as give us occasion further to observe the secret and mystical connexion between Arrius his Doctrin and Aerius his Discipline I do not assert that St. Ignatius was Prophetical in affording the Church throughout his Epistles such signal testimonies against both Yet surely they ought to have been well weighted by those learned men who have rejected the works of that renowned Father before they chose rather than part with a Creature of their own interest and fancy to quit the advantages of those pregnant authorities against the Socinians incomparably clearer than all the Fathers of the Church put together for the first 300 years It is not my purpose to lay the Heresie of Arrius to the charge of Aerius his followers or to inquire into the causal influence of the one upon the other But methinks this one reflection how much Socinianism which is but Arrianism improved has thriven and prospered under the influence of the Presbytery in our neighbour Nation and as 't is greatly to be suspected in our own might prove a motive sufficient to our dissenting Brethren to consider that Heresie and Schism go usually together and to renounce that Schismatical Discipline which we have seen by woful experience so notoriously to shelter an Heretical Doctrin 2. We may observe that however learned men have dissented as to the particular periods of the Commencement of either Order yet in this they all agree that a superiority of the one above the other is of Apostolical institution Which observation if any man think to elude from the authorities of Ignatius Irenaeus Origen St. Ambrose or St. Austin I desire him only to read the learned Spalatensis his Examen of their Testimonies to make him for ever ashamed of obtruding them any more Nay so evident is this in the ancient Records of the Church that the Reverend Bishop Bilson out of Eusebius Hegesippas Socrates St. Jerome Epiphanius and others has given us as exact a Catalogue of the succession of Bishops from the Apostles in the four Apostolical Sees till the first Council of Nice as ever the Roman Archives could at any time give of their Consuls or our common Chroniclers of our Kings since the Conquest From which consideration we have ground for an answer to a twofold pretence of the Advocates of Presbytery the one in taking from us the Testimony of Ignatius the other in urging against us the Authority of St. Jerome As for the first of these it is Monsieur Dailles's principal argument from the Phrase that that blessed Martyr always makes a distinction in the names of Bishop and Presbyter which the Apostolical writings do so confessedly confound with one another But if this be his highest evidence as 't is manifest from his writings that it is it is but a small advantage to his Cause and cannot possibly support it self against any one of those various Hypotheses which we just now mentioned for a solution of the doubt For first those who think that the Christian Priest-hood was originally preserved in one Order and at length by the Apostles distinguished into two though after the writing of their Epistles will rationally presume that the distinction of names took its date from the distinction of the things which Salmasius himself has owned against Petavius and that the ceasing to use the words promiscuously can never take off from our Author the credit of an Apostolical writer notwithstanding the pretended inconformity thereof to the writings of the Apostles themselves But secondly if we admit their opinion who conceive the Orders to be distinct even then when the names were common yet supposing that the Scriptures use them promiscuously there is a visible reason why Ignatius should distinguish For though two different things may sometimes indifferently pass under the same names when either they are used to express some notion or character that holds in common to them both or the subject matter determines the signification yet when in the same proposition they are both to be represented in their proper and distinct Idea according to all the laws of speaking or writing they will necessarily require distinct and proper appellations For how improper had it been to have exprest the peculiarities of several dignities in the same Stile and Character and to make a difference without a distinction How incongruous to common sense to specify three distinct Ecclesiastical Orders under the names of Presbyters Presbyters and Deacons and in inforcing the subjection of the one to the other bid Presbyters be subject to Presbyters So that upon the whole the great quarrel of our adversaries against Ignatius is this that his language is not like their opinion irrational and absurd As to their second refuge to wit the authority of St. Jerome I shall not interpose dogmatically in a Controversy in which the most able School-men and other learned Writers are so much divided It is the confident asseveration of Medina that St. Jerome and other of the Fathers agreed in the Heresie of Aerius but that the Church prudently tolerated that in the one which for different reasons it condemned in the other But upon this principle he will hardly be able to secure himself against the force of Bellarmine's reply How the Church then continued the pillar and ground of truth while She forsted Hereticks in her Bosom And how we can produce the Catholick Fathers as testifiers to the Christian Doctrin who in any one point of it symbolized with Hereticks deserted the sense of the Church and turned aside to the Flocks of the Companions And surely though St. Jerome might differ from others as a private Divine in some Interpretations of Scripture yet he so long kept himself sound as a Catholick Christian while he did not obtrude any of them against the tradition of the Apostles and the unity of the Church And therefore though I do not agree in his particular opinion as holding Church Government settled by our Savour himself in a clear and manifest subordination yet I do not desire among all the Fathers of the Church a more pregnant testimony than St. Jerome will afford us for a like imparity of Church Officers by Apostolical institution For 't is he who in his Epistle to Evagrius expressly calls it an Apostolical tradition and founded in the Old Testament that whatsoever priviledge Aaron and his Sons and the Levites enjoyed in the Temple Bishops Priests and Deacons might justly challenge in the Church 'T is he who informs us on the 23 of St. Matthew of the Apostles practice of ordaining Bishops and Presbyters in the several Provinces where they Preach'd the Gospel 'T is he who stiles the Governours of the respective Churches the Contemporaries of the Apostles by the name of Bishops as Mark of Alexandria Linus Cletus and Clemens of Rome James of Hierusalem Ignatius of Antioch and Policarp of Smyrna And though his opinion were that Bishops were postnate to Presbyters as instituted for the prevention of Schism yet I appeal to himself
for a witness that the remedy bears date from the disease even from that time when it was said at Corinth which was surely in the Apostles days I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of Cephas as appears in his Comment upon Titus Surely therefore St. Jerome never dreamt that Episcopacy was Antichristian nor ever designed to effect that from evidence of Scripture which has been since attempted by the power of the Sword Ignatius his advice for the subjection of Presbyters to their Bishop suited well enough with his Principles as indeed it did with those of all Christendom besides till at last mens interest led them on as to urge Presbytery from St. Jerome so to quote St. Paul for Rebellion 3. But thirdly from the consideration of this great variety of Opinions to salve this confusion of names it may perhaps be seasonable to enquire whether there be really found in Scripture such a Communion of names as is pretended I am conscious that herein I advance an Hypothesis against many great and justly venerable Names And therefore I shall only humbly propose a twofold distinction for the clearing those places of Scripture which concern the point in question The first is between the Universal Church and those particular Provinces wherein Churches were planted under their respective Rulers In the former respect I grant that the word Presbyter is indifferently applied to the Chief Governours of the Church and that they are the same persons who are in one place called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which word whether it were Translated into the Church from the Jewish Synagogue or else taken from Age which brings experience and consequently fits for Government was in those days rather an appellative of dignity than a distinctive character of an Office And therefore generally in the Acts of the Apostles while Jerusalem and Christendom were in a manner of the same extent the word Presbyter which in particular Churches was still a title of Honour had hear a more ample and undetermined signification But if any of our adversaries take advantage from this concession I desire him only to consider that the Apostles are oftner called by the name of Deacons than the chief Governours of the Church by the name of Presbyters As Deacons of God and of Christ 1 Thess 3.2 Deacons of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 Deacons of the Gospel Ephes 3.7 Deacons of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.15 Deacons of the Church Col. 1.25 I confess that our Translation in these and other parallel places always read Ministers in stead of Deacons as is observed in thirty places in the vulgar Latin of St. Jerome yet it is the very same word which is rendred Deacons in the Epistles of Timothy and Titus Which containing Apostolical Directions for the management of Particular Churches de statu Ecclesiastia compositae as Tertullian speaks distinguish Church Orders by their Names and Titles as well as their Offices and Powers And therefore thought in respect of the Universal Church the principal Rulers are sometimes stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify their Superiority over the Brethren sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote their immediate Ministration and attendance upon Christ the great Bishop of our Souls and Apostle of our profession Yet nothing will follow from hence but that in particular Churches they might be both limited and restrained the one to the second Order of Priests the other to the Attendants upon the Bishops So that this observation gives the same ground for Deacons to contest with Presbyters as it does for Presbyters with Bishops And thence because the Apostles and the Brethren are indifferently called Disciples they will by this way of arguing strengthen the pretence of the Independents and as 't is worded by a learned Writer hold the stirrop to the Congregations to throw themselves out of the Saddle But secondly If this Communion of names be pretended in particular Churches as at Philippi Ephesus and Creet I shall crave leave with Epiphanius to make another distinction o particular Churches from one another For he in his Refutation of Aerius his Argument drawn from the Communion of names objects to him his not understanding the Histories of the Primitive plantation of Churches asserting That at the first forming of them which could not be perfected in an instant there were in some places Bishops without Presbyters and in other Presbyters without Bishops which could be no inconvenience for a small space of time since those who planted them were sufficiently enabled to supply the defect of either He never observed this confusion of names which has been since pretended as neither did any that went before him but thought this one consideration to be valid enough to convince his adversary both of errour in Interpreting Scripture and of Ignorance in the Monuments of the Church But granting all that we have hitherto asserted and moreover that the objection from the plurallity of Bishops mentioned at Ephesus and Philippi be fully taken off upon this presumption that in the Apostles days there were more Bishops than one in a City 'till a more perfest Coalescence was at length made between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts yet notwithstanding it may be still demanded What is all this to the case before us For here in a particular Church the Church of Ephesus the same persons in the same Speech are called both Presbyters and Bishops To which I answer that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denote the universal Church my first distinction holds good But if not I have the Testimony of Irenaeus an authority next to Apostolical to extend the word Church beyond the City of Ephesus and Bishops and Presbyters beyond one Order of the Clergy For so he writes in his Third Book and Fourteenth Chapter In Mileto enim Convocatis Episcopis presbyteris qui erant ab Epheso a reliquis proximis Civitatibus To which the late Vindicator of Monsieur Daillee seems to return an answer by giving Irenaeus the lye A Divi Lucae narratione seorsim abit But surely when St. Paul says vers 25 All you among whom I have gone Preaching the Kingdom of God he seems to intimate a greater extent than the single City of Ephesus will amount to and consequently to give us some ground for a reconcilement between Irenaeus and St. Luke And therefore I shall make no other use of our Authors reply than to observe another instance of the hard fate of the Fathers of the Church however ancient and Apostolical when they cross mens Interests and Opinions For if we urge them with Ignatius he is spurious and suppositious and therefore to be rejected if with Irenaeus he is false and fabulous and so not to be believed I have thus far explained the difficulty arising from the phrase of the Text and therein justified my dissent from our English Translation in reading Bishops instead of Overseers And as the Reverend Fathers of
A SERMON Preached at the CONSECRATION Of the HONOURABLE Dr. HENRY COMPTON Lord Bishop of OXFORD IN LAMBETH-CHAPPEL On Sunday December 6. 1674. By WILLIAM JANE B.D. Student of Christ-Church and Chaplain to his Lordship LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by R. Littlebury at the Kings-Arms in Little-Britain 1675. To the Right Reverend Father in God HENRY LORD BISHOP of OXFORD My Lord ALthough I am too conscious of the manifold defects of this poor Discourse to lay any claim to your Lordships acceptance as the encouragement of its Publication yet I have had such great experience of your Lordships favour as to conceive some hopes that it may find the same shelter with its Author under your Lordships patronage and protection When I first received your Lordships command which engaged me upon this duty I esteemed it a great Honour than my own ambition could ever have aspired to It was happiness enough for me to bear any part how inconsiderable soever in that days Solemnity which in the judgement of all who have a real kindness for the Church was so signal an argument of Gods Care and Providence over it But since by my intire resignation of this weak performance as I was in duty bound to your Lordships Judgement it is no longer at my own disposal and that which I thought too mean to attend your Lordships CONSECRATION has been thought fit to live with the remembrance of it I have this further favour to request for it that I may be allowed to thrust it forth into the world under your Lordships Name I shall only add my unfeigned desires to the God of Heaven that as he has been pleased in this declining Age to raise up to his People such an able instrument of his Glory so he would go on to give success to your Lordships designs answerable to the expectation of your Country and the necessities of his Church Which shall ever be the daily Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships Most humbly devoted Chaplain WILLIAM JANE ACTS 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood WE read in the 17th vers of this chap. that St. Paul sent from Miletas to Ephesus and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elders or Presbyters of the Church In this vers which contains a considerable part of his Visitation Sermon he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops This seeming confusion of Names in this and other places of Scripture indiscriminately applied to the Pastors and Officers of the Church was the pretence of Aerius though Pride and Ambition were the reason to inferr a like communion in the dignity of Bishop and Presbyter and a total parity in their Office And though this is surely a very slender argument to any considering men to violate the unity of Christians and to cashier that form of Government which ad been received universally in the Church from the Apostles days unto their own upon a pretence that Antichrist begun betimes yet neither is it so slight and despicable but that it has exercised the greatest Wits in all Ages even those in which it cannot be pretended that Truth was twisted with design in endeavouring a probable solution of it For to omit the interpretation of some that such as were Presbyters when St. Paul sent for them he here consecrates Bishops by telling them that the Holy Ghost had made them so as being a groundless and arbitrary conjecture if we consult those Opinions which carry the greatest vogue and reputation in the World we shall scarce find one in which two have consented when we have excluded those from the number who do not pretend to deliver their own sense but professedly transcribe from others The immediate question wherein our Authors are divided is Whether Bishop and Presbyter were two distinct Orders at the time of the writing the Books of the New Testament or in a small space of time after the one were superadded to the other Those who defend the latter are further subdivided as far as the subject will admit For we are told on the one hand that the names of Bishop and Presbyter were once promiscuously given to the inferiour Order of the Clergy which were afterwards used with distinction when for the future preventing of Schism Episcopacy was introduced upon it◠which seems to be the Judgment of St. Hierome And with greater probability on the other that they were indifferent appellations of the higher Order of Church Officers to whom the name of Bishop became then appropriate when upon the increase of their charge by the multitude of their Proselites inferiour Presbyters were universally admitted in some measure to ease them of the burthen An opinion with infinite accuracy and variety of learning first cleared and defended by the Reverend Dr. Hammond They who have pitcht upon the defence of the former part of the main Question That both Orders were Coaeval and distinguished from one another by their Author at the Primitive institution of them are yet more divided in their explications For some tell us which Dr. Hammond admits for probable that the world Presbyter is the Scripture appellative of the inferiour Order of the Clergy whereas both were common to the Bishop in as much as both Offices designed by them were eminently vested in him St. Chrysostom on the contrary thinks it no inconvenience at all that the distinction of Offices should remain inviolate notwithstanding the confusion of names Whereas a third Opinion sufficiently distinguished from the other two asserts that Bishop and Presbyter were common denominations of the second Order of Priest-hood those whom we now stile Bishops being at that time called Apostles A Comment first suggested by Theodoret and since maintained by the Judicious Hooker in the days of our Forefathers and with a little variation by the learned Thorndike in our own I have not produced these Opinions to compare them with one another or to examin the several claims which each of them pretends to truth but only considering them jointly to make these few remarques upon them all And first our Assertors of the Presbyterian Hierarchy may do well to consider whose Cause it is which is with so great eagerness maintained by them No the Cause of God or of his Church but of a noted Heretick infamous upon the records of Epithanius St. Austin Philastrius and other Fathers of the Church for the point in question and consequently branded for the same by the Church it self whose Judgments those Fathers expressly testifie He who was notorious in his own time for the great disturber of the word is now set up by our pretended Disciplinarians for the great Champion of Truth Nor do they so much help themselves by saying that Arrianism was Aerius his Heresie and indeed Epiphanius calls him an Arrian altogether
Spiritus is not said in vain at this great Solemnity nor can we possibly overlook that visible instance of his peculiar Presence in the Consecration of this day For though we live in an Age wherein not only the work of the Ministry is become the derision of Fools but even wise Men pretend to discern the dreadful symptoms of a departing Candlestick and a tottering Church yet it hath pleased him who perfecteth strength in weakness and is nearest at hand in the greatest exigents to raise up the Sons of Nobles to become the Princes of his People to stop the Mouths of the one and to refute the Prognosticks of the other He places over us in the same persons both a glory and a defence by the one to take off scandal by the other to strengthen the Church Blessed therefore be the Name of our great God in whose Hand are the Hearts of Kings that hath stirred up the heart of Ours to make this closer connexion between the Civil and Ecclesiastical interests and in the same choice effectually to provide for the perpetuity of the Church and for the establishment of his Throne We have thus seen that God has not failed hitherto to make good his promise to his Church that the Comforter shall abide with it for ever But since these instances have not proved so successful as to silence the Contradiction of foolish and unreasonable men I shall briefly consider some of the most plausible pretences that are made use of to shake the stability of the Church and turn the Holy Ghost out of his Office First then the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops and therefore not the Civil Magistrate It is an objection of the Romanists against the English Reformation that the power of Order hath ceased in our Church ever since the departure from the Church of Rome as being now utterly dissolved into the Kings deputation of Commissioners for the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And though the scandal be abundantly refuted by the sacred Rites and Solemnities of this day yet we have had those among our selves who in stead of denying the charge as they justly might have pretended to justifie the Church by owning the accusation For we are told by the Disputers of this World that the Church is nothing else but a Christian Common-wealth and that all pretence of Divine authority and obligation upon Conscience abstracted from the power of the Sword is a meer Imposture and destructive to the State Thus by the old Stratagem of the Enemy of Man-kind is the Church as was once its Author traduced as an enemy to Caesar Though I hope the Case may be so plainly stated between both as to vindicate the Rights of the one without incurring the Jealousie of the other The contrary assertion to what we have laid down can be maintained only upon one of these three Grounds First that there was no right for Christians to associate together for the Worship of God according to the profession of Christianity antecedent to the Command or Allowance of the Civil power Or Secondly supposing a Society of Christians that there was no right of Rule or Government vested in the Officers and Pastors of it Or thirdly supposing a Church power that it escheated to the supream Magistrate when the Church became incorporate into the Civil state The first of these though perhaps the ultimate resolution of the other two resolves it self into Blasphemies beyond the confutation of the Pulpit We must thence pronounce all the Conventions of Christians even those assemblings of themselves together which the Apostle commands his Hebrews not to forsake to be so many unlawful Conventicles and not exempt the first Council at Jerusalem from the accusation which we are sure was managed by the presiding of the Holy Ghost We must affix the blackest note of Infamy upon the Apostles and the Primitive Christians and ascribe a right to the Heathen Magistrates which shall justify the persecution of Christianity We must arraign the Noble Army of Martyrs whose Heroical Courage we hitherto solemnize of foul self-Murther as well as folly in being prodigal of their Blood to no purpose running upon the Sword without a warrant and laying down their lives in the defence of a proposition when they had no obligation to profess it and so execute their Names and Memories as the Heathen did their persons by owning that they suffered deservedly But surely if we have not forfeited our Faith as well as our Charity we may conclude they had hard measure enough at their Persecutors tribunals and therefore may be dismist from ours The second pretence is somewhat more plausible That there is such a Society as a Church and Officers placed in it but such whose only business it is to teach and to declare the will of God without any rule or authority committed to them over those who shal1 receive it Against which we might reason with the Learned Grotius upon Luke 6.22 that there is no necessity of assigning a positive and express Precept in Holy Scripture for granting the Society of the Church established by God all those things are virtually commanded in it which are absolutely necessary to preserve it in its purity and its being Such is the power of Discipline and Government as is evident from the common notion of Societies in general and the peculiar nature of this But not contenting our selves toargue merely from natural Reason in a positive Institution of this kind as transcends the sublimest disquisitions and closest deductions of it if we consult the pattern in the Mount or the settlement of the Church in the New Testament which contains the Covenant of Grace whereupon it is founded we shall find in the Church as in the Ark which was the Type of it the rod of Aaron as well as the Tables of the Law and discover in it the manifest traces of a paternal and imperative though no coercive Jurisdiction We shall there find the Enacting of Laws as in the first Council at Jerusalem a promulgation of the Decrees that were made by the Apostle and Elders which was done by Paul and Barnabas through the Cities Acts 16.4 a Judiciary process against offenders I. Tim. 5.19 a punishment of the guilty as appears in the incestuous Corinthian and in the same instance the absolution of the Penitent and relaxation of the Censure We shall find there the persons with whom the management of these great affairs was intrusted dignified and distinguished by the Titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which import Rule and Authority whereto they were solemnly Sanctified and set apart by a visible and Sacred Rite of Imposition of hands All which if they are duly and impartially considered will sufficiently evidence that these things were something more than Pageantry and Show that there was a Government in the World subsisting upon a different claim from that of the Roman Empire that Christ sent forth his Apostles not only as Sheep among Wolves but
as Pastors among Sheep and that he had a Kingdom though not of this World Thirdly therefore that this Spiritual Authority was dissolved and melted down into the Civil when the World came into the Church and the Empire became Christian must be made out one of these three wayes either from the original right of the Empire the revelation of God or the reason of the thing The right of the Empire stands upon this basis that the Power of the Church depended upon the confederation and consent of Christians which the Supream Magistrate may at his pleasure draw back and resume into himself But first against this pretended agreement of the Primitive Christians we may argue from all those instances of the agency of the Holy Ghost in constituting Church Officers which we have mentioned already All which bear evident Testimony to a positive Institution and a Divine Authority But secondly supposing it for the present I demand Whether the Primitive Christians had a right to enter into those confederacies antecedent to the command or allowance of the Empire or no If not we are brought back again to the Apostate Principles of the Leviathan And though I should grant Mr. Selden that Christians after the death of our Lord had the allowance of the State by that Act of the Empire which tolerated the Jews Yet to say that the Society was legally dissolved when they came more narrowly to be enquired into is to take off the Glory of Martyrdom from those who notwithstanding the Edicts of the Empire kept on the Assemblies of the Church and the brand of Apostacy from others who pleaded for themselves that they had left them If it be said that the Society of the Church had this right of mutual Confederation the case is just where it was For whether the Governours of the Church subsist immediately by Divine Right or no yet if the Church as a Society for the better maintaining of Christianity by Divine Right be enabled to appoint them obedience is justly due to them in the Affairs of Christianity independent upon the Powers of this World And surely water will rise no higher than the place from whence it descended nor can the Empire ever come to challenge the Rights of the Church which were antecedent to any Act of it unless it have pleased the Great Soveraign of both to declare his Pleasure for transferring them For if the Church be a Society immediately constituted by God then can it not be dissolved in time but by the same Power which established it at the beginning But where is there to be found in Scripture any shadow of an Ordinance for this Temporary condition of the Church Surely all things there seem to run in another strain If Timothy be instructed by St. Pauls how to behave himself in the Church of God he is forthwith charged to keep the Commandment unblameable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ If the Angel of Thyatira be reprehended for the remiss exercise of his Authority he has likewise a command from our Saviour to hold it fast and maintain it 'till his coming Christ did not appoint Pastors in his Church only 'till the time of Constantine but 'till we all come in the unity of Faith and the Knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man Which woful experience will assure us was not effected in Constantine's dayes nor will it ever be 'till the consummation of all things The darkness which over-spreads our understandings can never be dispelled but by the Light of Glory nor can our hearts be entirely reunited but by that Charity which never fails There remains therefore only the last way of arguing and that is from the reason of the thing For thus it is pleaded that unless both Powers reside intirely in the same Persons they must both expect the same Fate which attends a Kingdom divided against it self by reason of daily and vexatious contentions between the Church and Common-wealth the Sword of Justice and the Shield of Faith and which is more than this in the breast of every Christian between the Christian and the Man Thus what we deny to Nature shall be effected by Grace the Gospel of Peace shall retrieve a State of War and this pretended Order and Government become but another name for Confusion And though I have before barred this Method of Reasoning by supposing Christianity to be a positive Constitution of Divine Grace albeit Religion in general be a moral Virtue yet because the Charge is of so high a Nature as if the Churches claim of Power from God rendred it uncapable of the Protection of his Vice-gerent and Christs coming to fit Inhabitants for another World were a means to dis-people this I am obliged for the removal of suspition to propose these following considerations First therefore though other Religions may be justly presumed prejudicial to the publick Peace in as much as the Devil who is the Inventor of them is withal the Author of Confusion in the Government of the World yet such is the peculiar genius of Christianity that where-event is either Preached or Received it can create no Jealousie in in the State The ground upon which this Assertion stands is this that it disclaims all title to the Sword but leave him that takes it to perish with it though it be drawn in the defence of Christ himself Surely he that had legions of Angels at his command in stead of sending forth Apostles to Convert men to the Faith might have Commissioned Generals to destroy the Unbelievers But this in the esteem of Infinite Wisdom was judged more Military than Religious and the way of Propagating his Gospel had been inconsistent with the design of it This therefore being supposed that Christianity leaves the power of the Sword in those hands in which it finds it how can it possibly make any alteration as to any Temporal Condition vhich is professedly maintained by it And therefore that great bugbear of Imperium in Imperio need not be so terrible as men would make it as long as their Objects Ends and Offices stand as really distinguished as their Obligations And these were the Thoughts that Christians had of their Religion as long as Christianity was understood In the Church then as of old in Israel there was no Smith to provide Swords and Spears though against their persecuting Philistins And though this intire renunciation of all claim to any thing wherein the Civil Power was concerned proved unable to protect them either from Slander or Persecution yet that which exited the rage and fury of their Enemies was rather an averseness to the Christians Doctrine than any jealous concern for their own safety It being abundantly evinced by the ancient Apologies of the Church Writers against the Gentiles that though they did not believe the Christian Faith they could not in Civil justice persecute a Christian No their Lives then were a Transcript of their Doctrin and their Obedience was