THE CONFORMITY OF THE Discipline and Government Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS To that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS By Dr. Lewis Du Moulin sometime History Professor of Oxford Qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit mendacium quaerit Valentinianus Martianus LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway 1680. THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CHap. 1. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the Tenets and principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The advantages of the Congregational may above any other Establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that all others have insuperable inconveniences p. 3. Chap. 3. That upon the Ground of this Hypothesis that every supreme Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to ernour Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational may and the independancy of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his word p. 8. Chap. 4. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a conformity of Faith with the other reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline Of the Veneration they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and discipline p. 12. Chap. 5. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church p. 14. Chap. 6. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is incompatible with the Civil Power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church p. 16. Chap. 7. That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World p. 23. Chap. 8. Of the great Benefit and Advantage that comes from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World p. 34. Chap. 9. That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without thinking of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct p. 38. Chap. 10. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome That the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England p. 43. Chap. 11. A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall p. 47. Chap. 12. An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is is the most fit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him p. 53. Chap. 13. The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse p. 58. Chap. 14. Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse p. 60. Chap. Ult. An Answer to those who accuse the Independants for being the Authors of the late Civil Wars in England and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of KING CHARLES the first p. 68. THE CONFORMITY OF THE GOVERNMENT Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS With that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS CHAP. I. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the Objections commonly urged against the Tenets and Principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants 'T IS above fifty years since some learned and judicious Persons as well of the Gown as others have now brought to light an important and necessary truth which the strength of prejudice and a General and Opinionative blindness that hath lasted for more than this thousand years hath kept under a Bushel 'T is that of Nestorius which the eminent Authority of Cyril has made to pass during all that time and even from the third Oecumenical Councel for an absolute lie and with which all the learned both the general and particular Councils all the Fathers and all the new Doctors of both Communions have been so successively prepossessed that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour not only to deny it but even to be continually throwing their Anathema's at the head of the poor Nestorius whom they have made to pass for an abominable Heretick although at the bottome Nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more Orthodox and the honester man and on the other hand Cyril was the Heretick For it is with the Authority of Cyrillus as with that eminent Authority of the Church of Rome to which Monsieur Aâ—â—auld would have all men fixed and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo Monsieur Claude NOT to make any Application of this History to what has happened to my self in particular as to the necessary truths I have promulged and advanced I will content my self with fixing to one which is like to that of Nestorius 't is that about those who are called Independants who though they will not yield in exactness of living or in holiness of Doctrine to any of the Protestants in Europe for they are led more than other Christians by the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is a Spirit of meekness moderation and of a sound mind and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and Persecution and their Doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than any of the others and though to conclude their confession of Faith is the most Nervous and sinewy the most Orthodox and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful that of all pieces which yet have appeared in the World fince the Writings of the Apostles it is the most full and perfect Yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our Synods and by those of our Divines who are the most eminent in learning and of a life and piety the most exemplary and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous so far as that Monsieur Amyâ—auld calls them Fools Enthusiasts and such as are infamous in their lives Monsieur D' Aille the Father says of them that it
to obey him reasonably without making use of our iwn illumination to know it and to judge whither it be just and reasonable to obey him in all things If he would not have a humane Judgement submit to that which discovers it's Infallibility with so much dazling and lustre unless reason lead one to it by an Argument à fortiori would he approve of the conduct of the Independants as reasonable when they refuse to submit to a Judgement that is humane and fallible BUT the true Constitution of Synods according to them when they look upon them as the Assemblies of the Ministers of Jesus Christ of Divines and of faithful people and the true use they make of them and which ought to be made of them is to ask and receive from them advice and counsel as one expects and as one ought to receive it from wise and experienced men and not by way of command and impulse That is all the Authority that the great Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Mr. Baxter gives them when they consider them as such And also the Oecumenical Synods which were held under Constantine and Martian had no more before those Emperours gave to their conclusions the force and prevalence of Canons and the Sanction of Imperial Laws THEY take the Apostolical Synod for the model of the Authority of all Synods at least of that which they would attribute to themselves and although it was the onley Synod that was guided by the spirit of Infallibility and its Authority was much more eminent otherwise than that of all the Synodal Assemblies in the succeeding Ages yet it never went as the others have done since to throw out Anathema's at the heads of those who refuse to be obedient to them but it only concludes with this exhortation if you keep these Canons you will do well THEY speak of the nature of the Church of the power and calling of Pastors and of their Ordination and according to the good maxims of Monsieur Mestrozat Monsieur Pajon and Monsieur Claude and their Doctors were the first who have established the true nature of Schism AS to what respects the Power the Authority and the Jurisdiction of Pastors they acknowledge no other in the Church than that which is confined in every particular Church and which goes not beyond perswasion or at the farthest a declaration that it makes that it no longer owns such and such either for the Pastors or Members of its Society And this is what is done by a natural right and not in shooting out the thunderclaps of Excommunication or deposition against them for Excommunication is not a business that is much disputed of among them The hereticks and the wicked being condemned by their own confession have no need to be excommunicated because they are excommunicated of themselves as the Bishop Godean tells us in his Paraphrase upon the eleventh Verse of the third Chapter of the Epistile to Titus A man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself and it is what he says after Saint Jerome If any one of their Assemblies practise Excommunication it is that of the Ancient Christians it is not a privation from the holy Supper but an ejection of the body out of the Assembly no longer to be reckoned any of their Members CHAP. VI. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is Incompatible with the Civil power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the Right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is Introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church THE four and twentieth Chapter of their confession of faith condemns those who speak of them as of persons that despise Superiour Powers For it is easiy to demonstrate that their way is so far from being as Monsieur Daille believed pernitious and such as troubles the peace of the world or which over-throws the Governments of it and the authority both of Soveraigns and their states that on the contrary there is no way in the world which contributes more to the strength'ning of Empires Especially of Monarchies and which ought lesse disquiet the Crowned heads for fear least they should cause by it any commotions in the State than theirs For as they do not set up and establish any Ecclesiastical tribunal independant on the Magistrate which draws along with it the two thirds of the most considerable persons of the State especially those who are most nice and Scrupulous in Religion it is impossible that there should be any troubles made by leagues and confederations in that manner as may be in all the Presbyterian Churches of a Nation and as those practise it when they forme to themselves as oft times they have done an Assembly of their deputies ALL the world knowes that these general and National Assemblies of the Clergy have been formidable to Kings and Parliaments because they are as an Altar and a Soveraign Ecclesiastical power opposed to a Soveraign and civil power of which there have been seen pernitious effects in Scotland and which France would have found if the reformed Religion had prevailed over the Romish And I am very much persuaded that nothing so much diverted Henry the fourth from the thoughts he might have had to establish the Reformed Religion in France as the apprehension he had that his actions being somewhat free might be too far lookt into and examined by the Synods and the Consistories and that his person should be brought under their Jurisdiction AS therefore the Independants do condemn these Maxims and these practises which are absolutely contrary to theirs how ill intended soever they were or might be it is no more possible for them to set up in a Kingdom a Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than for all the Companies of Merchants and Tradesmen or for all the Families of France to erect a Tribunal and a Merchandizing or Oecumenical Power which may be equal with that of the Civil State IN a word as the Congregational Churches do neither receive Ordinances nor Commandments from their Synods but only counsells and advice and that they cannot assemble in a body by their deputies they give a great advantage unto Magistrates to possess an intire and perfect Soveraignty and to take for their Motto Divide Impera For those who deprive their Synods of all Authority and who do not attribute to themselves any other power than that of persuasion are the most remote of all from framing to themselves either an Empire or one to be chief over them 'T IS true their weakness is their subscribing to that Maxim of Cicero libr. de Officiis Vt tutela sic procuratio Reipublicae ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt non ad eorum quibus commissa est gerunda est and to that of Salvian libr. de Providentia Infinitam Regiae Majestatis potestatem isti agnoscunt qui infinitam divini Numinis
nor learned enough to give a right judgement about matters of Religion Carneades said that the State of Athens was unhappy in which wise men made fair Overtures and gave good Counsels but Fools judged of them and ordered all things according to their idle and extravagant fancies And indeed Wise men may consult but it is the greatest number or the longest and best sword that determines which is too often in the hands of those who have more strength of power than force of judgement so that by this establishment of a National Ecclesiastical Government thousands of Christians and faithful Souls are as much obliged to submit themselves to the Religion of a whole Empire according to the establishment which shall be made of it by an Idolatrous Rehoboam by an Arrian Constantius by an Apostate Julian by a Popish Mary Queen of England as to that which shall be set up by a David by a Constantine the the Great and by a Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed memory which Inconveniencies neither can nor ever will be able to happen in a place where the Congregational way shall be established It may be one Soveraign who shall be as Heretick as Constantius will issue forth his commands for the establishment of his heresie in all the places of his dominion as Theodosius the second made another for that of the Orthodox Faith when he commanded that all the Subjects of his Empire should receive the faith from Damaseus of Rome and from Peter of Alexandria But it may likewise fall out that that same Emperour to wit Theodosius the second might make two Ordinances which may mutually destroy one another for he convoked the first Synod of Ephesus which condemned the Opinion of Nestorius and some years after he convoked the second Synod of Ephesus which contradicted it and allowed the opinion of Nestorius 2. THIS same inconvenience is verified by the establishment of the best reformed Churches in the World I mean that of Luther and of Calvin For as the Reformation was that of a National Church of the same extent with that of the Territory of the Soveraign where it was established so likewise did it carry the Obligation into Germany Sweedland and Denmark that they should submit to Consubstantiation without any bodies having the liberty to form assemblies to themselves which may reject it which Churches might do if they were Independant The same inconvenience is happened and must happen from the National establishment of the Reformation which Calvin hath made in England Holland some parts of Germany and elsewhere and how pure soever the Reformation was as for the Doctrine of that holy man it is extremely defective as to the Discipline the power Ecclesiastick and that Tribunal which he Erected in Geneva distinct and Independant on the Magistrate by vertue of a pretended Divine right and power which hath been the cause of all those infinite disorders confusions and even Schisms in England Scotland Holland and Geneva even in the time of Calvin as we read in his Epistles 3. ONE great convenience which is found in the Establishment of a National Government is that it is always grounded upon humane principles cruel and barbarous as to constrain to persecute and even to burn those who in matter of Religion do not embrace that of the Ecclesiastical State or of the Magistrate that establishes it and do not conform to all the practices that he appoints and commands 4. THEY say that this National establishment of Ecclesiastical Government deprives Man of his Reason and his natural and Religious liberty in the choice he ought to make of his God and of the worship he ought to render him and to which he should not be constrained but perswaded neither to be brought to it by custome nor by birth nor likewise by the Law of the Magistrate unless he be convinced that his Ordinances and commands in matters of Religion are conformable to the word of God for they press mightily upon this consideration that this establishment divests Man of the same liberty in his religious life as he hath in the Civil where he is not restrained by any Law of the Magistrate to choose his house his Wife his Master his Servant his Lawyer his Physitian his Calling nor any one particular manner how to govern his Family provided it may be done without breaking the publick peace 5. THEY say that how unjust or how extravagant soever the Laws of the Magistrate might be for the regulating of Politie yet there is nothing unreasonable neither in the Magistrate generally to command the practice of them nor in all Subjects submitting to them without reserve or exception so long as the importance of those Laws do not extend beyond the present life but if it reaches further and Conscience and Eternal Salvation be concerned therein they believe that an uniformity of Faith and of Religion which should be imposed upon us how good so ever the thing might be in its self it would be wicked and unreasonable because it would do violence to the Conscience of which the Magistrate is not the Master nor the Arbiter as he is of the Bodies and estates of Men. CHAP. III. That upon the ground of this Hypothesis That every Supream Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to Error Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational way and the Independency of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his VVord BUT there is nothing which does more reasonably establish the Independancy of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes this Authority in the Church by a divine right and the necessity there is that a person or a particular Church should depend upon its Ordinances unless that Supream Authority is infallible for if it be subject to Error it must of necessity do violence to the Christian liberty of the faithful and so degenerate into a Tyrannical Authority there is nothing I say which establishes more reasonably the Independency of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes their dependency than the account which the Bishop of Condom gives of the judgements of the Independants and of the Sentence that the Synod of Charenton pronounced against them THEY believe sayes he that every faithful Member ought to follow the illuminations of his own Conscience without submitting his judgement to the Authority of any Body nor any Ecclesiastical Assembly and they do not refuse to submit to the word of God nor to embrace the decisions of Synods when after a due and through Examination of them they find them reasonable That which they refuse to do is to submit their judgement to that of any Assembly because it is a Society of Men that are subject to Errour THE Gospel it self is not more true than this perswasion of Independants and that Bishop could not approve of one more reasonable to wit that a particular person or Church ought not to submit
their Faith their Religion nor the guidance of their manners to an Authority which is subject to errour but only to the Word of God which is an infallible Authority Upon this ground the Bishop of Condom hath reason to condemn the Synod of Charenton for having taxed the Judgement of the Independants with Errour which consists as sayes the Synod in what they teach that every Church ought to be governed by its own laws without any dependance upon any in matters Ecclesiastical and without any obligation to acknowledge the authority of Synods for its governance and conduct THEN a little after this same Synod decides that this Sect is as prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and extravagancies that it takes away all the means of bringing any remedy to them and that if it had field-room enough it would form to it self as many Religions as Parishes or particular Assemblies THESE last words sayes the Bishop discover that it is principally in matters of Faith that the Synod would establish dependancy since the greatest inconvenience that he takes notice of into which the faithful people of God would fall by independancy is that they would frame as many Religions as Parishes then says he of necessity according to the Doctrine of that Synod each Church and by a stronger reason each particular must depend as to what respects faith upon a supreme Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some body to which Authority all the faithful people of God ought to submit their Judgement THIS Bishop could take notice of nothing more unreasonable and more extravagant in our Synods than to oblige a private person to submit himself in matters of Faith to the Judgment of an Assembly whose decisions are not the Word of God that is to say not infallible 'T IS true that pre-supposing all Supreme Authority in the Church whether in the Protestant or Romish is subject to errour the Government of the Adversaries of Rome of Independants or other Protestants is equally justifiable when they refuse to pay submission to the Authority of Rome since that it is incomparably more defective than that which the Protestants set up in their Churches BUT on the other side if it be true that upon this ground the Government of the Independants is more justifiable and more reasonable than that of other Protestants who blindly submit themselves to a Tribunal subject to errour and whose conduct and gonance is beyond all comparison further off from Reason than is that of the Papists for pre-supposing that the Authority of Rome is infallible the submission which the people pay to that supreme Authority is so much the more reasonable as that of the Protestants is the less when they submit to a supreme Authority which they themselves believe is subject to errour IN short the Bishop of Condom hath great reason to be sure that the Protestants are mightily beside the Cushion and to blame for condemning the Infallibility of Rome so long as the Incontestability and indisputableness which they invest their supreme Authority withal carries the same Obligation along with it to obedience and submission A great Divine of ours who relates the Judgement of the Protestants hereupon libr. 1. cap. 8. de Clavibus expresses himself in these words Hujus ligamenti quo Pastores Ecelesiae constringunt peccatores tanta est vis certitudo ut Christus pronunciet si quid ligaverint pastores in terris id fore ligâ—tum in coelo id est Deum Ratum habiturum hanc ligationem potest fieri aliquando ut ligatio sit injusta vult tamen Christus eam ratam esse non enim fas est homini qui injuste excommunicatus est invaaere sacram Coenam invitis Pastoribus irrumpere in communionem Ecclesiae IS not that to tell us that a man excommunicated unjustly is as much obliged to submit himself to the excommunication pronounced against him by an Authority which hath erred as when it is given by an Authority which hath not erred And is not that to tell us that in every way whither justly or unjustly a person delivered to Satan as is the general opinion of all Protestants excepting my Father that to deliver to Satan and to excommunicate are one and the same thing ought not to dispute oâ—â— resist that Authority which hath delivered him up to that evil Spirit To conclude is not that to speak in the Language of the Canon Si papa distinct 40 which will by no means permit a person cast thus to the Devil although against all right and justice by the Authority of the Pope to resist that supreme Authority THE Bishop likewise hath no less good Reason to be sure that the conjunction of all the parts of Romish Church in one body would be unreasonable if they were not cimented by infallibility and to divest it of its Infallibility is to break it in pieces is to cast every of its least parts into Independancy and to give liberty to every of them to govern themselves according to their own mode and way and to do their business by themselves BUT here we should observe as we go along that of two depths of Satan the Ecclesiastical Power and Infallibility the first is a Lie an Imposture and a cheat but that presupposing that it is not a cheat but a thing that is good and true and the use of which is necessary in the Church Infallibility is naturally and reasonably a consequence of it And in truth our Reformers have placed Incontestability in the room of Infallibility But it is true also that if Infallibility be a pure cheat the other is a pure and absolute tyranny and it is less reasonable in not being a natural consequence of Ecclesiastical power incontestability is a thousand times worse than Infallibity except it be in one thing and that is that it hath not been of so long a Duration 'T IS here no doubt wherein the illuminations of humane Reason were not so great to our first Reformers as to the generation of men in this Age For as those soresaw in it that a submission of so many Princes and people who differed in Customes Laws and Languages to an Authority subject to errour was not only unreasonable but also impossible to prevent the revolt both of Kings and people they with a great deal of Justice invested it with Infallibility AND 't is here too that the Bishop of Condom triumphs over us and has great reason for it on his side when he reproaches us that we have been deficient in our Politicks in not erecting among us an infallible Tribunal and that we are much to blame for obliging the faithful people of God with so much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour but those of Rome are not so for they oblige their people to submit to one that is infallible BUT the Independants as they are led by
the illumination of grace and reason so likewise are they most reationally and with great Justice and Piety disengaged not only from a pretended Infallible Tribunal but also from the Tyranny of such dependance or submission to an Authority subject to errour AS to the Assertion of the Synod of Charenton that the Sect of the Independants opens the door to all manner of Irregularities and Extravagances that Assertion I say seems plausible at the first as in truth it is not only plausible but most reasonable in matters purely Civil in which if there were not a last Resort and Refuge and Appeal from Court to Court in the Territories of a Soveraign there would be as many Courts erected Independant one on the other not only as there are Families but as there are private persons Which inconvenience is not one in matters of Religion Faith Doctrine and Divine Worship in which the Conscience of every one is the last resort wherein the business is to be judged without any further Appeal and where none ought to be constrained but exhorted and perswaded A Synod is to perswade a particular Church to embrace such a Faith but it hath neither right nor power to force it Now a particular Church is to do the same as to one of its Members and if it carries any constraint with it it no longer acts as a Church and as an Assembly of Christians and faithfulâ— people but as a Magistrate at least like an Arbiter and Judge to whom Jesus Christ sent the planteth in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Matthew in these words tell it to the Church that is to say tell it to an Assembly which had neither any Court nor any power nor Jurisdiction and where the party intimated mightly decline or refuse the Judgement without damage as it appears by those words of Jesus Christ if he dres not hearken to the Church For by these words let him be unto thee c. Jesus Christ does not command the Church to proceed to an Excommunication of that party that has done the wrong but he advises the offended party to cite the other who has deprived himself of the quality of a Brother before the natural Judges as well of the Publicans as of the Heathens the one being the Ministers of the State and the other being of the Religion of the Emperour In short the Church as such and considered as Christians and honest men hath no more jurisdiction that a Colledge of Philosophers CHAP. IV. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a Conformity of Faith with the other Reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of Discipline Of the veneraiton they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and Discipline THE design of producing their Confession of Faith is to shew that it is the very Masterpiece of an extreamly juditious Government and as it was the work of persons most perfect in the Study of Divinity the principal design they had in the composition of their Confession was to declare and testifie to the World that altho every Church might take the liberty to differ from others in discipline they ought nevertheless to labour above all things to retain and keep the same faith in matters that are essential with all the Reformed Churches This is what the Congregational party have done with great care and circumspection in the making of their Confession for beside that they do but a very little differ from that of the Presbyterians and that they do not at all divide from them but in matter of Discipline they have also indeavoured to have their Faith conformable to the Doctrine of the Church of England and as to their Discipline it is very simple and naked they have no other than that which Saint Paul gives in three words to wit That every thing in the Church should be done Decently and in Order They have especially had an eye to the practice of the Churches under the good Roman Emperors under Constantine Theodosius Martianus and Justinian under whom they kept a strict uniformity in Faith and that correspondence was maintained by letters which they called Literae Testimoniales Circulares Ecclesiasticae Formatae tho otherwise they took the liberty to differ one from another even under one and the same Emperour in Discipline in Customes and in Ceremonies Saint Austin Epist ad Tanuarium 119. Epist 86. ad Casulanum Presbyterum permits any Church to differ from others in Ceremonies and in manner of Government provided that they agree with them in Unity of Faith The Historian Socrates libr. 5. cap. 21. tells us that there was not to be found two Churches in all the Roman Empire which observed one and the same form of Prayers to God The Jesuit Mainbourg how zealous soever he is to the Uniformity of Rome in his Doctrine and discipline yet he ceases not to say and to maintain that the diversity of usages customes and practices is compatible with the unity of Faith One ought not says he never to separate for the diversity and customes which may be different the one from the other without the wounding the Vnity of Faith Pag. 303. of his third book of the Treatise of Schism among the Grecians I have read as much in a great Lawyer it is Godefrey the Son Certissima olim fidei contesseratio erat unà Eucharistiam sâ—mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur non in eadem disciplina sed fidâ— WE must also do them this justice that there are no Doctors who have a greater Veneration for the Doctrine and memory of Caloin nor who desire with more ardent zeal to have a strict and close Communion with the Churches which follow the Doctrine of that holy man than their Pastors altho they believe that they may have as I have said the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline without thinking themselves guilty either of separation or schism CHAP. V. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally Establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church 'T IS a great wrong and injury done to the Independants to affirm that they condemn Synods since on the contrary they Establish the true use of them as the Bishop of Condom who hath more charity for them than other Synods and our Divines acknowledge The Independants says he do not refuse to embrace and comply with the decisions of Synods when after they have duely examined them they find them not unreasonable that which they refuse to do is to submit their Judgement to that of any Assembly or Society subject to errour THE Independants argue as Mr. Pajon does Though Jesus Christ himself says he should come down from Heaven to dwell on the earth again with all the rayes of Glory that are roand about him to teach us and to guide and direct us yet it would be impossible for us
that of Thuanus before his History and the Preface of Casaubon in his Edition of Polybius 'T WILL no doubt be expected that I should add the order which is observed and practised in the Independant Churches to their confession which ought to follow but as they profess a perfect harmony among themselves so likewise they do not believe this same absolute necessity as to that which concerns discipline for excepting some few Apostolical and perpetual Rules which admit no change according to times and places concerning the equality of Pastors that choice that every Church is to make of its Pastor in which Monsieur Mestrezat and Monsieur Claude make the true ordination to consist the solemn benediction of that Pastor by fasting and prayers and the refusal they make of their Ministries and of their Members which some call Excommunication and deposition excepting I say these acts their order is to do all things decently and in order in the Church as Saint Paul requires But they are governed as all other Societies and as they explain themselves in the first Chapter of their confession of faith Article VII in these words There are some circumstances in the Government of the Church and in divine Worship which are common with all the actions of men which are practised in all societies and which might â—o be regulated by natural light and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word of God which are always to be observed THIS is all the discipline which the Independâ—nts practise then Government is that of well order d Râ—publicks that cannot possibly be too exact for the regulating of manners but which have but very few Lawes for that of Polity they are far from that Maxim in pâ—ssima republicà pluri ne leges BUT how â—ise soever their carriage and government be how sound and Orthodox their Doctrine and how exact and scrupulous their â—ives yet they cannot escape the tyrâ—â—ny of those little sincere judgements which the most learned and grave persons have made of them so that it need be no surprize at all if the Doctors of Rome how illuminated soever and sincere they have seem'd to be have had for so many Ages and have still to this day so great an Aversion for our Religion how holy soever it is and have passed judgments so little favourable of it as to draw from our Morals consequences that are as far from purity and truth as they are from our intention This I say need be no surprize at all to us since that Amyrauld Daillé and so many others of their gown have not passed any less sinister judgment of a generation of men as holy as any in the World I mean of the Independants no more than of their carriage government and Doctrine AS to their carriage and Government whether in private or in the Church I do not believe there are any better regulated more Wise more Prudent more Illuminated nor more Religious As to their Doctrine their Confession of Faith shall Witness what it is since that of all those that have appeared in the World of that Nature it is a peice the most Perfect Pure and Orthodox And in which it may well nigh be said the Christian Religion may be found compleat though there should onely be remaining that single piece in all the Booksellers Shops in the World CHAP. X. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome that the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England THOSE who shall approve of the wise conduct of the Congregational Churches in the composing of a Confession that hath so much conformity with the purest Churches of Jesus Christ will be easily perswaded that neither Wisdome nor Prudence have been wanting to them when with that conformity of Faith that there is between them and the Churches that are at greatest distance from Popery they have preserved to themselves their liberty as to matter of discipline to do their business a part independantly one on the other and on all other Authority beside that of Jesus Christ without making use of that way of Reconciliation which hath been practised in all Ages by the means of conferences and Synods which have rather sharp'ned and exasperated spirits and perpetuated quarrels than any ways appeased and hushed them and whereof all the advantage that can be hoped is at most to make such an accord as it may be dissembles or disguises or else suppresses the truth THIS is no more than what appeared in the Colloquy of Poissy where the greatest defenders of Transubstantiation and those who combated and opposed it as a vile Monster of Rome concurred together upon the Article of the real presence in the Eucharist And this is what appear'd also in the Overture of Reconciliation which was made in the year 1578. in the Synod of Saincte Foy with the Lutherans by the means of a formulary or president of such a profession of Faith as should be general and common with all Churches as they proposed to draw up but that Overture could only tend to a Reconciliation as difficult as that of finding a Medium between Transubstantiation and the Opinion of our Churches which is contrary to it Certainly our Churches were never able to draw back from the purity of our Doctrine nor from the sincerity with which they express it without being at the same time guilty of great prevarication And moreover the Lutherans would never have yielded to go off from their ingagement to Luther and his Consubstantiation If both had complied and met at half way it would have been a most wretched peace quae as Saint Austin speaks fit dispenaio veritatis THE present posture of the Affairs of England is a very clear and convincing proof that the Indeavour of those Reconcilers how good soever their designs were is ruinous both to Church and State There has been an attempt for above this last Age to get into a Neighbourhood and Vicinity with Rome thinking to sweeten the spirits and tempers of those of its communion to draw them over to ours or at at least to make but one Communion of two In the beginning of the Reformation there were several of the Ceremonies retained and fifty years afterwards others of them were introduced they have attempted to bring in Images and so to pass from thence to worshipping of them Every where the Altars are new set up on purpose no doubt to make there the Sacrifice of the Mass to Smoak which is apparent by the bowings and cringings to those Altars or at least to the places where they are set or as some will have it be to the East The Ordination of Romish Pastors is held for good and for that
that their spirit was not that of contention nor animosity one against another but of peace and concord IF the Book of that excellent Author Eutychius the Patriarch of Alexandria had appeared with all its Truths and had been seen by all those that had eyes and would use them during the lives of Monsieur Salmasius Monsieur Blundel c. they had been yet more strongly perswaded than they were that all those circumstances so distant from the relation that Eutychius makes of them savours as much of Romance as those three Crosses which Helena Mother of Constantine found or as the donation of that Emperour to Silvester CERTAINLY the providence of God did clearly appear in the choise of those three hundred and eighteen Bishops 'T was an Act of God and not man when he raised up the good Bishop of Alexandria to recommend them to Constantine and when he inclined the heart of that Prince to hearken to his Counsel For if the Emperour had let himself been overruled at the beginning of that Counsel by any other Bishop as he did at the end of his Life the first Establishment of Faith and Religion had been that of Arrianisme whereas the orthodox Faith taking the first possession under the first Christian Emperour this served most powerfully to gain it credit and to make it pass and transmit it to posterity I would ask here by the way those that deprive the Soveraign Magistrate of the Intendance of regulating by a Soveraign Authority in all places either of an Empire or a Territory the matters of Religion and give him no other Authority than that of a private person I would ask those I say what expedient a good Bishop such as this of Alexandria could be able to find out to authorize the Faith that was contrary to that of Arrius in case God had not inclined the heart of Constantine to establish it by his commands in all the places of his Empire I ought not to forget here one circumstance in our Author that extreamly fortifies the right of the Magistrate especially if he be Orthodox to the Soveraign Intendance in the Government of the Church and which moreover strongly proves that the Rules Canons Censures and Anathemas of Councils are only Councils and the declarations of wise and experienced men before the Magistrate hath given them Authority by his Sanction In short this passage of Eutychius is the accomplishment of the prophesie of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. Know you not that the Saints shall judge the World that is to say know you not that God will one day establish Faithful Magistrates who shall be governours in chief of the Church he says than that the choice of three hundred and eighteen Bishops being made Constantine entred into their Assembly and after he had saluted and harrangued to them he laid his Scepter upon the Table his Ring and his sword and said to them I give you the power of regulating the affairs of the Church that done the Fathers humbly thanked him for the Authority which he was pleased to fortifie them with and rendered him his Scepter his Ring and his Sword 'T IS true if Constantine had been an Arrian his erronious opinion had done as much mischief as the contrary opinion to that of Arrius and wherewith he was possessed did good by its Establishment but it is true also that if the Soveraign of an Empire hath no other authority in the Church than that of a private person it will never be possible and it can never happen that an Orthodox Prince will be able to establish the true Religion by his Commandments in all the places of his Empire 'T is true by this Soveraign Authority of the Magistrate Errour and Impiety may as well be established by Lawes as truth and piety but it is true also that when the Soveraign Magistrate either hath no part nor is interessed in the affairs of Religion as during the three first Ages of the Church nothing could keep the Bishops as were those two thousand and forty eight of whom Eutychius speaks from divinding into many erronious parties and the Orthodox party to be always the least in number and this cannot happen when God gives to the Church such Princes as resemble Constantine the Great Theodosius and Martian IT happens notwithstanding that during such disorders and such confusions of diverse opinions as were those of the two thousand and forty that God reserves always a small number of good Pastors as were those three hundred and eighteen who form in a great Empire such as was the Roman several little Congregations all like to those of our Independants whom God makes use of amidst the greater corruption and confusion to keep and perpetuate to himself an Orthodox and faithful people in the world 'T IS true then that whither God gives a Christian Magistrate but a Heretick or whether he does not give any if he be not possibly a Heathen as during the three first Ages the inconvenience is great but it is otherwise certain that when God blesses his Church with a Magistrate that favours the Orthodox and true Worshippers of Jesus Christ the condition of the Church of God is incomparably more happy than under any other establishment of Religion or of the State For although persecution ought to unite Christians by a holy and the same Faith and by a life correspondent to it yet it hath not that Efficacy nor that vertue to produce those two good effects which commonly follow under the Reign of good Princes as David Hezekiah Josiah Constantine Theodosius c. under whom the people are united well otherwise and kept in good order and in the profession of one and the same and a good Religion which they are not under persecution For even the Church is not without disorders and violent shakings under the best and most Orthodox Princes which happens by their Indulgence who keep not up that Authority they ought to take in the government of the Church and who delegate it to the Clergy and permit them to exercise by a pretended power derived from Jesus Christ Independant on the Magistrate and who in short raise up Bishops to such a greatness and wealth as to have credit enough to partake and share the Soveraignty and to dispute the moiety of it with him who of right is the Soveraign of the whole leaving him the temporal Soveraignty and reserving to themselves the spiritual as they call it BUT these matters I discourse of in my Book not yet Printed intituled An Essay towards a true Ecclesiastical History One Theophilus of Alexandria and his Successor Cyrillus were equal and went check by jole in Authority with the Emperour and had built an Empire in that of their Soveraign For even those and their Successours had built several of them when a Pope was set up among them who subjugated them all and made them all agree to set up but one Catholick Church for before there were in
Omnipotentiam non credunt 'T IS true they are accused for depriving the Magistrate from the same Authority and Soveraign Intendence over the Ecclesiastical State as over that of the Civil But notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth Chapter of their Confession Beside those who condemn that collaterality of Governments and of Tribunals the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil in one and the same territory and who believe that it comes from the forge of Antichrist and that it hath introduced Popery into the world do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty nor about assigning to each his Lawes his Courts his Officers his Soveraign and the measure of his Power and Authority I add that as the force and efficacy of Laws does not consist in whither they are Ecclesiastical or Civil nor in their goodness justice and truth but in the will of him or those who sit at the Helm of Affairs the Congregational Churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those Laws whither for the Ecclesiastical or the Civil State only they affirm that as the Magistrate is not Infallible he may possibly abuse his right and orr either in the publication or the execution of his Laws of what Nature soever they be and as they are not obliged to obey all Civil Laws no more are they obliged to obey all Laws Ecclesiastical they affirm also that as the Empire of Jesus Christ in matters of Religion is not over the bodies but over the hearts of men the Magistrate who is the Protector and Defender of the visible Church of Jesus Christ in his Territories sins extremely when he makes Laws and Ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his Subjects and that take from them that liberty which every man ought to have in the choice of his Religion and in the manner of serving God BUT that crime which is imposed on them supposing it to be one is incomparably less than that of Presbyterian Churches all which follow the establishment and the practise of Calvin who set up in Geneva an Ecclesiastical Tribunal Independant and distinct from that of the Magistrate insomuch that a learned man named Monsieur Jurieu has writ a large Book wherein he endeavours to prove that the Soveraign Magistrate considered as such has not any jurisdiction nor Intendence over the Collected Churches in his Dominions and that he hath no other right than that of Inspection and considered as a Christian and one of his principal Members wherein Monsieur Jurieu is more Independant than the Independants themselves and he does not afford so much Authority to the Magistrate over the Churches that are collected within his Territories and Dominions as the Independants do THE Independant Churches and their Pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises For the Authority of every Congregation being as that of every Family what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour it is not neither in right nor in power nor even in will to set up a Tribunal distinct from and Independent on that of the Magistrate AFTER all a Prince who should endeavour to establish an Arbitrary Power in his Kingdom that should depend only upon God and his Sword might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of Independant Congregations not only on him and on his Courts but also the one Independant on the other than by one entire body of all those Churches which should set up by their deputies an Ecclesiastical Tribunal distinct from and Independant on the Civil For the strengeh of all those Independant Congregations would be like that of several threads which may easily be broke one after another whereas the strength of all those Churches joyned in one body would be like to that of all those threads twisted together which it would be almost if not absolutely impossible to break or to undo but by the same way that Alexander took to break the Gordian-knot AS the Independent Churches do come the nearest to those of the Apostles so likewise they are further off than any of the other reformed Churches from that thought and practise which has accomplished the Mystery of Inquity which is nothing else but the Empire of the Clergy and so consequently That of the Pope in the Empire of the secular Powers under the Mask and Disguise of Religion and Ecclesiastical power AS to the Objection that is made against them that in case there should be no other Ecclesiastical Establishment in a Kingdom than theirs the three fourths of the Inhabitants would live in great negligence and a gross Ignorance of Religion To that they say that their way does not exempt Pastors from attending upon the Office of their Ministry at all times and places both within and without their particular Congregations and to take the same pains as the Presbyterian Ministers do for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places also they do very much approve that the Magistrate should erect Academies and Colledges assign Tithes and Revenues and Temples establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick to invite them to it and to excite the Ignorant to frequent the Schools and the Lectures of the Professors of Arts and Sciences where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge without being constrained AS to the crime of Schism which is imposed on them as their being seperate from all the visible Churches of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Donatists the Novatians and the Luciferians did 't is a false Accu sation Those who accuse them of Schism do not understand the nature of Schism 1. 'T IS not Schism when a particular Church separates from another Church as the Church of Luther from that of Calvin nor the Protestants from the Papists nor even one particular reformed Church from some other with which it made before but one body of a Church But true Schism is formed among the Members of one and the same particular Church as was that of Corinth 2. 'T IS not Schism when a number of Hereticks separate from the Orthodox party of a particular Church to make a Congregation apart to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty but it is an Apostasie and an abandoning and forsaking of the Orthodox faith or Church of Jesus Christ which is Catholick and visible and upon this ground the Church of Rome is not a Schismatical but an Apostate Church although it be one for the first reason because that what ingagement or tye soever all its Members have to one head however they are not all agreed together Schism properly is when the Members of one Church are at variance as were those of the Church of Corinth and upon that account there is alwayes a Schism in the Romish Church 3. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that
commend what I do not approve in the bottome of my heart since I do not joyn my self to it They will say likewise that I have had no other design than to gain my own Sentiments credit with which they say I am most fondly in Love in adjusting them to those of the Independants and because I condemn Ecclesiastical power and Excommunication which I have undertook to possess the World with the belief of that so they should banish the use of it To which I answer that though I should joyn my self to their Assemblies it would be no argument that I should approve of all the things they did and all they believed as they cannot conclude by my not joyning to their Congregations that I have not the Congregational way in greater and higher esteem than any other As I am a Frenchman and by the grace of God of the reformed Church I joyn to the Church of my own Nation to which I am so much the more strongly invited by the holiness of the Doctrines and lives of our excellent Pastors Monsieur Mussard and Monsieur Primerose and because they administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the same manner as Jesus Christ did it with his Disciples not having any thing to give me offence in their conduct unless that they are not absolutely undeceived of the practise of our Pastors in France of excommunicating in the Name and Authority of Jesus Christ and of interposing the same sacred Name and the same sacred Authority to excommunicate as St. Paul made use of to deliver the Incestuous person over to Satan though they cannot find this Authority of excommunicating in all the Bible nor justifie it unless they elude that harshness of expression by this way of sweetning that their only intention is to declare that those sinners of whom they make the number take the Lord's Supper to their Condemnation if they do not repent before-hand AS for other accusations although I believe that of all Establishments of Religion that of the Independant Churches is the most Apostolical yet I do not believe it is infallible and I cannot approve of all they say nor all they practise concerning discipline nor concerning the use of the Ecclesiastical power and excommunication though this usage be not in all the same nor in all the Churches because some among them do retain it jure societatis vi virtute paoti federis eniti However it is both of them make use of Ecclesiastical power and excommunication very innocently for they do not set up a National Tribunal Independant on the Magistrate and they Attribute to their Synods no other Authority than that of perswasion both from wise and experienced persons Moreover from the manner that they express themselves in the VII Article of the first Chapter of their Confession of Faith one may conclude that beside the Jurisdiction which works upon hearts by the word they acknowledge no other than that which is taken by a natural right and that wisdom and prudence has not been wanting to them by their having in a joynt consent agreed in one and the same Doctrine because it is of divine and perpetual right but in not having established any thing determinatively to be a perpetual rule upon an Arbitrary and changeable matter and of humane right as is the discipline of the Churches and the Authority of the Pastors in their conduct and government BUT although they should have retained some usage of the Ecclesiastical power and excommunication which are so many Reliques of Rome that have accomplished the Mystery of iniquity and brought the Pope into the world they would be no less priviledged than St. Paul and the other Apostles who after they had received the holy Ghost in greater measure than all the holy men that had been before them yet they alwayes retained some leven of affection to the Mosaical Ceremonies If the Christians that came from Paganisme have alwayes kept some pollution of it it ought not to be any great surprise to see the purest Churches in the World yet not throughly cleansed from all the Impurities of Rome FOR these considerations I feed my self with the hopes that the Ministers of the Independant Churches who are too much illuminated long to remain in the belief and use of this illusion of Ecclesiastical power which hath brought Episcopacy that is the first step of Ascention to the papacy and after that Excommunication and Infallibility and that they would put in practise instead of excommunication that denuntiation which S. Paul recommended to his Disciple and son Timothy it is that in case any disorderly or wicked person of the Congregation cannot be perswaded to change his opinion and life and voluntarily to leave the Communion of the Church it should be published aloud in the face of the Church and the faithful should be exhorted to shun his company and in case that he persevere in such refractoriness he ought to be expelled by force as well from the Table of the Lord as from the Church And this is what may be practised by a natural right de jure societatis without any need of making such expulsion of credit by the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven and by the power of binding and loosing In short I hope they will be perswaded by this consideration that the benefit which comes by the Ecclesiastical power and Excommunication will never recompence the pernitious effects that they have produced NOW I believe that these three considerations that I am a Physician that I am a Frenchman and that I do not joyn to any one certain Congregational Assembly as a Member of it will give more Authority and credit to the relation I have made of their government and conduct and make it less the suspected than if I were of their Number of their Nation and a Divine by Profession For if I were qualified in three wayes I could not speak as a person disinteressed but as having a personal inclination to the way I should have espoused And that is the weakness of all those who plead for their own cause as we learn from S. Austin and Optatus Milevitanus who were of this opinion that a sincere Pagan or Heathen whether a Physitian a Sophister a Philosopher or belonging to the Magistracy were more competent Judges in matters of Divinity and differences among Christians than persons of the Priesthood and Sacerdotal function AS S. Paul could not elect a more disinteressed person to gain the Christian Religion credit in the minds of men and to write his Gospel as he calls it and the Acts of the Apostles than S. Luke the Physitian to whom the world is more obliged than to a thousand S. Chrysostomes and S. Austins and to all the persons of the Sacred Order without so much as excepting the very Apostles themselves I believe that the same Judgment ought to be made of me and that my quality of a Physitian ought to give stronger
XIV Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse I Will finish these conderations by the discussion and explication of the Title of this discourse to which some have excepted because they find there is not one Ecclesiastical Government even of those which differ most from one another that do not pretend to this Conformity as indeed they have either more or less for there is not one of them no not even of those that are the farthest off from the Doctrines and Government of the Ancient Christians and that have but very little agreement one with the other there is not one I say but what hath in something a conformity with them Every way of Government boasts of their retaining this conformity with the Ancient Christians I my self pretend to this glory in favour of the Congregational way Not long since a Learned Minister of Roüen published a Book intituled the Conformity of the discipline of the Churches of France to that of the Ancient Christians Beside though the discipline of the Church of England hath not any agreement with that of the Churches of France and it is impossible that two disciplines so disagreeing to each other should have both of them much conformity to the discipline of the Ancient Christians yet it hath so happened that a Famous Divine in his preface to his English Translation of the Novelty of Popery maintains very zealously the same thing in favour of the Discipline of the Church of England as Monsieur Larroque has done in favour of those of France If I were sayes he to speak to Frenchmen I would indeavour to convince them fully that we retain in England more of the Primitive and Apostolick Government than all the other Churches in the world Dr. Floyd and Dr. Tillotson say the same thing But I believe that this conformity is much what like to that which is between Jesus Christ and St. Francis For I do openly maintain that of all the Establishments of Religion That of the Church of England is widest from the discipline and practise of the Ancient Christians But he is not the only person hath spoke after this manner England is full of Books upon the subject of the Conformity of its Hierarchy and of its Episcopal Government to that of the Ancient Christians The Bishops Bilson Andrews Hall Morton and Pearson find it in Clemens Romanus and in Ignatius some of the Doctors of Rome meet with it in Denis the Areopagite but unless this Conformity be restrained to the times of the Apostles to which I find more footsteps in the Congregational way than in any other I believe we are all in an error as to what concerns our conformity to the Doctrine Discipline and Life of the Ancient Christians Above all the disagreement is found in the life which was heretofore much more exact and exemplary than in these last times it is the Devotion of our days is but cold and languishing in comparison of theirs It was in that that their glory did consist whereas ours is in having a greater knowledg and a more full and ample illumination into the mysteries of Faith than the first Christians had also to be better versed at this day in the knowledg of the Apostolical conduct of the nature and Government of the Church of its Authority and of that of its Pastors who were the Christians that immediately succeeded the Apostles I will finish where I began and that shall be by the force of those prejudices wherewith all Christians as well Protestants as Papists are anticipated and prepossest when they generally imagine that the Primitive Church was more Orthodox and pure in Doctrine than that of the following Ages because of their nearness with the times of the Apostles but I am as much perswaded of the contary as of any thing in the world 'T is said that God never built a Temple near to which the enemy of our Salvation has not built a Chappel but than it was a Chappel both greater and more spacious than the temple it self For during the time whilest God built a little Temple wherein he had circumscribed the twelve Apostles and a small flock of faithful people who conformed themselves to the purity their Doctrine and the holiness of their lives a number incomparably greater of false Apostles false Doctors and false Brethren separated from them For even in the first three hundred years of Christianity all or the most part of sincere persons and also of Fathers had a great deal of false allay mixt among their gold This is what we learn from Eutychius who lived in the first Ages of Christianity from whom we have the History of the Church in Arabyck published by Mr. Selden and Mr. Pocock and whom they recommend for an Author of an irreprochable fidelity There he tells us that Constantine the Great sent to all the Churches of his Empire Letters to let them understand that they were to make choice of the most Religious Bishops and those that were most learned in the Mysteries of the Christian Faith and that they then immediately set themselves to obey the Orders of the Emperour and that two thousand and forty eight Bishops came to the Town of Nice whereof near two thousand how pious and sincere soever otherwise they were were either most ignorant or most erronious in the knowledg of the Christian Religion For they were either Manichees or Murcionites or Montanists or Valentinians or Samosatenians or Arrians and in that great number of Bishops there were but three hundred and eighteen who had an affection for and ingaged themselves to the Orthodox Faith which was that of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria THIS Relation according to Eutychius is much more probable than after that manner as it is reported by Eusebius by Socrates by Baronius and by Monsieur Claude For what likelihood is there that that number of Bishops convoked from all places of Europe a great part of Africa and also of Asia Phaenicia Greece Maceaonia Thessalia Palestine Arabia Pamphilia Bythinia Capadocia Thrace Cilicia Pontus Persia and Scythia should amount but to three hundred and eighteen Bishops There is also less likelihood that those three hundred and eighteen Bishops should appear so sharp and so divided among themselves as to put out Libels of accusation one against another and that during their Session they made a cruel War within themselves These Accusations might be true as to the other Bishops who were as much divided in affections as in Judgments but not of these three hundred and eighteen who because they were all Orthodox and Children of peace and well united in their affections such as were Alexander Spiridion and Paphnutius were chosen by Constantine and Alexander out of the multitude of Hereticks Factious and contentious persons Beside the unanimity of these three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the composing of the Faith of the Council having but four Bishops that refused subscribing to it plainly shews