lives we would defend the Common-Wealth this we then engaged to the Emperours though no Heavenly Kingdom was promised to us and if we could promise this out of devotion to a Military service what then is to be done when Christ promises so much to them that engage with him Let us willingly expose our lives to this most precious death let us shew a masculine courage and an unviolated faith Methinks I see those blessed souls standing before Christs tribunal whom the Emperours Officer just now banished out of their bodies that 's the true glory which will recompence the shortness of this life with a blessed eternity Let us by the Messengers unanimously return this Answer to the Emperour We acknowledge Caesar that we are your Souldiers and took up Arms for defence of the Empire nor did we ever basely betray our trust or forsake our station or deser'd that the brand either of fear or cowardise should be set upon us nor should we stick now to obey your Commands did not the Laws of Christianity wherein we have been instructed forbid us to worship devils and to approach the polluted altars of the gods We understand you are resolved either to defile us with sacrilegious worship or to terrifie us with a decimation Spare any further search concerning us know we are all Christians our bodies we yield subject to your Power but our souls we reserve intire for Christ the Author and the Saviour of them This was no sooner spoken and universally agreed to by the Legion but it was carried to the Emperour who exasperated with such a generous resolution commanded a second decimation which was immediately executed and the rest as before commanded to return to Octodurus hereupon Exuperius the Ensign catching up his colours thus address'd himself to them You see me most excellent fellow-souldiers holding these Ensigns of secular warfare but these are not the arms that I call you to these are not the wars to which I excite your courage and valour 't is another kind of fighting that we are to chuse they are not these swords that must make our way into the Heavenly Kingdom we stand in need of an undaunted mind an invincible defence a maintaining the Faith which we have given to God to the very last Let the dismal Executioner go and carry this message to his bloody Master and tell him thus We are O Emperour your Souldiers but withall which we freely confess the Servants of God to you we owe military service to him innocency from you we have received wages for our labours from him we had our very lives and beings we cannot herein obey the Emperour so as to deny God the author of our lives yea and of yours too whether you will or no. Nor is it Sir any despair which is always stoutest in greatest straits that makes us thus resolute against you we have you see armes and yet make no resistance chusing rather to dye than to overcome and desirous rather to perish innocent than to live rebellious and revengeful If you have a mind to appoint us to any greater and severer torments we are ready for them Christians we are and therefore cannot persecute those that are so You must needs acknowledge the unconquerable courage of this Legion we throw down our arms your officer will find our right hands naked but our breast arm'd with a true Catholick Faith kill us and trample on us we undauntedly yield our necks to the Executioners sword these things are the more pleasant to us while setting light by your sacrilegious attempts we hasten apace to the Heavenly Crown Maximianus being told this and despairing now to break their constancy commands his whole Army to fall upon them and cut them off which they did accordingly without any difference of age or person mangling their bodies and then taking the spoyles the Emperour having so appointed that whoever kill'd any of the Legion should have the spoyles of him whom he killed And thus they died with their swords in their hands when they might have preserved their lives especially in a place so advantagious by force of arms or to be sure have sold them at the dearest rate This story I have been willing to set down the more at large because so remarkable in all its circumstances and containing the most unparallel'd instance of Christian Piety and submission next to that of our blessed Saviour that I think was ever known to the world This is the account of those Noble Martyrs only to prevent mistakes we are to take notice that there was another Mauritius Commander of a Legion in the East mentioned in the Greek Menologies who together with seventy of his Souldiers were condemned by and suffered under his self same Emperour Maximianus for refusing to do sacrifice their Martyrdom being recorded by Simeon Metaphrastes but the account quite different both as to persons and things from that which is here related By what has been said we may see the injustice of that charge which the Heathens sometimes laid upon the Christians that they were disturbers of the Peace and enemies to Civil Government an indictment so purely false and without any shadow of a real pretence to cover it that the ingenious Heathen in Minutius Foelix though raking up all the calumnies he could find and putting the deepest dy upon every charge which wit and eloquence could put upon it yet had not the face so much as once to mention it But however as groundless as it was they were frequently charg'd with it Sometimes they were accused of dis-loyalty and treason either because they would not swear by the Emperous Genius or not sacrifice for his safety or not worship the Emperours as Divi or gods or not celebrate their festivals in the same way with others For the first their refusing to swear by the Emperours Genius we have heard before what Tertullian answers to it That it was in effect to give divine honour to devils To the second their not sacrificing for the Emperours safety the answers That none sacrificed to so good purpose as they for that they offered up prayers to the True Living and Eternal God for the safety of the Emperours that God whom the Emperours themselves did above all others desire should be propitious and favourable to them as from whom they knew they deriv'd their government For the third their refusing to own the Emperours for gods he tells them they could not do it partly because they would not lye in saying so partly because they durst not by doing it mock and deride the Emperour nay that he himself would not be willing to be styled God if he remembred that he was a Man it being mans interest to yield to God that the title of Emperour was great enough and that he could not be call'd God without being denied to be Emperour that he was therefore great because less than Heaven and that if he would needs
Correspondent to which the Canons called Apostolical and the Council of Antioch ordain that if any Presbyter setting light by his own Bishop shall withdraw and set up separate meetings and erect another Altar i. e. says Zonaras keep unlawful Conventicles preach privately and administer the Sacrament that in such a case he shall be deposed as ambitious and tyrannical and the people communicating with him be excommunicate as being factious and schismatical only this not to be done till after the third admonition After all that has been said I might further show what esteem and value the first Christians had of the Lords day by those great and honourable things they have spoken concerning it of which I 'll produce but two passages the one is that in the Epistle ad Magnesios which if not Ignatius must yet be acknowledged an ancient Authour Let every one says he that loves Christ keep the Lords day Festival the resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death conquered by our Lord and Saviour The other that of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who speaks thus that both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honour the Lords day and keep it Festival seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ compleated his resurrection from the dead Next to the Lords day the Sabbath or Saturday for so the word Sabbatum is constantly used in the Writings of the Fathers when speaking of it as it relates to Christians was held by them in great veneration and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnities of Religion For which we are to know that the Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews they being generally the first Converts to the Christian Faith they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaick Institutions and especially for the Sabbath as that which had been appointed by God himself as the memorial of his rest from the work of Creation setled by their great Master Moses and celebrated by their Ancestors for so many Ages as the solemn day of their publick Worship and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times as in others of the Jewish Rites so in this to indulge the humour of that people and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices Hence they usually had most parts of Divine Service performed upon that day they met together for publick Prayers for reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments and such like duties This is plain not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens his Constitutions but from Writers of more unquestionable credit and authority Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assembled on Saturdays not that they were infected with Judaism but only to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and Socrates speaking of the usual times of their publick meeting calls the Sabbath and the Lords day the weekly Festivals on which the Congregation was wont to meet in the Church for the performance of Divine Services Therefore the Council of Laodicea amongst other things decreed that upon Saturdays the Gospels and other Scriptures should be read that in Lent the Eucharist should not be celebrated but upon Saturday and the Lords day and upon those days only in the time of Lent it should be lawful to commemorate and rehearse the names of Martyrs Upon this day also aswel as upon Sunday all Fasts were severely prohibited an infallible argument they counted it a Festival day one Saturday in the year only excepted viz. that before Easter-day which was always observed as a solemn Fast Things so commonly known as to need no proof But though the Church thought fit thus far to correspond with Jewish Converts as solemnly to observe the Sabbath yet to take away all offence and to vindicate themselves from compliance with Judaism they openly declared that they did it only in a Christian way and kept it not as a Jewish Sabbath as is expresly affirmed by Athanasius Nazianzen and others and the forementioned Laodicean Synod has a Canon to this purpose that Christians should not judaize and rest from all labour on the Sabbath but follow their ordinary works i. e. so far as consisted with their attendance upon the publick Assemblies and should not entertain such thoughts of it but that still they should prefer the Lords day before it and on that day rest as Christians but if any were found to judaize they should be accursed Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church in those of the West we find it somewhat different amongst them it was not observed as a religious Festival but kept as a constant Fast the reason whereof as 't is given by Pope Innonocent in an Epistle to the Bishop of Eugubium where he treats of this very case seems most probable if says he we commemorate Christs resurrection not only at Easter but every Lords day and fast upon Friday because 't was the day of his passion we ought not to pass by Saturday which is the middle-time between the days of grief and joy the Apostles themselves spending those two days viz. Friday and the Sabbath in great sorrow and heaviness and he thinks no doubt ought to be made but that the Apostles fasted upon those two days whence the Church had a Tradition that the Sacraments were not to be administred on those days and therefore concludes that every Saturday or Sabbath ought to be kept a Fast To the same purpose the Council of Illiberis ordained that a Saturday Festival was an errour that ought to be reformed and that men ought to fast upon every Sabbath But though this seems to have been the general practice yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike In Italy it self 't was otherwise at Milain where Saturday was a Festival and 't is said in the life of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of that See that he constantly dined as well upon Saturday as the Lords day it being his custom to dine upon no other days but those and the memorials of the Martyrs and used also upon that day to preach to the people though so great was the prudence and moderation of that good man that he bound not up himself in these indifferent things but when he was at Millain he dined upon Saturdays and when he was at Rome he fasted as they did upon those days This S. Augustine assures us he had from his own mouth for when his Mother Monica came after him to Millain where he then resided she was greatly troubled to find the Saturday Fast not kept there as she had found it in other places for her satisfaction he immediately went to consult S. Ambrose then Bishop of that place who told him he could give him no better
of a second wickedness like to that which they committed against Socrates and lest they again offend against the Majesty of Philosophy it being alas not kindness to the Athenians but cowardise and fear of punishment made him so hastily pack up and be gon and leave his opinions behind him to shift for themselves as well as they could Nay Eunapius himself confesses that in the time of Constantine when Paganism began to go down the wind and Christianity to be advanced and honoured their best Philosophers the great Scholars of Iamblichus took sanctuary at a mysterious secrecy and wisely kept their dogmata and opinions to themselves sealed up under a profound and religious silence No they were the Christians only the very meanest of whom durst stand by and defend naked truth in the face of danger and death it self this being as Eusebius notes one of the most wonderful things in Christian Religion that they who embrace it are not only ready to profess it in words but entertain it with such a mighty affection and sincerity of soul as willingly to prefer the bearing testimony to it even before life it self And indeed this piece of right is done them by Pliny himself where speaking of some who having been accused for Christians to shew how far they were from it readily blasphemed Christ and sacrificed to the gods he adds none of which it 's said that they who are truly Christians can by any means be compelled to do Nay thus much is confessed by the Oracle it self for when Porphyry the great Philosopher and acute enemy of the Christians enquired of Apollo's Oracle what god he should make his address to for the recovery of his wife back from Christianity the Oracle returned him this Answer as himself reported it in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is corruptly in S. Augustin a Book frequently cited both by Eusebius and Theodoret where by the way in the Latin Version of Theodoret 't is by a strange mistake rendred de Electorum Philosophia as if it had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Book concerning the Philosophy draw from Oracles he tells us he received this answer that he might as well and to better purpose attempt to write upon the surface of the water or to fly like a bird in the air than to reduce his wife from those wicked sentiments she had taken in And this was so common and notorious that it became in a manner proverbial whence that of Galen when he would express how pertinaciously the Philosophers adhered to those sentiments they had once drunk in and how very hard and almost impossible it was to convince them Sooner says he may a man undeceive a Jew or a Christian and make them renounce the doctrines of Moses or of Christ than Philosophers and Physicians that are once addicted to their several Sects CHAP. VII Of their Exemplary Patience under Sufferings Christianity likely to engage its followers in suffering and why Continual Edicts put forth against Christians The form of those Imperial orders exemplified out of the Acts of the Martyrs The fierce opposition of the Roman Emperours and their probable hopes of having destroyed Christianity evidenced from several Inscriptions to that purpose found in Spain The greatness of the torments Christians endured some of the ordinary kinds of them describ'd The Cross the pain and ignominy of it Persons crucified with their heads downwards The Rack what Catasta ad Pulpitum post Catastam Ungulae one of these kept and ador'd as a Relique at Rome The Wheel Burning Throwing to wild beasts Being condemned to Mines their treatment there and the case of such persons Some of the extraordinary ways of punishment used towards Christians Torn asunder by branches of trees burnt in pitch'd coats boyl'd in pots of oyl or lead c. Their carriage under these sufferings sedate and calm meek and patient Their refusing to make use of opportunities to avoid suffering Whether they might fly and withdraw in times of persecution Allow'd and practis'd in some cases two instanc'd in Where persons were of more than ordinary use and eminency Where they were weak for the present and not like to hold out Prov'd by particular instances Their chearful offering themselves to the rage and fury of their enemies confessed by the relation of their Judges and bitterest Adversaries Tiberianus Arrius Antoninus Lucian The earnest desire of Martyrdom in Ignatius Laurentius Origen and others When unjustly condemned their Judges thanked for condemning them Their glorying in suffering and being crucified Babylas the Martyr's chains buried with him No signs of an impatient mind under their bitterest torments An account of their chearful suffering out of Cyprian Their patience wondred at by their enemies Their grand support under suffering the hopes and assurance of a reward in Heaven The case of the forty Martyrs in S. Basil Psalms sung at the Funeral of Christians and Lights carried before the Corps and why Christianity vastly increased by the patience and constancy of Christians Martyr's account of his conversion by this means Julian generally refused to put Christians to death and why The testimonies of several Heathens corcerning the Christians conrage and patience under sufferings THat the Christian Religion at its first appearing in the World was likely to engage its followers in miseries and sufferings could not be unknown to any that considered the nature of its doctrine and the tendency of its design The severity of its precepts so directly opposite to the corrupt and vicious inclinations of men the purity of its worship so flatly contrary to the loose and obscene rites and solemnities of the Heathens its absolute inconsistency with those Religions which had obtained for so many Ages which then had such firm possessions of the minds of men and all the powers and policies of the world to secure and back them could not prophesie to it any kind or welcome entertainment This Sect for so they call'd it was every where not only spoken but fought against for since men have a natural veneration for Antiquity and especially in matters of Religion they thought themselves concerned to defend that way that had been convey'd to them from their Ancestours and to set themselves with might and main against whatever might oppose it especially the great ones of those times and the Roman Emperours made it their master-design to oppress and stifle this infant Religion and to banish it out of the World Hence those Imperial orders that were dayly sent abroad into all parts of the Empire to command and impower their Governours to ruine and destroy the Christians of which that we may the better apprehend the form of them it may not be amiss to set down one or two of them out of the acts of the Martyrs This following was agreed upon both by the Emperours and the whole Senate of Rome Decius and Valerian Emperours Triumphers
the publick treasury and themselves for ever reduc'd into the condition of slaves These were some of the more usual ways of punishment amongst the Romans though exercis'd towards the Christians in their utmost rigour and severity I omit to speak of Christians being scourg'd and whip'd even to the tiring of their executioners especially with rods called plumbatae whereof there is frequent mention in the Theodosian Code which were scourges made of cords or thongs with leaden bullets at the end of them of their being ston'd to death their being beheaded their being thrust into stinking and nasty prisons where they were set in a kind of stocks with five holes their legs being stretch'd asunder to reach from one end to the other We shall now consider some few of those unusal torments and punishments which were inflicted only upon Christians or if upon any others only in extraordinary cases Such was their being tied to arms of trees bent by great force and strength by certain Engines and being suddainly let go did in a moment tear the Martyr in pieces in which way many were put to death in the persecution at Thebais Sometimes they were clad with coats of paper linnen or such like dawb'd in the inside with pitch and brimstone which being set on fire they were burnt alive Otherwhiles they were shut into the belly of a brazen Bull and a fire being kindled under it were consumed with a torment beyond imagination Sometimes they were put into a great Pot or Caldron full of boyling pitch oyl lead or wax mixed together or had these fatal liquors by holes made on purpose poured into their bowels Some of them were hung up by one or both hands with stones of great weight tied to their feet to augment their sufferings others were anointed all over their bodies with honey and at mid-day fastned to the top of a pole that they might be a prey to flies wasps and such little cattle as might by degrees sting and torment them to death Thus besides many others it was with Marcus Bishop of Arethusa a venerable old man who suffered under Julian the Apostate after infinite other tortures they dawb'd him over with honey and jellies and in a basket fastned to the top of a pole expos'd him to the hottest beams of the Sun and to the fury of such little Insects as would be sure to prey upon him Sometimes they were put into a rotten ship which being turn'd out to sea was set on fire thus they serv'd an Orthodox Presbyter under Valens the Arrian Emperour the same which Socrates reports of fourscore pious and devout men who by the same Emperours command were thrust into a ship which being brought into open Sea was presently fir'd that so by this means they might also want the honour of a burial And indeed the rage and cruelty of the Gentiles did not only reach the Christians while alive but extend to them after death denying them what has been otherwise granted amongst the most barbarous people the conveniency of burial exposing them to the ravage and fierceness of dogs and beasts of prey a thing which we are told the Primitive Christians reckon'd as not the least aggravation of their sufferings Nay where they had been quietly buried they were not suffered many times as Tertullian complains to enjoy the Asylum of the grave but were plucked out rent and torn in pieces But to what purpose is it any longer to insist upon these things sooner may a man tell the stars than reckon up all those methods of misery and suffering which the Christians endured Eusebius who himself was a sad spectatour of some of the later persecutions professes to give over the account as a thing beyond all possibility of expression the manner of their sufferings and the persons that suffered being hard nay impossible to be reckoned up The truth is as he there observes and Cyprian plainly tells Demetrian of it their enemies did little else but set their wits upon the tenters to find out the most exquisite methods of torture and punishment they were not content with those old ways of torment which their forefathers had brought in but by an ingenious cruelty daily invented new striving to excel one another in this piece of hellish art and accounting those the wittiest persons that could invent the bitterest and most barbarous engins of execution and in this they improved so much that Vlpian Master of Records to Alexander Severus the Emperour and the great Oracle of those Times for Law writing several Books de Officio Proconsulis many parcels whereof are yet extant in the body of the Civil Law in the seventh Book collected together the several bloody Edicts which the Emperours had put out against the Christians that he might shew by what ways and methods they ought to be punished and destroyed as Lactantius tells us But this Book as to what concern'd Christians is not now extant the zeal and piety of the first Christian Emperours having banished all Books of that nature out of the World as appears by a Law of the Emperour Theodosius where he commands the Writings of Porphyry and all others that had written against the Christian Religion to be burned The reason why we have no more Books of the Heathens concerning the Christians extant at this day Having given this brief specimen of some few of those grievous torments to which the Primitive Christians were exposed they that would have more must read the Martyrologies of the Church or such as have purposely witten on this subject we come next to consider what was their behaviour and carriage under them this we shall find to have been most sedate and calm most constant and resolute they neither fainted nor fretted neither railed at their enemies nor sunk under their hands but bore up under the heaviest torments under the bitterest reproaches with a meekness and patience that was invincible and such as every way became the mild and yet generous spirit of the Gospel So Justin Martyr tells the Jew We patiently bear says he all the mischiefs which are brought upon us either by men or devils even to the extremities of death and torments praying for those that thus treat us that they may find mercy not desiring to hurt or revenge our selves upon any that injures us according as our great Law-giver has commanded us Thus Eusebius reporting the hard usage which the Christians met with during the times of persecution tells us that they were betrayed and butchered by their own friends and brethren but they as couragious Champions of the true Religion accustomed to prefer an honourable death in defence of the truth before life it self little regarded the cruel usage they met with in it but rather as became true Souldiers of God armed with patience they laughed at all methods of execution fire and sword and the piercings of nails wild beasts and the bottom of
Martyrs of Christ says the Epistle evidently shewing us that during this sad hour of suffering they were strangers to their own bodies or rather that our Lord himself stood by them and familiarly conversed with them and that being partaker of his Grace they made light of these temporal torments and by one short hour delivered themselves from eternal miseries The fire which their tormentors put to them seemed to them but cool and little while they had it in their thoughts to avoid the everlasting and unextinguishable flames of another world their eyes being fixed upon those rewards which are prepared for them that endure to the end such as neither ear hath heard nor eye hath seen nor hath it entred into the heart of man but which were shewn to them by our Lord as being now ready to go off from mortality and to enter upon the state of Angels Thus reason'd those forty Martyrs in S. Basil that suffered at Sebastia in Armenia in the Reign of Licinius when the Governour to contrive a new method of Torment had commanded them to stand naked all night in cold frosty weather which in those more Northerly Countries is extream sharp and bitter it being then the depth of winter and the North wind blowing very fierce in a pond of water they first gave thanks to God that they put off their cloaths and their sins together and then comforted one another by balancing their present hardships with their future hopes Is the weather sharp said they but Paradise is comfortable and delightful Is the frost cold and bitter the rest that remains is sweet and pleasant let us but hold out a little and Abrahams bosome will refresh us we shall change this one night for an eternal age of happiness let our feet glow with very cold so as they may for ever rejoyce and triumph with Angels let our hands sink down so as we may have liberty to lift them up to God How many of our fellow-souldiers have lost their lives to keep faith to their temporal Prince And should we be unfaithful to the true King of Heaven How many have justly died for their crimes and villanies And shall we refuse it in the cause of righteousness and Religion 'T is but the flesh that suffers let us not spare it since we must die let us die that we may live Thus generously did they bear up under this uncomfortable state their ardent desires of Heaven from within extinguishing all sense of cold and hardship from without Nay when a little before their Commander had set upon them both with threatnings and promises assuring them that if they would but deny Christ they should make their own terms for riches and honour they told him that he laid his snares at a wrong door that he could not give them what he endeavoured to take from them nor could they close with his offers without being infinitely losers by the bargain that 't was to no purpose to profer a little of the world to them who despised the whole of it that all these visible advantages were nothing to what they had in hope and expectation all the beauty and glory of Heaven and Earth not being comparable to that state of blessedness which is the portion of the righteous the one being short-liv'd and transitory the other permanent and perpetual that they were ambitious of no gift but the Crown of Righteousness nor sought after any other Glory but what was Heavenly that they feared no torments but those of Hell and that fire that was truly terrible as for those punishments they inflicted they accounted them but as the blows of children and the ill usage that their bodies met with the longer 't was endured the more way it made for a brighter crown Such was the temper such the support of these Christian Souldiers these true Champions of the Christian Faith Indeed this consideration was one of the greatest Cordials that kept up their spirits under the saddest sufferings that they were assured of a reward in Heaven Amongst us says Cyprian there flourishes strength of Hope firmness of Faith a mind erect amongst the ruines of a tottering age an immoveable vertue a patience serene and chearful and a soul always secure and certain of its God As for want or danger what are these to Christians to the servants of God whom Paradise invites and the favour and plenty of the heavenly Kingdom expects and waits for They are always glad and rejoyce in God and resolutely bear the evils and miseries of the world while they look for the rewards and prosperities of another life The great Philosophers as Eusebius observes as much as they talk'd of immortality yet by their carriage they shewed that they looked upon it but as a trifling and childish fable whereas says he amongst us even girles and children the most unlearned and measured by the eye the meanest and most despicable persons being assisted by the help and strength of our blessed Saviour do rather by their actions than their words demonstrate and make good this doctrine of the immortality of the Soul This Julian confesses of the Christians though according to his custome he gives them bad words calls them Atheists and irreligious persons that being acted by some evil spirits they perswade themselves that death is by all means to be desired and that they shall immediately fly to Heaven assoon as their souls are freed from the fetters of the body Hence it was that in those times Christians were wont to sing Hymns and Psalms at the Funerals of the dead to signifie that they had attain'd their Rest the end of their labours the retribution of their troubles the reward and the crown of their conflicts and sufferings as Chrysostome tells us part of which Psalms he elsewhere tells us were Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and I will fear no evil because thou art with me and again thou art my refuge from the trouble that compasses me about For the same reason as being a sign of joy and chearfulness he there tells us that they carried lights burning before the corps by all which he tells us they signified that they carried forth Christians as Champions to the grave glorifying God and giving thanks to him that he had crowned the deceased person that he had delivered him from his labours that he had taken him to himself and set him beyond the reach of storms and fears But to return There was scarce any one instance of Religion wherein Primitive Christianity did more openly approve it self to the world and more evidently insult over Paganism than the generous courage and patience of its professors By this they commended both the Truth and Excellency of their Religion and conquer'd their very enemies into an embracing of it Hear how Lactantius pleads the argument and triumphs in the goodness of his cause By reason
says he of our strange and wonderful courage and strength new additions are made to us for when the people see men torn in pieces with infinite variety of torments and yet maintain a patience unconquerable and able to tire out its tormentors they begin to think what the truth is that the consent of so many and the perseverance of dying persons cannot be in vain nor that patience it self were it not from God could hold out under such racks and tortures Thieves and men of a robust body are not able to bear such tearing in pieces they groan and cry out and are overcome with pain because not endued with a divine patience but our very children and women to say nothing of our men do with silence conquer their tormentors nor can the hottest fire force the least groan from them Let the Romans go now and boast of their Mutius and Regulus of the one for delivering himself up to his enemy to be put to death because he was ashamed to live a prisoner of the other for burning his hand at the command of the enemy to save his life Behold with us the â—â—â—ker Sex and the most tender age can suffer all parts of their body to be torn and burnt not out of necessity because they might not escape if they would but out of choice because they believe in God This is that true Vertue which Philosophers indeed vainly boast of but never really possessed This and more to the same purpose that eloquent Apologist there urges to the great honour of his Religion By the force of such arguments Justine Martyr confesses that he was brought over from being a Plaâ—onick Philosopher to be a Christian for when he saw the Christians whom he had so often heard accused and traduced undauntedly going to dye and embracing the most terrible executions that were prepared for them I thought with my self says he that it was not possible such persons should wallow in vice and luxury it being the interest of all wicked and voluptuous persons to shun death to dissemble with Princes and Magistrates and to do any thing to save their lives This certainly could not but be a huge satisfaction to all prudent and confiderate men that the Christians were guided by better Principles than ordinary and that they were fully assured that theirs was the true Religion and that they taught nothing but what they firmly believed to be true For to maintain such patience and constancy even unto death says Origen speaking of the Apostles propagating the doctrine of Christ is not the fashion of those who feign things of their own heads but is a manifest argument to all candid and ingenuous Readers that they knew what they writ to be true when they so chearfully endured so many and such grievous things only for the sake of the Son of God in whom they had believed No dangers could affright them no threatnings or torments could baffle them out of their profession Therefore when Celsus accused the Christians for a fearful sort of men and such as lov'd their Carcasses well Origen answers No such matter We can as chearfully lay down our bodies to suffer for Religion as the hardiest Philosopher of you all can put off his coat And indeed the Gospel did mightily prosper and triumph in the midst of these dreadful sufferings men rationally concluding that there must be something more than humane in that doctrine for which so many thus deeply ventur'd So Tertullian tells Scapula in the conclusion of his Book It 's to no purpose to think this Sect will fail which you will see to be the more built up the faster 't is pull'd down for who is there that beholding such eminent patience cannot but have some scruples started in his mind and be desirous to enquire into the cause of it and when he once knows the Truth he himself moved to close with it and embrace it Therefore Julian the Apostate out of a cursed policy refused many times openly to put Christians to death partly because he envied them the honour of being Martyrs partly because he saw that they were like new mown grass the oftner it was cut down the thicker it sprang up again I shall add no more concerning this subject but the testimony which the very enemies of Christians gave them in this case Julian the Emperour whom we so lately mention'd and who fought against Christians with their own weapons making use of those Scriptures which he had studied while he was amongst them when the Christians complained to him of those oppressions and injuries which the Governours of Provinces laid upon them made light of it and dismissed them with this virulent sarcasm Your Christ says he has given you a Law that when you suffer unjustly you should bear it resolutely and when oppressed and injured should not answer again And so certainly they did undergoing all kinds of miseries and death it self with so unconcerned a mind that elsewhere he censures them for this very reason to be acted by the Spirit of the Devil Hence Porphyry in a Book that he wrote against the Christians calls their Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a piece of barbarous boldness Barbarous because so different from the way of worship amongst the Greeks with whom every thing was barbarous that agreed not with their principles and institutions Boldness because the Christians shewed such an undaunted courage in bearing miseries and torments chusing to die a thousand times rather than to deny Christ and sacrifice to the gods For this reason the Heathen in M. Foelix styles the Christians men of an undone furious and desperate party respecting their fearless and resolute carriage under sufferings for so he explains himself presently after Is it not a strange folly and an incredible boldness they despise torments that are present and yet fear those that are future and uncertain and while they fear to die after death in the mean time they are not afraid to die so sillily do they flatter themselves and cajole their fears by a deceitful hope of some unknown comforts that shall arise to them This Arrian in his Collection of Epictetus his Dissertations confesses to be true of those whom according to Julians style he calls the Galileans that they underwent torments and death with a mighty courage but which he makes to be the effect only of use and a customary bearing sufferings The Emperour M. Autoninus confesses also the matter of fact that the Christians did thus readily and resolutely die but ascribes it not to judgment and a rational consideration but to meer stubbornness and obstinacy And in an Epistle if that Epistle as now extant be his that he wrote to the Common Council of Asia in favour of the Christians whom his Officers there did grievously vex and oppress gives them this testimony that they could have no greater kindness done them than to be called in
and again I commend this person to thee to be looked to with all care and diligence and that in the presence of Christ and the Church The Bishop undertook the charge received the young man into his house instructed him and at last baptized him Which being done he thought he might remit a little of the strictness of his care but the young man making an ill use of his liberty fell into bad company by whose arts and snares he was seduced into ways of riot and wickedness till despairing of all hope of pardon from God he let loose the reins to all manner of exorbitancy and agreeing with his confederates they combin'd themselves into a society of highway-men and made him their Captain who quickly became as far beyond the rest in fierceness and cruelty as he was in power and authority S. John upon occasion returning some while after to the same place after he had dispatched his other business required from the Bishop thâ— pledge he had left with him who wondring and not knowing what he meant I mean said S. John the young man 't is the soul of my brother that I require The old man with a dejected look and tears in his eyes answered he 's dead and being demanded by what kind of death answered he 's dead to God for alas he 's become a villain and instead of the Church is fled with his companions to the mountains to be a thief and a robber The Apostle renting his cloaths and bewailing that he had so ill betrusted his brother's soul immediately call'd for a horse and a guide and made haste to the Mountains where being taken by those that stood Sentinel he beg'd to be brought before their Captain who stood ready arm'd some way off but assoon as he perceived 't was S. John that was coming towards him he began to be ashamed to run as fast as he could The Apostle not regarding his own age and weakness followed after with all his might and when his legs could not overtake him he sent these passionate exclamations after him Why O my Son dost thou fly from thy aged and unarmed father take pity of me and fear not there is yet hope of salvation for thee I will undertake with Christ for thee if need be I will freely undergo death for thee as our Lord did for us and lay down my own life to ransom thine only stay and believe me for I am sent by Christ With that he stay'd and with a dejected look throwing away his Arms he trembled and dissolved into tears he embraced the aged Apostle with all possible expressions of sorrow and lamentation as if again baptized with his own tears S. John assured him he had obtain'd his pardon of Christ and having fasted and prayed with him and for him and with all the arts of consolation refreshed his shattered and disconsolate mind brought him into and restored him to the Church This story though somewhat long I was the willinger to produce both because so remarkable in it self and so great a testimony of that mighty tenderness and compassion which they had for the souls of men for whose sake they thought they could never do never venture far enough S. Augustine tells us what infinite pains his Mother Monica took about the conversion of her husband Patricius how unweariedly she sought to endear her self to him by all the arts of a meek prudent and sober carriage how submissively she complied with his rigorous and untoward humours how diligently she watched the aptest times of insinuation never leaving till at last she gained him over to the faith Nor was her care and solicitude less for her Son Augustine who being hurried away with the lewdnesses of youth and intangled with the impieties of the Manichean Heresie was the hourly subject of her prayers and tears She plyed him with daily counsels and intreaties implored the help and assistances of good men and importuned heaven for the success of all not being able to gain any quiet to her mind till S. Ambrose with whom she had oft advised about it sent her away with this assurance that it was not possible that a child of so many tears should perish No sooner was his conversion wrought but her spirit was at ease and she now desired no more Himself tells us that discoursing with her alone some few days before her death concerning the state of the blessed and the joys of heaven she at last broke off with this farewel For my part Son I have now no further hopes or pleasures in this world there was but one thing for which I desired to live that I might see thee a Catholick Christian before I died This my good God has abundantly blessed me with having let me see thee despising the selicities of this life and entred into his family and service so that what do I make any longer here Nay so great a zeal had they for the good of souls in those days that many did not stick to engage themselves in temporal slavery for no other end but to deliver others from spiritual bondage Thus Serapion called Sindonites because he never wore more than one poor Linnen garment one of the Primitive Asceticks sold himself to a Gentile-player that served the Theatre with whom he liv'd underwent the meanest offices till he had converted him his wife and whole family to Christianity who upon their baptism restored him to his liberty whereupon he freely returned them back the mony which he had receiv'd as the price of his servitude which by mutual consent was given to the poor Coming afterwards to Lacedaemon and hearing that a principal person of the City a very good man otherwise was infected with the Manichean Heresie one of the first things he did was to insinuate himself into his Family selling himself to be his slave in which condition he remained for two years together till he had brought his Master and his whole Family off from that pernicious Heresie and restored them to the Church who did not only bless God for it but treated him not as a servant but with that kindness and reverence that is due to a Brother and a Father This was the good spirit and genius of those days they intirely studied and designed the happiness of men were willing and desirous freely to impart the treasuries of the Gospel and wished that in that respect all mankind were as rich and happy as themselves So far were they from that malicious imputation which Celsus fastned upon them that if all men would become Christians they would not admit it to which Origen flatly returns the lie and tells him the falseness of it might appear from this that Christians as much as in them lay were not backward to propagate their doctrine through the whole world and that some of them had peculiarly undertaken to go up and down not only in Cities but in Towns and Villages to bring over
Proconsul that as badly as they were used yet they ceased not to pray for the overthrow and expulsion of the common enemies for seasonable showers and either for the removing or mitigating publick evils begging of God day and night with the greatest instance and importunity for the peace and safety of their persecutors endeavouring to pacifie and propitiate God who was angry with the iniquities of the age Nor were they thus kind and good natur'd thus submissive and patient for want of power and because they knew not how to help it Tertullian answers in this case that if they thought it lawful to return evil for evil they could in one night with a few firebrands plentifully revenge themselves that they were no small and inconsiderable party and that they needed not betake themselves to the little arts of skulking revenges being able to appear in the capacity of open enemies that though but of yesterdays standing yet they had filled all places all Offices of the Empire and what wars were not they able to manage who could so willingly give up themselves to be slain did not the law of Christianity oblige them to be killed rather than to kill nay that they need not take up arms and rebel for their party was so numerous that should they but agree together to leave the Roman Empire and to go into some remote corner of the world the loss of so many members would utterly ruine it and they would stand amaz'd and affrighted at that solitude and desolation that would ensue upon it and have more enemies than loyal Subjects left amongst them whereas now they had the fewer enemies for having so many Christians The Christians then opposed not their enemies with the points of their swords but with solid Arguments and mild intreaties Thus when Julian the Emperour urg'd his army which was almost wholly made up of Christians to wicked counsels and the practices of idolatry they withstood him only with prayers and tears accounting this says my Author to be the only remedy against persecution So far were they from resisting or rebelling that they could quietly dye at the Emperours command even when they had power lying at their foot I cannot in this place omit the memorable instance of the Thebaean Legion being so exceedingly apposite and pertinent to my purpose and so remarkable as no age can furnish out such another instance I shall set down the story intirely out of the Author himself the account of their martyrdome written by Eucherius Bishop of Lyons who assures us he received the relation from very credible hands and it is thus Maximianus Caesar whom Dioclesian had lately taken to be his Colleague in the Empire a bad man and a bitter persecutor of the Christians was sent into France to suppress a mutiny and rebellion risen there to strengthen his Army there was added to it a band of Christians called the Thebaean Legion consisting according to the manner of the Romans of Six thousand six hundred sixty six faithful expert and resolute Souldiers Coming to Octodurus a place in Savoy and being ready to offer sacrifice to the gods he causes his Army to come together and commands them under a great penalty to swear by the Altars of their gods that they would unanimously fight against their enemies and persecute the Christians as enemies to the gods which the Thebaean Legion no sooner understood but they presently withdrew to Agaunum a place eight miles off call'd at this day S. Mauritzs from Mauricius the Commander of the Legion a place equally pleasant and strong being encompassed about with craggy and inaccessible rocks to avoid if it might be the wicked and sacrilegious command and to refresh themselves tyred with so long a march but the Emperour taking notice of the Army as they came to swear quickly miss'd the Legion and being angry sent Officers to them to require them forthwith to do it who enquiring what it was that they were commanded to do were told by the messengers that all the Souldiers had offered sacrifices and had taken the forementioned oath and that Caesar commanded them to return presently and do the like To whom the heads of the Legion mildly answered That for this reason they left Octodurus because they had heard they should be forced to sacrifice that being Christians and that they might not be defiled with the Altars of Devils they thought themselves oblig'd to worship the living God and to keep that Religion which they had entertain'd in the East to the last hour of their life that as they were a Legion they were ready to any service of the war but to return to him to commit sacriledge as he commanded they could not yield With this Answer the messengers returned and told the Emperour that they were resolved not to obey his Commands who being transported with anger began thus to vent his passion Do my Souldiers think thus to sleight my Royal Orders and the holy Rites of my Religion Had they only despised the Imperial Majesty it would have call'd for publick vengeance but together with the contempt of me an affront is offered to Heaven and the Roman Religion is as much despised as I am Let the obstinate Souldiers know that I am not only able to vindicate my self but to revenge the quarrel of my gods Let my faithful Servants make haste and dispatch every tenth man according as the fatal lot shall fall upon him By this equal death let those whose lot it shall be to die first know how able Maximian is severely to revenge both himself and his gods With that the command is given the Executioners sent the Emperours pleasure made known and every tenth man is put to death who chearfully offer'd their necks to the Executioners and the only contention amongst them was who should first undergo that glorious death This done the Legion is commanded to return to the rest of the Army Whereupon Mauritius the General of the Legion calling it a little aside thus bespake them I congratulate most excellent fellow-souldiers your courage and valour that for the love of Religion the command of Caesar has made no impression upon you you have seen your fellow-souldiers with minds full of joy undergoing a glorious death how much afraid was I lest being arm'd and how easie is it for such to do so you should under a pretence of defending them have endeavour'd to hinder their happy funerals See I am encompassed round with the bodies of my fellow-souldiers whom the dismal Executioner has torn from my side I am besprinkled with the blood of the Saints my clothes died with the reliques of their sacred blood and shall I doubt to follow their death whose example I so much congratulate and admire Shall I concern my self to think what the Emperour commands who is equally subject to the same law of mortality with my self I remember we once took this Military Oath that with the utmost hazard of our