Cities and Kingdoms to Rebellion because they consist of Subjects that may be tempted to rebel so all Christian Churches are subject to Schisms and Heresies because they consist of Members that may be drawn in to begin and carry on Heresie and Schism The Catholick Church notwithstanding its holiness and all the particular Churches in it are Bodies politick that like other Corporations consist of peaceable and unpeaceable dutiful and undutiful Members and it is really no stranger that a Diotrephes Montanus or Novatus should prove a Schismatick then that Judas should prove a Thief and a Traitor or the lustful Corinthian commit Incest in the Church of God. What hinders that this or that Member of a Church may not become a Schismatick as well as a Murderer Drunkard or Adulterer Is it not consistent with the wisdom of God or the honour and oeconomy of the Catholick or a Catholick Church to leave the Members of it in a capacity to commit Schism Fieri vero haec dominus permittit patitur manent propriae libertatis arbitrio ut probatorum sides integra manifeslâ luce clarescat Cypr. de Vnit Eccles Doth the nature of a true Church require or hath God any where promised to over-rule the free wills of orthodox Christians so that they shall not fall into Schism as well as other sins Hath he either made them impassible as to this single vice or restrain'd the Devil from tempting them to it If he hath let those who upbraid us with our Divisions shew it and if he hath not then it must follow that the Clergy and Laity of all the Churches in the World being left as free to commit Schism as Rebellion or any other wickedness all Churches whatsoever must be subject to the sad misfortune of Heresie and Schism The natural Body is not more subject to Diseases then the Body politick of the Church is subject to Divisions though she have the honour to have Christ for her Head yet is she not exempted from having her Peace broken or her Unity divided That is only the priviledge of the Church triumphant where Charity is perfected and therefore to pass from Reason to the History of the Christian Religion we find as many Cautions and Exhortations in the Scriptures against Heresies and Schisms as against any other mortal sin What an excellent Admonition against Schism did St. Paul give the Bishops and Presbyters of Ephesus or rather all the Bishops of Asia Minor assembled at Miletus Take heed saith he unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers For I know that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Also of your selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears The Apostle knew very well that God in his wisdom thought it not fit to prevent Heresies and Schisms in the most Apostolical Churches by his Almighty power but to suffer them as well as other sins for the manifestation of the good from the bad and that in such a mixture as a Church must be they were necessary to sift the Wheat from the Tares to separate the Gold from the Dross and distinguish those that are sincere stedfast and genuine Sons of any Catholick Church from those that are not Thus in his 1. Ep. to the Church of Corinth which I suppose was a very Apostolical Church he tells them that God thought fit to let Heresies and Divisions arise among them that the faith and constancy of some and instability vanity and hypocrisie of others might be made more evident I hear saith he that when you come together into the Church there are divisions among you and I partly believe it for there must be also heresies or dividing into Sects among you that they which are * Avolent quantum volent paleae levis fidei quocunque afflatu tentationum co purior Massa frumenti in horreâ domini reponetur Tertull de praescript Haer. 3. approved may be made manifest among you So saith St. John of the Antichrists which in his time arose in the Catholick Church They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us And our Blessed Lord who was the Founder of the Church and may be presumed to have best understood the nature of it had no other notion thereof then as of a Body Corporate that was subject like other Societies to the great inconvenience of intestine Divisions and falling into opposite Sects and Schisms It must needs be saith he considering the nature and future estate of the Church that offences come but wo unto the man by whom the offence cometh And in his Sermon on the Mount saith he unto his Disciples Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps-cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves And in the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel ‖ Memores simus tam dominicarum praenuntiationum quà m Apostolicarum literarum quae nobis faturas haereses praenuntiarunt sugiendas praefinierunt Tertull. ibid. Instruit dominus multos esse venturos sub pellibus ovium rapaces Lupos ibid. he foretold the sad condition of the primitive Church before the destruction of Jerusalem that about that period there should arise false Christs and false Prophets and should shew great signs and wonders and deceive if it were possible the very Elect. This prediction of the Blessed Jesus was fulfilled in the time of the Apostles who were all infallable Guides of the Church for St. Paul in his 2. Ep. to the Thessalonians saith That the mystery of iniquity was then a working and the wicked one to be revealed whose coming was after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceitfulness to bring them that perish to commit unrighteousness because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved So St. Peter in his 2. Ep. general to the Catholick Church tells the Christians That as there were false Prophets in the Church of the Jews so there should be false Teachers among them who should privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the truth should be evil spoken of Every one that is versed in Ecclesiastical Story knows that these Apostles mean Simon Magus who was baptiz'd by Philip and the rest of the Ring leaders of the Gnostical Heresies who were all Magicians as well as Hereticks and wrought wonders to prove that Jesus was not the Christ For this Reason they are called * Johannes in Ep. eos maximè Antichristos vocat qui
the account of Divisions that he in effect apologized for them and for the goodness and wisdom of God that suffered them for saith he there must be * Ac si diceret ob hoc haereseôn non statim divinitùs eradicantur authores ut probati manifesti siant id est unusquisque quam tenax fidelis fixus Catholicae fidei sit amator appareat Vincent Lirin heresies among you that those who are approved may be made manifest So St. Clement begins his Epistle to the same Church which was written upon the occasion of a great Schism in this manner The Church of God at Rome to the Church of God at Corinth It seems the Church at Corinth rent and torn as it was with intestine Divisions was the Church of God as well as that of Rome in which there were then no Divisions at all St. Peter's next and immediate Successor bewailed the sad Misfortune of the Corinthians but he did not unchurch them for it he told them how it occasioned their venerable and illustrious Name to be evil spoken of but nevertheless he called them the * §. 1. elect of God. And so Constantine the Great in an Epistle which he wrote to the Alexandrians when they were very infamous upon the account of the deadly Feuds and Separations which divided their Communion salutes them in these words †Socrat. H. E. 〈…〉 9. Constantine the Emperor to the Catholick Church of Alexandria Not long after when the Arian Bishops ‖ L. 1. c. 27. conspired against Athanasius to get the Emperor to depose him and his Majesty upon hearing his Cause found their Accusations to be false he wrote a Letter in his behalf to the Alexandrians of which this is the Title * Athan opera vol. 1. p. 779. Constantine the great Emperor to the People of the Catholick Church which is at Alexandria When he wrote this Letter to the People of Alexandria it abounded with Melitians and Arians who had formed themselves into opposite Communions and yet those schismatical opposite Communions were in the judgement of that learned Emperor no Argument against the Alexandrian Church So Constantine junior shortly after his Father's death before he assumed the Title of Augustus directed Letters to the Church of Alexandria in favour of Athanasius with this Superscription †Socrat. H. E. l. 2. c. 3. Constantine Caesar to the People of the Catholick Church of the Alexandrians Notwithstanding all the Sects and Sectaries of Alexandria the Church still remained Catholick in the Communion of the Faithful who retained the ancient Apostolical Doctrine and Discipline These wise Emperors considered that the Tares could not alter the property of the Wheat and therefore tho' there were a World of Hereticks and Schismaticks in Alexandria and all the Regions round about it yet they called the Church a Catholick Church It was every jot as Catholick then as it was before the Melitian and Arian Schisms when the People were of one mind and one Communion for it is not the great number of Church members is any Diocess Province or Patriarchat but the cause and nature of the Communion that makes a true Church Otherwise if Churches must be no longer reputed truly Catholick and good then all the Members which are or ought to be of it are unanimous and communicate together then it must follow that both the Church universal and every particular Member of it long since lost their Catholick nature and were no true Churches in the eyes of God. What for instance became of the Church Catholick after the Council of Ariminum when almost the whole Christian World became Arian except a very * Libellus precum p. 8 9 10 11. Vincent Lirin c. 6. small number of Bishops who stuck to the profession of the Catholick Faith More particularly what became of the Church of Rome when Pope Liberius embraced the Arian Communion and subscribed to the Sentence of the Arian Bishops against Athanasius as †Eccles Ann. T. 3. p. 761 762 763. Baronius acknowledges tho' he endeavours to prove that he never subscribed to the Arian Confession or Heresie Nay what became of it especially upon their Principle when Pope ‖ Vid. Nili Archiepiscop Thessalon de primatu Papae lib. qui est ad calcem Salmas de primatu Papae p. 33 34 35 p. 61. Honorius the 1st fell into the Heresie of the Monothelites for which he was condemned by the 6th General Council and anathematized for it after his death by the 2d Council of Nice which they receive for the 7th General Council Nay if Heresies and Schisms are good Arguments or just matter of Exception against any Church what shall we say to the Church of Rome upon the account of the Novatian and all the other Antipapal Schisms mentioned in the former Chapter Or to go farther back into Antiquity what Apology shall we make for her when * Euseb H. E. l. 5. c. 15. Blastus and Florinus a degraded Roman Presbyter raised a great Schism in Rome endeavouring to introduce new Doctrines which †C. 20. Irenaeus confuted in Books written for that purpose Their Doctrines were very absurd as well as inconsistent with the Faith and Tradition of all Churches and yet they drew away many from the Church of Rome and enticed them to embrace their Opinions Nay what shall we do to defend her in the Time of Pope Victor and Zephyrinus when she was infested with the Heresie Euseb H.E. l 5. c 28. which asserted our Lord to be a meer man This damnable Heresie was first taught at Rome by Theodotus no better a man then a Tanner for which he was excommunicated by Pope Victor and afterwards in the Time of his Successor Zephyrinus it came to a perfect Schism when the Hereticks made Natalis the Confessor a Bishop of the Heresie and settled a Maintenance upon him One of the Scholars of Theodotus the Tanner was another Theodotus a Banker a great promoter of the Schism and therefore I cannot but wonder that any Roman Catholick who understands Antiquity should upbraid the Church of England with the Preaching of Mechanicks and Tradesmen when a Tanner and a Banker in the 2d Century were the Ring-leaders of such a pestilent Heresie in the Church of Rome and as an Author of that Time reports impudently took upon them to adulterate the Scriptures and reject the Canon of the primitive Faith. Why should men pretending to Sense and Learning use and Argument that is so easily retorted upon themselves and when it is pursued into all its Consequences makes it impossible for them to defend either the Church Universal or any particular Member thereof What will they say for the primitive Church by way of defence against the Gnostical Heresies if they argue against that as they are wont to argue against the Church of England Or to pass over the Schisms of which I have given some Account in the
please very much more then the Church of Rome We are willing to look upon the many Heresies and Schisms among us as the effects of his Revenge against her for the damage he hath sustained by her as * Videns ille idola derelicta per nimiùm credentium populum sedes suas as templa deserta excogitaverit novam fraudem ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat incautos hereses invenit schismata quibus subverteret sidem veritatem corrumperet scinderet unitatem Cyprian de Vnit Eccles St. Cyprian thought the Heresies and Schisms of his Time were purposely invented by him to be revenged of the Christian Religion for destroying his Worship among the Gentiles All this we are willing to admit upon the Theory that ariseth from considering the first Cause of Divisions and Separations and let those who love to reproach the Church of England with the English Divisions Religion make the best of it they can But then to proceed farther in this Enquiry After we have found out the principal we must look after the instrumental Causes of Divisions and Separations and they according to the Ancients who spoke what they knew to be true by long Experience and Observation were ignorant over-curious ambitious covetous and contentious men These are the proper Instruments by which the Devil acts in broaching false Doctrines and making Divisions and Separations He is a sagacious Spirit and can find out the weak and blind side of every man where he will be sure to ply him with Darts of Temptation as a skilful General will be sure to attack the weakest part of the Wall or that part of it which is least defended when he storms a Town The first Instrument then by which Satan works in making Schisms and Divisions are ignorant men or men ignorant in the Scriptures whose Ignorance makes them confident and think they understand the Scriptures when for want of knowing the received sence of them they do not This St. Chrysostom complains of in one of his Sermons * Hom. 37 T. 5. p. 245. Saith he The ignorance of the Scriptures is a dangerous Precipice and a deep Gulf of destruction and a great betrayer of mens Salvation It is that which hath brought forth Heresies and which turns all things upside down So in his †T. 3. p. 1. Preface to St. Paul's Ep. to the Romans saith he A thousand Evils come from ignorance of the Scriptures and the manifold sorts of Heresies have sprung from thence To this purpose speaks a more ancient Author in Answer to this Query Why God if he was able to do it did not root out all Errors and Heresies ‖ Author respons ad Orthodoxos in resp ad 1. Quaest Saith he When God abrogated Judaism he introduced the New instead of the Old Testament and if all those who embrace Christianity do not agree in thier Opinions but some believe right and some otherwise this is not the fault of God nor to be ascribed to any defect of care or power in him but the fault of their own carelessness and negligence nor ought any man to be offended at the small number of orthodox Christians because it is written That many are called but few chosen and that streight and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it It is observable that these ancient Fathers did not lay the blame of Heresies and Schisms upon the free and common use of the Scriptures but upon the careless and negligent reading of them and to ignorant mens presuming they understood them when they did not The fault was not in the Scriptures but in those who through ignorance abused them the Scriptures were always common in all Churches and Languages and I dare say boldly saith * De praescript Heret § 39. Tertullian That the Scriptures are so contrived by the will of God that they should afford occasion for Heresies because I read that there must be Heresies and Heresies cannot be without the Scriptures What I have observed out of these ancient Fathers is no more in effect then what St. Peter observed of the Epistles of St. Paul which are one great part of the Scriptures Saith he Account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation even as our beloved Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction The Scriptures it seems suffered very much by unlearned men in the Time of St. Peter and yet he did not order them to be kept from the People neither in the Church of Rome nor any other Churches He knew that they were holy true just and good and were designed by God for publick use and benefit and if ignorant men by the instigation of the Devil and their own natural Enthusiasm did misuse them and draw false Doctrines from them it was at their own peril and the fault was in their own giddiness and presumption and not in the Word of God. They should have only meddled with the plain Passages of them which contain all things necessary to Salvation and not with those which are hard to be understood No! if they had had a mind to understand the difficult Places of them they should have consulted the Apostles or those whom the Apostles set over them about the Apostolical Doctrine or Tradition and if they did not but as ignorant men are apt to do would precipitate themselves into Errors and make Doctrines to themselves which the Church never taught that was their own fault and could not without very much harm to Christianity supersede the use of the Word of God. God in his great wisdom intended it for the common Rule or Canon of the ancient Catholick Faith and if unlearned men will be so head strong and Enthusiastical as not to try their Conceptions by it but it by their private Conceptions it nevertheless remains a Standard and Rule and no less then their Souls must be the price for their Heresies and Schisms The Devil understands this very well and therefore being a subtil and cunning Spirit he is never wanting to tempt Sciolists and men that want true Learning especially those who are by nature powerfully enclined to Enthusiasm to wrest the Scriptures * Sequamur universitatem antiquitatem consentionem Vincent Lirin adversus Haeres c. 3. against the consent of universal Antiquity to their own admired Notions and that being done it is no difficult matter to perswade them to set up for Teachers altho' they have really need that one teach them again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God and are such as have need of Milk and not of strong Meat The second sort of Instruments by which Satan works are over-curious
Christum negarent in carne venisse qui non putarent Jesum esse filium Dei. Tertull. de praescript Heret 33. Antichrists by St. John Little children saith he it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time of which our Lord spoke And least any should think that these Monsters of Heresie and Sorcery which afflicted the primitive Church were not Christians it follows They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us And so in his 2. Ep. saith he Many deceivers are entred into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an Antichrist and then knowing in what danger the faithful were of being seduced by them saith he by way of Caution to them Look to your selves that ye lose not those things which ye have wrought but that ye receive a full reward by enduring to the end So to see the sad estate of the primitive Church more fully out of St. Paul's Writings he saith in his 2. Ep. to Timothy This know that in the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous c. having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women c. Now as Jannes and Jambres the Aegyptian Sorcerers withstood Moses so these resist the truth men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith But besides the Simonians or Gnostick Hereticks who divided the primitive Church and formed themselves into separate Sects there are evident footsteps in the New Testament of many other Divisions and Schisms So in the Church of Rome it self there were many schismatical Members as we find by the words of the Apostle I beseech you Brethren saith he unto the Romans mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have receiv'd and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple So in his 1. Ep. to the Corinthians how often doth he charge them with envying strife and divisions while one said he was of Paul another that he was of Apollos and a third that he was of Cephas or St. Peter So in the Text I cited before I hear saith he that there be divisions among you and truly these Divisions notwithstanding all his Authority and Doctrine to the contrary were come to such an height that we find him in the 11th Chapter using the very same Apologue for substance to perswade the to peace and unity and submission to their Superiors that Menenius Agrippa used to appease the seditious Commons of Rome and perswade them to return to their obedience to the Senate As the Body saith he is one and hath many members and all the members of that one Body being many are by union made one Body so also is the Church of Christ with much more to that purpose At the same time also there was many among them that denied the * Paulus in primd ad Corinthios not at negatores dubitatores resurrectionis Haec opinio propria Sadducaeorum partem ejus usurpat Marcion Apelles Valentinus Tertull. depraescript Haeret. 33. Resurrection or doubted of it which the Roman Catholicks which are so ready to note our Schisms and Heresies will not deny to be down-right Sadducism Let them hear the Apostle arguing against it If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead for if there be no resurrection of the dead then is not Christ risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God. In his ad Ep. to them we find him telling them of false Apostles and deceitful workers that were then among them who transform'd themselves into the Apostles of Christ These counterfeit Apostles had got a mighty esteem and interest among the people for it was in reference to them that he said Ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage to the Jewish Ceremonies if a man devour you if a man take money of you if a man exalt himself over you and smite you as it were on the face And that they should not think it strange that such fair pretenders to the Apostolical Office should be false Apostles Marvel not at this saith he for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light and therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of righteousness In his Ep. to the Galatians we find they had those among them whom the Apostle wished out off because they had perverted the Gospel with ‖ Et ad Galatas scribens invehitur in observatores defensores circumcifionis legis Hebionis haeresis est Tertul. ibid. Judaism and so bewitched the people with an opinion of the necessity of Circumcision and other legal Rites that they had brought them from the Gospel which the Apostle preached into another Gospel which gave him occasion to say If we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached let him be accursed In his Ep. to the Colossians he bids them beware least any man should spoyl them through vain philosophy after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ and prays them to take care that no man beguiled them in a voluntary humility and worshipping of * Simonianae autem magiae discipiina Angelis serviens utique ipsa inter Idololatrias deputabatur Tertull. de praescrip Haeret. 33. Angles intruding into those things which he had not seen and vainly puft by his fleshly mind In his 1st Ep. to Timothy he tells him That the Spirit saith expresly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their conscience seared with a hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth In that Ep. he also charged him to hold the faith and a good conscience which saith he some having put away concerning the faith have made shipwrack of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme And again O Timothy avoid profane and vain bablings and opposition of science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith In his 2d Ep. to Timothy
Reformers People came off in shoals from the Church of Rome in all Places where the Reformation was taught Whole Kingdoms revolted as one man to the astonishment of the Beholders on both sides and I believe no one man in the World St. Paul excepted ever made so many Proselytes as Luther the Protevangelist of the Reformation in Germany did which is no small presumption that their former adhesion to the Roman Communion was the effect of involuntary Ignorance which is not consistent with a truly free and rational choice I am the more confirmed in this opinion when I consider that in Countreys where there is the free exercise of both Religions the number of Proselytes from the Roman Religion to the Reformed is daily much greater then from the Reformed to the Roman particularly in France notwithstanding all the progressive Discouragements which came like Wave after Wave upon the Protestants for every Proselyte Popery got from the Reformed Church it perhaps gained ten from Popery while it was lawful for it to receive Converts and I appeal to the Consciences of the R. Cs. whether in all likelihood there would not soon be as many Protestants in Italy or Spain as there were in France if there were allowed the like measure of Knowledge and Liberty in those Kingdoms as there was in this Let the Spaniards and Italians have but the free use of the Scriptures which is their Christian Birth-right give them but the Translations which Cyprian de Valera made of the Bible in one Language and * He was Abbat of the Monastery of St. Michael de Lemo of the Order of St. Benedict and his Translation of the Bible in Italian was Printed in the year 1477. when Sixtus Quartus was Pope Nicolaus de Malhermis and †He translated the New Testament from the Original into Italian and it was Printed at Antwerp in 1538. and dedicated to St. Hercules Conzaga Cardinal of Mantua and the Dedication or Preface is almost nothing else but a Panegyrick of the Scriptures but this and all his other Works were prohibited in that Index of prohibited Books which P. P. Vergerius put forth with Annotations and which was the first of that kind Antonio Brucioli both their own men made in the other before the Reformation and if upon the free use of these Bibles and the Preaching of such men as Cyprian and Savanorola and allowance to their Bishops to act according to the Powers of their Apostolical Function there do not arise a sudden and mighty Episcopal Reformation in both those Kingdoms then I would acknowledge that the Unity in the Roman Church is perfectly Apostolical and that the secession of ours from the Church of Rome is an Apostasie from the one Catholick Church It is very well known what ‖ Sleidan Commentar l. 15 in An. 1543. Herman Archbishop of Cohen Duditius Bishop of Five Churches and the two * Sleidan Comment l. 21. in An. 1548. Hist Council of Trent l. 2. Meum etiam Germanum fratrem Baptistam Vergerium Polae Episcopum ob Paraphrafin in Psalmum 119. scriptum condemnant P.P. Vergerius Annot. in Catal. Heret p. 263. 119. seriptum condemnant P. P. Vergerius Annot. in Catal. Heret p. 263. Vergerii Brothers of immortal memory not to mention other Bishops did in the Time of the Reformation nay Posterity knows very well how far the Spanish Bishops in the Council of †Hist Council of Trent l. 7. Trent maintained the divine Right of Episcopacy in spight of the Legates and that Bishops derived their Authority immediately from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope And no man that is acquainted with History can doubt that if the Bishops of the Roman Communion might maintain this Doctrine safely they would maintain it freely and openly and so wrest the Keys out of the Pope's hand They would if they durst let his Holiness know that they are his * Non est nostri Romani Papae non est tanta majestas ut terrere debeat ficta est illa temporalis sastuosa majestas usurpata est nulla est Frater noster ille est Collega Comminister Antonius de Dominis in Consilio Profectionis §. 13. Fellows and Collegues and co-Boishops as St. Cyprian called Pope Stephen but they are quiet and peaceable because they are under Compulsion By which I understand such a mighty degree of penal Force and Violence as ordinarily speaking will compel men to comply with corrupt Churches against the Dictates of their own Understandings as extremity of ill Weather will constrain a Master of a Ship with great reluctance to cast his Cargo over-Board to save his own life and the lives of his men And when such great Exigences force men to do any thing which otherwise they would not do they are said to do it unwillingly and to act against their Judgements and Inclinations and particularly when for fear of ruining and exterminating Penalties which humanely speaking are intolerable men conform to any Religion which otherwise they would disown tho' as to outward Conformity and Communion they are of it yet they are not for it in their hearts I confess me ought to endure any thing rather then conform to any Religion which they believe to be false or subscribe to any Confession which they believe not to be true but yet we see the frailty of humane Nature is such that extream Severity will make them comply against their wills with a Religion they certainly know and firmly believe to be false Thus Plato for fear of the Fate of his Master Socrates continued in the profession of Polytheism against the Dictates of his own Conscience He knew there was but one true God the Creator of all things but he durst not stand up for him but sore against his will frequented the Temples of the false Gods. So tho' Cicero knew the Vanity of the popular Gods as he called them in opposition to the one great God yet he went to their Temples with the People and said That their Ancestors Religion was nevertheless to be had in Reverence and retained Reipublicae gratiâ that is in effect to say A man ought not to dissent from it for fear he should lose his Skin So the * Cum iram regis metuunt cum non dignantur pro Christo filio Dei exilium perpeti rescindunt quod piè vindicaverant suscipiunt quod ut impium damnaverant Episcopi plus iram regis terreni timuerunt quà m Christum verum Deum sempiternum regem Catholick Bishops in the Time of the Arian Controversie for fear condemned the Faith against their own Consciences which they had publickly asserted before Even good old †Sed ipse Osius accersitus ad Constantium regem minisque perterritus metuens ne senex dives exilium pateretur dat manus impietati post tot annos praevaricatur in fidem Libell precum Osius who had so long stood Champion
for the Catholick Faith fearing the Displeasure of the Emperor did set his Hand to the Arian Confession and in the Reign of Valentinian when the ‖ Socrat. H. E. l. 4. c. 15 16 17. Catholicks were so contumeliously used by the Arians and were afflicted with most insufferable Evils they turned Arians apace to avoid the violence of the Persecution tho' they ought to have endured it to the end When Complaints signified nothing but to end in the ruine of the Complainers and the most eminent of the orthodox Clergy were burnt alive for presenting a Petition to the Emperor then all the World almost became Arian on the sudden and was externally united in the Arian Faith. But as he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh so in this forced Conformity all were not Arians that seemed to be Arians but many were so in external Communion who hated Arianism in their hearts And the like success that the Arians had against the Catholicks by methods of Severity have some * Eò enim nostris temporibus redactares est ut Ecclesiasticae controversiae non Theologis ampliùs non Conciliis sed tortoribus sed carnificibus sed sicariis sed sanguinarris sed parricidis defendendae Romae an t Româ committantur Anton de Dominis in Consilio severe Popes and Princes had against those that have divided or attempted to divide the Roman Church which made Cardinal Soderinus tell Adrian †Hist Council Trent l. 1. the 6th That the best way of rooting out Hereticks was by Crusâ—â—â—… and by exciting Princes and People to root them out and to that end he bid him remember that by these means Innocent the 3d. and his Successors happily subdued the Alhigenses of Languedoc the Waldenses Picards poor men of Lyons Arnoldists Speronists and Pâ—â—vines of whom there remained nothing but the very Names And it should seem that Pope ‖ P. P. Vergerius in Secret. Pont. Act. 2. Tamen scio cum Paulus III. anti paucos annos literas gravissimas Breve appellamus ad Caesarem Rom. Regem dedisset in quibus erat scriptum illos consultiùs esse facturos si bello contra Turcas omisso bellum adornarent contra Lutheranos quippe qui essent Turcis ipsis lange perniciosiores deteriores c. Paul the 3d. was of that Cardinal's opinion who in a Brief to the Emperor Charles the 5th and his Brother Ferdinand King of the Romans tells them That it were more advisedly done if they would clap up a Peace with the Turks and bend all their Force against the Lutherans who were far worse and more pernicious than the very Turks * Hist Council Trent l. 5. So Paul the 4th importuned the Kings of France and Spain to settle the Inquisition in their Dominions as the only means to extirpate Heresies and at his Death he recommended nothing to the Cardinals but the Office of the holy Inquisition which he said was the only Expedient to preserve the Church exhorting them to employ all their Endeavours to get it established in Italy and wheresoever else they could He used to say It was the principal Secret and Mystery of the Papacy but whether it were so or no it cannot be denied but that the Union of the Roman Church is in a great measure beholding to it where it is most entire †Id. l. 4. After the Death of that Pope Philip the 2d King of Spain rooted out Lutheranism which had taken happy Root in that Kingdom by extream Severity He no sooner arrived from Flanders at Sevill Id. l. 5. on the 24th day of September 1559. but he caused Johannes Pontius Count of Bayleno with a Preacher and some others of the Colledge of St. Isidore where the Religion was entred together with some Ladies of Quality in all 13 Persons to be burnt for Lutherans as also the Statue of Constantinus Pontius Confessor to his Father Charles who served him in his Retirement and held him in his Arms when he expired Afterwards at Valladolid he caused 28 of the prime Nobility of the Countrey to be burned in his presence The Spaniards especially the Nobility had at that time a great aversion to the See of Rome but this extream Severity of Philip made them conceal their inward Resentments and every one who knows that piece of History must confess that the Church of Rome is obliged for its Unity in Spain to the memory of that Prince and the continuance of the Inquisition from his Time till now The Heresie as 't is mis-called was rooted out of the Low-Countreys by the destruction of 50000 Persons And we know by what Methods it hath been since extirpated in other Places where thousands of Souls who would have counted Death a mercy have been brought to subscribe a Confession contrary to their former Religion which they still believe in their hearts P. P. Vergerius saith That in that Age the Age of the Reformation * Quantus est numerus nostrâ aetate non modâ—â—orum qui mortis carcerum atque triremium sed etiam qui exitiorum tulerunt serunt etiamnum martyria Qui jam migrârunt ad dominum deum nostrum per vestra inquam martyria sunt fermè millia centum Cum his vero conjunguntur voces circiter 15000 exulum qui desertâ patriâ desertis parentibus desertis amicis atque bonis alibi vivunt P. P. Vergerius Annot in Catalog Haeret. almost 100000 Souls had been put to death for refusing Communion with the Roman Church besides those that were condemned to Prisons Gallies and Banishment And these Instances are enough without any more to make it appear That the Unity of the Roman Church is in great part the effect of Force and Compulsion which much diminishes the Reputation of it and might prevail with our Neighbours of the Roman Communion if they considered it aright not to admire it and talk of it so much and ring us in the Ears with it in all Places as if it came not at all from Violence but altogether by Inspiration from the Spirit of God. But in the last place Bare Unity or want of Divisions is so far from being an Argument for the Trueness or Honour of any Church that it is a common Affection which belongs to all Churches true or false good or bad Catholick or un-Catholick small or great as they are Societies of men and besides the Church of England hath more Union both potential and actual in it then the Church of Rome To prove the first Part of this Assertion we need but remember That it is Union and Agreement under certain Laws and Rules of Government which makes all Societies among Men and Angels and wicked Societies are many times as well formed and as firmly united as the pure the holy and the good Lucifer and his angels are a Guild or Colledge of Spirits as well as Michael
abstain from Pollutions of Idols from fornications from things strangled and from blood To him the Apostles and Elders and the whole Church consented and said it seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to us and yet the Authority of this infallible and unanimous Council did not quite put an end to the Controversie for as it appears out of several of St. Paul's Epistles and more especially out of that to the Galatians some * Ad Magnesios ad Philadelph Epistles of St Ignatius there were those afterwards who taught the Gentile Christians Judaism and commanded them to be circumcised and keep the Jewish Law. So I need not relate how the oecumenical Council of Nice tho' backed with the Authority of the Emperor was not able to extinguish the Arian Schism nor make the Arians acquiesce in its Determinations And to multiply no more Instances the learned R. Cs. know very well how far the Christian World was from submitting to the second Nicene Council which they call the seventh general Council in its Determinations for Image-worship Quite contrary the Northern and Western Bishops unanimously opposed that Council and its Doctrine and in another †Concilium Franco surtes A. D. 79◠Council wherein about 300 of them met together they condemned it and its Decree for Image-worship and proscribed it out of the number of general Councils and the Church of England at the Time was so far from acquiescing in its Determinations that her Pastors received that Decree for worshipping of Images with great indignation and contempt But then tho' it appears from these Examples that general Councils are not infallible Remedies for Heresies and Schisms yet it must be acknowledged that they are very good ones and the best that can be had when they are truly * Cum dicunt Concilium Catholicum aut universale hoc intelligunt ut in eo debeant adesse viri pii docti prudentes ex omnibus nationibus P. P. Vergerius in secretar pontific Act. primâ general and †Cum dicunt Liberum volunt ut liceat tum publicis tum privatis personis sub fide publici salvi conductûs praesliti venire stare discedere quoties illis libitum fuerit ante omnia ut liberè sine ullo metu aut impedimento loqui liceat suamque sententiam dicere in ipso Concilio ibid. free And therefore as Nilus of Thessalonica proposed a free and general Council as the best Expedient for ending all Differences between the Greek and Latin Church above 300 years ago so I hope I may without offence propose it now as the most hopeful Remedy to heal all Differences between the Church of England and the Church of Rome It would be an Enterprize worthy of the Greatness and holy Character of the Pope dispensing with the Pontifical Oaths to use his Interest among Christian Princes for the procuring of a free and general Council wherein * Statuerunt etiam quod amnes definitiones conclusiones articulorum de quibus suerit disputatum sierie debeant ex divinâ sacrâ Scripturâ doctrinà que antiquorum patrum ibid. Scripturae eloquia aliter atque aliter alius atque alius interpretatur aliter nameque illam Novatianus aliter Photinus aliter Sabellius aliter Donatus exponit aliter Arius Eunomius Macedonius aliter Apollinaris Priscillianus aliter Jovinianus Pelagius Caelestinus aliter postremo Nestorius atque idcirco multùm necesse est propter tantos tam varii erroris ansractus ut Prophetice Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici Catholici sensûs normam dirigatur Vincent Lirinens adversus haeres cap. 2. the holy Scriptures and the Writings of the ancient Fathers should be laid open and the Differences of the two Churches fairly tryed by them as the Difference between Nestorius and his Antagonists was tryed in the third general Council The Differences happened in the following manner Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople openly taught that it was not lawful to call the Virgin Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God. This alarmed Cyrill of Alexandria and many other Bishops who suspected that Nestorius had a design under the covert of that Assertion to bring into the Church the Doctrine of Paulus Samosatensis and Photinus who asserted that Christ was a meer man. Upon these Suspicions they stoutly opposed Nestorius and his Adherents for their new Opinion and the Contention grew so high that the Emperor was fain to call a Council at Ephesus to compose it and the Bishops being met together after some previous Altercation at last thought it the most Catholick blessed and desirable way of determining the Controversie to produce the Opinions of the holy Fathers who had been Martyrs or Confessors for the Faith or at least had continued in the true profession of it unto the end of their lives Upon this were brought into the Council the Writings of St. Peter Patriarch of Alexandria St. Athanasius St. Theophilus St. Basil St. Gregory of Nazianzum Gregorius Nyssenus St. Cyprian St. Ambrose and St. Foelix and St. Julius Bishops of the Imperial City of Rome with the Writings of other Fathers all which being examined it did appear that Nestorius was an Innovator and that Cyril was in the right who said that the ancient Fathers used to call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God. I have taken this short account of the manner in which the Council of Ephesus proceeded against Nestorius because it is proposed by †Quod ne praesumptione magis nostrâ quà m autoritate Ecclesiasticâ promere videremur exemplum adhibuimus Sancti Concilii quod ante triennium fermè in Asiâ apud Ephesum celebratum est Viris clarissemis Basso Antiochoque consulibus Vbi cum sanciendis sidei regulis disceptaretur ne qua illic forsitan prophana novitas in modum perfidiae Ariminiensis obreperet universis Sacerdotibus qui illo ducenti sere numero convenerant hoc Cacholicissimum faelicissimum atque optimum factu visum est ut in medium sanctorum patrum sententiae proferrentur c. Vincent Lirin adversus haeres cap. 42. Vincentius Lirinensis as the best method of ending Controversies in Religion and I am perswaded if the same Apostolical course was taken in a General Council now the Differences between the Church of Rome and the Churches that dissent from it would come to an happy Conclusion and by God's Blessing make them all unite into one Communion and become one Catholick and Apostolical Church I know very well that the Gentlemen of the Roman Communion are apt to tell us that the Council of Trent was a Free and General Council but we know the contrary that it was neither Free nor General or if it were why may not the Church be represented anew in another Free and General Council as She was represented in the Council of Chalcedon shortly after the second Council of Ephesus and in the second Council of Nice within thirty years