They say that a rich covetous man is like a dragon guarding a treasure; which emblem is borrowed from those profane authors whom they forbid Christians to read. iv. 4. Vulpis cubile fodiens, dum terram eruit,- Phædrus iv. 19. Largiris nihil, incubasque gazæ, Custodem Scythici fuisse luci.' Martial. xii. 53. They teach the resurrection of the same numerical body; a doctrine concerning which the Scriptures are certainly silent. v. 7. They are heretics, say they, who make the Father, Son, and holy Spirit to be one and the same person, and Jesus to be τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεόν. This is supposed to be levelled against Simon Magus; but it is much more probable that it is against the Sabellians. vi. 26. Having ordered Christians to honour the martyrs, they caution them not to honour false martyrs. If by quág Tups they only meant persons who perjured themselves and bare false witness, as their citations may seem to imply, the caution was extremely ridiculous; but it is more probable that they meant either schismatics, or unfortunate men, mistaken in some points of faith, whom they would not allow to be martyrs, though they died for the name of Christ, and though they might have lived, if they would have renounced him: such, for example, as the Novatians. v. 9. ་ They make St. John say, 'I got up,' avaσtas syw, and leaning upon Christ's breast, I asked him,' &c. As they reclined on couches before the table, St. John was seated the next below his master, so that the back of his head was against the breast of Christ. He had therefore no occasion to get up, but only to raise himself, and turn his head a little, when he spake to Christ. v. 14. 6 They make St. John affirm, that is, thou hast said,' is not the same as yes. v. 14. They take much from the Epistle of Barnabas; for it is improbable that Barnabas should plunder them, and never own or hint the obligation. Now Barnabas wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem. 6 They say at the end of a prayer, Gather us into thy kingdom. Aurn μagavatá. i. e. Hæc venit Dominus,' which is little to the purpose: consult the notes there. In the same prayer they say, ὁ δυνατὸς Θεὸς, ὁ πιστὸς καὶ Ó ἀληθινὸς, καὶ ἀψευδὴς ἐν ταῖς ἐπαγγελίαις" which looks as if it were taken from Polycarp's prayer-ó apsvdn's nai annOvos sos. p. 201. ed. Cler. vii. 26. The invocation after the Communion begins thus: A σποτα ὁ Θεὸς—ὸ καὶ τῶν σιωπώντων ἐπιστάμενος τὰς ἐντεύξεις. Domine Deus-cognitor precum etiam eorum qui tacent.' The expression is elegant and noble, but it seems to be taken from an old Delphic oracle in Herodotus, i. 47. viii. 15. Καὶ κωφοῦ συνίημι, καὶ οὐ φωνεῦντος ἀκούω. Mutum percipio, fantis nihil audio vocem.' They insert in a prayer, The holy angels say to thee,' εἰς ἅγιος τῷ Φελμονεί. It is taken from Daniel, viii. 13. Καὶ ἤκουσα ἑνὸς ἁγίου λαλοῦντος· καὶ εἶπεν εἷς ἅγιος τῷ Φελμωνὶ τῷ λαλοῦντι· ἕως πότε, &c. TW As it is introduced in the Constitutions, it is neither better nor worse than gibberish; and he who put it in did not understand it. vii. 35. They say that the golden calf was the Egyptian Apis; and so says the author of the Recognitions, i. 35. which, if true, was yet more than they could certainly know, unless we should grant them to have had ity inspiration. i. 6. vi. 20. They relate Peter's combat with Simon, in which he shot the magician flying, and brought him down to the ground. The false Hegesippus, and one Abdias, in his Historia Apostolica, confirm it likewise. So we have no less than three witnesses for it; but they are 'Sardi venales, alius alio nequior.' The first author, fit to be named, who speaks of it, is Arnobius, and he comes too late. Cotelerius, in his notes VOL. I. X on the Constitutions, very honestly declares himself to be a doubter, and gives the reader leave to reject the story: but Tillemont is not so indulgent, and comes upon us with a formidable list of vouchers: Quand il seroit vray que cette histoire seroit une fiction, nous aimerions mieux, tant qu'on n'aura point de preuve claire et convainçante de sa fausseté, nous tromper en ce point avec Arnobe, S. Cy. rille de Jerusalem, les legats du Pape Libere, S. Ambroise, S. Augustin, S. Isidore de Peluse, S. Theodoret, et plusieurs autres, que d'estre obligez d'accuser d'une credulité indiscrete un grand nombre des plus illustres maitres de l'Eglise Latine et Greque.' Hist. Eccl. i. p. 178. He who will believe all that he finds related by the wri ters of the fourth and fifth centuries should be provided with a double portion of credulity, and have the stomach of an ostrich to digest fables. But the fathers here mentioned were not the inventors of this combat; they stand clear of such a charge, and are only to be blamed for paying too much regard to traditionary reports, or to some fabulous author P. One would think that the silence of the fathers before Arnobius were alone a sufficient reason to reject this story, and particularly the silence of Eusebius, who wrote after Arnobius; and their silence shows, at the same time, that they knew nothing, or believed nothing, of the Constitutions. Let it be observed, to the honour of Eusebius, that of all the antient ecclesiastical historians, he has obtruded the least trash upon his readers; and that he has also shut out from the scriptures of the New Testament all spurious, dubious, and apocryphal authors, all apostles falsely so called; whom he served as Jupiter did Vulcan, 4 Ρίψε, ποδὸς τεταγῶν, ἀπὸ βηλοῦ θεσπεσίοιο. ii. 14. vi. 9. The Constitutions call the name of Christ to ovoμa to` nano-from Isaiah lxii. 2. which yet looks also like an al P Leucius was, in all probability, the inventor of this lie, as Beausobre conjectures, Hist. de Man. i. 396. a 'Hurl'd headlong tumbling from th' ethereal sky.' lusion to Revel. ii. 17. ὄνομα καινόν. iii. 12.-τὸ ὄνομά μου το καινόν and they say that the church of Christ is νύμφη κεκαλλωπισμένη Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ, perhaps from Revel. xxi. 2. ἡτοιμασμένην ὡς νύμφην κεκοσμημένην τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς. And yet the seventy-sixth Apostolical Canon mentions not the Revelation amongst the books of the New Testament. ii. 15. 25. The same Canon ascribes to St. Paul the Epistle to the Hebrews. They say that tithes are due to the clergy, because 'Iura, which stands for ten, is the first letter of the name of Jesus. Many of the clergy would be in a poor condition, if they had no better claim to them. ii. 25. They give an interpretation of the proper name Israel, concerning which see the notes. vii. 36. They abound with citations of the Scriptures; and are remarkable for an exuberant profusion of words, and a most tiresome repetition of the same things; which shows that, in all probability, they are not one man's invention, but a medley. They not only heap passages of Scripture one upon another, but where the thing might have been alluded to in three words, they transcribe whole pages:-aliter non fit liber. After having censured all the other Jewish sects, they give the Essenes a good character, οἱ δὲ τούτων πάντων ἑαυτοὺς χωρίσαντες, καὶ τὰ πάτρια φυλάσσοντες, εἰσὶν Ἐσω σαΐοι. C Qui vero ab iis omnibus separarunt se, ac patrios ritus servant, Essæi sunt. vi. 6. When the Jews were returned from Babylon, and before the coming of Christ, three sects arose amongst them, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes; of which, though none were good, the Sadducees were the worst, the Pharisees the best, and the Essenes superstitious fanatics. The Sadducees were of opinion that they neither wanted nor received any divine assistance for the performance of their duty; that the rewards and the punishments which God had denounced were only temporal; that there were. neither angels nor spirits, nor resurrection nor future state, but that the whole man perished at death. It has been supposed, but not sufficiently proved, that they rejected not only the traditions of the elders, but the writings of the the resurrection of Christ, and the general resurrection of the dead, and a day of judgment and retribution, was constantly and particularly taught by the apostles; and therefore the Sadducees were their opposers and persecutors, whilst the Pharisees were more inclined to protect them and side with them; and many of the first Jewish converts to Christianity seem to have consisted of this sect. But as Christ during his ministry often preached against the traditions of the Pharisees, and denounced woes against them, they were his chief adversaries. It may be asked, why Christ did not more frequently censure the faults and errors of the Sadducees, who were worse than the Pharisees? One reason seems to have been this, that the Pharisees were the most numerous and the most learned sect, and had the greatest influence over the common people; therefore it was most expedient that the refor mation should begin amongst them, and that their followers and admirers should be undeceived, and cautioned not to repose too great a confidence in them. W Another reason was, because the peculiar defects of that sect soon crept into Christianity, and remain in it to this day; but the Sadducees were a sect which declined and came to nothing, or to very little, after the destruction of Jerusalem. Most of the Sadducees who escaped that calamity probably became apostates and Pagans, a change for which they were too well prepared; and most of the Jews at this time are of the sect of the Pharisees. The bad character which is given in the Scriptures of the Pharisees, ought not to be extended to all who were of that party. It is enough if the majority of them, if the most eminent in authority, were very wicked. There were without question several among them mistaken in many things, and carried into faults by the prevailing notions of the sect, yet men of sincerity, and of virtuous dispositions. 'Notre Seigneur a témoigné plus de mépris contre les Pharisiens que contre les Sadducéens. C'est aux Pharisiens qu'il en veut en tout et par tout, c'est contre eux qu'il lance ses plus séveres censures, c'est eux qu'il tâche de Justin indeed mentions the Sadducees in his Dial. with Trypho. See Basnage Hist. des Juifs, ii. 7. |