9

sober; for they did not indulge either gluttony or drunkenness; but tempered their mirth with gravity; with chaste discourse, and chaster bodies." Others added that monstrous fable of their feeding upon human flesh, and feasting upon infant's blood. Which is mentioned and refuted by all the apologists, Athenagoras, Theophilus,* Tertullian, Minucius,* Origen," Justin Martyr, and many others, whom the reader may find at large, collected by the learned Kortholt,' in his book De Calumniis Paganorum, &c. The reason of this charge is, by many of the Ancients, ascribed to the vile practices of the Carpocratians, and other heretics, at least tacitly or indirectly, whilst they accuse them of this crime, which the Heathens turned upon the Christians in general. And so it is said upon their authority by many modern authors. Ecumenius ascribes it to another reason:10 he says, in the persecution of the Christians at Lyons under Antonius, the Heathens having apprehended some servants of certain Christian catechumens, put them to the rack to make them confess some secret of the Christians; and they having heard their masters say, that the holy communion was the body and blood of Christ, and supposing it to be truly flesh and bloodαὐτὸ νομίζοντες τῷ ὄντι αἷμα και σάρκα εἶναι—to gratify the inquisitors they told them what they had heard. And the Heathens understanding this, as if the Christians had really -avróxonua-eat flesh and blood, put two of the martyrs, Sanctus and Blandina, to the rack to make them confess it; to whom Blandina smartly replied, how should they endure to do this, who for exercise sake abstain from such flesh as they might lawfully eat? If this were true, it would prove that the Heathens grounded their calumny upon a false apprehension, they had of the Christian sacrament: but it

lib. iii.

vivia non tantùm pudica colimus, sed et sobria-casto sermone, corpore castiore. 1 Athenag, Legat. p. 4. Theoph. ad Autolyc. 8 Tertul. Apol. cap. vii. and xi. Minuc. Octav. Orig. cont. Cels. lib. vi. 6 Just. Apol. i. and ii., and Dial. cum. Tryph. 'Kortholt. de Calumn. Pagan. cap. xviii. p. 158, &c. Epiphan. Hær. 26. Gnostic. n. 5. Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 7. Aug. de Hæres. cap. xxvii. 9 Dallæ. de Objecto Cult. Relig. lib. ii. cap. 28. Baron. 10 Ecumen. in 1 Pet. iii, 16.

an. 120. n. 22, and 179, n. 44.

would by no means prove what Perron and many of the Romanists would have, that the ground of the fable was the real belief of the Christians, as if they believed the eucharist to be the real proper flesh and blood of Christ: for this is expressly said to be only a false apprehension of the Heathens, and utterly denied by the Christians, according as Ecumenius relates the story. Which yet is something different from the genuine Acts in Eusebius,' for there is no mention made of the eucharist in the story, but it is only said, that when some of the Christian servants, who were Heathens, were apprehended, they fearing to be tormented, did by the motion of Satan, and the instigation of the soldiers prompting them to it, falsely accuse the Christians, as if they used to feast upon man's flesh, and commit incest, and other the like things, which it is not fit either to speak or think, and which we can hardly believe were ever done by any men whatsoever. So that the Christians' belief about the eucharist could not be the ground of this story, but it either sprung from the practices of the Carpocratians, or else, as the learned Kortholt, not without some probable reasons, inclines to believe, it took its rise from the pure malice and fiction of the Heathens themselves, some of whom never stuck at saying any thing that would render the Christians odious. However though there were many, who thus calumniated these Christian feasts by this variety of charges, yet there were some also, who could discern the good effects of them, and the great influence they had not only on their members, but the very Heathen, who sometimes would cry out, and say; See how these Christians love one another! as Tertullian notes, in speaking of their collations and charity. Nay, Julian himself, though the bitterest enemy the Christians ever had, could not help bearing testimony to the usefulness of this practice, which he looked upon with an envious eye, as that which he imagined chiefly to uphold the Christian religion, and undermine the religion of the Gentiles. For thus, in one of his

1 Euseb. lib. v. cap. i. p. 156. 3. Tertul. Apol. cap. xxxix.

2 Kortholt. ubi supra, p. 163.

letters to his Gentile priests, he provokes them to the exercise of charity, by the example of the Christians, and their feasts of charity: "there is the more reason to be careful in this matter,” says he,' "because it is manifestly the neglect of this humanity in the priests, which has given occasion to the impious Galileans (so he commonly styles the Christians) to strengthen their party by the practice of that humanity, which the others have neglected. For as kidnappers steal away children, whom they first allure with a cake: so these begin first to work upon honest-hearted Gentiles, with their love-feasts and entertainments and ministering of tables, as they call them, till at last they pervert them to atheism and impiety against the Gods." This is a full vindication of them from all those aspersions, which the former Heathens had cast upon them, and an ample testimony of their usefulness from the mouth of an adversary, who saw and envied the progress, which Christianity made in the world by means of these feasts of charity, which he was minded to introduce into his own way of heathen-worship, with many other such rites, in imitation of the Christian institution. Happy had it been for the Christian religion, if Christians had never had occasion to object more against their own feasts of charity, than Julian, their bitterest enemy, could find to object against them! They might then have gone on with innocence and glory, and have continued an useful and laudable rite to this day.

Julian. Fragment, Epist. p. 555.

CHAP. VIII.

What Preparations the Ancients required as necessary in Communicants, to qualify them for a Worthy Reception.

SECT. 1.-A general Answer to this Question, by referring to the Professions made by every Christian in Baptism, of Repentance, Faith, and Holy Obedience.

I CANNOT better answer this question in general terms, than by saying, the preparation, which they required as necessary in every Christian, was the performance of the conditions and obligations, which every man laid upon himself in baptism; the observation of which put a man in a Christian state, and the favour of God; and was a continual preparation for death and judgment; and consequently a continual and habitual preparation for approaches to God in prayer and holy mysteries, (between which, as to what concerns preparation, the Ancients made little or no distinction,) since it was a preparation, that qualified a man for a constant daily or weekly communion, which was proper for those, who were to receive the communion in a manner every day, according to the rules and practice of those primitive ages, as we shall see in the next chapter. Now the obligation, which every man laid upon himself in baptism, as we have shewn in a former book, was the profession and actual performance of these three things: 1. Repentance, or a renunciation of all former sin, together with the author of it, the devil. 2. Faith, or belief of the several articles of the Christian institution or mystery of Godliness. 3. An holy and constant obedience paid to the laws of this holy religion. In the performance of which sincerely and without dissimulation, every man was supposed to be truly qualified for baptism: and what qualified him for baptism, also qualified him for the communion; of which there is this certain evidence, that as soon as any man was baptised, he was immediately com

municated which could not regularly have been done, but upon presumption, that he, that was duly qualified for baptism, was qualified for the communion also. So that he, that continued in the strict observance of all the particulars of his baptismal covenant, was presumed to be in a constant habitual preparation for the communion every day: and this was that happy state of a Christian life, which qualified those primitive saints for such frequent reception; when frequency of communion kept up a flaming piety and universal holiness in their souls, and such a state of continual holiness made them always fit for, and desirous of frequent communion. For these mutually acted in a holy combination, and reciprocally assisted each other: an habitual holiness was a constant preparation for the communion; and frequent communion was one of the best helps to keep them in a continual preparation for it. And to men of this character and behaviour there could be no great labour needful, besides the constant tenor of a pious life; nor any long time necessary to prepare for the Lord's table, when the whole business of their lives was but, as it were, one continued act of preparation for it. They lived as men, that always expected death, yet uncertain of the time, and therefore were in a continual preparation for it, which is the best preparation for the communion. Their loins were girded about, and their lamps burning; and they themselves like unto men that waited for their Lord, that when he came and knocked, they might open to him immediately. And to them belonged the blessing of Christ, Luke, xii. 37. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." It was true of them, if ever of any, that Christ came and found them watching: and he girded himself, and made them sit down to meat, in the spiritual feast, and came forth and served them.

SEOT. 2.-What Failings are consistent with this Profession, and a State of Grace, and a continual Preparation for the Communion.

But it may be said, there is no such thing possible as constant preparation for the communion: for no man lives without sin to be repented of. "In many things we offend all:" and, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,