be punish'd by Deprivation and Banishment all Arrian Books to be burned and whoever should be discover'd to conceal any of Arrius his writings to die for it But it fared very well with those who were not such fools as to own his opinion All they were entertain'd by the Emperor at a magnificent Feast receiv'd from his hand rich Prâ—sents and were honourably dismist with Letters recommending their great Abilities and performance to the Provinces and enjoyning the Nicene Creed to be hence forth observed With that stroke of the Pen. Socr. l. 1. c. 6. For what three hundred Bishops have agreed on a thing indeed extraordinary ought not to be otherwise conceiv'd of than as the decree of God Almighty especially seeing the Holy Ghost did sit upon the minds of such and so excellent men and open'd his divine will to them So that they went I trow with ample satisfaction and as they could not but take the Emperor for a very civil generous and obliging Gentleman so they thought the better of themselves from that day forward And how budge must they look when they returned back to their Diocesses having every one of 'em been a principal limn of the Oecumenical Apostolical Catholick Orthodox Council When the Catachrestical title of the Church and the Clergy were so appropriate to them by custom that the Christian people had relinquished or forgotten their claim when every Hare that crossed their way homeward was a Schismatick or an Heretick and if their Horse stumbled with one of them he incurr'd an Anathema Well it was that their journeys lay so many several ways for they were grown so cumbersom and great that the Emperor's high-way was too narrow for any two of them and there could have been no passage without the removal of a Bishop But soon after the Council was over Eusebius the Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis the Bishop of Nice who were already removed both by Banishment and two others put in their places were quickly restor'd upon their Petition wherein they suggested the cause of their not Signing to have been only because they thought they could not with a safe Conscience subscribe the Anathema against Arrius appearing to them both by his writings his discourses and Sermons that they had been Auditors of not to be guilty of those errors As for Arrius himself the Emperor quickly wrote to him It is now a considerable time since I wrote to your Gravity to come to my Tents that you might enjoy my Countenance so that I can sâ—arce wonder sufficiently why you have so long delaid it therefore now take one of the publick Coaches and make all speed to my Tents that having had experience of my kindness and affection to you you may return into your own Country God preserve you most dear Sir Arrius hereupon with his Comrade Euzoius comes to Constantine's Army aâ—d offers him a Petition with a confession of Faith that would have pass'd very well before the Nicene Council and now satisfied the Emperor Socr. l. 1. c. 19 20. insomuch that he writ to Athanasius now Bishop of Alexandria to receive him into the Church but Athanasius was of better mettle than so and absolutely refus'd it Upon this Constantine writ him another threatning Letter When you have understood hereby my pleasure see that you afford free entrance into the Church to all that desire it for if I shall understand that any who desires to be admitted into the Church should be either hindred or forbidden by you I will send some one of my Servants to remove you from your Degree and place another in your stead Yet Athaâ—asius stood it out still though other Churches received him into Communion and the Herâ—tick Novatus could not have been more unrelenting to lapsed Christians than he was to Arrius But this joyned with other crimes which were laid to Athanasius his charge at the Council of Tyre though I suppose indeed they were forged made Athanasius glad to fly for it and remain the first time in exile Upon this whole matter it is my impartial opinion that Arrius or whosoever else were guilty of teaching and publishing those errors whereof he was accused deserved the utmost Severity which consists with the Christian Religion And so willing I have been to think well of Athanasius and ill of the other that I have on purpose avoided the reading as I do the naming of a book that I have heard tells the story quite otherwise and have only made use of the current Historians of those times who all of them tell it against the Arrians Only I will confess that as in reading a particular History at adventure a man finds himself inclinable to favour the weaker party especially if the Conqueror appear insolent so have I been affected in reading these Authors which does but resemble the reasonable pity that men ordinarily have too for those who though for an erroneous Conscience suffer under â— Christian Magistrate And as soon as I come to Constantius I shall for that reason change my compassion and be doubly engaged on the Orthodox party But as to the whole matter of the Council of Nice I must crave liberty to say that from one end to the other though the best of the kind it seems to me to have been a pitiful humane business attended with all the ill circumstances of other worldly affairs conducted by a spirit of ambition and contention the first and so the greatest Occumenical blow that by Christians was given to Christianity And it is not from any sharpness of humor that I discourse thus freely of Things aâ—d Persons much less of Orders of men otherwise venerable but that where ought is extolled beyond reason and to the prejudice of Religion it is necessary to depreciate it by true proportion It is not their censure of Arianism or the declaring of their opinion in a controverted point to the best of their understanding wherein to the smalness of mine they appear to have light upon the truth had they likewise upon the measure that could have moved me to tell so long a story or bring my self within the danger and aim of any captious Reader speaking thus with great liberty of mind but little concern for any prejudice I may receive of things that are by some men Idolized But it is their Imposition of a new Article or Creed upon the Christian world not being contained in express words of Scripture to be believed with Divine Faith under Spiritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Priviledges of Religion and their making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding Ages for most cruel Persecutions that only could animate me In digging thus for a new deduction they undermined the fabrick of Christianity to frame a particular Doctrine they departed from the general Rule of their Religion and for their curiosity about an Article concerning Christ they violated our Saviour's first Institution of a Church not subject to any Addition in matters
Christian Religion and thereby defeated the flattâ—ring Bishops which sort of men saith he wittily do not worship Gâ—d but the Imperial Purple It was the same Themistius that only out of an upright natural apprehension of things made that excellent Oration afterward to Valens which is in Print exhorting him to cease Persecution wherein he chances upon and improves the same notion with Constantines and tells him That he should not wonder at the Dissents in Christian Religion which were very small if compared with the multitude and crowd of Opinions among the Gentile Philosophers for there were at least three hundred differences and a very great dissention among them there was about their resolutions unto which each several Sect was as it were necessarily bound up and obliged And that God seemed to intend more to illustrate his own glory by that diverse and unequal variety of Opinions to the end every each one might therefore so much the more reverence his Divine Majesty because it is not pâ—ssible for any one accurately to know him And this had a good effect upon Valens for the mitigating in some measure his severities against his fellow Christians So that after having cast about in this Summary again whereby it plainly appears that according to natural right and the apprehension of all sober Heathen Governours Christianity as a Religion was wholly exempt from the Magistrates jurisdiction or Laws farther than any particular person among them immorally transgressed as others the common rules of human society I cannot but return to the Question with which I begun What was the matter How came it about that Christianity which approved it self under all Persecutions to the Heathen Emperours and merited their favour so far till at last it regularly succeeded to the Monarchy should under those of their own profession be more distressed But the Answer is now much shorter and certainer and I will adventure boldly to say the true and single cause then was the Bishops And they were the cause against reason For what power had the Emperours by growing Christians more than those had before them None What obligation were Christian Subjects under to the Magistrate more than before None But the Magistrates Christian Authority was what the Apostle describ'd it while Heathen not to be a terror to good works but to evil What new Power had the Bishops acquired whereby they turned every Pontificate into a Caiaphat None neither 2 Cor. 10. 8. Had they been Apostles The Lord had but given them Authority for edification not for destruction They of all other ought to have Preached to the Magistrate the terrible denunciations in Scripture against usurping upon and persecuting of Christians They of all others ought to have laid before them the horrible Examples of God's ordinary Justice against those that exercised Persecution But provided they could be the Swearers of the Prince to do all due Allegiance to the Church and to preserve the Rights and Liberties of the Church however they came by them they would give them as much scope as he pleased in matter of Christianity and would be the first to solicite him to break the Laws of Christ and ply him with hot places of Scripture in order to all manner of Oppression and Persecution in Civils and Spirituals So that the whole business how this unchristian Tyranny came and could entitle it self among Christians against the Christian priviledges was only the case in Zech. 13. 6. 7. And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thy hands Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends Because they were all Christians they thought forsooth they might make the bolder with them make bolder with Christ and wound him again in the hands and feet of his members Because they were Friends they might use them more coarsly and abuse them against all common civility in their own house which is a Protection to Strangers And all this to the end that a Bishop might sit with the Prince in Iunto to consult wisely how to preserve him from those people that never meant him any harm and to secure him from the Sedition and Rebellion of men that seek nor think any thing more but to follow their own Religious Christian Worship It was indeed as ridiculous a thing to the Pagans to see that work as it was afterwards in England to Strangers where Papists and Protestants went both to wrack at the same instant in the same Market and when Erasmns said wittily Quid agitur in Angliâ— Consulitur he might have added though not so elegantly Comburiturâ— de Religione Because they knew that Christian Worship was free by Christ's Institution they procured the Magistrate to make Laws in it concerning things necessary As the Heathen Persecutor Iulian introduced some bordering Pagan Ceremonies and arguing with themselves in the same manner as he did Soz. l. 5. c. 16. That if Christians should obey those Laws they should be able to bring them about to something further which they had designed But if they would not then they might proceed against them without any hope of pardon as breakers of the Laws of the Empire and represents them as turbulent and dangerous to the Government Indeed whatsoever the Animadverter saith of the Act of Scditious Conventicles here in England as if it were Anvill'd after another of the Roman Senate the Christians of those Ages had all the finest tools of Persecution out of Iulian's Shop and studied him then as cuâ—iously as some do now Machiavel These Bishops it was who because the Rule of Christ was incomparible with the Power that they assumed and the Vices they practised had no way to render themselves necessary or tolerable to Princes but by making true Piety difficult by Innovating Laws to revenge themselves upon it and by turning Make-bates between Prince and People instilling dangers of which themselves were the Authors Hence it is that having awakened this Jealousie once in the Magistrate against Religion they made both the Secular and the Ecclesiastical Government so uneasie to him that most Princes began to look upon their Subjects as their Enemies and to imagine a reason of State different from the Interest of their People and therefore to weaken themselves by seeking unnecessary and grievous supports to their Authority Whereas if men could have refrain'd this cunning and from thence forcible governing of Christianity leaving it to its own simplicity and due liberty but causing them in all other things to keep the Kings and Christs peace among themselves and towards others all the ill that could have come of it would have been that such kind of Bishops should have prov'd less implemental but the good that must have thence risen to the Christian Magistrate and the Church then and ever after would have been inexpressible But this discourse having run in a manner wholly upon the Imposition of Creâ—ds may seem not to concern and I desire that it may not
reflect upon our Clergy not the Coâ—troversies which have so unhappily vex'd our Church ever since the reign of Edward the Sixth unto this day Only if there might be somthing pick'd out of it towards the Compromising of those differences which I have not from any performance of mine the vanity to imagine it may have use as an Argument a Majori ad Minus their disputes having risen only from that of Creeds ours from the Imposition only of Ceremonies which are of much inferior consideration Faith being necessary but Ceremonies Dispensable Unless our Church should lay the same weight upon them as one did This is the time of her settlement that there is a Church at the end of every Mile that the Sovereign Powers spread their wings to cover and protect her that Kings and Queens are her Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers that she hath stately Cathedrals there be so many arguments now to make Ceremonies Necessary which may all be answered with one Qâ—estion that they use to ask Children Where are you proud But I should rather hope from the Wisdom and Christianity of the present guides of our Church that they will after an age and more after so long a time almost as those Primitive Bishops I have spoke of yet suffered the Novatian Bishops in every Diocess have mercy on the Nation that hath been upon so slender a matter as the Ceremonies and Liâ—urgy so long so miserably harassâ—d That they will have mercy upon the King whom they know against his natural inclination his Royal Intention his many Declarations they have induced to more Severitics than all the Reigns since the Conquest will contain if summ'd up together who may as Constantive among his Private Devotions put up one Collect to the Bishops Euseb. de vita Const. 7. 70. Date igitur mihi Dies tranquillos Noctes curarum experes And it runs thus almost altogether verbatim in that Historian Grant most merciful Bishop and Priest thâ—t I may have calm days and nights free from care and molestation that I may live a peaceable life in all Godliness and Holiness for the future by your good agreement which unless you vouchsafe me I shall most away my Reign in perpetual sadness and vexation For as long as the people of God stands divided by so unjust and pernicious a Contention how can it be that I can have any ease in my own Spirit Open therefore by your good agreement the way to me that I may continue my Expedition towards the East and grant that I may see both you and all the rest of my people having laid aside your animosities rejoycing together that we may all with one voice give land and glory for the common and good agreement and liberty to God Almighty for ever Amen But if neither the People nor his Majesty enter into their consideration I hope it is no unreasonable request that they will be merciful unto themselves and have some reverence at least for the Naked Truth of History which either in their own times will meet with them or in the next Age overtake them That they who are some of them so old that as Confessors they were the Scars of the former troubles others of them so young that they are free from all the Motives of Revenge and Hatred should yet joyn in reviving the former persecutions upon the same pretences yea even themselves in a turbulent military and uncanonical manner execute Laws of their own procuring and depute their inferior Clergy to be the Informers I should rather hope to see not only that Controversie so scandalous abolished but that also upon so good an occasion as the Author of the Naked Truth hath administred them they will inspect their Clergy and cause many things to be corrected which are far more ruinous in the Consequence than the dispensing with a Surplice I shall mention some too confusedly as they occur to my Pen at present reserving much more for better leisure Methinks it might be of great edification that those of them who have ample possessions should be in a good sense Multas inter opes inopes That they would inspect the Canons of the ancient Councils where are many excellent ones for the regulation of the Clergy I saw one looking but among those of the same Council of Nice against any Bishops removing from a lâ—ss Bishoprick to a greater nor that any of the Inferior Clergy should leave a less living for a fatter That is me-thinks the most Natural use of General or any Councils to make Canons as it were By-laws for the ordering of their own Society but they ought not to take out much less forge any Patent to invade and prejudice the Community It were good that the greater Church-men relyed more upon themselves and their own direction not building too much upon Stripling Chaplains that men may not suppose the Master as one that has a good Horse or a fleet Hound attributes to himself the vertues of his Creature That they inspect the Morals of the Clergy the Moral Hereticks do the Church more harm than all the Nonâ—conformists can do or can wish it That before they admit men to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles for a Benefice they try whether they know the meaning That they would much recommend to them the reading of the Bible 'T is a very good book and if a man read it carefully will make him much wiser That they would advise them to keep the Sabbath If there were no Morality in the day yet there is a great deal of Prudence in the observing it That they would instruct those that came for Holy Order and Livings that it is a terrible Vocation they enter upon but that has indeed the greatest reward That to gain a Soul is beyond all the acquists of Trassick and to Convert an Atheist more glorious than all the Conquests of the Souldier That betaking themselves to this Spiritual Warfare they ought to disintangle from the World That they do not ride for a Benefice as if it were for a Fortune or a Mistress but there is more in it That they take the Ministry up not as a Trade and because they have heard of Whittington in expectation that the Bells may so chime that they may come in their turns to be Lord Mayors of Lambeth That they make them understand as well as they can what is the Grace of God That they do not come into the Pupit too full of Fustian or Logick a good life is a Clergy-mans best Syllogism and the quaintest Oratory and till they out-live 'm they will never get the better of the Fanaticks nor be able to preach with Demonstration of Spirit or with any effect or Authority That they be Lowly minded and no Railers And particularly that the Arch-deacon of Canterbury being in ill humor upon account of his Ecclesiastical Policy may not continue to revenge himself upon the innocent Walloons there by ruining their Church which subsists upon the Ecclesiastical Power of His Majesty and so many of His Royal Predecessors But these things require a greater Time and to enumerate all that is amiss might perhaps be as endless as to number the People nor are they within the ordinary sphere of my Capacity But to the Judicious and Serious Reader to whom I wish any thing I have said may have given no unwelcome entertainment I shall only so far justifie my self that I thought it no less concerned me to vindicate the Laity from the Impositions that the Few would force upon them than others to defend those Impositions on behalf of the Clergy But the Reverend Mr. Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity says The time will come when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of Wit And I shall conclude I trust in the Almighty that with us Contentions are now at the highest that and that the day will come for what cause is there of Dispair when the Passions of former enmity being allaid men shall with ten times redoubled tokens of unfainedly reconciled Love shew themselves each to other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their Enterview in Egypt And upon this condition let my Book also yea my self if it were needful be burnt by the hand of those Enemies to the Peace and Tranquility of the Religion of England FINIS