Learning And indeed this was a thing altogether new to them For there was no Provision made by the Aug. de vera Rel init Heathens for the Instruction of the common People in matters of Religion They had only the Lectures of their Philosophers who Read to them the precepts of Orig Contr. Cels. Morality but never meddled with the proper Offices of Religion Besides as all the Hereticks passed under the name of Christians they ascribed to the whole Body of Christians all the Wild Fancies of the Velentinians and the other such like Visionaries encountred by Irenaeus The Heathens confounded all these Extravagancies with the Catholick Faith so that the Religion of the Christians appeared V. Baron an cl xxix n. 17. and 28. to them a meer mess of Infatuations vented by a parcel of Ignorant Crack-Brain'd Fools For what reason said they can you Euseb Praepar i. cap. ii give us why we should quit the established Religions Pleading so long a Prescription of Time recommended with such a pomp of Ceremonies confirmed by the Authority of so many Kings and Legislators and received by the Consent of all People both Greeks and Barbarians and that to embrace a Novel Invention of we know not who and run our selves a ground upon the Jewish Fables Or if you have a mind to turn Jews why are you not Jews thorow out But your Extravagancy is unaccountable in Worshiping the God of the Jews whether they will or no and in Worshipping him in such a manner as the Jews themselves Condemn as much as we and in pretending to their Law with which you have nothing to do 'T is true the Morals of Christians were very Exact and their Practises answered their Principles But all the World was then full of Philosophers who pretended no less than the Christians both to the teaching of Vertue and to the Practising of it There were among them also many who in the first Ages of the Church perhaps in Imitation of the Christians ran about the World from Place to Place pretending to make it their business to reform Mankind and thereupon submitting themselves to many Hardships and undergoing a kind of Persecution by the ill Treatment they sometimes met with as Apollonius Tyanaeus Musonius V. Baron an l xxv n. 6. Damis Epictetus and some others The Philosophers had for many Ages before been in great Reputation 'T was taken Orig. Con. Cels. for granted that nothing more could be added to what had already been said by some of them They could not imagin that Barbarians should have any thing better to offer than Pythagoras Socrates Plato or Zeno. They concluded that if these new Pretenders had any thing that was good in them 't was but somewhat which they had borrowed from those Old Sages Besides the Philosophers were a more Agreeable sort of Professors and their Principles better Accommodated to the inclinations of Mankind than those of the Christians The greatest part of them did not condemn Pleasure nay some of them made Pleasure the Sovereign good They left every one to enjoy his own Opinion and take his own way of Living If they could not perswade Men their method was to rally and dispise them and that was all the trouble they gave them But above all they took care not to pick Quarrels with the established Religions Some believed them and gave Mystical Explications of the most Ridiculous Fables Others troubled their Heads no farther about matters of Religion then to Acknowledge some first being the Author of Nature leaving the publick Superstitions to those whom they believed incapable of higher attainments Even the Epicureans who of all others discovered themselves the most Openly against the popular opinions concerning the Gods Assisto Divinis Horat yet freely Assisted at the Sacrifices and in what part of the World So ever they were joyned with the rest in the outward Forms of Religious Worship there Practised In this all their Wise Men agreed not to oppose the Customes established either by the Laws of the Countrey or Prescription of Time Their Belief of a Plurality of Gods went so far that they imagined every Nation every City every Family had Gods of its own who took a more peculiar care of them and whom therefore they were to Worship after a more peculiar Manner So that they counted all Religions good in such Places where they had been of a long time Received But the Superstitious Women among them and other Weak and Ignorant People were always hunting after new Religions imagining that the more Gods and Goddesses they worshipped and the greater number and varietie of Ceremonies they observed the more Devout and Religious they were The Wise Men among Liv. xxix them and their Politicians did what they could to Restrain this restless Humour and keep it within some Bounds and therefore were against all Innovations in matters of this Nature Above all they Forbad all strange and Forreign Religions and this the Romans made a Fundamental Principle of their Politicks To perswade their People to believe that 't was to the Beneficence of their Titlar Deitys that Rome was beholding for all its Glorious Successes and the Grandeur of its Empire That their Gods must needs have been more Puissant Deitys than any of the rest since they had brought under their Subjection all the Nations of the World Thus when the Christian Religion was entirely established the Pagans failed not to Impute to this Change of Religion the Fall of the Empire which Succeeded soon upon it And to answer these False Suggestions was St. Augustin obliged to compose his large Treatise entituled De Civitate Dei The Contempt the Christians had of Death was not by the Heathens looked upon as any great matter They saw every Day their voluntier Gladiators who for some inconsiderable Reward or perhaps for just nothing at all but to shew their own Bravery fearlessly exposed themselves to the Swords of their Antagonists and ventured having their Throats Cut in the open Amphitheatre They had Dayly examples before them of Persons and those of the best sort who upon any little Disgust would fairly Dispatch themselves out of the World Some of Vel jactatione ut quidam Philosophi l. vi §. vii F. de injusto rump ire their Philosophers as the Lawyers report of them did the like purely out of Vanity of which Lucian's Peregrinus is a famous Instance And therefore seeing the Christians Prosessing a Renunciation of the Enjoyments of this Life and placing all their happiness in that to come they rather wondered that they did not kill themselves They tell us Saith St. Justin Justin Ap. ◠init Go then kill your selves without any more ado get you gone to your God and let us hear no more of you And Antoninus Pro-Consul of Asia seeing the Christians Crowding the Court and offering themselves to Martyrdom cryed out to them Ah! Tertul. ad Scap. c. ult Wretched Creatures
But that they might not Can. Apost xxiv punish the same fault twice over and out of Reverence to the Sacrament of Orders they imposed on him no other Pennance If any one shall wonder at this Discipline of the Ancients let him consider that the Sins to which Pennance was due were in those Days rarely known among Christians for as with us Persons of Honour who are well Educated and setled in the World seldom fall into those Crimes which bring them so far under the lash of the Law as to make them liable to the infamy of Publick Punishments so of old it did not often happen that Christians so carefully admitted and so well instructed should be guilty of Adultery Homicide or other such like hanious Sins which deserved Death Tertullian declares that the Catholicks were easily distinguished from De praescript c. xli xlii Apol. c. iv v. the Hereticks by the difference of their Behaviour and he boldly upbraids the Heathen that their Goals were filled with none but Heathens like themselves or if any Christians were there it was upon no other account but barely for their being Christians Or if saith he any other Crime can be baid to their charge they are no longer Christians Innocence with us is a necessary Vertue we understand it perfectly as having learned it of God who is the best Master and we practice it with the greatest Care as being obliged to it by that Judge whom we must not dispise THERE were some Christians who XXI Asceticks Virgins Widows Deaconesses Practiced all the Exercises of Pennance without being obliged to them and without being excluded the Sacraments but then it was out of their own voluntary Devotion in imitation of the Lives of the Prophets and St. John the Baptist and following the Councils of St. Paul for Exercising themselves unto Godliness and 1 Tim. iv 7. 1 Cor. ix 27. keeping under the Body to bring it into Subjection These were called Asceticks that is to say Exercisants They generally kept themselves close shut up in their own Houses where they lived in great retirement adding to the usual Frugality of Christians some extraordinary Fasts and Abstinences They kept themselves to what they called Xerophagy that is feeding only upon dry Diets and held out their Fasts to two or three Days together or some times longer They accustomed themselves to wear Sackcloth to walk Bare-Foot to sleep upon the Ground to Watch the greatest part af the Night to be constantly reading the holy Scriptures and as much as was possible to Pray without ceasing Origen Euseb Hist vi c. iii. for some time led this Life and many of these Asceticks became great Bishops Hier. de Script 87. in pierio and Doctors All the Asceticks lived in great Continence and all Christians in general highly admired that Vertue so much recommended by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Just Orat. ad Anton. Pium. A young Man of Alexandria under the reign of the Emperor Antonine presented a Petition to the Governour of that City that he might have a Surgeon allowed him to make him an Eunuch and many there were who did so in good earnest Can. Nic. i. so that the Church was obliged to make a Law on purpose to repress that indiscreet Zeal There were a great number also of young Persons of the Female Sex who Consecrated their Virginity to God either by the Advice of their Parents or of their own proper Motion These Virgins led the Ascetick Life for they did not look upon Virginity as any thing if it v Hier. Ep. de Asellâ were not attended with great Mortification with Silence Retirement Poverty Labour Fastings Watchings and continual Praying They were not esteemed as Virgins who would not deny themselves the common Diversions of the World even the most Innocent as the taking too great a delight in Conversation the affecting a Pleasantness and agreeableness of Humour and Discourse so as to make a shew of their Wit and Ingenuity much less would they endure those that set up for Bells for Dressing Perfuming Long-Trains and moving with an affected Air. St. Cyprian recommends scarce Cypr. de Hab. Virg. any thing else to Christian Virgins but the renouncing all the vain Ornaments of the Body and Ostentation of Beauty He well knew how fond young Women are of such gaudy Trifles and of how pernicious a Consequence they might prove to those of their Profession In the first Ages the Virgins Consecrated to God generally lived at home with their Parents or in private by themselves two and two together never going abroad but when they went to Church where they had a place allotted them to sit by themselves separate from the rest of the Women If Ambros de virg laps c. vi any one violated her Holy Resolution and Married she was enjoined Pennance The Widows who renounced second Marriage passed their time much after the same manner as the Virgins in Fastings v Heir in Ep. Paulae Praying and the other Exercises of the Ascetick Life but they did not keep themselves so close shut up as being more employed in the outward Acts of Charity as in visiting and relieving the Sick and Imprisoned and more especially the Martyrs and Confessors in taking care of the Poor in entertaining and attending upon Strangers in burying the Dead and generally in the Offices of Charity And indeed all Christian Women whether Married or Widows made these kind of Works the greatest of their Employment rarely appearing abroad but upon the doing of some good Office or when they went to Church But the Widows being more at liberty from other Engagements didicated themselves Tertul. ad â—xor c. iv wholly to these Services If they were Rich they liberally Distributed their Alms if they were Poor the Church maintained them They chose for their Deaconesses the most Aged of their Widows 1 Tim. v. 9. of Sixty years or upward the most v Const Apost l. iii. discreet and those who had best approv'd themselves in all the Exercises of Charity This Office was also sometimes assigned to Const Apos vi c. xvi Virgins They were called Deaconesses not as if they were counted of the Clergy for Women cannot partake of any part of the Priest-hood but because they exercised toward the Women some part of the Deacons Office Their business was to visit those of their own Sex whom Poverty Sickness or any other distress rendred proper Objects of the Churches care to instruct the Female Catechumens Con. Apost iii. or rather to repeat to them the Instructions of the Catechist They presented them to Baptism and upon that occasion assisted them in dressing and undressing them and for sometime after overlooked these new Converts to break and Discipline them into a Christian Behaviour In the Church they kept the doors on the Womens side took care to see every one seated in her proper place and that all behaved
of it both by affixing some kind of Penalties Tac. An. iii. v tit cod de infirm paen coelib v. Baron an 57. n. 44 c. upon those who continued unmarried after such a Term of Years and rewards to those who in lawful Matrimony encreased the number of the People The Christians knew but two states that of Marriage or Continence They preferred the latter as knowing its Excellencies and they often found the means Tertul. ad uxor c. vi de Resur car c. 8. of Reconciling them both in one for there were many Married Persons who yet lived in Continence But all Christians in general abstained from the use of the Bed on the Feasts and Fasts of the Cypr. de sing Cle. Church as well as at other times when according to the Apostles Rule they were disposed more Freely to give Cor. vii themselves to Prayer Second Marriages were looked upon as a weakness insomuch as in some Churches they enjoined Hier. ad Salvin in fi the Persons so remarrying Penance But how highly soever they esteemed Continence they had an esteem for Marriage as being a great Sacrament They had honourable Thoughts of it considering it as an Emblem of that Union which is between Christ and his Church and that Blessing Pronounced by God upon Mankind at the first Creation which Orat. in Bened. Spons neither Original Sin nor the Deluge hath taken away that is of encreasing and multiplying They knew that the relation of Father and Mother was an high Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. c. x. and honourable Character as being the Images of God in a more peculiar manner and Co-operating with him in the Production of Men. 'T is certain by the Gospel that St. Peter was a Married Man and Tradition as St. Clemens Alexandrinus relates it tells the same of Clem. iii. strom the Apostle St. Philip that they had both of them Children and particularly of Euseb iii. Hist. 30. St. Philip 't is observed that he gave his Daughters in Marriage Among other Directions for the Education Const Ap. iv c. x. of Children this is one That they should to secure their Vertue timely dispose of them in Marriage and they who had Charity enough to take upon them the charge of breeding up Orphans were advised to Match them as soon as Ibid. c i. they came of Age and rather to their own Children than to Strangers a Proof how little the Christians of those days Ignat. Ep. ad Polycar regarded Worldly Interest in the matter of Marriage They advised with their Bishop about Marriages as indeed they did about all Affairs of greater Importance that so saith Ignatius they might be made according to God and not according to Concupiscence When the Parties were agreed the Marriage was publickly and solemnly performed in the Church and Tertul. ii ad ux in fi there Consecrated by the Benediction of the Pastor and Confirmed by the Oblation of the holy Sacrifice The Bridegroom gave his Hand to the Bride and the Bride received from her Husband a Ring engraved with the Sign of the Cross or at least having on it some Symbolical Figure representing some Christian Vertue as a Dove an Anchor or a Fish for of such Clem. Alex. iii. Paedag. c. xi Figures did the Christians make their Seals and among the Antients their Rings were also their Seals or Signets HITHERTO have we considered XII The Union of Christians Christians in their Private Capacities let us now take a view of them as United into a Body and making a Church The name of Ecclesia i. e. Church signifies no more than an Assembly and was taken in the Cities of Greece for a meeting of the People who commonly came together in the Theatre for the dispatch of Publick Affairs We have in the Acts of the Apostles an Example of this profane Acts xix 32 Ecclesia or Assembly in the City of Ephesus and therefore the Christians by way of distinction from these profane Ecclesias where called the Ecclesia or Church of God Origen in his Dispute against Celsus compares these two sorts of Assemblies together and lays it down as a thing certain and manifest that the less Zeal of the Christians who were but few in comparison of the rest did somuch excel other Men That the Christian Assemblies appeared in the World like Stars in the Firmament The Christians therefore of every City made up but one Body and this was one principal pretence of Persecuting them Their Assemblies were represented as Illegal Meetings not being Authorized by the Laws of the State Their Unity and Love passed fot a Crime and was Objected against them as a dangerous Confederacy And indeed all the Christians living in the same Place were well known to each other as it could not be otherwise considering how often they joined in Prayer and other exercises of Religion upon which occasions they met together almost every Day They all maintained a Friendly Correspondence among themselves often met and conferred together and even in indifferent matters conformed to one another Their Joys and their Griefs were in common If any one had received of God any particular Blessing they all shared the satisfaction If any one were under Pennance they all Interceeded on his behalf and begged that Mercy might be shewn him They lived together as kindred of the same Family calling one another by the Name of Father or Child Brother or Sister according to the difference of Age or Sex This Unity was maintained by that Authority which every Master of a Family had over those of his own House and by the Submission that all of them paid to the Priests and their Bishops a Duty so earnestly recommended to Christians in the Epistles of the holy Martyr St. Ignatius But above all the Bishops were most closely United among themselves They all knew one another at least by their Names and Characters and held a constant Epistolary Correspondence which was easy to be done at that time by reason of the vast extent of the Roman Empire Bardesan apud Euseb vi Praepar c. 8. which God in his Providence seems to have so ordered as it were on purpose for the Propagation of the Gospel But as the Church was extended far wider than the Empire reaching to all the Nations round about it that uniformity of Faith and Manners which was found among all the Christians was still the more wonderful considering the Diversity of Nations among whom they were scattered And herein appeared the Power of true Religion Correcting in all that embraced it all those Barbarous and unreasonable Euseb i. Praep. c. iv Customs in which they had been educated In short the universal Church was in reality but one Body all the Members whereof were United to each other not only by the same Faith but also by the same most Comprehensive Charity EVERY Particular Church met together XIII