Opinion of the great merit of Caelibacy was one of the first Superstitions that invaded the Christian Church and was in every Age more busie and forward than any other though I do not find that it could ever obtain the force of Law in the Eastern Church till the Council in Trullo in the year 691 by whom Bishops and no other are forbidden to cohabit with their Wives after Consecration and as that is the first Canon of this kind so is it a flat contradiction to the Apostolical Canon And though the Council endeavour to excuse it yet they do but the more grosly entangle themselves by their own Apology and instead of defending their fault confess it For when they have made the Canon they tell us that they do not intend thereby to contradict the Apostolical Canon when the very making of it is an express contradiction to it And in the very next Canon they condemn the Church of Rome for prohibiting marriage to Priests and Deacons and make good their Decree from this very Canon that equally allows it to all Orders But above all commend me to Gratian upon this Argument who when he has in two whole Chapters recited several Ancient Canons of the Church against this Superstition especially those severe ones of the Council of Gangra and last of all this last mention'd Canon in Trullo in which the marriage of Presbyters and Deacons is expresly warranted he begins his next Chapter with this general Assertion Servanda est ergò continentia ab omnibus in sacris ordinibus constitutis And then proves it by the Decrees of later Popes injoining Caelibacy as a Duty of Piety to all Orders of the Clergy But if they can thus confidently justifie their Innovations out of the Ancients by concluding contrary to their own avowed and express Sense I confess they may make good any Cause though I should think it would be much more adviseable to let fall such a Cause as can be no better way defended Another remarkable Law that was Enacted during this Interval by meer Ecclesiastical Authority was the exclusion of all voluntary Eunuchs from Holy Orders And that was made upon occasion of the Heresie of the Valesians who thought themselves bound to this severity against themselves by too rigid an Interpretation of some passages of our Saviour especially that of St. Matthew's Gospel 19. 12. And the same Canon was afterward renewed in a Synod at Alexandria against Origen upon the same account and after that by the great Council of Nice upon occasion of the fact of Leontius who being a Presbyter and very much delighting in the conversation of a young Virgin by name Eustolia and being upbraided with the scandal of using so much freedom with her to prevent that without losing her Society he made the same attempt upon himself that Origen had done for which he was deposed by the Council though afterwards he was contrary to the Canon or rather in defiance to the Council promoted by the Eusebian Faction with whom he sided to the great See of Antioch But hereby we may see the necessity of a Legislative Power in the Church without which there would be no means to restrain all the wild Conceits and Extravagancies that Superstition can blow into Mens fancies So exorbitant a Principle is it so inconsistent with the Peace and preservation of the Church so absurd so foolish and contrary to the Common Sense of Mankind that nothing ought to be imposed by the Governors of the Church but what is expresly imposed by the Word of God There are many more Examples in this Interval both of the settlement of that Polity in the Church that I have above described and of divers wise and prudent Laws made upon particular Occasions but to avoid being too tedious and yet to do the work effectually I shall confine my self to the Writings of St. Cyprian in whose time the State of the Church was brought to perfection and who I may be bold to say understood it as well as any Writer of the Christian Church either before or after his own time and who has stated the whole matter with the greatest clearness and strength of Reason and reduced it to practice with the most unblameable prudence and wisdom and therefore I shall give a more particular and exact account of his Sense of the Government and Unity of the Catholick Church both for the enlightening of some Mens minds who pretend to be so dull that they cannot understand how it should be govern'd in way of external Polity and for a proof of the exact agreement of the Church of England in its design'd Model of Reformation with this Ancient State of the Christian Church This is made much more easie at this time by the late labour of a very learned Prelate of our own in digesting his Writings that had hitherto lay not a little confused into their due and exact order of time For when we certainly know at what time and upon what occasion every discourse was written it must needs make it much more easie and much more useful then otherwise the discourse could have made it self For that Unity is a very desirable thing is agreed on all hands the only dispute is wherein it consists Some will have it to be only an Union of Faith and Charity others of External Polity so as that all Christians are some way or other United under one Government And these we may subdivide into two Parties Either those that place the Unity of the Catholick Church in a Subjection to one single Monarch Or those that set up an Obligation to a Political Unity among all Churches under several Governments So that though every particular Church or Diocess have Supreme Government within it self as to all things that concern its own State yet it is accountable to the Catholick Church i. e. to all other Churches for the Peace of the whole For though a Church may be at Unity within it self yet if it do any thing injurious to the peace of Government in any other Church it becomes Schismatical to the whole Body of the Catholick Church presuming as much as in it lies to overthrow the Discipline of all other Churches This as I take to be the true State of the Controversie so to be St. Cyprian's sense of it §. 12. And the first Principle that runs through all his Writings and lies at the bottom of all his Notions concerning Church Unity is that there is but one Episcopacy setled in the Church by Divine Appointment distributed among the several Bishops of the Catholique Church every one retaining the whole Power within his own Bishoprick as he expresses it like a Lawyer Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur There is but one Episcopacy of which every one holds his own share with full Title and Possession For the word in solidum is a Law-term denoting a Plenitude of Title so that though an Estate
insolentiae tuae agere vel serò paenitentiam caeperis si Deo Christo â—jus plenissimè satisfeceris communicationis tuae poterimus habere rationem manente tamen apud nos divinae censurae respectu metu This was a singular Severity in so gentle a Person as St. Cyprian who allowed full Restitution to all other Offenders but in this case he does it with an If. And in plain truth the Nature of the Crime deserved it for it is an Eternal Subversion of the Peace of the whole Church if the Pride or the Peevishness of one single Man may be suffer'd to censure and condemn the practice of the whole Catholique Church For though this pique of Pupianus lay only against St. Cyprian yet he being as he tells him in Communion with all the Bishops and Churches through the whole World though the blow were aim'd at him singly it lighted upon all and the whole Church was equally involved in the Censure Which was then thought such a piece of Luciferian pride that it was by him placed next to the unpardonable Sin The passages in St. Cyprian to this purpose are innumerable and there is scarce an Epistle in which he does not expresly declare the Unity of the Catholique Church to lye in the Concord and Agreement of the Episcopal Colledge that was a Succession to the Apostolical between whom the Government of the Church was equally divided yet so as to agree all together in one Catholique Communion This is a thing so easily to be understood that I cannot but stand amazed to find Men of Sense Learning and Ingenuity pretend to be so dull as not to be able to comprehend how the Unity of the Church should be reduced to practice by way of external Policy when all the Lines of it are so plainly traced out in the Universal practice of the Primitive Church and particularly in the Writings of St. Cyprian It were easie to give a much larger account of it by transcribing almost all the Records of the Christian Church the chief Affairs whereof were all along transacted by this way of Epistolary Correspondence And therefore the best way of attaining knowledge in Ecclesiastical matters is not by following set and form'd Histories so much as by consulting particular Epistles in which we have a distinct account from time to time of the true Springs and Motions of all the publique Transactions of the Christian Church § 14. But because this Argument of Unity and Communion by way of external Polity in the Church is become a Controversie among some learned Men of our own Church though what I have already discoursed in general be more then enough or at least as much as is in it self needful to state the Case yet unless I assoil some particular Arguments that are at this time on foot notwithstanding all that I have said I shall leave some Readers under the power of great prejudices and those prejudices being maintain'd by the deserved Reputation of some good and learned Men they are not to be easily removed not otherwise then by particular Confutations The two great Men at first engaged in this Controversie are Mr. Thorndike and Dr. Barrow Men of equal value both for Modesty Learning and Piety Mr. Thorndike is peremptory for the necessity of one United Government in the Catholique Church The Dr. granting it to be a thing very desirable and in some rare cases practicable as when all Christendom was almost confin'd within the Roman Empire cannot conceive any Necessity of it or Obligation to it But with all due Reverence to the memory of so great and so good a Man I must make bold to say That however it comes to pass he answers neither his usual Acuteness or Ingenuity in this performance Probably it might have been an imperfect work and an Essay upon the Argument by way of exercise to himself or if he were serious and the discourse were the result of his own Judgment it will appear when I come to consider his way of discoursing it that he had by no means weighed the matter as he ought that he did not comprehend the Arguments that he undertook to answer that he was not consistent with himself but expresly asserts the Opinion that he endeavours to oppose Of all which unusual inconsistency in so Acute a Man I can give no other Reason then that his great Zeal against the Unity of the Catholique Church by way of Papal Monarchy Transported him so far as to make him forget that obligation to Unity and Communion that lyes upon all Churches under their several distinct Governments But whatever was the ground of his mistake his reasons only concern us and here to proceed Methodically I shall in the first place set down his Adversaries Arguments and his Replies upon them and then his own Arguments with my Answers to them And first he begins the dispute with an intimation of the want of perspicuity in his Adversaries Writings and this I know is a popular Objection and very much in the mouths of some Men who will by no means allow him to be an intelligible Writer though for what reason I cannot imagine unless that it is convenient for themselves that he should not be understood for if once Men were convinced of the true Constitution of any one Church by Divine Authority that would forever destroy all indifferency or pretended moderation between the several different Parties among us And if the Church of England be constituted by Divine Right then all that separate from it are both Heretiques and Schismatiques and all that join with it as the right Church and not meerly as the Church in possession are obliged to declare them so and endeavour to have them cast out of all Ecclesiastical Communion If indeed the difference were only about Rites and Ceremonies there might be some room for good nature but when the contest is about the Essential Constitution of a Christian Church as it was Established by our Saviour and his Apostles those that separate from it nay that endeavour with all their might to destroy it as our present Schismatiques do cannot but incur the utmost displeasure and severity of all honest Men that sincerely love it In such cases as these it is a contradiction to talk of terms of Accommodation And that is the reason why some Men that would keep fair with all Parties are so afraid of the Plea of Divine Right for the Church of England for if that be setled they are thereby obliged and determin'd positively to declare against the Schiâ—â— of all other different Parties And not to do it is to partake of their Sin and in effect to join with them in it for not to be for the true Church is to be against it our Saviour will accept of no such lukewarm and perfidious moderation In short Men that Communicate with the Church of England not as founded upon Divine Right proceed upon no other ground then that it is
the Church at present in Possession so that whatever Party has the luck to get uppermost that is the Church of England and then be it Popery Presbytery or Independendy we are Schismatiques if we separate from it For if there be no Ecclesiastical form of Government settled by Divine Law then none of these can be in themselves unlawful because nothing can be so but as it is against the Law of God for where there is no Law there is no Sin and therefore it is but a very mean piece of Service to the Church of England to assert the Lawfulness of her Constitution for if that be all and if it be not necessary too as establisht by Divine Right so are all other forms then all the difference is that the State has thought good to annex the Ecclesiastical preferments to this way but setting them aside the Separatists are as much the Church of England as our selves and if the State should be pleased to settle all the Emoluments of the Church upon Presbytery or Independency yes or Popery it self then all that is pleaded for the Lawfulness of the present Church of England will be as pleadable against it for the Church Triumphant So fatal and pernicious to the Being of a Christian Church is this Principle that takes away all Divine Right it blows up the very Foundations of the Church that can stand upon no other bottom then the Authority of God and lets Men loose from all other Obligations to Communicate with any Church then meerly those of courtesie and civility for the only reason it can lay upon them is to Communicate with the Church they live in is to do it for convenience and peace sake rather then to be troublesom otherwise they are lefâ— by the Law of God to be of what Church they please or if they please of none at all for if there be none by Divine Law they cannot be obliged to Communicate with any But of the ill Consequences of this fatal Principle I shall give a particular account in the Conclusion of this Design when after I have made good the true State of the Church I shall be able to convince all the different Parties of their Deviations from it and amongst the rest I doubt this Sect of Men will be found the most guilty of any of perfidiousness against the Catholique Church for they disown any such thing in all times and places and that is an offence of a more heinous Nature as well as larger Extent then when committed only against the particular Church of England Though the greatest aggravation of it is That it is taken up precariously without ground or shadow of Reason in defiance to all the Records of the Christian Church and that all its Pleas pervert them with more folly and grossness then the Romanists pretences for Papal Supremacy as will be shewn in due place In the mean time to return to our Learned Author and his complaint of Mr. Thorndike's obscurity that was taken up by him from a vulgar Opinion and that was first started by others chiefly to prevent the force of his Arguments for the Divine Right of Ecclesiastical Power It must be granted that there are some things in his Epilogue to the Church of England that cannot but create some difficulty to the less skilful Reader As first the very careless and uncorrected Impression of it whereby such a multitude of faults have escaped or rather passed through the Press as cannot but very much disturb and perplex the Sense especially when the mistake is committed as it very frequently is in the Particles of Argumentation whereby the plain coherence of the discourse is often lost and inverted both which being added to the obscurity of the stile it self which though it is intelligible enough to an attending Reader yet must be acknowledged somewhat dark and involved as usually happens to over-thoughtful Men and that seems to have been the case of this Learned Man his former Writings upon the very same Subject being much more plain and perspicuous But the thing that most of all puts the ordinary Reader to a â—oss is his frequent and large digressions for being a compleat Master of Ecclesiastical Learning he could not confine himself to his proper Argument but upon every turn runs out into other Subjects And the method of the connexion not appearing the common Reader loses the design of the whole To give an instance or two his chief Arguments for the Unity of the Catholick Church being taken from the Unity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper beside making out his Conclusion he enters into large Discourses concerning the Use and Necessity of Baptism against the Socinians and the presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist and the Sence of the Church about it in all Ages against the Church of Rome and by that time the less diligent Reader has travell'd through these long Digressive Controversies he forgets the first Conclusion of the Unity of the Church from the Unity of right to these two Sacraments in it But if the Reader would distinguish between the direct Course and Tenor of the Discourse it self and these occasional Salleys the whole Method of proceeding would appear plain and perspicuous enough to an ordinary understanding And for the proof of this I shall only refer him to his first Book upon this Argument which was the substance and groundwork of his other larger Treatises And that is his discourse of the Right of the Churches in a Christian state In which keeping close to his Argument he has stated this and all other matters that he tâ—eats of with that clearness and coherence of Reason that whoever will be at the pains to run through that little Book can never complain of any Obscurity in his following Writings Thus in his first Chapter he lays the Foundations of the one Catholick Church upon the right of holding publick Assemblies for the Worship of God by Divine Authority upon which he infers the power of the Keys and from thence the power of granting Baptism which suppose a settled Authority of taking into or casting out of the Society of the Church and unless those that are taken in are taken into the whole Society and those that are cast out are cast out of the same they are of no effect to the purpose to which they are design'd For unless a Man that is baptised in a particular Church have a right of Communicating with the whole Christian Church if he change his Habitation he must leave his Christianity behind him or his right of holding publick Assemblies in the Church And unless a man that is Excommunicate in a particular Church be thereby cast out of Communion with all other Churches it is but changing his Habitation and he that was cut off as a corrupt Member from the Body of Christ shall elude the just Sentence of the Church and not withstanding his Excommunication have as full a right to all Christian Priviledges as if
reprimeremus Audaciam Seeing it was beyond the memory of the People what was transacted almost an hundred years since with the Schismaticks necessity compelled us that producing the matters of Fact at our Conference we should rebuke their strange boldness and immodesty To this purpose Marcellinus a Man eminent both for Wisdom Learning and Piety and the same to whom St. Austin dedicates his Books De Civitate Dei though a Secular Judge is sent into Africa with a Commission to preside at the Conference and that he might do by the Laws and Custom of the Church because the Controversie was not about either a matter of Faith or rule of Discipline but only a matter of Fact Neither had he the Office of a Judge about that so much as an Inquisitor but was by his Commission only to Examine the publick Records and that was all that he undertook and perform'd In March in the year 411. he Summons both Parties to meet at Carthage in the June following and grants to all Donatists that would obey his Summons the free use of their Churches and provides all things necessary or useful for their Journey The whole number of Donatist Bishops in all 159 enter Carthage in a full Body with all the shews of Pomp and Ostentation and this being their full strength at that time it shews how their Party had shrivel'd away under this Emperor's Laws against them For in their Council at Bagaia where the Maximinianists were condemn'd by the other Donatists were present four hundred and sixty Bishops and yet now all their Force cannot make a third part of that number But when they came to Carthage they would not meet in the usual house of Convocation that they call'd the Synagogue of Satan and therefore met in the Gargilian Baths And before they enter'd upon the Conference the Catholicks endeavour to Court them with all manner of Civility and Condescention if by any means to prevail upon them to have some sense of the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church But all in vain they were resolved to persist in their Peevishness and therefore when they came together instead of fair and ingenuous Discourse they only endeavoured to spin out time with trifling and pettifogging Tricks For whereas the Catholiques first propounded for quicker dispatch to separate the particular matter of Fact concerning Caecilian's being Ordain'd by a Traditor from the general matter of Right concerning their present Separation from the Church Because that was only Personal and carried nothing in it that concern'd the cause of the Church it self at so great a distance of time and therefore they would freely grant tho nothing could be more false that Caecilian and Faelix were guilty of all their Indictment But that being granted they affirm'd that it was no sufficient reason for them at that time of the day to separate themselves from the Catholique Church though it had so many years past Communicated with them But the Donatists resolve to insist upon the old Nags-head-story and wholly baulk the matter of Right for here they knew that they could wrangle and amuse the People and this was not only their standing Artifice but as Baldwin observes 't is the last shift of all Schismatiques when they are bafled to throw dirt So Petilian served St. Austin so the Pelagians so the Manichees but he would not be drawn from his Cause by such foolish divertisements and still answer'd them all Quod ad mores nostros pertinet quemadmodum vivamus in promptu est eis cum quibus vivimus nunc de Catholico agitur Dogmate c. As for my Life and Conversation it is known to those with whom I live but our business is about Christian Truth that is the cause not I if you have any thing against me in God's Name Indict me according to Law but otherwise it is a base and helpless shift when you are Convicted by Argument to betake your selves to idle Tales and Slanders for that is the last Machine of all Hereticks And therefore 't is no wonder that the Schismaticks stuck so long at this point for to Persons of that Kidney Calumny is much dearer then their Opinion And it was a long while before Marcellinus with all his Art and Temper could bring them out of this Hold but being at last forced out of it they in the next place wrangle about matters that they pleaded ought to be preliminary to the Conference And first they cavill'd and excepted against the time viz. That the time limited by the Emperour's Summons was past to which cavil they are Answer'd That the Meeting was adjourn'd to the present time by their own Consent Then they except against Marcellinus and the Form of proceeding viz. That Ecclesiastical matters ought not to be determin'd after the manner of the Secular Courts but by the Holy Scriptures To this Marcellinus replies both that he does not take upon himself the Office of a Judge and withal that things should be determin'd by the Rule of Scripture as they desired And beside this the Catholick Bishops satisfie them by exhibiting the Injunctions that they had given to those Bishops that were to manage the Conference that they had taken sufficient care of that matter But then this the Donatists turn'd into a new Cavil that they would not trust their Cause to a few Mens management but would be all Speakers which they knew could not be done in so great a Multitude without turning the whole business into Tumult and Confusion And therefore it is with much ado over-ruled that Seven of each Party should manage the Conference of whom St. Austin and Petilian were the chief of each side But in the next place the Mandate of the Catholicks to their Commissioners being signed by 286 Bishops the Donatists object that there were not so many present and pretend that to encrease the number they had set down false names and therefore require that every Bishop should answer to his own name But all this trifling being at last past through Marcellinus with Hat in hand desires the Company that they would be pleased to take their Seats but the Donatists insolently refuse his Civility grumbling out among themselves that of the Psalmist Odi Ecclesiam Maligâ—antium cum impiis non seâ—â—bo Then the Instrument of the Donatists to their Commissioners is read which consists all of Accusation against the Catholiques both as Traditors and Persecutors and here they are immediately snapt in their own â—nare having subscribed many Names to it of Men that were not in Being and among the rest of one that upon the discovery they now pretended dyed on the way though before they had declared that it was drawn up after they came to Carthage and that was all the Event of the first days Conference that they ensnared themselves in two or three grand Falshoods The second Conference was spent in the same trifles and cavils with the first and so came to
for project that he embraces it with both his hands and all his heart And grows so fond of the new Darling that when his old Friends Basilius and Silvanus and the rest came he refused to hear them and when Basilius thought he might freely discourse with him as he was wont to do he commands him silence at his Peril as a disturber of the Churches Peace Upon this Eustathius takes the confidence to inform the Emperour that those Men were not the Men that he took them to be but were Aëtians and held the Blasphemy of Dissimilitude and this he proves particularly upon Eudoxius of Antioch This turns the Tide of his Fury and puts him into such a Storm that Eudoxius to appease it is forced to throw his Friend Aëtius into it by laying the Book that Eustathius had laid to his own Charge at Aëtius his door Upon this Aëtius is immediately sent for to Court whither he repairs with all joy and speed thinking of nothing but the praise that the Emperour would give him for his subtle knack at disputing and no sooner comes into to the presence but upon the first question greedily owns himself Father of the Brat and upon it is immediately banisht into Phrygia All his Adherents are required either to anathematise his Heresie or follow his Fortune but they chose to quit both their friend and their opinion rather then their Bishopricks But then they are soon quit with the Eusebians for putting the Emperour upon this Test by propounding another for them that they knew would not pass viz. to renounce the words Substance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this immediately takes the Emperour and done it must be out of hand To put this off Silvanus propounds that the Acacians may be made to renounce all the Arian Phrases but they stick at nothing and abjure them all But then their Adversaries must abhor too which refusing stifly to do are thrust into banishment But here the conclusion of all these Contests is very observable for the last words that were spoke by Silvanus in behalf of himself and his Brethren for not renouncing their own words were these If God the Son exist neither from nothing nor from any other substance then he must be of the same substance with the Father And thus after all our tedious and long travel are we just where we were at the beginning for this was the very Argument approved by the Council of Nice for setling the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and now after twenty years contest against it are those very Men that have all along made such stirs about it forced to take it up again and are convinced by so long experience that if they once quit the settled faith there is no putting any stop to the Progress of extravagant Opinions And after this Athanasius notwithstanding all the troubles that they had so unjustly given him and all the ill Names that he had so justly given them owns friendship with them and gives them the Title of Brethren that he says differ from the Catholick Faith not in sense but in words for when they acknowledge the Son to be of the Substance of the Father and not of any other Substance nor a Creature out of nothing but the true Natural and Eternal Son of the Father they are at a very little distance from owning the word consubstantial But the Emperour is so in love with this new Acacian Faith and so eager in pursuit of his old Homoousian Enemy that he at last quits the Party that he had all his life-time with so much vehemence abetted to joyn in with these very Men that he had always and even at this very time detested And they having got him into their possession they resolve to make their best bargain of him and so fall to the old work of the Eusebians Plunder and Sequestration tell the Emperour Tales and Stories of their Enemies that had fat Bishopricks and prevail with him to put his own friends out and put themselves in And in the first place they turn Macedonius that Seditious Incendiary out of Constantinople and place Eudoxius of Antioch the very Hugh Peters of that age for prophaneness luxury debauchery in his See And after the same manner that the Eusebians had ejected the Catholiques so did they displace them as Basilius of Ancyra Eustathius of Sebasta Eleusius of Cizicum Dracontius of Pergamus Silvanus of Tarsus Sophronius of Pompeiopolis c. And for their Malâ—ce they stood in lâ—ttle need of forgerâ—es the Eusebians being generally ill men that came into the Church only for ease and preferment no wonder then if they were so easily expell'd by these new Sycophants when they were so obnoxious to the grossest imoralities and such were the crimescharged upon them as they are set down by Sozomen in the place above-cited And thus after all these windings and turnings to get loose from the Nicene Creed is the cause run away by this upstart Sect the very dreggs of Mankind the Acacians being only the Rump of the Eusebians that had supplanted them as they had the Catholiques by out-reaching them in their own craft and wickedness and that is the natural event of all sorts of Sedition that the first Authors of it are at last devoured by their own spawn But these Wretches having got the Power into their hands as Philostorgius himself tells the story they fall out among themselves and endeavour to destroy each other by mutual Accusations The great Triumvirate of the Party Eudoxius Eunomius and Acacius accuse one another Eudoxius falls foul upon Eunomius and Eumonius upon him and Acacius upon both and slanders them to the Emperour supposing that only to accuse without proof wasenough with him as it ever had been to procure their condemnation but he hapning in a grave fit to enquire into the merits of the cause and Acacius having no proof to back his tale was forced to disappear So that the Emperor still finding himself abused by a new pack of Cheats resolves after all his disappointments to try one Council more but whilst that was in consultation Julian rebells and Constantius his heart breaks And thus by his unskilful tampering with the Church he leaves it at last buried and lost in its own confusions for instead of making up the breaches of the Church by this comprehensive and indefinite Creed of the Acacians it was every where broke into tumult and civil War In all Cities the People siding some with the ejected Bishops and some with the Intruders andeach party esteeming the other Hereticks though for what neither knew they set up distinct Communions and that soon fills all places with Noise Dispute and Contention and oftentimes with the fury and outrage of the Rabble But the Acacians having got the mastery they put off all disguise and now publickly declare both for Aâ—tâ—anism and Aâ—ianism For Meletius one of their own party whom they had made Bishop of Antioch
whole Empire was big with a resolution to settle the Peace of the Church as well as the State and once more to quell the Obstinacy of the Shism by the Authority of a General Council But whilst he is designing this great and pious work news is brought him of a worse Flame broke out at Alexdria by means of the Heresy of Arrius that had already engaged not only all Egypt but was blown over into Asia and for the suppression of this dangerous Schism for so at first he look't upon it and therefore only endeavoured to reconcile the Parties he Summons the Great Council of Nice to which among the other Famous Bishops that were present at it Caecilian was summon'd but no Bishops of the Pars Donati as supposing them out of the Communion of the Catholick Church But after this Council we hear little or no thing of the Donatists in this Emperor's Reign himself and the Christian Bishops being wholly employed in quenching that more fatal and pernicious Heresie and how effectually and speedily he rooted up the Heresie it self by the Authority of the Church abetted with the Imperial Power we shall demonstrate in its proper place For though after the Heresie it self was vanquish't by this Council the Hereticks or rather their Friends created him infinite trouble about it by Oblique Arts and for other ends yet this I affirm and shall prove that they durst never own the Heresie it self not only in his time but in all the time of his Son Constantius till the end of his Reign And now here I ought to break off the Story of the Donatists with this Emperors History but their Progress in Schism after his indulgence is such a natural representation of the growth and improvement of Peevishness if once left to its own lâ—berty that I cannot forbear to represent their whola Story at one View especially because it suits a Parallel case that lyes at our own doors so exactly that two Indentures cannot be more like then these two Schisms And the truth of it is all Schisms are but the same for though they are raised about different matters yet they all move in the very same track of Sedition till from meer peevishness they advance to the heighth of Cruelty and end in Rebellion and it is nothing else then the natural method of ill-nature and passion if but suffered to pursue the bent of its own Inclinations And therefore it is no wonder if all Schismaticks howsoever distant in Time Place or Interest follow one another so accurately in the very same steps when they are all acted by one and the same Principle of Nature then it is for Colts to be wild in all Parts of the World if never brought under the Whip and Bridle And that is the greatest benefit of Government to be a curb to the ill-natur'd Passions of Mankind for without that Man would be the most unruly of all Beasts especially the meaner sort of the kind the Rabble that are ever drawn in to be the chief Actors in these Religious Tumults And that is the reason that these are more Cruel and Barbarous then other Seditions because they are carried on by the wildest part of Mankind that have heightned and enflamed their natural Salvageness with the heats of Enthusiasm and Principles of false Religion All which will evidently appear by comparing what our selves have seen and felt with what these wild Schismatiques acted Thirteen hundred years since The actions of both suiting so exactly to each other that had they been the very same Men they could not have acted more like themselves The Twins that were so like that their own Mother could not distinguish them were not more so then these two Schisms though born at such a distance of Time and Place §. IV. The Donatists then having by the Emperours forced Indulgence and the Diversion given him by the Arians gain'd so much ease and quiet as not only to encrease their Schism at home but to carry it into foreign Parts it happened that about the year 331 Donatus Surnamed the Great succeeded Chaplain Majorinus a Man of incredible Pride and Insolence that pretended to familiarity with God and Inspiration from Heaven that could Cant could Lye could Blâ—spheme shift his Face and Pretences with all Turns of Affairs when the Government was in any Streight threaten it with the Numbers of his Party but when his Party was low could write Pleas for Peace and forbearance from the weakness of the Faction and meekness of its Principles And upon any great occasion he had his new Lights and Discoveries from Heaven and when ever he pleased God appear'd to him in Brightness and shewed him the horns in his hands to direct him for serving his Will in that Generation But above all he had an implacable spight against aâ—l Sâ—periours and Governors but most particularly he set himself so accursed was the Envy of his Pride to all that were above him to revile and trample upon the Imperial Majesty it self and to say all the ill that can be said of one Man in one word he was the very I. O. of that Reâ—ellious and Schismatical Age. Under him were spawn'd the Câ—rcumcellians a sort of Levellers or Army Saints whom he stil'd the Captains of the Godly and made them not only his own Life-Guard but an Army against the Power of the Empire These wandred up and down the Country in great Bodys and pretended to reform the Government by Plunder and Robbery and wherever they came set Apprentices free from their Masters and Debtors from their Creditors if they would but join with them to pull down Idolatry and Arbitrary Government And force poor Men to deliver up their Bonds and Indentures to save their Lives And yet all this while they were a very praying People and sought the Lord for direction in all their Villanies And now it is no wonder if Men of these desperate Principles and managed by such a Guide as Donatus proceeded to the heighth both of folly and outrage insomuch that whilst they were in the heat of their Bloód and Zeal they feared no danger out of Ambition of being Martyrs for the cause of God and some of them were so wildly transported as to hang drown and stabb themselves for the Glory of the Lord. And thus for many years they harassed Africa with their Insolence and Cruelty and made the habitable parts of the Country more salvage then the Deserts themselves No Man could dwell in his own House or Travel abroad about his business with any safety but all was exposed to the Rapine of these merciless Robbers Till at length after unspeakable Patience complaint being made by the Catholicks to the Emperor Constans of their deplorable condition he sent two Commissioners Paulus and Macarius with a shew of dividing the Emperors bounty among the poor and distressed and by that means to soften them from that fierceness that they had contracted by this wild Schism to some
sense of Duty towards their Superiors and of Humanity towards their Neighbours The Commissioners coming into Africa consult with the Bishops what course was fitest to be taken But the Party of Donatus Combine one and all to hinder all their endeavours of Concord and dispatch Letters and Messengers into all Parts aforehand forbiding their People to receive any thing of the Emperor's Bounty it being a scandal to the People of God to receive any Alms from Sinners And beside this the Rabble are frighted with flying Reports and Stories that the Commissioners brought along with them the Emperors Images that were to be placed upon the high Altar at the time of Celebrating the Eucharistical Sacrifice that so the People might be drawn in to give Divine Worship to the Imperial Image and so become guilty of Idolatry and from this time the words Pagan and Idolator were the two most common Titles that they bestowed upon the Catholicks Nay farther then all this when the Commissioners acquaint the great Donatus with their Message he replies with his usual scorn and rage Quid est Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ reviles the Emperor himself with sawcy and taunting Language and tells them that they might give themselves if they pleased the pleasure of travelling through the African Provinces but he had taken care to save their Masters Money And another Donatus Bishop of Bagaia when the Commissioners came to his City gathers together Troops of Circumcellians from all Parts perhaps into a Malt-house to Assassinate the Commissioners But they to defend themselves upon the discovery of the Conspiracy send for a Party of the Emperor's Forces some few whereof being upon the Guard abused and affronted by the Fanatick Rabble that were Assembled in great Numbers acquaint their Fellow-Soldiers with the Indignity who do what their Officers could fall upon them with great fury kill some and disperse the rest And now the Donatists had the beloved clamour of all Schismaticks to cry out Persecution only because some of them perish'd in a Tumult of their own raising But it is no matter who began the fray the People are to be incensed against the Catholiques with the Blood of their Party And therefore what Tragical Stories do we ever after from this slight Occasion hear of the Macarian Times as if this one Accident by which they punish'd themselves had exceeded the Cruelty of the Ten Persecutions But in short the Commissioners finding there was no Peace to be settled in Africa whilst Donatus and his Associates remained in it they sent them all into Banishment and so they continued till the time of Julian the Apostate but in the mean time the Ring-leaders being removed out of the way the People were soon at quiet and betook themselves to to their Callings and kept their Parish-Churches And upon this a Council was called by Gratus Arch-Bishop of the Catholique Communion at Carthage to give God thanks for their Deliverance and to take care for the effectual settlement of the Peace of the Church that lasted till the Donatists broke loose under Julian Who designing by all ways to destroy Christianity thought nothing so effectual to that end as to encourage Schisms and Divisions and destroy the Discipline and Unity of the Church and therefore when this Schism was almost extinguisht by the care of Constantine and his Sons he took as much care by granting liberty to the Donatists to blow it up into a greater flame And yet they on the other side were forward enough to prevent the Apostates Zeal by presenting him with a flattering address so that though the other day under Christian Emperours their word was Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ now under an Apostate a mortal and avowed Enemy to Christianity the whole Discipline of the Church is to be submitted to his disposal and sacrificed to his malice and he accordingly finding what eager Zeal they had to disturb the Peace of the Church gives them all the liberty that they can desire and permits them to râ—build their Conventicles at the same time that he opened the Idol Temples and as Optatus upbraids them let them and the Devil loose together And that is another ill quality of all Schismaticks that they care not what becomes of the common Christianity so the Faction thrives This Rescript of Julian to the Donatists is lost but it seems it was so very scandalous that the Emperour Honorius many years after when he was resolved upon their Extirpation caused it to be publisht in all places to let the People see the baseness and perversness of the Faction But they now finding that they had got the upper hand of the Catholiques though by the malice of this Apostate Emperor are not satisfied with their own liberty but fall soul upon the Catholiques and treat them with all manner of outrage and cruelty pull down their Churches murther their Priests at the Altar overthrow the Altars themselves and cast their Idolatrous Eucharist as they call'd it to the Dogs dig the Catholiques out of their Graves with many more outrages that may be seen in Optatus his second and sixth Books And so they go on to keep up the Faction by Tumults and Stories and making challenges of Disputes and then declining them and the like methods of Schism till the death of Donatus about the year 368 and the fifth of Valentinian and Valens To Donatus succeeds Parmenianus who publishes a vehement Book against the Catholicks stuft with the old Fables of Faelix Caecilian and the Macarian Persecution for as they first founded their Schism upon a Lye so they resolv'd to continue it to the last and perhaps by this time they were in good earnest and had lyed so long till they at length believed themselves or at least as Optatus tells him they were utterly Ignorant of the History of the Schism and to that end he wrote his Books to rebuke all their wild Fictions by publick Records and Imperial Rescripts But to what purpose do you tell the Common People of legal Proceedings No Argument so prevalent with them as a blind Story in a Corner tagg'd with dirty Reflections upon the Government And therefore notwithstanding all these checks the Ring-leaders of the Faction Lye on though we hear little of them till the tenth year of the same Reign Anno Domini 373 when Valentinian publisht a Rescript against their Re-baptising which was renewed by Gratian four years after in the year Three hundred Seventy seven §. V. The next news that we hear of them and it is very strange that we heard it no sooner is That they fall out among themselves divide and subdivide into new Factions and Animosities For upon the death of Parmenian they cannot agree upon a Successor some are for Maximianus and some for Primianus and so both being chosen they divide Communions make Decrees and throw out Anathema's against each other and which is most of all disingenuous stir up the Civil Magistrate to put the
but overwhelm'd him forever for now the Apostate becomes Treacherous and Cruel and privately sends his Assassinates to cut his Throat Of this Athanasius being inform'd he immediately takes Boat for Thebais but being close pursued by the Murtherers instead of Landing and Sheltring himself in the Woods as his friends advised him he according to his usual readiness of Wit commands the Boat-man to row back to Alexandria and meeting with the other Boat that pursued him the Captain of the Cut-throats calls to them to know whether they met Athanasius and how far off they might suppose him to be Athanasius himself answers That he knew him very well and that he was hard by bids them row hard and then there could be no doubt but that they must overtake him and so for that time he escapes to Alexandria and there lyes hid till the Storm was over But the Prefects seeing the Emperour 's mighty Zeal and being themselves great Patâ—iots of the Superstition he having displaced all Constantius his Prefects and put in Bigots of his own Religion having so fair an Example from their Master resolve as it always happens in such Cases to outrun his leading Zeal And therefore in all places prosecute the Christians with all kind of Cruelty and Oppression And if they complain'd to the Emperor himself they had no redress but were only flouted with that silly and prophane Sarcasm That suffering was the duty of their Religion And that was his daily practice and much becoming the gravity of an Emperor and a Philosopher too to play such childish and perverse Glosses upon our Saviour's Precepts But he rested not here but when he resolved upon his Persian Expedition he imposes a Tax upon all that refused to Sacrifice to the Gods according to the ability of the Person for the maintenance of the War and if any complain'd of the Exactions of his Officers then his standing Jest was That Poverty was not only their duty but their advantage And when he rob'd the Church of its Treasury he season'd his Sacriledge with this abusive Sarcasm Se Christianos expeditiores faceâ—e ad Regnum Caelorum quia Galilaeus Mâ—gister ipsorum dixerit beatos esse pauperes quoniam talium est regnum Caelorum That he only did it to conveigh the Christians with the more ease to Heaven because the Galilaean their Master declared that blessed are the Poor for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven But besides this he disbands all Officers that refuse to Sacrifice and hereupon Valentinian and Valens that were then great Commanders and afterwards Emperors peaceably laid down their Arms declaring themselves ready to suffer any thing rather then wrong their Consciences or betray their Religion Whereas those who profess't it in the time of Constantine and Constantius only for Worldly Interest and Advantage readily complyed with all his Impositions and among these that famous Weather-cock Ecebolius the Sophist marched in the first rank Before Julian's time he was a Zealous Christian under him a furious Pagan after him a Christian again to that sneaking degree that he would lye bellowing upon the threshold of the Church doors begging all Christians that passed over him to trample upon him as infatuated Salt And thus in short to pass by many more arts of Oppression he pursued the Christians with as vehement Outrage but much more provoking Contempt then any of the old Persecutors Continually breaking Jests not only upon their Religion but their Miseries which is not only to wound a Man but to rub Salt and pour Vinegar upon his Sores a piece of Barbarity that was peculiar to Julian alone And no Man but the greatest Pedant in the World and so was he could have condescended to so mean a piece of malice and revenge And as he for his short Reign out Outraged all his Predecessors in the fury and madness of his Persecution so the Christians resolved to out do their Ancestors in Patience and Passive Obedience under all his abusive Tyranny And though they had the strength and the Law of the Empire on their side yet being Christians they scorn'd to make use of any other Weapons in defence of their Religion than Prayers and Tears But though this is the bravest Example of the Doctrine and Practice of the Passive Obedience of Christians that we have upon Record in all the Annals of the Church yet the World has been of late bless't with a new discovery of I know not what strange undutiful unchristian inhumane and disloyal behaviour towards him as exceeding the salvageness of Cannibals and Barbarians in contempt and insolence treating him with more roughness then a Mid-night Thief or a High-way Robber §. XX. But first if it were true it is a very poor and impertinent Precedent to Warrant the new Christian-duty of our modern Apostates for all Rebel-Christians renounce Christianity with much more dishonour to it then Julian himself ever did of Resistance and Rebellion to Sovereign Princes For what if the Christians at that time had been really guilty of any miscarriages in that kind what objection is that one miscarriage against the constant Doctrine and Tradition of the Christian Church in all Ages This is to be taken from its general practice and sense and not from the irregularities of a few private Persons for it is too hard to expect that all Men should live up to their Principles and that every one that profess't himself a Christian should be free from all misdemeanours against his own Profession That is too great a persection to be required in this life There is no Church but that in Heaven without some miscarriages and faulty Members and therefore it is but a mean and childish undertaking that argues great malice and little wit though it were true to find out in all the Records of the Church one or two instances of old in which the Christians did not behave themselves with that decency as they ought and profess't to owe to their Governors For what if it be true What does that prove but that they were so much Men as sometimes to have fall'n short both of their Duty and Profession What is that against the general and declared Sense of the Church Upon the same terms the Primitive Christians may be loaded with all the Crimes in the World because some that professed Christianity some time or other fell into all but this What then if it were true that the behaviour of some Christians towards the Apostate was not such as became their duty towards their Sovereign what is that to the Sense of the Catholick Church in all Ages before and for many after to the year 1073 Can it reasonably be expected that in so long a Tract of time there should not be one instance of the miscarriage of Christians in this kind and yet this at the best is the case of this wonderful Precedent to overthrow the whole Catholick Doctrine of Passive Obedience But Seditious Persons are fond of any
Pretence and will rather forfeit their Understanding then not gratifie their ill-nature how else could any Man be so transported out of his common Sense from one miscarriage to warrant our imitation of it against the constant sense of the Church for so many Ages And yet with what joy and greediness has this poor trifle been embraced as a new discovery dropt from Heaven and how confident are we that the Primitive Christians were no such softly fools as they have been hitherto represented as to preach and practise that Sheepish Doctrine of Passive Obedience Which only shews how ready some Parties of Men among us are for seizing any pretences for Resistance and Rebellion Otherwise certainly if Men would Judge impartially and without Faction of this mighty work the whole Mystery of it is no more then this that an Industrious Searcher into the Records of the Church has at last found out one instance in which some Christians failed of their Duty to their Prince A great performance this worthy the applause and admiration of this learned Age and therefore to deal civilly with it I care not though I grant the truth of the Assertion but then I must crave leave to let them know that this is the only instance of this kind that hap'ned in Eleven hundred years For that is the thing that I have undertaken to maintain That from the beginning of Christianity down to the time of Pope Gregory the Seventh who was the 159th Pope and succeeded not till the year 1073 no one Christian of the Western Church no not a Pope or taught or put in practice the Doctrine of Resistance to Sovereign Princes or disown'd the duty of Passive Obedience under the worst of Persecutors and after this much good may this little Story of Julian do them For they cannot but see what a mean and foolish design it is to set up one single Tale as a proâ—f of the Sense of the Primitive Christians when it stands all alone and is contrary to the declared Sense of the Catholick Church for so many Ages So that they gain so little advantage to their Cause by this admired Performance that it proves the most unlucky Argument that could have been contrived against it For this is a demonstration to all the World that there is in all the Records of the Church but one Precedent of Christian disrespect or disobedience to persecuting Princes And that is but a single exception to its universal practice and if it be it confesses its own Enormity from it So that methinks Men that design'd to preach up Resistance and Rebellion from the Precedents of the Primitive Christians should rather have taken any other method to abuse the People then by telling them this single Story of Julian For hereby they are brought to understand that they have no more then one Tale for their Cause and that if it were true it is controuled by the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages and that I think is as much as any reasonable Man can desire to shame and bafle the Assertion Especially when it is so evident that Christians before this time were become in a great measure like other Men because when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the darling of Princes all Men would equally embrace it for present Advantage and Preferment And in these circumstances bad Men will be sure to appear as forward in their Zeal as the best Christians and generally to outstrip them in outward Appearance So that if at that time there had been any Christians found guilty of disloyalty towards their Prince what wonder is it when such Numbers came into the Church not for any love of the Religion but for other ends and designs of their own And such Men were as effectually loose from all the Obligations of Christianity as if they had never own'd it And therefore the true Sense of Christians ought not to be taken from their practice after it had been the thriving Religion for then it was made a Trade but from their Professions in such times when they had no other Motive to embrace it but it self for then it is certain that all that did so were in good earnest It being then so evident that the Christians through all Ages down to Constantine profess't and practiced the duty of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience to all Princes without reserves and exceptions as an indispensible Law of their Religion that is a clear full and unanswerable declaration of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter however any might fall into a contrary behaviour in times of ease and prosperity For then it is impossible but that there would be many in the Church that were not of it as we have shewn above from the complaint of Eusebius and others how the Credulity of Constantine was abused by pretended Converts to the great dishonour of his Government and Oppression of his People And yet I think no Man could think it reasonable to upbraid Christianity with their Scandals and if Julian found multitudes of such Men in the Church when he came to the Empire what wonder would it be if Men that were in reality no Christians made any unchristian Attempts against him So that granting our Apostates the truth of their Plea from the behaviour of Christians towards Julian this one thing utterly barrs their Conclusion that this was the avowed practice of Christians at that time when at the time that he came to the Empire there were as many in the Church that were not as that were Christians But because it is to be supposed that the Counterfeits fell off with the Apostate I will allow the Plea that if the Christians who persevered in the Faith committed any of those disloyal and Seditious pranks that the Apostates charge upon them that then the blame shall lye at the Church door And yet so as not to make a Precedent for imitation because it is a single Enormity both from the plain Laws of the Religion and the universal Practice of all its Professors and after that it is a very impertinent way of arguing to draw any Conclusion from such an Example And yet secondly as impertinent as it is it is much more false for there is not any one instance of any one Christian in all his Reign that ever made any resistance to any one of his Commands And then whatever they did beside to affront him that is nothing to warrant the practice of Resistance and shews that in whatsoever hatred and contempt they held his Person yet notwithstanding that they thought themselves bound in duty to an entire Submission to his Government And therefore of their ill manners and uncourtly behaviour towards him I shall discourse by it self because that concerns not the Argument of Resistance and shall at present only shew that they were so far from putting any such design in practice that they all expresly disclaimed and defied it as utterly inconsistent with the