sent into the World and so he came both from the Father and the Son according to that of a Tom. 2. hom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Johan p. 876. S. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this twofold procession perchance might give an occasion to that mistake of b Poetic lib. 6. cap. 4. p. 780. Julius Scaliger that the Greeks did believe there were two holy Ghosts Now the Controversie between the Eastern and Western Churches is concerning the Eternal procession which the Greeks make to be from the Father by the Son And notwithstanding the learned c Tom. 1. contr 2. l. 2. c. 24 25. Cardinal 's large muster of the Fathers both Greek and Latine in two whole Chapters to the contrary I shall undertake to evince that this was the belief of all the Fathers of the four first Centuries till the days of S. Ambrose for the Tractate de adventu spiritus S. father'd on S. Cyprian is by Pamelius acknowledged to be of a much younger Author XXV The Opinion anciently was so generally believed and so publickly known that a Tom. 2. p. 1121. Lucian or whoever was the Author of the Philopatris introduces Triephon advising Critias To leave off his Heathen Oaths and to swear by the high and eternal God by his Son and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father the Trinity in Vnity and Vnity in Trinity which contains an excellent Summary of the Christian Faith though scoffingly there quoted but we will omit such Foreign and summon Domestick Testimonies b Legat. pro Christ p 30. Ed. Steph. Athenagoras informs us That the Son is the mind the wisdom and word of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Holy Ghost an Emanation from him as light is from the Fire i. from the same Father says his Translator Gesner and so also I understand him So c Adv. Pra xeam c 1. Tertullian affirms the Original of the Spirit to be from the Father by the Son and d Oper. p 1. Ed. Vâ—ssâ—i Gregory Thaumaturgus in that Creed which was given him by Revelation by the hands of the blessed Virgin and S. John Baptist thus declares his Belief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. the holy Spirit as to his eternal proceeding came from the Father but as to his Mission in time unto men Christ sent him and this I believe to be the Fathers meaning notwithstanding what the infallibility e Vossâ— Not. in loc p. 104. of Pope Gregory the ninth would draw from these words to the Confutation of the Greek Heresie and after him the Cardinal This Creed is quoted by S. Gregory Nyssen in the life of this miraculous Father and the Doctrine uncensur'd and therefore we may conclude it his belief also especially if it be true what f Lib. 12. c. 13. Nicephorus and others say that in the Constantinopolitan Council the Creed which we vulgarly call the Nicene was penn'd by S. Greg. Nyssen we need no other specimen of his Opinion in this case Nor was his Brother S. Basil's Opinion different nor his dear friend's S. Gregory the Divine with whom not only Epiphanius Basilâ—â—o 1. in Ps 32. p. 203. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. l. 5. contr Euâ—m c. 12. Greg. Naz. tom 1. or 29. p. 493. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Or. 35. p. 5â—3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. in Anchor cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. tom 5. com in Is c. 57. Spiritus S. qui de patre egreditur propter societatem naturae à filio mittitur and having quoted Jo. 15.26 he adds nè scandalizet quempiam si spiritus egrediatur ex patre See the Creeds ad Damasum Cyrillum tom 4. p. 127 224. Hilar. tom 1. de trinit l. 12. p. 261. ut patrem sc te nostrum filium tuum unà tecum adorem sanctum spiritum tuum qui ex te per unigenitum tuum est promerear And again lib. 8. p. 139. à patre enim procedit spiritus veritatis sed à filio mittitur à patre S. Chrysost tom 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 730. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his Scholar S. Hierom agree though generally computed among the Latine Fathers of the other Opinion for the passages quoted by Bellarmine and others relate to the temâ—oral Mission of the Spirit from the Son which we deny not with whom also S. Hilary of Poictou and S. Chrysostom joyn consort XXVI And for this Opinion Theodoret is so stout a Champion that the men of the other perswasion make him the Author of it and censure him for it as speaking too rashly and agreeing with the Greek Heresie as they word it in a Rome 1547. their Preface to the Edition which I use and with him also agrees b Lib. 12. in Joh. c. 56. S. Cyril of Alexandria and in after ages Maximus and John Damascene as I find them quoted by c Sguropuli hist Conc. Florent sect 8. c. 15. p. 239. Marcus Ephesius in the Council of Florence and after them d In Johan 3. p. 604. Theophylact most expresly the Latines says he make the Spirit to proceed from the Son but we say that it is one thing to be of another and another thing to proceed from another that we may not therefore make two causes of the holy spirits production believe thou that the Spirit proceeds from the Father but is confer'd on the Creatures by the Son and let this be the rule of Orthodoxy to thee and e Vit. Greg. M. l. 4. c. 75. Paulus Diaconus assures us that when the Greeks translated the Dialogues of Gregory the great into their own language they scrap'd out the word filioque out of his discourse of the procession of the Holy Ghost XXVII And it was one of the Articles against Cyrillus Lucaris the late Patriarch of Constantinople which promoted his deposition in the Synod held there under Parthenius an 1642. That in his Confession he had held the eternal and essential procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son against the determination of the Catholick Church But herein they belyed the good man for in f Interpraestant ac erud viror Epp. Eccles Theolog. p. 403. his Epistle to Vytenbogard when he was only Patriarch of Alexandria he professes his Belief in this Article consonant to the Doctrine of the Greek Church which denyes the holy Ghost to have proceeded from the Son essentialiter internè quoad esse lest they should make two principles of his existence which is Heretical And in the first Chapter of his Confession of the Christian Faith the Book which occasioned his deposition and Martyrdom he acknowledges that the holy Spirit doth proceed from the Father by the Son which is the true sentiment of the Oriental Churches in which the g Confess Claudii regis apud Hotting topogr Eccl or c. 3. p. 76. Aethiopian
Christians h Field of the Ch. l. 3. c. 1. p. 70 74. the Coptites and h Field of the Ch. l. 3. c. 1. p. 70 74. the Maronites concentre the last of which admit it into their Creed And the whole Greek Church confess as is affirm'd by the learned i Ubi supr p. 127. Mr. Smyth who liv'd a considerable time among them that the third person in the Trinity is consubstantial with the Father and the Son and coequal that he is the Spirit of the Son that he is sent given poured out infused inspired by the Son and if you understand the word proceeding of his sending in time neither do they refuse to use that term also they allowing him to be the Spirit of the Son as he is called Gal. 4.6 and the Spirit of Christ as Rom. 8.9 Phil. 1.19 XXVIII To which we may subjoin that whereas the Apostolical and Nicene Creeds are silent in this point the Constantinopolitan which was the next hath asserted the procâ—ssion of the holy Ghost from the Father exclusivè to which Creed in the last Canon save one of the Ephesine Council it is expresly forbidden to make any Additions which Caution was again inserted in the Council of Chalcedon and when notwithstanding this care the Addition had been made the eighth General Council as the Greeks style it order'd the words to be expung'd as is affirm'd by Marcus Bishop of Ephesus in the Council of Florence This Creed was publickly read in the Eastern Churches as a part of their Liturgy and from that laudable custom was introduc'd into the West in a Can. 2. the third Toletane Council the Occidental Churches till then using only the Apostles Creed as b Tom. 4. an 381. p. 431. Baronius acknowledges but no Addition heard of till the seventh General Council and the eighth at Toledo for that it should be made by Pope Damasus as is affirm'd by Joseph Bishop of Modon in that Tract which is falsely father'd on him in the Florentine Council and by Manuel Caldecas or by the Doctors of the Catholick Church presently after the Council of Nice as others aver I suppose few men are at leasure to credit XXIX The Spaniards therefore first inserted the addition filioque and after them the French Vide P. Lombard lib. 1. dist 11. B. but both were in this case opposed by Pope Leo the third and the whole Roman Church Leo causing two silver Tables to be made and in them the Symbol to be writ in Latine and Greek according to the primitive Copy and the Tables to be plac'd behind the Altar of S. Peter there to be kept as a Testimony to posterity The Doctrine also was vindicated by Pope John the 8th to the learned Photius nor did it ever prevail at Rome till Ann. 883. under Pope Nicholas the first and that without a general Council So that we may hence judge that the Romanists gave occasion to the Schisme c Archb. Laud against Pisher sect 9. n. 2. it being hard measure to add and anathematize too XXX I have kept S. Athanasius for my last Testimony and will only instance in the quotation of the great Cardinal which he uses to prop the contrary opinion but it quite ruines it It is an impossibility says our d Redarg hypocris Meletii circ fin Patriarch to give the holy Spirit a place in the Glory of the blessed Trinity if he had not proceeded from the Father by the Son Nor is the addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be found in the Manuscript Copies of his Creed in Greek nor in the Printed Copies at Paris 1597 or by Commelinus 1600. although the Latine Translation hath it And therefore Meletius the Patriarch of Constantinople in his Epistle to Janus Douza says it hath been adulterated by an Appendix made to it by the Popes and withal adds that it is not his whatever Mr. H. p. 377. is pleas'd to say to the contrary Nor have the Latines escapt the impeachment of being guilty of corrupting the Fathers the Writer of the a Sect. 9. c. 3. p. 253. History of the Council of Florence in the name of his Brethren instancing in the works of S. Chrysostome And if sayes he they are not afraid to do so in his Homilies which they from their youth to their old age were always conversant in how much more must they expect they had done so in the Latine Fathers XXXI So that in this case we see the Greeks keep themselves to express words of Scripture Joh. 15.26 Heylin's Theol. vet l. 3. c. 1. p. 379. the Latines depend on some Logical inferences from thence and so have the worst end of the cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain texts of Scripture They have also on their side the writings of the Fathers the Acts of the ancient Synods and the Ecclesiastical Records and a pregnant Testimony in Rome it self in the two Tables hung up by the command of Pope Leo the third And yet so little is our Charity that besides their many other sufferings for the name of Christ we must add this one grievance more to accuse them of no less than Schism and Heresie And therefore I thought my self bound to vindicate them from that unjust aspersion XXXII That S. Athanasius writ the life of S. Anthony is more than once affirm'd by S. Hierome Greg. Naz. Socrates and others and notwithstanding some ridiculous passages I cannot proscribe the Book since he that looks into Cassianus shall find much wilder and more childish transactions and yet no man denies those Collations to have been his And however some men affirm S. Anthony to have been a Lawyer and very learned S. Hierome entitles him only to seven Epistles to certain Monasteries of his founding writ in an Apostolical i. e. a plain stile first in the language of the Country and then translated into Greek For so b Ep. ante Did. de Spiritu S. S. Hierome speaks of Didymus that you might easily know him to be an Apostolical person by the simplicity and plainness of his styleâ— but in what style these Epistles were writ themselves will make appear being not long since translated out of Arabick into Latine and set forth by Abraham Ecchellensis the Maronite And yet perhaps this as well as some other of our Patriarchs writings hath not escapt the foul hands c Baron tom 3. an 343. n. 6. of the followers of Apollinaris Nor is it but too Magisterially spoken p. 373. that the exhortation ad Monachos is forged only on the authority of Mr. Perkins whose judgment I suppose the Church of England will decline as in many matters of controversie so in as many of Church-History and Christian Philology XXXIII In the same page the Epistles between Pope Marcus and Athanasius are condemned as spurious and consequently the seventy additional Canons to the Nicene Council and
we find the same Form admitting a few Alterations which the Church of England uses in that tremendous Sacrament and indeed is the same abating a few Circumstances in the Liturgies of the whole Christian World among the Oriental and Western Christians the Syrians and Aegyptians the Abassines and Armenians the Melchites Jacobites and Nestorians who though in other things they disagree are herein united which makes me imagine their Ceremonies at this Sacrament so uniformly observed could flow from no other Fountain than that of the Apostles according to that Maxime of S. Austin that what is univerfally practised and was never instituted by a General Council must be imputed to the Apostles b Aug. Ep. 59. Paulino resp ad quaest 6. For the Vniversal Church had a set Service which she constantly used at the Celebration of the Sacrament whereof a part was perform'd before the Consecration of the Elements another during the Consecration and Distribution the Solemnity being alwayes concluded with the Lords Prayer the Eucharistical Hymns and the Priests benediction and that it was so from that passage Lift up your hearts to the end of the Communion Service I shall adventure to make appear from the most profound Antiquity XXVI For c Chrysost Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Cor. p. 647. after the Prayers of the Church which we call the first Service were finish'd and the Catechumens Energumeni and Paenitentes were dismist then began another Collect which only the Faithful said being prostrate on the Ground which I suppose was like that General Confession in our Books Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. then they arose and gave the holy kiss each to other after which the Priest being about to handle the tremendous Mysteries prayes over the people and the people pray for the Priest for what else mean those words and with thy spirit and when he returns with his new Invocation the people say it is meet and right so to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then he begins not the Consecration of the Eucharistical Elements but the Angelick Hymn therefore with Angels and Arch-Angels c. and this is excellently agreeable to the Liturgy of that a Liturg. Chrysost Tâ—â— 6. p. 996 997. L. 8. c. 16. eminent Father I will brieflâ— consider the several parts XXVII The Sursum cordais mentioned by the b Author of the Apostolical Constitutions and he would poorly have made good his pretence who-ever put on that Mask had not this Hymn been instituted by those holy men and the Testimony will be very considerable if the Author of those Books be as some men conjecture Clemens of Alexandria We meet with it also as an Hymn of Universal Practice in c De Orat. Dominic p. 160. S. Cyprian in d Catech. mystagog 5. p. 241. S. Cyril of Hierusalem and in e Ep. 57. Ep. 120. c. 19. Ep. 156 de spirit lit c. 11. de bono perseverant c. 13. de vera relig c. 13. c. Vide Dr. Hamm. Letters to Cheynel p. 26 27. S. Austin frequently that we may omit Dionysius the Areopagite because not so ancient as pretended the famous Bishop of Hippo affirming That they were verba ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita words derived to the Church from the days of the Apostles and S. Cyril telling us that they were traditionally derived down to his time and what was Tradition in his days could be little less than Apostolical and it is observable That the Liturgy which that ancient Father so largely and Learnedly explains in his Catechetick Lectures was the Liturgy of S. James which was then in use in his Church of Hierusalem then followed the Hymn therefore with Angels c. the Prayer which the Greek Churches call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which S. Chrysostom means when he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thou singest and joinest Consort with those blest Spirits and Gregory f Tom. 1. p. 957. Nyssen says they are the words which the Seraphims with six Wings say when they sing the Hymns with the Christian Congregation and was doubtless the g Just M. Apol. 2. p. 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Eucharistical Hymn which was sung when the Christians brought Bread and Wine to the Priest which he receiving return'd Praises to God in the name of the Son and the holy Ghost The Form of Consecration of the Elements was says h Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. in 2 Timoth. p. 339. S. Chrys of indispensible necessity and what was then retain'd in the Church was the same which Peter and Paul and Christ himself used at the Consecration of the sacred Symbols The Form is at large in i Tom. 4. lib. 4. de sucra cap. 4 5. p. 377. Edit Erasm S. Ambrose after this manner In what Form and in whose words is the Consecration made in the words of the Lord Jesus For in all the other Additionals thanks are given to God Suppliplications made for the people for Kings and all Orders of men this also k Apoleg c. 39. Tertullian mentions and l ubi supr Justin Martyr and S. m Ep. 119. c. 18. Austin call properly the Common Prayer like our Collect for the whole State of Christ's Church militant here on Earth but when he comes to Consecrate the venerable Sacrament then he no longer uses his own words but the words of Christ Which Form of Consecration he thus expresses a Ambr. ibid c. 5. the Priest says Make this Oblation prepared for us a reasonable and acceptable Sacrifice which is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Master Jesus Christ who the day before he suffered took the Bread in his hands and look'd up to Heaven giving thanks to the Holy Father Almighty Eternal God he blessed it brake it and being so broken gave it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of it for this is my Body which shall be broken for many Likewise the day before he suffer'd after Supper he took the Cup and look'd up to heaven giving thanks to the holy Father Almighty eternal God he blessed it and delivered it to his Apostles and Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of it for this is my Blood See all these words are the words of the Evangelist till you come to Take my Body or my Blood Observe every particular he says who the night before he suffered took Bread in his sacred hands c. therefore it is to very great purpose and advantage that thou sayest Amen So S. Ambrose largely and to the parpose XXVIII The Form of administration was the same with ours b Cyrilaibi supra The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life and to this the people said Amen with a loud Voice After the Celebration of the Mysteries c
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Romanus words it the qualifications of a true Gnostick for it was not the usage of the Primitive Church to communicate the knowledge of their Arcana to their Catechumens or Strangers but after Baptism and Confirmation they were permitted those fruitions and for this reason I suppose among others might Baptism be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination f Basil To. 2. de Spirit S. cap. 18. p. 190. because then the Spirit of knowledge affords to the lovers of Truth a certain image of the things they desire XXXVI But the name was commonly put to a worse use and the Gnostick was a Synonymon of a Heretick the whole Tribe being a mock-sort of Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphanius calls them elegantly who begun under Simon Magus the great pretender to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6.20 the knowledge falsly so called and the Atheistical methods of seducing Menander one of the Scholars of that Leviathan was the first Leader of the Party says a Lib. 3. c. 4. Irenaeus till afterward the name was usurpt by the b Id. ibid. c. 11. followers of Carpocrates and the Nicolaitans who challenged it as their peculiar denomination though indeed the title was claim'd by almost all the Hereticks of the first Century but in the second Saeculum the Valentinians ingrost it and were peculiarly so called against whom S. Irenaeus writing entitles his Book A Refutation of the Gnostick Heresie who may be term'd the second Family of the Gnosticks the Disciples of Basilides c Hier. Gatal v. Agrippa having been also on his deatn so stiled at Alexandria for there was a strange sympathy in Opinion between the followers of Basilides and Valentinus which last sort of Hereticks having been guilty of falfifying the works of Plato as well as the Scriptures were also opposed and writ against by the learned d Porphyr in vit Plotin Plotinus in his Books against the Gnosticks XXXVII To the judgment of Pope Gelasius in his Condemnation of the writings of this most learned Father I cannot pay that respect which I else would while it is unknown whether that Censure be his or every Book therein condemn'd do infallibly deserve it of which in a similar Subject the Reader may have an account and information from e Vindic. Ignat. part 1. c. 4. p. 44. c. Bishop Pearson who hath made it appear that that Roman Synod hath been foisted into the world under the name of that Pope in which Convention if there were any such S. Clemens need not be asham'd of his company of whom to omit others I will only mention two whose writings are at the same time reprobated viz. Hermes his Pastor and Barnabas his Catholick Epistle both frequently quoted by this great man of whom the first was acknowledg'd to be a genuine and very useful discourse by f Apud eund p. 39. c. Irenaeus and Origen Eusebius Athanasius Sedulius and others and reckon'd with the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus c. though I cannot believe g Not. in Philocal p. 683. Tarinus that Origen writ a Comment on the Book for the passage which he quotes in the Philocalia will not countenance it and questionless deserv'd it before it fell into the same evil hands with others of the Fathers who did adulterate it and h Catal. v. Hermes S. Hierome gives a reason why it was so slighted in the Western Churches because not known there whereas in many Churches of the East it was publickly read as Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians and Polycarp's were XXXVIII That the Catholick Epistle St. Barnabas is the true Off-spring of that Father which the learned i Life of S. Earn p. 41 42. Dr. Cave doubts but is acknowled'gd by the most Reverend Vsher the acute Isaac Vossius the immortal Grotius and others I am convinc'd by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen the frequent Allegories being no argument of its spuriousness as strange interpretations being to be found in the gennine Epistle of St. Clemens to the Corinthians his quoting passages and speeches of our Saviour not Recorded in the Evangelists usual also in the foremention'd Epistle and for its being accounted k Vid. Is Vossii Not. in Ep. Barn p. 311. Apocryphal I suppose it cannot mean that there was any doubt of the Author but because some doctrines in the Epistle were disrelisht it was not thought fit to be admitted into the publick Codex or Canon of the Scripture for if all Books that were early controverted must presently be rejected Vâ—d Euseb hist lib. 6. c. 13. because so accounted then the Epistle to the Hebrews the Catholick Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude the second and third of St. John and the Apocalypse must be expung'd the Canon of the Scripture and the Epistle of Barnabas which Tertullian quotes is no other but that to the Hebrews And so I believe St. b Catal. v. Barn Hierome understood the case who disputes not either the Author or worth of the Epistle but says That it was writ for the edification of the Church although it were numbred among the Apocryphal Scriptures XXXIX The error of this learned and holy Priest that our Saviour while on earth was not subject to our passions and infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. in Prodico had its rise I conjecture from his very venerable thoughts of the Son of God as if to stoop him to our infirmities had been to debase him That Christ Preach'd but one year from his mistake of that place of Holy Writ which says he both the Prophets and Gospels Record He hath sent me to Preach the acceptable Year of the Lord. That Christ descended into the Limbus Patrum to save the Fathers there detain'd is not his peculiar Error but an Opinion which most of the Antients embrac'd as is confess'd by c Answ to the Jes sect of Limbus Patr. vid. Montag Apparat 1. sect 1â—4 the Lord Primate and is reckon'd among the allowed Dogmata of the Catholick Church by d Dedogm Eccl. c. 78. Gennadius The Doctrines of Free-will and the Incontinency of the Angels have been already consider'd The Opinion of the Salvability of the fallen Angels I conjecture proceeded from an over high conceit of Gods propensity to be merciful and to forgive e Vid Hier. in Jon. 3. Ephes 6. p. 149. b. Edit Praâ—n The Fathers generaily of the Four first Centuries being perswaded That the Devils are not yet locally in Hell nor snall be till the day of Judgment but are inhabitants of the Air where God allowing them some respite it encourag'd this Father and his Scholar Origen to suppose there might be yet some hopes of their Salvation XL. But greater Errors than these are pardonable to one that hath so honorably deserv'd of the Interests of Religion and it is to be lamented that the Church hath not a
speak in an Ecstasie as do the Books of Pope Miltiades and Apollonius which Eusebius mentions That the Montanist Enthusiasts had their Ecstasies Tertullian grants but denies that they fell into any rageings and fits of fury and would undertake to a Tert. adv Marc. l. 4. c. 22. prove that the true Prophets were so acted from the example of S. Peter who on the Holy Mount Luke 9.33 would have three Tabernacles rear'd one for his Master another for Moses and a third for Elias not knowing what he said for says he how was he ignorant was it from the erroneous notions that then possess'd his mind or from some extraordinary grace and assistance that threw him into an Ecstasie For that man who is acted by the spirit of God especially when he sees the glory of God or God speaks by him must necessarily be deprived of his senses being overshadowed and amazed by the brightness of the divine power And this says he is the Question between us and the Psychici i. the Orhthodox But herein Tertullian went alone it being apparent that S. Peter's mistake proceeded from his ignorance of the state of glorified bodies and that the Masters among the Jews and all the Fathers acknowledge that the Prophets had a clear light and apprehension of what was communicated unto them and that correspondent thereunto their deportment was grave and their demeanour sober Tertullian therefore was very happy when he more than once renders Ecstasis by Amentia their raptures being nothing else but fits of madness wherein they were acted by an assistant Daemon to reveal strange things Melancholy and a busie swelling fancy with a little help from Satan the great pretender to Oracles easily setting up a confident cheat to imitate the dictates and inspirations of the true Prophets XVI Secondly The false Prophets of Montanus were of very vitious lives and conversations notwithstanding their great pretences to extraordinary strictness and mortifications but the true spirit of God will not dwell in unhallowed minds b Talmud Gemar Joma c. 2. Abarban pref in 12. prophet Maimon Mor. Nev. p. 2. c. 32. c. Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 424. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Orig. contr Cels lib. 7. the Jewish Masters affirming that he that will be a true Prophet must be acted by a spirit of true probity and piety must be an humble man a man of wisdom and fortitude and who hath gotten a conquest over his passions And to this agrees S. Peter 2 Ep. 1. ch v. 21. That they were holy men that spake as they were inspired by God And so the Fathers did believe that those that had such uncommon assistances of the spirit of God were men whose souls were purified by the light of a sublime reason and whose lives were guided by that light But a Apollin aâ—ud Euseb â— 5. c. 15. Montanus himself was a man of unsatiable ambition and covetousness of an ungovern'd wildness and impudency and his b Apollonius â—pud eund â— 5. c. 18. Prophetesses were Adulteresses so far from being Virgins as was boasted that they deserted their Husbands to follow this Pseudoparaclete they were addicted to the use of Fucus and painting to gawdery and intemperance and unlawful games to putting their money to use and to what not and Theodotus Themison and Alexander and other of their followers were notorious profligate wretches and at last Montanus and his two female Proselytes fell into the condemnation of Judas and were their own executioners and now let the tree be judg'd of by the fruit XVII Thirdly The Predictions of the true Prophets were always fulfill'd but the Revelations of Maximilla were like the old Oracles at best dubious and many times very false she undertaking to threaten the world with Wars and Seditions that should scourge the Church if her dotages were not embrac'd c Apollinaris ubi supr whereas the Father observes that from the death of that Impostress to the time of his Writing there had past 13 years in which there was a profound peace over all the World but more especially the Church enjoyed her serene and quiet days and was free from Persecution and she also d Epiphan haeres 48. Prophesied that after her decease there should not arise another Prophet but the consummation of all things should commence whereas the World yet continues Fourthly True Prophecy is a spirit which descending from above is not to be controll'd by any thing but that supreme power that gives the inspiration who bestows and retrieves it at his pleasure but when these Ecstatick cheats appear'd in the World the good Fathers of that age undertook to exorcise the Daemoniack and cast out the evil Guest e Serapion Apollinaris Apollonius apud Euseb l. 5. c. 15 17 18. Zoticus Bishop of Comana in Pontus resolving to undertake the action but the Montanists oppos'd it XVIII Fifthly The true Prophets had never granted them against the ordinary and establisht Government of the Church the Prophets of the old Testament being to be judged by the Consistory and of the New by the Church against which I can only find one instance of Elijah at Mount Carmel superseding a positive law but these men were guilty of introducing new doctrines of opposing and reviling their Ecclesiastical Superiors and broach'd Opinions that contradicted the word of God Montanus himself says a Ubi supr Epiphanius affirming That the righteous at the day of judgment shall be a hundred times brighter than the Sun and the wicked a hundred times brighter than the Moon And what makes me most of all suspect the cheat is that this Afflatus made it self appear only at set times by Tertullian's own confession usually on the Sunday and that only during the celebration of Divine Service when the people were gather'd together like our Modern Quakers pretences to the spirit to assist them in their publick discourses as that thought fit which now no longer acts them but at set intervals and that the subject of the Prophecy was hinted to the Enthusiast from some passage or other in the Prayers or Lessons or Sermons of the Church whereas the true spirit of God tyed not its self to such Methods nor could be confin'd within such limits and needed not such concurrent circumstances from whence it might take the measures of its discoveries but as a free and uncontroll'd agent shed its influences on the mind of the Prophet at what seasons and in what degrees were best lik'd of by the supreme Inspirer Thus the Devil as they say can take upon him the shape of a man Naz. Orat. 25. p. 441. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Orat 14. p. 221. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but cannot so wholly play the counterfeit but that by a Satyrs tail or a cloven foot he will be betray'd to a severe and diligent inspector so when he seizes the Prophets Mantle to abuse the World there are some peculiar
better judg of the reasonableness oâ— my Animadversions and voluntary engaging my self in this Controversie aâ— an Essay or well-meant endeavour to testifie my zeal for Antiquity and its reverend usages and my duty to my holy Mother the Church of England nor can Master H. construâ— my remarquing what hath not been by him so carefully or faithfully exprest as Defamation and casting Dirâ— but rather as a serving the Interests 〈◊〉 Truth and doing homage to its Majesty Si taceamus cedere videbimur si contendamus verendum est nè nos carnales esse judicemur Ambr. lib. 5. de fide ad Gratian. cap. 1. p. 113. ed. Erasm and I had rather be thought contentious by such a Vindication than lyâ— under the misapprehension of assenting to his unsounâ— Assertions by my silence The View of Antiquity was a long time ready before it came to the Press and perhaps lay dormant so many years to wait a more favourable Crisis in the times for its publication and methinks should in that space have been accurately examin'd and peradventure had never been printed in the life time of the Author if the learned Doctor Cave's Apostolici had not appeared in which the whole design of Mr. H's book is except a few Pages eternally superseded this I conjecture hastened the impression and introduc'd it into the Light the Doctors Book having its Imprimatur May 10th the other December 9th of the same year And as it was a long time before Mr. H. would suffer his Tractate to appear in publick so was it no little space after my first reading of it e're I could perswade my self to animadvert it being never yet tickled with an itch of being in Print and not unacquainted with the shallowness of my own abilities and the meanness of my little study and expecting some better furnish'd person to vindicate the Church but when I saw no man appear and found that I had a few Books of my own that could assist me in such a disquisition I seriously applyed my self to the business not tying my self wholly to Mr. H. but occasionally making some digressions to discover the primitive Opinions or Customs in some of which I have been very large out of a perswasion that that might comport with the Genius of others which pleased mine who am not apt to be satisfied with Scraps but have ever loved an historical deduction of Opinions and Practices through all the Records of Antiquity that I could meet with and such a Sally now and then is not I presume unpardonable to one of my youth and humour but in some places I have been compell'd to amass Quotations that whereas my Author whom I undertake to correct does very magisterially in a few words condemn the use of the Cross the necessity of Baptism and many other such Catholick Dogmata I might on the contrary appear to their vindication and make it good that they are not Romish innovations but Ancient Primitive and Orthodox Doctrines and Practices I have voluntarily subjoyn'd all the Panegyricks that in my small reading I found on the Fathers whose Lives Mr. H. treats of but must forewarn my Reader that he expect not an exact confinement to the words of my Author in every place though I am not conscious to my self that I any where wilfully falsifie his meaning I having allowed my self a large liberty in expressing the Fathers as I understood them and I could wish that all that can would save themselves the trouble of reading such a bald and jejune Translation and converse with the writings of the Encomiasts in their native and ravishing Greek I have also taken upon me in some places to vary from some very Venerable men whose persons I reverence and Writings I admire but I hope it hath been no where without a becoming Modesty and some shew at least of reason for my dissent Nor am I ignorant that I have imbitter'd a Claâ—â—â—s of men that are keen in their Aspersions and not wanting to the Arts of reflection and virulency by so magnifying the Authority of the Fathers whereas I have done no more than the Church of England enjoyns every good Member of her Communion to do Can. Eccl. Angl. 1â—71 when it requires them to interpret the holy Scriptures according to the Exposition of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops It is true the judgment of those admirable men hath been declined by all * Exoriri videas passim tenebriones quosdam qui simul atque didicerunt decem verba Latina Graeca duo paradoxa sex scribunt procaces libellos miroque supercilio fastidiunt tot saeculoâ—um unanimi sententia consecratos authores haud dum scio majorene ingratitudine an impietate Erasm Epist dedic ante tom 4. oper Hieron Modern Hereticks by the Socinians and Anabaptists especially who herein tread in the Steps of their Progenitors the Arians and others for the a Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 10. Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 12. Historians tell us that until the time of Theodosius the Great the Hereticks of whatsoever denomination refused to be tryed for their Orthodoxy by the Fathers but when that famous Prince had conven'd the Catholicks and Novatians the Arians Eunomians and Macedonians to give him an account of their Faith Nectarius the Patriarch of Constantinople by the advice of Sisinnius perswaded the Emperour to engage them to stand to the decision of the Ancients in the Controversies of Faith which after a strict Law made to that purpose they were content to do hence it is that the Fathers of the four first Centuries do but sparingly defend the Catholick Faith by the Testimonies of the Ancients Pearson vindic Epist Ignat. part 1. cap. 2. p. 13. cap. 6. p. 95 96. but after this time Theodoret and Gelasius begun the custom of doing it ex professo and made it usual Nor have the greatest pretenders to respect for those Sages always been constant to their duty either in the Church of Rome or the Congregation of the Discipline for when Salmeron says Disputat 51 â—n Rom. pag. 468. that at least three hundred Fathers may be muster'd against the immaculate conception he shakes them all off with Pauperis est numerare pecus That Saint Bernard and the rest of the Fathers must not be credited in such a Case Apud Dr. Hammond animadv on Dr. Owen p. 21. And when Blondel confesses that the Ancients did believe Ignatius his Epistles to be genuine yet he slights them all with Quid tum quam multa minime suspicaces ac impara tos fefellerunt semper quotidie fallunt What then how many times are men deceived that are not wary and cautious And with this sort of Men I fear me we must rank Master H. notwithstanding his usurp'd Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lover of Antiquity But it hath been the peculiar glory of our holy Mother to confront the Romanists with their own Fathers in Matters of
a Vindication of it His works What extant and what lost His Octapla his Style and the causes of his condemnation The quarrel between S. Chrysostom and Epiphanius thereupon The Church was accustomed to Excommunicate Hereticks after their death Origen's Errors and whence imbibed An Apology for him The Platonick Opinion concerning the Resurrection His character and Encomia from all sorts of Writers Christian Jewish and Heathen Some peculiar remarks in his Life The Title of Martyr was usually given to the confessors of Old but themselves modestly resus'd it The time of his death Life of Saint Cyprian He is inconsiderately confounded with Cyprian the Magician the Servant of Justina The junior Cyprian was never Arch-Bishop of Antioch The Carthaginian Primate was made a Convert by his Country-man Caecilius who was the same person that bears a part in the Dialogue of Minutius Foelix Donatus was Cyprian's immediate Predecessor in that See Who the Libellatici properly were the different customs of the Churches of that Age in allowing or condemning the purchase of such Libels of security from the Heathen Magistrate Saint Cyprian's exemplary humility and charity The Adulteration of his works by the Romanists The Primacy of Saint Peter what His genuine Writings and style The power of the people in electing their Prelates discust They had a priviledge conceded them to except against the manners of the Candidate for holy Orders and in some places to nominate but that power on their tumultuous and disorderly proceedings soon taken from them A Vindication of his reputed erroneous Opinions That Charity purges away Sins That a man may tender satisfaction to God as well as to the Church To communicate Infants a Catholick custom Authority and Reason for it Mixing Water with Wine in the Eucharist A Discourse of the duration of Miracles in the Christian Church especially of Prophecy the cure of Daemoniacs and raising the Dead Miracles no mark of a true Church The vain and empty boastings of the Romanists in this case The time of Cyprian's Martyrdom Two Temples erected to his memory and a Festival His honourable character Saint Austin's Homily in his commendation Life of Lactantius His Country Italy The design of his Institutions to stifle the Objections of two virulent Adversaries of Christian Religion Of whom Hierocles was one but Porphyry not the other Lactantius his Errors The Fathers were not very wary in asserting the Divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost till the appearance of Arius and Macedonius The praeexistence of the soul Merit The excellency of Charity That sins of ignorance damn not Whether the wicked shall arise at the day of Judgment and how His great learning and extream poverty Life of Saint Athanasius His Baptizing his play-fellows vindicated Baptism by Laicks in case of instant necessity connived at in the Primitive Church The Schismatical Ordinations of Coluthus condemn'd and Ischyras degraded who after was made a Bishop by the Arian faction Arsenius his appearing at Tyre to the vindication of Athanasius An account of the death of Arius Gregory and George the Cappadocian usurp the See of Alexandria The last of them cruelly slain What books of this Father are genuine The Saturday was observ'd as a Fast at Rome and Alexandria and the reasons of it but as a Festival in the rest of the Christian world and the reasons of that custome it is yet so retained in all the Churches of the East and South Nine Orders of Angels anciently asserted agreeable to Scripture That the glorified Saints pray for some persons in particular The retention of Images The distinction of sins into venial and mortal Divers Orders of Monks Penance Prayers for the dead Anti-Christ who the holy Table frequently called Altar The Eucharist a sacrifice how an unbloody sacrifice The Doctrine of the Procession of the Father by the Son was the ancient belief An Historical account of the addition filioque and of the just grounds of the Greek Church to keep to the ancient Creeds The life of S. Antony writ by Athanasius The genuineness of the Epistles between Pope Marc and Athanasius controverted That Christ descended locally into Hell The Father 's not in complete bliss till his Resurrection Circumcision was a sign of Baptism Athanasius's Death and character The famous men of his name S. Greg. Nazianzen's Panegyrick on him The Life of Saint Hilary of Poictiers The legend of his Condemnation at Rome under Pope Leo. The ancient division of France rectyfied by Augustus What Countryman Saint Hilary was the great confusion in Historians when men of the same name are cotemporaries When Saint Hilary was banish'd and by whom His honourable mention in the Writings of the Ancients The Tractate de numero septenario is not his Venantius Fortunatus who and how he came to be Bishop of Poictiers Saint Hilary's Poems His Books de Trinitate are his master-piece The Epistle to his Daughter Abra. His Fragment of the Council at Ariminum His Style The Interpolation of his works That he did believe the Divinity of the holy Ghost His Errors candidly considered and apologiz'd His Opinion of the holy Spirit Of our Saviours being without passions Of our being the Sons of God by Nature How all things were created at once His Opinion of Free-will his Death and Character ERRATA Besides mis-pointings and Words printed in an improper Châ—racter the Reader is desired to Correct as follows In the Book P. 4. l. 9. for by r. to p. 10. l. 13. r. Epistle p. 16. l. 9. r. pag. ¾ p. 18. l. 23. r. whence p. 28. l. ult r. rite p. 32. l. 2. r. ancient forms p. 34. l. 17. r. there p. 36. l. 26. and 32. r. thee p. 39. l. 4. r. Obsecrationum p. 52. l. 15. r. preceded p. 102. l. 7. dele as p. 103. l. 27. after ours r. is p. 104. â— dispossess p. 114. l. 21. del of all his Congregation p. 115. l. 23 â— meet p. 138. l. 29. del that p. 139. l. 12. del and. p. 148. l. 27. r. acute p. â—49 l. 32. r. disturber p. 152. l. 32. r. the. p. 158. l. 29. r. Mistresses p. 159. l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 164. l. 1 2. r. in the next Century p. 166. l. 29. r. l. 4. p. 175. l. 26. del as he continues p. 186. l. 2. r. to partake p. 194. l. 12. r. gamala p. 196. l. 11. r. Martyr p. 198. l. 8. r. more beautified p. â—07 l. 19. for in r. out of p. 214. l. 10. r. of Saint p. 237. l. 18. for i r. first p. 241. l. 18. r. no power p. 337. l. 10. r. Eulalius p. 348. l. 26. r. before that time p. 356. l. 22. r. the Heathen Magicians p. 371. l. 24. r. Quiriacus l. 28. r. Rescripts p. 390. l. 34. r. Saturnilus p. 406. l. 34. r. Callecas p. 421. l. 5. del whereas it p. 465. l. 7. r. Raynaudus In the Margin P. 27. l. marg 8. r. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37.
anothers Province but where both of them preacht the Gospel in the same City and founded a Church it was divided into two Coetus or Assemblies under their respective Bishops as h In Gal. 1. 22. to 9. p. 214. Ed. Eras Seorsim qui ex Judaeis erant Ecclesiae habebantur nec his qui erant è Gentibus miscebantur S. Hierom or who-ever put out those Comments in his name So * Apud Euseb Hist lib. 2. cap. 24. Dionysius of Corinth seems to imply was his Church founded and so without doubt was the Church of Rome where Linus succeeded S. Paul and Cletus S. Peter till both the Coetus had their coalition under Clemens and that there were two such distinct parts of their first Plantation seems plain to me from Rom. 14. where the Gentile Church is advised not to censure the Jewish who observed days and abstained from meats And after this manner had the Church of Antioch its Original for it appears by Act. 15.23 that the Synodical Epistle of the Apostles was directed to the Brethren which were of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia who were distinct from the Jewish Converts as appears from v. 28. And this I am apt to think was the Model of Government in all Churches where those two Chiefs of the Apostles came whereas at Alexandria where they had only S. Mark for their Apostle and Instructer Epiphan Haeres 68. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had but a single Bishop So that in this City both the Apostles laying the foundation committed the raising of the Superstructure each to a distinct Successor Ignatius succeeding S. Peter Euodius S. Paul till on the death of Euodius there was a coalition of both the Coetus under the surviving Bishop And I suppose this happened providentially in all places just upon the ruine of Jerusalem under Titus that the Apostles having buried the Synagogne with honour there might no longer be the distinction of Jew or Gentile in the Lord Jesus and this may help to strengthen the Conjecture of the most learned a Ubi supr Pearson and to reconcile Eusebius and his Translator S. Hierom that Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch more than 30 years for so long he exercised the Jurisdiction after Euodius his decease as appears by Eusebius and how long before as the Bishop of the Jewish Christians is uncertain VII Sect. 2. p. 3. Mr. H. says that Ignatius is altogether the most ancient of all now extant first of Writers as I understand him in the Christian Church Where certainly he must allow us to except S. Barnabas who writ his Catholick Epistles or if that be controverted S. Clemens his Golden Remains to the Corinthians the Author whereof was martyred the third year of Trajan whereas the first of Ignatius's Epistles was not writ till an 10. of that Emperour and from this consideration we are naturally led to Sect. 3. p. 4 5 c. VIII In the Discourse of the Writings of this Martyr he at first gives them their due Eulogy Vide Baron T. 2. an 109. p. 31. and Not. ad Martyrol Feb. 1. that as a certain well-drawn Picture they do excellently represent and give us a lively Image of him and so they are in the Opinion of all Learned and Unprejudiced Persons having had the Approbation of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Councils and had our Author stopt here in a just Admiration of this holy Man and his Writings I should have been content to have seconded his Design and offer'd my Veneration and Esteem on the same Altar But what this one fit of passion gives us is by another snatch'd from us and the Epistles so commended are presently attempted to be debas'd by an heap of Inconcludencies Nor can I but a little admire that Mr. H. writing a large Diatribe à p. 4. ad p. 15. on these Epistles never remembers any Edition of them later than that of the most Reverend Vsher who by an ingenious and successful sagacity rescued this great man from the vile Abuses of his Interpolators who had interwoven their coarse Thread with his Purple never taking notice of the Edition of Isaac Vossius who out of the Medicean Library at Florence Ann. 1646. furnisht the World with a genuine Copy of the seven Epistles the same I suppose which a Pro Epist Pontif lib. 2. c. 10. comm in constit Apost l. 9. c. 17. Turrianus saw and so much and so justly boasts of terming it a most ancient and emendate Copy the number being the same with the computation of the Ancients in which also the Passages quoted by them are found which are wanting in the Vulgar Copies and which exactly agrees to those two barbarous Latine Translations which the Reverend Primate met with here in England the one in the Library of Cains College in Cambridge the other among the Books of that Prelate of Universal Learning Bishop Montague which Transcript of Vossius when it was first communicated to the World was acknowledged by b Apolog. pro sent Hieron praefat p. 40. Blondel the bitter Adversary of those Epistles to be the same which for above a thousand three hundred years since Eusebius and after him the other Fathers used and since him by Dailleé in his set Tract to evince their spuriousness of which undertaking of that Learned Frenchman Mr. H. in his Mantissa takes notice and could not but see that it had Relation to the Medicean Copy and the emendate Edition of Vossius a Book that hath been unanswerably silenc'd by the incomparable Bishop Pearson in his Vindiciae Epistolarum Ignatii a Tractate that I wonder is never mention'd in a Discourse so suitable but this is not the first over-sight Mr. H. hath been guilty of IX And if the Censure be not too severe there is some reason why this Edition purg'd of all the foisted Passages is not mention'd which is because of the Episcopacy therein asserted when by sticking to the interpolated Copies a Crime I find willingly committed by the Assemblers and Dr. Owen against Dr. Hammond by the Accurate Dailleé himself and I will not say by our Author they might decry every Sentence that made gainst their darling Discipline as foisted in contrary to the mind of the holy Ignatius this Mr. H. more than intimates in these Passages a Life of Ignat. p. 7. vide p. 14 15. They i. the genuine Epistles which he before mentions have not escaped the hands of those which have offered no small Injury to them having most unworthily corrupted these ancient Reliques partly by Addition and Interpolation of what never fell from the Pen of Ignatius and partly by Diminution and Substraction of what they saw would prove of disadvantage and prejudice to them so that even those genuine Epistles through the foul abuse that hath been offered unto them have lost much of that Authority which they had of old And I may safely dare to affirm that had not
through the Mercy and Compassion of Jesus Christ to whom be Honour with the Father and Holy Spirit now and for ever Amen THE LIFE OF S. Justin THE MARTYR I. AMong the Notices which Mr. H. furnisheth us with of this Reverend Philosopher and Martyr he begins § 1. p. 22. as the Laws of History require with his Birth and Descent and tells us from his own a Apolog. 2. p. 53. Apology That he was born at Sichem or Neapolis as the Romans called it in the Province of Samaria and was the Son of Priscus Bacchius For the place of his Natiâ—ity I am of the same mind but for his Father's Name must profess my dissent believing with b Apud Dr. Cove 's Life of S. Justin Sect. 14. Sylburgius c Apud Dr. Cove 's Life of S. Justin Sect. 14. Valesius and the Learned d Apud Dr. Cove 's Life of S. Justin Sect. 14. Dr. Cave that Priscus was his Father and Bacchius his Grand-father for whereas this very Martyr in the Preface to his Apology and out of it Euscâ—ius calls himself Justin the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Priscus the Son of Bacchius who were of Flavia Neapolis a City of Syria Palestine there is a plain distinction made between Priscus and Bacchius the plural Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying them to have been two different persons though I must acknowledge that the words have been so mistook by c â—â—â—al v. just M. S. Jerome and his Translator Sophronius and the learned d Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— 163. Photius to omit Joseph Scaliger and Christopherson in his Translation of Eusebius and other Moderns and the reason of so many learned mens falling into the same Errour looks so lovely in the words of our Martyr concerning the old Philosophers that I cannot but subjoin them d Just in Dial. câ—mâ—â—â—â—â—en It was the good hap of those that first fortunately fall on the discovery of this sort of learning and thereby grew famous that all that succeeded them thought it enough to walk in their steps never being sollicitous whether they were the Paths of Truth only admiring their great courage and temperance and strange Notions and thinking every Sentence Oracle that dropt from the mouth of such an Instructor We must therefore take care when we hear e Thâ—â—â—vid Scalig in Ensâ—◠〈◊〉 M. â— CLVII p. 201. S. Justin calling the Samâ—ritans his Country-men that we think him not a Samuritan either by Blood or Religion but only that he was of one of those Colonies wherein were intermix'd both Jews and Gentiles and both under the name of Samaritans Fellow-Citizens they were of his but no nearer a-kin It was therefore an Errour of Epiphanius to say That he wâ—â— converted from being a Samaritan to the Christian Faith for it appears by his own account of his Conversion that he was not circumcised nor a Proselyte to the Mosaick Constitutions as the Samaritans were but one that sought Truth not in the Schools of the Prophets but the Philosophers and perchance this may be a reason of his ignorance in the Hebrew Tongue which afterward discovered it self in his Derivations of Pascha and Satanas c. and his constant using the Translation of the Seventy but such Errours in Etymology are too mean to impair the Reputation of so venerable an Ancient who was as a Apud Phot. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 488. Methodius styles him a Man not much junior to the Apostles either in Age or Excellencies II. Mr. H. next proceeds to an account of the means that were instrumental to his conversion and though I could well like the menage of such a Story and be glad that it had been promoted by the intervention of an Angel yet I cannot assent that the old man spoken of was of the number of those blest Spirits and the Philosopher's better Genius since he is described by S. Justin himself as an aged person only though unknown who met him while he was walking in a melancholy mood by the Sea side and after he had given him his advice departed from him immediately not vanisht as Mr. H. affirms So that I am apt to think him one of the holy Confessors of that age who either for his greater privacy in his Contemplations or for fear of the last efforts of Adrian's Persecution that then was not fully ceast or by the direction of an Angel as Philip was sent to the Eunuch came thither to promote the making this sage man a Christian For as to the argument from the case of S. Austin that was not done by a Vision but a Voice only such as the Greek b Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Menaeon tells us befell Titus at Crete Titus thou must rescue thy soul from this place and wander into some other Country for this sort of Learning that thou now followest will not profit thee And I think our Author is the first man that makes this an extraordinary Vision for there are c Apud Dr. Cave ubi supr sect 2. p. 141 142. those that stick not to say that this was only a Philosophick and imaginary Drama after the method of Socrates and the succeeding School of Plato who discourst by way of Dialogue not that there was any such thing really done but that he might the better entertain Trypho with the manner of his being made a Christian But I rather incline to the first opinion which abating this mistake is pertinently applyed by Mr. H. to the subject in hand and so is what succeeds till Sect. 2. p. 27. where he tells us that S. Justin and Aristides and Quadratus tendred their Apologies about the same time to the Emperour Adrian whereas it is as clear as what is writ with a Sun-beam that whereas the Vindications of Christianity managed with so much learning and zeal by Quadratus and Aristides were presented to the Emperour Adrian circ an 123. and about the sixth or seventh year of his Reign that a Euseb lib. 4. 〈◊〉 8. Justin was a Heathen long after till the time of the Consecration of Antinous which was not till circ an 132. and that his first Apology was writ long after that and dedicated not to Adrian but his Successor Antoninus Pius and this also Mr. H. having forgotten his former Assertion affirms p. 28. and 31. and I am apt to think that the Errour arose from a cursory and inconsiderate view of the Title of that Apology where the Name Aelius Adrianus is added to that of Antoninus Pius for thus it runs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To the Emperour Titus Aelius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Caesar Augustus c. In which as was usual the present Emperour annext the name of his great Patron who had adopted him to his own as an additional honour to his many other Titles And we may think that the same haste made b Contr. Tatian
little Arts of some late Aggressors to overthrow it for if all Sin unexpiated makes obnoxious to Damnation then Children are so lyable by reason of their Original Transgression brought into the World with them unless they be allowed Laver of Regeneration that they may be â—anctifyed and cleans'd by the washing of Water by the Word the Word sanctifying the Water and the Water purging the Criminal not by putting away the filth of the flesh i. any Bodily Pollutions but of the Spirit by the answer of a good Conscience towards God relating to the Apostolical Custom of Interrogatories in Baptism and hereby are they wash'd and sanctify'd This is the Doctrine of the Church of England declared in the end of the Office for Publick Baptism That it is certain by Gods Word that Children which are Baptized dying before they commit Actual Sin are undoubtedly saved Nor will I trouble my self any farther in this when I have subjoyn'd the Testimony of a Father or two to this purpose For the Greek Church a Contr. Arian Tom. 1. p. 147. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Nyssen Orat. in eos qui differunt Baptisma Tom. 1. p. 958. Chrys Tom. 4. Homil. 3. in Ep. ad Philip p. 20. S. Athanasius whom Mr. H. justly reverences who calls Baptism that sanctifying and enlivening Purgation that brings Remission of sins and without which no man shall see the Kingdom of Heaven and b Tom. 1. Orat. de S. Baptis p. 65 â…” Gregory Nazianzen blames those that believe that at their death their desire of Baptism shall be accepted That it is a Râ—ddle never to be resolv'd that a man that dyes unbaptiz'd shall for his intentions he accepted by God as if he were baptized or that he that is without its confines shall be transported into Heaven by a few barren wishes only without passing through the requisite preparations for that Kingdom for if the desire of Bâ—ptism can confer the efficaâ—â— of that Ordinance on thee the desire of Heaven shall be all thy happiness both preparation and reward imaginary This c Hâ—â— 3. in La Origen handsomely in his Allegorical way deduces from the variety of Genealogies which the two Evangelists allow our Saviour for S. Matthew deriving his Line from the time of his Natural Birth not only terminates his Catalogue in Abraham but reckons into the number of his Progenitors Tamar Rahab Bathsheba and other Sinners whereas S. Luke recording his Pedigree from his Baptism makes him at first rise to be the Son of God and does not Mr. H. himself say as much p. 43. out of this very Father That through Baptism we obtain Remission of the Sins we had before committed For the Latine Church I would quote S. Austin but that it is palpably known that only on the account of this Belief a Lib. 3. de Orig. animae l. 1. de peccatmerit remis c. 15. c. he damns all Infants unbaptiz'd and assures us b Ibid. c. 24. that the Christians about Carthage used to call Baptism Salvation and the Eucharist Life Nor is there any difference farther than words between us and the Romanists in this point says the Learned c Apud Dr. Featley's Dipper dipt p. 10. Dr. Reynolds in his Lectures de Censura Apocryphorum not but that it is in the power of God to save without means but that there is no way in our power to come to Salvation without them VII The use of Chrism is on all hands acknowledged to be very ancient and to have been used in Baptism Confirmation anointing the Sick and many other Ecclesiastical Offices and had the Church thought fit to â—etain it still I suppose no peaceable man would have disgusted it d Of â—â—onfirâ—â—â—g 21. Mr. H. in another place allowing it to be as ancient as Tertullian and what he calls an ancient Custom as e De coron milit cap. 3. vide Apolog. cap. 3. Christianus quantum interpretatio est de unctione deducitur Theophilus Antiochen ad Autolyc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does Chrism can be little less than Apostolical and that Cyril of Jerusalem says We are thence called Christians and he might have named long before him and Tertullian too Theophilus Antiochenus As to the Ceremonies of the Mass which word anciently signifyed no more than the Church Liturgy being mentioned only in General and we being ignorant whether reflecting only on the Innovations of the Roman Church or the Primitive usages of the Church of England we say nothing in their Vindication the Doctrine of Free-will we shall consider hereafter that Confirmation is a Sacrament we deny take it in the strict sense of the word as it signifies holy Rituals ordain'd by Christ as generally necessary to Salvation though in a larger sense both Confirmation and several minuter observances of Christianity were by the Fathers called Sacraments or rather Sacramentals VIII I have considered all his unsound Doctrines as he calls them that are found in these Questions except the first viz. Vide Spalatens lib. 7. cap. 12. â—ct 86. c. the use of the Cross in which if I am a little larger I shall beg my Readers pardon This Mr. H. p. 14. derides as having no power to terrifie the Devil and p. 38. reckons a-among the Popish and unsound Doctrines the use whereof Parker in his Treatise of the Cross accuses not only as a sin against the second Commandment but against the other nine too and hath entituled his several Chapters of the Swearing Sabbath breaking Murther Adultery Stealing False-witness and at last of the Concupiscence of the Cross as well as of the Idolatry of it For whatever this last and imaginarily wisest Age of the World is apt to acknowledge in those days when the Blood of a dying Saviour was yet warm and the Testimonies of Heavens Love fresh in Mens Remembrances the Christians of that time put an estimate on whatever had but a remote Relation to Jesus but a peculiar value on the Instrument of his Sorrows and the Worlds Happiness Hence they used to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross before whatsoever undertakings a Tert. de Coron câ— Cyral Catec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. l. 3. in Job fol. 36. Ed. Merlin Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 47. Orat 19. p. 306. They went no where abroad or ever came home they never put on their Cloaths or wash'd they neither did eat or drink or sleep or sit or lye down or walk or enter into any Discourse in a word in every action they fortify'd themselves by signing their Fore-heads with the sign of the Cross even to the prefixing it to all their Writings as afterward they used in nomine Domini or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this by Apostolical Tradition says b Quaest 91 in sacr script Anastasius Nicaenus IX In every civil Action they customarily â—ed it and in every sacred Office the Church enjoyned it
usage testifies that Christ who is the Lamb without spot and was slain by those Jews is a Saviour to all who have imprinted the mark of his Blood i. of his Cross which shed his Blood on their Foreheads Hence it is called by g Contr. Mâ—rcion l. 3. c. 22. de spectac c. 4. Tertullian signaculum frontium who tells us that it was retained even by the Marcionite Hereticks by h Apud Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens as the most perfect Amulet by i Tom. 1. Orat. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianzen a Seal and Preservative and Mark of Christ's Dominion over us by k Auth. sub nom Hier. in c. 4. Eph. signaculum spiritus sancti S. Hierom the Seal of the Spirit of God by l Paulin. Ep. 2. ad Delphin p. 202. maceria signaculi salutaris Paulinus the Hedge and Fence of that Sign that confers Salvation m Basil Tom. 1. Hom. 13. p. 480. For unless the mark of the Lord be upon thee and the Angel can see the Character how shall he fight for thee and defend thee from all thy Enemies n Theodoret. in Cant. 1.2 Remember therefore that sacred Office wherein after your renouncing the Infernal Tyrant and owning Jesus for your King you that were initiated have received as it were a certain Royal Signature the Signature of Christ o I Eack 9. S. Hierom calls it without which no man can he saved So when God punish'd Vzziah with Leprosie his angry Master says a De Unitat Eccles p. 153. S. Cyprian branded him in that part of his Body where those that serve him faithfully are signed and b Id. Epist 56. p. 7â— all good Christians must take care that the mark that is there plac'd be not alter'd or defac'd But of this enough though more may be seen in c De resurrect carn Tertullian d Hist lib. 6. cap. 4. Eusebius e Hom. 76. in Matth. Chrysostom f De spiritu S. c. 27. Basil g In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Prudentius and others h Annot. in Cypr. Ep. ad Demet. c. 19. Goulart at Geneva confessing That the Old Christians retained this Ceremony without any Superstition because the Doctrine of the merits of Christ preserved them from the errours which afterward crept in and i Lib. 1. p. 170. T. C. himself that they did it to testifie that they were not ashamed of Christ that was crucified and that they might preserve among them an open profession of him for among the Primitive Christians says k Adv. Baron exercit 13. Sect. 23. p. 218. Ed. Francof Isaac Casaubon it was a Badge of their confidence in Christ and his Cross and Passion and therefore the holy and wise Reformers of Religion in England prudently suffered the Crosses in the High-ways to stand and retained it also in some of their Sacred Offices as in Baptism and in the Rite of Confirmation too in the Liturgy of Edward the Sixth but in a different manner in Baptism from the Popish Custom l Dr. Hammond of Idolatry Sect. 70. For in the first Liturgy of King Edward which agreed with the Roman Order the use was to cross the Child at the Church-Door when brought to Baptism but this of ours a mark of reception into Christs Flock immediately after Baptism and a kind of Tessera or Military sign that the person thus consign'd into Christs militia shall for ever hereafter think himself oblig'd manfully to fight under his Banner c. XIII Blessed Cross says m Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Tim. p. 334. Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 565. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 878. S. Chrysostom that art the great contrivance of God the Father the glory of his only begotten Son the joy of the holy spirit the Ornament of Angels the Safeguard of holy Church the boasting of S. Paul than which neither the Creation of the World out of nothing nor the erecting the Fabrick of the Heavens and Earth can be greater Testimonies of the Condescension and Mercy of God this Cross is the Wall of the Saints and the Beauty of the whole World this introduces light and makes alive by this the Daemons are put to flight and Diseases cured The truth and validity of which Conquests because Mr. H. p. 335. derides it I will evince beginning with that place of n L. 4. c. 27. Lactantius which our Aristarchus reckons among his Errours and Superstitious Observances He that would know how terrible this fign is to the Kingdom of darkness let him observe how the Daemons fly from the Bodies of the possest when they are adjured by the name of Christ for as he when he blessed the World with his presence expel'd those evil Spirits by his word and restor'd the distracted minds of the Sons of men to the right use of their reasons so now his Followers dispossest the same polluted Guests by the name of their Master and the sign of his Passion and of this the proof is most easie for when our Adversaries are most intent on their Sacrifices if a Christian whose Forehead is charactered with this holy sign stand by the slain Beasts are never propitious nor can the Priests read the Sacrificer's Fate in the Eatrails and this hath been done too frequently by the men of our Religion to be disown'd And here I cannot avoid the subjoining of a famous Example of a Greg. Nys Tom. 2. vit Greg. Thaumat p. 980 981. Gregorius Neocaesariensis that great worker of Miracles who that he might decline the Burthen of the Episcopal Charge had retir'd himself from Neocaesaria to a Wilderness but at last was by a strange impulse from Heaven made willing to serve in so honourable an Employ and having received in a Vision a certain Creed or Summary of Faith to preserve him from Heresie as he return'd from his solitude with his Companions being overtaken with night and a violent shower diverted himself in a famous Temple where the Daemon used to appear visibly to the Priest and deliver his Oracles But as soon as S. Gregory entered and invocated the name of Jesus the Daemons were terrified and having made the sign of the Cross to purge the air of those steams and fumes that polluted it spent the night in Prayers and holy Praises and early in the morning left his Lodging Crucis signum contra Daemonas esse praesidium videsis apud spalat l. 7. c. 12. Sect. 88. p. 308. Montagues appel c. 2 6 7. as soon as the holy man was gone the Daemons told the young Priest that they could not enter any more into the Temple because of his late guest and made it good by disobeying all his Charms and slighting his Lustrations and Sacrifices on this the Priest in hast pursues S. Gregory and overtaking him threatens to bring him before a
Magistrate as a Christian and an Enemy to their Gods all which the good Prelate slighted and told him that by the help of his God he question'd not but to confine the Daemon to what place he pleased which the Priest catching at desired him to restore his Familiar to his Temple S. Gregory cutting out a piece of the Leaf of a Book writ on it these words ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΣ ΤΟ ΣΑΤΑÎΑ ΕΙΣΕΛΘΕ Gregory to Satan Enter Which Paper when the Priest had laid on the Altar and used the accustomed Rites the Daemons enter as before On this and the sight of another Miracle done by this wonderful man he became a Christian S. Gregory's Deacon and afterward a Martyr b Nyss ubi supr p. 1004 1005. who also a little before his Death three several times by the same sign secured himself from the Assaults of the Devil and dispossest him of a Bath which he before had fatally haunted So when a Eudoxia Orat. 1. in Cypr. Mart. apud Phot. Cod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 215. the junior Cyprian the Magician who lived under Diocletian sent the most furious of his Familiars to disturb the holy Justina who would not yield to his love they returning confest that they were shamed and overcome by the sign of the Cross XIV Thus the Son of God appeared to his own vindication and that not only when his Servants have been his Instruments but sometimes when his greatest Enemies b Sozom. l. 5. c. 2. Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Julian p. 29. the Church Historian affirming that on a certain time the Apostate Julian went down into one of those dreadful Vaults where the Novices were to be initiated and met with some of those dismal Spectres which the Priests by their Magick Art made appear there and being afraid and unwittingly signing himself as he was wont when a Christian with the sign of the Cross of a sudden all the Phantasmata vanish'd the sign prevail'd it dispers'd the Devils and cancell'd the fears of that desertor c Aug. de C. D. l. 22. c. 8. I could also reckon the Cures wrought by this means on Innocentia and others at Carthage Tiburtius his walking safely over hot burning Coals the Woman in the Baths at Gadara that thus preserv'd her chastity with many other Examples but I forbear to surfeit my Reader Aut hoc testium satis est aut nescio quid satis sit vobis XV. By these Methods came the Cross of Christ to exalt it self into the Banners of Armies and to get a place on the Crowns of Monarchs and so venerable a respect did the succeeding Emperours pay to this solemn Representation of the sacred passion that d L. 1. Tit. 8. Leg. unic Theodosius and Valentinian made it a Law That this Symbol should not be put to trifling and unworthy uses nor engraven or painted on the ground or on Pavements where it might be trod upon And Heaven appeared to reward this piety in e Paul Diacon addit 18. ad Eutropium Tiberius junior who walking one day and taking notice of a Cross under his Feet commanded it to be removed to a more honourable place which being done a vast Treasure was found hid under it and though Constantine the Great hath been censur'd by some for his too frequent use of this sign as an Amulet against all harms and his causing so many Crosses to be made yet it is enough to me that the God who was crucified so commanded him if we may believe his f Vit. Constant l. 1. c. 22. Historian who had it from that August Emperors own mouth showing it to him first in the Air with this Motto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conquer in this sign and afterwards in a Vision expresly enjoyning him to make such another for his Standard Royal and his reasons why he stampt this Figure on his Money an next it to his Pictures placed it in his Standards and on the Arms of his Souldiers were very just says a De Orig. Templ l. 2. c. 9 p. 47. Hospinian That to the Christians it might be a Badge of their Profession and to the Heathens an encouragement insensibly to draw them to desert their former Superstitions and to worship a crucified Saviour and this Example of his was quickly followed Ruffinus telling us that the Alexandrians who in the days of their Idolatrous Ignorance commonly had the picture of their God Serapis on their Walls and over their Porches and in their Windows as soon as they were converted blotted them all out and set up the Cross in their stead XVI And all this while no person dream'd that these Miracles were wrought only by this sign but by the power of him that dyed on the Cross as b Apud Greg. Nyss ubi supr the Devil himself was forc'd to confess much less durst any man worship it it is dis-owned by all the Apologists by c Apolog. c. 16. Tertullian d Octav. p. 97. Minutius Faelix e L. 6. cont Julian S. Cyril and others cruces nec colimus nec optamus we neither worship the Cross as our God says Minutius nor desire it as our Punishment and in Constantine's Banner this was the Motto says f L. 8. c. 2. Nicephorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus is the Conquerour and for the Church of England she hath unanswerably vindicated her self to all rational men in her g An. 1603. thirtieth Article and by her redoubted Champion the profound h Eccl. polit lib. 5. Sect. 65. Hooker XVII These were the ancient Triumphs of the holy Cross such as not only commenc'd since but long before the Incarnation of Jesus i Just M. Tertul. Cypr. Ambr. Hier. Chrys Naz. Athanas c. apud Montag appel Caes c. 28. the Fathers expresly asserting that Joshua routed the Amalekites rather by this sign than by his Sword as Abraham also vanquish'd the four Kings and it shall go on conquering and to conquer to be the Glory of good men and the Confusion of its Enemies for as k Tom. 2. Orat 1. in Resurr Christ p. 830. Gregory Nyssen in his Mystical Way of commenting hath it This is that löta in the Gospel which is seen with a stroak athwart it the figure of a Cross which is firmer than Heaven and Earth and the whole Creation for Heaven and Earth shall pass away and the fashion of the whole World shall fade but one jet our tittle of this Law shall not pass away for our Saviour chose that kind of Death that the Cross might supply the want of a Divine and the Figure it self be an Instructor to the more perspicuous to describe the Power and Triumphs of him who being nailed to it overcame all things l Chrys Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 880. this being the sign that in the days of our Fore-fathers opened Doors when they were shut quench'd the force of the most
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. c. 7. The Jews were commanded by Moses says Philo to meet together in some convenient place where they might hear the Law of God read to them and expounded by the Priest or some of the Elders these places were afterwards called Synagogues and Proseuchae and for this end God divided Levi in Jacob and scattered him in Israel turning his Father's Curse into a Blessing that he might be instrumental to the instructing of the people and for this end also the wise-men of the great Consistory divided the Law into 54 Sections or Parascha's of which they ordered the four shortest to be read two at a time that so the whole might be read over once every year To this Custom did our blessed Saviour in his life conform himself for I never find him scrupling any innocent Rituals of the Jews and as it was their usage out of reverence to the Author of those holy Oracles both Priest and People b Nehem. 8.4 5. to stand up at the reading of them so when the sacred Jesus took into his hands the Book of the Prophet Isaiah c Luc. 4.16 20. he stood up read the Paragraph on which he intended to preach and sate not down until he had closed the Book and according to his example did the Apostles regulate themselves in Ecclesiastical Affairs not only introducing that very good Custom of standing up at the New Law the Gospel which was early practised in all Churches and by all men but by the d Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. Patriarch of Alexandria who only of all his Congregation of all his Patriarchate sate at the reciting of the Gospel but in ordering that in all Religious Assemblies there should first be read a e Origen Hom. 15. in Jos Portion out of the Law and with this they contented themselves before the writing of the New Testament their Homilies being only an explanation of Moses and the Prophets and a Confirmation of our Saviour's Divinity and Doctrine from thence f All. 26.28 saying no other thing than Moses and the Prophets foretold should come to pass but when the Gospels and Epistles were writ they then took order that some parts of the New Testament especially the History of our Saviours life should have a place in the Service that the Truth might answer the Types So g Hypotypos lib. 6. apud Euseb lib. 2. c. 14. Clemens Alexandrinus and Papias affirm that S. Peter decreed that the Gospel of S. Mark should be publickly read in the Christian Churches and h 1 Thess 5.27 S. Paul took care that his first Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read to all the Brethren XXI These Books of the holy Canon being collected into one Code during the Apostles residence on Earth the reading thereof continued in the Church after the dissolution of that Family of our Saviours own immediate constitution a Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Corinth p. 54. the employment devolving on the first-fruits of the converted City or Country where the Apostles preach'd whom they left to raise a Superstructure on the Foundation which they had layd and to cultivate what their industry had planted So b Apel. 2. p. 98. viâ—e Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. p. 502. Tert. Apolog c. 39. S. Justin describes the state of their Christian Conventions All the people that dwelt in the City or adjacent Country met together in one Assembly on the Sunday and then the Commentaries of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets are read and when the Reader a Church Officer very early instituted in the Church for this purpose hath done then the Bishop who is the President of the Society makes an Oration to encourage and exhort his Auditory to the Love Imitation and Practice of those blest Precepts And when c De anima cap. 9. Tertullian undertakes to enumerate the Solennia Dominica as he calls them the solemn Offices of that Festival he mentions the reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Sermon and holy discourses and then the offering up their prayers to God Which Expositions on holy Writ as a part of the service of the Lords day grounded on the custom of the Jews and the practice of the Apostles d Act. 20.7 S. Paul inures himself to as a necessary Method of instructing his Neighbours in the Laws of Christian Obedience and a great incentive and preparative to Devotion and the Eucharist in which the Apostles had this advantage of their Successors that they could express themselves both in their Supplications and Sermons without premeditation e 1 Cor. 14.30 being assisted by a peculiar afflatus of the Spirit of God the Spirit of Prayer and Prophecy whereas their Successors wanting those miraculous assistances took on them to inform their Flocks according to the several measures of their Learning and Industry only those who were well furnished with the Arts of demonstration and holy perswasives frequently spake ex tempore to the Congregation as we may see in many of the Homilies of the ancient Fathers S. Chrysostom especially And that we may make a more regular proceeding in this disquisition I shall speak to the time when and how often these Sermons were made the places where the persons who undertook this tremendous employment and the manner how it was performed and by this course we may take a brief view of the ancient practices in this case XXII We take it for granted that thâ— Lords day was not without its share in thiâ— Honour and that it was lookt on as a necessary part of the duty of every Prelate personally then to teach his people the Rules of Peace and Purity It was the practice of the Apostles Act. 20.7 and from them continued in the Church a Chrys To. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. p. 31. Aug. Confess lib. 6. c. 3. as a Law not to be dispens'd with and besides this solemn duty of the Sunday in some Churches they had constant Sermons every Wednesday and Fryday in the Week particularly at b Socrat. Hist lib. 5. c. 21. Alexandria where by an ancient custom all the offices of the Lords day were then performed except the celebration of the Eucharist and that probably was omitted because those were fasting-days stationum semi-jejunia as Tertullian calls them in c Id. Ibid. Cappadocia and Cyprus and probably in all other Countries where the Saturday was not a Fasting-day they had Sermons on the Sabbath-day as well as on the Sunday nay at Alexandria d Hom. 9. in Isai apud Centur. 2. c. 6. Origen seems to imply that they had Sermons every day as the Centurists understand him and this e De bono pudicit vide Holdsworth part 1. Lect. 4. p. 30. St. Cyprian terms the Bishops daily imployment nor was this Custom only used in the Southern Churches but in the Churches of the East too St. f Homil. 3. p.
Commodianus Quintus Junius Hilarion and the Junior Apellinaris of Laodicea and after them Tychonius Afer the Donatist and for some time d De C. D. lib 20. c 7. S. Austin himself and till the end of the fourth Century the opinion was plausible and well entertain'd but then says e Tom. 2 an 118 p. 62. Tem. â— an 37â— p. 353. Baronius Apollinaris Laodicenus taking on him to write against Dionysius of Alexandria that had opposed the assertion of the Millennium and answered the Books of Nepos it became formal Heresie and was so condemn'd in the Roman Synod under Pope Damasus and after that was never heard of The Acts of this Synod the Cardinal confesses are lost and I find it the opinion of a very f Dr. Covel's Des of Hocker Pres p. 12. learned man that it was the malice of Apollinaris his adversaries the Arians Eunomians and others against whom he had writ with much reason and vehemence that forged these Calumnies to decry those books they could not otherwise answer and I should willingly believe it did not the Authority of g Epist 74. S. Basil h Haeres 75. Epiphanius and i In Ezek. c. 36. S. Hierome oppose it but especially k Tom. 1. Oâ—at 51. p. 741. S. Gregory the Divine in his first Epistle to Cledonius assuring us that Apollinaris held the opinion in the grossest sense introducing the necessity of Circumcision and legal Sacrifices and in his l Id. Orat. 52. p. 747. second Epistle he impeaches him of Judaism Chiliasm and the dream of sensualities in Paradise and in truth the belief of the Jews was much like this who expected a Messiah to come with outward Pomp and Grandeur and to restore the Kingdom to Israel And perchance Cerinthus having been first a Jew from them drew his opinion And that the joys of this Monarchy should consist in the Restoration of the Temple at Jerusalem and the legal Sacrifices the Sabbath and Circumcision that in that Estate they should marry and get Children and enjoy such other sensualities much like a Mahometan Paradise XXXV But this was far from the mind of S. Justin and the followers of Papias unless we shall except m Instit l. 7. c. 24. Lactantius who tells of Rocks that shall sweat Hony and Rivers running with Wine and Marriages whose Issue shall be a holy Generation which I take to be spoken Allegorically and in a Poetical way as that Father was not over-wary in describing matters of Faith for we are told n Just M. Dial. cum Tryph. Judaeo p. 233. that they lookt not for material Altars or bloody Sacrifices but that their Oblations should be Eucharistical Hymns and Spiritual praises offered to God so that certainly S. Hierome does those venerable men a great deal of wrong in making their opinion the same with that of the Jews and Cerinthus against whom Irenaeus and Tertullian and Justin Martyr too writ which certainly they would never have done had they been of the same perswasion a Lib. 5. c. 26. Irenaeus expresly charging that Heretick with the denial of the Resurrection of the dead and Danaeus tells us that the Chiliasts who followed Cerinthus lookt for their eternal life in this World to be enjoyed in the City of Jerusalem and spent in carnal Voluptuousness and to last a thousand years and uses this as an argument against them Si post mille annos finitur haec vita non est aeterna that cannot be Eternal which shall last but a thousand years And therefore whereas of this Dogma in the sense of Cerinthus b Lib. 4. in cap. 19. Jerem. S. Hierome in his dispassionate mood tells us that he durst not condemn it because so many famous men and Martyrs have held it we must affirm that here that learned Antient was mistaken for it was a spiritual Kingdom abstracted from the observances of the Mosaick Oeconomy that they asserted and this in the judgment of c Ubi su pr. S. Austin makes the opinion very tolerable and it is observable that in the same place the same Father fastens the name of Chiliasm to the notion of the Mahometan Paradise Nay d Ubi supr p. 253. vide p. 306. c. S. Justin affirms confidently that all the disciples of the Orthodox and pure doctrine all thorow-pac'd Christians believed as he did but they that denyed it were only Christians in Name but in reality Atheists and Hereticks men that disowned the Resurrection such as were the Cerinthians Carpocratians Basilidians Marcionites c. against the last of which Hereticks e Contr. Marc. lib. 3. cap. 24. Tertullian uses this Topick to prove the Resurrection as Irenaeus does against the Cerinthians XXXVI But this argument hath been learnedly and ex professo fully handled by f Comment de mille annis Apocalypt Mr. Mede who gives us a good reason of the general entertainment which the belief every where found viz. to bring over and Convert the Jews by telling them that they expected no other Messiah but him whom themselves lookt for even Jesus of Nazareth who should establish such a Kingdom as the Prophets had foretold Thus stood the Judgment of the most Primitive Antiquity and in this and the last age it hath been asserted not only by Mr. Mede but by Coelius Secundus Curio Cunaeus and others in this Spiritual sense that the Church of Christ shall for a thousand years flourish in greater purity and power for faith and manners in greater lustre and external glory than hitherto it hath done in all former ages And for my part says g Theolog. Vet. lib. 3. c. 7. p. 513. Dr. Heylin I see no danger in assenting to it and if this will please the Millenaries they shall have me with them And I have been inform'd by a very Reverend and learned Person that in the late Siege of Oxon in our unhappy Civil War Dr. Rawleigh the then Dean of Wells taking up this opinion I suppose only for disputation sake was attempted by the Primate of Armagh who one day returning from him was askt by Dr. Stewart that met him what had heated his Lordship he freely told that he had been discoursing with Dr. Rawleigh who was become a Millenary to whom Dr. Stewart replyed One such old Error my Lord is worth a thousand of your new ones XXXVII Nor doth the Church of England any where expresly condemn the tenet but rather discountenances its being reckon'd among the Heresies for whereas in the Articles of Religion publish'd under King Edward the sixth this is one a Art 41. p. 52. Ed. Garthw They that go about to renew the Fable of the Hereticks called Millenarii be repugnant to holy Scripture and cast themselves headlong into Jewish dotage The Articles under Queen Elizabeth have quite left it out as if the Opinion were credible and safe All this I have said to testifie the great credit which
axiom 6. Andradius and among the Ancients this Martyr and Cleemns Alexandrinus affirming d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 234. that the Law was a guide to the Jews and Philosophy or the use of right reason to the Gentiles and that this did of it self justifie the Heathens Were not the Fathers that lived before Christ injured by their not knowing him says e Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. p. 248. S. Chrysostom in no wise for it is apparent that they that did not confess Christ were saved for there was nothing then required of them but to know the true God and abstain from Idolatry and they that did so abstain and worship that God and observe the best sort of Conversation though they were ignorant of Christ shall partake of all good things for there shall be Honor and Glory Rom. 2.10 and Peace to every one that does good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile For then it was sufficient to their Salvation to know God aright but now it is also required that we know his Son Jesus whom he hath sent for had I not come Joh. 15.22 and spoken to you you had had no sin And if this Hypothesis be true as I am of opinion that there was no explicite knowledge then required but only of the one God was not Socrates a Martyr for that truth at Athens for I fear not to give him that Title since the Church bestows it on the Infants at Bethlehem who knew nothing of Christ and on S. John Baptist who dyed a Martyr to the Decalogue rather than to the Creed and if Idolatry then was the great Crime forbidden did not that great man mock at their many Gods f Tert. Apol c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as to a holy Life his calls for the blushes as well as imitation of those who have nothing to boast of as a Title to Heaven but the Character of their Baptism and it wants not an Author to assert it that Socrates's Daemon was a good Angel deputed to attend him This serves to vindicate the Heathens that lived honestly before the fullness of time and clears our Martyr and for those that have lived since I cannot think so hardly of Gods mercy that they shall be damn'd for not believing in a Saviour of whom they have not heard the Laws of God requiring that the Gospel must first be preach'd and then he that believes and is baptiz'd shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damn'd And as to the eighteenth Article of our Church I suppose it was intended only to destroy that loose tenent of some men of all perswasions that whatever a man's opinion be if he live honestly he must be saved XLI The Doctrine of free-will is in the same page reckoned as one of S. Justin's errors and p. 74. laid to the charge of Irenaeus and p. 106 107. of Clemens Alexandrinus and indeed to which of the Fathers does he not impute it The complaint I must confess is not made by Mr. H. only but by many others that the Fathers spoke not warily enough in this point before the rise of Pelagius and the propagating his heresie in as much as a Ep. ded Ludov. Borb ante Nov. Test Beza tells us that the interests of truth had been absolutely ruin'd had not S. Austin appear'd to her rescue against Pelagius and b Ad Lector ante Caten Aloysius Lippomannus of the other Church that for this reason S. Chrysostom especially is to be read with caution But the fears of Beza were ill grounded if we may credit c Commonitor cap. 34. Vincentius Lirinensis since before Pelagius no man ever asserted this unlimited freedom of mans will or that the grace of God was not necessary to the doing of every good Action 'T is true they say that when the spirit of God makes its addresses to the man and grace is offer'd him that mans will is still free either to resist it or to comply with it and that the Image of God imprinted on us doth shine so brightly in nothing as in this liberty but still they affirm the necessity of preventing grace and that nothing can be well done but by the assistances thereof And this hath d Life of S. Just Sect. 25. p. 158. Dr. Cave done for the Fathers whom Mr. H. accuses who testifies that they acknowledge a necessity of strong assistances and divine Grace to raise the Soul and exalt it to spiritual activities for the rest of the Fathers my Reader may consult e Hist Pelag lib. 3. part 1. Thes 1 2. part 270. c. Vossâ—us and f L. 7. c. 11. Sect. 23. c. Spalatensis and S. Chrysostom speaks for himself that he means only a freedom from necessity and coaction Christ says If any man will come after me I do neither force nor compel but leave every man Master of his own will but this still presupposing his Grace g Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ep. ad Philip. p. 46. for it is he alone that gives us willingness and ability for it is his whole work h Id. Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Tim. p. 368. dive not thou into God's secrets learn to know this only that God orders all things foresees all things and that men are free that some things he actually produces other things he permits that he is willing that no Evil should have a being that all things are not done by his will but by ours all evil Actions proceeding from our selves only all good Actions from our will and his Assistance I will shut up all with the words of i De Dogmat Eccles c. 49 50. Gennadius Massiliensis especially because he was look'd on as a Semipelagian This by the Grace of God ought we to preach and believe according to the Testimony of Scripture and the ancient Fathers that the will of man was so depraved by Adam 's sin that no man can love God as he should or believe in him or do good unless the Grace of God prevent him and after Baptism we do not first begin the holy Action and then are assisted but God himself first inspires Faith and Love of him without any merits of ours preceeding XLII I have thus vindicated this Father and yet must my self confess That in point of Chronology he is many times overseen as in making k Apolog. 2. Herod King of Judaea when the septuagint Interpreters Translated the Bible under Philadelphus in affirming a Dial. cum Tryphone that our Saviour was not born at but near Bethlehem and that b Ibid. according to the Tradition of the Jews he was crucified not under Herod Ascalonites but under his Son Antipas and that this latter Herod was then the High-Priest But such slips of the good mans memory are as easily pardon'd as known by all ingenuous and pious men In his Death
themselves says i l. 1. c. 3. vid. Tert. de praescript ad fin Theodoret. ubi supr sect Ophit Aug. ubi sup c. 17. Irenaeus who ador'd a Serpent which by the inchantments of the Priest was train'd out of his Den to ascend the Altar where he rowl'd himself round the Oblations and lickt them which were afterward distributed to the deluded multitude as the only true consecrated Elements of the Eucharist The followers of Marcus were the Tascodrungitae says k ubi supr sect Ascodrytae Iren. lib. 1. c. 18. Theodoret and they also poured oyl and water on the heads of their dead that they might be invisible and by that means rendred more excellent and better than the Spiritual and Angelick powers As l Theoddib 2. sect Elcesaitae the Disciples of Elcesai were also ensnared by Astrology and Magick by Charms and Invocations m Euscb l. 4. c. 10. Cerdon and Marcion were in the like manner ill addicted and n Socrat. kist l. 1. c. 22. Lat. 17. Manes's Tutor Buddas was carried by his familiar into the air whence falling headlong the wretch perisht and his o Theed ubi supr praef l. 1. sect Manes Pupil was a practiser of all unlawfull arts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theodoret and such were all his followers and among the Marcionites of his time the same p Ibid. sect Marcion Father says he found a brass Serpent an Amulet doubtless laid up in a Chest among many other abominable mysteries as q De pâ—ae script c. 30. Tertullian justly impeacâ—es the Father of that Sect of too much curiosity and an unquiet head And by such an evil spirit were Montanus and his Prophetesses acted and among his Followers a Apollinar apud Euseb lib. 5. cap. 15. Theodotus was lifted into the Air by his Familiar from whence he fell down and perish'd And may we not say that many of the Miracles of the Romish Church owe their Original to this Author since many of their seemingly most devout and inspired Nuns have been at last convicted to have been Witches So true is that observation of the b Tert. de praescr p. 40. F. G. edit Rhen. African Father that the greatest acquaintances which the Hereticks made was with Sorcerers and Juglers with Astrologers and the lovers of curious Arts and that we may judge of the exellencies of their Faith by the Debaucheries of their Conversation Nor was it without reason that S. Paul 1 Tim. 4.1 calls the Gnostick Opinions the Doctrine of Devils V. And as these persecuted the Christian Church with their Tongues so those that employed their Authority by severe and cruel Edicts to extirpate the holy Faith were much inclined to these acquaintances The first declared Enemy of Jesus among the Emperours was Nero who on the head of all his other insufferable qualities that made him a burthen to the Earth and a heavy curse to mankind was a great c Plin. nat hist lib. 30. c. 2. practiser of Magick with which he was as much bewitcht as with his love of Musick being acted and led in his biggest and most weighty concerns by the Counsels of Tiridates a man famous in that way These next was Domitian a Monster that boggled at no Crime who d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zosim hist l. 1. p. 5. ed. Steph. out-doing his all Predecessors in Cruelty Luxury and Covetousness was the Author of the second Persecution and though the Historians tell us that he banisht the Philosophers and Mathematici from Rome yet e In Domit sect 14 15. Suetonius is my Author that he was studious of these devilish mysteries Trajan doubtless was a Prince of a very sweet temper and most excellent Virtues but a prostrate admirer of the Heathen superstitions though his persecution seems to have commenc'd against the Christians not so much on Religious as Politick grounds because their hetaeriae or meetings which look'd suspiciously by reason of their numbers and the place and time of their conventions before day and in their Coemeteria under ground seem'd to threaten the peace and quiet of the Common-wealth for which reasons he not only forbad such Conventions among the Christians but expresly declares his dislike of erecting any new Corporation among his Heathen Subjects the frequenters of which Hetaeriae without licence f Ulpian lib. 6. de Offic. Procons F. lib. 47. tit 22. l. 2. were adjudged by the Roman Laws to be guilty of High Treason equally with those who by force and arms seized a Temple or any other publick place The fourth Persecution broke out under Adrian a g Tert. Apol c. 6. excerpt Dionis apud Valesium p. 714. Prince infinitely addicted to the Pagan Rites coveting all occasions of being initiated into their mysteries a searcher into all sorts of curiosities and strangely in love with Magick M. Aurelius Antoninus begun the fifth persecution or rather the inraged Gentiles under him for that he himself by his express edicts begun a persecution both h Apol. c. 5. Tertullian and i Hist lib. 5. c. 1. Eusebius deny who though a most admirable and accomplisht Prince and one that profest himself an Infidel to prodigious stories done by charms and the assistance of Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 init and therein perchance ubraids the Christians who in his time wrought miracles and dispossest Daemoniacks yet was early and in his Infancy initiated by his Patron Adrian a Capitolin in Marco being at eight years old made a member and afterward a Priest of the Salian Colledge of which at last he became President He carefs'd the Philosophers of that Age who most of them were studious of Magick though they would not own it having a particular dependance on that Impostor b Lucian To. 1. Pseudomant p. 493. Alexander in the expedition against the Marcomanni his Colleague Lucius Verus being a great cherisher of the Magic in his inroad into Parthia many of whom he brought with him from Babylon to Rome at his return nay so fond are the Heathen writers of this his acquaintance c Dio in M. Aurel. Claudian in 6. Honorii Consulat l. 1. vide Baron Tom. 2. an 176. p. 217 218. that they are content to falsifie the truth of the story of that Expedition to gratifie their own humor that they may Father the Famous attempt of the Legio Fulminatrix in that War some on the skill of Arnupthis a Magican of Aegypt who by invocating Mercury and other Daemons procur'd that Rain others on Julian another Magician of that Age. VI. Of Severus I must profess I can meet with no account that he either was addicted himself or cherisht others that lov'd these Arts but the d Spartian in Severo Historians tell us that he was crafty and subtle and withall very cruel and without doubt must have been acted by a very violent and extraordinary impetus or he could
3d. notwithstanding his infallibility too hastily calls a Text of Scripture and from hence came it that the Prayers which in the old Missals were addrest to Heaven for the Martyrs are in the new ones offer'd to him XXIII They allowed Martyrdome to supply all defects even to the want of baptism for when they a Chrys To. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ep. ad Philip. p. 20. spake doubtfully if not severely of other Catechumens departed they never doubted of those who were baptized in their own blood as we shall evince in the life of Tertullian They asserted that their deaths were the nearest of any Christian returns we can make by way of recompence for the blood of Christ b Tert. de resur carn p. 18. M. Ed. Rhen. Id. Apolog. cap. ult Compensatio sanguinis Cypr. Ep. 26. p. 32. collega passionis cum Christo vide eund de laud. Martyr p. 253. 2 Tim. 4.6 Chr. in lec For when the body is torn and mangled by the various instruments of fury and persecution it endeavours to repay its Saviour the expences of his wounds and passion and that many times by the same sort of death that Jesus experimented on the Cross if not by a more acute and more dismal punishment and so by a blessed and glorious method cancells the debts in which it stands engag'd to Heaven and St. Cyprian calls such sufferers Christs Compeers adorn'd with the purple of their own blood which is a kin to Christs For hath Christ paid his blood for thee says c Lib. 3. de Virgin T. 1. p. 129. vid. Valerian Cimeliensis hemil. 3. p. 5. S. Paul Natal 9. B. Foelicis p. 659 St. Ambrose thou owest him thine in gratitude for a good servant studies to repay his God in the same manner that God hath obliged him Like St. Gordius's exclamation in St. Basil At what a loss am I O my best Master Jesus that I can die but once for thee The Church also allowed the Martyrs a more glorious title than others and called them not only the servants but the d Cypr. de exhort Mart. c. 12. p. 197. passim vide â—j lib. praefat p. 193. c. 12. p. 196. friends of God and his sons in a more eminent manner they accounted them e Naz. or 18. p. 276. rational Burnt-offerings perfect Sacrifices and most acceptable Oblations to God in fine they lookt on them as the most immediate followers of the Lamb whom they styled f Eccl. Lugd. Vien apud Euseb l. 5. c. 2. the faithful and true Martyr g Nazâ—â—bi supr the first and most honorable Matyr h Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever. p. 178. and the Martyr of Martyrs And therefore the Church that Constantine built at Jerusalem on Mount Calvary to the son of God was i Euseb lib. 4. de Vit. Constant c. 40. Sozomen lib. 2. cap. 26. Cyril Jer. Cateches 14. by the Fathers called Martyrium XXIV They believed also that the holy Man that thus exspir'd went immediately into heaven when the rest of the servants of God were reserv'd in a place of refreshment and must expect their happiness till the day of Judgment for if I understand the Fathers aright Cypr. Ep. 16. p. 24. ad complexum osculum domini Id. Ep. 26. p. 32. codeste regnum sine ulla cunctatione retinere c. Id. Ep. 52. p. 59. allud pendere in die judicii ad sententiam domini aliud statim coronari Id. de exhort mart c. 12. cum Christio statim gandeat Id. de laud. Maâ—t p. 250. Legi scriptum esse usque quadrantem nos ultimum reddere sed haec pars ablata martyribus vid. p. 252. they made a distinction between Vita aeterna and regnum Dei the Martyr being admitted to the embraces and intimacies of the divine Majesty And when the rest of the Elect shall be admitted to Heaven they allotted a peculiar Coronet and some additional degrees of glory to the Martyrs over and above the Crown of Immortality that all the Saints shall equally partake of nay they granted them a a Paulin. ubi supr p. 665. kind of omnipresence that wherever God was pleased to be they also were with him as the Domesticks of that heavenly Prince b Chrys To. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Thess p. 723. for the suffering affliction for the sake of Christ is its own recompence and the more dishonour the Disciple of Jesus undergoes here by so much shall he be beautified and brighten'd in the kingdom of heaven XXV Nor did they only allow them an extraordinary recompence in heaven but on earth the most honorable place in their Catalogues for when they reckon the divers Orders of Men in the Church c Tert. de coron milit c. 2. they begin with the Catechumens and end at the Martyrs not being able to go higher And St. d Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Coloss p. 139. Chrys having enumerated the miraculous atchievements of the name of Jesus that it had converted the World subdued Satan undermined his Empire that it open'd the Heavens and made us Christians in Baptisme as if he could say nothing greater or more excellent he subjoyns this also makes Martyrs and Confessors And at the Day of Judgment they allowed them to wear their Honorable Scars as Marks of their Conquest so their Master could after his Resurrection show the Marks in his Hands and his Side and this e Aug. de C. D. l. 22. cap. 20. not as any deformity but as an embellishment to them This occasion'd St. Babylas to order his Chains to be buryed with him and f Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ep. ad Ephes p 799 800. locum adeas the Golden-mouth'd Father professes That he longs to see St. Pauls fetters which the Daemons trembled at and the Angels reverenc'd and which prov'd a golden rope to draw the Apostle up to heaven for their is nothing so glorious as to wear chains for the sake of Jesus it is agreater honor than a Consulship or an Empire it is a more splendid employ to be Christs prisoner than an Apostle or an Evangelist were I to choose heaven or the good mans bonds I would prefer the last I would rather accompany St. Paul in a Dungeon than enjoy the society of Angels I had rather be such a Prisoner than a Seraphin So that transported Father hath it And in truth St. Panl himself calls such a death a sacrifice to God g Conf. Chr. To. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Tim. p. 372. Hier. in loc To. 9. p. 224. 2 Tim. 4.6 and that by a word that signifies more than ordinary Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing a whole Burnt-offering XXVI They called their Children by the names of the Martyrs rather than by the names of their nearest relations it h Conc.
he not only kept his Miraculous Physician at Court with him but shewed himself favourable to all persons of his Religion whereas about the 9th of his Empire begun that fierce and cruel Persecution that ended not but with his Life I would therefore presume to believe that the Donative on the occasion of which Tertullian writ the defence of that Soldier who refus'd his crown was given not in the times of Severus but in the first year of Caracalla and Geta on their return out of Britain after the death of their Father when Antoninus slew all his Fathers Physicians for not hastening his death and his own Governor Euodus for endeavouring to take up the differences between him and his Brother and all others that were favourites to Severus it being usual at the Inauguration of Princes to give such largesses and very necessary at that time to smooth the mind of the Soldiery after so many brutish acts of cruelty and continued threatnings of more mischief V. So that I cannot but see a necessity of believing that Tertullian became a follower of Montanus in the middle of the reign of Septimius Severus for in the fifteenth year of that Prince were his Books against Marcion writ as a L. 1. adv Marc. p. 56. C. Ed. Rhen. himself testifies but that he was then a Montanist is very plain for b Lib. 1. ad fin he defends the necessity of single Marriages by the testimony of the Paraclete which can be no other than Montanus and c L. 4. p. 91. D. calls the Orthodox in scorn Psychici and pleads eagerly for his new Prophetick Afflatus and Ecstasies and to this the very long Popedome of Zepherinus will give countenance and engage us to believe that the Disputation between Gaius and Proclus was manag'd some years sooner than most of the Chronologers place it Nor are several other Works of this Father commonly reckon'd among his Tracts Writ before his Desertion of the Church but infected with the leaven of Montanisme for in his De resurrect carnis he stiles Prisca a Propneâ—ess and in his Deâ—anima undertakes to prove the corporeity of the Soul by a vision of that Impostress and in the beginning of his Book De velandis virginibus he affirm That Holiness was in its rude elements under the law of nature in its infancy under the Mosâ—ick Oeconomy and the Prophets in its youth under the Gospel Dispensation but never came to its maturity and full growth till his time under the Paraclete His discourse also against Praxeas then commenc'd wherein d Cap. 1. adv Prax. he tells us that at first the Roman Prelate Baronius says it was Anicetus Dr. Cave Eleutherius but I think it was Zepherinus did believe the Prophecies of Montanus Prisca and Maximilla and granted Letters of Peace and Communion to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia that were infected with that Heresie allowing what his Predecessors had condemn'd but was diverted from continuing in that resolution by Praxeas the Author of the Sect of the Patro-passiani against whom Tertullian Writing says That he did two good Offices for the Devil while he was at Rome he expell'd the Spirit of Prophecy and brought in Heresie he banish'd the Holy Ghost i. Montanus and crucified God the Father Calling the Orthodox by the usual name of disgrace among those Herereticks Psychici which makes me wonder that that very Learned Man should number these Books among those that Tertullian Writ before he fell into Heresie Whereas in the Books which he Writ before he became a Montanist he a De praescript adv haeret c. 52. calls it a blasphemous assertion to aver That the Holy Ghost discovered more by the Ministry of Montanus than of the Apostles and his Tractate De Baptismo purposely opposes Quintilla a Woman of great repute in the Family of Montanus to prove the necessity of Water to the right Administration of Baptism and of Baptism to Salvation VI. To this Opinion for the main Mr. H. p. 13½ assents but I can no way allow of his deduction from it that therefore all the customs and usages of the Church idle Ceremonies he calls them which Tertullian reckons up in his de Corona came out of the School of Montanus as the Centurists says he profitably conjecture and which p. 169. he stiles the materials of the Antichristian Synagogue then preparing For had Tertullian argued against the Catholicks from the observances of his own Conventicle he had expos'd his reasonings to derision by begging the question whereas the Orthodox might easily retort on him that these were not the usages of the Christian Church but of their little Tribe whereas the method is perswasive when disputing against the Catholicks he urges them with their Traditional Rites and practices which were common to both them and the followers of Montanus nor is it but a most irrational inference to cast off all things that are good because of the intermixture of some unsound Positions in any person or writing as if we must think all the accounts of the Primitive usages in Eusebius were only the little arts of the Arians or in Socrates did belong only to the Novatian Schism because the one was supposed an Arian and the other a Puritan But to argue justly we must first prove the Institution of these Ceremonies to be an act of Montanus and the use of them the peculiar practices of his followers which I think Mr. H. will hardly undertake and if he hath any Veneration for that learned man B. Rhenanus whom he so often quotes he may from his Notes on this Book have a perswasive and sober account of the reason of these Institutions and if this will not satisfie b Ubi supr Tertullian shall give him my Answer Quamdiu per hanc lineam serram reciprocabimus I count it madness any longer to draw this Saw of contention but it behoves the opposers of ours and the Primitive Church to discountenance as much as may be such early instances of the use of the Cross the Responses in Baptism the prohibition of fasting on the Lords day and many other such practices The occasion of this so justly lamented defection of this great man S. c Catal. v. Tertul. Hierome says was the envy of the Church of Rome against him and the opprobrium there cast on him which might easily work on a man of his temper and Country to imbitter him Pope Victor and the Emperour Severus his Countrymen and Cotemporaries were not the most moderate men in the world such injuâ—ties being insufferable to ingenuous Natures a Lib. 6. cap. 25. Sozomen telling us that had Apollinaris been treated with more mildness and condescension by Theodotus and Georgius Bishops of Laodicea he believes the Church had never been pester'd with his new Heresie others as Pamelius and Mr. H. p. 115. that it arose from his missing the Bishoprick of Carthage and such ambition hath also much promoted
demanded a 1000 pounds of him That he had not so much in store as would serve to buy him Bread that day his best dainties being only a few Herbs a morsel of Bread and a little flat sowr Wine And when b Tom. 7. Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyriaco eâ—uli p. 169. St. Chrysostome was accused of entertaining a Woman in his Chamber and lying with her he invalidates the Argument by no other Topick but this Strip me of my cloaths and you shall see all my members so mortified that that very sight will confute the calumny These severities alter'd the countenances of the Holy Men of those days and introduc'd a livid wanness and the symptomes of the Grave into their faces and expos'd them to the censures of the Infidels Lucian bringing in Critias into the Christian Assembly to see nothing but a company of men with their faces inclining to the earth and deformed with paleness nor could any thing less be expected from those that used customarily to fast ten days and spent the whole night in singing Hymns XIII And is it not hard measure that so many persons who were of the same persuasion with Tertullian both before and after him should escape censure and all the guilt of such Opinions should light on his Head only But so have we seen Clemens of Alexandria acquitted for holding the salvability of Daemons but his Scholar Origen condemn'd for the same the Millenary Opinion the belief of the whole second Century but branded for Heresie in Apollinaris and Cyprian allowed to assert re-baptization while in the Donatist it was Heterodoxy and all for want of a little Christian condescension and a generous Charity And in truth what are all Tertullians Discourses after he was so infected but Apologies for greater and more solemn acts of self-denial his Exhortatio castitatis and De Monogamia to decry the incontinence of second Marriages De fuga in persecutione to upbraid the cowardise of those that durst not die for their Master which is also the subject of his De Corona militis his Books De Jejuniis a vindication of frequent Fastings and De Pudicitia a Satyr against those that admitted Adulterers to the Communion and what more sublime demonstrations of a mortified soul though the precepts were taught in the School of Montanus XIV But I know not how to reconcile these Opinions with the practices of some of that Sect if we may believe c Apud Euseb l. 5. c. 17. Hier. Catal. v. Apollon Apollonius asserting that Prisca and Maximilla were guilty of the most profligate and unpardonable extravagancies Against this Apollonius Tertullian writ not in vindication of these excesses but to prove Montanus to be a Prophet and that his Ecstasies were Divine Vide Euseb l. 5. c. 3. for Prophecy did continue till that time in the Church of which Quadratus and after him Gregory Neo-Caesariensis are instances and S. Cyprian frequently talks of his Visions so that it was no difficult matter for one that had but little skill and insight into nature as Tertullian had to be deluded And in truth what more plausible and bold charms can we meet with than those of Montanus's she-Proselytes who so confidently pretended to enjoy those spiritual Charismata especially that of Prophecy in succession to S. John Quadratus and others of whom Prisca for I suppose Tertullian means her whom he a De Resurrect carn p. 19. D. Ed. Rhen. elsewhere stiles the Prophetess acted by the Paraclete to confute those who denied the Resurrection took on her to boast of her b Id. de anima p. 250. A. B. Revelations which on the Sunday at the publick meeting communicated themselves to her in an Ecstasy in which she assured the deluded Vulgus that she convers'd with Angels and sometimes with Christ himself that she both saw and heard Mysteries and knew the thoughts of some persons and the matter of her Visions was taken either from the Lessons or Psalms for the day from the Sermons or the Prayers which after the end of the Service when the multitude was dismiss'd she committed to the select followers of Montanus who took care to record them Tertullian while she was in one of these Ecstasies was discoursing of the nature of the Soul she returning out of her Trance tells him that she saw a Soul in that Vision not of a pure spiritual substance but thin and airy and of a bright colour and in all its lineaments of a humane form and shape This either gave rise to his Opinion or at least confirm'd him in his belief of the corporeity of the Soul c De fuga in persecut c. 9. p. 194. C. D. The like Prophecies inclin'd him to think it unlawful to fly in time of Persecution If says he you consult the dictates of the holy spirit those divine exhortations advise to embrace not to fly Martyrdome that lays its commands on men not to defire to die in their beds or by the short fits of an easie disease but by the pains of Martyrdome that he who suffer'd for us may be glorified in us that tells thee that he that is expos'd and proscrib'd in the world is in a glorious condition for he that is not proscrib'd by the World shall be proscrib'd by God Nor is he without his Vision d De Virgin veland p. 178. E. for the necessity of Virgins being vayled XV. But it is very considerable that there were many differences between this Ecstatick and the true Revelation the Writers of the Church frequently calling that of Montanus a new and unheard of way of Prophecy i. the followers of that Pseudo paraclete were acted by a violent and frantick Afflatus and their raptures discover'd themselves in furious and wild Schemes of action and not in that quiet peaceable and serene way in which the true Ecstasie made it self known the true Prophet whose impressions were made on his reason never suffering any alienation of mind to which the pretended Enthusiast was liable because his influences rise no higher than his fancy and by the extravagant motions of that and his passions introduc'd disorder and distraction into his reason Miltiades Apollonius apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 16. Epiphan haer 48. Hier. praefat in Isai alibi passim prae aliis Chrysost Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 12. p. 430. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he spake what himself understood not as the Poets describe the Pythian Priestesses rather like mad-Women than devout and religious persons * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 228. D. vide Naz. Orat 14. p. 221. Orat. 23. p. 414. Orat. 25. p. 441. the Fathers calling such pretenders to Revelation in Ecstasie the Ministers of Satan and men acted by an evil spirit in opposition to the spirit of God and in set Tractates undertaking to evince that a Prophet ought not to
excellencies of the holy spirit that he may pretend to but cannot really assume XIX And for vindicating these usurp'd Priviledges were the Books of Tertullian justly depriv'd of their esteem says Mr. H. p. 117. out of S. Hierome Bellarmine and others but I will oppose against them the judgment of S. Cyprian who could not live a day without reading some Paragraph in this his Master and from whom in truth he hath borrowed many passages of his excellent Writings and the design of many of them too of which there is no need to give instances and who is there that is a lover of learning and piety who does not heartily bemoan the fall of so eminent a man the errors of whose blind but honest zeal I hope God hath pardon'd and that though the Church allows him no memorial in her Records his name is written in the Book of Life XX. Of his writings which he left behind him many are lost as his Treatise of the troubles attending Marriage which is by Mr. H. made two distinct Books under the same Title in Latine and in English p. 124. and 126. his Tract of the Corporeity of the Soul is the same with that de Anima which is extant and wherein he maintains that Opinion and I believe that Trithemius was also mistaken in entitling him to a Book contra omnes Haereses which I think was only his most acute Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks with another Prologue his Books of the habit of Women and the decking of Women are only two parts of the same discourse de Cultu foeminarum the Tractate de poenitentia accounted suppositious p. 145. is undoubtedly his as Baronius and Pamelius have evinc'd against Erasmus which plainly appears says a Not. p. 120. Rigaltius to any man that is a Reader of Tertullian XXI His Stile is masculine sublime and full of Majesty and such as commands submission making as many Conquests as he finds Readers says b Commonit c. 24. Vincentius Lirinensis of him but it is rough and uneven full of obsure ways of speaking and Novelties in Grammar which call for a very attentive and thoughtful Reader De geniculis adorare to pray kneeling in candido expectare aeternitatis candidatus to look for the day of judgment So Martyrii candida the robes of Martyrdom dies expeditionis dies Christianae exultationis the day of account which day shall supremam carni fibulam imponere Invidiam Deo facere to incline God to repent animam in conficato habere prae sperâsse duricordia imbonitas c. but at the same time full of Elegancies his very Barbarismes being very witty and taking and made very palatable by that salt and sarcastical Vein which runs through all his writings of which the Margin affords a few instances which affected stile of his serv'd much to the introducing so many inconvenient descriptions as happen in his writings for which not a few learned men have turn'd Advocates XXII His Opinion that Montanus was the Paraclete implyed no more but that there were nobler assistances and influences of that holy Spirit shed on Montanus than on others that he might thereby be capacitated in the most perfect and accomplisht manner to explain the Laws of the Gospel to the World as the judicious c Life of Tertull. sect 9. p. 208. Dr. Cave vindicates him for I shall never be perswaded that he took Montanus for the Person of the Holy Ghost as the Pepuzians did who baptiz'd their Proselytes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as says d Tom. 2. Epist Canonic 1. ad Amphiloch p. 758. S. Basil into the name of the Father the Son and Montanus And in truth Tertullian in his Book adversùs Praxeam doth often very plainly distinguish the Holy Ghost and Montanus the Opinions of Free-will the Angels incontinency and the Millennium have been already consider'd and that of second Marriages his Assertion concerning the Lent-fast and Stations is far from being a Maxim of the School of that Novel Paraclete but were of Apostolical Institution as hath been unanswerably prov'd by the most learned Bishop Gunning in his Sermon of the Paschal Fast and the matter of fact deduc'd through all the antient Saecula a Book that hath been scoft at by Mervil and others but never soberly undertook as we have seen a Rat nibling at a hard piece of Cheese which he could not eat XXIII That Martyrdome expiates all a mans transgressions is so far from being an errour of Tertullian's as it is reckon'd p. 167. that it was the belief of the whole Church which by these instances will appear a Apud Euseb hist lib. 6. cap. 4. Origen commending his Scholar Herais who was martyred at Alexandria when as yet she was but a Catechumen says that she was baptiz'd so as by fire which Tertullian calls secunda solatia lavacrum sanguinis elegantly and b Id. hom 11. in Numer vide hom 7. in Judic hom 12. in Matth. taking notice that many times the greatest Zealots of Martyrdome were deprived of that honour of which himself was an instance gives this reason that the Devil hindred the persecution because he knew that Martyrdome brought with it remission of sins This was Catholick Doctrine which he learnt from his Master Clemens Alexandrinus who c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 350. affirms that for this cause we call Martyrdome a state of perfection not that the Martyrs come to the end of their journey as other men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. Orat. 44. p. 715. but that by this method they give a testimony of the height and compleatness of their love Thus when Saturus was devoured by the Leopards the shedding of his blood was a new baptism say d Acta passion SS Perpetuae Faelicitat the Acts of his Martyrdome Nay this is a more efficacious sublime and honourable baptism says e De Exhort Martyr praefat p. 19⅔ S. Cyprian in which God and his Christ rejoyce and after which no man can sin in that of water we receive remission of sins in that of blood the reward of our Virtues in the first we are Gods servants in the second his friends f Id. de Orat dominic p. 159. for what sin is it which Martyrdome cannot expiate for here men are not typically buried with Christ as in baptism but in reality and truth and need not says g Tom. 2. de Spir. S. c. 15. p. 178. S. Basil the Symbol of water to their salvation being baptized in their own blood for this was the Baptism with which Christ was baptiz'd says h Iom 1. Orat 39. p. 634. vide Nicet comment in loc tom 2. p. 1035. S. Gregory the Divine which is so much more venerable than any other Baptism in that it is never polluted with any succeeding Crimes And this i Contr. Donat l. 4. c. 22. de C. D. l. 13. c. 7.
was so necessary to the Apostle nor would he have advised Timothy to drink wine for his stomachs sake had he always been indowed with this speedier way of baffling a disease XXXII 3. That Miracles are not a sign of the true Church as the Romanists boast Athenagoras grants that the Magicians of his time by virtue of their idols produc'd such strange effects and S. Chrysostome says that the Hereticks of his time frequently did the like how consident soever therefore the brags of the Romanists may be that their ridiculous and impossible Miracles are a mark of their Orthodoxy it makes no impression on me though were it so the cure of the King's-Evil by our Prince is a more authentick and truer Miracle to vindicate the Protestant Doctrine than all that they can produce in confirmation of their novelties Nor is there need of such sort of proof now a Chrys to 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 605. the holy spirit in these days manifesting it self in an ordinary way not as formerly by raising the dead and cleansing the lepers but by conferring Grace in the Sacraments XXXIII 4. That a holy life is a more becoming accomplishment than ability to work Miracles Mat. 7.22 23. To prophesie to cast out Devils and do wonders is an admirable and sublime ornament says b Dâ—unita 〈◊〉 Eccles p. 152. S. Cyprian but he that possesses all these excellencres if his life â—o not holy and just must notwithstanding fail into Hell When therefore men are bid says c Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 278. vid. p. 277. S. Chrysostome to imitate S. Peter or S. Paul to be followers of S. James or S. John let them not retort We cannot it is beyond our sphere to raise the dead to cleanse the lepers sâ—ifle that shameless Apology Miracles give not a title to Heaven but a holy life imitate therefore their pious conversation and thou art not beneath the Apostles For Miracles make not an Apostle but Sanctity doth And this is demonstrated by that of our Saviour John 13.35 who characterizing the virtue of a Desciple says In this shall men know that you are my disciples in this in what that ye can work Miracles that ye can raise the dead No. But in this that ye love one another Now love is not reducible to Miracles but to holy conversation for love is the fulfilling of the law And thus you see the picture of a Disciple and an Apostle And with this Remarque we end this digression XXXIV I have no more in the life of this Father to animadvert but 〈…〉 whereas Mr. H. p. 313. out of Nice 〈◊〉 as he out of Procopius mentions 〈…〉 Church erected to his memory d 〈…〉 Victor the Bishop of Vtica who lived near the place tells us of two very splendid and 〈◊〉 Temples erected to his name one at the place called Sexti where he was beheaded which whether it were so called because Sextus his field or 6 miles from Carthage I dispute not the other in the Mappalian way where he was buried the first being intitled e Serm. 113. de divers Mensa Cypriani says S. Austin not because he did eat there as that Father judges but because there he was Martyred the last called Sepulchrum Cypriani used by the Vandals as a place of meeting for the Arians when they had razed the other Church till under Justinian it was restored to the Catholicks XXXV a Homil. 72. 73. inter Ambros p. 235. Ed. Raynaud His Martyrdome happened about the time of Vintage says S. Maximus of Turin more than once the Festival dedicated to his memory which b Ep. 120. cap. 5. S. Austin calls the Solemnity of the most blessed Cyprian was stiled Cyprianaea The Heathens despitefully term'd him c Lactant. lib. 5. c. 1. Copreanus and Capreanus as the Arians nick-nam'd the great Patriarch of Alexandria Sathanasius but the Christians thought so well of him as to give his name to their children of which name we find one a Martyr at Nicomedia under Dioclesian whom Nazianz. c. confound with this Bishop of Carthage another a Bishop in Africa martyred in the Vandalick persecution under Hunnerick to omit many more XXXVI The Fathers also give him a most honorable character he is d Tom. 3. p. 822. a holy man in S. Chrysostome a most pious and eloquent martyr in e In Isai 60. S. Hierome an incomparable man and of most excellent and transcendent accomplishments in f De bapt cont Donat l. 6. c. 2. S. Austin the name of Cyprian is venerable among all persons and that not only among the lovers of Jesus but his enemies too says g Tom. 1. orat 18. p. 84. S. Gregory Nazianzen h Apud eund p. 276. admirable was his humility and his elo quence prodigious in which he exceeded other men as much as men do beasts for he presided not only over the Churches of Carthage and Africk but his Bishoprick extended over the Western part of the World and the Oriental Churches were a part of his Diocess the North and South and where-ever his wonders had been heard of and his name spread were under his inspection i Pont. Diac in fin pass Cypr. For he was the man whom the Christians by way of eminency called their Bishop or Pope Quem Christiani suum Papam vocant To his Memory we have an Hymn in Prudentius an Oration in Nazianzen one Homily in Chrysologus four in Austin one in Fulgentius and two in S. Maximus Among all which having once thoughts to insert that excellent Panegyrick of S. Gregory the Divine I have omitted those resolutions because his Discourse is so perplext and in a great part applyed to a wrong person and have annext that of his great admirer S. Austin S. Austin's Homily on the Holy Martyr Cyprian ' SO acceptable and religious a Solemnity in which we celebrate the passion of a blest Martyr commands this discourse from us as a Tribute due to your ears and hearts Without question the Church was at that time melancholy and clad in sables not so much for his loss that was dying as out of a desire that they might not be robb'd of him being always willing to enjoy the society and presence of so pious an Instructer so good a Prelate But those whom the sollicitude of his Encounter afflicted were re-inspirited with comfort by the Crowns and Triumphs of his Victory and now not only without any sorrow but with the most profuse joy do we read and reflect on those Transactions and it is conceded to us to exult not to fear in that day For we do not fear that day that came with terrour but expect the return of it with a serene chearfulness It is pleasing therefore with gladness to remember the Sufferings of that most faithful couragious and glorious Martyr now the passion is past for which then the Brethren were so concern'd
his book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives as good reasons as either of them to prove the late prevalent faction in this Nation to have been the Anti-Christ All with confidence enough and some probabilities to shoar up their Tenet but for my self I profess ingenuously it is a Mystery which I understand not and as e Ad fin comment in Epistolas Cardinal Cajetan says of the Apocalypse so say I me nescire exponere exponat cui Deus concesserit I have not skill enough to interpret the Prophecy let him do it whom God hath enabled XIX The last opinion which Mr. H. reckons as Popish and Novel in these questions ad Antiochum is the Sacrifice of the Altar where I know not whether he cavils at the names Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes p. 34. Ed. Voss Ep. ad Philadelph p. 40. Polycarp Ep. p. 17. Iren. l. 4. c. 20. Can. App. 3. 4. Tertul. de paenit cap. 9. de exhort castit de orat ad fin Cypr. Ep. 66. p. 93. Ep. 73. p. 105. Conc. Laodic Can. 19. Euseb l. 10. c. 4. Naz. Tom. 1. orat 11. p. 186. Ambros l. 5. Ep. 32. p. 147. Aug. Epist 50. c. or the things signified That the name Altar was antiently given to the holy Table whereon the sacred Mysteries were celebrated is very plain in antiquity and the Fathers trod in the steps of Saint Paul Heb. 13.10 So Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Greg. Naz. Ambrose Augustin the Canons of the Apostles and the council of Laodicea to omit Chrysostome Optatus and others who tell us of serving at Gods Altar of kneeling and lying prestrate before it and of Maximinus's being beat with the broken pieces of the altar as he stood at Gods table and Saint Athanasius in the life of Saint Anthony says that that good man foresaw the rise of the Arian Heresie in a vision wherein he beheld certain wild mules overturning the altars of the Christian Church with their heels And so is the word used by Oecolampadius Zanchy and other reformed Divines a Chilling praefin 24. And it is the glory of the Church of England that we can use the names of priests and altars and yet neither believe the corporeal presence nor any proper and propitiatory Sacrifice XX. This last Sacrifice we leave to the Church of Rome Iren. l. 4. c. 34. sacrificia in popuâ—o Judaico sacrificia in Ecclesia but assert that in the Eucharist there is a Sacrifice 1. Of the remembrance of Christs death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that famous place of Saint Chrysostome 2. The Elements are properly the peoples Sacrifice for primitively the Congregation brought of the good things of the earth and offered them on the altar part whereof was Consecrated to be the Mystical Elements and the rest spent in a love-feast those they first solemnly tender'd on the altar and then as in the peace-offerings among the Jews and other Sacrifices among the Gentiles the people fed on their own Oblations And this properly is called Sacrificium by the b Just M. dial cum Tryph. p. 260. Iren. l. 4. c. 3. Cypr. de Oper Eleemos p. 180. Aug. Ser. 215. c. Fathers 3. Good Christians in that Sacrament offer to God themselves their Souls and bodies to be a living Sacrifice which is their reasonable service as our Liturgy hath it 4. A Sacrifice of penitence and a broken heart there offer'd to God 5. A Sacrifice of prayers and praise which properly makes it an Eucharist 6. A Sacrifice of Alms to the poor And all these are acknowledged to be in the Sacrament by the c De sacrif miss l. 3. c. 1. p. 752. vide Chemmit exam part 2. Sect. de missae Sacrific p. 718. c. Noble du Plessis It is no wonder that the Fathers call the Holy supper a Sacrifice where the sacred office is a commemoration of the sacrifice on the Cross where there is the reading and exposition of the word of God and fervent prayers the contrition of the heart and the Consecration of the whole man to God and an Extensive Charity to all their brethren who in Christ are coheirs with them of heaven XXI Nor is the term unbloody Sacrifice so great a Mormo but that our profound d Ag. Hard. art 17. Sect. 14. Jewel allows of it according to the Antients e Demon. Evang l. 1. c. 6. Orat. de laud. Const ad fin Fusebius frequently terming it the Sacrifice that is abstracted from blood as does also Saint Gregory Nazian-and others among the Fathers nor is that learned Prelate herein singular but I find him seconded by the modest and f De cultu Dei extern l. 1. c. 16. p. 421. acute Hierome Zanchy who allows of the distinction of the Oblation of Christ into that of bloody and unbloody not but that all the Primitive Sages were ignorant of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation says he but they so called the Sacrament for two reasons both because it is an image and representation of that propitiatory Sacrifice which Christ on the Cross offer'd up to his Father and also because it is a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as for all other the mercies of Heaven so especially for the redemption of the world by the Blood of Jesus Ambr. Hom 92. de SS Naz. Cels To. 3. p. 322. Ed. Costeri Magni periculi res est si post prophetarum oracula post Apostolorum Testimonia post Martyrum vulnera veterem fidem quasi novellam discutere praesumas post tam manifestos duces in errore permaneas post morientium sudores otiosa disputatione contendas What necessity is there then these things being duly considered that we must be forc'd to learn a new Jargon in Divinity were it not to introduce new Sentiments and such as differ from the Judgment of the first and best Ages but there is a kind of necessity to dress new Notions in new Terms XXIII Nor will Rivet's Argument which Mr. H. p. 371. uses disfranchize the Anonymous questions that go under the name of Athanasius because in them the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is denyed but rather confirm them to be our Patriarch's both because that Opinion is ancienter than S. Athanasius and the same which himself embraces and since Mr. H. doth more than intimate the novelty of that Opinion and the World hath been too censorious to condemn the whole Greek Church of Heresie in this point it may not be altogether impertinent if we consider the State and Original of that Dogma together with the rise and occasion of the addition filioque to the Constantinopolitan Creed XXIV And here it is observable that the procession of the holy Ghost as it falls under our cognisance is twofold the first unspeakable and eternal by which from before all Ages he proceeded from the Father the other temporal when he was
of them I shall leave my Reader to judge when I have given him the judgment of the sagacious a Notes on Sir Tho. Ridley's View of the Civil and Eccl. Laws part 3. ch 2. sect 4. p. 218 219. Mr. Gregory Some say that these Canons are supposititious I only know that they may be so not that they are and however it may be dull to entertain any thing that shall be obtruded yet the rejection of ancient Authors and Councils should be warily concluded upon Thus much notwithstanding is recorded that by reason of the Arian incendiaries a compleat number of the Canons of that Council was so rarely found that Athanasius himself who was present at the Synod was forc'd to send into these parts to the Bishop of Rome that then was to desire from him a perfect Copy because in the Eastern world a few or none had escapt the fire of the Arians This is in the Epistles supposed to have past between Pope Mark and Athanasius and if these be true the Canons are the less to be suspected The reasons against which Epistles are for the most part Chronological which are subject to much hazard XXXIV The Homily de passione imaginis Christi in Beryto is doubtless counterfeit the dissertation being too ridiculous to be fathered on so wise a man but notwithstanding this I believe it antienter than the second Nicene Council where it was solemnly produc'd by Peter Bishop of Nicomedia as a true venerable Relation whose Author was Athanasius to which more solemn publication of the story I conjecture the date of some Manuscripts hath Relation The Sermon on our Saviours passion is of the Nature of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the seventh Tome of S. Chrysostom will furnish so great a number being the Collections of some laborious man out of the writings of such a Father according to the Custom of the middle Ages which delighted much in Epitomes but that the seven additional Homilies set out by Holstenius should be spurious only because they lay so long dormant is a strange way of arguing while himself confesses that some of them are approved by Photius a much better Critick than any of this last Age and all found in three several Libraries at Oxford Paris and Rome And if their lying so long dormant shall disenfranchize them what might we think of the Epistle of S. Clemens to the Corinthians which was wisht for in vain in the Western World till the Patriarch of Alexandria sent it to King Charles or the many pieces of several other Worthies of the Church which never saw light till the last Editions of their Works But I am weary of following him in his dry jejune and borrowed Criticisms wherein Erasmus and Rivet Scultetus Cook and Perkins are his Oracles XXXV That the words which Athanasius uses were only known to the Age wherein he lived and neither before nor after is an inconsiderate assertion though positively affirm'd p. 375. since a Ep. ad African the Patriarch himself quotes his Predecessor Dionysius and Dionysius of Rome with Theognostus and others among those who called our blest Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consubstantial with his Father and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the term is frequent in Justin Martyr and Athenagoras and is as old as S. John's Gospel and should we grant that these words were first used which Relation to the Arian Controversies yet no man can be so mad to be perswaded they were never so used after his time XXXVI Whether the Creed that goes under the name of Athanasius be his or no I shall not dispute but must profess that Mr. H's argument p. 376. is not convictive for what S. Gregory Naz. means is no other but that Epistle sent to the Emper or Jovianus mentioned p. 359. containing the Orthodox Doctrine in opposition to the new Creed of the Arians which is extant in the first tome of S. Athanasius's works and in b Li. 4. c. 3. Theodoret's History And now could I heartily wish for a man skill'd in unriddling mysteries to instruct me in the sense of that Translation p. 384. where undertaking to assert the peoples power in Electing a Bishop he says The people being gathered together with the Holy Ghost who constitute a Bishop publickly and in the presence of the Clergy craving a Bishop Of which words I profess my incapacity to make sense or if any be to be supposed it implies that the people and the holy Ghost did joyn suffrages and both chuse a Bishop which seems to me a very strange medley and the Clergy at the same time sat by as unconcern'd spectators XXXVII But this is not the first time that such false assertions have been impos'd on the Fathers while their most Orthodox Sentiments have been represented under the Notion of Errors Thus as to the Article of the local descent Mr. H. is not content p. 296. to tell us that it is a novel addition to the Creed and that it signifies no more than that Christ was buryed which how absurd it is that in so short a Summary there should be two Articles the same and the later that should explain the former infinitely more obscure let all rational men judge but p. 386. objects it against Athanasius that he affirms the local descent of Christ into Hell which c Ep. 99. ad Euod S. Austin says none but an Infidel d Etymolog l. 8. c. 5. S. Isidore of Sevil none but an Heretick will deny Some by this Article would understand Christ's suffering Hellish pains in his foul during his Agony and Dereliction on the Cross this is the Calvinists beloved Dogma and to say no more of it borders too near on blasphemy to be defended Others that he continued 3 days in the state of the dead his soul during that space being separated from his body till the time of his resurrection this Opinion the Arch-bishop of Armagh first introduc'd into the World and it hath since found many an eminent Patron there being nothing in it says Dr. Hammond against the Creeds of ours or the antient Church XXXVIII But the received opinion of the Antients is that Christ in the space between his death and resurrection went down locally into the Hell of the damned not to suffer any thing there for this Article is reckoned by all as the first of those in the Creed that relate to his exaltation but to triumph over Satan in his own territories and to manifest his conquests to the powers of darkness that Satan might see that he whom he tempted was the true Messiah to fasten condemnation to those faln Angels by a decretory sentence personally pass'd on them and to receive the homage which he extorted from them that the wicked might look on that Saviour whom they despised and be convinc'd that their torments were the just punishment of their infidelity and that that King of terrors might see that he had no
which being collected for the advancement of the interests of Religion was by this evil man made an instrument to promote impiety A great instance of this prevalence was that Council which was first assembled at Seleucia famous for the Church of the holy Virgin Thecla and afterward sat in this great City which Cities having been eminent for the brave things that had been done there were now as memorable for this infamous Conventicle whether you will call it the Tower of Babel where God divided the Tongues of the Builders as I wish he had divided these or the Sanhedrim of Caiaphas in which Christ is condemned or by what other name we may call the Meeting which overturned and confounded all things abrogating the holy and primitive Dogma that confesseth the Trinity using all its art and force power and stratagems to stifle the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consubstantial and opening a door to all sort of impiety by the ambiguity of the terms of their Confession out of a seeming respect to holy Writ and a pretence to use no terms but what are there allowed but in truth substituting Arianism that contradicted Scripture For this sentence that the Son of God was like the Father according to the Scriptures was only a bait to the weaker sort of Christians covering the Hook of Heresie a Picture that lookt on all that past by it a Shoe that would fit either foot a Vanne turned with every wind a new invented Engine to the supplanting of the truth acted and set on motion by Authority For they were wise to do evil but to do good had no knowledge hence proceeded their cunning condemnation of Hereticks whom in their words they proscrib'd the Church that their designs might look more plausibly but by their actions introduc'd reproving them not for any heterodoxy in opinion but immoderate passion and love of contention Hence Lay-men became Judges of those in holy Orders and a new mixture happen'd the most mysterious Doctrines of Religion disputed before the multitude and an unlawful enquiry into Affairs Sycophants hired and sentence on the premises denounc'd Thus many Prelates were unjustly dethron'd others substitated but on no other terms but that they should subscribe to the Arian impiety as they ought to all things else necessarily previous to their Instalment the Pen and Ink was at hand and an Accuser at their back this betrayed many of the Orthodox men otherwise of invincible constancy who erred in their subscriptions though their Opinions were Catholick and gave their consent to the proceedings of those men who on both accounts were wicked and though they kept themselves from falling into the fire could not escape being sullied with the smoak this I have often lamented when I observed how Heresie diffus'd it self and the Orthodox Doctrine was persecuted by the great Patrons of Christ's Divinity verily the Pastors have done foolishly as it is written and have destroyed my Vineyard and dishonoured the pleasant portion that is the Church of God consecrated with much sweat and many martyred ones both before and after Christ and by the great sufferings of God for us For except a few persons who for their meanness were contemptible or their courage lookt on as Enemies who it was necessary should be left as a root and seed to Israel that by the influences of the Spirit that might flourish a-new and recover all others complyed with the time only with this difference that some were sooner some later trepan'd some were Leaders and Heads of Parties in this Faction others of an inferiour rank who either were betrayed by their fear or captivated by covetousness or allured by pleasures or imposed on by ignorance which was the most modest plea. If that may seem to be sufficient to apologize for such men who take on them the Instruction and Government of the people For as the motions of Lions and other Beasts of men and women of old and young men are not the same but there is no small difference in Ages and Sexes so neither are the inclinations the same of Rulers and their Subjects for the vulgus that so complyed are to be pardoned who are indispos'd to curiosity but how shall we concede such failures to their Teachers who unless they usurp that name ought to correct and illuminate the ignorance of their Followers For if not the most illiterate and rustick person can safely be ignorant of the Roman Laws nor is there any excuse allowed for them that transgress through want of knowledge is it not an absurd thing that the Teachers of the Laws of Heaven should be ignorant of the Principles of Salvation although in other things they may be allowed to have less skill and insight But grant it that they shall be pardoned that erre for want of knowledge what shall we say of others who laying claim to wit and acumen yet for the causes formerly mentioned have submitted to those Hereticks that had usurpt a power and whereas for a while they were the Mask of Piety as soon as there appeared any thing of reprehension easily laid it aside I hear the Scripture affirm that heaven and earth shall yet once be shaken as if they had suffered those tremblings before intimating some notable change and alteration of things and we must believe S. Paul that the last and final earthquake shall be no other but the second coming of Christ the mutation of the universe and translation of it into that which defies change and motion But I suppose the Earthquake that in this age broke forth was not less furious than any of the former by reason of which all the lovers of God and Religion and those who before this time had their conversation wholly in heaven were shaken who although in every other thing they are mild and peaceable now could not endure to be moderate and to betray the cause of God by their silence but in this case are egregious combatants and lovers of contention for such is the heat of Zeal and ready rather to over-do some things than leave any thing material undone by the same violence no small part of the people were distracted as in a flock of birds taking their flight with those in the front and not yet ceasing to employ their wings ' Such a comfort was Athanasius to us as long as that Pillar of the Church continued among us and so great a cause of sorrow when the Contrivances of vile men forc'd him hence For as those that design to storm a strong Castle when they find the place otherwise unapproachable and hard to be taken make use of cunning where strength fails alluring the Governour with Money or some other piece of subtilty and so with ease master the Cittadel or if you will as they that did lye in wait for Sampson first cut off his Hair in which his strength lay and then took Prisoner that Judge of the Israelites sporting with him as they pleased in requital of
that does the injury is insolent with so debonaire and meek carriage did he demean himself towards the great fomenters of his sorrows that his restoration was not unacceptable even to them He purges the Temple by driving out all Sacrilegious Abusers of Religion that prostituted the name of God and Christ to their profit that in this also he might imitate his Saviour only he omitted the whip of Cords and substituted in the place thereof Perswasives and Demonstrations He cements all breaches among those that were at enmity with him or among themselves needing no other assistances but his own he delivers the afflicted from Tyranny making no distinction between them of his own and the adverse party He lifts out of the dust and restores to its honour the truth that had been trampled on and now the Doctrine of the Trinity is boldly asserted and the light is set on a Candlestick that by the bright rays of the Unity of the Godhead it might illuminate all mens Souls now he again makes Laws for the World and enclines all mens minds to himself writing to some calling others and instructing a third sort that were never sent for obliging no man to any other restraint but to be willing for this one thing was sufficient to direct them to the Paths of Virtue In short he imitated the qualities of two famous stones to those that abused him he was an Adamant to the contentious and quarrelsome a Loadstone which by a miraculous quality draws Iron the hardest of things to its self but it was impossible that envy should endure this or suffer tamely the restitution of the Church to her pristine beauty and health the dissenting Members thereof being reunited as the Wounds of a Body that hath been mangled are closed up again To this end the Father of malice incensed against him the Emperour who was the Fiend's Fellow Apostate who though his junior in time was his equal in mischief the first of all Christian Princes that was inraged against Christ suddenly introducing that wicked Cockatrice which long before had been brought forth and cherish'd by him as soon as a fit opportunity offered and he was invested with the Empire became ungrateful to that Soveraign that intrusted him with the Regalia and abundantly more rebellious against God his Saviour and begins a persecution more fatal than all that had preceeded it intermixing perswasives with his threats for he envyed the Martyrs the honour of their sufferings called in question the Trophies of their courage using all sort of Sophistry and little arts in his Discourses and allowing them to superintend his manners or to speak a plainer truth being inclined by his own perverse habit of mind to such Villanies imitating the cunning and artifice of that Demon that possest him he accounted it but a poor Conquest to triumph over the whole Family of Christ but look'd on the subduing Athanasius and stifling his undertakings in the behalf of the truth as a great Victory for he saw that none of his Designs against the Christians were crowned with success as long as Athanasius opposed him for the places of as many as deserted Religion were supplyed by his prudence with new Gentile Proselytes which was very miraculous Which when that crafty Impostor and Persecutor understood he no longer keeps on his Masque of servile dissimulation but making publick his rancor openly expels this great man the City for it became this generous Combatant to be thrice Victorious that his rewards might be perfect a small time after the Divine Justice hurryed this sacrilegious person into Persia and there punish'd him and having permitted him to go forth a Prince eagerly ambitious of renown return'd him dead without the least sign of pity or sorrow and as I have heard without the honour of Sepulture his body being toss'd up and down by the fury of an Earthquake that then happened as a punishment for his Crimes the Prologue as I suppose to his future Tragedy but another Emperour succeeds him of a modest Countenance and a stranger to the Apostates Impudence one that never opprest Israel by his own or his Followers evil Actions but was incomparably pious and mild who that he might settle his Empire on the best Foundation and begin his Raign with the establishing excellent Laws recalls all the banish'd Prelates and above all him that out-shone them in Virtue and undoubtedly was a Sufferer for Godliness he enquires after the true and Orthodox Faith that had been by many torn in pieces and mangled and distracted into many novel Opinions that if it were possible the whole World might be united in the same harmonious profession by the cooperation of the holy spirit if not he might joyn himself to the Catholick Party and reciprocally give it assistance and receive help from it entertaining himself with high and exceeding venerable thoughts of such Mysteries And here did this Sage-man give a Specimen of his purity and constancy in the Faith of Christ for whereas other Professors were divided into three several Factions many being Unorthodox in their Sentiments of the Son of God and more in their Opinions of the holy Ghost where to be a puny Transgressor was accounted a mark of Piety and only a few were in every thing sound Catholicks he chiefly and alone or with a few Followers openly and in the Face of the World is a confident Assertor of the truth confessing in his Writings the Divinity and Essence of the three persons and in that God head which in times past was by the many Fathers adjusted to the Son was the holy spirit reinvested by this inspired Patriarch who tendred a truly royal and magnificent present to the Emperour an Orthodox Creed in opposition to the Heretical Novelties that had no basis in Scripture that one Emperour might countermine another one Doctrine invalidate another one Writing supersede another to this Confession of Faith both the Eastern and Western Catholicks seem to me to pay a submissive deference and veneration for some men if we may believe their Affirmations are Orthodox only in their minds but they imprison their Sentiments and conceal them from the view of the World as a dead Child that hath lost its life in the Womb others in a small measure manifest their belief like the blaze of a Spark that they may humour the time and please the warmer and devouter sort of Christians others are publick Assertors of the truth and not ashamed of their profession of which Party I am willing to be for I dare not boast of any thing higher than this not so much as intending to skreen my fearfulness behind the weakness of those that have been more timerous for we have been evil Stewards of Heavens Mysteries not only not gaining some additional increase to our Talents but prodigally melting down our first stock which is the Character of a careless Servant but to introduce this my off-spring into the light to mature its growth with speed
and render it to the eyes of all men exquisitely accomplish'd but this was one of the meanest of his admirable Atchievements for if he exposed himself to actual dangers for the sake of the truth what wonder was it that he should vindicate it in his writings But I will add one thing to my former Relation which I above all things revere in him and which I cannot without injuring you pass by at this time especially which is a time of Schisms and Contentions for this action of his ought to be an instruction to us that now are alive if we seriously weigh it for as when one thrusts his hand into the water he not only separates between the water that is left but between what he grasps in his hands and runs between his fingers So we divide not only from all impiety but from the eminently godly not in small and impertinent and contemptible opinions for this were more tolerable but in words that tend to one and the same sense for whereas we piously assert one essence and three hypostases the one describing the nature of the Godhead the other the properties of the Trinity as also do the Italians only by reason of the barrenness of their language not able to distinguish the hypostasis from the essence lest they might seem to admit three substances they substitute in the name of three hypostases three persons what happened something very ridiculous or rather lamentable This little difference in words made a noise as if there had been difference in opinion hence the Heresie of Sabellius took its rise because of the distinction of the three persons and Arianisme because of the three hypostases both being the rude off-spring of a pertinacious love of contention And what succeeded this small distinction being establish'd and grating on some mens minds and what made it distasteful was a love of quarelling the ends of the earth were in danger to be ruin'd by a few syllables which when this bless'd Saint this true man of God and great guide of souls both saw and heard he could not endure to slight and neglect so absurd and unreasonable a distinction but applyed a remedy to the distemper and how did he make his application having convened both parties with all meekness and humility and accurately weighed the intention of the words after he found them agreeing in the things themselves and not in the least differing in matters of doctrine allowing them the variety of names he tyed them to unity of sentiments this was a more advantagious act of charity to the Church than all his other daily labours and discourses which all men celebrate in which there may be intermixt some love of applause and for that reason some innovation made in the Faith This was more honorable than all his watchings and humicubations the benefits of which are confined to the particular practisers of those virtues nay it is nothing inferior to his applauded flights and exiles for after his sufferings he pursued those things for which he chose to undertake such calamities and this also was his design on others praising some moderately correcting others useing the spur to some dull tempers and the reins to other hot spirits infinitely careful that the offenders might repent and those that were innocent might be kept from falling in his conversation master of the greatest simplicity in his government of the greatest variety of skill wise in his discourses but much wiser in his intellect to the mean capacities he stoop'd himself to the more acute his notions and words were more sublime * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lover of strangers and advocate for the oppressed and a defender from danger he was in truth all those things which the Heathens parcel out among their Gods I will call him * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Patron of Marriage and the Friend of Virgins the Peace-maker and Reconciler and the guide to those who are going out of this life How many brave characters and qualities does the virtue of this Man afford me should I describe all when he had so lived was so instructed and so carefully had disciplined others that his life and demeanor was an exact pattern how a Bishop should have his conversation and his opinions the rule of Orthodoxy what reward did he reap of this piety for neither is this negligently to be past by he dies in a good old age and is gathered to his Fathers the Patriarchs and Prophets and Martyrs that combated for the truth and that I may give him a short Epitaph his Exit out of the World was more honorable and decorous than his return into his City from Banishment his Death was attended with an Universal Mourning and the thoughts that all men entertain'd themselves with of his worth out-went all that may be seen But thou O beloved and happy Man who among thy many other virtues didst exquisitely understand the seasons and measures of Speech and Silence do thou here put a period to my Oration which though it fall short of the truth and thy worth is yet proportionable to my weak abilities and look down propitiously on us from above and guide this people that are perfect adorers of the perfect Trinity which is contemplated and worship'd in the Father Son and holy Spirit protect me and help feed my Flock if peaceable and serene days attend me but if War and confusion reduce and assume me to a station with thy self and those that are like thee though it be no ordinary thing that I beg for the sake of Christ our Lord to whom be all glory honor and dominion for ever Amen THE LIFE OF S. Hilary OF POICTIERS I. IT is Mr. H.'s usual unhappiness in this his View to contradict himself while with more diligence than judgment he hath collected whatever scattered Memoires had relation to his subject without that severe examination that became an Historian whether all the particulars were reconcileable to the laws of time and truth Of this we have a pregnant instance in § 1. p. 396. where out of a Chronic. part 2 c. 3. p. 54. Antoninus we are entertain'd with a pleasant story of an Imaginary Council at Rome under a Pope Leo that never was which he that list may read at large in that Historian Who having recited the particulars out of Vincentius his Speculum and Jacobus de Voragine acknowledges them to be dubious and are indeed no way reconcileable to truth unless we create an Antipope at that time called Leo or assert that Pope Liberius had two names whereof one was Leo both which are equally improbable for there is not a word to this purpose in the antient Church-Historians who are so copious in their accounts of the Arian Synods no not in Philostorgius their own Historian who not caring to falsifie the Records of the Catholick Church would certainly never have stifled so remarkable a transaction had there been but the least
ill to affirm that he was banish'd by both Synods which was impossible or if he meant otherwise the rules of Grammar would have obliged him to have set the Synod of Arles before that of Besieres in order of writing as in that of time VI. This excellent man is seldom mentioned by the Church-Historians who writ in Greek or by the Greek Fathers whom I have met with Only I find Theodoret styling him the holy Hilary Bishop and Confessor But the Latine Fathers are more frequent in his due Encomia Vide Socrat. Eccles hist lib. 3. c. 8. Sozom. l. 3. c. 13. lib. 4. c. 8. l. 5. c. 12. Theodor. dial 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. contr Julian l. 1. c. 2. Ecclesiae Catholicae adversùs haereticos acerrimum defensorem venerandum quis ignorat Hilarium Episcopum Gallam virum tantâ in Episcopis Catholicis laude praeclarum tantâ notitiâ famâque conspicuum vid. cund de nat grat c. 61. c. Hieron in Isai c. 60. Cyprianus nostri temporis Confessor Hilarius â—nne tibi videntur excelsae quondam in saeculo arbores aedificâsse Ecclesiam Dei Id. Apolog. adv Ruff. l. 2. virum eloquentissimum contra Arianos Latini sermonis tubam c. he is called by S. Austin the holy blessed and venerable Hilary a man famous in the judgment of all the Christian world the most Reverend and acute Defender of the Catholick Church against the Hereticks by S. Hierome a most eminent and eloquent man whose Books with those of Athanasius he highly commends in his 7th Epistle to the reading of that good woman Laeta some of which himself had transcribed with his own hand at Triers And Ruffinus who in other places is not so just to him yet in his a Lib. 1. cap. 30. History commends him for his excellent morals his meekness and sedate temper and for his learning and eloquence adding of him and Eusebius Vercellensis That they were the illustrious lights of the world and with their rays did illuminate all Illyricum Italy and France to omit Sulpitius Severus Venantius Fortunatus and others VII § 3. p. 399. We are told that the Tractate De numero septenario is S. Hilary's because it is dedicated unto Fortunatus but that is not an argument strong enough to deprive S. Cyprian for there were more than one Clergy-man of that name in the time of that African Primate for instance there was Fortunatus à Tuccabori who subscribed in the Synod of Carthage and probably was the same to whom S. Cyprian writ his 53d Epistle and his Exhortation to Martyrdome Nor could there be that actual friendship between Venantius Fortunatus and S. Hilary which Mr. H. mentions for S. Hilary is p. 414. affirm'd to die An. 366. But Venantius Fortunatus flourish'd not till circ An. 570. nor was he a French-man by Birth but an Italian Born in Marchia Tarvisana and bred at Ravenna who being oppress'd with sore eyes travel'd to the shrine of S. Martin famous for such Miracles where finding his cure for a testimony of his gratitude he writ the life of that famous man and intending a further visit to his reliques he came to Tours and thence to Poictiers where making a halt he was first made a Priest and then Bishop of that See VIII His Book of Hymns is acknowledged to be lost unless as b Epist dedic ante opera Hilarii Erasmus conjectures those Hymns Crux fidelis and that on S. John Baptist Vt queant laxis c. be some of them But that this great man was the first among the Catholicks that set forth Hymns and Verses as is said p. 400 I cannot grant For the world is not ignorant that Tertullian writ against Marcion in Verse and other Poems are father'd on him on Cyprian and Lactantius and if he means it only of Hymns how can he reconcile his position with that of c Hist Eccles lib. 5. cap. ult Eusebius from a much Antienter Author who living circ an 200. and writing against the heresie of Artemon uses this as an argument to disprove that disturber of the Church that many faithful Brethren from the very infancy of Christianity had writ Psalms and Hymns to the praise of Christ the Son of God in which they attributed Divinity to him IX His Books concerning the Trinity are said by d Ubi supr Erasmus to be his Master-piece as Tully's Books de Oratore or S. Austin's de Civitate dei or S. Hierom's Comments on the Prophets are theirs But withal he wishes that that great wit had undertook a subject that would better have comported with his sublime and transcendent Eloquence and Acumen But I cannot believe that he was the first among the Latines who writ on that subject as is affirmed p. 401. for Mr. H. himself p. 143. acknowledges a Discourse of Tertullian's in defence of the Trinity which the whole Greek Church says Baronius ascribe to that Father others to S. Cyprian a third sort to Novatian the Roman Schismatical Presbyter Cyprian's Cotemporary and Antagonist who as a Catal. v. Novatian S. Hierome informs writ a great Volume of the Trinity an Epitome of what Tertullian had before-hand said on that subject the youngest of which lived some years before this French Prelate and whereas he may explain himself that he means it of defending the Doctrine of the holy Trinity against the Arians we know that that Alexandrian Incendiary did only revive and polish the decryed and condemned Opinions of Artemon Photinus Paulus Samosatenus and others though I think it were not impossible to prove that b Id. ibid. v. Lucif Lucifer Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia undertook this Controversie against the Arian Faction before Saint Hilary X. As I cannot subscribe to Cardinal Bellarmine and Possevine that the Epistle that is extant in the name of S. Hilary to his Daughter Abra is undoubtedly his so neither can I think that so indulgent so good a Father could be forgetful of his Family during his banishment but that he writ both to his Wife and Daughter which Epistles being lost this was foisted in for one as writ on that famous occasion of Abra's consulting him about her Marriage which Story is elegantly rendred into English by the Seraphick Prelate c Holy dying ch 3. sect 7. p. 102. Bishop Taylor and to him I remit the Reader XI The Epistles to S. Austin and the Poem called Genesis have been adjusted to their true owners already and as to the Fragment concerning the Transactions of the Council at Ariminum p. 405. I would not have had Mr. H. so tamely to have subscribed to Baronius whose interest it was to decry that piece and who is herein followed by his Epitomator d An. 352. sect 4. an 357. sect 9. Spondanus and the learned e Resp ad Reg. Jacob lib. 1. cap. 27. Perron The passages in that fragment being too severe and peremptory to be
allowed by these Proctors of the Roman Church as becoming Language from a Puisny Bishop to his Holiness to impeach him of Heresie and anathematize him for notwithstanding all their Arguments I can see nothing why it may not be genuine XII His style is intricate but copious and lofty and for this cause among others Erasmus complains that it cost him more time and pains to correct S. Hilary Hier. Ep. 13. ad Paulin. tom 1. p. 106. Gallicano cothurno attollitur Sidon Apollin l. 4. Ep. 3. attollitur ut Hilarius than it did to set out S. Hierome although of S. Hierome a Ep. nuncup ante opera Hieron he speaks confidently that it cost that Father less study to write than him to fit his works for the Press after which he goes on with a continuation of the Character that his way of expressing himself is such that had he treated of those subjects that are plain and intelligible yet it would be hard to understand and easie to deprave his Writings much more now when he undertook to demonstrate what is above all reason and cannot be explain'd so that men have hardly usurp'd that liberty over any one of the Ancients as they have done over S. Hilary especially in his Books de Trinitate Synodis in which by comparing Manuscripts he found in some places whole Prefaces added in others a conclusion of a discourse in a third place 30 or 40 lines interpolated at once And when b Ep. 141. ad Marcell S. Hierome says That he durst not reprehend a man so eminent in his Age both for his courage in asserting the truth for the holiness of his life and the perswasiveness of his Eloquence which made him famous throughout the whole Roman Empire yet in the same Epistle he says that he understood neither Hebrew nor Greek for which Erasmus makes his Apology that for skill in Hebrew none of the Fathers before him had any but Origen and that engaged them to use the Translation of the Septuagint and for his knowledge of the Greek Tongue that he was happier in his own Compositions than in his Translations adding and omitting in the later what himself pleased Nor is his style without its Barbarisms but Scio inter Christianos verborum vitia non solere reprehendi says S. Hierome Solecisms in Speech are no breach of the Laws of Christianity XIII His Creed § 5. p. 407. is set down too short as if the holy Prelate never owned the belief of the Divinity of the holy Ghost when to what Mr. H. recites he should have added what immediately follows c Tom. 1. lib. 3. adv Constant p. 281. haec ego in spiritu sancto it a credidi ut c. These things by the assistance of the holy spirit do I so believe that I am not to be taught any other Creed for herein I differ not from the belief of the Fathers according to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Symbol repeated at my Baptism For if he defended the Trinity ex professo in his Books and owns the belief of the Apostolick Creed which he there mentions I know not how he can be said to deny the Divinity of the holy Ghost And this I mention because Erasmus and others so impeach him for that when he expresly mentions the adoration of the Father and the Son he alters his style when he speaks of the holy Ghost a De Trinit lib. 2. p. 30. l. 12. p. 261. hie ergo spiritus sanctus expetendus est promerendus est ut patrem filium adorem sanctum spiritum tuum promerear c. and for this method of expressing himself Erasmus gives his reasons by way of Apology either that his discourse did not require any more explicite Declaration of the holy Ghost's Divinity or that the Dogma was not yet defined by the Church or that there is no such position expresly laid down in Scripture or that his great design being against the Arians there was more need to prove the Deity of the Son of God who was made man Macedonius not yet appearing to disturb the Church and yet b Pag. 260. in the same Sentence where S. Hilary denies Christ to be a Creature he affirms the same of the holy Ghost and if no Creature then by the Father 's own way of arguing a Creator and if so to be adored and whatsoever is to be adored is God XIV The Errours laid to the charge of this venerable Ancient have been collected to Mr. H.'s hand by Erasmus and others but that acute Dutchman excuses the first when he assigns usum spiritui sancto as if it were a mistake of his in translating the passage out of some Greek Writer and it is affirmed by a c Chemnit orat de lect Patr. p. 4. good Author that he collected the Sentences of the Greeks concerning the Trinity fortasse legerat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod derivatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab utendo unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he imagined the word to signifie use which imports goodness and if so in this last sense the Doctrine is consonant to that of the Schools which attributes works of Power to God the Father of Wisdom to God the Son but of Mercy and Goodness to God the holy Ghost so that this is rather an Errour in Grammar a mis-translation than an Errour in Divinity XV. His second Errour was not only his but the Opinion of Clemens of Alexandria and others and Bonaventure says that Gulielmus Parisiensis saw a Book of S. Hilary's wherein he retracted that Opinion When he affirms that the blest Virgin did conceive carry in her Womb and bring forth our Saviour it implyes plainly that he derived his flesh and blood from the substance of his mother and when he subjoyns that he took nothing else from her I should understand it either of original sin which he was absolutely free from or rather of Humane Passions which the blest Virgin was subject to and so this Assertion immediately succeeding the former in the Father seems to me to be the same with it Nor can I think there would have been so intimate and sacred a friendship between our Confessor and S. Athanasius so great that the Alexandrian Patriarch translated S. Hilaries Books into Greek if the one had denied Christs being born of the substance of his Mother which the other makes an Article of his Creed So that here I cannot forbear giving my Reader the excellent advice of this very Father to guide him in such cases a De trinit lib. 1. p. 9. Optimus lector est qui dictorum intelligentiam exspectet ex dictis potius quà m attulerit neque cogat id videri dictis contineri quod ante lectionem praesumpserit d Apud Chemnit loc com part 1. sect de filie p. 76. intelligendum That man only is fit to read Books