And thus have I brought the History of Persecution down to our own times, and nation; and shewn how all parties have, in their turns of power, been sharers in this guilt. If church history would have afforded me a better account, I assure my reader he should have had it told with pleasure. The story, as it is, I have told with grief. But it is time to dismiss him from so ungrateful an entertainment, and see what useful reflections we can make on the whole.
CONCLUSION.
SECT. I.
The Clergy the great promoters of persecution.
It is a truth too evident to be denied, that the clergy in general, throughout almost all the several ages of the christian church; have been deep and warm in the measures of persecution; as though it had been a doctrine expressly inculcated in the sacred writings, and recommended by the practice of our Saviour and his apostles. Indeed, could such a charge as this have been justly fixed on the great author of our religion, or the messengers he sent into the world to propagate it; I think it would have been such an evidence of its having been dictated by weak or wicked, or worldly-minded men, as nothing could possibly have disproved.
But that christianity might be free from every imputation of this kind, God was pleased to send his son into the world, without any of the advantages of worldly riches and grandeur, and absolutely to disclaim all the prerogatives of an earthly kingdom. His distinguishing character was that of “meek and lowly;” and the methods by which he conquered and triumphed over his enemies, and drew all men to him, was “patience and constancy, even to the death.” And when he sent out his own apostles, he sent them out but poorly furnished, to all human appearance, for their journey;[[373]] “without staves, or scrip, or bread, or money,” to let them know that he had but little of this world to give them; and that their whole dependence was on Providence.
One thing however he assured them of, that they should be “[[374]]delivered up to the councils, and scourged in the synagogues, and be hated of all men for his sake.” So far was he from giving them a power to persecute, that he foretold them they must suffer persecution for his name. This the event abundantly justified: And how amiable was their behaviour under it? How greatly did they recommend the religion they taught, by the methods they took to propagate it? “The arms of their warfare were not carnal, but spiritual.” The argument they used to convince those they preached to, was the “demonstration of the spirit, and of power.” They “approved themselves as the ministers of God, by much patience, by afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labours, watchings, fastings, pureness, knowledge, long-suffering, kindness; by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, and by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.” Oh how unlike were their pretended successors to them in these respects! How different their methods to convince gainsayers! Excommunications, suspensions, fines, banishments, imprisonments, bonds, scourges, tortures and death, were the powerful arguments introduced into the church; and recommended, practised, and sanctified by many of the pretended fathers of it.
Even those whom superstition hath dignified by the name of saints, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Gregory, Cyril, and others, grew wanton with power, cruelly oppressed those who differed from them, and stained most of their characters with the guilt of rapine and murder. Their religious quarrels were managed with such an unrelenting, furious zeal, as disturbed the imperial government, threw kingdoms and nations into confusion, and turned the church itself into an aceldama, or field of blood. Some few there have been who were of a different spirit; who not only abstained from persecuting counsels and measures themselves, but with great justice and freedom censured them in others. But as to your saints and fathers, your patriarchs and bishops, your councils and synods, together with the rabble of monks, they were most of them the advisers, abettors, and practisers of persecution. They knew not how to brook opposition to their own opinions and power, branded all doctrines different from their own with the odious name of heresy, and used all their arts and influence to oppress and destroy those who presumed to maintain them. And this they did with such unanimity and constancy, through a long succession of many ages, as would tempt a stander-by to think that a bishop or clergyman, and a persecutor, were the same thing, or meant the self-same individual character and office in the christian church.
I am far from writing these things with any design to depreciate and blacken the episcopal order in general. It is an office of great dignity and use, according to the original design of its institution. But when that design is forgotten, or wholly perverted; when, instead of becoming “Overseers” of the flock of Christ, the bishops “tear and devour” it, and proudly usurp “Dominion over the Consciences of” Christians, when they ought to be content with being “helpers of their joy.” I know no reason why the name should be complimented, or the character held sacred, when it is abused to insolence, oppression and tyranny; or why the venerable names of fathers and saints should screen the vices of the bishops of former ages, who, notwithstanding their writing in behalf of christianity and orthodoxy, brought some of them the greatest disgrace on the christian religion, by their wicked practices, and exposed it to the severest satire of its professed enemies: and for the truth of this, I appeal to the foregoing history.
If any observations on their conduct should affect the temper and principles of any now living, they themselves only are answerable for it, and welcome to make what use and application of them they please. Sure I am that the representing them in their true light, reflects an honour upon those reverend and worthy prelates, who maintain that moderation and humility which is essential to the true dignity of the episcopal character, and who use no other methods of conviction and persuasion but those truly apostolical ones, of sound reasoning and exemplary piety. May God grant a great increase, and a continual succession of them in the christian church!