great conceit that these Epistles appeared not till two hundred Years after Ignatius whereas by his own confession Origen writ within one hundred and forty Years Thirdly It cuts off the great pretence that Eusebius was the Founder of this mistake whereas it hereby appears that if it were one he only followed his Predecessors in it But the main of the Controversie here is the second thing Whether those Books ascribed to Origen in which Ignatius is quoted are really his or not Daillé says No but his learned Adversary has with no less than evidence of Demonstration proved they were though if he had not done it St. Jerom has done it long since who plainly tells us that himself translated them out of Origen's Greek into Latine And now after these I need add nothing of the Testimony of Eusebius and those that follow him for if he be mistaken their Authority is of no use if he be not it is of little necessity but that he is not is demonstrated from these more ancient Testimonies Though if any man desire more Witnesses I shall refer him to my learned Author who has summon'd them out of every Age from that in which the Epistles themselves were writen down to that next our own But to all the Testimonies of the Ancients what do our Adversaries oppose irst Salmasius opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople by which says he the Authentick and spurious Books of the Church were distinguish'd and among many others the Epistles of Ignatius are censured for Apocryphal Books But to this it is replied by the Pious the Reverend and the Learned Dr. Hammond that the opinion of one Author especially of later date for Nicephorus lived not before the ninth Century was not of weight and authority enough to oppose to the consent of so many ancient Writers Secondly That the word Apocryphal which is used by Nicephorus does not always signifie Spurious but it is very often used by Ecclesiastical Writers as opposed to Canonical and so is given to Books whose Authors were never question'd only to seclude them from the Canon of the Scripture To the first it is replied by Daillé and that I must say with impertinency enough that the authority of Nicephorus is at least equal to Dr. Hammonds as if the Dispute were between them two whereas the Dispute was between Walo and the Doctor who when he had produced the Testimonies of the Fathers of all former Ages could not but think it very hard that the opinion of one late Writer should be opposed to all their Authority To the second he replies That it is true that the word Apocryphal is oftentimes opposed to Canonical yet it is very frequently too used by Ecclesiastical Writers as equivalent to Spurious and Counterfeit and that therefore the Doctor in vain takes refuge in the Ambiguity of the word But certainly it is the manifest design of these men to tire out their Adversaries with verbose Trifles For who could have expected this Answer that when Walo had argued from the word Apocryphal as if it only signified Spurious and that when to the Argument the Doctor had answer'd that it no ways follows because it as often signified not Canonical who I say after this would have expected that his Adversary should upbraid him with taking Refuge in the ambiguity of the word when the Ambiguity of the word alone was not only a full answer to but a clear confutation of the Argument But he replies secondly That some of the Books joyn'd with it are confessed by all to be Supposititious and therefore as they were censur'd for that reason so must the Ignatian Epistles But this is manifestly false and though if it were true it follows like all the rest For the Censure has no regard to their Author but whether Spurious or Genuine to their Authority and only designs to shut them out from creeping in among the Canonical Scriptures For that was the only danger it aim'd to prevent least the Books that either were or pretended to be of Apostolical Antiquity should creep into the Canon And it is plain from the Decree it self that Nicephorus intended nothing else than to determine the Canonical Books of Scripture and prevent all others that came nearest to them in Age from obtaining sacred Authority But says Daillé Pope Gelasius when he defines what Books are Apocryphal he does not confine it meerly to the Canonical Scriptures but to all other Ecclesiastical Writers not allowed of and therefore this must be the meaning of Nicephorus That is to say that because Gelasius in his Decree determines what Ecclesiastical Books of what kind soever are to be reputed Orthodox what Heterodox that therefore Nicephorus when he distinguishes the Canonical Books of the New Testament from the Apocryphal does not mean as himself declares but must be understood in the sense of Gelasius And yet when all is done there is no such Testimony but the whole Story is a meer Dream of their own who catch at any shadow that may seem to serve their turn For sirst it is certain That Nicephorus was not the Author of the Stichometria Secondly That the Author of it whoever he was did not pass this censure upon Ignatius his Epistles For we find in it only the name of Ignatius without any mention of his Epistles Which indeed cannot in Daillé's sense be call'd Apocryphal because they were never esteem'd Canonical For that is the true Original of the distinction that whereas there were some Books written by the Followers of the Apostles as Clemens Barnabas and Hermas left these by reason of their nearness to the Canonical Books should in process of time be reckoned with them the Church was careful to range them in a Classis by themselves And whereas there were many other Books that pretended to be dictated by the Apostles and written by their Disciples lest they should gain the Authority they pretended to it concern'd the Church to give them the Apocryphal Mark. Seeing therefore Ignatius Epistles were never upon either of these accounts in any probability of being accounted Canonical it would have been a needless Caution to refer them to the Apocryphal Catalogue And though to Ignatii Daillé after his usual way of making bold with his Quotations adds Omnia It is probable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be added as it is in another Index of Apocryphal Books in the Oxford Library It being the custom of some idle men of those times to make Institutions of Divinity and then fasten them upon Apostles and Apostolical men out of which as our learned Author with great probability conjectures was afterward made that Collection which goes under the name of Apostolical Constitutions Now these spurious pieces pretending to Canonical Authority it was very requisite to prevent and discover the Imposture But whatever probability may be in this Conjecture of which we stand in no need I am
succession of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Constantine But to wave all other parallel Cases that which I have already propounded is irrefragable viz. That those men that beat about in the Writings of the Ancients to start sceptical pretences against the use and institution of Episcopacy would do very well to consider the consequences of this rude and licentious way of Arguing And as the Reverend and Learned Doctor Hammond long since remarked it they that so confidently reject the Epistles of Ignatius shrewdly indanger if they will stand to their own principles the credit and authority of the sacred Canon when these are vouch'd for the true and authentick Epistles of Ignatius by as strong a current and unanimous consent of the Fathers as most of the Canonical Books of Scripture And therefore it is observable that the proud Walo Messalinus does with the same ease and confidence pish away one of the Epistles of St. Peter as he does all these of this Apostolical Martyr and might in the same pert and pedantick humour and with the same evidence of Reason huff all the rest after it into the Apocryphal Rubbish But because our Adversaries main strength lies in this Objection and some ill-minded men will be hasty to seise on it for worse purposes than they intended I shall consider it in its full force and glory The defect then pretended is three-fold as to Places as to Times as to Persons 1. As to Places and here they tell us we can have no certainty without an universal Testimony For if but one place varied that is enough to overthrow the necessity of any one form of Government and therefore seeing we have not an account of what was done by the Apostles in all Churches we can have no sufficient certainty of their practice But certainly never was any thing so hardly dealt with as Antiquity by these men for unless we could be certain that every thing that was done in the Church 1500 Years agoe was recorded and made known to us by some unquestionable way all that is recorded be it never so certain and evident can be of no use for our Information If this hard condition be put upon us I must confess that we not only have no certainty of the Primitive Practice but that it is impossible that we should have any either in that or any other Record But this certainly is too rigorous proceeding with the authority of Precedents that let us produce never so many they shall signifie nothing as to their use unless we can demonstrate that there never was or indeed could be one contrary Example in the World But I am very apt to believe that all ingenuous men will be fully satisfied with this that all the precedents that are recorded are for us and therefore till our Adversaries are able to produce some against us to rest in the certainty of those Records that are preserved without a vain enquiry after what might or might not be in those that are lost And therefore our Adversaries in stead of making such wild and sceptical demands if they would prevail upon the minds of men should in the first place have proved the variety of Apostolical Practice and that indeed would have disproved the necessity of any one Form but that is a thing they never attempt When therefore we have this uniformity of practice in all Churches whose settlement is known it betrays an unreasonable partiality in men to put us upon giving an account of what St. Andrew did in Scythia and St. Thomas in India for certainly all impartial men will be satisfied with the uniform practice of all the known Churches of Europe Asia and Affrica And that is enough in answer to the first pretended defect of Antiquity as to Places The second defect is as to Times And here they fall directly upon the credit of all Ecclesiastical History and in particular upon Eusebius the Father of it who they say lived at too great a distance from Apostolical Times and wanted sufficient Records for his Information But this I must answer that I know not any Historian furnished with better and more certain accounts of the things they write of than Eusebius The Tradition of the Church being conveyed down to him in the most uninterrupted and undoubted manner possible St. Polycarp St. Ignatius St. Clemens of Rome were familiarly acquainted with the Apostles themselves Irenaeus Tatianus Theophilus Antiochenus Athenagoras Justin Martyr and many more converst with them as they did with the Apostles to these succeed Origen Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Minutius Faelix Lactantius Ar nobius Dionysius Alexandrinus Gregorius Thauntaturgus St. Cyprian beside many other excellent Writers whose Works he enjoyed though some of them are since perish'd who all lived in the first and second Centuries after the Apostles Now out of these Eusebius collected his History and to their genuine and undoubted Writings ever refers himself to justifie his own Fidelity quotes no Author for any matter of fact but what was done in his own Age as particularly in the beginning of the second Book the Reader is desired to observe that he collected the materials of it from the Writings of Clemens Tertullian Josephus and Philo and the same Preface he might have set before every particular Book And as he always refers to good Authors so he rejects many things as counterfeit and spurious for this reason only because he finds no account of them in the Ancient Writers But beside the Writings of the Doctors of the Church and the Epistles of Bishops the Originals whereof were then reserved in the Archives of their several Churches he made very great use of the Acts of the Martyrs that were then preserved with great care and sacredness though afterwards it being the most valued part of Ecclesiastical History it was the most improved into fabulous Legends and Stories And beside all this he was furnished with many excellent materials of the First Times which alone he could be supposed to want by Hegesippus who wrote five Books of Commentaries of the Acts of the Church about the Reign of Marcus Aurelius which was scarce eighty Years after the death of St. John So that it is no better than a very rash censure of such an Ancient and Apostolical Writer to say that his Relations are as questionable as those of Eusebius himself in reference to those elder Times when he lived almost in the very eldest times and so near to the Apostles that it was scarce possible that any matter of Fact that happened in that Interval could escape his knowledg Now last of all the Heathen Records themselves were not a little useful to him as himself informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In theâ—e times that is about the Reign of Domitian the Doctrine of the Christian Faith was so flourishing that the Heathen Writers have left exact Records of the Persecutions and Martyrdoms As for Eusebius his
Christian Religion neither is nor can be of any Authority in any Common-Wealth otherwise than as it is owned and ratified by the Supream Secular Powers so that if Cromwel or any other Sovereign Prince be pleased to command his Subjects only to renounce their Saviour and their Christian Faith and declare themselves Jews or Mahumetans in that Case they are indispensably bound to Obedience in that it is not possible for the Christian or any other Law to have any binding force than what it receives from the Arbitrary Power of the Civil Magistrate And agreeable to that General Proposition the Philosopher is pleased to inform us that the whole Power of instructing the people in any Religion is derived from the Sovereign Prince That the Subjects of every Common-Wealth ought to receive every thing as the Law of God that the Civil-Laws declare to be so That by the Doctrine which the Sovereign commands to be taught we are to examine and try the Truths of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with Miracle or without shall at any time pretend to advance That Moses made the Scripture Canonical as civil Sovereign of the Common-wealth That our Saviour gave his Apostles power to Preach and Baptise in all parts of the World supposing they were not by their own lawful Sovereign forbidden That the new Testament had not the force of Law till it received it from the Authority of Constantine the Great That the civil Magistrate has originally in himself and by vertue of his Sovereign Supremacy a power of ordaining Priests and administring Sacraments That Christian Kings are the only Pastors of the Christian Church and that the faith of all their Subjects depends only upon their Authority And he is so entirely possessed with this notion of Kingly power that he allows no other Authority to God himself And thus when he appoints the punishment of death to false Prophets because they tempt the People to revolt from the Lord their God These words he tells us to revolt from the Lord your God are equivalent to revolt from your King for they had made God their King by Pact at the foot of Mount Sinai So that had they not obliged themselves by that Covenant it had been no sin to worship other Gods i. e. it is all one in itself to worship the true and to worship false Gods which is plainly to say there is none at all And as for the worship they paid to the God of Israel it was not due to him as Sovereign of the Universe but only as their King by Pact and so is no more than what every Subject owes to his Sovereign And therefore he in express terms defines the Kingdom of God to be a civil Kingdom and to this purpose he expounds the third Commandment That they should not take the name of God in vain that is that they should not speak rashly of their King nor dispute his Right nor the Commissions of Moses and Aaron his Lieutenants And this was the end of our Saviours coming into the World to restore unto God by a new Covenant the Kingdom which being his by the old Covenant had been cut off by the Rebellion of the Israelites in the Election of Saul And the same account he gives of Christianity it self that it is only receiving our Saviour for King So that when St. Paul says to the Galatians That if himself or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel to them than he had preached let him be accursed That Gospel was that Christ was King so that all Preaching against the power of the King received in consequence to these words is by St. Paul accursed for his speech is addressed to those who by his Preaching had already received Jesus for the Christ that is to say for King of the Jews So that it seems we owe no other duty to our Saviour than if he had been only a temporal Messias seeing all that is due to him is only by vertue of that covenant whereby we receive him for our King Neither is this Kingdom of his present but is to be established upon the Earth after the general Resurrection and therefore by vertue of that Pact that the faithful make with him in Baptism they are only obliged to obey him for King whensoever he shall be pleased to take the Kingdom upon him Now barely to represent this Train of absurdities is more than enough to confute them in that they all resolve into this one gross Contradiction That for the ends of Government we are obliged to believe and obey the Christian Religion as the Law of God And for the same ends of Government we are to understand that we owe no other Obedience to it than as it is injoyn'd by the Law of man But though such manifest Trifles deserve not the civility of being confuted yet it is fit to let Mr. Hobbs his credulous Disciples and in all my Conversation I never met with a more ignorant or confident Credulity understand after what a childish rate their mighty Master of Demonstration proves these and indeed every thing else For he has but one way of proving all things First to define his own Opinion to be true and then by vertue of that Definition prove it to be so And for an undenyable proof of this we will take a review of all the foremention'd propositions where we shall find all his Mathematical Demonstrations to be nothing else but so many Positive and Dogmatical Tautologies Thus when he proves there can be no first Mover because he has already defined that nothing can move it self from whence it demonstratively follows that all motion must be Eternal for otherwise if we assert an Eternal first cause we run upon that desperate absurdity that somthing may move it self He had argued full as Mathematically that nothing can move it self because I say nothing can move it self So again when he proves that God is neither the Universe nor a part of it nor somthing beside he had argued as well had he said That there is no Being distinct from the Fabrick of the World because there is none So again those Books only can be Law in every Nation that are establisht for such by the Sovereign Authority because a Law as I have already defined it is nothing else than the Command of that man or Company of men that have the Supreme Power in every Common-wealth from whence says he it unavoidably follows that nothing can be a Law but what is Enacted by the Sovereign Power And so it would have followed as unavoidably if he had only said That the Sovereign only can make Law because the Sovereign only can make Law And yet upon this one mighty Demonstration are built all the other bold assertions that I have collected out of his Books that the Sovereign Prince is Sovereign Prophet too that he is sole Pastor to the People of his
Kingdom that he has the only Power of ordaining Priests and interpreting Scripture That Moses and Constantine by vertue of their Kingly Power made the Scriptures Canonical and all the rest which is no more than to say That there can be no Law of God because there can be no Law beside the Law of man And therefore it is needless to pursue them singly only I cannot but observe that when he makes teaching any Doctrin against the Will of the Sovereign Prince to be a certain sign of a false Prophet he has obtain'd his design of insinuating that both Moses and our Saviour were manifest Impostors in that they both proceeded contrary to the Commands of the present Powers and that is the true Account of Mr. Hobbs his Religion That though they were indeed Impostors and Rebels to the State yet having had the Fortune to gain Authority in the World and being own'd by the Laws of Christendom they ought to be acknowledged by all men as Divine Persons as they pretended to be And as his honourable notion of mankind was that notwithstanding all their pretences to Justice and Honesty they were only a pack of dissembling Knaves so his notion of a Christian Church is nothing else than an association of Atheistical Hypocrites professing Christianity but not believing it He had better have said that there is no Church at all And so when he tells us that it is lawful for a good Christian to deny his Christian Faith when his Sovereign commands him he had better have expresly said that there is no such thing as a good Christian at all For the Reason he gives that profession with the Tongue is but an outward thing and no more than any other Gesture whereby we signifie our Obedience which may be honestly done so we hold firmly in the heart the Faith of Christ this Liberty if once allowed would authorize all the Villany in the world for Perjury it self is but an external thing and will by this means become lawful so a man believe in his heart the contrary to what he says with his mouth But when to this he adds that indeed such Persons as have a calling to Preach are obliged if called to it to suffer Martyrdom for their Religion but none other no more being required of private Christians but their own Faith He little considers that by this new kind of priviledge that he out of his great kindness grants the Clergy he has contradicted his whole design For if they may lawfully persist to death in Preaching the Gospel contrary to the Commands of the civil Sovereign then the case is plain that all Subjects are not bound to profess that Religion which the Sovereign enjoyns which once granted the whole cause of Leviathan is overthrown And as by this particular kindness to the Clergy he has run himself upon a flat Contradiction to his whole Design so has he renounced his Argument against Martyrdom For when he proves that a Christian may deny his Faith because profession is but an outward Ceremony it is no more in a Clergy-man and therefore as lawful and innocent in him as in any other However they are very much obliged to him for this singular kindness and civility to them especially at that time when they enjoyed this his priviledg so highly as they did at the time of publishing his Book All the Orthodox Clergy being then treated with a more barbarous cruelty than the ancient Christians were by any of the Heathen Persecutors great numbers of them being then stinking to death in the holes and bottoms of rotten Ships And therefore when the Clergy were in that woful Condition for him so impertinently to suggest as he does immediately after That no man is required to die for every Tenet that serves their Ambition or Profit to speak very gently this was not done like a Gentleman And Mr. Hobbs could not have taken a more unseasonable time to revile the Clergy than he did For whilst they were in Prosperity indowed with good Revenues and entrusted with great Power if he had fall'n upon them then Envy might have been some ground for his Malice But at that time when they were trampled upon by the very Scum of the People ruin'd and undone he could have no other Temptation to do it but meer Hatred and Malice to the Function it self But however though it be a foolish thing for any man to die for the Ambition or Profit of the Clergy yet it was a truly noble thing both of the Clergy and others to sacrifise their Lives and Fortunes in the Cause of their lawful Prince against Rebels and Traytors And it will be an eternal blemish upon Mr. Hobbs's Name and Memory that when beside the general duty of Loyalty he had received many particular Favours and Obligations from his Prince he should not only desert him himself but should publish this Book on purpose to persuade the whole Nation that it was so far from being any way bound to adhere to their lawful Prince that they were brought under an Obligation of Allegiance and Loyalty to the then brutish Usurper whom he flattered to so high a degree of Tyranny as to advise him to require of all men not only a Submission to his brutal Power but an Approbation of all his wicked Actions a thing so infinitely vile and dishonourable that it exceeded the wickedness of the Tyrant himself Now men of these irreligious Principles are so far from being fit Members of a Christian Church that they are not worthy to live in any humane Society in that they blow up the foundations of all Government as well as Religion For Loyalty or a sense of duty to lawful Governours is founded upon no other Principle than the Obligation of Conscience towards God So that those men that set Subjects loose from that turn them loose to Rebellion And therefore though the notion of a Deity be nothing else than an empty Doublet an Hat and a crooked Stick set up by Princes to scare fools to Obedience it concerns them to keep those men out of their Fields who go about to destroy the Reverence of their Scare-crow However these men are not to be admitted to any Disputes about Church-government who will not allow any such thing as a Church when the Dispute proceeds only upon that Supposition And therefore I shall leave them to enjoy the vanity of their own Conceits and proceed to the second Adversary who grants a Church founded by Divine Right but no right of Government within it self And as in the former we have seen the power of Ignorance joyn'd with Pride and Vanity so here may we see the Impotency of Learning joyn'd with Prejudice and Passion For this learned Gentleman has spared for no pains in this Argument he has ransackt all Authors and all Languages to serve his Cause he set aside many years for composing his Work and indeed seems to have made it the main design of his Life And