that does the injury is insolent with so debonaire and meek carriage did he demean himself towards the great fomenters of his sorrows that his restoration was not unacceptable even to them He purges the Temple by driving out all Sacrilegious Abusers of Religion that prostituted the name of God and Christ to their profit that in this also he might imitate his Saviour only he omitted the whip of Cords and substituted in the place thereof Perswasives and Demonstrations He cements all breaches among those that were at enmity with him or among themselves needing no other assistances but his own he delivers the afflicted from Tyranny making no distinction between them of his own and the adverse party He lifts out of the dust and restores to its honour the truth that had been trampled on and now the Doctrine of the Trinity is boldly asserted and the light is set on a Candlestick that by the bright rays of the Unity of the Godhead it might illuminate all mens Souls now he again makes Laws for the World and enclines all mens minds to himself writing to some calling others and instructing a third sort that were never sent for obliging no man to any other restraint but to be willing for this one thing was sufficient to direct them to the Paths of Virtue In short he imitated the qualities of two famous stones to those that abused him he was an Adamant to the contentious and quarrelsome a Loadstone which by a miraculous quality draws Iron the hardest of things to its self but it was impossible that envy should endure this or suffer tamely the restitution of the Church to her pristine beauty and health the dissenting Members thereof being reunited as the Wounds of a Body that hath been mangled are closed up again To this end the Father of malice incensed against him the Emperour who was the Fiend's Fellow Apostate who though his junior in time was his equal in mischief the first of all Christian Princes that was inraged against Christ suddenly introducing that wicked Cockatrice which long before had been brought forth and cherish'd by him as soon as a fit opportunity offered and he was invested with the Empire became ungrateful to that Soveraign that intrusted him with the Regalia and abundantly more rebellious against God his Saviour and begins a persecution more fatal than all that had preceeded it intermixing perswasives with his threats for he envyed the Martyrs the honour of their sufferings called in question the Trophies of their courage using all sort of Sophistry and little arts in his Discourses and allowing them to superintend his manners or to speak a plainer truth being inclined by his own perverse habit of mind to such Villanies imitating the cunning and artifice of that Demon that possest him he accounted it but a poor Conquest to triumph over the whole Family of Christ but look'd on the subduing Athanasius and stifling his undertakings in the behalf of the truth as a great Victory for he saw that none of his Designs against the Christians were crowned with success as long as Athanasius opposed him for the places of as many as deserted Religion were supplyed by his prudence with new Gentile Proselytes which was very miraculous Which when that crafty Impostor and Persecutor understood he no longer keeps on his Masque of servile dissimulation but making publick his rancor openly expels this great man the City for it became this generous Combatant to be thrice Victorious that his rewards might be perfect a small time after the Divine Justice hurryed this sacrilegious person into Persia and there punish'd him and having permitted him to go forth a Prince eagerly ambitious of renown return'd him dead without the least sign of pity or sorrow and as I have heard without the honour of Sepulture his body being toss'd up and down by the fury of an Earthquake that then happened as a punishment for his Crimes the Prologue as I suppose to his future Tragedy but another Emperour succeeds him of a modest Countenance and a stranger to the Apostates Impudence one that never opprest Israel by his own or his Followers evil Actions but was incomparably pious and mild who that he might settle his Empire on the best Foundation and begin his Raign with the establishing excellent Laws recalls all the banish'd Prelates and above all him that out-shone them in Virtue and undoubtedly was a Sufferer for Godliness he enquires after the true and Orthodox Faith that had been by many torn in pieces and mangled and distracted into many novel Opinions that if it were possible the whole World might be united in the same harmonious profession by the cooperation of the holy spirit if not he might joyn himself to the Catholick Party and reciprocally give it assistance and receive help from it entertaining himself with high and exceeding venerable thoughts of such Mysteries And here did this Sage-man give a Specimen of his purity and constancy in the Faith of Christ for whereas other Professors were divided into three several Factions many being Unorthodox in their Sentiments of the Son of God and more in their Opinions of the holy Ghost where to be a puny Transgressor was accounted a mark of Piety and only a few were in every thing sound Catholicks he chiefly and alone or with a few Followers openly and in the Face of the World is a confident Assertor of the truth confessing in his Writings the Divinity and Essence of the three persons and in that God head which in times past was by the many Fathers adjusted to the Son was the holy spirit reinvested by this inspired Patriarch who tendred a truly royal and magnificent present to the Emperour an Orthodox Creed in opposition to the Heretical Novelties that had no basis in Scripture that one Emperour might countermine another one Doctrine invalidate another one Writing supersede another to this Confession of Faith both the Eastern and Western Catholicks seem to me to pay a submissive deference and veneration for some men if we may believe their Affirmations are Orthodox only in their minds but they imprison their Sentiments and conceal them from the view of the World as a dead Child that hath lost its life in the Womb others in a small measure manifest their belief like the blaze of a Spark that they may humour the time and please the warmer and devouter sort of Christians others are publick Assertors of the truth and not ashamed of their profession of which Party I am willing to be for I dare not boast of any thing higher than this not so much as intending to skreen my fearfulness behind the weakness of those that have been more timerous for we have been evil Stewards of Heavens Mysteries not only not gaining some additional increase to our Talents but prodigally melting down our first stock which is the Character of a careless Servant but to introduce this my off-spring into the light to mature its growth with speed
was to testify the union of the Divine and humane Nature in the Person of the Mediator of mankind In missa Lat. Edit Argent 1557. operd Illyrici Deinde Diaconus accipiat à subdiacono vinum miscent cum aqu◠in calice dicens Deus qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti mirabilius reformâsti da nobis quaesumus per hujus aquae vini mysteria ejus divinitatis esse consortes qui humanitatis nostrae dignatus est fieri particeps Jesus Christus For it is not a little observable that besides what the antient Liturgies mention of this nature as soon as the Armenians by the perswasion of Jacobus Syrus imbrac'd the errors of Eutyches condemn'd the Council of Chalcedon and would acknowledge only one Nature in the second Person of the Trinity they left off the use of intermixing Water with the Wine in the Sacrament and under Johannes Ozniensis their Patriarch with leave from the Caliph of Babylon and Omir the General of the Saracens who had overrun Armenia by the consent of his own Suffragans and six Bishops of Assyria it was past into a Synodical decree that no longer Water should be mixt with Wine in the Eucharist they pretending the Authority of S. Chrysostom for their so doing Which determination of that Church was presently after condemn'd by the Fathers of the sixth general Council at Constantinople f Can. 32. and every Prelate or Presbyter transgressing the Apostolical practice was to be depos'd for his pride and contumacy Notwithstanding which they still continue the usage and so do g Abuda Hist Jacobit c. 13. p. 18. the Jacobites in Egypt and elsewhere to this day But the Greeks are so far from countenancing the practice of such Schismaticks as they stile them that they make this mixture twice in the Sacrament For while the sacred Elements are preparing the h Goar Not in Liturg Chrysost n. 167. Smyth de hod Gr. Eccl. statu p. 90. Priest with the Knife they call it the holy lance is to prick the bread and to say these words One of the Soldiers thrust a Lance into his side and presently there flowed out Water and Blood And at the same time the Deacon is to pour out the Wine and put to it some cold Water and again after the consecration of the Elements just as they are to be given to the Communicants the Deacon after the Priest hath blessed it poureth warm water into the chalice and so delivers it to the Communicants and this to testify that that water which issued from the side of Christ came out miraculously warm as if he had been alive exhibiting to us a Type of our union to that Saviour thereby and withal to exemplify the fervour of Faith and the holy Spirit which should accompany all those that approach the holy table and I find in the order for the Communion under K. Edward the sixth That the Priest is required to bless and consecrate the biggest Chalice or some fair and convenient Cup or Cups full of Wine with some Water put to it Which Custom was afterward I know not for what reason altered And this was thought so necessary that many were apt to run into the other extream and to think that the mixture was not duly made till there were as much or more Water than Wine in the Chalice bordering on the Heresie of the Aquarii who adminstred this mystery only in Water or rather on that sort of them i Ubi supr which Cyprian treats of who in the Evening celebrated the Sacrament as Christ instituted it mixing Water with Wine in the Chalice but in the morning used only Water out of caution lest the smell of the Wine might betray them to be Christians to their Gentile Adversaries k Bernard Epist 69. Others thought Water indispensably necessary to the integrity of the Sacrament and for that reason perhaps the Church of England hath omitted the usage but even the Church of Rome it self is not so rigid allowing the consecration to be valid without it XXII Hitherto lasted the Age of Miracles the Divine Goodness and Omnipotence using extraordinary Methods to countenance and propagate its supernatural truths that the Infancy of the Church might be assisted with as strong and convictive encouragements to believe the Doctrine of Jesus as rational and perswasible persons could desire But the several sorts of these stupendous Charismata were not equally long liv'd but according to the divers necessities of the Proselytes to Religion some expired sooner and some later took their leave of the Christian World The gifts of speaking with and interpretation of divers Tongues suddenly ceast on the Conversion of the greatest part of the then known world and the modelling of Churches in every Nation because before their Christian assemblies were made up of men of diverse Nations and Languages though e Lib. 2. c. 57. apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 7. Irenaeus affirms that these miraculous gifts were extant in his time the spirit of Prayer ceas'd on the forming and establishing set Liturgies for the use of the Church which we have already probably evinc'd were of Apostolical appointment The power of discerning spirits whether men were sincere and orthodox in their profession or the Pretenders to Miracles were truly endowed with that supernatural faculty was left to the Governours of the Church for a while till the sacred Canon of the Scripture was collected by which after-Ages were to be guided though a De cura pro mort c. 16. ad fin cap. S. Austin seems to imply That that power was not wholly lost in his time The infliction of temporal punishments on Offenders lying under the Churches curse which sometimes extended to the loss of life or health or the like sufferings and other times to an actual delivery into the hands of Satan if we may believe the Tradition of the whole Greek Church is yet communicated to the Servants of God b Vid. Crusii Turco-Graec apud Dr. Ham. Power of the Keys ch 6. sect 5. p. 147 148. who tell us that no man among them dyes excommunicate but he swells like a Drum looks black and cannot return to his primitive Dust till he receive his absolution But whether this be so or no we will not at present discuss while we positively assert that Prophecie casting out of Daemons and prodigious cures even to the raising the dead lasted till this age of S. Cyprian and after XXIII The prophetick Sun after a long Eclipse that vail'd its face and beauties from the time of the Captivity till the coming of the Messias broke forth with a greater lustre under the Evangelical Oeconomy That the immediate Family of Jesus were so endowed no man doubts since by that afflatus they were assisted in conferring Orders and leaving a List of their Successors in fore-telling the times of Antichrist and the revolutions of the Church till Peace should mantle
sent into the World and so he came both from the Father and the Son according to that of a Tom. 2. hom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Johan p. 876. S. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this twofold procession perchance might give an occasion to that mistake of b Poetic lib. 6. cap. 4. p. 780. Julius Scaliger that the Greeks did believe there were two holy Ghosts Now the Controversie between the Eastern and Western Churches is concerning the Eternal procession which the Greeks make to be from the Father by the Son And notwithstanding the learned c Tom. 1. contr 2. l. 2. c. 24 25. Cardinal 's large muster of the Fathers both Greek and Latine in two whole Chapters to the contrary I shall undertake to evince that this was the belief of all the Fathers of the four first Centuries till the days of S. Ambrose for the Tractate de adventu spiritus S. father'd on S. Cyprian is by Pamelius acknowledged to be of a much younger Author XXV The Opinion anciently was so generally believed and so publickly known that a Tom. 2. p. 1121. Lucian or whoever was the Author of the Philopatris introduces Triephon advising Critias To leave off his Heathen Oaths and to swear by the high and eternal God by his Son and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father the Trinity in Vnity and Vnity in Trinity which contains an excellent Summary of the Christian Faith though scoffingly there quoted but we will omit such Foreign and summon Domestick Testimonies b Legat. pro Christ p 30. Ed. Steph. Athenagoras informs us That the Son is the mind the wisdom and word of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Holy Ghost an Emanation from him as light is from the Fire i. from the same Father says his Translator Gesner and so also I understand him So c Adv. Pra xeam c 1. Tertullian affirms the Original of the Spirit to be from the Father by the Son and d Oper. p 1. Ed. Vâ—ssâ—i Gregory Thaumaturgus in that Creed which was given him by Revelation by the hands of the blessed Virgin and S. John Baptist thus declares his Belief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. the holy Spirit as to his eternal proceeding came from the Father but as to his Mission in time unto men Christ sent him and this I believe to be the Fathers meaning notwithstanding what the infallibility e Vossâ— Not. in loc p. 104. of Pope Gregory the ninth would draw from these words to the Confutation of the Greek Heresie and after him the Cardinal This Creed is quoted by S. Gregory Nyssen in the life of this miraculous Father and the Doctrine uncensur'd and therefore we may conclude it his belief also especially if it be true what f Lib. 12. c. 13. Nicephorus and others say that in the Constantinopolitan Council the Creed which we vulgarly call the Nicene was penn'd by S. Greg. Nyssen we need no other specimen of his Opinion in this case Nor was his Brother S. Basil's Opinion different nor his dear friend's S. Gregory the Divine with whom not only Epiphanius Basilâ—â—o 1. in Ps 32. p. 203. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. l. 5. contr Euâ—m c. 12. Greg. Naz. tom 1. or 29. p. 493. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Or. 35. p. 5â—3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. in Anchor cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. tom 5. com in Is c. 57. Spiritus S. qui de patre egreditur propter societatem naturae à filio mittitur and having quoted Jo. 15.26 he adds nè scandalizet quempiam si spiritus egrediatur ex patre See the Creeds ad Damasum Cyrillum tom 4. p. 127 224. Hilar. tom 1. de trinit l. 12. p. 261. ut patrem sc te nostrum filium tuum unà tecum adorem sanctum spiritum tuum qui ex te per unigenitum tuum est promerear And again lib. 8. p. 139. à patre enim procedit spiritus veritatis sed à filio mittitur à patre S. Chrysost tom 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 730. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his Scholar S. Hierom agree though generally computed among the Latine Fathers of the other Opinion for the passages quoted by Bellarmine and others relate to the temâ—oral Mission of the Spirit from the Son which we deny not with whom also S. Hilary of Poictou and S. Chrysostom joyn consort XXVI And for this Opinion Theodoret is so stout a Champion that the men of the other perswasion make him the Author of it and censure him for it as speaking too rashly and agreeing with the Greek Heresie as they word it in a Rome 1547. their Preface to the Edition which I use and with him also agrees b Lib. 12. in Joh. c. 56. S. Cyril of Alexandria and in after ages Maximus and John Damascene as I find them quoted by c Sguropuli hist Conc. Florent sect 8. c. 15. p. 239. Marcus Ephesius in the Council of Florence and after them d In Johan 3. p. 604. Theophylact most expresly the Latines says he make the Spirit to proceed from the Son but we say that it is one thing to be of another and another thing to proceed from another that we may not therefore make two causes of the holy spirits production believe thou that the Spirit proceeds from the Father but is confer'd on the Creatures by the Son and let this be the rule of Orthodoxy to thee and e Vit. Greg. M. l. 4. c. 75. Paulus Diaconus assures us that when the Greeks translated the Dialogues of Gregory the great into their own language they scrap'd out the word filioque out of his discourse of the procession of the Holy Ghost XXVII And it was one of the Articles against Cyrillus Lucaris the late Patriarch of Constantinople which promoted his deposition in the Synod held there under Parthenius an 1642. That in his Confession he had held the eternal and essential procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son against the determination of the Catholick Church But herein they belyed the good man for in f Interpraestant ac erud viror Epp. Eccles Theolog. p. 403. his Epistle to Vytenbogard when he was only Patriarch of Alexandria he professes his Belief in this Article consonant to the Doctrine of the Greek Church which denyes the holy Ghost to have proceeded from the Son essentialiter internè quoad esse lest they should make two principles of his existence which is Heretical And in the first Chapter of his Confession of the Christian Faith the Book which occasioned his deposition and Martyrdom he acknowledges that the holy Spirit doth proceed from the Father by the Son which is the true sentiment of the Oriental Churches in which the g Confess Claudii regis apud Hotting topogr Eccl or c. 3. p. 76. Aethiopian