SECT. 4.-How some chose rather to die than deliver up Churches to be profaned by Heretics.

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It will deserve here also to be remembered, particularly to the praise of St. Ambrose, how he acted with the courage and resolution of a martyr in defence of the churches, that they might not be delivered up to the profanation of the Arians. For when the younger Valentinian had, by the instigation of his mother Justina, an Arian Empress, first published a law, not extant in the Theodosian Code,' allowing the Arians liberty to hold assemblies; and afterwards sent his commands to Ambrose to deliver up to them one of the churches of Milan, he returned him this brave and generous answer;"If the Emperor asks of me any thing that is my own, my estate, my money, I shall freely recede from my right, though all that I have belongs to the poor. But those things, which are God's, are not subject to the Emperor's power. If my patrimony is demanded, you may invade it; if my body, I will offer it of my own accord. Will you carry me into prison, or unto death? I will voluntarily submit to it. I will not guard myself with an army of my people about me, I will not lay hold of the altar,, and supplicate for life, but more joyfully be sacrificed myself for the altar." He thought it absolutely unlawful for the Emperor to grant to the Arians, the enemies of Christ, those temples which had been dedicated to the service of Christ; and that it did much less become a bishop, the minister of Christ, to be accessary to so foul a dishonour to his Lord: and therefore he rather resolved to die at the altar, if it must be so, than give his consent to so great a profanation, By this one instance we may easily judge, what opinion the Ancients had of the sacredness of churches, as God's propriety; and that they would as soon deliver up their Bibles to be burnt by the heathen, as their churches to be profaned by heretical assemblies, where impiety would be taught for true religion, and blasphemy offered to God instead of adoration.

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'Cod. Th. lib. xvi. tit. 1. de Fid. Cathol. leg. 4. 2 Ambros, Ep. 33. ad Marcel. de Tradendis Basilicis.. Si à me peteret, quod meum esset, id est, fundum meum, argentum meum, jus hujusmodi meum me non refragaturum, quanquam omnia, quæ mea sunt, essent pauperum. Verùm ea, quæ divina, imperatoriæ potestati non esse subjecta, &c.

SECT. 5.-The Ceremony of washing their Hands, when they went into Church.

As to the ceremonies of respect used by them when they entered into the church, we find one of pretty general observation, which was the custom of washing their hands and their face, in token of innocency and purity, when they went to worship God at the holy altar. Which seems to be taken from that of the Psalmist, "I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I compass thy altar." This custom is frequently mentioned by Chrysostom, Eusebius, Tertullian, Synesius, Paulinus, and others, whose testimonies have been already alleged in the former part of this Book,' where I had also occasion to show, that fountains and cisterns of water were commonly set in the Atrium, or court before the church, for this very purpose.

SECT. 6. The Ceremony of putting off their Shoes used by some; but this no general Custom.

Another ceremony used by some few, for it was no general custom, was putting off their shoes, when they went into the house of God. Cassian observes of the Egyptian monks, that they always wore sandals instead of shoes, and those they also put off whenever they went to celebrate or receive the holy mysteries, thinking themselves obliged to do so, by interpreting literally that intimation of reverence, which was given to Moses and Joshua, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." 'But others did not understand this as an absolute command, obliging all men precisely to use this ceremony of respect, but only where the custom of any nation had made it an indication of reverence, as it was among the eastern nations in the time of Moses and Joshua. Whence we do not find it mentioned as any general custom prevailing among the primitive Christians: unless perhaps it may be thought to have been so in the Ethiopian or Abyssyn churches, be

1 Chap. iii. sect. 6. Cassian. Institut. Lib. i. c. 10. Nequaquam tamen caligas pedibus inhærere permittunt, cùm accedunt, ad celebranda vel percipienda sacrosancta mysteria, illud æstimantes etiam secundùm literam custodiri debere, quod dicitur ad Moysen vel ad Jesum, filium Nave: ‘Solve corrigiam calceamenti tui, locus enim in quo stas terra sancta est.'

cause, as Mr. Mede has observed1 out of Zaga Zabo's account of them in Damianus à Goes, the same custom continues still among them at this day. Which whether it be derived from ancient tradition of their churches, or be a practice lately taken up among them, is not now very easy to be determined,

SECT. 7.-Whether the Ancients used the Ceremony of bowing toward the Altar at their entrance into the Church.

And I think the same resolution must be given to the question about bowing toward the altar at their first entrance into churches. Mr. Mede thinks there is no plain demonstration of it in the ancient writers, but some probability of such a custom derived from the Jews. For he says, "what reverential guise, ceremony or worship they used at their ingress into God's house in the ages next to the Apostles, and some I believe they did, is wholly buried in silence and oblivion. The Jews before them, from whom the Christian religion sprang, used to bow themselves down towards the mercy-seat. The Christians after them in the Greek and Oriental Churches, have time out of mind, and without any known beginning thereof, used to bow in like manner, with their posture toward the altar, or holy table, saying that of the publican in the Gospel, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" as appears by the Liturgies of St. Chrysostom and St. Basil, and as they are still known to do at this day. Which custom of theirs, not being found to have been ordained or established by any decree or canon of any council, and being so agreeable to the use of God's people of the Old Testament, may therefore seem to have been derived to them from very remote and ancient tradition. Nothing, therefore, can be known of the use of those first ages of the Church, further than it shall seem probable they might imitate the Jews." This is spoken according to the wonted ingenuity of that learned person, who never advances a probability into a demonstration. I shall only add one thing out of Chrysostom, to make his

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Mede, Disc. on Eccl. v. . i. 348. vii. p. 397.

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Mede, Disc. on Psal. cxxxii.

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opinion seem the more probable, which I note from the observation of Mr. Aubertin,' who among some other instances of reverence paid to God, at the reading of the Gospel and reception of baptism, takes notice of this, that when the candidates of baptism came near the baptistery, which in Chrysostom's language is 'the bride-chamber of the Spirit and the port of grace,' they were then as captives to fall down before their king, and all to cast themselves together upon their knees. Now if such an act of reverence was performed to God at their entrance into the baptistery, it is not improbable but that some such reverence might also be used at their entrance into the temple. But in matters which have not a clear light and proof, it is not prudent to be overbold in our determinations.

SECT. 8.-Kings laid aside their Crowns and Guards, when they went into the House of the King of Kings.

It is more certain, that when kings and emperors went into the house of God, they paid this respect to the place, that they left not only their arms and their guards, but also their crowns behind them; as thinking it indecent to appear in their regalia in the presence of the King of Kings, or to seem to want arms and guards, when they were under the peaceable roof of the Prince of Peace. St. Chrysostom often spends his eloquence upon this custom, and uses it as an argument to persuade all inferiors to a profound reverence, humility, and peace, when they came into the courts of God, because they had such examples of their kings before them. The Emperor Theodosius › Junior also makes use of the same topic in one of his laws, which was made to regulate the abuses of some who fled for sanctuary

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Chrysost. in illud, Simile

1 Albertin. de Euchar. lib. ii. p. 432. est regnum cælor. &c. Επειδὰν εἰσδράμητε τὴν παραδα τῆς χάριτος, ἐπειδὰν πλησίον γένησθε τῆς φοβερᾶς ὁμε και ποθεινῆς κολυμβήθρας, ὡς · αἰχμάλωτοι προσπέσητε τῷ βασιλει, ρίψατε πάντες ὁμοίως ἐπὶ γόνατα.

8 Chrysost. Orat. post, Redit. ab Exilio, tom. iv. p. 971, It. Hom. in Psal, 48. tom. iii. p. 812. Edict. Theodos. ad calcem Con. Ephes. et in Cod. Th. lib. ix. tit 45. leg. 4. Nos, qui legitimis imperii armis semper circundamurDei templum ingressuri, 'foris arma relinquimuus, et ipsum etiam diadema, regiæ majestatis insigne, deponimus.

in the church with their arms about them; which profanation was not to be endured in any, since he himself always left his arms without doors, and first laid aside his diadem, the badge of imperial majesty, before he went into the church. Nay Julian himself had regard to this custom, as Sozomen1 truly observes out of his Epistle to Arsacius, high-priest of Galatia, where one of the things he would have them imitate the Christians in, was this, that when they went into the temples of their gods, no man of arms should appear among them. And I have already noted out of Leo Grammaticus, how Michael, the Greek Emperor, in latter ages was censured for presuming to pass the beautiful or royal gates crowned, at which gates it had ever been customary for his predecessors to lay aside their crowns, when they went into the church.

SECT. 9.-The Doors and Pillars of the Church and Altar often kissed and embraced in token of Love and Respect to them.

Another very usual piece of respect paid to the altar and the church, was men's embracing, saluting, and kissing, them, or any part of them, the doors, threshold, pillars, in token of their great love and affection for them. St. Ambrose takes notice of this in the account he gives of the great consternation they were in at Milan, when the Emperor's orders came for delivering up the churches to the Arians. The soldiers were the men, who first brought the welcome news into the church, that the Emperor had revoked his fatal sentence; and they strove who should first get to the altar and kiss it, to signify, that all things now were in peace and safety. He alludes, no doubt, to the Osculum Pacis, the solemn kiss of peace, which the faithful anciently were used to give mutually to each other in the communion-service, as a testimony of their cordial love and affection for one another. And therefore it cannot be supposed that such salutations of the church or altar were intended as acts of religious worship, but only as civil indications of

1 Sozom. lib. v. c. 16.

2 See chap. v. sect. 1.

8 Ambros. Ep. 33. Certatim hoc nunciare milites, irruentes in altaria, osculis significare pacis insigne.