IV.

sin, which is more probable than all the powers of darkness SECT. beside to bring it low to the Túλai adov, which yet we have assurance shall never wholly prevail against it.

such cir

13.

8. How can we at such a vacancy as this be more profit- [Prayer in ably employed than in learning and practising our postures cumstances in this sacred militia, in wrestling and combating with a profitable employHeaven for this one blessing, this comprehensive donative, ment.] this grace beyond all other graces, ("the greatest of these 1 Cor. xiii. is charity,") this duty above all other duties, ("above all 1 Pet. iv. things have fervent charity among yourselves,") this utmost 8. pitch of celestial joy, this divinity itself, ("God is love, and [1 John he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,") iv. 16.] the blessing of Catholic unity, universal peace; and with Jacob never give over the combat till we have prevailed with [Gen. xxxii. 28.] God for this blessing?

A form of prayer to this purpose the reader will find at the end of the treatise of Fundamentals".

9. And that it may not be évevéρyntos evɣǹ, in Hierocles, or muliebre supplicium in Portius Catoa, an "inactive prayer,” or "womanish supplication," that our hearts and hands, our utmost endeavours may herein be semblable to our tongues and prayers, it is very much our duty first to cleanse our own hearts from every degree of this pollution, not to leave alive in us one animosity either to any person, or society, or portion of Christians in the world, to resolve with the fathers in their dealing with the Donatists, that those shall be our brethren which will not admit us to be their brethren, and according to this beginning to set out industriously and indefatigably in the ways of peace, every man to contribute his symbolum toward so good a work, and every man, as God shall enable him, to do it freely and cheerfully, for in nothing more than in this doth "God love the cheerful [2 Cor. ix. giver."

7.]

10. And would we but take the Apostle's counsel herein, piλoriμeîolai novɣálew, be as emulous and ambitious, and 1 Thess.

as zealously solicitous in our contention for quiet,-i. e. never

iv. 11.

CHAP. contend with any but the implacable and unreconcilable,VII. as the most passionate broiler or boutefeu is wont to be for

his μov epidos, his beloved strife' and 'contention,' that brings him in no other reward but blows and woe, a tophet here and a hell hereafter, I should not doubt but some valuable contribution might be made to this sacred treasury at this time by the poor widow Church of England with her few mites; which, if they cannot hope for thanks from men, have yet a full assurance of being not despised or unrewarded [Luke xxi. by Him who still "sits looking what is cast into the trea1.] sury."

[Heb. x.

25.]

[Another

duty, as

sembling

together ously and

more zeal

frequently,]

SECT. 5.

THIRDLY, FREQUENCY OF SYNAXES.

1. It is not my purpose to enumerate all the several parts of duty which this season exacts from us. Yet one must not be omitted, which in such times the Apostle very diligently warns us of, that of the μὴ ἐγκαταλείπειν τὴν ἐπισυναγωγὴν nuov, "not giving over the assembling ourselves together," as oft as we can gain opportunities for them, holding up the synaxes, how thin soever they are fain to be.

2. And this in reason now more zealously and frequently than ever, for that I conceive some part of the design and importance of the Apostle's addition there, àλλà πаρaкаλOuvres, but "calling upon one another," minding of the necessity and benefit of this duty. And though the ensuing, kaì TOσoÚTY μâXλov, "by so much the more," be there expressly founded on the approach of their expected deliverance, yet among the primitive Christians the continual expectations of their dangers appears to have had the same effect, putting them upon their constant daily synaxes, as not knowing how long they should live to enjoy them".

η σπουδάζετε οὖν πυκνότερον συνέρχεσθαι εἰς εὐχαριστίαν Θεοῦ καὶ εἰς δόξαν· ὅτ ̓ ἂν γὰρ πυκνῶς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ γίνεσθε, καθαιροῦνται αἱ δυνάμεις τοῦ Σατανᾶ, καὶ λύεται ὁ ὄλεθρος αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ὁμονοίᾳ ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως· [οὐδέν ἐστιν ἄμεινον εἰρήνης, ἐν ᾗ πᾶς πόλεμος καταργεῖται ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων.-S.] Ignat.Ep. ad Eph. 13.

[εἰ τοίνυν μάθοις τὸν κύριόν μου Κυριακὸν τὸν ἐπίσκοπον ἐπὶ τῆς Κωνσταν τινουπόλεως διατρίβειν, ἐπίστειλον αὐτῷ ταύτης ἕνεκεν τῆς ὑποθέσεως, καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἄνυσαι δυνήσεται· καὶ μάλιστα τοὺς πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν παρρησίαν ἔχοντας παρακάλει πολλῇ κεχρῆσθαι τῇ εὐχῇ, πολλῇ τῇ ἐκτενείᾳ, ὥςτε τὸ τῆς οἰκουμένης τοῦτο ναυάγιον παύσασθαι· ] ἀφόρητα [γὰρ καὶ]

V.

3. The quality of the sin, and the judgment that is there SECT. threatened to those that voluntarily neglect such opportunities, is very considerable. It is there, first, set opposite to "holding fast the profession of our hope," and so is itself ver. 23. a degree of renouncing the Christian's anchor, a " wavering" —as is implied in the ἀκλινῆ,—and a “drawing back,” ver. 23. and that noted to be very dangerous and destructive. ver. 39. And accordingly we see in Pliny, that they who quitted

VII.

CHAP. the hetaria upon the emperor's prohibitions, were by the heathen inquisitors thought capable of mercy, as well as they that denied Christ. Secondly, it is there included in the number of the ékoúσia, the 'voluntary' or 'wilful sins' in them, I must suppose he meant, who having the opportunities, whether more or less public, wholly withdrew from them. Thirdly, it goes for an uπevavríwois, a branch of secret contrariety to God and piety, a preferring the world before either. Fourthly, it is of the nature of those sins for which there remains no sacrifice, and hath its part in those other aggravations and fearful expectations that there follow in that text.

ver. 27.

Christians

[as the 4. The obligation that the primitive Christians conceived primitive themselves under, in this respect, is visible by the frequent did.] mention of those heteria and antelucani conventus, and cryptæ arenaria, "meetings in upper rooms, in suburbs, in prisons," in times of the heathen persecutors. And so also when heresy or schism prevailed, and drove the orthodox obedient maintainers of catholic truth and peace out of the Churches. For though in these cases they abstained from the public assemblies, and indeed thought it strict duty to do so, the epistle of St. Basile and others to the bishops in Italy and France, and St. Hilary's dissuasives in the former, that of prosperous heresy, and the practice of holy men in the case of St. Chrysostom's deposition', doth, for

d Of the censure of those that so far complied with the Arians through fear, as to communicate with them, see Concil. Nic. ii. [act i. S.] Athanas. Epist. ad Ruffinianum. Binii Conc., tom. v. p. 538, sqq.

e

[σιγᾷ μὲν γὰρ τὰ τῶν εὐσεβούντων στόματα· ἀνεῖται δὲ πᾶσα βλάσφημος γλῶσσα· ἐβεβηλώθη τὰ ἅγια,] φεύγουσι τοὺς εὐκτηρίους οἴκους οἱ ὑγιαίνοντες τῶν λαῶν, ὡς ἀσεβείας διδασκαλεία· κατὰ δὲ τὰς ἐρημίας, πρὸς τὸν ἐν οὐρανοῖς δεσπότην μετὰ στεναγμῶν καὶ δακρύων τὰς χεῖρας αἴρουσιν· [ἔφθασε γὰρ πάν τως καὶ μέχρις ὑμῶν τὰ γινόμενα ἐν ταῖς πλείσταις τῶν πόλεων· ὅτι οἱ λαοὶ σὺν γυναιξὶ καὶ παιδίοις καὶ αὐτοῖς τοῖς πρεσβύταις πρὸ τῶν τειχῶν ἐκχυθέντες, ἐν τῷ ὑπαίθρῳ τελοῦσι τὰς προςευχὰς, φέροντες πάσας τὰς ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος κακοπαθείας σὺν πολλῇ τῇ μακροθυμίᾳ, τὴν παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἀντίληψιν ἀναμένον

TES.-S. Basil. Epist. xcii. ad Italos et
Gallos, tom. iii. p. 185.]

See also Baronius, An. 370. n. 20 22, from some additions to St. Basil, Ep. 10-12.

[Unum moneo, cavete Antichristum]; male [enim] vos parietum amor cepit, male ecclesiam Dei in tectis ædificiisque veneramini, male sub his pacis nomen ingeritis. [Anne ambiguum est in his Antichristum esse sessurum?] Montes mihi et sylvæ et lacus et carceres et voragines sunt tutiores. In his enim prophetæ aut manentes aut demersi, Dei spiritu prophetabant.-S. Hilar., lib. cont. Auxent. [cap. xii. p. 1269.]

f Vide Georgii Alexandrini vitam S. Chrysostomi ed. Savile Eton. 1612. tom. viii. p. 239. lin. 15. et p. 241. lin. 13, &c. [This life of St. Chrysostom has not been inserted in the

γ.

the latter, make that clear, yet the assembling of the ortho- SECT. 'dox, and the more private offices were not to be neglected". And St. Cyprian1, that advises the prudent and cautious managery of such, doth it expressly on this design, that they might be more sure not to be kept from them.

5. Ecclesiastical history is full of this kind of matter; take one for all set down by Eusebius from the epistles of Dionysius concerning the persecution in Valerian's time, and Emylianus' edict, and the Christians' constant practice.