Macedonians lib. 2. cap. 13. and 35. and the Nestorians who burnt the Arian Church at Constantinople lib. 7. cap. 20. vexed the Novatians and Macedonians lib. 7. cap. 31. And all this by the instigation of Anastatius a Presbyter lib. 7. cap. 32. Yet all these Tâ—mults are imputed to the Bishops who all the while suffered from the heretical Presbyâ—… the true Ancestors of Mr. Baxter Majorum quisquis fuit ille tuorum Aut Pastor fuit aut illud quod dicere nolo Chap. 7. Mr. Baxter treats of the Tria Capitula The Tria Capitula were three Chapters mentioned in the Council of Chalcedon in which the Nestorians who could not longer defend their Heresie under the Name of its Author sought to cloke it under the Name and Writings of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia of Theodoret's Writings against St. Cyril and an Epistle of Ibas unto Maris These made the Tria Capitula for which Pope Vigilius and some of his Party appeared But the Emperour Justinian and the Catholick Bishops appeared against them Many Sectaries who were condemned under the name of the Acephali disclaimed this Council others pretended it had approved of the Tria Capitula Great Divisions ensued hereupon Justinian knowing that the Council of Chalcedon had exploded that Heresie sends forth his Imperial Edict wherein accursing the Authors and Abettors of those Tria Capitula he summons the Fifth General Council of Constantinople at which the Pope refused to be present noluit interesse saith Bellarmine and the true reason was because he favoured that Heresie and approved not of the Council of Chalcedon which was held without him and did determine for the Prerogative of Constantinople against him Vigilius though he came not himself sent his Decree which maintained that Heresie and was confuted in the Sixth Collation of the Council of Constans And they set forth a most holy Confession of their Faith consonant in all points to that which the Holy Apostles preached which the four former Councils explained and the holy Fathers with uniform consent maintained Now I would desire Mr. Baxter to resolve me whether the blame of those Commotions which followed on this Dissention is to be laid on the Emperour and the Catholick Bishops who sided with him in defence of the true Faith against Nestorianism as Binius and Baronius would have it or on the Pope and his Italians who pleaded for that Heresie and together with the Agnoites Gainaites Theodosians Themistians and the rest of the Acephali promoted and continued those Broils Chap. 9. Consisting of about Sixty Pages is spent about the Worshipping of Images whereof he makes the Bishops Patrons Whereas many both Emperours and Bishops suffered very much as Iconoclastes i.e. the destroyers of Images Bishop Jewel challengeth the Church of Rome to shew but one Authority during Six hundred Years of the Church for worshipping Images and is not yet answered The rise of which in brief was this The Arcans and Donatists having wasted the Church made way for vast numbers of Infidels to enter in who brought with them and superstitiously honoured the Images of their Benefactors and many ignorant Christians learned their customs The Pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul we read of in Ancient History but withal we read they were not permitted to be brought into the Churches The opposition made against them may be seen in the Magdeburg In the year 754 the Bishops disputed against them and in a Council at Constantinople consisting of 338 Bishops How Leo Isauricus and Gregory Bishop of Neocaesaria opposed them is too large to repeat It was about the year 787 that Irene who was Daughter to a Pagan King of Tartaria gave publick countenance to Image-worship She ruling as Empress in the minority of Constantine her Son promoted this Pagan custom for as Mr. Hales observes Dux femina facti she was a Woman of so Tyrannous a Spirit that she caused the eyes of her Son Constantine to be put out which struck a great awe into the Christians under her One cause of her Cruelty to her Son being his opposing this Image-worship But finding one Tarasius to be of her mind she makes him Patriarch of Constantinople and calls a Council at Nice consisting of 350 Bishops most of them Arians and so about the year 787 they Decreed for Image-worship But in the year 792 all was reversed by Charles the Great in a Council at Frankfort One Decree mentioned by Mr. Baxter I shall remind him of it is p. 213. A man that had his hands in blood must not be a Bishop Another Heresie which makes the Church History to swell is that of the Monothelites of which Mr. Baxter speaks ch 8. And because he saith nothing of the rise of it I shall It was occasioned by one John Philoponus a Presbyter who wrote subtilly concerning it and drew many to his Opinion Anno 517. but all the time that Justinian was Emperour they hid themselves and propagated their Heresie in Conventicles for it was condemned by 175 Bishops in the fifth Synod of Constantinople and confuted by the Learned Bishop Gregory Nazianzene and by 603 Bishops in the fourth General Council at Chalcedon and in the sixth Synod of Constantinople by 170 Bishops But after the death of Theodosius Philippicus succeeded of whose Succession a Monotholite Monk had foretold him and that if he would rescind the Decrees of the sixth Synod and favour the Monothelites he should raign long and happily This made Philippicus to espouse that Cause and presently he banisheth Cyrus Patriarch of Constantinople and many Orthodox Bishops He maketh one John a Presbyter Patriarch and filleth up the vacant Bishopricks with Presbyters of that Faction and then assembles them and confirms that Heresie But the Bishops of the Western Churches resisted it and sent thundering Letters against it And it is no wonder that the Orthodox Bishops did hide themselves under this Tyranny or that Philippicus found Presbyters to make Bishops in their room who defended him and the Faction For it is well known how many such in our Age adhered to usurping Powers and defended as great both State and Ecclesiastical Heresies as this of the Monothelites and would not permit the Bishops to appear But if these Presbyters had taken the name of Bishops under Cromwel as the Monothelites did under Philippicus you might with as much truth have affirmed that innumerable Bishops did in the times of our Confusions defend Rebellion and Heresie as that the Bishops who suffered all manner of indignities from the Monothelites did defend that Errour or raise those Tumults This Philippicus within a year and half was deprived of the Empire by the same Souldiers that set him up who put out his Eyes and left him to die in Prison as a Tyrant These instances for I remember that I am writing a Character of Mr. Baxter and not of the ancient Hereticks may suffice to acquaint the Reader of the ingenuity of this Man who rails intolerably against
Theological Differences but Law Differences Letter to Mr. Hinckley p. 25. The first open beginning was about the Militia says Mr. B. And how then did the Bishops begin it The Commons wrested it from the King and by one Order after another seized his Forts and Magazines the Tower of London and his Navy Had any of the Bishops a hand in this They all did and now do own That the sole command and disposition of it is and by the Laws of England ever was the undoubted Right of his Majesty and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same They were such Conformists who begun the War as Mr. B. who taught That the Law that saith the King shall have the Militia supposeth it to be against Enemies and not against the Commonwealth nor them that have a part in the Soveraignty and to resist him here is not to resist Power but Vsurpation and private Will And where the Soveraignty is divided into several hands as into King and Parliament and the King invades the other part they may lawfully defend their own by War and the Subject lawfully assist them yea though the power of the Militia be expresly given to the King unless it be also expressed that it shall not be in the other H.C.W. Thes 363. Another beginning of the War was a Confederacy with the Scots then in the Bowels of the Nation with whom the King was informed that some of the Parliament held Correspondence with The Earls of Essex of Warwick Bedford Clare Bullingbrook Mulgrave Holland the Lords Say and Brook and many more were said to be of this Confederacy p. 17. of B's Life with the five Members and Kimbolton whom the Parliament and City protected from the hands of Justice and procured and countenanced armed Tumults Mr. B. makes an Objection p. 474. of H.C.W. That Tumult at Westminster drove him i.e. the King away Answ Only by displeasing not by endangering or medling with him though the King tells us otherwise in his Chapter of Tumults to which I refer and observe Mr. B's Account p. 19. of his Life That too great numbers of Apprentices and others emboldned by proceedings of Parliament not fore-knowing what fire the sparks of their Temerity would kindle did too triumphingly and disorderly urge the Parliament as they had done the King crying Justice Justice the King called these Tumults the Parliament called them City Petitioners which in the end did more than displease the King So that his Report of an Episcopal War was but a Dream of his own though he affirms he was as sure of it as of any thing that he saw yet elsewhere he says no Man can tell where and when and by whom the War was begun Confessions p. 61. Mr. B. knows another sort of five Members that begun the War who were no Episcopal Men I mean the Smectymnuans who wrote so insolently and pedantickly against that meek pious and learned Bishop Hall And how Isaac Pennington brought a Petition of 15000 Londonners against Archbishops Bishops c. which was seconded by the like from several Counties And on March 10. 1640. a Bill is read in the House against Episcopacy and their Vote in Parliament taken away and many of them sent to the Tower for entring a Protest for their Priviledge Did any of the Bishops call in the Scots or promote the Covenant or sit in the Assembly who were chosen to that very end that they might stir up the People to assist the Parliament against the King Though all these things be left on Record yet Mr. B. thinks by his bare Authority to perswade the present and succeeding Generations that the War was begun by Bishops and carried on by a Parliament an Army and Assembly of Conformists yet to excuse the Presbyterians he says p. 26. that the Separatists and Anabaptists began the War Mr. B. will not say that Bishop Hall whom he so frequently commends had any hand in the beginning of our Wars nor will he ever be able to perswade others that what he hath written and publickly delivered as Matter of Fact in the beginning of our Troubles is false I therefore refer the Reader to that Treatise written with his own hand May 29. 1647. having first given you part of a Speech delivered by this excellent Prelate in the House of Lords p. 425. of his Remains My Lords It is a foul and dangerous Insolence which is now complained of to you in the Petitions against Bishops but it is but one of an hundred of those which have of late been done to the Church and Government The Church of England as your Lordships cannot but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguished the Enemies of the Church into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of Burroughs the one whereof goes about to root up the very Foundation of Religion the other to crop the Branches and Blossoms and Clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine and devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and bless God for it and beseech him to prosper it But for the other give me leave to say I do not find many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer than fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Felt-makers and such like Trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and defile and revile her Government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours from hence that inundation of base and scurrilous Libels and Pamphlets wherewith we have been of late over-born in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a Yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you to be sensible of this great indignity do but look on these Reverend Persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting on these Benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down and writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offered to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that Truth of God which they have taught and written And shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose But alas this is but one of those many scandalous Aspersions and intolerable Affronts that are daily cast upon us My Lords if these Men may with freedom and impunity thus beat down Ecclesiastical Authority it is to be feared they will not
a difference amongst us which is the higher Power And be it remembred that he had offered his Head to Justice as a Rebel if any could prove that the King was the highest Power in the time of Division Whereas he himself confesseth that a Heathen persecuting Nero must be obeyed Yet he affirms That it was not the intent either of St. Peter or St. Paul to determine whether the Emperour or Senate was Supream though St. Peter plainly determines it when he calls the King Supream and St. Paul by appealing not to the Senate but to Caesar In that Sermon he magnifies the Loyalty of the Presbyterians adjures the Commons to an opposition of Episcopacy though the King in his Message commended it to be as ancient as the Monarchy in this Island And under the Titles of Sound Doctrine and Church Government pleads for Presbytery and would p. 46. have the Church Revenues setled on them p. 43. saying Give first to God the things that are Gods For these he pleads under the name of the godly peaceable and prudent people of the Land in opposition to the prophaneness And to insinuate new fears and jealousies cries out O what happy times did we once see When were those happy times Not in the peaceable time of King Charles the First those were days of Profaneness and Persecution He must mean either under the Long Parliament when so much Loyal Blood was shed or under the Protection of Oliver when the best of Princes was butchered or under Richard of whom and his Mock-Parliament he gives such large Encomiums But now Nox una perpetuo mansura The days of Light and Jubilee are gone And as it is with Bats and Owls when the Sun appears their Night is come He was it seems of the same mind with his Brother Jenkins who said in a Sermon preached Sept. 25. 1656. That the removal of Prelatical Innocations countervailed for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in the late Distractions nor would he redeem all those by the return of the same if it might be done For Mr. Baxter speaking of Prelatical Men who condemn the Ministers and Churches that had not Prelatical Ordination says They would surely silence such Ministers and dissolve such Churches through all the Land if it were in their power as it may be says he when our sins have ripened us for SO GREAT A PLAGVE Postscript to True Cath. p. 335. CHAP. II. Nec dum finitus Orestes IF Great Theodosius as Mr. Baxter says Treatise of Bishops part 1. p. 147. did cast himself down on the Earth before Ambrose to beg pardon and re-admission with tears and was not received till some Months continued penance If Great Mr. Baxter being so heinous a Criminal as he hath under his own hand acknowledged should after such a miraculous return of the King humble himself before the King and his Nobles in such manner as he promised once he would do it was no more than was his duty and perhaps not enough to expiate his Crime Thus then Mr. Baxter expostulates p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christians in the World to take them to be blameless or those to be little sins What both the violating the Person and the Life of so good a King and the change of the fundamental Government or Constitution The setting up the Protector and pulling him down again c. If all this were no Rebellion Treason or Murder is there any such Crimes to be committed If I was guilty of such sins Habemus confitentem Reum I do openly confess that if I lay in sackcloth and in tears and did lament my sins before the World and beg pardon both of God and Man and beg all Men to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong both to Christ and Men I should do no more than the plain Light of Nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty p. 17. But he that had the confidence to meet the old King and his Armies in the Field now that the Sword is taken out of his hands wants not confidence to take up his Pen as dangerous a Weapon and most maliciously handled and to affront the then present King before he be well setled on his Throne in this Military way as he terms it in his Third Plea page the last And though his Fraternity could not be permitted to bring him under Articles before yet they vigorously attempt it after his return The first attempt was concerning a Declaration to be extorted from the King about Ecclesiastial Affairs We offered his Majesty and the Bishops at first the Archbishop Usher 's Model for Concord Treatise of Episc Part 2. p. 53. The Bishops would not once take it into consideration nor so much as vouchsafe to talk of it or bring it under any deliberation They knew whence it came not from the Archbishops but the Presbyterian Forge Mr. Baxter confesseth p. 87. second part They that would have conformed to his Majesty's Declaration which as you shall hear anon they had caused to be drawn according to their Model went on this Supposition that the Species of Prelacy was altered by it and yet on these terms they would unite with the Prelatists only so far as to go in a peaceable performance of their Office p. 116. just as now they do In that 116 p. Mr. Baxter supposeth this Objection against the Declaration for I can scarce call it his Majesty's being by the necessity of times and the importunity of troublesome Men extorted from him Obj. You did but obtrude on us your own Opinions for when you had drawn up most of those words his Majesty was forced to seem for the present to grant them to you for the quieting of you Answ p. 117. If we did offer such things for it was in vain to deny it let the World judge what we sought by them 2. There is most of that about Rural Deans put in I suppose by the Bishops consent who were to word it after it went FROM VS a good office indeed to whet a Sword to cut their own Throats and be the Presbyterians Journey-men to their own undoing For Thirdly Whoever mentioned or desired it it appears that the work of Jurisdiction Excommunication Absolution no nor Ordination was not thought to be above the Office of a Presbyter that is They would have robbed the Bishops of all their Power and Authority and taken it to themselves and then they would go on peaceably in the performance of their Office and therefore it is no wonder that the Bishops refused to consider of such a Model And that very Parliament that had so much manners as to thank his Majesty for that Declaration which others have not done for the Act of Oblivion did lay it by so that it was never done but other Laws established which we feel saith Mr. Baxter I cannot pass by that vain-glorious boasting of his so often mentioned how
the strength of the Empire hath taken away all the seeds of Impiety Edictum Theodosii in fine Concilii I see no reason why Mr. Baxter should speak so favourably of Nestorius though I have considered all that he writes but that he might make his Readers think more contemptible of Cyril who was so great learned and good a Bishop Vincentius Lyrinensis an approved Author who lived near that time writes thus Infelix ille Nestorius subito ex Ove conversus in Lupum gregem Christi lacerare cepit Cum enim hi ipsi qui rodebantur ex magna adhuc parte Ovem crederent morsibus ejus magis patebant Nam quis eum facile errare arbitraretur quem tanto Imperii Judicio electum tanto Sacerdotum studio prosecutum videret Qui cum magno Sanctorum amore Summo populi favore celebraretur quotidie palam divina tractabat eloquia noxios quoque Judaeorum Gentilem confutabat errores This is as much as Mr. Baxter could say for him But what follows Qui ut uni haeresi suae aditum patefaceret cunctarum Haeresewn blasphemias insectabatur cap. 16. and cap. 17. In audito scelere duos vult esse filios Dei unum Deum alterum hominem unum qui ex patre alterum qui sit generatus ex matre atque ideo asserit Sanctam Mariam non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. dicendam quia scilicet ex eâ non ille Christus qui Deus sed qui homo erat natus Quod si quis eum putat in literis unum Christum dicere unam Christi personam non temere credat hoc enim fraudulentiae causâ conceptus sen partus virginei tempore duos Christos fuisse contendit Who will not believe this Father that lived in those days a Man of great Learning and Integrity before a late prejudiced Person that serves a Party Another instance of Mr. Baxter's racking Ecclesiastical History to make it speak his sence against Bishops is his account of Novatus and Novatian one of which he calls an ill chosen Bishop of Rome i.e. Novatian though indeed they were both ambitious Presbyters and Novatus and African Priest saith Mr. Baxter went to Rome to make Novatian a Bishop p. 36. when Cornelius was duly elected before Of which St. Cyprian saith Agnoscant atque intelligant Episcopo semel facto collegarum ac plebis testimonio judicio comprobato alium constitui nullo modo posse Epist 4. ad Cornel. For indeed Novation was an ambitious Presbyter that contended against Cornelius to thrust him out of his Chair for admitting those to his Communion who in the time of Persecution under Decius had denied the Faith supposing that they could not repent after such a fall In opposition to such he calls his Faction the Cathari which Mr. Baxter knows how to English This pure Presbyter sent for three Rustick Bishops as my Author calls them from Italy to come to him at Rome under pretence of mediating for him with Cornelius and the other Bishops Being come he entertains them with plenty of good Chear and Wine which is still in fashion with that sort of People and when they had well drank some of his Party force the Bishops to lay their hands on Novatian and make him an Vtopian Bishop for it will puzzle Mr. Baxter to name his Title though he call him an ill chosen Bishop of Rome which Title he gives him only to draw an Odium on the Bishops though the great troubles brought upon the Church by their Errours and Schisms were wholly the fruit of their Envy against Cornelius the lawful Bishop of Rome Of which St. Cyprian also gives a full account who caused the meeting of some Councils to suppress them Yet Mr. Baxter such is his Zeal for Anti-Prelatical Men thus excuseth the matter It was Zeal against Errour which made both the Novatians and the Donatists run into Errour p. 32. And though that long and sad Schisms did ensue yet he thus excuseth it The Rigour of the Novatians was increased by their offence at other mens sinful latitude and tepidity p. 35. Chap. 3. Mr. Baxter treats of the Council of Nice and the Heresie of Arius P. 45. Mr. Baxter says That Athanasius refusing to admit Arius to his Communion caused much Calamities And p. 46. They that had gathered Separate Churches did communicate with Arius that they might be delivered from the Persecution of a godly Bishop i.e. from Athanasius whom Mr. Baxter confesseth to be a godly Bishop but being Bishop and opposing the Arian Conventicles he is a Persecutor That you may see the Partiality of this Historian I shall give you a brief History of the growth of Arianism Arius a Presbyter was condemned in the first General Council at Nice for denying the Deity of Christ making him a Creature for which he was banished by Constantine as the cause of great Division and Corruption in the Church But there was a certain Presbyter who grew into so great familiarity with Constantia the Emperours Sister as to perswade her that Arius had been abused by the Council and did not hold the Opinions for which he was condemned Whereupon Constantine recals Arius and enquires into the truth of that report and Constantia dying recommends this Presbyter to the Emperour her Brother as worthy of his favour and when Constantine died this Presbyter carrieth the News to Constantius that his Father had bequeathed the Eastern Empire to him Which being what he hoped for he received the Presbyter into his Favour and kept him in his Court where first he infected some of the Eunuchs with that Errour and by their means the Empress also and so the Emperour himself Socrates l. 1.19 and l. 2.2 This revived the Arian Faction Arius is restored to Alexandria from whence the multitude of his Followers having conspired the death of Athanasius Constantine had removed Athanasius into Gallia where Constans his Son then lived who entertained him with some respect and writes to his Brother Constantius to admit him again to Alexandria or threatneth him with War lib. 2. cap. 18. Whereupon Athanasius is restored but his life is in perpetual danger the Arians being more in number than the Orthodox Hosius Bishop of Corduba a Man of great Age and Learning and a constant Assertor of the Truth was shamefully whipped and tortured by them lib. 2. cap. 26. And though they were condemned by the Councils of Milain and Ariminum Constantius favours them and threatneth the Councils To him succeeded Julian the Apostate then Jovianus who reigned but Seven Months then Valentian who admitted Valens and Arian to partake of the Empire All which time the Arians exercised great cruelty not only on the Orthodox Bishops but against each other for under them sprang up the Novatians and Eunomians lib. 4. cap. 23. and lib. 5. cap. 20. who all agreed in the Arian Heresie but persecuted one another So did the
Rabble are stirred up to Petition against them Mr. Baxter himself having in Anno 1640. conceived a dislike of them began to write his History of Bishops to represent them as the Lords of Misrule twelve Bishops are sent to the Tower the Archbishop beheaded the rest-sequestred the Nation drawn into a Covenant against them their Revenues imployed to maintain a War against the King and to gratifie such Presbyters as had defamed and opposed them Under those grew up the several Factions of Independents Anabaptists Quakers and a Fanatical Army that set the whole Nation into a Flame that continued to devour for 20 years together Now suppose the Supream Power i.e. the Parliament as Mr. Baxter says had advanced some of the most active Presbyters as Superintendents or Bishops and Archbishops for Mr. Baxter approves of this last Order as Overseers of Bishops would it become a true Historian to impute all the Disorders and Confusions that were acted by and under the several Factions and thus made Bishops to that Order which were deposed prescribed and driven into Corners or exposed to innumerable Affronts and Sufferings during all that time and yet this is the manner of Mr. Baxter's dealing with those more ancient Bishops which he mentioneth as a true Historian throughout his History of Bishops Mr. Baxter Did you know or not that Novatus was an ill chosen Bishop of Rome and Novatian a promoter of his Prelacy Answ I doubt not but Mr. Baxter knew that Novatus was meerly a Presbyter and that in his time Cornelius was Bishop of Rome with whom Novatus had a quarrel for admitting such to his Communion as in the days of Persecution under Decius had denied the Faith Novatus affirming That they could not repent after their Fall and hereupon he calls his Faction the Cathari This pure Presbyter being at Rome se sends for three Rustick Bishops as my Author calls them to come to him from Italy to Rome where he caresseth them with plenty of good Victuals and Wine and when they had well drank some of Novatus his Party prevail with those Bishops to lay their hands on Novatus and make him a Bishop but whether a Bishop of Rome as Mr. Baxter says I have not read but that Novatus and Novatian who espoused his Opinion and promoted his Faction to the great disturbance of Cornelius the lawful Bishop is notorious in Ecclesiastical History Mr. Baxter As for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and the Donatist Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical Answ Here I question your Fidelity and have proved at large in my History of the Donatists that the Schism was wholly Presbyterial for the Bishoprick of Carthage being void Botrus and Celesius two Presbyters sought to supplant Cecilian a Person of known Integrity who was chosen Bishop of that Church But Lucilla a Woman descended from a Noble Family of Spain abets their quarrel and by great Gifts prevail with Botrus and Celesius who had been defeated to appear for Majorinus who was Domestick Chaplain to Lucilla and had been Deacon to Cecilian these gather a great number of persons whom they had drawn from the Communion of Cecilian to meet at Cirta where they pronounce Cecilian deposed as a Traditor and set up Majorinus to be Bp. of Carthage who dying shortly after Donatus is by his Party chosen to succeed him whom Cecilian accused for re-baptizing those that came to his Party from the Catholick Church and for degrading Bishops and Priests And this was the rise of the Sect of the Donatists under whom the Arian Heresie spread it self and the Crew of Circumcellians arose as may be seen at large in the History of the Donatists This is a second Instance of the Schism begun by Presbyters and of Mr. Baxter's fidelity in relating Church History and imputing the Troubles caused and continued by Presbyters to the Bishops The third instance is Arius a Presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt who was bred up under Melitus another Presbyter from whom Arius was taught That Christ was not the Eternal Son of God but meer Man from both his Parents This Meletius held it lawful in times of Persecution to deny Christ as he had done and pleaded That he had not denied God but Man For these Tenets Peter Bp. of Alexandria Excommunicated them both but Peter dying Achillus succeeded him under whom Arius reading Lectures in Alexandria began to publish his Heresie and infected great numbers insomuch that Achillus dying he became Competitor for that Bishoprick with Alexander who being a Person of known Abilities and Integrity was chosen by a general Suffrage of that Church by this good Bishop Arius was Excommunicated for opposing the Divinity of Christ and teaching that he was not from Eternity nor did partake of the Substance of the Father being created in time and was indeed more excellent than other Creatures but not equal with the Father He challenged to dispute these his heretical Opinions with Alexander and a time and place was appointed but as Arius was come to the place an extream pain in his Bowels seiz'd on him and going aside to ease himself his very Bowels fell from him But his Name and Heresie survived in another Arius or as History stiles him Arianus homo potius quam Arius who opposed Athanasius in the Council of Nice but upon a full discussion of the Arian Doctrines by that Council his Heresie was condemned the Books written for it were burnt and an Edict set forth by Constantine threatning Death to such as should conceal any of their Books Now how long this Heresie prevailed how many Catholick Bishops were banisht and murthered for opposing it how it spread like a Gangreen through all the Members of the Church as you have set forth in your History of Bishops is mostly true but your imputing those Confusions to the Catholick Bishops who were the Sufferers in all that time being the defensive Party I am bold to say is false for under the Arian Schism and by such as took part with them as the Donatists Nestorians Eutychians Macedonians Acephalites Monothelites who often made havock of one another and all united to distress the true Bishops all those Mischiefs which you mention in this Letter and more largely in your Hist of Bishops were put in Execution for 140 years together i.e. from the days of Constantine to the days of Constantius nec dum finitus Orestes Mr. Baxter Were it not for entering on an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you Who that Juncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King Answ They were such as the Westminster Assembly that dispersed their Members into the Country to animate the People to ingage in the War against the King and with Mr. Baxter assisted in carrying on the War from the beginning to the end and drew many thousands to ingage in that War Those that incouraged the Rabble of London to go to Westminster and demand Justice of him in such