The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God, thus they celebrate Conventions and Councils; the Truth is not served, but Affection, the better part is brought under by the greater; the very Name of a General Council is beautiful and glorious, but Poison is oftentimes given in a beautiful Cup: for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place; the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Mitres and Purple Robes; nor is whatever a Council decrees, presently to be taken for an Oracle. It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus,¹ Woe to the rebellious Children, saith the Lord, who assemble a Council, but not by me; take Council, saith he, and it shall come to nought, in another place. It was a Council of which the Prophet David saith thus, The Kings of the Earth stand up, and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord, and against his Christ. It was a Council which condemned the Son of God Jesus Christ to the Cross; it was a Council, and celebrated at Carthage under St. Cyprian, which decreed that those that were baptized by Heretics, when they returned to the Church should be rebaptized; which Error was afterwards forced to be repealed by so many Councils and Writings of the Fathers. And: what need is there of so many Words? The second Council of Ephesus was openly for Eutyches, that the Humane ⟨p. 169⟩Nature of Christ was changed into the Divine. The second Council of Nice decreed a manifest Idolatry in the Worship of Images. The Council of Basil, as Albertus Pighius saith, decreed against all Antiquity, against Nature, against Reason, and against the Word of God. The Council of Ariminium wickedly decreed for Arrius, that Christ was not God; and to conclude, many other Councils afterwards erred too, as the Selucian, and the Syrmian, which did both condemn the Homousians or Catholics, and also subscribed to the impious Heresy of the Council of Ariminium. Why do you doubt? the very Council of Chalcedon, which was one of the four which Pope Gregory compared to the four Evangelists; Pope Leo made no Scruple to accuse that very Council of Temerity of Rashness.

20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God, thus they celebrate Conventions and Councils; the Truth is not served, but Affection, the better part is brought under by the greater; the very Name of a General Council is beautiful and glorious, but Poison is oftentimes given in a beautiful Cup: for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place; the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Miters and Purple Robes; nor is whatever a Council decrees, presently to be taken for an Oracle. It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus,