Thaddaeus one of the Seventy Disciples great summs of Gold and Silver for the pains he had taken and the great things he had done amongst them he refused them with this answer To what purpose should we receive good things from others who have freely forsaken and renounced our own As indeed in those times friends and relations houses and lands were chearfully parted with when they stood in competition with Christ they could content themselves with the most naked poverty so it might but consist with the profession of the Gospel When Quintianus the President under Decius the Emperour asked Agatha the Virgin-Martyr why being descended of such Rich and Illustrious Parents she would stoop to such low and mean Offices as she took upon her She presently answered him Our Glory and Nobility lies in this that we are the Servants of Christ To the same purpose was the answer of Quintinus the Martyr under the Dioâ—lesian Persecution when the President asked him how it came about that he being a Roman Citizen and the Son of a Senator would truckle under such a Superstition and worship him for a God whom the Jews had Crucified the Martyr told him That it was the highest Honour and Nobility to know and serve God that the Christian Religion which he call'd Superstition ought not to be traduc'd with so base a name seeing it immediately guided its followers to the highest degrees of happiness for herein in it is that the Omnipotent God is revealed the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord by whom all things were made and who is in all things equal to his Father The simplicity of Christians then kept them from aspiring after honour and greatness and if at any time advanced to it their great care was to keep themselves unspotted from the world as Nazianzen reports of his brother Caesarius chief Physician to the Emperour Constantius that though he was very dear to him as he was to the whole Court and advanced by him every day to greater honours and dignities yet this says he was the chief of all that he suffered not the Nobility of his soul to be corrupted by that Glory and those delights that were round about him but accounted this his chiefest honour that he was a Christian in comparison of which all things else were to him but as a sport and Pageantry he looked upon other things but as Comick Scenes soon up and as soon over but upon Piety as the most safe and permanent good and which we can properly call our own regarding that Piety especially which is most inward and unseen to the world The like he relates of his Sister Gorgonia as the perfection of her excellent temper that she did not more seem to be good than she did really strive to be so peculiarly conversant in those secret acts of piety which are visible only to him who sees what is hidden and secret to the Prince of this world she left nothing transferring all into those safe and coelestial treasuries that are above she left nothing to the earth but her body changing all things for the hopes of a better life bequeathing no other riches to her children but an excellent pattern and a desire to follow her example The truth is as to estate they were not concern'd for more than what would supply the necessities of nature or the wants of others not solicitous to get or possess such revenues as might make them the objects either of mens envy or their fear as may appear amongst others by this instance Domiâ—ian the Emperour being inform'd that there were yet remaining some of Christs Kindred according to the flesh the Nephews of Judas the Brother of our Lord of the Race and Posterity of David which the Emperour sought utterly to extirpate he sent for them enquired of them whether they were of the Line of David they answered they were he ask'd what possessions and estate they had they told him they had between them thirty nine acres of land to the value of about nine thousand pence out of the fruits whereof they both paid him Tribute and maintained themselves with their own hard labour whereto the hardness and callousness of their hands which they then shew'd him bore witness He then ask'd them concerning Christ and the state of his Kingdome to which they answered that his Empire was not of this world but Heavenly and Angelical and which should finally take place in the end of the world when he should come with glory to judge both the quick and the dead and to reward men according to their works which when he heard despising the men upon the account of their meanness he let them go without any severity against them Of Origen we read that he was so great a despiser of the world that when he might have liv'd upon the maintenance of others he would not but parted with his Library of Books to one that was to allow him only four oboli a day the day he spent in laborious tasks and exercises and the greatest part of the night in study he always remembred that precept of our Saviour Not to have two coats not to wear shooes not anxiously to take care for to morrow nor would he accept the kindness of others when they would freely have given him some part of their estate to live on Not that the Christians of those times thought it unlawful to possess estates or to use the blessings of Divine Providence for though in those times of persecution they were often forc'd to quit their estates and habitations yet did they preserve their Proprieties intire and industriously mind the necessary conveniencies of this life so far as was consistent with their care of a better There were indeed a sort of Christians call'd Apostolici who in a fond imitation of the Apostles left all they had and gave up themselves to a voluntary poverty holding it not lawful to possess any thing hence they were also call'd Apotactici or renouncers because they quitted and renounc'd whatsoever they had but they were ever accounted infamous Hereticks They were as Epiphanius tells us the descendants of Tatian part of the old Cathari and Encratitae together with whom they are put in a Law of the Emperour Theodosius and reckon'd amongst the vilest of the Manichaean Hereticks mentioned also by Julian the Apostate as a branch of the Galilaeans as he calls the Christians by him compar'd to the Cynic Philosophers amongst the Heathens for the neglecting of their Countrey the abandoning of their estates and goods and their loose and rambling course of life only herein different that they did not as those Galilaean Apotactistae run up and down under a pretence of poverty to beg alms The truth is by the account which both he and Epiphanius give of them they seem to have been the very Patriarchs and primitive founders of those Mendicant Orders
and again I commend this person to thee to be looked to with all care and diligence and that in the presence of Christ and the Church The Bishop undertook the charge received the young man into his house instructed him and at last baptized him Which being done he thought he might remit a little of the strictness of his care but the young man making an ill use of his liberty fell into bad company by whose arts and snares he was seduced into ways of riot and wickedness till despairing of all hope of pardon from God he let loose the reins to all manner of exorbitancy and agreeing with his confederates they combin'd themselves into a society of highway-men and made him their Captain who quickly became as far beyond the rest in fierceness and cruelty as he was in power and authority S. John upon occasion returning some while after to the same place after he had dispatched his other business required from the Bishop thâ— pledge he had left with him who wondring and not knowing what he meant I mean said S. John the young man 't is the soul of my brother that I require The old man with a dejected look and tears in his eyes answered he 's dead and being demanded by what kind of death answered he 's dead to God for alas he 's become a villain and instead of the Church is fled with his companions to the mountains to be a thief and a robber The Apostle renting his cloaths and bewailing that he had so ill betrusted his brother's soul immediately call'd for a horse and a guide and made haste to the Mountains where being taken by those that stood Sentinel he beg'd to be brought before their Captain who stood ready arm'd some way off but assoon as he perceived 't was S. John that was coming towards him he began to be ashamed to run as fast as he could The Apostle not regarding his own age and weakness followed after with all his might and when his legs could not overtake him he sent these passionate exclamations after him Why O my Son dost thou fly from thy aged and unarmed father take pity of me and fear not there is yet hope of salvation for thee I will undertake with Christ for thee if need be I will freely undergo death for thee as our Lord did for us and lay down my own life to ransom thine only stay and believe me for I am sent by Christ With that he stay'd and with a dejected look throwing away his Arms he trembled and dissolved into tears he embraced the aged Apostle with all possible expressions of sorrow and lamentation as if again baptized with his own tears S. John assured him he had obtain'd his pardon of Christ and having fasted and prayed with him and for him and with all the arts of consolation refreshed his shattered and disconsolate mind brought him into and restored him to the Church This story though somewhat long I was the willinger to produce both because so remarkable in it self and so great a testimony of that mighty tenderness and compassion which they had for the souls of men for whose sake they thought they could never do never venture far enough S. Augustine tells us what infinite pains his Mother Monica took about the conversion of her husband Patricius how unweariedly she sought to endear her self to him by all the arts of a meek prudent and sober carriage how submissively she complied with his rigorous and untoward humours how diligently she watched the aptest times of insinuation never leaving till at last she gained him over to the faith Nor was her care and solicitude less for her Son Augustine who being hurried away with the lewdnesses of youth and intangled with the impieties of the Manichean Heresie was the hourly subject of her prayers and tears She plyed him with daily counsels and intreaties implored the help and assistances of good men and importuned heaven for the success of all not being able to gain any quiet to her mind till S. Ambrose with whom she had oft advised about it sent her away with this assurance that it was not possible that a child of so many tears should perish No sooner was his conversion wrought but her spirit was at ease and she now desired no more Himself tells us that discoursing with her alone some few days before her death concerning the state of the blessed and the joys of heaven she at last broke off with this farewel For my part Son I have now no further hopes or pleasures in this world there was but one thing for which I desired to live that I might see thee a Catholick Christian before I died This my good God has abundantly blessed me with having let me see thee despising the selicities of this life and entred into his family and service so that what do I make any longer here Nay so great a zeal had they for the good of souls in those days that many did not stick to engage themselves in temporal slavery for no other end but to deliver others from spiritual bondage Thus Serapion called Sindonites because he never wore more than one poor Linnen garment one of the Primitive Asceticks sold himself to a Gentile-player that served the Theatre with whom he liv'd underwent the meanest offices till he had converted him his wife and whole family to Christianity who upon their baptism restored him to his liberty whereupon he freely returned them back the mony which he had receiv'd as the price of his servitude which by mutual consent was given to the poor Coming afterwards to Lacedaemon and hearing that a principal person of the City a very good man otherwise was infected with the Manichean Heresie one of the first things he did was to insinuate himself into his Family selling himself to be his slave in which condition he remained for two years together till he had brought his Master and his whole Family off from that pernicious Heresie and restored them to the Church who did not only bless God for it but treated him not as a servant but with that kindness and reverence that is due to a Brother and a Father This was the good spirit and genius of those days they intirely studied and designed the happiness of men were willing and desirous freely to impart the treasuries of the Gospel and wished that in that respect all mankind were as rich and happy as themselves So far were they from that malicious imputation which Celsus fastned upon them that if all men would become Christians they would not admit it to which Origen flatly returns the lie and tells him the falseness of it might appear from this that Christians as much as in them lay were not backward to propagate their doctrine through the whole world and that some of them had peculiarly undertaken to go up and down not only in Cities but in Towns and Villages to bring over
advice in the cause that to do as he did When I come to Rome said he I fast on the Saturday as they do at Rome when I am here I do not fast So likewise you to whatsoever Church you come observe the custom of that place if you mean not either to give or take offence With this answer he satisfied his Mother and ever after when he thought of it looked upon it as an Oracle sent from Heaven So that even in Italy the Saturday Fast was not universally observed Nay a very learned man and a Bishop of the Roman Church thinks it highly probable that for the first Ages especially Saturday was no more kept as a Fast at Rome than in the Churches of the East though the great argument whereby he would establish it viz. because some Latine Churches who must needs follow the pattern of the Church of Rome did not keep it so is very infirm and weak and needs no more than that very instance of the Church of Millain to refute it which though under the Popes nose did not yet keep that day as a Fast although this was many years after it had been so established and observed at Rome And now that I am got into this business I shall once for all dispatch the matter about their Fasts before I proceed to their other Festivals 'T is certain the ancient Christians had two sorts of solemn Fasts weekly and annual Their weekly Fasts called Jejunia quartae sextae seriae were kept upon Wednesdays and Fridays appointed so as we are told for this reason because on Wednesday our Lord was betrayed by Judas on Friday he was crucified by the Jews This custom Epiphanius how truly I know not refers to the Apostles and elsewhere tells us that those days were observed as Fasts through the whole world These Fasts they called their Stations not because they stood all the while but by an allusion to the military Stations and keeping their Guards as Tertullian observes they kept close at it and they usually lasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius informs us till the ninth hour i. e. till three of the Clock in the Afternoon at which time having ended their Fast devotions they received the Eucharist and then broke up the Station and went home whence it is that Tertullian calls them stationum semijejunia the half Fasts of Stations and he seems to censure the practice of some who having privately resolved upon an entire Fast of the whole day refused to receive the Eucharist at the publick stationary Fasts because they thought that by eating and drinking the sacramental Elements they put a period to their fasting for it was usual in those times with many after the stationary Fasts were ended to continue and hold on the Fast until the evening The Historian tells us that it had been a very ancient custom in the Church of Alexandria upon these days to have the Scriptures read and expounded and all other parts of Divine Service except the celebration of the Sacrament and that it was chiefly in those days that Origen was wont to teach the people whether the omitting of the Sacrament then might be a peculiar custom to that Church I know not certain I am 't was upon those days administred in other places So S. Basil enumerating the times how oft they received it every week expresly puts Wednesday and Friday into the number The remains of these primitive Stations are yet observed in our Church at this day which by her 15. Canon has ordained That though Wednesdays and Fridays be not holy days yet that weekly upon those times Minister and People shall resort to Church at the accustomed hours of prayer Their Annual Fast was that of Lent by way of preparation to the Feast of our Saviours Resurrection this though not in the modern use of it was very ancient though far from being an◠Apostolical Canon as a learned Prelate of our Church has fully proved From the very first Age of the Christian Church 't was customary to fast before Easter but for how long it was variously observed according to different times and places some fasting so many days others so many weeks and some so many days on each week and 't is most probably thought that it was at first stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima not because 't was a Fast of forty days but of forty hours begun about twelve on Friday the time of our Saviours falling under the power of death and continued till Sunday morning the time of his rising from the dead Afterwards it was enlarged to a longer time drawn out into more days and then weeks till it came to three and at last to six or seven weeks But concerning the different observations of it in several places let them who desire to know more consult Socrates and Sozomen who both speak enough about it This Quadragesimal Fast was kept in those times with great piety and Religion people generally applying themselves with all seriousness to acts of penance and mortification whence Chrysostom calls Lent the remedy and Physick of our souls and to the end that the observation of it might be more grave and solemn Theodosins M. and his Colleague Emperours passed two Laws that during the time of Lent all Process and enquiry into criminal actions should be suspended and no corporal punishments inflicted upon any it being unfit as the second of those Laws expresses it that in the holy time of Lent the body should suffer punishment while the soul is expecting absolution But with what care soever they kept the preceeding parts 't is certain they kept the close of it with a mighty strictness and austerity I mean the last week of it that which immediately preceded the Feast of Easter this they consecrated to more peculiar acts of prayer abstinence and devotion and whereas in the other parts of Lent they ended their fast in the evening in this they extended it to the Cock-crowing or first glimpse of the morning to be sure they ended it not before midnight for to break up the Fast before that time was accounted a piece of great prophaneness and intemperance as Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria determines in a Letter to Basilides wherein he largely and learnedly states the case This was the Hebdomada Magna the great or holy week so called says Chrysostom not that it has either more hours or days in it than other weeks but because this is the week in which truly great and ineffable good things were purchased for us within this time death was conquered the curse destroyed the Devils tyranny dissolved his instruments broken Heaven opened Angels rejoyced the partition-wall broken down and God and man reconciled For this cause we call it the great week for this cause men fast and watch and do Alms to do the greater honour to it
threefold apparition or manifestation commemorated upon that day which all hapned though not in the same year yet upon the same day of the year The first was the appearance of the Star which guided the wise men to Christ The second was the famous appearance at the baptism of Christ when all the persons in the holy Trinity did sensibly manifest themselves the Father in the voice from Heaven the Son in the River Jordan and the Holy Ghost in the visible shape of a Dove This was ever accounted a famous Festival and as S. Chrysostom tells us was properly called Epiphany because he came in a manner into the world incognito but at his baptism openly appeared to be the Son of God and was so declared before the world At this time it was that by his going into the River Jordan he did sanctifie water to the mystical washing away of sin as our Church expresses it in memory whereof Chrysostom tells us they used in this Solemnity at midnight to draw water which they looked upon as consecrated this day and carrying it home to lay it up where it would remain pure and uncorrupt for a whole year sometimes two or three years together the truth whereof must rest upon the credit of that good man The third manifestation commemorated at this time was that of Christs divinity which appeared in the first miracle that he wrought in turning water into Wine therefore 't was called Bethphania because it was done in the house at that famous Marriage in Cana of Galilee which our Saviour honoured with his own presence All these three appearances contributed to the Solemnity of this Festival But beside these there was another sort of Festivals in the primitive Church kept in commemoration of Martyrs for the understanding of which we are to know that in those sad and bloody times when the Christian Religion triumphed over persecution and gained upon the world by nothing more than the constant and resolute sufferings of its professors whom no threatnings or torments could baffle out of it the people generally had a vast reverence for those who suffered thus deep in the cause of Christianity and laid down their lives for the confirmation of it They looked upon Confessors and Martyrs as the great Champions of their Religion who resisted unto blood and dyed upon the spot to make good its ground and to maintain its honour and reputation and therefore thought it very reasonable to do all possible honour to their memories partly that others might be encouraged to the like patience and fortitude and partly that virtue even in this world might not lose its reward Hence they were wont once a year to meet at the Graves of Martyrs there solemnly to recite their sufferings and their triumphs to praise their virtues and to bless God for their pious examples for their holy lives and their happy deaths for their Palms and Crowns These anniversary Solemnities were called memoriae martyrum the memories of the Martyrs a title mentioned by Cyprian but certainly much older than his time and indeed when they were first taken up in the Church is I think not so exactly known the first that I remember to have met with is that of Polycarp whose martyrdom is placed by Eusebius anno 168. under the third Persecution concerning whose death and sufferings the Church of Smyrna of which he was Bishop giving an account to the Church of Philomelium and especially of the place where they had honourably entomb'd his bones they do profess that so far as the malice of their Enemies would permit them and they prayed God nothing might hinder it they would assemble in that place and celebrate the Birth-day of his Martyrdom with joy and gladness where we may especially observe that this Solemnity is stiled his Birth-day and indeed so the primitive Christians used to call the days of their death and passion quite contrary to the manner of the Gentiles who kept the Natalitials of their famous men looking upon these as the true days of their nativity wherein they were freed from this Valley of tears these regions of death and born again unto the joys and happiness of an endless life The same account Origen gives if that Book be his a very ancient Authour however we keep says he the memories of the Saints of our Ancestors and friends that dye in the faith both rejoycing in that rest which they have obtained and begging for our selves a pious consummation in the faith and we celebrate not the day of their nativity as being the inlet to sorrow and temptation but of their death as the period of their miseries and that which sets them beyond the reach of temptations And this we do both Clergie and People meeting together inviting the poor and needy and refreshing the Widows and the Orphans that so our Festival may be both in respect of them whom we commemorate the memorial of that happy rest which their departed souls do enjoy and in respect of us the odour of a sweet smell in the sight of God Under Constantine these days were commanded to be observed with great care and strictness enjoining all his Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces to see the memorials of the Martyrs duly honoured and so sacred were they accounted in those days that it was thought a piece of prophaneness to be absent from them therefore S. Basil thought he could not use a more solemn argument to perswade a certain Bishop to come over to him upon this occasion than to adjure him by the respect he bore to the memories of the Martyrs that if he would not do it for his yet he should for their sakes towards whom it was unfit he should shew the least disregard Hence it is that Libanius sometimes takes notice of the Christians under no other character than this Enemies to the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that haunt and frequent Tombs and Sepulchers For the time of these assemblies it was commonly once a year viz. upon the day of their martyrdom for which end they took particular care to keep Registers of the days of the Martyrs passions So Cyprian expresly charges his Clergie to note down the days of their decease that there might be a commemoration of them amongst the memories of the Martyrs Theodoret tells us that in his time they did not thus assemble once or twice or five times in a year but kept frequent memorials oftentimes every day celebrating the memorials of Martyrs with hymns and praises unto God But I suppose he means it of days appointed to the memory of particular Martyrs which being then very numerous their memorials were distinctly fixed upon their proper days the Festival of S. Peter or S. Paul Thomas Sergius Marcellus c. as he there enumerates them For the places these Solemnities were kept at first at the Tombs where the Martyrs had been buried which usually were in the
and modesty we are to remember that we are under the eye of God whom we are not to offend either in the habit of our body or the manner of our speech for as 't is the fashion of those that are impudent to clamour and make a noise so on the contrary it becomes a sober man to pray with a modest voice when therefore we come together with our brethren into the Assembly to celebrate the divine Sacrifices with the Minister of God we ought to be mindful of order and a reverent regard and not to throw about our prayers with a wild and confused voice or with a disorderly prattling to cast forth those petitions which ought with the greatest modesty to be put up to God The men prayed with their heads bare as not ashamed to look up to heaven for what they begged of God the women covered as a sign of the modesty of that Sex and therefore Tertullian severely checks the practice of some women in his time who in time of worship had no covering on their heads or what was as good as none what reproof says he do they deserve that continue unvailed in singing Psalms or in any mention of God or do they think it 's enough to lay some thin and slight thing over their heads in prayer and then think themselves covered Where he manifestly refers to those rules which the Apostle prescribes in this case and concludes at last that they should at all times and in all places be mindful of the rule being ready and provided against all mention of the name of God who if he be in womens hearts will be known on their heads viz. by a modest carriage and covering of them in their addresses to him Their hands they did not only lift up to heaven a posture in prayer common both among Jews and Gentiles but they did expan and spread them abroad that so by this means they might shadow out an image of the Cross or rather a resemblance of him that hung upon it as Tertullian more than once and again informs us Prayer says another is a conversing with God and the way to heaven and to stretch out our hands is to form the resemblance of Christ crucified which whoever prays should do not only as to the form and figure but in reality and affection for as he that is fastned to the Cross surely dyes so he that prays should crucifie the desires of the flesh and every inordinate lust and passion In the performing of this duty they either kneeled which was most usual or stood which they always did upon the Lords day for a reason which we have spoken of before fitting was ever held a posture of great rudeness and irreverence nay Tertullian falls heavy upon some that used presently to clap themselves down upon their seats as soon as ever prayer was done and down-right charges it as against Scripture if it be an irreverent thing as he argues to sit down before or over against a person for whom thou hast a mighty reverence and veneration how much more does it savour of irreligion to do so in the presence of the living God while the Angel is yet standing by thee to carry up the prayer to heaven unless we have a mind to reproach God to his face and tell him that we are weary of the duty Another custom which they had in prayer was that they constantly prayed towards the East this was so universally common that there 's scarce any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer but speaks of it though not many of them agree in assigning the reason of it the custom doubtless begun very early and is generally ascribed to the Apostles so the Author of the Questions and Answers assures us and tells us it was because the East was accounted the most excellent part of the Creation and seeing in prayer we must turn our faces towards some quarter 't was fittest it should be towards the East just says he as in making the sign of the Cross in the name of Christ we use the right hand because 't is better than the left not in its own nature but only in its positure and fitness for our use S. Basil likewise reckons it amongst the traditions that had been derived from the Apostles but tells us the Mystery of it was that hereby they respected Paradise which God planted in the East begging of him that they might be restored to that ancient Country from whence they had been cast out This might probably be with those who dwelt in the Western parts of the world but how it could be done by those who lived East of the Garden of Eden suppose in any parts of India I am not able to imagine Clemens Alex. tells us that herein they had respect to Christ for as the East is the birth and womb of the natural day from whence the Sun the Fountain of all sensible light does arise and spring so Christ the true Sun of righteousness who arose upon the world with the light of truth when it sat in the darkness of errour and ignorance is in Scripture stiled the East and therefore our prayers are directed thither For which reason Tertullian calls the East the figure or the type of Christ but whatever the true reason was I 'm sure 't is a sober account which Athanasius gives of it we do not says he worship towards the East as if we thought God any ways shut up in those parts of the world but because God is in himself and is so stiled in Scripture the true light in turning therefore towards that created light we do not worship it but the great Creator of it taking occasion from that most excellent element to adore that God who was before all elements and ages of the world This was their carriage for prayer nor were they less humble and reverent in other parts of Worship they heard the Scriptures read and preached with all possible gravity and attention which that they might the better do they were wont to stand all the while the Sermon continued none sitting then but the Bishop and Presbyters that were about him so Optatus expresly tells us that the people had no priviledge to sit down in the Church though whether the custom was universally so in all places I much doubt nay S. Augustine tells us that in some transmarine I suppose he means the Western Churches it was otherwise the people having seats placed for them as well as the Ministers But generally the people stood partly to express the reverence partly to keep their attentions awake and lively Hence it was part of the Deacons Office as Chrysostom tells us and the same we find in the ancient Greek Liturgies to call upon the people with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us duly stand upright respecting the decent posture of their bodies though withal principally intending the
should be desired suffering himself to be despised and rejected of men who esteemed him not and hid as it were their faces from him who counted himself a worm and no man and was accordingly made a reproach of men and the derision of the people all they that saw him laughing him to scorn shooting out the lip and shaking the head at him Now if our Lord himself was so humble-minded what should we be who are come under the yoke of his grace This and much more to the same purpose has that Venerable and Apostolical man in that admirable Epistle wherein he does lively describe and recommend the meek and excellent spirit of the Gospel Justin the Martyr treads in the very same steps He tells us that we are to shun all sinister suspicions of others and to be very careful what Opinion we entertain of them that we are to be of a meek and unpassionate mind not envying the good esteem and respect which others have nor ambitiously affecting or putting our selves forwards upon any service or imployment that we are humbly to submit our selves not in words only but in all our actions so as that we may appear to be not Impostors and Distemblers but mild and undesigning persons for whoever would govern his life aright must be modest and unpragmatical not angry and contentious but silently consider with himself what is best and fittest to be done that we are to account others wise and prudent and not to think our selves the only discreet and understanding persons that we must not despise their admonitions but hearken to their counsels when ever they are just and true When some in St. Cyprian's time had made a noble and resolute confession of Christ in the face of the greatest danger lest they should be exalted above measure in their own thoughts he bids them remember according to the discipline of the Gospel to be humble and modest and quiet that they might preserve the honour of their name and be as glorious in their actions as they had been in their words and confessions of Christ that they should imitate their Lord who was not more proud but more humble at the time of his passion washing his Apostles feet and follow the counsel and pattern of St. Paul who in his greatest sufferings continued meek and humble and did not arrogate any thing to himself no not after he had been honoured with a translation into Paradise and the third Heavens And great reason he had to press this with all possible vehemency at that time lest Christians by their turbulent and unquiet carriage should provoke the Heathen Magistrate to greater severity against them and indeed who could better do it than he who was himself so eminent for humility For though some Schismatical persons whose wildness and insolence he sought to restrain endeavoured to insinuate that he was not so humble as became a man of his Rank and Order and as were our Lord and his Apostles yet observe how he vindicates himself in a Letter to Pupianus the Head of the Party As for my humility says he 't is sufficiently known not only to the Brethren but the Gentiles themselves do see and respect it and thou thy self didst know and honour it whilst thou wast yet in the Church and didst Communicate with me but which of us I pray is farthest from humility I who daily serve the Brethren and receive those who come unto the Church with all joy and kindness or Thou who makest thy self a Bishop over thy Bishop and pretendest to be a Judge appointed by God over him who is thy Judge And indeed how far the good man was from any designs of greatness and domination appear'd in this that when the people had universally chosen him to be Bishop he privately withdrew and retir'd himself reckoning himself unworthy of so great and honourable an Office and giving way to others whose age and experience rendred them as he thought much fitter for it but the importunity of the people being heightned into a greater impatiency and having found where he was they beset the house and blocked up all passages of escape till they had found him and forc'd it upon him And with no less humility did he behave himself in the discharge of it When consulted by some of his Clergy what they should do in the case of the lapsed he answers that being now alone he could say nothing to it for that he had determin'd from his first entring upon his Bishoprick not to adjudge any thing by his own private order without the counsel of the Clergy and the consent of the People So meanly did that wise and excellent man think of himself and so much did he attribute to the judgement and concurrence of those that were below him Nazianzen reports of his Father a Bishop too that amongst other Vertues he was peculiarly remarkable for Humility which he did not express Philosopher-like in little arts of external modes and carriage putting on a feign'd behaviour like women who having no natural beauty of their own fly to the additionals of dresses and paintings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming more deformed by their ascititious beauty His Humility consisted not in his dress but in the constancy of his mind not in the hanging down of his head or the softness of his tone or the demureness of his look or the gravity of his beard or the shaving of his head the cropping of his hair or the manner of his gate but in the frame and temper of his soul being as humble in his mind as he was sublime and excellent in his life and when no man could arrive at the perfection of his Vertues yet every one was admitted to a freedom of converse with him Both in his garb and diet he equally avoided pomp and sorâ—â—dness and though a great restrainer 〈…〉 â—ppetite would yet seem not to do it â—est he should be thought plainly to design glory to himself by being needlesly singular above other men How industriously do we find them many times disowning that deserved praise and commendation that was due to them How modestly does Justin Martyr decline his adversaries commendation of the acuteness and elegancy of his reasonings resolving all into the Grace of God that enabled him to understand and expound the Scriptures of which Grace he there perswades all men freely and fully to become partakers with him Of the Confessors in the time of the persecution under M. Aurelius Eusebius out of the relation which the Churches of Vienna and Lyons in France sent to the Churches in Asia tells us that although they had often born witness to the Truth at the dearest rate of any thing on this side death though they had been frequently thrown to wild Beasts expos'd to the fire and the remains of wounds and violence were visible in all parts of their bodies yet in imitation of the great humility of the
frequented every day with great applause represented them as lawful and commendable Socrates himself the great glory of the Heathen world was condemned at Athens amongst other things for Sodomy and the corrupting of Youth and some of Plato's School have perished in the very act of Adultery Nay their very gods themselves whom they worshipp'd and ador'd were highly gulty in this kind they feign those things of us says Athenagoras which they themselves report of their own gods whose lusts and wantonnesses 't is no wonder if they style Mysteries were they such hearty enemies to shameful and promiscuous mixtures they must abhor their great god Jupiter who begot children both of Rhea the Mother and Proserpina the Daughter and married with his own Sister And who was unless Orpheus their great Poet lies more wicked and vile in this kind than Thyestes himself Clemens Alexandrinus tells them that as they had ordered the matter by the Marriages begeting Children Adulteries and Banquets of their gods which they set out in their Plays and Poems they had turn'd Heaven into a Comick Scene and made the Deity a piece of dramatick sport and by a satyrick wit had jested Religion and whatever was most Sacred into scorn and laughter Nothing more usual amongst them as he there observes than to hang their rooms with the pictures of their gods drawn in the most lascivious and propudious postures engaged in the most filthy and dishonest actions enough to shame intemperance it self These says he are the original patterns of your soft effeminacy this your beastly and shameful divinity these the doctrines of your gods co-partners with you in your uncleanness and adultery And whereas they might pretend that these stories of their gods were only the extravagant inventions of their Poets who took a liberty to say any thing to gratifie the people Athanasius answers that hereby they shook the very foundation of their gods having no other authority for their existence than what account their Poets gave them so that if they feign'd their actions they might with equal reason be supposed to feign their very names and persons there being the same ground of belief for the one as for the other and that there was as much reason to believe they spake truth in this as in the relation of any other matters of fact concerning Achilles Vlysses Nestor Hector or any of the rest all depending upon the same warrant and authority This propagated loosness and uncleanness to them under the notion and shadow of Religion such as the gods are such warrantably may be their Worshippers Where-ever you are says Tertullian at home or abroad of beyond the seas Lust is your companion which often stumbles upon Incest whereas Chastity diligently and faithfully preserv'd keeps us from any such event and we are as far from Incest as we are from Whoredom or any excess in a married state yea many prevent all possibility of this charge by containing themselves within perpetual Virginity And yet though we are thus says another Apologist yet there want not those who object these things to us and as 't is in the Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strumpet reproaches the honest woman for though they merchandize for lust and keep open shop for all manner of uncleanness not abstaining from the violation and abuse of Youth males with males committing that which is unseemly though themselves are guilty of these villanies which they report also of their gods and do themselves boast of them as brave atchievements yet have they the face to accuse us of them Adulterers and Sodomites as they are they charge us who are either always continent or never marry more than once themselves in the mean while living like fishes where the great ones subdue and swallow up the less Such infamous filthinesses are done amongst you which we do not care to hear and may much less defend you laying things to the charge of chast and modest men which we could not believe that there should be such things done in the world were not you your selves instances of them Thus consideration made Justin Martyr this freely and passionately bespeak the Senate It were to be wished that some body getting up into a high place should with a loud voice cry out Be afraid be afraid to charge those things of which you your selves are openly guilty upon the innocent and undeserving to attribute what belongs only to your selves and to your gods to those with whom there is not so much as the shadow of any such thing to be found Learn to be more wise and sober and repent of such injustice Secondly That the Heathens themselves did tacitly confess Christians to be Innocent in this case when their great care was how they might debauch them 't was a part of their severest punishment to be prostituted and exposed to rudeness and violence a penalty which they would never have inflicted upon them had they really been such lewd profligate persons as their enemies endeavoured to represent them This Plea Tertullian urges in the close of his Apology Condemn sayes he crucifie and torment us your cruelty and injustice is the evidence of our Innocency and therefore God suffers it to come upon us for while you chuse rather to condemn a woman that is a Christian to the Stews than to the Lions you plainly confess that the violation of chastity is accounted by us a heavier penalty than any punishment or kind of death which you can inflict upon us An eminent instance hereof though of the other sex S. Hierom relates to this purpose In the time of the Decian Persecution a young man a Christian then in the flower and beauty of his age whose constancy had been oft attempted by other means to no purpose was at last set upon in this manner He was carried into a pleasant Garden and into a part of it beset with Lillies and Roses hard by the banks of a Crystal river whose soft murmurs together with the musick made by the leaves of the trees wav'd by the gentle motions of the wind conspir'd to render it a place for pleasure and delight Here upon a bed of down the young man was laid and that he might not be able to help himself or shift his posture was tied down with silken cords the company withdrawing a beautiful Strumpet was sent in to him who began to caresse him with kisses and embraces treating him with all the arts of wantonness not consistent with modesty to name How to relieve himself in this case the poor man knew not but finding the temptation beginning to prevail he presently bit off his tongue and spit it in her face as she attempted to kiss him by the greatness of his pain extinguishing those sensual titillations which her wicked artifices began to kindle in him Thirdly they confidently assured them that amongst Christians it was not only unlawful to be actually unclean
Martyrs of Christ says the Epistle evidently shewing us that during this sad hour of suffering they were strangers to their own bodies or rather that our Lord himself stood by them and familiarly conversed with them and that being partaker of his Grace they made light of these temporal torments and by one short hour delivered themselves from eternal miseries The fire which their tormentors put to them seemed to them but cool and little while they had it in their thoughts to avoid the everlasting and unextinguishable flames of another world their eyes being fixed upon those rewards which are prepared for them that endure to the end such as neither ear hath heard nor eye hath seen nor hath it entred into the heart of man but which were shewn to them by our Lord as being now ready to go off from mortality and to enter upon the state of Angels Thus reason'd those forty Martyrs in S. Basil that suffered at Sebastia in Armenia in the Reign of Licinius when the Governour to contrive a new method of Torment had commanded them to stand naked all night in cold frosty weather which in those more Northerly Countries is extream sharp and bitter it being then the depth of winter and the North wind blowing very fierce in a pond of water they first gave thanks to God that they put off their cloaths and their sins together and then comforted one another by balancing their present hardships with their future hopes Is the weather sharp said they but Paradise is comfortable and delightful Is the frost cold and bitter the rest that remains is sweet and pleasant let us but hold out a little and Abrahams bosome will refresh us we shall change this one night for an eternal age of happiness let our feet glow with very cold so as they may for ever rejoyce and triumph with Angels let our hands sink down so as we may have liberty to lift them up to God How many of our fellow-souldiers have lost their lives to keep faith to their temporal Prince And should we be unfaithful to the true King of Heaven How many have justly died for their crimes and villanies And shall we refuse it in the cause of righteousness and Religion 'T is but the flesh that suffers let us not spare it since we must die let us die that we may live Thus generously did they bear up under this uncomfortable state their ardent desires of Heaven from within extinguishing all sense of cold and hardship from without Nay when a little before their Commander had set upon them both with threatnings and promises assuring them that if they would but deny Christ they should make their own terms for riches and honour they told him that he laid his snares at a wrong door that he could not give them what he endeavoured to take from them nor could they close with his offers without being infinitely losers by the bargain that 't was to no purpose to profer a little of the world to them who despised the whole of it that all these visible advantages were nothing to what they had in hope and expectation all the beauty and glory of Heaven and Earth not being comparable to that state of blessedness which is the portion of the righteous the one being short-liv'd and transitory the other permanent and perpetual that they were ambitious of no gift but the Crown of Righteousness nor sought after any other Glory but what was Heavenly that they feared no torments but those of Hell and that fire that was truly terrible as for those punishments they inflicted they accounted them but as the blows of children and the ill usage that their bodies met with the longer 't was endured the more way it made for a brighter crown Such was the temper such the support of these Christian Souldiers these true Champions of the Christian Faith Indeed this consideration was one of the greatest Cordials that kept up their spirits under the saddest sufferings that they were assured of a reward in Heaven Amongst us says Cyprian there flourishes strength of Hope firmness of Faith a mind erect amongst the ruines of a tottering age an immoveable vertue a patience serene and chearful and a soul always secure and certain of its God As for want or danger what are these to Christians to the servants of God whom Paradise invites and the favour and plenty of the heavenly Kingdom expects and waits for They are always glad and rejoyce in God and resolutely bear the evils and miseries of the world while they look for the rewards and prosperities of another life The great Philosophers as Eusebius observes as much as they talk'd of immortality yet by their carriage they shewed that they looked upon it but as a trifling and childish fable whereas says he amongst us even girles and children the most unlearned and measured by the eye the meanest and most despicable persons being assisted by the help and strength of our blessed Saviour do rather by their actions than their words demonstrate and make good this doctrine of the immortality of the Soul This Julian confesses of the Christians though according to his custome he gives them bad words calls them Atheists and irreligious persons that being acted by some evil spirits they perswade themselves that death is by all means to be desired and that they shall immediately fly to Heaven assoon as their souls are freed from the fetters of the body Hence it was that in those times Christians were wont to sing Hymns and Psalms at the Funerals of the dead to signifie that they had attain'd their Rest the end of their labours the retribution of their troubles the reward and the crown of their conflicts and sufferings as Chrysostome tells us part of which Psalms he elsewhere tells us were Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and I will fear no evil because thou art with me and again thou art my refuge from the trouble that compasses me about For the same reason as being a sign of joy and chearfulness he there tells us that they carried lights burning before the corps by all which he tells us they signified that they carried forth Christians as Champions to the grave glorifying God and giving thanks to him that he had crowned the deceased person that he had delivered him from his labours that he had taken him to himself and set him beyond the reach of storms and fears But to return There was scarce any one instance of Religion wherein Primitive Christianity did more openly approve it self to the world and more evidently insult over Paganism than the generous courage and patience of its professors By this they commended both the Truth and Excellency of their Religion and conquer'd their very enemies into an embracing of it Hear how Lactantius pleads the argument and triumphs in the goodness of his cause By reason
that were amongst men This Argument Eusebius particularly prosecutes and shewes that while the Nations were under Paganism and Idolatry they were filled with wars and troubles and all the effects of barbarous rage and fury but that after the divine and peaceable doctrine of our Saviour came abroad those differences and calamities began to cease according to the predictions that were of him that there should be righteousness and abundance of peace in his days that men should beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks that Nation should not lift up sword against Nation nor learn war any more that this must needs be in some measure the effect of his appearance his doctrine being so fitly calculated to soften the rough and brutish manners of men and to train them up in milder and more humane institutions And a little after he makes it an uncontroulable argument of the truth and excellency of the Christian doctrine that it teaches men to bear the reproaches and provocations of enemies with a generous and unshaken mind and to be able not to revenge our selves by falling foul upon them with the like indignities and affronts to be above anger and passion and every inordinate and unruly appetite to administer to the wants and necessities of the helpless and to embrace every man as our kindred and countrey-man and though reputed a stranger to us yet to own him as if by the law of Nature he were our nearest friend and brother How much their Religion contributed to the publick tranquillity by forbiding Pride Passion Covetousness and such sins as are the great springs of confusion and disturbance Justin Martyr tells the Emperours As for peace says he we above all men in the world promote and further it forasmuch as we teach that no wicked man no covetous or treacherous person no good or vertuous man can lye hid from the eye of God but that every man is travelling either towards an eternal happiness or misery according to the desert and nature of his works and did all men know and believe this no man would dare for a few moments to deliver up himself to vice and wickedness knowing 't would lead him on to the condemnation of everlasting fire but would rather by all means restrain himself and keep within the bounds of vertue that he might obtain the rewards that are dispens'd by God and avoid the punishments that are inflicted by him The truth is our blessed Lord came not to inspire men with principles of revenge and passion to teach them to return evil for evil but to encourage love and gentleness to teach men to overcome by suffering and to obtain the reward by meekness and patience Isidore the Pelusiote treating of that place to him that smites thee on the right cheek turn the other also has this short discourse upon it The great King of Heaven came down from above to deliver to the world the laws of an heavenly conversation which he has proposed in a way of conflict and striving quite contrary to that of the Olympick games There he that fights and gets the better receives the Crown here he that is stricken and bears it meekly has the honour and applause there he that returns blow for blow here he that turns the other cheek is celebrated in the Theatre of Angels for the victory is measured not by revenge but by a wise and generous patience this is the New Law of Crowns this the new way of conflicts and contentions Such was the temper such the carriage of Christians towards their enemies and them that were without within themselves they maintained the most admirable peace and harmony and were in a manner of one heart and soul They liv'd in the strictest amity and abhorr'd all division as a plague and fire-brand But because mens understandings not being all of one size nor all truths alike plain and evident differences in mens Judgments and Opinions must needs arise no Schism ever arose in the Church about any of the more considerable principles of Religion but it was presently bewailed with the universal resentment of all pious and good men and the breach endeavoured to be made up no ways left unattempted no methods of perswasion omitted that might contribute to it When Novatus or rather Novatian had made some disturbance in the Church of Rome concerning the receiving the lapsed into Communion Dionysius the good Bishop of Alexandria writes to him to extinguish the Schism tells him 't is better to suffer any thing than that the Church of God should be rent in pieces that it 's no less glorious and probably more illustrious to suffer Martyrdom to keep division out of the Church than to dye for not sacrificing to Idols for in the one case a man suffers martyrdom only upon his own account but in the other he suffers for the advantage and benefit of the whole Church And Cyprian positively asserts according to the Apostles resolution of the case that without this unity and charity a man cannot enter into Heaven and that although he should deliver up himself to the flames or cast his body to wild beasts yet this would not be the crown of his Faith but the punishment of his falshood not the glorious exit of a religious vertue but the issue of despair such a one may be killed but he cannot be crowned He that rents the Unity of the Church destroys the Faith disturbs the Peace dissolves Charity and profanes the Holy Sacrament How severely they branded all schism division in the Church how industriously they laboured to take up all controversies amongst Christians and to reconcile dissenting brethren to maintain concord and agreement amongst themselves and to prevent all occasions of quarrel dissention might be easily made to appear out of the Writers of those times Hence those Canonical Epistles as they called them wherewith persons were wont to be furnish'd when going from one place to another of which there were especially three sorts First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Commendatory Epistles mentioned by S. Paul and were in use amongst the Heathens They were granted to Clergy-men going into another Diocess by the Bishop that ordained them testifying their ordination their soundness and orthodoxy in the Faith the innocency and unblameableness of their lives To those that had been under or had been suspected of Excommunication declaring their absolution and recommending them to be received in the number of the faithful Lastly they were granted to all whether Clergy or Laity that were to travel as Tickets of Hospitality that whereever they came upon the producing these letters they might be known to be Catholick and Orthodox and as such received and entertained by them A piece of prudence which Julian the Apostate admired in the Christian constitution the like whereto he endeavoured to establish in his Pagan reformation The Second sort were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Letters Dimissory
lives we would defend the Common-Wealth this we then engaged to the Emperours though no Heavenly Kingdom was promised to us and if we could promise this out of devotion to a Military service what then is to be done when Christ promises so much to them that engage with him Let us willingly expose our lives to this most precious death let us shew a masculine courage and an unviolated faith Methinks I see those blessed souls standing before Christs tribunal whom the Emperours Officer just now banished out of their bodies that 's the true glory which will recompence the shortness of this life with a blessed eternity Let us by the Messengers unanimously return this Answer to the Emperour We acknowledge Caesar that we are your Souldiers and took up Arms for defence of the Empire nor did we ever basely betray our trust or forsake our station or deser'd that the brand either of fear or cowardise should be set upon us nor should we stick now to obey your Commands did not the Laws of Christianity wherein we have been instructed forbid us to worship devils and to approach the polluted altars of the gods We understand you are resolved either to defile us with sacrilegious worship or to terrifie us with a decimation Spare any further search concerning us know we are all Christians our bodies we yield subject to your Power but our souls we reserve intire for Christ the Author and the Saviour of them This was no sooner spoken and universally agreed to by the Legion but it was carried to the Emperour who exasperated with such a generous resolution commanded a second decimation which was immediately executed and the rest as before commanded to return to Octodurus hereupon Exuperius the Ensign catching up his colours thus address'd himself to them You see me most excellent fellow-souldiers holding these Ensigns of secular warfare but these are not the arms that I call you to these are not the wars to which I excite your courage and valour 't is another kind of fighting that we are to chuse they are not these swords that must make our way into the Heavenly Kingdom we stand in need of an undaunted mind an invincible defence a maintaining the Faith which we have given to God to the very last Let the dismal Executioner go and carry this message to his bloody Master and tell him thus We are O Emperour your Souldiers but withall which we freely confess the Servants of God to you we owe military service to him innocency from you we have received wages for our labours from him we had our very lives and beings we cannot herein obey the Emperour so as to deny God the author of our lives yea and of yours too whether you will or no. Nor is it Sir any despair which is always stoutest in greatest straits that makes us thus resolute against you we have you see armes and yet make no resistance chusing rather to dye than to overcome and desirous rather to perish innocent than to live rebellious and revengeful If you have a mind to appoint us to any greater and severer torments we are ready for them Christians we are and therefore cannot persecute those that are so You must needs acknowledge the unconquerable courage of this Legion we throw down our arms your officer will find our right hands naked but our breast arm'd with a true Catholick Faith kill us and trample on us we undauntedly yield our necks to the Executioners sword these things are the more pleasant to us while setting light by your sacrilegious attempts we hasten apace to the Heavenly Crown Maximianus being told this and despairing now to break their constancy commands his whole Army to fall upon them and cut them off which they did accordingly without any difference of age or person mangling their bodies and then taking the spoyles the Emperour having so appointed that whoever kill'd any of the Legion should have the spoyles of him whom he killed And thus they died with their swords in their hands when they might have preserved their lives especially in a place so advantagious by force of arms or to be sure have sold them at the dearest rate This story I have been willing to set down the more at large because so remarkable in all its circumstances and containing the most unparallel'd instance of Christian Piety and submission next to that of our blessed Saviour that I think was ever known to the world This is the account of those Noble Martyrs only to prevent mistakes we are to take notice that there was another Mauritius Commander of a Legion in the East mentioned in the Greek Menologies who together with seventy of his Souldiers were condemned by and suffered under his self same Emperour Maximianus for refusing to do sacrifice their Martyrdom being recorded by Simeon Metaphrastes but the account quite different both as to persons and things from that which is here related By what has been said we may see the injustice of that charge which the Heathens sometimes laid upon the Christians that they were disturbers of the Peace and enemies to Civil Government an indictment so purely false and without any shadow of a real pretence to cover it that the ingenious Heathen in Minutius Foelix though raking up all the calumnies he could find and putting the deepest dy upon every charge which wit and eloquence could put upon it yet had not the face so much as once to mention it But however as groundless as it was they were frequently charg'd with it Sometimes they were accused of dis-loyalty and treason either because they would not swear by the Emperous Genius or not sacrifice for his safety or not worship the Emperours as Divi or gods or not celebrate their festivals in the same way with others For the first their refusing to swear by the Emperours Genius we have heard before what Tertullian answers to it That it was in effect to give divine honour to devils To the second their not sacrificing for the Emperours safety the answers That none sacrificed to so good purpose as they for that they offered up prayers to the True Living and Eternal God for the safety of the Emperours that God whom the Emperours themselves did above all others desire should be propitious and favourable to them as from whom they knew they deriv'd their government For the third their refusing to own the Emperours for gods he tells them they could not do it partly because they would not lye in saying so partly because they durst not by doing it mock and deride the Emperour nay that he himself would not be willing to be styled God if he remembred that he was a Man it being mans interest to yield to God that the title of Emperour was great enough and that he could not be call'd God without being denied to be Emperour that he was therefore great because less than Heaven and that if he would needs
that is next to God we sacrifice for his safety but 't is to his and our God and so as he has commanded only by holy prayer for the great God needs no blood or sweet perfumes these are the banquets and repast of devils which we do not only reject but expel at every turn But to say more concerning this were to light a candle to the Sun Julian the Emperour though no good friend to Christians yet thus far does them right that if they see any one mutinying against his Prince they presently punish him with great severities And here we may with just reason reflect upon the iniquity of the Church of Rome which in this instance of Religion has so abominably debauched the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith For they not only exempt the Clergy where they can from the authority and judgment of the secular powers whereby horrible enormities do arise but generally teach that a Prince once excommunicate his Subjects are absolv'd from all fealty and allegiance and he may with impunity be deposed or made away How shall such a Prince be thundred against with curses and deprivations every bold and treacherous Priest be authorized to brand his sacred person with the odious names of Infidel Heretick and Apostate and be Apostolically licensed to slander and belibel him and furnished with Commissions to free his Subjects from their duty and allegiance and to allure them to take up arms against him And if these courses fail and men still continue loyal they have disciples ready by secret or suddain arts to send him out of the world And if any man's conscience be so nice as to boggle at it his scruples shall be removed at worst it shall pass for a venial crime and the Pope perhaps with the help of a limitation that it be done for the interest of the Catholick cause by his omnipotence shall create it meritorious Cardinal Bellarmine whose wit and learning were imployed to uphold a tottering cause maintains it stiffly and in express terms that if a King be an Heretick or an Infidel and we know what they mean by that nay he particularly names the reformed Princes of England amongst his instances and seeks to draw his Dominions unto his Sect it is not only lawful but necessary to deprive him of his Kingdom And although he knew that the whole course of antiquity would fly in the face of so bold an assertion yet he goes on to assert that the reason why the Primitive Christians did not attempt this upon Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and the like was not out of conscience or that they boggled out of a sense of duty but because they wanted means and power to effect it A bold piece of falshood this and how contrary to the plain and positive Laws of Christ to the meek and primitive spirit of the Gospel But by the Cardinals leave it could not be for want of power for if as Seneca observes he may be Master of any man's life that undervalues his own it was then as easie for a Christian to have slain Nero or Dioclesian as it was of later times for Gerard to pistol the Prince of Orange or Ravillac to stab the King of France Nay take one of his own instances Julian the Apostate a Prince bad enough and that left no method unattempted to seduce his Subjects to Paganism and Idolatry yet though the greatest part of his Army were Christians they never so much as whispered a treasonable design against him using no other arms as we noted out of Nazianzen but prayers and tears Had S. Paul been of their mind he would have told the Christian Romans quite another story and instead of bidding them be subject to Nero not only for wrath but for conscience sake would have instructed them to take all opportunities to have murdered or deposed him But I shall not reckon up the villanies they have been guilty of in this kind nor pursue the odious and pernicious consequences of their doctrine and practice thus much I could not but take notice of being so immediately opposite to the whole tenor of the Gospel and so great a scandal to Christianity And I verily believe that had the Primitive Christians been no better Subjects than their Emperours were Princes had they practised on them those bloody artifices which have been common amongst those that call themselves the only Catholicks that barbarous dealing would have been a greater curb to the flourishing of the Gospel than all the ten persecutions For how could an impartial Heathen ever have believed their doctrine to have been of God had their actions been so contrary to all principles of natural Divinity Sure I am Pagan Rome was in this case more Orthodox and their Pontifices far better Doctors of Divinity Their Lex Julia as Vlpian their great Lawyer tells us allotted the same penalty to sacriledge and treason placing the one the very next step to the other thereby teaching us that they looked upon treason against the Prince as an affront next to that which was immediately done against the Majesty of Heaven And Marcellus the great Statesman in Tacitus lays it down for a Maxim that Subjects may wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And shame it is that any should call themselves Christians and yet be found worse than they their principles and practices more opposite to the known Laws of God and nature more destructive to the peace and welfare of mankind CHAP. V. Of their Penance and the Discipline of the Antient Church This why last treated of The Church as a Society founded by Christ has its distinct Laws and Priviledges What the usual offences that came under the Churches discipline All immorality open or confessed Lapsing into Idolatry the great sin of those times How many ways usually committed The Traditores who what their crime What penalties inflicted upon delinquent persons Delivering over to Satan what this extraordinary coercive power why vested in the Church The common and standing penalty by Excommunication This practised amongst the antient Gauls an account of it out of Caesar In use amongst the Jews Thence derived to the Christians This punishment how expressed by Church-writers Managed according to the nature of the fault The rigour of it sometimes mitigated Delinquent Clergy-men degraded and never admitted but to Lay-communion instances of it An account of the rise of Novatianism and the severity of its principles styl'd Cathari condemn'd by the Synod at Rome Offenders in what manner dealt with The Procedure of the action described by Tertullian Penitents how behaving themselves during their suspension The greatest not spar'd the case of Philippus and Theodosius This severity why used Penances called satisfactions and why The use of the word satisfaction in the antient Fathers Penitents how absolved After what time In the power of Bishops to extend or shorten these penitentiary humiliations Four particular cases observed wherein