Westminster both Usurpers the one of the Regal the other of the Episcopal Power whom they had Assaulted both with Sword and Pen to their then present Abolition and whom he slatters with the specious Titles of Supporters both of Church and State Vobis viri maximi in quos Ecclesia Respublica inclinatè recumbum Britannorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Choice Men and Supreme in our Land Quibus incoâ—â—um est generoso pectus honesto and for Episcopacy it self besides the whole Design of the Book which is laid against it he places it for time and quality with those first Heresies which infested the Church those Antichrists which were then in the World both in St. Paul's Epistles and in St. John's and in the Revelations with those Hereticks that deny the Monarchy of God and the Incarnation of Christ Jesus and that it was by Diotrephes devolv'd to after-ages by degenerate Men who regarded not the institution from God Per degeneres plurimos divinaeque originis immemores propagatum by such only as consult Ambition to whom the Apostolical Humility enjoyn'd by our Saviour was tedious and nauseous men affecting Tyranny and Usurpation against St. Peter's monition 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Obtaedium Apostolicae humilitatis quam praecepit affectantes Tyrannidem c. He approves the Scotish Covenant and their bringing it into England fortissimum Communis concordiae pacisque vestrae vinculum as the most effectual way for Peace and Concord of which Covenant one part of its second Article is this To endeavour the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and Exhorts them by their Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince to quit and vindicate themselves of that Aspersion of Rebels they lye under and through them may be cast upon all Protestants Christianâ modestiâ pacificisque consiliis perpetuisque fidelis vestrae in regiam Majestatem observantiae exemplis asperas voces refellite that the World convinc'd by Experience may confess that it is neither true now nor ever shall be necessary No Bishop no King and that the one may be admitted and supported without the other Fateaturque continuis experimentis evictus orbis nec verum nunc nec necessarium esse vel fuisse unquam qui aegrè Episcopos ferunt aegriùs reges serre qui nullos admittunt nec regiam potestatem ex animo admittere and assures them of the concurrency of the Protestant Churches on their side the Sea who have often wish'd to see their own Simplicity in Government to be restored and setled among them quam Disciplinam à cismarinis Protestantibus praeoptatam c. and all which is to be seen and more by whoso pleases to read over but his Preface to the Apology Claudius Salmasius goes the same way or worse if worse can be he argues indeed for the Episcopacy in England because continued with the Reformation and what prevented many Pestiferous Sects which after the Seclusion of Bishops arose Quod quamdiu fuerat Episcopatus mille pestiferae Sectae Haereses in Anglia pullularunt Praefat. ad Defens Regiam and aggravates it against the Independents whom he supposes to have Murdered the King and removed the Bishops without his Assent Defens pag. 358. it seems it was concluded in France what Party brought the King to Death nor did they then believe the Bishops to be the Authors of all the Heresies in the Christian World Though Mr. Baxter tells us It is not agreed here in London and that all Heresies sprang thence in that his black Book call'd Church History abbreviated then which a Lucian has not been more rude in his language and scurrilous Imputations to our common Christianity and all Parties of but common apprehension that read that his Book or hear of it must agree that he is indeed a Hater as he in the Title-Page terms himself but not of false History but of the truth of Christian Religion to the baffling of which representing it effectually to the Age inclined enough to believe it as a Cheat and Imposture what more could have been done then by exposing in that odious way so many Successions of the Bishops and acknowledged Governors in the Church the most eminent Professors there and the great part of them to the Stake and with their Blood by such Follies and Impertinencies many times but oftner by heavier guilts reported of them the Author's Impudency and his Falsities as to Matter of Fact has already been given to the World by an Ingenious Hand and nothing but a decay of Discipline and Government in the Church can hinder that a farther censure does not follow his Person be not equally pursued and he publickly Excommunicated the Body of Christians Perhaps James Naylor did not more deserve to have his Tongue bored through But to return to our Friend Walo who in Comparison to Mr. Baxter is so indeed but his Spleen was now but low it swells and grows bigger at other times and our Bishops are then its object he speaks out in other places he says so long as Episcopacy remains which is the foundation and root of Papacy little or nothing is done to cut off the Head is not enough Quamdiu remanebat Episcopatus qui tanquam basis est ac radix Papatûs nihil am parum proficeret qui solum caput resecaret Appâ—rat ad lib. de Primatu pag. 169 70. And he goes to the same purpose Pag. 197. that those Common-wealths or Kingdoms which have receiv'd the Reformation Sworn against the Roman both Court and Church and where there is now no Papacy for what reason they can desire to retain Episcopacy he does not see the Reformation seems not whole and full which is in that part defective and that Episcopacy is become a degree above a Presbyter he imputes to the corrupt Manners to Ambition and desire of Honor and to other evil Arts and depraved Minds of Men Walo Messal de Episcop Presbyt cont Petavium Dissert cap. 6. and suitably did he lay his design and he did not think he could write to the purpose against the Primacy of the Pope without that his tedious and nauseous Apparatus or Preface levelled against the Government of the Church by Bishops and indeed against Church-Government in general so unhappy were still those Men in their Plots against Rome as there will be occasion further to consider in this Discourse and which make up that bulky Volume the World is enrich'd withall and to all which Andrew Rivet has subscrib'd applauding Salmasius in this particular and according with him and thinks it Crime enough in Grotius that he differs from him Grotianae Discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 1. 16. John Dailee his rage is nothing less but rather more this way and so is his industry too that eminent Martyr Ignatius is discarded and turn'd out of the Catalogue of Church-Writers for Asserting in so plain and positive words the Divine perpetual Right of Episcopacy and
Castelvetrus her second Husband as Mr. Selden suggests or by the Archbishop himself what is necessarily hence to be inferr'd I 'le here again give in the words of our always to be reverenced Mr. Herbert Thorndike of the Laws of the Church Cap. Vlt. Pag. 394. Neither is the Publishing Erastus his Book against Excommunication at London to be drawn into the like Consequence that those who allow'd and procur'd it allow'd the substance of what he maintain'd so long as a sufficient Reason is to be rendred for it otherwise for at such time as the Presbyterian Pretences were so hot under Queen Elizabeth it is no marvel if it was thought to shew England how they prevail'd at home first because he hath advanced such Arguments as are really effectual against them which are not yet nor never will be answered by them though void of the Positive Truth which ought to take place instead of their Mistakes and besides because at such times as Popes did what them listed in England it would have been to the purpose to shew the English how Machiavel observes they were hamper'd at home and for the like Reason when the Geneva Platform was cried up with such Zeal here it was not amiss to shew the World how it was esteem'd under their own Noses in the Cantons and the Palatinate § XVII I am now to shew the concurrency of our Doctors in the Church and who still go along with me and say the same thing that Church Power as such is not from the Civil Magistrate and his supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons infers it not an induction would be too numerous the Particulars being so many I 'le only instance in two the one is Thomas Bilson then Warden of Winchester and afterward Bishop there in his Book entituled The true difference between Christian Subjection and un-christian Rebellion perused and allowed by publick Autority and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and for writing of which he had his Bishoprick the other is Robert Sanderson then the King's Professor at Oxford and after Bishop of Lincolne in his Book called Episcopacie as establed by Law in England not prejudicial to the Regal Power written in the time of the long Parliament by the special Command of King Charles the I. but not published by reason of the Iniquity and Confusion of the Times and since printed and dedicated to our present gracious Soveraign King Charles II. two Divines as they flourished in our Church at a great distance of time from one another so are they at as great distance for their Worth and Merit beyond the generality of the Divines of their times and by which as we have the advantage of their greater Autority as to themselves to which add That they acted herein as publick Persons by Autority appointed to write in the Name of the Church of England and in such Cases Men generally are more careful how they vent their own private Niceties and Conceptions so also have we a farther benefit hereby that this was and is the continued constant Doctrine of our Church and Church-Men from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles II. Bishop Bilson thus speaks part 2d pag. § XVIII 124. printed at Oxford It is one thing who may command for truth and another who shall direct unto truth We say Princes may command for Truth and punish the refusers this no Bishop may challenge but only the Prince that beareth the Sword no Prelate has Autority from Christ to compel private Men much less Princes but only to teach and instruct them these two Points we stand on pag. 125. 126. he tells the Jesuite the Prince is Supreme to establish those things Christ has commanded and so he all along shews it the design of the Oath of Supremacy against the pretended outward Jurisdiction of the Pope claiming as Christ's Vicar on Earth a coercive Power in order to spiritual things over the Persons of all Christians whatsoever whose Subjects soever and in whatsoever Causes even our Kings themselves And that it is no more thence to be inferr'd that Princes because supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes are therefore supreme Judges of Faith Deciders of Controversies Interpreters of Scripture Appointers of Sacraments Devisers of Ceremonies and what not then if it should be inferr'd Princes are supreme Governors in all Corporal things and causes ergo they are supreme Guiders of Grammar Moderators of Logique Directors of Rhetorick Appointers of Musick Prescribers of Medicines Resolvers of all Doubts and Judges of all Matters incident any wayes to reason art or action We confess them to be supreme Governors of their Realms and Dominions and that in all Spiritual things and causes not of all Spiritual things and causes we make them not Governors of the Things themselves but of their Subjects we confess that her Highness is the only Governor of this Realm the Word Governor doth sever the Magistrate from the Minister and sheweth a manifest difference between their Office for Bishops be no Governors of Countries Princes be these bear the Sword to reward and punish those do not pag. 127. They have several Commissions which God signed those to dispense the Word and Sacraments these to prescribe by their Laws and punish by the Sword such as resist them within their Dominions pag. 128. That no Clergy-Man by God's Law can challenge an exemption from earthly Powers pag 129. Princes have full Power to forbid prevent and punish in all their Subjects be they Lay-Men Clerks or Bishops not only Murders Thefts Adulteries Perjuries and such like Breaches of the second table but also Schisms Heresies Idolatries and all other Offences against the first Table pertaining only to the Service of God and Matters of Religion pag. 130. as the Kings of Israel did who are the Christian Princes example pag. 132. and it is the duty of Christian Kings to compel from Heresies and Schisms to the confession of the truth consent of Prayer and Communion of the Lord's Table to compel Hereticks and Schismaticks to repress Schism and Heresie with their princely Power which they receive from above chiefly to maintain God's glory by the causing the Bands of Virtue to be preserved in the Church and the Rules of Faith observed pag. 133. this is the Prince's charge to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his House timely filled his Enemies duely punished and he tells the Jesuite if he grants this he will ask no more And these the causes and things that be Spiritual as well as Temporal the Princes power and charge doth reach unto or in the words of St. Austin that Princes may command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil within their Kingdoms not in Civil Affairs only but in Matters that concern divine Religion Cont. Crescon l. 3. c. 51. pag. 134. to page 145. and this or power of the like nature was what was claimed and used in causes Ecclesiastical which
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
be in part a great untruth and both Athanasius Synod Nicen. Cont. heres Arian decreta p. 277 278. Ed. paris et Ep. de Synod Arimini et Seleuciae p. 889. Ep. ad ubique Orthodoxos c. p. 943. and Theodorit Eccl. hist l. 1. c. 5. 12. refer them to the Writings of the eminent Bishops and Doctors who lived an hundred and twenty years before the Synod of Nice and then used this Word Consubstantial in explaining the Divinity of the Father and the Son and 't is what Sandius in effect confesses only he thinks it for the dishonor of the Cause that all the Hereticks that were in the Church before Arius were Homousians hist Enucleat l. 1. and which in truth is only this the worst of Hereticks did not arrive to that height of impudence as to deny so received an acknowledgment in the universal Church Yet what Athanasius replyes upon Arius himself Tom. 1. disputat cum Ario pag. 134. making the Objection is a better answer here that what was in the Council asserted and declared was alwaies in the Scriptures by way of consequence and occasion was not given the Church till the rise and spreading of that Heresie for that particular and precise explication Heresies and Novelties must be and 't is the work of Councils to detect and determine against them but there would be mad work in the Church should that go for Innovation which an upstart Heresie forces the Church in new Terms to state and declare against and explain themselves thereby it must be declamed against as defective in Autority and Precedents because former Doctors had not sagacity enough the very Apostles had not Spirit of Prophecy enough to anticipate the Fictions of every Brain so to word it before-hand that the particular Heresie in its Nicety must be antidated and pre-abide upon Record bassled and contradicted He that reads over St. Jerome lib. 1. Cont. Jovinianum will find him there so urging Chastity as if Marriage it self was a sin and which that Father never design'd as his Opinion and Dailee confesses that he only speaks comparatively and is so to be understood as do and are to be many more of the Fathers cap. 5. de usu patrum though he will not allow it him in other Cases and when to serve his own particular Design of him I mean as to his Judgment of Episcopacy and will have his Epistle ad Evagrium and his Comments on Titus to the same purpose to be absolute and with no regard to those great even just Provocatious from the Bishops in preferring the Deacon before the Presbyters who as he well argues are of so much more Power and higher Order in the Church as that a Bishop is oft call'd a Presbyter in Scripture and Antiquity when so injurious were the Bishops to the Presbyters and so partial to the Deacons and indulgent that the Deacons scorn'd the Presbyters Order qui ignorantes humilitatem status sui ultra Sacerdotes hoc est Presbyteros intumescunt 〈◊〉 putent si Presbyter ordinetur Their nearer attendance on the Bishops Person and familiarity with him with other advantages attending occasioned that they found it an Injury to be promoted to the Presbyters Order as he tells us Comment in Ezek. cap. 48. and which together with the great superciliousness and insulting pride of John Bishop of Jerusalem exercized over him and giving some disturbance to his Monastick ease in the holy Land Ep. 60 61. something raised his spleen and in vindicating his own Order he spared not some little flourishes or Arguments abating of the Episcopate if thereby these indecencies might cease What effects all this had at that time we read not and that it was afterwards lookt upon by the Church as his alone Passion and particular Provocation we have all the reason in the World to believe it all ceased with his Person to be sure if not with the Passion nor do we find any one follower he had or is his Autority ever used against the solitary appropriated Power of a Bishop above a Presbyter 'till of late in these parts of Christendom who thence take the rise for their Schism and 't is the ground they stand upon for the battery and abolishing the whole Order and with-drawing their obedience and which to be sure St. Jerome never did nor attempted and herein they are particularly unlucky they beat down Bishops by St. Jerome's Autority to bring in their Schism and 't is the main Argument they still urge against them in the height of these Divisions and Distractions are now on foot in Europe and then too when they contend that St. Jerome knew no other occasion or use of Bishops but ad tollenda Schismata because Schisms and Divisions cannot be kept out of the Church but by them So that St. Jerome's Autority if any thing in their present Case must be against them and if complying with him they must for the present expedience submit unto Bishops whom they 'l allow to have acknowledged this necessity and usefulness of them what ever reasons else he saw for their institution and continuance 'T is that which Doctor Durel pleads for Arch-Bishop Cranmer that admitting him guilty of Erastianism and he did resolve the Power of the Keys into the Prince as Doctor Stillingfleet says he was and did his present Circumstances will plead much for him and the other Doctors of his time if of the same mind then with him he had been educated in many Errors with which the Church the whole Age at that time abounded and though a Reformation was on foot no wonder if in some Instances he was in the wrong 't was then their work to abdicate the Bishop of Rome and case him of that Primacy and usurpation he had exercised over this Church and it might so happen that in giving to the King what was his he abated too much of the Power of the Priesthood and the Church and which was hers and not to be given to any other and yet even this Error did he see at last acknowledged it to Doctor Leighton submitted to and subscribed the truth against it as the Dean of Windsor tell us he read it in Doctor Stillingfleet's Manuscript and in his presence And there is enough to be pleaded of this nature in the behalf of those inconsiderable Offers are made against our three eminent Bishops Whitgift Bilson and Bancroft and which will so thoroughly acquit them of the but suspition of Erastianism that the Bill must in course be flung out that is drawn up against them every one knows that is conversant in those their Writings whence Parker's Objections are taken The Point under debate was mostly very near altogether in King Henry VIII day 's betwixt the King and the Pope whether was supreme in the forensick outward Ecclesiastical Courts and Proceedings on the Persons of Men within this his Majesties Kingdom the Pope had usurped it for some time the King reassumes it Religion
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
for it Christianus nulli Inimicus praesertim Imperatori as Tertullian a Christian is an Enemy to no Man especially the Emperor whom he acknowledges as a Man immediately under God that receives his Power only from God nor hath any Man a Power above and beyond him to Obey and Serve him is his Conscience his Religion and he expects his Heaven his eternal Salvation by it and indeed Christianity is the great truly rational permanent Support of Kingdoms and Bodies Politick What favour Constantine shew'd the Christians was his real particular Interest and perhaps he could not have retain'd his Empire had not the Christian Bishops been of his side without their Aid and Assistance and as by them his Crown might be fixed the more firm and secure on his Head who yet gave him not his Original Right unto it for that was his upon other terms than his Christianity he prosessed nor did they add one cubit to his Power in this sense Dominion is not founded in Grace so did they receive from him his outward aid and assistance for the more due and advantageous execution of that Power they had but not from him they had exercised before he was Emperor though perhaps with less success by a Donation antecedent to his by a Right from Christ Jesus thus the Empire became their Nursing-Father to support and encourage but did not could not give their Power as Church-men unto them As God gave to the Empire the Government of the World so he gave to the Bishops the Government of the Church and which they were to use for the Empires advantage but might not use it against him And all this Constantine well knew and was highly sensible of as were his Succession that was Christian still acknowledging Church-Power from another hand nor was it in the arm of Flesh by favour or frowns as to its Power purely from above to extinguish or enlarge it I 'le conclude this Section and Chapter with that of St. Austin Ep. 165. Quia Constantinus 〈◊〉 ausâ—… est de causa Episcopi judicare eam discutiendam finiendam Episcopis delegavit And again Ibid. Imperatores non si in errore essent quod absit pro errore suo contra veritatem leges darent per quas justi probarentur coronarentur non faciendo quod illis juberent quia Deus prohiberet Religion as such falls not under the Determination of the Prince and if he gives Laws against Truth the Just will be both Tried and Crown'd in disobeying him Chap. 3. CHAP. III. The Contents Church-Power is a Specifick constituted by Christ in order to a Succession the erecting a new and lasting Government upon Earth a Community of divers Orders Offices Acts Stations every ways peculiar the Body of Christ Sect. 1. A Government to Rule and defend it self and Independent Sect. 2. The main Objection That it is against the Civil Power Common Sense and Experience confutes it The more a Christian the better Subject The Christians supported Constantine's Crown Sect. 3 4. They did not want Power to do otherwise nor consequently Integrity as is objected Sect. 5. To say they were Fools is more plausible to the Age but then the Empire must be so too who were equally ignorant of these destructive Consequences to their Government Sect. 6. The reason of the present Misunderstandings and that we do not see as the Ancients did because no Government own'd but that which is Temporal and outwardly Coercive Sect. 7. So 't was stated by an Anonymous Author 1641. All Power and Punishment was outward and bodily among the Jews and so it must be among Christians Sect. 8. So Mr. Selden allowing no Punishments but what are outwardly Coercive because none other as not under so nor before the Law Sect. 9. Erastus went the same way before him Sect. 10. And Salmasius and says the Apostles had no Power because without Whips and Axes Concludes against all Church-Power upon these terms and that he may surely take it from Bishops So does a French Reformer usually lose his Senses when running his Forehead against our Prelacy Sect. 11. Grotius is in this Error but oft corrects himself His Inconstancy is to be lamented He imputes it to his Education He fights with the very same Weapon against Church-Power in general the Jesuite does against the Supremacy in the Church of England Sect. 12. IT returns then with more force and strength what was laid down in the § I beginning of the foregoing Chapter That Church-Power is a Specifick a Constitution of its own originally from Heaven deliver'd by Christ to his select Apostles Men chosen from all other fill'd with the Holy Ghost for the Service of Mankind in the propagating Christianity to speak before Kings every where and in all Circumstances to declare and publish it a Power limited to their Persons to be retain'd within themselves and as no Heads but their own receiv'd it so no Hands but their own could devolve and conveigh it to others only as their own Prudence saw fit was it derived and in what measures and degrees they pleased as the World came into the Church Believers were made the Harvest grew great and there needed more Labourers to be sent forth into it a Power I say received for the use of others the advantage of Mankind in the Successions of it not for one single Purpose and Action as were several Commissions and Delegations both before and under the Law and one at the entrance of the Gospel viz. That given to St. John Baptist but to erect a new and standing Government and this to continue till the World is no more and then only is the Kingdom to be delivered up to the Father whose is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen And St. Clemens Romanus in his Epistle to the Romans and which place we had occasion to use before tells us That the Apostles receiving Commands and imbued with a full certitude by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and confirmed by the Word of God with all fulness of the Holy Ghost they went out declaring the coming of the Kingdom of God and Preaching through the Regions and Cities they constituted Bishops and Deacons in order to those that should believe knowing by our Lord Jesus Christ that Contentions would arise by reason of the Episcopacy or Power of the Ministry and therefore having a perfect fore-knowledge as they constituted the fore-mentioned Bishops so they afterwards gave them Rules for Ordinations that others Approved Men might succeed in the Places of such as should die and execute such their Offices the Consult and Design was laid for future Ages also A Power and Autority framing and fashioning Believers into a Body not an accidental casual concurrency of People only but a Community well and duly associated every part proportionably fitted and put together increasing with the increase of God in which all things are to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
under it Thus he Mr. Selden who was Contemporary with § IX this worthy wight and Man of Sense and no question but his Confident engaged and succeeded him in the very same Cause and by the very same Motives and Arguments only he appear'd not in the World till Nine years after and so had the advantage of much time and was imboldned by the horrid Anarchy and dismal Confusion of it and by an incessant Industry of his own improv'd the Argument to a greater height of irreligion and audaciousness and contemptuously treads upon whatever is like a Church Power in any instance of it which his Friend was a little shy of who allows in Church-men a Power for Non-communion or Abstention in some Cases which though he 'l by no means call it Excommunication and acknowledges that Justinian did only command that the Bishop proceed against the Faulty by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation but Mr. Selden says with the greatest assurance and impudence it was his own judicial act with that truth we have already considered but his Argument and course of proceeding is all along the same and upon the supposition founded in the constitution and practice of the Jewish Church and which he proves by a vast reading and intolerable expence of Pains to have used only outward Bodily Penal Coercive Punishments whether before or after giving the Law in Sinai so he tells us it was with Adam and Cain the one upon his fall the other upon his murder both banished their Countries for it the Sword is the punishment for Murder Gen. 9.3 And they were to be stoned that came near the Mount at the giving the Law Exod. 19. And the punishment was only secular upon the violation of the Seven Precepts given to the Sons of Noah the uncircumcised was to be punished though not forinsecally yet by Gods own immediate hand and a particular judgment of the same nature was the Curse upon Meroz the punishment of Kore Dathan and Abiram nor do the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema c. as used by the Prophets according to the Septuagint or other Greek Translations signifie any thing else nor are there used for Excommunication or afterwards by the Apostles as in St. Paul's delivering up the incestuous to Sathan c. and the Jews took up that Excommunication which was of later years exercised among them by special Compact with one another in the time of Captivity and for the present Exigence when the Temporal Power was taken out of their hands and which was no ways appropriated to the Priest or any other Order of Men either now under their Captivity or for the infliction of those other Punishments before or after the Law and what Excommunications were practised in the Apostles times and the first Century where by the way his great Master Erastus will allow of none in his Hundred Theses answered by Theodore Beza in his Tractatus Pius Moderatus de verâ Excommunicatione Christiano Magisterio was first Judaick in imitation of the Jews for there was none of the Christians for many years after our Saviour's Ascension which were not either Jews originally or Greek Proselytes and were accounted as Jews in common repute and members of their Synagogue and so used their Customs and Rights as before and of which this of Excommunication was one and so living among the Jews and call'd by the same Name when Caesar indulged the Jews and they had the liberty of their own Religion the Christians enjoy'd the Priviledges together with them and thus their Excommunication became Caesarean their Church Acts derived a Publick Autority from the Empire having none before but by private Covenant and by this Autority they held Presbyteries had Judicatures relating purely to their Religion and retained a Power to Punish under Death as did the Jews and if not thwarting the Laws Imperial and which grant of Favour though abated by succeeding Emperors they notwithstanding retained a Body and Union among themselves upon their own terms for Confederation till the days of Constantine and the Empire became Christian and then the Church being taken in to the State the Jurisdiction wholly became his as naturally annexed to the Crown and there to reside till all Autority and Power ceaseth This is the chief of Mr. Selden's Plot for the overthrowing the Power of Christ's Kingdom in the Polity Laws and Rights of it Lib. 1. De Syned cap. 3. 4 5 6 7 8. 11. and which has with much more advantage been very lately represented to the Age than I am able to do by a great and Learned Hand Dr. Parker Arch-deacon of Canterbury Nor needs there any thing more to be added for the satisfying the World of the vainer Attempts and undue Consequents there raised only the general Design of this Discourse engages that it be not wholly passed by and which otherwise could not be answer'd THOMAS Erastus Mr. Selden's great and § X admired Master though not licking and shaping his Beastly Abortive brood so throughly Missing in many things what the other has Hit upon yet in his forementioned Hundred Theses he urges much the same way as that because the Sword was the Punishment among the Jews so all Offenders of what Nature soever are by the Coercion alone of the Magistrate to be Corrected and the Christian Church is to go no farther than theirs did and the Civil Magistrate has all the Care of Religion that it is very difficult to conceive how there can be two Heads in one Body both to have right to Punish and Exercise Domination over the same Subjects still supposing no Power to have or that can have existency but that of outward Coercion And which Plea however it might be forced from him and seem necessary and makes a plausible shew of Truth in regard of Beza's Lay-Elders and the Consistorian Government of Geneva and in whose irregular Power he instances laying Penal Mulcts and outward Restraints as do the Civil Magistrates and the Consideration of which ran him upon this his as groundless Extreme Yet as to the Constitution and Practice of the truly Catholick Christian Church it has no Pretence or likelihood at all as will hereafter be made to appear CLAVDIVS Salmasius though he was § XI a Man very much if not altogether of Beza's Complexion yet is he not so ingenuous and true to their common Cause as was Beza in his Writings against Erastus for in his Apparatus to his Book De Primatu Papae a long rambling indigested tedious Discourse purposely made against the Divine Right of Bishops he there to pursue home his Design takes away all Church-Government whatsoever at the same rate of arguing And if he concludes any thing at all and which is not easily seen it is this That a Bishop is so far from having a distinct Power above a Presbyter solitary and apart from him that he has neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general no
as it is an hard and measuring Cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly been our destruction if by the Grace of God their share had not been as small in the subtilty of Serpents as in the innocency of Doves A pretty knick-knack of Speech-making every body must own it to be but as to the occasion and matter of it each line as evidently deserves a lash and is as lyable to it there appears only passion and prejudice rancor and malice in the height and truly scarce sense under some of the pretty cadencies and chiming Words but not one dram of that incomparable reason Mr. Dean magnifies him for and once saw in him but for him to own it here will not be at least convenient could he find it out as perhaps he may though another cannot All I shall say at present is and 't is as mostly relating to this present discourse how wonderfully the same Fate has still attended the Crown of England and the Church of England the King and the Bishops of it and the Power the Institution and Autority of both as from Heaven and not of Man is still if either of them decried and run again at once and by the same Person and ten to one it had not come into my mind had not a Man of his own complexion in Loyalty in the late life of Julian told it the world much to the honor of this great and loyal Lord as he thinks that the Doctrine of Dr. Manwaring's and Dr. Sibthorp's Sermons long before the War broke out was as ridiculous to him as it appears from this his Speech in 1641. was then the Autority and Actions of the Bishops and the divine Right of Kings as well as the divine Right of the Church independent to the People are both but Pulpit Law that is in his admired most ingenious Expression and which alone then confuted and still confutes Doctor Manwaring the prate and tattle of idle Church-men from the Pulpit and the both King and Church fell at once and together and which himself particularly experienced at Newbery when 't was too late to help what himself by Speech-making and Scoffings had promoted and Abner's Epitaph seems in this respect exactly fitted for him nor know I in what other terms his death could be lamented better had the Pulpit laws been more frequently made more encouraged and executed in teaching the Peoples dependency upon Kings and duties to them that unnatural Rebellion had never followed had not those worst of Principles publisht in Scotland by Buchanan de jure regni apud Scotos and Knox in his Appel and Church-history placing both Church and Crown in Subordination to the People come hither into England and by their Country man the Lord Falkland in the House of Commons incouraged and those now a-days mend the Matter bravely that rescue us from the People and put us under the Prince Herein enlarge his Prerogative beyond his Progenitors that he is uppermost in Religion are zealous for him to be a Priest but leave him as King in the hands he was before and below the People and thus in sight strike at both Monarchy and Religion at a blow as is the Priest so is the King to take their Measures and Protection from others a false Religion is to be obeyed if the Religion of a Nation lest affronting Magistracy and Law and every one may Petition and libel the Government that pleases the Bible is put into the King's hand and the Scepter taken out the King may excommunicate but he may not govern his People and both Prince and Priest are in a pretty Condition and the notorious contempt Church Power and Offices lye under at this day amongst us is an evident Testimony of the mock Addition they design and contend for to his Crown in that the Power Sacerdotal is with so much noise and bussle seated in him 't is only to ridicule both at once and with the same Argument render them contemptible nor can any in the course of things as well as in common Experience be found to give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's but he that gives to Christ the things that are Christ's No Bishop No King is and will be a Maxime still a first truth and not to be gain-sayed § XXV IT is to be confessed there are Passages in the Writings of some of the Principal of our Doctors in the days of Queen Elizabeth and King James as Arch-Bishop Whitgift Arch-Bishop Bancroft Bishop Bilson c. that lean too much to the Erastian Way or rather by an incuriousness of Expression do not give that account of Church Power nor state it so clearly as may be expected and 't is not impossible where a design to render them as of the Party Something of this nature has been observ'd already in Bishop Bilson and Arch-Bishop Bancroft and he that reads over the first Book de Politeia Ecclesiasticà cap. 1 2 3 4 5. c. wrote by Robert Parker and printed at Frankfort 1616. and only reads him will conclude them not only almost but altogether such he was a Man vehement and of extremity of Spirit and his business is in his whole three Books to set and continue our Church against her self oâ—e of her Members against another and all of them opposite to Christ Jesus exactly answering his Title de Politeia Ecclesiastica Christiani Hierarchica opposita and indeed most that have appear'd since him against the Government of the Church and with appearance of pertinency have not only sharpned but borrowed their Weapons from this shop of the Philistines it is their Magazine and Store-house as another Armory like that of David's in Israel wherein are Mille Clypei all sorts of Weapons for these Mighty and with which they have still made their Attempts even Batteries and Breaches upon us Our learned Doctor Pearson since Lord Bishop of Chester in his Vindiciae Epistolarum Ignatii in his first Chapter or Proeme there relates him to be though not the first setter on foot and contriver of that unworthy most shameful Design upon Ignatius's Epistles in representing them spurious and imposed on the World and that not one of them was wrote by that most Holy and Apostolical Martyr whose name they bear yet he was more bold and went farther in the Attempt than any one had done before him and with whose Conjectures Dailee's dissertation is stuffed and he may be said a principal Cause why it spread so far and has been so successful to the great disadvantage of our common Christianity from him or Dialee or both unless Blundel and Salmasius be added and which are much the same thing it is Doctor Stillingfleet translates what he has on this Subject in his Irenicum and who may have the honor to be the first that made it English for any other I have met with and tells us in the Mother-Tongue The story of Ignatius as
those who abominate the natural and direct consequences are thence to be drawn where the Civil Power is return'd into the Mediator but it throughly answers their Expectations who contend to have their Prince a Priest too and would delight more to see him in his Rochet and at the Altar Blessing and Consecrating than on his Throne and with his Scepter sweying and governing his People and for which latter they believe themselves equally capacitated and enabled as he and their belief on these Grounds is well bottomed for Christ when ascending up on high gave no other Gifts to Men than what either enabled to the work of the Ministry and which alone were for peculiar Persons or what made Christians good and virtuous men only and which were to all promiscuous and common And had our Church in her Article given to Kings that only Prerogative they saw given to Aristotles Prince and which is extended to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also as is above shew'd to the things of Religion it had been the same though less popular and perswading I shall only add the Autority of Doctor Hammond in his Practical Catechism Lib. 2. Sect. 11. that Christ in his Sermon on the Mount medled not with the Fifth Commandment Though he were as God the King of all Kings and might have changed and disposed of their Dominions as he pleased yet he was not pleased to make any Alteration but to continue and settle all in that course wherein it formerly had been placed by God himself What he added to Moses in this Matter was only greater reverence and aw to the Father or Magistrate or Civil Power he left the Woman taken in Adultery and other Offenders to the ordinary legal course and would not upon any importunity usurp or take upon him any thing in that Matter and more considerate Papists as he goes on and tells us discerning this and yet unwilling to devest the Pope of his so long usurped Power have found it necessary to pretend another tenure for him and therefore style the Pope not the Vicar of Christ for that would give him no Power so much as of a Civil Judge but the Vicar of God whom he hath set up to be the Vicegerent of all the World The whole Discourse might not unfitly be here transcribed only 't is as it ought to be in every bodies hands BUT what if these Doctors were in the design § XXVII against us as we do not resolve our Faith into one Doctor or Bishop at Rome So neither do we into three or twice so many at home of what Order and Autority soever and which adds in it self just nothing to the Skill of a Divine nor is the Tradition of Truth broken by it And indeed there are so many Accidents in the World and with so great force upon Mankind so often influencing and over-ruling that Christianity in its particular Articles and sometimes the highest of them would be but in a bad Condition were it responsible for what every particular Doctor has said or wrote and which comes not up unto them whether out of a tenderness of Disposition a mistaken Zeal for Union and to reconcile Moderation and Comprehension a keeping present Peace or a design of working more effectually for the future or whether through a fear and impotency of Nature averse to and unable for Struglings wearied out by daily Provocations or a foresight of some Calamities foreseen and approaching and every one is not an Athanasius always undaunted or real misapprehension in the understanding or which is a thing very frequent upon the rise of an Heresie to set up for a middle way and which is as injurious to gratifie either lust in general or that itch of Ambition in particular and to become the Head of a Party whether out of peevishness or revenge or to magnifie their own Parts and Eloquence lead by the Autority of Names or by self-interest blinded by one or more of which ways errors and differences in Religion are either occasioned or started managed and pursued No sooner was his Master Justin Martyr dead but Tatianus grew Proud and puffed up with an opinion of being uppermost in the School turn'd Heretick Iren. adv Haeres cap. 31. l. 1. Basilides was a Master of luxury and was to do something extraordinary to disguise it as St. Jerone Tom. 3. l. 2. adv Jovinian and so was Marcion as Tertullian Prescript Cap. 51. and Lactantius tells us of several others who affecting the highest Order in the Church studying Honour and Greatness and sailing of it made a Secession from the Church not enduring Subjection Lib. 4. Sect. ult and so did Valentinus because he lost a Bishoprick Tertul. adv Valent. cap. 4. as did Aerius Novatius c. and Theodorit describes Hereticks in general ambitioni vanae gloriae mancipatos Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 2. and Sozomen complains of a worser effect they have yet in God's Church Nonnullos in vias medias adigunt Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. occasion the setting up somewhat like Truth which is not Truth when they write Irenicums and set up for Reconcilers make a hotch-potch of Truth and Falshood together a sure way to elude and baffle Truth and insinuate Error the abatement being still on Truth 's side and the Error is brought to become tolerable and which would not in plain terms have been endured but thus gets ground onward and so much of Truth is destroyed and erased to give place to the Falshood This was the most devilish Plot of Julian the Apostate by which he baffled Christianity he mixed his Paganism with it complied in many instances of its Performances that the less discerning might be the easier carried over to it a very ill consequence of Error mostly ruining Truth and mostly to be abominated the Ape is the more deformed because like a Man and is not one Tertullian turn'd Montanist in disdain of the Pride of the greater Clergy at Rome as inter fragmenta Tertull. and Hieron Catalog Script Ecclesiast no one stands fairer in the Church Story for Piety and Morals than Pelagius and he and his Scholars Julianus Celestius c. seduced many by it designed and perverted it to that alone purpose even Men of great Fame and Learning became thereby inclined to them as Sixtus at Rome John of Jerusalem Cyril in Egypt and Sulpitius Severus in France And particularly the Rich and Potent Women whom he strangely insinuated into by all manner of Flatteries Hypocrisies and Delusions and which generally are the Engines Hereticks have work'd by as in Church Story and for which Austin and Jerome sufficiently shrape him as an account is given at large by Joannes Garnerus the late Publisher of the Works of Marius Mercator Dissert 4. De Subscript c. Cap. 3. who was or who could be more stout and couragious for the Nicene Faith than was Liberius Bishop of Rome and which appeared in his behaviour all along particularly in his
personal Conference with our Emperor suffering Banishment for it an account of which is given by Athanasius Apol. pag. 833. Ed. Paris Sozomen Eccles Hist l. 4. c. 11. and yet lassus injuriis provoked and tired out by oppressions he forsook Athanasius and went over to the Sect of the Arians Pag. 837. ibid. and so did the Divine Hosius then ancientest Bishop in the Christian World and who was in a manner the Author of the Determinations of the first Council of Nice Sulpitius Severus suspects he might be in his dotage and there is ground enough for the Suspition being an hundred years old as 't is in his Historia Sacra lib. 2. a Man if any that ever lived could be to be exempted one would think from so great an Apostasie as will appear by the Character Athanasius gives him Ep. ad solitariam vitam agentes pag. 840. and yet tormenta longaevus plagasque perpessus est unde etiam necessitate vehementi expositionibus tunc editis Syrmiensi Synodo consensit atque subscripsit Hist Tripartit l. 5. c. 9. being of a great Age and by reason of his many Sufferings through a more than usual force he consented and subscribed to the Expositions set forth in the Synod at Syrmium Gregory Nazianzen says in the Life of Athanasius that there was very sew to be found that were not contemptible for their obscurity or very eminent for virtue as the seed and root remaining in Israel whence the Truth was to spring out and reflourish as it did upon the return of Athanasius which did not for fear or gain by flattery or through ignorance tempori obsequi qui quamvis mente haudquaquam prolapsi fuerint subscribe with their hand amongst whom he confesses himself to be one but withal and which is not usual obliges the World with his Publick Acknowledgment and Recantation This is the time when St. Jerome adv Luciferian and in his Comments in Ps 133. says Totum orbem fuisse Arianum that the whole World was Arian and which only can be understood as St. John must be when he tells us if all that our Saviour did were written the whole World could not contain the Books i. e. there would be a great many and for this St. Jerome himself will become his own avoucher who in his Comments on Ezekiel cap. 48. thus bespeaks the Catholick Priests Audiat hoc sacerdotalis gradus c. that though over-power'd by the Arians yet as holding the true Faith so their manners be accordingly and that the Homousians were numerous and visible even then might be made to appear were I now to write that History I 'le add but one more way by which particular Persons are seduced and misled into Heresie 't is by Lies underhand Dealings and downright Forgeries obtruded upon Mankind Thus the Pelagia grew and was numerous still making use of the Names and feigned Counterfeit Letters of Bishops and Eminent Men in his Commendations and the savour of his Heresie as the same Publisher of Marius Mercator gives us an account also Ibid. And then since so much uncertainty in the Autorities of particular Doctors since liable to so many failures and under so many ill and provoking Circumstances and to many of which good Men are liable are over-sweigh'd and over-ruled thereby for some time how unequal unjust a thing is it to urge them each Circumstance not considered but most of all when an accidental saying or pressing a present Argument is reported to the World the sense and judgment of a Doctor against the whole course and design of all his other Writings and the publickly declared Doctrines of that Church of which he is a Member which he owns and professes submits and subscribes to That of Tertullian in his Prescriptions Cap. 3. is the more substantial and rational way Quid ergo si Episcopus si Diaconus lapsus à regula suit ideò haereses veritatem vidâ—bantur obtinere ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas what if a Bishop or a Deacon or whoever he be falls from the Rule shall Heresie thence obtain Truth shall we prove the Faith by the Persons or the Persons by the Faith if Theodosius the Great design'd any more than a Committee of Triers when appointing such a set number of Bishops to examine every one that was admitted to a benefice in the Church as so many Doctores Probabiles as he terms them in Communion with whom all must be that are instituted or inducted or whatsoever was the way and expression of then giving Titles and Possession Cod. Theodos 16. Tit. 1. l. l. 2 3. his Rule is unsafe and the Church may be imposed upon by it though the Bishop of Rome was one for Liberius once subscribed to Arianism nor indeed did he design any more and they were only as so many Examiners according to the Nicene Faith and which the Piety and Zeal of that Holy Emperor did design and endeavour to have took place throughout his Dominions and which is express in the Laws Nor was that so great a Secession from this Faith in the days of Constantius and then much less of one or two particular Doctors of the time thought to break off the Succession of such the Doctrine or render it less Catholick but it is notwithstanding declared to have continued from St. Peter the Apostle by Damasus and Peter Bishops of Rome and Alexandria usque nunc to his days that then Period of time safe and inviolated FINIS