his Diocess But since there is no Record left as Ancient as the times we speak of that gives the just extent of any Diocess and what we mentioned already are only accidental hints we must take some other way to make more just observations of the magnitude of those Stars and of the Orbs in which they moved And since most of the Remains of Ancient writings do either concern Religion in general and are taken up in the defence of it against Idolatry and Blasphemous Heresies or else in giving some account of the general administration of the Church by Bishops met in Councils we must try whether we may not ground a probable computation of the Bishopricks of those times in some Provinces upon the number of Bishops that usually met there to determine such things as concerned the general Union and the peace not only of the Churches within such a district but also the Church Universal Now the Church of Africk at this distance of time stands in the best light of any which is owing to the excellent writings of Cyprian who gives several particulars concerning the state of the Churches of that part of the world in and before his time The first Council mentioned there was under Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage about rebaptizing of Hereticks but the number is not mentioned which if it had been any thing extraordinary Cyprian would not have forborn to alledge to add weight and Authority to the precedent he cites in favour of his own opinion Cypr. Ep. 71. Agrippinus bonae memoriae vir cum caeteris Coepiscopis suis qui illo tempore in Provincia Africa Numidia Ecclesiam Dei gubernabant The next we find is at Lambese against one Privatus of that place where there were present ninety Bishops the most numerous Council we read of in Africk before the Schism of the Donatists Ep. 55. compared with 30. nor is it to be wondred there should be so many Bishops met together in a Provincial Synod since the Province of Cyprian contained Africa properly so called Numidia and the two Mauritania's Latius fusa est nostra Provincia habet enim Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi cohaerentes Ep. 45. and we find several Councils composed of the Bishops of all these Provinces less numerous than this against Privatus Nanc cum in unum convenissemus tam Provinciae Africaequam Numidiae Episcopi numero 71. Ep. 73. However this passage of Cyprian of Provincia nostra whether it be understood here of the Civil or Ecclesiastical Province yet it was usual for the Bishops of those Provinces in Cyprians time to meet at Carthage to consult as the occasions of the Church did require Cum in unum Cartheâ—ini Convenissent Kal. Sept. Episcopi plurimi ex Provincia Africa Numidia Mauritâ—nia Sententiae Episc ap Cypr. T. 2. ed Goulart And it is further observable that there is a great difference in the number of the Councils of Africa properly so called and the other more general ones of the several Provinces united all the Bishops of that Country or the greatest part coming together upon extraordinary occasions as we shall shew presently from the simplicity of their constitution which continued longer in that Church than in any other of the Christian World and the strict obligations every particular Bishop had of coming to the Synods which here were more indispensable because there were no Metropolitans to represent the Suffragans of their Province but of this hereafter After the persecution that forced Cyprian from Carthage was ceased a Council was assembled to settle the Discipline of the Church relating to the laps'd Cum quies tranquillitas data esset Episcopis in unum convenire indulgentia divina permitteret tune communicate librato de omnium collatione consilio statueremque quid fieri oporteret Si quis vero ante concilium nostrum ante sententiam de omnium Consilio statutam lapsis temere communicareâ— â—yseâ—â— communionâ— arceatur Persecutione sâ—pita copiâ—sus Episcoporum numerus quos integros incolumes fides sua Domini tutela protexit Ac si minus sufficiâ—â—s iâ— Africa Episcâ—porum numerus etiam Râ—mam c. Ep. 52. Epigraph Ep. 54. Cypriaâ—uâ— liberalis c. Numero 42. or such as had fallen away in time of Temptation and since Cyprian in his recess would never determine any thing concerning it before the storm were over and all the Bishops permitted to come together to establish a general rule concerning it it is to be imagined that all that could possibly come together would meet upon this occasion where they were all concerned and so no doubt they did and Cyprian intimates as much where he says that all that had stood and persevered under that persecution came together and their number did hardly exceed forty it is likely that only the Bishops of the Province of Africk appeared here the business requiring some speedy remedy and all of that Province that had not lapsed doubtless came together and Cyprian with regard to the number of Bishops in the Province calls this a great number of Bishops Another Syned is said to be called shortly after by the Author of the Libellus Synodicus in the cause of Novatian which appears to be after that which we have mentioned last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. Synod Sed cum statuissemus Collegae complures qui in unum conveneramus perhaps in Hadrumettina Colonia legatis ad vos coepiscopis nostris omnia interim in t egrasuspenderentur ut tâ— universi nostri Collega communicationem tuam i. e. Catholicae Ecclesie unitatem probarent firmiter ac tenerent and these universi Collegae it seems were the 84. above mentioned who came from Africk Numidia and the two Mauritaniâ—'s for the Union and consent of all these was designed by Cyprian in order to which some Bishops were sent to Rome to inform them of the whole matter Cypr. Ep. 45. as well from the number which was eighty four and supposed the Church in a peaceable condition as from Cyprians Letter to Cornelius about the Clergy in Hadrumettina Colonia which though it be placed in the order of Pamelius before the Synod of Carthage about the lapsed yet from several circumstances I conceive was written some time after For 1. From the Epistle of the Synod last mentioned it appears that it was the first after the Persecution 2. It makes no mention at all of Novatian 3. The Letter of Cyprian about Polycarp and his Clergy gives the reason why they deferred to determine the difference between Cornelius and Novatian because they staid for an account of the whole matter from those Bishops they had sent to Rome that the cause of Cornelius might want no advantage of evidence to justifie and clear it though he Cyprian was well enough satisfied of the justice of it and had communicated with Cornelius before All this he sayes in the same place was done
in the Catalogue of Bishops ordain'd by Meletius and given in to the Bishop of Alexandria The lastthing I shall take notice of is the Diocese of Theodoret. This indeed I just mention'd and remitted the Reader to the D. of Pauls who had spoke very particularly of it I shall therefore say very little to it here being unwilling to do any prejudice to so good a Cause and so great a Person by a weak and unnecessary Defence But this I cannot omit that if those 800 not 80 Churches as this Gentleman reckons them belong'd to him as Metropolitan and they were all Episcopal this poor Region of Cyrus would have more Bishops than all Africk notwithstanding they were more numerous there than in any part of the World besides I have no more to add but that there was design'd a Chapter concerning the Right of electing Bishops and Church-Officers with an Historical Deduction of the Practice of the Church through the several Ages of it but because it could not answer the Design first form'd without swelling this Book to too great a Bulk It may hereafter in due time be publish'd by it self The Subject affording Variety enough for a large Treatise and requiring some Time and Diligence to do it to any Effect CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. OF the Design of Mr. Baxter's Church-History and his Notion of Primitive Congregational Episcopacy Page 1. CHAP. II. Of Heresies and the first Councils p. 76. CHAP. III. Of the Council of Nice and some that followed it p. 105. CHAP. IV. Of the Council of Constantinople p. 130. CHAP. V. Of the first Council of Ephesus p. 177. CHAP. VI. Councils about the Eutychian Hereresie p. 228. CHAP. VIi The Council of Calcedon p. 239. CHAP. VIII Of the Authors of Heresies Schisms and Corruptions and whether they were all Bishops p. 276. CHAP. I. A short View of the other Governments set up in Opposition to Episcopacy p. 364. CHAP. II. Of the Rise and Progress of Diocesan Episcopacy p. 433 ERRATA THe Faults that have escaped are almost infinite I have noted some of the most gross Page 5. for the effect read this p. 10. for judicially r. judiciously p. 11. for concident r. coincident p. 5. for the right r. their p. 18. for and so many r. over p. 21. for or Elders r. over p 23. there is a whole passage so mangl'd that it requires some trouble to restore it What refers to the Council of Calchedon cited in the Margin That is left out viz. that at that time they reckon'd 27 Bishops of Ephesus from Timothy that Polycrates reckon'd himself the 8. not the 6. Bishop of that Church for so many understand the passage of his Epistle tho' that does not necessarily follow from the words cited by Eusebius p. 27. for positure law r. positive ibid. the residence r. their p. 29. as they c. d. as p. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. for our Presbyters r. your ibid. for alledging r. alluding 16. for Capital r. Capitol p. 39. in the Margin r. coimus in caetum p. 41. for the generality of Christians r. many Christians p. 57. for made r. many Congregational c. p. 61. for before our Saviour was born correct before his Passion p. 63. r. Pantenus Heraclas p. 68. for shine r. thinne p. 69. r. that he should be p. 81. for is dangerous r. as p. 113. for Constantin's time r. Constantius p 126. for a dozen times r. lines p. 136. for to Meletius r. to Pautinus p. 143. for possum r. portum p. 319. for Observations r. Obsecrations p. 332. for not an Heretick r. Arch-Heretick 16. Arch Heresie d. Arch. There are very many false pointings which the Reader may correct as Isidor Pelus Evagrius Pontious c. where the Comma's are to be blotted out and several other wrong punctations that render the sence sometimes difficult but with a little observation the understanding Reader may restore them CHAP. I. Of the Design of Mr. Baxter's Church History and his Notion of Primitive congregational Episcopacy THERE is nothing so fatal to Christian Religion as our unhappy Dissentions about it especially such as divide the Church into Parties abhorring each others Communion for besides that the very Disagreement between men of the same Profession brings the whole Doctrine under suspition of Falshood or Uncertainty the Method that the Parties contending commonly make use of to set up themselves by the Disparagement and Reproach of the contrary side serves to bring them and their Religion into the lowest Contempt and the Result of all is that the common Enemy is made Judge between them who fairly sums up the Evidence and passes Sentence upon all sides according to their mutual Accusation This sad Truth is but too much confirmed by the experience of our times wherein there are few so happily removed from the noise of profane Conversation as not frequently to hear the scurrilous Blasphemies of the Atheist under pretence of running down the several Factions in Religion 't is this gives them Shelter and Protection and while they pretend to expose this or that Party they have the Opportunity with little change of Company to mock all Religion by parcels and that with the great good likeing and approbation of Christians themselves This is no such News but that most men seem to be sensible of it and bewail the thriving of Prophaneness by the Countenance that it receives from our Differences yet for all this how few abate any thing of their Fierceness How few will be so moderate as to sacrifice even the most disingenious Arts of Contention Calumny and Railing to the Safety and Honour of our common Faith I wish Mr. B. had had this Consideration before him when he set upon the writing of his Church History of Bishops and their Councils abridged he has indeed sufficiently abridg'd all the good Services that Bishops and Councils have done to the Church but their Miscarriages he has enlarg'd upon to purpose and sometimes by a foul Juggle conveyed the best of their Actions into the Catalogue of their Crimes and their greatest Services for Religion prove a considerable part of their Endictment I must confess I never saw any thing that in my Judgment reflected with more dishonour upon Religion than this strange account that he has given of the progress of it and the frightful Representation that he has made of the Church in all Ages Heathens have been civil and modest in their Character of us l. 27. compar'd with this Ammianus Marcellinus though he be something sharp upon Damasus Bishop of Rome yet speaks honourably of the generality of Christian Bishops Zosimus does not mention Chrysostom with any disrespct l. 5. c. 23. though he had a fair occasion nay the scurril Wit of that Buffoon Lucian nor the Malice of Julian the Apostate have left nothing half so scandalous in all their Libels against Christians as this Church Historian has raked up for here is
many it is Pity these great London Parishes should ever be divided they are so serviceable to Dissenters on all Occasions for if a Conventicle is to be kept up the Greatness of St. Martin's or St. Giles Parish will justifie it those Churches will not hold a tenth man that ought to repair to them and surely better set up a meeting against the Law than that the People go unedified And again when Rome or Alexandria are to be reduced to a single Congregation then it is but comparing them to these great Parishes and the work is done It is not likely that for two hundred years Rome it self had near so great a number of Christians as one of these Parishes Suppose they had not the Question is not whether the Church of Rome was more numerous than that of St. Martins but whether they could meet in one Congregation for suppose they were but half or a quarter so big if they could not meet in one place to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments but must resolve into several Assemblies for to do it it is no matter what proportion they held to our London Parishes But what Evidence is there out of History that the Church of Rome made but one Congregation for two hundred years after Christ is it that the People are said to consent to the Election of the Bishops or to concur in several Ecclesiastical Acts But how shall we be assured that every Believer was obliged to be present or that Matters were carried by Vote and not by general and confused Approbation Besides though all that had the right of Electing Church Officers might possibly meet in one place yet they were not the fifth part of the number that had right to Congregation and Personal Communion for Women and Children and Servants must be supposed to be excluded together with the Poor and the more inconsiderable Persons or if this practice of approving the Election of Church-Officers be any Argument for a Churches being no more than a single Congregation it will follow that Rome had but one Congregation for many hundred years after for the People were very long in possession of that right after the whole City was become Christian and surely then they were too numerous for one Congregation Anton. de Dom. l. 4. c. 11. makes a long deduction of the Election of the Bishops of Rome and proves that they were chosen by the People until Innocent the Second for 1100 years and that he was the first that alter'd the ancient way of Election Now if any one can believe that for eleven Centuries there was but one Congregation in Rome much good may it do him As for the Peoples Right to chuse which Mr. B. does so much insist upon and seems to give the People Encouragement to revolt from those Bishops which they never chose I shall give a more particular Account of it towards the latter end of this Treatise Mr. B. makes a Computation of the Church of Rome in the time of Cornelius and finds it to fall much short of one of our great Parishes for when Novatian divided that Church it had but forty six Priests seven Deacons and as many Sub-deacons forty two Acoluti Exorcists Readers and Porters fifty two Widows and Poor that were disabled and lived upon the Charity of the Church fifteen hundred upon which we compute thus Suppose the Poor the tenth part of the whole Church as St. Chrysostom calculated the number of the Church of Antioch the Product then would be fifteen thousand and not ten thousand five hundred as Mr. B. reckons or the Printer mistakes and even thus would they be too many for one Congregation We cannot imagine any five Churches of such as the Christians might be supposed then to have Ch. Hist p. 7. capable of holding them all Euseb l. ◠c. 43. but if we consider this Passage more narrowly we shall find Mr. B.'s Computation to be extreamly short for these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not only poor but sick and disabled for so the word is explain'd in the Epistle of the Roman Clergy to the Clergy of Carthage upon the subject of Cyprians retiring Ap. Cyr Sive Viduae sive Thlebomeni qui se exhibère non possunt sive qui in Carceribus sunt sive exclusi à sedibus suis utique habere debent qui eis ministrent So then these poor were such only as were not able to help themselves that were not able to come abroad and such as these surely are not the fortieth part of any people unless it be in the time of Plague or extraordinary Sickness In the next place let us consider the number of the Priests what use can there be of forty six in one Congregation For they were neither to preach nor administer the Sacraments in the Presence of the Bishop for the first Mr. B. urged it elsewhere to prove no more than one Congregation belong'd to one Bishop and I hope he will not be so disingenious as to cast it off as soon as he has serv'd his turn of it For the Administration of the Sacraments Justin Martyr is very clear in his Description that the Bishop consecrated and gave it the Deacons to be distributed among the Congregation ubi supra so that unless there were distinct Congregations at that time those 46 Presbyters could hardly find how to employ themselves But Mr. B. does endeavour to remove this Objection Ch. Hist p. 8. by shewing the Church-Officers were very much multiplyed in those days to the end that as many as had any useful Gifts might be employ'd in the Service of the Church For this Orat. 1. p. 45. he brings in Nazianzen as a credible Witness shortly after complaining of the Excess in this part that the Church Rulers were almost more than the Subjects but how shortly after would you have judg'd this to have been spoke No longer than about a hundred and fifty years and after one of the greatest Revolutions that happen'd in the Church in Cornelius's time the Christians as Mr. B. remarks were not of the greatest and richest and therefore it is not likely that the publick Charge should be multiplyed without Necessity and forty six Presbyters be appointed for one Congregation But in Nazianzen's time the Church was in a prosperous and flourishing Condition the Governours were now become Christians and great Priviledges and Wealth were added to the Clergy which made it then so desireable a thing But in Cornelius's time the greatest Dignity was Martyrdom and the Clergy was particularly aim'd at by the Heathen Persecutors their Portion was Labour and Danger they were to come and assist the Brethren in the Prison and at the Stake and the Office was so unpleasant that Novatian the Author of that Sect which Mr. B. speaks so favourably of desired to be eased of the Burden Euseb l. 6◠c. 43. and renounced his Priest-hood besides the same Epistle of Cornelius
him which I wonder as much he should believe as that he be satisfied with another Friend's Computation of the Christians in Alexandria in Strabo's time 't is in short this That he though his Voice was none of the lowdest yet he preacht to a Congregation judg'd to be about ten thousand men 2 part of Ch. Hist in one place he has but 6000. but in another he comes up again to 10000. and that they all hear'd him I am afraid that this Friends Calculation exceeds as much as the other falls short for we reckon now that three thousand makes an extraordinary Congregation and it may be possible for a mighty Voice to speak to a thousand more but it may be that the World is degenerated since and that our Lungs are no more in Comparison with those of the times he speaks of than they were compared to those of the Eastern Preachers At last to make sure work he concludes that though Jerusalem might have many Assemblies and yet but one Church p. 81. 82. and after the dispersing of the Apostles but one Bishop yet this is no Precedent This I must needs say is something more than the Independents would adventure to say they minced the matter and told us that Jerusalem being the first born Church and nursed up by the joynt care of all the Apostles might arrive to an extraordinary Stature and look gigantick in Comparison of the rest yet they durst not say it had more than one Congregation and was no Precedent What shall we judge then That the Apostles built the Church of Jerusalem after one model and those of other Cities after another or if they did surely they were both lawful does that overthrow the Church and Discipline of Christ's Institution that is according to the practice of his own Apostles Or can a Conformity to the Discipline of the Mother-church of Jerusalem become in it's self a Sin Wherein shall we be saved if the Imitation of the Apostles do not secure us But Mr. B. says the Office of a Bishop supposes him to have no more than one Congregation since he must hold personal Communion with all in Preaching and Administration of the Sacraments visiting the Sick relieving the Poor and the like but must all these Acts be performed by himself in Person Must he have no Assistance Is nothing to be done within his Congregation without his Presence May not he do all this occasionally as the Apostles and Evangelists did Every Bishop had Presbyters in the first times and if he were so indispensably oblig'd to do all himself what use were they of and yet appoint Elders for the ordinary and constant Performance of the Ministry whom he shall supervise and direct It is very strange that the Bishops should have been so many hundred years in an Office which it was impossible for them to discharge and yet this be never discover'd by themselves or others However the generality of Bishops you say for a long while after the Apostles had but one Congregation to govern what then If all the Believers in and about a City would hardly make a Congregation that is to be ascribed to the Condition of those times and not to be reckon'd essential to the Office all things have their Beginning but are not confin'd to the Measures of their Infancy and if the Beginnings of the Church were but small even the greatest Cities it cannot be a prejudice to the Governour of it if the number of Believers should increase since they are appointed in Clemens Opinion for the Government not only of those that have already Ep. ad Corinth but of such as shall afterwards believe The Practice of the universal Church is evidently on our side for who has ever heard of two Bishops in one City though it were never so great unless in time of Schism and it is strange when the number of Believers did encrease beyond all Possibility of personal Communion that none should ever discern the necessity of dividing into several Churches and learn this Wisdom from the Example of Bees But the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria by their Affectation of Empire became evil Examples to others by their first Corruption of Church Discipline It is strange then that among all the Quarrels of the Bishops and in all their Accusations of one another that this Crime of so high a Nature should never be objected that no good man could never complain of this Corruption that there should never be laid to their Charge this usurping of Authority over whole Cities and multitudes of Congregations But supposing this an Usurpation in the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria how is it credible that all the great Cities in the World should be carryed away with their Example that there should be not one honest Bishop left that understood the nature of his Office or the just bounds of his Diocess Or suppose the Bishops so far prejudiced with self-Interest as to have neglected a Duty that redounded so much to the Diminution of their Power yet were the People who in those times had some part in their Election ignorant of this great Secret would not they right themselves and not have suffer'd their several Congreations to become Chappelries c. Dependencies upon the Bishops Church Would not they have govern'd themselves rather than become as it were a Province to the Bishop or if the People were ignorant of this was there no Priest that was ambitious enough to be Bishop that could inform them of their Right in Expectation that they would be grateful to the Discoverer of their Priviledges And lastly was there no Schismatick learned enough to justifie his setting up of an Altar against an Altar by this Argument that there were more Believers than could hold personal Communion with the Bishops Altar that there was work enough for more Bishops than one and that in populous Cities there ought to be several Churches yet they were all so dull as never to think of this way but on the contrary every one pretended that there ought to be but one Bishop in a City and that himself had the Right and the other was the Usurper In short since the Nature of the Church requires that it should swarm when Believers grew too numerous for one Assembly and send out new Colonies under Independant-officers Is it not very strange that it should so far forget it's Nature as never to have done this and to leave not one poor instance upon whose Authority the Independency of Congregations might relye It is upon this that the present Question turns and not whether Bishops at first had but single Congregations for if there were no more Believers within or belonging to the City they could have no more but after they were multiplyed into several Congregations still they had but one Bishop and Mr. B. does not as much as pretend to any Evidence of History to the contrary unless it be when the Church was divided
that are grounded upon a mistake for this is rather to be counted a Consultation than a Council and as if they had wanted Authority to determine any thing in that ticklish point of receiving the lapsed into Communion they only agreed this ap Cypr. Ep. 31. That nothing should be changed before the Election of their next Bishop as appears by their Letter to the Clergy of Carthage the Bishops that were here present were such as came to assist and advise the Roman Clergy in a time of so great danger and not to determine any thing authoritatively in Council much less to be presided and govern'd by the Roman Presbyters After this says he p. 35. § 26. there was another Council in Carthage two in Rome and one in Carthage about the same Controversie These he passes over very lightly and the Schism that was the occasion of some of them because it was impossible to charge it upon any Bishop Cyprian behaved himself like a prudent good man and an indulgent Father and yet all this could not prevent Schism and Conventicles Faelicissimus Priest of Carthage makes the first breach whom Mr. B. mistakes for Felicissimus the Deacon § 26. who joyn'd himself afterwards with Novatus against the good Bishop Cyprian Novatus an African Presbyter improved this difference and not content to disturb his own Church went to Rome and kindled Discord and Dissention there Baronius would have this Novatus to be a Bishop because he is said by Cyprian to have ordained Felicissimus a Deacon but it is plain as well out of Cyprian as the Chronicle of Eusebius that he was but Priest Novatus Presbyter Cypriani Romam veniens Ep. 49. c. saith Eusebius and Cyprian after he had shewed what manner oâ— man he was adds that being conscious of such horrid Crimes he must expect non 〈◊〉 Presbyterio excitari tantum sed Communicatione prohiberi and as for the Ordination oâ— Felicissimus Cyprian in the same Epistle shewâ— it to have been done against all Rule and Order because he says that he did it nec pâ—mittente me nec sciente but sua factione ambitione which plainly shews that Novatâ—â— was Cyprian's Presbyter and ought not to have ordained a Deacon unless it were in Conjunction with him or by his Permissionâ— whereas if he had been a Bishop his right to the ordaining of Deacons would have been unquestionable This was the Author of that Schism Mr. B. favours so much throughout his whole History and claims Kindred with them as the Puritans and Nonconformists of those Times yet having known what manner of man he had been he might have been ashamed of such a Progenitor who if Cyprian be to be believed was always restless arrogant proud perfidious a Flatterer and an Incendiary that carried a tempest with him wheresoever he went and was a sworn Enemy to Peace and Settlement he robb'd the Orphans cheated the Widows purloin'd the Treasures of the Church he suffer'd his Father to starve and would not as much as bury him when dead he kick'd his Wife being great with Child and caused sudden Abortion and this was the great Saint and Puritan that could find no Church no Bishop holy enough for his Communion this was the severe Judge that would not admit Repentance and represented God cruel and implacable as himself for it was really his Opinion as I shall shew in due place that there was no pardon for the lapsed no not with God and that Mr. B. mistakes when he affirms this Rigour to extend no farther than to refuse an outward Reconciliation with the Church The next is another Council of Carthage p. 36. under Cyprian where one Victor is condemned for making a Priest Guardian of his Children and intangling a man devoted to the Service of the Altar in the Affairs of this World All that he has to except against this is the Rigor of the Sentence that forbids his name to be mentioned in Prayer for the dead and that there should be no Oblation made for his Rest but this shews that the ancient praying for the dead was intended rather as an honourable Remembrance of them than any act of Charity toward the Soul departed else it is not likely so good and indulgent a man as St. Cyprian was would have been so cruel in his Intentions as to deprive a poor Soul of any Relief he had judg'd necessary for it p. â—5 § â—8 After this he gives a short account of several Councils called upon the subject of Rebaptization of Hereticks and here to do him Right he is just enough in his Remarks The Generality of the World was for rebaptizing Hereticks and considering what manner of men the first Hereticks were it is probable they had Tradition as well as Reason on their side However Mr. B. endeavours fairly to excuse these Differences and speaks of the Bishops with Honour and respect allowing them to be men of eminent Piety and Worth Had he used the same Candour towards others who were no less eminent it would have been no Disparagement to his Judgment or Sincerity but his contrary unequal Dealing is not much for the Reputation of his Charity and Modesty There is a mistake § 29. where he make Eus bius to speak that in his own Person 〈…〉 which he cites not of Dionysius Alexandrinus That he does not condemn the rebaptizing of Hereticks Euseb l. 7 c. 6. which was a Tradition of so great Antiquity The Councils of Antioch that condemn'd Paulus Samosatenus are in effect acquitted by Mr. B. when he acknowledges him that was rejected by those Councils a gross Heretick That infamous meeting of Traditors at Cyrta p. 36. § 37. A meeting of 12 evil men that were Bishops lib. 1. contra Parmen was rather a Conspiracy than a Council and I am sorry Mr. B. has not done that Right to the Catholick Church as to shew who these men were Opatus Milev reproaches his Donatist Adversary with these Progenitors amongst these was Donatus Masculitanus Victor Rusicciadiensis Marinus ab aquis Tibilitanis Donatus Calumensis and the Murtherer Purpurius Limatensis the great Promoters of the Schism of the Donatists and as it were the Apostles of that Sect yet these men tho they were confessed Traditors became of so tender Consciences soon after as to abhor Communion with Cecilianus because he was ordained by Felix whom they suspected of the same Crime that they had pardoned one another The Church is so unconcerned with the crimes of these men that they are in some measure her Vindication they went out from us because they were not of us and they left the Communion of the Church because their crimes made them despair of enjoying it The next Council he mentions c. 2. § 38. is that of Sinuessa one of the most nonsensical pieces of Forgery that ever I saw three hundred Bishops are said to meet together to judge Pope Marcellinus and could find no better
place than a Cave where they could meet but fifty at a time like the Prophets that were fed by Obadiah in the time of Jezebel's Persecution and these Judges when they came together durst not be so presumptuous as to judge a Pope but desired him to condemn himself and when the poor man is perswaded to pass his own Sentence Melchiades pronounces these Words Justè ore suo condemnatus est nemo enim unquam judicavit Pontificem nec praesul sacerdotem suum quoniam prima sedes non judicatur à quoquam and yet for all this Mr. B. declares that whether this be true or forg'd is too hard a Controversie Just as hard as that concerning St. Vrsula and her eleven thousand Virgins or the travelling Chappel of Loretto or the History of the seven Champions The Council of Illiberis follows next that has many very good Canons and some have need of a favourable Interpretation it is very severe in some cases denying Communion even at the hour of Death but this is not the thing which was condemn'd in the Novatians as we shall shew hereafter The Council of Carthage follow'd that began the Schism of the Donatists p. 39 § 40. upon the occasion of Cecilianus his Election Thus says he the doleful Tragedy of the Donatists began by Bishops divided about the Carthage Bishop Tho it cannot be denyed but that Bishops had a hand in carrying on this Schism Opt. lib. 1. contra Parmen yet 't is not true that it was begun by them for Optatus makes Botrus and Caeleusius the first Authors of this Schism for these desiring themselves to be Bishops of Carthage and disappointed of their Hopes by the unanimous Election of Cecilianus left the Communion of the Church and drew Lucilla a rich and potent Lady into their Party Et sic tribus convenientibus causis personis factum est ut malignitas haberet effectum Schisma igitur illo tempore confusâ mulieris iracundia peperit ambitus nutrivit avaritia roboravit These three invited those Traditors of the Council of Cyrta to Carthage to judge the cause of Cecilianus who they pretended was ordained by a Traditor and these inveigled a great many others by a plausible pretence of Zeal against the Betrayers of Religion so Cecilianus was condemn'd and Majorinus put into his place The Donatists says Mr. B. were so call'd from Donatus § 40. a very good Bishop of Carthage heretofore and not from Donatus à Casis nigris 'T is true the former gave them the name but I wonder where Mr. B. finds that he was so good a Bishop (a) De script Eccles in Donat. St. Jerom makes him an Arrian (b) Optat. lib. 3. contra Parmen Optatus represents him as the most arrogant proud man that ever was that he exacted such a Submission even from Bishops as to make them worship him with no less Regard than God himself that he suffer'd men to swear by his name (c) Aust in Joh. tract 3. prop. Friem St. Austin makes him an Impostor that he made his party believe that when he pray'd God answer'd him from Heaven and the civil Magistrate found him no less turbulent than the Church his contumelious Language to the Emperours and their Lieutenants shewing sufficiently what Spirit he was of Gregori Macula Senatus dedecus Praefectorum Lastly He mistakes the time of this Council with Binnius and Baroneus placing it in the year of Christ 306. But Optatus making this Election of Cecilianus subsequent of the Toleration granted the African Churches by Maxentius who had not reduced Africa Valesius de Schismate Donatist c. 1. § 41. till about five years after it is clear that this Council could not be before An. 308. Another Council was held at Carthage where no less than two hundred and seventy Donatist-Bishops The Bishops now begin to multiply Schism the occasion for Moderation agreed to communicate with penitent Traditors without rebaptizing them and so did for forty years This looks liker a piece of Policy than Moderation for it had no tendence to Peace but to strengthen the Schism For the number of Bishops in this Council we have only the Authority of Tychonius Aug. Epist ad Vincentiam a Donatist who probably as the humour of those Schismaticks was might magnifie the strength of his Party and stretch it a point beyond what it really was The time of this Council is likewise very much mistaken as appears by what we have said of the Council going before and it is probable that it was held in the time of Donatus Vales de Schism Donat. c. 3. Schismatick Bishop of Carthage and immediate Successor of Majorinus St. Jerom in his Chronicle sets his Promotion in the year 331. Donatus agnoscitur à quo per Africam Donatiani And it cannot be well imagin'd that Schism should spread so suddenly as in the very beginning of it to have two hundred and seventy Bishops of their Party especially considering that Constantine the Great used all his Endeavours to suppress them It is observable that before this time we do not meet any very numerous Councils either in Africk or any where else the greatest falling much short of a hundred which shews that Bishops were not yet so much multiplied and that their Bishopricks were of a larger Extent but these Schismaticks having divided the Church made Bishops in every Village to strengthen their Party and to out-number the Orthodox besides that they had set up an Altar p. 4. § 44. and made them Bishops in every City where they could get the least Congregation to joyn with them Mr. B. complains upon this Occasion That some Popish Persons liken the Separatists among us to the Donatists who those Popish Persons are I will not pretend to ghess However this I am sure that the word Heresie of old was never worse abus'd than that of Popery is now for whomsoever men have a mind to render odious to the People it is sufficient to call him Popish and then he is baited under that infamous name as the Christians anciently were in the Skins of Beasts But if a man had a mind to make odious Comparisons Mr. B's Defence of our Separatists from the Imputation of being like the Donatists would render them but little Service For his first Exception of our Separatists having no Bishops which the Donatists had makes them differ not only from that Sect but from all the Sects and Churches in the World◠till the last Age and his second Exception of their being the lesser number signifies as little for so were the Donatists at first and so may they long continue or rather may the name of Separation cease and all return into one Flock under one Shepherd But the Donatists divided the Unity of the Church appointed Bishops against Bishops and Altar against Altar pretended to a greater Purity than the Orthodox and boasted that their Church
the Puritans Euseb l. 6. c. 43. Novatian in like manner withdrew from the Communion of the Church before he was excommunicated and the reason of his being renounced by the Church was because he had first renounced their Communion this Pharisaical Saint could not vouchsafe to enter into the same Church with Sinners and if it were not purged of all Dross and Corruption it must be unworthy of his Communion yet this severe Refiner of all others had least reason to exact this Purity whose Entrance into the Church as well as the Ministry was by extraordinary Dispensation and Indulgence he was baptized in his bed in great danger of Death he neglected to be confirmed by the Bishop he was made Priest against Ecclesiastical Laws that forbid Clinicks to have any share in the Government of the Church by the intercession of the Bishop who promis'd the People who were generally against his Admission that this Act should never be drawn into Precedent Being made Priest he became no great credit to his Friends that promoted him for in time of Persecution being desired to assist some of the Brethren that were in distress he renounc'd his Office and Religion saying that he would be Priest no longer and had an inclination to betake himself to another sort of Philosophy than the Christian this is the man that was so rigid and cruel as not to receive the Repentance of such as had fallen in time of Persecution but insinuating himself into the good opinion of the Confessors such as had endured the fiery Tryal he began to bring them into a dislike of the Church since it did receive those that had abjured that Religion for which the Confessors had so gloriously suffered and equalled them to these holy Martyrs in all the Priviledges of Communion Some of these good men were carried away with his dissimulation to do countenance to the Schism and their Authority brought off several others from the Communion of the Bishop but these at last discovering the Wolf in Sheeps clothing forsook the Impostor and return'd to the Unity of the Church he in the mean time uses all diligence to widen the breach and to make it perpetual by setting up himself for a Bishop which then was thought necessary to the Being of a Church although he had sworn solemnly before never to take the Office upon him To compass his Design he sends some of the subtilest of his Agents to three plain ignorant Bishops to invite them to Rome under pretence that this wretched Schism might be ended by their good Offices These good men suspecting no trick came and overcome with his good Entertainment with too much Wine and Perswasion were forc'd at last to lay their hands on him and consecrate him a Bishop and not thinking himself secure enough yet under this Title he makes every one of his Congregation engage himself by Oath never to forsake him or to return to Cornelius and this in a manner so Solemn that the relation of it is sufficient to strike a horrour on the mind of the Reader for when he administred the Sacrament after Consecration he made every one that received when the Bread was in his hand to swear to him by the Body and Blood of our Saviour that they would never forsake him or return to their former Bishop These were the men these were the means by which the Schism of the Novatians was begun and carried on a Schism no less execrable in the Conduct of it than infamous in its Authors and which is yet worse than all this most blasphemous in its Doctrines Mr. B. is too favourable in his representation of the Novatian Doctrine for in the place above-cited he makes these two Observations in favour of them First that Novatus did not deny the laps'd pardon of Sin with God p. 39. but only Church-Communion Secondly That he did not deny this to other great Sinners repenting but only to those that laps'd to Idolatry or denying Christ but the Novatians long after extended it to other heinous Crimes as upon suppos'd parity of Reason As to the first lib. 4. c. 28. Socrates does endeavour to excuse them by saying that those who had sacrificed to Idols in times of Persecution were to be exhorted to Repentance though not to be admitted to Communion and as to the Pardon of their Sin they were to leave that to God who alone has power to forgive Sins It must be confess'd that Socrates is an Historian of good credit and it seems well acquainted with the History and Doctrine of the Novatians who probably in his time might have grown more moderate in their Opinion concerning Remission of Sin but nothing can be more evident than that the Authours of that Schism denied not only the Communion of the Church but God's Pardon to those who had sinned after Baptism for this all the Writers of that time who must be suppos'd to understand their Tenets do unanimously affirm Dionysius Alexandrinus who lived the same time with Novatian and writ to him to advise him to return and be reconcil'd to the Church and lay down that Honour of a Bishop which he pretended was forc'd upon him this ancient Writer gives us this account of their Doctrine Euseb l. 7. c. 8. Novatian sayes he I justly abhor because he has divided the Church and drawn aside several Brethren into Impiety and Blasphemy and brought in a most wicked Doctrine concerning God representing our most merciful Saviour as cruel and void of pity Besides this be evacuates holy Baptism and overthrows the Faith that was before him And lastly He banishes the Holy Ghost irrevocably from those in whom there is great reason to hope that either it Remains still or may return to them again So far Dionysius Cypr. ad Nov. Haer. S. Cyprian argues in several places upon the same Supposition and looks upon their Severity in not admitting Penitents to Communion as the Effect of a more cruel Doctrine that God would never receive them into favour idem ad Anton. l. 4. ep 2. This was the main Argument against the lapsed He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven and consequently they denied them Communion because they believed Christ would finally reject them This the same Father uses great diligence to explain and confutes their Inference from it by the Example of St. Peter who deny'd his Master and yet was received into Grace He does acknowledge indeed frequently that Novatus did exhort those to Repentance he refused to receive but then he urges that nothing can be more impertinent than to press men to repent and yet to take away from them all hopes of Pardon and therefore he notes this as a pernicious Effect of their Doctrine That it frighted men out of their Religion and made them turn Heathen upon despair of Mercy and cast away all thoughts of Repentance since it would not avail them to
Facundo Editae à Sirmondo Though Mr. B. makes them 660. by comparing the Arrian Visitation of Africk where there were but four hundred sixty six Bishops in all and I believe the Schismaticks come into the number who might abhor Arrianism no less than the Catholicks and then Churches must be of greater Extent even in Africk than Mr. B. fancies them all these were call'd before King Hunnericus to give an account of their Faith of whom but eighty eight fell away and three hundred seventy eight persever'd It seems the majority of Bishops was not then so complying as they are injuriously represented in this History St. Basil in the Descriptions he makes of the lamentable Estate of the Eastern Churches does not complain of the Temporizing and Compliance of the Bishops but of the hard measure they receiv'd and how they were generally turn'd out by the Arrians Thus that excellent Bishop complains to his Brethren of the West Basil Ep. 70. The Shepherds are driven away that the Flocks might be dissipated And a little farther There is no Criminal condemn'd without some Evidence but Orthodox Bishops are punish'd without any proof at all some of them never saw their Accusers and were never brought to any Bar nor were ever indicted of any Misdemeanour but secretly in the Stilness of the Night were hurried away into Banishment and dy'd with the Hardships of the Wilderness and though we should be silent yet the World cannot be ignorant of the Banishment of the Priests and Deacons and of the Havock that is made of the whole Clergy And in another Place Ep. 220. Among all the Dioceses of the Bishops those that are the most eminent Assertors of the Faith are driven out of their Country by Calumnies and false Accusations and others brought in who lead Captive the Souls of the ignorant And if you would know what persons they were that made up the Arrian Councils the same Author tells you they were such as they put into the places of those good men that were turn'd out Men that would not fail to serve them Basil Ep. 69. the Arrians that put them in to the Destruction of the true Faith and were the Slaves and Instruments of those that promoted them in their Revenge upon the Orthodox Doctrine And now judge whether it was the Compliance of the Bishops or the Violence of the Hereticks that made so great and sudden Change in the Church and in the Doctrines of Councils In reckoning up the principal things done in the Council of Constantinople § 4. p. 66. he makes the Deposition of Gregory Naz. to be one against all History and against himself in the next page where he says That Gregory seeing the Resolutions and offended with the furious Carriage of the Bishops in the Council resigneth to the Emperour and departeth Let them be resolv'd upon casting him out as much as they will yet it was not done only they put another into his place which was made vacant by his voluntary Resignation Upon this account he represents this Council in a most odious manner p. 66. § 7. and for this end makes use of the words of Nazianz. speaking of the general Corruptions of the Times and the Divisions of the Church and what Age has been so happy as not to labour under these Evils But he has mangled and disjoynted the Words of that eloquent Father more barbarously than ever the Bishops or their Councils did the Church The Courtiers Gregor Orat. in Synod whether true to the Emperour I know not but for the most part perfidious to God This is in the Close of his Speech in the Council among those passionate Valedictions but Mr. B. joyns with it his sharp Reproof of the Bishops page 524. where we may observe his wonted Candour for Nazianz. speaking of the Factions of the Bishops under these Metaphors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. B. thought fit to render it Raging like furious Horses in Battel and leaves out the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almost to make the Satyr more full writes and like Madmen casting Dust into the Air. And as he thought fit to leave out in one place so he adds in another to the Words and Sense of Nazianzen therefore he professes That it is unseemly for him to joyn with them in their Councils as it were to leave his Studies and Quietness to go play with the Lads in the Streets To joyn with them in their Councils is an addition of Mr. B. the words of Gregory are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In like manner it would not become me who know better things than the multitude whilst others bustle in a Crowd to choose rather to be one of them than to enjoy my Liberty with Obscurity There is nothing reflects upon this Council before which this Oration was spoken but only representing the great Trouble that would attend the Office of a Bishop and especially the Bishop of the Imperial City that he might obtain the Request he had made before and which all this lamentable Description of the Church is design'd to recommend he desires to be dismiss'd Give me says he The Reward of my Labour What p. 23. Not such as some envious men may think but such as I may safely ask give me Rest and Ease from my long Labours have Compassion on my gray Hairs have some Respect to a Stranger and put another into my place who may be vex'd and disturb'd in my Stead such as hath clean hands and an eloquent Tongue such as is able to gratifie you in all things and may be sufficient to joyn with you in an effectual Care for the Church But as for me you see how I am wasted with Time and Labour and Sickness The Verses cited out of Gregory Ch. Hist p. 67. do not concern this Council at all but represent the miserable Distractions of the Church at that time he accepted the Bishoprick of C. P. and his chief design in it 1 Carm. de vita sua was to reconcile if it were possible these Differences which were occasion'd by Hereticks who envy'd the Orthodox Bishops and had a violent Passion for their Chairs However Mr. B. will have it That he spake all this and a great deal more of this Council of C. P. one of the four which is equall'd to the four Evangelists He does indeed in several places find fault with this Council but is far from making such a Riot as this and it seems he had a great many Friends in it as appears by their Dissention concerning him which he put an end to by a voluntary Resignation of his Place and it is evident from his own Account that the Council had not agreed upon his Deposition till after his Resignation Carm. de vita sua for after his Speech he says That a confus'd Murmur follow'd and the younger men brought the old over I suppose to accept of this Offer that since his Case did
Justification and the Example and Miracles of St. Martin But this Instance could become no man worse than Mr. B. who in a Letter to Dr. Hill confesses himself to have been a man of Blood and therefore despairs of the honour of ever being instrumental in the Peace of the Church If St. Martin was so far in the right why does not M. B. imitate him why does he not renounce Communion with those bloody men that instigated the Long Parliament and People to rebell that pressed the King's death and defended it when it was done why does he not renounce these especially since they never gave the least sign of Repentance These were the men that applied themselves to the Maximi of this Nation to persecute not Priscillianists but a great many Worthy Honest Men And I need not call to Mr. B's remembrance who were the sordid Compliers with these Usurpers who compar'd Cromwel to David Disput 1. Ep. Ded. to R. Cromwel and his wise Son to Solomon but this has transported me a little too far and to say truth who can forbear where men have the confidence to suggest those things against others that they stand most notoriously guilty of themselves The next thing worth Reflection is his Remark upon the Council of Capua §. 20. This Council sayes he had more wit than many others and order'd that both Congregations Flavian 's and Evagriu 's being all good Christians should live in loving Communion O that others had been as wise in not believing the Prelates that perswaded the World that it is so pernicious a thing for two Churches and Bishops to be in one City as Peter and Paul are said to be at Rome Whatever Wit this Council had it seems Mr. B. shews little in mistaking it so grossly for the Council of Capua never order'd that the two opposite Bishops and Congregations at Antioch should joyn in loving Communion but only that the Eastern Bishops that had divided themselves upon that occasion some taking part with Flavianus others with Evagrius Conc. Cap. that these should be received into the Communion of the Catholick Church if they were Orthodox in the Faith so that if the Schism at Antioch could not be compos'd the Mischief should not go any further or divide the Catholick Church Ambros Theoph. Ep. 78. as St. Ambrose writes to Theophilus Alex. Cui bonae pacis naufragio Synodus Capuensis tandem obtulerat possum tranquillitatis ut omnibus per totum Orientem daretur Communio Catholicam confitentibus fidem duobus estis tuae sanctitatis Examen impertiretur And now Mr. B's violent Exclamation against those who would perswade the World that it is so pernicious a thing to have two Bishops in the same City might have been spar'd but this is to be pardon'd when we consider that a Gun makes the same noise whether it hit or miss the mark But this Council condemn'd a new Heresie Hereticating was in fashion viz. of one Bishop Bonosus Ch. Hist § 21. p. 72. denying Mary to have continu'd a Virgin to her death Here Mr. B. makes himself pleasant with his own Dream for surely no man with his Eyes open ever saw this Condemnation of Bonosus by the Council of Capua which determines only that the neighbouring Bishops should judge between him Bonosus and his Accusers Ambr. Ep. 79. sed cum hujusmodi fuerit Concilii Capuensis judicium ut finitimi Bonoso atque ejus accusatoribus Judices tribuerentur praecipuè Macedones qui cum Episcopo Thessaloniensi de ejus factis cognoscerent advertimus quod nobis judicandi forma competere non posset Next sayes our Author we have a strange thing § 23. a Heresie raised by one that was no Bishop but the best is it was but a lit-Heresie that of Jovinian But how is it so strange a thing that a Heresie should be raised by one that is no Bishop or did he not turn Heretick because he was not made one Cerinthus Ebion Marcion Valentinus Artemon Arrius c. were they Bishops I suppose it will be a hard matter to find any Bishops to have been the Authors of any Heresie for a long while after Christ and even those that gave names to Heresies were not the first that gave them being as we shall shew more particularly hereafter It is strange sayes Mr. B. that Binnius vouchsafes next § 24. to add out of Socrates when he hereticates him also a Council of the Novatians And why should it be so strange since Binnius sets down a great many more Councils that were Heretical in his opinion But let Mr. B. enjoy his wonder when he is in the fit he must give others leave to wonder a little too at the Transports of a man that pretends so much to moderation that would say as loud as I can speak if all the proud ambitious hereticating part of the Bishops had been of this mind O what Sin Ch. Hist p. 73. § 24. what Scandal and what Shame what Cruelties Confusions and Miseries had the Christian World escap'd And what is all this about The leaving Easter indifferent i. e. Whether it be to be observ'd with the Jews or the Christian Church And yet Mr. B. in this very Paragraph finds fault with silencing of Ministers that would not keep it at the wrong time If all times be indifferent to observe it in what time is wrong and who changes the nature of things indifferent the Bishops or those that make a Conscience of Observing it upon a mistaken time He is very much here in the Commendation of the Novatians as if none had ever observ'd this Moderation but these Schismaticks Did not Irenaeus and many other good Bishops shew the same moderation before Novatian was born But these Hereticks than whom there never was a more proud Pharisaical sort of men must have the Honour of it when it was their necessity that put them upon this Indulgence one towards another and that you may understand how peaceably they behav'd themselves in this present case take this short account of it out of Socrates and Sozomen who if they were not Novatians as most Learned men both Protestants and Papists are of Opinion were too great Favourers of that Sect as all complain of them The Novatians Socr. l. 5. c. 20. Sozom. l. 7. c. 18. in the time of Valens the Emperour did think fit for Reasons unknown to change the Rule for the Observation of Easter which by the Decree of the Council of Nice was become in a manner Universal It may be they would have no Observance common with the Catholick Church and especially at that time when they were all under the same Persecution and the Catholicks desir'd a Reconciliation with them and therefore they flew off as much as they could to avoid such a Conjunction However this Innovation did not so generally obtain among the Eastern Novatians but that the contrary Usage prevail'd almost every
owed him still the duty of Children notwithstanding his absence and lastly that he would come to them shortly by way of Apostolical visitation and examine the power of those that entred into competition with him For as far as his Line or Diocess or Province did extend so far he pretended a peculiar Authority to govern Rom 15.19 2 Cor. 10.13 to 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dioecesis sive certus Pastorum Ecâ—lesiarum numerus Unit. Frat. Bohem. Sect. de Antist Regulam vocat Ditionem praescriptum Praedicationis Terminum Salmeron and exercised Diocesan jurisdiction upon all within his Rule But when this Line was so far extended that he neither was able to visit every part himself and his communication by Letters would not answer all the occasions of those Churches he had planted 1. Tim. 1.3 18. c. 2.14 15. c. 4.12 14. c. 5.21.22 Tit. 1.5 c. 2.15 he provides for them not by leaving every Congregation Independent and resigning all Authority into the hands of every particular Presbytery but by sending Persons endued not only with extraordinary gifts but with Apostolical power to ordain Elders to end disputes to censure the unruly and irregular whether of the Clergy or People to confute Hereticks to preach the Gospel and in short by all means to provide for thee welfare of those Churches committed to them And now as the Apostle had before ordained assistant Elders in the several Churches which he had planted for the ordinary attendance of the Congregation so now he takes to himself Assistants of another sort Suffragans for the Service of his Province which he distributed as he found most expedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 1. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod in 1 Tim. 3. Phil. 3.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acceperat in illis Apostolatus officium Hieron in locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anonym 〈◊〉 Phot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Timoth. and these in the Apostles time were sometimes called Apostles or Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Fellow Labourers Helpers Deacons c. but their successors leaving greater and more invidious titles contented themselves with the name of Bishops which was common to them with ordinary Presbyters at first though the Offices were alwayes distinct Of this kind we have several mentioned in Scripture of St. Pauls Province as Barnabas Timothy Titus Crescens Epaphraditus Sosthenes and some others that had no relation to him as James the Just Mark Linus Clemens c. These exercised Episcopal jurisdiction in that district where they were appointed Ordained Presbyters received accusations against them Reprov'd and censur'd them as there was cause and in short govern'd those Churches over which they were appointed by full Apostolical power which was transmitted to their successors But the extraordinary abilities of some of these men and the occasions of several other Churches made their residence less constant in the Diocess where they were plac'd 2 Tim. 4.9 than otherwise might have been expected Phil. 2. and therefore Timothy the Bishop and Apostle of Ephesus is called to Rome by St. Paul to be imployed as the necessities of the Church should require Titus is sent to Dalmatia though Crete were his first Province but this concludes no more against their being Diocesans than the Voyage of Germanus and Lupus into Brittain to oppose the Pelagian Heresy would conclude against their being Bishops Now what care was taken for those Churches which these Apostolick Diocesans left whether they returned again to their Provinces is not mentioned in Scripture But Ecclesiastical Records shew an uninterrupted Succession from the Bishops in several Churches Nor do we find that they were all so unfixed as they are represented by the adversaries of Episcopacy for Mark who was the first Bishop of Alexandria remained in that Province Euseb Hist l. 2. c. 16. Niceph. l. 2. c. 43. Gelas in Conc. Rom. in decr de lib. Auth. planting Churches in the Country round about and governing them by Apostolical Authority which after his Martyrdom there was derived to his successuors in the same charge Now this order being of perpetual use and necessity in the Church to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to exercise discipline to preserve unity they were multiplyed according as the Apostles found most expedient for the Church and the most eminent Cities became the Residence of these first Bishops not because God takes greater care of Cities than he does of lesser Towns and Villages but because the Apostles thought it the most natural way to follow the distribution that was then in the more civilz'd part of the world St. John a little while before his death mentions seven in the Lydian Asia under the name of Angels of the Churches nor is it probable there were any more in that Province The Seven Churches being the same with all the Churches mentioned in the next Chapter Rev. 1.20.2.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andr. Caesar Ego puto simul inveniri posse Angelum hominem bonos Ecclesia Episcopos Origen in Lucam Hom. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Collegas moneat Beza Ad Episcopum loci dirigitur Paraus and Carolus à Sancto Paulo concludes the same thing out of St. John Cum in Asia septem tantum hisce temporibus essent Episcopi ut in Apocalypsi legere est nec majorem corum numerum in Ponto tunc fuisse probalile est Geogr. Sacra p. 289. Dissert 4. c. 5. Quod si de Angelis superiorum Coelorum non de praepositis Ecclesie intelligi vellet non consequenter diceret Laudatur sub Angeli nomine praepositas Ecclesiae Aug. Ep. 162. But Dr. Hammond makes all these Angels to be Metropolitans having several Bishops under them for the reasons I must refer the reader to his Dissertations Thus far the Scripture discovers the rise and progress of Diocesan Episcopacy which was the form of Church Government under the Apostles who had large Provinces to supervise and their suffragans such as are commonly called Evangelists had several Congregations to govern and this was undeniably the constitution of the Church in the first age the next thing we are to inquire is whether the Office expired with those Persons or was designed to be of perpetual use in the Church The Adversaries of Episcopacy are not all agreed as to this point the Presbyterians generally looking upon the offices of Apostles and Evangelists extraordinary as the persons were Mr. B. is something more scrupulous because he does not find any where that Christ design'd to have this alter'd and yet he condemns Diocesan Episcopacy as being altogether different from it I have said something to this already and therefore I shall answer here more briefly 1. That we have no reason to believe from Scripture that the Office of Apostles or Evangelists which concerned the Government of the Church was extraordinary and for a time only
and the extraordinariness of their gifts can be no argument against their continuance for notwithstanding they did many miraculous things yet they never could contrive to be in two places a the same time and as to their governing of several Congregations they were under the same inconveniences with their successors They visited from place to place they called the Presbyters of some Churches to them to give them directions they proceeded by information and legal evidence and what was possible to them to do in these cases is not become impossible to those that succeed them 2. All other offices had extraordinary men in those dayes and the same argument will hold against Presbyters and Deacons as against Bishops for the first Deacons that were elected were men full of the Holy Ghost 3. The unfixedness of these is no argument against the reason of their continuance and all that will follow from that is no more than this that if it was essential to their office to be unfixed they ought to be so still and not to cease to be at all 4. All of them were not unfixed and if they had been so it does not follow that the nature of their office requires it it might be no more than accidental 5. That they governed several Churches and were Arch-Bishops As to the notion of Church or Churches it is not very material whether we say Bishop of one or of many Churches for many worshipping Churches may make but one Governing Church and worshipping Churches may have their officers too as our Parishes but still in subordination to the Bishop as the several Churches under these Evangelists and Apostles were subordinated to them in matter of Discipline and Ordination But because many depend upon the title which these secondary Apostles have in Scripture as Timothy is commanded to do the werk of an Evangelist it is necessary to observe that it was not all their work to Preach and Propagate the Gospel but to settle Churches to govern them to ordain Officers to censure offenders these are the things particularly given in Charge that of Evangelists was common to them with divers others But ordination is made their peculiar right For why did Paul leave Timothy and Titus one in Ephesus the other in Crete to ordain Elders Were there not Presbyters in Ephesus already Might not they ordain Might not they receive Accusations and Excommunicate Why then was there one single Person left to do all this and in Crete it is not to be conceived but that since St. Paul had converted several to the faith in that Island he also had ordained some Church Officers in those places of the Island where he most resided Or what need had he to leave a Bishop behind him to ordain when he might by the ordination of a few Presbyters in one City provided sufficiently for ordination in the rest or lastly since this ordination is made so insignificant by Mr. B. why might not these Believers have appointed their own Teachers without any further circumstance and by an instance of their power have freed Posterity from the superstition of thinking Apostolical Ordination and succession so requisite to Authorize Pastors But since the Apostles ordained all Ecclesiastical Officers by themselves or their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Assistants their suffragan Bishops and left some of them on purpose to do this work it is plain that they conceived some kind of necessity for it and did not look upon the power so common or insignificant as later projectors of Church settlements would make us believe Now as the Scripture discovers no other sort of Episcopacy than such as we have discribed so the ancient Bishops knew of no other Original of their Office for they conceived themselves to be derived from the Apostles not as ordinary Presbyters or Deacon but to succeed them in such a preheminence of dignity and power as their first Assistants were endued with And Eusebius whose diligence nothing could escape and whose judgment was not easily imposed on aâ—ter all his search could find no other Original of Episcopacy and derives the Bishops of the most eminent Cities of the Empire from the Apostles and their Assistants whom they appointed as the first Bishops of the Church Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How many sayes he and who they were that followed the example of the Apostles and were thought worthy to govern those Churches which they founded is not easy to say besides these which St. Paul mentions in his Epistles he indeed had a great number of Assistants and as he calls them fellow Souldiers whose names are preserved in his Epistle And Luke in the Acts of the Apostles makes mention of some of them Among these Timothy is said to have been first Bishop of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus the Bishop of the Churches of Crete Crescens was sent to Gallatia as the present reading of St. Pauls Epistle is but as Eusebius read it to Gallia Linus whom he mentions in his second to Timothy was made Bishop of the Church of Rome next to Peter and Clemens who succeeded Linus is owned by Paul as his fellow labourer And Lastly Dionysius the Areopagite whom St. Paul mentions as the first Convert of Athens is reported to have been the first Bishop of that Church by another Dionysius a very Ancient writer and Bishop of Corinth This was the rise of Episcopacy according to Eusebius and the progress of it he takes care to shew by setting down the successours of these and other Bishops to his own time Ep. ad Smyrn ad Ephes ad Magn. Ignatius derives the Original of Episcopacy a little higher yet from Christ himself the Universal Bishop and compares the Bishop with his Bench of Presbyters to Christ sitting in the midst of his Apostles and is the most express and vehement of all the Ancients in setting out the dignity and preheminence of the Bishop Irenaus deduces the Episcopal Authority from the same Original and makes the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles to be his principal argument against the Hereticks and Schismaticks of his time and because it was endless to make a perfect enumeration of those who succeeded the Apostles in all the Churches of the World Valde longum esset in tali volumine enumerare Successiones l. 3. c. 3 he instances in that of Rome where Linus was first ordained Bishop Lino Episcopatum administrandae Ecelesiae tradiderunt Apofloli ibid. Polycarpus ab Apostolis in eâ qua est Smyrnis constitutus Episcopus qui usque adbue successerunt Polycarpe ibid. then Clemens and so on to his own time and in another place proposes it as the only remedy against Heresy to obey those that have a due succession from the Apostles who though they are there called Presbyteri yet it is plain who he means by them when he adds that they are the same which he shewed before to have succeeded the
may as well believe that there was a time when all the Republicks in the world upon the consideration of their being obnoxious to Factions became Monarchies by mutual consent Nay this might with greater reason be believed for it is not impossible but that men who are satisfied of their power to set up what form of Government they please might agree to shake off together a form that they find very incommodious but that so many Societies as there were Churches in the World appointed by divine direction should so universally change what the Apostles had instituted without any noise or resistance and that by one common decree is altogether incredible and one may say with the same reason that they conspired at the same time to change their Creed Having examined St. Jeroms singular opinion concerning the rise of Episcopal Government I should now conclude that point if Clemens Romanus in his excellent Epistle to the Corinthians did not seem to favour this opinion therefore I think it necessary to consider such passages in it as are alledged against Episcopacy and from the whole to make a conjecture of the state of that Church when that Epistle was written The Inscription of it affords Blondel an argument against Episcopacy for it is not in the name of the Bishop or Clergy but of the whole Church that it is written The Church of God at Rome to the Church of God at Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From whence Blondel infers that since there is no mention of the Clergy it follows that the Church was governed then not by the pleasure of one man but by the common Counsel of those that were set over it This way of reasoning I must confess to be very extraordinary Because there is no mention of the prerogative of the Roman Clergy Ubi cum nulla peculiaris vel scribentis mentio vel cleri Romani Praerogativa vel Corinthiaci Presbyterii a plebe discretio appareat sed omnes ad omnes confertim scripsisse compertum sit luce meridiana clarius clucescit tune temporis Ecclesias communi Praepositorum Consilio gubernatas non unius regi mini à cujus â—utu penderent omnes subjacuisse or of that of Corinth as distinguished from the Laity it 's clear nay clearer than the day that there was no Bishop It would be a very strange thing to see two men with their eyes open dispute fiercely whether it were noon-day or midnight and yet this is our case that consequence which to him is as clear as the Sun does not at all appear to others If he had said because there is no mention of the Clergy in the Inscription as the Governing part therefore there was no Clergy or the Clergy did not govern the inference would have appeared but what truth there would be in it I need not say Others inscribe Epistles in the same style to the Church of such a Place where notwithstanding there is a Bishop and a Clergy Dionys Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet in the body of these Letters he mentions the Bishops of those Churches Irenaeus ubi supra Euseb l. 4. c. 23. And this Argument of Blondel may be justly suspected when we consider that the Ancients though they were well acquainted with this Epistle of Clemens and its Inscription yet they could by no means see this consequence that is now drawn from it Irenaeus had doubtless seen that Epistle for it was in his time commonly read in Churches and yet he thought Clemens who wrote it to be Bishop of Rome notwithstanding his name be not mentioned in it Dionysius Bishop of Corinth sayes it was read in his Church and yet he could not find any thing in it to perswade him that at that time there were no Bishops but on the contrary he was of opinion that Bishops were instituted by the Apostles and that Dionysius Areopagita was ordained by St. Paul the first Bishop of Athens so that these ancient writers it seems were as blind as we and could not observe either in the Inscription or body of this Epistle what Blondel at such a distance of time could perceive as clear as the noon day and yet those writers if they had suspected any such thing might have been easily satisfied by their Fathers who might have seen the state of the Church about which the difficulty was and so told them upon their own knowledge whether the Government was Episcopal or Presbyterian And therefore this is our comfort that if we cannot discern this light which Blondel talks of that those who lived nearer the East the rising of it could see no more than we But some men surely have glasses for distance of time as well as place and can see farther in the Apostolick times than the next Generation that followed them But to proceed Clemens owned but two orders in the Church of Apostolick Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops and Deacons which he sayes the Apostles ordained out of the first-fruits of the Gospel over those that should afterwards believe And these were appointed in Cities and the Country or Regions round about from whence Blondel draws many observations and out of him Mr. B. as 1. That in those days no body thought of what the Council of Sardica did afterwards decree that no Bishop should be made in any Village or small City lest the dignity of that office should be undervalued and grow cheap This is grounded as most of the rest of Blondels and Mr. B.'s Arguments from this Epistle upon a mistake and I fear a wilful one concerning the name of Bishop For if the Bishops of Clemens who he sayes were apponited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were only Presbyters then the Council of Sardica did not do any extraordinary thing by that prohibition of Bishops in little Dioceses for Presbyters were still allowed in the Country Villages by that Council and therefore if Episcopacy was an institution later than Clemens this Council has done nothing so contrary to this by forbidding Bishops properly so called and allowing Presbyters to reside in Country Villages Some there are that interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Provinces but there is no necessity at all for this though the phrase will very well bear it for these Bishops I believe with Blondel and Mr. B. were no other than Presbyters such as were first appointed to govern the Church but in subordination to the Apostles who were the proper Bishops of those Churches they founded and as they found occasion appointed others to succeed them in that eminence of Authority over such districts of the Apostolical Provinces as they judged most convenient for the edification and unity of the Church And this distribution of Church Officers by Clemens into Bishops and Deacons is the less to be depended upon as exact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esay 60.17 because it seems to be made only with allusion to a place in the Old Testament where those
happy are those that enter that way behaving themselves peaceably For let a man be faithful let him be never so powerful a Preacher let him be never so wise and discerning holy in his life yet by how much he seems to excel others by so much ought he to behave himself more humbly and seek the common good of all and not his own particular Besides this the passionate expostulation of Clemens with the Ringleaders of this sedition makes this conjecture yet more probable Who is there among you generous and charitable Let him say if this Schism and Sedition has been raised upon my account I will withdraw I will be gone withersoever ye please only let the Fold of Christ live in unity and peace with the Presbyters that are over it and to incourage them to this generous resignation he tells them of many Kings that have offered themselves a Sacrifice for the safety of their Countrys How many to put an end to sedition have left their own Cities Apud Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 45. with more to that effect which Dionysius of Alexandria borrows out of this Epistle and sends it as an exhortation to Novatus to put an end to that Schism he had caused and what is there so proper against a Schismatick Bishop we may judge not without reason to have been applyed by the first Author upon the same occasion And thus much of the state of the Church of Corinth at the writing of this Epistle The last thing I shall observe out of Clemens is a passage that seems to favour the distribution of the Clergy into three Orders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Priests and Deacons The High-Priest sayes he hath his proper office the Priests have a proper place appointed for them and the Levites have their peculiar Ministry and the Lay-man is obliged to keep himself within the bounds of his own station Brethren let every one of you glorifie God in his own place and keep himself within his own line not breaking over the bounds of his own Office and Ministry Having now given an account of the Original of Diocesan Episcopacy out of Scripture and Antiquity and examined the singular opinion of St. Jerom concerning it I come now to give a short view of the progress and advancement of it The first Bishops after the Apostles according to the opinion of Rabanus Maurus In 1 Tim. 4. had very large Dioceses Primis temporibâ—â— Episcopi Provincias integras regebant Apostâ—lorum nomine nuncupati i. e. In those first times Bishops governed whole Provinces being called then Apostles and this conformable to Theodoret who affirms not only the same thing of the first Bishops being called Apostles Is Argumento Ep. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. in 1 Tim. 3. but also that they had large Dioceses too for speaking of Titus he calls him Bishop of Crete though it were a very great Island and in another place he sayes that Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians Titus of the Cretians and Timothy of the Asians i. e. In his language their Bishops and the Canons of the Apostles signifie as much where they order every Bishop to medale only with his own Diocess and the Regions that belong to it Can. Ap. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as Christians were multiplyed in the World so the number of Bishops increased every considerable City with the Country about becoming Dioceses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil 1. Chrysost in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum Theoph. nor â—â—iâ— una in urbe plures Episcopi esse potuissent Hieron It could not be It was against the design of the institution Loci ipsius Episcâ—â—o scribendum esset non duobus aut tribus Ambr. in Loc. so Asia towards the latter end of St. John had seven Bishops and by proportion we may conjecture of other Countries and the first advances of Christianity being very wonderful and the success of our Religion giving occasion to envy and persecution the condition of those times seems to have proportioned the distribution of the Church and to multiply Dioceses For in those troublesome times it being very difficult to maintain such a communication as ought to be between a Bishop and all the parts of his Diocese it was found necessary to multiply Churches and that every City with some Portion of Countrey belonging to it should have its own Bishop who though his flock might at first be but small and not exceed a Congregation yet was he properly the Bishop of the place i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those that afterwards should believe Whatever accessions were made to this Church though the whole City and Country should be converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornel. ap Eâ—seb l. 6. c. 43. Episcope cedunt they accrue to the Bishop of the place into how many Congregations soever they might after be distributed and therefore the Church of a Bishop retained still the singular number though distributed into several Congregations and in such a Church they contended there ought to be but one Bishop though it had never so many Presbyters as that of Rome had when Cornelius pretended there ought to be but one Bishop and Novatus did not contradict him but the dispute was about this which of them were the rightful Bishop Episcopacy being setled upon these foundations with a regard to the future increase as well as the first condition and small beginnings of the Church we do not find that for the first three Centeries the number of Bishops was near so great as it became afterwards although in a little while the multitude of believers was so great that there was no Country no City no village in several Provinces of the Roman Empire where there was not a good number of Christians Before the persecution of Trajan they were so increased that in the Province of Bithynia as Pliny complains the Heathen Temples were become desolate Prope jam desolata Templa coepisse celebrari Sacra Solemnia diu intermissa repetl paffimque venire victimas quarum ad huâ— rarissimus emptor inveniebatur ex quo facile est opinari quae turba hominum emendati possit Yet after the Apostasy of so many the numbers are still great Visa est mihi res consultations digna maxime proper periclitantiam numerum multi enim omnis aetatis omnis or diâ—is utriusque sexus neque enim Civitates tantum sed vicos agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est Plin. Ep. l. 10. Ep. 100. the Sacrifices neglected and laid aside and notwithstanding the severity of that persecution made great numbers fall off yet those that remained unshaken and resolved to dye Martyrs for their Religion were exceeding numerous Not long after Arrius Antoninus found so many of them in Asia that it was an endless thing to put them to death though they made no resistance and when they thronged so much about his Tribunal
go to the Confessours in Prison by turns to Administer the Communion to them that the changing of the Persons and the seeing of new faces daily may render it less envied or observed Besides when four of his Presbyters and those probably living at some distance from Carthage had writ to him about something relating to the Church he tells his Clergy that he was resolved from the time he was made Bishop Ad id vero quod scripserunt mihi Compresbyteri nostri Donatus Fortunatus Gordias Novatus solus rescribere nihil potui quando à primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine consilio vestro sine consensu plebis meae privatae sententia gerere sed cum ad vos venere in commune tractabimus Ep. 6. Decipientes quosdam fratres ex plebe nostra Ep. 28. to determine nothing without advising with his Clergy which intimates that they were not of the Clergy residing at Carthage for it is not likely that four persons would pretend to write to their Bishop about any publick concern of the Church without consulting their Brethren if they lived together with them and met daily at the same Altar and Cyprian's speaking of them with this strangeness makes it improbable that they were among this Clergy to whom he wrote concerning them Besides we have express mention of one Country Presbyter and Deacon belonging to the Diocess of Carthage Gaius Diddensis Presbyter who from several passages of that Epistle appears to have been near the City and under its jurisdiction and it is not improbable that this is one of those Presbyters Cyprian complains of in another place for their presumption in receiving the lapsed into communion Quorundam immoderata praesumptio plebis universae tranquillitatem turbare conetur aliqui de Presbyteris nec sibi praepositum Episcopum cogitantes quod nunquam omnino sub Antecessoribus nostris factum est cum contumelia contemptu Prapositi totum sibi vendicent Interim prohibeantur offerre acturi apud nos apud confessores ipsos apud universam plebem causam suam Ep. 10. without consulting their Bishop or the Clergy and the nature of their fault makes it evident that there were several Congregations now in Carthage for this could never have been done by a few in the Episcopal Church in the presence of all the Presbytery it is not probable they would have indured it or if they had then they had been all in equal fault which Cyprian does by no means lay to their charge but layes it upon a few and orders they should be suspended from their office by the rest of the Presbyters and their cause reserved to be tryed before him and the whole Church at his return Beside this the Charity of the Diocess of Carthage towards the redemption of the Numidian Captives was so considerable that it cannot be supposed to be gathered in one oâ— a few Congregations Misimus autem Sestertia centum millia nummum quae istic in Ecclesia cui de Domini indulgentia praesuâ—us cleri plebis apud nos consistentis collatione collecta sunt And if the like should happen again he makes no doubt but his Diocess will relieve them libenter largiter Subsidia praestare ad hoc opus tam necessarium Fratres Sorores prompte libenter operati sunt Ep. 60. LL. S. centum millia LL. centum as Pamelius corrects it though without the Authority of any MS S. Potest inter caeteros qui alimentis Ecclesia sustinentur hujus Histrionis necessitas adjuvari Si illic Ecclesia non sufficit ut laborantibus prâ—stet alimenta poterit se ad nos transferre hic quod sibi ad victum vestitum necessarium fuerit accipere especially when we consider that Cyprian when he sends it to the Bishops of Numidia with a Letter and particulars does not take notice of it as any extraordinary matter and all the observation he makes of the Contributions of his flock is that they were done prompte libenter readily and willingly and he promises that they will be as ready upon any such occasion 2. The Ordinary charge of that Church was so great for the support of the Bishop Presbyters and a very numerous Clergy besides poor who were plentifully relieved and especially in dangerous times besides the maintenance of such as when they became Christians were obliged to quit their former callings as inconsistent with that holy profession and the extraordinary charge of Messengers that passed perpetually between them and other Churches This ordinary charge was so great that the summ collected in this Diocess for the redemption of those Câ—ptives at the lowest computation must suppose a considerable Diocess to furnish it especially so soon after a terrible persecution as that which this is supposed to follow Lastly the Diocess of Carthage is not extraordinary in all these circumstances but the rest of Africk were some of them distributed into several Parishes For Caldonius an African Bishop makes mention of one Felix Faelix qui Presbyterium subministrabat sub Decimo proximus mihi vicinus plenius câ—gnevi â—â—ndem Cum ergo universi pacem preterent quamvis mihi videaâ—tur debere pacem accipere tamen ad consultum vestrum â—â—s dimisi â—e videar aliquid temere praesumere Caldon Ep. ad Cypr. 19. who did the office of a Presbyter under one Decimus another Presbyter of Caldoniuâ—'s Diocess as will appear from some passages of that Epistle though Goulartius be of opinion this Decimus was a Bishop and Felix his Presbyter But Pamelius his conjecture is much better grounded who makes him the Vicar or Curate of Decimus For 1. If he and his wife Victoria had belonged to another Bishop why do they make their Application to Caldonius to reconcile them to the Church Why do not they go to their own Bishop Decimus or if he were dead and no other yet ordained in his place Why not to the Presbytery there who ought to have reconciled them and in a vacance took care of Ecclesiastical Discipline as the Clergy of Rome declare that at such a time they are to take care of the Church Cum nobis incumbat Ap. Cypr. ep 3. qui praepositi esse videmur vice Pastoris custodire gregem But their making their application to Caldonius makes it clear that he was their Diocesan that the Cure in which Felix officiated was in his Diocess 2. Caldonius his remitting them to Cyprian as the first Bishop makes it probable that he was their Ordinary for what else had he to do to meddle with or remit the cognizance of any persons belonging to another Church to any other than their own Clergy and let them remit them to the Primate if they judged the case difficult Therefore it is much more probable that Caldonius was the Bishop of the Suppliants and that the Priest mentioned exercised his charge in some Village or Town in
in order to establish a general consent about communicating with Cornelius which was to be done in a full Council of all the Provinces the same that we have set down here from the Libellus Synodicus Another African Council whose Epistle to Fidus about the Baptism of Infants is still extant Ap. Cypr. Ep. 59. Aug. â—â—â—tr duâ—â— Ep. â—th l. 4. c. â— had sixty six Bishops as St. Augustine reports and names the number as extraordinary to add greater Authority to their Testimony That concerning Basilides and Martialis had but a very small number and the first about the validity of Baptism by a Heretick had no great number as we may conclude from the Inscription of it which shews that the Bishops of Numidia were not there and that it consisted only of the Province of Africa properly so called Cyp. Ep. 68.70 Ep. ad Januarium caeteros Episcopos Numidas And Cyprian though he mentions this Council in several places yet he sayes nothing of the number nay though he mentions it in the very same period with that which followed upon the same account yet he does not say any thing of the multitude of Bishops there but expresses that of the other because he thought it remarkable considering the number of Bishops at that time when we had met together the Bishops of Africa and Numidia seventy one in number Quid in Concilio cum complures adessemus decreverimus Et nunc quoque cum in unum convenissemus tam Provinciae Africae quam Numidiae Episcopi septuaginta unus Ep. 73. And this Council as if it had not been full enough is confirmed by another of greater extent and number Cum in unum convenissent Episcopi plurimi ex Provincia Africa Numidia Mauritania Sententiae 87. Episâ—c ap Cypr. T. 2. c. 15 consisting of eighty seven Bishops assembled out of the Provinces of Africa Numidia Mauritania and of these eighty seven two left their suffrages with Proxies and this is the most numerous of all the Councils in Cyprians time and the last of that Country we have any account of in that age This was the state of the Church of Africk and the number of their Bishops which if we compare with the vast increase of Christians there described by Tertullian and the Accession we may probably conceive to have been made after by the care and ministry of those good Bishops that governed that Church we must conclude the African Dioceses to be very large and to contain each of them not only a very great number of Believers but those also dispersed throughout a great extent of Country But it may be objected that all the Bishops of Africk might not meet in these Councils and therefore there is no computation to be made of their number from this observation To which I answer first that it is possible every individual Bishop might not be present yet the greatest part was and none was to absent himself without absolute necessity as of sickness or the like and the number of such would be inconsiderable And the Canons of that Church are very strict in this point in after times Codex Canon Afric c. 53. vid. Conc. Carth. 3. c. 43. and give strange incouragements to such as have otherwise but ill titles to their Bishopricks to hold them to the prejudice of him who has the juster title if the one frequent their Councils and the other neglect them On the otherside neglect of duty in this particular is made liable to deprivation Carth. 4. c. 21. Episcopus ad Synodum irâ— non sine satis gravi necessitate inhibâ—atur fic tamen ut in sua persona â—egatum mittat 2. In Cyprians time when the African Bishops had no dependance one upon another and no subordination to Metropolitans and the Decrees of their Synods did and could oblige only such as were present and consented to them it was necessary that all should come together or send their Proxy in order to establish that Unity among them which was the design of these Councils and yet all the number even of their most solemn Councils is not great 3. The practice of the African Church within half an à ge after this time confirms this inference from the number of the Bishops at Councils to the number of Dioceses in that Country for we find presently as Bishopricks were multiplyed by the Schism of the Donatists so Councils became much more numerous and whereas ninety was the greatest number that ever met there before this Schism afterwards we find several hundreds But however this inference will hold it is some comfort to find some others of great knowledge and judgement in antiquity to hold the conclusion that the number of Bishopricks was not great in Cyprians time which is assigned as a reason why his Province was so large Aucto numero sedium Episcopalium adeo ut omnibus invigilare haud facile esset Carthagâ—nensi Episcâ—po Carol. à S. Paulo Geogr. sacr p. 84. But to make this point clear beyond all exception I will indeavour to shew from unquestionable testimonies how Bishopricks came to be multiplyed in Africk more than in any other part and then notwithstanding this I will make it evident that those Bishops were Diocesans and some of them after the crumbling of that Church into small pieces had yet very large Dioceses not inferiour to most of ours for extent of Territory The Schism of the Donatists though it broke not forth with any violence till after Caecilianus was made Bishop of Carthage yet it was hatching long before in the time of Mensurius Aug. Ep. 163. when the faction was kept up under hand and had its Agents in several places But being grown ripe it took occasion from the promotion of Caecilianus to declare it self Secundus Tisnigensis being called to Carthage with his Numidian Bishops to set up another He came accordingly with about seventy Bishops all the strength he could make and perhaps more than his own Province could afford him These declare they would not communicate with Caecilianus and therefore set up Majorinus against him and in like manner where ever they could make the least party imaginable they appointed a Schismatical Bishop and not content to equal the number of the Catholicks they divided the ancient Dioceses and erected several new Episcopal seats that by the number of their Bishops at least they might appear to be Catholicks as they afterwards laid claim to the title upon that account It was not long after this breach Aug. Ep. 48. but we hear of unusual numbers of Bishops met in Council and one of the Donatists of Carthage according to Tychonius his relation vid. Valesii Dissert de Schism Donat had no less than two hundred and seventy Bishops which if it be true shews this change to have been very sudden though it cannot be so soon as Balduinus and out of him Baronius would understand it to be but of this I have
But a Synod held at Rome about the same subject had but fourteen Bishops and several other Synods about this Controversy had not many more That of Jerusalem under Narcissus had but fourteen Papa Victor direxit Authoritatem not the language of that time Praecepta it aque authoritate praedictus Episcopus nonsolum de sua Provincia sed de diversis Regionibus omnes Episcopos evocavit And the famous Council under Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea had but twelve besides him Eusebius makes but one of both these Bede represents it as an extraordinary great Assembly for the Preface to it I conceive to be his he makes him to assemble not only the Bishops of his own Province but from several other parts The Council of Lyons under Irenaeus made up but fourteen That of Corinth under Bachillus eighteen That under Pasna or Palma the same number That of Osroena eighteen but the President of it is not known That of Mesapotamia which follows had the same number and it may be was the same Synod as that of Rome which follows is it may be the same with that which is mentioned before to have had the like number and the occasion of such mistakes as these is that when men find a Synod cited upon several accounts although it might be the same meeting that determined several things they are apt to conclude they were several Synods However it is plain from hence that there were but few Bishops in comparison of what they grew to within an hundred years after and that I take to be an argument of the largeness of their Dioceses But you will say there were but few Christians in these Parts The countrary is notorious to all the Word for these parts where most of these Councils were held were the best planted and furnished with Christians of any in the World But it may be there were but few in the world at this time It is not long after this that Tertullian wrote his Apology and what number of Christians there were then we have shewed already How then can this be imagined for every City if it have a Church must have a Bishop there is no absolute necessity of that that it should have its peculiar Bishop for we have seen already one Bishop as that of Milevis had more Cities than one in his Diocess and it had been so from ancient time or rather from the beginning antiquitus pertinuit And in this time we are now speaking of it is likely the Apostolick constitution of Bishopricks which in the beginning as Rabanus Maurus observed were very large did hold and it was the best suited to the infancy of the Church when one general visit our should take care of several Churches scattered as yet and incoherent and because a persecution might overthrow these little beginnings it was necessary there should be one whose office it should be to cultivate these new Plantations and where they were rooted up to set anew and to confirm those that were shaken with a competent district But when Christians multiplyed every where and most Cities had such numbers belonging to them as must be distributed into several Congregations the Diocess of the first constitution became too great and every City with some of the Territory belonging to it became a Diocess and had its proper Bishop And this seems to be most agreeable both to the Scripture History of the Church which we have made a deduction of before and to the progress of the Church in succeeding ages and particularly to the numbers of Bishops which are found in the first Synods But to proceed The Synod at Rome under Victor wherein Novatus was condemned was much more numerous than any mentioned before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 43. and consisted of sixty Bishops besides Priests and Deacons and Eusebius speaking of this observes the number to be very extraordinary consisidering the circumstances of those times and the numbers assembled in foregoing Synods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Libellus Synodicus reckons but eighteen which it may be was a small Synod previous to this greater one mentioned by Eusebius The Eastern Synods about Rebaptizing Hereticks were reckoned as for those times very numerous Euseb l. 7. c 5. Plurimi tractavimus Firmil Ep. ad Cypr. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 3. and yet that of Iconium the greatest of those of the East consisted of but fifty Bishops and these met together out of several Countries as Galatia Cappadocia Cilicia and other neighbouring Provinces St. Augustin despises the smalness of their numbers though Dionysius confesses these were mighty Synods in his time or rather before his time for they seem to be earlier than Baronius places them But what were these against so many thousand Bishops as were in the world then sayes Augustin I believe it would have been a very hard matter to have found so many thousand Bishops at that time I am sure the Acts of the Church discover no such multitudes of them and they must be very negligent if they should be so many and yet suffer things to be carried any way in Councils by a very few persons that Father judged of former ages by his own when Dioceses were exceedingly multipyed even to be the grievance and complaint of the African Church But Baronius goes to mend the matter by telling us that this opinion could find but fifty to countenance it among all the Bishops of the East One would imagine by this that the Councils of Iconium and Synadae An. Ch. 258 were but a small number of Bishops protesting against the general suffrage of their neighbour Bishops But if this were true Stephen Bishop of Rome had acted very extravagantly and upon ill information when upon the account of those publick resolutions taken by fifty Bishops he goes to excommunicate all the Bishops of Cilicia Galatia Euseb l. 7. c. 5. Cappadocia and the bordering Nations What number of Bishops France had at this time appears from the Council Vita 5. Pauli ap Bosquet Hist Eccl. Gal. par 2. where Paul Bishop of Narbonne was accused of in continence Evocatis paucis Episcopis Galliae quia nondum erant plures having called a few Bishops together for at that time Gallia had not many Nor do we find that Dioceses were much multiplyed in Spain as yet the famous Council of Illiberis which decreed so many things relating to Communion and such as all the Churches there must be supposed to consent to had but nineteen Bishops a number so small that Baronius takes occasion from hence to despise the Authority of the Assembly But what ever may be inferred from the smalness of their number surely one must infer that their Dioceses were Divided into Parishes from Canon seventy seven Siquis Dia conus regens plebem sine Episcopo vel Presbytero aliquns baptizaverit c. Conc. Illib c. 77. Hic regere posse plebem Diaconum hoc
or Deacons that were ordained in their Dioceses without their consent and that by simple Presbyters who were never Chorepiscopi or had any character to distinguish them from other Presbyters Therefore the case ought not to be reckoned so hard as it is commonly represented by the more moderate Nonconformists who pretend this point of Reordination the only bar that keeps them out of the Church since there was never any other Church not any in Ancient times would have received them upon any other terms and they must have remained Nonconformists under Basil Athanasius and all the ancient Bishops whose names are and alwayes have been had in veneration with all Christians not one of these would have ever been perswaded to own a Pastor that his Presbyters had ordained in opposition to him nay hardly could they have been prevailed with to admit such as any other Bishop should Ordain within their Diocess so extream punctilious they were in this matter and there is hardly any one thing that caused so frequent and dangerous contentions between them as the point of Ordination Nor was this Province singular in the extent of its Bishopricks or the manner of their Administration but all the parts of the Christian World went by the same Rule as to Diocesan Episcopacy and most of them had much larger Dioceses than these we have been speaking of The Frontier Provinces of the Empire towards the East being more remote from the contentions that afflicted the Church were not cantoned into so small Dioceses as other Countries and being likewise less divided in their Civil Condition because it might render them less defensible against Invasion the Ecclesiastical Dioceses likewise remained intire in the the measure of their first Constitution The Diocess of Edessa seems to be of extraordinary extent Conc. Chal. Act. 10. even at the time of the Council of Chalcedon when the ambition of some Metropolitans and the contentions of Hereticks and Schismaticks had reduced Bishopricks to be very small For 1. some of the misdemeanors charged upon Ibas Bishop of this place shew that Diocess to be extreamly rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Collection for redemption of Captives amounted to fifteen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tho' it is not easy to reduce that summ to our money yet we must conclude it to be a considerable sum when we reflect upon another accusation of Daniel Brother to Ibas as if he had bestowed on Calloa the money of the Church for she had let out to use two or three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be a considerable summ since it 's taken notice of as an argument of her wealth Besides the Church of Edessa had six thousand more of these Numismata besides its ordinary Revenues and one of its Mannors called Lafargaritha is mentioned there and two hundred pound weight of Church Plate 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The City of Battina was in the Diocess of Edessa for Ibas is accused of having endeavoured to make one John Bishop of it who was suspected of Magick But Ibas his Arch-Deacon of that place opposed it 3. Maras who was one of Ibas his accusers was Excommunicated by another Arch-Deacon of his 4. The Clergy of the City of Edessa was above two hundred persons not reckoning that of the Country within his Diocess and this was a Diocesan Bishop to purpose who besides a large Diocess had Excommunicating Arch-Deacons and a great Revenue And if Mr. B. or his Brethren had been of that Diocess we might have found them among his accusers The Diocess of Cyrus whereof Theodoret was Bishop was yet larger Theodor. Ep. 113. containing eight hundred Churches as he writes to Leo Bishop of Rome The exceptions which Mr. B. makes against this Epistle are so fully answered by the incomparable Dean of Pauls that nothing can be added But if Mr. B. should quarrel with any writings of this time for mentioning great Dioceses we must have a new Critick and disgrace a great deal of the Fathers that have hitherto been received by a general consent It is a very hard matter to convince men that imagine all that time for them whereof we have little or no account and reckon silence of Antiquity for consent and then if any thing shall appear against what they have once fanfi'd though it be never of so good credit it is spurious it is all Imposture because it makes against them who would ever be convicted if it shall be Defence enough to say the Evidence is a Lye Petavius mistaking a passage in Epiphanius Not. in Epiph Haeres Arr. Epiph. Ep. ad Joh. Hieros ap Hieron thought the Dioceses of Cyprus to be very small but from Epiphanius his Letter to John Bishop of Jerusalem it appears that his Diocess was of good extent John had a quarrel with him for having Ordained a Presbyter in his Diocess though it was only for the use of a Monastery and he excuses himself by shewing how common a thing this was and how frequently it was done in his own Diocess and he was so far from taking offence at it that he thought himself obliged to some of his neighbouring Bishops for using that liberty and therefore commends the good nature and meekness of the Cyprian Bishops who never quarrelled with one another upon this account and then adds That many Bishops of our Communion have Ordained Presbyters in our Province that we could not take because they fled from us on purpose to avoid that honour which was the modesty of those times Nay I my self desired Philo of blessed memory and Theophorbus that they would Ordain Presbyters in those Churches of Cyprus which were near them O vere benedicta Episcoporum Cypri mansuetudo bonitas multi Episcopi communionis nostrae Presbyteros in nostra ordinaverunt Provincia quos nos comprehendere non poteramus ipse cohortatus slim b. m. Philonem sanctum Theophorbum ut in Ecclesiis Cypri quae juxta se grant ad meae autem Parochiae videbantur Ecclesiam pertinere to quod grandis esset late patens Provincia ordinarent Presbyteros and belonged to my Diocess because my Province i.e. my Docess was very large Now that this Province which is here said to be of so large extent was no other than his Diocess appears from the nature of the thing For if we shall imagine that it was his Province as Metropolitan the words will have no sense for then are not there Bishops enough dispersed through this great Province who may Ordain within their respecture Dioceses and to them belonged the Ordination of Presbyters and not to the Metropolitan If we shall take this Province for a Civil division there will be yet greater absurdity for there may be other Metropolitans as well as he and by what Authority could he dispose of their Dioceses or Provinces In short there he gives leave to Ordain Presbyters where the right of Ordaining them belonged to
before the Council of Toledo writeth a Sermon for them the Bishops wherein he tells them that every Parish that have twelve Families must have their proper Governor i. e. a Presbyter Whereas that is not part of the King's Sermon as Mr. B. calls that Prince his Letter to the Council but a Canon of the Council it self For the King's Letter ends long before with a Formal Date Dat. die 70 faeliciter 60 Regni Toleto In the same Page Mr. B. to shew his Skill makes Willibrood and Wilfrid to be the same I wonder the more at this because Binius in this very place from whence Mr. B. takes his account of Willibrood and Wilfrid does plainly make them to be two persons but when Mr. B. goes to play the Critick this is constantly his Success But Binius leads him into a mistake p. 253. where he transcribes out of his Author That Ludovicus deprives him Pepin of his Kingdom of Italy and divideth it between his two Sons by the Second Wife Charles and Rodolphus It is great news to Historians to hear that Lewis had two Sons by his Second Wife since no mention is made of any other but Charles the Writer of that Emperor's Life speaks of no other nor Ammonius who transcribes him nor the following Chronicles Girard Vignier Mezeraye who reckon up Lewis his Children have no such person and say expresly that Judith had but one Son She had a Brother indeed nam'd Rodolphus but he had no share of the Empire But this Division of Pepin's Kingdom was between Lotharius and Charles as the Annal. Franc. before mentioned do deliver Nor was Italy the Kingdom of Pepin the Son of Lewis as Binius and Mr. B. tells us but Aquitain Lotharius had been a good while before made King of Italy and Crown'd by the Pope in the place of Bernard Mr. B. by way of Remark p. 342. says That it was no wonder that Pope Benedict and his Company should condemn Berengarius but Lanfrancus in his Book against Berengarius writes that Leo the Ninth was the first that condemn'd him some Years after the Death of Benedict Anno Dom. 1050. We have a Conjecture of Mr. B's p. 356. that is not unpleasant and that shews his profound Skill in History He cites an Epistle of Gregory the Seventh to the King of Denmark where among other things he invites him to send his Son with an Army to conquer a Maritine province not far from Rome possess'd by vile and sluggish Hereticks What Province he means says Mr. B. I am not certain unless it be the Waldenses It is pretty well guess'd For Gregory the Seventh died in the Year 1085. and P. Waldo from whom the Waldenses had their Denomination began to be taken notice of about the Year 1160. But Fourscore Years break no Square nor is our Author much more happy in his Geography than in his Chronology For p. 421. He tells us that there was a Council held at Vienna near France As if a Man should say the City of Sarum near England But there would be no end of instancing all the Oversights of this Church-History the Reader may dip at adventure and if he do not light upon Mistakes as Remarkable as any of these he has but ill Fortune He that takes any pleasure to trace Beveus and Mistakes may find here an endless Comedy of Errors 5. But I had almost forgot one Qualification very requisite for a Church-Historian which must not be omitted the Learned call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the want of which betrays a Writer sometimes when Fortune is not propitious into great Absurdities I will not be so bold with Mr. B. as to say this was the Occasion of a strange Misadventure of his p. 122. For speaking of the Canon of Scripture concluded upon in a Council at Rome under Pope Gelasius Mr. B. makes a wonderful Discovery that in the Canon they put a Book called ORDO HISTORIARVM And now let the Church of Rome value it self if it dare for having preserv'd the Canon of Scripture entire and undiminish'd since Mr. B. plainly discovers a Book to have been once in their Canon which is not now to be found in any of the Pope's Bibles A strange thing this that no body should ever discover this before But I wonder that he did not find out another Book in that Canon every whit as strange as this and that is Ordo Prophetarum For there it is as a General Title before the Prophets as this Ordo Historiarum is before some Historical Books This mistake is as if a Man should find a Chapter in the Bible call'd Contents or a Book call'd Apocrypha I have given these few Instances out of many of Mr. B's great Abilities in Church-History that the Reader may perceive how much this Infamous Libel against Bishops and Councils is to be depended upon and let any Man that has any acquaintance with these Mattters judge impartially whether this History do really disgrace Bishops or Councils or any body else so effectually as it does the Author And if this be the Effect of having made History ones long and hard Study even let us burn Binius and Baronius and go make Buttons We may with honest Application employ our time so to much better purpose I must detain the Reader a little longer with this Preface while I endeavor to clear some Passages of this Book which may seem to be answered already the Effect of them being said in behalf of Episcopacy and replied to on the part of the Dissenters For some part of this Book being Printed 8 or 9 Months ago and the Subject having been treated by several Hands it could not be but that several things should be said to the same effect in Answer to Mr. B's Allegations for the Congregational Way and in Confirmation of Diocesan Episcopacy with what is written here and being replied to there seem already to have receiv'd their Answer Wherefore I conceiv'd it necessary to take off such Exceptions as prevented any Passages in this Book and because it could not be done conveniently in the Book it self to reserve them for the Preface But upon Examination I found them to be fewer than I did at first imagine For Mr. Baxter since his Church-History and Treatise of Episcopacy has made no farther Impression into this Controversie I have examin'd some Chapters of that Book that pursu'd the Design of this History by the Addition of several Historical Passages to disgrace the Episcopal Government as the occasion of all Mischiefs in the Church As for the first part about the Order of Bishops it had too many particulars to be minutely considered but the Substance of it having been said in short in the first Chapter of his Church and more at large in his Disputation of Church Government has been examin'd in the beginning of this Book Dr. O. hath follow'd Mr. B. in the Congregational way and as for his Allegations out of Antiquity they
are transcribed out of Mr. Baxter with little of Improvement or Addition One would think a diligent Man might find good Gleaning after Mr. B. but Dr. O's Book it seems is answered already by an unknown Hand But there is a later Book published under the Title of No Evidence for Diocesan Churches c. in the Primitive Times in Answer to the Dean of St. Paul 's Allegations out of Antiquity for such Churches c. But no Reply being yet made that I know of to those Exceptions I shall endeavor to take off such of them as may concern me 1. I have endeavored to prove that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's Time was Diocesan and among other things urge for it the Multitude of Presbyters that belong'd to that Church even in the time of Persecution when the greatest part of the Clergy was fallen off The Author above-mentioned excepts against this where it is alleadg'd by the Dean of S. Paul's and offers two things in Answer 1. A Passage out of Bishop Downham That indeed at the first Conversions of Cities the whole Number of the People converted being sometimes not much greater than the Number of Presbyters plac'd among them were able to make but a small Congregation But this Allegation can be of little Vse because 1. This was not the Case of the Church of Carthage it was not a new converted Church but settled long before and in a flourishing Condition 2. Many more Presbyters may be ordain'd in a City than is necessary for the first Beginnings of a Church with respect to future Encrease and for the Service of such as afterwards should believe So that tho' there might be in a new gather'd Church almost as many Presbyters as there are People yet the Design of that number of Officers may be for several Congregations when the Believers of that place should become so numerous as not to be contain'd in one 3. The Multitude of Presbyters belonging to one Congregational Church might be occasioned by the uncertain Abode of most of the Apostles and their Commissioners who are the Principal if not the only Ordainers of Presbyters mentioned in Scripture Therefore they might ordain more than were just necessary for the present Occasions of a Church because they could not be present to ordain as often as the Increase of a Church or Vacancies or other Necessities of it should require But that any Church fix'd and settled having its Bishop always present should multiply Presbyters beyond Necessity in the Circumstances of the Primitive Christians before Constantine is altogether incredible For the necessary Expences of the Church were very great the Poor numerous the generality of Christians not of the Richest and the Estates they had being at the Discretion of their Enemies and ruin'd with perpetual Persecution Is it credible that persons in this Condition would multiply Officers without Necessity who were to be maintain'd out of the Public Stock as Cyprian affirms the Presbyters of Carthage were And lastly if this Opinion of Bishop Downham had any certain Ground in Antiquity We should probably hear of it with both Ears and we should have it recommended upon Ancienter Authority than His But the first which this Author cites is Nazianzen who complains of the Multitude of Presbyters in his Time This has been already alleadg'd by Mr. Baxter and has received Answer and he that cannot answer it to himself from the great difference between the Condition of the Church in Cyprian and in Nazianzen's Time has a fondness for the Argument beyond my Skill to remove The next Instance of the number of Presbyters belonging to the great Church of C. P. St. Sophia the greatest perhaps in the World will do as little Service as the complaint of Nazianzen Justinian says that Gentleman Observing that Officers in Churches were multiply'd beyond reason and measure takes order that they should be reduc'd to the numbers of the first Establishment but in the great Church at C. P. he would have the Presbyters brought down to Sixty And what follows from this That the Number of Presbyters was become extravagant in Justinian's Time but what is this to their Number in Cyprian's For this very Edict of Justinian shews that this multiplying of Church-Officers was an Innovation and therefore would have them reduc'd to the first Establishment but that first Establishment it seems admitted great Numbers for one Church had Sixty True but it must also be noted first that these sixty were to serve more than one Church For there were three more besides St. Sophia to be supply'd by those Presbyters as may be seen in the Constitution Nov. 3. c. 1. viz. St. Mary's Church and that of Theodorus the Martyr and that of Helena as some but of Irene as others read Yet after all there is no Argument to be drawn from this Number for these were Canons of a particular Foundation design'd for the Service of a Collegiate Church and no measure to be taken from hence concerning the Numbers of Presbyters belonging to the Diocess This is evident from the Preface of the said Novel whither I refer the Reader But I must confess that what this Gentleman adds concerning the Church of Constantinople is something surprizing No doubt says he they the Presbyters were more numerous in C. P. in Constantine's Time who endeavor'd to make that City in all things equal to Rome and built two Churches in it Soz. l. 2. c. 2. yet in the latter end of his Reign after the Death of Arrius the Christians there could all meet together for Worship It is said expresly that Alexander Bishop of that Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Constantine built two Churches in C. P. Sozomen does not say but that he built many and very great Churches there Soz. l. 2. c. 3. Ed. Vales. Euseb de vit Const l. 3. c. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the same manner Eusebius says that he adorn'd the City that he called after his own Name with many Churches and great Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some within the City and in the Suburbs of it Nor can we imagine that two Churches much less one could suffice all the Christians in C.P. when the City of Heliopolis being converted to Christianity requir'd more and Constantine built several for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soc. l. 1. c. 18. i. e. Having built several Churches he ordered a Bishop but one for all those Churches and Clergy to be ordain'd there Socrates indeed says that Constantine built two Churches in C. P. and names them but does not say either that there were no more there in his Time or that he built no more but these being remarkable for the Magnificence of the Structure are perhaps upon that account only mention'd by this Author But we have shew'd already from other Writers of as good or better Credit That this Emperor built there very many and very Great Churches Nor were these only for State and
Ornament but the Number of Believers in that City did require many Churches for their Assemblies And the Passage of Theodoret above cited does not import the contrary Therefore to clear this point I will endeavor to shew the State of the Church of C. P. about the later end of Constantine's Reign and how it was impossible for them to meet All in one place 2. I will shew that the words before cited do not conclude that all the Believers of C. P. were assembled in one Congregation with Alexander their Bishop 1. As to the State of this Church it could not but be very numerous when we consider what care the Emperor took to bring Inhabitants to it from all Parts some from Rome some from other Provinces and it is more than probable that much the greatest part of those that came to inhabit the first Christian Emperor's Favorite City were Christians 2. His care for rendering this City great and suitable to the Magnificence of so mighty a Prince had that Success that it did not only equal Old Rome but excell'd it as well in Greatness of its Wealth as the Multitude of its Inhabitants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Sozom. L. 2. c. 3. And the same Author adds that the Piety of the Emperor and of the Citizens and their Charity towards the Poor was the reason of its mighty Increase from the whence may be judg'd what Religion the Generality of the City did profess 3. The Success of that Charity did not only add to the Number of the Citizens but very considerably to the number of Christians For the same Author writes that it had so good effect there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. That many of the Jews and almost all the Heathens were converted and became Christians 4. The same Author to make it altogether a Christian City writes farther that it was never polluted with any Heathen Temples or Sacrifices unless it were in the Time of Julian the Apostate 5. The Provision which Constantine made for the Burial of the Dead shews the number of the Church of C. P. to be far too great for one Congregation For he alloted to that charitable Vse no less than Nine Hundred and Fifty Shops or Work-houses whose Profits were to be employed in burying the Poor decently which Shops were to be free from all Tax and Duty to the Prince As you may see by comparing these several places in the Body of the Civil Law N. 59. with N. 43. and with N. L. 12. And Honorius in the Year 409. considering the Number of the Decani the small Officers that attended Funerals to have grown inordinate reduces them to Nine Hundred and Fifty probably the first Establishment of Constantine the Great See Justinian's Code l. 1 T. 2 4. And if after all this all the Christians in C. P. could meet together in one Church towards the latter end of Constantine's Reign we must conclude some wonderful Mortality to have happen'd and that these Decani had had extraordinary Employment and bury'd in a manner the whole City But let them believe that can comprehend For my part I can as soon imagine that Homer with all his Scholiasts can be put into a Nut shell or that a Witch can turn her self in a Key-hole as that all the Christians in C. P. made but one Congregation But notwithstanding the Number of Christians in C. P. might be much too great for one Congregation yet the major part might be Hereticks or Schismaticks such as came not to the Bishops Church and therefore all that adher'd to him might be no more than could meet in one Assembly To which I answer towards the latter end of Constantine's Reign it was so far from being the Case of the Church that the number of Hereticks and Schismaticks was inconsiderable and most of those were forc'd to come to Church and that there may be no Difficulty remaining in this point I will give some farther account of the number of the Catholick Christians in comparison with Hereticks and Schismaticks Constantine the Great having set his Heart upon Christian Religion to settle and adorn it he thought nothing more effectual than the Vnity and Concord of Christians to promote which he resolv'd to proceed against all Hereticks and Dissenters by a severe Law and to reduce them to the Vnity of the Church The Doctrine of Arrius tho it began to be favour'd in several places had not yet made a formal Seperation L. 2. c. 32. says Sozomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. All came to Church and communicated together but the Novatians and some old Hereticks Against these the Emperour made an Edict whereby he took away their Churches and ordered them to be joyn'd to the Churches of the Catholicks He told them it was better for them to communicate with the Catholick Church and advis'd them to come over to it The Success of this Law we find in the very same place That by this means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The memory of those Heresies was in a manner extinguish'd for they came all to Church for fear of that Law against their Conventicles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And those that persisted in their Opinion having no opportunity to Conventicle nor to corrupt the minds of men died at last and left none to succeed them in their Opinions Only the Novatians remain'd who says the Author did not suffer much by this Edict being befriended by the Emperor who had an esteem for their Bishop of C. P. upon the account of his Holiness and therefore his Church there was not much endammag'd tho' the Historian speaks this very mincingly and says only that it was probable that so it was and likely had no other reason for it than the Opinion which the Novatians had of that Bishop and that their Church was not altogether extirpated then like those of other Hereticks But he confesses that every where else they suffer'd the same measure with others unless it were in Phrygia and some Bordering Provinces And now to allow the Novatians a Conventicle in Constantinople towards the later end of Constantine's Reign which is more than Sozomen durst affirm yet I hope the Catholicks will be still too numerous to meet all of them in one Congregation But Theodoret affirms they were no more than could meet in one Church and that they did actually do so I answer That Theodoret does not say so and that the Passage cited does not conclude it therefore to clear this difficulty let us examine it After the Death of Arrius says Theodoret those of Eusebius's Faction were much out of Countenance and bury'd him but on the other side L. 1. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Valesius renders thus B. autem Alexander cum gaudio totius Ecclesiae collectas celebravit piè orthodoxe simul cum Universis fratribus Deum orans impense glorificans Now he takes the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a
194. ad Pleb Nicop As for Nynius's History of St. Patrick and the three hundred and sixty five Bishops which he planted in Ireland I suppose 't was invented by some learned Monk to fill up the Irish Calender and to leave no day in the year so forlorn but that the name of one of these Bishops could vindicate it from Prophaneness That which follows of Scotlands having no Bishops before Palladius Disp 1.97 Yet England had Bishops long before as may be seen in the Subscriptions of the Councils of Orleance and Nice but that the people there were instructed by Priests and Monks makes nothing at all to our present purpose though the Authority of Henricus Major and Johannes Fordorius were unquestionable for there is no account of setled Churches or Discipline but only that some good men out of their Zeal for Religion did endeavour to propagate it among the Scots and that these were not Bishops But Buchanan stretches this point higher than it will bear and will have it that the Churches of Scotland were governed by Presbyters and Monks the first time I believe in Story we meet with Monks amongst the Orders of Church-Government but I believe that the Story it self may be easily disproved and we may expect shortly a fuller account of this and other things relating to the ancient British Church by the hand of one of the greatest Masters of Antiquity in this Nation The last part of Mr. B's Evidence has some of the Canons of ancient Councils but I must needs say he does not cite with that accuracy that one would expect from a person that advances so singular a notion The first is the fourteenth of the Council of Adge Can 1. the Sum of it is this that if any man should desire a Chappel of Ease for the benefit of his Family he might be gratified in it but with this Proviso that upon the most solemn Feasts he should hear divine Service in Parochiis aut Civitatibus Mr. B. makes Parochia signifie a Diocese because the word is used frequently in that sense by Eusebius and other Ancients but does not consider that the Import of it is changed by this time and is taken for a Parish in the fifty third Canon of the Council of Adge whose Title is de Presbyteris parochianis rei Ecclesiae distrahentibus cap. 2. vass 3. There is express Difference made where a Presbyter is allow'd to preach Non solum in Civitatibus sed in omnibus Parochiis 47. The next is the thirtieth Canon of the same Council Benedictionem super plebem fundere aut poenitentem in Ecclesia benedicere presbytero poenitus non licebit to which he adds the thirty first 47. Missas die dominico saecularibus totas audire speciali ordine praecipimus ita ut ante benedictionem sacerdotis egredi populus non presumat quod si fecerit ab Episcopo publicè confundatur From whence he infers that all the people were oblig'd to come to the Bishops Church because they were to stay till the Benediction which it was lawful for the Bishop only to give but if Mr. B. had considered these two Canons he must have observed that either they contradict one another or the same thing is not meant by the Benediction of the Priest and the Bishop by the first which is reserv'd to the Bishop Confirmation must in all probability be understood By the second the Priests Benediction that which is pronounced at the dismissing the Congregation or if he will understand a Bishop by Sacerdos the Canon forbids it in making a Distinction between them ab Episcopo confundatur whereas if by Sacerdos they would have understood a Bishop it is not likely they would have either chang'd the Term or repeated it but have added ab eo confundatur But why should we insist upon this since nothing can be more notorious than that Presbyters had Churches now distinct from Bishops and every Diocess almost a great number of Parishes and there are few Councils of that Age but oblidge the Bishop to visit all these Churches once a year To these he adds the thirty eighth Canon of the same Council Disp p. 99. Cives qui superiorum solemnitatum id est Paschae Natalis Domini vel Pentecostes festivalibus cum Episcopis interesse neglexerint quum in Civitatibus communionis vel Benedictionis accipiendae causa positos se nosse debeant triennio communione priventur Ecclesiae It is not to be denyed but it was the ancient Custom for all the Parishes or places depending upon any Episcopal Church on certain times to repair to it not so much for personal Communion as for Homage but we are not therefore to conceive that every Soul under a Bishops Charge was to appear before him on those solemn times but only the most considerable persons of every Division and this Canon means no more Sirmond could never find any more than 47 Canons of this Council the rest were taken out of Conc. Epaonense from whence the true Reading of this Canon is to be sought for there is Cives superiorum natalium not solennitatum and so it is corrected in the best Edition of the Council of Agde and Communionis is left out which restoring of this Canon overthrows all the use that M. B. would make of it since all are neither obliged to be present nor to personal Communion but what Cives superiorum Natalium signifies we must learn from other Councils of this Age in the 14 chap. of the Councel of Arvern we have it thus explained that together with all the Presbyters and Deacons of a Diocese Quicunque sunt etiam Cives natu majores pari modo in Vrbibus ad Pontifices suos in praedictis Civitatibus veniant And the third Canon of the fourth Council of Orleans obliges onely the Principal Citizens to assist the Bishops on these Solemn Times Quisquis de prioribus Civibus Pascha extra Civitatem tencre voluerit sciat sibi à cuncta Synodo esse prohibitum which is no other than if the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen the Liveries and most considerable Citizens were obliged on certain High Festivals to come to Church to St. Pauls The next of the Canons he produces are either to the same effect with what he has already alledged or not directly to his purpose so that I believe upon a Review he will judge as well as I that there is no necessity of a Reply Mr. B. has heretofore excepted the Churches of Rome and Alexandria Ch. Hist p. 7. § 23. and has despair'd of bringing them ever to comply with his Model but now it seems he has found a means to reduce them to a Congregation he revokes his former Concessions and declares that he finds no reason to believe that ever the two chief Cities of the Empire had so long that is for two hundred years after Christ more than some London Parishes or near half so
as if it were to prevent such a Mistake as this Ad Fahiâ—â—n Anti. expresly tells us that these Officers were not useless and unnecessary but calls the Clergy To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Necessity of them appears by what immediately follows because they had the Direction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a great and innumerable People and now with what Reason Mr. B. has retracted his Exception of the Roman Church let the Reader judge But the Church of Rome had long before outgrown the Stature of a Congregation for Euaristus the sixth from St. Peter is said to have divided Rome into Titles or Parishes the multitude being grown too numerous for one Assembly Ep. Pii ad Baron or if the Authority of the Pseudo Damasus be not to be depended upon we have the two Epistles of Pius to confirm it in the first we have mention of Euprepia that had given to the Poor Titulum Domus suae ubi nunc cum Pauperibus nostris commorantes missas agimus Several learned men do except against the Word Missa as not being yet in use in the Church Hospin de Temp. but it is a very hard matter to shew when it was first taken up certain it is that way of speaking was made use of not long after Remissa for Remissio being found in Tertullian and Cyprian in the second Epist we have these words Presbyter pastor titulum condidit dignè in Domino obiit I must needs say Blondel does not deal very ingeniously and equally with these Epistles for in his Pseudo Isidocus he endeavours to prove them suppositious tho they are not in Isidorus's Collection yet in his Apology for St. Jerom's Opinion concerning Bishops he vouchsafes to make use of one of them to prove that Bishop and Presbyter signified the same thing in Pius's days 't is a sad case that the Ancients shall have no farther Credit with us than they serve our Turn when they speak what men will not have them then they are false and Impostours let them give the same men but some little Countenance and then they are true men again The great Liberality of the Church of Rome is no small Argument of its Greatness for besides the maintenance of their own Clergy and Poor they were able to relieve most other Churches Euseb l. 14. c. 23. and it was their practice from the beginning to oblige all the Brethren by all manner of kindness and to send to a great many Churches that were establisht in every City the Necessaries of Life relieving the Necessity of those that were in want and sending necessary relief to those who were condemned to the Mines This was the ancient Liberality of the Roman Church and Soter is said not only to have continued but improv'd it Now if according to Mr. B's Notion of those Times not many Rich not many Noble were call'd the number of Believers must be by so much the Greater Euseb l. 7. c. 5. to be able to supply the Necessity almost of the Universal Church and Dionysius of Alexandria speaks of the Roman Church's Charity in his time in these words All the Provinces of Syria together with Arabia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you relieve every one The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there Emphatical and implies an admiration of as it were the All-sufficiency of the Roman Church how it should be able to supply the wants of so many Churches and to furnish so Expensive a Charity Under the Reign of Commodus the Church is said to have enjoyed peaceable and happy Times and to have thriv'd so well that the whole World in a manner was reduc'd the words of Eusebius express a wonderful increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every Soul in a manner of every sort came over to the Christian Religion and at Rome particularly the increase was so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that abundance of considerable Persons for their Nobility and Wealth came over with their whole Families and Relations Euseb l. 15. c. 21. Certain it is that the number of Christians at Rome was proportionably greater than in any part of the Empire for thither they fled for Refuge in times of Persecution and shelter'd themselves in a crowd and if Tertullian's account of the state of the Christians in his time makes it very probable that they made the better half of the Roman Empire if he boasts of multitudes and say that they had possessed themselves of the City and Countrey and every place was full of them but the Temples if they did in a manner besiege the Heathen in every part and were more beneficial to the Publick by the consumption of all sorts of Commodities and made Use of more Frankincense in One Street than the Heathen did in any one Temple it is evident that they were the major part every where but in Rome more eminently so See this urg'd farther by Mr. Dodwel in his Letter to Mr. B. Towards the middle of the Third Century they received a considerable Increase from the Countenance of Alexander Severus the greatest part of whose Family and that alone would make a good Congregation were Christians Euseb l. 6. c. 21.28 and this Favourer of Christianity reigned thirteen years Towards the latter end of that Age their condition was most flourishing and all the World in a manner had receiv'd the Faith let us observe in what glorious Expressions Eusebius represents the Church before the Persecution of Dioclesian Euseb l. 8. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sayes he can describe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their full and innumerable Assemblies and the multitude of their Meetings in every City So that by this time not onely in Rome but almost in every City the Christians had several Congregations Valesius tho he corrects the old Translator yet it seems did not fully comprehend the meaning of this place nor see the Elegancy of Eusebius's Gradation for first he represents the many thousands that came together to make a Congregation then the number of such Assemblies that there were several of them and at last mentions the Places that receiv'd them that there was no Church no Chappel no Oratory but was full in those dayes About this time or not long after Rome had above forty Churches which we must not imagine to be built all at the same time but by degrees according as the number of Believers did require and in all probability there must be more than one or two even in the first and second Century And now I have mention'd this it will not be amiss to clear that Passage of Optatus about these forty Churches Optat. Mii. l. 2. contra Parmen from the Exceptions of Blondel whom Mr. B. follows in his mistake Optatus in that place traces the Donatists of Rome to their first Original If Macrobius says he were demanded whom he succeeds he must needs confess it is to Eucolpius if Eucolpius
be ask'd in whose Chair he sits he must say where Bonifacius Ballitanus sate before him and he where Victor Garbiensis who was the first Donatist Bishop in Rome and there the Succession ends he having none to succeed to Filius sine Patre Tyro sine Principe Hospes sine Hospitio Pastor sine Grege Episcopus sine Populo non enim Populus aut Grex appellandi fuerant pauci qui intra quadraginta quod excurrit basilicas locum ubi colligerent non haberent It is plain then that Optatus does not speak of the state of Rome as it was in his own time but of Victor Garbiensis the first Donatist Bishop when this was is not easie to fix There is no greater Argument for a great number of Congregations under the Bishop of Rome than what Mr. B. observes of their Churches before Dioclesian's time that they were but like our Tabernacles as to the capaciousness Euseb l. 8. I suppose as well as the manner of their Structure and therefore the lesser they were the greater Number there must be of them and the Church must grow too big for his Definition since there must be more than could in those circumstances have personal Communion in Doctrine and Worship When the Diocess of Rome is reduced within the narrow Bounds of a single Congregation what other Church can pretend to more And if the Imperial City need not be excepted Alexandria cannot hope for Exemption therefore he proceeds to shew that Alexandria the greatest and most populous City in the World next to Rome had no more Christians than could meet together in one Congregation and of this he offers a bold Proof that it was so in the time of Athanasius Athan. T. 1. p. 531. Ch. Hist 9. whose words he cites where he excuses himself for having celebrated Easter in the great Church of Alexandria and drawn together such a multitude as gave great occasion of Jealousie to the Emperour but his Plea is that the other Churches were so narrow that they would have been in danger of suffering by the crowd and as if this Church would have held all the People he adds that it was better for the whole Multitude to meet in the Great Church and to have the concurrence of the people with one Voice c. This Church was newly built by Constantius and we may suppose it very large though not yet so great as to be able to contain all the Believers in Alexandria nor does Mr. B. desire it should but only the Generality Ch. Hist p. 10. yet granting that it received all it would follow indeed that the Church of Alexandria then was but one Congregation but what was it before this great Church was built when they had no possibility of personal Communion were not they then made congregational Churches under one Bishop And Athanasius in the same place confesses the multitude was so great that all the other Churches in the City could not hold it Besides the Orthodox were probably much more numerous before the building of that Church and the Banishment of Athanasius and if this vast Fabrick could not receive the party of Athanasius what Church shall we imagine could have been large enough for all the Christians in Alexandria before they were divided by Arrius and before they were governed by Gregory and George the Arrian Bishops He adds to this of Athanasius p. 10. § 30. another Argument given him by a learned Friend which I will take the liberty to examine The City of Alexandria says Strabo is like a Souldiers Cloak c. and by Computation about ten Miles in Compass a third or forth part of this was taken up with publick Buildings Temples and Royal Palaces thus is two Miles and a half or three and a quarter taken up I will not say this learned Friend has impos'd on Mr. B. but there is a very great Mistake betwixt them suppose Temples and Royal Palaces should take up such a part of the City must there therefore be no Inhabitants in those Palaces or no Christians amongst those Inhabitants But he believes this to be that Region call'd Bruchium which Epiphanius speaks of in his time as destitute What all the publick Buildings of the Town in one Region and that an outer Skirt too as it is described by the Greek Martyrology in Hilarion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Life of Apollonius Discolus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Epiphanius says was destitute of Inhabitants in his time and not unlikely and perhaps destitute of publick Buildings too for it was destroyed after an obstinate Siege in the reign of Aurelian as Ammianus Marcellinus or of Claudius l. 22. as Eusebius would have it However the City must be reckon'd by so much the less In Chronico neither is there any Necessity of this for they might enlarge upon another Quarter being it may be forbid to build in Bruchium because it was divided from the rest of the City and too favourable a Refuge of Rebellion to which that People was too much addicted they might dwell closer than before and so their Multitude be undiminisht However certain it is that this City long after the Destruction of Bruchium retainrd it 's ancient Greatness and is represented by no Writer as diminisht either in Number or Wealth but to let this pass let us see what becomes of the rest he adds A great part of the City was assign'd to the Jews so Strabo indefinitely as Josephus quotes him others tell us more punctually that their Share was two of the five Divisions Ush Annals p. 859. though many of them had their Habitations in the other Divisions yet they had two fifth parts entire to themselves which he might have found as punctually in Strabo as in Bishop Vsher and this continues he is I suppose the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Josephus says the Successors of Alexander set apart for them thus we see how six or seven Miles of the ten are disposed of And by the same rule he might have disposed of all at once and concluded out of Strabo's Division of the Town that there was not one Christian it it For Strabo liv'd in Augustus his time when it was a hard matter to find a Christian in Alexandria unless we will take in Justin Martyr's old Christians such as Socrates i.e. all virtuous good men and then I am afraid they would be too few to make a Congregation The number of these Jews was much lessened within a little while after Strabo by an Insurrection of the Alexandrians against them the Civil Wars afterwards under Trajan and his Successor had almost extirpated them and yet even at this time Alexandria was as populous as ever and frequented by almost all the Nations of the Earth as Dion Chrysostomus represents the flourishing State of it in his time but no matter what number of Jews or Heathens it had in Strabo's days the Question is whether many
before Arrius's time Epiphan Haeres Melet Arrian who was the fixt Minister of one of them call'd Buchalis are to be supposed to have been instituted before for Epiphanius though he observe this as singular in the Alexandrian Church at that time yet says nothing at all of its Novelty which he would not probably have omitted and Sozomen seems to imply Soz. l. 1. c. 15. that it was an ancient Custom Petavius mistakes Epiphanius's his words and imagines in Epiph. that these Divisions of Alexandria are therefore said by him to be singular and different from the Usage of other Churches because says he those which Epiphanius had seen were but small and might have but one Congregation but it is plain from Epiphanius his words that what he look'd upon as singular was not their having several distinct Assemblies but because they had certain and fix'd Presbyters and therefore he adds as an Effect of that Custom that every one would be denominated from his Pastor as the Corinthians did when one cry'd I am of Paul I am of Apollos and this indeed was so singular that perhaps no other Church in the World had it besides Vales Annot in Sâ—zom l. 11. c. 15. not that of Rome and Valesius infers from the same Passage of Pope Innocent's Epistle to Decentius which Petavius brings to prove the contrary that although there were several Titles or Churches in Rome then and had been long before yet none of them was as yet appropriated to any Presbyter but they were served in common as greater Cities in Holland and some other Reformed Countries that have several Churches and Ministers who preach in them all by their turns Lastly and to conclude this account of the Church of Alexandria it is evident out of Athanasius how the Bishop of that City had from the Beginning several fix'd Congregations under him Athan. T. 1. p. 802. particularly those of Mareotes who though they must be suppos'd to receive the Faith almost as early as Alexandria yet never had a Bishop before Ischyrias if he were to be reckon'd one Mareotes says Athanasius is a Countrey belonging to Alexandria wherein there never was a Bishop not so much as a Chorepiscopus but all the Churches of that place were subject to the Bishop of Alexandria And now let the Reader judge whether the Bishop of Alexandria had more Congregations than one under him or no more than could conveniently meet in one place I have hitherto examin'd Mr. B's Evidence of History for his Congregational Churches let us now see whether there be not as good Evidence to the contrary The growth of the Church of Jerusalem was so sudden and so great as to exceed the measure of one or two Congregations St. Peter's first Sermon brought over three thousand another five thousand Acts 2.41 then the Sacred Historian as if the Multitude had grown too great to be numbred mentions the other Accessions in gross and indefinitely but with such Expressions as imply they much exceed the numbers aforementioned Multitudes both of Men and Women were added to the Church and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great number of the Priests were obedient to the Faith Act. 6.7 Now let us seriously consider whether all these Converts could meet together in one place for personal Communion Doctrine and Worship or whether they could find a room spacious enough to meet in all together we find but two sorts of places they met in the Temple and from House to House the Temple cannot be supposed the ordinary place of their Assembly since the generality of the Priests and People did oppose them and though the Apostles preacht there it was no otherwise than they did in the Synagogues acd Market-places and other places of concourse to gain new Proselytes and not to instruct those they had converted when they preacht from House to House the fifth or tenth part of them can hardly be supposed to have convenience for personal Communion and it is certain they did break Bread no otherwise than from House to House from whence it is plain that it was not possible for them all to hold personal Communion in the principal part of Christian Worship i. c. the holy Eucharist which is made by Mr. B. as necessary to the Individuation of a Church as Communion in Doctrine The Presbyterians prest this Instance very unmercifully upon those of the congregational way who made use of all Shifts and most of them very poor ones To elude the force of the Argument sometimes they turn the Temple into a Church another while they send the greatest part of them home to the country and whatsoever other means they could find to diminish their number they laid hold of them and this way not succeeding in their own Opinion they found a Secret in the Ayr Grand Debate Answer of the Assembly to the Reasons of the dissenting Br. p. 27. ibid. which they fancied to be much more pure and shine in Jerusalem than our Northern Climates and so more proper to convey a Voice to a greater Distance whereas our dull unyielding Fog arrests the Voice in every point as it passes However the Assembly of Divines resolved they would not be paid with this piece of Philosophy and undertook to shew the Argument to be as thin as the Ayr they talkt of and the Lord Bacon relieves them in this Distress who was of Opinion that a Voice could be heard much farther in a gross than a pure Ayr the Resistance perhaps preserving it longer as Opposition serves to lengthen a Discourse and to make Disputes endless p. 81.82 but in the second part of Ch. Hist takes it up again but Mr. B. in his first Disputation of Church-Government summing up the Exceptions of the Independents against the Presbyterian Argument drawn from the Church of Jerusalem prudently leaves out this of the Ayr but finds another Expedient as proper for his purpose and that is that men had much stronger Voices in those times and places which they may believe that can fancy Nature to decay and that our Fore-fathers were Giants For my part the next thing I expect is that they should believe with Kirker that the Ancients knew the use of Sir Samuel Morland's speaking-trumpet for Kirker had a Vision of some old Manuscript that no body else ever saw which revealed to him that Alexander the Great could speak to his whole Army together by the help of a Trumpet and who can tell but in this vast Congregation of Jerusalem such an Engine might be made use of However since Dioceses are to be no larger than the Sphear of a man's Voice it will be an useful Instrument to a Preacher of weak Lungs to stretch out the Bounds of his Diocess and be as serviceable to the Church as it is to the Camp Disp of Ch. Gov. p. 81. But Mr. B. tells us one thing more which a Friend told
where in a short time Sabbatius a Convert Jew ordain'd Priest by Marcianus the Novatian Bishop of C. P. began to favour the Jewish time of observing Easter established in the Council of Pazus and for this and the pretence of greater Purity began to separate from the Church He is call'd upon to shew the Reasons of his Separation and declares his greatest Grievance is about Easter The Novatian Bishops perceiving this was but a Pretence and that his real Disease was the desire of being a Bishop were resolv'd to take away this Excuse and leave it indifferent for every one to observe Easter when he thought fit And what was the Issue He seem'd to be satisfied for some time till he found he had some Followers and an Opportunity to set up a Congregation for himself and then notwithstanding his Compliance turn'd Schismatick so little good does Concession do with men that are set upon Separation So that though you should take away all Rule and all Order yet there is a sort of men that a Wantonness of Spirit has made restless that would never be satisfied the Disease is fed by Concession and then it is most violent when they know not what they would have A great Council says our Historian was call'd at Hippo p. 73. § 25. and Augustin yet a Presbyter was there Good men will do well and most of the African Councils were the best in all the World And why would you judge Because their Bishopricks were but like our Parishes and they strove not who should be the Greatest or domineer I am content he should like any Councils or Bishops but I am afraid this good Opinion will not continue long for the Reason of his good Liking is a great Mistake that they were Bishops according to his own Model Whose Dioceses were no bigger than our Parishes But surely this cannot be for all Africa from Tangier to Aegypt had but four hundred sixty six Bishopricks Notitia Affr. which were thus divided according to the Provinces 1. Proconsularis 54. 2. Numidia 125. 3. Provincia Bizac 107. Sees without Bishops 006. 4. Maurit Caesar 120. without Bishops 006. 5. Maurit Sitifens 044. 6. Tripolis 005. 7. Sardinia 008. There is some Difference between the Sum in gross and the Particulars which will not agree though you should deduct the twelve vacant Sees for then the Particulars will not come up to the Sum of four hundred sixty six And now judge whether the African Bishopricks were not bigger than our Parishes by comparing the vast Extent of Africk with our England which is not near so big as some of those Provinces and yet the Bishopricks of Africk were multiply'd thus occasionally as we shall shew hereafter and cannot prescribe to other Countreys Nor could the Churches of Africk notwithstanding the Multitude of their Bishops and Narrowness of their Dioceses keep themselves in Peace any more than their Neighbours but were divided as soon as any and their Divisions were as long and irremediable as their Neighbours And indeed Schism came over from hence into the other parts of the World with Novatus and who taught the Roman Presbyters first to set up against their Bishops In short there was no where a greater Breach nor more extravagant Schismaticks who oppos'd themselves not only against the Discipline of the Church but the Civil Government too Now lest this may put our Author out of Conceit with the Bishops and Councils of Africk as well as the rest I must put him in mind of his own Remark That good men will do well whether they be Bishops or not whether they have large or small Dioceses and a very good man in a very great Diocess will do an extraordinary deal of good A Donatist Council at Bagai S 29. p. 73. had three hundred and ten Bishops who condemn'd Maximianus and upon this Council Mr. B. makes two observations 1. How great a number the Donatists were and upon what Pretence as over-voting them they call'd others Hereticks and Schismaticks Very unjustly no doubt for they were Hereticks and Schismaticks themselves still notwithstanding their Increase Multitude may render a Sect formidable but it is but a poor Argument of Right 2. How small Bishopricks then were the number tells us not so small as our Parishes though the Donatists did use all means in the World to multiply them and to strengthen their Party The Council of Turin order'd p. 74. § 30. That Communion should not be deny'd Felix one of Ithacius his Party and not the contrary according as the false Reading of Binnius Vid. Conc. Sirm. So Sirmond in loc Male enim in vulgatis qui Felici non communicant abest enim in Manuscriptis Negatio Another Carthage Council § 31. call'd the second which Binnius saith was the last is plac'd next and so our Author takes it This Mistake Binnius takes from Baronius Conc. T. 2. p. 1158. as Labbe shews Erravit post Baronium Binnius verè enim hoc Concilium celebratum fuit Anno 390. Sub Genethlio decessore Aurelii cujus nomen necnon Alypii exulat à MS. optimae notae The Canons that Mr. B. instances from hence in favour of his Congregational Church will not comply with his Design ibid. That the Bishops only had the Power of making Crisme and all the Priests were to receive it from him that the Bishop alone was to reconcile Penitents publickly this may consist with a great many Congregations and the Canon Can. 3. Reconciliare quemquam in publicâ Missâ Presbytero non licere may probably extend only to the Cathedral Service and that the Priest should not do this in the Presence of the Bishops as he is forbid several other Acts which he is supposed to do apart and in the Bishops Absence but with the Supposition of his Consent Can. 4. The fourth Canon expresses the Absolution of Penitents by Reconciliare sacris Altaribus the plural tho it must be confess'd it is improper for there was but one principal Altar that was properly so call'd though several Communion-Tables depending upon the great Altar there might be in the same Diocess unless the reconciling to one Church be reckon'd a Reconciling to all other parts of the Catholick Church The fifth Canon is disingeniously cited by Mr. B. thus Can. 5. When Christians were multiply'd they that desir'd a Bishop in a place that had none before might have one but he leaves out the Consent of the Bishop out of whose Diocess that other is taken which is made absolutely necessary Dioeceses quae nunquam Episcopos habucrunt non habeant illa Dioecesis quae aliquando habuit habeat proprium si accedente tempore crescente fide Dei populus multiplicatus desideraverit proprium habere rectorem ejus videlicet voluntate in cujus potestate est Dioecesis constituta habeat Episcopum Which is confirm'd by the third Council of Carthage where it is added
affirm'd that the Woman was receiv'd Regularly according to the Law of the Church and with the consent of Theophilus himself and that Isidore could testifie all this which he did at his return from Rome whither he then was sent Theophilus excommunicated both as having done him wrong and bely'd him This some say But I have heard from a very credible Person who convers'd familiarly with those Monks at that very time who said that there were two Reasons of Theophilus his falling out with Isidore the one common to him and Peter because they refus'd to witness for Theophilus his Sister that a certain Person had made her his Heir the other particular to Isidore because he being Overseer of the Poor and having a considerable Sum of Money in his disposal refus'd to re-imburse the Bishop what he laid out upon the Building of Churches saying That it it was far better to refresh the Bodies of the Poor for whom that Treasure was intended and which were properly the Temples of God than to lay it out upon the building of Churches But whether it were for these or for other reasons so it was that Isidore was excommunicated and came to Scetis to his old Friends the Monks Ammonius taking some of them along with him goes to Theophilus and desires him to be reconcil'd to Isidore which he is said then readily to have promis'd but after some time when nothing was done and they saw plainly that Theophilus did intend to put them off they come again and renew the Request with greater earnestness requiring a performance of his Promise He takes one of the Monks and puts him in the common Prison for a terrour to the rest but this would not do for Ammonius with the rest of the Monks that came with him under pretence of bringing Relief to the Prisoners got into the Prison and resolv'd to stay there with their Companion Theophilus hearing this sends for them but they at first desir'd him to come himself and fetch them out for it was not fit they said that since the Affront they had receiv'd was publick they should privately be dismissed yet afterwards they were prevail'd upon to come to him and he sent them away after he had begg'd their pardon and promised never to molest them more However he fretted and was vexed in himself and cast about how he he should do them a mischief and since they despis'd every thing in the World but their Philosophical Life he resolves to attack them in that part and to disturb their Peace and Quietness for understanding by the Discourse he had had with them and the Complaints they were us'd to make to him of the Anthropomorphites that they were Favourers of Origen he kindled a deadly feud between them and the Monks of the contrary Opinion which was blown up by their undecent wranglings and Disputes in which they left the Question and instead of arguing reproach'd one another So they that believ'd God Incorporeal were call'd Origenists those of the contrary Perswasion Anthropomorphites So far Sozomen Socrates differs something in the relation of this matter from Sozomen though as to the greatest part one has copy'd out of the other yet so as to leave it a very hard Question to determine which is the Original and which the Copy Socrates sayes nothing of Isidor's being the occasion of this Quarrel Socr. l. 6. c. 7. but only that those Monks disliking the Covetousness of Theophilus would live with him no longer but return'd to their solitude and when Dioscorus was had in great Veneration of the Monks Theophilus envying him and being angry with his Brethren resolv'd to ruin them by stirring up the Anthropomorphites against them that he wrote to the Monks against Dioscorus accusing him with holding God to be Incorporeal and that he had no Members like men as the Scriptures describe him and by this means he set them all together by the Ears Isidor Pelusiota confirms Sozomen Isid Ep. l. 1. Ep. 152. so far as to make Isidor to be the ground of this Quarrel without any particulars but treats Theophilus very outragiously calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now if we examine these Relations impartially we may observe several things that are very improbable almost impossible to conceive All these men that are said to be persecuted unjustly by Theophilus were such as he had an Extraordinary kindness for and therefore it is not very likely without special Provocation he should ever endeavour to ruine those he took so much pains to set up And 1. As to the Story of Isidore it is altogether improbable for this was the man he opposed to Chrysostom as Competitor for the Bishoprick of C. P. This was he that was intrusted with the great Secret upon which his Life and Dignity did depend he that had receiv'd double Orders and Letters to present him that should overcome whether Theodosius or Maximus And is it likely he should fall out with this man so desperately about a punctilio of reconciling a Heretick Woman or witnessing that himself must know not to be truth Is it likely a Person so Eminent in Place and Reputation of an extraordinary Fortune too should suborn two the most considerable men in the Church of Alexandria to forswear themselves in favour of his Sister Surely he must know them too well after so long an acquaintance and experience to hazard his Reputation upon so unlikely a Project He must know them to be very Evil men before he would attempt them in that nature nor is it very likely that Isidore considering his Obligations to Theophilus should have refus'd him any Money to carry on and support his Magnificence in Publick Buildings However suppose all this true they must be only private Reasons such as Theophilus kept secret to himself but he must find some other plausible Pretence to justifie his Excommunication of these persons that were so considerable in their Place and Reputation in the World He could not be so brutish as to excommunicate a man because he would not forswear himself or rob the Poor to serve him There must be something for a Colour and that these Impartial Credible Historians did both forget for I suppose the Monks from whom they had this Relation did not care much to insist upon that point which would make a man suspect that Theophilus his Cause might be something justifiable and surely it was very plausible when all the World in a manner did approve it Thus every Malefactor will give out that he is persecuted out of Envy and Malice and such a one they had disobliged in this manner and another became their Enemy upon another Account but not a word of the Crimes laid to their Charge or of the Evidence against them No poor men though they talk'd Sedition or Treason blasphem'd God or the King and the Fact be notorious yet they fall innocent Victims to the Malice or Covetousness of their Judges Sozomen unawares discovers
and dignity With respect to which opinion Cyril presses the unity of nature and makes use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hypostasis indiscriminately And lastly Nestorius denys Christ to be truly and properly God in his first Anathema in answer to those of Cyril saying Si quis Christum verum deum non Immanuel dixerit i. e. Whosoever shall call him True God let him be Anathema which shews that the Union he meant was not personal but that Christ was no more than what Cyril often charges Nestorius with holding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If those twelve Articles of Nestorius were extant in Greek they would likely discover more of his mind but as they are they have hardly any sense at all How far Nestorius dissembles his opinion by those plausible expressions of one person and two natures may be judg'd from what is already observ'd concerning him but our Author falls into a great passion against those that say Nestorius dissembled when he affirm'd two natures and one person I take them says he to be the Fire-brands of the World and unworthy the regard of sober men who pretend to know mens judgements better than themselves c. It cannot be unknown to any man that has read any thing in Ecclesiastical writings that Hereticks were us'd to take refuge in Equivocation and to shew a fair plausible doctrine to the first view but when this was narrowly examin'd and compar'd with other things that dropp'd from them either unawares or in greater confidence it was found to be nothing but deceit and illusion Thus the Arians frequently impos'd upon the Orthodox thus the Nestorians seem'd to own the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changing only the accent which chang'd the signification of the Word from the Mother to the Child and off-spring of God and S. Paul who was not unacquainted with the arts of Hereticks gives this caution against them that they are not presently to be taken for what they appear Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learn'd and avoid them for such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple But let them be accounted Firebrands of the World that will not put the most charitable interpretation upon the expressions of men of suspected doctrines I am content and I believe the Bishops will not be so much concern'd in this accusation I could wish our Author would look home and observe those Fire-brands that will make men of what Religion they please in despite of all Protestations and Oaths to the contrary Is it not strange that men who subscribe the Articles of the Church of England so destructive of all the errours of Popery which were the occasion of the Reformation that renounce Transubstantiation Popes Supremacy Idolatry Rebellion for the cause of Religion Adoration of Images and Saints and Angels that notwithstanding all this these men must be Papists and Popishly affected and let them say or believe what they will they must be accounted so What shall a man do to these men who instead of pulling down Popery strengthen it by reckoning so many learned and godly persons of that side and whilest they endeavour to dishonour these persons by so odious a name do no small honour to the Papists by making the most eminent party of men both for learning and integrity that perhaps is now in the World to be favourers of their way hoc Ithacus velit The Jesuites indeed are apt to feign several death-bed Reconciliations to their Church to gain it credit by the accession of some eminent opposers of it but this they do sparingly as the easie people can swallow the cheat But these Papist-makers of ours will present them with thousands together and send them the Protestant Churches of three Kingdoms in one present If any be Fire brands of the World if any set up Popery under the disguise of Protestants they are surely these men that cry down all for Papists that they have any prejudice against and out of spight to their brethren assist that common enemy and become the most liberal Benefactors to the Church of Rome that ever it had since the Reformation nay not inferiour to the forgers of Constantine's Donation These men would deserve better of Rome than Francis or Dominick could they but make their words good Surely the Papists are not now to learn how to make the best use of a fictitious title they will not fail to boast of that strength which dissenters give them and have no reason to discover the falshood of a calumny that is so much to their credit and advantage I must beseech the Readers Pardon for this digression and Gods Pardon to these false accusers of their brethren that they may know in this their day the things that belong to their peace To return now to the business we left It will not suit the proportion of my design to dwell upon every particular expression of Cyril's that may be suspected and to detect the Heresie of Nestorius lurking under the disguise of Orthodox Expressions I hope that what has been already observ'd may be sufficient at least to suspend the Readers judgement from pronouncing Cyril a Heretick with Derodon or Nestorius who was condemn'd by almost all the world an Orthodox and sound believer until some abler hand undertake that matter and treat it more particularly Our Author though he make use of Derodon's citations to disparage the authority of these Councils yet he differs from him in conclusion and is loth to give in to that bold Paradox that Cyril so much celebrated in the Catholick Church for his defence of the faith should at last after twelve hundred years good credit prove down-right Heretick Therefore he endeavours to moderate the business and to make both parties Friends and Orthodox though they themselves were not sensible of it All this stir saith our Author proceeded only from misunderstanding and Cyril and Nestorius and the rest of the Bishops did not understand one anothers meaning It is not unpleasant to observe a man unacquainted with the language in which these disputes were pretend gravely to be Moderator and to perswade the World they did not understand the terms they quarrelled about though the language were vulgar to them all and by the strength of Hanmer's and other miserable translations to play the Critick but whether is most likely that these great and learned men should understand one anothers terms or persons remov'd from their times many hundreds of years and ignorant of the language in which they writ I leave the Reader to determine It is true that in this case there was great misunderstanding between Cyril and the Eastern Bishops yet we find that as soon as ever they came to debate the matter calmly they found they differ'd but in expression and yet both found
but any Rumours that Troublesome Persons would disturb their hopes And many are perswaded that you have been strangely kept from participating in any of our late bloody Contentions that God might make you a Healer of our Breaches and employ you in that Temple work which David himself might not be honour'd with though it was in his mind beause he had shed blood abundantly and made great wars 1 Chron. 22.7.8 I perceive also that some Settlement of Church Affairs will be expected from you by the most And then after some bitterness against the Bishops and their party and some sharpness against the Sectaries and some discourse against a General Toleration in Religion he comes at last to Advise the Protector to keep tenderly the Golden mean in this point and for his own sake not to Indulge all where we have this Remarkable passage If you give liberty to all that is call'd Religion you will soon be judged of no Religion and lov'd accordingly Then after some more particular Advice how to behave himself Mr. B. adds If you could be the happy instrument of taking away the Divisions of the Godly this would be the way to lift you highest in the esteem and love of all your people and make them see that you were Appointed of God to be a Healer and Restorer and to Glory in you and bless God for you as the instrument of our chiefest peace I should have been as ready as another to censure such an Address as this as guilty of Presumptuous boldness but that I consider what is the work of my calling and what it is to be faithful to the eternal God and am Conscious of fidelity to your Highness in my boldness My carnest Prayers for your Highness shall be that your own soul being first subjected and devoted wholly to God you may Rule as one that is Rul'd by him c. And that God would endue your Highness with that Heavenly wisdom That so the eternal God may be engag'd in the Protection of your Dominions and you Parliaments will love and Honour you and Abhor the Motions that tend to a division or your just displeasure Ministers will heartily pray for you and praise the Lord for his mercies by you And Teach all the people to love and Honour and obey you I crave your Hhigness Pardon for this Boldness and your favourable acceptance of the tender'd service of R. BAXTER An Extract out of Mr. B's Epistle Dedicatory to R. Cromwel before his Key for Catholicks Sir THese Papers presume to tender you their service because the subject of them is such as it most nearly concerns both us and you that you be well acquainted with the Roman Canons that Batter the Vnity c. It is only the necessary defence of your life and dignity and lives of all the Protestants that are under your Protection or Government and the souls of men that I desire The serious endeavours of your Renowned Father for the Protestants of Savoy discover'd to the world by Mr. M. in his Letters c. Hath won him more esteem in the hearts of many that fear the Lord than all his Victories in themselves consider'd we pray that you may inherit a Tender care of the cause of Christ We humbly Request that you would faithfully adhere to those that fear the Lord in your Dominions Then speaking of several sorts of persons that he calls Mask'd Papists as I believe some were and I am afraid there are more of the sort He mentions in the Tenth place Those that under the pretence of defending Prelacy and of uniting us to Rome do adhere to the course of Grotius and St. Clara one without the spirit of Divination may guess who are meant and Vnchurch all Reform'd Churches degrade all the Minsters that are not of their way while they maintain the verity of the Church of Rome and the Validity of her Ordination These Ten sorts of men we are jealous of and if ever you Advance them into places of command or power It will encrease our jealousies Lastly we beseech you that Toleration may be limited by execution as well as by Law and who would have thought that had not known it that they the Jesuits and Friers had so Insinuated into the several Sects among us and that they were so industrious in their work as the New-castle Scottish Jew was c. At last after all his Advices and Petitions he adds If you ask who it is that Presumeth thus to be your Monitor It is one that serveth so great a Master that he thinks it no unwarrantable Presumption in such a case to be faithfully plain with the greatest Prince it is one that stands so near eternity where Lazarus shall wear the Crown that unfaithful man-pleasing would be to him a double crime it is one that rejoyceth in the present happiness of England and wishes earnestly that it were but as well with the rest of the world and that honoureth all the Providences of God by which we have been brought to what we are And he is one that concurring in the common hopes yet to these Nations under your Government And observing your acceptance of the frequent Addresses that from all Parts of the Land come to you was encourag'd to do what you daily allow your Preachers to do and to Concur in the Tenders and some performance of his service That the Lord will make you a Healer and preserver of his Churches here at Home and a successful helper to his Churches abroad is the earnest Prayer of your Highness's Faithful Subject R. BAXTER I hope Mr. B. will find no Reason to tax me of any disingenuity in this Extract for I have not torn pieces of sentences and conceal'd any thing that might give words a more favourable Construction but I must confess it is with great Reluctance that I have been able to do it at all And since Mr. B. himself refers to them and compares them with Ambrose his Epistle and endeavours to justifie them by hinting at other instances I could not avoid giving some account of them I have promis'd to make no Inferences Malicious or not Malicious from them but as to the occasion that has brought in all this I must crave leave to shew him besides the expressions a great difference between these Epistles and that he compar'd them with For that was extorted by importunity these are volunteer services to an Usurper Eugenius had written twice to Ambrose before he would make any answer and then he owns such a frowardness that unless the Honour of Religion threatned by the Restauration of Idolatry had requir'd it of him he would not then have been prevail'd with to have made any Applications to him although there had pass'd an aquaintance and friendship between them when Eugenius was a Private man But Mr. B. was a stranger to R. Cromwel and had no great temptation to dedicate books to him nor any reasonable hopes that the Protector would
upon the multitudes said to be converted the number of Apostles and extraordinary Labourers commonly residing in this City the conjunction of Jews and Gentiles under the common title and profession of Christianity we must conclude that the Church of Antioch was too great for one Congregation especially before the place of assembly can be imagin'd very capacious and I believe Mr. B. does not imagine such vast Cathedrals as Pauls to be very Primitive Orat de S. Ign. But what ever number of Christians there might be at that time Ignatius his Bishop-rick was never the less Diocesan in its constitution and design or else Chrysostom mistakes one Topick of his commendation He reckons five things that were much to his honour whereof two bring him under suspition of Diocesan Prelacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatness of his Authority or Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatness of the City whereof he was Bishop The first I suppose refers to his metropolitan Power the second to his peculiar Diocess but if this Bishop were to have but one Congregation what would the greatness of the City signifie how many more would have the same honour with him Or what so great difference is there between a full Congregation in the heart of the City and another as full in Chelsey at leastwise what honour does the greatness of the City do the Minister of that single Congregation And now to pass by the Church of Corinth where St. Paul Preach'd for a Year and six Months upon a Divine assurance of extraordinary success and that God had much people in that place Acts 18.8 9 10 11. and where many effectually believed and were Baptized where Peter and Apollos Preached with that effect as to leave many Disciples 1 Cor. 3. who called themselves by their names And to say nothing of Ephesus where a numerous Church is said to have been gathered by St. Paul who preached there for two years and not only they that dwelled at Ephesus but all that dwelt in Asia Acts 19.10 heard the word of the Lord and the progress of the Gospel was so considerable that the shrine-makers apprehended the ruine of their Trade when they saw and heard that Paul not only at Ephesus but throughout all Asia had perswaded and turned away much people v. 26. To pass by these and several other eminent Churches Let us consider the Diocess of Rome as it was yet in the Apostles time It is very uncertain who laid the first Foundations of this Church though certain it is that before Pauls coming there the Gospel was not only received Rom. 1.13 15 17. seq but their Church was very considerable for St. Paul in his Epistle written long before his coming there as he himself witnesses sayes that their Faith was spoken of through the whole World and by the multitude of salutations in the end of that Epistle he makes appear the numbers of Christians in that City Salute Priscilla and Aquila Rom. 16. Ostendit Congregationem Fidelium Ecclesiam nominari Hieron in loe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetum Fidelium nec mirum est in tam am plâ Civitate distinctos fuisse Fidelium coetus Beza with the Church that is in their house This was one of the Congregations of that Church which is occasionly mentioned and it is not improbable that several that are mentioned with all the Saints that are with them may be the Officers of several Congregations For it appears that most of these were of the Ministry and such by whose means the Romans believed and that they were strangers come thither from other parts where Paul had known them Congregationem vert Eras Istos amats quos satutat intelligimus ex nominiâ—us suiffe peregrinos per quorum exemylum atque Doctrinam non absurde existimamus credidisse Romanes Hieron for as yet he had not seen Rome And this number was afterwards increased considerably by the coming of Paul who converted some of the Jews and afterwards received all that came whether Jews or Gentiles and Preach'd to them the Kingdom of God for the space of two whole years no man forbidding him And the progress of the Gospel in this City may be farther observed from the Persecution of Nero who is said to have put an infinite multitude of them to Death Ingens multitude hand perinde in Crimint ineendii quam odio bumani generis convicti sunt Tac. H. l. 15. upon pretence that they had fired Rome and the Heathen Historian sayes that they who confess'd were first laid hold on then a vast company were convicted by their indication where by the by besides the multitude of the sufferers we may take notice that the words seem to be mistaken generally as if the Christians some of them had confess'd the Fact and accused the rest Lipsius thus understanding the passage gives Tacitus the lye but he does not say they confessed the fact but they confessed without expressing the particulars but what did they confess then If it were this Crime that theâ— own'd themselves and charg'd others with how comes he to add that they were not convicted so much of this Crime by this Indication as by the hatred of all mankind therefore this confession was no more than owning themselves to be Christians and the hatred they were in made this sufficient conviction To these instances of the great numbers of Christians in some more considerable Cities Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall add only the general account which Eusebius gives of the success of the Christian faith immediately after the first discovery of it That presently in all Cities and Villages Churches abounding with innumerable multitudes were assembled and the Granary of Christ was fill'd up to the top with the Wheat that was gather'd in Hitherto I have observ'd chiefly the growth of Christianity under the Apostles and that there was in some Cities such a number of Christians as could not meet together in one Assembly for personal Communion in Doctrine and Worship The next thing we must shew in order to Diocesan Episcopacy must be that such numbers of believers made but one Church Govern'd by one Bishop As to the Church of Jerusalem we have shew'd already from the most ancient Ecclesiastical writings that James the Just was Bishop of that Church i. e. of all the Believers in Jerusalem Nor is that Tradition without ground in the Scripture it self for St. Paul reckons James the Lords Brother among the Apostles of that Church Sal. 1.19 though he were none of the Twelve and in another place he mentions him as a person in Eminent place and authority there one that had sent several Brethren to Antioch before that certain Brethren came from James â— 12 Here we find the style of the Scripture to alter in favour of Episcopacy for hitherto the Messengers who were sent from one Church to another were
is said to contain many Churches by that Canon whereby it is provided that Equitius the Bishop of it is to be deposed and another put in his place and for the easier effecting of it it is said Ecclesiae ibi ab his retinentur qui Equitii facinorosam communionem declinaverunt The Diocess whereof Xantippus was Bishop must be supposed of good extent August Ep. 236. for Augustine complains to him of one Abundantius a Presbyter in fundo Strabonensi at a great distance from his Bishop and near it seems to Augustine as may be gathered from the nature and manner of the complaint in the same place there is 〈…〉 Presbyter Gippitanus who was neighbour to this Abundantius or rather they lived both together tho' they had several Cures Alypius Bishop of Tagastis id Ep. 289. had likewise the Church Thyana under him which probably was a considerable City as may be gathered from the Epistle of St. Augustin to Melania whose Son was forced by a tumult of the people of Hippo to take Orders Hippo Regia the Diocess of St. Augustin was very large Ep. 74.212 236. Ep. He mentions many Parochial Presbyters and Parishes in it as Presbyter Germaniciensis Armemansis Subsana where Timothy was ordained Reader which occasioned no small trouble Malliana Turres Ciran Vitalis c. And such was the number of Churches in his Diocess that he excuses himself to a friend whom he had promised to assist in some kind of Study that he could not be as good as his word because he was gone upon his Visitation which would hold a considerable time and therefore he remits him to one of his Presbyters Quoniam visitandarum Ecclesiarum ad meam curam pertinentium necessitate profectus sum But we have a clearer account of the extent of this Diocess than of any other in Africk id Ep. 261. Volens prodesse quibusdam in nostra vicinitate This Neighbourhood which Mr. B. sometimes argues from to shew the smallness of Dioceses then was not the next door or the next Town in his Letter to Celestinus Bishop of Rome where he mentions a place in his neighbourhood as he expresses it that belonged to his Diocess and had never had a Bishop of its own yet forty miles distant from Hippo the passage because it is something remarkable I will set down in St. Austins words Fussala dicitur Territorio Hipponensi confine Castellum antea ibi nunquam Episcopus fuit sed simul cum contigua sibi Regione ad Paroeciam Hipponensis Ecclesiae pertinebat i. e. Tâ—e place is called Fussala a Town adjoyning to the Territory of Hippo which never had a Bishop of it own but belonged to the Diocess of Hippo with the Country about it Sed quod ab Hippone memoratum castellum millibus quadraginta sejungitur because it is forty miles distant from Hippo and the miserable condition of that Church requiring the presence of a Bishop he ordained one for them which not proving as useful as he expected he sends this Letter to excuse himself Nor are we to imagine that the Diocess of Hippo was singularly great above all the rest of Africk Collat. Carth. 1.65 but that Carthage Cirta Milevis and many others of the more eminent Bishopricks had more Churches under the inspection of their Bishops and the Diocess of Milevis particularly had besides Towns and Villages Cities likewise belonging to it for besides Milevis Civitas Tuncensis belonged to that Bishop And now if Mr. B. and the Nonconformists in whose name he makes Diocesan Episcopacy a reason of Separation had lived in Africa in the time of Cyprian or Augustin they must have renounced their communion or must have renounced these principles they must have been Nonconformists there and abhorred the largeness of the Bishops Dioceses no less than the Donatists did the largeness of their Charity Augustin would have been reckoned for all his learning and holiness no better than an Antichristian Bishop and our Reformers must have had toleration to Separate from him and what is the sweetest liberty of all to discharge their gall and bitterness upon him So that this is our comfort that these men that are such irreconcileable enemies to our Church would have been no otherwise to the Prophets the holy Primitive Bishops that have gone before us And for the same reason they reproach us they must reproach the ancient renowned Churches of Christ Nay the Church Universal as will further appear by what follows Although it may seem sufficient for my design to have shewed the progress of Diocesan Episcopacy in Africk the Country that Mr. B. singles out as retaining the clearest footsteps of the Congregational form yet for farther satisfaction in this point I will briefly shew the progress of Diocesan Episcopacy in other Nations and shew how at first they were but few in comparison not only for want of Christians in all Cities and Villages but by choice and when they came afterwards to be multiplyed it was not so much from the increase of believers as from Schisms and divisions in the Church and from the increase of Metropoles by the Christian Emperors in order to which I shall proceed upon the same grounds I have done hitherto From the great number of Christians that were dispersed into all parts and Cities and the small number of Bishops that met in Councils especially Provincial where all were obliged to be present as also from some general expressions of the condition of some Bishops in the earliest times as it is to be presumed that in the earliest times of the Church the Provincial Synods were the majority at least of the Bishops in the several Provinces so the first Synod had so few Bishops that we must needs conclude their number then to be very small For instance therefore The Gallick Synod assembled at Lyons under Irenaeus Ex Libello Synod against Marcion and other Hereticks had but twelve Bishops in it The Synod of Hierapolis under Apolinarius against Montanus and Maximilla had twenty six Ibid. The Synod of Anchialus under Sotas had twelve or thirteen Bishops Ibid. And Eusebius having cited two or three subscriptions out of Serapions Epistle Hist â—ocl l. 5. c. 9. adds that there were the subscriptions of many more not naming the number perhaps because in his time it would have looked but inconsiderable all being but twelve The Synod of Ephesus under Polycrates about the time of Easter was probably more numerous than most of the Provincial Councils of this age as consisting not only of the Bishops of Asia but of those of the neighbouring Countries as we may conclude from Victors attempt to excommunicate them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 5. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libà l Synod Polycrates in his Letter to Victor sayes they were a considerable number and if he should write down all their names it would seem a great multitude But no number is any where expressed