of the true Church of Jesus Christ and on the other hand that of the other Reformed Churches because they were not Episcopal is rendred void and null and because they had not the â—ark of the beast upon their fore-head whereat Monsieur Claude is extreamly offended Nay they have gone to that extremity that one Henry Dodwell hath newly published a large Book where he labours to prove and establish this maxim that there where there is no Episcopal Ordination there is no true Church no Minister of Jesus Christ no Sacrament and no Salvation They have lest out those expressions that are a shock and offence to Rome that the Pope is the Antichrist the man of sin and the Son of Perdition the Doctors of the Church of England as Thorndike Tailor Bramhal Patrick Sherelock c. have sweetned the Doctrines of Rome to make them rellish and go down the better with the Protestants In a word to compleat the design they had to testifie their kindness for Rome they have persecuted them most who are got at greatest distance from it They have made the Image of their persons and of their devotion to tread the Stage to render them both odious and ridiculous They have loaden them with calumnies in the same manner as the Pagans of old cloathed the Christians with Bears skins and Lyons skins to stir up the rage of Mastiff Dogs against them they have treated them with the Appellations of Schismaticks and Rebels who have been concerned deep in the late Conspiracy a thing that gives one a horrour to think of And the mildness and most gentle treatment is that of Fanaticks Enthusiasts and Medlars that perpetuate the division between the English and the Romish Church and hinderers of their coming together To conclude as Tacitus sayes proximorum odia sunt acerrima their aversion and hatred are so great against the Presbyterian Puritan and Independant party that these words are very frequently in their mouths and it is their discourse both as they walke along the Streets and set at their Tables that they would rather be Papists than Presbyterians 'T is then a thing much to be wondred at that whilest the Prelatical party have so much love and kindnsss for Rome and so much aversion for Calvin and our Churches in France as to rase them out of the number of the Churches of Jesus Christ to reject the ordination of their Pastors as Null and to tear in pieces with calumnies the puritanical party only for this reason because it hath a veneration for our Churches and for the Memory of Calvin 't is I say a very suprising thing and much to be wondred at that our Pastors in France at least the greatest part should make their Court to that Episcopal party and call those faithful people in England Enthusiasts Fanaticks and Hypocrites who separate from the Doctrines Customes Practises and Lives of those that Persecute them But yet a People who by the Purity of their Doctrine the holyness of their Lives and their Conformity with Calvin and his Disciples keep off and retard the Introduction of Paganisme in England and the Judgements of God upon the Nation Certainly it is a very surprising thing that the Fat of the Prelates Kitching and the lustre of their Hierarchy should so dazle the eyes of our great men in France as to postpone in their esteem the best the most holy and the most numerous Party of the People of England to that which glitters and dazles most and which now have the uppermost seats in the Synagogues BUT that Church which will have all or nothing shews more heat and vehemency against these Reconcilers than against those that protest against all Reconciliation with Rome which imitates the Lyon in the Apologue that devoured the Asse for desiring to share with him THE Church of Rome which is said to be Infallible is an immoveable Rock the Reformed at least the English Church is a floating Boat upon the Water which is fastened to that Rock by a Rope now he that thinks to draw it to him will be much deceived for he will but pullhimself nearer to the Rock 'T is true that neither the whole body of the Clergy of England which set at the helm of Affairs nor any of them has been concerned in the late attempt upon the life of our most gracious King but it is true also that the Papists had never been brought or tempted to think of such a thing if they had not been strongly perswaded that the life of the King was the only Impediment why those who had already come over three parts of four of the way to Rome had not finished the rest of their Journey to them CHAP. XI 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 T IS then with good reason that the Independants condemn all the Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation and believe that they have been attempted in vain from time to time between the Catholicks and the Arrians the Greeks and the Latins the Protestants and the Papists the Lutherans and the Calvinists the Episcopal and the Presbyterians and these from the Congregational men they condemn I say all these Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation unless the two parties that are both under Error and that are both at an equal distance from the truth be reduced to a Medium that may bring them to some Establishment without this they are very much perswaded that to compose all the differences which are in matters of Religion there is no other method than theirs which is that every Christian makes himself of that Assembly which is according to his Opinion and that the Church of which he is a Member do not persecute those who are otherwise perswaded THEY are not then led by any extravagancy of Reason when they put among the Ideas of Plato these six maxims with which the World is so strongly possest 1. THAT a Civil State ought to tolerate but one Religion 2. THAT all the Churches collected in that State ought to associate and joyn themselves into one body which may be of the same extent as the Civil State 3. THAT that body Ecclesiastical is distinct in Jurisdiction and Independant on that of the Republick and that there ought to be no appeal from Consistories and Synods to the Magistrate 4. THAT this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is exercised by vertue of a divine right positive and perpetual and by the power of the Keys and of that of binding and loosing given by Jesus Christ either to the Church or to its Pastors 5. THAT the Churches ought to be all united by the same bond of Faith and Discipline under the
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
and he makes these two Tribunals so independant one on the other as hotly to maintain that he would rather suffer death or banishment than permit the appeals of Consistorial Sentences to the Magistrate TO be short the Congregational way hath this advantage over all the other establishments of Religion both the National Popish Episcopal and Presbyterian Church these cannot subsist but with a subordination of Consistories Colloquies Provincial and National Synods things which are not practicable but under Secular Powers either which may approve them or else may tolerate them whereas the Congregational way subsists not only under good Emperours as were Constantine the Great and Theodosius the first but also under the Pagan Dioclesians and under an Arrian Constantius for what persecution soever may be raised against this way nothing hinders but that a Minister who watches over a small flock may go to visit the Members from house to house to administer spiritual pasture and food to them for their nourishment and growth in grace To conclude the excellence of this way appears in this that it is far less exposed to persecution than any other and that the Presbyterian and the Episcopal do fall into it when the Magistrate is contrary to them CHAP. IX That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without any thoughts 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 I Could also streng hen all that I have said by the testimony of our new Doctors by that of Mounsieur Rivet Mounsieur Mestrâ—zat Monsieur Pajon Monsieur Claude and others showing that they undesignedly fall into the Opinion and Judgment of the Independants in laying down 1. THAT there is no other visible Church of Divine right than that which is assembled together in one place to attend upon the preaching and hearing of the word upon prayer and the participation of the Sacraments and it is in this manner that the Confession of the Church of England Article XIX defines the Church 2. THAT such a Church is Independant either on other Churches or on Synods that it may very well take from one or other advice and Counsel but it ought not to submit to their Commands 3. THAT no person can be forced to be a Christian nor to joyn with one Church rather than with another 4. THAT this Church hath liberty to do its own business its self or to connect into one body in the same manner as the Churches of France have done that it hath the liberty to retire from that connection or confederacy as the Churches of Metz and Sedan have done 5. THAT this Church to which the Christian is joyned is obliged to seek and to preserve a strict communion of Faith and Charity with the other Churches but yet hath a liberty of having a separate discipline 6. THAT this church ought to receive the fraternal admonitions of the other Churches and of their Synods in the same manner as a Synod of Africk acted upon the dissention which hapned between Innocent the first Bishop of Rome and the Church of Alexandria as Barlaam recites it I could also find these maxims in the Writings of the English Divines and show that in treating of the nature of the Church or of any other matter of divinity they have kept the language of the Independants or at least have approved of their practices The Learned Jackson Chap. 14. of the Church sayes that for these two causes one may lawfully frame Congregations distinct from others to have a separate Communion 1. WHEN they impose such practises as are contrary to Faith and Charity 2. WHEN they forbid wayes that are apparently most edifying and tend more to the increase and strength of Piety and Salvation than those which are now in use Dr. Stillingfleet assures us in pag. 109. of his Ireniâ—uâ—n that when in one and the same Territory Judgments and Churches are different the one from the other a Christian ought to joyn to that which retains most of the Evangelical purity He is bound to adhere to that Church that retaineth most of the Evangelical purity And in pag. 116. he sayes that a Christian is obliged to separate from Churches although Orthodox in the essential matters in case they retain some mixture of corruption in the practise His Words are a mixture of corruption as to the practise I could find the opinion of this Learned Doctour in several places up and down Monsieur Claude his Book where having laid down to us for a principle that the power of the Keyes and that of binding and loosing only is reposed in the faithful people of God he draws this Conclusion from it that private Churches ought to get to themselves such Members as they know to be more particularly the faithful and to remove from it the worldly persons to whom God hath not affixed that power of binding and loosing nor committed the management of the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven I could ascend as far as Luther and Melancton to justifie the separation even from Churches that have not any errour in their Doctrine Luther in cap. 4. Geneseos Etiamsi praeterea nihil peccatum esset in Doctrina Pontificia justas tamen fuisse causas cur ab Ecclesiá Romanâ nos sejungeremus BUT the Independants have reasonably outvied Luther and the other Doctors for they hold though the Church of Rome should not have any defects either in Doctrine or Discipline yet they were not to be condemned for separating from Rome and for being independent on the Romish Church and her Synods more then to find fault with the Church of Sedan which is separate from that of Metz in regard of any dependance one upon the others or upon the Synods that were common with them In a word it is a thing as natural and as reasonable for a Church to divide it self into two other Churches which may each do their own business separately as for one family to be divided into two others whereof each hath the liberty to govern themselves according to their own way and fancy THUS you have in all this discourse if I am not much mistaken the Justification of the carriage and government of the Congregational way and very clear and full proofs of their conformity with the Ancient Christians As also their Confession does evidence that which they have with the Apostolical in a more plain free expressive and incontestable manner than any of the confessions that are collected in the Corpus or Syntagma Confessianum so far are they from being the work of persons distracted and Enthusiasts as some of our Divines have fancied that you might altogether with as much reason put among the productions of Fools and mad men the three most excellent and consummated pieces according to the Judgment that Alexander More has made of them the Epistle of Calvin before his Institutions
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
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