the Minister 〈◊〉 his Hands on the Head of the Party Baptized Anointed and Signed and prayed that the Holy Ghost would be pleased to descend and 〈◊〉 upon him This immediately followed Signation as that did Unction So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Flesh is 〈◊〉 that the Soul may be 〈◊〉 the Flesh is Signed that the 〈◊〉 The Flesh is 〈◊〉 with the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 that the Soul may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit And when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is finished 〈◊〉 Hands are imposed with Prayers invocating and inviting the Holy 〈◊〉 § 〈◊〉 Having thus briefly shewn what their Additional Acts to Baptism were it will in the 〈◊〉 place be necessary to enquire into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reasons of their usage of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Unction This was taken from the 〈◊〉 Rites 〈◊〉 it was employed in the Instalment of 〈◊〉 High Priest to denote his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Service of God as Tertullian writes This Vnction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewish Dispensation wherein the High Priest was anointed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an Horn as Aaron was by Moses So now in the times of the Gospel all Christians being as Tertullian says 〈◊〉 to God and the 〈◊〉 They were in 〈◊〉 thereunto 〈◊〉 by the a 〈◊〉 of Oyl to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 os the 〈◊〉 Father expresses it The Flesh is anointed 〈◊〉 Soul may be consecrated From the Spiritual Unction also of God the Son by God the Father for which reason he was called Christ or Anointed they pleaded for their 〈◊〉 and external Unction as 〈◊〉 saith Jesus is called Christ from being anointed which Vnction was Spiritual because whilst only a Spirit he was anointed by the Father as in the Acts. They are gathered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this City against thy Holy Son whom thou hast 〈◊〉 but our 〈◊〉 is Carnal though it spiritually profits Cyprian adds this further Reason for this Custom of 〈◊〉 viz. He that is Baptized must of necessity receive the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 that so he may be the 〈◊〉 of God and 〈◊〉 in him the Gract of Christ. § 5. As for Signation or the Signing with the Sign of the Cross By this was 〈◊〉 That they were to be 〈◊〉 and valiant in the Cause of Christ having their Hearts 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 observes The 〈◊〉 is Sign'd 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 may be 〈◊〉 Hence this Sign was made on an open visible place on their 〈◊〉 which is the Seat of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 implying thereby that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and constantly to fight like good Soldiers under the Cross of Christ whence 〈◊〉 says that as the Christians so the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Sign'd the Foreheads of their Soldiers § 6. As for the very Act of Confirmation or Imposition of Hands that was practised from an Opinion of the Imperfection of 〈◊〉 that that did not convey the Graces of the Holy Spirit but only prepared Persons for the reception of them when they should be actually bestown in the Confirmation for as 〈◊〉 says We do not receive the Holy Ghostin Baptism but-being 〈◊〉 therein by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Angel that mov'd upon the 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 we are 〈◊〉 prepared for the Holy Ghost And When our Bodies are 〈◊〉 and blessed then that most Holy Spirit willingly descends from the Father And at the Imposition of Hands the Soul is illuminated by the Spirit Cyprian in his 74th Epistle § 6 7 8 〈◊〉 somewhat largely of this Custom of Confirmation from whence I have observed this following 〈◊〉 of it Every one in a state of Heathenism and Idolatry was considered as dead wherefore when any one came from that state to the Christian Faith he was said to live which Life may be compared to a natural Life As to compleat a Natural Life there must be a Body 〈◊〉 a Soul so must the same be imagin'd in a 〈◊〉 Life As in the first Creation God first 〈◊〉 the Body of Man and then breathed 〈◊〉 him the Breath of Life first made a fit 〈◊〉 to receive the Soul before the Soul its self 〈◊〉 framed So in the second Creation God first prepares the Man before he gives his Spirit 〈◊〉 first makes the Man a fit Temple for the Holy Ghost before he gives the Holy Ghost Now the 〈◊〉 by which a Man is prepared and 〈◊〉 is by Baptism by which he is cleansed and purged from Sin and fitted for the Reception of the Spirit of God in which respect he is to be regarded as a Body The way by which the Holy Ghost is infused which as a living Soul must actuate and direct that prepared Body is by Prayer and Imposition of Hands or by Confirmation For as Cyprian writes in the same place Baptism alone cannot purge away Sins or sanctifie a Man unless he has also the Holy Ghost That is has received Confirmation as it is frequently styl'd in Cyprian's Epistles In the Decrees of the Council of Carthage and in the Letter of Cornelius to Fabius Bishop of Antioch extant in Eusebius Lib. 6. cap. 43. p. 244. This being the Regeneration of the Spirit and Baptism the Regeneration of Water both which our Saviour affirmed to be necessary when he said unto 〈◊〉 John 3. 5. Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God As Nemesianus Bishop of Thubunis saith one is not sufficient without the other the Spirit cannot 〈◊〉 without Water nor the Water without the Spirit Therefore it was necessary to be regenerated by both Sacraments viz. By Baptism and by Confirmation Wherefore as Cyprian exhorts we must pray That those who are yet Earthly may become Heavenly and be born of the Water and the Spirit That is be Baptized and Confirmed which were the external Signs of 〈◊〉 from Sin 〈◊〉 bestowing Grace both 〈◊〉 necessary to make a compleat 〈◊〉 for as the same Father writes Then are 〈◊〉 truly sanctified and fully become the Sons of God when they are regenerated with both Sacraments Baptism and 〈◊〉 according as it is written Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God So that though a 〈◊〉 was Baptized yet they accounted his Christianity incomplete and imperfect till he was also confirmed For which reason 〈◊〉 objects against 〈◊〉 that he could scarcely acknowledge him a complete Christian because being baptized in his Bed he 〈◊〉 not received Confirmation or the Additionary Rituals to Baptism nor did he ever 〈◊〉 receive them Thus you see the Reasons they produced for this Usage to fortifie which they added some Examples of the Holy Writ 〈◊〉 Tertullian 〈◊〉 to this purpose the Example of Jacob 〈◊〉 Genesis who put his Hands on the Heads of Ephraim and Manaffes and blessed them And Cyprian urges that instance of the Apostles Acts 8. 15. 17. where after several of the 〈◊〉 had been baptized by Philip Peter and James conferred the Holy Ghost on them by Imposition of Hands
hominum perdere sed salvare quantum in nobis est si fieri potest 〈◊〉 anima perdenda est Quid enim ei deest qui semel in utero Dei manibus formatus est Nobis enim atque oculis nostris secundum dierum secularium cursum accipere qui nati sunt incrementum videntur Caeterum quaecunque a Deo fiunt Dei factoris majestate opere perfecta sunt Esse denique apud omnes sive infantes sive majores natu unam divini muneris aequalitatem declarat nobis divinae Scripturae fides cum Helisaeus super Infantem Sunamitis Viduae Filium qui mortuus jacebat ita se Deum deprecans superstravit ut capiti caput faciei facies applicaretur superfusi Helisaei membra singulis parvuli membris pedes pedibus jungerentur Quae res si secundum nativitatis nostrae Corporis qualitatem cogitetur adulto provecto Infans non posset Nam quod vestigium infantis in primis 〈◊〉 ini diebus constituti mundum non esse 〈◊〉 quod unusquisque nostrum adhuc horreat exosculari nec hoc 〈◊〉 coelestem gratiam dandam impedimento esse oportere scriptumest enim omnia mundasunt mundis nec aliquis nostrum id debet hortere quod Deus dignatus est facere Nam etsi adhuc infans a partu novus eft non ita est tamen ut quisquam illum in gratia danda atque in pace facienda horrere debeat osculari quando in osculo 〈◊〉 unusquisque nostrum pro sua religione ipsas adhuc recentes Dei manus debeat cogitare quas in homine modo formato recens nato quodammodo exosculamur quando id quod Deus fecit amplectimur Nam quod in Judaica Circumcisione carnali octavus dies observabatur Sacramentum est in umbra atque in imagine ante 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 veniente Christo veritate completum 〈◊〉 quia octavus dies id est post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dies 〈◊〉 erat quo Dominus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcisionem nobis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic dies 〈◊〉 id est post Sabbacum primus Dominicus praecessit in imagine quae imago cessavit fuperveniente 〈◊〉 veritate data nobis spirituali circumcisione Propter quod neminem putamus a gratia consequenda impediendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lege quae iam 〈◊〉 est nec spiritualem circumcisionem impediri carnali 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed omnem omnino hominem admittendum efse ad gratiam Christi quando Petrus in Actibus Apostolorum 〈◊〉 dicat Dominus mihi dixit 〈◊〉 communem dicendum immundum Caeterum si homines 〈◊〉 aliquid ad 〈◊〉 gratiae posset magis adultos provectos majores natu possent impedire peccata graviora Porro autem si etiam gravissimis delictoribus in Deum multum ante peccantibus cum postea crediderint remissa peccatorum datur a baptismo atque a gratia nemo prohibetur quanto magis prohiberi non debet 〈◊〉 qui recens natus nihil peccavit nisi quod secundum Adam carnaliter natus contagium mortis antique prima nativitate contraxit Qui ad remissam peccatorum accipiendam hoc ipso facilius accedit quod illi remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata idcirco frater charissime haec fuit in concilio nostra sententia a baptismo atque a gratia Dei qui omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pius est neminem per nos debere prohiberi Quod cum 〈◊〉 universos observandum 〈◊〉 atque retinendum tum magis circa 〈◊〉 ipsos recens natos 〈◊〉 putamus qui hoc 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ac de divina 〈◊〉 plus merentur quod in primo statim na 〈◊〉 suae ortu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flentes nihil aliud 〈◊〉 quam 〈◊〉 As for the matter of Infants whom you said were not to be Baptized within the Second or Third Day after their Nativity or according to the Law of Circumcision within the eighth Day thereof it hath appeared to us in our Council quite contrary no one maintained your Opinion but we all judged That the Mercy and Grace of God was to be denied to no Man for since the Lord said in the Gospel The Son of Man came not to destroy but to save the Souls of Men therefore as much as lies in our Power no Soul is to be lost for what is there defective in him who has been once formed in the Womb by the Hands of God To us indeed it seems that Children increase as they advance in Years but yet whatever things are made by God are perfected by the Work and Majesty of God their Maker Besides the 〈◊〉 Scriptures declare that both Infants and Adult Persons have the same Equality in the Divine Workmanship When Elisha prayed over the Dead Child of the Sunamitish Widow he lay upon the Child and put his Head upon his Head and his Face upon his Face and his Body upon his Body and his Feet upon his Feet This may be thought improbable how the small Members of an Infant should equal the big ones of a grown Man but 〈◊〉 is expressed the Divine and Spiritual Equality that all Men are equal and alike when they are made by God that though the encrease of our 〈◊〉 may cause an inequality with respect to Men yet not with respect to God unless that that Grace which is given to 〈◊〉 Persons be more or less according to the Age of the Receivers but the Holy Ghost is given equally to all not according to measure but according to God's Mercy and Indulgence for as God is no respecter of Persons so neither of Years he equally offers to all the 〈◊〉 of his Heavenly Grace And whereas you say that an 〈◊〉 for the first Days after his Birth is unclean so that 〈◊〉 one is 〈◊〉 to kiss him this can 〈◊〉 no Impediment to his 〈◊〉 of Heavenly Grace for it is written to the Pure all things are pure and none of us should dread that which God hath made for although an 〈◊〉 be newly born yet he is not so as that we should dread to 〈◊〉 him since in the 〈◊〉 of an Infant we ought to think upon the fresh Works of God which in a 〈◊〉 we 〈◊〉 in an Infant newly formed and born when we embrace that which God hath made And whereas the 〈◊〉 Jewish 〈◊〉 was performed on the Eighth Day that was a Type and Shadow of some future good thing which Christ the Truth being now come is done away because the Eighth Day or the First Day after the Sabbath was 〈◊〉 be the Day on which our Lord should rise and quicken us and give us the Spiritual Circumcision 〈◊〉 was the Carnal Circumcision on the Eighth Day which Type is now abolished Christ the Truth being come and having given us the Spiritual Circumcision Wherefore it is our Judgment that no one ought to be debarred from God's Grace by that Law or that the Spiritual Circumcision should be hindred by the carnal
decent place where say they if possible we will meet to celebrate with Joy and Gladness the Birth-day of his Martyrdom Hence that they might be certain of the very day of the Martyrs Sufferings there were some appointed to take an exact Account of them and faithfully to register them that so there might be no mistake Thus Cyprian writ from his Exile to the Clergy of his Church That they should take special care exactly to note down the very day of the Martyrdom of the Faithful that so they might be commemorated amongst the Memories of the Martyrs and to signifie to him the precise time of their departure to a glorious Immortality that so he might also celebrate it § 8. The Reasons for which they observed these Festivals we find in the forementioned Letter of the Church of Smirna wherein they write That they would meet to celebrate with Joy and Gladness the Martyrdom of Polycarp for the Commemoration of those who had already gloriously striven and for the Confirmation and Preparation of others by their Examples So that their Design was two-fold to animate and encourage others to follow the glorious Examples of those Heroick Martyrs who were commemorated before their Eyes and to declare the Honour and Veneration that they had for those invincible Champions of Jesus Christ who by their Martyrdoms were now freed from all their Miseries and Torments and Translated to a blessed and glorious Immortality in an happy manner experiencing the Truth of that Scripture in Ecclesiastes 7. 1. That the day of a Man's Death is better than the day of his Birth Whence the Time of the Martyrs Deaths was usually termed their Birth-Day because then was a Period of all their Grief and Trouble and a beginning of their everlasting Bliss and 〈◊〉 Thus in the forementioned Letter of the Church of Smirna concerning the Death of Polycarp they write That they would meet to celebrate with joy and gladness the Birth-day of his Martyrdom And so Tertullian says that 3 they annually commemorated the Birth-days of the Martyrs that is their Deathdays as he writes in another place concerning St. Paul That he was born at Rome when he suffered Martyrdom there § 9. As for the Place where these Anniversary Solemnities were performed it was at the Tombs of the Martyrs who were usually buried with the rest of the Faithful in a distinct place from the Heathens it being their Custom to interr the Christians by themselves seperate from the Pagans accounting it an hainous Crime if possibly it could be prevented to mingle their Sacred Ashes with the defiled ones of their Persecuting and Idolatrous Neighbours Wherefore in the Ratification of the Disposition of Martialis Bishop of Astorga by an African Synod held Anno 258 this was one of the Articles alledg'd against him That he had buried his Sons after the Pagan manner in Gentile Sepulchres amongst Men of another Faith And for this Reason it was that the surviving Christians would run upon ten thousand Hazards to collect the scattered Members of the Dead Martyrs and decently to inter them in the common Repository of the Faithful As when Emilian the barbarous Prefect of Egypt forbad any under Severe Penalties to entomb the Dead Bodies of the murdered Saints and seduously watched if any would durst to do it Yet 〈◊〉 a Deacon of Alexandria resolutely ventured upon it And it is applauded by the Historian as an Act of Religious Boldness and Freedom whereby Asturias a Roman Senator rendred himself renouned in that when he saw the Martyrdom of Marinus at Caesarea he took his martyred Body cloathed it with a precious Garment bore it away on his own Shoulders and magnificently and decently 〈◊〉 it And in a Letter from the Christians of Lyons and Vienna in France to the Churches of 〈◊〉 concerning their sore and grievous Persecutions we find them passionately complaining of the Inhumane Cruelty of their Persecutors that neither Prayers nor Tears neither Gold nor Silver could prevail with them to permit them to collect the dead Bodies of their murthered Brethren and decently to 〈◊〉 them As on the other hand the Faithful or the Church of Smirna rejoyced that they had gotten the most precious Bones of Polycarp which they buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decebat where they ought as Valesius renders it that is as seems most probable at the common Burying Place of the Christians Now it was at these Tombs and Sepulchres that the Memories of the Martyrs were solemnized Thus in the forecited Letter of the Church of Smirna to the Church of Philomilium they write that in that place where they had interr'd the Bones of Polycarp they would by the Blessing of God assemble together and celebrate his Martyrdom which was a Practice so usual and constant as that the Heathens observed it So that as on the one hand under the Persecution of Valerian AEmilian the Prefect of Egypt threatned Dionysius Alexandrinus and his Fellow-Sufferers that for their Obstinacy and 〈◊〉 as he termed it he would send them into Lybia to a desert place called Cephro where they should not meet together or go to those places called Cemeteries That is the places where the Martyrs and the rest of the Faithful were buried so on the other hand when Galienus Valerian's Son restored Peace to the Churches he published an express Edict for returning to the Christians the Cemeteries that were taken from them § 10. If in the next place it shall be enquired how they observed these Festival Days I answer that they did not according to the fashion of the Heathens spend them in Riot and Debauchery in Bacchanalian Revellings and Luxury but in Religious Exercises and Employments in Prayers and Devotions He saith Origen truly keeps a Festival who does what he ought to do always praying and by his Prayers offering up unbloody Sacrifices unto God The Solemnites of these Feast Days were not Drunkenness and Gluttony but Acts of Piety and Charity Now they publickly assembled as the Church of Smirna writes in her Letter concerning the Death of Polycarp to commemorate the Martyrs Courage and Triumphs and to exhort and prepare others to the same glorious and renowned Actions Or as Tertullian expresses it now they offered Oblations as Cyprian They offered Oblations and Sacrifices that is they offered Thanks and Praise to God that had given Grace to those Martyrs to Seal his Truths with their Blood and in evidence of their Gratitude distributed of their Substance to the Poor and 〈◊〉 CHAP. X. § 1. Of the Rights and Ceremonies The difference between them § 2. Of Ceremonies Many used by the Ancients which through various ways crept into the Church § 3. Of Rites Every Church followed its own Rites without imposing them on any other § 4. The Members of every Church obliged to observe the Rites of that Church where they lived § 5. The Conclusion of