Reformers with one odious Name or other and above all are so very desirous to have it believed that the pretended Church of Rome but real Synagogue of Satan is a true Church of Christ which they are no more able to make out than to prove the Devil to be a true Angel of Light. For instead of being a Catholick Church it is a plain Catholick Apostacy as the Protestation of Archbishop Vsher and the rest of the Irish Bishops Novemb. 1626. does justly term it AN ANSWER TO THE BOOK HAving now done with the Preface before I return an Answer to any part of the Book I shall set down the Substance of it whereby the Reader will be enabled to judg what parts of it do require an Answer The Design of my Book was to shew that the Primitive Christians would have been for a Bill of Exclusion which I proved by shewing how much they were against a Pagan Successor both by their hearty Wishes he had been fore-closed and by their Uneasiness under him when he was Emperor Our Author answers the former of these Proofs by endeavouring to shew that the Empire was not Hereditary which I have already considered in the Preface And as for the other Proof which was the Behaviour of the Christians toward Julian when he was Emperor it is all Matter of Fact and therefore tho our Author wrangles and raises many Cavils about it some of which I shall examine anon yet he cannot disprove one Syllable of it Now this Argument concludes à fortiori thus Would not the Christians have petitioned at least for Julian's Exclusion when he was a Subject seeing they spent so many Prayers and Tears for his Destruction when he was Emperor Would that whole Church which leaped for Joy and triumphed at his untimely and violent Death have scrupled his Exclusion Would they have thought Julian wronged in being barred from succeeding to the Empire who thought themselves wronged and injured in that Constantius did not kill him instead of making him Caesar Which Julian himself represents as the Sence of the City of Antioch The Behaviour of the Christians was so very rough towards Julian that I could not ascribe it wholly to his being a Pagan but shewed that his Illegal Oppression and Tyranny was also the cause why they pursued him with so much Hatred The Substance of our Author's Answer to this is That Julian could not oppress them illegally if he would because it was his Royal Pleasure to have the Christians suffer after this manner and his Will according to Gregory was an unwritten Law and much stronger than the written ones which were not back'd with Power and Authority Yes that is Gregory's Complaint and the very illegal Oppression against which he exclaims That when the Christians were under the Protection of the Publick Laws and Edicts yet they were destroyed by dumb Signs and private Hints and oftentimes upon a meer presumption of the Emperor's Pleasure And whoever will please to read Jacob. Gothofredus his Vlpianus sive de Principe legibus soluto will see how much our Author has perverted and misapplied all the Shreds of Civil Law which he hath made use of upon this occasion In short our Author grants that the Christians were highly provoked against Julian but then he says p. 182. The main Ground of their Displeasure against him was this That he would not formally persecute them nor put them to Death enough As for the word Formally we find that explained p. 133. He put them not to Death formally as Christians but accused and condemned them for other Crimes Now this is one Instance which I gave of his illegal Oppression and Tyranny that being it did not stand with his Conveniences to enact Sanguinary Laws against Christianity he found out ways of putting the Christians to Death upon false and pretended Crimes of Sacrilege and Treason So that tho they died meerly for their Religion yet they had not the Honour of dying for it but suffered under the Character of the greatest Malefactors and both they and their Reputation were murdered at once This indeed was a just Cause of their Displeasure against Julian but I cannot say with our Author that they were displeased at him because he did not put them to Death enough for I thought he had given them their Belly-full of that Does Gregory call him Dragon Murtherer common Cut-Throat or as the Scholiast renders it bloody Devil for this because he did not put them to Death enough Were there no Halters nor Precipices in the Roman Empire but must Heaven and Earth be moved against Julian for this because he would not put them to Death enough I can only say 'T is very much This Discourse about Julian's illegal Oppression of the Christians and their Behaviour thereupon towards him led me to speak of the Duty of Passive Obedience or suffering for our Religion which I asserted to be our Duty only then when the Laws are against our Religion and shewed that Christianity does not oblige us to submit to illegal Violence but to defend our selves against it I found a Necessity for the true stating of this Duty because the Doctrine of Passive Obedience has been so handled of late as to tempt Oppression and Tyranny into the World by pressing it upon Mens Consciences as a necessary Duty that they ought to submit to the most Arbitrary Oppression and illegal destructive Violence I shewed that by this Doctrine in the Case of a Popish Successor which is no impossible Case witness the Expedient at Oxford we should be ready bound hand and foot to invite the Popish Knife it would expose a whole Protestant People and Nation at once and give them but one Neck which a Popish Successor by the Principles of his Religion is bound to cut off In defence of this Doctrine our Author spends the Remainder of his Book to which as being a matter of the greatest Consequence I shall immediately apply my self and consider the Arguments which he has brought for it That I may avoid all Obscurity in an Argument of this weight and importance wherein the Lives of all English Protestants and their Posterity are concerned I shall 1. Shew how far this Author and I are perfectly agreed 2. State the Difference betwixt us We are both agreed 1. That the King's Person is Sacred and inviolable by Law. 2. That inferior Magistrates acting by the King's Authority according to Law may not be resisted And therefore neither the King's Person nor his Authority are any ways included in this Controversy But in the second place it is somewhat more difficult to state the Difference betwixt us for never was there such a Proteus of Passive Doctrine as this is Nevertheless by tracing him carefully quite through this Argument I find his Sence to be this That by the Imperial Laws or Laws of the Prerogative in case the Forces of a Popish and Tyrannical Prince do outrage and murther the
another-guess Man by Jove than any of the Galilaeans or any of the Hebrews before them And so was Ptolemy the Son of Lagus a better Man than any of them And as for all the Ptolemies they did not nurse up their City to that Greatness with the Sayings of Jesus nor render it a well-ordered and flourishing City even to this day with the Doctrine of the hateful Galilaeans And when it fell afterwards into the Hands of the Romans Augustus exprest great Kindness to it for their God Serapis's sake Just as Father Cressy insults when he is got into the Saxon Danish and Norman times And presently after you have a whole Cluster of the Pope's own Arguments Julian would not have them worship Jesus Whom neither they nor their Fathers have seen but the great Sun whom from all Eternity the whole Race of Mankind does see and behold and worship and by worshipping prospers Now here is the utmost of Antiquity Universality Succession Visibility and what not Arguments not worth the stooping to take up and therefore I conceive neither worth fetching from Rome nor carrying into Egypt 4. If his Arguments were unsuccessfull and he could not get Men to apostatize gratis then he wrought upon their Covetousness and Ambition for amongst too many a very bad Religion with Money or Honour to boot is reckoned a great Bargain And in this Field it was that Julian conquered as St. Asterius says What drew those who had been Christians and Communicants to the Worship of Devils Was it not the desire of great Possessions and to be Lords of other Men's Estates who having received Promises from wicked Heathens of being Governours as long as they lived or of having large Pensions out of the King's Treasury presently shifted their Religion like a Garment We have some Instances of these things from former times and our own Age has given us the Experience of others For when that Emperour who of a sudden laid down the Masque of a Christian impudently fell to sacrificing to Devils himself and propounded many Advantages to them that would do so too how many were there who left the Church and ran to the Altars How many catching at the Bait of Honours swallowed the Hook of Apastacy together with him But now they go up and down the Cities as stigmatized Persons hated and pointed at by all Look these are the Betrayers of Christ for a little Money they are put out of the Catalogue of Christians as Judas was out of the number of the Apostles and are as well known by their Denomination from the Apostate as Horses are known by their Brands As St. Gregory's Words are Some he drew with Money others with Dignities others with Promises others with Honours of all sorts which he exposed in all Men's sight not like a King but in a very servile manner Which made that honest Clergy-man Basilius take a great deal of necessary Pains to fortify the Christians against that Temptation by warning them not to part with their Religion upon those wretched Terms When Julian was Emperour says the Historian He went all up and down publickly and openly exhorting the Christians to stick fast to their Religion and not to be defiled with the Sacrifices and Libations of the Heathens and that they should reckon for nothing the Honours which were bestowed by the Emperour declaring that they were but for a Season in respect of the Wages of eternal Destruction Making this his Business he was hated by the Heathens and standing and looking upon them as they publickly sacrificed he fetch'd a deep Groan and prayed that no Christian might ever know by Experience that false Religion Upon this he was apprehended and delivered to the Governour and after several Torments manfully finished his Martyrdom I cannot but observe that both St. Asterius and Gregory make mention of Julian's tempting Men by Promises which was a cheap way of corrupting great Numbers For as the Cardinal advised the Gentleman who told him that he intended him the present of a very fine Horse but he unhappily fell lame by the way Go says his Eminency to such and such naming half a dozen other Cardinals and tell every one of them the very same Story and you may oblige more with your lame Horse than if he had come well to Town It is plain that one single Preferment in this way is capable of engaging a multitude of Expectants O base and low-priz'd Souls in the mean time which once could not be redeemed with Silver and Gold but are now bought with the very chincking of Money in one's hand It is no marvel therefore that immediately after Julian's Death these Men became a publick Scorn and were as vile in all Men's Eyes as Cattel that been sold in a Market and wore their Master's Brand upon them Gregory sufficiently expresses himself against those that had not the Courage and Resolution to hold out in that short and weak Assault of the Devil as he calls Julian's Persecution But they are worse than these says he and more deserve to be prohibited from coming to this Assembly that would not oppose the Times never so little nor them that drew us into a miserable Captivity away from him who ascended up on high and made us happy Captives but of their own accord and needlesly shewed themselves to be wicked and vile neither making the least Resistance nor being offended because of the Word for any Affliction or Trial that was upon them but the Wretches bartered away their Salvation for transitory Profit or Worship or a little Honour A little indeed a snuff of Honour which soon expired and went out in a stink CHAP. V. His choice of Magistrates AND now we might congratulate all the good Christians who had escaped Julian's Snares if he had so done with them but alas this Deliverance only exposed them to new and fiery Trials for those whom he could not catch in his Nets he left to be hunted down by the rage of the People And in order to this he had Magistrates for the purpose Men that would countenance and encourage the People in their Outrages upon the Christians instead of restraining or punishing that illegal Violence The Government of Provinces says Gregory was not put into the hands of the best natur'd and most moderate Men but of the most inhumane And he not only put into office the worst natur'd Heathens who were of a disposition inclined to Cruely but Apostates who never give Quarter and are found by the experience of all Ages to be the fiercest Persecutors The Christians knew this very well in the beginning of Julian's Reign before they felt it For Sozomen tells us The Church was in great fear of Persecution because of Julian's hatred to the Christians and was the more exceedingly afraid because he had formerly been a Christian Now it is very plain that Julian took care to bestow Offices upon those that were like himself
counterfeited in the matter of Religion A Practice so false and odious that we know little of Julian unless we view him a while in his Religious Disguise which is patch'd up of the basest and most mischievous Vices that are in the World. For there is in this practice a mixture of Cowardise and Impudence at once it prostitutes Religion and makes it truckle to a poor worldly Interest and it destroys the foundation of all Belief and Confidence amongst Men. For at this rate Oaths Vows Protestations Appeals to Heaven and such-like the greatest Assurances amongst Men come to nothing This then is Ammianus's Hero That Mighty Man who durst not own his Gods for ten years together but was such a Slave as to fall down and worship the Carpenter's Son that Son of Mary whom he so much vilifies and disdains in his Writings That false Man who worship'd the Eternal Sun by Moon-light and yet in the very face of him went and worship'd the obscure Galilean and turn'd his back upon his own glorious Deity That degenerate Heathen who to gain the favour of the Galileans whom he inwardly scorn'd and hated did that which an honest-hearted Heathen abhorr'd that which Socrates would not do to save his Life but preferr'd Hemlock before it In a word That Man who if he would have bespoke Mens belief as he used to do their attention Hear me to whom the French and Germans before now have hearkned must have said thus Believe me Christians whom no body can believe who can swear by no Gods to whom for many years I have not been false Believe me Christians to whose Prayers I have said many a false Amen whose Sacraments I have turn'd into biting and supping and whose whole Religion I acted as a Part for ten Years together Be you Fools to believe me now and I will give you leave to be wiser and to speak Sentences hereafter and when you have served my Designs you may then say if you please There is no Faith in Man. CHAP. II. His Moderation BEsides the great Gift of dissembling in general Julian had the advantage of furthering his Designs by pretending great Moderation which St. Gregory calls a shew of Gentleness and Theodoret calls his Vizor of Meekness and this he chiefly wore in these two Cases First in pretending to be reconciled to those that had opposed him and in telling the World he could readily forgive I shall make choice of this Instance out of very many As he was sacrificing to Jupiter of a sudden he saw one lying prostrate on the Ground begging to have his Life and Pardon given him And when Julian ask'd who it was Answer was made that it was Theodotus one that belong'd to the Governour of Hierapolis and that waiting upon Constantius at his departure out of that City in an ugly way of flattering him as if for certain he would have the Victory he begg'd just as if he had been crying of the Emperour that he would please to send their City the Head of Julian that ungrateful Rebel in the same manner that he remembred Magnentius's Head was carried about which was on the top of a Pole Which when Julian heard I have heretofore says he heard this Saying of yours reported by many But go your way home secure and free from all fear by the Clemency of your Prince who has resolved in Prudence to lessen the number of his Enemies and out of choice does what he can to encrease his Friends But notwithanding this melting Passage he that shall believe Julian to be the mildest and most merciful Prince that ever lived will be grosly mistaken For when he shewed full as much Gentleness to Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who told him his own very publickly Sozomen neither imputes it to his Vertue nor to his good Nature but represents it as only a Copy of his Countenance and a meer Amusement The Emperor says he making no answer passed it by For he reckoned that hereby he should confirm Heathenism the more having shewed himself so surprizingly meek and patient before a great number of Christians And that he did it out of Design appears further by taking his time to reckon with the old Bishop afterwards 2 dly His Vizor of Meekness went on again when there was any occasion to speak of Differences in Religion For there he breathed nothing but Gentleness and seem'd to have a very tender regard of Mens Consciences He was not for pressing any body against their Inclination in matters of Religion but for leaving all Men in their native Liberty and as free as Thought If any Man would be perswaded to come over to his Religion he was welcome but he would not allow of Compulsion by any means And thus by an Edict he orders his Heathens at Bostra to treat their Galilaean Neighbours telling them that Men ought to be won by Reason and Instructions and not by beating and reviling and corporal Punishments And if the Galilaeans notwithstanding should continue obstinately in their Error he bids them not to be angry at them for it but to look upon them as Objects of Compassion and rather to pity them as lying in a State of Irreligion which is the greatest Calamity in the World. He never speaks better Sense than upon this occasion and when he inveighs against Force and Compulsion he does it with a good Grace And yet all this was no more then Queen Mary's Court Holy-Water to the Men of Suffolk or her compounding afterwards with the Londoners in Guild-Hall for the Liberty of her own Conscience while Gardiner and Bonner were framing quite other Arguments of Conversion than those of Reason and Instruction CHAP. III. His Justice BUt the Reputation which he had for his Temper and Moderation seems to be short of that which he had for Justice to which he was a great Pretender and under the covert of it did infinite Mischief This gave him a fair opportunity of undermining Christianity For who could suspect that he would not do all Men right who had brought Astraea back again from Heaven and took care to administer Justice himself that it might be well done and valued himself mightily upon it And not only the Heathens were always filling Mens Ears with their Praises of him for it but the Donatists too like true Flatterers who use to give Men those Praises which they most willingly hear told him That he was the Person with whom only Justice took place Whereas he plainly turn'd the Sword of Justice into a Backsword for it was very keen towards the Christians but blunt and harmless towards the Heathens For tho the Christians were destroyed in most parts of the Empire yet it was sore against his Will if any of the Heathens suffered for their Outrages upon them He spoke big indeed and threatened the Alexandrians for their barbarous Murder of Bishop George but his Blood was put up For before he concludes his terrible Letter
he tells them That for the sake of some of his Kindred and their God Serapis he still reserves a Brotherly Kindness for them But when the like Barbarities were acted at Gaza upon Eusebius Nestabus and Zeno only for their former Zeal against Heathenism the Description of whose Usage would make a Man's Heart bleed the Historian expresly says That the Emperour did not so much as send a chiding Letter thither but on the other hand turned out the Governour and in great Favour banish'd him instead of putting him to death because he had apprehended some of the Men of Gaza who were said to be Ring-leaders in the Riot and Murders which had been committed and had put them in Prison to abide the Law. For why should they suffer says Julian who had revenged themselves upon a few Galileans for the Injuries which they had often done both them and their Gods. St. Gregory relates this as a well-known and famous passage Who is ignorant how that a certain People having raged against the Christians committed many Murders and threatned a great deal more because the Governour of the Province went the middle way betwixt the Times and the Laws for as he thought he must serve the Times so he had some small reverence for the Laws and therefore having put to Death many of the Christians and punished but few of the Heathens and being accused for this before the Emperor though he pleaded the Laws according to which he was entrusted to govern he had like to have been put to death At last obtaining Favour he was condemned to be banished And how admirable and gracious was this expression of Julian at that time for says the just Judge and no Persecutor of Christians What great matter were it if one Heathen hand had killed ten Galileans Is not this bare-fac'd Cruelty Is not this an Edict of Persecution Surely there never was a greater Juggle of Tyranny in the World nor more odly managed than this of Julian To make no Sanguinary Laws against the Christians because he would not be thought a Persecutor and yet to take care that they should be as effectually destroyed as if all the Laws of the Empire had been against them and after that to lay open the Contrivance and betray his own Plot As Gregory's words are upon a like occasion He could not keep his own wicked Counsel but discovered the Secret for we need no further light to understand what his Justice was than this one Aphorism of it from his own Mouth CHAP. IV His Methods of Conversion JVlian finding the Christian Religion as Constantius had left it in Power and Authority having had an Establishment of well nigh fifty Years under the glorious Emperour Constantine the Great and his Sons and Heathenism being driven into Corners by a great number of Edicts which amongst other things had made it Death to Sacrifice had reason to complain as Secretary Coleman did upon a like occasion that he had a very great Work upon his Hands no less than the Conversion of a whole Empire Only there were two sorts of Men who saved him the Labour and did his Work to his hands First The Volant Squadron that running Camp which immediately wheels about upon the least signal of a Change in Religion Those very forward People who as soon as they knew how Julian stood affected and what he would be at presently took the Hint and were special good Heathens in an Instant and afterwards were immediately as good Christians again at Jovian's Service There are always such Wretches as these in the World who as Themistius excellently says do not worship God but the Purple And as one of our own Historians speaks concerning the same sort of People in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign are so forward to worship the rising Sun that to make sure work of it they will adore the dawning Day 2 dly A sort of simple unthinking and stupid Men who tho they are slower are no less sure than the former They do not indeed anticipate an Alteration in Religion but when it is made they no more scruple the Prince's Religion than they doubt whether his Coin be lawful Money They count it their Duty and their Loyalty to acquiesce and very ill manners to think themselves wiser than their betters concluding that God and the Czar know all Their Conscience is that they ought to be guided by the publick Conscience and they please themselves mightily in believing that if they be misled the fault will lye at their Door who have misled them and that they must answer for it Whereas it is suppposed If a Man out of Complement to the Eyes of his betters should neglect to use his own and run his Head against a Post that he himself would have the worst of it Julian presumed to find this implicit Temper chiefly in the Army who are so used to a blind Obedience that as St. Gregory's words are Some of them know no other Law than the Will of their Prince And accordingly he did find it for many of them presently followed their Leader tho it were to Heathenism and the Worship of Devils But 3 dly Where he could not meet with this Stupidity and Indifferency which makes Men so easy that no Religion comes amiss to them there he used his utmost Endeavour to convert them by Argument and all the Arts of Perswasion For being a zealous Prince he thought it meritorious to engage in the Work himself and not to leave it to I know not whom And this he did partly by way of Discourse and Conference and partly by Writing 1. By Discourse and Conference In this way amongst many others he set upon Caesarius his Treasurer Gregory Naz's Brother and employed a great deal of Sophistry in the Dispute but Caesarius was too hard for him and baffled him and when he had done so proclaimed with a loud and clear Voice That he was a Christian and would be a Christian And this Victory which his Brother thus gained Gregory prefers before Julian's great Power and noble Purple and rich Diadem 2. When he had not the opportunity of personal Conference he conveyed his Arguments by writing In one of his Letters to the Alexandrians he tells them I am ashamed by the Gods that so much as one Man in Alexandria should confess himself a Galilaean For this weighty Reason forsooth because the Hebrew Fathers of the Galilaeans had been Slaves to the Egyptians and the Egyptians themselves had been conquered by the Alexandrians and therefore it would be a stark shame for them after all this to submit themselves in a way of voluntary Slavery to the Galilaeans who as one may say had been their Slaves Slaves I know not what force this Argument may have in Heraldry but I am sure it has none at all in Logick He further tells them That Alexander the Founder of their City was a religious Worshipper of the Gods
For Gregory tells us that Apostacy was the road to Preferment and expresly says that it was the only recommendation to a place in the Government So that if the poor Christians were trampled upon by Heathens they must seek relief at the hands of Renegadoes more implacable and irreconcilable enemies than the others For while there was one Christian left in the World who persevered and was true to his Religion that Man was a standing reproach to their falseness and treachery And thus it has been in later days the Renegates that have gone over to Popery have always been fiercer than others and they are forced to be so in their own defence They must be cruel Papists that they may be believed to be Papists at all CHAP. VI. His different Carriage towards Cities ANother effectual course which Julian took to advance Paganism and to suppress Christianity was by giving Encouragement to those Cities which turned Heathens and by setting all Marks of his Displeasure upon those which were firm to their Religion He often writ to the Common Council of Cities if he understood they were converted to Heathenism bidding them to ask of him what Gifts or Grants they would But he manifestly hated those Cities which continued Christian so that he would neither endure to come at them himself nor receive the Messages of those who were sent to complain of their Grievances For Example when it was expected at that time that the Persians would make an Invasion and the Inhabitants of Nisibis a City upon the Frontiers sent a Message about it because they were Christians and neither opened Temples nor sacrificed he threatend that he neither would give them any Aid nor receive their Message nor come into their unhallowed and accursed City till such time as they would be perswaded to turn Heathens And objecting the like Faults to the Citizens of Constantia he gave away their City to the Men of Gaza For whereas that City was the Sea-port to Gaza and therefore called Majuma Constantine understanding that it had a very great Regard for the Christian Religion advanced it to the Dignity of being a City and called it by the Name of his Son Constantius accounting it an unjust thing that it should be subject or tributary to the Men of Gaza who were bigotted Heathens But as soon as Julian came to the Empire the Men of Gaza commenced their Suit against the Constantians And Julian himself fitting Judg annexed Constantia to the City Gaza tho about two Miles distant from it which being deprived of its former Name is now called the Maritime part of the City Gaza About the same time Cesarea that great and wealthy City and Metropolis of Cappadocia was by Julian struck out of the Catalogue of Cities and deprived of its Denomination from Caesar which it had under Claudius its Original Name being Mazaca For he had formerly born an implacable hatred against the Inhabitants because they were generally Christians and had formerly destroyed the Temples of Jupiter Patron of their City and Apollo Guardian of their Country And because withal the Temple of Fortune which only was left standing in his Reign was overthrown by the Christians he was grievously enraged at the whole City and chid the Heathens that were there very severely tho they were few in number that they did not revenge it and if any Calamity was to have been suffered that they did not undergo it readily for the sake of Fortune Whereupon he ordered all the Goods and Money which belonged to the Churches of Caesarea and those that were in the Confines of it should be discovered by Tortures and brought forth into the midst That they should presently pay three hundred pounds of Gold to the Treasury That all the Clergy should be entred into the Roll of Souldiers which served under the Governour of the Province which is look'd upon as very chargeable and very disgraceful in the Roman Armies And that the multitude of Christians with their Wives and Children should be taxed as they are in Villages And moreover he threatned them and bound it with an Oath that unless they suddenly rebuilt these Temples he would not leave raging and plaguing them and that the Galilaeans should not keep their Heads upon their Shoulders for so in scorn he called the Christians And perhaps he had been as good as his word if he himself had not the sooner come to his end Thus far the Historian It is worth the while to read what Gregory says in a very pleasant way concerning this last Passage As for what Julian did to my Country-men the Caesareans those generous and zealous Christians which were so harassed by him perhaps it is not fit to be mentioned by way of Reproach For he seemed to be justly angry upon Fortunes account who was unfortunate in a fortunate time and so to have proceeded to this Recompence Because one must yield somewhat to Injustice when it is got into Power CHAP. VII His Arts divide the Church JVlian's whole design was to have the Christians ruined but no doubt it would please him best if he could contrive and order the matter so that they should do it themselves and fall by their own Hands and therefore he took all the ways he could think of to embroil them and engage them in a Civil War of Contention among themselves Because in all other things he vexed and afflicted the Church and never meant any thing but Mischief Sozomen is thereby induced to believe that his very calling home the Orthodox Bishops was not out of any Kindness to them but with an intent to revive the Quarrel betwixt the Orthodox and the Arians that in the Scuffle they might both lose their Religion Or else as he adds that he might cast a Reproach upon Constantius for banishing them For Julian took all occasions to blacken both Constantius and Constantine the great and by traducing these who were the happy Founders of the Christian Establishment he laid the Ax to the Root of the Tree and wounded all sorts of Christians at once In his Caesars he represents Constantine in the same manner as the Papists use to do our Henry the Eighth and else-where he wishes his Enemies instead of one Constantius a great many And by the way we owe as little Thanks to them who call themselves Protestants and yet at every turn dare vilifie the blessed Instruments of our Reformation when such a sweet Prince as Edward the Sixth cannot escape their virulent Pens nor the Memory of the glorious Elizabeth from being assaulted with their false and foul-mouth'd Slanders I am sure the Homilies teach them another Lesson and put better words into their Mouths Honour be to God who did put Light in the Heart of his faithful and true Minister of most famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and gave him the Knowledg of his Word and an earnest Affection to seek his Glory and to put away all such
thereby to make them vile that they should never be Captains or Souldiers that so they might be kept in weakness Hitherto the Goods of the Christians were in peace but Julian having thus disarm'd them presently fell to dividing the Spoil He took the Revenues of the Church and applied them to the maintenance of Heathen Priests as having first belong'd to them He took away their Church-Plate for which Gregory calls him Nebuchadnezzar as being too rich for the Son of Mary to be served in By an Edict be sent his Souldiers to plunder their Publick-Stock and to ease them of their Money that they might go the lighter to Heaven as his words were upon a like occasion He levied Money likewise from those that would not sacrifice to supply him in his War against the Persians And this Exaction says Socrates was screwed up upon those that were true Christians for every one paid according to the proportion of his Estate And Socrates tels us moreover That the Christians were opprest very much beyond what the Emperour's Edicts required but though he knew it he did not regard it and when the Christians came to him about it he told them It is your part when you are ill used to bear it for this is the Commandment of your God. As good passive Doctrine as a Man would desire only Julian was fain to be his own Chaplain and to preach it himself After his return from Persia Julian intended to have so straitned the Christians by some other Edicts that they should hardly have breathed for he would have denied them the liberty and freedom of common life He resolved to drive them from all Assemblies Markets Publick-Meetings and even from the Courts of Justice for no Man should make use of these who would not sacrifice upon an Altar which should be there placed Upon this occasion St. Gregory cannot contain himself but breaks forth into an Exclamation That he should offer to bar the Christians from the benefit of the Laws which were intended for all Freemen to enjoy equally and upon equal terms as they do a prospect of Heaven or the light of the Sun or the common Air. CHAP. IX His mingling Heathenism with Laws NOne of Julian's Laws drew Blood unless it were in the forcible and barbarous execution of them nor indeed was it his business to make Sanguinary Laws against the Christians and to destroy them fairly which he might have done with a dash of his Pen and with as much ease as he could speak or write for then he had proclaimed himself a Persecutor and them Martyrs which was an Honour says Gregory which the Gentleman envied the Christians It was therefore more agreeable to his treacherous Malice to do the thing and not to be seen in it and to put the Christians to Death not as Martyrs but as unpitied Malefactors In order to this he twisted Heathenism so artificially with the legal expressions of their Loyalty and Duty that it was impossible to separate them but they must of necessity either offend against the Laws of God or the Laws of the Empire He did this particularly in that famous contrivance of his Pictures which he had so clogg'd with Idolatry in joining the Figures of the Heathen Gods with his own that the poor Christians were reduced to this strait either to rob God or the Emperour of his Honour and either to sin as Idolaters or suffer as Traitors But all the good Christians of that Age determining their Choice to the latter of these two have thereby taught us that our Duty to Man ceases when it becomes inconsistent with our Duty to God and that when our Religion is concern'd we must beg our Temporal Lord's excuse as S. Austin's distinction is Those Christians never valued themselves upon a false and hairbrain'd Loyalty to the prejudice of their Religion but on the other hand they would not render unto Cesar the things which were Cesars when in so doing they must of necessity alienate from God the things which were God's when they found Julian in company with Heathen Gods and when he had inseparably interwoven his own lawful Rights with Idolatry and with the Worship of those false Gods. In this place it will not be improper to mention an other device of his whereby he mingled Heathenism not as before with the Laws of the Empire but with the more rigorous Laws of Nature For as Theoderet tells us he defiled the Fountains that were in Antioch and Daphne with impure Sacrifices that every one who used the Water might take part of the Abomination Afterwards he filled with pollution all things that were to be sold in the Market for the Bread and Meat and Fruits and Herbs and all other things that were to be eaten were sprinkled with Holy-Water They that were called by the name of our Saviour seeing these things groaned indeed and made lamentation detesting what was done but withal they eat of them obeying the Apostle's Law for says he all that is sold in the Shambles eat making no difference for Conscience sake Julian no doubt by this barbarous act intended either to starve the Christians out of their Religion or at least to perplex them and to render their lives uncomfortable For how great an affliction this was to the Christians and how much they laid it to Heart appears by this instance which immediately follows There were two Persons of no mean account in Julian's Army for they bore Shields and were of the Emperour's Lifeguard who being at a Feast did more bitterly bewail the abomination of those things that were done and made use of the admirable expressions of the young Men that behav'd themselves so bravely in Babylon For thou hast delivered us said they to an unrighteous Emperour an Apostate beyond all the Nations of the Earth Some body that sat at the same Table informed against them whereupon Julian presently has these brave Men brought before him and askt them what they had said They taking the Emperour's question for an occasion of speaking freely whetting a Zeal which was praiseworthy said after this manner O King we having been bin bred up in the true Religion and having lived under the commendable Laws of Constantine and his Sons are grieved to see all things now filled with abomination and our meat and drink defiled with accursed Sacrifices We have lamented these things at home and do now bewail them in thy presence This is the only grievance we bave under thy Government The most meek Person and the most a Philosopher for so he was called by those that were like himself laid by his Vizor of Clemency and shewed a bare face of impiety and ordering them to be grievously used he deprived them of this present life or rather he delivered them from those Calamitous times and procured them the Crowns of Conquerours And he fitted an accusation to answer to their punishment for he did
against Bp Bilson who in his Book of the true difference betwixt Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion dedicated to Queen Elizabeth being a Dialogue between Theophilus a Christian and Philander a Jesuite so that a Jesuite in that Age was not thought worthy to be accounted a Christian has several large Discourses which do not at all accord with the Passive Doctrine tho my Answerers have used great force and violence towards him to get him on their side The Author of Jovian particularly p. 229 has strangely wrested him for what the Bishop Physician-like prescribes to the Papists who had the Laws mortally against them Deliverance if you would have obtain it by Prayer and expect it in Peace those be weapons for Christians that Author applies in his old way to those who blessed be God have the Laws on their side and Deliverance by them already And so in the next passage the Bishop speaking of the same Case says The Subject has no refuge against his Soveraign but only to God by Prayer and Patience But this is not the Case of Men who are under the Protection of the Laws which were made on purpose to be a Defence and Refuge against all lawless Oppression whatsoever or else as Chancellour Fortescue says the People would be cruely cheated Afterwards that Author skips over a large Defence of the French Protestants and of Luther's Doctrine concerning which I may say to him in the Bishop's words And this I ween you will hardly refute or convert to your purpose and sets down a Passage which I will supply by adding the words which immediately follow in Bilson Phil. What their Laws permit I know not I am sure in the mean time they resist Theo. And we because we do not exactly know what their Laws permit see no reason to condemn their Doings without hearing their Answer Phil. Think you their Laws permit them to rebel Theo. I busie not my self in other Men's Common-wealths as you do neither will I rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels Cases may fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where the People may plead their Right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion Phil. As when for Example Theo. If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a Forreign Realm or change the form of the Common-wealth from Imperie to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common Consent of Prince and People to execute his own Pleasure in these and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be counted Rebels Phil. You denied that even now when I did urge it Theo. I denied that Bishops had Authority to prescribe Conditions to Kings when they crowned them But I never denied that the People might preserve the Foundation Freedom and Form of their Common-wealth which they foreprised when they first consented to have a King. Lastly Why do they not urge these Homilies against all the Compilers of them and the whole Clergy of England who in several Convocations in Queen Elizabeth's Reign not only maintained in words the Justice of the French Scotch and Dutch Defences which the Protestants of those Countries made for the safeguard of their Lives Liberties and Religion but laid down their Purses to help them and charged themselves deeply with Taxes in consideration of the Queen 's great Charges and Expences in assisting them As you may see in the Preambles of the Clergies Subsidy-Acts in that Reign 5 Eliz. cap. 24. Amongst other Considerations for which they give their Subsidy of six shillings in the pound they have these words And finally pondering the inestimable Charges sustained by your Highness aswell of late days in reducing the Realm of Scotland to Unity and Concord as also in procuring as much as in your Highness lieth by all kind of godly and prudent means the abating of all Hostility and Persecution within the Realm of France practised and used against the Professors of God's holy Gospel and true Religion The first thing in this Passage is the Queen's Assistance of the Scotish Nobility in their Reformation in which the Queen of Scotland resisted them to her power by bringing French Forces into Scotland which is set down at large in our Chronicles The Temporality in their Subsidy-Act call this Assistance The Princely and upright Preservation of the Liberty of the next Realm and Nation of Scotland from imminent Captivity and Desolation The other thing is the godly and prudent means for abating Hostility and Persecution within the Realm of France Now History will inform us that those were the Forces sent under Dudley Earl of Warwick to Newhaven to assist the Hugonots who were then in Arms. We have some modern illuminated Divines who would not stick to call this the abetting of a Rebellion but the whole Bishops and Clergy and amongst them the Compilers of the Homilies call it the use of Godly and Prudent Means to abate Hostility and Persecution practised against the Professors of God's holy Gospel and true Religion for so that Charitable Clergy could find in their hearts to call a parcel of Calvinists who never had a Bishop amongst them whom some in this degenerate Age would sooner unchurch and destroy than aid or assist Again The Clergy grant another Subsidy 35 Eliz. c. 12. in consideration of her Majesty's Charges in the provident and needful Prevention of such intended Attempts as tended to the extirpation of the sincere Profession of the Gospel both here and elsewhere The Temporalties Subsidy-Act at the same time will explain this to us in these Reasons for their Tax Besides the great and perpetual Honour which it hath pleased God to give your Majesty abroad in making you the principal Support of all just and Religious Causes against Usurpers Besides the great Succours in France and Flanders which we do conceive to be most Honourable in regard of the Ancient Leagues the Justice and Equity of their Causes And to the same purpose again the Temporalty 39. Eliz. cap. 27. This Land is become since your Majesties happy Days both a Port and Haven of Refuge for distressed States and Kingdoms and a Rock and Bulwark of Opposition against the Tyrannies and ambitious Attempts of mighty and usurping Potentates Neither are the Clergy in their Subsidy-Act 43 Eliz. cap. 17. at all behind them either with their Money or Acknowledgments For who hath or should have a livelier Sense or better Remembrance of your Majesties Princely Courage and Constancy in advancing and protecting the free Profession of the Gospel within and without your Majesties Dominions than your Clergy From hence I argue That if the French and Dutch Protestants were Rebels in defending themselves against illegal and destructive Violence then the Bishops and Clergy of England quite through Queen Elizabeth's Reign by their assisting of them involved themselves in the same Guilt For it