wise and good man and yet how others began even then to be abused by that temptation which since hath invaded all Christendome S. Cyprian re baptized Hereticks and thought he was bound so to doe calls a Synod in Africk as being Metropolitan and confirms his opinion by the consent of his Suffragans and Brethren but still with so much modesty that if any man was of another opinion he judg'd him not but gave him that liberty that he desired himself Stephen Bishop of Rome growes angry Excommunicates the Bishops of Asia and Africa that in divers Synods had consented to rebaptization and without peace and without charity condemns them for Hereticks Indeed here was the rarest mixture and conjunction of unlikelihoods that I have observed Here was errour of opinion with much modesty and sweetnesse of temper on one side and on the other an over-active and impetuous zeal to attest a truth it uses not to be so for errour usually is supported with confidence and truth suppressed and discountenanc'd by indifferency But that it might appear that the errour was not the sinne but the uncharitablenesse Stephan was accounted a zealous and furious person and S. * Vid. S. Aug. l. 2. c. 6. de baptis contra Donat. Cyprian though deceiv'd yet a very good man and of great sanctity For although every errour is to be opposed yet according to the variety of errours so is there variety of proceedings If it be against Faith that is a destruction of any part of the foundation it is with zeal to be resisted and we have for it an Apostolicall warrant contend earnestly for the Faith but then as these things recede farther from the foundation our certainty is the lesse and their necessity not so much and therefore it were very fit that our confidence should be according to our evidence and our zeal according to our confidence and our confidence should then be the Rule of our Communion and the lightnesse of an Article should be considered with the weight of a precept of charity And therefore there are some errours to be reproved rather by a private friend then a publike censure and the persons of the men not avoided but admonished and their Doctrine rejected not their Communion few opinions are of that malignity which are to be rejected with the same exterminating spirit and confidence of aversation with which the first Teachers of Christianity condemn'd Ebion Manes and Cerinthus and in the condemnation of Hereticks the personall iniquity is more considerable then the obliquity of the doctrine not for the rejection of the Article but for censuring the persons and therefore it is the piety of the man that excused S. Cyprian which is a certain Argument that it is not the opinion but the impiety that condemns and makes the Heretick And this was it which Vincentius Lirinensis Adv. haeres c. 11. said in this very case of S. Cyprian Vnius ejusdem opinionis mirum videri potest judicamus authores Catholicos sequaces haereticos Excusamus Magistros condemnamus Scholasticos Qui scripserunt libros sunt haeredes Coeli quorum librorum defensores detruduntur ad infernum Which saying if we confront against the saying of Salvian condemning the first Authors of the Arrian Sect and acquitting the Followers we are taught by these two wise men that an errour is not it that sends a man to Hell but he that begins the heresy and is the authour of the Sect he is the man mark'd out to ruine and his Followers scap'd when the Here siarch commenc'd the errour upon pride and ambition and his Followers went after him in simplicity of their heart and so it was most commonly but on the contrary when the first man in the opinion was honestly and invincibly deceived as S. Cyprian was and that his Scholars to maintaine their credit or their ends maintaind the opinion not for the excellency of the reason perswading but for the benefit and accruments or peevishnesse as did the Donatisis qui de Cypriani authoritate fibi carnaliter blandiuntur as S. Austin said of them then the Scholars are the Hereticks and the Master is a Catholike For his errour is not the heresy formally and an erring person may be a Catholike A wicked person in his errour becomes heretick when the good man in the same errour shall have all the rewards of Faith For whatever an ill man believes if he therefore believe it because it serves his own ends be his belief true or false the man hath an hereticall minde for to serve his own ends his minde is prepared to believe a lie But a good man that believes what according to his light and upon the use of his morall industry he thinks true whether he hits upon the right or no because he hath a minde desirous of truth and prepared to believe every truth is therefore acceptable to God because nothing hindred him from it but what hee could not help his misery and his weaknesse which being imperfections meerly naturall which God never punishes he stands faire for a blessing of his morality which God alwayes accepts So that now if Stephen had followed the example of God Almighty or retained but the same peaceable spirit which his Brother of Cathage did he might with more advantage to truth and reputation both of wisdome and piety have done his duty in attesting what he believ'd to be true for we are as much bound to be zealous pursuers of peace as earnest contenders for the Faith I am sure more earnest we ought to be for the peace of the Church then for an Article which is not of the Faith as this Question of re-baptization was not for S. Cyprian died in beliefe against it and yet was a Catholike and a Martyr for the Christian Faith The summe is this S. Cyprian did right in a wrong cause as Numb 23. it hath been since judged and Stephen did ill in a good cause as fame then as piety and charity is to be preferr'd before a true opinion so farre is S. Cyprian's practise a better precedent for us and an example of primitive sanctity then the zeale and indiscretion of Stephen S. Cyprian had not learn'd to forbid to any one a liberty of prophesying or interpretation if hee transgressed not the foundation of Faith and the Creed of the Apostles Well thus it was and thus it ought to be in the first Ages Numb 23. the Faith of Christendome rested still upon the same foundation and the judgements of heresies were accordingly or were amisie but the first great violation of this truth was when Generall Councels came in and the Symbols were enlarged and new Articles were made as much of necessity to be believed as the Creed of the Apostles and damnation threatned to them that did diffent and at last the Creeds multiplyed in number and in Articles and the liberty of prophesying began to be something restrained And this was of so
God and lives as contrary to the Lawes of Christianity as a Heretick and I am also sure that I know what drunkennesse is but I am not sure that such an opinion is Heresy neither would other men be so sure as they think for if they did consider it aright and observe the infinite deceptions and causes of deceptions in wise men and in most things and in all doubtfull Questions and that they did not mistake confidence for certainty But indeed I could not but smile at those jolly Fryers two Franciscans offered themselves to the fire to prove Savonarola to be a Heretick but a certaine Iacobine offered himselfe to Commin l. 8. c. 19. the fire to prove that Savonarola had true Revelations and was no Heretick in the meane time Savonarola preacht but made no such confident offer not durst he venture at that new kind of fire Ordeal and put case all four had past through the fire and dyed in the flames what would that have proved Had he been a Heretick or no Heretick the more or the lesse for the confidence of these Zealous Ideots If we mark it a great many Arguments whereon many Sects rely are no better probation then this comes to Confidence is the first and the second and the third part of a very great many of their propositions But now if men would a little turn the Tables and be as zealous for a good life and all the strictest precepts of Christianity which is a Religion the most holy the most reasonable and the most consummate that ever was taught to man as they are for such propositions in which neither the life nor the ornament of Christianity is concerned we should find that as a consequent of this piety men would be as carefull as they could to find out all truths and the sense of all revelations which may concern their duty and where men were miserable and could not yet others that liv'd good lives too would also be so charitable as not to adde affliction to this misery and both of them are parts of good life to be compassionate and to help to beare one anothers burdens not to destroy the weak but to entertain him meekly that 's a precept of charity and to endeavour to find out the whole will of God that also is a part of the obedience the choyce and the excellency of Faith and hee lives not a good life that does not doe both these But men think they have more reason to bee zealous against Heresy then against a vice in manners because Heresy is infectious and dangerous and the principle of much evill Indeed if by a Heresy we mean that which is against an Article of Creed and breaks part of the Covenant made between God and man by the mediation of Jesus Christ I grant it to be a very grievous crime a calling Gods veracity into question and a destruction also of good life because upon the Articles of Creed obedience is built and it lives or dies as the effect does by its proper cause for Faith is the morall cause of obedience But then Heresy that is such as this is also a vice and the person criminall and so the sin is to be esteem'd in its degrees of malignity and let men be as zealous against it as they can and imploy the whole arsenall of the spirituall armour against it such as this is worse then adultery or murther in as much as the soule is more noble then the body and a false doctrine is of greater dissemination and extent then a single act of violence or impurity Adultery or murder is a duell but Heresy truly and indeed such is an unlawfull warre it slayes thousands The loosing of Faith is like digging down a foundation all the superstructures of hope and patience and charity fall with it And besides this Heresy of all crimes is the most inexcusable and of least temptation for true faith is most commonly kept with the least trouble of any grace in the world and Heresy of it selfe hath not only no pleasure in it but is a very punishment because faith as it opposes hereticall or false opinions and distinguishes from charity consists in meare acts of believing which because they are of true propositions are naturall and proportionable to the understanding and more honourable then false But then concerning those things which men now adayes call Heresy they cannot be so formidable as they are represented and if we consider that drunkennesse is certainly a damnable sin and that there are more Drunkards then Hereticks and that drunkennesse is parent of a thousand vices it may better bee said of this vice then of most of those opinions which we call Heresies it is infectious and dangerous and the principle of much evill and therefore as fit an object for a pious zeale to contest against as is any of those opinions which trouble mens ease or reputation for that is the greatest of their malignity But if we consider that Sects are made and opinions are called Heresies upon interest and the grounds of emolument we shall see that a good life would cure much of this mischiefe For first the Church of Rome which is the great dictatrix of dogmaticall resolutions and the declarer of Heresy and calls Heretick more then all the world besides hath made that the rule of Heresy which is the conservatory of interest and the ends of men For to recede from the Doctrine of the Church with them makes Heresy that is to disrepute their Authority and not to obey them not to be their subjects not to give them the Empire of our conscience is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Heresy So that with them Heresy is to be esteemed clearely by humane ends not by Divine Rules that is formall Heresy which does materially disserve them and it would make a suspicious man a little inquisitive into their particular Doctrins and when hee finds that Indulgences and Jubilies and Purgatories and Masses and Offices for the dead are very profitable that the Doctrine of primacy of infallibility of superiority over Councels of indirect power in temporals are great instruments of secular honour would be apt enough to think that if the Church of Rome would learn to lay her honour at the feet of the Crucifix and despise the world and preferre Ierusalem before Rome and Heaven above the Lateran that these opinions would not have in them any native strength to support them against the perpetuall assaults of their Adversaries that speak so much reason and Scripture against them I have instanced in the Roman Religion but I wish it may be considered also how farre mens Doctrines in other Sects serve mens temporall ends so farre that it would not bee unreasonable or unnecessary to attempt to cure some of their distemperatures or misperswasions by the salutary precepts of sanctity and holy life Sure enough if it did not more concern their reputation and their lasting interest
against their Adversaries and for the truth and never offered to call for the Pope to determine the Question in his Chaire Certaindly no way coud have been so expedite none so concluding and peremptory none could have convinc'd so certainly none could have triumph'd so openly over all discrepants as this if they had known of any such thing as his being infallible or that he had been appointed by Christ to be the Judge of Controversies And therefore I will not trouble this discourse to excuse any more words either pretended or really said to this purpose of the Pope for they would but make books swell and the Question endlesse I shall only to this purpose observe that the Old Writers were so farre from believing the infallibility of the Roman Church or Bishop that many Bishops and many Churches did actually live and continue out of the Roman Communion particularly * Vbi illa Augustini reliquorum prudentia quis jam ferat crassissimae ignorantiae illam vocem in tot tantis Patribus Alan Cop. dialog p. 76 77. Vide etiam Bonifac. 11. Epist ad Eulalium Alexandrinum Lindanum Panopli l. 4. c. 89. in fine Sa'meron Tom. 12. Tract 68. § ad Canonem Sander de visibili Monarchia l. 7. n. 411. Baron Tom. 10. A. D. 878. S. Austin who with 217 Bishops and their Successors for 100 years together stood separate from that Church if we may believe their own Records So did Ignatius of Constantinople S. Chrysostome S. Cyprian Firmilian those Bishops of Asia that separated in the Question of Easter and those of Africa in the Question of rebaptization But besides this most of them had opinions which the Church of Rome disavowes now and therefore did so then or else she hath innovated in her Doctrine which though it be most true and notorious I am sure she will never confesse But no excuse can be made for S. Austins disagreeing and contesting in the Question of appeales to Rome the necessity of Communicating Infants the absolute damnation of Infants to the paines of Hell if they die before Baptism and divers other particulars It was a famous act of the Bishops of Liguria and Istria who seeing the Pope of Rome consenting to the fifth Synod in disparagement of the famous Councell of Chalcedon which for their own interests they did not like of they renounced subjection to his Patriarchate and erected a Patriarch at Aquileia who was afterwards translated to Venice where his name remaines to this day It is also notorious that most of the Fathers were of opinion that the soules of the faithfull did not enjoy the beatifick Vision before Doomesday whether Rome was then of that opinion or no I know not I am sure now they are not witnesse the Councels of Florence and Trent but of this I shall give a more full account afterwards But if to all this which is already noted we adde that great variety of opinions amongst the Fathers and Councels in assignation of the Canon they not consulting with the Bishop of Rome nor any of them thinking themselves bound to follow his Rule in enumeration of the books of Scripture I think no more need to be said as to this particular 8. But now if after all this there be some Popes which were notorious Hereticks and Preachers of false Doctrine some that Numb 15. made impious Decrees both in faith and manners some that have determin'd Questions with egregious ignorance and stupidity some with apparent Sophistry and many to serve their own ends most openly I suppose then the infallibility will disband and we may doe to him as to other good Bishops believe him when there is cause but if there be none then to use our Consciences Non enim salvat Christianum quod Pontifex Tract de interdict Compos à Theol. Venet. prop. 13. constantèr affirmat praeceptum suum esse justum sed oportet illud examinari se juxta regulam superius datum dirigere I would not instance and repeat the errours of dead Bishops if the extreme boldnesse of the pretence did not make it necessary But if we may believe Tertullian Pope Zepherinus approv'd the Lib. adver Praxeam Prophecies of Montanus and upon that approbation granted peace to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia till Praxeas perswaded him to revoke his act But let this rest upon the credit of Tertullian whether Zepherinus were a Montanist or no some such thing there was for certain Pope Vigilius denyed Vid. Liberal in breviatio cap. 22. Durand 4. dist 7. q. 4. two natures in Christ and in his Epistle to Theodora the Empresse anathematiz'd all them that said he had two natures in one person S. Gregory himselfe permitted Priests to give confirmation which is all one as if he should permit Deacons to consecrate they being by Divine Ordinance annext to the higher orders and upon this very ground Adrianus affirms that the Pope may erre in definiendis dogmatibus fidei And that we may not feare we shall want instances we may to secure it Quae. de confirm art ult take their own confession Nam multae sunt decretales haereticae sayes Occham as he is cited by Almain firmitèr hoc credo 3. dist 24. q. unica sayes he for his own particular sed non licet dogmatizare oppositum quoniam sunt determinatae So that we may as well see that it is certain that Popes may be Hereticks as that it is dangerous to say so and therefore there are so few that teach it All the Patriarchs and the Bishop of Rome himselfe subscrib'd to Arrianism as Baronius confesses and * Dist. 19. c. 9. L. 4. Ep. 2. Gratian affirms that Pope Anastasius the Second was strucken of God for communicating A. D. 357. n. 44. with the Heretick Photinus I know it will be made light of that Gregory the Seventh saith the very exorcists of the Roman Church are Superiour to Princes But what shall we think of that decretall of Gregory the Third who wrore to Bonaface his Legate in Germany quod illi quorum uxores infirmitate aliquâ morbidae debitum reddere noluerunt aliis poterant Vid. Câ—iranz Sum. Concil sol 218. Edit Antwerp nubere was this a Doctrine fit for the Head of the Church an infallible Doctor it was plainly if any thing ever was doctrina Daemoniorum and is noted for such by Gratian caus 32. q. 7. can quod proposuisli Where the glosse also intimates that the same priviledge was granted to the Englishmen by Gregory quia novi erant in fide And sometimes we had little reason to expect much better for not to instance in that learned discourse in the * Canon Law de majoritate obedientiâ where the Popes Supremacy over Kings is proved from the first chapter of Genesis and the Pope is the Sunne and the Cap per venerabitem qui filii sint legitimi Emperour is the Moone for
too forward in condemning where God hath declared no sentence nor prescribed any rule is to disswade from tyranny not to encourage licentiousnesse is to take away a license of judging not to give a license of dogmatizing what every one please or as may best serve his turn And for the other part of the Objection Fifthly This Discourse is so farre from giving leave to men to professe any thing though they believe the contrary that it takes order that no man shall bee put to it for I earnestly contend that another mans opinion shall be no rule to mine and that my opinion shall be no snare and prejudice to my selfe that men use one another so charitably and so gently that no errour or violence tempt men to hypocrisy this very thing being one of the Arguments I use to perswade permissions lest compulsion introduce hypocrisy and make sincerity troublesome and unsafe Sixthly If men would not call all opinions by the name of Religion and superstructures by the name of fundamentall Articles and all fancies by the glorious appellative of Faith this objection would have no pretence or footing so that it is the disease of the men not any cause that is ministred by such precepts of charity that makes them perpetually clamorous And it would be hard to say that such Physitians are incurious of their Patients and neglectfull of their health who speak against the unreasonablenesse of such Empericks that would cut off a mans head if they see but a Wart upon his cheek or a dimple upon his chin or any lines in his face to distinguish him from another man the case is altogether the same and we may as well decree a Wart to be mortall as a various opinion in re alioqui non necessariâ to be capitall and damnable For I consider that there are but few Doctrines of Christianity that were ordered to be preached to all the world to every single person and made a necessary Article of his explicite beliefe Other Doctrines which are all of them not simply necessary are either such as are not clearly revealed or such as are If they be clearely revealed and that I know so too or may but for my own fault I am not to be excused but for this I am to be left to Gods judgement unlesse my fault be externally such as to be cognoscible and punishable in humane judicatory But then if it be not so revealed but that wise men and good men differ in their opinions it is a clear case it is not inter dogmata necessaria simpliciter and then it is certain I may therefore safely disbelieve it because I may be safely ignorant of it For if I may with innocence be ignorant then to know it or believe it is not simply obligatory ignorance is absolutely inconsistent with such an obligation because it is destructive and a plaine negative to its performance and if I doe my honest endeavour to understand it and yet doe not attain it it is certain that is not obligatory to me so much as by accident for no obligation can presse the person of a man if it be impossible no man is bound to doe more then his best no man is bound to have an excellent understanding or to be infallible or to be wiser then he can for these are things that are not in his choyce and therefore not a matter of a Law nor subject to reward and punishment so that where ignorance of the Article is not a sin there disbelieving it in the right sense or believing it in the wrong is not breach of any duty essentially or accidentally necessary neither in the thing it selfe nor to the person that is he is neither bound to the Article nor to any endeavours or antecedent acts of volition and choyce and that man who may safely bee ignorant of the proposition is not tyed at all to search it out and if not at all to search it then certainly not to find it All the obligation we are capable of is not to be malicious or voluntarily criminall in any kind and then if by accident we find out a truth we are obliged to believe it and so will every wise or good man doe indeed he cannot doe otherwise But if he disbelieves an Article without malice or design or involuntarily or unknowingly it is contradiction to say it is a sinne to him who might totally have been ignorant of it for that he believes it in the wrong sense it is his ignorance and it is impossible that where hee hath heartily endeavoured to finde out a truth that this endeavour should make him guilty of a sinne which would never have been laid to his charge if he had taken no paines at all His ignorance in this case is not a fault at all possibly it might if there had been no endeavour to have cur'd it So that there is wholly a mistake in this proposition For true it is there are some propositions which if a man never heare of they will not be required of him and they who cannot read might safely be ignorant that Melchizedeck was King of Salem but he who reads it in the Scripture may not safely contradict it although before that knowledge did arrive to him he might safely have been ignorant of it But this although it be true is not pertinent to our Question For in sensu diviso this is true that which at one time a man may be ignorant of at some other time he may not disbelieve But in sensu conjuncto it is false For at what time and in what circumstance soever it is no sinne to be ignorant at that time and in that conjuncture it is no sinne to disbelieve and such is the nature of all Questions disputable which are therefore not required of us to bee believed in any one particular sense because the nature of the thing is such as not to be necessary to be known at all simply and absolutely and such is the ambiguity and cloud of its face and representment as not to be necessary so much as by accident and therefore not to the particular sence of any one person And yet such is the iniquity of men that they suck in opinions as wild Asses doe the wind without distinguishing the wholesome from the corrupted ayre and then live upon it at a venture and when all their confidence is built upon zeale and mistake yet therefore because they are zealous and mistaken they are impatient of contradiction But besides that against this I have laid prejudice enough from the dictates of holy Scripture it is observable that this with its appendant degrees I meane restraint of Prophesying imposing upon other mens understanding being masters of their consciences and lording it over their Faith came in with the retinue and traine of Antichrist that is they came as other abuses and corruptions of the Church did by reason of the iniquity of times and the cooling of the first heats of
now against the instance and precedent of those ages who were confessedly wise pious and whose practice are often made to us arguments to follow If yea and that they had been persecuted it is the thing which this argument condemnes and the losse of the Church had been invaluable in the losing or the provocation and temptation of such rare personages and the example and the rule of so ill consequence that all persons might upon the same ground have suffered and though some had escaped yet no man could have any more security from punishment then from error 5. Either the disagreeing person is in error or not but a true believer in either of the cases to persecute him is extremely imprudent Numb 9 For if he be a true beleever then it is a cleere case that we doe open violence to God and his servants and his truth If he be in error what greater folly and stupidity then to give to error the glory of Martyrdome and the advantages which are accidentally consequent to a persecution For as it was true of the Martyrs Quoties morimur toties nascimur and the increase of their trouble was the increase of their confidence and the establishment of their perswasions so it is in all false opinions for that an opinion is true or false is extrinsecall or accidentall to the consequents and advantages it gets by being afflicted And there is a popular pity that followes all persons in misery and that compassion breeds likenesse of affections and that very often produces likenesse of perswasion and so much the rather because there arises a jealousie and pregnant suspicion that they who persecute an opinion are destitute of sufficient arguments to confute it and that the hangman is the best disputant For if those arguments which they have for their owne doctrine were a sufficient ground of confidence perswasion men would be more willing to use those means arguments which are better complyances with humane understanding which more naturally doe satisfie it which are more humane and Christian then that way which satisfies none which destroyes many which provokes more which makes all men jealous To which adde that those who dye for their opinion leave in all men great arguments of the heartinesse of their beliefe of the confidence of their perswasion of the piety and innocencie of their persons of the purity of their intention and simplicity of purposes that they are persons totally disinterest and separate from designe For no interest can be so great as to be put in balance against a mans life and his soul he does very imprudently serve his ends who seeingly fore-knowingly loses his life in the prosecution of them Just as if Titius should offer to dye for Sempronius upon condition he might receive twenty talents when he had done his work It is certainly an argument of a great love and a great confidence and a great sincerity and a great hope when a man layes downe his life in attestation of a proposition Greater love then this hath no man then to lay downe his life saith our Blessed Saviour And although laying of a wager is an argument of confidence more then truth yet laying such a wager staking of a mans Soule and pawning his life gives a hearty testimony that the person is honest confident resigned Charitable and Noble And I know not whether truth can doe a person or a cause more advantages then these can doe to an error And therefore besides the impiety there is great imprudence in Canonizing a hereticke and consecrating an errour by such meanes which were better preserv'd as incouragements of truth and comforts to reall and true Martyrs And it is not amisse to observe that this very advantage was taken by hereticks who were ready to shew and boast their Catalogues of Martyrs in particular the Circumcellians did so and the Donatists and yet the first were heretickes the second Schismaticks And it was remarkeable in the Schollers of Priscillian who as they had their Master in the reputation of a Saint while he was living so when he was dead they had him in veneration as a Martyr they with reverence and devotion carryed his and the bodies of his slaine companions to an honourable sepulture and counted it Religion to sweare by the name of Priscillian So that the extinguishing of the person gives life and credit to his doctrine and when he is dead he yet speaks more effectually 6. It is unnaturall and unreasonable to persecute disagreeing opinions Unnaturall for Understanding being a thing wholly Numb 10. spirituall cannot be restrained and therefore neither punished by corporall afflictions It is in alienâ republicâ a matter of another world you may as well cure the colick by brushing a mans clothes or fill a mans belly with a syllogisme these things doe not communicate in matter and therefore neither in action nor passion and since all punishments in a prudent government punish the offender to prevent a future crime and so it proves more medicinall then vindictive the punitive act being in order to the cure and prevention and since no punishment of the body can cure a disease in the soule it is disproportionable in nature and in all civill government to punish where the punishment can doe no good It may be an act of tyrannie but never of justice For is an opinion ever the more true or false for being persecuted Some men have beleeved it the more as being provoked into a confidence and vexed into a resolution but the thing it selfe is not the truer and though the hangman may confute a man with an inexplicable dilemma yet not convince his understanding for such premises can inferre no conclusion but that of a mans life and a Wolfe may as well give lawes to the understanding as he whose dictates are onely propounded in violence and writ in bloud And a dog is as capable of a law as a man if there be no choice in his obedience nor discourse in his choice nor reason to satisfie his discourse And as it is unnaturall so it is unreasonable that Sempronius should force Caius to be of his opinion because Sempronius is Consul this yeare and commands the Lictors As if he that can kill a man cannot but be infallible and if he be not why should I doe violence to my conscience because he can doe violence to my person 7. Force in matters of opinion can doe no good but is very Numb 11. apt to doe hurt for no man can change his opinion when he will or be satisfied in his reason that his opinion is false because discountenanced If a man could change his opinion when he lists he might cure many inconveniences of his life all his feares and his sorrowes would soone disband if he would but alter his opinion whereby he is perswaded that such an accident that afflicts him is an evill and such an object formidable let him but beleeve himselfe
doe make it it is to no purpose This would bee considered And in Conclusion Our way is the the surer way for not to baptize Children till they can give an account of their Faith is Numb 32. the most proportionable to an act of reason and humanity and it can have no danger in it For to say that Infants may be damn'd for want of Baptism a thing which is not in their power to acquire they being persons not yet capable of a Law is to affirm that of God which we dare not say of any wise and good man Certainly it is much derogatory to Gods Justice and a plaine defiance to the infinite reputation of his goodnesse And therefore who ever will pertinaciously persist in this opinion Numb 33. of the Paedo-baptists and practise it accordingly they pollute the blood of the everlasting Testament they dishonour and make a pageantry of the Sacrament they ineffectually represent a sepulture into the death of Christ and please themselves in a sign without effect making Baptism like the fig-tree in the Gospel full of leaves but no fruit And they invocate the holy Ghost in vaine doing as if one should call upon him to illuminate a stone or a tree Thus farre the Anabaptists may argue and men have Disputed Numb 34. against them with so much weaknesse and confidence that they have been encouraged in their errour * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen observes of the case of the Church in his time more by the accidentall advantages we have given them by our weak arguings then by any truth of their cause or excellency of their wit But the use I make of it as to our present Question is this That since there is no direct impiety in the opinion nor any that is apparently consequent to it and they with so much probability doe or may pretend to true perswasion they are with all meanes Christian faire and humane to be redargued or instructed but if they cannot be perswaded they must be left to God who knowes every degree of every mans understanding all his weaknesses and strengths what impresse each Argument makes upon his Spirit and how unresistible every reason is and he alone judges his innocency and sincerity and for the Question I think there is so much to be pretended against that which I believe to be the truth that there is much more truth then evidence on our side and therefore we may be confident as for our own particulars but not too forward peremptorily to prescribe to others much lesse damne or to kill or to persecute them that only in this particular disagree SECT XIX That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent with piety or the pulique good BUt then for their other capitall Opinion with all its branches Numb 1. that it is not lawfull for Princes to put Malefactors to death nor to take up desensive Armes nor to minister an Oath nor to contend in judgement it is not to be disputed with such liberty as the former For although it bee part of that Doctrine which Clemens Alexandrinus sayes was delivered per secretam traditionem Apostolorum Non licere Christianis contendere L. 7. Stromat in Iudicio nec corà m gentibus nec corà m sanctis perfectum non debere Iurare and the other part seemes to be warranted by the eleventh Canon of the Nicene Councell which enjoynes penance to them that take Armes after their conversion to Christianity yet either these Authorities are to be slighted or be made receptive of any interpretation rather then the Common-wealth be disarmed of its necessary supports and all Lawes made ineffectuall and impertinent For the interest of the republique and the well being of bodies politick is not to depend upon the nicety of our imaginations or the fancies of any peevish or mistaken Priests and there is no reason a Prince should ask John-a-Brunck whether his understanding will give him leave to raign and be a King Nay suppose there were divers places of Scripture which did seemingly restraine the Politicall use of the Sword yet since the avoyding a personall inconvenience hath by all men been accounted sufficient reason to expound Scripture to any sense rather then the literall which inferres an unreasonable inconvenience and therefore the pulling out an eye and the cutting off a hand is expounded by mortifying a vice and killing a criminall habit much rather must the Allegations against the power of the Sword endure any sence rather then it should be thought that Christianity should destroy that which is the only instrument of Justice the restraint of vice and support of bodies politick It is certain that Christ and his Apostles and Christian Religion did comply with the most absolute Government and the most imperiall that was then in the world and it could not have been at all indured in the world if it had not for indeed the world it selfe could not last in regular and orderly communities of men but be a perpetuall confusion if Princes and the Supreme Power in Bodies Politick were not armed with a coercive power to punish Malefactors The publike necessity and universall experience of all the world convinces those men of being most unreasonable that make such pretences which destroy all Lawes and all Communities and the bands of civill Societies and leave it arbitrary to every vaine or vitious person whether men shall be safe or Lawes be established or a Murderer hang'd or Princes Rule So that in this case men are not so much to Dispute with particular Arguments as to consider the Interest and concernment of Kingdomes and Publick Societies For the Religion of Jesus Christ is the best establisher of the felicity of private persons and of publick Communities it is a Religion that is prudent and innocent humane and reasonable and brought infinite advantages to mankind but no inconvenience nothing that is unnaturall or unsociable or unjust And if it be certain that this world cannot be governed without Lawes and Lawes without a compulsory signifie nothing then it is certain that it is no good Religion that teaches Doctrine whose consequents will destroy all Government and therefore it is as much to be rooted out as any thing that is the greatest pest and nuisance to the publick interest And that we may guesse at the purposes of the men and the inconvenience of such Doctrine these men that did first intend by their Doctrine to disarme all Princes and bodies Politick did themselves take up armes to establish their wild and impious fancie and indeed that Prince or Common-wealth that should be perswaded by them would be exposed to all the insolencies of forraingners and all mutinies of the teachers themselves and the Governours of the people could not doe that duty they owe to their people of protecting them from the rapine and malice which will be in the world as long as the world is And therefore here they are to be
restrained from preaching such Doctrine if they mean to preserve their Government and the necessity of the thing will justifie the lawfulnesse of the thing If they think it to themselves that cannot be helped so long it is innocent as much as concernes the Publick but if they preach it they may be accounted Authors of all the consequent inconveniences and punisht accordingly No Doctrine that destroyes Government is to be endured For although those Doctrines are not alwayes good that serve the private ends of Princes or the secret designes of State which by reason of some accidents or imperfections of men may be promoted by that which is false and pretending yet no Doctrine can be good that does not comply with the formality of Government it selfe and the well being of bodies Politick Augur cum esset Cato dicere ausus est optimis auspiciis ea geri Cicero de senectute quae pro Reipub. salute gererentur quae contra Rempub. fierent contra auspicia fieri Religion is to meliorate the condition of a people not to doe it disadvantange and therefore those Doctrines that inconvenience the Publick are no parts of good Religion ut Respub salva fit is a necessary consideration in the permission of Prophecyings for according to the true solid and prudent ends of the Republick so is the Doctrine to be permitted or restrained and the men that preach it according as they are good Subjects and right Common-wealths men For Religion is a thing superinduced to temporall Government and the Church is an addition of a capacity to a Common-wealth and therefore is in no sense to disserve the necessity and just interests of that to which it is super-added for its advantage and conservation And thus by a proportion to the Rules of these instances all Numb 2. their other Doctrines are to have their judgement as concerning Toleration or restraint for all are either speculative or practicall they are consistent with the Publick ends or inconsistent they teach impiety or they are innocent and they are to be permitted or rejected accordingly For in the Question of Toleration the foundation of Faith good life and Government is to be secured in all others cases the former considerations are effectuall SECT XX. How farre the Religion of the Church of Rome is Tolerable But now concerning the Religion of the Church of Rome which was the other instance I promised to consider we Numb 1. will proceed another way and not consider the truth or falsity of the Doctrines for that is not the best way to determine this Question concerning permitting their Religion or Assemblies because that a thing is not true is not Argument sufficient to conclude that he that believes it true is not to bee endured but we are to consider what inducements there are that possesse the understanding of those men whether they be reasonable and innocent sufficient to abuse or perswade wise and good men or whether the Doctrines be commenc'd upon designe and manag'd with impiety and then have effects not to be endured And here first I consider that those Doctrines that have Numb 2. had long continuance and possession in the Church cannot easily be supposed in the present Professors to be a design since they have received it from so many Ages and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the severall ends of divers Ages But however long prescription is a prejudice oftentimes so insupportable that it cannot with many Arguments be retrench'd as relying upon these grounds that truth is more ancient then falshood that God would not for so many Ages forsake his Church and leave her in an errour that whatsoever is new is not only suspicious but false which are suppositions pious and plausible enough And if the Church of Rome had communicated Infants so long as she hath prayed to Saints or baptized Infants the communicationg would have been believed with as much confidence as the other Articles are and the dissentients with as much impatience rejected But this consideration is to be enlarg'd upon all those particulars which as they are apt to abuse the persons of the men and amuse their understandings so they are instruments of their excuse and by making their errours to be invincible and their opinions though false yet not criminall make it also to be an effect of reason and charity to permit the men a liberty of their Conscience and let them answer to God for themselves and their own opinions Such as are the beauty and splendor of their Church their pompous Service the statelinesse and solennity of the Hierarchy their name of Catholick which they suppose their own due and to concern no other Sect of Christians the Antiquity of many of their Doctrines the continuall Succession of their Bishops their immediate derivation from the Apostles their Title to succeed S. Peter the supposall and pretence of his personall Prerogatives the advantages which the conjunction of the Imperiall Seat with their Episcopall hath brought to that Sea the flattering expressions of minor Bishops which by being old Records have obtain'd credibility the multitude and variety of people which are of their perswasion apparent consent with Antiquity in many Ceremonialls which other Churches have rejected and a pretended and sometimes an apparent consent with some elder Ages in many matters doctrinall the advantage which is derived to them by entertaining some personall opinions of the Fathers which they with infinite clamours see to bee cryed up to be a Doctrine of the Church of that time The great consent of one part with another in that which most of them affim to be de fide the great differences which are commenc'd amongst their Adversaries abusing the Liberty of Prophecying unto a very great licentiousnesse their happinesse of being instruments in converting divers Nations the advantages of Monarchicall Government the benefit of which as well as the inconveniences which though they feele they consider not they daily doe enjoy the piety and the austerity of their Religious Orders of men and women the single life of their Priests and Bishops the riches of their Church the severity of their Fasts and their exteriour observances the great reputation of their first Bishops for Faith and sanctity the known holinesse of some of those persons whose Institutes the Religious Persons pretend to imitate their Miracles false or true substantiall or imaginary the casualties and accidents that have hapned to their Adversaries which being chances of humanity are attributed to severall causes according as the fancies of men and their Interests are pleased or satisfied the temporall selicity of their Professors the oblique arts indirect proceedings of some of those who departed from them and amongst many other things the names of Heretick and Schismatick which they with infinite pretinacy fasten upon all that disagree from them These things and divers others may very easily perswade
these times have been called the last times for 1600 years together our expectation of the Great revelation is very neer accomplishing what a Grand innovation of Ecclesiasticall government contrary to the faith practice of Christendome may portend now in these times when we all expect Antichrist to be revealed is worthy of a jealous mans inquiry Secondly Episcopacy 2. if we consider the finall cause was instituted as an obstructive to the diffusion of Schisme and Heresy So in 1. ad Titū S. Hierome In toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur coeteris VT SCHISMATVM SEMINA TOLLERENTUR And therefore if Vnity and division be destructive of each other then Episcopacy is the best deletery in the world for Schisme and so much the rather because they are in eâdem materiâ for Schisme is a division for things either personall or accidentall which are matters most properly the subject of government and there to be tryed there to receive their first and last breath except where they are starv'd to death by a desuetude and Episcopacy is an Unity of person governing and ordering persons and things accidentall and substantiall and therefore a direct confronting of Schisme not only in the intention of the author of it but in the nature of the institution Now then although Schismes alwaies will be and this by divine prediction which clearly showes the necessity of perpetuall Episcopacy and the intention of its perpetuity either by Christ himselfe ordaining it who made the prophecy or by the Apostles and Apostolick men at least who knew the prophecy yet to be sure these divisions and dangers shall be greater about and at the time of the Great Apostacy for then were not the houres turned into minutes an universall ruine should seize all Christendome No flesh should be saved if those daies were not shortned is it not next to an evidence of fact that this multiplication of Schismes must be removendo prohibens and therefore that must be by invalidating Episcopacy ordayn'd as the remedy and obex of Schisme either tying their hands behind them by taking away their coercion or by putting out their eyes by denying them cognisance of causes spirituall or by cutting off their heads and so destroying their order How farre these will lead us I leave to be considered This only Percute pastores atque oves despergentur and I believe it will be verified at the comming of that wicked one I saw all Israel scattered upon the Mountaines as sheep having no sheapheard I am not new in this conception I learn't it of S. Cyprian Christi adversarius Ecclesiae ejus inimicus Epist. 55. ad hoc ECCLESIae PRAEPOSITVM suâ infestatione persequitur ut Gubernatore sublato atrociùs atque violentiùs circà Ecclesiae naufragin grassetur The adversary of Christ and enemy of his Spouse therefore persecutes the Bishop that having taken him away he may without check pride himselfe in the ruines of the Church and a little after speaking of them that are enemies to Bishops he sayes that Antichristi jam propinquantis adventum imitantur their deportment is just after the guise of Antichrist who is shortly to be revealed But be this conjecture vaine or not the thing of it selfe is of deep consideration and the Catholick practise of Christendome for 1500 years is so insupportable a prejudice against the enemies of Episcopacy that they must bring admirable evidence of Scripture or a cleare revelation proved by Miracles or a contrary undoubted tradition Apostolicall for themselves or else hope for no beliefe against the prescribed possession of so many ages But before I begin mee thinks in this contestation ubi potior est conditio possidentis it is a considerable Question what will the Adversaries stake against it For if Episcopacy cannot make its title good they loose the benefit of their prescribed possession If it can I feare they will scarce gain so much as the obedience of the adverse party by it which yet already is their due It is very unequall but so it is ever when Authority is the matter of the Question Authority never gaines by it for although the cause goe on its side yet it looses costs and dammages for it must either by faire condescention to gain the adversaries loose something of it selfe or if it asserts it selfe to the utmost it is but where it was but that seldome or never happens for the very questioning of any authority hoc ipso makes a great intrenchment even to the very skirts of its cloathing But hûc deventumest Now we are in we must goe over FIrst then that wee may build upon a Rock §. 1. Christ did institute a governement in his Church Christ did institute a government to order and rule his Church by his authority according to his lawes and by the assistance of the B. Spirit 1. If this were not true how shall the Church be governed For I hope the adversaries of Episcopacy that are so punctuall to pitch all upon Scripture ground will be sure to produce cleare Scripture for so maine a part of Christianity as is the forme of the Government of Christs Church And if for our private actions and duties Oeconomicall they will pretend a text I suppose it will not be thought possible Scripture should make default in assignation of the publick Government insomuch as all lawes intend the publick and the generall directly the private and the particular by consequence only and comprehension within the generall 2. If Christ himselfe did not take order for a government then we must derive it from humane prudence and emergency of conveniences and concurse of new circumstances and then the Government must often be changed or else time must stand still and things be ever in the same state and possibility Both the consequents are extreamely full of inconvenience For if it be left to humane prudence then either the government of the Church is not in immediate order to the good and benison of soules or if it be that such an institution in such immediate order to eternity should be dependant upon humane prudence it were to trust such a rich commodity in a cock-boat that no wise Pilot will be supposed to doe But if there be often changes in government Ecclesiasticall which was the other consequent in the publike frame I meane and constitution of it either the certain infinity of Schismes will arise or the dangerous issues of publick inconsistence and innovation which in matters of religion is good for nothing but to make men distrust all and come the best that can come there will be so many Church governments as there are humane Prudences For so if I be not mis-informed it is abroad in some townes that have discharged Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148. 172. Episcopacy At S t Galles in Switzerland there the Ministers and Lay-men rule in Common but a Lay-man is president But the
giving of a jurisdiction an erection of a judicatory and is all the way direction for his proceeding in causes criminall appears most evidently v. 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angells that thou observe these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without prejudging the cause of any maÌ„ before it comes in open contestatioÌ„ under publick test of witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing nothing for favour or partiality Nothing in the world is plainer for the erection of a Consistory then these mandates of S. Paul Lastly to make up his Episcopall function compleat S. Paul gives him also direction concerning giving of orders Lay hands suddenly on no man sub testatione ergo ea quae ad ordinationem Ecclesiae mandat Vers. 22. custodiri .... Ne facilè aliquis accipiat Ecclesiasticam dignitatem .... peccat enim si non probat sic ordinet Melior enim caeteris debet probari qui ordinandus est Haec Episcopus custodiens castum se exhibebit religioni cujus rei in futuro praemium consequetur So S. Ambrose upon the place who is so farre from exempting Presbyters from being submitted to the Bishops consistory that he does appropriate all his former cautions concerning the judicature and coercitive jurisdiction to causes of the Clergy Adde to this evidence of Scripture the testimony of Catholike and unquestion'd Antiquity affirming S. Timothy to have beene ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul Eusebius speaking of the successions to S. Paul sed Lucas saith he in actibus Apostolorum Lib. 3. c. 4. plurimos ejus socios memorat sicut Timothei Titi quorum alter in Ephesi Episcopus ... ab eo ordinatus praeficitur S. Ambrose affirmes that S. Paul having Praefat. in 1. Tim. ordained him Bishop writes his first Epistle to him to instruct him in his Episcopall office Hunc igitur jam creatum Episcopum instruit per Epistolam quomodo deberet Ecclesiam ordinare And that this Epistle was written to instruct S. Timothy for his owne person and all Bishops in him for their deportment in the office of a Bishop is the united concurrent testimony of S. a Contrhaeres Vincentius b contr Marcion l. 5. Tertullian S. c hom â—0 in 1. Timoth. Chrysostome S. d in 6. cap. in 1. Tim. Ambrose e in 1. Tim. 4. c. 5. c. Oecumenius f hoeres 75. Epiphanius g ad Timoth. cap. 4. Primasius and S. h in Pastor part 2. c. 11. Acts. 11. Gregory As for Epiphanius in the place now quoted he uses it as an argument against the madnesse and stupidity of Aërius contending a Bishop and a Presbyter to be all one docet Divinus Apostoli sermo quis sit Episcopus quis Presbyter quum dicit ad Timotheum qui erat Episcopus Presbyterum ne objurges c. I shall transcribe no more testimonies for this particular but that of the generall Councell of Chalcedon in the case of Bassianus and Stephanus Leontius the Bishop of Magnesia spake it in full Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From S. Timothy untill now there have beene 27 Bishops or dayned in Ephesus Who desires a multitude of testimonies though enough already have deposed in the cause beside the evidence of Scripture may to these adde that saying of S. Chrysostome that to Timothy was committed Jn Titum 1. Philip. In 1. Tim. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Theodoret calling him Episcopum Asianorum the subscription to the first Epistle to Timothy which if it were not writ by S. Paul yet at least will prove a primitive record and very Ancient the fragment of the Martyrdome of S. Timothy in Photius i De script Eccles. S. Ierome k In praefat in 1. Timoth. Theophylact Biblioth Photij n. 254. l De vitâ morte 88. 87 88. Isidore and m Lib. 2. c. 34. 2. Tim. 4. 5. Nicephorus And now all is well if after all this Timothy doe not prove an Evangelist for this one objection will be sufficient to catch at to support a drowning cause and though neither pertinent nor true yet shall be laid in the ballance against all the evidence of Scripture and Catholick antiquity But doe the work of an Evangelist saith S. Paul therefore it is cleare S. Timothy was no Bishop No was not That 's hard But let us try however 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those are the next words fulfill thy Deaconship And therefore he was no Bishop As well this as the other for if Deaconship doe not exclude Episcopacy why shall his being an Evangelist exclude it Or why may not his being a Deacon exclude his being an Evangelist as well as his being an Evangelist exclude his being a Bishop Whether is higher a Bishoprick or the office of an Evangelist If a Bishops office be higher and therefore cannot consist with an Evangelist then a Bishop cannot be a Priest and a Priest cannot be a Deacon and an Evangelist can be neither for that also is thought to be higher then them both But if the office of an Evangelist be higher then as long as they are not disparate much lesse destructive of each other they may have leave to consist in subordination For as for the pretence that an Evangelist is an office of a moveable imployment and a Bishoprick of fixt residence that will be considered by and by 2. All the former discourse is upon supposition that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyes the office of a Deacon and so it may as well as S. Pauls other phrase implyes S. Timothy to be an Evangelist For if we marke it well it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe the worke not the office of an Evangelist And what 's that We may see it in the verses immediatly going before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if this be the work of an Evangelist which S. Paul would have Timothy performe viz. to preach to be instant in season and out of season to reprove to rebuke to exhort there is no harme done a Bihop may nay he must doe all this 3. Consider we what an Evangelist is and thence take our estimate for the present 1. He that writes the story of the Gospell is an Evangelist so the Greek Scholiast calls him And in this sense indeed S. Timothy was not an Evangelist but yet if he had he might have been a Bishop because S. Mark was an Evangelist to be sure and perhaps as sure that he was a Bishop sure enough for they are both delivered to us by the Catholick testimony of the Primitive Church as we shall see hereafter so farre as concernes our Question But then again an Apostle might be an Evangelist S. Matthew was and S. Iohn was and the Apostolicall dignity is as much inconsistent with the office of an Evangelist as Episcopall preheminence for I have proved these two names Apostle and Bishop to
Spirituall because they are not issues of those things which Christianity hath introduc'd de integro and are separate from the interest of the commonwealth in it's particular capacity for such things only are properly spirituall 5. The Bishops jurisdiction hath a compulsory deriv'd from Christ only viz. infliction of censures by excommunications or other minores plagae which are in order to it But yet this internall compulsory through the duty of good Princes to God and their favour to the Church is assisted by thesecular arme either superadding a temporall penalty in case of contumacy or some other way abetting the censures of the Church and it ever was so since commonwealths were Christian. So that ever since then Episcopall Iurisdiction hath a double part an externall and an internall this is deriv'd from Christ that from the King which because it is concurrent in all acts of Iurisdiction therefore it is that the King is supreme of the Iurisdiction viz. that part of it which is the externall compulsory * And for this cause we shall sometimes see the Emperour or his Prefect or any man of consular dignity sit Iudge when the Question is of Faith not that the Prefect was to Iudge of that or that the Bishops were not But in case of the pervicacy of a peevish heretick who would not submitt to the power of the Church but flew to the secular power for assistance hoping by taking sanctuary there to ingage the favour of the Prince In this case the Bishops also appealed thither not for resolution but assistance and sustentation of the Church's power * It was so in the case of Aëtius the Arian Honoratus the Prefect Constantius being Emperour For all that the Prefect did or the Emperour in this case Tripart hist. lib. 5. c. 35. was by the prevalency of his intervening authority to reconcile the disagreeing parties and to incourage the Catholikes but the precise act of Iudicature even in this case was in the Bishops for they deposed Aëtius for his heresie for all his confident appeale and Macedonius Eleusius Basilius Ortasius and Dracontius for personall delinquencyes * And all this is but to reconcile this act to the resolution and assertion of S. Ambrose who refus'd to be tryed in a cause of faith by Lay-Iudges though Delegates of the Emperour Quando audisti Clementissime Imperator S. Ambros. Epist lib. 2. Epist. 13. in causâ fidei Laicos de Episcopo judicâsse When was it ever knowne that Lay-men in a cause of Faith did judge a Bishop To be sure it was not in the case of Honoratus the Prefect for if they had appealed to him or to his Master Constantius for judgment of the Article and not for incouragement and secular assistance S. Ambrose his confident Question of Quando audisti had quickly been answered even with saying presently after the Councell of Ariminum in the case of Aëtius and Honoratus * Nay it was one of the causes why S. Ambrose deposed Palladius in the Councell of Aquileia because he refused to answer except it were before some honourable personages of the Laity And it is observeable that the Arians were the first and indeed they offer'd at it often that did desire Princes to judge matters of faith for they despayring of their cause in a Conciliary triall hoped to ingage the Emperour on their party by making him Umpire But the Catholike Bishops made humble and faire remonstrance of the distinction of powers and Iurisdictions and as they might not intrench upon the Royalty so neither betray that right which Christ concredited to them to the incroachment of an exteriour jurisdiction and power It is a good story that Suidas tells of Leontius Bishop of Tripolis in Lydia In verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man so famous and exemplary that he was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rule of the Church that when Constantius the Emperour did preside amongst the Bishops and undertooke to determine causes of meere spirituall cognisance insteed of a Placet he gave this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wonder that thou being set over things of a different nature medlest with those things that only appertaine to Bishops The MILITIA and the POLITIA are thine but matters of FAITH and SPIRIT are of EPISCOPALL cognisance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such was the freedome of the ingenuous Leontius Answerable to which was that Christian and faire acknowledgement of Valentinian when the Arian Bishops of Bithynia the Hellespont sent Hypatianus their legate to desire him ut dignaretur ad emendationem dogmatis interesse that he would be pleas'd to mend the Article Respondens Valentinianus ait Mihi quidem quum vnus de populo sim fas non est talia perscrutari Verùm Sacerdotes apud se ipsos congregentur vbi voluerint Cumque haet respondisset Princeps in Lampsacum convenerunt Episcopi So Sozomen reports the story The Emperour would not meddle with matters of faith but hist. tripart lib. 7. c. 12. referred the deliberation and decision of them to the Bishops to whom by God's law they did appertaine Upon which intimation given the Bishops conven'd in Lampsacum And thus a double power met in the Bishops A divine right to decide the article Mihi fas non est saith the Emperour it is not lawfull for me to meddle And then a right from the Emperour to assemble for he gave them leave to call a Councell These are two distinct powers One from Christ the other from the Prince *** And now upon this occasion I have faire opportunity to insert a consideration The Bishops have power over all causes emergent in their diocesses all I meane in the sense above explicated they have power to inflict censures excommunication is the highest the rest are parts of it and in order to it Whether or no must Church-censures be used in all such causes as they take cognisance of or may not the secular power find out some externall compulsory instead of it and forbid the Church to use excommunication in certaine cases 1. To this I answer that if they be such cases in which by the law of Christ they may or such in which they must use excommunication then in these cases no power can forbid them For what power Christ hath given them no man can take away 2. As no humane power can disrobe the Church of the power of excommunication so no humane power can invest the Church with a lay Compulsory For if the Church be not capable of a jus gladij as most certainly shee is not the Church cannot receive power to put men to death or to inflict lesser paines in order to it or any thing above a salutary penance I meane in the formality of a Church-tribunall then they give the Church what shee must not cannot take I deny not but Clergy men are as capable of the power of life and death as any men but not in the formality of Clergy-men A
priviledge of an Apostolicall spirit not the nature of Angels not the condition of immortality can guard from the danger of sinne but if we be overrul'd by passion we almost subject our selves to its necessity It was not therefore without reason altogether that the Stoicks affirm'd wisemen to be void of passions for sure I am the inordination of any passion is the first step to folly And although of them as of waters of a muddy residence wee may make good use and quench our thirst if wee doe not trouble them yet upon any ungentle disturbance we drinke down mud in stead of a cleere streame and the issues of sinne and sorrow certaine consequents of temerarious or inordinate anger And therefore when the Apostle had given us leave to be angry as knowing the condition of human nature hee quickly enters a Caveat that we sinne not hee knew sinne was very likely to be hand-maid where Anger did domineer and this was the reason why S. Iames and S. Iohn are the men here pointed at for the Scripture notes them for Boanerges sonnes of thunder men of an angry temper quid mirum est filios tonitrui fulgurâsse voluisse said S. Ambrose But there was more in it then thus Their spirits of themselves hot enough yet met with their education under the Law whose first tradition was in fire and thunder whose precepts were just but not so mercifull and this inflam'd their distemper to the height of a revenge It is the Doctrine of S. a Epist. ad Algas Hierome and b in Lucam Titus Bostrensis The Law had beene their Schoole-master and taught them the rules of justice both Punitive and Vindictive But Christ was the first that taught it to be a sinne to retaliate evill with evill it was a Doctrine they could not read in the killing letter of the Law There they might meete with precedents of revenge and anger of a high severity an eye for an eye and a tooth for atooth and let him be cut off from his people But forgiving injuries praying for our persecutors loving our enemies and relieving them were Doctrines of such high and absolute integrity as were to be reserved for the best and most perfect Law-giver the bringer of the best promises to which the most perfect actions have the best proportion and this was to be when Shiloh came Now then the spirit of Elias is out of date I am ferrea primum Desinit ac toto surgit Gens Aurea Mundo And therefore our blessed Master reproveth them of ignorance not of the Law but of his spirit which had they but known or could but have guessed at the end of his comming they had not been such Abecedarij in the Schoole of Mercy And now we shall not need to look farre for persons Disciples professing at least in Christs schoole yet as great strangers to the mercifull spirit of our Saviour as if they had been sonnes of the Law or foster-brothers to Romulus and suck't a wolse and they are Romanists too this daies solemnity presents them to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet were that wash'd off underneath they write Christian and Iesuit One would have expected that such men set forth to the worlds acceptance with so mercifull a cognomentum should have put a hand to support the ruinous fabrick of the worlds charity and not have pulled the frame of heaven earth about our eares But yet Necredite Teucri Give me leave first to make an Inquisition after this Antichristian pravity and try who is of our side and who loves the King by pointing at those whose Sermons doe blast Loyalty breathing forth Treason slaughters and cruelty the greatest imaginable contrariety to the spirit and Doctrine of our Dear Master So we shall quickly finde out more then a pareil for S. Iames and S. Iohn the Boanerges of my Text. It is an act of faith by faith to conquer the enemies Sanderus de Clave David Lib. 2. c. 15. of God and Holy Church saith Sanders our Country-man Hitherto nothing but well If Iames and Iohn had offered to doe no more then what they could have done with the sword of the spirit and the shield of Faith they might have beene inculpable and so had he if hee had said no more but the blood boyles higher the manner spoyles all For it is not well done unlesse a warlike Captaine be appointed by Christs Vicar to beare a Croisade in a field of blood And if the other Apostles did not proceed such an angry way as Iames Iohn it was only discretion that detain'd them not religion For so they might and it were no Ibid. cap. 14. way unlawfull for them to beare armes to propagate Religion had they not wanted an opportunity if you believe the same author for fighting is proper for S. Peter and his Successors therefore because Christ gave him Commission to feed his Lambs A strange reason I had thought Christ would have his Lambes fed with the sincere milk of his word not like to Canibals solitisque cruentum Lac potare Getis pocula tingere venis To mingle blood in their sacrifices as Herod to the Galilaeans and quaffe it off for an auspicium to the propagation of the Christian faith Me thinks here is already too much clashing of armour and effusion of blood for a Christian cause but this were not altogether so unchristian-like if the sheepe though with blood yet were not to befed with the blood of their sheepheard Cyrus I meane their Princes But I finde many such Nutritij in the Nurseries of Rome driving their Lambes from their folds unlesse they will be taught to wory the Lion Tyrannicè gubernans iustè acquisitum dominium non potest spoliari sine publico iudicio Latâ verò sententiâ quisque potest fieri executor Potest autem à populo etiam qui iuravit ei obedientiam simonitus non vult corrigi Verb. Tyrannus Emanuel Sà in his Aphorismes affirmes it lawful to kill a King indeed not every King but such a one as rules with Tyranny and not then unlesse the Pope hath sentenc'd him to death but then he may though he be his lawfull Prince Not the necessitude which the Law of nations hath put betweene Prince and people not the obligation of the oath of Allegeance not the Sanctions of God Almighty himselfe must reverse the sentence against the King when once past but any one of his subjects of his owne sworne subjects may kill him This perfidious treasonable position of Sà is not a single Testimony For 1. it slipt not from his pen by inadvertency it was not made publique untill after Praesertim cum in hoc opus per annos serè quadraginta diligentissime incubuerim forty yeares deliberation as himselfe testifies in his Preface 2. After such an avisamente it is now the ordinary receiv'd manuall for the Fathers Confessors of the Iesuits Order This Doctrine although Titulo res
Adversaries out of doores They shall not come neere their blessed Mount of Gerezim but fastning an Anathema on them let them goe to Ebal and curse there And now I wonder not that these Disciples were very angry at them who had lost the true Religion and neglected the offices of humanity to them that kept it They might goe neere now to make it a cause of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks might seem to Apologize Orat. 12. for them and so it might if it had not led them to indiscreet and uncharitable zeale But men care not how farre they goe if they doe but once thinke they can make God a party of their Quarrell For when Religion which ought to be the antidote of our malice proves its greatest incentive our uncharitablenesse must needs runne faster to a mischiefe by how much that which stopt it's course before drives it on with the greater violence And therefore as it is ordinary for charity to be called coldnesse in Religion so it is as ordinary for a pretence of Religion to make cold charity The present case of the Disciples and the same spirit which for the same pretended cause is takenup by the persons of the day proves all this true with whom fire and fagot is esteem'd the best argument to convince the understanding and the Inquisitors of hereticall pravity the best Doctors and subtlest Disputants determining all with a Viris ignem fossā Decret Carol. quinti pro Flandris mulieribus For thus wee had like to have suffered it was mistaken Religion that mov'd these Traytors to so damnable a Conspiracy not for any defence of their owne cause but for extirpation of ours For else what grievances did they groan under In quos Orat 2. in Iulian eorum populum exaestuantem sollicitavimus quibus vitae periculum attulimus It was Nazianzen's question to the Apostate Give me leave to consider it as appliable to our present case and try if can make a just discovery of the cause that mov'd these Traytors to so accursed a Conspiracy 1 Then there was no cause at all given them by us none put to death for being a Roman Catholique nor any of them punish'd for his Religion Vid. L. Burleighs booke called Execution for Treason not religion King Iames his declaration to all Christian Kings and Princes and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his speech in Starre-chamber in Burtons case This hath beene the constant attestation of our Princes and State since the first Lawes made against Recusants the thing it selfe will bear them record From primo of Elizabeth to undecimo the Papists made no scruple of comming to our Churches Recusancy was not then so much as a Chrysome not an Embrio But when Pius quintus sent forth his Breves of Excommunication and Deposition of the Queen then first they forbore to pray with us or to have any religious communion This although every where knowne yet being a matter of fact and so as likely to be denied by others as affirmed by us without good evidence see it therefore affirmed expresly by an Act of Parliament in Decimo tertio of Elizabeth which specifies this as one inconvenience and ill consequence of the Bull. Whereby hath grown great disobedience and boldnesse in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from divine service now most Godly set forth and used within this Realme but also have thought themselves discharged of all obedience c. Not only Recusancy but like wise disobedience therefore both Recusancy and disobedience Two yeares therefore after this Bull this Statute was made if it was possible to nullify the effects of it to hinder its execution and if it might be by this meanes to keep them as they had been before in Communion with the Church of England and obedience to her Majesty This was the first Statute that concerned them in speciall but yet their Religion was not medled with For this Statute against execution of the Popes Bulls was no more thē what had been established by Act of Parliament in the 16 th yeare of Richard the second by which it was made praemunire to purchase Bulls from Rome and the delinquents in this kinde with all their abettors fautors procurators and maintainers to be referred to the Kings Councell for farther punishment There was indeed this severity expressed in the Act of 130 of the Queene that the putting them in Execution should be Capitall and yet this severity was no more then what was inflicted upon the Bishop of Ely in Edward the thirds time for publishing of a Bull against the Earle of Chester without the Kings leave and on the Bishop of Carlile in the time of Henry the fourth for the like offence Thus farre our Lawes are innocent But when this Statute did not take the good effect for which it was intended neither keeping them in their ancient Communion not obedience but for all this Mayne Campian and many others came as the Popes Emissaries for execution of the Bull the State proceeded to a farther severity making Lawes against Recusancy against Seditious and Trayterous Bookes and against the residence of Romish Priests in England making the first fineable with a pecuniary mulct the two later Capitall as being made of a Treasonable nature Of these in order 1 The mulct which was imposed for Recusancy was not soul mony or paid for Religion and that for these reasons 1. Because it is plaine Religion did not make them absent themselves from our Churches unlesse they had changed their Religion since the Bull came over For if Religion could consist with their Communion with us before the Bull as it 's plain it did then why not after the Bull unlesse it be part of their Religion to obey the Pope rather then to obey God commanding us to obey our Prince 2. Their Recusancy was an apparent mischiefe to our Kingdome and it was the prevention or diversion of this that was the only or speciall and of these Lawes The mischiefe is apparent these two waies 1. Because by their Recusancy they gave attestation that they held the Bull to be valid for else why should they after the Bull deny their Communion which before they did not Either they must think the Queen for a just cause and by a just power excommunicate or why did they separate from her Communion Now if the Queen by vertue of the Bull was excommunicate why should they stop here She was by the same deposed they absolved from all Allegeance to her and commanded to take arms against her I confesse it is no good argument of it selfe to say The Pope might excommunicate the Queen therefore depose her from her Kingdome But this concludes with them sufficiently with whom excommunication not only drives from Spiritualls but deprives of Temporalls and is not to mend our lives but to take them away I speak how it is in the case of Princes and I shall anon prove