Cornelius was lawfully Elected and Consecrated before Novatian and therefore that that alone was enough to null the Title of Novatian Et cum post primum c. And seeing when there is one Bishop there cannot be another whoever pretends to be second after a first who ought to be alone is not the second but none at all And though he gives a large Account of Cornelius his Vertues and the Vices of Novatian yet the Principle that he relyes upon is the Priority of Cornelius his legal Ordination after which for any other man to thrust himself upon what pretence soever into the same Bishoprick is really to thrust himself both out of the particular Church that he invades and out of the Catholick Church against which he Rebels because by the Rules of both one Church is not capable of receiving two Bishops But the Martyrs being reduced and the Schismaticks scatter'd and every where rejected St. Cyprian sets himself to bring the War to a Final Issue and for that end summons a Council at Carthage to settle the Case of the Lapsi forever whereas he informs Antonianus it was after mature debate determin'd with true Ecclesiastical Moderation Scripturis diu ex utrâque parte prolatis c. The Scriptures bâ—ing alledged and urged on either side we temper'd and pois'd the matter with an healing moderation that neither the hope of Restitution should be wholly denyed the Lapsi lest despair should drive them into utter Apostacy nor that the censure of the Church should be so loosned that the Offenders should be lightly admitted to Communion but that upon due Penance and Humiliation every mans particular cause and circumstances being examin'd he should be accordingly treated Which Decree being certified by a Synodical Epistle to Rome Cornelius at the Petition of St. Cyprian as Labbe according to the manner of the Romanists expresses it allows his Confirmation And for the proof of it alledges St. Cyprian's words to Antonianus in which he declares Cornelius his Compliance with the Authority of his determination so that instead of giving force to his Authority he only followed it And as if the number of Ac si minus sufficiens â—piscoporum Numerus in Africâ videbatur etiam Romam super hac re scripsimus ad Cornelium Collegam nostrum qui et ipse cum plurimis Coëpiscopis habito Concilio in eandem nobiscum sententiam pari gravitate et salubri moderatione consensit Bishops in Africa were not sufficient we writ to Cornelius our Collegue at Rome who calling a Council of a great many Bishops approved our Judgment with equal Wisdom and wholsome moderation The Schismatiques being thus utterly routed at Rome they fly back into Africk and there associate to set up another Bishop against St. Cyprian and agree upon Fortunatus which being done Faelicissimus with a Guard of rude and desperate Fellows posts to Rome signifies the Election of their new Bishop to Cornelius and demands Communion with him but is rejected with all manner of scorn and disgrace Upon this they huff and domineer and scare the old Bishop with their lowd threatnings and lowder Lyes particularly that this business was transacted by the concurrent Vote of five and twenty Bishops this puts Cornelius to a stand and hearing nothing all this while of it from St. Cyprian writes to him to know the whole state of the matter who returns him a large and pathetical Narrative of it where he states the whole matter with that Epist. 59. clearness and strength of reason with that evidence of proof with that fulness of Testimony that vanquisht the Faction forever for after that time we hear very little of this sullen Schism And the Fundamental Principle upon which he insists is the Divine Institution of his own Episcopal Superiority Heresies and Schisms arise from no other Fountain Neque enim aliunde Haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt Schismata quà m inde quòd Sacerdoti dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus sacerdos et ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur cui si secundùm magisteria divina obtemperaret fraterni tas Universa nemo adversum sacerdotuÌ„ collegium quidquaÌ„ moveret nemo post divinum judicium post populi suffragium post coepisco porum consensum Judicem se jam non Episcopi sed dei faceret then because the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest at a time is thought to preside in the Church as Christ's Vicegerent To whom if the whole Brotherhood would obey according to the divine commands no man would move Sedition against the Colledge of Priests no man after the Sentence of God the good liking of the People the consent of the Bishops would take upon him to judge not the Bi shop but God him self That was his case that when he had been Canonically Elected and Constituted in the See of Carthage his own Presbyters should presume to out him of his Bishoprick that he held for his life by Dâ—vine Authority And therefore to Travel no farther into this Controversie though the Schismatiques according to the restless Genius of such Men made some faint sallys to save and redeem themselves we plainly see that this was the first Article of St. Cyprian's Unity of the Christian Church the Unity of a Bishop in every Diocesan Church and the dutiful and regular Communion of all its Members with him § 13. The second grand Article and that which has a more diffusive influence upon the Peace and Unity of the Church is the obligation upon all Christian Bishops to preserve Concord and Communion among themselves And as the former unites every Christian to some particular Church so this unites every particular Church to the Body of the Church Catholique And this is that which St. Cyprian and the Ancients intend by the Catholick Church viz. All Churches in the World united into one Body by the Concord of Bishops in the same Rules of Discipline and Government And this is his meaning in those several Passages in which he makes every Church both a perfect Church within it self and yet only a Member of the Church Catholique as in the formention'd Passage in his Book De Unitate Episcopatâ—s â—nus est cujus a singulis in solidâ—m pars tenetur There is but one Episcopacy of which every Bishop possesses his own share with plenitude of Power And in his 56 Epistle A Christo una Ecclesia per totâ—m orbem in multa membra dâ—visa Christ has founded one Church dispers'd through the whole World in many Districts or Divisions And in the same Epistle Episcopatus unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numer sitate diffusus There is but one Episcopacy spread every where by the Concord of all Bishops And in the 68th Epistle Etsi Pastores multi sumus unum tamen gregem pascimus oves universas quas Christus sanguine sâ—o passioâ—â— qâ—aesivit colligere fovere debemus Though we
appear at first view are clearly scatter'd by one very easie and obvious consideration And that is that the Christian Church as it is endued with no Temporal Authority or Power of the Sword so all the Authority that it has is founded upon the Cross of Christ and that obliges all that own it to a more entire and resign'd submission to Civil Government then Men could have been brought under by any other way without its Institution So that the Erection of our Saviour's new Kingdom within the Kingdoms of the Earth upon the Doctrine of the Cross is so far from defrauding Sovereign Princes of their Ancient Authority that it is its greatest improvement and inforcement but especially it makes the Power of Christian Sovereignâ— more absolute then all other Powers that are not Christian and even to these it raises their Soveraignty higher then it was before over all their Christian Subjects by binding them to a stricter Allegiance then their own Laws and of all other Christians those that have the highest Authority in the Church are obliged by their very Office to the most humble peaceable and absolute submission to the worst of Governments All which considerations render Christianity the most easie of any Religion in the World for compliance with the peace and quiet of Government And first as for the Notion of the Doctrine of the Cross it is singular to Christianity For all other Religions both of Jews and Gentiles had some Worldly interest twisted with them but our Saviour to avoid all mixtures of Hypocrisie abstracts his Institution from all considerations unless of the World to come And therefore first Erects his Kingdom not only without any Promise of any advantages of this life but to let his followers know what they were to trust to by the Principles of his Religion with a certain assurance of the loss of all the comforts of life and at last life it self So evident is it from the original Constitution of the Christian Church that it is so far from giving Men any claims of Worldly Interest that meerly as they are Christians they are obliged whenever they are called to it to renounce them all And this Doctrine lying at the Foundation of Christianity our Saviour was careful to settle it in the first place When he gives his Disciples their first Commission to preach the Gospel to all Nations that is the first Condition that he teaches them to require of all Proselytes He that taketh not up his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me i. e. He that takes not up his Religion upon condition of taking up the Cross too is no true Christian. By which expression of taking up the Cross is signified the under-going of all kind of Calamities of which the Cross was the greatest being the most shameful and most painful punishment that was used at that time And therefore Plato in his Description of a perfect good-Man that nothing shall fright out of his Duty and Conscience says of him that when he has suffered all miseries he will endure to be Crucified too So that the meaning of our Saviour's words is plainly this Let no Man expect any Worldly profit by following me and therefore not pretend that I gave him any ground for it but on the contrary such is the nature of my Institution that whoever will undertake it it must be upon no less condition then this that he be willing and ready to suffer all manner of Persecutions for it even the scandalous death of the Cross it self So plain is it that Christianity when it meets with any Opposition is to maintain it self by nothing but suffering to use no weapon but the Cross and Men that are indispensably obliged to such an absolute submission are sufficiently tyed up if any such thing be possible from creating any disturbance to the Civil State for what greater security can be contrived against that then that Men should be bound by the first Principle of their Religion with meekness and cheerfulness to resign up their Lives to the pleasure of the Government So it is in the case of Christianity they have nothing to plead but their own innocence and if that will not satisfie they have no Authority from our Saviour to upbraid the Power that condemns them and Remonstrate to the Justice of the Court but instead of that are obliged to undergo its Sentence as he did with all manner of meekness and silence Here is no disputing the Commands of Princes whether right or wrong nothing but absolute submission to their most unjust and illegal Proceedings much less any opposition to their most unwarrantable Commands nor any weapon of defence but laying down their Lives after their great Masters Example in submission to the Government This is the true and honest state of the Christian Church that every Man be faithful to the Laws of his Religion and if he suffer for it he shall be compensated with those Rewards that his Religion Promises and that is compensation enough for all that he can suffer in this World and if he take it not up with this condition it is not the Christian Religion that he takes up for it is no Christian Religion without the Cross. And so our Saviour has all along stated the matter upon all occasions And it being so stated it is easie to understand how in cases of the greatest competition both Powers so prevail at the same time as to attain both their respective Ends. For by it the Civil Power must over-rule as to all effects of this life and when it is to be thus gently submitted to in its most unjust Decrees that is a full security of the Peace and Quiet of this World and that is the proper end for which it was instituted And the Spiritual Power attains its effect as to the World to come i. e. the salvation of the Souls of Men by their Conscientious Loyalty to their Saviour and his Laws and that is all that it aims at and that every Professor of it ought to pretend to This is so plain and evident in the whole practice of the Primitive Church that one would wonder that any Man should ever dream that true Christianity could any way interfere with Civil Government For when the Powers of the World at that time particularly the Governors of the Roman Empire being under a mistaken apprehension that the new Christian Religion aim'd at Innovation in Government endeavour'd by all the methods of Cruelty to stop its progress the Christians who were all bound openly to profess their Faith and some of them to propagate it in publick notwithstanding all that bloody opposition that was made against it went on in their work without creating any the least disturbance to their Governors unless what they gave themselves by their own needless outrage against them For all that they did in their own defence was only to declare that how much soever they were displeased with the
to their demands and justifie them in their Schism because they dissent not from her in any matters clearly reveal'd which alone the Church has Power to impose and to charge the Church of Tyranny for daring to impose any other conditions of Communion then what are imposed by Divine Authority An excellent way of accommodation this in behalf of the Church of England to condemn her whole practice of illegal and unwarrantable Usurpation and allow the Pleas of the Dissenters just and reasonable And what is worst of all to take away all Government in the Church for ever and the Church it self too when it is evident from common sense that it can never subsist without a Legislative Authority within it self but that I shall have occasion to discourse of more copiously hereafter when I come to shew what injury is done to the Church of England by these false Principles of accommodation I shall at present content my self with proving it by experience and representing the particular Laws made by the Ancient Governors of the Church from time to time to secure and provide for its own Peace and Tranquility And by it I shall make good these three considerable Points First the great Authority inherent in them and independent on any Civil Power Secondly their great wisdom in the use and exercise of it for by the particulars it will appear that they generally acted upon wise and prudent reasons And thirdly the absolute necessity of it when we shall see by the Example of every age that there is no way of preserving any manner of Peace in the Church without it And to begin with the first Decree made by the Apostles themselves to accommodate the contrary prejudices of Jews and Gentiles If they had obliged the Gentiles to comply with the whole Law of Moses that would have look't like an attempt to bring them under the old intolerable Bondage and tempt them rather to renounce Christianity then submit to such a grievous Yoke And if they had wholly exempted them from the Mosaick Law that would have as much endangered the Apostacy of the Jews thinking that they should thereby have renounced the God of the Law for it was not easie to every capacity to distinguish between rejecting the Law and the Lawgiver And therefore to satisfie and avoid the prejudices of both Parties they agreed To lay no greater burthens then these necessary things that they abstain from Meats offer'd to Idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood Where by things necessary it is plain that they mean things necessary at that time and place for that they were not so in all times and places is evident not only from the direction of their Synodical Epistle to the particular Churches of Syria and Cilicia but from their not imposing the same Decree upon other Churches that were not in the same Circumstances In the Churches of Syria and Cilicia that confined upon Judaea the Jews were very numerous and therefore to avoid offending i. e. tempting them to renounce the Christian Faith it was requisite to make it a standing rule to them at that time that all Christians abstain from the Oblations to Idols and that would wholly prevent their great fear of Idolatry But on the contrary because the Church of Corinth consisted chiefly of Gentiles the same rule was not made peremptory and universal to them but they were left to their own liberty to eat Meats offered to Idols as they judged most consistent with Christian prudence and charity as they are directed by their Ghostly Father St. Paul This is all that I can make of that great Council and though they were endued with the Holy Ghost yet they proceeded by no other Rule then common prudence and discretion And if they had taken the same method that our Schismatiques and Pacificators would oblige the present Church to to search for a determination of this casual dispute in their Masters own Laws I doubt they would have been very much at a loss to have found any thing like such a decree amongst all his Precepts And yet there was as much reason that they should refer all Acts of Government to be determin'd by his own express Decree as that their Successors should refer them to theirs But next to this Apostolical Synod the Apostolical Canons are the greatest and earliest Demonstration of the Legislative Authority of the Christian Church being compiled by their next Successors in the second and third Centuries by which we understand the true settlement of the Church as the Apostles left it for all the Canons relating to Government are no new Laws but only declarations of old Customs so that though they were not Apostolical Laws they were true and early Records of Apostolical Customs and by them the practice of Church-Government was so entirely setled that they were ever after the Rule and Pattern to the determinations of following Councils And most of the chief Canons both General and Provincial were only Ratifications of these old Decrees to recover their just Authority when any of them had been neglected or violated or additional provisions in pursuance of their general design in new particular Cases For which it seems every Age found matter enough to suppress some Mens extravagant and wanton fancies and it was the new rising of Schisms and Heresies that gave occasion to enacting all the Laws of the Church But these Apostolical Canons being as it were the Institutes or Magna Charta of the Ecclesiastical Laws and being withal enacted in this Period of time that we are now in by pure Ecclesiastical Authority I shall give a brief view of them to let the Reader see the exact Model of the Primitive Church as reduced to practice and brought to perfection by the Apostles and their immediate Successors In the first place therefore because nothing has so great an influence upon the welfare of the Church as the setting up good and wise Governors over it great care is taken against rash Ordination of Bishops so that though every Bishop has an inherent Right in himself to conveigh his own Authority to another yet is it here fixt and has remain'd so through all Ages as a standing Law to the Church that every Bishop be Consecrated by three Bishops at least or two in cases of necessity Now though this Rule has been observed and practiced in all Churches over all the World and is so highly useful to the good Government of the Church by not entrusting a matter of such weight to the discretion of a single Person yet I believe it will be a very hard task to find any thing like a clear Precept requiring it in the Holy Scriptures So apparently repugnant is the principle of the Projectors of Accommodation against unscriptural impositions to the very first Law that was made in the Christian Church after the Apostles and if they pleased it might as well be used to take away this prudent Practice
Opinion of the great merit of Caelibacy was one of the first Superstitions that invaded the Christian Church and was in every Age more busie and forward than any other though I do not find that it could ever obtain the force of Law in the Eastern Church till the Council in Trullo in the year 691 by whom Bishops and no other are forbidden to cohabit with their Wives after Consecration and as that is the first Canon of this kind so is it a flat contradiction to the Apostolical Canon And though the Council endeavour to excuse it yet they do but the more grosly entangle themselves by their own Apology and instead of defending their fault confess it For when they have made the Canon they tell us that they do not intend thereby to contradict the Apostolical Canon when the very making of it is an express contradiction to it And in the very next Canon they condemn the Church of Rome for prohibiting marriage to Priests and Deacons and make good their Decree from this very Canon that equally allows it to all Orders But above all commend me to Gratian upon this Argument who when he has in two whole Chapters recited several Ancient Canons of the Church against this Superstition especially those severe ones of the Council of Gangra and last of all this last mention'd Canon in Trullo in which the marriage of Presbyters and Deacons is expresly warranted he begins his next Chapter with this general Assertion Servanda est ergò continentia ab omnibus in sacris ordinibus constitutis And then proves it by the Decrees of later Popes injoining Caelibacy as a Duty of Piety to all Orders of the Clergy But if they can thus confidently justifie their Innovations out of the Ancients by concluding contrary to their own avowed and express Sense I confess they may make good any Cause though I should think it would be much more adviseable to let fall such a Cause as can be no better way defended Another remarkable Law that was Enacted during this Interval by meer Ecclesiastical Authority was the exclusion of all voluntary Eunuchs from Holy Orders And that was made upon occasion of the Heresie of the Valesians who thought themselves bound to this severity against themselves by too rigid an Interpretation of some passages of our Saviour especially that of St. Matthew's Gospel 19. 12. And the same Canon was afterward renewed in a Synod at Alexandria against Origen upon the same account and after that by the great Council of Nice upon occasion of the fact of Leontius who being a Presbyter and very much delighting in the conversation of a young Virgin by name Eustolia and being upbraided with the scandal of using so much freedom with her to prevent that without losing her Society he made the same attempt upon himself that Origen had done for which he was deposed by the Council though afterwards he was contrary to the Canon or rather in defiance to the Council promoted by the Eusebian Faction with whom he sided to the great See of Antioch But hereby we may see the necessity of a Legislative Power in the Church without which there would be no means to restrain all the wild Conceits and Extravagancies that Superstition can blow into Mens fancies So exorbitant a Principle is it so inconsistent with the Peace and preservation of the Church so absurd so foolish and contrary to the Common Sense of Mankind that nothing ought to be imposed by the Governors of the Church but what is expresly imposed by the Word of God There are many more Examples in this Interval both of the settlement of that Polity in the Church that I have above described and of divers wise and prudent Laws made upon particular Occasions but to avoid being too tedious and yet to do the work effectually I shall confine my self to the Writings of St. Cyprian in whose time the State of the Church was brought to perfection and who I may be bold to say understood it as well as any Writer of the Christian Church either before or after his own time and who has stated the whole matter with the greatest clearness and strength of Reason and reduced it to practice with the most unblameable prudence and wisdom and therefore I shall give a more particular and exact account of his Sense of the Government and Unity of the Catholick Church both for the enlightening of some Mens minds who pretend to be so dull that they cannot understand how it should be govern'd in way of external Polity and for a proof of the exact agreement of the Church of England in its design'd Model of Reformation with this Ancient State of the Christian Church This is made much more easie at this time by the late labour of a very learned Prelate of our own in digesting his Writings that had hitherto lay not a little confused into their due and exact order of time For when we certainly know at what time and upon what occasion every discourse was written it must needs make it much more easie and much more useful then otherwise the discourse could have made it self For that Unity is a very desirable thing is agreed on all hands the only dispute is wherein it consists Some will have it to be only an Union of Faith and Charity others of External Polity so as that all Christians are some way or other United under one Government And these we may subdivide into two Parties Either those that place the Unity of the Catholick Church in a Subjection to one single Monarch Or those that set up an Obligation to a Political Unity among all Churches under several Governments So that though every particular Church or Diocess have Supreme Government within it self as to all things that concern its own State yet it is accountable to the Catholick Church i. e. to all other Churches for the Peace of the whole For though a Church may be at Unity within it self yet if it do any thing injurious to the peace of Government in any other Church it becomes Schismatical to the whole Body of the Catholick Church presuming as much as in it lies to overthrow the Discipline of all other Churches This as I take to be the true State of the Controversie so to be St. Cyprian's sense of it §. 12. And the first Principle that runs through all his Writings and lies at the bottom of all his Notions concerning Church Unity is that there is but one Episcopacy setled in the Church by Divine Appointment distributed among the several Bishops of the Catholique Church every one retaining the whole Power within his own Bishoprick as he expresses it like a Lawyer Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur There is but one Episcopacy of which every one holds his own share with full Title and Possession For the word in solidum is a Law-term denoting a Plenitude of Title so that though an Estate
he had never been proceeded against This is the main stress of his Argument upon this Subject which he farther shews by the power of inflicting and abating Pennance that is connected with the Authority of Excommunication or inflicting Censures And the force of this Argumentation is so evident and unavoidable that I must confess my self not a little surprised how it was possible that our Learned Adversary could any way baulk or shift the Evidence of its Conviction Especially when himself saw so clearly that an Ecclesiastical Unity of Government in the Church is absolutely necessary to its preservation for though he founds it only upon the Confederation and consent of Churches and not any divine Command yet he founds that Consent upon its necessity to the Peace of the Church This course says he was very prudential and useful for preserving the truth of Religion and Unity of Faith against Heretical Devices springing up in that free age for maintaining Concord and good Correspondence among Christians together with an Harmony in Manners and Discipline for that otherwise Christendom would have been shatter'd and crumbled into numberless Parties discordant in Opinion and Practice and consequently alienated in affection which inevitably among most men doth follow difference of Opinion and Manners so that in short time it would not have appeared what Christianity was and consequently the Religion being overgrown with differences and discords must have perished Now is not this a very fair concession for one who is labouring only to prove that this Unity of Government among several Churches is not necessary to the Church when without it Christianity must have certainly perish't But this dropt from his own natural sense and ingenuity that could not but acknowledge the Evidence of so clear a truth But though it was an utter subversion of his whole design yet it seems he was so intent in the pursuit of the Argument that he had undertaken that he overlook't even his own thoughts when they stood in his way And now after this it is so easie to overthrow every particular part of his discourse that were it not for his Authority it would be needless But because by reason of that it must be done I shall do it with all possible brevity First then the name of Church is attributed to the whole body of Christiaans which implyeth Unity And this he confesses it does but determines not the kind or ground thereof there being several kinds any whereof may suffice to ground that comprehensive Appellation But this by his own Confession is most apparently false for it determines it self to that kind that consists in an Unity of Government and the ground of that determination of it is its necessity to the Peace and Welfare of the Church and therefore without this kind of Unity no other sort will suffice to ground the Appellation because without it there can be no other Unity this is necessary to all other sorts and therefore without it they are not capable of that name But to deal plainly the Argument is not here sairly represented for Mr. Thorndike does not argue merely from the name of the Church but from the nature of the thing to which the name is applied the Church being a Society or Body Politick which is the first thing to be either proved or supposed in this dispute and that being made out then upon that supposition the Argument is very clear that one Church is one Society And therefore when the name Church is frequently given in Scripture not only to particular Churches but to the whole Catholique Church that must be one Society united under one Government for without Government there is no Society and therefore one Society founds one Government Now the Argument being thus laid its force lyes in the nature of things not an empty name and it makes its own way by its own reasonableness Especially when we consider the Bond of this Society viz. The Communion in Divine Offices to which every Member of the Catholick Church having a right the right of all must consist in that one Communion and that one Communion cannot subsist without one Government so perspicuously does the Unity of the Catholick Church infer and inforce an Unity of Government in it The next Argument and Answer are to the same purpose viz. from our Belief of the Holy Catholique Church from whence Mr. Thorndike infers its Political Unity but our Author says it may as well be understood of any other kind of Unity But to that it is easily answered that as long as it is a Society and so must all multitudes of men if they are not riots it cannot be understood without this Unity And therefore it is not precariously assumed and obtruded as is pretended but warrants it self by the reason it brings along with it that determines it to this special kind of Unity But he adds the genuine sense of the meaning of this Article may be our profession to adhere to the Body of Christians and to maintain Charity and communicate in holy Offices with them and to be willing to observe the Laws and Orders Establish't by the Authority or consent of Churches This is very true and very false for if we are under no Obligation to all this then all this meaning is Non-sence and all these kinds of Unity are nothing for if we make this profession of our own free choice and accord then we may choose whether we will do all this or no and it is all one whether we adhere to the body of Christians in Charity Communion and Obedience to the Laws of the Church or whether we refuse it for if it be no duty by vertue of Obligation then it may be left undone as well as done But if all Christians and all Churches are obliged to it then indeed 't is true but then are they United under one Common Government and the making and keeping of this Profession is not voluntary but it is bound upon them by the indispensable Laws of Christianity 3. The Apostles delivered one Rule of faith to all Churches the embracing of which was a necessary condition to admission into the Church therefore Christians are combin'd together in one political Body But it is answered First That from hence can only be infer'd That Christians should consent in one Faith Yes but an obligation to consent in one Faith makes them one Political Body for what if any Church forsake this Rule are they not punishable for it by other Churches If they are they are then combined together in one Political Body If they are not then there is no remedy against Schisms and Heresies and beside that there may be as many different Faiths as Churches and therefore if all Christians are obliged to an Unity of Faith and if they cannot be so without an Unity of Government then the consequence is very strong from the Unity of one to infer the Unity of the other But Secondly By this reason all
cause to St. Cyprian and by acknowledging a double relation or capacity in every Bishop one toward his own Flock another toward the whole Church and that is all the Political Union we contend for But Seventhly This Political Unity does not accord with the nature of the Gospel because it would bring too much Worldly State and Grandeur into the Church as appears by the Papal Monarch And that is true a Monarchical Unity would naturally bring in a Worldly Kingdom but not such an Unity as consists in the Communion of all Parts together and not in the Subjection of the rest to one part as our Author expresses it or as Mr. Thorndike often repeats it That not the infinite Power of one Church but the Regular Power of all is the mean provided by the Apostles for attaining Unity in the Whole This is the state of the Question between us and therefore all our Authors flourishes about the Papal Tyranny are nothing but flourish because it is so far from being that Catholick Unity that we own that it is the whole design of this work to prove that it is a most execrable and impudent subversion of it The 8th and 9th Arguments proceed upon the same Supposition of a Papal Monarchy The tenth upon its no Necessity against our Authors own confession The 11th and 12th because such an Unity was never in fact attain'd If he means in full perfection no more was ever any Government and therefore it is not to be required in this World but if he means that it was never put in practice so as in good measure to attain its end the whole History of the Church down to the Papal Usurpation contradicts it as appears by the whole Series of this Discourse This is all that this learned Man has alledged upon this Argument and from it the Reader I hope is sufficiently satisfied how little that has to alledge for it self for he was a person of that comprehensive mind that he never omitted any thing pertinent to his design was never in debt to any cause that he undertook nor ever fail'd that but when that fail'd him and therefore when we see so great a man able to say so little in defence of this uncatholick Assertion that is the strongest proof that we can have and perhaps stronger then any we could have had without it that it is utterly indefensible PART II. SECT I. HAving in the former Part of this Discourse set down the practice of the Church both as to the Exercise of its own Jurisdiction within it self and its entire subjection to the Civil Powers whilst it subsisted meerly upon its own Charter without any Assistance or Protection from them We are now arrived at a new state of things as they stood under Christian Emperors And here we shall find that the Government and the Constitution of the Church continued as it had ever been within it self and that the Christians when the Empire was on their side own'd the same kind of Subjection and that upon the same Principles of Duty to the Civil Government that they had ever done in the times of Persecution and when I have made good both these it will make up a compleat Demonstration both of the unalienable Power of the Church within it self and of the Sense of the Catholique Church unanimously condemning all resistance against the Civil Government in any case but most of all in the case of Religion Under Constantine the Great it is not to be doubted but that they were forward enough in their Loyalty and Obedience to his Government for all Men are for the Government when the Government is for them and therefore this part of the Enquiry concerning the Peaceable behaviour of Christians under his Reign is wholly superseded because if they did their Duty they had no motive or temptation not to do it submission to his Government being no less their Interest then their Duty and therefore it was no matter of Praise or Vertue in them if they own'd and honour'd that Power that was their peculiar Deliverance and Protection So that this side of the Controversie I shall altogether wave in this place and only consider the Ecclesiastical State of things under his Government where I once intended to have Exemplified the due Exercise of Regal Supremacy in the Christian Church from his Example First As a Sovereign Prince Secondly As a Christian Sovereign And that First In matters of Faith and Christian Doctrine Secondly In matters of Discipline and Christian Government and here particularly First Of his Power in Summoning Councils as Supreme Governor of a Nâ—tional Church Secondly Of that Obligation that he brings upon himself by becoming a Christian First To abet the Power of the Church with his own Secular Authority Secondly To endow it with a Revenue for the maintenance of the Service of God and those that attend upon it But upon more mature deliberation I thought it much more adviseable to forbear all such Reasonings and Discourses till I had first set down the whole matter of Fact as things stood not only under his Reign but all the Succeeding Emperors where we shall find Precedents enough to make up a Demonstration of all the fore-mentioned Principles But because this is the first Instance of Uniting Church and State into one Body and because this Wise and Prudent Emperor seems to have exerted his Power in both exactly according to the Rules both of Religion and Government I shall the more curiously consider the management of Affairs under his Reign whereby will be fully exemplified how this Union may be reduced to practice without any Diminution of either Power or Confusion of one with another and that will plainly demonstrate wherein consists the Original Rights of the Church in a Christian State and the due Exercise of the Supremacy of Christian Kings over all Ecclesiastical Persons Rights and Powers Now because the Supreme Power in all Government is the Legislative Power and is the thing most disputed in this Controversie I shall shew that he was so far from annexing this Power in the Church to the Imperial Crown that he expresly asserted its inherent Right and Protected it in its Exercise within it self with all his zeal and ability In that whenever he had a mind to have any Ecclesiastical Laws Enacted he never presumed to do it by his own Authority which he ever declared would have been no less Crime then to invade the Power of God himself but always referred the matter to the Bishops in Council and by their Canons he framed his Ecclesiastical Laws but never made any without or against them And that is a full and clear acknowledgement of that antecedent Authority that they enjoyed by our Saviour's appointment when he constituted the Apostles and their Successors Supreme Governors of his Church to the End of the World So that in all Changes and Revolutions of things their Government must remain unalterable and indefeasible and whatever Assistance
or Opposition it met with from the Powers of the World it still kept close to its own Original Jurisdiction But then again though this Emperour permitted the Church the just Exercise of its inherent right of Enacting Ecclesiastical Laws yet he did it so as to preserve to himself his own Imperial Prerogative of Supervising all their Acts and Proceedings and either to give their Decrees force of Law or wholly to reject them as seem'd good to his Royal Wisdom The two great Controversies of the Church in his time and the greatest that ever were at any time were the Schism of the Donatists and the Heresie of the Arians one concerning a point of Doctrine and another of Discipline both which he referred not to his Senate his Privy Council or his Praefecti-Praetorio but to the Judgment and Determination of Ecclesiasticks to settle the Debates as they were directed by the Rules of Faith and the Laws and Customs of the Church but so as to reserve to himself Supreme Inspection of the whole matter as far as it concerned the Peace of Church and State Which in all Christian Common-wealths is the same thing for there all Ecclesiastical Schisms are really so many breaches of the Civil Peace First As for the Schism of the Donatists it broke out about the beginning of Constantine's Reign most say the very same year 306 upon occasion of the Laws concerning the Restitution of the Lapsi by which any Clergy-man that had fallen in Persecution or committed any other enormous Crime was to be punished by perpetual deposition so that though upon Penance and Satisfaction he might be received to Lay-Communion yet he was never to be restored again to his Office in the Church Thus one of the three Italian Bishops that had been decoyed to the Consecration of Novatian in order to a Canonical pretence for his Schism was upon submission and confession of his fault received by Cornelius into Lay-Communion as he declares in his Synodical Epistle to Fabian of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so Trophimus a Bishop that had promoted the same Schism in the Roman Church was upon his Repentance absolved but yet only admitted to Lay-Communion as St Cyprian declares in his Epistle to Antonianus Sic tamen admissus est Trophimus ut Laicus communicet non quasi locum Sacerdotis Usurpet Trophimus was so received that he might communicate as a Laick not that he might Usurp the place of a Priest And so the same St. Cyprian with great indignation complains of the violation of the same Rule by Fortunatian Bishop of Assur Graviter dolenter motus sum fratres charissimi quod cognoverim Fortunatianum quondam apud vos Episcopum post gravem lapsum ruinae suae pro integronunc agere velle Episcopatum sibi vindicare caepisse I am grievously troubled to hear that Fortunatian heretofore your Bishop should after so foul a fall presume to take upon himself the Episcopal Office And so in the Case of Basilides and Martialis Spanish Bishops that had sacrificed and yet challenged their Bishopricks he sets it down as a judged Case That it is in vain for such men to endeavour to hold their Episcopal Office when it is evident that they are neither fit to preside over the Church of God not to offer sacrifice to him Especially when long since it was agreed by all the Bishops in the whole World and particularly Cornelius our Collegue a good and peaceable Bishop whom it pleased our Lord to honour with the Crown of Martyrdom that such Offenders might be admitted to the Priviledge of Penance but never to the Order of the Clergy and sacerdotal honour Now this being the received and settled Discipline of the Christian Church it happened that under the Persecution by Dioclesian and Maximinian the Christians were put to a new sort of Tryal for whereas the old way was to bring them to sacrifice the Idol Gods in this Rescript of these Emperors they were required upon pain of death to deliver up their Bibles whence they that did so had the name of Traditores and were justly esteem'd by the Church Guilty of the same Crime of Apostacy as those that sacrificed and therefore lyable to the same punishment And this it was that gave occasion to the Schism of the Donatists viz. That Caecilian Bishop of Carthage was either himself a Traditor and so uncapable of receiving holy Orders or that he was ordain'd by Faelix Bishop of Aptung a Traditor and so uncapable of giving them And had their pretence been true and so judged by the Church the Donatists had been no Schismaticks because by the customary Laws of the Church Caecilian must have been excluded from any capacity of Office in it And therefore this controversie that created so much trouble to the Christian World was not at first about any difference of Opinion for both parties were agreed that no Traditor could be ordain'd to the Office of a Bishop and that every Bishop that was a Traditor ought to be deposed from it But the only dispute was whether the Persons accused were really guilty of the Crimes laid to their Charge If they were innocent and so pronounced by the Judgment of the Church then after that the Accusers were apparent Schismaticks in dividing Communion from their lawful Bishop This was the only point at the first Rupture but when an open Schism was made the Schismaticks soon run into all the extravagancies of the Novatians and there was then no pure Church in the World but their own and all Christians that were not of their Faction were no better then Jews and Heathens whilst all that came from other Churches into theirs thereby became the only true Children of God And for that reason they admitted Converts from the Catholicks to their Communion upon the same terms that they did the Heathens If they were in Orders they re-ordain'd them if Laicks they rebaptised them because whatever was done in the Catholick Communion could be of no Effect as being done out of the Christian Church These and a great many more Enormities we shall find in their History because as their Faction grew in strength so it emproved in Insolence till it run it self into all manner of rudeness and outrage and at last perisht in meer Rebellion For that was the Case of this Schism that when there was once a form'd party set up against the Civil Government all people of perverse tempers naturally flock't into it not for any love of Religion put purely to rub and gratifie the Scab of their innate peevishness especially when they were flatter'd into an Opinion of higher Priviledges and Prerogatives then their Neighbours and thereby enjoyed that drunken and transporting pleasure of looking down upon them with holy scorn and disdainful Pity And by this Artifice they drew almost all Africa after them the Africans being of all People most addicted to Innovation and though the People were outragious in
dyed after the Council at Rome and before the Council at Sardica and that agrees exactly with the time of Julius his Letters which could not but strike him to the heart For by this Epistle he saw all his wickedness brought to light and his malice against Athanasius after so much pains and so many deep contrivances miserably defeated And so dyed one of the worst Bishops that ever lived in the Christian Church and Baronius his Character of him in comparing him to Ahab is very just and true though he saw not through half his wickedness that there was none like him before or since who sold himself to the practice of all wickedness in the sight of the Lord though Valesius is of the mind that he dyed a good Christian and wonders at the Cardinals severity against him when he dyed in the Communion of the Roman Church And that is too much the common sense of the men of that Church that whatever men are as to all other things yet if they are but good Roman Catholicks they are good Christians too But if he dyed in its Communion it was because he lived no longer in it for if he had survived till all his Train of Wickedness had been made publick to the Christian World as they would have been in a little time not only the Bishop of Rome but all the Bishops of the World must have denyed all Communion to so great a Villain This is the exactest Narrative of all this Affair that I can discover either by tracing and comparing the Relations out of the Antients of it or the Observations of the Moderns upon it Valesius indeed has used great subtilty to tell the Story another Observ. Eccles in Soc. Soz. way As if Athanasius had been but once at Rome and that there had been but one Council held there about his Business and that both were after the return of the Legates from the Council of Antioch and that it was then that Athanasius was first absolved But in my poor Opinion this learned man might very well have spared his pains when it is so plain from Julius his Letter that Athanasius had been absolved by him before he received the Letter from Antioch and that one of the main heads of the Antiochian Letter was to complain of Julius his irregularity in restoring a man to Communion that they had Excommunicated And yet Valesius says he can find no such thing in the Letter and thus it is a common thing when men are busie in searching after small matters that are difficultly to be discern'd to stumble at such great things as they could not but at another time have observed For otherwise nothing can be plainer then that Athanasius was Canonically absolved before the Antiochian Letters for when they complain'd that Julius had received him to Communion that is proof enough of his Absolution for without that having been once excommunicate he could not have been received to Communion And therefore it is but a poor shift of Valesius to help out his niceness that Pope Julius received him as he did the Eusebians de bene esse till he could enquire into the merits of the Cause For the Eusebians were under no Sentence and therefore were to be received in course but Athanasius being under Censure he could not be received till that was taken off But this is still more evident from the account that Julius gives of the reasons of his Proceedings viz. that having taken an exact Examination of all the particular Accusations against Athanasius and so reckons up the Calumnies and Perjuries one by one he asks them which was most agreeable to the Canons to Condemn him as they had done or absolve him as he had done And if after all this admitting an Accused Person to Communâ—on be not absolution upon legal Process I know not what is And if it is then the Story hitherto runs clear as I have set it down but by Valesius his over nice account it is so involved that I must confess that I cannot trace the Method of the History by it nor reconcile it with the Accounts of the Antients §. XII But Eusebius being dead matters were very little alter'd or amended by his fall for his five Confederates Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theodorus of Heraclea Ursacius and Valens succeeded him in the Emperours favour and the management of all Affairs And if it were possible these Commissioners Acted with greater violence in deposing and banishing of Bishops then the old Tyrant had ever done insomuch that we immediately find several of the Eastern Bishops in Exile and particularly Paul of Constantinople who poor man was all along second to Athanasius in the Eusebian Perâ—ecution and had suffer'd almost as much from the Ambition of Eusebius as Athanasius had from his malice For Paul having been Canonically chosen Bishop of Constantinople Eusebius had a strong fancy to his Bishoprick and therefore gets Macedonius one of Paul's Presbyters a man of a very factious and fiery temper to bring in a general Accusation against him for an ill liver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon which meer formality of a general Charge without enquiring after any particular proofs he is thrust out of his See and Eusebius immediately leaps into it Though here the lying Philostorgius says that Eusebius immediately succeeded upon the death of Alexander and suppresses the foul Story of Paul's expulsion but Sandius though he takes notice of it is either so foolish or so impudent as to make use of the Calumny as a just Accusation against the good man at this very day and brings no other Authority for it because he durst not build upon the Testimony of Macedonius but that of ut aiunt i. e. as it is reported which is much worse especially when all good men ever report him to have been a very Religious and Pious Prelate and even Macedonius himself at the very time that he Accused him for form-sake to oblige Eusebius is well known to communicate with him which he ought not to have done had he believed his own Accusation By such little shufflings as these we may see how dully and slightly these Arian Advocates prevaricate with the Records of the Church But to proceed upon the death of Eusebius the Constantinopolitans fetch home Paul against whom the Eusebian Faction set up that Firebrand Macedonius this brings the matter to high Tumults upon which Constantius being then at Antioch sends Hermogenes Master of his Horse to Constantinople to force Paul out of the City but the Rabble taking head he is unfortunately murthered in a Tumult to the great scandal and dishonour of their Cause for which Paul as if he good man had been the Author of the Sedition is banisht and imprisoned and kept in Chains till Constantius was forced to deliver him together with the other banisht Bishops for fear of his Brother Constans who threatned War upon him if he did not restore
integrity and that it was only the Emperor and his Court-parasites that were guilty of all the Exorbitancies committed in the Church in his time which he committed so altogether without the Churches consent that by them he oppressed it with all the outrage and violence of Persecution But from this clamour raised against the Authority of the Church upon this account and kept up at this very day with so much confidence for we find it among the doleâ—ul invectives of R. B. against the ancient Bishops in his Book of Crudities we may see what a pleasure and satisfaction it is to men of some tempers to be venting their ill nature against the true old Christian Church But Secondly as the Emperour in all his exorbitant actings own'd and supposed the power of the Church so the Catholicks submitted to all their sufferings under him with the same patience and upon the same Principle that they did to the Heathen Emperours And this is most remarkable in the Case of Athanasius who though he was persecuted and provoked beyond all Patience for the Establisht Religion of the Empire but among infinite other slanders that were loaded upon him is charged with Treason and Disloyalty yet for all this he is nice and punctual in his Obedience to all the Emperours commands even against himself and does with the greatest indignation detest the least thought of disrespect or disloyalty to his Sovereign Lord. Thus when his Enemies had slandered him to the Emperour Constantius for having spoken ill things of him and done ill Offices between him and his Brother Constans he defies the Calumny a thousand times over as only sit to be laid upon a distracted Man and calls God and his Holy Angels to witness how far it was from his thoughts and his Principles to speak the least ill word of a Sovereign Prince And when in the second place they charged him for having held correspondence with the Rebel Magnentius here he professes himself amazed and consounded with the greatness of the Lye and wonders how any man should be so strangely beside himself as to â—eign such an incredible Calumny against him He be such a Beast as to be friend to such a Monster as had Rebell'd against and Murther'd his Royal Master No he would rather dye Ten Thousand Deaths then be guilty of one such Disloyal Though And beseeches the Emperour that he would never entertain such an hard opinion of the Christian Church as if it were possible for Christians but much more Bishops to entertain any thoughts like Disloyalty and invokes the God of Heaven and Earth who gave the Empire to Constantius and to whom alone he could appeal from him as being his only Superiour to clear his innocence from so foul a Calumny And whereas in the third place they object that when the Emperour commanded his departure from Alexandria he refused to obey it To this he answers God sorbid that I should be such a wretch as to slite any of his Majesties Commands No he made Conscience of refusing Obedience but to the Questor of a City much more to his Sovereign Lord the Emperour Then discovers to him how the Eusebians had forged Letters in the Emperours Name for his Banishment and tells him that it was upon the assurance of the Forgery that he refused complyance but otherwise assures him that he is not so mad as to disobey any of his own Commands whatsoever so that if he had been pleased to Command him from Alexandria he would have been gone at the first notice and prevented the Command by the promptness of his Obedience The sense of all which is that it is no less then downright madness for any man that pretends to Christianity to make resistance to any Commands of his Sovereign Prince and this he writes whilst he was forced for the security of his life to lye conceal'd in the Wilderness after he had been persecuted by Constantius with the utmost rancour and a thousand times worse then a Mid-night Robber for above twenty years together and in truth had suffered such things from his hands as never any other Subject did from any Prince For his Case is singular and has nothing like it in Story Constantius his treating of him exceeded the injustice and cruelty of all the Heathen Tyrants and yet after all this prodigious and unparallel'd Provocation not only against the Laws of the Empire but of all Humanity how tender is this great spirited Man of making the least abatement of respect and duty to his Prince However he was pleased to treat him he was obliged by his Religion as he would acquit himself from madness not so much as to entertain a thought of the least resistance to any of his Commands in shortc onsidering the strange usage he had met with from the Emperour through his whole life his Story is the greatest instance and demonstration of a religious Sense of Loyalty that is upon Record It is true that Lucifer Calaritanus bestowed his rude Language upon the Emperour liberally enough but he was a man of a prodigiously fierce implacable nature as appears by the Schism that he made in the Church leaving its Communion rather then be reconciled to any of the Arian or Eusebian Clergy upon their repentance and submission which was such a piece of sowreness and austerity as could not but eat up all Sense of civility and good manners and therefore it is no wonder if a man of such a splenetick temper were so free of his Contumelious Language without respect of Persons especially when his natural rudeness was heightned and emproved by that false Principle that Christian Bishops might treat Heretick Princes after the same rate that the Prophets in the Old Testament did Apostate Princes and by that he answers Constantius his complaint of rudeness and insolence against him Dixisti passum te ac pati a nobis contra monita sacrarum scripturarum contumeliam dicis nos insolentes extitisse circa te quem honorari decuerit quasi quisquam dei cultorum pepercit Apostatis You complain that we have given you contumelious language against the commands of the Holy Scriptures you say that we behave our selves after an insolent manner towards you whom we ought to honour as if any Servant of God were to spare Apostates And then proceeds to a Catalogue of all the prophetick burthens against Apostate and Idolatrous Princes in the Old Testament But I am not at all concern'd to excuse him when he quitted the Catholick Communion and joyned Faction with the Rebel Puritans the Donatists as we have seen above Though this is to be said for him that how far soever he might proceed in foul Language he was so far from making any invitation to proceed to violent Actions that he concludes his whole Book with a passionate exhortation to Patience and Martyrdom So that hitherto the Doctrine of resistance to Sovereign Princes in any circumstances whatsoever or
but overwhelm'd him forever for now the Apostate becomes Treacherous and Cruel and privately sends his Assassinates to cut his Throat Of this Athanasius being inform'd he immediately takes Boat for Thebais but being close pursued by the Murtherers instead of Landing and Sheltring himself in the Woods as his friends advised him he according to his usual readiness of Wit commands the Boat-man to row back to Alexandria and meeting with the other Boat that pursued him the Captain of the Cut-throats calls to them to know whether they met Athanasius and how far off they might suppose him to be Athanasius himself answers That he knew him very well and that he was hard by bids them row hard and then there could be no doubt but that they must overtake him and so for that time he escapes to Alexandria and there lyes hid till the Storm was over But the Prefects seeing the Emperour 's mighty Zeal and being themselves great Patâ—iots of the Superstition he having displaced all Constantius his Prefects and put in Bigots of his own Religion having so fair an Example from their Master resolve as it always happens in such Cases to outrun his leading Zeal And therefore in all places prosecute the Christians with all kind of Cruelty and Oppression And if they complain'd to the Emperor himself they had no redress but were only flouted with that silly and prophane Sarcasm That suffering was the duty of their Religion And that was his daily practice and much becoming the gravity of an Emperor and a Philosopher too to play such childish and perverse Glosses upon our Saviour's Precepts But he rested not here but when he resolved upon his Persian Expedition he imposes a Tax upon all that refused to Sacrifice to the Gods according to the ability of the Person for the maintenance of the War and if any complain'd of the Exactions of his Officers then his standing Jest was That Poverty was not only their duty but their advantage And when he rob'd the Church of its Treasury he season'd his Sacriledge with this abusive Sarcasm Se Christianos expeditiores faceâ—e ad Regnum Caelorum quia Galilaeus Mâ—gister ipsorum dixerit beatos esse pauperes quoniam talium est regnum Caelorum That he only did it to conveigh the Christians with the more ease to Heaven because the Galilaean their Master declared that blessed are the Poor for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven But besides this he disbands all Officers that refuse to Sacrifice and hereupon Valentinian and Valens that were then great Commanders and afterwards Emperors peaceably laid down their Arms declaring themselves ready to suffer any thing rather then wrong their Consciences or betray their Religion Whereas those who profess't it in the time of Constantine and Constantius only for Worldly Interest and Advantage readily complyed with all his Impositions and among these that famous Weather-cock Ecebolius the Sophist marched in the first rank Before Julian's time he was a Zealous Christian under him a furious Pagan after him a Christian again to that sneaking degree that he would lye bellowing upon the threshold of the Church doors begging all Christians that passed over him to trample upon him as infatuated Salt And thus in short to pass by many more arts of Oppression he pursued the Christians with as vehement Outrage but much more provoking Contempt then any of the old Persecutors Continually breaking Jests not only upon their Religion but their Miseries which is not only to wound a Man but to rub Salt and pour Vinegar upon his Sores a piece of Barbarity that was peculiar to Julian alone And no Man but the greatest Pedant in the World and so was he could have condescended to so mean a piece of malice and revenge And as he for his short Reign out Outraged all his Predecessors in the fury and madness of his Persecution so the Christians resolved to out do their Ancestors in Patience and Passive Obedience under all his abusive Tyranny And though they had the strength and the Law of the Empire on their side yet being Christians they scorn'd to make use of any other Weapons in defence of their Religion than Prayers and Tears But though this is the bravest Example of the Doctrine and Practice of the Passive Obedience of Christians that we have upon Record in all the Annals of the Church yet the World has been of late bless't with a new discovery of I know not what strange undutiful unchristian inhumane and disloyal behaviour towards him as exceeding the salvageness of Cannibals and Barbarians in contempt and insolence treating him with more roughness then a Mid-night Thief or a High-way Robber §. XX. But first if it were true it is a very poor and impertinent Precedent to Warrant the new Christian-duty of our modern Apostates for all Rebel-Christians renounce Christianity with much more dishonour to it then Julian himself ever did of Resistance and Rebellion to Sovereign Princes For what if the Christians at that time had been really guilty of any miscarriages in that kind what objection is that one miscarriage against the constant Doctrine and Tradition of the Christian Church in all Ages This is to be taken from its general practice and sense and not from the irregularities of a few private Persons for it is too hard to expect that all Men should live up to their Principles and that every one that profess't himself a Christian should be free from all misdemeanours against his own Profession That is too great a persection to be required in this life There is no Church but that in Heaven without some miscarriages and faulty Members and therefore it is but a mean and childish undertaking that argues great malice and little wit though it were true to find out in all the Records of the Church one or two instances of old in which the Christians did not behave themselves with that decency as they ought and profess't to owe to their Governors For what if it be true What does that prove but that they were so much Men as sometimes to have fall'n short both of their Duty and Profession What is that against the general and declared Sense of the Church Upon the same terms the Primitive Christians may be loaded with all the Crimes in the World because some that professed Christianity some time or other fell into all but this What then if it were true that the behaviour of some Christians towards the Apostate was not such as became their duty towards their Sovereign what is that to the Sense of the Catholick Church in all Ages before and for many after to the year 1073 Can it reasonably be expected that in so long a Tract of time there should not be one instance of the miscarriage of Christians in this kind and yet this at the best is the case of this wonderful Precedent to overthrow the whole Catholick Doctrine of Passive Obedience But Seditious Persons are fond of any
Pretence and will rather forfeit their Understanding then not gratifie their ill-nature how else could any Man be so transported out of his common Sense from one miscarriage to warrant our imitation of it against the constant sense of the Church for so many Ages And yet with what joy and greediness has this poor trifle been embraced as a new discovery dropt from Heaven and how confident are we that the Primitive Christians were no such softly fools as they have been hitherto represented as to preach and practise that Sheepish Doctrine of Passive Obedience Which only shews how ready some Parties of Men among us are for seizing any pretences for Resistance and Rebellion Otherwise certainly if Men would Judge impartially and without Faction of this mighty work the whole Mystery of it is no more then this that an Industrious Searcher into the Records of the Church has at last found out one instance in which some Christians failed of their Duty to their Prince A great performance this worthy the applause and admiration of this learned Age and therefore to deal civilly with it I care not though I grant the truth of the Assertion but then I must crave leave to let them know that this is the only instance of this kind that hap'ned in Eleven hundred years For that is the thing that I have undertaken to maintain That from the beginning of Christianity down to the time of Pope Gregory the Seventh who was the 159th Pope and succeeded not till the year 1073 no one Christian of the Western Church no not a Pope or taught or put in practice the Doctrine of Resistance to Sovereign Princes or disown'd the duty of Passive Obedience under the worst of Persecutors and after this much good may this little Story of Julian do them For they cannot but see what a mean and foolish design it is to set up one single Tale as a proâ—f of the Sense of the Primitive Christians when it stands all alone and is contrary to the declared Sense of the Catholick Church for so many Ages So that they gain so little advantage to their Cause by this admired Performance that it proves the most unlucky Argument that could have been contrived against it For this is a demonstration to all the World that there is in all the Records of the Church but one Precedent of Christian disrespect or disobedience to persecuting Princes And that is but a single exception to its universal practice and if it be it confesses its own Enormity from it So that methinks Men that design'd to preach up Resistance and Rebellion from the Precedents of the Primitive Christians should rather have taken any other method to abuse the People then by telling them this single Story of Julian For hereby they are brought to understand that they have no more then one Tale for their Cause and that if it were true it is controuled by the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages and that I think is as much as any reasonable Man can desire to shame and bafle the Assertion Especially when it is so evident that Christians before this time were become in a great measure like other Men because when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the darling of Princes all Men would equally embrace it for present Advantage and Preferment And in these circumstances bad Men will be sure to appear as forward in their Zeal as the best Christians and generally to outstrip them in outward Appearance So that if at that time there had been any Christians found guilty of disloyalty towards their Prince what wonder is it when such Numbers came into the Church not for any love of the Religion but for other ends and designs of their own And such Men were as effectually loose from all the Obligations of Christianity as if they had never own'd it And therefore the true Sense of Christians ought not to be taken from their practice after it had been the thriving Religion for then it was made a Trade but from their Professions in such times when they had no other Motive to embrace it but it self for then it is certain that all that did so were in good earnest It being then so evident that the Christians through all Ages down to Constantine profess't and practiced the duty of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience to all Princes without reserves and exceptions as an indispensible Law of their Religion that is a clear full and unanswerable declaration of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter however any might fall into a contrary behaviour in times of ease and prosperity For then it is impossible but that there would be many in the Church that were not of it as we have shewn above from the complaint of Eusebius and others how the Credulity of Constantine was abused by pretended Converts to the great dishonour of his Government and Oppression of his People And yet I think no Man could think it reasonable to upbraid Christianity with their Scandals and if Julian found multitudes of such Men in the Church when he came to the Empire what wonder would it be if Men that were in reality no Christians made any unchristian Attempts against him So that granting our Apostates the truth of their Plea from the behaviour of Christians towards Julian this one thing utterly barrs their Conclusion that this was the avowed practice of Christians at that time when at the time that he came to the Empire there were as many in the Church that were not as that were Christians But because it is to be supposed that the Counterfeits fell off with the Apostate I will allow the Plea that if the Christians who persevered in the Faith committed any of those disloyal and Seditious pranks that the Apostates charge upon them that then the blame shall lye at the Church door And yet so as not to make a Precedent for imitation because it is a single Enormity both from the plain Laws of the Religion and the universal Practice of all its Professors and after that it is a very impertinent way of arguing to draw any Conclusion from such an Example And yet secondly as impertinent as it is it is much more false for there is not any one instance of any one Christian in all his Reign that ever made any resistance to any one of his Commands And then whatever they did beside to affront him that is nothing to warrant the practice of Resistance and shews that in whatsoever hatred and contempt they held his Person yet notwithstanding that they thought themselves bound in duty to an entire Submission to his Government And therefore of their ill manners and uncourtly behaviour towards him I shall discourse by it self because that concerns not the Argument of Resistance and shall at present only shew that they were so far from putting any such design in practice that they all expresly disclaimed and defied it as utterly inconsistent with the
most Sacred Majesties Valerianus and Gallienus to him we offer up our daily Prayers for the safety of their Empire that it may continue firm and unshaken forever §. 10. And as for the Latins they kept pace with not to say that they out-ran the Greeks in the same Track of Loyalty Irenaeus Scholar to Policarp writing against the Gnosticks who taught that the Powers of the Earth ought to be obeyed because they were set up not by God but by the Devil has stated the Obligation to the duty of Obedience upon its true and proper Principles First from divers passages of Scripture expresly commanding it Secondly from the Providence of God who sets up Kings for the preservation of Mankind lest they should prey upon one another like the Fish of the Sea And lastly to prevent the Objection that God would not set up bad Kings he replyes that by whose command they were born men by his command they were ordained Kings fit for the times in which and the people over whom thâ—y reign for some are given for a Punishment others for a Blessing to their Subjects all to all People as they deserve the just Judgment of God equally extending to all Which is a full declaration not only of the Loyalty of the Primitive Christians but of the Principles upon which it was grounded Tertullian in the time of Alexander Severus under the rage of the fifth Persecution that was very bloody and severe writ his admirable Apology in imitation of Justin Martyr and for a Foundation of his Plea states the true condition of the Christian Church in this World Scit se peregrinam in terris agere inter extraneos facile inimicos invenire caeterum genus sedem spem gratiam dignitatem in coelis habere Unum gestit interdum ne ignorata damnetur She knows her self to be but a Stranger and Pilgrim in this World and cannot but expect to meet with Enemies in a Forreign Country but her Kindred her habitation her hope her favour and her honour all dwell in the World to come She has but one thing to request or indeed to challenge that she may not be condemn'd unheard Here is no pleading any exemption from the Imperial Judicatures upon the Account of Christian Priviledges but he offers himself and his cause to a fair and impartial Tryal and he is so confident of its innocence as to desire no other favour but only the Justice of being heard Neither does he any where complain of their punishing such Actions as belonged not to their cognizance but only of the Illegality of their Officers Proceedings in that they were condemned unheard and unexamined And though they were so yet he no where appeals from their Courts but only presses them to examine and search into their cause and so stipulates in the name of the Christian Church to stand or fall by their Judgment And as for their strict Loyalty to their Prince he farther pleads that they pray for the Emperors that God would grant them long Life a quiet Reign and undisturbed Family Valiant Armies Faithful Counsellors Obedient Subjects and whatever else they can desire either as Men or Emperors and then bids them proceed to murther them and tear their Souls from their Bodies whilst they are praying for their Emperors Happiness And therefore you that think that we have no concern for the Safety of Caesar look into our Books and learn from them with what Redundancy of Kindness we are commanded to pray for our Enemies and Persecutors and who are more so than those by whose Authority we are condemned as Criminals But beside that we are expresly injoyn'd to pray for Kings and all that are in Authority We revere the Wisdom of God in the Emperors that sets them over the Nations we acknowledge that Character in them that God has imprest upon them and therefore we will wish them safe whom he would have so But what do I say any more of the Christians duty and even Religion towards the Emperor whom they are particularly bound to honour as one chosen by their God so that I may well say that Caesar is most of all ours as being set over us by our God c. And a while after he boldly demands Whether there were ever found among the Christians any Casfii Nigri and Albini three known Rebels the first against the Emperor Verus the other two against Severus And in his Apology to the Prefect Scapiâ—la he tells him that we are slander'd about the Imperial Majesty and yet there could never any of the Albinian Nigrian or Castrian Rebels be found among the Christians A Christian is no Mans Enemy much less the Emperor's for knowing that he is apointed by God he cannot but Love Reverence and Honour him and pray for his safety and therefore we worship the Emperour as far as it is lawful for us and convenient for him viz. as a Man next under God only less then him and deriving his whole Authority from him It is an excellent Passage in Minutius Faelix who lived not long after Tertullian concerning the calm and peaceable Magnanimity of Christians How delightful a Spectacle is it to God when a Christian encounters Sorrow when with a composed mind he meets threatnings and Torments when with smiles he insults over the noise of Death and the dread of the Executioner when he asserts his liberty against Kings and Princes and yields only to God whose he is when with the Triumph of a Conquerour he has the better of the Judge who gives Sentence against him for he overcomes who gains what he fights for That is the only Christian Combat Courage and Submission And therefore it is very well observed by the learned Lawyer Baldwin in his Prolegomena to this acute Author that Caecitius the Heathen though he were in all other things a very bold Calumniator and insisted fiercely upon all the vulgar slanders against the Christians yet he never durst charge them with the least suspition of Disloyalty or Rebellion To which they might have added That though they were usually indicted of Treason by their Enemies yet the only proof of it was their resusing to Sacrifice by the Emperour's Genius And setting that one act of Idolatry aside there is not any one charge upon Record of any one act of Disloyalty and that as says the learned Lawyer was the glory of our Ancestors that they would be provoked by no injuries to any thought of Hostility against Lawful Sovereigns howsoever barbarously they were treated by them or enter into any Conspiracies against them though at that time they were frequent and plausible as being always mindful what became their Patience Meekness Modesty and Sobriety so far were they from being Turbulent and Seditious and running mad with a thirst of Revenge And in reality if they had behaved themselves otherwise they had laid wast the very Foundations both of their own Religion and all humane Society too And to mention no more
Principles of their Religion and then I wonder what our new Apostates can gain by minding us of the Julian Christians And if their case was particular in that they had the Laws on their side as 't is falsely and ignorantly pretended and yet for all that taught the same Doctrine of Submission and Passive Obedience under him and that upon the same unalterable Principle as they did under all their former Persecutions that will be the greatest demonstration of the universality of their Doctrine and set it above all manner of exception upon any pretence whatsoever The Apostates first fury was vented among the military Men Men that from the very nature of their Profession are most apt to resent and revenge Injuries and though he provoked them more by the Contempt and Indignity of his Persecution then by its Severity yet they would rather swallow and digest an Affront the hardest Point in the World to a Soldier then repulse it with the least rudeness much less violence to their Sovereign Lord. And first he caused the Images of the Heathen Deities to be engraven with his own that were set as the Emperors Statues were wont to be in publick Places that if the People shewed the usual Honor to his Statue they might be supposed to worship the Idols and if for the Idols sake they should refuse to take notice of his Image he might punish them for breach of old Customs and Roman Laws in doing honour to the Imperial Majesty And that was another peculiar Enhancement of his Persecution never to punish the Christians as Christians but as Criminals and to the old Cruelties of Persecution to add this new one of Calumny first martyr their Innocence and then themselves And though by this little device he deceived some into shews of respect to his Deities yet the wiser easily seeing through so slight a design refused to give any Signs of Honor and so by their Example soon put an end to the little Stratagem and yet neither they that were cheated into the Folly nor they that were fraudulently punisht for withstanding it made any other resistance to his Commands or shewed any other disrespect to his Person His next Stratagem was somewhat more fine then this It was an old Custom among the Romans for the Emperors on their own Birth-days or other Holy days to give Donatives to their Soldiers and this Julian does but so orders it that near his Throne where he sat was placed a Fire with Incense some of which the simple Soldiers were told as they came to receive their Donative by some that were set there for that purpose they were bound by ancient Custom to sprinkle into the Fire And so great numbers were ignorantly drawn in to offer his kind of Sacrifice but coming afterward to understand the Cheat they run up and down the Streets and Market-places crying out That they are Christians and ever were so that they were over-reacht and meerly drawn in it and they had sacrificed with their Hands they had not with their Hearts and so they address to the Emperor in a Body and request him to take his Gold again and if he pleased to put them to death for they were resolved never to renounce their Religion but were ready to lay down their Lives for it To this Relation Theodoret adds That the Emperor immediately commanded them to be beheaded and they were conveyed out of the City to the place of Execution whither they went with extraordinary courage and cheerfulness requesting the Heads-man to dispatch the youngest first lest by beholding the bloody Execution of others his courage might faint and so one Romanus is first prepared and his head laid upon the Block but just before the blow was to be given a Messenger from the Emperor cries out at a great distance to stop it at which the young man sighing says Romanus was not thought worthy to be a Martyr of Christ. I conceive this is as high an Example of Passive Obedience as any we have upon Record in all the former Persecutions and indeed exceeds that of the Thebaean Legion for they were only decimated at first and so the greatest part were sure to escape but here the whole Body submit themselves one and all to the Ax of the Executioner without speaking an angry or a reproachful word against the Emperor And for this very act of Christian Loyalty they are particularly commended by St. Austin And yet these very Men one would scarce believe it are produced as one of the most remarkable instances of the ill-behaviour of the Christians towards Julian His next attempt was at Constantinople to reform his own Praetorian Bands where he Disbands all Officers that refuse to sacrifice in the Temple of Fortune upon which Valentinian and Valens two of his chief Commanders and divers others peaceably laid down their Arms declaring themselves not only ready to part with their Swords but their Lives for their Religion And to these Socrates adds Jovian though I doubt that is a mistake he being his General in his Army against the Persians In the next place finding all the old Temples at Caesarea the Metropolis of Cappadocia decayed and demolisht and disgraceful punishment says Palladius he endured with all patience and returned thanks to the Emperor for the honour as he had it from his own mouth But whatever his Persecution was against their Persons it was much more then all others against their Religion for beside those perpetual shams that he put upon it to make it ridiculous he dugg at the Foundations by rooting up the Clergy that so the People having no Publick Assemblies for Divine Worship they might in time grow barbarous and lose their Religion And his pretence against them was their raising Seditions And thus he banisht Seleusius and his Clergy from Cyzicum because the Christâ—ans were so numerous in the City that it was in vain to attempt reducing them any other way And so he commanded the Magistrates of Bostra to expel Titus their Bishop and threatned that if the People made any Sedition he would lay the blame and the punishment of it upon the Bishop and his Clergy upon this Titus presents him an humble Address shewing that though the Christians were an overmatch for the Heathens yet he need not fear any Tumult from them because he knew that they would follow his Exhortations to Peace and Patience Upon this the Apostate spitefully and childishly writes to the People to instigate them against their Bishop for slandering their Loyalty as if they were not peaceable of their own accord but were only wheedled into it by his Wit and Eloquence To such mean and dirty Arts did his malice stoop by any ways to do mischief but yet instead of provoking them to any disturbance by all his abuses we find nothing else preached even at this time then the old superannuated and unseasonable Doctrine of Passive Obedience The Apostate's last pranks against the Christians
of enquiry which though a fault is by no means so disingenuous as acting against knowledge But as for this Case of Apostates in time of Persecution upon whom Mr. Hobbs says Excommunication could have no effect of Terrour If indeed the Providence of God had not given them sufficient evidence of their Faith I will grant it to be true not only of that but of all the other Threatnings of the Gospel But if God have given sufficient motives of belief as if the Gospel be not a cheat he has if it be all Mr. Hobbs's dispute is without bottom a Man's Apostacy is no Fence against the Reflections of his own Conscience For though it is in his Power to deny his Faith for fear of Persecution yet it is not in his Power to disbelieve it So that upon such a Man the Sentence of Excommunication by which he is cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven lights with as much Terrour as upon any other Believer And there is nothing more evident in the History of the Primitive Church then the Efficacy of this Sentence upon such Offenders For the greatest part of those that fell in time of Persecution were by this means alone recover'd to the Church brought to sue for pardon and undergo very severe Penances as a satisfaction for the Scandal But to what purpose do I put my self to the trouble to prove these things when all Mr. Hobbs's discourse upon this Argument runs upon this supposition as if Christianity were but a trivial and indifferent thing that might or might not be believed as Men variously fancied or were casually inclined And upon that supposition I will freely grant it to be of as little effect as he would have it But if the Providence of God hath given us such a Demonstrative Evidence of the Divine Authority of this Religion that no Man who inquires into it can wink against its Light without doing violence to his own Convictions then whether Men will or no it will be a perpetual Terrour to their Consciences And that this slight Opinion of the Evidence of Christianity though upon what slight and indeed ignorant pretences I have elsewhere shewn is the bottom of Mr. Hobbs's meaning is too manifest from his next branch of the Supremacy of Sovereign Powers which indeed is neither better nor worse then bare-faced Blasphemy And that is the Power of making Scripture Law i. e. Obligatory But if that be the state of the Christian Religion that it is not at all material whether a Man regard it or not for any Obligation or Authority in it self Mr. Hobbs is not to be blamed unless in point of Prudence for all those irreverend abuses that he has been pleased to put upon it But if it be made Law by the Command of God as it is if it be not all imposture in pretending falsly to his Authority then whatever the Sovereign is pleased to make of it Mr. Hobbs and all his Followers that will allow it no obligation but from Man stand Convicted of the most manifest Treason and Blasphemy against the Sovereign Lord of all and this part of Ecclesiastical Supremacy of making Scripture Law that they give to Kings they take away from God himself After all this rank prophaneness it is almost needless to consider his last branch of Ecclesiastical Power viz. the Right of Ordaining and Constituting Ecclesiastical Officers not only because it is of the same Nature and derived from the same Divine Authority with all the other particulars of the Apostolical Commission but because himself grants it in general by placing it in the People For if it be any where that is enough against himself that denies all manner of Power in the Church but most of all because he has confessed and no Man can deny it the whole truth of the matter both against the Hobbist and the Independant too viz. That the Apostles conveighed their Authority to their Successors whom themselves Deputed and Ordained by Imposition of hands and if so this Power of constituting Successors resided in them alone because no Man could be constituted an Officer in the Church but by their Imposition of hands or those to whom by it they Transmitted their Power So that whatever interest they might permit the People in their Choice or Nomination of their Officers the whole power of Constituting them in their Office and Authority lay in themselves alone §. IV. But Mr. Hobbs having hitherto treated of the Power Ecclesiastical as it stood before the Conversion of Kings and Men endued with Sovereign Civil Power and after his rate of Demonstration proved it to be no Power at all whilst vested in the Pastors of the Church he comes now to prove that it is lodged in Civil Sovereigns upon their Conversion to the Christian Faith and that when it comes to them it becomes true and proper Power But before I consider his small Arguments I cannot understand why that which was no Power before becomes Power now There can be but one reason for it and that is too obvious in all Mr. Hobbs's Writings viz. Because it is now abetted with the Penalties of this life whereas before it was only abetted with the Penalties of the life to come so that the plain English of the Assertion if spoken out is this that there are no penalties at all but in this life and then I must confess that the power of the Church can be no Power till complicated with the Civil Power But the man that discourses upon such Principles as these has nothing to do with the Christian Religion or any thing relating to it But secondly Which way came this Power into Civil Sovereigns Our Saviour left it to his Apostles and they delivered it down by Imposition of Hands to others who were to conveigh it in the same manner of Succession through all Ages how then came Civil Sovereigns by it If any were Ordain'd to it they had it by virtue of their Ordination not their Right of Sovereignty if they were not which way could they become possessed of a Power that was never derived to them in the way of Ordination which is the only way in which it can be conveighed and therefore if they have it not that way they can never have it any other As for the Principle upon which he founds this Power of the Civil Sovereign though it be true in it self yet it is no proper reason for what he would infer from it viz. That the Right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace and to be taught the Subjects is in all Common-wealths inseparably annexed to the Sovereign Power Civil This is undoubtedly true that they are the proper Judges of what conduces to the peace and quiet of Government but then this Power is common to Heathen as well as Christian Soveraigns they are all equally concern'd and obliged to take care of the Publick Peace so that this Power does not accrue to the Civil Sovereign by his becoming
Christian but was antecedently and inseparably annex'd to the Sovereign Power And therefore 't is but a vain distinction that Mr. Hobbs makes of the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes before and after the Conversion of Civil Sovereigns When before it they have all a right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace that being inseparably annex't to all Sovereign Power and after it they have no more as Sovereign Princes And then if the Ecclesiastical Power rested in the Apostles and their Successors before the Conversion of Civil Sovereigns it must do so ever after for they could not lose that Power that was left them by our Saviour any other way but by his own actual transferring it to another which he having not done it continues as and where it was first setled So that Sovereigns as Christian as they lose no Power they gain none their Power is in both Cases Supreme from the nature of Sovereignty But beside all this because they have a right to judge of all things as far as they concern the Civil Peace it is an inference that only becomes Mr. Hobbs's Principles to conclude that this gives them a power of judging what is fittest to promote the Salvation of their Subjects Souls in the World to come And yet that is the true and proper Province of Ecclesiastical Power so to guide and govern the Church in this World as to bring the Members of it to Heaven hereafter And that is somewhat more then meerly to provide for the Civil Peace and therefore a right to that cannot give any right to this especially when it is by express Commission settled in another order of Men. All True Religion is indeed very serviceable to the Interests of Peace and Government and so far it concerns the Civil Power as such to abett its force with Civil Laws But then it has a much farther prospect into the World to come and the care of that is committed by our Saviour to a particular Order of Men Consecrated to that Office How this Power comes not to interfere with the Civil but is subject to it will be shewn in the next place but our present business is only to assert its Right And that is so apparent from the whole design and nature of Christianity that it cannot subsist without it For if our Saviour enacted the Christian Law and founded the Christian Church not by Civil but Divine Authority if he Instituted the Apostles and their Successors to govern it then their Right of Government stands upon the same bottom with the truth of Christianity And if it be true that the Christian Church was planted in the World by Divine Authority it is as true that they have a right to Govern it by the same Authority This is so undeniable to common Sense that Mr. Hobbs has no way to avoid it but by denying our Saviour's own Supremacy at present in that his Kingdom is not to begin till after the Resurrection But beside the falshood and the wickedness of the Assertion whereby Christianity is made of no force or use in this World in that no Man can be obliged to obey its Precepts because our Saviour has not power to make it Law till he enters upon his Kingdom and that is not till after the end of the World Beside this I say who could think that any Man that reads the Gospel could be so extravagantly foolish as to dream that it was not intended for present Obligation and that no Man is bound to obey any part of it before the day of Judgment when that day is appointed on purpose for the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to Mens discharge of their Duty towards it Mr. Hobbs would in my Opinion have asserted with much more modesty that God Almighty had sent his Son into the World upon a sleeveless Errand though that is as rank Blasphemy as can be vented then with so much formality go about to prove out of the Holy Scriptures themselves that his coming into it is to no purpose because it takes no effect whilst the World lasts This is to fasten upon the Almighty such another piece of folly as his Politiques have run himself into in another Case when he tells the World that the serious belief of Religion is necessary to Government and yet that all Religion is nothing but an Artifice of State and then it is really no Religion nor can be seriously believed and so can do no service to Government So here he makes God himself to send his Son into the World to publish a Law by Obedience to which Men may purchase to themselves a State of Salvation in the World to come and yet at the same time makes the same God to declare that this Law for the publication whereof he sent his Son into the World is of no force in this World to which it was publisht and that no Man whilst he lives is under any obligation of Obedience to it Upon this supposition would not any Man conclude that our Saviour might very well have spared all his pains and not have been in so much hast and put himself to so much trouble for Enacting a Law to no purpose but rather to have deferr'd its publication to the next World in which it was to Commence its Use and Obligation But the true Consequence of this Evasion is a clear Demonstration of the distinct power of the Christian Church when there is no way to take this away but by abrogating our Saviour's own Authority For if all Ecclesiastical Power be in the Civil Sovereign then he has none and so Mr. Hobbs to be consistent with his Principle says he has not while there are Civil Sovereigns in the World But if he have any he has power to Depute what Officers he pleases and by virtue of their Deputation they have a Power as independent upon the Sovereign Power as that Authority from which their Power is derived So that to take away the distinct Power of the Church as it was settled by our Saviour upon the Apostles and their Successors is in plain terms to deny his Power as well as theirs For if they had a right to it at first by his Grant and if his grant be of any Validity they have the same for ever So dangerous a thing is it if Men would seriously consider to disown the Authority of the Church it is no less then renouncing our Saviour's own Authority And I am confident no Christian Prince would ever accept of any Supremacy of Power upon such terms and yet if he challenge to himself though but a share of that Power that our Saviour has left to the Apostolical Succession he must plainly invade that original Authority in our Saviour himself from whom they hold it So thaâ—â—hough we could suppose any Prince so prophane as Mr. Hobbs would make all Princes yet we cannot imagine any Man so impudent as to take up his Supremacy upon no better terms then
mankind must be United in one Political Body because they are all bound to observe the same Lawes of Justice and Humanity To make short of it so they are all Kingdoms and Common-wealths are as much bound to mutual Justice as private Persons under one and the same Government And if any Prince violate this Law by Invading his Neighbours Rights he is or ought to be looked upon by Gods natural Law that equally provides for the good of all as an Enemy and Traytor to the Society of Mankind and it is the duty as well as interest of all other Princes not only to oppose his attempts but to the utmost of their power to proceed against him as an Enemy to Humane Society and endeavour his Extirpation out of it This upon the supposition of that one Law of Nature that provides for the wellfare and happiness of all mankind is an unavoidable consequence so is it upon supposition of Unity ofFaith that all that are bound to it must be under one common Government But because the World is ill-Govern'd it is an unhappy way of arguing to make that a Precedent that the Church should be so too Arg. 4 God has granted to the Church certain Powers as the Power of the Keys a Power to Enact Laws a power to Excommunicate a Power to hold Assemblies and a power to ordain Governours But to all this it is answered that these Powers are granted to particular Churches not to the whole as distinct from the parts They are granted to both to every particular Church over its own Members and to the whole Church over every particular Church and whether as such it be distinct from all its parts is a dispute too Metaphysical for me to undertake but as consisting of them all it has a Power over every one and if there were no such Power common to all it were in vain to grant any of these powers to each particular Church because without that these would be utterly defeated of their Force and Efficacy for example supposing a power in a particular Church to punish an Offender by Excommunication unless the force of that Excommunication reach to other Churches it loses its effect for notwithstanding that he has a Right to Church-Membership in all the Churches through the whole World beside And then he is as much cast out of the Church as à ny man would be out of England that is driven from any one Village So that from the right of exercising Discipline in each particular Church the consequence is unavoidable to infer the same common power in the Church Catholick And that by our Authors leave was St. Cyprian's Inference Not merely from these common Grants to infer this right in particular Churches but to infer the same power in every part over it self and in the whole over every part And St. Cyprian is so perpetually beating upon this Argument that I cannot enough wonder how it is possible that this learned Man should here so foully mistake him as if he had confined the exercise of all Ecclesiastical Discipline to each particular Church But the falsehood of it I have sufficiently shewed above And beside what I have already alledged there is one pregnant passage in his Epistle to Steven Bishop of Rome against Marcian Bishop of Arles to this purpose Idcirco frater charissime oopiosum corpus est sacerdotum concordiae mutuae glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum ut si quis ex collegio nostro haeresin facere gregem Christi lacerare vastare tentaverit subveniant caeteri quasi pastores utiles misericordes oves dominicas in gregem colligant Therefore most dear Brother is the body of the Priesthood so large combin'd together by the cement of concord and bond of Unity that if any of our Colledges shall attempt to raise Heresies and Schisms the rest ought to come in and as watchful and tender Pastors reduce the Lords Sheep to his Flock Every Bishop was to watch over his own Flock but the whole Body or Colledge of Bishops over every Bishop and therefore the power lodged in them all was but one common power seated in the Catholick Church so far was St. Cyprian from dreaming of the consinement of its exercise to particular Churches As for the following Arguments and Answers they are to the same purpose with these I have already examined and are for the most part repetitions of the same and run into the same principles that all Unity is nothing but either Unity of Faith or voluntary Agreement both which are already so often proved to be no Unity without an Unity of Government that to avoid being tedious I shall say no more but proceed to examine our Learned Author 's own Arguments and in them he is more unhappy then in his Answers for they are so many very good Arguments against himself First then This being of so great weight would have been declared in Holy Scripture And so it is and nothing more so to any man of common sense I will challenge all the World to shew me any one thing more earnestly enjoyn'd and frequently recommended then the preservation of Unity among Christians and then if without an Unity of Government no other could be possibly preserv'd as our Author has proved from common sense and common experience that must be the thing principally commanded by all those injunctions But such arguings as these suppose all men very great Blockheads as if they were not able to understand any thing unless it were beaten into them whereas the Scripture supposes Mankind endued with common sense that can apply general Laws to particular cases without being guided like Beasts every step they take And thus our Saviour having instituted the Society of his Church and established Governors in it when he enjoins them to be careful to preserve Unity no Man can be so dull as not to understand that he thereby requires them to make use of all means of obtaining it but especially such as are necessary to its preservation in all Societies And therefore whether this Unity of Government be injoin'd in express words in Scripture I will not concern my self to enquire because 't is as clear there to all Men of common Sense as if it were so injoined and that is enough But Secondly There appears no such thing in the Apostolical practice What did not the Apostles keep Unity among themselves Did they not Govern the Church as much as they could by common consent Did not every particular Apostle give an account of his own Churches to the whole Colledge Did they not advise together upon Emergent Controversies And was not every Man concluded by the Vote of the whole Council It is strange to me to see it affirm'd that they observed no such Polity in founding Christian Societies when there is no one thing more observable in their whole History then their great care to maintain Peace Love and Unity among all Churches and that