for his own support and Edification For thus every one laying firm hold on that handle that is best sitted for his own grasp the Article will carry all these three sorts of believers safe up to Heaven they living accordingly whenas two sorts of them would have more slippery or uncertain hold if they had no handle ossered to them but those which are less suitable to their grasp and Genius Which shews the Prudence Care and Accuracy of Judgment in the Church of England that as in other things so in this she has made no such needless and indeed hurtful Decisions but left the modes of conceiving things of the greatest moment to every ones self to take it that way that he can lay the fastest hold of it and it will lie the most easily in his mind without doubt and wavering And therefore there being no one of these handles but what may be useful to some or other for the more easie and undoubted holding that there is in us an Immaterial and Immortal Soul or Spirit my having taken this small pains to wipe off the soil and further the usefulness of one of them by these Annotations if it may not merit thanks it must I hope at least deserve excuse with all those that are not of too sowre and tetrick a Genius and prefer their own humours and sentiments before the real benefit of others But now if any one shall invidiously object that I prefer the Christian Discretion of my own Church the Church of England before the Judgment and Wisdom of a General Council namely the fisth Oecumenical Council held at Constantinople in Justinians time under the Patriarch Eutychius who succeeded Menas lately deceased to whom Justinian sent that Discourse of his against Origen and his errours amongst which Pre-existence is reckoned one In answer to this several things are to be considered that right may be done our Mother First What number of Bishops make a general Council so that from their Numerosity we may rely upon their Authority and infallibility that they will not conclude what is false Secondly Whether in whatsoever matters of debate though nothing to the Salvation of mens souls but of curious Speculation fitter for the Schools of Philosophers than Articles of Faith for the edification of the people whose memory and conscience ought to be charged with no notions that are not subservient to the rightly and duly honouring God and his onely begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ and to the faithful discharging their duty to man the assistance of the Spirit of God can rationally be expected or onely in such things as are necessary to be professed by the people and very useful for the promoting of Life and Godliness And as Moses has circumscribed his Narrative of the Creation within the limits of Mundus Plebeiorum and also the Chronology of time according to Scripture is bounded from the first Adam to the coming again of the second to Judgment and Sentencing the wicked to everlasting punishment and the righteous to life everlasting so whether the Decisions of the Church are not the most safely contained within these bounds and they faithfully discharge themselves in the conduct of Souls if they do but instruct them in such truths only as are within this compass revealed in sacred Scripture And whether it does not make for the Interest and Dignity of the Church to decline the medling with other things as unprofitable and unnecessary to be decided Thirdly Whether if a General Council meet not together in via Spiritus Sancti but some stickling imbitter'd Grandees of the Church out of a pique that they have taken against some persons get through their interest a General Council called whether is the assistance of the Holy Ghost to be expected in such a meeting so that they shall conclude nothing against truth Fourthly Whether the Authority of such General Councils as Providence by some notable prodigie may seem to have intimated a dislike of be not thereby justly suspected and not easily to be admitted as infallible deciders Fifthly Whether a General Council that is found mistaken in one point anathematizing that for an Heresie which is a truth forfeits not its Authority in other points which then whether falshoods or truths are not to be deemed so from the Authority of that Council but from other Topicks Sixthly Since there can be no commerce betwixt God and man nor he communicate his mind and will to us but by supposition That our senses rightly circumstantiated are true That there is skill in us to understand words and Grammar and schemes of speech as also common notions and clear inferences of Reason whether if a General Council conclude any thing plainly repugnant to these is the Conclusion of such a Council true and valid and whether the indeleble Notices of truth in our mind that all Mankind is possessed of whether Logical Moral or Metaphysical be not more the dictates of God than those of any Council that are against them Seventhly If a Council as general as any has been called had in the very midnight of the Churches Apostasie and ignorance met and concluded all those Corruptions that now are obtruded by the Church of Rome as Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Worshipping of Images and the like whether the Decisions of such a Council could be held infallible or valid What our own excellently well Reformed Church holds in this case is evident out of her Articles For Eighthly The Church of England plainly declares That General Councils when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore saith she things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Artic. 21. Ninthly And again Artic. 20. where she allows the Church to have power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith but with this restriction That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another she concludes Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation What then does she null the Authority of all the General Councils and have no deference for any thing but the mere Word of God to convince men of Heresie No such matter What her sense of these things is you will find in 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Wherefore Tenthly and lastly What General Councils the Church of England allows of for the conviction of Hereticks you may understand out of these words of the Statute They shall not
Writer of the Apocalypse adorning his style with allusions to the most rouzing and most notable real or Physical Objects which is observable all along the Apocalypse it may be a sign that a new Heaven and a new Earth succeeding the Conflagration is one of those noble Phaenomena true and real amongst the rest which he thought fit to adorn his style with by alluding thereto So that though the chief intended sense of the Apocalypse be Political yet by its allusions it may countenance many noble and weighty Truths whether Physical or Metaphysical As The existence of Angels which is so perpertually inculcated all along the Book from the beginning to the ending The Divine Shechina in the celestial Regions The Dreadsul Abyss in which rebellious Spirits are chained and at the commination whereof they so much tremble The Conflagration of the Earth and lastly The renewing and restoring this Earth and Heaven after the Conflagration Pag. 150. The main Opinion of Pre-existence is not at all concerned c. This is very judiciously and soberly noted by him And therefore it is by no means fairly done by the Opposers of Pre-existence while they make such a pudder to confute any passages in this Hypothesis which is acknowledged by the Pre-existentiaries themselves to be no necessary or essential part of that Dogma But this they do that they may seem by their Cavils for most of them are no better against some parts of this unnecessarie Appendage of Pre-existence to have done some execution upon the Opinion it self which how far it extends may be in some measure discovered by these Notes we have made upon it Which stated as they direct the Hypothesis is at least possible but that it is absolutely the true one or should be thought so is not intended But as the ingenious Author suggests it is either this way or some better as the infinite Wisdom of God may have ordered But this possible way shews Pre-existence to be neither impossible nor improbable Pag. 151. But submit all that I have written to the Authority of the Church of England c. And this I am perswaded he heartily did as it is the duty of every one in things that they cannot confirm by either a plain demonstration clear authority of Scripture Manifestation of their outward Senses or some rouzing Miracle to compromise with the Decisions of the National Church where Providence has cast them for common peace and settlement and for the ease and security of Governours But because a fancy has taken a man in the head that he knows greater Arcana than others or has a more orthodox belief in things not necessarie to Salvation than others have for him to affect to make others Proselytes to his Opinion and to wear his badge of Wisdom as of an extraordinarie Master in matters of Theory is a mere vanitie of Spirit a ridiculous piece of pride and levitie and unbeseeming either a sober and stanched man or a good Christian. But upon such pretences to gather a Sect or set up a Church or Independent Congregation is intolerable Faction and Schism nor can ever bear a free and strict examination according to the measures of the truest Morals and Politicks But because it is the fate of some men to believe Opinions to others but probable nor it may be so much as the motion of the Earth suppose and Des Cartes his Vortices and the like to be certain Science it is the interest of every National Church to define the truth of no more Theories than are plainly necessary for Faith and good manners because if they either be really or seem to be mistaken in their unnecessary Decisions or Definitions this with those that are more knowing than ingenuous will certainly lessen the Authority and Reverence due to the Church and hazard a secret enmity of such against her But to adventure upon no Decisions but what have the Authority of Scripture which they have that were the Decisions of General Councils before the Apostasie and plain usefulness as well as Reason of their side this is the greatest Conservative of the Honour and Authority of a Church especially joyned with an exemplary life that the greatest Prudence or Politicks can ever excogitate Which true Politicks the Church of Rome having a long time ago deserted has been fain an horrid thing to think of it to support her Authority and extort Reverence by mere Violence and Bloud Whenas if she had followed these more true and Christian Politicks she would never have made herself so obnoxious but for ought one knows she might have stood and retained her Authority for ever In the mean time this is suitable enough and very well worth our noting That forasmuch as there is no assurance of the Holy Ghost's assisting unnecessary Decisions though it were of the Universal Church much less of any National one so that if such a point be determined it is uncertainly determined and that there may be several ways of holding a necessary Point some more accommodate to one kind of men others to another and that the Decisions of the Church are for the Edification of the people that either their Faith may be more firm or their Lives more irreprehensible these things I say being premised it seems most prudent and Christian in a Church to decline the Decision of the circumstances of any necessary point forasmuch as by deciding and determining the thing one way those other handles by which others might take more fast hold on it are thereby cut off and so their assent made less firm thereto We need not go far for an example if we but remember what we have been about all this 〈◊〉 It is necessarie to believe that we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immortal Spirit capable of Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ording as we shall behave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revealed to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But though this Opinion or rather Article of Faith be but one yet there are several waies of holding it And it lies more easie in some mens minds if they suppose it created by God at every conception in the Womb in othersome if they conceive it to be ex Traduce and lastly in others if it pre-exist But the waies of holding this Article signisie nothing but as they are subservient to the making us the more firmly hold the same For the more firmly we believe it the greater influence will it have upon our lives to cause us to live in the fear of God and in the waies of Righteousness like good Christians Wherefore now it being supposed that it will stick more firm and fixt in some mens minds by some one of these three waies rather than by either of the other two and thus of any one of the three It is manifest it is much more prudently done of the Church not to cut off two of these three handles by a needless nay a harmful Decision but let every one choose that handle that he can hold the Article fastest by
adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresies but onely such as heretofore have been adjudged to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresie by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures By brief reflections upon some of these ten Heads I shall endeavour to lessen the Invidiousness of my seeming to prefer the Discretion of the Church of England before the Judgment of a General Council I mean of such a General Council as is so unexceptionable that we may relie on the Authority of their Decisions that they will not fail to be true Of which sort whether the fifth reputed General Council be we will briefly first consider For reflecting on the first head It seems scarcely numerous enough for a General Council The first General Council of Nice had above three hundred Bishops That of Chalcedon above six hundred This fifth Council held at Constantinople had but an hundred sixty odd And which still makes it more unlike a General Council in the very same year viz. 553 the Western Bishops held a Council at Aquileia and condemned this fifth Council held at Constantinople Secondly The Pre-existence of Souls being a mere Philosophical Speculation and indeed held by all Philosophers in the affirmative that held the Soul incorporeal we are to consider whether we may not justly deem this case referrible to the second Head and to look something like Pope Zacharies appointing a Council to condemn Virgilius as an Heretick for holding Antipodes Thirdly We may very well doubt whether this Council proceeded in via Spiritus Sancti this not being the first time that the lovers and admirers of Origen for his great Piety and Knowledge and singular good service he had done to the Church of Christ in his time had foul play plai'd them Witness the story of Theophilus Bishop of Antioch who to revenge himself on Dioscorus and two others that were lovers of Origen and Anti-Anthropomorphites stickled so that he caused Epiphanius in his See as he did in his own to condemn the Books of Origen in a Synod To which condemnation Epiphanius an Anthropomorphite and one of more Zeal than Knowledge would have got the subscription of Chrysostome the Patriarch of Constantinople but he had more Wisdom and Honesty than to listen to such an injurious demand And as it was with those Synods called by Theophilus and Epiphanius so it seems to be with the fifth Council Piques and Heart-burnings amongst the Grandees of the Church seemed to be at the bottom of the business Binius in his History of this fifth Council takes notice of the enmity betwixt Pelagius Pope Vigilius's Apocrisiarie and Theodorus Bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae an Origenist And Spondanus likewise mentions the same who says touching the business of Origen that Pelagius the Popes Apocrisiarie eam quaestionem in ipsius Theodori odium movisse existimabatur And truly it seems to me altogether incredible unless there were some hellish spight at the bottom that they should not have contented themselves to condemn the errours supposed to be Origens but after so long a time after his death there being in his writings such choppings and changings and interpolations hard to prove to be his but have spared his name for that unspeakable good service he did the Church in his life-time See Dr. H. Mores Preface to his Collectio Philosophica Sect. 18. where Origens true Character is described out of Eusebius Wherefore whether this be to begin or carry on things in via Spiritus Sancti so that we may rely on the Authority of such a Council I leave to the impartial and judicious to consider Fourthly In reference to the fourth Head That true wisdom and moderation and the holy assistance of Gods Spirit did not guide the affairs of this Council seems to be indicated by the Divine Providence who to shew the effect of their unwise proceedings in the self-same year the Council sate sent a most terrible Earthquake for forty days together upon the City of Constantinople where the Council was held and upon other Regions of the East even upon Alexandria it self and other places so that many Cities were levelled to the ground Upon which Spondanus writes thus Haea verò praesagia fuisse malorum quae sunt praedictam Synodum consecuta nemo negare poterit quicunque ab eventis facta noverit judicare This also reminds me of a Prodigy as it was thought that happened at the sixth reputed General Council where nigh three hundred Fathers were gathered together to decide this nice and subtile Point namely whether an operation or volition of Christ were to be deemed Una operatio sive volitio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that Axiom of some Metaphysicians that Actio est suppositi and so the Humane and Divine Nature of Christ being coalescent into one person his volition and operation be accounted one as his person is but one or because of the two Natures though but one person there are to be conceived two operations or two volitions This latter Dogma obtained and the other was condemned by this third Constantinopolitan Council whereupon as Paulus Diaconus writes abundance of Cobwebs or Spiders webs fell or rained as it were down upon the heads of the people to their very great astonishment Some interpret the Cobwebs of Heresies others haply more rightfully of troubling the Church of Christ with over-great niceties and curiosities of subtile Speculation which tend nothing to the corroborating her Faith and promoting a good Life and are so obscure subtile and lubricous that look on them one way they seem thus and another way thus To this sixth General Council there seemed two Operations and two Wills in Chriâ—… because of his two Natures To a Council called after by Philippicus the Emperour and John Patriarch oâ—… Constantinople considering Christ as one person â—…ere appeared Numerosissimo Orientalium Episcoporum collecto Convenâ—…ui as Spondanus â—…as 〈◊〉 but as Binius Innumerle Orientalium Episcoporum multitudini congregatâ—…e but one will and one operation And ceâ—…tainly this numerous or innumerable company of Bishops must put as fair sor a General Council as that of less than three hundred But that the Authority of both these Councils are lessened upon the account of the second Head in that the matter they consulted about tended nothing to the corroboration of our Faith or the promotion of a good Life I have already intimatâ—…d These things I was tempted to note in reference to the tenth Head For it seems to me an undeniable Argument that our First Reformers which are the Risen Witnesses were either exquisitely well seen in Ecclesiastick History or the good Hand of God was upon them that they absolutely admitted onely the four first General Councils but after them they knew not where to be or what to call a General Council and
therefore would not adventure of any so called for the adjudging any matters Heresie But if any pretended to be such their Authority should no further prevail than as they made out things by express and plain words of Canonical Scripture And for other Synods whether the Seventh which is the second of Nice or any other that the Church of Rome would have to be General in defence of their own exorbitant points of Faith or Practice they will be found of no validity if we have recourse to the sixth seventh eighth and ninth Heads Fifthly In reference to the fifth Head This fifth Council loseth its Authority in anathematizing what in Origen seems to be true according to that express Text of Scripture John 16. 28. especially compared with others See Notes on Chap. II. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father He came forth from his Father which is in Heaven accordingly as he taught us to pray to him the Divine Shechina being in a peculiar manner there He leaves the world and goes to the Father which all understand of his Ascension into Heaven whence his coming from the Father must have the same sense or else the Antithesis will plainly fail Wherefore it is plain he came down from Heaven as he signifies also in other places as well as returns thither But he can neither be truly said to come from heaven nor return thither according to his Divine Nature For it never lest Heaven nor removes from one place to another and therefore this Scripture does plainly imply the Pre existence of the Soul of the Messiah according to the Doctrine of the Jews before it was incarnate And this stricture of the old Cabala may give light to more places of St. Johns Writings than is fit to recite in this haste I will onely name one by the by 1 John 4. 2. Every Spirit that confesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh that is to say is the Christ incarnate is of God For the Messiah did exist viz. his Soul before he came into the flesh according to the Doctrine of the Jews Which was so well known that upon the above-cited saying John 16. 28. of our Saviour they presently answered Lo now speakest thou plainly and speakest no Parable because he clearly discovers himself by this Character to be the expected Messias incarnate Nor is there any possible evasion out of the clearness of this Text from the communication of Idioms because Christ cannot be said to come down from Heaven according to his Humane Nature before it was there therefore his Humane Nature was there before it was incarnate And lastly The Authority of the Decision of this Council if it did so decide is lessened in that contrary to the second Head as was hinted above it decides a point that Faith and Godliness is not at all concerned in For the Divinity of Christ which is the great point of Faith is as firmly held supposing the Soul of the Messias united with the Logos before his incarnation as in it So that the spight onely of Pelagius against Theodorus to multiply Anathematisms against Origen no use or necessity of the Church required any such thing Whence again their Authority is lessened upon the account of the third Head These things may very well suspend a careful mind and loth to be imposed upon from relying much upon the Authority of this fifth Council But suppose its Authority entire yet the Acts against Origen are not to be found in the Council And the sixth Council in its Anathematisms though it mention Theodorets Writings the Epistle of Ibas and Theodorus Mopsuestenus who were concerned in the fifth Council yet I find not there a syllable touching Origen And therefore those that talk of his being condemned by that fifth Coâ—…ncil have an eye I suppose to the Anathematisms at the end of that Discourse which Justinian the Emperour sent to Menas Patriarch of Constantinople according to which form they suppose the errours of Origen condemned Which if it were true yet simple Pre-existence will escape well enough Nor do I think that learned and intelligent Patriarch Photius would have called the simple Opinion of Pre-existence of souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but â—…or those Appendages that the injudiciousness and rashness of some had affixed 〈◊〉 it Partly therefore reâ—…lecting upon that first Anathematism in the Emperours Discouâ—…se that makes the pre-existent souls of men first to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if their highest felicity consisted in having no body to inactuate which plainly clashes with both sound Philosophy and Christianity as if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Rephaim were all one and they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grown cold to the Divine Love and onely gathered body as they gathered corruption and were alienated from the Life of God which is point-blank against the Christian Faith which has promised us as the highest prize a glorified body And partly what himself adds that one soul goes into several bodies Which are impertinent Appendages of the Pre-existence of the soul false useless and unnecessary and therefore those that add these Appendages thereto violate the sincerity of the Divine Tradition to no good purpose But this simple Doctrine of Pre existence is so unexceptionable and harmless that the third collection of Councils in Justellus which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it reckon the other errours of Origen condemned in the fifth Council omits this of Pre-existence Certainly that Ecclesiastick that framed that Discourse for the Emperour if he did it not himself had not fully deliberately and impartially considered the Dogma of Pre-existence taken in its self nor does once offer to answer any Reasons out of Scripture or Philosophy that are produced for it Which if it had been done and this had been the onely errour to be alledged against Origen I cannot think it credible nay scarce possible though their spight had been never so much against some loâ—…ers of Origen that they could have got any General Council to have condemned so holy so able so victorious a Champion for the Christian Church in his life-time for an Hâ—…retick upon so tolerable a punctilio about three hundred years after his death What Father that wrote before the first four General Councils but might by the Malevolent for some odd passage or other be doomed an Heretick if such severity were admittable amongst Christians But I have gone out further than I was aware and it is time for me to be think me what I intended Which was the justifâ—…ing of my self in my seeming to prefer the Discretion of our own Church in leaving us free to hold the Incorporeity and Immortality of the soul by any of the three handles that best fitted every mans Genius before the Judgment of the fifth General Council that would
abridge us of this liberty From which Charge I have endeavoured to free my self briefly by these two ways First by shewing how hard it is to prove the fifth Oecumenical Council so called to be a legitimate General or Oecumenical Council and such as whose Authority we may relie on And secondly if it was such by shewing that it did not condemn simply the Pre-existence of souls but Pre-existence with such and such Appendages So that there is no real clashing betwixt our Church and that Council in this But however this is from the eighth and ninth Heads it's plain enough that the Church of England is no favourer of the Conclusions of any General Council that are enjoyned as necessary to Salvation that be either repugnant to Holy Scripture or are not clearly to be made out from the same which Non-pre-existence of Souls certainly is not but rather the contrary But being the point is not sufficiently clear from Scripture either way to all and the Immortality of the Soul and subsistence after death is the main useful point that way which men can hold it with most firmness and ease her Candour and Prudence has left it free to them to make use of And as for General Councils though she does not in a fit of Zeal which Theodosius a Prior in Palestine is said to have done anathematize from the Pulpit all people that do not give as much belief to the four first General Councils as to the four Gospels themselves yet as you may see in the tenth Head she makes the Authority of the first four General Councils so great that nothing is to be adjudged Heresie but what may be proved to be so either from the Scripture or from these four Councils Which Encomium might be made with less skill and more confidence by that Prior there having been no more than four General Councils in his time But it was singular Learning and Judgment or else a kind of Divine Sagacity in our first Reformers that they laid so great stress on the first four General Councils and so little on any others pretended so to be But in all likelihood they being perswaded of the truth of the prediction of the Apostasiâ—… of the Church under Antichrist how universal in a manner it would be they had the most confidence in those General Councils which were the earliest and that were held within those times of the Church which some call Symmetral And without all question the two first General Councils that of Nice and that other of Constantinople were within those times viz. within four hundred years after Christ and the third and fourth within the time that the ten-horned Beast had his horns growing up according to Mr. Mede's computation But the Definitions of the third and fourth Councils that of Ephesus and that other of Chalcedon which are to establish the Divinity of Christ which is not to be conceived without the Union of both Natures into one person as also his Theanthropy which cannot consist with the confusion of both Natures into one were vertually contained in the Definitions of the first and second Councils So that in this regard they are all of equal Authority and that unexceptionable First because their Decisions were concerning points necessary to be decided one way or other for the settlement of the Church in the objects of their Divine Worship And therefore they might be the better assured that tâ—…e assistance of the Holy Ghost would not be waâ—…ing upon so weighty an occasion And secondly in that those two first Councils were called while the Church was Symmetral and before the Apostasie came in according to the testimony of the Spirit in the Visions of the Apocalypse Which Visions plainly demonstrate that the Definitions of those Councils touching the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ are not Idolatrous else the Apostasie had begun before the time these Oracles declare it did and if not Idolatrous then they are most certainly true And all these four Councils driving at nothing else but these necessary points to be decided and their decision being thus plainly approved by the suffrage of the Holy Ghost in the Apocalypse I appeal to any man of sense and judgment if they have not a peculiar prerogative to be believed above what other pretended General Council soever and consequently with what special or rather Divine sagacity our first Reformers have laid so peculiar a stress on these four and how consistent our Mother the Church of England is to herself that the decisions of General Councils have neither strength nor Authority further than the matter may be cleared out of the Holy Scriptures For here we see that out of the Holy Scriptures there is a most ample testimony given to the Decisions of these four General Councils So that if one should with Theodosius the Prior of Palestine in a fit of Zeal anathematize all those that did not believe them as true as the four Evangelists he would not want a fair Plea for his religious fury But for men after the Symmetral times of the Church upon Piques and private quarrels of Parties to get General Councils called as they fancy them to conclude matters that tend neither to the confirmation of the real Articles of the Christian Faith or of such a sense of them as are truly useful to life and godliness and herein to expect the infallible assistances of the Holy Spirit either upon such terms as these or for rank worldly interest is such a presumption as to a free Judgment will look little better than Simony as if they could hire the assistance of the Holy Ghost for money Thus have I run further into the consideration of General Councils and the measure of their Authority than was requisite upon so small an occasion and yet I think there is nothing said but if seriously weighed may be useful to the intelligent Reader whether he favour Pre-existence or not Which is no further to be favoured than is consistent with the known and approved Doctrines of the Christian Faith nor clashes any thing with the soundest Systemes of Divinity as Dr. H. More shews his way of exhibiting the Theorie does not in his General Preface to his Collectio Philosophica Sect. 19. whose cautious and castigate method I have imitated as near as I could in these my Annotations And he has indeed been so careful of admitting any thing in the Hypothesis that may justly be suspected or excepted against that his Friend Mr. Glanvil might have enlarged his Dedication by one word more and called him Repurgatorem Sapientioe Orientalis as well as Restauratorem unless Restaurator imply both It being a piece of Restauration to free an Hypothesis from the errours some may have corrupted it with and to recover it to its primeval purity and sincerity And yet when the business is reduced to this harmless and unexceptionable state such is the modesty of that Writer that he declares that if he were