St. Cyprian is as express for Passive Obedience join'd with Loyal Prayers as any of his Predecessors Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur necâ—â—se adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciscitur Innocentes nocentibus cedunt insontes paenis cruciatibus acquiescunt None of us when he is apprehended resists and though our numbers are great and considerable we do not think of revenging our selves against your unjust Oppressions the Innocent submit to the Guilty and sit down quietly under Pains and Tortures And then a little after this he adds That though we are treated thus barbarously yet we cease not to pray for the expulsion of your Enemies for seasonable Rains for removing or abating publick Calamities begging of God day and night with the greatest importunity for your peace and safety that are our Persecutors And in this time they were so tender of doing any thing offensive to the Civil Government or any way contrary to their Commands that they judged it not lawful for a Christian that was banisht for his Religion to return into his own Country without the leave and warrant of Authority So that St. Cyprian reckoning up in his Epistle to the Confessors in the Decian Persecution divers scandals that some of them had given to the Christian Church particularly of some that lived in continual Debauchery and Uncleanness either from their very Baptisme or their Confession next to these he tells them Alius in eam Patriam unde extorris factus est regreditur ut deprehensus non quasi Christianus sed quasi nocens pereat Another returns back into his Countrey from whence he had been commanded into Banishment where if he be apprehended let him know that he suffers not as a Christian but as a Malefactor From all which passages it is evident beyond all contradiction that it was the unanimous sense of all the most eminent Doctors of the ancient Church that nothing was more contrary to the whole frame and constitution of Christianity then resistance to the Civil Government in any case whatsoever and that in case of Persecution and Oppression for it Passive Obedience was their indispensable duty which upon any provocation to violate any way was judged no less a Crime then renouncing the Christian Faith It were easie to have collected a vast number of passages out of the Writings of the Ancients to the same purpose and divers such Collections have been made by Learned Men but I have selected these peculiar passages out of my own little observation because they do not only give us their Opinion but the ground upon which they build it from the reason and the nature of their Religion and that gives it a perpetual and unalterable Obligation in all times and cases and how various soever the Affairs of the World may be yet this duty can never be alter'd by any change of circumstances because it is as unchangeable as the nature of our Religion so that as long as Christianity lasts it must for ever equally oblige all Christians under all circumstances and in all conditions Neither do they teach the Doctrine of Non-resistance meerly as Doctors of the Christian Church as it is a Law of their Religion but as Philosophers or men that understood the Interest of Mankind and the Original of Government For the reason which they unanimously alledge for it is this that all Governments in the World are every where fix't by the Providence of the Supreme Governor of it and for that reason they take it to be their Wisdom as well as their Duty peaceably to acquiesce in the settled and establish't Government how ill soever administred and leave the punishment of its ill-administration by particular persons to him from whom they received their Authority Now this Doctrine of Non-resistance or Submission being so universally taught and that upon such unalterable principles and reasons one would think it enough to set it above all manner of exception or evasion And yet such is the perverseness of the several Anti-Christian Factions of Christendom that they break through all these Restraints into all the licentiousness of Rebellion But this they do with that impudence against the common sense of Mankind and that violence to their own Consciences that they would have done much more prudently to have wholly slighted and rejected the Authority of the ancient Lacrymists then admitting it to make so poor and dull a mistake from its obligation For they all agree in this one slender and inconsistent Plea that this Doctrine was only suited to their present necessity because they then wanted power to make resistance That is to say in one soft and friendly word that they were a Race of the rankest Knaves and Fools that ever appeared among Mankind That when our Saviour had strictly forbid it as inconsistent with the nature of his Religion and the Fundamental Doctrine of the Cross. That when the Apostles reinforced the same precept with all the earnestness and all the motives in the World particularly out of duty to God and their Religion And that when the whole succession of Christians from their time to After-ages profess'd and practiced the same duty upon the same Principles To tell us after all this that 't is all Hypocrisie and Dissimulation nothing but a Primitive Jesuitical Trick to blind their Governors with fine Stories of the unlawfulness of taking up Arms in their own defence when the only reason of it was that they had no Arms to take up and that it was nothing but sufficient strength and ability to resist that kept them off from actual Rebellion This is such a contradiction to all their avowed Protestations to the Notoriety of the matter of Fact itself to all their Apologies and to their own defiance of so durty a surmize as amounts to no better account then giving them all the open Lye and for that reason I think it would have been much better to have at first once for all trampled upon the Authority of such tame Creatures then to shift it off with such a senseless and shameless Evasion And upon that account I suppose it was that it was at last forsaken in our late Rebellion and new pretences devised in its stead but of such a daring boldness and blasphemy against Heaven itself that they would sooner affright a wise man to hear them then puzzle a Fool to answer them and those are the prophane Pleas of the Independants to justifie his Majesties Murther viz. New Discoveries and Revelations from Heaven it self It seems the Villany was so horrid in itself that nothing less could bear out their confidence in committing it then the immediate Authority of God himself And thus they are not ashamed to tell us That the Doctrine of Non-resistance was not a seasonable priviledge for that age and therefore not discover'd because it would have hindred the birth of Antichrist whose coming into the World
is the very establishment of this Polity for a duty or obligation common to several Societies supposes one Government common to them all to which every Society is accountable for the discharge of its Duty Every passage that recommends Union among the Members of that Body of which Christ is Head is an express Command to this Duty for he is Head of the Catholique Church and the Catholique Church is his whole Body and therefore particular Churches are only Members of it and therefore as such they are obliged by such Precepts to keep the Unity of the whole If our Learned Author mean that this Communion was not establisht between all Churches in the Apostles time I will grant it because it was impossible that it should till the settlement of Christianity in the World was brought to some perfection and till then such a Confederation in Discipline could not be established in all places For some of them travelling into remote Parts and Founding Churches there such distant Churches could not keep up any common Discipline among themselves for want of convenient Correspondence But as far as this design could be put in practice it was pursued by the Apostles keeping Peace and Unity among all Neighbour Churches But Thirdly The Fathers make the Unity of the Church to consist only in the Unions of Faith Charity Peace not in this Political Union First suppose they do yet if a Political Union be necessary to preserve those other Unions that must be implyed in them But Secondly What Fathers make it to consist only in those Unions Does any Father affirm that there is no other Union in the Church but only of Faith Charity and Peace that were to the purpose but because they sometime speak of those Unions to conclude that they affirm that there is no other only shews a miserable scantiness of proof and yet beside this the chief Passages that he alledges out of them refer to this Political Union His first Instance of the Church of Rome's refusing to receive Marcion to Communion because he was Excommunicated by his own Father the Bishop of Sinope a small Diocess in Pâ—ntus is the most remarkable Precedent of this Unity of Discipline that he could have pitched upon in all the Records of the Ancient Church for if they were â— bliged not to admit him into Communion in one Church when he was Excommunicate in another then they were under some Law of Government common to both how else should the Church of Rome be obliged to put in execution a censure of the little remote Church of Synope And yet too without this obligation the Discipline of the Church would be utterly defeated for what had become of that if it had not been of force at Rome and every where else as well as at home And of the same nature is the known and famous case of Synesius who when he had Excommunicated Andronicus and his Companions requires of all Bishops in the World not to receive them to Communion under pain of Excommunication as dividing that Unity of the Church which Christ has appointed Though this was only for the greater caution for though he had not given this notice they were all obliged under the same penalty of Excommunication not to admit them to Communion without their Bishop's Certificate or Communicatory Letters and as long as that rule was observed which was till the time of the Usurpation the Discipline of every particular Church was without any trouble effectual in all Churches all the World over But to return to Marcion the reason says our Author why the Roman Church refused Communion to Mercion when he was Excommunicated by his Father was because his Father and they were of one Faith and one Mind And let it be the reason if he pleases for what can follow thence then that Unity of Faith obliges to Unity of Discipline And that too is expresly enough infer'd in the following words which he has omitted We cannot i. e. we ought not to act contrary to our fellow Minister But after all we need only refer this whole matter to our Learned Author 's own decision who has given his judgment of it in these words It is a rule grounded upon apparent Equity and frequently declared by Ecclesiastical Canons that no Church shall admit into its Protection or Communion any Persons who are Excommunicated by another Church or who do withdraw themselves from it And this he proves by the Canon of the African Fathers against Appeals to Rome by the proceedings against Marcion by St. Cyprian's repulse of Maximus and Novatian and Cornelius of â—aelicissimus by the punishment of Dioscorus who was deposed for it and by the Mandate of Synesius to all Christian Churches against Andronicus And what can we desire more then this That as this Rule was a standing Law of the Christian Church so it was grounded upon apparent Equity and such Laws are Obligatory all the World over because their Violation is apparent Iniquity in short it was no Arbitrary Rule but such an one as was its own obligation by its own intrinsick Goodness and Usefulness As for our Authors Passages out of Tertullian they do him as little Service as this Precedent of Marcion For they expresly assert this Unity of Discipline in the Catholique Church We are one Body by our agreement in Religion our Unity of Discipline and our being in the same Covenant of hope What can be more evident then that he makes the Unity of the Christian Body to consist in an Unity of Discipline as well as of Faith And to the same purpose are all his other Passages out of the Ancients that from the Unity of Faith in all Churches infer this Unity of Discipline as is obvious to any one that will but peruse them The Fourth Argument is only a Repetition of the two first and therefore is already consider'd And so is the fifth viz. That this Unity could not comport with the Apostolical State of the Church when Christian Churches were founded in such distant places as could not with convenience correspond That is to say it was not reduced to practice till it was practicable and that I must acknowledge it was not in all places till after the Apostles but as far as it could be obtain'd it was carefully observed from the beginning The Sixth Argument taken from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or liberty of particular Churches to govern themselves I have answered in the foregoing Discourse by shewing its Consistency with its Subjection to the Catholique Church because as our Learned Author here very well observes The Peace of the Church was preserved by Communion of all parts together not by the subjection of the rest to one part But the truth is in prosecuting this Argument he has not only answered that but all the rest by confessing the absolute necessity of this Political Verity so that without it Christianity must have perished by referring the judgment of the
cause to St. Cyprian and by acknowledging a double relation or capacity in every Bishop one toward his own Flock another toward the whole Church and that is all the Political Union we contend for But Seventhly This Political Unity does not accord with the nature of the Gospel because it would bring too much Worldly State and Grandeur into the Church as appears by the Papal Monarch And that is true a Monarchical Unity would naturally bring in a Worldly Kingdom but not such an Unity as consists in the Communion of all Parts together and not in the Subjection of the rest to one part as our Author expresses it or as Mr. Thorndike often repeats it That not the infinite Power of one Church but the Regular Power of all is the mean provided by the Apostles for attaining Unity in the Whole This is the state of the Question between us and therefore all our Authors flourishes about the Papal Tyranny are nothing but flourish because it is so far from being that Catholick Unity that we own that it is the whole design of this work to prove that it is a most execrable and impudent subversion of it The 8th and 9th Arguments proceed upon the same Supposition of a Papal Monarchy The tenth upon its no Necessity against our Authors own confession The 11th and 12th because such an Unity was never in fact attain'd If he means in full perfection no more was ever any Government and therefore it is not to be required in this World but if he means that it was never put in practice so as in good measure to attain its end the whole History of the Church down to the Papal Usurpation contradicts it as appears by the whole Series of this Discourse This is all that this learned Man has alledged upon this Argument and from it the Reader I hope is sufficiently satisfied how little that has to alledge for it self for he was a person of that comprehensive mind that he never omitted any thing pertinent to his design was never in debt to any cause that he undertook nor ever fail'd that but when that fail'd him and therefore when we see so great a man able to say so little in defence of this uncatholick Assertion that is the strongest proof that we can have and perhaps stronger then any we could have had without it that it is utterly indefensible PART II. SECT I. HAving in the former Part of this Discourse set down the practice of the Church both as to the Exercise of its own Jurisdiction within it self and its entire subjection to the Civil Powers whilst it subsisted meerly upon its own Charter without any Assistance or Protection from them We are now arrived at a new state of things as they stood under Christian Emperors And here we shall find that the Government and the Constitution of the Church continued as it had ever been within it self and that the Christians when the Empire was on their side own'd the same kind of Subjection and that upon the same Principles of Duty to the Civil Government that they had ever done in the times of Persecution and when I have made good both these it will make up a compleat Demonstration both of the unalienable Power of the Church within it self and of the Sense of the Catholique Church unanimously condemning all resistance against the Civil Government in any case but most of all in the case of Religion Under Constantine the Great it is not to be doubted but that they were forward enough in their Loyalty and Obedience to his Government for all Men are for the Government when the Government is for them and therefore this part of the Enquiry concerning the Peaceable behaviour of Christians under his Reign is wholly superseded because if they did their Duty they had no motive or temptation not to do it submission to his Government being no less their Interest then their Duty and therefore it was no matter of Praise or Vertue in them if they own'd and honour'd that Power that was their peculiar Deliverance and Protection So that this side of the Controversie I shall altogether wave in this place and only consider the Ecclesiastical State of things under his Government where I once intended to have Exemplified the due Exercise of Regal Supremacy in the Christian Church from his Example First As a Sovereign Prince Secondly As a Christian Sovereign And that First In matters of Faith and Christian Doctrine Secondly In matters of Discipline and Christian Government and here particularly First Of his Power in Summoning Councils as Supreme Governor of a Nâ—tional Church Secondly Of that Obligation that he brings upon himself by becoming a Christian First To abet the Power of the Church with his own Secular Authority Secondly To endow it with a Revenue for the maintenance of the Service of God and those that attend upon it But upon more mature deliberation I thought it much more adviseable to forbear all such Reasonings and Discourses till I had first set down the whole matter of Fact as things stood not only under his Reign but all the Succeeding Emperors where we shall find Precedents enough to make up a Demonstration of all the fore-mentioned Principles But because this is the first Instance of Uniting Church and State into one Body and because this Wise and Prudent Emperor seems to have exerted his Power in both exactly according to the Rules both of Religion and Government I shall the more curiously consider the management of Affairs under his Reign whereby will be fully exemplified how this Union may be reduced to practice without any Diminution of either Power or Confusion of one with another and that will plainly demonstrate wherein consists the Original Rights of the Church in a Christian State and the due Exercise of the Supremacy of Christian Kings over all Ecclesiastical Persons Rights and Powers Now because the Supreme Power in all Government is the Legislative Power and is the thing most disputed in this Controversie I shall shew that he was so far from annexing this Power in the Church to the Imperial Crown that he expresly asserted its inherent Right and Protected it in its Exercise within it self with all his zeal and ability In that whenever he had a mind to have any Ecclesiastical Laws Enacted he never presumed to do it by his own Authority which he ever declared would have been no less Crime then to invade the Power of God himself but always referred the matter to the Bishops in Council and by their Canons he framed his Ecclesiastical Laws but never made any without or against them And that is a full and clear acknowledgement of that antecedent Authority that they enjoyed by our Saviour's appointment when he constituted the Apostles and their Successors Supreme Governors of his Church to the End of the World So that in all Changes and Revolutions of things their Government must remain unalterable and indefeasible and whatever Assistance
but overwhelm'd him forever for now the Apostate becomes Treacherous and Cruel and privately sends his Assassinates to cut his Throat Of this Athanasius being inform'd he immediately takes Boat for Thebais but being close pursued by the Murtherers instead of Landing and Sheltring himself in the Woods as his friends advised him he according to his usual readiness of Wit commands the Boat-man to row back to Alexandria and meeting with the other Boat that pursued him the Captain of the Cut-throats calls to them to know whether they met Athanasius and how far off they might suppose him to be Athanasius himself answers That he knew him very well and that he was hard by bids them row hard and then there could be no doubt but that they must overtake him and so for that time he escapes to Alexandria and there lyes hid till the Storm was over But the Prefects seeing the Emperour 's mighty Zeal and being themselves great Patâ—iots of the Superstition he having displaced all Constantius his Prefects and put in Bigots of his own Religion having so fair an Example from their Master resolve as it always happens in such Cases to outrun his leading Zeal And therefore in all places prosecute the Christians with all kind of Cruelty and Oppression And if they complain'd to the Emperor himself they had no redress but were only flouted with that silly and prophane Sarcasm That suffering was the duty of their Religion And that was his daily practice and much becoming the gravity of an Emperor and a Philosopher too to play such childish and perverse Glosses upon our Saviour's Precepts But he rested not here but when he resolved upon his Persian Expedition he imposes a Tax upon all that refused to Sacrifice to the Gods according to the ability of the Person for the maintenance of the War and if any complain'd of the Exactions of his Officers then his standing Jest was That Poverty was not only their duty but their advantage And when he rob'd the Church of its Treasury he season'd his Sacriledge with this abusive Sarcasm Se Christianos expeditiores faceâ—e ad Regnum Caelorum quia Galilaeus Mâ—gister ipsorum dixerit beatos esse pauperes quoniam talium est regnum Caelorum That he only did it to conveigh the Christians with the more ease to Heaven because the Galilaean their Master declared that blessed are the Poor for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven But besides this he disbands all Officers that refuse to Sacrifice and hereupon Valentinian and Valens that were then great Commanders and afterwards Emperors peaceably laid down their Arms declaring themselves ready to suffer any thing rather then wrong their Consciences or betray their Religion Whereas those who profess't it in the time of Constantine and Constantius only for Worldly Interest and Advantage readily complyed with all his Impositions and among these that famous Weather-cock Ecebolius the Sophist marched in the first rank Before Julian's time he was a Zealous Christian under him a furious Pagan after him a Christian again to that sneaking degree that he would lye bellowing upon the threshold of the Church doors begging all Christians that passed over him to trample upon him as infatuated Salt And thus in short to pass by many more arts of Oppression he pursued the Christians with as vehement Outrage but much more provoking Contempt then any of the old Persecutors Continually breaking Jests not only upon their Religion but their Miseries which is not only to wound a Man but to rub Salt and pour Vinegar upon his Sores a piece of Barbarity that was peculiar to Julian alone And no Man but the greatest Pedant in the World and so was he could have condescended to so mean a piece of malice and revenge And as he for his short Reign out Outraged all his Predecessors in the fury and madness of his Persecution so the Christians resolved to out do their Ancestors in Patience and Passive Obedience under all his abusive Tyranny And though they had the strength and the Law of the Empire on their side yet being Christians they scorn'd to make use of any other Weapons in defence of their Religion than Prayers and Tears But though this is the bravest Example of the Doctrine and Practice of the Passive Obedience of Christians that we have upon Record in all the Annals of the Church yet the World has been of late bless't with a new discovery of I know not what strange undutiful unchristian inhumane and disloyal behaviour towards him as exceeding the salvageness of Cannibals and Barbarians in contempt and insolence treating him with more roughness then a Mid-night Thief or a High-way Robber §. XX. But first if it were true it is a very poor and impertinent Precedent to Warrant the new Christian-duty of our modern Apostates for all Rebel-Christians renounce Christianity with much more dishonour to it then Julian himself ever did of Resistance and Rebellion to Sovereign Princes For what if the Christians at that time had been really guilty of any miscarriages in that kind what objection is that one miscarriage against the constant Doctrine and Tradition of the Christian Church in all Ages This is to be taken from its general practice and sense and not from the irregularities of a few private Persons for it is too hard to expect that all Men should live up to their Principles and that every one that profess't himself a Christian should be free from all misdemeanours against his own Profession That is too great a persection to be required in this life There is no Church but that in Heaven without some miscarriages and faulty Members and therefore it is but a mean and childish undertaking that argues great malice and little wit though it were true to find out in all the Records of the Church one or two instances of old in which the Christians did not behave themselves with that decency as they ought and profess't to owe to their Governors For what if it be true What does that prove but that they were so much Men as sometimes to have fall'n short both of their Duty and Profession What is that against the general and declared Sense of the Church Upon the same terms the Primitive Christians may be loaded with all the Crimes in the World because some that professed Christianity some time or other fell into all but this What then if it were true that the behaviour of some Christians towards the Apostate was not such as became their duty towards their Sovereign what is that to the Sense of the Catholick Church in all Ages before and for many after to the year 1073 Can it reasonably be expected that in so long a Tract of time there should not be one instance of the miscarriage of Christians in this kind and yet this at the best is the case of this wonderful Precedent to overthrow the whole Catholick Doctrine of Passive Obedience But Seditious Persons are fond of any
taken into Protection by the first Christian Emperours knowing how much it will endear the Church of England to Your Majesties Royal Care and Kindness when you discern its exact conformity to the first Constitution in all things but its Suffering And now I cannot pray for more happiness to Your Sacred Majesty then they comprised in a Collect for their Heathen Emperours under all the Storms and Outrages of Persecution That Almighty God would grant You a Long Life a Quiet Reign an Undisturbed Family Valiant Armies Faithful Councellors and Loyal Subjects That all things may fall out as successfully as Your Royal Heart can desire That Your Empire may ever increase and flourish And that the Lineal and Legal Succession of Your Royal Family may inherit Your Imperial Throne through all Succeeding Ages Which is the daily Prayer of Your Majesties Most Humble and Dutiful Subject S. P. The Contents § I. THE Introduction representing the seeming difficulty of the Argument from the niceness of the Controversy it self from the partiality of the Writers engaged in it and from the just jealousy of Superiours about it and yet nothing more easy to determine to the Satisfaction of all Parties concern'd and particularly to the advantage of Soveraign Powers Pag. 1. § II. Christianity supposes the power of Princes Our Saviour disclaims all Temporal Authority and all exemption from it to those that have it To pretend to any such thing by any grant from him is to renounce him and turn Mahumetan Christ as he is Head of his Church is subject to Sovereign Powers pag. 10 § III. The Power of Princes over the Church supposes the Power in the Church it is no Spiritual but a Civil Power over the Spiritual to deny the Authority of the Church in all Ages is to take away our Saviours own Authority all the several branches of his Commission to the Apostles proved against Mr. Hobbs to be Authoritative pag. 34. § IV. No Church-Power but what is conveyed from the Apostles by Ordination The Supremacy of Princes is the same whether Heathen or Christian Princes neither gain nor loose any Power by their Christianity Mr. Hobbs that he may destroy the present Power of the Church is forced to take away our Saviours own Power over it in this present World pag. 56. § V. The danger of a competition between these two Powers wholly avoided by the Churches Power being founded upon the Doctrine of the Cross. The Doctrine of the Cross explained pag. 65. § VI. The Rights of Sovereign Princes secured and improved by divers particular Laws of the Christian Institution The folly of limiting the obligation of these Laws to such Governours as govern by Law demonstrated against Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Baxter pag. 77. § VII Submission to the worst of Princes proved much wiser and much more advantageous to the Interest of the Subject then the liberty of Resistance or Rebellion in any case whatsoever Barclay's Concession of its being lawful in any case shewn to be an inlet to the subversion of all Governments in all cases pag. 109. § VIII Those that are trusted by our Saviour with the Government of his Church are tyed by him to a particular and exemplary submission to Civil Authority They are not forbidden the exercise of power but the haughty and insolent use of it The Church of England consists not in its Laws but in its Authority to Act Laws pag. 126. § IX The Primitive Churches practice of Passive Obedience No Canons against Rebellion because it was then never committed The Church careful to secure all mens civil Rights Canons to secure the Rights of Masters over Servants The Doctrine of Universal submission taught in the Greek Church by Policarp Justin Martyr Athenagoras Theophilus Origen and Dionysius of Alexandria p. 140. § X. The same Doctrine taught and practised in the Latin Church by Irenaeus Tertullian Minutius Foelix St. Cyprian It was not lawful for Christians that were banish't for their Religion to return home without leave of the Government To say this Doctrine was then taught because they wanted strength is to call them Knaves and Villains The blasphemy of the Independants in justifying their Treason by pretending to Inspiration from Heaven This done by John Goodwin and J. O. pag. 153. § XI The strictness of Government in the Church kept up to the height all this Interval notwithstanding their entire submission to the power of the Empire The necessity of a Legislative Power to the Being of a Church The Government and Discipline of the Primitive Church exemplified from the Apostolical Canons pag. 169. § XII The State of the Primitive Church collected into one view out of the Writings of St. Câ—prian with an account of the birth growth and death of the Novatian Schism His first Principle of Unity is the duty of Communion with the Bishop in every particular Church pag. 198. § XIII His second Principle of Unity is the Obligation upon all Christian Bishops to keep up correspondence and Communion among themselves pag. 227. § XIV Mr. Thorndike's Notion of the Unity of the Catholick Church by way of External Polity vindicated against the Objections of Dr. Barrow and the Doctors Treatise concerning the Unity of the Church confuted pag. 236. Part. II. § I. THe Concurrence of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Power under the Reign of Constantine the Great in the Cause of the Donatists and Arians An account of the History of the Donatists from their beginning to the Council at Rome under Melchiades pag. 265. § II. A Chasm discovered in Optatus from the Council of Rome till after the Council of Arles The Sentence of the Council of Arles against the Schismaticks Their Illegal Appeal to the Emperour His resentments of it The Forgery of Ingentius against Foelix of Aptung discovered Constantine's Sentence against them at Milan without accepting their Appeal pag. 285. § III. Constantine's Proceedings against them But forced to grant them Liberty of Conscience upon his War with Licinius Their insolence upon it Their Case parallel with our present Schismaticks pag. 300. § IV. A Character of Donatus the Great and his Circumcellians Their behaviour towards the Emperour's Commissioners Their Flatteries of Julian pag. 307. § V. Their divisions and subdivisions among themselves Their Outrages and siding with Gildo the African Rebel Their disingenuity publickly exposed both by the Emperour and the Church The Imperial Laws against them and their great Efficacy Liberty of Conscience again granted them upon the Invasion of the Goths pag. 316. § VI. An account of the Conference at Carthage before Marcellinus The Donatists design in procuring his Murther The Faction forever broke by the effectual execution of Laws against them under Honorius p. 333. § VII The History of Arianism from its beginning to the end of the Nicene Council Eusebius of Caesarea and Petavius vindicated from suspicion of the Heresie Eusebius of Nicomedia and his Faction no Arians p. 348. § VIII After the Council
only Arius two Bishops and two Presbyters stood to the Arian Cause All the following troubles proceeded from the revenge and malice of the Nicomedian Eusebius His Plot against Athanasius by Ischyras and the Meletian Evidences The brutish and barbarous proceedings against him at the Council of Tyre pag. 370. § IX By what Stratagem the banishment of Athanasius and the Restitution of Arius was procured The fabulous reports of Philostorgius and Sandius Constantine's innocence clear'd as to the sufferings of Athanasius and the Charge of Arianism pag. 390. § X. Of the division of the Empire between the Sons of Constantine The Controversie under Constantius not managed between the Catholicks and Arians but the Catholicks and the Eusebians pag. 409. § XI The mystery of the crafty Proceedings of the Council of Antioch against Athanasius discovered his Absolution at Rome Pope Julius his Letter and Eusebius his death pag. 421. § XII The sufferings of Paul of Constantinople from the Eusebians An account of the Councils of Sardica and Philippopolis The craft of the Eusebians in dividing the Council pag. 441. § XIII The Issue of both Councils Athanasius his triumphant Restitution By what Calumny his second banishment was procured The wild Proceedings of Constantius at the Council of Milan pag. 451. § XIV The banishment of Liberius and Hosius The black Characters of the Ring-leading Eusebians Particularly describing the wickedness and cruelty of St. George of Alexandria pag. 465. § XV. The Photinian Heresie The Council of Sirmium against it It s right time stated against Petavius Made up of Eusebians Of the forged Creed of Valens in the name of the Council Of the Council of Ancyra Hosius vindicated from subscribing the second Sirmian Creed The ground of St. Hilary's mistake about it His Book against Constantius proved to be spurious Pope Liberius vindicated from Heresie but not from disingenuity pag. 476. § XVI Of the Anomaeans A Character of Aëtius Of the Conference at Sirmium and the reconciling Creed Of the Council of Arimnium Of Valens and his Conventicle Of the fraud and force put upon the Council pag. 502. § XVII Of the Council of Seleucia and the breach between the Eusebians and the Acacians The Emperour over-reach't by the Acacians Of the Banishment of the Eusebians Of the Acacian Council at Antioch Of the Fanatick Sects of the Massalians and Eustathians pag. 519. § XVIII The Power of the Church own'd though oppress 't by Constantius The great difference of his Reign before and after the Conquest of Magnentius All Councils before Free all after forced His ill Actings excused as proceeding from mistake not malice His great kindness to the Christian Church The Reigns of Constantine and Constantius compared Of the signal Loyalty and Passive Obedience of Athanasius pag. 533. § XIX Of the Reign of Julian his great zeal for Paganism His design to destroy Christianity by Liberty of Coâ—science The Church not only preserved but settled by the free use of its own Authority Of the Actings of St. Athanasius and St. Hilary for its settlement The Apostates fury against Athanasius for it The baseness of his Persecution The Passive Obedience of the Christians under it pag. 562. § XX. The gross impertinency of alledging their example to warrant Resistance supposing its truth It s horrible falsehood proved from the whole History of his Reign and their behaviour towards the Imperial Beard clear'd of all blame pag. 578. Errata PAge 33. Line 9. for a read any p. 42. l. 17. for a r. no. p. 80. l. 17. for effect r. affect p. 84. l. 22. for make r. makes p. 97. l. 2. for domini r. dominii p. 153. l. 9. for imminent r. eminent ibid. l. 25. for ought r. ought not p. 157. l. 4. for Castrian r. Cassian p. 163. l. 22. before sufficient strength insert want of p. 190. l. 29. for and r. as p. 241. l. 23. blot out is p. 254. l. 13. for Colledges r. Colledge p. 262. l. 25. for verity r. unity p. 272. l. 29. after sacrifice insert to p. 277. l. 19. after they insert are p. 294. l. 28. for factions r. fictions p. 306 l. 2. for whola r. whole p. 369. l. ult r. sanctions p. 392. l. 27. for the desired r. desired the. p. 410. l. ult for intrigue r. interregnum p. 470. l. 18. for ill-bred r. ill breed p. 491. l. 13. for in r. as p. 494. l. 23. for ferced r. forced p. 529. l. 24. for Photians r. Photinians p. 533. l. 7. for our r. once p. 537. l. 13. for lying r. flying p. 588. l. 4. insert though before they had PART I. SECT I. UPon the Dissolution of the Roman Tyranny under which all Christendom had groan'd for many Ages infinite were the disputes and controversies that were immediately every where raised about the true Constitution of the Ecclesiastical State and Government Some ouâ— of an over-vehement loathing of their late Bondage were out-ragious for its utter Abolition so as to leave every man to his own liberty and folly too to teach and practise what himself pleases in matters of Religion without being accountable to any Superior Ecclesiastical or Civil for any misdemeanours therein Others are as fierce to have all Ecclesiastical Officers though immediately Commission'd by our Saviour for the Government of his Kingdom through all Ages stript of all manner of Authority in the Christian Church and all Government of Religion vested only in the Civil Magistrate Others again were neither for its utter Extirpation nor confining the whole exercise of its Jurisdiction to the Secular Powers but for dividing it into its several Provinces assigning some part of it to the Clergy and some to the Civil State Because Religion being Instituted chiefly for these two great ends viz. The advancement of the present Peace and Welfare of Mankind in this World and their safe Conduct and Passage to the State of Bliss and Happiness in the World to come so far as it relates to the present quiet of humane Society it is but fit and necessary it should be subject to the Authority of the Supreme Powers over them whose proper Duty Trust and Office it is to provide for the settlement and preservation of the Publick Peace And therefore seeing that Religion has a prime and over-ruling influence upon that so as either to establish or disturb it by its good or bad management it concerns them in the first place to encourage such Doctrines and Principles as in their own nature tend to the Peace and Quiet of Government and to root out such false Notions as incline or induce men to any Turbulent and Seditious practices under any pretences or mistakes of Religion And if any such there be or if any such there have been nay if any such there can be it cannot be denyed by the boldest Libertines but that in such cases the Supreme Magistrate must be allowed power to defend himâ—â—lf and his Government against their Errors or Follies by
appear at first view are clearly scatter'd by one very easie and obvious consideration And that is that the Christian Church as it is endued with no Temporal Authority or Power of the Sword so all the Authority that it has is founded upon the Cross of Christ and that obliges all that own it to a more entire and resign'd submission to Civil Government then Men could have been brought under by any other way without its Institution So that the Erection of our Saviour's new Kingdom within the Kingdoms of the Earth upon the Doctrine of the Cross is so far from defrauding Sovereign Princes of their Ancient Authority that it is its greatest improvement and inforcement but especially it makes the Power of Christian Sovereignâ— more absolute then all other Powers that are not Christian and even to these it raises their Soveraignty higher then it was before over all their Christian Subjects by binding them to a stricter Allegiance then their own Laws and of all other Christians those that have the highest Authority in the Church are obliged by their very Office to the most humble peaceable and absolute submission to the worst of Governments All which considerations render Christianity the most easie of any Religion in the World for compliance with the peace and quiet of Government And first as for the Notion of the Doctrine of the Cross it is singular to Christianity For all other Religions both of Jews and Gentiles had some Worldly interest twisted with them but our Saviour to avoid all mixtures of Hypocrisie abstracts his Institution from all considerations unless of the World to come And therefore first Erects his Kingdom not only without any Promise of any advantages of this life but to let his followers know what they were to trust to by the Principles of his Religion with a certain assurance of the loss of all the comforts of life and at last life it self So evident is it from the original Constitution of the Christian Church that it is so far from giving Men any claims of Worldly Interest that meerly as they are Christians they are obliged whenever they are called to it to renounce them all And this Doctrine lying at the Foundation of Christianity our Saviour was careful to settle it in the first place When he gives his Disciples their first Commission to preach the Gospel to all Nations that is the first Condition that he teaches them to require of all Proselytes He that taketh not up his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me i. e. He that takes not up his Religion upon condition of taking up the Cross too is no true Christian. By which expression of taking up the Cross is signified the under-going of all kind of Calamities of which the Cross was the greatest being the most shameful and most painful punishment that was used at that time And therefore Plato in his Description of a perfect good-Man that nothing shall fright out of his Duty and Conscience says of him that when he has suffered all miseries he will endure to be Crucified too So that the meaning of our Saviour's words is plainly this Let no Man expect any Worldly profit by following me and therefore not pretend that I gave him any ground for it but on the contrary such is the nature of my Institution that whoever will undertake it it must be upon no less condition then this that he be willing and ready to suffer all manner of Persecutions for it even the scandalous death of the Cross it self So plain is it that Christianity when it meets with any Opposition is to maintain it self by nothing but suffering to use no weapon but the Cross and Men that are indispensably obliged to such an absolute submission are sufficiently tyed up if any such thing be possible from creating any disturbance to the Civil State for what greater security can be contrived against that then that Men should be bound by the first Principle of their Religion with meekness and cheerfulness to resign up their Lives to the pleasure of the Government So it is in the case of Christianity they have nothing to plead but their own innocence and if that will not satisfie they have no Authority from our Saviour to upbraid the Power that condemns them and Remonstrate to the Justice of the Court but instead of that are obliged to undergo its Sentence as he did with all manner of meekness and silence Here is no disputing the Commands of Princes whether right or wrong nothing but absolute submission to their most unjust and illegal Proceedings much less any opposition to their most unwarrantable Commands nor any weapon of defence but laying down their Lives after their great Masters Example in submission to the Government This is the true and honest state of the Christian Church that every Man be faithful to the Laws of his Religion and if he suffer for it he shall be compensated with those Rewards that his Religion Promises and that is compensation enough for all that he can suffer in this World and if he take it not up with this condition it is not the Christian Religion that he takes up for it is no Christian Religion without the Cross. And so our Saviour has all along stated the matter upon all occasions And it being so stated it is easie to understand how in cases of the greatest competition both Powers so prevail at the same time as to attain both their respective Ends. For by it the Civil Power must over-rule as to all effects of this life and when it is to be thus gently submitted to in its most unjust Decrees that is a full security of the Peace and Quiet of this World and that is the proper end for which it was instituted And the Spiritual Power attains its effect as to the World to come i. e. the salvation of the Souls of Men by their Conscientious Loyalty to their Saviour and his Laws and that is all that it aims at and that every Professor of it ought to pretend to This is so plain and evident in the whole practice of the Primitive Church that one would wonder that any Man should ever dream that true Christianity could any way interfere with Civil Government For when the Powers of the World at that time particularly the Governors of the Roman Empire being under a mistaken apprehension that the new Christian Religion aim'd at Innovation in Government endeavour'd by all the methods of Cruelty to stop its progress the Christians who were all bound openly to profess their Faith and some of them to propagate it in publick notwithstanding all that bloody opposition that was made against it went on in their work without creating any the least disturbance to their Governors unless what they gave themselves by their own needless outrage against them For all that they did in their own defence was only to declare that how much soever they were displeased with the
Christian Religion they could have no ground or provocation to persecute it because it was not only by its Laws but by its very Constitution in the first place tender of all the Rights of Civil Government but if notwithstanding that they were resolved to proceed against them they had nothing more to say or do for themselves then to lay down their Lives with all possible meekness in submission to their Royal Will and Pleasure and hoped they would not take it for any piece of stubbornness or affected disobedience that they would not Renounce their Faith nor quit their hopes in the Kingdom of Heaven out of compliance with their Commands when they saw them so much in good earnest as to be ready to lay down their Lives out of pure submission to their Authority Such a competition as this cannot be avoided upon the supposition of the real Truth of Christianity but then upon supposition of its Nature it is impossible that it can be any way prejudicial to Civil Government to which by its obligation to peaceable suffering under it it cannot avoid to discharge its whole duty of subjection to it If it be said that though this is the real state of Christianity in it self it cannot be expected that its Professors should be so perfect and so free from passion but that they may be provoked to resistance by Oppression To this it is easily answered that how much soever the Christian Religion allows for other infirmities of Flesh and Blood this is open defiance and contradiction to it so that the Man that pretends to Christianity and yet can be prevail'd upon by any Temptation to entertain one thought of it is a Villain a Cut-throat a Traytor and a Rebel not only against his King but his Saviour And therefore whenever Princes are encountred with any pretences whatsoever of disturbance upon the account of Religion for that very reason alone they ought to cut them off as the most incorrigible and most unpardonable sort of Traytors And if they are Christians themselves and have any kindness for the honour of their Religion to make such shameless pretenders to it the Examples of their utmost severity it is the very top of all Blasphemy as well as Rebellion In short there can be nothing more evident then this that Christianity it self as it is founded upon the Doctrine of the Cross can never do any harm to Civil Government so if it be ever abused and prophaned to such designs they that do it are the worst of Villains that deserve the utmost punishment that can be inflicted upon them in this life and will be sure to meet with it in the life to come And that I think is all that it is possible for any Law to do to deterr those that it would oblige from offending against it by all the Penalties that God or Man can inflict §. VI. But secondly beside this general Doctrine of the Cross that cuts up the very Roots of all resistance to Lawful Powers there are great numbers of particular Laws peculiar to this Religion that lop off all its Branches and Pretences by advancing the Reverence that is due to Authority and requiring from all that profess any Obedience to that a more accurate Obedience and Subjection to their Governors then their Governors could have obliged them to by their own Authority So that of all Men the Christian must be the best Subject by his very profession so far is he from being brought under any probable Temptation of disrespect to his Superiours by his Christianity that by that be his Governours what they will Caligula's Nero's or Domitian's he is bound by a new obligation under no less penalty than the Divine displeasure to give them the highest honour and the lowest subjection It were an endless work to enumerate all passages in the Holy Scripture to this purpose it being more frequently and more earnestly urged then any other duty because as Mr. B. very well observes in his Book of the Lawfulness of Rebellion Every Man is naturally selfish and proud and apt to break the bounds that God hath set us and to be Kings and Laws to our selves This Rebelling disobedient disposition therefore should be first resisted and subdued as a greater Enemy to the Peace of Nations then the faults of Princes are And therefore I shall alledge one or two of the most pregnant Texts against it to shew both the Impudence and Impiety of those Men and himself in particular who dare Reconcile any Pretence to Christianity with the least disrespect to Sovereign Powers And whilst they lay claims to greater Holiness and Purity then their Neighbours are putting continual slights and affronts upon their Governours and whenever they can gain an opportunity by the assistance of the Rabble blush not with all their demureness to wrastle with them for their Supremacy Which is such a rank piece of Blasphemy such a bare-faced appearance of Antichrist Mahomet and Hildebrand as no good Christian can sufficiently abhor nor any wise Magistrate sufficiently punish Though the greatest affront of all is to the Holy Scriptures themselves for when they have so clearly and severely forbidden all Resistance to Supreme Powers when the Rules that they have given in this case are so absolute and universal to prevent all Evasion when beside the great Authority of the Command it self they enforce it by its own wisdom and reasonableness in a word when it is tyed upon us by all the strongest Obligations both of Power Interest and Ingenuity after all this to escape the force of a Law so carefully Enacted is to pass an open slight upon the Wisdom of the Legislator himself But to make these very Precepts that were given on purpose to cut off all pretences of Resistance so many Warrants and Commissions given to Subjects for raising Rebellion against their Sovereigns as has been done in our Age exceeds all the Impiety of Men nay of Devils too in all former Ages For what can be more clearly and fully express'd then St. Paul's Discourse to the Romans chap. 13 Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God The Powers that now are are ordain'd of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation c. Here is no Restriction no Reservation 't is the Catholique Duty of all Mankind and stands upon such reasons as equally effect all And first from the Original of all Authority It is from God It is not said because those in Power were either the best or the wisest Men but be the Men what they will they have their Authority from God himself and for that reason he requires subjection to them as to himself and therefore looks upon all resistance to these his Vicegerents as an affront to the Authority of his own Commission Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And then no
himself is Deposed and Anathematised as one that destroyed the Order of the Church and disturb'd the Peace of Christian Empire and compass't the Death of a Catholique Prince and abetted a perjured Usurper and subverted the Peace of the World And the same Sentence was ratified five years after in a Council at Mentz though all in vain for they got nothing by it but the Name and the Brand of Schismatiques But what bloody work has been made in Christendom by the Principles of this Termagant Pope from that time to this will make up a Volume of it self when we come to those times But to return to the state of the Primitive Church though there are no examples of any affront or violence offer'd to the Civil Magistrate in it yet there are numberless Instances of their quiet and peaceable Submission and that too upon Principles of Duty and Obligations of Conscience Thus was it bravely said of St. Polycarp and worthy the greatness and wisdom of the Martyr to the Pro-Consul at his Tryal We are Commanded Sir to give all due and decent honour to Princes and Magistrates so far as we can do it without doing wrong to our own Consciences They were bound to comply with and submit to the Will of their Governours in all things but Sin and that by the Laws of their Religion But the most magnificent Account of this is to be seen in the Christian Apologists who in the very heat and flame of Persecutions when if ever Men should be exasperated into Passion Glory and Triumph in their great Zeal and Loyalty to those very Princes by whom they were persecuted Just in Martyr is so confident as to Petition the Emperours to punish all such as profess't Christianity and yet lived not according to the Laws of their Religion and then immediately adds As for our parts we are the most forward of any Subjects to pay Taxes and Contributions to the Emperour as we are Commanded by our Master to give unto God the things that are God's and unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's And therefore we worship God alone but cheerfully serve them in all other things as well knowing them to be Sovereign Princes over Men and withal praying for them that God would add Wisdom to their Imperial Dignity This is our Practice and Profession and if notwithstanding this you will proceed against us we shall be no losers being assured that every Man must after death give an account of his own Actions and then our Rewards shall be proportion'd to our Sufferings And after the same manner and with the same confidence does his Scholar Athenagoras conclude his Eloquent Oration to the Emperours when he had shewn the Innocence of the Christians in all other particulars when he had wip't off all Calumnies and when he had represented their Piety their Honesty their Temperance their Sobriety he adds And now great and worthy Sirs lend me your Royal Ear who think you are more likely to obtain the things that they pray for then Persons so qualified and yet we daily poure forth our Prayers for the prosperity of your Government and that the Son may according to right succeed the Father in the Empire and that your Government may ever increase and flourish in short that all things may fall out as successfully as your hearts can desire which will be a benefit also to our selves that living under your Reign a quiet and peaceable life we may readily obey your Commands That was the sum of all their Apologies and it was suited to the Nature of their Religion as it stood founded upon the Doctrine of the Cross we are obedient to all your Commands that are not contrary to the true worship of God and the Laws of our Religion there we crave leave to be excused and if that offend you we can but suffer for it which we are ready to do with all manner of meekness and submission as being assured of an â—ternal Reward for a short calamity Theophilus Antiochenus in his Address to his Friend discoursing of the Folly and Vanity of giving Divine Worship to the Emperours he tells him That it is a much greater honour to them not to worship but to pray for them I will worship that God from whom Caesar received his Authority But you will say why not Caesar too Because he was not set up to be worshipt but to be paid that proper honour that is due to Caesar for the King is not the Deity but ought to remember that he is advanced by God to that height of Dignity not to be worshipt by his Subjects but to do them Justice for this end the Divine Majesty placed him in the Imperial Throne and therefore as Caesar will not suffer any of his Subjects to usurp the Caesarean Title because it belongs to him alone neither let himself challenge that worship that is proper and peculiar to the Divine Majesty And therefore O Man honour the King honour him I say by loving him obeying him and praying for him and by so doing you will do the will of God for this is the Sum of the Divine Law my Son honour God and the King and be not disobedient or refractory to either of them This was the true state of the Case in his time to shew all manner of respect and honour to Sovereign Princes as such only in Subordination to God so as to obey them in all things but when their commands interfer'd and then indeed they choose to obey God in the first place still preserving in all other things the same honour and duty to their Prince And after the same manner Origen answers Celsus when he asks him why the Christians cannot worship and appease the Emperours because says he there is only one God that ought to be worshipt the Lord of all and he is best appeased with devout Prayers but the favour of Princes is not to be courted by such mean and dishonourable obsequiousness as is inconsistent with true Piety or such servile Flatteries as are unworthy a generous man and one that esteems magnaâ—imity to be the greatest of Vertues but as far as our Piety to God will permit we are not so frantick that we should wilfully exafperate the displeasure of Kings to deliver us to torments and death for we are so taught in our Books let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but is of God therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And these words are to be understood in their plain and natural sense And their Sense is so very plain that it is impossible to fasten any other Sense upon them beside their own With all these imminent Doctors of the Church agrees the Answer of that pious and resolute Prelate Dyonysius of Alexandria in his Examination before AEmilianus Prefect of Egypt that we worship one God the Maker of all things and who bestowed the Empire upon their
God had preordained and for the more easie letting of him in and the appointed continuance of him in his Throne there was a special necessity that no such Opinion as this of the lawfulness of resistance whether true or untrue should be taught and believed Whereas now on the contrary that the time of God's preordination and purpose for the downfal of Antichrist drawing near there is a kind of necessity that those truths which have hitherto slept should now be awakened as the necessary means to ruine Antichrist particularly that God should reveal to his faithful Ministers and Servants the just bounds and limits of Authority and Power and the just and full extent of the lawful Liberties of those that live in subjection This is the sum of the new discoveries of John Goodwin in his Book Entituled the Anti-Cavalier And there are divers passages to the same purpose in the Writings of John Owen about the same time who has warranted all the Villanies of Cromwel and his Independants even the King's Murther itself by pretending to new Lights and Revelations from Heaven Particularly That when God is doing great things he gives glorious manifestations of his excellencies to his secret ones So that he that is call'd to serve Providence in high things without some especial discovery of God works in the dark and knows not whither he goes and what he does such an one travels in the Wilderness without a directing Cloud Clear shining from God must be at the bottom of deep labouring with God What is the Reason that so many in our days set their hands to the Plough and look back again Begin to serve Providence in great things but cannot finish Give over in the heat of the day They never had such Revelation of the mind of God upon their Spirits such a discovery of his Excellencies as might serve for a bottom of such undertakings Men must know that if God hath not appear'd to them in brightness and shewn them the horns in his hand hid from others though they think highly of themselves they 'l deny God twice and thrice before the close of the work of this Age. Hence is the suiting of great Light and great work in our days Let new Light be derided whilst men please he will never serve the Will of God in this Generation who sees not beyond the line of foregoing Ages But what is this new Light that was never seen in the World before to this it is fairly answered plainly the peculiar Light of this Generation is that discovery which the Lord hath made to his people of the mystery of Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny By which a Monarchy of some hundred years continuance always affecting and at length wholly degenerating into Tyranny was destroyed pull'd down and swallowed up a great and mighty Potentate that had caused terrour in the Land of the Living and laid his Sword under his head was brought to punishment for Blood as he expresses it in his Thanksgiving for his present Majesties overthrow at Worcester p. 15 where he very familiarly bestows upon him the honourable Titles of a Tyrant full of Revenge a man of Blood a Son of Belial Absalom and Sheba the Son of Bichri And lastly he encourages the Rebels and Traytors the day immediately after his late Majesties Murther with a jacta est Alea i. e. the cast of a Dye thrown by the hand of God himself whose Providence he says must be served in it according to the discovery made of his own unchangeable Will But such pretences as these are such desperate pieces of Villany in themselves so framed to serve any wickedness in the World such rank Blasphemy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government and Society that for any man to make use of them is the very height of Prophaneness and when men are come so far it is in vain to confute them because 't is impossible to object worse things against them then they are ready to own But however they unawares make a fair confession that their own Doctrine and Practice is contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Practice of its Primitive Professors and then we care not whence they receive it for whencesoever it comes it makes them Apostates from the Christian Faith that did not only suppress it but expresly condemn it so that if their new discovery be true there is an end of the Gospel To that height of Prophaneness were these men blown up by their success in Villany that they would rather renounce their Saviour openly before God and the World then quit their Rebellion Though the highest aggravation of it is that after so daring a defiance to the Christian Religion they dare pretend to the highest claims of Gospel Purity But that has ever been the Policy of Enthusiasts to piece out their notorious forfeiture of all Integrity with infinite pride and confidence But thus we see it is aâ—d thus it must be that if men once forsake the Doctrine of the Cross there is no stopping till they come to the Gospel of the Pigeon and the Scymeter And thus having proved the first Proposition the Doctrine and Practice of Submission and Passive Obedience under the severest Cruelties and Perâ—ecutions I now proceed to the second thing to be consider'd in this Interval viz. That notwithstanding this absolute and entire submission to the Civil Powers under all Persecutions they kept up a strict Government and vigorous Discipline within themselves by vertue of their own Authority And that will be a new demonstration from experience and matter of Fact that the highest exercise of Ecclesiastical Power for then it was at the height is so far from interfering with the Civil that it is every way compliant with the lowest state of Subjection to it §. 11. In the first place it is already made evident that our Saviour by his own appointment setled Governours over his Church and that these were the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops through all Ages Now the proper office of all Government is to see to the execution of all Laws already in force and to enact new ones upon particular occasions and emergencies as they shall judge most advantageous to the present state of the Society And this was the work of the Apostles and Primitive Bishops always to promote the Practice of their Masters own Laws among his Subjects and as oft as it was needful to make occasional provisions for the peace and order of the Church Of the former I need say nothing because it is granted and supposed on all hands but of the latter it will be requisite to give a full account because though it is the only means that our Saviour has provided for the Unity of his Church and though by the use of it the Church was preserved in Peace and unity in its best and purest times and lastly though without it there can be no Government in the Church nor any bar to endless
Principles of their Religion and then I wonder what our new Apostates can gain by minding us of the Julian Christians And if their case was particular in that they had the Laws on their side as 't is falsely and ignorantly pretended and yet for all that taught the same Doctrine of Submission and Passive Obedience under him and that upon the same unalterable Principle as they did under all their former Persecutions that will be the greatest demonstration of the universality of their Doctrine and set it above all manner of exception upon any pretence whatsoever The Apostates first fury was vented among the military Men Men that from the very nature of their Profession are most apt to resent and revenge Injuries and though he provoked them more by the Contempt and Indignity of his Persecution then by its Severity yet they would rather swallow and digest an Affront the hardest Point in the World to a Soldier then repulse it with the least rudeness much less violence to their Sovereign Lord. And first he caused the Images of the Heathen Deities to be engraven with his own that were set as the Emperors Statues were wont to be in publick Places that if the People shewed the usual Honor to his Statue they might be supposed to worship the Idols and if for the Idols sake they should refuse to take notice of his Image he might punish them for breach of old Customs and Roman Laws in doing honour to the Imperial Majesty And that was another peculiar Enhancement of his Persecution never to punish the Christians as Christians but as Criminals and to the old Cruelties of Persecution to add this new one of Calumny first martyr their Innocence and then themselves And though by this little device he deceived some into shews of respect to his Deities yet the wiser easily seeing through so slight a design refused to give any Signs of Honor and so by their Example soon put an end to the little Stratagem and yet neither they that were cheated into the Folly nor they that were fraudulently punisht for withstanding it made any other resistance to his Commands or shewed any other disrespect to his Person His next Stratagem was somewhat more fine then this It was an old Custom among the Romans for the Emperors on their own Birth-days or other Holy days to give Donatives to their Soldiers and this Julian does but so orders it that near his Throne where he sat was placed a Fire with Incense some of which the simple Soldiers were told as they came to receive their Donative by some that were set there for that purpose they were bound by ancient Custom to sprinkle into the Fire And so great numbers were ignorantly drawn in to offer his kind of Sacrifice but coming afterward to understand the Cheat they run up and down the Streets and Market-places crying out That they are Christians and ever were so that they were over-reacht and meerly drawn in it and they had sacrificed with their Hands they had not with their Hearts and so they address to the Emperor in a Body and request him to take his Gold again and if he pleased to put them to death for they were resolved never to renounce their Religion but were ready to lay down their Lives for it To this Relation Theodoret adds That the Emperor immediately commanded them to be beheaded and they were conveyed out of the City to the place of Execution whither they went with extraordinary courage and cheerfulness requesting the Heads-man to dispatch the youngest first lest by beholding the bloody Execution of others his courage might faint and so one Romanus is first prepared and his head laid upon the Block but just before the blow was to be given a Messenger from the Emperor cries out at a great distance to stop it at which the young man sighing says Romanus was not thought worthy to be a Martyr of Christ. I conceive this is as high an Example of Passive Obedience as any we have upon Record in all the former Persecutions and indeed exceeds that of the Thebaean Legion for they were only decimated at first and so the greatest part were sure to escape but here the whole Body submit themselves one and all to the Ax of the Executioner without speaking an angry or a reproachful word against the Emperor And for this very act of Christian Loyalty they are particularly commended by St. Austin And yet these very Men one would scarce believe it are produced as one of the most remarkable instances of the ill-behaviour of the Christians towards Julian His next attempt was at Constantinople to reform his own Praetorian Bands where he Disbands all Officers that refuse to sacrifice in the Temple of Fortune upon which Valentinian and Valens two of his chief Commanders and divers others peaceably laid down their Arms declaring themselves not only ready to part with their Swords but their Lives for their Religion And to these Socrates adds Jovian though I doubt that is a mistake he being his General in his Army against the Persians In the next place finding all the old Temples at Caesarea the Metropolis of Cappadocia decayed and demolisht and disgraceful punishment says Palladius he endured with all patience and returned thanks to the Emperor for the honour as he had it from his own mouth But whatever his Persecution was against their Persons it was much more then all others against their Religion for beside those perpetual shams that he put upon it to make it ridiculous he dugg at the Foundations by rooting up the Clergy that so the People having no Publick Assemblies for Divine Worship they might in time grow barbarous and lose their Religion And his pretence against them was their raising Seditions And thus he banisht Seleusius and his Clergy from Cyzicum because the Christâ—ans were so numerous in the City that it was in vain to attempt reducing them any other way And so he commanded the Magistrates of Bostra to expel Titus their Bishop and threatned that if the People made any Sedition he would lay the blame and the punishment of it upon the Bishop and his Clergy upon this Titus presents him an humble Address shewing that though the Christians were an overmatch for the Heathens yet he need not fear any Tumult from them because he knew that they would follow his Exhortations to Peace and Patience Upon this the Apostate spitefully and childishly writes to the People to instigate them against their Bishop for slandering their Loyalty as if they were not peaceable of their own accord but were only wheedled into it by his Wit and Eloquence To such mean and dirty Arts did his malice stoop by any ways to do mischief but yet instead of provoking them to any disturbance by all his abuses we find nothing else preached even at this time then the old superannuated and unseasonable Doctrine of Passive Obedience The Apostate's last pranks against the Christians