should be desired suffering himself to be despised and rejected of men who esteemed him not and hid as it were their faces from him who counted himself a worm and no man and was accordingly made a reproach of men and the derision of the people all they that saw him laughing him to scorn shooting out the lip and shaking the head at him Now if our Lord himself was so humble-minded what should we be who are come under the yoke of his grace This and much more to the same purpose has that Venerable and Apostolical man in that admirable Epistle wherein he does lively describe and recommend the meek and excellent spirit of the Gospel Justin the Martyr treads in the very same steps He tells us that we are to shun all sinister suspicions of others and to be very careful what Opinion we entertain of them that we are to be of a meek and unpassionate mind not envying the good esteem and respect which others have nor ambitiously affecting or putting our selves forwards upon any service or imployment that we are humbly to submit our selves not in words only but in all our actions so as that we may appear to be not Impostors and Distemblers but mild and undesigning persons for whoever would govern his life aright must be modest and unpragmatical not angry and contentious but silently consider with himself what is best and fittest to be done that we are to account others wise and prudent and not to think our selves the only discreet and understanding persons that we must not despise their admonitions but hearken to their counsels when ever they are just and true When some in St. Cyprian's time had made a noble and resolute confession of Christ in the face of the greatest danger lest they should be exalted above measure in their own thoughts he bids them remember according to the discipline of the Gospel to be humble and modest and quiet that they might preserve the honour of their name and be as glorious in their actions as they had been in their words and confessions of Christ that they should imitate their Lord who was not more proud but more humble at the time of his passion washing his Apostles feet and follow the counsel and pattern of St. Paul who in his greatest sufferings continued meek and humble and did not arrogate any thing to himself no not after he had been honoured with a translation into Paradise and the third Heavens And great reason he had to press this with all possible vehemency at that time lest Christians by their turbulent and unquiet carriage should provoke the Heathen Magistrate to greater severity against them and indeed who could better do it than he who was himself so eminent for humility For though some Schismatical persons whose wildness and insolence he sought to restrain endeavoured to insinuate that he was not so humble as became a man of his Rank and Order and as were our Lord and his Apostles yet observe how he vindicates himself in a Letter to Pupianus the Head of the Party As for my humility says he 't is sufficiently known not only to the Brethren but the Gentiles themselves do see and respect it and thou thy self didst know and honour it whilst thou wast yet in the Church and didst Communicate with me but which of us I pray is farthest from humility I who daily serve the Brethren and receive those who come unto the Church with all joy and kindness or Thou who makest thy self a Bishop over thy Bishop and pretendest to be a Judge appointed by God over him who is thy Judge And indeed how far the good man was from any designs of greatness and domination appear'd in this that when the people had universally chosen him to be Bishop he privately withdrew and retir'd himself reckoning himself unworthy of so great and honourable an Office and giving way to others whose age and experience rendred them as he thought much fitter for it but the importunity of the people being heightned into a greater impatiency and having found where he was they beset the house and blocked up all passages of escape till they had found him and forc'd it upon him And with no less humility did he behave himself in the discharge of it When consulted by some of his Clergy what they should do in the case of the lapsed he answers that being now alone he could say nothing to it for that he had determin'd from his first entring upon his Bishoprick not to adjudge any thing by his own private order without the counsel of the Clergy and the consent of the People So meanly did that wise and excellent man think of himself and so much did he attribute to the judgement and concurrence of those that were below him Nazianzen reports of his Father a Bishop too that amongst other Vertues he was peculiarly remarkable for Humility which he did not express Philosopher-like in little arts of external modes and carriage putting on a feign'd behaviour like women who having no natural beauty of their own fly to the additionals of dresses and paintings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming more deformed by their ascititious beauty His Humility consisted not in his dress but in the constancy of his mind not in the hanging down of his head or the softness of his tone or the demureness of his look or the gravity of his beard or the shaving of his head the cropping of his hair or the manner of his gate but in the frame and temper of his soul being as humble in his mind as he was sublime and excellent in his life and when no man could arrive at the perfection of his Vertues yet every one was admitted to a freedom of converse with him Both in his garb and diet he equally avoided pomp and sorâ—â—dness and though a great restrainer 〈…〉 â—ppetite would yet seem not to do it â—est he should be thought plainly to design glory to himself by being needlesly singular above other men How industriously do we find them many times disowning that deserved praise and commendation that was due to them How modestly does Justin Martyr decline his adversaries commendation of the acuteness and elegancy of his reasonings resolving all into the Grace of God that enabled him to understand and expound the Scriptures of which Grace he there perswades all men freely and fully to become partakers with him Of the Confessors in the time of the persecution under M. Aurelius Eusebius out of the relation which the Churches of Vienna and Lyons in France sent to the Churches in Asia tells us that although they had often born witness to the Truth at the dearest rate of any thing on this side death though they had been frequently thrown to wild Beasts expos'd to the fire and the remains of wounds and violence were visible in all parts of their bodies yet in imitation of the great humility of the
lodgings of the women When although they should be free from actual adultery yet even in this 't would be a fault of a mighty aggravation that by their scandalous example others might be seduced into ruine S. Basil writing to a Monk who had been overtaken with this fault elegantly bewailes the greatness of his sin as a dishonour to the strictness of his former profession a reproach to those lips which had kiss'd the mouths of so many Saints to those hands which so many devout persons had embrac'd as pure and undefiled to those knees before which so many servants of God had fallen down as a being caught in the snare of a crafty Devil a perfidious violation of his promises a being become a sport and scorn to Jews and Gentiles a confuting what in him lay that triumphant speech of Christ that he had overcome the world filling even to the place where he liv'd a cup of infamy and reproach In the next Epistle he deals with the Woman and treats her with the same elegant severity though in both he so aggravates the case as to excite them to repentance and to a speedy recovery of themselves out of the snare of the Devil But because good words and perswasions were not cords strong enough to restrain some mens irregular lusts and passions they twisted with them the Discipline of the Church And therefore Sixthly They were wont to punish the breach of Chastity by inflicting severe penalties upon incontinent persons Amongst all the sins that were most sharply punished in the ancient Church Adultery was one of the chief who-ever was convicted of it was immediately cast out of the Church and dis-owned as a rotten member This Tertullian tells us first made Marcion turn Heretick for being found guilty of lying with a Virgin and for that thrown out of the Communion of the Church he betook himself to one Cerdon a Master Heretick and espoused his Doctrines and Opinions The truth is in those first times the punishment of Adultery was very great perpetual penance all a mans life and scarce being admitted into Communion at the very hour of death till Pope Zephyrinus about the year two hundred and sixteen considering the great inconveniencies of so much severity persons hereby being oft driven into despair and others discouraged from coming over to the Christian Faith ordered that Penance in this case should be limited to a shorter time which being ended such persons might be received again into the bosom of the Church This Decree gave great offence to the African Churches most whereof stood up for the strictness of the ancient Discipline Tertullian more especially inveighs against it with much bitterness and animosity as a thing unfit in it self and an innovation in the Church The same Cyprian also plainly intimates though he himself was for the more mild Opinion By the Ancyran Council held Anno three hundred and fifteen it was Decreed That whoever was guilty of Adultery should be punish'd with a seven years Penance before they were admitted to the Communion By the Synod of Illiberis if a man after having done his Penance for the first fault fell afterwards into the same sin again he was not to be taken into Communion no not at the hour of death The same punishment they inflicted upon Bawds and such persons as for gain prostituted the bodies of their Children by selling them or themselves rather of whom their children were a part to lust and ruine S. Basil writing to Amphilochius rules for the conduct of Discipline and the measures of repentance sets Adultery at fifteen years Penance Fornication at seven and then to be admitted to the Holy Sacrament His Brother Gregory Bishop of Nyssa treating about the same affairs appoints Fornication to be punished with no less than nine years Penance and suspension from the Sacrament and Adultery and all other species of uncleanness with double that time though allowing a liberty to the Spiritual Guide to contract this time as the circumstances of the Case or Person might require But both these last mention'd being but private Bishops their Canons could be no further obligatory than to those particular Diocesses that were under their charge And indeed the censures of the Church in this case did much vary according to time and place in some more rigid and severe in others more laxe and favourable though in all such as did abundantly shew what hearty enemies they were to all filthiness and impurity whatsoever What has been hitherto said of the Modesty the chast and sober carriage of the Primitive Christians will receive further light if we consider how clearly they vindicated themselves from that malicious charge of Incest and Adultery which the Heathens commonly charg'd upon them so commonly that we scarce find any of the ancient Apologists but takes notice of it and confutes it The sum of the charge as 't is more formally drawn up by the Heathen in M. Foelix take thus That the Christians knew one another by certain privy marks and signs and were wont to be in love with almost before they knew one another that they exercised lust and filthiness under a pretence of Religion promiscuously calling themselves Brothers and Sisters that by the help of so sacred a name their common Adulteries might become incestuous that upon a solemn day they meet together at a feast he means their love-feasts with their Wives Children Sisters Mothers persons of every Age and Sex where after they have well eaten and drunk and begun to be warm and merry heated with the excess of wine a piece of meat is thrown for the dogs who being tied to the Candlesticks begin to leap and frisk about till they have run away with and put out the lights and then nothing being left but darkness the fit cover and shadow for impudence and villany they promiscuously run amongst one another into filthy and incestuous embraces and if they be not all alike guilty of incest 't is not the faults of their will but the good fortune of their chance seeing what actually happens to one is intentionally the lot of all This is the tale which however absurd and incredible yet strangely found belief or at least was pretended to be believ'd amongst the enemies of Christianity Now though it be sufficiently refuted by what has been already said yet we may observe the Christians of those times further pleading these Four things in their own vindication First That if the Charge had been true yet the Heathens had little reason to object it to the Christians being themselves so notoriously guilty in this kind For Adultery nothing more common amongst them and for Incest 't was a general indictment of whole Nations the Persians usually lying with their own Mothers the Macedonians and Egyptians marrying with their own Sisters and this done even at Athens it self their Histories full of them their Plays and Tragedies which they
Apology if they had not heard the sum of it to hold another conference with him even before the Senate it self which he thought would be a work worthy of so wise and grave a Council or if they had heard it then he did not doubt but they clearly apprehended how little he understood these things or that if he did understand them he knowingly dissembled it to his Auditors not daring to own the truth as Socrates did in the face of danger an evident argument that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Philosopher but a slave to popular applause and glory Secondly They did in some sort confess the charge that according to the vulgar notion which the Heathens had of their Deities they were Atheists i.e. strangers and enemies to them that the gods of the Gentiles were at best but Daemons impure and unclean spirits who had long imposed upon mankind and by their villanies sophistries and arts of terrour had so affrighted the common people who knew not really what they were and who judge of things more by appearance than by reason that they call'd them gods and gave to every one of them that name which the Daemon was willing to take to himself and that they really were nothing but Devils fallen and apostate spirits the Christians evidently manifested at every turn forcing them to the confessing it while by Prayer and invocating the name of the true God they drove them out of possessed persons and therefore they trembled to encounter with a Christian as Octavius triumphingly tells Caecilius that they entertained the most absurd and fabulous notions of their gods and usually ascrib'd such things to them as would be accounted an horrible shame and dishonour to any wise and good man the Worship and mysterious Rites of many of them being so brutish and filthy that the honester and severer Romans were asham'd on 't and therefore overturn'd their Altars and banished them out of the roll of their Deities though their degenerate posterity took them in again as Tertullian observes their gods themselves so impure and beastly their Worship so obscene and detestable that Julius Firmicus advises them to turn their Temples into Theatres where the secrets of their Religion may be delivered in Scenes and to make their Players Priests and that the common rout might sing the amours the sports and pastimes the wantonnesses and impieties of their gods no places being so fit for such a Religion as they Besides the attributing to them humane bodies with many blemishes and imperfections and subjection to the miseries of humane life and to the laws of mortality they could not deny them to have been guilty of the most horrid and prodigious villanies and enormities revenge and murther incest and luxury drunkenness and intemperance theft and unnatural rebellion against their Parents and such like of which their own Writings were full almost in every page which served only to corrupt and debauch the minds and manners of youth as Octavius tells his adversary where he pursues this argument at large with great eloquence and reason Nay those among them that were most inquisitive and serious and that entertained more abstract and refin'd apprehensions of things than the common people yet could not agree in any fit and rational notion of a Deity some ridiculously affirming one thing and some another till they were divided into a hundred different opinions and all of them farther distant from the truth than they were from one another the vulgar in the mean while making gods of the most brutish objects such as Dogs Cats Wolves Goats Hawks Dragons Beetles Crocodiles c. this Origen against Celsus particularly charges upon the Egyptians When you approach says he their sacred places they have glorious Groves and Chappels Temples with goodly Gates and stately Portico's and many mysterious and religious Ceremonies but when once you are entred and got within their Temples you shall see nothing but a Cat or an Ape or a Crocodile or a Goat or a Dog worshipp'd with the most solemn veneration Nay they deified senseless and inanimate things that had no life or power to help themselves much less their Worshippers Herbs Roots and Plants nay unmanly and degenerate passions fear paleness c. fell down before stumps and statues which owed all their Divinity to the cost and folly of their Votaries despised and trampled on by the sorriest Creatures Mice Swallows c. who were wont to build nests in the very mouth of their gods and Spiders to periwig their heads with Cobwebs being forc'd first to make them and then make them clean and to defend and protect them that they might fear and worship them as he in Minutius wittily derides them in whose Worship there are says he many things that justly deserve to be laught at and others that call for pity and compassion And what wonder now if the Christians were not in the least ashamed to be called Atheists with respect to such Deities and such a Religion as this was Thirdly In the strict and proper notion of Atheism they no less truly than confidently denied the charge and appealed to their severest adversaries whether those who owned such principles as they did could reasonably be stiled Atheists none ever pleaded better and more irrefragable arguments for the existence of a supream infinite Being who made and governs all things by infinite wisdom and almighty power none ever more ready to produce a most clear and candid confession of their faith as to this grand article of Religion than they Although we profess our selves Atheists with respect to those whom you esteem and repute to be gods so their Apologist tells the Senate yet not in respect of the true God the parent and fountain of wisdom and righteousness and all other excellencies and perfections who is infinitely free from the least contagion or spot of evil Him and his only begotten Son who instructed us and the whole Society of good Angels in these divine mysteries and the Spirit of Prophecie we worship and adore honouring them in truth and with the highest reason and ready to communicate these things to any one that 's willing to learn them as we our selves have received them Can we then be Atheists who worship the great Creator of this world not with blood incense and offerings which we are sufficiently taught he stands no need of but exalt him according to our power with prayers and praises in all the addresses we make to him believing this to be the only honour that 's worthy of him not to consume the Creatures which he has given us for our use and the comfort of those that want in the fire by Sacrifice but to approve our selves thankful to him and to sing and celebrate rational hymns and sacrifices pouring out our prayers to him as a grateful return for those many good things which we have received and do yet expect from him
to Nature and Reason and to a life of temperance and all other virtues and the same he urges frequently in other places and what greater kindness and benefit could be done to men Does Celsus call upon us says he to bear Offices for the good of our Country let him know that the Country is much more beholden to Christians than to the rest of men while they teach men piety towards God the tutelar Guardian of the Country and shew them the way to that heavenly City that is above which they that live well may attain to though here they dwell in the smallest City in the world Nor do the Christians thus employ themselves because they shun the publick Offices of the civil life but only reserve themselves for the more divine and ncessary services of the Church in order to the good and happiness of men for this they think very just and reasonable that they should take care of all men of them of their own party that they may every day make them better of others that they may draw them to the belief and practice of piety and Religion that so worshipping God in truth and doing what they can to instruct others they may be united to the great God and to his blessed Son who is the wisdom truth and righteousness and by whom it is that every one is converted to a pious and religious life Theodoret discoursing against the Gentiles of the excellency of the Laws of Christ above any that were given by the best Philosophers or wisest men amongst the Heathens gives them instances of whole Nations whom Christianity had brought off from the most brutish and savage manners he tells them of the Persians who by the Laws given them by Zarada lived in incestuous mixtures with their own Mothers Sisters and Daughters looking upon it as a lawful and warrantable practice till entertaining Christianity they threw off those abominable Laws and submitted to that temperance and chastity which the Gospel requires of us And whereas before they were wont to cast out the bodies of their dead to be devoured by Beasts and Birds of prey since they embraced the Christian Religion they abstained from that piece of inhumanity and decently committed them to the earth from which they could not be restrained either by the Laws of their Country or the bitterness of those torments which they underwent The Massagetes who thought it the most miserable thing in the world to dye any other than a violent death and therefore made a Law that all persons arrived to old age should be offered in Sacrifice and eaten no sooner submitted to Christianity but abhorred those barbarous and abominable Customs The Tibarens who used to throw aged persons down the steepest Rocks left it off upon their embracing of the Gospel Upon the same account the Hyrcani and the Caspians reformed their manners who were formerly wont to keep Dogs on purpose to devour the bodies of the dead Nor did the Scythians any longer together with their dead bury those alive who had been their nearest friends and kindred So great a change says my Author did the Laws of Christ make in the manners of men and so easily were the most barbarous Nations perswaded to entertain them a thing which Plato though the best of all Philosophers could never effect amongst the Athenians his own Fellow Citizens who could never induce them to govern the Common-wealth according to those Laws and Institutions which he had prescribed them Nay where the Gospel did not produce this effect to reclaim men from their vices and vanities and to bring them over to the Religion of the crucified Saviour yet had it this excellent influence upon the world that it generally taught them better lessons refin'd their understandings and filled their minds with more useful and practical notions about Religion than they had before To which purpose it 's mainly observable that those Philosophers who lived in the time of Christianity after the Gospel publickly appeared in the world wrote in a much more divine strain entertained more honourable and worthy sentiments about God and Religion and the duties of men in their several capacities than those of their Sect that went before them Of which I conceive no account can be given so satisfactory as this that the genius and spirit of the Gospel began then to fly abroad and to breathe in a freer air and so could not but leave some tincture and savour upon the spirits of men though its most inveterate Enemies Besides that many of them did more nearly converse with the Writings of Christianity which they read either out of curiosity or with a design to confute and answer them This doubtless sharpned the edge of their understandings and furnished them with better notions more useful precepts and rules of life than are to be met with in any of the old Philosophers witness those excellent and uncommon strains of piety that run through the Writings of Seneca Epictetus Antoninus Arrian Plutarch Hierocles Plotinus and the rest that lived in those first Ages of the Gospel of which I could give considerable instances were it necessary to my purpose I shall only as a specimen set down that Prayer wherewith Simplicius Enemy enough to Christianity concludes his Comment upon Epictetus and thus he makes his address to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Beseech thee O Lord thou that art the Father and guide of our rational powers grant that we may be mindful of those noble and generous natures with which thou hast invested us and assist us that as persons endued with self-moving principles we may cleanse our selves from all bodily and brutish passions that we may subdue and govern them and in a due and decent manner use them only as Organs and instruments Help us through the light of the truth accurately to correct our reason and to unite it to those things that have a real existence And in the third place I beseech my Saviour that he would perfectly dispel the mist that is before the eyes of our minds that according to that of the Poet we may rightly understand what belongs either to God or man Besides the matter of this Prayer which is very sublime and spiritual the manner of its composure is considerable consisting of three parts and those addressed as it were to three persons answerable to those in the blessed Trinity the Lord or Father the Saviour or Christ and the light of truth which even in Scripture is a common Periphrasis of the Holy Spirit whether he intended this I will not say sure I am it looks very like it But enough of this Secondly That they ordinarily wrought such miracles as were incomparably beneficial to the world in curing diseases raising the dead and rescuing possessed persons from the merciless rage and cruelty of the Devil we may observe that in those primitive times there were innumerable multitudes of possessed persons beyond what were
in the Ages either before or since the Divine Providence doubtless permitting it to be so that by this means there might be a fairer occasion of commending Christianity to the world and there is nothing which we more commonly meet with in the Writings of the ancient Fathers than testimonies concerning their triumphant power over evil spirits Justin Martyr discoursing of the end of Christ's coming into the world for the salvation of men and the subversion of Devils tells the Senate that these things are so you may know by what is done before your eyes for many that were possessed by Devils throughout the whole world and even in this City of yours whom all your Inchanters Sorcerers and Conjurers were not able to cure many of us Christians adjuring them by the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified under Pontius Pilate have perfectly cured and do still cure disarming and driving out of men those Daemons that had seized upon them and the same he affirms more than once and again in his discourse with Trypho the Jew Ironaeus arguing against the Hereticks tells us that the true Disciples of Christ did in his name many strange things for the good of others according as every one had received his gift some so signally expelling Devils that those out of whom they were cast came over to the Faith others foretelling future events others curing men of the most grievous distempers by putting their hands upon them and restoring them to their former health many that have been raised from the dead and afterwards lived many years amongst us and indeed innumerable says he are the gifts which God has every where bestowed upon his Church whereby in the name of the crucified Jesus many and great miracles are daily done to the great advantage of the world Tertullian appeals to the Heathens as a thing commonly known amongst them that they daily restrained the power of Devils and cast them out of men and he tells Scapula the President that he might be satisfied of this from his own Records and those very advocates who had themselves reaped this benefit from Christians as for instance a certain Notary and the Kinsman and Child of another besides divers other persons of note and quality not to speak of the meaner sort who had been recovered either from Devils or from desperate Diseases nay Severus the Father of Antoninus having been cured by being anointed with Oyl by Proculus a Christian he kept him in his Palace till his death whom Antoninus knew well having been himself nursed by a Christian and in his Apologie he challenges the Heathens to produce any possessed person before the publick Tribunals and the evil spirit being commanded by any Christian shall then as truly confess himself to be a Devil as at other times he falsely boasts himself to be a god And elsewhere putting the case that the Christians should agree to retire out of the Roman Empire he asks them what protection they would then have left against the secret and invisible attempts of Devils who made such havock both of their souls and bodies whom the Christians so freely expelled and drove out that it would be a sufficient piece of revenge that hereby they should leave them open to the uncontrouled possession of those evil spirits 'T were endless to produce all the testimonies of this nature that might be fetch'd from Origen Minucius Faelix Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius and all the old Apologists for the Christian Religion some whereof I have briefly noted in the Margin who constantly pleaded this as a mighty and uncontroulable argument of the truth and divinity of their Religion and of their great usefulness to mankind nay this miraculous power continued in the Church some considerable time after Constantine and the world was become Christian as appears from S. Basil Nazianzen and others and though I do not give heed to all the miracles which are reported by S. Hierom in the lives of Hilarion Paulus and some others or by Palladius in his Historia Lausiaca yet doubtless many of them were very true and real God withdrawing this extraordinary power as Christianity gained faster footing in the world and leaving the Church to those standing methods by which it was to be managed and governed to the end of the world And yet notwithstanding the case was thus plain and evident how much the world was beholden to Christians yet were they looked upon as the pests of humane society counted and called the common enemies of mankind as Tertullian complains that they were the causes of all publick calamities and that for their sakes it was that vengeance did so often remarkably haunt the Roman Empire This was the common out-cry if the City be besieged says Tertullian if any thing happen ill in the Fields in the Garrisons in the Islands presently they cry out ' t is because of the Christians they conspire the ruine of good men and thirst after the blood of the innocent patronizing their hatred with this vain pretence that the Christians are the cause of all publick misfortunes and calamities if Tiber overflow the walls if the Nile do not as 't is wont overflow the fields if the Heaven do not keep its accustomed course if an Earthquake happen if a Famine or a Plague presently the cry is away with the Christians to the Lions Thus Demetrian the Proconsul of Afric objected to S. Cyprian that they might thank the Christians that wars did oftener arise that Plagues and Famines did rage so much and that immoderate and excessive rains hindred the kindly seasons of the year The same Arnobius tells us the Heathens were wont to object at every turn and to conclude it as sure as if it had been dictated by an Oracle that since the Christians appeared in the world the world had been well-nigh undone mankind has been over-run with infinite kinds of evil and the very gods themselves had withdrawn that solemn care and providence wherewith they were wont to superintend humane affairs Nay so hot and common was this Charge amongst the Pagans that when the Goths and Vandals broke in upon the Roman Empire S. Augustine was forced to write those excellent Books De Civit. Dei purposely to stop the mouth of this objection as upon the same account and at his request Orosius wrote his seven Books of History against the Pagans Omitting some of the answers given by the Fathers as being probably less solid and not so proper in this case such as that 't was no wonder if miseries happened and things grew worse in this old age of time the world daily growing more feeble and decrepit and that these things had been foretold by God and therefore must necessarily come to pass two arguments largely and strongly pleaded by S. Cyprian that those evils were properly resolvable into natural causes and that every thing is
to an Image lest thereby they should give occasion to others to think that they ascribed divinity to them for this reason they shunn'd all community with the Rites and Customs of the Heathens abstaining from things strangled or that had been offered to Idols from frequenting the publick Bathes or going to the Sights and Shows because they seemed to owe their original to idolatry and were the occasion of many gross enormities they refused to wear Crowns of Laurel lest they should seem to patronize the Custom of the Gentiles who were wont to do so in their sacred and solemn Rites as appeared eminently in the Solemnities of the Emperours Severus and Caracalla when the Tribune delivering the donative to the Souldiers and all came to receive it with Crowns upon their heads one of them brought his in his hand and being demanded the reason answered that he was a Christian and could not do it which was the occasion of Tertullian's Book de Corona Militis wherein he sets himself to defend it Secondly They were willing to put themselves upon the strictest trial and to undergo the severest penalties if found guilty of those Crimes that were charged upon them So their Apologist bespeaks the Emperours we beseech you says he that those things that are charged upon the Christians may be enquired into and if they be found to be so let them have their deserved punishment nay let them be more severely punished than other men but if not guilty then 't is not reasonable that innocent persons should suffer meerly upon report and clamour And speaking of those that only took sanctuary at the name of Christians he adds that those who lived not according to the Laws of Christ and were only called by his name they begg'd of them that such might be punished To the same purpose Athenagoras in his Embassy taking notice how their Enemies laid wait for their lives and fortunes loaded them with heaps of reproaches charging them with things that never so much as entred into their minds and of which their accusers themselves were most guilty he makes this offer let but any of us be convict of any crime either small or great and we refuse not to be punished nay are ready to undergo the most cruel and heavy penalty but if we be only accused for our name and to this day all our accusations are but the sigments of obscure and uncertain fame no Christian having ever been convict of any fault then we hope it will become such wise gracious and mighty Princes as you are to make such Laws as may secure us from those wrongs and injuries But alas so clear was their innocency that their bitterest adversaries durst not suffer them to come to a fair open tryal if you be so certain that we are guilty says Tertullian to the Heathens why then are we not treated in the same nature with all malefactors who have leave both by themselves and their advocates to defend their innocency to answer and put in pleas it being unlawful to condemn any before they be heard and have liberty to defend themselves whereas Christians only are not permitted to speak any thing that might clear their cause maintain the truth and make the Judge able to pronounce righteous sentence 't is enough to justifie the publick odium if we do but confess our selves Christians without ever examining of the crime contrary to the manner of procedure against all other Delinquents whom 't is not enough barely to charge to be murderers sacrilegious or incestuous or enemies to the Publick the titles you are pleased to bestow upon us unless they also take the quality of the fact the place manner time partners and accessories under examination But no such favour is shewn to us but we are condemned without any inquisition passed upon us And good reason there was that they should take this course seeing they could really find nothing to condemn them for but for being Christians This one would think strange especially amongst a people so renowned for justice and equity as the Romans were and yet in these times nothing more ordinary therefore when Vrbicius the Prefect of Rome had condemned Ptolomeus meerly upon his confessing himself a Christian one Lucius that stood by cryed out What strange course is this what infamous misdemeanour is this man guilty of that when he 's no adulterer fornicator no murtherer no thief or robber thou shouldst punish him only because he calls himself a Christian certainly Urbicius such justice as this does not become the piety of the Emperour or the Philosophy of Caesar his Son or the sacred and venerable Senate And Tertullian tells us 't was the common accusation they had in their mouths such or such a one is a goodman only he is a Christian or I wonder at such a one a wise man but lately turned Christian So Cyprian I remember reduces his adversary to this unavoidable dilemma chuse one of these two things to be a Christian either is a fault or 't is not if it be a fault why dost thou not kill every one that confesses it if it be not why dost thou persecute them that are innocent Hence we find nothing more common in the old Apologists than complaints concerning the unreasonableness of being accused condemned and punished meerly for their name this being the first and great cause of all that hatred and cruelty that was exercised towards them 't was the innocent name that was hated in them all the quarrel was about this title and when a Christian was guilty of nothing else 't was this made him guilty as Tertullian complains at every turn The truth is they mightily gloried in this title and were ambitious to own it in the face of the greatest danger therefore when Attalus the famous French Martyr was led about the Amphitheatre that he might be exposed to the hatred and derision of the people he triumphed in this that a tablet was carried before him with this Inscription THIS IS ATTALUS THE CHRISTIAN And Sanctus another of them being oft asked by the President what his name was what his City and Country and whether he was a Free-man or a Servant answered nothing more to any of them than that he was a Christian professing this name to be Country Kindred and all things to him Nay so great was the honour and value which they had for this name that Julian the Emperour whom we commonly call the Apostate endeavoured by all ways to suppress it that when he could not drive the thing he might at least banish the name out of the world and therefore did not only himself constantly call Christians Galilaeans but made a Law that they should be called only by that name But to return the sum is this the Christians were so buoy'd up with the conscience of their innocency that they cared not who saw them were willing and
Coemeteria or Church-yard distinct in those times from their places of Publick Worship and at a great distance from them as being commonly without the Cities Here their burying places where in large Cryptae or Grots under ground where they celebrated these memorials and whither they used to retire for their common devotions in times of great persecution when their Churches were destroyed or taken from them And therefore when Aemilian the Governour of Egypt under the Reign of Valerian would screw up the persecution against Christians he forbad their meetings and that they should not so much as assemble in the places which they called their Church-yards the same priviledge which Maximinus also had taken from them By reason of the darkness of these places and their frequent assembling there in the night to avoid the fury of their Enemies they were forced to use Lights and Lamps in their publick meetings but they who make this an argument to patronize their burning of Lamps and Wax-Candles in their Churches at Noon-day as 't is in all the great Churches of the Roman Communion talk at a strange rate of wild inconsequence I am sure S. Hierom when charged with it denied that they used any in the day time and never but at night when they rose up to their night-devotions He confesses indeed 't was otherwise in the Eastern Churches where when the Gospel was to be read they set up Lights as a token of their rejoycing for those happy and glad tidings that were contained in it light having been ever used as a symbol and representation of joy and gladness A custom probably not much elder than his time Afterwards when Christianity prevailed in the world the devotion of Christians erected Churches in those places the Temples of the Martyrs says Theodoret being spacious and beautiful richly and curiously adorned and shining with great lustre and brightness These Solemnities as the same Author informs us were kept not like the Heathen Festivals with luxury and obsceneness but with devotion and sobriety with divine Hymns and religious Sermons with fervent prayers to God mixed many times with sighs and tears Here they heard Sermons and Orations joined in publick prayers and praises received the holy Sacrament offered gifts and charities for the poor recited the names of the Martyrs then commemorated with their due elogies and commendations and their virtues propounded to the imitation of the hearers For which purpose they had their set Notaries who took the acts sayings and sufferings of Martyrs which were after compiled into particular Treatises and were recited in these annual meetings and this was the first original of Martyrologies in the Christian Church From this custom of offering up prayers praises and alms at those times it is that the Fathers speak so often of oblations and sacrifices at the Martyrs Festivals Tertullian often upon an anniversary day says he we make oblations for them that are departed in memory of their Natalitia or Birth days and to the same purpose elsewhere As oft says Cyprian as by an anniversary commemoration we celebrate the passion days of the Martyrs we always offer sacrifices for them and the same phrases oft occur in many others of the Fathers By which 't is evident they meant no more than their publick prayers and offering up praises to God for the piety and constancy and the excellent examples of their Martyrs their celebrating the Eucharist at these times as the commemoration of Christs Sacrifice their oblation of alms and charity for the poor every one of which truly may and often is stiled a sacrifice or oblation and are so understood by some of the more moderate even of the Romish Church and with good reason for that they did not make any real and formal sacrifices and oblations to Martyrs but only honour them as holy men and friends to God who for his and our Saviours honour and the truth of Religion chose to lay down their lives I find expresly affirmed by Theodoret. These Festivals being times of mirth and gladness were celebrated with great expressions of love and charity to the poor and mutual rejoycings with one another Here they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts every one bringing something to the common Banquet out of which the poor also had their share These Feasts at first were very sober and temperate and such as became the modesty and simplicity of Christians as we heard before out of Theodoret and is affirmed before him by Constantine in his Oration to the Saints But degenerating afterwards into excess and intemperance they were every where declaimed against by the Fathers till they were wholly laid aside Upon the account of these Feasts and for the better making provisions for them we may conceive it was that Markets came to be kept at these times and places for of such S. Basil speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markets held at the memorials and Tombs of Martyrs these he condemns as highly unsuitable to those Solemnities which were only instituted for prayer and a commemoration of the virtues of good men for our incouragement and imitation and that they ought to remember the severity of our otherwise meek and humble Saviour who whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple when by their marketings they had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves And the truth is these anniversary commemorations though in their primitive institution they are highly reasonable and commendable yet through the folly and dotage of men they were after made to minister to great superstition and idolatry so plain is it that the best and usefullest things may be corrupted to bad purposes For hence sprung the doctrine and practice of prayer and invocation of Saints and their intercession with God the worshipping of Reliques Pilgrimages and visiting Churches and offering at the Shrines of such and such Saints and such like superstitious practices which in after Ages over-run so great a part of the Christian Church things utterly unknown to the simplicity of those purer and better times CHAP. VIII Of the persons constituting the body of the Church both people and Ministers The people distinguished into several ranks Catechumens of two sorts Gradually instructed in the principles of the Christian Faith Accounted only Christians at large The more recondite mysteries of Christianity concealed from persons till after baptism Three reasons assigned of it How long they remained in the state of Catechumens The several Classes of Penitents the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the faithful Their particular stations in the Church Their great reverence for the Lords Supper The Clergie why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two sorts the highest Bishops Presbyters and Deacons Bishops as superiour to Presbyters how ancient by the most learned opposers of Episcopacy Their office and priviledge what Chorepiscopi who Their power and priviledge above Presbyters
being part of the form used in their publick Service Let us pray that the most gracious and merciful God would hear the prayers of the Catechumens and what it was they prayed for he presently add viz. that they might no longer remain in that state Upon these accounts initiation by Baptism but especially admission to the Lords Supper is amongst other titles in the Writers of those times called Desiderata because so earnestly desired and sought for by those that were not yet taken in The truth is till persons arrived at this state they were not accounted Christians or but in a large sense as Candidates that stood in order to it and therefore could not satisfie themselves either to live or dye in that condition wherein they wanted the great seals and pledges of their Christianity Thirdly to beget in mens minds the higher esteem and veneration for these religious mysteries nothing producing a greater contempt even in sacred things than too much openness and familiarity So that a little obscurity and concealment might seem necessary to vindicate them from contempt and secure the majesty and reverence that was due to them This made the Fathers Seniors of the Church says S. Basil in prescribing Rites and Laws leave many things in the dark behind the vail and curtain that they might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserve the sacredness and dignity that was due to the mysteries of Religion For a thing says he cannot properly be said to be a mystery when 't is once expos'd to every vulgar and common ear But of this enough if not too much And as they were careful to keep the higher parts of Christianity within the cognizance of the faithful so they were not less careful to teach and instruct the Catechumens in all those principles they were capable of being taught This at their first coming over was done privately and at home by persons deputed on purpose to that office by the Bishop as Balsamon clearly intimates till they were sufficiently instructed in the first and more intelligible principles of the faith Then they were admitted into the Congregation and suffered to be present at some parts of the Divine Service especially the Sermons which were made for the building them up unto higher measures of knowledge which being ended they were commanded to depart the Church not being suffered to be present at the more solemn Rites especially the celebration of the Lords Supper and in this manner they were trained up till they were initiated by baptism and taken into the highest form of Christians How long persons remained in the state of the Catechumens is difficult to determine it not being always nor in all places alike but longer in some and shorter in others and probably according to the capacity of the persons The Apostolick Constitutions appoint three years for the Catechumen to be instructed but provide withal that if any one be diligent and virtuous and have a ripeness of understanding for the thing he may be admitted to Baptism sooner for say they not the space of time but the fitness and manners of men are to be regarded in this matter The next sort were the Penitents such as for some misdemeanours were under the censures and severity of the Church and were gradually to obtain absolution from it Of these there were several degrees five especially mentioned by S. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea who liv'd about the year 250. The first were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as wept and lamented and were rather Candidates to be received into the order of Penitents than Penitents properly so called These usually stood in a squalid and mournful habit at the Church-Porch with tears and great importunity begging of the Faithful as they went in to pray for them The second were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hearers who were admitted to hear the holy Scriptures read and expounded to the people Their station was at the upper end of the Narthex or first part of the Church and were to depart the Congregation at the same time with the Catechumens The third Class of Penitents was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prostrate because service being ended they fell down before the Bishop who together with the Congregation falling down and making confession in their behalf after rais'd them up and laid his hands upon them These stood within the body of the Church next the Pulpit or Reading-Pew and were to depart together with the Catechumens The fourth were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Consistentes such as stayed with the rest of the Congregation and did not depart with the Catechumens but after they and the other Penitents were gone out stayed and joined in prayer and singing but not in receiving the Sacrament with the faithful These after some time were advanced into the fifth and last order of the Communicantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Gregory calls it and were admitted to the participation of the holy Sacrament This was the state of the Penitents in the primitive Church Persons having fully passed through the state of the Catechumenate became then immediate Candidates of Baptism presented their names to the Bishop and humbly prostrating themselves begged that they might be entred into the Church These were called Competentes because they did Competere gratiam Christi sue for the grace of Christ conferred in Baptism The last rank was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Faithful who having been baptized and confirmed and having approved themselves by the long train and course of a strict pious life were then admitted to the participation of the Lords Supper which being the highest and most venerable mystery of the Christian Religion was not then rashly given to any but to such only as had run through all other degrees and by a course of piety evidenced themselves to be such real and faithful Christians as that the highest mysteries and most solemn parts of Religion might be committed to them This was the highest order and looked upon with great regard and for any of this rank to lapse and be overtaken with a fault cost them severer penances than were imposed upon the inferiour forms of Christians This in short was the state of the people But because 't is not possible any body or community of men should be regularly managed without some particular persons to superintend direct and govern the affairs of the whole Society therefore we are next to enquire what persons there were in the primitive Church that were peculiarly set apart to steer its affairs and to attend upon the publick Offices and Ministrations of it That God always had a peculiar people whom he selected for himself out of the rest of mankind is too evident to need any proof Such were the Patriarchs and the holy seed of old such the Jews chosen by him above all other Nations in the world This was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Province who enjoyed nothing but that name and title his Episcopal See being by the Emperours Pragmatic erected into the dignity of a Metropolis He was only an Honorary Metropolitan without any real power and jurisdiction and had no other priviledge but that he took place above other ordinary Bishops in all things else equally subject with them to the Metropolitan of the Province as the Council of Chalcedon determines in this case When this Office of Metropolitan first began I find not only this we are sure of that the Council of Nice setling the just rights and priviledges of Metropolitan Bishops speaks of them as a thing of ancient date ushering in the Canon with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customs still take place The original of the institution seems to have been partly to comply with peoples occasions who oft resorted to the Metropolis for dispatch of their affairs and so might fitly discharge their Civil and Ecclesiastical concerns both at once and partly because of the great confluence of people to that City that the Bishop of it might have preheminence above the rest and the honour of the Church bear some proportion to that of the State After this sprang up another branch of the Episcopal Office as much superiour to that of Metropolitans as theirs was to ordinary Bishops these were called Primates and Patriarchs and had jurisdiction over many Provinces For the understanding of this it 's necessary to know that when Christianity came to be fully setled in the world they contrived to model the external Government of the Church as near as might be to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire the parallel most exactly drawn by an ingenious person of our own Nation the sum of it is this The whole Empire of Rome was divided into Thirteen Dioceces so they called those divisions these contained about one hundred and twenty Provinses and every Province several Cities Now as in every City there was a temporal Magistrate for the executing of justice and keeping peace both for that City and the Towns round about it so was there also a Bishop for spiritual order and Government whose jurisdiction was of like extent and latitude In every Province there was a Proconsul or President whose seat was usually at the Metropolis or chief City of the Province and hither all inferiour Cities came for judgment in matters of importance And in proportion to this there was in the same City an Archbishop or Metropolitan for matters of Ecclesiastical concernment Lastly in every Diocess the Emperours had their Vicarii or Lieutenants who dwelt in the principal City of the Diocess where all imperial Edicts were published and from whence they were sent abroad into the several Provinces and where was the chief Tribunal where all Causes not determinable elsewhere were decided And to answer this there was in the same City a Primate to whom the last determination of all appeals from all the Provinces in differences of the Clergie and the Soveraign care of all the Diocess for sundry points of spiritual Government did belong This in short is the sum of the account which that learned man gives of this matter So that the Patriarch as superiour to Metropolitans was to have under his jurisdiction not any one single Province but a whole Diocess in the old Roman notion of that word consisting of many Provinces To him belonged the ordination of all the Metropolitans that were under him as also the summoning them to Councils the correcting and reforming the misdemeanours they were guilty of and from his judgment and sentence in things properly within his cognizance there lay no appeal To this I shall only add what Salmasius has noted that as the Diocess that was governed by the Vicarius had many Provinces under it so the Praefectus Praetorio had several Diocesses under him and in proportion to this probably it was that Patriarchs were first brought in who if not superiour to Primates in jurisdiction and power were yet in honour by reason of the dignity of those Cities where their Sees were fixed as at Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem a title and dignity which they retain to this day The next Office to Bishops was that of Presbyters to whom it belonged to preach to the people to administer Baptism consecrate the Eucharist and to be assistent to the Bishop both in publick ministrations and in dispatching the affairs of the Church The truth is the Presbyters of every great City were a kind of Ecclesiastical Senate under the care and presidency of the Bishop whose counsel and assistance he made use of in ruling those Societies of Christians that were under his charge and government and were accordingly reckoned next in place and power to him thus described by S. Gregory in his Iambics 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The venerable Senate of Presbyters that preside over the people and possess the second Throne i. e. the place next to the Bishop they are called Clerici superioris loci and otherwhiles unless we understand it of the Chorepiscopi Antistites in secundo ordine and accordingly in Churches had seats of eminency placed for them next to the Bishops Throne Whereby was implied says Zonaras that they ought to use a proportionable care and providence towards the people to inform and teach them to direct and guide them being appointed as Fellow-labourers with and Assistants to the Bishop But though Presbyters by their ordination had a power conferred upon them to administer holy things yet after that the Church was setled upon foundations of order and regularity they did not usually exercise this power within any Diocess without leave and authority from the Bishop much less take upon them to preach in his presence This custom however it might be otherwise in the Eastern Church we are sure was constantly observed in the Churches of Afric till the time of Valerius S. Augustine's Predecessor in the See of Hippo. Who being a Greek and by reason of his little skill in the Latine tongue unable to preach to the edification of the people admitted S. Augustine whom he had lately ordained Presbyter to preach before him Which though at first 't was ill resented by some Bishops in those parts yet quickly became a president for other Churches to follow after After these came Deacons What the duty of their place was appears from their primitive election the Apostles setting them apart to serve or minister to the Tables i.e. to attend upon and take charge of those daily provisions that were made for poor indigent Christians but certainly it implies also their being destinated to a peculiar attendance at the service of the Lords Table And both these may be very well meant in that place it being the custom of Christians then to meet every day at the
and professors of vowed poverty which swarm so much in the Church of Rome at this day But to return The Christians of those dayes did not study those Arts of splendor and gallantry which have since over-run the world stately Palaces costly furniture rich hangings fine tables curious beds vessels of Gold and Silver the very possession of which as Clemens Alexandrinus speaks creates envy they are rare to get hard to keep and it may be not so accommodate to use Will not a knife cut as well says he though it have not an Ivory-haft or be not garnished with silver or an earthen bason serve to wash the hands will not the table hold our provisions unless its feet be made of Ivory or the Lamp give its light though made by a Potter as well as if 't were the work of the Goldsmith may not a man sleep as well upon a mean couch as upon a bed of Ivory upon a Goats skin as well as upon a purple or Phoenician carpet Our Lord ate his meat out of a common dish made his followers sit upon the grass and washed his Disciples feet without ever fetching down a silver bowle from Heaven he took the water which the Samaritaness had drawn in an earthen pitcher not requiring one of gold shewing how easie it was to quench his thirst for he respected the use not the vain and superfluous state of things This and much more he there urges to this excellent purpose to let us see how little a Christian need be beholden to the world if he be content with what 's enough for the necessary uses of humane life To this let me annex some part of that discourse which Gregory Nyssen has upon this subject The fluid and transitory condition of mans life says he calls for a daily reparation of the decays of nature he therefore that looks no further than to minister to the desires of nature and troubles not himself with vain anxious thoughts for more than 's necessary lives little less than the life of Angels whilst by a mind content with little he imitates their want of nothing For this cause we are commanded to seek only what 's enough to keep the body in its due state and temper and thus to address our Prayers to God give us our daily bread Give us bread not delicacies or riches not splendid and purple vestures or rich golden ornaments not Pearls and Jewels silver vessels large fields and great possessions not the government of Armies the conduct of Wars and disposal of Nations not numerous flocks and herds of cattle or multitudes of slaves and servants not splendor and gallantry in publick not marble pillars or brazen statues or silken Carpets or quires of Musick or any of those things by which the soul is diverted and drawn from more Noble and Divine thoughts and cares But only Bread which indeed is the true and common staff of mans life Nor were they more studious of pleasures and recreations abroad than they were of fineness and bravery at home They went not to publick feasts nor frequented the shews that were made for the disport and entertainment of the people and this was so notorious that the Heathens charg'd it upon them as part of their Crime Observe how he in Minutius Foelix draws it up The Romans says he govern and enjoy the world while you in the mean time are careful and mopish abstaining even from lawful pleasures you visit not the shews nor are present at the pomps nor frequent the publick feasts you abhor the holy games the sacrificial meats and drinks crown not your heads with Garlands nor perfume your bodies with sweet odours a ghastly fearful and miserable people which by that time that Octavius the Christian comes to answer he grants it all to be true and tells him there was very good reason why they should abstain from their shews pomps and divertisements at which they could not be present without great sin and shame without affronting their modesty and offering a distast and horrour to their minds and indeed they reckon'd themselves particularly oblig'd to this by what they had vow'd and undertaken at their baptism when they solemnly engaged to renounce the Devil and all his works pomps and pleasures i. e. says St. Cyril the sights and sports of the Theatre and such like vanities The truth is they look'd upon the publick sports and pastimes of those dayes as the Scenes not only of folly and lewdness but of great impiety and Idolatry as places where the Devil eminently rul'd and reckon'd all his Votaries that came thither Accordingly Tertullian tells us of a Christian woman who going to the Theatre was there possessed by the Devil and when the Evil Spirit at his casting out was ask'd how he durst set upon a Christian he presently answered I did but what was fit and just for I found her upon my own ground Being thus affected towards the world they could very willingly part with any thing that was dearest to them Friends Estate Liberty or Life it self We are not mov'd says one of their Apologists with the loss of our Estates which our enemies wrest from us nor with the violence that 's offer'd to our credit and reputation or if there be any thing of greater concernment than these for although these things are mightily priz'd and valued amongst men yet can we despise and sleight them nay we cannot only when beaten refrain from striking again and make no resistance against those that invade and spoil us but to them that smite one cheek we can turn the other and to them that take away the coat we can let them take the cloak also And I remember Nazianzen tells us that of those excellencies and endowments which God had given him health wealth esteem and eloquence he reaped this only benefit that he had something which he could contemn and by which he could shew that he infinitely valued Christ before them The greatest endearment of this life is Relations and yet these too they could quietly resign when God called for them Memorable it is what St. Hierom reports of Melania a Lady of great Piety in his time in whose commendation Paulinus Bishop of Nola spends a very large Epistle especially commending her for her generous and heroick mind tam viriliter Christiana that she was something above a woman and had the Masculine spirit of a Christian of this Lady St. Hierom tells us that her Husband lying dead by her she lost two of her sons at the same time and when every one expected that she should break out into a violent passion tear her hair rent her garments and burst into tears she stood still and at last falling down as 't were at the feet of Christ broke out into this pious and Christian resentment Lord I shall serve thee more nimbly and readily by being eased of the weight thou
this wicked imputation it may not be amiss before we conclude to enquire a little into the rise and original of this absurd and malicious charge Origen fathers it upon the Jews as if they had falsly and spitefully invented it as they did other things to disgrace and prejudice Christianity and he tells us that in some measure it succeeded accordingly keeping many at a distance from the Christian Religion and that even in his time there were some who for this very reason would have no discourse or commerce with a Christian But though both Jew and Gentile had malice and spite enough against the Christians yet I can hardly think that it was a purely invented falshood but that it had some ground of pretence though ill applied and so we shall find it had for which we are to know that in the most early times of Christianity there were several sorts of Hereticks who though they had their particular names yet all call'd themselves Christians accounting that hereby they grac'd and honour'd their party as Epiphanius tells us the followers of Simon Magus Menander Marcion Marcus Basilides c. who all went under the general name of Gnosticks and were under the pretence of Religion guilty of the most prodigious villanies and particularly those we are speaking of Irenaeus reports of them that they gave up themselves to all filthiness and bestiality not only privately corrupting the women whom they had inveagled into their Sect as some of them returning after to the Church confessed with shame and sorrow but openly and with bare face marrying the women whom they had seduced from their husbands committing the most execrable wickednesses and laughing at the pious and Orthodox Christians whom the fear of God restrained from sin either in word or thought as a company of ignorant and silly fellows magnifying themselves styling themselves perfect and the Seeds of Election and much more in other places to the same purpose where he gives account of the prophane and hellish Rites of their Assemblies Of the Carpocratians another gang of those bruitish Hereticks Clemens Alexandrinus relates the same both as to their doctrines and practices reporting the matter almost in the very same circumstances wherein it is charg'd upon the Christians by the Heathen in Min. Foelix viz. that both men and women used to meet at supper which they had in imitation of the true Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love-feast where after they had loaded themselves with a plentiful meal to prevent all shame if they had any remain'd they put out the lights and then promiscuously mix'd in filthiness with one another or else each sorting as they pleas'd And of the Gnosticks Epiphanius tells us that they had their wives in common and if any stranger of their party came to them both men and women had this mark and sign to know one another by stretching out their hands by way of salutation they used to tickle each other in the ball of the hand by which they were satisfied that the stranger really was of their gang and party Amongst their brethren the Carpocratians they were wont to mark their Disciples and Proselytes unde the right ear with a brand a slit or a hole that they might the more readily discern them This agrees exactly with the charge of the Heathens that they knew one another at the first sight by privy marks and signs and having thus own'd and received each other they went to their luxurious feasts and to those horrid brutishnesses that followed after Now this being the case with these abominable wretches who yet had the face to call themselves Christians it is no wonder if Jews and Gentiles who were greedy of any occasion to bespatter and reproach Christians and rather than not find an occasion would make one charg'd it upon all Christians either not knowing it to be otherwise or if they did not willing to distinguish between true and false And that this was the true and only rise and ground of the charge besides some intimations of it in Justin Martyr we have it expresly asserted by Eusebius as that which gave being to that absurd and impious Opinion which spred so fast amongst the Heathens of the Christians being guilty of promiscuous mixtures to the great reproach and infamy of the Christian Name I do not deny but this malicious report might receive strength and encouragement from the servants of some Christians who being rack'd by the Heathens might confess what they put into their mouths and this charge amongst the rest This the same Historian relates out of the letters of the Churches in France Certain Gentiles who were servants to some Christians being apprehended and having seen the exquisite torments which the Christians were put to for fear of the like did at the instance of the Souldiers who urg'd them to it confess that the Christians had amongst them incestuous mixtures and suppers furnish'd with mans flesh laying such things to their charge as they held unlawful to speak or think of or could believe were ever done by men which being once divulg'd they every where fell upon the Christians with the greatest rage and fierceness So in the persecution under Maximinus one of the Commanders that then resided at Damascus laid hold of a few light inconsiderable women in the Market and threatning them with the Rack forc'd the wretches publickly to confess that they had formerly been Christians and that they knew all their Villanies that in their Religious Meetings they committed the most beastly actions and indeed what ever else he would have them say that might disgrace Christianity This Confession of theirs he caus'd to be entred into the publick Records and then transmitted it to the Emperour by whose Command it was immediately Published in all Cities and Places of the Empire So industriously did the malice of Men and Devils bend all the nerves of their power and subtilty though in vain either wholly to suppress or at least to dis-hearten and baâ—â—le out the Christians Which brings me to the consideration of another Vertue no less remarkable in the Christians of those times CHAP. VI. Of their readiness and constancy in professing their Religion Their courage and undauntedness in professing the Truth though reproach'd and persecuted Their open and resolute owning it to the face of their enemies and in defiance of the greatest dangers The story of Victorinus the Rhetorician converted by Simplician The free and impartial Answers of Maris to Julian of Basil to the Arrian Governour Polycarp's refusing to fly when Officers were sent to apprehend him His resolute carriage before the Proconsul The like of Cyprian No torments could make them deny Christ Women unconquerable The excellent instance of Blandina and others Divers voluntarily offering themselves Others offering to plead the cause of the Christans though with the immediate hazard of their lives This boldness and resolution noted as an argument
question and that they had much rather be put to death for their Religion than to have their lives spared to them by which means they became conquerours chosing rather to part with their lives than to do what you impose upon them Let me advise you says he who are ready to despond with every earth-quake that happens to you to compare your selves with them they in all their dangers are securely confident in their God while you at such a time neglect the gods and have little or no regard either to other rites or to the worship of that immortal deity but banish the Christians that worship him and persecute them unto death So forcibly did the Majesty of Truth extort a confession from its greatest enemies The End of the Second Part. Primitive Christianity OR THE RELIGION OF THE Ancient Christians In the first Ages of the Gospel PART III. Of their Religion as respecting other men CHAP. I. Of their Justice and Honesty Christian Religion admirably provides for moral righteousness Do as you would be done by the great Law of Christ This rule highly priz'd by Severus the Emperour The first Christians accounted honesty and an upright carriage a main part of their Religion Their candor and simplicity in their words Abhorring lies and mental reservations though it might save their lives Their veracity such as no need to be put to thir oaths Some few of the Fathers against all swearing Allowed by the greatest part in weighty Cases That they took oaths proved from Athanasius and their taking the Sacramentum militare The form of the oath out of Vegetius The same expresly affirmed of the more antient Christians by Tertullian Why refusing to swear by the Emperours genius Oaths wont to be taken at the holy Sacrament upon the Communion Table or the holy Gospels Some against all oaths only to prevent a possibility of perjury Bearing false witness condemned and strictly punished by the antient Church A famous Instance of divine vengeance pursuing three false accusers Christians careful in the conduct of their actions Their integrity in matters of distributive Justice In commutative Justice avoiding all fraud and over-reaching S. Augustin's instance Nicostratus forced to fly to avoid the punishment of cheating and sacriledge The Christians unjustly accused of Sacriledge by the Heathens The occasion of it Pliny's testimony of the Honesty of Christians Theft and rapine severely condemned Christians for doing all the good they could Their care to right and relieve the oppressed The Gentiles charged Christians with murder and eating mans-flesh A brief representation of the several answers returned to it by the Christian Apologists The true rise of the charge found to spring from the barbarous and inhumane practices of the Gnosticks mentioned by Irenaeus and Epiphanius HAving given some account of the Religion of the antient Christians both as it respected their piety towards God and their sober and vertuous carriage towards themselves we come in the last place to consider it in reference to their carriage towards others which the Apostle describes under the title of righteousness under which he comprehends all that duty and respect wherein we stand obliged to others whereof we shall consider these following instances their justice and integrity in matters of commerce and traffick their mutual love and charity to one another their unity and peaceableness and their submission and subjection to civil Government I begin with the first their just and upright carriage in their outward dealings one great design of the Christian Law is to establish and ratifie that great principle which is one of the prime and fundamental Laws of nature to hurt no man and to render to every one his due to teach us to carry our selves as becomes us in our relations towards men Next to our duty towards God the Gospel obliges us to be righteous to men sincere and upright in all our dealings not going beyond nor defrauding one another in any matter to put away lying and to speak truth to each other as fellow-members of the same Christian brother-hood and society It settles that golden rule as the fundamental Law of all just and equitable commerce that all things whatsoever we would that men should do to us we should even do so to them this being the sum of the Law and the Prophets than which as no rule could have been more equitable in it self so none could possibly have been contrived more short and plain and more accommodate to the common cases of humane life Upon the account of these and such like excellent precepts Alexander Severus the Roman Emperour had so great an honour for our Saviour that he was resolved to build a Temple to him and to receive him into the number of their gods and though he was over-rul'd in this by some who having consulted the Oracle told him that if it were done all men would become Christians and the Temples of the gods would be left naked and empty yet in his most private Chappel he had the Image of Christ amongst those of many Noble Heroes and deified persons to whom he pay'd religious adoration every Morning and particularly for this precept that what we would not have done to our selves we should not do to others which his own Historian confesses he learnt either from the Jews or Christians but most certainly from the Christians in whose mouths it so often was and in whose Gospel it was so plainly written he so highly valued it that in all publick punishments he caused it to be proclaim'd by a common Crier nay was so hugely fond on 't that he caused it to be written upon the walls of his Palace and upon all his publick Buildings that if possible every room in his Court and every place in the City might be a silent Chancery and Court of Equity So vast a reverence had the very enemies of Christianity for the Gospel upon this account that it so admirably provides for the advance of civil righteousness and justice amongst men which however it has been sleighted by some even amongst Christians under the notion of moral Principles yet without it all other Religion is but vain it being a strange piece of folly for any to dream of being godly without being honest or to think of being a disciple of the first while a man is an enemy to the second Table Sure I am the Christians of old look'd upon honesty and an upright carriage as a considerable part of their Religion and that to speak truth to keep their words to perform oaths and promises to act sincerely in all their dealings was as sacred and as dear to them as their lives and beings Speech being the great instrument of mutual commerce and traffick shall be the first instance of their integrity They ever used the greatest candor and simplicity in expressing their mind to one another not pretending what was false nor concealing what was true yea yea and nay nay was the usual
up the blood and ravenously tear off and snatch away the several parts of it and with this sacrifice their confederacy and combination is made and by the conscience of so great a villany they are mutually obliged to silence Such sacred rites as these being more horrid and barbarous than the highest sacriledges in the world To this monstrous and horrid charge the Christians returned these answers That they appeal'd to the common Faith of mankind whether they could really believe them to be guilty of these things so abhorrent to all the principles of Humane Nature and to the Christians known Principles and practices in all other things that they should measure the Christians by themselves and if they themselves could not be guilty of such things they should not suspect it by the Christians who were endued with the same Principles of humanity with other men that they were so far from being friends to murder or man-slaughter that they held it unlawful to be present at the Gladiatory sports where mens lives were so want only sacrificed to the pleasure and curiosity of the people that they accounted it murder for any woman by evil arts to procure abortion to stifle the embryo to kill a child in a manner before it be alive it being much at one to hinder life as to take it away to kill a man or destroy what would be one seeing he truly destroys the fruit that kills it in the seed that it was not likely they should delight in mans blood who never tasted any blood at all abstaining from things strangled and from blood And that the very Heathens themselves confessed this when amongst the several arts they used to discover whether men were Christians they used to offer them bladders full of blood knowing that they held it unlawful to taste any and therefore it was mightily improbable they should thirst after humane blood who abhorred even the blood of beasts That they heartily believed the Resurrection of the dead and therefore would not make themselves the Sepulchers of those bodies which were to rise again and feed upon them as they did upon other bodies which were to have no resurrection that the truth was if this charge was true of any it was true only of the Gentiles themselves amongst whom these things were daily allowed and practised That Saturn one of their chief deities did not only expose but eat his own children to him infants in Africk were offered in sacrifice by their own parents a custome that openly continued till the Proconsul-ship of Tiberius which though he abolished it yet it continued still in corners in Tertullians days To his Son Jupiter they offered humane sacrifices even in Rome it self and that even to the time of M. Foelix as he himself testifies which is no more than what Porphyry himself after he had reckoned up in how many parts of the world Humane sacrifices were in use confesses was done at Rome in the Feast of Jupiter Latialis even in his time Many other instances of such barbarous practices are there produced by those two Apologists which they urge with great advantage upon their adversaries whom they challenged to make any such thing good against them And no sooner did discipline begin to be regularly setled but their principles herein were every where confirmed by the Canons of the Church either private or publick the woman that industriously made her self miscarry was adjudged to be guilty of murder and condemn'd to the same punishment a ten years penance which was adjudg'd to be the case of any that brought forth upon the way and exposed her Infant By the law of the State made by the Emperour Valentinian whosoever whether man or woman kill'd an Infant was to be subject to the same capital punishment as if he had kill'd an adult person which may very well be understood even of Infants kill'd in the womb the punishment whereof was formerly for the most part no more than banishment He that was guilty of wilful murder was by S. Basil's rule to undergo a twenty years penance before he was admitted to the Sacrament though by several passages in Tertullian it appears that Homicides in his time were more severely treated by the Church for they were not only bound to a perpetual penance but were not absolv'd at death But this severity shortly after began to relax and such persons though obliged to acts of repentance all their life yet at death were absolved and admitted to Communion as is expresly provided by the decree of the Ancyran Council Thus clear did the Christians all along stand from any just suspicion of that gross piece of inhumanity which their enemies so confidently charged upon them As for the rise and occasion of this malicious charge it was doubtless of the same growth with that of their incestuous mixtures spoken of before both springing from the abominable practices of some filthy Hereticks who sheltred themselves under the name of Christians Epiphanius particularly reporting of the Gnosticks what the Heathens generally charged upon the Christians for he tells us of them that at their meetings they were wont to take an Infant begotten in their promiscuous mixtures and beating it in a mortar to season it with honey and pepper and some other spices and perfumes to make it palatable and then like swine or dogs to devour it and then to conclude all with prayer and this they accounted their perfect pass-over I am not ignorant that a learned man will by no means believe that any of the ancient Hereticks did ever arrive to so much barbarousness and immanity as to be guilty of such things and conceives them to have been feigned meerly out of hatred to those pestilent hereticks but there 's little reason to suspect the truth of it Epiphanius assuring us that he had the account that he gives from the mouths of the Gnosticks themselves and that many of the women who were deceiv'd into those abominable errours did not only discover these things to him but that he himself in his younger years while he was in Egypt had been assaulted by them and by all the arts of flattery and perswasion of wantonness and immdesty had been set upon to joyn himself to them And certainly 't is not imaginable that a person so venerable for learning and piety as Epiphanius was should impose upon us by feigning so gross and notorious a falshood Besides whoever reads Irenaeus in whose time these heresies were most riâ—e and predominant and considers the account that he gives of them which he mainly received from persons of their own party after they were returned back to the Church will see little reason either to think any wickedness too great for them to boggle at or to doubt of the truth of what he reports concerning them CHAP. II. Of their admirable Love and Charity The excellent temper of the
Christian Religion The Gospel principally enjoyns kindness and charity The Primitive Christians eminently of this spirit They accounted all brethren but Christians more especially Their mutual love noted and recorded by their enemies Their mighty zeal and charity for the souls of men to recover them from vice and errour to truth and vertue This the matter of their daily prayer and most serious endeavours even towards their greatest enemies Pamphilus his charity in bestowing Bibles freely upon the poor Preachers maintained for converting the Gentile Phenicians to Christianity The famous story of John's hazarding himself for the regaining a young man debauched by bad companions Monica's care and sollicitude about S. Augustin Some that have sold themselves for slaves that they might convert their Heathen or Heretical Masters Christians not shy of communicating the knowledge of their Religion Their Charity as it respected the necessities of the outward life This noted in several instances of charity Their liberal providing for the poor The bounty of particular persons Divers instances of it The immense charity of Epiphanius exemplary vengeance upon some that abused it The poor accounted the Treasure and Ornaments of the Church represented in the case of Laurentius the Deacon and a story related by Palladius Their visiting and assisting the sick in their own persons eminently noted in the Empress Placilla and the Lady Fabiola The Christians care of their brethren in a great plague at Alexandria Persons appointed on purpose to cure and attend the sick The Parabolani who Their office and number Redemption of Captives Great sums contributed by Cyprian and his people for it Church-plate sold to redeem Christians nay captiv'd enemies Christians embondaging themselves to redeem others The strange charity of Paulinus Bishop of Nola making himself a slave to ransom a poor widows son Their care about the bodies of the dead Decent burial very fit and desirable A piece of piety remarkable in the Christians of those times Their abstaining from the common custome of burning the dead as barbarous The great cost they laid out upon their funerals in embalming intombing c. The Copiatae who What their office and order The Decani or Deans in the Church of Constantinople their number and duty Their providing fit places of Sepulture Their Coemeteria or burying-places in the fields Burying in Cities and Churches when brought in and to whom first granted Their Coemeteria under ground What kind of places they were The great number and vast capacities of them A particular account of one out of Baronius discovered in his time How the Christians were enabled to all these acts of charity At first all in common after by usual contributions The standing stock or treasury of the Church This charity of Christians largely attested by Julian and Lucian Their love and charity universal Doing good to enemies An excellency proper to Christians This manifested in several remakable instances Plainly acknowledged by Julian himself The whole sum'd up in an elegant discourse of Lactantius concerning mercy and charity THat the Christian Religion was immediately designed to improve and perfect the principles of humane nature appears as from many other instances of it so especially from this that it so strictly enjoyns cherishes and promotes that natural kindness and compassion which is one of the prime and essential inclinations of mankind wherever the Gospel is cordially complied with it begets such a sweet and gracious temper of mind as makes us humble affable courteous and charitable ready and disposed to every good work prompt to all offices of humanity and kindness it files off the ruggedness of mens natures banishes a rude churlish and pharisaical temper and infuses a more calm and treatable disposition It commands us to live and love as brethren to love without hypocrisie to have fervent charity amongst our selves and to be kindly affectioned one towards another It lays the sum of our duty toward others in this to love our neighbour as our selves This our Saviour seems to own as his proper and peculiar law and has ratified it with his own solemn sanction A new Commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another and then makes this the great visible badge of all those who are truly Christians by this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another And so indeed it was in those first and best ages of Religion for no sooner did the Gospel fly abroad into the world but the love and charity of Christians became notorious even to a Proverb the Heathens taking notice of the Christians of those times with this particular remark See how these Christians love one another They were then united in the most happy fraternity a word much used by Christians in those days and objected against them by the Heathens they liv'd as brethren and accounted themselves such not only as being sprung from one common Parent for in this respect that they had Nature for their common Mother they acknowledged the very Heathens to be brethren though otherwise little deserving the name of men but upon much higher accounts viz. that they had one and the same God for their Father drank all of the same spirit of holiness were brought out of the same womb of darkness and ignorance into the same light of truth that they were partakers of the same Faith and co-heirs of the same hope This Lucian himself confesses of them and that it was one of the great Principles that their Master instilled into them that they should all become Brethren after once they had thrown off the Religion of the Gentiles and had embraced the worship of their great crucified Master and given up themselves to live according to his Laws The truth is so ready intire and constant was their kindness and familiarity that the Heathens accused them for having privy marks upon their bodies whereby they fell in love with each other at first sight Indeed they never met but they embraced one another with all the demonstrations of a hearty and sincere affection saluting each other with aâ— holy kiss not only in their own houses but at their Religious Assemblies as a badge and bond of that Christian fellowship and communion that was maintained amongst them But the love and kindness of those Christians of old did not lie only in a smooth complemental carriage or in a parcel of good words depart in peace be you warm'd or fill'd but in the real exercises of charity and mercy Now because the two great objects of Charity are the good of mens souls and their outward and bodily welfare and happiness we shall find that the Primitive Christians were highly eminent and exemplary for both these The soul being of a much higher and nobler nature and consequently infinitely more precious and valuable than the body they were accordingly infinitely careful and solicitous to save mens
their number to five hundred which being found too little by a second Constitution he enlarged it to six hundred The truth is these Parabolani were a kind of Clergy-Physicians for that they were under an Ecclesiastical cognizance is plain being reckon'd up with the Clergy and accordingly by the latter Constitution of Theodosius are appointed to be chosen by and to be immediately subject to the Bishop of the place A third instance of their Love and Charity and which S. Ambrose calls the highest piece of liberality was their care of those that were in captivity groaning under the merciless tyranny and oppression of their enemies to relieve them under to redeem them out of their bondage and slavery Cyprian in a letter to the Bishops of Numidia about this very thing the redemption of those Christians amongst them that had been taken captive by the Barbarians elegantly bewails their misery and earnestly presses their redemption and as a help towards it sent them Sestertium centum millia nummûm which Rigaltius computes to twenty five thousand pounds French though others more truly reduce it to a much lower sum viz. seven thousand five hundred or two thousand five hundred Crowns which he and his people had liberally contributed to it Of Acacius Bishop of Amida we read in Socrates that when the Roman Army had taken seven thousand Persians captive and would neither release them without a ransom nor yet give them food to keep them alive this good Bishop with the consent of the Clergy of his Church caused all the Gold and Silver Plate and vessels that belonged to their Church to be melted down ransom'd the wretches fed them and then freely sent them home to their own Prince with which generous Charity the King of Persia as he well might was strangely amaz'd finding that the Romans knew how to conquer an enemy by kindness no less than by force of arms The like S. Ambrose relates of himself that he caused the Communion Plate of his Church to be broke in pieces to redeem Christians taken captive by the enemy for which though he was blam'd by the Arrian party yet he elegantly defends the fact as not only a justifiable but a proper and eminent act of charity And indeed 't is the only case wherein the Imperial Constitutions make it lawful to sell or pawn the Plate and gifts belonging to the Church it being otherwise made sacriledge to receive them and the things absolutely forfeited by those that bought them This was very great but yet we meet with a stranger Charity than this in the Primitive Church some that have parted with their own liberty to purchase freedome unto others So S. Clemens assures us in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians We have known many amongst our selves says he who have delivered themselves into bonds and slavery that they might restore others to their liberty many who have hir'd out themselves servants unto others that by their wages they might feed and sustain them that wanted Of which this one strange instance shall suffice Under the Vandalic persecution many Christians were carried slaves out of Italy into Africk for whose redemption Paulinus then Bishop of Nola had expended his whole estate at last a widow comes to him intreats him to give her as much as would ransome her only Son then slave to the King of the Vandals Son-in-law he told her he had not one penny left nothing but his own person and that he would freely give her to make her best of and to procure her sons ransome this the woman look'd upon from a person of his quality as rather a deriding her calamity than a pittying of her case but he assur'd her he was in earnest and at last induced her to believe him whereupon they both took shipping for Africk whither they were no sooner come but the good Bishop addressed himself to the Prince beg'd the release of the widows Son and offer'd himself in his room The issue was the woman had her Son restor'd her and Paulinus became the Princes slave who imployed him in the dressing and keeping of his Garden How he afterwards ingratiated himself into the favour of his Master and came to be discovered to him who he was how the Prince set him at liberty and gave him leave to ask what he would which he made no further use of than to beg the release of all his Country men then in bondage which was accordingly granted and all joyfully sent home with their ships laden with Corn and Provisions I omit as not pertinent to my purpose they that are desirous to know more of it may read it in the Dialogues of S. Gregory from whence I have borrowed the story This certainly was Charity with a witness an act that will find more to admire and commend it than to imitate and follow it A fourth instance of Primitive Charity was the great care they took about the bodies of the dead in giving them decent and where they could honourable burial all men naturally have a kindness for their bodies and therefore desire that what has so long been the mansion of an immortal tenant may upon its dis-lodging be orderly taken down and the ruins of it laid up with honour and safety Mans body besides that 't is the cabinet of an invaluable jewel is a curious piece of artifice fearfully and wonderfully made the excellent contrivance of the divine omniscience and in that respect challenges not to be carelesly thrown aside or rudely trampled in the dirt This seems to be the common sence of mankind it being the care and practice of almost all Nations in the world religiously to enshrine the remains of their deceased friends in Tombs and Sepulchres thinking it but reasonable to testifie so much kindness to their departed friends as to honour their memories and to secure from rude barbarous violence what they left behind them when they put off mortality Sure I am this was eminently the care of Christians no dangers or threatnings could affright them from doing this last office to their deceased brethren especially such as had been Martyrs and Champions for the Truth The Roman Clergy in an Epistle to them of Carthage reckons it as one of the greatest instances of Charity above that of relieving the poor ministring to the sick or the rest which they there enumerate and reckon up tells them that it could not be neglected without great danger and that fidelity in this matter would be highly acceptable to God and rewarded by him Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria speaking of the Plague that raged there which we mentioned but now commends the Christians for assisting their sick dying brethren that they closed their eyes laid them out washed their bodies dressed and adorned them up for burial and carried them out upon their own shoulders which they chearfully did notwithstanding the imminent danger that attended it and that it was not
whereby leave was given to persons going into another Diocess either to be Ordained by the Bishop of that place or if ordain'd already to be admitted and incorporated into the Clergy of that Church Upon which account the ancient Councils every where provide that no stranger shall either receive ordination at the hands of another Bishop or exercise any ministerial act in another Diocess without the consent and dimissory Letters of the Bishop of that place from whence he comes The third were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 letters of Peace granted by the Bishop to the poor that were oppressed and such as fled to the Church for its protection and assistance but esp ecially to such of the Clergy as were to go out of one Diocess into another it being directed to the Bishop of that Diocess that he would receive him that so he might take no offence but that peaceable concord and agreement might be maintained between them By these arts the prudence of those times sought to secure the peace of the Church and as much as might be prevent all dissentions that might arise And where matters of any greater moment fell out how quickly did they flock together to compose and heal them Hence those many Synods and Councils that were conven'd to umpire differences to explain or define Articles of Faith to condemn and suppress the disturbers of the Church and innovators in Religion What infinite care did the good Emperour Constantine take for composing the Arrian controversies which then began first to infect and over-run the world How much his heart was set upon it his sollicitous thoughts taken up about it how many troublesome days and restless nights it cost him with what strong and nervous arguments what affectionate intreaties he presses it may be seen in that excellent Letter yet extant in his Life which he wrote to the Authors of those impious and unhappy controversies But when this would not do he summon'd the great Council of Nice consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops and in his Speech at the opening of that Council conjur'd them by all that was dear and sacred to agree and to compose those dissentions which were risen in the Church which he seriously protested he looked upon as more grievous and dangerous than any war whatsoever and that they created greater trouble and inquietude to his mind than all the other affairs of his Empire And when several of the Bishops then in Council had preferred Libells and Accusations one against another without ever reading them he bundled and seal'd them all up together and having reconciled and made them friends produc'd the papers and immediately threw them into the fire before their faces So passionately desirous was that good Prince to extinguish the flames and to redeem the peace of the Church at any rate Were any ejected and thrown out of the Church of which there might be a suspicion of private grudges or designs the Nicene Council wisely provided That in every Province a Synod should be held twice a year where all the Bishops meeting together might discuss the case and compose the difference Or as Joseph the Egyptian in his Arabick version of that Canon tells us an Arbitrator was to be appointed between the differing parties to take up the quarrel that it might not be a scandal to Religion Nor did there want meek and peaceable-minded men who valued the publick welfare before any private and personal advantage and could make their own particular concerns strike sail when the peace and interest of the Church called for it When great contests and confusions were raised by some perverse and unquiet persons about the See of Constantinople then possest by Gregory Nazianzen he himself stood up in the midst of the Assembly and told the Bishops how unfit it was that they who were preachers of peace to others should fall out amongst themselves beg'd of them even by the Sacred Trinity to manage their affairs calmly and peaceably and if I says he be the Jonas that raises the storm throw me into the Sea and let these storm and tempests cease I am willing to undergo what ever you have a mind to and though innocent and unblameable yet for your peace and quiet sake am content to be banished the throne and to be cast out of the City only according to the Prophets counsel be careful to love truth and peace And therewith freely resigned his Bishoprick though legally setled in it by the express command and warrant of the Emperour and the universal desires and acclamations of the people The same excellent temper ruled in S. Chrysostome one of his successours in that See when having elegantly pressed the unity of the Church and refuted those petty cavils which his adversaries had against himself But if you says he to his people suspect these things of us we are ready to deliver up our place and power to whomsoever you will only let the Church be preserved in peace and unity This was the brave and noble disposition of mind to which S. Clemens sought to reduce the Corinthians after they had fallen into a little Schism and disorder Who is there among you says he of that generous temper that compassionate and charitable disposition Let him say if this Sedition these Schisms and contentions have arisen through my means or upon my account I 'le depart and be gone whithersoever you please and will do what the people shall command only let Christs sheep-fold together with the Elders that are placed over it be kept in peace Nay when good men were most zealous about the main and foundation-articles of Faith so as sometimes rather to hazard Peace than to betray the Truth yet in matters of indifferency and such as only concern'd the rituals of Religion they mutually bore with one another without any violation of that Charity which is the great law of Christianity Thus in that famous controversie about the keeping of Easter so much agitated between the Eastern and Western Churches Irenaeus in a Letter to Pope Victor who of all that ever sat in that chair had raised the greatest stirs about it tells him that Bishops in former times however they differed about the observation of it yet alwayes maintain'd an intire concord and fellowship with one another the Churches being careful to maintain a peaceable communion though differing in some particular Rites and Ceremonies yea even when their rites and customs seemed to clash by meeting together at the same place Thus when Polycarp came to Rome from the Churches of the East to treat with Pope Anicetus about this and some other affairs though they could not satisfie each other to yield the controversie yet they kissed and embraced one another with mutual endearments received the Holy Communion together and Anicetus to do the greater honour to Polycarp gave him leave to celebrate and consecrate the Eucharist in his Church and at last they parted in
great peace and friendship the difference of the observotion not at all hindering the agreement and harmony of the Churches it being agreed amongst them by common consent says Sozomen speaking of this passage that in keeping this festival they should each follow their own custom but by no means break the peace and communion that was between them for they reckoned it says he a very foolish and unreasonable thing that they should fall out for a few rites and customs who agreed in the main Principles of Religion The Christians of those times had too deeply imbibed that precept of our Saviour love one another as I have loved you to fall out about every nice and trifling circumstance no when highliest provoked and affronted they could forbear and forgive their enemies much more their brethren and were not like the waspish Philosophers amongst the Heathens who were ready to fall foul upon one another for every petty and inconsiderable difference of opinion that was amongst them So Origen tells Celsus Both amongst your Philosophers and Physicians say he there are Sects that have perpetual feuds and quarrels with each other whereas we who have entertained the Laws of the blessed Jesus and have learnt both to speak and to do accordding to his doctrine bless them that revile us being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we entreat nor do we speak dire and dreadful things against those that differ from us in opinion and do not presently embrace those things which we have entertain'd But as much as in us lies we leave nothing unattempted that may perswade them to change for the better and to give up themselves only to the service of the great Creatour and to do all things as those that must give an account of their actions In short Christians were careful not to offend either God or men but to keep and maintain peace with both thence that excellent saying of Ephraem Syrus the famous Deacon of Edessae when he came to die In my whole life said he I never reproached my Lord and Master nor suffered any foolish talk to come out of my lips nor did I ever curse or revile any man or maintain the least difference or controversie with any Christian in all my life CHAP. IV. Of their Obedience and Subjection to Civil Government Magistracy the great hand of publick peace This highly secured by Christianity The Laws of Christ that way express and positive Made good in his own practice and the practice of his Apostles The same spirit in succeeding Ages manifested out of Justin Martyr Polycarp Tertullian and Origen Praying for Rulers and Emperours a solemn part of their publick worship Their ready payment of all Customs and Tributes and their faithfulness in doing it Christians such even under the heaviest oppressions and persecutions and that when they had power to have righted and reveng'd themselves An excellent passage in Tertullian to that purpose The temper of the Christian Souldiers in Julian's Army The famous Story of Mauricius and the Thebaean Legion under Maximinianus reported at large out of Eucherius Lugdunensis The injustice of the charge brought against them by the Heathens of being enemies to Civil Government Accused of Treason Of their refusing to swear by the Emperours genius Their denying to sacrifice for the Emperours safety and why they did so Their refusing to own the Emperours for gods and why Their not observing the solemn Festivals of the Emperours and the reasons of it Accused of Sedition and holding unlawful Combinations An account of the Collegia and Societies in the Roman Empire Christianity forbidden upon that account The Christian Assemblies no unlawful Conventions A vast difference between them and the unlawful factions forbidden by the Roman Laws Their confident challenging their enemies to make good one charge of disturbance or rebellion against them Their Laws and principles quite contrary The Heathens them selves guilty of rebellions and factions not the Christians The Testimony given them by Julian the Emperour A reflection upon the Church of Rome for corrupting the doctrine and practice of Christianity in this affair Their principles and policies in this matter Bellarmin's position that 't is lawful to depose infidel and heretical Princes and that the Primitive Christians did it not to Nero Dioclesian c. only because they wanted power censured and refuted This contrary to the avow'd principles of honest Heathens HOw much Christian Religion transcribed into the lives of its professors contributes to the happiness of men not only in their single and private capacities but as to the publick welfare of humane societies and to the common interests and conveniences of mankind we have already discovered in several instances now because Magistracy and Civil Government is the great support and instrument of external peace and happiness we shall in the last place consider how eminent the first Christians were for their Submission and Subjection to Civil Government And certainly there 's scarce any particular instance wherein Primitive Christianity did more triumph in the world than in their exemplary obedience to the Powers and Magistrates under which they lived honouring their persons revering their power paying their tribute obeying their Laws where they were not evidently contrary to the Laws of Christ and where they were submitting to the most cruel penalties they laid upon them with the greatest calmness and serenity of soul The truth is one great design of the Christian Law is to secure the interests of civil Authority our Saviour has expresly taught us that we are to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as well as unto God the things that are Gods And his Apostles spoke as plainly as words could speak it Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordain'd of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake for for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Where we may take notice both of the strictness and universality of the charge and what is mainly material to observe this charge given the Romans at that time when Nero was their Emperour who was not only an Heathen Magistrate but the first persecutor of Christians a man so prodigiously brutish and tyrannical that the world scarce ever brought forth such another monster 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Orator truly stiles him a beast in the shape of a man The same Apostle amongst other directions given to Titus for the discharge of his office bids him put the people in mind to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates