things contended about were but indifferent for so St. Paul's declaration concerning abstaining from meats did conclude both sides to such apprehensions of them As also that they confess and bewail the Schism which they have already made and take shame to themselves for all those practices which they have done against the Church Such a Declaration as this may serve to repair the Churches Honour and move her to remit her Injunctions to men that give such evidence of having tender Consciences But the Non-Conformists are so far from such a declaration that this Author sayes in the next Section that They account these things not indifferent but unlawful So that this expedient will only cast shame on the Church and leave them to the boastings of their own Godliness It was also urged for the Continuance of those Injunctions that a War was undertook to remove them and that if now they were yielded up to the pleasure of those that fought against them they would in the next place charge all the blood of that War upon the Church and her Party To this he replies that it is easier said then proved that the late War was undertaken to remove the Ceremonies To which we say that if there was any Faith in the Declarations of those that managed the late War or in the Sermons of those who were to encourage the People to it and did therefore beg for money and men c. For Jesus Christ and those that did denounce Curses from the Lord on such as not come forth to his assistance against the mighty If those Articles about Religion which were proposed in every Treaty of Peace had any truth then it is as easily proved as said that That War was undertaken though not solely to remove the things in difference betwixt the Church and the Dissenters and it is an Impudence equal to their other practices to deny it And as this is clear so it is as clear that they charged upon his Late Murther'd Majesty all the blood of that War because he had made concessions in the like nature and we have nor eason to expect otherwise now I 'll leave this Author to please himself in the Malice and Envy of the argument he hath made from these my premises Although the controverted Ceremonies are no Foundation of the Church of England yet far less changes in the last edition of the Liturgy have been taken by Popish Priests to my own knowledge as advantages to brand her of Inconstancy to disswade some ignorant persons to forsake her as still various and to come over to their Church which was founded upon a Rock And this was urged as a reason not to take them away In stead of a satisfying answer this odious inference is made It seems that greater care must be taken that the Papists be not offended then that many thousands of honestly minded Protestants should be relieved Is there no difference betwixt taking care that no advantage be given to Popish Priests to seduce Protestants and a taking care that the Papists be not offended The Author knows there is a difference but he was to gratify his Hatred and he hath done it The like design of exposing his Adversary to the Odium of a kindness to the Papists he had practiced Sect. 8. For when the grounds which he had laid of denying a Toleration to the Papists were applied to the other Dissenters He neglects to show the Disparity or that the application was injurious but makes this Demand What greater advantage can be given to the Papists then that a Protestant Writer should declare That so great a part of Protestants are equally envolved with them in those heinous Crimes c The answer is obvious For they that did those things have given the Popish Party a far greater advantage He that declares it doth tell them no more then what they have been told before even by Forreign Protestants who detested such Acts of those men who among us falsly pretend to the honour of that name Besides he that declares it doth tell them no more then what they know before Do you think the Papists had lost their Sences and Reason Did they not see a Rightfull Prince first driven by Arms from his Throne and afterwards hurried to the Slaughter Nor do I think that the Crimes of those men or the declaring of them to be more a reproach to the Protestant Profession then they are to Christianity to which they and other Criminals do equally pretend Those that were true and knowing Christians did then abhor those practices and do not take the mentioning of them for a reproach to themselves There is no reason that the Discourser should be astonished at the last Reason That Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to make those injunctions For it was apparent before in the reasons that the Compilers of the Liturgy gave That because there were different perswasions of the Ceremonies therefore some were enjoyned And in this our Church did no otherwise then the Catholick Church hath done in like Cases I shall give him one Instance I might give more The Dissensions in the primitive times about the Feast of Easter moved the Council of Nice to determine and enjoyn one time for it to all Christians for no other reason but that there might be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. an agreement among Christians Let learned and good men judge on which side lyes the Animosities who hath the best Pretentions to Equity Charity and good Advice SECT 12. Non-Conformists are less capable of Comprehension than other men of Different Opinions who are tolerated in the Church of England THe Contenders for Comprehension and Toleration do urge that the Indulgence of the Church of England to men differently perswaded in the points of Predestination Free-will c. may be extended to them In answer to which it was said The Moderation of the Church as to those was grounded upon the Difference betwixt those Diverse Opinions in the point of Predestination and the Dissensions about her Orders and Ceremonies That those were Difficulties in all Ages and all Religions These required but one single Resolution whether an indifferent Ceremony might be enjoyned To this he answers That the matters of Inconformity are not things only indifferent but accounted by them unlawfull This is to beg the Question for if they be indifferent they cannot be unlawful and it is not enough to account them unlawful but they must prove them to be so which the Author wisely declines But then he questions the truth of that Assertion That the Dissenters cannot name one Church besides ours in which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony Yet he makes the assertion good for he hath not nor can he name one particular Church as ours in which for a Ceremony there was made a Schism and a division of the members from one another and of one part from their Pastors and Bishops He said indeed That a great Rent was made in the Christian Church throughout the World about a Ceremony the time of Celebrating the Feast of Easter Which if true is not pertinent for that Dissention was not betwixt Members of a particular Church but betwixt the Afiatick and all other Churches Secondly there was no Schism made
be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded the Lord shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things Here it is plain that those to whom the Apostle commends Forbearance one to the other were those whom he calls perfect and such certainly could not be persons that had separated from a mutual Communion for all such Divisions he brands as carnal 1 Cor. 3. And the Dividers as men not perfect and at best but babes nay he calls them in the beginning of that very Chapter Dogs Evil workers and in scorn the Concision and therefore bids them have a care and beware of them and in the following verses weeps over them as Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction These are not words of forbearance and Indulgence and therefore that place gives no countenance to it But then they urge That the whole Society of the Apostles observing the difference between the Jewish and Gentile Believers to prevent any Evil Consequent in their Assembly at Jerusalem assigned to the several parties their particular bounds how far they should accommodate themselves unto one another by a mutual Condescension that they might walk in peace What is all this to an indulgence of those who have forsaken the Communion of the Church and who write preach and do all they can against it The Case is far unlike The differences between the Jewish and Gentile Beleevers had brought as yet no evil Consequent for they themselves say the Apostles consulted to prevent any evil Consequent Let the world judge whether the Differences among us have not brought upon us a large series of such Consequents The Apostles determined and set bounds and measures of forbearance to prevent a Schism then which nothing was more dreadful to the Church and these men would have forbearance and Indulgence to a most dangerous schisme already made that so it might with impunity be continued SECT 5. The Primitive Christians did not allow Indulgence WIth far lesse success but with more art doe they indeavour to make the first Christians to speak for them from whom they bring some passages yet do not tell us where we also may find those Testimonies nor give us the words of the Authors for fear they should be deprehended Socrates the Historian say they gives us a long Catalogue of differences in External Rites of Worship which they looked upon as no breach of Union at all l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To which we say that That Historian doth tell us indeed that the Churches of several Provinces had different observations of the feast of Easter of the measure of Fasts before that Feast and of the different meats they did abstain from but so that one observation was in the whole Roman Church another was kept by those in Illyrium all Greece and Alexandria c. Which we easily admit for we grant to every Church their particular Rites Our Rites in the Church of England are not press'd upon those in Scotland nor those in Ireland and we do not think our Union with the Protestant Churches abroad is broken by their different Ceremonies Therefore the Practice of the first Churches is maintain'd by us and not violated But they can neither out of Socrates nor any other Historian of those times give us an instance of any one National or Provincial Church that did indulge those within their jurisdiction who professing Christianity did yet contemn her Orders and separate from her Communion and did declare her Rites in Worship Idolatrous Superstitious and Antichristian which is now our Case Then they bring in Victor Bishop of Rome is branded for disturbing the peace of the Churches by dividing their Communion They tell us not for what he was censured either because they knew it not or because they know it would do them no good The Case was this All the Churches of the lesser Asia by an ancient Tradition did on the fourteenth day of the Moon observe the Feast of our Saviours Passeover and upon whatsoever day of the week that happened to fall they ended their Fasts This custom was observed in no other Church throughout the whole World for in all the rest that custom which was delivered by the Apostles was continued as Eusebius saith to his time Notwithstanding this difference the several Churches had preserv'd Peace and Communion among themselves as Irenaeus saith of Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Sixtus Bishops of Rome who had received Polycarp and others of the Asiaticks that came to Rome to Communion not contending about that Rite But afterwards when a controversie was moved about it and both sides in different Councils decreed for their own practice and sent their Letters to justifie themselves to the other Churches Eus l. 5. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Victor heated with the letter of the Asiaticks without consulting the other Bishops of his own Perswasion excommunicates all the Churches of Asia as Hetorodox This displeased all the other Bishops who commanded him to consult the peace and union of the Brethren Now what in all this concerns us Victor was to be blamed for breaking a long continued Peace for invading the Liberty of other Churches but none would have condemned him had he required obedience from the members of his own Church to the Orders and Canons made by Councils of those who were over them in the Lord. For Irenaeus in his Epistle to Victor to disswade him from breaking Communion with the Churches of another observation tells him that his Predecessors Anicetus Pius c. kept the Communion entire Jul. l. 5 c. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although they did not observe those Churches Rites nor suffered those among them to observe them And if the infamy of Victor is to be a terror to any it must be to those who break the Communion and it is plain who they are that have done that among us Origen is the next whom they would make the world believe is for their cause but they are forced to make a testimony for him which he himself never writ viz. That there ever were differences amongst Professors of Christianity from the beginning and that it was impossible but that there should so be which yet he shews hindred not their Faith Love and Obedience For when Celsus did upbraid and reproach the Christians because of their many Sects as Atheists and Papists do now to us Origen gives some reasons of them and then confesses indeed that There were Differences among Christians from their beginning but then he doth not say what these writers say for him That it was impossible but that there should so be for this would have been to have giuen the lye to the Holy Ghost who in the Acts c. 4. v. 32. saith That the multitude of them who believed were of one
INDULGENCE not JUSTIFIED Being a Continuation of the DISCOURSE OF TOLERATION In Answer to the ARGUMENTS Of a late Book Entituled A Peace-Offering or Plea for Indulgence And to the CAVILS Of another call'd The Second Discourse of the Religion in England August Epist Quinquages ad Bonisacium Quomodo Reges Domino serviunt in timore nisi ea quae contra jussa Domini fiunt Religiosâ severitate prohibendo atque plectendo LONDON Printed for R. Royston and James Collins MDCLXVIII A CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOURSE OF TOLERATION SECT 1. Our Laws for Vniformity justifiable REligion being acknowledged by the Experience of all ages to have an effectual Influence upon the civil Conversation of men the measures of a Peoples mutual Confidence and so consequently of their Quiet among themselves will be according to the Degrees of Purity and Unity which are observed in that Religion professed by the State Christianity though it be the only true and pure Religion and therefore where it is observed in its Simplicity is most beneficial to mankind for all its precepts oblige Beleevers to the exactest Justice the most compassionate acts of Mercy and the strictest Peace by which Societies are preserved and advanced Yet being to be professed by men encompassed with Infirmities and not secured from Corruptions it is obnoxious to Heresies and Divisions because there will be alwaies ignorant and unstable men who will wrest the Scriptures to their own damnation and there will be men of corrupt minds who having put away a good Conscience concerning the Faith will make shipwrack And when Contentions arise in this they are more bitter and fierce then upon any other account because the Honour of God seems concerned in the Quarrel and the glory of Heaven is conceived the Prize for the highest Zeale Therefore all Christian Princes have seen a necessity to preserve as much as they could the Unity of Religion as one of the Foundations of their Subjects Peace And when Divisions have happened within their Territories by consulting such Persons who might be presumed the fittest Judges in the Case they have searched for the Truth which being once found they have maintained it by a restraint upon all Contradictions to it This hath been the known practice of our English Princes since the Reformation by which they kept the Dissentions about the Latitude and Extent of Reformation in so low a Condition that though they required the publick Cares yet they did never effect any common Trouble till this our last Age in which men grew weary of their Peace and glutted with too great a Prosperity the chief cause of all Civil Wars they grew impatient of Laws and not satisfied with that just Liberty wherein they enjoyed their private Rights with as great if not greater security as any Nation under the Sun they invaded those of the Throne Their method to such an Enterprize was to cause a Confusion in which they hoped by base Arts to form their Fortunes agreeable to their Lusts To introduce Disorder they first attempted upon Religion and by ruining and dissolving the Government of the Church they opened a breach for all Heresies and incouraged all Schisms Thus they got a party ingaged to them for their Licence and by their force and fraud a Power which through the just Judgment of the Righteous God attained their Cursed ends But when it pleased the Almighty Goodness by breaking them to pieces with his own arme to restore our Rightful Prince and our ancient Laws to ascertain our Peace those just rules of Government to effect Unity in Religion were again practised His Majesty and the Parliament enacting such Laws as did enjoin Uniformity in Religion In making of which as they did cut off all those Jealousies which are dangerous to Magistrates of being unconcerned for the Worship of God So in the Laws themselves they have prevented all Calumnies of Cruelty and Persecution For by them No man is forced to professe any thing contrary to his Perswasion which he calls his Faith No man is denied the Liberty of his own Worship in his own Family with so limited a Company as may not enjealous the State of contriving a Publick Disturbance Besides there is no Condition imposed upon our Communion but Conformity with the Church as to the Outward part of Worship without any express or formal Declaration of their Opinions concerning it And by this Moderation all the clamours of Force upon Conscience and Compulsion to the Faith are rendred false and unreasonable All that these Laws extend unto is to secure the Truth and Peace 1. By forbidding any to be admitted to the Office of Teachers and Ministers but such who secure the Church and State by their Subscriptions or Oaths that they will not hold or teach any thing contrary to the Publick profession and that they will consent to the Use of the prescribed Forms of Worship 2. By hindering of Conventicles and meetings wherein such Errors might be published and the publick Tranquillity designed against Which Laws as they are justifiable by the continued practise of the Church in all Ages by the Examples of the most Religious Princes so also are they far beneath that rigour which the men who now complain of them did use when and where they had or have power Who has forgot the Tyrannies of the Covenant We have heard of the Terrors whereby the Decrees of the Kirk of Scotland exacted Obedience And New England shews us what we were to have expected from the Independents here had they attained to the issue of their Designs which they speedily hasted unto and gotten a fixed power amongst us But how just soever the Laws are in themselves yet because they are against the Interest of men of unlawful Hopes and they obstruct the recovery of that Grandeur which others had in our miseries they have been written against in several books more particularly in one intituled a Discourse of Religion as not having settled Reformed Christianity in its due Latitude nor provided for the Stability and Advancement of this Kingdome To justifie the Counsels of our Law-givers in these Acts there was published a Discourse of Toleration in answer to that Discourse of Religion which was to shew That the Causes of Dissentions in Religion which are the Subject of Toleraration being infamous and sinful and their Effects full of Destruction to Piety and the Common-Wealth That therefore every one was bound in their Place and Order to indeavour their Removal and Extirpation And that this was not to be effected by Toleration was proved by several Arguments and by shewing the weakness of all those reasons which were urged in the Discourse of Religion Since that there is come forth another Book entituled a Peace Offering or Apology and Plea for Indulgence which proceeds upon other grounds to shew that all External Force by Civil Laws upon the account of Religion is not to be justified To adjust therefore that Discourse of Toleration against all the
seek the Lord and where they might most assuredly receive the Word of Life Which distractions it was not possible for them to avoid if the Christians were divided into several parties 2. Towards those of the World who though they would not believe and so should not be concerned in the truth of Christians yet they must be in the Quiet and Peace of them For experience shews that when Divisions and Contentions turmoild the Church the State and even the mixt company of unbelievers soon found themselves under many miseries while the contending parties mutually armed to a destruction of their Opposites Thirdly These commands of Christ and this compassion to mankinde do oblige every man to endeavour to preserve that unity by all wayes proper for them in their several Callings And therefore Christian Kings may and ought to do it in their way which is by just Laws and the Church by wise and pious Injunctions and all are to avoid and mark them that cause Divisions among them to restrain their furious and carnal heats in prosecuting their own private apprehensions to the reproach of Religion and Disturbance of Mankind Fourthly Such wayes to preserve Peace can never be to the destruction of those who in sincerity desire to Love and obey Christ although they should mistake in their apprehensions of some few things c. For 1. It is not true which these writers say that such persons are concluded under an unavoidable mistake and being not so they will in sincerity indeavour after a full and clear information in those things that are pleaded to be according to the mind of Christ 2. All such persons will in that Christian humility which the Spirit of Christ works not oppose their private apprehensions to the judgment and practise of that Church of God from which they have received the Doctrine of Salvation and therefore will not think of themselves above what they ought to think but think soberly according as God hath dealt to them the measure of faith And being thus lowly in their own eyes knowing themselves lyable to mistakes and errors they will not be so fond of their own apprehensions as for their sakes to bring a scandal upon the Church of God and set the World in Flames Besides 3. having a desire to Obey God they will be careful to testify their obedience in a manifest and undeniable Duty as is the Peace and Unity of Christians and obedience to Governours and not think to justify the breach of that with the observance of what their singular and private apprehensions represent especially being secur'd that the Church from whom they differ do retain all things necessary to salvation as these men do profess they agree with the Church of England in all things of that degree Therefore such persons are secur'd enough from those severities which are necessary to preserve the Peace of a Church and Nation And such sincere humble enquirers after Truth and those that walk up to what they have already attained are the only persons dear to Christ Not every one that cries Lord Lord that pretend to preach and prophesie in his name for he himself hath told us that he shall reject the pleas of many such to his indulgence And indeed should every one that is so kinde to himself as to publish to the World that he in sincerity desires to obey and love Christ be believed upon his own word and have an indulgence for his differing practises the greatest Impostors that ever appear'd among Christians must be permitted to practise their Cheats and Impieties For the Gnosticks the Manichees Montanists Circumcelliones of old and those among us who are yet Red and polluted with the blood of their Lawful Soveraign that violated the known Laws of the Land of their nativity rob'd the Churches and invaded the just rights of every one within the compass of their lust and their power These I say would have perswaded the World and it may be were so mad as to believe themselves that they were the men that loved Christ when in their works they did deny him And yet 4. It cannot be said that the gradual destruction even of these men is intended by such Laws as do command nothing but what may be for the Security Peace and welfare of Christian Communities and it is an high slander of any Law-givers to say that they intended Punishment and not Obedience That instance of Christs reproof to his Disciples for being so forward to call Fire down from Heaven upon the neglectful Samaritans is altogether impertinent especially as they interpret those words You know not of what Spirits you are To be an unacquaintedness with their own Spirits imagining that for Zeal which was indeed self-Revenge So that in their Sense Christ reprov'd their revengeful Spirits Now it cannot be said of Laws made to restrain violations of Peace that they are the Dictates of Revenge since Revenge looks at acts past but Laws indeavour to prevent those to come SECT 4. No ground for Indulgences in the Practice of the Apostles THe third Argument is drawn from the practice of the Apostles whom we may well wonder that they should be suspected as Patrons for indulgence of Dissentions and Schisms in Religion Since we finde them describing the Authors of them as Monsters and Prodigies that dishonour the Generation they live in and fill the place wherein they appear with confusion and danger and threaten a Tempest at their first rising Therefore the Apostles dealt with them as such in their dayes For although they did not exercise on them Coertions Restaints and Corporal punishments as these Writers wisely observe because indeed they had no Temporal power yet they used their Ecclesiastical power and delivered them over to Satan which in those times was a giving them up to that Tormenter to be afflicted in their flesh a severer punishment then the Sword of the Magistrate can inflict Rom. 16.18 1 Tim. 6.4 They commanded the sound Christians to avoid them as contagious Pests and to cut them off as cankerd and infested members that would bring destruction to the whole body of the Church if a just severity prevented them not nay they call'd for Gods assistance to cut off these troublers of the Israel of God Gal. 5.12 I would they were even cut off that trouble you They also commended nothing more to the conversation of Christians then Peace and Unity to minde the same things to walk in one minde to follow after those things that made for Peace and Edification which are impossible to be attained in Dissentions It would be very strange therefore to imagine that they who do all this to Dissentions should yet give any ground for an Indulgence of them But yet these men have found out that St. Paul is for this forbearance Phil. 3.15 16. Which Text if they had faithfully set down would have discovered their Sophistry For the Apostle saith Let us therefore as many as be perfect
heart and one soul and therefore what was then might be again and so could not be impossible Neither doth Origen say much less shew that these differences hindered not their Faith Love and Obedience For the Heresies which he thought Celsus had respect unto and grounded his reproach upon were the Ophitae and Cainitae to whom Origen denies the very name of Christians They pretend also a kindness from Justin Martyr who they say in his second Apologie declares his forbearance and the Churches of those dayes towards those who believing in Christ yet thought themselves obliged to the observation of Mosaical Rights and Ceremonies But this is an open abuse both of Justin and the Reader for there are no words in that Apology tending to that purpose and such indeed would have been impertinent and besides his subject in that Apology and lastly had he said what he doth not it would not have been of advantage to Indulgence Ignatius also is used no better by them whom they would have to say that to persecute men on the account of God and Religion is to make our selves conformable to the Heathen that know not God Whereas Ignatius saith no word like it but that which makes against them * Ignat. Ep. ad Phila delphinos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one saith he follows him that hath made a Schism he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God If any one walks in a different opinion he is not complyant with the sufferings of Christ These are the words of Ignatius who in that place by many arguments urges them to continue in the Unity of the Church and therefore could not at the same time speak for indulgence of those who did break that Unity But those words which they refer to are the words of the Interpolator of Ignatius For they are not in Vossius's Edition of Ignatius nor in that Latin Copy which Bishop Usher thought to be Authentick but they are in that corrupt Copy set forth by him yet so set forth and noted in Red Characters that no man could take them for Ignatius's but he that had a mind to prevaricate Which in civil converse is an infamous crime but in Religion we want a name to express its buseness Then they huddle up many witnesses together Tertullian Origen Arnobius and Lactantius Who say they pleaded for a Liberty in Religion as founded in the Law of Nature and the inconsistencie of Faith with Compulsion But where these Authors say such things they do not tell us and the former discoveries show how little reason we have to take their bare Words But whatsoever those Authors may say to justify Christian Religion even by the Law of Nature and that the light of Reason could finde nothing in it that deserved persecution Yet I shall not believe that they ever said Terâ—de Praescrip Haeret. c. 37. Si Haeretici sunt Christiani non sunt Ib. c. 32. Ita omnes Haereses nec recipiuntur in pacem communionem ab Ecclesiis quo quo modo Apostolicis the Law of Nature did give to any persons ground for Liberty of different Opinions and practises contrary to the Rules and Orders of that Christian Church wherein they lived until I see their own words for it And of these certainly Tertullian can have no great favour for them who is so severe against Hereticks in his Book de Praescriptione that he will not allow them the name of Christians and saith that they were not received to peace and Communion in the Churches that were any way Apostolical If therefore we may judge of the rest by one we have no reason to think they are for the the Indulgence till we see it under their hands After these they bring the Synod of Alexandria in the Case of Athanasius who did as they say Condemn all External force in Religion and Reproached the Arians as the first Inventers and Promoters of it The shamefulness of this Allegation will appear to the Reader If he take notice that this Synod made no Acts nor Canons for the Histories of it mention none nor are any Extant and therefore their Judgment in this Case was not definitive Their main business was to inquire into the Sclanders which the Arians had raised against Athanasius and to bear witness against them they being competent to this as being Members of the same Church and conversant with him in his offices This their Testimony they published in a Circulatory Letter to all the Bishops of the Catholick Church and to their beloved Brethren in Christ In this Epistle they speak not at all concerning External force in Religion nor do they say the Arians were the first inventers of it For they only complain of the Arians for offering to the Emperour Letters that did accuse * Siquidem jam denuo Accusatrices Literas contra Athanasium Imperatoribus porrexere iteratis calumniis homicidia ei objicientes quae aunquam facta sunt ac denuo illum conjurationibus suis opprimere student Athanasius of Murders which were never done that by that means they might take away his life by the Sword of Justice And as to this not to any force of the Emperour about Religion they say * Tota enim eorum accusatrix Epistola nihil aliud nisi necem spectat aut necem moliuntur si ipsis liceat aut saltem exules facere c. Ista opera Ethnicorum sunt non vel tenuiter Christianorum minime omnium Episcoporum quos aliis justitiam commonstrare oportuit Their whole Libel designes nothing else but slaughter as much as in them lies or else banishment c. Those are works of Heathens and not of the meanest Christians much less of Bishops whom it becomes to be patterns of Justice to others Now what is all this which is spoken of bloody Slanders to the force which restrains different Apprehensions from disturbing Practices Let the Reader see if he can for I cannot finde any thing to their purpose in that Synodical Epistle and if these Writers had intended sincerity they would have given us the very words which made for them and I conceive they did not because they could not Thus of these Testimonies out of that ancient Christians some are meer Fictions the alledged Authors having no such words as these are cited to have Thus Justin Martyr Origen Ignatius and the Synod of Alexandria are abused Tertullian Arnobius Lactantius brought in as Witnesses without any Testimony Socrates the Historian and the Instance of Victor impertinently mention'd Truth stands not in need of such low shifts SECT 6. The first Christian Emperours were against Indulgence HAving done with Churchmen They come to Emperours And first they lay hold of that Edict of Constantine who having a mind to deliver the oppressed Christians from the persecutions of the Gentiles and not finding it safe Euseb Hist l. 10. c. 5. as yet to appear particularly in their favour having then Licinius and