>M
 
 Ex libris 
 
 o 
 
 A PARiENESIS. 
 
 SEASONABLE EXHORTATORY 
 
 ALL TRUE SOXS 
 
 er i) u r c !) of 15 n g I a n 15. 
 
 BY H. HA^niOND, D.D. 
 
 A 
 
 
 OXFORD r 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER. 
 MDCCCXLI. 
 
 o
 
 A 
 
 PARiENESlS. 
 
 Seasonable Exhortatory 
 
 TO ALL 
 
 TRUE SONS 
 
 of the 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^yherein is inserted a Discourse 
 of HMRESY 
 
 in defence of our Church agamst 
 
 the Romanist. 
 By H. Hammond. D.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by R. N. for Richard Royston, 
 at the Ano^el in I vie- Lane.
 
 o- 
 
 U 
 
 snt 
 
 SANTA EARBA^ ' 
 
 ALTHOUGH, in the judgment of 
 every instructed member of the 
 Enghsh Church, it must be deemed 
 unnecessary to assign reasons for repubhshing 
 any of Hammond's works, it may nevertheless 
 be right to explain why from so many valuable 
 treatises the following has been singled out. 
 
 The Parsenesis was written, as we learn from 
 Bishop Fell, in the year 1655, on the pubhcation 
 of the interdict which forbid the Clergy of the 
 Church to exercise any spiritual function^. By 
 that tyrannical and persecuting edict of a 
 
 I » Hammond's Life by Bishop Fell, prefixed to Hammond's 
 i Works, vol. i. p. 19. 
 
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 vi PREFACE. 
 
 faction professing civil and religious liberty, 
 the penalty of imprisonment was denounced 
 for the first and second offence, and deportation 
 for the third, against such of the Priesthood 
 as should fulfil their Apostolical mission^. 
 This cruelty was carried to a still further 
 l)itch. It was declared unlawful for all persons 
 to " keep in their houses or families, as Chap- 
 lains or Schoolmasters for the education of their 
 children, any sequestered or rejected Minister, 
 Fellow of a College, or Schoolmaster, or permit 
 any of their children to be taught by such, upon 
 pain of being proceeded against*^." 
 
 On the promulgation of this disgraceful 
 interdict, Dr. Hammond wrote the Treatise now 
 reprinted: of which Bishop Fell speaks in 
 the following passage : " Among all his labours, 
 although polemic discourses were otherwise 
 most uneasy as engaging to converse with 
 men in passion, a thing he naturally abhoiTed, 
 his Parsenesis, a persuasive and practical Tract, 
 which now he wrote, and which upon that 
 
 •» Paraenesis, ch. vi. 33. 
 
 «: Walker's Sufferings of the Clergj-, p. 194. 
 
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 PREFACE. vii 
 
 account was exceeding agreeable to his desires, 
 cost him such throes and pangs of birth, as 
 ha^^ng been penned first in tears and then in 
 inkd." 
 
 The present state of the Enghsh Church is 
 happily most unhke its condition at the time 
 this Treatise was written. It must not there- 
 fore be imagined, that any such parallel is 
 intended by the republication of it. But at 
 the same time, the question whether or no the 
 hke premonitor}' notes which gave warning of 
 our last chastisement may be now again heard 
 by watching ears, is a matter to be much 
 pondered by thoughtful minds. In the last 
 ten years, the Church has undergone, in all 
 points which afford to pohticians a plea of 
 laying hands upon her system, a most signal I 
 trial; and it is not too much to say, that her | 
 assailants have met on all sides as signal a ' 
 repulse. The ci\dl powers and privileges of 
 the Church, were perhaps never more safe than ' 
 now; and, by the confession of those who most 
 desire openly to innovate upon her system, 
 
 <i Life by Bishop Fell, p. 19. 
 
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 viii PREFACE. 
 
 the opportunity for their experiments is past. 
 They are compelled to acknowledge themselves 
 both baffled and suq^rised, by the steady 
 putting forth of her great power, and the fast- 
 ness of her hold upon the hearts of the people 
 of England. But the outward strength and 
 safety of the Church, is worse than vain, as 
 fostering a miserable self-deceit, if there be a 
 wasting away in the energy of her spiritual 
 life within; for it is not by the political or 
 popular strength of the Church we stand. We 
 are bound to thank Him, in ^^^lose hand are 
 the hearts of Princes and the affections of the 
 people, whensoever His Church in this land 
 rests securely in her relations to the Civil 
 Powers and to the English nation; but that 
 which is above all worthy of a Catholic Chris- 
 tian's most earnest care, is the relation of the 
 English Church to the universal Church of God 
 on earth, and above all to her Divine Head in 
 Heaven. He will fear only a schismatical 
 position or a taint of heresy, as that which 
 can alone cloud from her the countenance of her 
 Lord. He will know that it is only by holding 
 
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 I PREFACE. Xj 
 
 fast our identit}' with the Cathohc Church of 
 all ages, that we can hold fast our mystical 
 union with Him. And he will feel too, that 
 no man can calculate what may be the 
 accumulating result in one or two generations, 
 not only of an heretical or schismatical principle 
 if admitted in our day, but of an heretical or 
 schismatical temper, even while we maintain 
 unimpaired the deposit of CathoUc truth. 
 
 It is because the following Pareenesis, in a 
 most searching and awakening tone, brings out 
 this great rule of our probation, that it has been 
 thought right to lay it again before the 
 members of the Church. 
 
 October 13, ISiO. 
 
 
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 CO]XTEXTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 An Introductive Reflection on our present Con- 
 dition 3 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 A first Objection, or Argument of our Guilt, drawn 
 from our present Condition; answered in the 
 former branch of it ; the Judgment apportioned 9 
 to our Sins 
 
 A Prayer fitted for a Day of Humiliation - 33 
 
 Another Prayer 36 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 A view of the second part of the Objection. The 
 
 perishing of the Righteous - - - - 43 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 A second Objection answered. Where is now the 
 
 Protestant English Church? - - - - 51 
 
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 b
 
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 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 Of the Nature of Heresy. Our Church secured from 
 
 the guilt of it 61 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 The use of the Word in Scripture - . . 61 
 
 SECT. II. 
 
 OfMatter of Faith 67 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 The two ways of conveying the Faith to us - - 73 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 The Testimony from which we receive the Faith - 76 
 
 SECT. V. 
 
 The Qualifications of such Testimonies - - 80 
 
 SECT. VI. 
 
 Where these Qualifications may be found. Of the 
 consent of ancient Doctors, and definitions of 
 Councils truly General - - - - 87 
 
 SECT. VII. 
 
 The benefit from General Councils. Reverence due 
 
 to them. To the first Four especially - - 98 
 
 SECT. VIII. 
 
 Of the subsequent General Councils. The Roman- 
 ists' deference to them - - - - - 106 
 
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 CONTENTS. Xiii 
 
 SECT. IX. 
 
 Our Reverence to all General Councils, The Fifth 
 
 and the Sixth 115 
 
 SECT. X. 
 
 Of the Seventh General Council - - - - 122 
 
 SECT. XI. 
 
 Of the Eighth General Council - - - - 132 
 
 SECT. xir. 
 Of the rest of the Councils which the Romanists 
 
 call General; particularly that of Trent - 149 
 
 SECT. XIII. 
 
 Of the inerrability of a General Council That it is 
 
 no matter of Faith 156 
 
 SECT. XIV. 
 
 That it is one of the Pie Credihilia, That a General 
 
 Council shall not err - - - - - 165 
 
 SECT. XV. 
 
 A Recapitulation and Conclusion of this matter 
 
 concerning Heresy ------ 168 
 
 CHAP. VL 
 A third difficulty, raised from Acts iv. 19, and 1 Cor. 
 
 ix. 16, satisfied 177 
 
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 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 The beneficial Uses of our present Condition - 203 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 First, Contempt of the World .... 203 
 
 SECT. II. 
 
 Secondly, Universal Reformation - _ . 209 
 
 SECT. in. 
 Thirdly, Fruits of Repentance. Among them, first, 
 
 Perfect Contentment : Discernible by two trials 218 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 Secondly, Peace with all Men . - - - 226 
 
 SECT. V. 
 
 The frequency of Sjiiaxes - ... - 237 
 
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 ^. 
 
 A PAEJEXESIS, 
 
 SEASONABLE EXHORTATORY 
 
 TRUE SONS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Ik 
 
 6- 
 
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 CHAP. I. 
 
 AN INTHODUCTIVE REFLECTION ON OrR PRESENT 
 CONDITION. 
 
 N this sad conjuncture of affairs, when 
 those whose office it is to speak to 
 the people from God, and to God 
 from the people, are solemnly forbidden all 
 public discharge of these and all other branches 
 of that sacred function, so useful to make up 
 the breach, to reconcile the enmity betwixt an 
 angr;^ God, and a sinful land ; it may not, I 
 presume, and I hope it will not, be deemed by 
 any, either impertinent, or unseasonable, to 
 make some attempt to supply those wants, 
 and remove those pressures which may other- 
 wise lie too heavily insupportable on those 
 our weak brethren's souls, towards whom the 
 example of Christ's bowels and blood- shedding 
 
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 4 AN INSTRUCTIVE REFLECTION 
 
 may reasonably expect to be answered with 
 our utmost compassion. 
 
 §. 2. In obedience therefore to opportunity 
 wliich may possibly be a duty incumbent on 
 us, (since Rom. xii. 11, the Greek copies of 
 greatest authority read Kaip^ SovKevav, serving 
 the season, instead of Kypi'cf)^ //^e Lord,) I shall 
 now, though the unworthiest of all my many 
 brethren, assume this venerable office of being 
 a remembrancer to the people of God, even to 
 all those who have been brought forth unto 
 Christ by our precious dear persecuted Mother, 
 the Church of England, and remain still con- 
 stant to that faith which from her breasts they 
 have sucked, and are not yet scandalized in 
 her. 
 
 §. 3. And for the first step of my address, 
 it cannot be more regular, than by beholding 
 and representing awhile the peculiarity of our 
 present condition, considered only in the sad 
 matter of it, (without any unkind reflection on 
 the inflictors,) that no one of us may miss to 
 discern the nature of that judgment, that by 
 God's just vengeance and all- wise providence 
 
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 ON OUR PEESENT CONDITION. 5 
 
 is permitted to fall and lie upon us, even the 
 saddest addition to the former weight that our 
 unparalleled sins and provocations could solicit 
 God to tolerate, or suggest to others to inflict, 
 or to the patients to fear, or expect in this life. 
 
 §. 4. Some images we have of it in Sacred 
 Writ. As first, the expulsion of our first 
 parents, and in them of all God's people, at 
 one interdict, out of the Garden of God, that 
 lively emblem of a pure Reformed Church, 
 and a "flaming sword" sent to back that inter- 
 dict, to guard the ''way of the tree of life," 
 to keep those, who most desired, from tasting 
 of it : and the sad positive penalties which 
 attended that, the sweat and agony of their 
 combat with the briars and thorns, were 
 nothing in comparison with the vast dismal 
 privation and intercision of all those blessed 
 advantages which were designed the daily fruits 
 and enjoyments of that Paradise. 
 
 §.5. Add to this the captive Ark, wdth 
 Ichabod inscribed on it, the departure of the 
 Shechina, the majestatic Presence of the Lord, 
 and with it the glory from Israel ; the very 
 
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 6 AN INSTRUCTIVE REFLECTION 
 
 news whereof was, in God's own judgment, 
 such as that "the ears of every one that heard 
 it should tingle," and the effect yet more 
 direful to old Eli, whose but mildness and 
 want of due severity, had somewhat contributed 
 toward it : the greatness of which punishment 
 to the discomfited Israelites is much more 
 agreeable, and useful matter of meditation to 
 us at this time, than the inauspicious conse- 
 quents thereof to those who took it captive, 
 the Emerods and the ruinous prostration of their 
 Dagon, and the weight of God's hand on the 
 men of Ashdod and Gath and Ekron, who were 
 any way guilty of taking, or accessory to the 
 withholding it. 
 
 §. G. Beside these, the Prophets both of 
 the Old and New Testament have yielded us 
 many dismal adumbrations ; their pencils 
 advancing as high as to the " sun's being 
 turned into darkness," and " the moon into 
 blood," the ** casting down of the host, and 
 of the stars to the ground ;" some in calmer 
 style to represent the deportation of the wor- 
 shippers into a strange country, from the 
 
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 ON OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 7 
 
 "garden of Eden" into a "desolate wilderness," 
 from Sion unto Babylon ; others in the 
 sharper accent of the "threefold woe" in Jose- 
 phus^ and the Apocalypse^, to set out the 
 captivity of the very worship and Temple 
 itself; destroying the Sanctuary', causing the 
 Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, banishing even 
 their eyes and thoughts from the wonted joy 
 and delight of both, (the kAtjttj ayia, the holi/ con- 
 vocation, and the heaiity of that holiness,) and 
 of this the conclusion is but equitable, this "is 
 a lamentation and it shall be for a lamen- 
 tation." 
 
 §, 7. Lastly, to come nearer home, to the 
 most flourishing, once purest Christian assem- 
 blies, we have in vision from St. John, in his 
 exile, predictions of Churches and their Angels 
 both threatened a deportation ; of 'removing 
 Ephesus her candlestick out of the place,' 
 putting the lamp thereof (fitly qualified to 
 have enlightened the whole room) under the 
 narrow bounds of a bed or bushel ; of deliver- 
 
 • See Euseb. 1. iii. e. 8. ed. 1720. 
 ^ Rev.%'iii. 13. 
 
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 8 REFLECTION ON OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 
 
 ing up whole assemblies to Satan, that he may 
 " cast them into prison," sentencing them to 
 black and dark restraints, the sins of profes- 
 sors being the forges or moulds of such more 
 than iron fetters whereby even the Word of 
 God is taught to be bound, when the free use 
 of it hath been abused by them. 
 
 §. 8. That these are the very lines, that 
 make up the face of sorrow, that is at present 
 on this Church, is none of the advertisements, 
 that we can stand in need of at this time ; the 
 matter itself speaks too loud to be news to 
 any of us. 
 
 §.9. The doubts that are more apt to 
 exercise men's thoughts are founded in the 
 acknowledgment of it, and every one hath 
 borrowed his objection or argument from 
 one of Job's friends, to add some weight of 
 sorrow to her whom God hath afflicted. A 
 few of these it may be pertinent to examine 
 awhile, instead of further enlarging on our 
 
 OpTjuwdia. 
 
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 C^AP. II. 
 
 A FIRST OBJECTION, OR ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 DRAWN FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION ; AN- 
 SWERED IN THE FORMER BRANCH OF IT ; THE 
 JUDGMENT APPORTIONED TO OUR SINS. 
 
 TT is first made matter of argument against 
 our Church and establishment, that God 
 hath found us out; that it is because of trans- 
 gressions, that an host hath been given against 
 the daily Sacrifice, and therein hath practised 
 and prospered, and that prosperousness inter- 
 preted to be God's own decision, as signal as 
 any response from the Ephod, a sentence by 
 Urim and Thummim, that it is no other than 
 the quarrel of God, -which He hath thus sig- 
 nally managed against us. 
 
 §. 2. This argument thus proposed, hath 
 somewhat which must be granted, and by no 
 means denied by us ; and for the other part 
 
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 10 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 wherein it is fallacious, it brings sufficient light 
 with it to assist us in the discovery of the 
 paralogism. And it may be worth the while 
 distinctly to consider it, in these two branches 
 of it. 
 
 §. 3. First, I say, it must not be denied, 
 but that "our sins liave found us out," all the 
 punishments we have undergone, being but 
 the just, and withal merciful reward of our 
 sins. 
 
 §. 4. For although we are by our Saviour's 
 answer^, restrained from making such inferences 
 of other men, to conclude their guilts by their 
 sufferings, though Job's friends are rebuked for 
 this kind of logic, arguing his insincerity from 
 the pressures that fell upon him, yet such 
 methods are very safe to be used by ourselves 
 toward ourselves. We are now obliged, and 
 never more loudly called on to judge ourselves, 
 though it be not allowed to any man else to 
 judge us upon these premises. 
 
 §.5. It is, I say, true beyond all con- 
 tradiction, and never more applicable to any 
 
 ' Luke xiii. 3. 
 
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 DKA^^^N FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 11 
 
 than to us, that all God's punishments, espe- 
 cially His spiritual, and heaviest sort of them, 
 are brought upon men by their sins. The 
 "Lover of souls," the patient and "long-suffer- 
 ing Father of all consolations and mercies," 
 never puts on the guise or armature of an 
 enemy, but when our methods have suggested 
 this, and our unreformed sins made it doubly 
 necessary, to vindicate Himself, and to chastise 
 us. And herein how bitter soever our portion 
 prove, though to have our lot with Admah 
 and Zeboim, to be " thrown away as straw to 
 the dunghill," or "unprofitable servants into 
 utter darkness," yet our hands are on our 
 mouths, the honour of a most perfect righte- 
 ousness belongeth unto our Judge, "and to us 
 confusion of face, as at this day." 
 
 §. 6. And we shall be foully to blame, if 
 these so generous medicaments do not, in 
 some proportion to the wisdom and design of 
 our great Physician, prove effectually opera- 
 tive, beyond all the former gentler methods ; if 
 the sins that have lain disguised in their 
 closest concealments, kept so strictly from the 
 
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 12 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 eyes of men, and, in our design, of God Him- 
 self, that they have even been unknown to 
 ourselves, do not now, upon this scrutiny, 
 give God the honour, come forth, and oifer 
 themselves to justice. 
 
 §. 7. This is indeed but our just return to 
 our " sins finding us out," for us to find out our 
 sins; to act this one revenge on them, to 
 deliver those up to wrath which have so sig- 
 nally delivered up us. And instead of shaking 
 off, or taking leave of this part of the argu- 
 ment too hastily, I shall desire to give it its full 
 scope, to reap as much benefit by it as we 
 may, and take notice of some, at least, of 
 those guilts, which the signatures we discern 
 in the judgment, the lines in this hand of God 
 do, according to the rules of the steadiest 
 augury, point out and discover to us. 
 
 §. 8. And 1. The deep, though most 
 causeless displeasure, under which the Liturgy 
 of our Church is fallen, is a shrewd indication 
 of the great coldness and indevotion, so scan- 
 dalously frequent among us, of the formal per- 
 functory performance of our offices, nay, of the 
 
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 DRAWN FROM OUB PRESENT CONDITION. 13 
 
 many foul profane mixtures which have , so fre- 
 quently interposed, and by a kind of fascina- 
 tion converted the most spotless sacrifice into 
 the very "lame and the sick°," the purest un- 
 leavened " offering" into bitter " polluted 
 bread '^" upon God's altar, and then no marvel 
 that God should "have no pleasure^," and at 
 length refuse to " accept an offering^" from 
 such mystcB, 
 
 §. 9. We know the " unwashed hands" 
 that brought it, defamed the sacrifice of God's 
 own ordaining, blasted the very "incense" and 
 "fat of fed beasts g," the "Sabbaths" and "caU- 
 ing of assemblies^," and turned them into mere 
 "abominations;" and then what wonder that 
 what He detests and cannot away with. He 
 should permit to be destroyed ? — lay down 
 that weight, which he is " weary to bear^?" — 
 suffer that to be deemed an " abomination," 
 and used accordingly, which our unsanctified 
 usage hath made such ? 
 
 §. 10. To descend to some particulars ; Our 
 
 « Mai. i. 8. d Ver. 7. • Ver. 10. ' Ibid. 
 
 s Isaiah i. 13. »> Ver. 13. i Ver. 14. 
 
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 14 ARGUMEKT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 continued obstinate unreformed sins have 
 made forms of confession and contrition unfit 
 to be taken into our mouths ; those cannot be 
 repeated by such, without gross hypocrisy and 
 belying ourselves before God and men, and 
 then what possibility is there, that the Minis- 
 terial Absolution should with any justice be 
 applied to us ? 
 
 §.11. And for that sacred ''form of words" 
 which Christ commanded us to use in our 
 addresses to our Father, — " When ye pray, 
 say, Our Father," — there needs no other argu- 
 ment for the discountenancing of it, (and 
 hell itself can yield no other, though search 
 hath been made into all topics to find some,) 
 this one is sufficient for the rending it from 
 us, our unqualifiedness for the rehearsing the 
 several petitions of it. 
 
 §. 12. "We that are so far from our due 
 charity to others that we are not at unity 
 within ourselves, that live so unlike children 
 that we have not so much as the livery of the 
 servants of God ; with what face can we hourly 
 and solemnly invoke our Father? We that 
 
 Q . ,
 
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 DKAWN TEOM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 15 
 
 do actually "vvith horrid oaths defile, and re- 
 proach the Name of God, cannot be thought to 
 be in earnest, when" we require it 'may be 
 hallowed.' "We that like rebels have dethroned 
 God out of our hearts, cannot without the 
 same mockery that the soldiers were guilty of 
 in the crown of thorns and purple robe and 
 ironical salutation^, instal Him King, or pray for 
 that ' coming of His Kingdom.' And as long as 
 we mutiny, and repine at the execution of 
 God's 'will in Heaven,' it is not possible we 
 should heartily beg that honour of transcribing 
 the Angels' pattern of cheerful diligent obe- 
 dience to His 'will on earth.' Our wants may 
 seem indeed to qualify us for an ardent address 
 of the fourth petition ; but our surfeiting of 
 manna makes us of all others the least fit to 
 go out to gather it : and the bread that came 
 down from Heaven being so neglected by us, 
 with what face can we ask that other which 
 we mean but to consume upon our lusts ? 
 But beyond all, we are most unqualified for 
 that petition wherein we set our 'forgiving of 
 
 k John six. 3. 
 
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 16 AHGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 trespassers,' as the pattern for God to copy out 
 in ' forgiving us.' It is but just that they which 
 are implacable to enemies, should be excluded 
 from, if they will not voluntarily renounce all 
 part in this prayer, this legacy of Christ's to 
 the merciful. Why should they be inclinable 
 to use a form, which is so ill fitted to their 
 constitutions, an imprecation on those whom 
 they tender most dearly ? And yet those 
 which are most unwilling to lose their right in 
 this donative have not been, to that degree 
 they ought, mindful of the condition, without 
 which they do but call for vengeance upon 
 their own heads, when they are most importu- 
 nate for mercy and forgiveness. In a word, 
 they that solicit and even court temptations, 
 invade sin and Satan in his own territories, 
 not to subdue, but to be subdued by him, 
 how can they pray 'not to be led into tempta- 
 tion ;' or be reconciled to themselves for hoping 
 'deliverance' from those 'evils,' which them- 
 selves have brought down upon themselves ? 
 
 §. 13. As for the Sacraments, they also 
 may deserve to be reflected on awhile by us. 
 
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 DKATTN TKOM OUR rEESE>-T CO>'DITIOX. 17 
 
 §. 14. The Baptism of infants is well known 
 to have of late found great opposition among 
 us, many with some earnestness, as if it were 
 their solid concernment, denying their tender 
 years the enjoyment of this privilege, whereby 
 the benefits of the death of Christ, (of which 
 the Catholic Church a2:ainst the Pelagians de- 
 fined all that are "born in sin" to stand in need,) 
 are, according to His institution, "sealed" unto 
 them. 
 
 §. 15. And for others which retaining kind- 
 ness to the Directory, do in obedience thereto, 
 maintain Infant Baptism, yet have they taken 
 away the Form of Abrenuntiation, though such 
 as hath been universally practised in the Church 
 of all ages^, and that as delivered to them by 
 
 ! Tertiil. de Coron. Mil. c 3. Aquam aditxm ibidem, sed et 
 aliquanto prius (viz. in the preparing the Catechumens for Bap 
 tism) in Ecclesia sub antistitis manu contestamur, nos renuntiare 
 diabolo etpompae et Angelis ejus . . . amplius aliquidrespondentes 
 quam Dominus in Evangelio determinavit. So the Axithor de 
 Eccles. Hierarch. very ancient, cap. ii. edit. Par. ap. Morel, p. 216. 
 'EfKpvaTiaai fx\v avTw rp'.s diaKeXev^rai rep ^araya, Kal 
 TrpotreTt to. Tf]s airorayris oixoXoyr^crai, Koi rp]s avr^ 
 i TT]P aTToray^u fjiapTupoiJ.si'os, oaoXoyficravTa Tp\s tovto 
 
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 18 AN ARGUMENT Or OUR GUILT, 
 
 the Apostles"^ tlicmsclves, and in every word 
 almost of that form which is retained in our 
 
 H^rayci nphs €& — Ka\ neXevel crvvTci^aaQai t^ Xpiar^ Koi. 
 irdaais toTs OeoirapaidTois lepoXoyiais. So Chrysost. ad 
 ilium. Cat. torn. ii. 238. ed. Ben. Ato rovTO Ke\iv6fii6a 
 }\.4y€iu, ^ATTOTacTaofxai aoi larava, 'iva /j-i-jKiTi irphs ahruv 
 iirai'e\6wp.ev, and ibid. p. 242- *Aj' a.uanvr]a6rjs ttjs (pwvris 
 (Ki'iPTjs, V a.(p7JKas /xv(TTayciyovf.Uur], ^Att or da a ofxai coi 
 'S.aTava, koX ttj nofxirr] <rov, Koi rrj XaTpfla aov ; adding 
 infra, avTT] yap 7] (pcov}], <tvvBt]KT) irphs rhu SeanoTrjv iarl 
 (making it the covenant on our part) koi KaBdnep tj/jlus 
 oIk^tus a')Opd^ovTes ai/rovs — irpSrepov fpujufJLiU, fl 
 fiovKovrai Tjpuv ?iov\uaat, ovrca Koi 6 Xpicrrhs TroieT — 
 epccTa ei $ov\ei rhu rvpavvov iK^lvov acpeivai. — So Augus- 
 tine, de Nuptiis et Concupiscent, 1. i. c. 20. (od. Ben. t. x. 
 p. 292.) Potestas diabolica exorcizatur in parvulis, eique 
 renunciant, quia per sua non possunt, per corda ct ora gcstan- 
 tium. So Ambrose in Col. ii. (Suppositit. t. ii. ed. Ben.) and Liber 
 de ii.s qui Mjster. : initiantur c. 2. Bepete quid interrogatus 
 sis, Recognosce quid responderis, Renuntiasti diabolo ct operi- 
 bus ejus." And Hexaem. 1. i. c. 4. t. i. ed. Ben. Deserit qui 
 abluitur — Principem istius mundi dicens, Abrenuntio tibi, dia- 
 bole, et angelis tuis et operibus tuis, et imperiis tuis. And Hie- 
 rome ad Mat. v. ed. Ben. Renuntio tibi diabole, et pompoe 
 tuae et vitiis tuis, et mundo tuo qui in maiigno positus est. 
 
 n> S. Basil, de Spiritu Sanct. ad Amphiloch. c. 27. t. iii. p. 54, 
 55. ed. Ben. Basil, giving many instances: TcDj' iu iKKKrjaia 
 '7re<pv\ayixfva}U hoyiidruv, /cat KrjpvyixdTcou e« ttjs rwu 
 'AiroaT6\(i}V irapadSafUS, mentions this among them, 'Atto- 
 
 O :
 
 o o 
 
 DRAWN FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 19 
 
 Liturgy", and that extended to the tenderest 
 infants »: only instead of this the people are 
 
 rdcrcrsadai rc^ l,aTavu, Kol rots ayyeXois avrov, ix 
 TToias, saith he, eo-rl ypacpris ; ovK eK tyjs aBr]fJ.oaisurov 
 TOUTTjs Koi airopp-!]Tov didaaKaXius, */)y eV aTToXu7rpa.yixo- 
 vfiTCf Koi, aTTspiepydaTui (Tiyrj ol Trarepes vixojv iipvKa^av, 
 And before him, Origen. Horn. V.in Num. t. ii. ed. Ben. Eorum 
 quae geruntur in baptismo verborum — atque interrogationum et 
 responsioniun quis facile explicet rationem? Et tamen omnia 
 haec operta et velata portamus super humeros nostros, cum ita 
 implemus ea et exequimur, ut a magno Pontifice atque ejus filiis 
 tradita et commendata suscepimus. And so TertuUian, ubi 
 supra, Hanc si nulla scriptura determinavit, certe consuetude 
 corroboravit quae sine dubio de traditione manavit. Quae- 
 ramus an et traditio nisi Scripta non debeat recipi — ut a baptis- 
 mate ingrediar. 
 
 » So Cyril of Jerusalem in his ^varaywyia, or tep : Ka- 
 T7}X'- o 'T/xw;/ eKacTTos kaTcos ik^y^v, 'AiroTd(xao!J.al crot 
 SoTCtfa — dra Koi irctcn rols epyois crov — ^Ito. \4y€LS, Koi 
 irdcTT] rrj iro[j.irrj avrov, — koX iraaa ToiaviT] p.arai6Tf]s. 
 
 • The Author de Eccl. Hierarch. c. 2. Tovtov oZv 6 Updp- 
 Xns ojXQXoyoZvTa Kara rrjv Upav avdyeiu rhu TratSo ^utjv 
 airaire? ras a-rtorayas 6p.o\oyrij-ai, Kal ras lepas oixoXO' 
 yias, OVK av ws iKe7voi yehaivres (paleu dWov avr' aKKov to 
 Qila [xvwu, ovde yaprovrS cp-q^ip, us vnlp rod ■n'aiBhs iyu ras 
 aTTorayas, r) ras Upas ujioXoyias -noiovixai, aW' on iruls 
 airordcrairai Ka\ (rvurdacr^rai, r. e. 6iJ.oKoya> rhp ira7da 
 TreiVetv ets vovu Uphv I6vra ra7s ifials iv deois avayuyais , 
 
 o 6
 
 o o 
 
 20 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 appointed to be taught, "That all that are bap- 
 tized do renounce, and by their ba2)tism are 
 bound to fight against the devil, the world, and 
 the flesh P." Which yet cannot ^vith any truth 
 be affirmed of those, that neither do it by them- 
 selves, nor by their proxies. And it is not 
 sufficient to say, they do it interpretatively, for 
 unless it have been the constant custom of the 
 Church, that they -who are baptized should 
 use forms of abrenuntiation, they that are 
 baptized, without using them, cannot be pre- 
 tended to do it interpretatively, and if it have 
 been the constant custom, then how can they 
 be excused, that have resolvedly omitted it. 
 And besides, the condition of covenants (such 
 is abrenuntiation here) ought to be expressed, 
 and so the Church from the Apostles hath 
 always exacted the expressing it, before the 
 sealing of this covenant. And yet I say 
 this, though it be such an Apostolical rite, 
 containing no inconsiderable, supervacaneous 
 
 aTTOTOL^aadai ixlv oXlkws to?s iuuvTiois, ofioKoyrjaai 5e Kai 
 irepyrjaai tos Qiias ofJ.oXo'^las. So Augustine, ubinupra. 
 j P Direct, of Bapt. p. 42. 
 
 O C
 
 o o 
 
 DRAWN TROM OUR PRESENT CONDITIOX. 21 
 
 condition and qualification in the person 
 baptized, is by interdicting the administration 
 of Baptism according to the ancient order of 
 our Church, or by those which have continued 
 constant to that order, endeavoured to be 
 superseded and removed from among us. 
 
 §. 16. And the wisdom and justice and 
 mercy of God is remarkable in this, thereby 
 branding our infamous repeated innumerable 
 breaches of this vow, our perjurious acting of 
 all those sins, with confidence and without 
 regrets, which we did so solemnly renounce 
 and defy in our Baptism. 
 
 §. 17. The greatness of that crime of 
 rescinding oaths, and renouncing abrenuntia- 
 tions, was that which made the ancient disci- 
 pline of the Church so severe against every 
 presumptuous act of sin after Baptism, in 
 respect of the heightening circumstances of such, 
 drawn from the solemnity of that vow against 
 which they were committed, and of that Presence 
 in which that vow was made, and of that weight i*, 
 
 ^1 H\rjv TovTQ taQe oti oaa \4yeis fidXicrra Kar iKeivrjv 
 TT]U (ppiKwdsaTOLTTju wpav eyypacpd icm iv to?s tov 6eov 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 22 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 which is set upon it by God, and of that judg- 
 ment which attends every breach of it. And 
 our scandalous negligence in this kind is by 
 this interdict, signally pointed out to us; it is 
 a pity we should ever want any more admoni- 
 tions, or venture again upon one such provo- 
 cation, lest a worse thing yet happen to us, 
 this being, if rightly considered, bad enough 
 already. 
 
 §. 18. In like manner and upon the same 
 grounds of our unreformed sins, it is, that the 
 Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood should 
 be in all justice withdrawn from those who 
 have no way approved themselves for the 
 " eating of that Bread and drinking that Cup," 
 this greatest severity being by our unprepared 
 hearts converted into the only seasonable 
 mercy ; it being little for the advantage (or 
 even the sensuality) of the swine, to have the 
 ' trampling of i)earls under their feet,' and as 
 little for the unworthy receivers to deal after 
 
 j j3i)3Aiois. eVeiSai' ro'ii-qv (vavriov tj SiairpaTTSfj.fi'os tovtol^ 
 ^s, u'S TrapajSaTTjy Kpidrjar]. Cyril. Hieros. Kottj;^. /ivaray. 
 a. p. 303. ed. Touttee. 
 
 o — ^ — o
 
 o o 
 
 DRAWN TKOM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 23 
 
 the same manner with the *' blood of the 
 Covenant." 
 
 §. 19. And why should the Sacramentals 
 escape better than the Sacraments ? Marriage 
 we know is become so deformed among us, so 
 extremely unlike the union betwixt Christ and 
 His Church, by which St. Paul thought meet 
 to resemble it, the band is so frequently and 
 so scandalously torn asunder, the designs of it 
 ordinarily so very unlike what they ought to 
 be, so more than polluted by either earthy or 
 sensual considerations, that the mysterious 
 band is in danger to become '6\r] aop^, all flesh, 
 nothing but luxury and brutishness, and in 
 proportion thereto the very rites of it so wholly 
 transformed from the 'yiixoi or nuptial feasts in 
 Scripture (honoured by Christ's presence) into 
 the Saturnalia or heathen riots in Macrobius, 
 that it were even a reproach to the Church's 
 Service, especially to the Offertory, and Sacra- 
 ment of Christ's Body, (which our Rubric 
 exacts indispensably from the married couple 
 at the time of their espousals,) to bear part in 
 such kind of solemnities. And to these, and 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 21 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 the like provocations avc may reasonably impute 
 it, that the binding and blessing those bands, 
 and rendering them truly sacred, to which the 
 Bishop's or Presbyter's hands were^ always 
 thought necessary from the Apostles' days, 
 through all ages of the Church over all the 
 world, is now solemnly laid aside, and no 
 image of it reserved to the Church, the Pres- 
 byterian jMinister, as well as the Prelatist, 
 (which in other particulars have not the like 
 fellowship,) not only the Liturgy but the 
 Directory deemed superfluous, and equally 
 impertinent in this matter. 
 
 §. 20. And so the Office for Burial, which is 
 now under the like proscription, may well be 
 our seasonable admonition, and memorative of 
 the sublime and sacred uses to which our living 
 
 "^ Up^nei Tu'is yajjLOvai kvX ya^o-j}X(vais jxirh. yvdjfxrjs 
 Tov iinaKSTrou ttju tpwaiy iroie'iadai. Ignat. Ep. ad Polycarp. 
 Quod Ecclesia conciliat, et confirmat oblatio, et obsignat bene- 
 diction Angeli renunciant, &c. Tert. ad Uxor. 1. ii. c. ult. Con- 
 junctiones . . . non prius apud Ecclesiam professae juxtamaechiam 
 — judicari periclitantur. Idem de Pudic. c. 4. Sponsus et sponsa 
 cum benedicendi sunt a Sacerdote, Concil. Carthag. 4. Can. 13. 
 Qui in toto orbe sunt Sacerdotes, nuptiarum initia benedicentes, 
 consecrantes, et in mysteriis sociantes. De Haer. Prsedestinat. 
 
 ' o
 
 o o 
 
 DRAWN TROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 25 
 
 bodies were by God designed, even to be the 
 yaol e/xxpuxoi, the animate icalliing temples of 
 His Spirit, and to bear their parts with the 
 soul in all the devotions it offers up, (the eye, 
 the hand, the knee, the tongue, being thus 
 obliged, as well as the heart.) but are commonly 
 so obstinately withdra-\\Ti from all holy offices, 
 and so profaned and polluted with our un- 
 sanctified practices, that as to so many felos 
 de se, so many sacrilegious, anathematized 
 persons, the burial of an ass or dog is but fitly 
 apportioned, and upon that account all more 
 decent ceremonies or regard, all offerings for 
 the dead, though but for a joyful resurrection, 
 withdrawn from us. 
 
 §.21. And even the Creeds of the Catholic 
 Church, that great depositum, which the 
 Apostles in their several plantations left as the 
 summary of all that was to be "believed to 
 our souls' health," and foundation of all Chris- 
 tian practice and reformation, together with the 
 Nicene (or Constantinopolitan) and Athanasian 
 enlargements of that, for the securing that 
 depositum, and for the expulsing all heresies, 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 26 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 risen up against it: all these now being fallen 
 under the same ostracism, with the other parts 
 of the inheritance of the Church, must serve to 
 advertise us, that a pure faith attended with 
 impure lives, foundations of reformation laid 
 by God, without any conformable superstruc- 
 tures of ours, are like the ' talent laid up in 
 a napkin,* avTOKaraKplaeis^ testifications and 
 self-confessions of an unprofitable, wicked 
 servant, and so very fit to be taken away from 
 them, who have made such unchristian uses of 
 them. 
 
 §. 22. The Solifidian that must be saved by 
 his " faith without works," and hath found out 
 artifices to elude St. James's exhortation and 
 resolution that such a faith will never save 
 or justify any, well deserves to have his amulet 
 taken away from him, to be deprived of the 
 instrument of his destructive security, as the 
 Jews were of the Temple of the Lord, when 
 that was become the great sanctuary, and 
 reserve of safety for all their unsanctified 
 practices. 
 
 §. 23. As for the contempt of the persons of 
 
 o —6
 
 o— o 
 
 DEAWN FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 27 
 
 those that have been set apart to that venerable 
 office of waiting on God's Altars, and at length 
 the interdict that is fallen upon them, there be 
 many matters of seasonable admonition which 
 seem to be designed us thereby. First, It may 
 mind us of a considerable defect. 
 
 §. 24. For though the four Ember weeks 
 were according to ancient custom preserved 
 for fasting and praying, and that in order to 
 that business of greatest weight, '' Praying to 
 the Lord of the harvest that He would send 
 forth fit labourers into the harvest," (therein 
 transcribing the example of the Apostolic 
 Church, Acts xiii. 3.) yet there being no 
 special service appointed in our Liturgy for 
 those times, it is too probable, that duty being 
 left to every man's voluntary, private devotions, 
 hath been very much neglected, which neglect 
 was therefore thus to receive its chastisement 
 from God. 
 
 §. 25. Secondly, The admission of some men 
 into that calling which were not duly qualified 
 for it ; and the negligent and unworthy per- 
 formances of the offices of so sacred a function ; 
 
 o o
 
 c- o 
 
 28 ARGUMENT OF OUR GUILT, 
 
 and the many profane mixtures, the seeking 
 our own "wealth, and ease, and praise, &c, 
 qualifying us for that contempt, and ruin, 
 which is now fallen upon us ; and lastly, the 
 unprofitableness of the people in the midst of 
 very plentiful means of instruction, were all fit 
 to be thus disciplined with a famine of the word, 
 or unwholesome food in exchange for that 
 &5o\ou yd\a, sincere and unmixed, which began 
 to be nauseated. And many other sad reflec- 
 tions this may seasonably suggest to us. 
 
 §. 26. And so in like manner for holy times 
 and places which are fallen under so great dis- 
 pleasure and contempt, even those that have 
 been consecrated not only to the honourable 
 memory and imitation of the Apostles and 
 Saints and ]\Iartyrs of God, but even to the 
 commemoration of the most glorious mysteries 
 of our redemption, the most signal mercies of 
 Christ Himself, the deprivation of these blessed 
 seasons and advantages cannot but mind us 
 how they have been formerly neglected and 
 even despised, and so either w^ay profaned and 
 sacrilegiously handled by us, instead of being 
 
 o c
 
 c o 
 
 DRAWN FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 29 
 
 instrumental to the inciting and advancing (as 
 they were sure designed) the works of holiness 
 in us. 
 
 §. 27. In a word, (to cut off, and omit many 
 particulars in this large and vast field of useful 
 meditation, beseeching every man to examine 
 his guilts by such reflections as these,) when 
 the characters, or discriminative marks of the 
 English Reformation are principally two ; one, 
 the conforming all our doctrines to the Primi- 
 tive Antiquity, receiving all genuine Apo- 
 stolical traditions for our rule both in matters 
 of faith and government ; the other, in uniting 
 that Ka\T]v avvwpida, fair, beautiful pair, of faith 
 and works, in the same degree of necessity and 
 conditionality both to our justification and 
 salvation, and to all the good works of justice 
 and mercy which the Romanist speaks of, 
 adjoining that other most eminent one of 
 humility, attributinf^j nothino- to ourselves, 
 when we have done all, but all to the glory of 
 the mercy and grace of God, purchased for us 
 by Christ; it is but just that they which have 
 walked unworthy of such guides and rules as 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 30 ARGUMENT OF OVR GUILT, 
 
 these, lived so contrary to our profession, 
 should at length be deprived of both, not only 
 to have our two staves broken — beauty and 
 bands — the symbols of order and unity ; both 
 which have now for some years taken their 
 leaves of us, but even to have the whole fabric 
 demolished, the house to follow the pillar's fate, 
 and so to be left ; and abide "without a sacrifice, 
 and without an image, and without an ephod, 
 and without teraphim^," deprived of all our 
 ornaments, left naked and bare, when we had 
 so misused our beauty unto wantonness. 
 Thus when the devil was turned out of his 
 habitation, and nothing followed but the ' ' sweep- 
 ing and garnishing" the house, and keeping it 
 empty of any better guest; the issue is, the devil 
 soon returns again, from whence he came out, 
 and brings " seven spirits worse than himself, and 
 the end of that state is worse than the beginning." 
 §. 28. And so still the taking of the Ark, 
 and the breaking the high-priest's neck, and 
 the slaying his sons, and many more, in that 
 discomfiture, are all far from new or strange, 
 
 * Ilosea iii. 4. 
 
 o— o
 
 o o 
 
 DRAWN TEOM OUR PRESENT CONDITION. 31 
 
 being but the proper natural effects of the pro- 
 fanations which not the Ark itself (that was built 
 every pin of it according to God's direction) 
 but the sacrificers, not the religion but the 
 worshippers, were so scandalously guilty of. 
 
 §.29. Thus we that are taught by Christ to 
 ' love our enemies,' and by nature and natural 
 kindness to ourselves to receive all profit we 
 may by their oppositions, must make our 
 advantage of the first part of the objection, 
 distinguishing betwixt the innocence or guilti- 
 ness (nay more than so, fruitfulness and good- 
 ness) of the land, and the barrenness and 
 wickedness and provocations of them "that 
 dwell therein," for whose sake it is regular with 
 God to make that "fruitful land barren," to 
 convert the milk and honey of Canaan into 
 gall and wormwood, to leave it to imitate, and 
 copy out the temper of the inhabitants, (whom 
 yet His own hand of transcendent special mercy 
 had once planted there,) to suffer it to petrify 
 and degenerate (as geographers tell us of that 
 once good land) into rock and mine, at once 
 to punish and reproach their obdurate impeni- 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 I 32 ARGUMENT OF OIR GUILT, 
 
 tent licarts. And yet still discerning the blessed- 
 ness of that Canaan, both in itself and to us, as 
 long as ^ve were thought worthy to enjoy it, 
 and indeed judging by this one npiTripiov, (if we 
 wanted all others,) that it was a most precious 
 establishment, because such provokers could 
 not in the justice and wisdom of God be longer 
 allowed the fruition of it. 
 
 §. 30. Herein our punishment consists, that 
 that which we are deprived of, was truly 
 valuable : it is not a vengeance but a boon, to 
 have poisonous drugs snatched from us, and 
 cast out into the sink — Ordinances that are not 
 good, abolished and nailed to the Cross ; and, 
 in like manner, it is but proportionable to our 
 merits to have even the Kingdom of Heaven 
 taken from us, that initial part, the suburbs 
 and confines of it here, and bestowed on them 
 that are more worthy, and so caj)able of 
 receiving benefit by such jewels. 
 
 §.31. Let us therefore here stop awhile to 
 do our duty upon our knees to this first part 
 of the objection, by reflecting on those sins 
 which have thus found us out. 
 
 o o
 
 o- 
 
 o 
 
 A PRAYER 
 
 FITTED r03 A DAY OF HUMILIATION. 
 
 O JUST and righteous Judge, Who didst once 
 for the iniquity of Thy people Israel give up 
 Thy Ark into the hand of the Philistines ; we 
 sinful creatures that are now under as great a 
 degree both of guilt and punishment, do here 
 east ourselves down before Thee, acknow- 
 ledging that we are not worthy any longer to 
 receive the honour of Christian profession, 
 that have so long defamed it by enormous 
 practises ; and that we who loved darkness 
 more than light deserve to have our candle- 
 stick removed, and to be given up to that 
 inundation of atheism and profaneness, which 
 now invades the gasping Church. Yet, O 
 Lord, deal not with us after our sins, but turn ; 
 
 c o
 
 o o 
 
 34 A TRAYKR FITTED FOR A 
 
 Thee again, thou God of Hosts, look down 
 from Heaven, behold and visit this Vine : do 
 not abhor us for Thy Name's sake : do not 
 disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Behold, sec, 
 we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people ; 
 though a rebellious and stiffnecked generation, 
 yet Thy Name is called upon us, leave us not, 
 neither forsake us, O God of our salvation ; 
 but though Thou feed us v/ith bread of adversity 
 and water of affliction, yet let not our teachers 
 be removed into a corner, but let our eyes still 
 see our teachers : let not Sion complain that 
 she hath none to lead her by the hand among 
 all the sons that she hath brought up, but pro- 
 vide her such supports in this her declining 
 condition, that she may still have a seed and a 
 ; remnant left ; and in what degree soever Thou 
 shalt permit this storm to increase upon this 
 poor Church ; be pleased proportionably to 
 fortify and confirm all those that are members 
 of it, that no man may be shaken or moved 
 with these afflictions, nor pervert that glorious 
 advantage of suffering for Thee, into an 
 occasion of apostatizing from Thee, but that we 
 
 o o
 
 o- 
 
 -O 
 
 35 
 
 DAT or HUMILIATION. 
 
 may all run with patience the race that is set 
 ; before us, and cheerfully partake of the afRic- 
 ; tions of the Gospel, that suffering for Christ 
 ; here, we may reign with Him for ever hereafter ; | 
 
 and all this for Jesus Christ His sake, our only \ 
 ' Lord and Saviour. Amen. 
 
 
 o 
 
 -o
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 O Tiiou King of Nations, Who dost according 
 to Thy will in all the Kingdoms of the earth, 
 Who hast made us drink deep of that cup of 
 trembling, and yet seemest to have bitter dregs 
 behind for us ; we Thy wretched creatures that 
 have highly contributed to that common 
 weight of sin under which the land sinks, 
 humbly prostrate ourselves at Thy feet ; 
 desiring with all sincere contrition to con- 
 fess that Thou art righteous in all that is 
 hitherto come upon us, all that we have 
 yet suffered being but the sad arrcar of the 
 sins of our peace, when we waxed fat, and 
 kicked ; and that Thou shalt likewise be 
 most just in the utmost of Thy future in- 
 flictions, which whatsoever they prove cannot 
 exceed the sins of our calamitous days, who 
 
 o- 
 
 o
 
 o ^ — - — o 
 
 ANOTHER PRAYER. 37 , 
 
 in the time of our distress have sinned yet 
 more against the Lord, who have even passed 
 through the fire to ^Moloch, with an undaunted 
 obstinacy suffered all the flamings of Thy 
 wrath, rather than we would renounce any of 
 our detestable things. Nay, as if our old were 
 too infirm, we have made new leagues with 
 death, new agreements with hell, proceeding 
 from evil to worse, and making every new 
 calamity Thou sendest to reclaim us, the 
 occasion of some fresh impiety. And now, O 
 Lord, wilt Thou not visit for these things, 
 shall not Thy soul be avenged on such a nation 
 as this ? We are they, O Lord, that have per- 
 verted all Thy dispensations toward us, grown 
 wanton under Thy mercies, and desperate 
 under Thy judgments, and is there yet any 
 third method left for those that have frustrated 
 both these ? Behold, O Lord, these desperate, 
 these gasping patients at Thy feet, who have 
 lost sense and motion to all things but the 
 resistance of their remedy. O give us not 
 utterly over, but continue to administer to us, 
 whatever may remove this stupefaction ; and 
 

 
 c o 
 
 38 ANOTHER PKAYER FITTED FOR A 
 
 j bring us to a feeling of our condition, and wliat 
 
 : sharpness and severity soever tliou discernest 
 
 necessary for that purpose, forbear not, O Lord, 
 
 to give us those wounds of a friend. O say 
 
 not concerning us, why should ye be smitten 
 
 any more ? but rather cast us into the place of 
 
 dragons, and cover us with the shadow of 
 
 death, if by so doing we may be brought to 
 
 remember the Name of the Lord our God. 
 
 Lord, this is the one great necessary wherein 
 
 we are principally concerned to solicit Thee, 
 
 that our eyes may be opened, that we may see 
 
 I every man the plague of his own heart ; that 
 
 i so, instead of those atheistical disputes we 
 
 make of Thy providence, we may all join in an 
 
 ; humble adoration of Thy justice, and confessing 
 
 ' that our destruction is of ourselves, abhor our- 
 
 ; selves, and repent in dust and ashes. And 
 
 when by this greater deliverance Thou hast 
 
 put us in capacity of a less, then be Thou 
 
 ' pleased to be jealous for Thy land, and pity 
 
 Thy people, and whatever other judgment we 
 
 must groan under. Lord deliver us not up to 
 
 that barbarism and irreligion, which hath 
 
 O Q
 
 o -o 
 
 DAY OF HUMILIATION. 39 
 
 already made too great a breach in upon us. 
 We cannot but confess it most just in Thee to 
 permit us, who have so long resisted the power 
 of godliness, to proceed now to cast off even 
 the very form, and that -vve who would not 
 receive the love of the truth, should be given 
 over to strong delusions, to believe lies : and 
 this saddest effect of Thy wrath hath already 
 overtaken many among us, and doth universally 
 threaten the rest. For since Thou hast laid 
 waste the wall of Thy vineyard, what can we 
 expect, but that it should be trodden down ? 
 Thou hast broken our two staves, beauty and 
 bands : all order and unity, the necessary sup- 
 ports of a Church, at once perishing from 
 among us. The solemn feasts are forgotten in 
 Sion, her elders sit upon the ground and keep 
 silence, whilst they, whom Thou hast not sent, 
 run : whilst those to whom Thou hast not 
 spoken, prophesy. We, O Lord, who might 
 once have gone with the multitude to the House 
 of God, are now interdicted the more private 
 exercises, and celebrations of Thy service. 
 This, this, O Lord, is the unsupportable part \ 
 
 ) o
 
 c o 
 
 40 ANOTHER TRAYER FITTED FOR A 
 
 of our afflictions, the sting of all our misery ; if 
 we had been only sold for bondmen and bond- 
 women, we could have held our peace ; but 
 Thine abhorring Thine Altar, and casting off 
 Thy Sanctuary, this is for a lamentation, and 
 must be for a lamentation. Thy servants 
 think upon the stones of Sion, and it pitieth 
 them to see her in the dust : O let not all those 
 tears and prayers that are poured out for her, 
 return empty : and because Thou hast Thyself 
 recommended to us the efficacy of imjoortunity, 
 be Thou pleased to give us that grace, to 
 excite and stir up all that make mention of the 
 Lord, that they may give Thee no rest, till 
 Thou establish our Jerusalem again a praise in 
 the earth. To that end, O Lord, give us 
 Pastors after Thine own heart, such Priests 
 whose lips may preserve knowledge, and make 
 us diligently to seek the law at their mouths ; 
 and grant that we, being by this deprivation 
 taught the value of such precious advantages 
 and the sin of our former contemning them, 
 may unanimously contend for the regaining 
 them, by a cordial forsaking those sins, which 
 
 o o
 
 o 
 
 DAY OF HUMILIATION. 
 
 41 
 
 have turned away these good things from us. 
 Grant this, gracious Lord, for His sake Whom 
 Thou hast set forth to be our propitiation, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 -o
 
 o 
 
 -o 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A VIEW OF THE SECOKD PART OF THE OBJECTION. 
 THE PERISHING OF THE EIGHTEOlS. 
 
 §. 1. 
 
 g^^tnsvr; i NOW proceed to the second 
 
 Jlfe?! ''ind more principal part of the 
 
 ' answer (in reference to the 
 
 latter part of the objection) which on the 
 grounds premised must be this, that the 
 improsperousness and persecutions, and even 
 subversion and eradication of a particular | 
 Church, is no way an evidence, nay, not so ; 
 much as a probable argument, that that was j 
 nocent which thus perisheth, but only that ; 
 they were unworthy which are thus deprived, i 
 and that too good to be enjoyed by them. | 
 
 §. 2. An indication of this the text referred 
 to in the proposal of the objection doth 
 expressly afford us ; the whole verse runs 
 
 o — ■ — ■ o
 
 o — o 
 
 4t SECOND TART OF TUE OBJECTION', 
 
 tlius, *' An host was given him against the 
 daily sacrifice hy reason of transgression, and 
 it cast down the truth to the ground; and it 
 practised and prospered^." 
 
 §. 3. Here indeed transgression is the one 
 procatarctic, external impulsive cause, moving 
 God to give that destroying host to the little 
 Horn : and to continue so prodigious a success 
 and prosperity to it, and this transgression, not 
 that of the Horn, or host, (which yet oft pro- 
 vokes God even in judgment to give them 
 such kind of destructive prosperities,) whether 
 to be presently out of their debt (to pay 
 Nebuchadnezzar that hire which is due to him 
 for being instrumental to some of God's pur- 
 poses) or to allow them, like Dives, their good 
 things in this life ; but I suppose the trans- 
 gression of those, against whom the host 
 prospers, just as in our case it is. 
 
 §. 4. But then still it is " the daily sacrifice," 
 and " the truth," which it is thus empowered to 
 cast down. The sacrifice we know of God's 
 own prescribing, and such as was an act of His 
 
 • Dan. viii. 12. 
 
 o o
 
 o — ■ o 
 
 I 
 
 THE PERISniXG OF THE RIGHTEOL'S. 45 
 
 special favour to that, above any other nation, 
 that he so prescribed it ; and this worship so 
 true, so acceptable to God, that as He exacted 
 it daily, loved to have it always before Him, 
 came constantly to meet with them at the 
 seasons of offering it, and was propitiated 
 thereby ; so it is there, by way of excellence, 
 and in the abstract, styled truth, and the truth 
 itself. And this the fittest as for that host to 
 cast to the ground, so for those transgressors to 
 be deprived of, such as for w^hom no ill thing 
 being too bad, any good thing w^as too precious 
 to be continued to them. 
 
 §.5. In like manner, when the Temple was 
 kept from being re-edified, when the Sanctum 
 Sanctorum was profaned, will any man affirm 
 that these prosperities and great successes, 
 whether of Tobiah and Sanballat, or of Pompey, 
 were a decision of God's, a verdict of Heaven 
 brought in against the Temple and Services? 
 
 §. 6. If there were need of more instances 
 to evince this, the whole History of the 
 Turkish successes and victories over the 
 Christians would not miss to do it, that great 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 46 SECOND PART OF THE OBJECTION, 
 
 volume would crowd together, and condensate 
 into one undeniable argument; the sum 
 whereof is this, that Christianity hath been 
 foiled, and Mahommcdism set up in many 
 hundred cities and regions ; wheresoever that 
 false epileptic Prophet's banners were dis- 
 played, the ensigns of truth and God Himself, 
 o'ix^vTai, were presently banished, or put to 
 flight. And yet sure God hath not thus 
 decided the controversy against Christian 
 religion, (to which His promise was long ago 
 sealed, that the gates of hell should never pre- 
 vail against it.) If Hehave, Hehathalso yielded 
 the great Sultan the honour of His own throne ; 
 for to that he hath as just a title, that of long, 
 peaceable possession, and prescription, having 
 put it successfully, and as prosperously main- 
 tained it among His titles, to be " King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords." God's verdict was herein 
 I intelligible enough, against the factions and 
 divisions and intestine broils of the Christians 
 among themselves, too busily and ambitiously 
 engaged in wars against one another, to attend 
 the designs, and obviate the motions of that 
 
 o o
 
 c o 
 
 THE PERISHING OF THE JRIGHTEOUS. 47 
 
 common enemy. And many other sins there 
 were that fitted them for those deprivations. 
 
 §.7. If this be not sufficient, I shall then 
 ascend but one step further in tliis argument 
 ah exemplo, and demand whether Satan, that 
 great adversary, hath not sometimes been pros- 
 perous in his attempts against the Church and 
 true faith : and whether that be not the mean- 
 ing of his being "loosed a little season^," after 
 the determining of the thousand years, and his 
 deceiving the nations before the commencing 
 of them, and whether in both those periods of 
 time, wherein he had his desired success in the 
 irxdyrj edvuf, deceiving the nations, God have 
 decided the question for him, and given judg- 
 ment against the truth ; if so, then was Simon 
 of Samaria no longer a magician, but a god, 
 and all the powers of Heaven itself submitted 
 to him, when he prevailed with the Emperor 
 to have a statue so inscribed to him, Simoni 
 summo Deo, To Simon the highest God: and 
 the strumpet Helena transformed from the 
 stray sheep into the Queen of Heaven, when 
 
 » Rev. XX. 3. I 
 
 D O
 
 o o 
 
 48 SECOND PABT OF THE OBJECTION, 
 
 once she obtained to be adored as his prima 
 fvvoia. And then did Arianism commence 
 orthodox, and Apostolical truth become the 
 only heresy, Avhen by the favour of the 
 Emperor Constantius it triumphed through all 
 the East over the Catholic doctrine ; it being 
 known in story, how upon that Emperor's 
 great prosperities and successes, particularly 
 upon the overthrow of Magnentius, and joining 
 the Western Empire to the Eastern which for- 
 merly he possessed, he frequently boasted, 
 Prohatum divino calculo siiam Jidem, That God 
 Himself hy those victories decided the contro- 
 versy on the Arians' side against the Fathers 
 of Nice, and determined^ their belief to he the 
 true, (which presumption Lucifer Calaritanus 
 confuted in a Treatise for that purpose, and 
 entituled, De Regibus Apostatis.) And then 
 (in brief) prosperity is not, as the Romanist 
 but modestly pretends, one of his many 
 
 » Nisi Catholica esset fides Arii, hoc est, mea, nisi placitum 
 esset Deo, quod illam persequar fidem quam contra me scrip- 
 serunt apud Nicaeam, nunquam profecto adhuc in imperio 
 florerem. 
 
 c — — o
 
 THE PERISHING OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 49 
 
 marks of the true Church, but like Aaron's 
 rod, in the midst of those of the magicians, 
 devours and supplies the place of them all, 
 neither antiquity, nor purity shall any longer 
 signify any thing, nor Christ Himself, if He 
 have ever been so improsperous, as to be cru- 
 cified ; the Jews, and Judas, and Pilate, must 
 have been in the right for three days, till He 
 conquered, and so confuted them again at His 
 resurrection. 
 
 §.8. These few I suppose may serve for 
 some competent topics of reasoning, to repel 
 all the force of this first objection, though if 
 there could be need of it, the whole Christian 
 religion itself, which bears the Cross for its 
 standard, and hath no assurance of conquest 
 but by constancy in sufiering, and gives us no 
 promise of this life but cum mixiurd cruets, 
 with the exception, or mixture of the cross, 
 would abundantly demonstrate such objections 
 as this to be perfectly unchristian. 
 
 o o
 
 A SECOND OBJECTION ANSWERED. WHERE IS NOW 
 THE PROTESTANT ENGLISH CHLRCH ? 
 
 §. 1. T^HE next objection is prepared and 
 aimed against us from another coast, 
 and will be, most for their advantage, put into 
 this short question, Where is now your Pro- 
 testant English Church ? when your Church I 
 doors and even parlours themselves are shut up '] 
 against those of you which are the ancient 
 remaining Bishops and Presbyters of the ^ 
 Church of England, officers regularly entered ; 
 into and continuing in that function. I 
 
 §.2. To this (not to examine the truth of I 
 the suggestion, which I suppose to fail in j 
 many respects) the answer will be the same, » 
 
 o o
 
 o ■ o 
 
 52 A SECOND OBJECTION ANSWERED, 
 
 as if the heatliens should ask, as once they 
 are supposed to have asked the Psahnist, in a 
 state of the like captivity, "Where is now your 
 God?" viz. that as our God, so our Church is 
 now, where it was before, ere this interdict 
 came out against us. 
 
 §. 3. Or if it may tend to the satisfaction of 
 any that I should a little enlarge on this theme 
 also, I shall then as before first demand. 
 Where the Church of the Israelites was, when 
 the people were carried into Assyria or 
 Chaldea ? Were they not then removed as far 
 from their own solemn place of worship, the 
 Temple at Jerusalem, and from all their numer- 
 ous Synagogues erected in Palestine, and that 
 by the very same means, a visible force ; by 
 which we are discharged from the public, and 
 even more private exercise of our functions ; 
 and consequently was not the lot of that peo- 
 ple the same with the worst, which can be 
 suggested or affirmed of ours, viz. to be sheep 
 kept out of their pastures upon the interdicting 
 of their shepherds ? 
 
 §. 4. Secondly, whether in the most 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 WHERE IS NOW THE ENGLISH CHURCH. [53 
 
 prosperous times of Arianism, when the 
 Catholic Bishops were driven out of their 
 Churches, banished out of Constantine's domi- 
 nions, and forced to fly to the "West, as to a 
 hiding-place, a refuge from those sad calamities, 
 it be by the objectors imagined, that there was 
 no Catholic or Orthodox Church in those 
 regions, wherein the Arian Emperor thus 
 persecuted the truth ? 
 
 §.5. Thirdly, whether in the time of Ana- 
 stasius the Emperor, who was an Eutychian 
 heretic and a bitter enemy and persecutor of 
 the orthodox, through the whole Eastern 
 Empire, the Goths and Vandals, Arian Princes 
 meanwhile domineering in Italy, Spain, and 
 Africa, and Pagan Kings bearing rule in France. 
 England, and Germany : whether, I say, in 
 this place, there were not yet an orthodox 
 Church remaining, though persecuted, in all 
 those places ? or whether there were at that 
 time any part of the Church which enjoyed 
 the evdia, exempt from that black persecuted 
 condition ? Much might be added of the par- 
 ticular state of the African Church under the 
 
 ) o
 
 o o 
 
 54 A SECOND OBJECTION ANSWERED, 
 
 Vandals, out of Victor Uticensis, but the 
 argument is too copious. 
 
 §. 6. Fourthly, whether when the Othoman 
 race of IMaliometan Emperors subdued so great 
 a part not only of Asia but Europe also, and 
 therein so many eminent Christian Churches, 
 setting up Mohammedism for the public worship, 
 yet permitting Christians to live, though but 
 as under saws and harrows and axes of iron, 
 instead of utterly depopulating their cities, it 
 can with truth be suggested, that these 
 Christian Churches were all destroyed ? I 
 speak not of later times, wherein some liberty 
 of assemblies is at a dear rate sold to them. 
 But before they came to purchase, or find so 
 much mercy at their conquerors' hands, whilst 
 all exercise of Christian religion was under 
 close interdicts, all their Churches filled with 
 their false worshippers ; yet even then hath 
 not this sad captivity been deemed sufficient 
 to unchurch all the Christians under those 
 proud tyrants' dominions ? 
 
 §. 7. Lastly, what will these disputers pre- 
 tend, as to the Romanists themselves who 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 WHERE IS NOW THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 55 
 
 have continued for some years in this Kingdom 
 without public assemblies, and acknowledge 
 willingly, I suppose, that their state hath been 
 all this while a state of persecution, that no 
 Priest of theirs is allowed to celebrate Mass 
 among them, that they can have no Bishop or 
 Ordinary residing here, and (as is supposable at 
 least) do not all receive influence either imme- 
 diately or mediately from their supreme 
 Bishop ? Will not their union vriih the 
 Catholic Church over the world, and their 
 sincere desire to enjoy the liberty of assemblies, 
 &:c. preserve them within the bosom of the 
 Church, though they do not enjoy these 
 felicities ? 
 
 §. 8. It is vain to pay any larger, or more 
 solemn attendance to this objection to which I 
 have elsewhere^ spoken more punctually, and 
 do now only suppose, that all that hath since 
 been added to our pressures hath infused no 
 fresh virtue into the arguments. 
 
 §. 9. The truth is, these and the like ways 
 
 of their demurest arguings, or suggestions at 
 
 I 
 
 » Tract of Schism, c. 2. Hammond's Works, vol. i. { 
 
 O O
 
 o _o 
 
 56 A SECOND OBJECTION ANSWERED, 
 
 this time, are but acts of diligent observers of 
 opportunity, which think to gain more by the 
 seasonable application, by addressing their 
 fumes, ormendicaments, tempore congruo, when 
 the pores are open, or the body in any special 
 manner receptive, than by the intrinsic virtue 
 or energy of them. 
 
 §.10. The argument I suppose the very 
 same, which threescore years since was fre- 
 quently pressed against us of this Nation, that 
 ever since our departure from the Romish yoke 
 we have ceased to be a Church ; only now the 
 darkness of our present condition makes them 
 hope that their sophistry shall not be so easily 
 seen through, as formerly it hath been, and 
 that either we shall be found less diligent or 
 less dextrous to defend a persecuted profession, 
 or else more inclinable to part with it. 
 
 §.11. It is meet therefore we should be in- 
 structed by them, and learn wariness from 
 their wiles, and as antidotes and prophy- 
 lactic methods, which are at all times of like 
 power and virtue, are yet most necessary to 
 be produced, in time of a general distemper, 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 WHEBE IS NOW THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 57 
 
 SO I suppose a more particular discourse on 
 this matter, though it will not now have more 
 real force, or consequently hope for better 
 success upon those that are impersuasible, 
 than formerly it had, may yet be more season- 
 able to the wants of some weak seducible 
 members of our persecuted Communion, in 
 tenderness to whom it may not be amiss more 
 distinctly to consider the argument itself, that 
 was now only to be new dressed, and furbished, 
 and receive some aid from the condition of our 
 present pressures, and to begin with examining, 
 what, and how many things there are which 
 may by the disputers be thought sufficient to 
 unchurch, or destroy any particular Church. 
 
 §.12. And I suppose them reducible to these 
 four. 1. Apostacy ; 2. Heresy; 3. Schism; 
 4. Consumption and utter vastation. 
 
 §.13. For the first, that of Apostacy, or re- 
 nouncing the whole faith of Christ, I hope of 
 that M'e shall not be deemed guilty, who are 
 by our greatest enemies acknowledged to re- 
 tain many branches of that " faith which was 
 once delivered to the saints." 
 
 o o
 
 o — ■ — o 
 
 I 58 A SECOND OBJECTION ANSWERED, 
 
 §. 14. For the fourth, that of utter Con- 
 sumption, it can as little be pretended, as long 
 as so many Bishops, Presbyters, and duly 
 baptized Christians among us remain alive 
 and constant to their first faith. 
 
 §. 15. For the third, that of Schism, the 
 Fathers which aggravated the sin of it to the 
 highest, do not yet allow it the force of un- 
 churching, but call them brethren, i. e. fellow- 
 Christians, which were most obstinately guilty 
 of it. But howsoever it be, of that I have in 
 a discourse on that subject, and in a first and 
 second defence of that discourse said as much 
 as yet appears necessary to be pleaded in de- 
 fence of our Church. 
 
 §. 16. There remains then only the second, 
 that of Heresy, to which also some preparative 
 matter hath been laid down in the Tract of 
 Fundamentals, but not in so particular a re- 
 lation to the present question, as will excuse 
 the reader from all addition of trouble at this 
 time. 
 
 §. 17. I shall therefore on this account, and 
 I to perfect the answer to the present objection, 
 
 o— o
 
 o- 
 
 o 
 
 WHERE IS NOW THE ENGLISH CHLRCH. 59 
 
 transgress the bounds of my first design, and 
 enlarge awhile upon this inquiry. What may 
 be defined the formalis ratio, wherein heresy, 
 properly so called, must necessarily consist, 
 and without which no person or Church can 
 justly be deemed guilty of that dangerous sin, 
 that piece of carnality. 
 
 o- 
 
 o
 
 o- 
 
 o 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 OF THE NATURE OF HEREST. OUR CHURCH 
 SECURED FROM THE GUILT OF IT. 
 
 SECT. 1, 
 
 THE USE OF THE WORD IN SCBCPTURE. 
 
 §. 1. A ^I) fij'st to prevent mistakes which 
 may arise from the ambiguity of the 
 word alpeais, even in Scripture itself. It is 
 certain that this is sometimes used more 
 loosely in an indifferent sense, for any con- 
 siderable distinction betwixt men of the same 
 profession, as when the several schools of 
 philosophers and the courses they took in 
 them are called^ alp^aeis Kal ayaryal, their 
 
 . 'Itttto^otos ^vvea (pijcnv atpeaeis fhai twv (piAoaScpuv 
 Kot ayaryas, Trpu)T7}v MeyapiK-fju. Phavorin, p. "4. 1. 14. 
 
 o- 
 
 -o
 
 o o 
 
 02 OF THE NATURE OF HERESY. 
 
 heresies and ways of discipline, especially 
 when any^ great number of men of such or such 
 a denomination, do hold and keep together in 
 maintenance of such a way. 
 
 2. Thus M'hen the Sadducees were indeed 
 the most eminent false teachers in the Jewish 
 Church, yet not only their false doctrine is 
 styled alpeffis, their heresy^, but even that of 
 the Pharisees^; and that by St. Paul, even 
 when he looks on it i$ aKpifieaTdr-nv, as the 
 strictest and most exact sect of the Jewish re- 
 ligion ^. 
 
 3. And thus I suppose Christianity is called 
 by the Jews at Rome^. This heresy, without 
 any evil character set upon it, as into which 
 they desired then to make inquiry, and be in- 
 structed, knowing no more of it at present 
 than by the partial and passionate rumours of 
 men, by which they passed no judgment of it, 
 
 '• 'H 5Jf a irXiiovuv avOpdonwu wphs a\\-f]\ovs /xiV avfJL- 
 \ (pwvovvTuv TTphs &\\ovs 54 SiacpuvovyTuv, rj a'lpecris iari. 
 
 Phavor. ibid. 
 I « Acts XV. 17. * Acts XV. 5. 
 
 I • Acts xxvi. 5. ' Acts xxviii. 22. 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 OUB CHUKCH SECURED FROM ITS GUILT. 63 
 
 but only said that it was every where spoken 
 against. 
 
 4. But of this notion of the word we do not 
 now speak ; if we did, it is visible that the 
 style would belong to the way of the Romanists, 
 were they never so purely orthodox, as well 
 as to any other sort of either true or erroneous 
 Christians, the consideration of the verity or 
 falsity of the doctrines being no ingredient in 
 this usage any more than in the origination of 
 that word. 
 
 5. But the Scripture more frequently useth 
 the word in an ill sense, with connotation of 
 some fault either really inherent, or by them 
 that use the word thought chargeable on that 
 way, which they express by it. 
 
 6. ThusS in TertuUus's speech the alpeais, 
 heresy, of the Nazarenes is looked on as an 
 erroneous, dangerous, punishable way, and so^ 
 in St. Paul's resuming of the accusation, where 
 he acknowledges himself guilty of that they 
 thus called heresy, i. e. deemed to be such. 
 
 7. Thus in the Epistles it constantly signi- 
 
 s Acts xxiv. 5. 1" Ver. 14. 
 
 O (
 
 o o 
 
 64 OF THE NATURE OF HERESY. 
 
 fies, infusions of ill ; sometimes divisions and 
 breaches of charity and Christian communion, 
 as 1 Cor. xi. 19, where alp4aeis, heresies, are but 
 the interpretation of ax^^l^"-'^'*, schisms or 
 fractures, v. 18 ; and so Gal. v. 20. where in 
 the midst of uncharitable breaches, hatred, 
 variance, emulations, wraths, strifes, seditions 
 before, and envyings, murder after, alpeaeis, 
 heresies, are enclosed, and so must receive their 
 tincture from the society wherein they are 
 found, and so denote schismatical divisions 
 peculiarly, in a very ill sense indeed, as un- 
 questionable "works of the flesh V' yet not pre- 
 cisely those that now we are to treat of, but 
 as heresy and schism are sometimes promis- 
 cuously used the one for the other. 
 
 8. As for the strict, separate notion of the 
 word, wherein it hath from the Apostles' times 
 come to ours, and is generally understood 
 among men, that still remains to be fetched 
 from one singular use of it^ ; whereof the false 
 teachers among the Christians, bearing, saith 
 he, a proportion with the false prophets among 
 
 i_Gal. V. 19. k 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 { OUR CHURCH SECURED FROM ITS GULLT. 65 
 
 the Jews (those two words SiBdaKaXoi and irpo' 
 (piirai, teachers and prophets, without any con- 
 notation of predicting future events, signifying 
 in sacred dialect one and the same thing; and 
 so likewise fahe teachers and false prophets) 
 
 he fortels them irapnadlovcnv alp^aeis airccX^ias, 
 
 that they shall bring in, either by the by, or 
 (as TTopo oft signifies) in contrariety to sound 
 doctrine, heresies of destruction, or destructive 
 ruinous heresies, destructive of that founda- 
 tion laid by the Apostles; for such the 
 doctrines appear to be of which he there 
 speaks, being the denial of the gi'eat Article of 
 our belief concerning our Redeemer, and such 
 the Gnostic heresy is confessed to be, which is 
 evidently there spoken of by St. Peter. 
 
 9. That all heresies should be equally 
 destructive with this, we have no indications 
 from that text, nay several enhancing circum- 
 stances are there discernible (if now that were 
 any part of the enquiry) which may justly 
 make a difference gradual both in respect of 
 turpitude and danger betwixt that there 
 specified, and sundry other heresies. Thus 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 66 OF THE NATURE OF HERESY. 
 
 much only must be thence concluded, that all 
 the heresies that can be deemed propor- 
 tionable, or parallel to that character which, 
 in that singular place, the Scripture gives us 
 of alpi(T€is, are doctrinal breaches or separations 
 from the faith as that signifies the true Chris- 
 tian doctrine, by Christ or His inspired and em- 
 powered servants, the Apostles, "once," or "at 
 once delivered to the saints." A.'lp(<ns4(rTivr]iTep\ 
 vla-rews ovk aX-nOrjs U^a, heresy is an untrue or false 
 opinion or doctrine concerning the faith, was 
 duly and fully resolved by Phavorinus, mean- 
 ing by iTep\ Tri(TT€Q)s any part of the faith truly so 
 called, the difference betwixt heresy on one side, 
 and infidelity or apostacy on the other side, 
 being visibly this, that the two latter are the 
 denying or renouncing the whole faith of 
 Christ, but the former of any single part of it. 
 
 o o
 
 o 
 
 SECT. II. 
 
 OF MATTER OF FAITH. 
 
 1. Herein then the definition of heresy (in 
 our present notion) being completed, viz. in 
 its opposition to the faith of Christ in any one 
 or more branches of it, and the disposition of 
 the person, guilty thereof, being but extrinsical 
 to the nature of the thing itself (as whether it 
 be caused barely by ignorance, or whether it 
 have in it some mixture of obstinacy, pride, or 
 any other kind of carnality, whether it be 
 only in the heart, contrary to believing with 
 that, or else proceed farther to profession with 
 the tongue, as faith also doth^, these I say and 
 the like being prescinded, and taken off from 
 our present enquiry, as they must be from the 
 
 1 Rom. X. 10. 
 
 c J
 
 o — o 
 
 68 OF MATIER OF FAITH. 
 
 examination of the formalis ratio of every other 
 sin (\Yhich being once found out what formally 
 i it is, is allowed to be capable of many aggra- 
 vating or extenuating circumstances and 
 degrees, without varying of the species.) 
 All that can now remain to be established in 
 this first part of the enquiry is, to discern how 
 far the faith of Christ may duly be extended, 
 to what sorts of things it can properly belong, 
 that so by the law of contraries, we may safely 
 conclude, to what sorts of errors it is that the 
 word heresy is to be extended. 
 
 2. And first, we must distinguish between 
 matters of faith and rites or practices or cus- 
 toms of all, or any of the Apostles, for these 
 latter being prudcntially designed to some 
 persons at some times, for some particular, 
 occasional, and those mutable ends, as they 
 are not founded in any universal precept, or 
 doctrine of Christ's, so neither are they 
 obliging to all future times, but only so far as 
 they that so ordered did design them. 
 
 3. Thus we know the Canon of the Apostles 
 and the Church assembled at Jerusalem con- 
 
 ■6
 
 OF MATTER OF FAITH. 69 
 
 cerning things strangled and things offered to 
 idols™, are promulgate to the Gentiles at that j 
 time of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, from ^vhom 
 the occasion of that Council and Canon Avas 
 taken ; but when they pass farther, they pro- 
 mulgate them not, as appears by 1 Cor. viii. 9. 
 Where, in that of Idolothyta he acknowledges 
 the Corinthians' liberty not retrenched, save 
 only in case of scandal. 
 
 4. And Baronius" extends this observation 
 to the Thessalonians, also though the evidence 
 be not so convincing, upon force of that text°, 
 where repeating what Commandments he had 
 given them by the Lord Jesus, he specifies 
 only ut abstineatis a fornicatiotie, that ye 
 abstain from fornication, without any mention 
 of the other parts of the Canon. 
 
 5. But without relying on such arguments 
 as this last of his (negative, and so incon- i 
 cludent), such ordinances as these, accom- 
 modated to particular times and places and 
 persons, are in the nature of them, temporary 
 and variable, nay, not always the same at the 
 
 » Acts XV. n An. 51. n.58. " 1 Thess. iv. 2. 3. 
 
 o
 
 O o 
 
 70 OF MATTER OF FAITH. 
 
 same time. The Church stories give us little 
 reason to doubt, but the controversy con- 
 cerning the time of keeping Easter, which at 
 last brake out into such a tempest in the 
 Church, had its original in the different tra- 
 ditions of the Apostles, St. John and St. Philip, 
 produced by Polycrates for the Asiatic, as St. 
 Peter and others by Victor for the other side. 
 
 6. And from thence as Polycarp and 
 Anicetus, though each resolutely adhering to 
 their several ways, did yet communicate one 
 with another (as Irenosus tells Victor in his 
 Epistle to him concerning this matter) so it is 
 evident that such ritual differences disturb not 
 the faith, nor infer heresy on either side. The 
 words of Pope Gregory? the First are express 
 for it; In una fide nihil officii sanctce Ecclesice 
 consuetndo diversa, Difference of customs is 
 reconcilable ivith the unity of faith, and no detri- 
 ment comes to holy Church by this difference. 
 This might be much more largely evinced if 
 there were need of it. 
 
 7. First then, confining ourselves to the 
 
 P Epist. exeg. 1. i. Indict. 9. Ep. 43. cd. Ben.
 
 o o 
 
 OF MATTER OF FAITH, 71 
 
 faith only ; it is granted on all hands, that 
 by faith here is meant the object or matter 
 of a Christian's belief, not the belief itself: so 
 it is visibly used in that eminent place of 
 Jude 3. rrl(TTis 7rapa5o0eiVa, the faith delivered to 
 the saints, i. e. the particular doctrines which 
 altogether made up the saints' belief. 
 
 8. Secondly, that this object of belief is 
 nothing but the revealed doctrine of God, 
 actually proposed by Him and preached to 
 men, on purpose that they that have so much 
 reverence to God, and confidence of His 
 veracity, that they question not the truth of 
 any of his affirmations, may by faith receive 
 and believe and act according to them. 
 
 9. For this belief being a duty of the first 
 Commandment, and so as all other parts of 
 divine worship terminated ultimately in God 
 (or else it is not Divine, but at the most but 
 human faith) as it truly comprehends all that 
 is, or shall ever be thus conveyed to us by 
 Divine Revelation ; so can it not be auy farther 
 extended, so as to comprise those things, even 
 of God, which are unrevealed. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 72 OF MATTER OF FAITH. 
 
 10. Many verities no doubt tliere are in 
 God's secret cabinet, wbicli though most true 
 in themselves, and most worthy of belief, in 
 case they were revealed to us, yet are never 
 like to come out from under that veil, and so 
 can never be objects of our belief. 
 
 1 1 . Thirdly, that even of those things that 
 have at any time been revealed, all are not 
 incumbent on us, so as to lay obligation on 
 every man to comprehend, or believe them ; 
 many passages of Holy Writ, though, when 
 they are proposed to us convincingly as such, 
 they may not be disbelieved, may yet safely 
 be unobserved, or not understood, or escape 
 
 out of our memory. 'H ma-ns rrapadoOelaa, the 
 
 " faith" by way of emphasis and excellence, that 
 was "once delivered to the saints," and ought by 
 all such to be contended for, is that which was 
 set out by Christ or His Apostles from Him, 
 to be by all men believed to their righteousness 
 and confessed to their salvation^. 
 
 q Rom. X. 10. 
 
 o o
 
 O- 
 
 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 THE TWO WAYS OF CONVETrNG THE FAITH TO US. 
 
 1. This then being the adequate object of 
 the Christian's faith, those verities which have 
 been revealed to us by God to be thus believed 
 to righteousness, called therefore vyiaivovT^s xSyoi, 
 words not only true, but wholesome^: the 
 belief whereof is required in order to our soul's 
 health; the next enquiry is. How we that live 
 in the same distance from Christ and His 
 Apostles in resf)ect of time, that we are situate 
 from Heaven which now contains Christ in 
 respect of place, may come within any reach of 
 these revelations of Christ, or to any competent 
 undoubted assurance, that those are such 
 indeed which are pretended to be so. 
 
 ' 1 Tim. vi. 3. 
 
 o 
 
 -o
 
 c o 
 
 74 TWO WATS OF CONVEYING THE FAITH TO US. 
 
 2. And to this also my concession shall be 
 as liberal as any Romanist can wish, that there 
 are two ivays of conveying such revelations to 
 us^, one in meriting, the other by oral tradition; 
 the former in the Gospels and otlier writings of 
 the Apostles, &c. which make up the sacred 
 writ, or Canon of the New Testament; the 
 latter in the Apostles' preachings to all the 
 Churches of their plantations, which are no 
 where set down for us in the sacred writ, but 
 conserved as deposit a^ by them to whom they 
 were entrusted. 
 
 3. And although in sundry respects the 
 former of these be much the more faithful, 
 steady way of conveyance, and for want 
 thereof many things may possibly have 
 perished, or been changed by their passage 
 through many hands, this much being on these 
 grounds confessed by Bellarmine himself, that 
 
 1 Basil, de Spir. Sane. c. 27. TeDi/ eV rr) €KK\7]ala TTfcpvXay- 
 liivotv Soyfxdrwv koI KripvyfjiaTOiv, rot fx\v (k tt^s iyypd- 
 <pov SiSa(TKaKias exofJ-cv Tct Se eK ttjj toov 'hnocndhoiv 
 ■7rapa56(Tews SiaSofleVra rjfxlv eV fxirrrrjp'Kf} irapeSf^dfxeda. 
 
 ' 1 Tim. vi, 20; 2 Tim. i. 14. 
 
 O O
 
 )— ^ o 
 
 TWO WAYS OF CONVEYING THE TRUTH TO US. 75 
 
 " the Scripture is the most certain and safe rule 
 of belief^;" yet there be no less veracity in the 
 tongues than the hands, in the preachings than 
 the writings of the Apostles ; nay, Prior sermo 
 quam liber, prior sensus qiiam stylus, saith Ter- 
 llian^, the Apostles preached before they writ, 
 planted Churches before they addressed Epistles 
 to them. On these grounds I make no scruple 
 to grant, that Apostolical traditions, such as are 
 truly so, as well as Apostolical writings, are 
 equally^ the matter of that Christian's belief, 
 who is equally secured by the fidelity of the con- 
 veyance, that as one is Apostolical writing, so 
 the other is Apostolical tradition. 
 
 ' S. Scrip, regulam credendi certissiman tutissimamque esse. 
 De verbo Dei, lib. i. cap. 2. 
 
 » De Testim. an. c. 5 
 
 " 'A/JLcpoTepa rrjv avT^u l-)(yv e^ei irphs ttjv evcre^fiav, 
 Ka) TuvTOLS ovSe\s aPTepel, octtls Kau KaTct, fxiKpbv yovv 
 QiUfiuv iKK\r]cria(TTiKU>v ireneipaTai. Basil, de Spir. Sane. 
 C.27. 
 
 O O
 
 c o 
 
 76 THE TKSTIMOXY FROM WHICH 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY FROM WHICH WE RECEIVE 
 THE FAITH. 
 
 1. Next then the enquiry must proceed by 
 examining what is this equal way of convey- 
 
 • ance, common to botli these, upon strength of 
 i which we become obliged to receive such or 
 such a tradition for Apostolical. 
 
 2. And this again is acknowledged not to 
 be any Divine testimony; for God hath no 
 Avhere affirmed in Divine Writ, that the Epistle 
 inscribed of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 
 consisting of so many periods as now it is in 
 our Bibles, was ever written by that Apostle, 
 nor are there any inward characters or signa- 
 tures, or beams of light in the wTiting itself, 
 that can be admitted, or pretended for testi- 
 monies of this, any more than the like may 
 exact to be admitted as witnesses, that the 
 Creed called the Apostles' was indeed, in the 
 full sense of it, delivered to the Churches. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 WE RECEIVE THE FAITH. 77 j 
 
 1 
 
 3. It remains then, that herein on both 
 sides we rest content with human testimonies 
 of undoubted authority, or such as there is 
 not any rational motive to distrust, and of 
 which alone the matter is capable. For as in 
 case of question concerning the Epistle to the 
 Romans, whether this be it which was addresed 
 by St. Paul to that Church, the only regular 
 way of satisfying the question, is 1. by devo- 
 lution or appeal to the authority of those 
 Fathers and Councils to whom it was de facto 
 sufficiently testified and approved, (viz. by 
 examination of the records of that Church to 
 whom it was written, and by whom received, 
 through the hands of some trusty messenger of 
 that Apostle, such as Phebe that ministered 
 unto him, and by other creditable ways of con- 
 firmation,) and secondly, and by that conse- 
 quence, to those very original records and 
 proofs of undoubted fidelity: so the way of 
 trial of any tradition, pretended to be Aposto- 
 lical, whether it be such or no, is by devolving 
 it to those same, or the like Fathers and 
 Councils, which havino- occasion and com- 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 78 THE TESTIMONY FKOM WHICH 
 
 modity to examine the truth of the matter by 
 the records or testimonies of those Churches 
 to which it was delivered, found it sufficiently 
 testified by them, that it was in truth accord- 
 ing as is pretended. 
 
 4. And from hence it follows, that as we of 
 this age have no other way of judging of the 
 Canon of Scripture, or of any book, or chapter, 
 or period contained in it, but by the affirma- 
 tion and authority of those testifiers in the 
 first ages of the Church, either by their 
 writings, or by the unquestioned relations of 
 others, brought down and made known to us ; 
 so are we as unable to judge of Apostolical 
 traditions unwritten, whether this or that 
 doctrine be such or no, unless it be thus by 
 the undoubted affirmations of the ancients (who 
 are presumable by their antiquity to know 
 the truth, and by their uniform consent 
 neither to mistake themselves nor to deceive 
 us) communicated and conveyed to us. 
 
 5. It is not possible for any man or men of 
 the greatest understanding or integrity, to see 
 or know what is not done wdthin the reach of
 
 o o 
 
 WE RECEIVE THE FAITH. 79 
 
 their faculties, unless either they be inspired 
 by God, or otherwise informed either medi- 
 ately or immediately from those, who had 
 really knowledge of it. Stories of former 
 times are not wont to be written by the 
 strength of men's natural parts, invention, or 
 judgment, but only by consulting of those 
 records, either dead or living, by whose help 
 such matters of fact have been preserved. 
 Every thing else is but conjecture, and that 
 very uncertain, the utmost probability in such 
 matters being little worth, that being oft-times 
 done which really was, and,. much more to us 
 who know not the motives of actions far 
 removed from us, is of all things least probable 
 to have been done. Only a creditable witness, 
 such as no prudent man hath reason to 
 distrust either as nescient or false, is worth con- 
 sidering, or able to found belief in this matter. 
 
 Ctu) 
 
 o
 
 o - 
 
 THE QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 
 
 1. Now then comes the uj^shot of the 
 enquiry, wliat qualifications there are of a 
 testimony or testifier, without which, it or he 
 may not be thus deemed creditable, or a^iSmrrTos, 
 worthy to be believed by a sober Christian ; and 
 where these qualifications are to be found: 
 which when we have once resolved, it will also 
 be possible for us to pass some judgment of 
 traditions duly styled Apostolical which as 
 such must be allowed to be the object of our 
 faith. 
 
 2. And herein I shall hope also that the 
 resolution will be unquestionable, if it be 
 bounded by those three terms to which 
 
 -o
 
 o 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 81 
 
 Vincentius Lirinensis^ in his defence of the 
 Catholic faith against heresies and innovations 
 hath directed us, universitas, autiquitas, con- 
 sensio, universality, antiquity, consent, viz. 
 That the testimony, we depend on be the 
 result of all, the ancients, consenting, or without 
 any considerable dissent. Or, in yet fewer 
 words, a Catholic testimony, truly such, i. e. 
 universal in all respects; 1. of place, 2. of 
 time, 3. of j^ersons. 
 \ 8. For first, if it be not testified from all 
 i places, it is not qualified for our belief, as 
 I Catholic in respect of place, because the faith 
 being one and the same, and by all and every 
 i of the Apostles preached, and deposited in all 
 I their plantations, what was ever really thus 
 taught by any of them in any Church, will 
 also be found to have been taught and , 
 received in all other Apostolical Churches. ! 
 4. To which purpose the words of Irenaeus \ 
 are express; " J'The Church disseminated I 
 
 * Cont. Haer. c. 2. 
 
 y Hancpraedicationem cum acceperitet banc fidem. . . Ecclesia, 
 et quidem in universum mundum disseminata, diligenter cus 
 todit quasi unam domum inhabitaus, et similiter credit iis quasi 
 
 (^ - 
 
 o
 
 o -O 
 
 82 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 
 
 over all the world, having received this 
 preaching and this faith, preserves it diligently, 
 as the inhabitants of the same house, believes 
 I themalike, as having the same soul andheart, and 
 teaches and preaches and delivers them alike, 
 as having the same mouth; for though their 
 languages are unlike, the virtue of tradition is 
 one and the same, and neither do the Churches 
 which are founded in Germany, believe or 
 deliver otherwise than those which were con- 
 stituted in Spain, in France, in the Orient, in 
 Egypt, in Africa, in the middle of the world, 
 but as one and the same sun shines through 
 the whole world, so doth the light and 
 preaching of the truth in every place where it 
 is received, disperse itself." 
 
 5. So also TertuUian^ de Prescript: c. 20. 
 Presently therefore the Apostles having first 
 
 unani animam habens, et unum cor, et consonanter haec predicat 
 et docet et tradit, quasi unum possidens os. Nam etsi in mundo 
 loquelae dissimiles sunt, sed tanien virtus traditionis una et 
 eadcm est, &c. Lib. I. c. 10. ed. Ben. 
 
 » Statim igitur Apostoli — primoper Judaeam contestata fide in 
 Jesum Christum, et Ecclesiis institutis, dehinc in orbem profecti, 
 eandem doctrinam ejusdem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt, et 
 
 O (
 
 o o 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 83 
 
 in Judea testified the faith and instituted 
 Churches, and then taken their journey over 
 all the world, made known to the nations 
 the same doctrine of the same faith, and so 
 planted Churches in every City, from which 
 the rest of the Churches afterw'ard borrowed 
 their seeds of faith and doctrine, and so daily 
 continue to do and are formed into Churches." 
 6. From which premises his conclusion is 
 just that which I here deduce; "^If so, then 
 it is evident that every doctrine must be 
 deemed true which conspires with the Aposto- 
 lical Churches, which are the wombs and 
 originals whence the faith came out, as main- 
 taining that Avithout any question which the 
 Churches received from the Apostles, the 
 
 proinde Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitate condiderunt; a 
 quibus traducem fidei, et semina doctringe caeterae deinde 
 Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt, et quotidie mutuantur ut Ecclesia fiant. 
 » Si haec ita sint, constat proinde omnem doctrinam, quae cum 
 illis Ecclesiis Apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret, I 
 veritati deputandam, id sine dubio tenentein quod Ecclesiae ab 
 Apostolis. Apostoli a Christo, Christus a Deo accepit, omnem 
 vero doctrinam de mendacio praejudicandam quae sapiat contra 
 veritatem Ecclesiarum, et Apostolorum, et Christi, et Dei. 
 Ibid. c. 21. 
 
 o — u
 
 o 
 
 84 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 
 
 j Apostles from Christ, and Christ from God ; 
 
 ' and that all other doctrine is under the pre- 
 judice of being false, which is contrary to the 
 truth of the Churches of the Apostles, of 
 Christ, and of God." 
 
 I 7. It is true indeed that whatsoever one 
 I 
 Church professeth to have received from the 
 
 ■ Apostle that planted it, is of itself sufficient, 
 
 : without the confirmation of all others, to beget 
 
 and establish belief in Him to Whom it thus 
 
 testifies: whereupon Tertullian^ refers the 
 
 I enquirer to that Apostolic Church that is next 
 
 i him, be it Corinth, if he live in Achaia ; 
 
 Philippi or Thessalonica, if in Macedonia; 
 
 Ephesus if in Asia; or if he be near Italy, 
 
 ' Rome. But this is no farther to be extended, 
 
 than while we suppose without enquiry, 
 
 that other Apostolical Churches have received 
 
 and are ready to testify the same, which 
 
 •> Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio 
 salutis tuse, percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas . . . proxima est tibi 
 . Achaia? habes Corinthum; si non longe es a Macedonia, habes 
 I Philippos, habes Thessalonicenses : si potes in Asiam tendere, 
 1 habes Ephesum; si tamen Italiae adjaces, habes Roma. De 
 ' Prescr. cap. 36. 
 
 O O
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 80 
 
 presumption, or supposal must then cease, 
 
 when upon enquiry we find the contrarj'; 
 
 there being then none of this first kind of 
 
 universality, viz. of place, and so far no 
 
 I validity in the testification. 
 
 I 8. Secondly for the universality of time, 
 
 that must be cautiously understood ; not so as 
 
 , to signify it a prejudice to any doctrine, if in 
 
 some one or more ages it have not been 
 
 universally received ; for then there could be 
 
 ! no heretics at any time in the world, but so as 
 
 j to extend to the first and purest, and not only 
 
 to the latter ages of the Church. 
 I 9. That which was delivered by the Apostles 
 } was certainly received in that first age, wherein 
 i they lived ; and by careful enquiry will be ' 
 ■■ found from their monuments to have been then ' 
 among them. And that which by this trial is 
 discerned to be of later date, not to be descried 
 in the first times, nor testified by sufficient 
 authority to be derived from thence, falls short 
 again of this second part of universality in 
 respect of time. 
 
 10. Thirdly, for the consent of testifiers, 
 
 O— — Q
 
 86 QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCH TESTIMONIES. 
 
 that is also necessary to the rendering it a 
 Catholic and authentic testimony; any con- 
 siderable number of dissenters being of neces- 
 sity to weaken our belief, and infuse reasons of 
 doubting, and a preponderancy of dissenters 
 the other way to weigh down (at least to 
 incline) the belief to the contrary. 
 
 o
 
 c 
 
 SECT. VT. 
 
 WHERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS MAY BE EOUND. 
 OF THE CONSENT OF ANCIENT DOCTORS, AND j 
 DEFINITIONS OF COUNCILS TRULi GENERAL. 
 
 1. This therefore being thus established, i 
 and the conjunction of all the three sorts of uni- 
 versality being in all reason required to the 
 
 ! authentic testifying of tradition ; it is soon 
 I defined, where these qualifications are to be 
 'looked for, and where they may be found. 
 
 2. Questionless not in any one Bishop, or 
 I succession of Bishops in anv See, for many 
 j latter ages, not including the Apostles ; tor 
 I whatever his pretensions may be to authority 
 1 and supremacy over all other Churches, this 
 
 can never convert a particular, whether man 
 
 o o
 
 88 WHERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 or Church, mto the universal, nor make his 
 testimony authentic according to those rational 
 and Christian rules which we have learned from 
 Lirinensis. 
 
 3. There are many Apostolic Churches 
 beside that of Rome: great difference of Rome 
 in these latter ages from the Primitive Aposto- 
 lic Rome to whom the depositum %vas 
 entrusted. And there are many dissenters to 
 be found, who have always lived and flour- 
 ished in the Catholic Church, which never 
 acknowledged those doctrines to be delivered 
 to them by the Apostles, w^hich the Church of 
 Rome hath of late assumed to be such. And 
 I for any privilege annexed to that Bishop's 
 : Chair, or to that society of men which live in 
 ■ external communion with him, that he or 
 I they can never define any thing to be {de fide) 
 part of the faith which is not so. As that 
 '■ is beyond all other their pretensions most 
 denied by us, and least attempted to be 
 proved by the Romanist, and not so much as 
 consented on among themselves; so must it in 
 , no reason be supposed in this dispute, or
 
 o o 
 
 MAT BE FOUND. 89 
 
 taken for granted by them, but is rejected 
 with the same ease that it is mentioned by 
 j them. 
 
 4. As for other pretenders, I know not any, 
 ; save only that of the universal consent of the 
 
 Doctors of the first ages, or that of an Universal 
 Council. And both of these we are willing to 
 admit with such cautions only as the matter 
 exacts, and the grounds of defining already 
 laid. 
 
 5. The universal consent of the Doctors of 
 the first ages, bearing testimony that such or 
 
 j such a doctrine was from the Apostles' preach- 
 ings delivered to all Churches by them 
 planted, or their general conform testimony 
 herein, without any considerable dissenters pro- 
 j ducible, is, I acknowledge, dltoVjo-Tos, authentic 
 I or worthy of belief, and so hath been made 
 I use of by the orthodox*^ of all times, as sufficient 
 I for the rejecting of any new doctrine. 
 
 Qelaai', Kal Tripovfjih-f]v h' ttJ KadoXiKT] iKK\7](Tia fJ.expl 
 TTjs aiifiepov i)u€pas e/c Siadoxvs airh rwv i^uKaplwv 'Airo- 
 (TToXwu. Epist. Orthodox. Episc. Synodi Antioch.Paul. Samosat. 
 
 o — 6
 
 o o 
 
 90 WUERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 6. So likewise is the declaration of a 
 General Council, free, and gathered from all 
 quarters, and hi such other respects, truly so 
 called, founded in the examination of the 
 monuments of the several Apostolical planta- 
 tions, either produced in Council, or authen- 
 tically confirmed from the letters of the several 
 Churches, either formerly prepared in Provin- 
 cial and National Councils, or otherwise suffi- 
 ciently confirmed to them, and this declaration 
 conciliarhj promulgate, and after the promul- 
 gation universally received and accepted hi/ 
 the Church diffusive; or else it is evident all 
 this while, that it is not a Catholic (truly so 
 styled) testimony. 
 
 7. For that any Council of Bishops, the 
 most numerous that ever was in the world 
 (much less a but major part of those few that be 
 there present) is not yet really the Universality 
 of Christians, is too evident to be doubted of. 
 
 Missae. Bib. Gr. Pat. torn. i. p. 30. &c. OvTus u)iJ.iiK6yr]aav ol 
 ayioi TTOTepes, Koi napiSwKav rj/juv 6ixo\oye7v Kal iriaTeveii'. 
 SeSet/CTtti ovf TO cru^pKr/xa ahuvarov, &c. Dionys. Ale.xand. 
 Epist. contr. Paul, Samosat. in Bibl. Pat. Gr. torn. i. p. 275. E. 
 
 C O
 
 o o 
 
 MAY BE FOUND. 91 j 
 
 8. It can only then be pretended, that it is 
 the universal representative, or such an 
 assembly, wherein is contained the virtue and 
 nifluences of the whole Universal Church. 
 And thus indeed I suppose it to be, as often 
 as the doctrines there established by universal 
 consent (founded in Scripture and tradition) 
 have either been before discussed and resolved in 
 each Provincial Council, which have sent their 
 delegates thither from all the parts of the world, 
 or else have post factum, after the promulga- 
 tion, been accepted by them, and acknowledged 
 to agree with that faith which they had 
 originally received. 
 
 9. That the former of these is a considerable 
 ingredient in a General Council, appears to be 
 S. Augustine's judgment in 1. 7. de Bapt. contra 
 Donatist. c. 53. " It is safe for us not to 
 proceed rashly to those things which have not 
 been begun in any Catholic Provincial Council, 
 and determined in a Plenary or Universal. 
 That we must, if we will be safe in our pro- 
 nouncing, take care to affirm that which in the 
 regiment of our God and Christ Jesus our 
 
 o o
 
 o c 
 
 I 
 
 92 WHERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 Saviour, is confirmed by the Confession of the 
 Universal Church'^" Whereas the Confession 
 of the Universal Church (or their testimony 
 that such a doctrine hath been delivered to the 
 Church by the Apostles) is that which gives 
 validity to a doctrine, so this universal Con- 
 fession is then truly such, when it is the deter- 
 mination of a General Council prepared for in 
 the Provincial Councils, of which that General 
 is made up. And what hath not been accord- 
 ing to this course established, or the truth 
 whereof (as he elsewhere speaks '^) is not first 
 eliquata, strained out, or extracted by Pro- 
 vincial Councils, and so solidated or put 
 together by a General Council, may very safely 
 be disbelieved; for saith he, *' How could that 
 obscure controversy be brought to a clear 
 declaration and confirmation of a General 
 Council, if it were not first throughly handled 
 
 ^ Nobis tutum est in ea non progredi aliqua temeritate sen- 
 tentiae, quae nullo in Catholico regionali concilio ccepta, nullo 
 plenario concilio terminata sunt. Id autem Fiducia securae vocis 
 asserere quod in Gubernatione Domini Dei nostri et Salvatoris 
 Jesu Christi universalis ecclesiae confessione roboratum est. 
 
 • Ibid. 1. ii. c. 4. 
 
 c c
 
 o 
 
 MAY BE FOUND. 93 
 
 and cleared by the conferences and disputes of 
 Bishops through all the regions of the 
 world f?" 
 
 10. And this seems to be acknowledged by 
 BaroniusS, who speaking of the Provincial 
 Synods called in the West, before the meeting 
 of any Universal Synod in the East : not only 
 affirms it to be Usus pristinus, the ancient 
 custom, but withal takes notice of this end or 
 design of it, that those Bishops of the West, 
 which could not all reasonably take such a 
 journey, " might yet by some means give their 
 suffrages^'," supposing, as it was reason, that the 
 Council could not be truly Universal, in which 
 all the regions in the world did not some way 
 give their votes ; and farther, that this was the 
 way by which the Pope was enabled to send 
 Legates a latere, not only in his own name, but 
 of the whole Western Church, viz. by the 
 
 ^ Ibid. Quomodo potnit ista res — ad plenarii Concilii luculen- 
 tam illustrationem confirmationemque perduci, nisi primo diutius 
 per orbib terrarum regiones muitis hinc atque hinc disputationi- 
 bus et coUationibus Episcoporum pertractata constaret? 
 
 s Tom. vi. An. 451. n. 20. 
 
 ^ Aliquo tamen modo suuni ferrent suiFragium. 
 
 o— o
 
 o — < 
 
 94 WRERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 i 
 
 I Metropolitans in the Provincial Synods scnd- 
 ! ing letters to the Pope, which contained their 
 I sense in that matter which was to be debated 
 in the General Council. 
 
 j 11. Many evidences of this custom and 
 ! reasons of the observing of it, in order to the 
 ! rendering a Council truly General, might be 
 ! farther added, but this is, I suppose, sufficient. 
 
 12. Only by the way, I add. That by this 
 expedient the want of General Councils might 
 in some degree be supplied, the concordant 
 declarations of each Provincial Council com- 
 pared and communicated, being (for the testi- 
 fying of Apostolical tradition, or the Catholic 
 sense of the Church) equivalent to the voice of 
 a General Council. 
 
 13. So we find the practice in Eusebius* ; 
 whereupon the rising of Novatus a Roman 
 Presbyter, first a Provincial Council at Rome, 
 
 (Si'ws Te Kara ras Xonras iirapxias rwv Kara x^P^^> 
 
 and several in the several j^f'ovinces in every 
 region, the Pastors or Bishops conciliarly con- 
 sidering of the matter Boy/xa napda-TaTai To<y iraai, 
 ' Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 1. C. «€(/>. /xj. I 
 
 O O
 
 — o 
 
 MAT BE FOUND. 95 
 
 the resolution was made by all of them acjainst 
 Novatus. Then follow the letters of Cor- 
 nelius Bishop of Rome to Fabius of Alexandria, 
 giving hira the relation both of the Roman 
 Synod, and of the determinations of all the I 
 Bishops through Italy and Africa and those i 
 regions; and others of Cyprian, and those with i 
 him in Africa, declaring tI koI avrohs a-w^vUKeiv, 
 the concordance of their judgment herein. But 
 this by the way in passing. 
 
 14. And for the latter of these there can be 
 as little doubt, there being no possibility 
 without it, that the voice of a Council never so 
 General should be the testimony of the whole 
 Church. 
 
 15. When a doctrine is conciliarly agreed on, 
 it is then promulgate to all, and the universal, 
 though but tacit approbation and reception 
 thereof, the no considerable contradiction given 
 to it in the Church, is a competent evidence, 
 that this is the judgment and concordant tra- 
 dition of the whole Church, though no such 
 resolution of Provincial Synods have pre- 
 ceded. 
 
 6 O
 
 o o 
 
 9(> WHERE THESE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 IG. But if that be also wanting; if the 
 sentence of a major part of Bishops in a 
 Council be not (wlien it comes to be declared 
 to the ^vorld) admitted or received in the 
 Church, as consonant to the doctrine of the 
 Apostles, written or unwritten ; if the grounds 
 whereon it hath been by the Council defined 
 (for so the suffrages are conciliarly to be 
 delivered together with their grounds and 
 reasons of them, out of Scripture or tra- 
 dition) be by others which sat not in that 
 Council found to be false or vain, and are 
 as such contradicted and protested against: 
 this evidently prejudiceth the authority of 
 that Council, and shews their incompetency 
 for the work (in hand) of universal testifica- 
 tion. 
 
 17. On which grounds it is, that S. Hilary 
 in his Tract of Synods^ against the Arians, 
 setting down all tlie Creeds which after the 
 Nicene Council had been set out in several 
 
 k Si quid rectum atque ex doctrinis Apostolicis deprehendetur 
 — vos an Catholica, an haeretica sint, fidei vestrae judicio corn- 
 probate, p. 220. 
 
 o
 
 o 
 
 MAY BE rOUND. 
 
 ,? 
 
 times and places, desires all the Bishops of 
 France and Britain, &c. to whom he writes, to 
 give their judgment whether they be Catholic 
 or Heretical. 
 
 o- 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 SECT. VII. 
 
 THE BENEFIT FROM GENERAL COUXCILS. REVE- 
 RENCE DUE TO TUEM. TO TUE FIRST FOUR 
 ESPECIALLY. 
 
 1. From these premises thus briefly deduced, 
 it now appears, 1. What it is that we owe to 
 the Councils of the Church. I shall most safely 
 express it in the words of Vincentius\ " What 
 hath the Church ever brought forth by the 
 decrees of Councils, save only that what was 
 before simply believed, the same should after 
 
 1 C. 23. Quid unquam aliud Conciliorum decretis enisa est, 
 ni.si ut quod antea simpliciter credebatur, hoc idem postea dili- 
 gentius crederetur? quod antea lentius praedicabatur, hoc idem 
 postea Lnstantius praedicaretur? quod antea securius colebatur, 
 hoc idem postea solicitius excoleretur? Hoc, inquam, semper, 
 neque quicquam praeterea haereticorum novitatibus excitata 
 Conciliorum suorum decretis Catholicaperfecit Ecclesia, ut quod 
 prius a majoribus sola traditione suscepcrat, hoc deinde posteris 
 etiam per Scripturae cliirographum consignaret. 
 Q Q
 
 o o 
 
 TILE BENEFIT OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 99 
 
 be believed more diligently ; what was before 
 less vigorously preached, that same should 
 after be preached more instantly ; what was 
 before more securely observed, that same 
 should after be more solicitously dressed or culti- 
 vated ? This, I say, and nothing but this hath 
 the Catholic Church, stirred up by heretics' 
 new doctrines, done by the decrees of Councils ; 
 what before it had received from the ancestors 
 by tradition only, it hath after committed to 
 writing, and as an obligation under its own 
 hand consigned to posterity." 
 
 2. In a word, that which was before the 
 constant belief of the whole Church received 
 from the Apostles' times and preaching, and by 
 Conciliar discussions and search found to be so, 
 is thus delivered down to us by those Councils, 
 and testified by them to be that which they 
 found in the Church universally. This I sup- 
 pose the meaning of the avaKpivirucav ah\T]\ois 
 ra Uyfiara ttjs svae^elas, in the thirty-seventh 
 Apostolic Canon ; ^^ Lei them in their Councils 
 ! discuss and examine the doctrines of fiety^''' 
 enquire, and discern what have been delivered 
 
 o ^ o
 
 o„ ( 
 
 100 REVERENCE DUE TO THEM. 
 
 to them as such, and then ras efAimrTouaas iKKXrt- 
 criacTTiKas uuriAoyias hiaKvirwaav, let in cm answer 
 
 or satisfy the incidental objections which shall 
 happen to he made to them in the Church, 
 And so no new doctrine ever received from 
 their authority or power of defining, but the 
 ancient Apostolical Catholic pious doctrine 
 testified to us. 
 
 3. Secondly, It is hence manifest also, what 
 is the ground of that reverence that is by all 
 sober Christians deemed due and paid to the 
 four first General Councils, which Vincentius 
 looks on as the great Conservatories of tradition, 
 wherein he might fitly instance, and which 
 Pope Gregory "Hhe Great professeth to believe 
 as he doth the four Gospels, and Theodosius 
 Cenobiarcha so much commended by Cyril" 
 and others, anathematized all, who are not of 
 that opinion, viz. because 1. As Theodoret 
 Hist. 1. i. c. 8. out of Athanasius declares of 
 the Nicene, that they set down and convinced 
 
 ™ In Saba. Suidas in verb. 'KvaaraiTios. 
 
 " See Baron. An. 511. n. 33. Si quis quatuor sanctas Synodos 
 nou tanti esse existimat quanti quatuor Evangelia, sit anathema. 
 
 o O
 
 ) o 
 
 REVERENCE DUE TO THEM. 101 
 
 the truth of their doctrine, ^| iyypa(puv ix^t euo-e- 
 jSei'as hvoovyiivwv Xe^ewi/ " out of the Scripture 
 u'ords understood with jyieti/," i. e. so as the 
 pious Orthodox Fathers had always understood 
 
 them, ouK louToTs evpoures tcls Ke^eis, aK\' (K tuv 
 
 Trarepwi/ €xovt€s fiapTvpiav, " not inventing u'ords 
 or phrases for themselves, hut having testimony 
 from the Fathers'" for what they wrote, (for, 
 saith he, the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria 
 for almost 130 years had found fault with 
 them, who affirmed the Son to be -noi-^fxa, a 
 creature, koI (jlt) 6/j.ov(tiov t$ Uarp), c^'C. not of the 
 same substance icith the Father,) so it was true 
 of all the other three ; they fetched their 
 definitions regularly from Scripture, and that 
 sense thereof, which the general Churches had 
 received down from the Apostles, and so were 
 approved and received universally in all 
 Churches, not as those which had formed any 
 new articles, but which conserved the Deposita 
 entrusted to the Churches, and in time of need 
 brought them forth and discovered them, to 
 the securing of the truth against Heretics. 
 4. Secondly, because these being so near the 
 
 o o 
 
 LTBRAPY 
 
 UNTVERSITY OF C "■ ^ •^^•^LNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA
 
 O Q 
 
 102 REVERENCE DUE TO THEM. 
 
 Apostles' times, and gathered as soon as the 
 Heterodox opinions appeared, the sense of the 
 Apostles might more easily be fetched from 
 those men and Churches, to whom they had 
 committed it, and it was not in the power of 
 Subtilty and Craft to infuse their poison indis- 
 cernibly into those Fountains. 
 
 5. This account is also given by Lirinensis, 
 where speaking of the way of confuting 
 Heretics "^by producing and comparing the 
 concordant doctrines of the old Fathers," he 
 puts in this among other cautions. "pAII 
 heresies are not always thus to be impugned, 
 but only those that are fresh risen, and have 
 not yet had time to vitiate the volumes of the 
 Fathers, or falsify the rules of the ancient 
 faith :" Wisely foreseeing that in this case there 
 is no course of dealing with, or convincing of 
 heretics, unless it be either by the sole 
 
 • C. 38. Prolatis atque collatis veterum Magistrorum concor- 
 dantibus sibimet sententiis. 
 
 P Sed neque semper neque omncs hacrescs hoc modo inipug- 
 nandae sunt, sed novitiae recentesque tantummodo, antequam 
 infalsarint vetustae fidei regulas. 
 
 -o
 
 O— — o 
 
 I TO THE FIRST FOUR ESPECIALLY. 103 
 
 authority of Scriptures, or by the Councils of 
 Catholics, which were long ago universal °-. 
 
 6. Thirdly, Some consideration may also be 
 had of the special matter of the definitions of 
 those four Councils, which were all spent upon 
 the Deity and Incarnation of Christ, and the 
 Trinity, the great Fundamental Doctrines of 
 Christianity; and to that also Yincentius 
 directs us, in another caution of his, "^The 
 ancient consent of the Holy Fathers is not to 
 be sought and followed in all the little 
 questions of the Divine law, but only, sure 
 principally, in the Rule of Faith," those which 
 the Apostles thought necessary to be believed, 
 and so taught them universally. 
 
 7. And therefore of the Scriptures, of the 
 Creed (that Regula Jidei una, sola immohilis et 
 irreformabilis, that one only immoveahle and 
 unreformahle rule of faith, as TertuUian calls 
 it, De Vel. Virg. c, 1.) and of those four 
 
 1 Aut sola Scripturarum authoritate, aut jam antiquitus Uni- 
 versalibus Catholicorum Conciliis. 
 
 ' Ibid. Antiqua Sanctorum Patrum consensio, non in omnibus 
 divinse legis quaestiunculis, sed solum certe praecipue, in fidei 
 regula — investiganda et est sequenda. 
 
 u O
 
 o o 
 
 104 TO THE FIRST FOUR ESPECIALLY. 
 
 Councils, as the Repositories of all true 
 Apostolical tradition, I suppose it very regular 
 to affirm, that the entire body of the Catholic 
 Faith, is to be established, and all Heresies 
 convinced, or else that there is no just reason, 
 that any doctrine should be condemned as 
 such. 
 
 8. This I have ^ elsewhere cleared both out 
 of the express words of the Council of Ephesus, 
 the third of those four, " that no man should 
 produce, or offer to any convert whether from 
 Gentilism, Judaism, Heresy, any other belief 
 beside that wdiich was established by the 
 Fathers at Nice :" from the Greeks in the 
 Council of Florence, that no man, except he 
 were mad, would charge that Faith of imper- 
 fection. From the Latins, who acknowledged 
 there, that all difference as well as contrariety 
 of Faith was forbidden by those Fathers, and that 
 a bare explication of the same for the whole 
 Church was not lawful for any to attempt, but 
 an Universal Council : from the Epistle of 
 Celestine there cited, that the I'aith delivered 
 
 • Reply to Cath. Gent Ch. viii. sect 2. n. 4,-7. Works, vol. ii. 
 
 C (
 
 o c 
 
 TO THE FIRST FOUR ESPECIALLY. 105 | 
 
 by the Apostles admits neither increase nor | 
 diminution : and lastly from the Catechism 
 collected out of Costerus, Petrus a Soto, and 
 others, set out by command of the Archbishop 
 of Triers, that there was never any heresy 
 which might not be condemned by the Apostles' 
 Creed. Add to these the authority of the 
 Greek Church, as we find it testified by 
 Jeremias Patriarch of Constantinople, in their 
 censure of the Germans, where having recited 
 the Xicene Creed (without the filioque) as 
 proposed by the Xicene confirmed by the 
 Constantinopolitan Fathers, p. 13. he adds, 
 Hsec est ilia com.munis confessio ommium 
 Sanctorum Patrum, Hcec est ilia divina, Sanc- 
 ilssima, 'perfecta, ac universalis per orhem 
 terranim fusi populi Christiani tessera. Ncec 
 est certissimus universce Christiance Fideilimes ; 
 and again, veluti quoddani cceleste integrum et 
 incorriiptum — diiino mimine afflatorum hominum 
 depositum, p. 15. 
 
 c o
 
 SECT. VIII. 
 
 OF THE SUBSEQUENT GENERAL COUNCILS. TUE 
 KOMANISTS' DEFERENCE TO THEM. 
 
 1. If after all this it be still farther 
 demanded, what reverence is due to all other 
 Universal Councils, and why not the same as 
 to these four? I answer. First, That the reasons 
 of a difference have been sufficiently given 
 already, and so as is, ad homines, to the 
 Romanists, unreprovable, it being most evident 
 that among them there is difference made 
 between some of those, which yet they deem 
 to be all Oecumenical Councils. 
 
 2. For First, it is certain that they reckon 
 above eight of these ; and yet even the Bishops 
 of Rome themselves in their exaltation to the 
 Papacy, who would sure be supposed to under- 
 
 O 
 
 O
 
 OF THE SUBSEQUENT GENERAL COUNCILS. 107 
 
 take the maintaining of the whole Catholic 
 Faith, do profess to maintain no more than the 
 eight first of them. The words of this pro- 
 fession we have set down out of their own Day- 
 Book, in the Corpus Juris Canon. In this 
 form, " I profess to keep whole to a tittle the 
 eight holy Universal Councils, the first at 
 Nice . . . and to esteem them^ worthy of like 
 honour and veneration, and by all means to 
 follow and preach all that they have promul- 
 gated and decreed, and with heart and mouth 
 to condemn all that they have condemned ^" 
 
 3. Secondly it is as evident, that all Bishops 
 of Rome in fonuer times, have not (at least 
 with equal reverence) received all these eight, 
 which these now thus receive. I shall give 
 an instance or two. 
 
 4. ^Pope Nicolaus the first, in the damna- 
 tion of Photius, after the authority of God and 
 
 » Decret. Par. 1. dist. 16. c 8. Sancta osto universalia Concilia 
 i. e. Primum Xicenum — immutata sen-are et pari honore et vene- 
 ratione digna habere, et quae praedicaverunt et statuerunt modis 
 omnibus sequi et praedicare, quaeque condemnaverunt ore et 
 corde condemnare profiteer. 
 
 " Ep. 7. c. 1. Concil. To. 6. p. 496. 
 
 O O
 
 — :) 
 
 108 THE Romanists' deference to them. 
 the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, 
 mentioning that also of all the holy and 
 venerable universal Councils, numbers but ^six 
 of them; and this Anno Ch. 8G2. that is, 80 
 years after the holding of the Seventh Council. 
 
 5. And so also doth yPope Adrian II. his 
 successor, Epist. 26. ad Carolum Calvum. 
 
 6. And Binius that in his ^ margin takes 
 notice of these two passages, and ^promiseth 
 to render a reason thereof afterwards, when he 
 comes to the ^due place of performing that 
 promise, speaks not a word of that matter, 
 unless this be it, that ''Anastasius Bibliothe- 
 carius saith of two Archbishops; Epistolas 
 Pontijicis ad libitum falsdsse, that they falsified 
 at their pleasure the Epistle of Pope Nicolaus. 
 Which if it were granted to be true, yet neither 
 
 « Omnium simul sanctorum atque venerandorum sex Concili- 
 orum authoritate. 
 
 y Nihil audemus judicare quod possit Niceno Concilio etquin- 
 que caeterorum conciliorum regulis — obviare. Vide Concil. Tom. 
 6. p. 690. 
 
 • Ibid. p. 496. 
 
 a Cur hie Nicolaus, et infra Hadrianus sex tantum (Ecumeni- 
 cas Synodos nominent, dicam infra in notis Cone. Rom. iii. Sub. 
 
 •> Not. in Cone. Rom. iii. Tom. 6. Cone. p. 655. 
 
 c — —6
 
 O ( 
 
 THE Romanists' deference to them. 109 
 
 concludes it that they thus falsified this parti- 
 cular passage in this Epistle, which indeed 
 nothing concerned the cause of those Arch- 
 bishops, nor can be any way deemed applicable 
 to Pope Adrian doing the same, of whom neither 
 Anastasius nor Binius himself so much as sug- 
 gest any such thing, and therefore this was 
 certainly a most gainless artifice of evasion, 
 and an indication that there was no better to 
 be found, to salve this business. 
 
 7. Baronius in his reciting that Epistle of 
 Nicolaus, hath in effect the same ^]^Iarginal 
 observation, before Binius, and promiseth to 
 render the reason of it, afterward on another 
 occasion, not directing us where that should be 
 looked for ; yet he defers it not long, for he doth 
 it in the very next Section, rendering this only 
 account of it. 1. That ^in all the other Patri- 
 archal Churches but Constantinople, there 
 
 « To. 10. p. 275. An Ch. S63. n. 5. Cur tarn Xicolaus hie quam 
 ejus successor Adrianus — sex tantum CEcumenicas Synodos 
 nominet, inferius ab authore alia occasione dicetur. 
 
 ^ In reliquis omnibus Ecclesiis Patriarchalibus Orientis, Con- 
 stantinopolitana excepta, sex tantum CEcumenicas Synodos in 
 publicis confessionibus nominari consuevisse. 
 
 O- O
 
 O ( 
 
 110 THE KOMANISTs' DEFERENCE TO THEM. 
 
 were only six CEcumenical Councils named in 
 their public Confessions, citing Photius's 
 Epistle for it; and thence concluding that 
 what Nicolas did, was done by the other 
 Patriarchal Sees, even by his enemies' confes- 
 sion. Secondly, that the like cause was to be 
 rendered for both, that till Anastasius helped 
 them to a translation of the Acts of that Synod 
 out of pure copies, they did not give it the 
 title of an ^CEcumenical Council, and accord- 
 ing ^Nicolas thus long also suspended his 
 judgment. 
 
 8. But Binius which surely saw these 
 answers of Baronius, could not (though he 
 were much distressed, as hath appeared) think 
 fit to make use of either of them, or refer the 
 reader to them, though he bids Vide Baron. 
 An. 863. n. 20. &c. which belongs to another 
 matter. 
 
 9. And indeed the first part of the Cardinal's 
 account doth confess that no other Patriarchal 
 
 • Non eodem pra;conio nempe titulo CEcumenico fuerunt cam 
 prosecuti. Baro. an. 863. n. 6. 
 
 f Nicolaus judicium suspendit suuin ex dicta causa. 
 
 ^ __ Q
 
 Q Q 
 
 THE EOMANISTS' DEFERENCE TO THEM. U 1 
 
 See but Constantinople did at this time receive 
 this Council. And so Photius then Patriarch 
 of Constantinople, which most zealously 
 asserted it, doth acknowledge, in his ? Ency- 
 clical Epistle to the Archbishops of the Orient. 
 And these Patriarchal Sees had great reason 
 so to forbear; for they were none of them 
 present either in person, or by Legates, or 
 proxies, at that Council, as may well appear 
 by the same ^Baronius in his setting down the 
 history of it : confessing that Tarasius's Legate, 
 could not come to them ; that when they were 
 as far as Palestine, they heard of the death of 
 Theodorus Patriarch of Jerusalem; and were 
 advertised by some 3Ionks, how dangerous it 
 was to go either to the Patriarch of Antioch or 
 Alexandria, and consequently were persuaded 
 to give over the attempt. As for the pre- 
 
 6 An. 785. n. 40. 
 
 •" Ep. 2. p. 60. TtVes Tuiv uirh rhu 'ATroaToXiKhf vpiwv OpSvov 
 iKK\r](Tiai jxfXP^ ^f/S kKTiis ras oiKoufxeuLKas apiQixovcrai 
 (so it should be read, not apidfiricrai) avvohovs, rrjv k^Ufi-qv 
 OVK t(Ta(Tiv; and a.vTi)V Se apaKr]pvTTeiv 4n\ rrjs e/c/fATjcrfay, 
 &criT€p Ka) ras aWas oijirca rvx^'^v iwiyvdocrews. Ibid. 
 
 3 Q
 
 O ; ( 
 
 112 THE EOMAMSTS' DEFERENCE TO TUEM. 
 
 tended Legates of those Sees, they were 
 evidentlj^ but Impostors, John and Thomas the 
 Presbyters were not sent by the Patriarchs of 
 Alexandria and Antioch (and for the See of 
 Jerusalem it was void, as was said, by the 
 death of Theodoras,) but were sent only by 
 those Monks or Hermits of Palestine, as 
 appears by the letters which they brought 
 with them, beginning thus, ToTs UavUpois, &c. •^^eTs 
 
 olra-rreivol Kol Twvrrjv^prjixovrrapoiKsTv ic^ufxivtov iaxaroi. 
 
 ^''Having read your letters, ice the mean, and 
 last or lowest of those that have desired to live 
 in the desert,'" or the Hermetic life. See 
 iConcil. Nic. 2. Act. 3. And so this being 
 most true, is very far from an answer to the 
 objection; it is a large addition to the force of 
 it, as far as concerns the authority of that 
 Council. 
 
 10. And for the other part, that the Latins 
 as yet wanted pure copies of it, that can as 
 little be pretended so many years after the 
 holding of that Council, especially when the 
 Acts of it had now long since, immediately 
 
 ' Concil. torn. v. p. 594. E. 
 
 o (
 
 r- o 
 
 THE EOMAXISTS' DEFERENCE TO THEM. 113 
 
 after the making them, been discussed in the 
 Council of Frankfort, and by Pope Adrian I. 
 defended against that Council. 
 
 11. That which ^Bellarmine adventures on 
 in this matter is yet more strange, and unre- 
 concileable with the confession of Baronius; 
 for Baronius had confessed that Anastasius had 
 translated that Council out of a pure copy, and 
 so brought it to Rome; and yet this other 
 Cardinal would persuade us, that long after 
 Anastasius, even after the time of Thomas 
 Aquinas and Halensis, the acts of 7 Councils 
 lay hid, and so were not produced till that 
 last age wherein himself had lived ; which, if it 
 were granted him to be true, it would sure be 
 little for the dignity and authority of that 
 Council. 
 
 . 12. Farther yet; in the Corpus Juris 
 Canonici, set out emendate by the command of 
 Pope Gregory XIII, there is no mention of 
 any more than six General Councils, save only 
 in that one passage out of the Day-Book of 
 the Pope's profession to maintain the eight, 
 
 k De Imag. lib. i. cap. 22. 
 
 o
 
 c o 
 
 114 THE Romanists' deference to tuem. 
 
 which is to me an argument, that all General 
 Councils are not so revered by them as that 
 all their Canons are obliging among them. 
 
 13. I shall not need to add more evidences to 
 infer so obvious a conclusion, that among the 
 Romanists themselves, all General Councils 
 have not had the same reception and venera- 
 tion, when in their Corpus Juris Decret. Par. 1 . 
 the 17th Distinction is thus prefaced ; Generalia 
 Concilia quorum tempore celehrata sint, vel 
 quorum authoritas cceteris prcemineat, sanctorum 
 authoritatibus supra monstratum est; " In whose 
 time the General Councils have been celebrated, 
 or which of them hath a more eminent authority 
 than the rest, hath been shewed by the authori- 
 ties of holy men,'' referring to Dist. 16. wherein 
 yet, as I said, there is no mention of any more 
 than the first six, save only that the Pope 
 professeth to maintain eight. 
 
 o ■ ^
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 SECT. IX. 
 
 OLR REVERENCE TO ALL GENERAL COUNCILS. 
 THE FIFTH AND THE SIXTH. 
 
 1. This might make any second or farther 
 answer unnecessary ; yet I shall not doubt to 
 : proceed some steps farther, and 1. allow the 
 ^ same credit, though not the same degree of 
 I Reverence, (for the reasons premised,) to all 
 Assemblies of Christians, which have served the 
 Church in this office of conveying Apostolical ! 
 i Truths to us, and which are according to right 
 : reason, and by the grounds premised, qualified 
 for a good Christian's reception, or as are not i 
 under some very just prejudice : Xay 2. though 
 I make it no matter of Faith, because delivered j 
 neither by Scripture nor Apostolic Tradition, ! 
 j yet I shall number it among the 2)ie credibilia, 
 
 o o
 
 O ( 
 
 116 OUR REVERENCE TO 
 
 that no GeneiMl Council, truly such, 1. Duly 
 assembled, 2. Frcehj cdchraiedj and 3. Univer- 
 sally received, either hath erred, or ever shall 
 err in matters of Faith. 
 
 2. The expressing myself more fully in 
 which particulars, will be a means to bring this 
 whole matter to such an issue, as I shall hope 
 no adversary will, with any colour of reason 
 or truth, be able to gainsay. 
 
 3. And 1. for the Fifth General Council, it 
 being for the Doctrinal part of it, but a corro- 
 boration of the Fourth, our Church makes no 
 more doubt of that than of the fourth it doth. 
 
 I Only, after the example ofVinccntiusLirinen sis, 
 I that famous propugnator of the Catholic Faith 
 against all Heresies, and by strength of the 
 premised Ephesine Canon, we believe the four 
 First Councils to be the conservatories of all 
 truly Catholic, i. e. Apostolic Tradition, from 
 whence together with the Scripture all Heresies 
 may be oppugned and confuted, and so have 
 no such need of, or benefit from this fifth, as 
 from the former four Councils. 
 
 4. So 2. for the Sixth, as far as that concerns j 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 ALL GENERAL COUNCILS. 117 
 
 the error of the Monothelites, which denied the 
 two wills in Christ, so it is duly founded in 
 Scripture, and the same Apostolic Tradition, 
 which had asserted the two natures against 
 Eutyches, and we willingly receive it, thinking 
 it unnecessary to proceed to those other Acts, 
 that go under the name of that Council, but i 
 were written afterward, and which the Roman- 
 ists^ acknowledge to be corrupt, and not to 
 savour of Apostolic Tradition. " There are," 
 saith the history of that Council, "carried about 
 some Canons in the name of that sixth Synod 
 in Trullo, but they were set out without the 
 Legates of the Apostolic See, and not approved 
 by them, wherein there be also some things 
 which savour not of Apostolic tradition™." 
 
 5. From which words I suppose I may 
 conclude the reason of the Legates not con- 
 firming them to be this, because they " did not 
 
 • See Corp. Jur. Can. Decret. 1. par. Dist. 16. c. 6. Not. Habeo 
 librum, et ibid. c. 7. ed. Parisiis mdcxviii. 
 
 »■ Cone. torn. v. p. 8. Circumferuntur autem nonnulli Canones 
 nomine sextae Synodi in Trullo, veruntamen editi sine Legatis 
 Apostolicae sedis, nee ab ea comprobati, in quibus et nonnulla 
 j sunt quee minus Apostolicam sapiunt traditionem. j 
 
 o o
 
 118 OUR REVERENCE TO 
 
 savour of Apostolical tradition." And than 
 these two inferences are clear. First, that it 
 is the Romanists' judgment unquestionably, 
 (and that appears not only by this, but by many 
 other instances, especially by that of Chalcedon, 
 about the privileges of New Rome,) that the 
 Decree of a General Council is not valid from 
 itself, or any innate authority, (for if it were, it 
 would not need the authority of the Pope 
 himself to give it that validity,) but receives its 
 force from subsequent approbation, or else is 
 not a Catholic decree. 
 
 6. And then what reason can be rendered, 
 why the want of the approbation of other 
 Apostolical Churches should not have the 
 same efficacy to prejudge the Universality of a 
 Decree: for sure they are Christians and 
 Bishops, as well as the Bishop of Rome, and 
 consequently their Negatives as evident excep- 
 tions and prejudices to, and as utterly unrecon- 
 cileable with an Universal affirmative, as the 
 Pope's can be; and the supposing that the 
 Pope hath power for the whole Church, and 
 that infallible, for the approving or repudiating 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 i ALL GENERAL COrXCILS. 119 | 
 
 Decrees, is still the removing all authority and 
 Universality from the Council, and placing it 
 in the Pope, making him, and not the Council 
 the Grand Representative Church, and so is the 
 destroying the whole doctrine of the authority 
 of Councils. 
 
 7. Secondly, That the Reason or Rule of the 
 Romanists' judgment may certainly be drawn 
 into example, and prove imitable to other 
 Christians, and then it must be lawful for the 
 Church of God, as well as for the Bishop 
 of Rome, to enquire whether the decrees of 
 an Universal Council have been agreeable to 
 Apostolical Tradition, or no, and if they be found 
 otherwise, to reject them out, or not to receive 
 them into their belief. 
 
 8. And then still it is the matter of the 
 Decrees, and the Apostolicalness of them, and 
 the force of the testification, whereby they are 
 approved and acknowledged to be such, which 
 gives the authority to the Council, and 
 nothing else is sufficient, where that is not to 
 be found. 
 
 9. Acrreeable to which is St. Augustine's 
 
 o — o
 
 ) o 
 
 120 OUR REVERENCE TO 
 
 practice. "Neither," saith he, "do I pro- 
 duce the Nicene Council, nor should you that 
 of Ariminum, neither am I obliged to the 
 authority of this, nor you of that. By 
 the authorities of Scripture, which are not 
 proper to one but common to both, let the 
 matter be debated, reason contending with 
 reason "" — and then devolving all the authority 
 of that most ancient truly General Nicene 
 Council, as well as of that other of Ariminum, to 
 tlie Apostolical grounds of truth, and those 
 expressly in the written word of God, (I and 
 My Father are One, as the ground of Sixoovaioy,) 
 from whence they framed their decrees. 
 
 10. To which belongs that saying of Atha- 
 nasius^himself of the manner of Subscriptions in 
 the Council of Nice, who, though in the matter 
 of Easter (being not a doctrine but a rite) 
 they thought good to use this form, tJt€ 70^ 
 
 " Contr. Maxim. 1. ii. 14. Tom. viii. p. 704. Nee ego Nicenum, 
 nee tu debes Ariminense — proferre Coneilium, nee ego hujus 
 autoritate, nee tu illius detineris, scripturarum authoritatibus 
 non quorumque propriis, sod utrisque communibus testibus, res 
 cum re, eausa eum eausa, ratio cum ratione concertet. 
 
 • Synod. Arimin. et Seleuc. torn. i. p. 873. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 ALL, GENERAL COUNCILS. 121 
 
 e5o|e irduTus ireideadai, ^^ Jt seemed then good to us 
 that all should obey or observe that time," which 
 they had defined ; yet concerning the matters 
 
 of Faith, eypaxpaj/, ovk iZo^^v, a.\\\ ovrws KeAeuet ri 
 Kaeo\iKT]4KK\r](Tia,^^ They wrote, not, Itseemed good 
 tons; but. Thus the Catholic Church commands ;'' 
 presently setting down the Confession itself, 
 "that they might demonstrate that their sense 
 was not new but Apostolical, and that what 
 they wrote was not invented by themselves, 
 but was the very same which the Apostles had 
 taught P." 
 
 P "iva Sei^cccnv otI fir] veurepop, aA\' 'AirocrToKiKhv 
 iarh ahrwv rh (pp6v7]fxa, Kal & ^ypaipav, ovk I| avrwv 
 evp4d7], oAAa tSvt' iariv, awep ibiSa^av ol 'AirScToXoi.
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 
 SECT. X. 
 
 OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL, COUNCIL. 
 
 1. As for the Seventh Council, that second 
 of Nice, I have already more than intimated 
 the reasons, why no Romanist can blame him 
 that allows not the authority thereof. 
 
 2. Yet because those testimonies, though of 
 Popes themselves, are indeed but Negative 
 Testimonies, and being designed only ad 
 hominem, to the Romanist, may still stand in 
 need of some farther confirmation to others: 
 that also is ready at hand, and may be 
 deduced from two heads. 1. From the 
 Council of Eliberis; 2. From the Council of 
 Frankfort, which presently after the publishing 
 of the Decrees of Nice for the worshipping of 
 Images, opposed and refuted that doctrine. 
 
 O 
 
 o
 
 o — o 
 
 OF THE SEVE>-TH GENERAL COUNCIL. 123 
 
 3. For the first of these, the Council of 
 Eliberis, that yields us an irrefragable proof, 
 that the Doctrine of the second Nicene Council 
 was not testified by all the Church of all 
 ages to be of Tradition Apostolical. 
 
 4. The 36th Canon of that Council lies thus, 
 Placuit Picturas in Ecclesia esse non debere, 
 ne quod coletur ant adoretur in parietibus 
 depingatur ; It is resolved that pictures should 
 not be in the Church, lest that which is adored 
 be painted on walls. Which though it be but 
 a Canon of a Provincial Council, and that in 
 a matter of rite, and so hath no power of 
 obliging all others beyond that Province, and 
 might also be there after retracted again ; yet 
 being in the year of our Lord 305, twenty 
 years before the first Nicene Council, and so 482 
 years before the second, is a convincing argu- . 
 ment, that what was in the second Nicene I 
 defined, was not the language of Apostolical \ 
 tradition, universally testified to be such; for ! 
 then these fathers at Eliberis, and among them 
 the great Hosius, which sat after in the first 
 Council of Nice, and Liberius, whose name we 
 
 o o
 
 124 OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 have in the Council of Aries, would never have 
 made this Decree so directly contrary to such 
 pretended tradition Apostolical. 
 
 5. In this matter it is worth observing how 
 Cardinal Baronius hath behaved himself. In 
 his first Volumei, Ad An. Ch. 57. n. cxix. 
 being troubled that 19 Bishops in a corner of 
 the world, should decree otherwise than (as he 
 is concerned to believe) the Universal Church 
 of all places professed, he attempts to annul 
 this Council, rendering his reason, Pleraqnc 
 enim in eo sunt qiice fines Novatiani erroris 
 visa sunt pi-ope attigisse ; " There were very 
 many Canons in it, ivhich seemed almost to 
 touch upon the borders of the Novatian heresy :" 
 and if they were but the borders of heresy, and 
 these Canons did only touch upon those 
 borders, or indeed but seem, and that again 
 but almost seem, then these Canons might be 
 very Catholic and Orthodox for all that. 
 
 6. The truth is, those Canons that deny 
 only Communion to the Lapsi, but deny them 
 not repentance and absolution, are far enough 
 
 '1 p. C2G. 1 
 
 o . o
 
 c o 
 
 OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 12o 
 
 from Novatian, and so presently after he 
 acknowledges, Cceternm quod scianius ejus con- 
 ventus Episcopos fuisse Catholicos, de Nova- 
 tiand hceresi nulla suspicio esse debet, ciim 
 prceserti)n hi licet communionem, tamen pceni- 
 tentiam non negarent, ut de eo Innoceniius Papa 
 tradit ; ^^ But seeing we know that the Bishops of 
 that Councils were Catholic, they must not he 
 suspected of Noratianism, especially seeing 
 though they denied communion, they did not deny 
 repentance, as Pope Innocent affirms of that 
 Council." 
 
 7. Here then in the same paragraph he hath 
 freed them from that suspicion which he was 
 willing to have affixed on them ; and it seems 
 Pope Innocent was to be thanked for it who 
 appeared on their side, or else Hosius, &c. 
 must have gone for Novatians, and then never 
 have been worth heeding in any other matter. 
 This farther appears by the same Baronius in 
 his second Volume, Ad An. 305. n. 41. 
 Where having the same words again, of the 
 Propemodum visi sunt Novatianorum limites atti- 
 gisse ; that they almost seemed to touch upon the 
 
 o o
 
 o c 
 
 ; I2(i or THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 , borders of the Novatians ; he renders that, as 
 • the cause that there is no mention of this Synod 
 by name among the ancients, and so that it 
 remained ahnost antiquated, and therefore (saith 
 he,) he remembered he had spoken elsewhere 
 (in the place forementioned) Patdo liherius, a 
 little too freely of that Council ; but seeing their 
 resolutions herein were excused by Pope Inno- 
 cent, Nemo sit qui accusare jyrcesumat; No man 
 may presume to accuse that Council. And then 
 sure this Cardinal had been too bold in thus 
 presuming. 
 
 8. "What other arts he now betakes himself 
 to, to deliver him from the force of that Canon 
 against Images, I shall not now examine ; 
 there being nothing of any force to supersede 
 my conclusion, that this Canon is sufficient 
 prejudice to theUniversalityof the testification, 
 that the Nicene Canons for Images are of 
 Apostolical Tradition. 
 
 9. As for the Council of Frankfort, that 
 makes it as plain, that the Decrees of these 
 Nicene Fathers were not received, but rejected 
 by other parts of the Christian Church in 
 
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 c— o 
 
 I OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 127 
 
 I 
 
 France, in Germany, and Italy, if not in Spain 
 also. 
 
 10. This Binius would fain conceal ; and 
 accordingly in the title of that Council of 
 Frankfort, was willing to anticipate the Reader's 
 judgment, by telling him that these 300 Bishops 
 there convened " ^confirmed the acts of the 
 Council of Nice in the matter of images." 
 
 11. For this he afterwards gives his reasons 
 such as they are, but acknowledges that both 
 the great Cardinals, Bellarmine and Baronius, 
 were of the contrary mind. To them therefore, 
 
 i and to the evidences whereby they were con- 
 vinced, I may be allowed to appeal. 
 
 12. And indeed Baronius* is so far from 
 doubting it, that he solemnly professeth by 
 undeniable testimonies to put it beyond all 
 
 j question, and so he doth, out of Walafridus ! 
 
 ' Acta. Nicaeni Concilii II. in caiisa imaginum confirmant, 
 I Concil. torn. vi. p. 163. p. 185. 
 
 » Tom. ix. p. 539. An.Clrr. 794. n. 27. Tantum abest ut negemus 
 j Nicaenam secundam Synodum eaudemqiie septimam CEcumeni- 
 I cam dictam damnatam dici in Francofurdiensi Concilio, ut etiam 
 : augeamus numerum testium id profltentium, et quidem hand 
 i dubiae fldei aut authoritatis. 
 
 o o
 
 O O 
 
 128 OF THE SEVENTH GENER.AJ. COUNCIL. 
 
 Strabo, Amalarius, Hincmarus, Anastasius, 
 and many others. 
 
 13. AVhat he determincth concerning the 
 invalidity of that Council of Frankfort, is not j 
 now pertinent to examine ; my conclusion is i 
 sufficiently evinced without that enquiry, viz. j 
 That that Council of Nice was no Universal 
 Testimony of Tradition Apostolical, or indeed of i 
 the whole Church of that age, when it was so I 
 far from being received and approved by all | 
 the world, that as soon as the News of the Acts | 
 thereof came to the ears of the Council, then 
 assembled at Frankfort, (three hundred Bishops 
 of Germany, France, and Italy, saith Surius; 
 others add, out of Spain also 124.) the Council 
 solemnly oppugned and refuted them. 
 
 14. Of this the Reader may have the clearest 
 prospect in several places of the works of 
 G. Cassander, both in his * Consultation, and 
 especially in his "19th Epistle, where he gives 
 loh. iSIolinaeus a full account of the four books 
 written by the authority, and under the name 
 of Charles the French King, and approved by 
 
 » Page 97 r. ■• Page 1103. 
 
 o o
 
 O Q 
 
 THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 129 
 
 that whole Council of Frankfort, and so sent 
 to the Pope against the Decrees of the Council 
 of Nice in the matter of image-worship, pro- 
 nouncincr both of those books, and that Svnod, 
 and other eminent persons of that age, of the 
 same sense with them, " that they never were 
 condemned, nor, as he thinks, will ever be by 
 those men that are in their wits^." 
 
 15. Some question I know there is made by 
 others ; whether this Council of Frankfort 
 rightly understood the decrees of that Council 
 of Nice, and whether those four books compiled, 
 as it is probable, by Alcuinus, and approved 
 by that Council, did not confound the two 
 Seventh Councils, the true, that at Nice, and 
 the false, that of the Iconoclastae at Constanti- 
 nople. 
 
 16. But neither are we concerned in either 
 of those questions. For still it remains certain 
 and unquestioned, that the Council of Nice 
 
 » Qui libros hosce damnandos aut reprobandos putet, idem 
 necessario etipsam Synodum Francofordiensem, et alios insignes 
 ea aetate scriptores damnandos esse fateatui, quod neque factum 
 est unquam, neque futiirum cert^ a sanis hominibus puto. 
 Ibid. p. 1104. 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 130 THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 (whether by their mistake or otherwise) was 
 not by all men universally received. The 
 300 Bishops at Frankfort received it not, but 
 professedly opposed it. 
 
 17. And if the Canons of Frankfort were 
 not approved by the Pope (as it is again sug- 
 gested) yet still this is a sufficient prejudice to 
 the Universality of those Nicene Canons, with- 
 out the Pope's being one of those that con- 
 demned them, which cannot be universal 
 testifiers, whilst they want universal consent, 
 and are oppugned and disclaimed by Charles 
 the King, and the 300 Bishops which were 
 there convened at Frankfort, and by as many 
 as adhered to the sentence of those but 330 
 which were assembled at Nice. 
 
 18. And indeed we that in this matter 
 approve of the doctrine of the Frankfort 
 Decrees, as that is summed up in those few 
 words, which the books ^ in Charles's name 
 deduce from Pope Gregory, in his Epistle to 
 
 y Vide Cass. p. 977. Epistolam Gregorii ad Serenum adducit 
 Carolus, 1. ii. c. 23. Cujus hoc est argumentum. Imagines k B. 
 Gregorio Romanae Urbis Antistite et adorari prohibentur et 
 
 c
 
 o ^ o 
 
 THE SEVENTH GENERAL. COUNCIL. 131 I 
 
 Serenus Bishop of Marseilles, viz. "That images 
 are neither to be broken nor worshipped;" that I 
 they be lawfully used in the Church, but must 
 not by any means be adored, can never be j 
 blamed for rejecting the doctrine of any j 
 General Council. For if that of Nice, which is 
 deemed such, define not for adoration of ' 
 images, then it is not rejected by us ; and if it 
 do define for it, then was it rejected by Frank- 
 fort, and if so, then was it no General Council. 
 The dilemma is concludent herein without any 
 farther enquiries, either it is not rejected by us 
 at all, as teaching no more than we profess to • 
 acknowledge, or else it may be lawfully 
 rejected by us, because we have this evidence ! 
 on our sides from the oppositions of the 300 
 Fathers at Frankfort, and of many more, as 
 hath been said, that it was not Universal. 
 
 frangi. Vide Greg. Ep. ex Reg. ep. 9. Quia eas adorari vetuisses, 
 laudamus, fregisse vero reprehendimus. And, Frangi non debuit, 
 quod non ad adoranduni. 
 
 Q O
 
 o 
 
 .?>. 
 
 
 I 
 
 SECT. X. 
 
 OF THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 1. As to the Eighth and last of that number, 
 to -which the Pope's profession extends, I desire 
 the reader will pass his judgment of it by that 
 which he will find in the sixth Session of the 
 Council of Florence in the year of Christ, 
 1439 ^ 
 
 2. There in the passages between Marcus 
 Ephesius, and Julian the Cardinal about the 
 Ancient Councils, the Cardinal desired a sight 
 of the acts of the eighth Council, and com- 
 plains that the book w^as denied him. Marcus 
 answers that it was not easy for him to give 
 him the book, but if it were there " ^was no 
 
 « Concil. tom. viii. p. 598. 
 
 a OvK exojuei' avdyKiqi' 'Iva (Tvvapt6/j.r](rwfxev toTs 
 oiKovfi€uiKaii cvv65ois 6.\\r}v avvohov T^rts o(/Se fo-repxOr}
 
 o o 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL, COLNCIL. 133 , 
 
 necessity that they should number among the 
 CEcumenical Councils one that was not 
 approved, but rather reprobated, or annulled ;" 
 for this Synod, said he, had acts against 
 Photius, in the time of Pope John and Pope 
 Adrian, and after it there was another Synod^ 
 which restored Photius, and annulled that 
 former Synod ; that this Synod called also the 
 eighth, was under Pope John, who wrote 
 Epistles for Photius, and those still extant, 
 that they (the Romans) were not ignorant, (he 
 believed,) either of that Synod or of those 
 Epistles : and seeing "the acts of that Synod 
 were abrogated*^," it was not reasonable that 
 they should seek for it, but rather for that 
 which was after it, which from that time to this 
 very day (of the Florentine meeting) was read 
 in the great Church of Constantinople, in these 
 words, " Let all that hath been written or 
 
 (it should be, I suppose, i(TT€pLxdr)) o^«5 aWa /xaWov I 
 
 rjKvpccdr]. Ibid. I 
 
 b ^Avwp6o}(J€ rhv (pciriov, Kal i^Kvpwae rrjV irpwT-qy . 
 
 crvvoZov. Ibid. i 
 
 6 O
 
 131 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 spoken against the holy Patriarchs, Photius or 
 Ignatius, be anathema." Wherefore, saith he, 
 it is not fit that those Acts which were abro- 
 gated, should be produced'^. 
 
 3. To this full declaration and recognition 
 of Marcus, appealing to the Romanist's own 
 knowledge for the truth of it, the Cardinal's 
 answer is very short, in these words; "I will," 
 saith he, " free you from this fear that any 
 thing shall be read from the eighth Council : 
 we desire that the book which we demanded 
 may be brought, that we may consult some 
 passages out of the sixth and seventh Council, 
 and of the eighth^ we say nothing." 
 
 4. Here it is evident, 1. That the eighth 
 Synod was soon retracted again : and so not 
 universally received, or approved : 2. That 
 the Greek Church from that time to the 
 Council of Florence, i. e. for the space of 
 almost GOO years, received it not, but the con- 
 
 I trary, viz. that which abrogated it. 3. That 
 
 d "Airep averpdirrjcrav uvde TrpeVet 'Iva t\Ooiaiv fls rh 
 fifaov, 
 
 o— o
 
 o o 
 
 1 I 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL,. 135 
 
 this being vouched in a Council to the Romans, 
 could not in any part be denied by them, and 
 therefore the matter was wholly waived if not 
 confessed. And then sure I need say no more 
 concerning the no-authority or obligingness of 
 that Council. 
 
 5. But then to this I shall add, that this 
 Council being convened on purpose for the 
 censuring and depriving of Photius Patriarch 
 of Constantinople, not for any heretical depar- 
 ture from the Faith, so much as pretended 
 against him, but for some other (as they are 
 called) excesses, of which his enemies deemed 
 him guilty, especially because from a Senator, 
 and so a layman, he was ^immediately 
 advanced to that Patriarchate (though very 
 much against his will, as his Epistles 
 sufficiently testify) the Faith of Christ is little 
 concerned in the decrees of this Council, here 
 being no testimony of the Church to be found 
 either for or against any doctrine pretended to 
 be derived from the Apostles. 
 
 6. The arguments which Anastasius Biblio- 
 
 ' Vide Anastasii Histor. VIII. Synodi, Concil. torn. vi. p. 706. 
 
 i 
 
 -O
 
 o , 
 
 136 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 thecarius offers for the proving the Univer- 
 sality of this Council, where, as he saith, he 
 was present, will hardly prevail with any. 
 
 7. First, saith he, it is Universal, because 
 the Catholic Faith and Holy Laws, which 
 ought to be reverenced not only by all Priests, 
 but by all Christians, were in it uniformly 
 defended against the enemies thereof: which 
 if it had any force in it, then sure every Ortho- 
 dox assembly, were it never so particular, a 
 Provincial Synod of the Bishops of any one 
 Province, or a Diocesan of the one Bishop and 
 Presbyters of that diocese, as long as they be 
 in the right, or are by the Romanist supposed 
 to be so, as (indeed that eighth Council ^ pro- 
 fesseth to retain and observe the laws deli- 
 vered in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 not only from the Apostles and all orthodox 
 
 e Tovs iv rrj Ka6o\tKr] Koi 'AiroaToXiKrj iKKXrjalci 
 irapaSodevTas OecrfjLous irapa rfj tu>v ayluu koI iravev(p'i]ixa}V 
 'AiroarSKuu, irapa. re opQo^6i^(t)v avuSSwv olKoufxeviKuu re 
 Koi TOTTiKcjv, ^ KOI TTpds Tivos BeTfyopov TTUTphs, dlSaff- 
 Kd\ov ttJs iKK\r)aias, Trjp€7u Koi (puXdmiv 6p.oKoyovyLiv. 
 Act. 10. Can. 1. Concil. torn. vii. p. 977. 
 
 o -^
 
 , o 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 137 j 
 
 Councils both (Ecumenical and Provincial, or ! 
 Topical, but even from any divinely-speaking | 
 Father, Doctor of the Church) must pass for a 
 General and QEcumenical assembly, just by 
 the same logic, that the particular Church of 
 Rome doth pass with them for the whole 
 Catholic Church of Christ. 
 
 8. Secondly, saith he, it is an Universal 
 Council, because seeing Christ hath in the 
 Church placed as many Patriarchal Sees as 
 there are senses in man's body, if all those con- 
 sent, there wants no more to the Generality of 
 the Church than there wants to the motion of 
 the body, when all the five senses are entire in 
 it. 
 
 9. To which I answer, 1. That if this were 
 true, then the second Council of Ephesus was 
 a valid General Council; for there were per- 
 sonally^^ the Patriarchs of four Sees, and Julian 
 as proxy of the fifth. 2, It must then follow 
 that a Synod of five men, (for such sure are the 
 five Patriarchs,) to which no sixth person in 
 the world was ever so much as invited or 
 
 ^ Concil. torn. iii. p. 61. 
 
 ) O
 
 p c 
 
 138 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 summoned, may go for an assembly of the 
 whole world. 3. That when one of the five 
 Patriarchs was here deposed, and never con- 
 sented to his own deposition, it will be very 
 hard to find the consent of these five Patriarchs 
 to all the acts of this Council, and conse- 
 quently to defend the perfection of it from the 
 forementioned analogy with that of the body 
 of man, unless when one of the five senses is 
 shut out by the other four, the remaining 
 four be either sufficient to represent the fifth 
 also, which is cast out (and never consents 
 to this law of representation) or to substitute 
 another sense in the place of that fifth. 
 4. That this same author in his very next 
 period tells us, that soon after the exaltation 
 of this Photius, Solomon, also a layman, was 
 made Patriarch of Jerusalem, and then it is no 
 way probable, that this Solomon, or what- 
 soever other Bishop of that See, which was 
 another of these five senses, should ever con- 
 sent to those Canons, which are so contrary to 
 that practice, and must infer the deposing of 
 I that Solomon, as well as it did of Photius. 
 
 6
 
 I 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 139 
 
 10. The truth is, in the subscriptions of the 
 seventh Act, there is no name of any of the 
 five Patriarchs, save only of Pope Adrian, and 
 the Archbishop of Perga in the name and 
 stead of Ignatius the deposed, but now by 
 this Council restored, Patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople. And though in the tenth Action we 
 now have the names of proxies to all the rest 
 of the Patriarchs; yet sure somewhat there 
 was in it, that after the naming of them and 
 the Emperor's Proxy, Binius^ thinks neces- 
 sary to insert an annotation, lest, as he saith, 
 the reader observing the paucity of sub- 
 scribers should be scandalized at it, and there- 
 fore by way of prevention he offers an account 
 of it from the multitude of Photius's favourers, 
 who, he confesseth, were all excluded from 
 this Council, and so the ^subscribers fit to be 
 compared to Christ's little flock, which sure is 
 a competent prejudice to the universality of it. 
 
 11. And so likewise Anastasius's sage obser- 
 
 ' Concil. torn. vi. p. 853. 
 
 k Haec paucitas gregi illi pro sua justitia comparatur cui 
 Dominus dicit, nolite timere pusillus grex. Ibid. 
 
 o 6
 
 o o 
 
 140 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 vation by which he backs his argument in that 
 place ; viz. That of the five senses the Bishop 
 of Rome is proportionable to llsus, the Sight, 
 which hath\ saith he, " the preeminence of all 
 the other senses, being acuter than they, and 
 having communion with all as none of the 
 rest have," is a shrewd intimation of his sense, 
 that it was the single authority of the Pope, 
 that both condemned Photius, and gave the 
 whole universality to this Council, and then 
 we have a very fair account of a General 
 Council, rendered such by the bare virtue of 
 one person therein, and then I doubt not good 
 store of Universal Councils may be found in the 
 world, even as many as there have ever been 
 assemblies or conclaves, wherein Fisus, the most 
 eminent sense, i. e. the Pope, hath had any 
 efficacious influence by himself or his proxy. 
 
 12. To which purpose it may deserve here 
 to be remembered what type or copy of cele- 
 brating a Council the learned Cardinal Baronius 
 conceives himself to have found in the New 
 
 ' Profecto cunctis sensibus pra?eminet, acutior illis existens, et 
 commuuionem, sicut nul]us eorum, cum omnibus habens. 
 
 o o
 
 O Q 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAI. COUNCIL. 141 
 
 Testament™, and requires the reader of his 
 Annals, " to stop and take notice of it, as of a 
 thing most worthy of his observation." Such 
 as wherein St. Peter", and from his example the 
 Bishop of Rome his successor, in a cause of 
 the greatest moment, so " delivers his opinion, 
 that he defines the matter in debate, and 
 teaches and decrees what all must think, and 
 constitutes a Canon or rule of faith which 
 must remain for ever, so that, as he saith, 
 there is almost no need to consult the rest of 
 the Apostles, or ask their sentiments or 
 opinions, it being sufficient for Christ, that 
 Peter spake, and determined what was to be 
 resolved in point of faith." 
 
 13. Here indeed is a fair foundation laid of 
 a most magnificent structure, St. Peter's pri- 
 
 " An. 33. n. 17. Hie pedem sistat atque Paulum attendat 
 diligens lector rem animadversione dignissimam. 
 
 " Petrus talemfert sententlam, utcausam ipse definiat, etquid 
 ab omnibus sentiendum esset, erudiat atque decernat, ac fidei 
 canonem perpetuo permansurum constituat, ut nihil fermfe jam 
 esset opus consulere caeteros tunc Apostolos, ac rogare quaenam 
 essent aliorum de ea re sententiae ac opiniones. Idcirco enim 
 satis fuit Christo, Petrum fuisse locutum, ac quid de fide senti- 
 endum esset, clavum finisse. 
 
 , o
 
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 142 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 vilege in a Council of all the Apostles, Ut 
 sententiam ipse dejiniat: that he, without con- 
 sulting of any other, should give the definitive 
 sentence. 
 
 14. Only it was a little unhappy, that 
 Christ Himself should be present there, and 
 one of the interlocutors in this Council (if such 
 it were) for it is He that proposeth the question 
 which Peter answers, and if in the one it were 
 a type of celebrating a Council, so it was in 
 the other also, and then here were two Conci- 
 liar offices, the one of proposing doubts in 
 Councils, the other of answering them; the 
 first belonging to Christ, the second to St. 
 Peter, and certainly the latter a place of the 
 more eminence. 
 
 15. It is strange, what submissions learned 
 men are forced to, that are resolved to serve 
 their hypothesis. I shall only demand why 
 the very next parcel of discourse betwixt 
 Christ and His disciples, wherein again St. 
 Peter was the only speaker, ver. 21 — 23. of 
 this chapter^, was not as signal a type of cele- 
 
 • Matt. xvi. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 143 
 
 brating a Council, as the former? And yet 
 there, in two very eminent branches of the 
 Christian faith, the Passion and Resurrection of 
 Christ, the same St. Peter, whose successor 
 the Pope pretends to be, differed in opinion 
 from Christ Himself, "took Him and began to 
 rebuke Him," and sure delivered a very unca- 
 tholic sentence, no other than the denial of 
 both of those grand Articles, not only in 
 words of aversion, which are not enunciative, 
 the " Far be it from Thee, Lord," but even in 
 plain form of definition or decree, ou ^tj eo-roi aoi 
 Tovro, " This shall not be unto Thee." 
 
 16. What Christ there returns unto him, 
 that he was "an offence unto him, and savoured 
 not the things of God, but those that were of 
 men," may well serve for conclusion of this 
 matter, that in an assembly where Christ 
 Himself was present, St. Peter, and so his 
 pretended successor, may, if he be not very 
 careful to adhere to the word of Christ, fall 
 into error also, but is not in any reason then to 
 be deemed the representative of the whole 
 Church. 
 
 o o
 
 c — ■ c 
 
 lit THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 17. This institution of Councils in the 
 Church of Christ, the great Cardinal had so 
 fancied, that afterward he refers the original of 
 them not to the Apostles' Synod at Jerusalem?, 
 but, by all means, to this of Christ, asking 
 His disciples, "Whom say men that I am?" 
 Only the unhappiness of it was, he had there 
 forgotten the principal thing, which had recom- 
 mended this pattern unto him, St. Peter's 
 peculiar privilege, Ut sententiam ipse definiat, 
 for there he is pleased to resolve on another 
 form, viz. "^That every Father's suffrage should 
 be asked, and the decree made in an holy and 
 Canonical manner, by the common votes of 
 all," and not only of St. Peter; which I should 
 hope, concludes it his opinion, that the former 
 course of definiat ipse was neither legal nor 
 holy. 
 
 p An. 58. n. 119. Si quis ejus rei ipsum exordium repetat, 
 inveniet non tarn ab Apostolis quam ab ipso Christo duxisse 
 
 ! principium, atque sumpsisse authoritatem, quando scilicet, &c. 
 
 j I In unum Patres coirent, sicque simul collectis, singulorum 
 sententia rogaretur, ac denique quod ob omnibus servandum 
 esset, sanct^ ac legitime communibus suffragiis firmaretur. 
 Ibid. 
 
 c o
 
 o ^o 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 145 
 
 18. His third argument for the universality 
 of this Council is, because '"^seeing Photius 
 had by his so many excesses blotted the 
 Universal Church, an universal cure was used, 
 that all might be cured where all was 
 i blemished." But sure there is little force in 
 this argument, which renders a reason, why it 
 was so ; but doth not offer at any evidence, 
 that so it was ; and is founded in a supposition 
 that the cure (as the disease) was universal, which 
 was the thing he should have proved. And 
 even for the universality of the disease we have 
 here no farther offer of proof, but only that 
 soon after Photius's ascending from the Senate 
 to the Patriarchate, one Solomon a Laic was 
 ' made Bishop of Jerusalem. And some Laics 
 ' at Constantinople lived virtuous lives ; only, 
 as he will have it supposed, "that thereby they 
 might aspire to the Patriarchate": both which 
 might be allowed to be true, and yet this 
 
 ' Cum Photius tot excessuum suorum morbo universalem 
 ecclesiam maculaverit, universalis curatio adliibita est, ut totum 
 cuxaretur quod totum fuerat maculatmn. Concil. tom. vi. 
 p. 706. ' 
 
 O O
 
 14G THE EIGHTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 Eighth Council of 102 Bishops be far from 
 being thereby concluded to have been a General 
 Council. 
 
 19. The short is, Anastasius Bibliothecarius, 
 who was, as he saith, present at this Council, 
 and so may be allowed to have kindness to it, 
 doth also dedicate his History of it to Pope 
 Adrian, who was the principal actor in it, and 
 a bitter enemy to Photius. And then his au- 
 thority in this matter will be of as little weight, 
 as his arguments have appeared to be, even no 
 more than a testimony given to an interested 
 person by a very partial friend and party. 
 
 20. If there were force in such witnesses, 
 there would be as much credit due to Photius 
 himself, Epist. 117. desiring Theodosius^ not 
 to wonder that "profane persons sit supercili- 
 ously in judicature, and the illustrious High 
 Priests of God are con vented before them, that 
 they judge who are themselves condemned," 
 (for so was Ignatius the deposed but now re- 
 's Ti Oavfid^fis, 61 irpoKidrjTo fx^v i^ctitfypvu/xevov rh avi- 
 
 4pov, TrapiaraTO Se ruv 'Apx'fpf''"' Ofov to inicrrj^oi', teal 
 I Kpivflu ixiv iKeyero rh KaraKpirou ; 
 
 o c
 
 o 
 
 THE EIGHTH GENEKAX COUNCIL. 147 , 
 
 stored Patriarch,) but that the innocent "were 
 judged being encompassed with swords, lest 
 they should dare offer to speak any thing in 
 their ovm defence," giving him ancient ex- 
 amples of the like judicatures, that of Annas 
 and Caiaphas, and Pilate and the Sanhedrim, 
 by whom Christ was condemned ; and so also 
 Stephen, and James the Bishop of Jerusalem, 
 and Paul, And so in many other passages of 
 his Epistles, which demonstrate him to have 
 been another manner of man, than Baronius 
 pretends him". 
 
 21. But I need not such fallible testimonies 
 as these to confirm the point in hand, that 
 one of ^larcus in the Council of Florence, con- 
 tested to Cardinal Julian, and not denied by 
 him, is sufficient. 
 
 22. And it was but necessary wisdom in 
 Binius, (that knew it well, and could not but 
 discern what a just prejudice it was to the 
 universal reception of this Council,) that he 
 
 tf-uvTfv a.<pe7vai rh areidrjfov. 
 
 " An. S71. n. 24. 
 . _ Q
 
 o o 
 
 148 THE EIGUTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 purposely omitted to give us any story of that 
 Council, as of others he accustomed to do, 
 discreetly designing Anastasius's Preface to 
 Pope Adrian, to supply, as he saith", the 
 place of it. For as Anastasius would not 
 probably reveal this secret, nor could foresee 
 what Marcus would say in the Council of 
 Florence ; so Binius, that published one as 
 well as the other, could neither be ignorant, 
 nor yet with any safety take notice of it, there 
 being no possible way left but this of silence, 
 to salve this objection, or support the reputa- 
 tion or universality of that Council, which was 
 so nearly concerned in it. 
 
 » Non proponitur; ut in aliis factum, historia VIII. Concil. 
 quod earn Anastasii Praefatio complectatur. Concil. torn. vi. 
 p. 602.
 
 o 
 
 SECT. XII. 
 
 or THE REST OF THE COL'NCILS WHICH THE 
 ROMANISTS CALL GENERAL; PARTICULARLY THAT 
 OF TRENT. 
 
 1 . I shall not now, as I said, need to descend 
 to a view of the other Councils, by the Roman- 
 ists styled CEcumenical, or defend our practice j 
 in not accepting them as such. And that for ' 
 these few, among many, reasons ; \ 
 
 2. First, Because, as we said, the Pope's | 
 profession, which must in reason be supposed i 
 to extend to the whole faith, to every part of ' 
 Apostolical tradition, duly testified ; yet doth ; 
 not extend to all these, or to any more than 
 eight of them. 
 
 3. Secondly, Because those parts of them, 
 which agree not with their pretensions, are 
 freely and universally disallowed by them, as 
 
 6 o
 
 o ■ — 
 
 50 OF THK REST OF THE COUNCILS 
 
 Constance, and of Basil, (and even of the 
 
 Fourth great Council, that of Chalcedon,) 
 
 each styled in their collections CEcumenical 
 
 Councils, and yet each ex parte repruhatvm^ 
 
 i in part rejected and reprobated; and then why 
 
 I may not the Greek Church by the same law 
 
 i reject the Council of Florence, and both the 
 
 Galilean Church and ours the Council of 
 
 Trent, if we find it not a faithful reporter of 
 
 tradition Apostolical ? 
 
 4. Tliirclly, Because whenever any Council 
 hath by them been thought to fail, they have 
 made no scruple to affirm it was not a lawful 
 Council. 
 
 5. Thus we know it was in that at Ariminum, 
 where, as S. Hierome^ saith, the "whole 
 world almost admired to see itself become 
 Arian," and yet this I hope hath no authority 
 with them. 
 
 6. So, likewise the second Council of 
 Ephesus, though it were General, though 
 honoured with the presence of all the five 
 
 » Dial. cont. Lucif. 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 i -WHICH THE KOMAXISTS CALL GENERAL. 151 
 
 I 
 
 Patriarchs y, four in person, the fifth by his 
 Proxy ^, and pertinaciously maintained by the 
 Emperor Theodosius ; yet because it confirmed 
 Eutyches's doctrine, it is justly rejected by 
 them. 
 
 7. And then v.hy may not the same reason 
 hold for us, and authorize our questioning the 
 legitimacy of those Councils, whose decrees 
 with reason we allow not ? nor discern any 
 testimony of the truth of their doctrine, or 
 delivery from the Apostles ? 
 
 8. Fourthly, Because in the Council of Trent ; 
 the Popes themselves, as many as lived in the | 
 time thereof, would never consent, though it , 
 were earnestly desired of them, that that , 
 Council should be affirmed to represent the ; 
 Universal Church ; foreseeing prudently, that 
 if that were granted (as in the Council of 
 Constance it was to the Pope's cost) the Council i 
 being the whole, would put off its subjection, ' 
 
 I 
 
 y Vde Act. I. Concil. I. Chalced. Concil. Tom. iii. p. 61. i 
 
 2 "OSe Qeodoaios avreypaxpef ahrcf (Imperatori Valen- | 
 tiniano) ?<eywu, OTi ov -iroM aW^u avuodov, KaXus yap 
 CKpivev 6 Ai6(TKopos. Leontius de Sect. 7rpa|: 5. P- 511. A. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 152 OF THE REST OF THE COUNCILS 
 
 and depend no longer on him that was but a 
 part of it. From whence I conceive this 
 dilemma must have irresistible force in it, ad 
 hominem, being produced to a Romanist. 
 
 9. Either the General Council before the 
 Papal confirmation is the representative of the 
 whole Church, or it is not : if it be the repre- 
 sentative of the whole, then it needs not the 
 confirmation of the Pope to render it what it 
 was before. And again, whensoever the Pope 
 hath refused to confirm the decrees of any such, 
 I must in charity to him suppose that those 
 decrees have been erroneous, and as such 
 repudiated by him, and then the universal 
 Church representative may err. And then 
 who can have any security in believing or 
 relying on it ? 
 
 10. But if it be not the representative of 
 the whole Church, then is not the testimony 
 of an CEcumenical Council the testimony of 
 the whole Church, nor consequently qualified 
 for any belief upon that score of universality. 
 
 11. Having given the Romanist this 
 account, which he hath obliged himself not to 
 
 6 6
 
 o o 
 
 WHICH THE ROMANISTS CALL GEINERAL. 153 , 
 
 dislike, of our not obliging ourselves to the 
 belief of all those Councils which he calls 
 General, I shall not need add what hath been 
 so fully done by others, the many eminent 
 nullities of some of them, especially of that of 
 Trent, which is most magisterially imposed 
 upon us. 
 
 12. The matter is clear, there can be no 
 colour of pretence that that was an CEcumenical 
 Council. It had not sure at the time, that 
 integrity of the five senses, which Anastasius 
 told us of, nor yet after it was promulgate, the 
 approbation and reception of the whole Chris- 
 tian world, not of the eastern Church, nor in 
 the west of the Galilean and Britannic, and 
 many others. And then how can it be any 
 universal testifier of Apostolic tradition, or in 
 any other capacity bind all to the embracing 
 of it? 
 
 13. This therefore is the one (but that very 
 sufficient) prejudice to a Council pretending to 
 deliver to us Apostolic traditions and matters , 
 of faith, and exacthig them to be received as ' 
 such, that it is not indeed what it pretends to 
 
 u O
 
 . o 
 
 154 OF THE REST OF THE COUNCILS 
 
 be, an Universal Council ; and consequently 
 tliat it is not duly qualified, by Vincentius's 
 rules, to give a valid testimony of matters of 
 faith or doctrines truly Christian. To which 
 it is but proportionable and regular that we 
 that embrace and uniformly accept all Apos- 
 tolical tradition, sufficiently i. e. universally 
 testified to be such, do not think ourselves 
 obliged to receive that, which is not thus 
 testified. 
 
 14. If therefore, as hath hitherto appeared, 
 heresy be to be thus defined by the opposition 
 to the faith of Christ, sufficiently revealed and 
 testified to us, if Universality be one qualifi- 
 cation of the testifier, and if the Romanists' 
 CEcumenical Councils do evidently fail of that 
 Universality, then cannot our non-reception of 
 all their Councils, thus evidenced not to be 
 universal, or of those their doctrines which have 
 no other surer basis than that of the defini- 
 tions of those Councils, be any way competent 
 to charge or affix the note of heresy upon us. 
 I 15. Nay on the contrary, we that never 
 disbelieved any word of God, written or 
 
 o — o
 
 c o 
 
 WHICH THE ROMANISTS CAL.L. GENERAL. 155 
 
 unwritten (by any means made known to us 
 to be such), particularly never questioned any 
 voice or testimony of the whole Church con- 
 cerning such word, but are ready to believe 
 that to be Apostolical, which shall be to us 
 universally testified to come from the Apostles, 
 and persuade ourselves that God will never 
 permit any such universal testimony concern- 
 ing the faith to conspire in conveying error to 
 us ; and upon the strength of that persuasion, 
 as we have never yet opposed any Universal 
 Council, nor other voice of the whole Church, 
 such as by the Catholic rules can be contested 
 to be such ; so for the future we profess never 
 to do: are by our grounds thus far secured 
 from all heretical pravity, that unless we 
 destroy in the retail what we have built in the 
 gross, and until we shall be proved, by the 
 particular view of our doctrines, to have thus 
 failed in some particulars, we cannot with any 
 justice, or without great uncharitableness be 
 accused of it. - 
 
 ( 
 
 O ■ J
 
 SECT. XIII. 
 
 OF THE INERRABILITY OF A GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 THAT IT IS NO MATTER OF FAITH. 
 
 1. Of the last part of this our profession, it 
 is now meet, that I add some few words, viz. 
 what our opinion is of the inerrability of a 
 General Council, truly so called, and qualified 
 as hath been formerly described. 
 
 2. And 1. we have learned to distinguish 
 between theological verity and Catholic faith ; 
 some things we believe to be true, which yet 
 pretend not to be any part of that necessary 
 fundamental doctrine, which ' 'was once delivered 
 unto the Saints," but are offered to our. belief 
 upon grounds of reason, which, suppositd fide, 
 carry great weight of probability with them, 
 for which yet we neither have, nor pretend any- 
 divine revelation. And such, I conceive, 
 
 c- 
 
 -Q
 
 O ( 
 
 OF THE EN'ERKABLLITT OF A GENERAL COLNCIL 1 57 
 
 this proposition to be, A General Council 
 cannot^ or shall not err. For that this is no 
 where either affirmed by the word of God, 
 written or unwritten, or regularly deduced 
 from thence, may easily appear by a view of 
 the very few places, Mhich are by the Roman- 
 ist pretended to conclude it. 
 
 3. First, Those words of Christ are pretended 
 for it, ^'' Where two or three are gathered 
 together in My Name, there I will be in the 
 midst of them." But 1. Those words do not 
 in any peculiarity belong to Councils convened 
 to define, but more generally to any assem- 
 blies that come together to hear or pray to 
 God, or more particularly in that place, to 
 excommunicate an offender. 2. If they belong 
 to Councils, they would equally belong to the 
 most particular, as to the most CEcumenical 
 Council ; for none can be more distant from 
 Catholic, than that where no more than " two 
 or three are met together." 3. That text 
 belongs only to those assemblies, which are 
 truly convened in God's Name, with hearts 
 
 * Mat. xviii.20. 
 
 o o
 
 158 OF THE INERRABILTTY 
 
 sincerely bent to the honouring of Him ; 
 whereas many assemblies among men have 
 been, and still may be convened with mixtures 
 of worldly and carnal interest, and then no 
 part of tlie promised presence belongs to 
 them. 4. Christ may by His power and illu- 
 mination, and even directive grace be present, 
 1 and in "the midst" of those, who yet through 
 i the corruption and blindness and obstinacy of 
 their own hearts, do not make use of His 
 guidance to the finding out of truth, but oft 
 ! resist the conviction and light which is offered 
 I them by Christ. And so there is not the 
 i least colour of force in that argument. 
 
 4. Secondly, that place is produced of John 
 xvi. 3. That " when the Spirit of truth is , 
 come, he will guide them into all truth," and j 
 again, that he ''shall abide with them for! 
 ever." But neither hath that any propriety j 
 to General, or indeed to any kind of Councils. 
 Every particular Christian, since the descent 
 of the Holy Ghost, is as much rendered infalli- 
 ble by these texts, as any the most numerous 
 assembly; for to each of those this promise 
 
 o o
 
 ; __ -, 
 
 i 
 
 OF A GENERAL, COUNCIL. 159 
 
 made to the Apostles is as regularly appliable, 
 
 as to any of these. And the matter is noto- | 
 
 rious, that before there was ever any CEcume- 
 
 nical Council in the world, the Church of God 
 
 j was led into all truth : the greatest foundations ; 
 
 1 of Faith being by the Apostles' preaching, from i 
 
 I the very first plantation, long before the 
 
 Council of Nice, deposited in every Church. 
 
 5. Thirdly, They produce the form of the 
 
 Conciliar Decretal Epistle^, " It seemed good 
 
 to the Holy Ghost and to us." But that can 
 
 be of no force in this matter: 1. Because the 
 
 Apostles, that certainly did not err, and were 
 
 so assisted by the Spirit that they should not 
 
 ; err in the discharge of their office Apostolical, 
 
 : can be no precedent to every, or any other 
 
 i human assembly. 2. Because this decree of 
 
 • theirs belonging to matters of practice, not 
 
 I of belief, that form of it can no farther be 
 
 i imitable to other Councils, than that in like j 
 
 I matters of practice, such are rites and cere- | 
 
 j monies and usages in a Church, they assume | 
 
 I authority of defining, and commanding, and 
 
 j b Acts XV. 28. 
 
 o — ■ o
 
 o o 
 
 160 OF THE INERR ABILITY 
 
 deem that backed by the Holy Ghost, who 
 j hath given them their authority, but in matters of 
 Faith they must have nothing from tliemselves. 
 And accordingly this hath been the practice in 
 the Church, as hath formerly appeared from 
 Athanasius, to prefix their Canons of Order and 
 Rites : this form, Visum est, It seemed good to us, 
 or e5o|6 TCI viroTCTayimeua. these things seemed good 
 to ns: but for matters of faith, ovtus inaTevfi ^ 
 KadoXiKi) iKK\T]aiay SO the CathoUc Church 
 believes ; neither inserting mention of their own 
 judgment, nor yet pretending to any other 
 revelation from the Holy Ghost, than what 
 was from the beginning found to have been in 
 the Church. To which purpose also was, I 
 j suppose, the second versicle in the doxology 
 (the orthodoxal form of acknowledging the 
 Trinity) Sicut erat in principio. As it was in 
 the heginning, as it stood by original tradition 
 Apostolical, is " now and ever shall be world 
 I without end." No new doctrine ever to be 
 brought into the Church by whatsoever 
 Council, but only that which the Apostles had ' 
 delivered. ' 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 1 
 OF A GENERAL COUNCIL. 161 
 
 6. Fourthly, Some places they bring, and 
 apply to Councils, which the Scripture delivers 
 only of the Church in general, as, that the 
 " gates of hell shall not prevail against it," 
 which can no way belong to this matter, unless 
 all the members of the Church were met 
 together in that Council ; for if there be any 
 left out, why may not the promise be good in 
 them, thouoh the o-ates of hell should be 
 affirmed to prevail against the Council? The 
 first Xicene was by the acknowledgment of all 
 an CEcumenical Council, yet was not the whole 
 Church of God convened in that Assembly. 
 In case all the 318 Bishops which were there 
 assembled, had in one minute been taken up 
 to Heaven, or by any violence of the Arian 
 party massacred; could it with any truth be 
 said, that the whole Church of God had then 
 been destroyed? Infallibly it could not; and 
 no more could it be said, in case a major part 
 of them had agreed in any error, that the 
 TTuAot aSov, the power or gates of hell, or death, 
 or destruction, had prevailed against them; 
 because as it is clear there were many thou- 
 
 o o
 
 o — o 
 
 ] 162 OF THE INERRABILITY 
 
 sands of Bishops and Presbyters, many 
 millions of brethren or believing Christians, 
 without the walls of that Council, which had 
 not been involved in that error. And indeed 
 the very supposal, that the Council assembled 
 represents the Church diffusive, and was never 
 entrusted by them to define any error at their 
 convention, is an evidence that there is with- 
 out the doors of that Council an universal, 
 which those few there present were designed to 
 represent. And those that have given their 
 proxies for certain uses, are not imagined so 
 to have put their lives or souls in the 
 hands of those proxies, as that by the death of 
 the proxies they shall be supposed to die also. 
 7. And as there is no evidence from the 
 written word of God whereon this may be 
 grounded, as a matter of faith, that a General 
 Council cannot err, so neither is there any 
 part of the Apostles' depositum entrusted to 
 the Church, from which the conclusion can 
 with any semblance of reason be inferred, or 
 that is by any Romanist, that I know of, 
 made use of to that purpose. | 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 OF A GENERAL, COUNCIL. 163 
 
 8. The main thing that is pretended, is the 
 conciliar practice and custom of annexing 
 anathemas to their definitions, which it were 
 not reasonable for them to do, if they did not 
 verily believe their definitions were infallibly 
 true. But to this the answer is obvious, 
 1. That they may think themselves infallible 
 which are not, and so their own belief is not 
 argumentative. 2. That they that knowing 
 themselves fallible, do yet persuade themselves 
 that they have successfully sought out, and 
 found the truth in some particular, may think 
 it useful to propagate this truth to all their 
 flock, and secure the peaceable possession of 
 that doctrine by denunciation of censures 
 Ecclesiastical ; and, that is the meaning of 
 anathemas. 3. It is supposable, that in this, 
 or that doctrine, the Council hath had so clear 
 a discovery, (viz. from the uniform consentient 
 testimony of all Churches vv'ith which they 
 have consulted,) that they do find reason verily 
 to believe that that particular definition is 
 tradition Apostolical. And so in that they 
 may define dogmatically, not from any opinion 
 
 o o
 
 o ■ o 
 
 164 OF THE INERRABILITY, &C. 
 
 of their own universal inerrableness, but from 
 a duly-grounded persuasion, that for this time 
 they are in the right. Lastly, It may well be 
 noted as an excess in many later Councils, to 
 be thus forward with their anathemas, or to 
 affix them to any other of their detinitions, 
 but such as are undoubted branches of that 
 Apostolical doctrine, which was preached to all 
 those Soyfiara citaefielas in the Apostles' Canon^, 
 the disbelief whereof may obstruct, or hinder 
 good life here, and salvation hereafter. 
 
 « XXX. (Pat. ap. ed. Cotel. torn. i. 447.) 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 ^£XA^^£:&-^C.£J^iU2:XiUJ I 
 
 SECT. XV. 
 
 THAT IT IS ONE OF THE PIE CREDIBLLIA, THAT A 
 GENERAL COUNCIL SHALL NOT ERK. 
 
 1. This then of the inerrableness of General 
 Councils being thus far evidenced to be no 
 matter of faith, because not founded in any 
 part of Scripture, or Tradition, (nor conse- 
 quently the contrary any matter of Heresy,) 
 the utmost that can be said of it, is, that it is 
 a theological verity which may piously be 
 believed. 
 
 2. And so I doubt not to pronounce of it, 
 that if we consider God's great and wise and 
 constant providence and care over His Church, 
 His desire that all men should be saved, and, 
 in order to that end, come to the knowledge of 
 all necessary truth. His promise that He will 
 not suffer His faithful servants to be tempted 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 166 A fiENERAL COUNCIL 
 
 above what they are able, nor permit scandals 
 and false teachers to prevail to the seducing of 
 the very elect, His most pious godly servants ; 
 if, I say, we consider these, and some other 
 such like general promises of Scripture, 
 wherein this question seems to be concerned, 
 we shall have reason to believe, that God will 
 never suffer all Christians to fall into such a 
 temptation as it must be, in case the whole 
 Church representative should err in matter of 
 faith, by way of ellipsis, (define against, or 
 leave out of their Creed any Article of that 
 body of Credenda, which the Apostles de- 
 livered to the Church,) and therein find appro- 
 bation, and reception among all those Bishops 
 and Doctors of the Church diffused which 
 were out of the Council. 
 
 3. And though in this case the Church 
 might remain a Church, (and so the destructive 
 gates of Hades not prevail against it,) and still 
 retain all parts of the Apostles' depositum in 
 the hearts of some faithful Christians which 
 had no power in the Council to oppose the 
 Decree, or out of it to resist the general 
 
 o o
 
 o — o 
 
 I SHALL NOT ERR. 167 
 
 approbation, yet still the testimony of such a 
 General Council so received and approved, 
 would be a very strong argument, and so a 
 very dangerous temptation to every the most 
 meek and pious Christian, and it is piously to 
 be believed, though not infallibly certain, (for 
 who knows what the provocations of the 
 Christian world, of the Pastors, or the flock, 
 may arrive to, like the violence of the old 
 world, that brought down the deluge upon 
 them ? ) that God will not permit His servants 
 to fall into that temptation. 
 
 o o
 
 o 
 
 -O 
 
 o 
 
 SECT. XIV. 
 
 A RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION OF THIS 
 MATTER CONCERNING HERESY. 
 
 1. It is time now to draw to a conclusion of 
 this whole matter ; and from the premises to 
 complete and abbreviate that plea, which will, 
 I doubt not, secure the Church of England 
 from all colourable charge of Heresy : for 
 that 
 
 2. First, It confessedly receives the whole 
 Word of Christ, the entire Canon of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 3. Secondly, It retains entire the symbol of 
 the Apostolic faith, as that was delivered 
 to the Churches in all the Apostolic plan- 
 tations. 
 
 o
 
 O • ^ 
 
 KECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION. 169 
 
 4. Thirdly, It understands both Scripture, 
 and Creedf according to that traditive inter- 
 pretation, which the first four, or, if you will, 
 six, or indeed any of the (Ecumenical Councils, 
 truly so called, have discovered and declared 
 to be the sense of all the Apostolic Churches 
 in the world, and were universally received by 
 all Churches in such their declaration. 
 
 5. Fourthly, That we never rejected any 
 Catholic Testimony (offered in behalf of any 
 Doctrine) nor Council, but such as even our 
 enemies grant, or e\T[dence of the matter 
 proclaims, not to have been CEcumenical. 
 
 6. Fifthly, That we do not believe that any 
 General Council, truly such, ever did, or shall 
 err in any matter of faith, nor shall we farther 
 dispute the authority, when we shall be duly 
 satisfied of the universality of any such. 
 
 7. Lastly, That we are willing to proceed, 
 and enlarge all this, from the Church collected 
 in a Council, to the Church diffused, or the 
 principal Pastors thereof, out of Council, and 
 are ready to receive, and acknowledge as 
 doctrine of faith every proposition, which the 
 
 o 
 
 o
 
 c o 
 
 170 CONCLUSION OF THIS MATTER 
 
 Fathers that lived in any competent distance 
 from the Apostles, do uniformly, or without 
 any considerable dissent, deliver down to 
 us, as the truths of God, traditions Apo- 
 stolical. 
 
 8. Herein I may not now fitly enlarge, by 
 proceeding to a view and defence of all, or any 
 such particular doctrines, nor indeed can I 
 without the vSj^irit of divination, not knowing 
 what one doctrine, denied by us, any 
 Romanist will assume to assert upon these 
 terms (contest by these measures of univer- 
 sality, antiquity, and consent) to be Apostolical 
 tradition. 
 
 9. As for the authority of the present 
 Roman Church, which is by them so much 
 insisted on, as we cannot deem that sufficient 
 to impose upon all Christians any new book 
 of Scripture ; so neither can we by force of 
 any Catholic rules (such as Vincentius is con- 
 fessed to have furnished us with sufficiently) 
 receive from that sole testimony of theirs 
 (which is but the testimony of one part, and of 
 one age of the Church, and not of the uiiiversal 
 
 o ■ o
 
 o — o 
 
 CONCERNING HERESY. 171 
 
 1 
 
 Church of all ages) any part of Christian 
 doctrine, though by them never so earnestly 
 contested to be Apostolical. 
 
 10. The sure way of judging aright in any 
 particular debate, must be by appealing to the 
 Fountains, Apostolical Original Doctrine, and 
 Tradition : and for that, to those that are 
 competent testifiers in the matter, to Councils 
 universally received, or to such other testi- 
 mony as is truly universal. And as by this 
 one test we profess to deal with every adver- 
 sary of the faith, whom we shall dare thus to 
 accuse, and not to deem any person an heretic, 
 whom we cannot demonstrate to be such, by 
 this sure KpiTrjpLov, (and therefore are not 
 forward to judge every Romanist to be such, 
 who maintains the whole faith, and errs only 
 in his super-addition,) so we are most willing 
 to submit to this way of judgment ourselves, 
 and whatsoever we shall be convinced to be 
 disagreeable thereto, we shall most willingly 
 and explicitly renounce, for the glory of God, 
 and for the restoring the peace of the Church, 
 and do so already implicitly, by binding our- 
 
 c o
 
 O ( 
 
 172 CONCLUSION OF THIS MATTER 
 
 selves to be judged, and concluded by these 
 rules, by unfeigned prayer to God for His 
 light and guidance in His path ; and by 
 exacting of all Christians in the world that 
 fraternal debt of necessary charity to our 
 souls, in admonishing us, either 1 . What par- 
 ticular there is, maintained by our Church, 
 which is not found to have truth : or 2. What 
 disbelieved, which is able to approve itself, 
 being judged by these rules : or 3. What 
 is defective in these rules, in order to our 
 judging aright, what is by a Christian to be 
 believed, or embraced as De Fide, and so as 
 the disbelieving thereof will be chargeable 
 upon him. 
 
 11. And if, after all this, and without the 
 charity of any such admonition, we shall still 
 by unrelenting adversaries be censured and 
 condemned, as Heretics, (and upon that 
 account cast out as refuse-branches, and 
 unchurched members ; and so that unity and 
 communion, which Christ hath commanded to 
 continue among His Disciples, become unat- 
 tainable by us,) herein we complain of great 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 CONCERNING HERESY. 173 I 
 
 unkindness and injustice in the Church of 1 
 Rome, and in those that join and adhere to her [ 
 in that sentence, which by Papal Bull was ! 
 long since sent out against us ; and upon 
 these premised grounds we resolve still to | 
 retain that degree of charity to our most 
 implacable enemies, as to pray for them, and 
 to admonish them of the eminent danger of 
 their uncharitableness, in case those hindrances 
 be not upon due judgment removed on their 
 part, which obstruct the union and peace of 
 Christendom. It being most unreasonable 
 that among them which communicate in -every 
 branch of the one Apostolical faith, that sacred 
 band should yet be violated, upon vain and 
 empty pretences of diversities of opinion or 
 usages in such matters, which are far removed 
 from the great foundation of Apostolical 
 doctrines and practices, or which are not 
 sufficiently testified to come from them, who 
 yet are justly presumable to have delivered 
 carefully (and appointed the Church to pre- 
 serve faithfully through all ages) all those 
 things, which are fundamentally necessary for 
 
 o 6
 
 o o 
 
 174 CONCLUSION OF THIS MATTER 
 
 a Christian to believe or practise to his soul's 
 health. 
 
 12. If reason herein will not be heard, 
 to the repairing of breaches and demolishing 
 the fieaiWoixov (ppdyiJLov, that sept or wall of 
 separation, ■which was once in the Temple set 
 up betwixt Jews and Gentile w^orshippers, but 
 received its decretory sentence in the death 
 of Christ, never to be re-edified among Chris- 
 tians; if that enmity that was nailed to His 
 Cross, must be revived, and quickened to a 
 life immortal among His members ; if whilst 
 we faithfully retain the whole faith of Christ, 
 w^e must still be looked on, as traditors and 
 mutilators of it, it will yet be manifest to all 
 that consider the premises, that this is to 
 be numbered among our calamities, not our 
 guilts, that these darts of the tongue were not 
 directed at us, with any special aim, or judg- 
 ment, (we might have been called magicians as 
 well, and so banished out of Rome, upon the 
 Old Edict, contra Matliematicos, with as much 
 propriety as upon the new, contra Hcereticos,) 
 and in fine, that the objection hath received its 
 
 o O
 
 O- 
 
 o 
 
 CONCERNING HERESY. 
 
 175 
 
 answer according to the utmost improvement, 
 of which it is capable, whether as the low 
 ebb of our present persecuted estate, or as our 
 pretended departure from the Catholic faith, is, 
 or can, with any colour of reason, be suggested I 
 to have unchurched us. 
 
 o 
 
 o
 
 CHAP. YI. 
 
 A THIRD DIFFICULTY, RAISED FROM ACTS IV. 19, 
 ' A:ND 1 COR. IX. IP, SATISFIED. 
 
 §. 1. After this so large a survey of those 
 
 '. two sorts of objections from others, there 
 
 remains a third, which our own breasts are 
 
 ready to suggest, by way of scruple ; whether 
 
 the words of St. Peter and St. John, Acts iv. 19, 
 
 and of St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 16, be not of some 
 
 force, to lay obligation on us Ministers of the 
 
 Gospel at this time, and how we shall quit 
 
 ! ourselves of that obligation ? 
 
 j §. 2. In the former text, verse 6. and 15, 
 
 j When the Sanhedrim called those Apostles, 
 
 j and commanded them " not to speak at all, nor 
 
 1 to teach," ver. 18.; their answer is in these 
 
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 178 A THIRD DIFriCDLTY SATISFIED. 
 
 words, " Whether it be right in the sight of God 
 to hearken unto you, more than unto God, 
 judge ye ; for we cannot but speak" — where 
 sure the phrases of hearkening unto God, 
 obeying Him, and, we cannot but speak, — 
 noted an obligation lying upon them from God 
 to speak and to teach, such as no countermand 
 from the Sanhedrim could take off from them. 
 
 §. 3. And so in the latter text a necessity 
 is acknowledged by St. Paul to lie upon him, 
 a moral necessity (and that sure denotes an 
 obligation) and woe is unto him, if he preach 
 not the Gospel. 
 
 §. 4. For the answering of this, some (of 
 the many) differences must be observed, which 
 at first sight offer themselves, betwixt the con- 
 dition of the Apostles then, and those now, 
 which are under this interdict. A first 
 difference may be discerned in respect of the 
 matter of their preaching, which was then so 
 indispensably required of the Apostles : what 
 that was, will appear by the commission given 
 to the eleven^; " Go therefore and teach all 
 
 • Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
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 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 1 79 , 
 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
 I have commanded you." As for St. Paul, 
 though he were none of this number, yet his 
 assumption to the office Apostolical, expressed 
 by his being a " chosen vessel unto Christ, to 
 bear His name before the Gentiles and Kings ^ ; " 
 and the command of the Holy Ghost to 
 "separate him to that work '^;" did doubtless 
 bind the same bands on him, and so this same 
 engagement of publishing the Christian doctrine 
 through all the world to those that were 
 ignorant of it, of receiving proselytes, all that 
 should come in to that faith of Christ, and of 
 building them up in it. 
 
 §. 5. Here then to those as to a select 
 number of D'*!!''?^ Apostles, or proxies, of 
 Christ on earth, was a commission given, and 
 therein a command to publish the Gospel over 
 " all the world ;" and had they neglected it 
 willingly, or by any terrors been affrighted 
 I from it, that message (which Christ came in 
 
 »> Acts ix. 15. e Acts xiii. 2. 
 
 O O
 
 o ^ — o 
 
 180 A TIIIRU DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 I 
 
 SO stupendous a manner from Heaven to i 
 publish) had consequently never been revealed 
 to the world, and then this so precious talent 
 deposited with them, being thus laid up 
 unoccupied, would have brought on them 
 regularly the guilt, and woe of wicked, as well 
 as unprofitable servants. And this is the 
 ground of that obligation, that lay on them, 
 and is expressed in those two texts in the 
 objection. 
 
 §. 6. But the Bishops of our Church, and 
 the inferior officers, the Presbyters under them, 
 though they are in some degree the proxies of 
 those proxies, the successors of those Apostles ; 
 yet the commission to go and preach, belongs 
 not to them, in the same extent, as it did to 
 the Apostles, nor to all the same purposes : 
 our commission is limited, and so the obligation 
 incumbent on us is limited also. 
 
 §.7. The Gospel being long ago by the 
 Apostles' travels solemnly jireached over all 
 the world, and either received by faith, or 
 rejected by obstinacy, or cast off by apostacy, 
 there was a period and conclusion of those 
 
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 A THIRD DimCULTT SATISFIED. 181 
 
 travels, their doctrine being deposited in all 
 their plantations, and in the written word con- 
 signed for the perpetual uses of the Churches, 
 it was no longer incumbent, ex officio, on every 
 spiritual person, to trace all the steps of those, 
 that thus travelled for the first planting them. 
 It is sure the Indies and Chinese are none of 
 our province now, though they once were of 
 some of the Apostles'^. 
 
 §. 8. Nay, even in those first times we read 
 of some, whom they fixed in settled stations, 
 TrapaKaXovvres Trpao-jj.e'ivai, appointing them to 
 j abide, and KaToXeiirovTes, leaving them in 
 I such or such a province^, beyond which they 
 ! were not obliged to journey, but as the 
 ■ same Apostles directed them upon emergent 
 1 occasions. 
 
 §. 9. Nay, the Apostles themselves at length 
 made an end of their travels, sat down, St. 
 John at Ephesus, St. Peter at Rome. — And after 
 
 * Dr Hammond is not speaking of the duty whicli binds the 
 Catholic Church to evangeUze the Heathen, but of the personal 
 ministry of the ordinarj- Priesthood and Episcopate of any 
 Church. 
 
 e 1 Tim. i. 3. and Tit. i .5. | 
 
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 182 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 them in the words of the eleventh and twelfth 
 Canons Apostolical, it was soon forbidden, that 
 
 any man should eVe/ja irapoLKia iiTLTrqbav, or 
 
 dncKOeiv, go or meddle beyond his own line, 
 move out of that circle, wherein he was fixed. 
 And yet certainly obedience to those Canons, 
 though not written by the Apostles, but by the 
 first Bishops, Apostolical men, and so (in the 
 words of that text, wherein the objection is 
 founded) a hearkening unto men, will never be 
 deemed an offending or sinning against God ; 
 if it were, all order and unity would soon be 
 banished out of the Church, as by this 
 aXkoTpioeTTLaKoiria we see it in some Churches 
 at this time. 
 
 §. 10. Here then is a first difference, in 
 respect of the matter of their preaching, and 
 their immediate mission to that work, which 
 brought the Vc^ si non ; they were by Christ 
 obliged to promulgate the Gospel ; we, that 
 are come into their labours, where it is promul- 
 gate already, are not under the same causes, 
 and so neither under the same strictness of that 
 obligation : The engagements that now lie upon 
 
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 A THTED DIFFICULTT SATISFIED. 183 
 
 US arise from some other heads, the designa- 
 tions, and trusts of our superiors in the Church, 
 the wants of the flock, over whom we are 
 placed, or the opportunities of charity, which 
 offer themselves to us, but not the preceptive 
 commission of Christ of going, and preaching 
 the faith to all nations. 
 
 §.11. But if this were the entire answer, 
 some farther objection would lie against it. 
 For the Apostles' task being not only that of 
 witnessing the resurrection of Christ, and so 
 the whole Christian religion, confirmed by it, 
 but particularly that of calling unreformed 
 sinners to repentance (as we see their sermons 
 summed up in the Gospel, as John Baptist's 
 and Christ's also were, "Repent, for the 
 kingdom of Heaven is at hand") it is obvious 
 thus to enforce the former argument, that the 
 sins of these nations, and our imj^enitent con- 
 tinuance therein, are sufficient to remove this 
 difference, there is now as much need of 
 Sermons of repentance, as there was then 
 of preaching the faith of Christ ; and why 
 then should not the obligation lie as indis- 
 
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 184 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 pensably upon us, as it then did upon the 
 Apostles ? 
 
 §. 12. To this objection the answer must be, 
 not by denying the truth of the suggestion in 
 either of the premises, for it is certain, that was 
 the style of the Baptist's, of Christ's, of the 
 Disciples, and so afterwards of the Apostles' 
 preaching ; and it is indeed hard to conceive 
 how or when there should be greater need of 
 preaching reformation, and of employing all our 
 spiritual artillery, the keenest weapons of our 
 warfare for the demolishing of strongholds, of 
 bringing down obdurate hearts to the obedience 
 of Christ, than there is most visibly in these 
 nations at this time. But by examining the 
 force of the consequence which from thence 
 infers the necessity of our withstanding the 
 present interdict, and continuing to preach. 
 That this consequence is most irregular, soon 
 appears by survey of the premises, which 
 neither severally nor jointly have power thus 
 to infer, or to make up any regular syllogism, 
 of which this shall be the conclusion. The 
 fairest syllogism that the matter is capable of 
 
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 i A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 185 ■ 
 
 will be this : The Apostles by Christ's command 
 preached repentance to impenitent sinners, 
 but the people of this nation are impenitent 
 sinners ; therefore, the Ministers here are obliged 
 not to give over preaching, whatever interdict 
 or menace of violence restrain them from it. 
 But this is far from a regular syllogism, not 
 capable of being reformed, or reduced, to any 
 figure or mould of reasoning, artificial, or 
 inartificial, neither of the premises having any 
 influence upon the conclusion, nor indeed con- 
 nection within themselves. Christ's precept of 
 preaching repentance to impenitent sinners, 
 even then when it did oblige, did not oblige 
 them never to intermit, or give it over, what- 
 soever the consequences were. When they had 
 preached, and were not received, but perse- 
 cuted, they were allowed to leave such obsti- 
 nate impenitents to shake off" their dust against 
 them, and so to denounce judgments by- 
 departing from them, to preach most loudly, 
 by not preaching. 
 
 §.13. And for impenitence, sure that lays 
 not obligation, where Christ's command had 
 
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 186 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 said none, i. e. where it is obstinate against 
 light, and means of reformation. It was our 
 Saviour's speech put by Him into the mouth of 
 father Abraham, " They have Moses and the 
 Prophets, let them hear them : and if they 
 hear not them, neither will they repent or be 
 persuaded, though one should come to them 
 from the dead." 
 
 §.14. When sins have been committed, and 
 are gone on in for want of light, there preaching 
 of repentance, and convincing the ignorant 
 world of sin, is the gospel method, and be 
 their sins the greatest in the world, and the 
 most unnatural, such as the Gentiles were, yet 
 God can vn-epibelv, so far look over, or not see 
 such rebellions, as to send out His heralds of 
 peace, and command them all " every where to 
 repent," yea, and sometimes to work miracles 
 for the opening such men's eyes, who, as 
 St. PauF saith of himself, being blasphemers, 
 persecutors and injurious, yet are discerned by 
 Him that knows the secrets of hearts, to " do it 
 ignorantly in unbeliefs." 
 
 ' Acts xvii. 30. s 1 Tim. i. IS. 
 
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 I A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 187 | 
 
 §.15. But when it is not thus imputable to 
 ignorance, but resistance of the light, to loving 
 and. coveting of darkness^, to the scorn er's 
 delighting in that trade, and the " fools hating 
 knowledge V it may then be seasonable with 
 God, and not contrary to duty in man, to let 
 them alone, no longer to importune them who 
 will not receive instruction. 
 
 §.16. And this is too visibly the present 
 condition of this people, our sins have not the 
 apology or extenuation of ignorance ; our deeds 
 of darkness, that have clothed themselves in 
 the thickest cloud, and. deepest secrecy, are of 
 all others most unquestionably sins against 
 light and knowledge and. conscience. And 
 our riots, and oaths, and perjuries, and pro- 
 fanations ; in a word, all our sorts of pollutions 
 both of flesh and spirit, are certainly such ; 
 and those are they that denominate us an I 
 impenitent people, on supposal of which the 
 enforcement of that argument was founded. j 
 
 §. 17. And to such blind people that have 
 eyes, which (BXe-rrovres ov /SXeVovo-i, see very per- 
 
 ^ John iii. 19. ' Prov. i. 22. 
 
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 o ■ I 
 
 188 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 fectli/, but will not perceive*^, that have steeled 
 their foreheads against reproofs, it were but 
 regular, and that which we learn from the 
 Apostles' practice, as to shake off dust against 
 them, so to mark and avoid, and not to have 
 fellowship with such, much less to pursue them 
 with the importunity of more Sermons, but 
 rather to forsake them, without being driven 
 from them; there being no reason, why they 
 should hear, any more than preach God's word, 
 take His Covenant into their ears or mouths, 
 who thus despise instructions, and hate to be 
 reformed. 
 
 §. 18. And if it be interposed, that sure all 
 men and women among us, are not to be put 
 into this forlorn classis of hopeless impenitents, 
 there being many thousands now, as in Elias's 
 days, that are not engulphed in the corruptions 
 of the times, 1 reply by a most willing, joyful 
 confession, and only require it be remembered, 
 that then there M'as no strength, as far as con- 
 cerns these, in that enforcement of the argu- 
 ment, which took rise only from the considera- 
 
 ^ Isaiah xliii. 8; Acts xxviii. 27. 
 
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 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 189 \ 
 
 tion of the unrefomied impenitent sinners, 
 which exacted our Sermons of repentance. 
 
 §. 19. As for those then, that are in a middle 
 
 and more improveable estate, to whom the 
 
 I exercise of our functions are, or probably may 
 
 be, real charity ; there, I shall acknowledge 
 
 I the ]\Iinisters of the word to lie under engage- 
 
 j ments, not such as arise from Christ's command 
 
 I to His Apostles, "to go and preach," wherein the 
 
 j objection was founded; but on other heads, 
 
 especially those of charity, and ministering to 
 
 the wants of souls. And though the example 
 
 of Gregory Nazianzen, that great and pious 
 
 Bishop, might justify some other resolution, 
 
 who in such evil times, being without any 
 
 pretence of crime removed out of his Bishopric, 
 
 ^resisted many importunities, took his leave of 
 
 the Emperor, retired to Arianzum, and in™ rest 
 
 1 Uo\\o\ rod Xaov avveppeov BaKpvovTes, iKeTeiiovTes, 
 avTifio\ovvT(S iXevcrai rb iroi/xviov, t> irouois re kuI IBpuai 
 ToaouTOLS e|e9pei|/6 re koI T]v^r](Te. Greg. Naz. Vit. N. 3. 
 
 m 'AvayKalou wtjOt} eV 'Apidv^ois Tjcrvxa.^dit' /tiera t^u 
 viroarpo(pr]v Koi x^^^^ o^* TrpayfJ-dTcov airrjWa'yfxeuos 
 : ypd\pai TO. efifierpa. ibid. N. 5. 
 
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 190 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 and divine poesy ended his days ; yet I shall 
 not lay hold on that advantage, but in compli- 
 ance with the interests of charity rather than 
 with any other of any meaner allay, I shall 
 deem this account most Christian, that we 
 oblige ourselves never to be wanting to them, 
 that are thus capable, in any duty of necessary 
 charity, that no fear of men, or other worldly 
 consideration, deter us from such performances, 
 that whensoever our Ministry be called for by 
 the real and pressing wants of the meanest of 
 Christ's little ones, like Craesus's dumb son, in 
 an important exigence, we stretch the string of 
 our tongues, rush through any obstacle, and 
 resolve with the Apostle in the objection, we 
 cannot but speak. 
 
 §. 20. So that still the resolution of con- 
 science must be by levelling the particular case 
 according to the rule or square that belongs to 
 it, the command of our great Master incumbent 
 on us. And though that lay not obligation to 
 preach, ratione officii, yet if it lay obligation 
 of charity to minister to the necessities of any 
 Christian's soul, in whatsoever instance, our love 
 
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 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 191 1 
 
 will prove very imperfect and maimed, if it do 
 not cast out fear, set about its work, whatso- 
 ever the dangers be. And so generally our 
 direction must be not by that which is most j 
 safe, but most charitable ; and by attending to 
 that, we shall have advanced a good step j 
 toward the solution of the difficulty. 
 
 §.21. But then thirdly a farther difference 
 there is observable betwixt the Apostle's case 
 and ours, in respect of the occasions and cir- 
 cumstances of delivering the words. For the 
 words in St. Paul, it is evident they looked 
 not on persecution, but only want of wages for 
 his preaching, and the utmost importance 
 of, or inference from his words is, that though 
 he have no kind of subsistence from liis 
 auditors, no part of their offertory" yet he 
 is under a sad Vce si non, obliged to preach to 
 them. And then if we by any outward dis- 
 couragements, the no reward for our labours, 
 the not reaping of carnal things, be thus 
 cooled in discharge of our duties, and dis- 
 pensing our spiritual things, then are we with 
 
 " Verse 13. 
 
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 192 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. ; 
 
 ! ^ I 
 
 some reason to apprehend the Vo" denounced 
 
 by St. Paul on this neglect, which that it can- 
 not by analogy be extended to this other case 
 of forcible interdict, appears by the express 
 words of Christ even while He requires per- 
 severance in His Disciples", "When they 
 persecute you in this city, flee ye to another," 
 and is exemplified by St. Paul°. 
 
 §. 22. And though still the other example 
 of St. Peter and John seem contrary, yet cer- 
 tainly that must be capable of such an inter- 
 pretation as shall be reconcileabie with these 
 two, the express words of Christ, and practice 
 of their fellow Apostle. 
 
 §. 23. For sure there is some more than 
 show of difficulty in this, how those two 
 Apostles should be, under a command of God, 
 obliged not to give over preaching in Jerusalem, 
 when they were thus interdicted and threatened 
 by the Sanhedrim, as that signifies persecuted 
 from that city, when yet the Disciples are 
 allowed by Christ, in that case of persecution 
 to remove to some other city, i. e. to obey 
 
 » Matt. X. 23. '2 Cor. xi. 32. 
 
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 A THIKD DirriCULTT SATISFIED. 193 
 
 that unchristian interdict so armed with force ; 
 and when Paul upon the like occasions pro- 
 fesseth once to have been " let down by a 
 basket," and by flight (and so preaching no 
 longer in that city) to "have escaped their 
 hands ^." And at another time to have been 
 for a time withheld, or kept from the Thessa- 
 lonians'", by the violent oppositions and in- 
 terdicts of his adversaries. And what answer 
 soever shall be thought satisfactory to this, 
 will, I doubt not, be applicable to our present 
 case. 
 
 j §. 24. For first. If the account should be, 
 that this was an heroical act of zeal in those 
 two Apostles, TrapalSoXeveadai and ptyj/oKLvdvve^v, to 
 imitate Christ so far as to adventure the 
 utmost dangers for His sake, yet not under 
 divine precept, and so not part of strict duty, 
 then that absolves us from being under such 
 duty, and leaves it only an act of Christian 
 
 I maonianimitv, when the circumstances of the 
 action render it truly such, /. e. whensoever 
 the great ends of charity may best be served 
 
 q 2 Cor. si. 33. ' 1 Thess. ii. 16—18. 
 
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 10 I A THIRD DIFnCULTY SATISFIED, 
 
 by our preaching and suffering, and thus much 
 is willingly acknowledged. 
 
 §. 25. But the truth is, this seems not to 
 come home to St. Peter's words of " hearken- 
 ing to God" and "we cannot but teach," 
 which seem to suppose some command of 
 God binding on their shoulders an indispens- 
 able necessity of doing what they did. 
 
 §. 26. Secondly then, If the answer be, that 
 the threatening them at that time was visibly 
 but an empty terror, being joined with a re- 
 leasing them out of custody^, and so but an 
 expression of their dislike, and their fear of 
 them rather than a persecuting them, and that 
 in that case the duty of propagating the 
 Gospel, and beginning that at Jerusalem, was 
 in full force incumbent on them at this time, 
 Non obstante the dispensation granted them*, 
 of flying when they were persecuted. Then 
 likewise will it be in force by analogy to us, 
 that we should not be amazed by empty 
 teiTors, but pursue the discharge of our 
 functions, as far as violence will permit us ; 
 
 » Ver. 3. and 21. » Mat. x. 23. 
 
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 A THIRD DIFFICCLTT SATISFIED. 195 
 
 nor feigning mormoes to ourselves, or making 
 the fancy or shadow of the lion in the way, 
 the motive or excuse of our real sloth, or 
 neglect of our callings. 
 
 §. 27. Or thirdly. If it be answered, that 
 that advice for flight in persecution was given 
 to the disciples^ before their receiving their 
 Apostolical charge and commission^, and so 
 that these Apostles might be now under pre- 
 cept of not yielding to this violence, though 
 the Disciples were not. Then again, though 
 that will not be made good by any grounds of 
 Scripture, nor prove reconcileable with the 
 practice of St. Paul at Damascus, who was an 
 Apostle also (having already questionless his 
 mission from Heaven to that office), yet will 
 that be of use also to our present difficulty, for 
 then all officers, howsoever entrusted by Christ, 
 are not presently under the same obligations 
 that St. Peter and those other Apostles Avere, 
 and so their example is not farther to be ex- 
 tended, than other Scriptures and examples. 
 
 " Mat. X. X 'Mat. xxviii. John xx. 
 
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 196 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 and the consideration of all circumstances give 
 reason to extend it. 
 
 §. 28. Of one of these two Apostles, St. 
 John, the Scripture tells us that he was at 
 length hanished to Patmos, an island, "for the 
 testimony of Jesus>'." It was not certainly any 
 fault, or but rj-mj^a in him, that he did not 
 resist this edict, but yield to that force which 
 executed it upon him. And yet when he was 
 there, we find not that he had opportunity for 
 any office of his Apostleship, save that of 
 praying and communicating in the tribulations 
 and patience of the kingdom of Christ, and 
 receiving and writing of visions ; and nothing 
 contrary to duty in this, the violence that 
 carried him to that island, was his very reason- 
 able account, that he laboured not now in the 
 Word and Gospel. 
 
 §. 29. The like may be said of St. Chry- 
 sostom, twice banished from his Patriarchate 
 of Constantinople, and of many others in all 
 evil times, disseised of their chairs and 
 functions, for no other cause, but as John, dia 
 
 7 Rev. i. 9. 
 
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 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 197 
 
 fxapTvpiav 'l-qaov, for the testimony of Jesus, and 
 their deprivations were one way of testifying 
 of Christ, as their preaching had (and, if they 
 might have enjoyed that liberty, still would 
 have) been another. 
 
 §. 30. Some disparity there is indeed be- 
 tween these examples and the case which is 
 now before us •,. John was actually transported 
 to that island, and we are only interdicted 
 under the penalty of the like transportation, 
 which being yielded, it yet must follow, that 
 either the whole weight of the objection must 
 be founded in this disparity, or else that it will 
 receive its full answer by this consideration. 
 
 §.31. This disparity, if it have any real 
 weight in it, it must be on one of these two 
 accounts ; either, first. That what is now 
 threatened, ought not to be feared, till it be 
 present, and that this remoter fear is not Metus 
 qui potest cadere in virum fortem, such as is 
 incident to a valiant man; or else, secondly, 
 That those performances which will now actuate 
 the threats, and bring that punishment upon 
 I us, are, or may probably be of some consider- 
 
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 198 A TUIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 able -weight, or benefit, to the glory of God, or 
 good of souls. 
 
 §.32. For the former of these; 1. That is 
 not a question of duty, but of prudence, and 
 so lays not obligation till the question of pru- 
 dence be first stated. 2. For the prudential 
 part, there are no grounds on which to establish 
 that. It is not (without the spirit of prophecy) 
 within our reach to comprehend, how likely, 
 or unlikely it is, that this punishment will be 
 really inflicted : none but God can know the 
 hearts of the interdicters or restrain their 
 power, and He hath not revealed to us, either 
 that they will not, or shall not execute their 
 laws, and so it is neither cowardice nor impru- 
 dence, not ^pusillanimity but rational foresight, 
 to expect, that they who have been so severe 
 to promulgate this interdict, may not be so 
 kind as to rescind or suspend the execution of 
 the penalties denounced by it. Or if any man 
 have reason to think otherwise, he may then 
 be obliged to act by that reason, but not to 
 
 2 OvK ayfvvls eVri rh /uer' oiKovofxia^ TTepiKTrdfJLePOV 
 rovs KivSvvovs, /xr? dfiScfe avrols x^pelv. Qrigen. cont. Gels. 
 
 O
 
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 A THIRD DIFnCLLTT SATISFIED. 199 
 
 impose it sub pericuh animce on every other 
 man, who discerns no cause for such persua- 
 sion. 
 
 §.33. For the 2nd. It is visible in the interdict 
 on one side, that the first single exercise of our 
 functions brings imprisonment ; the second a 
 second imprisonment ; and the third the depor- 
 tation parallel to that which was St. John's 
 portion : but the advantage on the other side 
 is not visible ; for 1. There is no duty of piety 
 in our prospect, no confession of Christ (which 
 was wont to ennoble the primitive sufferings) 
 our not preaching for a while is by no kind of 
 interpretation a denying of Christ. Nor 
 2. Obedience either to any command of Christ's 
 (as I suppose hath already been cleared) or yet 
 to the trusts or commands of those that have 
 . committed any part of God's flock unto us, for 
 all those trusts and commands reserve place 
 for outward accidents, for sickness, for urgent 
 avocations, &c. Xor 3. Obligation or motive 
 of charity ; It is not discernible what real 
 advantage it will bring to any of our brethren, 
 that he that hath preached a thousand Sermons 
 
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 200 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 already, should preach two Sermons more, 
 which may not be equally provided for, by 
 some other safer means. 
 
 §. 34. And then as the Apostle's repeated 
 exhortation hath its place, so that is expressed 
 to be, in such Trovrjpai rjixepai, evil days, or times, 
 viz. that we should e^ayopa^eadai Kaipov, gain 
 or buy out the season : St. Chrysostom inter- 
 prets it by the contrariety to nepiTrovs Kipdvmvs 
 v7rofjL€V€Lv KOL K€p8os ovK ^xovTas, Undergoing 
 unnecessary and gainless dangers, such as no 
 obligation exacts nor charity invites, and 
 Plutarch^ paraphrases it by oiveicrOai rod xpovov 
 TTjv dacpaXecav, buying the safety of the time, i. e. 
 avoiding the present danger, and reserving 
 ourselves for opportunities of more profitable 
 services. 
 
 §. 35. Such opportunities as these, are as 
 gifts of God, and it cannot be either wise or 
 pious or charitable, to forfeit or sell them for 
 no price. That we should set some valuation 
 upon them we have St. Cyprian's example, and 
 that commended as a special act of generosity 
 
 • Apoph. Scipion. 
 
 6
 
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 A THIRD DirnCULTT SATISFIED. 201 
 
 and self-denial^ in hira, that having in his pros- 
 pect some service which he might perform to 
 God by living, he made choice of longer life 
 by subducing himself in time of danger, rather 
 than of the Martyr's crown when it was fairly 
 offered him. 
 
 §. 36. Besides these, there is also a compe- 
 tent number of present employments for our 
 Christian and Ministerial talents still remaining 
 to us notwithstanding the present interdict : I 
 shall not need enumerate them, but only mind, 
 my brethren, that continual prayer for all men, 
 and particularly for our unkindest enemies, is 
 one seasonable part of that task : and though 
 that might be performed also in Patmos, yet 
 others there are, of which a strange land, or 
 wilderness is not capable ; and between these 
 we may profitably and comfortably divide this 
 vacancy, and busily and charitably, and to very 
 excellent purpose, exercise ourselves, till God 
 shall in mercy return our wonted tasks, call us 
 
 ^ Maluit praeceptis Dei obedire, quam vel sic coronari. 
 Pontius Diac. in Vit. C\-pr. 
 
 o
 
 o 
 
 -o 
 
 20-: 
 
 A THIRD DIFFICULTY SATISFIED. 
 
 back to the constant labour and full business 
 of His vineyard again. 
 
 §. 37. And if herein we be not scandalously 
 wanting to these opportunities, which how 
 improbably soever they look at a distance, God 
 can convert, and hath certainly in His wisdom 
 desii^ned for the j^reater advantasres of His ser- 
 vants, and to more abundant fruit to our 
 account, this will be matter of full satisfaction, 
 and more than so, even of comfort and joy to 
 conscience, and supersede all necessity of 
 farther answer to this scruple. 
 
 o
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 CHAP. YII. 
 
 THE BENEFICIAL USES OF OLR PRESENT CONDITION. 
 
 SECT. I. 
 FIRST, CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 1. Thus far I have proceeded by way of 
 retrospect, or reflection on the sad matter of our 
 present condition, and endeavoured to foresee 
 and forestal those scandals to which it is 
 principally liable, that no man may be ensnared, 
 or offended, or so much as discouraged by it. 
 
 2. It is now time, that I look forward on 
 some few of the many great uses we are to 
 make of this state, the beneficial exercises 
 which seem most peculiarly apportioned to it ; 
 
 o
 
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 204 CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. I 
 
 that SO we may according to St. Paul's direction 
 Tols efjLTTpoadev eTreKTeufcrdai, give a stretch forward 
 to the tilings which are before, and so biioKfLv, 
 make that a latter stage in our present course 
 toward the great ^pa^elov, the prize (of all, and 
 so) of our present agonies. 
 
 3. And the first step that we advance, as it 
 cannot miss to furnish us with an armature 
 against all the vastest changes that this mutable 
 world can subject us to, with an passi 
 graviora, giving us an assurance, that what next 
 shall come cannot be more strange and unex- 
 pected, less w^ithin the diviners power to foresee, 
 or indeed much more vast and horrid at the 
 nearest approach, than this which we already 
 discern that God hath chosen for us ; so it may 
 be very proper to wean us, and mortify in us 
 all fondness to that, which hath now nothing 
 left that is lovely or desirable in it. 
 
 4. We know David's Unicum petii^, the one 
 thing that he counted worth desiring of the 
 Lord, and without which all tlie rest had no 
 relish in it. And this hath God seen fit to 
 
 <■ Psalm xxvii. 4. 
 
 o O
 
 o — o 
 
 CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. 205 
 
 rend from us at tins time, that we may have 
 never an hostage left to engage our kindness to 
 the world. 
 
 5. When all that deserves to be rejoiced in 
 in this life, is most strictly warded from us 
 (such sure are the fruits of that paradise from 
 which w^e are now exiled), what Christian spirit 
 of the coarsest mould, that hath most of allay 
 in his composition, can in earnest solicit a 
 reprieve of the severest sentence, court this 
 world, or dread a final parting w ith it, when by 
 any farther summons He that hath cast him 
 into these briars and thorns, shall mercifully 
 call and invite him out of them ? 
 
 6. The Eremite or Anchoret that hath 
 passed so great a part of his journey toward 
 Heaven, as to become within a pace of his non 
 ultra (like Simeon Stylita in Theodoret, 
 immured in his pillar, and become already but 
 his own statue and monument, as it were), and 
 hath but the patience of one step more required 
 of him, to conclude his travel, to lodge him in 
 Abraham's bosom, were surely very unkind to 
 Heaven, and treacherous to his own aims and ' 
 
 o o
 
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 206 CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 interests, if he should then stop, or start, or 
 think of a retreat. 
 
 7. And the like contradiction were it to 
 our own greatest concernments, when we are 
 divested of all the vivcndi ccniscv, the comforts or 
 causes of living, the chief of which is that glad- 
 some news in the Psalmist, when they said unto 
 him, " Let us go up to the house of the Lord," 
 whereupon he could revive himself out of any 
 dumps with this one cordial, " My feet shall 
 stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem, and Jerusa- 
 lem is as a city at unity within itself," — when, 
 I say, we are cast out of this presence of the 
 Lord, this comfortable, though but ambulatory 
 tent of His, where for a time He hath allowed 
 us an access unto Him, to tremble at the 
 sight of that officer, which comes but to return 
 us to our home and joys, and to secure the 
 firmness of our future abode, that it shall be 
 ascertained to us for ever. 
 
 8. Shammatha and Maranatha we know 
 were the significative titles of the Jewish 
 exterminations, and the interpretation of them 
 the approach of destruction from the Lord ; 
 
 o o
 
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 CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. 207 ' 
 
 the Sanhedrim's casting out of the assembly, 
 was, saith Josephus, the frequent forerunner of 
 that other out of the land of the living. And 
 the like abode was thought to attend the 
 Druid's censures, when they interdicted any 
 man the liberty of sacrificing, qu(^ 'pcena apud 
 eos gravissima est, saith Caesar <i, the heaviest 
 punishment that could befal the Gauls or 
 Britons. And though this of ours be no 
 parallel, yet it may be useful thus far to mind 
 us of our duty, to prepare us so, as not 
 to be surprised, whatsoever God shall next 
 send. 
 
 6. Meanwhile one comfort this of ours is 
 capable of, above any real, though meekest 
 censures of the Church (eVtri/zt'ai and vovdeo-iai^ 
 the reproofs or admonitions Ecclesiastical) 
 that it is not Futuri judicii prcFJudicium, in^ 
 Tertullian's phrase, hath no inauspicious in- 
 fluence on our future weal, the binding us on 
 earth, though it never be rescinded here, will 
 be far from interdicting, or excluding us from 
 Heaven : there was, I hope, never more truth 
 
 d De Bell. Gall. 1. 6. « Apol. c. 39. j 
 
 o o
 
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 208 CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 in Origen's^ resolution, Qui ante non exiit nihil 
 Iceditur, unde interdum fit^ He that was not 
 gone out before, is not harmed by this interdict, 
 he that is cast out, is still within. 
 
 10. Let us by the help of God, and in 
 obedience to these, and all other His gracious 
 chastisements, retain, or timely get our clean 
 nuptial garments about us, and then though 
 we be gathered up from the lanes and hedges, 
 we shall have no reason to doubt of our call 
 to, and reception at the marriage. 
 
 f In Levit. Horn. 14. Sect. 3. 
 
 d^ 
 
 O
 
 o 
 
 -o 
 
 SECT. 11. 
 
 SECONDLY, UNIVERSAL KEFORMATION. 
 
 1. But then secondly, as in the censures of 
 the Church, those last methods of Apostolical 
 and divine charity, designed for the ransom 
 and reduction of the most enthralled captive, 
 and obstinately bent to bring him home to 
 God, though it were by the ministry of Satan 
 himself, there was no peace to be hoped, or 
 obtained from this importunity, no truce from 
 these merciful scourges, these wounds of the 
 perfectest friend, whilst there remained one 
 excess unhumbled, one lust unpurged, one 
 rage unmortified, one oxvpco/^a, be it high or 
 stronghold, pride or habit of sin, unlevelled 
 
 O
 
 O o 
 
 210 UNIVERSAL. REFORMATION. 
 
 or unsubdued ; so must we reckon of it at this 
 time, while we are under these shadows and 
 false images of it. 
 
 2. The rebukes of Heaven that are now 
 upon us, are as inexorable as His unwearied 
 love of souls can make them ; we must not in 
 kindness to ourselves beg their remove, till 
 they have finished the saving work for which 
 they are as surely sent, as Christ came into 
 the world upon the same errand ; and then 
 what an inauspicious symptom must it be, if 
 the application shall increase the paroxysms, 
 if the sins that brought these judgments to 
 chastise them, should make a shift to thrive 
 under them, if the fruitful parent should be- 
 come also the incestuous birth of its own 
 progeny. 
 
 3. The intimations which Scripture gives 
 us of such charitative severities (such cer- 
 tainly are God's now unto us, designed wholly 
 to ends of mercy) all look this way ; Bishop 
 Titus's rebukes s must be whet, till they ad- 
 vance to the aTToro'/Licos , to be sharp and cutting, 
 
 B Tit. i. 13. 
 
 o
 
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 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 211 
 
 and never lose the edge, till they have obtained 
 their design, (tva vyaivaxriv) till they have by 
 lancing fetched out the very core of the im- 
 posthume, the dregs and sediment of the 
 disease. 
 
 4. The Apostle elsewhere expresses it by 
 very comprehensive phrases, by Kadatpeiv Xoyia- 
 fiovs^, subduing and bringing to nothing the 
 very thoughts, disputes, or reasonings in the 
 breasts, nav u-v/y-co/ia, everg elation, or unevenness 
 in the heart, that doth but eTraipeo-Oai, lift itself 
 up against the knowledge of God or Christian 
 practice, nav vorjixa, every conceit or notion, and 
 in fine €K8iKrj(rat, to act revenge, to punish 
 capitally, so as it never revive again, Traaav 
 7rapaKor)v, every not hearkening or disobedience ; 
 and till this be done effectually, Timothy must 
 not be too hasty to impose hands ^ absolve, or 
 loose those censures, lest he bring upon him- 
 self the guilt of those sins which it was the 
 duty of his censures to reform in others ; the 
 iiraKo\ov6ov(TaL afiapriai, consequent sins^, those 
 that are still continued in after the hand of 
 
 h 2 Cor. X. 5, 6. M Tim. v. 22. ^ Ver. 24. 
 
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 212 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 
 
 discipline is upon a man, have a fearful aggra- 
 vation belonging to them, that of thundering 
 back against Heaven, the most unagreeable 
 return to the utmost charity, the most pro- 
 digious anomaly, or irregularity in the world. 
 5. We know the dress that belonged to the 
 excommunicated person, both in the Jewish 
 and Primitive Christian Church, the same, 
 that of the strictest profoundest mourners, and 
 all the assembly were to accompany him^ in 
 the same doleful habit ; St. Paul expresses it 
 by God's^ humbling the very Apostle that in- 
 flicts it, and his"^ coming eV Xvttt) in a mournful 
 guise unto the offender. And in this also the 
 parallel may hold, the mourning weeds in 
 many respects very well become us at this 
 time. And shall he that is a mourning for 
 himself, a celebrating as it were his own 
 obsequies, (and should in reason begin the 
 6pr)VQ)8ia, the doleful elegy to others in an 
 accent of exemplary sorrow) forget the busi- 
 ness in hand so prodigiously, as to mistake an 
 oath or execration for it, to aim that shaft 
 
 I I 2Cor. xii. 21. "' 2 Cor. ii. 3. 
 
 o — ^^o
 
 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 213 
 
 against Heaven, that should have been de- 
 signed at his own breast, bewail his excesses 
 in new riots, and as the deluge to the old 
 world, overwhelm the sinner, instead of purging 
 away the sin ? 
 
 6. Were this tolerably fit to be the return 
 but to human discipline, to him " that speaketh" 
 (though it be oracles, so xPl^^'^^C^^^ signifieth) 
 "on earth ;" yet it were almost intolerable mad- 
 ness ° thus to turn away from " Him that speak- 
 eth from Heaven," and that is our case at this 
 time. 
 
 7. It is vain to question the instruments, 
 when by its being fallen upon us, we know 
 the counsel and hand of God Trpoapia-e yevecrOaiy 
 hath preordained it shall be done, not only 
 permitting it thus to fall, but also designing it 
 charitatively to our greatest good, the mortify- 
 ing every sin that still lives among us. And 
 if we do not now qualify ourselves for our re- 
 turn to this glorious kingdom of His on earth 
 (into which there is no regular entrance for 
 "any thing that defileth", or that worketh 
 
 » Heb. xii. 25. <> Rev. xxi. 27. 
 
 o '■ o
 
 ) o 
 
 214 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 
 
 abomination or lie," I mean either for carnality 
 or hypocrisy) just as we would think ourselves 
 obliged to do for our admission into the king- 
 dom of Heaven, that vision which may not be 
 approached without all kind of purity, we are 
 still fitted for severer methods, and cannot 
 without a kind of sacrilege covet, or wish a 
 liberty of access to God's holy things, which 
 cannot be enjoyed without being defiled also, 
 and profaned by us. 
 
 8. What is here said thus generally, ought 
 to be as distinctly and particularly applied to 
 every leprous spot, or plague-sore in each un- 
 reformed sinner's heart among us, as if I had 
 delivered by retail the most perfect catalogue 
 of them. " Let us search and try our ways?," 
 and now if ever perfect our vows of returning 
 to the Lord. 
 
 9. And this must be endeavoured by all the 
 most probable remaining means, that may any 
 way be ordinable to it, sure not by men's taking 
 advantage of the times, and casting off all even 
 *' form of godliness 'I," this is the sad fruit of the 
 
 p Lam. iii. 40. q Heb. vi. 8. 
 
 C -O
 
 C ( 
 
 U>IVERSAL REFOKMATION. 215 
 
 reprobate soil, the forerunner of curse and 
 burning. But the more desolate our condition 
 is, the more solicitously to endeavour to gain 
 God to our society and assistance, to keep close 
 to Him in constant frequent returns of converse 
 on our knees, or on our faces (to that our closets 
 are much better accommodated, than our 
 churches, or more public assemblies, and our 
 exclusion from them may well mind us of that 
 posture either of Christ^, or of the Trpocr/cAatWres-, 
 or howling penitentiaries in the primitive times) 
 talking with Him, and receiving both aids and 
 directions from Him, handling Him and seeing 
 Him in His word (and those much more faithful 
 means of converting spiritual food into spiritual 
 nourishment, than the ear hath been experi- 
 mented to be) and so with more advantage 
 filling ourselves out of the ocean, without 
 repining that the drop of the bucket is taken 
 away from us. 
 
 10. It is possible we may be found to have 
 somewhat by us in store, that may prove food, 
 when the famine hath cooked it for us ; that 
 
 r Matt. xxvi. 39. 
 
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 j 216 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 
 
 prayer whicli Christ gave us (as once God by 
 Moses did manna, from Heaven) may, when it 
 is better considered, than our plenty ever yet 
 permitted it to be, prove an help to all our 
 infirmities, that one plate of pure gold be 
 beaten out into a great deal of wire, increase 
 like the widow's oil and meal, by a deliberate 
 effusion (as I have heard of a pious man, that 
 ! made it his whole private office) not by giving 
 it the number of the Romanists' Rosary, but by 
 impressing on his own heart first, and from 
 thence pouring out to God, the weight and full 
 commentary (as far as his and his brethren's 
 known wants suggested) of every petition. 
 And I doubt not but it may prove like manna 
 in that respect also, agreeable to every good 
 Christian's taste, and proper to his stomach, if 
 he come now with a vigorous appetite to make 
 use of it. 
 
 11. And if but the several articles of the 
 Creed might be used as they were meant, to 
 enforce on us the many great engagements of 
 sincere reformation, and to mind us of the 
 mercy of the second covenant, the merit, and 
 
 o o
 
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 UNIVERSAL REFORMATION. 217 
 
 example of His sufferings, and the power and 
 blessed influence of His resurrection, &c. we 
 should need no more outward aids (though 
 there be innumerable still ready at hand for 
 any that could have received benefit by those 
 which are now taken from us) but those which 
 it is very hard for us to miss, the several 
 branches of our duty, very legible in the most 
 perspicuous parcels of Scripture, the Decalogue 
 and the Sermon in the Mount, to direct us in 
 that way, wherein, by God's help, instantly 
 implored, we may be secure from stumbling. 
 
 12. However, if a trusty guide may add 
 either to the comfort or safety of this journey, 
 there are such now at leisure, that may be had 
 without hire, it is pity (if they may be 
 employed to thy benefit) they should be 
 suffered to be idle, being indeed never more 
 proper and profitable in any case, than in this 
 of overlooking thy performances of this first 
 branch of repentance, in the duties of mortifi- 
 cation. 
 
 o o
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 THIRDLY, FRriTS OF REPENTANCE. AMONG THEM, 
 FIRST, PERFECT CONTENTMENT : DISCERNIBLE 
 BY TAVO TRIALS. 
 
 1. But for the loosing of sinners, and 
 restx)ring them to the peace of the Church, the 
 bare mortification is not suflficient. The 
 rescuing from the jaws or gates of hell doth 
 not presently secure us of our right to Heaven. 
 There must be the building of houses and 
 planting of orchards (saith St. Hierome^ on 
 Jer. xxix. 5.) " taking wives, and begetting of 
 sons and daughters," cum ex Jerusalem, i. e. 
 Ecclesia ejecti fuerimus, When we are cast out 
 of Jerusalem, i. e. the Church. There must be 
 the KoiXa epya npobrjka, cjood worl's^, in the plural, 
 
 • Tom. iv. p. 292. D. ' 1 Tim. v. 25. 
 
 o
 
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 FRriTS OF REPENTANCE. 219 
 
 (dyaBoepylai the penitential Canons usually 
 style them, the living in more than one single 
 trade of goodnesses) and those manifest or 
 discernible, (there being in that case no rule 
 given for the concealing, but rather publishing 
 them,) before it can be seasonable with God or 
 profitable for us to have His discipline 
 removed. 
 
 2. Some of these that have most peculiarity 
 of agreeableness to our present condition, may 
 not unfitly be specified. 
 
 3. First, that of a perfect contentment and 
 unfeigned submission to the good- will and 
 choices of God, with what sharpness soever 
 they come mixed to us : In the words of Micah, 
 which St. Hierome recommends to him par- 
 ticularly on whom the censures of the Church 
 are fallen", " I will bear the indignation of the 
 Lord, because I have sinned against Him^," (it 
 is sure we have sins enough to own this, or 
 
 " Si de congregatione fratnim et domo Dei ejicimur — in Ezec. 
 cap. 17. torn. iii. p. 844. Par. 1704. 
 « Micah vii. 9. 
 
 o
 
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 220 FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 
 
 whatever worse thing shall happen to us) 
 *' until He plead my cause and execute judg- 
 ment for me." 
 
 4. To this plenitude of cheerful contentment, 
 beside many others, one eminent motive 
 suggests itself, by considering, that when we 
 were so richly furnished with variety of 
 infamous matter, any least of which might fitly 
 have owned, as having most justly provoked 
 the fiercest of God's revenges, and, if He had 
 so pleased, made us doubly miserable, once 
 under the smart of His rod, and a second turn 
 under the reproach of the scandalous sin, which 
 it signally was directed to point out and visit ; 
 God hath given to us (exapia-aTo) out of His 
 special undeserved favour vouchsafed to us to 
 suffer for well doing, at least not for evil doing, 
 (and that >such shall not lose its reward, the 
 examples of Job and Lazarus will secure us,) 
 and so to bear in our bodies no other (o-rty/xara) 
 
 y Khu fiT) 5m rhu deSv tis irddr) . . . irdOr} Se (ifiws, Ka\ 
 yeuvaiws iveyKj] kuI irpdus, rhv Oeuv inl naai So^d^uv- 
 Chrys. Ep. Tom. iii. p. 560. &c. Kai d Ad^apos — ibid, infra, 
 ed. Ben. 
 
 6 — o
 
 O o 
 
 FRUITS OF EEPEXTANCE. 221 
 
 brands, or marks, but only those of the Lord 
 Jesus. This, I say, if applied, and brought 
 home by every man to his own individual, and 
 the foulest sins he hath at any time been guilty 
 of, and might have been surprised in, will 
 found more than a contented acquiescence in 
 God's present choices for us, even oblige us 
 severally (as St. Peter thought most just upon 
 this consideration) to '' sanctify the Lord God 
 in our hearts," to magnify the mercy, not repine 
 at the severity, of His methods toward us. 
 
 5. And for the judging of this, whether it be 
 sincerely what it ought, it must be observed, 
 First, Whether we have any very unkind 
 reflections on those that are the instruments of 
 it. Abishai that would have had David's dis- 
 pleasure break out against him that cast stones 
 at him and all his servants^, did not look 
 through David's optic ; if he had, he would 
 have discerned what David did, that possibly 
 " the Lord had said unto him. Curse David, 
 and who shall then say, Wherefore hath he 
 done so ?" It is as sure as any thing can be 
 
 » 2 Sam. xvi. 9. 
 
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 222 FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 
 
 in the world, that God meant no real curses or 
 mischiefs to David at this time, yet hecause 
 David had sins enough, for which this, and 
 much more might justly be permitted by God 
 to fall upon him, and by his not withholding 
 Shimei, it was evident God had thus chosen to 
 permit it, the holy man is forward to take it as 
 coming directly from God, and quarrels nothing 
 but the impatience of Abishai, " What have I 
 to do with you ye sons of Zeruiah, so let him 
 curse, because the Lord*%" &c. 
 
 6. The pious man under God's discipline 
 hath impatience to none, but those that would 
 have him impatient, as our Saviour, that ex- 
 presseth not the least displeasure to the in- 
 struments of His death, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, 
 to the soldiers, to Judas, to the devil himself, 
 doth yet rebuke Peter's kindness that would 
 have averted His suffering it : he is the only 
 Satan that would rob Him of His cheerful and 
 joyful submission to the Father's will, for the 
 accomplishing of which Satan himself is but a 
 kind of disciple : Judas and he do Him a very 
 
 • Ver. 10. 
 
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 FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 223 
 
 acceptable service ; the former is styled friend, 
 and called upon only to make haste, in thus 
 ministering unto Him^. 
 
 7. Secondly, the sincerity of the content- 
 ment may be judged by the quiet and stillness 
 and constancy in that posture, into which God 
 hath cast us. An uncontented mind is always 
 removing and tossing upon the bed, from one 
 side to the other, as in a continual posture of 
 the greatest uneasiness : and so is he, that 
 hath any inward regrets to the condition, that 
 God hath placed him in, whereas the pious 
 man can be content to wait God's *^ leisure, 
 and with steadiness of fixed eyes to look for 
 Him, till He shall please to discover His face. 
 
 8. Such indeed are wont to be times of 
 temptation, wherein as false prophets are wont 
 to arise '^j so they have many advantages, by 
 
 •' John xiii. 27. 
 
 c El j8ouA7j0€i7jT6 (TT-fjuaL yevvaiccs, K&f 0A.1701 rhv 
 apiQfiov ^Te, irepLeaeadeTuiv irXeiovwv tusv eVt KaKia /ca\A«- 
 TTL^Ofxevwu. Chrvs. Ep. pur}, Lucio. Episc. torn. vii. p. 173. ed. 
 Sav. [torn. iii. p. 638. C ed. Ben.] 
 
 ^ Matt. xxiv. 11. 
 
 O O
 
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 224 FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 
 
 the assistance whereof to deceive many, and 
 the greatest and most prevalent of those is the 
 reproach of our solitude. He that is cast out 
 will be ready to hearken to any that tenders 
 him an hospitable reception, and those that 
 have least of reason to produce for his entering 
 into their society, will be most forward to 
 make use of such an advantage, which may 
 supply the place of argument. 
 
 9. And thus an error that hath but the luck 
 to be gotten in fashion, may by the pomp or 
 <f)avTaaia of many followers, probably enough 
 get his company, that finds himself left alone, 
 and is not very well pleased with the state, 
 and satisfied of the reasons of his solitude. 
 
 10. This therefore is the second trial of our 
 contentment, if being cast out by men, we can 
 satisfy ourselves with God's company; (and the 
 man that was born blind will yield us a good 
 omen in this matter ; when the Jews had cast 
 him out*^, presently Jesus heard it and found 
 him;) ifbeinginthe wilderness we be not one of 
 
 o— o
 
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 FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 225 
 
 those reeds there, which our Saviour tells us 
 are ''shaken with the wind." 
 
 1 1 . This were the w^ay to cast ourselves out 
 indeed, and so to have that character of real 
 heretics or schismatics, in St. Paul, so far as 
 to be avTOKaraKpiToi, condemned hy our own 
 sentence, which is much worse than to be more 
 severely handled by other men ; and nothing 
 but the grace of God and a contemplation of 
 His wisdom, and an acquiescence in His 
 choices (which sees persecution fitter for some 
 servants of His than the greatest calm or 
 grandeur of the most prosperous profession) can 
 secure us (if temptations choose their seasons) 
 from being thus shaken. 
 
 c o
 
 o o 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 SECONDLY, PEACE WITH AI^L MEN. 
 
 1. Our second vital employment, very fitly 
 apportioned to our solitude, is our ardent de- 
 sires of, and prayers for, the peace of Jerusa- 
 lem : we know what was required of the 
 captive Israelites, when they were carried into 
 a strange land, to^ " seek the peace of that 
 city, whither they were carried away captive, 
 and to pray to the Lord for it." And we now 
 know, I hope, assuredly, whither it is that we 
 are banished, even just thither where we were 
 before, into the bosom of the holy Catholic 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 2. And therefore as those, that serve God 
 in an hermitage, have not thereby their 
 
 ' Jer. xxix. 7. 
 
 o
 
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 PEACE WITH AEi MEN. 227 
 
 thoughts confined to that narrow compass 
 wherein they corporally move, but intercede 
 hourly for the most common concernments of 
 all others ; so must our oratories be now de- 
 signed, like Daniel's chamber in Babylon, 
 with ouro " windows wide open toward Jeru- 
 salem," our devotions and bended knees (his 
 three times a day at least) engaged in that one 
 great interest of all Christians, the glory, /. e. 
 the peace and true piety of that new Jerusa- 
 lem, which is come down from Heaven ; that 
 like that which remains there, it may be at 
 unity within itself. 
 
 3. There cannot be a more^ amazing dismal 
 prospect in the world, than that vast rupture 
 and chasm betwixt the East and West (the 
 effect of that wind, those tormina, of pride and 
 ambition, and airy speculation, gotten long 
 
 s Dan. vi. 10. 
 
 ^ 'ETre'xei /xoC rhu \6yov t] /xv-fjiuLr] — viroTpsxovcra t^v 
 
 XO-P^'iaf, Koi TrpOTTLTTTOU rh doLKpVOV 7r}V (pWU1]V ilTLKSineL, 
 
 orav ipOv/jL-qOa} on ajdiTrjs Kcu hpr,VT]S tjimv Trapa Kvpiov 
 KaTaA€i(p6eiar]S ov '^i]rovjx^v rh KaraAei^fleV. Basil, Horn. 
 
 xxix. torn. i. p. 620. 
 I 
 
 o c
 
 o 
 
 228 PEACE WITH AEL MEN. 
 
 since into the bowels of the great body, and 
 causing this Ecclesiastical a-eia-nos, this earth- 
 quake first, and thence this hiatus or aperture, 
 which could never have the skill to close 
 again) and then the many subdivisions, lesser 
 rents and fractures, which are multiplied infi- 
 nitely in this one Western part of it, a new 
 carnijicina or act of cruelty to the mystical 
 Body of Christ ; first, cut asunder in the 
 midst, and then so much life secured to each 
 moiety, as to make it capable of the rack and 
 torture in every limb of it, and of continuing 
 for ever howlini;? and laiii>hing at once under 
 those torments, till at length it cannot without 
 fits of the most phrenetic rage be besought to 
 come out of this condition. 
 
 4. It is a strange romance, and to any that 
 partakes but of ingenuous nature, an incredible 
 fable, that the one heir of the Othoman family, 
 having possession of so great a part of the 
 world, far greater than any other potentate, 
 should therein reign a sullen, solitary tyrant, 
 consecrated first in the blood of all his brethren, 
 I and then thriving and prospering into a vast 
 
 o o
 
 o ^ o 
 
 PEACE WITH ALL MEN. 229 i 
 
 bulk by keeping himself to this one cannibal ! 
 diet (full hausts of the blood of men), receiving 
 this tribute from his own, as well as others' 
 subjects, all his vassals living to no other 
 design, but of killing and dying at his direc- 
 tion ; and to secure them of the continuance of 
 this trade, the Christians not deemed sufficient, 
 his fellow Mahomedans (if they do but differ 
 from him in the question of " Who is the right 
 successor of their great Prophet — " and affirm 
 Hali to be the man) become as unsufferable ene- 
 mies, as lawful prize, as necessary to be invaded 
 and overrun with his hosts of locusts, as any. 
 And all this while no news of the one design, 
 and business of power and dominion, distribu- 
 tion of justice to others, or examples of it in 
 himself: as if all the rest of the world, but 
 he that hath the luck to strangle his brethren, 
 were born to no other purposes, but those of 
 the gladiators in the Roman theatre, only to 
 fight and die with their heart-blood, yea and 
 their souls also, to minister to his ambitions, 
 or rages, or frantic devotions, paid to his 
 I sanguinary Prophet ; to pass through the fire 
 
 6 o
 
 o o 
 
 230 PEACE Wnil ALL MEN. 
 
 to this Moloch, to run like mad dogs through 
 the world, sowing death wheresoever they 
 come, till at last they fall themselves. 
 
 5. And for all this there is certainly no 
 other account to be given, but that the dragon, 
 the old serpent, the Devil and Satan, being, ac- 
 cording to prediction, let loose for a time, this 
 their epileptic prophet was pitched on for his 
 general, entertained, and inspired by him, to 
 prescribe this course for the prosperous 
 managing of those battles, which are men- 
 tioned, Rev. XX. 8. And accordingly it hath 
 succeeded. 
 
 6. But that in the polity of Christ, that 
 real Theocracy, wherein God personally and 
 visibly descended to settle (and to preside in) 
 it Himself, the fundamentals whereof were laid 
 in a grand pacification betwixt earth and 
 Heaven, the statute-laws first and last (the 
 Old and the New Commandment) the very 
 same, for our loving one another, and the 
 whole body or codex most exactly conform- 
 able ; first peace, then mercy, then patience, ; 
 and long-suffering, then bowels of compassion, 
 
 ) o
 
 -O 
 
 I 
 
 PEACE WITH ALL MEN. 231 
 
 loving and laying down the life, a tribute of 
 that love, extending to affections, to actions, 
 toward brethren, toward strangers, towards 
 enemies — both our own and God's enemies — 
 toward heathens, toward all mankind, never 
 projecting other contentions or victories, but 
 that one of abounding in goodness, and over- 
 coming evil with good : that, I say, in a 
 government thus established upon such prin- 
 ciples and by such rules as these, there 
 should yet be so much of the contrary temper, 
 nothing but wars and fightings among Chris- 
 tians, eternal feuds among children of peace, 
 that the whole host of Angels of light should 
 transform themselves into legions of darkness ; 
 that the Mahomedan, that is otherwise impreg- 
 nable, should be only thus conquered by the 
 Christian, that this hath more wars a managing 
 than he, and those wars more cruel, reaching 
 to the soul, anathematizing of brethren, casting 
 out the Greek Church, the whole East, for 
 heretics, upon no other quarrel but the Filio- 
 que ; and a great part of the West (without 
 pretence of any word in the old Creeds) for not 
 
 , o
 
 ) o 
 
 232 PEACE WITH ALL MEN. 
 
 accepting the Trent Articles, or differing with 
 them about their one monarchic successor of 
 our great Prophet : that ail religion should be 
 placed in the belief of those doctrines, which 
 if they were" true, are no least part of the 
 Christian faith : that all those things, whereon 
 certainly our eternal state depends, Judgment, 
 and Mercy, and Faith, should, by consent of 
 parties, be left out of the scheme ; little or 
 none of our zeal laid out on them, or for tliem, 
 but all misspent on that, which is not bread, 
 that brings no vital nourishment to any. 
 Lastly, That those that rebuke tyranny, and 
 bitterness in others, under no meaner a charge 
 than that of Antichristianism, should out-go 
 all these patterns themselves, proclaim liberty 
 to the captive, to get the cross off from their 
 own shoulders ; and wlien they have done so, 
 enslave, and bind it fast on the shoulders of 
 all others, and (after all these contradictions 
 both to religion, and reason, and but ingenuous 
 nature, to the goodness and joyfulness of 
 brethren's living together in unity) men that 
 are guilty of all these, proclaim God the in- 
 
 o ■ o
 
 o o 
 
 PEACE WITH ALL MEN. 233 
 
 spirer or favourer of all, transform the Prince 
 of Peace into the inciter, or friend of confusion. 
 These are a whole chaos of prodigies, a land- 
 skip of wild appearances, above all that the 
 African merchants, or Scriptores Mirahilium 
 have ever furnished us with, and yet make 
 up but a part of those monsters and fish- 
 heads, which adorn our maps of Europe at this 
 day. 
 
 7. And then what armies of votaries can be 
 sufficient to keep off that wrath of God, that 
 threatens no less than all Christendom, for 
 that one unchristian piece of her temper ; what 
 floods and rivers of tears, to slake the rage of 
 this one sin, which is more probable, than all 
 the powers of darkness beside, to bring it low 
 to the rrukai adov, which yet we have assurance 
 shall never wholly prevail against it. 
 
 8. How can we at such a vacancy as this, 
 be more profitably employed, than in learning 
 and practising our postures in this sacred 
 militia, in wrestling and combating with 
 Heaven for this one blessing, this comprehen- 
 sive donative, this grace beyond all other 
 
 o (
 
 o o 
 
 234 PEACE WITH ALL MEN. 
 
 graces^ ("the greatest of these is charity"), 
 this duty above all other duties (" above all 
 things have fervent charity among yourselves^"), 
 this utmost pitch of celestial joy, this divinity 
 itself (God is love, and he that dwelleth in 
 love dwelleth in God, and God in him), the 
 blessing of Catholic unity, universal peace ; 
 and with Jacob never give over the combat, 
 till we have prevailed with God for this 
 blessing. 
 
 A Form of Prayer to this purpose the reader 
 will find at the end of the Treatise of Funda- 
 mentals. 
 
 9. And that it may not be avevepy-qros (vx^i 
 in Hierocles, or Muliehre suppUcium, in 
 Fortius Cato'", an unactive prayer, or 
 womanish supplication, that our hearts and 
 hands, our utmost endeavours may herein be 
 semblable to our tongues and prayers, it is 
 very much our duty first to cleanse our own 
 hearts from every degree of this pollution, not 
 
 k 1 Cor. xiii. 13. ' 1 Pet. iv. 8. 
 
 ■n Salust. 
 
 o o
 
 PEACE WITH AiL MEN. 235 
 
 to leave alive in us one animosity either to any 
 person, or society, or portion of Christians in 
 the world, to resolve with the Fathers in their 
 dealing with the Donatists, that those shall be 
 our brethren, which will not admit us to be 
 their brethren, and according to this begin- 
 ning, to set out industriously, and indefati- 
 gably, in the ways of peace, every man to 
 contribute his symholum toward so good a 
 work, and every man, as God shall enable 
 him, to do it freely and cheerfully (for in 
 nothing more than in this doth God love the 
 cheerful giver). 
 
 10. And would we but take the Apostles' 
 counsel herein, " {^iXon/xetcr^at ricrvxaCeiv, be as 
 emulous and ambitious, and as zealously 
 solicitous in our contention for quiet {i. e. never 
 contend with any but the implacable and un- 
 reconcileable) as the most passionate broiler or 
 boutefeu is wont to be for his /x^Xoy epi8os, his 
 beloved strife and contention, that brings him in 
 no other reward but blows and woe, a Tophet 
 here, and a hell hereafter, I should not doubt 
 
 n 1 Thess. iv. 11. I 
 
 O O
 
 o 
 
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 236 PEACE -WITH ALL MEN. 
 
 but some valuable contribution migbt be made 
 to tbis sacred treasury at tbis time by tbe poor 
 widow Churcb of England, witb ber few mites : 
 wbicb if tbey cannot bope for thanks from men, 
 have yet a full assurance of being not despised 
 nor unrewarded by Him, Who still '* sits looking 
 what is cast into tbe treasury." 
 
 o
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 SECT. Y. 
 
 THIEDLY, FREQUENCY OF STXAXES. 
 
 1. It is not my purpose to enumerate all 
 the several parts of duty, which this season 
 exacts from us. Yet one must not be omitted, 
 which in such times the Apostle very diligently 
 
 warns us of, that of the fj.rj eyKaraXeiTreiv rrjv 
 €7na~vvay(oyr)v rjfxcov, not giving over the assembling 
 ourselves together'^, as oft as we can gain 
 opportunities for them, holding up the SjTiaxes, 
 how thin soever they are fain to be. 
 
 2. And this in reason now more zealously 
 and P frequently than ever, for that I conceive 
 
 » Heb. X. 25. 
 
 P STTOi'SdfeTe ovu irvKVorepov crvuipx^crBai els evxapiff- 
 riav 6eov, Kal So|ai/, '6t' tiv yap (rvuex^ios iirl rh aihh 
 yevT](76e, KadaipovvTai al Swd/xeLS rov 'Xarava, Koi Xverai 
 
 o 
 
 o
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 238 FREQUENCY OF STNAXES. 
 
 some part of the design and importance of the 
 Apostle's addition there, dXXa napaKoXovuTes, but 
 " calling upon one another," minding of the 
 necessity and benefit of this duty. And 
 though the ensuing [xat roo-ovrto /zaXXoj/, by so 
 much the more~\ be there expressly founded on 
 the approach of their expected deliverance, yet 
 among the primitive Christians the continual 
 expectations of their dangers appears to have 
 
 6 oKeOpos aifTov iv rfj Sfxovola vfivv t^s vlareas. Ignat. 
 Ep. ad Ephes. 813. 'AcpoprjTa t^v 'Aalav KajiKa^e kuko., 
 Koi eTipas Se it6\€is koI iKKXriaias' airep a.<pie\s rh KaO' 
 '^KacTTOP Xeyav, eKeluo p.6vou fpa>, '6ti evxS>v irdWuu xp^'^ott 
 Koi deria-ewy eKTevu Chrysost. Ep. PM^- Coastantio Presb. 
 torn. vii. p. 171. ed. Sav. [Ep. 85. torn. iii. p. 721. D. ed Ben.] 
 Eux^'' fJi-ivou TO. iTap6vTa Setrat irpdy/xaTa, Kol evx^v 
 lxdXi(TTa tSov viierepcau, tuv woW^v rrphs rhv Qehv irap^T]- 
 aiav KeKTr^fxeuuv M)) SiaAiTTTjre tovtq e/crei/ws iroiovvres. 
 Id. Ep. Moysae, torn. vii. p. 180. [Ep. 92. torn. iii. p. 641. D.] Sic 
 etEp. Paenio, torn. vii. p. 185. [Ep. 220. torn. iii. p. 721. D.] Aav- 
 Odvovres koI KpvmSiiivoi irXiiova (TKoK^v ^X^'''^ ^^^ irpocr- 
 Kaprepelv Ta7s evxous — /aii StaAiirTjre ovv tovto iroiovPTes, 
 p. 186. lib. 3. There is nothing fitter for suffering Churchmen's 
 turns, than those Epistles of St. Chrysostom to Olympias and 
 others, to be meditated on, for the fortifying of themselves* 
 and for their direction and consolation. 
 
 o- 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 FREQLENCr OF SYNAXP:S. 239 
 
 had the same effect, putting them upon their 
 constant ^ daily Synaxes, as not knowing how 
 long they should live to enjoy them. 
 
 3. The quality of the sin, and the judgment 
 that is there threatened to those that voluntarily 
 neglect such opportunities, is very considerable. 
 It is there. First, set opposite to " holding fast 
 the profession of our hope'^" and so is itself a 
 degree of renouncing the Christian's anchor, a 
 wavering (as is implied in the aicXti/^^,) and "a 
 drawing back*," and that noted to be very 
 dangerous and destructive. And accordingly 
 we see in Pliny ^, that they, who quitted the 
 hetcerice upon the Emperor's prohibitions, were 
 by the Heathen inquisitors thought capable of 
 
 P In periculo — Grex omnis in luium congregetur — ut quoa 
 excitamus ad praelium, non inermes et nudos relinquamus, sed 
 protectione sanguinis et corporis Christi muniamus — Cj-pr. Ep. 
 54. Quotidie calicem sanguinis Christi bibere, ut possint et ipsi 
 propter Christum sanguinem fundere. Id. Ep. 56. 
 
 ' Verse 23. > Verse 23. t Verse 39. 
 
 n AfRmiabant hauc fuisse summam culpse suae, quod essent 
 soliti stato die ante luceni convenire — quod ipsum facere desissent 
 post edictum meum, quo secundum mandata tua hetaerias esse 
 vetueram . . . Dilata cognitioue ad consulendum te decurri. 
 Plin. lib. X. Ep. 97. 
 
 o O
 
 o — o 
 
 210 FRIXIL'ENCY OF SYNAXKS. 
 
 mercy, as well as they that denied Christ 
 
 Secondly, It is there included in the number 
 of the cKova-ia, the voluntary or ivilful sins, in 
 them (I must suppose he meant) who having 
 the opportunities, whether more or less public, 
 wholly withdrew from them. Thirdly, It goes 
 for an xmevavTLuxns'^, a branch of secret contra- 
 riety to God and piety, a preferring the world 
 before either. Fourthly, It is of the nature of 
 those sins for which there remains no sacrifice, 
 and hath its part in those other aggravations, 
 and fearful expectations that there follow in 
 that text. 
 
 4. The obligation that the primitive Chris- 
 tians conceived themselves under, in tiiis 
 respect, is visible by the frequent mention of 
 those hetcerice, and antelucani conventus, and 
 cryptce arenaric^, meetings in upper rooms, in 
 suburbs, in prisons — in times of the Heathen 
 persecutors. And so also when heresy or 
 schism, prevailed and drave the Orthodox 
 obedient maintainers of Catholic truth and 
 peace, out of the Churches. For though in 
 
 « Verse 27. 
 
 o o
 
 O ■ o 
 
 FREQL'EXCY OF SYNAXES. 241 | 
 
 these cases they abstained from the public 
 assemblies, and indeed thought it strict duty 
 to do so : (The epistle of St. Basil >' and others 
 to the Bishops in Italy, and France, and 
 St. Hilary's dissuasives in the former, that of 
 prosperous Heresy, and the practice of ^holy 
 men in the case of St. Chrj'sostom's deposition, 
 doth, for the latter, make that clear) yet the 
 assembling of the Orthodox, and the more 
 ^private offices were not to be neglected. And 
 
 7 ^evyovai rovs (vKrripiovs oXkovs ol vyialvoures ruv 
 KaCiv ws aa€$eias SiSaaKaAela, 8:c. Tom. iii. Ep. 92. p. 185. 
 ed. Ben. See also Baronius, An. Ch. 370. n. 20. from some 
 additions to S Basil, Ep. 11. Male vos pariettim amor cepit 
 male Ecclesiam Dei in tectis aedificiisque veneramini, mal6 sub 
 his pacis nomen ingeritis — Hilar, contr. Arian. et Auxent. in fine, 
 Edit. Ben. 1269. 
 
 * Vide Georg. Alexandrin. vit. Chrj-sost. Eton. Edit. torn. viii. 
 p. 239. 1. 15. &c. and p. 241. 1. 13. &c. Et Chrj-sost. Epist we. 
 torn. vii. p. 139. 1. 1. &c. Et Ep. PM-J- p. 170. 1. 44. Et Ep. pooT. 
 p. 185. 1. 8. 
 
 « Montes mihi, et sylvae, et lacus, et carceres, et voragines 
 sunt tutiores. In his enim prophetae aut manentes aut demersi. 
 Dei spiritu prophetabant. Hilar. Ibid. p. 1269. 'Ev avro7s 
 ToTs SecryuojTTjptois oIkovvt€S, t^s e7X€»p«(r0€J(r77S ainols 
 OLKOvofiias ovK a<piaravTO' aAA' 6 /xaKapios HavKos Koi 
 Secr^wTTjpiov oIkuu — ifxvaTaydiyei iv tw dea-fxarripi^, 
 
 o : o
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 242 FREQUENCY OF SYNAXES. 
 
 ^St. Cyprian, that advises the prudent and 
 cautious managery of such, doth it expressly 
 on this design, that they might be more sure 
 not to be kept from them. 
 
 5. Ecclesiastical History is full of this kind 
 of matter ; take one for all set down by 
 ^Eusebius from the epistles of Dionysius con- 
 cerning the persecution in Valerian's time, and 
 •^^milianus's Edict, and the ^Christians' con- 
 stant practice. 
 
 &c. Chrysost. Ep. pjUtrT. Constantio, torn. vii. p. 172. [Ep. 225. 
 torn. iii. p. 724. C] Kara Se ras iprifxias Trphs rhv eV to7s 
 ovpavols SeairdTTjv fxeTo. crTevayfxwv /coi SaKpvuv ras x^^P'"'^ 
 aXpovaiv. Basil. Ep. 92. Ibid. 
 
 •• Caute hoc, et non glomeratim, nee per multitudinem simul 
 junctam putoesse faciendum, ne exhocipsoinvidiaconcitetur, et 
 introeundi aditus denegetur, et dum insatiabiles totum volumus, 
 totuni perdamus. Consulite ergo et providete, ut cum tempera- 
 mento hoc agi tutius possit. Ep. 4. 
 
 • Eccl. Hist 1. 7. K4(p. La'. 
 
 d OvSa/JLCfS €^iarai oUre vfxiv oijTe &\\ois riffh' fj crvv6- 
 Sovs iroLcladai, 'fj els to KaXoi'fxiva Kot/nrfriipia elaievai, ffSe 
 tIs . . . eV ffvya-yooyfj tivi ivpeB^lr), kavrcp rhv nivZwov 
 evapTfjfffi. Ibid. Keep. la. 
 
 ' 'AAA.' oi»5e iris aladrjrrjs rj/mels /xeTo. rov Kvpiov avva- 
 ywyrjs airdoTTJuev, aAAo tovs filv if ttj it6\€i OTrovSan'i- 
 
 o
 
 o o 
 
 TREQUENCr OF SYNAXES. 243 
 
 6. The sum of it is, That the assemblies ; 
 were never intermitted, but observed (nrov8ai6- \ 
 Tcpov, the more diligently and industriously , and 
 God gave His blessing to it, a greater liberty 
 than they had reason to look for, as nXarvrepov 
 iKKkr)(TLd(eiv dvvaadai, and many ^advantageous 
 opportunities to glorify God under their 
 restraint, many aliens brought home to Heaven 
 by these means. 
 
 7. The same good will of Him that dwelleth 
 in the burning but not consuming Bush, Whose 
 power doth so presentiate itself to them that 
 are in afflictions, that it is said ^inLaKqvovv, to 
 pitch the tent, to dwell, as ^ Christ did by His 
 incarnation, upon or among such, as are thus 
 tempted, inspire and inflame with the same pure 
 zeal, and crown with the like successes, all 
 that are now so nearly concerned to transcribe 
 
 T€pov (TweKpSrovv, u)y crvvuiv . , . iu 8e rrj KecppoT, Kal 
 TToW^ (Tvv€dr}/j.r)Tev tj/jliu iKKArjcrla. Ibid. 
 
 ' &upb,v Tj/MU 6 6ehs aueco^s tov xSyov Koi — rfves oi/K 
 6\iyoi — iireaTps\l/ay 4ttI tov de6u. Ibid. 
 
 s 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
 h 'EcTKTjvuaeu. John i. 11. 
 
 o o
 
 o o 
 
 I 244 FREQUENCY OF SYNAXES. 
 
 their copy, to receive benefit by this Exhor- 
 tatory. 
 
 " Now the God of all grace Who hath called 
 us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after 
 that ye have suffered a while, ^Himself restore 
 you, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 
 
 * A.i>Ths Karaprlaai. 
 
 Zeph. iii. 18. 
 
 E iriin gati)cr tf)cm tl)at arc sorrotoful for tf)e solemn 
 asscmlihj, tof)o arc of t^ec, to tof)om x\)c rcproacl; of it 
 teas a burtlcn. 
 
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