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388 Credibility of the Gospel History.
inhabit. Supposing- that the conflagration and dissolution
of our earth would happen on a Lord's-day, and not knowing
which, they ever passed that day in fasting and prayer,
that the Lord, when he came, might find them in the exercise
of humiliation and repentance.
V. The Manichees, or however those of Africa, kept
Easter, as we learn from'' Augustine ; who only blames them
that they did not keep it with sufiicient solemnity.
Beausobre supposes that" there is no good reason to doubt
of their keeping the feast of Pentecost.
In the month'* of March, and therefore usually about the
time of Easter, they celebrated the anniversary of the martyrdom
of Mani, which was called Bema, or the master's
chair.
VI. Their ecclesiastical "^ constitution' we saw formerly,
in the passage of Augustine concerning their elect and
auditors.
It is likely they had also some ecclesiastical discipline,
and that censures of their church were pronounced upon
bad livers. This is supposed in a story told by Augustine
of an indecency committed by some of the elect, whilst he
was of that sect. He says, that*^ he and others were oflTended,
and expected that the men should have been excommuni-
cated, or at least sharply reproved ; but, as it seems, little
notice was taken of the matter. The excuse they made
was, that their assemblies were then prohibited by the laws,
and therefore some inconvenience might happen, if their principal
men were disobliged. He argues with them, ass if an
elect would be degraded for eating the smallest bit of flesh.
'' Cum
saepe a vobis quaBrerein, illo tempore quo vos audiebam, quae causa
esset, quod Pascha Domini plerumqiie nulla, interdum a paucis tepidissima
festivitate frequentaretur, cum vestrum Bema, id est, dieni quo Mani-
chaeus occisus est, quinque gradibus instructo tribunali, et pretiosis Imteis
adornato, magnis honoribus prosequamini ? Contr. Ep. Manich. c. 8.
n. 9.