But that they might not Can. Apost xxiv punish the same fault twice over and out of Reverence to the Sacrament of Orders they imposed on him no other Pennance If any one shall wonder at this Discipline of the Ancients let him consider that the Sins to which Pennance was due were in those Days rarely known among Christians for as with us Persons of Honour who are well Educated and setled in the World seldom fall into those Crimes which bring them so far under the lash of the Law as to make them liable to the infamy of Publick Punishments so of old it did not often happen that Christians so carefully admitted and so well instructed should be guilty of Adultery Homicide or other such like hanious Sins which deserved Death Tertullian declares that the Catholicks were easily distinguished from De praescript c. xli xlii Apol. c. iv v. the Hereticks by the difference of their Behaviour and he boldly upbraids the Heathen that their Goals were filled with none but Heathens like themselves or if any Christians were there it was upon no other account but barely for their being Christians Or if saith he any other Crime can be baid to their charge they are no longer Christians Innocence with us is a necessary Vertue we understand it perfectly as having learned it of God who is the best Master and we practice it with the greatest Care as being obliged to it by that Judge whom we must not dispise THERE were some Christians who XXI Asceticks Virgins Widows Deaconesses Practiced all the Exercises of Pennance without being obliged to them and without being excluded the Sacraments but then it was out of their own voluntary Devotion in imitation of the Lives of the Prophets and St. John the Baptist and following the Councils of St. Paul for Exercising themselves unto Godliness and 1 Tim. iv 7. 1 Cor. ix 27. keeping under the Body to bring it into Subjection These were called Asceticks that is to say Exercisants They generally kept themselves close shut up in their own Houses where they lived in great retirement adding to the usual Frugality of Christians some extraordinary Fasts and Abstinences They kept themselves to what they called Xerophagy that is feeding only upon dry Diets and held out their Fasts to two or three Days together or some times longer They accustomed themselves to wear Sackcloth to walk Bare-Foot to sleep upon the Ground to Watch the greatest part af the Night to be constantly reading the holy Scriptures and as much as was possible to Pray without ceasing Origen Euseb Hist vi c. iii. for some time led this Life and many of these Asceticks became great Bishops Hier. de Script 87. in pierio and Doctors All the Asceticks lived in great Continence and all Christians in general highly admired that Vertue so much recommended by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Just Orat. ad Anton. Pium. A young Man of Alexandria under the reign of the Emperor Antonine presented a Petition to the Governour of that City that he might have a Surgeon allowed him to make him an Eunuch and many there were who did so in good earnest Can. Nic. i. so that the Church was obliged to make a Law on purpose to repress that indiscreet Zeal There were a great number also of young Persons of the Female Sex who Consecrated their Virginity to God either by the Advice of their Parents or of their own proper Motion These Virgins led the Ascetick Life for they did not look upon Virginity as any thing if it v Hier. Ep. de Asellâ were not attended with great Mortification with Silence Retirement Poverty Labour Fastings Watchings and continual Praying They were not esteemed as Virgins who would not deny themselves the common Diversions of the World even the most Innocent as the taking too great a delight in Conversation the affecting a Pleasantness and agreeableness of Humour and Discourse so as to make a shew of their Wit and Ingenuity much less would they endure those that set up for Bells for Dressing Perfuming Long-Trains and moving with an affected Air. St. Cyprian recommends scarce Cypr. de Hab. Virg. any thing else to Christian Virgins but the renouncing all the vain Ornaments of the Body and Ostentation of Beauty He well knew how fond young Women are of such gaudy Trifles and of how pernicious a Consequence they might prove to those of their Profession In the first Ages the Virgins Consecrated to God generally lived at home with their Parents or in private by themselves two and two together never going abroad but when they went to Church where they had a place allotted them to sit by themselves separate from the rest of the Women If Ambros de virg laps c. vi any one violated her Holy Resolution and Married she was enjoined Pennance The Widows who renounced second Marriage passed their time much after the same manner as the Virgins in Fastings v Heir in Ep. Paulae Praying and the other Exercises of the Ascetick Life but they did not keep themselves so close shut up as being more employed in the outward Acts of Charity as in visiting and relieving the Sick and Imprisoned and more especially the Martyrs and Confessors in taking care of the Poor in entertaining and attending upon Strangers in burying the Dead and generally in the Offices of Charity And indeed all Christian Women whether Married or Widows made these kind of Works the greatest of their Employment rarely appearing abroad but upon the doing of some good Office or when they went to Church But the Widows being more at liberty from other Engagements didicated themselves Tertul. ad â—xor c. iv wholly to these Services If they were Rich they liberally Distributed their Alms if they were Poor the Church maintained them They chose for their Deaconesses the most Aged of their Widows 1 Tim. v. 9. of Sixty years or upward the most v Const Apost l. iii. discreet and those who had best approv'd themselves in all the Exercises of Charity This Office was also sometimes assigned to Const Apos vi c. xvi Virgins They were called Deaconesses not as if they were counted of the Clergy for Women cannot partake of any part of the Priest-hood but because they exercised toward the Women some part of the Deacons Office Their business was to visit those of their own Sex whom Poverty Sickness or any other distress rendred proper Objects of the Churches care to instruct the Female Catechumens Con. Apost iii. or rather to repeat to them the Instructions of the Catechist They presented them to Baptism and upon that occasion assisted them in dressing and undressing them and for sometime after overlooked these new Converts to break and Discipline them into a Christian Behaviour In the Church they kept the doors on the Womens side took care to see every one seated in her proper place and that all behaved
here laid down will be always true what Origen in his Book against Celsus so often inculcates that Jesus Christ hath reformed the World and filled it with vertues unknown to former Ages And this is what I had to say concerning the Manners of the Israelites and of LVII The Conclusion the Christians such was the outward appearance of the Lives of the faithful of the Old and of the New-Testament In my Opinion the first Discourse shews us The Manners of the Israelites published also in English 1683. but without taking any notice of the Author the best use of Temporal advantages and the most accountable Methods of living up to Innocence and Nature In this latter I have endeavoured to shew what was the life of those whose Conversation was in Heaven and who while they were in the Flesh lived yet by the Spirit This Life perfectly Spiritual and Supernatural was the peculiar effect of the Grace of Jesus Christ If what I have Written proves Instrumental to give a right notion of the Life which is truly reasonable and Christian and to make any one apply himself seriously to the practice of it If matters prove thus I shall not at all be disturbed at the different Censures of the Reader or the Faults with which the Work may be Charged THE END A TABLE OF THE HEADS Chap. I. THE Division of the Whole Page 1. PART I. II. The Church of Jerusalem 2. PART II. III. The time of the Persecutions The State of the Gentiles before their Conversion 33. IV. Preaching Teaching and Baptism 40. V. The Christian Life Prayer 44. VI. The Study of the Holy Scripture 48. VII Their Employments Occupations and Professions 55. VIII Their Fasts 58. IX Their Eating 62. X. The Modesty Gravity and Seriousness of Christians 66. XI Marriages 74. XII The Vnion of Christians 77. XIII Their Church-Assemblies Liturgy and outward Form of Worship 80. XIV The secret of the Mysteries 85. XV. The Reasons of the general Odium against the Christians 86. XVI The Persecutions The manner of proceeding against the Christians Their Punishments 101. XVII Prisons 112. XVIII Their Care of Relicks 115. XIX The Confessors 119. XX. Excommunication and Penance 120. XXI Asceticks Virgins Widows Deaconesses 127. XXII Their Care of the Poor 132. XXIII Their Hospitality 136. XXIV Their care of the Sick and Burial of their Dead 140. XXV Bishops Priests Clerks Ordinations 144. XXVI The Discretion and Patience of the Christians 158. PART III. XXVII The Church freed from Persecution The Examination and Preparation for Baptism 166. XXVIII The Form of their Churches and their Ornaments 171. XXIX Devotion assisted by Sence 184. XXX Their Liturgy and outward Form of Worship 188. XXXI Their Sermons 192. XXXII The Sacrifice and Sacred Habits 200. XXXIII Consecration Communion 204. XXXIV The Singing and Magnificence of the publick Service 207. XXXV The Solemnity of the Feasts of the Church Pilgrimages 211 XXXVI The Ceremonies of Penance 217. XXXVII Christian Princes 224. XXXVIII The Manners of the Clergy 229. XXXIX The Riches of the Church 240. XL. Hospitals 248. XLI Monasteries 251. XLII The Monastick Life compared with that of the first Christians 262. XLIII The Reasons of the External Singularities in the Monks 265. PART IV. XLIV The decay of Christian Piety in the Fourth and following Ages with the Causes thereof 274. XLV The Incursions of the Barbarians and their Manners 288. XLVI The mixture of the Romans and the Barbarians 294. XLVII The Manners of the Christians in the East from the Fifth Age. 299. XLVIII The Manners of the West The Disorders of the Tenth Age. 305. XLIX The Preservation of Religion 313. L. The Re-establishment of Piety and Discipline 316 LI. Alterations in Penance 320. LII Croisades and Indulgences 325. LIII The Multitude and Variety of Doctors 329. LIV. A Succession of sound Doctrine and good Examples in all times 334 LV. Some Abuses Tolerated in the Church and how they came to be so 339. LVI The use of this Work 342. LVII The Conclusion 346. Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleet-Street Folio THE Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ An Heroic Poem Dedicated to her most Sacred Majesty In ten Books Attempted by Samuel Wesley M. A. Chaplain to the most Honourable John Lord Marqucss of Normanby and Rector of Epworth in the County of Lincoln Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes Explaining the more difficult matters in the whole History Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry The Second Edition Revised by the Author and Improved with Addition of a large Map of the Holy Land and a Table of the principal Matters With Sixty Copper-Plates by the Celebrated Hand of W. Faithorne Resolves Divine Moral Political With several new Additions both in Prose and Verse not extant in the former Impressions In this Eleventh Edition References are made to the Poetical Citations heretofore much wanted By Owen Feltham Esq Quarto Mechanick Powers Or the Mystery of Nature and Art Unvail'd shewing what great things may be performed by Mechanick Engines in removing and raising Bodies of vast Weights with little Strength or Force and also the making of Machines or Engines for raising of Water Dreining of Grounds and several other Uses Together with a Treatise of Circular Motion Artificially fitted to Machanick use and the making of Clock-Work and other Engines A work pleasant and Profitable for all sorts of Men from the highest to the lowest Degree And never Treated of in English but once before and that but Briefly The whole Comprized in 10 Books and Illustrated with Copper Cuts By Ven. Mandey and J. Moxon Philomat
An Historical ACCOUNT OF THE Manners and Behaviour OF THE CHRISTIANS And the Practices of CHRISTIANITY Throughout the SEVERAL AGES OF THE CHURCH Written originally in French by Msr. Cl. Fleury Praeceptor to Monseigneur de Vermandois and to the Dukes of Burgundy and Anjou LONDON Printed for Thomas Leigh at the Peacock against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1698. THE PREFACE THE Learned Author of this Book gives several Instances of his Ingenuity and Candor He recommends some Primitive Practices that justifie our Reformation Particularly the continual reading and studying of the Holy Scriptures Speaking of the Ancient Christians he says that they studied the Word of God in private Meditating upon it Day and Night They read over in their Houses what they heard at the Church Masters of Families took care to repeat those Expositions of Scripture they had Learnt from their Pastors Many Lay-Christians could say the Holy Scripture by heart They generally carried a Bible about with them and many Saints have been found Buried with the Gospel lying on their Breasts Women no less than Men read the Holy Scripture and in the Persecution regretted nothing so much as the loss of their Bibles Parents took such care to Instruct their Families that in all Antiquity we find no Catechism for little Children nor any publick provision made for the Instruction of those that were Baptized before they came to Years of Discretion Every private House was then as a Church He observes that St. John was the Chief in our Saviour's Affection Jesus Christ had a particular Kindness for his Disciples and for his Apostles and among them for St. Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee and for St John above all the rest He does not found the Preference of the Blessed Virgin upon Blood and natural Relation but upon the Endowments and Qualifications of her Mind Notwithstanding the most tender Affection which JESVS CHRIST had for his Mother He seems sometimes to have expressed himself harshly towards her and reproved the Woman that Blessed her barely upon the account of her being his Mother and declared that he owned no other for his Mother and Kindred but they that did the will of his Father He knew what that great Person was able to bear and was willing to let the World see that Flesh and Blood had no share in his affections Mr. Fleury well observes that the Church of Jerusalem which JESUS CHRIST with his own Hands began to Build upon the Foundaion of the Synagogue was the Root and original of all other Churches He seems in nothing more to censure the Reformation than in what he writes of the Celibacy of Priests altho' Platina a Contemporary with Aeneas Sylvius tels us that that Learned Pope Pius II. used to say ' There was great reason for Prohibiting Priests to Marry but greater for allowing it again And Mr. Fleury writes thus of the Primitve Christians they knew but two States Marriage or Continence They generally made chocie of the Married State having no good opinion of the Celibacy of the Heathen tho' they preferred the State of Continence as knowing its Excellency and often found a way of Reconciling both these States into One for there were many Married Persons who yet Lived in Continence They considered Marriage as an Emblem of that Union which is between Christ and his Church They knew that the Relation of Father and Mother was an High and Honourable Character as being the Images of God in a more peculiar manner and co-operating with him in the Production of Men. It is Certain by the Gospel that St. Peter was a Married Man Tradition tells us the same of St. Philip the Apostle and that both of them had Children and it is particularly observed that St. Philip gave his Daughters in Marriage Among the Rules they give for the Education of Children this is one that to secure their Virtue they should timely dispose of them in Marriage And they advised those that out of Charity Bred up Orphans to match them as soon as they came to Age and that to their own Children rather than to Strangers so little did they regard Interest What He says of their Communicating in both Kinds publickly Reading the Holy Scripture always in the Vulgar Tongue The Custom of Sitting in their Churches the Length of their Sunday-Service is also Remarkable When they reserved part of the Sacrament as a Viaticum for Dying Persons that which they carried Abroad was only the Bread tho' in their publick Assemblies all in general Communicated under both Kinds excepting little Children to whom they gave only the Wine All the Lessons of the Scripture were Read in the Vulgar Tongue i. e. in the Language Spoken by the better sort of People in every Country During the time of the Lessons and Sermon the Audience was regularly Seated the Men on one side of the Church and the Women on the other When all the Seats were filled the younger sort of People continued Standing In Africa St. Augustin takes notice that the People stood all Sermon-time but he better approved the Custom of the Transmarine Churches as he calls them where they heard Sitting Their Litnrgy must needs have been very long Indeed Christians did not then think that they had any thing else to do on Sundays but to serve God St. Gregory to shew how much his Strength was decayed says that he was scarce able to keep himself standing for those Three Hours while he performed the Office of the Church and yet his Sermons that are left us are very short What Mr. Fleury says of the Compassion the Church had for Hereticks must not be omitted because nothing seems more to have encreased the scandalous Divisions of Christendom than severity The Church Interceeded in behalf of her own Enemies We have many Epistles of St. Augustin where he Begs the favour of the Magistrate in the behalf of the Donatists convicted of horrid violencies and even Murders committed on the Catholicks He pleaded that it would be a dishonour to the Sufferings of the Murdered to put to Death the Authors of them and that if they could find no other penalties for them but Death they would thereby bring themselves to that pass that the Church who delighted not in the Blood of her Adversaries would not dare to demand Justice against them This was a general Rule that the Church should never seek the Death of any Man They were content that Christian Magistrates should Correct or over-aw Hereticks by Banishment or Pecuniary penalties but they would have their Lives Spared And the whole Church declared against the proceeding of the Bishop Ithacius who Prosecuted the Arch Heretick Priscillian to Death Yet the Bishops could not always obtain the Pardon they desired for these sort of Offenders no more than they could for others Princes to preserve the publick Peace Enacted the penalty of Death against Hereticks and their Laws were sometimes put in Execution If in these latter Ages the
Vows of Celibacy and Poverty have been inconvenient and but ill kept this might have been prevented by the Omission of of them for as this Author observes We see no Solemn Vows in these first times St. Chrysostom speaks of a Monks returning to the World as of a thing altogether free Again He tells us that the Monks in imitation of the Primitive Christians spent much of their time in Reading the Holy Scriptures The Rule of St. Benedict prescribes the same to his Monks and more particularly that all the time of Lent and on Sundays they should apply themselves only to this Exercise He Judiciously remarks how Forged Books and pretended Miracles gained Credit For want of critical Learning and the knowledg of Antiquity they were ready to receive such Suppositious Writings as were Imposed upon the World under the specious Names of Ecclesiastical Authors and also became too Credulous in believing Miracles So certain it was that the Apostles and their Disciples had wrought Miracles and that many true one 's were Daily performed at the Tombs of the Martyrs that they were not now over-curious in examining so as to distinguish the true from the false The most surprising Relations of this kind in History were the best received Ignorance in Philosophy and the little knowledg they had of Nature made them take all strange Appearances for Prodigies and interpret them as the Supernatural signs of God's wrath They believed there was something extraordinary in Astrology and dreaded Ecclipses and Comets as dismal Presages To give but one Example more Religion says Mr. Fleury can't subsist without Study and Preaching to preserve the Soundness of its Doctrine and the Purity of its morals It must necessarily fall into Decay unless the Holy Scripture be diligently Read taught and expounded to the People unless the Apostolical Traditions be preserved in their Purity and Purged from time to time of those Spurious Additions which the Inventions of Men without any just Authority have made to them Would but the Church of Rome take away these and all other Additions that are contrary to and Inconsistent with the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Christ in the first and purest Ages of Christianity and forbid all Disputation c. as Innocent XI by his Decree of the 19. of Feb. 1678. entirely abolished the Office of the Immaculate Conception c. Approved by Paul V. They might happily put an end to the great Division that has so long made the Enemies of Christianity to rejoyce or be able to maintain the charge of Schism against those that should then refuse their Communion What Passages or Expressions occur in this Treatise which may be judg'd contrary to and Inconsistent with the Doctrine Worship and Government of the Church of England as by Law Establish'd the Author and Editor of this Book are not answerable for nor pretend to justify considering that 't is only a Translation of an Historical Tract written in French and often Printed by a Learned Author of the Roman Communion whose Name is mention'd in the Title-Page of this Book What he hath said in favour of several of the Doctrines of the Reformation and the admirable Moral Reflections which frequently occur throughout his History and especially the former part together with other pious Relations of it are enough to shew that excellent use may be made of this Treatise and hence to justify the Publication of it in our own Language And the more exceptionable passages that are in it I must Entreat the Reader to consiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 the meer effects of our Author 's 〈…〉 the Communion wherein he 〈◊〉 and to admire rather that he 〈◊〉 said so much on our side than that 〈◊〉 has said no more ERRATA PAge 8. Lines 16. read to establish p. 13. l. 13. r. in mind of p. 27. l. 22. dele and. p. 35. l. 22. r. Orchard p. 37. Ibid. l. 22. r. disease p. 41. l. 11. r. furnish Ibid. 18. r. Christians p. 42. l. 24. r. Paedagogus p. 45. l. 8. r. Sanctify p. 47. l. 29. r. giveing p. 54. l. 32. r. itself p. 56. l. 27. r. used p. 77. l. 18. for where r. were Ibid. l. 24. r. Zealous p. 86. l. 26. r. occasion p. 87. l. 13. r. Gnosticks p. 99. l. 15. r. Tutelar p. 103. l. 18. r. Equueus p. 104. l. 28. r. lewd way p. 105. l. 5. for of r. off Ibid. l. 6. r. Spit it p. 106. l. 17. r. Martyrs p. 107. l. 23. dele the. p. 110. l. 25. r. reduced p. 119. l. 25. r. Slaves Ibid. r. State p. 124. l. 22. r. such cases p. 129. l. 9. for Bells r. Belles p. 136. l. 7. for thy r. they Ibid. r. delivered p. 148. l. 12. r. Wife p. 149. l. 25 r. Fifty p. 156. l. 1. r. to each other p. 157. l. 2. r. Priests p. 158. l. 17. for them r. him p. 165. l. 20. for this r his p. 182. l. 24. r. Martyrium p. 204. l. 30 dele or the least sign p. 205. l. 15. r. hath retem'd p. 240 l. 22. r. Sylvester p. 241. l. 5. r. ornamented Ibid. l. 30. r. Candlesticks p. 242. l. 15. dele with p. 251. l. 8. r. Pestilence p. 259. l. 15 r. soever p. 266. l. 17. r. many p. 272. l. 1. for for r. the p. 289. l. 24. r. thereupon p. 305. l. 30. r. Conversions Ibid. l. 32. for was r. were p. 306. l. 1. r. Religion Ibid. l. 17. r. Hungarian p. 307. l. 13. r. could p. 310. l. 2. r. Canons Ibid. l. 31. r. how miserably p. 313. l. 30. r. Barbarous p. 314. l. 2. r. do that Ibid. l. 6. r. Modesty p. 318. l. 10. r. Chaplains p. 322. l. 6. r. our way of Liveing p. 326. l. 20. r. Journeys Ibid. l. 26. r. Travells p. 327. l. 32. r. upon them p. 328. l. 15. r. beare p. 330. l. 28. r. assistance p. 332. l. 31. r. multitude THE BEHAVIOUR AND MANNERS OF THE Christians Part the First I Shall divide my Work into four Parts The first will represent the Manners I. of the Christians of Jerusalem to the The division of the whole Destruction of that City under Vespasian This first state of Christianity though but of a short continuance was so supereminent in its Perfection that it will deserves a separate Consideration The second will take in all the Time of the Persecution that is the entire space of three Centuries In the third I shall describe the State of the Church in its Liberty which Commenced in the fourth Age. And In the last consider the Changes it afterwards underwent and endeavour to discover the Causes of them The Christian Religion as it was not the Invention of Man but the Work of II. God so like the Universe it had its full The first part the Church of Jerulem Perfection in its first Birth and was most Glorious in its earliest Productions It is not to be imagined saith Tertullian that the
Flatter Sense but to assist it This will better appear in describing the whole Form and Manner of their Outward Worship THEY offered the Sacrifice every Sunday XXX Their Liturgy and outward Form of Worship V. S. Epiph. haeres in fi Bona i. Liturg c. xviii on all the Feasts of the Martyrs on all Fast Days or oftner as the Custom of every Church in particular required They had also both upon Publick and Private occasions their Votive Masses Sometimes they had many Masses 〈◊〉 the same Day as when the Office of a Saint fell upon some other Festival or when there was a Burial It was always â—â—her the Bishop himself or one and the 〈◊〉 Priest that performed them all as it is still observed by us on Christmas-Day On Sundays and the other Festivals Mass was said about nine or ten of the Clock in the Morning on Fast Days later for V. Cod. Sacram edit Rom. 1680. they were not to eat on those Days till after Evening Service past three of the Clock in the Afternoon The Hour being come the People met together at the principal Church to attend the Bishop with all his Clergy to the place where the Station for that Day was appointed And after this manner the Bishop took his V. Ord. Ro. round and visited all his Churches one by one every one in its Course And that this Progress might be orderly made and in a full Body Processions were Instituted As they were entring the Church and taking their places the Choir sung a Psalm with its Anthem which from thence took its name of the Introit The Const Ap. ii c. lvii Deacons and their assistants the Subdeacons and Door keepers gave every one his place in order as they came so that all was done without any thing of Confusion being all seated there they prayed for some time in Silence every Man to himself then the Bishop Saluted the People and put an end to their private Prayers Pronouncing with a lowd Voice his publick Prayer which from thence took its name of the Collect. Then the Bishop seated himself on his Throne that stood at the very end of the Church and terminated the prospect of the whole Congregation Thus every Bishop was as it were the visible Image of 1 Cor. xi 1. 1 Tim. iv 12. Tit. ii 7. God in his Church placed there eminently as St. Paul expresses it to be the patern to his own Flock as Jesus Christ was to him The Priests were seated on each side about him some on the right hand and others on the left in the Semicircle of the Absis and next to them stood the Deacons Thus the Church seemed to resemble that Image of Paradise given us Apoc. iv by St. John in the Apocalypse The Bishop on his Throne with a Book in his Hand as the Fathers are commonly painted represented that Figure of a Man under which God appeared the Priests were that August Senate designed by the four and twenty Elders the Deacons and other Officers were the Angels standing always in a readiness to receive Ordo Rom. Apoc. viii iii. and execute the Orders of God Before the Bishops Throne stood seven Candlesticks and the Altar on which they offered the Incence that Symbol of Prayer Apoc. v. where they were afterward tho' under a borrowed form to offer the unspotted Lamb of God Under the same Altar were the Bodies of the Martyrs as under that St. John saw were the Souls of those to whom it was said That they should rest Apoc. vi ix Baron ad Martyr vi Jul. yet for a little Season And lastly the number of the Faithful which filled the other part of the Church represented the innumerable Multitude of the Blessed who being Clothed in white Robes and Apoc. vii 9. with Palms in their Hands sung with a loud Voice the Praises of their Marker Such was the Face then of their Church-Assemblies The whole Congregation being seated the Reader went up to the Desk and read a Lesson first out of the Old-Testament and after that another out of the new that is out of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles for the reading of the Gospel was reserved to some Priest or Deacon To render these Lessons the more agreeable and to give the People leisure to meditate upon them and the Readers some respite there were intermingled with them Psalms Anthems and the singing of Allelujas which were afterwards placed before the Gospel All these Lessons of the Scripture were read in the vulgar Language that is in the Language spoken by the better sort of People in every Country For though in Africa the Punick Language was vulgarly spoken among the inferior sort of People in the time of St. Austin yet we do not find that it was used in the Church But in Thebais the Scriptures must needs have been read in the Aegyptian Language since St. Antony Vi. S. Ant. c. i. who understood no other was converted by his having heard the Gospel read in the Church In the upper Syria the greatest part of the Bishops understood nothing of Greek nor of any other Language but the Syriack as it appears by the Councils where they were forced to make use of Concil eph Concil Cal. ced Act. x. Interpreters AFTER the Lessons the Sermon begun XXXI Their Sermon the Bishop Expounded the Gospel or some other part of Scripture and often continued a course of Expositions upon some entire Book of the Bible from the beginning to the end or else passing over some part of it he made choice of the most important Subjects Of these continued Expositions we have Examples in many of St. Chrysostom's Homilies in St. Austin upon the Psalms upon St. John and upon the Epistles of St. Paul In St. Ambrose we have a selected Argument which begins with the six Days work in imitation of St. Basil then the Exposition proceeds to the History of Noah Abraham and the other more Illustrious Saints of the Old Testament but still observing the Order of the Holy Bible The greatest part of those Tracts and Commentaries of the Fathers upon the Scriptures are nothing else but Sermons preached to their People which they afterward reduced into Form or were taken down in Writing as they spake them by the Art of short Hand before mentioned These holy Preachers were none of your idle Haranguers like the Sophists of the Profane Schools who filled the World with endless disputes only out of a vain Emulation of Contradicting and refining upon each others Notions or like those who laboured in their Closet to shew their Learning and fine Parts These Prelates v. Aug. de oper Monach c. 29. Epis ad Diosc v. Synes Ep. 55. were laborious Pastors who had always their Hands full of business and were too intent upon the works of Charity to spend all their time in their Studies and they were principally employed upon that necessary
convenient that every Monastery should have in it one Priest at least and one or two Deacons and this Priest was often their Abbot Thus having no occasion to go abroad they were shut up in their Monasteries as the Dead in their Sepulchres This was the pretence that Arch-Heretick Eutiches made for his not appearing at the Con. Chalc. Act. Council of Chalcedon There were also Monasteries for Women or Nunneries in the Deserts where they abode within Convenient distance of the Monks to receive mutual assistance from each other by their Neighbourhood yet so far asunder as to avoid all danger and Scandal The Monks built the Nuns their Cells and helped them in their most laborious Works the Nuns made the Monks Cloaths and did them other such-like Services But all this Commerce of Charity was managed by some aged Persons appointed for that purpose none else being suffered to go near the Nunneries There were also many of these Nunneries founded in Cities where all the Virgins Consecrated to God lived in Community who before lived separate in private Houses The Nuns of Aegypt and Syria Hier. epist 48. ad Sabinian Baron ad Martyr 20 Sept. cut off their Hair for cleanliness sake in other places they kept it on The practice of Antiquity in these Cases being different The Bishops who made their Clergy live in common took their Method of living from the Monks and as much as the active Life of the Clergy would permit they conformed themselves to it so that these Communities were often called also by the name of Monasteries and in time they were quite confounded one with the other In the Fifth Age the greatest part Thom. Disc ii part l. i. c. 34 35 36. of the Bishops and Priests of Gaul and of the West practiced the Monastick Life and wore the Habit. The Pope St. Gregory was taken out of a Monastery where upon quitting the grandeur of this World Jo. Diac. lib. ii c. xi he had shut himelf up but notwithstanding his Advancement he still kept to the Monastick Life and filled his Palace with Pious Monks out of whom he made many of his great Bishops and among the rest St. Austin the Monk with the other Apostles of England The true use of the Monastick Life was to improve and perfect such unspotted Souls as had preserved the Innocence of their Baptism or such Converted Sinners as desired to Purify themselves by Repentance 'T was for this end they received into their Monasteries Persons of all Ages and Conditions Young Children whom their Parents were for placing early out of the danger of the World Old Persons who desired to end their Lives Religiously Marryed Men whose Wives also had consented to the same way of Living In the Rule of St. Fructuosus Cod. Regul Arch-Bishop of Braga we find Regulations for all these Persons They who for their Sins were obliged by the Canons to do Penances of many Years found it undoubtedly much more Commodious to pass them in a Monastery where the example of Living in Common and the Consolations received from those more advanced in Years might somewhat ease their Sorrows than to Live at large under them in the wide World where they could not avoid being singular and Pointed at So that the Monastery became a kind of Prison or Exile with which great Persons were often punished of which we have examples in France under the two first Lines of our Kings and in the East from the sixth Age. THE Monastick Life is a sensible XLII The Monastick life compared with that of the first Christians proof of the Providence of God and of the care he hath taken to preserve in his Church to the end of all Ages not only purity of Doctrine but also Holiness of Life If we call to mind what hath been said of the Christian Life in the second part of this Treatise and compare it with the Rule of St. Bennet and with the present usages of the well-regulated Monasteries we shall find that there is but little difference between them I have prov'd there that those Christians looked upon Religion as their main Concern making all the Affairs of this Life subservient to it And thus it is with the Monks who sequester themselves from the world that they may be at more liberty to mind the most necessary Poynt And for this Reason they are called The Religious a name common at first to all good Christians The Monks Asceticks and Virgins had also the name of Devotes given them from their being entirely Devoted to God Those first Christians were very frequent both in Publick and private Prayer coming as near as possibly they could to the Rule of Praying always the Psalmody is no-where better Regulated nor more exactly observed than in the Monasteries where it still continues the same as St. Benet set it above eleven hundred Years ago The Monks having nothing to divert them from the exercises of Religion have kept up the Practice more exactly than even the Clergy themselves 'T is supposed they reduced the Office into the form in which it hath stood now for a long time at least they added the Prime and Complin which at first were only private Prayers for every Christian Family or every Monastery to make use 3 Instit iv vi of at their own Houses to sanctifie the beginning and ending of the Day Cassian declares that this Establishment was but new in his Days In all this the Canons are to be esteemed as a sort of Monks and so indeed in the beginning they were being then all of them Regulars The Primitive Christians received the Communion very often fo do the Monks for the most part Ruffinus tells us the Disciples of St. Apollonius Communicated S. Basil ep 289 ad Caesar Patr. every Day The Monks kept up for a long time the Ancient custom of having the Eucharist always lying by them to Communicate themselves when they should want a Priest to Administer it 'T was perhaps for want of this Precaution Chrysost Hom. xvii in Epist ad Hebr. that some continued for the space of two whole Years without receiving the Sacrament Those Primitive Christians spent much of their time in Reading the Holy Scriptures The Rule of St. Benet prescribes Reg. S. Ben. c. xlviii the same to his Monks and more particularly that all the time of Lent and on all Sundays they should apply themselves wholly to this Exercise For on other Days they spent much of their time in the labour of their Hands of which Practice some traces are still remaining though it must be confessed that of all the Monastick customs this is the least continued Silence was necessary as is said before to avoid the common sins of the Tongue so frequent amongst Men and yet so much condemned in the Scriptures as Reviling evil Reports indecent Rallery foolish Jesting vain Impertinent and unprofitable Discourses and 't is observable that the
speaks with great vehemence concerning the last Judgment Hell and Paradise it make honourable mention of Moses and the Prophets of the Apostles and Martyrs and gives high Encomiums to Jesus Christ himself Besides it imitates several of the External Parts of Christianity The Christians Prayed seven times a Day the Musulmans Prayed five The Christians had their Annual Fast of forty Days the Musulmans have theirs of twenty nine keeping always strict Fast till Night as the Christians then did The Christians keep Sunday Holy the Musulmans Friday We assemble in our Churches to Pray to God hear the Reading of the Scriptures and the Instructions of the Priest they also Pray after their manner in their Moschs Read their Alcoran there and hear the Preachings of their Doctors They make Pilgrimages to the Land which they Esteem Holy and visit the Tombs of their pretended Martyrs ' They give much Alms and have Hospitals Founded among them in great numbers They have also some sorts of Religious Persons who live in Common and afflict the Body after a Terrible manner For there is no sort of Exteriour Austerities which Persons without Vertue may not Imitate either out of Vain Glory or for Interest But they can never bring themselves to live in Silence and Labour without being seen of Men. To do this a Man must be a Christian Our Travellers Bred up in the midst of Christendom are often affected with this outside of Religion and those Moral Vertues they meet with amongst the Infidels and sometimes return Home staggered in their Thoughts and inclining to believe that all things are indifferent in matters of Religion Under how great Temptations then must those poor Christians have layn that were Born under the power of those Insidels and obliged to pass their whole Lives with them kept under Oppression by them and having no other means of making their condition Comfortable in this World but by quitting the Faith of their Ancestors 'T is a wonder they were not all Perverted And the number of Christians still remayning throughout all the Levant after a Thousand Years of Temptation is a manifest proof of the power of the Gospel and of the weakness of Mahometism The Christians also that were subjects to the Emperors of Constantinople might be easily corrupted by their Commerce with the Mahometans and the several sorts of Hereticks that Infected all the East The Judgment of the Emperor Leo Author of the Sect of the Iconoclasts is supposed to have been corrupted by the Jews and Sarasins or the Arabian Mahometans The Emperor Michael Balbus passed for no better than half-a Jew The Young Emperor Michael the third with the Lewd Companions of his Debauches acted over in a most execrable mockery the Holy Ceremonies of our Religion even to the Tremendous Sacrifice it self and not long V. Baron an 853. Curopal after him I meet with another Young Emperor Alexander the Son of Leo the Philosopher openly Blaspheming against Christianity and Regretting the Suppression of Idolatry This makes me suspect that of all Christians the Greeks were the first Authors of Libertinism in matters of Religion Not that I would be thought to fix this suspicion on the whole Nation of them but only upon some of their great ones and other particular Persons For in these times generally speaking Religion bore up nobly throughout the whole Greek Empire They had among them great Doctors great Bishops and eminent Religious besides many Martyrs too in defence of the Holy Images IN the West the Faith was hitherto XLVIII The Manners of the West The disorders of the tenth Age. kept Inviolate It never enter'd into the thoughts of any Man to call the principles of Religion in Question nor was it here infected with Heresy But Ignorance and Barbarism increased upon it Charlemain did all he could to re-establish good Literature and Ecclesiastical Discipline But the following Princes did not pursue his great designs So that after his Days both Church and State fell into greater Disorders then ever The Faith had been before planted in Saxony Bavaria and all the rest of Germany But to secure it among those rugged Nations Charlemain was oblig'd to back the Preaching of the Gospel with the Sword and Temporal Punishments so that there were many involuntary Conversion which by the unhappines of the Times was not seconded with that care which was necessary to have given Religion sure rooting in a new and unbroken Soil so that one may easily imagin there remained at the bottom a Core of Ignorance and Spiritual Insensibility And this perhaps is one of the Causes why Schism and Heresy have since found so easy an Access and spread themselves all over the North. The Civil Wars which were carryed on from the Reign of Lewis the Debonnaire turn'd all things back again into a state of Ignorance and Confusion even in the soundest parts of the French Empire And to compleat their misery the Normans as yet Pagans ravaged and destroyed it on every side The Huagarian Pagans also overran Italy the Sarasins for a long time hovered upon their Coasts keeping them always upon the Allarm and at last effectually made themselves Masters of Apulia and Sicily besides Spain which they had now Possessed for more then an Age. So that what Remainders had been hitherto left of the Old Roman Manners and Polite Genius were now perfectly worn out The loss of Arts Learning and Civility had been the more Supportable had not the Interests of Religion been involved in their Fate which cannot subsist without both Study and Preaching the one to preserve in it the Soundness of Doctrin the other the purity of its Morals Religion must necessarily fall into Decay unless the Holy Scriptures be diligently Read Taught and Explained to the People unless the Apostolical Traditions be preserved in their Purity and Purged from time to time of those Spurious Additions which the Inventions of Men make without any just Authority All this was a thing hard to be done in the miserable times of which we are now speaking The greatest part of the Layety neither had Books nor indeed could so much as Read And if some of the great Lords had amongst their Rarities some Antient Authors yet they were not able to use them being Written in Latin The Latin was now no longer in common use and in the French and the other Vulgar Languages which were as yet but in their beginning and unformed nothing was Written So that as they could not understand the one they had nothing to Read in the other But the publick Offices of the Church were performed in Latin and the Scriptures were Read to the People in the same Language but seldom Explained The Lords by reason of the little Wars they continually had one against another kept themselves close shut up every one within the Walls of his own Castle so that they seldom came near the Episcopal City especially if they chanced to be as it often hapned at
Apostles were ignorant of any Truth profitable to Salvation or that the Invention of Tertul. Praescript C. 22. after Ages hath found out any new Rule of Living more perfect or more Sublime than what Jesus Christ taught his Disciples But this Heavenly Doctrine did not always produce the like effects but had its different Operations according to the different Dispositions of those that received it or the different measures of Grace with which God was pleased to Accompany it The true Israelites who had by the Tradition of their Fathers and the use of the Holy Scriptures been bred up in the knowlege of the true God and from their Infancy inured to the observation of his Laws the Gospel found them well prepared for that higher Perfection it required when that perfection should be discovered unto them and they should be made to understand what kind of Salvation that was which their Messiah was to bring them and what kind of Kingdom his Kingdom was to be But as for the Gentiles who had hitherto Eph. 2. 12 lived without God and without Law trained up according to the custom of the then Deluded World in the most horrid 1 Cor. 12. 2 Superstitions Worshiping with as little understanding as the Beasts of their Sacrifice dumb Idols plunged in sensuality and habituated to all sorts of Impieties and Impurities it was far more difficult for them to Rise to the same Perfection So that 't is among the Christians of this first Church of Jerusalem we must look for an Example of a Life the most perfectly Christian and consequently the most perfectly happy that Mortality is capable of We must begin with the Life of Jesus Christ himself who is both the Original and the Model of all perfection He Jo. 13. 15. hath given us an Example that as he hath done so should we do And this is one of the grand Advantages we receive by the Incarnation that thereby the Word became sensible and by conversing with Man as Man rendred himself the Object not only of our Admiration and Adoration but of our Imitation also having in his Life set us that perfect Exemplar in conformity to which we are to Regulate ours I know very well that a Life so Divine cannot he worthily described but by those who have seen with their Eyes and heard with 1 Jo. 1. 1. their Ears and whose hands have handled the Word of Life and who were themselves acted by his Spirit Yet may every Man according to the measure of his Capacity employ his thoughts and meditations upon it and point out some of the particulars which he Judges more proper for our Imitation leaving it to others more advanced in the exercises of Devotion and the practice of Christian Vertues to make still farther Discoveries in so Inexhaustible a Subject In the Life of Jesus Christ we cannot go too far back He was an Example from the Cradle and in his first Years set us a Copy of the first Vertues we are capable of Learning that is the Vertues of Childhood He shewed himself in that Age Docile Tractable and Submissive towards his Parents and of such a sweetness of Temper and Behaviour that rendred him amiable in the sight of all that beheld him For thus saith the Scripture As he Increased Luk. 2. 40. 52. in Stature so he increased in Wisdom and in favour with God and Man As for all the rest of his Youth till he came to be thirty Years of Age we have no other Account of it but that he abode in the little City of Nazareth passing there Matt. 3. 5â— for the Son of a Carpenter and was a Carpenter himself This Silence of History Mar. 6. 3. expresses better than any Words could have done the State of Privacy in which as yet he lived Jesus Christ himself He who came to be the light of the World passed the greatest part of his Days upon earth in obscurity He spent thirty years in the condition of a private Life and only three or four in Preaching and the publick exercise of his Ministry to shew that 't is the duty of the generality of men to keep themselves within a private Station and labour in silence and that 't is only for some few persons to put themselves upon publick Functions and that only so far forth as they shall be by the Designation of God or by Charity toward their Neighbour obliged thereunto The Occupation which he chose to follow is also worthy our Reflexion To live by the labour of ones Hands is a state of Life more Poor than to have Lands to Till or Cattle to Feed Whether his Trade of a Carpenter was to build Houses or as ancient Tradition reports to make Justin in Tryph. Plows and other Instruments of Husbandry 't is certain 't was a mean and laborious employment but at the same time a very useful and necessary one to Society and such without which there would scarce be any living in the World and therefore a more laudable way of getting a lively-hood than any of those that Minister only to Pleasure and Vanity Thus he passed his younger days in the Family of his Father and place of his Education leading a life not slavish or reproachful nor trifling and insignificant but serious employed and laborious submitting to the Penalty imposed upon the Posterity of Adam of earning their Bread with the sweat of their Brows and shewing himself an Example of those two Virtues he so much recommended to others Ma. 11. 27 Meekness and Humility Before he ent'red upon the execution of his Mission he prepared himself for it by Baptism Prayer and Fasting not that Luk. 3. 21. he had any need of these Preparatories but that he might as he himself expresses it fulfil all Righteousness and give us an Example Mat. 3. 15. His Fast of forty Days and forty Nights and subsisting so long without Food is ordinarily look'd upon as a Miracle as well as the like in Moses and Elias But I know not whether we do in this matter sufficiently understand the strength of Nature it self St. Simeon Stylites did more than once pass Theodor. Hist Relig. P. an whole Lent together without Eating having by degrees brought himself to so prodigious an Abstinence And at this Day there are Idolaters in India who can pass twenty days or more without tasting a bit all that while During this Fast and all his long abode in the hideous solitude of the Wilderness in what can we imagine he employ'd his Time but in Prayer But who dares pretend to describe the Praying of Jesus Christ Let us humbly Meditate upon what the Scripture hath left to us concerning it and more especially upon that Heavenly Prayer recorded by St. John Joh. 17. Nay let not the Manner after which he prayed nor the Circumstances of it escape our Observation He prayed in the darkness of the Night and sometimes whole Nights together
He Prayed in Publick and he Prayed in Private in the Garden in the Mountains in the Wilderness removed out of the noise of the World where no mortal Eye could see him He lift up his Eyes and his Hands to Heaven he cast himself upon his bended Knees He prostrated his Body on the Earth testifying by all this his profound Veneration and Submission to his Heavenly Father He suffered himself to be tempted to animate us after his Example couragiously to resist the evil one He repelled every assault by Scripture instances to teach us among other things to be always Meditating upon these sacred Writings to have recourse to them upon all occasions and to regulate every Action according to their Directions After that he takes upon him his Character and makes his Publick Appearance in the World beginning from that time to lead a Life which is the Model after which Priests Bishops and all publick Persons ought to form theirs His principal employment was the Instruction of Mankind and the Conversion of Sinners Luk. 19. 10. He came as he himself declares to seek and to save that which was lost To that end by the Miraculous Cure of Diseases and his many other Works he drew the Eyes of all the World upon him thus at the same time convincing their Judgments by the Proof of his Power and gaining their Affections by instances of his Goodness For Miracles as they were necessary establish his Mission so were they of no less Efficacy to recommend his Doctrine And 't is in this that the holy Bishops of old tho' without the gift of Miracles knew how to imitate their Master they knew what weight their Works would add to their Doctrine and therefore by the largeness of their Alms the Protection of the Oppressed the Reconciliation of Differances and other such like good Services they did to Mankind endeavoured to recommend themselves to the World and gain Respect and Love to their Persons though even the Works themselves of Jesus Christ as to the manner of them are not altogether above our imitation for they may serve to teach us the Vertues of Simplicity Humility and Patience He did his Miracles without Affection without any thing of Ostentation or Vain-Glory and without so much as being entreated unless sometimes when he found it necessary either to exercise the Faith of those who wanted his help or to discover it and make it the more Exemplary to others He generally concealed his glorious Performances with as much care as others do their disgraces He seems to attribute them rather to the Faith of the Patients than to his own Power And this is given as the reason why he did so few of them at Nazareth because of their Mar. 6. 6. unbelief at which 't is said he himself marvelled He ascribed all to the Glory of his Father I can of mine own self do nothing Joh. 5. 30. saith he my Father that dwelleth in me it is Joh. 14. 10 he that doeth the works He must needs have had a wonderful Patience to endure that incredible multitude and the greatest part of them Diseased Poor and miserable Creatures that continually crouded after him and pressed with that violence to come within the reach of him that they even threw themselves upon him as appears when he healed the Woman who laboured under Mar. 5. 24. Mar. 3. 9. the Issue of Blood and when he bad his Disciples provide a small Ship to wait on him to save himself from the Throng When he was in any House all the City Mar. 1. 33. and 3. 20. crowded to the Doors as it were besieging him and not giving him time to eat so that he could not so much as enter into the Cities but by stealth and was fain to Mat. 1. 45. abide without in the desart places and yet even there the People in vast multitudes flocked after him as appears by the five thousand Men he fed in the Wilderness so that he was forced to retire to the Mountains for Prayer to spend whole Nights there and sleep only at broken intervals passing from place to place as appears by his sound sleep in the Ship when in the midst of a tempest at Sea Mat. 8. 24. His Life was far more painful now than it was when he lived by the Labours of his Hands for now it appears he had none of his former leisure by his permiting some Women to follow after him to Luke 8. 2 supply him with Necessaries and by his keeping some mony by him of which Joh. 12. 6. Joh. 13. 29 Judas had the charge which shews how little he valued his Money by the choice he made of its Keeper He is observed to have given Alms and yet at the same time he wanted himself so that he was forced upon working a Miracle to pay for himself and St. Peter the Tribute of the first born which was but half a Shekel that is of our Coin about fifteen Pence And indeed he always lived in great Poverty He saith himself That he had not Mat. 8. 20. where to lay his Head He had no habitation of his own nor so much as a place to lodge in but upon courtesy At his Death we do not find that he had any thing to leave behind him but only his Garments He saith that he came not to be Ministred unto but to Minister He Journied from Ma. 10. 45. place to place on Foot and when he made his entrance into Jerusalem riding upon an Ass it is plain that was an extraordinary Action He travelled in the heat of the Day When he met the Woman of Samaria t is said that was about the sixth Jo. 4. 6. Hour that is about Noon and that he rested himself by the Well being wearied with his Journy For though he was the Lord of Nature yet we do not find that ever he wrought a Miracle for his own private Benefit or to save himself any Labour 'T is once said that the Angels came and Mat. 4. 11. Ministred to him to shew the right he had to command them had he been pleased to have made use of it In this same instance of his meeting with the Woman of Samaria we see his wonderful Modesty for 't is said That his Disciples marvelled that he talked with a Jo. 4. 27. Woman And his very Enemies themselves had never the Face to invent any Calumny against him that could call his Chastity into Question Nor was this a forced Modesty There was nothing streined nor Affected in him who was the declared enemy of Hypocrisy and who was the very Truth it self His Conversation was simple easy Natural yet lively and Affecting He observed the Countenances of People as when 't is said that he beheld the Rich young Man and loved him Cherishing with a Compassionate look the very first beginnings of goodness in him how weak and Imperfect so ever they were He
be left no Meum and Tuum no room for private and separate Interests But they could onely make use of Penalties to constrain or Arguments to perswade Men to accept of their Regulations and therefore all their labour was in vain 'T was only the Grace of Jesus Christ that could change the Hearts of Men and cure the corruption of their Natures Thus this Communication of Goods among these Christians of Jerusalem was the pure effect of that singular Charity with which the Gospel had inspired them which made them all Brethren to each other and as it were of one and the same Family where out of one and the same Estate the Father provides for all his Children and loving them all equally suffers none of them to want They had always before their Eyes the Commandment of Jesus Christ of loving one another so often repeated by him and particularly the night before he suffered making this the distinguishing Character by which all men were to know that they were his Disciples But that which obliged them to sell their Possessions and reduce all into ready Mony Joh. 13 35. was our Saviour's Command of forsaking all that they had which they practised not only in the inward disposition of the Heart in which terminates the obligation of this Precept but in reality of Fact according to that Counsel of our Saviour If thou wilt be perfect go and sell all that Ma. 12. 21. thou hast and come and follow me For a Aug. de Catech. Rud. C. 23. man more effectually secures himself from being incumbred with the things of this Life if he really parts with them than he can be while he keeps them in his Hands Besides they considered that our Saviour had foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem Ma. 24. 34. and that he had limited the time of it to be before that Generation should pass away which made them willingly clear themselves of all the concerns they had either in that accursed City it self or in the Country belonging to it devoted to Destruction So that the Believers living in common was a practice peculiar to the first Church of Jerusalem and suitable to the condition of those times and Persons For it would have been an hard matter at least Humanly speaking for so numerous a Church to have long Subsisted without the support of some fixed Fund and Revenues that were certain and by the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul we see that during the short time of its continuance Act. 24. 17. it stood in need of Relief from other Churches and that out of all the 1 Cor. 16. 3. Provinces there were remitted considerable summs for the use of the Saints at Jerusalem And yet St. Chrysostom so Hom. 11. in Act. long time after sticks not to propose this Example of Believers living in Common as a thing still Practicable and as a means of converting all the Infidels 'T is to be supposed that these Saints of Jerusalem Laboured with their own Hands since in so doing they did but follow the most perfect examples of Jesus Christ and his Apostles nor can we suppose any thing too perfect of them And this was also a considerable means of supplying their want of fixed Revenues 'T is said that they continued stedfast in the Doctrine of the Apostles and they are commonly called by the Name of Disciples from their applying themselves to the Learning of the Doctrine of Salvation both by hearing the Apostles who made frequent Discourses to them and diligently Instructed them both in Publick and Private delivering to them the same saving Truths they themselves had received from the Lord And likewise in reading the Holy Scriptures and conferring upon them among themselves 'T is added that they continued in Prayer and that they went Dayly to the Temple assembling themselves in Solomon's Porch and there with Act. 3. 1. one accord joyning in Prayer The Example of St. Peter and St. John going up together into the Temple at the hour of Prayer being the Ninth hour makes it probable that they then observed the same hours of Prayers which the Church hath Baron an 34. 12. 250. always since kept to As to their outward way of living they conformed themselves to the rest of the Jews observing all the Ceremonies of the Law even to the Offering of Sacrifices which they continued to do as long as the Temple was standing And this is what the Father 's called Giving the Synagogue an honourable Interment Aug. ep 19. After Prayer the Scripture takes notice of the breaking of Bread by which there as in several other Places of the New-Testament is signifyed the Eucharist They Celebrated this Mystery not in the Temple where they could not be at liberty enough to do it and where the Christians were intermixed with the Jews but in private Houses with onely the Faithful amongst themselves It was attended as the Peace-Offerings under the Law with a Repast the use of which continued for a long time amongst Christians under the Name of Agapae which Word signifies Love as much as to say Love-Feasts It is said that these Feasts were accompanyed with Gladness and singleness of Heart And indeed all the Faithful by their Humility Simplicity and Purity of Heart were as so many little Children Innocent and Inoffensive And by their renouncing the vain hopes and Enjoyments of this Life they cut off all occasions of Vexatious and Disquieting Passions as leaving no matter for them to work upon and having their Thoughts wholly taken up with the hopes of Heaven and the expectation of the Kingdom of Christ which they looked upon as very near at hand And if we cannot without wonder so much as Read that little which the Scripture hath left to us in Writing concerning the first Church we may easily imagine how much they must have been beloved and admired by those who were the Spectators of their Vertues This first Church Subsisted at Jerusalem for near the space of forty Years under the Direction of the Apostles and particularly of St. James their Bishop till the Christians seeing according to the Predictions of our Saviour the Judgments denounced against that unhappy City near approaching Seperated themselves from the Unbelieving Jews and retired to the little City of Pella where they enjoyed a safe retreat during the Siege of Jerusalem II. PART IN the mean time there were formed several other Churches in divers parts of the World Composed both of Jews and Gentiles which though they came not up The time of the Persecutions The state of the Gentiles before their Conversion to this height of Perfection yet were great Examples of Vertue and Holiness especially if we consider the state of the Gentiles before their Conversion They who are unacquainted with the History of past Ages are apt to imagine that the Men who lived in the World sixteen hundred Years ago were more simple more innocent and
VI. The Study of the holy Scriptures made up of the Psalms which being Pronounced with a Grave and distinct Voice were highly Instructive as containing in them a kind of summary or Abridgment of what lyes more dispers'd in the other sacred Books and supplying a collection of those thoughts and reflexions which a Man should make in every condition Athanas. Epist ad Maroellin of Life and upon every Emergency With the Psalms they always joyned the reading of some other parts of Scripture and from thence came in the little Chapters of the Hours As the Night Prayers were always the Longest so they had more Lessons belonging to them And as the Mass is the most solemn part of all the Office so it is that which had more of the Instructive part mixed with the Devotional Nothing was read in the Church as Scripture and of Divine Inspiration but what was received into the Canon that is to say such as the Constant Tradition of the Churches had Authorised Those other Writings which some Private Persons would have introduced where called Apocryphal that is hidden or obscure To secure the Ecclesiastical Books from all change and that neither the Boldness nor carelessness of the Transcribers might make any Alterations in them there was sometimes Joyned to them a Protestation Conjuring in the name of God whosoever should Transcribe the Writing to do it Faithfully Such an one did St. Irenaeus add to the end of his Epistle to Florinus and of the Euseb Hist v. xx the like nature is that Menacing Clause affixed to the Apocalyps Apoc. xxii 18. The Church therefore was not only the House of Prayer but the School of Salvation The Bishops expounded to the People the Gospel and the other sacred Books with the diligence of a publick Professor but with far greater Authority And therefore in the Stile of the Ancients the Title of Doctor that is Teacher is scarce given to any but Bishops They Instructed their Flock both Publickly in the Congregation of the Faithful and Privately going as was St. Pauls own Act. xx 20. Practise from House to House And as the same Apostle directs in his Epistles to Titus and Timothy they variously applyed their Instructions to the several conditions Ignat. Ep. ad Polycarp of Men. They professed that they Spake nothing of themselves that they Tertull. Presâ—r c. viii kept to what was revealed not pretending to make new discoveries after the Gospel but Faithfully to Deliver to others what they themselves had received from St iren ad Florin ap Eus. v. Hist 20. St. Clem. Al. Strom. init their Fathers that is from the most Ancient Priests and Bishops living within the memory of Man and they in like manner from others before them and so backward by an uninterrupted Tradition ascending up to the Apostles themselves They Imprinted in the minds of the Faithful an Abhorrence for all kind of Novelties Pap. apud Eus. Hist iii. c. 38. more Especially in the Doctrinals of Religion So that if any private Persons heard any thing contrary to the Faith they never amused themselves about contradicting or confuting it that care they left to their Pastors They only stopped their Ears against it and would have nothing to do with it And this is the reason why so many Heresies Ignat. ep ad Trall et al. which started up in the first Ages were silenced and came to nothing without the Interposing of Councils or any formal proceedings of the Church against them The Catholick Pastors unanimously consented in the same Traditions and the People inviolably adhered to the Doctrine of their Pastors The Faithful studyed the Word of God in private every one by him self meditating upon it both Day and Night They used to read over again in their Houses what they had heard read at the Church to fix in their Memories the expositions of the Pastors and to discourse them over among themselves Above Const Apost iv c. 10. all the Fathers of Families took care to make these Repetitions to their Domesticks For every Master of a Family was within the Walls of his own House as it were a private Pastor keeping up therein a regular Course of Praying and Reading instructing his Wife Children and Servants and in a plain and familiar way Administring proper Exhortations to them and thus preserving all that belonged to him in the Unity of the Church by the entire Submission he himself paid to his Pastor What I have said of Fathers is also to be understood of Mothers who took the same Religious care of their Children St. Basil and his Brother Basil Epist Lxiv Lxxv. Lxxix Greg. Vita Macr. â—un St. Gregory Nyssene Glory in their having kept the Faith which they received from their Grand-Mother Macrina and she from St. Gregory Thaumaturgus And it seems to be upon this account that St. Paul gives so particular a Character of the Faith of the Mother and Grand-Mother of St. Timothy One proof of the 2 Tim. i. 5. special care that Parents took in the well instructing their Families is that we do not find in all Antiquity any such thing as a Catechism for little Children nor any publick provision made for the Instruction of those that were Baptised before they came to Years of Discretion Chrys Hom. xxxvi in Ep. ad Cor. Every private House was then saith St. Chrysostom as a Church to it self There were even many Lay Christians that had the Holy Scripture by heart so constant were they in the Reading of it They generally carryed a Bible about them making it their Companion where ever they went and many Saints have been found Buryed with the Gospel lying on their Breasts St. Chrysostom tells In Mat. Hom. Lxxii us that in his time many Women wore it hanging at their Necks That they washed their Hands when they received those Holy Books That every one expressed his inward Regard for them by the tokens of external Reverence at the In Jo. Hom. Liii Mor. Reading and Hearing of them the Men uncovering their Heads and the Women such was their way of expressing Reverence covering theirs For Women read the Scriptures no less then Men. We find some of those Holy Female Acta SS Agapes c ap Bar. an 304. n. 46. Martyrs who in the Diocletian Persecution having been forced to quit all they had and hide themselves in Caves Regretted nothing else but the loss of their Bibles and their being thereby deprived of those Blessed Consolations which they before enjoyed in exercising themselves Day and Night in those sacred Writings Besides the Scriptures themselves the Christians had also for their reading the Writings of their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Authors plenty of whom and those of great Note these first Ages produced Eusebius gives us an account Euseb iv et v. Hist of about forty by name besides those whose Works came forth without the name of the
domum me Ad porri ciceris refero laganique catinum lib. i. Sat. 6. Nec modica caenare times olus omne patella i. ep v. Suet. in Aug. 76. and by the Writings of Porphyry Horace as great an Epicurean as he was names only some Pulse and Herbs as his ordinary Diet and inviting his Friend to Supper Promises him no better Chear The Emperor Augustus lived mostly on Brown-Bread Cheese Figs Dates Raisons and small Fish One might produce a Multitude of like Examples Their common usage was to make but one set Meal a Day and that at Night when all the Business of the Day was over and every one was retired to his Home this was their Supper or Caena For as for that which they called Prandium it was rather a Breakfast than a set Dinner after the manner of our Dinners since it Pransus non avide quintum interpellet inani ventre diem durare Hor. i. lat vi was only a light repast to support Nature throughout the whole Day following and many made no Dinner at all 'T is reckoned as an high instance of the Intemperance of the Emperor Vitellius that he often made four Meals a Day but always Suet in Vitel c. 13. three The Christians lived at least as regularly as the Heathens I mean as the wisest among them and used only a very simple Diet rather of such things as did not require Fire or much dressing than such as could not be eaten without being first prepared by Fire They made at most but two Meals a Day absolutely Gal. v. 21. condemning according to what the Apostles had taught them those Revellings Rom. xiii 13. or Collations after Supper which were called Comessations by means of which i Pet. iv 3. the Nights were commonly passed away in Debauches The Meal how simple and light soever it might be both began and ended with long Prayers And Prudentius Cathemer iii iv hath composed two Hymns to this purpose in which we may see the Spirit of these first Ages set forth in lively Colours It was in these times a common Custome to have something read to them as Pli. iii. ep v. Sat. xi they sat at Meals Pliny always used it and Juvenal inviting one of his Friends to sup with him promises that he should have Homer and Virgil Read to him at Table Instead of those profane Songs and Buffooneries with which the Heathens heightned Clem. ii Paedag. iv the Pleasure of their Entertainments The Christians at theirs had the Holy Scriptures read to them and the Singing of Spiritual Hymns sett to Grave and Composed Airs For they were not against Musick nor did they condemn Mirth provided it was an holy Joy and had God for its Object They never eat together with Hereticks or Persons Excommunicated i Cor. v. 10. 11. ibid. x. 27. nor so much as with the Catechumens But with the Infidels they sometimes did Eat and Converse THE same Modesty and Moderation X. The Modesty Gravity and Seriousness of Christians did the Christians maintain in all their Actions and throughout the whole Course of their Lives They sought after no other greateness but the greateness and nobleness of Spirit coveted no other Riches but their Spiritual Treasure the Riches of the inner Man They could not approve of those profuse Extravagances which had been introduced into the World by the Prodigious Wealth of the Roman Empire as the vast expences of their stately Buildings and costly Furniture their Tables of Ivory Bedsteads Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. iii. of Silver and Hangings of Purple and Gold Gold and Silver Plate enchased and ornamented with Precious Stones When the Persecutors searched the Lodgings Acta Martyr Nicom ap Bar. an 293. where St. Domna a vast rich Virgin of Nicomedia kept her self and together with the Eunuch St. Indus were shut up from the rest of the World this was the rich Furniture they found in it a Cross the Acts of the Apostles two Mats lying upon the Ground an earthen Censer a Lamp a little Wooden-box where they kept the Holy Sacrament to Communicate themselves With the like Modesty did the Christians decline all gaudy Habits and above all the wearing of Silk a Commodity in those Days so precious that it was Sold for its weight in Gold All over-costly Ornaments as Rings beset with precious Clem. Alex. ii Paedag. S. xi xii and iii. i. ii iii. Const Ap. i. c. iii. and v. c. ix Stones Jewels and the like Curled Locks Perfumes and Unguents the too frequent use of the Bath and the too great Affectation of Modishness in a Word all that might tend to excite sensual desires or gratify a voluptuous Inclination Prudentius as one of the first marks of the Peri. steph Hymn xiii Conversion of St. Cyprian observes the change of his outward Deportment and the Neglect of his Dress Apollonius an ancient Ecclesiastical Author Writing against the Montanists and speaking of Ap. Euseb v. Hist xviii their pretended Prophets thus reproves them Tell me saith he doth a Prophet Dye his Hair Doth he Paint his Eye-Brows Doth he love gay Cloaths Doth he play at Dice Doth he lend upon Usury Let them Speak Are these things Justifiable For I can prove that they Practise them An Act. St. Sebast apud Baron an 289. n. xvi xvii Holy Martyr to prove by matter of Fact that a certain Impostor who took upon him the name of a Christian was no better than a Cheat Represented to the Judges that this pretender Curled his Locks Haunted the Barbers-Shops looked too Affectingly upon the Women Fed high and smelt of Wine Sufficient evidence that he could be no Christian As for their whole outward Garb and what Figure they made in the World the Christians shewed themselves very indifferent and Incurious at least very plain and Grave Some of them quitted the common Habit to take upon them that of the Philosophers as Tertullian and Tertull. de Pall Eureb vi Hist xx St. Heraclas the Disciple of Origen There were but few Divertisements which they would allow themselves the use of They were obliged to shun all the Publick Shews whether of the Theatre of the Amphitheatre or of the Circus At the Theatre were acted Tragedies and Comedies on the Amphitheatre were seen the Combating of the Gladiators and the Fighting with Wild-Beasts the Circus was for the Racing of Chariots All these Const A post ii Lxii Tertull. do Spect. Spectacles with the Heathens made part of the Worship of the false Gods which had been of its self sufficient to have kept the Christians from coming near them But they considered them also as a Poisonous Fountain of Debauchery and Dissoluteness that tended only to the Corruption of Manners The Theatre was a School of Immodesty the Amphitheatre of Cruelty and the Plays fomented all Augus vi Confes. cap. vii sort of Passions Even those of the Circus
Their Church Assembly's Liturgy and outward form of Worship Justin ii Apol. in fi on the Lord's-Day which the Heathens called Sunday and which the Christians honoured above all Days in the Memory of the Creation of Light and of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ The place of their Assembly was generally some private House where they chose for this purpose one of the dining Rooms which the Latins called Caenacula and which were the upper Chambers of the House such was that upper Room Act. xx 7 c. from whence fell the young Man Eutychus whom St. Paul recovered to Life which we find was three Stories high enlightned with many Lamps where the Faithful were met together on the Night of the Lord's-Day for the Breaking of Bread that is for the Celebration of the Mysteries which was followed with a repast viz. the Love-Feast In the Persecutions they were often forced to hide themselves in the Cryptae or Hollow places v. Baron an lvii n. xcix under Ground without the Cities like the Catacombs still to be seen at Rome When they had more Liberty they met in Publick Places known by all to be the Idem an ccxxiv n. iii. an 245 n. 302. Euseb viii Hist. c. iii. Churches of Christians We see Examples thereof in the reigns of the Emperors Alexander and Gordianus The Emperor Gallienus causing a stop to be put to the Persecutions gave order that the Christians should have their Cemiteries restored to them near which commonly stood their Churches and when Paulus Samosatenus was deposed the Emperor Aurelian commanded the Church viz. the Ibid 30. Material Church of the place to be restored to those who continued in Communion with the Bishop of Rome Some of these publick Churches had been before Private Houses as that of the Senator St. Martyr Rom. xx Jun. Pudens the happy Father of so many blessed Children St. Novatus and St. Timotheus the Priest and the Virgins St. Pudentiana and St. Praxeda This illustrious Family had been instructed in the Faith by the Apostles themselves and their House was turned into a Church by the Priest St. Pastor There were often also new Buildings erected on purpose for this use A little before the Dioclesian Persecution they had in all Cities Churches new built from the Ground so mightily was the number of the Faithful encreased and the Persecution began by the pulling Euseb viii Hist. c. iii. down these Churches In these Assemblies they said their Prayers before mentioned at the stated Hours of the Day and Night But the chief work of their meeting together was to offer the Sacrifice which could not be done without a Priest They called it either by the Scripture names of the Supper the breaking of Bread the Oblation or by the names afterward received in the Church as the Synaxis that is to say Assembly Dominioum Collecta Cypr. Ep. lxiii ad Caecil in Latin Collecta the Eucharist that is Thanksgiving the Liturgy that is the Publick Service In the time of the Persecutions for fear of meeting with disturbance from the Infidels they sometimes administred it before Day There was but one Sacrifice in each Church that is in each Diocess 'T was the Bishop that Offered it nor did the Priests do it but in case of the absence or Indisposition of the Bishop But they assisted him in performing the Service and all of them Offered together with him The Order of the Liturgy hath been changed according to the difference of Times and Places Some Indifferent Ceremonies have been added to it and some others retrenched but the Essentials have remained always the same The Account we find of it in the first Times is this After some Prayers followed the reading St. Just. ii Apol. in fi of the Holy Scriptures first out of the Old Testament and then out of the New They always concluded with a Lesson out of the Gospel which when Read the Bishop Expounded adding thereto some proper Exhortation suited to the occasions of his Flock That ended they all rose up and turning their Faces to the East with hands lift up to Heaven they Prayed for all sorts and Conditions of Men for Christians and Infidels great and small particularly for all that were any ways afflicted or distressed in Mind Body or Estate A Deacon called upon them to Pray a Priest pronounced the Words of Prayer and the People gave their Assent by answering Amen Then Cypr. Ep. lxiii the Gifts were offered that is the Bread and Wine mingled with Water which was to be the matter of the Sacrifice The People gave the Kiss of Peace Men to Men and Women to Women in token of their perfect Unity After that every one gave his Offerings to the Priest and he in the name of them all offered them up to God Then he began the solemnity Cypr. de Orat. of the Sacrifice calling upon the People to lift up their Hearts to God and with the Angels and all the Heavenly powers to Laud and Magnifie his glorious Name next he proceeded to repeat the History of the Institution and pronoucing the Words of our Saviour he St. Just made the Consecration after that together with the People he rehearsed the Lords-Prayer and having himself received the Communion he gave it the Deacons for the rest of the Congregation For Regularly all those that entred the Church were to Communicate especially Can. Apost ix 10. all that Ministred at the Altar As for those who had not the opportunity of assisting at the Sacrifice in Person the Eucharist was sent to them by the Hands of Deacons or the Acolythi They reserved part of it also to be always in readiness for the Viaticum for Dying Persons as a provision for their Journy They permitted the Faithful to carry it Home to take it every morning before they touched any other Food Tertull. i. ad uxor c. v. or upon sudden occasions in case of Danger as when they should be called to suffer Martyrdom These things were admitted in those Days For they had not then the liberty of meeting together and celebrating the Mysteries when they pleased That which was thus carryed abroad was onely the Bread Though in their publick Assemblies all in General communicated under both kinds excepting little Children to whom was given only the Wine The Agapa or Love-Feast which in these first times followed the Communion was a Repast of ordinary Food which they took altogether in the same place where they had Communicated In after times it was given only Const Apost ii c. xxviii to the Widows and the Poor There was always set aside a Portion for the Pastor though Absent The Priests and Deacons had a double Portion Every one also of the Readers Singers and Door-Keepers had their share of it 'T WAS in these same Assemblies that XIV The secret of the Mysteries as far as was possible they Administred the other
that is lost too So that we have but few of them now remaining Yet the Names of the most eminent Martyrs are preserved in the Menologies and Martyrologies which set down for every Day the Martyrs of the Day and the Place where their Feasts are Colebrated to which were afterwards added the other Saints During these Interrogatories they were Pressed to Discover their Complices that is the other Christians and Particularly the Bishops and Priests who Instructed them in their Religion and the Deacons who assisted them as also to Deliver up the Holy Scriptures T was in the Diocletian Persecution that the Heathens were more particularly bent upon destroying the Books of the Christians looking upon that as the most Effectual means of destroying their Religion it self They sought after them with the utmost Diligence and burned all they could Seize Acta C. tens an 303. They searched the Churches for them the Lodgings of the Readers and all private Houses Upon all these Queries the Acta Mar. Alutin apud Bar. An. 303. n. 35 c. Christians kept their secrets as Inviolable as they did their Mysteries They never Acta S S. Agapes c apud Bar. an 304. n. 40 c. named any Man's Person they answered that they were Taught of God they were assisted of God they carryed the Holy Scriptures engraven on their Hearts They who were so Cowardly to Deliver up their Bibles or Discover their Brethren or their Priests were Branded with the Odious name of Traitors If the Martyrs under their Torments uttered any Words at all they seldom were upon any other Subject than that of Glorifying the goodness of God and Imploring his Mercy and Assistance AFTER this cruel Examination they XVII Prisons who still persisted in the profession of Christianity were dilivered over to Punishment but they were often remanded to Prison to be kept yet longer upon trial of their Patience and reserved for fresh Torments and indeed the Prisons themselves were but another sort of Torment These Confessors of Jesus Christ were thrown into the Darkest and most Infectious Dungeons their Hands and Feet loaded with Irons heavy clogs of Wood hanging upon their Necks or Fetters with cross Bolts contrived so as either to keep them standing or their legs distended if they lay Sometimes they strewed the Dungeon with little pieces of Pot-sherds or broken Glass and there Prudent PaeriSteph 4 de S. Vin. al. they forced them to lye Naked all full of Cuts and Wounds Sometimes they left their Wounds to fester and putrify upon Mart. xvi April de S Encratide them and in that condition suffered them to dye with Hunger and Thirst Sometimes they carefully fed and tended them but only to keep them in Heart for fresh Torments They were generally denied the liberty of speaking one Word to any Person living it having been found by experience That under that Condition they had Converted many of the Infidels even to the very Goalers and Soldiers themselves that guarded them Sometimes they ordered to be brought unto them Act. SS Perpet Felic such Persons as they thought most likely to shake their Constancy as their Fathers their Mothers their Wives their Children whose Tears and melting Discourses were another sort of Temptation and many times of more dangerous Consequence than their Torments If a Martyr Martyr 31. Aug. were with Child they deferred her Execution till she was Delivered for so the Law required Thus the famous Martyr St. Mamas was born in Prison of his Mother Martyr St. Rufina In the mean time the Church took a Const Ap. v. c. ii Cyp. Ep. xi Martyr xxiii Dec. particular care of these Holy Prisoners The Deacons often visited them to do them all the Service they could to go on de Diacono S. Anthimii their Errands and to supply them with Necessaries Their Brethren also frequently waited upon them to support and encourage them to Suffer They Congratulated their Torments and wished to have a share in them they kissed their Martyr iii. Jun. de S. Zena Tertul. ii ad uxor c. iv Tertul. de jejun c. xii Martyr xi Dec. de S. Thrason Chains looked after their Wounded and supplied them with all Conveniencies as Beds Cloaths Diet and other refreshments insomuch that Tertullian complained that they fared but too well in the Prisons the Faithful spared no costs upon these Occasions If they were denied entrance they freely gave large Bribes to the Keepers and Soldiers to gain Access nor would they be repulsed by their rudeness They submitted to Blows and Contumelies put up all Affronts and Injuries patiently waited at the Prison Doors whole Nights together in hopes of gaining the favourable Minute of satisfying their Charity Whenever they could gain admittance they looked upon the Prison as v Cypr. Ep. v. and vi a Church Consecrated by the presence of the Saints there they made their Prayers and thither the Priests resorted to Celebrate the Sacrifice and afford the Confessors the blessed Consolation of not going out of the World without the Protection of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ But if it were a Bishop or Priest that was in Prison the Faithful there Assembled themselves together that they might not lose the Opportunity of receiving the Eucharist and carrying it home with them to their Houses and in such Cases as these they made use of any means they could Sometimes the Priests for want of Altars made the Consecration upon the hands of the Deacons and that Illustrious Martyr St. Lucian of Antioch being so staked down that he could not stir Acta apud Bar. anno 311. made the Consecration on his own Breast One may well imagin with what force of Exhortation these Administrations were attended All the Church look'd upon these holy Prisoners as it were already Crowned in Heaven They had a great influence upon the Prelates to obtain favour on the behalf of those whose weakness had betrayed them into Idolatry insomuch that it was found necessary to prescribe some Cautions and Limitations Cypr. de Laps ep x. xi xii c. against the indiscreet Recommendations of some of the Confessors WHITHERSOEVER the Persecutors XVIII Their eare of Reliques carried the Martyrs the rest of the Faithful followed them whether it were to the Rack or to the Execution For the places of Execution were generally without the Walls of the City and there the greatest part of the Martyrs having either by the strength of Nature or by Miracle out lived their Torments were beheaded thither did the faithful in vast numbers follow them crowding the Streets as they passed along and standing by them to the last both to admire their Constancy and by their Examples to fortify themselves against the like Trials They carefully observed the last Words that came from their Mouths which generally were Prayers as that of St. Polycarp recorded in the Epistle of the Church of
these Orders For how could they have found amonst the Jews and Heathens that were Dayly Converted to Christianity any considerable number of Persons that had preserved an absolute Continence to their advanced Years It was much to find those that had confined 1 Tim. iii. 2. themselves only to one Wife in that liberty which the Jews and other Eastern People took of having many Wives at once and the custom of Divorce Universally admitted which put them often upon changing their Wives But when a Marryed Person was made a Bishop he began from that time forward to look upon his Wife only as his Sister And to the same Rule hath the Ep. Dccret Siricij ad Himer c. vii Can. Apos vi Latin Church all ways kept her Priests and Deacons Yet they were still obliged to provide for their Wives and not to cast them off as Strangers And the Women out of Regard to the Dignity of their Husbands were somtimes called Presbyterae by the Name of Priestesses In Greece and the East this strict Rule of Continence Episcopae came in Course of time to be less and less regarded But in no place whatsoever Can. Neocaeâ— i. did the Catholick Church ever allow a Priest to Marry after his Ordination If he did he was for his Incontinence Degraded of his Order and reduced to the State of a simple Laick As for the Inferior Clerks as Readers and Door-keepers they were commonly Marryed Persons and Cohabited with their Wives So that a great part of them passed their whole Lives in these lower Orders at least they continued in them for many Years till they either lost their Wives or else by mutual Consent they agreed to Separate from each other in order to the leading a more perfect Life Yet was Marriage always spoken of by Christians as an Honourable State And that the rather because there were some Hereticks who professed an Abhorrence of it and others who Absolutely condemned all second Marriages as Unlawful All the Clergy even to the Bishops themselves Lived after a Poor at least a Plain and Ordinary manner having no thing as to outward appearance to Distinguish them from the common People In the Persecutions as they were the Persons the most sought after they had no mind to make themselves known by their Habit or any other marke of their Profession If in any thing they Differed from the common People t was in appearing more like the Philosophers Many of them had parted with all their Temporal Possessions to the Poor before their being advanced to Holy Orders and many of them again after their Ordination still continued like St. Paul to Live by the Labour of their Hands Not that they were obliged so to do The Church always took care of her Clergy supplying them with all Necessaries out S. Cypr. Ep. xxxiv of her common Treasure And accordingly every Clerk received either Weekly or Monthly a certain Distribution either in Money or of Provisions in Specie answerable to the Exigencies of their Condition or the Quality of their Office For the Clerks of an higher Station and consequently charged with greater Labours received according to the precept of St. Paul more liberal Allowances 1 Tim. v. 17. Some there were also that kept their own temporal Estate together with their Spiritual Dignity St. Cyprian at the Pont. Diac. Hortos time of his Martyrdom had still left him a little Country-Farm the only Reserve he made to himself out of the vast Possessions he had quitted The Pastors and Clerks rendred themselves no less amiable by their Charity and their Application to the Services of Religion than they were Venerable for other Excellencies The Bishop dispenced not with himself from performing the Dutyes of his Place in Person presiding always at the publick Prayers Expounding the Holy Scriptures and Offering the Sacrifice on all Sundays and Stationary Days He and his Priests found themselves always fully Employed and never wanted Work to Instruct the Catechumens Comfort the Sick Exhort the Penitents and Reconcile such as were at Variance For to them it belonged to make up all Differences They would Const Apost ii c. xlv 46 c. 1 Cor. vi by no means allow what St. Paul had expresly Forbidden that Christians should bring their Causes before the Heathen Courts and they that would not Submit V. Patres apud Baron an lvii n. 37. 38 c. Tertul. Apol c. xxxix to the Arbitration of the Bishops were Excommunicated for Impenitent and Incorrigible But such Disputes could not often happen among Christians so Disinteressed so Humble and Patient as they were Munday was ordinarily the Day which the Bishop took to determine Differences so that if the Parties should not readily Acquiesse in the Sentence they might yet have time before them to Moderate matters and bring them to a Right understanding before the Sunday following when they were all to meet again in the Church and Pray and Communicate together On the Day of Hearing the Bishop seated in his Chair the Priests sitting down by him and the Deacons attending the Parties Presented themselves before him respectfully standing on their Legs in the midst of the place of Audience After having heard the Cause he first did all that was possible to Reconcile them each other and to perswade them to make up the Difference in a Friendly manner between themselves before he pronounced Sentence At the same time also they heard Complaints and received Informations against Persons accused of not leading their Lives like Christians The Bishop was fully entrusted with Const Apost ii c. xxiv 25. the Churches Treasure all which lay absolutely at his Disposal Nor were they under the least Apprehension of its being Misapplyed Had they had the least suspicion of his Integrity and Uprightness they would never have committed to his Care the Government of Souls a concern of Infinitely greater Moment than Const Apost xli all Earthly Treasure T was to him therefore that all who stood in need of Relief were to apply themselves He was the Father of the Poor and the Refuge for all in Misery and Distress After all this what Wonder is it that their Prelates should be so beloved and Respected by the Faithful as they were 'T is observed of St. Polycarp that he had not for many Years together pulled off his own Shoes the Faithful that were Epist. Eccles Smyrn near him always offering themselves and Ambitiously Courting the Honour of that humble Office So that he had not of a long time before done it with his own Hands till at his Martyrdom as he undrest himself and prepared for the Stake Acta S. S. Hippolyti c. Apud Baron an 259. n. viii Acta S. Sus. an 294. n. viii 10. 12. Their usual way of Approaching their Priest was to Prostrate themselves before them Kiss their Feet and in that Supplicating Posture crave their Blessing And the
Office of reconciling Differences and making up the Breaches of Friends Yet did they not suffer their other Engagements to take them off from Preaching and that very often too as thinking that they could not otherwise discharge the Duty of their Place and looking upon the work of Preaching as one of the most Essential parts of their Ministry For in the first Age all Bishops were Preachers and scarce were there any other Preachers besides them 'T was in the East they first began to make here and there a Priest of an extraordinary Talent Euseb vi Hist 20. a Preacher as Origen nay and sometimes the Laicks themselves when they found them very understanding Men. We find also in the West during the Persecutions S. Paulin. not that St. Felix though no more then a Priest was a Preacher at Nola. But these Examples were so unfrequent that many have taken St. John Chrysostome and St. Austin to have been the first Priests to whom the Bishops entrusted this Ministry Hence it is that our Modern Preachers find the Sermons of the Fathers so different from that Idea of Preaching which they have formed to themselves Their Discourses are plain without any appearance of Art without the exactness of Method without the subtilties of Ratiocination without the curiosity of Learning nay some of them without any Pathos and the greatest part of them very short And 't is true these holy Bishops did not set up for Oratory and Harranguing They pretended to no more than to instruct their People in a plain and Familiar way as Parents speak to their Children or Masters to their Scholars And therefore their Pulpit Discourses were called in Latin Sermons and in Greek Homilies which words note such kind of Discourse as is used in common Conversation Their busines in expounding the Scripture was to handle it after such a manner as might prove most to the edification of their Hearers so that they did not pretend to examin every Word and Phrase with the exactness of a Critick or to Lanch out into curious Enquiries as the Grammarians explained Homer and Virgil in their Schools They expounded the Scriptures according to the Tradition of the Fathers so as they might tend most to the Confirmation of Faith and the Reformation of Manners They endeavoured to work upon the Affections not so much by the vehemence of Figures and the force of Declamation as by the weight and Importance of the Truths they delivered by the Authority of their Office by the Sanctity of their Lives and the Exemplariness of their good Works As for their Stile That they suited to the capacity of their hearers The Sermons of St. Austin are the plainest of all his Works the Stile of them is much shorter and much easier than that of his Epistles because he Preached in a little City to Labourers Traders and Seamen but in his Tracts of Controversy especially in his Books against Julian one may see that he had not forgot his Art of Rhetorick which he was Professor of for so long a time On the contrary St. Cyprian St. Ambrose and St. Leo who preached in great Cities delivered themselves with more of pomp and Ornament Yet their stiles vary according to the Particularity of their Genius or the relish of the Ages they lived in But we must observe that the faults with which the modern Humanists reproach the Fathers are not to be attributed to the subject of Religion These Criticks charge the Fathers with Impropriety of Language making use of feeble Arguments poor Ornaments farfetch'd Allegories playing with Words and Chiming of Syllables These were the faults of the Age not of the Men. Had they lived in the Age of Cicero or Terence they had spoken as Cicero and Terence The Greek Fathers come nearer to the Ancient Authors Language had not undergone so great a change in the East nor had the Studies of Polite Learning been there so much neglected The works of these Fathers are for the most part very Solid and very entertaining And among the rest St. John Chrysostom is to my thinking the compleat Pattern of a Preacher His usual method was to begin with explaining the Scripture verse by verse as pronounced by the Reader keeping himself always to the most literel Sense and that which most tended to Practice He concluded with a general Exhortation which hath many times little relation to the foregoing part of his Discourse but was proportioned to the present Exigencies of his Flock and directly applyed to his Auditors themselves as so prudent and vigilant a Pastor saw their Case required We may observe also that it was his way to encounter Vices Singly one by one and when he began with any one he never gave over the Pursuit till it was either entirely Routed or at least very much disabled These Holy Preachers did not propose either Fame or Profit to themselves by Preaching but the Conversion of their Hearers That was the only thing they aimed at and that they pursued with all their Might and never thought they had done enough till they had effectually wrought the Change they desired Thus St. Austin undertook to abolish the Practise Epist xxix his People had taken up of making entertainments on the Feasts of the Martyrs which were degenerated into Debauches but notwithstanding the strength and prevalence of the custome he broke it off He shewed the People the Evil of that Practise from express Texts of Scripture condemning the sinfulness of immoderate Eating and Drinking and with Tears in his Eyes exhorted and intreated for two Days together till he had effectually prevailed There was no danger then of having different Doctrines taught in one and the same Church for there was no other Preacher or Teacher but the Bishop himself or some Priest chosen by him who Preached there only by his apointment and generally in his presence In Sermon time the Church was open to all comers even to the Infidels Which Meth. deâ— Peres c. xii is the reason that the Fathers were so cautions in keeping the Mysteries Secret to themselves never speaking of them from the Pulpit save only in an Aenigmatical way Hence also it is that we often find in their Sermons some part of the Discourse directed to the Heathens to Const Ap. ii c. lvii draw them to the Faith During the time of the Lessons and Sermon the Audience were regularly seated the Men on one side of the Church and the Women on the other and to be separate and at a greater distance from the rest of the Congregation the Women went up into the Galeries where there were any The more elderly Persons sat in the uppermost Seats their Fathers or Mothers held the little Children before them for they carryed them to Church with them provided they were Baptized When all the seats were filled the younger People continued standing on their Feet There were Deacons appointed on purpose to see this order observed and to take
and joyned with Narcissus in the Administration of the same See he took a Pilgrimage from Cappadocia to Jerusalem on purpose to see the Holy City there and Euseb vi hist ii visit the Celebrated Places of Devotion thereabouts And indeed this was a proper means of assisting piety by Sense The sight of the Reliques of a Saint his Sepulchre his Prison his Chains and the Inrstuments of his Martyrdom All these made a quite different Impression upon the Mind from the bare hearing of these things spoken of at a distance To which add the Miracles frequently wrought at their Tombs which often made the Infidels themselves glad to visit them upon the pressing Interests of their Lives and Healths Every one knows that one of the first effects of the liberty of Christianity was St. Helenas care to have due Honours done to the Holy Places of the City of Jerusalem and throughout all the Holy Land And from that time forward the practise of going in Pilgrimage to those Places of Devotion became more common than before And St. Jerome an eye Witness assures us that there were always to be seen in the Holy City a vast Hier. ad Marcell concourse of all sorts of Itinerant People flocking thither from all parts of the World even Doctors and Bishops themselves Nor was it then so difficult a thing to take such long Journeys through the vast extent of the Roman Empire by reason of the convenience of its situation all round the Mediterranean Sea and the great Roads they had laid out in all Quarters for the passage of their Armies and publick Carriages So that it was no great adventure now to pass from Spain or Gaul into Aegypt or Palestine or Asia This Honour could be paid to the Martyrs only in the places were they had suffered till they found the way of dividing and Translating their Reliques The Greeks generally took to that method but at Rome St. Gregory the Pope declares Greg. iii. ep 30. Brandea that to his time for the Reliques of the holy Apostles they only sent abroad some peices of Linnen that had touched their Sepulchres or Golden Keys which had locked up some of the fileings of St. Peter's S. Greg. ep v. vi vi 23. Chains Every Nation was careful even to a Jealousy to keep to themselves their Reliques as Pledges of the Protection of V. Prud. Perist pas sim the Saints and a Blessing sent from Heaven to the City or Province in whose Custody they were lodged Nor were the Temporal advantages they reaped from them inconsiderable The Inhabitants were enriched by the concourse of Pilgrims and the veneration for the Memory of the Saints often moved the Princes to grant the right of Sanctuary and exemption from Taxes to the places where their Reliques were deposited Every one knows the extraordinary Priviledges of St. Greg. Turon hist Martin of Tours in France 'T is probable also 't was not till these Times of the Liberty of the Church that the course of the Ecclesiastical Year was brought to an exact regulation The Question concerning the Day on which Easter ought to be Celebrated was not entirely determined till the Council of Nice as indeed there had not till then been held any Oecumenical Council because it was a thing impossible under the Heathen Emperors to bring together so great an Assembly of Bishops It was in these times a received Rule not to Administer Baptism but on Easter or Witsunday as appears by the Pope St. Leo's condemning Leo. ep iv the practice of the Bishops of Sicily who Baptised at Epiphany In the same Epistle he also gives us the Reasons of the Church for instituting her Feasts and Appropriating them to the different parts of the Ecclesiastical year and how all this was done for the more solemn Commemoration of the several Mysteries of the Life of Jesus Christ Nor was it till these times of Liberty that the Solemn Fasts of the Church were generally taken notice of and more especially Basil orat iâ— de jejun Hier Epi. â—ii ad Laetam 22. ad Eustoch that of Lent Fast No person whatsoever was dispenced with from keeping the Fast no Condition no Age could plead an Exemption All business was laid a side One might have seen the Chrysost in Gen. hom i. init most populous Cities as still and quiet as Deserts The faithful passed the greatest part of the Day in the Churches praying Reading the Scriptures and hearing Sermons whence it comes to pass that the Office for the days of Lent is always longer than the usual Service at other times During all that Season there were Celebrated no Feasts of the Martyrs nor any Persons allowed to Marry To the Ninth Age the Custome continued forbearing Acts of Hostility all the time of Lent and neither Armies to March nor People to Travel unless upon Extraordinary Occasions ALL these Observations were but the XXXVI The Ceremonies of Pennance Consequences of Pennance to which those Days of Fasting were peculiarly designed and that is the reason why the Preparation of those who were to receive Baptism was reserved to the time of Lent as was also the satisfactions which were to be made by those who were fallen after Baptism The joyful Feasts of Christmas and Epiphany being past they entred upon a Course of Praying for the Remission of Sins and of exciting Sinners to Repentance as we now do from Septuagesima Sunday for that is manifestly the design of all the Offices proper to that Season The Lessons out of Genesis represent to us the Power of the Creator his Justice and his Severity Here we see Adam driven out of the Terrestial Paradise the guilty old World destroyed by the Deluge and those four infamous Cities consumed with Fire from Heaven They whose Consciences were awakened by these Examples and by the powerful Exhortations of the Prelates apply'd themselves to them or to their Priests appointed to this Ministry and after having made sincere Confession of their Sins received thereupon necessary Instructions what they were to to do For it belonged to the Pastor to Judge whether he who accused himself was fit to be admitted to Pennane what Penalty should be imposed and for how long a time whether his Pennance should be Orig. hom ii in ps 38. Socr. v. hist c. 19. secret or open and whether it were proper for the Edification of the Church that he should make the same Confession in publick Young Persons were not readily admitted to Pennance by reason of the Frailty of their Age which made them affraid their Conversion might not hold Their Conversion was likewise suspected Innoc. i. ad Exup c. Augu. Ser. 57. detemp Conc. Ara. i. c. iii. Carth. iv can 76. 78. who did not desire Pennance till the Extremity of Sickness These if they recovered were obliged to go thorow their Course of Canonical Pennance Many did publick Pennance without any ones knowing the
made an Exhortation to them putting them in mind of the mercies of God and of that newness of life which they ought to live in for the time to come requiring them in token of their Confent S. Elig hom viii 11. and promise thereunto to hold up their Hands At length suffering himself to be prevailed upon by the intreaties of the Church and being perswaded of the sincerity of their Conversion he gave them Solemn Absolution Then they shaved and polled themselves quitted their Penitential habits and began to live like the other Faithful There was without doubt great diversity in these outward Ceremonies according to the difference of times and places But they all tended to the same end and had a powerful Effect to make the offender sensible of the Enormity of sin and of the difficulty of recovering out of it and to keep those still within bounds who as yet had preserved their Innocence Should a Man saith St. Austin too easily return Serm. xxiv de divers to the Happiness of his first Estate he would look upon the falling into Mortal sin as a meer Triffle NO PERSON how great soever in XXXVII Christian Princes the World was exempt from Pennance Princes were as Subject to it as private Persons and the Example of Theodosius will never be forgotten in the Church In the foregoing Ages none could have believed that the great ones would ever have submitted themselves to the severity of the Churches Discipline They could not possibly conceive how the Humility and Mortification of a Christian could have been reconciled with absolute power and vast possessions 'T was this undoubtedly that made Tertullian say that Apol. c. xxi the Caesars had become Christians long before if they could have been at the same time Caesars and Christians and Origen Cont. Cels. L. viii speaks of it much after the same manner This strange work hath God at last brought to pass in the sight of the whole World And this is that mighty Change that gave Date to the Liberty of the Church that period of time I am now speaking of Presently upon the Conversion of Constantine the name of Jesus Christ was written upon the Roman Ensigns and his Cross displayed in the midst of their Armys That Instrument of the most Infamous Punishment was now turned into the most glorious Ornament of the Imperial Diadem The Emperor had an Oratory in his Palace where he shut himself up whole Days together to read the Holy Scriptures Observing the stated Euseb iv vita Const c. xvii xxi hours of Prayer and more especially on Sundays upon which he obliged the Heathens themselves to rest from their Labours He caused to be carryed in his Sozom. i. Hist c. viii Army a Tent in the form of a Church for singing Divine Service in and Administring the Sacraments to the Faithful and to that purpose he was always attended by some Priests and Deacons He Euseb iii. vita Const c. xlvii made Constantinople a City perfectly Christian The Eve of Easter was Celebrated there with a most magnificent Illumination not only within the Churches but without All over the City there were set up lighted Tapers or rather Pillars of Wax which gloriously turned the Night into Day In the principal Squares of the City one might have seen the Fountains adorned with the Images of the good Shepherd or of Daniel in the Lion's Den. There were no Idols or Temples of the false Gods to be found within her Walls Who knows not how Magnificenly Constantine treated the Fathers of the Nicence Council and the Honours he did them He furnished them with carriages Euseb iii. Vita Const c. vi vii to bring them from the most Remote parts of that vast Empire he defrayed their Expences all the time of their Session and sent them home Loaded with Presents He burn't the Bills of Accusation that had been preferred to him against the Bishops he Kissed the Scarrs of the Confessors that still had upon them the Socrat hist i. c. v. viiii marks of the Persecution he entred the Council without his Guards appeared there with a Modest and Respectful Air and did not sit down till the Bishops gave him a sign At the Conclusion of the Council he made a great Feast for them in his Palace and sate at Table with them Then it was that Jesus Christ was manifestly seen Reigning over the Kings of the Earth Theodosius the Great did yet more Honour to Religion and that by the practice of those vertues it requires He was much in Prayer apply'd himself to God in his greatest Affairs and ascribed to him the success of his Armes He had suffered himself to be transported into a Passion against Theod. hist Eccle. iv c. 17. the Inhabitants of Thessalonica The Sin was great but his Repentance was Proportionable and he valued none of the Bishops so highly as St. Ambrose because he found none that less flattered him His Empress hath also an high Character given her in History for her Piety and for her Charity towards the Poor The same Spirit run through the Family but shined forth most brightly in St. Pulcheria their Grand-daughter who at the Age of fifteen together with her two Sisters Consecrated herself to God by a Vow of Virginity and who without quiting the Court led a Life in it so retired so full of Business so Religious that the Writers of those times compared the Palace to a Monastery the Holiest thing they could think of In this School of vertue she caused to be brought up the young Emperor Theodosius Socr. vii c. 22. her Brother making him practice the same exercises of Religion with her self He rose constantly at the dawn of Sozom. ix c. i. Theod. iv c. 36. the Day to join with his Sisters in singing the Praises of God Prayed often frequented the Churches and presented them largely He fasted often principally on Wednesdays and Fridays His Palace was furnished with a choice Library of Ecclesiastical Writers He had the Holy Scripture by Heart and discoursed of it with the Bishops as readily as if he had been one of them himself He gave a great respect to them and had an honour for all good Christians He caused the Reliques of many Saints to be translated with great Pomp. He founded many Hospitals and many Monasteries His Sister did not only exercise him in the Practices of Religion but caused him to be taught with the greatest care all the Accomplishments proper for an Emperor He had the best Masters to instruct him in Learning and others to teach him the Exercises of Riding and Arms. He was used to the bearing of heat and Cold Hunger and Thirst She her self Tutored him in all the Rules of Decency and Deportment in his Habits in his Gestures in his Gate and Posture of walking She brake his practice of falling into loud and suddain fits of Laughter taught him how to
There were many of them quickly erected in all great Cities It was ordinarily some Priest that had the Overseeing of them As at Alexandria St. Isâ—dorus under the Patriarch Theophilus At Constantinople St. Baron ad 31. Dec. 27. Jun. Zoticus and after him St. Sampson There were also some private Persons who erected Hospitals at their own Expences as St. Pammachius at Porto and St. Gallicanus at Ostia This St. Gallicanus was a Patrician Martyr 25 Jun. and had been Consul and 't was a sight that drew Spectators from all parts to see a Person of his Rank and Quality one that had worn the Triumphal Ornaments and could have boasted of his Friendship with the Emperor Constantine to see I say such a Person washing the Feet and the Hands of the Poor waiting upon them at Table and giving the Sick all sort of assistance The holy Bishops thought no expences too great that were bestowed upon so good purposes Besides they took great care about the Burial of their Poor and the Redemption of Captives who had been taken by the Barbarians as it often happened in the Declension of the Roman Empire For these two last sorts of Charity they sold even the communion Plate notwithstanding the Priviledge of Appropriation The instance of St. Exuperius Bishop Hiron ad Rustic 〈◊〉 Sept. of Tholose is very remarkable who reduced himself upon this score to such a degree of Poverty that he carried the Body of our Saviour in a little Basket and his Blood in a Calice of Glass And St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola having sold all Gregor iii. Dialog c. i. ii made himself a Slave to ransom the Son of a certain Widow so that those vast Treasures of the Churches the Gold and Silver with which they were Ornamented were deposited in the nature of a Trust till pressing Occasions as a publick Calamity a Petilence a Famine or the like should require it every thing gave place to the providing for the living Temples Jo. Diac. vita S. Greg. lib. iv cap. xliii of the Holy Ghost They redeemed also such as lived in Slavery at home or within the Empire especially such as were Christian Slaves to Pagan or Jewish Masters IN the last place it was after the XLI Monasteries Church had gained its Liberty that they began to found Monasteries Under the Persecutions many Christians had retired into the Deserts Principally those adjoyning to Aegypt and some passed the remainder Hier. vita S. Pauli of their Lives in them as St. Paul who is reckoned the first Hermit St. Anthony having for some time lead the Ascetique life near the place of his Nativity withdrew himself afterward into the Desert that he might with greater freedom and security pursue his religious Exercises upon being removed out of the Reach of all Temptations which might be occasioned by Society He was the first that gathered Disciples together in the Wilderness and there obliged them to live in common They were now no longer called simply Asceticks though in effect they led the same Life but went by the name of Monks that is to say Solitaries or Hermits to wit those that inhabit the Wilderness Those who lived together were termed Caenobites and those who having lived a long time in common and there learn't to conquer their Passions and afterwards retired to a more absolute Solitude they called Anchoretes And yet the Caenobites themselves lived very Solitary seeing no Soul but their own Fraternity being at the distance of many Days Journy from all inhabited Places in sandy Deserts whither they were forced to carry all necessaries even their very Water Nor did they so much as see one another save only in the evening and in the Night at their stated hours of Prayer spending all the Day at work in their Cells either alone or two and two together and always in profound Silence Besides as in those vast Solitudes they were not streightned for want of Room so their Cells stood at a considerable distance one from another St. Anthony St. Hilarian St. Pacomus and the others that followed their Examples did not pretend to introduce Novelties or outdoe all that ever went before them Their design was only to keep up the exact practise of the Christian Religion which they saw every Day more and more declining They always proposed the Asceticks that went before them for their Examples As in Aegypt those Disciples of St. Mark who as Cassian relates lived in the Suburbs of Cass ii Jnst v. 18 Coll. v. Alexandria close shut up in their Houses Spending all their time in Praying and Meditating upon the Holy Scriptures labouring with their Hands all Day and never eating but at Night They proposed for their imitation the Primitive Church of Jerusalem the Apostles themselves and the Prophets T was not an Hier. ad Paulin. item ad Rustic Affectation to make themselves admired for the extraordinariness of their Methods but an honest intention of leading the lives of good Christians This one may see through the whole Rule of St. Basil which is indeed no more than an Abridgement of the Duties of a Christian who would lead his Life according to the Precepts of the Gospel and which he lays down in general to all sorts of Persons He saith S. Basil reg fas n. xxii for example as to Habits that a Christian ought to content himself with such Cloathing as is sufficient for Decency and to defend the Body against Cold and the other injuries of the Air but to be as little incumbred as possible And therefore to be content with one Garment both for Day and Night a thing in the Country where he lived not impracticable There is very little in his Rule which is perculiar to Monks separate from the rest of the World That which was singular in the Monks was their Renouncing of Marriage and Chrysost ad fidel patr the Possession of Temporal goods and their Separating themselves from conver sation with the rest of the World either of the Faithful themselves or their nearest Relations As to the rest they acted but the part of good Laicks living by their Cass Instit v. c. 12. 16. c. 6. c. 7. Labours in silence and exercising themselves in getting the Mastery over their Passions by degrees So that having as 1. Cor. ix 25. 2 Tim. ii 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. v. viii St. Paul expresses it like resolute Combatants Striven for the Mastery and Striven Lawfully they might arrive to that Purity of Heart which might render them fit to see God Upon these Principles were all their Methods and Practises founded St. Chrysostom gives us a Memorable History of a Young Man whose Mother Ad fidel patr was desirous that he should become a good Christian and prevailed with a Vertuous Monk to take him into his Tuition This Holy Man to Instruct him more perfectly in the Duties of Religion causes
longer kept up in practice the very knowlege of them was soon after lost and Penance was now made so gentle a thing that Confession was the most dreadful part of it IN the Thirteenth Century the Ancient LIII The great number of Doctors Discipline received this blow The Authority of Tradition had carryed it down through the Ages foregoing and it may be said the Church never was so great a sufferer by simple Ignorance as by new Speculations They now began in their Scholastick Disputes to depend too little upon pure Authority and were over fond of working out every thing by their own Reasonings Aristotle grew much in fashion And the Subtilties of Logick and Metaphysicks which they borrowed from the Arabians were in mighty request The scarcity of Antient Books and the difficulty of understanding them by reason of the change of Language and Customes Tempted them somuch the more to apply themselves to Speculations and the Reading of the Moderns Thus the Scholastick Divinity was more valued than the Positive Gratian and the Master of the Sentences were read more than the Fathers and in the Scriptures they were more curious in hunting after a Figurative Sense then careful to observe the Literal After the Twelvth Age the greatest part of the Bishops applyed themselves but little to Preaching and the Instruction of their Clergy They suffered themselves to be encumbred with Temporal affairs The Laiety and especially the Princes being Bred up in Ignorance knew not how to Manage without the assistanstance of the Clergy 'T was out of the Bishops and Abbots that they chose their Chancellours and Ministers of State They were made Judges in almost all Causes Without going any farther their Temporal Lordships found them work enough the Wars in which they were often forced to engage the fortifying their Garrisons and assembling their Troops They were obliged to maintain grand Equipages large Families and all sort of Officers In the midst of so much business the Spiritual part which ought to have been the chiesest was too often neglected Thus Studying Preaching and the Administring the Sacraments fell to the Lot of the Doctors of whom the Universities were full but chiefly into the Hands of the Religious Mendicants who came in very seasonably to the Relief of the Church in these unhappy Ages But these Religious how holy and how Zealous soever they might be were not Proper Pastors over any certain people nor had they any regular Jurisdiction They were rather a sort of Missionaries who following the orders of their Superiors travelled throughout all the Dioceses Labouring in the Conversion of Hereticks and Sinners Nor were their Labours without Success But the good services they did the Church took not their full effect for want of power to continue their farther Instructions to those whom they had converted to correct their Miscarriages and compleat their Work by abiding with them and watching over them till they had established them beyond relapse in the Right way All this they could do only to some particular Persons who voluntarily Resigned themselves to their Direction So that the Fruits of their Labours could not be of so general Effect as when every Bishop closely applyed himself to the Edification of his own Flock The Case was much the same with them in respect of Studies The Doctors whether Seculars or Regulars that were in possession of the Chairs had scarce any thing of Authority besides what their personal Merit procured them It was free for the Students to follow what Profession they liked best And from hence arose that Diversity of Sects and Opinions concerning matters that were allowed to be disputed For as there were a great number of Doctors who were not employed in the Cure of Souls but spent their whole time in the Schools they had leasure to treat of many Questions more Thomass discipl iv l. 1. c. 69. n. xi Curious then useful The Laicks also were left at their own Liberty to follow what Preachers they most Affected and to chuse to themselves their own Confessors besides their proper Pastors So that among such a mnltitude of Priests bad Christians could not fail of meeting with some or other who would give them Absolution upon very easy Terms And thus such as were willing to be deceived themselves or had a mind to Deceive others did not forbear without mending their Manners to frequent the Churches and come to the Sacraments The greatest part of the Doctors themselves were born down by the Stream of the Corruption of the People and suffered many considerable Relaxations of Discipline to plead Prescription The little knowledge they had of the ancient Manners of the Church was the principal cause of this Mischief The usages introduced an Age or two before went down with them for immemorial Customs It is strange for instance that in the Days of St. Thomas Aquinas they should not remember how they kept their Fasts in the S. Bern. Serm. in cap. Jejun Age preceeding For St. Bernard assures us that in his time all the World without distinction observed in Lent not to break their Fast till Evening Kings and Princes Clergy People gentle and Simple Rich and Poor all of them did so and yet St. Thomas not only plainly tells us that in his S. Thom. ii ix 147. art 7. ad i. time none Fasted beyond three of the Clock in the Afternoon but also pretends to prove That Christians ought not to Fast after any other manner and that Fasting till the Evening was peculiar to the old Law So easy a thing is it to find arguments to justify all sorts of Practices when one is ignorant of Fact This Ignorance made them look upon Antiquity as Novelty and the Authority of the Moderns as a surer Ground to proceed upon than that of the Antients of whom they had only a confused notion that their Manners were altogether different from ours without sufficiently distinguishing whether this diversity lay in any of the Essentials of Christianity or only in such indifferent matters as Habits and Language And as they gave themselves the liberty of starting every Day new Questions and inventing new Subtilies there arose at last a set of Casuists who founded their Morals rather upon human Reason than upon Scripture and Tradition as if Jesus Christ had not taught us all Truth as well for Manners as for Faith but had left us still to seek with the ancient Philosophers I SHALL not pretend to give a particular LIV. A succession of found Doctrin and good examples in all times of the disorders that followed upon these loose Principles which they brought into their new System of Morality they are but too well known of themselves Nor is it my design to describe the manners of bad Christians which are no better than those of other Men my business is only to represent the manners which distinguish true Christians from the rest of the World Now God hath never so forsaken his