of those distempers having consumed the vitals of religion the true knowledge and fear of God and although the fire was raked up under the ashes of ignorance and impiety yet at length some rash and unwary Persons brought home from beyond the Seas into these Kingdomes such burning Coals as meeting with combustible matter and having glowed a while and only obscured and sullied the beauty of our Church by their smoke at length brake put into a devouring flame and not to renew our sorrows by recounting the almost innumerable mischiefs that it did consumed the very foundations both of Church and State And though by the wonderful compassions of God which because they failed not therefore we were not consumed our foundations were not only new layed but glorious structures to the envy and admiration of our enemies were raised on them yet we still feel such unnatural heats though God be thanked we do not yet see the flame that we have no Reason to be secure or to think our building and establishment to be safe though the foundations be sure especially if we shall consider how like this fire hath been to that of Hell it having been for so many Hundred Years unquenchable How much the Holy Waters of the Church of Rome which have been abundantly sprinkled on us have contributed to the increasing of our flames notwithstanding the boast of their extinguishing Vertue is more to be deplored than disputed If any thing may be available our penitent Tears and importunate Prayers to the God of Peace That he would give Peace in these our days may be most effectual And of this blessing we need not doubt if every one would sincerely endeavour to withdraw that fuel of spiritual Pride and Vain-glory of Envy and Malice of Carnal Lusts and Secular Interests and let the Word of God the Water of Life dwell richly in him for those living Plants of the knowledge and fear of God obedience to our Governors love and good will to our Brethren of humility and a mean conceit of our selves would resist and suppress those flames whereas our formality and empty profession a zeal without knowledge a spirit of pride contention and contradiction and ambitious aspiring as the bramble in the Parable of Jotham makes us like so many dry sticks and sapless Leaves ready to take fire at every blast and motion of the Winds Let us therefore study to be quiet and to do our own business to repent of our own sins and amend every one his own life instead of Reforming Churches and Kingdomes And as Solomon adviseth Fear God and the King and not meddle with them that are given to change POST-SCRIPT I Have thought fit to Transcribe some few of those Laws made by the most Christian Emperors against this rude Faction the execution whereof when all other means had been used iâ— vain gave a check to its growth Constantine as his Nature and his Religion more especially inclined him had long endeavoured to reduce them by lenity and indulgence but the insolence of the Faction necessitated him to a greater rigour for he well perceived that his Indulgence to the Donatists was not only an occasion of their Cruelty to the Catholicks but of great disturbance in his Empire St. Augustine also who had been an Advocate for them against the rigour of the Emperial Laws saw it to be expedient to execute those Laws against them in all their Sanctions except only in the case or Life And whoever shall impartially consider the History of those Times may observe with me these two things First That as the Emperors and their Councils became more zealous for the Christian Religion they made stricter Laws and with greater severity caused them to be put in Execution 2ly That by the diligent execution of such Laws the insolency of the Faction was much restrained and unity and peace in a good measure established in the Church And indeed the life of the Laws as Sir Francis Bacon observes is in the execution of them without which they are always a dead and sometime a killing Letter and it were much more convenient not to have them made than being made not to have them executed for by this neglect the Offenders are animated and Authority contemned As in the Natural body when physick hath not its due operation but only stirreth the humors without purging them it causeth a new fermentation of bloud and makes way for the noxious humors to seize on the vital parts Or like the placing of an impotent Dam to a growing River which causeth the Waters to swell and roar and with a greater impetus than they could have otherwise exerted to overflow all bounds What Solomon observed of the Laws of God is as true of the Laws of Men Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Common experience teacheth us that if we only threaten our Children or Servants and chastise them not as they deserve they grow the more presumptuous and self-willed And Solomon says Prov. 13.24 He that spareth the rod hateth his Son but he that loveth him chastneth him betimes Besides what prejudice and jealousies doth such a neglect beget between a Prince and his People The Prince sees a necessity of curbing the insolency of his People by making wholesome Laws The People fancy that the Prince hath an inclination to Tyranny but not executing those Laws they suppose him to want power and to be like a foolish Builder who having begun to build is not able to finish And when they perceive a defect in power as well as in prudence to manage the Reins of Government they endeavour to get the Bit that was put into their Mouths between their Teeth and run away with their Rider In a word there is no Fruit more desirable to corrupt Nature than that which is forbidden the very prohibition doth endear it and irritate our desires to an enjoyment How many have publickly declared that they could and would have conformed to our Liturgy and Ceremonies had they not been imposed by a Law as if those things which are in their own nature lawful and good became evil and unlawful when inforced by a Law This was long since practised by some Nonconformists in the days of Archbishop Laud who commending to his Clergy the wearing of short Hair they that had been zealous for it before that time did afterwards suffer their Hair to grow to an excessive length This is such a spirit of contradiction as will not be charmed with Reason and Arguments though the Charmer be never so wise Nor will good Laws silence or suppress it without a seasonable and vigorous execution of them which was the course taken by the first Christian Emperors as appears by the following Instances Sozomen Hist Tripartit l. 3. c. II. De Novatianis Phrygibus Valentinianis c. Contra hos omnes Imperator
were condemned as acts of Arbitrary Power But when Julian granted their Society some Priviledges to the vexing and grieving of the Catholicks these were applauded as acts of Grace nor had Constantine that love and obedience from them which they manifested to the Apostate And evident it is that one reason why the Catholicks were so much envyed and hated by the Donatists was because the Emperors did favour them as being more peaceable and loyal Eusebius tells us that Constantine frequently advised with his Bishops even in Secular Affairs And then Quid Episcopis cum Palatio What have Bishops to do at Court say they or to meddle with the Government Vos portatis Imperatorum Sacras i.e. literas nos portamus sola Evangelia You are busie in promoting the Edicts and Mandats of the Emperors we study only the Gospels To this St. Augustine answers Epist 166. Because you have no Power with the Emperor you would raise envy against us that have but Melius est portare veras jussiones Imperatoris pro unitate quam falsas Indulgentias pro perversitate Whatever their study was their practice was contrary their hands were the hands of Esau though their voice was like Jacobs I cannot omit to inlarge a little concerning their Arguments for Liberty of Conscience that there might be no violence or restraint laid upon them to reduce them to Unity in the Service of God Gaudentius a Donatist Bishop argueth thus Scriptum est fecit Deus hominem Aug. l. 2. contra Gaudent reliquit eum in manu Arbitrii sui that is God made Man and left him in the power of his own judgment that is to the Liberty of his own Conscience as the following Discourse expounds it and why should that be forced from me which God hath granted to me Mark saith he how great Sacriledge i◠committed against God when humane presumption takes away what he gave and boasts it self to act for God and to defend him with force and violence as if he could not avenge the injury that is done to him Christi par volentes invitat non cogit invitos The peace which Christ teacheth inviteth them that are willing and doth not force them that are unwilling God sent Prophets to teach the People of Israel not Kings and Christ to promote the Salvation of Souls sent not Souldiers but Fishermen To which I may add that of Petilian Contra Petil l. 2. Absit absit à nostra conscientia us ad nostram fidem aliquem compellamus Far be it from us that we should compel any to be of our perswasion * Si voluntas libera unicuique tribuenda est Ceciliano priùs tribuatur August post Col lat cum Donatist To which St. Augustine replies 1. By minding them of their Proceedings against the Maximianists against whom they made use of the Theodosian Laws And 2. how when under Julian they had gotten some power they improved it to the utmost against the Catholicks So that as St. Augustine says the Kite that is frighted from preying upon the Chicken may as well be thought a Dove as they be accounted mild and gentle who only want power and not malice And then he shews how irrational and impious their Arguments are by which all humane lusts and outrages should go unpunished and no King should restrain his Subject nor a Father his Children from any wickedness For if you once blot out that which the Apostle says for the good government of Mankind Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers c. you open a Gap to all Licentiousness Clamate si audetis puniantur homicidia puniantur adulteria sola sacrilegia volumus à regnantium legibus impunita How can you say that Murther and Adultery ought to be punished by the Magistrate but Sacrilegious Schismes ought to be permitted Or that it i◠not the duty of the Magistrate to contradict or punish you when you are injurious to his Church and Worship If a pretence of Conscience may supersede the Penalties of the Law few Offenders would be retrained or punished for any Transgression And therefore St. Augustine calls it a most vain and impertinent way of reasoning which their own practice did contradict and confute as often as they had power in their hands and tells them they did most incuriously condemn the Emperors as Persecutors when they only restrained evil doers and dealt with unruly Persons as Physicians use to deal with phrenetick Patients that bind them up from hurting themselves and others Non persequitur Phreneticum Medicus sed Medicum Phreneticus If Men be frantick and being diseased themselves shall endeavour to infect and disturb others he is a Physician not a Persecutor that binds them to better behaviour St. Augustine wrote an Epistle to Bonifacius which in the second Book of his Retractations he calls Librum de correctione Donatistarum Wherein he asserts the power of the Magistrates to make coercive Laws in the Case of Religion 1. Because the Kings that did it not under the Law were blamed and those that did it commended 2. Because it is their duty as Kings Aliter enim servit quia homo aliter quia Rex As a Man the King ought to serve God by living faithfully as a King by executing with convenient rigor such Laws as command things that are just and forbidding what is contrary For what sober Man will say to Kings Nolite curare in Regno vestro à quo teneatur vel oppugnetur Ecclesia Domini nostri It is not your duty to take care who joyn themselves to the Church of God or who oppose it as if they ought not to regard the piety of Men as well as the Chastity of Women or it concerned them that there should be no Bastards and not that there should be no Idolaters or Sacrilegious Persons in their Kingdoms 3. Because Kings may redress what others cannot they having the Sword given them to that end and whereas the Donatists objected Cui vim Christus intulit Whom did Christ ever constrain He propounds the case of Saint Paul that was stricken to the Earth in whom they might perceive Christ first restraining and then teaching him And our Lord appointed Guests to be first invited and upon refusal to be compelled to his great Supper Wherefore if those that are found by the High-ways and Hedges i.e. among Hereticks or Schismaticks be constrained to the Lords Vineyard by the Power which the Church hath received ever since Kings received the Christian Faith let them not find fault that they are driven by force but consider whither they are driven even to those Pastures where they may find true food and rest to their Souls 4. Because the Donatists used unjust violence to suppress the Catholicks much more might Christian Princes use their just Power to support them Cur non cogeret Ecclesia perditos filios ut redirent si perditi filii coegerunt alios ut perirent It is unworthy
during the Conference and intreats them to direct their discourse to the causes and grounds of the difference which was between them But the Donatists who as St. Augustine observes Contra Emeritum hoc unum agebant ut nil ageretur make use of all possible cavils and subterfuges as if the chief business that they had to do were to take care that nothing might be done and to return with as much Pride and Pomp as they came First therefore they object that the time appointed was elapsed then that there was no certain Date to the Imperial Edict because the Names of the Consuls were not inserted These being answered they desire to know who procured the Edict for that Meeting that the Names of the Legates and their Petition might be read tacitely reflecting upon the Catholicks saith St. Augustine for referring the cause of the Church to the Emperor To this it was answered that the Catholicks who confessed that they procured it had done no other than they themselves appealing from the Sentence of Meltiades in the case of Cecilian unto the Emperor Constantine Then they begin to reflect on the Persons of Felix and Cecilian and having almost tired Marcellinus to keep them from impertinencies repetitions and evasions he brought them at last to the merits of the cause But Quid dignum tanto I know not any thing that may raise greater admiration than to consider what trifles and apples of contention like the forbidden fruit ingaged all Africa in such desperate fewds as made it an Aceldama for blood-shed and slaughters and imployed so many Emperors Bishops and Councils for more than an Hundred Years together without any considerable effect For when the differences and causes of that confusion came to be considered in this Conference we do not hear that the Donatists could plead in justification of their Schisme that their supposed Enemies did deny God or Christ or the Resurrection or did actually persecute them or that they did with pride and contempt deny to admit them to their Communion nor did the Catholicks charge the Donatists with Apostasie from the Faith and denying Fundamentals of Christianity We do not hear them urging as they might their rebaptizing and joyning with the Macedonians or Jews and Pagans against those whom they knew to be Orthodox Bishops They all professed an agreement in all such necessary points of Faith that it is strange how they could differ in any thing And yet the Donatists persecuted the Catholicks so cruelly as if they had not been agreed in any principle of Christianity Marcellinus having heard the whole Conference declared against the Donatists and charged the inferior Officers speedily to execute the Imperial Laws in seizing their Churches for the Catholicks scattering their Conventicles and confiscating their Meeting places which Edict the Emperors confirm and cause to be entred among the publick Acts. That which was pretended by the Donatists as the ground of the Schism was that Cecilian who was Bishop of Carthage for almost 100. Years before was a Traditor that he and other Catholick Bishops had admitted lapsed Persons into their Communion whereby all their Churches were defiled and ought not to be communicated with Quia lapsi vel haeretici qui resipiscerent admittebantur Prosper de promiss praedict So I find the Question expresly stated by consent of both Parties Vtrum Ecclesia permixtos malos usque id finem habitura praedicta sit an omnion omnes bonos sanctos atque immaculatos ab hoc seculo usque in finem habitura sit Whether the Church of God according to the predictions concerning it were to consist of a mixture of good and evil or only of such as were holy and undefiled The Catholicks maintained the former from the predictions of the Prophets concerning the Universal extent of Christ's Kingdome from many Parables of our Saviour concerning his Church from the Commission he gave to his Apostles to Disciple all Nations from the event which succeeded upon the Apostles preaching the Conversion of all Nations from many Arguments used by St. Cyprian against the Novatians and lastly from their own practice in readmitting the Maximianists who had revolted from the Donatists and used another Baptism And most unreasonable it was to think that the wickedness of one Man should ruine the whole Church of Christ St. Aug. Epist 50. Nec peccavit Cecilianus haereditatem suam perdiâ—â— Christus Against this the Donatists urge that the same Prophets foretold that the Church of Christ should be Holy as well 〈◊〉 Catholick that Hierusalem was to be a Holâ— City the Spouse of Christ must be withouâ— spot a chast and undefiled Virgin To whicâ— St. Augustine replies Perfectio promissa non data that these things oughâ— to be endeavoured in the Church in thiâ— World but would never be effected untâ—â— Christ do come in the end of the World wheâ—â— he will thoroughly cleanse his Flowr gather the Wheat into his Garner and burn up the chaff with unquenchable Fire Then the Donatists begin to recriminate Mensurius and Cecilian that had been long dead To which it is presently answered That they were absolved by the Emperor and Councils of the Church then in being as did appear by most ancient Records which were ready to be produced and thereby also Donatâ—â— stood condemned But saith St. Augustine if those Bishops had been wicked the Church of God cannot be judged to have perished with them Whether they were good or bad they were our Brethren if we knew them to be evil we would joyn with you to condemn them but not to desert the Church of God because of them If Cecilian were good and innocent he hath the reward of his innocence and I rejoyce at it but I never placed my hope and faith in his innocence if he had been evil yet the Church thought fit to continue in his Communion and so do we Melius est per patientiam ferre malos quam per calumniam relinquere bonos St. Aug. in Colloq Carthag The several Arguments and Answers are too large to be here set down Upon the whole Marcellinus adjudged that the Donatists arguments and pretences were invalid their Schisme unjust their practices cruel and therefore he willed them to return to the Communion of the Church and live in peace and unity otherwise he would provide that the Imperial Laws should be executed upon them In the mean time he prevailed with them to subscribe the Records of the Conference which had been faithfully taken by the Notaries on both sides and so dismissed them After the Publication of this Conference and of the Emperor 's reinforcing the Laws for pecuniary Mulcts and Banishment against them some Thousands of the common People deserted them and returned to the Catholick Church and to their honest and lawful callings which they had long omitted as generally the Circumcellians did But the Donatist Bishops and Presbyters were for the most part obstinate and