sober Historians date that New Disease which was so generally propagated then and ever since transmitted to some of their Successors that it hath given reason to inquire whether it only happened to those men as it might to others or where not inherent to the very Function It show'd it self first in ambition then in Contention next in Imposition and after these Symptoms broke out at last like a Plague-Sore in open Persecution They the Bishops who began to vouch themselves the Successors of Christ or at least of his Apostles yet pretended to be Hâ—…irs and Executors of the Jewish Hiah-Priests and the Heathen Tyrants and were ready to move the Will The Ignorant Jews and Infidels understood not how to Persecute had no Commission to meddle with Religion but the Bishops had studied the Scriptures knew better things and the same which was Cruelty and Tyranny in the Heathens if done by a Christian and Ecclesiastical hand was halloweâ—… to be Church-Government and the care of a Diocess But that I may not seem to speak without book or out-run the History I shall return to proceed by those degrees I newly mention'd whereby the Christian Religion was usurped upon and those things became their crime which were their duties The first was the Ambition of the Bishops which had even before this taken its rise when in the intervals of the former Persecutions the Piety of the Christians had laid out ample provisions for the Chuch but when Constantine not only restored those which had been all 〈◊〉 under Dioclesian but was every day adding some new Possession Priviledge or Honor a Bishoprick became very 〈◊〉 and was not only a Good Work but a Good Thing especially when there was now no danger of paying as it was usual formerly their First-fruits to the Emperor by Martyrdom The Arts by which Ambition câ—…mes are Calumny Dissimulation Cruelty Bribery Adulation all applyed in their proper places and seasons and when the man hath attained his end he ordinarily shows himself then in his colours in Pride Opiniastry Contention and all other requisite or incident il Qualities And if the Clergy of those times had some more dextrous and innocent way then this of manaing their Ambition it is to be lamented inter Artes 〈◊〉 or lyes enviously hid by some musty Book-worm in his private Liberary But so much I find that both before and then and after they cast such Crimes at one another that a Man would scarce think he were reading an History of Bishops but a Legend of Divels and each took such are to blacken his adversary and he regarded not how he smutted himself thereby and his own Order to the Laughter or Horror of the by-standers And one thing I remark particularly that as Son of a Whore is the modern Word of Reproach among the Laity of the same use then among the Clergy was Heretick There were indeed Hereticks as well as there are Bastards and perhaps it was not their fault neither of 〈◊〉 could help it but the Mothers oâ—… the Fathers but they made so many Hereticks in 〈◊〉 days that 〈◊〉 hard to think they really believ'd them so but adventur'd the Name only to pick a Quarrel And one thing that makes it very suspicious is that in the Ecclesiastical History the Ring-leaders of any Heresy for the most part accused of having a mind to be a Bishop though it was not the way to come to it As here was the damnable Heresy of the Novatians against which Constantine not withstanding his Declaration of general Indulgence at his coming in was shortly after so incensed that he published a most severe Proclamation against them Cognoscite jam per legem hanc que in me sancita 〈◊〉 O Nova iam c. prohibiting all their meetings not only in Publick but in their own Private Houses and that all such places where they assembled for their worship should be rased to the ground without delay or controversie c. Eus. l. 3. c. 62. de vita Constantini Now the story the Bishops tell of Novatus the Author of that Sect. Euseb. l. 6. c. 24. is in the words of Cornelius the Bishop of Rome the very first line But that you may know that this brave Novatus did even before that affect to be a Bishop a great crime in him that he might conceal that petulant Ambition he for a better cover to his arrogance had got some Confessors into his Society c. and goes on calling him all to naught but then saith he be came with two Reprobates of his own Heresy into a â—…uite the very least Shire of Italy and by their means seduced three most simple high shoon Bishops wheedling them that they must with all speed go to Rome and there meeting with other Bishops all Matters should be reconciled And when he had got thither these three Silly Fellows as I said that were not aware of his cunning he had prepared a company of Rogues like Himself that treated them in a private room very freely and having thwack'd their bellies and heads full with meat and drink compell'd the poor drunken Bishops by an imaginary and vain Imposition of Hands to make Novatus also a Bishop Might not one of the same Order now better have conceal'd these things had they been true but such was the discretion Then he tells that one of the three returned soon after repenting it seems next morning and so he received him again into the Church unto the Laick Communion But for the other two he had sent Successors into their places And yet after all this ado and the whetting of Constantine contrary to his own Nature and his own Declarations against the Navatians I cannot find their Heresy to have been other then that they were the Puritans of those times and a sort of Non-conformists that could have subscribed to the Six and thirty Articles but differed only in those of Discipline and upon some inormities therein separated and which will always be sufficient to quality an Heretick they instituted Bishops of their own in most places And yet afterwards in the times of the best Homotusian Emperors a sober and strictly Religious People did so constantly adhere to them that the Bishops of the Church too found meet to give them fair quarter for as much as they differ'd not in Fundamentals and therefore were of use to them against Hereticks that were more dangerous and diametrically opposite to the Religion Nay in so much that even the Bishop of Constantinople yea of Rome not withstanding that most tender point and interest of Episcopacy suffered the Novatian Bishops to walk cheek by joul with them in their own Diocess until that as Secr. l. 7. c. 11. the Roman Episcopacy having as it were passed the bounds of Priesthood slipp'd into a Secular Principality and thenceforward the Roman Bishops would not suffer their Meetings with Security but though they commended them for their Consent in the some Faith with them yet
own nature So Prohibitions of that kind operate no more as to the intrinseque Quality then a publick Allowance of taking away any honest mens Goods by violence and giving it another name would extinguish the Robbery It was the King and Parliaments prudence to make such Laws and as long as they shall continue of that mind it is reason the Non-Conformists should lye under the Penalty which I humbly conceive is all that could be intended But the Exposer rivets this with Reason again not Gospel And was it not ever understood so in all Religions even in Heathen Rome The most learned P. Aerodius tells us Does he so What is it I beseech you that the Roman Senate the Exposer quotes it at large as a story of great use and not to be hudled over I must be glad to contract it made an Act against the Conventicles of certaine Innovators in their Religion if any particular person judged such a sacrifice to be necessary he must repair first to the Praetor he to the Senate where the Quorum must be an hundred and they must not neither give him leave if at all to have above five persons present at the Meeting The self same number beside the Dissenters own Family is so far forth indur'd by an Act of this present Parliament that there must be more then Five to make it a Conventicle This is a very subtile Remarke that he has made as if it were one of those Witty accidents of Fortune or an extraordinary hand of Providence that the Senate of Rome and the Parliament of England should hit so put upon an Act of the same nature And upon that number of Five However they are oblidg'd to him and he deserves the publick Thanks for furnishing them so long after with a Precedent I confess I alwayes wonder'd they would allow them so many as Five for fear when not two or three but Five of 'em were gathered together God should bear their request and it seem'd therefore to me a Formidable Number But where has the Example been hid so long I believe the Exposers study has laid much this way But this was so deep an Arcanum that was fit for none but an Arch-Bishops Closer I wish he have come honestly by it But Murder I see and Theft will out and so this comes to light by a blabbing Animadverter that cannot keep counsel but will violate the Ecclesiastical secret rather then lose the Leachery of his Tattle and the vain-glory of his Pedantry I could be glad to know what complexion this Exposer is of I am perswaded whatsoever he may be now he was once extreme faire for I remember since I was at School that the learned P. Ovidius told me that the Crow was once a white Bird and much in Apollo's favour till for telling of Tales Sperantem non falsae praemia linguae Inter aves albas vetuit consistere Corvum And of another the fairest thing that ever eyes were laid on but for carrying of Storyes was turn'd into a Jackdaw and grew as black as a Crow Filching and Kaw me and I le Kaw thee ever after And that which sure must make him more black more a Jack-daw and like it worthy to be expelled from the guard and from the protection of Minerva and who henceforward Ponatur post Noctis avem is that he does with open mouth proclaim the Naked design of all the Few that are of his Party p. 12. The Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon The same p. 12. We that would oblidge him to open his Eyes whether he will or no. p. 14. Iean only wish for the present that by forcing them into our Churches they may hear our defences p. 17. I speak nothing more against them then that they may he brought to our Churches c. All this as the last result and greatest condescension of his Ecclesiastical Clemency In conclusion he declares he would have them forced and for what manner of force violence punishent or penalty he leaves it all open go as high as men will These things still are not Scripture neither but Reason His first was an Heathenish Reason in one sense and this a Jewish in another For I confess it is a very pregnant and adequate example and of great authority for us to imitate that the Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon What could there be more proportionable then to resemble the proceeding with Christians among themselves here in England not differing in any point of Faith with the proceeding at Rome against the Jews But that the Exposer should implicitly liken and compare our Bishops to the Pope may perhaps not be taken well by either Party So that I dare say had he consulted with his usual Prudence he would not have disoblidged both sides at once But for the Precedent I have nothing to oppose to this more then the first it being doubtless of notable effect as notable as that of the Piemont conference Only out of the affection I have for him I would wish him to correct here one slip if I be rightly informed for some that have been abroad say his Intelligence from Rome has failed him for that it is not once a week but once a year that the Jews at Rome are oblidged forced to hear a Christian Sermon And therefore when the Parliamentum Indoctum sits again I would advise him not to make his Act too severe here upon this mistake then it is against those Judaick Non-Conformists at Rome But the next Reason would be so extraordinary troublesome to the Few that are of the Exposers party and to himself that if he had thorowly consider'd it I question whether he would have been so charitable to the Fanaticks that he would oblige them to open their Eyes whether they will or no. For it would require two of the Church of England to every Non-conformist unless 't were here and there one that had lost an Eye in the Service Less would not do the business decently and those two also must be well in order to open the Non-conformists Eyes both at once lest one Eye should be of one and the other Eye of a contrary opinion And then they should in humanity give them some interval for winking Else they had as good cut off their Eye-lids as the Episcopal Carthaginians used the Presbyterian Regulus for keeping in the true sense to his Covenant But on the other side it would look too big for a Company of beggarly Fanaticks to be waited upon in as much Majesty as Obeshankanogh the King of Virginia that had two Squires of the Body in constant attendance to lift up his Eye-lids as oft as he conceiv'd any man worthy to be look'd upon But let the Exposer order it as he pleases I am not bound to be any of his Sight-supporters Onely this it would be very improper for him to chuse any one that is blind
this proves nothing Neither does it For the dispute now betwixt the Author and his Adversary is whether it be possible to compel a man to believe This instance proves only that those Donatists were forced to come to Church Therefore there cannot be a more uncharitable and disingenuous thing invented then for the Exposer to upbraid him with such a retort for ought he knows they were Hypoorites the Author does say so so for ought we to know this Author is all this while a Jesuite and writes this Pamphlet only to imbroile us Protestants But he must make some sputter rather then be held to the terms of the Question and truly I perceive Antiochus is very weary and shifts like a Crane not to instance in a worse Bird first one foot and then another to rest on being tired to stand so long within so close a Circle For thirdly the Author answers Put the case their hearts were really changed as to matter of Belief 't is evident their hearts were very worldly still grovelling on earth not one step nearer Heaven He will not be candid without Compulsion but leaves out what follows and sure their heart was evil which was far mâ—…re moved for the quiet enjoyment of this worlds good then for the blessed enjoyment of Christ. In earnest I begin to think an Exposer is a Rational Creature For had he not on puâ—…pose left these last words out he could not have cryed A horrible 〈◊〉 saying We may forgive the Author any thing after this which is all the Answer he gives so charitable is the Exposer grown to the Donatists for every man that will come to Church is ipso facto with him a true Believer But it did in truth appear to have been so and there is not the least uncharitableness in this that the Author has said For by those Donatists own confession it was not any love to that which they now owned for the Truth to St. Austin not any Convicton of Conscience not so much as even 〈◊〉 inclination to obey the Magistrate but meer fine force and fear of Punishment that brought them to Church and whatsoever good came on 't was by accident Whether might not a man adde that their giving thanks for that force and so owning that Principle of Compulsion was a further evidence that their heart was naught still even while they were with St. Augustine I think a man might untill I be better informed But the Author having given a fourth answer that suppose they were now really brought over to the Truth of the Church of Belief and Religion by the Magistrates severity I express it thus that I may with the Exposer trifle about the Jews care yet St. Paul hath said God forbid we should do evil that good may come of it This is answer enough for a man of understanding For it is not lawful suppose for St. Austin himself to beguile any man even into Christianity unless as St. Paul perhaps 2 Cor. 12. 16. Being crafty caught the Corinthians with guile by preaching the Gospel without being Burthensome to the People No man ought to cheat another though to the true beliefe Not by Interlining the Scripture Not by false Quotation of Scripture or of a Father Not by forging a Heathen Prophecy or altering an Author Not by false Syllogisme Not by telling a lye for God And if no Pety Fraud much less can a Pia Vis be allowed to compell them to Faith to compell them to a Creed seeing it were to do evil that grod may come of it much less to a Creed not perfectly Scriptural and instead of being inforced indeed weakned by compulsion seeing it is impossible to compel a man to believe and some Divines teach us to believe though I suspend that even God himself cannot or doth not Compel men to Believing But now it falls in naturally to me to be as good as my word to consider what the Exposer replyes to the Author's first answer concerinig the Donatists that our Case is of inforcing a Confession of Faith not concerning seditious Practises of which the Donatists were notoriously guilty in which Case he had shown before that the Civil Magistrate may proceed to Punishment Wherein the Author reasons with his usual justness and I though a very slender accession cannot but come into him For St. Paul in the 13. Chapter of the Romans laying out the Boundaries of the Duty of Christian subjects and the Magistrates Power saith Rulers are not ought not to be a terrour to good works but to evil and so forward but to the Christian people he saith they must be subject not only for wrath as those Donatists were afterwards but for Conscience sake And the subjection he defines is in doing good walking upâ—…ightly keeping the Moral Law Fearing Honouring and Paying Tribute to the Magistrate But not one word saith the Apostle of forbearing to Preach out of that Obedience saying in another place Necessity is laid upon one and woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel and that supposes too meeting and as little of Compelling to hear For in those times and a great while after there was no inforcing to Christianity It was very long before that came in fashion And writing on the suddain I do not well remember whether it did ever before the dayes of Picarro and Almagro the Apostles of the Indians yet upon recollection it was sooner But what saith the Exposer to this of the Donatists whom the Author allows only to have been punishable only for seditious Practises having before declared that for such as only refuse to conforme to the Churches established Doctrine and Discipline pardon him if he say really he cannot find any warrant or so much as any hint from the Gospel to use any Force to compel them and from Reason sure there is no motive to use force because as he shewed before Force can't make a man believe your Doctrine but only as an Hypocrite Profess what be believes not I expect that the Exposer in this place above all other which I guess was his greatest motive to this Imployment should ply and overlay him now with Reason but especially with Scripture let us hear how he answers I say only this p 5. for he speaks now of our Non-Conformists the very Act against them calls them Seditious Conventicles and openly to break so many known Laws of the Land after so many reinforcements is not this to be turbulent This now you must understand to be Reason and not Scripture That I suppose as the strongest is reserved for the Rear Truly as far as a man can comprehend by comparing that with other Acts of this Parliament they did only appoint that the Penalty of Sedition should ly against those that frequent such Meetings as in the Act against Irish Catel if it be not in it self a Nuisance no Law-givers can make it so Nor can any Legislators make that to be Sedition which is not Sedition in its
took away all their Estates But at Constantinople they continued to fare better the Bishops of that Church embracing Novatians and free liberty to keep their Conventicles in their Churches What and to have their Bishops too Altar against Altar A Condescention which as our Non-conformists seem not to desire or think of so the Wisdom of these times would I suppose judge to be very unreasonable but rather that it were fit to take the other course and that whatsoever advantage the Religion might probably receive from their Doctrine and party 't is better to suppress them and make havock both of their Estates and Persons But however the Hereticks in Constantine's time had the less reason to complain of ill Measure seeing it was that the Bishops meated by among themselves I pass over that controversy betwixt Cecilianns the Bishop of Carthage and his adherents with another set of Bishops there in Africk upon which Constantine ordered ten of each party to appear before Milâ—…iades the Bishop of Rome and others to have it deceived Yet after they had given sentence Constantine found it necessary to have a Council for a review of the business as in his Letter to Chrestus the Bishop of Syracusa Euseb. l. 10. c. 6. Wrensas several have formerly separated from the Catholick Heresy for that word was not yet so ill natured but that it might sometimes be used in its proper and good Sense and then relates his Commission to the Bishop of Rome and others But for as much as some having been careless of their own salvation and forgetting the reverence due to that most holy Heresy again will not yet lay down their enmity nor admit the sentence that hath been given obstinately affirming that they were but a few that pronounced the Sentence and that they did it very precipitately before they bad duly inquired of the matter and from hence it hath happened that both they who ought to have kept a brotherly and nuanimous agreement together do abominably any flagitiously dissent from one another and such whose minds are alienated from the most holy Religion do make a mockery both of it and them Therefore 1 c. have commanded very many Bishops out of innumerable places to meet at Arles that what ought to have been quieted upon the former Sentence pronounced may now at least be determined c. and you to be one of them and therefore I have ordered the Prefect of Sicily to furnish you with one of the publick Stage-Coachers and so many Servants c. Such was the use then of Stage Coaches Post Horses and Councills to the great disappointment and grievance of the many both Men and Horses and Leather being hackneyd-jaded and worn out upon the errand of some contentious and obstinate Bishop So went the Affairs hitherto and thus well disposed and prepared were the Bishops to receive the Holy Ghost a second time at the great and first general Council of Nice which is so much Celebrated The occasions of calling it were two The first a most important question in which the Wit and Piety of their Predecessors and now their successively had been much exercised and taken up that was upon what day they ought to keep Easter which though it were no point of Faith that it should be kept at all yet the very calendiny of it was controverted with the same zeal and made as heavy a do in the Church as if both parties had been Hereticks And it is reckoned by the Church Historians as one of the chieâ—… felicities of Constantines Empire to have quieted in that Councel this main controvesie The second cause of the assembling them here was in seed grown as the Bishop had ordered it a matter of the greatest weight and consequence to the Christian Religion one Arrius having as is related to the disturbance of the Church started a most pernicious opinion in the point of the Trinity Therefore from all parts of the Empire they met together at the City of Nice two hundred and fifty Bishops and better saith Eusebius a goodly company three hundred and eighteen say others and the Animadverter too with that pithy remark pa. 23. Equal almost to the number of servants bred up in the bâ—…se of Abraham The Emperour had accommodated them every where with the posts or layd Horses all along for the convenience of their journey thither and all the time they were â—…heir supplyed them abundantly with all sorts of provision at his own charges And when they were all first assembled in Council in the great Hall of the Imperial Palace he came in having put on his best clothes to make his guests welcome and saluted with that profound humility as if they all had been Emperour nor would sit down in his Throne no it was a very little and low stool till they had all beckoned and made signes to him to sit down No wonder if the first Council of Nice run in their heads ever after and the ambitious Clergy like those who have been long a thirst took so much of Constantinus kindness that they are scarce come to themselves again after so many Ages The first thing was that he acquainted them with the causes of his summoning them thither and in a grave and most Christian discourse exhorted them to keep the peace or to a good agreement as there was reason For saith Ruffin L. 1. c. 2. the Bishops being meet here almost of all parts and as they use to do bringing their quarrels about several matters along with them every of them was at the Emperour offering him Petitions laying out one anothers faults for all the good advice he had given them and were more â—…tent upon these things then upon the business they were sent for But he considering that by these scoldings and Bickerings the main affair was frustrated appointed a set-day by which all the Bishops should bring him in whatsoever complaint they had against one another And they being all brought he made them that high Asiatick complement God hath made you Priests and hath given you power to judge me and therefore it is in you to judge me righteously But you cannot be judged by any men It is God only can judge you and therefore reserve all your quarrels to his Tribunal For you are as Gods to me and it is not convenient a man should judge of Gods but he only of whom it is written God staâ—…deth in the Congregation of the Gods and discerneth in the midst of them And therefore setting these things aside apply your minds without any contention to the concernments of God's Religion And so without opening or reading one Petition commanded tâ—…m all together to be burnt there in his presence An action of great Charity and excellent Wisdom had but some of the words been spared For doubtless though they that would have complained of their brethren grumbled a little yet those that were accusable were all very well satisfied and those expressions you can
General Free Council is but a word of Art and can never happen but under a Fifth Monarch and that Monarch too to return from Heaven The Animadverter will not allow the second General Council of Nice to have been Free because it was over awd by an Empress and was guilty of a great fault which no Council at liberty he saith could have committed the Decree for worshipping of Images At this rate a Christian may scuffle however for one point among them and chuse which council he likes best But in good earnest I do not see but that Constantine might as well at this first council of Nice have negotiated the Image worship as to pay that superstitious adoration to the Bishops and that Prostration to their Creeds was an Idolatry more pernicious in the consequence to the Christian Faith then that under which they so lately had suffer'd Persecution Nor can a council be said to have been at liberty which laid under so great and many obligations But the Holy Ghost was present where there were three hundred and eighteen Bishops and directed them or three hundred Then if I had been of their counsel they should have sate at it all their lives least they should never see him again after they were once risen But it concerned them to settle their Quorum at first by his Dictates otherwise no Bishop could have been absent or gone forth upon any occasion but he let him out again and it behoov'd to be very punctual in the Adjournments 'T is a ridiculous conception and as gross as to make â—…m of the same Substance with the Council Nor needs there any strong argument of his absence then their pretense to be actuated by him and in doing such Work The Holy Spirit If so many of them when they got together acted like rational Men 't was enough in all reason and as much as could be expected But this was one affectation among many others which the Bishops took up so early of the stile priviledges powers and some actions aâ—…d gestures peculiar and inherent to the Apostles which they misplaced to their own behoof and usage nay and chalenged other things as Apostolical that were directly contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles For so because the Holy Spirit did in an extraordinary manner preside among the Holy Apostles at that Legitime Council of Jerusalem Acts. 15. they although under an ordinary Administration would not go less whatever came on 't nay whereas the Apostles in the drawing up of their Decree dictated to them by the Holy Spirit said therefore no more but thus The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren of c. Forasmuch as c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burthen then these necessary things that ye abstain from c. from which if ye keep your selves you shall do well Fare ye well This Council denounces every invention of its own far from the Apostolical modesty and the stile of the Holy Spirit under no less then an Anathema Such was their arrogating to their inferior degrees the style of Clergy till custom hath so much prevailed that we are at a loss how to speak properly either of the name or nature of their function Whereas the Clergy in the true and Apostolical sense were only those whom they superciliously always call the Laity The word Clerus being never but once used in the New Testament and in that signification and in a very unlucky place too Peter 1. 5. 3. where he admonishes the Priesthood that they should not Lord it or domineer over the Christian People Clerum Domini or the Lord's Inheritance But having usurp'd the Title I confess they did right to assume the Power But to speak of the Priesthood in that style which they most affect if we consider the nature too of their Function what were the Clergy then but Lay-men disguis'd drest up perhaps in another habit Did not St. Paul himself being a Tent-maker rather then be idle or burthensom to his People work of his trade even during his Apostleship to get his living But did not these that they might neglect their holy vocation seek to compass secular imployments and Lay Offices Were not very many of them whether one respect their Vices or Ignorance as well qualified as any other to be Laymen Was it not usual as oft as they merited it to restore them as in the case even of the three Bishops to the Lay-communion And whether if they were so peculiar from others did the Imposition of the Bishops hands or the lifting up the hands of the Laity conferr more to that distinction And Constantine notwithstanding his complement at the burning of the Bishops papers thought he might make them and unmake them with the same power as he did his other Lay-Officers But if the inferior degrees were the Clergy the Bishops would be the Church although that word in the Scripture-sense is proper only to a congregation of the Faithful And being by that title the only men in Ecclesiastical councils then when they were once assembled they were the Catholick Church and having the Holy Spirit at their devotion whatsoever Creed they light upon that was the Catholick Eaith without believing of which no man be saved By which means there rose thenceforward so constant persecutions till this day that had not the little invisible Catholick Church and a People that always search'd and believ'd the Scriptures made a stand by their Testimonies and sufferings the Creeds had destroyd the Faith and the Church had ruined the Religion For this General council of Nice and all others of the same constitution did and can serve to no other end or effect then particular order of menby their usurping a trust upon Christianity to make their own Price and Market of it and deliver it up as oft as they see their own Advantage For scarce was Constantine's Head cold but his Son Constantius succeeding his Brothers being Influenced by the Bishops of the Arrian Party turn'd the wrong side of Christianity outward inverted the Poles of Heaven and Faith if I may say so with its Heels in the Air was forced to stand upon its Head and play Gambols for the Divertisment and Pleasure of the Homoiousians Arrianism was the Divinity then in Mode and he was an ignorant and ill Courtier or Church man that could not dress and would not make a new Sute for his Conscience in the Fashion And now the Orthodox Bishops it being given to those Men to be obstinate for Power but flexible in Faith began to wind about insensibly as the Heliotrope Flower that keeps its ground but wrests its Neck in turning after the warm Sun from Day-break to Evening They could look now upon the Synod of Nice with more indifference and all that pudder that had been mà de there betwixt Homoousios and Homoiousios c. began to appear to them as a Difference only
Opinions in our own or our own Opinions in those of other Men and bite at one another we are now all of us torn in pieces This Bishop sure was the Author of the Naked Truth and 't was he that implicitly condemn'd the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being too presumptuous in her Definitions It is not strange to me that Julian being but a Reader in the Christian Church should turn Pagan Especially when I consider that he succeeded Emperor after Constantius For it seems rather unavoidable that a Man of great Wit as he was and not having the Grace of God to direct it and show him the Beauty of Religion through the Deformity of its Governours and Teachers but that he must conceive a Loathing and Aversion for it Nor could he think that he did them any Injustice when he observed that beside all their Unchristian Immorality too they Practised thus against the Institutive Law of their Galilean the Persecution among themselves for Religion And well might he add to his other Severities that sharpness of his Wit both Exposing and Animadverting upon them at another rate than any of the Modern Practitioners with all their Study and Inclination can ever arrive at For nothing is more punishable Contemptible and truly Ridiculous than a Christian that walks contrary to his Profession And by how much any Man stands with more advantage in the Church for Eminency but disobeys the Laws of Christ by that Priviledg he is thereby and deserves to be the more Exposed But Julian the last Heathen Emperor by whose Cruelty it seemed that God would sensibly Admonish once again the Christian Clergy and show them by their own Smart and an Heathen Hand the nature and odiousness of Persecution soon died as is usual for Men of that Imployment not without a remarkable stroke of God's Judgment Yet they as if they were only sorry that they had lost so much time upon his death strove as eagerly to redeem it and forthwith fell in very naturally into their former Animolities For Jovianus being chosen Emperor in Persia and returning Homeward Socr. l. 3. c. 20. the Bishops of each Party in hopes that theirs should be the Imperial Creed strait to Horse and Rode away with Switch and Spur as if it had been for the Plate to meet him and he that had best Heels made himself cock-sure of winning the Religion The Macedonians who dividing from the Arrians had set up for a new Heresie concerning the Holy Ghost and they were a Squadron of Bishops Petition'd him that those who held Filium Patri dissimilem might be turn'd out and themselves put in their places Which was very honestly done and above-board The Acacians that were the refined Arrians but as the Author saith Had a notable faculty of addressing themselves to the Inclination of whatsoever Emperor and having good Intelligence that he balanced rather to the Consubstantials presented him with a very fair Insinuating Subscription of a considerable number of Bishops to the Council of Nice But in the next Emperor's time they will be found to yield little Reverence to their own Subscription For in matter of a Creed a Note of their Hand without expresting the Penalty could not it seems Bind one of their Order But all that Jovianus said to the Macedonians was I hate Contention but I lovingly imbrace and reverence those who are inclined to Peace and Concord To the Acacians who had wisely given these the precedence of Application to try the truth of their Intelligence he said no more having resolv'd by sweetness and persuasions to quiet all their Controversies but That he would not molest any Man whatsoever Creed be follow'd but those above others he would Cherish and Honor who should show themselves most forward in bringing the Church to a good Agreement He likewise call'd back all those Bishops who had been Banished by Constantius and Julian restoring them to their Sees And he writ a Letter in particular to Athanasius who upon Julian's death had enter'd again upon that of Alexandria to bid him be of good Courage And these things coming to the Ears of all others did wonderfully assuage the Fierceness of those who were Inflamed with Faction and Contention So that the Court having declared it self of this Mind the Church was in a short time in all outward appearance peaceably disposed the Emperor by this Means having wholly repressed all their Violence Verily concludes the Historian the Roman Empire had been prosperous and happy and both the State and the Church he puts them too in that Order under so good a Prince must have exceedingly flourished had not an Immature death taken him away from managing the Government For after seven Months being seized with a mortal Obstruction he dparted this Life Did not this Historian trow you deserve to be handled and is it not now the Mischief iâ—… done to undo the Charm become a Duty to Expose both him and Jovianus By their ill chosen Principles what would have become of the Prime and most necessary Articles of Faith Might not the old Dormant Heresies all of them safely have Revived But that Mortal Obstruction of the Bishops was not by his death nor is it by their own to be removed They were glad he was so soon got out of their way and God would yet further manifest their intractable Spirit which not the Persecution of the Heathen Emperor Julian nor the Gentleness of Jovianus the Christian could allay or mitigate by their Afflictions or Prosperity The Divine Nemesis executed Justice upon them by one anothers Hand And so hainous a Crime as for a Christian a Bishop to Persecute stood yet need as the only equal and exemplary Punishment of being Revenged with a Persecution by Christians by Bishops And whoever shall seriously consider all along the Succession of the Emperors can never have taken that Satisfaction in the most judicious Representations of the Scene which he may in this worthy Speculation of the great Order and admirable conduct of Wise Providence through the whole contexture of these Exterior seeming Accidents relating to the Ecclesiasticals of Christianity For to Jovianus succeeded Valentinian who in a short time took his Brother Valens to be his Companion in the Empire These two Brothers did as the Historian observes Socr. l. 4. c. 1. alike and equally take care at the beginning for the Advantage and Government of the State but very much disagreed though both Christians in matter of Religion Valetinianus the Elder being an Orthodox but Valens an Arrian and they used a different Method toward the Christians For Valentinian who chose the Western part of the Empire and left the East to his Brother as he imbraced those of his own Creed so yet he did not in the least molest the Arrians But Valens not only Labor'd to increase the number of the Arrians but Afflicted those of the contrary Opinion with grievous Punishments And both of 'm especially Valens had
Bishops for their purpose The particulars of that heavy Persecution under Valens any one may further satisfy himself of in the Writers of those Times And yet it is observable that within a little space while he pursued the Orthodox Bishops he gave Liberty to the 〈◊〉 who were of the same Creed but separated from them as I have said upon Discipline c. and caused their Churches which for a while were shut up to be opened again at Constantinople To be short Valens who out-lived his Brother that died of a natural Death himself in a battel against the Goths could not escape neither the fate of a Christian Persecutor For the Goths having made Application to him he saith Socrates not well fore-seeing the Consequence admitted them to Inhabit in certain places of Thracia pleasing himself that he should by that means always have an Army ready at hand against whatsoever Enemie and that those Foraign Guards would strike them with a greater Terror more by far than the Militia of his Subjects And so slighting the ancient Veterane Militia which used to consist of Bodies of Men raised proportionably in every Province and were stout Fellows that would Fight Manfully instead of them he levied Money rating the Country at so much for every Souldier But these new Inmates of the Emperors soon grew Troublesom as is customary and not only infested the Natives in Thracia but Plunder'd even the Suburbs of Constantinople there being no armed Force to repress them Hereupon the whole People of the City cried out at a publick Spectacle where Valens was present neglecting this matter Give us Arms and we will manage this War our selves This extreamly provok'd him so that he forthwith made an Expedition against the Goths But Threatned the Citizens if he turn'd in safety to be Reveng'd on them both for those Contumelies and for what under the Tyrant Procopius they had committed against the Empire and that he would Raze to the Ground and Plow up the City Yet before his departure out of fear of the Foraign Enemy he totally ceas'd from persecuting the Orthodox in Constantinople But he was kill'd in the Fight or Flying into a Village that the Goths had set on fire he was there burnt to ashes to the great grief of his Bishops who had he been Victorious might have revived the Persecution Such was the end of his Impetuous Reign and rash Counsels both as to his Government of State in matters of Peace and War and his Manage of the Church by Persecution His death brings me to the Succession of Theodosius the Great then whom no Christian Emperor did more make it his business to Nurse up the Church and to Lull the Bishops to keep the House in quiet But neither was it in his power to still their Bawling and Scratching one another as far as their Nails which were yet more tender but afterwards grew like Tallons would give them leave I shall not further vex the History or the Reader in recounting the Particulars taking no delight neither my self in so uncomfortable Relations or to reflect beyond what is necessary upon the Wolfishness of those which then seemed and ought to have been the Christian Pastors but went on scattering their Flocks if not devouring and the Shepherds smiting one another In his Reign the second General Council was called that of Constantinople and the Creed was there made which took its name from the place The rest of their business any one that is further curious may observe in the Writers But I shall close this with a short touch concerning Gregory Nazianzen then living than whom also the Christian Church had not in those times and I question whether in any succeeding a Bishop that was more a Christian more a Gentleman better appointed in all sorts of Learning requisite seasoned under Julian's Persecution and exemplary to the highest pitch of true Religion and Practical Piety The eminence of these Vertues and in special of his Humility the lowliest but the highest of all Christian Qualifications raised him under Theodosius from the Parish-like Bishoprick of Nazianzum to that of Constantinople where he fill'd his place in that Council But having taken notice in what manner things were carried in that as they had been in former Councils and that some of the Bishops muttered at his promotion he of his own mind resigned that great Bishoprick which was never of his desire or seeking and though so highly seated in the Emperors Reverence and Favor so acceptable to the People and generally to the Clergy whose unequal Abilities could not pretend or justifie an envy against him retired back far more content to a Solitary Life to his little Nazianzum And from thence he writes that Letter to his Friend Procopius wherein p. 814. upon his most recollected and serious reflexion on what had faln within his observation he useth these remarkable words I have resolved with my self if I may tell you the Naked Truth never more to come into any assembly of Bishops for I never saw a good and haypy end of any Council but which rather increased then remedied the mischieves For their obstinate Contentions and Ambition are unexpressible It would require too great a Volume to deduce from the death of Theodosius the particulars that happened in the succeeding Reigns about this matter But the Reader may reckon that it was as stated a Quarrel betwixt the Homoousians and the Homoiousians as that between the Houses of York and Lancaster And there arose now an Emperor of one Line and then again of the other But among all the Bishops there was not one Morton whose industrious Brain could or would for some Men always reap by Division make up the fatal Breach betwixt the two Creeds By this means every Creed was grown up to a Test and under that pretence the dextrous Bishops step by step hooked within their Verge all the business and Power that could be catched in those Turbulences where they mudled the Water and Fished after By this means they stalked on first to a Spiritual kind of Dominion and from that incroached upon and into the Civil Jurisdiction A Bishop now grew terrible and whereas a simple Layman might have frighted the Devil with the first words of the Apostles Creed and I defie thee Satan one Creed could not protect him from a Bishop and it required a much longer and a double and treble Confession unless himself would be delivered over to Satan by an Anathema But this was only an Ecclesiastical sentence at first with which they marked out such as sinned against them and then whoop'd and hollow'd on the Civil Magistrate to hunt them down for their Spiritual Pleasure They crept at first by Court Insinuations and Flattery into the Princes favor till those generous Creatures suffered themselves to be backed and ridden by them who would take as much of a free Horse as possible but in Persecution the Clergy as yet wisely interposed the Magistrate