prosecute more largely when I come to shew the Grounds and Reasons upon which this Duty of Universal Subjection is founded and these I shall demonstrate from the Use the Nature and the Original of Government that cannot subsist but upon its supposition And then I shall take an account of all the republican and antimonarchical Principles and shew that all their Hypotheses concerning Government first contrived by the Common-wealths-men of Greece stand upon no firmer bottom than meer fable and poetry and in particular that their fundamental Principle of deriving all Government from the People is built upon no wiser supposition then this That the World was once peopled with Men and Women that sprung out of the Earth both without a Creatour and without Parents And then in the last place shew that the Hildebrandinists of all Sects Bellarmine Suarez Mariana Lessius Becanus Boucherius and others on the Papal side Buchanan Junius Brutus Rutherford Mr. B. and other of the Presbyterian side all agree in this one Principle of deriving the Government from the People and make it the last pretence of all their pleas for resistance upon what account soever In the mean time I proceed upon the Authority of the Scriptures §. 8. That is the second advantage that the Christian Religion brings along with it for the security of Civil Government viz. the many Laws that it has injoyn'd to bind Subjects to an entire and absolute subjection The third is this That those that are entrusted with highest Authority in the Church are most severely forbidden to challenge to themselves any temporal power or dominion and strictly commanded to exercise their own jurisdiction with all manner of meekness and humility towards their Inferiours and an exemplary submission to their Superiours And this is a new Tye upon them beside all the former obligations from the nature of Christianity the doctrine of the Cross the Precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles in common to them with all other Christians to an entire and unreserved subjection Thus when our Saviour had constituted the Apostles supreme Governours in his Church he beats them all off from all Thoughts of worldly pride and ambition and instructs them to exercise their Power though it were so very great with that complyance and condescention as if they had in reality none at all For all our Saviour's Precepts to his Apostles to avoid domination relate wholly to the manner of exercising their Authority and not to the Authority it self as the Enemies to the Christian Church would force them to imply For that the Apostles were vested with true and proper Power is evident both from their Office all the Acts whereof we have shewn to be Authoritative and from our Saviour's own immediate Grant in which he expressly declares That he leaves to them and their Successours the same Power that himself had received from his Father So that if he had any real Authority at all so had they too and if they had none neither had he And therefore those several Texts that are usually alledged to take away the Power of the Church cannot be understood of any thing but the manner of its exercise without any pride or haughtiness and with all manner of gentleness and condescention to those that were under their Authority And if we take an Account of the particular passages themselves they will force us to take them in this sense and no other Thus when they were contending among themselves our Saviour calls them to him and tells them The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you But whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief or Ruler among you let him be your Servant even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Which words though they are alledged by Grotius in the Book of his Youth de Imperio against all manner of Authority in the Church beside that of perswasion which is none at all Yet in his Notes upon the Gospels he clearly shews the Vanity and the Falsehood of that Interpretation And no wonder when it is done so expressly by the Words themselves in which our Saviour shews his Apostles how they may observe this Rule by following his Example Now it is plain says he that it cannot be said of him that he had no Authority when he says of himself that he had all Power in Heaven and Earth and therefore it cannot refer to the Being of Authority it self but to its kind and the manner of using it That as he notwithstanding the greatness of his Dignity behaved himself rather like a Servant than a Lord and instead of imperious commanding his Subjects condescended to the lowest Offices towards them thereby to endear them to himself and the gentleness of his Government so should all Pastours and Governours in the Christian Church not insult and domineer over their Flocks not govern them with an arbitrary Power or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tyrannical dominion as Gregory Nazianzen expresses it nor enslave them to their own interest and insolence as the Roman Prefects did the Provinces particularly the Governours or Ethnarchs of Judaea who as Josephus informs us were known by the particular Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactours But to treat them with all gentleness and to be so far from using them like Slaves that they should rather behave themselves to them like Servants i. e. in short to mix nothing of Arrogance with their Authority And that truly becomes the Person and Dignity of a Christian Prelate as St. Chrysostom paraphrases upon it to be affable and courteous to be kind and gentle to be familiar and condescending to the meanest Persons this gains him respect with all Men and makes his Authority much greater then it would be without it Men will much more readily obey a Superiour that obliges more then he commands Whereas on the contrary says he if a Bishop be proud and surly or if rough and peevish or if when he ought to reprove he scold and braul or if when he should command he huffs or domineers or if he affect to be troublesome to his Inferiours and shew the greatness of his Power by nothing else then being pert and vexatious he justly exposes himself to the contempt of all Men loses the respect due to his Person and the Reverence due to his Place Nothing so odious or despicable as a Clown in any Authority but in Church Authority it is so offensive that the indignity of it is not to be express't it is so wide a contradiction to the Place and Office Now the sense of this Text being thus stated as it is by this Eloquent Father it fixes the meaning of all the rest thus when St. Peter exhorts the Pastors not to Lord it over God's heritage where it is all one whether
to their demands and justifie them in their Schism because they dissent not from her in any matters clearly reveal'd which alone the Church has Power to impose and to charge the Church of Tyranny for daring to impose any other conditions of Communion then what are imposed by Divine Authority An excellent way of accommodation this in behalf of the Church of England to condemn her whole practice of illegal and unwarrantable Usurpation and allow the Pleas of the Dissenters just and reasonable And what is worst of all to take away all Government in the Church for ever and the Church it self too when it is evident from common sense that it can never subsist without a Legislative Authority within it self but that I shall have occasion to discourse of more copiously hereafter when I come to shew what injury is done to the Church of England by these false Principles of accommodation I shall at present content my self with proving it by experience and representing the particular Laws made by the Ancient Governors of the Church from time to time to secure and provide for its own Peace and Tranquility And by it I shall make good these three considerable Points First the great Authority inherent in them and independent on any Civil Power Secondly their great wisdom in the use and exercise of it for by the particulars it will appear that they generally acted upon wise and prudent reasons And thirdly the absolute necessity of it when we shall see by the Example of every age that there is no way of preserving any manner of Peace in the Church without it And to begin with the first Decree made by the Apostles themselves to accommodate the contrary prejudices of Jews and Gentiles If they had obliged the Gentiles to comply with the whole Law of Moses that would have look't like an attempt to bring them under the old intolerable Bondage and tempt them rather to renounce Christianity then submit to such a grievous Yoke And if they had wholly exempted them from the Mosaick Law that would have as much endangered the Apostacy of the Jews thinking that they should thereby have renounced the God of the Law for it was not easie to every capacity to distinguish between rejecting the Law and the Lawgiver And therefore to satisfie and avoid the prejudices of both Parties they agreed To lay no greater burthens then these necessary things that they abstain from Meats offer'd to Idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood Where by things necessary it is plain that they mean things necessary at that time and place for that they were not so in all times and places is evident not only from the direction of their Synodical Epistle to the particular Churches of Syria and Cilicia but from their not imposing the same Decree upon other Churches that were not in the same Circumstances In the Churches of Syria and Cilicia that confined upon Judaea the Jews were very numerous and therefore to avoid offending i. e. tempting them to renounce the Christian Faith it was requisite to make it a standing rule to them at that time that all Christians abstain from the Oblations to Idols and that would wholly prevent their great fear of Idolatry But on the contrary because the Church of Corinth consisted chiefly of Gentiles the same rule was not made peremptory and universal to them but they were left to their own liberty to eat Meats offered to Idols as they judged most consistent with Christian prudence and charity as they are directed by their Ghostly Father St. Paul This is all that I can make of that great Council and though they were endued with the Holy Ghost yet they proceeded by no other Rule then common prudence and discretion And if they had taken the same method that our Schismatiques and Pacificators would oblige the present Church to to search for a determination of this casual dispute in their Masters own Laws I doubt they would have been very much at a loss to have found any thing like such a decree amongst all his Precepts And yet there was as much reason that they should refer all Acts of Government to be determin'd by his own express Decree as that their Successors should refer them to theirs But next to this Apostolical Synod the Apostolical Canons are the greatest and earliest Demonstration of the Legislative Authority of the Christian Church being compiled by their next Successors in the second and third Centuries by which we understand the true settlement of the Church as the Apostles left it for all the Canons relating to Government are no new Laws but only declarations of old Customs so that though they were not Apostolical Laws they were true and early Records of Apostolical Customs and by them the practice of Church-Government was so entirely setled that they were ever after the Rule and Pattern to the determinations of following Councils And most of the chief Canons both General and Provincial were only Ratifications of these old Decrees to recover their just Authority when any of them had been neglected or violated or additional provisions in pursuance of their general design in new particular Cases For which it seems every Age found matter enough to suppress some Mens extravagant and wanton fancies and it was the new rising of Schisms and Heresies that gave occasion to enacting all the Laws of the Church But these Apostolical Canons being as it were the Institutes or Magna Charta of the Ecclesiastical Laws and being withal enacted in this Period of time that we are now in by pure Ecclesiastical Authority I shall give a brief view of them to let the Reader see the exact Model of the Primitive Church as reduced to practice and brought to perfection by the Apostles and their immediate Successors In the first place therefore because nothing has so great an influence upon the welfare of the Church as the setting up good and wise Governors over it great care is taken against rash Ordination of Bishops so that though every Bishop has an inherent Right in himself to conveigh his own Authority to another yet is it here fixt and has remain'd so through all Ages as a standing Law to the Church that every Bishop be Consecrated by three Bishops at least or two in cases of necessity Now though this Rule has been observed and practiced in all Churches over all the World and is so highly useful to the good Government of the Church by not entrusting a matter of such weight to the discretion of a single Person yet I believe it will be a very hard task to find any thing like a clear Precept requiring it in the Holy Scriptures So apparently repugnant is the principle of the Projectors of Accommodation against unscriptural impositions to the very first Law that was made in the Christian Church after the Apostles and if they pleased it might as well be used to take away this prudent Practice
Grant and Commission And that certainly is as high a Prerogative as any Prince can care to demand to have a Sovereign Power over all the Powers within his own Dominions So that whether they are derived from his Authority or not they shall be as entirely Subject to it as if they had subsisted by no other Charter And that is as high a Supremacy as Mr. Hobbs himself has been pleased to challenge for Sovereign Princes when he took away all Power from the Church to vest it in them for though it is a very gross prophaneness in him to allow no Authority for Religion it self then as it is enjoyn'd and made Law by them yet that Authority that is in the Church by Divine Right is as absolutely Subject to their Dominion as it could have been had it been establisht as Mr. Hobbs contends only by their own Authority And this State of the Controversie if it can be made good I am certain will satisfie all Parties that can claim any share or degree of Government in Church or State but most of all the Supreme Powers to whose Soveraignty all Power whatsoever it is or whencesoever derived is indispensibly Subjected As for the Jurisdiction of the Church as settled by Divine Right and nothing else I have discoursed of that in former Treatises and proved that it is immediately derived from our Saviour himself and settled unalienably by him upon the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops forever so that here I must suppose the Constitution of the Christian Church within it self and all that I am bound to do at present is That supposing its distinct and independent Authority for granted to explain how it accommodates and submits it self to the Civil State and comes under the common obligation of all good Subjects to true Allegiance and Loyalty to the Sovereign Prince §. II. And here the first and chiefest thing to be consider'd is That Christianity supposes the Power of Princes Civil Government being settled in the World from its beginning by the general Providence of God and antecedently to our Saviour's particular Institution And therefore as the first thing that our Saviour openly declared when he enter'd upon his Office was the erection of his own new Kingdom so the next thing that he took care to instruct his Subjects in was that this his Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World So that from thence it is evident that he left the Government of the Kingdoms of this World in the same posture in which they had ever stood be ore he came into it And therefore there could be no alteration much less abatement of the Civil Government any where upon the score of his Authority otherwise the Institution of his Kingdom had been a breach upon the Ancient Rights of those Sovereign Powers in whose Dominions it was erected which was the first thing that our Saviour whilst himself conversed upon Earth was careful to avoid This therefore is to be set down in the first place as the Fundamental Article of his Religion that neither himself nor any of those that he has deputed for the Government of it challenge any Temporal Power to themselves or any exemption from the Authority of those that have it Neither is this to be lookt upon only as a positive duty but it is necessary in it self from the nature and the design of Christianity which was to settle a pure Religion in the World by the strength of its own truth and goodness without any help of worldly power or mixture of worldly interest as I have elsewhere shewn at large from the whole story of its first settlement And therefore agreeable to this great Observation it is very remarkable That our Saviour himself whilst he convers'd upon Earth did not only never challenge any kind of Civil Authority to himself but seiz'd all occasions to defie and disclaim it as absolutely inconsistent with his Commission Thus John 6. 15. When the People supposing him to be that Temporal Messias that they expected would have forced him to take the Kingdom upon himself he immediately withdrew into a Solitude to shift their importunity And Luke 12. 13 14. When one solicited him only to take upon him the Authority of an Arbitrator he perfectly disavows it as if he were solicitous not to give them the least pretence of Objection against him for his intermedling with the Civil Government And yet he might lawfully have done â—t according to the received custom of the Jews at that time for in the Babylonish Captivity to avoid the scandal of Contention before Heathens they referred all their Controversies to the Rabbies and Doctors of the Law and such an one this Jew supposed our Saviour to have been as appears by his giving him their proper Title of Master and whoever refused to stand to their award he was Excommunicated their Society as a scandal to the Jewish Nation And this priviledge of being their own Judges among themselves was granted to them by the Romans and for a long time continued by the Christian Emperors themselves And therefore though our Saviour might have undertaken this Office by the allowance and permission of the Civil Government yet to avoid all suspicions of any such imputation he protests against it as unbecoming his own Office and Person And the case is the very same as to the Woman taken in Adultery Joh. 8. 3. of whom he declares that he had no such Authority as they imagin'd to pass any Sentence upon her according to their Law so that if she were not legally condemn'd before they brought her before him she was at liberty for any such Power that he had to pass Sentence upon her But the most remarkable passage for his disclaiming all Earthly Power is in his Examination before Pontius Pilate Joh. 18. 36. to whom he freely confesses that he is a King but to prevent his jealousie or mistake he both immediately declares that his Kingdom is not of this World * and clearly explains what he means by it For If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be deliver'd to the Jews From which words we understand his evident meaning when he professes that his Kingdom is not of this World that it is not endued with any power of the Sword So that for any of his Officers or Subjects to make any resistance to the Civil Power by the Sword in defence of his Kingdom is to destroy the very nature of itâ— Constitution that consists in this that it is to be govern'd by the power of Truth and is distinguisht from the Kingdoms of this World in that it is a Kingdom without the power of the Sword And therefore for any Officers in it to pretend to any such Power by virtue of any Authority or Commission from him is at oncâ— both to dethrone and renounce his Kingly Power because it is a contradiction to his whole design in the World to have
lies at the bottom of all this witty Authors folly and Philosophy it must be confessed that there can be no Ecclesiastical Power over the Christian Church either in the Clergy or any Man else because upon it there is neither Christian Church nor Christian Religion and then it is certain that there can be no Power over nothing So vain are all the Attempts against that Authority that our Blessed Saviour has granted to the Apostolical Succession that it cannot be removed by any other Principles then what directly overthrow Christianity it self upon those Terms it must be parted with but upon no other And though Mr. Hobbs speaks out more boldly then his Neighbours yet all the followers of Erastus and all that will own â— certain Form of Government establisht in the Church by Divine Right cannot avoid the Church of Leviathan And therefore to proceed with him as Fore-man to speak for all the rest it is evident that beside the Authority by which the Apostles and their Successors act every act that they are enabled to by their Commission is in its own Nature and as such an Authoritative Act. First such is the power of Preaching and Teaching i. e. the power of publishing the Laws of the Gospel to all Nations and requiring all Mens Obedience to them under the sanction of the greatest Rewards and Penalties And if Mr. Hobbs can affirm that exacting Obedience upon such terms be no piece of Authority it is in vain either to reason with himself or any other Man of his Kidney or Understanding But he proves it to be so because The Apostles were Preachers and Preachers are Cryers and Cryers have no right to Command Among the many bad qualities in this Author's way of writing his contempt of other Mens understandings is none of the least for if he had not a very low Opinion of their intellectual Abilities he could never have presumed to impose upon them by such childish pretences And the truth of it is he talks not as if he discoursed to Men but to Magpies Parots and Jackdaws that are to learn to chatter his Dictates by Rote For is it not a strange grossness of Confidence that when our Blessed Saviour came from God to publish a new Law to the World and enforce it with the severest Penalties and when he gave the same Commission to his Apostles that himself had received from his Father to publish this Law to the World though they do it with all this Authority to infer that they do it with none at all because when they declare their Message they open their mouths as Cryers do when they make Proclamations and so the original Word signifies any kind of publick Declaration And what if it were the proper term for the Cryers Office it may for all that in common Speech be applyed to any other way of Publication it will be hard to find out any one word in the World so severely stinted to its original Import However every School-boy could have inform'd the old Philosopher that this word is not so confin'd and that it is not is evident from the very passage it self because the Apostles that are said to Proclaim or Cry the Gospel to all Nations do not make a simple Proclamation but require Obedience to what they publish under the most forcible obligation of Rewards and Punishments And such Proclamation as that whatever the term Proclaiming may signifie in its naked sense brings with it as much Authority as it is possible for Government to put in practice But he farther affirms in proof of no Authority in the Church That the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel are our School-Masters and not our Commanders But beside that this is an Arbitrary Assertion of his own devising to assign them the Office of School-Masters for the Scripture no where does so The Authority of a School-Master is some Authority for though he have not the Power of the Sword he has that of the Rod and that is as effectual for his purpose among Boys as the other among Men. So that there is no Logique in the Argument neither can I believe so witty a Man to have been so weak as to have brought it for that purpose but rather because he thought the comparison was a witty slur upon Christianity as if it were as childish and contemptible an Office to instruct men in it as it is to teach Boys and Children their Elements of Speech That is a shrewd hint though the next comparison is much more poinant That our Saviour compares Preaching to Fishing i. e. to winning Men to Obedience not by coertion and punishing but by perswasion and therefore our Saviour calls not Apostles hunters of Men but fishers of Men. Now though his endeavour to prove that there is no Authority in the Officers of the Church because they have no Civil Authority is altogether vain and trifling because he only presumes what no Man will grant him that there is no other Authority in the World yet here his way of demonstration is somewhat more then usually pleasant viz. That they were endued with no power of Coertion because our Saviour has constituted them not his Huntsmen but his Fishermen Where I think it would require the Acuteness of Mr. Hobbs's wit to make it out why there is less Coertion in Fishing then in Hunting especially in Net-fishing which was their former Trade to which he knows our Saviour there alludes when this mighty difficulty is cleared up I may come to understand the force of the Argument but till then I must confess it is above my reach But hitherto it is evident that notwithstanding all this Gentleman 's Grammatical Demonstrations from Cryers School-Masters and Fishers that the Commission granted to the Apostles and their Successors to preach the Gospel did not only carry proper Authority in it but the highest sort of Authority because enforced with the greatest Rewards and Penalties and that every man knows is the very Life and Soul of all Power The next branch of their Commission is to Baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and though the Philosopher would here make himself merry not only with the Sacrament but with the Holy Trinity in whose Name it is Administred yet after all his pains to prove it no Authority he fairly confesses That it is an Authority either to Baptize or refuse to Baptize because Baptism is the Sacrament of Allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God But certainly if they have Power to grant or deny them this Sacrament i. e. to receive them into the Kingdom of God or shut them out of it if there be any such thing as Power in the World there cannot be a greater then this And consequent to this Authority he says is the Remission and Retention of Sins or the Power of Loosing and Binding and for this I must confess he gives a pertinent reason for so he is
of enquiry which though a fault is by no means so disingenuous as acting against knowledge But as for this Case of Apostates in time of Persecution upon whom Mr. Hobbs says Excommunication could have no effect of Terrour If indeed the Providence of God had not given them sufficient evidence of their Faith I will grant it to be true not only of that but of all the other Threatnings of the Gospel But if God have given sufficient motives of belief as if the Gospel be not a cheat he has if it be all Mr. Hobbs's dispute is without bottom a Man's Apostacy is no Fence against the Reflections of his own Conscience For though it is in his Power to deny his Faith for fear of Persecution yet it is not in his Power to disbelieve it So that upon such a Man the Sentence of Excommunication by which he is cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven lights with as much Terrour as upon any other Believer And there is nothing more evident in the History of the Primitive Church then the Efficacy of this Sentence upon such Offenders For the greatest part of those that fell in time of Persecution were by this means alone recover'd to the Church brought to sue for pardon and undergo very severe Penances as a satisfaction for the Scandal But to what purpose do I put my self to the trouble to prove these things when all Mr. Hobbs's discourse upon this Argument runs upon this supposition as if Christianity were but a trivial and indifferent thing that might or might not be believed as Men variously fancied or were casually inclined And upon that supposition I will freely grant it to be of as little effect as he would have it But if the Providence of God hath given us such a Demonstrative Evidence of the Divine Authority of this Religion that no Man who inquires into it can wink against its Light without doing violence to his own Convictions then whether Men will or no it will be a perpetual Terrour to their Consciences And that this slight Opinion of the Evidence of Christianity though upon what slight and indeed ignorant pretences I have elsewhere shewn is the bottom of Mr. Hobbs's meaning is too manifest from his next branch of the Supremacy of Sovereign Powers which indeed is neither better nor worse then bare-faced Blasphemy And that is the Power of making Scripture Law i. e. Obligatory But if that be the state of the Christian Religion that it is not at all material whether a Man regard it or not for any Obligation or Authority in it self Mr. Hobbs is not to be blamed unless in point of Prudence for all those irreverend abuses that he has been pleased to put upon it But if it be made Law by the Command of God as it is if it be not all imposture in pretending falsly to his Authority then whatever the Sovereign is pleased to make of it Mr. Hobbs and all his Followers that will allow it no obligation but from Man stand Convicted of the most manifest Treason and Blasphemy against the Sovereign Lord of all and this part of Ecclesiastical Supremacy of making Scripture Law that they give to Kings they take away from God himself After all this rank prophaneness it is almost needless to consider his last branch of Ecclesiastical Power viz. the Right of Ordaining and Constituting Ecclesiastical Officers not only because it is of the same Nature and derived from the same Divine Authority with all the other particulars of the Apostolical Commission but because himself grants it in general by placing it in the People For if it be any where that is enough against himself that denies all manner of Power in the Church but most of all because he has confessed and no Man can deny it the whole truth of the matter both against the Hobbist and the Independant too viz. That the Apostles conveighed their Authority to their Successors whom themselves Deputed and Ordained by Imposition of hands and if so this Power of constituting Successors resided in them alone because no Man could be constituted an Officer in the Church but by their Imposition of hands or those to whom by it they Transmitted their Power So that whatever interest they might permit the People in their Choice or Nomination of their Officers the whole power of Constituting them in their Office and Authority lay in themselves alone §. IV. But Mr. Hobbs having hitherto treated of the Power Ecclesiastical as it stood before the Conversion of Kings and Men endued with Sovereign Civil Power and after his rate of Demonstration proved it to be no Power at all whilst vested in the Pastors of the Church he comes now to prove that it is lodged in Civil Sovereigns upon their Conversion to the Christian Faith and that when it comes to them it becomes true and proper Power But before I consider his small Arguments I cannot understand why that which was no Power before becomes Power now There can be but one reason for it and that is too obvious in all Mr. Hobbs's Writings viz. Because it is now abetted with the Penalties of this life whereas before it was only abetted with the Penalties of the life to come so that the plain English of the Assertion if spoken out is this that there are no penalties at all but in this life and then I must confess that the power of the Church can be no Power till complicated with the Civil Power But the man that discourses upon such Principles as these has nothing to do with the Christian Religion or any thing relating to it But secondly Which way came this Power into Civil Sovereigns Our Saviour left it to his Apostles and they delivered it down by Imposition of Hands to others who were to conveigh it in the same manner of Succession through all Ages how then came Civil Sovereigns by it If any were Ordain'd to it they had it by virtue of their Ordination not their Right of Sovereignty if they were not which way could they become possessed of a Power that was never derived to them in the way of Ordination which is the only way in which it can be conveighed and therefore if they have it not that way they can never have it any other As for the Principle upon which he founds this Power of the Civil Sovereign though it be true in it self yet it is no proper reason for what he would infer from it viz. That the Right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace and to be taught the Subjects is in all Common-wealths inseparably annexed to the Sovereign Power Civil This is undoubtedly true that they are the proper Judges of what conduces to the peace and quiet of Government but then this Power is common to Heathen as well as Christian Soveraigns they are all equally concern'd and obliged to take care of the Publick Peace so that this Power does not accrue to the Civil Sovereign by his becoming
Christian but was antecedently and inseparably annex'd to the Sovereign Power And therefore 't is but a vain distinction that Mr. Hobbs makes of the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes before and after the Conversion of Civil Sovereigns When before it they have all a right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace that being inseparably annex't to all Sovereign Power and after it they have no more as Sovereign Princes And then if the Ecclesiastical Power rested in the Apostles and their Successors before the Conversion of Civil Sovereigns it must do so ever after for they could not lose that Power that was left them by our Saviour any other way but by his own actual transferring it to another which he having not done it continues as and where it was first setled So that Sovereigns as Christian as they lose no Power they gain none their Power is in both Cases Supreme from the nature of Sovereignty But beside all this because they have a right to judge of all things as far as they concern the Civil Peace it is an inference that only becomes Mr. Hobbs's Principles to conclude that this gives them a power of judging what is fittest to promote the Salvation of their Subjects Souls in the World to come And yet that is the true and proper Province of Ecclesiastical Power so to guide and govern the Church in this World as to bring the Members of it to Heaven hereafter And that is somewhat more then meerly to provide for the Civil Peace and therefore a right to that cannot give any right to this especially when it is by express Commission settled in another order of Men. All True Religion is indeed very serviceable to the Interests of Peace and Government and so far it concerns the Civil Power as such to abett its force with Civil Laws But then it has a much farther prospect into the World to come and the care of that is committed by our Saviour to a particular Order of Men Consecrated to that Office How this Power comes not to interfere with the Civil but is subject to it will be shewn in the next place but our present business is only to assert its Right And that is so apparent from the whole design and nature of Christianity that it cannot subsist without it For if our Saviour enacted the Christian Law and founded the Christian Church not by Civil but Divine Authority if he Instituted the Apostles and their Successors to govern it then their Right of Government stands upon the same bottom with the truth of Christianity And if it be true that the Christian Church was planted in the World by Divine Authority it is as true that they have a right to Govern it by the same Authority This is so undeniable to common Sense that Mr. Hobbs has no way to avoid it but by denying our Saviour's own Supremacy at present in that his Kingdom is not to begin till after the Resurrection But beside the falshood and the wickedness of the Assertion whereby Christianity is made of no force or use in this World in that no Man can be obliged to obey its Precepts because our Saviour has not power to make it Law till he enters upon his Kingdom and that is not till after the end of the World Beside this I say who could think that any Man that reads the Gospel could be so extravagantly foolish as to dream that it was not intended for present Obligation and that no Man is bound to obey any part of it before the day of Judgment when that day is appointed on purpose for the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to Mens discharge of their Duty towards it Mr. Hobbs would in my Opinion have asserted with much more modesty that God Almighty had sent his Son into the World upon a sleeveless Errand though that is as rank Blasphemy as can be vented then with so much formality go about to prove out of the Holy Scriptures themselves that his coming into it is to no purpose because it takes no effect whilst the World lasts This is to fasten upon the Almighty such another piece of folly as his Politiques have run himself into in another Case when he tells the World that the serious belief of Religion is necessary to Government and yet that all Religion is nothing but an Artifice of State and then it is really no Religion nor can be seriously believed and so can do no service to Government So here he makes God himself to send his Son into the World to publish a Law by Obedience to which Men may purchase to themselves a State of Salvation in the World to come and yet at the same time makes the same God to declare that this Law for the publication whereof he sent his Son into the World is of no force in this World to which it was publisht and that no Man whilst he lives is under any obligation of Obedience to it Upon this supposition would not any Man conclude that our Saviour might very well have spared all his pains and not have been in so much hast and put himself to so much trouble for Enacting a Law to no purpose but rather to have deferr'd its publication to the next World in which it was to Commence its Use and Obligation But the true Consequence of this Evasion is a clear Demonstration of the distinct power of the Christian Church when there is no way to take this away but by abrogating our Saviour's own Authority For if all Ecclesiastical Power be in the Civil Sovereign then he has none and so Mr. Hobbs to be consistent with his Principle says he has not while there are Civil Sovereigns in the World But if he have any he has power to Depute what Officers he pleases and by virtue of their Deputation they have a Power as independent upon the Sovereign Power as that Authority from which their Power is derived So that to take away the distinct Power of the Church as it was settled by our Saviour upon the Apostles and their Successors is in plain terms to deny his Power as well as theirs For if they had a right to it at first by his Grant and if his grant be of any Validity they have the same for ever So dangerous a thing is it if Men would seriously consider to disown the Authority of the Church it is no less then renouncing our Saviour's own Authority And I am confident no Christian Prince would ever accept of any Supremacy of Power upon such terms and yet if he challenge to himself though but a share of that Power that our Saviour has left to the Apostolical Succession he must plainly invade that original Authority in our Saviour himself from whom they hold it So thaâ—â—hough we could suppose any Prince so prophane as Mr. Hobbs would make all Princes yet we cannot imagine any Man so impudent as to take up his Supremacy upon no better terms then
of the Primitive Church where we shall find the whole matter so fairly and so easily accorded that it is next to a miracle how it should ever be made so great a difficulty in these later times But it hapned in this as it did in most other things at the time of the Reformation that men saw themselves wrapt up they knew not how in woful Errours and Corruptions but did not and indeed as the World then stood could not immediately discover the true original state of the Church as it was at first setled by our Saviour and his Apostles and received into protection by Constantine and the Christian Emperours So that though they had Eye-sight enough and God knows very little would serve their turn to discern the follies and abuses of Rome they were at a loss how to fix the right Reformation and for want of the ancient Records of the Church that lay buried in dust and rubbish at that time could make but slow improvements in it So that before the true state of the Church could be clearly and fully discover'd most of them were setled in some way or other and after any new settlement it is very difficult to make any Alteration and therefore they continue in their first posture to this day But the Church of England at the very first Attempt resolving to reform it self by the Example of the Primitive Church and having the good fortune to retain the Apostolical form of Episcopal Government in subordination to the Royal Power set it self in a right way to Reformation And so as the state of things came to light by degrees brought its work to some competent Perfection For the Reformation of the Church after such an inveterate degeneracy must needs be a work of so great bulk and difficulty that it is an unreasonable thing to expect that it should be finisht at the first stroke So great a design as that must be a work of time and consideration to be reviewed and amended as the Master-Workmen shall find most convenient So as that they who had a Power first to begin it have an inherent right when ever they think fit to take an account of their own Work and if they find any flaws mistakes or defects in it to make them up by an after-care So that there must be a constant Power residing in the Church to enact or abolish Laws as it judges most serviceable to the present state of things And that is truly and properly the Church of England the Governours of it acting under the Allowance of the Sovereign Power by its establisht Laws and Constitutions with a constant power residing in themselves and their Successours to enact new Laws as they shall judge most beneficial to the Edification of the Church And it is a very crude notion of the Church of England as common as it is that it is to be found in its Canons Articles and Constitutions for that is only the Law and dead rule of the Church of England but the Church properly so call'd consists in its living Authority as setled by our Saviour by which these Laws were at first enacted and are or ought to be still executed and may in some cases be alter'd And that is the great difference between the Law and the Authority of the Church that one is alterable and the other is not The Authority of the Church may make new Laws and cancel old ones but that lasts the same for ever So that for men to talk of this or that Church without a particular form of Government setled in it by our Saviour's own Commission is to turn the Christian Church into a Chimaera and imaginary state of Fairies But as for the Church of England according to the design of its Reformation it consists of a National Synod of Bishops together with a select Convocation of Presbyters representing the whole Body of the Clergy in subjection to the Sovereign Power and in communion with the Catholique Church all the World over as far as it can be attain'd And this is contrived so agreeably to the Primitive Platform the Interest of Government the Nature of Christianity that there is little else defective in it then the honesty and the confidence to own it self and put its own Constitution into effectual practice But of that I shall discourse in its proper place §. 9. At present for the practice of the Primitive Churches Government within it self and as it related to the Civil State it must be consider'd in the two Periods before and after the Conversion of the Empire and by comparing the true face and posture of things in these two so different states we shall have an exact description of the Rights of the Church in all estates and conditions whatsoever But most of all of its easy complyance with the Rights of Civil Government in Christian States and of the safest way for Christian Sovereigns to govern and protect the Church within their Dominions without invading its inherent and unalienable Authority And then last of all I shall compare that Royal Supremacy that is acknowledged and asserted in the Church and Realm of England in Causes Ecclesiastical with the sense of the Ancient Church concerning the Authority of Emperours and with the Practice of Christian Princes in the Exercise of this Authority And by shewing their compleat Agreement shall from that Topick distinctly prove that we have in this as well as in other matters attain'd a good degree of Reformation First as for the Period of time before the Conversion of the Roman Empire there are two things to be consider'd first their behaviour towards the Civil Government whilst it supprest and persecuted the Christian Faith Secondly the exercise of their own Authority within themselves From both which it will appear that the Church as a Society founded by Christ challenged a Jurisdiction distinct from and Independant upon the Civil State and that this Jurisdiction was so far from interfering with or abating of the Sovereignty of Princes that it bound them to the strictest Allegiance and Subjection to the most inhumane Persecutors And the Story of this Interval whilst the powers of the Church and the World were separate and indeed as much as it was possible opposite will set before us a much clearer State of the Nature and Extent of the two Jurisdictions then we can have from the Practice of Christian States in which the two Powers concurring in the same Acts of Government it is not altogether so easie to discern their distinct influences but will withal give us the fullest Character of true Christian Loyalty from their practice under the hardest usage and severest persecutions But most of all from their Principles upon which they founded their Obligation to their Practice and when it appears upon what grounds and reasons they submitted to the utmost cruelty of the Civil Government that will prevent the common shift made by all Factious Parties against the Authority of their Example
falls to his Brother Constans and so came in that fatal division both of the Empire and the Church that at last proved the utter ruine and destruction of both For after this time we read of nothing so much as Wars and Dissentions between the two States and Schisms and Divisions between the two Churches unless now and then when the Empire hapned to be united in one wise Prince as in Valentinian Theodosius and Marcian till at last the Empire was swallowed up by its own divisions and the incursions of the Barbarians and the Church split asunder by an irreconcileable Schism between the Greeks and Latins The first Foundation of which breach was laid by these two Brothers who unhappily divided the Clergy of the Empire as well as the Civil State For Constantius siding with the Eusebians in the East and Constans with the Athanasians in the West which was now become the quarrel the cause of Arius being wholly laid aside by both Parties and the only contest now was Whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be cashier'd as offensive because unscriptural as the Eusebians contended or to be preserved as a necessary defence against the Arian Heresie as Athanasius and his friends truly maintain'd Now each Party having the Power of the Empire to abet and support its interest and the Division being become a kind of a State-Faction this to be sure made the breach wider and the quarrel fiercer then a meer Ecclesiastical Schism could have come to insomuch that it sometime came very near to a Civil War between the two Brothers All which was chiefly occasioned by the folly of Constantius who being the more zealous and serious of the two for Constans gave himself more up to his pleasure and luxury he was so much the more busie in the advancement of his Faction and it is an astonishing thing to observe how childishly he spent his whole Reign in Metaphysical wranglings about Religion as he is justly and too truly censur'd by Ammianus Marcellinus Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem anili superstitione confundens in quâ scrutandâ perplexiùs quam componendâ graviùs excitavit discidia plurima quae progressa fusiùs aluit concertatione verborum ut catervis Antistitum jumentis publicis ultrò citròque discurrentibus per Synodos quas appellant dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium rei vehiculariae succideret Nervos He debauch't the Christian Religion that was plain and easie in it self into Old-wives Superstition and by being more nice then wise in his Enquiries and Speculations about it he so entangled it into endless Knots and Controversies about meer words that he wore away the publick High-ways and his own Carriages by conveighing Bishops backward and forward to Councils when after all he took upon himself to determine all controversies by his own Arbitrary resolution of all things And this Character is truer then the Pagan Soldier who understood not the particulars could be aware of for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the only object of his fury and as St. Athanasius somewhere expresses it he spent more pains upon it then in all his Persian War what numbers of Councils like so many Armies did he summon to encounter and cashiere it and after what an Arbitrary and unprincely manner did he behave himself in them to have his Will of it Instead of calling free Councils and allowing free Conference in them he takes upon himself the Power of presiding and determining all by his own imperious Commands and at length tired out himself with vain struglings against the Churches Authority and after Five and Twenty years War against one poor single word he repents his folly and dies with the confession of it in his mouth But what if the word did not please his Palate what need of all this rage and indignation against it And granting that it might have been spared at first as those that Seduced him pleaded yet when it was approved and settled by the Authority of the great Council of Nice it ought at least for the Peace of the Church to have been submitted to For to what purpose is it to call Councils for the resolving of Doubts and ending of Controversies if their determinations have not Authority enough to Warránt and Oblige our Obedience This word therefore having been planted in their Creed by the great Council upon mature deliberation it became all modest and peaceable Men though they had not at first approved it after that to make no contention about it And that was the Schismatical humour of the Eusebians that when it was once fix't by the Authority of the Church they should be so restless against its admission which was in effect to destroy and nullifie all Government in the Christian Church For if the Decree of so venerable a Council be not of force enough to ver-rule every particular Man 's own conceit it is but folly and non-sense to talk of any such thing as Government in the Church and this is that which Athanasius in his Book De Synodis every where charges so home upon them that they troubled themselves to call so many Councils and compose so many Creeds to settle what was already done to their hands by the Nicene Fathers And they are gaul'd with the same objection by Julius Bishop of Rome in his smart Letter to the Eusebians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is an affront says he to the Synod and all the Bishops that sate in it if what they with so much Pains and Piety God himself as it were being present resolved should be slighted by us as a thing of no Authority And this to them was a cutting Argument for they all profess't great Reverence to the great Council and therefore ought to have acquiesced in it And as it was in that case so is it in all cases when once a Controversie is determin'd by the Church it ought to conclude all Christians within it Not because the Church is infallible or any Council how great soever but because its determinations are Authoritative and bind by virtue of a divine Commission in all cases that are are not against the clear express and immediate Commands of God himself so that if any Man dare presume to gainsay or disobey any Law of the Church he ought to have an extraordinary assurance to warrant his dissent But if he be refractory upon Surmises and remote Inferences or about matters of no great Weight or little Evidence he plainly runs himself into the sin of Schism in this World and the punishment of it in the World to come And that will fall upon him with so much the heavier Load because the Practice flowing from this Principle is of all things most destructive of that which God of all things most loves the Peace and Tranquility of his Church For that cannot possibly be any other way preserved than by a yielding and submissive Temper in all things
either such a Kingdom or such Subjects And that he further declares to be nothing else then the Institution of Christian Truth in it by virtue of its own Goodness To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice That is all Men that are lovers of true Goodness will voluntarily come into my Kingdom and submit themselves to my Doctrine and Discipline for that is the evident meaning of that phrase They that are of the Truth they that are ingenuous and sincere lovers of it as in the Epistle to the Romans c. 2. v. 8. They that are of the Contention i. e. Persons that are given up to Contention So that there is the true State of Christ's Kingdom that it is a Kingdom without force within it self and has no true Subjects but such as freely and of their own accord submit themselves to it out of love to the Goodness of its Government So that whereas all other Kingdoms subsist by the power of the Sword his taken by it self and as not complicated with the Civil Government cannot subsist with it And therefore when St. Peter drew his Sword in defence of his Master he commands him to sheath it because it was a Method inconsistent with his Design Matth. 26. 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more then Twelve Legions of Angels If that had been the proper method to compass his design and to settle his Kingdom he could easily have done it by an Army of Angels but that would have spoil'd the whole work had he betook himself to any forcible defence who was to establish an Institution in the World by no other means then its own Truth and Goodness Many reasons are given of our Saviour's reproof to St. Peter by learned Men of all Factions to enhance or abate its obligation but the only true reason is that which himself has here given that it was utterly inconsistent with the nature of his Institution This was the sense of the Doctors of the Church through all Ages down to the very time of Gratian himself in the year 1150 an hundred years and more after the time of Pope Gregory the Seventh so that though he had declared and practised against it it seems his Doctrine could not speedily obtain any great footing in the Christian Church who treating of the power of the Sword to whom it belongs determines from this very passage that of all Men the Officers of the Church have nothing to do with it De Episcopis verò vel quibuslibet Clericis quòd nec suâ auctoritate nec auctoritate Romani Pontificis arma arripere valeant facilè probatur Cùm enim Petrus qui primus Apostolorum a Domino fuerat electus materialem gladium exerceret ut Magistrum a Judaeorum injuriâ defensaret audivit converte gladium tuum in vaginam Omnis enim qui gladium acceperit à gladio peribit ac si apertè ei diceretur hactenus tibi tuisque praedecessoribus inimicos Dei licuit gladio corporali persequi deinceps in exemplum patientiae gladium tuum id est tibi hactenus commissum in vaginam converte tamen spiritualem gladium quod est verbum Dei in mactatione veteris vitae exerce Omnis enim praeter illum vel auctoritatem ejus qui legitima potestate utitur qui ut ait Apostolus non sine caus◠gladium portat cui etiam omnis anima subdita esse debet omnis inquam qui praeter auctoritatem hujusmodi gladium acceperit gladio peribit As for Bishops and all Orders of the Clergy it is evident that they ought not to take up Arms either by their own or the Pope's Authority For when Peter the Prince of the Apostles brandish't the material Sword to defend his Master from the violence of the Jews he heard a Voice Put up thy Sword into its Scabbard for all that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword As if he had expresly said hitherto it has been allowed thee and thy Predecessors i. e. I suppose the High Priests under the Old Testament to punish the Enemies of God with the Corporal Sword but from this time forward I command thee to sheath it for an example of Patience and use the Spiritual Sword which is the Word of God to Sacrifice the lusts of the old life For all beside him or the Authority of him who is endued with legal Power and who as the Apostle says bears not the Sword in vain and to whom every Soul ought to be Subject every Man I say that draws the Sword without his Authority shall perish by it And this state of the question he proves from the Authority of divers ancient Councils and Popes which I here forbear to recite because I intend if God permit to consider them in their proper Times and Places for that is my design as I proceed to reap the whole field of Church Records and not Glean as the common Custom is its scatter'd fragments Only this passage of the Father of the Canonists I have here dropt in to let his modern Followers that are one and all base flatterers of the Roman Court against all Sovereign Powers see how enormously they wander from the Text of their own Law as well as the Holy Bible But to return our Saviour having declared to the President what his Kingdom was not i. e. a Kingdom destitute of Force and the Power of the Sword he proceeds to declare what it was viz. a Kingdom of Truth Which Pilate taking to be some kind of Stoical Kingdom for such a thing the Stoicks pretended to at an high rate by virtue of their Philosophy he asks him what is the Truth that he professes But reflecting it seems with himself that it was not pertinent for a Judge upon the Bench to enter into a Philosophick dispute with a Prisoner at the Bar he lets fall the Question by not staying for an Answer But beside these evident passages in our Saviour's conversation for disclaiming all Civil Soveraignty there is one Text that is usually by mistake applyed to this purpose though it relate to a very different matter and that is Matth. 17. 27. where our Saviour is supposed to pay Tribute to the Roman Collectors and that is owning his subjection to their Government But the Didrachma the Money there demanded of him was not Tribute money paid to the Roman Publicans for we never read of any such Tax but Temple-money paid to the Jewish Priests and their Collectors for the Use and Service of the Temple and this continued till the time of Vespatian who as Josephus relates it imposed upon the Jews this Tax of two Drachms that they had hitherto paid towards the repairs and annual expences of the Temple at Jerusalem for the use of the Capitol at Rome And this
is inseparable from all Sovereign Power and Christianity and all the Power that it brings along with it comes into the World upon its supposition So that by it we are so far from making the King a Priest that without it we cannot own him to be our King And on the other side when we assert a Spiritual Power to the Church distinct from though subject to the King's Supremacy others cry out Popery Praemunires and I know not what hard names they would soon let fall their out-cry if they would consider that it is such a Power as never any Prince exercised or wittingly challenged though it is possible that some may have run upon it by mistake and is neither Temporal nor Foreign Jurisdiction And in those two points lies the malignity of the pretended Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome for as it is Temporal it plainly subjects the Regal Authority to its Empire and as it is Foreign it makes the whole Kingdom Feudatory and brings us into the form of a Province under an Italian Prince both which are such abuses of Government as evidently subvert it Nay farther as a Foreign Temporal Jurisdiction is inconsistent with the English Monarchy so is all kind of Foreign Jurisdiction though meerly Spiritual irreconcileable with the Prerogative Royal. The reason and the account whereof I shall give in its proper place when I come to state that easie but yet undiscover'd Point of the Divine Authority of National Churches All that I am obliged to at present is to shew the difference between that Authority that we assign to the Church of England and that which the Bishop of Rome would Usurp against which though there were nothing else to be objected but its being Foreign for that reason alone it ought to be banisht the Nation as an Enemy to the Civil Government Whereas the Authority of the Church of England is seated in the King 's own Subjects who can call them to an account for it if they use it to his own or his Subjects prejudice and can as well punish them for any disorders in the abusive Exercise of it as he can any of his own Officers for their misdemeanors in their trust in the Common-wealth So that so far is the King's Supremacy as it is stated in the Church of England from entrenching upon the proper Power of the Church as the Romanists cavil that it only protects it in the due exercise of its Jurisdiction And so far is the proper power of the Church from disclaiming or abating any thing of the King's Supremacy as the other Factions clamour that it first Establishes that upon the most lasting Foundations of Divine Institution before it makes any claim to its own Power and when it does it does it upon no other Terms then of entire submission to its Supreme Authority And now that Man must wilfully dream that can imagine such a power as this in the Church can be any way prejudicial to or detractive from the Civil Government and yet that such a Power there is is an assertion worth no less then our Christianity it self that stands or falls with it For if our Saviour have not entrusted his Church with a Power within it self sufficient to maintain it self by vertue of his own Authority then it stands upon no stronger Foundation then the Will of the Sovereign Power And then as that can Establish so it can Abrogate its whole Obligation which is plainly to say that it is no True Religion for it is certainly none if it relye only upon humane Authority So that all that can be concluded in this case is that upon supposition that our Christian Faith is an Imposture there can be no Power in the Christian Church and that for a very good reason because then the Church can be no Church But upon supposition that our Saviour founded it by Divine Authority the peculiar Power of the Church derived meerly and immediately from himself without any interposition of humane Authority is the first thing to be believed as absolutely necessary to its Being and Subsistence But this will appear with a brighter evidence if we consider the several branches of Jurisdiction that as they are complicated with the supposition of Christianity so are they such acts of Power as no Sovereign Power ever challenged or can with any decency exercise As the Power of Preaching the Gospel through all Nations of the World in the Name and by the Authority of God The Power of granting or with-holding the Instruments of Grace the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist The Power of the Keys or judging who are fit to be admitted into the Society of the Christian Church and who ought to be cast out of it for non-performance of the Conditions undertaken at their Admittance The Power of instructing the People in the Duties of Religion or guiding and directing them in the safest way to Salvation The Power of Ordaining Consecrating and Constituting Ecclesiastical Officers to succeed in the Government of the Church through all Ages These are the several points of their Commission and are granted to be so by Mr. Hobbs himself and that at the very time when he undertakes to demonstrate that all these acts of Power are no acts of Authority And that is one of his choisest methods of Demonstration in all things to bear down the undenyable Truth of all things by meer force of Assertion thus here he reckons up the chief Acts of Authority in the Apostle's Commission and then will bear us down that they are no Acts of Authority only by saying so and that against the Common Sense of Mankind For if they had a Commission from our Saviour to do these things then were they Empowred and Authorised by their Commission to do them So absurd a thing is it to talk of acting by Commission without acting by Power whereas every Commission as such is granting so much Power And therefore if the Apostles and their Successors were Commissioned by our Saviour to these several Acts of their Office as he grants because it cannot be denyed every Act is an effect of that Power that is settled upon them by virtue of their Commission And is it not strange that this witty Gentleman should begin all this Extravagant discourse against all Power Ecclesiastical as such with this very Assertion That the Power Ecclesiastical was at first in the Apostles and after them in such as received it from the Apostles by successive laying on of hands What thickness of Contradiction is this A Power Ecclesiastical and yet no Power at all Why then if it be no Power it is no Power Ecclesiastical and if it be a Power Ecclesiastical then it is some Power And then again a Power by virtue of our Saviour's Commission i. e. a Power warranted by Divine Authority and to say that this is no Power is plainly to averâ— That there is no such thing as Divine Authority And upon this supposition that
a publick Crime then a publick Repentance And therefore I hope to see Mr. B. before he go hence to make good his promise of making his publick Recantation and remove that scandal that he has given to the Church of God by so foul a Mistake as he calls it and I hope it was no worse Though I fear when this is done he may find new matter of Repentance for slandering and traducing the whole Church of God and for that end perverting and false representing all its Records as he has done in some late Books especially his Treatise of Episcopacy and his History of the Councils that are so full not only of falsification but rank malice against all the Ancient Governours of the Christian Church against whom he could have no other ground of quarrel then only this that they were Bishops that it is such a manifest disclaiming of all Truth and Integrity as no pride or passion can excuse and those two great faults are the only Pleas that can be made to extenuate the rankness of his malice But here are such numberless heaps of meer falshoods and spiteful insinuations as could proceed from nothing better then wilful dishonesty unless this may be pleaded in his behalf viz. his gross ignorance of the things that he writes of and that in good earnest is the best and truest Apology for him for it is evident from his crude way of writing that none but a very Novice in Antiquity and an utter stranger to the true Records of the Church could ever have betrayed himself to so unlearned a Performance There is not any one Story in which he has not committed gross mistakes and such as discover themselves to proceed from nothing but his unacquaintedness with the Primitive Records And any one that can but Translate any of the Modern Collections of the Ancient Councils without looking into the Original Acts and Histories without which no Man can arrive to any competent knowledge in this learning may make just such another Church-Historian as R. B. And therefore I would advise him instead of boasting himself Father of Fourscore Books and upwards to have some patience and take some pains to write one well-weighed well-digested and wellreviewed before he publish it And if his heat could but be prevail'd with to submit to so much tameness one such discourse would outweigh not only Fourscore but four hundred Books of Crudities I have insisted thus long upon this Apostolical Precept because it is the most effectual Bulwark against Rebellion and therefore most abused by the Hildebrandinists who would elude its Obligation by the several fore-mentioned shifts to evacuate the Sense of the Law it self But now to proceed with the Doctrine of St. Paul agreeable is that of the other great Apostle St. Peter 1 Epist. Chap. 2. from vers 13th to 25th Where the same duty is laid down fully in the same express and comprehensive Terms and with the same regard of duty to God it must be done For the Lord's sake and that is the biggest thing that can be said in this or any other Case that Almighty God requires it forever and as Men will own his own Authority as an indispensable Duty and this for all the same reasons alledged by the other Apostle and some more Not only because their Authority is from God and because the Institution it self is for the general Good of Mankind and because the great Governour of the World commands Subjection to them as his Vice-Roys under the severest Penalties both here and hereafter but beside all this it is made necessary because it is for the honour of their Religion that by a meek and peaceable submission to the most unjust sufferings after their great Master's Example they should prevent and silence those Calumnies of his and their Enemies as if they were disturbers of Government so that if they did not submit with all meekness and patience to their Superiors of what rank soever down from Kings to Masters of Families whether good or bad it would have been a just scandal to their Religion But to this Mr. Rutherford very gravely and seriously replies That patient suffering and violent resisting are not incompatible That is to say that a Man may Resist in his own defence but if he have the ill-fortune to be overcome he must then suffer patiently This Patience per force I see is the right Presbyterian Subjection when their Superiours are too strong for them they will crouch only because they must But as long as they are able Princes must pardon them if they defend themselves by force of Arms though if they cannot they will be so civil as to lay them down And of the same kind is the Submission of Servants to harsh and cruel Masters when they are beaten to defend themselves with the next Cudgel that they can seize on but if the Master prove the more able Fencer then the Servant when he has lost his defensive Weapon has no remedy left but to lye down and suffer himself to be beaten patiently and this Patience of a Turkish Slave is their only true Christian Subjection though as the Proverb goes It is a Vertue more suited to the Philosophy of an Horse then the Religion of a Man And if this be all that is injoin'd by the Apostle it is nothing at all for when we are commanded to suffer patiently or not to resist only when we cannot help our selves it is a very needless command because so we must do whether we will or no and Patience per force is no Patience at all But beside this dull shift we have a more acute Evasion to elude the Text That these words were not address'd to Subjects that had the rights of their own Country but to Strangers residing and inhabiting in such places where they could challenge no greater rights then meerly of Courtesie and Civility But though this is not so dull as the Scotch resistance to yield when we can fight no longer it is but another way of fooling against the express Sense of the Words themselves For to say nothing of the distinction between Native Subjects and Strangers between whom there can be no difference as to this Duty then that it is stricter upon the natural Subject then the Foreigner St. Peter's reason as it makes no difference in the Point so it admits none because it is universal and unlimited viz. from the peremptory Command of God that requires submission to Kings and all their Subordinate Officers and upon this reason it concerns all alike And after that to let Subjects loose from the duty of Non-resistance to their Prince because the Law was here particularly directed to such as were Aliens though built upon and enforced by a reason common to all Men shews if not the prophaneness of the Men the badness of their Cause Though after all the Observation is as false as 't is trifling when it is so vulgarly known that the dispersed Jews were
will be plain from that too as well as common Sence That Resistance to Authority if it were never so Lawful is such a Remedy as never bears its own Charges and that no Nation ever made use of it that did not rue its own folly The Vices of a single Person are finite and reach but to particular cases the most bloody Tyrant that ever was never cut off any great Numbers and it is truly observed by Cardan of Nero that as wanton as he was with the Lives of Men in a very few Months after his death there was abundantly more blood spilt then in all his fourteen years Reign The miseries of War are endless and universal and whatever the event is or whoever wins the Common-wealth is sure to be a loser and to pay a severe reckoning on all sides Some few of the scum of the People may by the strength of their brawny Arms signalize themselves into Clowns of Eminance whilst the Ancient Gentry and Nobility endanger all their Fortunes and great numbers even of the first beginners of disturbance lose their Lives and in short the whole Kingdom must be undone for the advancement of a Cromwel a Pride an Hewson or a Desborough and it rarely happens and it is pity but it should be so but that the first Contrivers are out-reached in their own Designs and baulkt by other Men and other Councils and live to lament their own folly in much more good earnest then they did the grievances or miscarriages of the Government But when the dispute is once raised it is not to be determin'd but by the Sword and wherever success attends that Nation is in a sweet condition when a Conquering Army comes with Swords drawn to rate the Merits of their past Services and challenge rewards equal to their present Insolence and that is to take whatever they are pleased to demand and it is a kindness in them not easily to be expected if they will stop at any violence At least it is certain That which side soever is Victor the generality of a Nation never reap any thing by a War then Repentance and a little Wisdom got by dear bought Experience But not to mention a thousand other great publick and lasting Calamities that Naturally follow Resistance and Rebellion the certain miseries of Civil War it self infinitely outweigh all the Burthens that the greatest Tyranny can lay upon the Subject What a long Succession of unexampled Tyrants must have Reign'd in England before they could have committed so many inhumanities as a few years Civil War for the Liberty of the Subject brought upon it What one mortal Man's Salvageness could ever have spilt half so much Blood as was shed in any one eminent Battel Let therefore the Patriots of Sedition cease to upbraid Loyalty with weakness of Understanding when all Men of common Sense or any Experience in the Affairs of the World cannot but see through the delusion of fighting for their Liberties against their Prince by which they hazard and for the most part lose both and at least certainly bring themselves into greater Slavery then they could have suffered had they been patient under the worst of Governments And this brings to my mind another instance of the wisdom of Submission and that is this that as no wise Man that takes a thorough account of his own interest would care to draw himself into a War against his Prince so it is generally Men of the meanest understandings that are seduced by them And they are drawn in by such poor slights and delusions that plainly shew the contempt that the Patriots have of their shallow reach and the bottom of all their Politiques is to inveagle the common People into a conceit that in all contests with the Government it is only their interest that is concerned and as for themselves were it not to assert their Liberties they would never undergo the frowns of the Court never expose themselves to the hazards of War nor venture their Lives and Fortunes for any thing less then the preservation of their Country And all this while the poor People must be supposed so dull and so they are as not to suspect that there is any such thing as Revenge Ambition and Discontent in the World and yet it is these that have always been the great Patrons of their Liberties And though their Seditious Artifices are known and thread-bare as often discovered as used and a thousand times over and over exposed yet because the common People have not the advantage to know or make use of the Experience of former Ages they are in every Age as ready a Prey for the Snare as if it had never been set before So that omitting divers other good reasons that might be urged against all kind of Resistance and particularly that one That if it be once allowed the common People in any case there is no stop of pretences or end of confusions And if Princes may and do abuse their Power it is much more certain that the Rabble cannot use theirs aright And therefore to prevent the vast inconvenience of their ever abusing it it must be stopt at first and without reserve else the mischiefs that follow if it be admitted at all will be infinite I know indeed that learned Men suppose some Extravagant cases in which they will allow Resistance to be Lawful Barclay and Winzet suppose two viz. When the Prince sets himself to destroy the Common-wealth or would sell the Kingdom to a Foreign Power But these wild suppositions are not to be brought into the practice of the World of which perhaps there are no Examples upon Record For what can be more incredible then that a King should be fond of destroying his Kingdom when by that he certainly in the first place destroys himself himself or of alienating it to another when by that he as certainly enslaves himself Perhaps the thing may be possible in Nature but it is so infinitely improbable that it ought not to be supposed in the practice of the World Least by supposing such an unexampled madness we let Men loose from their Duty in all other Cases for that is the constant practice of all Incendiaries to perswade the People that their present Governors take the course to destroy the Common-wealth So that by this supposition of these two Extravagancies these Learned Men utterly defeat their own Design because these are the very Cases that are pretended in all Rebellions and may be applyed to all Cases as Men please to make use of their assistance Thus when Barclay argues That if the Power of calling Sovereign Princes to account for their Government be allowed to the People or their Representatives it would be as destructive of good as of bad Princes as we may see by the insolent deportment of the Ephori against their Kings whom they chastised not only for their greater misdemeanours but for their mistakes or fancies thus as Plutarch Records in the Life
it relate to the whole Flock or only the subordinate Clergy it is the very same word which is used by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so does St. Paul when he tells the Corinthians that the Apostles do not Lord it over their Faith the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we improperly enough Translate Not having Dominion over their Faith for the word Dominion is not always taken in a bad Sense but often signifies Lawful Authority whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies nothing but domineering or treating them as Masters do their Slaves whom they care not how they use for their own gain and advantage that is the proper import of the word and therefore it is very aptly joyn'd by St. Peter with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Flock for filthy lucre as the Romans kept their Slaves And to the same purpose is the advice of St. Paul that a Bishop be no striker nor greedy of filthy Lucre but patient or mild and gentle not a brawler not covetous i. e. not to run into any of these Vices or Disorders in the exercise of his Episcopal Authority but to infer from hence that he has no true and real Authority at all only becomes the Man that knows no better Sanction of a Law then a Sword or a Cudgel And this very thing is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that moderation that is so frequently injoin'd in the Apostolical Writings as Phil. 4. 5. T it 3. 2. Jam. 3. 17. It is not as it is by some Men very ignorantly interpreted an unconcernedness and indifferency between dissenting Parties for that may be good or bad as it happens if the controversie be trivial it may be an instance of it but if it be about a matter that is setled either by the Authority of God or the Church there indifferency and moderation is nothing else then Falshood and Treachery But the true meaning of the word is a mildness and gentleness in the use of Authority the same that is attributed to God himself in the Government of the World Wisd. of Solomon c. 12. v. 18 But thou Mastering thy Power judgest with Equity and orderest us with great savour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. judgest not by rigour of Law but with mercy and gentleness and so Aristotle defines the vertue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that its Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to correct and moderate the general Law when it is applyed to particular Cases And all good Government is ever more merciful then the Law ought to be for that cannot be too severe to deter Men from offending so that there are not many cases in which it is broken wherein the offender may not require some mercy and compassion But as this Vertue is so highly commendable in all Government so is it much more in that of the Church in which Almighty God shews more of it in himself towards Mankind the Gospel being nothing but a dispensation of his Mercy and Gentleness to Offenders And as this is a necessary Qualification in the Governors of the Church for guiding and rectifying their publick Government so is it most becoming their private Conversation and by gaining Authority to their Persons doubles that of their Office So that when our Saviour instructs his Apostles in this new way to Greatness his instructions are wise in a literal Sense for nothing is really so great and commanding in the World as true Humility Whoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whoever will be first among you let him be your Servant Matth. 21. 26. If any one desire to be first the same shall be last of all and Servant of all Mark 9. 35. He that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that will abase himself shall be exalted Math. 23. 12. The common experience of the World sufficiently attests the Truth and the Wisdom of these Propositions so Powerful is the obligation of Courtesie Condescention and Humility But if the Governors of the Church are so strictly injoin'd this Vertue where they have Authority how much more are they where they have none If they may not contend with one another for Dominion though they have equal Power how much less with Sovereign Princes of whose Power they have no share and to whom they are bound to a more exact and exemplary Obedience and Submission then other Subjects by their Office and Power So that our Saviour has taken all possible care as far as Law can do it to reduce the Constitution of his Church to an entire compliance with the Civil Government And though he has instituted a distinct Government in it suited to the design of his Religion he has so many ways brought it into Subjection to Sovereign Powers that they are much more disabled by their very Authority to give them any disturbance then they could have been without it the very Authority it self being a new and distinct Obligation to a stricter Allegiance But because notwithstanding all this Evidence some Men are jealous of granting any Authority to the Church peculiar to it self especially when all Power is so apt to degenerate into abuse and therefore though they cannot deny the truth of it in general are very shy of admitting it at all lest they give it too much advantage sometime or other to fix and strengthen an interest within it self against the State And I must confess the prophane boldness of the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy in justling and contesting with Princes as the Vicars of Christ has given too much ground for this Jealousie I shall from this general state of the Christian Law as fixt by our Saviour and his Apostles proceed to its particular Precedents when it came to be reduced to practice in the Primitive Church Whereby I shall make it to appear after and beside all these foregoing considerations to forestal all pretences whatsoever of resistance to the Civil State that thô this because all Power is so may be liable to abuse yet that there is not any one point of Government more easie then t◠prevent it and that the danger is so very little that no Government that does not grosly forsake it self can possibly suffer any thing from it and that the abuse is so unlikely and so difficult ever to be put in practice again that there is no one thing in the World that requires less care to watch against it in short that it can never come to do any harm without such a long continued stupidity in the State as is utterly inconsistent with all Government of it And on the other side the advantages that accrue to the State by receiving the Church into its protection are so great so certain and so universal that there cannot be a grosser faileur in Policy then to refuse or deny it And here I say for our better direction as every where else we must advise with the practice
be divided into two parts yet both inherit their own share in solidum and so if two Men be bound for the same Debt if they are bound each Man in partem they are obliged to pay but half share but if they are obliged in solidum either of them is bound to pay all And this is St. Cyprian's State of Episcopacy that though many share the Authority yet every Bishop has as full possession of his own share within it self as if there were no other Seeing as he elsewhere expresses it a Parcel of the Flock is allotted to the care of its particular Pastor which every one is bound to guide and govern and to account to God for the discharge of his Episcopal Office Neither was this his singular Notion but the unanimous and settled Sense of the Ancients Thus the Author of Clement's Institutions brings in the Apostles Writing after this manner to all Christian Bishops We being all gathered together have written to you this form of Catholique Doctrine For the Confirmation of you to whom is entrusted the Catholique Episcapacy of the Church This was the entire Sense of all Ignatius his Epistles which suppose the full Jurisdiction of every particular Church to be placed in the Bishop and his own Clergy So Tertullian It is necessary that so many great Churches should be that one and first derived from the Apostles from whom all are derived and therefore they are all but one and yet several Apostolical Churches So all the Ancient Canons inhibit every single Bishop even the Metropolitan to intermeddle in anothers Diocess upon pain of Deposition Neither is this Supremacy of Power in every Bishop any abatement of the just Rights of Metropolitans For in the Primitive Church as I have shewn in a former Treatise Metropolitans had no Power over inferiour Bishops but in conjunction of the Synod of the Province So that it was the Synod not the Metropolitan that had the Superiour Power over every single Bishop And it is evident that he was as liable to the Sentence of the Synod as the meanest Bishop of the Province as appears from the case of Paulus Samosatenus and Metropolitans considering their number were as often censured and Deposed as other Bishops And this is the reason of St. Cyprian's so earnestly disclaiming the Title of Episcopus Episcoporum because though his own Metropolitical Jurisdiction were of great extent yet as a single Bishop he had no Superiority over any other Bishop no Authority to punish his Misdemeanors to receive Appeals from his Sentence or to order and rectifie any thing within his Diocess All such Power was to be exerted only in Synodical Conventions in which he had the Honour and Authority of Presidency but the Jurisdiction was seated in the Body of the Council without whose concurrence had he presumed to do any thing more then any other Bishop his least punishment had been certain Deposition This was the real State of things in the Ancient Church and Metropolitans never took upon them any Power over their Collegues or Brother-Bishops by their own single Authority till after the Papal Usurpation neither then did they challenge it as Metropolitans but as Legates to the Pope and that was one of the highest branches of the Usurpation But before that time the Governours of the Church were not more watchful against any one thing then that one Bishop should not claim any power over another Now this Principle being first laid That the whole Episcopal Authority is vested in every Bishop the next that is consequent upon it is That whoever separates from the Communion of his Bishop or sets up another against him is a Schismatick and this was the Subject of almost all his Epistles concerning the Restitution of the Lapsi or such as fell in time of Persecution For they according to the Ancient Discipline of the Church were not to be received into Communion but by these degrees First they were to Petition to be admitted to Penance and that upon confession of their fault was granted and then having undergon the Penance imposed they made a publick Confession of their Crime before the Congregation and upon that they received Absolution by the Imposition of the hands of the Bishop and Câ—ergy and after that they were admitted to the Holy Eucharist or Full-Communion But instead of this solemn severity of Discipline some of his own Presbyters had been so rash as without the consent of their Bishop to give them entire Absolution and admit them to entire Communion This was the opening of that unhappy Schism that afterward created so much trouble both to himself and the Church of God For when these Presbyters had so illegally restor'd those Enormous offenders they prevail'd by their Importunity upon the good Nature of the Martyrs and Confessors to intercede for their Restitution it being an Honour and Prerogative allowed them in the ancient Church to admit Sinners more easily to repentance upon their Request because they had by the constancy of their sufferings compensated for the scandal that the others had given by their Fall But instead of interceding for their admission to Penance these well meaning men move St. Cyprian for their complete Absolution without it to which he replies that they who had with so much courage and devotion kept the Faith of our Lord ought to be as â—areful of keeping his Law and Discipline †Epist. 16. per totum But yet he is willing to excuse them not only because they did it out of ignorance of the Laws of the Church and out of modesty being meerly overcome by the importunity of others but because they proceeded no farther than only to intercede with him in whom they acknowledge the Power and Authority of granting Absolution whereas the Presbyters had subverted all the Order of the Church by presuming upon it without him These slighting that dignity and respect which the Martyrs Hi sublato honore quem nobis beati Martyres cum confessoribus servant contemptâ domini lege observatione quam iidem Martyres Confessores tenendam mandant ante extinctum persecutionis metuÌ„ ante redituÌ„ nostruÌ„ ante ipsum pene MartyruÌ„ excessum communicent cum lapsiis offerant Eucharistiam tradant Confessors care fully observed despising the Law of God which those Good Men required to be kept before the fear of Persecution is over before our Return before the very consummation of the Martyrs themselves communicate with and give the Eucharist to the Apostates And therefore at the begining of this Epistle in which he so candidly excuses the Martyrs he reproves the rashness and disorder of the Presbyters with more then usual warmth and vehemence of Expression What Punishment Quod enim periculum non metuere debemus de offensâ domini quando aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelii nec loci sui memores sed neque futurum domini
where himself has not apparently determin'd us by an antecedent Countermand And such cases can rarely happen whilst the Primitive Constitution of the Christian Church is any where preserved and at least it is clear that this was the case of the Eusebians who raised so thick a dust against what was determin'd by the Authority of the Church only because they supposed the determination unnecessary and imprudent but what then and granting it were so it was not unlawful unless it had expresly contradicted something that was necessary But that themselves had not the confidence to pretend and if they had not then it is plain that they ought not to have quarrell'd with it but to have quietly submitted to it though not for its truth yet for the Peace and out of respect to the Sacred Authority of the Christian Church And that would have saved and prevented all that Turmoil that they brought both upon it and the Empire too for so many years only to persist in a peevish and at best a needless animosity against its Legal and Canonical determination §. XI But to descend to particulars Athanasius being arrived at Alexandria with all expressions of joy from the People and settled in the quiet possession of his See the Eusebians return to all their old Arts of undermining his Peace and Settlement And to this end they deal with all the three Emperors to have the Sentence of the Tyrian Council Executed upon him But all in vain for both Constantine and Constance are better informed of the Plot and acquainted with the whole Train of the Eusebian Villanies though Constantius his Ears are wholly possess 't by his Women Eunuchs and Courtiers as his Character is too truly and shrewdly set down by Ammianus Marcellinus Uxoribus ac spadonum graâ—ilentis Vocibus Palatinis quibusdam nimium quantum addictus ad singula ejus verba plaudentibus quid ille aiat vel neget ut assentiri possint observantibus That he was too much over-ruled by his Wives his Courtiers and the Effeminate Addresses of his Eunuchs that watch't to admire and flatter every thing he said and whether it were wise or foolish applaud it But these were only Tools and Instruments placed about him by Eusebius of N. comedia to be managed for his own ends though the first Opportunity that he could seize to compass his long'd-for design upon the Deposition of Athanasius was given him by the Solemnity of dedicating the great Church at Antioch that was founded by the Emperor's Father and finisht by himself at which were present Ninety Bishops which Meeting Eusebius craftily turn'd into a Council and in it deposed Athanasius And in truth it was but high time to seise the advantage for the year before they had as craftily referred the cause to Julius Bishop of Rome to which Judgment Athanasius had according to the constant simplicity and assurance of his own Conscience submitted himself But the Eusebians finding that after they had told their Story there all their tricks were too well understood and that they could not avoid a very shameful bafle move for a general Council of Eastern and Western Bishops to be assembled at Rome And now the Western were accordingly met where Athanasius attended in Person and whither his Enemies were summon'd by virtue of their own Appeal to appear to make good their Charge against him but Eusebius the grand contriver of all mistrusting the cause takes this advantage of the Meeting at Antioch and puts an end to the Appeal to Rome and the Western Bishops by passing the final Sentence upon him at home But by what subtilty they got it to pass the Council is not easie to discover and it is commonly apprehended from the supposed Authority of Julius Bishop of Rome that the intrigue was managed only by Thirty six of the whole number that was in all Ninety but this mistake is founded meerly upon a false Translation of Julius his Words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Baronius and they that follow him understand of the Votes of Thirty six Bishops only whereas it signifies Thirty six days Journey as Valesius renders it Quia viginti sex mansionibus And that is Julius his proper reproof of the Ordination of Gregory that it was not done at Alexandria as the Canons required but at Antioch which was Thirty six Mansions or so many days Journey or nights Lodging from Alexandria And of this use of the Phrase Valesius alledges many Parallel Passages in the Writers of that time and then the sense of the whole Passage runs clearly thus I pray you who acted most against the Canons We that upon such convincing information received the Man Athanasius to Communion or you that at Antioch that is distant Thirty six days Journey from Alexandria choose a Stranger Gregory to be Bishop of that City and place him in his See by Military force So that from this Passage rightly Translated there is no ground of supposing any either stealth or division of Votes in the Council neither is there any need of it in that for any thing we know the greatest part might either be Eusebians or Orthodox But whatever they really were they all at least pretended to be Orthodox for the Eusebians themselves did not only quit but Anathematise the Arian Heresie as 't is evident from all the four Creeds that were framed in this Council in which they detest and Anathematise all the branches of it particularly in the last which they sent as the result of all to the Emperor Constans We Anathematise all those who say that the Son existed out of nothing or out of any other subsistence and not out of God himself or that there was a time when he was not And yet for all this express declaration modest Mr. Sandius boldly tells us That this Council expresly denyed the Eternal Generation of the Son of God But beside this Council of Antioch all the Councils under Constantius that are commonly accounted Arian till the last that over-reach't him against his own Opinion have as fully and clearly condemned Arianism as the Nicene Council it self It is true they could not digest the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but otherwise as for the whole Scheme of Arianism they have in all their Creeds Anathematised it with all clearness and fullness of Expression And therefore it has been but a vain dispute that has been so long agitated about the Authority of this Council in particular St. Chrysostom when he was kept out of his Bishoprick by virtue of a Canon made in it pleads that they were Arians who made it And for the same reason they are rejected by his Patron Pope Innocent the first Pope but with what design we shall see in its proper place otherwise the Council has been universally received in the Catholick Church St. Hilary himself reckons it among the Anti-Arian Councils and the Canons of it were received into the Code of the Canons that