Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John · Isaac Newton
CHAP. XIV.
_Of the _Mahuzzims_, honoured by the King who doth according to his will_. In scripture we are told of some _trusting in God_ and others _trusting in idols_, and that _God is our refuge, our strength, our defense_. In this sense God is _the rock of his people_, and false Gods are called _the rock of those that trust in them_, Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37. In the same sense the Gods of _the King_ who _shall do according to his will_ are called _Mahuzzims_, munitions, fortresses, protectors, guardians, or defenders. _In his estate_, saith [1] _Daniel_, _shall he honour _Mahuzzims_; even with a God whom his fathers knew not, shall he honour them with gold and silver, and with precious stones, and things of value. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds_ or temples;--_and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land_ among them _for a possession_. Now this came to pass by degrees in the following manner.
_Gregory Nyssen_ [2] tells us, that after the persecution of the Emperor _Decius_, _Gregory_ Bishop of _Neocæsarea_ in _Pontus_, _instituted among all people, as an addition or corollary of devotion towards God, that festival days and assemblies should be celebrated to them who had contended for the faith_, that is, to the _Martyrs_. And he adds this reason for the institution: _When he observed_, saith _Nyssen_, _that the simple and unskilful multitude, by reason of corporeal delights, remained in the error of idols; that the principal thing might be corrected among them, namely, that instead of their vain worship they might turn their eyes upon God; he permitted that at the memories of the holy Martyrs they might make merry and delight themselves, and be dissolved into joy_. The heathens were delighted with the festivals of their Gods, and unwilling to part with those delights; and therefore _Gregory_, to facilitate their conversion, instituted annual festivals to the _Saints_ and _Martyrs_.
Hence it came to pass, that for exploding the festivals of the heathens, the principal festivals of the _Christians_ succeeded in their room: as the keeping of _Christmas_ with ivy and feasting, and playing and sports, in the room of the _Bacchanalia_ and _Saturnalia_; the celebrating of _May-day_ with flowers, in the room of the _Floralia_; and the keeping of festivals to the Virgin _Mary_, _John_ the Baptist, and divers of the Apostles, in the room of the solemnities at the entrance of the Sun into the signs of the _Zodiac_ in the old _Julian_ Calendar. In the same persecution of _Decius_, _Cyprian_ ordered the passions of the Martyrs in _Africa_ to be registred, in order to celebrate their memories annually with oblations and sacrifices: and _Felix_ Bishop of _Rome_, a little after, as _Platina_ relates, _Martyrum gloria consulens, constituit at quotannis sacrificia eorum nomine celebrarentur_; "consulting the glory of the Martyrs, ordained that sacrifices should be celebrated annually in their name." By the pleasures of these festivals the _Christians_ increased much in number, and decreased as much in virtue, until they were _purged and made white_ by the persecution of _Dioclesian_. This was the first step made in the _Christian_ religion towards the veneration of the Martyrs: and tho it did not yet amount to an unlawful worship; yet it disposed the _Christians_ towards such a further veneration of the dead, as in a short time ended in the invocation of Saints.
The next step was the affecting to pray at the sepulchres of the Martyrs: which practice began in _Dioclesian_'s persecution. The Council of _Eliberis_ in _Spain_, celebrated in the third or fourth year of _Dioclesian_'s persecution, A.C. 305, hath these Canons. Can. 34. _Cereos per diem placuit in Coemeterio non incendi: inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt. Qui hæc non observârint, arceantur ab Ecclesiæ communione._ Can. 35. _Placuit prohiberi ne fæminæ in Coemeterio pervigilent, eò quod sæpe sub obtentu orationis latentèr scelera committant._ Presently after that persecution, suppose about the year 314, the Council of _Laodicea_ in _Phrygia_, which then met for restoring the lapsed discipline of the Church, has the following Canons. Can. 9. _Those of the Church are not allowed to go into the _Coemeteries_ or _Martyries_, as they are called, of hereticks, for the sake of prayer or recovery of health: but such as go, if they be of the faithful, shall be excommunicated for a time_. Can. 34. _A _Christian_ must not leave the Martyrs of _Christ_, and go to false Martyrs_, that is, to the Martyrs of the hereticks; _for these are alien from God: and therefore let those be anathema who go to them_. Can.
51. _The birth-days of the Martyrs shall not be celebrated in _Lent_, but their commemoration shall be made on the Sabbath-days and Lords days_. The Council of _Paphlagonia_, celebrated in the year 324, made this Canon: _If any man being arrogant, abominates the congregations of the Martyrs, or the Liturgies performed therein, or the memories of the Martyrs, let him be anathema_. By all which it is manifest that the _Christians_ in the time of _Dioclesian_'s persecution used to pray in the _Coemeteries_ or burying-places of the dead; for avoiding the danger of the persecution, and for want of Churches, which were all thrown down: and after the persecution was over, continued that practice in honour of the Martyrs, till new Churches could be built: and by use affected it as advantageous to devotion, and for recovering the health of those that were sick. It also appears that in these burying-places they commemorated the Martyrs yearly upon days dedicated to them, and accounted all these practices pious and religious, and anathematized those men as arrogant who opposed them, or prayed in the _Martyries_ of the hereticks. They also lighted torches to the Martyrs in the day-time, as the heathens did to their Gods; which custom, before the end of the fourth century, prevailed much in the _West_.
They sprinkled the worshipers of the Martyrs with holy-water, as the heathens did the worshipers of their Gods; and went in pilgrimage to see _Jerusalem_ and other holy places, as if those places conferred sanctity on the visiters. From the custom of praying in the _Coemeteries_ and _Martyries_, came the custom of translating the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs into such Churches as were new built: the Emperor _Constantius_ began this practice about the year 359, causing the bodies of _Andrew_ the Apostle, _Luke_ and _Timothy_, to be translated into a new Church at _Constantinople_: and before this act of _Constantius_, the _Egyptians_ kept the bodies of their Martyrs and Saints unburied upon beds in their private houses, and told stories of their souls appearing after death and ascending up to heaven, as _Athanasius_ relates in the life of _Antony_. All which gave occasion to the Emperor _Julian_, as _Cyril_ relates, to accuse the _Christians_ in this manner: _Your adding to that antient dead man, Jesus, many new dead men, who can sufficiently abominate? You have filled all places with sepulchres and monuments, altho you are no where bidden to prostrate yourselves to sepulchres, and to respect them officiously._ And a little after: _Since _Jesus_ said that sepulchres are full of filthiness, how do you invoke God upon them_? and in another place he saith, that if _Christians_ had adhered to the precepts of the _Hebrews_, _they would have worshiped one God instead of many, and not a man, or rather not many unhappy men_: And that they _adored the wood of the cross, making its images on their foreheads, and before their houses_.
After the sepulchres of Saints and Martyrs were thus converted into places of worship like the heathen temples, and the Churches into sepulchres, and a certain sort of sanctity attributed to the dead bodies of the Saints and Martyrs buried in them, and annual festivals were kept to them, with sacrifices offered to God in their name; the next step towards the invocation of Saints, was the attributing to their dead bodies, bones and other reliques, a power of working miracles, by means of the separate souls, who were supposed to know what we do or say, and to be able to do us good or hurt, and to work those miracles. This was the very notion the heathens had of the separate souls of their antient Kings and Heroes, whom they worshiped under the names of _Saturn_, _Rhea_, _Jupiter_, _Juno_, _Mars_, _Venus_, _Bacchus_, _Ceres_, _Osiris_, _Isis_, _Apollo_, _Diana_, and the rest of their Gods. For these Gods being male and female, husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister, are thereby discovered to be antient men and women.
Now as the first step towards the invocation of Saints was set on foot by the persecution of _Decius_, and the second by the persecution of _Dioclesian_; so this third seems to have been owing to the proceedings of _Constantius_ and _Julian_ the Apostate. When _Julian_ began to restore the worship of the heathen Gods, and to vilify the Saints and Martyrs; the _Christians_ of _Syria_ and _Egypt_ seem to have made a great noise about the miracles done by the reliques of the _Christian_ Saints and Martyrs, in opposition to the powers attributed by _Julian_ and the heathens to their Idols. For _Sozomen_ and _Ruffinus_ tell us, that when he opened the heathen Temples, and consulted the Oracle of _Apollo Daphnæus_ in the suburbs of _Antioch_, and pressed by many sacrifices for an answer; the Oracle at length told him that the bones of the Martyr _Babylas_ which were buried there hinder'd him from speaking. By which answer we may understand, that some _Christian_ was got into the place where the heathen Priests used to speak thro' a pipe in delivering their Oracles: and before this, _Hilary_ in his book against _Constantius_, written in the last year of that Emperor, makes the following mention of what was then doing in the _East_ where he was. _Sine martyrio persequeris.
Plus crudelitati vestræ _Nero_, _Deci_, _Maximiane_, debemus. Diabolum enim per vos vicimus. Sanctus ubique beatorum martyrum sanguis exceptus est, dum in his Dæmones mugiunt, dum ægritudines depelluntur, dum miraculorum opera cernuntur, elevari sine laqueis corpora, & dispensis pede fæminis vestes non defluere in faciem, uri sine ignibus spiritus, confiteri sine interrogantis incremento fidei_. And _Gregory Nazianzen_, in his first Oration against the Emperor _Julian_ then reigning, writes thus: _Martyres non extimuisti quibus præclari honores & festa constituta, à quibus Dæmones propelluntur & morbi curantur; quorum sunt apparitiones & prædictiones; quorum vel sola corpora idem possunt quod animæ sanctæ, sive manibus contrectentur, sive honorentur: quorum vel solæ sanguinis guttæ atque exigua passionis signa idem possunt quod corpora. Hæc non colis sed contemnis & aspernaris_. These things made the heathens in the reign of the same Emperor demolish the sepulchre of _John_ the Baptist in _Phoenicia_, and burn his bones; when several _Christians_ mixing themselves with the heathens, gathered up some of his remains, which were sent to _Athanasius_, who hid them in the wall of a Church; foreseeing by a prophetic spirit, as _Ruffinus_ tells us, that they might be profitable to future generations.
The cry of these miracles being once set on foot, continued for many years, and encreased and grew more general. _Chrysostom_, in his second Oration on St. _Babylas_, twenty years after the silencing of the Oracle of _Apollo Daphnæus_ as above, viz. A.C. 382, saith of the miracles done by the Saints and their reliques [3]: _Nulla est nostri hujus Orbis seu regio, seu gens, seu urbs, ubi nova & inopinata miracula hæc non decantentur; quæ quidem si figmenta fuissent, prorsus in tantam hominum admirationem non venissent_. And a little after: _Abunde orationi nostræ fidem faciunt quæ quotidiana à martyribus miracula eduntur, magna affatim ad illa hominum multitudine affluente_. And in his 66th Homily, describing how the Devils were tormented and cast out by the bones of the Martyrs, he adds: _Ob eam causam multi plerumque Reges peregrè profecti sunt, ut hoc spectaculo fruerentur. Siquidem sanctorum martyrum templa futuri judicii vestigia & signa exhibent, dum nimirum Dæmones flagris cæduntur, hominesque torquentur & liberantur. Vide quæ sanctorum vitâ functorum vis sit?_ And _Jerom_ in his Epitaph on _Paula_, thus [4] mentions the same things. _Paula vidit Samariam: ibi siti sunt Elisæus & Abdias prophetæ, & Joannes Baptista, ubi multis intremuit consternata miraculis.
Nam cernebat variis dæmones rugire cruciatibus, & ante sepulchra sanctorum ululare, homines more luporum vocibus latrare canum, fremere leonum, sibilare serpentum, mugire taurorum, alios rotare caput & post tergum terram vertice tangere, suspensisque pede fæminis vestes non defluere in faciem_. This was about the year 384: and _Chrysostom_ in his Oration on the _Egyptian_ Martyrs, seems to make _Egypt_ the ringleader in these matters, saying [5]: _Benedictus Deus quandoquidem ex Ægypto prodeunt martyres, ex Ægypto illa cum Deo pugnante ac insanissima, & unde impia ora, unde linguæ blasphemæ; ex Ægypto martyres habentur; non in Ægypto tantum, nec in finitima vicinaque regione, sed _UBIQUE TERRARUM_. Et quemadmodum in annonæ summa ubertate, cum viderunt urbium incolæ majorem quam usus habitatorum postulat esse proventum, ad peregrinas etiam urbes transmittunt: cum & suam comitatem & liberalitatem ostendant, tum ut præter horum abundantiam cum facilitate res quibus indigent rursus ab illis sibi comparent: sic & Ægyptii, quod attinet ad religionis athletas, fecerunt. Cum apud se multam eorum Dei benignitate copiam cernerent, nequaquam ingens Dei munus sua civitate concluserunt, sed in _OMNES TERRÆ PARTES_ bonorum thesauros effuderunt: cum ut suum in fratres amorem ostenderent, tum ut communem omnium dominum honore afficerent, ac civitati suæ gloriam apud omnes compararent, totiusque terrarum _ORBIS_ esse _METROPOLIN_ declararent.--Sanctorum enim illorum corpora quovis adamantino & inexpugnabili muro tutiùs nobis urbem communiunt, & tanquam excelsi quidam scopuli undique prominentes, non horum qui sub sensus cadunt & oculis cernuntur hostium impetus propulsant tantùm, sed etiam invisibilium dæmonum insidias, omnesque diaboli fraudes subvertunt ac dissipant.--Neque vero tantùm adversus hominum insidias aut adversus fallacias dæmonum utilis nobis est hæc possessio, sed si nobis communis dominus ob peccatorum multitudinem irascatur, his objectis corporibus continuo poterimus eum propitium reddere civitati_.
This Oration was written at _Antioch_, while _Alexandria_ was yet the Metropolis of the _East_, that is, before the year 381, in which _Constantinople_ became the Metropolis: and it was a work of some years for the _Egyptians_ to have distributed the miracle-working reliques of their Martyrs over all the world, as they had done before that year. _Egypt_ abounded most with the reliques of Saints and Martyrs, the _Egyptians_ keeping them embalmed upon beds even in their private houses; and _Alexandria_ was eminent above all other cities for dispersing them, so as on that account to acquire glory with all men, and manifest herself to be the _Metropolis_ of the world. _Antioch_ followed the example of _Egypt_, in dispersing the reliques of the forty Martyrs: and the examples of _Egypt_ and _Syria_ were soon followed by the rest of the world.
The reliques of the forty Martyrs at _Antioch_ were distributed among the Churches before the year 373; for _Athanasius_ who died in that year, wrote an Oration upon them. This Oration is not yet published, but _Gerard Vossius_ saw it in MS. in the Library of Cardinal _Ascanius_ in _Italy_, as he says in his commentary upon the Oration of _Ephræm Syrus_ on the same forty Martyrs. Now since the Monks of _Alexandria_ sent the reliques of the Martyrs of _Egypt_ into all parts of the earth, and thereby acquired glory to their city, and declared her in these matters the Metropolis of the whole world, as we have observed out of _Chrysostom_; it may be concluded, that before _Alexandria_ received the forty Martyrs from _Antioch_, she began to send out the reliques of her own Martyrs into all parts, setting the first example to other cities. This practice therefore began in _Egypt_ some years before the death of _Athanasius_. It began when the miracle-working bones of _John_ the Baptist were carried into _Egypt_, and hid in the wall of a Church, _that they might be profitable to future generations_. It was restrained in the reign of _Julian_ the Apostate: and then it spred from _Egypt_ into all the Empire, _Alexandria_ being the Metropolis of the whole world, according to _Chrysostom_, for propagating this sort of devotion, and _Antioch_ and other cities soon following her example.
In propagating these superstitions, the ring-leaders were the Monks, and _Antony_ was at the head of them: for in the end of the life of _Antony_, _Athanasius_ relates that these were his dying words to his disciples who then attended him. _Do you take care_, said _Antony_, _to adhere to _Christ_ in the first place, and then to the Saints, that after death they may receive you as friends and acquaintance into the everlasting tabernacles, Think upon these things, perceive these things; and if you have any regard to me, remember me as a father_. This being delivered in charge to the Monks by _Antony_ at his death, A.C. 356, could not but inflame their whole body with devotion towards the Saints, as the ready way to be received, by them into the eternal Tabernacles after death. Hence came that noise about the miracles, done by the reliques of the Saints in the time of _Constantius_: hence came the dispersion of the miracle-working reliques into all the Empire; _Alexandria_ setting the example, and being renowned, for it above all other cities. Hence it came to pass in the days of _Julian_, A.C.
362, that _Athanasius_ by a prophetic spirit, as _Ruffinus_ tells us, hid the bones of _John_ the Baptist from the Heathens, not in the ground to be forgotten, but in the hollow wall of a Church before proper witnesses, that they might _be profitable to future generations_. Hence also came the invocation of the Saints for doing such miracles, and for assisting men in their devotions, and mediating with God. For _Athanasius_, even from his youth, looked upon the dead Saints and Martyrs as mediators of our prayers: in his Epistle to _Marcellinus_, written in the days of _Constantine_ the great, he saith that the words of the _Psalms_ are not to be transposed or any wise changed, but to be recited and sung without any artifice, as they are written, _that the holy men who delivered them, knowing them to be their own words, may pray with us; or rather, that the Holy Ghost who spake in the holy men, seeing his own words with which he inspired them, may join_ with them _in assisting us_.
Whilst _Egypt_ abounded with Monks above any other country, the veneration of the Saints began sooner, and spred faster there than in other places. _Palladius_ going into _Egypt_ in the year 388 to visit the Monasteries, and the sepulchres of _Apollonius_ and other Martyrs of _Thebais_ who had suffered under _Maximinus_, saith of them: _Iis omnibus Christiani fecerunt ædem unam, ubi nunc multæ virtutes peraguntur. Tanta autem fuit viri gratia, ut de iis quæ esset precatus statim exaudiretur, eum sic honorante servatore: quem etiam nos in martyrio precati vidimus, cum iis qui cum ipso fuerunt martyrio affecti; & Deum adorantes, eorum corpora salutavimus._ _Eunapius_ also, a heathen, yet a competent witness of what was done in his own times, relating how the soldiers delivered the temples of _Egypt_ into the hands of the Monks, which was done in the year 389, rails thus in an impious manner at the Martyrs, as succeeding in the room of the old Gods of _Egypt_. _Illi ipsi, _milites_, Monachos Canobi quoque collocârunt, ut pro Diis qui animo cernuntur, servos & quidem flagitiosos divinis honoribus percolerent, hominum mentibus ad cultum ceremoniasque obligatis. Ii namque condita & salita eorum capita, qui ob scelerum multitudinem à judicibus extremo judicio fuerant affecti, pro Divis ostentabant; iis genua submittebant, eos in Deorum numerum receptabant, ad illorum sepulchra pulvere sordibusque conspurcati. Martyres igitur vocabantur, & ministri quidem & legati arbitrique precum apud Deos; cum fuerint servilia infida & flagris pessimè subacta, quæ cicatrices scelerum ac nequitiæ vestigia corporibus circumferunt; ejusmodi tamen Deos fert tellus_. By these instances we may understand the invocation of Saints was now of some standing in _Egypt_, and that it was already generally received and practised there by the common people.
Thus _Basil_ a Monk, who was made Bishop of _Cæsarea_ in the year 369, and died in the year 378, in his Oration on the Martyr _Mamas_, saith: _Be ye mindful of the Martyr; as many of you as have enjoyed him in your dreams, as many as in this place have been assisted by him in prayer, as many of you as upon invoking him by name have had him present in your works, as many as he has reduced into the way from wandering, as many as he has restored to health, as, many as have had their dead children restored by him to life, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him_: and a little after, he thus expresses the universality of this superstition in the regions of _Cappadocia_ and _Bithynia_: _At the memory of the Martyr_, saith he, _the whole region is moved; at his festival the whole city is transported with joy. Nor do the kindred of the rich turn aside to the sepulchres of their ancestors, but all go to the place of devotion._ Again, in the end of the Homily he prays, that _God would preserve the Church, thus fortified with the great towers of the Martyrs_: and in his Oration on the forty Martyrs; _These are they_, saith he, _who obtaining our country, like certain towers afford us safety against our enemies. Neither are they shut up in one place only, but being distributed are sent into many regions, and adorn many countries.--You have often endeavoured, you have often laboured to find one who might pray for you: here are forty, emitting one voice of prayer.--He that is in affliction flies to these, he that rejoices has recourse to these: the first, that he may be freed from evil, the last that he may continue in happiness.
Here a woman praying for her children is heard; she obtains a safe return for her husband from abroad, and health for him in his sickness.--O ye common keepers of mankind, the best companions of our cares, suffragans and coadjutors of our prayers, most powerful embassadors to God_, &c. By all which it is manifest, that before the year 378, the Orations and Sermons upon the Saints went much beyond the bounds of mere oratorical flourishes, and that the common people in the _East_ were already generally corrupted by the Monks with Saint-worship. _Gregory Nazianzen_ a Monk, in his sixth Oration written A.C. 373, when he was newly made Bishop of _Sasima_, saith: _Let us purify ourselves to the Martyrs, or rather to the God of the Martyrs_: and a little after he calls the Martyrs _mediators of obtaining an ascension or divinity_. The same year, in the end of his Oration upon _Athanasius_ then newly dead, he thus invokes him: _Do thou look down upon us propitiously, and govern this people, as perfect adorers of the perfect Trinity, which in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is contemplated and worshiped: if there shall be peace, preserve me, and feed my flock with me; but if war, bring me home, place me by thyself, and by those that are like thee; however great my request._ And in the end of the funeral Oration upon _Basil_, written A.C. 378, he thus addresses him: _But thou, O divine and sacred Head, look down upon us from heaven; and by thy prayers either take away that thorn of the flesh which is given us by God for exercise, or obtain that we may bear it with courage, and direct all our life to that which is most fitting for us. When we depart this life, receive us there in your Tabernacles, that living together and beholding the holy and blessed Trinity more purely and perfectly, whereof we have now but an imperfect view, we may there come to the end of our desires, and receive this reward of the wars which we have waged or suffered_: and in his Oration upon _Cyprian_, not the Bishop of _Carthage_, but a _Greek_, he invokes him after the same manner; and tells us also how a pious Virgin named _Justina_, was protected by invoking the Virgin _Mary_, and how miracles were done by the ashes of _Cyprian_.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.