the church of Antioch, called the Golden Church, and bring the rich vessels, which Constantine and Constantius had dedicated, into his own coffers. But they were not content barely to commit sacrilege, unless they could vent their spite also in some unmannerly and profane abuses: therefore Julian pissed upon the holy table, and Felix seeing the holy vessels broke out into this rude expression, “Behold what fine vessels Mary's son is served in!" But the impious wretches did not long go unpunished; for Julian was immediately seized with an ulcer, which turned all his bowels into putrefaction, and he died voiding his own excrements at his blasphemous mouth; and Felix by the same divine vengeance voided blood at his mouth, without intermission, day and night, till he died. Victor Uticensis1 gives us a like account of one Proculus, an agent of one of the kings of the Vandals, who having ravaged and plundered the Catholic churches, made himself a shirt and breeches of the palls or coverings of the altar. But not long after he fell into a phrenzy, which made him eat off his own tongue, piece by piece, and so he breathed out his last in a most ignominious death. It is no less remarkable, what Optatus reports of some Donatist bishops, who in their mad zeal against the Catholics ordered the eucharist, which the Catholics had consecrated, to be thrown to their dogs; but not without an immediate sign of divine vengeance upon them: for the dogs instead of devouring the elements, fell upon their masters, as if they had never known. them, and tore them to pieces, as robbers and profaners of the holy body of Christ. Which makes Optatus put them in mind of that admonition of our Saviour, Mat. vii. 6., "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Other instances might be added of the same nature, but I choose rather to go on with

Optat. lib. ii. p. 55.

Victor de Persecut. Vandal. lib. i. p. 593. Ut omnia sacrosancta suprà memorati vestri episcopi violarent, jusserunt eucharistiam canibus fundi: non sine signo divini judicii; nam iidem canes, accensi rabie, ipsos dominos suos, quasi latrones, sancti corporis reos, dents vindice, tanquam ignotos et inimicos laniaverunt.

the account of their reverence, than to dwell any longer upon the punishments of the profaners.

SECT. 3.—What Difference made between Churches and private Houses. Let us next, then, observe the difference that was made between churches and private houses. Some heretics made very light of this distinction, as the Eustathians, Massalians, and others. Against the Eustathians we have two canons made in the council of Gangra, from which we may learn. their errors, and what were the Catholic tenets in opposition to them. The first is, "If any one teach, that the house of God, and the assemblies held therein are to be despised, let him be Anathema." And the other, "If any one hold assemblies privately out of the church, and despising the church chooses to perform ecclesiastical offices, where there is no presbyter appointed by the bishop, let him be Anathema.” These heretics seem to have contemned both a regular ministry and the public churches, and to have made no difference between the house of God, and other houses, but to have taught that ecclesiastical offices might as well be performed at home as in the church. Against which errors this council rising up so severely, gives us to understand, that according to the sentiments of the Catholic Church, the public offices of the church were to be performed in public, and not in private houses, and that it was a contempt of the house of God to perform them otherwise. At present I do not remember any one allowed instance of the contrary practice in all ancient history, except in cases of necessity, which are above all laws. And therefore I could not but reckon this difference, which was so universally put between the house of God and private houses, among the instances of respect and reverence, which the Ancients paid to their churches.

1 Con. Gangren. c. 5. Ει τις διδάσκοι τονοικον τῷ θεῷ εὐκαταφρόνητον ειναι, και τας ἐν αὐτῷ συνάξεις, ἀνάθεμα ἔσω. 2 Ibid. c. 6. "EL TIS παρὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἰδίᾳ ἐκκλησιάζοι, και καταφρονῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, τὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐθέλοι πράττειν, μὴ συνόντος τα πρεσβυτέρω, κατὰ γνώμην τ ἐπισκόπε, ἀνάθεμα ἔσω.

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

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.

'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.'

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cause, as Mr. Mede has observed 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

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

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Mede, Disc, on Psal. cxxxii,