but false lights and wandering Stars that seduce and mislead into error so wandering Stars for the irregularity of their motion they separate themselves on the account of greatest purity yet allow themselves in greatest Impieties like those who have a Conscience so tender as to boggle at a Ceremony and yet so tough as to bear a Schism and make light of the great Doctrine of the Gospel that great essential of true Religion Subjection for Conscience sake Dr. Manton 4. Their tumultuous Turbulence verse 13. raging waves of the Sea so called for their boysterous Violence saies Dr. Manton in enraging mens minds against all Government and Rule in Church and State putting all Places into Confusion and Combustion by Schism and Sedition Whenever the Winds of Power Mr. Jenkins on the place Ecclesiastical or Civil Word or Sword blow against the Tide of their Factious Errors they presently grow boisterous like raging Waves of the Sea 5. A fifth mark the Apostle gives of the Gnostick Sectary is their proud scorn and contempt of others for which they are called mockers verse 18. They having incircled their heads with their own Phantastick rays and having swoln their imaginations into a self-conceit of their greater Spirituality and more Knowledg than others did hereupon separate themselves and despise the true Church and all sober Members of it as a People of low form and unacquainted with the Heighths and Spiritualities of the Gospel 6. A sixth Character St. Jude gives the Gnostick-Sectary is their specious pretences and shew of Piety and Knowledg above others notwithstand their emptiness of it For which they are called Clouds without water verse 12. with the specious Title of the spiritual and knowing People the only true Church and People of God they reconciled Rebellion and all Licentiousness were Religious without Religion Godly without Goodness Christians without Christianity Clouds without Water Clouds which tho shining with a counterfeit Light which nothing exceeds but the Sun that lent it yet when turned black and grown numerous discharge themselves of most dangerous and terrible Principles of Thunder and Lightning Storms and Tempests on the places of Religion the High-Towers of Government and whatever is great and eminent 7. Another Character St. Jude gives of these Separatists of his time is their successesness in projecting against Governors and Government v. 11. They perished in the gainsaying of Korah 8. Their Ignorant malice ver 10. They speak evil of things they know not 9. Obstinate in their perswasion v. 16. Walking after their own lusts 10. Canting and Mysteriousness of Phrases ver 16. Their mouth speaks great swelling words With as many more distinctive Characters which the Apostle Jude gives in that one Chapter whereby to know the Gnosticks the Schismaticks of his time who admired themselves and withdrew from the Communian of the best Christians under pretence of greater knowledg and holiness than others NOVATIANS THis Sect commenced when Decius was Emperor Danaeus's comment on St. Aug. de Haeres cap. 38. and Cornelius Bishop of Rome in the year of Christ 220 which was 78 years before that of the Donatists They had the Denomination from Novatus the first Author of the Sect who was a Presbyter of St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and afterwards by Cornelius Bishop of Rome was made a Presbyter of the Church But saies Danaeus on St. Augustine Ad Episcopatum aspirans dolore repulsae c. Aspiring at the Bishoprick of Rome i. e. endeavouring to thrust Cornelius out for holding Communion as they falsly accused him with Trophimus one of the Thurificati and to make himself Bishop in his stead was sadly disappointed in the attempt whereupon in grief and discontent at the disappointment he joyns himself with Novatianus once his Scholar and afterward his Fellow Presbyter who having drawn many after them Secessionem ab Orthodoxis fecerant seorsim suas Ecclesias Basilicas habebant Refused Communion with the Orthodox and met in their Basilicae which St. Augustine frequently calls Conventicles They made the Separation on the occasion of the Orthodox Bishops receiving lapsed Penitents into Communion in opposition to which Novatus and his Adherents taught that the Church of God was to consist of none but Saints and therefore if through infirmity or the rage of Persecution any lapsed into Idolatry or the like gross Sin after Baptism they would never receive them more into Communion with them but gave them up as damned Persons and such as were never capable of Repentance notwithstanding the greatest and most infallible signs of true repentance that could be shewn Upon this most strict and rigid most censorious and uncharitable Opinion they separated from the Orthodox Christians because they received the Penitents into Communion upon sufficient Evidence of their Repentance given And this was soon improved into such a Schism that lasted from the Reign of Decius to the Reign of Archadius which was a 148 years and much longer All that while disturbing the Peace of Church and State to the great prejudice of Christianity in most places of the World especially Italy These Sectaries were also called Cathari i. e. Puritans a name not given them by others but arrogated to themselves saith St. Augustine Se ipsos isto nomine quasi propter munditiem superbissime Lib. de Haeres odiosissimè nominant They were so called says his Commentator because they separated from the Orthodox as more Pure and Holy as the only true Church and People of God accounting all the Church-Assemblies of the Orthodox Christians polluted with the Communion of the lapsed Penitents on which very account Danaeus calls them Fanaticks Comment on Aug. de Haeres c. 38. Haecuna ratio vel maxime Fanaticos istos impulit ut se Catharos appellarent And on which very account the Orthodox Christians were called Catholicks in opposition to that uncharitable Opinion of the Novatians Donatists and other Sectaries of old as the Papists do of late in confining the only true Church and People of God to their own party These Novatians or Kathari looked upon the poor Orthodox Penitents as so many Reprobates calling them in scorn Thurificati but themselves and their party Purificati and as Danaus Ibid. Sub specioso illo Purificatorum sanctorum nomine fuco turpissima tum in Doctrina tum in vita scelera tegebant That under the specious name and disguise of the Purificati and the Saints they did cloak the basest Villanies both in Life and Doctrine By Doctrine meaning chiefly that of their barbarous rigor to'ards the lapsed Penitents For they were at first for the most part sound in the Faith As St. Augustine said of the Donatists De sola communione infaeliciter litigârunt They separated on the account of not receiving lapsed Penitents into Church-Communion on the account of their conceited purity above all others which is that Danaeus calls Perniciosissimum illud dogma quod in ecclesiae
Orthodoxy and his Life the very Standard of the Episcopal Function He was saies that Encomiast the most holy Eye and Light of the World a Pillar of the Faith and a second John the Baptist yet did these Meletian Schismaticks when they were otherwise sound in the Faith join with the Arrian Hereticks in loading this holy man with false accusations and hell-bred Slanders calling him Sathanius accusing him as Arsenius Euplus Pachomius and others of the Meletian Schism did of Murder Dan. on Aug. de Haeres c. 48. and the like hellish Crimes as in the Council of Tyre and other places till at last by that black art of Slandering they prevailed with the Emperor to banish him Of the notoriousness of their Slandering there is among many others which a late Writer gives from Sozomen Dr. Cave the Life of Athan. Sect. 5. n. 3. Theodoret and Ruffinus this instance The Meletian Bishops in the Synod of Tyre accused Athanasius of ravishing a Woman whom they had prevailed with to come into the Council and to own and attest the Fact who accordingly declared that Athanasius in her own House violently forced her into lewd Embraces Athanasius came into the Court attended with Timotheus one of his Presbyters who was by agreement with Athanasius to take his part upon him The Judg calling upon Athanasius to Answer to the matter of Fact he stood silent But Timotheus turning to the Woman Woman saies he was I ever in your house did I ever as you pretend offer violence to you Yes yes saies the Woman you are the man that forcibly pressed upon me and stained my Chastity and Honour The cheat thus plainly discovering it self put the Contrivers of it to the blush but no end to their false Accusations They proceed to accuse him of Oppression Murder and like the modern cry of popishly affected of compliance with the Thurificati till at last he was deprived of his Bishoprick and Banished Ibid. Sect. 4. n. 6. The like they did to Eustathius Bishop of Antioch and others of the Catholicks that opposed them and endeavoured the Unity of the Church And tho the Arrian Hereticks joyned with the Meletian Schismaticks in these Diabolical practices against the Orthodox Christians yet were these principal in it Vt Meletiani saies Danaeus pene Soli divinum illum Athanasium conarentur opprimere c. In the first General Council of Nice in which were 318 Bishops besides innumerable Presbyters Deacons and Acoluthi an Assembly of men so venerable for their Age their confessions and constancy in the Faith for the Gravity of their Manners the Wisdom Learning and Reason of their Arguments and Discourses and meeting out of all parts of the Christian World was certainly the most August and Venerable Assembly that ever the World saw either before or since In this Council the Arrian Heresie being condemned they proceeded to take into consideration the Meletian Schism Ep. Synod Nice ap Socr. l. 1. c. 9. ap Dr. Cave the Life of Athan. they deprived Meletius of all his Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power lest he should excite the same Troubles and Factions which he had formerly raised in the Church of God And tho the Meletians were at that time sound in the Faith yet on no other account then the Separation did this venerable Council declare in their Letter to the Church of Alexandria That in strict Justice they deserved no Pity The Council of Sardica did the like Having deposed Gregory a Meletian Bishop they decreed in that Council That all Ordination made by him should be null and void which is in effect to decree that a Schismatick is ipso facto divested of his Ministerial Function and no true Minister on the account of his Schism DONATISTS THE light of the Gospel had scarce been well fix'd and diffused in the World but the Devil stired up the Pagan Emperors of Rome to extinguish it by persecuting the Professors of it with the most grievous Torments and Tortures that the most twisted Malice and Subtilty of Earth and Hell could devise and that in such measure that in the Dioclesian Persecution which lasted for ten years there were put to Death Seventeen thousand in a Month. And of the Decian Persecution Nicephorus saies It was as easie to number the Sands of the Sea as to reckon up all that suffer'd Martyrdom in that one Perscution under Decius This bloody work continued with its little Intermissions for about 250 years viz. from the Reign of Nero Anno Dom. 54. to the Reign of Constantius Clorus Anno Dom. 304. These Flames of Persecution were scarcely extinguished and peace and quiet restored to the Church but new Heats and Lights were raised by the pride and discontent of Schismaticks which infested the Church of God till Mahometanism and Popery divided the greatest part of the World and were more pernicious to Christiany than all the ten Persecutions Among these Schismaticks the Donatists were chief who were as St. Augustine shews at large sound in the Faith but as ‖ Ep. 50. let O. P. he saies De sola communionae infaeliciter litigarunt contra unitatem Christi rebelles inimicitias perversitate sui erroris exercuerunt They quarrelled only about Church-Communion as the Novatians and Meletians in another part of the World did and through the Perversness of their Error exercised saies he Rebellious enmity against the Unity of the Church For the right understanding of the rise and progress of this Schism we must note that Dioclesian in the heat and heighth of his Persecution had put forth an Edict that Christians should deliver up their Bibles and the Writings of the Church to be burnt which Edict was prosecuted with so much rage and vigor that many Christians to avoid the Storm deliver'd up their Bibles to the great Scorn of their Enemies for which they were called Traditores The Persecution being over some of the Orthodox refused to receive them into Communion notwithstanding the greatest evidence that could be given of their true Repentance the difference broke out into open Schism and Faction and gave Birth to that unhappy Sect of the Donatists in the year 298 which was about twelve years after the Meletian Schism was made when Constantine the Great was Emperor and Silvester Bishop of Rome in this wise Botrus and Celesius two Presbyters being in Competition with Cecilian for the Bishoprick of Carthage Cecilian a man of note for Learning and Integrity was by the general Suffrage of that whole Church chosen Bishop Botrus and Celesius discontented hereat Opt. p. 14. Danae on Aug. de Haeres c. 69. with some others that had been proceeded against by Cecilian refused to hold Communion with him and particularly Lucilla a Spanish Lady rich and factious thinking her self affronted by Cecilian's sharp reproof of her Superstitious practice in kissing the Reliques of some Martyr before her receiving the Sacrament in Discontent and Anger joyns her self to Botrus and
Celecius and by the help of her money calls in Donatus à casa nigra with some others to strengthen the Party much after the same manner as Viret and Farellus did Calvin at Geneva This Donatus was presently made the head of the Faction who tho himself and most of his Party had been Traditors i.e. such as to evade the Dioclesian Persecution had delivered up their Bibles to be burnt yet accuses Cecilian of being a Traditor and on that account not fit to be Bishop of Carthage whereupon they set up Majorinus a Presbyter and Mock-bishop in the stead of or rather against the good Bishop Cecilian and thus the Schism began by erecting Altar against Altar Dan on Aug. de Haeres c. 69. in setting up Majorinus a Pseudo-Bishop against Cecilian the lawful and good Bishop of Carthage But this Majorinus died immediately upon the first broach of the Schism and was succeeded by Donatus à casis nigris and he by Donatus Magnus from whom they were called Donatists priding themselves much in this Denomination è parte Donati The Schism increased daily and began by the Conduct of Donatus to set up private meetings Ibid. which they called the only True and Holy Church of God but which St. Augustine commonly calls Conventicles and after a short time began to build for their Meetings basilicas non necessarias as Optatus calls them And this pernicious Schism being thus founded in proud and ambitious Discontent it was propagated much after the same manner and by the same means as well as all other Schisms usually are as 1. Pretensions to greater purity and stricter piety than others Thus they taught The Church is to consist of none but such as be holy and that such were not to be found in the Church of Carthage but in the Donatists separate Congregations only for which St. Augustine frequently reproves them and particularly in that one ⸫ Ep. 48 lett c. lett p. Epistle to Vincentius of boasting of themselves as the only Persons in whom the Son of Man should find Faith when he came and in the same Epistle compares them to the Pharisees on this very account For justifying themselves and despising others which he calls an establishing of their own Righteousness c. That which was at-first pretended by the Donatists as the ground of the Schism was that Cecilian the Orthodox Bishop of Carthage was a Traditor that he and the other Catholick Bishops had admitted lapsed Persons into their Church-Communion whereby all their Churches were defiled and ought not to be communicated with and therefore separated from them on the account of greater purity Hist of the Donat. In the Meeting which the Emperor Honorius appointed at the Gargilian Baths between the Catholicks and Donatists for the composing of matters between them the Donatists refused so much as to sit in their Company Primilianus the Donatist Bishop of Carthage his Words were Indignum est ut filii Martyrum est progenies Traditorum in unum coeant i. e. It is not fit that the Sons of Martyrs as they called themselves and the Sons of Traditors as they called the Orthodox should sit together and another of them Odi Ecclesiam malignantium cum impiis non sedebo I hate the Church of the Malignants the very same Name that the Schismatick-Rebels of 43 called the Orthodox and Loyal English by Such were their great pretensions to strict Purity and holy Ordinances that they washed the very Walls and Pavements of their Religious places where any of the Orthodox Christians had been 2. A second Expedient that they used for the propagating of their Schism was their proud and censorious slandering and traducing the Orthodox This Donatist Schism was first of all founded in the discontent that Donatus had took at his not being preferred to the Bishoprick of Carthage before Cecilian whereupon he separated and propagated the Schism very much by this very means Dan. on Aug. de Haeres cap. 69. traducing Cecilian as a Traditor as no Minister of Christ nor the people that adhered to him true members of the Christian Church that they had no true Sacraments nor saving Ordinances that all were corrupted by Idolatry and Superstition Opt. p. 47. and thus they generally called the Catholicks Pagans and Idolaters But more particularly the venerable St. Augustine having in publick Meetings soundly baffled Petilian Cresconius and others of their Ring-leaders and many ways mauled their Schismatick Cause for which he has been always stiled Donatistarum mallaeus him they traduced as a contentions Disputer a wrangling Sophister and a Perverter of Souls rather to be avoided than disputed with and to be dealt with as a Wolf or any beast of Prey and accordingly they employed their Circumcellions to murder him but that the Providence of God did so miraculously preserve him once by misleading him out of his way and at other times in miraculous manner The Emperor they traduced as misled by Hosius the famous Bishop of Corduba by Stilicho the great Staes-man and others whom they stiled Evil Counsellors Hist of the Dona. 135. of Mensurius Cecilians Predecessor they said he was Tyranno crudelior carnifice sevior more raging than a Tyrant and more cruel than a Hangman against the Magistracy it self says Danaeus they did multa emovere impie blatterare C. 69. tanquam ecclesiae lupi pestes magistratus essent lye muttering and vomiting out wickedly accounting the Magistrates the very Wolfs and Plagues of the Church and all this to promote the Schism by keeping up prejudice in the minds of People and to maintain in them an ill opinion of their lawful Ministers and Magistrates who otherwise might have reduced them to Unity and Communion with the Orthodox Christians 3. Obstinacy in their Perswasion they had been so oft condemned in full Councils and yet persisted in their error Ep. 167. let O. that made St. Augustine in indignation say Puto quod si ipse diabolus autoritate judicis quem ultro elegerat toties vinceretur non esset tam impudens ut in eâ persisteret I think that if the Devil himself had been so oft condemned as these Dotists have been by Judges of their own chusing he would not have been so impudent as to persist in such a Cause 4. A fourth Expedient which they used in propagating the Schism was Phanaticism or Enthusiasm When Donatus had a mind to engage the Circumcellians in any barbarous Enterprize his Custom was to pretend that an Angel had appear'd to him and assured him of success in answer to his Prayers Oravit Donatus respondit ei Deus says Optatus and of all the Donatists saith Danaeus C. 69. Jactant Revelationes Entheusiasmos ut sua dogmata plausibilius confirment se sanctos perfectosque sumosius glorientur to the end they may make their Opinons in Religion the more plausible and may the more speciously boast of themselves as
as to oblige all after-times to any particular form of Rituals is certain And also that they gave only general Directions but left it to the Power and Prudence of Church-Rulers to determine of Particulars as the various Conditions of People Time and Place should respectively require This is evident from hence that the Apostles instituted several things in the Primitive Churches which were in after-times to be used or disused as Church-Rulers should think fit For instance the Agapae or Love-feasts the holy Kiss the order of Deaconnesses and several other things which are now utterly disused and laid aside tho of Apostolical Institution Nor doth any man scruple the Disuse or Abrogation of them which is a palpable evidence that the Apostles never designed a certain form of Rituals to all after-ages but left it to the Prudence and Power of Church-Rulers to appoint as they see fit And thus Mr. Calvin himself Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 10.30 In externa disciplina Ceremoniis non voluit Christus c. Christ would not prescribe singularly and specially concerning external Discipline and Ceremonies because he foresaw these things were to depend on the occasions and opportunities of times and ought to be accommodated to the Edification of the Church according to the different disposition and custom of Times and Countries He adds Page 10. I think it will be very difficult for any man to make it appear that for some hundreds of years after the Apostles the Orthodox Christian Church did ever require any more then common Christianity as a term or condition of Church Communion or that any Ceremony was for so long a time imposed on the Church The Orthodox Christian Church did require it as the term or condition of church-Church-Communion That the lapsed Penitents should perform the five several Stages of Penance in such Posture and Gesture as the Church imposed and no other wherefore one sort of Penitents were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Prostrate because they were to perform their Penance in the Gesture of Prostration and no other They wore certain Marks of Penance about them with several other Ceremonies that I could name which were imposed on them as terms of Church-Communion Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and Martyr who lived in the Apostles times Socr. Hist l. 6. c. 8. is reported by Socrates to have heard in a Vision the Angels celebrating the Praises of God in Alternate Hymns and in Imitation thereof appointed the ceremonious way of Antiphones or responsal Hymns in the Church of Antioch which was immediately appointed in or imposed on most Christian Churches in the World The Ceremony or Order of reading the two Lessons after the Psalms is mentioned in the Apostolick Canons Ap. Can. lib. 2. can 57. as a thing decreed or appointed injoined or imposed which Cassianus mentions as the Ancient custom of all the Egyptian Churches Cassian l. 2. c. 4. which he saies was not taught by men but by the Ministry of Angels from Heaven Epipha adv Aerians Epiphanius calls the Aerians the most Brainsick Hereticks that ever were for holding that Bishops and Presbyters were all one and that they were not bound to keep Lent and the Holy week as the Laws of the Holy Church required Sozomen speaks of standing up at the Gospel History lib. 7. c. 19. as a thing very anciently and universally imposed He saies it was a new Fashion in Alexandria that the Bishop did not rise up when the Gospel was read and that he never heard of the like elsewhere And the Council of Toleta ordained Con. 11. c. 3. That all Governours of Churches and their People should observe the same Rites and Order of Service which they knew to be appointed in the Metropolitan See In the early days of Tertullian who lived near the Apostles times there was distinction of Garments bowing to'ard the East and innumerable other Ceremonies and among the rest there 's no question to be made of what Mr. Bolde has such a spight at the Cross at Baptism since the Church saies Canon 30. that it was used in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches with one consent All which Ceremonies Tertullian calls * Harum aliarum ejusmodi Disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum invenies nullam sed traditio est auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix Disciplines which implies that they were imposed yet there was then no such thing as scrupling of Ceremonies but obedience active and passive even to Pagan Governours and conformity to Christian Church-Orders was a Characteristical mark of primitive Christianity Whatever the Pleaders name be to shew that his Temper is daring he tells us p. 11 12. He dares affirm That if the Rights and Ceremonies now in use in the Church of England should be alter'd some changed and some wholly laid aside by the same Authority that did at first injoin them the Church of England would still be as impregnable a Bulwark against Popery as now she is and I am fully satisfied saies he there is no man will deny this unless he be either a real Papist or an ignorant superstitious Fool. The King Parliaments and Convocations have denyed it and I am fully satisfied they must and will deny it on these accounts following 1. On the account of the great danger that universal Observation and Experience have found to be in such Innovation as he pleads for in altering the Constitutions of a Church that have heen composed and setled by wise men and Christian Martyrs reverenced and admired by others incorporated into the Laws of the Land rivetted by Custom and long Prescription for the sake of such novel Notions and inconsistent Alterations as no dissenting Party could ever yet agree in and such as is inseparably twisted with seditious and penicious Alterations in the State It being much more true of England what Optatus said of Milevis Res publica non est in ecclesia sed ecclesia in republica and therefore that the Church being contained in a Civil Society must conform its self in externals to that which contains it for Safety and Preservation Which made King Charles the first call such Alteration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 11. The old leaven of Innovation under the mask of Reformation which in his two last Predecessors days heaved at and threatned both Prince and Parliaments They first desired Alteration of him and then obtruded it on him with the point of their Swords with such a trusting to their Moderation which he there calls abandoning his own Discretion and shews throughout that they who began with nothing else but such desires of Moderation and Alteration as Mr. Bolde Pleads for ceased in nothing else but utter Subversion and Dissolution And Arch-Bishop Bramhall whom Mr. Baxter truly calls Lett. to Mr. Militier that clear-headed Metropolitan teaches That it is a rule in prudence not to alter no not an ill custom when
the Catholick Martyrs and Orthodox Christians of the Primitive time and all in imitation of those Jewish Worthies Samuel Elias Phineas c. who living under a perfect Theocrasie had that real and miraculous impulse of Gods Spirit and that immediate Guidance and Commission from Heaven which the most fervent and daring Zealot in the Christian World never could without rank Phanaticism so much as pretend to And as their Principle so their Practice At the first starting of Presbytery in Geneva Anno 1535. When the Bishop of Geneva would not admit of the Presbyterian Innovations Viret and Farellus with their Followers presently turned Zealots drove the Bishop out of Town and set up Calvin in his stead disclaiming all Allegiance to their Duke and Bishop From Geneva the Presbyterian Discipline was sent into France where the Abettors of them called Albigenses propagated it at first by their Arch-Zealot the Earl of Tholouse's murdering Trincannel the Viscount and chief Governour of the City Beziers and dashing out the Bishops teeth In the Low Countries Presbytery was first set up at Embden in Friezeland by renouncing all Allegiance to their Prince and taking up Arms against him and setting themselves in form of a Common-wealth In Scotland the Earl of Bothwell and his Accomplices rose Forces to Depose and Murder the King under pretence of removing the Popish Lords and promoting the Presbyterian Discipline The Gowries Conspiracy to kill King James was so approved of by the Presbyterian Ministers of Edenburgh that they refused to give thanks for the Kings Deliverance tho commanded by the Kings Proclamation so to do And as the Circumcillian-Zealots of whom hereafter were taught these practices by their Donatist Bishops and Ministers so were these Presbyterian Zealots by their Ministers as may be seen in the writings of Knox Buchanan Willock the * Thes 358 368 147 136 151 c. Holy Commonwealth Of all which the Murder of King Charles the first the late Murder of the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the late Conspiracy of 83. against King Charles the second are all most barbarous and bloody Comments In short that the Presbyterian Sectaries now called Dissenting Protestants are perfect Zealots Enthusiastick Zealots is evident from hence That ever since the Reformation from Popery there has not been in any Protestant Countrey any Rebellion Massacre Tumult Treason or Murders considerable but what Papists or Phanatick or both had a hand in as a means of Propagating their Religion on the same grounds and principles as all former Zealots did GNOSTICKS THese were the first and worse Schismaticks first and worst Rebels in the Christian Church * Dr. Cave on the Life of St. Paul The first Founder of them was Simon Magus who not being able to attain his ends of the Apostles in getting power to confer miraculous gifts resolved in discontent and revenge to make Schisms in the Christian Church So that as the first Schismatick in the World was a Devil so the first Schismatick in the Christian World was a Witch He began his Schismatizing first at Samaria the first place that embraced the Christian Faith Dr. Hammon Annot. Acts 8.12 14. Tho their Schisms and Errors were broached in the Apostles times yet they had not the name of Gnosticks till after when they assumed it to themselves on pretence of greatest Knowledg above other men and particularly in mystical Interpretations They pretended to be well acquainted with the Holy Scriptures to know all the Mysteries of the Old Testament which pretended knowledg is that saies Dr. Hammond which the Apostle charges Timothy to avoid Annot. on 2 Pet. 1.5 1 Tim. 6.20 calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. knowledg falsly so called from whence they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnosticks i. e. knowing Persons or the knowing Party And by a strange Liberty which they took in Interpreting the Scriptures brought in as the Apostle calls them damnable Doctrines such as resisting Magistrates Liberty in the exercise of Uncleanness for which they were called Borboritae whereby they greatly strengthened their Faction And as they pretended to greater Knowledg so to greater Piety and Holiness than others as * Dr. Ham. Annot. 1 Joh. 1.10 Let. H. Irenaeus saies they called themselves the Spiritual this is the Character of the Gnosticks saies he to live in all Carnality and Uncharitableness and yet pretend themselves to be the most perfect men But the greatest pretension was that Christian Liberty which the Gospel instated them in and on these accounts they separated themselves opposed the Apostles and Governors of the Church deposed the Orthodox Christians as Carnal and not having the Spirit and looking on all others beside their own Party as Ignorant they pretended to know more than the Bishops saith ‖ Dr. Ham. Annot. Preface to 2d Ep. of John Ignatius Yea than the Apostles themselves saies Epiphanius Against these Gnostick-Sectaries St. Peter St. Paul St. James and St. John direct their Epistles chiefly and St. Jude his Epistle wholly where in less then six verses he gives more than sixteen distinctive marks whereby they may be known Mr. Jenkins on the place 1. The first is their insolence against Government ver 8. They despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities i.e. were sawcy with the Government of Antimagistratical and Tumultuous Carriage to'ards Governours for which cause the Apostles press no one Doctrine in all their Epistles more than Loyalty and Obedience not only to the good and gentle but to the froward and wicked not to good Governors as good but to Governors as Governors and the Ordinance of God 2. A second mark the Apostle gives of the Gnostick-Sectaries is their discontent and murmuring against Governors Mr. Jenkins on the place ver 16. They are Murmurers Complainers never content with any Government The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports a secret muttering and grumbling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grunnio to grunt like a Swine importing a speaking against another secretly with hatred and impatience Like some now-adays who if for committing a spoil in Gods Harvest Justice takes them by the Ears with hideous outcrys they call all the compassionate Herd to condole their suffering and that they call Persecution and the suffering days of the Saints Are any of them cut off by the hand of Justice for their Seditious Villanies How doth their Party murmur against the Magistrate that they suffer wrongfully c. As the Rebels Korah and his company did against Moses and Aaron Numb 16.41 Ye have killed the people of the Lord the people of the Lord when God had declared from Heaven most miraculously that they were Rebels and that his Wrath was kindled against them on the account of their being so 3. A third mark is Erratick Zeal verse 13. Wandering Stars so called Dr. Manton on the place as for inconstancy and unsetledness pretending to be Stars and great lights that a reindeed
dare to publish that any separated Church has of long time groaned under the burden of certain grievances imposed upon it speaking before of Gods Worship in the Church of England and that whosoever shall presume so to do shall be excommunicated and not restored till they repent and publickly revoke such their wicked error And of the Act for Uniformity 1. Q Eliz. which saies If any declare or speak any thing in derogation of the Common-Prayer or any thing therein contained he shall lose and forfeit for his first Offence the profit of all his spiritual Benefices or Promotions for one whole year and suffer Imprisonment for six Months without Bail or Mainprise and for the second Offence shall be imprison'd one whole year and deprived of all his spiritual Promotions How far he has incurr'd this Penalty let others judg that which I remark is in these following particulars 1. His insinuateing concerning the Church Ceremonies P. 4. 20. as humane Devices and humane Inventions Whereas the Church of England has retain'd but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance and Apostolick practice as Bishop Taylor has observed and that is the Cross at Baptism Ductor Dubit lib. 3. c. 4. which is a compliance with the practice of all Ancient Churches The Church has but this one Ceremony of its own appointment for the Ring in Marriage is the Symbol of a Civil and religious Contract a Pledge and Custom of the Nation not of the Religion As for other Circumstances they are but Determinations of time place and manner of Duty and serve for no other purposes then significations for Order and Decency For which saies he there is an Apostolical precept and a Natural reason and an evident necessity or great convenience And notwithstanding the use of this sign in Baptism has ever been accompanied with the greatest Exceptions Care and Cautions against all Popish Superstition and Error as the 30th Canon shews And notwithstanding the reverend esteem that the Primitive Church had of it in so much saies that Canon That if any opposed it they would certainly have been censured not only as Enemies of the name of the Cross but of the Merits of Christ And notwithstanding the Concessions of the most Eminent Nonconformists granting the lawfulness of its use Mr. Baxter Christ Direct Q. 113. Yet doth this Pleader give it as ridiculous and absur'd a name as any could be thought of calling it in plain English contradictio in adjecto and this on no other then this silly account P. 12. The ill Opinions that it begets in the minds of the Ignorant as tho it were indispensibly necessary and a part of the Ordinance of Baptism and as tho private Baptism without the Cross is not true sound Baptism To this there is this sufficient Answer in the 30th Canon 1. That the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it or make the use of it unlawful which is the more regardable because spoken as the Church's sense in special reference to the Cross in Baptism 2. The same Canon saies That the use of this sign was ever accompanied with sufficient Cautions and Exceptions against Superstition and Error Common-Prayer Book Preface of Church Ceremonies And the Church has elsewhere fully declared against retaining of any such Ceremonies as are like to be abused to Superstition c. 3. Tho this Proposition private Baptism is no true sound Baptism seem somewhat contradictory yet to shew that it is nothing so to make it what Mr. Bolde calls it contradictio in adjecto there must be incompossibilitas terminorum The Adjecta or Termini here are private sound and who can apprehend any incompossibility or repugnancy in those terms as they relate to Baptism Besides if by sound Baptism may be meant compleat and perfect Baptism then the Rubrick and Directory also doth scarce allow of private Baptism as sound Baptism except in the case of dying Infants And since he speaks of the Ignorant only why may not such take sound Baptism in that Sense So that in plain his hinting the Cross at Baptism by that odious name is such a thick piece of Error as may be felt and in a Conformist such a thin piece of Hypocrisie as the weakest eye may see through and ten times worse then Mr. Baxter's whimsey in questioning whether we do not make the Cross at Baptism A new Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace First Plea for Peace which no one part of the Definition of a Sacrament can be made to agree with He proceeds against the imposing of Ceremonies in general thus Our Saviour lays no stress on any thing but real practical Religion Obedience to lawful Authority in things indifferent is real practical Religion and Inconformity or Disobedience to lawful Authority is damnable Sin He adds Page 9. The Apostles upon mature Deliberation would lay no more on the Disciples then what was then necessary 1. No more do the Apostles and Governours of our Church now But to shew how impertinently this is urged 2. 'T is evident by the Context that those words of the Apostle James relate particularly to Circumcision Acts 15. which was not a Jewish ceremony but a Jewish sacrament of divine institution and alteration both and therefore nothing to our purpose and yet St. Paul circumcised Timothy Acts 16.3 meerly in conformity to the Jews And at that same Council Acts 15. when the Apostles had declared against Circumcision at the same time as in the next verse they declared for the Gentiles abstaining from things strangled and from Blood which there was no Law of God for obligeing the Gentiles to but what the Apostles enjoined them meerly on the account of Peace and Conformity to the Church National of the Jews they lived in according to the grand Exemplar Christ his complying all along with the Jewish Church in their Rites and Customs observing their Feasts and making his own Institutions of Baptism and the Lord Supper as agreeable to their Customs as was possible And according to his example all a long the Apostles not like inflexible starch't Pharisees but like humble complaisant Christians became all things to all to the Jews as Jews and to those without the Law as without the Law In the next place he starts this Question Page 9. as that which he saies some do much insist upon Whether the Apostles had not power to determine indifferent Ceremonies so as to oblige the Church in her several Administrations to the use of some and to forbear the use of all others He resolves it thus They never made use of their power that we read of Page 10. about these indifferent and unnecessary things It was not necessary they should the general Rule and Reason being sufficient to secure the Church against any capital Mistake That the Apostles never obliged the Church to the use of some Ceremonies or the difuse of others so
of that decency the care and observation whereof is commended to us in those words let all things be done decently and in order but humane so far as they are appropriated by men to some circumstance of Person Time or Place Mr. Bolde proceeds next to play the Emperick in prescribing to the body-politick Church and State The disease is falling out and quarrelling about old Rights and Ceremonies p. 8. passim and he has no remedy for this but the Churches yeilding to its Enemies in altering some and wholly laying aside other of her Ceremonies p. 11. That abatements might be made to Dissenters p. 12. who are to be Proselyted by the Churches condescending and yielding p. 19. And the like throughout his Book like a Vein through his Body and thus he prescribes to Parliaments in chief p. 25. Can any thing be more Baxterious than such arrogant prescribing to Princes and Parliaments Or is not this as if he had said that the makers of the Law must concede to the Subjects of the Law that Laws and Law-makers both must conform to Nonconformity that Parliaments and Synods those most august and venerable Assemblies in the World must stoop to Scepticks and Innovators Authority and Antiquity to Novelty and Bigotry Primitive practice to innovating humour and Majesty its self to peevish and turbulent and endless Scrupulosity And all this saies Mr. Bolde to satisfie some that are unsatisfied i.e. as some love to speak unsatisfied in Conscience profanely calling by that sacred Name of Conscience what men of greatest Learning strictest Piety and Holiness and most comfortable Consciences have called sturdiness of Opinion in some weakness and unsetledness of Judgment in others and indeed a meer fear of doing what God commands for fear of Sin But pursuant to his Plea for the Churches yielding to its Enemies in the Alteration and Abolition of Church-Ceremonies He tells this dull Story from Beza that was a sworn Enemy to Episcopacy A Noble-man having finish'd the building of his house suffer'd a great Stone to lie before the house which he had no occasion for the People stumbling at it in the dark complained the Noble man would not suffer the Stone to be took away but order'd a Lanthorn to be hung out over it this not securing the People from the inconveniences of it the Noble-man was at last intreated to remove the Stone and Lanthern both But whether he did remove them or no that Mr. Bolde keeps to himself Without any remark on the impertinence of this dull Story Serious and compassionate Enquiry p. 10. I shall be so civil to Mr. Bolde as to return it from a more considerable Author than Beza thus Apelles to deride the conceited folly of the Age exposes to publick view a Master-piece of his Work and as it usually happens by the encouragement of the Proverb Facile est inventis adhere every body pretends to skill in reforming scarce any passed by but passed their Verdict on the Picture all generally commend it yet to give some instance of their skill every one finds some fault or other one would have had more shade another less one commends the Eye but blames the Lip c. The cunning Artist observes all but says nothing and still as any Passenger gave his Verdict he alters the Picture accordingly the result was this by its Alteration and Reformation it became such Abomination of Deformation such a horrid monstrous Piece that the very Reformers themselves wonder'd at its Ugliness Apelles to right himself produces another piece of the same Art and Beauty which he had hitherto kept up by him and so had escaped their censure with this he upbraids them thus Hanc ego faci istam populus This I made the t'other is a Devil of your own making Now not to be so abrupt as Mr. Bolde was as to run from my Story without any Application Christian Religion was by Wise and Holy men our Reformers divested of those meretricious and gaudy Accoutrements that the Papists had drest her up with and habited her according to primitive simplicity but this tho amiable of it self would not please every Body every Sect or Party would have something alter'd which if it were allowed the Opinions of men are so contrary to one another as well as to truth the true lineaments of Christianity would be lost and so our Religion have the same fate that the poor Picture of Apelles had But in pleading for Alteration of some Ceremonies and laying others wholly aside Mr. Bolde proceeds to seven Arguments 1. The first is this It is unquestionably certain that the closer any Church doth keep or the nearer she approaches to the first Churches in their simplicity and freedom from humane inventions the more justifiable she will be and so on 1. The Ceremonies we retain are so few that if compared with the vast numbers used in the Church of Rome or in the Orthodox Christian Churches in St. Augustine's time they will appear to be vix quod Thebarum portae next to none in the comparison 2. Those few Ceremonies we do retain are according to the Practice and Simplicity of the first Churches The 30th Canon saies we depart from the Churches of Italy France Spain and the like Churches in those points only wherein they are fallen from themselves in their ancient Integrity and from the Apostolical Churches which were their first Founders Thus the Church of England declares concerning Church Ceremonies in general and of the Cross at Baptism in particular it says we therein follow the primitive Apostolic Churches And 3. It is on no account more then agreement with the Primitive Churches that we retain the use of our few Ceremonies and refuse to yield to Dissenters in altering some and abolishing others and therefore according to the Pleaders own Hypothesis our Church is most justifiable in so doing 2. His Second Argument is this That teaching that humane authority has an unlimited power to impose any thing on the Church which is not expresly forbid in Scripture may be of dangerous consequence The word unlimited is here impertinently foisted in for if humane authority has power to impose on the Church what the Scripture doth not forbid it must in that case have an unlimited power because nothing can limit it but the Scripture If you take his assertion without the word Vnlimited then it is that which Dr. Sanderson called the very mystery of Puritanism Serm. Preface and that which the very Protestant Reconciler doth contradict and confute P. 187. and which is not only the very characteristick doctrine of the Dissenters but their chief fundamental the very ground and foundation of their out-cries against ceremonies as uncommanded rites humane inventions Superstitions c. And whereas he says this may be of dangerous consequence it 's certain that the contrary is so to teach that humane authority has not this power of imposing on the Church things not forbid in Scripture but to
is suppressing Nonconformity but doth rather incourage the thing and increase the Party For this he appeals to long and often experience and this he asserts at large with the greatest assurance imaginable Whereas 1st in statu quo the thing is yet sub judice the event scarcely yet discernable the effect yet scarcely known because since Queen Elizabeths reign the Laws have not been put into rigorous execution till this last year When Mr. Bolde wrote his Book the rigorous execution of the Law was much relaxed and it was the relaxation that so increased the Party Our State-Physitians have found it so that that pestilent Lax was the true morbifick cause of that dangerous superfaetation in the Body politick And let Bolde Quacklings pretend what they will Perilis in sua cujusque arte credendum est and thus as to the present or late state of things 2. If we look back on former times Long and often experience has made it undeniably evident that putting the paenal Laws rigorously in execution against Dissenters hath answered the end for which they were designed i. e. Hath suppressed Dissenters and reformed Nonconformity when nothing else would do Hist of Presb. lib. 9. n. 25 27. In Queen Elizabeth's Reign it was enacted in Parliament That whosoever should be found at any Conventicle or private meeting on pretence of Religious exercise were to suffer imprisonment or to depart the Realm never to return without leave first granted and the failure herein was made Felony And it was such sharp Laws made against them and rigorously executed on them that utterly suppress'd them and thereby effectually promoted the peace and tranquility of Church and State when all other means failed and that it was K. James's relaxing this rigour that first revived their faction is undeniably evident to any that understands the History of England for these Hundred and Thirty years last past And of Old the whole History of the Donatists doth make evident 1. That as the Emperours and their Councils became more zealous for the Christian Religion their Laws were made more and more strict against Dissenters and executed with more and more rigour according to the growth and proportion of their zeal for Christianity And 2dly that putting the Laws rigorously in execution was the only thing that restrained that dangerous faction and restored peace and unity to the Church Mine own City says St. Augustine which was once all Donatists Civitas mea cum tota esset in parte Donati ad unitatem Cathol timore legum imperialium conversa est Ep. 48. lit V. X. is now converted to the Vnity of the Church by this very means the terror of the Imperial Laws The terror of the Laws was so profitable to them says he that they did bless God for them saying God be thanked that hath quickened us stimulo terroris by the terror of the Laws to seek and to find the truth Others says he say we were frigheed by false rumours from entering into the Church which we should never have known to be false if we had not come to the Church and we should never have come to it if we had not been compelled And in his 50th Epistle to Bonifacius They who formerly had been on the Donatists Party thanked God that now by the correction of the Laws they are delivered from that furâ—osâ— pernicies as he calls their Nonconformity and that they who did so hate the Laws do now love them and rejoice in the cure that they had made on them as formerly they did in their madness detest the wholsome Laws as troublesome to them He elsewhere calls them mad that divide the Church and would have them like mad-men tyed and bound with the Chain of wholsome Laws and Severities Contra hos Imperator Constan lege sancivit auferri eorum oratoria Ecclesiis applicari neque in domivâ—s privatorum eos Congregationes neque publice celebrare sed in Ecclesia Cathol communicare in eam cunctis convenire sâ—â—debat propter quam legem haeresi on mâ—mor am arbâ—tror fuisse destructam Hist trip lib. 3 c. 11. Constantine the first Christian Emperour finding the Church divided and disturbed by Schismatick Dissenters made a Law against them forbidding and suppressing all their Conventicles by which very means says Sozomen the memory of Schismaticks was utterly destroyed And whereas Mr. Bolde says P. 28. that severity is not a proper me hod for the satisfying of mens judgements or removing their scruples I answer St. Augustine says that he was once of that mind and was not for having the Laws rigorously executed against Dissenters but he acknowledges his error in it and tells us that this opinion of his was conquered and changed non contradicentium verbis Ep. 48. lett V. sed demonstrantium exemplis i e. as Mr. Bolde speaks by long and often experience 'T is true says St. Augustine Let. T. none can be made good against his will but the fear of suffering may make him leave off his animosity against the truth or make him willing to receive the truth which he formerly knew not and persist in it when he knows it We know many says he not only single persons but whole Cities that were Donatists or Separatists now become good Catholicks heartily detested their devilish separation and fervently loving the unity and Communion of the Church all which were made such Convâ—râ—s by the fear of those Laws which * Speaking to Vincentius a Donatist you so dislâ—â—e And these examples propounded to me by my Colleague made me change my opinion For saith he I was once of that opinion that no mâ—n ought to be compâ—lled to the Vnâ—ty of the Church but that this was to be done only by force of * Vâ—rbo agendum disputatione pugnandum ratione vincendum argumenâ— and disputation that they were to be convict by Reason not compelled by Law for this I thought could do noâ—hing but make open Schismaticks Litt. V. or counterfeit Catholicks but this I was convinced to be an error non contradicentium verbis sed demonstrantium exemplis by long and often experience And therefore the Holy Father in his Epistles to Bonifacius Januarius Festus and others doth mightily press the rigorous execution of the Imperial Laws against Dissenters not only at that which is necessary to the unity and safety of the Church but of sufficient tendency to satisfy mâ—ns judgments and remove their scruples by compelling them to the most apt and proper means of that satisfaction and removal But suppose that it were not as the venerable St. Augustine says but as Mr Bold says that severity is not a proper means to satisfy mens judgments or remove their scruples Yet 2. It cannot be denyed but that it is a proper means to preserve the Churches unity and therefore Constantine the most Religious Emperour the first that ever made Laws against Dissenters did not seek to bring
the Heathens to Christianity by severity and force but by severity and force he endeavoured to keep the Christians in unity and to that end enacted many severe Laws against the Dissenters of those times such says Augustine as did in conventiculis suis separatim congregare And 't is remarkable that though the Laws made against those Donatist-Dissenters were not only great pecuniary mulcts but banishment and seizing their Goods for the Emperours use as I understand those words ut fisco vinâ—icarentur yet doth the holy Father account these laws so favourable as not to punish but admonish only Lit. O. and having spoke of the Paganish Idolaters being punished with death for their Idâ—latry as that seveâ—ity which the Orthodox and Donatists both did approve of and rejoice in he adds Lit. O. P. that the wickedness of Schism is worse than that of Idolatry which is a broad intimation that that holy man thought Schism a Capital crime And here I cannot but take notice of his calling the wholsome execution of the Poenal Laws by the odious name of Persecution and not only so but like the Donatists of old and the Jesuits of late doth wrest and rack the holy Scripture to make it speak its sence of it Witness that very Text on which he preached his printed Sermon Gal 4 29. As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit so it is now where the Apostle doth plainly make the party prosecuting to be the party persecuted It was Isaac and Sarah that corrected Hagar and Ishmael and yet says the Apostle Ishmael he that was born after the flesh was the party persecuting tho the party suffering By which we may understand says St. Augustine upon the place that the Church rather suffers persecution by the pride and wickedness of carnal men Ep 48. Lit. L. by their Ishmaeliâ—ish reproaches when she endeavours to amend them by temporal punishments and corrections than they by the Church so that whatever the true Mother doth in this case though it may seem harsh and bitter yet she doth not render evil for evil but endeavour by wholsome discipline to expel sin not out of hatred or desire to hurt but out of love to cure Whereby it doth plainly appear that the execution of the poenal Laws against Dissenters for of such he speaks is so far from being Persecution that in that case the party Prosecuting is the party Persecuted with Ishmaelitish reproaches as being Persecutors c But the best account of the true notion of Persecution is in the learned Dr Hick's Sermon of Persecutiand thither I refer the Reader 6. Mr. Bolde's 6th Argument is no more than this It was never known that any Indifferent Ceremonies were universally imposed in a knowing age and the opinions of all good men did agree to them Which is no more in effect than if he had said That because some good men have not agreed to the use of some Ceremonies therefore the Church must prostitute her authority to every Sceptick Innovator in altering her ancient Constitutions 7. Hâ—â— 7th and last is taken from our condescentions to the Papists in a â—â—nâ— our Rubrick Publick Service and Articles in order to the bringing of the Papists to join with us in our worship c. He instance in the Churches expunging that passage in the Littany where we prayed to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishops of Rome c. 'T is true that for the first Eighteen years of Queen Elizabeth few of the Popish Recusants absented themselves from our Churches till Pope Pius the Fifth by his interdictory Bull would have all communion with us renounced and in meer hopes of uniting and bringing them over to the Reformed Religion there was that condescention and compliance made and the like and greater concessions were indulged or offer'd at least to the Nonconformists in Queen Elizabeths time till it did appear that they would be satisfied with no other concessions than what were judged inconsistent with the safety of Church and State Mr. Bold having finished his Seven Arguments against Imposition of Church-Ceremonies and execution of poenal Laws has this one Story more that when the Emperour took a Bishop in compleat Armour he sent the Armour to the Pope with this word haeccine sunt vestes Filii tui Whereby Mr. Bolde would insinuate again as the Precedent words shew that only Arguments and Reasons and not coercive means are to be used with Dissenters The error of this hath its refutal from some of my last Citations out of St. Augustine Ep. 48. Litt. T. And therefore no more but to return the Story Paulus Emilius Val. Max. a Noble General when several of his Souldiers took on them to prescribe and suggest to him their several models of management and discipline Acuite vos gladios says the General mind you your Swords and your business be ready to obey and execute what shall be commanded you but leave the discipline and management of affairs to me your General q. d. let Governours and Government alone keep you your station and mind your business in opposing the Enemy and obeying your Commanders but do not dare to medle with controlling directing or prescribing to those whom it is your business to obey But if these bold Soldiers that prescribed thus saucily to their General should have turn'd Runagadoes and been caught by him like this Pleader with his Militant Apologies for Dissenting Enemies going over into the Enemies Camp no doubt but he would have given them the very edge of Martial Law Thus have I faithfully remarked all that I judge any thing argumentative in Mr. Bolde's fraudulent Plea which is indeed nothing else but arrogant dogmatizing and prescribing to Superiours instead of Pleading for licentious and disorderly Toleration on pretence of Moderation of the sworn enemies of the Church and Government under the name of Dissenters I see little else in his Book but what is fairly reducible to one of these heads Impertinency or Scandal of the former sort is his spending so many Pages in telling who they are he pleads for they are says he more particularly men of such Learning as Mr. Baxter Mr. Hickman c. Mr. Hickman I know not Mr. Baxter's Learning no honest man will envy He must be acknowledged a Learned man If he had not skill in fencing he could not be so quarrelsom Arrius was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was accounted the most logical and one of the most learned in his time But what of that The Orthodox Bishops thought him never the more fit for Church-toleration or comprehension But speaking of Impertinencies the very name forbids me insisting on the thing And so of his scandals also which are so detestable and notorious that it were a scandal to publish but the rehearsal of them witness the Story of the Register p. 40 which for its scandalous reflections on the Ecclesiastical Government there 's nothing in Martin Mar-Prelate H'ye any work for the Cooper or the Cobler of Gloucester can exceed So of those whom he charges with sitting as the Reader must compute it Sixteen or Seventeen Hours together in a Tavern or an Ale-house p 19. His fraudulent suggestions touching the great evil of imposing Church-ceremonies with many the like which run through his Book like a vein through his Body and which I cannot repeat without sin and shame Or if I could that It would even tire an indefatigable Reader to lead him through all the dark and dirty Labyrinth of his defamatory Libel I must therefore be abrupt in this Appeal to the Reader whether it be not the part of a most abominable Church-Traytor to play the CHAM with the Church in such a treacherous and deceitful manner FINIS