of the Primitive Church where we shall find the whole matter so fairly and so easily accorded that it is next to a miracle how it should ever be made so great a difficulty in these later times But it hapned in this as it did in most other things at the time of the Reformation that men saw themselves wrapt up they knew not how in woful Errours and Corruptions but did not and indeed as the World then stood could not immediately discover the true original state of the Church as it was at first setled by our Saviour and his Apostles and received into protection by Constantine and the Christian Emperours So that though they had Eye-sight enough and God knows very little would serve their turn to discern the follies and abuses of Rome they were at a loss how to fix the right Reformation and for want of the ancient Records of the Church that lay buried in dust and rubbish at that time could make but slow improvements in it So that before the true state of the Church could be clearly and fully discover'd most of them were setled in some way or other and after any new settlement it is very difficult to make any Alteration and therefore they continue in their first posture to this day But the Church of England at the very first Attempt resolving to reform it self by the Example of the Primitive Church and having the good fortune to retain the Apostolical form of Episcopal Government in subordination to the Royal Power set it self in a right way to Reformation And so as the state of things came to light by degrees brought its work to some competent Perfection For the Reformation of the Church after such an inveterate degeneracy must needs be a work of so great bulk and difficulty that it is an unreasonable thing to expect that it should be finisht at the first stroke So great a design as that must be a work of time and consideration to be reviewed and amended as the Master-Workmen shall find most convenient So as that they who had a Power first to begin it have an inherent right when ever they think fit to take an account of their own Work and if they find any flaws mistakes or defects in it to make them up by an after-care So that there must be a constant Power residing in the Church to enact or abolish Laws as it judges most serviceable to the present state of things And that is truly and properly the Church of England the Governours of it acting under the Allowance of the Sovereign Power by its establisht Laws and Constitutions with a constant power residing in themselves and their Successours to enact new Laws as they shall judge most beneficial to the Edification of the Church And it is a very crude notion of the Church of England as common as it is that it is to be found in its Canons Articles and Constitutions for that is only the Law and dead rule of the Church of England but the Church properly so call'd consists in its living Authority as setled by our Saviour by which these Laws were at first enacted and are or ought to be still executed and may in some cases be alter'd And that is the great difference between the Law and the Authority of the Church that one is alterable and the other is not The Authority of the Church may make new Laws and cancel old ones but that lasts the same for ever So that for men to talk of this or that Church without a particular form of Government setled in it by our Saviour's own Commission is to turn the Christian Church into a Chimaera and imaginary state of Fairies But as for the Church of England according to the design of its Reformation it consists of a National Synod of Bishops together with a select Convocation of Presbyters representing the whole Body of the Clergy in subjection to the Sovereign Power and in communion with the Catholique Church all the World over as far as it can be attain'd And this is contrived so agreeably to the Primitive Platform the Interest of Government the Nature of Christianity that there is little else defective in it then the honesty and the confidence to own it self and put its own Constitution into effectual practice But of that I shall discourse in its proper place §. 9. At present for the practice of the Primitive Churches Government within it self and as it related to the Civil State it must be consider'd in the two Periods before and after the Conversion of the Empire and by comparing the true face and posture of things in these two so different states we shall have an exact description of the Rights of the Church in all estates and conditions whatsoever But most of all of its easy complyance with the Rights of Civil Government in Christian States and of the safest way for Christian Sovereigns to govern and protect the Church within their Dominions without invading its inherent and unalienable Authority And then last of all I shall compare that Royal Supremacy that is acknowledged and asserted in the Church and Realm of England in Causes Ecclesiastical with the sense of the Ancient Church concerning the Authority of Emperours and with the Practice of Christian Princes in the Exercise of this Authority And by shewing their compleat Agreement shall from that Topick distinctly prove that we have in this as well as in other matters attain'd a good degree of Reformation First as for the Period of time before the Conversion of the Roman Empire there are two things to be consider'd first their behaviour towards the Civil Government whilst it supprest and persecuted the Christian Faith Secondly the exercise of their own Authority within themselves From both which it will appear that the Church as a Society founded by Christ challenged a Jurisdiction distinct from and Independant upon the Civil State and that this Jurisdiction was so far from interfering with or abating of the Sovereignty of Princes that it bound them to the strictest Allegiance and Subjection to the most inhumane Persecutors And the Story of this Interval whilst the powers of the Church and the World were separate and indeed as much as it was possible opposite will set before us a much clearer State of the Nature and Extent of the two Jurisdictions then we can have from the Practice of Christian States in which the two Powers concurring in the same Acts of Government it is not altogether so easie to discern their distinct influences but will withal give us the fullest Character of true Christian Loyalty from their practice under the hardest usage and severest persecutions But most of all from their Principles upon which they founded their Obligation to their Practice and when it appears upon what grounds and reasons they submitted to the utmost cruelty of the Civil Government that will prevent the common shift made by all Factious Parties against the Authority of their Example
Grant and Commission And that certainly is as high a Prerogative as any Prince can care to demand to have a Sovereign Power over all the Powers within his own Dominions So that whether they are derived from his Authority or not they shall be as entirely Subject to it as if they had subsisted by no other Charter And that is as high a Supremacy as Mr. Hobbs himself has been pleased to challenge for Sovereign Princes when he took away all Power from the Church to vest it in them for though it is a very gross prophaneness in him to allow no Authority for Religion it self then as it is enjoyn'd and made Law by them yet that Authority that is in the Church by Divine Right is as absolutely Subject to their Dominion as it could have been had it been establisht as Mr. Hobbs contends only by their own Authority And this State of the Controversie if it can be made good I am certain will satisfie all Parties that can claim any share or degree of Government in Church or State but most of all the Supreme Powers to whose Soveraignty all Power whatsoever it is or whencesoever derived is indispensibly Subjected As for the Jurisdiction of the Church as settled by Divine Right and nothing else I have discoursed of that in former Treatises and proved that it is immediately derived from our Saviour himself and settled unalienably by him upon the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops forever so that here I must suppose the Constitution of the Christian Church within it self and all that I am bound to do at present is That supposing its distinct and independent Authority for granted to explain how it accommodates and submits it self to the Civil State and comes under the common obligation of all good Subjects to true Allegiance and Loyalty to the Sovereign Prince §. II. And here the first and chiefest thing to be consider'd is That Christianity supposes the Power of Princes Civil Government being settled in the World from its beginning by the general Providence of God and antecedently to our Saviour's particular Institution And therefore as the first thing that our Saviour openly declared when he enter'd upon his Office was the erection of his own new Kingdom so the next thing that he took care to instruct his Subjects in was that this his Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World So that from thence it is evident that he left the Government of the Kingdoms of this World in the same posture in which they had ever stood be ore he came into it And therefore there could be no alteration much less abatement of the Civil Government any where upon the score of his Authority otherwise the Institution of his Kingdom had been a breach upon the Ancient Rights of those Sovereign Powers in whose Dominions it was erected which was the first thing that our Saviour whilst himself conversed upon Earth was careful to avoid This therefore is to be set down in the first place as the Fundamental Article of his Religion that neither himself nor any of those that he has deputed for the Government of it challenge any Temporal Power to themselves or any exemption from the Authority of those that have it Neither is this to be lookt upon only as a positive duty but it is necessary in it self from the nature and the design of Christianity which was to settle a pure Religion in the World by the strength of its own truth and goodness without any help of worldly power or mixture of worldly interest as I have elsewhere shewn at large from the whole story of its first settlement And therefore agreeable to this great Observation it is very remarkable That our Saviour himself whilst he convers'd upon Earth did not only never challenge any kind of Civil Authority to himself but seiz'd all occasions to defie and disclaim it as absolutely inconsistent with his Commission Thus John 6. 15. When the People supposing him to be that Temporal Messias that they expected would have forced him to take the Kingdom upon himself he immediately withdrew into a Solitude to shift their importunity And Luke 12. 13 14. When one solicited him only to take upon him the Authority of an Arbitrator he perfectly disavows it as if he were solicitous not to give them the least pretence of Objection against him for his intermedling with the Civil Government And yet he might lawfully have done â—t according to the received custom of the Jews at that time for in the Babylonish Captivity to avoid the scandal of Contention before Heathens they referred all their Controversies to the Rabbies and Doctors of the Law and such an one this Jew supposed our Saviour to have been as appears by his giving him their proper Title of Master and whoever refused to stand to their award he was Excommunicated their Society as a scandal to the Jewish Nation And this priviledge of being their own Judges among themselves was granted to them by the Romans and for a long time continued by the Christian Emperors themselves And therefore though our Saviour might have undertaken this Office by the allowance and permission of the Civil Government yet to avoid all suspicions of any such imputation he protests against it as unbecoming his own Office and Person And the case is the very same as to the Woman taken in Adultery Joh. 8. 3. of whom he declares that he had no such Authority as they imagin'd to pass any Sentence upon her according to their Law so that if she were not legally condemn'd before they brought her before him she was at liberty for any such Power that he had to pass Sentence upon her But the most remarkable passage for his disclaiming all Earthly Power is in his Examination before Pontius Pilate Joh. 18. 36. to whom he freely confesses that he is a King but to prevent his jealousie or mistake he both immediately declares that his Kingdom is not of this World * and clearly explains what he means by it For If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be deliver'd to the Jews From which words we understand his evident meaning when he professes that his Kingdom is not of this World that it is not endued with any power of the Sword So that for any of his Officers or Subjects to make any resistance to the Civil Power by the Sword in defence of his Kingdom is to destroy the very nature of itâ— Constitution that consists in this that it is to be govern'd by the power of Truth and is distinguisht from the Kingdoms of this World in that it is a Kingdom without the power of the Sword And therefore for any Officers in it to pretend to any such Power by virtue of any Authority or Commission from him is at oncâ— both to dethrone and renounce his Kingly Power because it is a contradiction to his whole design in the World to have
Priviledges all States that profess Christianity are bound by that profession to settle upon the Church I shall shew in its proper place but whatever they are the Church cannot challenge them by it's Original Charter So that if any Church shall be so presumptuous as to pretend to any such Power which way soever it comes in whether directly or indirectly by vertue of our Saviour's Commission that is not only a Contradiction to the Nature of Christianity but an Atheistical Abuse put upon the whole Design of the Institution But as to pretend to any such Power from our Saviour only over Subjects is no less then Blasphemy against him so to pretend to it over Soveraigns doubles the Blasphemy by adding the Sin of Rebellion to that of Impiety and utterly destroys not only the Being and Constitution of a Christian Church but of all humane Societies So that how many Marks soever there may be of a true Church this alone is an infallible Note of a false one And therefore every Church that refuses to disclaim any Temporal Power over Princes renounces the Christian Faith and forfeits all the Rights and Priviledges of a Christian Church but if it should be so vain as openly to claim any such power it bids open defiance to our Saviour and quits him and his Religion to follow Mahomet So that there is no one thing in the World can so effectually unchurch a Church as its claiming any Temporal Authority to it self especially over Soveraign Powers And this I doubt will light very severely upon the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy viz. That the Pope as Vicar of Christ has a power of deposing Soveraign Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance this they have own'd whenever they durst and put in practice whenever they could and would never be brought upon any Terms to condemn it which Doctrine certainly is the greatest unkindness that they can do themselves and the worst thing that their greatest Enemies could desire to object against them and if any thing can prove his Holiness to be Antichrist this is the thing because it is an utter Subversion of the whole State of Christianity and makes our Saviour a false Christ by making him a Temporal Messias and placing him in the head of an Army to subdue the Princes and Nations of the World into subjection to himself I am sure for this very reason does the Learned Cardinal Baronius make Mahomet the Type of Antichrist because he promoted his Religion over several parts of the World by force of Arms Quod armorum potentia tot provincias nullo fermè negotio per suos posteros ejusdem sectae homines subjugasset He would have done well to have applyed this Censure nearer home and then he would not have justified all the Rebellious Popes in their violencies and outrages that they acted against Soveraign Princes and yet no man has done it with more diligence then himself as I shall prove when I come to consider his Performance Neither will this Charge of Apostacy light only upon the Church of Rome but upon every Church that maintains a right of resistance to Soveraign Powers upon a pretence of Christian Religion whatsoever for that is still to take to themselves such a power against their Prince by our Saviours Authority which is the same direct contradiction to the Nature of the Christian Faith and the same sort of Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetism putting a Scymeter into our Saviours hand and under his pretended conduct waging War against their lawful Soveraign and that is the greatest dishonour that they can bring to their Master or themselves And yet we shall find some other Churches aś much guilty of this Apostacy both in Doctrine and Practice as that of Rome and though Rome and they stand at the greatest distance of Enmity out of Jealousie of one another who should carry the prize yet they both fully agree in this fundamental Antichristian Principle But this Charge will come home in its proper place at present we must take this Article of faith all along with us No Temporal Authority in the Church unless from the grant of the State §. III. But then secondly it must be granted too that the Power of Princes how great soever in Church matters supposes the Spiritual Authority of the Church that was as much settled by our Saviour without any dependency on the Authority of the State as the Authority of the State was settled by the Providence of God before there was any such thing as a Christian Church in the World So that it is undeniably evident from its original Constitution that the Church subsists no more upon the State as to its proper Power then the State upon the Church For as the Christian Church came into the World after the Civil Government of States was entirely settled in it so did the World come into the Church after its Government was as entirely fixed within it self And therefore as Christianity by its coming into the World ought no manner of way to abate the Civil Power of the State so neither when the Powers of the World come into the Church ought they to diminish any thing of that Authority that it enjoyed by Divine Commission before they came into it For they are received into it upon the same terms with all other Proselytes of the Christian Faith that they submit themselves to it as our Soviour's own Institution So that as our first point is That all Sovereign Princes have or ought to have an Imperial Supremacy over all Ecclesiastical Persons and in all Ecclesiastical Causes Our second is That this Supremacy which is the highest Power that can be on Earth is no Ecclesiastical but a Civil Supremacy For beside that it would be a dishonour to degrade a Sovereign Prince to the Priestly Office The Ecclesiastical Power is purely Spiritual and that is a Power that was never challenged by any Prince nor directly given by any Man though it is so by plain and undeniable consequence by all that disown an Inherent Authority in the Church from our Saviour's own Commission but only Mr. Hobbs who as he made the Prince his own Priest made him his own God too Now these two Principles laid together clear up the Nature and Title of the Supremacy of Sovereign Princes That it is none of that Spiritual Power that is lodged in the Church but a Temporal Supremacy over all the Spiritual Power of it within his own Dominions And now if these two Principles that are as certain as Christianity it self were but calmly attended to they would perfectly silence all the clamours of both the extreme Parties in this Controversie Those of the Church of Rome must cease their noise that we make the King a Bishop by acknowledging his Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical Persons when upon this State of the Question such a Supremacy over all things and persons within their Dominions
God had preordained and for the more easie letting of him in and the appointed continuance of him in his Throne there was a special necessity that no such Opinion as this of the lawfulness of resistance whether true or untrue should be taught and believed Whereas now on the contrary that the time of God's preordination and purpose for the downfal of Antichrist drawing near there is a kind of necessity that those truths which have hitherto slept should now be awakened as the necessary means to ruine Antichrist particularly that God should reveal to his faithful Ministers and Servants the just bounds and limits of Authority and Power and the just and full extent of the lawful Liberties of those that live in subjection This is the sum of the new discoveries of John Goodwin in his Book Entituled the Anti-Cavalier And there are divers passages to the same purpose in the Writings of John Owen about the same time who has warranted all the Villanies of Cromwel and his Independants even the King's Murther itself by pretending to new Lights and Revelations from Heaven Particularly That when God is doing great things he gives glorious manifestations of his excellencies to his secret ones So that he that is call'd to serve Providence in high things without some especial discovery of God works in the dark and knows not whither he goes and what he does such an one travels in the Wilderness without a directing Cloud Clear shining from God must be at the bottom of deep labouring with God What is the Reason that so many in our days set their hands to the Plough and look back again Begin to serve Providence in great things but cannot finish Give over in the heat of the day They never had such Revelation of the mind of God upon their Spirits such a discovery of his Excellencies as might serve for a bottom of such undertakings Men must know that if God hath not appear'd to them in brightness and shewn them the horns in his hand hid from others though they think highly of themselves they 'l deny God twice and thrice before the close of the work of this Age. Hence is the suiting of great Light and great work in our days Let new Light be derided whilst men please he will never serve the Will of God in this Generation who sees not beyond the line of foregoing Ages But what is this new Light that was never seen in the World before to this it is fairly answered plainly the peculiar Light of this Generation is that discovery which the Lord hath made to his people of the mystery of Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny By which a Monarchy of some hundred years continuance always affecting and at length wholly degenerating into Tyranny was destroyed pull'd down and swallowed up a great and mighty Potentate that had caused terrour in the Land of the Living and laid his Sword under his head was brought to punishment for Blood as he expresses it in his Thanksgiving for his present Majesties overthrow at Worcester p. 15 where he very familiarly bestows upon him the honourable Titles of a Tyrant full of Revenge a man of Blood a Son of Belial Absalom and Sheba the Son of Bichri And lastly he encourages the Rebels and Traytors the day immediately after his late Majesties Murther with a jacta est Alea i. e. the cast of a Dye thrown by the hand of God himself whose Providence he says must be served in it according to the discovery made of his own unchangeable Will But such pretences as these are such desperate pieces of Villany in themselves so framed to serve any wickedness in the World such rank Blasphemy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government and Society that for any man to make use of them is the very height of Prophaneness and when men are come so far it is in vain to confute them because 't is impossible to object worse things against them then they are ready to own But however they unawares make a fair confession that their own Doctrine and Practice is contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Practice of its Primitive Professors and then we care not whence they receive it for whencesoever it comes it makes them Apostates from the Christian Faith that did not only suppress it but expresly condemn it so that if their new discovery be true there is an end of the Gospel To that height of Prophaneness were these men blown up by their success in Villany that they would rather renounce their Saviour openly before God and the World then quit their Rebellion Though the highest aggravation of it is that after so daring a defiance to the Christian Religion they dare pretend to the highest claims of Gospel Purity But that has ever been the Policy of Enthusiasts to piece out their notorious forfeiture of all Integrity with infinite pride and confidence But thus we see it is aâ—d thus it must be that if men once forsake the Doctrine of the Cross there is no stopping till they come to the Gospel of the Pigeon and the Scymeter And thus having proved the first Proposition the Doctrine and Practice of Submission and Passive Obedience under the severest Cruelties and Perâ—ecutions I now proceed to the second thing to be consider'd in this Interval viz. That notwithstanding this absolute and entire submission to the Civil Powers under all Persecutions they kept up a strict Government and vigorous Discipline within themselves by vertue of their own Authority And that will be a new demonstration from experience and matter of Fact that the highest exercise of Ecclesiastical Power for then it was at the height is so far from interfering with the Civil that it is every way compliant with the lowest state of Subjection to it §. 11. In the first place it is already made evident that our Saviour by his own appointment setled Governours over his Church and that these were the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops through all Ages Now the proper office of all Government is to see to the execution of all Laws already in force and to enact new ones upon particular occasions and emergencies as they shall judge most advantageous to the present state of the Society And this was the work of the Apostles and Primitive Bishops always to promote the Practice of their Masters own Laws among his Subjects and as oft as it was needful to make occasional provisions for the peace and order of the Church Of the former I need say nothing because it is granted and supposed on all hands but of the latter it will be requisite to give a full account because though it is the only means that our Saviour has provided for the Unity of his Church and though by the use of it the Church was preserved in Peace and unity in its best and purest times and lastly though without it there can be no Government in the Church nor any bar to endless
a little observable in that though their Opinions were extreme yet they join in the same Schism against the Catholique Church For Novatus and his Party were so loose as to be for Absolution without any due course of Penance and Satisfaction But Novatian was so severe as to be against allowing any Absolution at all and yet in this distance from one another they both piec't together against the Catholique Church that taught and practised the middle way of Absolution upon Penance and Satisfaction But the Opinion of Novatian being the most plausible for that of Novatus was a meer inlet to all Debauchery it soon swallowed up the African Schismatiques into it for Novatus having by his Schism escaped with all his Crimes the Discipline of the Church he cared not what became of his Opinion Schism was his only business and therefore he would quit his Opinion or any thing else to strengthen himself by a stronger Faction And the Faction being now emboldned by their strength and number they signifie the Election of Novatian to the several Provincial Churches and among others to St. Cyprian But he and his Collegues then assembled in Synod having been before-hand certified of the Canonical Election of Cornelius by Synodical Letters like Men wise and stout are so moved with the irregularity of the action that they would not so much as give them Audience but immediately throw them out of all Communion When by their Letters Sed enim cùm ex Epist. 44. literis quas secum ferebant ex eorum Sermone atque asseveratione Novatianum Episcopum factum comperissemus illicitae contra Ecclesiam Catholicam factae Ordinatâ—onis pravitate commoti à CommuÌ„icatione eos nostrâ statim cohibendos esse censuimus and their Discourse we understood that Novatian was made Bishop being provoked by such an irregularity of an Ordination made against the Catholick Church we immediately forbid them our Communion And when they press't that the Cause of Novatian and accusations against Cornelius might be publickly heard the Council peremptorily rejected the motion Gravitati nostrae negavimus Ibid. convenire ut Collegae nostri jam delecti ordinati laudabili multorum sententiâ comprobati ventilandum ultra honorem maledicâ aemulantium voce pateremur We judged it unbecoming our Gravity that we should suffer the honour of our Collegue already chosen and ordain'd and approved by common suffrage to be farther prosecuted by envious and spiteful men And this he discourses with great wisdom Epist. 45. in his next Epistle Honoris enim communis memores c. For being mindful of our common reputation and bearing special regard to the honour and dignity of the Priesthood we refused to hear their Accusations sharpened with bitter Reproaches considering and weighing with our selves that in so great an Assembly of the Brethren in the presence of the Priests of God and before the very Altar they were neither fit to be read nor to be heard Neither are things to be rashly and easily made publick that may cause scandal in t he Hearers and raise an ill Opinion of their Brethren who live at a great distance off too great to clear their own innocence And now having rejected the Schismaticks with so much contempt and dishonour St. Cyprian writes to the Confessors who had given reputation to the Schism and Scandal to the Church and very severely schools them for their disorderly Epist. 56. Seditious behaviour Gravat enim me atque contristat c. It grieves and troubles me it pierces my very heart with unspeakable sorrow when I found that you even you against all Ecclesiastical Constitution against the Law of the Gospel against the Unity of the Catholick Church had consented to the Creation of another Bishop i. e. to erect another Church to tear asunder the Members of Christ to divide the very Soul and Body of the Lords Flock And so goes on pathetically to exhort them that as they would not lose the honour and reward of their past sufferings that they would speedily return into the Unity of the Church and out of that it was in vain for them so much as to pretend to the Confession of Christianity And for their more ample satisfaction sends them his Book de unitate Ecclesiae Where among many other effectual Arguments he represents to them that their Schism is a much more heinous Crime then that committed by the Lapsi and that they had offended God less if they had fallen in Persecution then standing in it to fall into Schism which he tells them is a Crime not to be expiated by Martyrdom it self Though they were slain for the Confession Tales etiam sroccisi in confessione nominis fuerint macula ista nec sanguine abluitur Inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur Essâ— Martyr non potest qui in Ecclesiâ non est of his Name yet their Sin is a blemish not to be washt off by their own blood The sin of Discord is heavy and expiable not to be purged away by Martyrdom it self Neither can he be a Martyr that is out of the Church The Martyrs being alarm'd with these and the like discourses for they received another Letter about the same business and much about the same time from that Wise and Great Man Dyonisius Bishop of Alexandria are awakened to enquire more narrowly into the matter upon which they find that Letters full of Calumnies Epist. 49. and Reproaches of which they were utterly ignorant had been scatter'd and dispersed in all Churches in their name and confess that they had been circumvented by ill men beg forgiveness and acknowledge their great miscarriage in the publique Congregation and submit to Cornelius as their true and only Bishop And that immediately broke the Schism and scatter'd the Schismaticks Hic enim quosdam fratrès nostros c. Epist. 51. For this was the thing says St. Cyprian that seduced some with us that they followed the Communion of Confessors which strong prejudice being removed they are able to see the Light and understand that the Peace and Unity of the Church ought not to be broke and divided neither will they be so easily perverted by every furious Schismatick for the time to come when they are now convinced by experience that these brave Soldiers of Christ could not long by all the Arts of Craft and Subtilty be kept out of the Church But if the Reader desire a more compendious Account of all the Scenes and Motions of this Controversy he may meet with it in St. Cyprian's admirable Epistle to Antonianus a Numidian Bishop who not throughly understanding the state of the Resolutions concerning the Lapsi nor the contest between Cornelius and Novatian writes to St. Cyprian for better information about them both Who returns him a full Answer to both but more especially to the whole Tragedy of the Contest between Cornelius and Novatian wherein he proves that
cause to St. Cyprian and by acknowledging a double relation or capacity in every Bishop one toward his own Flock another toward the whole Church and that is all the Political Union we contend for But Seventhly This Political Unity does not accord with the nature of the Gospel because it would bring too much Worldly State and Grandeur into the Church as appears by the Papal Monarch And that is true a Monarchical Unity would naturally bring in a Worldly Kingdom but not such an Unity as consists in the Communion of all Parts together and not in the Subjection of the rest to one part as our Author expresses it or as Mr. Thorndike often repeats it That not the infinite Power of one Church but the Regular Power of all is the mean provided by the Apostles for attaining Unity in the Whole This is the state of the Question between us and therefore all our Authors flourishes about the Papal Tyranny are nothing but flourish because it is so far from being that Catholick Unity that we own that it is the whole design of this work to prove that it is a most execrable and impudent subversion of it The 8th and 9th Arguments proceed upon the same Supposition of a Papal Monarchy The tenth upon its no Necessity against our Authors own confession The 11th and 12th because such an Unity was never in fact attain'd If he means in full perfection no more was ever any Government and therefore it is not to be required in this World but if he means that it was never put in practice so as in good measure to attain its end the whole History of the Church down to the Papal Usurpation contradicts it as appears by the whole Series of this Discourse This is all that this learned Man has alledged upon this Argument and from it the Reader I hope is sufficiently satisfied how little that has to alledge for it self for he was a person of that comprehensive mind that he never omitted any thing pertinent to his design was never in debt to any cause that he undertook nor ever fail'd that but when that fail'd him and therefore when we see so great a man able to say so little in defence of this uncatholick Assertion that is the strongest proof that we can have and perhaps stronger then any we could have had without it that it is utterly indefensible PART II. SECT I. HAving in the former Part of this Discourse set down the practice of the Church both as to the Exercise of its own Jurisdiction within it self and its entire subjection to the Civil Powers whilst it subsisted meerly upon its own Charter without any Assistance or Protection from them We are now arrived at a new state of things as they stood under Christian Emperors And here we shall find that the Government and the Constitution of the Church continued as it had ever been within it self and that the Christians when the Empire was on their side own'd the same kind of Subjection and that upon the same Principles of Duty to the Civil Government that they had ever done in the times of Persecution and when I have made good both these it will make up a compleat Demonstration both of the unalienable Power of the Church within it self and of the Sense of the Catholique Church unanimously condemning all resistance against the Civil Government in any case but most of all in the case of Religion Under Constantine the Great it is not to be doubted but that they were forward enough in their Loyalty and Obedience to his Government for all Men are for the Government when the Government is for them and therefore this part of the Enquiry concerning the Peaceable behaviour of Christians under his Reign is wholly superseded because if they did their Duty they had no motive or temptation not to do it submission to his Government being no less their Interest then their Duty and therefore it was no matter of Praise or Vertue in them if they own'd and honour'd that Power that was their peculiar Deliverance and Protection So that this side of the Controversie I shall altogether wave in this place and only consider the Ecclesiastical State of things under his Government where I once intended to have Exemplified the due Exercise of Regal Supremacy in the Christian Church from his Example First As a Sovereign Prince Secondly As a Christian Sovereign And that First In matters of Faith and Christian Doctrine Secondly In matters of Discipline and Christian Government and here particularly First Of his Power in Summoning Councils as Supreme Governor of a Nâ—tional Church Secondly Of that Obligation that he brings upon himself by becoming a Christian First To abet the Power of the Church with his own Secular Authority Secondly To endow it with a Revenue for the maintenance of the Service of God and those that attend upon it But upon more mature deliberation I thought it much more adviseable to forbear all such Reasonings and Discourses till I had first set down the whole matter of Fact as things stood not only under his Reign but all the Succeeding Emperors where we shall find Precedents enough to make up a Demonstration of all the fore-mentioned Principles But because this is the first Instance of Uniting Church and State into one Body and because this Wise and Prudent Emperor seems to have exerted his Power in both exactly according to the Rules both of Religion and Government I shall the more curiously consider the management of Affairs under his Reign whereby will be fully exemplified how this Union may be reduced to practice without any Diminution of either Power or Confusion of one with another and that will plainly demonstrate wherein consists the Original Rights of the Church in a Christian State and the due Exercise of the Supremacy of Christian Kings over all Ecclesiastical Persons Rights and Powers Now because the Supreme Power in all Government is the Legislative Power and is the thing most disputed in this Controversie I shall shew that he was so far from annexing this Power in the Church to the Imperial Crown that he expresly asserted its inherent Right and Protected it in its Exercise within it self with all his zeal and ability In that whenever he had a mind to have any Ecclesiastical Laws Enacted he never presumed to do it by his own Authority which he ever declared would have been no less Crime then to invade the Power of God himself but always referred the matter to the Bishops in Council and by their Canons he framed his Ecclesiastical Laws but never made any without or against them And that is a full and clear acknowledgement of that antecedent Authority that they enjoyed by our Saviour's appointment when he constituted the Apostles and their Successors Supreme Governors of his Church to the End of the World So that in all Changes and Revolutions of things their Government must remain unalterable and indefeasible and whatever Assistance
intreaty to proceed to Tryal which the Council imputes not only to their knowledge of the defect of their Accusations against others but to the Conscience of their own guilt Seeing great numbers of Persons there present that were ready to testifie of their various Cruelties and tell sad Stories of their Imprisoning Banishing Beating Starving Strangling Persons in Holy Orders only for refusing to Communicate with the Aria◠Hereticks And though the Criminals refused to appear the Witnesses were Examined and they Deposed and both the Emperors written to that their Majesties would be pleased to set all such at liberty that were still under restraint and to order their Officers for the time to come not to use any force or violence against the Clergy for their Faith but leave them first to be tryed by the Ecclesiastical Judicature In the next place the whole Intrigue against Athanasius is re-examined the Stories of Arsenius and Ischiras farther proved by fresh Witnesses and so both himself and the rest of the Deposed and Banish't Bishops are restored and the Intruders thrust not only out of their Sees but out of the Communion of the Christian Church And then in the last place they enact some Rules of Discipline useful and almost necessary for the Present State of the Church as against the practice of Eusebius and other Bishops of the Faction that invade other Mens Bishopricks and though such Offenders were only sent back to their own Sees by the Canon of the Nicene Council this Council is so severe as not only to Depose but Excommunicate them so as not to be capable of being admitted to Lay-Communion even at the hour of death Another Canon they made against the wandring of Bishops and that reach't Ursacius and Valens who left their own Diocesses to carry on the Eusebian Faction in other Provinces A third Canon was That if a Bishop were oppress 't by his Com-provincials he might have leave to make his complaint to the Bishop of Rome who might judge whether he ought to have a new hearing or not and this beside some secret reasons was to relieve the Eastern Bishops from the Oppression of the Eusebians who carried all before them by force and foul dealing Though the Romanists will have it to have been made particularly to justifie Athanasius in his Appeal to Rome but beside that if it were true it would do their Cause no service it is certain that Athanasius made not the Appeal himself but that his Cause was first referr'd thither by the Eusebians and that too with no other design then to remove it as far as they could from their own doors for fear of discovery §. XIII But as vigorously as the Western Bishops proceeded at Sardica the Eastern out-stript them at Philippopolis they first take to themselves the Title of the Council at Sardica they draw up a new Confession of Faith and call it the Sardican Creed in which they Anathematise all the Positions of Arius and only omit the word Consubstantial And as for Athanasius they cunningly load him with the Authority of the Tyrian Council and the Sentence of Constantine upon it Qui omnia ejus flagitia recognoscens suâ illum sententiâ in exilium deportavit Who examining into all his Crimes banish't him by his own Sentence as they blush not to aver as if the abused Emperor had been acquainted with all the juglings of that Council when it was their only care to keep their proceedings altogether in the dark from him But from this they proceed to infer that Athanasius being condemn'd by the Suffrage of so many Bishops and the Judgment of the Emperor it was now but a trick to move for a new Tryal when so many of the Judges Accusers and Witnesses were dead and therefore they must have the old Sentence allowed and ratified before they would act least as they plead They should bring in that prophane Innovation Quam horret vetus consuetudo Ecclesiae ut in concilio Orientales Episcopi quicquid forte statuissent ab Episcopis Occidentalibus refricaretur vice versa That the Ancient Custom of the Church abhors that the Decrees of the Eastern Church should be reversed by the Western and so on the contrary That was the point they would still be at that whatever was done in the Eastern Church should not be submitted to the Judgment of the Western Bishops and then that secured the Authority of the Tyrian Council and as long as that stood firm so did their Cause too But to make short work of it for there are vast numbers of odd casts of disingenuity in their Epistle they Excommunicate Athanasius Paul of Constantinople Julius of Rome Osius Marcellus and all that had any hand in the Absolution of Athanasius and this they signifie in an Encyclical Epistle written in the Name of the Council of Sardica to their friends in all Parts of the World and among many others it is directed to Donatus the Schismatical Bishop of Carthage Gratus the Catholique Bishop of that City with 36 other African Bishops being present at the Council of Sardica and joining with it against the Philippopolitans who therefore think to strengthen their Party by courting the Schismaticks to their side And among other sweet flowers flatter them with their own dear Expression viz. That they durst not join with the Sardican Council Ne proditores fidei Traditoresque Scripturarum dicamur Lest we should be esteemed Traytors of the Faith and Traditors of the Scriptures thereby insinuating an approbation of their Schism from the Catholicks upon that pretence And this took so luckily that the Schismatiques pleaded it in the days of St. Austin to prove that they had ever been in Communion with the Eastern Church But both parties having done the business that they came about especially the Eusebians whose only project it was to shun the Council and make the breach more general with the whole Western Church they break up their Assembly and where-ever they come put to death all that refuse Communion with them particularly they make a great Massacre at Adrianople where they cut off the Bishop's hands and after that his head with innumerable other outrages recited by Athanasius in his Epistle to the Monks But as for the Sardican Council having settled things as well as they could they acquaint both the Emperors with the Issue of their Proceedings and send three Bishops Arm'd with Letters from the Emperor Constans to his Brother Constantius to intercede for the restitution of the banish't Bishops But whilst they attended the Emperor at Antioch Stephen the Eusebian Bishop of that place by his Instruments conveighs a common Strumpet by night stark naked into the Chamber of Euphratas that was the most eminent Man of the Embassy and famous for his great Vertue and Piety but the Woman who expected some debauch't young Gallant for her Companion as soon as she saw the grave old Bishop asleep and altogether ignorant of the matter being
Creatura est filius dei Perfecta fides est Deum de Deo credere Et natum aiebant unigenitum solùm ex Deo Patre Quid est natum certè non factum Nativitas suspicionem auferebat Creaturae In the next place he subjoyns several Anathema's so frankly pronounced at the same time by Valens and his Confederates against all parts of the Arian Heresie that could not but prevent all Jealousie of any design to introduce it But the Council being dismist Valens and his Party insult over the Orthodox Bishops as if they had gain'd their point against the Nicene Council Dimisso Concilio caeperunt postea Valens Ursacius caeteriquenequitiae eorum socii palmas suas jactitare dicentes se filium non Creaturam negasse sed similem caeteris creaturis tum Usiae nomen abolitum est Tunc Nicaenae fidei damnatio conclamata est Ingemuit totus Orbis Arianum se esse miratus est The Council being dissolved Valens and Ursacius and the other Associates of their wickedness spread their Plumes boasting that they had not denyed the Son of God to be a Creature but to be like the other Creatures then was the Name of Substance abolish't then was the overthrow of the Nicene Faith proclaimed then did the whole World groan and admire to see it self become Arian But were they so No so far from that that as soon as the Cheat was discovered they run about like so many mad Men tearing their hair and taking the Sacrament upon it that by suspecting no harm they were merely over-reacht by wicked men and abhorred that ill use that Valens and his Villains had madeof their Condescention and begg'd pardon of the World for their Folly and Easiness Concurrebant Episcopi qui Ariminensibus dolis irretiti sine conscientiâ haeretici ferebantur contestantes corpus domini quicquid in Ecclesiâ sanctum est se nihil mali in suâ â—ide suspicatos Putavimus dicebaâ—t sensum congruere cum verbis nec in Ecclesià Dei ubi simplicitas ubi pura confessio est aliud in corde clausum esse aliud in labiis proferri timuimus Decepit nos bona de malis existimatio non sumus arbitrati sacerdotes Christi adversus Christum pugnare This is their Protestation and how well they made it good we shall see in the next Reign but however evident it is that St. Jerom never intended by this passage as it is vulgarly abused that Arianism had really prevailed over the Orthodox World but on the contrary that the Orthodox World was astonsh't to see it self over-reach't by it And so ended this great Council of Ariminum in meer fraud and violence And that in the management of Church Affairs as long as our Saviour's own settlement of it in the whole Body of Christian Bishops is regarded can never come to any lasting effect though an Ecclesiastical Monarchy is as lyable to corruptions and abuses as any other State or Government and particularly with how much ease and no power but that of the Church it self all these mighty Contrivances were brought to nothing we shall see in the Reign of Julian §. XVII But as ill as the Council of Ariminum concluded that of Seleucia ended worse and came to nothing but bawling tumult and confusion for it consisted of two Parties that fearing one anothers Accusations they both endeavour'd to disturb all Proceedings till that point of enquiring into Mens lives was laid aside and that being obtain'd they proceed to enquire and determine of Faith but as the Council of Arminium consisted of Catholicks and Arians this was made up of Acacians that followed the Blasphemy of Aetius and the old Eusebians that approved all things in the Council of Nice but the word Consubstantial whereas the Acacians defied the Council it self and all its Decrees and must have not only the word Consubstantial but that of Substance too abolisht But to prevent this the Eusebians at the motion of Silvanus set up the Antiochian Creed for the Standard of Orthodoxy and depose all that refuse subscription to it Acacius and his Party on the contrary give in a Libel in which they equally condemn all unscriptural words anathematise their own Doctrine of Dissimilitude that they might the better condemn their Adversaries for that they knew would take with the Emperour to take away the discriminating words of all Parties But when this new Faith was read Sophronius an Eusebian cryes out if we must be making new Faiths every day in a little time we shall have none at all But to that it is replyed by Acacius If you laid aside the Nicene Faith for yours at Antioch why may not we lay aside yours for one more unexceptionable and thus were they caught in their own Snare for not acquiescing in the first determination of the Church and after the infinite turmoil of so many Councils they are now convinced of their own folly But however they proceed on to wrangle so intemperately that Leonas who was appointed by the Emperour to see things fairly managed was so out of all patience that he turn'd them out of doors and bid them go trifle among themselves So both Parties had their ends having escaped each others Accusations and establisht their own Doctrine with the formality of a Council This being done both post to Constantinople to tell their own Story but the Acacians coming first they so prepossess the Emperour with prejudice against his old friends as to engage him on their side against himself and his own opinion They tell him that Basilius and the other Party were stiff and inflexible in their own determinations and would yield nothing for the reconciling of Dissenting Parties nor remove any of the Offensive Words that were the cause of all these Dissentions not so much as that of Dissimilitude now they knew the Design of reconciling to be the Emperour's Darling and the Doctrine of Dissimilitude his particular aversation Upon this he in great haste and fury calls a Council at Constantinople of Fifty Bishops where these crafty men gain more ground for themselves by seeming to promote his great reconciling project in order to which they present him with a Creed wide enough to take in all Parties in which they banish not only the word Substance and Consubstantial but that of Hypostasis and though they held a Dissimilitude in Substance themselves yet to blind him they now dissemble it and by leaving it undetermined they serve his design of comprehension and therefore instead of his own Sirmian Creed That the Son was like the Father in all things they put him off with this general and ambiguous Form That the Son is like the Father in the sense of the Scriptures i. e. as they believed in Will but not in Substance Now this Creed was a meer contrivance to let in Aëtianism of which of all Heresies the Emperour had the greatest abhorrence yet such was his dotage and infatuation to compass his long look't
Religion and Loyalty OR A Demonstration OF The Power of the Christian Church within it Self The Supremacy of Sovereign Powers over it The Duty of Passive Obedience or Non-Resistance to all their Commands Exemplified Out of the Records of the Church and the Empire from the Beginning of Christianity to the End of the Reign of JULIAN By Samuel Parker D. D. Arch-Deacon of CANTERBURY LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three-Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. AN ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY FROM THE Primitive Church SIR THe whole Christian World being both Alarm'd and Amazed at the late Barbarous Conspiracy against the Sacred Lives of Your Majesty and Your Royal Brother And Your Majesty having upon that Occasion been over-whelm'd with numberless Addresses and Protestations of Loyalty from Your dutiful Subjects of the Church of England I thought it not improper or unseasonable to consult the Records of the best and purest times of our Religion for Precedents of this Loyal Practice and after an Accurate Diligent and Impartial Enquiry I dare in their Names declare to Your Majesty and all the Christian World their infinite abhorrence of all Treasonable and Rebellious Attempts against all Sovereign Powers whatsoever as the rankest contradiction to their Christian Faith and the boldest Blasphemy against their own Sovereign Lord. So that though Your Majesty were as much an Enemy as You are a Patron and Protector of the Church whoever shall at any time or upon any pretence offer any Resistance to any of Your Royal Commands must forever renounce his Saviour the four Evangelists and the Twelve Apostles to join with Mahomet Hildebrand and the Kirk set up the Pigeon against the Dove the Scimeter against the Cross and turn a Judas to his Saviour as well as a Cromwel to his Prince And this Sir in those days was thought so far from flattering Divinity that if they had not own'd and asserted it with their last drop of Blood under the worst of Tyrants they had judged themselves Traytors both to their Prince and to their Lord. And this Doctrine of entire and unreserved Submission was then so Catholique so Universally Taught and Practiced that Christian Rebellion was a Sin altogether unknown in those days It was the only Sin for which the Laws of the Church never appointed any Punishment because it was the only Sin that was then never actually committed And though they had too frequent and sad Occasions to enter their Protestations against it that was never done to correct any miscarriages among themselves but to rectifie the misapprehensions of the Roman Emperours Who being possest with too just a Jealousie that all Alterations in Religion tended to Innovations in Government they thought themselves obliged in Duty and for the honour of their Lord to represent to their Majesties That the erecting of his Kingdom in the Empire was so far from shaking their Thrones that it was and ever would be their strongest Security And when they had done this they had nothing more to do then to submit themselves to their Royal Pleasure and lay their Lives at their Royal Feet And this Sir they did with that Candour Frankness and Ingenuity so without all reserves and limitations that the slander that some Men have dasht upon their Memories is as false as foul that all their Pretended Loyalty was nothing but Hypocrisie for want of strength to raise and pretence of Law to Warrant Rebellion But some Men are so ignorant that they cannot understand the Doctrine of the Cross because its Superscription was written in Latin Greek and Hebrew and were they not as great Strangers to the Primitive Records as to the Primitive Religion they could never have had the confidence to fasten a surmise so false upon so clear an Integrity when beside giving us their own Opinions they have left behind them the Eternal and unalterable Reasons upon which they were grounded and these are of equal force in all Ages and under all Governments And this unkind Calumny is so very unjust that their spightful and most implacable Enemies who spared not to asperse them with all the vile things that could be believed durst never charge them either with any Overt-acts or secret designs of Disloyalty And as for the Laws though no Subject were ever more thankful for good Laws or more tender of their preservation then themselves yet when they had them they were neither so ungrateful nor so uncivil as to turn them upon the Government and make them so many Bulwarks and Sconces for Rebellion They thought it a very scurvey complement to invite Princes to protect their Religion by telling them That whilst they were pleased to Persecute it Christians were under an entire Submission to their Will and Pleasure but when they had once own'd and protected it by Law that then their Christian Subjects were warranted to Rebel against their Sovereign Authority by a Commission from their own Imperial Rescripts As soft and simple Lachrimists as they were they were wiser then to give Julian so much advantage to justifie his Apostacy when by it he recover'd the Imperial Crown to himself and his Successors that Constantine had pawned to his Christian Subjects by taking up the Christian Faith And whenever there was any misunderstanding between the Emperour and his Laws they thought it their duty that were subject to both to leave the Contest to be adjusted between themselves And if the Prince were at any time undutiful to his own Laws and so unhappy as to incur their displeasure whatever Power the Laws had to Execute themselves upon him they were satisfied that the Subjects had none And as they embraced this Principle of unlimited Submission as one of the greatest duties of their Religion so they have farther declared in all their Writings that setting aside all tyes of Duty and Conscience they would have done the same upon Principles of Interest and Prudence And tho they had lived under the worst of Princes and themselves had been the worst of Men they would have paid the same submission for the purchase of their own ease and safety that they thought themselves to owe out of duty to God and his Laws These Sir were the Doctrines that they taught both as Divines and Philosophers as Men that understood this World as well as Christians that believed the World to come And though to avoid being too bold and tedious I have here only presented Your Majesty with the Subscriptions of all the most Reverend Fathers of the Church for the first Three hundred and sixty three Years yet if Your Majesty think it worth Your Royal Acceptance I am ready to produce not only the hasty Votes but the Hands of all Christian Bishops and Doctors for above a Thousand Years with a Nemine Contradicente But beside the demonstration of the Primitive Loyalty I have here humbly presented Your Majesty with the true State of the Primitive Church as it was left by our Lord and his Apostles and
it relate to the whole Flock or only the subordinate Clergy it is the very same word which is used by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so does St. Paul when he tells the Corinthians that the Apostles do not Lord it over their Faith the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we improperly enough Translate Not having Dominion over their Faith for the word Dominion is not always taken in a bad Sense but often signifies Lawful Authority whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies nothing but domineering or treating them as Masters do their Slaves whom they care not how they use for their own gain and advantage that is the proper import of the word and therefore it is very aptly joyn'd by St. Peter with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Flock for filthy lucre as the Romans kept their Slaves And to the same purpose is the advice of St. Paul that a Bishop be no striker nor greedy of filthy Lucre but patient or mild and gentle not a brawler not covetous i. e. not to run into any of these Vices or Disorders in the exercise of his Episcopal Authority but to infer from hence that he has no true and real Authority at all only becomes the Man that knows no better Sanction of a Law then a Sword or a Cudgel And this very thing is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that moderation that is so frequently injoin'd in the Apostolical Writings as Phil. 4. 5. T it 3. 2. Jam. 3. 17. It is not as it is by some Men very ignorantly interpreted an unconcernedness and indifferency between dissenting Parties for that may be good or bad as it happens if the controversie be trivial it may be an instance of it but if it be about a matter that is setled either by the Authority of God or the Church there indifferency and moderation is nothing else then Falshood and Treachery But the true meaning of the word is a mildness and gentleness in the use of Authority the same that is attributed to God himself in the Government of the World Wisd. of Solomon c. 12. v. 18 But thou Mastering thy Power judgest with Equity and orderest us with great savour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. judgest not by rigour of Law but with mercy and gentleness and so Aristotle defines the vertue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that its Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to correct and moderate the general Law when it is applyed to particular Cases And all good Government is ever more merciful then the Law ought to be for that cannot be too severe to deter Men from offending so that there are not many cases in which it is broken wherein the offender may not require some mercy and compassion But as this Vertue is so highly commendable in all Government so is it much more in that of the Church in which Almighty God shews more of it in himself towards Mankind the Gospel being nothing but a dispensation of his Mercy and Gentleness to Offenders And as this is a necessary Qualification in the Governors of the Church for guiding and rectifying their publick Government so is it most becoming their private Conversation and by gaining Authority to their Persons doubles that of their Office So that when our Saviour instructs his Apostles in this new way to Greatness his instructions are wise in a literal Sense for nothing is really so great and commanding in the World as true Humility Whoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whoever will be first among you let him be your Servant Matth. 21. 26. If any one desire to be first the same shall be last of all and Servant of all Mark 9. 35. He that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that will abase himself shall be exalted Math. 23. 12. The common experience of the World sufficiently attests the Truth and the Wisdom of these Propositions so Powerful is the obligation of Courtesie Condescention and Humility But if the Governors of the Church are so strictly injoin'd this Vertue where they have Authority how much more are they where they have none If they may not contend with one another for Dominion though they have equal Power how much less with Sovereign Princes of whose Power they have no share and to whom they are bound to a more exact and exemplary Obedience and Submission then other Subjects by their Office and Power So that our Saviour has taken all possible care as far as Law can do it to reduce the Constitution of his Church to an entire compliance with the Civil Government And though he has instituted a distinct Government in it suited to the design of his Religion he has so many ways brought it into Subjection to Sovereign Powers that they are much more disabled by their very Authority to give them any disturbance then they could have been without it the very Authority it self being a new and distinct Obligation to a stricter Allegiance But because notwithstanding all this Evidence some Men are jealous of granting any Authority to the Church peculiar to it self especially when all Power is so apt to degenerate into abuse and therefore though they cannot deny the truth of it in general are very shy of admitting it at all lest they give it too much advantage sometime or other to fix and strengthen an interest within it self against the State And I must confess the prophane boldness of the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy in justling and contesting with Princes as the Vicars of Christ has given too much ground for this Jealousie I shall from this general state of the Christian Law as fixt by our Saviour and his Apostles proceed to its particular Precedents when it came to be reduced to practice in the Primitive Church Whereby I shall make it to appear after and beside all these foregoing considerations to forestal all pretences whatsoever of resistance to the Civil State that thô this because all Power is so may be liable to abuse yet that there is not any one point of Government more easie then t◠prevent it and that the danger is so very little that no Government that does not grosly forsake it self can possibly suffer any thing from it and that the abuse is so unlikely and so difficult ever to be put in practice again that there is no one thing in the World that requires less care to watch against it in short that it can never come to do any harm without such a long continued stupidity in the State as is utterly inconsistent with all Government of it And on the other side the advantages that accrue to the State by receiving the Church into its protection are so great so certain and so universal that there cannot be a grosser faileur in Policy then to refuse or deny it And here I say for our better direction as every where else we must advise with the practice
the year 270 write to Dionysius Bishop of Rome and Maximus Bishop of Alexandria and all other Churches through the whole World that they had deposed Paulus and placed Domnus in his stead and this say they We therefore signifie to you that you might write to him and receive communicatory Letters from him Thus both Cornelius and Novatian when they contended for the Bishoprick of Rome acquaint St. Cyprian with their Elections who communicates the matter to all the Bishops within his Province and by that means the Election of Cornelius was approved not only by himself but by all his Collegues as he always calls them And when St. Cyprian writes to Steven Bishop of Rome to procure the Deposition of Marcian Bishop of Arles he desires when it is done to inform him who is chosen into his place that he might know to whom to direct his Letters and his Brethren significa planè nobis quis in locum Marciani Arelate fuerit substitutus ut sciamus ad quem fratres nostros dirigere cui scribere debeamus And when Fortunius the Donatist Bishop had the confidence to affirm to St. Austin that his Church was the Catholick Church and kept up the Catholick Communion St. Austin rebukes his presumption only by demanding of him whether himself kept correspondence with other Bishops by communicatory Letters And when Pope Zosimus took upon him to constitute Patroclus Bishop of Arles Metropolitan of the Province of Vienna he declares that no literae formatae or corresponding Letters shall be valid but what are sign'd by him And so Pope Vigilius when he restored the same Prehominence to Aurelius Bishop of Arles after some considerable interruption of it annexes this Authority to the See ne quis sine formatà tuae fraternitatis ad longinquiora loca audeat proficisci that no man without his Certificate ought to be own'd in Forraign Churches By all which it appears that the Power of granting Letters communicatory out of the Province was one branch of the Metropolitical Jurisdiction And that beside â—he power of summoning Provincial Councils was the only thing that he was empowr'd to do by his own single Authority For the practice of it being altogether occasional and uncertain and yet very frequent it was necessary to entrust it with some single person and for that none fitter then the chief Bishop that resided in the chief City And for the discharge of his trust he gave an account of this as well as all other parts of his Jurisdiction in the Provincial Synod that was assembled twice a year to take a review of all things that concern'd the state of the whole Province in reference to all Churches without it as well as of the Government of every particular Diocess within it And thus by this subordination of Diocesan Bishops to Provincial Synods and correspondence of Provincial Synods with each other was the Government and Discipline of every Church effectual in all Churches because no Member of one Church could be admitted into Communion with another without his Letters-Testimonial Whereby it was so order'd that whoever was admitted into one Church was admitted into all and whoever was excommunicated out of one was shut out of all And no wonder then that the Canons of the Church are so careful in this part of Discipline between Church and Church when the Efficacy of all other Acts of Discipline depend wholly upon it For if a Sentence given in one Church were not valid in every Church it was in any mans power to elude it only by slipping into the next Jurisdiction And therefore because nothing could be more pernicious to the whole Discipline of the Catholick Church then for the Bishop of one Church to receive and protect the Member of another against the Sentence or without the consent of his own Bishop for that reason it is that the Primitive Church was more watchful in that part of Discipline then any other and for the same reason 't is that I have here traced its practice thereby to direct us to the true way of restoring the effectual Discipline of the Ancient Church in Christendom Which has for many ages been with scandal and dishonesty enough utterly defeated by one single Judicatures making it self a common Sanctuary against the Jurisdiction of all other Churches And till this intolerable abuse and corruption be removed it is in vain to hope for any amendment of the poor distressed and despised Estate of the Christian Church and some men have been pleased to express it whether out of scorn or pity I know not but if the Church will crouch under such a pettifogging abuse it deserves both But by the Premisses we see that whilst the Church preserved its Original liberty it was able to preserve its Peace and Government too by observing the Canonical obligation to mutual Concord among all Christian Bishops and that was so far from being arbitrary that whoever broke the Rule was by it immediately deprived of all Trust and Authority in it And the practice of this Discipline was preserved entire and effectual in the Church till the settlement of Patriarchates who swallowed up this Authority as they did all the other Metropolitical Rights into themselves till at last the Pope swallowed up theirs And then the whole power of granting commendatory or dimissory Letters was in all Provinces entirely appropriated to their Legates This is a short account of the Polity of the Primitive Church and in it I think all things are so neatly composed for an easie a civil and an effectual Government that I may safely challenge all the great pretenders to Politiques and Framers of Common-wealths to find out a more useful or more artificial Scheme of Government But beside these great and more lasting Rules of prudence and good order they were forced to make many occasional Laws to restrain some Mens particular follies and superstitions I will for brevity sake instance only in two Apostolical Canons In the fifth Canon the Clergy of all degrees are forbid to put away their Wives upon pretence of Religion under pain first of suspension and if they persist deprivation The occasion of which Canon was the Opinion of several Hereticks especially the followers of Saturninus of whom Irenaeus reports Nubere generare à Satanâ dicunt esse that they affirm'd That Marriage and Propagation was the Devil's invention and this Opinion grew prevalent in the second Century so that Tertullian among many others was carried away with it But more especially That the Clergy were bound to leave their Wives that they might devote themselves the more entirely to Prayers Fastings and Religious Exercises the Devotions of married Persons being less pure and less acceptable to God Now to stop this Superstition as if Marriage were any way inconsistent with the Service of God this Canon was at first Enacted and is afterward Ratified by divers following Councils And the truth of it is this
be divided into two parts yet both inherit their own share in solidum and so if two Men be bound for the same Debt if they are bound each Man in partem they are obliged to pay but half share but if they are obliged in solidum either of them is bound to pay all And this is St. Cyprian's State of Episcopacy that though many share the Authority yet every Bishop has as full possession of his own share within it self as if there were no other Seeing as he elsewhere expresses it a Parcel of the Flock is allotted to the care of its particular Pastor which every one is bound to guide and govern and to account to God for the discharge of his Episcopal Office Neither was this his singular Notion but the unanimous and settled Sense of the Ancients Thus the Author of Clement's Institutions brings in the Apostles Writing after this manner to all Christian Bishops We being all gathered together have written to you this form of Catholique Doctrine For the Confirmation of you to whom is entrusted the Catholique Episcapacy of the Church This was the entire Sense of all Ignatius his Epistles which suppose the full Jurisdiction of every particular Church to be placed in the Bishop and his own Clergy So Tertullian It is necessary that so many great Churches should be that one and first derived from the Apostles from whom all are derived and therefore they are all but one and yet several Apostolical Churches So all the Ancient Canons inhibit every single Bishop even the Metropolitan to intermeddle in anothers Diocess upon pain of Deposition Neither is this Supremacy of Power in every Bishop any abatement of the just Rights of Metropolitans For in the Primitive Church as I have shewn in a former Treatise Metropolitans had no Power over inferiour Bishops but in conjunction of the Synod of the Province So that it was the Synod not the Metropolitan that had the Superiour Power over every single Bishop And it is evident that he was as liable to the Sentence of the Synod as the meanest Bishop of the Province as appears from the case of Paulus Samosatenus and Metropolitans considering their number were as often censured and Deposed as other Bishops And this is the reason of St. Cyprian's so earnestly disclaiming the Title of Episcopus Episcoporum because though his own Metropolitical Jurisdiction were of great extent yet as a single Bishop he had no Superiority over any other Bishop no Authority to punish his Misdemeanors to receive Appeals from his Sentence or to order and rectifie any thing within his Diocess All such Power was to be exerted only in Synodical Conventions in which he had the Honour and Authority of Presidency but the Jurisdiction was seated in the Body of the Council without whose concurrence had he presumed to do any thing more then any other Bishop his least punishment had been certain Deposition This was the real State of things in the Ancient Church and Metropolitans never took upon them any Power over their Collegues or Brother-Bishops by their own single Authority till after the Papal Usurpation neither then did they challenge it as Metropolitans but as Legates to the Pope and that was one of the highest branches of the Usurpation But before that time the Governours of the Church were not more watchful against any one thing then that one Bishop should not claim any power over another Now this Principle being first laid That the whole Episcopal Authority is vested in every Bishop the next that is consequent upon it is That whoever separates from the Communion of his Bishop or sets up another against him is a Schismatick and this was the Subject of almost all his Epistles concerning the Restitution of the Lapsi or such as fell in time of Persecution For they according to the Ancient Discipline of the Church were not to be received into Communion but by these degrees First they were to Petition to be admitted to Penance and that upon confession of their fault was granted and then having undergon the Penance imposed they made a publick Confession of their Crime before the Congregation and upon that they received Absolution by the Imposition of the hands of the Bishop and Câ—ergy and after that they were admitted to the Holy Eucharist or Full-Communion But instead of this solemn severity of Discipline some of his own Presbyters had been so rash as without the consent of their Bishop to give them entire Absolution and admit them to entire Communion This was the opening of that unhappy Schism that afterward created so much trouble both to himself and the Church of God For when these Presbyters had so illegally restor'd those Enormous offenders they prevail'd by their Importunity upon the good Nature of the Martyrs and Confessors to intercede for their Restitution it being an Honour and Prerogative allowed them in the ancient Church to admit Sinners more easily to repentance upon their Request because they had by the constancy of their sufferings compensated for the scandal that the others had given by their Fall But instead of interceding for their admission to Penance these well meaning men move St. Cyprian for their complete Absolution without it to which he replies that they who had with so much courage and devotion kept the Faith of our Lord ought to be as â—areful of keeping his Law and Discipline †Epist. 16. per totum But yet he is willing to excuse them not only because they did it out of ignorance of the Laws of the Church and out of modesty being meerly overcome by the importunity of others but because they proceeded no farther than only to intercede with him in whom they acknowledge the Power and Authority of granting Absolution whereas the Presbyters had subverted all the Order of the Church by presuming upon it without him These slighting that dignity and respect which the Martyrs Hi sublato honore quem nobis beati Martyres cum confessoribus servant contemptâ domini lege observatione quam iidem Martyres Confessores tenendam mandant ante extinctum persecutionis metuÌ„ ante redituÌ„ nostruÌ„ ante ipsum pene MartyruÌ„ excessum communicent cum lapsiis offerant Eucharistiam tradant Confessors care fully observed despising the Law of God which those Good Men required to be kept before the fear of Persecution is over before our Return before the very consummation of the Martyrs themselves communicate with and give the Eucharist to the Apostates And therefore at the begining of this Epistle in which he so candidly excuses the Martyrs he reproves the rashness and disorder of the Presbyters with more then usual warmth and vehemence of Expression What Punishment Quod enim periculum non metuere debemus de offensâ domini quando aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelii nec loci sui memores sed neque futurum domini
Cornelius was lawfully Elected and Consecrated before Novatian and therefore that that alone was enough to null the Title of Novatian Et cum post primum c. And seeing when there is one Bishop there cannot be another whoever pretends to be second after a first who ought to be alone is not the second but none at all And though he gives a large Account of Cornelius his Vertues and the Vices of Novatian yet the Principle that he relyes upon is the Priority of Cornelius his legal Ordination after which for any other man to thrust himself upon what pretence soever into the same Bishoprick is really to thrust himself both out of the particular Church that he invades and out of the Catholick Church against which he Rebels because by the Rules of both one Church is not capable of receiving two Bishops But the Martyrs being reduced and the Schismaticks scatter'd and every where rejected St. Cyprian sets himself to bring the War to a Final Issue and for that end summons a Council at Carthage to settle the Case of the Lapsi forever whereas he informs Antonianus it was after mature debate determin'd with true Ecclesiastical Moderation Scripturis diu ex utrâque parte prolatis c. The Scriptures bâ—ing alledged and urged on either side we temper'd and pois'd the matter with an healing moderation that neither the hope of Restitution should be wholly denyed the Lapsi lest despair should drive them into utter Apostacy nor that the censure of the Church should be so loosned that the Offenders should be lightly admitted to Communion but that upon due Penance and Humiliation every mans particular cause and circumstances being examin'd he should be accordingly treated Which Decree being certified by a Synodical Epistle to Rome Cornelius at the Petition of St. Cyprian as Labbe according to the manner of the Romanists expresses it allows his Confirmation And for the proof of it alledges St. Cyprian's words to Antonianus in which he declares Cornelius his Compliance with the Authority of his determination so that instead of giving force to his Authority he only followed it And as if the number of Ac si minus sufficiens â—piscoporum Numerus in Africâ videbatur etiam Romam super hac re scripsimus ad Cornelium Collegam nostrum qui et ipse cum plurimis Coëpiscopis habito Concilio in eandem nobiscum sententiam pari gravitate et salubri moderatione consensit Bishops in Africa were not sufficient we writ to Cornelius our Collegue at Rome who calling a Council of a great many Bishops approved our Judgment with equal Wisdom and wholsome moderation The Schismatiques being thus utterly routed at Rome they fly back into Africk and there associate to set up another Bishop against St. Cyprian and agree upon Fortunatus which being done Faelicissimus with a Guard of rude and desperate Fellows posts to Rome signifies the Election of their new Bishop to Cornelius and demands Communion with him but is rejected with all manner of scorn and disgrace Upon this they huff and domineer and scare the old Bishop with their lowd threatnings and lowder Lyes particularly that this business was transacted by the concurrent Vote of five and twenty Bishops this puts Cornelius to a stand and hearing nothing all this while of it from St. Cyprian writes to him to know the whole state of the matter who returns him a large and pathetical Narrative of it where he states the whole matter with that Epist. 59. clearness and strength of reason with that evidence of proof with that fulness of Testimony that vanquisht the Faction forever for after that time we hear very little of this sullen Schism And the Fundamental Principle upon which he insists is the Divine Institution of his own Episcopal Superiority Heresies and Schisms arise from no other Fountain Neque enim aliunde Haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt Schismata quà m inde quòd Sacerdoti dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus sacerdos et ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur cui si secundùm magisteria divina obtemperaret fraterni tas Universa nemo adversum sacerdotuÌ„ collegium quidquaÌ„ moveret nemo post divinum judicium post populi suffragium post coepisco porum consensum Judicem se jam non Episcopi sed dei faceret then because the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest at a time is thought to preside in the Church as Christ's Vicegerent To whom if the whole Brotherhood would obey according to the divine commands no man would move Sedition against the Colledge of Priests no man after the Sentence of God the good liking of the People the consent of the Bishops would take upon him to judge not the Bi shop but God him self That was his case that when he had been Canonically Elected and Constituted in the See of Carthage his own Presbyters should presume to out him of his Bishoprick that he held for his life by Dâ—vine Authority And therefore to Travel no farther into this Controversie though the Schismatiques according to the restless Genius of such Men made some faint sallys to save and redeem themselves we plainly see that this was the first Article of St. Cyprian's Unity of the Christian Church the Unity of a Bishop in every Diocesan Church and the dutiful and regular Communion of all its Members with him § 13. The second grand Article and that which has a more diffusive influence upon the Peace and Unity of the Church is the obligation upon all Christian Bishops to preserve Concord and Communion among themselves And as the former unites every Christian to some particular Church so this unites every particular Church to the Body of the Church Catholique And this is that which St. Cyprian and the Ancients intend by the Catholick Church viz. All Churches in the World united into one Body by the Concord of Bishops in the same Rules of Discipline and Government And this is his meaning in those several Passages in which he makes every Church both a perfect Church within it self and yet only a Member of the Church Catholique as in the formention'd Passage in his Book De Unitate Episcopatâ—s â—nus est cujus a singulis in solidâ—m pars tenetur There is but one Episcopacy of which every Bishop possesses his own share with plenitude of Power And in his 56 Epistle A Christo una Ecclesia per totâ—m orbem in multa membra dâ—visa Christ has founded one Church dispers'd through the whole World in many Districts or Divisions And in the same Epistle Episcopatus unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numer sitate diffusus There is but one Episcopacy spread every where by the Concord of all Bishops And in the 68th Epistle Etsi Pastores multi sumus unum tamen gregem pascimus oves universas quas Christus sanguine sâ—o passioâ—â— qâ—aesivit colligere fovere debemus Though we
their zeal yet for what they never understood nor enquired Insomuch that the Leaders and Writers themselves that followed after were utterly ignorant of the Nature and the Rise of the Quarrel as Optatus plainly proves that Parmenian himself was though he was the Metropolitan of the Schism And in the Conference at Carthage under Honorius when they were only put to it to shew in what they differ'd from the Catholicks and upon what grounds they divided the Party was so amazed and surprized with their own want of Pretence that they were utterly vanquisht only because they could not tell what they would have But of the Progress of this Schism we shall account afterwards as for its Birth â—â— sprung from no better Original then Pride and Peevishness supporting it self with a bold and bottomless Lye Some few persons had in pursuance of their own private Piques and Passions set up a Faction against their Bishop and then to justifie themselves load him with all the foul Stories that they could invent no matter whether true or false that is all one to the Rabble who easily run away with any thing that is Factious or ill-natur'd and if they can but once get in numbers enough to make up a Faction all Factions are Snow-Balls The Story is this upon the death of Mensurius Bishop of Carthage Caecilian was chosen by the Majority of Votes to succeed against the competition of Botrus and Celesius and received his Consecration from Faelix Bishop of Aptung and some of the Neighbour Bishops of the same Province but from none of Numidia which Optatus says was done by the contrivance of the Competitors presuming to carry the Plurality of Votes but St. Austin says it was done in complyance with an immemorial custom that the Bishop of Carthage was always ordain'd by the Bishops of his own Neighbourhood but because he brings no proof of his Assertion I am afraid it is one of his bold and lavish sayings when he is in hast or distress for next to St. Jerom his loose and fluent way of Writing has occasion'd more mistakes in the Records of the Church then any other of the Ancients and men that are so voluminous and write so quick cannot avoid stumbling into multitudes of hasty and careless slips And therefore the Authority of Optatus is here rather to be followed that the disgust was taken by the Numidian Bishops because they were not call'd to the Consecration this is made the more probable by the peculiar state of the African Church for though other Provinces were Govern'd by their own Provincial Synods by whom their own Metropolitans were ordain'd yet this Church notwithstanding that it consisted of three Provinces Africa properly so call'd Numidia and Mauritania as they reckoned up in the Council under St. Cyprian about rebaptizing Hereticks kept so close a Communion among themselves as if they had been but one Province And we find them all along not acting apart but all together as one Common-Council And that I guess to be the Sense of the words in St. Cyprian's Epistle to Cornelius Latiùs fusa est nostra Provincia habet etiam Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi coherentes Where the mention of the Mauritaniae duae is supposed by the Learned to have crept into the Text out of some Marginal Notes and so it must have done for there was no such division of that Province that we ever read of till Constantine's new division of the Empire and therefore the true ancient reading must have been this habet etiam Numidiam Mauritaniam sibi coherentes but take which reading we will St. Cyprian's plain meaning can be no other then this That beside his own peculiar Province of Africk properly so called of which Carthage was the Metropolis he had two other Provinces Numidia and Mauritania inseparably annex't to his Communion by which means he tells Cornelius that he was able to do him so great service in Africk So that the words are not to be understood as they commonly are as if he had been the Metropolitan of those three Provinces but that he was Metropolitan of that Province to which the two other were United in a particular Communion But to let pass these Critical Conjectures Caecilian is no sooner entered upon his See but he demands of the Presbyters of his Church the Goods that he found delivered to them in an Inventory left by his Predecessor Mensurius But they having embezell'd the whole Treasury of the Church and finding themselves in danger to be call'd to a severe reckoning joyn Faction with his defeated Competitors and conspire to renounce Communion with him To this Lucilla a Rich a Proud and a Factious Lady joyns her self her Zeal and her Money out of revenge to Caecilian who whilst he was a Presbyter had reproved her for some affectedness and singularity in devotion and that sort of People if once they are any way disobliged are of all others the most implacable and therefore St. Jerom puts her in his Famous Catalogue of Female Hereticks Simon Magus had his Helena Nicholas the Father of uncleanness a whole Regiment of Gossips Marcian sent a woman before him to Rome to prepare the minds of the People for receiving his Imposture Apelles had his Philumine Montanus by Prisca and Maximilla debauches the Women first with Gold and then with Heresie And to come nearer our own time Arius that he might deceive the World inveagles the Emperors Sister and Donatus that he might gain Proselytes to his Schism in Africk is assisted by the wealth of Lucilla These were the Amazons and the Penthesileas of their several Sects and by them we may see that it has ever been the Policy of all Impostors to put their main strength in their Female Forces knowing their Cause to be better maintained by noise and talk then sense and reason I remember Livy somewhere tells us that the Romans in times of great Pestilence and Mortality when they burnt their dead bodies not in single Urns but in vast Heaps and Piles were careful to intermix the womens bodies with the men as being more unctuous and combustible in themselves and so more apt to conveigh the fire to the other Corpses that otherwise would have burnt but slowly without them This is the very practice of the Incendiaries of the Church in all Ages when they would enflame the men into a Combustion they always first set fire on the women and when they would burn down the House they thrust the Firebrand into the Thatch that both easily takes Fire it self and certainly conveighs it to the solid Timber But to proceed in our History The party being thus cemented together by Ambition Covetousness and Revenge they write to Secundus Primate of Numidia to the otherBishops of that Province that were not invited to the Election and Consecration of Caecilian to depose him as having been ordain'd by a Traditor They met at Cirta afterwards call'd Constantina upon
complaint of St. Hilary and the oppress 't Catholiques so wrought with the Emperor that notwithstanding his outrage against them because his Affairs in France were then embroil'd by the Incursions of the Barbarous Nations he publishes that seemingly kind Rescript in Answer to their Request Mansuetudinis nostrae lege prohibemus in Judiciis Episcopos accusari c. Commanding that the Accusations of Bishops should not be brought before Secular Magistrates lest it should give too much encouragement to wicked Men to oppress them with slanders and therefore if any Man have a complaint against them let it be Examin'd before the Bishops that so every cause might be determin'd by its proper Judicature This is a singular Law and has scarce any other parallel with it in the whole Code for though there are divers Laws of other Emperors that refer all Controversies about Religion to the Episcopal Audience yet as for the Criminal causes of Ecclesiastical Persons I do not remember any beside this that wholly exempted them from the cognisance of their own Courts And therefore that this Emperor should grant such an Universal exemption seems a courtesie more then ordinary and is thought to have been meerly extorted by the importunity of the Catholick Bishops and the present difficulty of his own Affairs And that they then insisted upon the exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons as well as Causes it was for a reason peculiar to the State of the Controversie at that time that was then managed not so much by Arguments as Accusations though that weapon was chiefly employed against the great Athanasius into whose single Person the Controversie was at last contracted and the Parties were distinguisht by nothing but subscribing and refusing his Condemnation For he being the great Pillar of the Catholick Cause the Eusebians knew well enough that if they could but blow him up the cause must fall with him and for that reason is it that they all along labour'd so hard to overwhelm him with Criminal Accusations And therefore the Catholicks perceiving their fraud interposed as vehemently in defence of Athanasius as of their Faith because all the blows that were levell'd at him were supposed to aim at that insomuch that to subscribe his Condemnation was the same thing as to quit the Party as we have seen in the case of Pope Liberius And for this reason chiefly it was necessary at that time that the Emperor if he would refer the Ecclesiastical Controversie then on foot to the Bishops he should do the same as to the Criminal Causes of the Clergy because they were then universally join'd together And yet as kind as this Law might appear to be in relieving them from the oppressions of the Imperial Courts it was but a fraudulent favour and only design'd to ensnare the Catholicks For this gracious Rescript was publisht in the same year in which he call'd the violent Council at Milan that was on purpose packt out of the fiercest Eusebians to carry things thorough with an high hand and without any contradiction So that when in this Rescript he refer'd the Orthodox Bishops to an Ecclesiastical Judgment he designed nothing but their Oppression in this mad Council and that it is evident was so far from any kindness that it was the sharpest severity he could have contrived against them For if they had just ground of complaint against the unjust actings of the Secular Courts because they were not their proper Judicatures yet when they were so rudely outraged in Council as it was done in the proper Court so was it at their own request and that both took away all ground of complaint and left them without any means of relief Gothofred has a Conjecture that this Rescript was Enacted not before but after the Council and that in favour of the Eusebians who were overcome by the Orthodox at their own weapon of Accusation and yet by the partiality of the Council were protected whilst the Catholicks were oppressed and denyed the very formalities of Justice this says the Learned Man might provoke them to make their Appeals to the Secular Courts where they might at least hope to meet with some humanity and regard to the Laws And therefore the Emperor to spoil this shift brings them all back to the Ecclesiastical Judicature that if they would come thither there they might be heard but no where else But this contradicts the whole state of Affairs at that time when the partiality and oppression of the Secular Judges was the universal Groan of the Catholicks and when this Rescript was enacted upon or at least after their reiterated complaints against it and therefore there is no ground to imagine that the Catholicks how much soever oppressed in Council would think of seeking relief there But whatever was the intent of the Rescript and no doubt it was malicious enough it is certain that it was at least pretended to be granted upon the complaint of the Catholicks against the Secular Courts for taking to themselves the Judgment of Controversies of Faith whereas they ought to have referred them to the Synods of Bishops whom our Saviour had appointed to be the proper Guides and Judges in those matters And that is the meaning of Hosius and the rest in their reproofs of the Emperor not that he used his Authority in the Church but that he abused it by opposing it to the determination of a general Council by whose advice he ought both as a wise Man and a good Christian to have been directed in the use of his Power in such matters And that was the grand miscarriage of his Reign that he would not sit down satisfied under the Authâ—ntique and Solâ—mn determination of so great a Council which if he had done as his Father did he had escaped all that tedious risk of trouble which he created both to himself and to the Church through his whole Reign But however it is evident from all the Premisses that how enormously soever he abused his own Power in the Church he never attempted to Usurp the Churches Power and he never took upon him to make any Alterations in the Faith till they were first made and decreed in Council and though he destroyed the Use and Authority of Councils by denying freedom of Vote yet that was an abuse of his Power not an usurpation of theirs For that he ever own'd with a Religious regard in his most unwarrantable Oppressions And as I have observed at the beginning he shewed greater respect to the Power of the Church then any Emperor in the whole Succession when he called such sholes of Councils only to have his Will of one Man and one Word which he durst not controul himself because they had been own'd and justified by the Churches Authority And if we carefully observe his motions we shall find him a cordial friend both to the Church and to Religion and the end of all his mistaken Zeal was the lasting settlement of Peace and Concord that was