vex'd our Church ever since the reign of Edward the Sixth unto this day Only if there might be something pick'd out of it towards the Compromising of those differences which I have not from any performance of mine the vanity to imagine it may have use as an Argument a Majori ad Minus their disputes having risen only from that of Creeds ours from the Imposition only of Ceremonies which are of much inferior consideration Faith being necessary but Ceremonies Dispensable Unless our Church should lay the same weight upon them as one did This is the time of her settlement that there is a Church at the end of every Mile that the Soveraign Powers spread their wings to cover and protect her that Kings and Queens are her Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers that she hath stately Cathedrals there be so many arguments now to make Ceremonies Necessary which may all be answered with one Question that they use to ask Children Where are you proud But I should rather hope from the Wisdom and Christianity of the present guides of our Church that they will after an age and more after so long a time almost as those Primitive Bishops I have spoke of yet suffered the Novatian Bishops in every Diocess have mercy on the Nation that hath been upon so slender a matter as the Ceremonies and Liturgy so long so miserably harass'd That they will have mercy upon the King whom they know against his natural inclination his Royal Intention his many Declarations they have induced to more Severities then all the reigns since the Conquest will contain if summ'd up together who may as Constantine among his Private Devotions put up one Collect to the Bishops Euseb. de vitâ Const. 7. 70. Date igitur mihi Dies tranquillos Noctes curarum expertes And it runs thus almost altogether verbatim in that Historian Grant most merciful Bishop and Priest that I may have calm days and nights free from care and molestation that I may live a peaceable life in all Godliness and Holiness for the future by your good agreement which unless you vouchsafe me I shall wast away my Reign in perpetual sadness and vexation For as long as the People of God stands divided by so unjust and pernicious a Contention how can it be that I can have any ease in my own Spirit Open therefore by your good agreement the way to me that I may continue my Expedition towards the East and grant that I may see both you and all the rest of my People having laid aside your animosities rejoycing together that we may all with one voice give lund and glory for the common and good agreement and liberty to God Almighty for ever Amen But if neither the People nor his Majesty enter into their consideration I hope it is no unreasonable request that they will be merciful unto themselves and have some reverence at least for the Naked Truth of History which either in their own times will meet with them or in the next Age overtake them That they who are some of them so old that as Confessors they were the Scars of the former troubles others of them so young that they are free from all the Motives of Revenge and hatred should yet joyn in reviving the former persecutions upon the same pretences yea even themselves in a turbulent military and uncanonical manner execute Laws of their own procuring and depute their inferior Clergy to be the Informers I should rather hope to see not only that Controversie so scandalous abolished but that also upon so good an occasion as the Author of the Naked Truth hath administred them they will inspect their Clergy and cause many things to be corrected which are far more ruinous in the Consequence than the dispensing with a Surplice I shall mention some too confusedly as they occur to my Pen at present reserving much more for better leisure Methinks it might be of great edification that those of them who have ample possessions should be in a good sense Multas inter opes inopes That they would inspect the Canons of the ancient Councils where are many excellent ones for the regulation of the Clergy I saw one looking but among those of the same Council of Nice against any Bishops removing from a less Bishoprick to a greater nor that any of the Inferior Clergy should leave a less living for a fatter That is methinks the most Natural use of General or any Councils to make Canons as it were By-laws for the ordering of their own Society but they ought not to take out much less forge any Patent to invade and prejudice the Community It were good that the greater Church-men relyed more upon themselves and their own direction not building too much upon Stripling Chaplains that men may not suppose the Master as one that has a good Horse or a fleet Hound attributes to himself the vertues of his Creature That they inspect the Morals of the Clergy the Moral Hereticks do the Church more harm than all the Non-conformists can do or can wish it That before they admit men to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles for a Benefice they try whether they know the meaning That they would much recommend to them the reading of the Bible 'T is a very good Book and if a man read it carefully will make him much wiser That they would advise them to keep the Sabbath If there were no Morality in the day yet there is a great deal of Prudence in the observing it That they would instruct those that come for Holy Orders and Livings that it is a terrible Vocation they enter upon but that has indeed the greatest reward That to gain a Soul is beyond all the acquists of Traffick and to Convert an Atheist more glorious than all the Conquests of the Souldier That betaking themselves to this Spiritual Warfare they ought to disintangle from the World. That they do not ride for a Benefice as if it were for a Fortune or a Mistress but there is more in it That they take the Ministry up not as a Trade That they make them understand as well as they can what is the grace of God. That they do not come into the Pulpit too full of Fustian or Logick a good life is a Clergy-mans best Syllogism and the quaintest Oratory and till they out-live 'm they will never get the better of the Fanaticks nor be able to Preach with Demonstration of Spirit or with any effect or Authority That they be lowly minded and no Railers But these things require a greater Time and to enumerate all that is amiss might perhaps be as endless as to number the People nor are they within the ordinary sphere of my Capacity But to the Judicious and Serious Reader to whom I wish any thing I have said may have given no unwelcome entertainment I shall only so far justifie my self that I thought it no less concerned me to vindicate the Laity from the Impositions that the Few would force upon them than others to defend those Impositions on behalf of the Clergy But the Reverend Mr. Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity says The time will come when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of Wit. And I shall conclude I trust in the Almighty that with us Contentions are now at the highest float and that the day will come for what cause is there of Despair when the Passions of former enmity being allaid men shall with ten times redoubled tokens of unfainedly reconciled Love shew themselves each to other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their Enterview in Egypt And upon this condition let my Book also yea my self if it were needful be burnt by the hand of those Enemies to the Peace and Tranquility of the Religion of â—ngland FINIS
Arrian Books to be burned and whoever should be discovered to conceal any of Arrius his Writings to die for it But it fared very well with those who were not such fools as to own his Opinion All they were entertain'd by the Emperor at a magnificent Feast received from his hand rich Presents and were honourably dismist with Letters recommending their great Abilities and performance to the Provinces and enjoining the Nicene Creed to be henceforth observed With that stroke of the Pen Socr. l. 1. c. 6. For what three hundred Bishops have agreed on a thing indeed extraordinary ought not to be otherwise conceiv'd of than as the Decree of God Almighty especially seeing the Holy Ghost did sit upon the Minds of such and so excellent Men and open'd his Divine Will to them So that they went I trow with ample satisfaction and as they could not but take the Emperor for a very civil generous and obliging Gentleman so they thought the better of themselves from that day forward And how budg must they look when they return back to their Diocesses having every one of 'em bin a principal Limn of the Oecumenical Apostolical Catholick Orthodox Council when the Catacheristical Title of the Church and the Clergy were so appropriate to them by custom that the Christian People had relinquished or forgotten their Claim when every Hare that crossed their way homeward was a Schismatick or an Heretick and if their Horse stumbled with one of them he incurr'd an Anathema Well it was that their Journeys lay so many several ways for they were grown so cumbersom and great that the Emperor's High-way was too narrow for any two of them and there could have been no passage without the removal of a Bishop But soon after the Council was over Eusebius the Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis the Bishop of Nice who were already removed both by Banishment and two others put in their places were quickly restor'd upon their Petition wherein they suggested the Cause of their not Signing to have been only because they thought they could not with a safe Conscience subscribe the Anathema against Arrius appearing to them both by his Writings his Discourses and Sermons that they had been Auditors of not to be guilty of those Errors As for Arrius himself the Emperor quickly wrote to him It is now a considerable time since I wrote to your Gravity to come to my Tents that you might enjoy my Countenance so that I can scarce wonder sufficiently why you have so long delayed it therefore now take one of the publick Coaches and make all speed to my Tents that having had experience of my kindness and affection to you you may return into your own Country God preserve you most dear Sir. Arrius hereupon with his Comerade Euxoius comes to Constantine's Army and offers him a Petition with a Confession of Faith that would have pass'd very well before the Nicene Council and now satisfied the Emperor Socr. l. 1. c. 19 20. insomuch that he writ to Athanasius now Bishop of Alexandria to receive him into the Church but Athanasius was of better mettle than so and absolutely refused it Upon this Constantine writ him another threatning Letter When you have understood hereby my Pleasure see that you afford free entrance into the Church to all that desire it for if I shall understand that any who desires to be admitted into the Church should be either hindred or forbidden by you I will send some one of my Servants to remove you from your Degree and place another in your stead Yet Athanasius stood it out still tho other Churches received him into Communion and the Heretick Novatus could not have bin more unrelenting to lapsed Christians than he was to Arrius But this joined with other Crimes which were laid to Athanasius his Charge at the Council of Tyre though I suppose indeed they were forged made Athanasius glad to fly for it and remain the first time in Exile Upon this whole Matter it is my impartial Opinion that Arrius or whosoever else were guilty of teaching and publishing those Errors whereof he was accused deserved the utmost Severity which consists with the Christian Religion And so willing I have been to think well of Athanasius and ill of the other that I have on purpose avoided the reading as I do the naming of a Book that I have heard tells the story quite otherwise and have only made use of the current Historians of those Times who all of them tell it against the Arrians Only I will confess that as in reading a particular History at adventure a Man finds himself inclinable to favour the weaker Party especially if the Conqueror appear insolent so have I been affected in reading these Authors which does but resemble the reasonable pity that men ordinarily have too for those who though for an erroneous Conscience suffer under a Christian Magistrate And as soon as I come to Constantius I shall for that reason change my compassion and be doubly engaged on the Orthodox party But as to the whole matter of the Council of Nice I must crave liberty to say that from one end to the other though the best of the kind it seems to me to have been a pitiful humane business attended with all the ill circumstances of other wordly affairs conducted by a spirit of ambition and contention the first and so the greatest oecumenical blow that by Christians was given to Christianity And it is not from any sharpness of humor that I discourse thus freely of Things and Persons much less of Orders of men otherwise venerable but that where ought is extolled beyond reason and to the prejudice of Religion it is necessary to depreciate it by true proportion It is not their censure of Arrianism or the declaring of their Opinion in a controverted point to the best of their understanding wherein to the smalness of mine they appear to have light upon the Truth had they likewise upon the measure that could have moved me to tell so long story or bring my self within the danger and aim of any captious Reader speaking thus with great liberty of mind but little concern for any prejudice I may receive of things that are by some Men idolized But it is their Imposition of a new Article or Creed upon the Christian world not being contained in express words of Scripture to be believed with Divine Faith under Spiritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Priviledges of Religion and their making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding Ages for most cruel Persecutions that only could animate me In digging thus for a new deduction they undermined the fabrick of Christianity to frame a particular Doctrine they departed from the general Rule of their Religion and for their curiosity about an Article concerning Christ they violated our Saviour's first Institution of a Church not subject to any Addition in matters of Faith nor liable to Compulsion either in Belief
are concerned The Soul is too precious to be let out at interest upon any humane security that does or may fail but it is only safe when under God's custody in its own Cabinet But it was a General Council A special General indeed if you consider the proportion of three hundred and eighteen to the Body of the Christian Clergy but much more to all Christian Man-kind But it was a General Free Council of Bishops I do not think it possible for any Council to be free that is composed out of Bishops and where they only have the Decisive Voices Nor that a Free Council that takes away Christian Liberty But that as it was founded upon Usurpation so it terminated in Imposition But 't is meant that it was Free from all external Impulsion I confess that good Meat and Drink and Lodging and Mony in a Man's purse and Coaches and Servants and Horses to attend them did no violence to 'em nor was there any false Article in it And discoursing now with one and then another of 'em in particular and the Emperor telling them this is my opinion I understand it thus and afterwards declaring his mind frequently to them in publick no force neither Ay but there was a shrewd way of persuasion in it And I would be glad to know when ever and which free general Council it was that could properly be called so but was indeed a meer Imperial or Ecclesiastical Machine no free agent but wound up set on going and let down by the direction and hand of the Workman A General Free Council is but a word of Art and can never happen but under a Fifth Monarch and that Monarch too to return from Heaven The Animadverter will not allow the second General Council of Nice to have bin Free because it was overaw'd by an Empress and was guilty of a great fault which no Council at liberty he saith could have committed the Decree for worshipping of Images At this rate a Christian may scuffle however for one point among them and chuse which Council he likes best But in good earnest I do not see but that Constantine might as well at this first Council of Nice have negotiated the Image-worship as to pay that superstitious adoration to the Bishops and that Prostration to their Creeds was an Idolatry more pernicious in the consequence to the Christian Faith then that under which they so lately had suffer'd Persecution Nor can a Council be said to have been at liberty which lay under so great and many obligations But the Holy Ghost was present where there were three hundred and eighteen Bishops and directed them or three hundred Then if I had been of their Council they should have sate at it all their lives lest they should never see him again after they were once risen But it concerned them to settle their Quorum at last by his Dictates otherwise no Bishop could have been absent or gone forth upon any accusation but he let him out again and it behov'd to be very punctual in the Adjournments 'T is a ridiculous conception and as gross as to make him of the same substance with the Council Nor needs there any stronger argument of his absence then their pretence to be actuated by him and in doing such work The Holy Spirit If so many of them when they got together acted like rational men 't was enough in all reason and as much as could be expected But this was one affectation among many others which the Bishops took up so early of the stile priviledges powers and some actions and gestures peculiar and inherent ot the Apostles which they misplaced to their own behoof and usage nay and challenged other things as Apostolical that were directly contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles For so because the Holy Spirit did in an extraordinary manner preside among the Holy Apostles at that Legitimate Council of Ierusalem Acts 15. they although under an ordinary Administration would not go less whatever came on 't nay whereas the Apostles in the drawing up of their Decree dictated to them by the Holy Spirit said therefore no more but thus The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren of c. Forasmuch as c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things that ye abstain from c. from which if ye keep your selves you shall do well Fare ye well This Council denounces every Invention of its own far from the Apostolical modesty and the stile of the Holy Spirit under no less than an Anathema Such was their arrogating to their inferior degrees the stile of Clergy till custom hath so much prevailed that we are at a loss how to speak properly either of the Name or Nature of their Function Whereas the Clergy in the true and Apostolical sense were only those whom they superciliously always call the Laity The word Clerus being never but once used in the New Testament and in that signification and in a very unlucky place too 1 Pet. 5. 3. where he admonishes the Priesthood that they should not lord it or domineer over the Christian People Clerum Domini or the Lord's Inheritance But having usurp'd the Title I confess they did right to assume the Power But to speak of the Priesthood in that stile which they most affect if we consider the nature too of their Function what were the Clergy then but Laymen disguis'd drest up perhaps in another habit Did not St. Paul himself being a Tent-maker rather than be idle or burthensom to his People work of his trade even during his Apostleship to get his living But did not these that they might neglect their holy Vocation seek to compass secular Imploiments and Lay-Offices Were not very many of them whether one respect their Vices or Ignorance as well qualified as any other to be Lay-men Was it not usual as oft as they merited it to restore them as in the case even of the three Bishops to the Lay-communion And whether if they were so peculiar from others did the Imposition of the Bishop's hands or the lifting up the hands of the Laity confer more to that distinction And Constantine notwithstanding his Complement at the burning of the Bishops Papers thought he might make them and unmake them with the same Power as he did his other Lay-Officers But if the inferior Degrees were the Clergy the Bishops would be the Church altho that word in the Scripture-sense is proper only to a Congregation of the Faithful And being by that title the only Men in Ecclesiastical Councils then when they were once assembled they were the Catholick Church and having the Holy Spirit at their Devotion whatsoever Creed they light upon that was the Catholick Faith without the believing of which no Man can be saved By which means there rose thenceforward so constant Persecutions till this day that had not the little invisible