Catholick Church and a People that always search'd and believ'd the Scriptures made a stand by their Testimonies and Sufferings the Creeds had destroy'd the Faith and the Church had ruined the Religion For this General Council of Nice and all others of the same constitution did and can serve to no other end or effect than a particular order of Men by their usurping a trust upon Christianity to make their own Price and Market of it and deliver it up as oft as they see their own advantage For scarce was Constantine's Head cold but his Son Constantius succeeding his Brothers being influenced by the Bishops of the Arrian Party turn'd the wrong side of Christianity outward inverted the Poles of Heaven and Faith if I may say so with its Heels in the Air was forced to stand upon its Head and play Gambols for the Divertisement and Pleasure of the Homoieusians Arrianism was the Divinity then in Mode and he was an ignorant and ill Courtier or Church-man that could not dress and would not make a new Sute for his Conscience in the Fashion And now the Orthodox Bishops it being given to those Men to be obstinate for Power but flexible in Faith began to wind about insensibly as the Heliotrope Flower that keeps its ground but wrests its neck in turning after the warm Sun from day-break to evening They could look now upon the Synod of Nice with more indifference and all that pudder that had been made there betwixt Homoousius and Homoiousius c. began to appear to them as a Difference only arising from the Inadequation of Languages Till by degrees they were drawn over and rather than lose their Bishopricks would join and at last be the head-most in the Persecution of their own former Party But the Deacons to be sure that steer'd the Elephants were thorow-paced Men to be reckon'd and relied upon in this or any other occasion and would prick on to render themselves capable and Episcopable upon the first Vacancy For now the Arrians in grain scorning to come behind the Clownish Homoousians in an Ecclesiastical Civility were resolved to give them their full of Persecution And it seem'd a piece of Wit rather than Malice to pay them in their own Coin and to Burlesque them in earnest by the repetition and heightning of the same Severities upon them that they had practised upon others Had you the Homoousians a Creed at Nice we will have another Creed for you at Ariminum and at Selucia Would you not be content with so many several Projects of Faith consonant to Scripture unless you might thrust the new word Homoousios down our Throats and then tear it up again to make us confess it Tell us the word 't was Homoiousios we are now upon the Guard or else we shall run you thorow Would you Anathemize Banish Imprison Execute us and burn our Books You shall taste of this Christian Fare and as you relish it you shall have more on 't provided And thus it went Arrianism being Triumphant but the few sincere and stomachful Bishops adhering constantly and with a true Christian Magnanimity especially Athanasius thorow all Sufferings unto their former Confessions expiated so in some measure what they had committed in the Nicene Council Sozomen 1. 4. c. 25. first tells us a Story of Eudoxius who succeeded Macedonius in the Bishoprick of Constantinople that in the Cathedral of Sancta Sophia being mounted in his Episcopal Throne the first time that they Assembled for its Dedication in the very beginning of his Sermon to the People those things were already come in Fashion told them Patrem impium esse Filium autem pium at which then they began to bustle Pray be quiet saith he I say Patrem impium esse quia Colit neminem Filium vero Pium quia colit Patrem at which they then laughed as heartily as before they were Angry But this I only note to this purpose that there were some of the greatest Bishops among the Homoiousians as well as the Homoousians that could not reproach one anothers Simplicity and that it was not impossible for the Many to be wiser and more Orthodox than the Few in Divine matters That which I cite him for as most Material is the Remark upon the Imposition then of Contrary Creeds Which verily saith he was plainly the beginning of most great Calamities forasmuch as hereupon there followed a Disturbance not unlike those which we before recited over the whole Empire and likewise a Persecution equal almost to that of the Heathen Emperors seized upon all of all Churches For although it seemed to some more gentle for what concerns the torture of the body yet to prudent persons it appeared more bitter and severe by reason of the Dishonour and Ignominy For both they who stirred up and those that were afflicted with this Persecution were of the Christian Church and the grievance therefore was the greater and more ugly in that the same things which are done among Enemies were Executed between those of the same Tribe and Profession But the holy Law forbids us to carry our selves in that manner even to those that are without and Aliens And all this mischief sprung from making of Creeds with which the Bishops as it were at Tilting aim'd to hit one another in the Eye and throw the opposite Party out of the Saddle But if it chanced that the weaker side were ready to yield for what sort of Men was there that could better manage or had their Consciences more at command at that time than the Clergy Then the Arrians would use a yet longer thicker and sharper Lance for the purpose for there were never Vacancies sufficient that they might be sure to run them down over and thorow and do their Business The Creed of Ariminum was now too short for the Design but saith the Historian they affix'd further Articles like Labels to it pretending to have made it better and so sent it thorow the Empire with Constantius his Proclamation that whoever would not subscribe it should be Banished Nay they would not admit their own beloved Similis Substantia but to do the work throughly the Arrians renounc'd their own Creed for Malice and made it an Article Filium Patri tam substantia quam Voluntate Dissimilem esse But this is a small matter with any of them provided thereby they may do Service to the Church that is their Party So that one seriously speaking that were really Orthodox could not then defend the Truth or himself but by turning of Arrian if he would impugn the new ones such was the Subtilty What shall I say more As the Arts of Glass Coaches and Perriwigs illustrate this Age so by their Trade of Creed-making then first invented we may esteem the Wisdom of Constantine's and Constantius his Empire And in a short space as is usual among Tradesmen where it appears gainful they were so many that set up of the same Profession that they
are concerned The Soul is too precious to be let out at interest upon any humane security that does or may fail but it is only safe when under God's custody in its own Cabinet But it was a General Council A special General indeed if you consider the proportion of three hundred and eighteen to the Body of the Christian Clergy but much more to all Christian Man-kind But it was a General Free Council of Bishops I do not think it possible for any Council to be free that is composed out of Bishops and where they only have the Decisive Voices Nor that a Free Council that takes away Christian Liberty But that as it was founded upon Usurpation so it terminated in Imposition But 't is meant that it was Free from all external Impulsion I confess that good Meat and Drink and Lodging and Mony in a Man's purse and Coaches and Servants and Horses to attend them did no violence to 'em nor was there any false Article in it And discoursing now with one and then another of 'em in particular and the Emperor telling them this is my opinion I understand it thus and afterwards declaring his mind frequently to them in publick no force neither Ay but there was a shrewd way of persuasion in it And I would be glad to know when ever and which free general Council it was that could properly be called so but was indeed a meer Imperial or Ecclesiastical Machine no free agent but wound up set on going and let down by the direction and hand of the Workman A General Free Council is but a word of Art and can never happen but under a Fifth Monarch and that Monarch too to return from Heaven The Animadverter will not allow the second General Council of Nice to have bin Free because it was overaw'd by an Empress and was guilty of a great fault which no Council at liberty he saith could have committed the Decree for worshipping of Images At this rate a Christian may scuffle however for one point among them and chuse which Council he likes best But in good earnest I do not see but that Constantine might as well at this first Council of Nice have negotiated the Image-worship as to pay that superstitious adoration to the Bishops and that Prostration to their Creeds was an Idolatry more pernicious in the consequence to the Christian Faith then that under which they so lately had suffer'd Persecution Nor can a Council be said to have been at liberty which lay under so great and many obligations But the Holy Ghost was present where there were three hundred and eighteen Bishops and directed them or three hundred Then if I had been of their Council they should have sate at it all their lives lest they should never see him again after they were once risen But it concerned them to settle their Quorum at last by his Dictates otherwise no Bishop could have been absent or gone forth upon any accusation but he let him out again and it behov'd to be very punctual in the Adjournments 'T is a ridiculous conception and as gross as to make him of the same substance with the Council Nor needs there any stronger argument of his absence then their pretence to be actuated by him and in doing such work The Holy Spirit If so many of them when they got together acted like rational men 't was enough in all reason and as much as could be expected But this was one affectation among many others which the Bishops took up so early of the stile priviledges powers and some actions and gestures peculiar and inherent ot the Apostles which they misplaced to their own behoof and usage nay and challenged other things as Apostolical that were directly contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles For so because the Holy Spirit did in an extraordinary manner preside among the Holy Apostles at that Legitimate Council of Ierusalem Acts 15. they although under an ordinary Administration would not go less whatever came on 't nay whereas the Apostles in the drawing up of their Decree dictated to them by the Holy Spirit said therefore no more but thus The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren of c. Forasmuch as c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things that ye abstain from c. from which if ye keep your selves you shall do well Fare ye well This Council denounces every Invention of its own far from the Apostolical modesty and the stile of the Holy Spirit under no less than an Anathema Such was their arrogating to their inferior degrees the stile of Clergy till custom hath so much prevailed that we are at a loss how to speak properly either of the Name or Nature of their Function Whereas the Clergy in the true and Apostolical sense were only those whom they superciliously always call the Laity The word Clerus being never but once used in the New Testament and in that signification and in a very unlucky place too 1 Pet. 5. 3. where he admonishes the Priesthood that they should not lord it or domineer over the Christian People Clerum Domini or the Lord's Inheritance But having usurp'd the Title I confess they did right to assume the Power But to speak of the Priesthood in that stile which they most affect if we consider the nature too of their Function what were the Clergy then but Laymen disguis'd drest up perhaps in another habit Did not St. Paul himself being a Tent-maker rather than be idle or burthensom to his People work of his trade even during his Apostleship to get his living But did not these that they might neglect their holy Vocation seek to compass secular Imploiments and Lay-Offices Were not very many of them whether one respect their Vices or Ignorance as well qualified as any other to be Lay-men Was it not usual as oft as they merited it to restore them as in the case even of the three Bishops to the Lay-communion And whether if they were so peculiar from others did the Imposition of the Bishop's hands or the lifting up the hands of the Laity confer more to that distinction And Constantine notwithstanding his Complement at the burning of the Bishops Papers thought he might make them and unmake them with the same Power as he did his other Lay-Officers But if the inferior Degrees were the Clergy the Bishops would be the Church altho that word in the Scripture-sense is proper only to a Congregation of the Faithful And being by that title the only Men in Ecclesiastical Councils then when they were once assembled they were the Catholick Church and having the Holy Spirit at their Devotion whatsoever Creed they light upon that was the Catholick Faith without the believing of which no Man can be saved By which means there rose thenceforward so constant Persecutions till this day that had not the little invisible
could scarce live by one another Socr. 1. 2. c. 32. Therefore uses these words But now that I have tandem aliquando run through this Labyrinth of so many Creeds I will gather up their number And so reckons Nine Creeds more besides that of Nice before the death of Constantine a blessed Number And I believe I could for a need make them up a dozen if Men have a mind to buy them so And hence it was that Hilary then Bishop of Poictiers represents that state of the Church pleasantly yet sadly Since the Nicene Synod saith he we do nothing but write Creeds That while we fight about words whilst we raise Questions about Novelties while we Quarrel about things doubtful and about Authors while we contend in Parties while there is difficulty in Consent while we Anathematize one another there is none now almost that is Christ's What a Change there is in the last years Creed The first Decree commands that Homoousios should not be mentioned The next does again Decree and Publish Homoousios The third does by Indulgence excuse the Word Ousia as used by the Fathers in their simplicity The fourth does not Excuse but Condemn it It is come to that at last that nothing among us or those before us can remain sacred or inviolable We Decree every year of the Lord a new Creed concerning God Nay every Change of the Moon our Faith is alter'd We repent of our Decrees we defend those that repent of them we Anathematize those that we defended and while we either condemn other Mens Opinions in our own or our own Opinions in those of other Men and bite at one another we are now all of us torn in pieces This Bishop sure was the Author of the Naked Truth and 't was he that implicitely condemn'd the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being too presumptuous in her Definitions It is not strange to me that Iulian being but a Reader in the Christian Church should turn Pagan Especially when I consider that he suceeded Emperor after Constantius For it seems rather unavoidable that a man of great Wit as he was and not having the Grace of God to direct it and show him the Beauty of Religion through the Deformity of its Governours and Teachers but that he must conceive a Loathing and Aversion for it Nor could he think that he did them any Injustice when he observed that beside all their Unchristian Immorality too they practised thus against the Institutive Law of their Galilean the Persecution among themselves for Religion And well might he add to his other Severities that sharpness of his Wit both Exposing and Animadverting upon them at another rate than any of the Modern Practitioners with all their study and Inclination can ever arrive at For nothing is more punishable Contemptible and truly Ridiculous than a Christian that walks contrary to his Profession And by how much any man stands with more advantage in the Church for Eminency but disobeys the Laws of Christ by that priviledge he is thereby and deserves to be the more Exposed But Iulian the last Heathen Emperor by whose cruelty it seemed that God would sensibly admonish once again the Christian Clergy and show them by their own smart and an Heathen-hand the nature and odiousness of Persecution soon died as is usual for Men of that Imployment not without a remarkable stroke of Gods Judgement Yet they as they were only sorry that they had lost so much time upon his death strove as eagerly to redeem it and forthwith fell in very naturally into their former Animosities For Iovianus being chosen Emperor in Persia and returning homeward Socr. 1. 3. c. 20. The Bishops of each party in hopes that theirs should be the Imperial Creed strait took Horse and rode away with Switch and Spur as if it had been for the Plate to meet him and he that had best Heels made himself cock-sure of winning the Religion The Macedonians who dividing from the Arrians had set up for a new Heresie concerning the Holy Ghost and they were a Squadron of Bishops Petition'd him that those who held Filium Patri dissimilem might be turn'd out and themselves put in their places Which was very honestly done and above-board The Acacians that were the refined Arrians but as the Author saith Had a notable faculty of addressing themselves to the Inclination of whatsoever Emperor and having good Inteligence that he balanced rather to the Consubstantials presented him with a very fair Insinuating subscription of a considerable number of Bishops to the Council of Nice But in the next Emperors time they will be found to yield little Reverence to their own Subscription For in matter of a Creed a Note of their Hand without expressing the Penalty could not it seems bind one of their Order But all that Iovianus said to the Macedonians was I hate Contention but I lovingly embrace and reverence those who are inclined to Peace and Concord To the Acacians who had wisely given these the precedence of Application to try the truth of their Intelligence he said no more having resolv'd by sweetness and perswasions to quiet all their Controversies but That he would not molest any man whatsoever Creed he follow'd but those above others he would Cherish and Honour who should show themselves most forward in bringing the Church to a good Agreement He likewise call'd back all those Bishops who had been Banish'd by Constantius and Iulian restoring them to their Sees And he writ a Letter in particular to Athanasius who upon Iulian's death had enter'd again upon that of Alexandria to bid him be of good courage And these things coming to the Ears of all others did wonderfully asswage the Fierceness of those who were Inflamed with Faction and Contention So that the Court having declared it self of this Mind the Church was in a short time in all outward appearance peaceably disposed the Emperor by this means having wholly repressed all their violence Verily concludes the Historian the Roman Empire had been prosperous and happy and both the State and the Church he puts them too in that Order under so good a Prince must have exceedingly flourished had not an Immature death taken him away from managing the Government For after seven Months being seized with a mortal Obstruction he departed this Life Did not this Historian trow you deserve to be handled and is it not now the Mischief is done to undo the Charm oecome a Duty to Expose both him and Iovianus By their ill chosen Principles what would have become of the Prime and most necessary Article of Faith Might not the old Dormant Heresies all of them safely have Revived But that Mortal Obstruction of the Bishops was not by his death nor is it by their own to be removed They were glad he was so soon got out of their way and God would yet further manifest their intractable Spirit which not the Persecution of the Heathen Emperor
or in Practice Far be it from me in the event as it is from my Intention to derogate from the just authority of any of those Creeds or Confessions of Faith that are receiv'd by our Church upon clear agreement with the Scripture nor shall I therefore unless some mens impertinence and indiscretion hereafter oblige me pretend to any further knowledg of what in those particulars appear in the ancient Histories But certainly if any Creed had been Necessary or at the least Necessary to have been Imposed our Saviour himself would not have left his Church distitute in a thing of that moment Or however after the Holy Ghost upon his departure was descended upon the Apostles and they the Elders and Brethren for so it was then were assembled in a legitimate Council at Ierusalem it would have seemed good to the Holy Ghost and them to have sav'd the Council of Nice that labour or at least the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12. 2 and 4. who was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for any Man to utter having thereby a much better opportunity than Athanasius to know the Doctrine of the Trinity would not have been wanting through the abundance of that revelation to form a Creed for the Church sufficient to have put that business beyond controversie Especially seeing Heresies were sprung up so early and he foresaw others and therefore does prescribe the mothod how they are to be dealt with but no Creed that I read of Shall any sort of Men presume to interpret those words which to him were unspeakable by a Gibbrish of their Imposing and force every Man to Cant after them what it is not lawful for any Man to utter Christ and his Apostles speak articulately enough in the Scriptures without any Creed as much as we are or ought to be capable of And the Ministry of the Gospel is useful and most necessary if it were but to press us to the reading of them to illustrate one place by the authority of another to inculcate those duties which are therein required quickning us both to Faith and Practice and showing within what bounds they are both circumscribed by our Saviour's Doctrine And it becomes every Man to be able to give a reason and account of his Faith and to be ready to do it without officiously gratifying those who demand it only to take advantage and the more Christians can agree in one confession of Faith the better But that we should believe ever the more for a Creed it cannot be expected In those days when Creeds were most plenty and in fashion and every one had them at their fingers end 't was the Bible that brought in the Reformation 'T is true a Man would not stick to take two or three Creeds for a need rather than want a Living and if a Man have not a good swallow 't is but wrapping them up in a Liturgy like a Wafer and the whole dose will go down currently especially if he wink at the same time and give his Assent and Consent without ever looking on them But without jesting for the matter is too serious Every Man is bound to work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling and therefore to use all helps possible for his best satisfaction hearing conferring reading praying for the assistance of God's Sprit but when he hath done this he is his own Expositor his own both Minister and People Bishop and Diocess his own Council and his Conscience excusing or condemning him accordingly he escapes or incurs his own internal Anathema So that when it comes once to a Creed made and imposed by other Men as a matter of Divine Faith the Case grows very delicate while he cannot apprehend tho the Imposer may that all therein is clearly contained in Scripture and may fear being caught in the expressions to oblige himself to a latitude or restriction further than comports with his own sense and judgment A Christian of honour when it comes to this once will weigh every word every syllable nay fruther if he consider that the great business of this Council of Nice was but one single letter of the Alphabet about the inserting or omitting of an Iota There must be either that exactness in the Form of such a Creed as I dare say no Meu in the world ever were or ever will be able to modulate or else this scrupulous privat judgment must be admitted or otherwise all Creeds become meer instruments of Equivocation or Persecution And I must confess when I have sometimes considered with my self the dulness of the Non-conformists and the acuteness on the contrary of the Episcoparians and the conscientiousness of both I have thought that our Church might safely wave the difference with them about Ceremonies and try it upon the Creeds which were both the more honourable way and more suitable to the method of the ancient Councils and yet perhaps might do their business as effectually For one that is a Christian in good earnest when a Creed is imposed will sooner eat fire than tak it against his judgment There have been Martyrs for Reason and it was manly in them but how much more would Men be so for Reason Religionated and Christianized But it is an Inhumane and Unchristian thing of those Faith-stretchers whosoever they be that either put Mens Persons or their Consciences upon the torture or rack them to the length of their Notions whereas the Bereans are made Gentlemen and Innobled by Patent in the Acts because they would not credit Paul himself whose Writings now make so great a part of the New Testament until they had searched the Scripture daily whether those things were so and therefore many of them believed And therefore although where there are such Creeds Christians may for Peace and Conscience-sake acquiesce while there appears nothing in them flatly contrary to the words of the Scripture yet when they are obtruded upon a Man in particular he will look very well about him and not take them upon any Humane Authority The greatest Pretence to Authority is in a Council But what then shall all Christians therefore take their Formularies of Divine Worship or Belief upon trust as writ in Tables of Stone like the Commandments deliver'd from Heaven and to be obeyed in the instant not considered because three hundred and eighteen Bishops are met in Abraham's great Hall of which most must be Servants and some Children and they have resolv'd upon 't in such a manner No a good Christian will not cannot atturn and indenture his Conscience over to be Represented by others It is not as in Secular matters where the States of a Kingdom are deputed by their fellow Subjects to transact for them so in spiritual or suppose it were yet 't were necessary as in the Polish constitution that nothing should be obligatory as long as there is one Dissenter where no Temporal Interests but every Mans Eternity and Salvation
saith he wittily do not worship God but the Imperial Purple It was the same Themistius that only out of an upright natural apprehension of things made that excellent Oration afterward to Valens which is in Print exhorting him to cease Persecution wherein he chances upon and improves the same notion with Constantines and tells him That he should not wonder at the Dissents in Cstristian Religion which were very small if compared with the multitude and crowd of Opinions among the Gentile Philosophers for there were at least three hundred differences and a very great dissention among them there was about their resolutions unto which each several Sect was as it were necessarily bound up and obliged And that God seemed to intend more to illustrate his own glory by that diverse and unequal variety of Opinions to the end every each one might therefore so much the more reverence his Divine Majesty because it is not possible for any one accurately to know him And this had a good effect upon Valens for the mitigating in some measure his severities against his fellow Christians So that after having cast about in this Summery again whereby it plainly appears that according to natural right and the apprehension of all sober Heathen Governours Christianity as a Religion was wholly exempt from the Magistrates jurisdiction or Laws farther than any particular person among them immorally transgressed as others the common rules of human society I cannot but return to the Question with which I begun What was the matter How came it about that Christianity which approved it self under all Persecutions to the Heathen Emperours and merited their favour so far till at last it regularly succeeded to the Monarchy should under those of their own profession be more distressed But the Answer is now much shorter and certainer and I will adventure boldly to say the true and single cause then was the Bishops And they were the cause against reason For what power had the Emperours by growing Christians more than those had before them None What obligation were Christians Subject under to the Magistrate more than before None But the Magistrates Christian Authority was what the Apostle describ'd it while Heathen not to be a terror to good works but to evil What new Power had the Bishops acquired whereby they turned every Pontificate into a Caiaphat None neither 2 Cor. 10. 8. Had they been Apostles The Lord had but given them Authority for edification not for destruction They of all other ought to have Preached to the Magistrate the terrible denunciations in Scripture against usurping upon and persecuting of Christians They of all others ought to have laid before them the horrible Examples of God's ordinary Justice against those that exercised Persecution But provided they could be the Swearers of the Prince to do all due Allegiance to the Church and to preserve the Rights and Liberties of the Church however they came by them they would give them as much scope as he pleased in matter of Christianity and would be the first to solicite him to break the Laws of Christ and ply him with hot places of Scripture in order to all manner of Oppression and Persecution in Civils and Spirituals So that the whole business how this unchristian Tyranny came and could entitle it self among Christians against the Christian priviledges was only the case in Zech. 13. 6. 7. And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thy hands Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends Because they were all Christians they thought forsooth they might make the bolder with them make bolder with Christ and wound him again in the hands and feet of his members Because they were Friends they might use them more coarsly and abuse them against all common civility in their own house which is a Protection to Strangers And all this to the end that a Bishop might sit with the Prince in Iunto to consult wisely how to preserve him from those people that never meant him any harm and to secure him from the Sedition and Rebellion of men that seek nor think any thing more but to follow their own Religious Christian Worship It was indeed as ridiculous a thing to the Pagans to see that work as it was afterwards in England to Strangers where Papists and Protestants went both to wrack at the same instant in the same Market and when Erasmus said wittily Quid agitur in Angliâ Consulitur he might have added though not so elegantly Comburitur de Religione Because they knew that Christian Worship was free by Christs Institution they procured the Magistrate to make Laws in it concerning things necessary As the Heathen Persecutor Iulian introduced some bordering Pagan Ceremonies and arguing with themselves in the same manner as he did Soz. l. 5. c. 16. That if Christians should obey those Laws they should be able to bring them about to something further which they had designed But if they would not then they might proceed against them without any hope of pardon as breakers of the Laws of the Empire and represent them as turbulent and dangerous to the Government Indeed whatsoever the Animadverter saith of the Act of Seditious Conventicles here in England as if it were Anvill'd after another of the Roman Senate the Christians of those Ages had all the finest tools of Persecution out of Iulian's Shop and studied him then as curiously as some do now Machiavel These Bishops it was who because the Rule of Christ was incomparable with the Power that they assumed and the Vices they practised had no way to render themselves necessary or tolerable to Princes but by making true Piety difficult by Innovating Laws to revenge themselves upon it and by turning Make-bates between Prince and People instilling dangers of which themselves were the Authors Hence it is that having awakened this Jealousie once in the Magistrate against Religion they made both the Secular and the Ecclesiastical Government so uneasie to him that most Princes began to look upon their Subjects as their Enemies and to imagine a reason of State different from the Interest of their People and therefore to weaken themselves by seeking unnecessary and grievous supports to their Authority Whereas if men could have refrain'd this cunning and from thence forcible governing of Christianity leaving it to its own simplicity and due liberty but causing them in all other things to keep the Kings and Christs peace among themselves and towards others all the ill that could have come of it would have been that such kind of Bishops should have prov'd less implemental but the good that must have thence risen to the Christian Magistrate and the Church then and ever after would have been inexpressible But this discourse having run in a manner wholly upon the Imposition of Creeds may seem not to concern and I desire that it may not reflect upon our Clergy nor the Controversies which have so unhappily
Arrian Books to be burned and whoever should be discovered to conceal any of Arrius his Writings to die for it But it fared very well with those who were not such fools as to own his Opinion All they were entertain'd by the Emperor at a magnificent Feast received from his hand rich Presents and were honourably dismist with Letters recommending their great Abilities and performance to the Provinces and enjoining the Nicene Creed to be henceforth observed With that stroke of the Pen Socr. l. 1. c. 6. For what three hundred Bishops have agreed on a thing indeed extraordinary ought not to be otherwise conceiv'd of than as the Decree of God Almighty especially seeing the Holy Ghost did sit upon the Minds of such and so excellent Men and open'd his Divine Will to them So that they went I trow with ample satisfaction and as they could not but take the Emperor for a very civil generous and obliging Gentleman so they thought the better of themselves from that day forward And how budg must they look when they return back to their Diocesses having every one of 'em bin a principal Limn of the Oecumenical Apostolical Catholick Orthodox Council when the Catacheristical Title of the Church and the Clergy were so appropriate to them by custom that the Christian People had relinquished or forgotten their Claim when every Hare that crossed their way homeward was a Schismatick or an Heretick and if their Horse stumbled with one of them he incurr'd an Anathema Well it was that their Journeys lay so many several ways for they were grown so cumbersom and great that the Emperor's High-way was too narrow for any two of them and there could have been no passage without the removal of a Bishop But soon after the Council was over Eusebius the Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis the Bishop of Nice who were already removed both by Banishment and two others put in their places were quickly restor'd upon their Petition wherein they suggested the Cause of their not Signing to have been only because they thought they could not with a safe Conscience subscribe the Anathema against Arrius appearing to them both by his Writings his Discourses and Sermons that they had been Auditors of not to be guilty of those Errors As for Arrius himself the Emperor quickly wrote to him It is now a considerable time since I wrote to your Gravity to come to my Tents that you might enjoy my Countenance so that I can scarce wonder sufficiently why you have so long delayed it therefore now take one of the publick Coaches and make all speed to my Tents that having had experience of my kindness and affection to you you may return into your own Country God preserve you most dear Sir. Arrius hereupon with his Comerade Euxoius comes to Constantine's Army and offers him a Petition with a Confession of Faith that would have pass'd very well before the Nicene Council and now satisfied the Emperor Socr. l. 1. c. 19 20. insomuch that he writ to Athanasius now Bishop of Alexandria to receive him into the Church but Athanasius was of better mettle than so and absolutely refused it Upon this Constantine writ him another threatning Letter When you have understood hereby my Pleasure see that you afford free entrance into the Church to all that desire it for if I shall understand that any who desires to be admitted into the Church should be either hindred or forbidden by you I will send some one of my Servants to remove you from your Degree and place another in your stead Yet Athanasius stood it out still tho other Churches received him into Communion and the Heretick Novatus could not have bin more unrelenting to lapsed Christians than he was to Arrius But this joined with other Crimes which were laid to Athanasius his Charge at the Council of Tyre though I suppose indeed they were forged made Athanasius glad to fly for it and remain the first time in Exile Upon this whole Matter it is my impartial Opinion that Arrius or whosoever else were guilty of teaching and publishing those Errors whereof he was accused deserved the utmost Severity which consists with the Christian Religion And so willing I have been to think well of Athanasius and ill of the other that I have on purpose avoided the reading as I do the naming of a Book that I have heard tells the story quite otherwise and have only made use of the current Historians of those Times who all of them tell it against the Arrians Only I will confess that as in reading a particular History at adventure a Man finds himself inclinable to favour the weaker Party especially if the Conqueror appear insolent so have I been affected in reading these Authors which does but resemble the reasonable pity that men ordinarily have too for those who though for an erroneous Conscience suffer under a Christian Magistrate And as soon as I come to Constantius I shall for that reason change my compassion and be doubly engaged on the Orthodox party But as to the whole matter of the Council of Nice I must crave liberty to say that from one end to the other though the best of the kind it seems to me to have been a pitiful humane business attended with all the ill circumstances of other wordly affairs conducted by a spirit of ambition and contention the first and so the greatest oecumenical blow that by Christians was given to Christianity And it is not from any sharpness of humor that I discourse thus freely of Things and Persons much less of Orders of men otherwise venerable but that where ought is extolled beyond reason and to the prejudice of Religion it is necessary to depreciate it by true proportion It is not their censure of Arrianism or the declaring of their Opinion in a controverted point to the best of their understanding wherein to the smalness of mine they appear to have light upon the Truth had they likewise upon the measure that could have moved me to tell so long story or bring my self within the danger and aim of any captious Reader speaking thus with great liberty of mind but little concern for any prejudice I may receive of things that are by some Men idolized But it is their Imposition of a new Article or Creed upon the Christian world not being contained in express words of Scripture to be believed with Divine Faith under Spiritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Priviledges of Religion and their making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding Ages for most cruel Persecutions that only could animate me In digging thus for a new deduction they undermined the fabrick of Christianity to frame a particular Doctrine they departed from the general Rule of their Religion and for their curiosity about an Article concerning Christ they violated our Saviour's first Institution of a Church not subject to any Addition in matters of Faith nor liable to Compulsion either in Belief