was to testify the union of the Divine and humane Nature in the Person of the Mediator of mankind In missa Lat. Edit Argent 1557. operd Illyrici Deinde Diaconus accipiat à subdiacono vinum miscent cum aqu◠in calice dicens Deus qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti mirabilius reformâsti da nobis quaesumus per hujus aquae vini mysteria ejus divinitatis esse consortes qui humanitatis nostrae dignatus est fieri particeps Jesus Christus For it is not a little observable that besides what the antient Liturgies mention of this nature as soon as the Armenians by the perswasion of Jacobus Syrus imbrac'd the errors of Eutyches condemn'd the Council of Chalcedon and would acknowledge only one Nature in the second Person of the Trinity they left off the use of intermixing Water with the Wine in the Sacrament and under Johannes Ozniensis their Patriarch with leave from the Caliph of Babylon and Omir the General of the Saracens who had overrun Armenia by the consent of his own Suffragans and six Bishops of Assyria it was past into a Synodical decree that no longer Water should be mixt with Wine in the Eucharist they pretending the Authority of S. Chrysostom for their so doing Which determination of that Church was presently after condemn'd by the Fathers of the sixth general Council at Constantinople f Can. 32. and every Prelate or Presbyter transgressing the Apostolical practice was to be depos'd for his pride and contumacy Notwithstanding which they still continue the usage and so do g Abuda Hist Jacobit c. 13. p. 18. the Jacobites in Egypt and elsewhere to this day But the Greeks are so far from countenancing the practice of such Schismaticks as they stile them that they make this mixture twice in the Sacrament For while the sacred Elements are preparing the h Goar Not in Liturg Chrysost n. 167. Smyth de hod Gr. Eccl. statu p. 90. Priest with the Knife they call it the holy lance is to prick the bread and to say these words One of the Soldiers thrust a Lance into his side and presently there flowed out Water and Blood And at the same time the Deacon is to pour out the Wine and put to it some cold Water and again after the consecration of the Elements just as they are to be given to the Communicants the Deacon after the Priest hath blessed it poureth warm water into the chalice and so delivers it to the Communicants and this to testify that that water which issued from the side of Christ came out miraculously warm as if he had been alive exhibiting to us a Type of our union to that Saviour thereby and withal to exemplify the fervour of Faith and the holy Spirit which should accompany all those that approach the holy table and I find in the order for the Communion under K. Edward the sixth That the Priest is required to bless and consecrate the biggest Chalice or some fair and convenient Cup or Cups full of Wine with some Water put to it Which Custom was afterward I know not for what reason altered And this was thought so necessary that many were apt to run into the other extream and to think that the mixture was not duly made till there were as much or more Water than Wine in the Chalice bordering on the Heresie of the Aquarii who adminstred this mystery only in Water or rather on that sort of them i Ubi supr which Cyprian treats of who in the Evening celebrated the Sacrament as Christ instituted it mixing Water with Wine in the Chalice but in the morning used only Water out of caution lest the smell of the Wine might betray them to be Christians to their Gentile Adversaries k Bernard Epist 69. Others thought Water indispensably necessary to the integrity of the Sacrament and for that reason perhaps the Church of England hath omitted the usage but even the Church of Rome it self is not so rigid allowing the consecration to be valid without it XXII Hitherto lasted the Age of Miracles the Divine Goodness and Omnipotence using extraordinary Methods to countenance and propagate its supernatural truths that the Infancy of the Church might be assisted with as strong and convictive encouragements to believe the Doctrine of Jesus as rational and perswasible persons could desire But the several sorts of these stupendous Charismata were not equally long liv'd but according to the divers necessities of the Proselytes to Religion some expired sooner and some later took their leave of the Christian World The gifts of speaking with and interpretation of divers Tongues suddenly ceast on the Conversion of the greatest part of the then known world and the modelling of Churches in every Nation because before their Christian assemblies were made up of men of diverse Nations and Languages though e Lib. 2. c. 57. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 7. Irenaeus affirms that these miraculous gifts were extant in his time the spirit of Prayer ceas'd on the forming and establishing set Liturgies for the use of the Church which we have already probably evinc'd were of Apostolical appointment The power of discerning spirits whether men were sincere and orthodox in their profession or the Pretenders to Miracles were truly endowed with that supernatural faculty was left to the Governours of the Church for a while till the sacred Canon of the Scripture was collected by which after-Ages were to be guided though a De cura pro mort c. 16. ad fin cap. S. Austin seems to imply That that power was not wholly lost in his time The infliction of temporal punishments on Offenders lying under the Churches curse which sometimes extended to the loss of life or health or the like sufferings and other times to an actual delivery into the hands of Satan if we may believe the Tradition of the whole Greek Church is yet communicated to the Servants of God b Vid. Crusii Turco-Graec apud Dr. Ham. Power of the Keys ch 6. sect 5. p. 147 148. who tell us that no man among them dyes excommunicate but he swells like a Drum looks black and cannot return to his primitive Dust till he receive his absolution But whether this be so or no we will not at present discuss while we positively assert that Prophecie casting out of Daemons and prodigious cures even to the raising the dead lasted till this age of S. Cyprian and after XXIII The prophetick Sun after a long Eclipse that vail'd its face and beauties from the time of the Captivity till the coming of the Messias broke forth with a greater lustre under the Evangelical Oeconomy That the immediate Family of Jesus were so endowed no man doubts since by that afflatus they were assisted in conferring Orders and leaving a List of their Successors in fore-telling the times of Antichrist and the revolutions of the Church till Peace should mantle
but very useful Discourse His Church-History mentioned by Volaterran was doubtless a mistake of the meaning of the same Historian who uses only his Books adversus Hareses yet extant as that of his Comment on the Revelation also had its Original from a mistake of S. Hierom who only says that Irenaeus interpreted the Revelation i. maintained the Chiliast Opinion whose Foundation is laid in that Prophecie as he does largely in the end of his fifth Book and though here Mr. H. dislike the judgment of Sixtus Senensis yet on the same grounds does he entitles S. Justin the Martyr to a like Tractate X. And I could heartily wish that we had only lost those imaginary Volumes and that his other most excellent Writings had not perisht to the detriment of the Church of God and the Common-wealth of Learning by which unhappy fate we are depriv'd of all his Epistles the fragments of that Writ to Pope Victor excepted especially that Epistle to Blastus de Schismate which would have been so useful to this Age as would also his Discourses de Monarchia de Ogdoade against Florinus and his darling Opinion which I fear under a cleaner Masque hath appeared in this Age also that God is the Author of sin And here the observation of c Apud Chemnit Loc. Commun part 1. sect de causis peccati p. 145. Nicephorus is very remarkable that besides the Persecutions that harass'd the Church the Devil made use of three very subtle Methods to ruine Christianity 1. Because the prodigious performances of the Son of God were a great confirmation of the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine he opposed the Impostures of Simon Magus and Apollonius of Tyana to the Miracles of Christ 2. Because the holiness of our Saviour's Life and Precepts was a great perswasive to incline the World to Conversion he introduc'd into the most sacred Offices of Religion all sort of Impurities and Lusts by his Instruments the Gnosticks and Cataphrygians who adopted their Vices into the number of their Mysteries and to whom the promiscuous Mixtures Incests and Eating the Blood of Men which were unjustly laid to the charge of the Primitive Christians must be attributed 3. And lest this also might not do that he might incline the World to be careless and vile he by Blastus Florinus and Marcion gave being to the Opinion that God was the Author of sin that so he might supersede all Laws and enervate the force and vigour of all the Divine Injunctions XI In the end of the Tract de Ogdoade Irenaeus adjures his Transcriber by the coming of Jesus to Judgment diligently to compare his Copy with the Original an Obtestation so sacred that not only Eusebius takes â—rotice of it in his History and S. Hierom in his Catalogue but the former prefixes it to â—â—e first Book of his Chronicon and the latter to his Translation of the same Book as Ruffinus hath also another such for sense though not for words in the Preface to his Translation of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 requiring his Transcriber neither to add to nor diminish nor change any thing in it but to correct it by the Original and accordingly to publish it and in after Ages a Usher Epist Hebernic sylloge p. â—â— Adamnanus hath such an admonition at the end of his Book of the life of S. Columb a charge like that of Quintilian ad Tryphonem bibliopolam and b Ad fin Apolog. Thesium Dâ— Reynolds's ad transmarinos typographos admon tioâ— and may we not take leave to suppose that Irenaeus who was a Scholar to Papias and Polycarp S. John's Disciples did herein imitate that Apostle who closes his c Apoc. 22.18 19. Apoculypse with the like solemn Obtestation XII And I could heartily wish that we had the Greek Copy of those Books that are left for I know no more of this Father extant in the Language that he writ in than what we have in Epiphanius Eusebius Theodoret c. for no man is now so vain to imagine that Irenaeus writ in Latine although Callasius in his Epistle Dedicatory before his Edition of this Father and d Orat. delect Patrum init Chemnitius affirm that the Greek Copy had been seen in the Vatican and another read at Venice by some learned and good men who when they came to look for the Book a second time found the place empty which Relation if true as Gallasisius more than once mentions it no punishment were too big for such curs'd Villains and Plagiaries For could the World be so happy we should see how disingenuously or rather ignorantly his Latine Translator hath dâ—a't with him dressing his Notions in a style so obscure and rugged so full of Solecisms and barbarous expressions that they not only sully the Beauty but cloud the meaning of this great man whose modesty though it inclined him to make an a Pref. l. 1. Apology for his style as if it were plain and unrhetorical yet to him that reads the passages which Epiphanius against the Valentinians repeats out of him in his own Native Language his style will appear though not affected yet very elegant without that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sublimity which some men would require but not without that gravity clearness and perswasiveness that became a Philosopher on so abstruse a subject XIII I find it the peculiar happiness of S. Irenaeus among the Ecclesiastical Writers that anciently no other Writings were father'd on him than what were genuinely his unless we shall say that he has been abus'd by ome b Vid. Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16. not Haeâ—chel p. 923. imputing to him as others do to Justin Martyr and a third sort to Josephus that Tractate which is truly the Commâ—ntâ—ry of Gajus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being scarce one besides him of all the Sages of the Church that hath not been imposed upon by the bastard issue of some other men A Crime too notorious to be excused and of which we may say what c Hist lib. 1. p. 413. Tacitus does of the profession of Astrology at Rome That it always will be forbidden but always practised A Design that seems to intimate a great deal of Bounty but betrays an intention of Robbery of debasing the value and impairing the reputation of a worthy man by thus exposing him to the censures of the World in a picture drawn by a wrong hand and martyring him again in Effigie destroying noble Writers as Witches do those whose persons they cannot reach by venting their malice against an Image which themselves have molded The undertaking hath been of long standing and may now plead gray hairs and custom but well it would be with the Interests of Learning and Piety if all such men fell under the chastisement of Theodiscus d Apud Genebr Chrer lib. 3. an 657. whom Vasaeus in his Spanish Chronicle mentions who being the Arch-Bishop of Sevil
which being collected for the advancement of the interests of Religion was by this evil man made an instrument to promote impiety A great instance of this prevalence was that Council which was first assembled at Seleucia famous for the Church of the holy Virgin Thecla and afterward sat in this great City which Cities having been eminent for the brave things that had been done there were now as memorable for this infamous Conventicle whether you will call it the Tower of Babel where God divided the Tongues of the Builders as I wish he had divided these or the Sanhedrim of Caiaphas in which Christ is condemned or by what other name we may call the Meeting which overturned and confounded all things abrogating the holy and primitive Dogma that confesseth the Trinity using all its art and force power and stratagems to stifle the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consubstantial and opening a door to all sort of impiety by the ambiguity of the terms of their Confession out of a seeming respect to holy Writ and a pretence to use no terms but what are there allowed but in truth substituting Arianism that contradicted Scripture For this sentence that the Son of God was like the Father according to the Scriptures was only a bait to the weaker sort of Christians covering the Hook of Heresie a Picture that lookt on all that past by it a Shoe that would fit either foot a Vanne turned with every wind a new invented Engine to the supplanting of the truth acted and set on motion by Authority For they were wise to do evil but to do good had no knowledge hence proceeded their cunning condemnation of Hereticks whom in their words they proscrib'd the Church that their designs might look more plausibly but by their actions introduc'd reproving them not for any heterodoxy in opinion but immoderate passion and love of contention Hence Lay-men became Judges of those in holy Orders and a new mixture happen'd the most mysterious Doctrines of Religion disputed before the multitude and an unlawful enquiry into Affairs Sycophants hired and sentence on the premises denounc'd Thus many Prelates were unjustly dethron'd others substitated but on no other terms but that they should subscribe to the Arian impiety as they ought to all things else necessarily previous to their Instalment the Pen and Ink was at hand and an Accuser at their back this betrayed many of the Orthodox men otherwise of invincible constancy who erred in their subscriptions though their Opinions were Catholick and gave their consent to the proceedings of those men who on both accounts were wicked and though they kept themselves from falling into the fire could not escape being sullied with the smoak this I have often lamented when I observed how Heresie diffus'd it self and the Orthodox Doctrine was persecuted by the great Patrons of Christ's Divinity verily the Pastors have done foolishly as it is written and have destroyed my Vineyard and dishonoured the pleasant portion that is the Church of God consecrated with much sweat and many martyred ones both before and after Christ and by the great sufferings of God for us For except a few persons who for their meanness were contemptible or their courage lookt on as Enemies who it was necessary should be left as a root and seed to Israel that by the influences of the Spirit that might flourish a-new and recover all others complyed with the time only with this difference that some were sooner some later trepan'd some were Leaders and Heads of Parties in this Faction others of an inferiour rank who either were betrayed by their fear or captivated by covetousness or allured by pleasures or imposed on by ignorance which was the most modest plea. If that may seem to be sufficient to apologize for such men who take on them the Instruction and Government of the people For as the motions of Lions and other Beasts of men and women of old and young men are not the same but there is no small difference in Ages and Sexes so neither are the inclinations the same of Rulers and their Subjects for the vulgus that so complyed are to be pardoned who are indispos'd to curiosity but how shall we concede such failures to their Teachers who unless they usurp that name ought to correct and illuminate the ignorance of their Followers For if not the most illiterate and rustick person can safely be ignorant of the Roman Laws nor is there any excuse allowed for them that transgress through want of knowledge is it not an absurd thing that the Teachers of the Laws of Heaven should be ignorant of the Principles of Salvation although in other things they may be allowed to have less skill and insight But grant it that they shall be pardoned that erre for want of knowledge what shall we say of others who laying claim to wit and acumen yet for the causes formerly mentioned have submitted to those Hereticks that had usurpt a power and whereas for a while they were the Mask of Piety as soon as there appeared any thing of reprehension easily laid it aside I hear the Scripture affirm that heaven and earth shall yet once be shaken as if they had suffered those tremblings before intimating some notable change and alteration of things and we must believe S. Paul that the last and final earthquake shall be no other but the second coming of Christ the mutation of the universe and translation of it into that which defies change and motion But I suppose the Earthquake that in this age broke forth was not less furious than any of the former by reason of which all the lovers of God and Religion and those who before this time had their conversation wholly in heaven were shaken who although in every other thing they are mild and peaceable now could not endure to be moderate and to betray the cause of God by their silence but in this case are egregious combatants and lovers of contention for such is the heat of Zeal and ready rather to over-do some things than leave any thing material undone by the same violence no small part of the people were distracted as in a flock of birds taking their flight with those in the front and not yet ceasing to employ their wings ' Such a comfort was Athanasius to us as long as that Pillar of the Church continued among us and so great a cause of sorrow when the Contrivances of vile men forc'd him hence For as those that design to storm a strong Castle when they find the place otherwise unapproachable and hard to be taken make use of cunning where strength fails alluring the Governour with Money or some other piece of subtilty and so with ease master the Cittadel or if you will as they that did lye in wait for Sampson first cut off his Hair in which his strength lay and then took Prisoner that Judge of the Israelites sporting with him as they pleased in requital of
that does the injury is insolent with so debonaire and meek carriage did he demean himself towards the great fomenters of his sorrows that his restoration was not unacceptable even to them He purges the Temple by driving out all Sacrilegious Abusers of Religion that prostituted the name of God and Christ to their profit that in this also he might imitate his Saviour only he omitted the whip of Cords and substituted in the place thereof Perswasives and Demonstrations He cements all breaches among those that were at enmity with him or among themselves needing no other assistances but his own he delivers the afflicted from Tyranny making no distinction between them of his own and the adverse party He lifts out of the dust and restores to its honour the truth that had been trampled on and now the Doctrine of the Trinity is boldly asserted and the light is set on a Candlestick that by the bright rays of the Unity of the Godhead it might illuminate all mens Souls now he again makes Laws for the World and enclines all mens minds to himself writing to some calling others and instructing a third sort that were never sent for obliging no man to any other restraint but to be willing for this one thing was sufficient to direct them to the Paths of Virtue In short he imitated the qualities of two famous stones to those that abused him he was an Adamant to the contentious and quarrelsome a Loadstone which by a miraculous quality draws Iron the hardest of things to its self but it was impossible that envy should endure this or suffer tamely the restitution of the Church to her pristine beauty and health the dissenting Members thereof being reunited as the Wounds of a Body that hath been mangled are closed up again To this end the Father of malice incensed against him the Emperour who was the Fiend's Fellow Apostate who though his junior in time was his equal in mischief the first of all Christian Princes that was inraged against Christ suddenly introducing that wicked Cockatrice which long before had been brought forth and cherish'd by him as soon as a fit opportunity offered and he was invested with the Empire became ungrateful to that Soveraign that intrusted him with the Regalia and abundantly more rebellious against God his Saviour and begins a persecution more fatal than all that had preceeded it intermixing perswasives with his threats for he envyed the Martyrs the honour of their sufferings called in question the Trophies of their courage using all sort of Sophistry and little arts in his Discourses and allowing them to superintend his manners or to speak a plainer truth being inclined by his own perverse habit of mind to such Villanies imitating the cunning and artifice of that Demon that possest him he accounted it but a poor Conquest to triumph over the whole Family of Christ but look'd on the subduing Athanasius and stifling his undertakings in the behalf of the truth as a great Victory for he saw that none of his Designs against the Christians were crowned with success as long as Athanasius opposed him for the places of as many as deserted Religion were supplyed by his prudence with new Gentile Proselytes which was very miraculous Which when that crafty Impostor and Persecutor understood he no longer keeps on his Masque of servile dissimulation but making publick his rancor openly expels this great man the City for it became this generous Combatant to be thrice Victorious that his rewards might be perfect a small time after the Divine Justice hurryed this sacrilegious person into Persia and there punish'd him and having permitted him to go forth a Prince eagerly ambitious of renown return'd him dead without the least sign of pity or sorrow and as I have heard without the honour of Sepulture his body being toss'd up and down by the fury of an Earthquake that then happened as a punishment for his Crimes the Prologue as I suppose to his future Tragedy but another Emperour succeeds him of a modest Countenance and a stranger to the Apostates Impudence one that never opprest Israel by his own or his Followers evil Actions but was incomparably pious and mild who that he might settle his Empire on the best Foundation and begin his Raign with the establishing excellent Laws recalls all the banish'd Prelates and above all him that out-shone them in Virtue and undoubtedly was a Sufferer for Godliness he enquires after the true and Orthodox Faith that had been by many torn in pieces and mangled and distracted into many novel Opinions that if it were possible the whole World might be united in the same harmonious profession by the cooperation of the holy spirit if not he might joyn himself to the Catholick Party and reciprocally give it assistance and receive help from it entertaining himself with high and exceeding venerable thoughts of such Mysteries And here did this Sage-man give a Specimen of his purity and constancy in the Faith of Christ for whereas other Professors were divided into three several Factions many being Unorthodox in their Sentiments of the Son of God and more in their Opinions of the holy Ghost where to be a puny Transgressor was accounted a mark of Piety and only a few were in every thing sound Catholicks he chiefly and alone or with a few Followers openly and in the Face of the World is a confident Assertor of the truth confessing in his Writings the Divinity and Essence of the three persons and in that God head which in times past was by the many Fathers adjusted to the Son was the holy spirit reinvested by this inspired Patriarch who tendred a truly royal and magnificent present to the Emperour an Orthodox Creed in opposition to the Heretical Novelties that had no basis in Scripture that one Emperour might countermine another one Doctrine invalidate another one Writing supersede another to this Confession of Faith both the Eastern and Western Catholicks seem to me to pay a submissive deference and veneration for some men if we may believe their Affirmations are Orthodox only in their minds but they imprison their Sentiments and conceal them from the view of the World as a dead Child that hath lost its life in the Womb others in a small measure manifest their belief like the blaze of a Spark that they may humour the time and please the warmer and devouter sort of Christians others are publick Assertors of the truth and not ashamed of their profession of which Party I am willing to be for I dare not boast of any thing higher than this not so much as intending to skreen my fearfulness behind the weakness of those that have been more timerous for we have been evil Stewards of Heavens Mysteries not only not gaining some additional increase to our Talents but prodigally melting down our first stock which is the Character of a careless Servant but to introduce this my off-spring into the light to mature its growth with speed