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A49120
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The history of the Donatists by Thomas Long ...
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing L2971; ESTC R1027
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83,719
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176
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tell you Li. Decret de consuetud c. 4. Immediately after Christ's death all the Presbyters ruled in common but after a while the Apostles caused that Bishops should be created for the appeasing of Schismes If any shall not agree that this is St. Hierome's sense let him compare that passage in his Epistle to Evagrius 85 Quod autem posteà That after this i. in the Apostles age as appears both by what goes before and by what follows concerning St. Mark one was chosen and set over the rest was done for a Remedy against Schisme lest every one drawing a part of the Church to himself should destroy the whole for in the Church of Alexandria from the days of St. Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters choosing one of their number and setting him in a Higher degree called him Bishop and in his Dialogue ad Luciferianos Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes So then St. Hierome's testimony is express for the Antiquity of Bishops for as to the original institution I shall not now discourse that they were in the Apostles days particularly in the Church of Alexandria in St. Mark 's days and in the Church of Corinth ever since the People began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo for the ending of which controversie one was preferred above the rest and the Scholiast tells us on Titus 1. that Apollo was the Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Bishop of Corinth and the same was decreed in all the Christian World That the care of the Church was committed to them and the welfare of the Church depended on their dignity to whom if there were not an eminent and peerless power given by all there would be as many schismes in the Church as there were Priests and lastly that it was a principal duty of theirs though it be now accounted their crime to prevent the growth of schisms in their several Churches And this is that which I have according to my mean capacity endeavour'd in these Papers wherein I have only applyed that gentle Remedy which hath been approved by Ancient and Modern Divines who agree that The means to confute schisme is to reduce it to its first Original for howsoever it comes to pass that factious persons are in love with their own they cannot but abhor the actions of their Progenitors And now Reverend Sir If I have said any thing unworthy of your Name I know that as your judgment will discern it so your candor will pardon it since nothing hath moved me to this attempt but my duty to the Church and my particular esteem of your great Merits who are a chief Ornament of the same for though you have been placed in an eminent station yet that you have rather honour'd that dignity than been dignified by it is the judgment of all that know you and not only the private opinion of Your Humble Servant THO. LONG Exon Febr. 1. 1676 7. THE PREFACE IT hath been sometime known that when divers learned Physicians after all their regular methods of Physick have given over their Patients as desperate a mean Empirick by an easie and gentle application hath effected the Cure And having often considered with my self how fruitless and ineffectual the many excellent Discourses and unanswerable Arguments of such as have opposed the Separation from our Church have been and that the contumacious humor still spreads it self to the infection and ruine of many precious Souls I thought it might be expedient to apply another remedy viz. A true representation of the Opinions and practices of such Schismaticks as have been condemned in the Primitive times of the Church whereby as in a Glass such as are guilty of the present Separation may reflect on their own deformities and the evil consequence of their dividing practices Some Women who have been too well conceited of their beauty when they have unawares beheld in a clear Glass the deforming and destructive effects of a loathsome Disease have been so surprised with the change that is visibly made on their Faces that they have immediately fallen sick and dyed And who knows but when those fanciful persons who are so highly conceited of their purity and tenderness of their Consciences shall be convinced as by a serious reflection on this History of the Donatists they may be what unclean spots and visible defects the Souls and Consciences of such as live in Separation from a well established Church have contracted they may immediately grow sick of their Sins and apply themselves to the mortification of them that their Souls may be saved It is the Opinion of some learned Men that the Cardinal Baronius hath raised more Prejudices against the Reformed Churches by his Annals than Cardinal Bellarmine by all his Arguments And indeed upon supposition that the Relation which he gives of the Primitive Doctrine and Discipline is true the contrary whereof hath been sufficiently evinced by Bishop Jewel and many others he hath done more to prove our Churches guilty both of Heresie and Schism than all the Polemical Divines of the Church of Rome Accordingly when it shall appear by the Authentique Records of the Church of God that those Persons who held the same Opinions and followed the same practices as some in this present Age do were frequently condemned by the best Christian Emperors and Catholick Councils as schismatical and dangerous and upon what small and inconsiderable grounds they have run themselves into such great confusions as have overturned all things Sacred and well setled in Church and State it may be rationally hoped that though the most cogent arguments have not perswaded them â—et such horrible Spectres may affright them from their sullen and unchristian apartment and make them choose to live rather with peaceable and humble Christians in a conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive and present Church than among such turbulent spirits as revive the Opinions and practices of the most dangerous and condemned Schismaticks And it is both a more civil and facile way of insinuating instructions and reproofs to the minds and consciences of such as are averse from plain dealing to teach them by pertinent instances and examples by Historical allusions and wise Apologues such as the Parable of Trees used by Jotham and of the Ewe-Lamb by the Prophet Nathan and this method was familiarly used by our Saviour especially when he would convince the Pharisees as he doth in the Parable of the unthankful Husband-men Luke 21.33 and divers others wherein he proves them to be worse than those who persecuted the Prophets by their malice against the Son of God and v. 45. it is said They perceived that he spake of them In the days of the late Vsurpation The History of Andronicus the unfortunate Politician of Massonello and
THE HISTORY OF THE Donatists By THOMAS LONG B. D. and Prebendary of St. Peter's EXON Mutato Nomine de te Anglia narratur LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1677. To the Reverend GEORGE CARY D. D. AND DEAN of EXETER Reverend Sir ALthough I am no Conjurer yet I suspect I have done enough to raise the spirits of the Donatists which are wont to be very troublesome and that it may exceed my skill to allay them And therefore I have thus seasonably I hope taken Sanctuary under Your Name for I have observed that some consecrated Persons as well as Places are not haunted with such Spectres And though such Apparitions have been very affrighting vexatious to Men of weak judgments wavering minds yet some Persons who have arm'd themselves with constant integrity to God and resolved Loyalty to the King have been least obnoxious to their power and malice as good Souldiers that keep their ranks are not so much exposed to the hazards of War as they whose fears make them sneak from Place to Place And this through God's good providence was Your security in the late Times of Confusion wherein notwithstanding the busie Emissaries of the Prince of Darkness you did not only shine as a bright Example of Christian resolution sound Doctrine and a holy Life but did really influence a great part of your neighbouring Clergy the sense whereof hath obliged me to this publick acknowledgment by which I cannot hope to add to your reputation but to provide for my own quiet against such unjust and unsavory reflections as guilty persons are prone to make from whom I appeal to your more righteous judgment whether I have done them wrong or no. Sure I am I intended them none for I only present them with a Glass wherein if they see their own defects they have no reason to be displeased with the Glass but with those Vices which cause the reflexion Socrates l. 2. c. 15. of the Tripartite History tells us that Constantine to shame the Arians provided by an Edict that they should be called Porphyrians Ut quorum mores imitati sunt eorum nomine perfruantur that they might be known by his Name whose manners they did imitate And a greater than Constantine did the like by the Jews John 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts ye will do Every Man 's publick profession and practices are the plainest characters to teach us what party he is of They who through pride and discontent raise and propagate new Opinions that they may head a Faction and take pet at the preferment of better Men vexing their Governors despising their Authority persecuting their innocent Brethren and fomenting Divisions in a well established Church are as manifestly acted and animated by the spirit of Donatus as if there were a transmigration of Souls Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora gerebat As old Donatus did so do his Race Cast up their Eyes and Hands with down-cast Face In vain therefore do such pretend as with great confidence they do that they are the off-spring of those Primitive Christians who suffered under the Heathen Emperors for they in the worst times obeyed their lawful Governors in all things wherein they might not disobey God and constantly adhered to their Bibles their Bishops and their Brethren accounting all such Traditores i.e. Traytâ—rs as forsook either Such pretences therefore do make odious representations of the Primitive Christians as if they were in their Generation as factious and seditious as the late Donatists in ours And as ill reflexions do they cast on their Christian Governors as if they were very Persecutors But by their fruits ye shall know them for if it be considered how exactly every Scene of that horrid Tragedy which was first acted in the Churches of Africa hath been acted over and if I may so speak over-acted in the Church of England it cannot be denyed that they who destroyed the Church of England and its Defender were the most natural off-spring of those Donatists who so perpetually vexed the good Constantine and made Havock of the Churches of Africa or that the present Sectaries who so tenaciously adhere to the principles and follow the practices of them that brought such confusion on the Land in the former Age are their proper Successors However it is advisedly done by their Apologists to make their Pamphlets swell with the frequent mention of the Indulgence of some of the Emperors to peaceable Christians but pass by the many strict Edicts of the most Christian and pious Emperors against such as withdrew from the Communion of the Catholick Church some of which I have transcribed for their better information at the end of this History and shall only acquaint them here with that success which Sozomen l. 3. c. 11. of the Tripartite History observed to follow on the due execution of them Who speaking of the Laws of Constantine against such as denyed communion with the Church in his days The Emperor saith my Author strictly commanded that their Meeting-places should be taken from them and they not permitted to assemble in private Houses or Churches by reason of which Law I suppose saith Sozomen the Memorial of Heresie was utterly destroy'd for after this Law they could meet neither publickly in the Churches nor secretly being observed and forbidden by the Bishops and Clergy Doubtless those Bishops and Clergymen were no Persecutors they did what was their duty and by a seasonable restraint of Men of corrupt principles preserved the true Christians in peace And certainly the present Bishops would be defective in a special duty of their Function which is to preserve the Flock of Christ in Peace and Unity if they should tolerate such as seek to scatter and make a Prey of them St. Hierome who is thought by some to have been no Friend to that Office doth yet affirm that it was ever since the Apostles days the best Remedy against Schisme I shall entreat your patience while I mention a passage or two of that Father which have been tortured to speak against Episcopacy but do so far commend its usefulness and assert its antiquity and authority as may suffice to silence all its adversaries In his Comment on 1 Titus he saith Antequam Diaboli instinctu c. Before such time as by the instigation of the Devil Factions were made in Religion and the People began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the common Council of Presbyters but afterward when every one accounted those whom he had baptized to be his own and not Christs it was decreed in the whole Christian World that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set over the rest unto whom the care of the Church should belong that the seeds of schisme might be taken away Would you know when this was done and by whom Panormitan will