perfect and we know not what those meant who had the care of this Edition in putting in the Latin Title Opus integrum unless these words signifie only that there have been inserted in divers places additions which the Author had made 1. For to conceive well the change which happened by little and little in the Christian Church we must begin at the Original and consider the State in which it was for the first six Ages Hegesippus assures us that during the Life of the Apostles Hereticks scarcely durst appear but that as soon as these Holy men were dead a great number of them were seen openly to oppose the truth In that time divers Philosophers attacked the Christian Religion with so much the more boldness that the Christians were destitute of Persons who could refute the Pagan Religion and defend Christianity with sufficient eloquence This is what Lactantius testifies in these words Si qui sorte literatorum ad eam contulerunt defensioni ejus veritatis non suffecerunt And a little lower after having named Minucius Faelix Tertullian and Cyprian quia defuerunt apud nostros idonei peritique Doctores qui vehementer qui acriter errores publicos redarguerent qui causam omnem veritatis ornate copioseque desenderent provocavit quosdam hac ipsa penuria ut auderent scribere contra ignotam sibi veritatem This scarcity of able men made many Hereticks to slip in amongst the Christians and easily seduced the weak and ignorant who were in a very great number But as soon as there were Christian Emperours the corruption was much greater pleasures began to be introduced into the Christian Church and amongst Ecclesiasticks there appear'd Enmities and Divisions And because Bishops were rich and considerable they made use of all manner of means to attain Bishopricks and when they came to it they assumâ—d a Tyrannical Authority These disorders always encreased until they came to a great head as Vsher shews is too evident by many passages of famous Authors who have left us frightful Characters of the corruption of their Ages It encreased particularly in the time of Boniface III. who came to the Chair in Dcvi and who obtained of the Emperor Phocas the title of Ecumenick Bishop and Chief of the Church The Historians of that time describe this Phocas as the wickedest man in his Age and Cedrenus saith that a holy Monk having asked of God several times why he had made Phocas Emperour a voice from Heaven at last answered him Because I have found none worse This History true or false marks the horrour People had for the memory of Phocas Vsher believes that it was then that Antichrist came into the World and that he was during some Ages but in his Childhood Boniface according to him contributed not a little to the establishing and extending his Empire Yet there were Assemblies held and couragious Persons found that opposed the progresses of certain Tenets who have much contributed to the Grandeur of the Ecclesiasticks in general and Popes in particular amongst which our Author seeks for Antichrist as most part of the Protestants do A Council composed of cccxxxviii Bishops condemned in the year Dccliv at Constantinople the worship of Images and gave this reason for their proceeding that there is but one Image instituted by Jesus Christ to wit the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist which represent his Body and Blood Although the second Council of Nice opposed it and re-established the worship of Images in Dcclxxxvii These Canons were rejected in the West by the Churches of great Britain as our Archbishop shews by divers English Authors The Churches of Germany and France did the like in Dccxciv in the Council of Francfort the History of which may be seen as well as that oâ— Nice in a Dissertation of Mr. Alix's intituled Dissertatio de Conciliorum quorumvis definitionibus expendendis at Paris 1680 in 8 vo Charlemagne writ himself against Images and sent what he writ to Pope Adrian who had had his Legates at the Council of Nice and who had approved thereof But it is not the custom of Popes to learn Religion from any one Adrian had no respect to the remonstrances of Charlemagne whom he endeavoured even to refute the Images were adored at Rome as much then as before and his Successors did as much as he 'T was this that obliged Lewis the meek to convocate in DCCCXXV an Assembly of learned men at Paris who examined the question of Images and condemned their worship They even collected a great many passages out of the Ancients who disapproved them and sent them to Pope Eugenius II. by Ieremy Bishop oâ— Sens and Ionas Bishop of Orleance with order to treat mildly of this Affair fearing that in resisting too much they should engage him to an obstinacy whence he would not recede In DCCCXXXIII The Sons of Lewis the meek having conspired against him the rumour run in France that Gregory the fourth was onward in his way to come thither to excommunicate Lewis and those of his party but the Bishops who were engaged in the Interests of this Prince declared that they would submit in no wise to his will and that if he came to excommunicate them he would return himself excommunicated Vsher besides relates divers other examples by which it appears that the Liberty of the Churches of France and Germany was not yet quite extinguished even at the end of the tenth Age seeing it was thought strange that a Cardinal sent from Rome blessed a Chappel in the Diocess of Tours without the permission of the Bishop of that City There are also remarkable words of Arnulph Bishop of Orleance in a Council of Rheims held in DCCCCXCII where he saith speaking of the Pope If he is destitute of Charity and pufft up only with his Knowledge he is the Antichrist who is seated in the Temple of God and who shews himself as if he was a God But if he has neither Charity nor Wisdom he is in the Temple of God as a Statue or as an Idol from whom an answer can be no more expected than from a Marble Si caritate destituitur solaque scientiâ inslatur extollitur Antichristus est in Templo Dei sedens se ostendens tanquam sit Deus Si autem caritate fundatur nec scientia erigitur in Templo Dei tanquam Statua tanquam Idolum est à quo responsa petere marmora consulere est If this principle of Arnulph is true it 's requisite the Defendors of Popes discover by what wonder they are all full of Charity and Learning altho' they appear in our eyes either Ignorant or Proud and oftentimes both together Vsher then sheweth how that the Tenet of Transubstantiation was much resisted which began to be introduced in the ninth Age. He rangeth among the Defenders of the spiritual presence Rabanus Maurus Bertram Iohn Scot Erigene and several others upon which we may consult Mr. Arnauld and Claude in their dispute
and Phoebus Gallimatius says he is incomprehensible and dark on every side Phoebus is less obscure and seems to signifie something fine Doth it belong to Phoebus to call the Long Robes of Women Hyperbole's of Cloth The Author relates the unimitable Models of Gallimatius and the Abbot of St. Cyran furnished him with the chief of ' em The Adorers of Aristotle have invented a most honourable reason to excuse his obscurity They said that the Ambition of Alexander could not endure that all the World should know as much as he did and that these Mysterious ways produc'd more veneration to the sublimity of the Matter But why should any one Write when he has no mind to be understood He thinks that this Reflection is not well displayed how fine soever it appears Gravity is a Mystery of the Body invented to hide the faults of the Mind These Terms a Mystery of the Body are not altogether intelligible Obscure Thoughts resemble those Pits whose depth surprizeth the Sight or such Persons as have always their Masks on their Faces so that they cannot be known Is not this to lead the Reader into by-ways where perpetual Night Reigneth or at least a very dull day There are besides so great a number of fine things mixt together in this Work that it appears to be made only for the Imagination and to please the Ears that one is dazled with the variety of Objects It must be granted that Father Bouhours had the advantage of Youth in his Age for he appears as Polite and Sparkling as in the Dialogues of Aristus and Eugenius which was Writ Twenty years before His Wit hath always the same advantages and resembles not in any thing the Melancholly common to Old Age which is an Enemy to the Graces and Charms of Raillery under pretence that it no longer becomes it A great Wit once said that an Honest Man ought to be of all Professions and to make no shew of his own And here he may be pleas'd for the Author does it without discovering his The History of a Christian Lady of CHINA Where occasionally the Customs of these People and the Exercises of Piety of the New Christians are explained At Paris by Stephen Michalet 1681. in Twelves p. 151. THis is a Second Work of Father Cauplet's who after having given in his First Treatise an exact Idea of the Philosophy of the Famous Confucius and of the Principal Sciences of the Chinois was willing in this to instruct us in the Life and excellent qualities of a Christian Lady of China to which he adds the Relation of the Manners and particular Intreagues of some of the Missionaries and of the Establishment of the Christian Religion in this great Kingdom Yet he first declares that he pretends only to give here an Abridgment of the Life of this Illustrious Lady and that he intends to edifie the Publick by a more Ample Relation of her Vertuous Actions which if we Judge of them by this Abridgment ought to be very surprising and the worthy Subject of an Apotheose The Author begins his History with relating in a few words who were the Ancestors of this Heroine their Life their Manners their Employments and their happy Calling to Christianity in spight of the blind Error and Idolatry wherein they were plunged for so long a time He insists most a Discourse upon Paul Siu her Grandfather who he says was not only the Introducer and Protector of the Missionaries at the Emperor of China's Court but also the Apostle and Doctor of his Nation by the Translation of several Books and Treatises of the Christian Religion and even by the Learned Apologies he made in its favour in the Chinoise Language He observes that Paul Siu was one of the Colao which are the Chief Ministers of State and the Great Officers of the Empire From whence he takes occasion to speak of Matthew Riccius and Adam Schall Jesuites and of their Entry into the Court of China which was effected by the means of the Mathematicks and Reformation of the Calendar they undertook whereof he relates the Particulars adding that after Five years labour of these good Missionaries Paul Siu took the pains to Revise and Translate into his Tongue their Works with all the Elegance that could be expected from the most able and intelligent Man of all China Which sufficiently shews that no Science ought to be neglected since the simplicity of Evangelical Doctrine would have rendered useless the important projects of this Mission if it had not been upheld by Astronomy to which with the Protection of this Great Minister it owes its Establishment After that the Author comes to the particulars of the Life and Pious Employments of the Grand-Daughter of Paul Siu which he makes to consist almost wholly in Alms building of Churches and Ornaments for Chapels the particular Chapter of the Missionaries which they commonly imbellish with the most pathetick Figures to touch the Consciences and inspire the most harden'd hearts with compassion Yet that nothing might be objected against the great Liberalities of this Lady who was a Widow indeed but had many Children he saith that her Work and that of her Daughters was sufficient to have furnished all her Charities which were so prodigious that at one time she gave 220000 Livers to the Jesuits She was so scrupulous that she could not suffer her Son to Employ for the Maintaining of the Mission the Money he got by his Employments fearing lest what he got in the Tribunals of Justice should not be acquired by lawful means This Example would be dangerous to be proposed if our Devotee's in the West had such tender Consciences on this Subject as the Proselytes of the East He afterwards Treats of the different Congregations that were established in the Provinces of China on the account of this Christian Lady who is the Mother and Benefactress thereof and plentifully furnishes them with Pictures of the Passion Images Beads Agmâ—s Dei's Crosses Medals and other such things as may serve to the Instruction of New Converts And on this occasion he makes mention of the Conversion of the Bonzes which would easily be effected in giving each Thirty Crowns a year since the fear only of seeing themselves miserable and abandon'd hinders them from embracing the Christian Religion whereof in their hearts they acknowledge the Excellency and Truth These are the Efficacious Means with which our Modern Apostles Convert Pagans as well as Hereticks But it 's much to be feared that this Character of Interest does not agree with that of the Inspirations of the Spirit This was not the Motive to Madam Hiu which was the Name of this Christian Lady The Fervor of her Zeal did not permit her to be one moment at rest She went from City to City and from Province to Province to re-establish desolate Churches to build new ones and to provide in all places for the wants and Assistance of the Missionaries and new Converts Her indefatigable
proves from divers passages of St. Iustin St. Irenaeus Clement of Alexandria Tertullian and even of Origen himself Dr. Cave ends this Life with an Observation that he passes by many other speculative Notions in our Martyr which are not Conformable to the Truth and the occasion of them seems to be the great esteem he had for the Platonic Philosophy endeavouring as much as possibly he could to make it agree with the Christian Religion By this 't is plainly seen that Speculative Errors are not wholly inconsistent with true Piety and that the most solid Virtue is not able to render a Man infallible nor give him a Right to decide Controversies These Remarks sufficiently testifie one cannot take those Praises that are sometimes given to the Ancients a little too profusely as an absolute sign all their Opinions are approved on since Dr. Cave after he had very much praised the holy Martyr relates divers Errors he was guilty of 'T is apparent by this how we must also understand the praises Mr. Du Pin hath given him in his Ecclesiastical Bibliothique p. 160. where he says He to Admiration understood the Holy Scripture and Prophecies therein contained had a perfect knowledge of our Religion So that there was hardly one of the Ancients spoke more exactly of all our Mysteries than he has done There is not the least Reason to think Dr. Cave or Mr. Du Pin approved this Thought of St. Iustin which nevertheless they have neither of them placed amongst the Errors of this Father That although we should acknowledge Jesus Christ to be simply but a Man born after the same manner as others are might nevertheless be proved that he is the Messiah It follows not says he in his Dialogue with Trypho that Jesus is not the Christ of God though I could not demonstrate his Existence before the beginning of the World as Son of the Creator of all things and as God and that he is born Man of a Virgin c. It may only be said that I am mistaken but it must not be denied that he was the Christ although he was believed to be Man born of Men and that he is become the Christ by the Choice that God hath made of him For there are some of our Religion that in making a Profession do believe that he is the Christ maintain that he is Man born of Men However I am not of their Opinion no more than the most part of the Christians c. 5. Origen was born at Alexandria about the One hundred eighty sixth Year of our Lord. His Father whose name was Leonidas suffered Martyrdom in the Two hundred and second Year after he had taken much care in the Education of his Son whom he himself instructed in Learning and Religion Origen from his Childhood was excessively Curious and often tired his Father in proposing too many Questions to him upon the Sacred Writ As soon as he was advanced a little in Years he studied under Clement Catechist of Alexandria and afterwards under Ammonius who had set up a new School of Philosophy where he taught the Opinions of Plato and those of Aristotle as he believed reconcilable together They called him Ammonius Saccas because that before he applied himself to Philosophy he had been a Porter and gain'd his Livelihood by carrying Sacks of Corn. Porphyry faith he renounced Christianity to embrace the Pagan Religion but Dr. Cave makes it appear he was deceived in that as well as when he said Origen was born a Heathen Ammonius was so much esteemed amongst the Pagans themselves that Hierocles calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God and that Plotin who could find no Satisfaction in other Schools engaged himself with much Application to that of Ammonius Origen learned the Platonick Philosophy under him at the same time with Plotin Our Author observes here that we must take care not to confound a Heathen Philosopher call'd Origen with him whereof we are a speaking Porphyry Hierocles Proclus and Eunapius have made mention of the first with much Honor and Eunapius â—aith he was a Condisciple of Porphyry not at Alexandria under Ammonius but at Rome in the School of Plotin Porphyry had often seen our Origen at Tyre but he was not his Fellow-Pupil being much younger than he Lucas Holstenius wonders at the reason that he did not say Porphyry studied with Origen Son of Leonidas but he should have concluded according to Dr. Cave that it was not that Origen he meant but another The tenth Year of the Reign of Severus Leonidas Father to Origen suffered Martyrdom at Alexandria where he took all possible care to hinder his Son from following him to the Stake His Mother to no purpose employ'd her Authority and Tears to dissuade him from it she could not hinder him from hiding his Garments so Artificially that he continued in the Lodging with them by force Leonidas's Goods being confiscated Origen had in an instant been reduced to great Misery without the Charity of a Lady of Quality at Alexandria who entertained him with many others amongst whom was Paul of Samosatenus afterwards Famous for his Heresie But Origen lived not long at the Expence of this Illustrious Lady He opened a School where he taught Literature which gave him an Opportunity to become much more Learned himself in instructing others By which he acquired so great a Reputation that at eighteen Years of Age he was chose a Collegue or Successor to Clement under whom he had studied That he drew so great a Number of Auditors he was soon obliged to leave off teaching his School and apply himself entirely to the Instruction of the Catechumens to whom he taught the Principles of Christianity He was so happy in this Employ that many of those he had instructed gain'd the Crown of Martyrdom among which was Plutarch Serenus Heraclidus Heron and Herais who in spight of the Weakness of her Sex died as constantly as any of the four Men I have named During the Fury of these Persecutions Origen not content only to teach the Catechumens visited those also that were put in Prison accompanying them to the place of Execution endangering his Life a thousand times during the Government of Letus and Aquila who were one after the other Govornors of Egypt 'T was about that time Origen did an Action for which he was as much esteem'd by some as blamed by others Being unwilling to encumber himself with Matrimony and finding he was of an unfit Temperament to preserve himself Chaste in a single Life or it may be to shun the Suspicion of the Heathens he resolved to take an effectual way to suppress all Youthful Desires Some say he made use of the Application of some Remedies and others of a Knife He thought himself Authoriz'd in it from these words of Jesus Christ That some make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven which he believed ought to be understood in the Letter of
very People who make use of it are ashamed thereof when Superstition and Cruelty leave them any interval to think with a little more calmness on what they do This is so true that most of those which have abondoned themselves to the blind Zeal of Superstition have made use of the same artifices Our Age hath seen an illustrious Example of it and if we compare what Gregory saith hereof and the evil Crafts of Iulian with what hath been done not long since in a great Kingdom there will be a great Similitude found betwixt them We shall pass it by here fearing lest it should be thought that we have a mind to stop at a Parallel so Odious as this 6. Amongst the Reasons whereof Gregory makes use to shew that Iulian could not succeed in his Design he thus describes the power of the Saints which Christians honoured Have you not feared those to whom so great Honor is done and for whom solemn Feasts have been established by which Devils have been driven away and Diseases cured whose Apparitions and Predictions are known whose very Bodies have as much Virtue as their holy Souls whether they are touched or honoured of whom some drops of Blood only have the same Virtue as their Bodie We see by these Words and divers places of Gregory and other Fathers of his time that there was then a great deal of Respect had to the Relicks of Saints and that a great many Miracles were said to be done at their Graves It is astonishing that Gregory who loved inlarging hath not said even that the Bodies of Saints had more Virtue after their Death than during their Life for there is no comparison between the multitude of Miracles which were said to be done at the Graves of Martyrs and those which they did whilst alive Many People believe that the Falshood of some Christians and the Credulity of some others contributed much to hold up Paganism 7. Our Author makes a Panegyrick upon the Monks in the sequel after having despised Socrates and Plato and all the Pagan Philosophers Gregory reproacheth Iulian that he did not love Virtue in his Enemies but certainly Zeal made him commit here some such thing and it is very certain that he had infinitely learned more out of Plato and the Discourses of Socrates than in the Conversation of all the Monks that he had seen As to their Lives the endless Seditions of those Pious Hermits and their implacable Humor shew sufficiently that they were infinitely beneath these great Models of Pagan Antiquity 8. He remarketh very well that to be desirous to ruin the Christian Religion in a time wherein the Roman Empire was full of Christians was to undertake to ruin the very Empire When they were in a small number they could not be ill treated without Prejudice to the State but when they were numerous they could not be engaged without causing great Convulsions and too much disorder It were to be desired that the Imitators of Iulian had well weighed this Advertisement of Gregory who despiseth most justly all the good that could accrew from the Government of Iulian in comparison with the evil that so detestable a Design would have caused if he had been able to put it in Execution It were yet to be wished that our Age had been well instructed in the Horror which the Snares that Iulian by his Officers and Soldiers laid for Christians Gregory saith that some Christian Soldiers having one day when Iulian gave some Liberality to his Army cast Incense in his Presence into the fire according to an ancient Custom usually interpreted as if they had burned Incense to the Idols Nevertheless many others had done it without any Reflection and being admonished of their Fault as they invocated Iesus Christ making the sign of the Cross after their Meal by some one that told them they had renounced him they went immediately crying out in the Market-place and in the Ears of the Emperor that they had been surprized and that they were Christians Iulian provoked at the mistake banished them 9. Gregory describes some horrid Cruelties against the Christians which Iulian had authoris'd in Egypt and Syria He saith that the Inhabitants of Arethusa a City of Syria after having made Young-Women consecrated to God suffer a thousand Indignities killed them eat their Livers all raw and gave their Flesh to Swine to feed on covering it with Barly These People treated with an abominable Barbarity the Bishop of this City who notwithstanding appeared almost insensible in his Torments and Gregory marks that this Bishop in the time of Constantius exercis'd having liberty from the Emperor an Habitation of Devils to wit a Pagan Church This Action of Mark of Arethusa had drawn upon him the Hatred of the People as a Pagan would have been detested by the Christians if he had destroyed one of their Churches Notwithstanding Gregory a little lower saith not only that the Christians did not Treat the Pagans as they had been Treated by them But he asketh of them What Liberty Christians had taken from them As if it were nothing to pull down their Temples as was done since the Reign of Constantine They continued with the same Rigor under the following Emperors and that they might be Reproacht with nothing of Paganism it was Prohibited on pain of Death to Sacrifice to Idols with the Applause of all the Christians if St. Augustin can be believed We must not forget to Remark here another effect of the Rhetorick of Gregory It is that in speaking of the Christian Young Women of Aretâ—usa who had been so Abused he Accuses not only the Pagans but also makes an Apostrophe to our Lord thus O Iesus Christ how shall I suffer the pain which you had then 10. Iulian added Insults also to his ill Treatments and in taking away the Christians Goods he said he only assisted them to observe the Gospel which commanded 'em to despise the things of this Life This Railery is in the forty third Letter of Iulian where he saith that the Church of the Arians at Edessa having done some Violence to the Valentinians he had Confiscated all their Mony to distribute it to the Soldiers and kept their Goods to himself fearing lest the Arians being too Rich could not get into the Kingdom of Heaven Gregory Answers to this amongst other things that Iulian acting thus made as if he imagin'd that the Gods of the Heathens thought it necessary that People should be deprived of their Goods without deserving it and that they approved of Injustice He might have been satisfied with this Answer but he adds that there are things which Iesus Christ hath commanded as necessary and others which he hath simply proposed for those that would observe them without indispensibly obliging any one to do it Such is according to Gregory the Commandment of abandoning the Wealth of this World 11. One thing for which they abused
Common-Wealths The Reverse of Fortunes the Religions Politicks and Governments of Foreign Nations by this we may consult what practices have Establish'd Kingdoms what Laws have render'd any particular Nation more Safe happy and Civiliz'd than its Neighbours and what has Contributed to the Weakness and Overthrow of Bodies-Politick and what has Facilitated its Rise and Settlement and in a Prospect of the whole a New Scheme may be drawn for future Ages to act by Longum iter per praecepta breve Essicax per exempla Wisdom got by Experience is usually very Expensive Tedious and Uncertain Several Experiences confirm ones Knowledge and a Man's Life is too little to make many in every Case But if he finds e'm faithfully done to his hands the labour is sav'd and he may grow wise at the expence of other Mens Studies It was Thales that said of History Nil Mortem à vita differre because the Life of the Deceased depends upon the remembrance of the Living Mr. Brathwait in his Nursery for Gentry says Wou'd you be enabled for Company no better Medium than Knowledge in History It wou'd be a dispraise to advance an Elogy upon this Study which reconciles all times but futurity renders all the spatious Globe of the Inhabited World common and familiar to a Man that never Travelled We may see all Asia Africa and America in England all the Confederate Countreys in ones Closet Encompass the World with Drake make New Discoveries with Columbus Visit the Grand Seignior in the Seraglio Converse with Seneca and Cato Consult with Alexander Caesar and Pompey In a word whatever Humanity has done that 's Noble Great and Surprizing either by Action or Suffering may by us be done over again in the Theory and if we have Souls capable of Transcribing the bravest Copies we may meet Instances worth our Emulation History is as by some called the World's Recorder and according to my Lord Montague we must confess That no wise Man can be an Experienc'd Statist that was not frequent in History Another tells us That to be acquainted with History purchases more wisdom than the Strictest Rules of Policy for that the first do furnish us with Instances as well as Rules and as it were personates the Rule drawing out more into full proportion History best suits the Solidest Heads Whence we find that Caesar made it his Comment We read that King Alphonsus by Reading Livy and Ferdinand of Sicily by Reading Quintus Curtius recovered their Health when all the Physical Doses they took prov'd ineffectual but whether 't is Friendly to the Body or not 't is not our business to determine Sure we are that 't is Friendly to the Mind cultivates and informs it in what is very agreeable to its Nature we mean Knowledge therein imitating its Divine Original History is the most admirable foundation for Politicks by this may be discovered all that 's necessary for a Kingdoms Safety and Peace the Stratagems of War an account of the Management of the deepest Plots and Contrivances and the carrying on such Measures for every Publick Affair whether in respect to Enemies or Allies as the deepest Heads have ever yet practis'd And as History is so useful to such as are intrusted with the Charge of Common-wealths so 't is not less necessary for the Settling and Establishment of the Christian Religion We find a Great part of the World Worship Inanimate Beings others Sacrifice to Devils others propagate a Worship made up of the most ridiculous Fables as the Turks c. and many that profess the Christian Religion are so far degenerated from the Native Simplicity and Purity of it as that 't is now another thing A Reasonable Creature born into the World and finding in himself a Principle of Adoration of some Vnknown Being can't forbear an Enquiry into Religion but when he finds so many Religions so great a Diversity of Divine Worship and every Party willing to believe themselves in the Right and condemning all the rest of Mankind that are not of their Opinion This is enough to surprize such a Person but at the same time he will make this necessary Consequence after a little thought and application of Mind Certain I am that there 's a God and as certain that this God ought to be Worshipped after such a manner as is most Suitable to his Nature and the quality of the Worshipper as to his Nature it 's too fine and Spiritual to be pleas'd with any Adoration but what is Spiritual and as for Man the Creature that is to pay this Homage and Adoration he is a Reasonable Being and therefore it 's also Necessary that the Worship he pays be the most reasonable and perfect that his Nature will admit of Now a Man needs not go out of himself to consult what Reason is he has no more to do than to see what Religion is most agreeable to his Reason and most worthy the Dignity of his Nature we speak here of unprejudic'd persons And then History will inform him what has been practis'd and shew him that Christianity is the most noble sincere and pure Religion in the World but in this we refer you to what we have already spoken upon the foregoing Subject of Divinity There only remains to inform our Reader That 't is not onely Books but Maps Monuments Bass-Reliefs Medals and all Antient Descriptions that mightily strengthen and confirm History therefore 't wou'd be very useful to read such Authors as have treated upon Medals c. In our Catalogue of Miscellanies especially the Iournal des Scavans there are several of them The following Catalogue will be of great use in this Study HISTORY CHardin's Voyages into Persia fol. Embassie of the Five Jesuits into Siam fol. Chaumont's Embassie into Siam fol. Cornellis's Historical and Geographical Memoirs of Morea Negrepont and the Maritime places unto Thessalonica Dapper's Description of Africk in fol. Tavernier 's Travels in fol. Leti Historia Genevrina in 5 Volumes in Twelves Mr. Amelot's History of the Government of Venice Ortelius Mercator Cambden's Britannia Caesar's Commentaries Philo-Judaeus Cornelius Tacitus fol. Daniel's History of England fol. Lord Bacon of Henry the 7 th History of the Roman Empire Livies History Elzevir's Edition with Notes Supplementum Livianum Johannis Florus in Usum Dephini Valerius Maximus Utropius Suetonius Tranquillus Justinus Historicus Thucidides Translated out of Greek by Hobbs Zenophon Herodotus Diodorus Siculus in fol. Sir William Temple's Memoirs Dagoraeus VVhear his Method of Reading Histories Burnet's History of the Reformation Bishop Abbot's brief Description of the World in Twelves Davilla's History of the Civil Wars of France fol. Guichardin's History of Italy fol. History of Ireland Amour's Historical Account of the Roman State c. fol. Blome's Britannia Baker's Chronicles of the Kings of England fol. Bacon's Resuscitatio fol. Caesar's Commentaries fol. Heylin's Cosmography fol. Herbert's Life and Reign of King Henry the Eighth fol. Howel's Institution of General History fol.
Mr. Nicole that Jesus Christ came into this World we must examine according to the Cartesiaen method whether the Gospel be a feigned Book or no and hear all that is said by the Wicked upon this Subject and examine all the moral demonstrations whereon the certainty of things done is grounded Moreover we must be assured by Philosophical reasons and by good answers to Spinoza's Systeme that Man acts freely that he has an immortal Soul and that God prepares pains and recompences Where are Tradesmen or Peasants who are capable of so long a dispute pushed to a contradictory decree So that this cannot be the way to answer well for if we did but retain one or two Articles of our Creed we should have enough to do to render our selves certain of them according to des Cartes method And all this shews that Mr. Nicoles principle ought not to be applyed to matters of Religion And he is shewn several other very inconvenient consequences of this principle and it is concluded that Faith does not depend upon an examen of discussion but upon an examen of attention the effects whereof are Learnedly explained in shewing the manner how Divine Truths are imprinted in our understanding this is very fine and gives us a second example of Mr. Iurieu's sincerity for without troubling himself whether Mr. Nicole will brag of having obliged the Ministers to quit their ground he leaves him wholly to the examin of discussion and maintains that this was not what he ought to have disputed against and he answers an objection of Mr. de Meaux whether there be a time wherein a Christian may doubt of the Truths of Scripture and that according to the Principles of the reformed Church Let us say a word upon the last Book of this answer the Author has not so much indifference for Mr. Nicole but he has taken care to hinder his too great brags of the full victory that he has had in several cases upon the examen of discussion and says that this victory is but of little use to Papists but that it furnisheth Weapons to Libertines and Pagans to combate the Christian Religion Moreover he is not of Opinion that all the Arguments that were thundered against the examen of discussion are good and as to what concerns the way of feeling and this ray that he has so much laught at he is shewn that there is no reason to be so merry upon that word that there are really things in Scripture which are known by the way of feeling and that it is no sufficient Argument against it to say that it deceives Hereticks daily for the Author says if it deceives them it is because it is not assisted by an interiour Grace from the Holy Ghost as when we feel the light of Truth besides this he maintains that the most simple were able to know what was requisite to make them quit the Roman Communion In fine he shews the analysis of Faith according to St. Augustine and he answers Mr. Nicole in several things concerning the calling of the first Reformers and the Schism whereof some would fain have convinced them he answers him I say in all this and accuseth him of a thousand frivolous quibbles unworthy both of a Man of Honour and a witty Man I do not doubt but many of my readers may not understand what the analysis of Faith is Let us then say that we understand by these words the reducing of Faith to its first principles that it is a Metaphor borrow'd from Chymists who call Analysis the Operation that disunites the parts of a compound body setting apart the ingredients until they come to the most simple parts so to make the Analysis of Faith is nothing else but to mount by degrees to its beginning and to the first reasons whereon it is grounded and in this the Religions of the West are very different for tho' it is very true that the Protestants and Catholicks being questioned why they believe the Trinity agree in answering that it is because God has revealed it in Scripture but if you ask them this other question how they do know that God has revealed it in Scripture their answer will be very different the Catholick will answer that it is because he is told that the Roman Church finds the meaning of Trinity in certain passages of Scripture but the Protestant will say it is because he finds that these passages signify the Trinity whence it follows that the Faith of a R. C. is grounded on the Authority of the Church that of a Protestant upon the very Light which he finds in the Object proposed by Scripture There are but few who trouble themselves with this Analysis they content themselves well enough with believing what they have a feeling of Moreover it is a great question with Roman Catholicks whether in the Analysis of Faith they must stop at the Pope or go on to the Council Gregory of Valence in his Analysis Fidei Catholicae maintains firmly that they are to stop at the Pope But Mr. Holden an English Man by Nation and a famous Doctor of Sorbonne holâ—s for the Council in his Divinae fidei Analysis seu de fidei Christianae resolutione which has been re-printed lately at Paris with some additions A Lutheran Professor called Hannekenius refutes the Jesuite in the year 1683 by publishing paralysis fidei Papaeae I do not know whether he will publish such another Paralysis against the Doctor of Sorbonne Mr. Iurieu put at the end of his Book a short answer to what Mr. Ferrand published against the Parallel of Papism and Calvinism if this Article had not passed the bounds already we could give a short extract of this short answer it is admirable and discomforts this Author who to speak the truth has not answered the hopes that the Catholicks of this Country conceived of his Work they were a little surprized with the stroke they received from the parallel and they expected that Mr. Ferrand that was chosen to revenge their common Mother would acquit himself well of the Office but they experienced that he did not hold to what the Church promised it self of him Non illum nobis genetrix pulcherrima talem promisit The Accomplishment of Prophesies or the Deliverance of the Church near at hand c. Corrected and Augmented almost a third part with the Explication of all the Visions of the Apocalypse By the S P. J. PEPETH A. R. at Rotterdam by Abraham Achers 1686. 2. Vol. in 12. THis Work has made such a noise that there are two thousand Copies disposed of in four or five Months and yet there are but a very few gone into France which would have taken off a great many if it were suffered that it might be disposed of there this considerable part of Europe being almost nothing by report in respect of the Booksellers Trade one would think that the first Edition should have sufficed nevertheless there was soon occasion
esse This is much more commodious for those who love to decide than to follow the manners of ancient Rome where Judges only pronounc'd their Sentence in a Videtur It seemeth good to us and the Witnesses who swore to relate what they had seen with their Eyes speak not but an Arbitror I believe Dr. Sprat's History of the Royal Society Printed at London 1667. in 4o. THe Author Dedicates it to King Charles the second who indeed was the fittest Patron for he encouraged the Noble Design of this Society by his own Personal Example The Treatise it self which is writ in an admirable Style and very agreeable to the Modesty of the Author is compos'd in three Parts The first gives a brief Account of the Ancient and Modern Philosophy and shows that we owe the Original of all Science to the Eastern Parts of the World bringing for Example the Noble Endeavours after it by the Chaldeans Egyptians Arabians and Romans the Revivers of the Ancient Sects and an Account of the Moderns in particular with the Authors of each Subject so that by this method he has observed the Excellencies and Defects of all our Predecessors and given us hopes of what may be expected from this New experimental Method The second contains the Narration it self in which the Dr. having seen their Journals gives an Account of their first Meetings their Encouragements with the particulars of their Society as to their Aim Ability and Number the way of proceeding by Weekly Assemblies the Method of their Enquiries their Registring every Subject under its proper Head the Progress they have made from their first beginning Thus being well established and having pass'd all difficulties the Author does not doubt but all ingenious Persons will be pleased with their Performance since they have already given such good Proofs of it in their Method of which by this short Specimen the rest may be judged of Queries and Directions sent abroad Proposals and Recommendations made Relations received Experiments try'd Observations taken Instruments advanced or effected Theories proposed Discourses of theirs in Manuscript or Print And Histories of Nature or Art Each of which Subjects have been very Curiously managed with all possible Care to discover and advance the Truth and perhaps with much better success than their envious Detractors cou'd imagine They are already above 700 in Number Experiments and Observations together more than 350 Relations 150 Queries Directions Recommendations and Proposals above 80 Instruments 60 Relations both Artificial and Natural more than 50 Theories and Discourses as many And our Author gave us this Account when the Society was but little more than just begun therefore what happy Discoveries may the World expect from such a Body of Ingenious and Noble Undertakers After which he describes the Library and Repository that the Liberality of two of their Members bestowed upon them and adds some Examples of their Experiments and whatsoever they have engaged in The Dr. concludes that if this shall not satisfie any Cavillers they are not worth the refuting since nothing would please them if the search after Nature is not sufficient but Proposing to solve such Chimera's as the Philosophers Stone Squaring the Circle c. which is only an Argument of the Vanity of such Persons Expectations The Third Part declares both the Innocency and Benefit of this Design on the Account of all Professions and especially of Religion it self The Promoting of Experiments according to their Method will be so far from injuring Education or the least disadvantage to the Universities that it will introduce many profitable things in the stead of such as are no way advantageous to Youth and may be laid aside without prejudicing any one whatsoever it being evidently the most profitable to secure Truth by Experiment and the least danger of ever being deceived whereas other Methods make us more fit for Wrangling and Disputation than the finding out things as they are in their own Nature the Theory being always too much except the Practick were more observed the speculative Man always pursuing Airy Notions whilst he that Experiments is certain of finding the Truth Apostolici or the History of the Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of those who were Contemporary with or immediately succeeded the Apostles and of the Chief Fathers of the Church of the three first Ages to which is added a Chronology from the Birth of Iesus Christ unto the end of the Third Century by William Cave Doctor of Divinity and Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty The Third Edition Corrected At London in 1687. Fol. Pag. 335. Dr. Cave's History contains an Account of the Chief Fathers of the three first Ages with Remarks on their Writings distinguishing with Care those that have been Supposititious from the true These are their Names 1. St. Stephen the first Martyr 2. St. Philip Deacon and Evangelist 3. St. Barnabas an Apostle 4. St. Timothy Apostle and Evangelist 5. St. Titus Bishop of Candia 6. St. Denis the Areopagite 7. St. Clement Bishop of Rome 8. St. Simeon Bishop of Ierusalem 9. St. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch 10. St. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna 11. St. Quadratus Bishop of Athens 12. St. Iustin Martyr 13. St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons 14. St. Theophilus Bishop of Antioch 15. St. Melito Bishop of Sardis 16. St. Panten Catechist of Alexandria 17. St. Clement of Alexandria 18. Tertullian Presbyter of Carthage 19. Origen Presbyter and Catechist of Alexandria 20. St. Babylas Bishop of Antioch 21. St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage 22. St. Gregory Bishop of Neocesaria 23. St. Denys Bishop of Alexandria I shall not undertake to give an Abridgment of each of these Lives yet that the Reader may in some manner judge of the Usefulness of this Work I have made choice of Three to give an exact Extract thereof viz. St. Stephen St. Iustin Martyr and that of Origen Wherein may be seen a perfect Sample of the History of the three first Ages the Author having added to that of these Fathers an Account of the Events Opinions and Customs of those Times Before I enter upon the Work I must advertise the Reader of a long Introduction at the beginning of it where from the Birth of Jesus Christ is an Abridgment of the History of the Ages wherein these Fathers lived This Book is divided into Three Parts The first containing the Life of our Saviour while on the Earth the second that of the Apostles and the third the Preservation and Growth of the Christian Religion from their Deaths until the time of Constantine In the Life of Jesus Christ a Letter is made mention of from Archar King of Edessa to our Lord and the Answer that this Prince received from him as Eusebius relates is not contradictory to those pieces which have had the Reputation of Authentick There can nothing very solid be opposed to this except the Silence of the Evangelists who have not spoke of it in the short Account they have given us of the
he thought there were three Gods also as Dr. Cave remarks St. Athanasius is far from attributing any Error to him in this Case and cites him among the Fathers who have been Orthodox touching the Trinity and calls him an admirable Man and one of great Studies 3. Many of his Opinions are rather Sentiments of Philosophy and Speculation than of Religion also we see not that the Councils have denied any thing about him nor that the Divines raise any Disputes concerning him amongst themselves 4. He hath written many things for his own particular Use and which were publish'd against his will as Pamphilus hath formerly complain'd casting the fault upon his Friend Ambrose to whom he had communicated them 5. The Hereticks have corrupted and added many things to the Works of Origen as Ruffinus hath shew'd more at large and Origen himself complain'd on even in his Life time Ruffinus also makes it appear that the same Fate happened to the Writings of St. Clement Romanus Clement and Dionisius of Alexandria and to Dionisius of Corinth But Dr. Cave believes that it was not amiss that Marcellus and Ancyrus had reasonably said that Origen had mingled too much Platonism with the Christian Religion and that he began to Teach in a time in which he had much more studied Plato than the holy Scripture Thus Dr. Cave c. Gregory Nazianzen his Works and Life with many of his Epistles c. at Cologne in Folio 1690. GRegory was born according to the most exact Chronology in the Year Three Hundred in a Village of the second Cappadocia named Arianze near the City Nazianze whence the Surname is taken which is commonly given to Gregory His Father and Mother were Persons of Quality and whose Virtue was esteem'd of those that knew them if we may believe their Son who always speaks of them with much praise He is free to tell us that his Father who likewise was named Gregory was born of Parents who had I know not what Religion divided betwixt the Pagans and Jews They had neither Idols nor Sacrifices but they adored the Fire and Torches They observed the Sabbath abstained from Eating of certain Beasts and yet despised Circumcision They took the name of Hypsistaires because they boasted they did adore but the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These People seemed to have borrowed the worshipping of Fire from the Magi of Cappadocia which were called Pyrathes because of the respect they had for the Fire which they look'd upon as the Symbol of the Supreme Divinity But they were not like them in other things It is a Wonder that Gregory who as we see denies that they adored Idols and saith that his Father was born in these Sentiments should elsewhere positively say that he worshipped the Images of Animals It seems that his Memory was a little short in this place or his great Zeal made him fall into this Contrariety unless we excuse him by taking what he saith of the Idols of Animals which his Father adored for an Exaggeration of Rhetorick a figure common enough in the Style of Gregory As for his Mother Nonna she was born of Christian Parents who had carefully educated her and who had found in her a Disposition extremely inclined to Piety Her Son also praiseth infinitely her Wit and her Conduct A Woman thus qualified must be much afflicted for her Husband's Inclination to such Errors as those of the Hypsistaires yet he was of a very mild Temper and extreme orderly so that although his Sentiments were erroneous nothing could be found of ill in his Manners Nonna would continually press him to get himself instructed in the Christian Religion and as he could not be prevailed with it happened that he had a Dream which made him resolve to do it He dreamed that he Sung these words of the Psalm cxxii I have rejoiced in that I was told we shall go into the House of the Lord. This manner of Singing though new gave him delight and his Wife failed not to make use of this occasion to induce him to embrace Christianity It happened when Leontius Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia passed by that place with some other Prelates to go to Nice where Constantius called the Council Gregory went to see him and told to him the desire he had to become a Christian. Leontius got him instructed and whilst they were instructing him for a Catechumen he kneeled without any bodies advice whereas Catechumens were commonly standing whilst they were instructed Those that were there observed this Posture because it was that of Priests whilst they were Consecrated His Son testifieth that every body guessed from thence that he would be one day honoured with the Order of Priesthood After that as the Bishop of Nazianze baptized him those that were present saw him go out of the Water all environ'd with light and the Bishop could not with-hold saying that Gregory would certainly succeed him in the Episcopacy as it really fell out after that the See of Nazianze had been sometime vacant His Son in relating these two Circumstances treats on them both as Miracles and as then so at this day all the World believed not all that Ecclesiasticks said he declares he proposes these Marvels but to the Faithful only Because there is none of these fine things which appear credible to prophane Minds Without being Prophane we cannot but suspect not of Falsehood but of a little Credulity and Exaggeration these Rhetorical Souls which draw an Advantage from every thing in relating matters of this Nature When we think to declare what we have seen we often say what we judge of a thing which surprizes us and instead of affirming what we see with our Eyes we draw some doubtful Consequences from a prejudiced Mind so we believe without enquiry all that is advantageous to that which we have embraced and all that is contrary thereunto is false or at least suspicious If we do not make these Reflections in reading Gregory of Nazianze we shall run the hazard either ' to take him for a Man of little Truth or to believe his Miracles suspicious Nonna had at the beginning of her Marriage but one Daughter Gorgonia of whom Gregory her Brother speaks in divers places who was the first of Nonnas Children her Mother wished very much for a Son and vowed to Consecrate him to God if she had one whereupon she had presently after a Dream that she saw the Face of the Son which she was to have and what should be his Name Instead of one Son she had two of whom she took great Care as to their Education because she found them of a Nature worthy of Instruction As soon as Gregory was a little grown he was sent to Cesarea the Metropolis of Cappadocia where the best Masters had the Instruction of him to wit to understand the Greek Poets and Orators and to learn perfectly that Tongue This was the only
well one only Nature he directs his Discourse to the Sabellians but narrow and straitned and which hath not the Propriety of being the Principle of great things as not being capable thereof or not having a will for it It must needs be either by Envy or by Fear that you do not establish any thing which should equal it or that should oppose it But in as much as God is more excellent than Creatures so much is he most worthy of the first cause of being the Principle of a Divinity than of Creatures and of not descending to these latter but by a Divinity which is betwixt two As if the Divinity existed according to the Arians because of Creatures as it seemeth to those who are so very subtle If in confessing the Dignity of the Son and Holy Ghost we made them without a Principle or if we related them to a Principle of another Nature then we should dishonor Divinity or introduce Gods opposed one to another A little lower Gregory saith That the Unity moved it self by reason of its Bounty and that the number of two hath been surpassed because Divinity is beyond Matter and Form which are the two Principles whereof Bodies are composed that Trinity is limited by reason of its Perfection and surpasseth the Conjunction of two so that Divinity is neither too strait nor doth extend it self to Infinity The first addeth he hath something in it very derogatory and the second would cause Confusion The first is altogether Jewish and the second Heathenish The word to move it self in this occasion is a Platonick term which these Philosophers use when they speak of the Productions of Divinity and Gregory meaneth that Divine Nature hath been multiplied to three Hypostases or three Individuals which is opposed to Judaism which holds but one Supreme Nature and to Paganism which establisheth too great a number of Gods The Platonicks disputed amongst one another upon this the one maintain'd that Supreme Divinity hath not been multiplied but to their Gods and that all which is above that is not of a like nature and the others understood it in a greater number of Divinities Plato and Porphyrius were of the first Sentiment and Plotinus of the second Iulian having ascended the Throne in the Year CCLXI sought all manner of ways to ruin the Christians and perceiving they made great use of Pagan Authors whether to form themselves to Eloquence or to draw from thence Reasons fit for maintaining the Christian Religion and to attack Paganism he undertook to hinder the Christians from applying themselves to the Study of Literature Some Ancients say that he prohibited them not only to keep Schools themselves but also to frequent the Schools of Grammarians and Orators amongst the Pagans others seem only to say that Christians were prohibited to keep Schools Iulian himself saith formally in one of his Letters That the Children of Christians should not be hindred to go to the Schools of Pagans because those who offend not but for want of Wit ought to be taught and not punished Gregory of Nazianzen speaks of this Prohibition of Iulian in his third Speech but according to the Judicious Observation of a Modern speaking more like an Orator than an Historian it is hard to penetrate into his thoughts 'T is a bad effect of the continual Rhetorick of the Ancients They are so Eloquent that they are not understood 'T is likely that Iulian prohibited not the Children of Christians to go to the Schools of Pagan Doctors either because he saith it or because it was a good means to seduce them Hence some Learned Men amongst Christians as the two Apollinaries and Gregory put Scripture and Religion in Greek Verses or in fine Prose These Writings would supply the Reading of those of Ancient Pagans and Youth had no need of Grammarians for to understand them Parents could easily serve their Children in room of a Tutor to expound unto them these Christian Verses after having read Scripture Yet this Prohibition extreamly vexed the Christians which would not suffer their Grammarians their Rhetoricians and their Philosophers in the Churches of the Galileans these are the terms of Iulian to expound their Matthew and Luke If he never had done any other thing they would not have introduced so many new words nor so much subtiliz'd upon the Tenets then in Dispute and the Platonick Philosophy had not had so much share in their Decisions It was about this time that Cesar Brother to Gregory who returned as we have said to Constantinople was because of his Knowledge received first Physician to Iulian and placed amongst the number of the Friends of this Emperor who loved learned Men. Gregory writ him thereupon a Letter extreamly sharp wherein he told him that he had covered his Family with Confusion through his Conduct that every one thought it strange that the Son of a Bishop should follow the Court and should seek for Honors and get Riches amongst Pagans that he made his Fathers Life bitter who could not reprehend others of what his Son did commit that they were forced to hide this Conduct from his Mother fearing it should make her dye for very Grief that he had Means enough to live Honestly without exposing himself to so great a Danger that in fine if he continued in this manner of Life he must be ranked amongst such Christians as are least worthy of bearing this name If this Letter obliged not Cesar to return to his Parents there is a likelihood it strengthened him against the Endeavors of Iulian of making him abandon Christianism whereof his Brother speaks in one of his Speeches He saith That Cesar having answered to all his Reasons protested to him he was a Christian and would be so all his Life and that Iulian cried out before several Persons of the Court when he thought on the Bishop of Nazianze and his two Sons O Happy Father O Happy Children Cesar either wearied by the Solicitations of Iulian or touched with the Advertisements of his Brother returned to Nazianze in the time that Iulian departed to go against the Persians It appears to be about the same time that Iulian sent a Captain with Archers to Nazianze to seize on the Church of the Christians but far from being able to do what he desired for if he had not escaped immediately by advice of the Bishop or of some other Person he would have returned with his Legs broken so great was the Anger and Zeal of the Priest of Gregory the Father for this Temple These are the own words of his Son which shews that these good Folks did not always Preach Passive Obedience In the Year CCCLXIII Iulian was kill'd in his retreat from before the Army of the Persians the effect if we believe herein the Charitable Gregory of the Prayers of the same Bishop and the same People who were for breaking the Legs of the Captain of the Archers of whom
Latin we might justly apply to him the words of Cato Utican on the Subject of Posthumius Albinus who being a Roman would nevertheless write in Greek and yet excused the badness of his Stile saying He did not well understand the Greek Tongue He had rather says this grave Senator beg Pardon for his Fault than not to commit it He has also Expressions so proper to the Greek Tongue that they could not have slipt from an Author that had writ in Latin had he been never so little versed in the Tongue for Example this Author translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui sunt ciro◠Ptolomaeum instead of saying barely Ptolomaeus or Ptolomaei Discipuli he also makes an Adjective of the proper Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he translates Clarus Mr. Dodwell goes much further and maintains that this Latin Version is so far from being the Original or made by St. Irenaeus as some have believed that it appeared not until a long time after the Death of this Father since Tertullian quotes this Work always in other terms though he writ thirty Years after The first that produced formal Testimonies was St. Augustin in his Books against Iulian. What is most strange is that it seems this Father did not know that St. Irenaeus writ in Greek this Version then must be made in the time that passed between St. Augustin and Tertullian and whereas St. Ierom makes no mention of it in his Catalogue composed the Year of our Saviour CCCLXXX and the Fourteenth of Theodosius it must needs be made between the Year CCCLXXXV and the time which St. Augustin speaks of Our Author thinks it is the Work of some French or Spaniard that was very ignorant in the Latin who undertook this Version upon the account of the Priscillianists who renew'd the Errors of the Gnosticks which St. Irenaeus had disputed against This Version was the occasion of a very singular Action which was that after the Heresies were smothered this Version was so rough and full of strange Matter that it was quite despised so that Gregory the Great could not find one simple Copy of it after an exact Search which he caused to be made and that none of the ancient Schoolmen speak of it But on the contrary the Greek Authors had several Copies of the Greek Original and there are Fragments of it in all Places And nevertheless now this excellent Greek is lost and the World is full of the bad Latin Translation the Fate of Books very often is like that of Fountains there are little Rivers that carry their Name into the very Sea and very considerable ones that lose themselves without any Name St. Irenaeus writ his Books both without Distinction or Arguments and his Translator or some other Authors have added what we see at this day IV. Our Author in his last Dissertation of the other Works of St. Irenaeus begins his Letter writ to Blastus and by the first to Florinus the first treated of Schism and the second of Monarchy Baronius thought that Florin's Errors oblig'd St. Irenaeus to write the Books against Heresies but Mr. Dodwell is not of his mind It is manifest that it is against the Valentinians that this Father intended these Works and Florinus taught a quite contrary Doctrin to that of these Hereticks for whereas these Hereticks establish'd two Principles the one good the other bad them Florinus made conformable to the Doctrin of the Church but he made that the Author of Good and Evil. As for Blastus he is acquitted of the Crime of Heresie whereof many Ancient and Modern accused him and it s believed he was but a Schismatick having done the Office of a Priest after he was deposed by his Bishop These two Letters were writ at the same time after his Work against the Hereticks according to our Author in the Year CLXXXII and the Third of Comodus and the Eighty fifth of Irenaeus Florinus did not stop at these Errors he soon fell into the Dreams of the Valentinians which obliged St. Irenaeus to write him a second Letter which he entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Eighth because it was writ against the Eighth des Eons de Valentinians Our Author believes that Irenaeus was above Eighty five years old when he writ it which was about the CLXXXII Year of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus writ also an Harangue against the Gentiles the Subject whereof was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Science It is known that Isocrates not having the necessary Talents for speaking publickly contented himself in writing several Orations with important Advise to them that ruled the People he was imitated by a great many others and the Christians themselves were assisted by this Custom to teach the Pagans the Truths of the Christian Religion and did not neglect to embellish their Orations with the vain Ornaments of the Sophists to move the Curiosity of the Readers whose Gust lay that way Such was then St. Irenaeus's Discourse of Science that it was addressed to the Greeks that is to say to all them that were not Christians for as the Christian Church succeeded that of the Iews and the Iews called all them Greeks that were not of their Religion so the Christians gave the same Name to all those that did not embrace their Opinions Mr. Dodwell believes that this Work was employ'd to refute the Opinion of some Philosophers who thought that by Study and Meditation one might raise himself beyond all that is sensible or material and to the perfect knowledge of God and of all Spiritual Beings and this by themselves that St. Irenaeus proved that Knowledge was reserved for the other Life and that we do not know in this but only by Faith St. Irenaeus writ another Work which he named the Demonstration of Preaching or of the Apostles Doctrin and dedicated it to one Mavejon to contradict several Writings that were father'd on the first Disciples of our Saviour and particularly the Sermons falsly attributed to St. Peter Mr. Dodwell says that the design of this Work was the same of that of the Prescriptions of Tertullian The Ancients speak yet of another Work of St. Irenaeus intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is according to St. Ierom's and Mr. Dodwell's Interpretations a Book containing divers Treatises our Author imploys a long Discourse to shew that St. Irenaeus had erected a School in his latter days and that he taught his Scholars what he himself had learned of the Apostles Disciples that is to say Apostolical Traditions and that this Work we speak of was a Collection of the Lessons that he made in that School It is pleasant to see the trouble Mr. Dodwell gives himself to establish this his Opinion and it is like he took it with pleasure because it tends to the general end he proposed to himself of reconciling the Traditions of the two first Ages of the Church with the Scripture What is very advantageous is that all these Enquiries include many
and not to assist at any Prayer Therefore this second kind of Catechumens were called Hearers 3. But those to whom leave was given to assist at publick Prayers until the Consecration of the Eucharist and to Kneel to receive the Benediction of the Bishop bear the name of Prostrates 4. When they were found sufficiently instructed to receive Baptism they were permitted to demand it and to give their names to be admitted thereto and they were then called Competents or if their demand was accepted of Chosen and Enlightned These are all the Degrees that can be distinguished amongst the Catechumens But commonly the Fathers without stopping at these Distinctions call'd them the Hearers and the Prostrated when as they give the name of Competents and Enlightned to those that were in a Condito receive Baptism Which relate well enough to the Mystes and Epoptes of the Mysteries of Ceres As Tradition was not so clear against the Arians as against the Hereticks of the first Ages the Fathers who lived after the Council of Nice studied Scripture more than before because the strength of the the Dispute run upon the Sense of divers Passages for the Exposition of which they had recourse to the Greek of the New Testament as to the Original The holy Books were then the only Rule of Faith and the Writings of Doctors that were dead before the Contestations of Arianism were considered only as Human Testimonies where the Doctrin of their time might be learned The least thing ought not to be taught saith Cyril of Ierusalem according to the Relation of Mr. du Pin touching Divine Mysteries that cannot be established by Testimonies of Scripture Even believe not what I say to you if I do not prove it by Holy Scripture The Letters of St. Basil which may be of very great help to those that would know throughly the Ecclesiastical History of that time are placed without any order as well as the Epistles of Cicero and the most part of the ancient Works of this Nature The Author promises us a Translation thereof in French and Latin with Notes in the mean time he gives here divers Extracts of these Letters disposed according to the order of times There are several of them that bear evident Characters of being Supposititious as the 203 with this Title to Iulian the Apostate Would St. Basil saith Mr. du Pin have directed him a Letter with this Epithet This Letter besides is not like the Style of this Father it is only a Profession of Faith to which is added the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images whoever heard that this was put in the Professions of the first Ages The Author of this Letter saith that he Honours and Adores the Images of Saints because it 's an Apostolical Tradition Did St. Basil speak thus and is it not visible that this Letter is the Work of some Greek who lived since the seventh Council For the same reason he rejects a Work which is attributed to St. Athanasius and Entituled The Narration of the Passion of the Image of Iesus Christ in the City of Berytus In the CCCXCI Letter answering to divers Questions that Amphilocus Bishop of Iconium had put to him he Expounds this Passage That no Body knows the Day of Iudgment but the Father after this manner that the Father knows it by himself because he is the Source and Principle of this Knowledge whereas the Son receives it from the Father as it is said in the same Sense That there is only God who is Good p. 517. In the CCCCX Letter he saith that we ought to be contented with the Faith we have made Profession of in our Baptism to keep to the Terms of the Holy Scripture and shun all new Expressions because our Faith depends not upon these Terms but the Orthodox Doctrin Of all the Fathers of the Fourth Age there was none more moderate nor perhaps a Man of more Worth than Gregory of Nazianze In the Apology he made for his Retreat into Pontus when he was going to be made Bishop he pathetically describes the Disorders of his time Where the Priests were like the People After that he deplores the Unhappiness of the Catholicks who were divided upon unprofitable Questions or such as were of small Consequence He says that in the same time when Faith is in dispute we are oblig'd to separate our selves from those that teach Impiety and to suffer any thing rather than approve on 't but that it 's a Folly to break Union and excite troubles for Questions that are not of Faith In his Oration against the Emperor Iulian this same Father makes a Digression upon the Mildness that the Christians have kept when they were Potent and opposes it to the Cruelties the Pagans have exercised There was a time say he to the Heathens that we have had the Authority as well as you but what have we done to those of your Religion that comes near what you have made the Christians suffer Have we taken away your Liberty Have we perswaded Governors to condemn you to Torments Have we attempted the Life of any Have we even put any from the Magistracy and Employments In a word have we done against you any thing that has given you Cause to make us suffer I do not conceive saith Mr. du Pin hereupon how St. Gregory of Nazianze can reconcile all these Maxims with what he hath just now said that Constantius had done very ill to leave the Empire to Iulian because he was an Enemy to the Christian Religion and that he would persecute it maintaining that in that Constantius had made a very ill use of his Mildness and Bounty As to the purpose of Constantius whilst Hilary of Poictiers calls him Antichrist and speaks a thousand other injuries against him Gregory of Nazianzen excuseth this Emperor upon the Subject of Arianism He casts the whole Fault upon the Great Men of the Court and even pretends that after his death Angelical Voices were heard that celebrated his Praises In the Funeral Speech of his Brother Cesarius he saith That he was informed by the Discourses of Learned Men that Souls that are Holy and acceptable to God being delivered from the Bonds of the Body feel an ineffable Joy and Pleasure in considering the Beatitude they are one day to receive that they go strait to God and that they already know as 't were in a Representation and Image the Beatitude they will receive after the Resurrection of the Body In his fifty third Poem he numbers holy Books exactly as the Protestants do only he doth not put the Apocalypse in the Canon of the New Testament otherwise this Bishop had a very ill Opinion of the Councils for in his LV Letter he declares that he fears all the Ecclesiastical Assemblies because he never saw the End of any Council which had been happy and which had not rather encreased their Misfortunes than diminished them
Vicissitudes of all that past in them He likewise applies himself very particularly to the History of the Province of Holland and shews the Epoch of these Courts which is generally given He clears by the by several things concerning the History of other Nations that of the Low Countries and in particular that of the Franches and makes many learned Observations upon all the Dignities mentioned in his Title so that its a very useful Work The Church was always so embodyed in the World the Disorders of which he sheweth that the Author cannot get forward without falling foul on all sides so that the Reader may expect in this great Volume a long account of what concerns the Clergy He finds there Fryars and Canons of all Sects and Kinds Convents where the Religious and Religiouses lived together I do not say in the same Cell but under the same Roof and in the same Apartment The World Naturally detracting the Chastity of Cloisters hath given occasion to think very oddly thereon and it was to take away that Scandal that the Civil and Canon Laws have forbidden both Sexes to live in the same Convent Nevertheless Mr. Matthews Reports that St. Briget founded several of this Nature and that Gilbert of Semplingham founded a great many by Advice of St. Bernard Amongst other Authors he quotes the Chronicle of Montserain which saith that in the Year 1223 because they would send abroad many of the Convent Sisters many glossed thereupon that the time of their Lying In drew near Consueto Laicis more loquentes dicebant Moniales illas à Monachis stupratas esse quibus jam pariendi tempus instaret He quotes a Poet named Nigellus who said that the Mother Abbess very well deserved that name by her Marvelous Fertility Quae pastoralis baculi dotatur honore Illa quidem melius fertilius que parit As he is a Satyrical Poet it would be very ill done to believe this upon his bare saying It is generally believed that St. Willibrord was the first Preacher of the Gospel amongst the Frizons But Mr. Matthews shews that St. Eloy Bishop of Nayon had Instructed these Barbarians It is true that the greatest part of these Conversions was reserved for those that came after them for St. Wilfride St. Willibrord St. Vulfran c. had a great hand in them and so had Pepins Troops and them of Charles Marlet his Son For Mr. Cordunoy acknowledgeth in his History of France that tho' the Frizons suffered Wilbrord to speak to them of the Christian Religion Pepin could not trust to that because most of them left off the worship of their Gods only by force A little after he saith they Revolted and Charles Martel having Vanquished them beat down their Idols and Temples and cut down the Forests which they thought Sacred and caused all them to be killed which would not submit It was a good time in those Countries for those which converted Mr. Matthews quotes William Malmesbury who saith that the Saxons and the Frizons were Converted by the pressing care of Martel who threatned one and promised a recompense to the other If it were Charles Magne St. Willibrord would not have received any profit for he did not live so long but under Charles Martel St. Willibrord and St. Boniface might have passed for Famous Converters at the Expence of the manner of doing and of their Masters Purse The Art of Preaching the Word of God containing the Rules of Christian Eloquence 12s At Paris 1687. page 524. THe Judgment of men is so different and the circumstances which produce perswasion are sometimes so contrary to one another that it is hard to prescribe unto Orators such Rules as are a little particular and of some use Yet as there are defects which all Men blame and such methods as please almost all People in the same Age Masters of Arts have thought it requisite to remark them Indeed these general reflections are not unprofitable provided we do not exceed those bounds For as soon as we come to particulars we may chance to give for Maxims contested things and so force or spoil the Genius of a young Man instead of perfecting him This is what those who shall read the Books which we are going to speak of may easily observe and which we shall endeavour to make here as plain as we can The Author of the work whose Title we have set down is a Roman Catholick Preacher who has thought convenient to remain Nameless apparently for the same Reason which hath hindred him a long while from Publishing these Reflections upon the Art of Preaching the reason was because he saw every day so much Jealousie amongst Persons of the same imploy Every Orator has particular turns and methods which seem good to him only That leaves always some suspicion that he blames unjustly in others what agreeth not with his particular Genius He hath divided his work into Four Books which are as so many Conversations wherein he Treats after a particular manner and which have no Taste of the Style of Schools of the principal qualities necessary for a Preacher The first Book concerns the Studies which a Christian Orator ought to prosecute Herein is maintained that he ought to read the Precepts of the Heathens and that they are necessary to attain Christian Eloquence 2. That Logick is not less necessary provided thereby is understood the Art of Reasoning well to discern what is true from what is false the certain from the doubtful and that which is evident from what is probable because this necessary use of true Logick cannot be sufficiently learned by the reading of Aristotles Rhetorick nor even by the frequent Commerce which we ought to have with good Authors as F. Rapin pretends who is cited here without being named 3. In regard to Physick he thinks that that Part only which regards Man is absolutely necessary to be known because he ought to be acquainted with all the natural Dispositions of the Mind and all the general and particular Truths which make him more able and ready to say this is true 4. Touching Scholastick Divinity he introduces an Abbot who testifies a high contempt for those who maintain that the Scholastick Doctors teach often nothing less than the Doctrin of the Church and that when even they do teach it they cannot dispose their minds to Preach it well But he answers him that true Scholastick Divinity is nothing else than the Doctrin of the Church Examined and Established according to the solid Rules of true Logick which teach how to define divide and reason exactly The Abbot having replyed that if so Men have no other obligation to the Master of Sentences nor to his Commentators than for having made the Science of the Church Scholastick or filling it with an infinite deal of unprofitable and Chymical Questions and of having given it a very Barbarous Style the Author replies That we must distinguish what this method hath in it
remarkable that he had a more than ordinary desire to be instructed in the Fundamentals of the Sciences and being yet very young he read the Works of my Lord Bacon Des Cartes and Gallileus In reading the Remarks of Scaliger upon Eusebius he observed that Chronology was founded upon Astronomy whereupon he also resolv'd to apply himself to the study of this last Science He set himself to read the Almagest of Ptolomy but he soon perceiv'd that he cou'd not read this sort of Books with advantage without the help of Geometry then he applied himself to the study of Euclides Elements in which he profited much in a little time and afterwards publish'd the Elements of Geometry explain'd in few words and better than ever was done before him Besides these are the Titles of some other Mathematical Books which he compos'd Euclidis Data Lectiones Opticae Lectiones Geometricae Archimedis Opera Apollonii Conicorum Lib. IV. Theodosti Sphaerica Lectio de Sphaera Cylindro One wou'd be surprized that so great a Geometrician cou'd also be a Poet yet we are assured in his Life that there are found several Poems amongst the Titles of his Latine Works Dr. Duport having renounc'd his Charge of Professor of the Greek Tongue he recommended Mr. Barrow who had been his Scholar whereupon he was admitted to Examination and read with great applause but he could not obtain the place because 't was thought he was inclin'd to Arminianism which was not savoured in England during the Usurpation this made him resolv'd to travail He went to France from thence to Italy where he embarked at Leghorn for Smyrna from whence he went to Constantinople there he tarried a year and we are assured during that time he read the works of the most famous Patriarch that that City ever had We may easily understand it was St Chrysostom that is here spoken of afterwards Mr. Barrow embarked for Venice from whence he returned for England by the way of Germany and Holland When King Charles the second was restored all the World believed Dr. Barrow would be preferred because he had been always firm to the Interests of the Royalists but being disappointed he made this Distich upon his unkind treatment Te Magis optavit rediturum Carole Nemo Et Nemo sensit te Rediisse Minus However he was elected Professor of the Greek tongue in 1660 and Chosen two years after to teach Geometry In the year following Mr. Lucas having founded a Chair for a Professor of Mathematicks he was the first that fill'd it and there was an Order made for him and those that were to succeed him that they shou'd be oblig'd every year to leave to the University Ten of their Lectures in writing he so passionately loved the Mathematicks that there was found before his Apollonius these words written in his own hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tu autem Domine quantus es Geometra cum enim haec Scientia nullos terminos habeat c. God himself hath Geometry in his thoughts but thou O Lord how great a Geometrician art thou For tho' this Science has no bounds yet one may find an infinite number of new Theorems by the only assistance of a humane Capacity THOV seest all these Truths at one glance without any chain of consequences and without being wearied with a long search of demonstrations In other things our Intellect is defective and it seems that we do think of I do not know what for want of a perfect assurance From whence it happens that there are almost as many Opinions as different Persons But all the World agree in the Truth of Mathematicks and 't is in this that the Mind of Man feels its strength and is perswaded that it can effect something great and wonderful c. This only is able to enflame me with the Love of Thee and to make me wish with as much ardor as is possible for that happy day in which my Spirit being delivered from every thing that now perplexes it shall be assured not only of these Truths but of an infinite number of others without the trouble of deducing consequences c. There is without doubt but a very few Men who amongst those reasons which induce 'em to wish for Heaven give this of expecting the Happiness of a Perfect Knowledge of the Mathematicks there Thus Mr. Barrow having wearied himself with these Speculations resolved to addict himself only to the study of Divinity After which the Bishops of St. Asaph and Salisbury gave him some Benefices and the King made him Rector of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in the year 1672. The Colledges of the Vniversities of England are otherwise regulated than those beyond Sea The charge of the Master of a Colledge is much more considerable than that of the Rectors of Forreign Academies or Colledges A few years after Mr. Barrow was preferred to a more eminent Post to wit Vice-Chancellor which is the greatest charge of the University and after this Chancellor which is not given but to Persons of the first Quality The Author of the Life of Mr. Barrow informs us how he governed the Colledge with an Vniversal Applause but it shall suffice to say that he there composed divers Treatises and amongst others that of the Supremacy of the Pope which is at the end of the first Volume In fine he died at London the 4th of March the year 1677. and was buried at Westminster where his friends erected a Marble Monument without an Epitaph which is added to the end of his Life The first five Sermons which compose the first Volume treat of the Excellency of the Christian Religion and of the Interest which accrews to us in loving and practising it the four following expound the great Duties of Christianity Prayer and Thanksgiving The 10th 11th and 12th are upon particular occasions to wit The Return of the King The Gunpowder-Plot And the Conseâ—ration of the Bishop of Man his Vncle. The ten following from the 13th to the 23d were composed against the sin of speaking too much in conversation in speaking ill of his Neighbour and Swearing c. Mr. Barrow is very large upon these matters because there are few Vices so universal tanta hujusmodi Libido saith St. Paulinus cited by the Author Mentes hominum invasit ut etiam qui procul aliis Vitiis recesserunt in illud tamen quasi in extremum Diaboli Laqueum incidant Those which follow even to the 30th have respect unto the great Precepts in which the Law is fulfilled to wit to love God and our Neighbour All the preceding Sermons were not published till after the death of the Author but he himself caused the two last of this Volume to be printed whereof one treats of Charity towards the Poor and the other of the Passion of Iesus Christ Dr. Tillotson speaks of the first that there could be nothing more elaborate in its kind and that Dr. Barrow had spoken the utmost that the
proves the truth of the Christian Religion the falseness of Paganism and Mahometanism Imperfection of the Religion of the Jews and the excellency of that of Jesus Christ whom he shews in four large Sermons to be the true Messia Afterwards he explains all that is contained in the second article of the Creed In the two last he shews the Justice and certainty of a day of Judgment In fine the 34th treats all along of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost The third Volume contains 45 Sermons which treat mostly of Morals The three first are upon those texts of the Scripture which command us to do all in the Name of Jesus Christ and in Imitation of him The six following shew the Submission which we ought to have to the will of God and contentment of mind to which the Apostle gives so great praises The 10th and 11th treat of patience and joy the 12th and 13th on the study of a mans self the 14th and 15th of the thoughts of our latter end the 16th and 17 of the danger of deferring repentance the 18th and from thence to the 22th of the labours and employments of all sorts of persons of whatsoever condition they may be the 23d of the depth of the Judgment of the Almighty the four following of the obedience we owe to our spiritual Guide the 28th and the following to the 31st of self-love and its different kinds the 32d and unto the 35th to do nothing but what is honest in the eyes of the world the three following of the goodness of God and that he is no respecter of persons the 39th and unto the 42th of the Universality of Redemption and the three last of the birth and passion of Jesus Christ and of the gift of the Holy Ghost Besides what we have said of the method of Dr. Barrow which is that that is at this day observed by the most able Divines of the English Church 't will not be amiss to observe that by the application he hath made to the Mathematicks he has formed to himself a habit of writing very exactly avoiding unuseful digressions and making use of Solid proofs rather than Rhetorical figures according to the Custom of many Preachers who apply themselves rather to a plausible eloquence than the Solidity of sound reasons It was thought necessary to give this account lest the Publick should be displeased with the name of Sermon which was so dreadful for three Volumes in folio to contain nothing else Those who have been in England and have had any knowledge of the writings of the Divines of that Country know the esteem in which our Author is there but to satisfie in some manner those who understand not English I shall here give an extract of the 8th Sermon in the 2d Book where the Author proves the existence of God by the Consent of all Nations Lactantius After having cited many Heathen and Christian Authors against Atheism he brings the testimony of all People and Nations which agree almost in nothing but the belief of a Divinity Testimonium Populorum atque Gentium in Vna hac re non dissidentium this is of great force whether it be considered in it self or by the relation to its Original An Antient Philosopher ranged probable things in this order that which seems true to some learn'd persons is in some sort probable that which appears so to the greatest part or to all the Learned is most probable what is believed by most men both Learned and Ignorant is yet more likely but what all men consent to has the greatest probability of truth so that one must be very extravagantly obstinate to have the boldness to deny it there is no man in the World can by his reasons only ballance the constant authority of all men If any one by a Spirit of contradiction or otherwise should undertake to prove that Snow is black as did Anaxagoras or maintain motion impossible as Zeno did or that contradictory assertions may be true at the same time as Heraclitus did That there remains no other means to refute such a man because he hath rejected the most evident principles and opposes himself to the Universal consent of Mankind if he refuses such a concession all that we can do is to look upon him rather with pity than contempt We ought to have very convincing and clear reasons to resist the common suffrage of all men and accuse them equally of error To illustrate this still more or rather to demonstrate the Thesis upon which it is founded it is necessary to cite the testimonies of some Heathen Philosophers which cannot be suspected on this occasion The consent of all men saith Seneca is of very great weight to us 't is an argument a thing is true when it appears so to all the World thus we conclude there is a Divinity because that all men believe it there being no Nation however corrupted which denies it Cicero says the same thing in several places and observes further that many Nations had extravagant opinions of the Divinity yet they all agree in this that there is one eternal power on which all men have their dependance In violent disputes saith Maximus of Tyre in contestations and divers opinions which are amongst men one may see a Law and Doctrine equally established in all Nations that there is a God which is King and Father of all men and that there are many Gods Sons of this Supream Being which Reign with him This is confess'd by the Greeks and Barbarians the Inhabitants of all places both Learn'd and Ignorant There are many like Witnesses and if any Philosophers have contradicted this general consent they are so few in number that according to the foresaid Author they ought to be looked upon as Monsters as an Oxe without Horns and a Fowl without Wings If we should consider the Original of this common Opinion we should acknowledge it yet more solid for in fine this consent can proceed but from one of these four things Where there is a thought which is the result of a natural Instinct as the most evident principles of the Sciences and the desire we have to be happy as Cicero and many other Philosophers have declared Where we have a natural disposition to receive this Impression as our eyes are naturally disposed to see the Light as soon as it appears as Iulian himself said Where some strange reason that presents it self to the minds of men even the grossest and what depends chiefly upon common notions hath produced this consent as Plutarch has it Where in fine some ancient Tradition that came from the same source has spread this opinion through all the earth according to the thoughts of some others There can be no other way Imagined by which this opinion hath been received amongst all men who are so much inclined to judge diversly of the same thing now chuse which of these ways you will our reasons are equally strong and
Antient People from whence Colonies have fill'd all the World as we are taught by the oldest Histories that remain amongst us It 's true also that to this hath been added a thousand Extravagancies touching the Nature of the Divine Being and the manner of Worship done to him But 't is thus that Judaism was corrupted by the Jewish Doctors and the Christian Religion by that of the Christians which have innovated so many Changes that it was hardly known for some Ages Is it not false say they that these two Religions came from Moses and Jesus Christ The same thing hath happen'd to the first Tradition and Aristotle hath believ'd that in effect it was thus his words are too remarkable to be omitted The most profound Antiquity hath left to future Ages under hidden Fables the belief that there were Gods and that the Divinity was displayed in all the Works of Nature There 's added afterwards That these Fables teach us to perswade the People and render 'em more obedient to the Laws for the good of the State although some say that the Gods resemble Men Animals and other things If we keep to those things only which were spoke of in the beginning to wit that the Gods were the Original of Nature there would be nothing said that is unworthy of the Divinity There is some likelihood that the Sciences having been often found out and as often lost these Opinions were preserved until now as the other Doctrines of the Antients Thus we may distinguish the Opinions of our Fathers from those who lived first upon the Earth 'T would be difficult to make a better proof of a matter of fact and some have even dared to say That in Physicks there is rarely proved an existence of one Cause by a great number of effects which are so great in number so divers so sensible and so certain The harmony which is between the parts of the Universe which conspire all to the same end and always keep the same order shews that this Divinity known to all Mankind is one in Number and the same in Concord as may be seen in a State between persons of different humours which live under the same Laws Thus it appears in the March of an Army which obeys its General and thus the Order and Regularity which is seen in a House proves 't was built by one Architect only This all the World acknowledgeth in spite of the great number of Gods the Heathens have made for they themselves confess'd a Supreme Divinity to whom all others were to submit themselves as the Poets even call him The Father the King the Most High the Greatest the Most Excellent of the Gods c. This much Philosophers have acknowledged which say that even all names that are call'd upon by the People shewed but one Divinity only Quoties voles saith Seneca tibi licet aliter tunc Auctorem rerum nostrarum compellare Tot appellationes ejus esse possunt quot Munera hunc Liberum patrem Herculem ac Mercurium nostri putant c. omnia ejusdem Dei nomina sunt variè utentis sua potestate Sophocles says very often in a Tragedy that is lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In truth there is a God and there is but one who hath made the Heaven the Earth the Sea and the Winds nevertheless there are many Mortals who by strange Illusions make Statues and Gods of Stone of Brass of Gold and Ivory to give them speedy deliverance from their evils they offer Sacrifices and consecrate Festivals vainly imagining that Piety consists in Ceremonies Thus Marcillius Ficinus who translated Plato into Latin and who was willing to renew the old Platonick Tenets believes amongst several more that men were offended because they found in Plato the name of God in the Plural Number but this Philosopher did only mean subalternate Gods or Angels that those says he which are not surprized with the number of Angels are not at all astonish'd with the number of Gods because in Plato so many Gods import no more than so many Angels and so many Saints Dr. Barrow concludes upon the whole that the Universal consent of all Nations does very well prove that there is a God and we cannot doubt but that it is very reasonable One may understand by this that the Sermons of this Author are rather treatises or exact dissertations than pure harangues to please a multitude If we were not resolved to keep within the bounds of an unbyassed Historian we might say that there never was a Preacher comparable to this Author but our particular suffrage or rather that of all England ought not to be a president to all Europe The Life of the most Reverend Father in God James Usher late Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland with a Collection of 300 Letters which he writ to the most illustrious men of his time for Piety and Learning and some he received from England and other parts Published from the Original by Richard Parr after his Death to whom he had given the Care of his Papers London Sold by Nathaniel Ranew 1686. in Folio THIS Volume is composed of two Parts whereof the one contains the Life of the famous Vsher written by Parr Doctor of Divinity and the other a Collection of divers Letters that this Illustrious Arch-Bishop hath written to several Learned Men of his Time with some of their Answers 1. There have been already seen several Abridgments of the Life of Vsher but as those who compos'd them had not a memory sufficient for the Work so they have given nothing to the Publick but what was very imperfect 'T was this made Dr. Parr undertake to publish what he knew of this Prelate to whom he was Chaplain thirteen years from 1642 to 1655 he knew him throughly in that time and learn'd many circumstances of his Life which those were Ignorant of who lived at a greater distance Dr. Parr hath also received much assistance from the Papers of Vsher which among others fell into his hands and from the Conversations that he hath had with Mr. Tyrrel his Grandson a Gentleman of an extraordinary merit The Primate of Ireland was Universally esteem'd during his Life and his works are still in so great a reputation that men will not be sorry to see here a little Abridgment of his History Iames Vsher was born at Dublin the fourth of Ianuary 1580. his Fathers name was Arnold and was one of the six Clerks of the Chancery The Family of the Vshers is very Antient altho' the right name is not Vsher but Nevil but one of the Ancestors of our Archbishop chang'd it into that of Vsher because he was Usher to King Iohn who ascended the Throne of England 1199. our Prelate had from his Infancy an extraordinary passion for Learning Two Scotch Gentlemen who advis'd him in his studies entertain'd him with much care The one was nam'd Iames Fullerton the
said also that Usher was a Bishop that he had made because that he had appointed him so without being sollicited to it by any person this Election was made in 1620. Returning into Ireland sometime after he was oblig'd to discourse some persons of Quality of the Roman Religion to administer to 'em the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that they had refused to the Priest this discourse is inserted in his Life he remarks the form of this Oath is compos'd of two parts the one positive in which they acknowledge the King is Soveraign in all cases whatsoever and the other negative in which they declare they acknowledge no Jurisdiction or Authority of any strange Prince in the estates of the King he says afterwards in regard of the first part that the Scripture commands that we submit our selves to the Higher Powers and that we ought to acknowledge that the power the Kings have whatsoever it may be is Supream as they are Kings upon which he cites this verse of Martial Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat That one ought well to distinguish the power of the Keys from that of the Sword and the King of England does not exact an acknowledgment of the same power that is possess'd by the Bishops but nevertheless the Kings may interest themselves with Ecclesiastical Affairs in as much as it regards the body since according to the Church of Rome 't is the Magistrates duty to punish Hereticks For that which regards the second part of the Oath where it 's said that we shall not own any strange power as having any Iurisdiction Superiority Preheminence Ecclesiastical or Temporal in the Kingdom He says that if St. Peter were still alive he would willingly own that the King had this Authority in Ireland and that he us'd the same in regard of all the Apostles that the Apostleship was a personal dignity which the Apostles have not left hereditary to any but nevertheless suppose it was so he sees not why St. Peter should leave it to his successors rather than St. Iohn who outliv'd all the Apostles that there was no reason to believe that St. Peter shou'd leave the Apostolical Authority to the Bishops of Rome rather than to those of Antioch this last Church being founded before the first The King writ to Vsher to thank him for this Discourse which produced so good effect He afterwards went into England by the King's order to collect the Antiquities of the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and publish'd two years after that his Book intituled De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum 'T was in that time that the King made him Arch-Bishop of Armagh The Winter following he caused to be brought before him the Order for Toleration of the Roman Catholicks and the Lord Falkland then Deputy for the King in Ireland convocated and assembled the whole Nation to settle this Affair But the Bishops call'd by the Primate oppos'd it with much heat as may be seen by a Remonstrance sign'd by ten Bishops besides the Primate and which is in the 28th page They also spoke of raising some Forces by the Joynt consent both of Catholicks and Protestants to hinder any differences that might arise in the Kingdom the Protestants refus'd to consent thereto and wou'd not hearken to discourse the Primate thereupon in the Castle of Dublin altho' his reasonings were founded upon the principal Maxims of the Government of Ireland and maintain'd by Examples drawn from the Antient and Modern Histories of that Kingdom During the time our Primate stayed in Ireland after he had performed the Duties of his Charge which he acquitted with extraordinary care he employed the remaining part of his time to study the fruits whereof were to be seen in 1631. in the first Latin book which he ever published in Ireland 't is his History of Godescalch Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the 6th Age there was soon made a small abridgment of the History of Pelagianism which was then extreamly dispersed through Spain and England when he comes to the History of Godescalch he explains his Doctrine and shews by Flodoard and other Authors of that time that those sentiments whereof Hincmar Archbishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Archbishop of Maynce accused him and which were condemn'd by their Authority in two Councils were the same that St. Remigius Archbishop of Lyons and the Clergy of his Diocess defended openly many opinions and odious consequences according to Vsher were fathered upon Godescalch because that this Monk who maintained the opinions of St Augustine about Predestination and Grace did not at all understand ' em Ioannes Scotus Erygenus wrote a treatise against him in which are to be found the principal heads of Vsher but Florus Deacon of the Church of Lions answers it and censures him in the Name of all the Diocess Vsher gave an abridgment of this Censure as also of divers other treatises as that of St Remigius Pudentius Bishop of Troy Ratramus Monk of Corbi who writ against Scotus for his defence of Godescalch there had been two Councils which established the doctrine of this Monk and condemn'd that of Scotus 'T is true that Hincmar published a very large Book against these Councils which he dedicated to Charles le Chauve as Flodoard reports who shews briefly what it is that this Book treats of but that did not at all hinder St. Remigius and those of his Party to convocate another Council at Langres where they confirm'd the Doctrine established in the former Councils and condemn'd that new one of Scotus These Controversies were still agitated in the National Council of the Gauls where nothing was concluded altho' Barancus and others voted that Godescalch should be condemn'd there On the contrary Vsher maintains that in an Assembly which was in a small time after his Sentiments were approv'd of Nevertheless this wicked Godescalch was condemn'd by the Council of Maynce to perpetual Imprisonment where he was severely treated because he would never retract his Errours There are still two Confessions of his Faith by which one may see there are many things attributed to him which he never believ'd after having made a faithful report of the Sentiments of this Monk and those of his Adversaries Vsher concludes that it were better for men to be silent upon these matters than to scandalize the weak in proposing to 'em such Doctrines from which they may draw bad consequences There has been adds Mr. Parr and always will be different Opinions upon the great and abstruse Questions of Predestination and Free Will which nevertheless may be tolerated in the same Church provided those who maintain these divers Opinions have that Charity for one another which they ought to have That they condemn them not publickly That they abstain from mutual Calumnies and that they publish no Invectives against those who are not of the same Sentiments To return to the Life of our Prelate who altho' he
from thence to the end of the Last Age. Whilst our Primate was in Wales there was published at London without his consent three works under his name 1. A Body of Divinity or the Substance of Christian Religion 2 Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God 3 A Catechism Intituled The Principles of the Christian Religion The last being full of faults he corrected it and printed it himself in 1652. In the year 1647. whilst he was at the Countess of Peterborough's in London the Society of Lincolns Inn chose him for their Preacher and gave him a lodging and a handsome Pension whilst he was there he published two Books 1. Diatriba de Romanae Ecclesiae symbolo apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis he there treats of the Creed which is commonly called the Apostles and of the different Copys which have been found in the Roman Church and of divers forms of the Confession of Faith which where proposed to the Catechumenoi and to the Youth of the Eastern and Western Churches 2. His Treatises de anno solari Macedonum Asianorum where he explains divers difficulties of Chronology and Ecclesiastical History and marks the precise time of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp he compares the year of the Macedonians the Asiaticks c. with the Iulian Account and makes divers curious remarks upon the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies according to the opinion of the Antient Greek Astronomers Melonius Calippus Eudoxius c. In fine he gives the Ephemerides of the Macedonian and Asiatick year compar'd with the Julian year to which he adds the rising and setting of the Stars and the presages of the change Weather in Thrace Macedonia and Greece according to the observations which Antient Philosophers have left us The Parliament at that time took the King Prisoner in the Isle of Wight and wou'd have him absolutely abolish Episcopal Government so that this Prince was obliged to consent that that Government should be suspended for three years but the Presbyterian party were so eager that they would have it utterly extirpated upon this the Primate of Ireland propos'd an Expedient in which he would have had mixed a sort of of Presbyterian and Episcopal Government in lessening the power of the Bishops and bringing them to be Moderators or Presidents of the Assemblies of their Province without whose advice nothing of Importance shou'd be acted whereupon Vsher was accus'd to have been an Enemy to Hierarchy but Dr. Parr vindicates him all along He also informs us that Vsher being in the Countess of Peterboroughs House over against Charing Cross near White-hall when the King was to be beheaded and being upon the top of the house to see this bloody Tragedy the good Archbishop fainted away so that he was forc'd to be carried to bed where he said that God would not forget to punish this wickedness upon the English Nation he added that the Vsurpation of Cromwel would soon expire and that the King would be recall'd but that he himself should not see it we are assured that at another time he foretold that the Romish Religion should one day be powerful in this Kingdom and its reign should be sharp but short 'T is reported also that Preaching in a Church at London he declar'd to his Auditors that a great fire should soon consume a part of the City and when 't was asked him how he knew it he answer'd 't was a Thought which was so strangely impress'd upon his mind that he could not forbear speaking of it If that was true our Primate must be of the number of these Prophets who have sometimes foretold what was to come without knowing it About the middle of the year 1650. he finished the first part of his Annals to the year of the World 3828. unto the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes There is in this Volume all the celebrated Epochs mark'd with great exactness the times of the Reigns of the Kings of Israel and of Iudah compared with each other The succession of the Monarchies of Babylon Persia and Macâ—â—onia the years of the Olympiads the Aera of Nabanassar the most remarkable Eclipses of the Sun The second part was published in 1654. it begun at the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and ended at the destruction of Ierusalem Usher gives there exact accounts of the Kings of Syria and Egypt with the times of their Reign which he hath put together with more care than any Chronologer hath done before him In fine there is all that can be wished in an Universal History both for exactness and Judgment 'T was after the edition of this work that Cromwell said he desired to see him Usher appear'd before him and the Protector after having received him with great Civility promised to make up part of the loss he sustain'd in Ireland but he kept not his Word to him no more than when he promis'd him the Episcopal Clergy should not be molested as they had been to that time The good Archbishop having obtain'd this promise in a visit he made to the Protector he was oblig'd to put him in mind of it by seeing him a second time where Cromwell ingenuously declar'd that he could not give Liberty of Conscience to men who were sworn Enemies to his Government and who without intermission endeavour'd to destroy him When Vsher entered this Vsurpers Chamber he found him in the hands of a Surgeon who was dressing an Ulcer in his Breast The Protector desired the Archbishop to sit down and said he would speak to him as soon as his Ulcer was dressed Whilst the Surgeon was busie about it Cromwell said that if this Ulcer was once cured he should soon have his Health Vsher replied immediately that he fear'd there was a more dangerous Vlcer in his Heart which must be cur'd before he could promise himself a perfect health 'T is true said the Protector sighing but tho' he seem'd to take this censure of the Archbishop's in good part he refus'd to keep his promise to him Vsher liv'd not long after that falling very sick on the 20th of March of a Pleurisie but the Physitians knew not his Distemper so that he died the day following at Rygate in a Countrey House of the Countess of Peterboroughs in the County of Surrey he was seventy five years old he had been fifty five years in Orders during which time he continually Preach'd fourteen years Professor in the Vniversity of Dublin four years Bishop of Meath and one and thirty years Bishop of Ardmagh he was the hundredth Bishop of that City after St. Patrick Cromwell who sought all occasions to please the people and knew that Vsher had been well belov'd ordered him to be buried with great solemnity in Westminster Abby in the Chappel of Erasmus altho' he would not be at the charge of the Funeral he did also another thing which much prejudiced his Family which was to hinder their selling the Archbishops Library without his consent there was
afterwards in what manner the Apostles consecrated the Sabbath particularly by this passage of St. Ignatius to the Magnesians Non amplius sabbatizantes sed secundum Dominicam Viventes in qua vita nostra orta est But this matter hath been more largely treated upon by others and Vsher confesses when he read the Fathers he collected nothing upon this subject because he thought there was never any controversie about it produced amongst the Divines Those that desire to understand all the Antient Characters of the Saxons may find an Alphabet thereof in the 253 Letter from Dr. Longbain as also divers Letters that treated by the by of Chronological questions and Astronomy but as there is nothing compleat or very considerable upon these abstruse matters upon which few persons will give themselves any trouble 't was thought unnecessary to make any extract thereof I shall say but one word of the 267 Letter addressed to Lewis Cappel where our Archbishop takes against him the part of Arnold Boat the difference that was between these two Learned men may be reduced to these two heads First Boat believed there was very little variety of reading in the Old Testament as the differences of Keri and Chelib and of the Eastern and Western Copies and that these varieties were not to be found but by the means of the Massore and from the Hebrew Manuscripts Cappel on the contrary maintains that the number of these varieties are very great that they may be collected from many ancient Copies and particularly that of the Septuagint although much corrupted The Archbishop says also that we can't have such assurance upon this version where there are many prodigious faults and so very many differences that the Authors connot be made use of but as an Original very corrupt even without speaking of the errors produced by malice but there is no Book of the Scripture where they are so far from the Original as that of Iob which by the Authority of Origen and St. Ierome is proved that these Interpreters have cut off a great number of verses Vsher maintains after St. Ierome that they added and changed several passages He says 't was occasioned by malice to keep from the Greeks the knowledge of the Sacred Oracles having shewn in some places that they were very capable of translating it well had they been Inclin'd thereto as in the Book of Ezek. where they are much more conform to our Hebrew than in the other Books of the Scripture according to the works of St. Ierome These Sentiments of Vsher are not to be wondered at when we consider what hath been said of his opinion concerning the Author of the Translation of the 70. Secondly Boat and Vsher believed that they began to work at Massore immediately after the time of Esdras whereas Cappel maintains that it was not so much as thought on till 600 years after Christ Vsher endeavours to maintain his Sentiment by a proof drawn from the Gemare of Babylon Which makes mention of Certain Scribes who counted all the Letters of the Law and mark'd that Vau which is in the word Gachon Levit. 11.24 is exactly in the middle in regard of the number of the Letters c. On which occasion Usher speaks of Ioseph and tho he confess'd to Cappel that Philo did not know the Hebrew he agrees not with the Jewish Historian who had written his History in Hebrew as himself saith and who drew it from the Original Hebrew Vsher says nevertheless that he hath not done it faithfully As Ierome Xavier the Jesuite saith 't is not long since he gave the History of the Evangelists to the Persians which he hath adjusted as himself pleas'd Ioseph gave formerly to the Greeks the History of the Old Testament changing therein and adding thereto many things drawn from the Apocriphal Books 'T is thus that he says Solomon Reigned 80. years in stead of 40. and that he says David Left for the use of the Temple 100000 talents of Silver instead of 1000000 He adds to the Text an account of Moses Age from three years of the War he made with the Ethiopians and of Tharbis son of the Ethiopian King which conceived a great love for him c Vsher speaks also of the Samaritan Pentateuch from whence he brings 5. or 6 Copies first into Europe He believes that it was corrupted by one Dosthes or Dositheus which in the time of the Apostles was suppos'd to pass for the Messia amongst the Samaritans this is founded upon the Authority of St. Origen who assures us in express terms that this Dositheus corrupted the Pentateuch in many places He afterwards brings some passages in the Samaritan Pentateuch where he maintains that the numbers or the words were chang'd he even believes that Hebrew was intermix'd with the Greek Septuagint If that were true we ought not to be surpriz'd to find that this translation is more conform to the Samaritan text than the Hebrew Vsher also pretends that there is not more variety of reading any where than in the Greek Version Tom. 8. p. 174. The Antiquities of the British Churches in which is inserted the History of the Pestiferous Heresie introduced into the Church by Pelagius a Britain against the Grace of God To which is added an historical Exposition of the most important dispute about the Succession and State of the Christian Churches By James Usher Archbishop of Ardmagh Primate of Ireland The Second Edition Each part Corrected and Augmented by the Author himself At London 1687. in Fol. pag. 738. THE British Antiquities of Usher are composed of three parts the first containeth six Chapters and includes the fabulous History of the Progress of the Christian Religion in England since the year XLI of Jesus Christ to the year CCI. The Monks of the last Ages have almost entirely invented it and whatsoever truththere may be in it is so mingled with gross lyes that in divers places of the Pagan Fables are found more footsteps of truth than in these Monastick Histories Neither doth Vsher propose them as true he is so far from that that he advertiseth the Reader to believe nothing of it by these terms of the Epicharme Watch and Remember to be incredulous are the sins of Wisdom and by these words of Euripides there is nothing more profitable to mortals than a wise incredulity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it is certain that a great many men do but too much follow this maxim in our Age So it cannot be doubted but a great part of Christianity hath need enough to be put in mind thereof What is most likely in it to be true is according to the testimony of Gildas which hath been related elsewhere that some person Preached the Gospel in England towards the end of the Reign of Tiberius which continued here until the time of Dioclesian At least Tertullian and Origen reckon England amongst those Countries that in their time had
tibi solus Sed ubi tres Ecclesia est licet Laici c. Grotius took the part of Mr. Rigaut his Friend and then printed a small Dissertation de Coenae administratione ubi Pastores non sunt It is in the third Tome of his Theological Works We may also see an Abridgment thereof in a Letter to Salmatius which is 260. of the 1. p. where our Author testifies he was of Erasmus's opinion to wit that in the Primitive times the Faithful consecrated the Bread and Wine and communicated together there being often no Priest in the Company See the Letter of Erasmus to Cuthbert Tonstar l. xxvi Epist. Grotius seems to have much respect for Christian Antiquity as may be seen by all his works and by this place of the Letter 191. of the 2. p. Perhaps those who are of Voetius 's opinion will think it will be a Socinianism to make the principal part of Religion consist in the observation of the precepts of Iesus Christ. But I see that the Christians of the first Ages the Assemblies the Doctors Martyrs have been of this Iudgment that there are few things which we ought necessarily to know and that as to the rest God Iudgeth us according to the obedience we have rendered to him The same also appears by a Conversation that Grotius had with the Prince of Condé in 1639. and whereof he gives an account to Chancellor Oxenstiern in Letter 1108. of the 1. p. He relates to this Suedish Lord that the Prince had given him a visit that they had discoursed of several things and that this Prince had approved his Opinions that in this Age one may attribute to himself the Name of a Christian and the Surname of Catholick the Scripture must be believed interpreted not according to the particular Judgment of each one which hath caused Seditions Schisms and often Wars but according to the universal and perpetual consent of the Ancient Churches which we find in the Writings of several excellent men and chiefly in the Symbols and Acts of the true Ecumenick Councils which were held before the Schism of the Eastern and the Western Churches and which the Emperors and all the Churches have approved of That moreover we must abstain from calumniating any one to leave off the Spirit of Parties to endeavour the Unity of the Church such as Jesus Christ hath ordained and the Apostles have founded and to hold for our Brothers to wit for Christians and Catholicks all those who are in these opinions although those who rule over the Churches have separated themselves from the External Communion Haec omnia Princeps sibi dicebat probari sapientissimis quos cognosset hominibus Not that Grotius was very much conceited with the antiquity he believed as some are that the Ceremonies which it hath constantly kept to are all of Divine Right Thus he speaks to Mr. des Condés about Confirmation and Imposition of hands Let. 329. 1. p. I have found by reading that the imposition of hands was a Jewish Ceremony which was introduced not by any Divine Law but by Custom every time that any Body prayed God for another For the Jews prayed God that his Power should accompany that Man as the hands which were put upon his Head and which were the Symbol of the Divine Power were united to him Jesus Christ followed this Custom as several others of the Synagogue whether Children were to be Blessed or the sick were to be Cured in joining Prayer to this Ceremony It is according to this Custom and not consequent to any Precept that the Apostles laid their hands on those to whom they conferred the Gift of the Holy Ghost by Prayer Thus it was that not only Priests used the same when they received any into their Body as it appears by the Example of Timothy 1 Tim. iv 15. But the Apostles themselves received anew the imposition of Hands when they engaged into any new design Acts xiii 2 So if at every time that hands were imposed a Sacrament was conferred we shall find Sacraments in all the Prayers which have been made for any one which is contrary to the true Signification of the word and to the use of the Ancients It 's from this Ceremony continueth our Author which was not ordained by God but which hath of it self been introduced amongst the Jews and Christians that sprung the Sacraments of Confirmation of Ordination and Penitence of Extream Unction and even of Marriage for the Ancient Churches laid their hands on those who were Married as the Abyssins this day do The Baptism of Christians adds he consisted in times past in immersion only as that of the Jews who baptized all those who embraced their Religion It appears not that any laid hands on those who were baptized but those who had the Gift of conferring the Holy Ghost This hath been introduced rather in honour of Bishops to persuade the People that they had succeeded to the Rights of the Apostles In the second Age and the following divers Ceremonies were added to Baptism by allusion to some passages in Scripture according to the Custom of the Ancients who expressed themselves not only by Words but also by Signs and Symbols It is for that that they made those who were baptized to tast of Hony and Milk But it was thought fit to represent particularly by these Symbols that those who believe in Jesus Christ receive in their Soul the same Graces which Jesus Christ made the sick feel which he cured in their Body or that those who make profession of believing in him feel the Eyes of their Soul to open as well as the Ears of their Heart that they are cured of all their spiritual maladies and that the Devil hath no further Power over them Therefore Exorcisms were made use of and the term of Epphata be opened also of Spittle of Oyl whereof Jesus Christ and the Apostles made use of in curing corporal maladies Posterity was not content with this 'T was thought it ought to be made apparent that Christians are Kings and Priests in anointing with a more odoriferous oyl This Unction was joined to Baptism as it is yet with the Greeks and as it hath been a long time in the Latin Church The Priests who baptized administred it as well as the Bishops the Bishop according to the Testimony of St. Ierome and St. Augustine differing from the Priest only in this that the Bishop had the sole right of Ordaining Priests Our Author after having made these Remarks gives his Sentiment concerning a Canon of a 1. Council of Orange which caused then great disputes betwixt Mr. de S. Cyran and F. Sirmond and maintains that the latter had well cited and understood it tho' his Adversary accused him of falshood Grotius believes that this Canon gives the Power to Priests to administer the Chrisme and orders that it should be administred but once Nullus Ministrorum qui baptizandi recepit officium sine Chrismate
was Ambassador to the Court of Swedland he notwithstanding doth advance divers things which are contrary to what Grotius saith himself in his Letters He saith for example that Grotius being vext because Cardinal Richelieu had cut off his Pension the first time he was in France and had caused him thus to leave it See not the Cardinal under this fine pretence that he helped not the Ambassadors It 's what Mr. Aubery calls an unconceivable stand or for a better expression a Dutch obstinacy which hindered his reconciliation with this potent Minister tho' he had a very great need of him for his service in his particular affairs so that he treated but with the subaltern Ministers Grotius saith on the contrary that he saw him pretty often and relates some discourses he had with him as may be seen in 1. p. letter 491 505 535. and elsewhere There is no great likelihood that Grotius gave the Chancellor of Swedeland long relations of any affairs which he had negotiated as he saith with the Cardinal himself if he had never seen him during his Residence in France as Mr. du Maurier assures But it seems this Author hath confounded the Cardinal of Richelieu with Cardinal Mazarin of whom Grotius thus speaketh in a Letter dated the 26th of September 1643. I have caused your Letters to be given to Cardinal Mazarin I shall not see him without an Order from our Queen because at his own house he gives not the hand to the Ambassadors of Crowned heads and being treated with the Title of Eminence he treats not again with that of Excellence pretending to be equal to Kings according to the Opinions of the Court of Rome and very difficultly yields precedency to Princes of the Blood Mr. du Maurier also says another thing which is not conformable to the Letters of Grotius viz. that the Ministers of Charenton who despised Grotius during the time he was but a private man in France used him quite another way when he was Ambassador of Swedland Having considered saith this Author that it would be a very great honour to them that an Ambassador of so considerable a Crown should be present at their Assemblies they sent unto him one of their Ministers with the Elders of the Consistory to pray him to honour their Sermons with his presence telling him that the very Lutherans were of late admitted to their Communion by an Act of the last Synod of Charenton hut he answered them haughtily that they having neglected him whilst he was a private man and a Refugee he would neglect them in his turn being Ambassador It 's very well known that the Ministers of Charenton endeavoured to draw Grotius to their Assemblies from the first time that he was in France but as we see nothing of it in these Letters we do not at all rely upon it It 's true some were deputed to Grotius as he says himself in the Letters 378. p. 1. 340 and 350. p. 2. but he refused not to go to the Sermons of Charenton after the manner which Mr. du Maurier saith he thus tells us himself he received the Deputies of Charenton Letter 350. p. 2. I have had this day at my House three Learned Reformed Ministers le Faucheur Minister of Montpellier and Mertrezat and Daille Ministers of this Church They desired me to join my self to their Communion and told me that what was in times past established at Alez and Charenton being changed by new rules wherein Lutherans are admitted to the Communion they hoped we should hold their Confession for a Christian Confession as they had the same opinion in respect to the Remonstrants that they remembred what I formerly writ against Sibrandus to wit that I should be very much surprized if the Reformed refused the Communion to Chrysostome and Melanchton if they came again into the World That they had read and approved my whole Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion and the admonition I gave at the end to Christians to bring them to an agreement I told'em I was satisfied with what they said being conformable to my maxims that the opinion of Melanchton had always extreamly pleased me and that I had sufficiently shewn it that as to what concerns Ecclesiastical Peace I knew well that it ought not to be troubled by a turbulent manner of acting That there should be free conferences amongst the learned They also said that they endeavoured to bring the Remonstrants of Holland into their Communion and that they had written about it to M. Rivet that they were become more prudent with time and that they hoped that the Dutch after having well examined their reasons would do somewhat in their favour After having said these things on each side I added that I was ready to testifie by the external signs the Communion of the Spirit in which I had always joined with them and that it was never my fault that it was not so that if I went into a Country where Lutherans knowing my opinions of the Eucharist would receive me into their Communion I would make no difficulty to communicate with them They approved this conduct Grotius seemed after this to be inclined to go to communicate at Charenton but there was an obstacle which never could be taken away that hindered him 't was that Grotius would have had a distinct place in the Temple and to be received there in the quality of Ambassador of Swedland which the Consistory of Charenton would not grant him Grotius complains thereof in these terms in Letter 358. I am surprized at the inconstancy of these people who having invited to their Communion the Lutherans say that they cannot receive an Ambassador of Swedland in the Quality of Ambassador because of the difference which is between the sentiments of that Kingdom and theirs Grotius notwithstanding in the Letters which we have cited praiseth the moderation of the Ministers of Charenton But here is a good character of Mr. Daille in Letter 232. p. 2. A Roman Catholick having put several questions to M. Daille in a Letter and amongst other things why the Reformed had condemned the Arminians he answered that seeing peace was oftentimes offered to the Lutherans who are of the same opinions it was not so much the Arminians who had been condemned as Arminianism I fear saith Grotius that those who are here stronger than they shall say one day that they drive not away the Calvinists but Calvinism which I pray God may not befal them M. du Maurier relates a pleasant History of a Lutheran Minister that Grotius had at his House whom he names Doctor Ambreus whereas Grotius complains of Brandanus Letter 840. p. 1.410 p. 2. He saith that this Ambreus instead of expounding purely and simply the Word of God flung himself into controversie with so much violence that his Sermons were full of invectives which Grotius being at last weary of exhorted him to expound the Gospel without wounding Christian Charity Upon which Doctor
Ambreus told him he could not but say what God inspired him with and Grotius having at last ordered him either to abstain from railing or Preach no more this Ambreus leaving him in anger and coming down stairs said grumbling that it was a strange thing that the Ambassador of the Crown of Swedland would shut the Holy Ghost's mouth Which Grotius related unto me adds Mr. du Maurier being ready to split with laughing and said that this Ambreus complained every where that he shut the Holy Ghost's mouth because he hindered him from speaking against his Neighbour Yet Grotius complains only of Brandanus and also contradicts in another thing M. du Maurier This Author saith that one M. d'Or who was of the same Sentiments with Calvin Preached in the Afternoons and that he would also engage himself in Controversie Grotius had only a design to take this M. d'Or after he had sent away Brandanus and this M. d Or was formerly of the Judgment of the Arminians on which account he came out of Sedan where he was Minister before the Synod of Dordrecht See Let. 410. p. 2. by the following Letters we see that Grotius made no use of him tho' he had a design so to do We shall end the Extract of what concerns the Person of Grotius by his Epitaph which he made himself and which is in Let. 536. p. 2. Grotius hic Hugo est Batavûm Captivus Exul Legatus Regni Suedia magna tui Concerning his works he telleth us himself that his Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion was translated not only into High Dutch French and English but even into Arabick and Persian to serve for the Conversion of Infidels See the 2 d. p. Letter 411 444 534. He saith also that the Queen of Swedland caused his Book de Iure Belli Pacis to be read which some Divines said included Socinian principles Grotius saith laughing thereat Fiet Regina Sociniana si quid Voetio Riveto Cleopenburgio credimus V. To come in fine to what is in the Letters of Grotius concerning Politicks we believe we may say to the publick what Peter Grotius Son to our Author esteeming so much the Letters which his Father had Written during his Ambassy that he said they were as excellent in respect to Policy as his Annotations upon the Gospel were in matters of Divinity It is what the Publick may Judge and whereof persons would yet judge better if divers places which undoubtedly contain the most important things were not written in figures or if the Author had not made use of invented names which are not easie to be understood M. du Maurier is of a sentiment very different since he saith that Grotius being withdrawn from the society of the Living and passing whole days and the most part of the Night with the Dead he could only send into Swedland news about new bridge in fine Latin We shall not undertake to decide which of the two had most reason because here we write a History and not an Apology Those who will take the pains to compare the news which Grotius writ to the Chancelof Swedland with the events of those times may judge thereof But it would not be surprising that an Ambassador who is obliged to write very often and hath not always considerable affairs should write news either not of great consequence or perhaps false Howbeit we shall here collect some political places which are spread through this great Volume In the 364. L. p. 1. we find a dispute something extraordinary concerning the power of sending Ambassadors The great Chancellor Oxenstiern who after the Death of Gustavus had a full power to do all he thought convenient for the good of the state to send Ambassadors c. sent Grotius into France Some difficulties were raised thereupon which Grotius refutes in this Letter by divers examples and particularly by that of the Ambassadors who having been sent from Flanders by Arch-Dukes in vertue of the power they had received from Madrid were received in France and England as Ambassadors from the King of Spain Grotius then tells us in what manner he was received after he had been acknowledged Ambassador from the Crown of Swedland He sometimes makes political remarks upon the Nature of Nations and upon the manner wherewith one ought to treat with them as when he says of the French Let. 371. p. 1. that they are at first harder to be dealt with but that by little and little they become more tractable according as they perceive they get nothing by acting haughtily The same Nation saith our Author Let. 582. p. 1. boasts of its riches when it seeks for Allies but when any thing is to be paid 't is not asham'd to say that it is extreamly poor Galli cum socios quaerunt maximas praeferunt divitias Vbi solvendum est aliquid ultimam paupertatem So he speaks elsewhere in what manner the French do use the Court of Rome that when they do not obtain of them what they would they menace it People saith he might make use of this way to diminish the Pope's Power but for the most part when the affairs of private Men go on well those of the State are neglected It 's thought the Cardinal would frighten the Pope that he may make him here a perpetual Legate to the Apostolick See For the Romans of these days do through fear many things which they would never do with their good will Let. 1292. part 1. In this Letter also is the manner wherewith Cardinal Richelieu negotiated and how he employed the most famous Father Ioseph in the most difficult negotiations Grotius tells us that the Cardinal made use of him to begin the negotiations and to put them in a way of succeeding after which he would put in himself Butillerius Pater saith he Iosephus Capucinus negotia cruda accipiunt cocta ad Cardinalem deferunt Let. 375. p. 1. An example hereof may be seen in Let. 371. In the 380. is the History of a Conference which Grotius had with the Cardinal and F. Ioseph This Capuchin at first speaks there with the Ambassadour of Swedland and goes thro' the hardest part of the Contestation Afterwards the Cardinal intervened as to make them agree in proposing a Medium Dixit deinde Cardinalis they are the words of our Author videre se inter me Iosephum minus convenire velle se esse Conciliatorem mutuae inter nos benevolentiae After having observ'd in a Letter to Lewis Camerarius that the Swedes had run so much in debt that they were no more trusted and that the neighbouring Nations were not less drained he adds this political reflection Pro divitiis nobis erit eadem apud hostes paupertas the poverty of our Enemies will serve us instead of Riches Let. 884. p. 1. But there are few places of the Politicks that are stronger and livelier than a Description of the Court of France in 1635. whereof here
Paris Sold by William des Prez 1679. IN the Design which this Author hath proposed of giving us an Abridgment of Vniversal History he hath begun these Three First Volumes with an Ecclesiastical History which contains the First General one He divides it as he hat done the Preface into Antient and Modern The first treats of what passed in Religion since the Creation of the World unto Iesus Christ and the second from Iesus Christ unto the end of the 16th Age that is to say this last contains the Establishment of the Gospel the Life of Popes the Schisms Heresies Persecutions of the Church the General and Provincial Councils and finally the Elogiums and Characters of Saints and of the Illustrious Writers of all these Ages As the Principal events which have happened in all these Revolutions are no more known we shall touch here but certain particular things which Mr. le Bret takes occasion to expound from time to time For example Upon occasion of the division which Pope Marcellus Successor to Marcellinus made of Rome into 25 parts which Pope Evaristus and Denis had begun he speaks of the Establishment of Parishes which succeeded after that The Priests whom this Pope Commissioned to govern them were named by the duty of the charge which was imposed on them to Administer the Sacraments and the Word of God to the Faithfull Parochi from certain Magistrates which the Romans called thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a praebendo because they furnished at Rome to the Ambassadors even of strange Princes Salt Wine and such like things He remarks that the Chief amongst the Priests were afterwards named at Rome Carthage and in several other places Cardinals because that as a Door regitur a Cardine each Church was so by its Bishop and the Principal of his Clergy This name was given them after the same manner in France in all the Cathedral Churches which he confirms by a Synod as Learned Coquille cites held in 893 by Franco Bishop of Navarre with his strange Canons Cardinals Arch-Priests and Foreign Priests to which he adds that this name is still in use only at Rome where saith he The Curates of the Principal Parishes are called Cardinal Priests the Benefactors of the other Churches which are not Parochial Cardinal Deacons and the Bishops who are Suffragans of Rome in the quality of Metropolitans Cardinal Bishops In speaking of the Right which Alberic had obliged Iohn the Eleventh to give the Patriarchs of Constantinople to use for ever the Pallium he explains what this Episcopal Ornament was Eusebius of Caesarea attributes the Institution thereof to Linus immediate Successor to St. Peter and he adds That as the Ephod was the Mark of the Authority of the Priests of the Synagogâ—â— so the Pallium was to Christian Priests of their Pastoral Power It was White and of Lamb's-wooll made into a Circle and of about four fingers broad having four Bandelets hanging before and behind two on the right and two on the left with four Red Crosses which were not without a Mystery The term of Corovesque which is found in one of the Canons of the Council of Ancyra gives him occasion of expounding what this dignity was in times past which is still us'd in the Church but under another title for it was only for the Bishops properly which we call now in Partibus which in quality of Suffragans are obliged to the administration of the Diocesses when the Bishops are absent at least the Institution of the Corovesques seems to have given place to that of other Bishops who have notwithstanding some advantages which the Corovesques had not All the World knows that the White Horse which the King of Spain payeth every year in quality of King of Naples to the Pope is a Right which is due unto them for the Remise which Sixtus IV. generously made to Ferdinand King of Naples of the yearly Quit-Rent which he owed to the Holy See but few know perhaps what this Author remarks after Father Morin of the Oratory upon the Subject of Pope Iohn XV. That the Predecessors of this Pope who dated all their Acts from the years of the Emperors thought expedient to change this date after Charlemagne had made 'em Soveraigns and as at first they dated from the Indictions so afterwards from the years of their Pontificate as at this day See the Synod of Rome held by this Pope in 993. The discovery of the Canaries under the Pontificate of Clement VI. towards the year 1347. The Extirpation of the Order of Templars who were condemned to be burned at the Council of Vienna under Clement V. The permission which Innocent VIII gave the Priests of Norwegue to Celebrate under the only Species of Bread because there are no choice Wines and that those which are carried thither cannot come without becoming sour and an infinite other things of this kind render this Reading very acceptable and assure this Author with whom notwithstanding all the World will not agree in what he saith on certain things as upon the Nile upon Abbot Gerseu c. with what impatiency the Abridgment of his Political History is expected A Collection of several Relations with many singular and Curious Treatises of T. B. Tavernier Esq Baron of Aubone Divided into Five Parts In Quarto At Paris Sold by Gervais Clouzier 1679. THE difficulty which there is of getting into Iapan is the reason that we can learn nothing beyond what the Hollanders have Written thereof in their Relations They are alone permitted to go and Traffick in these Isles which the Portuguese discover'd in 1542 since a poor Cook of a Ship which parted from Amsterdam for the Indies being come to the Charge of President of the Comptoir of Iapan put into his head to exclude the Portuguese from this Commerce for he invented to this end such black Calumnies against them and all the Christians of this Country in general that the Emperor of Iapan resolved to Banish the first and to Extirpate the others whose number which augmented every day in this Empire was come to more than 400000. It 's what Mr. Tavernier describes in the First of the Five Parts which compose this Volume The Second is but a Relation of what passed in the Negotiation of the Deputies who have been in Persia and in the Indies as well from the King as the French Company for the establishing of Commerce In the Third which contains the Observations of this Author upon the Commerce of the East-Indies and upon the Frauds which may be committed therein there are three or four singular things The First he assures us he had learned of several old People in the Kingdom of Bengall that Sugar kept 30 years becomes Poison and that there are few sorts more dangerous All the World assuredly will not agree upon it The 2. is the manner wherewith the Inhabitants of Kasaubasar use to whiten their Silk which is yellowish by the means of a Lye made of the
the number of the Ancients or Fathers is put St. Bernard who lived in the 12th Age. But Asaph in one of his Psalms saith That all the Synagogues of the living God will be burnt Mr. Brochard was mistaken when he believed that this Asaph lived since the Captivity of Babylon for then he must needs have acknowledged that there were Prophets since Malachy And it is not only a constant Tradition but Iosephus who ought not to be suspected in the things which concern the Glory of his Nation assures us there were none It is said that this Prediction concerns the Church under the Oeconomy of Iesus Christ. But this Oracle was not accomplished in the Ten Persecutions which the Christian Church suffered Dioclesian caused a Monument to be raised by which he boasts to have destroyed the Christian Religion Yet then were numerous Churches seen amongst the Gauls and in England which were governed by Constantius And if the Church afterwards hath been as it were interred it was rather under the number of Vices and Errors than the violence of Persecution Therefore there is much more likelihood that this Oracle concerned the time of Antiochus wherein the Temple of Ierusalem was profaned and the Service of God in some wise abolished Therefore there were Synagogues in David's time For how should he invent a name to express a thing which he knew not and which was not in use Moreover how could the Iews pass so many Ages without making any publick exercise of their Religion since the Event hath shewn that it was a lawful thing The name of Synagogues became soon excessive They built 460. in the very City of Ierusalem Each Trade had its Chappel or Synagogue Strangers also had a great many The Thalmud speaks of that which those of Alexandria had built at their expences and that of the Libertines is famous in the History of the Acts. Each Synagogue had its Judges who had a right to cause those to be Scourged who were accused before them as the Apostle St. Paul made a sad Experience on 't It had also its Patriarchs and Apostles Yet Cardinal Baronius was mistaken when he thought that Iesus Christ had borrowed from the Iews the name of Apostles which he gave his Disciples For it is easie to prove that this term is not in use with the Iews but since the establishment of the Gospel I know not if Mr. Burman hath much more reason than Baronius when he thinks that by the Angels whereof St. Paul speaks when he would have Women to be vailed in the Temple because of the presence of Angels the Ministers are to be understood who bear this Name in the Old Testament The Service began with Prayers to which the People answered Amen Yet there is a Tradition which says That this was not done in the Temple of Ierusalem but that at the end of the Prayers the People answered Blessed be the God of Glory His Kingdom reigneth for ever In the Great Churches where the Voice of the Priest was not easily heard he took a Pocket-Handkerchief and shew'd it to the People when it was time to raise their Voice This custom of answering Amen at the end of Publick Prayers hath passed in the Christian Church until at length the negligence of the People hath obliged the substitution of a Deacon in their place But what is most remarkable is that in the Prayers which were said with a low voice in the Temple or in a Closet they were obliged to say Amen with a loud voice Eusebius in speaking of the Martyrdom of Polycarp insinuates it and the Acts of Sufferances of Pionius suffer us not to doubt thereof The Christian Church hath also borrowed from the Iewish the manner of ordaining Bishops For one could not be a Doctor of the Law but after having received the Imposition of Hands in the presence of three Priests And the Councils have ordered the same thing for Bishops The Law was Read in Hebrew But since the Captivity that the knowledge of this Tongue was lost there was an Interpreter who Expounded each Verse in the Chaldaick Tongue that all the People might understand it They pretend that this respect for the Hebrew Text had passed unto the Hellenist Iews Our Author inclines much on that side But it agrees not with the Veneration which they had for the Version of the 70. If the Iews of Ierusalem condemned it the rest of 'em had Instituted a Feast-day to give God Thanks for that he had given it to them The Seventh Dissertation Treats of the Doctors of the Iewish Church The Title of Rabbin is not before Iesus Christ at least if we believe the Iews who say that Gamaliel the same Doctor whereof the History of the Acts speaks was the first who took it But how could it be so common in the time of Iesus Christ if it were not more ancient According as Knowledge and Vertue diminished this defect hath been endeavoured to be supplyed by proud Titles which should draw the Veneration of the People There have been none who have taken finer Names than the Scholasticks whose knowledge was pure Barbarity and the Monks whose mind hath been almost always filled with Visions and an Imaginary Devotion The Scribes are ancient enough for they appear'd in the time of Esdras in a distinguished Rank seeing they are raised above the Priests Their Original is at this day the Subject of a great Contestation For they pretend that Moses who was instructed in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians established Scribes at the same time that he did the Law and that we owe unto them the Body of the Holy Scripture But as they were never mention'd before Eâ—dras might it not be as well said that they came from Chaldea and Assyria for all the East had their Scribes as well as the Egyptians and that they established themselves with the Iews at the Return from the Captivity where they got a great reputation There were three sorts of persons who bore this name 1. The Publick Notaries and the Secretaries of the Counsel These first were the least considerable 2. Those who were called Scribes of the Law to wit who had the right of Expounding unto the People They were thought to sit in the Chair of Moses as well as the Pharisees They were consulted with in Important Controversies and it's what Herod did upon the arrival of the Messia Finally their Decisions were received with the same Veneration as the Law of God the Iews saying That even the Traditions of the Scribes are better than the Law 3. In fine the Title of Scribe is the name of a Magistracy with the Iews as well as with the Greeks and it was the latter who were called the Scribes of the People From the Ministers of the Synagogue we shall pass to those of the Christian Church Iesus Christ had Clothed his Apostles with so great Priviledges that they could not have Successors in their Charges Therefore the Protestant
which is added a Preface touching the Original of this History Sold by Mr. Chiswell at London 1688. p. 44. THe Devotions of the Roman Church appear so ridiculous to them that are not born superstitious that the ablest Controvertists of that party have endeavoured to hide them or to make them pass for popular Abuses but as it is impossible that in a great Society all them that write should be of the Secret so there are a great number of Bigots who feared that the Bishops of Meaux and Turnai would with their mildness betray the Church and were minded really to abolish the Ways that enriched it So much the Protestants have seconded the sincerity of these latter and have collected out of their Offices Rites and the most famous Doctours of Rome the true Doctrine of our Church To avoid the contestations commonly raised by such as do not act sincerely The English are advised to translate whole Books of the Doctrine of Rome as the Life of Magdalene of Pazzi the Contemplations of the Life and Glory of the Blessed Virgin and other such like The Abridgment of the Perogatives of St. Ann is one of these Works The time will not be lost that is imployed in making an extract of it it is sufficient that it was ridiculous enough to cause the Effect which the Translator proposed himself it was printed at Paris in 43. with the approbation of the Doctors of Sorbonne and was Dedicated to the Queen Mother Ann of Austria then Regent so that any godly Book could not be more Authentick The Reader will be far more obliged by the taking out of the English Preface the History of St. Ann's Devotions by which may be learned what are the grounds of Monastick Orders and the Authors of Legends The Friars used ways of forming the Genealogies of their King 's and attributing great Deeds of Chivalry that never hapned to their Princes and thought that it became them to be no less liberal to the Predecessors of Iesus Christ. No Antient Author ever spoke of Iachim and of St. Ann who are said to be the Father and Mother of the Blessed Virgin and St. Epiphanius was the first that mentioned it by the by In the succeeding Ages Germain Hyppolitus and Damascenus spoke of them but 't was little or nothing at all and Nicephorus one of the greatest lyers among the Friars made but a very short History of them so that all the Legends are grounded upon two pieces whereof the Falshood is well known by Criticks One is a Letter upon the Birth of the Blessed Lady attributed to St. Ierome the other is the pretended Gospel of St. Iames. As for the first it cannot be precisely determined when it was invented All that can be said is that an old Fabulous Tradition has been the occasion of it There is a feigned Letter of Chromatius and of Heliodoâ—e desiring St. Ierome to Translate the Gospel of St. Matthew out of Hebrew into Latine which Armanius and Virinus said was in his possession and contained the History of the Infancy of the Blessed Virgin and that of our Saviour Ierome begins to excuse himself from it upon the difficulty of the work and because the Apostle did not design to make this Book publick maintaining that he writ it in Hebrew and did not mention a word of it in the common Gospel designing to keep this History from the Peoples Knowledge adding That it was a Secret that ought to be trusted to none but choice Clergy-men that might make the extract of it to Christians That Seleucus was the first that Translated it and mixed several false Doctrines tho not very different from the Truth in what regarded the History and Miracles and for that reason he promis'd them an exact Version of the Original Hebrew There are in these Fables the Maxims and Folly of the Friars which suffice to refute it Besides this Seleucus or Lucius was a Manichee which doubtless was one of the reasons why St. Augustin rejected a Work like this or perhaps it might be the same with that of Seleucus For says he If one did alledge to me the Book of Apocrypha wherein Iachim is said to be the Father of Mary I would not yield to that Authority because that Book is not Canonical Pope Gelasius not content to term the Work Apocryphal calls the Author a Child of the Devil II. The second piece whereon the Legend is founded is not of better Alloy because it is the Gospel of the false St. Iames. William Postel published it first and having Translated it out of Greek into Latin got it printed at Basil in 1552. under the Title of Prot-Evangelion cum Evangelica Historia Sanctae Mariae Evangelistae vita ejus Octavo Some years after Bibliander made Notes upon this Work and this was printed with the other which was not much better under the Title of Orthodox Writing Orthodoxographae If any one is minded to know who William Postel was he may be informed in the first Chapter of the Apology for the Reformers by Mr. Iurieu Henry Stephens that was no Divine but knew that such a Deist as Postell was might be suspected that he had embellished this Work and Casaubon attributed the whole to him However it is this pretended Gospel of St. Iames with many others was condemned in a Council of 70 Bishops held at Rome under Pope Gelasius Nevertheless the Writers of Legends receive them and form new ones as the Book of the Birth of Mary of the childhood of Iesus and the Gospel of St. Ann. The latter may be judged of according to this passage mentioned by Henry Stephens when Iesus was so grown that he could work Joseph employed him to Carpentry and one day having commanded him to saw a piece of Wood he did it without taking notice of the Mark that was to direct him and so made the piece too short Joseph was angry at this and had a mind to beat him and would have done it if Iesus had not lengthened the stick by making Joseph pull at one end whilst he pull'd at the other If the Inventors of those absurd Relations were design'd to dishonour the Christian Religion they could not find a better way the Gospel of the fictitious St. Iames is full of such extravagant Histories and one would think the Inventor had a mind by his Ironique Imitation to ridicule several passages of Scripture and several Miracles of the Old and New Testament among others the History of Abraham and Sarah that of Hanna and her Son Samuel and that of Zachary and Elizabeth And nevertheless it is upon these counterfeit Books and scurrilous Relations that the most part of the Devotions of the Romish Church are founded the pretended St. Iames has consecrated a Feast to St. Ann which is kept the 16 th of Iuly and was ordained by Pope Gregory XIII 1584. Sometime after Sixtus the 5 th founded or at least confirmed a Religious Order called the Maidens of
brings Lazarus and his Sisters at the same time into Provence The strongest reason to persuade us that the Gospel was so soon Preached in England is drawn from a passage of Gildas's which was not well understood Interea glaciali frigore rigenti Insulae veluti longiori Terrarum Recessu soli visibili non proximae verus ille non de firmamento solum Dr. Stillingfleet reads Sol sed de summa etiam those who read Solum for Sol have also added this Etiam for the clearing of the sense coelorum arce tempora cuncta excedente universo orbi praefulgidum sui coruscum ostendens tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris quo absque ullo impedimento ejus propagabatur Religio comminata senatu nolente a Principe morte dilatoribus Militum ejusdem radios suos primum indulget id est sua praecepta Christus These words of Gildas were taken until now as if he meant that the Gospel was Preached in England towards the end of Tiberius's Reign But thus the Bishop of Worcester understands them Jesus Christ the true Sun who as 't is known made his Light to shine over all the Vniverse towards the end of Tiberius 's Reign at which time his Religion was propagated without hinderance in spight of the Senate because this Prince threatned those with death that should accuse the Christians Jesus Christ I say made his Sun-beams to shine to wit his Precepts not from the Firmament but the highest place of the Heavens and which was from all Eternity upon this frozen Island distant from the visible Sun Gildas speaks of two several times wherein the visible Sun appeared the one towards the end of Tiberius's Reign at which it shined to the view of the whole World and the other that it particularly appeared in England and which he marks by the Particle interea This word relates to the time whereof he speaks to wit that in which Suetonius Paulinus Conquered the Queen Boadicea which happened towards the middle of Nero's Reign about Twenty years after that Claudius had sent A. Plautius to reduce England into the form of a Province The Monks of the last Ages fruitful in Ancient Histories affirmed that Ioseph of Arimathea came from Glassenbury where he founded a Monastery Preaching there the Gospel In a time wherein all that came from these pious Lyars was believed this Fabulous History was taken for an ancient Tradition but the Bishop of Worcester easily shews it is supported only by the Authority of such Men and actions as are very suspicious and accompanied with ridiculous circumstances Nevertheless he believes it may be proved by good Authorities and maintained by probable circumstances that Christianity entred into England in the time of the Apostles Eusebius positively affirms that these Holy Men Preached the Gospel in the British Isles Theodoret reckons the Britans amongst those People Converted by the Apostles St. Ierome saith that St. Paul after his Imprisonment Preached the Gospel in the West in occidentis partibus by which he seems to understand England as well as St. Clement who saith that St. Paul went to the farthest part of the West Terms which Dr. Stillingfleet proves to have been commonly taken for Great Britain He shews after that by the History of St. Paul's Life that this Apostle had time to come into England and that he might have been persuaded to have taken this Journey because this part of Great Britain was then reduced into a Province There is also some likelihood that Pomponia Graecina Wife to Plautius was a Christian Tacitus assuring us that she was accused of a Strange Superstition and that she lived in a continual Melancholy If this Lady was a Christian she might have inform'd St. Paul what state England was in and encouraged him to come hither He might likewise have been instructed by those whom Plautius led Prisoners to Rome True it is that it has been said that St. Peter and some other Apostles were in England but these Traditions appear altogether Fabulous and if any came it was undoubtedly St. Paul according to the Testimony of St. Clement of whom we have spoken II. To pursue the Ecclesiastical History of England our Prelate undertakes in the 2 d. Chapter to Collect what is found in the Antients about the space of time from the Apostles to the First Council of Nice The Principal Proofs from whence we conclude there were Christians in that time in England are the Testimonies of Tertullian and Origen which the Author defends and Expounds at length Many of the Writers of the last Ages said that a King of England named Lucius was Converted to Christianity in the time of M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus But suppose this true in the Main there are divers circumstances which are really false as when this Lucius is made King of all England which was at that time a Roman Province Our Prelate believes there might be a Christian Prince of that Name in some place of England and whom the Romans suffered to Reign because he was of their side such as might have been the Descendants of one Cogidunus who favoured them That this place of England perhaps was the County of Sussex where there is no Monument of the Romans This being so it may easily be conceived that Lucius had heard Discourses of the Christian Religion by some antient Britans or Soldiers of the Army which M. Aurelius brought hither and which had been delivered from an eminent danger by the Prayers of the Christians that were in it as the Emperor himself said in one of his Letters After that Lucius might send as Tradition has it Messengers to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to be better Instructed because of the great Commerce which was betwixt England and Rome If Persons had been satisfied to have related this History after this manner it may be none would have called it in question but the Lyes wherewith it 's stuft the better to maintain it have rendered according to the Remark of the Author doubtful and suspicious that which may be true in it Others will not fail to add to this that in the Conjectures that are always made in the Enquiry after these Antiquities founded upon the Traditions of as great Lyars as the Monks of the past Ages that in these Conjectures I say Si trapassano i confini del vero per scrivere negli ampii spatii del possibile cose incerte non seguite according to an Italian Author And also the silence of Gildas who inform'd us of all he knew of the Antiquities of England yet speaks not one word of this Lucius which renders this History very suspicious even in what appears most possible in it Our Prelate proves there were Christians in England in the time of Dioclesian and that several suffered Martyrdom in it though the Persecution could not last long here seeing Constantius Father to Constantine stopped it Constantius dying at
York and his Son being declared Caesar by the Army the Christian Religion was secure we find the Names of Three Bishops of Great Britain who Subscribed to the Council of Arles in CCCXIV The Author believes there were a great many more and that those Three were sent by the Bishops of the Three Provinces for all were never at any of the Councils which wou'd have been too numerous if every one had gone thither He believes also that there was a continual Succession of Bishops in England from the Apostles till that time Some Monks have thought that Bishops were Established in England in imitation of the Flamines and Archiflamines of the Heathens but Dr. Stillingfleet shews 't is but a Dream and that the first Pagan Hierarchy was established by Maximinus after the Model of the Christians which was much more Antient. Speaking of the Council of Arles the Author shews that its Canons were sent to the Bishop of Rome not to Confirm them as Baronius maintains but to Publish them Quae decrevimus say these Fathers in Communi Coneilio charitati tuae significare ut omnes sciant quid in futurum observare debeant To this he joyns the Canons of the Council which he reduces to certain Heads and expounds in a few words particularly the Third De his qui arma projiciunt in pace who ought to be suspended from the Communion If an Allegorical sense might be given to these words our Bishop believes they may be expounded of the Christians who in the time wherein the Persecution ceased grew more indifferent as to their manner of living and less conformable to the Discipline which they had kept before But if they are understood Literally they may refer to the Christian Soldiers who would leave the Army when there was no fear of being constrained to any Idolatrous act in serving the Emperor as they had been under the Heathen Princes Constantine offered to dismiss all the Soldiers that desired it The Fathers of the Council might fear that all the Christians wou'd abandon his Armies and that afterwards it should be supply'd with Pagans which could have been fatal to Christianity So the Bishops assembled at Arles and thought they ought to prevent this accident in suspending from the Communion such Christian Souldiers as quitted the Service III. After having shewn That there were Bishops in England before the Council of Nice the Author speaks of the State wherein the Churches of the same Island were after this Council to that of Rimini Although in the Subscriptions which we still have of the Bishops who assisted at the Council of Nice there is none of any Prelate of England it is very probable there were some of them 1. Because Constantine did all he could to assemble a great number of Bishops 2. Because there is no likelyhood this Emperor should forget the Bishops of England where he was born and proclaimed Caesar. 3. Because they having been at the Council of Arles which was held before and at those of Sardis and Rimini which followed that of Nice there was no reason to suppose that they should be forgotten in this latter This being granted Dr. Stillingfleet believes that we may learn from the Canons of the Council of Nice the Rights and Priviledges of the British Churches Therefore he relates and expounds these Canons but makes the longest stay upon three which concern Ecclesiastical Discipline The fourth is conceived in these Terms That a Bishop ought chiefly to be established by all the Bishops of the Province but if that be too difficult either because it requireth more haste or that the Proceedings of the Bishops wou'd make it too long there must at least be three present and they have the consent of the Absent to consecrate him But the Confirmation of all that is done in the Province ought to be reserved to the Metropolitan By this Canon the Rights of the Metropolitans are established after an uncontestable manner but that which creates difficulty is to know whether by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to establish which is at the beginning must be understood the Right of choosing a Bishop was devolved on the Bishops of the Province or whether the Question be only of Conservation which should be done by the Bishops upon the Election made by the Suffrages of the People Several Interpreters of the Canons understand by the Word to establish to elect and Dr. Stillingfleet sheweth That all this may be proved by a place of the Synodal Letter of the same Council to those of Alexandria where it 's said That the Meletian Bishops which the People should choose should be received and that in the time of the Council of Nice the People named the Bishops which hindered not but that they were elected by their Brothers and confirmed by the Metropolitan without which the nomination of the People signified nothing So that all that can be concluded from thence is that the People had the Right of Nomination which they have since deservedly lost by Seditions and Tumults and which they cannot recall unless it is shew'n whether it is a Divine and unalterable Right which will never be adds our Author and which even those who strive to win the favour of the People in defending it's Rights do not endeavour to prove upon the Principles of the first Ages It will not be denyed but that the People had then the Right of Opposing the chosen Persons by shewing That they were not worthy But in this case the People were heard as Witnesses and not as Judges If the Bishops who had chosen him who was opposed judged that the Accusations which were against him were just they proceeded against the Accused according to the Canons and then they came to a new nomination whereof notwithstanding the Synod of the Province was to judge The Author expounds thereby the 16 Canon of the Council of Antioch and the 12 of that of Laodicea where mention is made of the popular Election not to mark the Preferment of some one to the Episcopacy but the choosing of a Bishop already ordained to be Bishop of some Church The fifth Canon of Nice informs us That he who shall be excommunicated by one Bishop shall not be received into Communion by another If any one complained of being unjustly excommunicated the Provincial Synod judged thereof and if this Synod revoked not the Sentence of this Bishop every one was to hold him Excommunicated 'T is for that the Council of Nice orders That there should be every where held Provincial Councils twice a year at Easter and Autumn Our Author maintains that the Council of Nice doth not ordinarily acknowledge in her Procedures any other Tribunal than the Provincial Synods except in places whose ancient Customs were different as it appears by the following Canon So that all strange Jurisdiction is forbidden by the Fathers of Nice as the Churches of Africk maintained it boldly against the Popes Thence it 's concluded
little the better for the very places of Scripture we most frequently alledge because they most commonly respect the Masoretick Bible which we have not room to explain to those who know nothing of these things If therefore such Subjects are fit for Divines to understand then must the Knowledge of the Rabbinical Writings be so likewise 'T is peculiarly incumbent on the Ministry by their Office to defend the Doctrines they teach by the Scriptures But if they are unable to defend the Scriptures the only Evidence and Proof of their Doctrines the Christian Religion with the Doctrines thereof must fall to the ground And yet this Position That the present Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament in the Words Letters Points Vowels and Accents we now enjoy is the same uncorrupted Word of God which was delivered of old by the holy Pen-men of it to the Church This we say cannot well be defended against all Opposers without the Rabbinical Knowledge we speak of And so much for the need of this Knowledge We shall only give some Directions about this Study First He must well understand the Hebrew Bible in the first place who would know the Rabbins before he look after them And for this if he hath no Latin he must get William Robertson's First and Second Gate to the Holy Tongue His Key to the Bible Iessey's English Greek Lexicon c. But we suppose most have the Latine Tongue and such have Grammars and Lexicons enough as Buxtorf's Epitome his Thesaurus His Lexicon And many other Authors especially Bythner's Lyra Prophetica in Psalmos Leusden's Compendium Biblicum Arius Montanus his Interlineary Bible c. Let him read the Hebrew Bible much And then for the Rabbins take this brief Account and Direction The ancient Chaldee Paraphrasts are most of them translated and thereby easie to learn The ancient Cabalistical Writings as the Zohar Bahir c. are both most difficult and least useful Their Oral Law or Traditions were collected after the Destruction of the Temple A.D. 150. by Rabbi Iudah the Holy as they call him This they preferr before the Scripture and suppose it was Orally delivered by Moses to Israel and unlawful to be written but when Ierusalem was destroyed they were constrained to write it lest it should be lost but yet 't was so written as that none but themselves might understand it This Book is called Mishnaioth comprizing all their Religion with the Bible 'T is divided into Two Parts each Part into Three Seders or Books each Seder into many Masecats or Tracts each Masecat into Chapters and Verses A brief Account of the Contents of the Mishna and all the Parts of it is given by Martinus Raimundus in his Prooemium to his Pugio Fidei a very Learned and Useful Book which also gives an Account of the Tosaphot the Gemara and the Commenâ—â—ries thereon which compleat the Talmuds both that of Ierusalem A.D. 230. and that of Babylon Five hundred Years after Christ which Gemara is but a Comment and Dispute on the Mishna which is the Text of the Talmud There are several Masecats or Tracts of the Mishna translated as the Nine first Masecats viz. Beracoth c. So also Masecat Middoth by Le Empereur Sanhedrin and Maccoth by Cock Megillath by Otho Codex Ioma and others But as the very Learned Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil observes He that would know the Mishna must learn Maimonides This Moses Maimonides Physician to the King of Egypt about Five hundred Years ago wrote his Iad Chaseka or Mishna Torah wherein he hath comprized the Substance of the Mishna and Talmud in a pure pleasant plain and easie style if compared with the Mishna and Talmud and yet he that has read him may with ease and pleasure understand all the Mishna And then for the Talmud There is Clavis Talmudica Cock's Excerpta c. This Maimonides of whom the Jews say from Moses the Law-giver to Moses Maimonides there was never another Moses like this Moses Several of his Tracts are translated also as Iesudee Hatorah the First Masecat of all and Deoth Aboda Zara the 1 st entituled De Fundamentis Legis 2. Canones Ethicae 3. Idololatria 4. De Iure Pauperis 5. De Poenitentia c. But most are translated by the excellent Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil as De Sacrificiis one of the fourteen Books which he hath divided this Work into and De Cultu Divino another of the fourteen Books comprizing several Tracts Also his Tracts about Vnleavened Bread about the Passover about a Fast c. As to other Rabbins several are translated as Cosri c. and that on various Subjects as Logick by R. Simeon Physick by Aben Tibbon with Maimonides's Epistle against Iudiciary Astrology So of Arithmetick and Intercalating the Month by Munster and that of Maimonides by Duveil with many other Books as Ietsirah Bachinath Olam c. And of History as Seder Olam Zutha and Seder Olam Rabba Tsemach David c. And as to Rabbinical Commentaries the best and chief are R. Sal. Iarchi or Isaac R. Aben Ezra R. David Kimchi all these upon the Proverbs are translated by Antony Giggeius upon several minor Prophets by Mercer viz. on Hosea Ioel Amos c. on Ioel and Iona by Leusden as also a Masecat on the Misbna called Pirke Abbot Kimchi on the Psalms is likewise translated These Rabbins lived about Five hundred Years ago and do excellently explain the Text where Grammar and Jewish History are necessary But several of the above-mentioned Books being scarce we shall be ready to Translate and Print in two Colums the one Hebrew the other English either any Masecat of the Mishna or any Hilcoth or Tract of Maimonides or the Commentaries of the Rabbins on any part of the Bible if our Bookseller receive Encouragement which with Buxtorf's Great Lexicon Talmudicum and his Book de Abbreviaturis would no doubt enable one that hath read the Hebrew Bible to understand the Rabbins Which is all the Direction we have room to give here and therefore conclude with our hearty Wishes That our Young Students may be mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18.24 2 Tim. 3.15 16. and thereby they will by the Grace of God become Able Divines according to the Old Proverb Bonus Textuarius Bonus Theologus The PROEM Containing the Cause Occasion and Method of the ensuing Debate IN this Introduction we shall take notice of Three things wherein are contained the Cause and Occasion of the following Discourse with the Method of proceeding therein 1. The Weight and Moment of the Subject in Controversie 2. The many Circumstances that render its Consideration at this time necessary and seasonable 3. The Method and Order of manageing the same First As to the Weight and Moment of the Matter in Controversie it is small in quantity about no more than a Point or Tittle but great in quality about no less a Cause than the Keeping or Rejecting of the Bible For 1 st The Old
Condemning through Passion or Prejudice those who are not of his Religion for he takes the part of the Jews against the number of Ancient and Modern Christian Doctors who have accus'd him of corrupting the Texts of the Bible A List of these Accusers may be seen in the Exercitationes Biblicae of Father Morin cap. 2 3 And in the Treatise Leon de Castre a Spanish Divine upon the Translations of the Bible which he hath placed before his Commentaries on the Bible Mr. Vossius is of this Opinion I mean he speaks very much against the Jews as if they had maliciously altered the Hebrew Text through a hatred to the Christian Religion But the Author thinks himself oblig'd to do them more Justice he maintains that the Fathers of the Church complain not so much of the Alterations of the Text as of the bad Interpretations that the Jews give to the Words of the Scripture or of the Version of Aquilla of Theodocian and Semachus that the Jews were accustom'd to oppose to that of the Seventy Interpreters He proves his Pretension by the same Passages of the Fathers as Leon de Castre and Father Morin have cited in this he hath almost copied the other word for word He adds That in Matter of Criticisms the Authority of the Fathers is nothing near of so great a consequence as in Matters of Faith And says very plainly That many among them did not understand the Hebrew Tongue enough to be able to judge whether the Jews had falsified the Original of the Old Testament or not He answers to the Passages of Origin and St. Ierom and tells us we should judge of their Genius and manner of Writing He also refutes the Reasons of Mr. Vossius and shews among other things that the Testimony of Iustin Martyr is not very considerable in this Point both because he did not understand Hebrew and because he was often abused in Matter of Fact which destroys the Proof which they would bring for his Testimony after this manner That he would have been sacrific'd to publick Ridicule if he had accus'd the Iews of a Crime whereof they were not guilty The Author believes therefore that the Jews did not alter the Scripture upon any Deliberation or through Malice to the Christians but that the Defects which were found in their Copies ought to be imputed to the same Causes which have produc'd so much difference between the Manuscripts of the Greek and Roman Authors He referrs to the Treatise of Scioppius de Arte Critica and shows by a passage of the Book that Leo Allatius compos'd against the pretended Antiquities of the Hetruria of Inghiramimus how easie it was for the Copiests to take one Letter for another and by this means alter the sence of an Author such an Instance there is in a Book where if they had put Orbis instead of Vrbis it wou'd have been the Cause of many New Opinions or many Learned Dissertations and of many Difficulties that would have made the Learned Doctors sweat There are some Copiests who not taking sufficient Care of any one Letter create a thousand Disputes to the succeeding Ages of whom it may be properly said They prepar'd Scourges for Posterity The Author relates an Example of some Errors that Copiests have Committed It was believed for many Ages that Dagobert King of France forc'd a Nun from her Cloyster to marry him but Father Sermon and young Mounsieur Vellois and some others having found in the old Manuscripts of Fredigair Nantechildem unam ex puellis DE MINISTERIO accipiens Reginam sublimavit whereas these words were ill quoted by Aimoion Nanthildem unam ex puellis DE MONASTERIO in matrimonium accipiens sublimavit have sav'd the Reputation of this Prince upon a Fact sufficiently scandalous which was much spoken of by Authors As to the rest the Author maintains those cannot be accus'd of a malicious deprivation which take a Passage in the sence that is most favourable to 'em when the words are equivocal We owe to our selves this Justice as we are Christians of not accusing our selves of falsifying the Scriptures when we explain it to our advantage in places where what precedes and what follows does not necessarily determine us to the sense which is against us What the Author says afterwards about the Samaritan Bible which only comprehended the five Books of Moses because when they separated themselves from the Jews they had then only publish'd this part of the Scriprure that I say and what he adds of the Learning of the same Samaritans and of the Paraphrases of the Bible is very Curious they had Paraphrases in Chaldaick Greek and Arabick according as those Languages became common among 'em for as in the Synagogues the Law was alwayes read in Hebrew both among the Samaritans as well as among the Iews so it was necessary to have a Paraphrase of the Scripture in another Language when the Hebrew was only among the Learned from whence he concludes contrary to the Paradoxes of Mr. Mallet that Moses compos'd the Scripture in a vulgar Tongue and makes the same remarks upon the Paraphrases of the Jews to wit that they were a remedy against the Ignorance of the Hebrew Tongues the most ancient of the Chaldaicks among whom he principally esteems those of Ionathan and Avonculus there are others in Arabick Persian in the modern Greek and in Spanish this was first Printed at Ferrara in the Year 1553. and elsewhere in the Year 1630. The Author believes that the Jews of Alexandria made use of the LXX for the same reason that produc'd the Paraphrases to wit because they did not understand Hebrew and because the Greek Tongue was become their proper Language He nevertheless speaks of this Version but in treating of that which is made use of by the Christians He remarks that the Fathers have said almost nothing of this Version which was borrow'd from a Roman falsly a Tributary to Aristeus and he imagines that the Reasons why they call'd it the Version of the LXX was because 't was undertaken by the Order of the great Sanhedrim and approv'd by the seventy two Senators which Compos'd it or because the Jews being willing to reconcile it with greater Authority they attributed it to this Honourable Senate as they did many other things which is no impediment adds he but that a Version as ancient as that and as much honoured by the Apostles ought to be considerable We are only to shun the excess of those who by the Example of Mr. Vossius acknowledge not the other to be authentick or such as prefer it to the Hebrew Text Masius and Eugubinus are not of this Number for they have spoken of this Work with much Contempt Eugubinus observes many Faults in it but sometimes his Censures are not over just St. Ierom is as much deceiv'd sometimes in Criticizing upon the LXX as Piersorius hath show'd in the Preface to the Version Printed at Cambridge An. Dom.
Life of Christ though perhaps the Reason that Eusebius was the Person that first takes notice of it might be this that these Letters lying in the hands of the Arch-bishop of Edessa were not come to the knowledge of the Greeks because they were written in Syriac and that Eusebius first Published them in the Greek He cites also other Pieces that many Learned Men have censured as Counterfeit among which are the Acts of Pilate from whence Tertullian hath taken what he saith in his Apologetic touching I know not what Design of Tiberius to put Jesus Christ into the Number of the Roman Deities See what Mr. Le Feverre saith of this History in his Epistles Dr. Cave makes no long stay on the Preaching of the Apostles but passing to the Third Part he there considers first the Progress that the Christian Religion hath made in the World after the Apostles time secondly What contributed to so great and swift a Growth as that of Christianity in spight of all the Persecutions that it suffered and then gives a brief History of them Of which according to the common Opinion he reckons up Ten and he advances many other things that the Learned have contested about as the silence of the Oracles c. It is not long since the Ingenious Dodwell made it appear that the number of these Persecutions was very dubious and that an Author of the United Provinces shews there was no certainty in the Reason that was generally given for the pretended silence of the Heathen Oracles 1. Without rehearsing what all the World knows of Saint Stephen by reading the Acts of the Apostles he tells us ancient History teacheth nothing certain of the Extraction Place Birth nor Life of this first Martyr Baronius maintains as he says upon the Authority of Lucian Presbyter of Ierusalem who lived about the beginning of the Fifth Age that Saint Stephen was a Disciple of Gamaliel as well as Saint Paul who became his Enemy after he was Converted to Christianity But Dr. Cave saith he found nothing like it in this Letter Others say he was one of the Seventy Disciples Be it as it will he was certainly one of the Seven first Deacons that the Apostles Establish'd in the Christian Church and who were supposed to have been all Greeks by Nation but of the Iewish Religion As Nicholas one of them being a Proselyte of Antioch 't was thought all the rest might be Proselytes of Ierusalem The Apostles being employ'd about things of greater Importance were obliged to remit to other Persons the Care of Serving the Tables which was to make it their business to relieve the Poor and buy sufficient Provisions to refresh them this they called Agapes to manage the Treasure of the Church and to distribute to each according to his Necessity The Office of Deacon answers very well to the Signification this word hath in the Heathen Authors where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Servant whose place it was to wait on Guests at the Table or a kind of Carver Dr. Cave believes that the Charge of Deacon extended much farther and that when the Eucharist was celebrated in these Agapes the Deacons were imployed to distribute it As was practised in the Christian Church in Iustin Martyr's time which his second Apology sufficiently testifies where he says the Deacons distributed the Bread and Wine to the Assembly after it had been consecrated by the President Besides which they Preach'd Baptiz'd and Absolv'd Penitents especially when they were empower'd by the Bishop The Apostles establish'd but seven Deacons the reason is apparent without seeking for Mysteries 't was because that number was sufficient Nevertheless the Fathers of the Council of Neocesaria ordained there should never be more than seven Deacons in one City founding their Canon on this Practice of the Apostles Sozomen tells us also That in his time there was no more at Rome altho' in other Churches they observed not this Rule These Deacons made by the Apostles met with violent Opposition in performing their Office from one or other of the Synagogues whereof if the Rabbins are to be credited there was at Ierusalem to the number of 480 besides Colleges in which Dr. Cave believes young Persons were instructed in the Law St. Stephen was first set upon by those of the Synagogue of the Libertins Alexandrians the Cyrenians of Cilicia and of Asia on whom the Author makes some Remarks and particularly upon the first To understand who these Libertins were 't is necessary to know that Pompey having subdued Iudea brought from thence a great number of Slaves to Rome and the Governors of Syria and Iudea who succeeded Pompey did the like there was so many of them when the Jews sent Ambassadors to Augustus that Iosephus says there was near eight thousand of their own Nation that joyned themselves to them They continued in that Slavish Condition till by degrees they were all made Free which happened in the time of Tiberius who permitted them to live a little beyond the Tyber as Philo informs us Among these Jews were without doubt no small number of Libertins or Free-men who had their Proseuques or Chappels where they assembled together to pay their Devotions Every Year they sent a Summ of Mony to Ierusalem instead of first Fruits and deputed some among them to offer Sacrifices in the name of the rest Tacitus and Suetonius report That afterwards the Senate sent to Sardina four thousand young Men of the Jewish Nation that were Free to clear that Isle of the Thieves that were very Incommodious to it Tacitus likewise says That all the other Jews and Proselites were banished from Rome and even Italy it self Dr. Cave supposes many of these Enfranchised Jews took occasion from thence to return to Ierusalem and established a Synagogue there which was call'd The Synagogue of the Libertins Of the Members of this Society 't is that St. Luke speaks when amongst those that were at Ierusalem on the day of Pentecost he says There were Strangers from Rome Iews and Proselites The Violence of these Men was so great that they run upon St. Stephen to Stone him without observing the accustom'd Formalities in the like cases if what the Rabbins report thereof is true As thus when they brought the Delinquent to the place of Punishment a Man stood at the Door of the Sanhedrin with a Handkerchief in his Hand which he waved to an fro that some one might undertake to speak in Favour of the Criminal and by this sign to advertise a Man on Horse-back which was at some distance to ride full speed to bring back the accused Person and defer his Punishment till they had heard all that could be said in his Favour Sometimes he was brought back four or five times if he said he had any thing to represent to his Judges in defence of himself But as the Laws of the Thalmud often much resemble those of Plato it is no
small Difficulty to found any thing thereon It seems the People sometimes stoned those that were accused without staying for any Sentence or Order of the Judges according to the Custom of the Romans Obruere ista solet manifestos poena nocentes Publica cum long as non habeâ— ira moras Whether it was so or no they observed no Formalities towards St. Stephen except the Witnesses according to the Law Deut. 17.7 The hands of the Witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hands of all the People The Law most wisely established this That provided he that was put to Death was Innocent the Witnesses who were the cause of his Condemnation were only guilty of his Death since he was kill'd by them before the rest of the People cast any Stones against him Some say the Martyrdom of St. Stephen was three Years after the Death of Iesus Christ Eusebius supposed it to be a little afer his Ordination and the Excerpta Chronologica published by Scaliger places his Death at the end of the eighth Month after the Ascension of our Lord. Lucian the Presbyter saith St. Stephen was Stoned in the North of Ierusalem at the side of the Brook Cedron a little without the Gate that hath since been called the Gate of St. Stephen and formerly according to some the Gate of Ephraim after others the Gate of the Valley or the Gate of the Fish Some Travellers to the Holy-land tell us that they have seen the place where St. Paul kept the Garments of those that Stoned this Martyr The Empress Eudocia had formerly caused to be built near this place a Temple which bore the name of St. Stephen And as those who are curious after the Search of Relicks never fail to find what they please so they have discovered not only the place where St. Stephen was stoned but also the very Stone that he kneel'd upon which was afterwards carried to Mount Sion and placed in the Church that was built in Honor of the Apostles Baronius also relates That some devout Persons kept one of the Stones with which St. Stephen had been stoned and that it is still to be seen in the Treasury of Ancona I shall rehearse these things as Dr. Cave has done without refuting of them tho' he says enough to testifie he does not give Credit thereto He yet reports other Circumstancâ—s drawn from Lucian's Epistle and from the Menology of the Greeks which I shall not repeat lest it should savour too much of the Legend and only relate what Lucian Presbyter of Caphargamala in the Diocess of Ierusalem saith that in the 415 th Year of our Saviour that Gamaliel formerly Lord of that City after being converted from the Jewish to the Christian Religion had revealed to him in a Vision that St. Stephen was buried there The Bishop of Ierusalem thus advertised by Lucian made these Relicks be taken up and carried to Mount Sion from whence they were sent to Constantinople as Nicephorus informs us who hath been very diligent to relate all Histories of this Nature With a great deal of Reason Dr. Cave observes that excessive Veneration to Relicks was one of the Defects of that time by consequence one cannot much confide in these sort of Histories He brings another out of Baronius not less Marvelous than the precedent 'T is thus that a Viol full of the Blood of St. Stephen brought to Naples by one Gaudois an African Bishop used to boyl of it self every third of August according to the account of Ancient time as if it had been just shed But since that Pope Gregory XIII having corrected the Calender this Blood doth the same at the end of the thirteenth of August in which day after the new Reformation the Feast of St. Stephen is kept a manifest Proof say they that the Gregorian Calender is received in Heaven altho' in some Countries Hereticks have refused to follow it The Author adds not so much Faith to Modern Miracles as to those who did them and to what is spoken of in the time of Honorius It seems not Irrational to believe that there was a great number of Sick Persons who were cured by the admirable Odour that proceeded from St. Stephen's Tomb the first time it was opened if we may give credit to Lucian and Photius But he relies more on what St. Augustine says in his City of God Liv. 22. c. 8. of Miracles done in a Chappel where some of St. Stephen's Relicks were kept carried from Ierusalem into Africa by Orosus Dr. Cave believes God might do Miracles then to convert the Heathens which were in great Numbers amongst the Christians in those days where altho' there was no necessity of them yet he could not tell what might be done The Author of the Logick of the Port-Royal speaking of the same Miracles maintains that all men of Sense whether they had Piety or not must acknowledge them as true But one of a good Understanding and Pious too could not well think that St. Augustine should suffer himself to be deceived in things of that nature and upon slight ground would take that for a Miracle which was not so or that he made use of them as proper means to convert the Heathens without examining whether they were Matter of Fact or not it is very certain that he relates them with great Assurance and at this day apparent Falshoods are advanced with no less Confidence Tho' this is not a place to examine the Miracles of St. Augustine 'T will be more to our purpose to pass to the Life of Iustin Martyr Who was born in a City of Samaria formerly called Sichem afterwards by the Inhabitants Mabarta and in fine by the Romans Neapolis and Flavia Cesarea because of a Colony sent thither by Vespasian His Father whose Name was Priscus brought him up in his own Religion and took a great deal of care to have him well instructed in Philosophy He engaged himself particularly to that of Plato which was a means as he himself has declared of his embracing Christianity Having conceived a dislike against the other Sects of Philosophers he becomes a perfect Platonist and from that a Christian after he had some Conference with an Old Man of that Persuasion in Palestine He gives an account of his Conversion in his Dialogue with Tryphon but the Learned receive this as a feigned History or at least look upon it to be extremely imbelish'd Dr. Cave believes it to have been about the 132 d Year after our Lord. Nevertheless he quitted not his Habit of Philosopher for amongst the Greeks they were not attired like other Men. St. Ierom says the same of Aristides an Athenian Philosopher and Origen of Heraclus who was since Bishop of Alexandria The common People generally wore a single Tunick without a Cloak those that were of a better Quality or Richer had always a Cloak besides which the Philosophers had also but no Tunick
so that they were half naked Besides which they suffered both their Beard and Hair to grow This Dress with their particular manner of Carriage drew many Children after them and exposed them to their Ridicule Yet for all the apparent Severity they were very debauched as they walked the Streets this Aspersion was often cast upon them especially when out of Greece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grec imposteur Their Garments were generally black and dirty and if any one was seen to affect the same Slovenliness he was certain to have the same Reproaches rendred him as St. Ierome makes appear in his Epistle to Marcellus upon the Infirmity of Blasill The Christian Monks with their habits inheriting the Vanity of the Philosophers also it is believed by some Authors that the Heathens called them through Contempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Black Casacks and said they were no mark of Virtue so that it was but wearing a Mourning Dress and that it imported not what they appeared outwardly since there was nothing but excessive Vanity within Now to return to Iustin Antiquity assures us he lived very conformably to the habit he wore He went to Rome in the beginning of the Reign of Antonine the Pious and fixt his Abode there applying himself to the defence of the Christian Religion against the Heathens Marcionites and other Hereticks in pursuit of which he writ several Books that have been lost About the hundred and fortieth Year of the Blessed Jesus he Presented to Antonine his Apology for the Christian Religion Which seemed to be the Cause that the Emperor publish'd an Edict and sent into all Asia commanding that the Christians should be proceeded against according to the ordinary Forms of Justice whereas before they took away their Goods banished them and sometimes put them to death without any Formalities at all In Dr. Cave there are some critical Observations on the date of this Edict by which he plainly proves that it was Antonine's and not Marcus Aurelius's as some Learned Men have supposed After having Publish'd this Apology Iustin makes a Voyage into Asia where he came acquainted with Trypho the Iew which Dr. Cave believes to be R. Tarpho who was Friend to R. Akiba that is so often spoke of in the Thalmud Trypho had retired from Iudea after the War of Barchocheas and Iustin finding him at Ephesus disputed with him for two days of which he gives an account to the Publick in a Book Entituled A Dialogue with Trypho From thence returning to Rome he composed that Apology which is called the First tho it was really the Second and Presented it to Marcus Aurelius Lucius Verus for a certainty not being at that time at Rome Iustin had great Contests also with one Crescens a Cynic Philosopher who under the pretended Austerities of a Philosophical Life concealed many shameful Disorders Wherefore Iustin calls him a Philosopher and no Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Man enraged against Iustin resolved to do his utmost to ruin him he found it not difficult to make use of the excessive Superstition of Marcus Aurelius to that end who had also a very ill Opinion of the Christians as is evident by these words of his Book 11. § 3. Such is the Disposition of the Soul that it must be separated from the Body whether it be extinguish'd and dissipated like a Vapour or whether it Subsists This Disposition must proceed from its own Iudgment not from a Passion purely which troubles it as is often seen in the Christians but from a calm and solid Reasoning such as may be inspired to another without making use of Discourses full of Figures and Exaggerations The Circumstances of Iustin's Death may be seen in the Account of his Martyrdom which Dr. Cave believes to be true Their shortness he says being no little sign that they have been taken from ancient Memoirs without being corrected and added to in latter Ages as many things of the like nature have been It is true that some have doubted whether those Acts contained the Martyrdom of Iustin according to matter of Fact but their Suspicion seems not to be well grounded because there is nothing but what agrees very well with it especially the Time and Death of this Martyr which was when Rusticus was Praefect of Rome as St. Epiphanius confirms Rusticus was a great Man both in the Wars and State very much enclined to Philosophy and particularly that of the Stoicks He had been Governor to Marcus Aurelius as may be seen in the First Book of this Emperor where are the chief Lessons that he learnt of him Before this Rusticus Iustin and Six other Christians were brought after they had been first put in Prison He asked them if they were Christians they all freely confessing it publickly and refusing to Sacrifice to the Roman Deities were Beheaded Baronius concludes it to be in the 165th Year after Christ as agrees very well with the Alexandrian Chronology that saith a little after Iustin had presented his second Apology to the Emperor he received the Crown of Martyrdom Dr. Cave after the Relation of Iustin's Death gives a Character of his Virtues and Learning in the manner of a Panegyric as he does to all the Lives he has Written where all along he mingles Eloquence with the Critical part of his History He tells us that although Ancients have extremely praised the Learning of Iustin this Holy Man had no knowledge of the Hebrew as appears by the Etymology he gives of the word Satanas which he saith comes from Sata and from Nas that in Hebrew and Syriac signifie an Apostat Whereas 't is known that the Termination in AS is from the Greek and is added to the word Satan which signifies in Hebrew an Enemy The Etymology that Iustin gave to this word without doubt made Trypho Laugh this shews that some Moderns have not been very well acquainted with the Writings of our Martyr because that a false Etymology of the word Osanna being found in his Book entituled Questions and Answers to the Orthodox They have concluded it to be none of Iustin's who according to them understood Hebrew very well because he was born in Palestine Mr. Rivet also gives this Reason in his Book Entituled Criticus Sacer from whence Sundius hath taken it and added to this Treatise de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis which consists almost of nothing else but what others that have treated of the same matter have said before him Dr. Cave informs us that this Author who pretended to have read the Writings of the Ancients his Citations of which savour infinitely more of Ostentation than Judgment or Fidelity hath sufficiently declared his Ignorance in what relates to the Fathers with whom he has pretended to be so well acquainted when he made that Remark on Iustin. Though Dr. Cave does not look upon this Work as his but rejects it for other Reasons as well as many other that have been
the word He was not the first that had designed the same tho' perhaps he was that executed it Iustin Martyr tells us of a young Man of Alexandria that being brought before Felix Governor of that City desired of him the Permission of a Surgeon that he might put himself out of the State of ever being suspected of any Impurity Felix refused because the Roman Laws forbid it as the Canons of the Church have done since Iustin related this to shew those that accused the Christians of committing horrible Uncleanness in their Assemblies were only Calumniators Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria highly admired this Action of Origen when first done but afterwards becoming an Enemy to this great Man it passed with him for an enormous Crime Origen was so ill treated for it that it is difficult to determine whether this unkind Usage was not the cause when he was advanced a little in Years that he interpreted the words of Jesus Christ in a figurative manner and condemn'd those who had any way mutilated themselves The Emperor Severus Persecutor of the Christians dying the 211 th Year of our Lord Origen made a Voyage to Rome a place he had always desired to see but continued not there long Demetrius recalling him and obliging him to take again his Employ of Catechist This Charge being too great for one he joyned with himself one Heraclas who had been his Disciple and bestowed his leasure Hours in Learning the Hebrew Tongue for which he was so much the more to be praised as he was the first amongst the Greeks that had dared to engage in so difficult a Work and for which there was then so little help It is supposed that his Master was one Huillus a Jew Patriarch of those of his own Nation Origen had always a great Number of Disciples that he instructed in Humane Sciences and in Religion among which one of the most Illustrious was a Man of Quality named Ambrose with whom he studied the Scripture with an extraordinary Application during many Years Whilst he was in this Occupation Demetrius received Letters from the Governor of Arabia desiring him immediately to send Origen to instruct him in the Faith of the Christians He went thither but soon return'd to Alexandria from whence he was obliged as soon to depart to escape the Fury of Caracalla who had entred into Egypt with an Army designing severely to punish the City of Alexandria that had offended him Origen retired to Cesarea in the Palestine where whilst he was yet but a Laick the Bishop desired him publickly to expound the Holy Scripture to the People But Demetrius caused him soon to return to Alexandria after having complained to Theoctist Bishop of Cesarea and to Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem that they had conferred on him an Employ that was never before given to a Laick altho' these two Bishops produced to him many undoubted Examples thereof They assure us that Mammea Mother to the Emperor Alexander Severus being at Antioch and having heard of Origen sent often for him and had many Conferences with him concerning Religion Being returned to Alexandria he applied himself at the Perswasion of his dear Ambrose to compose Commentaries on the Scripture in the Prosecution of which he generally maintain'd seven Copyists that in Latin are call'd Notarii from Nota to Mark because they wrote in Cyphers as fast as Persons spoke Who invented this manner of Writing is not certainly known some attribute it to Cunius others to Tyro the Freed Man of Cicero and some again to one Aquila a Freed Man of Mecoenas These Notaries were made use of in the Primitive Church to write the Discourses of the Martyrs both in Prison and upon the Scaffold as appears by what Tertullian and St. Cyprian saith on the Fasts of the Church and by Pontius the Deacon in the Life of St. Cyprian where he assures us that it was the Custom to Register all the Acts of the Martyrs By which may be seen how the Interrogations and Answers of the Martyrs were preserved the Debates held in Councils and the Homilies spoken Extempore whereof we have so great a Number and all compleat The Commentaries of Origen were so much esteemed altho' they had much defamed him for his pretended Errors that St. Ierom once a great Persecutor of his Followers after becoming openly of their Number said this in his Defence That he would willingly draw on himself the same Hatred as Origen had done to understand the Scriptures as well as he did and that he laugh'd at those Shadows of Errors that he was accused of which were fit only to fright Children whose Imaginations are weak enough to receive Impressions merely from Appearances Hoc unum dico quod vellem cum invidia nominis ejus habere etiam scientiam Scripturarum flocci pendens imagines umbrásque larvarum quarum natura esse dicitur terrere parvulos in angulis garrire tenebrosis Origen was interrupted in this Work by a Voyage he made into Greece which was at that time troubled by some Heresies He passed through Palestine making a short stay at Cesarea where Theoctist and Alexander ordained him Presbyter without his seeking the least after it and with no other design than to make his Ministry more effectual Demetrius had no sooner heard this News but he thought he had found a fair occasion to discover a Hatred he had long conceal'd for a Person whose Learning and Virtue had render'd him much more Illustrious than himself thinking to cover his Malice under the handsome Pretence of defending Ecclesiastical Discipline Then 't was he reproach'd him with that Weakness committed in his Youth viz. The cutting off that part of his Body which seem'd troublesome to him He caused him to be condemned by two Synods wherein they declared his Ordination void and expell'd him Alexandria But these Proceedings did no Injury to Origen he was very well received wheresoever he went and continued to execute his Office of Priest without any regard at all to the Anathema's of the Synods of Egypt Nevertheless the Insults of his Enemies obliged him to think of quitting Alexandria for ever and entirely to give up his Charge of Catechist to Heraclas whom he had converted to the Christian Religion a Man of a profound Learning and great Virtue One thing which prevailed with Origen to take his Mind more easily off Egypt and to depart from thence with less Regret was as Epiphanius tells us his falling into the Hands of some Heathens that were his sworn Enemies who threatned to kill him unless he would resolve to satisfie the Brutality of an Ethiopian Woman or Sacrifice to the Pagan Gods and that in so strange a Choice he rather preferred casting a few Grains of Incense to a false Deity He adds That Origen after this durst no longer continue at Alexandria But Authors that lived in the same time with him make no mention at all of it nor was this Crime ever
of certain things which have no relation of themselves with Vertue 4. Gregory who had beg'd of God the Punishment of Iulian as soon as he saw him Dead look'd on the Pagans with Pity and exhorted the Christians to treat them with Mildness though he was overjoy'd that the Christian Churches should be no more polluted that the Altars would be no more Profaned that things consecrated to God should be no more carried away from his Temples that Ecclesiasticks should no more be abused that the Relicks of Martyrs would be no more burned c. After that he Insults over the False Divinities and admonisheth Christians not to abuse their Prosperity and to take heed they did not do what they reproached the Pagans with In beginning this Exhortation he speaks of himself in these terms to draw unto him the Readers attention Hearken to the Discourse of a Man who hath not acquired an indifferent Knowledge of these things either by the Experience of what happeneth every day or the reading of ancient Books or ancient Histories 5. The greatest Satisfaction notwithstanding which the Christians had after the Death of Iulian according to Gregory was that those who had persecuted the Christians were laugh'd at on the Theater in publick places and in the Assemblies That which is most surprising adds he is that those who persecuted us with the rest threw down with great Shouts the Statues of the Gods by which they had been so long misled Those which adored them yesterday draggeth them to day along with Indignity But those who remained in Paganism were without doubt extreamly affronted at the manner wherewith the Statues of their Gods were treated and could not look on Christians as moderate Men. For in fine these Statues were as dear to them as what the Christians regard as most Sacred Moreover those that changed their Religion as their Emperor did and became so suddenly Enemies to God which they had adored all their Life ought to have been very much suspected 6. Finally Gregory having laughed at the Speeches and Writings of Iulian which are not so contemptible tells him That he Boasts in vain of never having contracted any Crudity for having eaten too much since the Hurt he had done to the Christians was infinitely greater than the good that would accrue to the State from Sobriety When a Man saith he is troubled with an Indigestion and that he feels the Inconvenience thereof what harm doth it to the Common-wealth But in raising so violent a Persecution and causing so great Troubles it is impossible but the whole Empire should suffer In effect to want Royal Vertues is a Defect greater in a Prince than to be destitute of those that a private Man is obliged to have To pursue the Thread of our Discourse Gregory having been against his Will ordained Priest as we have already observ'd took the Resolution of retiring into the Soâ—â—udes of Pontus without the Permission oâ—â—is Father His Brother Cesairio being then come from Court to live with his Parents gave him an occasion Notwithstanding his Father being very Old and not being able alone to bear the Burthen of the Episcopacy engaged him to come back to help him Basil himself used his Endeavours to make him give this Satisfaction to his Father He was consecrated Bishop to be his Coadjutor and perform'd the Functions of Episcopacy which his Father was not able to do In that time it was that he made the Speech which is the Fifth in order wherein he directs his Discourse to his Father and to Basil and tells them he took at their Solicitation The long Gown and the Miter It is hard to know if he spoke this in Complement or only was satisfied with the writing it but he rehearsed before the People the Forty first of his Speeches which is upon the same Subject A little time after he made the long Apology for his Flight which is at the Head of his Works He proposeth more at large the Difficulties which are found in the Exercise of Episcopacy and saith That notwithstanding he was resolved to come to satisfie both the Church of Nazianze and his Parents who equally wished for his Return Amongst the Reasons which had given him a Distaste of the Episcopacy and Priesthood he puts the Shameful manner whereby many strove to attain them how unworthy soever they were of his Employment and the Multitude of Competitors They look saith he upon this Dignity not as a Post where they ought to be a Model of Vertue but as a means to maintain themselves not as a Ministry whereof they must give an account but as a Magistracy which is subject to no Examination They are almost in a greater number than those which they govern c. And I believe saith he the Evil will so increase with time we shall have no body to govern but that all will be Doctors and that even Saul will be seen amongst the Prophets He saith that into the Sees were introduced Ignorant People and Children that the Ecclesiasticks were not better than the Scribes and Pharisees that they had no Charity but Eagerness and Passion only that their Piety consisted in condemning the Impiety of others whose Conduct they observed not to bring them back to the Truth but to Defame them that they blamed or praised Persons not for their good or bad Life but according to the Parties they had embraced that they admired amongst themselves what they reprehended in another Party with Eagerness that amongst them were seen Disputes like to the Nocturnal Combats wherein neither Friends nor Foes are discerned that they were Litigious upon Trifles under the fine Pretence of Defending Faith that finally they were a Horror to the Pagans and the Contempt of Honest Men amongst the Christians This is a true Picture of the Manners of the Ecclesiasticks of his Age as it is but too apparent by the History of those times By ill Fortune those of our time do so much resemble them that if it had not been said whence these Complaints were drawn it would seem to be a Picture of our Modern Divines Another Difficulty which was found in the Exercise of Episcopacy is that of speaking well of the Mysteries of Christianity and principally of the Blessed Trinity where according to Gregory we must hold a Medium between the Jews who acknowledge but one God and Pagans who adore several a Medium the Sabellians could not hold in making the same God considered in divers respects Father Son and Holy Ghost nor Arius in maintaining that they have divers Natures As for himself he believed as we have already observed and he himself saith again here in many other places he held this desired Medium in establishing three Principles equal in Perfection although the Father is the Origine of the Son and the Holy Ghost It was not a very long time that Gregory was Coadjutor to his Father before his Brother
the History of those Times and the Pretexts that animated the Gentiles against the Christians These Pretexts were of that nature sometimes that they shewed more Negligence than Malice As for Decius it is confessed that though he had very good Qualities and was very Mild nevertheless he suffered himself to be possessed with much Hatred against the Church but not to that degree as to have caused so great a Slaughter as is attributed to him Mr. Dodwell adhering to St. Cyprian the most he can Remarks that when he perceived that the People of Carthage sought to expose him to the Lions he retired in hopes that his absence would appease the Tumult A great Arguments against some Brain-sick-fellow that would have People dare the Orders of a Prince as soon as he meddles with the Privileges of Religion and think it was never lawful for a Pastor to yield to the Storm ' St Cyprian's Flight was followed with two kinds of Persecutions for until the Proconsul came the Magistrates of Towns having no Power to condemn to Death contented themselves with Banishing and Imprisoning and nevertheless forced a great many to abjure their Religion When the Proconsul came he tried to reduce the Faithful without making use of the most rigorous Punishments but seeing them firm he exercised the utmost Cruelties There were then many martyr'd until other Cares or seeing the little benefit of such Cruelties he grew less violent although Mr. Dowdell does not think their number very great that Sealed the Truth of their Religion with their Blood nor does he much value the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus because it was writ more than a hundred Years after his Death upon hear-say the most Fertile Subject of Fables and Hyperboles in the World After this he runs over the time that past between the Persecution of Decius and that of Licinius for as for Iulian the Apostate it 's well known that he was not Cruel and he finds great abatements to be made in every Place in the Computations of Martyrologies He here gives a great insight into many things especially concerning the Emperor Dioclesian and his Collegues He does not forget to note one thing that favours him much which is that in the greatest heat of the Persecution there were no Martyrs for Orders were given to Torment the Christians after such a manner that none might dye that they might brag of their Clemency and take from the Christians the Crown of Martyrdom as Lactantius elegantly expresses it The Author observes that the Persecutors Stroke came after a thousand Artifices used before which is but little credited by those Pagan Emperors for their Violences are represented to have been so brutish that they had not the honesty to cover them with any Pretext This Dissertation ends with a Remark that will perhaps displease a great many which is that Anniversaries and Honours done to the Memory of Martyrs were borrowed from the Apotheoses of Paganism The Twelfth Dissertation treats of the Courage of Martyrs which was so admirable whether the nature of the Torments they endured were considered or the Age and Sex of a part of them that suffered that People may desire to know whence that Constancy proceeded It is well known that the Spirit of God was the chief Cause of it but some may wish to be inform'd if there were no Motives whereby the natural Strength managed by a Divine Providence might contribute to it Therefore Mr. Dowdell curiously examines it and proposes a great number of Motives the chief whereof follow here He says that the Primitive Christians led so austere a Life and that they so much accustomed their Bodies to hard Exercises that they could easily resolve to undergo Punishments the Thoughts whereof would make a Man tremble that had been brought up tenderly in Pleasures and upon this he alledges the Undauntedness and Patience of the Lacedemonians which without doubt proceeded from the Austerity of their Discipline He might have added what was said by a Voluptuous Man who was witness of their mean Fare that he would wonder no more why they so boldly dared Dangers as if he would say that their Condition was so hard that it would not seem strange that they should prefer a glorious Death to it The Author says that though Christians were too well instructed to be governed by the desire of Glory yet it was strange if the Honour that was shewn to the Memories of Martyrs and also to them that were but Confessors did not make some Impression on their Souls It is true that the Fathers did not disapprove of their having a sense of the Honour that redounded to the whole Body when any part thereof suffered for a good Cause Moreover he says that the Testimony of a good Conscience and the certainty they were in of an Eternal Felicity gave them great boldness against Torments and even against Death it self But as it is certain that the Christians chiefly contemn'd that Death that was joined to a Crown of Martyrdom for sometimes a common Death would not be so pleasing to them so we must of necessity examin the Reasons for this particular kind of Death the Author concludes them to consist much in the Opinions which the first Ages had that Martyrs would go directly to the Abode of the Blessed without stopping at the Receptacle of Common Souls there to expect the end of the World without needing the Fire that 's to consume the World to complete the Purification of their Souls and because this Fire was believed more insupportable than the most cruel Pains of Martyrdom this Opinion much supported them It was thought likewise that the Privilege granted to all Saints of obtaining by their Prayers a shortning of the time destin'd for the Sufferings of the Church belonged after a more eminent manner to the Martyrs so that they were looked on to be the chief Cause of the Anticipation of the Chastisement of the Wicked and of Recompencing the Good by the Reign of a thousand Years And they believed that the first Resurrection would happen in that Reign that it would be only for the Just and that the Martyrs would be very advantageously distinguished for they lookt upon it to be so far off as we do the Glory of Paradise they were perswaded that the Reign of a thousand Years at hand so that all these Hope 's prevailed much with them towards a desire or Martyrdom I do not speak of the degrees of Glory that was assigned the Martyrs to all Eternity and which much surpassed the Glory of other Just Men. In fine they were of opinion that all Faults were obliterated by Martyrdom and that it was a Propitiatory Sacrifice not only for the Martyr but also for all such as had fallen and were recieved into Peace by him before his Death The Author explains how that does not derogate from the infinite Value of the Death of Jesus Christ and lest he should be accused for not making the
extraordinary Assistance of the Holy Ghost intervene oftner in Martyrdom he shews at length that the hopes of this inward Grace that so often miraculously assisted the Martyrs gave Courage to the Faithful His last Dissertation fully shews that the ancient Church looked upon Martyrdom as upon a Second Baptism We might draw several Remarks from it if this Article were drawn at length and for this Reason we will say nothing of the Appendix of this Work where are the Fasts of the Greeks and Latins Pieces for the most part that were never Printed and that have a long Discourse before them full of Historick and Chronologick Learning The Author has publish'd a Discourse lately upon a dark Passage of the Exhortation to Chastity where Tertullian seems to affirm that all Christians are Priests and may in case of necessity Consecrate Mr. Rigaut understanding the Passage in this same sense was refuted by Mr. de Aubespine and found it very convenient not to fall out with Bishops But the Learned Grotius that had not the same Reasons to dissemble did not acknowledge this Prelates Reasons to be valid He shews a Dissertation Published in 1638 that Tertullian had done very ill if he had not believed Laicks had power to administer the Eucharist and endeavouring to establish this Opinion upon Tradition he allarmed all the Traditioners therefore it was thought that nothing ought to be neglected that might prevent the Consequences of this dangerous Sentiment Father Petau for this end spared neither Study nor Meditation to answer Grotius but Mr. Dowdell fearing that the Jesuit did not sufficiently shew the essential distinction of Priests and lest the Divinity of Episcopacy should be exposed to any Intrenchments has taken the Field with all his Learning to encounter with Mr. Grotius He tells us many fine things upon the Antiquities of the Church it is with Reason that the English are cajol'd by him upon this Science for in such Points as they have the same Advantages with Rome they furnish her with great Assistance but they pay themselves well on other accounts The Title of this new Book is De jure Laicorum Sacerdotali ex Sententia Tertulliani aliorumque veterum Dissertatio adversus Anonymum dissertatorem de Coenae administratione ubi Pastores non sunt ab Henrico Dodwello A. M. Dubliniens Londini Impensis Benj. Took 1685. in Octavo There is added Grotius's Discourse that of Father Petau and the answer which Clopemburg made to the first upon the Question If it be always necessary to Communicate with some one of the Christian Societies The Works of Clemens Alexandrinus in Greek and Latin according to the accurate Corrections of Dr. Hensii with brief Additions c. at the end of Dr. Heinsius To which is added the Ancient and Modern Annotations Collected by the Industry of Frid. Sylburgius The Ninth Edition at Paris 1641. Cologne 1688. In Fol. THough there are but few who can read the Fathers in the original Languages there is a very great number of Persons whom it concerns to have some Idea of their Lives and Writings because of the use made thereof now in Controversies which divide Christians The Roman Catholick Doctors forget nothing to perswade the People that the Fathers have been of their Sentiments thinking that it was insufferable to reject a Doctrin upheld by the Suffrage of the most part of the Fathers When they cite a Passage which they think conformable to their Thoughts they miss not to urge it as a holy Father hath very well said else if we oppose any other words to them from which they cannot well get free they answer that it was but his particular Opinion and reject it as an Error The most part of Protestants establish the Consent of the Fathers not as a Principle of their Faith though some of them make not much another use thereof in citing than the Roman Catholicks do Hence it cometh that in the Ecclesiastical Histories of both Parties the Places of the Fathers are carefully remarked which appear proper for the Opinions and Practices which are this day received amongst us and only mention by the by what we think defective in their Conduct and Doctrin As we are perswaded that the Fathers particularly those of the first Ages received all those Opinions which now we look upon as Essential so we think we ought to praise them and to excuse as much as possible the defects which are in their Writings or in their Lives so that their Panegyrick or Apology is insensibly made with much more Passion than their History Hence those who read Works of this nature are perswaded that the Ancients were Men of consummate Knowledge and of an extraordinary Purity of Manners Hence it is concluded that if any were abused there must needs be great reason for it and that there was no danger either of their Relations or the Confutations of the Opinions of Hereticks It is thought they ought to be imitated in their way of Reasoning and Acting without taking much heed whether they are conformable to the Precepts of the Gospel Thus it happeneth that there is no History of the first Ages sufficiently faithful and that these Histories are not used as they should be They are far from flattering themselves of being able to remedy an Evil which is so naturaliz'd as this and this Work is not composed upon that design but at least we think our selves obliged to keep off as much as possible from the ways of those who give passionate Panegyricks of them to the Publick which expects uninterested Histories This Method was attempted in the History of Pelagianism and we shall endeavour to do it yet in the Life of Clement which we now come to relate in a few words Titus Flavius Clemens famous for his Knowledge towards the end of the Second Age was born at Athens according to some Authors who believe they can reconcile this Opinion with that of those who make him to be of Alexandria in saying that Athens was the place of his Birth but that the long Abode he made at Alexandria gave him the name of Alexandrinus His Stile nevertheless though pretty full of Figures is often obscure and entangled and has not much of the Neatness and Elegancy of the Athenian Accademies Howbeit it is certain he began his Studies in Greece he continued them in Asia and ended his days in Egypt It appears he was not satisfied to be instructed by one Master but travelled much to hear several and thus to form to himself a more exact and universal Idea of the Christian Religion as well as to acquire more knowledge in Human Sciences His Masters had been themselves Disciples of the Apostles or had conversed with the Disciples of these Holy Men as appears by what he speaks thereof himself though he expresseth not himself altogether distinctly He saith that his ruder Writings are an Image and Representation of the lively and animated Discourses of happy and truly worthy Men whom he
had the honour to hear The one continueth he which I saw in Greece was of the Ionick Sect. I have seen two in Calabria the one of Syria and the other of Egypt I have met two others in the East whereof the one was of Assyria and the other with whom I have conversed in Palestine was of Iewish Extraction This last was the most deserving I stopt in Egypt where he was concealed to seek for him He was as the Proverb saith a true Bee of Sicily He gathered the scattered Flowers as it were in the Meadows of the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles by the means of which he could fill with a pure Knowledge the Souls of those who heard him These Men having conserved the true Tradition of the Blessed Doctrin immediately after the holy Apostles St. Peter St. James St. John and St. Paul as a Child who retains what he has learned of his Father though there are few who resemble them have lived till our times by the Will of God to pour into our Hearts the Seed they had received from the Apostles their Predecessors It is of a great Importance to know what Master an Author hath had for to understand well his Opinions for then as at this day Disciples applied themselves chiefly to the Methods of their Masters and expounded Religion as near as they could to the Principles of Philosophy which they learned Thus Divine School men who were Paripateticks have since Expounded Divinity by the Principles of Aristotle and thus in the places where the Philosophy of Descartes is received Divinity is treated on after the Cartesian way Therefore the Learned of our Age have endeavoured to Divine who those were which Clement spoke of It appears by the Version which hath been given of the words of this Father that he had five Masters but Mr. de Valois gives him but four because he follows the manner of the Reading of Eusebius It cannot positively be asserted which is the Letter but it may be said that the Interpreters who have taken the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a proper Name have done it without reason There is no likelihood that Clement who mentions not the Names of others whom he acknowledges for his Masters should name this there was none in Antiquity who was named Ionick and this name may mark the Sect of Philosophy to which this first Master of Clement was chiefly applied Thales and Anaximander Philosophers of Milet a City of Ionia had been the Chief thereof Clement of Alexandria speaks honourably of both those Philosophers in his Writings Thales saith he in a Place was of Phoenicia according to the Relation of Leander and Herodotus He is the only Person who seems to have had Corrispondence with the Prophets of Egypt and we read not that any was his Master c. Anaximander a Milesian and Son to Praxidamus succeeded Thales and had for Successor Anaximenes Son to Euristratus likewise a Milesian Anaxagoras of Clazomenes Son to Hegesibule came after him he transported his Auditory from Ionia to Athens and was succeeded by Archelaus Master to Socrates Elsewhere he saith that Thales being interrogated what Divinity is he answered That which hath neither Beginning nor Ending And that another having asked him If Men can hide from God their Actions How shall that be possible answered he seeing they cannot hide even their Thoughts from him In speaking of Anaximander of Archelaus and Anaxagoras Philosophers of the same Sect he saith that the first has established for the first Being the Infinite and that the two others have said that the Mind governed the Infinite The Principles of these Philosophers may be seen more at large in Diogenes Laërtius and we may easily perceive that there are some who agree well enough with those of the Jews and Christians as that all that is upon Earth is come from Water that the Night was before the Day that the most part of Men are bad that for to live justly we must not do that which we reprehend in others that Heaven is our true Country c. It is not therefore incredible that a Philosopher of this Sect had imbraced Christianity and was the first Master of Clement of Alexandria All that can be said against this Thought is that the Succession of Philosophers of the Ionick Sect ended in Archelaus Master to Socrates But though there had been no Masters of this Philosophy who had immediately succeeded one another that hindred not but that those might have been Philosophers in divers Places who followed the Opinions of Thales and of his first Disciples Thus Diogenes Laërtius saith in his Preface that the Italick Sect whereof Pythagoras was chief ends at Epicurus though there were Pythagoreans several Ages after Epicurus It is no wonder that a Christian followed a certain Sect of Philosophy because it is not to be understood but as much as he judged it conformable to Christianity Thus Iustin Martyr was a Platonick and Pantenes Master to Clement was a Stoick The Name of the Second whom he had seen in Great Greece or in Calabria is entirely unknown Some Authors believe that that of Assyria was Tatian a Philosopher and Disciple to Iustin Martyr and others Bardesanes of Syria who had been a Valentinian who never left intirely the Sentiments of this Sect As for him who had been originally a Iew some believe he might be Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea though History does not observe that he was descended of the Iews Likewise others do conjecture that he was named Theodotus whose Doctrin Clemens Alexandrinus had exposed in his Books of Hypotyposes or Justifications of Christian Religion whence it comes that the Abridgment of this Work which is seen at the end of Clement is entituled An Extract of the Eastern Doctrin of Theodotus But some do attribute these Extracts to Theodotus of Byzantium a Courier by Trade but a Learned Man who was Excommunicated by Pope Victor in CXCIV for having Taught that Jesus Christ was but a mere Man In fine the least of the Masters of Clement whom he prefers to all the rest and with whom he sojourned was named Pantenus Eusebius believes it is of him that Clement speaks in the last words of the Passage which hath been cited of him and indeed Pantenus Taught in Egypt when Clement sojourned there and Clement called him his Master in his Books of the Hypotyposes The Country and Parents of Pantenus are unknown but we know he applied himself much to the study of Philosophy particularly to that of the Stoicks won perhaps by the Manners and severe Maxims of these Philosophers which agreed not ill with those of the Ancient Christians There had been a publick School at Alexandria for a long time and if some Authors may be believed ever since Mark the Evangelist where the Cathecumenes were Taught an employ which was given only to Learned Persons and of a good Life Pantenus was provided therewith and Taught a long while in this City
by Words and Writing He had made Commentaries upon Scripture whereof we have only remaining a few words which are found in the Extracts of the Oriental Doctrin of Theodotus where Clement of Alexandria speaketh thus Our Pantenus saith that the Prophets express themselves ordinarily by the Aoristus and make use of the time present for the Future and Past. There is a likelihood that Pantenus officiated as a Cathechist when Clement arrived in Egypt and that he studied some time under him before he succeeded him He applied himself there as elsewhere to the study of Philosophy though he was far from taking all those who bore the name of Philosopher for such We do not simply receive saith he every sort of Philosophy but that only whereof Socrates speaks in Plato Socrates observed That there are a great many called but few chosen For he adds in the Sequel that the latter according to his Opinion are those who have applied themselves as a thing very requisite to Philosophy That People should not be taken for Philosophers who perhaps had but a shew Clement would not apply himself to any Sect absolutely but followed this manner of Philosophising which was then Eclectick to wit that of those who chose out of all Tenets what appeared most reasonable unto them and formed a System thereof for their particular Use. Potamon of Alexandria who lived in the time of Augustus was the first who had put in Use this manner of Philosophising Clement could not choose a more commodious Method for a Christian Philosopher because there is no Philosopher whose Tenets are all conformable to those of the Gospel though there may be made a System drawing very near that of the Christian Doctrin in gathering in all the Philosophers what they have said conformably to the Light of Nature or to some ancient Traditions spread almost over the whole Universe It is Clement himself who speaks it and who assures us that he applied himself to the Eclectick Philosophy for the Reason we have alledged After having said that God sent Philosophers to Men he adds That he understands not neither that of the Stoicks nor that of the Platonicks nor that of the Aristoteleans But I give this Name continueth he to the Truths which these Sects have held and which may incline Men to Iustice and Piety I in no wise call Divine the false Thoughts of Men. He saith elsewhere that the barbarous Philosophy and that of the Greeks hath included some Fragments of Eternal Truths in them not from Mythology of Bacchus but of Reason which has always existed He that should rejoin continues he that which hath been divided and which would compose a perfect System could assure himself of acknowledging the Truth A like Thought is in Lactantius which affirms that it is easie to shew that Truth altogether hath been divided amongst the different Sects of the Philosophers and that if there was any who would gather the Truths scattered amongst all Sects and make but one Body of Doctrin certainly it would not be far from the Sentiments of Christians Quodsi extitisset aliquis qui veritatem sparsam per singulos per Sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum ac redigeret in corpus is profecto non dissentiret à nobis He saith afterwards that none could do it but by Divine Revelation but that if it happened as by hazard that some body should do it without this Succour there would be nothing more assured than this Philosophy and that though he could not defend himself by the authority of Revelation Truth wou'd be maintained of it self by its own Light He afterwards blames those who apply themselves to a Sect so that they would embrace all its Sentiments and condemn all others ready to dispute against all the Doctrins which they have not learned of their Masters This design of gathering all which Philosophers have said conformable to the Gospel is undoubtedly very fine and can much conduce to convine the Truth of Christian Religion But for to succeed therein the Christian Philosophy and Religion should be equally understood to comprehend the clear and undoubted Articles which regard Practice and Speculation The Heterodox of those Times for want of taking heed had introduced into Christian Religion an infinity of Philosophical Tenets which have no Relation with those of the Gospel Thus the Carpocratians believed according to the Relation of Clement that it was permitted to meddle confusedly with any Woman whatever and did it actually after having Supped in a great Company and extinguished the Candles they entertain'd this Thought because Plato would have Women to be common in his Republick and that they had wrested divers Passages of Scripture to accommodate them to this Sentiment Clement believeth that they ill understood not only Scripture but also Plato who according to him meaned nothing else but that there should be no Girl in the Commonwealth to which all the Citizens indifferently might not pretend though after she being Married to one Man others could no more hope to Espouse her It might be well shewn that Clement expounded not well the Thought of Plato if this was a Place for it The Marcionites who said that the Matter and Nature are bad and who condemned Weddings fell into this Opinion so opposite to that of Carpocrates because they expounded some Passages of Scripture by the Principles of the Platonicks Because the Scripture often describes the Miseries of this Life and praiseth Continence they imagined that the Sacred Authors had had the same Ideas of this Life and Generation or Birth that Heraclitus and Plato had These Philosophers believed as it hath been remarked that Souls existed before the Body where they are only sent to be punished for the Sins which they had committed in another Life and that thus to speak correctly Birth should be called a Death rather than a beginning of Life and Death a Life because when we are born our Souls are cast into the Prison of the Body from whence they are delivered when we dye that 's the reason that these Philosophers and several Poets after them said it was better not to be born than to come into the World and to dye in Childhood than to live several Years which is the Cause also that they speak sometimes in very harsh Terms against Matrimony because it served according to them only to build a Prison to some unhappy Soul which was precipitated into the Body that they produced The Valentinians had also taken what they said of the Generation of their Eones from Hesiod as will appear by comparing the beginning of his Theognia with the Doctrin of the Valentinians related by St. Irenaeus and St. Epiphanius who fail not to reproach them that they had their Doctrin from this Poet. There is some appearance that they confounded the Doctrin of Hesiod with that of the Scripture because of some light resemblance which is found betwixt them It would be easie to shew that Hesiod by the
Chatechumenes consisted in shewing them what there was that was good in the Heathen Philosophy and so insensibly conducted them to Christianity which they were in a much better way of embracing after having received several of his Maxims drawn from Natural Light and distributed through the Writings of Philosophers for whom they saw all the World had a respect If they were immediately told that they must renounce all their Opinions and look upon all the rest of Mankind not only as Men who were in an Error but such a had said nothing that was true As Labourers cast Seed into the Earth but not 'till after they have water'd it So saith Clement We take from the writings of the Greeks that which is necessary to water what we final Earthy in those we Instruct that they may afterwards receive the Spiritual Seed and that they may be in a mâ—re likely way to make it spring up more easily In effect the light of the Gospel supposes that of Nature and destroys it not We do not see that Iesus Christ and his Apostles have undertaken to give us a compleat System of all the Doctrins that have any reference to Religion they supposed that we were already prevented with divers thoughts established amongst all Nations upon which they Reasoned otherwise it would have been requisite for example that they should have exactly defined all the Vertues which they have not done because in respect to this they found Idea's in the minds of Men which tho imperfect were yet very true so they were satisfied to add what was lâ—cking or to cut off what evil Customs might have injuriously established therein Besides the Office of Catechist Clement was raised to the Priesthood at the beginning as 't is believ'd of the Empire of Severus because Eusebius in his History of the Events of CXCV gives to Clement the title of Priest It was about that time that he undertook to defend the Christian Religion against Heathens and Hereticks by a Work which he Entituled Stromates which we shall afterwards speak something of because in this Work in making a Chronological Computation he descends not lower than the Death of Commodus whence Eusebius concludes that he compos'd it under the Empire of Severus who succeeded this Emperour Severus enraged against the Christians because perhaps of a Rebellion of the Iews with whom the Heathens confounded those that professed Christianity began to Persecute them violently This Persecution arising at Antioch reached unto Egypt and obliged several Christians to withdraw from their Habitations where they were too well known to escape the Violence of the Persecution This seems to have given occasion to Clement of proving it was lawful to fly in time of Persecution After having said that Martyrdom purified them from all Sins and exhorting them to suffer if they were called to it he says that Persons ought to testifie that they are perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion as much by their Manners as Words After that he Expounds this Passage of the Gospel When you are Persecuted in one City flee into another The Lord saith he commands us not to flee as if it were an Evil to be Persecuted and bids us not to shun Death by flight as if we should fear it He will have us neither ingage in or assist any one to do Evil c. Those who obey not are Rash and throw themselves without reason into manifest Dangers If he who kills a Man of God Sinneth he also is guilty of his own Death he who presents himself to the Tribunal of the Jugde c. he assists as much as is capable the Wickedness of him by whom he is Persecuted If he exasperates him he is effectually the cause of his own Death as much as if he endeavoured to vex a wild Beast who afterwards devoured him A little while after the Apostles Persons were observ'd to covet Martyrdom but some after desiring the Executioners scandalously falling from Christianity at the sight of the Torments this Conduct was thought dangerous and those were condemned for it who offered themselves freely to be Martyr'd as appears by divers Passages of the Ancients and by that of Clement which we have related As Men ought not to shun Martyrdom when it cannot be avoided except by renouncing Christianity or a good Conscience so they ought to preserve their Lives as much as they can whilst there is any likelihood of serving the Christians rather to prolong it by flight than lose it by staying in Places where the Persecution is so violent and whence they may get away without ceasing to make Profession of Truth Those who blame or make some difficulty of absolving some Protestant Pastors because they came from a Kingdom where they could not tarry without an eminent Danger should first prove that another Conduct would have been more advantageous to Christianity than their Retreat hath been Here depends the Solution of this Question which hath been disputed of late If they have done well in withdrawing Clement seems then to have quitted Alexandria seeing we find that he made some Abode at Ierusalem with Alexander who was soon after Bishop of this City and to whom he dedicated his Book Entituled The Ecclesiastical Rules against those who follow the Opinions of the Jews During his Abode there he was very useful to this Church as appears by a Letter to Alexander to the Church of Antioch whereof Clement was bearer where this Bishop saith that he was a Man of great Virtue as the Church of Anitoch knew and would still acknowledge him so and that he being at Ierusalem by an effect of Divine Providence had confirmed and encreased the Church of the Lord. From Antioch Clement returned to Alexandria where it is not known how long he lived All that can be said is that he survived at least some Years after Pantenus and that he was not old when he composed his Stromates seeing he saith himself that he did them to serve him for a Collection in his old Age when his Memory should fail him History teacheth us nothing concerning his Death but it may be believed his Memory was blessed at Alexandria if these words of the Bishop of Ierusalem be considered which we have spoken of who in another Letter to Origen saith That they both acknowledged for Fathers these blessed Men who had quitted this Life before them and with whom they would soon be to wit blessed Pantenus and pious Clement from whom they had drawn great Succours Amongst several Works which Clement compos'd we have but Three remaining which are considerable The First is An Exhortation to Pagans where he refutes their Religion and endeavours to induce them to imbrace Christianity The Second is Entituled The Paedagogue where he forms the Manners of Youth and gives them Rules to behave themselves Christianly where he mixeth Maxims very severe and far from the Customs of this day The Third are the Stromates that is to say Tapistries which he
this Demand of the Court of Rome and particularly the just cause they had to distrust him for his Covetousness after having been deceived so often under the same pretext 3. After that there is the Life of Gregory the 7th by Cardinal Bennon the reasons for which Henry IV. Emperor chose Guibert instead of Gregory are drawn from d' Othon de Frisinge the manner how Silvester the Second was accus'd of giving himself to the Devil with an Account of his Death taken out of Iohn Stella a Venetian the Judgment that Peter Crinitus made of Boniface the 8th the Life of the Emperor Henry the 4th Written by Otbert Bishop of Liege in the year 1106 with some Letters of the same Emperor to the Pope and to divers Princes the cruel manner wherewith Henry was treated by Gregory is sufficiently known and may be seen in their Lives what Princes ought to expect from the Pope if they are so vain to promise an Establishment of those Opinions in their States which the Court of Rome hath endeavoured to spread every where about her Soveraign Authority in all matters Spiritual and Temporal 4. How Popes have to the utmost endeavour'd to render the Election of the Emperor dependent upon the Court of Rome The Princes of Germany have not fail'd to oppose it and one of the principal Ramparts against the Enterprizes of Italy is the Golden Bull given by Charles the 4th in the year 1365 and the 10th of Ianuary 'T was this that oblig'd Orthuinus Gratius to publish this Bull in a Collection wherein he design'd to advertise the Princes of dangerous Abuses that ought to be corrected which was daily put in practice by the Court of Rome 5. One of the Fictions which hath been the worse founded and which was forg'd to establish the temporal Greatness of the Pope is the pretended gift of Constantine where he says that he gave all the West to Pope Silvester and his Successors Now there is none who hath Learning or Sincerity amongst the Roman Catholicks that will not acknowledge this to be meerly Supposititious and that this is not the same that was 200 years since And he is wanting in the serious Refutation of a piece which he dares not now make mention of wherefore we ought not to regard as forreign to our purpose the Refutation of Laurentius Valla here brought against this Gift of Constantine which is throughly examin'd by the Collection of divers Learn'd men who either doubt it to be Authentick or wholly reject it If all these pieces were lost we shou'd not want to object to those Men who look upon this Gift as ridiculous the novelty of their Opinion which opposes the consent of many Ages Thus we must abolish all Writings which prove it with those that condemn it Or in keeping the first we must preserve the second 6. The Vaudois are in the number of those who have complained of the Abuses of the Roman Church and who have endeavour'd to Correct them as may be seen in the Confession of Faith which some of 'em sent formerly to Uladislaus King of Hungary with their Answer to one Augustine Dr. of Divinity addressd to the same Prince This Answer is Dated 6 days after Epiphany The Confession and Answer are much better Translated than most of the Pieces in the Ages past and contain Opinions very conformable to those of the Reformed on the Sacraments Invocation of Saints Purgatory Holy Scripture and some other Articles those who desire to know in what those who have written these Epistles differ'd from the Reform'd at this day may have recourse to the Original tho 't is not to be found only in this Book but also in the Collections of the Historians of Bohemia by Freber 7. After this of the Vaudois are some Pieces concerning the Doctrin of Wickliff and the manner how they were condemn'd viz. in a Book of one William Woodward who lived at the end of the 14th Age against the Opinions of Wickliff in 18′ Articles which are at the beginning of this Treatise and with a much greater number of Articles which were attributed to Wickliff whether true or false and condemn'd in the Council of Constance with the Censure and Refutation of 44 in particular Without doubt several of these Treatises are attributed to Wickliff as some Learn'd Protestants have made appear Some seem to be ill understood as the last Omnes Religiones indifferenter introductae sunt à Diabolo If Wickliff had said he understood by Religions the Order of the Monks against whom he was much Incensed as it appears by the Articles of Page 277. against the Religions Nevertheless the censure of this Proposition supposes that we must take the word Religions in the most common sense of the different manners of serving God as are the Iudaick and Christian Religions But when they will condemn any one or take all that he says in the worst sense it ought to render their Explications extreamly suspected who has given us his Opinion of the Ancient Hereticks as well as the Orthodox Fathers hurried away by their Zeal ordinarily render'd 'em as worthy to be condemn'd as possible There are Remarks also upon this ill Custom and the manner whereby Aeneas Silvius exposes the Opinions of Wickliff which he says pass'd from England to Bohemia and in the Sentence of the Council of Constance against him who declared him to be a Heretick after his Death commanded to take up his Bones if it was possible to distinguish 'em from those of the Faithful who were buried near him and cast them out of the Church-yard 8. Aeneas Silvius saith in his History of the Bohemians That the Opinions of Wickliff were transferr'd from England into Bohemia by a Bohemian Gentleman who Studied at Oxford and returning into his own Country carried some of Wickliff's Books with him However the Council of Constance after they had condemn'd him also condemn'd Iohn Hus and Ierom of Prague and their Disciples as may be seen at large by divers Pieces which are here inserted touching the affairs of the Bohemians It is shewn there also what pass'd in the Council of Basil the Demands that were made to 'em and their Answers thereon Orthuinus Gratius has not forgot on this occasion the celebrated Letter of Poggius to Leonard Arretin upon the Death of Ierom of Prague but he endeavours to be beforehand with the Reader against Poggius that he may not believe all he says to the honour of Ierom of Prague This is apparent that this History has too much effect upon the mind of the Reader and makes him suspect Ierom of Prague of Hypocrisie and the same Author hath put after the Letter of Poggius a Discourse of Leonard Arretin against Hypocrites where Gratius having easily apply'd the Truths that Leonard Arretin advances to the Fathers of the Councel which is not to be believed altho' the Application was but too just 9. This Piece that follows
contains the Canons of a Council held by an Arch-Bishop of Mentz nam'd Arribon the year 1023. concerning some abuses of that time as against Priests who imagined themselves to be able to extinguish a fire by casting into it a consecrated Host. 10. There are afterwards two Writings which contain the Examination of Iohn de Wesel Doctor of Divinity accused of Heresie he was brought before two Dominicans Gerard Elten and Iames Springer the first being an Inquisitor of Faith in 1479. Some Thomists had remark'd in his Sermons Propositions they judge Heretical There are some Opinions suppos'd to be faithfully reported which agree to those of the Protestants touching the Scripture the Authority of the Ecclesiasticks and fasting He says for example that the holy Scripture must be expounded by its self and that we are not obliged to comply with Expositions or other Writings of Doctors There are also some particular Propositions very remarkable as this Raro reperio vel duas unanimes literatos etiam in fide Nullus tenet mecum dempto Evangelio ubi omnes sumus concordes I rarely find two Learned Persons of the same Opinion even in matters of Faith but no Body is of my Opinion except in regard to the Evangelists in which we all agree He also says Quod Papa Episcopi Sacerdotes nihil sint ad salutem sed sola concordia sufficit pacificeè vi vere that the Pope Bishops and Priests are nothing to our Salvation but Unity alone suffices to live happily He believed also that one ought rather to give Faith to St. Iohn who says that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father than to that Article of Athanasius's Creed that these Doctors cite under the name of the Council of Nice which Article says the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son In the Assembly where the Inquisitor Elten was President he demands of the accused Doctor if those Propositions of which we spoke were his The Doctor would have explain'd himself more at length and said that he did not know that he had writ any thing against the decisions of the Church but if it was so he was there to retract it Magister noster Gerardus immediately interrupted him and told him after having heard that he was ready to retract the Errors that he had committed Petis nunc gratiam Do you beg pardon The Divine answered him that he could not for errors unknown to him And upon that the Inquisitor said that he shou'd be put in mind of 'em by examining ' em He came to this Examen which they read in the Original where they might mark the Spirit of the Inquisition or those who imitated it Magister noster Gerardus did all he cou'd to manage this poor Doctor so that he might not justifie himself or draw him from his pretended Errors without a noise by good reasons But to render him infamous and guilty in malignantly explaining all his words 't was this made him say with sufficient reason to this misfortune After the manner you have used me if Iesus Christ were here you might condemn him as a Heretick to whom it was answered laughing That if he were he wou'd overcome him by subtilty In fine Whether convinced or no of his errors Mr. Wesel was obliged to make a publick Retraction and so submit to what pennance they pleas'd to impose on him He that writ the relation of this Examination ends with considerable Remarks upon the understanding of the Divines of that time except says he the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost which imports very little it seems not to have deserv'd so deep a censure as the others If they had given him time and liberty to consult persons about 'em he might have clear'd himself if the most part of the Judges had not been Realists or if the Religious had not had a mind to insult over a secular Priest who had no esteem for St. Thomas he might have been proceeded against with more humanity I can take God to witness that their manner of dealing with him until he had retracted and burn'd his Books hath extreamly displeased Mr. Engelin de Brunswick and Mr. Iohn Keisersberg who were Men of Learning and Integrity Mr. Engelin in particular thought they acted with too much Precipitation against so great a Man as Iohn de VVesel he confesses freely that the most part of his Articles may be maintain'd He dissembled not the hatred that the Thomists had against the Moderns he observes some amongst the Divines of that age who did not believe St. Thomas to be infallible and the satisfaction the-Monks took in triumphing over Seculars This can be nothing but the Devil who sow'd this Division amongst the Divines which causeth so much Inveteracy amongst 'em and diversity of Opinions as those who follow Thomas Ascot and if any should deny the Universals to be Realists they judge him guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost which they think to be a most culpable sin against God the Christian Religion Justice and all Policy from whence comes this but from the Devil who deludes our Imaginations and draws us to the search of useless things and cold Speculations which make us neither devout nor charitable lest we should oblige our selves to what is more honest and learn how to regulate our Manners and to procure Salvation to our Souls This is the reason that none is edified and that the Zeal of Christians diminishes daily 11. The greatest part of the rest of the Writings which compose this Volume are Complaints that the Germans and French made some Ages past against many Abuses whereof they demanded a Reformation at the Court of Rome who troubl'd themselves not much with it Most of these Pieces are very well known therefore we shall mention 'em in a few words There are divers Grievances that the Dyets of the Empire made known to the Pope's Legat which was sent to 'em and the Answers of these Legats to evade the Complaints Nicholas de Clemengi's Writings upon a General Council and Abuses that ought to be reform'd The Harangues of Iohn Francis and of Anthony Cornelius Linnecau upon the Depravation of Manners and Discipline with the Book of Erasmus of the manner whereby their Controversies which divided the Western Churches are sufficient to put a Period to all these Animosities 12. In fine there is some Discourse upon the Original and Power of the Turks with the manner of its Abatement and Reasons that introduce Christian Princes not to despair of their overthrow Orthuinus Gratius who hath often placed unuseful Prefaces and Advertisements both at the beginning and ending of his Works of which I have treated ends his Collection with a Discourse where he protests the Innocency of his design in publishing so many Heresies and Complaints against the Roman Church he makes it appear by his Declamations against the Hereticks which were spread through the whole Work and Advertisements that he was
are neither extraordinary Wits nor have they much Learning but only a little Address to hide their Ignorance Scarcely do we know any thing when we study Night and Day How should we be learned without studying much The Author gives some Advice to them that would instruct others and maintains with a great deal of reason that it is by good Logick that we ought to begin to study After having given us some general Counsels he descends to particular ones in the third Discourse as to that which we call the Study of human Letters He saith that as in a Common-wealth there must be People who inhabit Mountains and Barren places it is also in Letters advantageous and even of the order of Providence that there should be Persons that are willing to cultivate the most unfertile Grounds A Man which looks upon it as a great thing adds he to know what was the order of the Months of the Macedonians is despicable but he that collects this order if there was occasion for it the clearing thereof deserves so much the more praise as his work is the more painful It s unnecessary that all the World should study Arabick but 't is necessary some Body should be found whom one should have recourse unto when this Language is of any necessity This is for the instruction of those who absolutely condemn all the Studies which have not a continual use in the course of civil Life and which do not bring as great Riches into the Country as the Occupation of Merchants Several other good Reflections may be seen in this third Treatise The fourth begins with very pious Discourses which are followed with several Considerations upon Poetry and Grammar The Author describes the advantages and necessity of Eloquence and advises to the reading of Cicero There is no Author amongst the antient Heathens saith he whose Study is more useful for the solidity of Thoughts for the admirable Maxims for the Idiom of the Latin Tongue and for the fine way of discovering Truth and making it known with so much variety and fruit that the Minds of the most distracted are necessitated to perceive it The fifth Discourse contains a Description of the Life which the Congregation of the Fathers of the Oratory had The Author speaks very finely thereof for example that although they do not make the three Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience they are notwithstanding observ'd There is no Indulgence saith he for the opposite Vice to Chastity Those that cannot be profitable to Persons of a different Sex never to speak to them though they are consecrated to God Those which are confessed are seldom seen out of the Tribunal of Penitents What Conversations they have with them are short never by nights nor in remote places but as publick as can be and in presence of Witnesses By this means Scandal is avoided and suspicions being vigorously punished the Crime is not committed He adds that they undertake nothing which engageth them to great Expences as Magnificent Buildings Guildings rich Paintings and that also they have no necessity of making recourse to rich Persons not in danger of betraying their Ministery by baseness and flatteriee It is a Crime with us pursues he to intrude into Families to meddle with Marriages or Law Suits He speaks much of their manner of studying and instructing young Persons He saith that when they find any penetrating and great Wit which hath a good Genius for their Sciences he is disburthen'd of all other Affairs and they believe that he cannot render better Services to the Church than by studying He saith also that they use great Precaution to those who desire to enter into their Society for if they have any Inclination to Vice and feel themselves weak they are advised to uphold themselves by Religious Vows and to shut themselves up in Cloysters If they have fallen into great Crimes they are perswaded to fix on Monasteries and to pass their whole life in Repentance therein without ever making themselves Priests But if they give marks of a holy Calling without perceiving themselves called to an Austere Religion they are received without speaking to them of receiving any Order but after being purified by a long Penitence in which a regulate Life and remote from all Commerce with the World makes the Principal part He relates several other things infinitely glorious to this illustrious Congregation but he advertises us in two or three places that he makes not an Encomium but gives an Image of an Holy Community wherein may be seen what Men ought to be He adds to his fifth Discourse what hath been said of the Cycopedie of Xenophon that it was not an History but the Idea of a wise Government non ad Historiae fidem sed ad effigiem veri Imperii Scriptum esse It is the means of appeasing a little the other Orders of the Church which might perhaps believe that they had a design to oppress them The two following Discourses are plac'd in a Library which is valued at more than 20000 Crowns There are considered the Books that are most necessary for each Science and the most proper Method to make a good use thereof He speaks very contemptuously of the Scholasticks and maintains it is sufficient to read one or two of them because commonly they do but copy one another He has not more consideration for the Casuists but believes them dangerous for the most part because they seem to confirm Sinners against God and teach them the means to shuffle with him in shewing them how far they may offend him without his having a right to punish them M. Bornier in his excellent Abridgment of the Philosophy of Gassandus relates a Spanish Proverb which he heard the late chief President of Moignon say That those who trouble themselves to seek for a prop to their doubts amongst Casuists seek silently to perplex the Law of God Quieren pleytear contra la ley de Dios. Afterwards he speaks of Preachers and praiseth above all others Father le Ieune and a Father of the Oratory who lately died with the Reputation of one of the first Preachers of his time though he only cloathed Father le Jeune after such a manner as might be acceptable to the World They had this in common that both Lived as they Preached The latter had no concern with the World but by necessity and he was never seen at Feasts where Preachers destroy all that they have maintained according to our Author At the end of this Book are two Letters of Morality The first treats of the beauty and necessity of Order The second presents to an Ecclesiastick who would leave his Retreat to take a Benefice upon him the danger he exposed himself to by this change He shews him how the Commerce of the World is dangerous and how it sometimes happens that a Priest who hath resolution enough to renounce lewd Pleasures yields to the temptation of Good-fellowship At first the
great hopes that you give us But these things are new and uncertain and consequently I cannot embrace such a Religion to the prejudice of that which we have profest for so long a time Yet as you are come so far off and according as I can judge only design to make us share of what you look upon as best and most advantageous we will do you no displeasure but rather receive you favourably into our State and procure you an Establishment to live therein We shall not hinder you to preach the Faith of your Religion and to Proselyte all that you can He kept the same Moderation after he had Embraced Christianity and having learned saith the Author after venerable Beda from the Ministers of the Gospel that Piety towards the true God is a thing altogether voluntary and that all the Authority of Men cannot inspire he would exercise no Empire upon the Minds nor force any body to make Profession of Christian Religion contenting himself to Testifie a greater Bounty to those that were converted of themselves There is another Moses towards the Latter end of the 4th Age who was an Ethiopian and who from a Captain of Robbers became chief of the Hermits of Thebaides He betook himself afterwards to the exercise of a Penitence more marvellous than imitable But instead of falling into Pride that excessive Austerities ordinarily inspire to those that practise them he kept alwaies much Humility in calling to mind his past Crimes One of the Monks of Siete having committed a considerable Error and all his Fraternity being gathered to judge him Moses was called thereto with the rest He at first refused it and after not being able to put it off whilst all excepted him he loaded himself with a Basket full of Sand and went in this State to the place of Assembly They all were very much surprized asked him what he would do with the Basket I carry said he my Sins behind me which hinders me from seeing them Yet ye will establish me Judge of other Folks Sins when I cannot see my own A Collection of several Pieces of Eloquence and Poetry presented to the French Academy for the Prizeâ— of 1687 upon St. Lewis day with Orations the same day at the reception of Mr. Abbot de Choisy in the place of Mr. Le Duc de St. Aignan At Paris Sold by Peter le Petit 1677 and at Amsterdam by Henry Desbord in 12s TO say that Mr. De Fontenelle hath aspired to the Prize of Eloquence the Distribution whereof is made every Two Years by the Judgment of the French Academy and to say that he hath carried this Prize is the same thing For if he is so much distinguished by the Excellent Works that he hath given the Publick nothing can come from his Pen which is not immediately followed with a general Approbation The Academy alone gave him the Prize which no body could reasonably contest about It Assembled according to Custom last St. Lewis's day which is the 25 th of August and the Discourse of Mr. Fontenelle Upon Patience and its opposite Vice was proposed by the Deceased Mr. De Balzâ—c for the Prize of Eloquence To undertake to give here an Abridgment of this Discourse would be the same thing as to take away the greatest part of its Grace Those that will have the Curiosity of seeing it as undoubtedly its very well worth the while will find it in this Collection He will not have much difficulty to find out the Character of the Illustrious Author of the Dialogues of the Dead of the Plurality of Worlds c. Every where he commands this happy turn that he knoweth so well to give to things the same Elevation of Thoughts the same Purity of Expressions Can there be any thing more Ingenious but at the same time more True than what he saith to shew how much corrupt Reason and divine Revelation are opposed O blindness of Nature O Heavenly Lights of Religion how contrary you are Nature by its inordinate Motions augments our Grief and Religion teaches us to profit by 'em by the Patience it inspires us with If we believe the one we add to necessary Evils a voluntary Evil and if we follow the Instructions of the other we draw from those necessary Evils the greatest of all Goods All this Discourse should be copied if we should remark all the fine places of it Nothing weak appears in it nothing languisheth in it and it 's difficult in reading it not to conclude that if the Academy hath done Justice to Mr. de Fontenelle on this occasion it may also very soon acknowledge his Merit after a more solemn manner whilst receiving him into its Bosome it will give him the place that great Men whose Name he bears have so worthily enjoyed But what Honour soever the Prize doth to Mr. Fontenelle the Prize he hath already carried to wit the Ode of Madamoiselle de Houlieres was Crowned the same day is still more Glorious to him What a wonder to see a person of her Sex in so tender an Age to Triumph over so many Learned Rivals who expected nothing less than such a defeat We should scarcely believe it if these words that are at the end of her Poem Non degeneres progenerant Aquilae Columbam did not teach us that she being Daughter to the Illustrious Madam des Houlierâ— it could not be that so great a Desert as hers should not pass unto her The Subject given for the Prize of Poetry was about the Education of Nobilitg in the Schools of Gentlemen and in the House of St. Cyr. They read in the Academy two pieces of Prose and Verse which have carried the Prize but they were not satisfied to print them in this Collection there have been joyned two pieces of each sort which tho' they were not honoured with a Prize have nevertheless their Beauty A Discourse on the praise of the King sent by the Academy of Soissons to that of Paris an Epistle to the King of Mr. Perraust and some other pieces in Verse are found at the end of this Collection But at the beginning were placed two Discourses delivered in the Academy the same day which was that of the Reception of Mr. Abbot de Choisy in place of Mr. le Duc de St. Aignan and I believe it will not be amiss to give it here A Discourse in the French Academy by Mr. Abbot de Choisy SIRS IF the Laws of the Academy suffered me I should this day keep a respectful Silence I should imitate the new Cardinals who in taking of their place in the Sacred College forbear speaking for some time and I should think on nothing but holding my peace untill you should teach me to speak But Custom must be obeyed my acknowledgment must appear and what Expressions must I make use of to shew it to you altogether How shall I Express the joy I feel in seeing my self Associated to all that is Great
fitter to makâ— them suspected than any thing else As to the Impious it 's certain they never are more obstinate against Divine Truths than when they are threatned to have them demonstrated making them then to deny several Propositions which at another time they would have granted These Truths being the foundation of all Morality we ought never to speak of them but as undoubted Principles If we have any sensible and popular Reasons it may be added in a few words without making a shew of proving them these sorts of Proofs convincing better than long Arguments The same Precepts are given in respect to the other Mysteries of the Christian Religion as the Trinity and Incarnation and it s affirmed that there is no better manner of Preaching them than in making People observe what glory they owe to God and Jesus Christ and to enlarge yet more upon the good and useful Sentiments which these Mysteries ought to inspire into us This method is very profitable chiefly for Roman Catholick Preachers whose Religion is not very demonstrable and who are to deal with a People who have accustomed themselves to believe rather by Prejudice than be perswaded by Reason After that he speaks of Division and as it s to be taken for granted that Christian Orators are always Masters of their Subject and of the Propositions which they would form thereon So they will do wisely to propose to themselves only two or three Truths to establish in so many different parts Several Reasons and divers Important Precepts are given on this matter As that all Propositions must be Moral and Practicable except those which are formed upon matters of Faith which import the necessity of Sanctification and that they given an occasion to come to some particulars of the ordinary actions of life After that he marks the qualities that the proofs ought to consist on by which these Propositions are maintained 1. Their Sense must be different from that of the Proposition 2. The truth must appear more plain in ' em 3. They must be conclusive To make sure of the force of an Argument we need only according to the Author to consult our selves before we make use thereof and to examine if this reason would content our mind when another should coldly propose it As to Novelty he proves here that it consists not in making digressions and in seeking for subtil reasons but in expounding things after so natural a turn that no other form but that of truth is given them In following this method it may happen by the ill Judgment of the generality of Preachers who reject every thing which does not appear extraordinary that the most common things will seem the newest to the People being such Truths which never were Preached unto them We should be too long if we related all the fine things the Author speaks upon the Method of understanding a solid Argument without coming into teedious Repetitions by applying it to the pretence of Preachers and particular cases IV. The Fourth Book treats of what may preserve in the Auditors a favourable disposition to the Speakers and it s believed that the whole Artifices is to render them attentive by proposing things to them after an easie and acceptable manner For Attention cannot be easie 1. Without clearness in the expressions and in the Matter it self which obliges us to banish all words that are too old or too new as well as the Terms of Art and of the Schools and all Methaphysicual Speculations 2. Briefness in Periods without which the Discourse becomes Unintelligible and in the Sermon it self which ought never to last longer than an hour The attention is rendred agreeable by variety in Subjects and Phrases by diversity of the Style by Figures and Ornaments which however spoil all when they are excessive or far sought And in short by sweet and affectionate Motives through the whole Sermon Upon all this are remarked the Defects which we ought to take heed of and we are taught how to avoid being lifeless and insipid He finishes the whole work by giving rules for Panegyricks Historia Animalium c. Or a short and Accurate History of Animals mentioned in Holy Writ in which the Names of every one are drawn from their Originals and their Nature Profits and Vses are Explained A work in which many Writers both Sacred and Prophane are Illustrated and chiefly Great Bochart in all the Chapters is Augmented and Amended by the Labour and Study of Henry May. Francfort and Spire 1686. in Octavo at Amsterdam Sold by Waesberge and Boom THE Work is in Two Parts Writ by Mr. May Professor of the Eastern Tongues at Durlac upon Animals and chiefly upon those which the Scripture speaks of He undertakes to make the History of Four footed Beasts Fowls Creeping things and of Aquatick or Amphibious Animals He designs Four things in this piece 1. To Search after the Etymology of their Names chiefly in Hebrew because this Disquisition may serve for the understanding of several Passages of Sacred and Profane Writters 2. To make an exact Description of Exteriour forms of Animals of their Nature and of their Qualities 3. To remark the usefulness which may be drawn from them in the various occasions of life 4. To speak of the Superstitious use that Pagans have made of them in the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of their Religion Amongst the Authors that have written upon this Subject there are few who perfectly knew the Eastern Tongues Bochart is perhaps the only Man who was so well read in this point as to undertake without Temerity to write upon so difficult a Subject But Bochart himself confesses that he has yet left a great many things to be discovered Besides that his Book is very large of the Animals spoken of in Scripture and of full Citations which few are capable of understanding Therefore Mr. May thought it would not be unprofitable to examine this matter according to the Ideas of this great Man whose faults he endeavours to make known and augment his Discoveries The First Book treats of the Four kinds of Animals and the Second of divers Four Footed Beasts in particular This Second Book is divided into Two Sections the one for Domestick and the other for wild Animals This is sufficient for the method of your Author we shall make no longer stop before we enter upon the Principal Matters which he treats on only observe what is most singular and in what he differs from Bochart In the 11. Ch. of the first Book he remarks after Bochart Ludolf and Goliâ—s that the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behema which the Hebrews give four fooâ—ed Beasts comes from the Ethiopick Bahama which signifies to be dumb or to form only inarticulate sounds In the same Chapter he searches for the Origin or Division of Animals into clean and unclean which is so Ancient that it was in use even before the Flood G. 7.2 He hath an inclination for the opinions of
Orthodox Treatises of Tertullian he gives the chiefest place to his Apologetick his two Books to the Gentils and that which he Dedicated to Scapula to perswade the Governour of Africk from Persecuting the Christians He proves in this last that all Men ought to have the liberty to embrace what Religion seems the truest to them That 't is no part of Religion to constrain men to embrace a Religion which ought to be a voluntary choice Non est Religionis cogere Religionem quae sponte suscipi debet non vi In the Sixth Book of Baptism Tertullian disapproves of Baptizing Children without Necessity How is it necessary says he to expose God-fathers to the danger of answering for such who may prevent and hinder the performance by Death or Apostatizing from the Christian Religion when they come of Age Our Author assures us that this Opinion of Tertullian is his own particular one and there 's no other Father to be found who hath said as much But Tertullian affirms other things as incredible as for Instance when he says Christians are absolutely forbidden to bear Arms and he calls the Crowns that Soldiers put upon their heads the Pomps of the Devil To râ—ad his Book of Spectacles one wou'd hardly believe that he was the Author of that of Prescriptions but only by his affected Style and Particular Transports he endeavour'd to prove in his Book of Spectacles that Virgins ought to have their Faces covered in the Church contrary to the Custom of the Country which only oblig'd Women to be Vail'd He mightily exclaims against Custom and Tradition and maintains that nothing can be prescribed contrary to Truth 'T is true adds Mr. Du Pin when not Dogmatically enjoyned but 't is when it is done as a Disciplin of little Consequence In mentioning the History of Origen and how he was persecuted by Demetrius the Patriarch of Alexandria he relates an Article of the Discipline of that time viz. when a Priest was once Excommunicated and depos'd by a Bishop with the consent of the Bishops of the Province he cou'd no more be receiv'd into any Church and it was never Examined after the Judgment was past whether it was just or unjust He places among the Errors of Origen the Exposition which he gave upon the words of Jesus Christ Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth c. because he seems to retain the power of binding and loosing only to Bishops and Priests which follow the vertue of St. Peter and he says that all Spiritual Men are this Stone upon which Jesus Christ hath founded his Church St. Cyprian is one of the Fathers whom Mr. Du Pin has been large upon because the Life and Letters of this Martyr make a considerable part of the Ecclesiastick History of his Age. We may see there in the troubles that were excited amongst the Christians by the parties of Novatian and Felicissimus on the account of those that were fallen by Persecution The Moderation that St. Cyprian observed to avoid the Rigour of the first and the extream Remissness of the second and the Weakness of Cornelius Bishop of Rome who suffering himself to be seduced by Felicissimus writ to St. Cyprian after a disobliging manner These Two Schisms were not extinguisht before a third arose upon the Question whether Hereticks ought to be Re-Baptized proposed by Ianuarius and the Bishops of Numidia who upon that Account came to consult a Council where St. Cyprian was They that composed it answered that this Question was already decided by the Bishops that were their Predecessours who had declared in the Affirmative The Year following another Synod was Assembled in Africk which having confirmed this Decision sent to Stephen who was then Bishop of Rome to perswade him to embrace this Discipline But the Bishops was so far from complying with the Reasons of the Africans that he was Transported with anger against St. Cyprian and his Collegues and treated their Deputies very ill calling them false Christians false Apostles and Seducers even forbidding all those of his Church to entertain them and so depriving them not only of Ecclesiastick Communion but also refusing them the Laws of Hospitality but St. Cyprian testified great Moderation being unwilling that any Person shou'd Separate himself from the Communion upon this Dispute Mr. Du Pin afterwards endeavours to prove in his Notes that St. Cyprian did not change his Opinion and that the Churches of Greece were also a great while after his time divided about this Question He directs the Reader to a Letter of St. Basil to Amphilocus in which this Father relates the different Customs of the Church upon this Point Almost all the Letters of St. Cyprian run upon those Subjects that we have already spoken of the extracts of 'em are given to our Author according to the order of time He relates many fine passages from thence upon the necessity of examining the Disposition of such as are admitted to the Communion the Excellency of a Martyr which principally consists in keeping in every respect an Inviolable Holiness in his words and not to destroy the precepts of Jesus Christ at the same time that he 's a Martyr for him This holy Bishop made it a Law to do nothing in the Affairs of his Church without the Council of his Clergy and consent of the People Whefore in the Council of 37 Bishops held at Carthage in 256. upon the Reiteration of Baptism this holy Man gave this reason against Excommunicating those that were of a contrary opinion to him For no one amongst us says he ought to establish himself Bishop over the Bishops or pretend to constrain his Collegues by a Tyrannical fear because each Bishop has the same liberty and power and he can no more be judg'd be another than he can judge him but we ought all to expect the Judgment of Jesus Christ who only has power to propound to his Church and Judg of our actions In this question the Two Parties pretended to have Tradition on their side And St. Cyprian opposed to the Tradition that Pope Stephen brought the Truth of the Gospel and the first Tradition of the Apostles Our Author says also that St. Cyprian was the first that spoke clearly of Original Sin and the necessity of the Grace of Jesus Christ. The best Edition of this Fathers Works is that which has been lately published by Two of our Bishops But Persons have not much esteem for the observations of Dametius because he endeavours more to confirm the Doctrin and Discipline of our time than to explain the difficulties of his Author Mr. Du Pin rejects all the Letters that are attributed to Cornelius Bishop of Rome except those that are in the Works of Saint Cyprian because the rest and particularly the Epistle to Lupicinius Bishop of Vienna and two other that are in the Decretals under the name of this Pope are not like the Stile of those that are