judge me righteously and you cannot be judged by any man and God only can judge you You are Gods to me c. were so extreamly sweet to some of the Bishops palats that they believ'd it and could never think of them afterwards but their teeth waâ—…ered and they ruminated so long on them that Constantine's Successors came too late to repent it But now the Bishops having mist of their great end of quarrelling one with another betake themselves though somwhat aukwardly to business And it is necessary to mind that as shortly as possible for the understanding of it I give a curiory account of Alexander and Arrius with some few others that were the most interessed in that general and first great revolution of Ecclesiastical affairs since the dayes of the Apostles This Alexander was the Bishop of Alexandria and appears to have been a pious old Man but not equally prudent nor in Divine things of the most capable nor in conducting the affairs of the Church very dextrous but he was the Bishop This Character that I have given of him I am the more confirmed in from some passages that follow and all of them pertinent to the matter before me They were used Sozom l. 2. c. 16. at Alexandria to keep yearly a solemn Festival to the memory of Peter one of their former Bishops upon the same day he suffered Martyrdom which Alexander having Celebrated at the Church with publick Devotion was sitting after at home expecting some guests to dine with him Sozom. l. 2. c. 16. As he was alone and looking towards the Sea side he saw a priâ—…y way of the Boys upon the beach at an old Recreation imitating it seems the Rites of the Church and office of the Bishops and was much delighted with the sighâ—…â—…s long as it appear'd an innocent and harmless representation but when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them at last how they acted the very administration of the Sacreâ—… Mysteries he was much troubled and sending for some of the chief of his Clergy caused the Boys to be taken and brought before him He asked them particularly what kind of sport they had been at and what the words and what the actions were that they had used in it After their fear had hindred them a while from answering and now they were afraid of being silent they conâ—…essed that a Lad of of their play-fellows one Athanasius had baptized some of them that were not yet initiated in those Sacred Mysteries Whereupon Alexander inquired the more accurately what the Bishop of the game had said and what he did to the boyes he had baptized what they also had answered or learned from him At last when Alexander perceiv'd by them that his Pawn Bishop had made all his removes right and that the whole Ecclesiastical Order and Rites had been duely observed in their interlude he by the advice of his Priests about him approved of that Moâ—…k Baptism and determined that the boys being once in the simplicity of their minds dipped in the Divine Grace ought not to be Re-baptized but he perfected it with the remaining Mysteries which it is only lawful for the Priests to administer And then he delivered Athanasius and the rest of the boyes that had acted the parts of Presbyters and Deacons to their Parents calling God to witness that they should be educated in the Ministery of the Church that they might pass their lives in that calling which they had chosen by imitation But as for Athanasius in a short while after Alexander took him to live with him and be his Secretary having caused him to be carefully educated in the Schools of the best Grammarians and â—…hetoricians and he grew in the opinion of all that spoke with him a discreet and eloquent person and will give occasion to be more then once mentioned again in this Discourse I have translated this in a manner word for word from the Author This good natured old Bishop Alexander that was so far from Anathemising that he did not so much as whip the boyes for profanation of the Sacrament against the Discipline of the Church but without more doing leâ—… them for ought I see at liberty to regenerate as many more Lads upon the next Holyday as they thought convenient He Socr. l c. 3. being a man that lived an easy and gentle life had one day called his Friests and the rest of his Clergy together and fell on Philosophying divinely among them but somthing more subtly and curiously though I dare say he meant no harm then was usual concerning the Holy Trinâ—…ty Among the rest one Arrius a Priest too of Alexandria was there present a Man who is described to be a good Disputant and others add the Capital accusation of those times that he had a mind to have been a Bishop and bore a great pique at Alexander for he having been preferr'd before him to the See of Alexandria but more are silent of any such matter and Soz m l. 1. c. 14. saith he was in a great esteem with his Bishop But Arrius Socr. l. 1. c. 3. hearing her discourse about the Holy Trinity and the Unity in the Trinity conceiv'd that as the Bishop stated it he had reason to suspect he was introducing afresh into the Church the Heresy of Sabellius the African who Fateâ—…atur unum esse Deum eta in unam essentiam Trinitatem adducebat ut assereret in nullam esse vere subjectam proprietatem personis sed nomina maturi pro eo atque usus poscant ut nunc de illo ut patre nunc ut filio nunc ut spiritu sancto disseratur and thereupon it seems Arrius argued warmly for that opinion which was directly contrary to the Africane driving the Bishop from one to a second from a second to a third seeming absurdity which I studiously avoid the relation of that in all these things I may not give occasion for Mens understandings to work by their memories and propogate the same errors by the same means they were first occasion'd But hereby Arrius was himself blamed as the maintainer of those absurdities which he affixed to the Bishops opinion as is usual in the heat and wrangle of Disputation Whereas Truth for the most part lyes in the middle but men ordinarily seek for it in the extremities Nor can I wonder that those ages were so fertile in what they called Heresies when being given to meddling with the Mysteries of Religion further then humane apprehension or divine revelation did or could lead them some of the Bishops were so ignorant and gross but others so speculative acute and refining in their conceptions that there being moreover a good faâ—…t Bishoprick to boot in the case it is rather admirable to me how all the Clergy from one end to tother could escape from being or being accounted Hereticks Alexander hereupon Soz. l. 1. c. 140. instead of stilling by more prudent Methods this new Controversy took doubtless with a very good intention a course
Mr. SMIRKE OR THE DIVINE in MODE BEING Certain Annotations upon the Animadversions on the Naked Truth Together with a Short Historical Essay concerning General Councils Creeds and Impositions in Matters of Religion Nuda sed Magna est Veritas praevalèbit BY ANDREAS RIVETUS Junior Anagr. RES NUDA VERITAS Printed Anno Domini MDC LXXVI To the CAPTIOUS READER AL that I have to require of thee is That wheresoever my Stile or Principles Strike out and keep not within the same Bounds that the most Judicious Author of the Naked Truth hath all along observed he may not therefore be traced He could best have writ a Defence proportionable to his own Subject had he esteemed it neeessary or that it was decent for him to have enter'd the Pit with so Scurrilous an Animadverter But I thought it a piece of due Civility from one of the Laities to interesse my self for one of the Clergy who had so highly obliged the People of England And I will answer for mine own faults I ask thee no pardon Nor therefore is either the Author or any other particular Person or any Party to be accused or mis-represented upon my Private Account For the rest neither let any particular Man or Order inlarge my meaning against themselves further than in Conscience they find they are guilty Nor let the body of Chaplains think themselves affronted None more esteems them nor loves their Conversation better than I do They are the succeeding hope of our Church the Youth of our Clergy and the Clergy are the Reserve of our Christianity Some of them whom I know have indeed and do continue daily to put very Singular Obligations upon me but I write to a Nobler 〈◊〉 than to revenge my Petty Concernments Adien The Errata's are too many to be Corrected But p. 7. l ult Eighth is to be struck out Mr. SMIRKE Or the Divine in Mode IT hath been the Good Nature and Politicians will have it the Wisdom of most Governours to entertain the people with Publick Recreations and therefore to incourage such as could best contribute to their Divertisement And hence doubtless it is that our Ecclesiastical Governours also who as they yield to none for Prudence so in good Humor they exceed all others have not disdained of late years to afford the Laity no inconsiderable Pastime Yea so great hath been their condescension that rather then faile they have carried on the Merriment by men of their own Faculty who might otherwise by the gravity of their Calling have claimed an exemption from such Offices They have Ordained from time to time several of the most Ingenious and Pregnant of their Clergy to supply the Press câ—…nually with new Books of ridiculous and facetious argument Wherein divers of them have succeeded even to admiration in so much that by the reading thereof the ancient Sobrâ—…ety and Seriousness of the English Nation hath been in some good measure discussed and worn out of fashion Yet though the Clergy have hereby manifested that nothing comes amiss to them and particularly that when they give their minds to it no sort of men are more proper or capable to make sport for Spectators it hath so happened by the rewards and Promotions bestowed upon those who have labour'd in this Province that many others in hopes of the like Pâ—…ferment although otherwise by their Parts their Complexion and Education unitted for this Jocular Divinity have in order to it wholly neglected the more weighty cares of their Function And from hence it proceeds that to the no small scandal and disreputation of our Church 〈◊〉 great Arcanum of their State hath been discovered and divâ—…ged That albeit Wit be not â—…nconsistent and incompatible with a Clergy-man yet neither is it inseparable from them So that it is of concernment to my Lords the Bishops henceforward to repress those of 'em who have no Wit from Writing and to take care that even those that have do husband it better as not-knowing-to what exigency they may be reduced But however that they the Bishops â—…e not too forward in Licensing and perfixing their venerable Names to such Pamphlets For admitting though I am not too positive in it that our Episcopacy is of Apostolical Right yet we do not find that among all those gifts then given to men that which we call Wit is enumerated nor yet among thâ—…se qlifications requisite to a Bishop And therefore should they out oâ—… Compâ—…cy for an Author oâ—… Deliâ—…ht in the Argument or 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a â—…ll Book their own understandings will be answerable and irreverent people that cannot distinguish will be ready to think that such of them differ from men of Wit not only in Degree but in Orâ—… For all are not of my mind who could never see any one eleâ—…ted to that Dignity but I presently conceived a greater opinion of his Wit then ever I had formerly But some do not 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 that even they the Bishops come by theirâ—… not by Inspiration 〈◊〉 by Teaching but even as the pooâ—… Laity do sometimes light upon iâ—… by a good Mother Which has â—…sioned the homely Scotch Proverb that An Ounce of Mother â—…it is worth a Pound of Clergy And as they come by it as do other men so they possesse it on the same condition That they cannot transmit it by breathing touching or any natural 〈◊〉 to other personsâ—… not so much as to their most Domesâ—… Chaplain or to the closest Reâ—…identiary That the King himself who is no 〈◊〉 the Spring of That then he is thâ—… Fountain of Honour yet has never used the Dubbing or Creating of Witts as a Flower of his Prerogative much less can the Ecclesiastical Power confeâ—…re it with the same case as they do the Holy Orders That whatsoever they can do of that kind is at uttermost to 〈◊〉 power men by their authority and commission no other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of Midwives oâ—… Physitians But that aâ—… to their collating of any internal talent or ability they could never pâ—…tend to it their grants and their prohibitions are alike invalids and they can neither capacitate one maâ—… to be Witty nor hinder another 〈◊〉 being so further then as the Press is at their Devâ—… 〈◊〉 which if iâ—… be the Case they cannot be too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should be very exquisite seeing this way 〈◊〉 wâ—…iting is â—…und so necessary in making choice of â—…it 〈◊〉 The Churches credit is more interested in aâ—… Ecclesiaâ—… 〈◊〉 then iâ—… 〈◊〉 Lay Chancellor It is no small â—…rust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom the Bishop shall commit Omne omnimodum suum Ingenium tam Tempâ—…rale quam Spirituale And however it goes with Excommunication they should take good heed to what manner of person they delegate the Keys of Laughter It is not every man that is qualified to sustain the Dignity of the Churches Jester and should they take as exact a scrutiny of them as of the Non-conformists
substantiae apud sanctos Patres ad consuetudinem Graeci Sermonis capi 'T is an happy thing I see to find our Church in good humour else she might have made more adoe about an Article of Faith as she does about much lesser matters 'T is not strange that the Exposer finds no greater difference or distinction between terms so distant seeing in the last Paragraph above he was so dull that he understood not What is What. But he most aptly concludes how Demosthenes once answered the Orator Aeschines who kept much adoe about an improper word The Fortunes of Greece do not depend upon it So trivial a thing it seems does the Exposer reckon it to have improper words obtruded upon Christians in a Creed without believing of which no man can be saved and whereupon the Eastern and Western Churches divided with so much concernment But how proper and ingenious a contrivance was it of the Author who is the very Cannon of Concinnity to bring in Demosthenes and Aeschines as being doubtless both of the Greek Church to decide the matter in Controversy of the Procession or Mission of the Holy Ghost between them and the West Antiochus whensoever you take the Pew again be sure you forget not Demosthenes and Aeschines For it will be to you as good as current Money which answers all things The Exposer though here so gentle yet in the very page before this was as dogged to as good men as the Greeks some of them the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists The Author he sayes may make as bold with them as he pleases for we are none of these I am not bound to make War in their vindication But if he should once Kyrie Elieson what would become of us Good Mother Church of England maintaine this humor thorow carrey it on but above all things make much of this thy Exposer give him any thing think nothing too good for him Happy the Church that hath and miserable that wants such a Champion But I must find some more expeditious way of dealing with him and walk faster for really I get cold The force of all that he â—…aith in the 8 and 9 pages is to represent the Author â—…idiculously and odiously as if upon his wishing that Constantine had commanded both parties Homoousian and Homoiosian to acquiece in the very Scripture Expressions without any addition whereby he is contident the Arrian He esie had soon expired he did by consequence cut Poe-dike to let in a Flood of Heresies upon the Fenns of Christianity But the words with which he cuts the Author down are Why this was the designe of the Arrians themselves that which they drove at Court that silence might be imposed on both Parties Well and 't was very honestly done of them and modestly and like Christians if the Controversie arose as men think about the Imposing of a Creed or Article coâ—…ncerning a Question so fine in Words so Gross which yet a man must Believe that without Believing it no man can be Saved though no humane understanding can comprehend the subject of the Question nor the Scripture Expressions as they conceived did reach it There is field enough for Faith in the Scriptures without laying out more to it and to resigne their Reason to be silenced in a Question stirred up by others that Peace might be established in the Church was Ingenuity in them and the contrary proceeding of the Church was the occasion of many other Heresies that else had never been heard of But the Exposer had said somthing if he could have divined that they would have used this silencing the disputes by Constantine as the Arminians so they were at that time called did the same in the Reigne of his late Majesty who procuring a command from him to prohibite all writing or preaching about those points having thereby gagged their Adversaries did let the Press and the Pulpit loose more then ever to propagate their own Doctrines That which the Exposer drops in the ardour of this Argument p. 9. How many terms in the Athanasian Creed which to seek for in the Apostles Creed or in the whole Bible were to as much purpose as it was for the old affected Ciceronian in Erasmus to labour and toile his Brains to turn that Creed into Ciceronian Latine Yet these are the terms in which the Catholick Church thought she spoke safely in these Divine matters is totidem verbis either to beg the Question or make a formal resignation of it And our Church howsoever else he may have oblidged her has reason to resent this indiscretion Why was she her self so indiscreet to admit such a Blab into her secrecies How if no man else ought to have known it It is an ill matter to put such things in mens minds who otherwise perhaps would never have thought of it 'T is enough to turn a mans stomach that is not in strong health not only against the Athanasian Creed but against all others for its sake He saith p. 8. Scoffingly that the Author is one of those whom St. Paul forbids to be admitted to any doubtful disputations But let the Exposer see whether it be not himself rather that is there spoken of And withall that he may make some more proper use of the place which he warily cites not I recommend it to him in order to his dispute about future Ceremonies 'T is the 14. Rom. v. 7. Where St. Paul calls them that contend for him the Weak Brother Weak in the Faith and such therefore the Apostle excludes from doubtful Disputations so that one gone so far in Ceremony as the Exposer had no License from him to Print Animadversions As to what he patches in p. 10. upon the matter of School-Divinity as if the Author poured contempt upon the Fathers I referre it to the Animadversions on the Chapter about preaching and should I forget I desire him to put me in mind of it And p. 11. and 12. where the Author having in his 2. and 3. p. said that None can force another to believe no more then to read where the Candle does not give good light and more very significantly to that purpose the Exposer flying giddily about it burns his wings with the very similitude of a Candle Sure if a man went out by night on Trauelling or Bat-fowling or Proctoring he might catch these Exposers by Dozens But the force of his Argument is p. 13. Whereas the Author says you can force no mans sight nor his Faith â—…he replyes If it be not in any mans truth to Discerne Fundamental Truths of which this Chapter treats when they are laid before his Eyes when there is a sufficient proposal then it is none of his fault Yet this is as weak as water For supposing a Fundamental Truth clearly demonstrated from Scripture though a man cannot force himself to believe it yet there is enough to render a man inexcusable to God God hath not been wanting one of the Exposers scraps
took away all their Estates But at Constantinople they continued to fare better the Bishops of that Church embracing Novatians and free liberty to keep their Conventicles in their Churches What and to have their Bishops too Altar against Altar A Condescention which as our Non-conformists seem not to desire or think of so the Wisdom of these times would I suppose judge to be very unreasonable but rather that it were fit to take the other course and that whatsoever advantage the Religion might probably receive from their Doctrine and party 't is better to suppress them and make havock both of their Estates and Persons But however the Hereticks in Constantine's time had the less reason to complain of ill Measure seeing it was that the Bishops meated by among themselves I pass over that controversy betwixt Cecilianns the Bishop of Carthage and his adherents with another set of Bishops there in Africk upon which Constantine ordered ten of each party to appear before Milâ—…iades the Bishop of Rome and others to have it deceived Yet after they had given sentence Constantine found it necessary to have a Council for a review of the business as in his Letter to Chrestus the Bishop of Syracusa Euseb. l. 10. c. 6. Wrensas several have formerly separated from the Catholick Heresy for that word was not yet so ill natured but that it might sometimes be used in its proper and good Sense and then relates his Commission to the Bishop of Rome and others But for as much as some having been careless of their own salvation and forgetting the reverence due to that most holy Heresy again will not yet lay down their enmity nor admit the sentence that hath been given obstinately affirming that they were but a few that pronounced the Sentence and that they did it very precipitately before they bad duly inquired of the matter and from hence it hath happened that both they who ought to have kept a brotherly and nuanimous agreement together do abominably any flagitiously dissent from one another and such whose minds are alienated from the most holy Religion do make a mockery both of it and them Therefore 1 c. have commanded very many Bishops out of innumerable places to meet at Arles that what ought to have been quieted upon the former Sentence pronounced may now at least be determined c. and you to be one of them and therefore I have ordered the Prefect of Sicily to furnish you with one of the publick Stage-Coachers and so many Servants c. Such was the use then of Stage Coaches Post Horses and Councills to the great disappointment and grievance of the many both Men and Horses and Leather being hackneyd-jaded and worn out upon the errand of some contentious and obstinate Bishop So went the Affairs hitherto and thus well disposed and prepared were the Bishops to receive the Holy Ghost a second time at the great and first general Council of Nice which is so much Celebrated The occasions of calling it were two The first a most important question in which the Wit and Piety of their Predecessors and now their successively had been much exercised and taken up that was upon what day they ought to keep Easter which though it were no point of Faith that it should be kept at all yet the very calendiny of it was controverted with the same zeal and made as heavy a do in the Church as if both parties had been Hereticks And it is reckoned by the Church Historians as one of the chieâ—… felicities of Constantines Empire to have quieted in that Councel this main controvesie The second cause of the assembling them here was in seed grown as the Bishop had ordered it a matter of the greatest weight and consequence to the Christian Religion one Arrius having as is related to the disturbance of the Church started a most pernicious opinion in the point of the Trinity Therefore from all parts of the Empire they met together at the City of Nice two hundred and fifty Bishops and better saith Eusebius a goodly company three hundred and eighteen say others and the Animadverter too with that pithy remark pa. 23. Equal almost to the number of servants bred up in the bâ—…se of Abraham The Emperour had accommodated them every where with the posts or layd Horses all along for the convenience of their journey thither and all the time they were â—…heir supplyed them abundantly with all sorts of provision at his own charges And when they were all first assembled in Council in the great Hall of the Imperial Palace he came in having put on his best clothes to make his guests welcome and saluted with that profound humility as if they all had been Emperour nor would sit down in his Throne no it was a very little and low stool till they had all beckoned and made signes to him to sit down No wonder if the first Council of Nice run in their heads ever after and the ambitious Clergy like those who have been long a thirst took so much of Constantinus kindness that they are scarce come to themselves again after so many Ages The first thing was that he acquainted them with the causes of his summoning them thither and in a grave and most Christian discourse exhorted them to keep the peace or to a good agreement as there was reason For saith Ruffin L. 1. c. 2. the Bishops being meet here almost of all parts and as they use to do bringing their quarrels about several matters along with them every of them was at the Emperour offering him Petitions laying out one anothers faults for all the good advice he had given them and were more â—…tent upon these things then upon the business they were sent for But he considering that by these scoldings and Bickerings the main affair was frustrated appointed a set-day by which all the Bishops should bring him in whatsoever complaint they had against one another And they being all brought he made them that high Asiatick complement God hath made you Priests and hath given you power to judge me and therefore it is in you to judge me righteously But you cannot be judged by any men It is God only can judge you and therefore reserve all your quarrels to his Tribunal For you are as Gods to me and it is not convenient a man should judge of Gods but he only of whom it is written God staâ—…deth in the Congregation of the Gods and discerneth in the midst of them And therefore setting these things aside apply your minds without any contention to the concernments of God's Religion And so without opening or reading one Petition commanded tâ—…m all together to be burnt there in his presence An action of great Charity and excellent Wisdom had but some of the words been spared For doubtless though they that would have complained of their brethren grumbled a little yet those that were accusable were all very well satisfied and those expressions you can
Bishops for their purpose The particulars of that heavy Persecution under Valens any one may further satisfy himself of in the Writers of those Times And yet it is observable that within a little space while he pursued the Orthodox Bishops he gave Liberty to the 〈◊〉 who were of the same Creed but separated from them as I have said upon Discipline c. and caused their Churches which for a while were shut up to be opened again at Constantinople To be short Valens who out-lived his Brother that died of a natural Death himself in a battel against the Goths could not escape neither the fate of a Christian Persecutor For the Goths having made Application to him he saith Socrates not well fore-seeing the Consequence admitted them to Inhabit in certain places of Thracia pleasing himself that he should by that means always have an Army ready at hand against whatsoever Enemie and that those Foraign Guards would strike them with a greater Terror more by far than the Militia of his Subjects And so slighting the ancient Veterane Militia which used to consist of Bodies of Men raised proportionably in every Province and were stout Fellows that would Fight Manfully instead of them he levied Money rating the Country at so much for every Souldier But these new Inmates of the Emperors soon grew Troublesom as is customary and not only infested the Natives in Thracia but Plunder'd even the Suburbs of Constantinople there being no armed Force to repress them Hereupon the whole People of the City cried out at a publick Spectacle where Valens was present neglecting this matter Give us Arms and we will manage this War our selves This extreamly provok'd him so that he forthwith made an Expedition against the Goths But Threatned the Citizens if he turn'd in safety to be Reveng'd on them both for those Contumelies and for what under the Tyrant Procopius they had committed against the Empire and that he would Raze to the Ground and Plow up the City Yet before his departure out of fear of the Foraign Enemy he totally ceas'd from persecuting the Orthodox in Constantinople But he was kill'd in the Fight or Flying into a Village that the Goths had set on fire he was there burnt to ashes to the great grief of his Bishops who had he been Victorious might have revived the Persecution Such was the end of his Impetuous Reign and rash Counsels both as to his Government of State in matters of Peace and War and his Manage of the Church by Persecution His death brings me to the Succession of Theodosius the Great then whom no Christian Emperor did more make it his business to Nurse up the Church and to Lull the Bishops to keep the House in quiet But neither was it in his power to still their Bawling and Scratching one another as far as their Nails which were yet more tender but afterwards grew like Tallons would give them leave I shall not further vex the History or the Reader in recounting the Particulars taking no delight neither my self in so uncomfortable Relations or to reflect beyond what is necessary upon the Wolfishness of those which then seemed and ought to have been the Christian Pastors but went on scattering their Flocks if not devouring and the Shepherds smiting one another In his Reign the second General Council was called that of Constantinople and the Creed was there made which took its name from the place The rest of their business any one that is further curious may observe in the Writers But I shall close this with a short touch concerning Gregory Nazianzen then living than whom also the Christian Church had not in those times and I question whether in any succeeding a Bishop that was more a Christian more a Gentleman better appointed in all sorts of Learning requisite seasoned under Julian's Persecution and exemplary to the highest pitch of true Religion and Practical Piety The eminence of these Vertues and in special of his Humility the lowliest but the highest of all Christian Qualifications raised him under Theodosius from the Parish-like Bishoprick of Nazianzum to that of Constantinople where he fill'd his place in that Council But having taken notice in what manner things were carried in that as they had been in former Councils and that some of the Bishops muttered at his promotion he of his own mind resigned that great Bishoprick which was never of his desire or seeking and though so highly seated in the Emperors Reverence and Favor so acceptable to the People and generally to the Clergy whose unequal Abilities could not pretend or justifie an envy against him retired back far more content to a Solitary Life to his little Nazianzum And from thence he writes that Letter to his Friend Procopius wherein p. 814. upon his most recollected and serious reflexion on what had faln within his observation he useth these remarkable words I have resolved with my self if I may tell you the Naked Truth never more to come into any assembly of Bishops for I never saw a good and haypy end of any Council but which rather increased then remedied the mischieves For their obstinate Contentions and Ambition are unexpressible It would require too great a Volume to deduce from the death of Theodosius the particulars that happened in the succeeding Reigns about this matter But the Reader may reckon that it was as stated a Quarrel betwixt the Homoousians and the Homoiousians as that between the Houses of York and Lancaster And there arose now an Emperor of one Line and then again of the other But among all the Bishops there was not one Morton whose industrious Brain could or would for some Men always reap by Division make up the fatal Breach betwixt the two Creeds By this means every Creed was grown up to a Test and under that pretence the dextrous Bishops step by step hooked within their Verge all the business and Power that could be catched in those Turbulences where they mudled the Water and Fished after By this means they stalked on first to a Spiritual kind of Dominion and from that incroached upon and into the Civil Jurisdiction A Bishop now grew terrible and whereas a simple Layman might have frighted the Devil with the first words of the Apostles Creed and I defie thee Satan one Creed could not protect him from a Bishop and it required a much longer and a double and treble Confession unless himself would be delivered over to Satan by an Anathema But this was only an Ecclesiastical sentence at first with which they marked out such as sinned against them and then whoop'd and hollow'd on the Civil Magistrate to hunt them down for their Spiritual Pleasure They crept at first by Court Insinuations and Flattery into the Princes favor till those generous Creatures suffered themselves to be backed and ridden by them who would take as much of a free Horse as possible but in Persecution the Clergy as yet wisely interposed the Magistrate
easing all Protestant dissenters from Penalties had he vouch'd for the Convocation his Belief or his probability might have been of more value But what has he to do yet they have a singular itch to it with Parliament business or how can so thin a scull comprehend or divine the results of the Wisdom of the Nation Unless he can as in the Epilogue Legion his name a People in a Man And instead of Sir Fopling Flutter he Mr. Smirke Be Knight oth'-Shire and represent them all Who knows indeed but he may by some new and extraordinary Writ have been summon'd upon the Emergency of this Book to Represent in his peculiar person the whole Representative Yet by his leave though he be so he ought not to Undertake before he be Assembled I know indeed he may have had some late Precedents for it and for some years continuance from men too of his own Profession And if therefore he should Undertake and to give a good Tax for it Yet what security can he have himself but that there may rise such a Contest between the Lords and Commons within him that before they can agree about this Judicial Proceeding against the Book it may be thought fit to Prorogue him The Crimes indeed are hainous and if the Man and Book be guilty may when time comes furnish special matter for an Impeachment That he has made a breach upon their Glorious Act of Unniformity Violated their Act their most necessary Act the Animadverter hath reason by this time to say so against Printing without a License and I suppose he reserves anotherfor aggravation in due time the Act against seditious Conventicles For these three are all of a piece and yet are the several Pieces of the Animadverters Armour and are indeed no less nor no more then necessary For considering how empty of late the Church Magazines have been of that Spiritual Armour which the Apostle found sufficient against the assaults of whatsoever enemy even of Satan what could men in all humane reason do less then to furnish such of the Clergy as wanted with these Weapons of another Warfare But although these Acts were the true effects of the Prudence and Piety of that season yet it is possible but who can provide for all cases that if there have not already there may arise thereby in a short time some notable inconvenience For suppose that Truth should one day or other come to be Truth and every man a Lyer I mean of the humor of this Parliamentum Indoctum this single Representativer this Animadverter you see there is no more to be said as the Case stands at present but Executioner do your Office Nor therefore can it ever enter into my mind as to that Act particularly of Printing that the Law-givers could thereby intend to allow any man a promiscuous Licenciousness and Monopoly of Printing Pernicious Discourses tending to sow and increase dissension thorow the Land of which there is but too large a crop already as neither of Prohibiting Books dictated by Christian meekness and charity for the promoting of Truth and Peace among us and reconciling our Differences no nor even of such as are writ to take out the Blots of Printing-Inke and wipe off the Aspersions which divers of the Licensed Clergy cast upon mens private Reputations and yet this is the use to which the Law is somtimes applyed And this Animadverter who could never have any rational confidence or pretence to the Press or Print but by an unlucky English saying men have or by the Text-Letters of his Imprimatur arraignes this worthy Author for Printing without Allowance as if it were a sin against the Eleventh Commandment Though a Samaritan perhaps may not practise Physick without a Licence yet must a Priest and a Levite alwayes pass by on the other side and if one of them in an Age pour Oyle and Wine into the Wounds of our Church instead of Tearing them Wider must he be Cited for it into the Spiritual Court and incurre all Penalties This high Charge made me the more curious to inquire particularly how that Book The Naked Truth was published which the Animadverter himself pretends to have got a sight of with some difficulty And I am credibly informed that the Author caused four hundred of them and no more to be Printed against the last Session but one of Parliament For nothing is more usual then to Print and present to them Proposals of Revenue Matters of Trade or any thing of Publick Convenience and sometimes Cases and Petitions and this which the Animadverter calls the Authors Dedication is his humble Petition to the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament And understanding the Parliament inclined to a Temper in Religion he prepar'd these for the Speakers of both Houses and as many of the Members as those could furnish But that the Parliament rising just as the Book was delivering out and before it could be presented the Author gave speedy order to suppress it till another Session Some covetous Printer in the mean time getting a Copy surreptitioufly Reprinted it and so it flew abroad without the Authors knowledge and against his direction So that it was not his but the Printers fault to have put so great an obligation upon the publick Yet because the Author has in his own Copyes out of his unspeakable Tenderness and Modesty begg'd pardon of the Lords and Commons in his Petition for transgressing their Act against Printing without a Licence this Indoctum Parliamentum mistaking the Petition as addressed to himself will not grant it but insults over the Author and upbraids him the rather as a desperate offender that sins on he saith goes on still in his wickedness and hath done it against his own Conscience Now truly if this were a sin it was a sin of the first Impression And the Author appears so constant to the Church of England and to its Liturgy in particular that having confessed four hundred times with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart I doubt not but in assisting at Divine Service he hath frequently since that received Absolution It is something strange that to publish a good Book is a sin and an ill one a vertue and that while one comes out with Authority the other may not have a Dispensation So that we seem to have got an Expurgatory Press though not an Index and the most Religious Truth must be expung'd and suppressed in order to the false and secular interest of some of the Clergy So much wiser are they grown by process of time then the Obsolete Apostle that said We can do nothing against the Truth But this hath been of late years the practice of these single Representers of the Church of England to render those Peccadillioes against God as few and inconsiderable as may be but to make the sins against themselves as many as possible and these to be all hainous and unpardonable In so much that if we of the Laity
it and draw in person never think that he would want intelligence in that Region Come 't was all but an affected ignorance in the Animadverter and he had both inquired and heard as much as any of us who was the probable Author and all the Guard that he Lyes upon is because the Author had not given him legal notice that he Writ it And this was even as the Animadverter would have wished it For if a Reverend Person had openly avowed it he could not have been sawcy with so gooda Grace But under the pretence of not knowing Sir that it was you but only Sir as you were the Patron of so vile a Cause many a dry bob close gird and privy nip has he given him Yet he saith the Author would have done well and a piece of Justice to have named himself so to have cleared others for it hath been confidently layed to the charge of more then one Reverend Person how slily who I have great reason to believe and am several ways assured had no hand in it Truly the Animadverter too would have done a piece of Justice to have named himself for there has been more then one Witty person traduced for his Pamphlet and I believe by this time he would take it for a great favour if any man would be such a Fool as own it for him For he very securely reproaches the Author and yet I have been seeking all over for the Animadverters name and cannot find it Not withstanding that he writes forsooth in desence of the Church of England and against so vile a Cause as he stiles it and under the Publick Patronage Which is most disingenuously done as on other accounts so in respect of my Lord Bishop of London whom he has left in the lurch to justify another mans Follyes with his Authority But however that venerable Person who has for Learning Candor and Piety as he does for Dignity also outstripp'd his Age and his Fellows have been drawn in to License what certainly he cannot approve of it was but his First Fruits and a piece of early liberality as is usual upon his new Promotion and I am given to understand that for the Animadverters sake it is like to be the last that he will allow of that nature But this is not only a Trick of the Animadverters but ordinary with many others of them who while we write at our own peril and perhaps set our names to it for I am not yet resolved whether I can bear Reproach or Commendation they that raile for the Church of England and under the Publick License and Protection yet leave men as if it were at Hot-Cockles to guesse blind-fold who it is that hit them But it is possible that some of these too may lie down in their turnes What should be the reason of it sure theirs is not so Vile a Cause too that they dare not abide by it Or are they the Writers conscious to themselves that they are such Things as ought not once to be Named among Christians Or is it their own sorry performance that makes them ashamed to avow their own Books Or is there some secret force upon them that obliges them to say things against their Conscience Or would they reserve a Latitude to themselves to turn Non-Conformists again upon occasion Or do they in pure honesty abstaine from putting a single Name to a Book which hath been the workmanship of the whole Diocess But though he know not his Name seeing he has vented his own Amusements to the Churches great and real prejudice he saith and that is this Case he must not think to scape for the Godliness of his Stile Impious and most unmerciful Poor David was often in this Case Psal. 22. They gaped upon him with their Mouth He trusted said they in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him And Psal. 71. 11. Persecute and take him there is none to deliver him And yet there are many places too in Scripture where God spared men even for their outward Formalities and their Hypocrisie served to delay his Judgements and should he not still do so the Church might re-receive greater prejudice But the Church and God are two things and are not it seems oblidged to the same Measures insomuch that even the sincerity of one Person which might perhaps attone for a whole Order and render them acceptable both to God and Man yet cannot hope for his own pardon Neither must be think to scope for a Man of good Intentions yet sure he is else would not give the Devil so much more then his due saying he would never condemne any good action though done by the Devil As if saith the Animadverter be supposed the Devil might do some such Here he thinhs he has a shrewd hit at him and this if a man had leisure might beget a Metaphysical Controversy but I desire him rather to comment on that Text Doest thou Believe thou doest well the Devils also Believe and Tremble Whereas he goeth on to mock at the Authors Good Intentions and tells him pleasantly that Hell it self is full of such as were once full of Good Intentions 't is a Concluding piece of Wit and therefore as well as for the Rarity should be civilly treated and incouraged so that I shall use no further 〈◊〉 there that if this be the qualification of such as go to Hell the Animadverter hath secured himself from coming there and so many more as were his Partners And thus much I have said upon his Animadversions on the Title c. Wherein he having misrepresented the Author and prejudicated the Reader against him by all disingenuous methods and open'd the whole Pedlers-pack of his malice which he half-p worths out in the following discourse to his petty Chapmen I could not properly say less though it exceeds perhaps the number of his Pages For it is scarce credible how vuluminous and pithy he is in extravagance and one of his sides in Quarto for Falshood Insolence and Absurdity contains a Book in Folio Besides the Reader may please to consider how much labour it costs to Bray even a Little Thing in a Mortar and that Calumny is like London-dirt with which though a man may be spatter'd in an instant yet it requires much time pains and Fullers-earth to scoure it out again Annotations upon the Animadversions on the first Chapter concerning Articles of Faith THe Play begins I Confess Do so then and make no more words when first I saw this Jewel of a Pamphlet and had run over two or three pages of this Chapter I suspected the Author for some Youngster that had been Dabbling amongst the Socinian Writers and was ambitious of showing us his Talent in their way I was quickly delivered from this Jealousy by his Orthodox Contradictory expressions in other places That word Jewel is commonly used in a good sense and I know no reason why this Book
him hand and foot and thrown him into the Thames betwixt White-hall and Lambeth for experiment laying so much weight too on him as would sink any ordinary man and nevertheless he swims still and keeps above Water So dangerous is it to have got an Ill Name once either for speaking Truth or for Incantation that it comes to the same thing almost to be Innocent or Guilty for if a man swim he is Guilty and to be Burnt if he sinke he is Drowned and Innocent But therefore this Exposing must surely be to condemne the Author as he has done his Book already to the Fire for no man stands fairer for't as being first Heretick and now Witch by Consequence and then the Devil sure can have no more power over the Animadverter Yet when I consider'd better that he does not accuse him of any harme that he has suffered by him in person but that it is the Church which may justly Complain of him and having done her so much mischiefe therefore it is become a Duty to Expose him I could not but imagine that it must be a severer Torment For if our Church be bewitched and he has done it Huic mites nimium Flammas huic lenta putassem Flumina fumiferi potasset nubila Peti Though I never heard before of a Church that was Bewitched except that of the Galatians Gal. 3. 1. Whom Saint Paul asks O foolish Galatians who hath Bewitched you taking it for evident that they were so because they are his very next words they did not obey the Truth And that was a Naked Truth with a Witness the Apostle teaching that Christ is become of none effect to them that from their Christian Liberty returned to the Jewish Ceremonies Gal. 5. 4. But therefore I looked over the Canons the Rational the Ceremonial the Rubrick imagining the Exposing mention'd must be some new part of our Ecclesiastical Discipline that I had not taken notice of before and I should find it in one or other of the Offices But I lost my labour and 't was but just I should for being so simple as not to understand at first that to Expose a man is to write Animadversions upon him For that is a crueller Torment then all the Ten Persecutors and which none but this Clergy-man could have invented To be set in the Pillary first and bedawb'd with so many Addle Eggs of the Animadverters own Cakle as he paâ—…ts him with How miserable then is the man that must suffer afterwards sub 〈◊〉 leâ—…to Ingenio To be raked and harrowed thorow with so â—…usty a Saw So dull a Torture that it contains all other in it and which even the Christian Reader is scarce able to indure with all his Patience Had he been a man of some accuteness the pain would have been over in an instant but this was the utmost inhumanity in whoever it was that advised whereas several witty men were proposed that would have been glad of the the imployment to chuse out on purpose the veryest Animadverter in all the Faculty This it is to which the Author is condemned And now that I know it and that it is an Office a Duty to which our Church it seems has advanc'd the Animadvertur I wish him Joy of his new Preferment and shall henceforward take notice of him as the Church of Englands's Exposer for I can never admit him by any Analogy to be an Expositoâ—… It is no less disingenuously then constantly done of the Exposer in this same p. 1. To concern the Author in the Non-Conformists that may have reflected any where as if there were Socinian or Pelagian Doctrines Allowed to be preached and maintained in the City Pulpits For the Author hath not in his whole Book the least syllable that can be wrested to any such purpose Only it serves the Adversaries turn as he thinks to preingage the whole Clergy and Church of England against him if they were so simple and by giving him an odious Badge and jumbling them altogether to involve him in all the prejudices which are studioufly advanced against that party But neither have I any thing to urge of that nature further then because he will out of season mention these matters to observe that our Church seems too remiss in the Case of Socinus and Volkelius who had many things to great value stolen from them by a late Plagiary but as yet have not obtained any Justice or Restitution But seeing the Exposer is thus given to transforme not only the Author but his words and his meaning it is requisite to state this Chapter in his own Terms as men set their Arms on their Plate to prevent the nimbleness of such as would alter the property The sum of what he humbly proposes is That nothing hath caused more mischief in the Church then the establishing New and Many Articles of Faith and requiring men to assent 〈◊〉 them with Divine Faith For the imposing such on Dissenters hath caused furious Wars and lamentable Blood-shed among Christians That it is irrational to promote the Truth of the Gospel by Imposition which is contrary to the Laws of the Gospel and break an evident Commandment to establish a doubtful Truth For if such Articles be not fully expressed in Scripture wâ—…ds it is Doubtful to him upon whom it is Forced though not to the the Imposer If it be fully expressed in Scripture Words there needs no new Articles but if not so and that it be only Deduced from Scripture Expressions then men that are as able and knowing as the Imposer may think it is not clearly Deduced from Scripture But there is nothing more Fully Exprest or that can be more clearly Deduced from Scripture nor more suitable to Natural Reason then that no man should be Forced to Believe Because no man can Force himself to believe no not even to believe the Scriptures But Faith is a work of peculiar Grace and the Gift of God And if a man Believe what is Clearly Contain'd in Scripture he needs not believe any thing else with Divine Faith To add to or deminish from the Scripture is by it unlawful and lyable to the Curse in the Revelation If the Imposer answer he requires not to Believe it as Scripture he doth if he urge it to be believed with Divine Faith If he say he requires it not to be Believed with Divine Faith he does if he make it necessary to Salvation There is no Command nor Countenance given in the Gospel to use Force to cause men Believe We have no Comprehensive Knowledge of the Matters declared in Scripture that are the Prime and Necessary Articles of Faith therefore it is not for any man to Declare one Tittle more to be Believed with Divine Faith then God hath there Declared He cannot find the least hint in the Word of God to use any Force to Compel men to the Churches established Doctrine or Discipline and from Reason there can be no motive to be Forced
beyond their Reason To attempt any such Force though to the True Beliefe is to do Evil that Good may come of it But the Pastor ought first by plaine and sound Doctrine to stop the Mouths of Gainsayers When the Ministers have Preached and Prayed they have done all they can in order to mens Believing the rest must be left to the Justice or Mercy of God But if turbulent spirits broach New Doctrines Contrary to Scripture or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and neither by Admonitions nor Intreaties will be stopt the Pastors may proceed to the Exeroise of the Keys Which if it were duely performed as in the Primitive Times and not by Lay Chancellors and their surrogates would be of great effect The Magistrate ought to siliâ—…ce and oppose such at preach what is Contrary to or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and if they persevere in their perversuess he may use his power with Christian Moderation For his power reaches to Punish Evil Doers who Publiâ—… or Practise somthing to subvert the Fundamentals of Religion or to Disturbe the Peace of the State or to Injure their Neighbours but not to Punish Evil Believers But if the Magistrate shall conceive he hath power also to punish Evil Believers and on that pretence shall punish True Believers the Subject is bound to submit and bâ—…ar it to the loss of Goods Liberty or Life The Reader will excuse this one long Quotation for it will much shorten all that followes But now for which of these is it that 't is become a Duty to Expose him What is there here that seems not at first sight very Christian very Rational But however it is all delivered in so Grave and Inoffensive manner that there was no temptation to alter the stile into Ridicule and Satyre But like some Carle the Animadverter may browze upon the Leaves or Peel the Barke but he has not teeth for the Solid nor can hurt the Tree but by accident Yet a man that sees not into the second but the Thirteenth Consequence that is one of the Disputers of this World and ought to be admitted to these Doubtfull Disputations from which he ironically by St. Pauls rule forsooth excludes the Author what is there that such an one so subtile so piercing cannot distingish upon and Controvert Truth it self ought to sacrifice to him that he would be propitious For if he appear on the other side it will go against her unavoidably In his 27. P. he is ravisht in Contemplation how Rarachose it is to see or hear a material Question in Theology defended in the University-Schools where one stands a Respondent enclos'd within the Compass of his Pen as Popilius the Roman Embassador made a Circle with his Wand about Antiochus and bid him give him a determinate answer before he went out of it a most apt and learned resemblance and which shews the Gentlemans good reading But it is I confess a noble spectacle and worthy of that Theater which the munificence of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury hath dedicated in one may it be too in the other of our Universities where no Apish Scaramuccio no Scenical Farces no Combat of Wild-Beasts among themselves or with men condemn'd is presented to the People but the modest Skirmish of Reason and which is usually perform'd so well that it turns to their great honour and of our whole Nation Provided the Chaire be well filled with an Orthodox Professor and who does not by Solaecismes in Latine or mistake of the Argument or Question render the thing ridiculous to the By-standers That the Pew be no less fitted with a Respondent able to sustaine and answer in all points the expectation of so Learned an Auditory That the Opponent likewise exceed not the terms of Civility nor Cavil where he should Argue and that the Questions debated be so discreetly chosen as there may be no danger by Controverting the Truth to unsettle the minds of the Youth ever after and innure them to a Disputable Notion about the most weighty points of our Re-Religon by which sort of subtilizing the Church hath in former Ages much suffered nor hath Ours in the Latter wholly escaped Now seeing the Exposer seemâ—… to delight so much as men use in what they excell in this Exercise he and I because we cannot have the conveniency of the Schools and Pew will play as well as we can in Paper at this new Game of Antiochus and Popilius I must for this time be the Roman Senator and he the Monarch of Asiaâ—… for by the Rules of the Play he always that hath writ the last Book is to be Antiochus until the other has done replying And I hope to gird him up to close withâ—… in his Circle that he shall appear very slender For I am sensible yet could not avoid it how much of the Readers and mine own time I have run out in examining his Levity but now I am glad to see my labour shorten for having thus plumed him of that puffe of Feathers with which he buoy'd himself up in the Aire and flew over our heads it will almost by the first Consequence be manifest in his Argument how little a Soul it is and Body that henceforward I am to deal with The Author having said that That which we commonly call the Apostles Creed is and was so received by the Primitive Church as the sum Total of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Why not now Is the state of Salvation alter'd If it be Compleat what need other Articles The Exposer p. 2. answers There may have been needful heretofore not only other Articles but other Creeds for the further Explication of these Articles in the Apostles Creed and yet in those New Creeds not one New Article 'T is safely and cautiously said there May and not there Were other Articles and other Creeds needful But the whole Clause besides is so drawn up as if he affected the Academical glory of justifying a Paradox nor is it for the reputation of such Creeds whatever they be to be maintained by the like Methods But seeing he disdains to explicare further how there can be a New Creed and yet not one New Article I will presâ—… to understand him and then say that in such Creeds whatsoever Article does either explaine the Apostles Creed Contrary to or Beside the Scripture or does not containe the same Express Scriptural Authority which only makes this that is called the Apostles Creed to be Authentick that is a New Article to every man that cannot conceive the necessary Deduction But then he galls the Author The Apostles Creed is the sum of the Christian Faith True Yet I hope he will not think the Nicene the Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creed Superfluous and and unnecessary First it is not necessary to take all those Three in the Lump as the Exposer puts it for perhaps a man may think but one or but two of them to have been superfluous
of Christianity saith he were virtually contained in St. Peters short Confession of Faith Thou art Christ the Son of the living God For which Confession he was blest and upon which Faith Christ declared that he would build his Church as upon a Rock In conclusion I see Antiochus has ex mero motu certâ Scientiâ and Prince like Generosity given us the Question For I would not suspect that he hath hunted it so long till he lost it or let it go of Necessity because he could hold it no longer For the Extention as well as Intention of Peters Faith was terminated in these few words For it is no irreverence to take notice how plain the Apostles were under that dispensation The same John the Apostle and Evangelist C. 14. V. 26. and in the following Chapters showes how little it was and in how narrow a compass that they knew and believed and yet that sufficed Insomuch that where C. 16. V. 17. Our Saviour promises the Holy Ghost to instruct them further he saith only It is Expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not Come to you He saith not it is Necessary For that Measure of true Belief would have sufficed for their own Salvation but there was a larger Knowledge requisite for the future work of their Apostleship In how many of them and St. Peter himself as much as any were there such Ignorances I humbly use the word in matters of Faith that our Saviour could not but take notice of it and reprove them As for Peter when our Saviour was so near his Death as to be already beâ—…ray'd yet he Upon whose Faith he built his Church as on a Rock knew not the effect of his Passion but was ready with his sword against Christs Command and example to have interrupted the Redemption of Mankind And this short confession in which all the Fundamentalls were virtually contained as the Exposer here teacheth us and so hath reduced himself to that little Grain of Faith against which he contends with the Author was upon occasion of our Saviours question when Peter doubtless did his best to answer his Lord and Master and told him all he knew For that similitude taken from so small a Gâ—…aine by our Saviour did equal the proportion of Faith then attainable and requisite And as in a Seed the very Plain and Upright of the Plant is indiscernably express'd though it be not branch'd out to the Eye as when it geâ—…minates spreds blossomes and bears fruit so was the Christian Faith seminally straitned in that virtual sincerity Vital Point and Central vigour of Believing with all the heart that Jesus Christ was come in the Flesh and was the Son of the Living God And would men even now Believe that one thing thorowly they would be better Christians then under all their Creeds they generally are both in Doctrine and Practice But that gradual Revelation which after his death and Resurrection shined sorth in the Holy Ghost must now determine us again within the Bounds of that saving Ignorance by Belief according to the Scriptures untill the last and fuâ—…l Manifestation And the Intention of this Faith now also as it hath been explain'd by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Writers is sufficient for Salvation without the Chcianrey and Conveyancing of humane Extentions And the Controverter himself hath if not by his own confession yet by his own Argument all along hitherto proved it In the 6. p he saith that where the Author charges some with introducing Many and New Articles of Faith Heâ—… hopes he does not mean all our Thirty nine Articles If he hopes so why doth he raise the suspition for which indeed there is no cause imaginable but the Eâ—…posers own disingenuity the Author appearing thorow his whole Book a True Subscriber to Thenâ—…e without that Latitude of Equivocation which some others use or else they would not Publish those Doctrines they do and be capable nevertheless of Ecclesiastical Places But here as though any man had meddled with those Articles he explicaâ—…es his Learning out of Bishop Lâ—…y and of the Communio Laica which is but his harping upon one string and his usual Scanning on his fingers For the Author having named many and neew Articles of Faith the Exposer revolves over in his mind Articles Articles of and the word not being very pregnant he hits at last upon the Thirty nine Articles of the Church of England which yet the Exposer saith himself are Articles of Peace and Consent not of Faith and Communion Why then does he bring them by head and shoulders when the Author he knows was only upon Articles of Faith He might as well have saâ—… the Lords of the Articles But this he saith is one as he takes it of our Churches greatest Ecclesiastical Policyes that she admits the many in thousands and hundred thousands without any subscription ad Communionem Laicam Truly she is veâ—…y civil and we are an hundred thousand times oblidged to Her But I know not whether she will take it well of him that he not being content with so good an Office as that of her Exposer should pretend to be her Ecclesiastical Polititian over an other mans head that is fitter for both and not expect the Reversion And she cannot but be offended that he should thus call her Fool by craft assigning that for her greatest Ecclesiastical Policy when to have done otherwise would have been the greatest Impertence and Folly But who are these the many whom she so graciously receives Communionem Laicam without subscription Truly all of us whom she trusts not with Teaching others or with University Degrees The whole body of the Laity There again is another name or us for we can scarse speak without affronting our selves with some contemptuous name or other that they forsooth the Clergy have affixed to us Nos Numerus sumus the many fruges consumere nati Even his Majesty too God bless him is one of the many and she asks no suâ—…scription of him neither although I believe he has taken his Degree in the University Well we must be content to do as we may we are the many and you are the few and make your best of it But now though I am none of you yet I can tell you a greater Ecclesiastical Policy then all this you have been talking of It is a hard Word and though it be but one Syllable I cannot well remember it but by good luck it was burnt by the hand of the Hangman about that time that the Naked Truth was Printed And had that Policy succeeded the many must have taken not only all the Thirty Nine Articles but all the Ecclesiastical Errours and Incroachments that escaped notice all in the mass at once as if they had been Articles of Faith infallible unalterable but the State of the Kingdom had been apparently changed in the very Fundamentals For a
this proves nothing Neither does it For the dispute now betwixt the Author and his Adversary is whether it be possible to compel a man to believe This instance proves only that those Donatists were forced to come to Church Therefore there cannot be a more uncharitable and disingenuous thing invented then for the Exposer to upbraid him with such a retort for ought he knows they were Hypoorites the Author does say so so for ought we to know this Author is all this while a Jesuite and writes this Pamphlet only to imbroile us Protestants But he must make some sputter rather then be held to the terms of the Question and truly I perceive Antiochus is very weary and shifts like a Crane not to instance in a worse Bird first one foot and then another to rest on being tired to stand so long within so close a Circle For thirdly the Author answers Put the case their hearts were really changed as to matter of Belief 't is evident their hearts were very worldly still grovelling on earth not one step nearer Heaven He will not be candid without Compulsion but leaves out what follows and sure their heart was evil which was far mâ—…re moved for the quiet enjoyment of this worlds good then for the blessed enjoyment of Christ. In earnest I begin to think an Exposer is a Rational Creature For had he not on puâ—…pose left these last words out he could not have cryed A horrible 〈◊〉 saying We may forgive the Author any thing after this which is all the Answer he gives so charitable is the Exposer grown to the Donatists for every man that will come to Church is ipso facto with him a true Believer But it did in truth appear to have been so and there is not the least uncharitableness in this that the Author has said For by those Donatists own confession it was not any love to that which they now owned for the Truth to St. Austin not any Convicton of Conscience not so much as even 〈◊〉 inclination to obey the Magistrate but meer fine force and fear of Punishment that brought them to Church and whatsoever good came on 't was by accident Whether might not a man adde that their giving thanks for that force and so owning that Principle of Compulsion was a further evidence that their heart was naught still even while they were with St. Augustine I think a man might untill I be better informed But the Author having given a fourth answer that suppose they were now really brought over to the Truth of the Church of Belief and Religion by the Magistrates severity I express it thus that I may with the Exposer trifle about the Jews care yet St. Paul hath said God forbid we should do evil that good may come of it This is answer enough for a man of understanding For it is not lawful suppose for St. Austin himself to beguile any man even into Christianity unless as St. Paul perhaps 2 Cor. 12. 16. Being crafty caught the Corinthians with guile by preaching the Gospel without being Burthensome to the People No man ought to cheat another though to the true beliefe Not by Interlining the Scripture Not by false Quotation of Scripture or of a Father Not by forging a Heathen Prophecy or altering an Author Not by false Syllogisme Not by telling a lye for God And if no Pety Fraud much less can a Pia Vis be allowed to compell them to Faith to compell them to a Creed seeing it were to do evil that grod may come of it much less to a Creed not perfectly Scriptural and instead of being inforced indeed weakned by compulsion seeing it is impossible to compel a man to believe and some Divines teach us to believe though I suspend that even God himself cannot or doth not Compel men to Believing But now it falls in naturally to me to be as good as my word to consider what the Exposer replyes to the Author's first answer concerinig the Donatists that our Case is of inforcing a Confession of Faith not concerning seditious Practises of which the Donatists were notoriously guilty in which Case he had shown before that the Civil Magistrate may proceed to Punishment Wherein the Author reasons with his usual justness and I though a very slender accession cannot but come into him For St. Paul in the 13. Chapter of the Romans laying out the Boundaries of the Duty of Christian subjects and the Magistrates Power saith Rulers are not ought not to be a terrour to good works but to evil and so forward but to the Christian people he saith they must be subject not only for wrath as those Donatists were afterwards but for Conscience sake And the subjection he defines is in doing good walking upâ—…ightly keeping the Moral Law Fearing Honouring and Paying Tribute to the Magistrate But not one word saith the Apostle of forbearing to Preach out of that Obedience saying in another place Necessity is laid upon one and woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel and that supposes too meeting and as little of Compelling to hear For in those times and a great while after there was no inforcing to Christianity It was very long before that came in fashion And writing on the suddain I do not well remember whether it did ever before the dayes of Picarro and Almagro the Apostles of the Indians yet upon recollection it was sooner But what saith the Exposer to this of the Donatists whom the Author allows only to have been punishable only for seditious Practises having before declared that for such as only refuse to conforme to the Churches established Doctrine and Discipline pardon him if he say really he cannot find any warrant or so much as any hint from the Gospel to use any Force to compel them and from Reason sure there is no motive to use force because as he shewed before Force can't make a man believe your Doctrine but only as an Hypocrite Profess what be believes not I expect that the Exposer in this place above all other which I guess was his greatest motive to this Imployment should ply and overlay him now with Reason but especially with Scripture let us hear how he answers I say only this p 5. for he speaks now of our Non-Conformists the very Act against them calls them Seditious Conventicles and openly to break so many known Laws of the Land after so many reinforcements is not this to be turbulent This now you must understand to be Reason and not Scripture That I suppose as the strongest is reserved for the Rear Truly as far as a man can comprehend by comparing that with other Acts of this Parliament they did only appoint that the Penalty of Sedition should ly against those that frequent such Meetings as in the Act against Irish Catel if it be not in it self a Nuisance no Law-givers can make it so Nor can any Legislators make that to be Sedition which is not Sedition in its
own nature So Prohibitions of that kind operate no more as to the intrinseque Quality then a publick Allowance of taking away any honest mens Goods by violence and giving it another name would extinguish the Robbery It was the King and Parliaments prudence to make such Laws and as long as they shall continue of that mind it is reason the Non-Conformists should lye under the Penalty which I humbly conceive is all that could be intended But the Exposer rivets this with Reason again not Gospel And was it not ever understood so in all Religions even in Heathen Rome The most learned P. Aerodius tells us Does he so What is it I beseech you that the Roman Senate the Exposer quotes it at large as a story of great use and not to be hudled over I must be glad to contract it made an Act against the Conventicles of certaine Innovators in their Religion if any particular person judged such a sacrifice to be necessary he must repair first to the Praetor he to the Senate where the Quorum must be an hundred and they must not neither give him leave if at all to have above five persons present at the Meeting The self same number beside the Dissenters own Family is so far forth indur'd by an Act of this present Parliament that there must be more then Five to make it a Conventicle This is a very subtile Remarke that he has made as if it were one of those Witty accidents of Fortune or an extraordinary hand of Providence that the Senate of Rome and the Parliament of England should hit so put upon an Act of the same nature And upon that number of Five However they are oblidg'd to him and he deserves the publick Thanks for furnishing them so long after with a Precedent I confess I alwayes wonder'd they would allow them so many as Five for fear when not two or three but Five of 'em were gathered together God should bear their request and it seem'd therefore to me a Formidable Number But where has the Example been hid so long I believe the Exposers study has laid much this way But this was so deep an Arcanum that was fit for none but an Arch-Bishops Closer I wish he have come honestly by it But Murder I see and Theft will out and so this comes to light by a blabbing Animadverter that cannot keep counsel but will violate the Ecclesiastical secret rather then lose the Leachery of his Tattle and the vain-glory of his Pedantry I could be glad to know what complexion this Exposer is of I am perswaded whatsoever he may be now he was once extreme faire for I remember since I was at School that the learned P. Ovidius told me that the Crow was once a white Bird and much in Apollo's favour till for telling of Tales Sperantem non falsae praemia linguae Inter aves albas vetuit consistere Corvum And of another the fairest thing that ever eyes were laid on but for carrying of Storyes was turn'd into a Jackdaw and grew as black as a Crow Filching and Kaw me and I le Kaw thee ever after And that which sure must make him more black more a Jack-daw and like it worthy to be expelled from the guard and from the protection of Minerva and who henceforward Ponatur post Noctis avem is that he does with open mouth proclaim the Naked design of all the Few that are of his Party p. 12. The Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon The same p. 12. We that would oblidge him to open his Eyes whether he will or no. p. 14. Iean only wish for the present that by forcing them into our Churches they may hear our defences p. 17. I speak nothing more against them then that they may he brought to our Churches c. All this as the last result and greatest condescension of his Ecclesiastical Clemency In conclusion he declares he would have them forced and for what manner of force violence punishent or penalty he leaves it all open go as high as men will These things still are not Scripture neither but Reason His first was an Heathenish Reason in one sense and this a Jewish in another For I confess it is a very pregnant and adequate example and of great authority for us to imitate that the Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon What could there be more proportionable then to resemble the proceeding with Christians among themselves here in England not differing in any point of Faith with the proceeding at Rome against the Jews But that the Exposer should implicitly liken and compare our Bishops to the Pope may perhaps not be taken well by either Party So that I dare say had he consulted with his usual Prudence he would not have disoblidged both sides at once But for the Precedent I have nothing to oppose to this more then the first it being doubtless of notable effect as notable as that of the Piemont conference Only out of the affection I have for him I would wish him to correct here one slip if I be rightly informed for some that have been abroad say his Intelligence from Rome has failed him for that it is not once a week but once a year that the Jews at Rome are oblidged forced to hear a Christian Sermon And therefore when the Parliamentum Indoctum sits again I would advise him not to make his Act too severe here upon this mistake then it is against those Judaick Non-Conformists at Rome But the next Reason would be so extraordinary troublesome to the Few that are of the Exposers party and to himself that if he had thorowly consider'd it I question whether he would have been so charitable to the Fanaticks that he would oblige them to open their Eyes whether they will or no. For it would require two of the Church of England to every Non-conformist unless 't were here and there one that had lost an Eye in the Service Less would not do the business decently and those two also must be well in order to open the Non-conformists Eyes both at once lest one Eye should be of one and the other Eye of a contrary opinion And then they should in humanity give them some interval for winking Else they had as good cut off their Eye-lids as the Episcopal Carthaginians used the Presbyterian Regulus for keeping in the true sense to his Covenant But on the other side it would look too big for a Company of beggarly Fanaticks to be waited upon in as much Majesty as Obeshankanogh the King of Virginia that had two Squires of the Body in constant attendance to lift up his Eye-lids as oft as he conceiv'd any man worthy to be look'd upon But let the Exposer order it as he pleases I am not bound to be any of his Sight-supporters Onely this it would be very improper for him to chuse any one that is blind
to that employment For his several times repeated wish that they might be forced to come to Church to give them a fair hearing and to bear their discourses truly I believe they know the Lion by the Claw there is a great part of Oratory consists in the choice of the Person that is to perswade men And a great Skill of whatsoever Orator is to perswade the Auditory first that he himself is an honest and a fair man And then he is like to make the more impression on them too if he be so prudent as to chuse an acceptable subject to speak on and manage it decently with fit arguments and good language None but the very rabble love to hear any thing scurrilous or railing especially if they should hear themselves rail'd on by him they would be ready to give him the due applause of Petronius his Orator with flâ—…ging the stones about his ears and then leaving him to be his own Auditory Now they have had so ample experiment of the Exposer as to all these points in his Defence against the Naked Truth that I doubt his perswasion to this comming to hear him or others will be of little force with them and nothing would oblige these Donatists to it but the utmost extremity nor then would they find themselves one step nearer heaven His Book is as good to them as a Sermon and no doubt he has preach'd as well as printed it and took more pains in it than ordinary did his best Must they will they think be compelled to make up the pomp of his Auditory Must they while the good Popish Fathers suffer'd those of Chiapa to come to Church with their 〈◊〉 pots to comfort their hearts be inforced to come to Church by him to have Snush thrust up their Noses to clear their Brains for them 'T is the onely way to continue and increase the Schâ—…sme But in good sober earnest 't is happy that some or other of this Few chances ever and a non to speak their minds out to shew us plainly what they would be at Being conscious of their own unworthiness and hating to be reformed it appears that they would establish the Christian Religion by a 〈◊〉 way and gather so much Force that it might be in their power and we lie at their mercy to change that Religion into Heathenisme Judaisme Turcisme any thing I speak with some emotion but not without good reason that I question whether which way soever the Church Revenues were applied such of them would not betake themselves to that side as nimbly as the Needle to the Load stone Have they not already ipso facto renounc'd their Christianity by avowing this Principle so contrary to the Gospel Why do not they Peter Hermite it and stir up our Prince to an Holy War abroad to propagate the Protestant Religion or at least our Discipline and Ceremonies and they take the Front of the Battel No 't is much better lurking in a fat Benefice here and to domineer in their own Parishes above their Spiritual Vassals and raise a kind of Civil War at home but that none will oppose them Why may they not as well as force men to Church eram the Holy Supper too down their Throsts have they not done something not much unlike it and drive them into the Rivers by thousands to be baptized or drowned And yet this after the King and Parliament by his their Gracious Indulgence have enacted a Liberty for Five beside their own Family to meet together in their Religious Worship and could not therefore in end at the same time to force them to go to Church with the utmost or any severity What can be the end of these things but to multiply Force with Force as one absurdity is the consequence of another till they may again have debased the Reason and Spirit of the Nation to make them fit for Ignorance and Bondage Is it not reason if they had care or respect to mens souls which they onely exercise it seems the cure of perhaps not that neither but evacuate one Residence by another to allow that men should address themselves to such Minister as they think best for their souls health Men are all infirm and indisposed in their spiritual condition What sick man but if a Physician were inforced upon him might in good prudence suspect it were to kill him or that if the next Heir and the Doctor could agree he would certainly do it I shall conclude this reasonable transport with remarking that although the Author did modestly challenge any man to shew him a warrant or colour or hint from Scripture to use Force to constrain men to the Established Doctrine and Worship and offer'd to maintain that nothing is more clear to be deduced or is more fully exprest in Scripture nor is more suitable to Natural Reason than that no man be forced in such Cases the Exposer took notice of it yet hath not produced one place of Scripture but onely made use of Force at an Invincible Reason so that upon supposal which none granted â—…m that all his Few do clearly demonstrate from Scripture what is at best therefore but deducible from Scripture she thinks it reasonable to oblige all men by force to come to all their Parishes And yet he himself who does I suppose it onely for the Cases sake believe the Scripture although he cannot produce one place of Scripture for using this force and though the Author has produced so many and urges the whole Scripture that such force is not to be used hath his brains nevertheless so confused or so obdurate that he cannot force himself to believe the Author but persists in his unchristian and unreasonable desire that men may be compelled and hereby deserves to be made an Example of his own Principle For herein he exceeds Pharaâ—…h who had ten sufficient Proposals and yet his heart was so hardned that he would not let Israel go out of Egypt but was proof against Miracles But He onely would imagine that the Israelites were idle and would therefore force them to make Brick without Straw but the Exposers heart and brains are so hardned that he will conceive all the Nonconformists to be obstinate fools or hypocrits and therefore will compel them all to go to all their Parish Churches and to make therefore Faith without Reason And hence it is not onely probable but demonstrable if they were compelled to go and hear him and the Few of his Party how well he or they would acquit themselves too in clearly demonstrating from Sciprture the Prime Articles of Faith as it is extended in all the Creeds of which it was treated in this Chapter that I have now done with and truly almost with those remaining For I had intended to have gone Chapter by Chapter affixing a distinct Title as he does to every one of them that men may believe he has animadverted thorowly without reading except that concerning the difference between
arising from the Inadequation of Languages Till by degrees they were drawn over and rather than lose their Bishopricks would joyn and at last be the Headmost in the Persecution of their own former Party But the Deacons to be sure that steer'd the Elephants were thorow-paced Men to be reckon'd and relied upon in this or any other occasion and would prick on to render themselves Capable and Episcopable upon the first Vacancy For now the Arrians in grain scorning to come behind the Clownish Homoousians in any Ecclesiastical Civility were resolved to give them their full of Persecution And it seem'd a piece of Wit rather than Malice to pay them in their own Coyn and to Burlesque them in earnest by the repetition and heightning of the same Severities upon them that they had practised upon others Had you the Homoousians a Creed at Nice We will have another Creed for you at Ariminum and at Seleucia Would you not be content with so many several Projects of Faith consonant to Scripture unless you might thrust the new word Homoousios down our throats and then tear it up again to make us confess it Tell us the word 't was Homoiousios we are now upon the Guard or else we shall run you thorow Would you Anathemize Banish Imprison Execute us and burn our Books You shall taste of this Christian Fare and as you relish it you shall have more on 't provided And thus it went Arrianism being Triumphant but the few sincere or stomachful Bishops adhering constantly and with a true Christian Magnanimity especially Athanasius thorow all Sufferings unto their former Confessions expiated so in some measure what they had committed in the Nicene Council Sozomâ—…ne l. 4. c. 25. First tells us a story of Eudoxius who succeeded Macedonius in the Bishoprick of Constantinople that in the Cathedral of Sancta Sophia being mounted in his Episcopal Throne the first time that they Assembled for its Dedication in the very beginning of his Sermon to the People those things were already come in Fashion told them Patrem iâ—… esse Filium 〈◊〉 pium at which when they began to bustle Pray be quiet saith he I say Patrem impium esse quia Colit neminem Filiem vero Pium quia colit Patrem at which they then Laughed as heartily as before they were Angry But this I only note to this purpose that there were some of the greatest Bishops among the Homoiousians as well as the Homoousians that could not reproach one anothers Simplicity and that it was not impossible for the Many to be Wiser and more Orthodox than the Few in Divine Matters That which I cite him for as most Material is his Remark upon the Imposition then of contrary Creeds Which verily faith he was plainly the beginning of most great Calamities for as much as hereupon there followed a Disturbance not unlike those which we before recited over the whole Empire and likewise a Persecution equal almost to that of the Heathen Emperors seized upon all of all Churches For although it seemed to some more gentle for what concerns the Torture of the Body yet to prudent Persons it appeared more bitter and severe by reason of the Dishonor and Ignominy For both they who stirred up and those that were afflicted with this Persecution were of the Christian Church And the Grievance therefore was the greater and more ugly in that the samethings which are done among Enemies were Executed between those of the same Tribe and Profession But the Holy Law forbids us to carry our selves in that manner even to those that are Without and Alien's And all this Mischief sprung from making of Creeds with which the Bishops as it were at Tilting aim'd to hit one another in the Eye and throw the opposite Party out of the Saddle But if it chanced that the weaker side were ready to yield for what sort of Men was there that could better Manage or had their Consciences more at command at that time than the Clergy Then the Arrians would use a yet longer thicker and sharper Lance for the purpose for there were never Vacancies sufficient that they might be sure to run them down over and thorow and do their Business The Creed of Ariminum was now too short for the Design but saith the Historian they affix'd further Articles like Labels to it pretending to have made it better and so sent it thorow the Empire with Constantius his Proclamation that whoever would not Subscribe it should be banished Nay they would not admit their own beloved Similis Substantia but to do the Work throughly the Arrians renoune'd their own Creed for Malice and made it an Article Filium Patri tam substantia quam Voluntate Dissimilem esse But that is a small matter with any of them provided thereby they may do Service to the Church that is their Party So that one seriously speaking that were really Orthodox could not then defend the Truth or himself but by turning old Arrian if he would impugn the new ones such was the Subtilty What shall I say more As the Arts of Glass Coaches and Perriwags illustrate this Age so by their Trade of Creed-making then first Invented we may esteem the Wisdom of Constantine's and Constantius his Empire And in a short space as is usual among Tradesmen where it appears Gainful they were so many that set up of the same Profession that they could scarce live by one another Socr. l. 2. c. 32. Therefore uses these words But now that I have tandem aliquando run through this Labyrinth of so many Creeds I will gather up their number And so reckons Nine Creeds more besides that of Nice before the death of Constantius a blessed Number And I believe I could for a need make them up a Dozen if Men have a mind to buy them so And hence it was that Hilary then Bishop of Poictiers represents that state of the Church pleasantly yet sadly Since the Nicene Synod saith he we do nothing but write Creeds That while we fight about words whilst we raise Questions about Novelties while we Quarrel about things doubtful and about Authors while we contend in Parties while there is difficulty in Consent while we Anathematize one another there is none now almost that is Christ's What a Change there is in the last years Creed The first Decree commands that Homoousios should not be mentioned The next does again Decree and Publish Homoousios The third does by Indulgence excuse the Word Ousia as used by the Fathers in their simplicity The fourth does not Excuse but Condemn it It is come to that at last that nothing among us or those before us can remain Sacred or inviolable We Decree every Year of the Lord a new Creed concerning God Nay every Change of the Moon our Faith is alter'd We repent of our Decrees we defend those that repent of them we Anathemize those that we defended and while we either condemn other Mens
Opinions in our own or our own Opinions in those of other Men and bite at one another we are now all of us torn in pieces This Bishop sure was the Author of the Naked Truth and 't was he that implicitly condemn'd the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being too presumptuous in her Definitions It is not strange to me that Julian being but a Reader in the Christian Church should turn Pagan Especially when I consider that he succeeded Emperor after Constantius For it seems rather unavoidable that a Man of great Wit as he was and not having the Grace of God to direct it and show him the Beauty of Religion through the Deformity of its Governours and Teachers but that he must conceive a Loathing and Aversion for it Nor could he think that he did them any Injustice when he observed that beside all their Unchristian Immorality too they Practised thus against the Institutive Law of their Galilean the Persecution among themselves for Religion And well might he add to his other Severities that sharpness of his Wit both Exposing and Animadverting upon them at another rate than any of the Modern Practitioners with all their Study and Inclination can ever arrive at For nothing is more punishable Contemptible and truly Ridiculous than a Christian that walks contrary to his Profession And by how much any Man stands with more advantage in the Church for Eminency but disobeys the Laws of Christ by that Priviledg he is thereby and deserves to be the more Exposed But Julian the last Heathen Emperor by whose Cruelty it seemed that God would sensibly Admonish once again the Christian Clergy and show them by their own Smart and an Heathen Hand the nature and odiousness of Persecution soon died as is usual for Men of that Imployment not without a remarkable stroke of God's Judgment Yet they as if they were only sorry that they had lost so much time upon his death strove as eagerly to redeem it and forthwith fell in very naturally into their former Animolities For Jovianus being chosen Emperor in Persia and returning Homeward Socr. l. 3. c. 20. the Bishops of each Party in hopes that theirs should be the Imperial Creed strait to Horse and Rode away with Switch and Spur as if it had been for the Plate to meet him and he that had best Heels made himself cock-sure of winning the Religion The Macedonians who dividing from the Arrians had set up for a new Heresie concerning the Holy Ghost and they were a Squadron of Bishops Petition'd him that those who held Filium Patri dissimilem might be turn'd out and themselves put in their places Which was very honestly done and above-board The Acacians that were the refined Arrians but as the Author saith Had a notable faculty of addressing themselves to the Inclination of whatsoever Emperor and having good Intelligence that he balanced rather to the Consubstantials presented him with a very fair Insinuating Subscription of a considerable number of Bishops to the Council of Nice But in the next Emperor's time they will be found to yield little Reverence to their own Subscription For in matter of a Creed a Note of their Hand without expresting the Penalty could not it seems Bind one of their Order But all that Jovianus said to the Macedonians was I hate Contention but I lovingly imbrace and reverence those who are inclined to Peace and Concord To the Acacians who had wisely given these the precedence of Application to try the truth of their Intelligence he said no more having resolv'd by sweetness and persuasions to quiet all their Controversies but That he would not molest any Man whatsoever Creed be follow'd but those above others he would Cherish and Honor who should show themselves most forward in bringing the Church to a good Agreement He likewise call'd back all those Bishops who had been Banished by Constantius and Julian restoring them to their Sees And he writ a Letter in particular to Athanasius who upon Julian's death had enter'd again upon that of Alexandria to bid him be of good Courage And these things coming to the Ears of all others did wonderfully assuage the Fierceness of those who were Inflamed with Faction and Contention So that the Court having declared it self of this Mind the Church was in a short time in all outward appearance peaceably disposed the Emperor by this Means having wholly repressed all their Violence Verily concludes the Historian the Roman Empire had been prosperous and happy and both the State and the Church he puts them too in that Order under so good a Prince must have exceedingly flourished had not an Immature death taken him away from managing the Government For after seven Months being seized with a mortal Obstruction he dparted this Life Did not this Historian trow you deserve to be handled and is it not now the Mischief iâ—… done to undo the Charm become a Duty to Expose both him and Jovianus By their ill chosen Principles what would have become of the Prime and most necessary Articles of Faith Might not the old Dormant Heresies all of them safely have Revived But that Mortal Obstruction of the Bishops was not by his death nor is it by their own to be removed They were glad he was so soon got out of their way and God would yet further manifest their intractable Spirit which not the Persecution of the Heathen Emperor Julian nor the Gentleness of Jovianus the Christian could allay or mitigate by their Afflictions or Prosperity The Divine Nemesis executed Justice upon them by one anothers Hand And so hainous a Crime as for a Christian a Bishop to Persecute stood yet need as the only equal and exemplary Punishment of being Revenged with a Persecution by Christians by Bishops And whoever shall seriously consider all along the Succession of the Emperors can never have taken that Satisfaction in the most judicious Representations of the Scene which he may in this worthy Speculation of the great Order and admirable conduct of Wise Providence through the whole contexture of these Exterior seeming Accidents relating to the Ecclesiasticals of Christianity For to Jovianus succeeded Valentinian who in a short time took his Brother Valens to be his Companion in the Empire These two Brothers did as the Historian observes Socr. l. 4. c. 1. alike and equally take care at the beginning for the Advantage and Government of the State but very much disagreed though both Christians in matter of Religion Valetinianus the Elder being an Orthodox but Valens an Arrian and they used a different Method toward the Christians For Valentinian who chose the Western part of the Empire and left the East to his Brother as he imbraced those of his own Creed so yet he did not in the least molest the Arrians But Valens not only Labor'd to increase the number of the Arrians but Afflicted those of the contrary Opinion with grievous Punishments And both of 'm especially Valens had
I cannot but to that purpose take further notice how also Gregory Nazianzen in Or. 2 d. contra Gentiles tells besides the breakings in of the Sea in several places and many fires that happened of the Earthquakes in particular which he reckons as Symptomes of Julian's Persecution And to this I may add Socr. l. 3. c. 10. who in the Reign of Valens that notorious Christian Persecutor saith at the same time there was an Earthquake in Bithynia which ruined the City of Nice that same in which that general Counsel was held under Constantine and a little after there was another But although these so happened the minds of Valens and of Eudoxius the Bishop of the Arrians were not at all stirred up unto Piety and a right opinion of Religion For neverthless they never ceased made no end of persecuting those who in their Creed dissented from them Those Earthquakes seemed to be certain indications of tumult in the Church All which put together could not but make me reflect upon the late Earthquakes great by how much more unusual here in England thorow so many Counties since Christmas at the same time when the Clergy some of them were so busy in their Cabals to promote this I would give it a modester name then Persecution which is now on foot against the Disfenters at so unseasonable a time and upon no occasion administred by them that those who comprehend the reasons yet cannot but wonder at the wisdome of it Yet I am not neither one of the most credulous nickers or applyers of natural events to humain transactions but neither am I so secure as the Learned Dr. Spencer nor can walk along the world without having some eye to the conjunctures of God's admirable Providence Neither was Marcus Aurelius that I may return to my matter negligent as to this particular But he observing as Antoninus had the Earthquakes that in an expedition against the Germans and Sarmatians his Army being in despair almost for want of water the Melitine afterwards from the event called the Thundring Legion which consisted of Christians kneel'd down in the very heat of their thirst and fight praying for rain which posture the enemyes wondring at immediately there brake out such a thundring and lightning as together with the Christian valour routed the adverse Army but so much rain fell therewith as refreshed Aurelius his Forces that were at the last gasp for thirst he thence forward commanded by his Letters that upon pain of death none should inform against the Christians as Tertulian in his Apology for the Christians witnesses But who would have believed that even Commodus so great a Tyrant otherwise should have been so favourable as to make a Law that the informers against Christians should be punished with Death Yet he did and the Informer against Apollanius was by it executed Much less could a man have thought that that prodigy of cruelty Maximine and who exercised it so severely upon the Christians should as he did being struck with God's hand publish when it was too late Edict after Edict in great favour of the Christians But above all nothing could have been less expected then that after those Heathen Emperours the first Christian Constantine should have been seduced by the Bishops to be after them the first occasion of Persecution so contrary to his own excellent inclination 'T was then that he spake his own mind when he said Eus. de vitâ Consti 60. You ought to retain within the bounds of your private thoughts those things which you cunningly and subtly seek out concerning most frivolous questions And then much plainer c. 67. where he saith so wisely You are not ignorant that the Philosophers all of them do agree in the profession of the same Discipline but do oftentimes differ in some part of the opinions which they dogmatize in but yet although they do dissent about the Discipline that each several Sect observeth they nevertheless reconcile themselves again for the sake of that common Prosession to which they have concurred But against compulsion in Religious matters so much every where that it is needless to insert one passage And he being of this disposition and universally Famous for his care and countenance of the Christian Religion Eusebius saith these words While the people of God did glory and heighten it self in the doing of good things and all fear from without was taken away and the Church was fortifi'd as I may say on all sides by a peaceable and illustrious tranquility then Envy lying in wait against our prosperity craftily crept in and began first to dance in the midst of the company of Bishops so goes on telling the History of Alexander and Arrius I have been before large enough in that relation wherein it appeared that contrary to that great Emperours pious intention whereas Envy began to dance among the Bishops first the good Constantine brought them the Fiddles But it appear'd likewise how soon he was weary of the Bal and toward his latter end as Princes often do upon too late experience would have redressed all and returned to his natural temper Of the other Christian Emperours I likewise discoursed omitting that I might insert it in this place how the great Heathen Philosopher Themistius in his Consular Oration celebrated Jovianus for having given that toleration in Christian Religion and thereby defeated the flattering Bishops which fort of men saith he wittily do not worship God but the Imperial Purple It was the same Themistius that only out of an upright natural apprehension of things made that excellent Oration afterward to Valens which is in Print exhorting him to cease Persecution wherein he chances upon and improves the same notion with Constantine's and tells him That he should not wonder at the Dissents in Christian Religion which were very small if compared with the multitude and crowd of Opinions among the Gentile Philosophers for there were at least three hundred differences and a very great dissention among them there was about their resolutions unto which each several Sect was as it were necessarily bound up and obliged and that God seemed to intend more to illustrate his own glory by that diverse and unequal variety of Opinions to the end every each one might therefore so much the more reverence his Divine Majesty because it is not possible for any one accurately to know him And this had a good effect upon Valens for the mitigating in some measure his severities against his fellow Christians So that after having cast about in this Summary again whereby it plainly appears that according to natural right and the apprehension of all sober Heathen Governours Christianity as a Religion was wholly exempt from the Magistrates jurisdiction or Lawes farther than any particular person among them immorally transgressed as others the common rules of humain society I cannot but return to the Question with which I begun What was the matter How came it about that Christianity which approved
Royal Intention his many Declarations they have induced to more Severities then all the Reigns since the Conquest will contain if summ'd up together who may as Constantine among his Private Devotions put up one Collect to the Bishops Euseb. de vitâ Const. c. 70. Date igitur mihi Dies tranquillos Noctes curarum expertes And it runs thus almost altogether verbatim in that Historian Grant most merciful Bishop and Priest that I may have calm days and nights free from care and motestation that I may live a peaceable life in all Godlyness and honesty for the future by your good agreement which unless you vouchsafe me I shall wast away my Reign in perpetual sadness and vexation For as long as the people of God stands divided by so unjust and pernicious a Contention how can it be that I can have any ease in my own Spirit Open therefore by your good agreement the way to me that I may continue my Expedition towards the East and grant that I may see both you and all the rest of my people having laid aside your animosities rejoycing together that we may all with one voice give laud and glory for the Common good agreement and liberty to God Almighty for ever Amen But if neither the People nor his Majesty enter into their consideration I hope it is no unreasonable request that they will be merciful unto themselves and have some reverence at least for the Naked Truth of History which either in their own times will meet with them or in the next age overtake them That they who are some of them so old that as Confessors they were the Scarrs of the former troubles others of them so young that they are free from all the Motives of Revenge and Hatred should yet joyn in reviving the former persecutions upon the pretences yea even themselves in a turbulent military and uncanonical manner execute Laws of their own procuring and depute their inferior Clergy to be the Informers I should rather hope to see not only that Controversy so scandalous abolished but that also upon so good an occasion as the Author of the Naked Truth hath administred them they will inspect their Clergy and cause many things to be corrected which are far more ruinous in the Consequence then the dispensing with a Surplice I shall mention some too confusedly as they occur to my Pen at present reserving much more for better leasure Methinks it might be of great edification that those of them who have ample possessions should be in a good sense Mult as inter opes inopes That they would inspect the Canons of the ancient Councils where are many excellent ones for the regulation of the Clergy I saw one looking but among those of the same Council of Nice against any Bishops removing from a less Bishoprick to a greater nor that any of the Inferior Clergy should leave a less living for a fatter That is methinks the most Natural use of General or any Councils to make Canons as it were By-Laws for the ordering of their own Society but they ought not to take out much less forge any Patent to invade and prejudice the Community It were good that the greater Churchmen relyed more upon themselves and their own direction not building too much upon stripling Chaplains that men may not suppose the Master as one that has a good Horse or a Fleet-hound attributes to himself the vertues of his Creature That they inspect the Morals of the Clergy the Moral Hereticks do the Church more harm then all the Non-conformists can do or can wish it That before they admit men to subscribe the Thirty nine Articles for a Benefice they try whether they know the meaning That they would much recommend to them the reading of the Bible T is a very good book and if a man read it carefully will make him much wiser That they would advise them to keep the Sabbath if there were no morality in the day yet there is a great deal of prudence in the observing it That they would instruct those that came for Holy Orders and Livings that it is a terrible vocation they enter upon but that has indeed the greatest reward That to gain a Soul is beyond all the acquists of Traffick and to convert an Atheist more glorious then all the Conquests of the Souldier That betaking themselves to this Spiritual Warfare they ought to disintangle from the World That they do not ride for a Benefice as if it were for a Fortune or a Mistress but there is more in it That they take the Ministry up not as a Trade and because they have heard of Whittington in expectation that the Bells may so chime that they come in their turns to be Lord Mayors of Lambeth That they make them understand as well as they can what is the Grace of God That they do not come into the Pulpit too full of Fustian or Logick a good life is a Clergy man's best Syllogism and the quaintest Oratory and till they out-live 'm they will never get the better of the Fanaticks nor be able to preach with Demonstration of Spirit or with any effect or Authority That they be Lowly minded and no Railers And particularly that the Archdeacon of Canterbury being in ill humor upon account of his Ecclesiastical Policy may not continue to revenge himself upon the innocent Walloons there by ruining their Church which subsists upon the Ecclesiastical Power of His Majesty and so many of His Royal Predecessors But these things require greater Time and to enumerate all that is amiss might perhaps be as endless as to number the People nor are they within the ordinary sphaere of my Capacity and our Exposer will think I have forgot him I shall take my leave of him for the present being only troubled to find out a Complement for so civil a Person It must be thus I will not say as Popilius said to Antiochus nor as Demosthenes said to Eschines nor as the most Learned P. Aerodius or the Jesuite Gaspar Schottus said to the Animadverter nor as Dolubella said to Cicero nor as the Christian Cicero said to the English Parliament nor as the Roman Centurion said to the Roman Ensign but I will say somthing like what Leonas that presided from Constantius at the Council at Seleucia when they made an endless Disputing to no purpose said to them not Abiâ—…e igitur in Ecclesiâ nugas agite but good Mr. Exposer what do you Loytering like an idle Schollar and Animadverting here in Town get you home again or it were better for you and Expose and Animadvert as long as you will at your own Colledg But as to a new Book fresh come out Intitled the Author of the Naked Truth stripp'd Naked to the Feâ—… or to the skin that Hieroglyphical Quibble of the Great Gunn on the Title Page will not excuse Bishop Gunning For his Sermon is still expected But to the Judicious and Serious Reader to whom I wish any thing I have said may have given no unwelcom entertainment I shall only so far justify my self that I thought it no less concerned me to vindicate the Laity from the Impositions that the Few would force upon them then him to defend those Impositions on behalf of the Clergy And moreover I judged my self most proper for the work it not being fit that so slight a Pamphlet as his should be answered by any Man of great abilities For the rest I take the Naked Truth to have been part of that effect which Reverend Mr. Hooker foretold Praef. to Eâ—…l Policy p. 10. The time will come when Three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward then Three thousand Volumes writen with disdainful sharpness of Wit And I shall conclude with him in his close I trust in the Almighty that with us Contentions are now at the highest float and that the day will come for what cause is there of Dispair when the Passions of former enmity being allaid men shall with ten times redoubled tokens of unfainedly reconciled Love shew themselves each to other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their Enterview in Egypt And upon this condition let my Book also yea my self if it were needful be burnt by the hand of the Animadverter FINIS