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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	canon_n	council_n	nice_a	2,852	5	10.4936	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36461	The triumph of Christianity, or, The life of Cl. Fl. Julian, the Apostate with remarks, contain'd in the resolution of several queries : to which is added, Reflections upon a pamphlet, call'd Seasonable remarks on the fall of the Emperor Julian, and on part of a late pernicious book, entituled, A short account of the life of Julian, &c.	Dowell, John, ca. 1627-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2057; ESTC R8708	83,984	256

Constantius created him Coesar and he contrary to his Loyalty Faith and Gratitude usurped the Imperial Dignity Certainly he was one of the most ambitious and vain-glorious men in the World After he had made sport with all the preceding Emperors he concludes that drolling Tract with this encomium of himself Mercury directing himself to me thus saith I have made thee to acknowledge Apollo thy Father whose commands obey make him whilst alive thy secure refuge and when 't is requisite that thou departest out of this Life depart with a good hope under the propitious conduct of that god How this was verified the death of Julian doth declare The then Clergy he dreadfully loads with unjust imputations of Ambition Hypocrisy and Sedition 1. Ambition Pag. 14. This discerning Prince soon saw their design was to erect in all parts of the Empire their own Mosaic or Ecclesiastic Polity by themselves metamorphos'd from a Democracy into an absolute Tyranny they having advanc'd so far already as to procure of Constantine the sole Jurisdiction over Christians and leave to assemble themselves at Nice to divide the Roman Provinces amongst themselves and make a new Body of Laws called ecclesiastical-Ecclesiastical-Canons to the utter abolishing of the Roman Laws and Government and the great oppression of those Gentiles whom God had not yet enlightned with his Grace 1. The Church was never governed by a Democracy 2. The Convention of Councils was by the mutual consent of Bishops and the Churches in use down from the Apostles times 3. The Emperor being Christian gave the Christian Bishops liberty to meet at Nice where they did not then divide the Roman Provinces amongst themselves but confirmed that Division of the Ecclesiastic Government according to what it was before Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Ancient custome be observed Can. 6. Concilii Niceni 'T is notorious in Ecclesiastick Story that the Bishops of those Cities which had the principal command in the Empire had their dignity and precedence therefore Rome first next Alexandria then Antioch and after that Constantinople became the Imperial Seat It was made by the Decree of the Council of Chalcedon the second Patriarchal See and this because it was Nova Roma This precedency was observed in the times of Persecution Carthage being the chiefest City of Barbary the Bishop thereof was the Primate of that Province And make a new Body of L They did not make a new body of Laws c. Under this Head may I rank this Slander Pag. 16. That he could see no person nor rank exempted from the dire Anathema neither could he know but that the Soveraign Prince himself might upon a Pique such as the disgrace of a Potent Prelate be on a sudden Paganized and next Assassinated even by them that had advanced him since he so lately saw Constans armed against his own Brother Constantius by the Roman Bishop and the great Athanasius merely because the latter had been outed his See though as some say for Treason Sorcery and Murther If he means that the Canons of the Church opposed Idolatry we must grant it but that they medled with the Civil Government or Law is to me false I know no Canon in the first four General Councils which doth interfere with the civil Laws of the Empire nor any Canon was formed to oppress the unconverted Gentiles Read the Councils General or Provincial in which any Canon or Decree was made which concerned the Imperial Laws or the Civil Estate 'T is true that Constantine and Constantius discountenanced Idolatry and did demolish many Heathen Temples Constantine the Great Commanded that all Idol Temples should be shut that an access for any person should be prohibited Cod. L. 1. Tit. 11. L. 1. and Sacrifices he commands should not be offered L. 1. That Constantine Commanded the Temples to be demolished that the famous Temple of Serapis in Alexandria was destroyed Eunapius in the Life of Edesius doth complain but these were Imperial Laws not the Laws of the Church which hath nothing to do with such matters When the Heathen did so violently persecute the Christians destroying their Churches burning their Sacred Books inflicting all sorts of punishment no wonder that Christian Emperors should prohibit Idolatry and demolish their Temples yet Cod. L. 1. Tit. 11. L. 6. 't is Commanded that no Christian should abuse the Authority of Religion to injure any Jew or Pagan that lived peaceably It is obvious that in Christian Armies Heathens were advanced to Command that often under Christian Emperors Heathens were Prefects in the greatest Cities as Atticus in Constantinople was Prefect under Arcadius and Nobilis Pretextatus in Rome 'T is not ingenuous to cast this Dirt and Odium upon the then Christian Clergy 'T is true there was an Episcopalis audientia granted and confirmed by Christian Emperors but was not till after Julian's Death Goto in rubri Episcopalis audient That it was not Forum nor jurisdictio hence upon Cod. L. 6. Goto in Civili negotio possunt Laici in Episcopum Arbitrum Cognitorem compromitere ejusque judicium firmum est The Bishop was to decide more Arbitri in all this which was after Julian's time it was a Power given by the Emperor and only over those that were willing and the Bishop was not a judge but an Arbitrator these things being true what verity is in his imputation is easily discerned 'T is known that no Heathen could be Excommunicated and Julian saw no Christian Emperor Excommunicated what he adds Pag. 16. is notoriously false he never saw any Emperor slain by virtue of an Excommunication that was of a Later date And what indeed might he not justly fear when he saw with what bestial rage the several factions the Bishops formed themselves amongst the People by whom they were then elected did massacre each other We have vindicated Christianity from that feral rage of Christians against Christians If any Man as imagine it were at Alexandria had a design to supplant a more potent and popular Competitor no way so likely to ruin him as by giving out that he was not a right Christian but a Corrupter of the true Faith for that he used to Read Origen and Plato unsanctified Authors and then ten to one but he was knock'd on the Head by the Rabble of the Town or by Sholes of Anthropomorphite Monks who commonly made what Bishops they pleased and for a long time made a Prey of the Egyptian Kingdom Origen was disliked by many none in danger of his Life or suffered in his Fame for reading Origen and Plato but for following those opinions which were not consonant to the Christian Doctrine and Faith The Anthropomorphites were more numerous than the other sort of Monks They moved a Sedition against Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria but that by their Power they elected an Alexandrian Bishop or made a Prey a long time of the Egyptian Kingdom is to me a Riddle The Haeresy was begun by one Audius about

the Council of Nice and Epiphanius who flourished in the fifth Century saith there were but very few left in his time and those in the utmost Bounds of Chalcis beyond Damascus and Mesopotamia Pag. 17. Nothing so much offended him as the vile Hipocrisy of the then Clergy who besides their coyning of contrary Creeds in the Reigns of Constantine and Constantius and modelling Religion by Court Intrigues seemed almost wholly to dispence with morality placing Sanctimony not so much in a good life as in the strict Observance of the Rituals and the Symbolical Representations of our Religion such as Baptisme the Eucharist Chrism but above all in submitting to the formalities of Confession and Pennance upon which the worst of Offences were too easily remitted Where was the Hypocrisy there were two contrary Faiths one in the time of Constantine in the Council of Nice which was then subscribed and received by the Orthodox Bishops another under Constantius at Antioch there the Arrian Doctrine was favoured where was the Hypocrisie this was done by different Persons and Parties both of them maintaining the same Faith they had embraced from casting these Calumnies upon the Clergy he involves them and the Christian Religion in the same guilt Pag. 15. Let a Christian be never so deeply Criminal no profane hand must touch him nor must he endure any other punishment than Confession and Pennance and that when once absolved he was an Innocent as the unborn Child How severe the Penitential Canons were in those times is sufficiently known This is according to the Law of Christ and therefore what he saith the Clergy modelling Religion c. 'T is a most notorious untruth If ever in any Age in the fourth and fifth Centuries the Clergy was most conspicuous for Learnning and Holiness of Life they looked upon a man as penitent and contrite when he had a great sorrow for sin and testified it by acts of shame and mortification and by a future Holiness Certainly this Gentleman did not read or at least not seriously the Fathers and Councils of those times it was determined by all That no pardon without repentance and no repentance without true Holiness To aver as he doth That the Ecclesiastical Canons being satisfied no Civil punishment was or could be inflicted is a notorious falsity contrary to the Body of the Law and the usage of the Church and Civil Magistrate in all Ages 'T is true Christianity acknowledged that the most vicious persons and the greatest Malefactors may repent but it does not make repentance to consist in the submission to some exterior Rites as Julian invidiously jeers but in an hearty sorrow and real change of the mind which austerities and mortification are a sign of and promote To make these reflections upon Christianity from the Pen of a drolling Apostate is not becoming one that is a Scholar or a Christian That they who lived in the strictest Conversation and contemned the World and exposed themselves to all Persecutions and Cruelties even to the most Tormenting and Shameful Death for their Lord and Master should think that their Religion consisted in Rituals is a thing estranged from the Breasts of Christians As the Calumnies with which the Christians were loaded by the Heathens for promiscuous embraces Sacrificing of Children in their Holy Conventions and eating them with other enormities were abominable Untruths 'T is granted that Christians did say that Faith was required but it was a most unjust jeer to say I believe suffices to make a good Christian for Christianity saith Faith without works is dead 'T is acknowledged that Baptism was enjoyned but not that it is a meer Ritual 'T is a Sacrament to confer grace if a person did not retain that grace he ceased to be a Christian when therefore the Heathens jeered Christians with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 washing they did not consider that the Christians received this Doctrine from their Master that they should be Baptized to which Baptism adult persons being prepared upon their being baptized they through the Power of the Holy-Ghost were regenerated And as for Penance it was necessary that persons who after Baptism had relapsed into Scandalous Sins should fall under the Censures of the Church and recover themselves by repentance which is being really sorrowful for their Sins which sorrow must assert its self in actions of mortification and revenge upon themselves and in an hatred of Sin and amendment of their Lives Repentance is the second plank after Baptism it appears therefore that this Paganish jeer of Julian is a most false slander viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ho! whosoever is either Sodomite Murtherer Rogue or Villain let him dread nothing but repair hither with this Water I 'le make him clean in a trice And if he shall happen to repeat the same crimes if he will but thump his Breast and box his Noddle I 'le warrant him as innocent as the Child unborn He adds This was the Vengeance Julian took for the barbarous Murders committed upon almost his whole Family and Blood for what Flesh could bear to hear the Murtherers of ones Father Vncle two Brotkers Six Cousin-Germans harangued to Heaven in Pulpits as very holy and good men because forsooth absolved by their own Friends the Priests since he so lately saw Constans armed against his own Brother Constantius by the Roman Bishop and the great Athanasius c. To manifest the falsity of these things I will give this Narrative His Father Constantius aspiring to the Purple after the death of Constantine was slain by the Populacy he dyed justly for Treason Ablavius one meanly born paying devout visits to the Bones of dead Fryers calling them holy Reliques In that age there was given no Honour to the Reliques of any but Martyrs whom he calls invidiously dead Fryers But he that advanced to great dignities and riches under Constantine the Great was slain by the command of Constantius He married his Daughter to Constans Constantinus Junior was slain by Constans his Soldiers he claiming and invading those places under the Command of Constans which belonged not to him Constans was slain by the Treason of Magnensius who himself was a Christian and Commander of Christian Legions the Emperors Life-Guard During the time of the first Ten Persecutions no one Christian Soldier could ever be found that embrued his hands in the Blood of an Heathen Emperor but now a Christian Emperor is assaulted and murthered by Christian Soldiers Constans thought himself safe when his Life-guard were Christians under the command of a Christian his hopes were in vain but this Magnensius was rather in shew and pretence than really a Christian Constantius before that great battel at Mursum dismissed those Soldiers which would not be Baptized Magnensius opened Idolatrous Temples and permitted Sacrifices to be offered This Magnensius caused after the death of Constans Eutropia the Sister of Constantinus and Nepotianus her Son to be put to death How can this be