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
of Renouncing his Saviour for so does every one that denies his distinct Authority and takes it to himself So inseparably is the right of Governing the Christian Church annexed to the Apostolical Office by virtue of our Saviour's Divine Authority that to take it from them and place it any where else is open Rebellion against the Soveraignty of God himself Thus far have I consider'd the wild Consequence of that Opinion that gives all Power in the Christian Church to the Civil Magistrate and shewn not only that it gives them what no Prince was ever so Extravagant as to challenge a Power to Administer the Sacraments a Power to Ordain Ecclesiastical Officers a Power to do all those Offices that are known all the World over to be proper only to the Ecclesiastical Function but withal that it apparently takes away all Authority from our Saviour himself And this in the Conclusion of all I must say for Mr. Hobbs that though he sticks not to own all these bad Consequences he affirms no more then what he is forced to by his first Assertion and whoever gives the proper Ecclesiastical Power to the Civil Sovereign if he will not own Mr. Hobbs his Consequences must quit his own Assertion And this I shall prove in its proper place upon all the followers of Erastus that will not acknowledge any form of Ecclesiastical Government settled by Divine Right they must Renounce their Christianity and be Baptized into the Church of Leviathan §. V. And now having avoided these two dangerous extremes one whereof destroys our Government and the other our Religion upon the supposition of the Truth of the Premisses there are and ever must be in all Kingdoms and Common-wealths where Christianity is Entertain'd and Protected two distinct Jurisdictions so as that if we confound them both together or that either invade or intrench upon the other it is as much as our Christianity is worth and the wrong either way will light at last upon our Saviour's own Authority For if the Priest challenge any Temporal Jurisdiction as derived from our Saviour beside the violation of the Rights of Sovereign Powers he directly affronts his Masters own Government and in effect disclaims it For his Kingdom is purely Spiritual and he becomes our Lord and Saviour by virtue of his Supremacy over it and therefore to pretend to any Power of another Nature from him as head of his Church is the thing that I charge with turning Christ into Mahomet and forces upon him in spight of his own Protestation against it a Temporal Dominion Which is such an abuse of his Institution and such a contradiction to his whole Design that to call him Impostor would not be a greater Blasphemy For this implies no less then that under pretence of such a Religious and Innocent design of erecting a Kingdom but not of this World he really intended no other Design then to advance an Universal Empire over all the World and all the Sovereign Powers of it And on the other side if a Sovereign Prince shall assume to himself the Exercise of that Power that is peculiarly vested in the Governors and Officers of the Church and so take upon him the sole Government of it as such instead of Governing the Church he destroys it when every Church as a Church is capable of no other Government then what was delegated to the Apostolical Office by our Saviour's own special Commission after the full settlement of the Rights of Sovereign Princes So that after this for them to take it to themselves is to act not only without but against our Saviour's own express Commission when he has so particularly appropriated that Power to another Order of Men. Neither is it only an encroachment upon our Saviour's own Authority but an assuming of it to himself In that the Prince thereby Challenges the Supreme Government of our Saviour's Kingdom without any Commission from him and then has it by virtue of his own Title and not of our Saviour's Grant and then is our Saviour plainly turn'd out of his Kingdom and another seated in his Throne Now this being the true State of the Christian Church the grand difficulty that follows upon it and that has hitherto so much puzled most Men in this Debate is the danger of Competition between two Supreme Powers For if they happen to contradict each other as of later time they have too often done who shall over-rule If a man obey his Prince contrary to the Prescription of his Spiritual Guide he may endanger his Soul if he obey the Bishop he disobeys his Prince and thereby forfeits his Neck to Justice This Knot is thought so difficult that instead of untying it it is generally cut asunder and the competition avoided by denying the distinction Thus the Romanists that are the high flying Assertors of Ecclesiastical Power unanimously confine all the Power of Sovereign Princes to things Secular and take away all Authority from them in matters Ecclesiastical And on the other side the greatest part of those that Assert the Royal Supremacy deny any Jurisdiction at all in Ecclesiastical Officers making their whole Function meerly Ministerial or nothing but a right to perform and administer the Offices of the Church but as for any Power or Jurisdiction in it they have none but what is granted by the Civil Magistrate But both these run into all the fore-mention'd ill Consequences the first by denying the King's Supremacy over all things within his own Dominions The second by denying our Saviour's Supremacy over his Catholick Church in all places by which he has every where settled a Power in his Deputies distinct from the Power of Princes so that either of these Extremes howsoever minc'd and stated still carry us upon the same Precipice Though this difficulty becomes so much the more nice because of the more Ancient Possession of Sovereign Powers in that before the Institution of the Christian Church they govern'd their Kingdoms without Competitors and therefore have reason to be jealous of this new Authority as an encroachment upon their old Soveraignty For whereas before the setting up of this the whole and sole Power within their Dominions was in themselves now they seem to enjoy but a kind of divided Empire and see another erected in it backt by no less Authority then the immediate and miraculous Power of God himself and that is greater then the greatest Power upon Earth so that by it they seem not only to be rivall'd but over-topt in their Authority That is that Providence that had hitherto made them Supreme under it self within their own Dominions seems hereby to introduce a Superiour Power over their Heads by his own more immediate Institution All which seems to be an unavoidable contradiction to the first Principle that I have laid of a Christian Church that it makes no alteration or abatement of the Rights of Sovereign Princes But all these difficulties as big and as dreadful as they may
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
it relate to the whole Flock or only the subordinate Clergy it is the very same word which is used by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so does St. Paul when he tells the Corinthians that the Apostles do not Lord it over their Faith the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we improperly enough Translate Not having Dominion over their Faith for the word Dominion is not always taken in a bad Sense but often signifies Lawful Authority whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies nothing but domineering or treating them as Masters do their Slaves whom they care not how they use for their own gain and advantage that is the proper import of the word and therefore it is very aptly joyn'd by St. Peter with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Flock for filthy lucre as the Romans kept their Slaves And to the same purpose is the advice of St. Paul that a Bishop be no striker nor greedy of filthy Lucre but patient or mild and gentle not a brawler not covetous i. e. not to run into any of these Vices or Disorders in the exercise of his Episcopal Authority but to infer from hence that he has no true and real Authority at all only becomes the Man that knows no better Sanction of a Law then a Sword or a Cudgel And this very thing is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that moderation that is so frequently injoin'd in the Apostolical Writings as Phil. 4. 5. T it 3. 2. Jam. 3. 17. It is not as it is by some Men very ignorantly interpreted an unconcernedness and indifferency between dissenting Parties for that may be good or bad as it happens if the controversie be trivial it may be an instance of it but if it be about a matter that is setled either by the Authority of God or the Church there indifferency and moderation is nothing else then Falshood and Treachery But the true meaning of the word is a mildness and gentleness in the use of Authority the same that is attributed to God himself in the Government of the World Wisd. of Solomon c. 12. v. 18 But thou Mastering thy Power judgest with Equity and orderest us with great savour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. judgest not by rigour of Law but with mercy and gentleness and so Aristotle defines the vertue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that its Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to correct and moderate the general Law when it is applyed to particular Cases And all good Government is ever more merciful then the Law ought to be for that cannot be too severe to deter Men from offending so that there are not many cases in which it is broken wherein the offender may not require some mercy and compassion But as this Vertue is so highly commendable in all Government so is it much more in that of the Church in which Almighty God shews more of it in himself towards Mankind the Gospel being nothing but a dispensation of his Mercy and Gentleness to Offenders And as this is a necessary Qualification in the Governors of the Church for guiding and rectifying their publick Government so is it most becoming their private Conversation and by gaining Authority to their Persons doubles that of their Office So that when our Saviour instructs his Apostles in this new way to Greatness his instructions are wise in a literal Sense for nothing is really so great and commanding in the World as true Humility Whoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whoever will be first among you let him be your Servant Matth. 21. 26. If any one desire to be first the same shall be last of all and Servant of all Mark 9. 35. He that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that will abase himself shall be exalted Math. 23. 12. The common experience of the World sufficiently attests the Truth and the Wisdom of these Propositions so Powerful is the obligation of Courtesie Condescention and Humility But if the Governors of the Church are so strictly injoin'd this Vertue where they have Authority how much more are they where they have none If they may not contend with one another for Dominion though they have equal Power how much less with Sovereign Princes of whose Power they have no share and to whom they are bound to a more exact and exemplary Obedience and Submission then other Subjects by their Office and Power So that our Saviour has taken all possible care as far as Law can do it to reduce the Constitution of his Church to an entire compliance with the Civil Government And though he has instituted a distinct Government in it suited to the design of his Religion he has so many ways brought it into Subjection to Sovereign Powers that they are much more disabled by their very Authority to give them any disturbance then they could have been without it the very Authority it self being a new and distinct Obligation to a stricter Allegiance But because notwithstanding all this Evidence some Men are jealous of granting any Authority to the Church peculiar to it self especially when all Power is so apt to degenerate into abuse and therefore though they cannot deny the truth of it in general are very shy of admitting it at all lest they give it too much advantage sometime or other to fix and strengthen an interest within it self against the State And I must confess the prophane boldness of the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy in justling and contesting with Princes as the Vicars of Christ has given too much ground for this Jealousie I shall from this general state of the Christian Law as fixt by our Saviour and his Apostles proceed to its particular Precedents when it came to be reduced to practice in the Primitive Church Whereby I shall make it to appear after and beside all these foregoing considerations to forestal all pretences whatsoever of resistance to the Civil State that thô this because all Power is so may be liable to abuse yet that there is not any one point of Government more easie then t◠prevent it and that the danger is so very little that no Government that does not grosly forsake it self can possibly suffer any thing from it and that the abuse is so unlikely and so difficult ever to be put in practice again that there is no one thing in the World that requires less care to watch against it in short that it can never come to do any harm without such a long continued stupidity in the State as is utterly inconsistent with all Government of it And on the other side the advantages that accrue to the State by receiving the Church into its protection are so great so certain and so universal that there cannot be a grosser faileur in Policy then to refuse or deny it And here I say for our better direction as every where else we must advise with the practice
confusions yet I know not by what blind and unhappy fate it is become a popular and a reigning principle among us All Innovators lay it at the bottom of their new Projects of Reformation it is the fundamental Principle of Grotius as well as all other Erastians Legislativam Potestatem jure divino non competere ecclesiae that the Church has no Legislative Power by Divine Right At present to say nothing to the falshood of the Proposition itself yet methinks Grotius who was so well acquainted with the Records of the ancient Church of all men should not have said it when it was so constantly both challenged and put in practice and that not only all the time before the Emperors became Christians but after But he was then a young man and the Book is written with great rawness and betrays lamentable want of consideration It is the very Foundation of all Independency that nothing ought to be imposed by the Governours of the Church upon the Members of it but what is clearly revealed in the word of God And that there is no other Rule of Unity then that rule prescribed by our Lord himself which is so far from truth so inconsistent with the Being of a Church that it is a meer contradiction to the Nature and the use of Government whose proper Office it is to make Provisions for the Peace and good Order of the Society upon all occasions by the common rules of Prudence and Discretion and such things it is necessary to leave to the judgment and determination of Men because their convenience and usefulness is alterable with change of times and circumstances and therefore must be left to the liberty of the Governors of the Church to impose or remove them as they shall judge most suitable to the present State of things This was the standing rule in the Primitive Church that points of Faith were unalterable and when they were once determin'd by the Judgment of the Catholick Church they were never after that to be debated but as for all Laws of Discipline they were alterable with change of times and circumstances And to name one for all Regula quidem fidei says Tertullian una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis Hac lege fidei manente caetera jam disciplinae conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis The Rule of Faith is always the same this alone is unchangeable and unreformable But as this remains forever so matters of Discipline and Government admit the Novelty of change and amendment So that next to the Fundamental Charter of being a Church this is the grand Principle of its Government that its Governours be endued with an Authority of imposing some things that are not required in the Word of God because the Church must be govern'd as all humane Societies are i. e. by men of common sense that have Wit enough to judge what is fit to be done upon any emergent cases and whose Authority is sufficient to oblige the Members of the Society to their Decrees and without it there could neither be Church nor Government So that this principle is so little suited to the state of Church-Purity as the Schismatiques pretend that it is only set up as an impregnable pretence for everlasting Schisms and Divisions For it was never started or so much as thought of till t'other day when the Puritan Faction for want of something more material to object against the Constitutions of the Church were forced at last to make this their main quarrel that they were not préscrib'd in the Word of God And as long as they were resolved to stand to that Exception they were secure in their Schism for it is an Objection not against the particular Constitutions of this Church but the practice of the Universal Church and the exercise of any power in all Churches of the World and therefore it being so good a Fund for Confusion it is for that reason so carefully nursed by the Independant Faction at this day it is the result of all J. O's Books about Schism because it makes all peace and settlement an impossible thing when there is no such rule of worship or discipline as is pretended by attending to which the Unity of the Church is to be preserved and therefore to refer us to a means of Peace that is not in being is to leave us remediless And if the Church may not make occasional Provisions to restrain some mens extravagancies and to settle good order all men are let loose to all the follies in the World and it will look more like a Bedlam than a Christian Church In short it serves to no other purpose then to be an everlasting pretence of Sedition when it takes away not only from the Church but from theCivil Government too all Authority of making any Laws for the settlement of Religion And yet this very Principle of Confusion this Darling of Independency this bulwark of all Schism is crept into the Church of England it self or some pretenders to it and is laid down by our Reconcilers and Peace-makers as the first Rule of Accommodation between the Church of England and the present Dissenters Though if it were admitted the different Parties would be so far from being taken into the Bosom or the Peace of the Church that it would only widen the differences and harden them in their Schisms For first the contest is not primarily about unscriptural Impositions but about divine Commands they contend that their Form of Church Government is of God's Institution and that the form now establish't in England is an humane Government set up against it and destructive of it this is the whole design of Mr. B's Treatise of Episcopacy and this has ever been the main controversie from the beginning of the Schism whether the Episcopal or the Classical Government were set up by our Saviour in the Christian Church for Men were not so unthinking in those days as to imagine he should set up the Society of his Church without setling any Government in it and therefore it is but an imperfect a partial and a treacherous account of the Separation to state the controversie only in Ceremonies when the main controversie has been from the beginning to this very day about a matter of Divine Right and therefore to take no notice of that in the History of the Schism is to intimate that as to that part of the controversie neither had the better of the other but they both equally contended about what never was and that all the blame of the Separatists is their refusing to submit to some lawful Impositions But that reaches not their cause the ground of their Separation is pretended Divine Law they must be beaten out of that or they must be let alone But secondly this Principle of accommodation by rejecting unscriptural Conditions of Communion would be so far from reconciling the Dissenters to the Church that it would only give up the Churches Cause
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
Religion and Loyalty OR A Demonstration OF The Power of the Christian Church within it Self The Supremacy of Sovereign Powers over it The Duty of Passive Obedience or Non-Resistance to all their Commands Exemplified Out of the Records of the Church and the Empire from the Beginning of Christianity to the End of the Reign of JULIAN By Samuel Parker D. D. Arch-Deacon of CANTERBURY LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three-Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. AN ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY FROM THE Primitive Church SIR THe whole Christian World being both Alarm'd and Amazed at the late Barbarous Conspiracy against the Sacred Lives of Your Majesty and Your Royal Brother And Your Majesty having upon that Occasion been over-whelm'd with numberless Addresses and Protestations of Loyalty from Your dutiful Subjects of the Church of England I thought it not improper or unseasonable to consult the Records of the best and purest times of our Religion for Precedents of this Loyal Practice and after an Accurate Diligent and Impartial Enquiry I dare in their Names declare to Your Majesty and all the Christian World their infinite abhorrence of all Treasonable and Rebellious Attempts against all Sovereign Powers whatsoever as the rankest contradiction to their Christian Faith and the boldest Blasphemy against their own Sovereign Lord. So that though Your Majesty were as much an Enemy as You are a Patron and Protector of the Church whoever shall at any time or upon any pretence offer any Resistance to any of Your Royal Commands must forever renounce his Saviour the four Evangelists and the Twelve Apostles to join with Mahomet Hildebrand and the Kirk set up the Pigeon against the Dove the Scimeter against the Cross and turn a Judas to his Saviour as well as a Cromwel to his Prince And this Sir in those days was thought so far from flattering Divinity that if they had not own'd and asserted it with their last drop of Blood under the worst of Tyrants they had judged themselves Traytors both to their Prince and to their Lord. And this Doctrine of entire and unreserved Submission was then so Catholique so Universally Taught and Practiced that Christian Rebellion was a Sin altogether unknown in those days It was the only Sin for which the Laws of the Church never appointed any Punishment because it was the only Sin that was then never actually committed And though they had too frequent and sad Occasions to enter their Protestations against it that was never done to correct any miscarriages among themselves but to rectifie the misapprehensions of the Roman Emperours Who being possest with too just a Jealousie that all Alterations in Religion tended to Innovations in Government they thought themselves obliged in Duty and for the honour of their Lord to represent to their Majesties That the erecting of his Kingdom in the Empire was so far from shaking their Thrones that it was and ever would be their strongest Security And when they had done this they had nothing more to do then to submit themselves to their Royal Pleasure and lay their Lives at their Royal Feet And this Sir they did with that Candour Frankness and Ingenuity so without all reserves and limitations that the slander that some Men have dasht upon their Memories is as false as foul that all their Pretended Loyalty was nothing but Hypocrisie for want of strength to raise and pretence of Law to Warrant Rebellion But some Men are so ignorant that they cannot understand the Doctrine of the Cross because its Superscription was written in Latin Greek and Hebrew and were they not as great Strangers to the Primitive Records as to the Primitive Religion they could never have had the confidence to fasten a surmise so false upon so clear an Integrity when beside giving us their own Opinions they have left behind them the Eternal and unalterable Reasons upon which they were grounded and these are of equal force in all Ages and under all Governments And this unkind Calumny is so very unjust that their spightful and most implacable Enemies who spared not to asperse them with all the vile things that could be believed durst never charge them either with any Overt-acts or secret designs of Disloyalty And as for the Laws though no Subject were ever more thankful for good Laws or more tender of their preservation then themselves yet when they had them they were neither so ungrateful nor so uncivil as to turn them upon the Government and make them so many Bulwarks and Sconces for Rebellion They thought it a very scurvey complement to invite Princes to protect their Religion by telling them That whilst they were pleased to Persecute it Christians were under an entire Submission to their Will and Pleasure but when they had once own'd and protected it by Law that then their Christian Subjects were warranted to Rebel against their Sovereign Authority by a Commission from their own Imperial Rescripts As soft and simple Lachrimists as they were they were wiser then to give Julian so much advantage to justifie his Apostacy when by it he recover'd the Imperial Crown to himself and his Successors that Constantine had pawned to his Christian Subjects by taking up the Christian Faith And whenever there was any misunderstanding between the Emperour and his Laws they thought it their duty that were subject to both to leave the Contest to be adjusted between themselves And if the Prince were at any time undutiful to his own Laws and so unhappy as to incur their displeasure whatever Power the Laws had to Execute themselves upon him they were satisfied that the Subjects had none And as they embraced this Principle of unlimited Submission as one of the greatest duties of their Religion so they have farther declared in all their Writings that setting aside all tyes of Duty and Conscience they would have done the same upon Principles of Interest and Prudence And tho they had lived under the worst of Princes and themselves had been the worst of Men they would have paid the same submission for the purchase of their own ease and safety that they thought themselves to owe out of duty to God and his Laws These Sir were the Doctrines that they taught both as Divines and Philosophers as Men that understood this World as well as Christians that believed the World to come And though to avoid being too bold and tedious I have here only presented Your Majesty with the Subscriptions of all the most Reverend Fathers of the Church for the first Three hundred and sixty three Years yet if Your Majesty think it worth Your Royal Acceptance I am ready to produce not only the hasty Votes but the Hands of all Christian Bishops and Doctors for above a Thousand Years with a Nemine Contradicente But beside the demonstration of the Primitive Loyalty I have here humbly presented Your Majesty with the true State of the Primitive Church as it was left by our Lord and his Apostles and
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
Grant and Commission And that certainly is as high a Prerogative as any Prince can care to demand to have a Sovereign Power over all the Powers within his own Dominions So that whether they are derived from his Authority or not they shall be as entirely Subject to it as if they had subsisted by no other Charter And that is as high a Supremacy as Mr. Hobbs himself has been pleased to challenge for Sovereign Princes when he took away all Power from the Church to vest it in them for though it is a very gross prophaneness in him to allow no Authority for Religion it self then as it is enjoyn'd and made Law by them yet that Authority that is in the Church by Divine Right is as absolutely Subject to their Dominion as it could have been had it been establisht as Mr. Hobbs contends only by their own Authority And this State of the Controversie if it can be made good I am certain will satisfie all Parties that can claim any share or degree of Government in Church or State but most of all the Supreme Powers to whose Soveraignty all Power whatsoever it is or whencesoever derived is indispensibly Subjected As for the Jurisdiction of the Church as settled by Divine Right and nothing else I have discoursed of that in former Treatises and proved that it is immediately derived from our Saviour himself and settled unalienably by him upon the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops forever so that here I must suppose the Constitution of the Christian Church within it self and all that I am bound to do at present is That supposing its distinct and independent Authority for granted to explain how it accommodates and submits it self to the Civil State and comes under the common obligation of all good Subjects to true Allegiance and Loyalty to the Sovereign Prince §. II. And here the first and chiefest thing to be consider'd is That Christianity supposes the Power of Princes Civil Government being settled in the World from its beginning by the general Providence of God and antecedently to our Saviour's particular Institution And therefore as the first thing that our Saviour openly declared when he enter'd upon his Office was the erection of his own new Kingdom so the next thing that he took care to instruct his Subjects in was that this his Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World So that from thence it is evident that he left the Government of the Kingdoms of this World in the same posture in which they had ever stood be ore he came into it And therefore there could be no alteration much less abatement of the Civil Government any where upon the score of his Authority otherwise the Institution of his Kingdom had been a breach upon the Ancient Rights of those Sovereign Powers in whose Dominions it was erected which was the first thing that our Saviour whilst himself conversed upon Earth was careful to avoid This therefore is to be set down in the first place as the Fundamental Article of his Religion that neither himself nor any of those that he has deputed for the Government of it challenge any Temporal Power to themselves or any exemption from the Authority of those that have it Neither is this to be lookt upon only as a positive duty but it is necessary in it self from the nature and the design of Christianity which was to settle a pure Religion in the World by the strength of its own truth and goodness without any help of worldly power or mixture of worldly interest as I have elsewhere shewn at large from the whole story of its first settlement And therefore agreeable to this great Observation it is very remarkable That our Saviour himself whilst he convers'd upon Earth did not only never challenge any kind of Civil Authority to himself but seiz'd all occasions to defie and disclaim it as absolutely inconsistent with his Commission Thus John 6. 15. When the People supposing him to be that Temporal Messias that they expected would have forced him to take the Kingdom upon himself he immediately withdrew into a Solitude to shift their importunity And Luke 12. 13 14. When one solicited him only to take upon him the Authority of an Arbitrator he perfectly disavows it as if he were solicitous not to give them the least pretence of Objection against him for his intermedling with the Civil Government And yet he might lawfully have done â—t according to the received custom of the Jews at that time for in the Babylonish Captivity to avoid the scandal of Contention before Heathens they referred all their Controversies to the Rabbies and Doctors of the Law and such an one this Jew supposed our Saviour to have been as appears by his giving him their proper Title of Master and whoever refused to stand to their award he was Excommunicated their Society as a scandal to the Jewish Nation And this priviledge of being their own Judges among themselves was granted to them by the Romans and for a long time continued by the Christian Emperors themselves And therefore though our Saviour might have undertaken this Office by the allowance and permission of the Civil Government yet to avoid all suspicions of any such imputation he protests against it as unbecoming his own Office and Person And the case is the very same as to the Woman taken in Adultery Joh. 8. 3. of whom he declares that he had no such Authority as they imagin'd to pass any Sentence upon her according to their Law so that if she were not legally condemn'd before they brought her before him she was at liberty for any such Power that he had to pass Sentence upon her But the most remarkable passage for his disclaiming all Earthly Power is in his Examination before Pontius Pilate Joh. 18. 36. to whom he freely confesses that he is a King but to prevent his jealousie or mistake he both immediately declares that his Kingdom is not of this World * and clearly explains what he means by it For If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be deliver'd to the Jews From which words we understand his evident meaning when he professes that his Kingdom is not of this World that it is not endued with any power of the Sword So that for any of his Officers or Subjects to make any resistance to the Civil Power by the Sword in defence of his Kingdom is to destroy the very nature of itâ— Constitution that consists in this that it is to be govern'd by the power of Truth and is distinguisht from the Kingdoms of this World in that it is a Kingdom without the power of the Sword And therefore for any Officers in it to pretend to any such Power by virtue of any Authority or Commission from him is at oncâ— both to dethrone and renounce his Kingly Power because it is a contradiction to his whole design in the World to have
Priviledges all States that profess Christianity are bound by that profession to settle upon the Church I shall shew in its proper place but whatever they are the Church cannot challenge them by it's Original Charter So that if any Church shall be so presumptuous as to pretend to any such Power which way soever it comes in whether directly or indirectly by vertue of our Saviour's Commission that is not only a Contradiction to the Nature of Christianity but an Atheistical Abuse put upon the whole Design of the Institution But as to pretend to any such Power from our Saviour only over Subjects is no less then Blasphemy against him so to pretend to it over Soveraigns doubles the Blasphemy by adding the Sin of Rebellion to that of Impiety and utterly destroys not only the Being and Constitution of a Christian Church but of all humane Societies So that how many Marks soever there may be of a true Church this alone is an infallible Note of a false one And therefore every Church that refuses to disclaim any Temporal Power over Princes renounces the Christian Faith and forfeits all the Rights and Priviledges of a Christian Church but if it should be so vain as openly to claim any such power it bids open defiance to our Saviour and quits him and his Religion to follow Mahomet So that there is no one thing in the World can so effectually unchurch a Church as its claiming any Temporal Authority to it self especially over Soveraign Powers And this I doubt will light very severely upon the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy viz. That the Pope as Vicar of Christ has a power of deposing Soveraign Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance this they have own'd whenever they durst and put in practice whenever they could and would never be brought upon any Terms to condemn it which Doctrine certainly is the greatest unkindness that they can do themselves and the worst thing that their greatest Enemies could desire to object against them and if any thing can prove his Holiness to be Antichrist this is the thing because it is an utter Subversion of the whole State of Christianity and makes our Saviour a false Christ by making him a Temporal Messias and placing him in the head of an Army to subdue the Princes and Nations of the World into subjection to himself I am sure for this very reason does the Learned Cardinal Baronius make Mahomet the Type of Antichrist because he promoted his Religion over several parts of the World by force of Arms Quod armorum potentia tot provincias nullo fermè negotio per suos posteros ejusdem sectae homines subjugasset He would have done well to have applyed this Censure nearer home and then he would not have justified all the Rebellious Popes in their violencies and outrages that they acted against Soveraign Princes and yet no man has done it with more diligence then himself as I shall prove when I come to consider his Performance Neither will this Charge of Apostacy light only upon the Church of Rome but upon every Church that maintains a right of resistance to Soveraign Powers upon a pretence of Christian Religion whatsoever for that is still to take to themselves such a power against their Prince by our Saviours Authority which is the same direct contradiction to the Nature of the Christian Faith and the same sort of Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetism putting a Scymeter into our Saviours hand and under his pretended conduct waging War against their lawful Soveraign and that is the greatest dishonour that they can bring to their Master or themselves And yet we shall find some other Churches aś much guilty of this Apostacy both in Doctrine and Practice as that of Rome and though Rome and they stand at the greatest distance of Enmity out of Jealousie of one another who should carry the prize yet they both fully agree in this fundamental Antichristian Principle But this Charge will come home in its proper place at present we must take this Article of faith all along with us No Temporal Authority in the Church unless from the grant of the State §. III. But then secondly it must be granted too that the Power of Princes how great soever in Church matters supposes the Spiritual Authority of the Church that was as much settled by our Saviour without any dependency on the Authority of the State as the Authority of the State was settled by the Providence of God before there was any such thing as a Christian Church in the World So that it is undeniably evident from its original Constitution that the Church subsists no more upon the State as to its proper Power then the State upon the Church For as the Christian Church came into the World after the Civil Government of States was entirely settled in it so did the World come into the Church after its Government was as entirely fixed within it self And therefore as Christianity by its coming into the World ought no manner of way to abate the Civil Power of the State so neither when the Powers of the World come into the Church ought they to diminish any thing of that Authority that it enjoyed by Divine Commission before they came into it For they are received into it upon the same terms with all other Proselytes of the Christian Faith that they submit themselves to it as our Soviour's own Institution So that as our first point is That all Sovereign Princes have or ought to have an Imperial Supremacy over all Ecclesiastical Persons and in all Ecclesiastical Causes Our second is That this Supremacy which is the highest Power that can be on Earth is no Ecclesiastical but a Civil Supremacy For beside that it would be a dishonour to degrade a Sovereign Prince to the Priestly Office The Ecclesiastical Power is purely Spiritual and that is a Power that was never challenged by any Prince nor directly given by any Man though it is so by plain and undeniable consequence by all that disown an Inherent Authority in the Church from our Saviour's own Commission but only Mr. Hobbs who as he made the Prince his own Priest made him his own God too Now these two Principles laid together clear up the Nature and Title of the Supremacy of Sovereign Princes That it is none of that Spiritual Power that is lodged in the Church but a Temporal Supremacy over all the Spiritual Power of it within his own Dominions And now if these two Principles that are as certain as Christianity it self were but calmly attended to they would perfectly silence all the clamours of both the extreme Parties in this Controversie Those of the Church of Rome must cease their noise that we make the King a Bishop by acknowledging his Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical Persons when upon this State of the Question such a Supremacy over all things and persons within their Dominions
is inseparable from all Sovereign Power and Christianity and all the Power that it brings along with it comes into the World upon its supposition So that by it we are so far from making the King a Priest that without it we cannot own him to be our King And on the other side when we assert a Spiritual Power to the Church distinct from though subject to the King's Supremacy others cry out Popery Praemunires and I know not what hard names they would soon let fall their out-cry if they would consider that it is such a Power as never any Prince exercised or wittingly challenged though it is possible that some may have run upon it by mistake and is neither Temporal nor Foreign Jurisdiction And in those two points lies the malignity of the pretended Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome for as it is Temporal it plainly subjects the Regal Authority to its Empire and as it is Foreign it makes the whole Kingdom Feudatory and brings us into the form of a Province under an Italian Prince both which are such abuses of Government as evidently subvert it Nay farther as a Foreign Temporal Jurisdiction is inconsistent with the English Monarchy so is all kind of Foreign Jurisdiction though meerly Spiritual irreconcileable with the Prerogative Royal. The reason and the account whereof I shall give in its proper place when I come to state that easie but yet undiscover'd Point of the Divine Authority of National Churches All that I am obliged to at present is to shew the difference between that Authority that we assign to the Church of England and that which the Bishop of Rome would Usurp against which though there were nothing else to be objected but its being Foreign for that reason alone it ought to be banisht the Nation as an Enemy to the Civil Government Whereas the Authority of the Church of England is seated in the King 's own Subjects who can call them to an account for it if they use it to his own or his Subjects prejudice and can as well punish them for any disorders in the abusive Exercise of it as he can any of his own Officers for their misdemeanors in their trust in the Common-wealth So that so far is the King's Supremacy as it is stated in the Church of England from entrenching upon the proper Power of the Church as the Romanists cavil that it only protects it in the due exercise of its Jurisdiction And so far is the proper power of the Church from disclaiming or abating any thing of the King's Supremacy as the other Factions clamour that it first Establishes that upon the most lasting Foundations of Divine Institution before it makes any claim to its own Power and when it does it does it upon no other Terms then of entire submission to its Supreme Authority And now that Man must wilfully dream that can imagine such a power as this in the Church can be any way prejudicial to or detractive from the Civil Government and yet that such a Power there is is an assertion worth no less then our Christianity it self that stands or falls with it For if our Saviour have not entrusted his Church with a Power within it self sufficient to maintain it self by vertue of his own Authority then it stands upon no stronger Foundation then the Will of the Sovereign Power And then as that can Establish so it can Abrogate its whole Obligation which is plainly to say that it is no True Religion for it is certainly none if it relye only upon humane Authority So that all that can be concluded in this case is that upon supposition that our Christian Faith is an Imposture there can be no Power in the Christian Church and that for a very good reason because then the Church can be no Church But upon supposition that our Saviour founded it by Divine Authority the peculiar Power of the Church derived meerly and immediately from himself without any interposition of humane Authority is the first thing to be believed as absolutely necessary to its Being and Subsistence But this will appear with a brighter evidence if we consider the several branches of Jurisdiction that as they are complicated with the supposition of Christianity so are they such acts of Power as no Sovereign Power ever challenged or can with any decency exercise As the Power of Preaching the Gospel through all Nations of the World in the Name and by the Authority of God The Power of granting or with-holding the Instruments of Grace the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist The Power of the Keys or judging who are fit to be admitted into the Society of the Christian Church and who ought to be cast out of it for non-performance of the Conditions undertaken at their Admittance The Power of instructing the People in the Duties of Religion or guiding and directing them in the safest way to Salvation The Power of Ordaining Consecrating and Constituting Ecclesiastical Officers to succeed in the Government of the Church through all Ages These are the several points of their Commission and are granted to be so by Mr. Hobbs himself and that at the very time when he undertakes to demonstrate that all these acts of Power are no acts of Authority And that is one of his choisest methods of Demonstration in all things to bear down the undenyable Truth of all things by meer force of Assertion thus here he reckons up the chief Acts of Authority in the Apostle's Commission and then will bear us down that they are no Acts of Authority only by saying so and that against the Common Sense of Mankind For if they had a Commission from our Saviour to do these things then were they Empowred and Authorised by their Commission to do them So absurd a thing is it to talk of acting by Commission without acting by Power whereas every Commission as such is granting so much Power And therefore if the Apostles and their Successors were Commissioned by our Saviour to these several Acts of their Office as he grants because it cannot be denyed every Act is an effect of that Power that is settled upon them by virtue of their Commission And is it not strange that this witty Gentleman should begin all this Extravagant discourse against all Power Ecclesiastical as such with this very Assertion That the Power Ecclesiastical was at first in the Apostles and after them in such as received it from the Apostles by successive laying on of hands What thickness of Contradiction is this A Power Ecclesiastical and yet no Power at all Why then if it be no Power it is no Power Ecclesiastical and if it be a Power Ecclesiastical then it is some Power And then again a Power by virtue of our Saviour's Commission i. e. a Power warranted by Divine Authority and to say that this is no Power is plainly to averâ— That there is no such thing as Divine Authority And upon this supposition that
lies at the bottom of all this witty Authors folly and Philosophy it must be confessed that there can be no Ecclesiastical Power over the Christian Church either in the Clergy or any Man else because upon it there is neither Christian Church nor Christian Religion and then it is certain that there can be no Power over nothing So vain are all the Attempts against that Authority that our Blessed Saviour has granted to the Apostolical Succession that it cannot be removed by any other Principles then what directly overthrow Christianity it self upon those Terms it must be parted with but upon no other And though Mr. Hobbs speaks out more boldly then his Neighbours yet all the followers of Erastus and all that will own â— certain Form of Government establisht in the Church by Divine Right cannot avoid the Church of Leviathan And therefore to proceed with him as Fore-man to speak for all the rest it is evident that beside the Authority by which the Apostles and their Successors act every act that they are enabled to by their Commission is in its own Nature and as such an Authoritative Act. First such is the power of Preaching and Teaching i. e. the power of publishing the Laws of the Gospel to all Nations and requiring all Mens Obedience to them under the sanction of the greatest Rewards and Penalties And if Mr. Hobbs can affirm that exacting Obedience upon such terms be no piece of Authority it is in vain either to reason with himself or any other Man of his Kidney or Understanding But he proves it to be so because The Apostles were Preachers and Preachers are Cryers and Cryers have no right to Command Among the many bad qualities in this Author's way of writing his contempt of other Mens understandings is none of the least for if he had not a very low Opinion of their intellectual Abilities he could never have presumed to impose upon them by such childish pretences And the truth of it is he talks not as if he discoursed to Men but to Magpies Parots and Jackdaws that are to learn to chatter his Dictates by Rote For is it not a strange grossness of Confidence that when our Blessed Saviour came from God to publish a new Law to the World and enforce it with the severest Penalties and when he gave the same Commission to his Apostles that himself had received from his Father to publish this Law to the World though they do it with all this Authority to infer that they do it with none at all because when they declare their Message they open their mouths as Cryers do when they make Proclamations and so the original Word signifies any kind of publick Declaration And what if it were the proper term for the Cryers Office it may for all that in common Speech be applyed to any other way of Publication it will be hard to find out any one word in the World so severely stinted to its original Import However every School-boy could have inform'd the old Philosopher that this word is not so confin'd and that it is not is evident from the very passage it self because the Apostles that are said to Proclaim or Cry the Gospel to all Nations do not make a simple Proclamation but require Obedience to what they publish under the most forcible obligation of Rewards and Punishments And such Proclamation as that whatever the term Proclaiming may signifie in its naked sense brings with it as much Authority as it is possible for Government to put in practice But he farther affirms in proof of no Authority in the Church That the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel are our School-Masters and not our Commanders But beside that this is an Arbitrary Assertion of his own devising to assign them the Office of School-Masters for the Scripture no where does so The Authority of a School-Master is some Authority for though he have not the Power of the Sword he has that of the Rod and that is as effectual for his purpose among Boys as the other among Men. So that there is no Logique in the Argument neither can I believe so witty a Man to have been so weak as to have brought it for that purpose but rather because he thought the comparison was a witty slur upon Christianity as if it were as childish and contemptible an Office to instruct men in it as it is to teach Boys and Children their Elements of Speech That is a shrewd hint though the next comparison is much more poinant That our Saviour compares Preaching to Fishing i. e. to winning Men to Obedience not by coertion and punishing but by perswasion and therefore our Saviour calls not Apostles hunters of Men but fishers of Men. Now though his endeavour to prove that there is no Authority in the Officers of the Church because they have no Civil Authority is altogether vain and trifling because he only presumes what no Man will grant him that there is no other Authority in the World yet here his way of demonstration is somewhat more then usually pleasant viz. That they were endued with no power of Coertion because our Saviour has constituted them not his Huntsmen but his Fishermen Where I think it would require the Acuteness of Mr. Hobbs's wit to make it out why there is less Coertion in Fishing then in Hunting especially in Net-fishing which was their former Trade to which he knows our Saviour there alludes when this mighty difficulty is cleared up I may come to understand the force of the Argument but till then I must confess it is above my reach But hitherto it is evident that notwithstanding all this Gentleman 's Grammatical Demonstrations from Cryers School-Masters and Fishers that the Commission granted to the Apostles and their Successors to preach the Gospel did not only carry proper Authority in it but the highest sort of Authority because enforced with the greatest Rewards and Penalties and that every man knows is the very Life and Soul of all Power The next branch of their Commission is to Baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and though the Philosopher would here make himself merry not only with the Sacrament but with the Holy Trinity in whose Name it is Administred yet after all his pains to prove it no Authority he fairly confesses That it is an Authority either to Baptize or refuse to Baptize because Baptism is the Sacrament of Allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God But certainly if they have Power to grant or deny them this Sacrament i. e. to receive them into the Kingdom of God or shut them out of it if there be any such thing as Power in the World there cannot be a greater then this And consequent to this Authority he says is the Remission and Retention of Sins or the Power of Loosing and Binding and for this I must confess he gives a pertinent reason for so he is
of enquiry which though a fault is by no means so disingenuous as acting against knowledge But as for this Case of Apostates in time of Persecution upon whom Mr. Hobbs says Excommunication could have no effect of Terrour If indeed the Providence of God had not given them sufficient evidence of their Faith I will grant it to be true not only of that but of all the other Threatnings of the Gospel But if God have given sufficient motives of belief as if the Gospel be not a cheat he has if it be all Mr. Hobbs's dispute is without bottom a Man's Apostacy is no Fence against the Reflections of his own Conscience For though it is in his Power to deny his Faith for fear of Persecution yet it is not in his Power to disbelieve it So that upon such a Man the Sentence of Excommunication by which he is cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven lights with as much Terrour as upon any other Believer And there is nothing more evident in the History of the Primitive Church then the Efficacy of this Sentence upon such Offenders For the greatest part of those that fell in time of Persecution were by this means alone recover'd to the Church brought to sue for pardon and undergo very severe Penances as a satisfaction for the Scandal But to what purpose do I put my self to the trouble to prove these things when all Mr. Hobbs's discourse upon this Argument runs upon this supposition as if Christianity were but a trivial and indifferent thing that might or might not be believed as Men variously fancied or were casually inclined And upon that supposition I will freely grant it to be of as little effect as he would have it But if the Providence of God hath given us such a Demonstrative Evidence of the Divine Authority of this Religion that no Man who inquires into it can wink against its Light without doing violence to his own Convictions then whether Men will or no it will be a perpetual Terrour to their Consciences And that this slight Opinion of the Evidence of Christianity though upon what slight and indeed ignorant pretences I have elsewhere shewn is the bottom of Mr. Hobbs's meaning is too manifest from his next branch of the Supremacy of Sovereign Powers which indeed is neither better nor worse then bare-faced Blasphemy And that is the Power of making Scripture Law i. e. Obligatory But if that be the state of the Christian Religion that it is not at all material whether a Man regard it or not for any Obligation or Authority in it self Mr. Hobbs is not to be blamed unless in point of Prudence for all those irreverend abuses that he has been pleased to put upon it But if it be made Law by the Command of God as it is if it be not all imposture in pretending falsly to his Authority then whatever the Sovereign is pleased to make of it Mr. Hobbs and all his Followers that will allow it no obligation but from Man stand Convicted of the most manifest Treason and Blasphemy against the Sovereign Lord of all and this part of Ecclesiastical Supremacy of making Scripture Law that they give to Kings they take away from God himself After all this rank prophaneness it is almost needless to consider his last branch of Ecclesiastical Power viz. the Right of Ordaining and Constituting Ecclesiastical Officers not only because it is of the same Nature and derived from the same Divine Authority with all the other particulars of the Apostolical Commission but because himself grants it in general by placing it in the People For if it be any where that is enough against himself that denies all manner of Power in the Church but most of all because he has confessed and no Man can deny it the whole truth of the matter both against the Hobbist and the Independant too viz. That the Apostles conveighed their Authority to their Successors whom themselves Deputed and Ordained by Imposition of hands and if so this Power of constituting Successors resided in them alone because no Man could be constituted an Officer in the Church but by their Imposition of hands or those to whom by it they Transmitted their Power So that whatever interest they might permit the People in their Choice or Nomination of their Officers the whole power of Constituting them in their Office and Authority lay in themselves alone §. IV. But Mr. Hobbs having hitherto treated of the Power Ecclesiastical as it stood before the Conversion of Kings and Men endued with Sovereign Civil Power and after his rate of Demonstration proved it to be no Power at all whilst vested in the Pastors of the Church he comes now to prove that it is lodged in Civil Sovereigns upon their Conversion to the Christian Faith and that when it comes to them it becomes true and proper Power But before I consider his small Arguments I cannot understand why that which was no Power before becomes Power now There can be but one reason for it and that is too obvious in all Mr. Hobbs's Writings viz. Because it is now abetted with the Penalties of this life whereas before it was only abetted with the Penalties of the life to come so that the plain English of the Assertion if spoken out is this that there are no penalties at all but in this life and then I must confess that the power of the Church can be no Power till complicated with the Civil Power But the man that discourses upon such Principles as these has nothing to do with the Christian Religion or any thing relating to it But secondly Which way came this Power into Civil Sovereigns Our Saviour left it to his Apostles and they delivered it down by Imposition of Hands to others who were to conveigh it in the same manner of Succession through all Ages how then came Civil Sovereigns by it If any were Ordain'd to it they had it by virtue of their Ordination not their Right of Sovereignty if they were not which way could they become possessed of a Power that was never derived to them in the way of Ordination which is the only way in which it can be conveighed and therefore if they have it not that way they can never have it any other As for the Principle upon which he founds this Power of the Civil Sovereign though it be true in it self yet it is no proper reason for what he would infer from it viz. That the Right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace and to be taught the Subjects is in all Common-wealths inseparably annexed to the Sovereign Power Civil This is undoubtedly true that they are the proper Judges of what conduces to the peace and quiet of Government but then this Power is common to Heathen as well as Christian Soveraigns they are all equally concern'd and obliged to take care of the Publick Peace so that this Power does not accrue to the Civil Sovereign by his becoming
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
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
he had never been proceeded against This is the main stress of his Argument upon this Subject which he farther shews by the power of inflicting and abating Pennance that is connected with the Authority of Excommunication or inflicting Censures And the force of this Argumentation is so evident and unavoidable that I must confess my self not a little surprised how it was possible that our Learned Adversary could any way baulk or shift the Evidence of its Conviction Especially when himself saw so clearly that an Ecclesiastical Unity of Government in the Church is absolutely necessary to its preservation for though he founds it only upon the Confederation and consent of Churches and not any divine Command yet he founds that Consent upon its necessity to the Peace of the Church This course says he was very prudential and useful for preserving the truth of Religion and Unity of Faith against Heretical Devices springing up in that free age for maintaining Concord and good Correspondence among Christians together with an Harmony in Manners and Discipline for that otherwise Christendom would have been shatter'd and crumbled into numberless Parties discordant in Opinion and Practice and consequently alienated in affection which inevitably among most men doth follow difference of Opinion and Manners so that in short time it would not have appeared what Christianity was and consequently the Religion being overgrown with differences and discords must have perished Now is not this a very fair concession for one who is labouring only to prove that this Unity of Government among several Churches is not necessary to the Church when without it Christianity must have certainly perish't But this dropt from his own natural sense and ingenuity that could not but acknowledge the Evidence of so clear a truth But though it was an utter subversion of his whole design yet it seems he was so intent in the pursuit of the Argument that he had undertaken that he overlook't even his own thoughts when they stood in his way And now after this it is so easie to overthrow every particular part of his discourse that were it not for his Authority it would be needless But because by reason of that it must be done I shall do it with all possible brevity First then the name of Church is attributed to the whole body of Christiaans which implyeth Unity And this he confesses it does but determines not the kind or ground thereof there being several kinds any whereof may suffice to ground that comprehensive Appellation But this by his own Confession is most apparently false for it determines it self to that kind that consists in an Unity of Government and the ground of that determination of it is its necessity to the Peace and Welfare of the Church and therefore without this kind of Unity no other sort will suffice to ground the Appellation because without it there can be no other Unity this is necessary to all other sorts and therefore without it they are not capable of that name But to deal plainly the Argument is not here sairly represented for Mr. Thorndike does not argue merely from the name of the Church but from the nature of the thing to which the name is applied the Church being a Society or Body Politick which is the first thing to be either proved or supposed in this dispute and that being made out then upon that supposition the Argument is very clear that one Church is one Society And therefore when the name Church is frequently given in Scripture not only to particular Churches but to the whole Catholique Church that must be one Society united under one Government for without Government there is no Society and therefore one Society founds one Government Now the Argument being thus laid its force lyes in the nature of things not an empty name and it makes its own way by its own reasonableness Especially when we consider the Bond of this Society viz. The Communion in Divine Offices to which every Member of the Catholick Church having a right the right of all must consist in that one Communion and that one Communion cannot subsist without one Government so perspicuously does the Unity of the Catholick Church infer and inforce an Unity of Government in it The next Argument and Answer are to the same purpose viz. from our Belief of the Holy Catholique Church from whence Mr. Thorndike infers its Political Unity but our Author says it may as well be understood of any other kind of Unity But to that it is easily answered that as long as it is a Society and so must all multitudes of men if they are not riots it cannot be understood without this Unity And therefore it is not precariously assumed and obtruded as is pretended but warrants it self by the reason it brings along with it that determines it to this special kind of Unity But he adds the genuine sense of the meaning of this Article may be our profession to adhere to the Body of Christians and to maintain Charity and communicate in holy Offices with them and to be willing to observe the Laws and Orders Establish't by the Authority or consent of Churches This is very true and very false for if we are under no Obligation to all this then all this meaning is Non-sence and all these kinds of Unity are nothing for if we make this profession of our own free choice and accord then we may choose whether we will do all this or no and it is all one whether we adhere to the body of Christians in Charity Communion and Obedience to the Laws of the Church or whether we refuse it for if it be no duty by vertue of Obligation then it may be left undone as well as done But if all Christians and all Churches are obliged to it then indeed 't is true but then are they United under one Common Government and the making and keeping of this Profession is not voluntary but it is bound upon them by the indispensable Laws of Christianity 3. The Apostles delivered one Rule of faith to all Churches the embracing of which was a necessary condition to admission into the Church therefore Christians are combin'd together in one political Body But it is answered First That from hence can only be infer'd That Christians should consent in one Faith Yes but an obligation to consent in one Faith makes them one Political Body for what if any Church forsake this Rule are they not punishable for it by other Churches If they are they are then combined together in one Political Body If they are not then there is no remedy against Schisms and Heresies and beside that there may be as many different Faiths as Churches and therefore if all Christians are obliged to an Unity of Faith and if they cannot be so without an Unity of Government then the consequence is very strong from the Unity of one to infer the Unity of the other But Secondly By this reason all
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
same Imperial Laws that were made against themselves in Execution against their Brethren And what but t'other day was Tyranny and Persecution in the Catholicks is in themselves Law and Justice And so they go on to load one another with all the foul Stories and ill Language that they were wont to bestow upon the Catholiques and their Sentences of Excommunication are more fierce and heavy than any that were ever denounced by any other party of Christians Some were fatal cutting off all power of Absolution The most gentle were limited to a certain time after which the Decree was irrecoverably pass'd upon them and so they proceeded cursing and damming each other till every Sect spawn'd a new Litter of Vipers to eat out its own Bowels And so they crumbled on till they had made the Church no bigger than it was at first a small grain of Mustard Seed For every Party confin'd the Kingdom of Heaven to its Conventicle This dividing humour of theirs is very well described by St. Austin The Faction of Donatus is crumbled into very small parcels all which little particles condemn this much greater part of Primianus for allowing the Baptism of the Maximianists And every part eagerly contends that they alone retain the true Baptism and that there is no other any where neither in all the World over which the Catholick Church is spread nor in the larger nor the lesser parts of the Faction of Dcnatus but in themselves alone that are least of all But as fierce as they were against each other they were always one united Body against the Catholique Church and upon all occasions of Disturbance or Sedition in the State they were a form'd Body against the Government as will appear by numberless Instances in the next Reign of Arcadius and Honorius under whom they vented their utmost fury and they on the other side resolved to quell and break them and at last by strict Laws diligently executed so took down their stomach and their stubbornness that the Faction dwindled into an inconsiderable rout and was never able to attempt any disturbance either in Church or State They being under no greater restraint in the time of Theodosius the Great then the forfeiture of Ten Pounds and the Execution of that Law being either stifled or hamper'd by the Emperors Officers that commonly divert such Mulcts to their own gain and the damage of the Prosecutor grew so bold in their out-rage against the Catholicks as to offer violence to their Clergy at Divine Service which insufferable Indignity the young Emperors Arcadius and Honorius resented with that just indignation as to publish a Rescript in the year 398 to Theodorus Praefect of Africk requiring him to bring such Offenders to Capital Punishments and if they at any time offer'd to make any Tumultuary resistance not to stand upon forms of Law but to fall upon them with the Military Power And this Law as severe as it may appear was but seasonable and indeed necessary as St. Austin tells the Donatists when they complain of Severity You have no reason to complain of us for the Gentleness of the Catholicks had always forborn the Execution of such Laws had not your own Preachers with their Circumcellians by their barbarous Cruelties and Outrages against us made them necessary for our own security For before those bate Laws of which you complain came into Africa they waylaid our Bishops upon the Road they beat our Clergy most barbarously put intolerable abuses upon the Laicks fired our Houses our Churches With great numbers more of particular Out-rages that he recites there and up and down his other Writings as the murther of Restitutus and Innocentius Presbyters of Hippo putting out the Eyes of some cutting off the hands and pulling out the Tongues of others And as for St. Austin himself they continually watched for his life and exhorted the People to kill him as they would a Wolf to preserve the Flock and assure them that God would forgive all their Sins how great soever for so good a piece of Service And this they did to him in requital of all his kindness towards them who all along interceded with the Governors to spare their lives till at last being convinced by Experience that they abused all mercy and would be reduced by nothing but the greatest Severity he changed his mind as he declares in his Epistle to Vincentius in which he excellently discourses the necessity of the Epist. 48. thing that the Civil Magistrate should restrain the stubborn with Penal Laws About this time happened the War with Gildo the African Rebel a Man infinitely Debauch'd and barbarous in his Manners and a bitter Enemy to Christianity with him the Donatists and Circumcellians join and serve in his Rebellion against the Emperor according to the constant practice of all Schismaticks whenever there is an opportunity to turn Rebels And particularly there was one Optatus a Bishop of the Party so remarkable in the Army for fighting and forwardness that he was surnamed Gildonianus and after ten years Rebellion lost his life in the Service But when Gildo was at length overcome the Donatists bated nothing of their wonted insolence and the Emperor Honorius to whose particular Government Africa appertained being incensed with continual complaints of their disorders resolves by any severity to break the Faction And first he exposes their knavery to all the Christian World by which he hoped at least to take down their confidence and preserve the People from being any more deluded by their fair pretences And therefore in the year 400 he sends forth the forementioned Decree to his Praefect in Africk to be publish'd in all places concerning the Transactions of the Donatists with Julian and his Rescript on their behalf that De Hâ—reticis leg 37. thereby the World might see the constancy of the Catholicks to their Principles and the falshood and treachery of the Donatists to their Religion And this was done either upon one or both of these Occasions either as Baronius most probably thinks that the Donatists persisting in their old Clamours as Petilian had lately done against the Catholicks For instigating the Civil Magistrate Quid autem vobis est cum Regibus seculi quos nunquam Christianitas nisi invidos sensit against them who had nothing to do with the Church or Religion Upon which pretence the Emperor thought good to rebuke their Confidence by exposing their flatteries and foul tamperings with Julian and joining with an Apostate in his design to overthrow Christianity Or else as Gothofred conjectures Honorius enacting such severe Laws against the Donatists they upbraided his Cruelty with the Clemency of Julian as if they found more mercy from Julian though an Enemy an Heathen and an Apostate than from a Christian and Catholick Prince And therefore Honorius lets the World know the Mystery of the kindness between them and Julian and by what base flattery and dirty Arts
the Arian Doctrine but their whole fury was bent against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Athanasius And knowing the invincible courage of the Man they first set upon him with Calumnies and Accusations not doubting but that if they could by any means remove him and some few of his Friends out of the way that they might easily overcome the Word But this they durst not attempt during the Reign of Constantine who would never endure to hear of any the least change of the Nicene Faith and therefore says Zozomen though they were always heaving at the Nicene Faith they durst never openly reject the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they knew the Emperours mind in that matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But after his death they grew strangely impatient of it and drew in Constantius who had been otherwise a very great Prince to wast his wholeReign in a tedious War against it insomuch that he summon'd no less then 14 Councils in less then twenty yearsfor its removal in all which the Arians were anathematised variety of Creeds composed agreeing in allthings with that of Nice save only the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as will appear when we come to his Reign But as for the Story of the Arian Controversie under Constantine after the time of the Nicene Council it is strangely perplexed by an unusual confusion among the Historians themselves for though they all agree in the substance of the Story yet they all differ as to time and order but their mistakes are easily rectified by Athanasius his own Account who has in his Apology all along set down the exact order and succession of things and that is all that is his own in the Apology for he was so modest that he would not have his Narrative trusted upon his own Authority but has justified every part of it by Testimonials from other men publick Records and the Letters of his Enemies under their own hands so that the whole Story being its own Evidence needs no other voucher though it be in all it s more materail passages attested by all other Historians And therefore I shall by his help set down the Progress of the whole Business with all the accuracy that I can because it is one of the foulest trains of Villany upon Record and was the meer contrivance of that wicked men Eusebius of Nicomedia a man of great Power and Authority at that time whence he acquired the Sirname of Great which Sandius says he acquired by his great power of working Miracles but this Collector is through his whole Rhapsody his own Author for though he is every where Prodigal of his Quotations yet those few that are truly alledged and they are very few or that are at all to the purpose and they are much fewer relate only to the general Story as it may be told by all Parties but his own particular remarks for his own cause are the Fables of his own pure invention Thus here it would have been a considerable advantage on his own side if Eusebius had been so highly favour'd of Heaven as to be endued with a power of working Miracles and therefore he tells his simple Reader so though no body ever told him so but alas that Ambitious Prelate was so far from being eminent for any good Qualities that he was only a Prodigy of Vice and Wickedness neither was he in all this Contest acted by any zeal that he had for Religion but meerly by an Atheistical spite and malice And he seems to be one of them that after Constantine embraced Christianity came into the Church not for Religion butPreferment And he invaded that so greedily as not to stick at the most scandalous and open violation of the Canons neither was he so much a Bishop as a Courtier always insinuating himself into the favour of Great Men and fawning upon the Emperour himself but especially courting his Sisten Constantiâ— by whose zeal he was well awane if he could gain her to his side he might compaâ—s his ends And it was his great interest in Constantine's Court that gave him the power and opportunity of doing so much mischief in the Church And we shall find that he was not wanting to improve it to the utmost where his Malice and Revenge were concern'd especially against Athanasius whose affront he could never forgive he having when but a young Deacon in the publick Council encountred and overcome so great a Prelate and all that Train of Dependent Bishops that his Greatness drew after it So Powerful a Prelate to suffer all this Disgrace from so mean a Person as a poor Deacon and chiefly by his means to be brought upon his knees and forced to publick Submission was an indignity so intolerable to his Proud Spirit that neither the Deacons own Blood nor the Blood of all his Friends was sufficient to satiate his unquenshable Revenge And therefore all the forged Accusations against him were of Crimes the Punishment whereof was Capital such as Murther Rapes and Treason as the Bishops of Egypt observe in their Synodical Epistle so that they impute it to the great Clemency of Constantine that when his Enemies sought nothing but his death he appeased and prevented their malice by his banishment The wholeStory runs thus Eâ—sebius having regain'd the Emperour's favour after his return writes to Athanasius for the Restitution of Arius To which he replyes That the Ring-leaders of Heresies are not so easily to be reconciled to the Church as the deluded followers that the Church was always wont to punish them with greater and longer severities and withal that himself was not at all satisfied of thâ— sincerity of Arius his Repentance and therefore would not as yet hear of any motion for his Restitution This Eusebius immediately seizes as a fit Handle for his design and away he goes to the Emperour tells him that Athanasius keeps up Discord in the Church for his own private Picques and Animosities so that though Arius desired his Absolution upon repentance yet he contrary to his duty and all the Laws of the Church refused it Upon this Constantine writes a very threatning Letter to Athanasius commanding the Restitution of Arius upon pain of deposition and banishment to which Athanasius returns such a satisfactory Answer as made the Emperour desist from interposing any farther in it Eusebius therefore finding himself defeated tampers with the Meletian Schismaticks of Egypt to make a Plot against Athanasius They were a sort of People that lived in the Boggs and Marshes of Mareotis where one Priest served ten or more Parishes much resembling our wild Irish for dulness and stupidity and they are thus described by the Bishops of the Council of Alexandria To be men void of faith Schismaticks and Enemies to the Church neither was this their first practice in this Trade but they were old and experienced Plot-makers they had conspired against their Holy Bishop Peter the Martyr and after him they Accused
able by himself alone to keep up the Orthodox Faith against all the Power of the Emperor And therefore he is Summon'd to Court and courted to join in the Condemnation of Athanasius but he satisfied the Emperor so well by his reasons to the contrary that he is dismist with all Civility but by the importunity of the Eunuchs who feared that this escape would make an ill Precedent he is immediately followed with a furious Epistle commanding him to comply or to expect the fortune of his Companions to which the good old Man nothing daunted returns a bold but yet a civil Answer lays before the Emperor at one view the whole Train of Villany against Athanasius that had been so often proved and then leaves it to himself to consider whether it became his Majesty at that time of the day to suffer himself to be made a Tool by such Perjur'd Wretches as Valens and Ursacius and so in short he denies all compliance and defies his threatnings and upon it he is immediately seized and conveyed to Sirmium and there kept in custody till the meeting of a Council in that City the year following And though the fury of the Emperour 's or rather his Eunuchs Persecution in these European Parts is here somewhat interrupted by the Incursions of the barbarous Nations into Gaul yet he rages so much the more fiercely in AEgypt especially at Alexandria sending Syrianus with some Legions of Soldiers to murther Athanasius who besets his Church in the night where the People were then Assembled and are commanded by Athanasius in the Name of God to depart quietly and himself by a kind of Miracle makes his escape through the body of the Soldiers that had encompassed him at the Altar but he being fled and lying conceal'd in the Deserts Constantius is prevail'd with to put that Learned Divine as he calls him George into his Room but what a notorious Villain he had ever been is already described but now being got into Authority he commits all manner of outrages in the City makes divers slaughters in the Churches themselves imprisons Virgins Widows and Orphans seizes on the Orthodox Christians by night and throws them into Goal ejects all Bishops throughout AEgypt and Lybia that refuse to subscribe the Condemnation of Athanasius and of these some he banishes others he imprisons in short he sweeps all away before him like a Land-flood and bears away all the Orthodox Clergy out of their Possessions in the Church Athanasius reckons up no less then Ninty Bishops ejected in AEgypt whereof Sixteen were banisht But the worst of all is still behind their Bishopricks are sold to Heathens Soldiers or any Chapmen that would bid most Money for them and so all ill Men of what Profession or Religion soever or rather of none at all crowded into the Party for the purchase of a Bishoprick and so was the whole Church put into the hands of wicked and debauch't Men who could do no service in it but in the way of out-rage and cruelty and in short the sury of this Persecution through all Africk is described by Athanasius not only to have equall'd but exceeded any of the Heathen Persecutions both for rudeness and cruelty But still himself was the Man aim'd at in it all great rewards are promised by publick Edicts to the Man that shall slay him and blood-hounds are sent out into all Parts to scent out his Form but by a great wonder of Providence he lyes undiscovered all the time of Constantius And in this retirement he did himself and the World that right as to write those two excellent Discourses in his own Vindication viz. his Epistle to the Monks and his first Apology to Constantius in both which he has with that clearness of Reason and evidence of Record laid open the wickedness of the Eusebians in the contrivance of all his Troubles from the time of the Council of Nice to that very day that it is not so properly an History as a Demonstration for he has related nothing that he has not proved by undeniable Records And the truth of it is he is the only valuable Historian of his own Actions for all the Historians are so confused in their account of him that as they are not to be at all trusted when they differ from him so are they very little to be relied upon in any Report that is not vouch't by his Authority §. XV. Thus far has this long Controversie been carried on between the Eusebians and the Abâ—ttors of the Nicene Faith but now the Arian Cause is again brought upon the Stage in another guise by Photinus Bishop of Sirmium who revives the old exploded Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus that differs from Arianism only in this one Circumstance That it affirms the Son of God not to have been Created till the time of his Nativity whereas Arius will have him to have been the first-born of all Creatures yet they both agree in the main Poison of the Heresâ—e That he was a Being Created out of Nothing and then it is not much material in it self how soon or how late it was brought to pass But yet however this new-vampt Hypothesis appearing more bold and tending to bring down the Son of God into the same rank with every ordinary Son of a Woman whereas Arius allowed him great share in the Creation of the Universe and an eminency of Power and Dignity over all other Creatures This therefore alarms all Parties Catholicks and Eusebians and a Council is call'd at Sirmium for its Condemnation And here the Learned Petavius is as over-nice to disturb the plain History of this Council as I have shewn Valesius to have been in reforming the History of the Council at Rome and the Absolution of Athanasius For as he there took a great deal of pains to make but one Council of two so has our Learned Jesuite here to make two of one For though there is mention of no more then one in all the Ancient Records of the Church yet he has lately found out another that he says has hitherto lain buried under the ruins of St. Hilary's Fragments but alas they are so imperfect and confused that nothing can with any assurance be built upon their single Testimony much less upon remote inferences from them which yet is all the light that this Learned Man is able to strike out of that Rubbish Neither indeed is it tanti to spend so much Learning upon such a lean and barren Enquiry for whether there were two or one Sirmian Councils they were call'd upon the same Errand and as I shall prove were of the same mind and what that is we sufficiently know by the Records of that which he would have to be the second whereas the most that we can know of the first beside this is only that there was such a Council and if that be all I cannot see what Temptation the Learned Man could have to be so proud of his
for his zeal to the cause turning Orthodox as it were out of spite and preaching up the Niâ—ene Faith they assemble there in the year 360 in order to his deposition and under that pretence take the opportunity of drawing up a new form of Faith In which they not only dash out the likeness of the Son to the Father as it was in their former Creed but expresly declare a dissimilitude both in substance and will this was the end of all this fatal Tragedy and above thirty years contention about one word against the Authoritative determination of the Christian Church and after all parties had tired themselves A tius a pert and ignorant Mechanick carrys away the ball Thus far says Athanasius have they trifled away our Religion and into what wild conceits they will wander no man can foresee for there is no stop to be set to their Extravagance till they shall return to themselves and say let us return to our Fathers Abhor the Arian Heresy and embrace the Nicene Faith for it is clear that all contention against this let Men pretend what they will at top is for the sake of that at bottom and if men will not stick to the sacred determination there is no way left to keep out the Heresy Nor indeed all the follys in the world for when once the Authority of the Church is despised and this Itching humour of dispute broke out among the People though the Civil Government keep their nails never so short they will be always scratching and drawing blood of the Church And thus was it here for though the definition of the Council against the Heresy would have put an everlasting end to the Controversy as it did during the reign of Constantine yet when it was once laid aside by Constantius to oblige and comprehend as he dream't the Dissenters by some abatement what endless factions did it create Eusebians Aetians Photians Eudoxians Acacians Eunomians Macedonians Psatyrians and Dulians and that was the lowest folly that men could sink into for after all the divisions and subdivisions of one from another some of them came at last to affirm that Jesus Christ was so far from being the Son of God that he was only his Serving-man And this Philostorgius is not ashamed to tell us was preached by his â—elebrated Eunomius in the Cathedral Church of Constantinople But beside these wild Opiniatours the Church by this Liberty was oveâ—run with Swarms of Enthusiasts the most dangerous of all Vermin and this broke out chiefly among the Monks and men of Devotion In Egypt there was a Sect that thought it unlawful to void their Excrements from that Text in St. Matthew 15. 11. Not that which goeth into the mâ—uth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth So easy is it to defile and prophane a sacred Text by applying it to the wrong end and against these Athanasius writ his Epistle to Ammon the Monk And others there were in Palestine that beside many other freaks had this peculiar to themselves that it was not lawful to pray unless alone from that passage of our Saviour Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret But not to follow the whole swarm of Breezes the two Magots of great Note and Magnitude at that time were the Massalians in Mesopotamia and the Eustathians in Armenia The Massalians first set up with this one Principle That they were obliged to pray always and so do nothing else from that passage of our Lord in the Gospel of St. Luke 18. 1. That Men ought always to pray and not to faint From this conceit naturally issued such a swarm of absurdities as eat up all other parts of Religion for if this was the only necessary thing and so they applyed that saying of our Saviour to Martha the two Sacraments and all other Dutys became useless and they grew so drunk with self-conceit that they pretended to see the Holy-Trinity with their bodily Eyes and to be equal with Christ himself sometimes they would dance upon the Devils and sometimes they would shoot at them and sometimes be taken with suddain frantick fits in which they converst with Angels and foresaw things to come they dissolved all the bonds of humane Society made perjury lawful cancell'd all obligations between Husband and Wife Parents and Children and lastly admitted none to their Society but such as were mark't out by a visible descent of the Holy-Ghost upon them and they were so fond as seriously to fancy that they familiarly saw such appearances As for the Eustathians or rather Eutachtans for Baronius I think has very well proved that not Eustathius Bishop of Sebasta but one Eutactus was the Father of the Sect I have given some account of them above that they were a wild sort of Phanaticks that under pretence of a more refined Godliness degenerated into perfect Ranters and Levellers and the Practice of all kinds of Debauchery But the fullest Description of them is best to be seen in the Canons of the Council of Gangra by which they were condemned viz. that they Abhorr'd Marriage as unlawful and eating of flesh unless it were strangled or offered to Idols that they set loose all servants from subjection to their Masters that they refused to receive the Eucharist from a married Priest that they despised Churches and all Assemblies in them as Superstitious that they set up Meetings separate from the Bishop that they refused to make the usual Offerings or to be present at the Love-feasts That they distinguisht themselves from others by a peculiar Habit and would not Communicate with any that did not wear it that they required women to shave their hair and wear Mens apparel to forsake their Husbands and neglect their Children and Children to take no notice or Care of their Parents that they fast on the Lords day and despise the Festivals of the Church in short they seem to have held nothing unlawful in humane life but marriage nor decent in the worship ofGod but contradiction to the practice of the Church And thus when our schism grows too strong for discipline the Common People never leave wandring till they have tired themselves with roving through all imaginable Exorbitances for these kind of doctrines are not peculiar to that time or place but are the flye-blows of disputacity and the natural effects of unbridled liberty all the world ever § XVIII This that I have described as accurately as I could by comparing the best Records of those times was the true state of the Christian Church under the Reign of Constantius and yet notwithstanding those perpetual Enormities committed by him through his whole Government the two great Articles that I am proving viz. the inherent right of determining Controversies within the Church it self by its own Governours and its entire submission to the Civil Powers howsoever oppressed by
complaint of St. Hilary and the oppress 't Catholiques so wrought with the Emperor that notwithstanding his outrage against them because his Affairs in France were then embroil'd by the Incursions of the Barbarous Nations he publishes that seemingly kind Rescript in Answer to their Request Mansuetudinis nostrae lege prohibemus in Judiciis Episcopos accusari c. Commanding that the Accusations of Bishops should not be brought before Secular Magistrates lest it should give too much encouragement to wicked Men to oppress them with slanders and therefore if any Man have a complaint against them let it be Examin'd before the Bishops that so every cause might be determin'd by its proper Judicature This is a singular Law and has scarce any other parallel with it in the whole Code for though there are divers Laws of other Emperors that refer all Controversies about Religion to the Episcopal Audience yet as for the Criminal causes of Ecclesiastical Persons I do not remember any beside this that wholly exempted them from the cognisance of their own Courts And therefore that this Emperor should grant such an Universal exemption seems a courtesie more then ordinary and is thought to have been meerly extorted by the importunity of the Catholick Bishops and the present difficulty of his own Affairs And that they then insisted upon the exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons as well as Causes it was for a reason peculiar to the State of the Controversie at that time that was then managed not so much by Arguments as Accusations though that weapon was chiefly employed against the great Athanasius into whose single Person the Controversie was at last contracted and the Parties were distinguisht by nothing but subscribing and refusing his Condemnation For he being the great Pillar of the Catholick Cause the Eusebians knew well enough that if they could but blow him up the cause must fall with him and for that reason is it that they all along labour'd so hard to overwhelm him with Criminal Accusations And therefore the Catholicks perceiving their fraud interposed as vehemently in defence of Athanasius as of their Faith because all the blows that were levell'd at him were supposed to aim at that insomuch that to subscribe his Condemnation was the same thing as to quit the Party as we have seen in the case of Pope Liberius And for this reason chiefly it was necessary at that time that the Emperor if he would refer the Ecclesiastical Controversie then on foot to the Bishops he should do the same as to the Criminal Causes of the Clergy because they were then universally join'd together And yet as kind as this Law might appear to be in relieving them from the oppressions of the Imperial Courts it was but a fraudulent favour and only design'd to ensnare the Catholicks For this gracious Rescript was publisht in the same year in which he call'd the violent Council at Milan that was on purpose packt out of the fiercest Eusebians to carry things thorough with an high hand and without any contradiction So that when in this Rescript he refer'd the Orthodox Bishops to an Ecclesiastical Judgment he designed nothing but their Oppression in this mad Council and that it is evident was so far from any kindness that it was the sharpest severity he could have contrived against them For if they had just ground of complaint against the unjust actings of the Secular Courts because they were not their proper Judicatures yet when they were so rudely outraged in Council as it was done in the proper Court so was it at their own request and that both took away all ground of complaint and left them without any means of relief Gothofred has a Conjecture that this Rescript was Enacted not before but after the Council and that in favour of the Eusebians who were overcome by the Orthodox at their own weapon of Accusation and yet by the partiality of the Council were protected whilst the Catholicks were oppressed and denyed the very formalities of Justice this says the Learned Man might provoke them to make their Appeals to the Secular Courts where they might at least hope to meet with some humanity and regard to the Laws And therefore the Emperor to spoil this shift brings them all back to the Ecclesiastical Judicature that if they would come thither there they might be heard but no where else But this contradicts the whole state of Affairs at that time when the partiality and oppression of the Secular Judges was the universal Groan of the Catholicks and when this Rescript was enacted upon or at least after their reiterated complaints against it and therefore there is no ground to imagine that the Catholicks how much soever oppressed in Council would think of seeking relief there But whatever was the intent of the Rescript and no doubt it was malicious enough it is certain that it was at least pretended to be granted upon the complaint of the Catholicks against the Secular Courts for taking to themselves the Judgment of Controversies of Faith whereas they ought to have referred them to the Synods of Bishops whom our Saviour had appointed to be the proper Guides and Judges in those matters And that is the meaning of Hosius and the rest in their reproofs of the Emperor not that he used his Authority in the Church but that he abused it by opposing it to the determination of a general Council by whose advice he ought both as a wise Man and a good Christian to have been directed in the use of his Power in such matters And that was the grand miscarriage of his Reign that he would not sit down satisfied under the Authâ—ntique and Solâ—mn determination of so great a Council which if he had done as his Father did he had escaped all that tedious risk of trouble which he created both to himself and to the Church through his whole Reign But however it is evident from all the Premisses that how enormously soever he abused his own Power in the Church he never attempted to Usurp the Churches Power and he never took upon him to make any Alterations in the Faith till they were first made and decreed in Council and though he destroyed the Use and Authority of Councils by denying freedom of Vote yet that was an abuse of his Power not an usurpation of theirs For that he ever own'd with a Religious regard in his most unwarrantable Oppressions And as I have observed at the beginning he shewed greater respect to the Power of the Church then any Emperor in the whole Succession when he called such sholes of Councils only to have his Will of one Man and one Word which he durst not controul himself because they had been own'd and justified by the Churches Authority And if we carefully observe his motions we shall find him a cordial friend both to the Church and to Religion and the end of all his mistaken Zeal was the lasting settlement of Peace and Concord that was
the word that he had always in his mouth all the misfortune was that he fell into ill hands and by their advice endeavour'd it the wrong way His high Opinion of the honesty of some ill Church-Men was the Principle that exposed him to all that abuse that was put upon him all his life time It was his confidence in Eusebius and his Partisans that did drive him into that unhappy course that he took for the attainment of his desired Peace All their advice was Oracle to him and made him both deaf and blind to all other information But otherwise setting aside this unhappy oversight of being over-rul'd by ill Men he seems to have been so far from all thoughts of robbing the Church of its own inherent rights that he thought he could never shew it kindness enough by heaping continual favours of his own upon it he granted it more Priviledges and greater Immunities then any other Emperor and whereas his Father Constantine only exempted Ecclesiasticks from all Personal burthens in the Common-wealth he has in divers Rescripts freed them from all manner of Taxes and Impositions whatsoever and a very little time before his death he publisht an Edict to Establish the perpetual security of all his former Grants with this reason at the end of it as it were his dying words Gaudere â—nim gloriari ex side semper volumus scientes magis Religionibus quà m Officiis Labore corporis vel sudore nostram rempublicam contineri i. e. as Gothofred paraphrases it We freely grant all these Immunities to the Ministers of Religion as knowing that the Publick Weal will lose nothing by all their exemptions from its service but gain greater blessings from their Prayers and Devotions then they could have contributed to it by any other way of Attendance And this very thing is all along upbraided to him by the counterfeit Hilary in his Book against him that whilst he pretended so much kindness to the Christian Church and Clergy he by his ill Government betrayed the one and oppress 't the other Auro reipublicae Sanctum Dei honoras vel detracta templis vel publicata Edictis vel exacta paenis Deo ingeris Osculo Sacerdotes excipis quo Christus est proditus Caput benedictioni summittis ut fidem calces convivio dignaris ex quo Judas ad proditionem egressus est censum capitum remittis quem Christus ne Scandalo esset exolvit Vectigalia Caesar donas ut ad negationem Christianos invites quae tua sunt relaxas â—t quae Dei sunt amittantur So that it is evident from his Story and the Confession of his Enemies that he was a true lover of the Christian Church and a zealous Promoter of Religion and only miscarried by following the advice of the Eusebians which they gave him for their own ends and with what grosness they abused him all along we have seen through every Stage of his life And this is the ground of those high Commendations that are given him by Gregory Nazianzen because he was of himself a true lover of Religion and designed nothing but the Peace and settlement of the Church though under that plausible pretence his good nature and integrity were imposed upon by wicked Men to compass their own wicked designs against the true peace of the Catholick Church And that was the folly and misfortune that they drew him into not to acquiesce in the Authoritative determination of the Church in so great a Council as that of Nice which had he done it had continued in the same Peace and Tranquility in which his Father left it But when instead of that he endeavoured to remove the setled Foundation as it was laid by the true and proper Builders it is no wonder if the whole Fabrick fell upon his own head and buried his whole Reign under its Ruins And it is very likely that his impatience under so awkerd a Burthen when he could not clear himself of it put him at last upon those angry courses that he took to obtain his Will And as at last it perplext so it debaucht his Government for till the Conquest of Magnentius he seem'd to have behaved himself like a wise and able Prince but had not leisure to attempt much less perform any thing great by reason of his perpetual attendance upon this Controversie And that may be a warning to all Princes That when a Controversie of Religion is once laid by a fair and legal decision to beware how they suffer it to rise again lest it prove too strong and stubborn to submit to a second Exorcism However by the different behaviour of these two Princes in interposing in the Controversies of the Church and the different event of their actings in it we have before our Eyes clear examples of right and wrong methods of Government Constantine when he found a Faction in the Church settles peace by the Authority of the Church without putting any restraints upon it and what that determin'd he first made a Law to himself and then to his Subjects and would never after permit it to be call'd in question and by this means he quell'd a dangerous Faction and freed himself from any direct disturbance from it all his own Reign But his Son Constantius on the contrary not acquiescing in the Canonical determination of the Church broke down all the Banks of Government and let in that Inundation of Dispute that overwhelm'd his whole Reign But being sensible of the trouble that he had brought upon himself by having once dismantled the Churches Authority he thought to help himself out by retrieving its force but still the more he strugled the more he entangled himself because instead of setling things by fair and free Councils and unless they are so they are no Councils of Christs Officers but meer Executioners of the Princes Commands himself ever endeavour'd to over-rule all the Councils that he call'd either by fraud or violence And then no wonder when they were so hamper'd if they were not able to attain the end of their Institution And that was the fatal miscarriage of his Reign his garbling the Authority of Councils turning them into Courts of Guards and abetting forty or fifty Seditious Men against the whole Body of Catholick Bishops otherwise if they had been permitted the free exercise of their own proper Authority all things had been carried with that gravity and decency that became the Christian Church as we see by the great Councils of Sardica and Ariminum that had effectually setled the Nicene Faith had not the Emperor cut asunder their Decrees with his Sword and set up an Eusebian Rump in defiance and opposition to the whole Council And therefore whereas some Men are pleased to upbraid the Churches Authority with the miscarriages of these Councils under Constantius they might have been pleased too to consider that the main Body of Christian Bishops discharged their duty with entire faithfulness and
integrity and that it was only the Emperor and his Court-parasites that were guilty of all the Exorbitancies committed in the Church in his time which he committed so altogether without the Churches consent that by them he oppressed it with all the outrage and violence of Persecution But from this clamour raised against the Authority of the Church upon this account and kept up at this very day with so much confidence for we find it among the doleâ—ul invectives of R. B. against the ancient Bishops in his Book of Crudities we may see what a pleasure and satisfaction it is to men of some tempers to be venting their ill nature against the true old Christian Church But Secondly as the Emperour in all his exorbitant actings own'd and supposed the power of the Church so the Catholicks submitted to all their sufferings under him with the same patience and upon the same Principle that they did to the Heathen Emperours And this is most remarkable in the Case of Athanasius who though he was persecuted and provoked beyond all Patience for the Establisht Religion of the Empire but among infinite other slanders that were loaded upon him is charged with Treason and Disloyalty yet for all this he is nice and punctual in his Obedience to all the Emperours commands even against himself and does with the greatest indignation detest the least thought of disrespect or disloyalty to his Sovereign Lord. Thus when his Enemies had slandered him to the Emperour Constantius for having spoken ill things of him and done ill Offices between him and his Brother Constans he defies the Calumny a thousand times over as only sit to be laid upon a distracted Man and calls God and his Holy Angels to witness how far it was from his thoughts and his Principles to speak the least ill word of a Sovereign Prince And when in the second place they charged him for having held correspondence with the Rebel Magnentius here he professes himself amazed and consounded with the greatness of the Lye and wonders how any man should be so strangely beside himself as to â—eign such an incredible Calumny against him He be such a Beast as to be friend to such a Monster as had Rebell'd against and Murther'd his Royal Master No he would rather dye Ten Thousand Deaths then be guilty of one such Disloyal Though And beseeches the Emperour that he would never entertain such an hard opinion of the Christian Church as if it were possible for Christians but much more Bishops to entertain any thoughts like Disloyalty and invokes the God of Heaven and Earth who gave the Empire to Constantius and to whom alone he could appeal from him as being his only Superiour to clear his innocence from so foul a Calumny And whereas in the third place they object that when the Emperour commanded his departure from Alexandria he refused to obey it To this he answers God sorbid that I should be such a wretch as to slite any of his Majesties Commands No he made Conscience of refusing Obedience but to the Questor of a City much more to his Sovereign Lord the Emperour Then discovers to him how the Eusebians had forged Letters in the Emperours Name for his Banishment and tells him that it was upon the assurance of the Forgery that he refused complyance but otherwise assures him that he is not so mad as to disobey any of his own Commands whatsoever so that if he had been pleased to Command him from Alexandria he would have been gone at the first notice and prevented the Command by the promptness of his Obedience The sense of all which is that it is no less then downright madness for any man that pretends to Christianity to make resistance to any Commands of his Sovereign Prince and this he writes whilst he was forced for the security of his life to lye conceal'd in the Wilderness after he had been persecuted by Constantius with the utmost rancour and a thousand times worse then a Mid-night Robber for above twenty years together and in truth had suffered such things from his hands as never any other Subject did from any Prince For his Case is singular and has nothing like it in Story Constantius his treating of him exceeded the injustice and cruelty of all the Heathen Tyrants and yet after all this prodigious and unparallel'd Provocation not only against the Laws of the Empire but of all Humanity how tender is this great spirited Man of making the least abatement of respect and duty to his Prince However he was pleased to treat him he was obliged by his Religion as he would acquit himself from madness not so much as to entertain a thought of the least resistance to any of his Commands in shortc onsidering the strange usage he had met with from the Emperour through his whole life his Story is the greatest instance and demonstration of a religious Sense of Loyalty that is upon Record It is true that Lucifer Calaritanus bestowed his rude Language upon the Emperour liberally enough but he was a man of a prodigiously fierce implacable nature as appears by the Schism that he made in the Church leaving its Communion rather then be reconciled to any of the Arian or Eusebian Clergy upon their repentance and submission which was such a piece of sowreness and austerity as could not but eat up all Sense of civility and good manners and therefore it is no wonder if a man of such a splenetick temper were so free of his Contumelious Language without respect of Persons especially when his natural rudeness was heightned and emproved by that false Principle that Christian Bishops might treat Heretick Princes after the same rate that the Prophets in the Old Testament did Apostate Princes and by that he answers Constantius his complaint of rudeness and insolence against him Dixisti passum te ac pati a nobis contra monita sacrarum scripturarum contumeliam dicis nos insolentes extitisse circa te quem honorari decuerit quasi quisquam dei cultorum pepercit Apostatis You complain that we have given you contumelious language against the commands of the Holy Scriptures you say that we behave our selves after an insolent manner towards you whom we ought to honour as if any Servant of God were to spare Apostates And then proceeds to a Catalogue of all the prophetick burthens against Apostate and Idolatrous Princes in the Old Testament But I am not at all concern'd to excuse him when he quitted the Catholick Communion and joyned Faction with the Rebel Puritans the Donatists as we have seen above Though this is to be said for him that how far soever he might proceed in foul Language he was so far from making any invitation to proceed to violent Actions that he concludes his whole Book with a passionate exhortation to Patience and Martyrdom So that hitherto the Doctrine of resistance to Sovereign Princes in any circumstances whatsoever or
upon any pretence whatsoever but especially of Religion is an utter Stranger to the Catholick Church §. XIX And now are we Arrived at a strange and surprizing Revolution of things under the Reign of Julian who no sooner came to the Crown then he endeavour'd by all the ways of fraud and force to destroy the Establish't Religion of the Empire in order to the Reduction of the old Paganism and Idolatry And considering the shortness of his Reign he was a fiercer and more outragious Enemy to the Christian Church then any or indeed all the ancient Persecutors put together And yet notwithstanding all the wildness of his fury they think themselves obliged by the Fundamental Laws of their Religion to pay him the same duty of Loyalty and Allegiance that they payed to the Christian Emperours But the History of his Reign has of late been made the Subject even of popular discourse and that will in a great measure prevent me in this part of my undertaking the Trifle of Julian having received sufficient Correction and much more then it deserved and I doubt the Jest is now spoil'd and the jolly Doctrine prevented from being popular by its unhappy Application But notwithstanding that I shall proceed in my old Method to shew first how the Church took care to Govern and preserve it self by its own Authority against all the Apostates Opposition and by the right and effectual exercise of it was too hard for all his Politicks against it And Secondly what a tender and a religious sense of Duty and Loyalty they profest and practised towards him in spight of his unparallel'd Provocations Of which I shall endeavour so to discourse as not to repete or interfere with other Mens Observations As for the first it is highly observable that when the Apostate came to the Empire he was all on fire for the destruction of Christianity out of it for though he had suppress't his Apostacy all the time of Constantius yet his zeal was perpetually boiling in his Breast and impatient to burst into open Liberty And therefore the very first moment of Opportunity that it had to discover it self it broke forth as Gregory Nazianzen often compares it like fire from its confinement He immediately commands all the Heathen Temples to be opened and the Sacrifices to be brought to the Altars solemny renounces his Christianity and purges away his Baptism with the Blood of Sacrifices is immediately install'd into the old and abrogated dignity of Pontifex Maximus and officiates at the Heathen Rites in his own Person So that tho the former Emperours took it to themselves only as a Title of Honour he ridiculously takes the Office too and acts all the Phantastick Postures and Pageantries of the Heathen Priests And the fury of his zeal swell'd so high that nothing less would serve his turn then to be created a Priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries because those were esteemed the most sacred and recondite part of their Religion And then he goes on every where to re-edifie and adorn the Heathen Temples and to place Heathen Priests in them And having thus in the first place taken all speedy care for the re-settlement of his own Religion his next thought is how to contrive the utter extirpation of the Galilaeans as he always stil'd the Christians in contempt and derision The best and most obvious Policy that he could pitch upon for that was to bring confusion into the Church For which purpose he grants Liberty of Conscience to all Factions calls back all the banish't Bishops particularly Athanasius Eusebius of Verselles and St. Hilary restores all the Hereticks particularly Aetius whom he invites to Court and returns all their Churches to the Novatian Schismaticks and what mighty endearments there were between the Apostate and the Donatists we have seen above in their History Now from an uncontroll'd licentiousness granted to such a vast variety of quarrelsome People he doubted not to make the Church contemptible to all the World by turning it into a Counter-scuffle For he look't upon the Christians as the most contentious Sect in it usually saying that no wild Beasts were so fierce against men as Christians were against one another And this Character of the contentiousness of Christians among themselves he could not but take up from his Observation of the Cruelty and merciless behaviour of the Eusebians towards the Orthodox under his Predecessor that indeed exceeded the salvageness of all wild Beasts But supposing them never so tame nothing less then everlasting confusion could be expected from such an unbounded licentiousness As Sozomen observes that it was not done out of any kindness but that the Church might destroy it self by mutual discord and Civil War And yet alass so far was he from attaining his ends that his malice was utterly defeated by the wisdom of the good Bishops for they being now freed from that violence and oppression that was put upon the Discipline of the Church by Constantius with his Prefects and Eunuchs and so being at liberty to exert that power that was settled upon them by our blessed Saviour they effectually restored that Peace and Concord to the Church which they could never compass under the oppressive Reign of Constantius put an end to the vexatious Arian Controversie establish't the Nicene Faith over all the Christian World and prevented new Schisms and Factions that were at that time breaking out in the Christian Church For after the death of George the Saint who was barbarously Murthered by the Heathens for affronting their Religion or rather robbing their Temples as 't is attested both by Ammianus Marcellinus and all the Christian Historians but most expresly by Julians own Letter to the Alexandrians where he bespeaks the Actors as true Worshippers of the Gods and blames them for having committed so cruel a Riot out of an over warm zeal for their Religion yet Philostorgius and Sandius have the Grace to say That the Fact was committed by the Followers of Athanasius and that they were set on by himself though he were then absent out of the City After this Athanasius returns to Alexandria where he is no sooner come then he calls a Council for resettling the State of the Catholick Church that had been interrupted by Constantius his fierce and long Oppression of it And at this Council the Famous Eusebius of Verselles was present as he return'd from his banishment in the higher Thebais though the Roman Writers will have it that he came as the Popes Legate without any Authority for it but their own bold Assertion and on the contrary he was so far from coming with any Commission from Rome that he came from a quite distant part of the World and only took in Alexandria in his way And now here the first question is as in all other Persecutions concerning the Lapsi or those Bishops that had joyn'd with the Arians or Eusebians in any of Constantius his Councils whether upon their
Pretence and will rather forfeit their Understanding then not gratifie their ill-nature how else could any Man be so transported out of his common Sense from one miscarriage to warrant our imitation of it against the constant sense of the Church for so many Ages And yet with what joy and greediness has this poor trifle been embraced as a new discovery dropt from Heaven and how confident are we that the Primitive Christians were no such softly fools as they have been hitherto represented as to preach and practise that Sheepish Doctrine of Passive Obedience Which only shews how ready some Parties of Men among us are for seizing any pretences for Resistance and Rebellion Otherwise certainly if Men would Judge impartially and without Faction of this mighty work the whole Mystery of it is no more then this that an Industrious Searcher into the Records of the Church has at last found out one instance in which some Christians failed of their Duty to their Prince A great performance this worthy the applause and admiration of this learned Age and therefore to deal civilly with it I care not though I grant the truth of the Assertion but then I must crave leave to let them know that this is the only instance of this kind that hap'ned in Eleven hundred years For that is the thing that I have undertaken to maintain That from the beginning of Christianity down to the time of Pope Gregory the Seventh who was the 159th Pope and succeeded not till the year 1073 no one Christian of the Western Church no not a Pope or taught or put in practice the Doctrine of Resistance to Sovereign Princes or disown'd the duty of Passive Obedience under the worst of Persecutors and after this much good may this little Story of Julian do them For they cannot but see what a mean and foolish design it is to set up one single Tale as a proâ—f of the Sense of the Primitive Christians when it stands all alone and is contrary to the declared Sense of the Catholick Church for so many Ages So that they gain so little advantage to their Cause by this admired Performance that it proves the most unlucky Argument that could have been contrived against it For this is a demonstration to all the World that there is in all the Records of the Church but one Precedent of Christian disrespect or disobedience to persecuting Princes And that is but a single exception to its universal practice and if it be it confesses its own Enormity from it So that methinks Men that design'd to preach up Resistance and Rebellion from the Precedents of the Primitive Christians should rather have taken any other method to abuse the People then by telling them this single Story of Julian For hereby they are brought to understand that they have no more then one Tale for their Cause and that if it were true it is controuled by the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages and that I think is as much as any reasonable Man can desire to shame and bafle the Assertion Especially when it is so evident that Christians before this time were become in a great measure like other Men because when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the darling of Princes all Men would equally embrace it for present Advantage and Preferment And in these circumstances bad Men will be sure to appear as forward in their Zeal as the best Christians and generally to outstrip them in outward Appearance So that if at that time there had been any Christians found guilty of disloyalty towards their Prince what wonder is it when such Numbers came into the Church not for any love of the Religion but for other ends and designs of their own And such Men were as effectually loose from all the Obligations of Christianity as if they had never own'd it And therefore the true Sense of Christians ought not to be taken from their practice after it had been the thriving Religion for then it was made a Trade but from their Professions in such times when they had no other Motive to embrace it but it self for then it is certain that all that did so were in good earnest It being then so evident that the Christians through all Ages down to Constantine profess't and practiced the duty of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience to all Princes without reserves and exceptions as an indispensible Law of their Religion that is a clear full and unanswerable declaration of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter however any might fall into a contrary behaviour in times of ease and prosperity For then it is impossible but that there would be many in the Church that were not of it as we have shewn above from the complaint of Eusebius and others how the Credulity of Constantine was abused by pretended Converts to the great dishonour of his Government and Oppression of his People And yet I think no Man could think it reasonable to upbraid Christianity with their Scandals and if Julian found multitudes of such Men in the Church when he came to the Empire what wonder would it be if Men that were in reality no Christians made any unchristian Attempts against him So that granting our Apostates the truth of their Plea from the behaviour of Christians towards Julian this one thing utterly barrs their Conclusion that this was the avowed practice of Christians at that time when at the time that he came to the Empire there were as many in the Church that were not as that were Christians But because it is to be supposed that the Counterfeits fell off with the Apostate I will allow the Plea that if the Christians who persevered in the Faith committed any of those disloyal and Seditious pranks that the Apostates charge upon them that then the blame shall lye at the Church door And yet so as not to make a Precedent for imitation because it is a single Enormity both from the plain Laws of the Religion and the universal Practice of all its Professors and after that it is a very impertinent way of arguing to draw any Conclusion from such an Example And yet secondly as impertinent as it is it is much more false for there is not any one instance of any one Christian in all his Reign that ever made any resistance to any one of his Commands And then whatever they did beside to affront him that is nothing to warrant the practice of Resistance and shews that in whatsoever hatred and contempt they held his Person yet notwithstanding that they thought themselves bound in duty to an entire Submission to his Government And therefore of their ill manners and uncourtly behaviour towards him I shall discourse by it self because that concerns not the Argument of Resistance and shall at present only shew that they were so far from putting any such design in practice that they all expresly disclaimed and defied it as utterly inconsistent with the
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