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understand hereticsP. He bears somewhat hard upon the poor ape, who is an occasional conformist, and an imitator of his betters. What will they say to this allusion who reject Solomon's Song, and yet receive the Constitutions, and the larger Epistles of Ignatius?

But it would not be fair to conceal a passage in Theocritus, i. 48.

—ἀμφὶ δέ μιν

αν

δι' ἀλώπεκες ἃ μὲν ἀν' ἔρχως
Φοιτῇ σινομένα τὰν τρώξιμον.

6 quem circum duæ vulpes: altera per ordines vitium
Incedit, lædens maturas uvas.'

And v. 112.

Μισέω τὰς δασυκέρκος ἀλώπεκας, αἳ τὰ Μίκωνος
Αἰεὶ φοιτῶσαι τὰ ποθέσπερα ῥαγίζοντι

'Odi densicaudes vulpes, quæ vites Miconis

Semper frequentantes, vesperi ex illis uvas comedunt:'

for here also are foxes spoiling the vineyards;' and who knows but somebody may take it into his head to say that the Constitutions and Ignatius borrowed the hint from the poet?

This interpolated Ignatius cites the Canticles as a sacred book, Ad Ephes. xvii. Μῦρον γάρ, φησὶν, ἐκκενωθὲν ὄνομά σου· Διὰ τοῦτο νεάνιδες ἠγάπησάν σε, εἵλκυσάν σε, ὀπίσω εἰς ὀσμὴν μύρων σου δραμούμεθα. "Unguentum enim,' inquit, • effusum est nomen tuum: propterea adolescentulæ dilexerunt te, traxerunt te, post te in odorem unguentorum tuorum curremus.' From Cant. i. 3, 4.

It seems to appear from the Constitutions, that the curing of dæmoniacs was a work of time, and that the attempt did not always succeed: for the congregation is made to consist of the clergy, the catechumens, the energumens or damoniacs, the Φωτιζόμενοι, or those who were preparing to receive baptism, the penitents, and the faithful;

P He might as well as have said, since he would allegorize, that the apes are informers and back-biters; for the bite of an ape is reckoned dangerous, and so is the bite of a sycophant. Δῆγμα συκοφάντου is mentioned as incurable by Aristophanes, Plut. 886.

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there is a form of prayer for the energumens, that God would deliver them, viii. 7; and it is said that a dæmoniac may be instructed in the faith, but shall not be received to Christian communion before he be cleansed, unless he be in danger of dying, viii. 32. In a prayer for all mankind there is a petition for the dæmoniacsὑπὲρ τῶν χειμαζομένων ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου—ὅπως καθαρίσῃς ἐκ τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ που ngou pro iis qui ab adversario jactantur-ut eos mundes a vexatione mali.' viii. 12. Ἐάν τις δαίμονα ἔχῃ, κληρικὸς μὴ γινέσθω, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τοῖς πιστοῖς συνευχέσθω. καθαρισ θεὶς δὲ, προσδεχέσθω, καὶ ἐὰν ἢ ἄξιος, γινέσθω. ἄξιος, γινέσθω. “ Si quis dæmonem habeat, ne fiat clericus, sed nec una cum fidelibus oret: cum autem purgatus fuerit, recipiatur, et, si dignus extiterit, clericus fiat." Canon Ixx.

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Is it not probable that the antient Christians accounted mad, and melancholy, and epileptic people to be possessed, at least, for the most part? which would greatly increase the number of dæmoniacs. The Jews seem to have received some additional notions, concerning evil spirits and their operations, from the Chaldæans; and, after their return from the captivity, to have ascribed many diseases and disorders to these invisible agents, besides those which were not to be accounted for by natural causes; and in this the antient Christians followed them.

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Lightfoot says, Judæis usitatissimum erat morbos quosdam graviores, eos præsertim, quibus distortum erat corpus, vel mens turbata et agitata phrenesi, malis spiritibus attribuere.' Hor. Hebr. Hence those swarms of energumens and exorcists mentioned in ecclesiastical history.

The Constitutions perhaps command, but most certainly permit, infant-baptism. Βαπτίζετε δὲ ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ νήπια, καὶ ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσία Θεοῦ· “ but baptize even (or also) your infants, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God;' which shows that infantbaptism was practised when this book was written. There is no eluding this testimony; it signifies nothing to say that Tov is a word which may be extended beyond infancy, to thirteen or fifteen years: for, first, Christian education and instruction is mentioned as subsequent to baptism; secondly, in general precepts, the obvious and usual signification of the words is to be supposed the intention of the lawgiver; thirdly,

it is plain to the last degree that the word νήπιος, oι νήπιον, will not exclude infants of a day old:

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'Ut contra si quis sentiat, nihil'sentiat ;'

fourthly, the sentence is partly borrowed from Ephes. vi. 4. μὴ παροργίζετε τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν, ἀλλ' ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ ἐν παι δείᾳ καὶ νουθεσία Κυρίου but instead of τέκνα, νήπια is used, as denoting a more tender age. In the prayer for the faithful, a petition is offered up for Christian infants. To vív τῆς ἐκκλησίας μνημονεύσωμεν, ὅπως ὁ Κύριος, τελειώσας αὐτὰ ἐν τῷ φόβῳ αὐτοῦ, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας ἀγάγῃ· • Infantium ecclésiæ recordemur, uti Dominus eos in timore sui reddat perfectos, et ad mensuram ætatis perducat.' viii. 10. ta Via Spuvov infantes ad maturam ætatem perduc. viii. 15. Will any man be so unreasonable as to contend that

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here does not include babes; and that infants before they could walk and speak were excluded from the benefit and intention of these prayers?

Thus infant-baptism may be proved by the Constitutions; but at the same time the silence of the Scriptures upon this subject, compared with the clear declarations of the Constitutions, shows that these were drawn up after the apostolical age. vi. 15.

It is observable, however, that viii. 32. where directions are given who shall be admitted to baptism, no mention is made of infants.

The Constitutions make the validity of baptism to depend upon a certain form of invocation; and they seem to make it depend also upon the piety of the priest: which is a hard

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In the ceremonial of baptism, when the person is anointed, there is a form of prayer to be used; for, say they, sa εἰς ἕκαστον τούτων ἐπίκλησις γένηται παρὰ τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς ἱερέως τοιαύτη τις, εἰς ὕδωρ μόνον καταβαίνει ὁ βαπτιζόμε νος, ὡς Ἰουδαῖοι, καὶ ἀποτίθεται μόνον τὸν ῥύπον τοῦ σώμα τος, οὐ τὸν ῥύπον τῆς ψυχῆς. “Nisi in unumquodque eorum talis quæpiam invocatio a pio sacerdote adhibeatur, qui baptizatur in aquam tantum descendit, ut Judæi, et corporis tantum sordes, non autem animæ, deponit.' Where Cotelerius says, 'Loquitur de baptismate ordinario adulto-. rum, quod nisi sedulo ac rite juxta totain cærimoniam tra

datur a pio sacerdote, et suscipiatur a pio catechumeno, animæ sordes non depellit, nec suum obtinet effectum.'

In the middle of the third century, great disputes arose concerning rebaptizing those who had been baptized by he retics. The Constitutions and Canons determine that the baptism administered by heretics is invalid and null, vi. 15. which was the doctrine of Cyprian. In this controversy no appeal was made to the Constitutions. vii. 44.

The Constitutions represent adultery as a crime which was punished with death. Εἴ τις ἀδελφὸν λέγων ἑαυτὸν εἶναι, ἀπατηθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ Πονηροῦ κακοποιήσῃ, καὶ ἐλεγχθείς κατακριθῇ θανάτῳ ὡς μοιχὸς, ἢ φονεύς, χωρίζεσθε ἀπ' αὐ τοῦ. Si quis se fratrem esse dicens, Diaboli fraude maleficium commiserit, convictusque ad mortem damnatus fuerit, tanquam adulter, aut homicida, digredimini ab illo.' v. 2. . Constantine made a law to punish adultery with death; and before his time it had not been a capital crime, in that sense, in the Roman empire. The lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis' is discussed in Digest. 1. xlviii. tit. 5.; but we are not clearly informed there what was the punishment. It seems to have been relegatio, a kind of banishment. See Tacitus Ann. ii. 50, and the notes of Vertranius and Lipsius; Ann. iv. 42, and the Excursus of Lipsius, and Novell. cxxxiv. 10. and a treatise of Gerard Noodt, called 'Diocletianus et Maximianus, sive De transactione et pac tione criminum.'

In some cases, however, the father and the husband had a right to kill the guilty person surprised in the crime.

I mention not this as an unanswerable objection to the Constitutions, since death might have been the punishment of adultery in some places long before the law of Constanstine, and since the adulterous Christian might be no Roman

citizen.

The best parts of the Constitutions are some of the prayers, taken probably from old liturgies.

The Hellenistic language, as it is called, has been men tioned as a confirmation of the Constitutions. Now this Hellenistic style is nothing more than the style of one who translates a Hebrew book verbally into Greek, or who thinks in Hebrew and writes in Greek. Suppose any person at any time, whose native language is Greek, who is a Chris

tian, who reads few or no profane authors, who never studied his own tongue, who has frequently perused the Septuagint and the New Testament, and has them almost by heart, who writes upon a religious subject, who is perpetually citing the Scriptures; this person will write in the Hellenistic manner, more or less, and will have Hebrew idioms, even though he should not understand one word of the language, especially if he have a mind to affect that style, which is very easily imitated.

My friend Mr. Wasse, if I remember rightly, used to say that the style of the Constitutions was Hellenistic. Be this as it will, there are in them abundance of words and phrases never used by the writers of the New Testament, though they afterwards appear in ecclesiastical authors; and some which are not at all in the old Christian style: as for example, os Mwons, which seems polite and Pagan, rather than apostolical. vi. 25. The scribbler who is called Dionysius the Areopagite has the same expression, ygάper δὲ καὶ ὁ θεῖος Ιγνάτιος. De Div. Nomin, And so the Clementina Epitome, ὁ θεῖος Κλήμης, § 157. Ὁ θεῖος O 'ATÓTоhos, says Clemens Alex. speaking of St. Paul, i. p. 287, 602. but he is a learned writer, and borrows a thousand phrases from Pagans.

The Constitutions say that the Jews crucified malefactors, ii. 48. which is not true. See Le Clerc's Hammond on John xviii. 31. and Grotius on Galat. iii. 13.

They say that Herod ordered Christ to be crucified; which is a mistake. v. 19.

They say that Moses forbad the Jews to read the law out of the borders of their own country; which prohibition is not to be found. vi. 25.

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They order widows to stay at home, to be grave, &c. and then they censure those who ramble about, and are busy bodies, and idle talkers; and call them un xigas ana gas, not widows, but beggars' wallets,' eroious als TO` haμbáver, ever ready to receive.' But the beauty of the original is lost in the translation, because the words are nearly alike in sound, and different in sense: so that the jingle cannot be preserved. It is as if we should say in English,-such widows behave themselves not godly but odly. iii. 6.

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