transgress notoriously they thrust out of their Company And who-ever is so punished for the most part dieth a miserable Death for it being not lawful for him to eat with any Stranger he is reduced to feed on Grass like Beasts and so he perisheth through Famine For which cause oftentimes they are moved with Compassion to receive many into their Order again when ready by Famine to yield up the Ghost judging them to have endured Penance enough for their Offences who with Famine were almost brought to Death's door They are very severe and just in their Judgments and to decide any Matter there is never fewer of them than an Hundred and that which is by them agreed upon is irrevocable Next after God they reverence their Law-giver insomuch that if any one revile him they forthwith condemn him to Death They take it for a great Duty to obey their Elders and what is appointed by many so that if Ten of them sit together no Man of them must speak without he be licensed thereto by Nine of the Company They account it a great Incivility to be in the midst of the Assembly or on their right hand And they are more severe than any other Jews in observing the Sabbath for they do not only abstain from dressing Meat which they dress the Evening before that Day but also they may not remove any Vessel out of its place nor satisfie the Necessities of Nature Upon other Days they dig a Pit a foot deep in the Ground with the Hatchet which as we before said every one at his Entrance into their Order hath given him and then covering themselves diligently with their Garment as if they feared to be Irreverent to the Light of Heaven in that Pit they ease themselves and then cover their Ordure with the Earth they took out of the Pit and this they do in the most secret places And though this purging of their Bodies be natural yet do they by washing purifie themselves after it as after great Uncleanness Furthermore amongst themselves they are divided into Four Orders according to the time which they have continu'd this Exercise of Life and they that are Juniors bear such respect to their Seniors that if they do but touch one of them they are obliged to purifie themselves as though they had touched a Stranger They are long liv'd so that most of them live an Hundred Years which I judge is by reason of their well-ordered Diet and their Temperance They contemn Adversity and by Constancy and Fortitude triumph over Torments They preferr an honourable Death before Life The Wars which the Jews made against the Romans shew'd what invinsible Courage and Hardiness they have in all things for they suffered the Breaking of the Members of their Bodies Fire and Sword and all kind of Tortures rather than be brought to speak the least Word against their Law-giver or to eat Meats forbidden They could not be forced to any of these neither would they entreat the Torturers nor shew any Sorrow amidst their Torments Yea in the midst of their Pains they scoffed at their Tormentors and joyfully yielded up their Souls as though they hoped to pass to a better Life For it is an Opinion amongst them That the Body is mortal and corruptible but the Souls remain ever immortal and being of a most pure and etherial Substance wrap themselves in Bodies as in Prisons being drawn thereunto by some natural Inclination But when they are delivered out of these carnal Bonds then presently as freed from a long Bondage they joyfully mount into the Air. And of the Good Souls they say as did the Grecians that they live beyond the Ocean in a place of Pleasure where they are never molested with Rain nor Snow nor Heat but have always a sweet and pleasant Air. But the Wicked Souls as they say go into a Place very tempestuous where there is always Winter Weather always Lamentations of those who for ever are to be punished For I judge that the Greeks are of this Opinion when they say there is an Isle for the Virtuous whom they call Heroes and Half-Gods and that the Souls of the Wicked go to a Place in Hell where it is feigned that some are tormented as Sysiphus Tantalus Ixion and Titius Those Esseans also believe that they are created Immortal that they may be induced to Vertue and averted from Vice that the Good are rendred better in this Life by the Hope of being Happy after Death and that the Wicked who imagin they can hide their Evil Actions in this World are punished for them in the other with Eternal Torments This is the Esseans Opinion touching the Excellence of the Soul from which we see very few of those depart who have once embraced it There are also some among them who promise to foretell things to come which Faculty is obtained as well by the Study of Holy Books and Ancient Prophecies as by the Care they take of sanctifying themselves And their Predictions seldom fail They are at least Four Thousand in Number who have neither Wives nor Slaves supposing that Women are the occasion of Injustice and Slaves do cause Insurrections and living apart by themselves they serve one another and chuse out certain upright Men among the Priests to gather the Fruits and Revenues of the Land to the end they may be maintained and nourished thereby In a Word they follow the same Course of Life that they do who are called Plisti among the Danes There is another sort of Esseans agreeing with the former both in Apparel Diet and kind of Life and Observance of the same Laws and Ordinances only they differ in the Matter of Marriage Affirming that to abstain from Marriage tends to abolish Man-kind For say they if all Men should follow this Opinion presently all Man-kind would perish Notwithstanding these People use such Moderation that for Three Years space they observe the Women they intend to Marry and then if they appear sound enough to bear Children they Marry them None of them lye with their Wives when they are with Child to shew that they do not Marry to satisfie Lust but to have Children When their Wives wash themselves they are covered with a Garment as the Men are And this is the Manner and Custom of this Sect. OF THE ESSEANS OUT OF PHILO 'T IS a strange and lamentable thing to consider what a continual Faintness and how much Listlessness we find in our selves to those things which we should prosecute with the greatest Vigour as being the nearest related to us and most proper for us 'T is this Sluggishness which putrefies all the Seeds of Integrity that are in our Natures On the contrary we have an unsatiable longing after and desire of those things of which 't is fitting we should be devested Hence it is that both the Sea and Land are full of Wealthy and Vain-glorious and Voluptuous Men. Whereas the Number of Wise and Righteous and Good
ASCETICKS OR The Heroick Piety Virtue OF THE Ancient Christian ANCHORETS AND COENOBITES PART I. Exemplary Asceticks LONDON Printed for the Authour 1696. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IT hath been a usual subtile and wicked Policy of the Devil and Evil Men first to render Names Odious and then by affixing them to Persons and Things thereby to render them so too with the vulgar whom by that means they impose upon and make their Tools By such means have not only the Christians of Old but also some of the chief Principles of Christianity been much injured and abused And few Parties there are who have not one time or other smarted by it That the well-meaning Reader therefore may not be so abused and imposed upon in his Judgment of the things here put together for the Benefit of all who can receive them by the Odious Names of Monkery and Popery it is to be observed that though POPERY taken properly for the Abuses and Corruptions of the Bishops and Church of Rome may deserve all the Odium cast upon it yet may most vile and wicked Abuses be committed by Pretence and Imputation of that Odious Name And in some things it is hard to say Whether the People have been more abused by Popery it self or by the Odium and Imputation of the Name And not only the People but the Gospel it self I may add and the Reformation too For while Christian Truths have been mis-represented and exposed to Contempt and Odium under the Name of Popery the Cause on the side of Popery is supported strengthened and made so much the more defensible by the intermixture of so much Truth and the Cause on the side of the Reformation so much the more weakened and disparaged by the intermixture of so much indefensible Error Whereas if they were only things inexcusable in them which were questioned as Charity doth require they must have sunk in the Cause long before this but an indiscreet Affectation of Reformation and uncharitable seeking Occasions have made a Reformation now as needful on the one side as the other Instances of this might be shewed in divers particulars but I need not step out of my way for that the other Name mentioned may serve for that purpose here MONKERY is not only rendered Odious as of it self but also as a part of Popery And indeed if we imagin all that is believed or practised by the Church of Rome to be Popery it may be so but then we shall leave little of true Christianity for the Reformation But if what is true Christianity be not Popery than neither is Monkery as some are pleased to call the Monastick Life And that it is not only true Christianity but the Practice of it in the greatest Perfection that Mortals are capable of I am apt to think will be very plain to any who will consider what here follows with an unprejudiced and competent Judgment And therefore I shall not need to say more here but only desire the Reader to suspend his Judgment till he hath perused and considered it well THE Beginning and Progress OF Contemplative Living AND Religious Societies THAT there are in the very Nature of Man some Principles of Inclination to Religion which if not corrupted by Evil Education or other unhappy Occurrences do insensibly grow and increase in Strength and Vigour and in due time exert themselves in Action though for some time they lie dormant as it were and do not appear even as some others which in all Animals are manifestly most Natural and yet appear not till after some growth toward Maturity hath been observed believed and asserted by Men of greatest Reputation for Learning and Wisdom both in Ancient times and to this Day These Principles have among Man-kind been in many much corrupted and stifled by Evil Education or Conversation with Evil Persons and by the Impressions Energy and Instigations of Evil Spirits but in others again much cherished and improved not only by Good Education and Conversation and by Consideration of the Works of Nature but moreover and especially by the kind Influences of the Divine Majesty and of his Good Ministring Spirits From hence in all Ages and in all Parts of the World have been produced and raised up Philosophers and Wise and Holy Men and Women who have been as Lights and Examples to the rest of several sorts according to their different Ways of Living some living a Life of Civil Conversation with others but strictly conscientious walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless as is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth Luk. 6. or to speak more comprehensively living in all Good Conscience before God as St. Paul saith of himself Act. 23.1 or according to the Character of Job Perfect and Vpright fearing God and eschewing Evil Job 1.1 Others living a more abstracted Life of Retirement and Contemplation abstracted not only from Business in the World but also from ordinary Conversation with Men that they might without Distraction converse with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits and others again living a kind of mixt or middle Life between these two avoiding unnecessary Business and Incumberances and exercising Recollections and Abstraction as much as their Occasions would permit and even in and amidst their Business Of those Three Ways of Living that more strict and Contemplative Life is believed by divers Learned Men to have been begun by ENOS or in his time and not without reason For as the Principles before-mentioned were apt to produce such an Effect so there seems to be something singular noted concerning Religion or some Religious Institution or Practice in that Sacred Record Gen. 4. ult But of the more ancient Times not only before the Flood but also for some Ages after the Flood we know but very little But in the Times of which we have some more Knowledge besides PRIESTS and professed PHILOSOPHERS there have always been both single Persons and compleat or formed Societies of People who discerning the Vanity and Emptiness of Earthly things and Solidity and Perminence of Heavenly things withdrew themselves from those of the Earth as much as their Mortal State could bear and applyed themselves intirely to the Contemplation and Prosecution of those of a more excellent Nature living an Abstracted and Angelick Life in Mortal Flesh in Holy Conversation and Favour with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits And some did actually and expressly consecrate themselves by Vow unto the special Service of God Of which Sort were those among the Jews called NAZARITES because they did so separate themselves from among Men to attend upon God The Sacred History Numb 6. is a Record not of the Original but of the Divine Approbation of Nazarites which though that be very ancient yet were much more ancient and more ancient than any Man can tell And God's Ordering of the Rites and Circumstances of their Consecration and Observations for that People is a manifest Indication of his Divine Approbation
weight it is which he hath said against them I intended to have spared his Name and to have passed it over with a short Note that it needed not nor deserved an Answer But considering that that is only the way of the World that we ought to sacrifice all Esteem of Men whether our selves or others to the Truth and to the Service of God and of Men too for their Admonition and that the Holy Scriptures spare not to record the Failings of Holy Men I resolved to do the like To be plain therefore that Excellent Person Mr. Joseph Meed having concluded the Apostacy of the latter times fore-told 1 Tim. 4.1 to be the Worship of Saints introduced into the Christian Church through the Hypocrisie of Lyars forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats to make good his Interpretation of that first part of the Prediction and make it compleat concludes the latter part to be understood of Monks that they were the chief Advancers of Saints Worship And to prove this he produceth the Testimony of Chemnitius a known Adversary to them who lived about 1200 Years after the time he speaks of and Eunapius a known Enemy not only to them but to all Christians whom he calls wretched Catiffe and damned Dog And why so Why because he blasphemes the Saints and Servants of Christ who loved not their Lives unto Death the Dust of whose Feet he was not worthy to lick up Competent Witnesses indeed and a special Testimony this but he adds Yet may we make a shift to gather hence c. But without Shifts we may see plainly to what Shifts his unadvised and preposterous Zeal had reduced him thus to expose the Weakness of the Cause he had undertaken taken when all his Learning Diligence and Inquiry and all Antiquity could afford him no better Evidence and to expose himself to the same Censure he had deservedly given to his own Witness Had they been Monks and only Monks who had been guilty of this had it been fair to cast an Aspersion upon all and Was it fair within a dozen Lines after to print Bishops and Monks in different Characters while both were under the same Circumstances At this rate What Calumnies might not be raised against the People of God in all Ages the Israelites the Christians the very Apostles themselves and such as pretend most of all to Reformation The Devil hath always sowed his Tares and most industriously amongst the best But upon this Evidence there is no question but the Accused will be acquitted by all impartial Judges As to what St. Austin saith of some Hypocrites rambling about in the Habit of Monks it is very disingeniously not to say dishonestly alledged concerning Monks in general But St Austin's Mind concerning the Monks of his time is so plain in what follows that I need say no more of it in this place And for further answer to this Abuse of his Testimony they who please may peruse it in his own Words upon Ps 99. 132. and Ep. 137. And the same may be said concerning Gregory of Towers v. Cassian Coll. 18. c. 16. He had unhappily concluded before that those Words of St. Paul are a Description of Monkery and when that Conceit was once fixed in his Mind it presently set all his Parts and all his Learning to work to prove it to others and gave easie admittance to all that might seem to favour it Hence it was that he imagins Abstaining from Meats may comprehend Renouncing of Possessions Nor could he otherwise have thought that the Monks did any more * It was Conc. Chalced. did that c. 15. to them not to all forbid Marriage than St. Paul himself did nay than our Saviour himself did Nor have set himself Disc 28. to derogate from that Obedience of the Recabites to the Institutions of their Progenitor which God himself had so highly approved and testified his Approbation of by so gracious a Promise Nor have imagined that the Law of Nazarism was ever imposed upon any much less that it is one of the things expressly named which the Apostles decreed at the Council of Jerusalem should not be imposed upon the Gentiles who believed in Christ or that Act. 21.25 did prove any Prohibition of that whereby the Apostles decreed the Gentiles should observe no such thing There is a great difference between a Prohibition of Impositions and a Prohibition of a free and voluntary Act. But how doth Prejudice blind Mens Minds That a Man of his Parts of his Learning of his Judgment Candor and Generosity in asserting the Truth in other matters should be so affected with a meer Imagination of his own as to maintain that to do such an Indignity to so glorious a part of the Christian Church which St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the most Choice and Wisest part of the Church and St. Hierom the Flower of the Church which produced so many Glorious Saints of so great Virtue and adorned with such various and illustrious Graces produced so many Bishops innumerable and amongst them the most illustrious Lights of the Church both for Virtue and Learning was so much respected not only by the People but by the best of the Christian Emperours and approved and favoured by the most Eminent Bishops of the Church and hath so many Testimonies of their Excellence by Persons of the greatest Credit and Reputation and deserved so well in many respects that such a Man for the sake of a Phansie of his own should set up a Chemnitius a prejudiced Adversary to them and Eunapius a Pagan Adversary to the Christians against such a Cloud of Witnesses and so wrest strain the Holy Scriptures and thereby so expose himself to just Censure is one of the most remarkable Instances of the Mischief of Prejudice that I can think of an Edifying instance to make all Men good Men learned Men and wise Men jealous of themselves and cautious that they do not impose upon themselves not to do God Service for he needs no such Shifts nor is at any time pleased with them OF THE ESSEANS OUT OF JOSEPHUS THERE are Three Sects of Philosophers amongst the Jews of long Gontinuance and Antiquity One is that of the Pharisees another of the Sadduces and the third of the Esseans which is the most Famous of the Three The Esseans are Jews born but live in the greatest Vnion together imaginable They consider all Pleasures as Vices that are to be avoided and esteem Continence and Victory over Passions as the greatest Virtues They reject Marriage and account other Mens Children put to them to be taught whilst young as their own Kinsmen whom they diligently instruct in their Manners and Opinions not for that they condemn Marriage and Propagation of Mankind but to avoid Womens Incontinence for they think that none of them keep themselves true to one Man Also they contemn Riches and all things with them are Common and no Man amongst them is Richer than other
And they have a Law amongst themselves that whosoever will embrace their Sect he must make his Goods Common for so neither any amongst them seems abject for Poverty nor any great for Riches but they have as it were all equal Patrimonies like Brethren This is a Custom worthy Admiration and such as is not to be found amongst any other either Greeks or Barbarians that make account of Vertue which they have practised from all Antiquity They account it a Shame to anoint the Body with Oyl and if any Man though against his Will be anointed therewith they use all diligence to wipe it away And they account themselves fine enough if their Cloaths be white They have amongst them Stewards to oversee all things for their Common Benefit who are chosen from amongst themselves by a Common Consult Their Revenue is distributed according to the Need that every one hath They have not one certain City but are dispersed in many Cities and if any of their Sect though a Stranger come to them from another Place they give him any thing they have as if he were their ancient Acquaintance In like manner they go boldly to those whom they never in their Lives saw before as though they were familiarly acquainted with them And therefore when they take a Journey they only arm themselves against Thieves and carry nothing with them else In every City there is one appointed whose Office is to entertain Strangers to receive and lodge those of their Sect that come thither and to see that they neither want Cloaths nor any thing else necessary for them All Children under Government brought up by them go apparelled alike and they never change their Apparel nor Shoes except they have worn out their first Apparel Amongst themselves they neither Buy nor Sell but every Man that hath any thing which another wanteth giveth him it and taketh that of him which himself needeth yea every one of them may take any thing he hath need of from whom he pleaseth without any Change Above all towards God they are very Religious They attribute to Him the Government and Disposition of all things They say that the Souls of Men are immortal and all the uttermost of their Endeavour and Delight is to maintain Justice and Equity They send their Offerings unto the Temple yet Sacrifice they not with other Men by reason they use more sacred and different Ceremonies for which they are secluded out of the Common Temple and Sacrifice apart Otherwise they are Men of most composed Behaviour Before the Sun rise they speak of nothing but Holy things and then they make certain Vows and Prayers after the Custom of their Countrey as it were praying that God would please to make it rise upon the Earth After this every one is dismissed to work or practice the Art he knoweth And when every one hath diligently laboured till Eleven a Clock they all meet together again and being covered with Linnen Cloaths they wash their Bodies with cold Water and having thus purged themselves they go to their Cells into which no Man that is not of their Sect is admitted And then they come to the Refectory as into a Holy Temple where all sitting down with Silence there is set before every Man in order a Loaf of Bread and a little Mess of Pottage all of one sort Before they eat a Priest giveth Thanks and no Man may eat any Meat till his Prayer be made to God Likewise when Dinner is ended they pray again for both before and after they give Thanks to God the Giver of all And then putting off the Apparel as Sacred they apply themselves to their Work till Evening At Supper they do as before causing their Guests to sup with them if by fortune any come Their House is never troubled with Cries or Tumults for every one is appointed to speak in his turn so that their Silence produceth respect in Strangers The Cause of this Moderation is their continual Sobriety and that every one is limited how much to eat or drink And although that in all other Matters they are ruled by their Superiour yet in these two to wit Compassionating and Helping they may do as they think good for every one may when he pleases help those whom he thinketh deserve Help and when he pleaseth give Meat to them that are in Need. Yet may they not give any thing to their Kindred without the Leave of their Superiour They take great care to suppress their Anger they keep their Promise and maintain Peace and People account every Word they speak of as much force as if they had bound it with an Oath And they shun Oaths worse than Perjury for they esteem him a Lyar who is not to be believed without he call God to witness They study diligently Ancient Writers chiefly gathering out of their Writings what is most convenient for the Soul and the Body Out of them they learn Remedies for Diseases and the Virtues of Herbs Stones and Metals Those who are desirous to be of their Order do not strait-way converse with them but for a Year before live out of the College and have the same Diet a little Hatchet and such a Girdle as is before spoken of and a white Garment But at the Years end if they perceive such a Person to be continent they give him a Diet more agreeing with their own and he is permitted to wash himself in cold Water to the end to purifie himself yet he is not admitted in common amongst them till for Two Years more they have observed his Life and Manners And at last when he is thought worthy he is admitted to their common Company But before he is received to the common Table first he is to protest solemnly to honour and serve God with all his Heart to observe Justice and Fidelity towards all Men never willing to hurt any Man nor injure any for another Man's Command but always to hate the Wicked and assist the Good to keep his Faith to all but especially to his Superiours because they hold their Power from God To which they add that if he be put in Authority over others he never will abuse it to the Prejudice of those who are under him and neither exceed the rest in Apparel nor any other ambitious Pomp that he will always love the Truth and severely reprove Lyars and that he will keep his Hands and Soul pure from all Theft and unjust Gain and that he will not conceal any Mysteries or Secrets of their Religion from his Companions nor reveal them to any Strangers although he should be threaten'd thereto by Death Adding moreover that he will never deliver any Doctrin save that which he hath received and diligently preserve the Books as well as the Names of those from whom they received it These Protestations they oblige those to take solemnly who enter into their Order to the end to fortifie them against all Vices Those of the Society who
their Faces turn'd towards the Altar After whom the others according to their Orders in a very decent manner do also sing the rest hearing with deep Silence except when the last Lines or the short after-Hymns are to be sung for then they all sing out both Men and Women When every Precentor has finish'd his Hymn the Juniors bring in the Table as was just above-mentioned upon which they have all their Holy Loaf of Bread leavened with Salt and Hyssop mingled together They have Hyssop in the Hall-Loaf out of Reverence to their Holy Table in the Church-Porch for on this Table they have Loaves and Salt without Sauces the Loaves unleaven'd and the Salt unmix'd For 't was fitting that the simplest and purest things should be allotted to the Principal part of the Sacra as the Reward of the Ministration and that others should imitate the same and abstain from those Loaves that their betters may have them as their Prerogative After Supper they keep a Holy Vigil all Night They keep the Vigil thus They all rise together and in the middle of the Hall make two Choirs one of Men and the other of Women each choosing their Eminentest person for Musick for a Precentor and then they sing some Hymns made in the Praise of God with variety of Measures and Stanza's sometimes singing all together and sometimes alternately with peculiar Gestures and dancing about as those who are struck with a Divine Fury Sometimes they sing Processional sometimes Stational Hymns altering their Postures with respect to the Altar as they see occasion Then when each of them has been separately and by themselves entertain'd just as though they had been drinking some Divine Wine they both mingle together and make one Choir in imitation of the Choir at the Red-Sea upon the account of the Miracles wrought there which exceeded the Thought and Hope of the Israelites and made them all in one Company exult as though they were beside themselves and sing Eucharistical Hymns to God their Deliverer the Prophet Moses being the Mens Precentor and Miram the Prophetess Precentress to the Women The Choir of the Therapeuts and Therapeutesses is just like it singing with different Notes for the treeble Voice of the Women mingled with the Base of the Men makes a lovely and truly Musical Harmony Their Thoughts are truly fine their Words are fine and their Choiristers are comely in short the Thoughts the Expressions and Choiristers are all pious and devout After they have continu'd their Holy Transport till the Morning they don't feel their Heads disorder'd or their Eyes heavy but they are more wakeful than they came and as soon as they see the Sun rise with their Eyes and their whole Body towards the East and their Hands lifted up towards Heaven they pray for Lightsomness of Mind and Truth and Rational Quick-sightedness After these Prayers every one of them retreat to their own Oratories to cultivate and traffick in their usual Philosophy Since therefore the Therapeuts have embrac'd the Theory of Nature and liv'd together with one Soul and were Citizens both of Heaven and Earth and were truly commended and conformed to the Father and Maker of all things by Vertue which procur'd them that Friendship which is the truest Honour do thou by applying thy Mind to a Prosecution of Vertue which is better than all Prosperity reach the Top and Perfection of Felicity The Judgment and Observations of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea in his Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 16. and other Ancient Writers concerning Philo 's Book of the Therapeuts and that they were Christians MARK the Evangelist going into Egypt is reported to have been the first Publisher there of the Gospel he had written and to have settled Churches in the very City of Alexandria And furthermore that so great a Multitude both of Men and Women who there embraced the Faith of Christ professed from the very beginning so severe and so Philosophical a Course of Live that Philo vouchsafed in his Writings to relate their Converse their Assemblies their Eating and Drinking together and their whole manner of Living It is reported that this Philo in the times of Claudius came to be familiarly acquainted with Peter at Rome who then Preached the Word of God there neither is this unlikely For that Work of his of which we speak being by him elaborated a long time after does manifestly contain all the Ecclesiastical Rules which are to this present observed among us And seeing he describes evidently the Lives of the Ascetae amongst us he does make it sufficiently perspicuous that he did not only see but also very much approve of and admire the Apostolical Men of his time who being as it is probable originally Jews upon that account did then observe in a great measure the Judaical Rites and Customs First of all therefore in that Book which he intituled Of Contemplative Life or Of Suppliants having professed that he would insert nothing disagreeable to Truth or of his own Head into that Account which he was about to give he says That the Men were called Therapeutae and the Women that were conversant among them Therapeutriae And he adjoyns the reason of that Appellation either because like Physicians they healed the Minds of those that resorted to them curing them of their vitious Affections or because they worshipped the Deity with a pure and sincere Service and Adoration Further whether Philo himself gave them this Name devising an Appellation agreeable to the Manners and Dispositions of Men or whether they were really so called from the beginning the Name of Christians not being every where spread and diffused it is not necessary positively to affirm or contend about it But he attests that in the first place they part with their Goods saying That as soon as they betake themselves to this course of Philosophizing they put over their Wealth and Possessions to their Relations Then casting away all Care of Wordly matters they leave the Cities and make their Abode in Gardens and solitary Places well knowing the Conversing with Men of a different and disagreeing Perswasion to be unprofitable and hurtful Which thing the Christians of that time seem to me to have instituted out of a generous and most fervent Ardour of Faith endeavouring to emulate the Prophetical severe Course of Life Therefore in the Acts of the Apostles which contain nothing but the perfect Truth it is shewed That all the Disciples of the Apostles selling their Possessions and Goods divided the Price among the Brethren according as every one had need that so there might not be any indigent Person amongst them For as the Word says As many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had Need. After Philo has attested the very same things with these of the Therapeutae he adds thus
Speech those things which in Fact it hath banished from its Course of Life and by degrees contracting the Necessities of Nature and compelling the Body to be content with mean things it doth with Temperance overcome Prodigality Injustice with Justice and corrects Lying with Truth and in right order keeps Moderation in all things and orders its Method of Life in keeping Concord and Communion with Neighbours It provides for Friends and Strangers communicates its Good to those who want confers upon every one what are commodious for them not being troublesome to those who rejoyce but administring Comfort to those who are sad But in all studiously reaching after the True Good discoursing with sound Speeches and wise Thoughts void of Elegance and Rudeness as with certain Medicines doth cure its Auditors with Decency and Respect without Contention Scorn or Anger For since it is furnished with reason it refuseth every unreasonable Motion and compleatly rules the Affections both of the Body and the Mind This most Excellent Philosophy was begun as some say by Elias the Prophet and John the Baptist but PHILO the Pythagorean writes That the most Excellent of his Nation the Hebrews being assembled from all Parts in a certain place at the Lake Maria did Philosophize in a little Hill thereunto adjacent but describes their Habitation Living and Conversation such as we also now see amongst the Monks now living in Egypt For he writes that they who began to Philosophize forsook their Estates and renounced both Things and Persons belonging to them and lived without the Walls in solitary Fields and Orchards then that their Houses were Sacred which they called Monasteries that they did devoutly worship God with Psalms and Hymns nor did touch any Food till Sun-set that some among them abstained for three days together or more and lay certain days upon the Ground but Wine and Things that have Blood they never at all used but their Meat was Bread and Salt and Hyssop and their Drink Water That ancient Women and Virgins dwelt among them and for the Love of Philosophy or Wisdom of their own choice abstained from Marriage And Philo writing to this purpose seems to intend the Jews who in his time imbracing Christianity lived a little too much after the Jewish Manner and observed the Rites of their Nation For among no others is that kind of Life to be found from whence I conjecture that this Philosophy hath from that time flourished in Egypt But others think that the Persecutions of those times gave Occasion to this Religion For because those who escaped by Flight lived in Mountains and Desarts and Woods they contracted a Habit of this kind of Living This of St. HIEROM being omitted in its proper place pag. 46. it was thought fit to insert it here MARK the Disciple and Interpreter of Peter intreated by the Brethren at Rome wrote a short Gospel according to what he had heard Peter relate Which when Peter had read he approved it and by his Authority gave it to the Church to be read as writeth Clemens in sexto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libro and Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Of this Mark doth Peter also make mention under the Name of Babylon figuratively signifying Rome The Church which is in Babylon salutes you and so doth Mark my Son Wherefore taking the Gospel which he had composed he went to Egypt and first Preaching Christ at Alexandria he founded the Church there with such Doctrin and Continence of Life that it enforced all Followers of Christ to their Example At length Philo the most Eloquent of the Jews seeing that first Church at Alexandria yet Judaizing wrote a Book concerning their Manner of Living as in Praise of his own Nation And as Luke relates that the Believers at Hierusalem had all things Common so doth also he what he did see done at Alexandria under Mark commit to Memory He Died in the Eighth Year of Nero and was Buried at Alexandria Anianus succeeding him Of the Ancient MONKS of Egypt And their Original A Relation of Piammon an Ancient Egyptian Abbot and a Presbyter or Priest of great Grace and Virtue even to the doing of Miracles Cassian Coll. 18. cap. 4. THERE are in Egypt Three sorts of Monks whereof Two are excellent but the Third tepid and sloathful and by all means to be avoided The first is of the Coenobites who living together in a Religious Society are governed by the Judgment and Order of One Elder or Superior of which sort a very great number of Monks are resident throughout all Egypt The second is of the Anchoretes or Hermites who being first instructed in the Monasteries and become already perfect in their Conversation have chosen the Secrets of the Desart of whose Perfection we also wish to be Partakers The third the reprehensible one of the Sarabaits Of all which we shall discourse severally more fully in order The Discipline of the Coenobites took its beginning from the time of the Preaching of the Apostles For such was that whole Multitude of Believers at Jerusalem which in the Acts of the Apostles is thus describ'd The Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed were his own but they had all things Common Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were Possessors of Land or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Feet of the Apostles and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had need Such I say was then the whole Church as it is now difficult to find a very few in the Monasteries But when after the Apostles decease the Multitude of the Believers began to grow Tepid and that most of all which came into the Faith of Christ of Foreigners and divers Nations of whom the Apostles according to their Rudiments of Faith and inveterate Custom of Gentisism did require no more but that they should abstain from Fornication and from things strangled and from Blood and that Liberty which was indulged to the Gentiles by reason of the Infirmity of their first Belief began by degrees to contaminate the Perfection even of that Church which was settled at Jerusalem and the Number daily increasing either of Natives or of Foreigners the Fervour of that first Faith began to cool not only those who came flowing in to the Faith of Christ but even they who were the Principal of the Church were relaxed from that Strictness For some thinking that which they saw conceded to the Gentiles by reason of their Infirmity to be lawful also for themselves believed they should suffer no Detriment if they did with their Goods and Estates retaining them in Propriety to themselves follow the Faith and Confession of Christ But others in whom the Apostolick Fervour did still abide mindful of that ancient Perfection departing from their Cities and from the
Company of those who believed the Negligence of a more remiss Life to be Lawful for themselves or for the Church of God began to reside in places without the Cities and more secret or retir'd and to exercise privately and apart the things which they remembred to be instituted by the Apostles generally throughout the whole Body of the Church And so did that Discipline which we have mentioned of the Disciples who sequestred themselves from the Contagion of the rest come to a Settlement Who in process of time by degrees being separate from the Crowds of Believers because they did abstain from Marriage and withdrew themselves from the Company of their Parents and the Conversation of the World were called Monachi or Monazontes for the Strictness of their single and solitary Life Whence it follow'd that from the Communion of their Company they were called Coenobitoe and their Cells and Habitations Coenobia This therefore alone was the most Ancient kind of Monks which was the prime not only in Time but also in Grace and Vertue and which continued inviolable for very many Years even to the Age of Father Paul or Antony the Footsteps whereof we even now see remaining in the strict Coenobia or Monasteries as now called Of this number of Perfect ones and as I may say fertile Root were produced after these also the Flowers and Fruits of the Holy Anchoretes or Hermites of which Profession we know those whom we a little before remembred viz. Holy Paul and Antony to have been the Principal or first Beginners Who betook themselves to the Secrets or Retirements of Solitude not as some through Pusillanimity or the Disease of Impatience but out of Design of more sublime Advancement and Divine Contemplation although the former of them is said to have gone into the Wilderness under pretence of Necessity while in the time of Persecution he avoids the Snares of his Relations Thus from that Discipline which we have mentioned proceeded another kind of Perfection the Followers of which are deservedly named Anachoretoe that is Retir'd because not content with this Victory whereby they have avoided the secret Snares of the Devil among Men designing to encounter the Devils in an open Combat and manifest Conflict they fear not to enter into the vast Recesses of the Wilderness in imitation of John the Baptist who remained in the Wilderness his whole Life and of Elias and Elisha and of those whom the Apostle makes mention of thus They wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented Of whom the World was not worthy wandering in Desarts and in Mountains and in Dens and in Caves of the Earth Heb. 11.37 38. And when the Christian Religion did flourish in these two Professions of Monks but this Order also began to decline there arose up after those that worst and unfaithful kind of Monks or rather that Evil Plantation reviving grew up which by Ananias and Sapphira sprouting out in the beginning of the Church was cut down by the Apostle Peter which among the Monks was judged detestable and execrable nor by any other more used so long as the Fear of that strict Sentence remained with them fixed in the Memory of the Faithful with which the Blessed Apostle not suffeirng the afore-said Leaders of that New Crime to be cured with any Penitence or any Satisfaction did cut off the pernicious Sprout with sudden Death But that Example whereby with Apostolical Severity it was punished in Ananias and Sapphira being through long Inconsiderateness and the oblitering nature of Time by degrees substracted from the Contemplation of some there arose that sort of the Sarabites who from thence that they did sequester themselves from the Congregation of the Coenobites and did separately provide for their own Occasions in the propriety of the Egyptian Language were named Sarabites proceeding out of the Number of those whom we mentioned before who choose rather to simulate the Evangelical Perfection than to embrace it in Truth and Reality being provok'd with an Emulation or by the Commendation of those who preferred the compleat Nudity of Christ before all the Riches of the World For these while either with a weak Mind they affect a Matter of the highest Virtue or are by Necessity compelled to come to this Profession while they are eager only to be reckoned under the Name of Monks without any Emulation of their Studies or Endeavours they do not at all seek after the Discipline of the Caenobites nor are they subject to the Will and Ordering of the Seniors or Superiors nor being instructed by their Traditions do they learn to overcome their own Wills or receive any Rule of Discretion by a regular Erudition but renouncing the World in outward Appearance that is to the sight of Men they either continue in their Houses under the Priviledge of this Name obliged to the same Occupations or buidling Cells for themselves and calling them Monasteries they abide there in their own Power and Liberty not at all submitting to the Evangelical Precepts viz. that they be imployed in no Solicitude for daily Food in no Distractions of Family Concerns which they only use without Infidel doubting who being set free from all the Goods of this World do so subject themselves to the Presidents of the Monasteries that they do not so much as own themselves to be Lords of themselves But they who declining as we said the Strictness of the Monastery reside two or three together in Cells not content to be govern'd by the Care and Government of the Abbot but principally procuring this for themselves that being set free from the Yoke of the Superiors they may have the Liberty of exercising their own Wills and of going out and gading where or doing what they please even more in their daily Works than those who live in the Monasteries are indeed consumed and wasted Day and Night but not with the same Faith and the same Purpose of Mind For this they do not that they may subject or commit the Fruit or Product of their Labour to the Judgment of the Steward but that they may acquire Money which they may lay up Between which what Difference there is I pray you observe Those not thinking any thing of the Morrow do offer to God the most grateful Fruits of their Labour But these extending their Infidel Solicitude not only to the Morrow but even to the Terms of many Years believe God either a Lyar or a Beggar who either cannot or will not afford them his promised Sufficiency of daily Food and Rayment Those with all earnestness desire that they may attain Nudity of all things and Poverty These that they may obtain an Affluence of all Goods They striving with one another labour to exceed in their daily Works the stated Rule for this purpose that what is redundant above the Holy Uses of the Monastery may be given to the Prisons or to the Hospitals or to the Poor at the Pleasure of
only to Prayer and Reading which indeed they do at all times when their Work is done They do every Day learn something out of the Scriptures Their Fast is alike all the Year except Lent in which only it is permitted them to live more strictly From Easter to Whitsontide their Suppers are changed into Dinners whereby both the Ecclesiastical Tradition is observed and they do not charge their Stomach with a doubled Portion of Food Such doth Philo an Imitator of the Platonick Stile such Josephus the Greek Livie in the second History of the Captivity of the Jews relate the ESSEANS to be St. Austin concerning the same UPON John 10.11 I am the Good Shepherd But there in Egypt how he is the Good Shepherd those who know do confess those who know not let them inquire how Great a Flock he hath there together how Great a Number of Holy Men and Women wholly contemning the World he there hath That Flock hath so increased that it hath expell'd Superstition even from thence all the Superstitions of Idols which were so powerful there hath it expell'd Serm. 50. de Verb. Dom. c. 10. St. Austin concerning the Anchorets and Coenobites and Holy Nuns of his time DEservedly hast thou O Catholick Church the most True Mother of Christians so many Hospitable People so many Officious so many Merciful so many Learned so many Chast so many Holy so many so Inflamed with the Love of God that in the greatest Continence and incredible Contempt of this World they are delighted with the Desart What I pray you is it that they see who cannot not love Man and yet can live and not see Man Truly that what-ever it is is more excellent than Humane things or any thing of Man in the Contemplation of which a Man can live without the Sight of Man This of Anchorets and then a little after of the Coenobites Who knows not that a Multitude of Christians of most exquisite Continence are daily more and more diffused throughout the whole World and especially in the East and in Egypt which you can by no means be ignorant of I 'll say nothing of those whom I mentioned a little before who being most retired wholly from all sight of Men are content with Bread alone which at certain times is brought to them and Water inhabit the most barren Desarts enjoying Communication with God to whom they adhere with pure Minds and are blessed with the Contemplation of his Beauty which cannot be perceived but by the Intellects of Saints I say I will say nothing of these for they seem to some to have forsaken Humane Affairs more than they ought who understand not how much their Minds do profit in Prayer and their Lives for Examples to others whose Bodies we are not permitted to see But I think it long and superfluous to discourse of this For this so great a height of Sanctity who doth not of his own accord think it to be admir'd and honoured who by our Speech can think so Only they are to be admonished who vainly boast themselves that the Temperance and Continence of the most Holy Christians of the Catholick Faith hath proceeded so far that it may seem to some that it should be restrained and recalled within Humane Bounds So far above Men are their Minds thought to have ascended by those who are displeased at it But if this exceeds our Ability to bear who will not admire and applaud those who having contemned and forsaken the Allurements of this World are congregated into a common most chast and most holy Life spend their Days together living in Prayers Lessons Conferences not puffed up with any Pride nor troublesome with any Obstinacy nor pining with any Envy but modest bashful quiet do offer up to God their Lives most agreeable among themselves and most firmly adhering to Him from whom they received this Power a most grateful Present None possesses any thing of his own None is burthensome to any one They work those things with their Hands with which their Body may be supplied and they not be hindered from God But the Work it self they deliver to those whom they call Deans because they have the Over-sight of Tens that none of them may be touch'd with any Care of their Body neither in Food or Rayment nor any thing else needful for daily Occasions or for any change of Health if it happen as is common But those Deans dispensing all things with great Care and making ready what-ever that Life doth by reason of the Imbecility of the Body require do yet deliver all over to one whom they call the Father But these Fathers are not only most holy in their Manners but most excellent in Divine Doctrin eminent in all things They direct without any Pride those whom they call Sons with great Authority of Command and with great Readiness of Obedience in them They meet all at the end of the Day every one out of their Cells while yet Fasting to hear that Father And they meet before each of the Fathers at least Three Thousand Men for many more live under one They hear with incredible Attention and deepest Silence signifying the Affections of their Mind as the Speech of him who speaks moveth them either with Sighing or with Weeping but Modest and without Noise Then they refresh their Bodies so much as is sufficient for Health and Salubrity each restraining his Appetite lest it be greedy even of those few and mean things which are provided In like manner they abstain not only from Flesh and Wine for sufficient allay of Lusts but also from those things which do so much the more excite and provoke the Appetite of the Stomach and of the Palate by how much they may seem to some more clean Under which pretence a filthy Desire of exquisite Dishes without Flesh is wont to be ridiculously and filthily defended Truly what-ever is redundant above necessary Provision for there is much redundant by the Work of their Hands and the Strictness of their Meals it is with no less Care distributed to the Poor than with what it was earned by them who distribute it For they do by no means endeavour that these things should abound with them but by all means are diligent that what doth abound may not remain with them insomuch that they send even Ships laden to those places where indigent People dwell There 's no need to say more of a thing so well known This is also the Life of the WOMEN who serve God with Carefulness and Chastity who are separated and removed from Men as far as is decent joyned to them only in pious Charity and Imitation of Virtue to whom Young Men have no access at all nor the Ancient neither although most Grave and Approved further than to the threshold for the supplying them with the Necessaries which they need They do both exercise and sustain the Body by making Cloth and deliver the Garments themselves to the Brethren
confide in his own Judgment and Determination or Doctrin For since all Arts and Disciplines found out by humane Ingenie and which are of no more benefit than for the Commodities of this temporal Life though they may be handled with the Hand and seen with the Eyes yet can they not rightly be comprehended by any one without the Teaching of an Instructor How improper is it to believe that this only should not need a Teacher which is invisible and occult and which is not seen-through but with a most pure Heart wherein an Error produceth not a temporal Damage nor what is easily repaired but perdition of Soul and perpetual Death For it hath a Conflict Day and Night not against visible but invisible Enemies and not against one or two but against innumerable troops a Spiritual Combat the Case of which is so much the more pernicious to all by how much both the Enemy is more mischievous and the Encounter more secret And therefore is the Trace of the Seniors always to be followed with the utmost Diligence and to them are all things which arise in our Hearts taking away the Veil of Bashfulness to be related cap. 11. v. sup p. 79. Abbot Cheremon concerning the Wonderful things which the Lord doth in a special manner operate in his Saints Cass Coll. 12. cap. 12. GREAT indeed and wonderful are the things nor throughly known to any Man except only to those who have experience of them which the Lord with ineffable Liberality gives to his Faithful ones even in this Vessel of Corruption Which the Prophet viewing in Purity of Mind as well in his own Person as in the Person of those who come into this State and Affection cryed out Great are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth very well Otherwise could not the Prophet be thought to have said any rare or great matter if he be thought to have pronounced this either with other affection of Heart or concerning other Works of God For there is no Man who doth not acknowledge the Works of God to be wonderful even from the very Vastness of the Creation But of those things which by his daily Operation he doth produce in his Saints and with a special Bounty doth pour out unto them no other can be sensible but the Soul of them who enjoy it which in the secret of its Conscience is so the only Judge of his Favours that it not only cannot with any Speech relate them but not so much as in Sense and Thought comprehend them when descending from that inflamed Fervour it sinks down to material and terrene Prospects For Who would not admire the Works of God in himself when he sees the insatiable Greediness of the Stomach and the costly and pernicious Luxury of the Palate so restrained in Him that he seldom and unwillingly takes scarce so much as a little and that very mean Food Who would not be amazed at the Works of God when he feels that fire of Lust which he before believed to be natural and in a manner inextinguishable to become so cool'd that he doth not feel himself incited so much as with a simple motion of his Body How could any but revere the Power of the Lord when he should see Men before fierce and desperate who were provoked even by officious or well-meant Services to the greatest Fury of Anger to have come to so great Lenity and Gentleness that now they not only are not moved with any Injuries but even when any are done them do with great magnanimity rejoyce Who would not plainly admire the Works of God and with his whole Heart cry out I have known that great is the Lord when he seeth himself or another of Greedy become Liberal of Prodigal Frugal of Proud Humble of Nice and Curious Carleless and Homely and even choosingly enjoying Want and Scarcity of temporal things These indeed are the wonderful Works of God which the Souls of the Prophets and such experienced Persons do know in a peculiar manner being amazed with the Intuition of so wonderful a Contemplation These are the Prodigies which the Lord hath plac'd upon Earth which the same Prophet considering calls all People to the admiration of them Come and see the Works of God the Prodigies which the Lord hath placed upon the Earth c. For what can be a greater Prodigy then in a very little moment for Men of greedy Publicans to become Apostles of fierce Persecutors most patient Preachers of the Gospel so as to propagate that Faith which they did persecute even with the Effusion of their Blood These are the Works of God which the Son declares that he with the Father daily doth work c. Concerning this saving Work of God the Prophet prays to the Lord saying Confirm O God this which thou hast wrought in us And to pass by abscondite Dispensations of God which the Mind of all the Saints doth every moment perceive peculiarly exercised within themselves that Coelestial Infusion of Spiritual Rejoycings in which a dejected Mind is raised with the Alacrity of an unexpected Joy and those unknown Excesses of Heart and as ineffable as unheard-of Solaces of Joys with which sometimes drooping in a listless Stupidity we are raised as out of a deep Sleep to most fervent Prayer this I say is the Joy of which the blessed Apostle speaks Which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath come into the Heart of Man that is of him who is still a Man stupified with Earthly Vices and sticks in Humane Affections and perceives nothing of those Gifts of God At last the same Apostle adds as well concerning himself as those like him who have departed from Humane Conversation But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit v. Cyp. Ep. 2. THese things I thought fit to collect cut of much of this kind to give a Tast of the Manners and Spirit of these Holy People and lest those who are little acquainted with these things should imagin that they were the meer Phansies of Melancholy Monks I will here add a Tast of the Sentiments of some others and instead of many of two Eminent Bishops Men of greatest Reputation both for Learning and Virtue St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Austin Bishop of Hippo But first to begin with St. Gregory Nazianzen it will not be amiss to add here to those before his Character of the Holy Monks of his time St. Gregory Nazianzen concerning the Lives and Exercises of MONKS in his time Orat. 9. to Julian the Comptroller of the Customs upon the Discharge of the Monks MY Speech presents to you the Poor the whole Choir of Priests the Choir of Philosophers Monks who are tied down by no Band who possess only their Bodies nor them wholly have nothing for Caesar but all for God Hymns Prayers Watchings Tears a Possession not to be seized on viz. to be dead to the World alive to Christ to have killed the Flesh to have drawn the Soul from the