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A59121 Remarques relating to the state of the church of the first centuries wherein are intersperst animadversions on J.H.'s View of antiquity. Seller, Abednego, 1646?-1705. 1680 (1680) Wing S2460; ESTC R27007 303,311 521

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〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. c. 7. The Jews were commanded by Moses says Philo to meet together in some convenient place where they might hear the Law of God read to them and expounded by the Priest or some of the Elders these places were afterwards called Synagogues and Proseuchae and for this end God divided Levi in Jacob and scattered him in Israel turning his Father's Curse into a Blessing that he might be instrumental to the instructing of the people and for this end also the wise-men of the great Consistory divided the Law into 54 Sections or Parascha's of which they ordered the four shortest to be read two at a time that so the whole might be read over once every year To this Custom did our blessed Saviour in his life conform himself for I never find him scrupling any innocent Rituals of the Jews and as it was their usage out of reverence to the Author of those holy Oracles both Priest and People b Nehem. 8.4 5. to stand up at the reading of them so when the sacred Jesus took into his hands the Book of the Prophet Isaiah c Luc. 4.16 20. he stood up read the Paragraph on which he intended to preach and sate not down until he had closed the Book and according to his example did the Apostles regulate themselves in Ecclesiastical Affairs not only introducing that very good Custom of standing up at the New Law the Gospel which was early practised in all Churches and by all men but by the d Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. Patriarch of Alexandria who only of all his Congregation of all his Patriarchate sate at the reciting of the Gospel but in ordering that in all Religious Assemblies there should first be read a e Origen Hom. 15. in Jos Portion out of the Law and with this they contented themselves before the writing of the New Testament their Homilies being only an explanation of Moses and the Prophets and a Confirmation of our Saviour's Divinity and Doctrine from thence f All. 26.28 saying no other thing than Moses and the Prophets foretold should come to pass but when the Gospels and Epistles were writ they then took order that some parts of the New Testament especially the History of our Saviours life should have a place in the Service that the Truth might answer the Types So g Hypotypos lib. 6. apud Euseb lib. 2. c. 14. Clemens Alexandrinus and Papias affirm that S. Peter decreed that the Gospel of S. Mark should be publickly read in the Christian Churches and h 1 Thess 5.27 S. Paul took care that his first Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read to all the Brethren XXI These Books of the holy Canon being collected into one Code during the Apostles residence on Earth the reading thereof continued in the Church after the dissolution of that Family of our Saviours own immediate constitution a Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Corinth p. 54. the employment devolving on the first-fruits of the converted City or Country where the Apostles preach'd whom they left to raise a Superstructure on the Foundation which they had layd and to cultivate what their industry had planted So b Apel. 2. p. 98. vi●e Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. p. 502. Tert. Apolog c. 39. S. Justin describes the state of their Christian Conventions All the people that dwelt in the City or adjacent Country met together in one Assembly on the Sunday and then the Commentaries of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets are read and when the Reader a Church Officer very early instituted in the Church for this purpose hath done then the Bishop who is the President of the Society makes an Oration to encourage and exhort his Auditory to the Love Imitation and Practice of those blest Precepts And when c De anima cap. 9. Tertullian undertakes to enumerate the Solennia Dominica as he calls them the solemn Offices of that Festival he mentions the reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Sermon and holy discourses and then the offering up their prayers to God Which Expositions on holy Writ as a part of the service of the Lords day grounded on the custom of the Jews and the practice of the Apostles d Act. 20.7 S. Paul inures himself to as a necessary Method of instructing his Neighbours in the Laws of Christian Obedience and a great incentive and preparative to Devotion and the Eucharist in which the Apostles had this advantage of their Successors that they could express themselves both in their Supplications and Sermons without premeditation e 1 Cor. 14.30 being assisted by a peculiar afflatus of the Spirit of God the Spirit of Prayer and Prophecy whereas their Successors wanting those miraculous assistances took on them to inform their Flocks according to the several measures of their Learning and Industry only those who were well furnished with the Arts of demonstration and holy perswasives frequently spake ex tempore to the Congregation as we may see in many of the Homilies of the ancient Fathers S. Chrysostom especially And that we may make a more regular proceeding in this disquisition I shall speak to the time when and how often these Sermons were made the places where the persons who undertook this tremendous employment and the manner how it was performed and by this course we may take a brief view of the ancient practices in this case XXII We take it for granted that th● Lords day was not without its share in thi● Honour and that it was lookt on as a necessary part of the duty of every Prelate personally then to teach his people the Rules of Peace and Purity It was the practice of the Apostles Act. 20.7 and from them continued in the Church a Chrys To. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. p. 31. Aug. Confess lib. 6. c. 3. as a Law not to be dispens'd with and besides this solemn duty of the Sunday in some Churches they had constant Sermons every Wednesday and Fryday in the Week particularly at b Socrat. Hist lib. 5. c. 21. Alexandria where by an ancient custom all the offices of the Lords day were then performed except the celebration of the Eucharist and that probably was omitted because those were fasting-days stationum semi-jejunia as Tertullian calls them in c Id. Ibid. Cappadocia and Cyprus and probably in all other Countries where the Saturday was not a Fasting-day they had Sermons on the Sabbath-day as well as on the Sunday nay at Alexandria d Hom. 9. in Isai apud Centur. 2. c. 6. Origen seems to imply that they had Sermons every day as the Centurists understand him and this e De bono pudicit vide Holdsworth part 1. Lect. 4. p. 30. St. Cyprian terms the Bishops daily imployment nor was this Custom only used in the Southern Churches but in the Churches of the East too St. f Homil. 3. p.
for any other reason and at last sometimes were allowed to preach in his presence which Custom began to prevail every where till Arius being but a private Presbyter at Alexandria began against the Injunctions of his Ordinary to spread his Doctrine and scatter Heresie in his Sermons whereupon he having so disturbed the Church it past into a Law for the c Socrat lib. 5. cap. 21. Sozom. lib. 7. c. 19. African Churches that none but the Bishop should dare to preach and so it continued for a considerable time inasmuch as when Valerius Bishop d Possidon vit Augustin c. 5. of Hippo being unfit personally to instruct his Flock called S. Austin his Presbyter and Successor to his Assistance and permitted him to preach it made a great deal of noise and created both the good Prelate and his Priest much envy though Valerius pleaded for himself that it was customary in the Oriental Churches but when S. Austin had thus broke the Ice the Southern Churches in a small time did also embrace the usage And there is still somewhat equivalent retain'd among us not only in that our Liturgy calls all the Clergy of the Diocess the Bishop's Curates but that when we are made Priests we have Authority given us to preach the Gospel when we shall be thereunto lawfully called i. e. licensed by our Ordinary XXVI The subject of the Sermon was commonly a Aug. serm 237. de temp the Gospel for the day which being the last of the Portions out of holy Scripture then read might be presumed to have made its strongest Impressions upon the Auditory though I find some very learned men affirming that till the fourth Age the Sermon had no other Text than what the Preacher thought fit and it is most certain that the sacred and wise men did not always tye themselves expresly to a Text of Scripture but took any subject themselves thought fit and enlarged on it and that not only in their Panegyricks but on several other occasions as may be seen in the Homilies of S. Chrysostom S. Austin and Chrysologus and of late days in Dr. Clark's Sermons and some others and very lawfully without doubt though I heartily abhor the Impudence of that b Apud Sixtin Amama orat de barbarie ex Melanch Schoolman who like the rest of that Herd that knew no more Scripture than what they found in S. Hierom or Gratian being to preach at Paris where Melanchthon was his Auditor took his Text out of Aristotle's Ethicks But the Fathers were very chary in suiting their Discourses to the capacities and wants of their Auditory not entertaining them with trifling Notions but with the knowledge of their biggest and most momentous concerns S. c Tom. 1. Apologet 1. p. 15 16. Gregory the Divine describes the duty of a Preacher in this case He is to treat of the World and its formation of the Soul and Angels as well those that kept as those that lost their Integrity of Providence and its wise Laws and Constitutions of the Creation of Man and his restoration of the two Testaments the Types of the Old and the Antitypes of the New of Christ's first and second coming of his Incarnation and Passion of the general Resurrection and end of the World of the day of Judgment of the rewards of the Just and the punishment of the disobedient and above all of the blessed Trinity And S. John d Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 523 524. Chrys bids his people call to remembrance what he discours'd to them of the Nature of the Soul of the Fabrick of the Body and the state of immortality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Torments of Hell of the long-suffering of God and the Methods of pardon of the powers of Repentance of Baptism and the forgiveness of sins of the Creation of the superiour and inferiour World the nature of Men and Angels the subtilty of Satan and his Methods and Policies of the different Opinions in the Christian World of the true Faith and the gangrene of Heresies with many other such Mysteries which it behoves a Christian to be acquainted with and who is sufficient for these things These Notions made men wise and rational devout and obedient while the airy speculations of the School serve only to swell the brains with a Fantastick Tympany And I must profess it seems to me to be one of the best Sentences in a In supputat annor mundi millenar 1. Martin Luther's large Tomes when he says that the ante-diluvian Patriarchs did not entertain themselves and Children with gay discourses of inconsiderable things de lana caprina but that they disputed of the cunning of the Serpent and the sad effects of his Temptation of the nature of sin and death and the miseries of Hell of the promised Seed that should ruine the Devil of the Laws of Justice and Mercifulness of Life and Paradise XXVII Nor were these Sermons always though commonly new and unheard of discourses and the genuine Off-spring of the Preachers brains the products of his study and industry but many times the works of other famous men For thus b Euseb lib. 3. cap. 3. Hermas's Pastor was publickly read in the Church and c Id. lib. 4. cap. 22. Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians together with that of Pope Soter to Dionysius and so was d Hieron Catalog v. Polycarp Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians as likewise the e Id. v. Ephraem works of Ephraem Syrus read in the Churches of Syria and in f Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 19. some of the Orthodox Conventions in Palestine till the time of Sozomen the Church Historian the Revelation of S. Peter was read once every year And I suppose that that which gave occasion to this appointing the Writings of Apostolical men to be read publickly in the Assembly was that order of S. Paul Colos 4.16 That the Epistle from the Church of Laodicea should be read in the Church of Colosse Such also were the Acts of the Martyrs which were always read on the Anniversaries of their Martyrdoms and probably sometimes supplyed the want of a Sermon and at last this gave occasion to the introducing of Homilies into the Church which g Tom. 1. Apologet. 1. p. 21. S. Greg. Naz. intimates were sometimes used in his days but were commanded by the Council h Can. 4. of Vaux an 444. to be read by the Deacon if the Presbyter who was imployed in that duty both in the City and Country were hindred by sickness or any other way that he cannot preach XXVIII And though the name Homily be grown odious to the half-witted Tribe of Zealots who by an unlimited liberty of venting what they pleased in a Pulpit opened a Gap to so many Heresies yet it hath been applauded as a piece of good policy in the Grand h Gaguin rer Muscovit c. 2. Olear Iti●er lib. 3. p. 133. Duke