says he honour the Lords day who despiseth the Saturday And d Homil. an liceat dimittere ux p. 56 57 Edit Raynandi Asterius Amisenus styles them the Nurses of devotion and the Parents of Church assemblies which summon the holy Priest to instruct his Congregation and command his Congregation to frequent the house of God and both to have a due care of their Souls Which observances had their confirmation not only in the Canons father'd on the e Can. 66. Can. 16 49 51. Apostles and the Provincial Council of f Laodicea but in the g Can. 55. sixth general Council at Constantinople which from all the parts of the Catholick Church commands an uniform submission to the Sanction which the Latines refusing this among other things help'd to widen the breach between them X. And to this day the h Smyth p. 29. Greek Church i Gaguin dereb Muscovit the Muscovites the k Abudac hist Jacebit c. 7. p. 10. Jacobites in Aegypt the Melchites in Syria and the l Breerwood's Enquir c. 16. c. 23. Abassynes keep this Festival not in conformity to the Jews which they expresly deny and which the same m Lacdic c. 29. Council that commands its Christian observation does expresly condemn as S. Basil does censure Apollinaris for the same Crime in his seventy sourth Epistle but in honour of the blest Jesus who is the Lord of the Sabbath And the Aethiopian Christians plead for it the Authority of the Apostles in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Claudius the King of that Country expresly declares in his n Apud Hottinger topogr Eccles orient c. 3. p. 47. vid. ejusd primit Heidelb p. 306. Confession by which he questionless means the Apostles Constitutions which in more than one place injoyn it as a preparation to the great day of the remembrance of our Saviours Resurrection the Christian Sabbath the Abassynes call it as they do call the other the Jewish Now the Apostles successors forbad fasting on this day say some because the primitive Hereticks Menander Saturnitus Cerinthus Basilides and others believing that the world because corruptible was not made by God but by the Devil fasted on that day when the Creation was consummated Others that it was done out of complyance with the Jews who were very numerous in the Eastern part of the World and very tenacious of the Mosaical Ceremonies so Circumcision was for a while retained to bury the Synagogue with honor others to testifie Christs resting in the grave that day and perhaps it proceeded from an unwillingness suddenly to cancel and abrogate that Festival which had by God himself been set apart for religious Exercises and which not only the bless'd Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath kept while here on earth but his Apostles for a very considerable time after his ascension and so much for that usage XI The Questions ad Antiochum are undoubtedly the off-spring of some other father and in this I assent to Mr. H. p. 370. But that therefore all the opinions therein mention'd must not be Orthodox I cannot imagine for as to the nine Orders of Angels the belief thereof is as antient as the genuine Athanasius for presently after him I find them distinctly reckoned by a Apolard◠Ruff◠l. 2. p. 220. vid. ej com in Is 63. S. Hierome for the Western Churches under the title of Cherubim and Seraphim throni principatus dominationes virtutes potestates Archangeli angeli and by b Orat. 39. p. 207. Ed. Paris 1622. S. Basii of Seleucia for the Churches of the East I will says he run through the Orders of Angels and leave the Princes thereof i. e. the Arch-angels behind me I shall be carried above the most pleasing company of the thrones above the height of powers and the eminence of principalities and the force of virtues above the most pure and perspicacious Cherubim and the quick Seraphim adorned with six wings And if we may confide in the conjectures of those learned men that place the Epocha of the Pseudo-Dionysius in the beginning of the fourth Century and make him coevous with Eusebius the Church-Historian then the Opinion will justly claim more Antiquity nor was the notion unknown to the Platonists of that age c De Myster Aegypt Segm. 2. c. 3. Jamblichus who was Pophyry's Scholar and flourisht under Julian the Apostate naming the several Orders of the Heavenly Hierarchy and Scutellius his Translator in the Margin reckons them XII And in truth I am perswaded that the Opinion is as old as Origen not only because S. Hierome where he enumerates these nine Orders of Spirits treats of Origen's errors but because I find the father himself numbring them under the names d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 6. of Angels Virtues Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions e Hom. 3. 4. in S. Luc. Seraphim and Arch-angels and these he there stiles divers Orders nay Clemens of Alexandria in his Excerpta out of the Oriental doctrine of Theodotus gives an account of the different Offices and Dignities of Angels and f Ep ad Smyrn S. Ignatius before him discourses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divers ranks and Orders of Angels as not only Baronius but our most learned Pearson understand him And why this notion should be so strange when holy Writ defends it I know not in that we have an account of Angels frequently of Arch-angels 1 Thes 4.16 of Cherubim Gen. 3.24 of Seraphim Is 6.2 of Principalities Powers Virtues and Dominions Eph. 1.21 of Thrones Col. 1.16 Nor can I fancy that these are divers names of the same thing for a To. 2. adv Jovin l. 2. p. 90. sinè causa diversitas nominum est ubi non est diversitas meritorum says S. Hierome in this very case it is in vain to use different names where the things are not distinguish'd XIII That the Saints departed know all things we leave as a novel assertion to its Patrons the Romanists in the mean time believing that the Saints pray for us for the whole Church in general which no sober man denies and sometimes and on some occasions for some persons in particular of which the History of Potamiaena in b Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 4. Eusebius is a sufficient evidence So S. Ignatius promises the Church at c Ep. ad Tralli p. 20. Trallis that he would pray for them not only while he was alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also when he came to Heaven And when the Fathers tell us that S. Paul's Conversion was owing to S. Stephen's Prayers may it not relate not only to the Lord lay not this sin to their charge but to his Supplications for him in Heaven thus did d Hom. 3. in Cant. Origen believe and e Ep. 57. p. 78. vid. eund de disc hab virg p. 139. de mortalit p. 177. S. Cyprian writing to
demanded a 1000 pounds of him That he had not so much in store as would serve to buy him Bread that day his best dainties being only a few Herbs a morsel of Bread and a little flat sowr Wine And when b Tom. 7. Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyriaco eâ—uli p. 169. St. Chrysostome was accused of entertaining a Woman in his Chamber and lying with her he invalidates the Argument by no other Topick but this Strip me of my cloaths and you shall see all my members so mortified that that very sight will confute the calumny These severities alter'd the countenances of the Holy Men of those days and introduc'd a livid wanness and the symptomes of the Grave into their faces and expos'd them to the censures of the Infidels Lucian bringing in Critias into the Christian Assembly to see nothing but a company of men with their faces inclining to the earth and deformed with paleness nor could any thing less be expected from those that used customarily to fast ten days and spent the whole night in singing Hymns XIII And is it not hard measure that so many persons who were of the same persuasion with Tertullian both before and after him should escape censure and all the guilt of such Opinions should light on his Head only But so have we seen Clemens of Alexandria acquitted for holding the salvability of Daemons but his Scholar Origen condemn'd for the same the Millenary Opinion the belief of the whole second Century but branded for Heresie in Apollinaris and Cyprian allowed to assert re-baptization while in the Donatist it was Heterodoxy and all for want of a little Christian condescension and a generous Charity And in truth what are all Tertullians Discourses after he was so infected but Apologies for greater and more solemn acts of self-denial his Exhortatio castitatis and De Monogamia to decry the incontinence of second Marriages De fuga in persecutione to upbraid the cowardise of those that durst not die for their Master which is also the subject of his De Corona militis his Books De Jejuniis a vindication of frequent Fastings and De Pudicitia a Satyr against those that admitted Adulterers to the Communion and what more sublime demonstrations of a mortified soul though the precepts were taught in the School of Montanus XIV But I know not how to reconcile these Opinions with the practices of some of that Sect if we may believe c Apud Euseb l. 5. c. 17. Hier. Catal. v. Apollon Apollonius asserting that Prisca and Maximilla were guilty of the most profligate and unpardonable extravagancies Against this Apollonius Tertullian writ not in vindication of these excesses but to prove Montanus to be a Prophet and that his Ecstasies were Divine Vide Euseb l. 5. c. 3. for Prophecy did continue till that time in the Church of which Quadratus and after him Gregory Neo-Caesariensis are instances and S. Cyprian frequently talks of his Visions so that it was no difficult matter for one that had but little skill and insight into nature as Tertullian had to be deluded And in truth what more plausible and bold charms can we meet with than those of Montanus's she-Proselytes who so confidently pretended to enjoy those spiritual Charismata especially that of Prophecy in succession to S. John Quadratus and others of whom Prisca for I suppose Tertullian means her whom he a De Resurrect carn p. 19. D. Ed. Rhen. elsewhere stiles the Prophetess acted by the Paraclete to confute those who denied the Resurrection took on her to boast of her b Id. de anima p. 250. A. B. Revelations which on the Sunday at the publick meeting communicated themselves to her in an Ecstasy in which she assured the deluded Vulgus that she convers'd with Angels and sometimes with Christ himself that she both saw and heard Mysteries and knew the thoughts of some persons and the matter of her Visions was taken either from the Lessons or Psalms for the day from the Sermons or the Prayers which after the end of the Service when the multitude was dismiss'd she committed to the select followers of Montanus who took care to record them Tertullian while she was in one of these Ecstasies was discoursing of the nature of the Soul she returning out of her Trance tells him that she saw a Soul in that Vision not of a pure spiritual substance but thin and airy and of a bright colour and in all its lineaments of a humane form and shape This either gave rise to his Opinion or at least confirm'd him in his belief of the corporeity of the Soul c De fuga in persecut c. 9. p. 194. C. D. The like Prophecies inclin'd him to think it unlawful to fly in time of Persecution If says he you consult the dictates of the holy spirit those divine exhortations advise to embrace not to fly Martyrdome that lays its commands on men not to defire to die in their beds or by the short fits of an easie disease but by the pains of Martyrdome that he who suffer'd for us may be glorified in us that tells thee that he that is expos'd and proscrib'd in the world is in a glorious condition for he that is not proscrib'd by the World shall be proscrib'd by God Nor is he without his Vision d De Virgin veland p. 178. E. for the necessity of Virgins being vayled XV. But it is very considerable that there were many differences between this Ecstatick and the true Revelation the Writers of the Church frequently calling that of Montanus a new and unheard of way of Prophecy i. the followers of that Pseudo paraclete were acted by a violent and frantick Afflatus and their raptures discover'd themselves in furious and wild Schemes of action and not in that quiet peaceable and serene way in which the true Ecstasie made it self known the true Prophet whose impressions were made on his reason never suffering any alienation of mind to which the pretended Enthusiast was liable because his influences rise no higher than his fancy and by the extravagant motions of that and his passions introduc'd disorder and distraction into his reason Miltiades Apollonius apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 16. Epiphan haer 48. Hier. praefat in Isai alibi passim prae aliis Chrysost Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 12. p. 430. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he spake what himself understood not as the Poets describe the Pythian Priestesses rather like mad-Women than devout and religious persons * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 228. D. vide Naz. Orat 14. p. 221. Orat. 23. p. 414. Orat. 25. p. 441. the Fathers calling such pretenders to Revelation in Ecstasie the Ministers of Satan and men acted by an evil spirit in opposition to the spirit of God and in set Tractates undertaking to evince that a Prophet ought not to
Cognisance the knowledge and service of God and yet here they remain intangl'd and fetter'd as men that are ingag'd in the midst of a large Quagmire where it is impossible to go forward or retreat but the man must tarry till death deliver him or a man in a high thick and spacious Wood into which he entred with expectation of passing thorough but finds every path leading him into the thickest part of it wanders a while but not being able to extricate himself sits down and becomes an Inhabitant of the Forest or like one in a Labyrinth into which seeing but one way to enter fancies his return easie but when he hath past into the innermost part of it and a while admir'd the wonderful variety and wisdome of the Apparatus and the many pretty passages and is willing to return finds himself lost in those Mazes and his escape impossible but there is no Labyrinth so full of unintelligible windings nor Wood so thick nor Quagmire that so fastens a man as the perswasions of those Philosophers if once they take possession of the mind But lest that might befal me that fatally afflicts many he acquainted me not with one particular Systeme of Philosophy but led me through all the several Schools of those Dogmatists that I might be ignorant of none of their Opinions but he still went before me guided and led me and demonstrated to me what was Fallacy and Sophisme and meant to deceive like an expert Master in the Art to whom nothing happens unexpected who standing on the shore reaches out his hand to save those that are drowning Thus among the Assertions of every Philosopher he selected and communicated to me whatever was veracious and useful especially what related to Piety but condemned all false positions He advised me not to be curious and industrious in such small things though I might on that account be reputed the wisest of men but that my chiefest converse should be with God and his holy Prophets while he explained whatever was obscure and aenigmatical in their writings as many things are in the holy Scriptures whether it were God's pleasure so to talk with men that the naked and plain truth might not be committed to the breast of an unworthy Soul as many are or that though all the Divine Oracles are in their own nature most perspicuous and intelligible yet are become difficult and dark to us who have apostatiz'd from God and forgotten our duty I cannot tell But he being a most acute and intelligent Auditor of God illustrated all those obscure passages as if there were nothing naturally unintelligible in those writings to him who alone of all men that either I know or have heard of by his constant Meditations on those pure and illuminating Oracles is able to comprehend them in his own mind and instil them into others For that great Guardian and Governour of all men who inspired the Prophets whom God loved with their Predictions and mystical and divine discourses honour'd him so as to constitute him their peculiar Interpreter explaining by him what was revealed only in Parables to others who being most faithful and veracious either powerfully commanded or demonstrated those things bestowing on this man the gift of Invention and Explanation that if any person were of a rough and incredulous temper or else desirous to be informed being a Scâ—olar to him he might be compell'd to understand and believe and to follow God Nor could he so express himself had not the Spirit of God communicated it self to him for there is need of the same power and assistances for the Prophets and their Auditors nor can any man understand a Prophet unless the same Spirit that gave the Prophecy confer on him the gift of understanding it and so says the holy Scripture that he only that shuts can open and no man else Now when the Aenigmata of Scripture are expounded then what is shut is open'd this excellent gift hath Heaven bestowed on this great Man to be God's Interpreter to the Sons of Adam both to understand the Coelestial Oracles as they are spoken and to declare them to men that they may know them Therefore nothing was abstruse hidden or difficult to me but I was fitted to dive into all things and with all imaginable liberty to search and experiment all sorts of Learning of the Greeks or Barbarians Mystical or Politick Divine or Humane that I might satisfie my Soul with good things which whether you will call it an ancient Lesson of Truth or by any other name in him I did enjoy an admirable and full plenty of the most beautiful things And that I may comprehend all in a few words he was to me a Garden that emblem'd Paradise in which my employment was not to cultivate this inferior earth and to pamper my body but to embellish and adorn my nobler part with the truest sensuality and voluptuousness like so many beautiful trees either planted by my own industry or by the hand of God this was the Garden of true pleasure here did I indulge to my delights and genuine satisfactions with which for no small time I was ravish'd which yet will appear to be very short if this day when I must be gone from hence shall put a period to my fruitions For I know not whether my deserts or misfortune enforce me to this departure or expulsion I am unacquainted with fit expressions to describe my state in more than that I like another Adam am turn'd out of Paradise How happily did I live under the instructions of so good a Master and how ought I now to hold my peace I then learn'd in silence but is not this a prodigy that the Master should become a Pupil but why should I use these words my duty and my interest oblige me to persevere not to desert such studies And is not this my crime an imitation of that first transgression and do not the same punishments wait for me am I not refractory and rebellious against the commandments of God when I should continue in mine obedience but because I depart so shunning this happy life as the first man did the face of God returning to the earth out of which I was taken dust shall I eat all the days of my life and be sentenc'd to till that ground that will produce nothing but bryars and thorns that is cares and griefs and troubles and shame and to return to the earth whence I came to the house of my father and my worldly kindred deserting that country which I would not apprehend to be the true place of my nativity and those relations who were the greatest friends of my soul and my fathers house where the parent is reverenc'd and honor'd by all his genuine sons but I unworthily and dirtily turn my eyes backward and desert my felicity We read of a child Luk. 15.12 that having received his portion went into a far country and there intemperately spent and squandered
Acts impeaches the Athenians of was applicable to the Christian World that they had no leasure for any thing but to hear or talk News what holy Jeremy can sufficiently bemoan our confusions and horrid obscurities though he alone knew how to suit his Lamentations to so dismal an occasion ' This furious and insolent Assault on the Church was first made by Arius whose name implies his madness who suffered the just punishment of his petulant and ungovern'd Tongue dying in an impure and stinking place bursting asunder like Judas and being a Sufferer like that Traytor as he had sin'd like him in betraying the eternal Word but this did not affright others from courting the same distemper who methodiz'd and form'd it into an art of Impiety who deny any thing of generation to appertain to the Divinity and banish from it the very names of being begotten or proceeding honouring the Trinity only with the Communication of the Divine name to all the three persons and hardly allowing them that But this blest Soul this zealous man of God and great Trumpet of the Truth thought not so but foreseeing that this lessening of the Trinity into one person was a piece of the Atheism and Heresie of Sabellius who first invented this Scheme of contracting the Deity and that the distinguishing and dividing the substance was to make a Monster of the Divinity he kept this course carefully to assert the Unity with respect to the Divinity and piously to teach the Trinity of persons with respect to their properties neither confounding the persons by asserting the Unity nor dividing the substance by asserting the Trinity keeping himself still within the limits of Piety and shunning any extravagant inclinations to either side and for this reason he in the holy Synod of Nice in that Assembly of choice men which the holy Ghost had there congregated as much as in him lay opposed the growth of this disease when as yet he was no Bishop but one of their principal Assistants for at that time Virtue made a man as honourable as a Dignity but when this Spark was blown up into a great flame by the breath of Satan and spread it self far for here the Tragedy began that hath since fill'd the World many and various Engines were employed to ruine this great Assertor this generous Champion of Jesus for the strongest Souldiers are made Aggressors of him that most couragiously resists and on every side dangers flow in upon him for wickedness is very inventive of mischief and daring in its assaults for how could it be expected that they should be favourable to men that durst abuse their God but there was one effect of their animosity that produc'd the most violent Consequences for I my self shall contribute a few materials to the compleating the Drama But here my Country the beloved place of my Nativity merits pardon for the Crime is not imputable to the place but to the Inhabitants for Cappadocia is every where famous for Holiness and Religion but these men are unworthy the name of Sons of the Church but ye have heard that a Bramble grows at the root of a Vine and that Judas the Traytor was one of the Disciples nor are there wanting that affirm that a Namesake of mine was not altogether innocent in this Affair who being at that time resident at Alexandria on the account of his studies and treated with as much kindness by this Patriarch as if he had been his darling Son in as much as he was one to whom he intrusted his greatest concerns he as it is reported takes up resolutions of resisting his Father and Benefactor And whereas others were the Authors of the Tragedy yet men say that the hand of Absolom was with them if any of you remember that hand with the cutting off of which this Saint was belyed or the dead man yet living whom he was said to murder or his unjust banishment he understands what I say But this I willingly forget for this is my judgment in dubious things to be more inclinable to a charitable construction and rather to absolve than condemn a Criminal For a profligate man is easily induc'd to condemn the innocent but the good not so apt to censure the Villain for he that is not vicious is not suspicious of others but what I now speak of is not rumour but palpable matter not a bare suspicion but a firm and publick perswasion A Cappadocian Monstre born in the utmost Borders of our Country of a scandalous Family and a worse mind no Freeman born but of a mixt Generation as Mules are at first a Servant at another mans Table a Wretch that might be hired for a Crust of Bread inclinable to say or do any thing to fill his Belly afterward when he perniciously intruded himself into employment in the Common-wealth he was intrusted with the mean and most sordid Office of a Sutler to supply the Army with Swines flesh in which when he had broken his trust sacrificing all things to his own Belly and had nothing left him but himself he bethinks him of running away and shifting from one Country and City to another as Vagrants do at last to the ruine of the Churches Interests like one of the Plagues of Aegypt he wanders into Alexandria here he ends his Exile and begins mischief being eminent in nothing else neither for his learning nor acceptable and pleasant Converse much less for putting on the Mask of Piety and Religion but fitted for all sort of Villany and Disturbances Ye all know what Tumults he raised against this Saint for the Righteous are many times delivered into the hand of the Ungodly not to create honour to the Wicked but to experiment the courage of the good man that the Sinner may dye an evil and unusual death as the Scripture assures us but holy men are in this life derided as long as God hides his Countenance while there are laid up great Treasures for both against those future days when every Word Deed and Thought shall be weighed in the just Balance of God when he shall arise to judge the Earth recollecting mens Designs and Actions and detecting those secrets which have been laid up and sealed in Heaven This both the the Sufferings and the Discourses of Job may perswade us who was a great lover of truth a man unblameable just and pious and Master of many other Virtues as holy Writ testifies and yet was he assaulted with such various and cruel Instruments of Satan's Malice that had begg'd liberty to plague him that of all the men which since the beginning of the World have fallen into Adversity and many as it is probable into Torments and Vexations no man yet can compare Sufferings with him for he lost not only his Wealth and Cattel a beautiful and numerous progeny which all men earnestly covet and that in so short a space that there was no more left for his sorrows to interpose between his last and the