great peace and friendship the difference of the observotion not at all hindering the agreement and harmony of the Churches it being agreed amongst them by common consent says Sozomen speaking of this passage that in keeping this festival they should each follow their own custom but by no means break the peace and communion that was between them for they reckoned it says he a very foolish and unreasonable thing that they should fall out for a few rites and customs who agreed in the main Principles of Religion The Christians of those times had too deeply imbibed that precept of our Saviour love one another as I have loved you to fall out about every nice and trifling circumstance no when highliest provoked and affronted they could forbear and forgive their enemies much more their brethren and were not like the waspish Philosophers amongst the Heathens who were ready to fall foul upon one another for every petty and inconsiderable difference of opinion that was amongst them So Origen tells Celsus Both amongst your Philosophers and Physicians say he there are Sects that have perpetual feuds and quarrels with each other whereas we who have entertained the Laws of the blessed Jesus and have learnt both to speak and to do accordding to his doctrine bless them that revile us being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we entreat nor do we speak dire and dreadful things against those that differ from us in opinion and do not presently embrace those things which we have entertain'd But as much as in us lies we leave nothing unattempted that may perswade them to change for the better and to give up themselves only to the service of the great Creatour and to do all things as those that must give an account of their actions In short Christians were careful not to offend either God or men but to keep and maintain peace with both thence that excellent saying of Ephraem Syrus the famous Deacon of Edessae when he came to die In my whole life said he I never reproached my Lord and Master nor suffered any foolish talk to come out of my lips nor did I ever curse or revile any man or maintain the least difference or controversie with any Christian in all my life CHAP. IV. Of their Obedience and Subjection to Civil Government Magistracy the great hand of publick peace This highly secured by Christianity The Laws of Christ that way express and positive Made good in his own practice and the practice of his Apostles The same spirit in succeeding Ages manifested out of Justin Martyr Polycarp Tertullian and Origen Praying for Rulers and Emperours a solemn part of their publick worship Their ready payment of all Customs and Tributes and their faithfulness in doing it Christians such even under the heaviest oppressions and persecutions and that when they had power to have righted and reveng'd themselves An excellent passage in Tertullian to that purpose The temper of the Christian Souldiers in Julian's Army The famous Story of Mauricius and the Thebaean Legion under Maximinianus reported at large out of Eucherius Lugdunensis The injustice of the charge brought against them by the Heathens of being enemies to Civil Government Accused of Treason Of their refusing to swear by the Emperours genius Their denying to sacrifice for the Emperours safety and why they did so Their refusing to own the Emperours for gods and why Their not observing the solemn Festivals of the Emperours and the reasons of it Accused of Sedition and holding unlawful Combinations An account of the Collegia and Societies in the Roman Empire Christianity forbidden upon that account The Christian Assemblies no unlawful Conventions A vast difference between them and the unlawful factions forbidden by the Roman Laws Their confident challenging their enemies to make good one charge of disturbance or rebellion against them Their Laws and principles quite contrary The Heathens them selves guilty of rebellions and factions not the Christians The Testimony given them by Julian the Emperour A reflection upon the Church of Rome for corrupting the doctrine and practice of Christianity in this affair Their principles and policies in this matter Bellarmin's position that 't is lawful to depose infidel and heretical Princes and that the Primitive Christians did it not to Nero Dioclesian c. only because they wanted power censured and refuted This contrary to the avow'd principles of honest Heathens HOw much Christian Religion transcribed into the lives of its professors contributes to the happiness of men not only in their single and private capacities but as to the publick welfare of humane societies and to the common interests and conveniences of mankind we have already discovered in several instances now because Magistracy and Civil Government is the great support and instrument of external peace and happiness we shall in the last place consider how eminent the first Christians were for their Submission and Subjection to Civil Government And certainly there 's scarce any particular instance wherein Primitive Christianity did more triumph in the world than in their exemplary obedience to the Powers and Magistrates under which they lived honouring their persons revering their power paying their tribute obeying their Laws where they were not evidently contrary to the Laws of Christ and where they were submitting to the most cruel penalties they laid upon them with the greatest calmness and serenity of soul The truth is one great design of the Christian Law is to secure the interests of civil Authority our Saviour has expresly taught us that we are to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as well as unto God the things that are Gods And his Apostles spoke as plainly as words could speak it Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordain'd of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake for for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Where we may take notice both of the strictness and universality of the charge and what is mainly material to observe this charge given the Romans at that time when Nero was their Emperour who was not only an Heathen Magistrate but the first persecutor of Christians a man so prodigiously brutish and tyrannical that the world scarce ever brought forth such another monster 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Orator truly stiles him a beast in the shape of a man The same Apostle amongst other directions given to Titus for the discharge of his office bids him put the people in mind to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates
that is next to God we sacrifice for his safety but 't is to his and our God and so as he has commanded only by holy prayer for the great God needs no blood or sweet perfumes these are the banquets and repast of devils which we do not only reject but expel at every turn But to say more concerning this were to light a candle to the Sun Julian the Emperour though no good friend to Christians yet thus far does them right that if they see any one mutinying against his Prince they presently punish him with great severities And here we may with just reason reflect upon the iniquity of the Church of Rome which in this instance of Religion has so abominably debauched the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith For they not only exempt the Clergy where they can from the authority and judgment of the secular powers whereby horrible enormities do arise but generally teach that a Prince once excommunicate his Subjects are absolv'd from all fealty and allegiance and he may with impunity be deposed or made away How shall such a Prince be thundred against with curses and deprivations every bold and treacherous Priest be authorized to brand his sacred person with the odious names of Infidel Heretick and Apostate and be Apostolically licensed to slander and belibel him and furnished with Commissions to free his Subjects from their duty and allegiance and to allure them to take up arms against him And if these courses fail and men still continue loyal they have disciples ready by secret or suddain arts to send him out of the world And if any man's conscience be so nice as to boggle at it his scruples shall be removed at worst it shall pass for a venial crime and the Pope perhaps with the help of a limitation that it be done for the interest of the Catholick cause by his omnipotence shall create it meritorious Cardinal Bellarmine whose wit and learning were imployed to uphold a tottering cause maintains it stiffly and in express terms that if a King be an Heretick or an Infidel and we know what they mean by that nay he particularly names the reformed Princes of England amongst his instances and seeks to draw his Dominions unto his Sect it is not only lawful but necessary to deprive him of his Kingdom And although he knew that the whole course of antiquity would fly in the face of so bold an assertion yet he goes on to assert that the reason why the Primitive Christians did not attempt this upon Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and the like was not out of conscience or that they boggled out of a sense of duty but because they wanted means and power to effect it A bold piece of falshood this and how contrary to the plain and positive Laws of Christ to the meek and primitive spirit of the Gospel But by the Cardinals leave it could not be for want of power for if as Seneca observes he may be Master of any man's life that undervalues his own it was then as easie for a Christian to have slain Nero or Dioclesian as it was of later times for Gerard to pistol the Prince of Orange or Ravillac to stab the King of France Nay take one of his own instances Julian the Apostate a Prince bad enough and that left no method unattempted to seduce his Subjects to Paganism and Idolatry yet though the greatest part of his Army were Christians they never so much as whispered a treasonable design against him using no other arms as we noted out of Nazianzen but prayers and tears Had S. Paul been of their mind he would have told the Christian Romans quite another story and instead of bidding them be subject to Nero not only for wrath but for conscience sake would have instructed them to take all opportunities to have murdered or deposed him But I shall not reckon up the villanies they have been guilty of in this kind nor pursue the odious and pernicious consequences of their doctrine and practice thus much I could not but take notice of being so immediately opposite to the whole tenor of the Gospel and so great a scandal to Christianity And I verily believe that had the Primitive Christians been no better Subjects than their Emperours were Princes had they practised on them those bloody artifices which have been common amongst those that call themselves the only Catholicks that barbarous dealing would have been a greater curb to the flourishing of the Gospel than all the ten persecutions For how could an impartial Heathen ever have believed their doctrine to have been of God had their actions been so contrary to all principles of natural Divinity Sure I am Pagan Rome was in this case more Orthodox and their Pontifices far better Doctors of Divinity Their Lex Julia as Vlpian their great Lawyer tells us allotted the same penalty to sacriledge and treason placing the one the very next step to the other thereby teaching us that they looked upon treason against the Prince as an affront next to that which was immediately done against the Majesty of Heaven And Marcellus the great Statesman in Tacitus lays it down for a Maxim that Subjects may wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And shame it is that any should call themselves Christians and yet be found worse than they their principles and practices more opposite to the known Laws of God and nature more destructive to the peace and welfare of mankind CHAP. V. Of their Penance and the Discipline of the Antient Church This why last treated of The Church as a Society founded by Christ has its distinct Laws and Priviledges What the usual offences that came under the Churches discipline All immorality open or confessed Lapsing into Idolatry the great sin of those times How many ways usually committed The Traditores who what their crime What penalties inflicted upon delinquent persons Delivering over to Satan what this extraordinary coercive power why vested in the Church The common and standing penalty by Excommunication This practised amongst the antient Gauls an account of it out of Caesar In use amongst the Jews Thence derived to the Christians This punishment how expressed by Church-writers Managed according to the nature of the fault The rigour of it sometimes mitigated Delinquent Clergy-men degraded and never admitted but to Lay-communion instances of it An account of the rise of Novatianism and the severity of its principles styl'd Cathari condemn'd by the Synod at Rome Offenders in what manner dealt with The Procedure of the action described by Tertullian Penitents how behaving themselves during their suspension The greatest not spar'd the case of Philippus and Theodosius This severity why used Penances called satisfactions and why The use of the word satisfaction in the antient Fathers Penitents how absolved After what time In the power of Bishops to extend or shorten these penitentiary humiliations Four particular cases observed wherein
also requiring of them not the outward adorning of gold or fine apparel but the hidden ornament of the heart that though they were rich yet they were to consult the honour and modesty of their profession and might not go to the utmost bounds of what was lawful some things being lawful which were not expedient especially when by their wanton and lascivious dress they might be a means to kindle in the breasts of others the flames of an unchast and unlawful passion and so prove the occasion of their ruine that if they thought themselves bound to use the estate that God had given them God had shewn them a more excellent way to relieve the hungry and feed the poor members of Christ that this was the best art of improving riches and the way to lay them up in safe and unfailing treasuries where we may be sure to reap the fruit of them another day and not to throw them away upon arts of beauty upon vain and phantastick dresses This is the sum of that good man's reasonings in the case Sometimes they pleaded that they might beautifie and honour the body without any danger of violating their chastity or setting open the casement for luxury to fly in upon them Tertullian answers Let them that had a mind to 't glory in the flesh that for us we have no designs of glory partly as being highly unsuitable to us who by the law of God are under the profession of humility partly because all glory to us especially is vain and swelling how much more that which arises from the flesh if we must glory 't is much fitter for us who follow spiritual things to please our selves in the excellencies of the spirit than in those of the flesh let us rejoyce in those things about which we are employed and seek glory from those things from which we hope for salvation A Christian may indeed glory in the flesh but it is when for the sake of Christ it is torn in pieces that the spirit may be crowned not that it may prove a snare to attract the eyes and sights of young mens ungovernable passions after it then when 't is tormented for confessing the Christian name when a woman is found stronger than the men that torment her when she suffers fires or crosses or swords or wild-beasts that she may receive the crown these says Cyprian are the precious jewels of the flesh these the much better ornaments of the body So that as Tertullian goes on beauty being altogether so unuseful to us ought to be despised by them that want it and to be neglected by them that have it a good woman that 's content with her own native beauty has not that occasion to betray her to lust and folly and if she had it would become her not to promote but hinder it Sometimes again they pretended they did it only to please their Husbands and that they might appear more lovely and acceptable to them to which Plea as being most specious and plausible I observe especially Three things return'd by way of answer First That to design the pleasing of their Husbands by such Arts as these was altogether needless seeing every wise and good man cannot but like his wife best without them No wife says Tertullian can seem deformed to her own Husband who doubtless was well enough pleased with her either for her temper or her beauty when he first made choice of her Let none fear their Husbands will more distast and dislike them for abstaining from artificial compositions for every husband is a rigid exacter of his wifes chastity and consequently they can be of no advantage to this end whether he be a believing or an unbelieving Husband a Gentile or a Christian If a Christian then he will not require any such foreign beauty as not being taken with those accomplishments which the Gentiles do account so if a Gentile then according to that vile opinion which they have of us Christians let her do what she can he will suspect her to be naught For whose sake therefore should she so curiously dress so delicately nurse and nourish up her beauty for a believing Husband he requires it not for an Infidel hee 'l never believe it to be true why then should she so much desire to please either one that suspects it or one that does not desire it Secondly That these loose delicate Arts came too near the practice of lewd wanton prostitutes who made use of these wayes and tricks for no other end but to enveagle men into their embraces The bravery of Ornaments and Apparel and the additional enticements of beauty are chiefly used as Cyprian tells them by Prostitutes and Unchast women and that no womens garb is more rich and gaudy than theirs whose modesty is most vile and cheap And this he tells us the Scripture shadows out by the Woman that was arrayed in purple and scarlet-colour and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication But chast and modest Virgins shun the dresses of the defiled the habit of the shameless the badges of the Stewes the Ornaments of light wanton women Whereas all other Creatures says Clemens Alexandrinus birds and beasts are content with their own natural beauty and colours woman only as if she were inferiour to the beasts thinks her self so deform'd as that there 's need to repair the defect by external bought and borrowed beauty for while by infinite Arts of curious and costly dresses some whereof he there particularly mentions they seek to ensnare them who children-like are apt to admire every thing that 's strange and gaudy they shew themselves to be women that have put off shame and modesty and whoever says he calls them so shall do them no wrong as carrying the signs and representations of it in their very faces Thirdly They mainly insisted upon this that these Arts were injurious to God and a disparagement to his workman-ship We are not says Tertullian to seek after neatness and finery beyond what is simple and sufficient and what pleases God against whom they offend who are not satisfied with his workman-ship an argument which he there prosecutes with great severity S. Cyprian treads in his Masters steps and prosecutes the same argument with a great deal of zeal and sharpness amongst other things he tells us that these additional Arts are a bold and sacrilegious attempt and an high contempt of God that it is to reform what God has form'd to alter and change his work and as much as they can to dis-figure that person which God has made after his own image and likeness that such a one has cause to fear lest when the day of Resurrection comes he that made them should not know them nor receive them when they come for the promised rewards Accordingly he brings in the great Censor
but to look after a woman with wanton and unchaste desires our Lord says Justin Martyr has told us that whosoever looks after a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart and that if our right eye offend us we must pluck it out as therefore humane Laws condemn two Wives so by the Laws of our Master they are sinners who look upon a woman with unfit desires after her for not only he that really commits adultery is rejected by him but even he that has a mind to it not only our actions but our very thoughts being open unto God So Athenagoras So far are we from any promiscuous embraces that we are not permitted the freedom of an unchaste look for whoever says our Lord looks after a woman to desire her has play'd the adulterer with her in his heart we are not therefore allowed to use our eyes to any other purposes than those for which God created them viz. to be lights to the body to abuse them to wantonness is to be guilty of adultery for as much as they know they were made for other ends and cannot but be conscious to themselves of their own thoughts and how is it possible for men under such limitations to be otherwise than chaste and sober for we have not to deal with humane Laws under which a man may be wicked and yet escape but our discipline was delivered by God himself we have a Law which makes our selves the rule and measure of righteousness towards others according therefore to the difference of age we account some as Sons and Daughters others as Brethren and Sisters the more aged we honour in the place of Parents those therefore whom we account as Sisters or as allied to us in any other relation we reckon it a matter of great concernment that they should be chaste and incorrupt Fourthly They pleaded that this objection would easily vanish if they would but consider what a strange change and alteration was in this very case wrought upon persons at their first conversion to Christianity immediately becoming quite of another spirit and temper from what they were before We who before time says Justin Martyr speaking of the converting power of the Christian doctrine did please our selves in fornications and uncleanness do now solely embrace temperance and chastity what an innumerable company could I name of those who have left their luxury and intemperance and come over to this kind of life for Christ came not to call the chaste and righteous they needed it not but the wicked the incontinent and the unrighteous to repentance And in his other Apology he gives an instance of a woman who having together with her husband lived a very vicious and debauched course of life after her conversion to Christianity became strictly chaste and sober and not content with this she urged her husband also to do the like laying before him the doctrines of Christianity and perswading him both by the rewards and punishments of another World but he obstinately refusing it begot a quarrel between them which still ripen'd into a wider breach till it became matter of publick cognizance and was an occasion for Justin Martyr to write that excellent Apology for the Christians Upon this account Tertullian justly condemns the madness of the Heathens and their unreasonable prejudice against Christianity that they would hate their nearest relations meerly for being Christians though they saw how much they were every ways bettered by it in their lives and manners the Father dis-inheriting his Son of whom now he had no cause left to complain but that he was a Christian the Master imprisoning his servant though now he had found him useful and necessary to him But what 's more especially to the purpose he tells us of some husbands he knew who though before so infinitely jealous of their wives and possibly not without reason that a Mouse could not stir in the room but it must be a Gallant creeping to their bed yet when upon their turning Christians they became so eminently reserved chaste and modest that there was not the least foundation for suspicion their jealousy was converted into hatred and they vow'd they had rather their wives should be Strumpets than Christians So obstinately sayes he do men stand in their own light and contend against those advantages which they might reap by Christianity This Argument from the powerful and successful influence of the Christian Faith Origen frequently makes use of They must needs says he confess the excellency and divinity of Christs doctrine who-ever do but look into the lives of those that adhere to it comparing their former course of life with that which they now lead and considering in what impurities lusts and wickednesses every one of them wallowed before they embraced this doctrine but since that they entertained it how much more grave moderate and constant are they become insomuch that some of them out of a desire of a more transcendent purity and that they may worship God with a chaster mind deny themselves even the pleasures of a lawful bed The same he affirms elsewhere that those whom the Gentiles scorn'd as the most rude and sottish persons being once initiated into the faith and discipline of the holy Jesus were so far from lasciviousness filthiness and all manner of uncleanness that like Priests wholly devoted to God they altogether abstain even from allowed embraces that there was no need for them as some of the best among the Gentiles have done to use arts and medicines to keep them chaste nor Guardians set over them to preserve their Virginity the word of God being sufficient to expel and drive out all irregular appetites and desires This also Tertullian observes as the incomparable excellency of the Christian Doctrine above that of the best Philosophers that whenas Democritus was forc'd to put out his eys because not able to defend himself from the charms of beauty a Christian could look upon a woman with chaste unseduced eyes being at the same time inwardly blind as to any temptation from his lust with such a mighty force did the Gospel come and captivate mens hearts into the obedience of the truth Thence Lactantius makes this triumphant challenge where discoursing of the prevalency which the commands of God had upon the minds of men as daily experience did demonstrate Give me says he a man that 's angry furious and passionate and with a few words from God I 'le render him as meek and quiet as a Lamb Give me one that 's lustful filthy and vicious and you shall see him sober chaste and continent the same he instances in most other Vices So great says he is the power of the divine wisdom that being infused into the breast of a man it will soon expel that folly which is the grand parent of all vice and wickedness The innocency of Christians standing thus clear from