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
it over with her Silver Wings S. Philip's Daughters were thus acted says c Hist lib. 3. c. 25. Eusebius and it lasted till the days of d Dialog cum Tryphon p. 308. S. Justin the Martyr about which time e Eus ubi supra lib. 5. c. 16. Quadratus Bishop of Athens was eminent for this gift and after him f Polycrat apud Eus l. 5. c. 23. Hier. Catal. v. Melito Melito Bishop of Sardis and g Apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 3. Irenaeus mentions a Revelation made to Attalus concerning Alcibiades But when Montanus pretended to engross this Donative and appropriate it to his Conventicle it became more rare and was bestowed only on a few persons of extraordinary qualifications men h Orig. contra Gels l. 7. that had attained to a high degree of self-denyal and mortification among whom we may reckon i Greg. Nyssen tom 2. p. 976. Phaedimus Bishop of Amasea who deputed S. Gregory the man of Miracles to his Bishoprick and S. Cyprian to whom the time and manner of his death was revealed in a Vision the miraculous influences of the holy spirit superintending the actions of those admirable men XXIV But I suppose that notwithstanding what the elder k Apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 16. Apollinaris avers that this Blessing was to last for ever in the Church and that S. l Ubi supr cap. 17. Austin says that it continued to his time that at farthest on the alteration of the state of Religion from a troubled and disturb'd to a serene and pacate scene of Affairs under Constantine this inspiration was seldom if ever conferred on any man for as to that Prophecy of S. Athanasius concerning Julian Nebecula est pertransibit that the Cloud would suddenly blow over and many others of antient and later times they are only the sage conjectures of an observing and prudent Experimenter who having read how the world hath been heretofore managed and in his own time remarked the revolutions of Affairs draws Conclusions strongly probable what will succeed from the same or the like premisses And it is observable that in such predictions as in the old Oracles what hath fallen out right hath had the good luck to be Chronicled when a thousand other such Essays that have not answer'd expectation have been buried in Oblivion So that Tully in his Epistles ad Atticum fore-telling the Miseries of the Civil War may on the same grounds be styled a Prophet and if such productions of a discreet and well-practis'd observer must presently commence Oracle this were giving up the Cause to the Church of Rome who to this day plead a right to this dispensation and in truth to every bold Enthusiast and pretender to Revelation but the Church of Rome may not boast of her Prophecies since their authoriz'd Saints contradict each other in the account of their Visions S. Bridget pretending a particular Revelation that the Virgin Mary was conceived in Original sin S. Katherine of Siena pleading Revelation to the contrary but were Prophecy yet continued to the Church it is no unquestionable Authority to broach new Doctrines a Vide Theodoret in loc Deut. 13.1 2. and S. b Contr. Faust Manichae lib. 4. c. 2. Austin's Character of the Patriarchs is the best way of judging concerning this excellent endowment That a life according to the Laws of the Prophets is preferrable to a Tongue tip'd with such Seraphick Discourses Illorum hominum non tantum lingua sed vita prophetica fuit c Chrys To. 2. hom 24. in Matth. p. 172. For Pharaoh had his Dreams Nebuchadnezzar his Visions and Balaam his Spirit of Prophecy while these Communications from Heaven were so far from alleviating that they aggravated both their Crimes and Torments XXV To dispossess Satan was the design of the Son of God and when he had conquered the main Body he left the subduing the dispers'd and routed Troops to his Followers who got signal Victories over the baffled and affronted powers of the Kingdom of Darkness and erected their Trophies over Satan not only in the days of d Apol. 1. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 247. Justin Martyr and e Lib. 2. c. 56 57. Irenaeus of f Apol. c. 23. c. 37. ad Scapul c. 3. Tertullian and g Octav. p. 90 92. Minut. Foelix but in the days of h Contr. Cels l. 2. Origen i Nyss to 2. p. 998 999. Gregory Thaumaturgus k Ep. 2. p. 6. S. Cyprian and l Lib. 2. cap. 16. Lactantius those unclean guests being driven out of their Habitations by the Prayers of the devout Exorcist and though the Gentiles dreaded being possest their Daemons equally dreaded the Christians with whose words they being tormented as a Malefactor is with a Whip did not only confess themselves to be evil Spirits but gave an account of their names and for such Cures were the Servants of Jesus sought unto even by their Enemies and Persecutors So M. Aurelius Antoninus courted Abercius the Bishop of Hierapolis to dispossess his Daughter Lucilla who had been betroathed to Lucius Verus his Collegue in the Empire and the holy man undertook and accomplish'd it And though the truth of that story be by some doubted yet it seems to me to carry with it its own credentials and a To. 2. an 163. p. 15 0 1. Baronius hath fully evinc'd it XXVI But I suppose that as soon as the great Enemy of Christianitie's Interests so sensibly decayed as they did under Constantine when his Oracles ceas'd and his Temples were defac'd when he was no longer fed with the steams of slain Beasts and the fumes of Incense then also this power ceas'd in the Church of God though b De Civit. D. l. 22. c. 8. S. Austin avers that it continued till his time 'T is true the term Exorcist continued and had a place in after Ages among the names of the Church-Officers but then it was only aequivalent to Catecheist the ancient Exorcists both instructing the Catechumens and superintending the Daemoniacs which being an employment that the Church could not want succeeded to the whole title on the expiring of that miraculous power for to believe that the present charms of the Romanists succeed to the practices of the Ancients I must first be induced to credit their Legends and believe that an Amulet shall keep me shot-free or cure a Fever But such Tricks find a livelihood for their wandring and irregular Priests and that gives them some credit but neither is this such a great mark of God's favour or a true Church if it were yet continued for c Chrys ubi supr p. 171. Judas had power given him to cast out Devils and yet himself was one XXVII That the anointing the desperately sick with Oyle was also a speciaâ— influence of the holy Spirit is uncontroleably asserted in that story of the Emperour d Tert. ad
k Nyss To. 2. vit Gr. Thaum p. 1006. S. Gregory of Neocaesaria returned from his retirement in the Decian persecution he commanded the Festivals of those that had been martyred during his recess to be observ'd and all the people annually met at the places of their Burial and made that day a holy-day and to take them off from their old Heathenish Customs that prudent Prelate permitted them on those Solemnities to chear themselves and recreate their drooping Spirits with the several kinds of innocent mirth out of an intention to induce them by those sensible joys to the rellish of more spiritual and nobler pleasures For the Christians did not observe their Festivals as the Heathens did theirs with a pompous train of obscene and impudent observances and all the Arts of Debauchery but with a Feast l Theod. ubi supr whence all Drunkenness and Gluttony and immoderate laughter were banish'd and where all things were perform'd with a modest chaste and temperate decorum m Naz. Orat 6. p. 139 140. consul loc The Fathers severely cautioning the people on such occasions not to indulge to voluptuousness intemperance and luxury and other pleasurable satisfactions that vanish in a moment For what conformity is there between carnal pleasures and the Combats of the Martyrs The one becomes a Theatre the other the Church He who will celebrate the Festival as he ought must imitate their Combats and their Victories and stedfastness to the interests of truth must dread nothing but to dishonour God and pollute his Image and this is a Festival kept according to the mind of Christ XVIII It is true what the Fathers foresaw and would have prevented fell out at last to the prejudice of Religion every man a Conc Carthag ' 5. Can. 14 pretended a Vision and on the strength of that built an Altar to an imaginary Martyr the people in those Meetings gave the reins to all sort of unbecoming and irregular mirth to Intemperance and Lasciviousness and treated themselves with Wine and Dainties and set up b Basil reg fusior disput interr 40. Markets near the Coemeteries for the sale of necessaries for those luxuriant Banquets till the c Aug. contr Faust Manich l. 20. c. 21. Manichees objected it to the Catholicks that they did appease the Manes of the dead thereby This set the Prelates of the Church by degrees to discountenance and bring into disuse these conventions the d Conc. Illiberit Can. 34 35. Council of Elvire forbiding the burning of Torches in the Coemeteries by day and Womens watching there by night the making the Feasts there was prohibited by the Council of e Can. 28. Laodicea the Markets severely decry'd by S. Basil the Oblations of the Bread and Wine and other conveniences for the Feast disallowed by S. f Aug. ubi supr de C. D. l. 8. c. 27. Confes l. 6. c. 2. Ambrose and other holy and wise Bishops because of the intemperance in which most men then wallowed And yet the people were not of a sudden wholly converted from this distemper but that g B. Foelicis Natal 9. p. 668 669. Paulinus complains that they retained a spice of their old Heathenisme serving their Belly as their God and spending the whole night by Torch-light in sports and drinking and luxury But to the Festivals when soberly and Christianly observ'd the Bishops of the Church used to invite their Neighbour-Prelates So h Ep. 336. S. Basil engages one of the Bishops of his Province to be present at the Anniversary of some Martyrs and i Naz. Tom. 1. Orat. 6. p. 139. S. Gregory Naz. was invited by S. Gregory Nyssen and Nicetas a Dacian Bishop was a Guest to k Paulin. ubi supr p. 664. S. Paulinus on the Feast of S. Foelix XI To the honor of the Martyrs did the Primitive Christians very early l Theod. ubi suprd Asterius Amisen Homil. de avarit p. 51. Edit Rayn build Churches Platina says that Pope Fabianus began the custom they were called Martyria by the Chalcedon Council Confessiones Memoriae Martyrum by the Latines Caius the antient Ecclesiastical Writer mentioning the Trophies as he calls them of S. Peter in the Vatican and S. Paul in the Via Ostiensis which Baronius will have to be Churches built to their honour and it agrees to the account of m De 7. Urbis Eccles c 4. p. 45. c. Onuphrius that there was a little Oratory erected over S. Peter's Grave in the Vatican near the Via Triumphalis which was afterward destroyed by Elagabalus that profligate Emperour n Catalog v. Clemens S. Hierome also informs us that there was a Church built at Rome to the memory of S. Clemens that continued till his time a Vic. de persec Vandalic l. 1. two Churches were built to the memory of S. Cyprian presently on his Martyrdom which were the one rased the other usurpt by the Arrians b Naz. Orat 21. p. 386. another to the Virgin Thecla in the City of Seleucia and probably it was so done in other places but when the Christian Faith was acknowledged by the Governours of the world and Constantine submitted his Scepter to the Cross nothing was so usual as the enquiries after the Reliques of the Martyrs and erection of stately beautiful and well-adorn'd Fabricks to their memories the building Temples and erecting Altars c Aug. de C.D. l. 22. c. 10. where they facrificed not to the Martyrs but to that God who is equally the Patron of the Church Triumphant and Militant that great man built a noble Church over S. Paul's Grave at Rome another at Constantinople to the honour of the twelve Apostles and d Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14 15. the Divine gives us a memorable instance how God was pleas'd with the hearty zeal of those pious persons for when both Gallus and Julian before his Apostasie were wonderfully concern'd and careful in testifying their love to the holy Jesus by their beautifying and endowing the Monuments of the Martyrs and building Churches to them the God of the Martyrs publickly testified his acceptance of the unfeigned devotions of Gallus by prospering the work till it was compleated but miraculously demonstrated his disrelish of Julians hypocritical pretences as he despis'd Cain 's Sacrifice for the Earth where he laid the foundation of his Temple spued up the materials and though he more than once eagerly endeavour'd to fix a Basis it still continued as if a perpetual Earthquake had resided there to overthrow and scatter what was built Heaven taking care by this instance not only to vindicate it self from the godly pretences of that Infidel but to caution the World what a future Enemy he would be to the Martyrs For the e Sozomen l. 5. c. 19. Historian reckons it as a great Specimen of his spleen and malice that he commanded the Churches of the Martyrs
hath blest me with the acquaintance of this wise and good man a happiness that out-bids all other fruitions to whom I had no relation either by Birth or Blood by Friendship Neighbourhood or Country which are the usual Originals of Amity amongst most men but my good Genius by a divine and wise Providence bringing me hither contrived and perfected and that questionless by designation from the first hour of my birth this blessed Union between us that were Strangers and unknown each to other and separated at a great distance as far as many intervening Nations high Mountains and deep Rivers could divide us It would be too long accurately to describe all the circumstances and particulars that gave birth to this familiarity I shall therefore mention only some few of the most material passages I. My first education from my Birth was under the tuition of my Gentile Parents freedom from which erroneous sentiments I suppose no man could expect nor my self hope being as yet a child void of reason and under the instruction of a superstitious Father But not long after my Father's death leaving me an Orphan was perchance the first favourable circumstance that conduced to my acquaintance with the Truth for then first I began to apply my mind to true and saving reason I know not whether by the bent of my will or any impulsive force for what strength of judgment could there be in a child of 14 years old But then I began to attain the use of sacred reason as most men at that age use to do Which passage though I might heretofore yet now I cannot look on as a mean effect of the holy and admirable providence of God towards me that when I survey the course of my affairs according to the series of my years all my actions that preceded this my puberty though very erroneous are to be attributed to my infancy and want of understanding and that the sacred dictates did not offer themselves in vain to my soul before it was endowed with reason but that as soon as it attained to the use of that faculty though not in its purity I began to be in love not only with humane but Divine knowledge while the sacred learning by its own powers to me ineffable did assist the secular which while I remember my soul is transported both with joy and fear being glad that I have made so good a progress but dreading that after having attained so far I may fail of my end Thus I know not how have my words multiplyed beyond my design while I am willing to give you an account of my first acquaintance with this admirable person hastening to a relation of what succeeded not as if I intended to praise or requite him that so bless'd me but that I may afford you a plain and sincere History of my life and actions My mother on whom was devolved the whole care of my education thought it fit having past through those other studies that become children well born and brought up to place me with a teacher of Rhetorick that I might be an Orator whose School we frequented and were by competent judges thought likely to prove famous for eloquence but I had no mind to this sort of employ which wanted its charms to endear it unto me but my Divine guide that was faithful in the tuition of his pupil and incessantly watchful over me for good when neither my Relations thought of it nor my self desired it suggested to one of my Instructors who was appointed to teach me the Latine Tongue a design to perswade me to the study of the Roman Laws in which himself was no inconsiderable Master he undertook the task diligently and I obey'd him rather to please him than my self in a study which I fancied not When he admitted me his Scholar he imparted his notions to me with accuracy and one thing which he told me I find very true that the study of those Laws would be of great advantage to me whether I resolv'd to be a Rhetorician and plead at the Bar or would betake my self to any other calling Thus his Lectures tended to make me passionate of Secular Learning but to me he seemed to be acted by a Diviner afflatus than himself was sensible of After I had been thus a while a pupil to the Laws there fell out the occasion of my coming into this Country that I might make my progress in the City of Berytus which not being far distant hence * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a free City and a famous Academy for the study of the Roman-Laws other business had not long before brought this holy man from Alexandria in Egypt where he formerly resided into this City as if it had fallen out on purpose to give me the happy occasion of meeting him what the reasons of his journey were I know not and willingly will pretermit but there was nothing so conducive to my coming hither as that by the study of the Laws I might be fitted to travel to Rome and how came this to pass The President of Palestine having taken my Brother-in-law with him to this place to assist and ease him of his care in Governing the Province for he was a Lawyer engaged him in the journey without the company of his Wife of whom he was not willing long to live depriv'd and therefore sent for her and us to accompany her so that when I was meditating on travelling any other where rather than here lo a Soldier with an Injunction that my Sister must go to her Husband and that we should take the same journey out of complaisance to our Brother-in-law especially to our Sister that she might the more decently and with the greater chearfulness undertake the journey our kinred perswading us that it would be no mean instrument to the perfecting of our Studies if we resided at Berytus all things conspired to encline us the gratifying our Sister and the convenience of our own instruction besides the easiness of conveyance the Soldier having brought more Carriages than were necessary for my Sister alone These were the known incentives but the hidden motives were most prevalent the conversation of this venerable Philosopher the true knowledg of the word of God by his Ministry and the profit of our Souls this brought us blind and ignorant to be partakers of Salvation So that it was not the Soldier but the holy Guide and good Guardian that accompanyed led and defended us through our whole lives as through a long Pilgrimage and slightly passing by other places and Berytus it self with which we seemed most passionately in love hither brought and here setled us using all methods to endear us to this great instrument of our felicity and perchance that good Angel that had took the custody of me hitherto here desisted not worn out with its care and tutorage for those sacred Ministers are unwearied but because he had delivered me over to the proxy inspection of