73

in all that they say against the Nestorian or Eutychian heresies. 4. Because this Vigilius Tapsensis is known to have published several others of his writings under the borrowed name of Athanasius, with which this creed is commonly joined. These reasons have persuaded such men as Bishop Pearson, Archbishop Usher," Hamond L'Estrange," Dr. Cave, Schelstrate," Pagi," and Du Pin, critics of the best rank, to come in to this opinion, that this creed was not composed by Athanasius, but by a later and a Latin writer. Dr. Cave thinks, the first that mentions it under the name of Athanasius, is Theodulphus Aurelianensis, who lived about the year 794, in the reign of Charles the Great: but in this he is a little mistaken; for the council of Autun, which was held above a hundred years before, anno 670, not only mentioned it under that name, but ordered every presbyter, deacon, subdeacon, &c., to read it together with the Apostles' Creed," or be liable to the bishop's censure for his omission; which implies, that it was then esteemed the genuine work of Athanasius, and as such had for some time been received in the church. But whoever was the author of it, there never was any question made of its orthodoxy, except by the Samosatenians and Arians in these later ages of the church. Only, as Bishop Usher and others have observed, the modern Greeks now use it with some additions and alterations. For, whereas it is said in the Latin copies, that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son; the Greeks now read it, from the Father, or the Father only; as Paraus has remarked in his exposition of this creed. And in the Greek copy lately brought out of the East, and published by Bishop Usher, there is a long interpolation by way of addition and explication of those words, "He was man of the substance of his mother, perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." With some other additions of lesser note, which the curious reader may find marked out in the fore-mentioned tracts of that learned author.

80

To all the creeds that have been related in this chapter, I think it not improper to add the short account which Eusebius gives of the first preaching

73 Pearson. in Symbol. Artic. 8. p. 570. Edit. Lat. 74 Usser. de Symbol. Rom. p. 1.

75 L'Estrange's Alliance of Divine Offices, chap. 4. p. 99. 76 Cave, Hist. Literar. vol. 1. p. 146.

78

77 Schelstrat. Conc. Antioch. Dissert. 3. c. 2. p. 109. Pagi, Critic. in Baron. an. 340. n. 6. Du Pin, vol. 2. p. 35.

79 Conc. Augustodun. Can. ult. Con. t. 6. p. 536. Si quis presbyter, diaconus, subdiaconus, vel clericus, symbolum, quod inspirante Sancto Spiritu apostoli tradiderunt, vel fidem sancti Athanasii præsulis irreprehensibiliter non recensuerit, ab episcopo condemnetur.

so Paræus, Not. in Symbol. Athanas. ad calcem Ursin.

of St. Thaddeus to King Agbarus and the people of Edessa, which I had from the information of my learned and judicious friend Mr. Lowth, to whose useful conversation I owe many other curious remarks and observations, that lie scattered throughout the Antiquities of the Church. This is not indeed properly a creed, but a summary of his first sermon, or the heads of his first catechetical institution to the people. "Concerning the coming of Jesus into the world, after what manner it was; and concerning his mission, for what reason he was sent by the Father; concerning his power, and the mysteries which he spake in the world, and by what power he did these; then of his new way of preaching; of his meanness and abject estate, and the humility of his outward appearance as a man; after what manner he humbled himself, and submitted to death, and made a diminutive appearance of his Divine nature; what things he suffered of the Jews, and how he was crucified, and descended into hell, and brake down the partition that had been kept up in former ages; how he arose from the dead, and raised with himself those that slept in preceding generations; how he descended [from heaven] alone, but ascended with a mighty company to his Father; how he sits at the right hand of God the Father, and shall come again with glory and power to judge both the quick and the dead." Here are two things very remarkable in this ancient account of the first principles of Christian doctrine, viz. the Divinity of our Saviour, and the descent into hell, both which are here expressed in terms, for which reason I thought it might deserve a place among the creeds of the church. Eusebius says, he had the account in the Syriac tongue, as it was preserved in the archives of the church of Edessa, signed in the year 340, which (according to the computation of time then used by the Syrians of Edessa, reckoning from the first year that Seleucus began to reign in Asia) falls in with the same year that Christ suffered and arose from the dead, as Valesius, and Pagis after him, have rightly computed in their observations upon this passage of Eusebius.

Catech. p. 124.

81 Usser. de Symbolis, p. 29.

82 Euseb. lib. 1. cap. 13, Εσμίκρυνεν αὐτῷ τὴν θεότητα. —Κατέβη εἰς τὸν ἅδην, καὶ διέσχισε φραγμόν, &c. It is worth our observation to compare the apostle's expression, Phil. ii. 7, ¿avTÒV ÉKÉνwσɛ, “He made himself of no reputation," or, he emptied himself, with this expression of Thaddeus, ἐσμίκρυνεν αὐτῇ τὴν θεότητα, He lessened, or made a diminutive show and appearance of his Godhead. For these places mutually explain one another, and are a solid proof that the divinity of Christ in the apostolical age was one of the principal articles of the Christian faith.

83 Pagi, Critic. in Barou. an. 41. n. 3.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE ORIGINAL, NATURE, AND REASONS OF THE ANCIENT DISCIPLINE, IN CONCEALING THE SACRED MYSTERIES OF THE CHURCH FROM THE

CATECHUMENS.

Sect. 1. The errors and pretences of the Romanists upon this point.

THAT which makes this inquiry a little more necessary, is the several vain pretences of the Romanists concerning the original and reasons of this discipline. Bellarmine and others urge it as a mighty argument for transubstantiation in particular, as if the concealing the mystery of the eucharist from the catechumens, was an indication of the belief of the church concerning the real presence of Christ's body and blood, which they were so studiously careful to hide from the knowledge of the catechumens. But this is abundantly refuted by a more accurate observation of Albaspinæus, a learned bishop of the same communion, who in his book of the Ancient Polity of the Church relating to the Eucharist,' as I find him cited by others,2 rejects this as an incompetent proof of the Romish doctrine of the real presence. For he rightly observes, that the ancients concealed not only the mystery of the eucharist, but also the sacrament of baptism from the catechumens; yea, and almost all other their sacred rites and ceremonies, which in a large sense are called sacraments, as the oil of chrism or confirmation, and the ordination of priests, which were as studiously concealed from the knowledge or inspection of the uniniated, as the elements of the holy eucharist were. So that the bare concealing that mystery from the catechumens, could no more be an argument of transubstantiation in the bread and wine in the eucharist, than it was in the waters of baptism, or any other ceremony where the same silence and caution was used.

The learned Schelstrate, with a subtle invention, has made a more general use of this ancient practice, to palliate and excuse all the novel doctrines and practices of his own church. He wrote a book which he entitled Disciplina Arcani, a book highly magnified by Pagi and others of his own communion, as stopping the mouths of the protestants, when they ask the Romanists, why no footsteps of their modern doctrines and practices appear in the earliest writers of the church; the answer is ready

'Albaspin. Police de l'ancienne Eglise, &c. lib. 1. c. 2. p. 47.

Albertin. de Eucharist. lib. 2. p. 703.

Pagi, Critic. in Baron. an. 118. n. 4.

Albaspin. Observat. lib. 1. c. 13. p. 38. Postrema verba, quibus cavetur, ne octo libri Constitutionum Apostolicarum publicentur, aperte indicant, eas primis sæculis factas non

upon all occasions, from this Disciplina Arcani, that it was because these doctrines and practices were kept secret, and only handed down by tradition, not committed to writing, lest they should come to the knowledge of the uninitiated Jews and Gentiles, and the catechumens of the church. This is the reason, he tells us, why there is no account of the seven sacraments, nor of the worship of saints or images, in the first writers of the church. The things were really believed and practised from the days of the apostles, as he will have it, but kept secret, as the hidden mysteries of religion, which were not to be divulged to any but such as were initiated and prepared to know them.

This is an artifice that would justify as many errors and vanities as any church could be guilty of it is but working a little with this admirable instrument and tool, called disciplina arcani, and then all the seeming contradictions between the ancient doctrines and practices of the church universal, and the novel corruptions of the modern church of Rome, will presently vanish and disappear. So that we need not wonder, why men, whose interest it serves so much, should magnify this as a noble invention. When yet in truth it is only a veil and a mist cast before the reader's eyes, which may be easily dispelled by giving a true account of that ancient piece of discipline and practice, first in its original, and then in the nature, use, and reasons of it.

Sect. 2. This discipline not strictly observed in

the church.

As to its original, the learned Albaspinæus has rightly observed, That in the apostolical age, and some time the very first ages of after, they were not so very strict in this discipline of concealing their sacred mysteries from the knowledge of the catechumens. For he thus argues against the antiquity of the book called the Apostolical Constitutions: The last words, says he, which forbid the publication of those eight books, do plainly show, that they were not written in the first age; for the Christians of the first age did never make any scruple of publishing their mysteries, as appears from the writings of Justin Martyr. Mr. Aubertine observes the same out of Athenagoras and Tatian. And Daille joins in opinion with Albaspinæus, and cites his authority with approbation. And Basnage is so far from. thinking, that the apostles concealed their mysteries from the catechumens, that he rather sup- poses they administered the sacraments in their presence.

Upon which supposition, the whole

esse, cum primi sæculi Christiani sua lubentes mysteria, ut vel ex Justino constat, enuntiarent.

5 Albertin. de Eucharist. lib. 2. p. 709. Dallæus de Scriptis Ignatii, lib. 1. c. 22. p. 142. Basnag. Exercitat. in Baron. p. 419. Alta de mysteriis silentia non agebant apostoli, nec catechumenos arcebant a sacramentorum conspectu.

fabric which Schelstrate builds upon the disciplina arcani, is ruined at once. For then it is certain, the apostles had no such fear or caution upon them, lest the catechumens should come to the knowledge of the Christian rites or doctrines, as is pretended. And indeed any one that looks into the writings of the apostles, may perceive with half an eye, that they were far enough from concealing their opinion about the worship of angels, saints, and images; for they expressly write against it. And when they speak of the mysteries of baptism and the eucharist, they do it with the greatest freedom, without any fear or apprehension of giving offence to the catechumens.

Nay, and when this discipline was But introduced first introduced into the Christian

Sect. 3.

about the time of

Tertullian, for other church, it is very evident, it was done

reasons than what

tend.

8

the Romanists pre- for different reasons than those which the Romanists pretend. The first beginning of it seems to have been about the time of Tertullian; for he is the first writer that makes any mention of it. He says, There was a secrecy and silence observed in all mysteries. And he blames the heretics of his own times for not regarding something of this discipline. They made no distinction, he says,' between believers and catechumens; they all met together, they all heard together, they all prayed together. And if heathens chanced to come in upon them, they gave that which was holy to dogs, and cast their pearls, such as they were, before swine. Here it is plain, the church now made several distinctions between catechumens and believers, which heretics did not. The place of the catechumens was now in a separate part of the church; they heard sermons, but not all that believers were allowed to hear; they had prayers for themselves, but were not admitted to hear the prayers of the faithful, which were peculiar to the celebration of the eucharist, from which catechumens were excluded. But all this was, and might be done, without favouring in the least the vain pretences of the modern Arcanists; for in all this there was no design to conceal such mysteries as the worship of saints, and angels, and images, from the knowledge of the catechumens; but on the contrary, Tertullian speaks openly of these kinds of worship, and with indignation condemns them as superstitious practices, belonging only to heathens or heretics, and not to the mysteries of the church.

Tertul. Apol. c. 7. Ex forma omnibus mysteriis silentii fides adhibetur.

"Tertul. de Præscript. advers. Hæretic. cap. 41. In primis quis catechumenus, quis fidelis, incertum est: pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, pariter orant: etiam ethnici si supervenerint, sanctum canibus, et porcis margaritas, licet non veras, jactabunt.

10 Conc. Arausican, can. 19. Ad baptisterium catechumeni nunquam admittendi.

Sect. 4. This proved from a particular account

of the things which

the

they concealed from catechumens. Which were, 1. The manner of adminis tering baptism.

And in the following ages, no writer that mentions this discipline, among all those that give us a more particular account of what things were concealed from the knowledge or inspection of the catechumens, ever so much as intimates, that the worship of saints and images was in the number of the mysteries of the church which they concealed from them. But the mysteries which they were so careful in some measure to hide from them, were, 1. The manner of administering baptism. 2. The unction of chrism or confirmation. 3. The ordination of priests. 4. The manner of celebrating the eucharist. 5. The liturgy or Divine service of the church. 6. And for some time, the mystery of the Trinity, the creed, and the Lord's prayer, till they became greater proficients, and were ready for baptism. In the first place, that they were careful to conceal from them the manner of administering baptism, appears from this, that catechumens were never so much as suffered to enter" or look into the baptistery, or place where baptism was administered, according to the order of the first council of Orange. St. Basil therefore says," Baptism, the eucharist, and the oil of chrism, were things that the uninitiated were not allowed to look upon. And St. Austin," putting the question, What things were kept secret, and not made public in the church? answers, The sacrament of baptism, and the sacrament of the eucharist. For even pagans may see our good works, but the sacraments are kept hidden from them. And as they did not admit catechumens to see baptism administered, so neither did they ordinarily discourse of it before them in plain terms, but in a mystical way, or else wholly excluded them from such discourses, as incompetent hearers. We do not speak openly, says St. Cyril," of the sacraments before the catechumens, but deliver many things covertly, that the faithful who know them, may understand us, and they who know them not, may receive no harm. So Theodoret," We discourse of mysteries obscurely because of the unbaptized; but when they are gone, we speak plainly before the initiated. In like manner Nazianzen," speaking of baptism, You have heard, says he, so much of the mystery as we are allowed to speak publicly in the ears of all, and the rest you shall hear privately, which you must retain secret within yourself, and keep under the seal of baptism. A great many other passages may be read

11 Basil. de Spiritu Sancto, c. 27. “A ovdi ¿monTEVELY ἔξεσι τοῖς ἀμυήτοις, t. 2. p. 352.

12 Aug. Com. in Psal. ciii. Coneio. 1. t. 8. p. 484. Quid est quod occultum est, et non publicum in ecclesia? Sacramentum baptismi, sacramentum eucharistiæ. Opera nostra bona vident et pagani, sacramenta vero occultantur illis. 13 Cyril. Catech. 6. n. 16.

Theodor. Quæst. 15. in Numer. t. 1. 15 Naz. Orat. 40. de Bapt. t. 1. p. 672.

p.

149.

in Chrysostom," Theodoret," Cyril of Alexandria,18 the author under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite," and the Apostolical Canons," with many others to the same purpose. From all which we learn, that though the ancients acquainted the catechumens with the doctrine of baptism so far as to make them understand the spiritual nature and design of it, yet they never admitted them to the sight of the outward ceremony, nor so much as to hear any plain discourse about the manner of its administration, till they were fitted and prepared for the actual reception of it.

23

A third thing which they concealed Sect. 6. Thirdly, The ordi- from the catechumens, was the ornation of priests. dination of priests. The council of Laodicea has a canon to this purpose, That ordinations shall not be performed in the presence of the hearers, that is, the catechumens. And Chrysostom, speaking of this office, and the solemn prayers used at the consecration, delivers himself in an obscure and covert way, because of the catechumens. He that ordains, says he, requires the prayers of the church," and they then join their suffrage, and echo forth those words which the initiated know. For we may not speak them openly before the uninitiated catechumens.

others. And the competentes stayed only to hear the prayers offered up for themselves and the energumens, and then were dismissed. They might not stay to hear so much as the prayers for the penitents, much less the prayers for the church militant, or any others preceding the communion. But before all these, the usual word of command was given by the deacons, or sacred heralds of the church, Ne quis audientium, or, Ite, missa est, Catechumens, depart. From whence it is easy to collect further, that the solemn office of the absolution of penitents was never performed in the presence of the catechumens. For the time of absolution was not till all others were dismissed, except the penitents themselves who were to be absolved, which was immediately before their going to the altar to begin the communion service. As seems to be clear from those words of Optatus, where he speaks of it as the common custom, both in the church and among the Donatists," to give imposition of hands for absolution, immediately before their going to say the Lord's prayer at the altar. All these things therefore were kept secret from the catechumens; for they were never suffered to be hearers or spectators of any part of them. But as the eucharist was the highest mystery in the Christian service, Fifthly, The manso they were most careful to conceal the manner of its celebration from the catechumens. And in this they made a difference between one sort of penitents and the catechumens. For the highest class of penitents, called consistentes or co-standers, were allowed to be present at the communion prayers, and see the oblation offered and received by the faithful, though they might not partake with them. But catechumens of all ranks were wholly excluded from all this. They were always dismissed before these prayers began, and the doors of the church were locked and guarded by proper officers, to the intent that no uninitiated person should indiscreetly rush in upon them. We shut the doors, says Chrysostom,26 when we celebrate the holy mysteries, and drive away all uninitiated persons. This was one of the secrets of the church, as we heard St. Austin before" speak of it; one of the things which a catechumen might not look upon, according to St. Basil. Therefore the author of the Apostolical Constitutions makes it part of the deacon's office, not only to command their absence, but also to keep

Sect. 8

ner of celebrating the eucharist.

24 Chrysost. Hom. 18. in 2 Cor. p. 872. 'O μéλwv Xεiροτονεῖν, τὰς ἐκείνων εὐχὰς καλεῖ τότε, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπιψηφίζονται, καὶ ἐπιβοῶσιν, απερ ἴσἰσιν οἱ μεμυημένοι· οὐ γὰρ δὴ θέμις ἐπὶ τῶν ἀμυήτων ἐκκαλύπτειν ἅπαντα.

25 Optat. cont. Parmen. lib. 2. p. 57. Inter vicina momenta, dum manus imponitis et delicta donatis, mox ad altare conversi, Dominicam orationem prætermittere non potestis. Vid. Constitut. Apost. lib. 8. cap. 6-9. 26 Chrys. Hom. 23. in Mat. p. 236. 27 Aug. in Psal. ciii.

28 Basil. de Spir. Sanct. c. 27.. Coustit. Apost. lib. 2. c. 57. lib. 8. c. 11.

31

the doors, that none might come in, during the time of the oblation. Epiphanius" and St. Jerom bring it as a charge against the Marcionites, that they despised this discipline, and admitted catechumens indiscriminately with the faithful to all their mysteries. And Palladius" forms a like charge against the enemies of Chrysostom, that in the tumult they raised against him, they gave occasion to the uninitiated to break into the church, and see those things which it was not lawful for them to set their eyes upon. Nay, so strict was the church then in the observation of this discipline, that Athanasius convicted the Meletians of faise witness against him, when they pretended to prove, by the testimony of some catechumens, that Macarius, one of his presbyters, had overturned the communion table in the time of the oblation: he argued, that this could not be so, because, if the catechumens were present, there could then be no oblation.

Nor did they only exclude catechumens from the sight of these mysteries, but also from all discourses which treated plainly about them. They made a distinction between moral and mysterious subjects, and admitted the catechumens to the one, but not to the other, as I have had occasion formerly to show" from the testimonies of Theodoret,35 St. Austin, and St. Ambrose. To which we may here add that of St. Cyril of Jerusalem: You was once, says he, a catechumen, and then we did not discourse of mysteries to you: and now that you have attained by experience to the height of those things which we teach, you will easily perceive that catechumens are not worthy to be hearers of such things. And that of Gaudentius, bishop of Brixia, who in his sermon to the neophites," or persons newly baptized, tells them, he would now open to them those mysteries, which could not be explained in the presence of the catechumens. Sometimes indeed they spake of the eucharist before the catechumens in their popular discourses; but then they did it in such obscure and figurative terms as were understood only by communicants, and not by the catechumens: according to that of St. Chrysostom; I would speak plainly, but I dare not because of the unbaptized. For they make our expositions to be more difficult, they compel us to speak obscurely, or else we must reveal what is not to be revealed unto them. Upon this account Epiphanius, speaking of the words of institution before

30 Epiphan. Hæres. 42. n. 3.

31 Hieron. Com, in Galat. vi. t. 9. p. 199.

32 Pallad. Vit. Chrysostom. c. 9. The same complaint is made by Chrysostom himself in his first epistle to Pope Innocent, t. 4. p. 681. Edit. Front, Ducæi,

33 Athan. Apol. 2. t. 1. p. 747.

Book I. chap. 4. sect. 8.

35 Theodor. Quæst. 15. in Numer.

38 Aug. Serm. 1. ad Neophytos, in Append. t. 10. p. 845. 37 Ambros. de Initiatis, c. 1. Cyril. Catech. Præf. n. 7.

the catechumens, would not say, This bread is my body, this wine is my blood; but Hoc meum est hoc et hoc, This is my that and that," to let the initiated know his meaning, and not the catechumens. And hence it was they so often used that phrase, "Isaow oi peuvnμivo, Et nôrunt fideles, The initiated know what we say; which phrase Casaubon has observed to occur no less than fifty times in the writings of St. Chrysostom. Casaubon makes another good observation upon this matter, which the learned Albertinus takes from him," and strenuously defends That whereas there are three things in the eucharist; 1. The symbols, or sacred elements of bread and wine; 2. The things signified by them; and, 3. The rites of celebration; that which the ancients laboured chiefly to conceal from the catechumens, was not the things signified, but only the symbols or outward signs, and the rites and manner of celebration. For they made no scruple to call the eucharist by the name of Christ's body and blood before the catechumens, at the same time that they would not call it bread and wine, or speak particularly of the form and manner of administering it, as Albertinus proves out of Theodoret and many others. Which shows, that the reason of concealing the mystery from the catechumens was not the belief of transubstantiation, as the Romanists pretend; for then they would have chosen rather to conceal the names of Christ's body and blood, than the names of the outward symbols, and the mystical rites of celebration, the latter of which they studiously concealed, but not the former. He that would see more of this, may consult the elaborate discourse of that most acute and learned writer, where he answers all the objections of Coffetellus against the present assertion.

Sect. 9. Sixthly, The mys tery of the Trinity,

the creed, and the the first sort of ca

Lord's prayer, freem

techumens.

The last sort of things which they for some time concealed from the more imperfect catechumens, were the sublimer doctrines of Christianity, such as the mystery of the Trinity, and hypostatic union, together with the creed itself and the Lord's prayer, which the catechumens did not learn till immediately before their baptism. For so Theodoret tells us," that they did not teach this prayer to the uninitiated, but to the baptized, or immediate candidates of baptism. For no one that was not baptized could presume to say, "Our Father which art in heaven;" not having yet received the

89 Gaudent. Serm. 2. ad Neophytos, Bibl. Patr. t. 2. p. 14. Ea solum aperienda neophytis, quæ præsentibus catechumenis explanari non possunt.

40 Chrys. Hom. 40. in 1 Cor. p. 688. Epiphan, Anchorat. n. 57.

42 Casaub. Exercit. 16. in Baron p. 490.

43 Albertin, de Euchar. lib. 2. p. 708.

"Theod. Epitom, Divin. Decret. lib. 5. Hæret. Fabul.

c. 28. Ταύτην τὴν προσευχὴν οὐ τοὺς ἀμυήτους, ἀλλὰ τοὺς μυςαγωγουμένους διδάσκομεν.