THE CONFORMITY OF THE Discipline and Government Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS To that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS By Dr. Lewis Du Moulin sometime History Professor of Oxford Qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit mendacium quaerit Valentinianus Martianus LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway 1680. THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CHap. 1. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the Tenets and principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The advantages of the Congregational may above any other Establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that all others have insuperable inconveniences p. 3. Chap. 3. That upon the Ground of this Hypothesis that every supreme Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to ernour Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational may and the independancy of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his word p. 8. Chap. 4. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a conformity of Faith with the other reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline Of the Veneration they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and discipline p. 12. Chap. 5. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church p. 14. Chap. 6. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is incompatible with the Civil Power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church p. 16. Chap. 7. That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World p. 23. Chap. 8. Of the great Benefit and Advantage that comes from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World p. 34. Chap. 9. That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without thinking of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct p. 38. Chap. 10. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome That the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England p. 43. Chap. 11. A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall p. 47. Chap. 12. An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is is the most fit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him p. 53. Chap. 13. The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse p. 58. Chap. 14. Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse p. 60. Chap. Ult. An Answer to those who accuse the Independants for being the Authors of the late Civil Wars in England and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of KING CHARLES the first p. 68. THE CONFORMITY OF THE GOVERNMENT Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS With that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS CHAP. I. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the Objections commonly urged against the Tenets and Principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants 'T IS above fifty years since some learned and judicious Persons as well of the Gown as others have now brought to light an important and necessary truth which the strength of prejudice and a General and Opinionative blindness that hath lasted for more than this thousand years hath kept under a Bushel 'T is that of Nestorius which the eminent Authority of Cyril has made to pass during all that time and even from the third Oecumenical Councel for an absolute lie and with which all the learned both the general and particular Councils all the Fathers and all the new Doctors of both Communions have been so successively prepossessed that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour not only to deny it but even to be continually throwing their Anathema's at the head of the poor Nestorius whom they have made to pass for an abominable Heretick although at the bottome Nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more Orthodox and the honester man and on the other hand Cyril was the Heretick For it is with the Authority of Cyrillus as with that eminent Authority of the Church of Rome to which Monsieur Aâ—â—auld would have all men fixed and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo Monsieur Claude NOT to make any Application of this History to what has happened to my self in particular as to the necessary truths I have promulged and advanced I will content my self with fixing to one which is like to that of Nestorius 't is that about those who are called Independants who though they will not yield in exactness of living or in holiness of Doctrine to any of the Protestants in Europe for they are led more than other Christians by the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is a Spirit of meekness moderation and of a sound mind and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and Persecution and their Doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than any of the others and though to conclude their confession of Faith is the most Nervous and sinewy the most Orthodox and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful that of all pieces which yet have appeared in the World fince the Writings of the Apostles it is the most full and perfect Yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our Synods and by those of our Divines who are the most eminent in learning and of a life and piety the most exemplary and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous so far as that Monsieur Amyâ—auld calls them Fools Enthusiasts and such as are infamous in their lives Monsieur D' Aille the Father says of them that it
their Faith their Religion nor the guidance of their manners to an Authority which is subject to errour but only to the Word of God which is an infallible Authority Upon this ground the Bishop of Condom hath reason to condemn the Synod of Charenton for having taxed the Judgement of the Independants with Errour which consists as sayes the Synod in what they teach that every Church ought to be governed by its own laws without any dependance upon any in matters Ecclesiastical and without any obligation to acknowledge the authority of Synods for its governance and conduct THEN a little after this same Synod decides that this Sect is as prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and extravagancies that it takes away all the means of bringing any remedy to them and that if it had field-room enough it would form to it self as many Religions as Parishes or particular Assemblies THESE last words sayes the Bishop discover that it is principally in matters of Faith that the Synod would establish dependancy since the greatest inconvenience that he takes notice of into which the faithful people of God would fall by independancy is that they would frame as many Religions as Parishes then says he of necessity according to the Doctrine of that Synod each Church and by a stronger reason each particular must depend as to what respects faith upon a supreme Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some body to which Authority all the faithful people of God ought to submit their Judgement THIS Bishop could take notice of nothing more unreasonable and more extravagant in our Synods than to oblige a private person to submit himself in matters of Faith to the Judgment of an Assembly whose decisions are not the Word of God that is to say not infallible 'T IS true that pre-supposing all Supreme Authority in the Church whether in the Protestant or Romish is subject to errour the Government of the Adversaries of Rome of Independants or other Protestants is equally justifiable when they refuse to pay submission to the Authority of Rome since that it is incomparably more defective than that which the Protestants set up in their Churches BUT on the other side if it be true that upon this ground the Government of the Independants is more justifiable and more reasonable than that of other Protestants who blindly submit themselves to a Tribunal subject to errour and whose conduct and gonance is beyond all comparison further off from Reason than is that of the Papists for pre-supposing that the Authority of Rome is infallible the submission which the people pay to that supreme Authority is so much the more reasonable as that of the Protestants is the less when they submit to a supreme Authority which they themselves believe is subject to errour IN short the Bishop of Condom hath great reason to be sure that the Protestants are mightily beside the Cushion and to blame for condemning the Infallibility of Rome so long as the Incontestability and indisputableness which they invest their supreme Authority withal carries the same Obligation along with it to obedience and submission A great Divine of ours who relates the Judgement of the Protestants hereupon libr. 1. cap. 8. de Clavibus expresses himself in these words Hujus ligamenti quo Pastores Ecelesiae constringunt peccatores tanta est vis certitudo ut Christus pronunciet si quid ligaverint pastores in terris id fore ligâ—tum in coelo id est Deum Ratum habiturum hanc ligationem potest fieri aliquando ut ligatio sit injusta vult tamen Christus eam ratam esse non enim fas est homini qui injuste excommunicatus est invaaere sacram Coenam invitis Pastoribus irrumpere in communionem Ecclesiae IS not that to tell us that a man excommunicated unjustly is as much obliged to submit himself to the excommunication pronounced against him by an Authority which hath erred as when it is given by an Authority which hath not erred And is not that to tell us that in every way whither justly or unjustly a person delivered to Satan as is the general opinion of all Protestants excepting my Father that to deliver to Satan and to excommunicate are one and the same thing ought not to dispute oâ—â— resist that Authority which hath delivered him up to that evil Spirit To conclude is not that to speak in the Language of the Canon Si papa distinct 40 which will by no means permit a person cast thus to the Devil although against all right and justice by the Authority of the Pope to resist that supreme Authority THE Bishop likewise hath no less good Reason to be sure that the conjunction of all the parts of Romish Church in one body would be unreasonable if they were not cimented by infallibility and to divest it of its Infallibility is to break it in pieces is to cast every of its least parts into Independancy and to give liberty to every of them to govern themselves according to their own mode and way and to do their business by themselves BUT here we should observe as we go along that of two depths of Satan the Ecclesiastical Power and Infallibility the first is a Lie an Imposture and a cheat but that presupposing that it is not a cheat but a thing that is good and true and the use of which is necessary in the Church Infallibility is naturally and reasonably a consequence of it And in truth our Reformers have placed Incontestability in the room of Infallibility But it is true also that if Infallibility be a pure cheat the other is a pure and absolute tyranny and it is less reasonable in not being a natural consequence of Ecclesiastical power incontestability is a thousand times worse than Infallibity except it be in one thing and that is that it hath not been of so long a Duration 'T IS here no doubt wherein the illuminations of humane Reason were not so great to our first Reformers as to the generation of men in this Age For as those soresaw in it that a submission of so many Princes and people who differed in Customes Laws and Languages to an Authority subject to errour was not only unreasonable but also impossible to prevent the revolt both of Kings and people they with a great deal of Justice invested it with Infallibility AND 't is here too that the Bishop of Condom triumphs over us and has great reason for it on his side when he reproaches us that we have been deficient in our Politicks in not erecting among us an infallible Tribunal and that we are much to blame for obliging the faithful people of God with so much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour but those of Rome are not so for they oblige their people to submit to one that is infallible BUT the Independants as they are led by
not to believe Transubstantiation A Learned English Dr. named John Hales hath written a Learned Treatise upon this Subject where he condemns this way of Reconciliation that sayes one thing and believes another and that turns again to Rome and he exhorts his Brethren to condemn rather the use of it than to justifie it He sayes also that Martyn Bucer was the first of the Reformed that made use of this way of speaking IT must be confessed that as the weakness of those great lights of Reformation Bucer Calvin and Reza was very great when they explained those Scriptures concerning the Lords Supper by a Comment that was more obscure than the Text nor hath it been less great in those that have come after them when they have explained the words of Jesus Christ in S. John VI. concerning the fleshly eating to the Sacramental and Spiritual eating and when they have made long comments upon the words of Calvin to sweeten and smooth the harshness of them instead of condemning them this obstinacy in adhering to errors hath brought in the pretended infallibility into the Church of Rome and the Incontestability into the Reformed Churches Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoe est errandi necessitas erroris amor Seneca NOW these ways of speaking which simbolize with those of Rome and which give it occasion to insult and triumph over us makes me remember what I have read in the Memoirs and specialties that Joseph Hall hath made of his Life and absolutely convinces me of this truth that it has been so unlikely that they who have believed they might gain upon Rome by retaining some of their ways and modes of speaking or their practises should have succeeded therein that on the contrary She has been so much the more set and hardened against us and have gone so far in it as to make us and their Religion far more reasonable than ours He sayes that in his journey to the Spadan Waters for his health he had before a great company of persons of quality both Papists and Protestants a very hot dispute with a Sorbonist a Prior of the Carmelites who maintained that the Kneeling practised in the Church of England at the receiving of the Eucharist strongly shewed that she believed Transubstantion for that kneeling and the belief of Transubstantiation were things inseparable and always went hand in hand together and since the one had never been believed in the Church without the practise of the other and since it was a distraction of reason and a wicked practise to carry their adorations to Elements that were only Bread and Wine this kneeling of necessity must be a natural consequence of the belief of Transubstantiation Bishop Hall adds that as the company was divided in their judgments and that several of them joyned with those of Rome in condemning this kneeling unless it was a consequence of Transubstantiation more than two thirds of the company were so heated against the poor Bishop that he had not the liberty to speak nor to stand up in defence of the Church's Opinion For if they had given him time to speak he had alleadged the Rubrick of the Church of England which undeceives the Communicants from the thoughts that they might possibly have that that Kneeling or Adoration is carried out to the Bread and the Wine But beside that there is not of a hundred Communicants one who reads the Rubrick it might have happened that those who were so violent against Bishop Hall would have pleasantly stopt his mouth with the Apologue which Beza writ in a Letter to the good Arch-Bishop Edmund Grindal who seeing that he was offended at this kneeling after Transubstantiation was banished endeavoured to cure him of the scandal he had taken making him to know that the Rubrick of the Church of England would give him enough wherewith to be satisfied Upon which Beza returned him this story A Lord having built his house near to the high way where he left a great stone that he had no occasion for just in the road several persons coming by in the night stumbled at it and did hurt themselves and often complaints being made to him about it and intreaties that he would take it out of the way he was very obstinate a long while and was resolved not to meddle with it but being wearied by the continual solicitations that were made to him he bethought himself to set over the stone a Lanthorn with a light Candle in it to warn people of it but that Admonition proving troublesome too one of his friends came and gave him this good Counsel Sir if you would be at quiet take away both stone and Lanthorn together The stone of stumbling is this kneeling at the Sacrament and the Rubrick is for a light and Declaration to signifie to the Communicants that this kneeling is not done to the bread and wine but to Jesus Christ If you take away both you will take away the scandal and the remedy to the scandall You will bring back the way with which Jesus Christ instituted the holy Supper who gave it not kneeling but in the posture of those who take their ordinary repasts at their Tables so that Jesus Christ never required any Genuflexion either at the time or place THESE two stories hit as we generally say two birds with one stone For they may relate to that neerness of assinity with Rome which I have already spoken of above and which I have showed has rather sharpened and embittered the Spirits and tempers of those of that communion to plot against the sacred person of the KING and against his Government than it has any wayes sweetned them and moreover they discover that those who go furthest off from the Doctrines and practises of Rome who renounce all reconciliation with Her as the people of the Congregational way do have most conformity with the blessed peace-Makers of whom Jesus Christ speakes and whereof the Character of the Children of God which he gives them upon this respect carryes them so much the farther from all thoughts of Rebellion CHAP. XII An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is the most sit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him I Think my self here obliged to add an Apology as to my own account for what I have said as to the Independant Churches I do imagine I shall be accused at first for having made the description of the congregational way not according as it is in effect but in that manner as Xenophon did the Cyropaedia to be the perfect model of a Prince They will say that any other interest than that of the inward knowledge I have of the goodness truth and holiness of the Congregational way ought to have excited me to commend it so as I have done That I
is a pernicious Sect which from the very foundation overthrows the Empires and Governments of the World and others have no better opinion of them imputing to them practises contrary to truth as to receive into their Communion the most loose disordered and impious persons though on the contrary their fault if it be one is just at the other extremity not to receive neither into their Society nor their Communion any but such in whom they probably find the marks of regeneration and that beside their greatest Crime is to condemn the practise of Churches as Popish and Tyrannical when by a right pretended to be divine and by vertue of the power of the Keyes and of that of binding and loosing they erect a Tribunal or a National Ecclesiastical power independent and distinct from that of the Magistrate though otherwise they approve of the Government of our Churches of France according to the principles of those who establish it upon a natural right and upon a considerate discipline in a manner absolutely like to the civil and politick For it is upon this ground of natural right of confederation of Arbitrary Discipline and purely humane which may and ought to be changed and altered according to times and places it is upon this ground I say that the Discipline of the Reformed Churches of France is established and founded as the last Article of their Discipline says it in the very express terms CHAP. II. The Advantage of the Congregational way above any other establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that oll others have insuperable inconveniencies THIS Congregational way hath incredible advantages over and above all the other establishments of Religion which most commonly are of the same extent as the civil State of every Territory but beyond all this way introduces into all the Churches which conform to it or at least into a great many of those Churches a Reformation in Doctrine in Discipline and in manner of Government wholly Apostolical it being impossible that of a hundred Congregations or particular Churches which should differ one from another in Faith and in the way of Government otherwise Independant each on the other or on the Synods but that there should be some or other which does retain this Apostolical holiness whereas it is not any wayes possible as we have seen by experience since the time of Constantine the Great but that one national Church of the same extent as the civil State or as the Empire or Dominion of a Prince must needs have many defects errours and apparent disorders not only in Discipline but also in Doctrine for these following Reasons 1. We must consider a National Church either in the manner as it was established by Constantine Theodostus and Justinian of as great an extent as the Roman Empire in which the State Ecclesiastical was regulated after the Model of the Civil State where the Bishop of a City or place whose extent was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was parallel to the Defensor Civitatis or to the Dux The Archbishop or the Metropolitan of the Province was parallel to the Praeses or Proconsul and Corrector The Diocesan the Primate or the Patriarch who was also the Hexarch in the time of the Calcedonian Council was parallel to the Legat of the Emperour or Vicarius where the Praetorium was and where there was in the Ecclesiastical State a subordination of Courts and Tribunals as in the Civil State for that was the Errour of the Antients to adjust the Ecclesiastical Government to the Civil instead of practising the quite contrary according to the judicious maxim of a wise Italian Politician Bisogna accomodare la ragione di Stato alla Religione non la Religione alla rag one di Stato Or we must consider the National Church when the Pastors are in an equality of rank and dignity but with subordination to Provincial or National Assemblies Consistories Colloquies and Synods Now in either manner of establishment where there is observed in all things an uniformity of Doctrine and of Discipline and which is pressed by the same rigorous severities in the State Ecclesiastical as the Laws are in the Civil in either manner I say even when the Magistrate favours the true Worshippers of Jesus Christ there happens Errours and disorders innumerable which never would be found in the establishment of the Congregational way as when the Bishop or a small number of Pastors has the whole management and supervision of affairs and where it is impossible but that Heresie Ambition Envy Politick regards temporal interest the Spirit of Pride and Grandeur and Factions should reign among them and that these Errours and disorders should so easily be visible and taken notice of as in a particular composed of one or two Pastors and of a small number of People This is what has been observed by the Historians Socrates and Sozomen and by the Fathers Gregory Nazianzen sayes that he had never seen Synods to produce any good effects but that they had rather increased Heresie then stifled and suppress'd it Martyn the Bishop of Tours had no better opinion of them All the Synods especially the Oecumenical had been Shire halls houses of confusion or even Aceldama's if the Emperours or their Commissaries had not thrown water upon the fire which they had kindled Yet they could not always so hinder but that these two great evils of Synods and Bishops the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did transport them to the very extremities of tyranny and cruelty insomuch that Dioscorus who was President in the second Council of Ephesus over four hundred persons was so moved with rage and passion against Flavian Bishop of Antioch that he rose up from his seat and killed him with blows and kicks and also trampled upon his body after he was dead 'T is remarkable that the Canons full of piety and pure Doctrine were never made in Numerous and Oecumenical Synods but in those that were private and composed of a few persons such as was that of Orenge where we read these words that deserve to be writ in Gold Tales nos amat Deus quales futuri sumus ipsius dono non quales sumus nostro merito having in it only the first Nicene Council which hath produced us this most Nervous confession concerning the blessed Trinity I add that in the Establishment of a National Church which observes in a large extent of Dominion the same uniformity of Religion as of Polity it is neither goodness nor truth neither sincerity nor a well-form'd design that acts but it is hazard worldly interrest power and the greatest number which is oftentimes the most erroncous and the will of one single Person invested with an absolute power which is most commonly taken up by Flatterers and Counsellors who are animated with other motives than those of Conscience or who how good soever and sincere otherwise are not illuminated
that their spirit was not that of contention nor animosity one against another but of peace and concord IF the Book of that excellent Author Eutychius the Patriarch of Alexandria had appeared with all its Truths and had been seen by all those that had eyes and would use them during the lives of Monsieur Salmasius Monsieur Blundel c. they had been yet more strongly perswaded than they were that all those circumstances so distant from the relation that Eutychius makes of them savours as much of Romance as those three Crosses which Helena Mother of Constantine found or as the donation of that Emperour to Silvester CERTAINLY the providence of God did clearly appear in the choise of those three hundred and eighteen Bishops 'T was an Act of God and not man when he raised up the good Bishop of Alexandria to recommend them to Constantine and when he inclined the heart of that Prince to hearken to his Counsel For if the Emperour had let himself been overruled at the beginning of that Counsel by any other Bishop as he did at the end of his Life the first Establishment of Faith and Religion had been that of Arrianisme whereas the orthodox Faith taking the first possession under the first Christian Emperour this served most powerfully to gain it credit and to make it pass and transmit it to posterity I would ask here by the way those that deprive the Soveraign Magistrate of the Intendance of regulating by a Soveraign Authority in all places either of an Empire or a Territory the matters of Religion and give him no other Authority than that of a private person I would ask those I say what expedient a good Bishop such as this of Alexandria could be able to find out to authorize the Faith that was contrary to that of Arrius in case God had not inclined the heart of Constantine to establish it by his commands in all the places of his Empire I ought not to forget here one circumstance in our Author that extreamly fortifies the right of the Magistrate especially if he be Orthodox to the Soveraign Intendance in the Government of the Church and which moreover strongly proves that the Rules Canons Censures and Anathemas of Councils are only Councils and the declarations of wise and experienced men before the Magistrate hath given them Authority by his Sanction In short this passage of Eutychius is the accomplishment of the prophesie of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. Know you not that the Saints shall judge the World that is to say know you not that God will one day establish Faithful Magistrates who shall be governours in chief of the Church he says than that the choice of three hundred and eighteen Bishops being made Constantine entred into their Assembly and after he had saluted and harrangued to them he laid his Scepter upon the Table his Ring and his sword and said to them I give you the power of regulating the affairs of the Church that done the Fathers humbly thanked him for the Authority which he was pleased to fortifie them with and rendered him his Scepter his Ring and his Sword 'T IS true if Constantine had been an Arrian his erronious opinion had done as much mischief as the contrary opinion to that of Arrius and wherewith he was possessed did good by its Establishment but it is true also that if the Soveraign of an Empire hath no other authority in the Church than that of a private person it will never be possible and it can never happen that an Orthodox Prince will be able to establish the true Religion by his Commandments in all the places of his Empire 'T is true by this Soveraign Authority of the Magistrate Errour and Impiety may as well be established by Lawes as truth and piety but it is true also that when the Soveraign Magistrate either hath no part nor is interessed in the affairs of Religion as during the three first Ages of the Church nothing could keep the Bishops as were those two thousand and forty eight of whom Eutychius speaks from divinding into many erronious parties and the Orthodox party to be always the least in number and this cannot happen when God gives to the Church such Princes as resemble Constantine the Great Theodosius and Martian IT happens notwithstanding that during such disorders and such confusions of diverse opinions as were those of the two thousand and forty that God reserves always a small number of good Pastors as were those three hundred and eighteen who form in a great Empire such as was the Roman several little Congregations all like to those of our Independants whom God makes use of amidst the greater corruption and confusion to keep and perpetuate to himself an Orthodox and faithful people in the world 'T IS true then that whither God gives a Christian Magistrate but a Heretick or whether he does not give any if he be not possibly a Heathen as during the three first Ages the inconvenience is great but it is otherwise certain that when God blesses his Church with a Magistrate that favours the Orthodox and true Worshippers of Jesus Christ the condition of the Church of God is incomparably more happy than under any other establishment of Religion or of the State For although persecution ought to unite Christians by a holy and the same Faith and by a life correspondent to it yet it hath not that Efficacy nor that vertue to produce those two good effects which commonly follow under the Reign of good Princes as David Hezekiah Josiah Constantine Theodosius c. under whom the people are united well otherwise and kept in good order and in the profession of one and the same and a good Religion which they are not under persecution For even the Church is not without disorders and violent shakings under the best and most Orthodox Princes which happens by their Indulgence who keep not up that Authority they ought to take in the government of the Church and who delegate it to the Clergy and permit them to exercise by a pretended power derived from Jesus Christ Independant on the Magistrate and who in short raise up Bishops to such a greatness and wealth as to have credit enough to partake and share the Soveraignty and to dispute the moiety of it with him who of right is the Soveraign of the whole leaving him the temporal Soveraignty and reserving to themselves the spiritual as they call it BUT these matters I discourse of in my Book not yet Printed intituled An Essay towards a true Ecclesiastical History One Theophilus of Alexandria and his Successor Cyrillus were equal and went check by jole in Authority with the Emperour and had built an Empire in that of their Soveraign For even those and their Successours had built several of them when a Pope was set up among them who subjugated them all and made them all agree to set up but one Catholick Church for before there were in