The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 10
SECT. X.
Optatus his words of the Pope's headship. Petrus Primus, in many respects befere Christs promising the Keyes. Caput omnium Apostolorum. Cephas. Cathedra Apostolica, in other Churches as well as Rome. Romes change from the Primitive Zeale and faith. Power of Princes to suppresse Schisme. Ecclesiastical persons not secured from Interests.
THe place in Optatus, noting it as a Schismaticall piece of language in the Donatists, to say, Quid imperatori cum ecclesiâ?] might, I doubt not, have been easily found in him, if S. W. had lookt with that design; But sometimes diversion is the best way of answering arguments, as of avoiding of enemies forces, and accordingly this method is here chosen (and I am so obedient to all his directions, as to attend him in it) In that second Book of Optatus, he findes, forsooth, that antient Father calling the Doctor Schismatick, and quite confuting and contradicting all his books, saying, Negare non potes scire te in urbe Româ Petro primo Cathedram Episcopalem esse collatam, in quâ sederit omnium Apostolorum caput Petrus, then he proceeds to reckon up all the Popes of Rome, till Siricius, cum quo nobis totus orbis in commercio formatorum in unâ Communionis societate concordat, and afterwards— probatum est nos esse in Ecclesia sancta Catholica— per Cathedram Petri quae nostra est, & per ipsam caeteras dotes apud nos esse, etiam sacerdotium, and th…n alas poore Dr. H. who having lost communion with that Church, hath lost also his Priesthood, mission— if this holy Father say true. —
I shall have S. W. his pardon, I hope, for the digression, and then being very unwilling to wave the considering any thing brought out of antiquity to this purpose, for the Pope's supremacy; I have no other temptation to decline following him foreign, through this whole passage, not meaning to cast off this antient Fath r, as he hath styled Optatus, for no other fault, but that, which neither he nor S W. could mend, of not being born in due time, or having wrote after the 300th year, which he is pleased to phansie the fatal period, lower than which we will allow of none, with how little ground of truth, may anon appeare also.
The fi…st advantage then, I suppose, designed from Optatus, is, that he calls Petrus P imus, for those two words are written in Capital letters; And I answer by these steps, 1. that thus much was sure to be met with in the first 300 yeares, even in the Evangel…st…, foreign, which I have oft acknowledged, and is the same in Greek that this is in Latine; 2. that Peter might be first in some oth r respects, without bringing any advantage to S. W. his pretensions, which depend onelyonly on his Pri…cy of power and authority, not amongst, but over all others.
First he might be in age, and if he was not so simply of all, yet without question of those three, to whom Christ generally vouchsafed his special favours above the rest: 2. he was in Discipleship first, as the signifies, the following, and in strict attending on him (though Philip were first called by Christ, Joh. 1. in which respect, saith*S…r. 47 d… Pet. & Paul. Augustine, Petrus Pr…mus …p…stolorum, Paulus no…issimus, Peter the first, Paul the last of the Apostles; one so the first, as tother the l…st: And 3. First in confession, and many om nen… virtues (though the most eminent in falling also) and so first in three considerable respects (and perhaps in as many more, which I discern not) without having the dominion assigned, or promised him over the rest of the Apostles. 3. That the Pr…macy which he had, he had bef re the donation of the Keyes, or the tu es Petrus, Mat. 16. (on which, and on what was after that, Feed my sheep, the Romanist grounds it) This appeares by Mat. 10.2. where that litle is given him, and so by the Fathers Scholia on Mat. 16.16. loci non imm…mo… sui Petrus Primatum egit, p…imatum confessionis utique non honoris, saith S. Ambrose, he was mindfull of his place, he had the Pr…macy of confession, not of honour; of saith, and not of order, *De Incar. …and this supposes that he had it before Christ s answer to him, wherein the Keyes were promised, and that his confession, and Christs answer upon that, was rather the effect, than the cause of his Primacy. And so saith*To 4. p 1118. c. Cyrill of Alexandria, foreign—as the Coryphaeus of the rest, and one placed before the rest he first breaks out and saith, Thou art Christ— having formerly observed of that Apostle in generall, foreign, he was alacrious and nimble alwaies in a high digree, in respect of forwardnesse both to act and speak.
As for the second title, Om…ium Apostolorum Caput Petrus, 1. That signifies no more than Primus did before, and so exa…ts no new answer: 'tis no newes that the word …ead in all languags should denote oft times the Primacy of Ord r, not Supremacy of Jurisdiction, as when Antioch is called the head of the Christian world, because they were there first called Christians: 2. 'Tis no special observation, that O…tatus calls him so, others did so before Opta…us, who yet appeare to have designed no eminent favour to S. W. his pretensions; witnesse*Ad J vin. l. 1. c 1…. S. Hierome, or rather Jovinian in S. Hierome, who calls Peter head, inter duode im unus constituitur, ut cap…te constituto schismatis tollatur occasio, and yet in the very same peri d affirms, that as the Church was sounded on Peter, so 'twas in another place super omnes Apostolos, upon all the A…ostles, and cuncti claves coe orū …ccipiunt, all received the keyes of heaven, and ex aequo super c…s Ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur, the strength of the Church is establisht …qually o… them all; and if Optatus's words, and the title of Head, may be interpreted by the same style in this place in S. Hierome before him, 'tis visible what is become of all the advantage S. W. can reap by that testimony.
But then 3. if to the mention of Caput Petrus, in Optatus, he had set down the words immediately following, it would have been little for the dignity of the citation, Omnium Apostolorum, saith he, Caput Petrus, unde & Cephas appellatus est, Peter was the head of all the Apostles, from whence he was also called Cephas. But doth Cephas a stone signifie a head with Optatus? was the Greek foreign a head, drawn in to favour this Etymologie? This may lawfully diminish one's reverence to these words of Optatus, though I preserve it never so intire to his other excellencies.
As for the rest of the words recited, that the whole world agrees in one society of Communion with Rome, and that they that have the Chair of Peter are by that proved to be in the holy Catholick Church, and to have the rest of the dowries of a Church, particularly the Priesthood.] I doubt not but it hath perfect truth in it, and so it would also, if it had been spoken of any other of the Apostles plantations, the Chair of S. John in Asia, &c. the meaning of the chaire being evident to signifie the ruling power of the Church brought down (as it was in every Apostolick See) by succession from the Apostles, which, saith he, the Donatist… could not pretend (and l. 3. he expresses it in another style, Ʋnitatem cum toto orb… terrarum, & cum memoriis Apostolorum— habere noluistis, Ye would not have unity with the whole world, and with the memories of the Apostles, in the plural, as well as with S. Peter) and so must be pronounced Schismaticks.
Thus in the same second book, he useth the same language of other Churches as he doth here of Rome, Extra septem Ecclesias, quicquid foris est, alienum est, Whatsoever is without the seven Churches (of Asia, mentioned Rev. 1.) is strange, or schismatical, and so of*Tibi unitas displicet; hoc si crimen putas, argue nos Thessalonicensibus, Corinthus, Galatis— communicasse. Thessalonica, Corinth, Galatia. All which inlarges these pri…iledges of the Church, and so the Priesthood and mission among them, to all other Churches that have continued their succession from the Apostles (as I doubt not, we of the Church of England have done) and confines them not to the Roman See, exclusively or peculiarly; and so the poor Doctor may retain his priesthood, and mission, and power to preach, and not be fain to seek out the Donatists Ghosts to hold communion with, and yet this Father be allowed to be of age to speake, and by my free consent his testimony be taken.
For beside what hath been already said, this farther consideration will not fail to supersede all force of this argument from Optatus's words. The See of Rome had from the Apostles to Optatus's daies shined in that lustre as to be the most eminent Church of any in the world; and if it had done so still, there might still have been place for Optatus's words, but since the change hath been so great, that I may well take up Pri…cus's words in Excerpt: foreign, The Faith and Government of the Church of Rome was Apostolical and good, but the later Governours being not affected as antiently they were, have so…ely wasted it. God give her a return to her primitive zeal and faith.
So that S. W. may now return from whence he came, to the view of my testimony, and free himselfe from the number of those Donatists, which would not allow the Emperour to have any thing to doe with the Church: and all that he hath to say to it is, that being the nursing Father of the Church, his power was to be granted sufficiently authoritative to punish and represse the Donatists.] And if the Prince elsewhere may have the like power to represse all those that transcribe the Donatists guilt, or Schisme, though they are most unwilling of any to own t…e name, then truly this is all that I ever designed to conclude from this testimony, and this being in thes… granted me, I have no more to contend for, this being no season to descend to the hypothesis, or application.
What he fastidiously subjoynes to the mentions of the Heathen practises in that Margent, I shall not attempt to make reply to, having pla…ed no trust in that medium, though it could not, I thought, be amisse to annex the consent betwixt all Professions, of false, as well as true Religions, in this Do…trine. But if his severi…y be such, that the mentions of Heathens puts him into ill humour, he may please, the next time he viewes that place, to pass more slightly over it, and not think it necessary to refute every casual Marginall note, which might be allowed such an unconsiderable place in a discourse, as this was, without offending any man. In his answer to it, one thing there is which he may please to review and correct at leisure. For though the sacred mysteries and the Churches Government, be incharg'd as he saith, to those persons, whose state of life is purely dependent on God and his service, yet sure there is no shew of consequence in what he addes, as the superstruction on this foreign, that this state of life secures them from being crosse byass'd by worldly interests, and secular pretences. I heartily wish this had all truth in it, but shall not need indeavour to disprove it, the lives of some such men speaking louder than any arguments.