elevation of their minds the lifting up their thoughts from low sordid objects to those spiritual and divine things they were then conversant about But what ever they did in other parts of the publick Service they constantly stood up at the reading of the Gospel a custom generally embraced in all parts of the Christian world Therefore Sozomen discoursing of the various rights observed in several Churches notes it as an unusual thing in the Bishop of Alexandria that he did not rise up when the Gospels were read a thing says he which I never saw nor heard of in any other place and Philostorgius tells us of Theophilus the Indian Bishop that amongst several irregularities which he corrected in those Churches he particularly reformed this that the people were wont to sit while the Lessons out of the Gospel were read to them Nor did the greatest personages think themselves too high to express this piece of reverence in their attendance upon the King of Kings 'T is very memorable what we read concerning the great Constantine that when upon occasion Eusebius was to make a Panegyrick concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour though it was not in the Church but in the Palace yet he refused to sit all the time and when Eusebius beseeched him to sit down in his Throne that was hard by him he would not but attentively heard judged and approved those things that were spoken and when after a good while the Sermon having been prolix Eusebius out of compliance would have broken off and done he called to him to go on till he came to the full end of his discourse whereupon he was again sollicited to sit down but refused affirming it to be unfit to attend upon any discourse concerning God and much more at this time with ease and softness and that it was very consonant to piety and religion that discourses about divine things should be heard standing So great a reverence had that excellent Prince for the solemnities of divine Worship In the discharge of these holy Exercises as they carried themselves with all seriousness and gravity so they continued in them till they were compleatly finished there was then no such airiness and levity as now possesses the minds of men no snatching at some pieces of the Worship tanquam Canis ad Nilum and gone again no rude disorderly departing the Congregation till the whole Worship and Service of God was over And therefore when this warmth and vigour of the first Ages was a little abated the Council of Orleans thought good to re-establish the primitive devotion by this Canon That when the people came together for the celebration of divine Service they should not depart till the whole Solemnity was over and the Bishop or Presbyter had given the blessing CHAP. X. Of Baptism and the administration of it in the Primitive Church Four circumstances considered Baptism by whom administred By none usually without the leave of the Bishop The great controversie about re-baptizing those that had been baptized by Hereticks An account of it out of Cyprian Laymen how suffered to baptize The opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism The case of Athanasius his baptizing when but a Child Women never permitted to baptize Persons to be baptized who Infants Sufficient evidence for Infant-baptism in the ancient Writers of the Church Some passages out of Cyprian noted The baptized most-what adult persons The stated times of Baptism Easter and Whitsuntide and why Especially upon Easter Eve and why In cases of necessity at any other time Clinici who Clinic-baptism accounted less perfect why Vsual to defer Baptism till a death-bed and the reason of it noted in Constantine and others Being baptized for the dead what probably The usual place of Baptism in or near the Church always before the Congregation The Baptisterium or Font where it stood and how large It s distinct apartments for men and women A curiosity in many in those times of being baptized in Jordan and why The manner of the Administration The person baptized looked towards the West and why Their answering as to the profession of their faith Their solemn abrenunciation made twice and the form of it Sureties in Baptism Persons baptized exorcised what meant by it Vnction upon what account used several reasons of it assigned by the Fathers The sign of the Cross made in Baptism evident out of the ancient Fathers Of immersion or putting the person under water what it shadowed out Generally in use in those Countries not absolutely necessary in others Trine immersion different reasons of it assigned by the Fathers It obtained not in Spain and why A second Vnction Persons after Baptism clothed in white garments and why These kept in the Church as a testimony of their solemn engagement a memorable instance out of Victor Uticensis A brief account of confirmation the neglect of it bewailed OUR Lord having instituted Baptism and the Lords Supper as the two great Sacraments of the Christian Law they have accordingly been ever accounted principal parts of publick Worship in the Christian Church we shall treat first of Baptism as being the door by which persons enter in the great and solemn rite of our initiation into the faith of Christ concerning which four circumstances are chiefly to be enquired into the persons by and upon whom the time when the place where the manner how this Sacrament was administred in the ancient Church For the persons by whom this Sacrament was administred they were the Ministers of the Gospel the Stewards of the mysteries of Christ baptizing and preaching the Gospel being joined together by our Saviour in the same Commission usually 't was done by the Bishop the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in J. Martyr the Antistes in Tertullian the President or chief Minister of the Congregation the summus sacerdos qui est Episcopus as he calls him without whose leave and authority neither Presbyters nor Deacons might take upon them to baptize as not only Ignatius but Tertullian expresly tells us and if they did it was only in case of necessity as is affirmed by an ancient Author who lived in or near the time of Cyprian the same S. Hierom assures us was the custom in his time though otherwhiles we find the Bishop to begin the action and the Presbyters to carry it on and finish it But as Christianity encreased this became a more familiar part of the Presbyters and the Deacons office and doubtless had been more or less executed by them from the beginning though out of reverence to the Bishop and to preserve the honour of the Church as Tertullian gives the reason they did it not without his leave and deputation and 't is certain that Philip baptized the Eunuch who yet was of no higher order than that of Deacon Nor was it accounted enough by some in those times that Baptism was conferred by a person called to the Ministry unless he was
of persecution for so we find in a Law of Constantine and Licinius where giving liberty of Religion to Christians and restoring them freely to the Churches which had been taken from them and disposed of by former Emperours they further add and because say they the same Christians had not only places wherein they were wont to assemble but are also known to have had other possessions which were not the propriety of any single person but belonged to the whole body and community all these by this Law we command to be immediately restored to those Christians to every Society and Community of them what belonged to them And in a rescript to Anulinus the Proconsul about the same matter they particularly specifie whether they be Gardens or Houses or whatever else belonged to the right and propriety of those Churches that with all speed they be universally restored to them the same which Maximinus also though no good friend to Christians yet either out of fear of Constantine or from the conviction of his conscience awakened by a terrible sickness had ordained for his parts of the Empire Afterwards Constantine set himself by all ways to advance the honour and interests of the Church out of the Tributes of every City which were yearly paid into his Exchequer he assigned a portion to the Church and Clergy of that place and setled it by a Law which excepting the short Reign of Julian who revoked it was as the Historian assures us in force in his time Where any of the Martyrs or Confessors had died without kindred or been banished their native Country and left no heirs behind them he ordained that their Estates and Inheritance should be given to the Church of that place and that whoever had seized upon them or had bought them of the Exchequer should restore them and refer themselves to him for what recompence should be made them He took away the restraint which former Emperours had laid upon the bounty of pious and charitable men and gave every man liberty to leave what he would to the Church he gave salaries out of the publick Corn which though taken away by Julian was restored by his Successor Jovianus and ratified as a perpetual donation by the Law of Valentinian and Marcianus After his time the Revenues of Churches encreased every day pious and devout persons thinking they could never enough testifie their piety to God by expressing their bounty and liberality to the Church I shall conclude this discourse by observing what respect and reverence they were wont in those days to shew in the Church as the solemn place of Worship and where God did more peculiarly manifest his presence and this certainly was very great They came into the Church as into the Palace of the great King as Chrysostom calls it with fear and trembling upon which account he there presses the highest modesty and gravity upon them before their going into the Church they used to wash at least their hands as Tertullian probably intimates and Chrysostom expresly tells us carrying themselves while there with the most profound silence and devotion nay so great was the reverence which they bore to the Church that the Emperours themselves who otherwise never went without their Guard about them yet when they came to go into the Church used to lay down their Arms to leave their Guard behind them and to put off their Crowns reckoning that the less ostentation they made of power and greatness there the more firmly the imperial Majesty would be entailed upon them as we find it in the Law of Theodosius and Valentinian inserted at large into the last edition of the Theodosian Code But of this we may probably speak more when we come to treat of the manner of their publick adoration CHAP. VII Of the Lords-Day and the Fasts and Festivals of the ancient Church Time as necessary to religious actions as Place Fixed times of Publick Worship observed by all Nations The Lords Day chiefly observed by Christians Stiled Sunday and why Peculiarly consecrated to the memory of Christs Resurrection All kneeling at prayer on this day forbidden and why Their publick Assemblies constantly held upon this day Forced to assemble before day in times of persecution thence jeered by the Heathens as Latebrosa Lucifugax Natio The Lords day ever kept as a day of rejoycing all fasting upon it forbidden The great care of Constantine and the first Christian Emperours for the honour and observance of this Day Their Laws to that purpose Their constant and conscientious attendance upon publick Worship on the Lords Day Canons of ancient Councils about absenting from publick Worship Sabbatum or Saturday kept in the East as a religious day with all the publick Solemnities of Divine Worship how it came to be so Otherwise in the Western Churches observed by them as a Fast and why This not universal S. Ambrose his practice at Milain and counsel to S. Augustine in the case Their solemn Fasts either Weekly or Annual Weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays held till three in the Afternoon Annual Fast that of Lent how ancient Vpon what account called Quadragesima Observed with great strictness The Hebdomada Magna or the Holy Week kept with singular austerity and the reason of it Festivals observed by the Primitive Christians That of Easter as ancient as the times of the Apostles An account of the famous Controversie between the eastern and Western Churches about the keeping of Easter The intemperate spirit of Pope Victor Irenaeus his moderate interposal The case sinally determined by the Council of Nice The Vigils of this Feast observed with great expressions of rejoycing The bounty of Christian Emperours upon Easter-day The Feast of Pentecost how ancient Why stiled Whitsunday Dominica in Albis why so called The whole space between Easter and Whitsuntide kept Festival The Acts of the Apostles why publickly read during that time The Feast of Epiphany anciently what Christmas-day the ancient observation of it Epiphany in a strict sense what and why so called The Memoriae Martyrum what When probably first begun The great reverence they had for Martyrs Their passions stiled their Birth-day and why These anniversary Solemnities kept at the Tombs of Martyrs Over these magnificent Churches erected afterwards What religious exercises performed at those meetings The first rise of Martyrologies Oblations for Martyrs how understood in the ancient Writers of the Church These Festivals kept with great rejoycing mutual love and charity their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common Feasts Markets held for that purpose in those places The ill use which after-times made of these memorials TIme is a circumstance no less inseparable from religious actions than Place for man consisting of a soul and body cannot always be actually engaged in the service of God that 's the priviledge of Angels and souls freed from the fetters of mortality so long as
Correspondent to which the Canons called Apostolical and the Council of Antioch ordain that if any Presbyter setting light by his own Bishop shall withdraw and set up separate meetings and erect another Altar i. e. says Zonaras keep unlawful Conventicles preach privately and administer the Sacrament that in such a case he shall be deposed as ambitious and tyrannical and the people communicating with him be excommunicate as being factious and schismatical only this not to be done till after the third admonition After all that has been said I might further show what esteem and value the first Christians had of the Lords day by those great and honourable things they have spoken concerning it of which I 'll produce but two passages the one is that in the Epistle ad Magnesios which if not Ignatius must yet be acknowledged an ancient Authour Let every one says he that loves Christ keep the Lords day Festival the resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death conquered by our Lord and Saviour The other that of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who speaks thus that both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honour the Lords day and keep it Festival seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ compleated his resurrection from the dead Next to the Lords day the Sabbath or Saturday for so the word Sabbatum is constantly used in the Writings of the Fathers when speaking of it as it relates to Christians was held by them in great veneration and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnities of Religion For which we are to know that the Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews they being generally the first Converts to the Christian Faith they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaick Institutions and especially for the Sabbath as that which had been appointed by God himself as the memorial of his rest from the work of Creation setled by their great Master Moses and celebrated by their Ancestors for so many Ages as the solemn day of their publick Worship and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times as in others of the Jewish Rites so in this to indulge the humour of that people and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices Hence they usually had most parts of Divine Service performed upon that day they met together for publick Prayers for reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and such like duties This is plain not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens his Constitutions but from Writers of more unquestionable credit and authority Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assembled on Saturdays not that they were infected with Judaism but only to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and Socrates speaking of the usual times of their publick meeting calls the Sabbath and the Lords day the weekly Festivals on which the Congregation was wont to meet in the Church for the performance of Divine Services Therefore the Council of Laodicea amongst other things decreed that upon Saturdays the Gospels and other Scriptures should be read that in Lent the Eucharist should not be celebrated but upon Saturday and the Lords day and upon those days only in the time of Lent it should be lawful to commemorate and rehearse the names of Martyrs Upon this day also aswel as upon Sunday all Fasts were severely prohibited an infallible argument they counted it a Festival day one Saturday in the year only excepted viz. that before Easter-day which was always observed as a solemn Fast Things so commonly known as to need no proof But though the Church thought fit thus far to correspond with Jewish Converts as solemnly to observe the Sabbath yet to take away all offence and to vindicate themselves from compliance with Judaism they openly declared that they did it only in a Christian way and kept it not as a Jewish Sabbath as is expresly affirmed by Athanasius Nazianzen and others and the forementioned Laodicean Synod has a Canon to this purpose that Christians should not judaize and rest from all labour on the Sabbath but follow their ordinary works i. e. so far as consisted with their attendance upon the publick Assemblies and should not entertain such thoughts of it but that still they should prefer the Lords day before it and on that day rest as Christians but if any were found to judaize they should be accursed Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church in those of the West we find it somewhat different amongst them it was not observed as a religious Festival but kept as a constant Fast the reason whereof as 't is given by Pope Innonocent in an Epistle to the Bishop of Eugubium where he treats of this very case seems most probable if says he we commemorate Christs resurrection not only at Easter but every Lords day and fast upon Friday because 't was the day of his passion we ought not to pass by Saturday which is the middle-time between the days of grief and joy the Apostles themselves spending those two days viz. Friday and the Sabbath in great sorrow and heaviness and he thinks no doubt ought to be made but that the Apostles fasted upon those two days whence the Church had a Tradition that the Sacraments were not to be administred on those days and therefore concludes that every Saturday or Sabbath ought to be kept a Fast To the same purpose the Council of Illiberis ordained that a Saturday Festival was an errour that ought to be reformed and that men ought to fast upon every Sabbath But though this seems to have been the general practice yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike In Italy it self 't was otherwise at Milain where Saturday was a Festival and 't is said in the life of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of that See that he constantly dined as well upon Saturday as the Lords day it being his custom to dine upon no other days but those and the memorials of the Martyrs and used also upon that day to preach to the people though so great was the prudence and moderation of that good man that he bound not up himself in these indifferent things but when he was at Millain he dined upon Saturdays and when he was at Rome he fasted as they did upon those days This S. Augustine assures us he had from his own mouth for when his Mother Monica came after him to Millain where he then resided she was greatly troubled to find the Saturday Fast not kept there as she had found it in other places for her satisfaction he immediately went to consult S. Ambrose then Bishop of that place who told him he could give him no better
IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino Gilberto Archiep. Cantuar. à sac dom Ex Aedibus Lambeth Septemb. 12. 1672. Primitive Christianity in 3 parts Learn of me Math. 11. 29. London Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose Crown in St Pauls Churchyard Primitive Christianity OR THE RELIGION Of the Ancient Christians In the first Ages OF THE GOSPEL In Three Parts By WILLIAM CAVE D D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Paraenes ad Graec. p. 33. Nos non habitu Sapientiam sed mente praeferimus Non eloquimur magna sed vivimus Minuc Foel dial pag. 31. The Second Edition LONDON Printed by J. M. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1675. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD NATHANAEL Lord Bishop of OXFORD And Clerk of the Closet to his MAJESTY My Lord WHen I first designed that these Papers should take sanctuary at your Lordships Patronage the Hebrew Proverb presently came into my mind Keep close to a great man and men will reverence thee I knew no better way next to the innocency and if it may be usefulness of the subject I have undertaken to secure my self from the censures of envy and ill nature than by putting my self under your protection whose known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sweetness and obligingness of whose temper is able to render malice it self candid and favourable Encouraged also by this consideration I hardned my self into the confidence of this Address which I had not otherwise attempted but that your Lordships kindness and generous compassion and the mighty condescention wherewith you were always pleased to treat me while I had the happiness of your Lordships neighbourhood did at once invite and oblige me to it I say no more lest I should affront that modesty that is so innate to your temper or come within the least suspicion of flattery so repugnant to my own One thing only there is which I cannot but remark the great honour which your Lordship has done not to the Episcopal only but to the whole ministerial order that a person of your Rank and Education would stoop to an employment so little valued and regarded in this unthankful and degenerate Age. And herein your Lordship has been a happy Precedent your example being already followed by some and will shortly by more persons of Noble Descent and Pedigree a thing for which the Church of England was never more renowned since the Reformation than it is at this day My Lord There was a time within the compass of our memmory when the Bishops amongst other things were accused by one of the House of Peers though one that had not the most reason to bring in a charge of that nature to be in respect of their Parentage de faece populi of the very dregs and refuse of the people malice will play at small games rather than not at all A charge as false as it was spiteful though had it been true it had been impertinent seeing the very order is enough to derive honour upon the person even when he cannot as your Lordship bring it along with him And indeed so honourable an Order has Episcopacy ever been accounted even when there have been no visible advantages either of riches or grandeur to attend it as there were not in the more early Ages of Christianity that persons of the greatest Birth and Fortunes have not thought it below them to exchange the Civil Tribunal for the Bishops Throne and to lay down the publick Rods and Axes to take up the Crosier and the Pedum Pastorale If we may credit that Catalogue of the Bishops of Constantinople recorded by Nicephorus we find Dometius Brother to the Emperour Probus and after him his two Sons Probus and Metrophanes successively sitting in that Chair As afterwards Nectarius S. Chrysostoms Predecessor was of a Senator made Bishop of that See Thalassius became Bishop of Caesarea when he was a Senator the Praefectus Praetorio or the Emperours Lieutenant one of the highest places both of trust and honour in the Roman Empire of Illyricum and rising to greater dignities being designed by the Emperour for the Government of the East S. Ambrose whose Father was an illustrious person the Praefect of France was made Governour of Liguria and Aemilia and sent thither with Consular power and dignity during which employment he was made Bishop of Milain Petronius Bishop of Bononia is said to have been first a Praefectus Praetorio and to descend of the Family of Constantine the Great Sidonius Apollinaris descended for many Generations of noble and illustrious Parents his Father the Praefectus Praetorio of Gaul himself Son-in-Law to Avitus a person of extraordinary honour and employment and afterwards Consul and Emperour and yet in the midst of this disdained not to become Bishop of Clermont in France More such instances I could give not to speak of multitudes that were in the middle and later Ages of the Church especially in our own Nation But I return My Lord I beheld Religion generally laid waste and Christianity ready to draw its last breath stifled and oppressed with the vices and impieties of a debauched and profligate Age. To contribute towards the recovery whereof and the reducing things if possible to the ancient Standard is the design of the Book that is here offered to you The subject I assure my self is not unsuitable either to your Lordships Order temper or course of life if my ill managery of it has not rendred it unworthy of your Patronage However such as it is it 's humbly presented by him who is Your Lordships faithfully devoted Servant WILLIAM CAVE THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Know not whether it may be any satisfaction to the curiosity of the Reader to understand the birth and original of these Papers if it be let him take this account No sooner did I arrive at years capable of discerning but I began to enquire into the grounds of that Religion into which I had been baptized which I soon found to be so noble and excellent in all its laws so just and rational in all its designs so divine and heavenly so perfective of the Principles so conducive to the happiness of humane nature a Religion so worthy of God so advantageous to man built upon such firm and uncontroulable evidence back'd with such proper and powerful arguments that I was presently convinc'd of the Divinity that resided in it and concluded with my self and I thought I had reason so to do that surely the Disciples of this Religion must needs be the most excellent persons in the world But alas a few years experience of the world let me see that this was the conclusion of one that had convers'd only with Books and the reasonings of his own mind I had not been long an observer of the manners of men but I found them generally so debauched and vitious so corrupt and contrary
martyrdoms says he are recorded by Heathen-writers themselves Amongst whom I suppose he principally intends Brettius or Brutius the Historian whom he cites elsewhere and out of whom he there quotes this very passage That under Domitian many of the Christians suffered martyrdom amongst whom was Fl. Domitilla Sister's side to Fl. Clemens the Consul who for being a Christian was banished into the Island Pontia She is said after a great deal of hard and tedious usage to have been burnt together with the house wherein she was her memory celebrated in the Roman Kalendar upon the seventh of May. Besides these we find that Christianity getting ground under the quiet Reign of the Emperour Commodus many of the greatest birth and fortunes in Rome together with their whole Families flock'd over to the Christian Faith Amongst whom was Apollonius a man famous for Philosophy and all polite humane literature who so gallantly pleaded his cause before the Senate and was himself a Senatour as S. Hierom informs us I shall but mention one instance more and that is of Philip the Emperour whom Eusebius expresly affirms to have been a Christian and the first of the Emperours that was so followed herein by a whole troop both of ancient and modern Writers Nay we are told by some a formal story that this Philip and his Son were converted by the preaching of Pontius the Martyr and baptized by Fabiam Bishop of Rome But notwithstanding the smoothness of the story and the number of authorities I must confess it seems to me scarcely probable that a person of so bad a life guilty of such enormous villanies as that Emperour was should either be or be thought a Christian or if he was that the whole world should not presently ring of it Certain I am that all Historians of that time are wholly silent in the case nor is there the least intimation of any such thing in any Writer either Heathen or Christian before Eusebius Nay Origen who wrote his Book in defence of Christianity under the Reign of this very Emperour and about this very time nay and two Epistles one to Philip the other to his Wife Severa if we may believe Eusebius yet not only makes no mention of it when it would have made greatly for his purpose but tacitely implies there was no such thing For Celsus reproving the boldness and petulancy of the Christians as if they should give out that if they could but bring over the present Emperours to their Religion all other men would quickly be brought over Origen point blanck denies the Charge and tells him there 's no need of any answer for that none of the Christians ever said so An answer which surely he would not have given had the Emperour at that time been a Christian not to insist upon many other intimations which might be produc'd out of that Book against it Besides Eutropius reports that Philip and his Son being slain by the Souldiers were yet inter Divos relati deified or advanced into the number of their Gods An honour which 't is certain the Senate would not have done them had they either been or but suspected to have been Christians To all which I may add that Eusebius himself in whom the first footsteps of this story appear builds it upon no better a foundation than a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare tradition and report That which seems to have given both birth and colour to the story is this One Philippus an illustrious person under the Emperour Severus was a long time Governour of Egypt he by the means of his Daughter Eugenia was converted to Christianity under whose shelter the Christians there enjoyed great peace and favour nay the story adds though certainly without any ground that he was created Bishop of Alexandria till the Emperour being acquainted with his being a Christian presently remov'd him and by the help of his Successor Terentius caus'd him to be secretly murdered and made away This if any thing was the rise of the story and that which makes it more probable is the honour and excellency of that employment the greatest of all the Offices in the Roman Empire the command and state little less than regal and therefore the Emperours in their Letter to this Philip wherein they reproach him for ingratitude and apostasie tell him that in a manner he was made a King when he was chosen President of Egypt Accordingly the title of the Governour of Egypt as appears from the Historians but especially the Notitia Imperii was Praefectus Augustalis and how easie was it to mistake Philippus Augustus for Philippus Augustalis But enough of this as also the falseness of that charge that the Christians were such a sorry inconsiderable people But however let us suppose them to have been as mean and poor as the malice and cruelty of their adversaries did endeavour to make them yet this was no real prejudice to their cause nor any great hurt to them That the most part of us are accused to be poor says Octavius in answer to Caecilius his charge 't is not our dishonour but our glory the mind as 't is dissolv'd by plenty and luxury so 't is strengthened and girt close by indigence and frugality and yet how can that man be poor who wants not who is not greedy of what 's another mans who is rich in and towards God that man is rather poor who when he has a great deal desires more the truth is no man can be so poor as he was when he was born the Birds live without any patrimony entail'd upon them and the Beasts find pastures every day and yet these are born for our use all which we fully enjoy when we do not covet them much lighter and happier does he go to Heaven who is not burdened by the way with an unnecessary load of riches and yet did we think estates so useful to us we could beg them of God who being Lord of all might well afford a little to us but we had rather despise them than enjoy them and rather chuse innocency and patience desiring more to be good than to be great and prodigal If we endure outward sufferings and tortures 't is not so much pain as 't is a warfare our courage is encreased by infirmities and calamity is very oft the discipline of virtue the nerves both of body and mind without exercise would grow loose and faint and therefore God is neither unable to help us not yet negligent of us as being the Governour of the world and the Father of his Children but trys and examines every ones temper in an adverse state as Gold is tryed in the fire Besides it must needs be a sight very pleasing to God to behold a Christian conflicting with grief and misery preparing himself to encounter threatenings and torments pressing in upon the very noise of death and the horrour of the Executioner maintaining
and circumstances of it as will easily appear if we consider what care they had about the place time persons and both the matter and manner of that Worship that they performed to God under each of which we shall take notice of what is most considerable and does most properly relate to it so far as the Records of those times give us an account of it Place is an inseparable circumstance of Religious Worship for every body by the natural necessity of its being requires some determinate place either for rest or motion now the Worship of God being in a great part an external action especially when performed by the joint concurrence of several persons does not only necessarily require a place but a place conveniently capacious of all that join together in the same publick actions of Religion This reason put all Nations even by the light of Nature upon erecting publick places for the honour of their gods and for their own conveniency in meeting together to pay their religious services and devotions But my present enquiry reaches no farther than the Primitive Christians not whether they met together for the discharge of their common duties which I suppose none can doubt of but whether they had Churches fixed and appropriate places for the joint performance of their publick offices And that they had even in those early times will I think be beyond all dispute if we take but a short survey of those first Ages of Christianity in the sacred Story we find some more than probable footsteps of some determinate places for their solemn conventions and peculiar only to that use Of this nature was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vpper Room into which the Apostles and Disciples after their return from the ascension of our Saviour went up as into a place commonly known and separate to that use there by fasting and prayer to make choice of a new Apostle and this supposed by a very ancient tradition to have been the same room wherein our Saviour the night before his death celebrated the Passover with his Disciples and instituted the Lords Supper Such a one if not which I rather think the same was that one place wherein they were all assembled with one accord upon the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost visibly came down upon them and this the rather because the multitude and they too strangers of every Nation under heaven came so readily to the place upon the first rumour of so strange an accident which could hardly have been had it not been commonly known to be the place where the Christians used to meet together and this very learned men take to be the meaning of that Act. 2. 46. they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as we render it from house to house but at home as 't is in the margin or in the house they ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart i.e. when they had performed their daily devotions at the Temple at the accustomed hours of prayer they used to return home to this Vpper Room there to celebrate the holy Eucharist and then go to their ordinary meals this seems to be a clear and unforc'd interpretation and to me the more probable because it immediately follows upon their assembling together in that one place at the day of Pentecost which Room is also called by the same name of house at the second Verse of that Chapter and 't is no ways unlikely as M. Mede conjectures but that when the first Believers sold their Houses and Lands and laid the money at the Apostles feet to supply the necessities of the Church some of them might give their houses at least some eminent Room in them for the Church to meet and perform their sacred duties which also may be the reason why the Apostles writing to particular Christians speaks so often of the Church that was in their house which seems clearly to intimate not so much the particular persons of any private Family living together under the same band of Christian discipline as that in such or such a house and more especially in this or that room of it there was the constant and solemn convention of the Christians of that place for their joynt celebration of divine Worship And this will be farther cleared by that famous passage of S. Paul where taxing the Corinthians for their irreverence and abuse of the Lords Supper one greedily eating before another and some of them to great excess What says he have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God Where that by Church is not meant the Assembly meeting but the place in which they used to assemble is evident partly from what went before for their coming together in the Church verse 18. is expounded by their coming together into one place verse 20. plainly arguing that the Apostle meant not the persons but the place partly from the opposition which he makes between the Church and their own private houses if they must have such irregular Banquets they had houses of their own where 't was much fitter to do it and to have their ordinary repast than in that place which was set apart for the common exercises of Religion and therefore ought not to be dishonoured by such extravagant and intemperate feastings for which cause he enjoins them in the close of that Chapter that if any man hunger he should eat at home And that this place was always thus understood by the Fathers of old were no hard matter to make out as also by most learned men of later times of which it shall suffice to intimate two of our own men of great name and learning who have done it to great satisfaction Thus stood the case during the Apostles times for the Ages after them we find that the Christians had their fixed and definite places of Worship especially in the second Century as had we no other evidence might be made good from the testimony of the Authour of that Dialogue in Lucian if not Lucian himself of which I see no great cause to doubt who lived under the Reign of Trajan and who expresly mentions that House or Room wherein the Christians were wont to assemble together And Clemens in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians assures us that Christ did not only appoint the times when the persons by whom but the places where he would be solemnly served and worshipped And Justin Martyr expresly affirms that upon Sunday all Christians whether in Town or Country used to assemble together in one place which could hardly be done had not that place been fixed and setled the same we find afterwards in several places of Tertullian who speaks of their coming into the Church and the House of God which he elsewhere calls the House of our Dove i.e. our innocent and Dove-like Religion and
we are here we must worship God with respect to our present state and consequently of necessity have some definite and particular time to do it in Now that man might not be left to a floating uncertainty in a matter of so great importance in all Ages and Nations men have been guided by the very dictates of Nature to pitch upon some certain seasons wherein to assemble and meet together to perform the publick offices of Religion What and how many were the publick Festivals instituted and observed either amongst Jews or Gentiles I am not concerned to take notice of For the ancient Christians they ever had their peculiar seasons their solemn and stated times of meeting together to perform the common duties of Divine Worship of which because the Lords-Day challenges the precedency of all the rest we shall begin first with that And being unconcern'd in all the controversies which in the late times were raised about it I shall only note some instances of the piety of Christians in reference to this day which I have observed in passing through the Writers of those times For the name of this day of Publick Worship it is sometimes especially by Justin Martyr and Tertullian called Sunday because it hapned upon that day of the week which by the Heathens was dedicated to the Sun and therefore as being best known to them the Fathers commonly made use of it in their Apologies to the Heathen Governours This title continued after the world became Christian and seldom it is that it passes under any other name in the Imperial Edicts of the first Christian Emperours But the more proper and prevailing name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dies Dominica the Lords-day as 't is called by S. John himself as being that day of the Week whereon our Lord made his triumphant return from the dead this Justin Martyr assures us was the true original of the title upon Sunday says he we all assemble and meet together as being the first day wherein God parting the darkness from the rude chaos created the world and the same day whereon Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead for he was crucified the day before Saturday and the day after which is Sunday he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples by this means observing a kind of analogy and proportion with the Jewish Sabbath which had been instituted by God himself For as that day was kept as a commemoration of Gods Sabbath or resting from the work of Creation so was this set apart to religious uses as the solemn memorial of Christs resting from the work of our redemption in this world compleated upon the day of his resurrection Which brings into my mind that custom of theirs so universally common in those days that whereas at other times they kneeled at prayers on the Lords day they always prayed standing as is expresly affirmed both by Justin Martyr and Tertullian the reason of which we find in the Authour of the Questions and Answers in J. Martyr it is says he that by this means we may be put in mind both of our fall by sin our resurrection or restitution by the grace of Christ that for six days we pray upon our knees is in token of our fall by sin but that on the Lords day we do not bow the knee does symbolically represent our resurrection by which through the grace of Christ we are delivered from our sins and the powers of death this he there tells us was a custom deriv'd from the very times of the Apostles for which he cites Irenaeus in his Book concerning Easter And this custom was maintained with so much vigour that when some began to neglect it the great Council of Nice took notice of it and ordained that there should be a constant uniformity in this case and that on the Lords day and at such other times as were usual men should stand when they made their prayers to God So fit and reasonable did they think it to do all possible honour to that day on which Christ rose from the dead Therefore we may observe all along in the sacred story that after Christs resurrection the Apostles and primitive Christians did especially assemble upon the first day of the week and whatever they might do at other times yet there are many passages that intimate that the first day of the week was their more solemn time of meeting on this day it was that they were met together when our Saviour first appeared to them and so again the next week after on this day they were assembled when the Holy Ghost so visibly came down upon them when Peter preached that excellent Sermon converted and baptized three thousand souls Thus when S. Paul was taking his leave at Troas upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread i.e. as almost all agree to celebrate the holy Sacrament he preached to them sufficiently intimating that upon that day 't was their usual custom to meet in that manner and elsewhere giving directions to the Church of Corinth as he had done in the like case to other Churches concerning their contributions to the poor suffering Brethren he bids them lay it aside upon the first day of the week which seems plainly to respect their religious assemblies upon that day for then it was that every one according to his ability deposited something for the relief of the poor and the uses of the Church After the Apostles the Christians constantly observed this day meeting together for prayer expounding and hearing of the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and other publick duties of Religion Vpon the day called Sunday says J. Martyr all of us that live either in City or Country meet together in one place and what they then did he there describes of which afterwards This doubtless Pliny meant when giving Trajan an account of the Christians he tells him that they were wont to meet together to worship Christ stato die upon a set certain day by which he can be reasonably understood to design no other but the Lords day for though they probably met at other times yet he takes notice of this only either because the Christians whom he had examin'd had not told him of their meeting at other times or because this was their most publick and solemn convention and which in a manner swallowed up the rest By the violent persecutions of those times the Christians were forced to meet together before day so Pliny in the same place tells the Emperour that they assembled before day-light to sing their morning hymns to Christ Whence it is that Tertullian so often mentions their nocturnal convocations for putting the case that his Wife after his decease should marry with a Gentile-Husband amongst other inconveniencies he asks her whether she thought he would be willing to let her rise from his Bed to go to their night-meetings
and in the case of persecution he tells Fabius that if they could not celebrate Dominica solennia their Lords-Day Solemnities in the day time they had the night sufficiently clear with the light of Christ This gave occasion to their spightful Adversaries to calumniate and asperse them the Heathen in Minucius charges them with their night-Congregations upon which account they are there scornfully called latebrosa lucifugax natio an obscure and skulking Generation and the very first thing that Celsus objects is that the Christians had private and clancular Assemblies or Combinations to which Origen answers that if it were so they might thank them for it who would not suffer them to exercise it more openly that the Christian Doctrine was sufficiently evident and obvious and better known through the world than the opinion and sentiments of their best Philosophers and that if there were some mysteries in the Christian Religion which were not communicated to every one 't was no other thing than what was common in the several Sects of their own Philosophy But to return They looked upon the Lords-Day as a time to be celebrated with great expressions of joy as being the happy memory of Christs resurrection and accordingly restrained whatever might savour of sorrow and sadness fasting on that day they prohibited with the greatest severity accounting it utterly unlawful as Tertullian informs us It was a very bitter censure that of Ignatius or whoseever that Epistle was for certainly it was not his that who ever fasts on a Lords-Day is a murderer of Christ however 't is certain that they never fasted on those days no not in the time of Lent it self nay the Montanists though otherwise great pretenders to fasting and mortification did yet abstain from it on the Lords-day And as they accounted it a joyful and good day so they did what ever they thought might contribute to the honour of it No sooner was Constantine come over to the Church but his principal care was about the Lords-day he commanded it to be solemnly observed and that by all persons whatsoever he made it to all a day of rest that men might have nothing to do but to worship God and be better instructed in the Christian Faith and spend their whole time without any thing to hinder them in prayer and devotion according to the custom and discipline of the Church and for those in his Army who yet remained in their Paganism and infidelity he commanded them upon Lords-days to go out into the Fields and there pour out their souls in hearty prayers to God and that none might pretend their own inability to the duty he himself composed and gave them a short form of prayer which he enjoin'd them to make use of every Lords-Day so careful was he that this day should not be dishonoured or mis-imployed even by those who were yet strangers and enemies to Christianity He moreover ordained that there should be no Courts of Judicature open upon this day no Suits or Tryals at Law but that for any works of mercy such as the emancipating and setting free of Slaves or Servants this might be done That there should be no Suits nor demanding debts upon this day was confirmed by several Laws of succeeding Emperours and that no Arbitrators who had the Umpirage of any business lying before them should at that time have power to determine or take up litigious causes penalties being entail'd upon any that transgressed herein Theodosius the Great anno 386. by a second Law ratified one which he had passed long before wherein he expresly prohibited all publick Shews upon the Lords-Day that the worship of God might not be confounded with those prophane Solemnities This Law the younger Theodosius some few years after confirmed and enlarged enacting that on the Lords day and some other Festivals there mentioned not only Christians but even Jews and Heathens should be restrained from the pleasure of all Sights and Spectacles and the Theatres be shut up in every place and whereas it might so happen that the Birth-day or inauguration of the Emperour might fall upon that day therefore to let the people know how infinitely he preferred the honour of God before the concerns of his own majesty and greatness he commanded that if it should so happen that then the imperial Solemnity should be put off and deferred till another day I shall take notice but of one instance more of their great observance of this day and that was their constant attendance upon the Solemnities of publick Worship they did not think it enough to read and pray and praise God at home but made conscience of appearing in the publick Assemblies from which nothing but sickness and absolute necessity did detain them and if sick or in prison or under banishment nothing troubled them more than that they could not come to Church and join their devotions to the common Services If persecution at any time forced them to keep a little close yet no sooner was there the least mitigation but they presently returned to their open duty and publickly met all together No trivial pretences no light excuses were then admitted for any ones absence from the Congregation but according to the merit of the cause severe censures were passed upon them The Synod of Illiberis provided that if any man dwelling in a City where usually Churches were nearest hand should for three Lords Days absent himself from the Church he should for some time be suspended the Communion that he might appear to be corrected for his fault They allowed no separate Assemblies no Congregations but what met in the publick Church if any man took upon him to make a breach and to draw people into corners he was presently condemned and a sutable penalty put upon him When Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia a man petending to great strictness and austerity of life began to cast off the Discipline of the Church and to introduce many odd observations of his own amongst others to contemn Priests that were married to fast on the Lords day and to keep meetings in private houses drawing away many but especially women as the Historian observes who leaving their Husbands were led away with errour and from that into great filthiness and impurity No sooner did the Bishops of those parts discover it but meeting in Council at Gangra the Metropolis of Paphlagonia about the year 340. they condemned and cast them out of the Church passing these two Canons among the rest If any one shall teach that the House of God is to be despised and the assemblies that are held in it let him be accursed If any shall take upon him out of the Church privately to preach at home and making light of the Church shall do those things that belong only to the Church without the presence of the Priest and the leave and allowance of the Bishop let him be accursed
being part of the form used in their publick Service Let us pray that the most gracious and merciful God would hear the prayers of the Catechumens and what it was they prayed for he presently add viz. that they might no longer remain in that state Upon these accounts initiation by Baptism but especially admission to the Lords Supper is amongst other titles in the Writers of those times called Desiderata because so earnestly desired and sought for by those that were not yet taken in The truth is till persons arrived at this state they were not accounted Christians or but in a large sense as Candidates that stood in order to it and therefore could not satisfie themselves either to live or dye in that condition wherein they wanted the great seals and pledges of their Christianity Thirdly to beget in mens minds the higher esteem and veneration for these religious mysteries nothing producing a greater contempt even in sacred things than too much openness and familiarity So that a little obscurity and concealment might seem necessary to vindicate them from contempt and secure the majesty and reverence that was due to them This made the Fathers Seniors of the Church says S. Basil in prescribing Rites and Laws leave many things in the dark behind the vail and curtain that they might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserve the sacredness and dignity that was due to the mysteries of Religion For a thing says he cannot properly be said to be a mystery when 't is once expos'd to every vulgar and common ear But of this enough if not too much And as they were careful to keep the higher parts of Christianity within the cognizance of the faithful so they were not less careful to teach and instruct the Catechumens in all those principles they were capable of being taught This at their first coming over was done privately and at home by persons deputed on purpose to that office by the Bishop as Balsamon clearly intimates till they were sufficiently instructed in the first and more intelligible principles of the faith Then they were admitted into the Congregation and suffered to be present at some parts of the Divine Service especially the Sermons which were made for the building them up unto higher measures of knowledge which being ended they were commanded to depart the Church not being suffered to be present at the more solemn Rites especially the celebration of the Lords Supper and in this manner they were trained up till they were initiated by baptism and taken into the highest form of Christians How long persons remained in the state of the Catechumens is difficult to determine it not being always nor in all places alike but longer in some and shorter in others and probably according to the capacity of the persons The Apostolick Constitutions appoint three years for the Catechumen to be instructed but provide withal that if any one be diligent and virtuous and have a ripeness of understanding for the thing he may be admitted to Baptism sooner for say they not the space of time but the fitness and manners of men are to be regarded in this matter The next sort were the Penitents such as for some misdemeanours were under the censures and severity of the Church and were gradually to obtain absolution from it Of these there were several degrees five especially mentioned by S. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea who liv'd about the year 250. The first were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as wept and lamented and were rather Candidates to be received into the order of Penitents than Penitents properly so called These usually stood in a squalid and mournful habit at the Church-Porch with tears and great importunity begging of the Faithful as they went in to pray for them The second were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hearers who were admitted to hear the holy Scriptures read and expounded to the people Their station was at the upper end of the Narthex or first part of the Church and were to depart the Congregation at the same time with the Catechumens The third Class of Penitents was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prostrate because service being ended they fell down before the Bishop who together with the Congregation falling down and making confession in their behalf after rais'd them up and laid his hands upon them These stood within the body of the Church next the Pulpit or Reading-Pew and were to depart together with the Catechumens The fourth were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Consistentes such as stayed with the rest of the Congregation and did not depart with the Catechumens but after they and the other Penitents were gone out stayed and joined in prayer and singing but not in receiving the Sacrament with the faithful These after some time were advanced into the fifth and last order of the Communicantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Gregory calls it and were admitted to the participation of the holy Sacrament This was the state of the Penitents in the primitive Church Persons having fully passed through the state of the Catechumenate became then immediate Candidates of Baptism presented their names to the Bishop and humbly prostrating themselves begged that they might be entred into the Church These were called Competentes because they did Competere gratiam Christi sue for the grace of Christ conferred in Baptism The last rank was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Faithful who having been baptized and confirmed and having approved themselves by the long train and course of a strict pious life were then admitted to the participation of the Lords Supper which being the highest and most venerable mystery of the Christian Religion was not then rashly given to any but to such only as had run through all other degrees and by a course of piety evidenced themselves to be such real and faithful Christians as that the highest mysteries and most solemn parts of Religion might be committed to them This was the highest order and looked upon with great regard and for any of this rank to lapse and be overtaken with a fault cost them severer penances than were imposed upon the inferiour forms of Christians This in short was the state of the people But because 't is not possible any body or community of men should be regularly managed without some particular persons to superintend direct and govern the affairs of the whole Society therefore we are next to enquire what persons there were in the primitive Church that were peculiarly set apart to steer its affairs and to attend upon the publick Offices and Ministrations of it That God always had a peculiar people whom he selected for himself out of the rest of mankind is too evident to need any proof Such were the Patriarchs and the holy seed of old such the Jews chosen by him above all other Nations in the world This was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
his particular lot and portion comprehending the body of the people in general But afterwards this title was confin'd to narrower bounds and became appropriate to that Tribe which God had made choice of to stand before him to wait at his Altar and to minister in the services of his Worship And after the expiration of their Oeconomy was accordingly used to denote the ministry of the Gospel the persons peculiarly consecrated and devoted to the service of God in the Christian Church the Clergie being those qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt as they are defin'd in a Law of the Emperour Constantine who are set apart for the ministeries of Religion in matters relating to the Divine Worship Now the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is often called in the Apostles Canons the roll of the Clergie of the ancient Church taking it within the compass of its first four hundred years consisted of two sorts of persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were peculiarly consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of the Worship of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were set apart only for the more mean and common services of the Church Of the first sort were these three Bishops Presbyters and Deacons The first and principal Officer of the Church was the President or Bishop usually chosen out of the Presbyters I shall not here concern my self in the disputes whether Episcopacy as a superior order to Presbytery was of divine institution a controversie sufficiently ventilated in the late times it being enough to my purpose what is acknowledged both by Blondel and Salmasius the most learned defenders of Presbytery that Bishops were distinct from and superior to Presbyters in the second Century or the next Age to the Apostles The main work and office of a Bishop was to teach and instruct the people to administer the Sacraments to absolve Penitents to eject and excommunicate obstinate and incorrigible offenders to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers in the Church to call them to account and to suspend or deal with them according to the nature of the offence to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws and to appoint and institute such indifferent Rites as were for the decent and orderly administration of his Church In short according to the notation of his name he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Watchman and Sentinal and therefore oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and carefully to inspect and observe to superintend and provide for those that were under his charge This Zonaras tells us was implied in the Bishops Throne being placed on high in the most eminent part of the Church to denote how much 't was his duty from thence to overlook and very diligently to observe the people that were under him These and many more were the unquestionable rights and duties of the Episcopal Office which because it was very difficult and troublesom for one man to discharge especially where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diocess as we now call it was any thing large therefore upon the multiplying of Country Churches it was thought fit to take in a subordinate sort of Bishops called Chorepiscopi Country or as amongst us they have been called suffragan Bishops whose business it was to superintend and inspect the Churches in the Country that lay more remote from the City where the Episcopal See was and which the Bishop could not always inspect and oversee in his own person These were the Vicarii Episcoporum as they are called in Isidores Version of the thirteenth Canon both of the Ancyran and Neocaesarean Council the Bishops Deputies chosen out of the fittest and gravest persons In the Canon of the last mentioned Council they are said to be chosen in imitation of the seventy not the seventy Elders which Moses took in to bear part of the Government as some have glossed the words of that Canon but of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord made choice of to send up and down the Countries to preach the Gospel as both Zonaras and Balsamon understand it and thereupon by reason of their great care and pains are commanded to be esteemed very honourable Their authority was much greater than that of Presbyters and yet much inferior to the Bishop Bishops really they were though their power confin'd within narrow limits they were not allowed to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons unless peculiarly licens'd to it by the Bishop of the Diocess though they might ordain sub-Deacons Readers and any inferiour Officers under them They were to be assistant to the Bishop might be present at Synods and Councils to many whereof we find their subscriptions and had power to give Letters of peace i. e. such Letters whereby the Bishop of one Diocess was wont to recommend any of his Clergy to the Bishop of another that so a fair understanding and correspondence might be maintained between them a priviledge expresly denied to any Presbyter whatsoever But lest this wandring employment of the Chorepiscopi should reflect any dishonour upon the Episcopal Office there were certain Presbyters appointed in their room called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters often mentioned in the ancient Canons and Acts of Councils who being tied to no certain place were to go up and down the Country to observe and correct what was amiss And these doubtless were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the thirteenth Canon of the Neocaesarean Council those rural Presbyters who are there forbid to consecrate the Eucharist in the City Church in the presence of the Bishop or the Presbyters of the City As Christianity encreased and overspread all parts and especially the Cities of the Empire it was found necessary yet farther to enlarge the Episcopal Office and as there was commonly a Bishop in every great City so in the Metropolis as the Romans called it the Mother City of every Province wherein they had Courts of Civil Judicature there was an Archbishop or a Metropolitan who had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all the Churches within that Province He was superior to all the Bishops within those limits to him it belonged either to ordain or to ratifie the elections and ordinations of all the Bishops within his Province insomuch that without his confirmation they were looked upon as null and void Once at least every year he was to summon the Bishops under him to a Synod to enquire into and direct the Ecclesiastical affairs within that Province to inspect the lives and manners the opinions and principles of his Bishops to admonish reprove and suspend them that were disorderly and irregular if any controversies or contentions happened between any of them he was to have the hearing and determination of them and indeed no matter of moment was done within the whole Province without first consulting him in the case Besides this Metropolitan there was many times another in the same
they held not in the morning only but likewise in the afternoon at some times at least when they had their publick Prayers and Sermons to the people This Chrysostom assures us of in an Homily upon this very subject in commendation of those who came to Church after Dinner and that as he tells them in greater numbers than before who instead of sleeping after Dinner came to hear the divine Laws expounded to them instead of walking upon the Exchange and entertaining themselves with idle and unprofitable chat came and stood amongst their brethren to converse with the discourses of the Prophets And this he tells them he put them in mind of not that it was a reproach to eat and to drink but that having done so it was a shame to stay at home and deprive themseâ—ves of those religious Solemnities The same 't were easie to make good from several passages in S. Basil S. Augustine and others who frequently refer to those Sermons which they had preached in the morning But how many soever the discourses were the people were ready enough to entertain them flocking to them as to their spiritual meals and banquets We meet together says Tertullian to hear the holy Scriptures rehearsed to us that so according to the quality of the times we may be either forewarned or corrected by them for certainly with these holy words we nourish our Faith erect our hope seal our confidence and by these inculcations are the better established in obedience to the divine commands Nazianzen tells us what vast numbers used to meet in his Church at Constantinople of all Sexes of all sorts and ranks of persons rich and poor honourable and ignoble learned and simple Governours and People Souldiers and Tradesmen all here unanimously conspiring together and greedily desirous to learn the knowledge of divine things The like Chrysostom reports of the Church at Antioch that they would set aside all affairs at home to come and hear Sermons at Church he tells them 't was the great honour of the City not so much that it had large Suburbs and vast numbers of people or brave houses with gilded Dining-Rooms as that it had a diligent and attentive people And elsewhere that 't was the great encouragement of his ministry to see such a famous and chearful concourse a people so well ordered and desirous to hear that 't was this advanced their City above the honour of a Senate or the Office of Consul or the variety of Statues or ornaments or the plenty of its Merchandise or the commodiousness of its scituation in that its people were so earnest to hear and learn its Churches so thronged and crowded and all persons inflamed with such an insatiable desire of the word that was preached to them yea that this it was that adorned the City even above Rome it self And indeed the commendation is the greater in that commonness did not breed contempt it being usual in that Church as Chrysostom often intimates for a good part of the year to have Sermons every day Well Sermon being ended prayers were made with and for the Catechumens Penitents Possessed and the like according to their respective capacities and qualifications the persons that were in every rank departing as soon as the prayer that particularly concerned them was done first the Catechumens and then the Penitents as is prescribed in the nineteenth Canon of the Laodicean Council for no sooner was the service thus far performed but all that were under baptism or under the discipline of penance i. e. all that might not communicate at the Lords Table were commanded to depart the Deacon crying aloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are Catechumens go out in the Latine Church the form was ITE MISSA EST depart there is a dismission of you missa being the same with missio as remissa oft used in some Writers for remissio and so the word missa is used by Cassian even in his time for the dismission of the Congregation Hence it was that the whole Service from the beginning of it till the time that the Hearers were dismissed came to be called Missa Catechumenorum the Mass or Service of the Catechumens as that which was performed afterwards at the celebration of the Eucharist was called Missa Fidelium the Mass or Service of the Faithful because none but they were present at it and in these notions and no other the word is often to be met with in Tertullian and other ancient Writers of the Church 't is true that in process of time as the discipline of the Catechumens wore out so that title which belonged to the first part of the Service was forgotten and the name missa was appropriated to the Service of the Lords Supper and accordingly was made use of by the Church of Rome to denote that which they peculiarly call the Mass or the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Altar at this day and the more plausibly to impose this delusion upon the people they do with a great deal of confidence muster up all those places of the Fathers where the word missa is to be found and apply it to their Mass though it would puzle them to produce but one place where the word is used in the same sense as they use it now out of any genuine and approved Writer of the Church for at least the first four hundred years But to return the Catechumens c. being departed and the Church doors shut they proceeded to the Lords Supper at which the Faithful only might be present wherein they prayed for all states and ranks of men gave the the Kiss of charity prayed for consecration of the Eucharist then received the sacramental Elements made their Offerings and such like of which I do not now speak particularly because I intend to treat distinctly of the Sacraments afterwards for the same reason I say nothing concerning their admonitions Church-censures absolutions c. because these will come under consideration in another place as also because though managed at their publick Assemblies were yet only accidental to them and no setled parts of the Divine Service This in short was the general form of publick Worship in those ancient times which although it might vary somewhat according to times and places did yet for the main and the substance of it hold in all That which remains is a little to remarque how the Christians carried themselves in the discharge of these solemn duties which certainly was with singular reverence and devotion such gestures and actions as they conceived might express the greatest piety and humility Let both men and women says Clemens of Alexandria come to Church in comely apparel with a grave pace with a modest silence with a love unfeigned chast both in body and mind and so as they may be fit to put up prayers to God Let our speech in prayer says Cyprian be under discipline observing a decorous calmness
and modesty we are to remember that we are under the eye of God whom we are not to offend either in the habit of our body or the manner of our speech for as 't is the fashion of those that are impudent to clamour and make a noise so on the contrary it becomes a sober man to pray with a modest voice when therefore we come together with our brethren into the Assembly to celebrate the divine Sacrifices with the Minister of God we ought to be mindful of order and a reverent regard and not to throw about our prayers with a wild and confused voice or with a disorderly prattling to cast forth those petitions which ought with the greatest modesty to be put up to God The men prayed with their heads bare as not ashamed to look up to heaven for what they begged of God the women covered as a sign of the modesty of that Sex and therefore Tertullian severely checks the practice of some women in his time who in time of worship had no covering on their heads or what was as good as none what reproof says he do they deserve that continue unvailed in singing Psalms or in any mention of God or do they think it 's enough to lay some thin and slight thing over their heads in prayer and then think themselves covered Where he manifestly refers to those rules which the Apostle prescribes in this case and concludes at last that they should at all times and in all places be mindful of the rule being ready and provided against all mention of the name of God who if he be in womens hearts will be known on their heads viz. by a modest carriage and covering of them in their addresses to him Their hands they did not only lift up to heaven a posture in prayer common both among Jews and Gentiles but they did expan and spread them abroad that so by this means they might shadow out an image of the Cross or rather a resemblance of him that hung upon it as Tertullian more than once and again informs us Prayer says another is a conversing with God and the way to heaven and to stretch out our hands is to form the resemblance of Christ crucified which whoever prays should do not only as to the form and figure but in reality and affection for as he that is fastned to the Cross surely dyes so he that prays should crucifie the desires of the flesh and every inordinate lust and passion In the performing of this duty they either kneeled which was most usual or stood which they always did upon the Lords day for a reason which we have spoken of before fitting was ever held a posture of great rudeness and irreverence nay Tertullian falls heavy upon some that used presently to clap themselves down upon their seats as soon as ever prayer was done and down-right charges it as against Scripture if it be an irreverent thing as he argues to sit down before or over against a person for whom thou hast a mighty reverence and veneration how much more does it savour of irreligion to do so in the presence of the living God while the Angel is yet standing by thee to carry up the prayer to heaven unless we have a mind to reproach God to his face and tell him that we are weary of the duty Another custom which they had in prayer was that they constantly prayed towards the East this was so universally common that there 's scarce any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer but speaks of it though not many of them agree in assigning the reason of it the custom doubtless begun very early and is generally ascribed to the Apostles so the Author of the Questions and Answers assures us and tells us it was because the East was accounted the most excellent part of the Creation and seeing in prayer we must turn our faces towards some quarter 't was fittest it should be towards the East just says he as in making the sign of the Cross in the name of Christ we use the right hand because 't is better than the left not in its own nature but only in its positure and fitness for our use S. Basil likewise reckons it amongst the traditions that had been derived from the Apostles but tells us the Mystery of it was that hereby they respected Paradise which God planted in the East begging of him that they might be restored to that ancient Country from whence they had been cast out This might probably be with those who dwelt in the Western parts of the world but how it could be done by those who lived East of the Garden of Eden suppose in any parts of India I am not able to imagine Clemens Alex. tells us that herein they had respect to Christ for as the East is the birth and womb of the natural day from whence the Sun the Fountain of all sensible light does arise and spring so Christ the true Sun of righteousness who arose upon the world with the light of truth when it sat in the darkness of errour and ignorance is in Scripture stiled the East and therefore our prayers are directed thither For which reason Tertullian calls the East the figure or the type of Christ but whatever the true reason was I 'm sure 't is a sober account which Athanasius gives of it we do not says he worship towards the East as if we thought God any ways shut up in those parts of the world but because God is in himself and is so stiled in Scripture the true light in turning therefore towards that created light we do not worship it but the great Creator of it taking occasion from that most excellent element to adore that God who was before all elements and ages of the world This was their carriage for prayer nor were they less humble and reverent in other parts of Worship they heard the Scriptures read and preached with all possible gravity and attention which that they might the better do they were wont to stand all the while the Sermon continued none sitting then but the Bishop and Presbyters that were about him so Optatus expresly tells us that the people had no priviledge to sit down in the Church though whether the custom was universally so in all places I much doubt nay S. Augustine tells us that in some transmarine I suppose he means the Western Churches it was otherwise the people having seats placed for them as well as the Ministers But generally the people stood partly to express the reverence partly to keep their attentions awake and lively Hence it was part of the Deacons Office as Chrysostom tells us and the same we find in the ancient Greek Liturgies to call upon the people with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us duly stand upright respecting the decent posture of their bodies though withal principally intending the
off the sacred obligation of thy Baptism and the true faith which thou didst then profess and take upon thee Thesese were the main and most considerable circumstances wherewith Baptism was administred in the primitive Church some whereof were by degrees antiquated and disused other rites there were that belonged only to particular Churches and which as they were suddenly taken up so were as quickly laid aside others were added in after-times till they encreased so fast that the usage and the number of them became absurd and burdensom as may appear by the office for Baptism in the Romish Ritual at this day As a conclusion to this Chapter I had once thought to have treated concerning Confirmation which ever was a constant appendage to Baptism and had noted some things to that purpose but shall supersede that labour finding it so often and so fully done by others in just discourses that nothing considerable can be added to them only I shall give this brief and general account of it all persons baptized in the ancient Church according to their age and capacity persons adult some little time after Baptism Children when arrived to years of competent ripeness and maturity were brought to the Bishop there further to confirm and ratifie that compact which they had made with God in Baptism and by some solemn acts of his ministry to be themselves confirmed and strengthned by having the grace and blessing of God conferred upon them to enable them to discharge that great promise and engagement which they had made to God This was usually performed with the Ceremony of Vnction the person confirmed being anointed by the Bishop or in his absence by an inferiour Minister and indeed Unction was an ancient rite used in the Jewish Church to denote the conferring of gifts or graces upon persons and thence probably amongst other reasons as many other usages were might be derived into the Christian Church though a learned man is of opinion that unction was never used in confirmation but where the person being in case of necessity baptized by some of the inferior Clergy had not been before anointed otherwise those who had received compleat Baptism were not afterwards anointed at their confirmation for which the Council of Orange is most express and clear And indeed that Confirmation was often administred without this unction no man can doubt that knows the state of those times being done only by solemn imposition of the Bishops hands and by devout and pious prayers that the persons confirmed might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and be enabled to perform those vows and purposes and that profession of Faith which they had before embraced in Baptism and then again owned before the whole Congregation Till this was done they were not accounted compleat Christians nor admitted to the holy Communion nor could challenge any actual right to those great priviledges of Christianity whence it is that the Ancients so often speak of Confirmation as that which did perfect and consummate Christians as being a means to confer greater measures of that grace that was but begun in Baptism upon all which accounts and almost exactly according to the primitive usage it is still retained and practised in our own Church at this day and happy were it for us were it kept up in its due power and vigour sure I am 't is too plain that many of our unhappy breaches and controversies in Religion do if not wholly in a great measure owe their birth and rise to the neglect and contempt of this excellent usage of the Church CHAP. XI Of the Lords Supper and the administration of it in the ancient Church The persons dispensing this Ordinance who The persons Communicating the Baptized or the Faithful Suspension from this Ordinance according to the nature of the offence The Eucharist sent home to them that could not be present The case of Serapion A custom in some places to give the Sacrament to persons when dead if they dyed before they could receive it and why The Eucharist kept by persons at home Sent abroad This laid aside and in its stead Eulogiae or pieces of consecrated Bread sent from one Church to another as tokens of communion The time of its administration sometimes in the morning sometimes at night varied according to the peace they enjoyed How oft they received the Eucharist At first every day This continued in Cyprian's time Four times a week Afterwards less frequented The usual place of receiving the Church ordinarily not lawful to consecrate it elsewhere Oblations made by persons before their communicating Their Agapae or Love-Feasts what Whether before or after the Sacrament How long continued in the Church The manner of celebrating this Sacrament collected out of the most ancient Authors The holy Kiss The general prayer for the Church and the whole world The consecration of the Sacrament the form of it out of S. Ambrose The Bread common Bread The sacramental Wine mixed with Water This no necessary part of the institution Why probably used in those Countries The posture of receiving not always the same Singing Psalms during the time of celebration Followed with prayer and thanksgiving The whole action concluded with the Kiss of peace THE holy Eucharist or Supper of our Lord being a rite so solemnly instituted and of such great importance in the Christian Religion had place accordingly amongst the Ancients in their publick offices and devotions In speaking to which I shall much what observe the same method I did in treating concerning Baptism considering the persons the time the place and the manner of its celebration The persons administring were the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church those who were set apart for the ministration of holy offices the institution was begun by our Lord himself and the administration of it by him committed to his Apostles and to their ordinary successors to the end of the world We find in Tertullian that they never received it from any but the hand of the President which must either be meant of the particular custom of that Church where he lived or of consecration only for otherwise the custom was when the Bishop or President had by solemn Prayers and blessings consecrated the sacramental elements for the Deacons to distribute them to the people as well to those that were absent as to them that were present as Justin Martyr expresly affirms and as the custom generally was afterwards For the persons communicating at this Sacrament at first the whole Church or body of Christians within such a space that had embraced the doctrine of the Gospel and been baptized into the faith of Christ used constantly to meet together at the Lords Table As Christians multiplied and a more exact discipline became necessary none were admitted to this ordinance till they had arrived at the degree of the Faithful for who ever were in the state of the Catechumens i.
love of Christ 't is more than probable they communicated every day or as oft as they came together for publick Worship insomuch that the Canons Apostolical and the Synod of Antioch threaten every one of the Faithful with Excommunication who came to Church to hear the holy Scriptures but stay not to participate of the Lords Supper the eye of their minds was then almost wholly fixed upon the memory of their crucified Saviour and the oftner they fed at his table the stronger and healthier they found themselves and the more able to encounter with those fierce oppositions that were made against them This custom of receiving the Sacrament every day continued some considerable time in the Church though in some places longer than in others especially in the Western Churches from Cyprian we are fully assured 't was so in his time We receive the Eucharist every day says he as the food that nourishes us to Salvation The like S. Ambrose seems to intimate of Milan whereof he was Bishop nay and after him S. Hierom tells us 't was the custom of the Church of Rome and S. Augustine seems pretty clearly to intimate that it was not unusual in his time In the Churches of the East this custom wore off sooner though more or less according as the primitive zeal did abate and decay S. Basil telling us that in his time they communicated four times a week on the Lords-day Wednesday Friday and Saturday yea and upon other days too if the memory or festival of any Martyr fell upon them Afterwards as the power of Religion began more sensibly to decline and the commonness of the thing begat some contempt Manna it self was slighted after once it was rained down every day this Sacrament was more rarely frequented and from once a day it came to once or twice a week and then fell to once a month and after for the most part to thrice a year at the three great Solemnities of Christmas Easter and Whitsontide to so great a coldness and indifferency did the piety and devotion of Christians grow after once the true primitive temper and spirit of the Gospel had left the World Concerning the third circumstance the Place where this holy Supper was kept much need not be said it being a main part of their publick Worship always performed in the place of their religious Assemblies 'T was instituted by our Saviour in a private house because of its Analogie to the Jewish Passover and because the necessity of that time would not otherwise admit by the Apostles and Christians with them 't was celebrated in the houses of Believers generally in an upper room set apart by the bounty of some Christian for the uses of the Church and which as I have formerly proved was the constant separate place of religious Worship for all the Christians that dwelt thereabouts Under the severities of great persecutions they were forced to fly to the mountains or to their Cryptae or Vaults under ground and to celebrate this Sacrament at the Tombs of Martyrs and over the Ashes of the dead Churches growing up into some beauty and regularity several parts of the divine offices began to have several places assigned to them the Communion-service being removed to the upper or East end of the Church and there performed upon a table of wood which afterwards was changed into one of stone and both of them not uncommonly though metaphorically by the Fathers styled Altars and the Eucharist it self in later times especially the Sacrament of the Altar This place was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was fenced in with Rails within which the Clergie received the Sacrament as the Laity did without Here it was that they all used to meet at this heavenly Banquet for out of this place they allowed not the celebration of the Sacrament a thing expresly forbidden by the Laodicean Council unless in cases of great necessity and therefore 't was one of the principal Articles for which the Synod of Gangra deposed Eustathius from his Bishoprick that he kept private Meetings perswading some that were averse to the publick Assemblies of the Church that they might communicate and receive the Sacrament at home We come last of all to consider the Manner how the Eucharist was celebrated in the ancient Church but before we describe that we are to take notice that after the Service of the Catechumens and before the beginning of that of the Faithful at which the Eucharist was administred the custom was to present their offerings every one according to his ability bringing some gift as the first-fruits of his increase which was by the Minister laid upon the Altar or Communion-table none of them then thinking it fit to appear before the Lord empty and therefore S. Cyprian severely chides a rich Widow of his time who came without giving any thing to the poor mans Box and did partake of their offerings without bringing any offering of her own These Obleations were designed to the uses of the Church for the maintenance of the Ministry and the relief of the Poor especially out of them were taken the Bread and the Wine for the Sacramental Elements the bread being no other than common bread such as served for their ordinary uses there being then no notice taken of what has for so many hundred years and still is to this day fiercely disputed between the Greek and the Latine Church whether it ought to be leavened or unleavened bread Out of these oblations also 't is probable they took at least sent provisions extraordinary to furnish the common Feast which in those days they constantly had at the celebration of the Sacrament where the rich and the poor feasted together at the same Table These were called Agapae or Love-feasts mentioned by S. Jude and plainly enough intimated by S. Paul because hereat they testified and confirmed their mutual love and kindness a thing never more proper than at the celebration of the Lords Supper which is not only a Seal of our peace with God but a sign and a pledge of our Communion and fellowship with one another Whether this Banquet was before or after the celebration of the Eucharist is not easie to determine 't is probable that in the Apostles time and the Age after them it was before it in imitation of our Saviours institution who celebrated the Sacrament after supper and S. Paul taxing the abuses of the Church of Corinth reproves them That when they came together for the Lords Supper they did not one tarry for another but every one took his own supper i. e. that provision which he had brought from home for the common feast which was devoured with great irregularity and excess some eating and drinking all they brought others the poor especially that came late having nothing left one being hungry and another drunken all this 't is plain was done
endeavours to find out many mystical significations intended by it and seems to intimate as if he had been peculiarly warned of God to observe it according to that manner an argument which that good man often produces as his warrant to knock down a controversie when other arguments were too weak to do it But although it should be granted that our Saviour did so use it in the institution of the Supper the Wines of those Eastern Countries being very strong and generous and that our Saviour as all sober and temperate persons might probably abate its strength with water of which nevertheless the History of the Gospel is wholly silent yet this being a thing in it self indifferent and accidental and no way necessary to the Sacrament could not be obligatory to the Church but might either be done or let alone The posture wherein they received it was not always the same the Apostles at the institution of it by our Saviour received it according to the custom of the Jews at meals at that time lying along on their sides upon Beds round about the Table how long this way of receiving lasted I find not in the time of Dionysius Alexandrinus the custom was to stand at the Lords Table as he intimates in a Letter to Pope Xystus other gestures being taken in as the prudence and piety of the Governours of the Church judged most decent and comely for such a solemn action the Bread and Wine were delivered into the hands of those that communicated and not as the superstition of after-ages brought in injected or thrown into their mouths Cyrill tells us that in his time they used to stretch out their right hand putting their left hand under it either to prevent any of the sacramental Bread from falling down or as some would have it hereby to shadow out a kind of figure of a Cross During the time of administration which in populous Congregations was no little time they sung Hymns and Psalms the compiler of the Apostolical Constitutions particularly mentions the 33. Psalm which being done the whole action was solemnly concluded with prayer and thanksgiving the form whereof is likewise set down by the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions that God had thought them worthy to participate of such sacred mysteries and the people being blessed by the Bishop or the Minister of the Assembly and having again saluted each other with a Kiss of Peace as a testimony of their hearty love and kindness whence Tertullian calls this Kiss signaculum Orationis the Seal of Prayer the Assembly broke up and they returned to their own houses This for the main was the order wherein the first Christians celebrated this holy Sacrament for though I do not pretend to set down every thing in that precise and punctual order wherein they were always done and how should I when they often varied according to time and place yet I doubt not but who ever examines the usages of those times will find that 't is done as near as the nature of the thing would bear The end of the first Part. Primitive Christianity OR THE RELIGION OF THE Ancient Christians In the first Ages of the Gospel PART II. The Religion of the Primitive Christians as to those Vertues that respect themselves CHAP. I. Of their Humility This second branch of Religion comprehended under the notion of Sobriety and discovered in some great instances of it The proper tendency of the Christian Religion to beget humility This divine temper eminently visible in the first Christians made good out of their writings The great humility and self-denial of Cyprian What Nazianzen reports to this purpose of his own Father Their modest declining that just commendation that was due to them Many who suffered refus'd the honourable title of Martyrs Nazianzen's vindication of them against the suggestions of Julian the Apostate The singular meekness and condescension of Nebridius amidst all his honours and relations at Court Their stooping to the vilest Offices and for the meanest persons dressing and ministring to the sick washing the Saints feet kissing the Martyrs chains The remarkable humility of Placilla the Empress and the Lady Paula An excellent discourse of Nyssen's against Pride NExt to Piety towards God succeeds that part of Religion that immediately respects our selves expressed by the Apostle under the general name of Sobriety or the keeping our selves within those bounds and measures which God has set us Vertues for which the Primitive Christians were no less renowned than for the other Amongst them I shall take notice of their Humility their contempt of the World their temperance and sobriety their courage and constancy and their exemplary patience under sufferings To begin with the first Humility is a vertue that seems more proper to the Gospel for though Philosophers now and then spake a few good words concerning it yet it found no real entertainment in their lives being generally animalia gloriae creatures pufft up with wind and emptiness and that sacrific'd only to their own praise and honour whereas the doctrines of the Gospel immediately tend to level all proud and swelling apprehensions to plant the world with mildness and modesty and to cloath men with humility and the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit By these we are taught to dwell at home and to converse more familiarly with our selves to be acquainted with our own deficiencies and imperfections and rather to admire others than to advance our selves for the proper notion of Humility lies in a low and mean estimation of our selves and an answerable carriage towards others not thinking of our selves more highly than we ought to think nor being unwilling that other men should value us at the same rate Now that this was the excellent spirit of Primitive Christianity will appear if we consider how earnestly they protested against all ambitious and vain-glorious designs how chearfully they condescended to the meanest Offices and Imployments how studiously they declin'd all advantages of applause and credit how ready they were rather to give praise to others than to take it to themselves in honour preferring one another S. Clemens highly commends his Corinthians that all of them were of an humble temper in nothing given to vain-glory subject unto others rather than subjecting others to themselves ready to give rather than receive Accordingly he exhorts them especially after they were fallen into a little faction and disorder still to be humble-minded to lay aside all haughtiness and pride foolishness and anger and not to glory in wisdom strength or riches but let him that glories glory in the Lord and to follow the example of our Lord the Scepter of the Majesty of God who came not in the vain-boasting of arrogancy and pride although able to do whatsoever he pleased but in great meekness and humility of mind appearing in the world without any form or comeliness or any beauty that he
should be desired suffering himself to be despised and rejected of men who esteemed him not and hid as it were their faces from him who counted himself a worm and no man and was accordingly made a reproach of men and the derision of the people all they that saw him laughing him to scorn shooting out the lip and shaking the head at him Now if our Lord himself was so humble-minded what should we be who are come under the yoke of his grace This and much more to the same purpose has that Venerable and Apostolical man in that admirable Epistle wherein he does lively describe and recommend the meek and excellent spirit of the Gospel Justin the Martyr treads in the very same steps He tells us that we are to shun all sinister suspicions of others and to be very careful what Opinion we entertain of them that we are to be of a meek and unpassionate mind not envying the good esteem and respect which others have nor ambitiously affecting or putting our selves forwards upon any service or imployment that we are humbly to submit our selves not in words only but in all our actions so as that we may appear to be not Impostors and Distemblers but mild and undesigning persons for whoever would govern his life aright must be modest and unpragmatical not angry and contentious but silently consider with himself what is best and fittest to be done that we are to account others wise and prudent and not to think our selves the only discreet and understanding persons that we must not despise their admonitions but hearken to their counsels when ever they are just and true When some in St. Cyprian's time had made a noble and resolute confession of Christ in the face of the greatest danger lest they should be exalted above measure in their own thoughts he bids them remember according to the discipline of the Gospel to be humble and modest and quiet that they might preserve the honour of their name and be as glorious in their actions as they had been in their words and confessions of Christ that they should imitate their Lord who was not more proud but more humble at the time of his passion washing his Apostles feet and follow the counsel and pattern of St. Paul who in his greatest sufferings continued meek and humble and did not arrogate any thing to himself no not after he had been honoured with a translation into Paradise and the third Heavens And great reason he had to press this with all possible vehemency at that time lest Christians by their turbulent and unquiet carriage should provoke the Heathen Magistrate to greater severity against them and indeed who could better do it than he who was himself so eminent for humility For though some Schismatical persons whose wildness and insolence he sought to restrain endeavoured to insinuate that he was not so humble as became a man of his Rank and Order and as were our Lord and his Apostles yet observe how he vindicates himself in a Letter to Pupianus the Head of the Party As for my humility says he 't is sufficiently known not only to the Brethren but the Gentiles themselves do see and respect it and thou thy self didst know and honour it whilst thou wast yet in the Church and didst Communicate with me but which of us I pray is farthest from humility I who daily serve the Brethren and receive those who come unto the Church with all joy and kindness or Thou who makest thy self a Bishop over thy Bishop and pretendest to be a Judge appointed by God over him who is thy Judge And indeed how far the good man was from any designs of greatness and domination appear'd in this that when the people had universally chosen him to be Bishop he privately withdrew and retir'd himself reckoning himself unworthy of so great and honourable an Office and giving way to others whose age and experience rendred them as he thought much fitter for it but the importunity of the people being heightned into a greater impatiency and having found where he was they beset the house and blocked up all passages of escape till they had found him and forc'd it upon him And with no less humility did he behave himself in the discharge of it When consulted by some of his Clergy what they should do in the case of the lapsed he answers that being now alone he could say nothing to it for that he had determin'd from his first entring upon his Bishoprick not to adjudge any thing by his own private order without the counsel of the Clergy and the consent of the People So meanly did that wise and excellent man think of himself and so much did he attribute to the judgement and concurrence of those that were below him Nazianzen reports of his Father a Bishop too that amongst other Vertues he was peculiarly remarkable for Humility which he did not express Philosopher-like in little arts of external modes and carriage putting on a feign'd behaviour like women who having no natural beauty of their own fly to the additionals of dresses and paintings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming more deformed by their ascititious beauty His Humility consisted not in his dress but in the constancy of his mind not in the hanging down of his head or the softness of his tone or the demureness of his look or the gravity of his beard or the shaving of his head the cropping of his hair or the manner of his gate but in the frame and temper of his soul being as humble in his mind as he was sublime and excellent in his life and when no man could arrive at the perfection of his Vertues yet every one was admitted to a freedom of converse with him Both in his garb and diet he equally avoided pomp and sorâ—â—dness and though a great restrainer 〈…〉 â—ppetite would yet seem not to do it â—est he should be thought plainly to design glory to himself by being needlesly singular above other men How industriously do we find them many times disowning that deserved praise and commendation that was due to them How modestly does Justin Martyr decline his adversaries commendation of the acuteness and elegancy of his reasonings resolving all into the Grace of God that enabled him to understand and expound the Scriptures of which Grace he there perswades all men freely and fully to become partakers with him Of the Confessors in the time of the persecution under M. Aurelius Eusebius out of the relation which the Churches of Vienna and Lyons in France sent to the Churches in Asia tells us that although they had often born witness to the Truth at the dearest rate of any thing on this side death though they had been frequently thrown to wild Beasts expos'd to the fire and the remains of wounds and violence were visible in all parts of their bodies yet in imitation of the great humility of the
Son of God they would not after all this which yet was not uncommon in those times either call themselves Martyrs or suffer others to call them so but if any of the brethren either by letter or discourse had saluted them by that title they would severely reprove and check them for it acknowledging themselves at best but vile and despicable Confessors and with tears begging of the Brethren to be instant with God by Prayer that they might perfect all by a reall Martyrdom Hence it was that when Julian the Apostate refus'd to proceed against the Christians by open persecution as his Predecessors had done because he envied them the honour of being Martyrs Nazianzen answers that he was greatly mistaken if he suppos'd they suffered all this rather out of a desire of Glory than a love of Truth such a foolish and vain-glorious humour might indeed be found amongst his Philosophers and the best of his party many of whom have put themselves upon strange attempts meerly to gain the honour of a name and the reputation of Divinity But for Christians they had rather dye in the Cause of Religion although no man should ever know of it than to live and flourish amongst others with the greatest Honour and Esteem it being our great sollicitude not to please Men but only to obtain honour from God Nay some of us says he arrive to that horoick pitch as to desire an intimate Vnion unto God meerly for himself and not for the honours and rewards that are laid up for us in the other world Memorable the humility of the great Constantine that when all mens mouths were filled with the honourable mention of his Vertues and one took upon him to praise him to his face telling him how happy he was whom God had thought worthy of so great an Empire in this world and for whom he reserv'd a much better Kingdom in the next he was highly offended with the address and advis'd the man that he should not presume to talk so any more but rather turn his praises of him into prayers to God for him that both here and hereafter he might be thought worthy to be numbred amongst the servants of God I cannot but take notice of what St. Hierome reports of Nebridius a young Roman Gentleman Cousin-german to the Empress by whom he was brought up in the Palace Play-fellow and Companion to the young Emperours to whom he was very dear train'd up with them in the same Studies and Arts of Education that notwithstanding all this and that he was then in the prime and vigour of his Youth yet he was neither debauched by intemperance amidst the delicacies and pleasures of the Court nor swell'd with pride reflecting upon others with a surly look but rendred himself amiable unto all the Princes he lov'd as brethren and rever'd as Lords their attendants and Ministers and all the Orders of the Palace he had so endear'd by kindness and condescension that they who were so much below him did in a manner think themselves equal to him I shall give but one instance more of the Humility of those times and that is their ready condescending to any Office or Imployment though never so mean about the poorest Christianâ— they thought it not below them to cook and provide victuals for them to visit the imprison'd to kiss their chains to dress their wounds to wash their feet And in this our Lord himself went before them when a little before his death he rose from table girt himself wash'd and wip'd his Disciples feet and then told them what influence this ought to have upon them That if their Lord and Master had wash'd their feet they ought also to wash one anothers feet for that he had given them an example that they should do as he had done to them and good reason the servant not being greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him Accordingly we find this particular Act of Christian condescension frequently us'd in the Primitive Church St. Paul expresly requires it as a qualification in a widow that was to be taken in as a Deaconess into the Church that she be one that has us'd to lodge strangers and to wash the Saints feet Tertullian assures us 't was usually done by Christians in his time to go into the Prisons to kiss and embrace the Martyrs chains to harbour and provide for indigent brethren and to bring water to wash the Saints feet No office so low which they were not content to stoop to When Placilla the Empress was check'd by some of the Court for her mighty condescension in visiting the Hospitals and curing the lame and the sick with her own hands preparing and giving them their provisions as a thing too much below her State and Grandeur She answered That to distribute gold became the Emperour but for her part she thought her self oblig'd to do this for God who had advanc'd her to that Honour and Dignity Often instilling this pious Counsel into her Husband It becomes you Sir always to remember what you once were and what you now are by which means you will shew your self not to be ingrateful to your great Benefactor and will govern the Empire committed to you Justly and Lawfully and to the honour of him that gave it St. Hierom reckoning up the Vertues of Paula a Lady of the greatest Descent and Nobility in Rome but devoting her self afterwards to the solitudes of a Religious Life tells us of her that for humility the prime and chief Vertue of Christians she carried her self with so much lowliness that whoever had seen and not known her could not but have mistaken her for the meanest of the Maids that waited on her When ever she appeared in the midst of those devout and pious Virgins that dwelt with her she always seem'd both in cloaths and voice and garb and gate the least and most contemptible of all the rest So studious was the Piety of those dayes to keep the lustre of their own perfections from sparkling in their eyes and not fondly to admire the glimmerings of their own light being so far from falsly arrogating to themselves those excellencies which they had not that they industriously conceal'd those excellent perfections which they had I cannot better conclude this Chapter than with the excellent reasonings of St. Gregory of Nyssa against priding a mans self in any external ornaments or advantages where he thus entertains the proud man He that looks to himself and not to the things that are about him will see little reason to be proud for what is Man Say the best of him and that which may add the greatest honour and veneration to him that he 's born of Nobles and yet he that adorns his descent and speaks highliest of the splendour and nobility of his house does but derive his pedigree from the dirt and to enquire more narrowly into the
Thaddaeus one of the Seventy Disciples great summs of Gold and Silver for the pains he had taken and the great things he had done amongst them he refused them with this answer To what purpose should we receive good things from others who have freely forsaken and renounced our own As indeed in those times friends and relations houses and lands were chearfully parted with when they stood in competition with Christ they could content themselves with the most naked poverty so it might but consist with the profession of the Gospel When Quintianus the President under Decius the Emperour asked Agatha the Virgin-Martyr why being descended of such Rich and Illustrious Parents she would stoop to such low and mean Offices as she took upon her She presently answered him Our Glory and Nobility lies in this that we are the Servants of Christ To the same purpose was the answer of Quintinus the Martyr under the Dioâ—lesian Persecution when the President asked him how it came about that he being a Roman Citizen and the Son of a Senator would truckle under such a Superstition and worship him for a God whom the Jews had Crucified the Martyr told him That it was the highest Honour and Nobility to know and serve God that the Christian Religion which he call'd Superstition ought not to be traduc'd with so base a name seeing it immediately guided its followers to the highest degrees of happiness for herein in it is that the Omnipotent God is revealed the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord by whom all things were made and who is in all things equal to his Father The simplicity of Christians then kept them from aspiring after honour and greatness and if at any time advanced to it their great care was to keep themselves unspotted from the world as Nazianzen reports of his brother Caesarius chief Physician to the Emperour Constantius that though he was very dear to him as he was to the whole Court and advanced by him every day to greater honours and dignities yet this says he was the chief of all that he suffered not the Nobility of his soul to be corrupted by that Glory and those delights that were round about him but accounted this his chiefest honour that he was a Christian in comparison of which all things else were to him but as a sport and Pageantry he looked upon other things but as Comick Scenes soon up and as soon over but upon Piety as the most safe and permanent good and which we can properly call our own regarding that Piety especially which is most inward and unseen to the world The like he relates of his Sister Gorgonia as the perfection of her excellent temper that she did not more seem to be good than she did really strive to be so peculiarly conversant in those secret acts of piety which are visible only to him who sees what is hidden and secret to the Prince of this world she left nothing transferring all into those safe and coelestial treasuries that are above she left nothing to the earth but her body changing all things for the hopes of a better life bequeathing no other riches to her children but an excellent pattern and a desire to follow her example The truth is as to estate they were not concern'd for more than what would supply the necessities of nature or the wants of others not solicitous to get or possess such revenues as might make them the objects either of mens envy or their fear as may appear amongst others by this instance Domiâ—ian the Emperour being inform'd that there were yet remaining some of Christs Kindred according to the flesh the Nephews of Judas the Brother of our Lord of the Race and Posterity of David which the Emperour sought utterly to extirpate he sent for them enquired of them whether they were of the Line of David they answered they were he ask'd what possessions and estate they had they told him they had between them thirty nine acres of land to the value of about nine thousand pence out of the fruits whereof they both paid him Tribute and maintained themselves with their own hard labour whereto the hardness and callousness of their hands which they then shew'd him bore witness He then ask'd them concerning Christ and the state of his Kingdome to which they answered that his Empire was not of this world but Heavenly and Angelical and which should finally take place in the end of the world when he should come with glory to judge both the quick and the dead and to reward men according to their works which when he heard despising the men upon the account of their meanness he let them go without any severity against them Of Origen we read that he was so great a despiser of the world that when he might have liv'd upon the maintenance of others he would not but parted with his Library of Books to one that was to allow him only four oboli a day the day he spent in laborious tasks and exercises and the greatest part of the night in study he always remembred that precept of our Saviour Not to have two coats not to wear shooes not anxiously to take care for to morrow nor would he accept the kindness of others when they would freely have given him some part of their estate to live on Not that the Christians of those times thought it unlawful to possess estates or to use the blessings of Divine Providence for though in those times of persecution they were often forc'd to quit their estates and habitations yet did they preserve their Proprieties intire and industriously mind the necessary conveniencies of this life so far as was consistent with their care of a better There were indeed a sort of Christians call'd Apostolici who in a fond imitation of the Apostles left all they had and gave up themselves to a voluntary poverty holding it not lawful to possess any thing hence they were also call'd Apotactici or renouncers because they quitted and renounc'd whatsoever they had but they were ever accounted infamous Hereticks They were as Epiphanius tells us the descendants of Tatian part of the old Cathari and Encratitae together with whom they are put in a Law of the Emperour Theodosius and reckon'd amongst the vilest of the Manichaean Hereticks mentioned also by Julian the Apostate as a branch of the Galilaeans as he calls the Christians by him compar'd to the Cynic Philosophers amongst the Heathens for the neglecting of their Countrey the abandoning of their estates and goods and their loose and rambling course of life only herein different that they did not as those Galilaean Apotactistae run up and down under a pretence of poverty to beg alms The truth is by the account which both he and Epiphanius give of them they seem to have been the very Patriarchs and primitive founders of those Mendicant Orders
great peace and friendship the difference of the observotion not at all hindering the agreement and harmony of the Churches it being agreed amongst them by common consent says Sozomen speaking of this passage that in keeping this festival they should each follow their own custom but by no means break the peace and communion that was between them for they reckoned it says he a very foolish and unreasonable thing that they should fall out for a few rites and customs who agreed in the main Principles of Religion The Christians of those times had too deeply imbibed that precept of our Saviour love one another as I have loved you to fall out about every nice and trifling circumstance no when highliest provoked and affronted they could forbear and forgive their enemies much more their brethren and were not like the waspish Philosophers amongst the Heathens who were ready to fall foul upon one another for every petty and inconsiderable difference of opinion that was amongst them So Origen tells Celsus Both amongst your Philosophers and Physicians say he there are Sects that have perpetual feuds and quarrels with each other whereas we who have entertained the Laws of the blessed Jesus and have learnt both to speak and to do accordding to his doctrine bless them that revile us being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we entreat nor do we speak dire and dreadful things against those that differ from us in opinion and do not presently embrace those things which we have entertain'd But as much as in us lies we leave nothing unattempted that may perswade them to change for the better and to give up themselves only to the service of the great Creatour and to do all things as those that must give an account of their actions In short Christians were careful not to offend either God or men but to keep and maintain peace with both thence that excellent saying of Ephraem Syrus the famous Deacon of Edessae when he came to die In my whole life said he I never reproached my Lord and Master nor suffered any foolish talk to come out of my lips nor did I ever curse or revile any man or maintain the least difference or controversie with any Christian in all my life CHAP. IV. Of their Obedience and Subjection to Civil Government Magistracy the great hand of publick peace This highly secured by Christianity The Laws of Christ that way express and positive Made good in his own practice and the practice of his Apostles The same spirit in succeeding Ages manifested out of Justin Martyr Polycarp Tertullian and Origen Praying for Rulers and Emperours a solemn part of their publick worship Their ready payment of all Customs and Tributes and their faithfulness in doing it Christians such even under the heaviest oppressions and persecutions and that when they had power to have righted and reveng'd themselves An excellent passage in Tertullian to that purpose The temper of the Christian Souldiers in Julian's Army The famous Story of Mauricius and the Thebaean Legion under Maximinianus reported at large out of Eucherius Lugdunensis The injustice of the charge brought against them by the Heathens of being enemies to Civil Government Accused of Treason Of their refusing to swear by the Emperours genius Their denying to sacrifice for the Emperours safety and why they did so Their refusing to own the Emperours for gods and why Their not observing the solemn Festivals of the Emperours and the reasons of it Accused of Sedition and holding unlawful Combinations An account of the Collegia and Societies in the Roman Empire Christianity forbidden upon that account The Christian Assemblies no unlawful Conventions A vast difference between them and the unlawful factions forbidden by the Roman Laws Their confident challenging their enemies to make good one charge of disturbance or rebellion against them Their Laws and principles quite contrary The Heathens them selves guilty of rebellions and factions not the Christians The Testimony given them by Julian the Emperour A reflection upon the Church of Rome for corrupting the doctrine and practice of Christianity in this affair Their principles and policies in this matter Bellarmin's position that 't is lawful to depose infidel and heretical Princes and that the Primitive Christians did it not to Nero Dioclesian c. only because they wanted power censured and refuted This contrary to the avow'd principles of honest Heathens HOw much Christian Religion transcribed into the lives of its professors contributes to the happiness of men not only in their single and private capacities but as to the publick welfare of humane societies and to the common interests and conveniences of mankind we have already discovered in several instances now because Magistracy and Civil Government is the great support and instrument of external peace and happiness we shall in the last place consider how eminent the first Christians were for their Submission and Subjection to Civil Government And certainly there 's scarce any particular instance wherein Primitive Christianity did more triumph in the world than in their exemplary obedience to the Powers and Magistrates under which they lived honouring their persons revering their power paying their tribute obeying their Laws where they were not evidently contrary to the Laws of Christ and where they were submitting to the most cruel penalties they laid upon them with the greatest calmness and serenity of soul The truth is one great design of the Christian Law is to secure the interests of civil Authority our Saviour has expresly taught us that we are to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as well as unto God the things that are Gods And his Apostles spoke as plainly as words could speak it Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordain'd of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake for for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Where we may take notice both of the strictness and universality of the charge and what is mainly material to observe this charge given the Romans at that time when Nero was their Emperour who was not only an Heathen Magistrate but the first persecutor of Christians a man so prodigiously brutish and tyrannical that the world scarce ever brought forth such another monster 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Orator truly stiles him a beast in the shape of a man The same Apostle amongst other directions given to Titus for the discharge of his office bids him put the people in mind to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates
be a deity he must first conquer Heaven lead God in triumph set Guards in Heaven and impose tribute upon that place For the last their not observing the solemn festivals of the Emperours for which they were accounted enemies to the publick they pleaded that their religion and their conscience could not comply with that vanity that luxury and debauchery and all manner of excess and wickedness that was committed at those times that the publick joy was expressed by that which was a publick disgrace and those things accounted honourable upon the solemn days of Emperours which were unfit and uncomely to be done upon any days and that there was little reason they should be accused for not observing that where looseness of manners 〈◊〉 accounted loyalty and the occasion of luxury a part of Religion Otherwhiles they were accused of sedition and holding unlawful combinations which arose upon the account of their religious Assemblies which their enemies beheld as societies erected contrary to the Roman Laws That we may the better apprehend what these societies were in the number whereof they reckoned the Christian meetings and how condemned by the Roman Laws we are to know that in the infancy of the Roman Common-wealth Numa Pompilius to take away the difference between the Sabines and the Romans divided the people into Colledges and little Corporations answerable to which are our City-Companies according to their several trades and occupations Goldsmiths Dyers Potters Curriers c. which together with the City encreased to a great number Panciroll out of both Codes gives us an account of thirty six to these he assigned their several Halls times of meeting and sacred rites and such immunities as were most proper for them But besides these appointed by Law several Colledges in imitation of them were erected in most parts of the Empire partly for the more convenient dispatch of business but principally for the maintenance of mutual love and friendship All these Societies had their solemn meetings and customary feasts which in time degenerated into great excess and luxury insomuch that Verra in his time complained that the excess and prodigality of their suppers made provisions dear and much more reason had Tertullian to complain of it in his time Answerable to these Colledges amongst the Romans were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or societies amongst the Grecians who also had their stated and common feasts such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Cretians the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Lacedaemon and so in other States of Greece But these meetings those of them especially that were not setled either by the decree of the Senate or the constitution of the Prince partly by reason of their number and the great confluence to them partly by reason of their luxurious feasting began to be looked upon by the State with a jealous eye especially after that the Commonwealth was turned into a Monarchy the Emperours beholding them as fit Nurseries to plant and breed up treasonable and rebellious designs and therefore frequently forbad them under very severe penalties Thus Julius Caesar who first laid the foundation of the Empire reduced these Colledges to the antient standard putting down all that were supernumerary and illegal wherein he was also followed by his Successour Augustus and the succeeding Emperours very often put out strict Edicts against them prohibiting them as dangerous and unlawful combinations Under the notions of these societies it was that the Christian Congregations came to be forbidden several persons confederated into a combination and constantly meeting at a common feast rendring them suspicious to their enemies Hence Pliny giving the Emperour an account of the Christians and especially of their assembling at their solemn feasts of love tells him that they had forborn ever since according to his command he had published an Edict to forbid the hetaeriae or societies And indeed the Christian Assemblies whereat they usually had the Lords Supper and their Love-feasts looking somewhat like those illegal meetings especially as beheld with the eye of an enemy it was the less wonder if the Heathens accused them of hatching treason and the Magistrates proceeded against them as contemners and violaters of the Law But to this the Christians answered that their meetings could not be accounted amongst the unlawful factions having nothing common with them that indeed the wisdom and providence of the State had justly prohibited such factions to prevent seditions which might thence easily over-run and disquiet all Councils Courts pleadings and all meetings whatsoever But no such thing could be suspected of the Christian Assemblies who were frozen as to any ambitious designs of honour or dignity strangers to nothing more than publick affairs and had renounced all pretences to external pomps and pleasures That if the Christian Assemblies were like others there would be some reason to condemn them under the notion of factions but to whose prejudice say they did we ever meet together we are the same when together that we are when asunder the same united as is every single person hurting no man grieving no man and therefore that when such honest good pious and chaste men met together it was rather to be called a Council than a Faction To which Origen adds That seeing in all their meetings they sought nothing but truth they could not be said to conspire against the Laws seeing they designed nothing but to get from under the power and tyranny of the devil who had procured those Laws only to establish his Empire faster in the world For elsewhere he bids Celsus or any of his party shew any thing that was seditious amongst the Christians that their Religion arose not at first as he falsly charg'd it out of sedition might appear in that their Legislator had so severely forbidden killing and murder and that the Christians would never have entertained such mild Laws as gave their enemies opportunity to kill them like sheep delivered to the slaughter without making the least resistance Thus Arnobius confidently challenges the Heathens whether they could reject Christianity upon the account of its raising wars tumults and seditions in the world No those were things which they might find nearer home You defame us says Tertullian with treason against the Emperour and yet never could any Albinians Nigrians or Cassians persons that had mutinied and rebelled against the Emperours be found amongst the Christians they are those that swear by the Emperours genii that have offered sacrifices for their safety that have often condemned Christians these are the men that are found traitors to the Emperours A Christian is no man's enemy much less his Princes knowing him to be constituted by God he cannot but love revere and honour him and desire that he and the whole Roman Empire may be safe as long as the world lasts We worship the Emperour as much as is either lawful or expedient as one