Correspondent to which the Canons called Apostolical and the Council of Antioch ordain that if any Presbyter setting light by his own Bishop shall withdraw and set up separate meetings and erect another Altar i. e. says Zonaras keep unlawful Conventicles preach privately and administer the Sacrament that in such a case he shall be deposed as ambitious and tyrannical and the people communicating with him be excommunicate as being factious and schismatical only this not to be done till after the third admonition After all that has been said I might further show what esteem and value the first Christians had of the Lords day by those great and honourable things they have spoken concerning it of which I 'll produce but two passages the one is that in the Epistle ad Magnesios which if not Ignatius must yet be acknowledged an ancient Authour Let every one says he that loves Christ keep the Lords day Festival the resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death conquered by our Lord and Saviour The other that of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who speaks thus that both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honour the Lords day and keep it Festival seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ compleated his resurrection from the dead Next to the Lords day the Sabbath or Saturday for so the word Sabbatum is constantly used in the Writings of the Fathers when speaking of it as it relates to Christians was held by them in great veneration and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnities of Religion For which we are to know that the Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews they being generally the first Converts to the Christian Faith they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaick Institutions and especially for the Sabbath as that which had been appointed by God himself as the memorial of his rest from the work of Creation setled by their great Master Moses and celebrated by their Ancestors for so many Ages as the solemn day of their publick Worship and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times as in others of the Jewish Rites so in this to indulge the humour of that people and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices Hence they usually had most parts of Divine Service performed upon that day they met together for publick Prayers for reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and such like duties This is plain not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens his Constitutions but from Writers of more unquestionable credit and authority Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assembled on Saturdays not that they were infected with Judaism but only to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and Socrates speaking of the usual times of their publick meeting calls the Sabbath and the Lords day the weekly Festivals on which the Congregation was wont to meet in the Church for the performance of Divine Services Therefore the Council of Laodicea amongst other things decreed that upon Saturdays the Gospels and other Scriptures should be read that in Lent the Eucharist should not be celebrated but upon Saturday and the Lords day and upon those days only in the time of Lent it should be lawful to commemorate and rehearse the names of Martyrs Upon this day also aswel as upon Sunday all Fasts were severely prohibited an infallible argument they counted it a Festival day one Saturday in the year only excepted viz. that before Easter-day which was always observed as a solemn Fast Things so commonly known as to need no proof But though the Church thought fit thus far to correspond with Jewish Converts as solemnly to observe the Sabbath yet to take away all offence and to vindicate themselves from compliance with Judaism they openly declared that they did it only in a Christian way and kept it not as a Jewish Sabbath as is expresly affirmed by Athanasius Nazianzen and others and the forementioned Laodicean Synod has a Canon to this purpose that Christians should not judaize and rest from all labour on the Sabbath but follow their ordinary works i. e. so far as consisted with their attendance upon the publick Assemblies and should not entertain such thoughts of it but that still they should prefer the Lords day before it and on that day rest as Christians but if any were found to judaize they should be accursed Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church in those of the West we find it somewhat different amongst them it was not observed as a religious Festival but kept as a constant Fast the reason whereof as 't is given by Pope Innonocent in an Epistle to the Bishop of Eugubium where he treats of this very case seems most probable if says he we commemorate Christs resurrection not only at Easter but every Lords day and fast upon Friday because 't was the day of his passion we ought not to pass by Saturday which is the middle-time between the days of grief and joy the Apostles themselves spending those two days viz. Friday and the Sabbath in great sorrow and heaviness and he thinks no doubt ought to be made but that the Apostles fasted upon those two days whence the Church had a Tradition that the Sacraments were not to be administred on those days and therefore concludes that every Saturday or Sabbath ought to be kept a Fast To the same purpose the Council of Illiberis ordained that a Saturday Festival was an errour that ought to be reformed and that men ought to fast upon every Sabbath But though this seems to have been the general practice yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike In Italy it self 't was otherwise at Milain where Saturday was a Festival and 't is said in the life of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of that See that he constantly dined as well upon Saturday as the Lords day it being his custom to dine upon no other days but those and the memorials of the Martyrs and used also upon that day to preach to the people though so great was the prudence and moderation of that good man that he bound not up himself in these indifferent things but when he was at Millain he dined upon Saturdays and when he was at Rome he fasted as they did upon those days This S. Augustine assures us he had from his own mouth for when his Mother Monica came after him to Millain where he then resided she was greatly troubled to find the Saturday Fast not kept there as she had found it in other places for her satisfaction he immediately went to consult S. Ambrose then Bishop of that place who told him he could give him no better
the richest and most noble gifts and to diffuse the influences of his bounty over all parts of his Empire And his example herein it seems was followed by most of his Successors who used upon this Solemnity by their imperial Orders to release all Prisoners unless such as were in for more heavy and notorious crimes high Treason Murders Rapes Incest and the like And Chrysostom tells us of a Letter of Theodosius the Great sent at this time throughout the Empire wherein he did not only command that all Prisoners should be released and pardoned but wished he was able to recal those that were already executed and to restore them to life again And because by the negligence and remissness of messengers or any accident those Imperial Letters might sometimes happen to come too late therefore Valentinian the younger provided by a standing Law that whether order came or not the Judges should dispence the accustomed indulgence and upon Easter day in the morning cause all Prisons to be open the Chains to be knock'd off and the persons set at liberty The next Feast considerable in those primitive times was that of Whitsunday or Pentecost a Feast of great eminency amongst the Jews in memory of the Law delivered at Mount Sinai at that time and for the gathering and bringing in of their Harvest and of no less note amongst Christians for the Holy Ghosts descending upon the Apostles and other Christians in the visible appearance of fiery cloven tongues which hapned upon that day and those miraculous powers then conferred upon them It was observed with the same respect to Easter that the Jews did with respect to their Passover viz. as the word imports just fifty days after it reckoning from the second day of that Festival it seems to some to have commenced from the first rise of Christianity not only because the Apostles and the Church were assembled upon that day but because S. Paul made so much haste to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost which they understand of his great desire to keep it there as a Christian Feast But the argument seems to me no way conclusive for the Apostle might desire to be there at that time both because he was sure to meet with a great number of the Brethren and because he should have a fitter opportunity to preach the Gospel to the Jews who from all parts flock'd thither to the Feast as our Saviour himself for the same reason used to go up to Jerusalem at all their great and solemn Feasts But however this was 't is certain the observation of it is ancient 't was mentioned by Irenaeus in a Book which he wrote concerning Easter as the Author of the Questions and Responses in J. Martyr tells us by Tertullian and after him by Origen more than once This Feast is by us stiled Whitsunday partly because of those vast diffusions of light and knowledge which upon this day were shed upon the Apostles in order to the enlightning of the world but principally because this as also Easter being the stated time for Baptism in the ancient Church those who were baptized put on white Garments in token of that pure and innocent course of life they had now engaged in of which more in its proper place this white Garment they wore till the next Sunday after and then laid it aside whence the Octave or Sunday after Easter came to be stiled Dominica in Albis the Sunday in white it being then that the new-baptized put off their white Garments We may observe that in the Writers of those times the whole space of fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday goes often under the name of Pentecost and was in a manner accounted Festival as Tertullian informs us and the forty third Canon of the Illiberitan Council seems to intimate During this whole time Baptism was conferred all Fasts were suspended and counted unlawful they prayed standing as they did every Lords day and at this time read over the Acts of the Apostles wherein their sufferings and miracles are recorded as we learn from a Law of the younger Theodosius wherein this custom is mentioned and more plainly from S. Chrysostom who treats of it in an Homily on purpose where he gives this reason why that Book which contained those actions of the Apostles which were done after Pentecost should yet be read before it when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christs Resurrection and those miracles recorded in that Book it was therefore most proper to be read next to the Feast of the Resurrection Epiphany succeeds this word was of old promiscuously used either for the Feast of Christs Nativity or for that which we now properly call by that name afterwards the Titles became distinct that of Christs Birth or as we now term it Christmas-day was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nativity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearance of God in the flesh two names importing the same thing as Nazianzen notes For the antiquity of it the first footsteps I find of it are in the second Century though I doubt not but it might be celebrated before mentioned by Theophilus Bishop of Caesaria about the time of the Emperour Commodus but if any credit might be given to the Decretal Epistles it was somewhat elder than that Pope Telesphorus who lived under Antoninus Pius ordaining Divine Service to be celebrated and an angelical Hymn to be sung the night before the Nativity of our Saviour However that it was kept before the times of Constantine we have this sad instance That when the persecution raged under Dioclesian who then kept his Court at Nicomedia amongst other acts of barbarous cruelty done there finding multitudes of Christians young and old met together in the Temple upon the day of Christs Nativity to celebrate that Festival he commanded the Church doors to be shut up and fire to be put to it which in a short time reduced them and the Church to ashes I shall not dispute whether it was always observed upon the same day that we keep it now the twenty fifth of December it seems probable that for a long time in the East it was kept in January under the name and at the general time of the Epiphania till receiving more light in the case from the Churches of the West they changed it to this day sure I am S. Chrysostom in an Homily on purpose about this very thing affirms that it was not above ten years since in that Church i. e. Antioch it began first to be observed upon that day and there offers several reasons to prove that to be the true day of Christs Nativity The Feast of Epiphany properly so called was kept on the sixth of January and had that name from a
they held not in the morning only but likewise in the afternoon at some times at least when they had their publick Prayers and Sermons to the people This Chrysostom assures us of in an Homily upon this very subject in commendation of those who came to Church after Dinner and that as he tells them in greater numbers than before who instead of sleeping after Dinner came to hear the divine Laws expounded to them instead of walking upon the Exchange and entertaining themselves with idle and unprofitable chat came and stood amongst their brethren to converse with the discourses of the Prophets And this he tells them he put them in mind of not that it was a reproach to eat and to drink but that having done so it was a shame to stay at home and deprive themseâ—ves of those religious Solemnities The same 't were easie to make good from several passages in S. Basil S. Augustine and others who frequently refer to those Sermons which they had preached in the morning But how many soever the discourses were the people were ready enough to entertain them flocking to them as to their spiritual meals and banquets We meet together says Tertullian to hear the holy Scriptures rehearsed to us that so according to the quality of the times we may be either forewarned or corrected by them for certainly with these holy words we nourish our Faith erect our hope seal our confidence and by these inculcations are the better established in obedience to the divine commands Nazianzen tells us what vast numbers used to meet in his Church at Constantinople of all Sexes of all sorts and ranks of persons rich and poor honourable and ignoble learned and simple Governours and People Souldiers and Tradesmen all here unanimously conspiring together and greedily desirous to learn the knowledge of divine things The like Chrysostom reports of the Church at Antioch that they would set aside all affairs at home to come and hear Sermons at Church he tells them 't was the great honour of the City not so much that it had large Suburbs and vast numbers of people or brave houses with gilded Dining-Rooms as that it had a diligent and attentive people And elsewhere that 't was the great encouragement of his ministry to see such a famous and chearful concourse a people so well ordered and desirous to hear that 't was this advanced their City above the honour of a Senate or the Office of Consul or the variety of Statues or ornaments or the plenty of its Merchandise or the commodiousness of its scituation in that its people were so earnest to hear and learn its Churches so thronged and crowded and all persons inflamed with such an insatiable desire of the word that was preached to them yea that this it was that adorned the City even above Rome it self And indeed the commendation is the greater in that commonness did not breed contempt it being usual in that Church as Chrysostom often intimates for a good part of the year to have Sermons every day Well Sermon being ended prayers were made with and for the Catechumens Penitents Possessed and the like according to their respective capacities and qualifications the persons that were in every rank departing as soon as the prayer that particularly concerned them was done first the Catechumens and then the Penitents as is prescribed in the nineteenth Canon of the Laodicean Council for no sooner was the service thus far performed but all that were under baptism or under the discipline of penance i. e. all that might not communicate at the Lords Table were commanded to depart the Deacon crying aloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are Catechumens go out in the Latine Church the form was ITE MISSA EST depart there is a dismission of you missa being the same with missio as remissa oft used in some Writers for remissio and so the word missa is used by Cassian even in his time for the dismission of the Congregation Hence it was that the whole Service from the beginning of it till the time that the Hearers were dismissed came to be called Missa Catechumenorum the Mass or Service of the Catechumens as that which was performed afterwards at the celebration of the Eucharist was called Missa Fidelium the Mass or Service of the Faithful because none but they were present at it and in these notions and no other the word is often to be met with in Tertullian and other ancient Writers of the Church 't is true that in process of time as the discipline of the Catechumens wore out so that title which belonged to the first part of the Service was forgotten and the name missa was appropriated to the Service of the Lords Supper and accordingly was made use of by the Church of Rome to denote that which they peculiarly call the Mass or the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Altar at this day and the more plausibly to impose this delusion upon the people they do with a great deal of confidence muster up all those places of the Fathers where the word missa is to be found and apply it to their Mass though it would puzle them to produce but one place where the word is used in the same sense as they use it now out of any genuine and approved Writer of the Church for at least the first four hundred years But to return the Catechumens c. being departed and the Church doors shut they proceeded to the Lords Supper at which the Faithful only might be present wherein they prayed for all states and ranks of men gave the the Kiss of charity prayed for consecration of the Eucharist then received the sacramental Elements made their Offerings and such like of which I do not now speak particularly because I intend to treat distinctly of the Sacraments afterwards for the same reason I say nothing concerning their admonitions Church-censures absolutions c. because these will come under consideration in another place as also because though managed at their publick Assemblies were yet only accidental to them and no setled parts of the Divine Service This in short was the general form of publick Worship in those ancient times which although it might vary somewhat according to times and places did yet for the main and the substance of it hold in all That which remains is a little to remarque how the Christians carried themselves in the discharge of these solemn duties which certainly was with singular reverence and devotion such gestures and actions as they conceived might express the greatest piety and humility Let both men and women says Clemens of Alexandria come to Church in comely apparel with a grave pace with a modest silence with a love unfeigned chast both in body and mind and so as they may be fit to put up prayers to God Let our speech in prayer says Cyprian be under discipline observing a decorous calmness