Fire All that I can do is to exhort you 't is your part to Labour and God's to Perfect Raise up your Minds direct your Intentions prepare your Hearts it is for your Souls that you fight and they are Eternal Treasures which you hope for The First Lecture is also an Exhortation to those that are to be baptiz'd to prepare themselves by a Holy Life and by Good Works that so they may receive the Grace of Baptism It is compos'd upon a Lesson taken out of the First Chapter of Isaiah Verse 16. which begins with these words Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings c. He exhorts them wholly to put off the Old-man sincerely to renounce all Sin and to spend in the Exercises of Piety the 40 Days that are appointed to Prepare them for Baptism The Second is concerning Sin and Penance He teaches them That Sin is committed voluntarily by the bad use we make of our Free-Will That the Devil was the first Sinner that afterwards he made the first Man sin That by the Sin of the first Man all Men fell under Blindness and Death That he who rais'd Lazarus rais'd our Souls and deliver'd them from Sin by his Blood That therefore we ought not to despair whatsoever Sins we have committed but to trust to the Mercy of God and to have recourse to the Remedy of Repentance He relates many Examples of God's Mercy towards the greatest Sinners He alledges also the Example of the Angels to whom he thinks God pardon'd many Faults He adds towards the end the Example of St. Peter and concludes with these words These are my Brethren the many Examples of Sinners whom God hath pardon'd as soon as they repented Do you also Confess your Sins unto the Lord and you shall obtain the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy the Heavenly Reward together with all the Saints in Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever The Third Lecture is concerning the Necessity of Baptism and of Penance which ought to precede it You must prepare your selves says he by Purity of Conscience for you ought not to consider the External Baptism but the Spiritual Grace which is given with the Water that is Sanctified by the Invocation of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost The Water washes the Body but the Spirit sanctifies the Soul that we being purified may become worthy to approach unto God You cannot be perfect unless you be sanctified by the Water and the Spirit So if any one be baptiz'd without having the Holy Spirit he receives not the Grace of Baptism and likewise if any one receive not Baptism though his Conversation were never so well order'd he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This Discourse is bold but it is not mine but Jesus Christ's who has pronounc'd this Sentence when he said Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He proves this Truth by the Example of Cornelius then he shows the Necessity of Baptism by Water and says That none but Martyrs only can enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven without being baptiz'd The Ancients generally believed that Martyrdom was that Baptism by Fire which John Baptist fore-told Mat. 3. 11. and that was the Cup which our Saviour foretold Zebedee's Children that they should drink and the Baptism wherewith they were to be baptized He teaches That since Jesus Christ was baptiz'd to sanctifie the Waters of Baptism we must descend into the Water to be sanctified and as the Holy Spirit did then visibly appear so now he descends likewise though after an invisible manner upon those that are baptiz'd if they be well prepared for it In short he still exhorts those to whom he speaks to prepare themselves in the remaining part of Lent that so they may obtain by Baptism the Pardon of their Sins and the Grace of the Holy Spirit St. Cyril begins in the Fourth Catechetical Discourse with the Explication of the Articles of our Faith He says in his Exordium That the Worship of God consists in two things in the belief of those Doctrines that Religion teaches us and in the practice of Good Works That Faith is unprofitable without Good Works and that Good Works will prevail nothing without Faith He observes That the Articles of Faith are opposed by Pagans Jews and Hereticks and therefore it is necessary to propose it and explain it to those that enter into the Church He says That before he explains them more largely he will first give a summary of them and prays those that are already instructed to hear with Patience his Catechetical Discourses Afterwards he summarily explains the chief Doctrines of our Religion He instructs them concerning the Divinity That there is but one God only the Creator of all things who is every where present who knows all things who can do all things who never changes who will reward the Good and punish the Wicked c. He adds That we must believe also in Jesus Christ our Lord the only Son of God God begotten of God like in all things to him who begat him who was from all Eternity who sitteth now at his right hand and reigneth with him That we must not believe that the Son is of another Nature than the Father nor confound the Persons of the Father and the Son That he is the Word and the Word of God but a Word subsisting which is nothing like to the Word of Men That this Word was truly and really united to the Humane Nature That he assum'd real Flesh from the Virgin That he was truly Man subject to Humane Infirmities and to Death it self That he was crucified for our Sins That he was buried in the Grave and that he descended into Hell to deliver the Just who had been shut up there a long time with Adam That he was truly risen from the Dead That being ascended into Heaven he was worship'd by all the World and that he shall come again to Judge the Quick and the Dead and to establish an Eternal Kingdom Concerning the Holy Spirit he teaches That we ought to have the same Notions of him as of the Father and the Son That he is One Indivisible and Almighty That he knows all things That he descended in the form of a Dove upon Jesus Christ That he spoke by the Prophets That he Sanctifies the Soul in Baptism and that he ought to be honoured as the Father and the Son being one and the same Divinity He Exhorts his Auditors to hold fast this Creed and gives them Notice That he will prove it in the following Discourse by Testimonies of Scripture For says he we ought not to teach any thing concerning Divine Mysteries but what we can confirm by the Testimonies of Scripture Do not believe what I say if I do not prove it by the Holy Scriptures St. Cyril after having inform'd those whom he instructs what they ought
his Pomps are Shows Plays and profane Feasts There is in this first Lecture a Passage expresly for Transubstantiation For says he as the Bread and Wine of the Eucarist which are nothing before the Invocation of the most Holy Trinity but Bread and Wine become after this Invocation the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. So those Meats which serve for the Pomp of the Devil tho' they be pure of their own Nature become impure by the Invocation of Devils All these Passages are necessarily to be understood according to those Notions wherein the Christians of that Age had been usually Instructed In the Second he treats of the Ceremonies and Effects of Baptism He says That the Catechumens after they were unclothed were anointed from the Feet unto the Head with exorcised Oyl That after this they were conducted to the Laver That they were ask'd if they believed in the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit That after they had made Profession of this Faith they were plunged three times into the Water and that they retir'd out of it by degrees at three times likewise He teaches them That the Baptism of Jesus Christ does not only remit Sins as that of John the Baptist did but also fills the Soul with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and makes us the Children of God by Adoption The Third is of Holy Chrism wherewith the Faithful were anointed immediately after they came out of the Waters of Baptism He declares to them That we ought not to imagine this to be common Oyl For says he as the Bread of the Eucharist after the Invocation of the Holy Spirit is no more common Bread but the Body of Jesus Christ. So the Holy Chrism after Consecration is no more common Oyl but it is a Gift of the Holy Spirit which has the Virtue to procure the presence of the Divinity So while the Forehead and other Parts of the Body are anointed with this visible Oyl the Soul is sanctified by this holy and quickning Spirit He observes afterwards That they anointed the Forehead the Ears the Nostrils and the Breast The Fourth Lecture is of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and the Fifth of the Celebration of the Eucharist These two Catechetical Lectures are so clear and so strong for establishing the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church about the Eucharist That we cannot excuse our selves from setting them down almost entire Take then as follows the Translation of them which has been printed in the Office of the Holy Sacrament The Doctrine of the blessed St. Paul alone is sufficient to give certain proofs of the Truth of the Divine Mysteries and the Church having judged you worthy to partake of them ye are by this means so closely united to Jesus Christ that ye are no more as one may say but one and the same Body and Blood with him For this great Apostle says in the place which we have already read That our Lord in the same Night wherein he was delivered up to his Enemies having taken Bread and given Thanks to God his Father broke it and gave it to his Disciples saying to them Take and Eat This is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup and having given Thanks he said unto them Take and Drink This is my Blood Seeing then that he speaking of the Bread declared That it was his Body Who shall ever dare to call in question this Truth And since that he speaking of the Wine has assured us so positively That it was his Blood Who can ever doubt of it And who shall dare to say 'T is not true that it was his Blood Jesus Christ being at a certain time in Cana of Galilee changed there the Water into Wine by his Will only and shall we think that it is not as worthy of Credit upon his own Word that he changed the Wine into his own Blood If he being invited to a humane and earthly Marriage wrought there this Miracle tho' no Person expected it from him there ought not we much rather to acknowledge that he has given to the Children of the heavenly Spouse his Body to Eat and his Blood to Drink that his Body and Blood may be nourishment to their Souls For under the species of Bread he has given us his Body and under the species of Wine he has given us his Blood that so being made partakers of this Body and Blood ye may become one Body and one Blood with him For by this means we become as one may say Christiferi that is to say we carry Jesus Christ in our Body when we receive into our Mouth and into our Stomach his Body and his Blood And thus according to St. Peter we are made partakers of the Divine Nature Jesus Christ speaking at another time to the Jews says to them Unless ye Eat my Flesh and drink my Blood ye shall have no Life in you But these gross and carnal Men not understanding the Words spiritually were offended with them and withdrew from him because they imagined that he would make them eat humane Flesh by morcels These Words do so fully explain St. Cyril s Sence that they need no Comment If the Jews were offended because they did not spiritually understand those Words of Jesus Christ when he talked to them in the 6th of St. John how much more according to this Father's way of Reasoning Would the Disciples have been offended if they had understood Jesus Christ literally when he Instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist There were in the Old Dispensation Loaves of Bread which were offer'd before God and because they pertain'd to that Old Dispensation they have ceas'd with it But now in the New Dispensation there is Bread from Heaven and a Cup of Salvation which Sanctisies Soul and Body For as the Bread is the Nourishment which is proper to the Body so the Word is the Nourishment which is proper to the Soul Wherefore I conjure you my Brethren not to consider them any more as common Bread and Wine since they are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ according to his Word For tho' your Sense inform you that 't is not so yet Faith should perswade and assure you that 't is so Judge not therefore of this Truth by your Taste but let Faith make you believe with an entire certainty that you have been made worthy to partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Let your Soul rejoyce in the Lord being perswaded of it as a thing most certain that the Bread which appears to our Eyes is not Bread tho' our taste do judge it to be so but that it is the Body of Jesus Christ and that the Wine which appears to our Eyes is not Wine tho' our Sense of Taste takes it for Wine but that it is the Blood of Jesus Christ. Ye have seen that a Deacon gives Water to wash the Hands to the Priest that officiates and to the Priests that are about the Altar of God
we do not honour the Water as the Father and the Son St. Basil answers That this Objection is ridiculous and that those who make it are mad That 't is not the Water that Baptizes us but the Spirit That the Water indeed is joyned with the Spirit as the Sign of the Death and Burial of the Old Man but that 't is the Spirit who gives a New Life That Baptism is administred by dipping three times into the Water and by invoking the Trinity three times to signify our dying to Sin and the giving of Life That the Baptism of Jesus Christ is very different from that of St. John which was only the Baptism of Water whereas that of Jesus Christ is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and of Fire Last of all he says That the Martyrs who suffer'd Death for Jesus Christ needed not the Baptism of Water in order to their receiving the Crown being baptiz'd in their own Blood He speaks also in this place of the Fire of the Day of Judgment which he calls the Baptism of Fire that shall try all Mankind In the 17th and 18th he shews That the Holy Spirit is joyn'd to the Father and to the Son as a Person equal and not as one inferiour To prove this he uses the Rules of Logick having to do with an Adversary against whom he must use these Arms. In the 19th he proves That we should celebrate the Glory and Praises of the Holy Spirit as we do those of the Father and of the Son and that we should give him the same Honours In the 20th he refutes the Opinion of those who say That the Holy Spirit is neither a Lord nor a Servant but that he is Free He shows that this Opinion is very absurd for either he is a Creature or not if not then he is God or Lord and if he is he must be a Servant for all Creatures have a Dependance upon God In the 21st he shows by many Testimonies of Scripture That the Holy Spirit is there called Lord. In the 22d he proves his Divinity by many Passages of Scripture In the 23d he alledges the Miracles attributed to the Holy Spirit to prove that he is God In the 24th he shows That we should Glorify the Holy Spirit as we do the Father and the Son In the 25th he answers those who object That the Scripture never uses this Expression The Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit and he shews that to say The Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit signifies nothing else but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit That the erroneous way which they would have us use is not to be found in the Holy Scripture Glory be to the Father by the only Son in the Holy Spirit That the Particle in has the same Sence in this place as the Particle with That the Fathers made use of the Particle with as being most proper to oppose the Errors of Arius and Sabellius and that 't is less capable of an ill Sence That notwithstanding he is not ty'd up to this Expression provided we be willing to render Glory to the Holy Spirit In the following Chapter he goes on to explain with much subtlety the Difference between the Particles in and with In the 27th he proposes this Objection We ought to receive nothing but what is in the Holy Scripture But these Words are not to be found Glory to the Father and to the Son with the Holy Spirit In answer to which he First sends his Adversaries back to what he had said in Ch. 25. Afterwards he adds That in the Church there are some Opinions and Practices founded upon the Testimonies of Scripture but then there are also some which are founded only upon unwritten Tradition That the Scripture and Tradition have an equal Authority for the establishing of Piety and Truth and that none who follow the Ecclesiastical Laws resist them That if we should reject all Customs that are not founded on Scripture we shall greatly prejudice Religion and reduce it to a superficial Belief of some particular Opinions 'T is easy says he to give Examples of this and to begin with that which is most common Where find we it written that we must make the Sign of the Cross upon those who begin to Hope in Jesus Christ What Book of Scripture teaches us that we must turn to the East to make our Prayers What Saint has left us in his Writings the Words of Invocation when we Consecrate the Bread of the Eucharist and the Cup of Blessing For we do not content our selves with pronouncing the Words set down by the Apostle St. Paul and the Evangelists but we add several Prayers both before and after which we consider as having much Efficacy upon the Sacrament and yet we have them not but by Tradition We Consecrate the Water of Baptism the Oyl of Unction and him also who is to be baptiz'd Where is this written Is not this a Secret Tradition Is it not Custom which has taught us that we must Anoint him who is to be baptiz'd Where has the Scripture taught us that we must use three Dippings in baptizing We must say the same of the other Ceremonies of Baptism as of Renouncing the Devil and his Angels Who has oblig'd us to do these things Whence have we Learn'd them Have we them not from the Tradition of our Fathers Who observed them without divulging or publishing of them being perswaded that Silence kept up a Veneration for the Mysteries What necessity was there of putting that in Writing which it was not lawful to reveal or to explain to those who were not yet baptiz'd Afterwards he gives the Reason of some Usages which he had mentioned He observes also That Christians pray to God standing from Easter to Whitsunday That they kneel and afterwards rise up He gives Mystical Reasons for these Customs which are so forc'd that 't is easy to perceive there is no better Reason to be given than Custom and Practice Lastly he concludes That since there are so many things which we have by Tradition we ought not to reprehend one simple Particle which the Ancients made use of This he proves in the 29th Chapter where he alledges the Authorities of St. Irenaeus St. Clemens Romanus the Two Dionysii Eusebius of Caesarea Origen Africanus Athenogenes Gregory Thaumaturgus Firmilian and Meletius besides the Prayers of the Church and the Consent of the Eastern and Western Churches Towards the end of this Chapter he complains of the hardships which his Calumniators make him suffer In the last he describes the miserable State of the Church He compares it to a Fleet of Ships tost with a great Tempest which is the cause of Shipwrack to many of them and Points out the Troubles and Miseries wherewith the Church was afflicted very admirably This Chapter alone is sufficient to show that this Book is undoubtedly St. Basil's He proves also the Divinity of the Holy
their Letter 366 The Book against Auxentius Bishop of Milan is a Manifesto against this Bishop and against those that maintain him Who because they cover'd themselves chiefly under the Cloak of procuring Peace and Unity St. Hilary says That we can have no other true Peace but that of Jesus Christ and the Gospel and that this Peace cannot take place in a time when the Ministers of the Church are become Anti-Christs by opposing the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Gospel while they pretend to preach it He complains That they make use of Temporal Power to maintain a False Doctrine He endeavours to prove that Auxentius fosters Heretical Opinions he recites the Conference that he had with him and exhorts the Catholicks to take heâ—d of Anti-Christ and to separate themselves from Auxentius After this Book follows a Letter of Auxentius to the Emperour wherein he endeavours to purge himself from the Heresy of Arius yet without approving the Term Consubstantial or rejecting the Creed of Ariminum The Commentaries of St. Hilary upon St. Matthew are very excellent for there he had made many very useful Historical and Moral Observations The Chief of them are these following In the 1st Canon he endeavours to reconcile the two Genealogies of Jesus Christ by saying That St. Matthew describes the Royal Race of Jesus Christ by Solomon and St. Luke the Sacerdotal Race by Nathan He maintains That the Virgin was of the same Tribe and the same Family with Joseph and that she continued a Virgin after her Child-bearing and that the Persons who are call'd in Scripture the Brethren of Jesus Christ were indeed the Children of Joseph that he had by a former Wife He says That the Wise-men acknowledg'd the Royal Power of Jesus Christ by presenting him with Gold his Divinity by offering him Incense and his Humanity by giving him Myrrh He observes That Rachel who mourn'd for her Children is a Figure of the Church which having been a long time barren became afterwards fruitful He says That the Innocents were made partakers of Eternal Life by the Martyrdom which they suffer'd In the 2d Canon he says That Jesus Christ did not cause St. John to Baptize him for the Purification of his Sins since he was without Sin but that Water might Sanctify us by Jesus Christ. Then he speaks of the Effects of Baptism After Baptism says he the Holy Spirit descends upon the baptiz'd he fills them with a Caelestial Unction and makes them the adopted Children of God In the 3d. Canon he explains the Temptations of Jesus Christ and speaks of his Fast for Forty Days He says That the Devil was ignorant of the Incarnation In the 4th he explains the Beatitudes He says That none but the perfect Man who is wholly purified from his Sins shall enjoy the Vision of God He observes That Adultery is the only cause for which married Persons can be Divorc'd He condemns Oaths Revenge and Vanity In the 5th he sends the Reader to a Book of St. Cyprian for the Explication of the Lord's Prayer He also mentions Tertullian but he says of this last Author That his following Errors depriv'd his First Books of that Authority which he could otherwise have allow'd them He occasionally says That the Soul is Corporeal In the 6th Canon he particularly recommends Good Works without which all other things are unprofitable to Salvation In the 7th he explains allegorically the Cure of the Leper and of St. Peter's Mother-in-Law understanding those places of the Curing of Sinners He compares the Church to a Ship tost with a Tempest and towards the latter End he observes That we ought not to mention the Names of Dead Infidels in the Commemorations of the Saints In the 8th he Discourses particularly of the Fall of humane Nature by the Sin of the first Man and of the Reparation of Mankind by Jesus Christ. In the 10th he Advises Catholicks not to enter into the Churches of Hereticks He observes That nothing in the Ecclesiastical Ministry ought to be sold for Money and that the Ecclesiastical State ought not to be ambitious of obtaining Temporal Authority He says That at the End of the World the Jews that shall be then alive shall believe in Jesus Christ and be saved He assures us That Man was created Free but that the Sin of Adam enslav'd him to Sin and Vice and that in Baptism we are deliver'd by the Word from Sins contracted by our Birth Towards the latter End of the 11th he explains wherein the Easiness of Christ's Yoke consists excellently and in a few Words What is more Easy says he than the Yoke of Christ and what is more Light than his Burthen It is only to be obliging to all the World To abstain from committing Sin To desire that which is Good not to desire that which is Evil To Love our Neighbour To Hate no Body To lay up for Eternity Not to addict our selves to things present Not to do to another what we would not they should do unto us In the 12th he explains after the same Manner as St. Athanasius the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost by saying That it is the denying of Jesus Christ to be God In the 13th he observes That those who are out of the Church cannot understand the Word of God In the 14th speaking of St. Joseph he says That he was a Lock-Smith and not a Carpenter as is commonly believ'd In the 15th he observes that those who are to be baptiz'd make profession of their Faith in Jesus Christ and of being firmly persuaded of his Death and Resurrection and that their Actions may be agreeable to their Words they pass all the time of the Passion of Christ in Fasting that so in some measure they may suffer with Jesus Christ. He speaks in the 16th of the Prerogative that St. Peter receiv'd when Jesus Christ gave him the Keys of his Church after this manner O happy Foundation of the Church says he in the change of your Name O Rock worthy of the Building of Jesus Christ since it was to abrogate the Laws of Hell to break its Gates and to open all the Prisons of Death O happy Porter of Heaven to whom are entrusted the Keys of admission into it and whose Judgment on Earth is a fore-judging of what is done in Heaven since whatsoever he binds or looses upon Earth shall be bound or loosed in Heaven In the 18th Canon he concludes with these Words of Jesus Christ The Angels of these Children see the Face of my Father From whence says he it may be concluded That the Angels rejoyce at the Sight of God and that they preside over the Prayers of the Faithful which they offer continually to God He says that those who are bound on Earth by the Ministers of Jesus Christ that is says he those whom the Ministers of Jesus Christ leave bound in their sins and that those who are loosed by receiving them unto the Grace of Salvation upon
He adds That whatever Power the Bishop has he receiv'd it from the Apostles That the right of administring Unction and Baptism of Forgiving Sins of Consecrating the Body of Jesus Christ was devolv'd upon him because he is Successor to the Apostles He concludes this Letter with saying I know very well my dear Brother that the Pardon of sins is not to be granted indifferently to all Sinners and that they are not to be loos'd before there be some Signs of the Will of God that it should be done That Absolution is not to be given but with much precaution and discretion after Sinners have sighed and wept long and when the whole Church has pray'd for them that so no Man may prevent the Judgment of Jesus Christ. If you would write your Thoughts more clearly to me my dear Brother I would Instruct you more fully Sempronianus having answered this Letter St. Pacianus confirm'd the Two Parts of his Letter by Two other Answers In the First he proves what he had said concerning the Name of the Catholick Church and as to what Sempronianus had objected that the People of St. Cyprian had been treated as Apostates as Sectaries c. He shews that they did not commonly carry these Names but on the contrary were always call'd Catholicks whereas Sempronianus cannot deny but the Sect whereof he was did bear the Name of Novatian He answers afterwards to the Accusation of Sempronianus founded upon his making use of a Verse of Virgil in his Letter and shows that a Bishop is allow'd to know humane Learning and to make a profitable use of it He answers also another Accusation against the Catholicks concerning the Persecution which he pretends the Novatians had suffer'd from them He says That the Novatians must not attribute to the Catholicks the severity of some Princes who would not tolerate them That this was not done upon the Complaint and at the desire of Catholicks but by the proper Motion of Christian Princes who espous'd the Interests of the Church That the Powers had reason to Protect the Innocent and to make use of their Authority for the publick Good The rest of this Letter respects some particular Debates between them concerning the Persons of Novatian St. Cyprian and Cornelius St. Pacianus defends and praises these two last and accuses the first of Pride and Schism In the last Letter to Sempronianus he treats of Penance against Novatian He says That all the Doctrine of the Novatians explain'd by Sempronianus is contain'd in this Proposition That Penance is not allow'd after Baptism because the Church cannot forgive Mortal Sin and in short That she destroys her self by receiving Sinners Who is it says he that proposes this Doctrine Is it Moses Is it St. Paul Is it Jesus Christ No it is Novatian And who is this Novatian Is he a Man pure and blameless who has never forsaken the Church who was lawfully Ordain'd Bishop and by the common Methods succeeded in the room of a Bishop deceas'd What do you mean you will tell me It suffices that he has taught this Doctrine But still when was it taught Was it immediately after the Passion of Jesus Christ Not at all It was after the Reign of Decius 300 Years after Christ. But did this Man follow the Prophets Was he a Prophet Did he raise the Dead Did he work Miracles Did he speak all sorts of Languages For at least he ought to have these signs for establishing a new Gospel and though he had yet the Apostle assures us That though an Angel should descend from Heaven to teach us a new Gospel he should be accurs'd Was there never any Person since the coming of Christ till Novatian that understood the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and since the Reign of Decius Is there none but Novatian in the way of Salvation But you will tell me We do not acquiesce in Authority we make use of Reason But as to me who hitherto have been settled in my Religion upon the Authority and Tradition of the Church and am satisfied with the Communion of this Ancient Society I will not now dissent from it I will not seek after Disputes and you who have separated from this Body and divided from your Mother search in Books for every thing that is most secret that you may disturb those that are at rest 'T is not we but you that have raised this Dispute But still let us hear what you say let us examine your Reasons You say That the Church is a Body of Men regenerate by Water and the Holy Spirit who have not deny'd the Name of Christ which is the Temple and House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth we say the same also But who has taken away from us this Living Water Have we it not we who draw from its Fountain But you who are separated from it how can you be regenerate by Baptism How can the Holy Spirit who has not deserted the Church come upon you who are faln off from it How can your People receive the Holy Spirit since they are not Confirm'd by Bishops who have receiv'd the Sacerdotal Unction Have not we had some Confessors and Martyrs Yes you will say you have had but they are now lost by receiving of Apostates I will not tell you that Novatian while he was yet in the Church wrote a Book to prove that we ought to receive them but how do you prove that the whole Church is perish'd by receiving Penitent Sinners If some Churches have shown too great Indulgence must others who have not approv'd them but have follow'd the old way and preserv'd Peace lose upon that account the Name of Christians He proves afterwards by many Reasons That the Church by receiving Penitent Sinners did not cease to be the Church and that the Schism of Novatian made his Disciples lose the Title of the Sons of the Church He strongly urges the Testimony of Novatian who approv'd before his Separation the Conduct of those that receiv'd the laps'd that were Penitent He describes afterwards the Origin of the Sect of Novatians and says That Novatus an African Priest being convicted in his own Country of many Crimes came to Rome to avoid the Condemnation which he had deserv'd and that being arriv'd there he perswaded Novatian who was vex'd that Cornelius was Ordain'd Bishop of Rome he perswaded him I say to procure himself to be Ordain'd Bishop and advis'd him for gaining his design to object against Cornelius the ill Conduct he observ'd in receiving Penitent Sinners St. Pacianus enters upon this Matter and justifies against the Novatians the Conduct of Cornelius by showing that we ought to receive Sinners to Penance and that God has given his Church the Power of forgiving Sins But at the same time he takes Notice That there is not the same reason of Penance as of Baptism for the former ought to be accompanied with much Labour with Tears and Sighs He confutes the Objections of
for governing the Church of Constantinople by describing the wonderful Effects he had produc'd in that Church he prays them to grant him a Successor with as much Earnestness as others desire the Greatest Sees The Reasons which he alledges for obtaining Permission to retire are First his great Age the Quarrels of Churches and Bishops the Envy that some bore to him the Division of the East and the West and his Love of Retirement and Solitude He adds some other Reasons which tend to the Confusion of his Enemies such as the Persecutions which he had endur'd with Patience his Frugality his Modesty his Humility At last He conjures them to create another Bishop who should be more agreeable to the relish of the World Here he represents very naturally the Luxury Ambition and Arts which were but too common among the Bishops of the Great Sees At last He bids Adieu to his Dear Anastasia to the other Churches of Constantinople to the Council the Clergy the People and to the Court These Adieu's are pathetical to those that had an Esteem of him and are very picquant to those that were his Enemies and wish'd that he would abdicate his Charge 'T is plain that this Discourse is the last of those which he spoke at Constantinople The Five following Discourses are Entitled Of Theology because St. Gregory Nazianzen explains there what concerns the Divine Nature and the Trinity of Persons There he treats of the Rules which ought to be observed in the Administration of the Word of God He says First That this Function does not suit all Men That he who discharges it must be pure in Heart and Mind That he should not apply himself to it but with a sedate Temper and Lastly That he ought not to treat of those Matters before Pagans nor before those who have no sence of Religion and who think of nothing but Pleasures He adds many fine things about the Dispositions and Qualifications that are necessary to a Divine He blames those who having their Hands tied that is who do no Good Works yet have a wonderful Itch to prate and those who think to be great Divines because they understand the Subtilties of Aristotle's Logick and the Gentile Philosophy which they make use of nothing to the purpose when they Discourse about Mysteries In the 2d Discourse he enquires what may be conceiv'd concerning the Nature of God He says That his Existence is known by the Creatures That his Immensity Spirituality and his other Attributes are known but that it does not follow from hence that his Essence and Nature can be comprehended which he proves against Eunomius in the second Discourse of Theology which contains many great Notions concerning the Nature and Attributes of God In the 3d. he proves the Equality of the Three Persons of the Divinity and the Son and answers the most part of Eunomius's Sophisms The 4th continues the same subject and in the 5th he proves That the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person distinct from the Father and the Son That he proceeds from the Father and that he is not begotten as the Son tho' he be of the same Substance and the same Nature He observes towards the End of this Discourse That under the Old Testament the Father only was distinctly known That the Son is clearly Reveal'd in the New That in it also there are found Passages enough to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit but that it was fully clear'd by the Tradition of the Church These Discourses seem also to have been spoken at Constantinople And thus we are come to the 38th Sermon upon the Festival of the Birth of Jesus Christ. In it St. Gregory admires the Wonders of the Mysteries of the Incarnation He describes the Fall of the first Man which he supposes to have been the Cause of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and reckons up the Advantages which Mankind receiv'd by this Mystery At last He teaches Christians to Celebrate the Festival of Christmas by purifying themselves from their Sins by imitating the Vertues of Jesus Christ and particularly his Patience and Humility The 39th Discourse is a Sermon upon the Festival Of Lights that is upon the Feast of Epiphany on which also the Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus Christ is observ'd There he speaks of the Wonderful Effects of this Baptism which had the Vertue of purifying us He distinguishes many sorts of Baptism viz. The Baptism of Moses the Baptism of St. John the Baptism of Jesus Christ the Baptism of the Martyrs and the Baptism of Penance which he calls a Laborious Baptism and taking occasion from this last he Discourses against the Error of the Novatians Last of all He adds also to this Baptism which we have already mentioned the Baptism of Fire wherewith he says one may be baptiz'd in another Life The following Discourse was spoken the next Day 'T is an Instruction about Baptism to those that are to be baptiz'd There he observes the Excellence of Baptism and its marvellous Effects He sets down and explains the different Names that are given to this Sacrament He observes That it consists in Two Things the Water and the Spirit That the washing the Body with Water represents the Operation of the Spirit in purifying the Soul He says That Baptism is a Compact which we make with God by which we oblige our selves to lead a New Life That 't is very dangerous to break the Promise which we made at Baptism for there is no more Regeneration nor perfect Renovation to be hop'd for afterwards That we may indeed cover the Wound by a multitude of Tears and Sighs but that it would be much better not to need this Second Remedy because it is very difficult and troublesome and that we can have no assurance but Death may surprize us before our Penance be finish'd You says he addressing himself to the Ministers of Jesus Christ you can as the Gardener mention'd in the Gospel pray the Lord to excuse the barren Fig-tree yet a little longer you can desire him that he would not cut it down and that he would permit you to dung it that 's to say to impose as a Penance upon it Weeping Watching lying upon the hard Ground Corporal Mortifications and making humble Satisfaction but what certainty have you that God will pardon him Wherefore my Brethren being buried by Baptism with Jesus Christ let us rise with him let us descend with him into the Waters that we may ascend with him into Heaven He proves afterwards that we ought not to delay the Receiving of Baptism and refutes the vain pretences of those who delay it He says that Infants are to be Baptiz'd to consecrate them to Jesus Christ from their Infancy He distinguishes Three Sorts of Persons that are Baptiz'd the First are those who do Evil wilfully and with Delight the Second are those who commit Sin with some reluctancy and without approving it the Third are those who live well
rather that is the only Doctrine which he opposes there It is no ways probable therefore that this Treatise should be his and we must still continue in as great uncertainties as ever concerning its Author The Book of Mysteries or Sacraments is an Instruction to the New-baptiz'd wherein St. Ambrose explains to them the Significations and Virtue of the Sacraments which they had receiv'd Here is an Abridgment of what is most remarkable in this Instruction After we have spoken every day of Morality and propos'd to you the Examples of the Patriarchs and Prophets while the Proverbs were reading that you might be accustom'd to follow the Examples of the Saints and to lead a Life becoming those Persons who are purified by Baptism 'T is now time to discourse to you of the Mysteries and to explain the Sacraments for if we had explain'd them to you before you were initiated we should have thought that we had profan'd rather than discover'd them Besides that the light of the Mysteries themselves which you did not expect has now astonish'd you more than if we had instructed you about them before Open therefore now your Ears to receive the sweet word of Eternal Life which we signified to you when we celebrated the Ceremony by which we wish'd that they might be open'd by saying Ephatha that so all those who were to come to Baptism might know what was demanded of them and what they answer'd At last you are introduc'd into the place where the Sacrament of Baptism is Administred you are oblig'd to renounce the Devil and his Works the World and its Pomps and Pleasures You found in this place the Waters and a Priest who consecrated them the Body was plung'd into this Water to wash away Sins the Holy Spirit descended upon this Water you ought not to fix your mind upon the External part of it but to consider in it a Divine Virtue Do not imagine therefore that it is this Water which purifies you 't is the Holy Spirit There are Three things in Baptism the Water the Blood and the Spirit and without these Three Things the Sacrament is not compleat neither the Remission of Sins nor Grace is receiv'd unless it be in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost The Baptism of Jews and Infidels does not purify at all 't is the Holy Spirit which descended formerly under the Figure of a Dove which sanctifies these Waters We must not consider the merit of the Priest for it is our Lord Jesus Christ who baptizes You made Profession of believing in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost After this you drew near unto the Priest he anointed you and your Feet were washed This Sacrament blots out your hereditary Sins and the Baptism blots out the Sins contracted by your own Will After this you receiv'd white Garments to signifie that you were stript of Sin and clothed with Innocence You received the Seal of the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Wisdom of Power c. The Father hath mark'd you out the Son hath confirm'd you and the Holy Spirit hath given you assurance of your Salvation Afterwards you run to the Heavenly Feast and see the Altar prepar'd where you receive a nourishment infinitely exceeding that of Manna a Bread more excellent than that of Angels 'T is the Flesh of Jesus Christ the Body of Life 't is the incorruptible Manna 't is the Truth whereof the Manna was only the Figure Perhaps you will tell me But I see another thing How do you assure me that it is the Body of Jesus Christ which I receive That we must prove We must show that it is not the Body which Nature hath form'd but that which the Benediction hath Consecrated Which St. Ambrose confirms by an infinite number of the like Miracles and lastly by the Mystery of the Incarnation which he compares to that of the Eucharist A Virgin says he brought forth This is against the Order of Nature The Body which we consecrate came forth of a Virgin Why do you seek for the Order of Nature in the Body of Jesus Christ since Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin contrary to the Order of Nature Jesus Christ had real Flesh which was fastened to the Cross and laid in the Sepulchre So the Eucharist is the true Sacrament of this Flesh. Jesus Christ himself assures us of it This is says he my Body before the Benediction of these Heavenly Words it is of another Nature after the Consectation it is the Body So likewise of the Blood Before Consecration it is call'd by another Name after Consecration it is call'd the Blood of Jesus Christ and ye Answer Amen that 's to say 'T is true Let the Mind acknowledge inwardly that which the Mouth brings forth let the Heart be of that Judgment which the Words express The Church exhorts her Children to Receive these Sacraments which contain the Body of Jesus Christ. This is not Bodily but Spiritual Food for the Body of the Lord is Spiritual Lastly this Heavenly Meat gives us strength this Divine Drink rejoyces us Having therefore receiv'd these Sacraments let us be persuaded that we are regenerated and let us not say How can this be 'T is not by Nature but by the Holy Spirit From hence we may learn the chief Ceremonies which were observed in the Church of Milan As to the Administration of the Sacraments these which follow are remark'd The Ears of the Catechumens were touch'd saying Ephatha and after that they were bidden enter into the place where they were to be baptiz'd There they were oblig'd to renounce the Devil the World and its Pomps the Bishop blessed the Water of Baptism the Creed was repeated to the Catechumens they were anointed with Holy Chrisms their Feet were wash'd they were plung'd into the Water and at the same time the Three Divine Persons were invocated afterwards they were cloathed with White Garments the Sacrament of Confirmation was given them and the Holy Spirit was called upon for them From thence they were conducted to the Altar where they were present at the Consecration of the Eucharist and received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ answering Amen Since these Ceremonies and the Doctrine of this Treatise do not agree with the Opinions of Protestants some among them have done what they could to raise Doubts about this Book whether it were St. Ambrose's But the Reasons which they alledge are so weak that the ablest Men among them have sincerely acknowledg'd that it is really his There are very strong Proofs that it is this Father's the beginning alone discovers that it is his for there he speaks plainly of the Sermons he had made to the Catechumens upon the Lives of the Patriarchs and Prophets This does not agree to any other Author but St. Ambrose 't is the Stile of this Father tho' he treats of things more particularly than in his other Books 'T is his Doctrine and no body doubts but it is
Jesus Christ and made Profession of believing one Christ only compos'd of two Natures pronouncing an Anathema against â—…se who admit two Forms in Jesus Christ who did not acknowledge that the Miracles and Sufferings belong'd to one and the same Christ and did not own that the Word suffer'd and particularly against Paulus of Samosata Dioscorus Theodorus and Theodoret. Baronius and Binius endeavour to make incredible that this was not Vigilius's but Liberatus is more to be believ'd then they and Vigilius was certainly capable of doing it The second Letter of Vigilius address'd to Eucherius is that of the first day of March in the Year 538. He answers this Bishop about certain Aâ—…es concerning which he had consulted him 1. He condemns those who under pretence of Abâ—…ence superstitiously refrain from eating any Meat thinking it forbidden and evil in it self 2. He orders the Canons of the H. See to be observ'd concerning the solemn Administration of Baptism and reproves those who cut off the Particle And in the Gloria Patri between the Son and the H. Spirit singing Gloria Patri Filio Spiritus Sancto instead of Spiritus Sancto 3. He says that he had sent to him who writes the Ecclesiastical Canons taken out of the Archives of the Church of Rome made with respect to those who having been baptiz'd in the Church were re-baptiz'd by the Arians when they return'd to the Church He adds that nevertheless their Penance may be diminish'd in proportion to their fervor but that they must not be receiv'd by that Imposition of Hands which is us'd to cause the Holy Spirit to descend but by that which is us'd to reconcile Penitents 4. He thinks that a Church must not be Consecrated anew which is rebuilt upon the same Foundations but that it is sufficient to celebrate Mess in it This Consecration was made by throwing Holy Water upon it for to show that it was not necessary to consecrate it anew he uses this Expression Nihil Judicamus officere si per eam minime aqua benedicta jactetur 5. He fixes the Day of the Feast of Easter approaching he says that Divine Service is perform'd after the same manner in all the Feasts that some Chapters only are added which agree either to the Mysteries or to the Saint whose Feast it is He sends Reliques to him to whom he writes Here this Letter should end for he declares that he had answer'd all the Demands of this Bishop and makes him a Complement wherewith it was usual to conclude a Letter Yet there are in it two other Articles which have no relation to the preceding nor any connexion with the remainder of the Letter The first condemns the Priests who name not the three Persons in administring Baptism the second is about the Primacy of the Church of Rome It affirms that there is no doubt but the Roman Church is the Foundation Form and Principle of all the Churches because tho all the Apostles were chosen after the same manner yet St. Peter had the Pre-eminence above the other which made him be call'd Cephas because he is the Head and Prince of the other Apostles that therefore the Church of Rome has the Primacy among all the Churches and that 't is necessary that the Causes which concern the Persons of Bishops or the important Affairs of the Church should be communicated to him and that the Appeals of these Causes should be reserv'd to him 'T is very probable that these two Articles are added In the third Letter Vigilius makes Answer to Caesarius Bishop of Arles about King Theodebert's Consulting him concerning the Penance which should be impos'd upon one who had married his Brother's Wife Vigilius had already written to the King that this Crime could not be expiated but by a great Penance But because 't is convenient that the Penance should be regulated by the Bishops upon the place since none but they can know the condition of the Penitent he commits this care to Caesarius with whom he leaves full power to regulate the Time and Order of this Penance But he admonishes him to require that he commit no more such things for the future and to hinder him and her who were thus married from dwelling together The fourth Letter is address'd to Justinian There he praises the Piety and Faith of this Emperor who had written to him that he would inviolably adhere to the Faith establish'd in the four General Councils and in the Letters of St. Celestin and St. Leo. He testifies to him that he is of the same Judgment and that he approves what his Predecessors Hormisdas John and Agapetus had done against the Hereticks and that he condemns the Persons whom they had condemn'd He recommends it to this Prince that he would maintain the Priviledges of the See of Rome which could not be attack'd without violating as one may say the Faith In the following Letter he congratulates Mennas for being of the same Judgment This is dated Sept. 17th 540. The sixth seventh and eighth Letters are address'd to Auxanius Bishop of Arles In the first he grants him the Pallium In the second he makes him his Vicar in the Kingdom of Childebert and annexes two Prerogatives to this Title The first is to examine and judge the Causes of the Bishops of this Kingdom provided notwithstanding that if any Causes of Faith or of difficult Matters happens they shall be reserv'd to the Decision of the Holy See The second is that no Bishop shall go out of his Country without taking Literae Formatae from him He exhorts him afterwards Caesarius Bishop of Arles to pray for Justinian and to preserve the Peace and good Understanding between King Childeber and the Emperor In the third Letter to Auxanius Vigilius commissions him to Judge the Affair of Pretextatus The first of these Letters is dated Octob. 18th 543 and the other two May 22th 545. The same day he wrote a fourth to the Bishops of the Kingdom of Childebert and to those who were accustomed to receive their Consecration from the Bishop of Arles wherein he gives them to understand that he had made Auxanius his Vicar and sets forth the Rights which he had granted him After the death of Auxanius he gave the same Title and the same Priviledges to his Successor Aurelianus as appears by the Letters ten and eleven written in 546. The other Letters and Treatises of Vigilius having a relation to the History of the fifth Council of which they make a part we shall reserve them to be spoken of upon that Head CAESARIUS Bishop of Arles CAesarius born at Chalons upon the River Sone a Monk and Abbot of Lerina and afterwards Bishop of Arles was one of the most famous Bishops of France in his time He was honour'd with divers Letters from the Popes who made him their Vicar He assisted at many Councils of France in which he caused very excellent and useful Canons to be made
another Subject in the following Book The Last Book in our Editions is a Collection of Logical Principles which contains nothing that regards the Christian Religion or that is worth giving an Account of Photius observes that in his Time there were some Editions where this last Book was Entituled What rich Man can be saved And that it began with these Words Those who make pieces of Oratory But Eusebius distinguishes that Book from the Stromata S. Clement of Alexandria does not start at all from the Doctrine of the Church in those Works of his whereof we have already given the Abridgment He does not only mention Three Divine Persons but he invokes them as One only God g As being One onely God Lib. 1. Paedag. Cap 8. Unus est universorum Pater â—â—â—m etiam verbum universorum spiritus sanctus unus qui ipse est ubique And Book 3. Chap. 12. Let us praise the Father and the Son says he the Son because he is our Pedagogue and our Master together with the Holy Ghost who alone is the Whole in whom are all Things and by whom all Things are one to whom be Glory for ever and ever And again Book 5. pag. 544. The Father is not without the Son neither the Son without the Father And Pag. 598. after having quoted some Words of Plato he understands them of the Trinity For says he the Holy Ghost is the Third and the Son by whom all things were made is the Second Besides he uses the Name of the most Holy Trinity He says that the WORD which was from the beginning in God which is God and equal to God by which he created the World and instructed all Men did at last become Man to save us by his Doctrine by his Example and by his Death It is true in another Place he says that the Nature of the Son is the most Perfect the most Excellent and that which approaches nearest to Almighty God words which would seem to imply as if he believed that the Nature of the WORD was different from that of the Father But we know well enough that the Ancients had not yet made so exact a Distinction between the Terms Nature and Person and that they often took one for the other And indeed his way of Discoursing of the Excellency of the WORD in this and other Places sufficiently declares that he did not believe that he was of a different Nature taking the word Nature in the same Sense as we at present do For he says that the WORD is God that it is without Beginning that he is equal to the Father that he is in the Father that he created all Things c. Expressions which clearly discover what his Opinion was concerning the Divinity of the WORD He seems however to follow the way of speaking of some of the Ancients in saying Book IV. Pag. 537. and 565. that the WORD is Visible that he may be known and that it is by him that we know the invisible Father of whom he is the Image but it is an easie matter to Accommodate these Expressions to the Doctrines of the Church as we have shewn in our Critical Remarks upon several Authors already He says that the Blessed Mary remained a Virgin after she brought forth He holds that the Book VII Pag. 756. Book V. Of the Strom. p. 550. Book II. p. 2. Chap. 2. Book III. Pag. 468. and 499. Daemons sinned through Incontinency He acknowledges Adam's Fall and the Punishment of his Sin which all Men have incurred But he seems not well to have understood the Nature of Original Sin 'T is true that in the passage commonly alledged from him against Original Sin he contradicts the Opinion of those who affirmed that the Generation was Corrupted But he speaks after such a manner as would make us think that he did not believe Original Sin or at least that he never considered it Let them tell us says he how an Infant that is but just born has prevaricated and how he who has already done nothing could fall under Adam's Curse c. He often exhorts Men to do good by the hopes of Eternal Happiness and disswades them from Evil by the Fear of Everlasting Punishments without speaking at all of the Opinion of the Millenaries He holds that without Faith in Jesus Christ none can be saved But he says that Jesus Christ and the Apostles preached the Gospel in the Limbi to just Persons as well Gentiles as Jews that they might obtain this Faith wherein they were before deficient He ascribes much to Free-Will he believes that our Salvation and Faith which is the beginning thereof depends upon our selves though not without the Assistance of Divine Grace h Though not without the Assistances of Divine Grace Lib. 5. Stromat pag. 547. Nam neque fieri potest ut fine libero animi arbitrio instituto consequamur neque universum est positum in nostrâ voluntate quale sit id quod est eventurum Gratiâ servamur sed non absque bonis operibus Et oportet quidem cum naturâ apti simus ad bonum ad id aliquod adhibere studium Oportet mentem quoque habere bonam quae nullâ retardetur penitentiâ à boni consequutione Ad quod maximè divinâ opus est gratiâ rectâque doctrinâ castaque mundâ animi affectione patris ad ipsum attractione And Lib. 4. pag. 518. he says that it is God which gives us Continence Pag. 530. he says that it is Grace that enables us to run our Course without any impediment Pag. 495. he says that it is the Power of God which makes us resist Temptations He speaks nobly of the Necessity and Efficacy of Baptism Baptism In Protrep p. 54. Sequentibus Book 1. Paed. Chap. 8. and 9. Book 3. Chap. 11. and 12. Lib. 1. Stromat p. 3. 11. lib. 3. p. 444. Lib. 6. p. 661. In Protrep p. 53. Paed. lib. 1. cap. 9. says he is called Grace Illumination Perfection Washing by which Name it is called because it cleanses us from our Sins it is called Grace because it remits the Punishment due for our Sins Illumination because it enlightens us with the Illumination of Faith Perfection because it makes us perfect And afterwards pag. 95. These Bonds of Sin are immediately broken by the Faith of Man and the Grace of God Sins are remitted by this admirable Remedy of Baptism and we immediately cease to be Sinners from being Blind as we were before we become clear-sighted for what is taught to the Catechumens is purely Instruction to guide them to that Faith which is thus internally conveyed by the Holy Spirit We have given an account of the difference that he makes between the Remission of Sins committed after Baptism and that which is obtained by Baptism We have shewed that he allowed but one Repentance after Baptism and that he rejects the Repentances of those Persons who often
is so common and if I may say it so trivial that I do not think it necessary to say any thing of it in this Place Hermogenes was another African Heretick who maintained that Matter was Eternal and that God did not create it when he made the World but that he only made use thereof to form things as we see He suckt this Error from the Philosophy of the Stoicks and defended it by Syllogisâ—… connected according to their Methods of Reasoning which made Tertullian say in the Treatise which he composed against him that the Philosophers were the Patriarchs of the Hereticks He there discovers the Fallacies of the Sophisms of this Heretick and shews that our Religion teaches us that God created even that Matter whereof he made the World The Book against the Valentinians is rather a Satyr and Raillery than a serious Confutation of the Extravagant Sentiments of these Hereticks Valentinus the first Author of this Sect separated from the Church out of spight because hoping to be Elected a Bishop by reason of his Wit and Eloquence he was put by to prefer another Person who had suffered for the Faith of Jesus Christ in times of Persecution After he had separated from the Church he invented or rather revived an old Opinion according to the Principles of which he feigned a Succession and imaginary Generation of a kind of Deities His Disciples refined upon his Notion and formed quite different Systems But as all these Fancies were impertinent and ridiculous so they took great Care to conceal them lest if they should discover them all the World should be presently sensible of their Extravagancy 'T is this which Tertullian upbraids them with If you teach the Truth says he to them why don't you discover it It persuades by teaching and it teaches by persuading it is not ashamed of shewing it self on the contrary 't is ashamed of nothing but of being concealed You reproach us for our Simplicity it is true we love it because it is by this means that we know and make known the Will of God But 't is no wonder that the Hereticks should blame this Simplicity and should so carefully conceal their Principles for they were so extravagant that the bare Discovering of them would be sufficient to render them ridiculous 'T is this which Tertullian does in this Work I undertake says he in this Book to discover to the Eyes of all Men the hidden Mystery but though I profess to relate the Opinions of these Hereticks without making a particular Confutation yet I hope I shall be pardoned if I cannot forbear censuring them in some Places What I do is nothing but a Sport before a real Combat I shall rather shew them where I could strike them than lay them on But if there are found some Passages that may excite Laughter 't is because the very Subject causes it There are many things which deserve to be jeered and ridiculed at this rate lest if we should confute them seriously we should seem to lay too great Stress upon them Nothing is more due to Vanity than Laughter and to Laugh does properly belong to the Truth because it is pleasant and to Sport with its Enemies because it is certain of the Victory And these are all the Books which are particularly against the Hereticks there are others in which Tertullian likewise confutes some Errors and defends some Catholick Truths though they were not written against any Hereticks in particular Such are the following Books The Book of the Flesh of Jesus Christ. wherein he proves against the Hereticks Marcion Apelles and Valentinus that Jesus Christ took upon him true Flesh like to ours in the Womb of the Virgin The Title alone of the Book of the Resurrection of the Flesh is enough to discover that it was written against the Sadducees and against the Hereticks who denied the Resurrection The Scorpiacus so called because it is a Remedy against the Poison of Hereticks like Scorpions defends the Necessity and Excellency of Martyrdom against the Gnosticks The Book of the Soul written against the Opinions of the Philosophers and the Hereticks treats at large of the Nature of the Soul and its Qualities But it is full of false Principles and Errors He pretends that the Soul is Corporeal and that it takes a certain Form of a Body though it be invisible he confutes the Opinion of Plato concerning Reminiscency or the Faculty of Remembring and Pythagoras's Transmigration he affirms that the Soul does not come from Heaven but that it is formed with the Body and that as the Body of the Parents produces a Body so their Soul produces a Soul That all Souls and even those of the Martyrs which some have excepted are disposed of after Death in a certain Subterraneous Place where they receive Refreshment and Torment according to the Good or Evil which they have done And that they expect the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment which will render them entirely happy or entirely Miserable to all Eternity There are likewise in this Treatise some other particular Opinions as for Instance that the Soul and Breath are the same thing that that which is unreasonable in the Soul comes from the Devil that every Soul has its Daemon that all Dreams are not vain The Book of Baptism is divided into two Parts the First relating to Doctrine and the Second to Discipline In the First he defends the Necessity and Efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism against the Hereticks called Caiannites he proves that the Waters of Baptism do procure to us Forgiveness of our Sins and of the Punishment which they deserve What can there be says he more miraculous than to see that by washing the Body by an external Baptism we efface at the same time the Mortal Stain of the Soul and when that Stain is once taken away the Punishment is likewise remitted to us He afterwards discourses of the Imposition of Hands and of the Unction which followed after Baptism to make the Holy Ghost descend upon the Faithful and to draw down upon them the Blessings of Heaven We do not receive says he the Fulness of the Holy Ghost by Water but it prepares us for receiving it by washing us from our Sins And as St. John prepared the Way of the Lord so the Angel which is present in Baptism prepares the Way for the Holy Ghost by the Absolution of our Sins which we obtain by Faith which is confirmed and sealed by the Invocation of the Father Son and Holy Ghost When we come out of the Font we are anointed and this Unction which is performed on our Flesh is profitable to our Soul as external Baptism has a spiritual Effect which is to deliver us from our Sins Afterwards there is the Laying on of Hands to draw upon us the Holy Ghost and this most Holy Spirit descends voluntarily from Heaven into purified and blessed Bodies In the Second Part he discourses of several Questions concerning Baptism
last Persecution Patara in Lycia and afterwards of Tyre in Palaestine who suffered Martyrdom at Chalcis a City of Greece towards the end of Dioclesian's Persecution in the Year 302. or 303. composed in a clear elaborate Style a large Work against Porphyrius the Philosopher an excellent Treatise about the Resurrection against Origen another about the Pythonyssa against the same a Book Entituled The Banquet of Virgins one about Free-Will Commentaries upon Genesis and the Canticles and several other Pieces that were extant in St. Jerome's Methodius time At present besides The Banquet of Virgins that was published entire not long ago by Possinus a Jesuit we have several considerable Fragments of this Author cited by St. Epiphanius and Photius and others found in Manuscripts and collected together by Father Combesis who has Printed them together with the Works of Amphilochius and Andreas Cretensis But afterwards Possinus found The Banquet of Virgins entire in a Manuscript belonging to the Vatican Library and Translated it into Latin and sent it into France where it was Printed in the Year 1657. Revised and Corrected by another Manuscript We cannot doubt that this is the true genuine Work of Methodius as well because it carries all the Marks of Antiquity in it that a Book can possibly have as also because it contains Word for Word all the Passages that Photius has cited out of this Work of Methodius and another place cited by St. Gregory Nyssen 'T is written by way of Dialogue in which he introduces a Woman named Gregorium who tells her Friend Eubulus all the Conversation that passed in a Meeting of Ten Virgins which she learnt of Theopatra It was composed by Methodius in imitation of a certain Book very much resembling it written by Plato and Entituled The Banquet of Socrates After that Gregorium and Eubulus have exchanged the usual Complements and Gregorium has given a short Description of the Place where these Ten Virgins were assembled she feigns that Arete in whose Garden they were met requests each of them to make a Discourse upon Virginity which she repeats one after the other The First is that of Marcella who enlarges very much upon the Greatness and Excellence of Virginity She makes it appear how choice a thing Virginity is and that it is a difficult thing to preserve it amidst so many Thousand Temptations we meet with That it is necessary to meditate incessantly upon the Holy Scripture in order to keep it unspotted and undefiled That Virginity was scarce so much as known under the ancient Law when Men were permitted to Marry even their own Sisters and to take several Wives But that God by little and little has taught Men in the first place to preserve their Chastity and afterwards to embrace Virginity That Jesus Christ came into the World to instruct them in this Virtue by the Influence of his own Example that he is the Prince of Virgins as well as the Prince of Pastors that the Company of Virgins has the first place in his Kingdom though they are the least in number And this she justifies by a Passage out of the Revelations Chap. the 14th Since this Conversation of Marcella might seem to throw some Dis-reputation upon the Sanctity of Marriage Theophila proves in the second place that Jesus Christ in making the great Excellencies of Virginity known to the World did not design thereby to banish Marriage and entirely abolish so Sacred an Institution She says That the Ecstasie of Adam denotes and signifies the Passion of Marriage that God is the Author of Generation and that he forms the Infants that come into the World Here Marcella interrupts the Series of her Discourse and enquires of her How it comes to pass if Infants are conceived and born by the Will of God that he permits the Children of Adulterers to come into the World that these Children thrive and are often more perfect in their Body and Mind and also become better Christians than others That nevertheless Experience daily acquaints us with the truth of this Assertion so that we ought to understand this Saying in the Scripture The Children of Adulteterers shall be consumed by Fire only of those that corrupt the Word of God Theophila returns this Answer to the Obejction That God is not the Author of Adulterers though he forms the Infants that are born of such Copulations and this she illustrates by the Example of a Man that makes Earthen Vessels in a place enclosed with four Walls full of Holes through which he is furnished with Clay of which he makes his Work Now if those that serve him are mistaken in taking one hole for another and it so happen that his Work is not such as it ought to be the fault would lie neither in the Workman himself nor in the Clay but in those that had made a wrong Application of the matter That after the same manner we ought not to cast the Sin of Adulterers either upon God that makes Men or upon the Matter of which they are made or upon the Power that is given to Men to beget Children but upon the wicked Inclinations of those Persons that use these things in a dishonest manner that every thing in the World is really Good in it self but becomes Ill through the ill use and management of it She continues afterwards to prove by the admirable Beauty and Harmony that so visibly appears in the Contexture of our Bodies that God is the Author of them She observes that all Infants even those that are begotten in Adultery have their tutelar Angels to guard them immediately after their Conception that the Soul is in its Nature immortal that it is not generated by our Parents but proceeds from God who inspireth it In short after she has thus answered this Objection she concludes That it is permitted for Men to Marry though Virginity is a more perfect State than Marriage The Third Discourse goes under the Name of Thalia who applies the words of Adam to his Wife in Genesis to our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ and his Church and following the Opinion of the Apostle she adds That the Word was the Wisdom of God who existing before all Ages communicated himself after a very particular manner to the first Man but that Man having violated and transgressed the Commandments of God became Mortal and Corruptible and that it was necessary for the Word to make himself Man to deliver him from the Curse and Tyranny he had rendred himself obnoxious to and save him from Corruption by his own Death and Resurrection That it is upon this account that the Son of God came into the World to unite himself to the Church as to his Spouse which through this means became his Flesh and his Botie that he died for her that he purified her by Baptism and by his Holy Spirit that these words Increase and Multiply are accomplished and fulfilled every day in the Church which encreases in Greatness and
a double mistake for neither does St. Athanasiu's say that there be but few Priests or Bishops married nor does he speak a word of Priests Monks were not constantly Ordain'd in those days St. Anthony their great Master was a Lay-man and in this very Letter to Dracontius St. Athanasius amongst other Arguments to persuade him to accept the Bishoprick to which he was Canonically Elected tells him That if the Monks desired to have Presbyters among them to Instruct them in their Duty they ought not to envy others who for the same Reason were earnest to have Dracontius for their Bishop and we have seen Monks married In a word 't is permitted to every one in whatsoever State he is to use such abstinences as he pleases He concludes with exhorting him to return to his Bishoprick before Easter that his People might not be abandon'd and oblig'd to Celebrate that Feast without him and with earnest Entreaties that he would not hearken to their Counsels that would hinder his Return They would says he have Priests among themselves Why then are they unwilling that the People should have Bishops In the Letter to Ammon the Monk he refutes the Error of some Monks who condemn'd the use of Marriage and shows by the Scripture that 't is permitted and that 't is an Impiety to condemn it tho' Virginity is a more perfect State and deserves greater Rewards The Life of St. Anthony may be reckon'd among his Moral Writings for it contains excellent Instructions for all Monks We must also place among the Moral Works of St. Athanasius his Homily of Circumcision and the Sabbath There he treats of the Institution of the Sabbath and thinks that the principal end of its Celebration was not merely to rest but that it was Instituted to make known the Creator that the Reason why 't is abrogated in the New Law and the Feast of Sunday establish'd in its room is because the first Day was the end of the first Creation and the second was the beginning of the New For the same Reason he believes that Circumcision was appointed on the eighth Day to be a figure of that Regeneration which is made by Baptism Lastly That I may say something of the Treatises of St. Athanasius upon the Holy Scriptures the Abridgment of the Scriptures is the most useful of them There you may see in one view an Enumeration of all the Canonical Books of the Old Testament according to the Catalogue of the Hebrews which contains but 22 and he adds those that are not Canonical but yet are read in the Church to the Catechumens which according to him are the Books of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Esther Judith and Tobit with this Observation That some plac'd the Books of Esther and Ruth amongst those which they esteem'd Canonical In the Catalogue of the Canonical Books of the New Testament he places all those which we acknowledge at present After he has given us these Catalogues he makes a very faithful Abridgment of what is contain'd in every Book and gives the Reason why 't is call'd by such a Name and Discourses of the Author that wrote it Afterwards he gives a Catalogue of those Apocryphal Books which are of little or no use at all He speaks particularly of the Four Gospels their Authors and the Places where they were compos'd he treats in a few Words of the Greek Versions of the Old Testament and at last gives a Catalogue of some Books cited in Scripture that are lost The Fragment of the 39th Festival Letter is upon the same Subject and it contains also a Catalogue of the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament and of those that are useful tho' they be not Canonical which he distinguishes from these Apocryphal Books that have been forg'd by Hereticks and here he follows the same Catalogue which is in the Abridgment But he adds to the number of these Books that may be read to the Catechumens The Doctrine of the Apostles and the Book entituled Pastor The Book to Marcellinus upon the Psalms is also of the same Nature St. Athanasius shows there the Excellency of the Book of Psalms and relates the Subject of many of them those that are Historical and those that are Moral He observes there That the Book of Psalms referrs to all the Histories of the Old Testament That it includes all the Prophecies of Jesus Christ That it expresses all the Opinions which we ought to have That it contains the Prayers that should be made and comprizes all the Precepts of Morality He observes That there are some Psalms Historical some Moral some Prophetical besides those that consist of Prayers and Praises all which he distinguishes and places in their proper Rank and Order He shews that the Psalms represent to every one of the Faithful the State of his own Soul that every one may see himself there represented and may observe from the different Passions there express'd what he feels in his own Heart and that in whatever State any one is there he may find Words suitable to his present Disposition Rules for his Conduct and Remedies for his Troubles Wherefore he divides the Psalms according to the different Matters of which they treat that every one may make use of them according to his Necessities and according to the different States that he falls into He adds That those who Sing should be of a free and quiet Spirit that the Melody of their Song may agree with the Harmony of their Spirit And last of all He would not have any Words of the Psalms which may appear simple chang'd under pretence of making them more Elegant The Treatise upon these Words of Jesus Christ Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit his sin shall not be forgiven him neither in this World nor in the other is an Explication of this difficult place of Scripture wherein he first observes that Origen and Theognostus thought That the Sin against the Holy Ghost was the Sin of those who after they were baptiz'd lost the Grace of Baptism by their Crimes But St. Athanasius maintains That this Explication is not Natural because those that violate their Vows of Baptism sin no more against the Holy Spirit than against the Father and the Son in whose Name Baptism is administred And to shew that this Opinion of the Ancients is not defensible he observes That these Words of Jesus Christ were address'd to the Pharisees who were never baptiz'd and yet sinned against the Holy Spirit by saying That Jesus Christ cast out Devils in the name of Beelzebub He adds That if this Explication were admitted it would give up the Cause to Novatus He explains the Passage of St. Paul to the Hebrews where the Apostle says 'T is impossible that those who were once baptiz'd should be renew'd again which does not exclude says St. Athanasius Repentance after Baptism but only a second Baptism After he has rejected this Explication he advances a New one
Hilary confirms this Answer by many places of Scripture where Jesus Christ gives himself the Title of Good and of Master from whence it appears that the Title was not here refus'd upon its own Account Upon this occasion he Answers the Objection of the Arians who say That Jesus Christ call'd his Father the only God and shows that the Father is the only God because the Divinity of the Father is the same with that of the Son which Truth he proves by many Passages of Scripture The Second Passage objected by the Arians is taken out of the Gospel of St John Chap. 17. This is life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent from whence the Arians concluded That Jesus Christ was not â—he true God but one sent from the true God St. Hilary answers That this Passage does not exclude the Essential Unity of the Father and the Son since in this and other places Jesus Christ affirms That he came forth from God That he is with God That he had overcome the World That he should be honour'd as the Father That he had received the Power of giving Eternal Life That all things which are the Father's are his He adds That in the same Place Jesus Christ prays the Father to glorify him with the Glory that he had with him from all Eternity which evidently proves the Unity of the Essence of the Father and the Son Moreover the words alledg'd in the Objection prove nothing contrary to the Faith of the Church which acknowledges that the Father is the only true God though Jesus Christ is also God because the Father and the Son are not two Gods but one God only The Third Objection is taken from Ch. 5th of the same Gospel of St. John The Son can do nothing of himself he doth only what he seeth his Father do St. Hilary shows that this Passage establishes the Divinity of Jesus Christ and is very far from destroying it because it proves the Unity and Equality of the Father and the Son The Fourth Passage is the grand Objection of the Arians founded upon those words of Jesus Christ in St. John Chap. 14. My Father is greater than I. St. Hilary says That the Father is greater than the Son consider'd as Man and as Mediator The last Objection is taken from those words of Jesus Christ in St. Mark Chap. 13. No Man knoweth the Day of Judgment nor yet the Angels nor the Son but the Father only From whence the Arians concluded That the Knowledge of the Father being more extensive than that of the Son his Nature must be more excellent St. Hilary having in answer to this Objection proved by many Reasons that Jesus Christ could not be Ignorant of the Day of Judgment and having demonstrated this Truth he adds That what Christ says in this place that the Son knew not the Day of Judgment ought not to be understood literally as if he were really ignorant of it but in this sence that he did not know it not so as to tell it unto Men. Wherefore being ask'd about the same Matter after his Resurrection he does not say That he was ignorant of it but he reproves his Apostles with that heat which testified his Knowledge of it by saying unto them 'T is not for you to know the times and the seasons which my Father has reserv'd in his own Power He adds also that it may be said in another sence That the Son of Man was ignorant of the Day of Judgment because he knew it not as he was Man but as he was God For says he as we may say That the Son of God was subject to Fear to Sadness and to Sleep because the Humanity of Jesus Christ was subject to these Infirmities So we may say That he was ignorant of the Day of Judgment because he knew it not as he was Man but upon the account of his Divinity In the Tenth Book he Answers the Objections which the Arians draw from those Passages of Scripture which prove that Jesus Christ was subject to Fear to Sorrow and Pain And here he maintains That Jesus Christ had not truly any Fear or Pain but only the Representation of those Passions within him In which if his Judgment is not different from that of the Church yet it must be confess'd that the manner of expressing it is very harsh He had answer'd the Arians better if he had said That the Fear the Sorrow and Pain of Jesus Christ did belong to his Humane Nature and not to his Divinity He acknowledges in this Book That all Men are conceiv'd in Sin and that none but Jesus Christ ought to be excepted from this General Law He says That the Soul is not communicated to Children by the Parents He observes That what is said in the Gospel of St. Luke concerning the Bloody Sweat of Jesus Christ and of the Angel that appear'd unto him is not to be found in many Greek and Latin Copies of this Gospel In the Eleventh Book he Answers some Passages of the Gospels and of St. Paul concerning Jesus Christ's being risen from the Dead and becoming Glorious which are alledg'd by the Arians to prove that the Son is not equal to the Father But St. Hilary shows That those Passages do much rather prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ than destroy it In the last Book St. Hilary explains that Passage of the Proverbs God created me in the Beginning of his Ways c. He demonstrates that the Word of God was not properly created but begotten of God from all Eternity which he proves by many Passages of Scripture He expounds this Passage of the Proverbs of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. He adds some Proofs of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit and Ends with a Prayer to God wherein he begs Grace to preserve in his Heart that Faith whereof he made Profession at his Baptism that he may always worship the Father and the Son and receive the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father by the Son His Book of Synods is Address'd to the Bishops of France and Britain He commends them for the Constancy which they had shown in refusing Communion to Saturninus and for the Zeal wherewith they maintain'd the Faith of the Church by condemning the Impieties of the Arians so sharply After this he sets himself to explain the Creeds made by the Eastern Bishops after the Council of Nice He declares That if there were any Error in some of those Creeds it ought not to be attributed to him since he only relates what others had said and if they were found agreeable to the Doctrine of the Apostles the Praise of it ought not to be given to him but to the Original Authors He leaves it to the Judgment of the Bishops to whom his Book is written whether they be Heretical or Catholick Then he intimates to them what Obligation lay upon him to instruct them in the Opinions of the
says he to the Lord your God with fasting weeping and mourning and sighing and break your hearts fear not this Incision for David was very willing to endure it He relates also many other Examples of Penance and reproves the Softness the Pride and Loosness of the greatest part of Christians and Penitents He blames them for not observing so much as the daily Exercises of Penance which are made in the presence of the Bishop As to weep in the sight of all the Church to discover by the uncleanness of their Garments the regret they ought to have for losing their Innocence to Sigh to Pray to throw themselves at the feet of the Faithful to deprive themselves of Pleasures to prostrate themselves before the Priests to hold the hands of the Poor to supplicate the Widows to beseech the whole Church and implore its Prayers and in short to try all ways possible to save their Souls After this he quickens the Penitents by the Fear of Eternal Punishments which he represents to them in a most Pathetical manner and he invites them to Penance by the consideration of the Mercy and Goodness of God who desires nothing but the Conversion of Sinners The Subject of the Treatise of Baptism address'd to the Faithful and the Catechumens is set down by St. Pacian in the Beginning of his Discourse I will show you says he in what condition we are Born and how we are renew'd by Baptism To make you understand this I shall discover to you what the Gentiles are what is the Fruit of Faith and what are the Effects of Baptism In order to the Explication of these Three Things he observes That by the Sin of Adam all Men were enslav'd to Death and Sin That the Law of Moses discover'd this Misery very plainly but afforded no Remedy at all That so Sin reign'd from Adam till Christ who deliver'd Mankind from the Tyranny of Sin because as the Sin of the First Man was imputed to all his Posterity so the Righteousness of Jesus Christ was communicated to all Men by Baptism and by the Aid of the Holy Spirit provided that Faith preceed He adds That this Regeneration cannot be perfected but by the Sacrament of Baptism and Unction and by the Ministry of the Priest For says he Baptism Purifies from Sins and Unction brings down the Holy Spirit and both the one and the other are applied by the Hand and the Mouth of the Bishop the whole Man is born again and renewed in Jesus Christ that we may lead a new Life which shall never end because though this Body shall die yet we shall always live in Jesus Christ in a heavenly and eternal Life He observes That being deliver'd in Baptism from the bands of Sin we renounce the Devil and the World and if afterwards by forgetting the Grace which we have received we relapse into a Crime our Relapse is almost irrecoverable because that Jesus Christ suffer'd but once and we cannot be wash'd and purified above once He concludes with an Exhortation to those that are newly Baptiz'd to preserve the Grace which they had received to Sin no more to keep the Purity and Innocence of Baptism till the Day of Judgment and to endeavour to obtain Eternal Treasures by their Prayers and Spiritual Labours These Extracts which we have drawn from the Writings of St. Pacianus sufficiently discover his Judgment his Stile and Learning There is hardly any of the Ancients that speaks more clearly of the Efficacy of the Sacraments of Baptism Confirmation and Penance He attributes to Chrysm the effect of Confirmation which is an Opinion very rare among the Latins who attribute it to Imposition of Hands Though he speaks advantageously of the Efficacy of the Sacraments yet he requires very great Dispositions in order to their producing such Effects as they ought to have He particularly recommends Publick Penance for the Sins of Idolatry Murder and Fornication under which Three Sins must be comprehended all the Consequents of them which extend very far He thinks that those Sins cannot be pardon'd but by Publick Penance As to all other Sins he does not believe it necessary to submit to that Penance which the Canons of the Church enjoyned for them He explains the Fall of all Mankind that 't was caus'd by the Sin of the First Man very clearly and the unprofitableness of the Law the Necessity and Effects of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. He equally condemns the Rigour of the Novatians and the Impenitence of some Sinners as well as the heedlessness and softness where with others perform their Penance His Exhortations are lively and persuasive his Thoughts well-weigh'd his Proofs solid his way of Writing pleasant his Stile elegant and the Periods short In a word These little Tracts may pass for Master-pieces in their kind and these two Treatises may be look'd upon as a perfect Model of Preaching or Exhortation to the People The Works of this Father were Publish'd by Tilius and Printed at Paris with some other Books in 4to in the Year 1538 by Guillardus in 1655 in 8vo by Melchior Gopnerus and together with Hermas at Rome in 1564 in Folio and in the Bibliethecae Patrum GREGORY of Baetica GREGORY Bishop of Elvira a City of the Province of Baetica in Spain wrote divers Treatises in a low Stile and an elegant Book concerning the Faith which were extant in the latter Gregory of Baetica End of St Jerom's time We have in the Fragments of St. Hilary a Letter of Eusebius of Vercellae to this Bishop where he commends him for the Constancy wherewith he defended the Faith of the Church and resisted Hosius Marcellus and Faustinus the Luciferians tell us in their Letter to Valentinian the Emperour That Hosius being ready to condemn him was miraculously thrown upon the Ground and lost the use of his Speech But there is no probability that this Relation should be true as we have already shown when we Discours'd of Hosius St. Jerom in his Chronicle joyns this Bishop with Lucifer Calaritanus and observes that they would never have any Correspondence with those that were suspected of Arianism This joyn'd with the Honourable mention that Marcellinus and Faustinus make of this Bishop may induce us to believe that he was of the Judgment and Party of Lucifer He flourish'd from the Year 357 till the latter End of that Century The Ancients speak of him as a simple plain sincere Man but a zealous Defender of the Faith His Stile was no ways Sublime if we believe St. Jerom. There have been printed under his Name at Rome in the Year 1575 and in the Two first Editions of the Bibliothecae Patrum seven little Treatises against the Arians which are thought to be the same with the Book concerning the Faith cited by St. Jerom But it has since been discover'd that they were written by Faustinus a Luciferian Deacon to whom the Abbot Trithemius attributes them They are address'd to the Empress
Serpent that theyjoyn themselves with Thieves since they correspond with the Devil to extirpate one part of the Flock of Jesus Christ. He describes this after a very pleasant manner All Men says he that come into the World tho' they be born of Christian Parents are fill'd with an unclean Spirit which must be driven away by Baptism This is done by the Exorcism which drives away this Spirit and makes it fly into remote places After this the Heart of Man becomes a most pure Habitation God enters and dwells there according to that of the Apostle We are the Temple of God When therefore ye re-baptize Men and exorcise them anew and when ye say O accurs'd come forth of this Man 't is to God that ye speak after this manner you drive him disgracefully out of this Man and the Devil re-enters into his Heart This place of Optatus is very express for proving Original Sin and the Antiquity of Exorcisms At last Optatus shows That the Donatists render themselves Companions of Adulterers because they separate from the Church which is the only lawful Spouse of Jesus Christ to unite themselves with Adulterers He comes afterwards to the second Passage taken out of Psal. 140. Let not the Oyl of the wicked anoint my Head and he observes That this should only be applied to Jesus Christ and that it is a Prayer and not a Precept a Wish and not a Command Then he explains also two other Passages which Parmenianus had quoted against the Catholicks and shews that the First is to be understood of Adulterers or Hereticks and the Second of Jews and that neither the one nor the other is applicable to Catholicks In the Fifth Book Optatus proves That the Donatists commit a great Crime in reiterating Baptism which Jesus Christ has commanded to be given but once only He approves of the Commendations which Parmenianus has given this Sacrament by saying That it is the Life of Vertue the Death of Crimes the Immortal Birth the means of obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven the Port of Innocence and the Shipwrack of Sins But he adds That 't is not he who gives this Sacrament of Baptism that conferrs these Graces but the Faith of him that receives it and the Virtue of the Trinity and consequently that Baptism is not to be reiterated which is administred in the Name of the Trinity He has also here a most Remarkable Reflection about the Rule which we should Consult in all Ecclesiastical Controversies We ask says he if it be lawful to repeat Baptism given in the Name of the Trinity Ye maintain That it is lawful we say That it is forbidden The People are in Suspence between your affirming and our denying the same thing and they can neither believe you nor us for we are all fallible Men Let us then search after Judges in this Case But where are they to be found If they be Christians they are either of your Party or ours and by consequence cannot be Judges of our Difference We must then enquire after a Judge out of Christendom But then if he be a Pagan he understands not our Mysteries if he be a Jew he is an Enemy to the Baptism of Christians There cannot therefore be found any Judge upon Earth but we must seek for one in Heaven But why should we have recourse to Heaven since we have the Testament of our Father upon Earth Let us search after his Will in the Gospel which will inform us that he who has been once wash'd needs not to be wash'd again Wherefore adds he we do not re-baptize those who have been baptiz'd when they return again to us He proves also That it ought not to be done because there is but one Faith one Jesus Christ and one Sacrament of Baptism That there are three Things to be considered in this Sacrament the Trinity the Faith of him that receives it and the Person that administers it That the Trinity is the first Thing of absolute necessity without which there can be no Sacrament at all That the Faith of him that receives the Sacrament is the second Thing which is no less necessary because it ought always to be the same but then there is not the same Necessity that the Minister should be Faithful and Just because the Ministers are chang'd every day and it is Jesus Christ who baptizes and the Minister ought not to attribute to himself the Effect of the Sacrament which is owing to God only and in short because the Sacraments are Holy and do Sanctify by themselves tho' the Holiness of the Minister do not contribute to it Optatus proves this Truth by many Reasons and many Testimonies He observes by the bye That those who had been baptiz'd by John before Jesus Christ instituted Baptism were not re-baptiz'd but those who were baptiz'd after Jesus Christ had instituted Baptism have been re-baptiz'd At last he endeavours to prove That the Faith of him that receives Baptism is necessary to the validity of this Sacrament which must be understood of Adult Persons only The Sixth Book is written against the Impieties and Sacrileges of the Donatists who had broken cut in pieces raz'd and overturn'd the Altars of the Catholicks Those Altars says Optatus which have born the Offerings of the People and the Members of Jesus Christ upon which the Almighty God has been invok'd upon which the Holy Spirit has descended where the Faithful have receiv'd the earnest of eternal Salvation the Support of their Faith and the Hopes of a blessed Resurrection those Altars upon which we are forbidden to offer any other Offerings but those of Peace For what is the Altar but the place where the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are laid What hath Jesus Christ done to you says he further to the Donatists that you should destroy the Altars on which he rests at certain times Why do ye break the Sacred Tables where Jesus Christ makes his abode Ye have imitated the Crime of the Jews for as they put Jesus Christ to Death upon the Cross so ye have beaten him upon these Altars If ye believ'd that the Eucharist of the Catholicks is Sacrilegious yet at least ye should have some respect to the former Offerings that your selves have made upon these Altars Upon this occasion Optatus puts a very pleasant Objection to them All the Faithful know says he that Linen Clothes are laid upon the Altars for the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries The Eucharist does not touch the Wood of the Altar but only the Linen Clothes Why then do ye break Why do ye scrape Why do ye burn the Wood of the Altar If the Impurity can pass through the Linen Why cannot it penetrate the Wood nay and the Ground also If therefore ye scrape off something from the Altars because they are impure I advise you also to dig into the Ground and there to make a great Ditch that ye may offer in a most pure Place But take heed
of Jerusalem which is word for word found in the 4th Catechetical Discourse to the Catechumens St. John Damascen relates also a Passage taken out of the 12th in his Orat. 3. de Imag. Cyparissiota Dec. 6. cites the 10th Catechetical Discourse by St. John Damascen by Cyparissiota and there are 5 others called Mystagogick Lectures for the Instruction of those that are newly baptized Cook Rivet Aubertin and other Calvinistical Criticks do all that they can to prove these Catechetical Discourses supposititious because they contain many things that displease them e Many things that displease them The real Presence Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the Ceremonies Prayers for the Dead the Exorcisms Invocation of Saints the Honour due to Relicks the Celibacy of Priests the Veneration of the Cross c. are Opinions which the Calvinsts cannot endure and they are mightily troubled to see them established by an Author of the 4th Age of the Church and destroy their Errors But the Conjectures which they alledge to overthrow their Authority are too slight f The Conjectures which they alledge are too slight They say That there is a Greek Catalogue wherein they are attributed to John of Jerusalem but of what Authority is a Catalogue the Antiquity whereof is not known Can it be opposed to the Testimony of Theodoret who cites those Catechetical Instructions under the Name of St. Cyril and to that of St. Jerom who testifies That this Father wrote one There is no probability says Rivet that the Care of Instructing the Catechumens should be entrusted to a young Man Why not If he was capable of it as it appears St. Cyril was If there was no probability of it Why does St. Jerom assure us that it was so 'T is said adds Rivet That they were spoken ex-tempore and St. Jerom says that he wrote them A pleasant Objection indeed as if it were not known that Authors do often set down those Discourses afterwards in writing which they spoke without premeditation at first The same Rivet is of Opinion that those places which concern Celibacy Virginity Relicts the Cross of Jesus Christ c. are added in these Catechetical Discourses what proof has he for this but only that those things do not please him He accuses St. Cyril of Blasphemy because he says If the Virgin Mary were so much honoured for carrying Jesus Christ the space of nine Months we ought yet more to honour Christians for keeping their Virginity for very many years This thought is not exact 't is a little too blunt but such things did often escape the Fathers in their Sermons and it is capable of a good Sence Another Objection of Rivet's is this This Author says That the Wood of the Cross is amongst us to this Day Now these Words to this Day cannot agree says he to St. Cyril who might be present at the finding of the Cross. To which I answer That the Words to this Day respect the time which was already past since the Passion of Jesus Christ. To conclude All these Catechetical Discourses have the Character of Antiquity they are simple and natural and explain the Doctrines of the Church after the ancient Way The Author says at the beginning of his 6th Catechetical Discourse That he wrote 70 Years after the beginning of the Heresy of the Manichees The Canon of the Sacred Books which he recites is ancient and the Creed which he makes use of does not betray his Age The manner in which he explains the Mystery of the Trinity shows that he was a Catholick but that he managed himself slily for tho' he always confirms the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit he does not always make use of the Word Consubstantial The two Arguments of Rivet against the Mystagogical Discourses are as weak as the former The Ancients says he do not distinguish these two kinds of Discourses But neither do they say that there was but one St. Jerom who is the only Person that speaks of them all says only That St. Cyril wrote Catechetical Discourses without telling how many The other Authors speak of those which they had occasion to quote 2. He says That the last are short whereas the first are very long But this is no Argument why they should not be all the same Author 's The three first to the Illuminated are shorter than the last and are not much longer than the Mystagogical Discourses The time and Matter that he writes about makes any Author longer or shorter and after Easter the Instructions ought not to be so long Aubertin adds That Praevotius says he supplied many Letters and corrected many places And what follows from thence Is there any one Book to which the first Publishers have not done the same thing They have added sometimes half a word or a whole one or sometimes some words which they thought necessary But they cannot be suppos'd to add whole Periods Pages and Books and indeed if ye compare the Edition of Praevotius with that of Morellus which preceeded it made by a Manuscript of Monsieur De Mesmes and with the Latin Versions made from other Manuscripts you may see that the Differences among them are of very small Consequence and that they neither alter the Sence nor the Doctrine of this Father to call in question the Truth and the Interest which they have to Oppose them renders their Censure suspected Their endeavours are chiefly against the 5 Mystagogical Catechisms which are not indeed cited by the Ancients as the first Discourses are But the Agreement of the Stile g But the Agreement of the Stile c. There is the same Stile the same Method the same Air of Writing The Stile both of the one and the other is familiar and unaffected He explains the Mysteries by Passages of Scripture and moralizes them after the same manner in them all shows that they are the same Author's and the End of the 18th Catechetical Discourse h The end of the 18th Catechetical Discourse After Easter says he with the help of God you shall hear other Catechetical Lectures First About what is done before Baptism This is the Subject of the First Catechetical Discourse Secondly To explain how ye are purified from your sins by the Baptism of Water That 's the Subject of the Second Thirdly How ye have received the Seal of the Holy Spirit That 's the Subject of the Third And Lastly Concerning the Holy Mysteries of the Altar That 's the Subject of the Two last But besides the Order which he promised to observe in speaking of Holy Mysteries is that which is observed in these two Catechetical Discourses demonstrates it clearly For there he promises to Compose 5 other Instructions after Easter whereof he tells you the Subjects which are very near akin to the Subjects of those which we still have In short he cites the first in the last and since the last are promised in the first and these
again quoted in the last Who can doubt but they are all the same Author's i Who can doubt but they are all the same Author 's Since he cites the first Instructions in the last and declares at the beginning of the first Catechetical Discourse That he delay'd to instruct them perfectly in Divine Mysteries till they were baptiz'd and toward the end of the same Discourse he says That he had explained the Creed in the preceeding Discourses And since they cannot deny but the first which have gone under the Name of St. Cyril ever since Theodoret's time are Genuine they must by consequence confess that the 5 last belong to the same Author The Eighteen first Catechetical Instructions are address'd to those of the Catechumens who are call'd the Elect or the Enlightned that is to say those that have pass'd through all the other degrees of Catechumens and are now instructed in order to receiving Baptism within a little time For the Ancient Church did not give Baptism immediately to all those who desir'd it but only to those who had given signs of a sincere Faith and of the change of their Life by a long Tryal and by a course of Penance So when an Insidel offer'd himself to be admitted among the number of Christians they begun with discovering to him in particular the blindness wherein he had hitherto been but they did not permit him to enter into the Church to hear the Publick Exhortations Afterwards when he was sufficiently undeceiv'd of his old Errors and desir'd to be instructed in the Truth he was permitted to enter into the Church but only to hear the Sermons without being present at any of the Prayers This sort of Catechumens were call'd Hearers because they heard the Instructions which were given in the Church The Third Rank of Catechumens was that of those that were present at the Prayers who were called the Supplicants or the Prostrati because they were present at the Prayers of the Church till the Offertory and they kneel'd and prostrated themselves on the Ground to receive the Blessing of the Bishop In the mean time they were instructed in the Doctrine of the Church and their Behaviour and Actions were carefully inspected and when they found them dispos'd to receive Baptism they were permitted to desire it and to give in their Names that they might be admitted to it Those who did so were call'd Competentes that is Competitors and if their Petition was admitted they were call'd Elect and then they were prepar'd to receive Baptism by Instructions by Exorcisms and by many Ceremonies These are all the Degrees that can be distinguish'd among the Catechumens But commonly the Fathers without insisting on these Distinctions call'd those Catechumens who were either Hearers or Partakers only of the Prayers and they gave the Name of Competitors to those who were in a Condition to receive Baptism The last are they whom St. Cyril calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Enlightned because they were already instructed in the Doctrine of the Church and had given in their Names at the beginning of Lent to be baptiz'd at Easter according to Custom 'T was to ground them well in our Mysteries and dispose them to receive Baptism with Purity that St. Cyril compos'd those Instructions as he himself testifies in his Preliminary Discourse in which he treats of those Dispositions that they ought to bring with them to Baptism and of the Necessity of hearing Instruction He exhorts them to Purifie themselves from their Sins and to embrace a truly Christian Life if they would have Baptism profitable unto them He admonishes them not to approach this Sacrament if their Souls were still polluted with heinous Sins and they persever'd still in their wicked Designs and their sinful Customs He tells them that they deceiv'd themselves if they imagin'd that they should receive the Fruit and Effects of Baptism while they continued in this state If ye are still says he of the same wicked disposition of which ye have always been in vain do ye think that ye shall receive the Grace of Baptism Ye shall be wash'd with those Waters but ye shall not receive the Holy Spirit Therefore if any of you finds himself troubled with some secret Disease in his Mind let him take a Remedy Ye have yet time the Church offers you a Penance of Four days Ye may during this time retire to do Penance and after that re-enter into the Rank where ye were To be baptiz'd at Whitsuntide He adds That since they cannot receive Baptism but once only for none but Hereticks says he are Re-baptiz'd because the Baptism which they have received out of the Church is no Baptism they must take good heed that they do not receive it in vain After this he explains the Disposition which they ought to have that this Sacrament may be profitable to them God hath said I require nothing of you but a Good Heart Say not ye How is it that my Sins shall be forgiven me I declare it unto you It is by Faith and a good Disposition What is there more easily to be had forsake then presently your infamous Company give over your Obscene Discourse avoid Covetousness and the love of Riches come and hear Instruction with diligence and delight be careful to receive the Exorcisms though ye have been already solemnly exorcis'd Nothing is more wholsom than this Ceremony for as the Gold is Purified by Fire so the Soul is purified by Exorcisms He exhorts them afterwards to hear Instruction with Attention He makes them understand that there is a great difference between Catechizing and Sermons for if it happens that any one does not apply his Mind to a Sermon or neglects to hear it 't is easie to recover that loss because he may hear to Morrow the same thing but when all the Mysteries which are necessary to be known for receiving Baptism are explain'd in their Order by Catechizing if perhaps you neglect to hear any one of them you cannot return to it again and there is such an Essential Connexion of all these Mysteries one with another that if you do not understand any one of them you are in danger of understanding nothing of all the rest He exhorts them to say nothing to Infidels nor Catechumens of what they shall hear to behave themselves modestly when they come into the Church before the Exorcisms are begun and not to entertain themselves with Profane News but to read there some useful Book to Sing or to Pray and to consider themselves always as in the presence of God while they are there He exhorts them to Pray always that they may shun the snares of the Devil and to watch continually over themselves lest they fall into Temptation These are says he in the Conclusion the best Exhortations and Instructions which we can give you that you may not Build upon Chaff Hay or Stubble lest your Building be consum'd when it shall pass through the
by the Novatians or the Montanists He answers him That as to the first of those Hereticks he should follow the Custom of the Churches where he lived because there were different Opinions upon that Subject As to the Baptism of the Montanists he believed that it could not be accounted Valid and he wonders that the great St. Denys of Alexandria who was so well-skilled in the Canons could be ignorant of this Truth To explain his Answer he distinguishes Three sorts of Persons that were divided from the Church The Hereticks who differed in Matters of Faith the Schismaticks who separated upon Points of Discipline and some of the disobedient Christians who withdrew from the Church He maintains That the Ancients were perswaded that the Baptism of Hereticks was absolutely void He adds That the Pepuzians were Hereticks and therefore their Baptism could not be Valid As for Schismaticks he observes That St. Cyprian and Firmilian subjected them to the same Law with Hereticks because being separated from the Church they had not the Holy Spirit and so could not give it He seems also to like this Opinion well enough And yet he adds That since the Bishops of Asia had thought it convenient to admit the Baptism of Schismaticks he would not hinder it But though the Encratites were Schismaticks he declares That their Baptism ought not to be approv'd and that those ought to be rebaptized to whom they had given Baptism because they gave it with Precipitation on purpose to hinder the receiving of it from the Church Nevertheless he confesses That if the contrary Custom were establish'd it ought to be follow'd and that the Decisions of the Ancients should be observ'd In short he recommends this upon the whole Matter That none of those who return'd to the Church should be permitted to approach the Holy Mysteries till they had receiv'd the Unction That is till they were Confirmed In the 2d Canon St. Basil condemns to a Penance of 10 Years a Woman that had procur'd an Abortion and he judges her to be guilty of Murder whether the Child had Life or no. He observes That the time of Absolution should be regulated by the fervour of the Penance as well as by the length of it In the 3d. Canon he declares That if a Deacon commits Adultery after he has been received into the Order of Deacon he ought to be turned out of his Ministry but he would not have him put under Penance nor separated from the Communion of the Layety because we ought not to punish the same Fault twice and a Clergyman is sufficiently punish'd by his Deposition and so much more than a Layman who is deprived of Communion because he can be readmitted afterwards into the Church whereas a Clergyman cannot be restor'd when once he is depos'd But in conclusion the most Effectual Remedy of all Sins is to forsake Sin and abstain from Pleasure The 4th Canon is concerning those that are many times Married He condemns 3d. Marriages as a kind of Fornication and says That the Custom of his Church was to Excommunicate those who Married the third time for Five Years That in other places they were only put under Penance for two or three Years He enjoyns the same thing to Bigamists for one or two Years though he would have neither the one nor the other reduc'd to the lowest Penance but that they should be the first Years in the Rank of Hearers and that the last Years they should partake of the Prayers though they were still excluded from the participation of the Eucharist till their Penance was finish'd and they had given Signs of their Conversion In the 5th he ordains That Hereticks should be received who were converted at the Point of Death provided they gave Signs of their sincere Repentance The 6th is against Concubinage The 7th is against Murders Poisoning Adulteries and against other more infamous Crimes St. Basil says That all who are guilty of these Crimes are to be treated with the same Rigor However he thinks that we ought to have Pity on those who have done Penance for Thirty Years and that we should receive them without delay especially if they still bewailed their Sins and gave signs of Conversion In the 8th Canon St. Basil treats very largely of Murders and distinguishes the different Kinds of them as well those that are Voluntary as those that are Involuntary This Canon is more Curious than Useful The 9th Canon is about Divorce He lays it down as a Principle That the Law of Jesus Christ is equal both to Men and Women and that it does not allow of the Separation of a Man and his Wife but in case of Fornication But he says That the present Custom is not altogether agreeable to the Law of Christ because it does not allow Women to Separate from their Husbands upon any account whatsoever so that it seems to excuse from Adultery a Woman that should Espouse a Man whose Wife had divorced herself but on the contrary if it was a Husband that quitted his Wife to Espouse another that Man should commit Adultery both he that Married to this last Woman and she that was Espoused to him In the 10th St. Basil is against Ordaining those who had Sworn never to take Orders though there be says he a Canon which seems to permit it but he observes that we must consider the Form of the Oath the terms in which it was conceiv'd the Disposition of the Person that made it and all the lesser Circumstances to see whether he is oblig'd by his Oath or no and if no way can be found to dispense with it then he ought not to be Ordain'd After this he explains a particular Question which had been propos'd to him by Amphilochius as far as it can be discover'd by St. Basil's Answer it seems to have been this One Cyriacus a Priest of the Church of Mindana whereof Longinus was Bishop was obliged by Oath never to quit that Church yet he was made Parish-Priest to a Village very near it which was in another Diocess Longinus seeing himself deprived of a Priest who did very much assist him earnestly desired his Return and said That unless he returned to him he should quit his Church 'T is also probable that the Priest had some remorse of Conscience for having violated his Oath Amphilochius demands of St. Basil what was to be done in these Circumstances and this Saint gave an Advice full of Wisdom That they should joyn to the Diocess of Mindana the Territory of Mnistia where this Priest was made Minister by the Bishop Severus And he says That by this means he still belonging to the Church of Mindana might fulfill his Oath and might assist the Bishop Longinus who had demanded him back again He blames the Conduct of the Bishop Severus who had acted against the Canons in removing a Priest from one of his Brethren and had made him guilty of Perjury In the 11th Canon he ordains That a
a Spiritual Sence of a State of Righteousness and Holiness In the Homily upon the Words of the Proverbs Give no sleep unto your Eyes publish'd by Cotelerius St. Basil exhorts to Watchfulness and the Practice of Good Works His Homilies upon the Psalms are written in the same Stile but they are more fill'd with Morality He departs sometimes from the Literal Sence and does not always apprehend the true Sence of the Prophet Yet he does not make use of obscure and forc'd Allegories but all that he says is Intelligible Natural Useful and Pleasant The Commentary upon Isaiah is not so lofty nor so full of Morality but 't is very Intelligible and very Learned The Five Books against Eunomins are a most compleat Work of Controversy he recites the Arguments and Words of this Heretick and refutes them very solidly and very clearly In the Two first Books he refutes the principal Arguments which this Heretick used to prove that the Son was not like to his Father He answers them very clearly and discovers the Falshood of this Heretick's Reasonings In the Third he answers the Objections which he made against the Divinity of the Holy Spirit In the Fourth he proves that the Son of God is not a Creature but is truly God And Lastly in the Fifth he proves the same thing of the Holy Spirit He handles the most intricate Matters of Theology in a manner very Learned and Profound and yet without perplexing and entangling them with the Quirks the Difficulties and Terms of the Schoolmen He proves also the Trinity of Divine Persons and their Equality in the 16th Homily upon the Beginning of the Gospel of St. John and in the Book against the Sabellians He particularly Establishes the Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Treatise of the Holy Spirit address'd to Amphilochius He compos'd it upon occasion of a Complaint that some Persons had made against him that at the Conclusion of his Sermons he had said Glory be to the Father and to the Son with the Holy Ghost instead of saying as some do In the Holy Ghost Amphilochius had ask'd him the proper Signification of these Terms and the Difference between the one and the other Expression St. Basil commends him for this Exactness and observes that 't is very useful to search out the proper Sence of the Terms and Expressions which we use In the 2d Chapter he makes this Observation That those who will use different Terms in Glorifying the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost do it for no other End but to conclude from thence the Dissimilitude and Inequality of the Three Persons of the Trinity In the 3d. Chapter he shews That the difference of these Terms of whom by whom in whom have no place but in Philosophy and we ought not to use them when we speak of the Three Divine Persons In the 4th he shows That this Particle of whom signifies in Scripture the Efficient Cause since 't is said that all things are of God In the 5th he shows That the Scripture says of the Father by whom and of the Son of whom and that it uses the same Expressions when it speaks of the Holy Ghost In the 6th he answers those who affirm That we cannot say the Son of God is with his Father because he is after his Father St. Basil maintains that the Son of God is not at all inferiour to the Father neither in respect of Time nor in respect of the Place he holds nor in respect of Honour and Glory being Eternal as the Father Infinite as the Father and having a Glory and Majesty equal to that of the Father In the 7th he proves That this Expression with the Son is not New That the Church has used it to denote the Majesty of his Divine Nature as she has also used that other by the Son to signify the access which we have to God the Father by his Son and therefore we ought to use the former Expression when we sing the Praises of God and the latter when we thank him for the Favours he has done us He explains this Distinction in Ch. 8. and there he recites many Names of Jesus Christ. In the 9th he explains his Judgment concerning the Divinity of the Holy Spirit which he received by Tradition and which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture He proves that the Holy Spirit is a Spiritual Person Eternal Infinite Unchangeable c. who strengthens us and gives us Life by his Gifts In the 10th and 11th he refutes those that would not joyn the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son He proves the contrary by the Institution of Baptism and accuses those that would not add the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son Of Violating the saving Sacrament of Baptism Of Prevaricating in the Vow which they had made and of Revolting from the Religion which they had once professed In Chapter 12. he answers the first Exception of his Adversaries who said That Baptism given in the Name of Jesus Christ was sufficient St. Basil answers First That the Name of Jesus Christ denotes the whole Trinity because it signifies the Anointed of the Lord. Now he says that the Word Anointed designs him that does Anoint and him by whom he is anointed Secondly That Faith is inseparable from Baptism because Faith is perfected by Baptism and Baptism supposes Faith That the Profession of Faith precedes Baptism which is as it were the Seal of it Lastly He maintains that 't is not sufficient to Baptize in the Name of Jesus Christ but that we must invoke the Three Persons of the Godhead according to Inviolable Tradition and that we ought to add nothing to nor take any thing from this Invocation In the 13th he refutes a Second Answer of his Adversaries who say That tho' the Holy Spirit were oftentimes in Scripture joyn'd to the Father and the Son yet it would not follow from thence that he was equal to them since the Angels are there sometimes joyn'd with God St. Basil answers That there is a great Difference between the manner in which the Scripture speaks of Angels and of the Holy Spirit because it considers the former merely as Ministers whereas it considers the Holy Spirit as the Fountain of Life and joyns him with the Father because of the Unity of Essence In the 14th he resolves also a third Difficulty It was objected to him That tho' Men be baptiz'd in the Name of the Holy Spirit yet it does not follow that the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son since 't is also said in Scripture That they were all baptiz'd into Moses in the Cloud St. Basil answers That this Expression of St. Paul signifies only that Moses and the Cloud were the Figure of the Baptism of Jesus Christ but that the Truth is much more Excellent than the Type In the 15th he answers a fourth Sophism We are baptiz'd in Water said the Hereticks and yet
Spirit in Homily 17th upon Baptism and he explains the Faith of the Church concerning the Trinity in Homily 15th of Faith He enlarges upon the Gifts of the Holy Spirit He treats also of the same thing in Homily 29. against those who accuse us of worshipping Three Gods In Homily 19. St. Basil treats of that famous and difficult Question Why do the Just suffer and why is there any Evil if God takes care of things here below St. Basil answers That all this is done by the Permission of God That Diseases Calamities Pain and Death are not real Evils That Sin which is the only Evil comes not from God but from our selves That God exposes Men to Sufferings either to cure them or to punish them or to make them serve for an Example Or lastly to make them good and deserving And moreover That God is not the first Author of Diseases Pain and Death because he created Man free from them and these things entred into the World only by his Sin But why may some object did not God make him impeccable He answers because in order to the honouring of God and meriting from him 't was necessary that he should obey him voluntarily and freely That the Devil was the Cause of his own Perdition by using his Liberty amiss That the Tree of Life and Death was placed in Paradise to try the Obedience of Man and that it was his own fault that he made an ill use of it He observes that the Daemons dwell in the Air and are incorporeal The 31st Discourse which is of Free-Will has some Connexion with the preceding Therein he teaches First That Men deceive themselves if they imagine that they can overcome Temptations by the sole Power of their own Liberty without the assistance of God That Free-Will can indeed choose for us Good and Evil but God only can enable us to do Good That we must therefore beg the Assistance of the Divine Power which cannot be obtain'd without refraining from Worldly Pleasures That by the Sin of the First Man we are become like Beasts That we must labour to be of the Number of the Children of God and to excite in us the Fire of the Holy Spirit which Jesus Christ came to bring down upon the Earth and which descended on the Apostles at the day of Pentecost That we must pray God that this Fire may descend upon us that we walking always in the Light may never fall and that we may be as the Lights of the World In Homily 25th of the Nativity of the Word he explains the Mystery of the Incarnation He says That the Word was not chang'd by uniting it self to the Humane Naure That he was made Man to Redeem us That he took a Body in the Womb of the Virgin Mary by the Operation of the Holy Spirit That his Body was made all at once That Mary was a Virgin though she was Married to St. Joseph After this he examines this Question Whether she knew her Husband after she brought forth Jesus Christ into the World He says That this is not a Fundamental Article of our Faith but that those who have a love for Jesus Christ cannot endure to hear it said that the Mother of God lost her Virginity and became the Mother of a Man He explains the Difficulties which may be raised against this Doctrine from the Particle Until that and from the Character of First-Born which is given to Jesus Christ. Afterwards he explains some Circumstances of the Birth of Jesus Christ. He believes that the Wise Men were Persians That the Star which they saw was not an ordinary Star and that they knew it signified the Birth of Jesus Christ as well by the Prophecy of Balaam as because they saw the Power of the Devil very much diminish'd Lastly He exhorts his Auditors to celebrate with Joy the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. In the First Book of Baptism he proves First That we must not Baptize any but those that are well-instructed and persuaded of the Faith of Jesus Christ and who have renounc'd the World their Vices their Passions and if need be their Life Secondly He shews That in order to Salvation 't is not enough to be baptiz'd but that we must also keep the Commandments and do good Works He shows afterwards what difference there is between the Baptisms of Moses of St. John and of Jesus Christ. He says That the Baptism of Moses separated some Men from others but did not pardon them That the Baptism of St. John being received with a Penitent Heart conferr'd Remission of Sins but the Baptism of Jesus Christ is much more excellent and efficacious That by this Baptism we die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness That we are Crucified and Buried with Jesus Christ That we are raised again together with him That Sin hath no more Dominion over us That we are filled with the Holy Spirit and cloath'd with Jesus Christ. At last he adds That after we are baptiz'd we have need to be nourish'd with the Food of Eternal Life that 's to say with the Eucharist which we ought to receive with most holy Dispositions lest we should eat and drink our own Damnation In the 2d Book he proposes many Questions The First is Whether he that is baptiz'd be oblig'd to die unto the World and to live unto God He answers Yes he is The Second is Whether he that performs the Office of a Priest ought to be pure in Heart He answers That if Moses removed from the Sacrifices of the Old Law all those that were impure Purity is yet more necessary to him that touches the Body of Jesus Christ. The Third Question is Whether it be lawful for one to receive the Eucharist when he is unclean St. Basil answers it after the same manner as he did the preceding In the 4th he teaches That we must obey the Commandments though it seems to us that there were some Actions of Jesus Christ or the Saints contrary to them and that we must never seek for Excuses nor Pretences to dispense with the Observation of the Law He adds in the 5th That all disobedience to the Commands of God is punishable and that it deserves the Divine Vengeance In the 6th he proves that a Man sins not only by doing Evil but also by omitting to do good when we are oblig'd to do it In the 7th he advertises us That we must regulate the Inward Man before we give unto God any external Worship In the 8th That we must not only perform the things commanded but also do them in the manner which is enjoyn'd in the order and time prescribed In the 9th he shows That we ought to shun the Society and Conversation of Wicked Men. In the 10th he treats of Scandal He defines it That which Seduces us from the Truth and draws us into Error or Impiety or That which hinders us to obey the Commands of God as long as we live
number of the Hebrew Letters Afterwards he reckons up the Books of the New Testament which are the Four Evangelists upon whom he has this Observation that St. Matthew wrote for the Hebrews St. Mark for the Greeks St. Luke for the Athenians and St. John for those who penetrate into the most Sublime things He joins with the Four Evangelists the Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul those of St. James the Two Epistles of St. Peter and the Three of St. John and that of St. Jude He concludes with saying that these are all the Books of the Holy Scripture and that all others are Apocryphal In the 34th he describes the Plagues of Egypt In the 35th he turns the Decalogue into Verse In the 36th the Names of the 12 Patriarchs are put in Verse and those of the 12 Apostles In the 37th and 38th he reconciles the Two Genealogies of Jesus Christ by explaining the Opinion of Africanus 'T is a very surprizing thing that he could put this Critical Question into Verse and make all the Names of the Genealogies of Jesus Christ come into Feet and yet he has done it and handsomly enough In the following Poems as far as the 46th he turns some part of the Histories of the Gospel into Verse In the 46th he preferrs a Monastical Life to an Hermetical In the 47th he prays Hellenius to ease the Monks of Taxes In the 48th he exhorts one Julianus a Magistrate to Alms-giving The 49th is written in the Name of Nicobulus the Son who desir'd of his Father that he would send him to some famous Academy to follow his Studies there The 50th is an Answer made in the Name of this Father who exhorts his Son to study The 51st is written on the Name of the Son of Vitalianus to appease the Anger of his Father The 52d is against a lewd rich Man The 53d is a Prayer of St. Gregory as he went into the Fields The 54th is of the Silence which he kept during the time of Fasting Their he describes the Mischiefs which too great desire of Speaking produces and the Advantages of Silence The 55th is a Hymn to Jesus Christ upon the Feast of Easter after he had kept Silence all the time of Lent In the 56th he gives to one Olympias a Woman ready to be Married some very useful Precepts for her good Behaviour in Marriage The 57th is upon his Departure from Constantinople In the 58th he proves the falshood of Humane Vertue and shows That without the Grace of God all our Endeavours are unprofitable to our Salvation Without the assistance of Jesus Christ says he a Man cannot walk in the way of Salvation Therefore we must take heed that we do not attribute to our selves what does not belong to us we must not trust our own strength how enlightned soever we be we must not despise those who appear to be less advanc'd than we in the way of Vertue as if we were nearer the Design and End of our Course He adds many other Reflections very proper to beat down the Pride of Man and to humble him under the Almighty Hand of God The 59th is a bitter Satyr against the Monks who live disagreeably to the Rules of that State tho' they wear the Habit. The 60th is an excellent Prayer in a time of Sickness In the 61st he exhorts Nemesius Governour of Cappadocia to forsake Paganism and embrace the Christian Religion The 62d is a Collection of very useful Christian Thoughts and Maxims for the Conduct of our Lives The 63d is against the Pomps the Ornaments and sumptuous Dresses of Women and particularly he applies himself to condemn their Painting The 64th is an Epitaph upon St. Basil. After this there are several Sentences or Moral Thoughts which contain the principal Offices of Life A Description of Humane Life and several Rules or Maxims of Morality The following Poem is Dogmatical St. Gregory explains the principal Articles of the Christian Religion and he treats of the Unity of God of the Trinity of the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit of the Creation of the World of Angels and Devils of the Nature and Origin of the Soul of the Two Testaments of the Cause and Effects of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and of the Baptisms of Water and of Blood After this comes a Treatise in Verse upon Virginity many exhortations to his own Soul and Prayers to God There are besides 33 Poems written in Iambick Verse upon different Subjects a Treatise against Apollinarius and some other separate things The Tragedy entituled Christ's Suffering wants very much of the Beauty the Judgment and the Gravity of St. Gregory's Pieces and so 't is not without reason that the Criticks judge it unworthy of him We have in the Second Volume of St. Gregory Nazianzen at the end of his Poetical Works a Discourse of this Saint about Bishops and tho' we have it now only in Latin yet 't is plain that 't is a Translation of a Genuine Treatise of St. Gregory's There he relates after what manner he came to Constantinople and the Troubles he suffer'd there for the Establishment of the Faith he complains of the Ingratitude of the Bishops who forc'd him away from thence and then he gives a very disadvantageous Character of them wherein he represents them either Ignorant and Stupid or Proud and Ambitious or Covetous who think of nothing but heaping up of Riches by all kind of Ways or Hypocrites who under the appearance of Vertue conceal the greatest Immoralities There is in the greatest part of St. Gregory Nazianzen's Letters more Wit Learning and Eloquence than Doctrine concerning Religion and the Discipline of the Church yet there are some of them wherein he pursues some Moral Thoughts with a great deal of Eloquence as in the 17th wherein he reproves Caesarius because he stay'd in Julian's Court The 18th wherein he discourses of the Inconstancy and Frailty of humane Life The 19th and 20th concerning the Reconciliation of St. Basil with Eusebius his Bishop The 22d and 23d are written in the Name of his Father to procure the Election of St. Basil to be Bishop of Caesarea The 26th is about the Calumny that had been raised against St. Basil for his disguising his Opinion about the Divinity of the Holy Spirit The 31st and 32d wherein he complains that St. Basil had made him Bishop of Sasima The 37th wherein he Comforts St. Gregory Nyssen upon the Death of his Brother The 38th to a Lady who would force a Bishop away from his Bishoprick under Pretence that he ow'd her very considerable Sums of Money having formerly managed her Estate The 43d wherein he reproves St. Gregory Nyssen because he applied himself more to the Study of humane Learning than of the Holy Scripture The 55th wherein he declares That he was afraid of all Ecclesiastical Assemblies Because I never saw says he the End of a Council which was happy and pleasant and which did
reason the Canon ordains That the Communion of the Church shall be refus'd her even at the point of Death The 11th Ordains That Baptism shall be delay'd for the space of Five Years to a Catechumeness who has married a Husband that had divorc'd his Wife without cause The 12th Canon denies Communion at death to Women who prostitute their Daughters The 13th subjects to the same Penalty the Virgins consecrated to God who spend their Life in Licentiousness but it grants Absolution at the Point of Death to those who do Penance for their Fault The 14th treats Virgins with much moderation who have lost their Virginity if they marry those who have abused them for it ordains That they should be restored to Ecclesiastical Communion at the end of One Year without being oblig'd to do Penance but then it imposes Five Years Penance if they have had to do with other Men. The 15th and 16th forbid the Faithful to bestow their Daughters in Marriage upon Pagans Jews or Hereticks how great soever the number of Virgins be among Christians and it Ordains That the Fathers who do it shall be separated from Communion for the space of Five Years The 17th denies Absolution even at the Point of Death to those who give their Daughters in Marriage to the Priests of False Gods The 18th forbids Bishops Priests and Deacons to leave their Churches to exercise Merchandise and go to Fairs but it allows them to Traffick in their own Province and to send their Children their Friends and their Servants to trade in Foreign Countries The 19th ordains That Communion shall be refused even at the Point of Death to Bishops Priests and Deacons who have committed Adultery The 20th declares That a Clergyman who is discovered to take Interest should be deposed and removed That the same Crime should be pardoned in a Layman if he promises to amend it but if he relapses he is to be cast out of the Church The 21st Canon is That if any Inhabitant in a City shall be absent from the Church for three Sundays together he shall be separated from Communion for some time to signify that he has been punished for his Fault The 22d declares That he who has abandoned the Church to go over to a Sect of Hereticks shall not be received back into the Church again till he has done Penance for Ten Years As for those who were Children when they were entred into an Heretical Sect and return to the Church the Canon Ordains That they shall be Received without any delay The 23d declares That the ordinary Fasts shall be observed except in the Months of July and August because of the weakness of some of the Faithful The 24th forbids those to be admitted to Sacred Orders who have been baptized out of their own Country because their Life is not known The 25th declares That Credit shall not be given to the Letters of a Confessor but only to Letters of Communion The 26th forbids Fasting on Saturdays The 27th forbids Bishops and Clergymen to have in their Houses strange Women The 28th forbids Bishops to receive Presents from those that are not in the Communion of the Church The 29th forbids to recite at the Altar the Names of those that are possess'd and does not permit them to make any Offering themselves in the Church The 30th Ordains That the Orders of Subdeacon shall not be given to those who have committed Adultery in their Youth lest they should rise to a higher Degree and that those who have been Ordained shall be degraded The 31st declares That those may be admitted to Communion who have committed Adultery after Baptism provided they have fulfilled their Canonical Penance The 32d declares That when any Persons fall sick they ought to be received into Ecclesiastical Communion by the Bishop but yet if the sickness be violent the Priest may grant them Communion and even the Deacon if the Bishop command him The 33d Canon prescribes Celibacy to Priests and Deacons The 34th Canon is very obscure It declares That Wax-Candles are not be lighted in the Coemiteries because we must not disturb the Spirits of the Saints Some understand by the Spirits of the Saints the Souls of the Dead I think that it is more natural to understand by it the Repose of the Spirits of the Faithful that are alive and may be troubled with a great multitude of Lights in the day-time The 35th redresses a dangerous Abuse it is set down in these Words We have thought fit to hinder Women from spending the Night in the Coemiteries because oftentimes under pretence of praying they commit in secret great Crimes The 36th has very much exercis'd Divines Thus it is expressed We would not have Pictures placed in Churches lest the Object of our Worship and Adoration should be painted upon the Walls Many Explications have been given of this Passage but to me it seems better to understand it in the plainest Sence and to confess that the Fathers of this Council did not approve the use of Images no more than that of Wax-Candles lighted in full day-light But these things are Matters of Discipline which may be used or not without doing any prejudice to the Faith of the Church The 37th Canon permits Baptism to be given at the Point of Death to those who are acted by an Evil Spirit and to Catechumens and does not deprive them of Communion if they be faithful Provided adds the Canon That they do not publickly light Lamps This Addition is very obscure and there is no great necessity of explaining it The 38th declares That a Christian who is neither Penitent nor Bigamist may baptize in a case of Necessity those who are on a Journey being at a great distance from a Church upon Condition that he present him to the Bishop if he survive to be perfected by Imposition of Hands The 39th ordains That Imposition of Hands shall not be deny'd to Pagans who desire it after they are fallen into some Disease provided they have led an honest Life This Canon must be understood of that Imposition of Hands by which Pagans were plac'd in the Rank of Catechumens which this Council calls making them Christians The 40th forbids Land-Lords to allow their Farmers or Receivers what they have given for Idols and if they do it it imposes upon them a Penance of Five Years The 41st declares That the Faithful must be admonished not to suffer Idols in their Houses The 42d ordains That those who give in their Names to be entred into the Church shall be baptiz'd two Years after if they lead a regular Life unless they are obliged to relieve them sooner upon the account of any dangerous Sickness or that it is judg'd convenient to grant them this Grace sooner because of the fervor of their Prayers The 43d forbids the Celebration of the Feast of Whitsunday before Easter The 44th allows a Woman to be received who has formerly led a lewd Life when she is
Eternal Father and that his Generation was Eternal but they did not think of explaining how this Generation is made and they confess'd That it is ineffable and incomprehensible Neither did they insist upon a multitude of subtle Questions concerning the Mystery of the most Holy Trinity and they always continued in the Simplicity of the Faith which they established upon the Authority of Scripture and of Tradition They taught also that the Word appeared to the Patriarchs and in this sence they said that he was visible Tho' they treated not so much in this Age of the Mystery of the Incarnation as in the next yet it was explained very clearly and not only the Errors of Arius and Apollinarius were condemned who denied that Jesus Christ had a Soul or Humane Understanding different from the Divinity but even the Errors of Nestorius Eutyches and all the other Hereticks were rejected before-hand who either distinguish Two Persons in Jesus Christ or confound the Two Natures and their Properties They believ'd the Incarnation to be necessary for the Redemption of Mankind and acknowledged that none can be sav'd without Faith in Jesus Christ. Some taught also that Jesus Christ preach'd the Gospel to those in Hell but this Opinion was rejected by many They affirm'd that there were great numbers of Angels and Devils They determined nothing about the Day of Judgment and they did all almost confess that Men are wholly ignorant of it They looked upon what the Ancients said concerning the Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth for the space of a 1000 Years as a mere groundless Imagination They almost all acknowledged that the Souls which are innocent and purified from their Sins enjoy Happiness before the Day of Judgment and that the Souls of the Wicked are condemned to Eternal Fire immediately after their death Yet they confess'd that after the Resurrection their Happiness or Misery should still be encreased They believed that the Souls of Men were Spiritual and Immortal but they doubted Whether they were immediately created by God or produced by the Souls of their Fathers and Mothers They spoke more of Grace than those who lived in the preceding Ages and yet they ascribed always very much to Free-Will Original Sin begun to be better known They excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven Children who died without Baptism but they did not affirm that they should endure the Torments of Fire They acknowledged the Efficacy and Necessity of Baptism The Imposition of the Hands of the Bishop or the Anointing with Holy Chrism was looked upon as a Sacrament which brought down the Holy Spirit upon the Baptized They maintain'd against the Novatians that the Church had power to impose Penance and to forgive the most Enormous Sins They taught clearly That the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist were changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. They gave the Name of a Sacrifice to the Celebration of the Eucharist and performed it with particular Ceremonies They were persuaded that Men ought to be Ordain'd to make them capable of discharging the Ecclesiastical Functions They approved of Marriage and would have the Persons to be married contracted in the face of the Church and in the presence of a Priest who gave a Blessing They honoured Virginity and commended those who profess'd it and look'd upon those as Sacrilegious Persons who violated that Profession They had much Reverence and Veneration for the Blessed Virgin and for the Saints they prayed to them and also honoured their Reliques They prayed for the Dead We have often taken notice of their Opinion concerning the Authority of Holy Scripture and Tradition They taught that there was but one Catholick Church out of which there was no Salvation and to whose Authority all Men ought to submit because it can neither cease to be nor Err in Matters of Faith Wherefore one may say in general That the Doctrine of the Fourth Age was the Belief of the Church of that Age and so the Church not being capable of changing her Belief it necessarily follows That the Doctrine of that Time is not at all different from that which the Church teaches still at this Day An Abridgment of the Discipline of the Fourth AGE of the Church THE Discipline of the Church consists either in the Government or in the Policy or in the Ceremonies or in the Practices which concern Manners and Christian Perfection It cannot be doubted but these Three Points and especially the Two former were very much improved in the Fourth Age of the Church For before this time the Church which had been continually toss'd and troubled with Persecutions could never settle one constant and uniform Form of Government nor celebrate the Mysteries with the Pomp and Splendor of Ceremonies But when once she was perfectly deliver'd from the Yoke of Tyranny under which she had groaned before and established by the Authority of a Christian Emperour she made Rules and Laws for the Government of her self and join'd to the purity of Faith the Magnificence of Ceremonies Thus tho' there had been some Rules for the Government of the Churches of the First Ages which were establish'd by Custom and Tradition and there were already many Ceremonies practis'd yet it may be affirm'd that these things were very much improv'd in the Fourth Age of the Church as will easily appear by comparing what was Ordain'd and Practis'd in that Age with what was done in the foregoing First as to the Government of the Church It was in the Fourth Age that the Body of the Churches were perfected and that certain Rules were establish'd for Ecclesiastical Decisions The Distinction Distribution and Subordination of Churches were settled for the most part according to the Form of the Civil Government The Civil Provinces form'd the Body of an Ecclesiastical Province The Bishop of the Civil Metropolis was look'd upon as the first Bishop of the Province Some Rights and Prerogatives were assign'd to him and the Care of overseeing the whole Province was committed to him In every Province there was held twice a Year Provincial Councils which the Metropolitan call'd together and over which he presided When a Bishop died all the Bishops of the Province were called together to ordain a Successor in his room He was commonly chosen by the Clergy and People of the Vacant Church The Metropolitan was to be present at this Ordination and he could not do it unless two Bishops of the Province were with him and the rest consented to it As many Civil Provinces made one District which was call'd a Diocess so many Ecclesiastical Provinces made one Ecclesiastical Diocess of which the Bishop of the Principal City was the Head This Bishop had the Rights Prerogatives Privileges of Honour and Jurisdiction over the whole Diocess he enjoy'd also the Right of Ordaining Metropolitans which belong'd formerly to the Bishops of the Province The Whoever has attentively read the foregoing accountof the Controversies by which the Church was
concerning the Government of the Church but it must be confess'd That they were not always very exactly observed and that the Interests and Passions of Men the Ambition of Bishops and the Will of Princes caused them often to be violated contrary to the Intention of the Church which used all her Endeavours to maintain them When Christians began in the Reign of Constantine to perform Divine Service publickly with Pomp and Solemnity there is no doubt but the Ancient Ecclesiastical Ceremonies were then perfected and that new ones were added to render the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries more venerable to the People Some of the chief of them were these Baptism was administred to Infants and Adult Persons with many Ceremonies They were dipped Three times into the Water Exorcisms and Anointings were in use Milk and Honey were given to the Catechumens The Solemn Times for Administring Baptism were Easter and Whit-sunday and also Epiphany in some Churches The Adult were prepared for Receiving this Sacrament a considerable time before and there were many Degrees of Catechumens as we have already observed After Baptism the Bishop conferred the Fulness of the Holy Spirit by Imposition of Hands in the Latin Church and by Unction in the Greek The Times and Degrees of Publick Penance for Crimes committed after Baptism were settled by an infinite number of Canons yet it was always left to the Discretion of the Bishop to lessen or encrease them Publick Penance was imposed for all the great Crimes which the Penitents were either convicted of or confess'd themselves to be guilty of Absolution was not commonly refused for any Crime but Penance was never granted twice The Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist was celebrated with Ceremonies The Eucharist was commonly given to the Laity in both Kinds but upon certain occasions they gave it in one kind only The Bread which was consecrated was ordinary Bread broken into many pieces The Faithful were often present at the Holy Sacrifice Catechumens and Penitents were debarred from it the Eucharist was received in the Act of Adoration The Laity receiv'd also the Bread of the Eucharist into their hands but the custom of carrying it to their Houses was very rare and it was commonly spent all in the Church while they were fasting The Love-Feasts or Feasts of Charity were removed in most Churches almost all those that were present at the Sacrifice received the Communion and so Christians receiv'd the Body of Jesus Christ very often and yet were persuaded that they ought to be Holy and Innocent to receive it worthily Before the Communion-Office began there were some Prayers which were made for Catechumens and Penitents The Holy Scripture was read in the Assemblies of Christians and the Bishop or one of the Priests preached the Word of God These Assemblies were held in Churches consecrated to God and built magnificently they were made very splendid and Divine Offices were celebrated there with much Pomp and Splendor Singing of Psalms was also us'd Wax-Chandles were lighted chiefly during the Nocturnal Offices The Dead were buried with much Ceremony and Pomp the Great Festivals were celebrated with much Solemnity Processions began to be introduced Prayer for the Dead was a common Practice in the Church they were commemorated at the celebration of the Eucharist The Invocation of Saints and Martyrs and the Celebration of their Festivals were common in all the Churches the use of Crosses was frequent the Sign of the Cross was made very often there were Images in many Churches A Blessing was given for Marriage but the Church never gave it for Second Marriages and they even put Bigamists under Penance for some time Marriages contracted between Persons who could not lawfully Marry according to the Civil Laws were looked upon as null Divorce for Adultery was permitted in some Churches Orders were conferred by Imposition of Hands Bishops had the sole Power of Ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons and of Confirming Solemn Baptism also and the Absolution of Publick Penitents was reserv'd to them The number of lesser Orders was not fixed there were more or fewer of them in different Churches There were Deaconnesses in almost all Churches The Mysteries were carefully conceal'd from those who were not yet baptized The Bishops Priests Deacons and the Laity had their Places in the Churches In short Divine Service was performed with much Decency Modesty Gravity and Pomp. Fasting is one of the chief external Practices which concern Manners The Christians of the Fourth Age were very Religious in observing it Lent was established in all Churches tho' it was longer or shorter in different Places The Fasts of Wednesday and Friday or Saturday in the Church of Rome were also Religiously observed During the time of Fasting they waited till Night in Lent before they eat any thing and till three a Clock in the Afternoon in other Fasts and all this time they commonly abstained from Meat and Wine in almost all Churches The Monastick State was established in this Age and became very common in a little time There quickly appear'd a great number of Monasteries full of an infinite number of Monks who retir'd from the World observ'd Celibacy liv'd in Obedience kept excessive Fasts and perform'd very great Austerities Many Virgins were also consecrated to God made a Vow of Virginity and liv'd in common under the Government of an Abbess The Monks and Nuns were both under the Jurisdiction of their Bishops There were very few Monks who were Priests some were taken out of Monasteries to be made Bishops There were also some Hermits who dwelt alone in the Desarts The Christians were constantly at Prayers and gave great Alms to the Poor assisted the Sick visited Prisoners and did several other Works of Charity They sometimes undertook Pilgrimages to visit the Holy Places but tho' the Holy Fathers approved the Devotion yet they feared the Accidents which might happen upon it and were not of Opinion that these kind of Journies should be undertaken rashly and lightly They did not tolerate superstitious Practices nor any new Devotions founded upon the Imaginations of private Persons but they recommended the Practice of Evangelical Counsels and exhorted all Christians to go on to that Perfection which is described in many Places of the Gospel These are some part of the Points of Discipline of the Fourth Age of the Church I shall not stay now to observe many others nor to prove these by Authentical Testimonies because my Design is not to make a Dissertation upon this Subject which would be longer than all this Volume but only to give a slight Idea of the Discipline of that Time Neither shall I undertake to Collect or Abridge what the Writers of this Age have said of Morality which would be an infinite Work and the Reader ought to be satisfied with the Extracts that are made in the body of our Book taken from the finest Passages of the Authors here mentioned The End of the Second Volume A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
Pâ—… â—nd particularly amoâ—â—st thâ— Wâ—â—ks of S. Nilus where there are several of Evagrius's Writings whether S. Nilus quoted them or whether it happened by the Additions of Transcribers is uncertain Socrates Chap. 7. of the Third Book of his History cites a passage of Evagrius taken out of his Gnostical Treatise wheâ—e it is said That it is impossible to define the Divinity and to expound the Trinity The same Author afterwards cites two passages of Evagrius in the 2â—d Chapter of the 4th Book of his History whereof one is taken out of the Gnostical Book and thâ— othâ—â— out of the Practical Book Maximus S. John Damascene and Anthony quote many Sâ—ntences of thâ—â— Author which â—re found amongst the Works of S. Nilus Cotelierius in the Third Volume of his Monuments of the Greek Church Page 68 c. hath given us part both of the Gnostical and of the Practical Books of Evagrius which he took out of two Greek Manuscripts and out of Authors who quoted those Discourses They begin with a Letter to Anatolius which is aâ— a â—â—eface â—o the whole Work of the two Books This Preface is followed by 71 â—â—aâ—tâ—â—â— or Sâ—â—teâ—ces drawn from the Gâ—ostical Book which are written without â—rdâ—â— and 〈◊〉 one with another There is mâ—re Order in the 100 Chapters drawn from the Practical Book The following Treatise contains eleven Instructions for the Monks And this is what Cotelierius could find of the Works of Evagrius His Antirrhetical Treatise or of the Eight Evil Thoughts is equally imperfect as we have it For that which Bigotius hath given in Greek the Translation whereof was found in S. John Damascene and in the Bibliotheca Patrum before the Book of S. Nilus of the Eight Vices is not the intire Treatise of Evagrius but only an Epitome containing the Titles and the Summ of those Eight Chapters as Bigâ—tius judiciously observes and may be proved by the Testimony of Socrates who assures us That that Book of Evagrius contained several passages of Scripture whereas there is not one in this Some also ascribe to Evagrius the History of an Hermite called Pacâ—n related in Palladius Chap. 29. and to be found amongst the Works of S. Nilus published by Suarez at Rome who observes that this Treatise was ascribed to Evagrius in his Manuscript as well as the following which is a Dogmatical Letter concerning the Trinity the Author whereof refutes the Errors both of the Arians and Macedonians This Letter belongs to Evagrius who writ it while he was at Constantinople with S. Gregory Nazianzen It is very probable also that the Sentences or Maxims which are from Page 543 to 575 of the Writings attributed to S. Nilus are written by Evagrius as Holstenius confesses upon the Authority of Manuscripts The Greek Manuscripts have quoted some of them under his Name and they have great relation to those which Gennadius speaks of To these must be added those which we find under the Name of Evagrius at the latter end of the First Volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum in Greek and Latin of the Year 1624 and a small Treatise of the Names of God which is very obscure published by Cotelierius in the Second Volume of his Monuments of the Greek Church p. 116. MARK MARK the Hermite of whom we are to speak in this place lived about the end of the Fourth Century Palladius and Sozomen speak of him as of a very holy Man He composed Mark some Ascetical Treatises which have been attributed by Bellarmine and some others to one Mark who lived under Leo the Emperour in the Ninth Century But Photius having made a very exact Extract of thâ—se Treatises it is impossible they should be of a Man that lived since him And therefore they must be ascribed to that Mark who lived about the latter end of the Fourth Century This is what he saith of it in the Two hundredth Volume I have read Eight Books of Mark the Monk whereof the First is intituled Of the Spiritual Life it may be profitable to those who have undertaken to lead a Religious life i. e. to be Monks as well as the following in which he shews That they are deceived who think to be justified by their Works shewing that this is a very dangerous Opinion He adds to this Instruction wholsome Precepts that lead to a Spiritual life The Third Book is of Repentance his design here is to shew that this Vertue is of use at all times This Book aims at the same end as the fore-going and the same use may be made of it His Style is clear enough because he makes use of common terms and speaks of things in general but he wants the smoothness of Old Athens If there be some darkness it doth not proceed from the terms he useth but from the things he treateth of which are of such a nature that it is easier to comprehend them by practice than by discoursing Wherefore you shall find the same obscurity not only in the Books now mentioned but also in those that follow and in all the Books of those that have written of the Monastick life and have discoursed of the Motions and Passions of the Soul as well as of the Actions which they produce it being impossible to teach with Words those things that depend upon practice The Fourth Book by way of Questions and Answers shews That by Baptism we have received not only the Pardon and Remission of our Sins but also the Grace of the Holy Spirit and many other Spiritual gifts The Fifth is a kind of Conference of the Spirit with the Soul whereby he proves That we our selves are Authors of our Sins and that we ought to accuse no body else upon that account The Sixth is in the form of a Dialogue between Mark and an Advocate who discourse of these following Subjects That none is to seek revenge for an injury received because the wrong we suffer is to be looked upon as a punishment for our Sins he adds that it is difficult to please Men and that Prayer is to be preferred before any other labour He concludes by explaining wherein the Desires of the Flesh consist He treats of Fasting in the Seventh Book that is not written by way of Dialogue The Eighth is directed to a Monk called Nicolas treating of the ways of appeasing of Anger and of quenching of Lust. There is also a Ninth Book against the Melchisedechians wherein he spareth not his own Father who had been tainted with that Heresie Those that would read usefull Books will not lose their time in reading of this The Order of these Books is not the same in all Copies In some those are found last which we have named first This Observation of Photius is verified by the Latin Edition of these Eight Books which were published by Johannes Picus President of the Inquests in the Parliament of Paris and inserted into the Bibliotheca Patrum The Four first are there in Photius's order but
for all men he prepared his Grace for all he predestinated those whom he foresaw would use his Grace well He Confesses that no man is free from sin in this Life nay he excepteth not the holy Virgin Mary S. Chrysostom attributes much vertue and efficacy to Sacraments but he requires very holy ispositions Hom. de Bapt. Christi that Men may be the better for them He saith That Circumcision and the other Sacraments of the Jews did not blot out Sins but cleansed only Bodily filthynesses whereas our Baptism hath far greater Vertue purifying the Soul delivering it from sin and filling it with the Grace of the Holy Spirit that John's Baptism was indeed more excellent than that of the Jews but much inferior to ours because it conferred neither the Holy Ghost nor the remission of Sins but only exhorted Men to Repentance The Baptism of Jesus Christ not In Serm. ad Illuminandos only frees the Soul from sin but also sanctifyeth it wherefore it is called the Laver of Regeneration because it reneweth the Soul through Grace Yet he does not believe that Baptism produces these Effects in those of riper years unless they are well disposed to receive it He exacts from those that come to this Sacrament that they be watchful in the things of their Salvation Ibid. disingaged from worldly Cares and that they renounce all disorderly Conversation that they be zealous in their Devotion and banish from their Hearts all thoughts unbecoming so holy an Action and keep their Souls prepared for the coming of this great King And because the Clinicks that is such as receive Baptism at the point of Death have not time thus to prepare themselves he doubts of their Salvation He speaketh of their Condition in such terms as describe the Case of a dying man very naturally who deferred to repent of his Sins till the hour of Death and then would receive the Sacraments Altho' saith he Sacraments contain the same Graces when the Preparation is different yet all may not receive them They receive Baptism laying upon their Beds you receive it in the bosom of the Church which is the Mother of all the Faithful they receive it weeping and you with joy they with groans and you with thanksgiving they in the heat of a Fever and you under the Sense of the heavenly Grace every thing here hath a Relation to the Grace received there every thing disagrees with it there are sighings and tears while the Sacrament is adminstred Children cry the Wife tears her Hair Friends are dejected Servants weep the whole House is in Mourning and if you mind the Spirit of the sick Person you shall find it more full of Sorrow than that of the Standers by for as a stormy Sea divides into several Waves so his Soul being agitated with troubles is torn with a thousand Disquiets racked with infinite Troubles … In this torture comes in a Priest whose Presence is more dreadful both to the Company and to the sick Man than the Sickness it self his Visit ordinarily causeth greater Despair than the Physicians Sentence that there is no hope of Recovery They imagine that Sacraments tho' instruments of the Spiritual life are infallible tokens of Corporal death But this is not yet the end of his Misery nor the height of his Affliction sometimes while Necessaries for the Sacrament are preparing the Soul departs out of the Body and often tho' remaining in the Body yet it receives not the fruit of the Sacrament for when the Sick person knows no body hears not the Prayers and cannot utter the Words whereby he is to engage with God when he is half dead what benefit can he reap from the Sacrament S. Chrysostom doth not discourse oftner nor in higher terms of any one Mystery than of Hom. 51. 83. in Matth. Hom. 45. in Joan. Serm. de de prodit Judae Hom. 45. 46. in Joannem L. 3. de Sacerdot c. 4. Hom. 24. in ep ad Cor. Hom. 3. in ep ad Eph. Hom. 51. in Matth. Hom. 52. de S Eustathio Hom. 14. 17. in ep ad Hebr. l. 6. de Sacer. c. 1. Hom. 51. in Matth. Hom. 15. in ep ad Cor. Serm. de prodit Judae Hom. in S. Eust. Hom. 33. in Nat. Domini Serm. de pâ—odit Judae the Eucharist He says in many places that the Body and Blood of Christ are upon the Altars That Jesus Christ hath left us his Body and Blood That the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ That we ought not to doubt of it seeing Christ himself affirmeth it That it is a surprizing Miracle comparable to the greatest Wonders That by vertue of Christ's Words in the Celebration of this Mystery Christ is offered in Sacrifice That Jesus Christ offereth himself to God the Father That this Sacrifice is made without shedding of blood That Angels and Arch-angels are present at it That fire from Heaven consumeth the things offered and changeth them into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ That this Table is to be approached unto with reverence and trembling That there is need of Holiness to receive holy things That Penitents ought not to come near and that these Mysteries must be hid from Catechumens That Men ought not only to be freed from Sin but also from Earthly affections and penetrated with divine Love transported with an holy Zeal and possessed with fervent Charity Three sorts of Prayers were made at the Celebration The First for those that were possessed the Second for Penitents and the Third for the Faithfull There was mention made of the Dead and Invocation of Saints The Sanctus was recited The Catechumens and Penitents were put out The Energumenes were brought in at the Consecration and Prayers were made for them S. Chrysostom wisht that all those who were present might communicate and sticks not to say That all those that are unworthy to communicate are not worthy to partake of the Hom. 83. in Matth. Hom. 21. ad Pop. Hom. 22. ad Pop. Ant. l. 6. De Sacerdot c. 4. Hom. in Christi Natalem Prayers And that as he who finds not himself guilty of any Sin ought to communicate every day so he on the contrary that hath committed Sin and repented not should not doe it even upon Festival-days The Sacrament was administred to dying persons and it was preserved in a Box. Hom. 72. in Matth. Lastly That none but the Priests alone have the power to administer the Eucharist which is the great thing that exalteth their Dignity Hom. 41. in 1. ad Cor. Hom. de Seraphim But there is another Power invested in them which is not inferior to the other which is that of binding and loosing of retaining and remitting of Sins It were to be wished that Men needed no Repentance but that they might keep their Baptismal purity without spot Hom. 15. in ep ad Cor. Hom. 3. in ep ad Eph. Hom. 17. in
the Nature of Bodies after the Resurrection and of that of Angels It is incertain whether they have Boâ—…s or whether they are pure Spirits These Letters are of the Year 408. The 96th Letter is an Excellent Example shewing How little Bishops in St. Augustin's time were given to Interest Paulus Bishop of Catagnae had bought an Estate in the Church's Name with a Summ which he recovered though he had Surrendered his own Estate for what he owed to the Royal Treasure Boniface his Successor not willing to benefit himself by that Fraud declared the thing as it was chusing either to have nothing or to receive the whole from the Emperor's Liberality rather than keep a thing gotten by Fraud St. Augustin writeth this Letter to Olympius Surveyor of the Buildings to obtain by his means this Gratification from the Emperour in the behalf of Boniface Olympius not being in that Employment before the Death of Stilico which happen'd in August 408 this Letter cannot have been written till towards the latter end of that Year To the same Magistrate and at the same time was the following written whereby he prayeth him to see the Laws maintained that were Published in Africa in the time of Stilico his Predecessor and to let the Church's Enemies know That these Laws having been Enacted freely by the Emperour himself they were in full force after Stilico's Death In the 98th to Boniface St. Augustin resolves a Question that was made to him by that Bishop namely How the Faith of Parents can serve for their Children that are admitted to Baptism though the incredulity of Parents can be no Prejudice to their Children when they offer them to Daemons St. Augustin Answers That it is most certain that after a Child is born he partakes no longer of other Men's Sins but before he is partaker of Adam's Sin from which he is delivered by the Operation of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament of Baptism That Water represents outwardly both the Mystery and Grace but the Holy Spirit produces the Effect That neither the Faith of Parents nor yet of Godfathers is the cause of this Grace but the Prayer of the whole Church that begets Christ in each Member In which sence the God-fathers Answer for the Child that he believes and resolves to live Christianly because he receiveth the Sacrament of Faith and of Conversion to God He explains this last Notion by several Examples and among the rest he alledgeth that of the Eucharist saying That as the Sacrament of Christ's Body is in some sort the Body of Christ so the Sacrament of Faith is Faith it self and in this sence it is said That whosoever hath the Sacrament of Faith hath Faith it self This Comparison would not be very Just if St. Augustin did not consider something else in the Eucharist besides the external and sensible part The 99th is written to the Lady Italica on the occasion of the first Siege of Rome by Alaricus in 408. In the 100dth Letter St. Augustin intreateth Donatus Proconsul of Africa to restrain the Donatists but not to punish them with Death And having expressed himself with the most Pathetical terms that can be used to oblige him to Meekness he concludes with these curious words It is a more troublesome than profitable Labour to compel Men to forsake a great Evil rather by Force than by Instruction This Letter was written at the time when they published new Edicts against the Donatists in 408. The 101st Letter to Memorius a Bishop was joyn'd to the Sixth Book of his Treatise of Musick which St. Augustin sent by it self to that Bishop because he could not find his other Books upon the same Subject that Memorius desired This Memorius was Father to Julianus who writ afterwards against St. Augustin who was now a Deacon St. Augustin gives him great Commendations in that Letter The 102d is placed in the Retractations amongst the Books composed before the Year 411. There St. Augustin answereth Six Questions proposed by an Heathen to a Priest called Deogratias The First is concerning the Resurrection Whether that which is promised to us shall be like that of Jesus Christ or like that of Lazarus And whether after the Resurrection Men shall be Subject to the Infirmities and Necessities of the Flesh. St. Augustin answereth That our Resurrection shall be like that of Jesus Christ and that after the Resurrection we shall be freed from all cares and inconveniencies of corruptible Flesh. The Second Question is If none can be Saved but by Jesus Christ what is become of those that died before his coming What is become of so many Millions of Souls against whom nothing can be objected since Christ had not yet appeared among Men Why did not the Saviour come sooner Let it not be said that the Jewish Law supplied that want for there was already an infinite number of Men upon Earth when it was given and yet it was neither known nor practised but in a small corner of the World St. Augustin having shewed That the Pagans were not less perplexed with that Question than the Christians answers That Jesus Christ being the Word of God who Governed the World from the beginning all those that knew him and lived according to his Precepts might be saved by the Faith which they had that he was in God and should come upon the Earth He adds That Jesus Christ would not appear in the World and cause his Doctrine to be Preached but at such a time and in such Places where he knew that there were those who should believe in him and that he foresaw that in all other Places or at any other Times Men would be such as they have been though the Gospel had been Preached to them This Notion was very favourable to the Semipelagians and they failed not to make use of it as appears by Hilary's Letter to St. Augustin But this Father answered them in the 9 Chap. of the Book of the Predestination of the Saints That he did make use of the Word Fore-knowledge only because he thought it was sufficient to convince the Infidelity of the Pagans who made this Objection and therefore he omitted to speak of that which is hid within God's Counsels of the Motives of that Dispensation And so when he said That Jesus Christ would not show himself nor cause his Doctrine to be Preached but in those places and at such a time he knew those Persons liv'd who should believe in him It is as if he had said That Jesus Christ did not show himself unto Men nor suffer his Doctrine to be Preached but in those places and at that time when he knew that those should live who were Elected before the Creation He expounds again in the same place what he had said in this Letter That the Christian Religion never failed of being Preached to those that were worthy and that if it failed any it was because they were not worthy of it Saying That he had not
King's Library The Psalter of Pope John made at Vienna John the XXIId is thought to be the Man meant by that Title The following Treatise upon the Magnificat is a Fragment of the Treatise of Hugo de S. Victore upon this Hymn That of the Virgin 's Assumption is a Sermon of some Author of the Twelfth Century or thereabouts which teacheth that the Blessed Virgin is in Heaven both Soul and Body Both the Discourses concerning Visiting the Sick contain useful Rules to teach Priests how they should behave themselves towards Sick Persons but they are very late Both the Discourses of the Comfort for the Dead are of the same Nature and it may be of the same Author The Treatise of Christian Behaviour is a Collection of Notions taken out of St. Eloi or Eligius Bishop of Noyon and Caesarius The Discourse upon the Creed is likewise a Collection of Remarks drawn out of Rufinus Caesarius St. Gregory Ivo Carnutensis and others The Sermon upon Easter-Eve about the Paschal-Lamb and that upon the * What this Book upon the 41st Sermon shou'd be I cannot tell it is false Printed in all probability but not having this Benedictine Edition of St. Augustin by me I could not alter it 41st Sermon are among the Books falsly attributed to St. Jerom. The three Sermons to the Novices concerning Unction Baptism and washing of the Feet are not like St. Augustin's Writings though they are attributed to him in very ancient Manuscripts The Treatise of the Creation of the first Man is inserted entire into the Book of the Spirit and the Soul It is among St. Ambrose's VVorks entituled a Treatise of the Dignity of the first Man and among Alcuinus's it is intituled Thoughts of the Blessed Albinus a Levite upon these words of Genesis Let us make Man after our own Image The Sermon of the Vanity of this present Age is inserted into the Treatise of Christian Behaviour The Author of the Sermon upon the contempt of the World is not known That about the Advantage of Discipline belongs to Valerianus Cemeliensis It is not known who was the Author of the Sermons of Obedience Humility Prayer Alms and that of the Generality of Alms-deeds The small Discourse of the Twelve Prayers spoken of in the 21st Chapter of the Revelations belongs perhaps to Amatus a Monk of Mount-Cassin or rather an Extract of Bede's Commentary upon that Passage in the Revelations Finally The Sermons to the Brethren that live in the Wilderness are the Work of some Modern Monk who was so imprudent as to publish them under St. Augustin's Name though it be as clear as the day that they are not of this Father Baronius observes That they were Compos'd by an Impostor and that they are full of Fables Falsities and Lyes Bellarmin saith That the Stile of them is Childish Course and Barbarous There are several Passages out of St. Augustin Caesarius and St. Gregory It is probable that the Author was a Flemming The SEVENTH TOME THE Seventh Volume contains St. Augustin's great Work of the City of God He undertook Tom. VII it about the Year 413. after the taking of Rome by Alaric King of the Goths to refute the Heathens who attributed that Misfortune to the Christian Religion This VVork held him several Years by reason of many intervening Businesses which he could not put off so that he did not finish it before the Year 426. It is divided into Two and twenty Books whereof the first Five refute those who believe that the worship of the Gods is necessary for the good of the VVorld and affirmed That all the Mischiefs lately happened proceeded from no other cause but the abolishing of that Religion The next Five are against those who confessing that the same Calamities have been in all Ages yet pretend that the worship of the Heathen Divinities was profitable to a future Life Thus the Ten first Books are to Answer both those Chimerical Opinions which are contrary to the Christian Religion But lest they should reproach him with having refuted the Opinions of others without establishing the Christian Religion the other part of this VVork is allotted to that purpose and it consists of Twelve Books though he sometimes establisheth our belief in the former Ten and so in the Twelve others he sometimes correcteth the Errors of our Adversaries In the Four first of these Twelve he describes The Original of the two Cities the one of God and the other of the VVorld In the Four next their Progress And in the Four last their Ends And so though all the 22. Books do equally treat of both Cities yet this VVork has its Name from the better and they are commonly called The Books of the City of God This is the Account which St. Augustin gives both of the Subject and of the Occasion of these Books in his Retractations Let us now examine more particularly what is most remarkable in each Book for it is a VVork made up of a great variety of very learned and very curious things In the First Book he shews That instead of imputing to the Christians the Desolation and the taking of Rome the Heathen ought rather to ascribe to the special favour of Jesus Christ That the Barbarians only out of reverence to his Name spared all those that had retired into the Churches He pretends That there are no Examples in the VVars of the Heathen to shew That the Enemies who spoiled a Town taken by Storm spared those who took Sanctuary in the Temples of their Gods This puts St. Augustin upon asking why this Favour of God was extended to those Ungodly Men that fled into the Churches who feigned themselves to be Christians and why the good were involved in the same Mischief with the wicked He confesses That both the Good and the Evil Things of this VVorld are common both to Good and Evil Men but the difference consists in the Use which they make of them He observes That perhaps good Men probably are punished with the wicked because they took no care to reprove St. Augustin Iâ—me VII and to correct them and that however good Men lose nothing by losing the good things of this World That a Christian ought to be easily conforted for want of Burial seeing that this doth him neither good nor hurt And he comforteth the Virgins that had been ravished in that disorder shewing That they lost neither the Chastity of the Soul nor the Purity of the Body He excuseth those that killed themselves rather than endure that dishonour But he shews at the same time That this Action so much admired by the Heathen is contrary both to Reason and to the Laws of Nature and that it is never lawful to kill our selves upon any account whatsoever He answers the Examples of some holy Women who threw themselves into the River to escape the Violence of those that would have ravish'd them He saith That they might have been induced to that by
had Faith without the Sacrament God supplies in Children the Faith they want and he supplied in the good Thief the Sacrament which he could not receive But when either of these is wanting by the Man 's own Fault he cannot be excused and he receiveth not the Effect of Baptism When the Sacrament is found without Faith and without Conversion it is not necessary to be reiterated It is sufficient only to supply what is wanting as when one is already converted it is enough to receive the Sacrament The difference lieth in this That the Adult cannot be saved without Faith and Conversion though they may be saved without the Sacrament if so be that they do not want it through Contempt or Neglect but because they lay under an impossibility of receiving it From these Principles St. Augustin draws the following Conclusions 1. That Baptism conferred by Hereticks in the Name of the Trinity is good and valid as it is a Sacrament and ought not to be repeated 2. That neither the Minister's Faith as to Religion nor his Sanctity avail any thing to the Validity of Baptism 3. That it is God and not the Minister who gives the Holy Spirit and worketh the Remission of Sins 4. That Baptism produces this Effect but in them alone that are well-disposed by Faith and Conversion of the Heart 5. That the Prayers of the Church which consists of Saints and Righteous Men supplies the Actual Faith which Children cannot have 6. That the Adult who have Faith and are Converted may be saved without actual receiving of the Sacrament but not without the Sacramental Vow As for some other Questions which might be made about Baptism administred by Infidels or some impious Persons that are Excommunicated or in jest St. Augustin saith in the Seventh Book of Baptism Chap. 53d thus It is asked saith he whether that Baptism is to be approved which is administred by an unbaptized Person who out of Curiosity hath learned the way of baptizing among Christians It is asked further Whether it be necessary for the Validity of Baptism that he who either administers or receives it be sincere And if they should be only in jest Whether Baptism ought to be administred again in the Church Whether Baptism conferred in Derision as that would be which should be administred by a Comedian might be accounted Valid Whether it is more Criminal to receive Baptism in jest in the Church or to receive it with the same Spirit in Heresie or Schism Whether Baptism administred by an Actor may become Valid when he that receives it is well-disposed St. Augustin answers to these and such-like Questions That the securest way is to return no Answer to Questions that never were decided in any Council General or National But he adds Should any man meeting with me at such Council ask my Advice about these Questions and that it were my turn to declare my Opinion having not heard other Mens Opinions which I might preferr before mine own and if I perceiv'd in my self the same Dispositions that I am now in I should without difficulty acknowledge That they all receive Baptism truly in any place whatsoever and by whomsoever administred if on their part they receive it with Faith and with Sincerity I am apt also to believe That such as receive Baptism in the Church or in what is supposed to be the Church are truly baptized as to the Sacramental part of the Action whatsoever be their intention But as for Baptism administred and received out of the Church in Raillery Contempt and to make Sport I could not approve the same without a Revelation These are St. Augustin's Opinions concerning the Validity or Invalidity of Baptism As to the Answers which he makes to the Arguments of St. Cyprian and the other Bishops of his Opinion they are grounded for the most part upon the Comparison between concealed Hereticks and Evil Ministers with known Hereticks and Schismaticks For since the Baptism of the former is Valid and not to be renewed why should not the same thing be said of the latter since all the Reasons that are alledged for the nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks may also belong to Evil Ministers It is said for example That to give the Holy Ghost one must have it That Hereticks have it not and consequently that they cannot give it Why may we not reason after the same manner concerning Baptism conferred by concealed Hereticks or by wicked Priests Have they the Holy Ghost to give Thus St. Augustin overthrows the Reasons and Testimonies brought in by St. Cyprian and his Collegues against the Validity of the Baptism of Hereticks by shewing That whil'st they prove too much they prove nothing But his great Argument to destroy the Donatists which he particularly insisteth upon in his last Book against Cresconius is an Argument taken from their Conduct in a Schism that was risen up amongst themselves betwixt Maximianus upheld by some other Bishops of their Sect and Primianus another Bishop of their Party at Carthage They accused one another of several Crimes and condemned one another but Primianus's Party being the stronger prevailed and held a Plenary Council at Bagais wherein they condemned Maximianus and his Adherents in very reproachful terms and got this Judgment to be confirmed by the Emperor's Letters Now according to the Donatists Principles Persons thus Condemned were out of the Church all that Communicated with them were out of the Church all whom they baptized were to be baptized again And yet the Primianists behaved themselves quite otherwise for they kept Communion with some of the condemned Bishops and owned them for lawful Bishops they acknowledged those that were Baptized by the Maxim ianists to be truly Baptized and they admitted into their Communion those that were of the Maximianists Party St. Augustin compares this their Conduct with their Behaviour towards the Scripture and the Universal Church and by that Argument convinceth them That it was only Prejudice and Obstinacy which kept them in their Separation from the Chruch The Supplement that is added to this Ninth Volume contains not only the Book against Fulgentius the Donatist falsely attributed to St. Augustin concerning which the Censure of the Louvain Doctors and of Vindingus set before it may be consulted but also Extracts from ancient Pieces concerning the History of the Donatists taken out of Optatus Eusebius St. Augustin the Conference at Carthage the Councils of Carthage and the Imperial Laws against the Donatists And that all that St. Augustin writ against the Donatists might be published together they copied out what he said in the Conference of Carthage This Collection is the more useful because there are considerable Restitutions of several Passages of Optatus from a Manuscript in the Library at St. Germains des Prez Here is one of the principal There is a Passage in the First Book of Optatus where it is said That Eunomius and Olympius were sent into Africa to Ordain a Bishop and to
the Africans had good Success for the Emperor Honorius made an Edict against Pelagius and Coelestius the last day of April 418. And shortly after Pope Zosimus published as we have said his Sentence against them The Council of Carthage in the Year 418. THe African Bishops willing to confirm what they had done against Pelagius and Coelestius Council of Carthage in ccccxviij Assembled upon the First day of May of the Year 418. and made Eight Canons against the Pelagian Errors and some other Orders about the Business of the Donatists The First pronounceth an Anathema against any who dares affirm That Adam was created Mortal so that he must have died whether he had sinned or not because his Death was not an Effect of Sin but a Law of Nature The Second likewise declares an Anathema against such as deny That Children ought to be baptized as soon as they are Born or such as own that they may be baptized and yet affirm That they are born without Original Sin In some places there is a Third Canon which is an Addition to this wherein those that affirm That there is a particular place where Children dead without Baptism do live happily are condemned and to this Notion is opposed what our Saviour saith That none can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate of Water and the Holy Spirit Photius citeth this Canon in his Collection It is found in another Manuscript and in the Code of the Romish Church published by Father Quesnel And lastly St. Augustin seems to own it when he says That the difference which the Pelagians made betwixt Eternal Life and the Kingdom of Heaven had been condemned in an African Council yet this Canon is not found in the ancient Code of the African Church The Collectors of this Canon have not own'd it and in the Chapters about Grace attributed to Pope Coelestine the 3d 4th and 5th Canons are cited which should be the 4th 5th and 6th if this were the Third Perhaps this Canon was added or look'd upon as an Explication of the foregoing The Third Canon in the common Editions pronounces Anathema against all that should say That the Grace which justifies Man through Jesus Christ our Lord doth only remit Sins committed but that it is not given to succour Man that he may Sin no more The Fourth expounds the Nature of this Grace by condemning those who should say That it doth no further help us than as it gives us the knowledge of what we ought to do but not by enabling us to fulfil the Commandments which it gives us the knowledge of The Fifth is against those that hold That Grace is given only that we may do that which is good with less difficulty because one may absolutely accomplish the Commandments by the Power of his Free-Will without the help of Grace The Sixth declares That St. John did not say merely out of Humility If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves The contrary Truth is confirmed in the Seventh Canon by these words of the Lord's Prayer Forgive us our Trespasses c. And they are condemned who affirm That the Righteous do not say this Prayer for themselves but for others In the Eighth there is a Condemnation of another way of eluding the force of these words by saying That the Righteous pray out of Humility but not truly It is said That God would never endure that Man who in his Prayers should lye not only to Men but to God himself by asking with his Mouth That God would forgive his Sins and saying in his Heart that he had none After these Eight Canons concerning Grace some Orders are set down The First Is to reform the Fifth Canon of the Council of Carthage in the Year 407. whereby it was Enacted That those Bishops who converted any Donatists should have the Jurisdiction over them This Order having bred some Disputes it was thought fit here to reform it and it is enjoyn'd That in what place soever any Donatists are reconciled they shall be of the same Diocess with the Catholicks of that place When there were two Bishops in the same place namely The ancient Catholick and the reconciled Donatist it might occasion several Difficulties which the Council prevents in the next Canon which enjoins That the junior Bishop shall make a division of those places where there were many Catholicks and Donatists and that the senior shall have his choice That if there is but one place where the Catholicks and Donatists were intermixt that Place shall belong to that Bishop of the two the place of whose residence is the nearest That if they prove equally distant the Choice shall be left to the People And if the ancient Catholicks desire to have their own Bishop and the reconciled him they had before then the Majority of voices shall carry it but if they be equal then the senior shall have the Precedency Lastly If the Places cannot be equally divided As for example if the number of Divisions should be odd then two equal Divisions shall be made and the Place over and above shall bedisposed of as is said just before In the Third Rule it is provided That whosoever hath enjoy'd a place Three Years shall remain in quiet Possession if there be a Bishop in the Church of that Diocess where naturally he ought to have been The Fourth is against those Bishops who violently took Possession of the Jurisdiction of such places as they pretended to be of their Diocesses without having the matter in Dispute adjudged by Bishops The First ordains That those that shall neglect to procure the Re-union of places dependent from their Diocesses shall be put in mind of it by the Neighbouring Bishops That if they are not converted within Six Months after such Admonition they shall belong to the Diocess of that Bishop that can convert them if it appears that the Bishop of the place hath neglected it It is added That if a Contest happens betwixt two Bishops of different Provinces the Metropolitan of the Province where the place in dispute is situated shall appoint Judges or the Parties shall choose one or three This gives occasion for renewing the Canon which forbids any Appeal to be made from the judgment of Judges thus chosen It is enacted by the Seventh Order That a Bishop neglecting to reconcile the Donatists that are in his Diocess shall be admonished and if they be not reconciled in Six Months they shall not communicate with him until he hath reconciled them Provided always That he who had the execution of the Emperor's Orders was in his Province It is added in the Eighth That if it be proved that any Bishop affirmed that these Donatists were come into the Communion of the Church and it was not so he shall lose his Bishoprick The Ninth enjoins That if the Priests Deacons and other Clerks complain of their Bishop's Judgments they shall be judged by the Neighbouring Bishops with
be of any great weight And besides if it were true that S. Coelestine himself did not compose these Aphorisms but caused them to be framed by some other yet they may lawfully be attributed to him always since it is confessed That they were framed by his Order That he approved them and sent them with his Letter and lastly That he caused them to be put into the Registry of the Church of Rome as an Authentick Monument of his Doctrine The Reasons which they alledge to shew the contrary prove well enough that these Aphorisms are no part of this Pope's Letter nor are a solemn definition of the Roman Bishop but they do not evince that they are not Precepts of Instruction composed by this Pope or at least by his order upon the account of which he wrote his Letter and perhaps sent them with it This is most probable in this Matter S. Prosper and S. Hilary seeing that the Doctrine of S. Austin was openly opposed in France and that he was accused of going too far went to Rome to implore the Pope S. Coelestine to take it into his Protection The Pope did two things The First was to write to the Bishops that he might oblige them to stop the Discourse of those that defamed the Doctrine of S. Austin The Second was to make a Collection of the Principles approved by the Authority of the Holy See that he might draw some Consequences from them against those who did not approve S. Austin's Doctrine altho they condemned Coelestius and Pelagius and professed to hold the Decisions of the Holy See against their Error The First of these Articles imports That all Men have lost their Innocency in the Person of Adam and their natural ability of doing good and that no Man can be delivered out of this profound Abyss of Perdition by the strength of his Free-will if he be not raised by the Grace of the God of Mercy The Second imports That no Man is good of himself if God who is only good doth not communicate his goodness to him The Third is That no Man can conquer the Temptations of the Devil and the Motions of the Flesh if he doth not receive continual assistance from God and if he have not the Gift of Perseverance Which ought to be understood also of those who have been renewed by the Grace of Baptism The Fourth is That no Man knows how to make good use of his Free-will but by the Grace of Jesus Christ. These three Articles are confirmed by the Testimony of S. Innocent The Fifth is That all the Good righteous Men do ought to be referred to the Glory of God because no Man can please him but by the Gifts of his Grace Pope Zosimus and the Council of Africa have also delivered this Maxim The Sixth is That God acts after such a manner in the Free-will of Man that the Holy Thoughts Pious Intentions and all the good Motions of his Will proceed from him Pope Zosimus also suggests this Principle The Seventh Aphorism contains the Decrees of the Council of Carthage which hath determined the absolute necessity of Grace to do good The Eighth makes use of the Prayers of the Church to shew That all the good that we do from the first Motion of Conversion to our final Perseverance is the effect of the Grace of Jesus Christ. The Ninth shews That the Exorcisms and Sufflations which the Church useth before Baptism to drive away evil Spirits are a clear proof of the necessity of Grace to deliver us from the Tyranny of the Devil He concludes these Principles That God is the Author of all the good Motions good Actions and all the Vertues by which we tend to him from the beginning of the Faith insomuch that he goes before all our Deserts and makes us will and do that which is good He adds That the Divine Assistance doth not deprive us of our Free-will but it delivers it and dispells its former darkness of crooked and perverse it makes it right of distempered it renders it sound and instead of Ignorance and Error it implants Wisdom and Prudence For the Goodness of God is so great saith he That he is willing to look upon his own Gifts as our Merits and to give an eternal Reward for those good Works of which he is the Author He makes us to will and to do what pleaseth him and he leaves not those Graces useless which he hath wrought in us Lastly he declares That in respect of the deep and perplexing Difficulties which may arise from the Questions which have been formed and have been treated on by those who have opposed the Hereticks he dare not really contemn them but that he thought it not necessary to stay there because it is sufficient to acknowledge the Grace of Jesus Christ to the Efficacy and Merit of which all the good which we do ought to be attributed it is sufficient to hold whatsoever is conformable to the definitions of the Holy See which he believes so true that he scruples not to assure us That whatever is contrary to these Rules is not Catholick and true Doctrine It may be demanded what the Author of these Aphorisms means by these deep and perplexing Difficulties Some affirm That they are Questions which relate to the efficacy of Grace and gratuitous Predestination But it seems evident to me that the Author of these Aphorisms lays down the first Doctrine in many of his Articles and supposes the other which makes me to think that he means some other Questions which S. Austin hath disputed on in his Works against the Pelagians as when he asks Wherein consisteth Original Sin After what manner is it propagated to the Posterity of Adam What is the Original of the Soul What is the Punishment of Children which die unbaptized In what consisteth Concupiscence and many other Difficulties of that Nature which have been treated on by S. Austin I do not affirm for all that That the efficacy of Grace and gratuitous Predestination are Articles of Faith and I believe we may truly enough own That the Author of these Aphorisms did look upon them as implicitly contained if I may use that Term in the Decisions of the Popes and Councils of Africa Besides it being certain as it is That the Adversaries of the Doctrine of S. Austin did principally oppose those two points this Author whose purpose it was to confute them could not but maintain that Doctrine To be convinced of this we need only read the Objections of Vincent and the Answers of S. Prosper which will discover that all the Objections of the Adversaries of S. Austin deâ—…lve themselves upon these two Points and that his Scholars maintain them as having a necessary relation to the Doctrine of the Holy See against the Pelagians The Second Letter of S. Coelestine ought to be set before this of which we have already spoken since it was written in the Year 428. It is directed to the Bishops of
or 458. in the Seventieth or Eightieth Year of his Age. But his Enemies after his Death revived the Accusations That they had formed against him in his Life-time and contrary to the Judgment of the Council of Chalcedon used all their Endeavours to obscure his Memory The Ring-leaders of this Faction designed it against the Council it self and did not attack the Memory of Theodoret with any other Design but that they might give a Blow to the Council it self But they had insensibly drawn over many Orthodox persons to their Opinion and being upheld by the Authority of Justinian the Emperor they brought about their Undertaking by causing his Writings to be condemned in the Council which they account the Fifth General Council But notwithstanding the Judgment of this Council many of the Orthodox have always defended and do still defend his Person and Writings But this is not a convenient Place to treat of this Matter of which I shall speak afterward This sufficeth to have advertised you That Theodoret met with as bad Usage almost after his Death as he had while he lived Of all the Fathers who have composed Works of different kinds Theodoret is one of those who hath been very lucky in every one of them There are some who have been excellent Writers in Matters of Controversie but bad Interpreters Others have been good Historians but naughty Divines Some have good success in Morality who have no skill in Doctrinal Points Those who have applied themselves to confute the Pagan Religion by their own Principles and Authors have ordinarily little knowledge in the Mysteries of our Religion Lastly It is very rare for those who have addicted themselves to Works of Piety to be good Criticks Theodoret had all these Qualities and it may be said That he hath equally deserved the Name of a good Interpreter Divine Historian Writer of Controversies Apologist for Religion and Author of Works of Piety But he hath principally excelled in his Composures upon the Holy Scripture He hath out-done almost all other Commentators in that kind according to the Judgment of the learned Photius His Language saith the same Author is very proper for a Commentary for he explains in proper and significant Terms whatsoever is obscure and difficult in the Text and renders the Mind more fit to read and understand it by the pleasantness and elegancy of his Discourse He doth not weary his Reader by long Digressions but on the contrary he labours to instruct him ingeniously clearly and methodically in every thing that seems hard He never departs from the Purity and Elegancy of the Attick Tongue if there be nothing that obliges him to speak of abstruse Matters to which the Ears are not accustomed For it is certain That he passes over nothing that needs Explication and it is almost impossible to find any Interpreter who unfolds all manner of Difficulties better and leaves fewer things obscure We may find many others who speak elegantly and explain clearly but we shall scarcely find any who have written well and who have forgotten nothing which hath need of Illustration without being too diffuse nor without running out into Digressions at least such as are not absolutely necessary for clearing the Matter in Hand Nevertheless this is what Theodoret has observed in all his Commentaries upon Holy Scripture in which he hath wonderously well opened the Text by his Labour and diligent Search There are two sorts of Works of Theodoret upon Holy Scripture The one is by way of Question and Answer the other is a Commentary wherein he followeth the words of the Text. The eight first Books of the Bible that is to say the Pentateuch of Moses the Books of Joshua Judges and Ruth the Books of Kings and Chronicles are explained after the first manner the other are expounded by Commentaries The first of these Works is intitl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated thus Of some select doubtful Questions of Holy Scripture but may be better translated Select Questions upon the difficult places of Holy Scripture It is written by way of Questions and Answers The Question propounds the difficulty and the Answer resolves it This is the last of the Works of Theodoret. He composed it at the desire of Hypatius as he tells him in the Preface where he observes That there were two sorts of Persons who raise difficulties out of the Holy Scriptures the one do it with a wicked intent to find in the Holy Scriptures Falsities or Contradictions but others do it with a design to inform themselves and learn that which they demand Theodoret undertakes to stop the Mouth of the former by making it appear That there is neither Falsity nor Contradiction in Holy Scripture and to content the latter by satisfying all their Doubts so that the intent of this Work is not so much to explain the Literal Sence of Holy Scripture as to answer the Scruples that might rise in the Mind by reading the Text. There are some of the Questions which are very useless and which do not naturally come into the Mind As for Example he demands in the first Question Why the Author of the Pentateuch did not make a Discourse upon the Being and Nature of God before he spake of the Creation Few Men would make that Doubt Theodoret says That he condescended to the Weakness of those he had to instruct in speaking first of the Creatures which they knew that he might make known the Creator to them for he hath sufficiently discovered the Eternity Wisdom and Bounty of that Being in composing a History of the Creation and lastly because he spake to Persons who had already some Idea of him since Moses had spoken already in Aegypt in his Name and had taught them that he is what he is a Name that signifies his Eternity The following Questions are concerning the Angels He pretends That Moses hath not spoken of their Creation for fear they should be taken for Gods He teaches That they are created and finite Beings That they keep their place in the Universe That they are appointed to defend the People and Nations and likewise That every Person hath his Guardian Angel That they were created at the same time with the World tho' it may be said That their Creation was before that of Heaven and Earth After these Preliminary Questions which serve only for the explication of the Text he resolves others that serve to clear the Text. One of the Principal is upon these words The Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters Some saith he believe That it is the Holy Spirit who animated the Waters and made them fruitful but I am of Opinion That it is the Air which is called in this place the Spirit of God For having said That God created the Heaven and Earth and made mention also of the Waters under the Name of the Abyss he ought necessarily to speak of the Air which is extended upon the Surface of the Waters
Books of Scripture and make use of Apocryphal Works full of Errors That the Bishops ought to take them from them and burn them altho ' they bear the Names of the Apostles and have some shew of Piety because they ordinarily have an hidden Poison in them and lead Men into Error In the 16th Article S. Leo prohibits the Book that Dictinius had composed being a Priscillianist He also speaks of their Infamous Mysteries like to those of the Manichees whom he had made to acknowledge their Crime Lastly He condemns those Bishops who are in those Errors which he before observed or rather who did not oppose them and would not curse them In fine As to that which Turribius hath Noted to S. Leo that some of the Orthodox did doubt Whether the Flesh of Jesus Christ was really in the Sepulchre during the time that his Soul went down into Hell He Answers That he wondered that any Christian should doubt of that Truth since it is plain by the Testimony of Holy Scripture that the Body of Jesus Christ was Buried and was raised again from the Dead He concludes That it is necessary that a Council be called in Spain in some convenient place where the Bishops of the Neighbouring Provinces may be present and there examine if there be any Bishop who holds these Errors which he hath related and if any be found they must be Excommunicated because it is not to be endured that they who ought to Preach the Faith to others should have the boldness themselves to dispute against the Creed and Gospel He says That he hath written to the Bishops of the Provinces of Spain to Assemble a National Council and that it belongs to him to whom he writes to cause it to be put in execution but if that cannot be done the Bishops of Gallaecia should at least meet He leaves the care of calling the Council not only to Turribius but also to Idacius and Caeponius to which Two Bishops Turribius wrote a Letter which he sent a little after along with that which S. Leo wrote to him That Bishop shews therein his Grief which he was in to find his Country infected with so many Errors and commands them not to suffer the Christians to read such Apocryphal Books as the Acts of S. Andrew S. John S. Thomas and the Book intitled The Memoirs of the Apostles The Sixteenth Letter to the Bishops of Sicily is Dated October the 21st 447. S. Leo in it reproves the Custom of the Churches of Sicily in Administring Baptism upon the Feast of Epiphany and says That no Man ought to be Baptized but upon the Feasts of Passover and Pentecost according to the Custom of the Church of Rome which he would have them to understand that they are obliged to follow because they were Ordain'd by the Bishop of Rome Nevertheless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—heir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 not as yet given them notice of it hoping they would 〈◊〉 â—hi◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—en proveâ— That they ought to observe certain tunes for the Celebration of the Mysteries of Religion That the Feast of Easter is the most proper time for the â—dministration of Baptism because that is the time when those Mysteries are remembred which are represented by Baptism That the Feast of Pentecost may also be joined with it That thâ—se who 〈◊〉 Sickness or Absence could not receive the Sacrament of Baptism at Easter might not be deprived at 〈◊〉 of the Grace which it conferrs and which the Holy Spirit pours ouâ— upon the Faithful That the Apostles themselves have Authorized this Usage but that there is no other Feast on which Baptism can be Administred after a solemn manner because 〈◊〉 we câ—â—ght to give a due respect to all the Festivals which are appointed for the Honour of God yet we must keep the Mystical Representation of that Sacrament That this Law nevertheless doth not â—inder from succouring those at all times which are in danger of Death That those who respect the Feast of Epiphany as a fit Season for the Administration of Baptism because Jesus Christ upon that Day received the Baptism of John ought to consider that there is a great deal of difference between the Baptism of John and that of Jesus Christ and thaâ— this last was not Instituted till the Side of Jesus Christ was opened and there came from thence Blood and Water This was the reason that S. Leo defended the Custom of the Church of Rome to which he endeavoured to oblige the Bishops of Sicily who were in his Patriarchate and commanded them to send every Year Three Bishops to the Synod which he did hold at Rome the 29th of September There is another Letter to the same Bishops Dated the next Day in which this last was written wherein upon the Complaints of the Clergy of Two Churches of Sicily who had accused their Bishops for squandring away the Revenues of their Churches he forbids the Bishops That they do not give pawn change or sell the Goods of their Churches unless it be for the advantage of the Church and with the advise of all the Clergy But for fear least the Priests and Deâ—cons should agree with their Bishop to make away the Church-goods he forbids them upon pain of Excommunication to do any thing of that Nature because it is Just saith he That not only the Bishops but all Ecclesiastical Persons should preserve the Revenues of the Church and unreasonable that the Goods given by the Faithful for the Salvation of their Souls should be embezelled or consumed Father Quesnel doubts whether this Letter be S. Leo's being induced to it by these Conjectures 1. It is not found in any MSS. under the Name of S. Leo Vossius having met with it in a MS. of Cardinal Sirlit's hath Printed it under S. Leo's Name upon the account of the Date 2. 'T is not this Pope's Stile and there are in it many Expressions a Expressions Of which these are some Examples Ab omni Episcâ—porum usurpâ—tione resecare Ecclesiâ— nuditatem deplorare querimâ—niarum causam deferre exemplum fiat imitabile diversis modis alienare coâ—â—iventiam in Ecclesiae damâ—â— miscere All the Letter is written after a dry and barren way which he never uses 3. What probability is there that S. Leo would write to the same Bishops Two different Letters Two Days together could he not have written in the former what is in this latter 4. The Abuse which is reproved in this Letter doth not in the least agree with the times of S. Leo and the Discipline which is therein Establish'd hath yet less resemblance Who will believe that in the time of S. Leo it was allowed to a Bishop to Alienate the Goods of the Church with the consent of his Clergy only 5. The Author of this Letter imposeth this Penalty upon the Clergy who Abuse the Goods of the Church To be deprived both of their Office and the Communion of the Church In S. Leo's time they never
and was Ordained Bishop of Rome * Sept. 15. Nov. 28. Anno. 496. The first thing he did was to write to the †Anastasius Emperor to endeavour the Re-union of the Church He exhorts him therefore in the first ** This Letter is in Tom. 4. of Councils p. 1278. Letter and earnestly intreats him to hinder that the Name of Acacius which gave so much offence should not be recited in the Church and by that means procure the Churches Peace At the same time he advertiseth him that this would not derogate from the validity of the Ordinations which Acacius hath conferred or Baptisms which he hath administred because the Holy Spirit works by evil Ministers and Sinners who administer the Sacraments hurt none but themselves nâ—…r do hinder the effect of the Sacraments Anastasius sent * Germanus Bishop of Capua and Cresconius Bishop of Tuder two Legats to Constantinople to Negotiate the Peace and at the same time Festus a Senator of Rome went about some publick affairs There was also then at Constantinople a Priest and another Clergy-man Deputies for the Church of Alexandria who being desirous of a Re-union with the Church of Rome presented a †It is extant in Tom. 4. p. 1283. of the Councils Memoir to the Pope's Legats and Festus wherein they deliver themselves to this Effect That the Churches of Rome founded by St. Peter and of Alexandria planted by St. Mark have always had the same Faith and Doctrine and were so firmly united that when any Councils were held in the East the Bishop of Rome made choice of the Bishop of Alexandria to act in his stead and hold his place in them but there began a Division between these two Churches in the time of St. Leo because his Letter against the Impious Heretick Eutyches being falsified by Theodoret and some other Bishops of the Nestorian Party who Translated it into Greek and by the Authority of that Corrupt Translation had maintained the Doctrine of Nestorius had given the Church of Alexandria occasion to think that the Church of Rome was of that Opinion and upon that account to separate from her Communion On the other side the Bishop of Rome being persuaded that the Aegyptians opposed the Doctrine which he had received from the Apostles had also separated them from his Communion That they had sent Deputies to Rome to justifie that their Church had no other Sentiments than those of the Fathers of the Council of Nice but there was then at Rome a certain Man of their Countrey an â—…my to the truth by whose means they were denied Reception and Audience Insomuch that they returned without effecting any thing but they understood since by Photinus a Deacon of the Church of Thessalonica who was sent by his Bishop to Pope Anastasius that this Pope did not approve of the Additions and Alterations which had been made in the Version of St. Leo's Letter That the Legats of this Pope sent to Constantinople having assured them of the same thing they implored them to receive their Confession of Faith that if it were found agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome these two Churches might be Re-united In this Confession of Faith having asserted with most serious Protestations that they did receive the Doctrine of the three first General Councils and the Anathema's of St. Cyril without mentioning the fourth Council They confess that Jesus Christ is consubstantial with the Father according to the Divine Nature and with us according to the Humane that there is but one Son that the Actions and Sufferings of Jesus Christ are proper to one Son only They condemn those that divide or confound the Natures or introduce a mere Phantom because in the Incarnation there is no multiplication of Sons and the Trinity of the Persons in the Godhead still remains although one of the Divine Persons be Incarnate They pronounce an Anathema against Nestorius and Eutyches But they declare that the Doctrine of Dioscorus Timotheus and Petrus their Patriarchs was such as that they do still follow it and are ready to justifie it Lastly They conjure the Popes Legats to present this Confession of Faith to him that he may approve it and receive them into his Communion Festus also was Commissioned by the Emperor to negotiate the Re-union of the Church of Constantinople and he promised to sway Anastasius the Pope to Subscribe Zeno's Henoticon But when he came to Rome Anastasius was dead having been in the See of the Church of Rome but two years wanting six days There is another * It is extant in Tom. 4. Council p. 1278. Letter of Anastasius to Lewis the French King wherein he congratulates his Conversion to Christianity Lastly M. Baluzius in Tom. 1. of his new Collections of Councils hath published some fragments of a Letter of Anastasius to Ursicinus upon the Incarnation Platina says that he wrote some Books De Trinitate De Libero arbitrio de Regulis Fidei adversus Pelagianam Haeresin and many Sermons but we know not upon what grounds The Letters of this Pope are full of Moral Observations and Applications of Texts of Holy Scripture PASCHASIUS a Deacon of the Church of Rome THIS Deacon flourished in the Popedom of Anastasius and Symachus under this last he Paschasius a Deacon of Rome favoured the Party of Laurentius the Anti-Pope and some hold that he was put into Purgatory upon that Account where Germanus Bishop of Capua saw his Soul if we may believe the Relation which St. Gregory gives us in his Dialogues He made two Books concerning the Godhead of the Holy Spirit * Against Macedonius commended by St. Gregory in which he hath not omitted any Material proof which the Holy Scripture affords us to prove the God-head of the Holy Spirit This Treatise is Written in a very good Method and with much Elegancy It hath been Printed at Collen in 1539 8vo and at Helmstadt in 1613. and put into the Biblioth Patr. Tom. 8. p. 806. Some think that it is to this Paschasius that Eugippius hath Dedicated the Life of St. Severinus JULIANUS POMERIUS JUlianus Pomerius a Native of Mauritania and Ordained a Priest in France lived about the end of the fifth Age. He composed a Treatise by way of Dialogue between Julian a Bishop Julianus Pomerius and Verus a Priest * Dr. Cave takes them for an Abridgment of Nemesius ' s 8 Books Dé Animâ about the Nature and Qualities of the Soul divided into eight Books In the first he tells us what the Soul is and in what sense it is said to be made in the Image of God In the second he examines whether it be Corporeal or Incorporeal In the third he enquires how the Soul of the first Man was made In the fourth he discusses this Question Whether the Soul which is about to be infused into the Body be created anew and without Sin or whether it be
Challon upon the River Soane in the Year 603. in which Arigius Bishop of Lyons presided But perhaps it might be some other Council For this was assembled about the Business of Desiderius Bishop of Vienna This Letter is written before the foregoing S. Columbanus's Letter has lately been attributed to S. Gregory who is mention'd in the Two preceeding Letters There he does very confidently set down the Authorities he depends upon to shew that Easter should always be celebrated by the twentieth of the Moon in March before the Equinox and creats the Cycle of Victorius with a great deal of Contempt And does alsâ— refute Pope Victor's Opinion That Easter is not to be kept at the same Time with the Jews He exhorts the Pope to alter his Opinion and Practice about that and then asks him Whether he should communicate with those who are ordain'd Bishops contrary to the Constitutions and Canons by Simony or having committed some Crimes in the Time they were Deacons In fine he consults him what is to be done with Monks who depart from their Monasteries without their Abbot's Leave renouncing their Vows He lets him know he would gladly have come to Rome to see him He commends his Pastoral and prays him to send him some of his Works and chiefly those upon Ezekiel He acquaints him that he hath perused the Six Books of S. Hierom on that Prophet but that that Father hath not explain'd half of it S. Columbanus's Fourth Letter is written to Pope Boniface IV. of that Name upon the Motion of Agilulphus King of Lombardy By this Letter it appears That that Prince assisted the Defenders of the Three Chapters and that he had persuaded S. Columbanus that there was some cause to suspect the Church of Rome of Error That the Pope himself was consenting to it or at least permitted it That Vigilius dyed an Heretick and that the Fifth Council ought to be rejected S. Columbanus entertaining these Opinions writes a vehement Letter to Boniface wherein he exhorts him to watch over his Flock and condemns Vigilius's want of Vigilancy He saith he died an Heretick and wonders they should put his Name in the List of Catholick Bishops He exhorts the Pope to clear both himself and his Church from the Suspicion of Heresy by calling a Council to make an exact Exposition of the Catholick Faith and to condemn all those that swerved from it He believes that the Fifth Council approved Eutyches's Error and confounds the Two Natures and yet he says at his coming into Italy they wrote to him That Communion with Rome ought to be shun'd because they there held Nestorius's Heresy Which shews he was not rightly informed of the Fact he wrote of It had been better for him to have only exhorted the Pope as he does to endeavour to suppress the Schism and Division in Italy about the Business of the Three Chapters by tolerating those that defended them 'T is said that S. Columbanus had written some Letters to King Theodorick but we have none of them Jonas speaks also of a Letter directed to Clotharius but it is lost as well as his Book against the Arians mention'd in the same Author his great Treatise of Easter Two Letters to S. Gregory and his writing to Arigius upon the same Subject They say more-over He had made a Commentary upon the Gospels but it is not mention'd in ancient Authors They ascribe yet to him a little Treatise of Penances for Monks Clerks and Laicks but it does not seem to me to be his Father Flemingue an Irish Franciscan hath collected the Works of this Father and printed them at Louvain in the Year 1667. since which they have been printed in the last Edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum at Lyons with the Works of Two other Irish Writers The First of which is a Tract of S. Aeleran or Ereran containing a Mystical and Moral Interpretation of the Names recited in the Genealogy of Christ which are applyed to our Lord's Qualities or Precepts This Aeleran sirnamed the Wise was Presbyter it is said he also wrote the Life of S. Patrick There is another Ereran an Irish Abbot who wrote a Monastical Rule The Second Tract added to S. Columbanus's Works in this Edition is a very large Penitential of one Cumianus or Cuminus an Abbot in which there are several remarkable Things and amongst others That there are twelve principal Means of obtaining Pardon of our Sins grounded upon Testimonies of the Holy Scripture viz. 1. Baptism 2. Charity 3. Alms-giving 4. Tears 5. Confession 6. Mortification of the Flesh and Spirit 7. Change of Manners 8. Intercessions of the Just 9. Faith 10. Converting of others 11. Forgiving of Enemies and 12. Martyrdom That e Confession of secret Sins and Thoughts was in use Confession of Sins private and publick to God is absolutely 1 Joh. 1. 9. necessary to obtain Pardon of them and where we have done any Mat. 5. 23. Wrongs or Injuries to Men we must acknowledge them and making Restitution endeavour Reconciliation And Matt. 3. 6. if still there remain any Doubts and Scruples in our Consciences it is convenient to discover our Griefs to the Ministers of God's Word that we may receive from them Ghostly Counsel and Advice In these Cases no doubt the Confession of Cyprian Serm. de laps Tertul. de poenitentia Origen in Ps. 37. Secret Sins Thoughts and Desires was ever in use in the Church But as to that Auricular and Sacramental Confession which seems to be insinuated in the Words of this Father as it was not in use in the First Ages of the Church so can it pretend to no other Ground for the Use of it than the Lateran Council under Innocent the Third anno 1215. or the Council of Trent which is of much later date Confession of secret Sins was ever approved and used never generally imposed nor made necessary to Absolution till Popery prevailed Confession of Secret Sins and even of Thoughts and Desires was in Use in that Time that great Crimes were also subjected to long Penances that lesser Faults were punished with many Days of Penance that eating of strangled Beasts and of Blood was as yet forbidden that the Fast of Lent was commanded that all kind of Pollutions were punish'd with Penances that the f Caelibacy of Clerks commanded Altho' the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament do no where disallow the Marriage of Priests but give them an equal Liberty in that kind with the Laity Athan. epist. ad Dracon Socr. hist. eccl l. 9. c. 38. Tertullian Jerom. Ambrose insomuch that all the Apostles except S. John were married Men as also the greatest part of the Clergy of the first Times But yet some there were of the most eminent Bishops and most zealous Christians who having imbibed the Philosophers Opinions and Prejudices against Marriage as an Estate in it self unclean and so troublesome that it was utterly inconsistent with an Holy and
Imposition of Hands but only by receiving the Cover and Chalice from the Hands of the Bishop and the Christal Bottle and Napkin from the Arch-Deacon He says nothing particular of the lesser and inferiour Orders I shall pass by the Remarks he makes upon the likeness of our Ministers with those of the Old Testament and the Mystical significations he gives to the Bishops Habits To come to what he teaches concerning the Sacraments He says That Baptism Chrism and the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are called Sacraments because that under the Vail of Corporal things the Divine Power produces Salvation and Grace after a secret manner by the power of the Holy Ghost which works this Effect insomuch that they are equally Efficatious whether they be Administred by the Good or the Bad. That Baptism is the first because it must be received before Confirmation and before the Receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord. That in this Sacrament Men are dipt in Water to denote that as Water outwardly purifies the Body so Grace inwardly does the Soul into which the Holy Ghost descends He relates afterwards the Order of Administration and the Ceremonies of Baptism and from thence passing to Confirmation he Remarks that the Bishop dispenses the Holy Ghost by Imposition of his Hands and that he Anoints the Believer a second time with the same Chrism the Priest had done before with this difference only that his Anointing is on the Forehead whereas the Priest's was on the Crown of the Head He attributes to this last Unction the Sanctification and Grace of the Holy Ghost At last speaking of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which he considers as two different Sacraments He asks the Question Why Jesus Christ has comprehended the Mystery of his Body and Blood under things which we eat and drink And why of all the sorts of Food we eat he has made choice of Bread and Wine To which he Answers That Jesus Christ has given us his Body and Blood in the form of Nourishment because effectively his Flesh is such and his Blood Drink That he hath made use of the Fruits of Earth because he was upon Earth and that he has chosen Bread and Wine to accomplish the Sacrifice of Melchisidech and to show that as Bread and Wine consists of many Particles which together make but one Substance so we are all United into the same Church by the same Charity being all made Members of the same Body by this Sacrament He adds That this Sacrament serves for Nourishment to our Flesh and converts itself into our Substance and that by vertue of this Sacrament we are changed into Jesus Christ. That we participate of his Spirit and Grace and in a word that we become his very Members That the Bread which is made use of is without Leaven to denote that those which approach it ought to be exempt from all Impurities That Water is mixt with the Wine because we read in the Gospel That Blood and Water came out of the Side of our Saviour And that as it is good for them that are not separated from it by their Sins often to approach this Sacrament so it is very dangerous for such as have committed such Crimes as debar them from it to receive it before they have Repented After having treated of the Sacraments he speaks of the Celebration of Mass which he believes to have been so called because of the dismissing of the Catechumens with these words Ita Missa est He says That the Mass is a Sacrifice which the Priest offers to God instituted by Jesus Christ practised by the Apostles and used by all the Church He acknowledges that at first they did not Sing as they do at present but he believes they read the Gospel and the Epistles of the Apostles he ends this Book with a short Exposition of the Ceremonies and Prayers of the Mass. In the second Book after he hath spoken of the Hours for Divine Service and the different sorts of Prayer He treats of the Confession the Litanies or publick Prayers and the divers kinds of Fasts He distinguishes three sorts of Lent the first that which precedes Easter the second the Fast observed after Pentecost and the third that which begins in November and ends at Christmas-day He notes that the custom of his time was to Fast Friday and Saturday He does not forget to speak of the Fasts of the four Ember-weeks He approves of other Fasts ordered by the Bishop on any particular occasion or practis'd thrô Devotion by Christians In speaking of abstaining from Wine and Flesh he observes that Birds are allowed to those who are forbid to eat of any four-footed Creature because that 't is thought they were formed out of Water as well as Fish He distinguishes two different sorts of Alms and ranks amongst this Number the good Works we do for our Salvation which are as Alms we bestow upon our selves He defines Penance a Punishment by which a Man corrects himself for what he has done amiss He says that Penitents let their Hair and Beards grow wear Sack-cloth throw themselves on their Faces on the Ground and besprinkle their Bodies with Ashes That Repentance is a second remedy for our Sins after Baptism That to effect a true Repentance it does not suffice only to bewail ones Sins past but we must never commit them again That this is the satisfaction followed by Reconciliation That Penance and Reconciliation ought to be publick for publick Transgressions but as to those whose Sins are concealed and who have confest them secretly to a Priest or a Bishop they may do Private Penance such as the Priest or Bishop will order and afterwards be reconciled when they have performed their Penance That the ordinary time for Reconciliation is Holy-Thursday but Absolution may be granted at other times to those that are in danger of their Lives He afterwards Treats copiously of the Solemn Celebration of Feasts and Sundays He speaks by the by of the Oblation of the Sacrifice of the Mass for the Dead of the Dedicating of Churches the Prayers of Divine Service the Songs the Psalms Hymns Anthems Responses and Lessons He makes a Catalogue of Canonical Books which comprehends all that are at present acknowledged for such He tells you those that he believes to have been Authors of the greatest part of them He speaks of Ecclesiastical Benedictions viz. That of Oyl and that of Salt and Water which he says are made use of to comfort the Sick against the Illusions of the Devil to heal the Flock and to drive away Distempers At last having spoken of the Apostles Creed and given an Abridgment of the Doctrines agreeable to the Faith he sets down a very imperfect Catalogue of Heresies in which he forgets some and reckons others which are altogether unknown as the Canonians and Metangismonites The last Book is concerning the Learning of Clergy-Men He says they are not allowed to be ignorant of
them with Re-baptizing the Latins with suffering Children to Dye without Baptism if they be not eight Days old with interring the remainder of the Holy Eucharist with permitting marry'd Men to wait at the Altars even at a time when they have had to do with their Wives when at the same time they refus'd to give the Communion to Women newly brought to Bed or who have their usual Infirmities upon them with tolerating Sarabait Monks guilty of Fornication whereas they blam'd the Rule of S. Benedict which allows the Monks of that Order to wear Breeches in a Journey and to eat of Flesh when they have occasion for it and lastly because they represent in their Crucifixes the figure of a dying Man so that upon the Cross of JESUS CHRIST a sort of Anti-Christ is exhibited to be ador'd as a God The writing of Nicetas Pectoratus a Studite Monk against the Latin Church is a great The Writing of Nicetas against the Latin Church deal more fierce than the Letter of Michael Cerularius He begins with an Admonition to the Latins to hearken with Humility and Charity to the Remonstrances which he would offer to them concerning Unleavened Bread the Fast on Saturday and the Marriage of Priests Upon the first Point he says That those who make use of Unleavened Bread are still under the shadow of the Law That they assist at the Table of the Jews and do not eat that Bread which is Supersubstantial or Consubstantial to us because Unleavened Bread is Dead Bread which has no Virtue or Efficacy in it That 't is not such Bread as is perfect compleaâ— or compos'd of three Things which figure out to us the Body of JESUS CHRIST which are the Leaven the Meal and the Water representations of the Spirit the Water and the Blood of our Saviour He pretends that JESUS CHRIST made use of Leaven'd Bread in the Institution of the Holy Eucharist because he instituted it on the Thirteenth and not on the Fourteenth Day of the Moon of March before the Feast of Unleavened Bread and that the Apostles forbad the making use of Unleavened Bread As to the second Point he asks the Latins upon what they ground the Fast on Saturday since S. Clement has instituted the Fasts on Wednesday and Friday because JESUS CHRIST was betray'd on Wednesday and fasten'd to the Cross on Friday But that he prohibited the Fast on Saturday since there was not the least colour for it He moreover Cites the Canons of the Apostles the Constitutions of S. Clement and a Canon which is attributed to the sixth Council He likewise found fault that the Latins did celebrate the whole Mass on Fast Days and to refute this Custom he produc'd a Canon of the Apostles several Canons of the Councils of Gangres and Laodicea and of the Council of Trullo which he again Cites under the name of the sixth Council which he makes use of to Authorise the Usage of the Mass of Preconsecrated Bread every Fast Day which he sets sorth in these Terms On Saturday and Sunday says he about nine a Clock we offer the Sacrifice and Consecrate as much Bread as will serve the rest of the Week On other Days about three a Clock in the Afternoon when the Service is ended by the * The Roman Vespâ—rs Complines the Priests and Deacons come in carrying a Censer and after they have read the Prophesies and said the Prayers prescrib'd by S. Basil before the Altar where the Sacred Mysteries lye we repeat the Lord's Prayer and afterwards we elevate the Preconsecrated Bread and say SANCTA SANCTIS After which we receive the Communion of the Bread and Cup and having return'd thanks to God we send away the People and those who please take their repast of Pulse and Water And there are some who go the whole Week without any other Nourishment than that of the Communion Lastly upon the last Head which is concerning the Marriage of Priests he ask'd the Latins who taught them to hinder marry'd Persons from being ordain'd Priests or to force them to part from their Wives He confuted this Custom by the Constitutions of S. Clement and by the Council of Trullo He concludes this Treatise with an Exhortation to the Latins to submit to his Admonitions or to produce manifest Authorities from the Holy Scriptures to justify their Customs Humbert in his Reply begins with casting Reflections and Reproaches on this Monk and took it very ill that he contrary to the Duties of his Profession should concern himself in Humbert ' s Reply to Nicetas writing against the Roman Church He rejects his Thought concerning the Consubstantiality of the Leaven'd Bread as a Chimera bred only in his own Brain and his Application of the Passage out of S. John concerning the Spirit the Water and the Blood as wresting the true Sense of the Scripture And he takes an occasion to charge him with Heresie because he had said that the Quickning Spirit remain'd in the Body of JESUS CHRIST after his Death He does not enlarge himself much about the use of Unleavened Bread supposing that he had said enough in his Reply to Michal Cerularius he only observes that it cannot be said that JESUS CHRIST celebrated the Passover the thirteenth of the Moon of March and with Leaven'd Bread because if it had been so he would have been guâ—lty of a double Breach of the Law which he had observ'd in all its parts with the greatest strictness imaginable He rejects the Constitutions and Canons of the Apostles except the first Fifty as Apocryphal Pieces He pretends that after the Sixth Council the Emperor Constantine Heraclius having ask'd the Pope's Legats after what manner they celebrated the Eucharist they return'd this Answer viz. That they made use of Wine mingled with Water and of Unleavened Bread and that the Emperor approv'd of the Tradition of the Holy Apostolical See This is a Matter of Fact of Humbert's advancing that cannot be met with in any Record As to what concerns the Saturday's Fast he says that since the Greeks think it requisite to â—ast every Wednesday and Friday in the Year because our Saviour was betray'd and Crucified on those Days and since they were likewise willing to Fast on Holy Saturday because of his remaining in the Sepulchre on that Day they ought for the same Reason either to Fast every Saturday in the Year or else to Fast only on the Wednesday and Friday of the Holy Week and to celebrate Easter Sunday only in Honour of the Resurrection of our Saviour He rejects the Canons of the Council of Trullo as supposititious or corrupted he disapproves of the making use of preconsecrated Bread on Fast-days as being contray to the Practice of the Apostles and the example of JESUS CHRIST who consecrated the Bread just before they distributed it He calls Nicetas a perfidious Sterconanist because he seems to suppose that the Eucharist broke the Fast from whence he concludes
These are the Principles and Maxims which St. Bernard establishes in this Treatise which agree St. Bernard's Letter to Hugh of St. Victor with the Doctrine of St. Austin concerning the Nature of Free-Will and the necessity and efficacy of Grace without which Man could not perform any thing towards his Salvation The Tenth Treatise of St. Bernard is a Letter address'd to Hugh of St. Victor against some Opinions which an Anonymous Author had laid down which were 1. That the Baptism of Jesus Christ had been obligatory ever since our Saviour had said to Nicodemus Whoever is not born anew by Water and the Holy Spirit shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2. That no Body can be sav'd without actually receiving the Sacrament of Baptism or Martyrdom in its stead 3. That the Patriarchs of the Old Testament had as clear a knowledge of the Incarnation of the Christians 4. That there is no such thing as a Sin of Ignorance 5. That St. Bernard was mistaken in that passage of his Homilies where he says that even the Angels were not acquainted with God's Design touching the Incarnation As to the first he says that it would be a hard case that what Jesus Christ spoke in particular should be taken for a general Precept to oblige all Mankind He is of Opinion that Original Sin was remitted to the Jews by Circumcision during the time of the antient Law and to the faithful amongst the Gentiles either by their own Faith or by that of their Parents and that the Obligation of being Baptiz'd under penalty of Damnation did not commence till after the Promulgation of the Gospel As to the second he is of Opinion that the Adult may be sav'd without actually receiving Baptism if so be they cannot be Baptized although they desire it because that actual Baptism is here supply'd by Faith and Vows This he proves from divers passages out of St. Ambrose and St. Austin who says he are two Authorities which I cannot possibly dissent from but with whom I am always resolved to be either in the right or the wrong He adds that what supplies Baptism in case of Martyrdom is not the Pain but the Faith of him that suffers In relation to Infants who can have no Faith he owns that they cannot be saved without Baptism although they might be sav'd by the Faith of others when they actually receive it As to the third he says that if the faithful of the Old Law had as clear a knowledge of our Mysteries as we our selves God would have been either too liberal to them or too reserv'd towards us That the Gospel would not have been then above the Law that St. Paul would have been in the wrong to boast that he and the other Apostles received the first Fruits of the Spirit of God that this would be to do a considerable Injury to St. John Baptist. And lastly that the Prophets have not been all equally enlightned with our Mysteries and that even among Christians some have more knowledge in those matters than others As to the fourth he affirms that there are Sins of Ignorance and that the Author of this Proposition ought to agree with him since he has before maintain'd that the Precept of Baptism given to Nicodemus in private obliged those who could have no knowledge of it that it was moreover evident by the Holy Scriptures that there are Sins of Ignorance for thâ—… the Prophet David expresly prays to God not to lay his Sins of Ignorance to his Charge also Moses speaks of Sins committed through Ignorance and St. Paul is said to have persecuted the Church without knowing what the Church was and our Saviour Christ beg'd of his Father to forgive them that Crucify'd him in that they were ignorant of the Sin they committed As to the fifth he explains what he had said concerning the Angels knowing nothing of the mystery of the Incarnation before Gabriel came to acquaint the Virgin of the Circumstances of time and place of the Incarnation the manner thereof and the Person chosen to be the Mother of God We will forbear speaking of the Treatise against the Errors of Abaelard till we come to the History of that Author so that there remains no more of the Treatises of St. Bernard in this second Tome than The Life of St. Malachy c. the Life of St. Malachy and the Tract concerning Singing neither of which require any Observation The third Tome contains St. Bernard's Sermons throughout the whole Year upon the several Feasts and other matters of Moment These are his other Works being writ with as elborate as Spirit St. Bernard's Sermons and abounding with lively and solid Thoughts very proper to move the Heart He preach'd most of them to his Monks whom most commonly he exhorted publickly every day Father Mabillon shews in his Preface that although there might have been several Converts among these Monks who did not understand Latin yet for the most part these Sermons were delivered in that Language as their style sufficiently demonstrates He owns also that St. Bernard might sometimes have preach'd in the Vulgar Tongue for the benefit of those that did not understand Latin The last Tome of the first Volume of St. Bernard's Works contains his Sermons upon the Canticles amounting to the number of 86 and being upon the two first Chapters and the first Verse of the third Chapter they comprehend an infinite number of both Moral and Spiritual Thoughts which he draws out of the words of the Text either by explaining the Text after a mystical manner or giving it an allegorical Sence or adapting it to other Subjects It is a wonderful thing to consider how ready he is at this manner of writing and how he could be capable of composing so vast a Work of such different matters upon two such short Chapters as those of the Canticles The second Volume of Works that go under St. Bernard's Name is divided into two Tomes The first contains a Continuation of the Commentary on the Canticles This belongs to Gilbert of Hoiland Gilbert Abbot of Hoiland a little Island between England and Scotland where there was a Monastery of Monks and Nuns whereof he was Abbot depending on the Bishop of Lincoln He was of the Order of Cisteaux and dy'd in the Year 1172 in a Monastery of the Diocess of Troyes in Champagne This Continuation is of the same Nature with the Work of St. Bernard and is divided into forty eight Sermons all which do not go beyond the 10th Verse of the 5th Chapter This is follow'd by seven other Ascetical Treatises and four Letters by the same Author This Tome contains several other Tracts attributed to St. Bernard although it is certain he was not the Author of them The first is a Letter or a Book address'd to the Fryars of Mont-dicu which is a Charter-House in William Abbot of St. Thierry the Diocess of Rheims near Mouzon This Book
up whom one might rather stile Beasts than Men because they led a Life wholly Brutal who detest Marriage abominate Baptism deride the Sacraments and Abhor the Name of Christian. In Italy there were likewise Hereticks of the same Nature who went under the Name of The Hereticks of Italy call'd Cathuri Cathari Bona-cursus who had been formerly one of their Teachers at Milan has given us a Tract of them after his Conversion publish'd by Father Luke Dachery in the Thirteenth Tome of his Spicilegium He therein lays that some of them maintain'd that God created all the Elements that others say It was the Devil who created them but that they all believ'd that it was the Devil who separated and rang'd them in their Order That they likewise believ'd that it was he who fram'd the Body of Adam out of the Clay of the Earth and that he therein infus'd an Angel of Light that he likewise made Eve and lying with her begat Cain of her Body That they assert that the Fruit which Adam was forbidden to Eat was the Carnal Knowledge of Eve That they maintain that all the Bodies which are in the Air on the Earth and in the Water were made by the Devil That it was the Devil who appear'd to the Patriarchs and who is the God of the Old Testament whom they reject That they likewise condemn St. John Baptist That they Teach that Jesus Christ had not a Body animated with a Soul and that he neither drank or Eat or did any other humane Action really but only in appearance That they did not believe either his descent into Hell or his Resurrection or his Ascension That they do not believe him to be Equal to the Father That they affirm that the Cross is the Character of the Beast That Saint Silvester is Antichrist that ever since the Pontificate of that Pope the Church had been extinct and that no person could be say'd in a Marry'd State That they condemn the Holy Fathers That they forbid the Eating of Flesh Eggs Milk and every thing else that proceeds from Animals That they do not believe that the holy Spirit is conferr'd by the Baptism of Water nor that the Visible Substance of the Bread and Wine is â—hang'd into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that they assâ—rt that all those who swear shall be damn'd That they say that no man can be sav'd but by Imposition of Hands which they Stile Baptism That they assert that the Sun is the Devil that the Moon is Eve who â—y together as Man and Wife once a Month That all the Stars are Daemons and Lastly that no man can be sav'd unless â—e be of their Sect. The same Author speaks of other Heâ—â—eâ—icks whom he calls Passagians who Taught that one The Passagians ought to observe the Law of Mâ—ses even in the Literal Sense and that the Sabbath Circumcision and the other Ceremonial practices of the Law ought to be still in force That Jesus Christ was not equal to his Father That the Father Son and Holy Ghost were distinct Substances Lastly he speaks of the Arnoldists the Disciples of Arnold Native of Bresse who went The Heresy of Arnold of Bresse from Italy into France where he was the Scholar of Peter Abaelard Upon his Return to his own Country he took upon him the Habit of a Monk and his head was full of this thought that neither the Pope nor the Clergy ought to hold any Demeans Upon this Footing he set himself to preach that the Clerks who held any Demeans as their own Property the Bishops who wâ—re possess'd of Royalties and the Monks who enjoy'd any Lands could not be sav'd that all those things appertain'd to Princes Beside this he taught the same Errors as other Hereticks about Infant Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar He was forc'd out of Italy by Pope Innocent II. and obâ—ig'd to retire into Switzerland After that Pope's Death he return'd into Italy and went directly to Rome where he stirr'd up a Sedition against Pope Eugenius III. and afterwards against Adrian IV. who interdicted the People of Rome till such time as they had drove out that Heretick and his Followers This Menace had its Effect the Romans siez'd upon the strong Houses which those Hereticks kept in and forc'd them to retire to Otricoli in Tuscaâ—y where they were kindly receiv'd by the People who look'd upon Arnold as a Prophet However he was apprehended sometime after by Cardinal Gerard and in spight of the Endeavours of the Vicounts of Campania was brought to Rome and condemn'd by the Governor of that City to be ty'd to a stake and burnt to Ashes for fear the People should pay any Honour to his Relicks Thirty of those Hereticks cross'd over from France into England about the year 1160. where they would likewise willingly have sown the same Doctrine But they were apprehended and exterminated and communicated that Error only to one Woman who recanted The Author which makes mention of this takes notice that they were call'd Poblicans or Publicans William of Malmsbury the Historian who did not live much after this time says that those Hereticks being examin'd anâ—wer'd pretty well about the Nature of the Heavenly Physician namely Jesus Christ but that when they were told of the Remedies which he has left us namely the Sacraments they then reply'd very ill and declar'd that they condemned Baptism the Eucharist and Marriage and that they despis'd the Catholick Unity All that we have hitherto related concerning the Hereticks of the Twelfth Century is taken out of Cotemporary Authors and shews that two sorts of Errors were predominant at that Time One sort common to all those Hereticks and others were Peculiar Their Common Errors regarded the Sacraments the Practices of the Church and the Hierarchical Order against which they had all conspir'd The particular Errors were such as had some relation to Manichaeism to Arianism and other Impieties into which many had been led by a strange sort of Blindness The Condemnation of the Hereticks in the Council of Toulouse in the year 1119. These Hereticks were condemn'd in several Councils The first which pass'd a Law against them was that of Tolouse in the Year 1119. held in the presence of Calixtus II. the third Canon whereof runs thus We Condâ—mn and turn out of the Church of God as Hereticks those who under pretence of Religion reject the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Infant Baptism Priesthood Holy-Orders and Lawful Mâ—…ages We enjoyn that they be suppress'd by the Secular Powers We subject their Defenders under the same Commendation if they do not repent This Canon was repeated in the same Words and confirm'd in the second general Lateran Council held under Innocent II. in the year 1139. in the 23d Canon Those who went into England were convicted and Condemn'd in an Assembly of Bishops held at Oxford in the Reign of Henry II. King of England
of this Bishop in the Appendix of his Work Intituled Marcha Hispanica P. 1454. There is another Terrenâ named Arnoldus who is thought to be the Nephew of the former Arnoldus de Terrenâ of whom we have spoken He was a Doctor of Law and Sacrist of Perpignan who flourished about the End of this Age and wrote about the Year 1373. a Treatise of the Mass and Canonical Hours and Theological Questions which he Compiled at Avignon which Works are found in MS. in Mr. Colbert's Library Franciscus Mayronius Born at Digne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Grey-Friar a Scholar of Scotus being Batchelor Francis Mayronius of Divinity in the University of Paris first introduced by his Example an Act in the Sorbonne which is held from Morning to Night in the Schools of the Sorbonne by one Respondent without any President and without interruption There he received the Doctor 's Cap in 1323. and died at Placentia in 1325. His Comments upon the Four Books of the Sentences and some other Treatises of School-Divinity have been printed at Venice in 1517 1520 1556 and 1567. His Sermons upon Lent and the Saints-Days were printed in the same City in 1491 and 1493. and at Basil in 1598. The following Treatises of the Poverty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles of the Cardinal Virtues and Vices Of the Articles of Faith Of Baptism Of Humility Of Indulgences Of the Body of Jesus Christ Of the Angels Of Prayers for the Dead Of Penances Of Fasting Of the Last Judgment Of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit Upon the Lord's Prayer and the Magnificat were printed at Basil in 1498. He has an Explication upon the Ten Commandments which is printed at Paris in 1619. Theological Truths upon S. Austin and the City of God printed at Tholouse in 1488. and at Venice in 1489. His Commentaries upon the Predicaments upon the Categories and upon Aristotle's Books of Physicks were printed at Venice in 1517. and some other Works yet in MS. are in several Libraries as that of Mr. Waddingus and the Grey-Friars at Leige Bertrandus de Turre a Grey-Friar of the Diocess of Cahors and General-Minister of the Province Bertrandus de Turre of Aquitain was made Archbishop of Salerne in 1319. and in the following Year Cardinal-Priest of S. Vitalis by John XXII and lastly Bishop of Frescati He was appointed in 1328. Vicar or Administrator-General of the Order of Grey-Friars and approved of the Deposition of Michael de Caesenas in the Assembly of a General Chapter of that Order held at Paris in 1329. He died in 1334. He Composed several Sermons which are in several Libraries Two Volumes of them are in the Library of Cardinal de Bouillon and Three in that of the Sorbonne His Sermons upon the Epistles of the Year were printed at Strasburg in 1501. Durandus de S. Porciano a Village in the Diocess of Clermont in Auvergne of the Order of Durandus à S. Porciano Friars-Preachers a Doctor of Paris flourished in that University from 1313. when he was Licentiate to 1318. when he was made Bishop of Puy or Annecy by the Pope from whence he was translated in 1326. to the Bishoprick of Meaux which he governed to 1333. in which he is said to have died His chief Work is a Treatise of Divinity upon the Four Books of the Sentences which he began when he was very Young and finished a little before his Death as he himself tells us In them he departs much from the Opinions of S. Thomas and Scotus and taught several Doctrines very particular and bold which gave him the Name of the Most resolute Doctor This Commentary was printed at Venice in 1561. several times and at Lyons in 1595. He also Composed a Treatise about the Ecclesiastical Power upon the Occasion of the Question which was disputed upon that Subject in France in 1329. between the Bishops and Peter de Cuguieres of whom Peter Bertrandus makes mention upon the Sixth Book of the Decretals which was printed at Paris in 1506. He also Composed a Treatise against the Opinion of John XXII about the State of Souls but we have it not as also an Instruction for his Clergy and some Sermons Odericus de Port-Naon in Friuli a Grey-Friar after he had travelled a long time in the East Odericus de Port-Naon and Preached the Gospel in Asia and the Indies Composed a Relation of the Wonders of the Eastern Tartars which is in MS. in some Libraries in England and a short Chronicle from the beginning of the World to the Papacy of John XXII Some Sermons and Letters Guido Abbot of S. Denys in France flourished about the Year 1320. and was Abbot of Guido that Abby between Giles de Pontoise who died in 1325. and Walter de Pontoise who succeeded him in 1333. He made some Notes upon Usuardus's Martyrolegy which is in MS. in the Library of S. Victor William of Nottingham a Canon and Chanter of the Church of York and after a Franciscan William of Nottingham Monk flourished in England about 1320. and died Octob. 5. 1336. None of his Works are printed but there are several of them in the Libraries of England and among others some Questions upon the Four Gospels Reflections upon all the Gospels of the Year Questions upon the Lord's Prayer and a Treatise against the Errors of Pelagius William Mount an Englishman Canon of Lincoln flourished in 1330. and Composed several William Mount Works which are in MS. in the English Libraries These are the Titles of some of them which are published Collections with a Paraphrase upon the Psalms The Mirrour of Penance A Summ for Pastors Theological Distinctions Sermons A Numeral A Similitudinary and a Treatise of Tropes Philip de Montcalier in Piedmont became a Monk in the Convent of Grey-Friars at Tholouse Philip de Montcalier and was after Divinity-Lecturer at Padua He Composed in 1330. a Postill upon all the Gospels of the Year and Sermons for the whole Year The Abridgment of his Sermons drawn up by Janselmus de Canova Keeper of the Covent of Cordeliers at Cuma was printed at Lyons in 1510. and 1515. This Author lived to 1350. or thereabouts Astesanus so called from the Village of Ast in Piedmont where he was Born a Grey-Friar Astesanus is the Author of a Summ of Cases of Conscience divided into Eight Books which was printed at Noremburg in 1482. by the Care of Bellatus and Gometius and since at Venice in 1519. from whence Antonius Augustinus hath taken his Penitentiary Canons printed at Venice in 1484. This Author lived to the Year 1330. There is another Astesanus of the same Order who flourished some time after whom Waddingus believes to be the Author of some Commentaries upon the Books of the Sentences upon the Revelation and some Sermons which are not printed Nicholas de Lyrâ a Town of the Diocess of Eureux was Born of Jewish Parents who taught Nicholas
by the Son and we are all united in this unanimous Profession of Faith This Profession of Faith being read in the Assembly of the Greeks was approv'd by some of them and rejected by others But at last having pass'd by Plurality of Voices it was sent to the Popâ—… who demanded still several Explications The Greeks were divided among themselves 〈…〉 of Nice and the Archbishop of Russia maintain'd that it might be said That the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and from the Son as the Latins said or from the Father by the Son according to the Expression of the Greeks provided it were acknowledg'd That he proceeded from the Father and the Son as one only Principle and Cause That this was a means of reconciling the Sentiments of the Fathers which seem'd to contradict one another and of coming quickly to an Union Mark of Ephesus the Archbishop of Heraclea and many others were of a contrary Opinion and maintain'd That there was a great deal of difference between saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father by the Son and that the Holy Spirit poceeded from the Father and the Son After they had for a long time disputed both on this Subject in the private Congregations the Emperor call'd them all together to give their Opinion on the 2d of June The Patriarch said That since the Fathers taught in some places that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son and in others That he proceeded from the Father by the Son and that these Terms from the Son or by the Son were equivalent without making use of this Expression That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son he said That he proceeds from the Father by the Son Eternally and Substantially as one sole Principle and one sole Cause the Preposition by signifying in this place that the Son is the Câ—… the Procession of the Holy Spirit He added That he would receive those of the West who said That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son provided they would not add it to the Creed and that the Greeks would unite with them without changing their Rites The Emperor said only in general That he did not believe this Council inferiour to other General Councils That he would follow its Decision being persuaded that the Church cannot Err provided the Latins would not oblige the Greeks to add any thing to the Creed nor change any thing in their Rites After the Emperor Isidore Archbishop of Russia who represented the Patriarch of Antioch said That he believ'd also we must approve the Doctrin of the Occidentals That the Holy Spirit receiv'd his being from the Son and that the Father and the Son were one sole Principle of the Holy Spirit Bessarion was of the same Opinion and made a long Discourse to prove it But Anthony Arch-bishop of Heraclea one of the Vicars of the Patriarch of Alexandria was of another Opinion for he plainly rejected the Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son But the * Magnus Primicerius Protosyncelle second Vicar of the same Patriarchat was of a contrary Opinion to him and approv'd the Union with the Latins altho' some Days before he had maintain'd That the Baptism of the Latins was of no validity because it was done by Sprinkling Mark of Ephesus Dositheus Bishop of Monembase Vicar of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and Sophrone of Anchiala would not acknowledge That the Son was the Cause of the Holy Spirit in the Sense that the Greeks took the Word Cause for a Principle and deny'd that it might be said That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as one only Principle Scyropulus Grand Ecclesiarch was of the same Opinion altho' he gave not his Vote for it Dorotheus Bishop of Mitylene and The Arch-bishop of Trebizonde being Sick would not send his Vote the Bishops of Lacedemon of Rhodes of Nicomedia Distra Drama and Melenique approv'd the Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son and concluded for the Union and so did Gregory the Penitentiary and the Abbot Pacomus All the Ministers of the Emperor applauded the Union except Prince Demotrius the Emperor's Brother who would not give his Opinion because he was contrary to the Union The Ambassadors of the Princes and People of Greece who were then present approv'd also the Union except those of the Iberians The Bishops of Cyzicum Trebisonde Heraclea and Monembase came over at last to the Opinion of the others so that there were not any among the Bishops who persisted in a contrary Opinion but only Mark of Ephesus and Sophronius of Anchiala The Emperor having thus dispos'd Matters towards an Union thought it now high time to treat with the Pope about the Succors he wanted He sent to him the Archbishop of Russia to enter upon the Negotiation and this Archbishop brought to him three Cardinals who agreed upon the following Articles First That the Pope should furnish to the Greeks the Expences of their Return Secondly That he should maintain every Year 300 Soldiers and two Gallies to Guard the City of Constantinople Thirdly That the Gallies which carried the Pilgrims to Jerusalem should go to Constantinople Fourthly That when the Emperor had occasion for 20 Gallies for six Months or for 10 for a Year the Pope should furnish him with them Fifthly That if there was occasion for Land-Forces the Pope should earnestly sollicit the Christian Princes of the West to furnish him with them The next Day being the 3d of June the Emperor caus'd all the Greeks to come to the Assembly and to repeat their Suffrages The Patriarch said That since the Latins did not say of their own Heads but according to the Scripture That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father by the Son he was of their Opinion and that he thought this Preposition by denoted That the Son was the Cause of the Holy Spirit and thus they would unite with them and embrace their Communion All the Greeks except Mark of Ephesus follow'd the Opinion of the Patriarch and acknowledg'd That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son as one Principle and one Substance That he proceeds by the Son being of the same Nature and the same Substance and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son by one and the same Spiration and Production On the 5th of the same Month the Definition was put in Writing and three Copies were made of it the first which was carried to the Pope the other to the Emperor and the third to the Patriarch of Constantinople The next Day it was carried to the Pope and Cardinals who agreed to it and there were Ten Persons appointed on each side to put the last Hand to it This being done on the 8th of the same Month it was read in Greek and Latin and approv'd by the Greeks and Latins The next Day the Archbishops of Russia Nice Trebisonde and Mitylene being