Heathen Princes and servile Conventions under Christian ones The Letter Distinguishing all Power into Spiritual and Temporal founds both of them in God which no Christian will deny of the Ecclesiastical Authority That this can be Rightly Exercised among Christians only not as enclosed within any Civil State or Community but as Members of a Spiritual Society of which Christ Jesus is the Head who has also given out Laws and appointed a standing Succession of Officers under himself for the Government of this Society which continued near 300 Years before any Civil Governours embraced Christianity So that the Spiritual Authority is not in its own Nature simply dependent on the Temporal That when supernatural means of Governing the Church were thought by its Founder to be no more necessary to its continuance it was left to the best ordinary means of Conduct and Preservation viz. assembling debating and by Majority of Voices deciding concerning the Rules and Principles of Government That the Law of this Society is made to their hands not to be altered added or diminished but the applying thereof to particular Cases explaining Doubts upon it deducing Consequences from it in things not explicitly determined already by that Law and enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations are the proper Objects of their Power That this Society can better claim an inherent and unalterable Right to the exercise of this Power than any Sect among us it not being Lost by Magna Charta by its Giving the Church a Legal Freedom Thus the Letter p. 17 18 19 20. The Doctor The Case stated on each side Is by no means satisfied that the Church has any Command or Authority from God to assemble Synods he is not aware that either in the Old or New Testament there is so much as one single direction given for its so doing And excepting the singular Instance of Acts XV. he knows of no Example that can with any shew of Reason be offered of such a Meeting And whether that were such a Synod as of which the Question is may justly be doubted The Foundation of Synods in the Church in his Opinion is the same as that of Councils in the State The Necessities of the Churches when they began to be enlarged first brought in the One as those of the Commonwealth did the other And therefore when men are incorporated into Societies as well for the service of God Then it seems the Church is not sociated till incorporated with the civil State to spiritual as well as temporal Ends. and salvation of their souls as for their Civil Peace and Security these Assemblies are to be as much subjost to the Laws of the Society and to be regulated by them as any other Publick Assemblies are Nor has the Church any inherent Divine Right to set it at liberty from being concluded by such Rules as the Governing part of every Society shall prescribe to it as to this matter As for those Realms in which the Civil Power is of another Perswasion Natural Reason will prompt the Members of every Church to consult together the best they can how to manage the Affairs of it and to agree upon such Rules and Methods as shall seem most proper to preserve the Peace and Vnity of it and to give the least Offence that may be to the Government under which they live And what Rules are by the common consent of every such Church agreed to ought to be the Measure of assembling and acting of Synods in such a Countrey Thus the Doctor p. 365 366 c. § 2. The Doctor 's Tergiversation This is what the Doctor replies about the Affairs of Ecclesiastical Synods to the Letter Wherein any Man may plainly see that he shuffles and turns his Back in the vety Fundamental Article in Controversie not daring professedly to refute the Hypothesis of the Letter by any good Proof from Reason or Authority nor yet ingenuously confessing those well-laid Truths which he was not able to oppose but to steal away the Reader from observing this Impotency he is fobb'd off with a poor precarious and not so much as evasive a Scheme of Imaginations for which he can hardly find any Church-Advocate nor any Credentials from any Divine or valuable Humane Writings § 3. Terms explained But before we come to winnow these Elements of Independent or rather Erastian Divinity for there is a mixture of these Contraries in which Erastiaenism much preponderates it is necessary that we six the principal Terms of Matters Fundamental in his Enquiry Authority what And first for Authority in Matters of Government it is known to signifie either a just or rightful or at least lawful Power to rule the Subjects according to Equity and Laws of Justice or else an uncontroulable Freedom and Impunity only of acting which is the priviledge of all Supreme Governors as being above all Legal and Judicial Coercion with their Subjects Right Now all Acts of Authority in the former and proper Sense appear in themselves Good and Right and no Powers or Persons whatsoever can have any opposite Good and Lawful Authority But the mere Exercises of an uncontroulable Domination Uncontroulable Domination tho called by the specious name of Authority cannot vacate any Just and Valid Rights Liberties and Authorities of any Subject Persons or Societies For it must be noted that an Inherent Right and Valid Title cannot be legally extinguished by any External Violations of Breedom or Obstructions of its Fruition or Practice which tho not accountable for at any Domestick Tribunal shall yet fall under the Sentence and Condemnation of God the present Civil Impunity giving no Right to any injurious measures nor Exemption from that divine Bar. Secondly We are to define an Ecclesiastical Council or Synod Synod what wherein I will take the Doctors Definition namely 't is literally a Meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons I mean Ministers upon an Ecclesiastical Affair (a) p. 60. And it is either subordinate The sorts of Synods consisting of one or more Bishops and inferiour Ministers or Co-ordinate consisting only of one equal Order either of Bishops alone or Inferiour Ministers alone For in want of a Bishop * Cyp. Ep. 3 Ep. 18. the Inferiour Clergy are the Council for the vacant Church according to the limits and powers of their Order A Convention of Clergy †Cyp. 26 Sect. 4 Ep. 31. Sect. 5. under their proper Bishop for Ecclesiastical Consultations or Acts we now should call a Diocesan Synod A Convention of a College of Bishops for a Province we may call a Provincial Synod which generally ever was attended with the Service of Inferiour Orders Councils called General are of the fame Nature in themselves tho of a larger extent and not of a Canonical originally but of Imperial Collection Other extraordinary and unusual Conventions of Select Bishops and Ministers not delegated so much by the Church upon her regular Constitutions
Committed by God to set Orders to proper Priests and lastly the Mystick Powers of the Hierarchy of the Keys Hierarchial Powers of binding and loosing of remitting and retaining of sins in Earth to be ratified above by Christ in Heaven was deposited in the Apostles the first Fundamental Bishops under Christ and derived down to all their Successours with whom he promised his presence even to the end of the World that so the Gates of Hell might not prevail over the Church committed to their Charge Consecration by Mystical Imposition of Haâ—d to which end among others they are by a Mystical Imposition of Hands blessed and consecrated unto such Measures of the Holy Spirit as are suitable to so high and holy a Function and such Mystick Offices Now if this in Fact be so then our Rule holds good that none can attempt these Powers but by Divine Commission either Original or Successive the Divine Maxim of the Author to the Hebrews c. 5.4 holding true of these Priesthoods as well as those in the House of Aaron Priesthood not assumable but by Divine Commistion That no Man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Now to secure this Truth and Matter of Fact we have St. Pauls Testimonies to the full in several places namely That Christ hath placed in the Church Pastors Powers Ilicrâ—rchiâ—â—l instincted by Christ Teachers Governments in which they that Rule are to Rule well and with diligence and to be therefore accounted worthy of or assigned double Honour and to be obeyed and submitted to as they that watch for our Souls for which they must give Account as Stewards of God Mysteries 1 Cor. 12.28 Rom. 12.8 1 Tim. 5.17 Heb. 13.17 1 Cor. 4.1 from whence 't is as clear as Noon day that the Christian Laity are by Divine Ordinance under Governors Hierarchical And being so are in a Subordinate state of Ecclesiastical Society with God under their Spiritual Rulers and being antecedently so before are therefore independently so consociated as to Civil Societies according to the Doctrine of the Letter § 3. But this is not all that deserves observation in this matter But beside the different Orders of Governours the Vnity of the Catholick Church is to be much considered under these several Governours either as one Divine School of Christian Piety under many Doctors The Catholick Unity of the Church a◠〈◊〉 â—â—chool Aâ—â—â—y or â—olity under several Principal Governours The Twelve and the Seventy or of one Army in many Partitions under their respective Head Officers or Lieutenants General under Christ the great Captain of our Salvation or as one Polity under many Optimates For first our Saviour came as a Doctor sent from God and gathered under him Disciples of these he ordained twelve chief Doctors and seventy Inferiors to collect more unto and instruct them in this School when collected Now a collection of Disciples into one Society is but one School how large soever it grows and how many Teachers soever the Enlargements do required So many Tutors there are in one Colledge and many Colledges in one University Since then also the whole Catholick Church of Christ is but one general School of his Foundation tho' the Doctors that teach it have their several Rooms and Mansions for their particular Shares these Partitions for Convenience do not divide the general Society into Independent Separations No Independencies in Christs Church The same sort of Unity is to be maintained in the Notion of an Army or Church Militant by Sacramental Vow under Christs Banner under the conduct of its general Officers And lastly if we consider it as the one City or Kingdom of God committed by its Prince during his abscence to several Viceroys assigned their respective Districts and Jurisdictions these are the Bishops succeeding in this Authority to the Apostles So that this One School One Army One City tho' distributively to be governed by the several Rulers as to particular and local Offices yet as to the Interests of the common Vnity and Preservation it must be governed Aristocratically by common Council and Unanimous Authority Conciliar Assemblies necessary to an Aristocracy And as no Monarch can well Govern without a set of Counsellors to Advise such as the Clergy or Chapter of a Diocess ought to be to a Bishop in his District So the Optimates of an Aristocracy cannot not only not Wisely but not Authoritatively act without Conciliar Forms and Methods and they are therefore themselves one standing fundamental Council for the whole Subject Body And hence is the Right of Provincial Synods The Catholick Right and Primitive use of Provincial Synods to be held all over the Catholick Church fundamentally necessary to the Catholick Uniformity of Conduct and Vnity depending thereupon to the end that what each Council resolves may be transmitted to the rest and so mutually treated of if need be by the intervention of Legates or ratified if there be no doubt or need of discussions which was the original form of Catholick Government and Communion in the Christian Church before the Empire set up Christs Banner and was received as of Apostolical Canon So that if the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as one common Society and Community No need of Scriptural Record for requiring such forms of Government be of Divine Structure the very Truth and Faith hereof immediately imports an Aristocracy and that a Right of Conciliar Assemblies and Legations So that there needed no Scriptural Record requiring this while the Frame and Order hereof was before laid in the first Structure of the Church and Universally known as Established in it before any Scriptures of the New Testament were conceived or lodged in the Archives of the Church as is confessed by the instances of this Conciliar form of Government extant in these Scriptures to be by and by alledged For it is further to be considered that the Convention of these Synods is not universally of constant and indispensably necessary frequency Synods mostly upon emergencies to be fixed to stated times but upon emergencies mostly which yet are frequent enough and in the days of Persecution 't is as inconvenient many times to the Spiritual as dangerous to the Temporal Interests of Christians 't was therefore fitter to leave the exercise of that Authority free to the publick Ecclesiastick Prudence Not to be held constantly in times of danger as to the actual exercise and menage thereof than to confine it to particular Rules Times and Limits Cyp. Ep. 56. § 3. Nec quisquam cum populunmostrum fugari conspexerit metu persecutionis spargi conâ—urbetur quod collection fraternitatem non videat nec tractantes Episcopos andiat c. by Express and Canonical Precept without reserve to a necessary Liberty Nor need this be thought strange since the Assemblies for Doctrine and Worship tho' apparently of Divine Right as to daily use
to whom they might commit that Diaconate by their Apostolick Imposition of Hands which was done accordingly So here was a Meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons upon an Ecclesiastical Affair and so a Matter of Synodical Polity under Authority Apostolical Acts 6. Upon the Persecation St. Cyprian saith that the Apostles sent Philip to Samania Ep. 73. â—8 which began in the stoning of Sâ— Stephen there followed a dispersion of the Church from Jerusadem but they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word and Philip the Deacon made a vast Conversion at Samaria of which when the Apostles which were still at Jerusadem heard they sent unto them Peter and John Mission an Act of Conciliar Authority to lay their Hands upon them for the Reception of the Holy Spirit Here was most formally a Mission from the Apostolick College de propagandâ fide of two the most Eminent of their Body and was an Act of Conciliar Form Authority Government and Communication Acts 8.14 15. To the Authority of which College St. Peter accountable to the College of Apostles in publick Council St. Peter himself was forced to give an account at his return for his having Preached to and Baptized the Gentiles Acts 11.1 2 c. Upon the same Persecution several preached the Gospel to the Jews alone in Phenice Cyprus and Antioch in which last some also preached to the Greeks and turned great numbers of them to the Lord and when Tidings thereof came to the Church at Jerusalem they send forth Barnabas to Antioch which Mission must be ordered Conciliarly by the Apostles of which three only had departed from the Colledge Peter John and Barnabas and Peter had returned before this Mission of Barnabas Acts 11. tho' after Herod had killed the Apostle James Major and Imprisoned Peter to the same end by the Conduct of an Angel Peter went off a second time Eldersunder the Apostles in the College at Jerusalem Acts 12. Nor were there only Apostles still presiding at Jerusalem but Elders also under them to whom when Earnabas and Saul returned to give Account of their Ministry they delivered the Collection made for the Brethren of Judea Acts 11.30 Which Elders were a second Clerical Order in that standing Council The 24 Elders in the Revelation represented as a College What the Twenty four Elders in the Revelation were particularly intended to represent 't is not Material to Conjecture 't is only observable here that they are represented as in one Assembly When some from Judea came to Anâ—ioch and Preached to the Gentiles the necessity of Circumcision and were Opposed by Paul and Barnabas herein 3 The Church there was resolved to Consult the Determination of the highest Authority The College of Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem the Sâ—preme Authority which then was in the College of Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem who from that Metropolis yet jointly and Synodically Governed all Ecclesiastical Matters needing their Determination The Legates therefore from Antioch being received by this Colledge and having given an Account of their Affairs in Publick Assembly certain of the believing Pharisees at Jerusalem urged the necessity of Circumcising the Gentiles Whereupon the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this Matter The Session at Jerusalem about Circumcision among whom the Old Prolocutor Peter first next Paul and Barnabas and last of all James Minor afterward probably the Bishop of that Place upon the dispersion of the rest Apostles delivered their Senses and Resolutions for the Negative in which the whole Council Acquiesced And so it pleased the Apostles and Elders and the whole Church to send Synodical Legates and Epistles to the Gentile Churches in Antioch Syria and Cilicia letting them know That it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Them to lay upon them no more than four necessary Things to abstain from Meats offered to Idols from Blood from things strangled and from Fornication assuring them withal that those Circumcisionists from Jerusalem had not that in Commandment from the Colledge of Apostles and Elders to impose the Doctrine of Circumcision on them Whereby is imported that that Council or Colledge had a Commanding Power on Missionaries tho' in vertue of that they had given these Zealots no such Circumcising Commandment Syned Afiicara ad Cornel. ap Cyp. Ep. 54. placuit nel is Spiritu Sarcio suggerente Domino per visiones multas manifestas admonente c. This was so very formal a Synod and the Acts and Concerns thereof so formally Synodical that hence all Synods Convened upon Religious Questions and Debates have acted in prescription from this as their Platform or Original Pattern And yet the Dr. tells us That whether this were such a Synod as he and the Letter was then speaking of may very justly be doubted Now what sort of Synod the Dr. intends his then Speech about I cannot tell p. 60. If his General Definition of a Synod will do this was certainly such as fully as ever any was or if he means such a Synod as the Churches usually were directed by I am sure he can find no essential Reason or Form wanting But if â—e means one of Hen. the Eight his Convocations there indeed we must fail him But to such a one as this the Letter pretended no Divine Constitution or Example and therefore 't is not about such a Synods Divine Right that the Dispute lies nor would the Dr. have opposed a Divine Right to such a Model that would so â—â—â—ctually have Consecrated his enslaving Hypothesis No no 't is not this sort for which the Letter lays Divine Foundations 〈◊〉 't is for such a freedom of Synods which our Religious Prince hath deprived us of So that the Doctors Exception properly is either that this of Jerusalem was not an Ecclesiastical or Canonical Council or if it were that it was not sice and exempt from Civil Coercion An exact Man here would have laid out all his force and have set forth on what sort of Synods the Debate is with a description of its Constituent Forms in distinction from others to have been as accurately described Nor will a Man's haste nor avocations Excuse such Omissions by which Divines Students and Learners may be blindly led into dangerous Errours Which defect therefore I hope he will supply in the next Edition and Vindication of his Book But to go on Elders of Asia convened from Ephesus to Miletus The Elders of the Church of Asia being together at Ephesus as the Bishops and Deacons were at Philippi Phil. 1.1 were all Convened by St. Paul to Miletus to receive his Apostolical Order against those ravening Wolves that should after his departure arise to pervert the people from the Faith and to draw Disciples after them against whom he bids them Watch taking heed unto themselves and to the Flock of which the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops viz. the whole Church of Asia under the
these little Occasional Transports but fixed Senses in the Holy Martyr Ep. ad Trall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. Ep. ad Smyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide plura ap V. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Philad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Polycarp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vide plura ejusmodi in Psendepig Ign. Inscriptionem Epist Polycarp ad Philippens Cypr. Ed. 34. § 4. Presbyterii honorem c. sessuri nobiscum c. ita Ep. 35 42. § 2 3. as appears by their frequent repetitions requiring an Obedience still to the Presbyteries as to the Apostles which had been extravagant to a Miracle had not Presbyteries been of Divine Institution on Faith of which he calls it the Council of God without which whosoever Acts any thing Ecclesiastical is not of a pure Conscience as being Concorporated for the Unity of the Church there being but one Lords Supper and one Altar of God as there is but one Bishop together with his Presbytery to unity with which all penitent Schismaticks must return in order to the remission of their Sins So that such a System of Presbyteries in every Bishoprick appears by this Disciple of the Apostles and Bishop of their Consecration to be of Divine Ordinance for a Council to the Bishop and the Bishoprick in all its occasions So that so many places attesting such a Systematick Consociation of Presbyteries in every See will bid a fair Interpretation for all those other places which require observance to Elders plurally only named See in the mean time Ep. 6. § 5. Solus rescribere nibil potui nibil sine consilio vsstro c. Ep. 18. 24. but collectively understood as an Ecclesiastick Council and so of the Deacons the same is most probable because they are generally set with the Bishop and the Presbytery in these Rules of Hierarchical Discipline and Vnion according to the forms of those Synods of St. Cyprians which generally contained the Deacons as well as Presbyters gathered together in the face of the whole Church in affairs that did concern all the Orders thereof of which more will be spoken when we come to particulars § 5. In the vacancy the Clergy of Council for the Bishop rick Nor were they only of Counsel and Sub Society to the Bishop while the See was full but they were a Council for the Vacant Bishoprick during the Interval to inspect and conduct the publick state thereof and to give and receive Letters of Communion between other Churches For tho' in the Vacancies Presbyters were not able to do all Episcopal Offices in their own Right as Ordination Anathematizing Absolution c. yet all things preparatory hereunto were in their power as Examination Regulation Suspension Injunctions of Penance c. in which the vacant Bishoprick was to be Canonically Subject and Obedient reserving higher Procedures to the higher Authorities of either the neighbouring Bishops at the present or their proper Bishop next to succeed Ign. ad Rom. For tho' Ignatius tells the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Antiochen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church in Syria at Antioch had now in his steed Christ and Christ only for her Pastor and Bishop yet in that ascribed to him sent to his own Antiochians he charges the Presbyters to feed the Flock till God should give them a Governour and the People in the mean time to be subject to the Presbyters and Deacons And tho' this is indeed an Apocriphal Epistle yet it is an unexceptionable Canon specisied in it and far from an Imposture that the Clergy should Govern the Laity in the Vacancy So Polycarp in his Epistle to the Church at Philippi then as it seems Polycarps ad Philippens charges the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Laity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Cypr. Ep. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. without a Bishop for otherwise the Canon required him to have mentioned him in the first place directs the Presbyters to be Merciful Visiters of the Needy Converters of them that Err forbearing Wrath Partiality Unjust Judgment Severity c. the Laity to be subject to them And when it shall be considered that in these days the several Presbyters had not several Congregations apart to themselves but were all one common Colledge over one People in every See and the Rule of the Government and Obedience setin this Epistle is to the Elders in common without any distributive appropriation it will then be as clear that they were a Council for the Church in the Vacancy as a Council to the Bishop in the Plenarty To which the express Testimonies of the Epistles reciprocated between Bishops and Vacant Sees under the Conciliar Conduct of the Clergy are full and convincing Cler. Rom. Clero Carthag in t Epist Cypr. Ep. 3. § 1. cum incumbat whis qui videmur praepositi esse vice pastor is custodire gregem c. spoken of the Clergy of both Sees Thus the Clergy at Rome writing under their Vacancy to the Clergy at Carthage under the absence of St. Cyprian looked upon it as a duty incumbent upon them in the absence or want of the Bishops to supply their places in what their Order would admit in the custody of the Flock And they therefore having received Letters from the Clergy of Carthage of the Recess of St. Cyprian the Bishop by Clement the Carthaginian Sub-Deacon and Messenger send back this their Epistle by their Agent Bassianus to the Clergy of Carthage Ibid. Harum literarum exemplum ad quoscunque poteritis transmittere per idoneas occasiones c. vid. Cyp. ad Cler. Ep. 6. § 2. and desired them to communicate it by all means and opportunities possible to other Churches Which were plainly acts of Form and Nature Conciliar and such as they looked on as matter of Duty and not Prudence only 'T is true where Bishops were only absent it may be presumed that the Presbyteries did act by the direction of the Absent Bishop but then it is as certain Cyp. ad Cler. Ep. 6. Vice meâ fungamini cirea gerendaca quae administratio religiosa deposcit vid. Ep. 5. § 1. that the Absent Bishop was Canonically obliged so to Authorize or concede that vicarious administration which they upon their own Right before such actual Commission might assume for it was the disobedience of some proud Consessors to the Authority and Conduct of the Deacons and Presbyters Cyp. ibid. § 4. Quando audio quosdam nec à Diaconis aut presbyteris regi posse that occasioned St. Cyprians sixth Epistle to Authorize the Clergy that could safely stay at Carthage under the then persecution in his Stead Name and conceded Authority to carry on the Ecclesiastical Administrations Which was not the first Original of the Clergies Authority in the absence of the Bishop
but a valid and doubling Confirmation Cyp. Ep. 15. ad Cler. Rom. § 2. Presbyteris Diaconibus non defuit Sacerdotis vigor Ep. 37. ad Cler. § 1. officium meum vestra diligentia repraesentet or express ratification of that Antecedent Authority of the Clergy which the exorbitant took upon them for want of the Bishops Presence to despise there being the same reason tho' not the same degree of Want in the Absence as the Death of a Bishop and the proper vacancy of the See thereupon And therefore tho' in the denying Communion to Gaius Diddensis a Presbyter and his Deacon without his antecedent Sentence only on the Counsel of some of St. Cyprians fellow Bishops Cyp. Ep. 28. ad Cler. Integre cum disciplinâ fecislis quod consilio collegarum meorum qui praesentes erant Gaio Diddensi presbytero Diacono ejus censutstis non communicandum they acted on their own Authority yet are they commended by St. Cyprian as having acted with great Integrity and according to the Rules of Ecclesiastick Discipline It appears then that by a Primitive and Catholick Polity founded at least upon Divine Right if not Precept where-ever Episcopal Sees were fully sixed there was also a Council of Presbyters with Deacons and Officers under them for the Conduct of the Bishoprick and upon absence or Death of the Bishop for Synodical Communications with other Churches § 6. Which being pre-established it may not be amiss to consider some of those procedures in which the Primitive Bishops were wont to convene their Clergy in which I mean them alone in one Diocess without the aggregation of other Bishops for the Government of affairs And first if any Person under his Bishop promoted new or false Doctrines in Religion this became matter for the Care of the Bishop and the Counsel of his Clergy and many times the presence of the Laity infected or in danger of infection Dionys Alex. ap Euseh Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nepotis dicbum Elenchium Allegoristarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after a moderate discussion of the matter had by all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thus in the Arsinoire Region under the Primacy of Alexandria one Coracion had disseminated the Doctrine of Nepos an Egyptian Bishop concerning a Carnal Millennium which had spread far and wide to the subversion of much people Whither therefore Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria coming called together the Village Presbyters and Teachers in the presence of all the Laity that had a mind to be there and to have a publick Discussion of that Doctrine of Nepos And after three days publick Canvas of Nepos his Book made with much moderation by all persons the affair ended successfully in the Conversion of Coracion the Ringleaders of the Millenaries If then Authority to Convert Men from Errors be Divine and Convocations of Clergy-Men by their Bishop be necessary or Expedient thereto as 't was in this case it follows that such Synods under a Bishop are of Divine Right and 't is as much the Bishops Divine Authority as Duty to convene them § 7. Cypr. ad Cler. Ep. 10. § 2. Nam cum in minoribus pece at is agant peccatores prenitentiam justo tempore secundum disciplinae or dinem ad exomolegesin veniant per imposstionem manus Episcopi Cleri jus communicationis accipiunt nunc crudo tempore Offertur nomen corum nondum pruitentiâ actâ nondum exâ—mologesi factâ nondum manu eis ab Episcopo Clero impositâ Euch iristia illis datur vid. Ep. 11. § 1. Ep. 12. § 1. Another Instance of Convening the Clergy by their Bishops in these Ages was for reconciling publick Penitents by Imposition of Hands of the Bishop and Clergy upon Consession first made publickly before in order to a recovery of the right of Communication Ecclesiastical and Eucharistical as also for the Censure of such as should presumptuously violate the Laws Order Union and Discipline of their Church and for Ordinations of the Clergy or less Orders All which are Acts Synodical Ibid. § 4. Acturi apud Nos the Bishop and Clergy apud confessores Causam suam c. Ep. 24. quos jam pridem communi consilio Clero proximos feceramus quando cum Presbyteris doclioribus lectores diligenter probaremus and grounded upon the Authority of the Bishop and the Reason of the Causes both which herein most certainly were as Divine as for such they were then received If a Man would be here accurate in traversing such intimations as may be picked up herein among the Antients one might swell this chapter to a greater largeness than is necessary but taking for granted that these are uncontestable and apposite evidence I leave these Presbyteries and their Divine Powers on their own Divine Foundations and proceed to the second sort of Episcopal or Provincial Synods CHAP. VII Of Episcopal and Provincial Synods in the three first Centuries and their Authority § 1. THAT there were Synodical Conventions and Provincial Councils of Bishops and such Presbyters under them as the Bishops brought with them or called to them in the First Centuries will not I suppose be denied by any owner of Episcopacy and the Volumes of the Antient Fathers So that our present enquiry is not into or concerning their actual being but their Frequency Right Authority and Uses for which they were wont so often so vigorously to assemble § 2. Tertull. De Jejun Aguntur praecepta per Graecias illus certis in locis Concilia ex universis Ecelesijs per quae altiora quaeque incommune tractantur ipsa repraesentatio totiùs nominis Christiani magnâ veneratione celebratur Et hoe quam dignum side auspicanti undique congregari ad Christum Conventus autem isti stat ionibus prius jejunationibus operati dolere cum dolentibus ita demum congaudere gaudentibus norunt vid. Alexand. Alexandrin Episc Epist ad Cath. Eccl. Epis ap Socr. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 5. And first as to their general frequency Tertullian the most antient of all our Latin Authors tells us that thro' all the Greek Countries where Christianity had so universally spread it self Councils were by command or precept convened out of all Churches thro' or in which Councils all arduous matters were publickly treated of and in them the Reverence of the Christian Character solemnly celebrated it being the highest dignity thus every where to be convened unto Christ and that with severe Stations and Fastings for the sanctification of them Where we see he asserts the practice and devotion to be of the very highest and divinest Dignity imaginable and consequently of the like Authority equal to that Dignity in which 't is either fundamentally lodged or to which 't is inseparably concomitant Nor does the Dignity only but the necessities of affairs also recommend or enforce the exercise as well as Institution of
the Question of Rebaptization from Heresie was Conciliarly determined different ways in several Churches Firmil ad Cyp. § 6 17. Dionys Aleâ— ad Xyst Pap. ap Eus E. H. l. 7. c. 5. c. 7. Cyp. cum coll ad Fid. Ep. 59. § 1. c. without any breach of Catholick Communion till Pope Stephen began the Rupture with the African Phrygian Galatian Cilician and Cappadocian Churches which yet other Churches would by no means consent to each Church determining according to its best Judgment Rules and Customs but the most moderate taking care in the midst of this diversity Cyp. Ep. 62. §◠c. Cyp. ad Cald. Ep. 38. § 2. Ep. 42. § 5. to keep the Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace So a Council of 66 African Bishops determine the questions made them by Fidus concerning the reconciliation of one Victor a lapsed Presbyter by Therapius a Bishop before Canonical Examination and Season as also of the liberty of Baptizing Infants as soon as born before they were Eight Days old as also of the Offenceless way of living to be practised by the Virgins And as they did Conciliarly provide to prevent so did they to correct Evils particularly the Vices Violences and Immoralities of all Orders as in the Presbyter Felicissimus not only for his Schism but for his Lusts especially concerning the Penances and Indulgences to the Lapsed for which in times of Persecution and the dispersions of the Episcopal College the Criminals were required to stay Cyp. Ep. 12. § 2. Ep. 14. § 2. Ep. 26. § 4. Ep. 28. § 2. Ep. 31. § 5. Ep. 32. Ep. 40. § 3 7. Ep. 52. § 2 3 6. Ep. 53. § 2. Ep. 54. Ep. 55. § 13. and wait for peace to the Church before it was decent for them or allowed to them to claim their own which was to be determined in Councils of their Bishops Clergy and standing Laity All which whosoever looks into the quoted places will find to be thought not only expedient but necessary for the good of the Church and the persons concerned and for the Authority of their Acts which was universally and uncontestedly taken for Divine upon grounds taken out of Scripture Cyp. Ep. 55. § 13. Firm. in t Cyp. Ep. 75. which therefore they held frequently and in some places annually from which they sent Synodical Letters and Messages with authentick Deputations and Powers not only by the Sub-Clerical Orders Ep. Cyp. 41. § 1. Ep. 42. § 1. Ep. 45. § 1. § 2. but by Deacons Priests nay and by Bishops also according as the nature of the affair did require and Junctures of Time and Season would permit being herein as much concerned for a general Negotiation in Spirituals not only each Church within it self but abroad with all others and for all Christian Uses as the Civil States and Sovereignties are for Domestick Conduct and foreign Embassies and Treaties with more remote or more nearly adjacent Countries and with as fair to say no fairer ground of Authority from God and Nature Upon all which I make these concluding Remarks that if such Synods had not been thought of Divine Right and Duty too those that were Convened and Censured by them would have denied the Authority the Lapsed Penitents would have disclaimed their Necessity the Apostates would have proclaimed the Imposture of a pretended Divine Authority and the Churches would never have been at that vast Fatigue and Charge of Synodical procedures especially against the Edicts of Secular Powers had they not judged these to be Acts of an Ecclesiastical Duty to and Authority from God But here being none the least Exception from the offended nor any possible Inducement upon the Church to quit the claim and practice of such Authority I think here is an undeniable presumption hereupon that it was as uncontestable as it was actually uncontested CHAP. VIII Of the Authority of Civil Powers and Laws in general against the Liberty of Ecclesiastical Synods § 1. AFter the Knowledge of all this which I am sure the Dr. well knew before ever he dreamed of Writing upon this Subject 't is a matter of astonishment to me that he should look upon Synods under Alien Powers to have been and still to be but prudential Clubs without any Authority from God or Man And yet upon this confidence 't is strange that he should not wholly deliver them up to the full Authority of all Heathen or Alien Powers against which where there is no right no Human Reason or Prudence can warrant any popular Frequences or Councils So that by his granting them Reason he seems to grant them Right and by gâ—aâ—ting them Right to grant them Authority to hold Synods under Alien Powers And yet he is unwilling even to allow what he grants and floats up and down in his Doubts hereupon and casts an unlucky glance upon the Primitive Synods as scarce capable of Excuse and more hardly of Justisication It has been saith he ever look'd upon as one great part of the Princes Prerogative p. 13. that no Societies should be Incorporated nor any Companies be allowed to meet together without his Knowledge and Permission The Roman Law was especially very severe as to this Matter And tho' after the Conversion of the Emperors to the Faith of Christ a Provision was made for the Publick Assemblies of the Church for Divine Service yet Tertullian who understood these Matters as well as any one of his Time tho' he excused their Meetings upon all other Accounts could not deny but that they fell under the Censure of the Law and that having not the Princes Leave to meet together they were in the Construction of the Law guilty of Meeting against it § 2. This brings one therefore to an Enquiry Conventions Necessary Innocent Hurtful What Meetings are of right obnoxious to the prohibitions and penalties of Humane Laws The Conventions therefore of Men are of three sorts either Necessary or Innocent or Hurtful And first such as are Necessary no Man whatsoever can have a rightful Authority to restrain for Necessity being a Law from God cannot be vacated by any positive Law of Man Nor Secondly can Innocent Meetings be rightfully denyed in themselves but under the apprehensions of hurt or danger upon Time Place and Circumstances But Hurtful Meetings in the Third Place may not only but ought of Right to be restrained by the Magistracy Yet what Princes have no Rightful Authority to do that they may irresistibly do upon an uncountroulable Domination and Impunity Upon which when they presume to Repress our Rights and Liberties if it be in Matters Necessary they are to be disobeyed in Fact and submitted to as to their Legal Processes without resistance if in Matters barely Innocent there Prudence will direct but no bare Conscience of Duty to the Tyrannical Law alone will oblige to observation tho' it will to Patience under Legal Sufferings For an Innocent Liberty is an Vnalienable Franchise
at least miraculously super-natural pass we to the consideration of the Mystick part of Religion upon what Authority that is founded by what Ministers it is Celebrated and what Rights Powers and Liberties they have in the administration of it Divine Institution § 2. First then all the Authority of Mystick Religion must be founded in Divine positive Institution in order to a Mystical and Foederal Consociation with God For none can prescribe Rights of such Communion but he that is the Founder thereof So that all Mysteres invented by Men in order to such Mystic Commerce either with true or false Gods are Impostures and Sorceres of which yet the Priests own not themselves to be the Inventers but the Numen with whom they pretend to have and procure a Society confessing thereby that all true and Holy Foederal Mysteries are and can only be of Divine Institution without which no Solemnities in Religion could merit or procure a Sacred Reverence and Reception But being once received amongst the Heathens as Divinely order'd Mysteries they Mysteries and Priests inviolable and their Priests were hold inviolable by the Civil Powers who subimitted the Conduct of their Wars and Chief Assairs to their Mystick Interpretations and Responses § 3. Since then Mystick Institutes of Society and Communion with God must be purely of Gods positive Ordinance so by that must they be designed to be under Order and Conduct which no Man also can by any Humane or Natural Right assume Prieste of Divine Ordinance the delegation of God being as necessary to Authorize the Minister as the Institution of God to the Ministry and therefore in the Law and Gospel both are ordained together And even before the Law even from the beginning of Publick Worship the Patriarchs were of God made Prophets Friests Patriarâ—hs by Divine Ordinance and Preachers of Righteousness to the Anâ—â—diluvian World and offer'd Sacrisices in order to a Mystick Communion and Foedoral Society with God For thus Noah immediately after the Flood by vertue of his Prophetick Priesthood which he had before it offer'd a Bâ—rnt Offering for expiation and and a siveet favour to render God propitious Noah as a Priest and Prophet a grand Type of Christ. not only to his then little Family but to all future Generations as the then great Priest and Mediator for all Posterities to come and therein a Type of the High-Priest of our Salvation who after he had founded his Church as an Ark on the Baptismal Waters afterward Sanctified it with his Blood us one final propitiation for the World never from thence to experience or need another Baptismal lustration but the Christian And in like manner the other Mystical Rites Laws and Sacrifices of the other Patriarchs carried in them a Typical reference to Mysteries hid under them from Generations and unveiled under the Gospel Successive Orders from a Prophetick Original which therefore being Prophetical and presigurative must be first at least Ministred by Prophets tho' their continuance might descend by Order of Succession in them which were no Prophets but then however the Order owing its Original to a Prophetick Ordinance still juscifies this truth that the Ministers of Mystick Offices in Religion must be such as derive Authority herein from a Divine Ordination And tho at first sight the succession of the Priesthood seems to have generally descended to the First-Born very probably according to the Jewish Traditions Sacred Succession in the First Born no natural Right of Primogeniture but of Gods positive Ordinance which seem well grounded in the Mosaick History yet the certain Right of such Sacred Succession was not founded in the Natural Right of Primogeniture but the Ordinance of God adorning it with such a Sanctity tho I know St. Augustine and others are willing to believe the Antediluvian Patriarchs not to be the First-Born because of the great Age of their Parents before they begat the Patriarchs descending from them but upon this I think there is no dependence either way nor Matter neither since at last it comes all to one viz. That their Sacred Patriarchate was the positive Ordinance and Gift of God and was so therefore in all Successors whatsoever without exception At length it was transferred by God from the Phylarchal Successors in the Families of Jacob to the House of Levi The Succession translated to the Tribe of Levi c. inalienably and the Sons of Aaron from which Tribe and Family t was never alienable by any Kings of their own or Foreign Nations upon this Principle above set that a Society of Divine Constitution cannot be rightly dissolved or aliened but by him that founded it Nor do the frequent Changes of the High-Priests under Heathen Powers conclude against this Truth because God's having before destroyed the Succession and the Genealogies by his Provdences tending gradually to a dissolution of that State according to Gods own Will and he ratifying however for the time the intruded by the Spirit of Prophecy shews those changes to be valid not upon bare humane presumption but the Divine purpose The arbitrary changes of High-Priests on what grounds admitted And as the Law of God rendred the Rights of the Priesthood inalienable by any Civil Constitution so the like imagined Sanctity of the Heathen Priesthoods rendred them unobnoxious Sanctity of Heathen Priests as being the supposed Secretaries of their Gods And indeed so great was ever the lustre of the Priesthood with Princes and People that probably the Priests who had led the People to an apostacy from God in the design at Babel Priests from the dispersion at Babel becoming the first Kings under their Chief Leader Nimrod did upon their dispersions share the before one Kingdom of God into many which they severally assumed to themselves and became the first Kings according to the old Custom of the same Persons being Kings and Priesis as Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phabique Sacerdos For so Melchisedek Melchisedek Priest and King Priest of the most High God in his yearly days was King of Salem and if there be any Argument from the Antitype Christ Jesus to the Type it is certain that in his humane Nature he performed his Priestly Office in offering himself up a Sacrifice for us before he sate down on the Throne of Majesty on high and by proportion Melchisedek his grand Type might be a Priest first in order of reason if not time before he was King the Priesthood being most certainly planted by God among Men before any Kingly Power Kingly Power then arising after the Priestly and lodged at first in the dispersed Priests over their respective partitions Kingly Power arising out of Priestly no wonder when after the Dignities were divided into different Subjects that yet the High-Priests retained the same Honours as before even with the Lay Princes not exorbitating into open Tyranny which their violation was ever accounted to be and to
call for Divine Vengeance as in the Tyranny of Agamemnon on old Chryses the Priest of Apollo Hence the Priest of On or Heliopolis his Daughter was thought the greatest and sittest Match for Joseph Joseph's Wife 4 Priests Daughter that next unto Pharaoh sate Lord over all the Land of Egypt Priests Lands Sacred and inalienable nor were the Priests Lands touched by Joseph or Pharoah under the Exigences of that Famine while all the Land else was sold unto him for Bread but they were all fed on the Royal Stores at free Cost And as Philo and Josephus magnify the Jewish High-Priesthood above rather than under Royalty Priests Prior to Kings in point of sanctity posterior in point of power so do the Profane Histories of the Heathens in point of Sanctity give Priesthood the Priority tho in point of Power they give it to the Regale And it is the more to be wondred this in Heathens who being altogether Carnalized one should have thought would have given all to the armed Prince and no more than his Grace had pleased to the Sacrisicing Hierophant Nay tho Humility be one of the dictinctives of Christianity and so ought most signally to appear in its Priests against all even the slightest arrogances or self Reflections yet we find when the assertion of the Sanctity has been necessary to take off Imperial insolence several the best of Catholick Fathers have imitated St. Paul Christian Priests magnifying their Office against Kingly Vsurpations in magnifying their Office to the vindication of their Liberty for instances of which there will be occasion in due place § 4. To assert therefore the inviolable Right and Authority of a Divine Ordinance or Commission against the Powers and Designs of Kings I could here well alledge Elias his dealing with Baal's Prophets at Mount Carmel before Abab's eyes and against his will the assembling of the Elders of Judah and Israel under the first Babylonish Captivity before Ezekiel to consult their common Affairs against the interests of the King of Babylon and all the opposition of Prophets made against wicked Princes But letting these pass Jeroboam's Case the singular and extraordinary Case of Jeroboam will not be content to be omitted By the Constitution of the Law Exod. 23.14 15 16 17. and 34 23 24. all the Men Children of the twelve Tribes were to appear before God three times in the year at the place of his Residence which in Jeroboams time was in Solomons Temple at Jerusalem Now Jeroboam by particular Prophecy and Providence became King of the Ten Tribes that revolted from Rehoboam the Son of Solomon But Jerusalem was the very Metropolis of Rehoboams Kingdom so that fearing that by this observation of the Law in all his Males appearing three times a year to Worship at Jerusalem his People would return to the House of David he turned them away from that form of Religion and Society with God at Jerusalem to the Calves he had set up as the Symbols of God's presence at Dan and at Bethel And because the Tribe of Levi would not be with him he himself became a Priest and made such as he could get every one that would of the meanest People And now if Worldly Policy and Civil Counsels will excuse a deflexion from Divine Ordinances here were all imaginable Pleas for excuse or justification herein But God that gave this Law for such appearances at the place of his presence had back'd it with a promise to prevent all fears of a Surprize No Man saith God shall desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year But because Jeroboam might perhaps take this Promise only to respect or intend a security against Aliens not their fellow Tribes therefore God sent him a Prophet to Bethel with a miraculous Power to reclaim him from his diffidences to the observation of the Law which not working upon the King this thing became a Sin and Snare to him his House and his People to their utter excision a Document for ever to all Earthly Powers not to entail upon themselves Jeroboam's Case exemplary to all Kings their Posterities and their People the Curse of the Almighty in the violation of his Ordinances But to conclude all with some general Considerations on Christianity I do not at all doubt but that the Dr. will assert to us Christians a Right and Liberty Right of frequent Christian Worship on Holy Day and oâ— her frequent days and houâ—â— with other Usâ—gâ—â— both Natural and Divine to Assemble often in Publick Worship and Holy Services of the Church not only on the Lords Day and at our Festivals Fasts and Vigils but every day two three or more times a Day if we can have leisure tho' our Princes should forbid us these Times and Frequences I may well add that we may do these Devotions in Consecrated Places and several Catholick Appendages of Devotion tho' for these there be no express Command in Scripture and for most of them no Instances The Antient Church owned several Usages in the Church for Canons Apostolical Canons Apostolical and not a few of that Collection which we have under that Character descended from the Apostolical Age and Practice as the Traditions of the most Antient Fathers evince and the Substrate Reasons of them will still be of very great Use and Eternal Convenience And must we be bound to quit all these even not Mystick Institutions at the Arbitrary pleasure of Civil Powers while yet Constantine * Constant Mag. ad Synod Tyr. ap Ensch de vit Coâ—d l. 4. c. 42. l. 3 c. 57. beyond whom I thought no Clergy man would prescribe or claim Prerogative for all Christian Princes thought himself obliged to Revere and Submit to such Traditional Canons which were by the Catholick Church received as of Apostolical Age or Original CHAP. IV. Of the Divine Right of Christian Synods § 1. NOW if we have a Divine Right of Convening for Worship in popular Assemblies with an unalienable Authority of using many unscriptural Usages and convenient Appendages in this Service why should not our Spiritual Governours have Authority to Assemble in Consultation for the good Conduct of the Common Assemblies or what Prerogative is violated by this Liberty But because a positive Constitution of God is what Time-servers and Anti-Hierarchists do so particularly demand from us tho' very unwilling that you should so squeeze and torment their pretences to a Divine Title I will however to gratify even the peevish endeavour to do the Church and them too Reason in this Point § 2. As then our Faith is a Mysterious Doctrine Our Faith and Sacraments Mysterious discovered originally to certain Christian Patriarchs and Preachers of Righteousness whose Doctoral Office and Order has descended by Ecclesiastical Ordinations to the whole Church so our Sacramental Ordinances are Priestly and Hallowing Mysteries committed also by Divine Ordinance
and practice and under absolute Obligations unto ordinary and publick frequency yet are under no Sabbatical rigour nor indispensable precept of Stationary days being left to the imitation of the Original and Primitive Practices as much as Times and Occurrences will permiâ— or direct for the best Spiritual Service of the Church And therefore much more may the convention of Synods be left at Liberty for whose stated Returns there are no constant nor fixed Reasons nor Examples in the Scriptures nor the Writers of the next Succession to the Apostles even as to times of Peace much less as to times of Persecution § 4. But further yet to recommend the reasonableness hereof let it be considered that a great deal of the Hierarchical Rules of Order and Polity is truly of Apostolical Prescription Catholick Right for placing Bishops in Cities and Catholickly received for such in and thro' all the first Ages for which however we have no Catholick Laws or Canons in Scripture The General and Primitive Practice of placing Bishops in every City was of Apostolical Direction and Practice Cyp. Ep. 52. § 16. Cum jampridem per omnes provincias c per urbes singulas ordinati sint Episcopi c. vide Praeced but without a Preceptive Obligation upon the whole Church for ever some whole Countries having but one Bishop some one Bishop to two Cities and elsewhere a Village Bishop Yet no doubt the Catholick Church has a divine Right of placing Bishops in every City for upon that Right St. Paul order'd Tit us to do so in Crete that order not being the first Charter of the Catholick Right herein for it was but a Personal and Local Order for Tit us and Crete but grounded upon a general Right in the Apostles and by them left to their Suffragans and Successors to place the Clerical Orders where they saw most convenient which according to all Reason was chiefly and principally to be done in Cities The Convenicacies in the Empire observed for the Government of the Church observing those conveniencies for the publick Government of the Church which being found by experience useful in the Exarchates and Provinces of the Empire appeared in general to the Apostles and their Successors as useful to the Catholick Hierarchy Wherefore where a Right is Divinely constituted the use whereof ought to be left to Freedom and Prudence 't is not only needless but incongruous and hurtful to tye up the exercises of such Right to precise Limits which is I think a good account why Synods in Scripture are not under precept CHAP. V. Of Scripture Synods or Councils § 1. THE grounds of Synodical Authority being duly laid in a Divine Charter it is necessary now to proceed to the Instances hereof in Holy Scripture matters of Fact allowed good upon Record being very good Illustrations in Law of that Right on which they were practised and received This is what also I am more particularly obliged to since the Doctor is loath to own any Instances of this kind not willingly that of Acts xv for such a Synod as he was speaking of In which I confess he is not alone but accompanied with a great croud of Anti-Hierarchical Criticks and other poorer Scriblers which cannot merit that Character But if the practice of the Catholick Church as well as the formal reason of the thing it self evinces that an Ecclesiastical Council or Synod is an Assembly of Ministers in Consult for the Spiritual Conduct of the Church The Desinition of a Council or Synod p. 60. or according to the Doctors more unaccurate definition a meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons upon an Ecclesiastical affair I believe the Doctors second thoughts will set him at Rights that there manifestly appear several Sessions properly Conciliar with their Acts Synodical in the New Testament § 2. That our Saviour instituted two Colledges of Doctors one of the Twelve and the second of the Seventy Christs two Colledges of Doctors cannot I think be doubted under whom the Lay Disciples constituted were the first Rudiments of the Catholick Church râ—presented by the Princes of the Twelve Tribes and the Seventy Elders of Israel which later were no doubt a Society Ecclesiastical in their first unrecorded Originals since they appear to be so in the two Convocations of them by Moses Exod. 24. Nam 11. Ignat. ad Philadelph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in other places of an obscurer intimation of such a Colledge Nor can it be doubted before Moses his days but that each Tribe had its 〈◊〉 all which were concerned in the common Conduct of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to which our Saviours Promise to the Colledge of the Twelve has relation when he says they should sit upon Twelve Thrones The Twelve Apostles one Colledge Judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel as one common Society Now the Twelve Apostles are herein too to be taken for a Colledge because it appears that St. Peter by St. Matthew is Mat. 10. called the first in order and appears in all Conferences of the Twelve whatsoever St. Peter Prolocutor to be the Prolocutor So neither the Twelve nor the Seventy tho' sent out first two by two throughout Jewry were yet several only and Incoherent herent Ministers but were Sociated into two Colledges or Fraternities and to appear as such in all their Conventious § 3. Christ then a little before his Ascension being Assembled with Eleven Apostles commands them not to depart from Jerusalem till the illapse of the Holy Chost at Pentecost A Council for electing an Apostle in the Room of Judas This they observed accordingly and gathered to themselves about an â—â—o Disciples a number held sufficient for a Synagogue In this Interyal St. Peter the constant Prolocutor of the Upper Colledge proposes the Substitution of a Successor to the Apostleship from which Judas by Transgression fell by a consulted Recommendation of two fit Persons unto God of which two the Divine Lot was to determine the Successor Here then being a Session of Eleven Apostles in an Assembly of 120 Disciples putting them all upon Council and Consideration for a Successor to Judas an affair Fundamentally Ecclesiastical Act. 1. I hope will appear to the Doctor to be a Council if not a Synod Ecclesiastical in which there can be no other difference but this that a Synod Difference between a Synod and Council is so called in respect of their Convening together from their several proper Seats but 't is called a Council from their actual Session speaking properly After the Effusion of the Holy Spirit and the intrease of the Church by the Accession of both Jews and Greeks the Greeks murmured against the Hebrews that their Widows were neglected in the daily Ministrations A Council for the Election of 7 Deacons Whereupon the Twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and bid them Recommend seven Men of honest Report and full of the Holy Spirit
Metropolis of Ephesus And can we think that this was a precept of separate watches and not rather common and united Cares there being many of them fixed in that one Provincial Church of Asia But if they were obliged to joynt Cares it must be by joynt Counsels and such will justify and require Conferences and Synods thereunto such as even this at Miletus was being a Meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons upon an Ecclesiastical Affair Presbyterys Acts 20. Presbyteries further are a Synod or Council of Elders and such there were in those days such as Convened unto James their Bishop at Jerusalem where Paul found them Assembled at his last being there Acts 21. And that Presbytery by which Timothy was ordained was such an Ecclesiastical Convention as quadrates with the Drs. Definition 1 Tim. 4.14 § 3. Besides in Judicial Processes St. Pauls Censures in Publick as St. Paul did pass Censures in the most solemn and publick Conventions of Churches as that of Corinth wherein no doubt there was an Hierarchical College either in Person or by Deputy upon Epistle or Mandate and thereby deliver wicked Men over unto Satan when out of the Protection of Gods Grace in the Communion of the Church so does he give order to Bishops by him Constituted thus to govern all inferior Orders by Iudicial Discipline to the Authority whereof as every Bishop has a Divine Right Presbyters of Council to the Bishops so all Bishops that have not the miraculous Spirit of discerning do need many times a Council of their Elders as to assist their Authority and greaten the Solemnity so to advise them in Casuistical and Doubtful Questions in order to a Just and Convincing Determination where as single and unconsulted Procedures Unconsulted Procedures as they are liable to many real Obliquities so do they lye open to far more Suspitions and Calumnies than 't is possible for a fair and well established Judgment to do A Method therefore always observed where it could be in the primitive Ages as being no doubt of Canon Apostolical But because by meer Divine Right of Order all Bishops are of equal Power consequently no one singly has any judiciary Authority over another Cyp. ad Sreph Ep. 67. iccirco copiosam corpus est sacerdotum concordiae muâ—â—ae â—utino atque uniâ—atis vinculo copâ—latum ut siquit ex collegio nostro haeresin facere gregem Christi lacerare vastare â—entaverit subveniant caeteri therefore to the examination and Censure of a disorderly Bishop and his Acts whether publick or private upon Informations or Appeals a Synod of Bishops hath been ever thought and Convened as necessary and of Divine Right as well as Apostolical Canon CHAP. VI. Of Cathedral Synods in the three first Centuries and their Authority § 1. WHether the loss of the Alexandrian Library be worthy the Complaint of the Christian World I leave to the Judgment of the Curious and Admirers of the Heathen Rarities But tho' the bulk of those Christian Monuments which are lost in the Calamities of the three first Genturies was not very great as far as we can Judge by Eusebius and other Authors and Catalogists yet the want of their Testimonies and Senses about Matters Ecclesiastical convinces us that the loss of them is one of the greatest Misfortunes and Damages that we have reason to bewail from the Ruins of time And as the enjoyment of those Memorials would have given greater Authority to our Doctrines and Usages which the ignorant or wanton World now controverts so particularly we had had thence a vast light in the Matter before us concerning the Doctrine Authority Forms Rules Vses and Venerations of the Primitive Synods especially in the Volumes of their Acts and Epistles of which very little now remains in the Writings that are preserved § 2. However Presbyteries under the Bishop notwithstanding these Invaluable Losses yet so much appears in what we have left us that every Bishoprick was a Polity consisting of a Bishop with his Subordinate Presbyters and Deacons to Consult Advise and Assist the Bishop and to Execute his Decrees upon the Result of their common Considerations And not only so Metropolitans and Primates but that Bishops were consociated into Provincal Systems under the Priority of their Metropolitans and Primates chiefly in the Sees of Apostolical Foundation and above all others that of Jerusalem over the Churches of the Circumcision till the last Ruin of the Jews and that City under Adrian and Rome Alexandria and Antioch in the Gentile World § 3. To offer proofs for this to the Dr. or any professed Member of the Church of England is an unnecessary and impertinent Trouble And the more needless because the Truth thereof has been made illustriously appear in many Volumes written for the Episcopal Hierarchy against all its Modern Enemies of what Character or Extraction soever But some little Strictures and Notices that may more appositely quadrate with the Matter of the present Debate I must beg the Doctor his patience to admit § 4. And first concerning the State of Sees Episcopal it is not only evident that there were in the Succession from the Apostles Presbyters under the Bishop if the See were full but these were Concorporated into Colledges for Counsel to the Bishop for the respective Bishopricks Vide Origen con Cels l. 3. And he that in this Age gives us the clearest Account of the Prelacy i. e. Ignatius the Martyr gives us the like of these Conciliar Colledges which he on that very Notion collectively calls Presbyteries Had he only named them Plurally and Masculinely Elders I could not have laid so much Stress upon it but when he calls them as in one System neutrally a Prethytery and a Synedrium or Council this convinces every Man that admits the Medicean Copy for Genuine wherein they are so Stiled that they were a Council for the See or Bishoprick Represented and Recommended by this Father as a Polity of Divine Constitution Ign. ad Eph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he suggests to the Ephesians that an obedience to their Bishop and the Presbytery is necessary to their Sanctification which therefore must suppose a Divinely Instituted Subjection hereto as to an Ordinance of Divine Authority no Humane Coalitions upon meer Rational Prudence being of any so high a Virtue as to Sanctifie So he enjoyns them to Assemble in one Faith Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To obey tho Bishop and the Presbytery with an indiscerpible Resolution which therefore must be the Effect and Consequence of one Faith and consequently of Divine Intention as being stated under the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vide. Id. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Synedrium of the Apostles under God So for the Magnesians he calls the Presbytery the Spiritual Corona of the Bishop not the Prudential Nor were
this Politie and that in great and continual frequency § 3. To the eviction whereof I will not urge the nature and general Forms and Concerns of Aristocracy requiring an united Counsel and Strength to support it self against common dangers but specifie particular Cases which they judged necessary Conciliarly to set Right and thereby to give credit to their determinations in their formed Letters to other Churches which generally if not always was the concluding Office of those Councils § 4. Now of these Episcopal Synods some were but Partial others Plenary A Partial Synod of Bishops was such as consisted of some Bishops only in a Province upon occasion design or necessity A Pâ—â—nary Synod was such as consisted of a Full or General Convention of the Bishops of a Province under their Metropolitan § 5. The first and most Sacred as well as constant Office of such Episcopal Synods was that of providing Bishops for vacant Sees Councils for Ordaining Bishops for which the most Canonical Rule most generally observed and to be observed in time of Peace in these Ages was that which St. Cyprian and his Colleagues assert as of Divine Tradition Ep. 68. Diligenier de traditione divinâ Apostolicà observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoque fere apud provincias universas tenetur ut ad ordinationes ritd celebrandas ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus deligatur plebe praesente c. vide Item Ep. 68. § 6. ubi etiam exemplum ponit in electione Sabinâ— vice Basilidis c. viz. as to the substrate reasons and parallel instances and Apostolical Observation viz. that the nearest Bishops of the Province should repair to the vacant See and the Bishop be chosen in the presence of the People according to the same form of old observed at Hierusalem †Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 6. c. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Provincials of Palaestine in filling that See with Successors as in the case of Narcissus retiring upon a perjurious Defamation which I mention in fact more than others because it is an early instance in that Church which was the Mother of all Churches and a Presumption that this Custom was begun there in the constitution of James and was continued there in all their Successions and from thence became a Platform for the like Canon every where else throughout the Primitive Church In which Synods the Clergy and the people that stood in the Faith Unity and Order of the Church were present their Desires Thoughts and Counsels examined and upon a fair and calm agreement of which in those days they hardly ever failed under the moderation of the Praesiding Bishops the Election was Ratified and the Person Consecrated by the Bishops present and hereupon either the New Bishop alone when there was no contrary Pretension or the rest convening Bishops with him Cyp. ad Cornel Ep. 55. § 10. sent the Letters of Communion to all other Churches immediately or mediately according to the Forms in use under the Orders of Metropolitans and Primates Cypr. ad Antonian Ep. 52. § 16. vid. etiam § 4. Factus est autem Cornelius Episcopus de Dei Christi cjus judicio c. vid. praec seqq Ep. 58. § 2. Cyp. Ep. ad Cornel. 55. § 6. Thus was Cornelius made Bishop of Rome by a Synod of Sixteen Bishops after the same manner from whence his Divine Right in that Bishoprick is asserted by virtue of that Conciliar Ordination So was St. Cyprian constituted Bishop of Carthage Ibid. § 12. to the assertion of the same Divine Right and Authority And to pretend the same his Rival Fortunatus his Party gave out at Rome that he was Ordained for Carthage by twenty five Bishops as falsly as they before-hand had threatned to Convene so many thereunto And this custom was hereupon looked on as so Sacred and Necessary that in time of Persecution they suffered the Sees to lye long vacant till a calm Season gave them opportunity for such solemn Conventions which were judged of the Divinest Virtue and Anthority and not mere Cabals of Prudence only § 6. Other sorts of Reasons why they met in Councils or Synods were the preservation of Unity in the Catholick and particular Churches by reclaiming by censuring the irreclaimable by making Canons for good Order and Uniformity for mutual Advices and Assistances with Sister-Churches and Composures in matters of Difference For Discipline on Sinners either before or during or after their Repentance and particularly those that lapsed into Idolatry So when * Euseb E. H. l. 6. c. 33. Beryllus Bishop of Bostra in Arabia preached the same Doctrine with him that now presideth over the City of Waters and the Faith was like to be disturbed and the Peace broken there met a Council of Bishops in which Origen reclaimed him When †E. H. l. 7. c. 30. Athan. de Syn. Arim. Seleue. de Syn. Nic. Decr. Dionys Alex. ap Euseb E. H. l. 6. c. 46. Paulus Samosatenus and Sabellius appeared Councils convened against them When the Novatian Schism began to attack the Peace of the Church at Antjoch Helenus Bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia with his Provincials Firmilian of Cappadocia and Theoctistus of Palestine invited Dionysius of Alexandria to meet in Synod at Antioch to repress Novatianism which Schism gave occasion also to many Synods in Africa Cyp. Ep. 41. § 1 2. Ep. 45. § 1 2. Ep. â—2 § 6. Ep. 67. § 2. as did that Schism also of Felicissimus who with his Complices attempted to set up Fortunatus at Carthage When the varying Customs of Churches Cyp. 42. § 5. Ep. 55. § 1.9 Ep. 12. § 4. and the acknowledged reasons of them occasioned or required Ecclesiastical conferences between such Churches they were then wont to convene Provincial or Domestick Synods and after their Domestick Decisions to send them with their Legates to the others for Examination and Reception wherein if they agreed this Uniformity repressed not only Schism it self but the occasions of it but if not yet the differences of their Canonical Resolves by vertue of these Conferences were prevented from creating breaches in Communion or if the Peace had been violated by any hasty Passion or Prejudice things were generally healed by these Synodical commerces Thus in the time of Pope Victor many Synods were held about Easter-day in order to an Uniformity Euseb E. H. l. 5. c. 23. Concil Carthagin Epis 87. which not being to be procured all over the Catholick Church Cyp. cum colleg Ep 70. § 1. Ep. 71. § 1 4. Ep. 72. § 1 2. Ep. 73. § 1 3. Ep. 75. Victor broke the Communion between his Church and the Churches of Asia under Polycrates Metropolitan of Ephesus but the other Churches would by no means endure a Rupture of Peace upon a difference of exterior usages So
Prince out of those Hands and that Society in which it was vested in a matter quite different from the Secular Polity I do desire a proof hereof as weighty and important as the Matter and Consequences hereof are What then is it liable to a Despotick Occupation This again is what a Borough will not yield upon a Quo Warranto but will be ready to make a Counter demand of Quo Warranto from their Prince In vain would he plead for it on the Right of Protection while he strikes at all their Municipal Rights and Liberties Be sure except the English Church here But we we only are the Poor Tame Dispirited Drowsie Body that are in Love with our own Fetters and this is the only scandalous part of our Passive Obedience to be not only silent but content with an Oc n of our P rs which are not forfeited nor forfeitable to any Worldly Powers whatsoever And as to any Contract 't is neither pretensible nor pretended by the Doctor tho' too much in truth in latter Ages has been exchanged by the Church for Worldly Interests wherein mainly lies the great Ruine of Christianity § 11. But now we descend to the second Cause in which this unlimited Supremacy of Princes is by the Doctor founded namely Civil Interests as of Peace and the Princes Prerogative To both which I for my own part am willing to surrender all if it be necessary But before this however I would fain know how do the Laws of Peace require a Violation of those Rights which God hath lodged in the Hierarchy as a means to reconcile all in one Body unto a common Peace with God and each other If the Clergy use their Powers to that End who has Right to hinder them Who to break the Peace with them But if they do not there are other just ways of securing them from doing wrong than by disabling them from doing Good that very Good which God hath set them apart and sanctified them to do And these ways are in the Power and Sovereignty of an Heathen Prince Chap. 8. as is above manifested and therefore are sufficient to the same ends in the Authority of a Christian Prince from whose Coercion in matters of Crime the Priesthood how much soever to be revered by Princes ought not to be made a Shelter or Protection Under these Powers of Heathen Princes the Christian Synods made no Rupture on the Peace or Prerogative of the Empire Church Ordinances innocent in all States tho' as undeservedly accused for this by the Heathens as we are suspected of it now Why should the same Spiritual Liberties within a Christian Kingdom be thought more dangerous than they were to Heathens I will not speak out how the Churches of Christendom have been crushed between the Upper and the Nether Milstones but sure I am hence are all the Confusions both under the Papacy and the Reformation Be sure here by all means to except England Nor is it possible to make any true and signal Conversions to the better as long as there is a common Slavery upon the Hierarchical Powers for as we hate the Bondage of Rome so they hate the Bondage of the Church under Secular Domination and so hereby is maintained a perpetual and irreconcileable aversion which no illustrious Piety can extinguish while the Powers thereof are Chained down to mere Politick Ends and Services § 12. So that as there is no necessity No Expediency in the Slavery of the Church so neither is there any expediency to recommend any such unlimited Domination For as Things and Persons Consecrated to God are to be treated with a Respect and Reverence suitable to that Sanctity and Relation to God so a Prostitution of them under Secular Contempt is no small Impiety towards God and no small Guilt Blemish and Indecency in thern that cause it Now of all things under the Sun nothing is so hated feared and despised as Servitude and no Servitude more reproachful than that of Priests which were from the beginning a most Noble Free and Honourable Order in all Nations not excepting the very Barbarous Nor yet of all sorts of Slavery is there any so Indecorous and Grieving as that which oppresseth the Sanctity Authority and Operation of their very Functions for maintenance of which the Bishops of the Primitive Church were chiefly sought out unto Martyrdom And yet as hateful as such Vassallage is in it self 't is less Odious under an Heathen than a Christian Prince For from an open Enemy 't is natural enough and no new thing to expect Oppressions but when a Prince hath been Consecrated by God's Priests into the Communion of the Catholick Church he is thereby federally engaged to assert all the Rights and Authorities of that Divine Communion vested by our Lord in the Christian Hierarchy as much as every common Christian or Priest himself our Salvation in common being promoted by the Conduct of them Can then a claim of an Oppressive Supremacy be deemed a Glorious Jewel in a Christian Crown which if exercised must of necessity forfeit the Kings Salvation And is it not a dangerous Complaisance it Priests to fan such an Ambition as must end in the Ruine of the Church the Priesthood and the Soul of the Prince which the Liberties and Powers Hierarchical were designed to Convert Direct and Preserve It is not perhaps without an especial Providence that Eusebius has preserved the Memory of this Artificial kind of Persecution practised upon the Church by the Emperor Licinius Lecinius his crasty Persecution Who prohibited the Bishops from Visiting the Neighbour Churches or to hold Synods Consultations and Advices concerning matters profitable that so either by disobeying his Law they might be subjected to Punishment or by obeying his Order dissolve the Laws of the Church For that 't is no otherwise possible to set great Concerns at Right but by Synods by which he attempted to break that Concordant Harmony in the Church A place well worth every Princes and Doctors deep and most affective Consideration that under pretence Peace there may be no Licinius set up over the Hierarchy within the Communion of the Christian Church For besides the Domestick Cares and Exigencies of every Church requiring a constant Watch and frequent Consultations the concerns of the whole Catholick Church under Heaven ought to affect every Province and Bishopâ—ick thereof to a frequent course of Communications in order to a general Union and Vniformity in all the principal matters of Christianity a duty never to be performed but by a liberty of Synods in order thereunto in which the Rights of the Catholick Church run a parallel with those of Civil Powers 'T is true indeed this Communication is actually broken off but the Right and Duty thereof is mâ—â—aâ—colled and eternal obliging all Churches to reâ—tore it and I believe all Princes to pâ—rmit and assist the restitution Let therefore the Church be bound in all humility
§ 21. Pag. 295. The Antient Emperors we are well assured tied up their Councils to very strict Rules They sent Commissioners to sit with the Bishops that so they might take care to keep them within Bounds and see that they acted according to the Rules they had prescribed to them P. 296. 'T is true the Clergy in those days did take the Liberty to Transact many things in their Convocations without any particular License from the King but that they did take upon them to do this is no proof that they had a Right to do it How this agrees with it self or with the design of proving the Rights of Kings from Matter of Fact and Usage I know not nor with what he asserts in Fact Chap. 2. § 23. p. 47 48. This is certain that as the calling of such Assemblies has always depended upon the Consent and Authority of the Prince so when they were Assembled the Subject of their Debates has been prescribed them by the same Power and they have deliberated on nothing but what they have been directed or allowed by the Prince to do Book Chap. 2. § 2. p. 10 11. It was a famous Saying of Constantine the First Christian Emperour to his Bishops That they indeed were Bishops in things within the Church but that he was appointed by God to be Bishop as to those without Remark This Saying is directly against that universal Right and Authority in Synods Ecclesiastical which the Dr. so frankly gives all Christian Princes if Constantine was a Bishop in things only without the Church Of Synods less than general Contents p. 10. He asserts all lesser Synods under the Roman Emperors to have been actually called by the Emperors Authority and so accordingly Book Chap. 2. § 6. p. 16. These also viz. lesser Synods were convened by them or were summoned by some Authovity that was derived from them p. 17. They suffered not any Assemblies of the Clergy to be made but by their leave and according to their direction So § 13. p. 29 and § 19. p. 41. But Chap. 2. § 2. p. 10. he cites Socrates Saying the greatest Synods have been Assembled by their Order and still continue to be Assembled by them Which plainly shews lesser Ones usually were not And § 26. p. 62. he reports that Iohn of Antioch Arriving at Ephesus after the Council there had condemend Nestorius formed another Synod there of about thirty Metropolitans that came thither with him and deposed Cyril President of the Imperial Council c. vide So § 36. p. 86. He mentions two Provincial Synods one at Rome under Celestine and another at Alexandria under Cyril condemning Nestorius before the Council of Ephesus yet neither of these were called by the Imperial Authority And ibid. p. 88. he relates another Synod at Rome held by Pope Leo rejecting the Acts of the second Ephesine Council under Dioscorus Called and Supported by the Emperor which Roman Synod therefore could not be Called nor Authorized by the Emperor Chap. 2. § 4. p. 14. It was necessary that in order to their meeting lawfully the express Command or Allowance of the Emperour should be had for their so doing § 19. p. 41 They cannot lawfully meet but as they are Commanded or Allowed of by them That they Princes and not the Clergy are Iudges when it is proper to Convene them But p. 43. he thus yields When ever the civik Magistrate shall so far abuse his Authority as to render it necessary for the Clergy by some extraordinary Methods to provide for the Churches Welfare that necessity will warrant that taking of themâ— And Ch. 5. § 4. p. 267 268. When the Exigences of the Church call for a Convocation then I do confess the Church has a Right to its sitting and if its Circumst ances be such as to require their frequent Sitting during those Circumstances it has a Right to their frequent Meeting and Sitting Vide. Remark But if the Church has no Right to Judge of the time proper for their sitting what benefit or use is there to be had of their Right or what extraordinary Methods of Session can they pretend to in provision for the Churches welfare especially if that be true which he says Ch. 2. § 14. p. 32. That the greatest Bishops of the Church in Constantius his days which he reckons absurdly among the best times § 15. p. 34. did think it unlawful to hold a Council against the Princes Will so that being forbidden by an Heretical Emperor and that against all Right and Justice on purpose that he might oppress them so to do they yet submitted to his Commands and chose rather to suffer by their Obedience I suppose rather not to suffer by Obedience than to Vsurp an Authority which they were sensible did not belong to them See p. 34. Remark Now if this had been spoken only of General Councils it had been agreeable to Church History and our 21 Article but the applying this against the Right of all Councils and Conventions whatsoever is what comports neither with truth nor with his other fore quoted Concessions Chap. 2. § 2. p. 19. When the Vandals had over-run the greatest part of Africa and by their Authority set up the Arrian Heresie in opposition to the Catholick Faith which beforce prevailed in those parts Hunericus their King at the desire of the Arrian Bishops summoned a general Convention of all the Catholick Bishops to meet at Carthage and accordingly upon his Summons they all came thither and refusing to renounce the terms of the Council of Nice they were deprived of their Bishopricks and sent into Banishment by him Remark It is a strange inadvertency to bring an Arian Instance for a proper Authority in matters of Christianity nay and against the Catholick Faith too against which no Princes have Authority to set up Heresie against the greater Authority of God yet that Arian Prince had as good Authority to depose the Faith as he had to Convene and Depose the Catholick Bishops that is none at all it being all a perfect unllity Bâ—â— every act of un controulable Tyranny passes with the Dr. under the reputation of Authority Chap. 2. § 15. p. 34. I believe it would be difficult in those best and most early times of the Church to find out any Instance wherein the Orthodox Bishops have ever departed from this Rule or which is much the same thing have ever been justified by the Church in those cases in which they have departed from it Remark This is in effect a Revocation of his former avowed Assertion that no lesser Synods were ever convened without the allowance of the Emperours For tho' he says it will be hard to find any contrary Instance yet having himself given four in John of Antioch Caelestine Cyril and Leo and there being infinitely more such to be produced out of the Histories of the Empire he was forced in Conscience hereof to say That they were never justified