he commanded his Restitution And Athanasius himself is so far from Accusing the Emperor's rigour that he imputes his banishment purely to his kindness to deliver him from the Rage and the Snares of the Eusebians and therefore when they importun'd the Emperor to put another Bishop in his place thereby to prevent his Restitution he was peremptory in his refusal and would never hear of it without great indignation But however Athanasius being removed out of the way the next thing they endeavour is the restitution of Arius upon his pretended Repentance for it is all along suggested to the Emperor that he had renounced his Heresie and the desired Communion of the Church which was denyed him only by the peevishness of Athanasius and that it was his single wilfulness herein that was the cause of all these troubles The Emperour at their importunity recalls Arius and his Associate Euzoius and for the security of their Repentance they humbly present him with their Confession of Faith in which they come up to the Nicene Creed in all things but only the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though they baulk the word it self they clearly assert the thing and instead of their prophane Novelties That the Son of God was made out of nothing and that there was a time when he was not that are the two main points of the Arian Heresie they now affirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of God to be God begotten of his Father from Eternity but if so it is undeniable that he was of the same uncreated Substance with the Father and this is so easie and intelligible in it self that it was a most unaccountable kind of perverseness in the Eusebians to make so much stir against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that did but more plainly express the Notion that themselves profess't to maintain But upon this Arius is received and sent to Alexandria with commendatory Letters not only from the Council but the Emperor in which as Sandius adds of his own pure good Will he renounces the Nicene Determination and rejecting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recommends to them that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Alexander Bishop of Alexandria subscribed the Letter and that a Reconciliation was then made between him and the Arians and this he proves with great gravity from Book and Chapter of Socrates and Sozomen but if you consult the places referred to there is nothing like this Story and they happen to treat of quite different matters as particularly the Chapter of Sozomen of the Conversion of the Iberians And as for the Story of Alexander's subscription it is as foolish as false for that good Man dyed long before this time viz. within five Months after the Council of Nice whereas this Letter was not sent till after the banishment of Athanasius that succeeded him and yet after this time does this injudicious Scribler make him to prevaricate his promise and then again Relapse to the Homousian Heresie But this he is forced to do to make something of the inconsistent Tales of Philostorgius who places all this Fable immediately after the Nicene Council but that being so apparently false and against all Records this Historian would thrust it in at this more obscure time but so unfortunately that the chief Actor that he brings upon the Stage was long since out of the World And after the same rate is he confounded and lost through the whole Series of this Story so that at this time he places the return of Eusebius and Theognis from banishment and to it tacks a pleasant Fable of his own pure devising viz. That the Emperor after their return enquiring of them the reason of their dissent from the Decrees of the Council when they had subscribed them â—â—ey answered That they subscribed not willingly but being afraid lest he being offended at the Quarrel should fall off from the Christian Religion as too uncertain and full of Controversie and then from an Apostate turn a Persecutor with which the Emperor being satisfied resolves to call another Council to mend matters but is prevented by death But a Man that can write thus confidently out of his own pure invention is a very fit second for Philostorgius and a fit Patron to make out the fair carriage of the Arians and Eusebians in this whole Story But to return to Arius when he came to Alexandria they shut their Gates against him and he is forced to turn back to Constantinople where was met a Council of Eusebians against Marcellus then an eminent Defender of the Catholique Faith for having at last Conquer'd Athanasius they now resolve to rout the whole Party In this Council Arius presents himself to the Emperor and complains of the affront that was offer'd to him by the Alexandrians but here he is again Catechised concerning his Faith and the Emperor to tye him fast is not content with his bare Subscription but makes him give in his Confession upon Oaâ—â— And upon this security he commanâ—â— Alexander Bishop of Constantinople to receive him into the Communion of the Church which the good Man flatly refuses and hereupon the Eusebians agree to accompany him to the Church with extraordinary Pomp and Triumph but in the midst of the Procession Arius was snatcht away with that strange kind of death that is well known to have been his singular Fate But here our faithful Arian Historians Philostorgius and Sandius are so wise and ingenuous as to say no more of the Stories of Ischiras Arsenius and all the other parts of the Tyrian Plot then that Athanasius was accused in Council of all the Crimes charged against him and by them found Guilty and that when the Commissioners from the Council appear'd before the Emperor they so convinced Athanasius of all the Crimes laid to his charge and so satisfied the Emperor of his guilt that he immediately sentenced him to banishment these are worthy Historians and proper Advocates for the management of the Eusebian Cause that have the confidence to out-face publick and undeniable Records the foulness of all these proceedings was made evident by the Acts of Court yet extant and the Confessions of the Witnesses themselves particularly Ischiras under Hand and Seal and all this within short time after the Transactions themselves published to the whole World by Athanasius himself in the face of his Enemies without any contradiction And now when the whole forgery was thus shamefully exposed in the face of the Sun and stood so upon Record to all Ages are not these wise Men to think that they are able to slur so clear an Evidence only by their trifling it as if all the World were so blind or so foolish as to read or believe nothing but their Fables And yet this incredible confidence is all the strength of these daring Historians This is the true State of the Arian Controversie during the Reign of Constantine and by all the premisses it is
a publick Crime then a publick Repentance And therefore I hope to see Mr. B. before he go hence to make good his promise of making his publick Recantation and remove that scandal that he has given to the Church of God by so foul a Mistake as he calls it and I hope it was no worse Though I fear when this is done he may find new matter of Repentance for slandering and traducing the whole Church of God and for that end perverting and false representing all its Records as he has done in some late Books especially his Treatise of Episcopacy and his History of the Councils that are so full not only of falsification but rank malice against all the Ancient Governours of the Christian Church against whom he could have no other ground of quarrel then only this that they were Bishops that it is such a manifest disclaiming of all Truth and Integrity as no pride or passion can excuse and those two great faults are the only Pleas that can be made to extenuate the rankness of his malice But here are such numberless heaps of meer falshoods and spiteful insinuations as could proceed from nothing better then wilful dishonesty unless this may be pleaded in his behalf viz. his gross ignorance of the things that he writes of and that in good earnest is the best and truest Apology for him for it is evident from his crude way of writing that none but a very Novice in Antiquity and an utter stranger to the true Records of the Church could ever have betrayed himself to so unlearned a Performance There is not any one Story in which he has not committed gross mistakes and such as discover themselves to proceed from nothing but his unacquaintedness with the Primitive Records And any one that can but Translate any of the Modern Collections of the Ancient Councils without looking into the Original Acts and Histories without which no Man can arrive to any competent knowledge in this learning may make just such another Church-Historian as R. B. And therefore I would advise him instead of boasting himself Father of Fourscore Books and upwards to have some patience and take some pains to write one well-weighed well-digested and wellreviewed before he publish it And if his heat could but be prevail'd with to submit to so much tameness one such discourse would outweigh not only Fourscore but four hundred Books of Crudities I have insisted thus long upon this Apostolical Precept because it is the most effectual Bulwark against Rebellion and therefore most abused by the Hildebrandinists who would elude its Obligation by the several fore-mentioned shifts to evacuate the Sense of the Law it self But now to proceed with the Doctrine of St. Paul agreeable is that of the other great Apostle St. Peter 1 Epist. Chap. 2. from vers 13th to 25th Where the same duty is laid down fully in the same express and comprehensive Terms and with the same regard of duty to God it must be done For the Lord's sake and that is the biggest thing that can be said in this or any other Case that Almighty God requires it forever and as Men will own his own Authority as an indispensable Duty and this for all the same reasons alledged by the other Apostle and some more Not only because their Authority is from God and because the Institution it self is for the general Good of Mankind and because the great Governour of the World commands Subjection to them as his Vice-Roys under the severest Penalties both here and hereafter but beside all this it is made necessary because it is for the honour of their Religion that by a meek and peaceable submission to the most unjust sufferings after their great Master's Example they should prevent and silence those Calumnies of his and their Enemies as if they were disturbers of Government so that if they did not submit with all meekness and patience to their Superiors of what rank soever down from Kings to Masters of Families whether good or bad it would have been a just scandal to their Religion But to this Mr. Rutherford very gravely and seriously replies That patient suffering and violent resisting are not incompatible That is to say that a Man may Resist in his own defence but if he have the ill-fortune to be overcome he must then suffer patiently This Patience per force I see is the right Presbyterian Subjection when their Superiours are too strong for them they will crouch only because they must But as long as they are able Princes must pardon them if they defend themselves by force of Arms though if they cannot they will be so civil as to lay them down And of the same kind is the Submission of Servants to harsh and cruel Masters when they are beaten to defend themselves with the next Cudgel that they can seize on but if the Master prove the more able Fencer then the Servant when he has lost his defensive Weapon has no remedy left but to lye down and suffer himself to be beaten patiently and this Patience of a Turkish Slave is their only true Christian Subjection though as the Proverb goes It is a Vertue more suited to the Philosophy of an Horse then the Religion of a Man And if this be all that is injoin'd by the Apostle it is nothing at all for when we are commanded to suffer patiently or not to resist only when we cannot help our selves it is a very needless command because so we must do whether we will or no and Patience per force is no Patience at all But beside this dull shift we have a more acute Evasion to elude the Text That these words were not address'd to Subjects that had the rights of their own Country but to Strangers residing and inhabiting in such places where they could challenge no greater rights then meerly of Courtesie and Civility But though this is not so dull as the Scotch resistance to yield when we can fight no longer it is but another way of fooling against the express Sense of the Words themselves For to say nothing of the distinction between Native Subjects and Strangers between whom there can be no difference as to this Duty then that it is stricter upon the natural Subject then the Foreigner St. Peter's reason as it makes no difference in the Point so it admits none because it is universal and unlimited viz. from the peremptory Command of God that requires submission to Kings and all their Subordinate Officers and upon this reason it concerns all alike And after that to let Subjects loose from the duty of Non-resistance to their Prince because the Law was here particularly directed to such as were Aliens though built upon and enforced by a reason common to all Men shews if not the prophaneness of the Men the badness of their Cause Though after all the Observation is as false as 't is trifling when it is so vulgarly known that the dispersed Jews were
Cornelius was lawfully Elected and Consecrated before Novatian and therefore that that alone was enough to null the Title of Novatian Et cum post primum c. And seeing when there is one Bishop there cannot be another whoever pretends to be second after a first who ought to be alone is not the second but none at all And though he gives a large Account of Cornelius his Vertues and the Vices of Novatian yet the Principle that he relyes upon is the Priority of Cornelius his legal Ordination after which for any other man to thrust himself upon what pretence soever into the same Bishoprick is really to thrust himself both out of the particular Church that he invades and out of the Catholick Church against which he Rebels because by the Rules of both one Church is not capable of receiving two Bishops But the Martyrs being reduced and the Schismaticks scatter'd and every where rejected St. Cyprian sets himself to bring the War to a Final Issue and for that end summons a Council at Carthage to settle the Case of the Lapsi forever whereas he informs Antonianus it was after mature debate determin'd with true Ecclesiastical Moderation Scripturis diu ex utrâque parte prolatis c. The Scriptures bâ—ing alledged and urged on either side we temper'd and pois'd the matter with an healing moderation that neither the hope of Restitution should be wholly denyed the Lapsi lest despair should drive them into utter Apostacy nor that the censure of the Church should be so loosned that the Offenders should be lightly admitted to Communion but that upon due Penance and Humiliation every mans particular cause and circumstances being examin'd he should be accordingly treated Which Decree being certified by a Synodical Epistle to Rome Cornelius at the Petition of St. Cyprian as Labbe according to the manner of the Romanists expresses it allows his Confirmation And for the proof of it alledges St. Cyprian's words to Antonianus in which he declares Cornelius his Compliance with the Authority of his determination so that instead of giving force to his Authority he only followed it And as if the number of Ac si minus sufficiens â—piscoporum Numerus in Africâ videbatur etiam Romam super hac re scripsimus ad Cornelium Collegam nostrum qui et ipse cum plurimis Coëpiscopis habito Concilio in eandem nobiscum sententiam pari gravitate et salubri moderatione consensit Bishops in Africa were not sufficient we writ to Cornelius our Collegue at Rome who calling a Council of a great many Bishops approved our Judgment with equal Wisdom and wholsome moderation The Schismatiques being thus utterly routed at Rome they fly back into Africk and there associate to set up another Bishop against St. Cyprian and agree upon Fortunatus which being done Faelicissimus with a Guard of rude and desperate Fellows posts to Rome signifies the Election of their new Bishop to Cornelius and demands Communion with him but is rejected with all manner of scorn and disgrace Upon this they huff and domineer and scare the old Bishop with their lowd threatnings and lowder Lyes particularly that this business was transacted by the concurrent Vote of five and twenty Bishops this puts Cornelius to a stand and hearing nothing all this while of it from St. Cyprian writes to him to know the whole state of the matter who returns him a large and pathetical Narrative of it where he states the whole matter with that Epist. 59. clearness and strength of reason with that evidence of proof with that fulness of Testimony that vanquisht the Faction forever for after that time we hear very little of this sullen Schism And the Fundamental Principle upon which he insists is the Divine Institution of his own Episcopal Superiority Heresies and Schisms arise from no other Fountain Neque enim aliunde Haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt Schismata quà m inde quòd Sacerdoti dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus sacerdos et ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur cui si secundùm magisteria divina obtemperaret fraterni tas Universa nemo adversum sacerdotuÌ„ collegium quidquaÌ„ moveret nemo post divinum judicium post populi suffragium post coepisco porum consensum Judicem se jam non Episcopi sed dei faceret then because the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest at a time is thought to preside in the Church as Christ's Vicegerent To whom if the whole Brotherhood would obey according to the divine commands no man would move Sedition against the Colledge of Priests no man after the Sentence of God the good liking of the People the consent of the Bishops would take upon him to judge not the Bi shop but God him self That was his case that when he had been Canonically Elected and Constituted in the See of Carthage his own Presbyters should presume to out him of his Bishoprick that he held for his life by Dâ—vine Authority And therefore to Travel no farther into this Controversie though the Schismatiques according to the restless Genius of such Men made some faint sallys to save and redeem themselves we plainly see that this was the first Article of St. Cyprian's Unity of the Christian Church the Unity of a Bishop in every Diocesan Church and the dutiful and regular Communion of all its Members with him § 13. The second grand Article and that which has a more diffusive influence upon the Peace and Unity of the Church is the obligation upon all Christian Bishops to preserve Concord and Communion among themselves And as the former unites every Christian to some particular Church so this unites every particular Church to the Body of the Church Catholique And this is that which St. Cyprian and the Ancients intend by the Catholick Church viz. All Churches in the World united into one Body by the Concord of Bishops in the same Rules of Discipline and Government And this is his meaning in those several Passages in which he makes every Church both a perfect Church within it self and yet only a Member of the Church Catholique as in the formention'd Passage in his Book De Unitate Episcopatâ—s â—nus est cujus a singulis in solidâ—m pars tenetur There is but one Episcopacy of which every Bishop possesses his own share with plenitude of Power And in his 56 Epistle A Christo una Ecclesia per totâ—m orbem in multa membra dâ—visa Christ has founded one Church dispers'd through the whole World in many Districts or Divisions And in the same Epistle Episcopatus unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numer sitate diffusus There is but one Episcopacy spread every where by the Concord of all Bishops And in the 68th Epistle Etsi Pastores multi sumus unum tamen gregem pascimus oves universas quas Christus sanguine sâ—o passioâ—â— qâ—aesivit colligere fovere debemus Though we
the Church at present in Possession so that whatever Party has the luck to get uppermost that is the Church of England and then be it Popery Presbytery or Independendy we are Schismatiques if we separate from it For if there be no Ecclesiastical form of Government settled by Divine Law then none of these can be in themselves unlawful because nothing can be so but as it is against the Law of God for where there is no Law there is no Sin and therefore it is but a very mean piece of Service to the Church of England to assert the Lawfulness of her Constitution for if that be all and if it be not necessary too as establisht by Divine Right so are all other forms then all the difference is that the State has thought good to annex the Ecclesiastical preferments to this way but setting them aside the Separatists are as much the Church of England as our selves and if the State should be pleased to settle all the Emoluments of the Church upon Presbytery or Independency yes or Popery it self then all that is pleaded for the Lawfulness of the present Church of England will be as pleadable against it for the Church Triumphant So fatal and pernicious to the Being of a Christian Church is this Principle that takes away all Divine Right it blows up the very Foundations of the Church that can stand upon no other bottom then the Authority of God and lets Men loose from all other Obligations to Communicate with any Church then meerly those of courtesie and civility for the only reason it can lay upon them is to Communicate with the Church they live in is to do it for convenience and peace sake rather then to be troublesom otherwise they are lefâ— by the Law of God to be of what Church they please or if they please of none at all for if there be none by Divine Law they cannot be obliged to Communicate with any But of the ill Consequences of this fatal Principle I shall give a particular account in the Conclusion of this Design when after I have made good the true State of the Church I shall be able to convince all the different Parties of their Deviations from it and amongst the rest I doubt this Sect of Men will be found the most guilty of any of perfidiousness against the Catholique Church for they disown any such thing in all times and places and that is an offence of a more heinous Nature as well as larger Extent then when committed only against the particular Church of England Though the greatest aggravation of it is That it is taken up precariously without ground or shadow of Reason in defiance to all the Records of the Christian Church and that all its Pleas pervert them with more folly and grossness then the Romanists pretences for Papal Supremacy as will be shewn in due place In the mean time to return to our Learned Author and his complaint of Mr. Thorndike's obscurity that was taken up by him from a vulgar Opinion and that was first started by others chiefly to prevent the force of his Arguments for the Divine Right of Ecclesiastical Power It must be granted that there are some things in his Epilogue to the Church of England that cannot but create some difficulty to the less skilful Reader As first the very careless and uncorrected Impression of it whereby such a multitude of faults have escaped or rather passed through the Press as cannot but very much disturb and perplex the Sense especially when the mistake is committed as it very frequently is in the Particles of Argumentation whereby the plain coherence of the discourse is often lost and inverted both which being added to the obscurity of the stile it self which though it is intelligible enough to an attending Reader yet must be acknowledged somewhat dark and involved as usually happens to over-thoughtful Men and that seems to have been the case of this Learned Man his former Writings upon the very same Subject being much more plain and perspicuous But the thing that most of all puts the ordinary Reader to a â—oss is his frequent and large digressions for being a compleat Master of Ecclesiastical Learning he could not confine himself to his proper Argument but upon every turn runs out into other Subjects And the method of the connexion not appearing the common Reader loses the design of the whole To give an instance or two his chief Arguments for the Unity of the Catholick Church being taken from the Unity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper beside making out his Conclusion he enters into large Discourses concerning the Use and Necessity of Baptism against the Socinians and the presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist and the Sence of the Church about it in all Ages against the Church of Rome and by that time the less diligent Reader has travell'd through these long Digressive Controversies he forgets the first Conclusion of the Unity of the Church from the Unity of right to these two Sacraments in it But if the Reader would distinguish between the direct Course and Tenor of the Discourse it self and these occasional Salleys the whole Method of proceeding would appear plain and perspicuous enough to an ordinary understanding And for the proof of this I shall only refer him to his first Book upon this Argument which was the substance and groundwork of his other larger Treatises And that is his discourse of the Right of the Churches in a Christian state In which keeping close to his Argument he has stated this and all other matters that he tâ—eats of with that clearness and coherence of Reason that whoever will be at the pains to run through that little Book can never complain of any Obscurity in his following Writings Thus in his first Chapter he lays the Foundations of the one Catholick Church upon the right of holding publick Assemblies for the Worship of God by Divine Authority upon which he infers the power of the Keys and from thence the power of granting Baptism which suppose a settled Authority of taking into or casting out of the Society of the Church and unless those that are taken in are taken into the whole Society and those that are cast out are cast out of the same they are of no effect to the purpose to which they are design'd For unless a Man that is baptised in a particular Church have a right of Communicating with the whole Christian Church if he change his Habitation he must leave his Christianity behind him or his right of holding publick Assemblies in the Church And unless a man that is Excommunicate in a particular Church be thereby cast out of Communion with all other Churches it is but changing his Habitation and he that was cut off as a corrupt Member from the Body of Christ shall elude the just Sentence of the Church and not withstanding his Excommunication have as full a right to all Christian Priviledges as if
integrity and that it was only the Emperor and his Court-parasites that were guilty of all the Exorbitancies committed in the Church in his time which he committed so altogether without the Churches consent that by them he oppressed it with all the outrage and violence of Persecution But from this clamour raised against the Authority of the Church upon this account and kept up at this very day with so much confidence for we find it among the doleâ—ul invectives of R. B. against the ancient Bishops in his Book of Crudities we may see what a pleasure and satisfaction it is to men of some tempers to be venting their ill nature against the true old Christian Church But Secondly as the Emperour in all his exorbitant actings own'd and supposed the power of the Church so the Catholicks submitted to all their sufferings under him with the same patience and upon the same Principle that they did to the Heathen Emperours And this is most remarkable in the Case of Athanasius who though he was persecuted and provoked beyond all Patience for the Establisht Religion of the Empire but among infinite other slanders that were loaded upon him is charged with Treason and Disloyalty yet for all this he is nice and punctual in his Obedience to all the Emperours commands even against himself and does with the greatest indignation detest the least thought of disrespect or disloyalty to his Sovereign Lord. Thus when his Enemies had slandered him to the Emperour Constantius for having spoken ill things of him and done ill Offices between him and his Brother Constans he defies the Calumny a thousand times over as only sit to be laid upon a distracted Man and calls God and his Holy Angels to witness how far it was from his thoughts and his Principles to speak the least ill word of a Sovereign Prince And when in the second place they charged him for having held correspondence with the Rebel Magnentius here he professes himself amazed and consounded with the greatness of the Lye and wonders how any man should be so strangely beside himself as to â—eign such an incredible Calumny against him He be such a Beast as to be friend to such a Monster as had Rebell'd against and Murther'd his Royal Master No he would rather dye Ten Thousand Deaths then be guilty of one such Disloyal Though And beseeches the Emperour that he would never entertain such an hard opinion of the Christian Church as if it were possible for Christians but much more Bishops to entertain any thoughts like Disloyalty and invokes the God of Heaven and Earth who gave the Empire to Constantius and to whom alone he could appeal from him as being his only Superiour to clear his innocence from so foul a Calumny And whereas in the third place they object that when the Emperour commanded his departure from Alexandria he refused to obey it To this he answers God sorbid that I should be such a wretch as to slite any of his Majesties Commands No he made Conscience of refusing Obedience but to the Questor of a City much more to his Sovereign Lord the Emperour Then discovers to him how the Eusebians had forged Letters in the Emperours Name for his Banishment and tells him that it was upon the assurance of the Forgery that he refused complyance but otherwise assures him that he is not so mad as to disobey any of his own Commands whatsoever so that if he had been pleased to Command him from Alexandria he would have been gone at the first notice and prevented the Command by the promptness of his Obedience The sense of all which is that it is no less then downright madness for any man that pretends to Christianity to make resistance to any Commands of his Sovereign Prince and this he writes whilst he was forced for the security of his life to lye conceal'd in the Wilderness after he had been persecuted by Constantius with the utmost rancour and a thousand times worse then a Mid-night Robber for above twenty years together and in truth had suffered such things from his hands as never any other Subject did from any Prince For his Case is singular and has nothing like it in Story Constantius his treating of him exceeded the injustice and cruelty of all the Heathen Tyrants and yet after all this prodigious and unparallel'd Provocation not only against the Laws of the Empire but of all Humanity how tender is this great spirited Man of making the least abatement of respect and duty to his Prince However he was pleased to treat him he was obliged by his Religion as he would acquit himself from madness not so much as to entertain a thought of the least resistance to any of his Commands in shortc onsidering the strange usage he had met with from the Emperour through his whole life his Story is the greatest instance and demonstration of a religious Sense of Loyalty that is upon Record It is true that Lucifer Calaritanus bestowed his rude Language upon the Emperour liberally enough but he was a man of a prodigiously fierce implacable nature as appears by the Schism that he made in the Church leaving its Communion rather then be reconciled to any of the Arian or Eusebian Clergy upon their repentance and submission which was such a piece of sowreness and austerity as could not but eat up all Sense of civility and good manners and therefore it is no wonder if a man of such a splenetick temper were so free of his Contumelious Language without respect of Persons especially when his natural rudeness was heightned and emproved by that false Principle that Christian Bishops might treat Heretick Princes after the same rate that the Prophets in the Old Testament did Apostate Princes and by that he answers Constantius his complaint of rudeness and insolence against him Dixisti passum te ac pati a nobis contra monita sacrarum scripturarum contumeliam dicis nos insolentes extitisse circa te quem honorari decuerit quasi quisquam dei cultorum pepercit Apostatis You complain that we have given you contumelious language against the commands of the Holy Scriptures you say that we behave our selves after an insolent manner towards you whom we ought to honour as if any Servant of God were to spare Apostates And then proceeds to a Catalogue of all the prophetick burthens against Apostate and Idolatrous Princes in the Old Testament But I am not at all concern'd to excuse him when he quitted the Catholick Communion and joyned Faction with the Rebel Puritans the Donatists as we have seen above Though this is to be said for him that how far soever he might proceed in foul Language he was so far from making any invitation to proceed to violent Actions that he concludes his whole Book with a passionate exhortation to Patience and Martyrdom So that hitherto the Doctrine of resistance to Sovereign Princes in any circumstances whatsoever or