The feaft of the Annunciation of the virgin Mary was obferved by the antients. Gregory of Neocæfarea, called Thaumaturgus, in the third century, has three fermons on the annunciation, and calls it a festival. It is mentioned by Athanafius in the fourth century, concerning which he fays, "This is one of the feafts of "the Lord, and is quite venerable; fo that according to the order of things "which are preached in the gospel of Chrift, it ought to be accounted an holy "day, fince in it we treat concerning the defcent of the Son of God from heaven." Feafts kept in memory of the martyrs, we read of ftill more early. Origen, in the latter end of the second century, fays", "We do memory to the faints, our parents and friends, who die in the faith; - we celebrate the religious with "the priests, calling together the faithful with the clergy, inviting the needy "and the poor, the fatherless and the widow, filling them with food, that our "festivals may be done to the memory of reft to the deceased, whofe memory "we celebrate." So Tertullian, in the beginning of the third century, affirms', "We make oblations for the dead, and for their anniversary birth-days." And Cyprian, in the middle of it, says of fome dead *, "The days on which they de"part are registered by us, that we may celebrate their memories among the "memories of the martyrs." And even in a fynod' in his time, notice is taken "of facrifices and offerings made for perfons after death." In the fourth century it was ufual in all churches to obferve them. Eufebius relates, that by the order of Conftantine, governors of provinces, and those under them, not only obferved the Lord's day, but honoured the feaft-days of the martyrs; alfo the ecclefiaftical feftivities. Sozomen reports", that the Alexandrians kept with great pomp a feast on the day that Peter their bishop was martyred; and Theodoret°, that the church at Antioch kept an annual feast to the honour of the martyrs Juventinus and Maximinus. Ambrofe has a fermon for the faints throughout the year, and makes mention of the feasts of the apostles Peter and Paul; and in one place he says, "We forget the birth-days of the dead, but the day on which "they die we renew with great folemnity;" and again, "Whofe life we know "not, their deaths we celebrate." And Jerom obferves', that according to the variety of countries, different times are appointed in honour of the martyrs. m In the fourth century the relicks of the martyrs came much in vogue. Sozomen makes mention of the relicks of many faints and martyrs being found, and removed, and laid up with great honour and veneration. And fo Ambrofe`, of the bodies of St Gervafius and Protefius, in a letter to his fifter Marcellina, in which 4 E 2 Tract. 3. in Job fol. 39. 2. i De Coron. mil. c. 3. Concil. Carthag. cit. in Epift. 66. 1 De fide Refurrect. p. 322, 327. Eccl. Hift. 1. 3. c. 15. m De vita Conftantin 1. 4. c. 23. P Serm. 1. p. 129. tom. 5. • Comment. in Gal. 4. fol. 79. A. Eccl. Hift. 1. 2. 13. & 3. 14. & 59. & 7. 30. which he gives an account of the finding and tranflation of them, and miracles done; and concludes, "Let us lay up the holy relicks, and carry them into temples worthy of them, and celebrate the whole day with true devotion." In the fixth century, part of the wood of the crofs on which Chrift was crucified was found, and the relicks of the martyr Sergius, as Evagrius relates'. And in the fourth and following centuries, temples were dedicated to the faints, and images placed in them, with wax candles and lamps burning. 5. The popish notions of a Limbus patrum, of purgatory, and praying for the dead, were embraced long before the pope of Rome was declared an univerfal bishop. Clemens of Alexandria, in the fecond century, had a notion, that before Chrift came none were faved, but thofe that lived piously were in hell; and Chrift, when he came, went thither, and preached to them, and fo did his apoftles; and thereby they were converted and saved"; and of the place of the faints after death, Tertullian feems to have fuch a notion, that they were not in heavenly blifs; "the bofom of Abraham, he fays ", is not celeftial, yet higher than hell; "and in the mean while affords refreshment to the fouls of the righteous, until "the confummation of all things at the refurrection." And a little after he says, "The bofom of Abraham is fome temporal receptacle of believing fouls." Purgatory was the opinion of Origen in the third century; he was the firft, as Theophilus Gale fays, that introduced purgatory from the Platonic school at Alexandria into the church of God, and gave a great advance to the whole fyftem of papism or antichriftianifm. "I think, fays he, the faints, when they depart out of "this life, remain in fome place the divine fcripture calls paradife; and as in "fome place of learning, an auditorium, if I may fo fay, or a school of fouls, in "which they may be taught of all thofe things they have feen on earth." And in fome places he gives plain hints of purgatory; "it is certain, fays he, there “remains a fire, which is prepared for finners, and we shall come to that fire, "in which the fire will prove every one's work, what it is; and as I think we "muft all come to the fire, even if any one is a Paul or a Peter, yet he must come "to the fire; but fuch fhall hear, though thou paffeth through the fire, the flame fhall not burn thee; but if any one, like me, is a finner, he fhall come indeed "to the fire, as Peter and Paul, but he shall not fo pass through as Peter and "Paul." In another place he fays, "Whofe fin is fuch that it is neither forgiven in the prefent world, nor in that to come; he paffes on in his unclean"nefs one and another week, and at the beginning of the third week he is purg"ed from his uncleannefs." And in another work of his, he has these words, "To Eccl. Hift. 1.4. c. 26, 28. prope finem. "Stromat. 1.6. p. 637, 638. w Adv. Marcion, 1.4. C.34. De principiis. 1. z. a Homil. 8. in Levit. fol. 75 C. * Court of the Gentiles, part 3. B. 2. ch. 1. p. 134, 135, 221. To every one of these who have need of punishment by this fire, and together "alfo of healing, it burns, but does not burn them out, who have no matter "to be confumed by fire; but it burns and burns them out, who build on a 66 building of actions, words and thoughts, figuratively called wood, bay, and Stubble." And he has various hints of this kind in other parts of his writings. Lactantius, in the fourth century, fays", "When God fhall judge the righteous, "he fhall alfo try them by fire: them whofe fins, either in weight or in number, "have prevailed, they fhall be touched by the fire, and fhall be burnt; but "those whofe righteoufnefs and virtue are in full maturity, they fhall not per"ceive the fire." And a little after, "Let no one think, that fouls are immediately judged; after death they are all detained in one common prifon, until "the time comes, that the great judge fhall make trial of the merits of men." Jerom expreffes his faith in this point, thus ; "As we believe the eternal tor"ments of the devil, and of all deniers and ungodly perfons; fo we believe a "moderate sentence of the judge, mixed with clemency, on finners and ungodly perfons, and yet chriftians, whofe works are to be proved and purged by fire." Epiphanius, in the fame century, delivers the faith of christians in this manner, "We believe that Chrift came to give pardon to those who of “old knew him, and did not ftray from his deity, though for errors were de"tained in hell; to them who were then in the world, by repentance; to them "that were in hell, by mercy and falvation." And he was of opinion, that prayers made for the dead profited them, though they did not cut off all fault *. And of the fame opinion was Auftin', who fays, "It is not to be denied, that "the fouls of the dead are relieved by the piety of the living; fince for them "the facrifice of the mediator is offered, or alms are made in the church; but "these are profitable to them, who when they lived merited, that they might "be profitable to them afterwards." More of this may be read in another tract & of his. Elsewhere he fays, "In the old faints the holy Spirit was not fo, as "he is now in believers; becaufe when they went out of the world, they were "in hell, and it is incongruous that he who goes from hence, having the Spirit "of God, fhould be held in hell." And he feems in one place', to grant a purgatory; "That fome fuch thing is done after this life, is not incredible; and "whether it is fo, may be enquired; that fome believers are either found or hid by a certain purgatory-fire, how much the more or le's they have loved perishing goods, fo much the flower or fooner they are faved." Gregory Nyffene fays of children dying in infancy, "What fhall we think of fuch, who fo die? fhall "the b De divino præmio, l. 7. c. 21. & Contr. Hæref. 1. 1. hær. 46. De cura pro mortuiis. h Quæftiones vet. & nov. Teft. qu. 123. * De iis qui præmature abrup. p. 754. vol. 2.. 66 "the foul fee the judge? fhall it be prefented with others before the tribunal? "fhall it undergo the judgment of those who have lived? fhall it receive a re"ward according to merit? or be purged with fire according to the words of "the gofpel? or be refreshed with the dew of bleffing?" Boetius, in the fixth century, is exprefs for purgatory; his words are, "Are there no punishments "after you leave the body dead? The answer is, yea and great ones truly; fome "are exercised, I think, with a fevere punishment, and others with a mild purgatory." Gregory I. defended the opinion of purgatory in the fame century. 6. The popish notion of transubstantiation had its rife from the old hereticks, and was cherished and strengthened by the unguarded expreffions and erroneous fentiments of the ancient fathers, even before the man of fin arrived to his manhood. Mark, the heretick, in the fecond century, would have it thought that he changed the wine into blood by invocation upon it', just as a popish priest would be thought by pronouncing fome words to change the bread into the body, and the wine into the blood of Chrift. Ireneus ", in the fame century, has an expreffion which has too favourable an aspect on this very abfurd notion; “when the cup mixt, and the bread broken, perceive the word of God, they become the "eucharift of the blood and body of Chrift." In the third century, the phrafes of offering the facrifice of Chrift, and of fanctifying the cup by the priest, were ufed; as by Tertullian", who calls the adminiftration of the fupper, offering the facrifice; and by Cyprian, who speaks of the Lord's facrifice being celebrated by a lawful fanctification, and of the priest's fanctifying the cup; and fays, that "the priest officiates in the room of Christ, and imitates that which Christ did, "and then offers up a true and full facrifice in the church to God the Father." In the fourth century feveral unguarded expreffions were used, as by Athanafius, that there was nothing of the flesh and blood of Chrift to be found in the world, but what was daily fpiritually made by the hands of priests upon the altar; and by Nazianzen, who speaks of fome defiling the altars with blood, which have their name from the most pure and unbloody facrifice: and Ambrofe speaks often of celebrating mass and offering the facrifice; and he composed fome prayers preparatory to it, and he produces examples to prove, that "not that in which nature has formed, but which the bleffing hath confecrated, and the great"er is the force of bleffing than of nature, becaufe nature itself is changed by "the bleffing." And after many inftances of the miracles in Egypt, he observes', that, if human bleffing could do fo much, what fhall we fay of the divine con"fecration itfelf, where the words of the Lord the Saviour operate?" And a little after, he has thefe words "this is my body; before the bleffing of the heavenly words the fpecies is named, after the confecration, the body of Christ “is is fignified, he calls it his own blood. Before the confecration another thing "is faid, after the confecration it is called blood." Cyril of Jerusalem fays ', "The bread and the wine of the eucharift, before the holy invocation of the Trinity, are mere bread and wine; but when the invocation is made, the bread "becomes the body of Chrift, and the wine the blood of Chrift." Gregory Nyffen fays, "The bread is made the body of Chrift by facrification; the bread a little "before was common bread, but when the mystery has made it holy, it is made "and called the body of Chrift; fo the myftical oil; fo the wine, though of "small worth before the bleffing, after the fanctification of the Spirit, both of "them work differently." And elsewhere, he fays, "I rightly believe that "the bread fanctified by the word of God, Tada, is tranfmuted into the body of God the Word; for bread was that body, potentially it was fanctified "by the indwelling of the Word, which tabernacled in the flesh; thence therefore. "the bread tranfmuted in that body, paffes into a divine power, by the fame "now also became equal.-The bread is immediately tranfmuted by the Word “into the body, as it is faid by the Word, This is my body." Chryfoftom, in the fifth century, feems to ftrengthen the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, when he fays", "Do you fee the bread? do you fee the wine? do they go as the reft of "the food into the privy? God forbid, that thou fhouldft fo think; for as if "wax put to the fire is affimilated to it, nothing of the fubftance remains; fo likewife here think that the myfteries are confumed in the fubftance of the body." In the fixth century, Gregory I. fays, it appears that they called the Lord's supper a viaticum; and even in the fourth century, it used to be given to dying perfons as fuch. Honoratus, priest of Verceil, gave it to St Ambrofe, who as foon as he received it died, carrying with him the good viaticum, as Paulinus in his life relates. And Ambrofe himself fays ", that in his time, travellers and failors used to carry it with them. Yea, even in the third century, it used to be fent to those who were hindered by fickness from partaking of it; there is even an instance of its being fent by a boy, and put into the mouth of a dying man, upon which he expired *. The first instance of corruption in baptifm, as to the form of it, and also as to the mode of it, was made by Mark, the heretick, and his followers; who made a mixture of oil and water, and poured it on the head. And the next inftance is in Novatus, who received baptifin on a fick bed by perfusion (as the Clinici alfo did), if he might be faid to receive it, as Cornelius, the then bishop of * Cateches. myftagog. 1. f. 4. • Catechet orat. c. 37. p. 536. vol. 2. Eufeb. Eccl. Hift. 1. 6. c. 44. In baptifm. Chrifti, vol. 2. p. 802. " De Euchariftia. Rome De obitu fatyr. fratris. y Irenæus adv. Hæref. 1. 1. c. 18. |