those Devils that had possessed them In his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For in the name of this the Son of God Pag. 311. the first-born of every creature and born of a Virgin and made a man subject to suffering and crucified by your people under Pontius Pilate who died arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven every Devil adjured is overcome and subdued In another place of this Apology And now we who believe in Jesus Christ our Lord crucified under Pontius Pilate Pag. 302 adjuring all Devils and malignant spirits have them subject under our power He affirmeth the same thing in other places 31. That Christians constrained Devils to confesse themselves such and to acknowledge the truth of the Gospel in this matter hear also Tertullian If a man should bring before your tribunals one that were truly possessed of a Devil if a Christian should command him to speak this wicked spirit will confesse that he is a Devil Apol. cap. 23. with as much truth as he saith falsely at another time he is a god Let them present any one of these they believe to be wrought upon within by a deity that in the ceremony of the Sacrifices they offer on the altars have the virtue of a God in senting the smell which goes out of the Sacrifices who with force belch out words out of their stomachs within breathing declare Oracles if this heavenly Virgin that promiseth rain if this Aesculapius who teacheth the secrets of Physick who preserves the lives of them that must lose the same soon after confesse not by the mouths of these Impostors the fegined inspirations of whom deceive the World that they are but Devils if the presence of a Christian takes not from them the boldnesse of lying we are willing that in the same place you shed the blood of this Christian and punish him as a wicked person In the same Chapter Now seeing by our means your gods discover to you that they are no gods and that all the other to whom men erect altars are none in like manner but this at the same time they make you know who the true God is if it be this onely God whom we that are Christians worship if we must believe of him what the Christians believe if he must be served as their Laws ordain When you conjure your gods in the name of Jesus Christ do they ask who is that Jesus Christ do they call the History of his life a fable do they say he is a man of the same education as other men that he was a Magician that after he was dead his disciples took away his body privately from the Sepulcher and that he is now in Hell say they not rather he is in Heaven that he must descend to the terror of all the World with horrour to the Universe with the lamentation of all men but Christians and that he shall come down on the Earth full of Majesty as the Virtue of God the Spirit of God the Word Wisdom Reason and the Son of God 32. Whence Christians came to be so strong as to wrest these confessions from them hear him in the same place Whence they had this strength against them Now all the power we have of them is the name of Jesus Christ who gives it us it is the threatning we give them of the evils God is ready to pour on their heads and which one day Jesus Christ must declare unto them As they fear Jesus Christ in God and God in Jesus Christ they are under the Government of the servants of God and of Jesus Christ so by the onely touch of our hands and breath of our mouthes the Devils seized with fear at the sight of the flames that environ them are forced to obey us to come out of the bodies they possesse in despite of them and with murmuring to suffer this shame in our presence You that are wont to believe them when they lie believe them when they speak of themselves None will tell a lye to get shame by it but rather to gain honour one will sooner believe them that confesse against their own interest than those that denie to their advantage These testimonies which we have of your gods make men to be Christians for we cannot give a full belief to what they say without believing in Jesus Christ our Master Your gods kindle in our hearts the Faith which the holy Scripture teacheth us they strengthen our hope and confirm us in the assurance we have of our Salvation As for you to honour them you offer them also the blood of Christians and if it were permitted them to lie when Christians interrogate them and labour to make you know the truth by their confession they would take good heed of discovering your errors to you as well for keeping the profit they have of them and the honours you render them as for the fear they might have that in becomming your selves Christians you drive them away as we do from the bodies they torment with so much rage In the beginning of the following Chapter We need nothing but the acknowledgement we have from your gods when we make them confesse they are no gods and when they answer us there is no other God than the onely God we serve to purge us from the crimes of high-treason and impiety to the Roman Religion 33. No wonder then that these impure Spirits inraged at Christians sought all manner of wayes to destroy them But yet in their deaths they overcame them and in all sorts of indignities and tortures triumphed over their implacable adversaries for The blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church That this was so indeed Tertullian also informeth us the veracity of whom as to these things alleged is unquestionable because appealing to his adversaries he must needs in behalf of his cause produce such things as were most certain the contrary whereof would have Apologized sufficiently for what he laboured to confute We shall with the last words of his excellent Apology conclude this most delightful Subject But do what you please They triumphed over their enemies in their very sufferings all inventions the most exquisite cruelty can advise you unto are to no purpose so far are they from profitting you that contrarily they draw all the World to our Religion The oftner you make an harvest of the Christians the oftner their number increaseth their blood is a seed which dies not on the earth but puts forth prosperously Many among you have laboured to perswade men to suffer constantly pain and death as Cicero in his Tusculans Seneca in his Treatise against casual things Diogenes Pyrrhon and Callinicus but Christians have better taught constancy by the examples they have given in supporting patiently so many evils than all the Philosophers with all their discourses This same obstinacy wherewith you reproach us is an excellent mistresse of truth which we
themselves and the Ambassadors sent to them had asserted the Generals were all divided in their opinions what to do but Alcibiades hot and youthful was for their proceeding to which Lamachus at length assenting his desire was obtained They then landed and seized upon Catana attempted Camarina in vain when Alcibiades received orders to come and plead his cause at Athens about the Hermae Then again recalled his Enemies having obtained it should be so In truth he was condemned beforehand but to colour the matter he was sent for to plead and that must be with bonds laid upon him He was aware of the danger and departed straight to Lacedaemon with intention to teach the Athenians what person they had compelled by unjust Judgment to forsake his Country and betake himself to their Enemies After this was known sentence of death was published against him of his Partners many whether justly or no Thucydides much questions being put to death without proof already in the City The Syracusians stand on their Guard 53. The Syracusians though not fully perswaded of the design of the Athenians against them at first and thereupon not so well provided as they might have been yet made all possible provision for resistance The two Generals after the departure of Alcibiades by a stratagem drew them out of the Citie and in the mean time brought their Forces near unto it and worsted them when they sallied out but without any great losse sustained on either part and then drew off to their Winter quarters at Catana and Naxus The Syracusians incouraged by Hermocrates one of their new Generals a wise man who had forwarned them of the design of the Athenians sent to Sparta and Corinth for aid strengthened their Fortifications made excursions to Catana where they wasted the grounds plundred and burnt part of the Athenian Camp which was empty Both sides laboured to draw the Camarinaeans to their side but in vain yet many Cities especially in the in-land imbraced the society of the Athenians who sent also this Winter to the Carthaginians to procure their amity the Cities upon the Tyrrhenian shore they also drew in and all Sicily was now divided into these two factions The Corinthians readily resolved to send aid to the Syracusians and sent some of their own with their Ambassadors to Sparta to procure as much for them from that State The Corinthiâ—â—â— and Sparâ—â—â—s send them 〈◊〉 The Spartans made difficulty at first to do it for fear of giving the Athenians offence but hearing from Alcibiades what their designs were who was come thither upon the publick faith at his perswasions resolved also upon sending Forces under the Command of Gylippus they also imbraced his Counsel concerning renewing the War and fortifying Decelea a Castle in Attica At the same time the Athenian Generals sent to Athens for money and hors-men which was readily decreed to be sent Herewith the 17th year of the War was ended 54. The next year the Argives and Lacedaemonians preyed mutually upon one another in Peloponnesus In Sicily the Athenians with their whole force and new supply of horse sayled to Syracuse about which they seized upon many places and several skirmishes ensued about the fortifications wherein the Athenians had the better Then was the Athenian Fleet conveyed into the Haven of Syracuse whence great contention ensued and Lamachus one of the Generals assisting his friends was slain The Syracusians endeavouring the recovery of Epipolae were repelled by Nicias who thence drew a double work against the Town and strengthened himself by the accesse of Confederates and store of provision The besieged receiving no assistance from Peloponnesus parlied with Nicias but the matter succeeding not they made choice of new Captains whilest Gylippus was not now far off but despised by Nicias for the small number of his men In Greece the Spartans distressed the Argives who were assisted by the Athenians with thirty ships These made excursions into the Territories of Epidaurus so that the League which had so long continued betwixt them and Sparta though in a doubtfull condition was now openly broken and the War resumed and that more by their fault than any blame of the Lacedaemonians if Thucydides be judge 55. Gylippus arriving at Syracuse disturbed the work of Nicias about the Wall and changed the constancy of his good fortune Thucyd. lib. 7. who yet was not discouraged thereby but proceeded in his utmost endeavours for the service of those that sent him making preparation for Sea-matters wherein the Athenians seemed to excell all others hereupon ensued several skirmishes with various fortune and the remaining of Summer was spent on both sides in increasing their forces and procuring aid Demosthenes and Eurymedon joyned in Commission with Nicias Nicias writing to Athens for supplies new Levies were made and Demosthenes and Eurymedon joyned in Commission with him whereof the later was sent in mid-winter with ten Gallies and a great summe of money into Sicily and the other staid till Spring to get ready what was remaining twenty ships they also ordered to attend the motions of the Peloponnesians These things being known the Spartans and Corinthians calling upon their Confederates provided for the invasion of Attica accordingly as Alcibiades had advised With these things the 18th year of the War ended 56. In the beginning of the Spring the Peloponnesians under the Command of Agis the Spartan King invaded Attica where they fortified Oecalea a place some twelve miles distant from Athens and as much from the Borders of Boeotia The Athenians sent thirty ships to waste Peloponnesus and sixty with five of Chius into Sicily under Demosthenes his command Out of Peloponnesus were sent to the aid of the Syracusians from Sparta 600 men from Corinth 500. Sycion 200. out of Boeotia 300. to which the Corinthian Gallies lying at Naupactus were ordered to be a Convoy At Syracuse the affairs of the Athenians through the skill and valour of Gylippus and Hermocrates went down the wind who being also much distressed at home by the excursions out of Decelea yet kept up their spirits to the admiration of all men After Demosthenes had arrived in Silicy and heard of the miscarriages of their Fleet at Sea he blamed Nicias that he had not as soon as he came applied all his endeavour to Syracuse the head of the War and caused him to agree to set upon Epipolae a difficult and craggy place where falling on in the dark night they could not discern betwixt friend and foe all speaking in the same dialect The Athenians defeated at Syracuse and thereby great slaughter being made of them partly by themselves and the Enemy the Athenians received a great defeat The Generals hereupon consulting together were not of the same opinion Demosthenes now was for departing away speedily out of the Island seeing all things hapned crosse therein though he had been the cause of the fight on the other side Nicias who had laboured
obtain their help but he refused A. D. 66. V. C. 818. The next after him that was put to death was Annaeus Seneca the Philosopher and Nero's School-master Seneca his School-master put to death not being convicted of any treason though accused by one Natalis as it 's thought to please Caesar such an earnest desire his Scholar had to dispatch him having formerly without effect attempted it by poyson Being commanded to dye he did it very chearfully though he was forced to seek for death several wayes For he had so starved himself with abstinence that he could not bleed and poyson would not work upon him but at length entering into a bath he was stifled with the fume of it having all this while discoursed even to his last according to his wonted elegancy such excellent things as being then taken from his mouth came afterwards abroad Such was the end of this excellent Philosopher concerning the character of whom Students are rather to trust to Cornelius Tacitus than to Dio if Justus Lipsius be a competent Judge Dio accuseth him of extortion adultery with Agrippina and what not He maketh him a Sodomite and to have taught his Scholar that wickednesse Lipsius his Apology for him against Dio. as also the cause and procurer of the death of Agrippina and a cart-load of other Calumnies saith * Quam consule in Comment ad Taciti Annal l. 14. omnino ad l. 15. Lipsius doth the idle man heap upon him contrary to the belief and mind of all men What cause was there of this hatred or what reward had he for lying for Seneca lived so long before him that he neither could injure him nor oblige him I believe saith he it was a certain perversity of judgement and manners which also set him keen against Cicero and all good men I desire that youth may take heed and so to gather the flowers of Antiquity from these fields that they do not also gather poison But as for what concerneth the riches and galantry of Seneca see Reader and read his excellent Treatise De vita beata which he wrote with no other design than to stop the mouthes of these Calumniators especially from the seventeenth Chapter Thus hath Lipsius prevented us in our Apology for this excellent person in whose vindication much might be said 36. Pompeia Paullina the wife of Seneca Dio calleth her a most noble woman perhaps the daughter of Pompeius Paullinus to whom Tacitus giveth the title of Consularis and who was set over the publick customs or imposts cut also her veins that she might die with him but Nero bearing her no malice as it happened sent some to stop the bleeding and recover her Seneca had another brother besides the father of Lucan who was also put to death This was Annaeus Novatus otherwise called Junius Gallio from his adoptive Father being also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and then Governour of Achaia Their Father was M. Annaeus Seneca a Rhetorician of Coruba in Spain whose Suasories and Controversies are yet extant joyned to his sons Works Nero proceeded in his madnesse and cruelties Acting the Stage-player still he was reviled at his return home by Poppaea his wife for which he kicked her great with child and thereupon she miscaried Then raged he against many of greatest note Nero killeth Poppaea amongst whom was Mela the father of Lucan who had formerly perished for the conspiracy and this allaied the grief which was conceived for the death of many others by the pestilence that now raged because they seemed thereby well delivered from the fury and rage of the Prince who now neither used choice nor measure in his slaughters Being puffed up with the successe of his cruelty he said that None of his Predecessors knew their power hinting also that he meant to destroy the remnant of the Senators It was believed he had a great desire to deliver up quick men to be devoured of an Aegyptian a monstrous eater of raw flesh or any other thing that was given him 37. Neither was there wanting to him luxury and effeminatenesse suitable to his cruelty nor any other vice whereby the truth of that saying of Domitius his father might appear who hearing of his birth said that Of himself and Agrippina could proceed nothing but accursed detestable Vide. Sueton. in Nerone c. 1 2 3 4 5. and to the dammage of the Commonwealth For in him seemed to meet and be conjoyned not onely all the vices of his own family which of late had been too pregnant of them but all the corruption of his Country from the beginning to his very time The heighth of his wickednesse He lengthened his feasts from Noon to Midnight accounting no use of riches but in the abuse of them Such he thought to be sordid and base as took account of their expenses and he extolled and admired his Uncle Caius for spending in so short a time so vast sums as had been hoarded up by Tiberius To Tiridates that came to Rome to take the Diadem from his hands he allowed an incredible sum for his daily expenses and as profusely gratified him at his departure He put on no garment twice plaid for vast sums at dice fished with a golden net when he journyed any whither he never had lesse than 1000 Caroches in his train Idem ibid. c. 31 32. Tacitus Annal. lib. 15. c. 42. and he caused his mules to be shod with Silver But his house exceeded all belief having built it out of the ruines of the City For length for pleasantnesse of groves and fish-ponds it was incredible garnished also with Gold and precious stones To the madnesse of this expence he was incouraged by one that made him fair promises of discovering a vast treasure in Africk which Dido the Queen flying out of Tyre should thence bring with her But being deceived as was likely with so foolish a project he took such courses as became Nero to recruit his coffers 38. When Tiridates was departed into Armenia he went into Greece there to act Tragedies to sing and run races in the Chariot Running in the Olympick Games although he fell from his Chariot yet he was rewarded with a crown as Victor He took from Apollo the Cyrrhaean Territory and defaced the place whence they were wont to receive Oracles killing men at the hole whence the blast came He attempted to cut through the Isthmus of Peloponnesus digging first himself and carying out the first basket of Earth upon his shoulders but with the same successe as others had before him When he was in Achaia news came from Cestius Gallus President of Syria concerning the rebellion of the Jews Being long vexed with the injuries of the Deputies and Governours they could no longer contain themselves Christ's blood lying heavy upon them and crying for vengeance they themselves executed part of it The Jews rebel For such robberies in the Country A. D. 67.
deceived Adam and Eve was Christ they kept a living Serpent which with opening of the chest and charming of the Priest came forth licked the bread upon the altar Epiphan haeres 37. August l. de haeretib and wrapped it self about it Their manner was to kisse the bread and so to eat believing verily that the Serpent had consecrated it They defended themselves that the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks delivered them this service About the same time there were certain Jews which believing in Christ called themselves Nazarai of Nazareth Epiphan haeres 29. In confessing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God they contraried the Jews But they erred in Christian Religion in that they addicted themselves wholy to the whole Law Idem haeres 38. Aug. There were other Hereticks which honoured Cain and took him for their Father whence they were called Cains They highly esteemed of Esau Corah Dathan and Abiram with the Sodomites They called Judas the Traitor their Cosin honoured him for betraying of Christ affirming that he foresaw how great a benefit it would bring to mankind They read a certain gospel written as they said by Judas they reviled the Law and denied the Resurrection There were others called Sethiani who derived their pedegree from Seth the son of Adam whom they honoured and called Christ and Jesus they held that in the beginng of the World he was called Seth but in the latter dayes Christ Jesus Epiphanius saith Epiphan haeres 39. Aug. Euseb l. 4. c. 10 11. Epiphan haeres 41. that he disputed with some of them in Aegypt and that the last of them were in his time Cerdon the Heretick came from Syria to Rome when Hyginus was Bistop there He taught that God preached by the Law and Prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ He said that Christ was known the Father of Christ unknown He denied the Resurrection and the Old Testament he held other things with the Manichies and Marcion was his Scholar 19. In the time of Hyginus Valentinus the Heretick came to Rome lived under Pius and continued till Anicetus He taught 1. That Christ brought his flesh with him from Heaven Tertullian contra Valentinianos Epiphan haeres 31. Philastrius and took no flesh of the blessed Virgin but passed through her as water through a conduict-pipe 2. That there are two beginnings of all things Profundum i. e. the Deep and Silentium i. e. Silence these being maried together had issue Understanding and Truth which brought forth 300 Aenoae or Ages and of these were the Devil and others born who made the World In the reign of Antoninus Pius Marcion also the Heretick began to teach living in the time of Justin Martyr who wrote against him He was native of Pontus first a Stoick then a Christian he followed Basilides Cerdon and Valentinus in their Heresies Meeting Polycarpus he said Knowest thou us Polycarp answered I know thee for the first born of Satan Epiphanius writeth Euseb l. 4. c. 11 14. Epiphan haeres 42. Theophyl Hieron cont Jovinian Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4 29. that being a Bishops son when he had defloured a Virgin he was by his own Father excommunicated and afterwards flying to Rome because they there admitted him not into the Church he began to preach detestable doctrine He taught that there were three beginnings Good Just and Evil that the New Testament was contrary to the Old He denied the Resurrection He baptized such as died without Baptism saying that Paul bade him do so He taught that mariage was unlawful and that it was a great sin to marry That Cain the Sodomites and all wicked men were saved because they met Christ when he descended into hell but the Patriarchs and Prophets are still in hell for not meeting Christ for they thought said he that Christ came to tempt them Under Anicetus also came to Rome Marcellina a woman which infected many with the Heresie of Carpocrates who called himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She is said to have kept and offered incense to the Statues and Pictures of Christ which the Gnosticks said had been made by command of Pilate as also to others of St. Paul 20. About the nineteenth year of Antoninus Pius the beginning also of Montanus his Heresie is placed by Epiphanius but from Eusebius Cappellus would gather that the original of it was fifteen years before because the Historian writeth that Apollinaris wrote against Miltiades Haeres 48. and Montanus the Hereticks under the Proconsulship of Gratus who seemeth the same with him whose Consulship is by Cassiodorus cast into the fourth of Pius He thinks therefore that in the nineteenth year some new thing might be attempted by Montanus as he might this year institute his Prophetesses These were his two Country-women Priscilla and Maximilla born at Pepuza a City of Phrygia upon which account he called Hierusalem by that name Cappellus further observeth that of such things as are attributed to Montanus some were truly his some after his death were added by the Montanists and some falsely ascribed to them Montanus really held that the promise of sending the Holy Ghost was deferred till his time and in himself fulfilled because the Church heretofore could not bear the yoak of more severe and holy discipline which he indeavoured to bring in by appointing the eating of dried meats fasting and Monogamy or single mariage The Montanists after their number was increased did those things which Hierome mentioneth viz. they appointed themselves Patriarchs 2 Cenonae which word seemeth of Phrygian Original and 3 Bishops That is falsly imputed to them Ad Marcellum tom 3. cp 9. which Jerome saith others did attribute but he would not believe viz. that they pricked an Infant and with his bloud made up the Eucharist If this opinion may be attributed to any Haeresie or if this prejudice did not arise from the imputation of this kind of cruelty by the Heathen to Christianity it self the Carpocratians rather than the Montanists were guilty of it But because both sorts were called Gnosticks as swelling with an opinion of knowledge what was acted but by one might easily be attributed to the other So because Montanus as full of the Holy Ghost called upon men in the name of the Father he was believed to confound the persons of the Trinity into one which was the invention of the Sabelliani 100 years after 'T is further said of him that he baptized the dead and not allowing of second marriages permitted married persons to be separated when they themselves would That he took away repentance affirming that sinners could never have their sins pardoned by repentance And that the Apostles and Prophets understood not any thing they had written but were Arreptitii Now to return to civil matters 21. Pius being dead on the Nones of March Marcus the son of Annius Verus succeeded M. Aurelius Antoninus Philosophus and L. Verus who was first adopted by Catilius Serenus his
bestowed on them what his father had been unjustly scraping together for eighteen years Then falling like a savage beast into cruel courses he cut off all Geta's friends and acquaintance all the Senators of any considerable rank or wealth the Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces with the Vestal Nuns and set the Soldiers to kill the people beholding the Circensian Games After this going into Germany to please his Army he lived an hard and labouring life and thence passing into Thrace Olymp. 247. an 4. V.C. 965. A. D. 212. Bassiani 2. he there imitated Alexander the Great whom he ever much affected to talk of and pretended to emulate He went thence to Ilium were he counterfeited Achilles and so to Alexandria where he made the Inhabitants dearly repent of their rashnesse and folly 11. Being naturally given to much tatling they had formerly railed against him for his cruelty towards his brother and despised him for that being a man of so contemptible stature he compared himself to their Alexander Resolving then to be revenged on them he first entertained them very plausibly but afterwards drawing forth all the youth by a wile he compassed them in with his Army and killed them all After this desirous to become famous by some great exploit he sent to the Parthian for his Daughter and pretended that he himself would come and mary her whereby that King being perswaded to meet him with a great number of people he fell upon them and made a great slaughter for that they thought it needlesse to come armed to a wedding and Artabanus himself with difficulty escaped Getting here much booty and as he thought much glory he returned into Mesopotamia where he received punishment from above for his manifold cruelty There was one Opilius Macrinus an African born and one of his Captains whom he unworthily used This Macrinus receiving a letter from Maternianus directed to the Emperour who had commanded him to call together the Magicians and consult them about his end and whether any lay in wait for the Empire wherein Antoninus was advised to cut him off as aiming at the Soveraignty when he had ventured to open it perceiving that either he or his Master must dye and therefore procured one Martialis to kill him This man being inraged against the Emperour for that he had condemned his brother without sufficient hearing slew him as he was making water on the sixth of the Ides of April after he had reigned six years and two moneths in the first year of the 249 Olympiad A. V. C. 970. A. D. 217 Brutius Praesens and Extricatus being Consuls Amongst many others Caracallus put to death Papinianus the great Lawyer as it s said because he would not defend his paricide 12. In the first year of Severus that we may continue our method concerning Ecclesiastical matters died Victor Bishop of Rome Bishops on the fifth of the Calends of August and Zephirinus succeeded the fifteenth Bishop of that Sea according to Damasus In the last of Antoninus Bassianus Zepherinus died on the seventh before the Calends of September The Sea was vacant five dayes Then succeeded Callistus who therefore was elected the day before the Calends of September on the first feria After Dios Bishop of Jerusalem whom the Bishops of the neighbouring Churches had ordained after the departure of Narcissus Germanion succeeded Euseb Eccles Hist l. 6. c. 10. and after him Gordius in whose time Narcissus shewed himself again as if he had been risen from the dead and was intreated by the brethren to enjoy his Bishoprick being much marvelled at for his departure for his Philosophical course of life and especially for the vengance and plagues of God poured upon his accusers And because for his great age he was not able to supply the place Alexander Bishop of Cappadocia was joyned with him and governed alone after his death In the Church of Antioch Asclepiades was Bishop after Serapion about the first year of Caracalla and was succeeded by Philetus about the last of that Prince's reign 13. Upon Zepherinus Bishop of Rome falleth very foul Tertullian a Presbyter or Priest of Carthage in Africk for that he was more severe against such as through fear had sacrifized to Idols than against Whoremongers and Adulterers wherein not without cause truly saith Cappellus but yet without measure he blameth Zepherinus and the whole Roman Clergy the manners of whom were even now very corrupt if we may believe Tertullian But really not so much out of hatred to their vices as out of prejudice to the truth he calleth the Roman Clergy Psychicus Tertullian as well in his book de pudicitia as in that de monogamia which he thus beginneth Haeretici nuptias auferunt Psychici ingerunt He pretendeth therein onely to condemn second mariages but indeed most of his arguments respect both first and second although he himself had maried a wife and retained her in his Presbytery But mariage which he had learnt of the Orthodox to approve he learnt of Montanus to despise to whom he would have more revealed than to the Apostles because they as yet or for certain the Church could not bear the yoak of fastings and caelibate which Montanus brought in and he as a Montanist would inculcate This humour at length so possessed him that neither content with the title of Christian nor that of Presbyter he put on the Philosophick Pallium as a token of a more austere life wherein he would be eminent not onely amongst Christians but also Montanists The Africans either being amazed or laughing at this novelty he wrote an elegant but most obscure Book de pallio which before being miserably lacerated hath been of late dayes restored by the most learned Salmasius He wrote his Book de praescriptionibus about the eighth year of Commodus as Cappellus gathereth because in the end thereof making a Catalogue of Hereticks he mentioneth Theodotus who was censured by Victor Bishop of Rome for holding Christ to have been a meet man but not Artemon the Heretick who appeared shortly after 14. His book de corona militis acquainteth us with the occasion of the persecution of the Christians in the reign of Severus The Emperour ere he marched into the East in that Expedition wherein he overthrew the Parthians made his elder son his partner in the Tribunitial power and by his liberality pleased the People formerly inraged by the many punishments he inflicted By occasion of this liberality as it seemeth a Christian Soldier holding a certain garland or crown in his hand as if it were wickednesse for him to set it on his head as the rest did was asked why he did so and answered that he was a Christian This was the occasion of the Emperours rage About the fifteenth of Severus he wrote against the Mancionites whom he so impugneth as yet underhand he inculcareth his Montâ—nism For saith he Amongst us spiritual reason derived from the Comforter perswadeth in the Faith
wish good to them that persecute us Now have we greater Enemies and ruder persecutors than those who make offended Majesty the ground of the crime they impute unto us Holy Scriptures content not themselves with this commandment they have another more precise and clearer Pray say they for Kings Princes and Powers that you may live in peace in the midst of publick tranquillity In another place But why should I stay longer in making known with what sence of Religion and Piety Christians honour Emperours It sufficeth to say we are obliged to render them our duties Chap. 32. as to whom our Master hath commanded us so to do 28. As these Primitive Saints were good Christians in the excercise of their Religion and dutiful Subjects towards their Princes so also good men free from vice and adorned with Virtues Chap. 44. or if any were noted to be of contrary practice they were disowned and the Censures of the Church cut them off from it's society We speak as boldly saith Tertullian of the Christians you put to death for we have an unreproveable testimony of their integrity which we take also from your Registers You who are imployed every day in judging those that are kept in prisons and who terminate their processes by the sentences you give against them And good men of all the malefactors accused before you of so many sorts of crimes is there any of them charged with Murther Robbery Sacrilege and other faults to whom they impute also that he is a Christian either when Christians are presented to be punished as Criminals because they are Christians is there any amongst them whose life is like that of other prisoners all the Malefactors wherewith your prisons are so filled that they are overcharged are of your Religion they are also of your Religion that make the Mines grone under the weight of their stroakes they are the wretched creatures of the same Religion you are wherewith the wild beasts fill their bellies All those poor Criminals which your Citizens keep to make them cruelly kill one another before a bloody people have the same opinion you have of the Deity Finally among all those wretched creatures there 's not one Christian unlesse he be charged by justice because of his name Christian Or if there be a Christian found attainted of the same crime he hath no more the name Christian because he hath lost that divine quality in losing his innocency Chap. 46. Elsewhere But some will say even among us there are a people that give themselves the liberty of doing evil that free themselves from subjection to our Laws from any what ever exact observation of what is legally commanded by us It is true there are some such but so soon as they fall into this disorder we hold them no more for Christians The fear of God and purity of his precepts constrained them to this holy demeanour for opinion of men and their rules as this our Author observeth canot reach the heart not procure that Virtue which is truly good The admirable fruits their doctrine produced the knowledge whereof became publick by the commerce they had in the World made so down-right a conflict with rude incredulity that to defend herself she was forced to say that their profeson had no Divine matter in it but was onely a Sect of Philosophy that obliged Christians to rank themselves there in the exercise of Moral Virtues 29. Though there was some diversity of opinions amongst them yet as we shewed before they maintained mutual Love and that herein they were highly eminent as to all pious effects is already evident Origen in his Work against Celsus wherein he especially answereth to cavils raised against the Author and Doctrin of Christian Religion takes off that prejudice that might arise from diversity of opinions They were eminent for love and unity of affection by a comparison of this difference with the numerous or rather innumerous Sects of Heathen Philosophers Tertullian layeth the great guilt of Heresie upon such who being animated with the spirit of Philosophy infected the purity of the Gospel with the corruption of their own opinions In the same place he acquainteth us what was the Primitive touch-stone of Doctrines most worthy now to be considered These People saith he that are separated from us have violated the Faith of Jesus Christ and we beat down their errors by this onely exception Apolog. c. 47. that the true rule of Truth is that which hath been taught by our Master and transmitted to us by those holy persons who had the happinesse to hear his Word and receive his Divine Institutions we shall shew in another place that all which is not conformable to this rule hath been invented by new Doctors who came not till after the blessed companions of the Sonne of God They forced Devils out of bodies and to confesse the truth 30. All these excellent qualities in those holy persons might have sufficed to stop the mouths of Calumniators and had weight sufficient to have moved the minds of all men to the truth But that Victory which Christians obtained over Devils might much more have convinced them of the power which was superiour to that of their false Gods Christians were wont to drive away these Devils from the bodies of men forced them to confesse that they were no other than Devils and that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and his way the true Religion As to the former first hear Tertullian Apolog. c. 37. But if we were not near you who would snatch you away from these secret Enemies whose malignant operations make so strange a confusion in your minds and so horrible an alteration of your healths I have heard speak of the possession of Devils wherewith you are tormented from whence we deliver you freely and without reward if we had the spirit of Revenge it were enough to satisfie us that these corrupted spirits might at all times seize on your bodies and that entrance therein were alwayes open to them But as you do not think of that you ought viz. so dear a protection you cease not to declare a People to be your Enemies who do you no hurt whose assistance is so absolutely necessary for you It is true we are Enemies yet not of men but of their errors In another place Chap. 31. As for Devils or Genies we are wont to conjure them to drive them away from the bodies of men whereof they are seized and render them not the honours due to God only by swearing by them Justin Martyr in his fifth * Pag. 45. totius operis Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For many possessed with Devils throughout the World and this your City whom many Exorcists Inchanters and Conjurers could not cure Many of our men through the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate have healed and now also do heal disarming and driving out of men