18

best commendation of a sermon was to have it seasoned well with Scripture rightly applied. Besides, the custom of expounding the Scripture occasionally many times as it was read, required a man to be well acquainted with all the parts of it, and to understand both the phrase, and sense, and doctrines and mysteries of it, that he might be ready, upon all occasions, to discourse pertinently and usefully upon them. And to this purpose some canons appointed, that their most vacant hours, the times of eating and drinking, should not pass without some portion of Scripture read to them; partly to exclude all other trifling and unnecessary discourse, and partly to afford them proper themes and subjects to exercise themselves upon to edification and advantage. St. Jerom commends his friend Nepotian for this, that at all feasts" he was used to propound something out of the Holy Scripture, and entertain the company with some useful disquisition upon it. And next to the Scriptures, he employed his time upon the study of the best ecclesiastical authors, whom, by continual reading and frequent meditations, he had so treasured up in the library of his heart, that he could repeat their words upon any proper occasion, saying, Thus spake Tertullian, thus Cyprian, so Lactantius, after this manner Hilary, so Minucius Felix, so Victorinus, these were the words of Arnobius, and the like. But among ecclesiastical writings, the canons of the church were always reckoned of greatest use; as containing a summary account, not only of the church's discipline, and doctrine, and government, but also rules of life and moral virtues: upon which account, as some laws directed that the canons should be read over at every man's ordination; so others required the clergy" afterward to make them part of their constant study, together with the Holy Scripture. For the canons were then a sort of directions for the pastoral care, and they had this advantage of any private directions, that they were the public voice and rubrics of the church, and so much the more carefully to be read upon that account. In after ages, in the time of Charles the Great, we find some laws obliging the clergy" to read together with the canons, Gregory's book de Cura Pastorali.

et rabulam, garrulumque sine ratione, sed mysteriorum peritum, &c.

13 Conc. Tolet. 3. c. 7. Quia solent crebro mensis otiosæ fabulæ interponi, in omni sacerdotali convivio lectio Scripturarum Divinarum misceatur : per hoc enim et animæ ædificantur in bonum, et fabulæ non necessariæ prohibentur.

14 Hieron. Epitaph. Nepot. Ep. 3. ad Heliodor. Sermo ejus et (leg. per) omne convivium de Scripturis aliquid proponere, &c.

15 Conc. Tolet. 4. c. 25. Sciant sacerdotes Scripturas Sanctas, et canones meditentur-ut ædificent cunctos tam

lowed.

in the study and use of them. Some tical books was alcanons" forbade a bishop to read heathen authors: nor would they allow him to read heretical books, but only upon necessity, that is, when there was occasion to confute them, or to caution others against the poison of them. But the prohibition of heathen learning, though it seem to be more peremptory, was to be understood likewise with a little qualification. For men might have very different views and designs in reading heathen authors. Some might read them only for pleasure, and make a business of that pleasure, to the neglect of Scripture and more useful learning: and all such were highly to be condemned. St. Jerom's says of these, that when the priests of God read plays instead of the Gospels, and wanton bucolics instead of the prophets, and loved to have Virgil in their hands rather than the Bible; they made a crime of pleasure, and turned the necessity of youthful exercise into a voluntary sin. Others could not relish the plain and unaffected style of Scriptures, but conversed with heathen orators to bring their language to a more polite or Attic dialect. And these also came under the censures of the church. It is remarkable what Sozomen" tells us of Triphyllius, a Cyprian bishop, (who was one of these nice and delicate men, who thought the style of Scripture not so elegant as it might be made,) that having occasion in a discourse before Spiridion, and some other Cyprian bishops, to cite those words of our Saviour, ἆρον σοῦ τὸ κράββατον καὶ περιπάτει, “ Take up thy bed and walk," he would not use the word κράββατον, but instead of it put σκίμποδα, as being a more elegant word in his opinion. To whom Spiridion with a holy indignation and zeal replied, Art thou better than Him that said páßßarov, that thou shouldst be ashamed to use his words? Thereby admonishing him to be a little more modest, and not give human eloquence the preference before the Holy Scriptures. Another sort of men conversed with heathen authors rather than the Scriptures, because they thought them more for their turn, to arm them with sophistry to impose their errors upon the simplicity of others. As the anonymous author in Eusebius,20 who writes against the Theodotian heretics, observes of the leading men of that party, that leaving the Holy Scriptures, they generally spent their time in Euclid and Aristotle, Theo

66

fidei scientia, quam operum disciplina. 16 Concil, Turon. 3. c. 3. Concil. Cabillon. 2. c. 1. 17 Conc. Carth. 4. c. 16. Ut episcopus Gentilium libros non legat; hæreticorum autem pro necessitate et tempore. 19 Hieron. Ep. 146. ad Damasum de Filio Prodigo, t. 3. p. 129. Sacerdotes Dei omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuun verba canere, Virgilium tenere; et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluptatis.

19 Sozom. lib. 1. c. 11. 20 Euseb. lib. 5. c. 28.

22

phrastus and Galen; using the quirks and sophisms of infidel writers to palliate their heresy, and corrupt the simplicity of the Christian faith. Now, in all these cases, the reading of heathen authors for such unworthy ends was very disallowable, because it was always done with a manifest neglect and contempt of the Holy Scriptures, and therefore upon such grounds deservedly forbidden by the canons of the church. But then, on the other hand, there were some cases, in which it was very allowable to read Gentile authors, and the church's prohibition did not extend to these. For sometimes it was necessary to read them, in order to confute and expose their errors, that others might not be infected thereby. Thus St. Jerom observes of Daniel," that he was taught in the knowledge of the Chaldeans; and Moses, in all the wisdom of the Egyptians which it was no sin to learn, so long as they did not learn it to follow it, but to censure and refute it. St. Ambrose says, he read some books that others might not read them; he read them to know their errors, and caution others against them. This was one reason why sometimes heathen writers might be read by men of learning, in order to set a mark upon them. Another reason was, that many of them were useful and subservient to the cause of religion, either for confirming the truth of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of Christianity, or for exposing and refuting the errors and vanities of the heathen themselves. Thus St. Jerom observes," that both the Greek and Latin historians, such as Diodorus Siculus, Polybius, Trogus Pompeius, and Livy, are of great use as well to explain as confirm the truth of Daniel's prophecies. And St. Austin" says the same of the writings of Orpheus and the Sibyls, and Hermes, and other heathen philosophers, that as they said many things that were true, both concerning God and the Son of God, they were in that respect very serviceable in refuting the vanities of the Gentiles. Upon which account not only St. Austin and St. Jerom, but most of the ancient writers of the church, were usually well versed in the learning of the Gentiles, as every one knows that knows any thing of them. St. Jerom in one short epistle" mentions the greatest part of those that lived before his own time, both Greeks and Latins, and says of them all in general, that their

21 Hieron. Com. in Dan. c. 1. Nunquam acquiescerent discere quod non licebat. Discunt autem non ut sequantur, sed ut judicent atque convincant.

zz Ambros. Procem, in Luc. Evang. Legimus aliqua, ne legantur; legimus, ne ignoremus; legimus, non ut teneamus, sed ut repudiemus.

Hieron. Prolog. in Daniel. Ad intelligendas extremas partes Danielis, multiplex Græcorum historia necessaria est, &c. Et si quando cogimur literarum sæcularium recordari, et aliqua ex his discere quæ olim omisimus; non nostræ est voluntatis, sed ut ita dicam, gravissimæ necessitatis: ut probemus ea quæ a sanctis prophetis ante multa

books are so filled with the sentences and opinions of philosophers, that it is hard to say which is most to be admired, their secular learning, or their knowledge in the Scriptures. And herein is comprised the plain state of this matter: the clergy were obliged in the first place to be very diligent in studying the Scriptures, and after them the canons, and approved writers of the church, according to men's abilities, capacities, and opportunities: for the same measures could not be exacted of all. Beyond this, as there was no obligation on them to read human learning, so there was no absolute prohibition of it; but where it could be made to minister as a handmaid to divinity, and not usurp or encroach upon it, there it was not only allowed, but commended and encouraged; and it must be owned, that though the abuse of secular learning does sometimes great harm, yet the study of it rightly applied did very great service to religion in the primitive ages of the church.

Sect. 5.

Of their piety and devotion in their

God.

From their private studies pass we on next to view them in their more public capacities, as the people's orators public addresses to to God, and God's ambassadors to the people: in regard to which offices and character, I have showed before" they were esteemed a sort of mediators in a qualified sense between God and men. In all their addresses to God as the people's orators, their great care was to offer all their sacrifices and oblations of prayer and thanksgiving in such a rational, decent, and becoming way, as best suited the nature of the action; that is, with all that gravity and seriousness, that humility and reverence, that application of mind and intenseness and fervency of devotion, as both became the greatness of that Majesty to whom they addressed, and was proper for raising suitable affections in the people. This is the true meaning of that famous controverted passage in Justin Martyr's Second Apology, where describing the service of the church, and the manner of celebrating the eucharist, he says, The bishop sent up prayers and praises, öon dúvaμıç,” with the utmost of his abilities to God. Some misconstrue this passage, and interpret the abilities of the minister officiating so as if they meant no more but his invention, expression, or the like; making it by such a gloss to become an argument

sæcula prædicta sunt, tam Græcorum quam Latinorum et aliarum Gentium literis contineri. 24 Aug. cont. Faust. lib. 13. c. 15. Sibyllæ et Orpheus, et nescio quis Hermes, et si qui alii Vates, vel theologi, vel sapientes, vel philosophi Gentium, de Filio Dei, aut de Patre Deo vera prædixisse seu dixisse perhibentur; valet quidem aliquid ad paganorum vanitatem revincendam.

25 Hieron. Ep. 84. ad Magnum. In tantum philosophorum doctrinis atque sententiis suos referciunt libros, ut nescias quid in illis primum admirari debeas, eruditionem sæculi, an scientiam Scripturarum.

26 Book II. chap. 19. sect. 16.

27 Justin. Apol. 2. p. 98.

verence.

28

against the antiquity of public liturgies, or set forms of prayer; whereas, indeed, it signifies here a quite different thing, viz. that spiritual vigour, or intenseness and ardency of devotion, with which the minister offered up the sacrifices of the church to God; being such qualifications as are necessary to make our prayers and praises acceptable unto Him, who requires them to be presented with all our soul and might; which may be done in set forms, as well as any other way and so Gregory Nazianzen and Justin Martyr himself use the phrase, öon dúvaμıç, where they speak of set forms of praising and serving God; of which more hereafter in its proper place. St. Chrysostom is very earnest in recommending this same duty to the priests of God, under the name of σπουδὴ and εὐλάβεια, care and reWith what exact care, says he, ought he to behave himself, who goes in the name of a whole city, nay, in the name of the whole world, as their orator and ambassador to intercede with God for the sins of all! But especially when he invocates the Holy Ghost, and offers up τὴν φρικωδεςάτην Svoiav, the tremendous sacrifice of the altar: with what purity, with what reverence and piety should his tongue utter forth those words! whilst the angels stand by him, and the whole order of the heavenly powers cries aloud, and fills the sanctuary in honour of Him, who is represented as dead and lying upon the altar. Thus that holy father argues with a warmth and zeal suitable to the subject, and such as is proper to raise our devotion, and kindle our affections into a holy flame, whenever we present the supplications of the church on earth to the sacred Majesty of heaven.

Sect. 6.

such as neglected

And this ardency of devotion was

The censure of continually to be cherished and prethe daily service of served. To which purpose the church the church. had her daily sacrifices, wherever it was possible to have them; and on these every clergyman was indispensably obliged to attend ; and that under pain of suspension and deprivation, whether it was his duty to officiate or not. For so the first council of Toledo determined for the Spanish churches, that if any presbyter, or deacon, or other clerk, should be in any city or country where there was a church, and did not come to church to the daily sacrifice or service," he should no longer be reputed one of the sacred function. The council of Agde orders such to be reduced to the

28 Chrys. de Sacerd. lib. 6. c. 4.

29 Conc. Tolet. 1. c. 5. Presbyter, diaconus, &c. qui intra civitatem fuerit, vel in loco in quo ecclesia est, si in ecclesiam ad sacrificium quotidianum non venerit, clericus non habeatur.

30 Conc. Agathens. c. 2. Clericis qui ecclesiam frequentare, vel officium suum implere neglexerint, peregrina com

munio tribuatur.

31 Cod. Just. lib. 1. Tit. 3. de Episc. Leg. 42. n. 10.

32

ing to edification.

communion of strangers," which at least implies suspension from their office. And the law of Justinian punishes them with degradation," because of the scandal they give to the laity by such neglects or contempts of Divine service. So careful were the ancient lawgivers of the church to cut off all indecencies and abuses of this nature, and make the clergy provoking examples of piety to the people. Next to their office in addressing Sect. 7. God as the people's orators, we are Rules about preach to view them as God's ambassadors, addressing themselves in his name to the people. Which they did by public preaching and private application; in both which their great care was to perform the duty of watchmen over God's flock, and of good stewards over his household. In their preaching their only aim was to be, the edification of the people. To which purpose the great masters of rules in this kind, Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and St. Jerom, lay down these few directions. First, That the preacher be careful to make choice of a useful subject. Gregory Nazianzen 2 specifies the rule in some particular instances, such as the doctrine of the world's creation, and the soul of man; the doctrine of providence, and the restoration of man; the two covenants; the first and second coming of Christ, his incarnation, sufferings, and death; the resurrection, and end of the world, and future judgment, and different rewards of heaven and hell; together with the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, which is the principal article of the Christian faith. Such subjects as these are proper for edification, to build up men in faith and holiness, and the practice of all piety and virtue. But then, secondly, They must be treated on in a suitable way; not with too much art or loftiness of style, but with great condescension to men's capacities, who must be fed with the word as they are able to bear it. This is what Gregory Nazianzen so much commends in Athanasius, when he says, he condescended and stooped himself to the mean capacities, whilst to the acute his notions and words were more sublime. St. Jerom also observes" upon this head, that a preacher's discourse should always be plain, intelligible, and affecting; and rather adapted to excite men's groans and tears by a sense of their sins, than their admiration and applause, by speaking to them what neither they, nor he himself perhaps, do truly understand.

32 Naz. Orat. 1. de Fuga, t. 1. p. 15.

33 Naz. Orat. 21. de Laud. Athan. t. 1. p. 396.

Hieron. Ep. 2. ad Nepotian. Docente te in ecclesia, non clamor populi, sed gemitus suscitetur; lachrymæ auditorum laudes tuæ sint.-Celeritate dicendi apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est. Attrita frons interpretatur sæpe quod nescit; et cum aliis persuaserit, sibi quoque usurpat scientiam.

the features and lineaments of their bodies: and as all meats and medicines are not proper for all bodies, so neither is the same treatment and discipline proper for all souls. Some are best moved by words, others by examples; some are of a dull and heavy temper, and so have need of the spur to extimulate them; others, that are brisk and fiery, have more need of the curb to restrain them. Praise works best upon some, and reproof upon others, provided each of them be ministered in a suitable and seasonable way; otherwise they do more harm than good. Some men are drawn by gentle exhortations to their duty; others by rebukes and hard words must be driven to it. And even in the business of reproof, some are affected most with open rebuke, others with private. For some men never regard a secret reproof, who yet are easily corrected if chastised in public. Others, again, cannot bear a public disgrace, but grow either morose, or impudent and implacable upon it; who perhaps would have hearkened to a secret admonition, and repaid their monitor with their conversion, as presuming him to have accosted them out of mere pity and love. Some men are to be so nicely watched and observed, that not the least of their faults are to be dissembled; because they seek to hide their sins from men, and arrogate to themselves thereupon the praise of being politic and crafty in others it is better to wink at some faults, so that seeing we will not see, and hearing we will not hear, lest by too frequent chiding we bring them to despair, and so make them cast off modesty, and grow bolder in their sins. To some men we must put on an angry countenance, and seem to contemn them, and despair of them as lost and deplorable wretches, when their nature so requires it: others, again, must be treated with meekness and humility, and be recovered to a better hope by more promising and encouraging prospects. Some men must be always conquered, and never yielded to, whilst to others it will be better sometimes to concede a little. For all men's distempers are not to be cured the same way, but proper medicines are to be applied, as the matter itself, or occasion, or the temper of the patient, will admit of. And this is the most difficult part of the pastoral office, to know how to distinguish these things nicely with an exact judgment, and with as exact a hand to minister suitable remedies to every distemper. It is a masterpiece of art, which is not to be perfectly attained but by good observation, joined with experience and practice. What our author thus here at large discourses by way of rule and theory, he in another place sums up more briefly in the example of the great Athanasius, whose pattern he proposes to men's imitation, as a living image of

42 Naz. Orat. 21. de Laud. Athan. p. 396.

43 Chrys. de Sacerd. lib. 6. c. 4. Пoiкíλov aŮтòv rivaι dei,

this admirable prudence and dexterity in dealing with men according to this great variety of tempers; telling us," that his design was always one and the same, but his methods various; praising some, moderately correcting others; using the spur to some dull tempers, and the reins to others of a more hot and zealous spirit; in his conversation master of the greatest simplicity, but in his government master of the greatest artifice and variety of skill; wise in his discourses, but much wiser in his understanding, to adapt himself according to the different capacities and tempers of men. Now, the design of all this was not to give any latitude or licence to sin, but by all prudent and honest arts to discourage and destroy it. It was not to teach the clergy the base and servile arts of flattery and compliance; to become time-servers and men-pleasers, and soothe the powerful or the rich in their errors and vices; but only to instruct them in the different methods of opposing sin, and how, by joining prudence to their zeal, they might make their own authority most venerable, and most effectually promote the true ends of religion. St. Chrysostom puts in this caution, in describing this part of a bishop's character: He ought to be wise, as well as holy; a man of great experience, and one that understands the world: and because his business is with all sorts of men, he should be rouiλoç, one that can appear with different aspects, and act with great variety of skill. But when I say this, I do not mean, says he," that he should be a man of craft, or servile flattery, or a dissembling hypocrite; but a man of great freedom and boldness, who knows notwithstanding how to condescend and stoop himself for men's advantage, when occasion requires, and can be as well mild as austere : for all men are not to be treated in the same way: no physician uses the same method with all his patients. The true mean and decorum, he thinks, which a bishop should observe in his converse and applications to men, is to keep between too much stiffness and abjectness. He must be grave without pride;" awful, but courteous; majestic, as a man of authority and power, yet affable and communicative to all: of an integrity that cannot be corrupted, yet officious and ready to serve every man; humble, but not servile; sharp and resolute, but yet gentle and mild. By such prudence he will maintain his authority, and carry any point with men, whilst he studies to do every thing without hatred or favour, only for the benefit and edification of the church. We must reduce to this head of prudence in making proper address and application to offenders, that direction given by St. Paul, and repeated in several ancient canons, that a bishop be no smiter, μǹ πλýkτη, which the twenty

ποικίλον δὲ λέγω, ἐχ ὕπελον, ἐ κόλακα, ἐχ ὑποκριτὴν, &c. Chrys. de Sacerd. lib. 3. c. 16.