and keep the publick Archives of a People they tell us that no man should dare to look toward the writing of a History that is not Master of a great Industry and unwearied Diligence in collecting all sorts of Materials for the raising such a Fabrick of a searching judgment and sublime acumen to preserve him from being impos'd on by falshood and led by an ignis fatuus instead of true and genuine light and above all of a severe and unbyast honesty that will undauntedly tell the truth and discourse not as a party but an impartial and unprejudic'd Relator and as the Author must be thus furnish'd So they tell us Lips not in lib. 1. Politic. cap. 9. his Productions must have these similar accomplishments 1. Truth in the veracity of all passages that nothing be altered conceal'd or diminish'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian ubi supr p. 351. for he is a betrayer of verity not only who tells a lye but who does not freely tell the truth and that man who hath not laid aside all affection and partiality forgot his Country and Relations and is in love only with Sincerity is unfit to be an Historian How unworthily hath Socrates of old made every passage of his Church History that relates to the Novatian controversie favourable to that Schism How does he claw the Phrygians the greatest Body of that Faction and praise them for their Abstinence and other Christian virtues and at the same time depreciate Saint John Chrysostome and blame him for his heat and ungovern'd passions for his craft and injustice In like manner how does Philostorgius use all his art to make the Arian dogma pass for the only Orthodoxy How does he celebrate Aëtius and the other prime Assertors of that impious Heresie but discountenance Athanasius hardly allowing him to be honest or learned And to omit others hath not the famous Baronius done so who would have merited more than the World could have paid him Ut. eujus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque industriam neque mirari neque praedicare satis possumus ejus fidem innumeris in locis vel inviti cogamur desiderare Casaub Epist dedicat ante exercit adv Baron had he always throughout his Annals sacrific'd on the Altar of Truth whereas now while we can never sufficiently admire or magnifie his infinite reading variety of learning and industry we are compell'd to complain of his want of fidelity 2. Plainness in an orderly and perspicuous disposal of narrations of the causes effects and circumstances why how and to what purpose affairs were managed without which says Polybius any Essay of this nature is rather a ridiculous Fable than a sober Story which plainness must also be observ'd in the Style that it be not abstruse or intricate Poetical or bombast ragged or dull but continued with great evenness and a taking smoothness 3. Judgment not publishing things on hear-say or stuffing a Book with Enthusiastick Legends and strange performances or oracular Dreams and Visions the great fault of Gregory Turonensis and them that succeeded him which made some question whether any man should be allowed to write a History who had not been on the place and an eye-witness of the transactions nor yet intermixing trifling and foolish circumstances wild impertinent and absurd narrations such as Saint Francis's calling the Swallows and Grashoppers the Hares and Lambs Brothers and Sisters in Antoninus or his undertaking to teach a Sheep to adore the Eucharist in Bonaventure and a thousand such equally to be rank'd with the prudence of that German who among other instances of the humility modesty and condescension of one of their Henries reckons this that he was well contented to mend his own Breeches whereas nothing insignificant or trifling should debase the grandeur of a History nothing should be intersperst but what is necessarily subservient to the illustration of Affairs And if such exact care fidelity and discretion ought to be exerted in the Records of our secular concerns how much more studiously should the matters of our biggest and best Interests be managed That the History of the Church suffer not at the hands of its profest Friends whose negligence or ignorance whose want of wit or honesty may signally disserve Religion for I suppose no man is now to be convinc'd how conducive the acquaintance with those primitive and purest Ages is to the fitting a man for the noblest and most sacred researches since that Maxime of the most learned Viscount Saint Albans hath hitherto commenc'd Oracle Advancement of Learning p. 105. Edit Angl. 1633. That it is not Saint Austins or Saint Ambrose 's Works that will make so wise a Divine as Ecclesiastical History well read and observed And that though Bellarmine was a man of vast Parts and his Controversies deservedly famous Montague against Selden of Tithes p. 19 yet that it is Baronius who is the Atlas of that Church and that the surest way to confound oppositions and Schismaticks in controverted cases of Discipline were to have the Face of the Primitive Church-Polity drawn to the Life out of the authentick Writings and especially the Epistles of the antient Fathers at least till the time of the Chalcedon Council inclusively for he must be a man of a Brazen-Face and a Leaden Heart that will opine or oppose against the well known and allowable practices of the Ancients But Ecclesiastical History like the Church whose Amanuensis it was had its infancy and youth its maturity and old Age and after all an unexpected renovation and return to its briskness and vigour The first Essay towards an account of the affairs of the Church after what the Evangelical Registers give us was undertook by those Notaries who probably circ an Chr. 92. Pontificat in vit Clement tom 1. Concil were deputed by Saint Clemens the Bishop of Rome in his own Church and likely by other Prelates after his example in theirs to transcribe the Acts of the Martyrs the particulars of their Discourses and the circumstances of their Sufferings that in those Ages of persecutions others might be encouraged to ambition the same Crown Vetustissima Ecclesiae martyria quorum lectione piorum animus ita afficitur ut nunquam satur inde recedat Certè ego nihil unquam â—n Historia Ecclesiasticâ vidi à cujus lectione commotior recedam ut non amplius meus esse videar De actis Martyrii Polycarpiani c. Jos Scaliger not in Euseb Chron. an MMCLXXXIII p. 202. Edit Lugdun Bat. 1606. But this course not being found sufficient to transmit all the illustrious transactions of the Church to Posterity * Euseb Hist lib. 4. cap. 8. Steph. Gobarus apud Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 472. Hegesippus circ an 168. sets about the writing a Body of Ecclesiastical History in his five Books of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Commentaries and because his Memoires as to matter of Fact were very
the Angels were they that said in Scripture let us make man and having given him a Soul that did not enable him to stand upright but still he crept like a Worm God took pity on the decrepit Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sent down a Spark of Life and made the man perfect and that this is that Spark that after the dissolution of the Creature goes back again to God that gave it Which distinction of his seems to me to be the same with that of Apollinaris between the Soul and Mind but this I propose only as a Conjecture XVI His second Argument is That the Passage in Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is left out of our Ignat us not to answer him that this Passage being found in b Usser prolegom c. 3. p. XV. XVI three of our English Writers Woodford Tissington and Bishop Grosthead while it was not in the Vulgar Copies set the curious Primate on searching for those Copies which he afterwards found this very Passage is still extant in the c P. 35. edit Usser Medicean Copy only with a small variation in Theodoret it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in Vossius's Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab eucharistia oratione recedunt as the d P. 220. ancient barbarous Translation XVII His last Argument is from a mistake of e L. 3. adv Pelag. to 2. P. 301. Ed. Eras S. Hierom how confidently soever it be said that the Father had the Passage out of one of the genuine Epistles of Ignatius that our Saviour chose the greatest of Sinners for his Apostles For though the Answer of Dr. f Uhi supr c. 3. sect 1. n. 15. Hammond be sufficient that it might be spoken by the Martyr though not recorded as our Saviour spake many things not writ in the Gospel some whereof were recited in the Acts of the Apostles others by some of the Apostles Followers yet we have a better that this was only a slip of S. Hierom's memory quoting Ignatius for S. Barnabas in whose Catholick Epistle the words are now extant and as the words of Barnabas did Origen quote taem long before S. Hierom nor are such mistakes uncommon among the Fathers so g Vide Pears vindic part 1. c. 3. p. 29. Clemens Alexandrinus quotes Barnabas for Clemens Romanus and Theodoret the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans instead of that to the Church of Smyrna and S. h C. 27.9 Matthew the Prophet Jeremy instead of Zechary as i Act. 7.16 S. Stephen does Abraham for Jacob. XVIII in the next place he proceeds to the consideration of those Epistles which he calls dubious but we except the Epistle to Polycarp which even a Apolog. pro Ignat. cap. 3. Vedelius himself doth confess to be one of the seven genuine reject as spurious being over and above the number of Epistles which Eusebius and S. Hierome attribute to our Martyr So that notwithstanding what b To. 2. an 109. p. 35. Baronius pleads for them I am of our Country-man Cook 's mind who in his c Pag. 57 c. Censura Patrum gives the same reasons which Mr. H. uses only I cannot subscribe to that one that because in the Epistle to Polycarp he mentions a Letter-Carrier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore he must have been an Ecclesiastical Officer the argument being enervated by d Not. Critic in Ep. Ignat. p. 139. Vedelius the word certainly implying no more than a Messenger in the stile of Ignatius whom he advises Polycarp to send to Antioch such as Burrhus was that came to him at Smyrna from Troas and such as Phoebe and others were to S. Paul for all the e Cyrys To. 5. p. 502 503. Cities round about sent to the Martyr and provided him with necessaries and gave him the assistance of their Prayers and Embassies Now these Offices were many times undertook by the Clergy so Irenaeus being a Presbyter carried the Letters of the Church of Lyons to Pope Eleutherius though the Office did properly belong to the sub-sub-Deacon says f Tom. 2. an 179 p. 146 Baronius Nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Epistle signifie any imposition of hands but barely an appointment or civil designation XIX As to the Apostrophe in the Epistle to Polycarp from the Bishop to the People it is not unusual in the Epistles of the Apostles and may be seen in those to the seven Churches of Asia and notwithstanding the most reverend g Not an Epist ad Polycarp p. 85 86. Vsher after what the learned Is Vossius hath pleaded for this Epistle be still of his old Opinion yet here S. Chrysostom's Authority prevails more with me who in his h To. 6. p. 645. Oration de Vnico Vet. N. Test Legislatore quotes this Epistle as the genuine Ignatius's and that that Oration is S. Chrysostom's Bishop i Ubi supr part 1. cap. 9. p. 132 c. Pearson hath fully vindicated but this consideration hath been already adjusted XX. For the Latine words made Greek all which will amount to but four in seven Epistles whereof three are in that one Epistle to Polycarp it will appear the poorest of Arguments to him that remembers how many more such there be in the New Testament which he that will look into the end of Pasor's Lexicon shall find gathered to his hand though Blondel only takes notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fragment of Hegesippus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning Polycarp's Martyrdom and that in the most elegant and polite Writer S. Chrysostom in one a To. 7. p. 93 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epistle viz. the 13th of those ad Olympiadem we have eight such words together and some of them twice and oftner and in the Writers of Tacticks or Law vaster numbers six hundred at least in Vrbicus an Author of the same Age with Ignatius who writ the Tacticks of the Emperours Trajan and Adrian But this is an Exception which Dailleé was asham'd of who never mentions it as our Author is of another which that learned Frenchman uses viz. his compound words b Vid. D. Ham. Pears ubi supr which also hath been over and above answered XXI P. 13. He avers of the three Latine Epistles whereof one to the Virgin Mary the other to S. John the Apostle that they were added by Antiochus the Monk circ an 630. to the other twelve Epistles But this also is a great mistake for no man ever yet saw those three Epistles in Greek nor are they quoted by any Greek Writer as Antiochus was nor any of the Latines till S. Bernard as Mr. H. p. 14. out of Baronius confesses which how it can be reconciled with his former assertion I am not Oedipus enough to unriddle But suppose that this also did arise from
Fly therefore Schism Ad Smyrn p. 36. as the beginning of all mischief He that is not within the Sanctuary cannot partake of the Bread of God Ad Ephes p. 3. for if the prayer of one or two be so powerful how much more the conjoined supplications of a Bishop and his whole Flock He therefore that shuns the publick Assemblies is proud and hath cut himself off from the holy Communion for it is written that God resists the proud Let us therefore studiously decline opposing the Bishop that we may not be guilty of Rebelling against God Vse your utmost endeavour that you may meet often to praise and magnifie your Maker Ibid. p. 6. for by such frequent Assemblies the powers of Satans Kingdom are weakened and his design to ruine you for ever blasted by the Vniformity of your Faith There is no greater blessing than peace by which all the quarrels in Heaven and Earth are composed Such are his severe remarques on all the disturbers of Ecclesiastick Union and yet no man a greater adviser to Christian Condescension and Compassion than Ignatius Ibid. p. 5. Overcome says he the fury of such men by meekness their proud boastings by Humility their railings by Prayers their Errours by continuing stedfast in the Faith and their wild and ungoverned manners by a gentle and Christian demeanour XXXV Nor does he only discover the Distemper but prescribes a Remedy by enjoining a strict submission to Episcopal Authority in every Epistle For as our Master Christ never did any thing either by himself or by his Apostles without his Father Ad Magnes p. 12. so neither undertake ye any thing without the Bishop and his Presbyters nor do ye indulge to any private Fancies of your own how plausible or reasonable soever but in the same Assembly let there be one Prayer and Supplication one mind one hope in charity and joy unblameable for there is one Jesus Ad Trall p. 1 6 7. than whom nothing can be better Vndertake nothing without your Bishop and be subject to your Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ and honour the Deacons as the Ministers of the Mysteries of Jesus for without these there can be no Church Ad Philadelph p. 30. I cry aloud and speak it with an audible Voice be obedient to the Bishop Presbyters and Deacons Some men suspected that I spake this as if I had foreseen the Schismatical Designs of some but he is my Witness for whom I am bound with this Chain that I had not the notice from flesh and blood but the Spirit of God revealed these things unto me telling me Do nothing without your Bishop keep your Body undefiled as the Temple of God love Vnity fly Divisions be Imitators of Christ as he is of his Father My soul for theirs who obey the Bishop Ad Polycarp Presbyters and Deacons he that honoureth the Bishop is honoured of God he that does any thing without his Privity is a servant to the Devil Let nothing belonging to the Church be done without the Prelate Ad Smyâ—n p. 36. Think that Encharist only valid which the Bishop consecrates or some one by him deputed it is not lawful without him either to Baptize or Celebrate the Love-Feasts where the Bishop is let the Congregation be as where Christ is there is the Catholick Church And lest he might seem to impose all the stress on the Laity and prescribe no holy Cautions to the Governours of the Church how to demean themselves the beginning of the Epistle to Polycarp is wholly spent in advices to that Apostolical Bishop and giving a Character of the Episcopal Office I will only instance in one memorable saying more of his that famous passage which Theophilus Origen S. Basil Hierom and others borrow from him Ad Ephes p. 8. that there were three things whereof the Prince of the Air was ignorant the Virginity of the Blessed Mother of God the Incarnation of her Son and his death and Crucifixion three venerable Mysteries that were now publickly proclaimed to the World in their accomplishment but were contrived by God in eternal silence and secresie XXXVI And whereas some doubt hath been made how under so strict a custody he could find leisure to write so many Letters and make so many holy Sermons and Exhortations as he did we answer a Baron Tom. 2. an 109. p. 34. Pearson part 2. c. 11. p. 139. that he bought every moment of that holy leisure from his Guards every stay of his being their Market where they made him purchase each hours freedom from their inspection and restraints with greater Sums growing more fierce and untractable on their gentle treatment that they might extort new and larger Compositions for such was the Charity of that Age that they accounted nothing dearer than the concerns of their Religion and therefore grudged at no cost to purchase better usage for the Confessors thereof and of this b De Mort. Peregr p. 996. Lucian is a sufficient witness and such questionless was their Zeal and Love towards Ignatius and by this means he purchas'd his hours of Privacy notwithstanding Eusebius seems to oppose the Opinion c Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 30. implying that he did it rather by stealth than their Connivance XXXVII It is also proposed as a great difficulty by the acute a Not. in Euseb Chron. an MMCXX III. p. 189. Scaliger how it came to pass that Ignatius should not be martyred at Antioch but carryed thence to Rome telling us that none but Denizens of that great City used to appeal from the Governour of the Province as S. Paul did and if we assert this concerning Ignatius then could he not have been thrown to the Wild Beasts the b L. 48. Tit. 8. ad leg Cornel. de Sicar Venef Law forbidding to punish any Citizen in that manner it being in truth a Death decreed to the vilest and most profligate of Malefactors only and at last professes That he is ignorant how to solve it and therefore proposes it that others might try their wits about it And though I pretend not to unriddle Mysteries yet we may give more than one reason why Trajan who himself and not the Governour of the Province condemn'd the holy man ordered him to suffer at Rome c Lib. 48. Tit. 19. 〈◊〉 ad â—esâ—â—â— It was usual in all the Provinces to send the Heads and Leaders of Factions famous Thieves and Murtherers or any that had Excellencies more than ordinary as strength of Body or Skill to suffer at Rome Now Ignatius was the most remarkable man among the Christians of that Country a Patriarch of a famous See venerable for his Age and Piety for his Zeal and Humility for his Gallantry and Courage in freely offering himself to the Emperour and reproving his Idolatrous Worship To this d Tom. 5. p. 502 503. S. Chrysostom subjoins That it was the Devil's Policy to
504. Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To. 5. p. 515. To. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Genes p. 64. To. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Act. App. p. 856. Phot. cod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 200. Gregory Nyssens Homilies on the Canticles imply that he preacht on that Book of the inspired Solomon every day and this appears also by more than a few passages in St. Chrysostom's Homilies in as much as it was expresly commanded all Bishops g Can. 19. by the sixth General Council that every Prelate on every day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but especially on the Lords days should instruct both his Clergy and People by which we may judge of the Acumen of those Franciscan Fryers at Basil among the Switzers who affirmed it h Mâ—â—ch Adain Vit. Pellican p. â—92 to be a Lutheran trick to preach on any other but holy-days But this Law was not so indispensibly binding but that many days in the year wanted their Sermons only this we may aver that unless in case of great necessity the Christians had their Homilies constantly on Sundays on Festivals and their Eves throughout the whole Lent and the twelve days the Octaves of Easter and Whitsuntide and the Rogation-Week on Wednesdays and Frydays in most places and at other times frequently according to the discretion of the Prelate or the fulness of the Congregation XXIII But above all they had their Lectures of Discipline every day throughout the Lenten Fast and that not only in S h Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 381. ubi supr Chrysostomes time but even in the Infancy of the Aegyptian Churches this practice was introduc'd among those Convert Jews whom i Hist lib. 2. cap. 16. Eusebius out of Philo describes who through the whole seven Weeks of Lent were imployed in Fastings Watchings and among other duties in hearing the Word of God which Custom it were to be wisht that the Protestant Churches had retain'd as well as the Romanists who have their preachings every day in that holy time the same person being obliged to continue the exercise as long as his strength shall permit him Nor had the Ancients their Sermons only for one part of the day only or but one at once but it was usual very early in some places for the †Constitute Apost lib. 2. cap. 57. Presbyters with the Bishops leave to preach each one in his turn or as many as were thought fit and then the Bishop himself closed up all with a sober and grave exhortation and sometimes if a b Gaudent Brixiens tract 14. Nyssen Tom. 1. p. 872. forreign Prelate came occasionally to a Church he was desired to preach and sometimes the same Person preacht c Aug. in Psal 86. reficite vires refecti à cibis c. nunc ad reliqua Psalmi de quo in matutino locuti sumus animum intendite Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 6. p. 525. tit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. T. 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Laz. p. 229. twice a day for which sometimes that most admirable and desired Preacher S. Chrysostom was forc'd to make his Apology and free himself from the imputation of introducing a novel Custom XXIV And as the Governours of the Church took on them to appoint set times for hearing the Word of God explain'd so also they took care that every man might not be left to his own choice but that fit places might be appropriated to this duty for in those days none but the Hereticks had their separate meetings the Apostles at first preacht from * Act. 2.46 â—â— 5.42 house to house for as long as they had extraordinary assistances and no ordinary charge the whole world was every Apostles Diocess but afterward when they were fixt on setled and ordinary charges the Bishop being attended with his Deacons was the only person that preacht and for some time the converted Christians had not above one Sermon in a Diocess which the Prelate preacht in his Cathedral in the Principal place of his charge and therefore to ordain throughout every City Tit. 1.5 is the same with to ordain throughout every Church Act. 14.23 thither all the scattered Christians of the Neighbourhood resorted and when the Offices were over each man went home and instructed his Family as God enabled him as in truth all the Ordinances of the Church were celebrated in the Mother-Church only and none but the Bishop officiated therein or some other by leave from him but when the number of the Brethren encreast and a third Order of Ecclesiastical persons were instituted a Colledge of Presbyters to attend the Bishop as his Council and Assistants I suppose that not long after the date of their erection the Churches of the Mother-Cities encreasing in number the Presbyters had their several Titles confer'd on them by the Bishop that every one might know his several part of that flock which he was to instruct Hence in the Pontifical it is said that Pope Euarestus was the first that at Rome divided the Churches and Cemeteries among the Presbyters it was also very antiently practised at a Epiphan haeres 69. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. apud Sozom. hist l. 1. c. 5. Alexandria And thus it continued in the Cities some years before the Country were so well provided for the first Country Presbyter that I meet with being to be found in b Epist 28. p. 34. St. Cyprian who mentions Gajus the Presbyter or Curate of Didda and c Haeres 66. vide Ep. Episc ad Dionys c. apud Euseb lib. 7. cap. 24. Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 27. Conc. Ancyran Neo-Caes Epiphanius takes notice of Trypho the Presbyter of Diodoris a Village under Archelaus Bishop of Caschara in Mesopotamia who with his Ordinary were great Opponents of the Heretick Manes when he fled out of Persia into Romania and after this the name commonly occurs in the Councils but this excellent Custom came later into some other parts of the World than into the East and South for it was after the year 630. before this Kingdom of our Nativity was divided into Parishes and * Vid. Concil Valens Can. 4. probably after the year 400 that it was so ordered in France XXV Every person or every Clergy-man was not at first thought fit to take the cure of Souls on him none but the immediate Successors of the Apostles the Prelates of the Church who in truth discharg'd this and all other parts of the Ministerial Function till his burthen increasing the Bishop permitted some Presbyters to discharge that duty but neither durst they preach without their Ordinaries leave as we find the Apostles cautiously expecting a License from the President of the Jewish Assembly Act. 13.15 and seldom in his presence but supplyed his room when he was necessarily absent at a Synod or in time of persecution or
for any other reason and at last sometimes were allowed to preach in his presence which Custom began to prevail every where till Arius being but a private Presbyter at Alexandria began against the Injunctions of his Ordinary to spread his Doctrine and scatter Heresie in his Sermons whereupon he having so disturbed the Church it past into a Law for the c Socrat lib. 5. cap. 21. Sozom. lib. 7. c. 19. African Churches that none but the Bishop should dare to preach and so it continued for a considerable time inasmuch as when Valerius Bishop d Possidon vit Augustin c. 5. of Hippo being unfit personally to instruct his Flock called S. Austin his Presbyter and Successor to his Assistance and permitted him to preach it made a great deal of noise and created both the good Prelate and his Priest much envy though Valerius pleaded for himself that it was customary in the Oriental Churches but when S. Austin had thus broke the Ice the Southern Churches in a small time did also embrace the usage And there is still somewhat equivalent retain'd among us not only in that our Liturgy calls all the Clergy of the Diocess the Bishop's Curates but that when we are made Priests we have Authority given us to preach the Gospel when we shall be thereunto lawfully called i. e. licensed by our Ordinary XXVI The subject of the Sermon was commonly a Aug. serm 237. de temp the Gospel for the day which being the last of the Portions out of holy Scripture then read might be presumed to have made its strongest Impressions upon the Auditory though I find some very learned men affirming that till the fourth Age the Sermon had no other Text than what the Preacher thought fit and it is most certain that the sacred and wise men did not always tye themselves expresly to a Text of Scripture but took any subject themselves thought fit and enlarged on it and that not only in their Panegyricks but on several other occasions as may be seen in the Homilies of S. Chrysostom S. Austin and Chrysologus and of late days in Dr. Clark's Sermons and some others and very lawfully without doubt though I heartily abhor the Impudence of that b Apud Sixtin Amama orat de barbarie ex Melanch Schoolman who like the rest of that Herd that knew no more Scripture than what they found in S. Hierom or Gratian being to preach at Paris where Melanchthon was his Auditor took his Text out of Aristotle's Ethicks But the Fathers were very chary in suiting their Discourses to the capacities and wants of their Auditory not entertaining them with trifling Notions but with the knowledge of their biggest and most momentous concerns S. c Tom. 1. Apologet 1. p. 15 16. Gregory the Divine describes the duty of a Preacher in this case He is to treat of the World and its formation of the Soul and Angels as well those that kept as those that lost their Integrity of Providence and its wise Laws and Constitutions of the Creation of Man and his restoration of the two Testaments the Types of the Old and the Antitypes of the New of Christ's first and second coming of his Incarnation and Passion of the general Resurrection and end of the World of the day of Judgment of the rewards of the Just and the punishment of the disobedient and above all of the blessed Trinity And S. John d Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 523 524. Chrys bids his people call to remembrance what he discours'd to them of the Nature of the Soul of the Fabrick of the Body and the state of immortality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Torments of Hell of the long-suffering of God and the Methods of pardon of the powers of Repentance of Baptism and the forgiveness of sins of the Creation of the superiour and inferiour World the nature of Men and Angels the subtilty of Satan and his Methods and Policies of the different Opinions in the Christian World of the true Faith and the gangrene of Heresies with many other such Mysteries which it behoves a Christian to be acquainted with and who is sufficient for these things These Notions made men wise and rational devout and obedient while the airy speculations of the School serve only to swell the brains with a Fantastick Tympany And I must profess it seems to me to be one of the best Sentences in a In supputat annor mundi millenar 1. Martin Luther's large Tomes when he says that the ante-diluvian Patriarchs did not entertain themselves and Children with gay discourses of inconsiderable things de lana caprina but that they disputed of the cunning of the Serpent and the sad effects of his Temptation of the nature of sin and death and the miseries of Hell of the promised Seed that should ruine the Devil of the Laws of Justice and Mercifulness of Life and Paradise XXVII Nor were these Sermons always though commonly new and unheard of discourses and the genuine Off-spring of the Preachers brains the products of his study and industry but many times the works of other famous men For thus b Euseb lib. 3. cap. 3. Hermas's Pastor was publickly read in the Church and c Id. lib. 4. cap. 22. Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians together with that of Pope Soter to Dionysius and so was d Hieron Catalog v. Polycarp Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians as likewise the e Id. v. Ephraem works of Ephraem Syrus read in the Churches of Syria and in f Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 19. some of the Orthodox Conventions in Palestine till the time of Sozomen the Church Historian the Revelation of S. Peter was read once every year And I suppose that that which gave occasion to this appointing the Writings of Apostolical men to be read publickly in the Assembly was that order of S. Paul Colos 4.16 That the Epistle from the Church of Laodicea should be read in the Church of Colosse Such also were the Acts of the Martyrs which were always read on the Anniversaries of their Martyrdoms and probably sometimes supplyed the want of a Sermon and at last this gave occasion to the introducing of Homilies into the Church which g Tom. 1. Apologet. 1. p. 21. S. Greg. Naz. intimates were sometimes used in his days but were commanded by the Council h Can. 4. of Vaux an 444. to be read by the Deacon if the Presbyter who was imployed in that duty both in the City and Country were hindred by sickness or any other way that he cannot preach XXVIII And though the name Homily be grown odious to the half-witted Tribe of Zealots who by an unlimited liberty of venting what they pleased in a Pulpit opened a Gap to so many Heresies yet it hath been applauded as a piece of good policy in the Grand h Gaguin rer Muscovit c. 2. Olear Itiâ—er lib. 3. p. 133. Duke
〈◊〉 7. p. 537. that if the Neighbour of an Elect person sin the good man himself is the offender for if the holy man had demean'd himself as the word or right reason directed his evil Neighbour would have stood in so much awe of his pious and well-governed life that he durst not offend XXXII Sect. 5. p. 94. Mr. H. reckons that passage of the Paedagogus as an excellent sentence that this is to drink the blood of Christ to be made partaker of the incorruption of the Lord which h De fundam S. Caenae p. 109. Chemnitius but I remember that he was a Lutheran calls a Novel Opinion and never heard of and in good truth if it be allowable to make Allegorical interpretations of the plain words of the Sacraments what evils may not thence ensue so in i Lib. 2. c. 2. the same Book S. Clem. thus expounds our Saviours words This is my blood i. the blood of the Vine which is shed for the remission of sins for as Wine refresheth the heart and maketh merry so the remission of sins is the glad tidings of the Gospel which Position the same learned Lutheran terms but too severely a prophane as well as a Novel Assertion And having thus mentioned his Censure I leave the Reader to judge XXXIII And so must I beg him to determine between me and Mr. H. in another question of moment relating to the Government of the Primitive Church by Bishops of which I find him tacitly endeavouring to supplant the belief and insinuating as if in those early days there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter while here p. 99. he quotes Clemens that there were in his time only three Orders Bishops Elders and Deacons as if that mixt and amphibious Animal call'd a Lay-Elder had been in those Primitive days a Church-officer who was never heard of till yesterday and as if Bishops were no more than Parish-Ministers and Deacons their Church-wardens and so he explains himself commonly Bishop or Pastor p. 2.17.21 c. and p. 6. Pastor Overseer or Bishop and p. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pastor or Chief President which word a Resp ad Sacar cap. 25. annot in Phil. 1 1. in 1 Tim. 1.19 in Apocal. 2.1 Beza is willing to acknowledge that it did antiently signifie a Bishop in the sense of the Church of England and which b Tom. 5. p. 499. S. Chrysostom twice in one page uses to denote the Eminency of S. Ignatius's Archiepiscopal and Patriarchal Dignity and had Mr. H. Englisht the Fathers as they explain'd themselves in those early days he might better have rendred it in some places Bishop or Elder c Hier. ad Ocean To. 2. p. 325. the one being a name of their Age the other of their Authority Nor can I but admire the prejudices of some men who in this case appeal to Antiquity as Salmasius Blondel and others have done forcing it to speak the sense of the Vestry Tribunal by the most unreasonable deductions I will only instance in that of d Praefat. ad Apolog. p. 59. Blondel who has found out a new Heresie of Aerius unknown to all former Ages till this infallible Dictator in Divinity appear'd not that he affirm'd that Bishops and Presbyters were the same Order for that says he was the Opinion of S. Hierome and all the Antients but that from these premises he argued a necessity of separation and that no man could safely communicate with any of the other Opinion a device not worth the confutation which having to shadow of Antiquity to countenance it hath yet grown into practice at Geneva if we may believe Danaeus a Professor there who as Beza calls the Episcopal Government under the Papacy a devillish tyranny e Danae Isag part 2. lib. 2. c. 22. so affirms that it was their custome to re-ordain by their Presbytery any that came over to them and had been ordain'd by a Popish Prelate before as if every irregularity in the Ordainer blotted out the Character and their ill Government if nothing else were enough to countenance a Schism XXXIV I had therefore once thoughts to have deduc'd the Episcopal Pre-eminence through the three first Centuries from the works of those ten Fathers of whom Mr. H. writes the Lives but on maturer thoughts I conceived it to be unnecessary only I will mind my Reader that f De praescript adv haer p. 39. F. Edit Rhen. Tertullian reckons it as a mark of a Heretick that he is a man that pays no reverence to his Prelate and close the Paragraph with the counsel of a Tom. 1. p. 955. Ed. Paris 1627. S. Athanasius to Dracontius who refused this holy Office If the Institutions of the Church displease thee and thou imagine that there is no reward annext to the just discharge of this duty thou despisest that Saviour who gave being to this Jurisdiction Such thoughts are unworthy a sober and wise man for those things which our great Master hath ordain'd by his Apostles cannot but be good and practicable and notwithstanding any opposition shall continue firm I shall end this Section when I have mention'd that Mr. H. b P. 45. alibi in his Book of Confirmation hath rob'd the Bishops of their power in Confirmation that he might confer it on every Presbyter and ranking the Papist and Prelatical party together hath called their ways of proof blasphemous Arguments not considering that the concurrent suffrage of Antiquity makes the c Bishop Taylor of Confir sect 4. Bishop the only Minister of this Rite and that herein the Jesuite and Presbyterian are united more genuinely than the Romanist and Prelatical For when Smith Bishop of Chalcedon was sent into England by Vrban 8. as an Ordinary here the Jesuites would never submit to him and at last wrought him out of the Kingdom and presently publisht two Books in English against Episcopal Government and Confirmation disputing both into contempt d Mystery of Jesuitism let 3. p. 150 151. which Books having been sent by the English Clergy to the Sorbon there were thirty two Propositions in them censured and condemn'd by that Colledge Febr. 15. 1631. XXXV The design of S. Clemens in his Stromata is to instruct his Gnostick i. his accomplisht Disciple a man extraordinarily acquainted with the Principles of Christianity in which sense e Apud Socrat hist Eccles lib. 4. c. 18. Evagrius entitles one of his Books which he writ of the Monastick Institution Gnosticus wherein he calls the Society of more eminent and contemplative Monks the Sect of the Gnosticks for much after that rate that Plato does instruct his wise man does this Alexandrian Presbyter instruct his Gnostick whom he presumes to be a man elevated above the common pitch and fit to be intrusted with the Mysteries of Scripture such as he and his Scholar Origen were pleas'd in their Allegorizing way to make describing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
taking but the piety of his discourses is transcendent not a page in him but what is full of peculiar recommendations of Holiness and Obedience many of which Mr. H. hath collected very judiciously and I should say so of all had not the love of a Party the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betray'd him and the Dream of a Congregational form of Church-Discipline in these early days imposed on his Intellect Hence p. 302. he tells us That the People had their voice in the Election of their Bishop even in Rome it self And p. 303. That such was their Interest in the managery of the Affairs of the Church that the Bishop did nothing without their Counsel and Consent which last passage p. 270. he reckons among those Sentences which are remarkable and of use in these Epistles X. And happy had it been for Mr. H.'s Reader if the Father had appear'd in his own dress while the Garb he is now put in makes him look very strangely and of this I make all learned men Judges whether the words of the a Cypr. Ep. 68. p. 96. 68th Epistle and Mr. H.'s Translation do so exactly agree It was the Custom at Carthage and in most other Provinces says this learned Prelate according to Divine Tradition and Apostolical Observation that in a regular Ordination of a Bishop ad eam plebem cui praepositus ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus delegatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissimè novit This Mr. H. thus Translates The Bishops of the same Province next unto the People over whom the Chief Officer is ordained do convene or meet together and then the Bishop be chosen in the presence of the people who mosh fully know the Life and Conversation of every one Which how distant it is from the genuine Construction let the Grammarians determine the words being thus to be English'd That in Canonical Ordinations every one of the Neighbour-Bishops of that Province meet ad eam plebem among that people or at that City over which a new Prelate is to be ordain'd who is chosen in the presence of all the people c. and so convenire ad aliquem in Cicero signifies to meet at such a place ad signa conveniunt milites in Caesar the Souldiers are gather'd to their Standard or are drawn up about their Ensigns And as we have here a wrong Translation wilfully I fear falleninto so p. 303. the Father is as much abused by an imperfect account of his Judgment For when he says That the People have in an especial manner a power of chusing worthy Priests or refusing the unworthy and that this Custom descended from the Divine Authority he there puts a period omitting the subsequent words that fully explain his meaning Vt sacerdos plebe praesente c. That the Bishop should be publickly chosen in the presence of the people that the worthy and fit Person might be approved by universal Testimony as God commanded Moses to take Aaron and Eleazar his Son into the Mount Hor in the sight of all the Congregation Num. 20.27 28. and strip Aaron of his Garments and put them on Eleazar God commanded it to be done before all the Congregation to instruct us that the Ordinations of Bishops ought not to be made but with the knowledge and assent of the People present that before the multitude the Evil actions of wicked men who aspire to that dignity might be detected and the Vertues of the deserving duly praised and so the ordination might be just and lawful which was examined and confirm'd by the Suffrage and Judgment of all persons By which we see that the Power of Elections was still in the Bishops of the province but of making just exceptions to the Conversation of the Candidate in the people XI It is true Vide Spalatens lib. 3. cap. 3. per totum that the People were always present at such Solemnities that a Bishop or Priest might not be imposed on them against their consents The consent of the People says a Homil. 6. sup Levit. Origen is required in the ordination of a Priest that all men may be ascertained that he is chosen to that sacred Office who excels the people in learning in holiness and all manner of Virtue And this is done in the presence of the People to prevent all future scruples and that this is what the Apostle enjoyns that a Bishop must have a good Testimony of them that are without The Custom being when the name of the Bishop Elect was proposed by the Deacon b Id. lib. 8. contr Cels ad fin whose Office it was that the People should cry out such a Person is worthy such unworthy So the Politiae Patrum informs us that when Alexander was chosen to the see of Constantinople the multitude for many hours together cryed out ΑΞΙΟΣ he is worthy and when d Philostorg lib. 9. tm 10. p. 127. Demophilus was to be Elected to the same Patriarchate the people instead of crying out ΑΞΙΟΣ cryed out ἈÎΑΞΙΟΣ he is unworthy of so sublime a Throne XII This was the common practice but in some places and on some peculiar Emergencies the people did also give their suffrages as in the case of e Aug. Ep. 120. Eradius who succeeded S. Austin it being the Custom in Africk in Spain and other places and continued till the days of the Emperour Lewis in the West and in those days it was very reasonable f Cod. lib. 1. tit 3. de Episc Clero l. 31. the law requiring that he who should be intrusted with the Episcopal Charge quaeratur cogendus c. should be a man of unparalled modesty one that fled from the dignity and was forc'd to assume the honour But that the people should impose on their superiors to consecrate whomsoever they should nominate or that their suffrages in the Election was a Catholick Custom cannot be true For this is the difference between the Church of England and Mr. H. Blondel Owen and others not that the Bishops out of condescension when they wanted a fit person to be made a Priest or Deacon advised the people to choose one whom they might lay hands on as the Apostles did Act. 6.1 nor that they proposed the name of that person to the People whom themselves elected that they might either applaud or object against his manners but that the Peoples acceptation was a necessary condition and that no Rulers of the Church were duly ordered but whom the people elected For this was expresly forbidden in the Council of a Can. 12 13. Laodicea which allows the peoples testimony of the laudable life of the person to be consecrated but directly requires that he be elected and constituted by the Metropolitan and Bishops of the Province but by no means to be chosen by the people And b Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Tim. p. 371.
laici Sacerdotes sumus Are not Lay-men Priests Where a Priest is not to be had every man is his own Priest So also f Adv. Lucifer tom 2. p. 141. S. Hierom and S. g Lib. 2. contr Ep. Parmen c. 13. Austin affirming that the Sacrament ought not to be reiterated though the act be an Usurpation in the Minister and for the Greek Church see h Tom. 1. Homil. 13. p. 486. S. Basil and i Orat. 40. p. 656. Gregory the Divine affirms that every man that is a Christian may baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Billius his Interpreter construes the words but I think that he means it only of the Orthodox-Clergy in opposition to the Hereticks the practice is allowed by the Council of Illiberis Can. 38. and k Sive quis alios auth comment in Ephes 4. tom 5. p. 347. S. Ambrose affirms that it was the custom of the Primitive Ages before the number of Converts were multiplyed that every one might preach baptize and interpret Scriptures but on the modelling of Churches those duties were appropriate to particular persons II. Of this the Jew in l Lib. 3. cap. 37. Nicephorus is a famous instance who being converted in the Desart was by his Fellow-Travellers made partaker of this Sacrament and it is yet practised by the Eastern Church who in their a Pag. 118. apud Smyth ubi supr p. 74. Catechetick Confession published in the modern Greek for the use of their Laity thus express themselves No man shall administer the Sacrament of Baptism but only a Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in case of necessity it is allowed that any Secular person whether he be a man or woman may baptize So b P. Fagius in Deuter. 10.16 the Jews allowed a Servant to circumcise if the Minister of that Office were not at hand and they were herein encouraged by the example of Zipporah It is allowed by c Oxf. Ans to the mille manus petit p. 11. marg Chytraeus Snepfius and Heerbrand for the Lutheran Churches and by Zuinglius for the Churches of his perswasion and for our holy Mother her Judgment is well known and in it she hath been unanswerably vindicated by the profound d Lib. 5. sect 62. c. Hooker and Mr. e Course of divin part 1. l. 1. c. 40. p. 200 201. Scrivener and to them I leave her Enemies who are rational and perswasible for their conviction For f Hooker ubi supr Baptism by any man in case of necessity was the Voice of the whole World heretofore nor ought in to be reiterated says our old g Lindwood Provinc l. 1. tit 7. p. 41. Edit Oxon Provincial III. In his account of the Objections against S. Athanasius p. 345. he mentions the sending Macarius to forbid Ischyras or Ischyrion to administer the holy things and tells us that this Ischyras had usurp'd the Office of a Minister but how he usurp'd it we have no Footsteps in this Diatribe and this silence was necessary since that one case for ever secures the peculiar Interests of Bishops in Ordinations For Coluthus a Presbyter of Alexandria was the only person who gave imposition of hands to this pragmatick and this he thought sufficient to authorize him to gather a Church in Mareotis without any dependance on Athanasius a Crime says h Hist Eccles lib. 1. c. 20. Socrates that deserved more than one death in whose Province that Country was whereupon by the Authority of the i Apud Athanas to 1. Apolog. 2. p. 781. c. Council of Alexandria all the Ordinations of this Presbyter were revised and made void on which Ischyras fled to Eusebius of Nicomedia who promis'd him a Bishoprick and I believe made it good for twelve years after he appeared as a Member of the Council of Sardica says k Ubi supr p. 785. Photius where he struck in with the Arian Faction But it would too severely have upbraided the similar Usurpations of a modern Faction that affronts the Church and her Discipline to have told the World so plainly how such irregular Ordinations were disallowed IV. This I believe was concealed purposely but the account of Arsenius that he was no more than a Deacon ignorantly for a Hist l. 1. c. 30. Theodoret expresly calls him a Bishop of the Meletian Faction which Faction call'd themselves The Church of the Martyrs nor did he come voluntarily to Tyre the day before Athanasius made his Answer as Mr. H. says but if we may believe the b Theod. ubi supr l. 1. c. 21. Sozom. l. 2. c. 22. Church-Historians they will inform us that after it was publish'd that Athanasius should be accused of the Murder of Arsenius the Divine Providence would not suffer the Impostor longer to lye hid but it was known that he was alive in some part of Aegypt in the Province of Thebais lurking with one Prines a Monk of that Region in a Monastery of the Faction whither when S. Athanasius sent one of his Deacons to search out the truth the Monks knowing of his coming remov'd Arsenius but Prines and Elias another Brother of that Cell being brought to Alexandria confest that Arsenius was alive and at length the same Providence brought him to Tyre whither he resolved to go and remark incognito the managery of that Affair notwithstanding all the Injunctions of the Arians who had given him mony to conceal himself When it happened that the Servants of Archelaus a man of consular Dignity c Phot. ubi supr p. 782. who with the Praefect of Phoenicia and some others of the Faction of Eusebius were appointed Judges in the case understood by the discourse of some persons in a Tavern that Arsenius lay somewhere hid in a house of the Town which Information they speedily carry to their Master who making a search finds out and secures the man he being apprehended denies himself to be Arsenius till Paulus the Bishop of Tyre who before-time knew him intimately pull'd off the Mask and discover'd the Cheat. Whereupon being committed to safe custody notice was given to Athanasius who being a little time after conven'd before the Council produc'd Arsenius alive and pulling aside his Cloak shew'd both his Arms demanding of his Accusers that since two hands were as many as God had given any man they should shew him the place whence the third was cut off V. The account which S. Athanasius gives of the Death of Arius from the Relation of Macarius a Priest then present at Constantinople is the same in substance with what the d Socrat. l. 1. c. 25. Theod. l. 1. c. 14. Sozom l. 2. c. 28. Church-Historians relate of it only Socrates tells us that the good Patriarch of Constantinople shut himself up in the Church and lay prostrate before the holy Altar not only the night before Arius was to be re-admitted to the Catholick Communion but fasted and wept
Christians h Field of the Ch. l. 3. c. 1. p. 70 74. the Coptites and h Field of the Ch. l. 3. c. 1. p. 70 74. the Maronites concentre the last of which admit it into their Creed And the whole Greek Church confess as is affirm'd by the learned i Ubi supr p. 127. Mr. Smyth who liv'd a considerable time among them that the third person in the Trinity is consubstantial with the Father and the Son and coequal that he is the Spirit of the Son that he is sent given poured out infused inspired by the Son and if you understand the word proceeding of his sending in time neither do they refuse to use that term also they allowing him to be the Spirit of the Son as he is called Gal. 4.6 and the Spirit of Christ as Rom. 8.9 Phil. 1.19 XXVIII To which we may subjoin that whereas the Apostolical and Nicene Creeds are silent in this point the Constantinopolitan which was the next hath asserted the procâ—ssion of the holy Ghost from the Father exclusivè to which Creed in the last Canon save one of the Ephesine Council it is expresly forbidden to make any Additions which Caution was again inserted in the Council of Chalcedon and when notwithstanding this care the Addition had been made the eighth General Council as the Greeks style it order'd the words to be expung'd as is affirm'd by Marcus Bishop of Ephesus in the Council of Florence This Creed was publickly read in the Eastern Churches as a part of their Liturgy and from that laudable custom was introduc'd into the West in a Can. 2. the third Toletane Council the Occidental Churches till then using only the Apostles Creed as b Tom. 4. an 381. p. 431. Baronius acknowledges but no Addition heard of till the seventh General Council and the eighth at Toledo for that it should be made by Pope Damasus as is affirm'd by Joseph Bishop of Modon in that Tract which is falsely father'd on him in the Florentine Council and by Manuel Caldecas or by the Doctors of the Catholick Church presently after the Council of Nice as others aver I suppose few men are at leasure to credit XXIX The Spaniards therefore first inserted the addition filioque and after them the French Vide P. Lombard lib. 1. dist 11. B. but both were in this case opposed by Pope Leo the third and the whole Roman Church Leo causing two silver Tables to be made and in them the Symbol to be writ in Latine and Greek according to the primitive Copy and the Tables to be plac'd behind the Altar of S. Peter there to be kept as a Testimony to posterity The Doctrine also was vindicated by Pope John the 8th to the learned Photius nor did it ever prevail at Rome till Ann. 883. under Pope Nicholas the first and that without a general Council So that we may hence judge that the Romanists gave occasion to the Schisme c Archb. Laud against Pisher sect 9. n. 2. it being hard measure to add and anathematize too XXX I have kept S. Athanasius for my last Testimony and will only instance in the quotation of the great Cardinal which he uses to prop the contrary opinion but it quite ruines it It is an impossibility says our d Redarg hypocris Meletii circ fin Patriarch to give the holy Spirit a place in the Glory of the blessed Trinity if he had not proceeded from the Father by the Son Nor is the addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be found in the Manuscript Copies of his Creed in Greek nor in the Printed Copies at Paris 1597 or by Commelinus 1600. although the Latine Translation hath it And therefore Meletius the Patriarch of Constantinople in his Epistle to Janus Douza says it hath been adulterated by an Appendix made to it by the Popes and withal adds that it is not his whatever Mr. H. p. 377. is pleas'd to say to the contrary Nor have the Latines escapt the impeachment of being guilty of corrupting the Fathers the Writer of the a Sect. 9. c. 3. p. 253. History of the Council of Florence in the name of his Brethren instancing in the works of S. Chrysostome And if sayes he they are not afraid to do so in his Homilies which they from their youth to their old age were always conversant in how much more must they expect they had done so in the Latine Fathers XXXI So that in this case we see the Greeks keep themselves to express words of Scripture Joh. 15.26 Heylin's Theol. vet l. 3. c. 1. p. 379. the Latines depend on some Logical inferences from thence and so have the worst end of the cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain texts of Scripture They have also on their side the writings of the Fathers the Acts of the ancient Synods and the Ecclesiastical Records and a pregnant Testimony in Rome it self in the two Tables hung up by the command of Pope Leo the third And yet so little is our Charity that besides their many other sufferings for the name of Christ we must add this one grievance more to accuse them of no less than Schism and Heresie And therefore I thought my self bound to vindicate them from that unjust aspersion XXXII That S. Athanasius writ the life of S. Anthony is more than once affirm'd by S. Hierome Greg. Naz. Socrates and others and notwithstanding some ridiculous passages I cannot proscribe the Book since he that looks into Cassianus shall find much wilder and more childish transactions and yet no man denies those Collations to have been his And however some men affirm S. Anthony to have been a Lawyer and very learned S. Hierome entitles him only to seven Epistles to certain Monasteries of his founding writ in an Apostolical i. e. a plain stile first in the language of the Country and then translated into Greek For so b Ep. ante Did. de Spiritu S. S. Hierome speaks of Didymus that you might easily know him to be an Apostolical person by the simplicity and plainness of his styleâ— but in what style these Epistles were writ themselves will make appear being not long since translated out of Arabick into Latine and set forth by Abraham Ecchellensis the Maronite And yet perhaps this as well as some other of our Patriarchs writings hath not escapt the foul hands c Baron tom 3. an 343. n. 6. of the followers of Apollinaris Nor is it but too Magisterially spoken p. 373. that the exhortation ad Monachos is forged only on the authority of Mr. Perkins whose judgment I suppose the Church of England will decline as in many matters of controversie so in as many of Church-History and Christian Philology XXXIII In the same page the Epistles between Pope Marcus and Athanasius are condemned as spurious and consequently the seventy additional Canons to the Nicene Council and
Doctrine by standing to the Challenge of the famous Jewel and the Men of the New Discipline with the same Authority in point of Government and Polity and under her protection will I shelter my self Rectè verè haec in tumulo viri summi Adami à Bodenstein Basileae in coemeterio D. Pauli leguntur being satisfied that I can say that although I have disserv'd some particular Interests Nec omnia nec omnes mihi Placuere quinam ego omnibus Non omnibus Cous senex Non Eremita Spagirus Num tu Viator omnibus Deo placere cura abi Reusner Ep. ded â—nte lib. de probation urinar yet I am not conscious to my self of having baffled my own conscience dishonour'd the Truth or offended my Saviour and if I can please him other Frowns are contemptible THE CONTENTS The Life of Saint Ignatius THe deplorable loss of the antient Histories Apologies and the Acts of the Martyrs Whether Ignatius saw Christ in the Flesh and was that little Child that he took in his Arms and blest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what He was ordain'd Patriarch of Antioch by Saint Peter Two distinct Coetus of Jews and Gentiles under their distinct Bishops at Antioch Rome Corinth and elsewhere Their coalition at Antioch under Ignatius How long he sate in that See Ignatius not the most antient of Ecclesiastical Writers The genuineness of his Epistles evinc'd The Apostolicalness of Episcopal Government and novelty of any other Church-Polity The Excellent and Primitive Government of the Church of England Four different Copies of Ignatius's Epistles which of them are dubious which spurious and which genuine That to Polycarp was one of the seven genuine The Stages of his Journey to Rome the reason of his being carried so far out of his way What the Heresie of Apollinaris was An account of the first finding a genuine Copy of these Epistles first in England then at Florence Mistakes in Quotations not unusual in the antient Writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and who usually carried the Bishops Letters to foreign Churches The three Latine Epistles His Style and Actons very conformable to Saint Pauls Ignatius first instituted the Antiphonal Hymns at Antioch Liturgies in his time and of Apostolical Institution An account of the most remarkable Passages in his Epistles his Zeal for Martyrdome severity against Schism and Heresie and importunate pressing submission to Bishops His leisure of writing purchast from his Guards The reasons why he was Martyred not at Antioch but Rome The time of his Journey his Preparative Torments and Death Gods Vengeance on the City of Antioch His greater Bones collected and buried The Church instituted Festivals to their Martyrs Memories honoured their Reliques and God wrought Miracles by them but their adoration was still disallowed Other famous Men of the Name Saint Chrysostom's Panegyrick The Life of Saint Justin His Original He was a Samaritan by Birth not by Religion An Apostolical Person The manner of his conversion His Apology writ to Antoninus Pius An account of his Writings The Age of the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite The Quaestiones ad Orthodoxos are Saint Justin's but interpolated The Doctrine of the immaculate conception of Reliques and Vows That Baptism is necessary to Salvation The ancient use of Chrism A dissertation concerning the use of the Cross in all holy and secular Offices Where by whom and how the Sermons of the Anâ—â—ents were managed The Chiliast-Opinion the salvability of the Heathens and the Doctrine of Free-Will considered Saint Justin's Errors in Chronology His Martyrdom The Life of Saint Irenaeus His Mission by the Churches of Lyon and Vien to Pope Eleutherius and the Asian Churches Marcus the Disciple of Valentinus a notorious Heretick Most of the antient Hereticks and persecuting Emperors accused of too much familiarity with the Prince of Darkness The Female Sex most easily imposed on by those Impostures The Devils Policy in assaulting the Church Irenaeus his adjuration of the Transcriber of his works The Greek Copy of his works not to be found The Villany of Fathering Books on a wrong Author Heresies have appeared in the World according to the methods of the Creed The necessity of Episcopal Succession Irenaeus held not two natures in Christ His other Errors apologiz'd for and vindicated That the departed Saints are not in the most perfect bliss till the day of Judgment His Character and Martyrdom Life of Saint Clemens of Alexandria The Antiquity of the Catechetick School at Alexandria Clemens his several Tutors his last Pantaenus whom he succeeded in that School The time of his being made a Presbyter of that Church A large Discourse of the extraordinary care and respects of the Ancients toward their Martyrs in visiting them in Prison in Embalming and paying other funeral Honours to their dead Bodies in honouring their Relicks holding their Religious meetings at their Caemeteria and there performing all their Sacred Offices in Celebrating their Birth-dayes and recording their last Actions in building Churches to their memories allowing them an honourable commemoration at the Altar and calling their Children by their Names What Books of his are lost and what others misfather'd on him The Excellent method of his Writings that remain His Apocryphal citations Chemnitius his severe censure of some passages in his Paedagogus The disingenuous dealing of Blondel and others with the Ancients on the account of Episcopacy The agreement of the Jesuites and Presbyterians in that case A description of S. Clemens his Gnostick in his Stromata The Judgment of Pope Gelasius invalidated in condemning the Writings of Clemens with Hermas's Pastor and S. Barnabas his Catholick Epistle His errors considered His worth and Death The life of Tertullian Tertullian's birth and Education The time of writing his Book De pallio That he turn'd Montanist sooner than is asserted after which the Books de Corona c. were writ That the Rites mentioned in that Book were Catholick usages not observances of the Montanists That Ambition sowered most of the Antient Hereticks but Tertullian's ungovern'd zeal sway'd him The Apostolical Church did not admit gross offenders to penance The necessity of single Marriage was the opinion of the Antients their reasons for it The continuance of the Spiriâ— of Prophecy in his time this inclin'd him tâ— believe the Visions of Montanus and let him into many odd Opinions The difference between the Spirit of true Prophecy and pseudo-afflatus of Maximilla c. Hiâ— justly lamented fall His Writings and Style He did not believe Montanus tâ— be the Holy Ghost That Martyrdom expiates Transgression Tertullian no Maâ—tyr The Life of Origen Origens Name and Excellencies Hâ—â— Castration The occasion of his remove 〈◊〉 Caesarea The Emperour Caracalla's spleâ—â—â— against the Alexandrians and the caâ—â—â— of it Origen took not two journeys 〈◊〉 Rome nor was ever a Scholar to Ploâ—â—nus He is too often nâ—gligently confounâ—ed with a junior Origen a Heathen His Allegorical way of interpreting Scripture whence and
l. 16. r. accidentium p. 67. r. Jo. 10. 11. p. 70. r. 1 Tim. 5. p. 115. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 121. l 9. r. Vasens p. 140. l. 10. r. lib. p. 156. l. 14. r. Ursin p. 157. l. 2. r. 2. p. 169. l. 2. r. 161. p. 209. l. 2. r. Sarav p. 233. l. 11. r. 20. p. 249. l. 2. r. 27. p. 267. l. 9. r. Malaxus p. 274. r. 160. p. 275. r. 286. p. 336. l. 11. r. 21. p. 380. l. 3. 5. r. tm as also p. 419. p. 384. r. Socrat. l. 1. Addenda Mutanda P. 51. l. 28. for there r. in that Metropolis of the Empire p. 125. l. 33. r. could not and then add so Gennadius de scriptor Eccles c. 57. says that S. Cyril penn'd many Homilies for the Grecian Bishops which they recited in their several Churches And c. 67. he says the like was done by S. Salvian Bishop of Marseilles to gratifie his Neighbour Prelates of the French Church P. 131. l. 13. adde The Auditory also customarily clapping their hands at the end of the Sermon and making loud Acclamations till such Actions savouring more of the Theatre than the Church were forbidden Vid. Chrys Tom. 1. p 17. and Tom. 4. p. 784. passim and Paulus Samosatenus for affecting such praises is censured by his Brethren as guilty of unbecoming Vanity Apud Euseb l. 7. c. 24. but in other Churches this was superseded by a much better employment that of praying for their Priest that God would enable him rightly to divide the word of Truth and to shew himself a workman that needed not be ashamed and that God would open his Mouth that he might shew forth his Law Vid. Orig. Hom. 3. in Genes alibi pass p. 218. l. 32. for and r. which custom p. 477. l. 32. for Sulpitius Severus r. Gregory Turonensis l 33. r. as say Sulpitius Severus p. 476. l. 1. instead of himself in his Answer to Auxentius tells us c. r. For Auxentius himself in his Libel tells us That when S. Hilary opposed him at Millain it was ten years c. THE LIFE OF S. Ignatius I. GREAT and Eminent were the Virtues of the Primitive Worthies and it were to be wish'd that their Fame in this Life were as diffusive as their Glories in the other World and Mankind made acquainted with the remarkable Transactions of their most obliging Benefactors But what a barren Account have we of those Sacred Assertors of the Rites of Christianity Of some only their Names of others not so much as that Heaven having thought fit to inhance their Crown of Glory to make amends for the obscurity of their secular Reputation that though here they are buryed with their Faces down-ward and thrown into the house of forgetfulness they might be recompenc'd in the Resurrection of the Just when they shall shine like the Stars in the Firmament And I wish I could as easily remedy as I am inclinable to bemoan the Fate of the Church that is so to seek for the Catalogues of its ancient Bishops the Series of succession with respect to the names of the Prelates being in most Sees wholly lost in the rest very confused and uncertain Of some Fathers their Writings are preserved but the account of their Actions lost of others both Parent and Off-spring are involved in the same common Calamity How do I long for the Histories of Hegesippus and Julius Africanus for the Apologies of Aristides Apollonius Quadratus and Melito and the Excellent Writings of Apollinaris B. of Hierapolis What satisfaction would it be to my Soul to understand where Athenagoras Minutius Foelix and the other brave Defenders of Religion were born What Testimonies of their Courage and Learning their Virtue and Piety they gave the World and when and by what means they went into the Grave that I might contemplate the Beauty of their Atchievments and celebrate their Worth I am eager to be acquainted with the Education and Life the Speeches and Demeanour of Gordius and S. Laurence of Pionius and Germanicus and the numerous Army of Martyrs of Spiridion and Paphnutius and the rest of the Holy College of Confessors and would willingly read the rational and solid Confutations of the ancient Heretiques writ by Agrippa Castor and Musanus by Rhodon and Modestus Apollonius and Bardesanes by Eusebius Emesenus and Dionysius of Alexandria and his Name-sake of Corinth by Titus Bostrensis and Diodorus of Tarsus and those other admirable Conquerours of Heresie and Defenders of Catholick Orthodoxy but these are Happinesses only to be enjoy'd in wish and we that cannot be so fortunate must be content with our present Portion and the knowledge which is yet by a benign Providence left us of that small Company of the wise and good Men that adorned the Church among which famous and venerable Persons sew have so highly deserved of the Christian Church as S. Ignatius who is therefore justly reckon'd among the chiefest of those Sages II. In order to the account of whose life Mr. H. § 1. p. 1. takes occasion to speak of that story in a Hist Eccl. lib. 2. cap. 35. Nicephorus That Ignatius was that little Child b Mat. 18.1 2. whom our Saviour held in his Arms and blest and this he calls A Fabulous Narration and makes Nicephorus the Author of it and adds That there is somewhat found in the Epistles of Ignatius that contradicts the Opinion since he there says That he never saw Christ Corporally or in the Flesh What there may be supposed to be in those Epistles I cannot tell for certainly there is no such positive Assertion but on the contrary c Desâ—ript Dionys Areopag Ignat. c. 21. Monsieur Dailleé quotes a Passage out of the Epistle to the Smyrneans That he did see Christ corporally and uses it as a wonderful and invincible Argument to prove the spuriousness of these excellent Writings and so indeed does the Old d P. 219. Ego enim post resurrectionem eum in carne vidi Latine Translation set out by the most Learned Primate of Armagh read it as does also e In Catal. v. Ignat. St. Hierom and his Translator e In Catal. v. Ignat. Sophronius of which Writers the first being so justly admired by the Latine Church and the latter so well known by the Greeks it gave occasion to the Errour that Ignatius lived in our Saviour's time Whereas the whole Story arises from a mistake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eusebius whom S. Hierom in that Book Translates but not so happily as it were to be wish'd as he that consults Scaliger's Eusebius may find enough to surfeit him For a Hist Eccl. li. 3. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lat â—o Eusebius b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret and all the Greek Copies of these Epistles both the Medicean and interpolated read the passage otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 and so Ruffinus after S. Hierom Translates it the Passage containing a Vindication of the Catholick Doctrine against the Docetae the Followers of Simon Magus who held That our Saviour took only a fantastick body which reading the judicious c Exercit. adv Bar. 16. n. 126. Isaac Casaubon and the immortal d Comment in Mat. 18. Grotius follow III. And yet there is no impossibility in the Assertion nor is it in it self altogether improbable though e Ubi supr Casaubon doubts of it whose Dissertation on the Subject I wish that Learned Man had lived to finish were there any thing of greater Antiquity to countenance the Tradition than Anastasius Bibliothecarius For Ignatius was martyred but eight years after S. John's Death when he had sate Patriarch of Antioch thirty years says f Chronic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— p. 66. Eusebius thirty nine as S. Hierom reckons it forty says g P. 21. Mr. H. out of Baronius at least thirty years says our most Learned h Vindic. Epist Ignat part 2. cap. 1. p. 2. Pearson Now S. John was a Man and a Disciple when this Child was taken up into the Holy Arms of Jesus and Simeon Cleophae our Saviour's Kinsman mentioned also in the Gospel who was the Second Bishop of Jerusalem was Martyred but the year before Ignatius So that nothing could hinder but that this excellent man might have been blest with the sight of Jesus as i Of Episcopacy Sect. 34. Bishop Taylor affirms did not k T. 5. Hom. in S. Ignat. p. 503. edit Savil. S. Chrysostom contradict the Opinion expresly asserting that Ignatius never saw nor converst with Christ Of which Passage the most acute l Ubi supr c. 10. p. 120. Bishop of Chester gives his Judgment that he was ignorant on what grounds that Eloquent Father built his Assertion IV. But grant we the certainty of this Position that S. Ignatius lived in our Saviour's time and might see him yet to argue from thence that he must have been that Child that Christ set in the midst of his Disciples is a wild way of arguing there being no congruity between the passages m Id. ubi supr c. 12. p. 148. c. this latter story therefore rose from another original from a mistake of that name which was always used by Ignatius as an addition to his own viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the birth of this story must be placed higher than Nicephorus who lived but a few Centuries since circ an 1300. for we find it in Simeon Metaphrastes who lived circ an 1000. and before him in Anastasius Bibliothecarius who I suppose first learnt it from the Greeks when he was a member of the eighth General Council where the great Quarrel was decided between the most accurate Critick Photius and another Ignatius whom they stiled the junior Theophorus and the Church of Rome Canoniz'd about the Patriarchate of Constantinople in which Council Photius was depos'd and this story I believe coyned to gain some greater honour to his Opponent and the accent translated from the second to the third syllable thereby quite altering the signification of the word the one signifying actively the other passively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deum portans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Deo portatus sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matricida 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à matre occisus c. And this I the rather mention because Mr. H. though he calls the story a Fable yet always terms Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the use of the ancient Greeks and all Latine Translators who render it by Deifer or Deum vel crucifixum circumferens or qui Christum habet in pectore In which story what makes it most of all suspitious is that for this reason say they the Apostles made him a Bishop without laying on of hands because Christ had already laid his on him against the express testimony of S. Chrysostom Theodoret P. Foelix and other Fathers and against Reason too for had our Saviour laid his hands on him in the Rite of Confirmation as we might suppose was done Matth. 18. yet this hinders not the reiteration of the same Rite to another end and purpose in Ordination V. We are told p. 2. that Theodoret and to him might have been joined S. Chrysostom and others records that S. Peter ordained Ignatius his Successor whereas Eusebius and Dorotheus affirm that Euodius preceded him in that Chair and that it is true Ignatius was the third Bishop there if we reckon S. Peter for one but because he made a small stay there the Catalogue begins in Euodius and so ignatius is justly reckoned the second Bishop But this doth not salve the Objection how he could be ordain'd by S. Peter as his Successor and yet Euodius come between them who on all hands is acknowledged to have been Bishop of Antioch and to have dyed long before Ignatius his Name being inserted in that large interpolation of the a p. 97. ed. Uâ—â—er Epistle to the Philadelphians as also in the spâ—rious b p. 157. Epistle to the Church of Antioch which tells us of his Ordination to the Government of that See by the Apostles The first that I find bidding any thing toward a solution of this Question is c â—â—â—â—ent 〈…〉 lib. 7. c. â—6 Turrianus and out of him d Not. in Mâ—râ—yrel Feb. 1. p. 9â— 100. Baronius who inform us that on the dissention that happened at Antioch between the Jews and Gentiles hinted Galat. 2. each party had their own Bishop allotted them but on the re-union-of the Churches they were again setled under one Prelate and that during this breach Ignatius having been ordained by S. Peter and Euodius by S. Paul contrary to the e Lib. 7. c. 46. Apostolical Constitutions which say that Ignatius was S. Paul's Successor and Euodius S. Peter's on the re-union Ignatius modestly gave place to Euodius till his death and then succeeded him as Clemens being ordain'd at Rome by S. Peter did to Linus and Cletus and so was both the Second and Third Bishop of that See On this ground as I suppose the Learned f Dissert de Episcopat 4. c. 10. Dr. Hammond hath built the Opinion which I profess to embrace and which excellently solves the Question VI. Whereas in the dispersion of the Apostles the g Gal. 2.7 Gospel of the Circumcision i. the Conversion of the Jews was S. Peter's Province and that of the Uncircumcision or the Gentiles was S. Paul's accordingly they applyed themselves to the persons design'd for their peculiar Flock on which account S. Peter writes his first Catholick Epistle to the Jews disperst in the several parts of Asia whose Diocesan he properly was and not to the Gentiles and S. Paul writing to the Hebrews conceals his name lest he might be censur'd as a busie man in
anothers Province but where both of them preacht the Gospel in the same City and founded a Church it was divided into two Coetus or Assemblies under their respective Bishops as h In Gal. 1. 22. to 9. p. 214. Ed. Eras Seorsim qui ex Judaeis erant Ecclesiae habebantur nec his qui erant è Gentibus miscebantur S. Hierom or who-ever put out those Comments in his name So * Apud Euseb Hist lib. 2. cap. 24. Dionysius of Corinth seems to imply was his Church founded and so without doubt was the Church of Rome where Linus succeeded S. Paul and Cletus S. Peter till both the Coetus had their coalition under Clemens and that there were two such distinct parts of their first Plantation seems plain to me from Rom. 14. where the Gentile Church is advised not to censure the Jewish who observed days and abstained from meats And after this manner had the Church of Antioch its Original for it appears by Act. 15.23 that the Synodical Epistle of the Apostles was directed to the Brethren which were of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia who were distinct from the Jewish Converts as appears from v. 28. And this I am apt to think was the Model of Government in all Churches where those two Chiefs of the Apostles came whereas at Alexandria where they had only S. Mark for their Apostle and Instructer Epiphan Haeres 68. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had but a single Bishop So that in this City both the Apostles laying the foundation committed the raising of the Superstructure each to a distinct Successor Ignatius succeeding S. Peter Euodius S. Paul till on the death of Euodius there was a coalition of both the Coetus under the surviving Bishop And I suppose this happened providentially in all places just upon the ruine of Jerusalem under Titus that the Apostles having buried the Synagogne with honour there might no longer be the distinction of Jew or Gentile in the Lord Jesus and this may help to strengthen the Conjecture of the most learned a Ubi supr Pearson and to reconcile Eusebius and his Translator S. Hierom that Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch more than 30 years for so long he exercised the Jurisdiction after Euodius his decease as appears by Eusebius and how long before as the Bishop of the Jewish Christians is uncertain VII Sect. 2. p. 3. Mr. H. says that Ignatius is altogether the most ancient of all now extant first of Writers as I understand him in the Christian Church Where certainly he must allow us to except S. Barnabas who writ his Catholick Epistles or if that be controverted S. Clemens his Golden Remains to the Corinthians the Author whereof was martyred the third year of Trajan whereas the first of Ignatius's Epistles was not writ till an 10. of that Emperour and from this consideration we are naturally led to Sect. 3. p. 4 5 c. VIII In the Discourse of the Writings of this Martyr he at first gives them their due Eulogy Vide Baron T. 2. an 109. p. 31. and Not. ad Martyrol Feb. 1. that as a certain well-drawn Picture they do excellently represent and give us a lively Image of him and so they are in the Opinion of all Learned and Unprejudiced Persons having had the Approbation of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Councils and had our Author stopt here in a just Admiration of this holy Man and his Writings I should have been content to have seconded his Design and offer'd my Veneration and Esteem on the same Altar But what this one fit of passion gives us is by another snatch'd from us and the Epistles so commended are presently attempted to be debas'd by an heap of Inconcludencies Nor can I but a little admire that Mr. H. writing a large Diatribe à p. 4. ad p. 15. on these Epistles never remembers any Edition of them later than that of the most Reverend Vsher who by an ingenious and successful sagacity rescued this great man from the vile Abuses of his Interpolators who had interwoven their coarse Thread with his Purple never taking notice of the Edition of Isaac Vossius who out of the Medicean Library at Florence Ann. 1646. furnisht the World with a genuine Copy of the seven Epistles the same I suppose which a Pro Epist Pontif lib. 2. c. 10. comm in constit Apost l. 9. c. 17. Turrianus saw and so much and so justly boasts of terming it a most ancient and emendate Copy the number being the same with the computation of the Ancients in which also the Passages quoted by them are found which are wanting in the Vulgar Copies and which exactly agrees to those two barbarous Latine Translations which the Reverend Primate met with here in England the one in the Library of Cains College in Cambridge the other among the Books of that Prelate of Universal Learning Bishop Montague which Transcript of Vossius when it was first communicated to the World was acknowledged by b Apolog. pro sent Hieron praefat p. 40. Blondel the bitter Adversary of those Epistles to be the same which for above a thousand three hundred years since Eusebius and after him the other Fathers used and since him by Dailleé in his set Tract to evince their spuriousness of which undertaking of that Learned Frenchman Mr. H. in his Mantissa takes notice and could not but see that it had Relation to the Medicean Copy and the emendate Edition of Vossius a Book that hath been unanswerably silenc'd by the incomparable Bishop Pearson in his Vindiciae Epistolarum Ignatii a Tractate that I wonder is never mention'd in a Discourse so suitable but this is not the first over-sight Mr. H. hath been guilty of IX And if the Censure be not too severe there is some reason why this Edition purg'd of all the foisted Passages is not mention'd which is because of the Episcopacy therein asserted when by sticking to the interpolated Copies a Crime I find willingly committed by the Assemblers and Dr. Owen against Dr. Hammond by the Accurate Dailleé himself and I will not say by our Author they might decry every Sentence that made gainst their darling Discipline as foisted in contrary to the mind of the holy Ignatius this Mr. H. more than intimates in these Passages a Life of Ignat. p. 7. vide p. 14 15. They i. the genuine Epistles which he before mentions have not escaped the hands of those which have offered no small Injury to them having most unworthily corrupted these ancient Reliques partly by Addition and Interpolation of what never fell from the Pen of Ignatius and partly by Diminution and Substraction of what they saw would prove of disadvantage and prejudice to them so that even those genuine Epistles through the foul abuse that hath been offered unto them have lost much of that Authority which they had of old And I may safely dare to affirm that had not
the Government of the Church by Bishops as superiour to Presbyters been intimated in every Epistle and a submission to their Authority so instantly prest these Sacred Remains had never fallen under such rude Attacques but been reckoned among the most precious Treasures of the most Primitive Antiquity X. This set Blondel first on work says the immortal Grotius in his Epistle to Gerhard the Father of Isaac Vossius to decry these admirable Writings although in the former Edition which past through the hands of Videlius at Geneva Blondellus magnae vir diligentiae sed suae parti super aequum addictus Ignatii Epistolas quas filius tuus ex Italia attulit puras ab omnibus iis quae eruditi hactenus suspecta habuere ideo admittere non vult quia Episcopatuum vetrustati clarum praebent Testimonium Grot. Ep. Ger. Voss who could not be suspected to be partial for the Episcopal Cause there be enough left uncensur'd to shew us the Face of the Church of that Age. This also is Doctor Owen's Charge against them in his Preface to his Book of the Saints Perseverance that frequently causelesly absurdly in the midst of Discourses quite of another nature and tendency the Author of these Epistles or some Body for him breakes in on the commendation of Church-Officers Bishops and Presbyters Nor is a Apparat. ad lib. de Primat Pap. p. 55. Salmasius backward in the same Impeachment and I am apt to imagine that Mr. H. so thinks since else he would have mentioned some of those many Passages that give an account of the Church Government then in use as he hath done in the lives of some of the other Fathers where any thing might seem to make for him and which would have served as an excellent Comment on that rational Paragraph of his Preface That as to the Face and State of the Church both as to sound Doctrine and wholesom Discipline it may be presumed that they i. the Fathers were better acquainted with than most others and could give us the fullest and truest Information it having been their special work to publish and defend the one and they having had the chiefest hand in the management of the other for it was a solemn act of Divine Providence says the famous b Annal T. 2. an 109. p. 36. ex Euseb Hist Eccles lib. 3. cap. 30. Cardinal that these Epistles should be written but a greater that amidst that Tempest which wrack'd so many of the Writings of the Primitive Fathers these should escape in which we have such a lively draught of the Beauties of the Oriental Church for what the Apostles Peter and Paul taught the Church of Antioch and S. John instituted in the Churches of Asia that hath Ignatius preserved and transmitted to Posterity For that in S. John's time who dyed but eight years before our Martyr writ his Epistles the Church should be Govern'd by a Common Council of Presbyters or by every distinct Priest as absolute over his own Flock and presently on his death all the world of Christians should conspire to betray the Institution of Christ and c Chillingw of Episcopacy Sect. 11. p. 5. no man wish so well to the Gospel-Discipline as to oppose it is so wild a sancy that when I shall see all the Fables in the Mâ—tamorphoses acted and prov'd Stories when I shall see all the Democracies and Aristocracies in the World lye down and sleep and awake into Monarchies then will I begin to believe That Presbyterial or Independent Discipline having continued in the Church during the Apostles time should presently after against the Apostles Doctrine and will of Christ be whirled about like a Skreen in a Mask and transform'd into Episcopacy XI And I could wish that our Brethren of the Separation would consider how much they hereby both prejudice their own Cause since in no ancient Writer can they find so honourable a mention of the Presbyterate as in Ignatius and administer advantage to the common Enemy and how they can answer that Objection of a Ubi supr p. 39. Baronius who challenges all the Protestants to be tryed in point of Ecclesiastical Polity by this Father as if instead of a beautiful Church they had groan'd for a most deform'd Monster But blest be our great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Naz. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Polycarp and Clemens Alex. call him that the Church of England is able to retort the Calumny and lay it at the door of the Objectors being ready to be try'd for its Discipline by the Fathers of the first Ages of the Church consonant to whom it can show three Orders of the Clergy in opposition to the defects of the Conventicle and the superfluity of the Conclave But this Question hath been so accurately handled by so many learned men of our Church that it were folly in me to light my Candle where their Sun shines XII But Mr. H. is not without his own Reasons why these Epistles are not pure though he disallow Dailleés why they should not be Ignatius's of which before we examine particulars it will not be amiss to consider how many different Copies of the Greek Epistles have been made use of for as to the three Latine ones mentioned and disallowed per ¾ b Apud Usserii prolegomen de Epist Ignat cap. 5. p. XXIX Baronius and the Roman Index clear the Martyr from being the Author of them and this I do to mind Mr. H. of another slip of his p. 8 9. from his haste or mistake of the Reverend Primate who in his c Cap. 6. p. XXXIII Dissertation prefixt to his Edition of Ignatius reckons three several Editions of these Epistles in use among the Ancients the first of the seven genuine Epistles only or six as he would have them which Eusebius c. saw and used the second of the same Epistles but interpolated and so used by Stephanus Gobarus Anastasius the Patriarch of Antioch and the Author of the Chronicon Alexandrinum for they were not the Authors of the Connection of the five spurious Epistles as Mr. H. imagines the third consisted of the genuine and supposititious Epistles all in one Volume used by Johannes Damascenus Antonius in his Melissa and Anastasius Presbyter whom I suppose Mr. H. mistook for him of the same name that was Patriarch of Antioch and so fell into his errours And I am apt to think with a Ep. 1. p. 9. ad fin vindic Pearson Isaac Vossius That the genuine Epistles were adulterated and the spurious annext under the Emperour Anastasius circ an 510. who also supprest the Gospels as if writ by Idiots and unlearned men and commanded others to be writ in their stead This third Edition b Proaem c. 6. p. 28. Bishop Pearson divides into two one whereof had only four spurious Epistles added to the seven genuine and untainted as the Medicean Copy of
as it must have been if introduc'd by Flavianus S. Basil's Cotemporary i Tom. 2. a◠152. p. 136. Baronius informs us That the Angelick Hymn Gloria in excelsis c. was enjoyn'd by Pope Telesphorus circ an 152. to be sung at the Consecration of the Eucharist and I am apt to think it was done alternately if not I am sure k Lib. 10. Epist 97. Pliny who lived with Ignatius impeaches the Christians of that Age of no other Crime save that they were wont to meet at a set time before day and to sing among themselves invicem alternately a Song to Christ whom they account a God which is a plain description of the practice of that Age. And a Hist Eccl. lib. 2. c. 16. Eusebius out of Philo makes the observance coaevous with the Church of Alexandria under S. Mark affirming that among the Primitive Christians when one began to sing the rest quietly hearkned to him and then sung together the remainder of the Hymn probably bably in imitation of Moses and Miriam Exod. 15.1 21. So that it is likely that the usage may be ancienter in some Churches than our Martyr but not improbable that his Vision might be the occasion of bringing in the Custom into the Church of Antioch and as the Custom prevailed so early in the East and in Aegypt so also in the Southern parts of Africk and at Carthage for b Lib. 2. ad uxor cap. 6. Tertullian mentions this mutual singing wherein they provok'd one another to Emulation who should Sing best And c Dc Orat. dominic p. 160. Cyprian quotes the Hymn at the Celebration of the Eucharist begun by the Priest with sursum corda and answered to by the People with habemus ad dominum and the practice carries its own Vindication with it for I remember somewhere Greg. Naz. calls Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature made answerable to the Angels and that d Tom. 2. Homil. 55. in Matth. p. 355. S. Chrysostom relates and vindicates the Hymns of the Monks those Angels of the Desart as he calls them wherein they intermix'd the Doxology and then went to the Hymn again herein following the Laws of the Apostles beginning with the Doxology and ending with it and beginning with it again So that it seems by him to have been an Apostolical Tradition XXIV Here was also a fair Occasion offer'd to have instructed the World not only that Episcopacy was then a venerable Order in the Church but that the Bishop had Power to impose a Liturgy from that famous place of the e P. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epistle to the Magnesians nor can I think that it was a Novel Usurpation of the Prelates in those early days but that set Forms of Prayer are of Apostolical Institution who herein followed the Example of their infallible Master who as he made the Jewish Baptism a Christian Sacrament and took the Symbols of the Eucharist from their Custom of Blessing the Bread and the Cup at their Passeover so was not ashamed to collect the Petitions of his most incomparable Prayer out of the several set Forms of Petition in use among that people 'T is true they had in that happy saeculum the miraculous Spirit or Gift of Prayer which enabled the Apostolical Priest without praemeditation to compose Prayers according to the perpetual or emergent occasions of the Christian Congregation whereof he was the Guide where we may observe what the Apostle means when he mentions Prayers by the Spirit and that this was given to cross the design of our Modern Pretenders to it that every man might not take what Liberty himself pleased to pour out his own Effusions yet this extraordinary Charisma and Afflatus soon ceas'd and as it abated was succeeded by some of those very Forms which the holy Spirit had so prodigiously dictated collected either by the Apostles themselves or their immediate Successors The Greek Church have an undisputed Tradition among them that whereas the Apostles spent whole Days and Nights in their holy Offices the length of those Devotions gave occasion to S. James to omit those Prayers that were used only on extraordinary and emergent occasions and yet even in those the Apostles did not disdain to follow ancient Precepts for the Prayer Act. 4. from v. 24. to 31. is nothing but an Abstract of Psalm the second and the glorifyed Saints Apocal. 15.3 4. were not ashamed to sing an Eucharistical Hymn composed of the Songs of Moses David and Jeremy and to chuse and cull out the most pertinent of those Prayers for the dayly use of the Church which is since called his Liturgy and was afterward again shortned by S. Basil and S. Chrysostom and if any man should dispute the Authenticalness of his or S. Mark 's or S. Peter's Liturgies in that Church they would first admire and then deride him though it cannot be denyed but that there are many Additions and Interpolations in them as now extant which are not of equal Authority with those Collects which are truly Primitive but that also is an Argument that there were anciently such Liturgies left to the Church as they came out of the Apostles hands till they fell into the hands of evil men And for this notion of the Spirit of Prayer we are obliged to a Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. Rom. 26. p. 120. S. Chrysostom who plainly affirms That to them that were newly Baptiz'd God was pleas'd to give many miraculous Donatives which were called Spirits for he saith Let the Spirit of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets for one had the Spirit of Prophesie and he foretold Futurities another of Wisdom and he instructed the World in the Laws of Piety a third of Healing and he cured the Sick a fourth of Miracles and he did raise the Dead another of Tongues and he spake divers Languages and among all these there was also the Cift of Prayer which also is called the Spirit of Prayer and he that was so endowed prayed for the whole Congregation for whereas we are ignorant of many things that are necessary for us and apt to ask what is unnecessary therefore fell this Spirit of supplication on one certain person and he stood up and made known the common necessities of the Church and instructed others to pray and this he did with much compunction and many groans Of which usage the Embleme is yet retain'd in the Deacons bidding of Prayers a Selden not in Eutych p. 41 42. So when the Spirit of Prophesie ceas'd in the Jewish Church Ezra and the great Consistory instituted certain Forms of Devotion of dayly use from which no man might dare to recede XXV Among these setled and establish'd Forms of the Apostles we may suppose none were so likely to be retain'd as those at the Celebration of the Eucharist which then the good men receiv'd every day For in all the ancient Liturgies
we find the same Form admitting a few Alterations which the Church of England uses in that tremendous Sacrament and indeed is the same abating a few Circumstances in the Liturgies of the whole Christian World among the Oriental and Western Christians the Syrians and Aegyptians the Abassines and Armenians the Melchites Jacobites and Nestorians who though in other things they disagree are herein united which makes me imagine their Ceremonies at this Sacrament so uniformly observed could flow from no other Fountain than that of the Apostles according to that Maxime of S. Austin that what is univerfally practised and was never instituted by a General Council must be imputed to the Apostles b Aug. Ep. 59. Paulino resp ad quaest 6. For the Vniversal Church had a set Service which she constantly used at the Celebration of the Sacrament whereof a part was perform'd before the Consecration of the Elements another during the Consecration and Distribution the Solemnity being alwayes concluded with the Lords Prayer the Eucharistical Hymns and the Priests benediction and that it was so from that passage Lift up your hearts to the end of the Communion Service I shall adventure to make appear from the most profound Antiquity XXVI For c Chrysost Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Cor. p. 647. after the Prayers of the Church which we call the first Service were finish'd and the Catechumens Energumeni and Paenitentes were dismist then began another Collect which only the Faithful said being prostrate on the Ground which I suppose was like that General Confession in our Books Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. then they arose and gave the holy kiss each to other after which the Priest being about to handle the tremendous Mysteries prayes over the people and the people pray for the Priest for what else mean those words and with thy spirit and when he returns with his new Invocation the people say it is meet and right so to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then he begins not the Consecration of the Eucharistical Elements but the Angelick Hymn therefore with Angels and Arch-Angels c. and this is excellently agreeable to the Liturgy of that a Liturg. Chrysost Tâ—â— 6. p. 996 997. L. 8. c. 16. eminent Father I will brieflâ— consider the several parts XXVII The Sursum cordais mentioned by the b Author of the Apostolical Constitutions and he would poorly have made good his pretence who-ever put on that Mask had not this Hymn been instituted by those holy men and the Testimony will be very considerable if the Author of those Books be as some men conjecture Clemens of Alexandria We meet with it also as an Hymn of Universal Practice in c De Orat. Dominic p. 160. S. Cyprian in d Catech. mystagog 5. p. 241. S. Cyril of Hierusalem and in e Ep. 57. Ep. 120. c. 19. Ep. 156 de spirit lit c. 11. de bono perseverant c. 13. de vera relig c. 13. c. Vide Dr. Hamm. Letters to Cheynel p. 26 27. S. Austin frequently that we may omit Dionysius the Areopagite because not so ancient as pretended the famous Bishop of Hippo affirming That they were verba ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita words derived to the Church from the days of the Apostles and S. Cyril telling us that they were traditionally derived down to his time and what was Tradition in his days could be little less than Apostolical and it is observable That the Liturgy which that ancient Father so largely and Learnedly explains in his Catechetick Lectures was the Liturgy of S. James which was then in use in his Church of Hierusalem then followed the Hymn therefore with Angels c. the Prayer which the Greek Churches call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which S. Chrysostom means when he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thou singest and joinest Consort with those blest Spirits and Gregory f Tom. 1. p. 957. Nyssen says they are the words which the Seraphims with six Wings say when they sing the Hymns with the Christian Congregation and was doubtless the g Just M. Apol. 2. p. 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Eucharistical Hymn which was sung when the Christians brought Bread and Wine to the Priest which he receiving return'd Praises to God in the name of the Son and the holy Ghost The Form of Consecration of the Elements was says h Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. in 2 Timoth. p. 339. S. Chrys of indispensible necessity and what was then retain'd in the Church was the same which Peter and Paul and Christ himself used at the Consecration of the sacred Symbols The Form is at large in i Tom. 4. lib. 4. de sucra cap. 4 5. p. 377. Edit Erasm S. Ambrose after this manner In what Form and in whose words is the Consecration made in the words of the Lord Jesus For in all the other Additionals thanks are given to God Suppliplications made for the people for Kings and all Orders of men this also k Apoleg c. 39. Tertullian mentions and l ubi supr Justin Martyr and S. m Ep. 119. c. 18. Austin call properly the Common Prayer like our Collect for the whole State of Christ's Church militant here on Earth but when he comes to Consecrate the venerable Sacrament then he no longer uses his own words but the words of Christ Which Form of Consecration he thus expresses a Ambr. ibid c. 5. the Priest says Make this Oblation prepared for us a reasonable and acceptable Sacrifice which is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Master Jesus Christ who the day before he suffered took the Bread in his hands and look'd up to Heaven giving thanks to the Holy Father Almighty Eternal God he blessed it brake it and being so broken gave it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of it for this is my Body which shall be broken for many Likewise the day before he suffer'd after Supper he took the Cup and look'd up to heaven giving thanks to the holy Father Almighty eternal God he blessed it and delivered it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of it for this is my Blood See all these words are the words of the Evangelist till you come to Take my Body or my Blood Observe every particular he says who the night before he suffered took Bread in his sacred hands c. therefore it is to very great purpose and advantage that thou sayest Amen So S. Ambrose largely and to the parpose XXVIII The Form of administration was the same with ours b Cyrilaibi supra The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life and to this the people said Amen with a loud Voice After the Celebration of the Mysteries c
cut off the Bishops and that in strange Countreys to which he hurryed them that he might prostitute their Fortitude and bring down their Resolutions taking them unprovided of Necessaries and worn out with the length of their Journeys that he might render their Sufferings more severe and acute that they might dye there unknown and unpityed not as Martyrs for Religion but as great Malefactors The people of Antioch had Ignatius dyed at home would have been ravish'd with Admiration of his Bravery and with Love to his Piety when they should see that Bishop who had preach'd the Gospel so long among them now dye for it and seal that truth with his Blood which he had so often profess'd in his Discourses and God also so ordered it to enhance the worth of our Martyr's Crown that the Churches through which he journeyed might be confirm'd by his Sermons Letters and Example that by his Blood he might help to propitiate the Favours of Heaven which had been demerited by the many Idolatrous Enormities of that wicked City as also that in that publick place he might preach Piety to the World and give a Testimony of the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus and the hopes of the Christian World that they also shall rise again to a better Life these Reasons after this Paragraph was written I found urged by the Learned e Life of Ign. Sect. 5. p. 103 104. vide Halleix Apol. pro script Ignat. c. 6. Dr. Cave to which he also adds that this was done to deterre others that all that saw him in his Travels might observe how odious this Religion was in the Eyes of so brave and accomplish'd a Prince as Trajan who was the Darling of the Empire XXXVIII This Journey to Rome was b Baron Tom. 2. an 109. p. 31. undertaken in the latter end of Summer for in August he was at Smyrna whence he writ his Epistle to the Romans and on the first of February in the ensuing year say the Latines but say the Greeks on Decemb. the 20th of the same year was Martyred of the manner and circumstances of whose departure Ado c Apud eund Tom. 2. an 110. p. 51. Martyrol â—ebr 1. Viennensis mentions many things which the Ancients are silent in as that his Shoulders were bruised with Leaden Bullets his sides torn with Hooks and sharp Stones his hands filled with fire and his sides burnt with Paper dipt in Oyle and that he was commanded to stand on hot burning Coals and his sides again torn with Hooks and sharp Shells of the truth of which Story the Cardinal much doubts but I think that ancient Martyrologist is only mistook in the place putting Rome for Antioch where probably he was so tortured as he is also out in the names of the Consuls for that year And agreeable hereunto is the Relation of the Greek d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menaeon that this was done to subdue the invincible Courage of the Martyr before his Condemnation but when this would not produce the desired Effect that then the Emperour denounc'd the fatal Sentence against him Nor was this only the Opinion of Ado but before him of venerable Bede and before both of the Collectors of the Acts of this Saint in the Greek and Latine Manuscripts of the Bodley and Cotton Libraries as says the venerable e Ep. ad Lect. anteâ— Martyr Ignatri Primate and since them of many others XXXIX But as soon as the Martyr had begun this his tedious Journey the Persecution at Antioch ceas'd and only there as I am inclined to believe by the a Pag. 7. Acts of S. Ignatius's Martyrdom for he being at Rome takes notice of the continuation of the Persecution there which he prays God to put an end to the Emperour thinking it sufficient in such a populous City to cut off their Leader Providence so ordering it that at the same time there came Letters from Tiberianus the President of Palestine and Pliny the Proconsul of Bithynia both which the Lord b Pâ— 9. 10 Primate hath annext to the Martyrdom of our Saint which suddenly alter'd the Scene of Affairs and freed the Eastern Church of a hot Persecution only the favour could not reach Ignatius because his life was forfeited to the Law he being condemn'd before this Cessation though the Execution were respited till he came to Rome but the Blood of this holy man brought down speedy Vengeance on that City for the next year after as c To. 2. an 111. p. 55. Baronius proves not till seven years after says Johannes Malela and the most Learned d Not. in Martyr Ignat p. 5¾ Vsher a terrible Earthquake almost buryed it in its own ruines as it is elegantly described by the Historian e L. 68. in Trajano Dio. It was preceeded by horrible Thundrings and prodigious Winds and at last the Earth-quake threw down Houses buryed many in the Rubbish maimed more rooted up Trees and dryed up Rivers and on it new Springs appeared the Mountain Casius was so shaken that its top leaned as if every moment it would fall on the remainders of that wretched City Here Pedo the Consul was so bruised that the Contusion prov'd mortal and the Emperour himself had shared in the same Fate had he not been drawn out of a Window by an extraordinary piece of Providence nor would he ever afterwards reside in the City but in his Tents in the open Air. And how could Antioch but totter and become a heap of Ruines that was on the death of this good man robb'd of what propt and secur'd it that place is next door to destruction whose Angel-Guardian is forc'd to a desertion XL. In this manner did this excellent Bishop leave the World and f Act. Martyr Ignar p. 8. his bigger bones which the wild beasts had not devoured were by his Followers Philo Gaius and Agathopus that writ the Acts of his Martyrdom collected and brought to Antioch and received with much solemnity in every City which they past through and were buryed in the Coemetery a Hier. Catalâ—v Ign. before the Gate that leads to Daphne one of the Suburbs of Antioch but afterward under b Evagr. Hist l. 1. c. 16. Theodosius junior were brought in a Chariot with much pomp into the City which c Lib. 14. c. 44. Nicephorus mistook when he says they were then first brought from Rome and interr'd in a Church dedicated to his memory which before was the Temple of Fortune whence they were again transported to Rome under the Emperour Justinian as d Not. in Martyrol Decem. 17. p. 844. Baronius thinks when Antioch was sack'd and burnt by Chosroes King of Persia or rather as the reverend e Not. in Martyrol Ign. p. 50. Vsher proves circ an 640. when that City fell into the hands of the Saracens And to his memory was an eminent Festival devoted which Gregory Patriarch of that See made more
so when Peter was about to go hence the Spirit introduced another Teacher equivalent to him lest the Edifice that was begun should be impaired by the simpleness of his Successor We have now reckoned five Crowns from the Grandeur of his Imployment from the Eminency of his Ordainers from the dangerousness of the time from the largeness of the City and from the vertue of him that resigned the Bishoprick to him After we have made up all these we might add a sixth and a seventh and more Crowns But that we may not spend all our time in this one discourse of his Episcopal Office we will now make a Panegyrick on the Martyr and spend the rest on his Combat 'A dangerous Persecution was stirred up against the Church and as if a cruel Tyranny had possest the Earth all persons were snatcht from the middle of the Market-place being accused of nothing that was absurd but that abandoning their Errours they pursued after Godliness that they deserted the Worship of Devils and acknowledged the true God and adored his only begotten Son and for what things they ought to have been Crowned and admired and honoured for those things were all that received the Faith punished and worn out with a thousand miseries but above all the Bishops of the Churches for the Devil being crafty and cruel to contrive such misâ—â—â—ievous designs hoped that if he could remove the Shepherds he should easily be able to scatter the Flocks but he that catcheth the wise in their own craft intending to convince him that men do not govern his Churches but himself every where rules Believers permitted this to be done that when these persons were taken away Satan might see that the Interests of Piety were not lessened nor the word of the Gospel quench'd but more increas'd and advane'd and that he and all his Assistants might learn by these Actions that our Concerns are not Humane but that our Doctrine hath its Root above from Heaven and that it is God that every where governs his Churches and where he engages it never happens that he is overcome Nor did the Devil only contrive this mischief but another no less terrible than this for he not only promoted the slaughter of the Bishops in those Cities over which they presided but hurrying them in 〈◊〉 strange places there cut them off and he did this at once endeavouring to deprive them of all necessaries and withal hoping to wear them out and make them weak by the toyl of their Journeys and thus he dealt with this blest person for he call'd him from this our City unto Rome * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitting him a Course to run forward and backward expecting by the length of the way and the time spent in it to prostitute and subdue his resolution not knowing that having Jesus a Companion and Fellow-Wanderer in his Travel he would grow more vigorous and give a more plentiful demonstration of his strength received from him and more and more diligently instruct the Churches For the Cities that lay in the way running to meet him strengthened this Champion and sent him away with a large Viaticum helping him by their prayers and ††〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 messages nor did they receive ordinary Confirmation seeing this Martyr court his death with the chearfulness that became him that was called to the participation of a Coelestial Kingdom and they learn'd by his Actions and his readiness and alacrity that it was not Death to which he made haste but a Pilgrimage and a change of State and an Ascension into Heaven and Teaching these things in every City both by his discourses and example he departed and as it happened to the Jews when binding Paul and sending him to Rome they thought they had sent him to his Death while they sent him an Instructor to their Country-men that dwelt there The same thing happened to Ignatius with some advantage for he departed from us a wonderful Teacher not only to them that dwelt at Rome but to all the Cities that lay in the way perswading to despise this present life and not to reck on of the things that are seen but to love futurities to look up unto Heaven and not to be disheartned at any of the sadnesses that happen on this side the Grave these and many other such things he taught them by his demeanor as he travelled as it were a Sun arising from the East and running towards the West or rather something more beautiful for the Sun runs his race above shedding a sensible light but Ignatius out-shone him below communicating the intellectual light of Learning to Souls the Sun as he draws toward the West is hid and speedily gives place to night but Ignatius departing towards the West shone there more brightly and did good in a higher measure to all persons that he met for into whatsoever City he came he taught that City * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to become Christian and for this reason God ordered that there his life should terminate that the end of such a great man might become ††〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lecture of Piety to all that dwelt at Rome for you by the Grace of God did not want any further conviction being rooted in Faith but the Romans by reason of the notorious Impiety that was there needed some greater help for this reason both Peter and Paul and with them our Martyr were all sacrificed there that by their Blood they might purge that City that was polluted with the Blood shed to Idols and withal that they might by their Actions give a Publick demonstration of the Resurrection of the crucified Christ perswading the Inhabitants of that great City that it was impossible they should with so much satisfaction despise this present life were they not fully perswaded that they should afterward ascend to the crucified Jesus and see him in Heaven for this is the greatest proof oâ— the Resurrection that Christ being slain should after his death show forth so much Power as to perswade living men to postpone Country and House and Friends and Relations and Life it self to the Confession of him and greedily to chuse Scourges and Dangers and Death it self before these present voluptuous enjoyments these were the Atchievements not of a dead man nor of a person consin'd to his Grave but of one that is risen from the dead and lives ††〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for is it not very strange that while he was alive all his Apostles that convers'd with him having their Courage impaired by their Fear betrayed their Master and flying deserted him but as soon as he was dead that then not only Peter and Paul but even Ignatius that never saw him nor ever was Partaker of the Charms of his Conversation should be endowed with so much constancy as to offer up his life for him that the Inhabitants of Rome might learn perfectly all these
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. c. 7. The Jews were commanded by Moses says Philo to meet together in some convenient place where they might hear the Law of God read to them and expounded by the Priest or some of the Elders these places were afterwards called Synagogues and Proseuchae and for this end God divided Levi in Jacob and scattered him in Israel turning his Father's Curse into a Blessing that he might be instrumental to the instructing of the people and for this end also the wise-men of the great Consistory divided the Law into 54 Sections or Parascha's of which they ordered the four shortest to be read two at a time that so the whole might be read over once every year To this Custom did our blessed Saviour in his life conform himself for I never find him scrupling any innocent Rituals of the Jews and as it was their usage out of reverence to the Author of those holy Oracles both Priest and People b Nehem. 8.4 5. to stand up at the reading of them so when the sacred Jesus took into his hands the Book of the Prophet Isaiah c Luc. 4.16 20. he stood up read the Paragraph on which he intended to preach and sate not down until he had closed the Book and according to his example did the Apostles regulate themselves in Ecclesiastical Affairs not only introducing that very good Custom of standing up at the New Law the Gospel which was early practised in all Churches and by all men but by the d Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. Patriarch of Alexandria who only of all his Congregation of all his Patriarchate sate at the reciting of the Gospel but in ordering that in all Religious Assemblies there should first be read a e Origen Hom. 15. in Jos Portion out of the Law and with this they contented themselves before the writing of the New Testament their Homilies being only an explanation of Moses and the Prophets and a Confirmation of our Saviour's Divinity and Doctrine from thence f All. 26.28 saying no other thing than Moses and the Prophets foretold should come to pass but when the Gospels and Epistles were writ they then took order that some parts of the New Testament especially the History of our Saviours life should have a place in the Service that the Truth might answer the Types So g Hypotypos lib. 6. apud Euseb lib. 2. c. 14. Clemens Alexandrinus and Papias affirm that S. Peter decreed that the Gospel of S. Mark should be publickly read in the Christian Churches and h 1 Thess 5.27 S. Paul took care that his first Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read to all the Brethren XXI These Books of the holy Canon being collected into one Code during the Apostles residence on Earth the reading thereof continued in the Church after the dissolution of that Family of our Saviours own immediate constitution a Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Corinth p. 54. the employment devolving on the first-fruits of the converted City or Country where the Apostles preach'd whom they left to raise a Superstructure on the Foundation which they had layd and to cultivate what their industry had planted So b Apel. 2. p. 98. viâ—e Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. p. 502. Tert. Apolog c. 39. S. Justin describes the state of their Christian Conventions All the people that dwelt in the City or adjacent Country met together in one Assembly on the Sunday and then the Commentaries of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets are read and when the Reader a Church Officer very early instituted in the Church for this purpose hath done then the Bishop who is the President of the Society makes an Oration to encourage and exhort his Auditory to the Love Imitation and Practice of those blest Precepts And when c De anima cap. 9. Tertullian undertakes to enumerate the Solennia Dominica as he calls them the solemn Offices of that Festival he mentions the reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Sermon and holy discourses and then the offering up their prayers to God Which Expositions on holy Writ as a part of the service of the Lords day grounded on the custom of the Jews and the practice of the Apostles d Act. 20.7 S. Paul inures himself to as a necessary Method of instructing his Neighbours in the Laws of Christian Obedience and a great incentive and preparative to Devotion and the Eucharist in which the Apostles had this advantage of their Successors that they could express themselves both in their Supplications and Sermons without premeditation e 1 Cor. 14.30 being assisted by a peculiar afflatus of the Spirit of God the Spirit of Prayer and Prophecy whereas their Successors wanting those miraculous assistances took on them to inform their Flocks according to the several measures of their Learning and Industry only those who were well furnished with the Arts of demonstration and holy perswasives frequently spake ex tempore to the Congregation as we may see in many of the Homilies of the ancient Fathers S. Chrysostom especially And that we may make a more regular proceeding in this disquisition I shall speak to the time when and how often these Sermons were made the places where the persons who undertook this tremendous employment and the manner how it was performed and by this course we may take a brief view of the ancient practices in this case XXII We take it for granted that thâ— Lords day was not without its share in thiâ— Honour and that it was lookt on as a necessary part of the duty of every Prelate personally then to teach his people the Rules of Peace and Purity It was the practice of the Apostles Act. 20.7 and from them continued in the Church a Chrys To. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. p. 31. Aug. Confess lib. 6. c. 3. as a Law not to be dispens'd with and besides this solemn duty of the Sunday in some Churches they had constant Sermons every Wednesday and Fryday in the Week particularly at b Socrat. Hist lib. 5. c. 21. Alexandria where by an ancient custom all the offices of the Lords day were then performed except the celebration of the Eucharist and that probably was omitted because those were fasting-days stationum semi-jejunia as Tertullian calls them in c Id. Ibid. Cappadocia and Cyprus and probably in all other Countries where the Saturday was not a Fasting-day they had Sermons on the Sabbath-day as well as on the Sunday nay at Alexandria d Hom. 9. in Isai apud Centur. 2. c. 6. Origen seems to imply that they had Sermons every day as the Centurists understand him and this e De bono pudicit vide Holdsworth part 1. Lect. 4. p. 30. St. Cyprian terms the Bishops daily imployment nor was this Custom only used in the Southern Churches but in the Churches of the East too St. f Homil. 3. p.
and Primate of Spain was deposed by his Fellow-Bishops for setting out some pieces of his own under the name of his Predecessor Isidorus Hispalensis in the Arabick Version of his works not to wish them the fate of e Gallon respons ad monac Benedict p. 32 Cicarellus who was hang'd at Rome and afterwards his body burnt for the like Forgery XIV And here I think it convenient to repeat what others have observed before me that the Devil in destroying the Church hath followed the Method of the Creed in the first 300 years he instigated the Followers of Simon Magus Menander Basilides Marcion and others to deny and oppose the first Article concerning God the Father In the next three Centuries by the Followers of Sabellius Photinus and Arius to contradict the Divinity of Christ After the year 400 he combated the Doctrine of the Incarnation Passion and Resurrection by Nestorius Entyches Dioscorus and others After the year 800 the Procession of the holy Ghost was disputed in the Greek Church since that the nature of the Catholick Church and the power of Remission of sins by the Papists and Anabaptists c. the Resurrection of the Body by the Socinians and the life everlasting by the modern Sadducees XV. Among the memorable sayings of this Father Mr. H. p. 69. reckons his denying an uninterrupted succession of Bishops to be a mark of the true Church Of which there is not a word in the place of Irenaeus that Mr. H. quotes the Assertion it self aff onting the Judgment of the ancient Catholick Church who makes a continuance of Episcopal Government to be necessary to the Integrity of a Church and so does a Lib. 3. c. 3. l. 4. c. 43. Irenaeus himself advising all good Christians only to obey such Apostolical men but to shun those that cannot deduce themselves from this regular succession as Hereticks and Schismaticks the mistake only lyes in this that a Church without this continued series of Prelates may be a true Church in Essence and Nature but cannot be entituled to Integrity and Perfection Salvation may be had in that Assembly though they want that Government which is of Divine Institution the retention of which sacred Order among us hath extorted this confession from the mouth of a b Cudsemius de desperata Calvini caus c. 11. Jesuit that the Church of England is not heretical because it maintains a succession of Prelates XVI Irenaeus's Opinion of Christs ignorance of the day of Judgment is well vindicated by c p. â—74 Gallasius in his Nores on that place others of the erroâ—â—ouâ— Opimons of the Father we have apologizâ—d for in our Memoâ—â—s of S. Justin the Martyr and for his peculiar opinion concerning the age of Christ D. d Life of Iren. Sect. 10. p. 170. Cave and e Part. 2. l. 2. c. 4. p. 191. Scrivener agaâ—â—st Daillée have satisfied all modâ—st Inquirers â—n those words of his lib. 3 c. â—1 that seem to imply as if the two Natâ—res in Christ were mixt and confused which was afterward the Heresie of Aâ—ollinaris and Eutyches against whom Theodoret expresly writ his second Dialogue the holy man without doubt means no more but the Union of the two Natures for so lib. 4. c. 37. he explains himself joyning commixtio communio Dei hominis together and lib. 5. c. 2. blaming the Ebionite Hereticks for denying this truth his next error that Satan never blasphem'd God till the Incarnation of Christ for which he quotes Justin Martyr is meant of his doing it not openly but under a Masque as under the form of a Serpent he trepan'd Adam not by himself but by his Instruments that profess Religion and yet abuse the Author of it such as were the Marcionites and Valentinians whom he mentions who called themselves Christians yea the purer sort of Christians Gnosticks and yet blasphemed God Nor do we find among the Jews who before the Incarnation of Christ were the peculiar people of God any Heresie which opposed that Article that the Creator of the World who Commission'd the Prophets should also send his Son which Opinion Irenaeus lays at the door of Valentinus and his Tribe who distinguisht between God the Father and the Demiurgus or the Creator of the World nor is his reason altogether indefensible quippe nondum sciens suam damnationem because the Devil did not as yet expresly know his sentence the Father seeming to allude to that opinion of a Ad. Ephâ—â— p. 45. Ed. Usher S. Ignatius which was afterward generally imbrac'd that the Incarnation and Crucifixion of our Saviour and Virginity of his Mother were hid from the cognizance of Satan so that he might believe that the general promises of a Redeemer given to the Old World might as well reach to him as to the Sons of Adam till the Incarnation of Jesus made it appear to the contrary and that then seeing his estate remediless he fell into a like rage with those who are condemn'd by the Law who says b Ubi supâ— Irenaeus blame not themselves but the severity of the Judge and the rigour of his proceedings XVII His discourse of Enoch l. 3. c. 30. that he was Gods true servant without the badge of Circumcision or observation of the Sabbath no man I hope questions and for what is added that being yet in the flesh Dei legatione ad Angelos fungebatur he was sent on an Embassie to the Angels had we any thing to countenance the conjecture beside the respect we bear to this great man I would say it was a mistake of the Translator and that the words in Irenaeus's Greek might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which will bear the old Version but to me will be thus rendred better And having been Gods Ambassadour i. a Preacher of Righteousness to the old World he went to the Angels and was translated where he is kept as a witness of Gods Judgment on those fallen Spirits which words may be supposed to â—elate to that common Opinion among the Fathers that Enoch with Elias are translated into Paradise in their mortal bodies and that in the end of the world they shall both come again to preach Repentance to mankind and reduce them from the service of Antichrist to the worship of the true God and shall be martyred at Jerusalem and after three days rise again and then ascend into Heaven which Opinion I take not upon me to defend but only to give a bare Narration of this is expresly averr'd by c De anima c. 28. de resurrect p. 31 I. Edit Rhen. Tertullian and the d P. 290. Author of the Book de montibus Sinai and Sion under the name of Cyprian but says Pamelius of some other African Author of that Age e To. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 149. Saint Chrysostome it 's true professes his ignorance herein but S. f De genes ad liter l. 9. c. 6. Austin is of
converted the Prison into a Tavern where they were only restrain'd in name and show but in truth injoyed there their Feasts and Baths and all the volupruous conveniencies that could be desired These Collections for their suffering Brethren were made every b Just M. apolog 2. p. 97. Cypr. de oper eleemos p. 180. vid. Ep. 26 p. 32. Lords day besides an extraordinary Monthly gathering as I am apt to understand c Apolog. c. 39. Tertullian and deposited in the hand of the Priest who was the common Father of the Orphans and Guardian of the Widows and Almoner of the Poor d Cypr. Ep. 5. p. 12. Const Apost l. 5. c. 1. but above all the Treasurer of those that were in durance And by this means the Candidates of Immortality were plentifully provided for with all sort of necessaries and this found materials for their Agapae which it is more than probable were as at other times and places preceded by the Eucharist which the Christians of those early days often received and was questionless long'd for as a Viaticum for Eternity by those holy Men. * Aug. op brevic collat cum Donatist die 3. c. 5.11 And there also was Baptism frequently Administred VII These compassionate Offices were many times perform'd by the Prelates of the Church who personally discharg'd the duty Vid. Cypr. Ep. 37. p. 43. So Onesimus and other neighbor Bishops waited on St. Ignatius at Smyrna from Ephesus and the adjacent Cities sometimes the Presbyters but f Id. Ep. 11. p. 20. the Deacons of the Church were particularly employed in these Messages to attend the Martyrs to know and relieve their wants that no Specimen of care and compassion might be omitted And when the rage of the persecution made it dangerous for the Church-Officers to appear publickly then the g Liban orat de vinctis p. 56. Deaconesses did those charitable Offices And for those that were hindred from paying them their personal attendances they not only passionately became suiters to the Martyrs for their prayers when they came to Heaven as h Cypr. Ep. 16. p. 25. deLaud Martyr p. 253. believing that God would deny them nothing but gave them the noblest assistances of their prayers for them i Id. Ep. 16. p. 24. Vide Cypr. Epp. ad Confess Mart. Tertull. Exhort ad Martyr Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. both night and day in their publick and private devotion and withal sent them rational and Christian Exhortations to chear their minds and raise their courage in which with the most a Tert. exhort ad Mart. init Cypr. de Laud. Mart. p. 252. c. profound humility they express their sentiments as if they were not worthy to make their Addresses to men so beloved of God VIII And as the Church paid them constant Visits so it allowed them the honour and priviledge of reconciling penitents and admitted the Lapsi to the participation of the holy Ordinances without that solemn and strict penance that else was required on their Testimony and recommendation for there was an honourable estimate set on all their writings in as much as b Catal. v. Pamphil. S. Hierom seems ravish'd with an uncommon joy when he met with the works of the Martyr Pamphilus because one Epistle from so sublime a Saint was preferrable to a Treasure the form of these Libels are to be seen in c Ep. 17. p. 26. S. Cyprian and it is also well known what a dispute arose in this very case between that excellent Prelate and Lucian and some other pragmatical Confessors Nor was the custom begun in the days of that African Father but was as old as d Exhort ad Mart. init de pudicit c. 22. Tertullian and e Epist Eccles Vien Lugd. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 2. Irenaeus the former of which Fathers sarcastically abuses the Church for this Indulgence IX There was also a select order of men deputed to attend and record the acts of their passion their Speeches and demeanor with all exactness and fidelity Notaries who purchas'd from the Secretary of the Proconsul or some other Officer a Copy of what passages commenc'd privately but with an incredible agility and nimbleness writ down the account of the publick Transactions it is probably believed that S. Clemens was the first that begun this custom and for that end divided the City of Rome into seven Regions though in the Civil Notitia it contained twice as many and appointed the seven Deacons of that Church who should either themselves be imployed to be Notaries or oversee those who took care to Copy out the last discourses of the dying Confessors which being reviewed by the Bishop of the See were as he thought fit laid up in the publick Archives of his Church which when so collected and allowed were afterward digested into a Book which f De Coron c. 13. Tertullian calls Census Fasti Ecclesiastici and in process of time the Martyrs of other Churches were admitted to a place in that Martyrology every one recorded on the day of his passion g Greg. M. l. 7. Indict 1. Ep. 29. till at last every day of the year had its peculiar Saint X. They were exactly curious in paying them their last respects and the Ceromony of a solemn Funeral It is true that herein their Heathen Adversaries turn'd every stone to prevent these instances of their Love and for the most part adjudged the reputed Criminals to the Fire not so much because that was the highest degree of punishment a Tert. Exhortat ad Mart. p. 167. L. Id. ad Scapul c. 3. pro Deo vivo cremamur quod nec sacrilegi nec hostes publici nec tot majestatis rei pati solent summa ignium poena nor yet because they look'd on the holy men of that Age to be b Baron Not. ad Martyrolog Febr. 27. p. 156. Magicians and by an Assistant Daemon to perform their Miracles and so punisht them c Paul lib. 5. sentent rit 23. accordingly but as I am inclin'd to believe because the Christians should not collect their Ashes in order to a decent Burial and to prevent what they saw was their constant practice their caressing those remains of their sacred Predecessors with that veneration and respect which they constantly paid their Reliques Thus d Martyr Polycarp p. 27. apud Euseb l. 4. c. 14. they used their utmost endeavours to hinder the interrment of S. Polycarp and what they then only intended they punctually effected in the case of the French Martyrs of Lyons and Vien e Epist Eccles Lugd. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 1. Aug. de cura pro mort cap. 8. vide Lactantii Instit lib. 5. c. 11. Sozom. lib. 5. c. 8. de Martyrio S.S. Eusebii c. Gazae those imbitter'd Adversaries of theirs not being content to have expos'd multitudes of
k Nyss To. 2. vit Gr. Thaum p. 1006. S. Gregory of Neocaesaria returned from his retirement in the Decian persecution he commanded the Festivals of those that had been martyred during his recess to be observ'd and all the people annually met at the places of their Burial and made that day a holy-day and to take them off from their old Heathenish Customs that prudent Prelate permitted them on those Solemnities to chear themselves and recreate their drooping Spirits with the several kinds of innocent mirth out of an intention to induce them by those sensible joys to the rellish of more spiritual and nobler pleasures For the Christians did not observe their Festivals as the Heathens did theirs with a pompous train of obscene and impudent observances and all the Arts of Debauchery but with a Feast l Theod. ubi supr whence all Drunkenness and Gluttony and immoderate laughter were banish'd and where all things were perform'd with a modest chaste and temperate decorum m Naz. Orat 6. p. 139 140. consul loc The Fathers severely cautioning the people on such occasions not to indulge to voluptuousness intemperance and luxury and other pleasurable satisfactions that vanish in a moment For what conformity is there between carnal pleasures and the Combats of the Martyrs The one becomes a Theatre the other the Church He who will celebrate the Festival as he ought must imitate their Combats and their Victories and stedfastness to the interests of truth must dread nothing but to dishonour God and pollute his Image and this is a Festival kept according to the mind of Christ XVIII It is true what the Fathers foresaw and would have prevented fell out at last to the prejudice of Religion every man a Conc Carthag ' 5. Can. 14 pretended a Vision and on the strength of that built an Altar to an imaginary Martyr the people in those Meetings gave the reins to all sort of unbecoming and irregular mirth to Intemperance and Lasciviousness and treated themselves with Wine and Dainties and set up b Basil reg fusior disput interr 40. Markets near the Coemeteries for the sale of necessaries for those luxuriant Banquets till the c Aug. contr Faust Manich l. 20. c. 21. Manichees objected it to the Catholicks that they did appease the Manes of the dead thereby This set the Prelates of the Church by degrees to discountenance and bring into disuse these conventions the d Conc. Illiberit Can. 34 35. Council of Elvire forbiding the burning of Torches in the Coemeteries by day and Womens watching there by night the making the Feasts there was prohibited by the Council of e Can. 28. Laodicea the Markets severely decry'd by S. Basil the Oblations of the Bread and Wine and other conveniences for the Feast disallowed by S. f Aug. ubi supr de C. D. l. 8. c. 27. Confes l. 6. c. 2. Ambrose and other holy and wise Bishops because of the intemperance in which most men then wallowed And yet the people were not of a sudden wholly converted from this distemper but that g B. Foelicis Natal 9. p. 668 669. Paulinus complains that they retained a spice of their old Heathenisme serving their Belly as their God and spending the whole night by Torch-light in sports and drinking and luxury But to the Festivals when soberly and Christianly observ'd the Bishops of the Church used to invite their Neighbour-Prelates So h Ep. 336. S. Basil engages one of the Bishops of his Province to be present at the Anniversary of some Martyrs and i Naz. Tom. 1. Orat. 6. p. 139. S. Gregory Naz. was invited by S. Gregory Nyssen and Nicetas a Dacian Bishop was a Guest to k Paulin. ubi supr p. 664. S. Paulinus on the Feast of S. Foelix XI To the honor of the Martyrs did the Primitive Christians very early l Theod. ubi suprd Asterius Amisen Homil. de avarit p. 51. Edit Rayn build Churches Platina says that Pope Fabianus began the custom they were called Martyria by the Chalcedon Council Confessiones Memoriae Martyrum by the Latines Caius the antient Ecclesiastical Writer mentioning the Trophies as he calls them of S. Peter in the Vatican and S. Paul in the Via Ostiensis which Baronius will have to be Churches built to their honour and it agrees to the account of m De 7. Urbis Eccles c 4. p. 45. c. Onuphrius that there was a little Oratory erected over S. Peter's Grave in the Vatican near the Via Triumphalis which was afterward destroyed by Elagabalus that profligate Emperour n Catalog v. Clemens S. Hierome also informs us that there was a Church built at Rome to the memory of S. Clemens that continued till his time a Vic. de persec Vandalic l. 1. two Churches were built to the memory of S. Cyprian presently on his Martyrdom which were the one rased the other usurpt by the Arrians b Naz. Orat 21. p. 386. another to the Virgin Thecla in the City of Seleucia and probably it was so done in other places but when the Christian Faith was acknowledged by the Governours of the world and Constantine submitted his Scepter to the Cross nothing was so usual as the enquiries after the Reliques of the Martyrs and erection of stately beautiful and well-adorn'd Fabricks to their memories the building Temples and erecting Altars c Aug. de C.D. l. 22. c. 10. where they facrificed not to the Martyrs but to that God who is equally the Patron of the Church Triumphant and Militant that great man built a noble Church over S. Paul's Grave at Rome another at Constantinople to the honour of the twelve Apostles and d Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14 15. the Divine gives us a memorable instance how God was pleas'd with the hearty zeal of those pious persons for when both Gallus and Julian before his Apostasie were wonderfully concern'd and careful in testifying their love to the holy Jesus by their beautifying and endowing the Monuments of the Martyrs and building Churches to them the God of the Martyrs publickly testified his acceptance of the unfeigned devotions of Gallus by prospering the work till it was compleated but miraculously demonstrated his disrelish of Julians hypocritical pretences as he despis'd Cain 's Sacrifice for the Earth where he laid the foundation of his Temple spued up the materials and though he more than once eagerly endeavour'd to fix a Basis it still continued as if a perpetual Earthquake had resided there to overthrow and scatter what was built Heaven taking care by this instance not only to vindicate it self from the godly pretences of that Infidel but to caution the World what a future Enemy he would be to the Martyrs For the e Sozomen l. 5. c. 19. Historian reckons it as a great Specimen of his spleen and malice that he commanded the Churches of the Martyrs
he not only kept his Miraculous Physician at Court with him but shewed himself favourable to all persons of his Religion whereas about the 9th of his Empire begun that fierce and cruel Persecution that ended not but with his Life I would therefore presume to believe that the Donative on the occasion of which Tertullian writ the defence of that Soldier who refus'd his crown was given not in the times of Severus but in the first year of Caracalla and Geta on their return out of Britain after the death of their Father when Antoninus slew all his Fathers Physicians for not hastening his death and his own Governor Euodus for endeavouring to take up the differences between him and his Brother and all others that were favourites to Severus it being usual at the Inauguration of Princes to give such largesses and very necessary at that time to smooth the mind of the Soldiery after so many brutish acts of cruelty and continued threatnings of more mischief V. So that I cannot but see a necessity of believing that Tertullian became a follower of Montanus in the middle of the reign of Septimius Severus for in the fifteenth year of that Prince were his Books against Marcion writ as a L. 1. adv Marc. p. 56. C. Ed. Rhen. himself testifies but that he was then a Montanist is very plain for b Lib. 1. ad fin he defends the necessity of single Marriages by the testimony of the Paraclete which can be no other than Montanus and c L. 4. p. 91. D. calls the Orthodox in scorn Psychici and pleads eagerly for his new Prophetick Afflatus and Ecstasies and to this the very long Popedome of Zepherinus will give countenance and engage us to believe that the Disputation between Gaius and Proclus was manag'd some years sooner than most of the Chronologers place it Nor are several other Works of this Father commonly reckon'd among his Tracts Writ before his Desertion of the Church but infected with the leaven of Montanisme for in his De resurrect carnis he stiles Prisca a Propneâ—ess and in his Deâ—anima undertakes to prove the corporeity of the Soul by a vision of that Impostress and in the beginning of his Book De velandis virginibus he affirm That Holiness was in its rude elements under the law of nature in its infancy under the Mosâ—ick Oeconomy and the Prophets in its youth under the Gospel Dispensation but never came to its maturity and full growth till his time under the Paraclete His discourse also against Praxeas then commenc'd wherein d Cap. 1. adv Prax. he tells us that at first the Roman Prelate Baronius says it was Anicetus Dr. Cave Eleutherius but I think it was Zepherinus did believe the Prophecies of Montanus Prisca and Maximilla and granted Letters of Peace and Communion to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia that were infected with that Heresie allowing what his Predecessors had condemn'd but was diverted from continuing in that resolution by Praxeas the Author of the Sect of the Patro-passiani against whom Tertullian Writing says That he did two good Offices for the Devil while he was at Rome he expell'd the Spirit of Prophecy and brought in Heresie he banish'd the Holy Ghost i. Montanus and crucified God the Father Calling the Orthodox by the usual name of disgrace among those Herereticks Psychici which makes me wonder that that very Learned Man should number these Books among those that Tertullian Writ before he fell into Heresie Whereas in the Books which he Writ before he became a Montanist he a De praescript adv haeret c. 52. calls it a blasphemous assertion to aver That the Holy Ghost discovered more by the Ministry of Montanus than of the Apostles and his Tractate De Baptismo purposely opposes Quintilla a Woman of great repute in the Family of Montanus to prove the necessity of Water to the right Administration of Baptism and of Baptism to Salvation VI. To this Opinion for the main Mr. H. p. 13½ assents but I can no way allow of his deduction from it that therefore all the customs and usages of the Church idle Ceremonies he calls them which Tertullian reckons up in his de Corona came out of the School of Montanus as the Centurists says he profitably conjecture and which p. 169. he stiles the materials of the Antichristian Synagogue then preparing For had Tertullian argued against the Catholicks from the observances of his own Conventicle he had expos'd his reasonings to derision by begging the question whereas the Orthodox might easily retort on him that these were not the usages of the Christian Church but of their little Tribe whereas the method is perswasive when disputing against the Catholicks he urges them with their Traditional Rites and practices which were common to both them and the followers of Montanus nor is it but a most irrational inference to cast off all things that are good because of the intermixture of some unsound Positions in any person or writing as if we must think all the accounts of the Primitive usages in Eusebius were only the little arts of the Arians or in Socrates did belong only to the Novatian Schism because the one was supposed an Arian and the other a Puritan But to argue justly we must first prove the Institution of these Ceremonies to be an act of Montanus and the use of them the peculiar practices of his followers which I think Mr. H. will hardly undertake and if he hath any Veneration for that learned man B. Rhenanus whom he so often quotes he may from his Notes on this Book have a perswasive and sober account of the reason of these Institutions and if this will not satisfie b Ubi supr Tertullian shall give him my Answer Quamdiu per hanc lineam serram reciprocabimus I count it madness any longer to draw this Saw of contention but it behoves the opposers of ours and the Primitive Church to discountenance as much as may be such early instances of the use of the Cross the Responses in Baptism the prohibition of fasting on the Lords day and many other such practices The occasion of this so justly lamented defection of this great man S. c Catal. v. Tertul. Hierome says was the envy of the Church of Rome against him and the opprobrium there cast on him which might easily work on a man of his temper and Country to imbitter him Pope Victor and the Emperour Severus his Countrymen and Cotemporaries were not the most moderate men in the world such injuâ—ties being insufferable to ingenuous Natures a Lib. 6. cap. 25. Sozomen telling us that had Apollinaris been treated with more mildness and condescension by Theodotus and Georgius Bishops of Laodicea he believes the Church had never been pester'd with his new Heresie others as Pamelius and Mr. H. p. 115. that it arose from his missing the Bishoprick of Carthage and such ambition hath also much promoted
the disturbances of the Church Tert. adv Valentin c. 4. p. 139. solent amini pro prioratu exciti praesumptione ultionis accendi Id. de baptism p. 273. Ed. Rhen. aemulatio enim schismatum mater est the baffled pretender out of revenge venting his malice against the Church that slighted him So b Hegesip apud Euseb lib. 4. c. 21. when S. Simeon Cleophae was admitted to the Episcopal Chair at Jerusalem in the room of S. James the Just Thebuthis began to corrupt the Church by introducing Heresie because he was not made S. James's Successor So c Tert. adv Valent. c. 4. p. 251. Edit Paris 1664. Valentinus broach'd his new Hypothesis and the d Apollinaris apud Euseb l. 1. c. 15. Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. sect Montanus ambition of Montanus first occasioned his deserting the Church e Cornel. apud Euseb hist lib. 6. c. 35. Novatus turn'd Schismatick being denied the Popedome f Theodoret. ubi supr lib. 4. sect Arius Arius became the Father of that most pernicious Heresie of his because Alexander was preferred to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and himself slighted and g Socrat. Eccles hist lib. 1. cap. 24. Asterius became his follower because on the account of his sacrificing in the days of persecution he was denied a Bishoprick which he greedily gap't after h Theodor. Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 4. Apollinaris also expos'd his Darling Dogma failing of the Bishoprick of Laâ—dicea i August de haeres cap. 69. Donatus his for missing the See of Carthage and k Epiphan haeres 75. Aërius on the same score turn'd Leveller and because being only a Presbyter he could not be a Bishop was resolved if he could have done it that no Bishop should have been greater than a Priest as Marcion forbad honest Marriage when himself had been cast out of the Church for prostituting the Chastity of a Virgin and I have it from a very worthy person that Hugh Broughton the Patriarch of the Puritans his own Brother should aver that he first went over to the discontented party having been denied some valuable preferment which he desired in the Church and l Doctrin fid lib. 2. cap. 6. Waldensis quotes the Bishop of Salisbury affirming in a full Assembly of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury that Wickliff aim'd at the Mitre of Worcester and being deceived of his expectations grew discontent nay even the very Conventicles of the Hereticks were subdivided by this spirit of ambition for m Sâ—crat lib. 7. c. â— Sabbatius made a new Schism among the Schismatical Novatians being strongly possest with this Daemon and the desires of a Crosier VIII But this thought I cannot be perswaded to entertain of Tertullian so great a lover of Mortification and Abstinence and one that so little valued external grandeur and the pompous shadows of honour I am therefore inclin'd to believe that it was a passionate and ungovern'd zeal which sway'd him and that his intentions were very just and honourable but misguided that his aim was though he took a wrong course to keep up the reputation of the Primitive Severities and holy Discipline of which he was an eager Assertor for we cannot find him charg'd with any erroneous sentiments in matters of Faith but a scrupulous studiousness to maintain the antient practices a Rigalt not in Tertull adv Prax. p. 501. quae Tertulliani dicuntur haereses c. his greatest Heresies were no other than a stronger love of Martyrdome than ordinary greater frequency in fastings and stricter holiness an injunction of continuing in the estate of Coelibate or at most a contentedness with one Marriage And if these were his Vices good God what can we call his Virtues for it is probable that he held the Opinions of Montanus as that Impostor first propos'd them to the World in a taking dress and such as was very agreeable to the severer sort of Christians not as they were afterward adulterated by his followers the Phrygians acu Phrygiâ interpolatum as Mons Rigaud elegantly terms it whose additional dotages occasion'd his separation from them and setting up his own Congregation of Tertullianists and yet these Phrygians if we may take b Lib. 4. c. 23. Socrates's testimony were the most regular in their lives of all the Asiaticks men very temperate and chaste never heard to swear or seen to be angry or delighted with the toys and pleasures of the world and this I suppose inclin'd them so easily to become Novatians which Schism renewed the discipline of Montanus but was not so fully agreed among themselves in some particulars for the c Apud eund lib. 5. c. 21. Novatians in Phrygia did condemn second Marriages those at Constantinople did neither allow nor disallow them but the Occidental Disciples of that Sect publickly approv'd them IX Nor did Tertullian in this case want enough to plead in his own behalf he being the Champion of the Apostolical Institution but the Church on the principles of Christian prudence remitting her former strictnesses allowing second Marriages dispensing with extraordinary fastings and receiving Penitents before the times of extremity for it appears to have been the Opinion and Practice of the most Venerable Antiquity that gross sinners as Apostates Murtherers Adulterers and such like should be wholly excluded from Penance And this makes d de pudicit p. 555. Ed. Paris Tertullian object to Pope Zepherinus the corruption of the antient discipline and e Ep. 52. p. 59. S. Cyprian confesses that many of his Predecessors did deny communion to such Offenders and the judicious f Of the right of a Church in a Christ Sâ—ate ch 1. pag. 19 c. Thorndike says That if we compare the writings of the Apostles with the Original practice of the Church it will appear that those rigours were brought in by them and that these were the sins unto death which might not be pray'd for abating by little and little till that Discipline was lost but that the Reformation of the Church consists in the retaining it And this he there proves largely and so saves me the labour X. And for the noted Dogma which Mr. H. p. 118. adventures to say made him a Heretick g De Monogam p. 533 Tertullian's argument to prove the unlawfulness of second Marriages is taken from that of the Apostle that a Bishop must be the Husband of one Wife i. as the Fathers generally understood it only once married not the Husband of two Wives either together or successively but says Tert. all the Lords people are his Priests a Royal Priesthood and therefore must so abstain Nay among all the Fathers Monogamy was lookt on as one of the excellent Counsels of Scripture if not as an obligatory Precept and had Tertullian only recommended but not enjoyn'd it I know no man could have blam'd him and in truth in Tertullian's sense the Opinion was countenanc'd
speak in an Ecstasie as do the Books of Pope Miltiades and Apollonius which Eusebius mentions That the Montanist Enthusiasts had their Ecstasies Tertullian grants but denies that they fell into any rageings and fits of fury and would undertake to a Tert. adv Marc. l. 4. c. 22. prove that the true Prophets were so acted from the example of S. Peter who on the Holy Mount Luke 9.33 would have three Tabernacles rear'd one for his Master another for Moses and a third for Elias not knowing what he said for says he how was he ignorant was it from the erroneous notions that then possess'd his mind or from some extraordinary grace and assistance that threw him into an Ecstasie For that man who is acted by the spirit of God especially when he sees the glory of God or God speaks by him must necessarily be deprived of his senses being overshadowed and amazed by the brightness of the divine power And this says he is the Question between us and the Psychici i. the Orhthodox But herein Tertullian went alone it being apparent that S. Peter's mistake proceeded from his ignorance of the state of glorified bodies and that the Masters among the Jews and all the Fathers acknowledge that the Prophets had a clear light and apprehension of what was communicated unto them and that correspondent thereunto their deportment was grave and their demeanour sober Tertullian therefore was very happy when he more than once renders Ecstasis by Amentia their raptures being nothing else but fits of madness wherein they were acted by an assistant Daemon to reveal strange things Melancholy and a busie swelling fancy with a little help from Satan the great pretender to Oracles easily setting up a confident cheat to imitate the dictates and inspirations of the true Prophets XVI Secondly The false Prophets of Montanus were of very vitious lives and conversations notwithstanding their great pretences to extraordinary strictness and mortifications but the true spirit of God will not dwell in unhallowed minds b Talmud Gemar Joma c. 2. Abarban pref in 12. prophet Maimon Mor. Nev. p. 2. c. 32. c. Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 424. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Orig. contr Cels lib. 7. the Jewish Masters affirming that he that will be a true Prophet must be acted by a spirit of true probity and piety must be an humble man a man of wisdom and fortitude and who hath gotten a conquest over his passions And to this agrees S. Peter 2 Ep. 1. ch v. 21. That they were holy men that spake as they were inspired by God And so the Fathers did believe that those that had such uncommon assistances of the spirit of God were men whose souls were purified by the light of a sublime reason and whose lives were guided by that light But a Apollin aâ—ud Euseb â— 5. c. 15. Montanus himself was a man of unsatiable ambition and covetousness of an ungovern'd wildness and impudency and his b Apollonius â—pud eund â— 5. c. 18. Prophetesses were Adulteresses so far from being Virgins as was boasted that they deserted their Husbands to follow this Pseudoparaclete they were addicted to the use of Fucus and painting to gawdery and intemperance and unlawful games to putting their money to use and to what not and Theodotus Themison and Alexander and other of their followers were notorious profligate wretches and at last Montanus and his two female Proselytes fell into the condemnation of Judas and were their own executioners and now let the tree be judg'd of by the fruit XVII Thirdly The Predictions of the true Prophets were always fulfill'd but the Revelations of Maximilla were like the old Oracles at best dubious and many times very false she undertaking to threaten the world with Wars and Seditions that should scourge the Church if her dotages were not embrac'd c Apollinaris ubi supr whereas the Father observes that from the death of that Impostress to the time of his Writing there had past 13 years in which there was a profound peace over all the World but more especially the Church enjoyed her serene and quiet days and was free from Persecution and she also d Epiphan haeres 48. Prophesied that after her decease there should not arise another Prophet but the consummation of all things should commence whereas the World yet continues Fourthly True Prophecy is a spirit which descending from above is not to be controll'd by any thing but that supreme power that gives the inspiration who bestows and retrieves it at his pleasure but when these Ecstatick cheats appear'd in the World the good Fathers of that age undertook to exorcise the Daemoniack and cast out the evil Guest e Serapion Apollinaris Apollonius apud Euseb l. 5. c. 15 17 18. Zoticus Bishop of Comana in Pontus resolving to undertake the action but the Montanists oppos'd it XVIII Fifthly The true Prophets had never granted them against the ordinary and establisht Government of the Church the Prophets of the old Testament being to be judged by the Consistory and of the New by the Church against which I can only find one instance of Elijah at Mount Carmel superseding a positive law but these men were guilty of introducing new doctrines of opposing and reviling their Ecclesiastical Superiors and broach'd Opinions that contradicted the word of God Montanus himself says a Ubi supr Epiphanius affirming That the righteous at the day of judgment shall be a hundred times brighter than the Sun and the wicked a hundred times brighter than the Moon And what makes me most of all suspect the cheat is that this Afflatus made it self appear only at set times by Tertullian's own confession usually on the Sunday and that only during the celebration of Divine Service when the people were gather'd together like our Modern Quakers pretences to the spirit to assist them in their publick discourses as that thought fit which now no longer acts them but at set intervals and that the subject of the Prophecy was hinted to the Enthusiast from some passage or other in the Prayers or Lessons or Sermons of the Church whereas the true spirit of God tyed not its self to such Methods nor could be confin'd within such limits and needed not such concurrent circumstances from whence it might take the measures of its discoveries but as a free and uncontroll'd agent shed its influences on the mind of the Prophet at what seasons and in what degrees were best lik'd of by the supreme Inspirer Thus the Devil as they say can take upon him the shape of a man Naz. Orat. 25. p. 441. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Orat 14. p. 221. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but cannot so wholly play the counterfeit but that by a Satyrs tail or a cloven foot he will be betray'd to a severe and diligent inspector so when he seizes the Prophets Mantle to abuse the World there are some peculiar
S. Chrysostome decrys it from that of the Apostle they heap to themselves teachers than which there can be nothing more emphatical says he the Apostle blaming the evil custome that their teachers were ordained by their disciples And Pope c Cit. à Pamel in not ad Cypr. p. 97. Leo particularly allots all persons concerned their stations in this employ the Citizens were allowed to desire a Bishop the people to give their testimony of his life the Nobless to be Arbiters but the Clergy alone to elect and d Theodoret. hist l. 4. c. 20. Vide Liberati breviar c. 14. de Proterio Alexandr Flor. fragm apud Baron tom 12. in Append. an 813. Peter the Patriarch of Alexandria Athanasius's Successor complains of Lucius the Arian usurper of his See that he had neither the confirmation of his neighbour Bishops nor the suffrages of the Clergy nor the desires of the People as the Canons did require but that he purchas'd that honour by unjust and simoniacal means And if there did arise any quarrel the Arch-bishop of the Province was to decide the controversie or the Metropolitan or a Provincial Synod and sometimes a general Council as in the case of Meletius and Paulinus Patriarchs of Antioch and of Ignatius and Photius Archbishops of Constantinople XIII For all the publick Acts of the Church in the Apostles times and some while after were done at the publick assemblies of the same so were Ordinations Excommunications and other Ecclesiastical proceedings and so is it now used in our Church where in Ordinations the by-standers are called to testifie what they have to object against the person who is a candidate for the imposition of hands and the bannes of Matrimony are publish'd in the face of the congregation to give satisfaction to the people of their Superiors integrity and to prevent their jealousies by this Act of condescension and to oblige their superiors to that integrity by making their proceedings publick and by these means to preserve the unity of the Church but as such acts were past at the Assemblies of the whole Church so were they advised and resolved on at the Consistories of the Clergy the People having no power but a right to be satisfied of the right use of that power by them that had it e Vide Thorndyke of the right of a Ch. in a Christ State ch 3. p. 159 c. for as to Ordinations they were regularly to be made at a Synod of Bishops Hence f Ad Corinth p. 57. S. Clemens Romanus that those who were constituted by the Apostles or Apostolical men were admitted to this Office with the good liking of the whole Church which I suppose he interprets afterwards saying That they were men well spoken of by all persons For that those words cannot mean their Election by the People is plain from what immediately precedes That the Apostles in what places soever they preached made their first converts Bishops of those places not of the people already converted but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such as should for the future believe and this they did by a peculiar afflatus and guidance of the holy spirit and by the same supernatural revelation they left a Catalogue of what persons should succeed in those Sees to prevent the quarrels that should arise about this authority XIV So Timothy was ordained by Prophecy 1 Tim. 4.14 i. not by any humane constitution but by the holy Ghost as Chrysostom and Oecumenius understand the place And so in after ages was a Nyss tom 2. p. 976. Gregory Thaumaturgus elected when he was in the Wilderness not by the People for then there were only 17 Christians in the City of Neo-Caesarea but by Phoedimus a Bishop of Amasea a neighbor City acted as I conjecture by some Prophetick and Divine impulse as b Euseb hist l. 6. c. 9. Alexander the Bishop of Jerusalem was chosen to that Patriarchate by Revelation And at other times the Emperors took on them the nomination for c Sozom. l. 7. c. 8. Theodosius the Great chose Nectarius Patriarch of Constantinople and d Id. lib. 8. cap 12. Arcadius nominated Chrysostome his Successor and Nestorius was deputed to the same honour by e Socrat. l. 7. c. 29. the Junior Theodosius when there were great disputes between Philip and Proclus for that Patriarchate And at f Hieron Ep. 85. Alexandria it was the custome from S. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius for the Presbyters to chuse a new Patriarch out of their own College and this presently on the death of their former Bishop g Epiphan haeres 69. for peace sake that there might be no contentions among the people which custome was after ward altered to gratifie the vulgus in as much as the want of these Popular suffrages was objected against Athanasius by the Arrians from which he is cleared not only by the Prelates of his own Province in their Synodical Epistle but by h Orat. 31. p. 377. vide eund Orat. 19. p. 310. S. Chrysost de Sacerdot Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 23. who expresly and with vehemence decry such popular Elections S. Gregory Nazianzen affirming that he was advanced to the throne of S. Mark by the votes of all the People after the Apostolical and Spiritual manner but not after that ill custom which afterward crept in by blood and tyranny XV. Which mischiefs that attended these popular proceedings were enough if there were no other reason to discountenance their continuance when we remember what seditions were made at i Naz. Orat 19. p. 308. Caesarea in the choice of their Arch-bishop and at k Ruffin hist lib. 2. c. 11. Millain on the death of Auxentius but especially what scandal was given to the Heathen World in the quarrel between Damasus and Vrsicinus for the Popedome there being in this feud a Amian Marcel lib. 27. found the bodies of no less than 137 persons slain and that in the Church of Sicininus in one day and between b Symmach Epp. lib. 10. Ep. 71 72 c. Boniface and Eulatius for the same title both recorded by the Enemies of our Holy Faith In which last story among the Epistles of Symmachus who was concerned in the affair and gave the Emperor an account of it we have one writ by the Roman Clergy to Honorius and Theodosius wherein we may see the peoples interest in this affair more than what they tumultuously usurp'd while they assure those Princes c Ep. 74 p. 340. Edit Schiop that at the election of Boniface were present 9 Bishops of the Province and 70 Presbyters which subscribed and that he was chosen by the consent of the better sort of Citizens and acclamations of the common people the election which was by subscription being the act of the Priests and Bishops only XVI So much in the general and for S. Cyprian's own case that he would do nothing without
was to testify the union of the Divine and humane Nature in the Person of the Mediator of mankind In missa Lat. Edit Argent 1557. operd Illyrici Deinde Diaconus accipiat à subdiacono vinum miscent cum aqu◠in calice dicens Deus qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti mirabilius reformâsti da nobis quaesumus per hujus aquae vini mysteria ejus divinitatis esse consortes qui humanitatis nostrae dignatus est fieri particeps Jesus Christus For it is not a little observable that besides what the antient Liturgies mention of this nature as soon as the Armenians by the perswasion of Jacobus Syrus imbrac'd the errors of Eutyches condemn'd the Council of Chalcedon and would acknowledge only one Nature in the second Person of the Trinity they left off the use of intermixing Water with the Wine in the Sacrament and under Johannes Ozniensis their Patriarch with leave from the Caliph of Babylon and Omir the General of the Saracens who had overrun Armenia by the consent of his own Suffragans and six Bishops of Assyria it was past into a Synodical decree that no longer Water should be mixt with Wine in the Eucharist they pretending the Authority of S. Chrysostom for their so doing Which determination of that Church was presently after condemn'd by the Fathers of the sixth general Council at Constantinople f Can. 32. and every Prelate or Presbyter transgressing the Apostolical practice was to be depos'd for his pride and contumacy Notwithstanding which they still continue the usage and so do g Abuda Hist Jacobit c. 13. p. 18. the Jacobites in Egypt and elsewhere to this day But the Greeks are so far from countenancing the practice of such Schismaticks as they stile them that they make this mixture twice in the Sacrament For while the sacred Elements are preparing the h Goar Not in Liturg Chrysost n. 167. Smyth de hod Gr. Eccl. statu p. 90. Priest with the Knife they call it the holy lance is to prick the bread and to say these words One of the Soldiers thrust a Lance into his side and presently there flowed out Water and Blood And at the same time the Deacon is to pour out the Wine and put to it some cold Water and again after the consecration of the Elements just as they are to be given to the Communicants the Deacon after the Priest hath blessed it poureth warm water into the chalice and so delivers it to the Communicants and this to testify that that water which issued from the side of Christ came out miraculously warm as if he had been alive exhibiting to us a Type of our union to that Saviour thereby and withal to exemplify the fervour of Faith and the holy Spirit which should accompany all those that approach the holy table and I find in the order for the Communion under K. Edward the sixth That the Priest is required to bless and consecrate the biggest Chalice or some fair and convenient Cup or Cups full of Wine with some Water put to it Which Custom was afterward I know not for what reason altered And this was thought so necessary that many were apt to run into the other extream and to think that the mixture was not duly made till there were as much or more Water than Wine in the Chalice bordering on the Heresie of the Aquarii who adminstred this mystery only in Water or rather on that sort of them i Ubi supr which Cyprian treats of who in the Evening celebrated the Sacrament as Christ instituted it mixing Water with Wine in the Chalice but in the morning used only Water out of caution lest the smell of the Wine might betray them to be Christians to their Gentile Adversaries k Bernard Epist 69. Others thought Water indispensably necessary to the integrity of the Sacrament and for that reason perhaps the Church of England hath omitted the usage but even the Church of Rome it self is not so rigid allowing the consecration to be valid without it XXII Hitherto lasted the Age of Miracles the Divine Goodness and Omnipotence using extraordinary Methods to countenance and propagate its supernatural truths that the Infancy of the Church might be assisted with as strong and convictive encouragements to believe the Doctrine of Jesus as rational and perswasible persons could desire But the several sorts of these stupendous Charismata were not equally long liv'd but according to the divers necessities of the Proselytes to Religion some expired sooner and some later took their leave of the Christian World The gifts of speaking with and interpretation of divers Tongues suddenly ceast on the Conversion of the greatest part of the then known world and the modelling of Churches in every Nation because before their Christian assemblies were made up of men of diverse Nations and Languages though e Lib. 2. c. 57. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 7. Irenaeus affirms that these miraculous gifts were extant in his time the spirit of Prayer ceas'd on the forming and establishing set Liturgies for the use of the Church which we have already probably evinc'd were of Apostolical appointment The power of discerning spirits whether men were sincere and orthodox in their profession or the Pretenders to Miracles were truly endowed with that supernatural faculty was left to the Governours of the Church for a while till the sacred Canon of the Scripture was collected by which after-Ages were to be guided though a De cura pro mort c. 16. ad fin cap. S. Austin seems to imply That that power was not wholly lost in his time The infliction of temporal punishments on Offenders lying under the Churches curse which sometimes extended to the loss of life or health or the like sufferings and other times to an actual delivery into the hands of Satan if we may believe the Tradition of the whole Greek Church is yet communicated to the Servants of God b Vid. Crusii Turco-Graec apud Dr. Ham. Power of the Keys ch 6. sect 5. p. 147 148. who tell us that no man among them dyes excommunicate but he swells like a Drum looks black and cannot return to his primitive Dust till he receive his absolution But whether this be so or no we will not at present discuss while we positively assert that Prophecie casting out of Daemons and prodigious cures even to the raising the dead lasted till this age of S. Cyprian and after XXIII The prophetick Sun after a long Eclipse that vail'd its face and beauties from the time of the Captivity till the coming of the Messias broke forth with a greater lustre under the Evangelical Oeconomy That the immediate Family of Jesus were so endowed no man doubts since by that afflatus they were assisted in conferring Orders and leaving a List of their Successors in fore-telling the times of Antichrist and the revolutions of the Church till Peace should mantle
excellent man Enoch and Noe Abraham Isaac Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs Moses and Aaron Joshua and the Judges Samuel David and Solomon for a while Elias and Elisha and the Prophets both before the Captivity and after it and those last in order but first in eminency who lived about the time of Christ's Incarnation that Torch that preceeded the true light that Voice that usher'd in the Word that Harbinger to the great Mediator of the Old and New Covenant the Blessed John Baptist and the Disciples of Christ they lastly that after the Ascension of Jesus were Governours in the Church or were conspicuous by their Doctrine or famous by Miracles or perfected by Martyrdom among these Athanasius challenges a place some of whom he equalled to others gave the precedence and a third sort if my words be not too confident he exceeded imitating the Eloquence of one the Actions of a second the Meekness of a third and a fourth's Zeal the Combats of another many things in some in others all and in a third sort some particular Virtue As he that would limn an exquisite Picture first draws the several Features in his mind and then transcribes them into the Table which he designs a master-piece of Art so did he take Transcripts of the Virtues of others carrying away the palm from the greatest Orators by his perswasive Actions and triumphing over the most active men in his Discourses or if you would so have it excelling the most eloquent in his Harangues and the most expert men in the Charms of Conversation out-doing all that were but ordinarily furnish'd with either of these qualities in the transcendency of each peculiar accomplishment and getting the start of those that were famous for one of these Embellishments in that he was equally adorn'd with every Grace and if it were a brave and generous charity in those that preceeded him to leave such accurate patterns of Virtue is not he as admirable for his design in affording posterity so reverend an Exemplar and perhaps to run through all the particulars of his life will exceed the limits of my time and look rather like an History than an Encomium which out of compassion to Posterity I could wish were done as he hath written the Life of the divine Antonius instructing the world in the Laws of a Monastick life in the account he gives of that Saint's demeanour and when I shall have reckoned a few of the more signal of his excellencies which my memory will supply that I may gratifie my own inclinations and comport with the design of the Festival I will leave the rest to those that are better acquainted with his miraculous Atchievements For it is neither just nor safe to honour the lives of wicked men with Monuments and to bury in Oblivion the memories of the just especially in that City which more than a few virtuous Examples can hardly rescue from ruine a City which makes all sacred and divine Offices as ridiculous as the entertainments of Horse-Races or the Theatre ' His early studies were employed in Divinity and holy knowledge after some little acquaintance with humane and liberal learning lest he might be altogether an ignaro in those things which he resolved to despise for he could never endure to prostitute and debase his exalted and generous mind to impertinent trifles and spend his time like an imprudent combatant who buffets the air instead of his antagonist and so loses his crown he was conversant above all men with the Old and New Testament adorning himself with sublime notions and a beautiful conversation fastning the links till they became one gold chain a task too hard for some persons making his actions a guide to his contemplation and his contemplation a seal to his actions For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it swaddles and suckles infant prudence and prudence when it hath out-gone the limits of fear and attained to a genuine love makes us the friends of God and sons instead of servants Such was his education and tutorage as became one design'd a Bishop and Guide to the mystical body of Christ according to the great Counsel and foreknowledge of God which long before lays the foundations of great designs and at length is admitted to the Priesthood and made a member of the College which make their approaches before God that condescends to meet and converse with holy men and is dignifyed with sacred orders and after he had past thorow all the inferior offices of the Ecclesiastick Ministration that I may omit minuter circumstances is made Patriarch of Alexandria which is the same as if I had call'd him the Universal or Oecumenical Bishop Nor can I determine whether he took the Episcopal Office on him as a reward of his virtue or as a charitable act to confer life on the Church For there was as urgent a necessity of refreshing that Church which was ready to perish by spiritual thirst the desire of truth as of the Angels bringing water to despairing Ishmael or of Elijah's being cheared by the streams of the brook Cherith and reviving that expiring Prophet that a holy seed might be left in Israel that we might not be left as Sodom and Gomorrha whose crimes are notorious but their punishment more famous being destroyed by fire and brimstone for this reason is a horn of salvation raised for us that were ruined and a corner stone that unites us both to himself and each other is opportunely laid or a fire is introduc'd that purges all evil and putrified matter or the husbandman's Vanne whereby the chaffe of empty opinions is winnowed from the weighty and substantial truths or the pruning Knife which cuts off the roots of iniquity thus in him the eternal word met with a defender and assistant and the holy spirit a servant that breaths nothing but truth and piety and on the consideration of these endowments by the joynt consent of the whole people not according to the evil custome that afterwards crept into the Church neither by murder and violence but after the Apostolical way and prescriptions of the holy Ghost is he exalted to the throne of S. Mark who was as much his successor in merit as dignity in time very remote from him but in virtue which is properly to be called Succession he came very near him For they that profess the same faith sit in the same throne but he that is heterodox hath no right to that holy seat the one is a successor in name only the other in reality for he hath not the right of succession that intrudes himself but he that is compelled to take on him the Episcopal robes not he that tramples on all laws but he that attains the Dignity by a legal election not he that is a Heretick but the Orthodox professor of the Catholick faith unless we call such a man a successor as we say a disease succeeds health and night the brightness of the day or
who brings no prejudice with him and understands the words that he reads in the sense of the Author not according to his own perswasion and fancy XVI His fourth error that we are the Sons of God not only by Adoption but Nature hath its Apology in that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.4 That we are made partakers of the divine Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if this be as probably it may be a Translation out of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know in that Language is a word of various signification and that even in Scripture to instance only in that one controverted place 1 Cor. 11.14 and there is now a MS. Commentary says b Apud Pears vindic part 2. cap. 14. p. 196. Lambecius in the library at Vienna with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How many ways the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood in holy writ XVII His fifth opinion that all things were created at once in the same moment and that Moses added the distinction of six days the better to suit the shallow capacities of men is a tenet that hath found many late c Vide Valesii sacr philos c. 1. Patrons and among the Antiens the vulgar Translation of Ecclus. 18.1 He that lives for ever created all things at once Which place we find did sway d De Genes ad lit li. 4. c. 33. lib. 10. c. 2. Confes l. 12. c. 9. S. Austin and is easily solved if we understand it in the sense of Rhabanus Maurus whom the Master of the sentences Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Carthusianus and many others follow that the substances of all things were created at once that Chaos so much talk'd of but the introducing fit forms into every particular part of that rude heap was the work of the six days XVIII His opinion of freewil is very suspiciously worded and yet not only the Greek Fathers usually so express themselves but also e Lib. 3. contr Pelag tom 2. p. 301. S. Hierome even when he designedly writes against the Pelagians Know this that it is our duty to ask and Gods part to bestow what we Petition for we must begin and God will perfect the good work So that such sentences are more tolerable in S. Hilary who spoke less warily because Pelagius had not yet appeared in the world and to this purpose the remarque of the most learned a Hist Pelag l. 4. part 2. p. 438. Gerhard Vossius is very pertinent These harsh sayings of the Antients were the cause that that admirable and transcendent Bishop S. Austin was in nothing so put to it as when his adversaries urged him with the Testimonies of the Fathers of which some he interprets dextrously and to the best advantage some he excuses and a few which he could no way Apologize for he couragiously condemns XIX That S. Hilary lived only six years after his return from his exile as is asserted p. 414. is opposed by b In Chronic S. Hierome who tells us that he returned from his banishment an MM CCC LXXVI and dyed an MM CCC LXXXIII which is seven years so that he could not dye in the fourth year of the Emperours Valentinian and Valens as says c Hist l. 2. Sulpitius Severus nor in the sixth year after his return as say d Lib. 1. cap. 39. Gregory Turonensis and Mr. H. but in the sixth year of those Emperours and an Chr. 369. for himself in his answer to Auxentius tells us that he opposed that Heretick at Millain ten years after the Council at Ariminum which could not be till Ann. 369. And in that year probably he left the world e Greg. Turon ubi supr Plenus Sanctitate fide Famous for the holiness of his Life and miraculous atchievements among many others of which prodigious Actions he is reported to have raised the dead f Erasm ubi supr he was certainly a Prelate of a sanctified converse and exact orthodoxy of singular learning and admirable Eloquence In a word he lived and dyed the glory of his Age. FINIS Books printed for and sold by Richard Chiswel FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Brittain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient time Wanly's Wonders of the little World or History of Man Sir Tho. Herbert's Travels into Persia c. 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