To thefe Pallages I think fit to add what his Lordship hath faid of the Prince's Power to depofe the Clergy, because our Author hath as it were +marshalled up the depriving Acts in Battel-array against them, and frequently reproached them with Sufpenfion, Deprivation, and Incapacity from the

Civil Power.

The Third Thefis is, That the Prince cannot depofe any of his Clergy, without the confent of the major part of the Clergy, or their Ecclefiaftical Superiors, and in particular of the Patriarch.

In this the matter muft ftill be reduced to the former Point; either the Grounds of fuch a De'pofition are in themselves juft, or not; if they are juft, the Prince may as lawfully hinder any. Church-man from corrupting his Subjects, while he is fupported by a Publick Authority, or a fettled Revenue, as he may hinder a Man that hath the Plague on him, from going about to infect his People; for his depofing fuch a one is only the taking the Civil Encouragement from him;. but when this is done unjustly, it is without doubt an Act of high Oppreffion in the Prince and as for the Perfon depofed, and thofe over whom he was fet, they are to confider according to the Rules of Prudence, whether the prefent • Cafe is of fuch importance, that it will ballance. the Inconveniences of their throwing themfelves into a state of Perfecution; for it is to be confeffed that Church-men have by their Office an inde<finite Authority of feeding the Flock, which cannot be diffolved by any Act of the Prince's; but the appropriating this to fuch a Precinct, and the fupporting it by Civil Encouragements, is a humane thing, and is therefore fubject to the Sove'raign Power.

+ Pref. p. xxx, xxxi.

C

Of which last four Lines I fhall fay no more here, than that I think they feem to call for his Lordship's fecond Thoughts, and farther Explication.

The next Citation, in which I tax him of want of Ingenuity, and Fraud, is that in which he puts *Bp. Bull with Petavius, Curcellans, Cudworth, and Le Clerc, to prove that the Doctrine of the Nicene Fathers was not that there is only one Divine Effence. in Number, but in Kind. He might with as much Modefty, Truth, and Ingenuity, have named this great Defender of the Nicene Faith, and Fathers with Socinus, Epifcopius, and Sandius, against whom he hath written, as well as againft Petavius by Name, as may be feen in the Procemium of his Defenfio fidei Nicena, as well as in his Judicium Ecclefia Catholica, which he wrote on purpose against Episcopius, of whom he gives this Character in the Proc mium to his Defenfio &c. Simon Epifcopius cætera doctiffimus, fed in Antiquitate Ecclefiaftica planè hofpes. To which I must add what he faith of Epifcopius's Cenfure of the Council of Nice, and the other Councils which 'maintained the Nicene Confeffion, that they were led on by Fury, Fation, and Madness: Quis vero, inquam ego, &c. c. But who, fay I, doth not perceive, that these things must proceed from a Mind which is not fo found, or fo compofed, as it ought to be? For how could it become a fober and a modest Man thus to tear and rend with Slanders the Venerable Prelats of the moft Auguft Synod? But now to the matter. He is not afham'd to fay, that the Nicene Creed was made in heat, by the Fury and the Factioufnefs of a Party, without Sense, or any Confideration. But the Emperor Conftantine, who prefided in the faid Synod of Nice, exprelly teftifieth in an † Epiftle to the Churches concerning the fame Council, that he being him

* P. 196, 197. +Ap. Eufeb. de vita Conftant. L.III. c. 17.

felf

felf prefent in it, Al matters were therein discused • with al due Examination. The fame Emperor ia aa Epistle to the Church of Alexandria in par ticular, which is found in the Eccleliaftical History of Socrates, fays, that he himself, among the Nicene Bishops, and as it were one of their • Number, and their Fellow-Servant, did, being prefent, fo undertake the Examination of the Truth, as that all things, which might bear a fhew of, or adminifter occation for a doubtful or • ambiguous Senfe, or Difference of Sentiments, might be accurately difcuffed. To which Epiltle of Conftantine Socrates adds this Remark: O • Barind's, &c. Now the Emperor wrote after this • manner to the People of Alexandria, hereby teaching • them, that the Councils Definition concerning the Faith • was not flightly and rafhly,but maturely and deliberately, after a diligent Inquiry and full Examination, determin'd: And that there was not notice taken of fome • Arguments, and others paffed by, or filently fuppreffed, • but that all whatever could be brought for the Proof or Difproof of the Doctrine to be eftablished, was fairly • produced and canvaffed openly. Neither was any thing by them fimply, or inconfiderately defin'd; but all was in the first place accurately fifted and examin'd into. Nay even† Eufebius himself, who feems to have had the next place in the Nicene Affembly to the Emperor (a Writer of very great Integrity, of a temperate and moderate Genius, and no wife partial against the Arians) exprefly relates, how that All the Bishops did fubfcribe to the Faith agreed on in that Council, 8x dvdows, not rafhly and without confideration, but after an accurate, deliberate, and diligent Examination of all . the feveral Sentiments made in the Prefence of the

* Lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 30. Ed. Vales Valefim ad Eufeb. Lib. IIL. de vit. Cooft, c. 11.

+ See the Note.

Empero

Emperor: And particularly to the very Claufe it felf of the Confubftantiality, or the Opostos, with their unanimous Confent. See the Epistle of Eufebius to those of his Diocefs extant in the Firft Book of the Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of Socrates, Chap. viii. At the beginning indeed of the Council' there were fome no fmall Strivings among certain of the Bishops; but which were foon pacified and laid to fleep by means of the Emperor's moft pious and obliging Speech; as the fame Eufebins doth alfo witness.

of

I have tranfcribed this Paffage in answer to that Epifcopius,because he hath cited it after another fuch of Le Clerc's, p. 199. and because it confirms what I have faid before from Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, in anfwer to his flanderous Citations out of these, and other fuch Writers, who will ever have an ill-will against the Nicene Fathers, and all that adhere to their Expofition of the Chriftian Faith. But tho' this Learned Bishop hath been the Champion of that Council, and its Confeffion, against all the Arian,

Popifh, or Proteftant, or Socinian Writers of this Age, to the time of writing his Books, for which he received the thanks of the Affembly of the Clergy of the Gallican Church; yet our Author hath reckoned him among thofe, of whom he faith, † as often as I confider this, I cannot without Indignation, and horror, reflect upon their ftupendous Ignorance, or rather Madness, who have made no difficulty to mifre prefent the Nicene Fathers as malicious or ignorant Depravers of the Catholick Doctrine concerning Jefus Chrift, which was delivered by the Apostles, and Obtruders of a new Faith upon the Chriftian World. Nay, this our Author hath done against his Declaration of his Intention in writing that noble Defence: This is

* As Petavius. See the Prooemium to the Bishop's Defenfio, p. 5. col. I. Ibid. p. 2. col. 1. II. Ibid. p. 5. F

the

the fcope, and design of my Undertaking in this Work, to fhew clearly, that all the approved Fathers, and Doctors of the Church, who lived from the time of the Apostles to the Council of Nice, taught the very fame Doctrine, tho' fometimes in different Words, and different ways of Speaking, that the Nicene Fathers did of the Godhead of the Son against Arius, and other Hereticks.

This fhews the Genius, I fhould have faid the evil Genius of these Men, who can thus abuse a living Author, whofe Works have been lately reprinted with as much, if not with more notoriety, than any Book of the fame time.

To these I might add his other fraudulent Citations out of Authors, which have been effectually answered, without taking notice of the Anfwers, of which to his dishonour I gave a remarkable Inftance in his Quotations to blacken Archbishop Land. So he quotes a Paffage out of Amyntor, which Mr. Toland cited with an evil intention out of a very Learned Author, to difcredit the Authority of the Scripture-Canon, tho' there was never a better Answer written than it received in two Impreffions of a Book entituled, The Canon of the Scripture vindicated, in answer to the Objections of J. T. in his AMYNTOR, by John Richardson, London 1701.

So hath he very frequently cited Bp. Stillingfleet's Irenicum, though he is forced to confefs that the Appendix to the fecond Edition f runs counter to it, he means his Difcourfe concerning the Power of Excommunication, of which he faith, the whole defign of it is to maintain that Doctrine of two independent Powers, which he had fo much exploded in his Book. To what purpose then did he cite the Irenicum, not only in this place of his Preface referred to in the Margin, but fo often after in his Book, against the Church, if, as he is forced to confefs, the

* Pref. p. liv.

+ Ibid..

Ibid.

Author