contains the Canons of a Council held by an Arch-Bishop of Mentz nam'd Arribon the year 1023. concerning some abuses of that time as against Priests who imagined themselves to be able to extinguish a fire by casting into it a consecrated Host. 10. There are afterwards two Writings which contain the Examination of Iohn de Wesel Doctor of Divinity accused of Heresie he was brought before two Dominicans Gerard Elten and Iames Springer the first being an Inquisitor of Faith in 1479. Some Thomists had remark'd in his Sermons Propositions they judge Heretical There are some Opinions suppos'd to be faithfully reported which agree to those of the Protestants touching the Scripture the Authority of the Ecclesiasticks and fasting He says for example that the holy Scripture must be expounded by its self and that we are not obliged to comply with Expositions or other Writings of Doctors There are also some particular Propositions very remarkable as this Raro reperio vel duas unanimes literatos etiam in fide Nullus tenet mecum dempto Evangelio ubi omnes sumus concordes I rarely find two Learned Persons of the same Opinion even in matters of Faith but no Body is of my Opinion except in regard to the Evangelists in which we all agree He also says Quod Papa Episcopi Sacerdotes nihil sint ad salutem sed sola concordia sufficit pacificeè vi vere that the Pope Bishops and Priests are nothing to our Salvation but Unity alone suffices to live happily He believed also that one ought rather to give Faith to St. Iohn who says that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father than to that Article of Athanasius's Creed that these Doctors cite under the name of the Council of Nice which Article says the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son In the Assembly where the Inquisitor Elten was President he demands of the accused Doctor if those Propositions of which we spoke were his The Doctor would have explain'd himself more at length and said that he did not know that he had writ any thing against the decisions of the Church but if it was so he was there to retract it Magister noster Gerardus immediately interrupted him and told him after having heard that he was ready to retract the Errors that he had committed Petis nunc gratiam Do you beg pardon The Divine answered him that he could not for errors unknown to him And upon that the Inquisitor said that he shou'd be put in mind of 'em by examining ' em He came to this Examen which they read in the Original where they might mark the Spirit of the Inquisition or those who imitated it Magister noster Gerardus did all he cou'd to manage this poor Doctor so that he might not justifie himself or draw him from his pretended Errors without a noise by good reasons But to render him infamous and guilty in malignantly explaining all his words 't was this made him say with sufficient reason to this misfortune After the manner you have used me if Iesus Christ were here you might condemn him as a Heretick to whom it was answered laughing That if he were he wou'd overcome him by subtilty In fine Whether convinced or no of his errors Mr. Wesel was obliged to make a publick Retraction and so submit to what pennance they pleas'd to impose on him He that writ the relation of this Examination ends with considerable Remarks upon the understanding of the Divines of that time except says he the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost which imports very little it seems not to have deserv'd so deep a censure as the others If they had given him time and liberty to consult persons about 'em he might have clear'd himself if the most part of the Judges had not been Realists or if the Religious had not had a mind to insult over a secular Priest who had no esteem for St. Thomas he might have been proceeded against with more humanity I can take God to witness that their manner of dealing with him until he had retracted and burn'd his Books hath extreamly displeased Mr. Engelin de Brunswick and Mr. Iohn Keisersberg who were Men of Learning and Integrity Mr. Engelin in particular thought they acted with too much Precipitation against so great a Man as Iohn de VVesel he confesses freely that the most part of his Articles may be maintain'd He dissembled not the hatred that the Thomists had against the Moderns he observes some amongst the Divines of that age who did not believe St. Thomas to be infallible and the satisfaction the-Monks took in triumphing over Seculars This can be nothing but the Devil who sow'd this Division amongst the Divines which causeth so much Inveteracy amongst 'em and diversity of Opinions as those who follow Thomas Ascot and if any should deny the Universals to be Realists they judge him guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost which they think to be a most culpable sin against God the Christian Religion Justice and all Policy from whence comes this but from the Devil who deludes our Imaginations and draws us to the search of useless things and cold Speculations which make us neither devout nor charitable lest we should oblige our selves to what is more honest and learn how to regulate our Manners and to procure Salvation to our Souls This is the reason that none is edified and that the Zeal of Christians diminishes daily 11. The greatest part of the rest of the Writings which compose this Volume are Complaints that the Germans and French made some Ages past against many Abuses whereof they demanded a Reformation at the Court of Rome who troubl'd themselves not much with it Most of these Pieces are very well known therefore we shall mention 'em in a few words There are divers Grievances that the Dyets of the Empire made known to the Pope's Legat which was sent to 'em and the Answers of these Legats to evade the Complaints Nicholas de Clemengi's Writings upon a General Council and Abuses that ought to be reform'd The Harangues of Iohn Francis and of Anthony Cornelius Linnecau upon the Depravation of Manners and Discipline with the Book of Erasmus of the manner whereby their Controversies which divided the Western Churches are sufficient to put a Period to all these Animosities 12. In fine there is some Discourse upon the Original and Power of the Turks with the manner of its Abatement and Reasons that introduce Christian Princes not to despair of their overthrow Orthuinus Gratius who hath often placed unuseful Prefaces and Advertisements both at the beginning and ending of his Works of which I have treated ends his Collection with a Discourse where he protests the Innocency of his design in publishing so many Heresies and Complaints against the Roman Church he makes it appear by his Declamations against the Hereticks which were spread through the whole Work and Advertisements that he was
the Church of Nazianze which before this last Division did not know what Schism was ought for the future to endeavour a perpetual Peace 5. That in the last Discord they were so strongly perswaded that the Bishop of Nazianze acted Sincerely and retained the Truth of Faith that he was reproached with nothing else but suffered himself to be surprized by equivocating words 6. That every thing obliges us to Peace God Angels and all Creatures which Concord holds together 7. That the Jews were happy whilst they were at Peace and unhappy as soon as they were divided 8. That notwithstanding Men ought not to seek after all sorts of Peace but to keep a Medium and that they were obliged vigorously to oppose Heresie when any one was seen to profess it publickly but that for mere Suspicions there should be no Schism When that which afflicteth us saith he is but a Suspicion and what is grounded upon nothing Patience is better than Precipitation and Condescension better than Furiousness It is much better to correct each other reciprocally like Members of one Body than to condemn our selves by a Separation before they mutually understand one another or to lose the Opinion the one had of the other by a Schism and then to undertake to correct others not like Brethren but Tyrants by Edicts and Laws Finally Gregory exhorts the Church of Nazianze to preserve the good Doctrin concerning the Holy Trinity which he expresses in these words We adore one Father one Son and one Holy Ghost in the Son we acknowledge the Father and in the Holy Ghost the Son Before we joyn them we distinguish them and before we distinguish them we joyn them We do not look upon these three things as one God for they are not things which are destitute of a distinct Existence or which have but one Existence just so our Riches are but in names of things and not in things themselves the other three things really are but one It is a thing not in Existence but in Divinity We adore one Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity It hath all but one Throne and one Glory It is above all the World beyond Time uncreated c. This Speech of Gregory as almost all his others is first without any great Order His thoughts are heaped upon one another just as they came into the Author's Head a Fault which is common to most of the Ancient Orators which makes him fall into unnecessary Repetitions Secondly His Arguments seem sometimes to be too far fetch'd and of little Consequence as when he saith the Universe subsists by Peace This Expression is too far sought for one might say quite contrary as some Philosophers That the Contrariety in which are all the parts of the Universe keeps the State they are in hindring one another to be otherwise In the third place his Style is very full of Figures uncorrect and sometimes hard and all this often causeth Obscurity Notwithstanding we must allow that he is full of fine Similitudes of strong and happy Expressions as are those whereof he makes use in that part where he condemns Schism which we before mentioned He is full of Ornaments drawn out of History or Pagan Fables and he speaks of the last in some places as the Philosophers do without openly rejecting it So in speaking of the Flames of Aetna he makes use of this Expression Whether it be something else or the Breathing of a punished Gyant In another place after he had spoken of the Torments of Tantalus Ixion and Tityus he adds Whether it be Truth or a Fable under a Fiction teacheth us a Truth We cannot yet doubt but Gregory did observe all these things as pure Fables but the Greek Philosophers which he had carefully read said the same One would think that the Custom of speaking like others had made Gregory say several things which he had in Pagan Books without Examination But he is far from the Clearness Exactness and Eloquence of Isocrates whom many say he took for a Model I thought it my Duty briefly to take notice here of what you may judge what was the Style of Gregory that I may not repeat it hereafter in speaking of his other Speeches I shall only take notice of some Examples of what I have said when occasion shall offer We must also observe here once for all that Gregory as to what concerns Philosophy followed that of the Platonicks of whom he borrows divers Terms which we cannot understand without knowing it So he saith That God is the most Excellent and the most elevate of all Beings we cannot but raise him above all Essence and place him above all Beings seeing he hath given Beings to other things For to understand the meaning of these Terms being above Essence we must know that the Platonicks did establish a Choice of Beings as they spoke to wit Series of Beings placed upon one another so that as they mounted this Chain they came to more excellent Beings and at last to Sovereign Trinity which is above all the Essences of these Beings that is to say which cannot have relation to any particular Species but which includes in it all their Essences and can produce them upon that reason This is what makes these Philosophers say That the Gods have Superessential Qualities Without knowing this Platonick Tenet we cannot comprehend what Gregory meaneth in the words which we have cited In the same Page he saith That the Angels draw their Principles from Light that they are enlightened by true Reason and that they are Rays of this perfect Light These terms are drawn from the bottom of Platonism as it might be easily shewn in Expounding them but that we should make too great a Digression It shall suffice to mark what the Philosophy of our Author was To return to the History the Arians being informed of the Division which had been at Nazianze drew some Advantage from it and laugh'd at the Orthodox This gave occasion to Gregory to make the Homily which is the Thirteenth of his Speeches where he sheweth the Arians that the Division of Nazianze being sprung but from a Misunderstanding and having lasted but a short time they unjustly insulted over this Church Moreover he sheweth the Advantage of the Orthodox above the Arians and Sabellians in comparing the Sentiments of these three Societies one with another Tho' the Passage is somewhat long it shall be put here because those who have not sufficiently studied these Matters shall better understand what was then the Sentiment of the Orthodox than they could by the Passage of the Twelfth Speech which hath been related Why love ye Vanity saith he unto them and seek for Lyes in giving he speaks to the Arians to the Divinity a Nature which is neither one â—or â—â—â—ple but three Natures disunited and separate and even contrary by the Proprieties which the one hath too much and which the others lack or in establishing
of certain things which have no relation of themselves with Vertue 4. Gregory who had beg'd of God the Punishment of Iulian as soon as he saw him Dead look'd on the Pagans with Pity and exhorted the Christians to treat them with Mildness though he was overjoy'd that the Christian Churches should be no more polluted that the Altars would be no more Profaned that things consecrated to God should be no more carried away from his Temples that Ecclesiasticks should no more be abused that the Relicks of Martyrs would be no more burned c. After that he Insults over the False Divinities and admonisheth Christians not to abuse their Prosperity and to take heed they did not do what they reproached the Pagans with In beginning this Exhortation he speaks of himself in these terms to draw unto him the Readers attention Hearken to the Discourse of a Man who hath not acquired an indifferent Knowledge of these things either by the Experience of what happeneth every day or the reading of ancient Books or ancient Histories 5. The greatest Satisfaction notwithstanding which the Christians had after the Death of Iulian according to Gregory was that those who had persecuted the Christians were laugh'd at on the Theater in publick places and in the Assemblies That which is most surprising adds he is that those who persecuted us with the rest threw down with great Shouts the Statues of the Gods by which they had been so long misled Those which adored them yesterday draggeth them to day along with Indignity But those who remained in Paganism were without doubt extreamly affronted at the manner wherewith the Statues of their Gods were treated and could not look on Christians as moderate Men. For in fine these Statues were as dear to them as what the Christians regard as most Sacred Moreover those that changed their Religion as their Emperor did and became so suddenly Enemies to God which they had adored all their Life ought to have been very much suspected 6. Finally Gregory having laughed at the Speeches and Writings of Iulian which are not so contemptible tells him That he Boasts in vain of never having contracted any Crudity for having eaten too much since the Hurt he had done to the Christians was infinitely greater than the good that would accrue to the State from Sobriety When a Man saith he is troubled with an Indigestion and that he feels the Inconvenience thereof what harm doth it to the Common-wealth But in raising so violent a Persecution and causing so great Troubles it is impossible but the whole Empire should suffer In effect to want Royal Vertues is a Defect greater in a Prince than to be destitute of those that a private Man is obliged to have To pursue the Thread of our Discourse Gregory having been against his Will ordained Priest as we have already observ'd took the Resolution of retiring into the Soâ—â—udes of Pontus without the Permission oâ—â—is Father His Brother Cesairio being then come from Court to live with his Parents gave him an occasion Notwithstanding his Father being very Old and not being able alone to bear the Burthen of the Episcopacy engaged him to come back to help him Basil himself used his Endeavours to make him give this Satisfaction to his Father He was consecrated Bishop to be his Coadjutor and perform'd the Functions of Episcopacy which his Father was not able to do In that time it was that he made the Speech which is the Fifth in order wherein he directs his Discourse to his Father and to Basil and tells them he took at their Solicitation The long Gown and the Miter It is hard to know if he spoke this in Complement or only was satisfied with the writing it but he rehearsed before the People the Forty first of his Speeches which is upon the same Subject A little time after he made the long Apology for his Flight which is at the Head of his Works He proposeth more at large the Difficulties which are found in the Exercise of Episcopacy and saith That notwithstanding he was resolved to come to satisfie both the Church of Nazianze and his Parents who equally wished for his Return Amongst the Reasons which had given him a Distaste of the Episcopacy and Priesthood he puts the Shameful manner whereby many strove to attain them how unworthy soever they were of his Employment and the Multitude of Competitors They look saith he upon this Dignity not as a Post where they ought to be a Model of Vertue but as a means to maintain themselves not as a Ministry whereof they must give an account but as a Magistracy which is subject to no Examination They are almost in a greater number than those which they govern c. And I believe saith he the Evil will so increase with time we shall have no body to govern but that all will be Doctors and that even Saul will be seen amongst the Prophets He saith that into the Sees were introduced Ignorant People and Children that the Ecclesiasticks were not better than the Scribes and Pharisees that they had no Charity but Eagerness and Passion only that their Piety consisted in condemning the Impiety of others whose Conduct they observed not to bring them back to the Truth but to Defame them that they blamed or praised Persons not for their good or bad Life but according to the Parties they had embraced that they admired amongst themselves what they reprehended in another Party with Eagerness that amongst them were seen Disputes like to the Nocturnal Combats wherein neither Friends nor Foes are discerned that they were Litigious upon Trifles under the fine Pretence of Defending Faith that finally they were a Horror to the Pagans and the Contempt of Honest Men amongst the Christians This is a true Picture of the Manners of the Ecclesiasticks of his Age as it is but too apparent by the History of those times By ill Fortune those of our time do so much resemble them that if it had not been said whence these Complaints were drawn it would seem to be a Picture of our Modern Divines Another Difficulty which was found in the Exercise of Episcopacy is that of speaking well of the Mysteries of Christianity and principally of the Blessed Trinity where according to Gregory we must hold a Medium between the Jews who acknowledge but one God and Pagans who adore several a Medium the Sabellians could not hold in making the same God considered in divers respects Father Son and Holy Ghost nor Arius in maintaining that they have divers Natures As for himself he believed as we have already observed and he himself saith again here in many other places he held this desired Medium in establishing three Principles equal in Perfection although the Father is the Origine of the Son and the Holy Ghost It was not a very long time that Gregory was Coadjutor to his Father before his Brother
Boldness to call the Holy Ghost a strange God under pretence that he is named God in no place of Holy Writ It is against those that Gregory made his fifth and last Theological Speech In this Discourse speaking of the divers Sentiments which were had thereupon he saith amongst other things That the greatest Divines of the Heathens and those that came nearest to us have had an Idea thereof though they have given it another name having called it the Soul of the Universe and the Soul that comes from without and other such names As for the wise Men of our time saith he some have believed that the Holy Ghost is a Faculty others a Creature some a God others know not where to place him because of the respect they had for Scripture which is not clear upon this Subject Gregory maintains he is a Consubstantial Person to the two others and when he answers his Adversaries who asked him in what Generation and Procession differ'd he fortifies himself in the Incomprehensibility But one of the principal Objections which was made against the Orthodox is that they acknowledged three Gods If there be said they one God and one God and one God how is there not three Gods c. That is replieth Gregory what those say whose Impiety is arriv'd to the heighth and those who are even in the second Rank have good Sentiments towards the Son I have a common answer to give both and another which regards the second only I therefore ask these latter why they call us Tritheists who honour the Son and if they abandon the Holy Ghost they are not Ditheists How do you expound continueth he your Ditheism when this Objection is made to you Give us the means of answering for the answer wherewith you will repel Ditheism will also serve us to defend our selves from Tritheism c. Thus we shall overcome and our Accusers will serve us for Defenders c. But we have a Contestation with these two sorts of Adversaries and a common answer to both of them We have but one only God because there is but one only Divinity and that those who proceed thence relate to one thing only though we believe three The one is not more a God than the other the one is not anterior and the other posterior They are not divided in Will nor separate in Power and nothing is remarked in them that is found in divided things but to say all in one word Divinity without Division is found in three divided Persons as in three Suns turn'd one to another there would be but one mixture of Light When we consider Divinity and the first cause of Monarchy we conceive but one only thing but when we consider those in whom is the Divinity and those that proceeded from the first cause before the beginning of time and who enjoy the same Glory we adore three But they will say is there not one only Divinity amongst Heathens as their most able Philosophers have profess'd All Mankind hath but one Humanity and yet there are several Gods amongst Heathens and not one as there are several Men. I answer That in these things Unity is but in the Thought each Man is divided from the rest by Time by Passions by Power which is not in God c. This is it in which consists the Unity of God as much as I can conceive it If this reason is good we must give God Thanks if not we must seek for a better After that Gregory proposeth to himself an Objection of the Arians which shews still clearer that the Orthodox made not the Unity of God to consist in the Numerical Unity of Divine Essence but in a Specifick Unity of distinct Essences equal and in a perfect consent of Wills The things that are of the same Essence say you are reckoned as in the same order of things and those that are not consubstantial are not reckoned after this manner whence it followeth you cannot but grant that there are three Gods according to your opinion for as for us we are not in the same danger because we do not say that the Persons are Consubstantial The Arians would have it understood that they admitted but one Supream God who created all others that they would say in this regard that there is but one God because God could not be put in the same order and under the same name as his Creatures but that the Orthodox acknowledging three Beings of a Nature perfectly alike they could not deny but that they acknowledged three Gods speaking properly Gregory answers nothing else but that Men often place in the same Rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that are not of the same Species whereof he brings divers Examples drawn from Holy Writ That sheweth that the Arians might be accused as well as the Orthodox of admitting a plurality of Gods but in no wise that the Orthodox did not acknowledge three eternal Spirits although perfectly equal and the same Will A little further in this same Speech Gregory saith That having sought uncreated things something like to the Trinity he could find no comparison that could satisfie him He had well considered an Eye a Fountain and a River but he did not find these things proper enough to express his thoughts by I was at first afraid saith he lest it should seem that I was willing to introduce a certain Flux of Divinity which would have no consistence Secondly Of establishing a Numerical Unity by these Comparisons For an Eye a Fountain and a Sun are one in number although diversly modified I reflected in the Sun on the Beams and the Light but there was yet somewhat to fear on this occasion lest that we should suppose there was a Composition in a nature where there is none such as is the Composition of the Sun and of what is in the Sun and that we should give an Essence to the Father but that we should attribute no distinct Existence to the other Persons from thence making them Faculties which exist in God and which have no distinct Essence The Sun-beams and Light are not other Suns as the Son and the Holy Ghost are other Spirits distinct from the Father but certain Emanations and Proprieties essential to the Sun Finally Gregory found nothing better than to abandon these Images and Shadows as Deceitful and very far from the Originals But Gregory believed the Trinity was revealed by degrees as that Revelation first discovered God the Father without speaking of God the Son but with much Obscurity after that the Son without imposing on Men the Belief of the Holy Ghost fearing they should not be in a State of admitting thereof and finally the Holy Ghost after the Ascension of the Son We may judge by these places of the Doctrin of Gregory and of the Orthodox of his time with whom the Orthodox of ours agree as well for the Terms as they are distant in the Sense We may
further see in the Expressions of our Bishop a remarkable Effect of the Dispute It is when we fear that our Adversaries should draw some Advantage from certain ways of speaking we avoid with care the use thereof lest we should give them some Prize although these Expressions are otherwise most proper to express the Doctrin we maintain It is visible that to make himself be understood Gregory ought to have answered to the Arians Yet it 's true we adore three Gods seeing we acknowledge three Eternal Spirits whose Essences are distinct but these Gods are perfectly equal and as perfectly united as distinct Beings can be having the same Thoughts and the same Will which makes us say commonly That we acknowledge but one God But if he had spoken thus the Arians who boasted to study and follow Scripture would have replied That all the Scripture represents the Unity of the Supream God as a Numerical Unity and not as an Unity of Species and Consent They would have said as they did before but with much more appearance of Truth That the Homoousians introduced a new Paganism in establishing three Collateral Gods Thus they were obliged that they might keep themselves from these Reproaches to maintain strongly that there is but one God according to the Sentiment of Nice The Platonicks who had a like Thought but were not restrained in their Expressions fortified themselves thereupon and said That the Principle of all things were three Gods I cannot but relate on this Subject these remarkable words of St. Augustine which admirably confirms what I have said Liberis verbis loquuntur Philosophi nec in rebus ad intelligendum difficilimis offensionem Religiosarum aurium pertimescunt Nobis autem ad certam regulam loqui fas est ne verborum licentia Etiam in rebus quae in his Significantur impiam gignat opinionem Nos autem non dicimus duo vel tria principia cum de Deo loquimur sicuti nec duos Deos vel tres nobis licitum est dicere quamvis de unoquoque loquentes vel de Filio vel de Spiritu Sancto etiam singulum quemque Deum esse fateamur Philosophers freely use what words soever they will and fear not to offend Pious Ears in Subjects most hard to be understood For our part it is not lawful for us to speak but according to a certain Rule lest words imployed with too much Liberty should beget an Impious Opinion to understand them according to what they signifie When we speak of God we do not say two nor three Principles as it is not permitted us no more than that there are two or three Gods though in speaking of each one or of the Son or of the Holy Ghost we grant that each of them is God This Custom hath made Men insensibly swerve from the Ancient Idea's because the word Unity was taken in the ordinary Sense that it used to be taken in without supposing that the Ancients understood it in a particular Sense This is what happened in divers other Doctrins as it hath been observed in the History of Iansenism It 's now time to return to the History of our Bishop after having brought so many proofs of his Sentiments upon those Tenets that then divided Christians The Council whereof we have already spoken assembled at Constantinople in May CCCLXXXI There were at it an Hundred and fifty Orthodox Bishops and Thirty six Macedonians who it was hoped would be brought to the Orthodox Faith Besides some Canons that were made there concerning Discipline whereof we shall not speak the Affair of Gregory and Maximus was treated on they also made a Symbol The Ordination of Maximus and all those that he could ever have were judged void after which Gregory was declared Bishop of Constantinople though he endeavoured to discharge himself from it They obtained of him that he would stay there because he was perswaded that he could the more easily in this â—ost reconcile the different Parties which then rent Christianity It was brought against the Promotion of Gregory that being Bishop of Sasime and Nazianze he could not be transferred to Constantinople without violating the Canon of the Council of Nice which is express thereupon But Melece Bishop of Antioch replied to that that the design of this Canon was to bridle Pride and Ambition which had no share in this business Moreover it seemeth that this Canon was not observed in the East since Gregory saith That they opposed to him Laws that were repealed long before besides that he had perform'd no part of the Episcopal Function at Sasime and as for Nazianzen he was but Coadjutor to his Father This Affair being cleared they entred on the principal Subject for which they were assembled which was the Sentiment of Macedonius who had been Bishop of Constantinople and believed that the Holy Ghost was but a Creature though all the Disciples of this Bishop were not of the same mind upon the nature of this Divine Person as appears by a passage of Gregory which hath been related Immediately in the Council was confirmed the Nicene Creed and they thought it convenient to augment it particularly with what respected the Holy Ghost This addition is in these terms We believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord of Life and he that giveth it who proceeds from the Father who with the Father and the Son is glorified and who spoke by the Prophets The Council also anathematized the Sentiments of Sabellius Marcellus Phâ—tinus Eunomius Apollinarius and Macedonius but we shall not stand to relate these Errors because they have no Connexion with the Life of Gregory the same reason makes us omit what concerneth Discipline All passed with Tranquility enough in regard to Gregory until a Tempest arose that made him lose the Episcopal See of Constantinople when he least expected it It was the Spirit of Revenge in a Party which he opposed that caused this Difference from which Gregory who was not so Couragious as to maintain the Brunt against his Adversaries could not free himself but by flying There was some time after a sad Schism in the Church of Antioch where two Orthodox Bishops were at the same time Melece being dead at Constantinople before the Council was separated they spoke of giving him a Successor Gregory thereupon proposed an Expedient to end this Schism which was that Paulinus who was the other Orthodox Bishop and who had been ordained by Lucifer de Cagliari alone governed the Church of Antioch during the rest of his Life and that after those of the Party of Melece being reunited with those of Paulinus's would choose a Bishop by common Votes For fear it should be thought that he had some Interest to favour Paulinus and that he would form a Party he offered the Council to quit the Episcopal Throne of Constantinople in which he had been established But the Ambitious and Incendiaries as Gregory calls them who had begun to give
Tenets of the Gospel or what had been reprehended by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Thus all the Greek Philosophers until those who maintain'd Fatality believed that Men were Free by Nature and might abstain from doing evil as likewise that they could apply themselves to Virtue without having any knowledge of the way by which Jesus Christ and his Apostles undertook to rectifie their Opinions by any express Discourse Clement openly maintains that Man hath the liberty of doing Evil or abstaining from it Neither Praises saith he nor Censures nor Recompences nor Punishments are Iust if the Soul hath not power to be vitious or to refrain from Vice and if Vice is involuntary It was not known amongst the Heathens what is since called Original Sin and Clement not observing that the Sacred Writers Reproach the Pagans with this Ignorance and teach them that even Children newly born deserve the Flames of Hell denies that Children are corrupted in any manner whatsoever The Hereticks whom we have spoken of that condemned Marriage amongst others gave this Reason against it that thereby nothing has been acted but the bringing polluted Children into the World seeing David said himself That he was conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity Psal. 51. and that Iob maintains That there is no body free from Pollution though he had lived but one day ch 14.4 5. Clement opposes them and says Let them tell us how a Child newly born hath Sinned or how he who hath yet done nothing as fallen under the Curse of Adam Afterwards he Expounds the passage of David as if the Prophet meant only that he was descended from Eve who was a Sinner It must also be observed that a Man whose Judgment was thus disposed wanted but little of believing that the Philosophers were of the same Sentiments with the Apostles as soon as he could find any relation in their terms So Plato having spoken of three Supream Divinities whom he acknowledged as appears elsewhere in terms like to those which the Primitive Christians made use of in speaking of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Clement believed that of this Philosopher's was the same as that of the Christians I conceive saith he that Plato understood nothing thereby but the blessed Trinity and that the third Being whereof he speaks is the holy-Holy-Ghost as the second is the Son by whom all things were made according to the Will of the Father And speaking of the Divinity of Iesus Christ he described it no otherwise than the Platonicks did Reason The Nature of the Son saith he is the most Perfect and Holy that which hath the greatest share in Empire and Government and the most like unto him who only is Almighty It is this excellent Nature which presides over all things according to the Will of the Father who best governs the Universe who by an unexhaustible Power and without Wariness effects all that he makes use of to act in Nature and who seeth the most Secret Thoughts The Son of God never leaveth the Place whence he sees all he is neither Divided nor Shared nor does he Transport himself from one Place to another but is every where and is Incircumscriptible All Paternal Light aâ— Eye he seeth all things he hears every thing he knoweth every thing and penetrates by his might into all Powers To this natural Reason which hath received this holy Administration is subjected the whole Army of Angels and of Gods because of him who hath subjected them to it Clement had another Opinion concerning the Human Nature of Iesus Christ into which perhaps he fell for fear of rendring the Body of Iesus Christ inferior to that of the Gods of Homer The Gods of this Poet eat no Bread nor drank Wine And our Saviour according to Clement needed no Milk in coming into the World and was not nourished by the Meats which he took only through condescention and which passed not into his Body by the same Organs as they pass into our Bodies It is also what made Origen his Disciple to believe that Iesus Christ had no Blood But a Liquor like that which Homer attributed to his Gods which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato said in divers Places that God Inâ—licts Pains upon Men only for their good And Clement observes it after such a manner to make us believe that he approves on 't Plato also said that Souls are Purged in the other World by Fire and that after their Purgation they return to their first State Clement believed that the Apostles thought the same thing when they spoke to us of a Fire which is to Consume the World and his Disciple Origen hath concluded from these Principles that the Devils and the Damned will be one day delivered from their Sufferings The Apostles describe the Place where the Wicked shall he Tormented under the Idea of a Lake of burning Brimstone They made use of the same word that the Heathens did to denote the State of Souls after Death to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They say that Men descend thereinto and that Iesus Christ descended there also This was sufficient to draw this Exclamation from Clement What did not Plato know the floods of Fire and the profundity of the Earth which the Barbarians called Gehenna and which he Prophetically named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tartarus He has made mention of Cocytus of Acheron of Pyriphlegeton and such like Places where the Wicked are punished for their amendment Clement also believed with most of the Ancients that Iesus Christ really descended into Hell and Preached there to the Damned Souls of which he saved those who were willing to believe in him We might also bring many other Examples by which it would be plain that Clement expounded the Doctrins of the Christians by opinion the most resembling 'em which he found amongst Philosophers But the Examples we have shewed may suffice for those who have neither time nor opportunity to read this Author as well as for those who will consult the Original because they will find enough of themselves One thing may be apprehended by it which most of those who apply themselves to the reading of the Fathers do not much observe and without which it is almost impossible to understand them well in abundance of Places Which is that before we begin this Study seriously we must read with care the Heathen Philosophers and particularly Plato without which we could not well apprehend upon what grounds they reason or examin with success the force of their Arguments nor devise how they fell into so many Opinions so distant from those which are this day received in our Schools But now to return to the Life of St. Clement the Ancients with a general consent say he was Successor to Pantenus in the Office of Catechist He acquitted himself of this Employment with Success and several great Men came out of his School as Origen and Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem His method of instructing the
is transferred by reason of Inconvenience of so many Printers that were forc'd to be employ'd upon 't the only difference in these two Tomes is that the Extracts of the Fathers of the Fourth Age which are in the second Volume are longer and consequently more exact than those in the first He begins with Eusebius of Caesarea whom his Ecclesiastick History hath rendred so celebrated of whom he gives a very dissinterested Judgment Pag. 19. Although he found no difficulty in the Council of Nice to acknowledge the Son of God was from all Eternity and that he absolutely rejected the Impiety of Arius who said that he was Created out of nothing and that there was a time when he was not yet he always found it hard to believe the Term Consubstantial that is to confess that the Son is of the same Substance with the Father and after he had received it he gave such a Sense of it as establish'd not the Equality of the Son with the Father since he speaks thus in a Letter that he writ to his Church to give it an account of his Conduct When we say that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father we Mean only that the Son hath no resemblance with the Creatures which were made by him and that he is perfectly one with the Father by whom he was begotten not of another Hypostasis or Substance When we would justifie Eusebius in respect to the Divinity of the Son it is more difficult to defend what he says of the Holy Ghost For he affirms not only in his Books of the Preparation and Evangelick Demonstration but also in his third Book of Ecclesiastick Divinity that he is not the true God The holy Spirit is not God nor the Son of God because he has not taken his Original from the Father as the Son has being in the number of such things as are made by the Son This shews says Mr. du Pin that Socrates Sozomenes and and some Modern Authors have been mistaken in excusing him entirely whereas on the other side 't is a very great Injustice to call him an Arian and even the head of them as St. Ierom does His Judgment upon other points of Religion appears very Orthodox to the Author and in respect to his Person he says he was very much dissinterested very sincere loved Peace Truth and Religion He authoris'd no new Form of Faith he no way endeavour'd to injure Athanasius nor to ruin those of his Party He wisht only to be able to accommodate and unite both Parties I doubt not adds Mr. du Pin that so many good Qualities was the Cause of placing him in the number of the Saints in the Martyrologies of Usard of Adon and in some ancient Offices of the French Churches It is true he continued not long in the peaceable Possession of this quality of Saint But it would be in my opinion a very great boldness to judge him absolutely unworthy of it The second Author in this second Volume is the Emperor Constantine whose pretended Donation he rejects as well as the false Acts attribubuted to Pope Sylvester because nothing to him seems more fabulous If Constantine was the first Christian Emperor he was also the first that made Edicts against the Hereticks But he did well in not pushing things to that Extremity as his Predecessors have carried them to It is true that he sent Arius into Exile and the two Bishops that had taken his part in the Council of Nice and that he caused all these Hereticks Books to be burnt But he afterwards recall'd him and banished St. Athanasius to Treves He made also an Edict in the Year CCCXX against the Donatists by which he commanded those Churches they possess'd to be taken from them but the Year following he moderated the Rigor of it permitting those who were exiled to return to their Country their to live in rest and reserv'd to God the Vengeance of their Crimes This alteration of his Conduct sufficiently shews that this Prince on these occasions acted not according to his own Reason but according to the different Motions that inspired the Court Bishops who made him the Instrument to execute their Passions He was not of himself inclin'd to persecute Men for Opinions in Religion for the 27th of September the CCCXXX Year he granted the Patriarchs of the Iews an Exemption from publick Charges In the Month of May Anno Dom. CCCXXVI he made an Edict to forbid the admitting into the Clergy Rich Persons or such as were Children to the Ministers of State The occasion of this Edict was because many Persons entred themselves amongst the Clergy to be exempt from publick Charge which was a great Oppression to the Poor And Constantine thought it very reasonable that the Rich should support the burthensom Charges of the Age and that the Poor should be supported by the Riches of the Church Grotius M. Ludolf and others have observed the Disputes of the Eutychians and Nestorians were not really such as they were imagined for many Ages Mr. du Pin is not very far from this Opinion since he says p. 80. that the Eastern People always applyed themselves more particularly to observe the distinction between the two Natures of Iesus Christ than their intimate Union whereas the Egyptians speak more of their Union than Distinction Which has been since the Cause of great Contestations that they have had amongst themselves upon the Mystery of the Incarnation As the Life of St. Athanasius is one of the most remarkable of the Fourth Age for the variety both of his good and bad Fortune so Mr. du Pin relates it more at large It 's plain that from the time of this Father Persons were very much inclin'd to the Exterior parts of Religion since two of the greatest Crimes which the Arians accused St. Athanasius of were breaking of a Chalice and Celebrating the Mysteries in a Church that was not Consecrated We may also observe after these Authors that the Communion was then given to the Laicks under both kinds that there were Women which vowed Virginity which were not Cloister'd up that there were Priests and Bishops married that the Monks might quit their State and take a Wife That it was not permitted to make new Articles of Faith and that even the Ecumenick Councils were only Witnesses of the Faith of their Age whereas they authoritatively judged of such things as regarded Discipline Thus the Bishops of Nice said well in appointing a Day for the Celebration of Easter It pleases us we will have it so But they express'd themselves quite otherwise in respect to the Consubstantiality of the Word since after having given their Opinions upon it they content themselves with adding Such is the Faith of the Catholick Church As for the rest although St. Athanasius was an Ardent Defender of this Council he was not for having those treated as Hereticks which could not without difficulty make use of the
Wittichius his Collegue maintain'd the Divinity of the Holy Ghost against the same Sandius I believe that after having considered the proofs that M. Le Moyne brings there 's few Men will be so Opinionative as to maintain that the Fathers of the three first Ages were of Acius's Opinion for he relates many express and formal Passages wherein they maintained the Eternal Divinity of the Son of God He doubts not but what was said of Tiberius is true viz. That he proposed to the Senate the Apothesis of Iesus Christ or taking him into the number of the Gods Tertullian Eusebius and St. Chrysostom relate it but this last was deceived when he said the Senate of Rome placed Alexander in the number of the Gods it s very likely he took the Roman Senate for that of Aâ—hens The Author Corrects a passage of Perâ—â—ius's Translation of Iustin Martyr and which Cardinal Bellarmin made use of to prove the worship of Angels He shews that such a worship was not meant in this passage and that it must be pointed according as Christopher Langus and Sigismond Gelenus have pointed it He adds that in the time of this Father the worship of Angels was not practised amongst the Christians He very strictly examin's what was the true Opinion of Paulus Samosatus whereupon he takes occasion to explain the different Fortunes of the Term Homousian I shou'd be too tedious to give an account of the fine remarks he has made upon the Measure of the Encrease of Nile that was kept as a relick in the Temple of Serapis and which the Emperor Constantine carryed to the Church of Alexandria Mr. de Valois has happily corrected the Passage of Socrates where this Translation is Copi'd for whereas Christophorson and Musculus had translated it thus Constantine caused this measure to be removed to the Church of Alexandria his Translation says that this Emperor Commanded Alexander who was then Patriarch of Alexandria to place it in the Church But in remarking so exactly the Errors of others he did not observe he committed on himself when he said that Constantine at the same time caused the Images of the False Gods to be placed in the Church Which is the sense he gives to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Sozomon makes use of The Author shews how improbable it was that Christians shou'd put such abominable objects in so Sacred a place so that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signify eithe the Standard or Ancient Titles of the Town The Idolaters murmuring against this Translation Reported that Nile encreased more but that they were deceived For the People always imagin'd that upon the change of Religion wou'd follow strange marks of the wrath of Heaven they wish'd it out of spite and yet were afraid of it because of the unhappy effects it might produce and these two Passions made men very credulous we ought not however to think it strange that Providence very often makes use thereof The Christians had their part in the surprise if they believed that Nile was sensible of it when Iulian carryed back to the Temple of Serapis what Constantine had taken from thence The Conjectures of the Author are very fine upon the Reason which made Iosephus cite a Second Book of Ezekiel and upon the sense of a difficult passage of the First Book of the Maccabee's Chap. 3. vers 48. where according to some Versions it is That the Heathens sought Copies of the Law to Paint their Idols by in These conjectures are very learned as well as all that he says upon the Instruments of punishments c. used amongst the Romans from whence he takes occasion to explain many obscurities of the Ancient Authors He says that the Wild-Hony which St. Iohn eat of in the Wilderness was not a kind of Manna or Concrete Dew but a true Hony made by Bees in the hollow places of some Trees as there are Ants in China and Tunquin which fly in great Companies upon the Trees and there make a kind of Wax or Gum whereof the Lacca so well known to the Dyers is made it is also the chief Ingredient of the Spanish Wax he confirms his Opinion by the History of Ionathan who found Honey in a Wood and refutes the Chymical Opinion of the Rabbi who pretended Ionathan only found Sugar there Upon which Mr. Le Moyne examines whether Sugar was in use amongst the Ancients and says That although they knew how to draw from certain Reeds a Juice very agreeable to the Taste yet they had not the Art of Taking Condensing Whitening and making it dry as we do now Lucan speaks of this Reed when he says Quique bibunt tenerâ dulces ab arundine Succos Eratosthenes speaks thereof also in the 15th Book of Strabo and plainly insinuates that they sometimes baked this Juice but 't was a preparation very different from ours Those that alledge this Verse of Stace Et quas praecoquit Ebufita Cannas to prove that the Antients made Sugar did not observe that it was corrupted and that instead of Cannas it must be read Caunus which was a kind of Figs that the Inhabitants of the Isle of Ebusus made very excellent by their manner of preparing them As for the Sugar Mambu and Tabaxir which the Antients had the knowledge of The Author shews 't was a kind of Gum which they made use of to sweeten their Medicines and that this Gum gathered together in the joints of certain Trees or else that 't was the dew which Coagulated upon the boughs He brings a passage of Pliny which Favours this opinion since in it one sees that Sugar is a Hony gathered upon Reeds white like Gum which may be reduced to Powder by the Teeth larger than a Hazle-Nut and which is used only in Medicins Arrian Seneca Galen and Theophrastus have spoken of Sugar either under its proper name or under that of the Hony of Canaan but the Idea they give us of it only resembles a thick juice either running from the Plant it self or taken from the Reed We must therefore conclude with the Author that the Ancients knew not the Sugar that we now have He very Learnedly examins the Reasons how the Rabbi come to commit that mistake and mentions amongst other things the Scripture observation That as soon as Ioanathan had taken of this Hony his Eyes were enlightned which had probably Contributed thereto for the Ancient Physicians ascribed to their Sugar a particular vertue of curing Eyes as may be seen in the second Book of Dioscâ—rdies Chap. 104. He afterwards speaks upon the Goat Azazel upon the dependences of this Mysterious Sacrifice upon Hysop Circumsicion c. To extract from which subjects all that Merits observation wou'd take up too great a part of this Volume I shall therefore content my self with relating these rich Treasures of Learning and with the Thoughts of St. Barnabas That the number of the 318 Persons that Abraham Circumcised in his
and 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therognem Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt feed them Thirgnem or thou shalt govern them with a Scepter c. The Septuagint having read it in this last manner since they have translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt feed them He also brings Hosea 13.14 and Amos 9. and 13. The sense of this last passage is extreamly different according to their manner of reading and pointing who followed the Massorites from the sense that the Septuagint gives it According to the first it must be translated So that they shall possess the rest of Idumea and according to the last which St. Paul hath followed Act. 15.16 So that the Rest of men shall seek the Lord. Our Author afterwards saith that the pointing at this day is not always conformable to the Analogy of the Hebrew Tongue which appears by many Anomalies of which the Massore says nothing and by divers proper Names which are better written in the old Translations The Antient Versions furnish us likewise with divers significations of some words which without that would be perfectly unknown to us We are extreamly confirmed in this thought when the same words in our neighbouring Tongue have all these significations as in the Syriack Arabick and Ethiopick Languages c. which have much affinity with that of the Hebrews But he marks nevertheless that we must not too much confide in this manner of finding out the signification of some Hebrew words by the means of the neighbouring Tongues because that divers accidents happen too long to enumerate as when a word changes its signification with another People by losing its Ancient sound and acquiring something new and unknown from the Language whence it was first taken For example the English word to Try is without doubt the same as the French Trier nevertheless it has a signification which hath no agreement with that of the French word to make a Tryal or a Proof of So to Crack which comes from Craquer signifies in English to Boast To Lett in English signifies both to Permit and to Hinder but the Dutch word Letten or as they now speak Beletten which is the same signifies to Hinder So we cannot altogether trust to the Conjectures of some Learned men upon the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsagnir which is found Micah 5.2 They believe there that the Hebrew signifies Great and Little at the same time because it hath two significations in the Arabick It 's true that they have founded it upon this that the Seventy have translated Little in this place of Micah and St. Matthew which is not Little Mr. Bright comes afterwards to the use that may be made of the writings of the Rabbies and 't is in this that Lightfoot hath excelled As first from the knowledge of the customs and opinions of the Jews which altho sometimes very extravagant we may notwithstanding afford us some benefit Secondly It may serve to the confirmation of the History of Jesus Christ for it appears by that that there was one Jesus which had Disciples who lived in such a time and such a place who did and said divers things That there was such places such opinions such customs such ceremonies It 's found in the writings of the most ancient Jews the same stile and same manner of speaking are seen in the Evangelists and very often the same thoughts the same Parables and the same Proverbs Our Author brings from thence some examples that have never been observed before There is to be found in the Thalmud of Babylon an ancient Tradition of the Jews It saith that in the time of the Messia there shall be an extream Impudence c. That the Father shall be ill treated by his Son and the Daughter should rise up against her Mother the Daughter-in-law against her Mother-in-law and a mans Enemies shall be those of his own House c. By that we see that our Lord according to this ancient Doctrine of the Jews made it known that he was the Messia when he said That he was come to separate betwixt the Son and the Father the Daughter and the Mother and the Daughter-in-law and the Mother-in-law and that a mans Enemies should be those of his own House Mr. Bright after that marks the places of the Thalmud where there is mention made of Jesus Christ. Thirdly The reading of the Rabbies is useful to convince the Jews at this day that they ought to understand Him to be the Messia from many passages of the Old Testament Which they endeavour to interpret otherwise tho their Fathers understood it as we do From thence he brings a great many examples It is said in an ancient Iewish Book which is called Pelicta that God had a Dialogue with the Messia in these Terms God began to make a Covenant with the Messiah speaking thus to him Those which have sinned are unknown to thee and will impose upon thee a Yoak of Iron by which they will render thee like to a Heifer almost blind with excess of labour and at last they shall destroy thee because of their iniquity thy Tongue shall cleave to the Roof of thy Mouth And wilt thou suffer this The Messia It may be that these griefs and afflictions shall endure but for a time God I am fully resolved that thou shalt suffer it a whole week of years but if thou consent not thereto I shall not impose these sufferings upon thee The Messia I willingly submit my self on condition that one Israelite may not perish but that they may all be saved those that live and dye in my Time those that are hidden under the Earth and which are dead since Adam even the Children which died before they were born or that are come into the World afore their time in a word all that have been created until now and which shall be hence forth Altho there is much extravagance here we it may nevertheless discover through all these fictions that the ancient Jews have not always promised themselves a Triumphant Messia and such as should peaceably enjoy the advantages which the Jews of our times attribute to him It is plain 't was believed that the Sufferings of the Messia should be a means to expiate the sins of Israel 'T is this which the same Author assures us of in terms very clear which Mr. Bright relates Fourthly Much use may be drawn from the reading of the Rabbies because therein are found opinions customs and manners of speaking which were used amongst the Jews in the time of our Lord as he shews by some examples never before produced thus Lightfoot hath composed all the second Volume of his works upon this Subject Mr. Bright believes that St. Paul had a respect to an opinion of the Jews when he obliged the Women to have their heads covered in Devotion because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11. and 20. and he cites thereupon
proves the truth of the Christian Religion the falseness of Paganism and Mahometanism Imperfection of the Religion of the Jews and the excellency of that of Jesus Christ whom he shews in four large Sermons to be the true Messia Afterwards he explains all that is contained in the second article of the Creed In the two last he shews the Justice and certainty of a day of Judgment In fine the 34th treats all along of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost The third Volume contains 45 Sermons which treat mostly of Morals The three first are upon those texts of the Scripture which command us to do all in the Name of Jesus Christ and in Imitation of him The six following shew the Submission which we ought to have to the will of God and contentment of mind to which the Apostle gives so great praises The 10th and 11th treat of patience and joy the 12th and 13th on the study of a mans self the 14th and 15th of the thoughts of our latter end the 16th and 17 of the danger of deferring repentance the 18th and from thence to the 22th of the labours and employments of all sorts of persons of whatsoever condition they may be the 23d of the depth of the Judgment of the Almighty the four following of the obedience we owe to our spiritual Guide the 28th and the following to the 31st of self-love and its different kinds the 32d and unto the 35th to do nothing but what is honest in the eyes of the world the three following of the goodness of God and that he is no respecter of persons the 39th and unto the 42th of the Universality of Redemption and the three last of the birth and passion of Jesus Christ and of the gift of the Holy Ghost Besides what we have said of the method of Dr. Barrow which is that that is at this day observed by the most able Divines of the English Church 't will not be amiss to observe that by the application he hath made to the Mathematicks he has formed to himself a habit of writing very exactly avoiding unuseful digressions and making use of Solid proofs rather than Rhetorical figures according to the Custom of many Preachers who apply themselves rather to a plausible eloquence than the Solidity of sound reasons It was thought necessary to give this account lest the Publick should be displeased with the name of Sermon which was so dreadful for three Volumes in folio to contain nothing else Those who have been in England and have had any knowledge of the writings of the Divines of that Country know the esteem in which our Author is there but to satisfie in some manner those who understand not English I shall here give an extract of the 8th Sermon in the 2d Book where the Author proves the existence of God by the Consent of all Nations Lactantius After having cited many Heathen and Christian Authors against Atheism he brings the testimony of all People and Nations which agree almost in nothing but the belief of a Divinity Testimonium Populorum atque Gentium in Vna hac re non dissidentium this is of great force whether it be considered in it self or by the relation to its Original An Antient Philosopher ranged probable things in this order that which seems true to some learn'd persons is in some sort probable that which appears so to the greatest part or to all the Learned is most probable what is believed by most men both Learned and Ignorant is yet more likely but what all men consent to has the greatest probability of truth so that one must be very extravagantly obstinate to have the boldness to deny it there is no man in the World can by his reasons only ballance the constant authority of all men If any one by a Spirit of contradiction or otherwise should undertake to prove that Snow is black as did Anaxagoras or maintain motion impossible as Zeno did or that contradictory assertions may be true at the same time as Heraclitus did That there remains no other means to refute such a man because he hath rejected the most evident principles and opposes himself to the Universal consent of Mankind if he refuses such a concession all that we can do is to look upon him rather with pity than contempt We ought to have very convincing and clear reasons to resist the common suffrage of all men and accuse them equally of error To illustrate this still more or rather to demonstrate the Thesis upon which it is founded it is necessary to cite the testimonies of some Heathen Philosophers which cannot be suspected on this occasion The consent of all men saith Seneca is of very great weight to us 't is an argument a thing is true when it appears so to all the World thus we conclude there is a Divinity because that all men believe it there being no Nation however corrupted which denies it Cicero says the same thing in several places and observes further that many Nations had extravagant opinions of the Divinity yet they all agree in this that there is one eternal power on which all men have their dependance In violent disputes saith Maximus of Tyre in contestations and divers opinions which are amongst men one may see a Law and Doctrine equally established in all Nations that there is a God which is King and Father of all men and that there are many Gods Sons of this Supream Being which Reign with him This is confess'd by the Greeks and Barbarians the Inhabitants of all places both Learn'd and Ignorant There are many like Witnesses and if any Philosophers have contradicted this general consent they are so few in number that according to the foresaid Author they ought to be looked upon as Monsters as an Oxe without Horns and a Fowl without Wings If we should consider the Original of this common Opinion we should acknowledge it yet more solid for in fine this consent can proceed but from one of these four things Where there is a thought which is the result of a natural Instinct as the most evident principles of the Sciences and the desire we have to be happy as Cicero and many other Philosophers have declared Where we have a natural disposition to receive this Impression as our eyes are naturally disposed to see the Light as soon as it appears as Iulian himself said Where some strange reason that presents it self to the minds of men even the grossest and what depends chiefly upon common notions hath produced this consent as Plutarch has it Where in fine some ancient Tradition that came from the same source has spread this opinion through all the earth according to the thoughts of some others There can be no other way Imagined by which this opinion hath been received amongst all men who are so much inclined to judge diversly of the same thing now chuse which of these ways you will our reasons are equally strong and
other Iames Hamilton They went into Ireland by order of the King of Scotland to form some agreement with the Protestant Nobility of that Country intending thereby to assure himself of that Kingdom in case Q. Elizabeth died suddenly The better to cover their enterprise and to give no Umbrage to a Queen extreamly suspitious they set themselves to teach Latin at Dublin where at that time 't was very rare to find persons learn'd in Humanity Vsher having profited very much by them in a little time seem'd to have a particular inclination to Poetry which he afterwards chang'd into as great a desire of understanding History that which created this inclination in him was reading these words of Cicero Nescire quid antra quam natus sis acciderit id est semper esse puerum his Annals and his other writings sufficiently shew what progress he had made in this study whereof he has given sensible proofs in his Infancy Being in the University of Dublin establish'd principally by the care of Henry Vsher his Uncle Archbishop of Ardmagh He set himself to read the Fortalitium fidei of Stapleton which made him resolve to apply himself to the reading of the Fathers to see if this Author had cited them faithfully he began to put this design in execution at 20 years old and continued this Study without intermission for 18 years obliging himself to read every day a certain task His Father had a mind to divert him from it and engage him to Study the Law to which our Prelate had no inclination but in 1598. he dying soon after left his Son at Liberty to chuse what manner of life was most pleasing to him he was the eldest son of the family and the estate his Father left was considerable enough to make him apply all his time in Domestick affairs This made him resolve to put off this trouble and to remit the Estate to his Brother with orders to give to his Sisters what their Father had left them reserving only to himself what would maintain him in the University with a sufficiency to buy himself some Books Whilst he was at the University and but yet 18 years old he disputed against a Jesuit call'd Fitz-Symmons and overcame him in two conferences which made this Jesuit afterwards in a Book Intituled Britannomachia call him the most learn'd of those who are not Catholicks A-Catholicorum Doctissimum he made so great a progress in the first years that he apply'd himself to Divinity that his Uncle Archbishop of Ardmagh ordain'd him Priest at the 21 year of his Age. This ordination was not conformable to the Canons but the extraordinary merit of young Vsher and the necessities of the Church made him believe it was not necessary to stay till the age mark'd out by the Ecclesiastical Laws of Ireland He preach'd then at Dublin with very great applause he particularly devoted himself to the controversies which were between the Protestants and Roman Catholicks he treated on them so clearly and with so much solidity that he confirm'd many wavering Protestants and prevailed with many Roman Catholicks to embrace the Protestant Faith But amongst those who rank'd themselves in the Protestant Churches there was a great number that were not so sincere as he could have wished them they did all they could to obtain the publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion at Dublin that they might insensibly have had the Liberty to make a profession of their true Sentiments Vsher who believ'd that this toleration wou'd be of a very dangerous consequence oppos'd it with all his might and one day as he Preacht upon this matter with great zeal he spoke something which then no notice was taken of but 40 years after it was found to be a true Prophecy he took his Text upon these words of Ezek. ch 4. v. 5. And thou shalt bear the Iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days I have appointed thee a day for a year He applied these days to Ireland and said that he who reckon'd from this year to 40. should find that the Protestants of Ireland should bear the Iniquity of those who were for a toleration in these times this was in 1601. and 40 years were no sooner expired 1641. but the Irish Catholicks made a bloody Massacre upon the Protestants He never wholly discontinued to Preach whilst he was in Ireland altho he was Professor of Divinity in that University but he accustom'd himself to make a Voyage every three years into England where he found a greater variety of Books than in Ireland there he past one part of his time at Oxford another at Cambridge and another at London and carefully visited all their publick and particular Libraries he made collections of what Books he there read and made remarks upon them with a design to make a work that he had resolved to Intitule A Theological Bibliotheque wherein he had treated very accurately of all the Ecclesiastical Antiquities but the misfortunes of Ireland and the Civil Wars of England hinder'd him from finishing it he ordered when he died that it should be put into the hands of Mr. Laugbaine Dr. of Divinity to supply what was wanting and publish them to the World This learn'd man engag'd himself forthwith in this useful work but he died before he finished it 1657. There is yet to be seen in the Bodleyane Bibliotheque his Manuscripts which no man dares undertake to finish In 1615. there was a Parliament in Ireland and an assembly of the Clergy where certain Articles were compos'd touching Religion and Ecclesiastical Discipline Vsher who was the chief in it caus'd it to be sign'd by the Chancellor of Ireland and by the Orators of the Assembly of the Bishops and of the Clergy King Iames approved of 'em also altho' there was some difference between these and the Articles of the Church of England some ill dispos'd persons and it may be Roman Catholicks took occasion from that to spread evil reports of Vsher. They accused him of Puritanism which was no little Heresie in the opinion of the King they also made use of this artifice to render those odious who appear'd the most capable of opposing the progress that the Missionaries of Rome endeavoured to make in Ireland Indeed the people knew not what this word signified and wherein Heresie consisted but it was known the King mortally hated Puritans and that was sufficient to make 'em look upon these Puritans as most dangerous Hereticks 't was this that obliged an Irish Divine to write to Vsher who was that time in England that it would not be amiss to desire the King to define Puritanism that all the World might know those who were tainted with this strange Heresie but Vsher had no need to make use of this way to justifie himself some conversations that he had with the King setled so good an opinion of him that the Bishopprick of Meath in Ireland being vacant the King gave it him immediately and
ignorant in the time of the III. Council of Lateran held under Alexander III. in MCLXXIX This Author saith that some of them presented to the Pope divers books of Scripture translated into French with Comments and demanded instantly of him the Power to preach Two amongst them who passed for the most able were introduced in an Assembly where Mapes was Commissioned as he saith to Question them He asked of them if they believed in God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost They answered Yes Do ye also believe added he in the Mother of Iesus Christ The Vaudois replied they did and made themselves thus saith the Author to be laughed at by all Men. Notwithstanding as it appeared not that they were willing to desist from their design they were excommunicated in the Council yet they continued their Assemblies in Gasconny and in the Neighbouring places where they begun from that time to exclaim against the abuses they had observed at Rome History tells us that Manicheans were mixed among them tho' they were very different in opinions and some were burned who were discovered in divers places of France and Germany St. Bernard hath written in the following Age against I know not what Hereticks whereof he speaks very contemptibly and to whom he also attributes some of the Sentiments of the Manicheans He assures us that they chose rather to die than to be converted and that they not only shewed Constancy but even rejoyced when they were led to the place where they were to be put to Death Mori magis eligebant quà m converti nec modo patienter sed laeti ut videbatur ducebantur ad mortem We may see hereby that seduced Persons as sincerely believe a false Doctrine as the Orthodox do theirs who defend the Truth for infine one would not be burned for what one look'd upon as a lye An Author of that time named William de â—uylaurens in the Prologue of his Chronicle besides adds Arianism to them and saith that they as well as the Vaudois tho' in different opinions licet inter se dissides agreed equally against the Catholick Faith They made the greater progress by reason that Priests were fallen into the utmost contempt whereof here is a proof drawn from a vulgar way of speaking which this Author relates To shew that they were far from doing a thing they were accustomed to say I would rather be a Iew But the Proverb changed and it is said in Gasconny I would rather be a Priest than to do that Mallem esse Capellanus quà m hoc vel illud facere Men were every where so wearied with the Ecclesiastical Tyranny and so scandalized at their lewd course of Life that those who spake against them were hearkened to with Delight and Pleasure as they did to one Arnand of Bresse a Disciple of Peter Abailards who went to censure them at Rome The Poet Gunther speaks thereof more at large in the third book of his Ligurin and concludes thus what he says of ' em Veraque multa quidem nisi tempora nostra fideles Respuerent monitus falsis admixta monebat Our Author relates divers of the violent proceedings against them and amongst others a Declaration of Alphonsus King of Arragon published in MCXCIV wherein he drives the Vaudois out of his Estates prohibites his Subjects to give them any succours upon pain of Confiscation of all their Goods and orders them to add all manner of grievances and affronts to beat and abuse them yet upon Condition they will neither kill nor cripple them praeter solummodo laesionem mortis aut membrorum detruncationem This is a cruel mildness which sometime Persecutors have practis'd and whereof it would not be hard to find fresh Examples The second period of time during which Usher believes the Dragon was let loose extends from the beginning of the Pontificate of Innocent III. unto the beginning of that of Gregory XI to wit from the year 1194. unto 1370. Innocent endeavour'd not a little to establish the indirect Authority of Popes over Kings and that which they pretend to have over all the Bishops of the World He named himself in a discourse which he made upon the Consecration of Popes the Spouse of the Church He maintain'd that all Bishops were but his Vicars and that it was he alone who retain'd an absolute Episcopal Authority So that other Bishops might say of him as of God we have received of his fulness He caused a Synod to be held at Rome in MCCXV which is called the fourth of Lateran where he confirmed a Canon of the III. Council held in the same place by which Alexander III. had absolved from the Oath of Fidelity the Subjects of a Prince who had favoured Hereticks against the Remonstrances of the Court of Rome Here are the terms of the second decree If a Temporal Lord required and advertised by the Church neglect to purge his Lands from the pollution of Heresie let the Metropolitan and the other Bishops of the Province excommunicate him If he makes not satisfaction in a year let the Soveraign Pontif be advertised that he may declare his Subjects absolved from the Fidelity which they owe him and give his Countrey to be possessed by Catholicks who having rooted out the Hereticks may possess it without any contradiction As this Decree is quite contrary to the Authority of Princes some Catholick Authors who have lived in places where this indirect Authority of Popes is refused to be acknowledged over the Temporalities of Kings they say that the Canons attributed to this Council were suppositious or at least that things did not pass therein after a canonical manner so that these Decrees obliged no Body But a famous English Protestant hath shewn that these Decrees are not suppositious that they are obligatory according to the Principles of the Roman Church that they have been received in England that the distinction of those who say that the Decrees of Councils oblige in matters of Faith and not in matters of practice are unreasonable and contrary to the Principles of the same Church and that tho' this distinction was true it could not exempt them from submitting themselves to the Decrees of the IV. Council of Lateran It was in this same Council that Transubstantiation was established and that a Croisade was published against the Vaudois as it was usually done against the Infidels Antoninus in his Chronicle affirms that the County of Thoulouse and Lombardy being full of Hereticks who amongst other errours endeavoured to take from the Church all it's Temporalities omnem Temporalitatem St. Dominick set himself to preach against them and converted a hundred thousand of ' em He took adds he to his help some devout and zealous Persons for the Faith who conquered these Hereticks corporally with the material Sword when they could not convince them with the Sword of the Spirit Quae corporaliter illos Hereticos gladio materiali expugnarent quos ipse gladio verbi Dei
made a Priest by Innocent the first being retired to Marseilles began to compose Books by which sweetening a little the Sentiments of Pelagius wâ—om he also condemned as a Heretick he gave birth to the opinions to which were since given the Name of Semi-pelagianism His Sentiments may be seen in his Collations or Conferences that St. Prosper hath refuted and maintain'd against the pure Pelagianism Here in a few words is what they were reduced unto I. The Semi-pelagians allowed that men are born corrupted and that they cannot withdraw from this Corruption but by the assistance of Grace which is nevertheless prevented by some motion of the Will as by some good desire whence they said nâ—cum est velle credere Dei autem gratiae est adjuvare to Will to Believe dependeth of me but it 's the Grace of God that helpeth me God according to them expecteth from us these first motions after which he giveth us his Grace II. That God inviteth all the World by his Grace but that it dependeth of the Liberty of men to receive or to reject it III. That God had caused the Gospel to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would embrace it and that he caused it not to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would reject it IV. That notwithstanding he was willing all should be saved he had chosen to Salvation none but those that he saw wou'd persevere in Faith and good Works V. That there was no particular Grace absolutely necessary to Salvation which God gave only to a certain number of men and that men might lose all the Graces they had received VI. That of little Children which died in their Infancy God permitted that those only should be baptized who according to the foreknowledge of God would have been pious if they had lived but on the contrary those that were wicked if they came to a more advanced Age were excluded from Baptism by Providence VII The Semi-pelagians were yet accused to make Grace entirely outward so that according to them it chiefly consisted in the preaching of the Gospel but some of them maintained that there was also an interiour Grace that Pelagius himself did not totally reject Others allowed that there was preventing Grace So it seemeth that the difference that was betwixt them and Pelagius consisted only in this that they allowed Men were born in some measure corrupt and also they pressed more the necessity of Grace at least in words Tho' the difference was not extreamly great he notwithstanding anathematized Pelagius But this they did it 's like in the supposition that Pelagius maintained all the opinions condemned by the Councils of Africk St. Augustine accuseth them to have made the Grace of God wholly to consist in Instruction which only regardeth the understanding when as he believ'd it to consist in a particular and interiour action of the Holy Ghost determining us invincibly to Will good this determination not being the effect of our understanding The other Sentiments of this Father are known opposite either to the Doctrine of Pelagius or that of the Semi-pelagians We may be instructed herein particularly in his Books of Predestination and Perseverance that he writ at the entreaty of St. Proâ—per against the Semi-pelagians and in the works of the latter To come back to the History 't is said that in the year Ccccxxix one Agricola Son of Severiaenus a Pelagian Bishop carried Pelagianism into England but St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre was sent hither by Pope Celestin or by the Bishops of the Gauls and extirpated it suddenly Several miracles are attributed to him in this Voyage and in the stay he made in England as Vsher observes But if what Hector Boetius saith a Historian of Scotland who lived in the beginning of the past Age be true he used a means that is not less efficacious for the extirpation of Heresie which was that the Pelagians that would not retract were burned by the care of the Magistrates But whilst St. Germain purified England the Seeds of Pelagianism that Cassian had spread amongst the Monks of Marseille and in the Narbonick Gaul caused it likewise to grow in France St. Prosper and Hilary had writ of it to St. Augustine and had specified it to him that several Ecclesiasticks of the Gauls looked upon his opinions as dangerous novelties St. Augustine answered to their objections in the books which we lately have named but the support that Hilary Bishop of Arles and Maxim Bishop of Riez granted to the Semi-pelagians hindered any body from molesting them tho' they shewed much aversion for the Doctrine of St. Augustine Iulian and the other Bishops banished as I have already observ'd from Italy were gone to Constantinople where they importuned the Emperour to be re-established but as they were accused of Heresie he would grant them nothing without knowing the reasons why they were banished Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople writ about it to Celestine who answered him after a very sour manner and as if it had not been permitted to be informed of the reason of their condemnation reproaching him at the same time with his particular Sentiments His Letter is dated the 12. of August in the year Ccccxxx. It was at that time that St. Augustine died whose Elogium may be found in our Author who approveth of the praises that Fulgentius giveth him in his 2. Book of the Truth of Predestination where he speaks of him as Inspired A little after his death the Letters of Theodosius that had called him to the Council of Ephesus arrived in Africk whence some Bishops were sent thither In the year Ccccxxxi the 22. of Iune this Council composed of CCX Bishops was assembled for the Condemnation of Nestorius Cyril of Alexandria presided there and whilst it was holding Iohn Bishop of Antioch was assembled with 30. other Bishops who made Canons contrary to those of this Council The particulars were that the party of Cyril and that of Iohn reciprocally accused each other of Pelagianism but the greater part approved of the Deposition of Iulian and other Bishops of Italy that Nestorius had used with more mildness He is accused to have been of their opinion and to have maintained that Jesus Christ was become the Son of God by the good use he made of his Free-will in reward whereof God had united him to the Everlasting Word This was the cause that in this Council Pelagianism and Nestorianism were both condemned together But notwithstanding all this and the cares of three Popes Celestinus Xystus and Leo the first Semi-pelagianism was upheld amongst the Gauls It may be that the manner wherewith Celestine writ to the Bishops of France contributed to it because that tho' he condemned Pelagius with heat and praised St. Augustine he said at the end of his Letter that as to the deep and difficult Questions which were found mingled in this Controversie and which were treated at length by those that opposed the Hereticks that as
for the second and it is that which occasioned Mr. Iurieu to add to this Work the Additions which are to be marked We shall not speak of them that are insensibly spread all over the Book but stick to such as form a new entire and well distinguished Member The first of these Additions is in the Preface and serves for an Answer to two complaints the one treats on the fear that new Converts may entertain in their state of Hypocrisie in hopes of a great Reformation in a little time the other is of what the Author has said of the reign of a thousand years he answers to the first of these complaints and proves too much because he proves that God never promised the deliverance of the Church and that Ieremiah never reveal'd to the Jews the near Destruction of Ierusalem which God revealed to him he adds that God thought it convenient to keep the Knowledge of certain Prophecies from Men to the end that they might not shun them but that at other times he thinks it convenient that we may be aiding in procuring the Effect and Execution he says that as it would be the sign of the last Judgment to drink of stinking and impoison'd Waters in hopes that they might be purified in two or three years so it would be a disorder both of Mind and Heart that would be very strange to stick to the Communion of the Church of Rome in hopes that in some years it might be purified As for the other point he admires that some have made a noise against the reign of a thousand years and declares that he will patiently wait for it altho' some have threatned to complain of it and he is not ashamed in this to be of the opinion of Cocceius The second Addition contains the eight first Chapters of this Work and serves for Explication to the first nine of the Apocalypse so that there is nothing of Prophecy in the Revelations of St. Iohn which is not explain'd by Mr. Iurieu he has judged that in shewing the compleat systeme of all the eveâ—ts spoke of in the first book it would dart a great light upon each of the Visions He refutes them that believe that the seven Epistles of St. Iohn to the seven Principal Churches of Asia are Prophetick and his opinion is that the opening of the great Theatre of the Visions of St. Iohn was but at the fourth Chap. of the Apocalypse He finds that it begins like that of the Prophet Ezekiel and he stops chiefly at the four beasts and at the twenty four ancients that are about the Throne of God After this he gives us an Observation which is called the Key of the Apocalypse This whole Book is but a Paraphrase upon what Daniel says in the seventh Chapter of his Revelations about the four Beasts he explains the systeme of the seven Seals and the seven Trumpets in great and small and always by very ingenious and happy Suppositions and all that relates to the destiny of the Roman Empire to the day of Judgment What follows and what has been explain'd in the first Edition relates to the Church and the Antichristian Empire which was formed in the bowels of the Church The third Addition comprehends the 14 15 and 16 Chapters and applies to the Empire of the Papists the second Chapter of the second to the Thessalonians and the Visions of the 13 th and 17. Chapter of the Apocalypse The fourth Addition is very curious and of importance to the Author it is contained in the 15. Chapter of the second Tome and answers to a remark made by a great many people that things are spoken of here with great assurance which ought not to have been proposed but as conjectures he says that it will be known some day what made him speak after so decisive a manner and with such confidence but in the mean time he would be willing that three things were considered First That he does not speak of the most part of events that are to happen yet with so much Assurance as is thought The Second That whereas he has declared in proper terms that he consents willingly that that may pass with the Readers as conjectures It is reasonable that he may have the liberty of believing what he sees or what he thinks he sees in the Prophets writings The Third That before we censure him of rashness upon what he so confidently believes that we are at the end of the 1260 years of the Reign of Antichrist his principles are to be considered and examined together but because the Readers may chuse whether they will take notice of this last remonstrance when there is any pains to be taken in finding out the connexion of divers Principles that are here and there in that great Volume the Author eases them by summing up his Principles and their Consequences and after he has shewed their connexion he concludes that it is impossible that false conjectures should meet always and that chance should unite one or two hundred upon the same Subject Whatever strength of Reason is in the Explication of these matters Philosophers will not find what they will look for but if they stop at the fifth Addition they will find that Mr. Iurieu has laboured for them as well as for others that he has reserved for them the Conclusion of his work as a relishing piece and the highest point of Meditation The Title of this Appendix is An Essay of Mystical Divinity where are seen proofs of the greatest mysteries of Religion drawn from Nature This maxim is first settled that God applies his Essence to all Beings and that from this Application comes an Impression that makes the Divinity and all its Mysteries appear every where After that he declares that this Truth may be ascertained by three Examples that will shew that the Union of the Father with the Word the adorable Trinity of the Persons in the Unity of Essence and the Incarnation of the Word are three Mysteries whereof the Impressions were stamp'd in Nature To shew this the Author begins to consider the History of the Creation and after having said in general that these three Mysteries are found there he examines in particular Adams Marriage as the Image of the Union of the Father with the Son shewing several fine Relations of these two matters then he raises himself to the higher Worlds and he finds there the same marks that he found below for he finds that the Union of Matter and Motion is a kind of Marriage which resembles much that of Adam and the same resemblance appears yet more in the Union of the Spirit of God with what is called Nature and in the Union of Jesus Christ with the Church See then four Impressions of the Union of the Eternal Father with the Son one in the Marriage of Adam and Eve one in the Union of Matter and Motion and in what regards the sensible World considered in its self one in the
that Iesus Christ Interceded not for us and takes no care of his Church and that he pities not our Infirmities having suffered them himself and that he will not come at last to Judge all Mankind then there would be Reason to call the one Atheists and the other no Christians but every one knows that they are far from these impious thoughts The Protestants accuse the Romish Church of Idolatry and for having recourse to other Saviours besides Iesus Christ but the Moderators make a noise of that as if it were a hainous Calumny and maintain that it is only God that is to be worshiped with Religious Worship and that we are not saved but through the Merits of Iesus Christ. The Reformed shew them that they invoke Saints and that they worship them and the Cross Images and Relicks as the Pagans did their Heroes their Demons and inferiour Gods their Statues their Idols c. That they believe they satisfie Divine Justice by Indulgences Vows and Pilgrimages and that according to them the Merit of these Actions and of the Saints together with them of Iesus Christ reconcile Sinners to God They prove that this is the Doctrine which their Divines Popes and Councils teach not only in their great Volumes for the Learned but also for the rest in their Catechisms and Prayer Books and other Books of Devotion for the use of the People that it is not only the practice of the Laity and of some ignorant and superstitious Priests but also of all the Roman Church in their Rituals Breviaries Missals and other Publick Offices that it never punished such as pushed the Superstitions to an Excess which the Moderator seems to blame But that far from having a mind to redress these Abuses she prosecutes such as are suspected to have a design to abolish them as the Iansenists and Quietists tho' these two at bottom are but idle People and of little sincerity Would a Magistrate set a Murderer at liberty simply because he denyed a Deed that is well proved or because he has the face to maintain that the killing a Man at 12 a Clock is neither Murder nor a Crime punishable by Law On the contrary this Criminal would deserve a double Chastisement as a Murderer and as a Disturber of the Publick Peace in teaching a Doctrine that is contrary to Civil Society Because M. Daille acknowledges the Fundamental Points which the Reformed teach M. de Meaux pretends to justifie his Church and prove it's Purity tho this acknowledgement serves only to state the Question between both Parties and to shew that the Question is not whether the Fundamental Doctrine of Protestants be true seeing that is confessed on both sides but the Question is to know whether what the Roman Catholicks hold over and above be Articles necessary to Salvation as they pretend or whether they are contrary to the truth that both hold as Divine and whether they ought to be cast away for this reason as the Reformed have done It is according to this method that Dr. Wake explains the Articles exposed by M. de Condom marking in each what the Protestants approve and what they condemn in the Tenets of Rome and bringing some of the chief reasons that make them remark these Distinctions V. We said before that we were not willing to enter upon the particulars of Controversies but because the Roman Church continually fomenting the Divisions of Protestants have persuaded some illiterate People that the Church of England agrees in a great many more Points with it than with the other Protestants We shall mention her Sentiments here according to Dr. Wake 's Exposition upon the Articles wherein the Roman Catholicks brag of this pretended Conformity As First The Invocation of Saints Secondly Justification Thirdly The Necessity of Baptism Fourthly Confirmation Fifthly Orders Sixthly Real Presence Seventhly Tradition Eighthly Authority of the Church Ninthly That of the Fathers Tenthly The Question if one can be saved in the Roman Church Eleventhly If it be Idolatry First The Invocation of Saints Dr. Wake speaking in the name of his Church says it is an extravagant Practice invented at pleasure and so far from being contained in Scripture that it is several ways contrary to it It is true that according to an innocent ancient Custom we make mention before the Communion Table of Saints that dyed in the Communion of our Church thanking God for the grace he did them and praying him to give us the grace to follow their Example But this respect we bear their Memory does not hinder us from condemning a Practice that M. de Meaux seems to have omitted and which cannot agree with us at all which is that Roman Catholicks recommend the Offering of the Host to God by the Merit of the Saints whose Reliques are upon the Altar as if Iesus Christ whom they pretend to Sacrifice needed S. Bathilde or Potentiana's Recommendation to become agreeable to his Father Secondly Iesus by his Passion has satisfy'd Divine Justice for us and therefore God pardons us all our Sins thro' the Merits of his Son and by an Effect of his Good Will treats us with an Allyance of grace and by Vertue of this Allyance solely founded on the Death and Passion of Iesus Christ he sends us his Holy Spirit and calls us to Repentance If we answer this Calling God justifies us thro' his pure Goodness that is to say he forgives us all our past faults and gives us the grace to obey his Precepts better and better and will Crown us in Heaven if we persevere in his Alliance he grants us all these Graces not for any good Quality that he sees in us or for any good we do but only in vertue of the Satisfaction and Merits of his Son that are applyed to us by Faith Thirdly Tho' our Church take all manner of care to hinder Childrens dying without Baptism rather than to determine what would become of them they died without it we cannot nevertheless but condemn the want of Charity of Roman Catholicks that excludes them from Salvation Fourthly The Church of England does not believe that Confirmation is a Sacrament nor that the use of Chrism tho' of an antient Custom was an Apostolical Institution but because the Imposition of Hands is an antient Custom and comes from the Apostles the English have kept it and according to their Discipline the Bishops only have liberty to administer it The Prelate that does it addresses his Prayer to God to beg of him to strengthen with his Spirit him that he puts his Hands upon and that he may protect him from Temptations and that he may have the grace to fulfill the Conditions of his Baptism which he that he prays for ratifies and confirms with his Promises Fifthly Nor are the Orders a Sacrament according to the Church of England because they are not common to all Christians but she believes that no one ought to put himself upon the Function of a Minister without
upon Holy Writ and its Perfection The Second upon Justification the Third and Fourth upon the Messia and the Fifth upon divers Subjects Amongst the Pieces which have not as yet been published are Nine Discourses delivered at divers times at the opening of the Academy of Groningen Two Dissertations upon the Hebrew Tongue divers Letters or Extracts of Letters which deserve to be Read as much for the matters of Critick which are therein treated as for the moderation which the Author shews upon Controversies which in his time were agitated amongst the Divines of those Provinces and for several Historical Actions which may be there learned To help the Reader to judge of the knowledge of Mr. Alting we shall shew some of the critical Subjects which are treated on in his Letters or in the Pieces which have not yet been published The First Dissertation of the Fifth Heptad is Entituled de Cabbala Scripturaria He first seeks for the Etymology of the word Cabal which is the Name that the Iews give to their Traditions and pretends that even after that God had given his Law by Writing a kind of an Oral Tradition was conserved in the Church as long as there were Prophets and Apostles He adds that after the destruction of Ierusalem the Iews esteem'd another Cabal which they have equalled and even preferred to the first and which is not in the Talmud but in Books a great deal less known whether the Iewish Doctors do keep them hidden or whether their proper obscurity renders them impenetrable In regard to the Practick Cabal which only serves for Magical Operations the Author entirely disapproves thereof but as for the Theoretick where some make Thirteen sorts and others Three as it is a kind of a Symbolick Divinity he will have it to be treated even as Allegories are There 's a great respect due to Allegories whereof the Sacred Writers are the Authors as in Gal. 4.22 But those that have no grounds in Scripture are looked upon with contempt Mr. Alting maintains that we ought to make this use of the Cabal and pretends that in the Old Testament there are divers Transpositions Changes Additions or Retrenchments of Letters which have not been without a Mystery He gives for example the change which God himself made of the Names of Abram and of Sarai into those of Abraham and Sarah He saith these Names were given them by a particular Providence to mark that they should be the Heads of a Holy Generation whence the Messia should spring that it is for this reason that Abram signifies Father raised or rather Father of the raised and that the Name of Sarai shews that this Raised is the Messia the Son of the Soveraign being composed of Sar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the first Letter of the Name Iehova 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it signifies a Prince-Lord that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which marks Iehova was in the Name of Sarai and not in that of Abram because it was to the Woman Eve and not to Adam that God made a Promise of the Messia or the Seed which should bruise the Serpent's head That God to reward the Faith of Abram being willing to admit him to the participation of this Promise with Sarai would have them partake of the Sign which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they both should have in their Name a Letter of his viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is worth Five or the half of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which stands for Ten. The Author in this Dissertation makes still many Remarks upon divers proper Names and other words of the Bible Written diversly to shew that this came not by chance There are many of these Mystical and surprising Expositions in the Fourth Dissertation of this Heptade de arborum fructiferarum praeputio sanctitate fruitione where our Author Answers to the following Questions according to his Method viz. in relating the Opinion of divers Rabbins and several Famous Divines and then his own These Questions are Why God commanded that for the Three first years of a Tree People should look upon the Fruit of it as polluted and why he forbid the eating of it And why he would have the Fruit of the Fourth year dedicated to himself If these Consecrated Fruits belonged only to Priests and Levites or if all persons which were not polluted or if all unclean persons might eat of them The Second Discourse of the Seventh Heptade treats of the Anointing of the Chief Priests and Kings where the Author mentions the Opinion of the Iews which believed that Moses only made the Holy Oyl because in the Second Temple there was none of this Oyl the Vial wherein it was being lost with the Ark which denoted according to Mr. Alting that the Priesthood and Temporal Reign of the Iews was declining and making room for the Reign and everlasting Priesthood of the Messia This Exposition is founded upon this That the Chief Priests and Kings of the House of David were Consecrated with this Oyl whose Dignity was hereditary and descended to their Children But for the Officers whose Charges were not considerable nor did belong to a certain Family they were not Anointed As for the Kings of Israel after the Schism of Ieroboam either they were Anointed or not if they were as Iehu was it was with another Oyl and not with that which was kept in the Temple of Ierusalem There was much of this Holy Oyl poured upon the Heads of Chief Priests and Kings to Consecrate them but the manner of this pouring was different 'T was poured round the Head of a King in form of a Crown and the Forehead of Chief Priests was Anointed in such a manner that the Traces of the Oyl expressed the Figure of X. The Rabbins troubled themselves to find out the Reason of this Ceremony but our Author finds it not hard to discover it in the Truth of Iesus Christ Sacrificing himself upon the Cross. In a Discourse upon the Leprosie which is the Fifth of the IX Heptade it 's asserted that the Iews believe that the Leprosie is no Contagious Disease but an extraordinary one which God inflicted upon certain persons by an effect of his unsearchable Judgments which they prove by Seven Reasons 1. Pestilential Diseases fall indifferently upon Men and Beasts but the Leprosie has never infected a Beast It 's true that there is talk of the Leprosie of Cloaths and Houses but it 's not well known what that is and 't is believed this kind of Contagion never appeared out of Palestin 2. All Lepers were to present themselves to one Priest who should carefully examin and was obliged to search them strictly But if the Distemper had been Contagious the Priests would have been exposed to great danger because the Labour of their Duty and the Obligation of going bare-foot made them very weak 3. These who were attackt with this Distemper were comers-out amongst the
cares were very useful in the time of a great Persecution which arose against them in 1664 which Father Couplet gives here the particulars of They were accused of Inspiring into the People a Spirit of Rebellion and of persuading them to change their Religion a Capital Crime in this Kingdom and they would infallibly have suffered the rage of their Enemies had it not been for divers Prodigies that appeared in their favour and which the Reiterated Prayers of Madam Hiu obtained from Heaven We must not wonder at it since her Devotion was so great and so universal she observed all Duties of Piety from the least unto the greatest which she acquitted admirably well Never was there a Life better employ'd Women Children Old Men the Poor and chiefly the Jesuites were the continual Objects of her Care and Charity without interrupting thereby her particular Exercises of Meditation and Prayer which she Addressed to the Blessed Virgin to whom she Devoted her self From whence the Author takes occasion to give us an account of the Devotion of the Christians of China which hath scarcely any other object but the Virgin the Angels St. Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier and consists entirely in the frequent Rehearsal of Litanies and upon the number and measure of sundry Adorations and Reiterated Genuflections which is as much as to say a kind of Idolatry disguised under the Name of Christianity This Remnant of Pagan Superstition disperses it self through all their Acts of Religion but particularly their Funeral Pomps in which they express an ardent zeal to make them very Magnificent for their Parents and Friends whose Mourning and Ceremonies last many years after their death This is it wherein the Missioners have not had any great need of their Complaisance Father Couplet therefore confesseth that these Funeral days of Christians are days of Triumph for Religion and that the Magnificence of the Images wherewith they adorn them the Wax-Candles the Perfumes and Incenses they imploy therein make the Chinois look on them with admiration and as People of a singular Piety They have found by the Advice of Madam Hiu the Secret of entring into several Provinces where they never had any establishment in burying there the Bodies of some of the Fathers of their Mission having first asked leave to perform their last duties to them which lasteth as long as the Devotion of Parents finds it convenient and often as long as they live Upon this Subject the Author gives us an Account of a Stone Table adorned with the Figure of the Cross and several Chinois and Syriack Inscriptions which were taken out of the Earth in 1625 in the Province of Kin-si He pretends that the Names of Seventy Preachers of the Gospel which went from Palestine into China in the year 636 are Engraven thereupon and amongst others those of some Bishops which he pretends are an Authentick Testimony of their Mission Howbeit its Antiquity is considerable and if the Truth on 't was called into Question that joyned to what I have said before would suffice to shew how Ingenuous the Devotion is when the Propagation of Faith is questionable He passeth from this to shew the difficulties which the Missioners find in that Country for the Instruction of the Neophytes and chiefly the Women with whom there is no Commerce in China no more than in other parts of the East Which sheweth that they must needs have extraordinary regards and managements to succeed to which the Charge of President of the Tribunal of Mathematicks and the Title of Mandarin that the Emperor of China hath given to Father Adam Schall and to Father Ferdinand Verbiest successively and which they accepted of with the consent of the Pope hath not a little contributed We must notwithstanding confess if Father Couplet is to be believed that nothing has so much contributed to the advancement of Christianity in this Empire as the assiduous and charitable Cares of this Lady He imployeth the rest of his History to Relate some Surprising Particulars of her Zeal and Piety He saith that she hath Founded near Thirty Churches in her Country that she also built Nine more with Fine Houses in other Provinces and that there is neither Chapel nor Oratory nor Mission nor Congregation that hath not had share of her Liberalities that she would even Correspond as far as the West after divers Manners to oblige by her Example the Christian Ladies to imitate her industrious Piety That which is very surprising in this is That in all these Foundations and these particular Charities which she gave several Thousands of Persons she only imployed the fruit of her Labour and Parsimony without prejudicing the Fortunes of her Children He ends with a Remark which the Death of Madam Hiu causes him to make upon the particular care that the Chinois shew in all the Funeral Apparel of their Burials They cause Rich Coffins to be made a long time before their Death and even the Children often do make a Present thereof to their Fathers and Mothers as did the Lord Basil Son to Madam Hiu who gave her a Coffin worth Eight hundred Crowns They buy Gardens they build therein Houses and Chappels to be joyned to their Tombs and the Great Mourning of the Parents who survive answers well enough to the Care which the Dead have taken of 'em to preserve their Bones and to perpetuate their Memory 'T was in one of these places that the Body of Madam Hiu was Interr'd after she dyed as she lived to wit as a Saint whose Memory is blessed to all the Christians of China If her Death hath not obstructed the Progress of the Gospel their Number at present ought to be very great seeing the Author saith that at that time there were Ninety Great Churches in one only Province and that Fifteen Thousand Children were Baptized a year in all CHINA But this we have only the Author's word for be the whole true or false it shews what the Spirit of JESUITISM is and 't is of Use to Expose their Ridiculous Principles The History of the East-Indies by Mr. Souchu de Reunefort At Leyden by Frederick Harring 1668. in Twelves P. 571. THe Great Advantages that Holland hath drawn from the East-India Companies which are become so famous throughout all the World have caus'd other States to form a Design of Erecting the like France especially by reason of its Power and Advantageous Scituation conceiving great hopes from this Enterprise form'd a Company in 1664. for the Commerce of the East-Indies They made a Fund of Fifteen Millions whereof the King was pleas'd to advance Three and his First Exploits were in the Isle of Madagascar This Isle the greatest of the known Seas was occupied by the Marshal de la Meilleraye for his particular profit and the Company then by Orders from the King took Possession of it The Portuguese call it the Isle of St. Laurence because they discover'd it on the Feast of this Saint and the French
used to moderate the severity of Wisdom by honest Recreations to render it amiable and would not have Vertue to be painted with an Austere Face and with a Forehead always wrinkled In short the Soul is so engaged in Sense and Matter that this Philosophy is too fine which in a manner unmans a Man and deprives him of all his Senses This hath made his followers nothing but Idea for they often perceive that they have a Body as other Men have which troubleth and hindreth them so much the more as they have a desire of giving all to the Mind It must therefore be allowed that Wisdom it self may sometimes Laugh without offence Every one knoweth that he admitted for Principle a Vacuum and Atoms The Vacuum because if all was full there would have been no Motion The Atoms because according to him nothing is made of nothing He maintained that the World cannot be eternal because it bears sensible Marks of Novelty We know for Example the birth and progress of Arts and Sciences He pretended that Providence medled with nothing but leaves all things to Chance The Ancients agreed not amongst themselves about the time in which Zoroaster lived and our Author relates all along and at the same time resutes their Sentiments After all he subscribes to the Opinion of those which place it 600. Years before the Expedition of Zerxes against the Greeks which goes back to the Year 3634 from the Iulian Period that is to say about the times of Samuel Very little as yet is known concerning the Life of Zoroaster Plato calls him the Son of Oromazes but this is the Name which Zoroaster of Persia gave to the Divinity whose Son t is said he was for the Veneration he had for him Plin. lib. 36. c. 1. says that he laughed the same day he was born and that his Brain beat with such Violence that it lift up the Hands of such as toucht it a presage of Learning which one day he was to be Master of He liv'd 20 Years in a Desart without growing aged for having wish't to dye by Thunder Heaven heard his Prayer But before that he advertiz'd the Syrians to keep his Ashes very carefully assuring them that their Empire should continue so long as they regarded that Injunction Suidas attributes this Advertisment to Zoroaster of the Chaldeans and Cedrenus to him of the Persians He composed two Millions of Verses which were delivered in Greek and upon which Hermippus made a Commentary But some say that the Oracles upon which Syrianus wrote 12 Books made some of these Verses There are some other Books attributed to him which are evidently supposititious Africanus says that 't was Belus who invented Astronomy and that this Prince lived in the times of Deborah according to this Author Belus began his Raign Anno Mundi 2682. There were yet some other Magi of the Chaldeans who were sufficiently celebrated amongst the Greeks but the Names of 'em are only remaining He who first brought the Sciences of the Chaldees into Greece was Berose a Priest of Belus he taught 'em Astronomy and Philosophy in the Isle of Co and composed three Books in which he finisht the History of the Medes Iosephus preserved some of his Fragments in his Books against Appion they were dedicated to Antiochus under the name of GOD KING OF ASSYRIA under whom he liv'd as Mr. Vossius believes tho other Authors say that he lived under Antiochus Soter We ought yet to take care that we confound not this Berose with that of Annius of Viterbe which every Body knows to be fictitious and full of ridiculous Fables Iustin Martyr assures us that the Babylonian Sybil who gave her Oracles at Cames was his Daughter if it is true then there was another Sybil besides that which lived in the times of Tarquin the Old who lived two hundred and fifty Years before Berose Onuphrius proves that there had been many Sybils Altho the name of Chaldeans properly belonged to a whole Nation yet it was given in particular to certain Philosophers who liv'd retir'd in separate places and were exempt from Imposts and publick Charges They were particular Families which communicated their Knowledg to their Children after such a manner that it spread not to other Families but only passed from Father to Son They might thus perfect their Sciences better than by admitting Strangers in their Schools and 't is said that this practice is now used amongst the Chinese in respect of their Trades The Greeks who have spoken thereof as Strabo distinguish the different Sects of the Chaldeans according to the places where they lived There was of 'em at Hipparena Orchoe Babylon and Borsippa Cities of Mesopotamia and Chaldea They were not all of the same Opinion if we may believe Strabo and Lucretius who says lib. 5. that in case there was no fault of the Copiest in this Work the Babylonians refuted the Doctrin of the Chaldeans touching Astrology Vt Babylonica Caldaeam Doctrina refutans Astrologorum Artem contra convincere tendit The Babylonians gave diverse Names to these Sects and some of 'em may be seen in the Prophet Daniel but the signification thereof is very uncertain Our Author tells us the Conjectures of the Rabbins upon teefe Names 2. He divides their whole Doctrin into four parts The first thereof contains their Speculative Divinity and their Phisicks There was a study as Mr. Stanley believes appropriated to those which were called Chartummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second includes their Astrology and art of Divination in which those were employed who were called Chasdim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Mechasephim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third treats of Theurgie or Natural Magic And the fourth of Divine Worship which was the study of the Asaphim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psellu◠tells us that Zoroaster divided all Beings into three Orders There is one saith he which is Eternal without beginning or end Some have had a beginning which will never end But others shall have an end as they have a beginning Divinity hath for its object the two first Orders And Natural Philosophy the last The Chaldeans affirm'd but one only Principle of all things full of Goodness and Wisdom To represent its perfections they gave it the Name of Fire and of Light which is the Reason that in those Oracles that yet remain amongst us we often find God spoken of in these Synonimous terms The Light the Rays the Brightness of the Father Paternal Fire the only Fire the first and supream of all Fires When any one demanded of 'em after what manner they apprehended the Divinity He Answered that his Body resembled Fire and his Soul the Truth From whence it may be they understood that God was Goodness it self or the Chaldean word which they Translate for Truth signifies Goodness and that it appeared adorned with Fire The Hebrews speak after the same manner when they say God is a Consuming Fire that he is full of
Stars the Chaldeans knew how to Divine by the Flight and Notes of Birds by Dreams Prodigies and Entrails of Victims according to the report of Diodorus R. Moses Son of Maimon affirms the same thing in his More Nebochim and also attributes to 'em other ways of divining the Names whereof are in Deut. 18.10 11. The Physicks of the Chaldeans was call'd Magic There was two Sorts thereof one Natural and the other Theurgick The first was only a knowledg of the Virtue of Simples of the disposition of Animals and of the Power of Minerals But this knowledg was mixt with many Superstitious Opinions if we may believe Maimonides who hath discoursed their Operations at large and in our Author we may read his Words Such was their Opinions concerning the Talismans which are certain Figures or Letters graved at certain times that they believed 'em able to defend 'em from divers Evils In the Persian Tongue they are called Tsilmenaja and in Arabick Tsalima Words that come from the same root with the Hebrew Tselein which signifies an Image This may be seen in Gaffarel's Book entituled Vnheard of Curiosities They also call'd that Tsilmenaja that the Hebrews call'd Teraphim which were little Statues that answered to what they said when they consulted them concerning the event of things to come Onkelas a Chaldean Paraphrast always Translated the Word Teraphim for that of Tsilmenaia and the seventy Translated it by the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evident or Significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illuminations Spencer may be consulted upon this of Vrim and Thummim The Theurgick Magick of the Chaldeans consisted only in the knowledg of the Ceremonies that ought to be observed in the Worship of the Gods to be agreeable and pleasing to 'em and to obtain what they desir'd of ' em Iulian the Father and Iulian the Son Chaldean Philosophers who lived under Mr. Antoninus explain'd this Science in many Greek Books both in Verse and Prose as Suidas tells us They thought by the means of these Ceremonies they were able to entertain the Celestial Intelligences and even cure all Indispositions both of Body and Mind We shall observe one of these Ceremonies the Sacrifice whereof is very Considerable There was two sorts of Apparitions one of which was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Superficial View by the Greek Interpreters of this Philosophy It was when the Gods appear'd under some Figure Then they ought to have no respect to nor receive any advertisement from 'em as true The same Author calls the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a view of the same thing when they saw a pure light without any form and the Answer they received from it was true Thus the Oracles speak in these Terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When you shall see the Sacred Fire without Form Burning from place to place by all the Mysteries of Heaven hearken to the voice of it As the Theurgy had Apparitions of good Demons so they served to Chase away Material ones and hinder them from Injuring them 4. One may reduce the Religion of the Chaldeans to three kinds The first is a worship of the true God but after an Idolatrous Manner The second the Worship of Demons and Spirits and the third is that of Celestial Bodies and the Elements The Chaldeans as hath been already observ'd acknowledging one only Principle of all things all powerful and good it follows that they must acknowledg the true God and 't is for this Reason that an Oracle that Porphiry cites joyns them to the Jews and says that there 's none but the Chaldeans and the Jews that adore that God and King who subsists by himself But the Chaldeans adored him under the Name of an Idol that they call'd Bel which is the same as Baal of the Phenicians The Iews also Worship'd him under the same Name in the time of the Kings and were reprehended for it by the Prophet Hosea who tells them in the Name of the God of Israel you shall no more call me My Baali Ch. 2.16 Those who instructed the Greeks in the Opinions and Customs of the Chaldeans wou'd have it that they call'd the Supream Divinity Bel they gave him the Name of Zeus which was the Name that the Greeks gave to the Chief of their God's Altho Bel or Belus might be an Ancient King the same with Zeus it hapned in length of time that these Names were join'd to the Idea of the first Principle of all things that is to say to the Idea of the true God Hence Aratus speaking of Iupiter says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are of his Offspring St. Paul makes it no difficulty to apply these Words to the true God Acts. 17. Thus Clement Alexandrinus remarks upon these Words of St. Peter Serve God but not as the Gentiles Thus this Apostle does not say serve not the God that the Gentiles Worship but serve him not after the manner that they do he wou'd have us to change the manner of Worship but not the Object of it One may see in the first Book of Herodotus who was at Babylon the Description of the Temple of Iupiter Bâ—lus He says that the Priests thereof were Chaldeans and Maimonides affirms that the Idolaters of Chaldea were the same with the Prophets of Baal which were in Palestine In the second place the Chaldeans Worshipt Demons and Spirits and 't is to these Subaltern Divinities to which they addressed themselves by means of the Theurgy whereof we have spoken In the third place they believed that the seven Planets were animated by the Divinities which they made use of as if they were Bodies the greatest were those which inhabited the Sun and Moon they had the same thoughts in respect to the sixt Stars But they confest they cou'd not prove this Worship of the Stars so distinctly as the rest as the Readers may see more at large in Mr. Stanley Some Ancients say that they Worshiped the Air and the Earth as Iulius Firmicus and Macrobius but these Authors and particularly the last do very much Confound the Divinity of all Nations without either Reason or Necessity and might have attributed the Sentiments of the Greeks and Romans to the Chaldeans Even some of 'em to maintain Paganism have taken great pains to shew that all the Worshippers of many Gods did agree and they also hop'd to answer the Objection of the Christians who accused them of the Diversity of Opinions But without doubt the Chaldeans did Worship the Fire or the Supreme Divinity under the Emblem of Fire Ruffinus and Suidas relate something to this effect which deserves to be taken notice of here 'T is that in the times of Constantine certain Chaldean Priests ran through all the Empire to shew to other Pagans that the God of Chaldea was mightier than all the Gods because the Fire that they Worship consum'd all the Statues of other Gods In fine being come into Egypt and
Examples to prove what we have advanced of the Verses of the Hebrews not but that we might draw a great Number of them but the brevity in which we were bounded to be included hath hindered us to bring more The Reader then ought to be assured that if it was needfull we could have produced a far greater Number The second thing is that we have not chosen Psal. 150. because we thought we have gone through it better than in most of the others but simply because it is short and that one may in some wise conjecture what Tune it might have had LOu ez le Dieu des Dieux Que sa majes té soit be ni e Sa pu issance est in fi ni-e Peuples réve rez l'en tous lieux Chantres entonnez des Airs U nis sez u nis sez pardesaints concerts La Trompet te le Haut bo is la Muzet te Le Cornet l'Orgue le Bas son Et que la Flûte au doux son Leur réponde Qu'en ce beau jour Tout le monde tout le monde tout le monde chant à son tour tour N. De Rosier We have given this CL th Psalm in the French Version as we found it and have added this English Version which bearing the same quantity of Syllables is also applicable to the same Musical Composure And as the French took a little Liberty as may be seen from the former Translation of this Psalm just after the Hebrew so have we only instead of their repetition at the last we have made one Verse in a proportionable length That Holy God whose might is hurld Throughout this vast material World Praise him Oh Praise ye him each hour Extol his great his mighty Power Awake ye Harps ye Timbrels sing Eternal Praises to this King Let Trumpets raise Their Noblest Accents to his Praise Drums Organs Violins and Lutes Cymbals String'd Instruments and Flutes Shall all combine To Praise the Lord. Let all the Vniverse in this great Chorus join PRAISE YE THE LORD Seldeni Otia Theologica c. at Amsterdam in quatuor Libris THis Work is very Curious and very agreeable to those that don't care for the trouble of gathering dispers'd Materials together The Author who is very Learned and has read much spares them the trouble and gives them his Opinion as well as that of many others upon a great Number of Critical Questions in Divinity Thus I ought to call the Subject of this great Treatise For altho' he there explains some places of Divinity generally receiv'd he does it not after the way of the Schools he very ingeniously discourses upon sacred and prophane Antiquity Besides that the generality of the Examinations entirely respect certain Persons or matters of Fact which the Scripture speaks of or of certain things which are different from common receiv'd Notions in Divinity As to what regards the Sentiments of the Author we ought to acknowledge this on his behalf that he proposes them with much modesty and makes use of that honest liberty which Men of Learning may safely do He is very exact in citing those that he borrows any thing from and desires the Reader not to take this exactness as an Ostentation of his Learning which certainly is a better way than barely to cite such Authors as are serviceable to him He divides his Work into four Parts which in all contain forty one Dissertations in each of which many different Subjects are Treated on as happens in Persons who know much or who wou'd divert the Reader with variety of Objects We shou'd almost make a Book it self if we shou'd speak to every one of the Dissertations It shall suffice to give the Analysis of the first where it is examined who was the first Writer and a Judgment may be made of the rest by this Piece The first thing this Author does is to relate the Dispute formerly rais'd amongst the Doctors concerning the Prophecy of Enoch which the Apostle St. Iude makes mention of Some said this Patriarch's Prophecy was committed to Writing others maintain the contrary many Fathers and especially St. Augustin was of the first Opinion they often spoke of the Book of Enoch Some have made no difficulty to hold it as Canonical and wou'd prove by it that the Angels begat the Giants by the Commerce they had with Women There are some which say the Prophecy of Enoch contained four thousand and eighty two Lines and that it spoke of all that shou'd happen to the Posterity of the Patriarchs of the Crimes and Chastisements of the Iews of the Death that they shou'd make the Messiah suffer of their being dispersed through all the World and of the second Coming of Jesus Christ to judge Mankind They also pretended they found many Mathematical Opinions and that Noah had taken a great deal of Care to secure this Work in the Ark. After that the Author relates also many more ridiculous Fancies some have said that the Angel Raziel Tutor to Adam gave him a Book containing all Sciences and that after he was put out of the Garden of Eden he had it again suffering him to touch it at his humble Entreaties Others say that Adam did not receive this Book 'till after he had sinned then having besought God Almighty to grant him some small Consolation in the unhappy State he had reduced himself to they say that three days after he had thus begg'd of God the Angel Raziel brought him a Book which discovered to him all the Secrets of Nature the Power how to Command both good and bad Angels and the four parts of the Earth of Interpreting Dreams and Prodigies and foretelling whatsoever was to happen in the time to come They say also that this Book pass'd from Father to Son 'till it fell into the Hands of Solomon and that it gave to this learned Prince the Virtue of Building the Temple by means of the Worm Zamir without making use of any Instrument of Iron Mr. Selden afterwards speaks of those two Celebrated Pillars that some say the Successors of Seth built to engrave upon them the Discoveries that they made in the Sciences He also speaks of the suppositious Books of Enoch and Noah that Postulus forg'd in the last Age of the Book that Philo makes mention of as Abraham's which was Translated from Hebrew into Latin by Ritangelius of the Book that is entituled The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Fable of the Rabbini who said God writ his Law two thousand Years before the Creation of the World He might have added to all these Fabulous Works the Testament of Iacob the Ladder of Iacob which was a Book very much esteem'd amongst certain Hereticks call'd Ebionites the Books of Enoch upon the Elements and some other Philosophical Subjects those of Noah upon the Mathematicks and Sacred Ceremonies those that they attributed to Abraham teaching Philosophy in the Valley of Mamre to those he lead against the five
attributed to him Mr. Rivet perhaps might be deceived by a popular Prejudice that 's received in favour of these Martyrs who have always been lookt upon as Men of great Understandings Supposing he could not Praise their Piety without having a good Opinion of their Learning 'T was this made Photius guilty of the same who is else a very Judicious Critic and say that Iustin was come to the highest Perfection of the Heathen and particularly of the Christian Philosophy that he had a very great knowledge in all Learning especially in History Whereas we are assur'd on the contrary that he was no good Historian as appears by many gross Faults that he hath committed 1. In his Exhortation to the People he makes Herod contemporary with Ptolomy Philadelphia in speaking of the Seventy two Interpreters which he had seen in some of the Monks Apartments at Alexandria 2. He Cites Hystaspes and the Oracles of the Sybils against the Heathens which made them ridicule him as Blondal shews in his first Book of the Sybils c. 2. where he hath Collected divers Contempts of this Holy Man 3. Such another he made at Rome taking an Inscription writ in honour to an old Deity of the Sabins call'd Semo Sangus to have been done in favour of Simon the Magician The Inscription is now at Rome being dug up the beginning of this last Age in the very same place that Iustin said it was Nella isola del Terere 'T is true St. Irenaeus and Tertullian have committed the same mistake as many Learned Men have observed and amongst the rest Didier Herault in his Commentary on the Apologetic of Tertullian But 't is never the more excusable for that as the Author proves which we have just cited and who judiciously observes that the Christians in those Times drew all Advantages possible from the Actions Words and Writings of the Heathens which they often in favour of themselves interpreted contrary to the Opinion of the Author Omnia Gentium facta dicta scripta ita interpretabantur tunc temporis Christiani ut ea omnia proposito suo accommodarent aliquando contra Gentium mentem But to return to our Author although he hath very much praised Iustin Martyr he Remarks some Doctrins that he found in his Writings which are not Conformable to those commonly received and especially at this time 1. He believed that Socrates Heraclitus and other Virtuous Heathens may have been Saved and to maintain this Opinion says they were in some manner Christians because they have in part known the Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have exhorted Men to live conformably to this Reason Which Sentiment was founded upon one of the Platonics that says the Supreme God had before the Creation produced a Being they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who stood between God and the Creatures by whom he Created the World and all rational Beings which are such no farther than they participate of this Reason Some of the first Fathers who were Platonics as Iustin Origen and many others have believed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which Plato speaks was nothing else but the Reason or the Word for it signifies both that is mentioned in the first Chapter of St. Iohn so that Iustin had reason to say the Ancients who spoke of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew Jesus Christ in part and by Consequence might be Saved St. Origen in a place that Dr. Cave hath cited speaks after this manner As he that is God over all things is call'd The God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not simply God So even the Source of Reason that resides in each rational Being is call'd The Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas that cannot properly be called so tha◠is in every rational Being this Name belonging only to the first Reason There is the same Relation between Reason which is in each rational Being and the Reason that was in the beginning from the Supreme God as there is between the Reason and the Supreme God For the same Agreement that is between God the Father God himself the true God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and between his Image and the Images of this Image between the Reason it self and that which is in every one of us Both is as the Sourse the Father of the Divinity the Son of the Reason Hence 't is not said that Man is the Image of God but that he is made after his Image If these words were taken to the utmost Rigour it would be very difficult to distinguish this Opinion of St. Origen and that of many other Ancients from the Arians whom they have been accused of favouring For it may plainly be proved that the Logos of the Platonics according to these Philosophers is of a different kind from that of the Supreme God 2. The second Error in his Writings is the Reign of a thousand Years He believed that after the Resurrection Jesus Christ should come again in a visible manner with the Patriarchs and Prophets into Ierusalem which should be then rebuilt much more magnificent than before Many of the Primitive Fathers were of this Opinion also as Papias Bishop of Hierapolis St. Iraeneus Bishop of Lyons Nepos Apollinarus Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius and many others 3. He believed the Souls of the Fathers of the Old Testament were before the coming of Jesus Christ in some manner under the Power of the Devil and that since Jesus Christ the Souls of the Righteous ascended not to Heaven immediately after their Death nor were received there till the Resurrection Nevertheless they continu'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an agreeable Place even so the Souls of the Wicked are where they are as much displeased with their Habitation still expecting the day of Jugdment Iustin repeats the same to confute some Hereticks who denied the Resurrection in supposing the Soul was received into Heaven immediately after Death 'T is not his Opinion alone almost all the Ancient Fathers have said as much among which St. Irenaeus Tertullian Origen St. Hilary Prudence St. Ambrose and St. Augustine c. They have very agreeably described this Place which received the Souls of Good Men under the Names of Paradice and the Bosom of Abraham which some of them have supposed in the midst of the Earth St. Iustin had not a less number of Fathers on his side in another point as visibly absurd That the Angels to whom before the Deluge God had given dominion over the Earth becoming enamoul'd with the Daughters of Men marry'd with them and so fell from the Excellency of their Nature 4. I could also says Dr. Cave insist upon what some have so often repeated in our Martyr which is that he hath very much exalted the Free Will of Man an Opinion that was generally received by the Fathers of the first Ages before the Pelagian Controversies entred into the World though the necessity of Grace has been acknowledged by many as our Author
proves from divers passages of St. Iustin St. Irenaeus Clement of Alexandria Tertullian and even of Origen himself Dr. Cave ends this Life with an Observation that he passes by many other speculative Notions in our Martyr which are not Conformable to the Truth and the occasion of them seems to be the great esteem he had for the Platonic Philosophy endeavouring as much as possibly he could to make it agree with the Christian Religion By this 't is plainly seen that Speculative Errors are not wholly inconsistent with true Piety and that the most solid Virtue is not able to render a Man infallible nor give him a Right to decide Controversies These Remarks sufficiently testifie one cannot take those Praises that are sometimes given to the Ancients a little too profusely as an absolute sign all their Opinions are approved on since Dr. Cave after he had very much praised the holy Martyr relates divers Errors he was guilty of 'T is apparent by this how we must also understand the praises Mr. Du Pin hath given him in his Ecclesiastical Bibliothique p. 160. where he says He to Admiration understood the Holy Scripture and Prophecies therein contained had a perfect knowledge of our Religion So that there was hardly one of the Ancients spoke more exactly of all our Mysteries than he has done There is not the least Reason to think Dr. Cave or Mr. Du Pin approved this Thought of St. Iustin which nevertheless they have neither of them placed amongst the Errors of this Father That although we should acknowledge Jesus Christ to be simply but a Man born after the same manner as others are might nevertheless be proved that he is the Messiah It follows not says he in his Dialogue with Trypho that Jesus is not the Christ of God though I could not demonstrate his Existence before the beginning of the World as Son of the Creator of all things and as God and that he is born Man of a Virgin c. It may only be said that I am mistaken but it must not be denied that he was the Christ although he was believed to be Man born of Men and that he is become the Christ by the Choice that God hath made of him For there are some of our Religion that in making a Profession do believe that he is the Christ maintain that he is Man born of Men However I am not of their Opinion no more than the most part of the Christians c. 5. Origen was born at Alexandria about the One hundred eighty sixth Year of our Lord. His Father whose name was Leonidas suffered Martyrdom in the Two hundred and second Year after he had taken much care in the Education of his Son whom he himself instructed in Learning and Religion Origen from his Childhood was excessively Curious and often tired his Father in proposing too many Questions to him upon the Sacred Writ As soon as he was advanced a little in Years he studied under Clement Catechist of Alexandria and afterwards under Ammonius who had set up a new School of Philosophy where he taught the Opinions of Plato and those of Aristotle as he believed reconcilable together They called him Ammonius Saccas because that before he applied himself to Philosophy he had been a Porter and gain'd his Livelihood by carrying Sacks of Corn. Porphyry faith he renounced Christianity to embrace the Pagan Religion but Dr. Cave makes it appear he was deceived in that as well as when he said Origen was born a Heathen Ammonius was so much esteemed amongst the Pagans themselves that Hierocles calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God and that Plotin who could find no Satisfaction in other Schools engaged himself with much Application to that of Ammonius Origen learned the Platonick Philosophy under him at the same time with Plotin Our Author observes here that we must take care not to confound a Heathen Philosopher call'd Origen with him whereof we are a speaking Porphyry Hierocles Proclus and Eunapius have made mention of the first with much Honor and Eunapius â—aith he was a Condisciple of Porphyry not at Alexandria under Ammonius but at Rome in the School of Plotin Porphyry had often seen our Origen at Tyre but he was not his Fellow-Pupil being much younger than he Lucas Holstenius wonders at the reason that he did not say Porphyry studied with Origen Son of Leonidas but he should have concluded according to Dr. Cave that it was not that Origen he meant but another The tenth Year of the Reign of Severus Leonidas Father to Origen suffered Martyrdom at Alexandria where he took all possible care to hinder his Son from following him to the Stake His Mother to no purpose employ'd her Authority and Tears to dissuade him from it she could not hinder him from hiding his Garments so Artificially that he continued in the Lodging with them by force Leonidas's Goods being confiscated Origen had in an instant been reduced to great Misery without the Charity of a Lady of Quality at Alexandria who entertained him with many others amongst whom was Paul of Samosatenus afterwards Famous for his Heresie But Origen lived not long at the Expence of this Illustrious Lady He opened a School where he taught Literature which gave him an Opportunity to become much more Learned himself in instructing others By which he acquired so great a Reputation that at eighteen Years of Age he was chose a Collegue or Successor to Clement under whom he had studied That he drew so great a Number of Auditors he was soon obliged to leave off teaching his School and apply himself entirely to the Instruction of the Catechumens to whom he taught the Principles of Christianity He was so happy in this Employ that many of those he had instructed gain'd the Crown of Martyrdom among which was Plutarch Serenus Heraclidus Heron and Herais who in spight of the Weakness of her Sex died as constantly as any of the four Men I have named During the Fury of these Persecutions Origen not content only to teach the Catechumens visited those also that were put in Prison accompanying them to the place of Execution endangering his Life a thousand times during the Government of Letus and Aquila who were one after the other Govornors of Egypt 'T was about that time Origen did an Action for which he was as much esteem'd by some as blamed by others Being unwilling to encumber himself with Matrimony and finding he was of an unfit Temperament to preserve himself Chaste in a single Life or it may be to shun the Suspicion of the Heathens he resolved to take an effectual way to suppress all Youthful Desires Some say he made use of the Application of some Remedies and others of a Knife He thought himself Authoriz'd in it from these words of Jesus Christ That some make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven which he believed ought to be understood in the Letter of
he thought there were three Gods also as Dr. Cave remarks St. Athanasius is far from attributing any Error to him in this Case and cites him among the Fathers who have been Orthodox touching the Trinity and calls him an admirable Man and one of great Studies 3. Many of his Opinions are rather Sentiments of Philosophy and Speculation than of Religion also we see not that the Councils have denied any thing about him nor that the Divines raise any Disputes concerning him amongst themselves 4. He hath written many things for his own particular Use and which were publish'd against his will as Pamphilus hath formerly complain'd casting the fault upon his Friend Ambrose to whom he had communicated them 5. The Hereticks have corrupted and added many things to the Works of Origen as Ruffinus hath shew'd more at large and Origen himself complain'd on even in his Life time Ruffinus also makes it appear that the same Fate happened to the Writings of St. Clement Romanus Clement and Dionisius of Alexandria and to Dionisius of Corinth But Dr. Cave believes that it was not amiss that Marcellus and Ancyrus had reasonably said that Origen had mingled too much Platonism with the Christian Religion and that he began to Teach in a time in which he had much more studied Plato than the holy Scripture Thus Dr. Cave c. Gregory Nazianzen his Works and Life with many of his Epistles c. at Cologne in Folio 1690. GRegory was born according to the most exact Chronology in the Year Three Hundred in a Village of the second Cappadocia named Arianze near the City Nazianze whence the Surname is taken which is commonly given to Gregory His Father and Mother were Persons of Quality and whose Virtue was esteem'd of those that knew them if we may believe their Son who always speaks of them with much praise He is free to tell us that his Father who likewise was named Gregory was born of Parents who had I know not what Religion divided betwixt the Pagans and Jews They had neither Idols nor Sacrifices but they adored the Fire and Torches They observed the Sabbath abstained from Eating of certain Beasts and yet despised Circumcision They took the name of Hypsistaires because they boasted they did adore but the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These People seemed to have borrowed the worshipping of Fire from the Magi of Cappadocia which were called Pyrathes because of the respect they had for the Fire which they look'd upon as the Symbol of the Supreme Divinity But they were not like them in other things It is a Wonder that Gregory who as we see denies that they adored Idols and saith that his Father was born in these Sentiments should elsewhere positively say that he worshipped the Images of Animals It seems that his Memory was a little short in this place or his great Zeal made him fall into this Contrariety unless we excuse him by taking what he saith of the Idols of Animals which his Father adored for an Exaggeration of Rhetorick a figure common enough in the Style of Gregory As for his Mother Nonna she was born of Christian Parents who had carefully educated her and who had found in her a Disposition extremely inclined to Piety Her Son also praiseth infinitely her Wit and her Conduct A Woman thus qualified must be much afflicted for her Husband's Inclination to such Errors as those of the Hypsistaires yet he was of a very mild Temper and extreme orderly so that although his Sentiments were erroneous nothing could be found of ill in his Manners Nonna would continually press him to get himself instructed in the Christian Religion and as he could not be prevailed with it happened that he had a Dream which made him resolve to do it He dreamed that he Sung these words of the Psalm cxxii I have rejoiced in that I was told we shall go into the House of the Lord. This manner of Singing though new gave him delight and his Wife failed not to make use of this occasion to induce him to embrace Christianity It happened when Leontius Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia passed by that place with some other Prelates to go to Nice where Constantius called the Council Gregory went to see him and told to him the desire he had to become a Christian. Leontius got him instructed and whilst they were instructing him for a Catechumen he kneeled without any bodies advice whereas Catechumens were commonly standing whilst they were instructed Those that were there observed this Posture because it was that of Priests whilst they were Consecrated His Son testifieth that every body guessed from thence that he would be one day honoured with the Order of Priesthood After that as the Bishop of Nazianze baptized him those that were present saw him go out of the Water all environ'd with light and the Bishop could not with-hold saying that Gregory would certainly succeed him in the Episcopacy as it really fell out after that the See of Nazianze had been sometime vacant His Son in relating these two Circumstances treats on them both as Miracles and as then so at this day all the World believed not all that Ecclesiasticks said he declares he proposes these Marvels but to the Faithful only Because there is none of these fine things which appear credible to prophane Minds Without being Prophane we cannot but suspect not of Falsehood but of a little Credulity and Exaggeration these Rhetorical Souls which draw an Advantage from every thing in relating matters of this Nature When we think to declare what we have seen we often say what we judge of a thing which surprizes us and instead of affirming what we see with our Eyes we draw some doubtful Consequences from a prejudiced Mind so we believe without enquiry all that is advantageous to that which we have embraced and all that is contrary thereunto is false or at least suspicious If we do not make these Reflections in reading Gregory of Nazianze we shall run the hazard either ' to take him for a Man of little Truth or to believe his Miracles suspicious Nonna had at the beginning of her Marriage but one Daughter Gorgonia of whom Gregory her Brother speaks in divers places who was the first of Nonnas Children her Mother wished very much for a Son and vowed to Consecrate him to God if she had one whereupon she had presently after a Dream that she saw the Face of the Son which she was to have and what should be his Name Instead of one Son she had two of whom she took great Care as to their Education because she found them of a Nature worthy of Instruction As soon as Gregory was a little grown he was sent to Cesarea the Metropolis of Cappadocia where the best Masters had the Instruction of him to wit to understand the Greek Poets and Orators and to learn perfectly that Tongue This was the only
Gregory had spent Thirty Years in learning or teaching Rhetorick as he witnesseth himself to wit that he quitted Athens about the Year Three hundred fifty four or Three hundred fifty five It is hard to believe that having a very ancient Father and Mother he did not think of going to them sooner and did not undertake to do the Christian Church some other Service than to study or teach Rhetorick If all the rest of his Life did not shew it as may be easily perceived by reading the remainder of this History Iulian who was afterwards made Emperor resided also there rather as Gregory saith to consult the Soothsayers concerning his Fortune than to study Philosophy From that time Gregory began to hope for no good from him as may be seen in the Speeches which he made against him When Basil was gon he particularly applied himself to Eloquence and declaimed with such Applauses that every one esteemed him the greatest Orator of those times His Inclination as he witnesseth him self was not for that kind of Life and he left Athens soon after without taking leave of any He had a natural love for Retirement and this hindred him from any way of Living where there was much business Those that live thus and acquit themselves well of their Employments appeared to him to be profitable only to others and those that live quite retir'd seem to him profitable only to themselves He wished he could keep in the middle of these two Extremes and to lead a kind of a Monastical Life in the midst of Men without taking any Occupation upon him but such as he would willingly choose and without being Subject to troublesome Regularities which give a distaste to the finest Employments He left Athens with these Thoughts and took the way of Constantinople by Land he found their his Brother Cesaire who was arrived by Sea from Alexandria where he had studied Physick He had acquired so much Reputation during his stay at Constantinople that the Emperor would have kept him for his Physitian made him Burgess of Constantinople and give him the Dignity of Senator and a considerable Interest What Inclination soever Cesaire had to yield to his Solicitations the desire of his Parents and Exhortations of his Brother made him omit all this and take his Journy with him to Nazianze but having lived there some time he returned to Constantinople in which it was far more pleasing to live than in a desert City of Cappadocia As for Gregory he got himself Baptized at Nazianze and his Father soon after engaged him to give himself up to a studious Life and to take the Orders of Priesthood Gregory a long while after could not but call this Action of his Father Tyranny But the Respect he had for him and the Incumbrance wherein honest Men laboured about the Controversies of Arianism where even his Father was entangled obliged him patiently to bear the Yoak that was put upon him Basil had got a Promise of him that when he should quit Athens he would come to live with him but Gregory could not be as good as his Word being obliged to live with his Parents He invited Basil to come to see him sometimes but we find not that they ever were a long while together Several were desirous that he would get himself ordained Priest and then frequented no more the Church of Nazianze for that reason as he upbraids them in one of his Speeches in which notwithstanding he praiseth the Concord and Orthodoxy of this Church He gives them also a remarkable Praise viz. That they made Piety consist not in speaking much of God but in keeping silence and obeying him If the ancient or modern Divines had endeavor'd to deserve this Praise Christianity would not have been torn by so many Disputes nor be as it now is Constans to appease if it were possible the Contentions of Arianism call'd an Ecumenick Council in CCCLIX which was divided into two Assemblies The Eastern Bishops were to hold theirs in Selucia in Isauria and those of the Western at Rimini a City of Romain The Arians which were at Selucia made a Confession of Faith in which supposing they should make use of no term which was not in Holy Writ and that consequently that of Consubstantial was not to be used they contented themselves to say That the Son was like to the Father according to the Apostle who saith that the Son is the Image of the Invisible God There they also condemned those who did say That the Son was not like the Father It was Acacius Bishop of Cesarea in Palestine who had compos'd this Confession of Faith The same Acacius and those of his Party approved of the Confession of Rimini which was conceived in such like terms They added only that mention should not be made in this occasion neither of Substance nor Hypostasis because these terms which had caused so many Disputes were not found in Holy Writ Notwithstanding the Arians being pressed by the Orthodox to give their Opinion in what consisted this resemblance of the Son with the Father made it consist in Will only whereas the others maintained that the Substance of the Son tho' distinct was altogether like the Substance of the Father But upon each side they used equivocal terms so that unhappy Inferences were made by those which were not well acquainted with these kinds of Subtleties in equivocating and confounding their different Sentiments The Father of Gregory was one of those which fell into this Ambuscade he subscribed the Confessions of Faith of Seleucia and Rimini The marvelous light which appeared at his Baptism nor the Studies he since made had not cleared his mind so as to give him a true Intelligence of the Arian Controversies This Action of the Bishop of Nazianze alarum'd the Monks of Cappadocia who full of Zeal for Consubstantiality refused to communicate with this good Man and drew a part of the People after them It seems that Gregory the Son was not then at Nazianze seeing he would have hindred his Father from committing a Fault which he afterwards obliged him to repair by a publick Retraction Having thus appeased the Monks Gregory the Son ascended into the Pulpit and made a Discourse concerning Peace which is the Twelfth of his Speeches in presence of his Father who was not to be compared to him in Eloquence and Ability 1. He saith That the Joy he had to see Peace return into the Church of Nazianze had induced him to make this Discourse whilst nothing before had obliged him to speak 2. That he was extremely concern'd at the Separation which was made before chiefly when he considered the Austere and Holy Life of the Monks which he describes by the bye with much Rhetorick 3. That Divisions are the cause of all sorts of Evils and that they had reason to praise God because that which arose in the Church of Nazianze was appeased 4. That
well one only Nature he directs his Discourse to the Sabellians but narrow and straitned and which hath not the Propriety of being the Principle of great things as not being capable thereof or not having a will for it It must needs be either by Envy or by Fear that you do not establish any thing which should equal it or that should oppose it But in as much as God is more excellent than Creatures so much is he most worthy of the first cause of being the Principle of a Divinity than of Creatures and of not descending to these latter but by a Divinity which is betwixt two As if the Divinity existed according to the Arians because of Creatures as it seemeth to those who are so very subtle If in confessing the Dignity of the Son and Holy Ghost we made them without a Principle or if we related them to a Principle of another Nature then we should dishonor Divinity or introduce Gods opposed one to another A little lower Gregory saith That the Unity moved it self by reason of its Bounty and that the number of two hath been surpassed because Divinity is beyond Matter and Form which are the two Principles whereof Bodies are composed that Trinity is limited by reason of its Perfection and surpasseth the Conjunction of two so that Divinity is neither too strait nor doth extend it self to Infinity The first addeth he hath something in it very derogatory and the second would cause Confusion The first is altogether Jewish and the second Heathenish The word to move it self in this occasion is a Platonick term which these Philosophers use when they speak of the Productions of Divinity and Gregory meaneth that Divine Nature hath been multiplied to three Hypostases or three Individuals which is opposed to Judaism which holds but one Supreme Nature and to Paganism which establisheth too great a number of Gods The Platonicks disputed amongst one another upon this the one maintain'd that Supreme Divinity hath not been multiplied but to their Gods and that all which is above that is not of a like nature and the others understood it in a greater number of Divinities Plato and Porphyrius were of the first Sentiment and Plotinus of the second Iulian having ascended the Throne in the Year CCLXI sought all manner of ways to ruin the Christians and perceiving they made great use of Pagan Authors whether to form themselves to Eloquence or to draw from thence Reasons fit for maintaining the Christian Religion and to attack Paganism he undertook to hinder the Christians from applying themselves to the Study of Literature Some Ancients say that he prohibited them not only to keep Schools themselves but also to frequent the Schools of Grammarians and Orators amongst the Pagans others seem only to say that Christians were prohibited to keep Schools Iulian himself saith formally in one of his Letters That the Children of Christians should not be hindred to go to the Schools of Pagans because those who offend not but for want of Wit ought to be taught and not punished Gregory of Nazianzen speaks of this Prohibition of Iulian in his third Speech but according to the Judicious Observation of a Modern speaking more like an Orator than an Historian it is hard to penetrate into his thoughts 'T is a bad effect of the continual Rhetorick of the Ancients They are so Eloquent that they are not understood 'T is likely that Iulian prohibited not the Children of Christians to go to the Schools of Pagan Doctors either because he saith it or because it was a good means to seduce them Hence some Learned Men amongst Christians as the two Apollinaries and Gregory put Scripture and Religion in Greek Verses or in fine Prose These Writings would supply the Reading of those of Ancient Pagans and Youth had no need of Grammarians for to understand them Parents could easily serve their Children in room of a Tutor to expound unto them these Christian Verses after having read Scripture Yet this Prohibition extreamly vexed the Christians which would not suffer their Grammarians their Rhetoricians and their Philosophers in the Churches of the Galileans these are the terms of Iulian to expound their Matthew and Luke If he never had done any other thing they would not have introduced so many new words nor so much subtiliz'd upon the Tenets then in Dispute and the Platonick Philosophy had not had so much share in their Decisions It was about this time that Cesar Brother to Gregory who returned as we have said to Constantinople was because of his Knowledge received first Physician to Iulian and placed amongst the number of the Friends of this Emperor who loved learned Men. Gregory writ him thereupon a Letter extreamly sharp wherein he told him that he had covered his Family with Confusion through his Conduct that every one thought it strange that the Son of a Bishop should follow the Court and should seek for Honors and get Riches amongst Pagans that he made his Fathers Life bitter who could not reprehend others of what his Son did commit that they were forced to hide this Conduct from his Mother fearing it should make her dye for very Grief that he had Means enough to live Honestly without exposing himself to so great a Danger that in fine if he continued in this manner of Life he must be ranked amongst such Christians as are least worthy of bearing this name If this Letter obliged not Cesar to return to his Parents there is a likelihood it strengthened him against the Endeavors of Iulian of making him abandon Christianism whereof his Brother speaks in one of his Speeches He saith That Cesar having answered to all his Reasons protested to him he was a Christian and would be so all his Life and that Iulian cried out before several Persons of the Court when he thought on the Bishop of Nazianze and his two Sons O Happy Father O Happy Children Cesar either wearied by the Solicitations of Iulian or touched with the Advertisements of his Brother returned to Nazianze in the time that Iulian departed to go against the Persians It appears to be about the same time that Iulian sent a Captain with Archers to Nazianze to seize on the Church of the Christians but far from being able to do what he desired for if he had not escaped immediately by advice of the Bishop or of some other Person he would have returned with his Legs broken so great was the Anger and Zeal of the Priest of Gregory the Father for this Temple These are the own words of his Son which shews that these good Folks did not always Preach Passive Obedience In the Year CCCLXIII Iulian was kill'd in his retreat from before the Army of the Persians the effect if we believe herein the Charitable Gregory of the Prayers of the same Bishop and the same People who were for breaking the Legs of the Captain of the Archers of whom
Cesairia died This was a little after the Earth-quake which happened in Bithynia in the Month October the Year CCCLXVIII He was then at Nice where he exercised the Employment of Treasurer to the Emperor This City was almost totally ruined and he was the only Officer of Valens that escaped this Danger Gregory made a Funeral Oration in his Honor which is the Tenth of those which are in being He makes there an Abridgment of his Life whose principal Circumstances have been related and describeth the Vanity of all we enjoy here below and makes divers Reflections upon Death and of the manner of comforting ones self for that of Relations He wisheth that his Brother may be in the Bosom of Abraham where-ever it may be and towards the end describing the Happiness of good Men after Death he saith that according to wise Men their Souls are full of Joy in the Contemplation of the Happiness that attends them till after their Resurrection they are received into Celestial Glory Cesairia dying left his Goods to the Poor and yet there was much Difficulty in getting them those that were at his Death having seiz'd on the greatest part as Gregory complains in his eighteenth Letter where he prayeth Sophronius Governor of Bithynia to order that Business Basil Friend to Gregory being made Bishop of Cesarea in the Year CCCLXX had some Disputes with Valens of which we shall not speak here because it signifieth nothing to the Life of his Friend It was perhaps for that reason that this Emperor divided Cappadocia into two Provinces and made Tyanus Metropolis in the second Cappadocia As the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans was regulated upon the Extent of the Province divers Bishops who were before Suffragans of Cesarea became so to Tyanus so that Basil found himself the Head of a fewer Number of Bishops than before The new Metropolitan drew to him the Provincial Assemblies seized of the Revenues of his Diocess and omitted nothing to diminish the Authority and Revenues of Basil. Anthimus for that was the Name of the Bishop of Tyane who was an Arian concealed it under the pretence of Piety and said he would not abandon the Flocks to the Instruction of Basil whose Sentiments concerning the Son of God were not upright nor suffer that any Tribute should be paid to Hereticks Gregory assures us that he would send Soldiers to stop the Mules of Basil to hinder him from getting his Rents Basil found no other Remedy to that than the creating new Bishops which would have more care of the Flocks than he could have and by means of whom each City should bring him in what was his due Sasime being one of these Cities in which he had resolved to send Bishops he cast his Eyes upon his Friend Gregory to send him there 3 without considering that this place was altogether unworthy of a Man of his desert It was a Village without Water and Greens and full of Dust a passage for Soldiers and inhabited only by a few Ignorant People The Revenues that could be drawn from this Bishoprick were very small and besides all that he must be resolved to defend them by force against Anthime or to be subject to this new Metropolitan Gregory refused this Employ but at length the Importunities and Addresses of Basil which gained Gregory the Father obliged him to accept thereof It seemeth he composed at that time his seventh Speech wherein he speaks to his Father and Basil and desire their help and Instructions for the Conduct of his new Church of Sasime He saith notwithstanding to Basil that the Episcopal Throne had extreamly changed him and that he had much more mildness whilst he was amongst the Sheep than since he was become Pastor The next day he made another Speech upon the arrival of Gregory of Nysse Brother to Basil to whom he complains of the Violence that had been done him by his Brother and as it was the Feast of some Martyr he adds divers things on that occasion upon the manner of celebrating Feasts not by profane Rejoycings but by exercises of Piety He saith amongst other things That then was the time to raise one's self and to become God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be admitted to speak thus and that in that Martyrs do the Office of Mediators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Expression to become God that is to say to become a good Man and to despise earthly things is frequent enough in the Writings of Gregory He saith elsewhere that Priests are Gods and deifie others that Solitude deifieth Introducing Basil who refused to embrace Arianism he makes him say that he could not adore a Creature he who also was a Creature of God and had received Commandment to be God We must remark that this Expression was us'd amongst the Pythagorists as may be seen by the last of the golden Verses of Pythagoras upon which we may consult Hyerocles When Gregory was at Sasime he thought he perceived by the misery of this Place that Basil did despise him and abused his Friendship Though he kept the Government thereof for a little while he made no other Episcopal in it he prayed not there in publick with the People not imposed his hands on any As he went to it against his will and without obliging himself to tarry there he thought he might leave this Church and return into the Solitude from whence they had drawn him when he returned to Nazianze He complained very much of the Pride of Basil whom the Episcopal Throne of Cesarea had so blinded that he had no longer any Consideration for his Friends These Complaints as Just as they were yet passed for Attempts in the Mind of the Metropolitan who seemed to have forgotten the Esteem he had for Gregory and the Services which the latter had rendred him in his Promotion to the See of Cesarea Yet Gregory discovered not the unworthy manner wherewith his Friend had treated him neither then nor since Gregory having abandoned Sasime retired into a Hospital of the Sick whom he took care to comfort and in vain his Father entreated him to return to Sasime he would never be resolved to do it nor digest the hard usage of Basil who of fifty Bishopricks which were in his Diocess had given him the least All that Gregery the Father could obtain of his Son was that he would take the Care of the Bishoprick of Nazianze during his Life without engaging himself to succeed him In that time it seems that a Commissary of the Emperor's to Tax the Inhabitants of Nazianze and who had been a particular Friend to Gregory gave some suspicion to his Flock that he would not Tax them very lightly they thereupon forc'd Gregory to make that Discourse which is the Ninth of his Speeches where he exhorts all Conditions to Piety and speaks to Iulian who was the Commissioner of the Emperor to induce him to settle this Tax
like an Honest Man Notwithstanding there happened some Disturbances at Nazianze which irritated the Imperial Commissary and gave occasion to Gregory to rehearse the Seventeenth of his Speeches which is upon the same subject and wherein he exhorts the People to Patience and the Commissary to Moderation It 's also believed that it was about the same time that his Sister Gorgonia who had been Married to a Person of Quality named Vitalian died Gregory made her Funeral Oration which is the Eleventh in order We shall not stay to relate the Praises he gives her for her Piety and Wise Conduct but only Remark two things 1. That Gorgonia had not been Baptized with her Husband but a little before her Death according to the Custom of that time her Brother had such an Esteem of her Piâ—ty that he dares say there is scarcely any one but herself to whom Baptism hath been rather a Seal than a Grace that is to say rather a Confirmation of the Virtue she before had than the Infusion of a new Sanctity 2. At the end of his Speech after having said in addressing himself to her by a Figure of Rhetorick common in our Author that she enjoyeth the Contemplation of Celestial Glory he continues thus If you have any regard to us and if God hath given this Privilege to Holy Souls to perceive things of this nature receive our Speech rather than Funeral Gifts By this we see be doubted whether the Souls of the Dead knew what was done here on Earth We may besides Remark the Word hath been translated Privilege which is the same that Hesiod makes use of when he saith that Iupiter hath given this advantage to Kings to be after their Death the Guardians of Men. In the Year CCCLXXI Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria being dead Gregory composed his Funeral Speech some Years after being at Constantinople whereof we shall say something when we shall come to the part of the Life of Gregory Gregory made in the Year CCCLXXIV another Funeral Oration in the Honour of his Father which is the Nineteenth in order He testifieth that he died almost at a hundred Years of Age after being Bishop forty five Years His Son makes at length his Panegyrick in giving an Abridgment of his Life and endeavours to comfort his Mother Nonna whom he also praiseth much for the Loss she had sustained He directs himself to his Father whom he prayeth to let him know what Glory he was in and to conduct both the Flock and Pastors of whom he had had the name of Father and principally his Son He puts not a Word which may excuse so violent a Figure as this Prosopaeia and if elsewhere he had not used some mollifying Expression on such occasions we should with much ado have distinguish'd this Apostrophe from a true Invocation His Mother Nonna who was almost of the Age of her Husband died soon after and it was not requisite that Gregory should make any Discourse in her Praise because he had already made her Panegyrick in the Funeral Discourse of his Father After the Death of the latter some would have had him to have taken upon him the Bishoprick of Nazianze and it was pretended he had engaged to stay in it when he begun to take care of it But he excused himself on the account of his Age the Bishops of the Province named Eulalius to succeed his Father on which the report rising that this Election was done in spight of Gregory he writ to Gregory of Nyssa to shew him that nothing was done herein but at his request As the Business did not immediately come to that push and that Gregory had feared he should be forced to stay at Nazianze he retired to Seleucia into a Monastery where he remained a sufficient time staying to see the Church of Nazianze provided Yet he returned into this City afore the Election was ended and was urged anew to take his ancient Post but he never would The Author of his Life assures us it was at this time that Basil built an Hospital for the Leprous and that on this occasion Gregory made his Discourse of Charity towards the Poor and particularly towards those that were sick of a Leprosie In this Speech are divers Reflections upon Piety in general and touching the Use of good and bad Fortune in this Life It is very seldom that Gregory applies himself to one matter only and to an Order that is clear and void of Digressions During the Empire of Valens who favoured the Arians this Sect and that which sprung from it had gained a great many People on their side Constantinople was chiefly full of Arians and Apollinarists who believed that the Divinity of Jesus Christ served for a Soul to his Body That occasioned several Bishops and many of the People which followed the Council of Nice to desire Gregory to go to Constantinople to strengthen the Orthodox and to oppose the Hereticks He declares he undertook this Voyage purely against his will particularly because the Report run that a Synod of Apollinarists was going to be held there to establish their Opinions Being arrived at Constantinople towards the end of the Year CCCLXVIII he lodged at one of his Kinsmens whom some Authors conjecture to be Nicobulus who had espoused Alypiana Daughter to Gorgonia Sister to Gregory Valens had given the Arians all the Churches of Constantinople so that Gregory was forced to preach in the House of his Kinsman There was in a short time such a great Crowd of People that this House having no Chamber which could contain them he to whom it belonged pulled it down to make it a Church It was called the Anastasia to wit the Church of Resurrection because the Belief of the Orthodox was as if it had been risen again in that place The Arians then raised almost all the City against him accusing him of believing several Gods He attributes the Zeal of the People against him to their Ignorance of the manner whereby the Trinity ought to be reconciled with the Unity of God It was not altogether the Fault of the People because Gregory himself speaks thereof in such a manner as seem'd as if he introduced that in common Discourse which would be call'd Three Gods although according to the manner he defines Unity it must be confessed he believed but one He complains that Stones were cast at him upon that account and that he was cited before the Judge as a Seditious Man All this made him but the more Famous and augmented the number of his Auditors Then it was that St. Ierom heard him as he witnesseth in divers places We have elsewhere a passage of this Father where he speaks but very indifferently of the Eloquence of Gregory whom he describeth as a Declaimer that the People applauded without understanding what he said The number of the Orthodox increasing every day they desired to have a Bishop of
their own Judgment and generally cast their Eyes upon Gregory The Orthodox Bishops of the East and principally Melece of Antioch Basil of Cesarea and Peter of Alexandria favoured him openly yet their design succeeded not There was in Alexandria one Maximus by Profession a Cynick yet a Christian. He pretended to be descended of a Noble Family and in which there had even been some Martyrs After the Death of Athanasius the Orthodox being persecuted in Egypt he had removed into a Village of the Deserts of Thebaides named Oasis He went cloathed like the Philosophers to wit covered with a poor Cloak he would have neither his Hair nor Beard shaved and carried a Stick as Diogenes did Living thus after a manner most Austere he would take the liberty of censuring the Vices of all People without having any regard to their Quality as the Ancient Cynicks used to do Notwithstanding under this severe Outwardness was hidden a Soul Fraudulent Ambitious Malicious Covetous and full of the most Shameful Lusts. But as that did not appear to the Eyes of Men he acquired a great Reputation not only amongst the People but also amongst the most Learned Men. He held Correspondency with the Bishops of Cesarea in Cappadocia Friend to Gregory as it appears by two Letters of Basil which are directed to him Gregory received him so well at his arrival at Constantinople that he made a Speech in Honor of him where he omits nothing that could make this Impostor pass for a great and good Man But having since known his Fraud instead of the Name of Maximus which was at the Head of this Speech he put that of Hieron and entituled it thus A Speech to the Praise of Hieron a Philosopher of Alexandria sent into Exile for his Faith and returned three Years after Gregory shews in this Discourse what use could be made of the Cynick Philosophy in Christianity and speaketh of the Persecutions which the Princes who had favoured Arianism had raised against the Orthodox particularly in Egypt and to Maximus the Philosopher He endeth in expounding the Mystery of the Trinity and in exhorting his Philosopher to keep himself constantly applied to the wholsome Doctrin which held a Medium between Judaism and Arianism He often makes this Remark when he speaks of the Holy Trinity and in general we perceive in reading his Works that the same thoughts return frequently enough In admonishing his Philosopher to despise the Objections that are made against this Tenet he bids him not to be ashamed at the Accusation of Tritheism whilst others are in danger of establishing two Gods the Arians and Macedonians for you shall either resolve the Difficulty adds he as they do or you shall remain entangled like unto them c. Gregory having thus made the Panegyrick of Maximus received him in his House instructed him in the Religion Baptised him conferred the Orders upon him and communicated to him his most secret thoughts But so soon as Maximus thought himself capable enough he saw with Sorrow that they thought upon making Gregory Bishop of Constantinople He judged himself more worthy of this place than his Master and Benefactor and perceiving that one of the principal Priests of this Church envied Gregory this Dignity also he joyned with him to supplant him To which intent Maximus gained Peter of Alexandria who before favoured Gregory Some time after the Fleet of Corn which came every Year from Alexandria to Constantinople arrived there and the Masters of the Ships Hammon Aphammon Harpocras Steppas Rhodon Anubis and Hermanubis immediately joyned themselves to the Assembly of Gregory though they had orders to assist the Designs of Maximus whom two or three Egyptian Bishops after that upheld strongly Yet this arrival of the Egyptians and the Cares they took to joyn themselves to Gregory gave him so much satisfaction that he made a Speech thereupon where he infinitely praiseth the Piety and Constancy of those of Alexandria and expounds to them his Sentiments touching the Equality of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost He extends particularly to the Proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and makes use amongst other Reasons of this the terms of which would seem strange if already we had not observed such heretofore If the Holy Ghost is not God let him be made God before and after that let him make me a God equal to him in Honour This bold Expression seems to signifie nothing else but that if the Holy Ghost be not God he cannot Sanctifie Men which Gregory calls in another place to render Men Gods Some Learned Men think That it was about the same time that Gregory made the Panegyrick of St. Athanasius which is the Twenty first of his Speeches He reckons therein not only the Vertues of the Bishop of Alexandria but also gives more at large the History of the Persecutions he suffered and the Turmoils that happened during his Life He praiseth him above all for his Orthodoxy and for his Constancy in Defence of the Truth All those saith he that made Profession of our Doctrin were divided into three Parties The one had no good Sentiments for the Son and yet less for the Holy Ghost there were very few whose Doctrin was sound in these two respects He was the first and the only Person who durst publickly declare the Truth or at least he was upheld by very few Gregory gives besides to St. Athanasius the Glory of having reconciled the Eastern with the Western People who Disputing only about words believed each other reciprocally to be Hereticks We say conformably to the Doctrin of Piety that there is one Essence and three Existences Hypostases the first relating to the Nature of Divinity and the second to the Propriety of the three The Bishops of Italy conceived the same thing but by reason of the Poverty of their Tongue they could not distinguish the Hypostases from the Essence because that Latius would translate the word Hypostasis by that of Substance and they introduced that of Persons fearing it should seem that they acknowledged three Essences What came on it Something Ridiculous or rather worthy of Pity A pure Dispute in words appeared a Dispute touching Faith Those in the East were suspected of Sabellianism which said that there were Three Persons and in the West of Arianism those that spoke of Three Hypostases This it was the Disputes produced c. St. Athanasius remedied this in intervening with Mildness between each Party and in examining carefully the Sense of the words whereof they made use and as soon as they found that the Bishops of the East were of the same Sentiment as to the thing and differed but in Expressions he permitted the use of different Terms and reunited them in the bottom as Tenets To return to Maximus the Arrival of his Country-men in CCCLXXIX fortified his Party and the more to engage the Bishops of that Country to
were no sooner Sown than they were Born We make in one day and we bid those to be wise who have not learned to be so and who bring nothing to acquit them of Episcopacy but the desire of being Bishops 4. Gregory attributes to Basil Monastical Laws and written Prayers We have still the first without great Changes but the Liturgy which bears his Name hath been extreamly alter'd since 5. He praiesth not only his Friend but also makes his Apology against those who accused him of Pride of which notwithstanding he hath done it himself in divers Places and that suspected him of not ackowledging the Divinity of the Holy Ghost because he had not called him God in his Book Gregory saith that Basil did thus that he might not enrage Hereticks who could not suffer that this Title should be given to the Holy Ghost because the Holy Scripture doth not attribute it to him but that he had said the equivalent which was the same seeing it is not Words but things That do Save us 6. In fine after having described the Funerals of Basil he continues in these terms He is now in Heaven where he presents as I believe Sacrifices for us and where he Prayeth for the People for in leaving us he hath not quite Abandoned us c. He advertises me still and reprehends me in Visions at Night when I swerve in any thing from my Duty At the end of his Speech he asks his Succour in terms as earnest as if he hear'd him tho he seemed to doubt if he was in Heaven to wit in the Habitation of Supream Beatitude where Antiquity believed that excepting Martyrs none entred till after the Resurrection as we have already seen by another Place of Gregory It 's probable that 't was at Constantinople he Composed the greatest part of his Speeches which we have not as yet spoken of especially those that he made against the Arians wherein it was judged that he had defended the Council of Nice as well as in his other Writings that for that reason he had the Title of Divine Thereupon may particularly be read his twenty third Speech and the four following To give some Idea of these five Speeches of Gregory it must be observed that the design of the First is to shew that it belongeth not to all Men to Dispute of Religion and that it ought not to be done before all the World nor at all times nor with too much Heat He Censures the Hereticks as if they had no regard to all this and names Common Places which every Party have always made use of He complains that they no sooner thought a Man Holy but they Sainted him that Divines were Chosen as if by their Choice Wisdom and Learning were Inspired into them and that many Assemblies of Ignorants and Pratlers were Convocated As he knew that there was People that cou'd not abstain from Disputing to satisfie their desire he tells them he will open them a vast Career in which they may Exercise themselves without Danger As to Philosophy about the World or Worlds upon the Soul rational Beings more or less Excellent upon the Resurrection upon Iudgment upon Reward upon the Sufferings of Jesus Christ In these matters it is not unprofitable to succeed and there is no great danger in being deceiv'd therein Men have much changed their Opinions since and it is certain that we may fall into dangerous Errors and that some have effectively been deceived in these Articles In the second he comes to the Point and sets himself principally to prove against the Enomians the Incomprehensibility of God which he often repeats He likewise observes that there are many things in nature that we cannot comprehend with a design to conclude that it is an ill Argument to deny that something is in God simply because we comprehend it not After having thus prepared the Mind of his Reader or Auditor he declares his Sentiment upon the Divinity of the Son and upon the Holy Trinity in general which he does in such terms as are worthy of remark What we Honour is a Monarchy I do not call that Monarchy that is possessed by one only Person for it may be that a Person not agreeing with himself may do the same as if there were many but what is founded upon the equality of Nature the consent of the will the same Motion and upon the same Design in regard to what is produced by this Monarchy which is not possible in created Natures so that though those who compose this Monarchy differ in number their Power is not different If Gregory had believed the numerick Unity of the Divine Essence he had spoken very weakly and obscurely since that instead of Equality of Nature he should have said identity and not to speak of Consent of Will but of one Will in number In this same Speech Gregory answers Difficulties that the Arians made against the Eternal Generation of the Son which often are very weak whether it be that they are not well proposed or that the Arians argued no better Howbeit as the Personage of an Arian may be better represented the Opinions perhaps also of Nice can be defended with more Advantage Amongst the Objections of the Arians which Gregory starteth to himself this is one which is the Eighth That if the Son is in respect of his Essence the same with the Father it will follow that the Son was not begotten because the Father was not Gregory answereth not to this with the Scholasticks that the Son is not begotten in respect of his Essence who is the same in number with the Father as he ought to be according to the Principles of Modern Schools but that not to be begotten is not essential to Divinity to which he adds Are you Father to your Father that you may not be inferior to him in any thing because you are the same thing in regard to Essence If it was yet doubted if that Unity whereof our Orator speaks is a Specifick or Numerick Unity we only need read these words which are at the bottom of the following Page This is our Doctrin as it is likewise judged of things which are under the same kind as of a Horse an Oxe a Man and that each thing is properly called by the Name which agreeth to the nature whereof it participates whilst that which participates not hath not this name or beareth it but improperly So there is but one Essence and one Nature in God which is called alike although the Persons and Names are distinguished by our thoughts In the fourth Speech Gregory after his way resolves the Objections of the Arians by which they pretended to shew the inequality of the Father and the Son In the Fifth he disputes of the Consubstantiality of the Holy Ghost against the Macedonians Some of those who received the Divinity of the Son denied that of the Holy Ghost and had even the
might both have condescended a little nearer Afterwards we have an Account of several Schisms and the manner of their Growth all along very curious in his Remarks and very plentiful in the Citation of his Authorities in the Margent to which for greater Satisfaction we refer the more inquisitive Reader The Second Part of the Enquiry into the Constitution Discipline Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that Flourish'd within the first Three Hundred Years after Christ. 1. IN the First Chap. of this Second Part he begins with the manner of their Publick Worship in the Primitive Church when the Congregation was assembled the first Act of Divine Service was reading the Holy Scriptures and sometimes the Epistles and Tracts of Eminent and Pious Men he that read the Scriptures was particularly destin'd for that Office being the Lector which as we said above was preparative for an higher Office how long they read our Author could not determin but he says it was a considerable part of the Divine Service Then follow'd singing Psalms the Matter he says was not always the same some times as he Cites out of Tertullian they Sung an Hymn out of the Bible or one of their own composing one of their Hymns as he tells us being made on the Praise of our Saviour began thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hail Light they sung with their Voices altogether some times alternately Origen de Orat. § 6. Pag. 7. Ep. ad Trajan 'T was in Rhime Metre and Consort He mentions particularly the 133. Psalm Oh how good and pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity c. After singing of Psalms Preaching succeeded Scripturae leguntur Psalmi Canuntur ad Locutiones proferuntur Tertull. de Anima c. 3. p. 530. Scriptures are read Psalms sung and Sermons pronounced The Subject of the Sermon was usually a Commentary or Explanation of the Lessons which were just before read according to Iustin Martyr Ap. 2. p. 98. The Bishop made a Sermon by way of Instruction and Exhortation to the Imitation of those excellent things which had been read They usually preach'd about an Hour Origen Hom. de Engast p. 29. The manner of their Sermons was thus they began with a short Exordium and then explained Verse after Verse or Sentence after Sentence shewing the natural and literal Signification of the Words and then the Spiritualized or Mystical meaning of them and concluded with a suitable Application of all regarding the Quality of their Hearers and suiting themselves to their Capacity he gives some Instances of the Laity who by the Permission of their Bishops were suffer'd to Preach some times but never but upon sufferance and they were only such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to profit the Brethren II. He continues his Inquisition in the Primitive Worship and informs that as soon as Sermon was ended they all rose up and offer'd their Prayers unto God Justin Martyr Apol. 2. p. 98. The manner of their Praying was with their Faces towards the East for these Reasons which by the way might give light why we make the Communion-Table at the East-end of our Churches 1. Because the Title of East is given to our Saviour in the Old Testament the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an arising or sprouting out in the Greek 't is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies arising out and by a Metonymy is appropriated to the East 2. Because it symbolized a Spiritual arising out of the Darkness of Sin and Corruption Here our Author mentions Alexandrinus Stromat Lib. 7. p. 520. Let Prayers be made towards the East because the East is the Representation of our Spiritual Nativity As from thence Light first arose shining out of Darkness so according to that Rising of the Sun the day of true Knowledge arose on those who lay buried in Ignorance whence the ancient Temples looked towards the West that so they who stood against the Images therein might be forced to look towards the East 3. The next Reason our Author gives is out of Origen viz. to denote our Diligence in the Service of God in being more forward to arise and set about it than the Sun is to run his daily course 4. Another Reason was the Opinion of the Excellency of this Quarter above others The Posture of Prayer Clem. Alex. Strom. Lib. 7. p. 519. was thus We lift up our Head and stretch out our Hands towards Heaven There was a little Preface to their Prayer as Let us pray or Lift up your Hearts and the People answer'd We lift them up unto the Lord. Some times our Author says they used the Lord's Prayer and some times not St. Cyprian us'd it commonly I can't pass over notwithstanding the smalness I design'd in this Abstract what this holy Father has said upon the Lord's Prayer De Orat. Dom. § 1 2. Pag. 309. Christ hath given us a Form of Prayer he hath admonished and instructed us what we should pray for He that made us live hath taught us to pray that whilst we offer unto the Father the Prayer which the Son taught we may be the more easily heard For what Prayer can be more Spiritual than that which was given us by Christ who gave us also the Holy Spirit And what Prayer can be more prevalent with God than that of his Son who is the Truth proceeding out of his Mouth so that to pray otherwise than he hath taught is both Ignorance and Impiety Let us pray therefore dearly beloved Brethren as God our Master hath taught us It is a friendly and familiar Prayer to ask God with his own and to present the Prayer of Christ to his Ears the Father will acknowledge his Sons Words When we pray let him that dwells in the Heart be in the Voice and since we have him an Advocate with the Father for our Sins when we beg Pardon for our Sins let us use the Words of our Advocate and since he says that whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in his Name he will give it us how much more efficaciously shall we prevail for what we beg in Christ's Name if we ask it in his Prayer For the manner of Prayer our Author says he finds not such a thing as set Forms or Liturgies that were impos'd upon the People nor to use his own words that having no imposed Form they unpremeditately immethodically or confusedly vented their Petitions or Requests III. Chap. Third our Author treats of Baptism which was done by the Bishop or whom he should order in cases of necessity even to Laymen but never to Women The Subjects of Baptism were of two sorts either Infants or Adult Persons to shew Infants were Baptized he also proves that the Communion was never given till after Baptism and then he brings Instances of Children that received the Communion Iustin Martyr p. 97. To which he adds the Testimonies of Irenaeus lib. 2. cap. 39. p. 137. and of
Term Consubstantial when as they freely acknowledg'd the Divinity of the Son of God He approved not of the Disputes at that time upon the Subject of the Hypostasis because he look'd upon those that received Three into the Trinity and those that admitted but of one to be of the same Opinion and only to differ in the manner of Expressing St. Basil was not so moderate for accoding to his Opinion those were Sabellians that said the Father and Son were two in Thought and one in Substance The Demi-Arians or Homoiousians that was those that would not acknowledge that the Son was Consubstantial with the Father and that said nevertheless that he was like him in all things c. the same in Substance were no more Hereticks than those that maintan'd the Three Hypostases in the Judgment of St. Basil St. Hilary of Poictiers of Philaster and even of Saint Athanasius who confesses in his Book of the Synods that Basil of Ancyra and those of his Party differed from those who made a Profession of Consubstantiality as to the name only Some of these Demi Arians are placed in the number of Saints in divers Martyrologies as Euseb. of Caesarea and Euseb. of Emissa and Pope Liberius also being a Catholick receiv'd them into his Communion St. Hilary of Poictiers although a great Defender of the Nicene Faith was not free from Error for to Answer to the Objections that the Arians drew from such passages of Scripture as proved that Jesus Christ was subject to fear sorrow and grief he fell into such an Opinion as made the Humanity of our Saviour a Fantom he maintained that Jesus Christ sustained not really either Fear or Grief but that these Passions were only represented in him To explain what the Son of God says of himself That he was ignorant of the day of Iudgment Mark 13. He says it ought not to be understood in the Letter as if Jesus Christ had been effectively ignorant of this Day but in this Sense that he knew it not to discover it to Man He had an other very very particular Error that he advanced in the Twentieth Canon upon St. Matthew that Moses and Elias should come with Jesus Christ near the time of Iudgment and that they should be put to death by Antichrist contrary to the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews for he says that Jesus Christ being rais'd from death shall dye no more He was of the Opinion also that Predestination was subsequent to Merit and that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was separated from his Humanity in the time of his death As to the rest the Roman Catholicks which complain that some Protestant Refugees have spoken too freely of those that have deprived them of their Goods and reduced them to the utmost Misery may read what St. Hilary says of Constantius That neither he nor the Bishops of his time received the thousandth part of the evil Treatments that the Reformed have suffered Mr. du Pin thinks the Errors of Optatus of Milan small and pardonable although he believed that Hereticks ought to be Rebaptized and seems to give Free-Will the Power not only of willing and beginning a good Action but also of advancing in the way of Salvation without the Assistance of the Grace of Jesus Christ. He approves not however of the Allegorical manner whereby this Bishop explains many Passages of Scripture giving them a very distant sense from what they naturally have and applying them to such things as they have no Relation to This defect says our Author that might be suffered in a Sermon appears intolerable in a Treatise of Controversie where all the Proofs ought to be strong and convincing But Optatus had to do with Enemies that did the same and who abused Passages of Scripture to injure the Church and give Praises to their own Sect. After having complain'd of the loss of Apollinarius's Works the most Learned of all the Christians Authors in Humanity this Loss is attributed to his Errors or rather the Zeal of the Catholicks which have had such an Horror to the Books of Hereticks that they have not even preserv'd those that regarded not their Heresie and that might have been useful to the Church Wherefore continues du Pin we have almost no Books of the Ancient Hereticks remaining Many Men believe that the Disputes with the Heterodox have been the Cause of the Catholicks inventing Solutions which have afterwards pass'd into Opinions such is the Doctrin of the Infallibility of the Church which was not regarded till towards Luther's time Some in this Rank place Original Sin which begun in the Seventh Age to be more acknowledg'd than before according to Mr. du Pin. They speak also more of Grace than they did in the preceding Ages and notwithstanding much was always attributed to Free Will It 's surprising that Titus of Bostres whose Arguments are solid and subtil had not recourse in his Treatise against the Manicheans to Original Sin which he might have made use of as a general Solution to almost all their Difficulties For we may easily apprehend why Man is inclined to evil why he suffers why he is subject to hunger to grief sickness miseries and to death it self where once we have admitted Original Sin Neither doth this Author speak of the Grace of Iesus Christ and he seems to have supposed that Man can of himself as well do good as evil The Disciples of St. Augustin will not find Dydimuss of Alexandria much more Orthodox since he maintains that Predestination is nothing else but the Choice which God hath made of those that he foresaw would believe in Jesus Christ and would Act according to it He likewise believed with his Master Origen that the Incarnation of the Son of God was beneficial to Angels as well as to Men and that it took away the Guilt of their Transgressions As to the Sentiment of the Eternity of Spirits he speaks on 't without condemning or approving it In Truth it would be absurd and impious to fix Eternity to any other Being than God if by this word was understood an Absolute Eternity or Existence by it self but if we suppose that the Souls of Men were Spirits created a long time since which have offended God and which he sends into mortal Bodies there to do Penance for their Faults this Hypothesis perhaps would be instrumental to discover many Difficulties in Divinity which have hitherto appeared Unexplicable All the World hath heard of the Catechumens of the Ancient Church that few well know what they were 1. When an Infidel presented himself to be admitted into the number of Christians they begun to instruct him in private but he was not suffered to enter into the Church nor to assist at publick Exhortations 2. Afterward when he was believed to be well undeceived of his old Errors he was permitted to go to the Church but only to hear Sermons
and not to assist at any Prayer Therefore this second kind of Catechumens were called Hearers 3. But those to whom leave was given to assist at publick Prayers until the Consecration of the Eucharist and to Kneel to receive the Benediction of the Bishop bear the name of Prostrates 4. When they were found sufficiently instructed to receive Baptism they were permitted to demand it and to give their names to be admitted thereto and they were then called Competents or if their demand was accepted of Chosen and Enlightned These are all the Degrees that can be distinguished amongst the Catechumens But commonly the Fathers without stopping at these Distinctions call'd them the Hearers and the Prostrated when as they give the name of Competents and Enlightned to those that were in a Condito receive Baptism Which relate well enough to the Mystes and Epoptes of the Mysteries of Ceres As Tradition was not so clear against the Arians as against the Hereticks of the first Ages the Fathers who lived after the Council of Nice studied Scripture more than before because the strength of the the Dispute run upon the Sense of divers Passages for the Exposition of which they had recourse to the Greek of the New Testament as to the Original The holy Books were then the only Rule of Faith and the Writings of Doctors that were dead before the Contestations of Arianism were considered only as Human Testimonies where the Doctrin of their time might be learned The least thing ought not to be taught saith Cyril of Ierusalem according to the Relation of Mr. du Pin touching Divine Mysteries that cannot be established by Testimonies of Scripture Even believe not what I say to you if I do not prove it by Holy Scripture The Letters of St. Basil which may be of very great help to those that would know throughly the Ecclesiastical History of that time are placed without any order as well as the Epistles of Cicero and the most part of the ancient Works of this Nature The Author promises us a Translation thereof in French and Latin with Notes in the mean time he gives here divers Extracts of these Letters disposed according to the order of times There are several of them that bear evident Characters of being Supposititious as the 203 with this Title to Iulian the Apostate Would St. Basil saith Mr. du Pin have directed him a Letter with this Epithet This Letter besides is not like the Style of this Father it is only a Profession of Faith to which is added the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images whoever heard that this was put in the Professions of the first Ages The Author of this Letter saith that he Honours and Adores the Images of Saints because it 's an Apostolical Tradition Did St. Basil speak thus and is it not visible that this Letter is the Work of some Greek who lived since the seventh Council For the same reason he rejects a Work which is attributed to St. Athanasius and Entituled The Narration of the Passion of the Image of Iesus Christ in the City of Berytus In the CCCXCI Letter answering to divers Questions that Amphilocus Bishop of Iconium had put to him he Expounds this Passage That no Body knows the Day of Iudgment but the Father after this manner that the Father knows it by himself because he is the Source and Principle of this Knowledge whereas the Son receives it from the Father as it is said in the same Sense That there is only God who is Good p. 517. In the CCCCX Letter he saith that we ought to be contented with the Faith we have made Profession of in our Baptism to keep to the Terms of the Holy Scripture and shun all new Expressions because our Faith depends not upon these Terms but the Orthodox Doctrin Of all the Fathers of the Fourth Age there was none more moderate nor perhaps a Man of more Worth than Gregory of Nazianze In the Apology he made for his Retreat into Pontus when he was going to be made Bishop he pathetically describes the Disorders of his time Where the Priests were like the People After that he deplores the Unhappiness of the Catholicks who were divided upon unprofitable Questions or such as were of small Consequence He says that in the same time when Faith is in dispute we are oblig'd to separate our selves from those that teach Impiety and to suffer any thing rather than approve on 't but that it 's a Folly to break Union and excite troubles for Questions that are not of Faith In his Oration against the Emperor Iulian this same Father makes a Digression upon the Mildness that the Christians have kept when they were Potent and opposes it to the Cruelties the Pagans have exercised There was a time say he to the Heathens that we have had the Authority as well as you but what have we done to those of your Religion that comes near what you have made the Christians suffer Have we taken away your Liberty Have we perswaded Governors to condemn you to Torments Have we attempted the Life of any Have we even put any from the Magistracy and Employments In a word have we done against you any thing that has given you Cause to make us suffer I do not conceive saith Mr. du Pin hereupon how St. Gregory of Nazianze can reconcile all these Maxims with what he hath just now said that Constantius had done very ill to leave the Empire to Iulian because he was an Enemy to the Christian Religion and that he would persecute it maintaining that in that Constantius had made a very ill use of his Mildness and Bounty As to the purpose of Constantius whilst Hilary of Poictiers calls him Antichrist and speaks a thousand other injuries against him Gregory of Nazianzen excuseth this Emperor upon the Subject of Arianism He casts the whole Fault upon the Great Men of the Court and even pretends that after his death Angelical Voices were heard that celebrated his Praises In the Funeral Speech of his Brother Cesarius he saith That he was informed by the Discourses of Learned Men that Souls that are Holy and acceptable to God being delivered from the Bonds of the Body feel an ineffable Joy and Pleasure in considering the Beatitude they are one day to receive that they go strait to God and that they already know as 't were in a Representation and Image the Beatitude they will receive after the Resurrection of the Body In his fifty third Poem he numbers holy Books exactly as the Protestants do only he doth not put the Apocalypse in the Canon of the New Testament otherwise this Bishop had a very ill Opinion of the Councils for in his LV Letter he declares that he fears all the Ecclesiastical Assemblies because he never saw the End of any Council which had been happy and which had not rather encreased their Misfortunes than diminished them
Party which is that of the Semi Arians or Homoiousians The Reader will not be displeased to find here a List of these Councils which is made upon the Remarks of Mr. du Pin. Councils against Arius 1. At Alexandria composed of near a hundred Bishops in the Year 322. 2. At Nice in 325 composed of 318 or 270 or 250 Bishops 3. The Third Council of Alexandria where St. Athanasius was absolved in 340. 4. At Rome by the Bishops of Italy in 341 where Marcellus of Ancyra and St. Athanasius were justified 5. At Milan where Ursacius and Valens were received into Communion for condemning Arius in the Year 346. 6. At Sardica in 347 composed of an hundred of the Western Bishops who sent back St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra Absolved 7. At Alexandria in 362 with St. Athanasius where it was declared that the difference upon the three Hypostases were only Disputes of words It was composed of the Bishops of â—gypt 8. At Paris where the Bishops of the Gauls retracted what they had done at Rimini in 362. 9. The Bishops of Italy did as much in another Synod the same Year 10. At Antioch in 363 where the Bishops of Egypt approved the Form of Nice 11. In 370 at Rome under Damasus 12. At Aquilea in 381. 13. At Constantinople in 383. Councils for Arius 1. In Bithynia in the Year 323 Sozom. Lib. 1. Cap. 15. 2. At Antioch where Eustathius Bishop of this City was deposed in 330. 3. At Caesarea in Palestine where St. Athanasius was cited but appeared not in 334. 4. At Tyre where St. Athanasius appeared as accused in 335. It was composed of a hundred Bishops 5. At Ierusalem where Arius and his Party were received to the Communion of the Church in the same Year 6. At Constantinople against Marcellus of Ancyra which communicated with St. Athanasius and who was deposed as convicted for renewing the Errors Paul of Samosetus and of Sabellius in 336. 7. The Third Council of Constantinople where Paul Bishop of that City Defender of St. Athanasius was deposed in 338. 8. At Beziers where the Followers of Arius were reconciled to the Church in spight of Hilary of Poictiers and some other Bishops which were banished in 356. 9. The Third Council of Sirmium where the Father was declared greater than the Son in 357. 10. Another at Melitin the same Year 11. At Antioch in 358 where they condemned these Terms The same in Substance 12. At Constantinople where the Anomeans cunningly condemned Aetius their Head and deposed many Semi Arian Bishops in 360. 13. At Antioch where Melece Bishop of Antioch was deposed and where the Son was declar'd Created out of nothing in 367. 14. At Singedun in Mesia against Germinius a Semi Arian 366. 15. In Caria where they rejected the Term of Consubstantial in 368. Councils for the Semi Arians 1. The Second Council of Alexandria in 324 where nothing was determined against Arius and they treated only of the Terms Substance and Hypostasis against Sabellius where Osius presided 2 3. Two Councils at Antioch in 341 and 342 where they declared they received Arius because they believed him Orthodox where they composed three Forms of Faith in the which they Anathematize those who said there was a time when the Word was not and made a Profession of believing him like to the Father in all things This Council made XXV Canons which are inserted in the Code of the Universal Church 4. Another Council at Antioch by the Eusebians where the word Consubstantial is not found though it be Catholick as to the rest It was held in 345. 5. At Philippolis in 347. 6. The Second Council of Sirmium the Form whereof was approved by Hilary of Poictiers although the word Consubstantial be not in it In the Year 351. 7. At Arles where St. Athanasius was condemned in 353. 8. At Milan in 355 where St. Athanasius was also condemned by Violence 9. At Ancyra where those were Anathematized which held the Son Consubstantial with the Father and those who deny'd he was the same in Substance in 358. 10. The Fourth Council of Sirmium where they approved of the Forms of the Councils of Antioch and of the second Council of Sirmium 11. The fifth Council of Sirmium in 359. 12. At Rimini composed of 400 Bishops where they rejected Terms of Substance and Hypostasis as was done in the fifth Council of Sirmium Notwithstanding they held the Son to be equal to the Father in all things It was also in the Year 359. 13. At Selucia the same Year where forty Anomean Bishops or pure Arians were condemned by 105 Semi Arians 14. At Antioch in 363 where the Term Consubstantial was received in different senses 15. At Lampsaca in 365 where the Anomeans were condemn'd and where the Bishops were re-establish'd which they had deposed 16. Divers Synods in Pamphilia Isauria Lycia and Sicily in 365 and 366. 17. At Tyanes in 368 where the Anomeans were reunited with the Semi Arians In 370 a Synod was held at Gangres the Canons whereof are inserted in the Code of the universal Church and the fourth of which condemns those that say the Communion ought not to be received from the hands of a married Priest The 59th and 60th and last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which Mr. du Pin believes to have been held between the Year 360 and 370 prohibits the Reading at Church any other than Canonical Books and those that were acknowledged for such and those the Protestants receive excepting the Apocalypse The 8th Canon of the Council of Saragossa defends the Vailing of Virgins that have consecrated themselves to Jesus Christ before the Age of forty Years The Bishops of Macedonia willing to confirm a Judgment they had given against a Bishop named Bonosus by the advice of Pope Syricius he answered them That the Council of Capua having sent this Cause to them it belonged not to him to judge on 't and that 't was their business to determin it The most ancient Monument according to Mr. du Pin where the name of Mass is found to signifie publick Prayers that the Roman Church makes in offering the Eucharist is the third Canon of the second Council of Carthage held in 390. At the end of this Volume the Author makes an Abridgment of the Doctrin of the 4th Age as he did in his precedent Book in respect to the three first and he confesses that though nothing was taught in the 4th Age which was not believed in the three first nevertheless the principal Mysteries were much more clear'd and expounded in the fourth The Travels of Mars Or The Art of War divided into three parts c. With an Ample Relation of the Soldiery of the Turks both for Assaulting and Defending A Work inriched with more than 400 Cuts engraven in Copper-plates by Allaâ—n Manesson Mallet Master of the Mathematicks to the Pages of his Majesty's lesser Stable heretofore Ingenier and Serjeant-Major
for that than that of Mr. Descartes chiefly because men have so well disputed on the occasional causes It seemeth that hitherto the question of Witchcrafts hath only been treated by Judgments either too incredulous or too credulous Both of 'em are very unfit to succeed in this since they are commonly guilty of the same defect which is to determine or deny or to believe without searching into things There never were People more bold to deny Extraordinary Facts than the wretched Spinozists Yet they are very ill grounded seeing there is scarcely any thing whereof their Hypotheses do not engage them to hold the Possibility I do nevertheless grant that the Discovery which is made from time to time of several sorts of Knaveries is for them as well as for others a Reason of uncertainty There hath of late hapned an Accident at Campen in the Over-Issels which will not be unacceptable to give an Account of here It is that in the Month of December 1685 a Boy of 13 Years shewed by great contorsions of Body and Sinews that he was furiously Tormented They even would say that he emitted Nails Needles and Pins by Urine and all that was shewn in a Glass wherein he had Piss'd in presence of those which kept him He accused a Woman which had given him a Root to have bewitched him Several believed it and being moved for him with a great Compassion Recommended him to God by Ardent Prayers Others not believing that in this there was reason enough to accuse the Woman of Witchcraft imagined notwithstanding that the Devil did put these strange Bodies into the Glass where the Boy pissed Notwithstanding the People were so moved that if the prudence of the Magistrates had not interven'd this Woman had been in great danger In fine they ceased to say that this Boy emitted Pins at any other time but only towards the end of the Month of Ianuary he bethought himself of another thing which was to cast Stools and vomit Hairs bits of Scales and other things of this kind The Wisest who were far from thinking that there was any Magick in it concluded it to be a pure Artifice and the Magistrate applied himself so well to find it out sometimes in Threatning this Boy sometimes in making him promises at last he declared that his Father and Mother-in-Law had made him learn all this Play of a Vagabond Woman who asked but 100 pence for such a secret He gave the Magistrates the Spectacle of his Vomits of his Convulsions and of the Activity with which he would make Pins c. fall in the Glass which he was to piss in His Father and Mother in Law which had a Reputation of Piety were brought before the Judges but because there was not found where withal to convince 'em that they were Partners in the fraud and that the Boy had declared he had unjustly accused them they were absolved and the Son was condemned to be whipt by his Father This Accident puts me in mind of one which is related in the Iournal of the Learned of the 11 th September 1682. They were some young Women that were of the Neighbourhood of Thoulouse which vomited Pins and Ribbands and that suffered other Accidents so singular that they were taken to be possessed and they were endeavoured to be cured by Exorcisms But the able Physicians which the Parliament enjoined to observe well the matter declared these Phenomens might be expounded by Principles purely Natural and they were not a little confirmed in this opinion when they observed that feigned Exorcisms produced upon these Persons the effects as the true ones The difference that is betwixt them and the little Boy at Campen is that the latter did thro' Malice what the first did by a Hypocondriack Malady He that Inform'd us of the Affair of the little Boy is an Advocate of Zceol Named Mr. Nuis who hath published in Dutch a very considerable Treatise of Geometry He Entituleth it Gebruyk Uan Het Rectangulum Catholicum Geometrico-Astronomicum c. Te Zwolle by Gerard Tideman 1686 in 4â—o in Amsterdam at Waesbergs He hath divided it into Three Parts He shews in the First the Geometrical use of this new Instrument and briefly touches what hath been said by others on the use of the Compass and of the Rule of proportion He also speaks of Trigonometry of Draughts and of the use of this Instrument to measure the Visual Angles Height Draughts and Distances In the Second he Treats of Solar Dyals and gives a new general Method to Trace the Horary Circles the Azimuths the Almucantaraths the Signs of the Zodiack upon all sorts of Surfaces and that in Three manners one by Rule and Compass and the Two others by this new Instrument Besides its probableness here is shewn how to find the Declination Inclination and the Reclination of Draughts All this is maintained by Mathematical Demonstrations The Third speaks of Spherick Trigonometry and of the Astronomical Problems which are thereby resolved and of the Construction of an Universal Clock comprehended in this Instrument and fit to find the Hours and Azymuths by the Sun and Principal Stars in all places of the World where the Elevation of the Pole passeth not the 65 Degree The Appendix contains the Resolving several Problems of Astronomy by Rule and Compass on the Principles of Dyalling The same Author hath pubished a small Work in 4 to where he Geometrically sheweth why the Currant of Water makes the Beds of Rivers or where they run sometimes higher and somtimes lower and why the means employed hitherto for the Rhine on Issel have not been successful He Composed this Book upon occasion of the Works that were prepared for the use the Fort of Scenck and Entituled it Redenen Middelen Uan Uerdieping en Uerzanding de Rivieren en Havens op een Meethundinge Maniere betoogt en aan gewesen A Treatise of Law by Anthony Matthews in the Famous Vniversity of Leyden wherein he Treats of Nobility of Princes Dukes Counts Knights Esquireâ— in a word it 's a Treatise of all the kinds of Gentry Amsterdam Sold by Janss Waesberge and Felix Lope 1686. THis Work in 4 to is very useful to those that would throughly know the History of the Middle Times in Regard to those Countries which are generally neglected and Men apply themselves to the Study of the First and Last Ages and despise the Middle by Reason of the horrible Barbarity which is in all their Writings which must be consâ—lted Mr. Matthews was not discouraged at these displeasing Obstacles he has turned over with a deal of Patience the old Pancreas and Archives and has drawn from thence a great many Memoirs and curious Pieces which have not been as yet Published and which serve as a light to several dark Places of History He endeavours most to clear what concerns the Town of Utrecht his own Country He Explains the Form of its Government its Rights the Authority of it's Bishops and
no man in his Prayers name the Father for the Son nor the Son for the Father and let him that is at the Altar always direct his Prayers to the Father What Prayers soever any man makes for himself let him not make use of them before he hath communicated them to one of the better Instructed Brethren The Author from thence draws divers Consequences to prove that there was then no Liturgy He chiefly founds his Argument upon this that this Canon permitted those that Officiated to make use of what Prayers they pleased provided that they first communicated them to some wise Persons Mr. Clarkson explains these words by those of St. Augustin against the Donatists L. 6. c. 25. Multi irruunt in preces non solum ab imperitis loquacibus sed etiam ab Haereticis compositas per ignorantiae simplicitatem non eas valentes discernere utuntur iis arbitrantes quod bonae sint Many saith he throw themselves upon Prayers composed not only by ignorant Men and great Speakers but also by Hereticks Being too illiterate and too simple to make a just distinction they make use of such as they think good 2. The Author after that considers the 70. Canon of the Collection of the Council of Africk which in effect is the same as the 12. of the Council of Milan the Terms of which are these Placuit etiam hoc ut preces quae probatae fuerint abomnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino contra Fidem proferan̄tur sed quaecunque cum prudentioribus fuerint collatae dicantur The Author observes from this that the necessity of using certain Prayers was imposed upon those that could not distinguish the good from the bad and besides all they had to do was but to communicate them to some Person who was more capable of judging thereof than themselves As for those who had more knowledge they were permitted to make use of such Prayers as they thought fit Besides here is only condemned the Prayers which are against Faith And it was allowed that those might be made use of which were approved by a Synod or by able Men whence the Author concludes there was no common Form or at least that there was none which Persons were necessarily obliged to follow After that he answers to some Objections which are made against the Exposition he gives upon this Canon 3. In the 12. Canon of the Second Council of Milan instead of cum prudentioribus collatae there is â prudentioribus tractatae If they were Examined to see if they might be approved of This sense of the word tractatae agrees according to the Author with the other Constitutions of of the Church of Africk and with their practice such as St. Augustin represents it in the passage which was cited The Author also makes some reflections upon these words which I shall omit to relate for fear of being too tedious 4. As to the general Prayer for all the Bishops which was used in Celebrating the Eucharist the Author endeavours to prove that it was not always conceived in the same terms by the Epistle of St. Epiphanius to Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem This Bishop had heard that St. Epiphanius was accustomed to insert these terms in his Prayers Domine praesta Ioanni ut bene credat Lord grant Iohn may entertain a true Faith The Bishop of Ierusalem complained of this addition which rendred his Belief suspicious But such terms could not be added if it had been prohibited to change any thing whatever in the Prayer which was then used and Iohn wou'd not have had the occasion of complaining as he did St. Epiphanius in answering to that exclaimeth not as against a Calumny which the practice of the Church should destroy but saith only noli nos in tantum putare rusticos ut hoc tam aperte dicere potuerimus He adds Pro te quoque dicimus Custodi illum qui praedicat veritatem Vel certe ita Tu praesta Domine custodi ut ille verbum praedicet veritatis sicut occasio sermonis se tulerit habuerit oratio consequentiam We also say for thee Keep him who preaches the Truth or at least thus do thou O Lord keep him and make him to preach the Truth according as the occasion of the Discourse shall and as the Sequel of the Prayer shall require We see by these latter Words that St. Epiphanius did not always express himself after the same manner 5. Mr. Clerkson believes not also that the Prayer of the Consecration was conceived in such terms as was constantly rehearsed To prove it he cites Iustin Martyr who saith that the President made Prayers and Thanksgivings as far as his Capacity admitted thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those who maintain the Antiquity of Liturgies have omitted nothing to give this passage a sense conformable to their opinions So the Author doth what he can to shew that in the First Ages no regulate words were written which ought to be made use of in this occasion He likewise endeavours to shew that there was no conformity amongst the Churches in the expressions which were used on this occasion or in giving the Symbols to those who communicated from whence it follows that there was no Liturgy generally received as at this day III. Neither was there according to Mr. Clarkson an entire uniformity in respect to Baptism and that they kept not themselves scrupulously to the Terms which Jesus Christ made use of the Institution of this Sacrament Some thought they were not obliged to Baptize expresly in the Name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Ghost but were satisfied to do it in the Name of Iesus Christ. St. Irenaens St. Basil and Theophilact declare that they did not disapprove of this Practice and sufficiently shew'd that they did not think Men ought to apply themselves too much to the words The Ancients were so far from constraining one another to it that according to the Author there was not so much as uniformity in the Terms of their Confessions of Faith He Remarks by the by that he who first Introduced the Custom to Rehearse the Creed in Publick Service was Peter of Foulon and shews in what time the same Custom was Introduced in the Churches of the West 2. As to the manner how they Renounced the Devil and all his Pomps the Author Remarks in the Fathers Twenty Expressions upon this Subject whereof there not Two but their Terms are different Tho' they are found in the Writings of the same Country and Church This Renouncing is also seen diversly expressed in the writings of the same Author St. Basil in his Treatise of the Holy Ghost Ch. 27. affirms positively that the Prayers were no◠written which were used in Baptism He who made the Constitutions which were attributed to Clement puts indeed a Form which he pretends to be of the Apostles notwithstanding he obliges none to make use of these very Terms he would
Opinions of the Apostles and makes this Reflexion upon it taken from St. Augustin It is evident that nothing is of so dangerous a Consequence in Matters of Religion as slightly to give credit to every one and eagerly to embrace whatsoever bears the appearance of Piety without considering whether it be really so or no. Non sit Religio nostra in Phantasmatibus nostris Meliùs est enim qualecunque verum qùam omne quidquid pro arbitrio fingi potest melior est vera stipula quà m lux inani cogitatione pro suspicantis voluntate formata De ver Rel. c. 55. There remains nothing of Quadratus Aristides Agrippa nor of Hegisippus but some Fragments that Eusebius and St. Ierom relates For 't is a false Hegisippus an Author of the Fourth Age that made the History of the Iewish Wars and of the taking of Ierusalem divided into five Books which has been often published and is no more than an Abridgment of Iosephus He acknowledges for the Works of St. Iustin only his two Apologies and his Dialogue with Tryphon There are also two Discourses to the Gentiles which are at the beginning of his Works and that may be attributed to him without injuring him as well as the Epistle to Diognetus He observes also the particular Opinions of this Father and that of his not despairing of the Salvation of the Gentils For in his 2d Apology p. 83. he says That those who lived conformably to Reason like to Socrates Heraclitus c. may be call'd Christians and he seems to suppose they might be saved in following the Law of Nature Mr. Du Pin explains many Passages of Iustin Tatian and Theophilus of Antioch concerning the Generation of the Word and its visibility which appears not agreeable to the Common Opinion He remarks that this Theophilus was the first that used the word Trinity to note the three Divine Persons and that he calls the third the Wisdom That Athenagoras said that the Devils lost themselves by the love they bare to Women that he admits Free-will in its utmost extent praises Virginity and condemns second Weddings calling them an honest Adultery But Denis of Corinth in a Fragment that Eusebius has preserved of him l. 4. c. 23. advertises Pinytus Bishop of the Gnossians not to charge the Christians with the heavy burden of an Obligation to Virginity but to have respect to the weakness which the generality of Mankind lay under This same Author complains that they had falsified some of his Letters and says That we need not wonder that some Men dare to corrupt the Sacred Books since they do it in Books of much less Authority St. Irenaeus as well as St. Iustin seems to have believed that Souls are immortal only by Grace and that those of the wicked shall cease to be after having suffer'd torment for a long time He has also some peculiar Opinions for example that Iesus Christ lived above 50 Years upon the Earth That the Saints shall in the other Life learn by degrees whatsoever they are ignorant of c. We must pardon the Antients adds the Author these sort of Opinions it being not singular to any one for many had the like Eusebius hath preserv'd us a Fragment of an Author nam'd Rodon who mentions that in a dispute he had with one Apelles a Heretick who having been convinc'd of many Frailties said That he was not to examine what he believed and that all those who hoped in Jesus Christ Crucified should be saved That the Question about the Nature of God was very obscure that he believed there was but one Principle but he was not certain and that the Prophesies were contrary one to the other Mr. Du Pin wonders that the Books of the Pedagogue of Clement of Alexandria are not Translated into the Vulgar Tongue But says he if any one would undertake this Translation he must leave out some places which ought not to be read by all the VVorld and others he must accommodate to the Customs and Manners of our time We doubt very much whether this way of acting will denote a sufficient respect for Antiquity and are apt to believe that our Author in making his Extracts has not followed the Counsel he gives to others The same St. Clement has made other Celebrated Books under the Name of Stromates that he calls so because they contain many thoughts collected from different places and crowded together which makes a variety something resembling what we see in Tapestries Wherefore this Father himself compares his Work to a Meadow or a Garden where we find all sorts of Herbs Flowers and Fruits and we may gather such as please our selves but not to such Gardens where the Trees and Plants are placed in order on purpose to divert the sight But rather to a shady and thick Mountain where the Cyprus Linden-tree Lawrel Ivy Apple-tree Olive Fig-tree and other Fruitful Trees are mingled with Barren ones In the Third Book of the Stromates Clement affirms that St. Peter and St. Philip were Marryed and that they had Children that Saint Philip had Marryed his Daughters and that St. Paul had also a Wife In which he is deceived says the Author This Father has spoken something that seems to Favour Arianism which is That the Nature of the Son is most Excellent and most Perfect and that it comes nearest to God Almighty He excuses him saying that the Ancients had not an exact distinction between the Terms Nature and Person but often took one for the other Yet confesses that he speaks after such a manner to perswade us that he believ'd not or at least made no reflections upon Original sin How do we say says he that a Child prevaricates as soon as he is born or how can it having done nothing fall under Adams Curse There 's a Contestation amongst the Learned upon the Marriage of St. Tertullian whether he was Married before or after his Conversion and when he was a Priest for in the Books which he Dedicated to his Wife one may find that he lived with her when he wrote them The Author of the Life of Tertullian and of Origen was obliged to say that he also compos'd 'em after his Conversion But Mr. Du Pin affirms that 't is more probable that he was Marryed after his Baptism and that he writ his Books to his Wife when he was very Aged and fell into the Error of the Montanists He Examins the Reasons of his change and believes with St. Ierom that the Envy he bore to the Roman Clergy and the outragious manner wherewith they treated him enraged him against the Church and made him separate from it He afterwards gives a Catalogue of Tertullians Works and with care distinguishes those he made whilst a Catholick from those that he composed after he was engaged in the Heresy of Montanus placing amongst these last his Book of Prescriptions Amongst the
undoubtly his In the time of Dionysius of Alexandria who lived about the middle of the Third Age one Nepos Bishop of Egypt writing of a Book to maintain the Reign of a Thousand Years where he proves his opinion by the Apocalypse Dionysius undertook to refute him And to Answer to the Testimony of the Apocalypse that his Adversary quoted he says that some have slighted this Books thinking it the Heretick Cerinthus's who admitted no other Beatitude than what consisted in Corporeal Enjoyments But as for himself he says he durst not entirely reject it because it was esteemed by many Christians yet that he was perswaded that it had a hidden sense which cou'd not be comprehended by any one That it was the Book of some Author inspired by the Holy Ghost tho' not St. Iohn the Evangelist but another that bore his Name as he endeavours to prove by the difference of the Stile and thoughts Denis without doubt went too far upon this matter as well as in the Letter that he writ to the Bishops of Pentapolis when to refute the Error of Sabellius who confounded the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity this slipt from him That the Son is the work of the Father and that he was to the Father as a Vineyard is to it's Vinekeeper or a Ship to its Ship-wright and that he was not before he was made That happen'd to Dionysius adds our Author that does almost to all those that dispute against an Error viz. to speak after such a manner as favours the opposite Errors Baronius thinks that a Letter that Turrian published under the Name of Dionysius and which is inserted in the first Volume of the last Councils P. 850. is certainly his But Mr. Du Pin believes it a Supposititious Work because the Author of this Letter approves of the Word Consubstantial and says that the Fathers have thus call'd the Son of God Whereas it is certain that Dionysius and the Synod of Antioch received not this term and that in his time they cou'd not say that the Fathers commonly made use of it There remains nothing else of this Bishops but a letter to Basilides printed in the first Book of the Councils Besides many Fragments of Methodius Bishop of Olimpius or Patarus in Lycia that Father Combefix has taken from the Ancients or Collections of divers Manuscripts we have now his Feast of the Virgins compleat which we ow to Possinus the Jesuit 'T is a Dialogue of many Virgins each of which make a Discourse in praise of Virginity nevertheless without blaming Matrimony a Moderation very rare to the Ancients says Mr. Du Pin This Work is composed of Ten Discourses full of Allegories and places of Scripture and treats on divers matters as occasion serves In the Second to prove that God is not the Author of Aulteries altho' he Forms the Children that are produced by so wicked an Act he brings some natural instances In the Eighth Discourse this Father speaking against the Fatum of the Stoicks proves that Men are free and that they are not necessitated to do good or evil by the Influences of the Stars At the end of this Dialogue the Author speaks very Orthodoxly of the Holy Trinity if we may believe Mr. Du Pin. We have only some Scattered pieces of Methodius's Treatise against Origen taken from Saint Epiphanius and Father Sirmond Our Author doubts whether the passage that Iohn Damascenus relates in the Third Prayer to Images are Methodius's or no. He affirms there that the Christians made Images of Gold to represent the Angels for the Glory of God If this is our Bishops says Mr. Du Pin it must be that he meant something else than what Damascenus did and that by the Word Angels Principalities and Powers he must understand the Kings of the Earth He adds to the Authors of the Three First Ages Arnobius Lactantius Commodianus and Iulius Firmicus Maternus altho they pass'd the greatest part of their lives in the Fourth Age because they imitated the First Fathers in disputing more against the Heathans than Hereticks He praises Lactantius very much and confesses that in his Book of the Persecucutions he seems to Note that St. Peter came not to Rome till the beginning of Nero's Empire Afterwards he gives an account of the Councils held in the Three First Ages of the Church and affirms that there are none more ancient than those that were held in Victors time about the end of the Second Age upon the Celebration of Easter and that they held no Councils to condemn the First Hereticks the Disciples of Simon Carpocratus the Basilidians and Gnosticks because the Christianâ— abhorr'd all their Errors He rejects all the Decretals attributed to the First Popes And believes 't was Riculphus and Benet his Successor that counterfeited them in the Ninth Age. He ends this Volume with an abridgment of the Doctrin Disciplin and Morals of the Church in the Three First Ages He Makes no Notes upon this Abridgment because he takes it for granted that he has proved all he says there in the Body of his Work Nevertheless we have not observ'd says the Abridger upon the reading of it by what reasons Mr. Du Pin in his Treatise maintains the following Proposition which he advances in his short account 1. That altho' all the Fathers agreed not that Children were born subâ—ect to sin and deserving damnation yet the Church was of the contrary opinion 2. That they Celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass in memory of the Dead 3. That they pray'd to Saints and Martyrs and believed that they besought God for the Living There are others also better maintain'd and of great consequence in relation to the differences that now separate the Christians 1. That the Ancients spoke of the Virgin Mary with much respect that they went not so far upon the subject as they have done since that for the Generality they did not believe she continued a Virgin after our Blessed Saviour was born that they spoke not of her Assumption and that there 's a passage of St. Ireneus which is not favourable to her Immaculate Conception 2. That the Scripture contains the chief Articles of our Faith and that all Christians may read it 3. That the Elements of the Eucharist were ordinary Bread and Wine mingled with Water That they divided the consecrated Bread into little bits that the Deacons distributed it to those present who received it in their hands and that they also gave them consecrated Wine That in some Churches this Distribution was reserved to the Priests but in others each Person drew near to the Table and took his Portion of the Eucharist 4. That in these Three First Ages the Unction of the Sick which St. Iames speaks of was not mentioned 5. That Priests were forbid to intermix their Civil and Spiritual Affairs 6. That the Priests were permitted to retain their Wives that were Espoused before Ordination but not to Marry afterwards Tho' Deacons
brings Lazarus and his Sisters at the same time into Provence The strongest reason to persuade us that the Gospel was so soon Preached in England is drawn from a passage of Gildas's which was not well understood Interea glaciali frigore rigenti Insulae veluti longiori Terrarum Recessu soli visibili non proximae verus ille non de firmamento solum Dr. Stillingfleet reads Sol sed de summa etiam those who read Solum for Sol have also added this Etiam for the clearing of the sense coelorum arce tempora cuncta excedente universo orbi praefulgidum sui coruscum ostendens tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris quo absque ullo impedimento ejus propagabatur Religio comminata senatu nolente a Principe morte dilatoribus Militum ejusdem radios suos primum indulget id est sua praecepta Christus These words of Gildas were taken until now as if he meant that the Gospel was Preached in England towards the end of Tiberius's Reign But thus the Bishop of Worcester understands them Jesus Christ the true Sun who as 't is known made his Light to shine over all the Vniverse towards the end of Tiberius 's Reign at which time his Religion was propagated without hinderance in spight of the Senate because this Prince threatned those with death that should accuse the Christians Jesus Christ I say made his Sun-beams to shine to wit his Precepts not from the Firmament but the highest place of the Heavens and which was from all Eternity upon this frozen Island distant from the visible Sun Gildas speaks of two several times wherein the visible Sun appeared the one towards the end of Tiberius's Reign at which it shined to the view of the whole World and the other that it particularly appeared in England and which he marks by the Particle interea This word relates to the time whereof he speaks to wit that in which Suetonius Paulinus Conquered the Queen Boadicea which happened towards the middle of Nero's Reign about Twenty years after that Claudius had sent A. Plautius to reduce England into the form of a Province The Monks of the last Ages fruitful in Ancient Histories affirmed that Ioseph of Arimathea came from Glassenbury where he founded a Monastery Preaching there the Gospel In a time wherein all that came from these pious Lyars was believed this Fabulous History was taken for an ancient Tradition but the Bishop of Worcester easily shews it is supported only by the Authority of such Men and actions as are very suspicious and accompanied with ridiculous circumstances Nevertheless he believes it may be proved by good Authorities and maintained by probable circumstances that Christianity entred into England in the time of the Apostles Eusebius positively affirms that these Holy Men Preached the Gospel in the British Isles Theodoret reckons the Britans amongst those People Converted by the Apostles St. Ierome saith that St. Paul after his Imprisonment Preached the Gospel in the West in occidentis partibus by which he seems to understand England as well as St. Clement who saith that St. Paul went to the farthest part of the West Terms which Dr. Stillingfleet proves to have been commonly taken for Great Britain He shews after that by the History of St. Paul's Life that this Apostle had time to come into England and that he might have been persuaded to have taken this Journey because this part of Great Britain was then reduced into a Province There is also some likelihood that Pomponia Graecina Wife to Plautius was a Christian Tacitus assuring us that she was accused of a Strange Superstition and that she lived in a continual Melancholy If this Lady was a Christian she might have inform'd St. Paul what state England was in and encouraged him to come hither He might likewise have been instructed by those whom Plautius led Prisoners to Rome True it is that it has been said that St. Peter and some other Apostles were in England but these Traditions appear altogether Fabulous and if any came it was undoubtedly St. Paul according to the Testimony of St. Clement of whom we have spoken II. To pursue the Ecclesiastical History of England our Prelate undertakes in the 2 d. Chapter to Collect what is found in the Antients about the space of time from the Apostles to the First Council of Nice The Principal Proofs from whence we conclude there were Christians in that time in England are the Testimonies of Tertullian and Origen which the Author defends and Expounds at length Many of the Writers of the last Ages said that a King of England named Lucius was Converted to Christianity in the time of M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus But suppose this true in the Main there are divers circumstances which are really false as when this Lucius is made King of all England which was at that time a Roman Province Our Prelate believes there might be a Christian Prince of that Name in some place of England and whom the Romans suffered to Reign because he was of their side such as might have been the Descendants of one Cogidunus who favoured them That this place of England perhaps was the County of Sussex where there is no Monument of the Romans This being so it may easily be conceived that Lucius had heard Discourses of the Christian Religion by some antient Britans or Soldiers of the Army which M. Aurelius brought hither and which had been delivered from an eminent danger by the Prayers of the Christians that were in it as the Emperor himself said in one of his Letters After that Lucius might send as Tradition has it Messengers to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to be better Instructed because of the great Commerce which was betwixt England and Rome If Persons had been satisfied to have related this History after this manner it may be none would have called it in question but the Lyes wherewith it 's stuft the better to maintain it have rendered according to the Remark of the Author doubtful and suspicious that which may be true in it Others will not fail to add to this that in the Conjectures that are always made in the Enquiry after these Antiquities founded upon the Traditions of as great Lyars as the Monks of the past Ages that in these Conjectures I say Si trapassano i confini del vero per scrivere negli ampii spatii del possibile cose incerte non seguite according to an Italian Author And also the silence of Gildas who inform'd us of all he knew of the Antiquities of England yet speaks not one word of this Lucius which renders this History very suspicious even in what appears most possible in it Our Prelate proves there were Christians in England in the time of Dioclesian and that several suffered Martyrdom in it though the Persecution could not last long here seeing Constantius Father to Constantine stopped it Constantius dying at
York and his Son being declared Caesar by the Army the Christian Religion was secure we find the Names of Three Bishops of Great Britain who Subscribed to the Council of Arles in CCCXIV The Author believes there were a great many more and that those Three were sent by the Bishops of the Three Provinces for all were never at any of the Councils which wou'd have been too numerous if every one had gone thither He believes also that there was a continual Succession of Bishops in England from the Apostles till that time Some Monks have thought that Bishops were Established in England in imitation of the Flamines and Archiflamines of the Heathens but Dr. Stillingfleet shews 't is but a Dream and that the first Pagan Hierarchy was established by Maximinus after the Model of the Christians which was much more Antient. Speaking of the Council of Arles the Author shews that its Canons were sent to the Bishop of Rome not to Confirm them as Baronius maintains but to Publish them Quae decrevimus say these Fathers in Communi Coneilio charitati tuae significare ut omnes sciant quid in futurum observare debeant To this he joyns the Canons of the Council which he reduces to certain Heads and expounds in a few words particularly the Third De his qui arma projiciunt in pace who ought to be suspended from the Communion If an Allegorical sense might be given to these words our Bishop believes they may be expounded of the Christians who in the time wherein the Persecution ceased grew more indifferent as to their manner of living and less conformable to the Discipline which they had kept before But if they are understood Literally they may refer to the Christian Soldiers who would leave the Army when there was no fear of being constrained to any Idolatrous act in serving the Emperor as they had been under the Heathen Princes Constantine offered to dismiss all the Soldiers that desired it The Fathers of the Council might fear that all the Christians wou'd abandon his Armies and that afterwards it should be supply'd with Pagans which could have been fatal to Christianity So the Bishops assembled at Arles and thought they ought to prevent this accident in suspending from the Communion such Christian Souldiers as quitted the Service III. After having shewn That there were Bishops in England before the Council of Nice the Author speaks of the State wherein the Churches of the same Island were after this Council to that of Rimini Although in the Subscriptions which we still have of the Bishops who assisted at the Council of Nice there is none of any Prelate of England it is very probable there were some of them 1. Because Constantine did all he could to assemble a great number of Bishops 2. Because there is no likelyhood this Emperor should forget the Bishops of England where he was born and proclaimed Caesar. 3. Because they having been at the Council of Arles which was held before and at those of Sardis and Rimini which followed that of Nice there was no reason to suppose that they should be forgotten in this latter This being granted Dr. Stillingfleet believes that we may learn from the Canons of the Council of Nice the Rights and Priviledges of the British Churches Therefore he relates and expounds these Canons but makes the longest stay upon three which concern Ecclesiastical Discipline The fourth is conceived in these Terms That a Bishop ought chiefly to be established by all the Bishops of the Province but if that be too difficult either because it requireth more haste or that the Proceedings of the Bishops wou'd make it too long there must at least be three present and they have the consent of the Absent to consecrate him But the Confirmation of all that is done in the Province ought to be reserved to the Metropolitan By this Canon the Rights of the Metropolitans are established after an uncontestable manner but that which creates difficulty is to know whether by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to establish which is at the beginning must be understood the Right of choosing a Bishop was devolved on the Bishops of the Province or whether the Question be only of Conservation which should be done by the Bishops upon the Election made by the Suffrages of the People Several Interpreters of the Canons understand by the Word to establish to elect and Dr. Stillingfleet sheweth That all this may be proved by a place of the Synodal Letter of the same Council to those of Alexandria where it 's said That the Meletian Bishops which the People should choose should be received and that in the time of the Council of Nice the People named the Bishops which hindered not but that they were elected by their Brothers and confirmed by the Metropolitan without which the nomination of the People signified nothing So that all that can be concluded from thence is that the People had the Right of Nomination which they have since deservedly lost by Seditions and Tumults and which they cannot recall unless it is shew'n whether it is a Divine and unalterable Right which will never be adds our Author and which even those who strive to win the favour of the People in defending it's Rights do not endeavour to prove upon the Principles of the first Ages It will not be denyed but that the People had then the Right of Opposing the chosen Persons by shewing That they were not worthy But in this case the People were heard as Witnesses and not as Judges If the Bishops who had chosen him who was opposed judged that the Accusations which were against him were just they proceeded against the Accused according to the Canons and then they came to a new nomination whereof notwithstanding the Synod of the Province was to judge The Author expounds thereby the 16 Canon of the Council of Antioch and the 12 of that of Laodicea where mention is made of the popular Election not to mark the Preferment of some one to the Episcopacy but the choosing of a Bishop already ordained to be Bishop of some Church The fifth Canon of Nice informs us That he who shall be excommunicated by one Bishop shall not be received into Communion by another If any one complained of being unjustly excommunicated the Provincial Synod judged thereof and if this Synod revoked not the Sentence of this Bishop every one was to hold him Excommunicated 'T is for that the Council of Nice orders That there should be every where held Provincial Councils twice a year at Easter and Autumn Our Author maintains that the Council of Nice doth not ordinarily acknowledge in her Procedures any other Tribunal than the Provincial Synods except in places whose ancient Customs were different as it appears by the following Canon So that all strange Jurisdiction is forbidden by the Fathers of Nice as the Churches of Africk maintained it boldly against the Popes Thence it 's concluded