the hand of Heaven appear'd signally in it if we may believe a Ibid. c. 13. Socrates who tells us that it was reported that at the parting of these two famous Prelates at Constantinople Epiphanius told S. Chrysostome that he hop'd he should never die a Bishop to which the Patriarch retorts that he as firmly hop'd that Epiphanius should never return home in safety and both fell out true Epiphanius dying on Ship-board before he reach'd Cyprus and S. Chrysostome a little while after in banishment But this was a very irregular method of finding out and countenancing Orthodoxy and wherein they might have followed a better pattern of two men as famous as any in that Century in a similar question viz. S. Athanasius and S. Basil who differ'd about the writings of Dionysius of Alexandria the first asserting them to be Orthodox the last that there was something of Arianisme couched in them yet neither denounc'd the other Heretick but amidst their different sentiments maintain'd an amicable correspondence XV. Such was the harsh fate of this admirable man who was not only forc'd to experiment the envy of the world while alive but was hindred taking refuge in the grave which is the sanctuary of the miserable excommunicate while alive and as if that were not enough excommunicate after his death too and that not by the hot and irrational zeal of a few private persons but by the mouth of a b Com. C. P. general 5. anathem 11. General Council and rank'd in the same Classe with Arius Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches and other most infamous Hereticks The custome I cannot dislike but heartily wish that this learned and pious man lay not under such severe censures For though it seems uncouth to punish any man when he is gone out of the World and hath answered God for his Opinions yet there was great reason that the Church should so proceed in the case for how else in truth could the antient Hereticks have been expos'd who liv'd before the age of General Councils and when few or no Provincial ones could be had and how should the Church curse a Heretick till she knew him to be so when as many times the wretch kept himself within the Catholick Communion under the Masque of his Hypocrisie and the Vizard was never taken off till after his death when by a severer scrutiny into his assertions and writings the Impostor was detected See Crackenthorp's Vigilius dormitans c. 6. Thus Domnus Patriarch of Antioch was punisht by the Council of Chalcedon Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia c. by the 5th General Council Honorius by the 6th and the 2d Nicene thus the Synod of Sardica condemn'd the revolters to Arianisme and the African Synod every Bishop who made a Heretick or Pagan his Executor and the Synod at Rome under Pope Martin the first execrated the memory of Sergius and Pyrrhus the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Dioscorus being chosen Pope Simonically was many years after his death for that contract excommunicate And according to the prescriptions of the Councils did particular Fathers act a Ep. 50. ad Bonifac. Comit. S. Austin declaring his resolutions to curse Cecilianus formerly the Arch-bishop of Carthage could he but be sure that the accusations laid to his charge by the Donatists were true b Id. l. 3. contr Crescon c. 35. And professing also his intentions to do so to whatever persons had in the time of Persecution deliver'd their Bibles to be burnt though dying in the Church-communion XVI Nor were the Fathers of the Church without a president and encouragement in the Imperial Laws c Cod. l. 2. Tit. 5. de haeret Manich leg 4. The Emperor Theodosius decreeing That after death an action might be lawfully commenc'd against a Manichee or a Donatist to render the memory of the Heretick infamous for if traytors though in their graves are yet branded in their posterity who are depriv'd of estate and honor though their Father dy'd unimpeach'd how much more reasonable is it that the same course should be held in matters of Religion says that august and glorious Prince And there is something of this nature retain'd in the Greek Church unto this day who give absolution to the dead that have been buried in the state of excommunication and this supposes they may be anathematiz'd too that you may bind as well as loose the dead for they are d Malanus Peloponnes in Histor Patriarch C. P. apud Crusii Turco-Graec l. 2. Sect. 32. passim perswaded that the body of a man who dies out of the Ecclesiastical communion cannot turn to ashes as long as it lies under the Churches curse but continues hard and swoln and of a dismal black and affrighting colour but if many years after the Bishop or any by his authority go to the grave open it and solemnly pronounce the prayer of absolution in a small space the body returns to its Primitive dust And the action it self abating the circumstances hath its warrant in the Council of Chalcedon which absolv'd and Canoniz'd a Martyr Flavianus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been Excommunicate and murdered by the Faction of Dioscorus in the Pseudo-Ephesine Synod Such was the Power and Practice of the Primitive Church and such doubtless is the Jurisdiction of the present but as I could wish it had been antiently superseded in the case of Origen so I would have the weapon drawn and us'd very sparingly at all times for if from broken sentences and the ill interpretation of an honest and well-meant but mistaken and ill-worded discourse a man must after his dissolution when he cannot answer for himself be censur'd and damn'd few or none of the most Eminent and stout Defenders of the Church shall be out of the reach of this lash XVII Nevertheless the greatest lovers of the name of Origen cannot but acknowledge that he had his defects his great converse with the discourses of the Philosophers leaving a certain tincture in his mind which became visible in his writings there being a near relation between the Opinions of the Academy and the School of Christ a Baren Tom. 2. an 234. p. 4â—3 Platonism being the ready way to the belief of the Name of Jesus and I could wish we had that Copy of his works which was once b Apud eund an 256. p. 553. Cassiodores in which that wise man had mark'd all the dangerous passages that the Reader might with caution proceed it being a prudent course to allay the extravagancy of that esteem and love which some men had for his name ingaging them to chuse c Vinc-Lirinens common c. 23. rather to err with Origen than imbrace the truth with others the most material of his Errours d L. 2. Apolog adv Ruffin p. 220. Ed. Erasm S. Hierome hath summ'd up in these words That the Son of God is a Creature the Holy Ghost a Servant that there are innumerable Worlds that
Montacut vid. Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To. 6. p. 449. de S. Timothee the Divine expostulate with Julian Dost thou not reverence those that were sacrific'd for Christ Dost thou not fear those great Champions S. John S. Peter and S. Paul and those that both before and after them were in jeopardy for the truth by whom the Daemons are dispossest and Diseases cured who appear in Visions and foretell futurities whose bodies when reverently toucht do the same things which holy Souls do dost thou not venerate but dishonour those And after this manner speak the other Sages of the Church S. a Tom. 1. Hom. in S. Julit p. 370. Basil and S. b Cat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 18. Cyril of Jerusalem and to omit S. Ambrose and S. Hierom c I. C. D. l. 25. c. 18. S. Austin gives several instances of these stupendious productions but I will content my self with that excellent passage of d L. 1. Ep. 55. Magna in exiguo sanctorum pulvere virtus Paulin. natal 9. S. Faelic p. 665. Isidore the Pelusiot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any man be offended that we honour the Dust of the Bodies of the Martyrs for their great love to God and admirable constancy in the Faith let him ask those that have been cured thereby and understand to how many Diseases it hath brought remedy so shalt thou not only not deride what we do but be encouraged to imitate us And it is very observable that generally the Fathers in this case instance in that particular of Elisha 2 Reg. 13.21 into whose Grave the dead man being thrown revived So do the * Ubi supr Apostolick Constitutions * Ubi supr S. Basil and * Ubi supr S. Chrysostom but particularly e Catech. 18. S. Cyril of Jerusalem The dead man who was thrown into the Tomb of Elisha when he touch'd the dead body of the Prophet revived and the dead Body of the Prophet did the Office of a living Soul and that which had no life gave life to him that was departed it self yet continuing among the dead And why so lest if Elisha should have risen it might have been attributed only to his Soul and to demonstrate that in the absence of the Soul there is great Virtue in the Bodies of the Saints because of those Souls that so long inhabited and actuated those Bodies Nor let us fondly distrust the truth as if this could not be done for if handkerchiefs and Aprons being without the Body when toucht by the Sick freed them from their Infirmities how much more should the Reliques of the Prophet raise the dead XLIII Of these miraculous Efforts at the Tombs of the Martyrs the case of S. Babylas is a famous instance and I mention it the rather because he was Patriarch of this very See of Antioch and was buryed in the same place with S. Ignatius in the Daphnaean Suburb and that the miracle fell out in that Age of the Church when the Truth could not want Historians it being recorded by f Hist Lib. 10. cap. 35. Ruffinus g Lib. 3. cap. 9. 10. Theodoret h Lib. 5. cap. 18 19. Sozomen i Lib. 3. cap. 16. Socrates and k Lib. 1. cap. 16. Evagrius and as to the substance of the Story by the Heathens m Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 185. Libanius n Histor lib. 22. Marcellinus and o In Misopogon pag. 96. Julian himself but above all by p Orat. 1. 2. in S. Babylam Tom. 5. p. 438 c. Tom. 8. Orat. 8. de Laudib S. Pauli p. 44. S. Chrysostom who was born at Antioch and at this same time bred a Scholar under Libanius and but twenty years after the Fact was done relates this story in a set Oration and calls all persons to witness whether he spake truth or not and in his second Oration in praise of this Martyr enervates all the material Passages of his Masters Oration on this subject Nay Julian's own Historian giving the world an account of the very day that it happened viz. the 22th of October An. Chr. 362. the Story is thus a Baron Tom. 4. an 362. p. 4â…˜ Not. ad Martyrol Jun. 24. The Bones of S. Babylas the Martyr were by the order of Gallus who was by Constantius created Caesar buryed at Daphne near the famous Oracle of Apollo which Oracle Julian before his fatal expedition into Persia consulting as he did almost all the Tripods of the World was told that Apollo could not give him any Answer because some persons were buryed near that Temple which when Julian heard he commanded the Christians to remove the Bodies of S. Babylas and his Martyred Companions which they did with great Pomp and Ceremony transport into the City singing the Psalms of David before the Chariot and interposing this Versicle between every Verse Confounded be all those that worship Graven Images Neither did the Oracle after this prove vocal having only foretold its own Funerals but in a small time the Temple was burnt by Fire from Heaven and the famous Image of Apollo reduc'd to Ashes only says S. Chrysostom a few Pillars and other Ruines were left standing as Trophies of the Victory of the Martyr and though the burning the Temple was fathered by Julian on the Christians yet the Priests that kept it when put on the Rack would on all sides confess nothing but that the Fire fell from Heaven Thus is the story attested on all hands only I cannot assent to b â—ol suprâ— Evagrius that not the Servants of Christ but Julian himself was compelled honourably to Translate the Body from that place and to erect a Church to his memory before the Gates of the City which remained to his time the Apostate designing by this act of Counterfeit Piety that the silenc'd and baffled Daemon might be set at liberty while the Divine Providence so ordered it that the Martyrs Reliques might find a becoming Receptacle Nor were these wonderful Operations transacted in a Corner but in the publick view of Mankind which Miracles whether wrought immediately by God or by the Ministry of the Glorified Souls of the Martyrs or the help of Angels neither durst c De 〈◊〉 Dei lib. 22. cap. 9. S. Austin nor dare I pretend to determine XLIV Wonderful was the Zeal of those early days in meeting and caressing these sacred remains of their slain Brethren with so much joy and satisfaction as this story and S. Chrysostom's Panegyrick tell us but above all d Tom. 2. adv Vigil p. 123. S. Hierom who condemns Vigilantius for being grieved that the Dust of the Martyrs was covered with a fine Vail and not wrapt up in Hair-cloth or thrown on a Dung-hill and adds was the August Constantine guilty of Sacriledge when he translated the holy Reliques of S. Andrew S. Luke and S. Timothy to Constantinople Or is
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
and render it to the eyes of all men exquisitely accomplish'd but this was one of the meanest of his admirable Atchievements for if he exposed himself to actual dangers for the sake of the truth what wonder was it that he should vindicate it in his writings But I will add one thing to my former Relation which I above all things revere in him and which I cannot without injuring you pass by at this time especially which is a time of Schisms and Contentions for this action of his ought to be an instruction to us that now are alive if we seriously weigh it for as when one thrusts his hand into the water he not only separates between the water that is left but between what he grasps in his hands and runs between his fingers So we divide not only from all impiety but from the eminently godly not in small and impertinent and contemptible opinions for this were more tolerable but in words that tend to one and the same sense for whereas we piously assert one essence and three hypostases the one describing the nature of the Godhead the other the properties of the Trinity as also do the Italians only by reason of the barrenness of their language not able to distinguish the hypostasis from the essence lest they might seem to admit three substances they substitute in the name of three hypostases three persons what happened something very ridiculous or rather lamentable This little difference in words made a noise as if there had been difference in opinion hence the Heresie of Sabellius took its rise because of the distinction of the three persons and Arianisme because of the three hypostases both being the rude off-spring of a pertinacious love of contention And what succeeded this small distinction being establish'd and grating on some mens minds and what made it distasteful was a love of quarelling the ends of the earth were in danger to be ruin'd by a few syllables which when this bless'd Saint this true man of God and great guide of souls both saw and heard he could not endure to slight and neglect so absurd and unreasonable a distinction but applyed a remedy to the distemper and how did he make his application having convened both parties with all meekness and humility and accurately weighed the intention of the words after he found them agreeing in the things themselves and not in the least differing in matters of doctrine allowing them the variety of names he tyed them to unity of sentiments this was a more advantagious act of charity to the Church than all his other daily labours and discourses which all men celebrate in which there may be intermixt some love of applause and for that reason some innovation made in the Faith This was more honorable than all his watchings and humicubations the benefits of which are confined to the particular practisers of those virtues nay it is nothing inferior to his applauded flights and exiles for after his sufferings he pursued those things for which he chose to undertake such calamities and this also was his design on others praising some moderately correcting others useing the spur to some dull tempers and the reins to other hot spirits infinitely careful that the offenders might repent and those that were innocent might be kept from falling in his conversation master of the greatest simplicity in his government of the greatest variety of skill wise in his discourses but much wiser in his intellect to the mean capacities he stoop'd himself to the more acute his notions and words were more sublime * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lover of strangers and advocate for the oppressed and a defender from danger he was in truth all those things which the Heathens parcel out among their Gods I will call him * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Patron of Marriage and the Friend of Virgins the Peace-maker and Reconciler and the guide to those who are going out of this life How many brave characters and qualities does the virtue of this Man afford me should I describe all when he had so lived was so instructed and so carefully had disciplined others that his life and demeanor was an exact pattern how a Bishop should have his conversation and his opinions the rule of Orthodoxy what reward did he reap of this piety for neither is this negligently to be past by he dies in a good old age and is gathered to his Fathers the Patriarchs and Prophets and Martyrs that combated for the truth and that I may give him a short Epitaph his Exit out of the World was more honorable and decorous than his return into his City from Banishment his Death was attended with an Universal Mourning and the thoughts that all men entertain'd themselves with of his worth out-went all that may be seen But thou O beloved and happy Man who among thy many other virtues didst exquisitely understand the seasons and measures of Speech and Silence do thou here put a period to my Oration which though it fall short of the truth and thy worth is yet proportionable to my weak abilities and look down propitiously on us from above and guide this people that are perfect adorers of the perfect Trinity which is contemplated and worship'd in the Father Son and holy Spirit protect me and help feed my Flock if peaceable and serene days attend me but if War and confusion reduce and assume me to a station with thy self and those that are like thee though it be no ordinary thing that I beg for the sake of Christ our Lord to whom be all glory honor and dominion for ever Amen THE LIFE OF S. Hilary OF POICTIERS I. IT is Mr. H.'s usual unhappiness in this his View to contradict himself while with more diligence than judgment he hath collected whatever scattered Memoires had relation to his subject without that severe examination that became an Historian whether all the particulars were reconcileable to the laws of time and truth Of this we have a pregnant instance in § 1. p. 396. where out of a Chronic. part 2 c. 3. p. 54. Antoninus we are entertain'd with a pleasant story of an Imaginary Council at Rome under a Pope Leo that never was which he that list may read at large in that Historian Who having recited the particulars out of Vincentius his Speculum and Jacobus de Voragine acknowledges them to be dubious and are indeed no way reconcileable to truth unless we create an Antipope at that time called Leo or assert that Pope Liberius had two names whereof one was Leo both which are equally improbable for there is not a word to this purpose in the antient Church-Historians who are so copious in their accounts of the Arian Synods no not in Philostorgius their own Historian who not caring to falsifie the Records of the Catholick Church would certainly never have stifled so remarkable a transaction had there been but the least
though in the whole seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans he had described the good man as one that with his flesh did serve the Law of Sin but with his mind the Law of God beginneth the eighth Chapter with this comfortable Assertion There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus i. such sins of ignorance and imperfection shall not damn them if they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit when he both affirms and denies that a man may be without sin he argues like S. Paul Phil. 3. where v. 12. he denies himself to be perfect and v. 15. affirms it but in divers senses So when Lactantius affirms that a man may live pure from all pollutions he argues ab impossibili which is an usual Topick but his true judgment he gives afterwards quod nemo esse sine delicto potest that no man can live without sinning as long as he is on this side the Grave The superstition of the Cross hath been already fully invalidated the unlawfulness of making War was an Errour but herein he followed Origen among the Ancients and Erasmus and other famous men of late have wedded the same Opinion his Doctrine of the Antipodes may be called a Heresie in Philosophy but by no means in Divinity and it was the ancient belief that the Souls of all men were detain'd in one common Prison which Opinion hath been already considered X. His discourse of the great Prophet who shall convert the Nations before the end of the World is somewhat strange and perhaps an intimation to us what mazes of their own making men wander in when they undertake to reveal what is hidden and unriddle the Apocalypse out of which the Millenary Doctrine had its rise After this Prophet's appearance shall be the day of retribution in which not all says Mr. H. p. 333. out of Lactantius shall be judged The Wicked being condemned already but only those who know God Which I would willingly see reconciled with that passage of his a Lact. Instit lib. 7. c. 26. Eodem tempore fiet secunda illa c. at the same time shall be the second and publick Resurrection of all persons in which the wicked shall be raised to live for ever in eternal torments such are they who have worship'd Idols and despised and renounc'd the Lord of the World For as to what Mr. H. avers to be Lactantius his Opinion I cannot find it either in the fourteenth Chapter of his seventh Book to which the Margin directs nor yet in the 24th as I think it should be printed and here I must again take leave to admire Mr. H's faculty of translating in these words Quos autem plenè justitia maturitas virtutis incoxerit ignem illum non sentient which he thus renders Those whom Righteousness and Maturity of Virtue shall have fully concocted shall not feel that Fire Which words as they lye he that can make sense of shall be my Oracle but in the 21 chap. of that Book I find some words to that purpose not that the Wicked shall not be judged but shall not rise again i. as I think not in that solemn manner as the just shall but immediately on the sound of the Trumpet shall be thrown into Hell XI Nor is it improbable but that this Father hath been impeach'd of some other Errours which Mr. H. hath not mentioned Ruffinus lays to his Charge and Tertullian's his Dogma that the Soul is ex traduce to which a Apolog. adv Ruffin l. 2. to 2. p. 217 218. S. Hierom answers that he rememâ—ers no such passage in him But he who â—eads that Father shall find him asserting the contrary Opinion for b De opific. Dei c. 19. proposing the queâ—tion Whether the Soul owe its being to the Faâ—her or Mother or both he answers it That Souls have their being neither from one or both â—he Parents but that God alone gives them Essence serendarum animarum ratio uni ac soli Deo subjacet the learned c Of Credulity and Incredulity in things natural and civil part 1. p. 181. Dr. Casaubon â—eckons another Errour of his That it is impossible for a just man to perish in any temporal calamity as in a Tempest or War but that God for his sake either will preserve the rest or when all the rest perish he alone shall be preserved But this could not be meant by him thetically but that it generally happens that God appears to the rescue of his Servants as he did of Noah and Lot for else a great part of Lactantius his design were superseded who makes the Sufferings of the Martyrs a solemn Testimony of the truth of their Religion and with this I conclude when I have given S. Hierom's Character of him that he was vir omnium suo tempore eruditissimus the best Scholar of his Age Tutor to the Emperours Son Crispus but so poor that many times he wanted necessaries Which might probably happen to him on the death of his Patron the Prince with whom he also might fall into disgrace and on whose death all his dependencies and hopes expired THE LIFE OF S. ATHANASIVS I. IN the Memoires of the Life of this able and worthy Champion of thaâ— Faith which was once delivered to thâ— Saints for which a Passim in histor l. 2. tom 11 12 18. lib. 3. tom 3 12. lib. 7. tom 2. c. Philostorgius the Arian Historian speaks so opprobriously of him I cannot but pay Mr. H. my thanks for acknowledging Sect. 1. p. 339 that the Baptism administred by b Vid. Sozom lib 2. c 16. Ruffin l. 10. c. 14. Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Athanasius to his play-Fellows was valid and noâ— to be reiterated as was defined by Alexander the then Patriarch of Alexandria and opposed by no other part of the Church in contradiction to the peevish Zeal of Becanus and others who will by no means be perswaded to allow its sufficiency Nequaquam sit jure pro rato habitus says c Loc. 47. quaest 17. p. 616. Becanus very Magisterially in the case wherein d De bapt contr Donatist l. 7. c. 53. S. Austin professes he will determine nothing till it be revealed to him from Heaven having just before asserted That that Initiatory Sacrament must not be reiterated wheresoever or by whomsoever it may have been administred so it be according to the form of words prescribed in the Gospel And this I have mentioned to evince the Church of England's practices to be consonant to the primitive usages which in case of most urgent necessity connives at Baptism administred by a Lay-man or Woman not but that the fact is irregular in the person that usurps the Priest's priviledges but that the person baptiz'd shall not be re-baptiz'd according to that good rule Quod fieri non debuit factum valet So e De baptismo Tertullian Nonne
says he honour the Lords day who despiseth the Saturday And d Homil. an liceat dimittere ux p. 56 57 Edit Raynandi Asterius Amisenus styles them the Nurses of devotion and the Parents of Church assemblies which summon the holy Priest to instruct his Congregation and command his Congregation to frequent the house of God and both to have a due care of their Souls Which observances had their confirmation not only in the Canons father'd on the e Can. 66. Can. 16 49 51. Apostles and the Provincial Council of f Laodicea but in the g Can. 55. sixth general Council at Constantinople which from all the parts of the Catholick Church commands an uniform submission to the Sanction which the Latines refusing this among other things help'd to widen the breach between them X. And to this day the h Smyth p. 29. Greek Church i Gaguin dereb Muscovit the Muscovites the k Abudac hist Jacebit c. 7. p. 10. Jacobites in Aegypt the Melchites in Syria and the l Breerwood's Enquir c. 16. c. 23. Abassynes keep this Festival not in conformity to the Jews which they expresly deny and which the same m Lacdic c. 29. Council that commands its Christian observation does expresly condemn as S. Basil does censure Apollinaris for the same Crime in his seventy sourth Epistle but in honour of the blest Jesus who is the Lord of the Sabbath And the Aethiopian Christians plead for it the Authority of the Apostles in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Claudius the King of that Country expresly declares in his n Apud Hottinger topogr Eccles orient c. 3. p. 47. vid. ejusd primit Heidelb p. 306. Confession by which he questionless means the Apostles Constitutions which in more than one place injoyn it as a preparation to the great day of the remembrance of our Saviours Resurrection the Christian Sabbath the Abassynes call it as they do call the other the Jewish Now the Apostles successors forbad fasting on this day say some because the primitive Hereticks Menander Saturnitus Cerinthus Basilides and others believing that the world because corruptible was not made by God but by the Devil fasted on that day when the Creation was consummated Others that it was done out of complyance with the Jews who were very numerous in the Eastern part of the World and very tenacious of the Mosaical Ceremonies so Circumcision was for a while retained to bury the Synagogue with honor others to testifie Christs resting in the grave that day and perhaps it proceeded from an unwillingness suddenly to cancel and abrogate that Festival which had by God himself been set apart for religious Exercises and which not only the bless'd Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath kept while here on earth but his Apostles for a very considerable time after his ascension and so much for that usage XI The Questions ad Antiochum are undoubtedly the off-spring of some other father and in this I assent to Mr. H. p. 370. But that therefore all the opinions therein mention'd must not be Orthodox I cannot imagine for as to the nine Orders of Angels the belief thereof is as antient as the genuine Athanasius for presently after him I find them distinctly reckoned by a Apolard◠Ruff◠l. 2. p. 220. vid. ej com in Is 63. S. Hierome for the Western Churches under the title of Cherubim and Seraphim throni principatus dominationes virtutes potestates Archangeli angeli and by b Orat. 39. p. 207. Ed. Paris 1622. S. Basii of Seleucia for the Churches of the East I will says he run through the Orders of Angels and leave the Princes thereof i. e. the Arch-angels behind me I shall be carried above the most pleasing company of the thrones above the height of powers and the eminence of principalities and the force of virtues above the most pure and perspicacious Cherubim and the quick Seraphim adorned with six wings And if we may confide in the conjectures of those learned men that place the Epocha of the Pseudo-Dionysius in the beginning of the fourth Century and make him coevous with Eusebius the Church-Historian then the Opinion will justly claim more Antiquity nor was the notion unknown to the Platonists of that age c De Myster Aegypt Segm. 2. c. 3. Jamblichus who was Pophyry's Scholar and flourisht under Julian the Apostate naming the several Orders of the Heavenly Hierarchy and Scutellius his Translator in the Margin reckons them XII And in truth I am perswaded that the Opinion is as old as Origen not only because S. Hierome where he enumerates these nine Orders of Spirits treats of Origen's errors but because I find the father himself numbring them under the names d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 6. of Angels Virtues Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions e Hom. 3. 4. in S. Luc. Seraphim and Arch-angels and these he there stiles divers Orders nay Clemens of Alexandria in his Excerpta out of the Oriental doctrine of Theodotus gives an account of the different Offices and Dignities of Angels and f Ep ad Smyrn S. Ignatius before him discourses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divers ranks and Orders of Angels as not only Baronius but our most learned Pearson understand him And why this notion should be so strange when holy Writ defends it I know not in that we have an account of Angels frequently of Arch-angels 1 Thes 4.16 of Cherubim Gen. 3.24 of Seraphim Is 6.2 of Principalities Powers Virtues and Dominions Eph. 1.21 of Thrones Col. 1.16 Nor can I fancy that these are divers names of the same thing for a To. 2. adv Jovin l. 2. p. 90. sinè causa diversitas nominum est ubi non est diversitas meritorum says S. Hierome in this very case it is in vain to use different names where the things are not distinguish'd XIII That the Saints departed know all things we leave as a novel assertion to its Patrons the Romanists in the mean time believing that the Saints pray for us for the whole Church in general which no sober man denies and sometimes and on some occasions for some persons in particular of which the History of Potamiaena in b Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 4. Eusebius is a sufficient evidence So S. Ignatius promises the Church at c Ep. ad Tralli p. 20. Trallis that he would pray for them not only while he was alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also when he came to Heaven And when the Fathers tell us that S. Paul's Conversion was owing to S. Stephen's Prayers may it not relate not only to the Lord lay not this sin to their charge but to his Supplications for him in Heaven thus did d Hom. 3. in Cant. Origen believe and e Ep. 57. p. 78. vid. eund de disc hab virg p. 139. de mortalit p. 177. S. Cyprian writing to
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
allowed by these Proctors of the Roman Church as becoming Language from a Puisny Bishop to his Holiness to impeach him of Heresie and anathematize him for notwithstanding all their Arguments I can see nothing why it may not be genuine XII His style is intricate but copious and lofty and for this cause among others Erasmus complains that it cost him more time and pains to correct S. Hilary Hier. Ep. 13. ad Paulin. tom 1. p. 106. Gallicano cothurno attollitur Sidon Apollin l. 4. Ep. 3. attollitur ut Hilarius than it did to set out S. Hierome although of S. Hierome a Ep. nuncup ante opera Hieron he speaks confidently that it cost that Father less study to write than him to fit his works for the Press after which he goes on with a continuation of the Character that his way of expressing himself is such that had he treated of those subjects that are plain and intelligible yet it would be hard to understand and easie to deprave his Writings much more now when he undertook to demonstrate what is above all reason and cannot be explain'd so that men have hardly usurp'd that liberty over any one of the Ancients as they have done over S. Hilary especially in his Books de Trinitate Synodis in which by comparing Manuscripts he found in some places whole Prefaces added in others a conclusion of a discourse in a third place 30 or 40 lines interpolated at once And when b Ep. 141. ad Marcell S. Hierome says That he durst not reprehend a man so eminent in his Age both for his courage in asserting the truth for the holiness of his life and the perswasiveness of his Eloquence which made him famous throughout the whole Roman Empire yet in the same Epistle he says that he understood neither Hebrew nor Greek for which Erasmus makes his Apology that for skill in Hebrew none of the Fathers before him had any but Origen and that engaged them to use the Translation of the Septuagint and for his knowledge of the Greek Tongue that he was happier in his own Compositions than in his Translations adding and omitting in the later what himself pleased Nor is his style without its Barbarisms but Scio inter Christianos verborum vitia non solere reprehendi says S. Hierome Solecisms in Speech are no breach of the Laws of Christianity XIII His Creed § 5. p. 407. is set down too short as if the holy Prelate never owned the belief of the Divinity of the holy Ghost when to what Mr. H. recites he should have added what immediately follows c Tom. 1. lib. 3. adv Constant p. 281. haec ego in spiritu sancto it a credidi ut c. These things by the assistance of the holy spirit do I so believe that I am not to be taught any other Creed for herein I differ not from the belief of the Fathers according to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Symbol repeated at my Baptism For if he defended the Trinity ex professo in his Books and owns the belief of the Apostolick Creed which he there mentions I know not how he can be said to deny the Divinity of the holy Ghost And this I mention because Erasmus and others so impeach him for that when he expresly mentions the adoration of the Father and the Son he alters his style when he speaks of the holy Ghost a De Trinit lib. 2. p. 30. l. 12. p. 261. hie ergo spiritus sanctus expetendus est promerendus est ut patrem filium adorem sanctum spiritum tuum promerear c. and for this method of expressing himself Erasmus gives his reasons by way of Apology either that his discourse did not require any more explicite Declaration of the holy Ghost's Divinity or that the Dogma was not yet defined by the Church or that there is no such position expresly laid down in Scripture or that his great design being against the Arians there was more need to prove the Deity of the Son of God who was made man Macedonius not yet appearing to disturb the Church and yet b Pag. 260. in the same Sentence where S. Hilary denies Christ to be a Creature he affirms the same of the holy Ghost and if no Creature then by the Father 's own way of arguing a Creator and if so to be adored and whatsoever is to be adored is God XIV The Errours laid to the charge of this venerable Ancient have been collected to Mr. H.'s hand by Erasmus and others but that acute Dutchman excuses the first when he assigns usum spiritui sancto as if it were a mistake of his in translating the passage out of some Greek Writer and it is affirmed by a c Chemnit orat de lect Patr. p. 4. good Author that he collected the Sentences of the Greeks concerning the Trinity fortasse legerat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod derivatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab utendo unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he imagined the word to signifie use which imports goodness and if so in this last sense the Doctrine is consonant to that of the Schools which attributes works of Power to God the Father of Wisdom to God the Son but of Mercy and Goodness to God the holy Ghost so that this is rather an Errour in Grammar a mis-translation than an Errour in Divinity XV. His second Errour was not only his but the Opinion of Clemens of Alexandria and others and Bonaventure says that Gulielmus Parisiensis saw a Book of S. Hilary's wherein he retracted that Opinion When he affirms that the blest Virgin did conceive carry in her Womb and bring forth our Saviour it implyes plainly that he derived his flesh and blood from the substance of his mother and when he subjoyns that he took nothing else from her I should understand it either of original sin which he was absolutely free from or rather of Humane Passions which the blest Virgin was subject to and so this Assertion immediately succeeding the former in the Father seems to me to be the same with it Nor can I think there would have been so intimate and sacred a friendship between our Confessor and S. Athanasius so great that the Alexandrian Patriarch translated S. Hilaries Books into Greek if the one had denied Christs being born of the substance of his Mother which the other makes an Article of his Creed So that here I cannot forbear giving my Reader the excellent advice of this very Father to guide him in such cases a De trinit lib. 1. p. 9. Optimus lector est qui dictorum intelligentiam exspectet ex dictis potius quà m attulerit neque cogat id videri dictis contineri quod ante lectionem praesumpserit d Apud Chemnit loc com part 1. sect de filie p. 76. intelligendum That man only is fit to read Books