or absent Much less that Classes and other Assemblies are the stated Church-Government which all must obey And are the Presbyterians of any of the three forementioned Opinions § 5. I ever held a necessity of manifold dependance of all Christians and Churches As all depend on Christ as their Head so do all the People on the Pastors as their authorized Guides whom they must not Rule but be Ruled by 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 17 24. And all these Churches depend on each other for Communion and Mutual Help as many Corporations in one Kingdom And frequent Synods well used are greatly helpful to these ends And the Command of doing as much as we can in Love and Concord doth bind all the particular persons to concur with the Synods in all things that tend to the Peace and Edification of the Church or are not against it And more than so if the general Visitors or Bishops that take care of many Churches do by God's Word direct instruct reprove admonish the particular Bishops and Churches they ought with reverence to hear them and obey them And if Independents really are for all this why do these Accusers represent them odiously as if it were no such matter but they were meerly for Church-Democracy Either you are not to believed in what you say of them or of me § 6. I know we have men that say that on pretence of acknowledging all this Episcopacy I put down all because I take from them the power of the Sword and leave all to despise them if they please Ans This indeed is the power that under the name of Episcopacy now too many mean Bishop Bilson knew no Power but Magistrates by the Sword and Ministers by the Word But why name I one man It is the common Opinion of Protestants and most sober Papists that Bishops as such have no power of force on Body or Purse But we deny not the forcing Power of the Magistrate 3. But we heartily wish that they would keep it in their own hands and never use it to force unwilling men into the Church or to Church-Communion high Priviledges which no unwilling person hath any right to This is my Independency CHAP. X. Of his Accusation That I make the Bishops the Authors of all Heresies and Schisms as distinct from Presbyters Monks and People § 1. THis also runs throughout his Book and must such Books be answered or believed I never denyed the guilt and concurrence of others with them I only say That as Bishops were the Chief so they had the chief hand as far as I can yet learn in Heresies and Schisms since they came to their height of Power and specially in those grand Heresies and Schisms which have broken and keep the Churches in those great Sects and Parties which in East and West it consisteth of to this day I never doubted or denyed but that 1. The Heresies that were raised before the Church had any Patriarchs or the turgent sort of Bishops were certainly raised without them 2. And afterward sometime a Presbyter began a Heresie 3. And the Bishops were but as the Generals of the Army in all the Church Civil Wars But I never denyed but the Prelatical Priests Monks and multitude were their obsequiâ—us Army § 2. Mr. M. saith That those Bishops that were Hereticks were mostly such or inclined to it before Answ 1. Was there then a good Succession of Ordination when the World groaned to find it self Arian Were all these Arians before their Consecration Answ 2. Were they not all Prelatical Presbyters that aspired to be Bishops and so as they say had a Pope or Bishop in their bellies I never thought that Prelatical Priests that studied Preserment and longed to be Bishops had no hand in Heresies nor Schisms no more than that the Roman Clergy are innocent herein and the fault is in the Pope alone What a deal then of this man's Book is lost and worse on such suppositions CHAP. XI Of his confident Accusation that I mention all the faults of the Bishops and none of their Goodness or Good Deeds § 1. THis also is a chief part of the Warp or Stamen of his Book In his Preface he saith This History of Bishops is nothing else but an Account of all the faults that Bishops have committed in the several Ages of the Church without Any Mention of their Good Actions of their Piety and Severity of their Lives of their Zeal for the Faith c. Answ 1. Whether this Fundamental Accusation be true or false let the Reader who loveth Truth see 1. In the very first Chapt. from § 41. to the end 2. Through all the Book where I oft praise good Bishops good Councels and good Canons and good Books and Deeds 3. In the two last Chapters of the Book written purposely to hinder an ill use of the Bishops faults In the first Chapter Very many of the Bishops themselves were humble holâ— faithful men that grieved for the miscarriages of the rest Though such excellent persons as Gregory of Neocaesarea Greg. Nazianz. Greg. Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Augustine Hillary Prosper Fulgentius c. were not very common no doubt but there were many that wrote not Books nor came so much into the notice of the World but avoided contentions and factious stirs that quietly and honestly conducted the Flocks in the waies of Piety Love and Justice And some of them as St. Martin separated from the Councils and Communion of the prevailing turbulent sort of the Prelates to signifie the disowning of their sins Of the Antients before the world crowded into the Church I never made question Such as Clemens Polycarp Ignatius Irenaeus and the rest How oft I have praised holy Cyprian and the African Bishops and Councils he sometime confesseth What I say of Atticus Proclus and other peaceable Bishops you may see p. 17. and very oft Yea of the Bishops of many Sects much of the Albigenses c. p. 17 18. Yea of the good that was done by the very worldly sort p. 18 19 20. Yea of the Papists Bishops that were pious p. 20. § 46. And § 47. I vindicate the excellency of the Sacred Office And § 53 58 59 60. I plead for Episcopacy it self in the justifiable species of it § 2. But perhaps he will say that at least I say more of their faults than their 〈◊〉 I answer of such good Bishops as Cyprian Basil Greg. Nazianzen Chrysostom Augustin Hillary Martin c. I speak of their virtues and nothing at all that I remember of their faults Of such as Theophilus and Cyril Alexandri and Epiphanius c. I speak of their virtues and some of their faults as the scripture doth of many good mens Of the more ambitious turbulent sort I speak only or mostly of their faults For I profess not to write a History of their lives but to inform the ignorant what Spirit it is that brought in Church tyranny and divisions I denyed
Parochialis brings copious Reasons and Orders of Princes Popes and Prelates that all should confess to the Parish-Priest If you had set this up here how many men must have gone to it in the Parishes of St. Martin Giles Cripplegate Stepney c But how much greater work hath Dr. Hammond and Old Councils cut out for him that will be the sole Bishop of many hundred Parishes I have named it elsewhere And if any man of consideration think I have not proved against Mr. Dodwell that Bishops Government is not like a King 's who may make what Officers under him he please but depends more as a Physician 's or School-master's on Personal Ability I will now add but this Question to him Why is it that Monarchy may be hereditary and a Child or Infant may be King but an Infant may not be Bishop nor any one not qualified with Essential Ability I have at large told you how sharply Baronius and Binnius condemn that odious Nullity of making a Child by his Father's Power A. Bishop of Rhemes If I heard twenty men say and swear that one man is sufficient to be the only Master of many hundred Schools or Physician to many hundred Hospitals or that one Carpenter or Mason may alone build and rear all the Houses in the City after the Fire or one man be the sole Master of an hundred thousand Families what can I say to him but that he never tryed or knows the work § 18. When I note that the Donatists took themselves for the Catholicks and the Adversaries for Schismaticks because they were the greater number he very honestly saith that Multitude may render a Sect formidable but it 's no Argument of Right Very true nor Secular Power neither But what better Argument have the Papists and many others that talk against Schism § 19. He thinks the Donatists Bishops Churches were not so small as our Parishes Answ Not as some But if as I said before Constantinople in the height of all it's Glory in Chrysostom's daies had but 100000 Christians as many as three London Parishes have judge then what the Donatists had § 20. His double quarrel with Binnius and Baronius let who will mind What I gathered out of those and other Canons of the smalness of Churches then I have elsewhere made good His Reviling Accusations of Envy to their Wealth deserveth no Answer § 21. He comes to St. Theophilus's Case of which we spake before The Monks that reported evil of him were it may be saith he downright Knaves The Reviling is blameless when applied to such Doubtless they were ignorant rash Zealots But one that reads what the Egyptian Monks were in Anthony's daies and after and what Miracles and Holiness Sulpitius Severus reporteth of them and why Basil retired into his Monastery c. may conjecture that they had much less worldliness than the Bishops and not greater faults § 22. I think it not desirable or pleasant work to vindicate the credit of Socrates and Sozomen accusing Theophilus But if his Conjectures in this case may serve against express History of such men and so near let him leave other Histories as loose to our Conjectures Postâ—umianus Narrative in Sulpitius is but of one piece of the Tragedy He thinks it improbable that Origen should be accused for making God Incorporeal and such Conjectures are his Consutation of History But Origen had two sort of Accusers the Bishops such as Theophilus and Epiphanius had worse charges against him But the Anthropomorphite Monks were they that brought that Charge against him that God had no face hands eyes And Theophilus before them cryed down Origen in general to save his life by deceiving them that they might think he did it on the same account as they did This is Socrates his Report of the Case He saith that the Impudent Mutinous Monks were not ashamed to tell all the world that all that were against them were Anthropophites Answ It was other Monks that I here talk not of that he means It was these Monks that were Anthropomorphites themselves and would have killed Theophilus for not being so till he said to them Methinks I see your faces as the Face of God And the name of the Face of God did quiet them Hierom was a Party against Chrysostom it was for not passing that Sentence on Origen that Epiphanius would by masterly Usurpation have imposed on him that Chrysostom was by him accused § 23. Could any Sobriety excuse that man Epiphanius that would come to the Imperial City and there purposely intrude into the Cathedral of one of the best Bishops in the world for Parts and Piety and there play the Bishop over an A. Bishop in his own Church and seek to set all the Auditory in a flame at the time of Publick Worship and require him to say that of Origen which he there without any Authority imposed on him I know not what is Pride Usurpation Turbulency if not Malignity if this be not But at last he saith I do not intend to excuso Theophilus in this particular Thank Pope Innocent He did certainly prosecute his Resentment too far But he was not the only man Epiphanius a person of great Holiness Hierom and several other persons renowned for their Piety were concerned in the persecution of this Great man as well as he And to say the truth this is their weakness for that Severity which gives men generally a Reputation of Holiness though it mortifie some irregular heats yet is apt to dispose men to pâ—evishness But true Holiness ever sincerely loveth holy men and specially such as are publick Blessings to the Church And though I censure not their main State your Holy Persecutors of the best of Christ's Servants will never by Christ be judged small Offenders Alas it's too true that Theophilus was not alone A Council of Bishops were the Persecutors And it 's hard to think that they loved Chrysostom as themselves When the forementioned Council at Constantinople had turned out Nazianzen even the great magnifiers of General Councils Baronius and Binnius thus reproach them that they drove away a holy excellent man that a man was set up in his stead that was no Christian that it was the Episcopi Nundinarii that did it the Oriental Bishops first leaving them and going away with Gregory And if the Major Vote of that General Council were Episcopi Nundinarii what Châ—ysostom's Persecutors were may be conjectured Do not these Papists here say worse of them than I do § 24. Yet though he confess as much as is aforesaid and bring but his Conjectures mixt with palpable omissions against the express words of Socrates and Sozomen he hath the face to make up his failing with this Calumny I have dwelt so long on this not only to vindicate Theophilus but to shew once for all the manner of our Author's dealing with his Reader in his Church-History Any scandalous Story though it be as false and improbable as
us and keep us six Months in Gaol for every Sermon and so on for the next and for the next Or to pay 40 l. a Sermon and to banish us five Miles from Corporations and must not be told of any such thing He was not unpeaceable that said He that seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up the Bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him Nor for saying He that hateth his Brother is a Murtherer Nor Christ for telling us how he will judge them that did not relieve and visit him in his little ones and how he will use him that beat his Fellow-Servants It is with you and not with your sins that we would have peace Not only Massonius and Platina but even Genebrard and Baronius speak far sharplier of the faults of many Popes themselves and all Historians of their Prelates and yet are taken to be peaceable men Either those that I mentioned will repent here or hereafter and then will say far worse of themselves than I do And may I not foretel it them when it is but in necessitated deprecation of the miseries of the Land § 23. One of their Champions wrote that he was not bound to deny his own Liberty because others would pievishly take scandal at it I shewed the sinfulness of that Conclusion and that a mans Liberty often lay in as small a matter as a game at Chess a Pipe of Tobacco or a Cup of Sack and most scandal is taken by pievish persons and yet even a pievish mans Soul is not to be set as light by as such things Christ and Paul made more of Scandal And this very arguing of mine is numbred with my unpeaceable distempered words § 24. As to his talk about our Controversies of passages in Conformity he confesseth that he hath not read my Plea for Peace in which I have partly opened them And much less what I have said since of them to divers others and I consess I have neither mind or leisure to say all over again in Print upon the occasions of such words as his which have been oft answered § 25. I named the Martyr-Bishops Hooper Ridley c. as Nonconformists to the Laws of their Persecutors to shew that such Sufferers leave a sweeter name than their Persecutors and he feigneth me to have made them Nonconformists to our Laws and saith Ingenuity and Christian Veracity would blush to own this Art Thus still false History is that which assaulteth us But I humbly ask his Lordship 1. Whether he think that Cranmer Ridley and Latimer were more for Conformity than Jewel Bilson and Hooker and Abbot And 2. Whether he will so far reproach these men as to say that Jewel Bilson and Hooker would have conformed by approving that which they most expresly wrote against I have oft enough transcribed their words § 26. To shew that since my explusion I drew not the People of Kiderminster from the Bishops I said that I never since came near them nor except very rarely sent them one Line which he pretends I contradict by saying I sent them all the Books I wrote One might have found historical errours enough in his words without a Rack or Quibble 1. Sure Books are somwhat rarelier written than Letters 2. An ordinary Wit would have understood that I spoke of one Line of Manuscript or one Letter and not of Printed Books I delivered them to Mr Simmons or their Neighbours to send them without Letters And few of those Books were written before this Apology § 27. As a Self-contradicter he saith of me somtime I am against all Subscribing as p. 60 113. c. and sometimes not Ans Still untruth p. 60. The words are If men were not driven so much to subscribe and swear as they are at this day Reader is it true that this is against All Subscribing Pag. 113. The words are If we had learned the trick of speaking writing and swearing in universal terms and meaning not universally but particularly as many do we could say or subscribe orswear as far as you desire us And Take off the penalty of subscribing declaring crossing c. what good doth subscribing a Sentence which he believeth not Is this against All Subscribing § 28. Whether to profess our tenderness of other mens Reputation and yet to name the nature and aggravations of the sin which we fear our selves when we are importuned to it be contradictory let the impartial judge § 29. P. 92. He saith as my judgment To subscribe and declare that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or that an unlawful Oath cannot bind men to unlawful Actions is Perjury some of the greatest that Hell suggesteth Ans Not one true word I believe all this to be as he saith Both in my first and second Plea for Peace I have largly told him what it is and what it is not which I own but he hath seen neither and yet feigneth me to say or hold what I have so oft renounced § 30. P. 94. He might have known how oft in Print I have retracted the Book called The Holy Common-Wealth wishing the Reader to take it as Non-scriptum Yet he saith as far as is generally known I have not done it And how should I make it generally known more than by oft Printing it § 31. P. 95. He pittieth me for calling the Author of the friendly Debate the Debate maker And I pitty England for such pittiers § 32. P. 96. Whereas the Convocation hath imposed on all Ministers a Profession of undoubted certainty of the Salvation of dying baptized Infants without excepting those of Atheists or Infidels I ask whether all the young unstudied sort of Ministers have arrived at this certainty any more than I and how they came by it and crave their Communication of the ascertaining Evidence And what doth his Lordship but pretend that I call the Convocation these young unstudied men as if they had made this Rubrick for none but themselves § 33. And he hath found another fault which exceedeth all and that is the Title and Dedication of my Methodus Theologiae where I say that I dedicate it not to the slothful hasty tired Sectaries c. but to studious ingenious humble c. young men as being the persons that are above all others born disposed consecrated to Truth Holiness and the Churches Peace c. Exceeding bad Will you hear the proof that this is excessive Pride 1. The Book in the frront indirectly and slily calls the Reader slothful rash foolish c. Ans Is this true 1. It is only those that I would not have to be the Readers Yea 2. Only those that I say it is not dedicated to And do you think there are none such in the world Will not his foresaid Debater and Dr. Parker and Dr. Sherlock and abundance more tell you that the Nonconformists are many of them such and will you now deny it If
think that so great a Patriarchate Diocess would not find a conscionable Pastor work enough without joyning with it the Magistrates Office 2. Was not the Church greatly changed even so early from what it was a little before in the daies of Martin and Sulpitius when even Ithacius durst not own being so much as a seeker to the Magistrate to draw the Sword against gross Hereticks and the best Bishops denied Communion with them that sought it And now a Bishop himself becomes the striker not of gross Hereticks but such as peaceable Bishops bore with I remember not to have read that Cyril had any Commission for the Sword from the Emperour Others then had not But I deny it not § 6. He saith that elsewhere I say I shall not dishonour such nor disobey them Answ I say and do so If a Bishop will take another Calling from the King's Grant when he hath undertaken already 40 times more work as a Diocesan than he can do I le honour and obey him as a Magistrate But I would be loth to stand before God under the guilt of his undertaking and omissions § 7. As to all the rest of the History about Cyril's Executions and the wounding of Orestes the Governour I leave it between the Credit of Mr. M. and Socrates And he very much suspects the Story of Cyril ' s making a Martyr of him that was executed for it I leave all to the Reader 's Judgment I think I may transcribe Socrates without slandering Cyril Here his spleen rising saith There are men in the world that honour such as Martyrs for murdering a King Answ You may smell what he insinuates I think he will not say that he ever did more against them than those that they call Presbyterians have done We Wrote and Preacht against them when he did not I know not the Presbyterian living to my remembrance that was not against the Murder of the King and Prin. whom the Bishops had cropt and stigmatized for being against them as an Erastian was the hottest in the Parliament for the Execution of the King's Judges But I knew divers Conformists that have written or spoken to justifie or excuse that Fact § 8. As for the Murder of Hypatia I leave him to his scuffle with Socrates and Damascius in which I interess not my self § 9. I thank Pope Innocent Mr. M. durst not deny Cyril's faults in his Enmity to the memory of Chrysostom and yet he calls my reciting the matter of Fact a reproach He is constrained to confess That the Quarrel was it seems hereditary to him so is Original Sin and he did prosecute it beyond all equity or decency against the memory of a dead man This was a fault and and he that is without any or without any particular animosity specially if he be in any eminent place let him â—ast the first stone Answ Thanks to Conscience We feel your Animosities But is not this man a Railing Accuser of Cyril if I am such What saith he less in the main Yea he now renews his Accusation of his Predecessor saying It was hereditary To prosecute malice against the very name of a holy extraordinary Bishop beyond all equity and decency what will Christianity or Humanity call it But Faction saith it was a fault and he that is without any c. Thus talkt Eli to his Sons So one may say To Silence 2000 Ministers or to hate the best men and seek their ruine is a fault a Prelatical peccadillo and so was Bonner's usage of the Martyrs and let him that is without any cast the first stone And St. John saith He that hateth his Brother is a murderer and none such hath Eternal Life abiding in him and that as Cain he is of the Evil One the Devil And I believe him § 10. But he saith I injuriously charge him with calling Alexander a bold faced man when Atticus was the first Author of that word Answ Atticus mentioned Alexander's confident true and necessary Counsel Cyril contradicting it calls the man A man of a confident face or mouth If another Bishop said the first words before him do I wrong him in saying he said the second O tender men His urging the keeping up the names of such as Nectarius and Arsacius and casting out Chrysostomus is so like our Canons about Readers and Nonconformists and our Canoneers descriptions of their Country Parsons and the Puritanes that I wonder not that you defend him § 11. But he saith that It 's a little unchristian to blast his memory with the faults which he corrected in his life-time Answ 1. It 's necessary to tell that truth which blasteth the Reputation of such sin as was growing up towards Papacy Ans 2. Then Christ was unchristian to tell the Jews of their very Fathers murders of the Prophets while they disclaimed it and built their Sepulchres Mat. 23. And then it was unchristian in the Holy Ghost to blast the memory of Adam Noe Lot David Solomon Peter yea or Manasseh with sins repented of 3. History must speak truth about things repented of or else it will but deceive the world 4. The Honour of God and Goodness and Truth must be preferred before our own Honour Repentance if true will most freely confess a mans own sin and most fully shame it § 12. Whether all his far-fetcht Conjectures that Cyril repented be true or no is nothing to me I will hope he did though I never saw it proved The very last Sentence of Death might do it His retortion is I know no man deeper engaged in the Contentions of the Church than I The writing of his Eighty Books being but like so many pitcht Battels he has fought and most commonly in the dark when he was hardly able to discover friend from foe Answ It 's too true that being all written for Peace the Enemies of Peace have fought against them Nimis diu habitavit anima mea inter osores pacis But pro captu Lectoris c. All men take not the words of such as he for Oracles How much I have written and done for Peace let others read and judge I long laboured and begg'd for Peace in vain with such as he defendeth And it 's admirable if this pittiless Enemy of Sects and Errours can be for all the Sects and Errours that I have written against Have I in the dark taken for foes by Errour the Atheists the Infidels the Sadduces the Hobbists the Quakers the Ranters the Papists the Socinians the Libertines called Antinomians the Anabaptists the Separatists and Sects as Sects Be of good comfort all These Prelatists that accuse us for too dark and sharp Writings against you seem to tell you that they will more hate persecuting or distressing you Yes when they agree with themselves His Prayer that I may have a more honorable opinion of Repentance he calls me to speak to in the End § 13. Whether good Isidore Pelusiota were a man very easy to
Flavianus 2. Yet he after excuseth Dioscorus from Heresie more Bishops than were Hereticks were violent § 7. As to his Reflection It may be he thinks the Emperour took a particular Delight in that kind of cruelty and that he had rather one should be kickt to death than that he should be hanged or beheaded which would not be much to the credit of his Moderation And to say the truth his Letter to Valentinian discovers a strange kind of Spirit for there he justifies the proceedings of the Eutychians at Ephesus and saies that all things were carried on with much freedom and perfect Truth and Flavian found guilty of Innovating in Religion This is but an ill sign that Mr. B. is a hater of false History when he lets this pass unreproved Ans 1. Had I reproved such an Emperour I might have expected that some of you would have published me an Enemy to Kings Ans 2. Rather Sir you and I should hence gather that all men must have pardon and forbearance and that for want of that the names of Nestorians Jacobites Melchites Greeks Papists Protestants Lutheranes Calvinists Prelatists and Presbyterians c. have almost swallowed up the Name much more the Love of Christians Ans 3. May it not consist with modesty and the hatred of false History to believe the high praises of this Emperour published by one that knew him in so pious and credible words as Socrates speaks as I before told you giving him to me a more credible Canonization than the Pope could have done as a man of eminent holiness wonderful Clemency that would not let a Traitor go out of the Gates towards the place of Execution and when he was moved to any Execution answered he had rather were he able restore the Dead to Life excelling all the Clergy in meekness and never seen angry May not I who am branded for a railer by meek Prelatists be tolerated to think charitably of such an Emperour and to wish that the world had many more such Ans 4. Judges are taken for unjust if they will not hear both sides speak And why should not I regard the words of such an Emperour as well as of one half the Bishops against the other Ans 5. Surely Modesty requireth me to think that the Emperour was much more capable of knowing the truth of the acts of his own Subjects when his Servants present gave him an account of them than I am 1200 Years after And so good a man would not willingly lye Ans 6. Therefore my own Conclusion is God is true and all men are Lyars that is untrusty and that Eudocia and his Courtiers had much power with him for Dioscorus against Flavian as Pulcheria had against Nestorius but that it was the Peace and Concord of the Bishops which he most studied and thought that it lay in going with the major part And I believe things were bad on both sides and worse than the Emperour thought with the Eutychian Bishops and worse than others say with their Adversaries and that the Emperour though fallible was as Socrates saith beyond all the Clergie But here I see that I am blamed for not railing against a meek and pious Emperour and as a Railer for lamenting the sins of the Clergie § 8. About the Council of Calcedon he accuseth me in general as disingeniously mincing the Acts and using all the soul play possible Easily said And what 's the proof Why 1. Leave out that they were violently beaten to it Ans The Reader may see that this is false I mention it oft pag. 101. The Bishops answered that they did it against their Wills being under fear Condemnation and banishment was threatned Souldiers were there with Clubs and Swords Shall I believe this man against such as Socrates of things done 1200 Years ago that will face me down with such untruths about my own yet visible Writings 2. But is it falshood to omit what is said in such and so many Volumns May not the Reader there see it Do I contradict it Must I write many Folio's or nothing I refer all Readers to the Acts. § 9. But he saith It would go near to excuse their Compliance with a merciful man Ans I confess such are not so bad as the Clergy-men that will sin for meer Preferment and will write against and revile and call for Execution on those that will not do as they But if Nonconformists after 19 Years Ejection and Reproach and Sufferings by more than Threats should at last surrender to heinous sin can he think it would excuse their Compliance when Christ saith Luk. 14 33. He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple If he think Martyrdom a work of Supererogation he is dangerously mistaken And he that to day thinks Threatning and Danger an Excuse for his sin may to morrow think Poverty and the next day the desire of Preferment an excuse § 10. Dioscorus and the Eutychians holding close to the Council of Nice as sufficient as a Test of the Orthodox to which nothing was to be added in reciting this he hath found my Ignorance in translating retractat by retract Is not the English word of the same sence with the Latine If not and I be ignorant in English too what wrong is that to any Bishop § 11. When he had charged Nonsence and Confusion on that which he understood not and mentioned Eusib Doril. giving the Lye to Eutyches he confesseth that the thing was true § 12. P. 253. He saith When the giddy rabble of Monks with Swords and staves like Bedlams broke loose run upon them I should rather pity them than insult Ans If the History be an insulting his own credited Historians insult by recording it If noting it as a fault be insulting then a motion to Repentance is insulting and if he would have us pity them for their sin and not only for their suffering that is insulting too But to own their sin and draw men to imitate them shall be none of my Compassion He minds me of Peters Denial and the Disciples forsaking Christ Alas he is not a man that is not sensible of Humane frailty But is it not therefore to be blamed Why doth Scripture mention it but that we may avoid the like Is it to tempt others to the like Did Christ insult when he said to Peter Get thee behind me Satan c. § 13. He next falls into his familiar strain to carry that ex Cathedra by sentence which he cannot do by proof and saith When I venture on Observations it 's an even lay that I am out Ans That is I am out of the way of his Magistry Preconceipt and Interest It is my Conciliatory words that the peaceable man is angry at viz. That this doleful Contentious Anathematizing and ruining of each other was about the sense of ambiguous words and they were both of one mind in the matter and knew it not He cannot but confess that my judgment