Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…

The First General Council at Constantinople, and some following.

§. 1. The reason why the West with Rome was freer from the Arian Heresy than the East, was not, as the Papists say, because Christ prayed for Peter that his Faith might not fail, but because the Emperors of the West were Orthodox, while those in the East were Arians: And the Bishops much followed the Emperors Will. That this last was the Cause, is notorious in the History: That Christs foresaid promise was not the Cause, is certain. Because whatever promise Christ maketh, he fulfilleth: But he hath not kept all the Bishops of Rome from failing in their Faith: Therefore he never promised so to do. The minor is certain by History: To pass by Marcellinus and Liberius and Honorius falls, (which were but like Peters) all those wicked men whom Councils deposed as Infidels, or Heretics, Simoniacs, Murderers, Adulterers, one as a Devil Incarnate, and all those that Baronius and Genebrard stigmatize as Apostatical, and not Apostolical, (50 together) had not this promise fulfilled: Nor Sixtus Quintus, if Bellarmine judged truly, that he was damned: For it was not a dead faith, but a saving faith, which Christ promised Peter should not fail; such a saith as had the promise of life; He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: Whoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life: a faith that worketh by love: Else Peter might have been a wicked man, and damned, notwithstanding this Prayer of Christ, and Promise. If the faith of Constantine senior & junior, Constans, Valentinian, Theodosius, Honorius, Gratian, &c. had failed, the General Councils at Milan, and Ariminum, tell us, how failing the Bishops faith was like to be; when Jerome said, that the whole world groaned to find it self turned Arian.

§. 1. THe reason why the West with Rome was freer from the Arian Heresie than the East, was not, as the Papists say, because Christ prayed for Peter that his Faith might not fail, but because the Emperours of the West were Orthodox, while those in the East were Arians: And the Bishops much followed the Emperours Will. That this last was the Cause, is notorious in the History: That Christs foresaid promise was not the Cause, is certain. Because whatever promise Christ maketh, he fulfilleth: But he hath not kept all the Bishops of Rome from failing in their Faith: Therefore he never promised so to do. The minor is certain by History: To pass by Marcellinus and Liberius and Honorius falls, (which were but like Peters) all those wicked men whom Councils deposed as Infidels, or Hereticks, Simoniacks, Murderers, Adulterers, one as a Devil Incarnate, and all those that Baronius and Genebrard stigmatize as Apostatical, and not Apostolical, (50 together) had not this promise fulfilled: Nor Sixtus Quintus, if Bellarmine judged truly, that he was damned: For it was not a dead faith, but a saving faith, which Christ promised Peter should not fail; such a saith as had the promise of life; He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: Whoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life: a faith that worketh by love: Else Peter might have been a wicked man, and damned, notwithstanding this Prayer of Christ, and Promise. If the faith of Constantine senior & junior, Constans, Valentinian, Theodosius, Honorius, Gratian, &c. had failed, the General Councils at Milan, and Ariminum, tell us, how failing the Bishops faith was like to be; when Ierome said, that the whole world groaned to find it self turned Arian.