heresies but the other a more close and busie Proctor for Satan being a great pretender to abstruse and undiscovered Mysteries but c Euseb l. 4. cap. 7. Theodoret. ubi supr sect Basil both equally enslaved by the Devil to become his Vassals Basilides especially being a great trader in Amulets which he gave his deluded Proselytes the form of which you may see in Baronius append ad To. 2. an 120. In these steps did d Gaius apud Euseh lib. 3. c. 22. Cerinthus walk and e Id. l. 4. c. 7. Iren. l. 1. c. 24. Carpocrates who blasted Religion with his venomous breath had an assistant Daemon and gloried that he kept those spirits in subjection whose son f Theod. ubi supr sect Carpocrat Epiphanes and the rest of his followers grew dextrous in those instances of their skill IV. Thus the first family of the Gnosticks grew up and became strong and formidable till it was supplanted or rather engrossed by the Valentinians g Theod lib. 1. sect Valentinus Valentinus deriving his heresie from Simon Magus and Menander and of whom we may judge what his course of life was whose instructors were Magicians and Scholars of the same trade such as were Marcus of whom hereafter and Heracleon who taught his Disciples Charms wrapt up in Hebrew and other obsolete words h Aug. de haeresib c. 16. and how to anoint their dead with oyl balsom and water and a set form of invocation From this Valentinus the Ophitae deriv'd
the hand of Heaven appear'd signally in it if we may believe a Ibid. c. 13. Socrates who tells us that it was reported that at the parting of these two famous Prelates at Constantinople Epiphanius told S. Chrysostome that he hop'd he should never die a Bishop to which the Patriarch retorts that he as firmly hop'd that Epiphanius should never return home in safety and both fell out true Epiphanius dying on Ship-board before he reach'd Cyprus and S. Chrysostome a little while after in banishment But this was a very irregular method of finding out and countenancing Orthodoxy and wherein they might have followed a better pattern of two men as famous as any in that Century in a similar question viz. S. Athanasius and S. Basil who differ'd about the writings of Dionysius of Alexandria the first asserting them to be Orthodox the last that there was something of Arianisme couched in them yet neither denounc'd the other Heretick but amidst their different sentiments maintain'd an amicable correspondence XV. Such was the harsh fate of this admirable man who was not only forc'd to experiment the envy of the world while alive but was hindred taking refuge in the grave which is the sanctuary of the miserable excommunicate while alive and as if that were not enough excommunicate after his death too and that not by the hot and irrational zeal of a few private persons but by the mouth of a b Com. C. P. general 5. anathem 11. General Council and rank'd in the same Classe with Arius Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches and other most infamous Hereticks The custome I cannot dislike but heartily wish that this learned and pious man lay not under such severe censures For though it seems uncouth to punish any man when he is gone out of the World and hath answered God for his Opinions yet there was great reason that the Church should so proceed in the case for how else in truth could the antient Hereticks have been expos'd who liv'd before the age of General Councils and when few or no Provincial ones could be had and how should the Church curse a Heretick till she knew him to be so when as many times the wretch kept himself within the Catholick Communion under the Masque of his Hypocrisie and the Vizard was never taken off till after his death when by a severer scrutiny into his assertions and writings the Impostor was detected See Crackenthorp's Vigilius dormitans c. 6. Thus Domnus Patriarch of Antioch was punisht by the Council of Chalcedon Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia c. by the 5th General Council Honorius by the 6th and the 2d Nicene thus the Synod of Sardica condemn'd the revolters to Arianisme and the African Synod every Bishop who made a Heretick or Pagan his Executor and the Synod at Rome under Pope Martin the first execrated the memory of Sergius and Pyrrhus the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Dioscorus being chosen Pope Simonically was many years after his death for that contract excommunicate And according to the prescriptions of the Councils did particular Fathers act a Ep. 50. ad Bonifac. Comit. S. Austin declaring his resolutions to curse Cecilianus formerly the Arch-bishop of Carthage could he but be sure that the accusations laid to his charge by the Donatists were true b Id. l. 3. contr Crescon c. 35. And professing also his intentions to do so to whatever persons had in the time of Persecution deliver'd their Bibles to be burnt though dying in the Church-communion XVI Nor were the Fathers of the Church without a president and encouragement in the Imperial Laws c Cod. l. 2. Tit. 5. de haeret Manich leg 4. The Emperor Theodosius decreeing That after death an action might be lawfully commenc'd against a Manichee or a Donatist to render the memory of the Heretick infamous for if traytors though in their graves are yet branded in their posterity who are depriv'd of estate and honor though their Father dy'd unimpeach'd how much more reasonable is it that the same course should be held in matters of Religion says that august and glorious Prince And there is something of this nature retain'd in the Greek Church unto this day who give absolution to the dead that have been buried in the state of excommunication and this supposes they may be anathematiz'd too that you may bind as well as loose the dead for they are d Malanus Peloponnes in Histor Patriarch C. P. apud Crusii Turco-Graec l. 2. Sect. 32. passim perswaded that the body of a man who dies out of the Ecclesiastical communion cannot turn to ashes as long as it lies under the Churches curse but continues hard and swoln and of a dismal black and affrighting colour but if many years after the Bishop or any by his authority go to the grave open it and solemnly pronounce the prayer of absolution in a small space the body returns to its Primitive dust And the action it self abating the circumstances hath its warrant in the Council of Chalcedon which absolv'd and Canoniz'd a Martyr Flavianus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been Excommunicate and murdered by the Faction of Dioscorus in the Pseudo-Ephesine Synod Such was the Power and Practice of the Primitive Church and such doubtless is the Jurisdiction of the present but as I could wish it had been antiently superseded in the case of Origen so I would have the weapon drawn and us'd very sparingly at all times for if from broken sentences and the ill interpretation of an honest and well-meant but mistaken and ill-worded discourse a man must after his dissolution when he cannot answer for himself be censur'd and damn'd few or none of the most Eminent and stout Defenders of the Church shall be out of the reach of this lash XVII Nevertheless the greatest lovers of the name of Origen cannot but acknowledge that he had his defects his great converse with the discourses of the Philosophers leaving a certain tincture in his mind which became visible in his writings there being a near relation between the Opinions of the Academy and the School of Christ a Baren Tom. 2. an 234. p. 4â—3 Platonism being the ready way to the belief of the Name of Jesus and I could wish we had that Copy of his works which was once b Apud eund an 256. p. 553. Cassiodores in which that wise man had mark'd all the dangerous passages that the Reader might with caution proceed it being a prudent course to allay the extravagancy of that esteem and love which some men had for his name ingaging them to chuse c Vinc-Lirinens common c. 23. rather to err with Origen than imbrace the truth with others the most material of his Errours d L. 2. Apolog adv Ruffin p. 220. Ed. Erasm S. Hierome hath summ'd up in these words That the Son of God is a Creature the Holy Ghost a Servant that there are innumerable Worlds that
been confined but no otherwise punish'd A Confessor therefore and a Martyr were in those days reciprocal terms in the account of all men but the Confessors themselves who were so modest as to disown the name The c Apud Euseb lib. 5. cap. 2. Churches of Lyons and Vien writing to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia that their sufferers who had been thrown to the wild beasts and were afterward rescued would not stile themselves nor suffer others to call them Martyrs but if any one either personally or by Letter had given them that appellation would severely reprehend him confessing that Christ who is the first-born from the dead and the giver of eternal life was the only d 1 Tim. 6.13 faithful and true Martyr Only Lucian and the rest of the pragmatical Confessors so called themselves in their Rescript to e Inter 〈◊〉 Cypr. 17. p. 26. S. Cyprian Optamus te cum sanctis martyribus pacem habere XXVII In this sense was Origen a Martyr not unto death but of the first Classe of Confessors his time being divided between his prodigious industry in his Studies his beloved poverty and his sufferings at the hands of Demetrius and his party besides his daily expectation of a fatal sentence from the inraged Gentiles made his whole life a continued martyrdome which God put a period to an Chr. 256. and of his age the 69th which cannot possibly comport with the reign of Gallus and Volusianus as Photius Baronius and Mr. H. assert but must be referred to the first of Valerian when reckoning him to be 17 years old at the death of his Father an 10. Severi his 69 years are compleated f Raleigh's Hist of the world lib. 2. cap. 7. sect 3. He lies buryed at Tyre where he dyed in the Cathedral Church in a glorious Sepulchre curiously adorn'd with Marble pillars cover'd with gold and precious stones †3. p. 339. by whom the famous Emperor Frederick Barbarossa being drowned near Iconium lies interred The Panegyrick of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus spoken to Origen at Caesarea Palaestinae when he was returning home Inter opera Greg. Thaumaturgi p. 48. Edit Gerh. Vossii Paris 1622. ' SIlence is a comely quality in all men generally but especially in me at this time who whether I will or no am compell'd to hold my peace being conscious to my self of my rudeness and unacquaintedness with the elegancies of Speech which requires great choice of pertinent expressions both in composition and pronunciation and perchance nature never design'd me for so smooth and pleasing an undertaking * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. fit only for those that are Native Greciuns nor is it less than eight years since I either spake or writ any Oration or heard any other either declaiming privately or in publick making Panegyricks except only these admirable men that have fallen in love with sacred Philosophy who are less sollicitous about the Cadencies of word and Decencies of Elocution primarily studying to search out and then to express things as they are not that they disdain eloquence for they are very willing to cloath their accurate and generous notions in beautiful and veracious Language but that it is not so easie at the same time to express their Divine and holy sentiments in proper terms and the finer dress of the Orators and to comprehend within the narrow mind of one man two such opposite qualifications being the distinct employments of several persons for silence and thoughtfulness is a great promoter of the understanding and invention but few men speak well except those that constantly use it and beside all this my other studies have defaced any such impressions that the Greek Tongue had made in my mind on which the study of the Roman Laws by which the World is governed hath imposed which neither were digested nor can be understood without much industry which in themselves are full of wisdom and piety and a various and admirable composure and in a word dress'd in a most rich and pure stile but being translated into Latine though the Language be venerable and lofty and suited to the grandeur of that Majestick Empire they prove if I may speak my thoughts troublesom and difficult to me for whereas our words are nothing else but representations of the passions of our souls we confess it is as easie for skill'd Orators as for excellent Limners well furnish'd in point of art and diversity of colours to draw the pretty blushes and various shapes and intermixt beauties of flowers in a Tablet but for my self who am poor and unfurnish'd of those several boxes of paint as having either never enjoyed or rejected them it sufficeth me to delineate my naked thoughts in those words that first come to hand in usual and vulgar expressions as he that draws with a coal expressing my sentiments if not in gaudy and flourishing terms yet doing my best as in such a rude Essay voluntarily rejecting whatever pompous and finer ways of speaking do offer themselves unto me But there is a third reason yet that more enclines me to silence and that is the excellency of my subject of which I was always earnest and willing to treat but now am afraid and full of hesitation for I have designed to accost you with a discourse concerning a great Person who as to outward view is a man but to those that can see the greatness of his soul and his sublime accomplishments he appears more than humane endued with Divine Excellencies ' I will not detain your expectations with a rehearsal of his Parentage and Education of his strong habit of body and comeliness for these are the praises of Children which are scatter'd at randome with and without desert for to speak cautiously of things that are transitory and vain and by many ways and very soon and easily are destroyed as if they were Venerable and worth our pursuit seems to me a dull and empty undertaking it was never my design to speak of such trifling and unsatisfactory Toys though if I should I need not fear or blush as if I should degrade my Subject but whereas I have adventured to treat of greater things and to mention that in him which is most transcendent and nearest akin to the Divinity which though shut up in a mortal and visible body earnestly strives to be like God and to praise my Saviour for blessing me with the acquaintance of this Sage man beyond every other persons expectations and my own especially who ne're imagin'd nor could ever have hop't such happiness it is no wonder if being conscious to my self of my weak and mean parts that I am at a loss and full of tremblings and had rather hold my peace this course did seem most safe to me lest under the pretence of gratitude I by a hasty easiness talking light and common things of so Venerable and sacred a Subject might not only fall short of truth but injure its
them to have been two distinct persons for as to the fancy of a Not. in Naz. Orat. 18. tom 2. p. 687. Billius that there were two Cyprians both born at Carthage and both Bishops there and that the latter of them spending much time at Antioch and there growing famous was thence called Antiochenus as Pomponius though born at Rome was called Atticus for a like reason it savours of more love to the Fathers credit which he is willing to vindicate than to reason or the truth of History But this hath been sufficiently cleared by a Martyâ—olog Sept. 14. Sept. 26. Baronius b Vit. Cypr. ante opera Pamelius c Life of S. Cypr. sect 1. p. 252 253. Dr. Cave and others and before them all by the most accurate Critick d Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 215 216 Photius who gives us an account of the life of the Martyr of Antioch out of the Empress Eudoxia's three Oratitions on him not intermixing the smallest memoire relating to our Primate of Carthage though I must dissent from him in his making him Arch-bishop of Antioch for his acts in Latine make him no more than a Deacon nor is there any such name to be found among the Patriarchs of that See in the Catalogue of Nicephorus nor yet of Anthimus his predecessor nor does the Church History mention any other Bishop of that name under Dioclesian but e Euseb lib. 8. cap. 6. Anthimus Bishop of Nicomedia who was then beheaded while that cruel persecutor resided in the City of his Episcopal charge and when probably the junior Cyprian also was adorn'd with the same Crown II. The visible instrument of the conversion of this great man was Caecilius a Presbyter of Carthage the same as I conjecture with him of that name who bears a part in the Dialogue of Minutius Foelix his name and employ his Country and Religion conspiring to make good the conjecture for that he was no Roman is plain by the narration which he gives of himself f Pag. 3. Ed. Oxon. 1627. that he left his Country and Relations to see Minutius at Rome and g Pag. 6. for that purpose took a voyage which by the strongest probability must have been from Africk for Octavius not only calls Serapis and Osiris his Deities h Pag. 64. tui Serapidis sive Osiridis i.e. peculiar to that part of the World where he was born but Fronto by the name of i Pag. 100. tuus Fronto whom Caecilius himself stiles k Pag. 26. Cirtensis noster whereas it is well known that Cirta was a City of Numidia on the Mediterranean the Metropolis of the Country and the seat Royal of Massinissa Colonia Cirta Sitianorum cognomine as all the old Historians and Cosmographers stile it which say some is Constantina the Metropolis of Bugia others Teddeles the Metropolis of the Kingdom of Telensin They were therefore both of them Africans and both Christians for Caecilius in the end of that dialogue was a Convert both Marryed a Minut. p. 3. Caecilius leaving his Wife and infant-children behind him when he came to Rome and b Pont. vit Cypr. S. Cyprian on the death of his Converter being made a Guardian for his Family both of the same profession Rhetorick and it is probable that S. Cyprian succeeded him in his School at Carthage as says c Tom. 2. an 250. p. 440. Baronius who also would have him to be the same Caecilius who was made a Tutor to Diadumenus son to the Emperor Macrinus This was the good man whom providence thought fit to commission for the conquest of Cyprian he was the Jonah who preach'd repentance to him and enclined him to embrace the Laws of Jesus by the same methods as the Prophet made Proselytes among the Ninivites not that when Cyprian heard him Caecilius was preaching on that Prophecy as Mr. H. p. 250. avers which S. Hieroms words without some straining will not bear but that an extraordinary influence such as the Sermon of Jonah at Ninive is requisite to the conversion of the great and wise men of the World since the Apostle says not many wise not many mighty are called III. At his advancement to the See of Carthage of which he was the most famous d Conc. C. P. in Trull can 2. Arch-bishop I suppose Mr. H. need not as he does p. 251. doubt whether he succeeded Donatus Agrippinus or some other For e Epist 55. S. Cyprian himself mentions Donatus as his immediate Predecessor as Fabianus preceded Cornelius And whereas f De bapt contra Donat lib 2. cap. 7 8 9 S. Austin frequently calls Agrippinus his Predecessor he intends it only of one who sate in that Episcopal throne before him without relation to him who sate last there And if Agrippinus were the first in the African Churches who asserted the Doctrine of re-baptization as both S. Austin and S. Cyprian intimate then he must have been antienter than Tertullian especially if that story be true that that most learned Father was sowr'd into Montanisme by missing the Bishoprick of Carthage on the death of Agrippinus g Ep. 73. p. 105. S. Cyprian glorying that many years were past since the Prelates under Agrippinus determined this point which would hardly amount to so long a space if S. Cyprian immediately succeeded him IV. Who the Libellatici were in the Primitive Church hath been a disputable question Baronius and after him Mr. H. p. 255. appropriating the term to such as privately denying the name of Christ were by virtue of a Libel of security exempted from publick sacrificing and the rage of persecution but will by no means allow the title to be applicable to those that did neither sacrifice nor anathematize their Saviour but only paid a great sum to be exempted from the penalty of the Law whereas a Ep. 52. p. 58. de laps p. 145. S. Cyprian peculiarly calls these the Libellati but this mistake proceeds from not distinguishing the b Vid. Dr. Cave's Prim. Chr. part 3. c. 5. several sorts of Libellatici the last sort of which were those who in nothing complyed with the Heathen rites only paid a great sum to the greedy Magistrate and by that means smooth'd the ruggedness of his temper and took off the edge of his fury the man being Non tam crimine quà m errore deceptus says this Father not so much guilty of a crime as a mistake V. These in some Churches were injoyned penance as in the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's time but at other times in the same and other Churches were not only allowed but advised to such a purchase of their freedom and security c Epist Canonic Can. 12. p. 25. Ed. Paris 1622. S. Peter the Patriarch of Alexandria and a Martyr under Dioclesian in his discourse of penance freeing the act from irregularity That it was no sin to sacrifice their money to the
of them I shall leave my Reader to judge when I have given him the judgment of the sagacious a Notes on Sir Tho. Ridley's View of the Civil and Eccl. Laws part 3. ch 2. sect 4. p. 218 219. Mr. Gregory Some say that these Canons are supposititious I only know that they may be so not that they are and however it may be dull to entertain any thing that shall be obtruded yet the rejection of ancient Authors and Councils should be warily concluded upon Thus much notwithstanding is recorded that by reason of the Arian incendiaries a compleat number of the Canons of that Council was so rarely found that Athanasius himself who was present at the Synod was forc'd to send into these parts to the Bishop of Rome that then was to desire from him a perfect Copy because in the Eastern world a few or none had escapt the fire of the Arians This is in the Epistles supposed to have past between Pope Mark and Athanasius and if these be true the Canons are the less to be suspected The reasons against which Epistles are for the most part Chronological which are subject to much hazard XXXIV The Homily de passione imaginis Christi in Beryto is doubtless counterfeit the dissertation being too ridiculous to be fathered on so wise a man but notwithstanding this I believe it antienter than the second Nicene Council where it was solemnly produc'd by Peter Bishop of Nicomedia as a true venerable Relation whose Author was Athanasius to which more solemn publication of the story I conjecture the date of some Manuscripts hath Relation The Sermon on our Saviours passion is of the Nature of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the seventh Tome of S. Chrysostom will furnish so great a number being the Collections of some laborious man out of the writings of such a Father according to the Custom of the middle Ages which delighted much in Epitomes but that the seven additional Homilies set out by Holstenius should be spurious only because they lay so long dormant is a strange way of arguing while himself confesses that some of them are approved by Photius a much better Critick than any of this last Age and all found in three several Libraries at Oxford Paris and Rome And if their lying so long dormant shall disenfranchize them what might we think of the Epistle of S. Clemens to the Corinthians which was wisht for in vain in the Western World till the Patriarch of Alexandria sent it to King Charles or the many pieces of several other Worthies of the Church which never saw light till the last Editions of their Works But I am weary of following him in his dry jejune and borrowed Criticisms wherein Erasmus and Rivet Scultetus Cook and Perkins are his Oracles XXXV That the words which Athanasius uses were only known to the Age wherein he lived and neither before nor after is an inconsiderate assertion though positively affirm'd p. 375. since a Ep. ad African the Patriarch himself quotes his Predecessor Dionysius and Dionysius of Rome with Theognostus and others among those who called our blest Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consubstantial with his Father and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the term is frequent in Justin Martyr and Athenagoras and is as old as S. John's Gospel and should we grant that these words were first used which Relation to the Arian Controversies yet no man can be so mad to be perswaded they were never so used after his time XXXVI Whether the Creed that goes under the name of Athanasius be his or no I shall not dispute but must profess that Mr. H's argument p. 376. is not convictive for what S. Gregory Naz. means is no other but that Epistle sent to the Emper or Jovianus mentioned p. 359. containing the Orthodox Doctrine in opposition to the new Creed of the Arians which is extant in the first tome of S. Athanasius's works and in b Li. 4. c. 3. Theodoret's History And now could I heartily wish for a man skill'd in unriddling mysteries to instruct me in the sense of that Translation p. 384. where undertaking to assert the peoples power in Electing a Bishop he says The people being gathered together with the Holy Ghost who constitute a Bishop publickly and in the presence of the Clergy craving a Bishop Of which words I profess my incapacity to make sense or if any be to be supposed it implies that the people and the holy Ghost did joyn suffrages and both chuse a Bishop which seems to me a very strange medley and the Clergy at the same time sat by as unconcern'd spectators XXXVII But this is not the first time that such false assertions have been impos'd on the Fathers while their most Orthodox Sentiments have been represented under the Notion of Errors Thus as to the Article of the local descent Mr. H. is not content p. 296. to tell us that it is a novel addition to the Creed and that it signifies no more than that Christ was buryed which how absurd it is that in so short a Summary there should be two Articles the same and the later that should explain the former infinitely more obscure let all rational men judge but p. 386. objects it against Athanasius that he affirms the local descent of Christ into Hell which c Ep. 99. ad Euod S. Austin says none but an Infidel d Etymolog l. 8. c. 5. S. Isidore of Sevil none but an Heretick will deny Some by this Article would understand Christ's suffering Hellish pains in his foul during his Agony and Dereliction on the Cross this is the Calvinists beloved Dogma and to say no more of it borders too near on blasphemy to be defended Others that he continued 3 days in the state of the dead his soul during that space being separated from his body till the time of his resurrection this Opinion the Arch-bishop of Armagh first introduc'd into the World and it hath since found many an eminent Patron there being nothing in it says Dr. Hammond against the Creeds of ours or the antient Church XXXVIII But the received opinion of the Antients is that Christ in the space between his death and resurrection went down locally into the Hell of the damned not to suffer any thing there for this Article is reckoned by all as the first of those in the Creed that relate to his exaltation but to triumph over Satan in his own territories and to manifest his conquests to the powers of darkness that Satan might see that he whom he tempted was the true Messiah to fasten condemnation to those faln Angels by a decretory sentence personally pass'd on them and to receive the homage which he extorted from them that the wicked might look on that Saviour whom they despised and be convinc'd that their torments were the just punishment of their infidelity and that that King of terrors might see that he had no
Baptism This also was the Opinion of Origen S. Basil Orig. hom 5. in Josh to 1. fol. 154. L. ed. Merlin Basil exhort ad Baptis init Naz. tom 1. Orat. 40. p. 658. Athan. tom 2. quaest 38. ad Antioch p. 345. Gregory Nazianzen and others as well as of Athanasius So that I cannot but wonder at this extravagant Censure but all this stir about this dangerous Opinion arises at last such is Mr. H's unhappiness from a mistake of Scultetus out of whom this whole discourse of this Father's failings is transcribed for e Synthes doct Athanas c. 17. p. 157. he makes this to be our Patriarch's Errour not that the Sacraments of the old Testament were Types of the Sacraments of the new but that Circumcision and the Sabbath c. did only typifie but not confer grace contrary to that of the Apostle Rom. 4.11 who calls Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Abraham's Faith XLII That Virginity is an Example of Angelical Purity is plain from that of S. Matthew 22.30 that the Saints shall be like the Angels and that explain'd by they shall neither marry nor be given in Marriage nor was it amiss to say that they are marryed to Christ who disengage themselves from the World the more readily to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and such admirable chastity cannot fail of getting it self veneration and respect every where and this may serve to apologize for the excessive praises of Virginity to which the Ancients every where give an extraordinary Eulogy XLIII The death of this great man happened not an Chr. 371. as Mr. H. wrongly quotes Baronius but an 372. Maii. 2. p. 297. annal to 4. an 372. pag. 33½ as the Cardinal both in his Martyrology and Annals doth fix it and his Festival was celebrated in both Churches on the second of May but in the Oriental Churches he had two Holy-days the last on the 18th of January a Festival dedicated to him and his Successor S. Cyril it being the day as Baronius conjectures of his Consecration to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and in the same celebrated Historian you may find that his Body was afterward brought into Europe and deposited at Venice he is styled in the Coptick Kalendar publish'd by a De Spâ—â—drio l. 3. c. 25. p. 398. Mr. Selden Athanasius the Apostle by b Chruâ—â—p 314. cais Scalig. Nicephorus the Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasius the Martyr and to this day by all the Greeks Athanasius the great XLIV Of this name were many famous men Prelates of the Church c Basâ—â— 53. 67. Soâ—on l. 6. c. 12. Philostorg l. 5. tem 1. one a Bishop of Ancyra a Contemporary with our Patriarch the d Phâ—â—esiorg l. 3. tom 15. p. 50. second an Arian of the same Age Bishop of Anazarbum in Cilicia a e Menolog Cr. Aâ—g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 third Bishop of Tarsus a Martyr under the Emperour Valerian a f Evâ—gr hist lib. 3. c. 23. fourth this eminent Confessor's Successor in his own See circ an 490. whose immediate Predecessor was Peter Mongus but he was a Heretick and a great Patron of the Acephali There were also many others of the name whom I purposely omit And having thus tyred my Reader I leave him to refresh himself with the Panegyrick of the most Eloquent S. Gregory of Nazianzum On the great Athanasius Arch-Bishop of Alexandria Greg. Naz. Tom. 1. Orat. 21. p. 373. c. 'TO praise Athanasius is to make a Panegyrick on Virtue for when I name that admirable man it is the same as if I celebrated Virtue while a Constellation of those best qualities did shine in him or to speak more truly do still exert their Lustre for all they that have lived according to the Laws of God do still live to God although they have left this evil World For which reason God is called the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob not the God of the dead but of the living and when I write an Encomium of Virtue I shall magnifie God whose Donative to the Sons of men Virtue is that by that congenial light men may be led to the knowledge and embracing of himself For whereas the largesses of Heaven are many and eminent and beyond description the greatest and most merciful of his Favours are the Inclinations which he works in us towards himself and the Familiarity he blesseth us with For what the Sun is to sensible Beings that is God to rational Creatures the one sheds his Rays on the visible the other illustrates the invisible world the one illuminates the eyes of the body that it may see Heaven the other the Opticks of the mind that it may contemplate God And as the Sun whereas it confers on the eyes and all things visible powers that the one may see the other be seen while it self is the most beautiful and accomplish'd of visible Objects so God as he gives power to understand and a possibility of being comprehended is himself still the chiefest and most perfect of Intellectual Beings in whom all our desires terminate and above whom they cannot soare for neither can the most Philosophick aspiring and curious Intellect aim at any thing more sublime than God for he is the choicest of admirable Beings whom when men enjoy their Speculations are at their height for that man that breaks through his earthly Prison by the assistance of reason and contemplation and dispelling all carnal Clouds and Mists can converse with God and be united to the most illustrious light as much as humane frailty is capable of that man is happy both in that he can ascend to that glorious place and also there enjoy that Union with the Divine Nature which true Philosophy procures and a mind exalted above this inferiour world to the contemplation of the Unity of the Trinity But he whose Soul is debas'd by its Society with the Body and is yet immers'd in Clay so that it cannot look upon the Beauties of Truth nor exalt it self above earthly things though its Original were from Heaven and its Native tendencies thither that man is in my esteem blind and miserable though blest with the affluence of Worldly Felicities and so much the more wretched in that he is mock'd by his prosperity and deluded into the Opinion that there can be any thing good besides the chiefest and truest good gathering evil Fruit of an evil Sentiment to be confined to darkness to feel him as a consuming Fire whom he would not entertain as a comfortable light This was the study only of a few of the former Ages and the present saeculum for there are few Servants of God though all are his Creatures this wisdom being courted by a small company of Law-givers and Captains Priests Doctors and the rest of the Society of Spiritual persons and among them by this venerable Patriarch whom we now applaud And who were those brave Souls that
and render it to the eyes of all men exquisitely accomplish'd but this was one of the meanest of his admirable Atchievements for if he exposed himself to actual dangers for the sake of the truth what wonder was it that he should vindicate it in his writings But I will add one thing to my former Relation which I above all things revere in him and which I cannot without injuring you pass by at this time especially which is a time of Schisms and Contentions for this action of his ought to be an instruction to us that now are alive if we seriously weigh it for as when one thrusts his hand into the water he not only separates between the water that is left but between what he grasps in his hands and runs between his fingers So we divide not only from all impiety but from the eminently godly not in small and impertinent and contemptible opinions for this were more tolerable but in words that tend to one and the same sense for whereas we piously assert one essence and three hypostases the one describing the nature of the Godhead the other the properties of the Trinity as also do the Italians only by reason of the barrenness of their language not able to distinguish the hypostasis from the essence lest they might seem to admit three substances they substitute in the name of three hypostases three persons what happened something very ridiculous or rather lamentable This little difference in words made a noise as if there had been difference in opinion hence the Heresie of Sabellius took its rise because of the distinction of the three persons and Arianisme because of the three hypostases both being the rude off-spring of a pertinacious love of contention And what succeeded this small distinction being establish'd and grating on some mens minds and what made it distasteful was a love of quarelling the ends of the earth were in danger to be ruin'd by a few syllables which when this bless'd Saint this true man of God and great guide of souls both saw and heard he could not endure to slight and neglect so absurd and unreasonable a distinction but applyed a remedy to the distemper and how did he make his application having convened both parties with all meekness and humility and accurately weighed the intention of the words after he found them agreeing in the things themselves and not in the least differing in matters of doctrine allowing them the variety of names he tyed them to unity of sentiments this was a more advantagious act of charity to the Church than all his other daily labours and discourses which all men celebrate in which there may be intermixt some love of applause and for that reason some innovation made in the Faith This was more honorable than all his watchings and humicubations the benefits of which are confined to the particular practisers of those virtues nay it is nothing inferior to his applauded flights and exiles for after his sufferings he pursued those things for which he chose to undertake such calamities and this also was his design on others praising some moderately correcting others useing the spur to some dull tempers and the reins to other hot spirits infinitely careful that the offenders might repent and those that were innocent might be kept from falling in his conversation master of the greatest simplicity in his government of the greatest variety of skill wise in his discourses but much wiser in his intellect to the mean capacities he stoop'd himself to the more acute his notions and words were more sublime * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lover of strangers and advocate for the oppressed and a defender from danger he was in truth all those things which the Heathens parcel out among their Gods I will call him * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Patron of Marriage and the Friend of Virgins the Peace-maker and Reconciler and the guide to those who are going out of this life How many brave characters and qualities does the virtue of this Man afford me should I describe all when he had so lived was so instructed and so carefully had disciplined others that his life and demeanor was an exact pattern how a Bishop should have his conversation and his opinions the rule of Orthodoxy what reward did he reap of this piety for neither is this negligently to be past by he dies in a good old age and is gathered to his Fathers the Patriarchs and Prophets and Martyrs that combated for the truth and that I may give him a short Epitaph his Exit out of the World was more honorable and decorous than his return into his City from Banishment his Death was attended with an Universal Mourning and the thoughts that all men entertain'd themselves with of his worth out-went all that may be seen But thou O beloved and happy Man who among thy many other virtues didst exquisitely understand the seasons and measures of Speech and Silence do thou here put a period to my Oration which though it fall short of the truth and thy worth is yet proportionable to my weak abilities and look down propitiously on us from above and guide this people that are perfect adorers of the perfect Trinity which is contemplated and worship'd in the Father Son and holy Spirit protect me and help feed my Flock if peaceable and serene days attend me but if War and confusion reduce and assume me to a station with thy self and those that are like thee though it be no ordinary thing that I beg for the sake of Christ our Lord to whom be all glory honor and dominion for ever Amen THE LIFE OF S. Hilary OF POICTIERS I. IT is Mr. H.'s usual unhappiness in this his View to contradict himself while with more diligence than judgment he hath collected whatever scattered Memoires had relation to his subject without that severe examination that became an Historian whether all the particulars were reconcileable to the laws of time and truth Of this we have a pregnant instance in § 1. p. 396. where out of a Chronic. part 2 c. 3. p. 54. Antoninus we are entertain'd with a pleasant story of an Imaginary Council at Rome under a Pope Leo that never was which he that list may read at large in that Historian Who having recited the particulars out of Vincentius his Speculum and Jacobus de Voragine acknowledges them to be dubious and are indeed no way reconcileable to truth unless we create an Antipope at that time called Leo or assert that Pope Liberius had two names whereof one was Leo both which are equally improbable for there is not a word to this purpose in the antient Church-Historians who are so copious in their accounts of the Arian Synods no not in Philostorgius their own Historian who not caring to falsifie the Records of the Catholick Church would certainly never have stifled so remarkable a transaction had there been but the least