The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…

as the sad divisions by the displacings, restorings, and changes of Bishops by the Councils of Constantinople, 1. Ephesus, 2. & Calcedon, and by the Emperors in those times, do fully prove, the people following some one, and some another; though fear oft prevailed for conformity with the greater part. (And no wonder when so many Bishops at the Council of Calcedon professed that for fear they had judged against Flavianus for Eutichus against their consciences, and even old Osius, and many more at Ariminum did the like; and when the powers changed, cryed, Omnes peccavimus; and when under Theodosius 2d. so many went one way, who under Martian went another way, even in point of Heresy.

as the sad divisions by the displacings, restorings, and changes of Bishops by the Councils of Constantinople, 1. Ephesus, 2. & Calcedon, and by the Emperours in those times, do fully prove, the people following some one, and some another; though fear oft prevailed for conformity with the greater part. (And no wonder when so many Bishops at the Council of Calcedon professed that for fear they had judged against Flavianus for Eutichus against their consciences, and even old Osius, and many more at Ariminum did the like; and when the powers changed, cryed, Omnes peccavimus; and when under Theodosius 2d. so many went one way, who under Martian went another way, even in point of Heresie.

When Mavia the Saracen Queen chose Moses a Monk to be her Bishop, as the condition of her peace with the Roman Empire, Moses would ⟨p. 76⟩not be ordained by Lucius; not because he was an Arian, but because he was a persecutor, and hurtful to other men for Religion, and so he would be ordained Priest by some that were banished to a certain Mountain, Socr. l. 4. c. 29. When the Emperor was gone from Antioch (where in person he went to disperse their Meetings, and yet they held on) the people thrust out Lucius whom he had set up, and set up Peter again whom the Emperor had banished. But such instances are too many to be recited. Yea under Orthodox Princes, the people would cleave to their injured Pastors, though against the Emperors will, as they of Miliane did to Ambrose; and the Joannites to Chrysostom, who even long after his death separated from the Bishop, and kept up their separate Meetings against the will of Prince and Prelates, till milder Bishops instead of persecuting them, restored Chrysostom's bones and name to honour, and reconciled them. It will still be objected, as before, that most of these instances were but the peoples rejection of Arians: But again, we answer 1. In other instances, they usually chose their Pastors, and cleaved to them, though prohibited. 2. These Arians were such as subscribed the Ariminum Creed, which was so ambiguously compiled, that abundance that renounced Arius, did think that for obedience and peace they might put a fair sense on the words, and so subscribe them: And we meet with persons in our times, that think words imposed on them by Superiors, may and must endure stretching to a sense as far from their usual acceptation, as the foresaid words were stretched by