first Author of that Separation But 't is a ridiculous Chimera to imagine that they were out of the Essential Unity seeing that when they went away they carried with them the true Jesus the true Doctrine and the true Sacraments They were yet the Church they were Christians whatever St. Cyprian says of them and not only their Martyrs obtained the Crown of Martyrdom but their penitent Christians obtained Salvation although they died in Schism There are particular Unities and a general Unity Particular Unity consists in certain Bonds such as are common Ecclesiastick Government common Discipline and certain common Ceremonies You are not in particular Unity with the Episcopal Church of England with respect to Government But this Unity signifies nothing to Salvation he must be a mad man to damn Christians because they either have or have not Bishops The general Unity which consists in the three things which I have said is the only essential necessary and saving Unity If you agree with the Church in Government Discipline and Ceremonies and don 't agree with it in Opinions in Sacraments and Spirit you have no Communion with it if you differ in Government and Discipline and agree in Truths Sacraments and the same Jesus you are at Unity with it and with God. This Vnity of the Church whereof we have now discoursed makes me think of that unity of Souls which ought to prevail among the true Members of the Body of Christ It is the Character under which the Apostolick Church is described unto us They were all of one heart and one mind 'T is this holy Unity which draws down the holy Spirit for when the firy Tongues fell upon the Apostles they were all with one accord assembled in one place 'T is the absence of this holy Unity which in part hath drawn down those unhappy Effects of the Wrath of God under which we now groan Call to mind the Divisions the immortal Hatreds Jealousies Quarrels and Strifes which have been seen in the midst of you even on occasions and in things for which Peace and the Spirit of Charity were particularly requited One was of Paul another of Peter but not one for Jesus Christ Men made their own Passions and Interests to triumph and trampled under foot the Glory of God and the publick Edification The strictest friendships were always ready to break on the first transport of Passion The Spirit of Vengeance had no rest till it had revenged the Injuries it thought it had received and we knew not what it was to sacrifice a resentment to the Love of God and his Christ God has made these civil Wars to cease by a cruel and strange War. You have a common tye more than you have had you have had the same Faith the same Sacraments the same Churches and the same Holy Table besides you have at this day your common Affliction and your common Misfortunes 'T is certain that even in the World this makes a tye among Souls and it should do with far greater reason when men suffer the same grief for the same cause and for the same God. You ought mutually to love each other because you are afflicted for God and by consequence you ought to love those also who suffer for you they are your Confessors who have the glory to maintain in the Prisons those Truths with you have been so weak only to keep close in your Hearts having not the courage to shew them openly Among those which are in divers Prisons of the Realm for the Cause of God there are an infinite number that want all things these are Voices that cry against you to Heaven in a terrible manner and say What a shame is it that Jesus Christ is in Prison that he is Sick Hungry and Thirsty that he freezes with cold during the rigor of the Winter and that these Peters who grew pale at the word of a Servant don't go to visit him to give him Bread and Cloaths You know what will be the Sentence that the Lord will give to such think of it and partake-in the Bonds of your Brethren though they be at the utmost ends of the Kingdom Feb. 1. 1687. The TWELFTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The beginning of the History of Christianity of the Fourth and Fifth Ages Of the Original of Monks An Article of Controversie Of the Unity of the Ministry HAving finished the History of the Christianity of the Third Age we enter upon the Fourth We shall not distinguish that of the Fourth and Fifth they are so interwoven that they cannot be separated All the Superstitions false Worship and Corruptions of Discipline which are found established in the Fifth Age took their beginning in the Fourth We enter upon Ages in which the Church had entirely changed its Face it is no longer a persecuted Church it triumphs it reigns it ascends the Throne The Emperors becoming Christians drew along with them by their Authority and Examples an infinite number of Pagans who had that Complaisance and Civility for their Masters as to become Christians But the Church also on her part had the Complaisance to burthen Religion with vain Worship and Ceremonies borrowed from Paganism All that which she thought might be innocently taken from thence she took to draw them over to her The Bishops inrich'd by the Liberality of Constantine and his Successors became proud they would have a distinct Jurisdiction from the Civil they established for themselves Tribunals It appears by the Book of Constitutions falsely ascribed to the Apostles that the Bishops had Flatterers which said of them or rather they said of themselves many incredible proud and impertinent things * Vit. Const lib. 2. cap. 37 38. They set themselves above Kings they said that they must pay them Tributes and Tenths and that Men owed them greater Honors than Kings and that they had power to condemn to everlasting Fire Above all the Pomp and Pride of the Bishops of Rome that ruling City became such that they gave jealousie to the Chief Magistrates of the Empire They added to the Sacraments new Ceremonies an Unction before Baptism beside that which followed after it the Prayers and Ceremonies of the Liturgy of the Eucharist which they call at this day the Mass were much increased and augmented they made use of Holy Waters they consecrated Oyls and Chrism their Funerals were enriched with Ceremonies borrowed from Judaism or Paganism they had their Ninth day their Fortieth day and their yearly Obits or Prayers for the Dead they affixed Prayers to certain hours which at this day they call Canonical the Cock crowing Nine of the Clock Mid-day Three of the Clock and Vespers In these Ages they did essentially alter Divine Service by intermingling therewith the Service of Creatures A kind of Furie for Relicks seized on the Spirits of Men nothing was heard to be spoken of but Visions by which they had been discovered and Miracles which had been done by them they carried
obscure Church subject to the Metropolitan of Heraclea a City of Thrace sees her self honored by the presence of the Emperors Constantine carried thither the Sâ—at of the Empire and called it Constantinople after his own Name and obtained for it the Name of New Rome Then the Bishop of Constantinople began also to make use of an Advantage by the Dignity of the City where he was So that instead of three Tyrants in the Church which aspired to make themselves Masters of the Flocks there are found four the Bishop of Rome he of Alexandria he of Antioch and he of Constantinople But as Rome always preserved a Character of Greatness and Preheminence over other Cities because it was the stock and root of the Empire they allowed a Primacy of Order to the Bishop of that city without contradiction And this by so much the more easily as the Spirit which built the Mystery of Iniquity had universally established the Opinion that S. Peter accounted the chief of the Apostles had placed his Episcopal Seat at Rome where he established Successors in such a manner that all Bishops in the World did silently consent to grant this Primacy of Order and of Presidence to the Church of Rome for these two Reasons the first that the City of Rome was the Capital of the Universe the second that the chief of the Apostles had had his Seat there so the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged for the first in order in their Assemblies but without any kind of Power or Jurisdiction over others In the mean time the rest of the Hierarchy was formed after the Model of the Government of the Empire The Rome Empire in the East was divided into Five principal Governments 1. That of the East whereof the Metropolis was Antioch and which extending it self over Syria is called East by distinction from the other Oriental Provinces 2. That of Egypt whose Head was Alexandria 3. That of Pontus whereof the Capital was Caesarea 4. That of Asia whereof the Capital was Ephesus 5. That of Thrace whereof the Metropolis was Constantinople So that these five Cities Antioch Alexandria Caesarea Ephesus and Constantinople were the places where the five great Governors of the Oriental part of the Roman Empire had their abode The Bishops of the same Cities advanced themselves also above the other Bishops of the Provinces and formed five Exarchates i. e. five sorts of Patriarchates independent the one from the other in every one of these Exarchates or Patriarchates there were many Bishops and even many Metropolitans in the sense that the Word is taken at this day The Exarchs of Antioch of Alexandria of Ephesus of Caesarea and of Constantineple every one in his Exarchate was above the Bishops in Government whether they were Metropolitans or simple Bishops so it was in the West also There was in Italy two principal Governments under the Name of Vicarships the Government of Rome and that of Milan for which reason the Bishops of these two Cities imitating the Civil Government advanced themselves also in the Ecclesiastick above the other Bishops of Italy The Bishop of Rome had therefore at that time a Primacy of Order and Presidence as we have observed because of the Preheminence of the City and the false Opinion that had obtained that S. Peter had been Bishop there But he exercised no Act of Jurisdiction or Superiority over others It was not permitted him to receive Appeals nor to make void the Decisions of other Bishops They were not the Bishops of Rome that called General Councils they were the Emperors it was not they that determined Controversies of Faith they were the Councils they could not send out their Interdicts nor Excommunications against other Churches or constrain them to Obedience by any Censure If the Bishops of Rome did separate other Churches from their Communion other Churches also kept themselves separate from their Communion adherence to the Bishop of Rome was of no necessity to obtain the esteem of an Orthodox and Catholick Church and there were Churches in those Ages which continued many Years in separation and without any Communion with the Church of Rome without ever being esteemed either Hereticks or Schismaticks Nevertheless it was in the Fourth Age that the Bishop of Rome did sow the Seeds of his Tyranny and took upon himself to judg those which other Bishops had already censured And this happened chiefly on the occasion of the Troubles which the Heresie of Arrius raised in the Church The Arrians became Masters in the East and drave the Orthodox Bishops from their Seats as Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Paul Bishop of Constantinople c. These Bishops unjustly deposed and driven away retired themselves into the West where Arrianism had made far less Ravages The Bishops of Milan Rome and the principal Seats of Italy continued Orthodox S. Athanasius and others came into Italy and to Rome to implore the Succour of the Bishop thereof and other Bishops of the West to the end that by their Credit and Authority as well with other Bishops as principally with the Emperors they might be re-established in their Seats The Bishop of Rome receives them treats them as Bishops and declares that he had no regard for the unjust and violent Decisions of the Arrians yea he did all that was in his power to re-place them in their Seats At this time i. e. in the heat of these Controversies stirred up by the Arrians the Bishops of the West which were Orthodox held a Council at Sardis in the Year 347. there to judge the Cause of Athanasius and Paul Bishop of Constantinople In this Council the Bishops of the West observing that the Violences which the Orthodox Bishops of the East had suffered from the hands of Heretick Bishops were without remedy whilst these Heretical Bishops should be absolute Masters they thought fit to make three Canons or Ecclesiastical Rules according to which when a Bishop found himself oppressed by unjust Judgment he might have recourse to Rome that the Bishop of Rome should have power to appoint a review of the Process and for that reason send Deputies on his part which should cause a Synod of the Province to assemble and re-judg the matter a second time that in expectation of this second Judgment the Affairs should remain in suspence and the place of the deposed Bishop should not be filled Behold exactly the fatal Point of the first conception of this tyrannical Power which hath since swallowed up the Church The truth is that the Council of Sardis was made up of Western Bishops which had no power to make Laws for the Eastern Church It is also true that the Churches of the East have always scoffed at the Canons of Sardis and never would receive them It is also true that in the West it self these Canons were not received but very lately and a long time after But 't is also true that since that time the Bishops of Rome have never ceased to make
opinion concerning the Sense of Scripture will not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they must submit the Christian Church is assuredly the weakest of all Societies that are in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions the most abandoned to Innovators and factious persons This is that to which your Ministers with all their subtleties have never been able to find an Answer and they content themselves with bringing Examples where they pretend that Councils have not always determined well All these Examples are false or ill alledged In one quarter of an hours time you which are a Man of Sense will be convinced thereof and you do receive things with too much credulity without ever putting your self on the labor to examine them But without putting you upon these Disquisitions consider only whether it be likely that God who hath permitted so many depths in the Scripture and from thence have arisen so many Schisms amongst those that profess to receive it hath not left some means to his Church to quiet and pacifie them in such manner that there is no remedy for Divisions but to let every one believe according to his fancy and thence insensibly to carry Men to an indifferency in Religion which is the greatest of all Evils Think Master think of it hear your own reason and not the subtleties of your Ministers who at what rate soever will defend their Prejudices and not pass for Teachers of Lies Think of these things excuse those Expressions which may seem a little dark and disordered it is much better that you attend to the simplicity of a Brother that endeavours to gain a Brother than a polite and studied Discourse Come and assure your self that I will do all for you whom I esteem and who are dear to me and that I am cordially Yours c. Thus Signed J. Benigne E. de Meaux Forasmuch as we have imposed a necessity upon our selves not to go beyond a Sheet we pass by our Reflections on this Letter till another Letter which we shall give you in a few days for this serves only as a Preface In the mean time we recommend you to the Grace and Mercy of God. Amen Sept. 1 1687. The SECOND PASTORAL LETTER IN WHICH What Monsieur de Meaux says concerning the right of Persecutors for submission to Councils is confuted A considerable error of the same Gentleman about a matter of Fact in Antiquity Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ THE necessity of concluding hindered us in our former Letter from adding our reflections upon that which the Bishop of Meaux wrote to one of his Diocess that was escaped by flight At present we entreat both you my Brethren and all reasonable Men in the World to compare these two Letters together the Pastoral Letter that is publick and this which is private and particular Will any one find the Bishop of Meaux here Are they two persons or is it but one Himself in publick and the same person in private According to Monsieur de Meaux's Writing and Printing for the new Converts of his Diocess neither he nor the other Bishops have ever heard any speech of Dragoons and Torments According to himself writing in his Closet to a particular person the Case is not the same It is true there is a Persecution for the sake of Religion but it is just it is allowed it is authorised by our example by that of the Ancients and by Divine and Human Laws Good God! How do these Men govern themselves And what do they think Could the Bishop of Meaux ever hope that his Printed Letter should never fall into the hands of him to whom this written Letter was addressed I would fain know what will be answered thereunto If Monsieur de Meaux hath right and reason on his side in his Letter to Monsieur Dev. why doth he say that himself and other Bishops have not heard any speech of Persecution It is a pleasure and an advantage to us to see these Gentlemen deny this Persecution and thereby against publick knowledge and notoriety charge themselves with falshood It is an homage that they pay to Truth It is a confession intelligible enough that violence and the means that they employ are contrary to the spirit of Humanity and that of the Gospel But what a shame is it for them to contradict themselves to confess in private what they deny in publick and acknowledge themselves false Witnesses by their own peoples declarations However it be behold us carried from matter of Fact to that of Right It is no longer debated whether there be a Persecution but whether they have right to Persecute for the sake of Religion It is a question on which so much hath been lately written that nothing new can be said concerning it Nevertheless having Printed the Letter of the Bishop of Meaux and because there is somthing that is dazling and apt to deceive in his manner of writing we think our selves obliged to Print also a refutation thereof we will therefore repeat his words and examine them one after another I have seen in the Letter that you wrote to Mademoiselle de V. that the true Church doth not Persecute what understand you by that Monsieur Do you understand that the Church by it self never makes use of force That is true since the Church hath no other Arms but those that are Spiritual What means this little Paragraph of Gibberish which is formed and contrived on purpose to impose upon the simple They are willing that it should mean that it is not the Church of Rome that raises the present Persecution nor is it according to the Principles thereof For it is that which they persuade the new Converts It is by this means that they take away the scandal that the new Papists take at the Conduct of their Church It is the King say they that doth it it is not the Church for it serves it self only of Spiritual Weapons if what is done be disapproved it ought not to be imputed they say to their Religion which neither appoints nor advises it That which was written to us not long since by one of their most illustrious and best satisfied Converts comes to this I do not answer says she to all that which you have said concerning the ways that are made use of to gain Converts I believe that nothing is to be imputed to any Religion but what it appoints to be believed and practised This answer is very Gentile and worthy of a Lady that thinks herself obliged to answer to nothing But it ought to be rememembred that there is a Tribunal where answers must be made one day without any regard to the difference of Sexes where no evasions will be permitted us and that we shall be punished there for having been unwilling to attend to those things which might have made us understand the nature of that Religion that we had newly
to mark here the Character of sweetness and Christian patience which is peculiar to those that suffer for the Truth his modesty hinders us from naming him but in seeing him behind his Curtain you will learn from him after what manner we ought to suffer all things for the Truth and to suffer with patience as our Lord has given us example The Grace of God be with you all Septemb. 15. 1686. The THIRD PASTORAL LETTER AND Confutation of what Monsieur de Meaux says to establish the necessity of a living speaking Authority concerning a Succession of Chairs without a Succession of Doctrine General Methods for making good the Sophisms and Fallacies concerning the Authority and Infallibility of the Church My Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be unto you from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ YOur Temptations which increase every day do also redouble our grief and cause us to desire with the greater passion to give you assistance and succor for which reason we prosecute what we have begun 'T is to furnish you with Lights for the dispelling of that Darkness wherewith they endeavour to obscure those Truths which you have learned from your childhood Among other things they make great and prodigious attempts to take you off from that adherence that you give to the holy Scriptures and to oblige you to forsake those living Fountains and to run after the broken Cisterns of Egypt which will hold no water The last periods of Monsieur de Meaux his private Letter and the second Article of his Pastoral Letter look that way They are these Periods and this Article upon which we shall make our Reflections and we do beseech you to give attention to them Behold then how Monsieur de Meaux prosecutes his Letter to Monsieur de V In a word the meaning is if Christians when they cannot agree upâ—n the sense of Scripture do not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they do submit the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all Societies in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions and most abandoned to factious Innovators This is it to which your Ministers with all their Subtleties have never been able to find an Answer In truth 't is to put great confidence in the Credulity of Men to tell them with so much impudence that the Ministers have not been able to find an Answer to this Sophism I do not think that there is any which hath been rejected with more force and more success And we do defie Monsieur de Meaux and Monsieur Nicholas to answer any thing that 's reasonable to what hath been said against the Infallibility of this pretended living speaking Judge in the Answer which hath been lately made to the Book of M. Nicholas intituled The pretended Reformed convinced of Schism We have there answered it and will answer it again But this is no place to answer to it at large We will content our selves to intreat you my Brethren to make two general Reflections thereon First That Remedy can never be good which never produces the effect which Men say it doth always produce M de Meaux pretends that this certain living speaking Authority is an infallible Remedy against Divisions and Heresies For without it says he the Church would be of all Societies most abandoned to Divisions Innovations and Factions If this Remedy be so good why hath it never produced its effect Was not this living speaking Authority in the world was it not say I from the times of the Apostles and the first Ages of Christianity Why therefore have we seen from the beginning swarms of Heresies and Hereticks Simonians Corinthians Basilidians Marcosians Valentinians Marcionites Manicheans and multitudes of others Wherefore in the fourth and fifth Ages of the Church was it torn in pieces by Arrians Nestorians Eutychians Photinians Why do they account to the number of two or three hundred Heresies Why did this brave Remedy against Divisions permit the Schism of the Donatists more than three hundred years That of the Eutychians more than twelve hundred That of the Nestorians as long Why doth not this excellent Remedy put an end to the Schism of the Greeks after the duration of near eight hundred years Was it this living speaking Authority which suppressed the Waldenses and Albigenses or the Fire and Sword of Simon de Montfort and his Villains Why hath this living and speaking Authority permitted the Latin Church to be torn in pieces in these latter Ages Behold in truth a fine Remedy good for nothing and which over and above is established upon inconsistent Principles as hath been proved an hundred times The other general Reflection which I desire you would make is on the great inconvenience that Monsieur de Meaux finds in acknowledging That the Church is the weakest of all Societies in the World. I do profess that it appears very uneasie to me as well as to him and I am not without all inclination to reason with him and say There is no appearance or probability that the Church should be the most impotent of all Societies under the Heavens and by consequence 't is not likely that it should have been the Tennis Ball of Persecutors of Tyrants of malignant Spirits of Schismaticks of Hereticks of factious Innovators and vitious corrupters of the Truth and Worship of God. And so all that hath been said of Persecutions Punishments Heresies Seditions happening in the Church Strife among Bishops their Quarrels and Divisions of the fury of Schisms of the horrible corruption of Manners that hath been seen in some Ages and is seen in this all these things say I are false For 't is impossible that the Church should be the weakest of all Societies which it would be if what hath been said yea and what our eyes see be true So that it must needs be that all Histories be Romances and all Objects that we see Illusions and that there be a Wall of Fire about the Church that hinders all sorts of Evils from approaching it 'T is a Prodigy in my apprehension that Men should be found that will destroy truths in matter of fact sense and experience by Discourses in the air These Gentlemen do never enter into the depths of God's ways they do not perceive nor understand that 't is indeed by the order of his Providence that to the apprehension of sense the Church is the most feeble of all Societies most given up to the will and lust of Persecutors and Men of Faction and Innovation Where is the Society that hath been given up and exposed to so many Schisms Divisions and Persecutions as the Church But the Power of God and the Stability of the Church consists in this that it subsists in despite to all Assaults and that God preserves in the midst of those Schisms and Divisions Errors and Superstitions those fundamental Truths and Precepts of Morality by which the Elect are preserved notwithstanding the general corruption that doth involve and
Words of Tertullian ill understood learn from the Example of St. Cyprian who lived in the same Age That Tradition was at that time a proof whereof Men made use according to the diversity of their Apprehensions and their Interests Tertullian seems to make great account of it and St. Cyprian laughs at it when on the subject of Hereticks which he would re-baptize contrary to the Practice of the Church they objected to him Tradition Custom ancient Usage and antique Practice he rejected these Proofs with Contempt and Scorn Stephen had written to him Let nothing be innovated in Tradition Where is this Tradition answers he ‖ Epist 74. is it in the Gospels in the Acts or in the Epistles An ancient Custom without truth is nothing but an old Error And in another Epistle he saith * Epist 63. Since we must hear none but Jesus Christ we need not examine what those that went before us have done but that which Jesus Christ hath done before all for we must not follow the Custom of Men but the Truth of God. To conclude they endeavour to put Scruples in your minds on the Question of the pretended Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church by certain Passages of Tertullian and St. Cyprian either corrupted or ill expounded But that is a business the discussion whereof is too long to be handled at this time yea 't is above the capacity of most of you only know that 't is so far from truth that they did acknowledge the Sovereign Authority of the Pope in that Age that Tertullian makes no scruple to scoff at the Pretensions of the Bishop of Rome and to call him in Raillery the Bishop of Bishops because of some kind of Primacy which he began to pretend to For even in that time the Mystery of Iniquity began to work St. Cyprian despises the Excommunications of Stephen Bishop of Rome and opposes himself to the attempt of those who would appeal to Rome about matters determined in the Provinces of Africa This is that St. Cyprian to whom some Persons attribute the Acknowledgment of the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome who said on the Question of the Baptism of Hereticks and of the Admission of Bishops which had lapsed and fallen †Epist 72. In which case we will do violence to no man nor will we give Law to others observing that every Bishop may use the Power given him according to his Will in the Government of the Church being under no Obligation to give an account thereof to any one but the Lord. 'T was to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Judge you whether he acknowledged him for his Superior Hear how the same Cyprian speaks in the face of a Council assembled at Carthage in the Year 258. Let none of us call himself Bishop of Bishops or endeavour to force his Collegues to a necessity of Obedience by a tyrannical fear and terror seeeng every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop nor can he judge other Bishops 'T was also with respect to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Has any one the front to say That speaking thus he acknowledged him for his Superior Observe that it was no small Affair that was now under debate 't was about the Baptism of Hereticks a Question which had made a great noise and which Stephen would have decided with too much Authority The Bishop of Meaux after a hundred others of his Communion to prove the Primacy of the Pope by S. Cyprian quotes a Passage from his fifty second Epistle which proves that these Gentlemen do not fear to make themselves ridiculous provided they may seem to say somewhat 'T is a Passage where he pretends S. Cyprian says That the Roman Emperor did suffer in Rome a Priest which was his Rival with more impatience than he suffer'd a Caefar in his Armies which disputed the Empire with him That is to say that the Roman Emperors did impatiently suffer that the Bishop of Rome should be called High Priest to the prejudice of that Dignity which the Emperors assumed unto themselves So that according to this reckoning they were jealous of the Bishops of Rome and look'd upon them as their Rivals in the High Priesthood In truth this is more ridiculous than if one should say The King of England who calls himself Head of the English Church were jealous of the Curate of the Parish of St. Martin in London The Christians certainly were not above one in a hundred in Rome and the Bishops of Rome at that time made less Figure in the World than an Incumbent of five hundred Crowns per annum makes at this day for besides that they were Poor they were also humble What Agreement could the Emperor in quality of a Pagan High-Priest have with this pretended High-Priest of the Christians To be his Rival he must aspire to the same thing I should rather have chosen to have said That the Mufâ—i looks on the Patriarch of Constantinople as his Rival The meanest Scholar knows that the Word Aemulus which signifies Rival signifies also Enemy and 't is clear that S. Cyprian means that that cruel Persecutor the Emperor Decius beheld with more Indignation a Priest that opposed his Religion than he would have look'd upon an Enemy that had disputed the Empire with him To conclude although St. Cyprian should have intended to compare the Bishop of Rome with the Pagan High-Priest it would not follow that the Bishop of Rome was Head of all the Christians in the World for the Roman Priest was not Head but of the Religion of the City of Rome and not of the whole Empire 'T is true that St. Cyprian corrupted the Idea of the Church and opened a door to the most cruel Doctrine that ever was advanced he made a false Idea of the Unity of the Church which he encloses in one only external Communion And because the Unity of one visible Head was not yet invented he imagined I know not what Unity of Episcopacy which all the Bishops did individually possess whereof nevertheless they all administred but a part This inconsistent Imagination gave place afterwards for the Substitution of one single Head to the end that a visible Head might be given to the Unity of the visible Communion which might be the centre thereof This suffices to give you an Idea of the Christianity of the Third Age and by this History you may observe what was altered in Doctrine or Worship 1. They introduced the use of the Sign of the Cross at least in private for we find it not as yet in the publick Acts of Religion We have said nothing to you concerning it as yet because it is a little thing about which we should never make Complaints against any one provided they be not superstitious in the use of it 2. The Liturgy of the Sacrament of the Eucharist was augmented and increased exceedingly by many Prayers
years without having one word of General Councils she passed without them during all that time Nevertheless she had never more need of them supposing them to be infallible means of ending Controversies and suppressing Heresies For in the first three Hundred years the Church was plagued with near Fifty differing Heresies Now judg you whether it be likely that God should appoint an infallible Judg to his Church and a sure way of knowing the Truth and that he should deny her the use of this means for the space of well near two Hundred and fifty years that is to say from the death of S. John the last of the Apostles till the Council of Nice So that in the Ages of greatest purity it will be found that the Church did not derive this purity from any other Fountain but from the simple and pure word of God it makes it evident that the Church may be pure without an infallible Judg in the midst of her Now if the Church may continue pure for the space of two Hundred and twenty five years without a General Council that is to say without an infallible Judg why may she not continue pure three four or five Hundred years For my part I call this a Demonstration that the Church may very well make a shift without those Judges that are called Infallible Let them answer it when they please Observe also that the Church was tormented with Fifty horrible Heresies which thought to have overwhelmed and sunk her and having no Councils she was then left to a Spirit of Error in those times that she had greatest need of a Guide for she had no other Rule but the Writings of the Apostles which according to our Adversaries are Medals with two Faces which may be looked on in a various manner and which all men expound in favour of their own Perswasions It is not amiss to bring hither Tertullian's Book of Prescriptions of which they make use with such success to deceive those that are weak among us It appears by this Book that the Orthodox were in the greatest distress in the World to convince and stop the mouths of Hereticks The Hereticks gave themselves to expound the Scripture after their own manner and in a sense contrary to the truth Tertullian complains thereof and says That false Interpretations do as much injury to Truth as the boldness of those that corrupt the Scriptures He adds That the weak find themselves confounded seeing Hereticks as well as Catholicks dispute from the Scripture To get out of this perplexity he recurs to the Succession of Bishops by whom it might be proved that they taught nothing but what the Apostles had taught before them he found no other way of escape this man had a Mind very much straitned or he was very ignorant Why did he not think of General Councils who are the only infallible means of knowing the sense of the Scriptures Neither he nor any of the Writers of this Age and of that which followed it had any knowledg of them Nevertheless as it is said it was a means established and appointed by God and yet for the space of two Hundred years it must be acknowledged that God hid this means from the whole Church and that he left her in a streight given up to the Humors of Hereticks and to their lewd and false Interpretations No reasonable Man will ever swallow such a Prodigy 3. I intreat you my Brethren to consider if it be likely that God should place Infallibility in Assemblies whose Original was wholly casual and accidental The occasion which gave birth to General Councils was the Conversion of the Roman Emperors to Christianity and the great extent of that Empire For if the Emperors had continued Pagans Councils from all parts of the Empire had never been assembled the Emperors would have looked upon it as a Conspiracy and would never have permitted it Besides if the Roman Emperors by becoming Christians had lost half the Provinces of the Empire there had never been any General Councils neither For the divers Princes which had possessed themselves of the Provinces of the Empire would not have permitted their Subjects to assemble with those who continued under the Rule of the Romans for fear lest these Conferences should be designed to search out ways of returning under the Government of their first Masters Now judg if a Tribunal which in the purpose of God was to be the Fountain of the Oracles of the Church in all Ages ought to owe its birth to a concourse of Affairs and Mundane Circumstances that were wholly and purely so Ought not God to have established this Tribunal without dependance on the World and the Affairs thereof as from the beginning he established Presbyteries so S. Paul calls the Assemblies of Pastors is every City and in every particular Church He must have a very obdurate Mind I think who is not moved and touched with this Discourse and Reason 4. What may be the assurance that a Man may have of such an Article of Faith which is founded on a Matter of Fact notoriously false 'T is that the Councils of the Fourth and Fifth Ages were assembled from the whole Universal Church That say I is notoriously false there were not above three Hundred and eighteen Fathers in the Council of Nice the most ancient and the most venerable of all the Councils What are three Hundred and eighteen Bishops for the whole vast extent of the Roman Empire where there was an infinite number of them It does not appear that all the Churches did depute their Bishops thither nor that all the Provinces of the Roman Empire did assemble to choose some one out of their Body who should carry their Counsel and Advice Constantine called together all the Bishops in general those that could and those that would appeared there none appeared there but those of the Eastern Church there were not Twelve of the Latin Church there out of all Spain none were seen but Hosius Bishop of Corduba out of all France none but Nicasius Bishop of Die or Dijon Besides this there were Churches out of the Roman Empire it may be there were Churches even in the Indies at least those which tell us that S. Thomas carried the Gospel thither ought to believe so 'T is certain at least that there were large Churches in Persia Ecclesiastical History speaks of a great Persecution which was raised at that time against the Christian Churches of Persia by the Impudence or ill guided Zeal of Maruthas a Bishop who burnt one of the Temples which the Persians had consecrated to the Honor of the Fire These Churches of Persia were not called to this Council nor did they appear there All the World are at an Agreement that the first Council of Constantinople held under Theodosius the Great was not General There were none but Eastern Bishops there yea two Hundred years after in the time of Gregory the first Bishop of Rome the Western
valid and even to extend these Canons very far beyond their intention They have been willing to perswade First That they have right to receive Appeals whereas the Council of Sardis grants them nothing but the right of appointing a review which is very much different from it Secondly And above all they would make us believe that they have this Power by Divine Right and from the Apostles whereas they have it not but by the Canons of this Council of Sardis In the Year 383 that is to say about Sixty Years after the Council of Nice and Thirty six after that of Sardis was held the first Council of Constantinople which is reckoned for the second of those which are called General altho it were made up of an Hundred and fifty Fathers and no more and tho there were none at all of all the West This Council enlarges and confirms the Hierarchy But it did not yet establish the Patriarchs i. e. the four Seats which pretend to have Dominion over all the Churches of the World On the contrary in the second Canon it ordains 1. That the Bishops of one Diocess i. e. of one Province for then a Diocess did not signifie the particular Church of one Bishop 't was a Collection of many Bishops under one Exarch It appoints say I That the Bishops of one Province should not intermeddle in the Affairs of another and this without excepting the Bishop of Rome 2. It appoints That the Bishop of Alexandria administer only the Affairs of Egypt 3. That the Bishops of the East i. e. of Syria govern their Churches preserving to the Bishop of Antioch the Preheminence that had been given him by the Council of Nice 4. That the Bishop of Asia whereof Ephesus was the Head govern the Diocess of Asia without being subject to Antioch Constantinople or Rome 5. That the Churches of Thrace be governed by the Bishops and Synods of the Province without any other Superior 6. That the Churches amongst the barbarous Nations govern themselves according to the custom of their Fathers without Patriarchs and without Pope There is no footstep of any Papal Authority nor even of any Patriarchal and Universal In the following Canon we read these words That the Bishop of the City of Constantinople hath the Privileges of Honor after the Bishop of Rome because it is new Rome A Canon which gives to the Bishop of Rome nothing but Privileges of Honor and Presidence and grants them to be enjoyed by New Rome in the second Place For this reason the Bishops of Constantinople would no longer sit below the Bishops of Antioch and Alexandria because the City of their Seat was the Imperial City This makes it appear that the Bishops had no Preheminence one before another but by reason of the Cities where they had their Seats and not by any divine Right The Case is the same with the Bishop of Rome That Bishop gained nothing by all this as is evident nevertheless the truth is he always grew higher according to the measure that the Hierarchy advanced For the Exarchs assumed unjust Rights over those which were merely Bishops The Bishops of the Four first Seats Rome Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch raised themselves by little and little above the Exarchs and at last subjected and swallowed them up Particularly he of Constantinople whose Ambition was not inferior to that of the Bishop of Rome made himself Judg of the Exarchates of Pontus and Asia and that of the Barbarian Churches with that of Thrace which he had already 'T was in the Fourth Oecumenical Council held at Calcedon in the Year 451. where it was ordained that * Can. 28. The Church of Constantinople should enjoy the same Priviledges and Honours in Ecclesiastical Matters seeing the City of Constantinople in Temporal Matters did enjoy the same Priviledges and Honors with ancient Rome But if Constantinople did then exalt it self Rome did not do it less in proportion Already the Bishops of Rome began to Lord it over all the West Leo I. was placed in that Seat a Man who had great Parts but of great Pride who played the Master in the Church He declared that a Man is not of the Church when he does not obey it he proceeded so far as to say That Jesus Christ intended that all his Gifts should run down from the Chair of S. Peter as from the Head on all the Body of the Church and that he which dared to separate himself from the Chair of S. Peter ought to understand that he is excluded from the divine Mysteries i. e. from the Church This was the Leo that obtained a Law from the Emperor Valentinian by which he was established Sovereign Judg of all other Bishops for which reason we take this Episcopacy of Leo for the first Point of the birth of the Antichristian Empire This is enough for my end which is not to give you a History of the Hierarchy and after that of the Papal Tyranny in all their Progressions but only an Abridgment of the History of their birth in the Fourth and Fifth Ages That which I have to observe for the conclusion of this Article whereunto you ought to give good attention is that the brief History that I have given you is perfectly agreeable to the Spirit of the Gallican Church at this day She maintains 1. That the Church of Rome is no more but a particular Church as others are 2. That S. Peter had nothing but a Primacy of Order and Presidence above the Apostles 3. That S. Peter could give to his Successors over other Bishops no more but that Primacy which he had over the Apostles 4. That the Bishop of Rome originally and by divine Right had no power over the Universal Church 5. That he did not receive Appeals in the first Ages of the Church 6. That he had no Right to assemble General Councils 7. That he could take cognizance of the Affairs of no other Province but his own no not by Appeal 8. That he had no Right to take knowledge of Matters of Faith to make Decisions therein which should oblige the whole Church 9. That before the Council of Nice and after he had no inspection over other Churches but those which were in the Neighborhood of Rome 10. That he could no excommunicate other Bishops any otherwise than the other Bishops could excommunicate him 11. That a Man might separate himself from the Bishop of Rome without being a Schismatick and out of the Church 12. That the Pope had no Right over other Bishops 13. That the Council of Sardis is the Fountain of that Right of receiving Appeals which the Pope claims 14. That the Rights which the Pope hath at this day excepting his Primacy are by human Law and because he hath assumed them to himself or because they have been conceded to him 15. To which they add he is not Infallible nor superior to Councils nor Master of the Temporalities of Kings Behold the
the year 1606 was made the Treaty called the Pacification between Rodolphus Emperour and King of Hungary and Stephen Bothskey Kis-ma-ria The first Article whereof grants That the Reformed Hungarians should not in any thing be troubled in the exercise of their Religion and that all the Churches taken from them during the Troubles should be restored to them All the Kings of Hungary which have been since Matthias Ferdinand the Second and Ferdinand the Third have confirmed these Priviledges by their Declarations To conclude the present Emperour in the year 1655 when he was crowned King of Hungary confirmed by an express Declaration all that his Predecessours had done The eleventh Article of that Declaration concedes That for the Conservation of Peace amongst all the Orders and States of Hungary the business of Religion shall remain free without receiving any Disturbance according to the Constitution of Vienna and the Articles published before the Coronation in such sort that the exercise of Religion shall be entirely free for the Barons Lords Nobles free Citizens and generally for all Estates and Orders of Hungary as also for the Towns and Villages which will embrace it so that no person of what estate or condition soever may be hindered by his Majesty or other Temporal Lords in any manner or under any pretence whatsoever from the free use and exercise of the said Religion Things were in this estate in the year 1671 when a Jesuite named George Barze Titular Bishop of Warradine calling himself Counsellour to his Imperial Majesty published a Book with this Title Truth declared to all the World which makes it appear by three Arguments that his Imperial Majesty is not obliged to Tollerate the Lutheran and Calvinist Sect in Hungary It is easie to understand what a Work of this Title that has a Jesuite for its Author doth contain The design thereof was to justifie the Persecutions which had been already made against the Protestants of Hungary as well as those they were preparing to make For already a long time before the publication of this Writing some particular Lords had set up for cruel Persecutors Among others Francis Nadasti Paul Esthersiazy and many others at the instigation of the Priests and Jesuites had employed both fire and sword they had massacred the Reformed in their Churches hanged them up on the bars of their Church-doors and many others they had thrown head-long from Turrets The Arch-bishops Bishops and Popish Gentlemen had thus used them and also pulled down the Churches in the Countries which held and depended on them The free Cities and those who depended only on the Emperour were exempt from this storm but they shall have their turn on the occasion following Many great Hungarian Lords of the Popish Religion as the Nadasties the Serinies the Frangipanes joyn themselves to Francis Rakotsqui and took Arms against the Emperour for private Quarrels The Troops of Austria on this occasion entred into Hungary on the year 1670 and defeated these Rebels The Arch-bishops Bishops and Jesuites of Hungary thought they must not let slip the opportunities they now had to persecute the Protestants They served themselves of these insolent victorious Troops in all the free Cities to do the same Violences which had been done by particular Lords against the Reformed Without form of Process they took away their Churches they banished the Ministers they put them in Prison they massacred a great number they charged the People and even the Nobility with Taxes Souldiers and Garisons they offered a thousand and a thousand Violences to oblige people to change their Religion All the Ecclesiasticks every one by himself acted like unbridled Furies The Prisons were filled with these miserable Wretches the Churches were razed every-where in the most places there were horrible Massacres and even whole Villages burnt because they were wholly inhabited by Protestants they hung the Ministers at the Doors of their Churches There was one named John Baki a Minister of the Church of Comana who was burnt At Cassovia and Posonium they put to death a great number of persons of all Sexes of all Ages and all Qualities They banished all those whom they dare not kill In one word all Hungary became a place like Hell for the Reformed where death punishments and torments presented themselves every-where before their eyes To give some colour of Justice to these Violences they established a Chamber at Posonium made up of all such as were found most cruel Enemies to the Protestants They summon'd the people before they summon'd their Pastors hoping that they would fall the more easily by the Temptation and that fear would cause them to change their Religion those which appeared and supported themselves on their innocency were cast into Prisons oppressed with Fines persecuted after a hundred manners and constrained at last to change their Religion To those which had courage enough not to renounce the Truth they presented a Writing to be subscribed by which they made them promise they would forsake their Pastors that they would not protect them and that they would not oppose the Priests in taking possession of their Churches On which Condition they promised to let them live in peace in hope and expectation that the Spirit would enlighten and Convert them Some fell and made their subscriptions others perished through misery famine and torments in the prisons When they had thus subdued and abused the people they turn themselves to their Pastors they established three Chambers of Justice the one at Tinew and two at Posonium before whom they summoned at first a small number of Pastors of the Confession of Ausburgh They appeared to the number of thirty two or thirty three the 25th of September 1673 they presented them a Writing to be subscribed importing That it was their will and pleasure that they should say that to escape the sentence which might be pronounced against them for their Rebellion they did consent to one of these three things Either to Renounce all exercise of their Office for ever and to live as good Subjects privately in the Realm or to go voluntarily into Exile with promise never to return again into the Estates of the Emperour or to embrace the Catholick Religion in which case they might remain in the Kingdom and enjoy all sorts of Advantages there The providence of God permitted this unjust and altogether unrighteous procedure to the end that these poor accused persons might have an opportunity to justifie themselves from the Crime of Rebellion whereof they were accused Is it so that men used to proceed against those that are Traytors And has it been usual to punish them with a voluntary Exile or by a simple Renunciation of their Offices and Charges They did all that they could to oblige the Pastors to subscribe this Writing and the most part of them fearing death did subscribe confessing themselves culpable though they were innocent and went voluntarily into Banishment Section This attempt having succeed sufficiently well