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A62452 A discourse of the forbearance or the penalties which a due reformation requires by H. Thorndike ... Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672. 1670 (1670) Wing T1044; ESTC R1719 71,571 188

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can have Power to introduce any thing for Reformation in the Church but that which the Consent of the Whole Church either injoyneth or alloweth Not as if the least Tittle of Scripture were not enough to warrant that which it injoyneth to be the Reformation of the Church But whereas the sense of the Scripture is that which remains questionable not the Authority of it that nothing can be the true sense of the Scripture which the Consent of the Whole Church contradicteth And therefore that though there be an appearance of truth in such a sense yet it is not for a Christian Kingdom to inact it for Law till it be duely debated And that being done it will infallibly appear in all which in most things appeareth already that the Consent of the Whole Church cannot contradict the true sense of the Scripture And that it is nothing else but not knowing the one or the other that makes it seem otherwise If the Scripture it self is not nor can be owned for Gods Word but by the Consent of Gods people from the beginning attesting the Motives of Faith related in the Scripture to have been infallibly done by submitting to the Faith which they inforce Then must the same Consent be of force to assure common reason that the Faith and the Laws wherein the whole Church agrees came from the Authority setled by God not by any Consent of all Christians to fall from that which they Profess And therefore though a Kingdom may force the Subjects thereof to call that Reformation which they inact yet they can never make it Reformation in that sense which the Salvation of Christians requires if it be not within these bounds It may be called Reformation to signifie a New form but it can never be Reformation to signifie that form which should be unless it signifie the form that hath been in Gods Church For that being One and the same from the first to the second Coming of Christ can authorize no other form then that which it may appear to have had from the beginning CHAP. IX That it cannot be done without the Synods of this Church ANd therefore it being granted on both sides that the Soveraign Power of Christian Kingdoms and States proceeding duely obligeth the Subjects to submit to the Reformation of the Church and cannot exact Legal Penalties of them which refuse upon any other Terms I do except in the second place that it ought to proceed in all Reformation by and upon the Authority of this Church That is of the Synods For what doth the whole Church agree in so Visibly as in this That the Authority which God hath instituted in his Church should give Laws to his Church And how can a Christian Kingdom promise themselves Gods blessing upon such Acts as they have no Power nor Right from God to do For granting there is such a thing as a Catholick Church it is not possible that any Christian Kingdom which must be a part of it should have Power to inact any thing Prejudicial much less destructive to the Whole to the Visible Being which is the Visible Communion of it And therefore the Faith and the Laws of the whole being the Condition under which the parts are to communicate no Christian Kingdom can have Power from God to give New Laws in Religion to the Subjects thereof which the Church of the Kingdom warranteth not to be according to the Laws of the whole Church If any thing may appear to have been in force in the Primitive Church and by the abuse of succeeding times to have become void I do not deny that the Secular Power may Reform the Church by restoring it though the Church should refuse their Consent to it The reason is because the Church would be without help if there were no Lawful way to restore the decays of it Which we agree have come to pass without the consent of them that are chargeable for the decay of it Now the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church are the Birth-right of all Christians Purchased by undertaking to Profess one Catholick Church at their Baptism And Christian Powers are to protect their Christian Subjects in their Birth-right And the Authority of the present Church is not seen in the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church For it is meer matter of Fact what they are The evidence whereof praeexistent to the Authority of the present Church cannot be understood to require or to presuppose it And therefore the Authority of the Church cannot be violated by reducing the Faith and the Laws of the Primitive Church into force Nevertheless in regard that which is decayed can seldom be restored without determining new Bounds which the present state of the Church requires It is manifestly the Office of the Church to determine the same Nor can it be done by Christian Powers of this World without assuming to themselves that Authority in which they are to maintain the Church For though Soveraign Power hath Soveraign Right in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical yet is it capable of no Ecclesiastical Power or Right But is to maintain those that have it by the Laws of the Church in the use of it If any thing were done at the Reformation setting aside the Synods of this Church which I am here neither to deny nor to acknowledge it must be justified upon this Account that they refused the Authority of the Whole Church in authorizing the Reformation of this Church If any thing now may appear to be demanded upon the same Account let the Authority of the Synods be passed by for their punishment if they hinder the Reformation of the Church by refusing it But that cannot appear till it may appear First that the matter demanded ought to have the force of Law in the Church having been of force and since decayed by the injury of time or corruption of men Secondly that it is of such weight that Religion is like to have more advantage by restoring it then the Vnity of the Church shall suffer by violating the Regular Authority of the Church What thanks I shall have of my LL. the Bishops for this I know not For I deny that they themselves can have any Authority in the Case that shall not be confined within the same bounds But it is not possible for him that is the most jealous of the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters to say what danger there can be to this Crown in securing the Conscience of the Kingdom by the Authority of the Church For the acknowledging of those Bounds which the Authority of the Church is confined to as well in respect of Soveraign Power in the Dominions whereof it subsisteth as of the rest of the Church leaveth no Plea for it to Vsurp either upon the Crown or upon the Christian Subjects of it And all this I claim by S. Paul where he commandeth all Christians to abide in that state in which they are called
Conscience should be pretended when the question is whether to turn Christian or not Is it possible that there should be such a doubt in that point that a man to whom the Reason why he ought to be a Christian is sufficiently proposed can be said to be under a light that convinceth him not Which if it be true then is there nothing in Christianity which there is not a sufficient light to convict that man of to whose Office it belongs Otherwise it could not being to his Office not being able to discern the Obligation of it It is therefore a horrible reproach to Christianity to say that any doubting Conscience is not under a light sufficient to resolve it Scruples of Conscience there may be which may eternally have recourse and that no disparagement to the Faith Because the Faith provides a Resolution that they who have scruples in Conscience are bound in Conscience to lay them aside Nay to act positively against them But he that says that being a Christian he is not under a light sufficient to clear him in any doubt of Conscience says that the Faith obligeth him to sin Whereas it is not the Faith but the want of it which obligeth not the erring Conscience to sin but intangleth him so that he must sin if the obligation of acting fall out before the errour be removed Suppose the Jews convict by the Epistle to the Romans that Salvation comes only by Faith and not by the Law also And you suppose them under a light that neither the Law nor any Ordinance then standing by virtue of the Law could oblige But suppose them in love with themselves and with their Ancestors and to have such an Opinion of Salvation intailed upon them and their issue by the Law as to think that they could not have it by God that gave the Law if the Gentiles might have it as well as themselves and they might very well for consequence of Reason though very ill for their own account oversee the light they were under Suppose we now those that make this Plea not to believe one Catholick Church and one Baptism for the remission of sins But had rather gratifie the Socinians and deny that any Christian can be obliged to any thing that appears not to his own Reason out of Canonical Scripture Then imagine he should gratifie the Papist if he should grant that Catholick Communion always made the Catholick Church Suppose them not to believe that the Faith which only saveth includeth Baptism in the Catholick Church And that this Church is not Reformed unless it be restored to the same form I say supposing them possest with such prejudices as these and marvel not to see them eternally doubting whether or no it be lawful for them to obey the Laws which this Church and Kingdom is able to make Nay to see them break out into Schism as all Parties now seem to do rather then obey them when they shall be out of hope to give their own Law to the Kingdom Never forecasting how it may appear to continue a Church when they have given such Laws to it CHAP. XIV That it is not Forbearance to allow their Orders I Suppose they who make this Plea will not grant that they are in any errour so near the Foundation as these which I name Nor do I think that those Christian Jews at Rome that doubted of transgressing the Law when they knew that Salvation comes only by Faith did deny the Foundation of Faith For as long as they lived in the Church they were in the way to learn and understand how both were true Neither will I say that any of those who desire Forbearance for the weak are in any errour destructive to the Foundation of Faith and the hope of Salvation till they break out into Conventicles When that is done I am thenceforth bound to charge them with all the Error which the Title of their Schism can signifie And therefore I charge them with Hypocrisie when they pretend to Forbearance because they are weak and yet break out into Conventieles when they do so then they can be counted no more the weak among Christians then those Jews which S. Paul will have to be forborn as the weak among Christians supposing them to have renounced the Faith afterwards rather then continue in the Church And therefore the Plea of weak Consciences cannot be allowed those that ingage in Conventicles They have cut themselves off from it by leaving the Church Let them return and then make the best of it As to them the Church is under a new Precept of S. Paul which says A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid Knowing that such a one is out of the way and sinneth being condemned by himself Titus III. 10 11. Because saith S. Hierom after S. Cyprian Whereas other sinners are put out of the Church by those that manage the Keys of the Church Hereticks and Schismaticks put themselves out of the Church Therefore Titus that is all Titus his flock are to avoid them for Excommunicate persons who do Excommunicate themselves As for those that continue in the Church though with a pretense of giving such Laws to the Church as no man knows how soon they may unchurch it let them make their best of it But being grounded at least upon a pretense of weakness there can be no question made but some errour must be granted for the ground of this weakness Let themselves at their leisure assign what errour they will acknowledge if they like not that which I have assigned Only let them shew the world that is the Legislative Power of this Kingdom what errour it is that they have hitherto had which being avoided for the future all those difficulties will cease which this Discourse pretendeth cannot be met with but by bounding the Reformation within the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church In the mean time let me go on to shew that those who were Ordained in and for the late Schism composed by the Laws at his Majesties Return by Presbyters against their Bishops cannot claim by virtue of it to be owned for Presbyters Or in the terms of the Ancient Church to be received in their own Orders A thing which there can no question be made in by any body that understands what the Church or what a Schism signifies And it is marvel how they that would be thought to allow Episcopacy should question it To acknowledge the Authority of giving Orders in the Bishops according to the Laws by which we both maintain this Church to be Reformed and yet to allow those that are made Presbyters by those Bishops not to Ordain others but to Minister the Office of their Order according to the Reformation setled in this Church I say to allow them to Ordain others to Minister their Office by other Laws not only without but against the consent of the Bishops from whom they have their
they can challenge by their Orders what pretense is there to imagine that there can be any such Crime as Schism if this be not it That God should bless that which is done by such gross Vsurpation as this is And when all this is said it remains free for me to say That there is no other way to restore and to preserve Vnity within the Reformation but by establishing and maintaining Episcopacy in that Authority which it hath always had for the determining of differences Nor maintain that Authority but by confining it within the Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church do limit As for the Fanaticks which make our Orders void because the Pope is Antichrist and the Mass Idolatry whence our Bishops received and where they exercised their Orders I will only consider the Case of the Donatists forejudged by the whole Church They pleaded in point of fact that Caecilianus was Ordained by Apostates A thing which the Church was so clear in that the African Bishops offered to give up their Sees if it were proved But besides in point of Right had it been proved and Caecilianus owned by the Church because it did not appear or because they thought the Canons ought to be dispensed with for Unities sake those that Ordained Caecilianus having repented of their Apostacy shall we imagine that the Church was lost by owning those that had been Apostates and their Ordinations The Donatists are branded for Hereticks and Schismaticks maintaining all the Laws of the Church but that of Unity And shall Lay-Christians presuming to authorize Lay-Christians to consecrate the Eucharist and set up Churches be esteemed less then Hereticks and Schismaticks Let those that pretend to Unity find that Forbearance which a favourable construction of their actions signifies But Charity to the sound obligeth to take the profession of Schismaticks in the worst sense which if we do the making of Independent Congregations Churches will be the denying of One Catholick Church and the making of them Hereticks that do it CHAP. XVI That changing the Laws for the Weak is not Forbearance BUt if it be a thing absurd in common sense to allow them their Orders much more absurd will it be to change the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land for their sakes Which is nothing else but to purchase their Ministry at the price of our Religion which the Ecclesiastical Laws contain Here we must distinguish two questions For it may be lawful for Christian people to live by those Laws which it was not lawful for Superiors in Church and State to make A thing evident to all that believe that it was possible for our Ancestors before the Reformation to be saved under the abuses of the Church of Rome But our question is whether or no the Laws of Superiors injoyn that which Gods Law forbids Inferiors to do Otherwise it is pernicious to all Government that Inferiors should take upon them to judge the Acts of Superiors But if the matter of the Law be within the Power that makes it to require an Exception for tender Consciences is to say that there is no Power in the World to give any Law to those tender Consciences Was there ever any Heresie any Schism any Religion pretending Christianity that did not alledge Scripture for themselves Did ever any man alledge it that would not be thought to be touched at the heart with it What is there for a Christian to doubt at where the Exception of tender Consciences lyes not Or how shall we that agree against the See of Rome but agree not in the terms and grounds of Reformation be tryed in the sense of the Scripture Can any man imagine that S. Paul intended to destroy his own Authority of giving Law to the Church which he exercised when he ordered the Jews and Gentiles at Rome to forbear one another Or is this Authority dead with the Apostles What Church then can there be alive if there be no Authority deriyed from the Apostles to give Law to it But the Authority is not questioned so it provide for weak Consciences Episcopacy will be owned if the Secular Power will force it to take them for their Presbyters whose Ministry they cannot give account to God of Being both authorized and exercised by Laws made without and against their Authority This no Christianity can justifie Christianity maintains the Estates of the World in all the Right they had when they became Christians And cannot justifie it self to the World otherwise How should the World receive it upon other terms But if the World stand upon the same terms having received Christianity as afore then must Christianity and the Church continue in the same Rights which it had before the World received it No exception to be allowed but as afore If it appear that the Faith and Laws of the Primitive Church be decayed Not if it seem to private Spirits that the Scripture is not fulfilled In the mean time is it for the honour of the Religion we profess that Weakness which at the best is negative ignorance in truth perhaps wilful ignorance should give Law to it Is it reason that they who have failed to destroy both Church and Kingdom should give Law to both As if a Child should govern the House because he will be framfold and disquieted otherwise Surely it is that which the Emperor said to his Niece Put as tibi injuriam fieri nisi imperas But is that the way to have Peace in Religion When Inferiors shall be made to tread upon the necks of their Superiors they will be so modest for the future as to stay there They will be content to have their Doctrine regulated by them as the Law of the Kingdom requires Or they will think fit that the Bishops be content with their Revenues and leave them to Preach what they please Surely they that can carry the dispute of a hundred years wherein the Bishops had so visibly the better that Club-law was found requisite to get the advantage will not lay down the Cudgels here So they that agree in conforming to the Laws differing every day in that which the Law determines not the Recusants on both sides may make hay in the heat of our Contentions and profit more by such a Law then by the War which destroyed this Church But especially the Atheists who have profited so well under these Contentions as to make that visible which was but foreseen under the Usurper That no Religion would in time stand to be the Religion of the Kingdom They having the Priviledge of the Laws and not liable to any Infamy when the differences maintained make Religion contemptible shall have cause to thank all that shall have done their work by solliciting such Laws CHAP. XVII Of the Opinion of Regeneration by Baptism ONe point I must not pass over in silence which hath been named for a point to be changed That all passages seeming to determine the Opinion of Baptismal
which it professeth to use the Canon Law which it adopteth till time shew the way of amending those particulars which time shall shew that the Reformation pretended requires to be changed For instance we know that since Henry VIII it is not the custom to take any degree in Canon Law Notwithstanding the Law of the Land adopteth the Canon Law And accordingly we all know that Graduates in the Civil Law of the Romans are priviledged by the Ecclesiastical Law of the Kingdom I would fain have any of them that would wear the Face and the Conscience of a good Christian and a good English man both Give me a reasonable Account of these their Tenures waving that which I here set forth for them whom they will think too bold with their Freehold for it For my part who am no mans foe but my own in publishing my Opinion thus freely upon this Exigent I think I do good service to them with my Country to set forth this Account why and how the Roman Laws deserve to be adopted into the Laws of the Kingdom Namely that the Popes Canon Law which is already adopted may be limited within those Bounds with the Roman Laws And by consequence the Primitive Canons of the Church which the Roman Laws acknowledge and inforce do either prescribe or allow I would make a further Offer of introducing the Roman Laws both into the Study of the Law of the Land and into Authority in our Courts of Equity And of reconciling thereby the Cross-Interests of the Professions upon competence of Jurisdictions But though I must needs have that Opinion my self which I can see nothing against seeing much for it yet I will trouble no man with an Opinion which neither my Profession obliges me nor my skill inables me to make out It shall be enough for me to observe that they shall deserve to be counted Professors of the Roman Laws that are trusted to minister the Canon Laws by those Bounds which the Roman Laws allow As for the Concurrence of that Jurisdiction which is proper to the Clergy by Gods Law and that which is resumed by the Crown to be ministred by the Professors of the Roman Laws I do acknowledge it cannot be ended but by Appeals The issue whereof whither it ought to resort when it is time to say it will be then time to say also how these Interests are reconcileable In the mean time Episcopacy being owned by the Law of the Kingdom and the Law of God both to be that which the whole Church from the beginning acknowledgeth I think I do my Country and the Church of God in it no disservice to propose a plaister large enough for the Sore of it that shall come within the bounds which I have proposed For the Chapters of Cathedral Churches are by their Birth-right Counsellors to the Bishops and Assistants in his whole Office The Archdeacon his Minister and principal Commissary Those by the Rule first set on foot by the Apostles and observed always by the Church of planting Cathedral Churches in Cities and making the Churches planted in Cities Cathedral Churches for the Government of all Christendom within the Territories of those Cities This being by his Order Ministerial to them as well as to the Bishop when both have part in the same Office And here I place the hinge upon which I hang the Reconcilement of the presumed Interest of the Presbyterians with the true Interest of the Clergy Supposing the Conference proposed to have taken effect and produced a Request of both Parties to the Legislative Power of the Kingdom to make a Law of those particulars upon which they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come to agreement to be received and to exercise their Ministry For the Office of the Clergy being separated from the Interest of the Crown by an Act of the Kingdom And the Professors of the Roman Laws trusted to manage this Interest in behalf of the Subject Only assisting the Clergy in that part of the Jurisdiction proper to the Church which will concern the Interest of Subjects as Members of the Church as well as the Office of the Clergy What shall hinder them the Presbyterians as well as the rest of the Clergy to exercise the Zeal which they have always professed towards the Reforming of the conversation of the People in assisting that Discipline as well over the Inserior Clergie as the People which the Chapters of Cathedral Churches and the Archdeacons shall by the Bishop and under the Bishop be trusted with For what need all this hinder the Prerogative of the Bishops Negative Vote when as there will be more to do under him then hands will be found for reserving to him those causes which he would chuse to reserve For that will be found no more then requisite to preserve his Prerogative that nothing be done without him when nothing is done without him but that which he shall chuse to be eased in He that knows what the Hierarchy signifies must needs understand that the same means which preserved the Whole Church in Vnity so far and wide for place so long for time as Unity prevailed in the Church and Christianity with it and by it knows that the same must be used to preserve Unity in the Church of this Kingom The Question being how to Reform it so that it may continue a Member of the Whole CHAP. XXIV Some Principal Canons to be restored in our present State FOr let no man think that any Law can be effectual to this purpose till the Case be stated which the Law is provided for We are in the State of Schism in spite of our teeth Though we are to clear our selves of the crime of Schism upon the Terms setled which cannot clear us if it be possible that any other should clear us King Henry the VIII had reason to declare that he and his Kingdom should have nothing to do with the Pope that Excommunicated him for his Divorce So many Popes having discharged the Subjects of Princes Excommunicate of their Allegiance But to make good the Protestation that he intended no further change in Religion I need not say what he did to give succeeding Popes occasion to recal the folly of that Pope which Excommunicated him by a timely Reconcilement In the mean time the way to preserve the Kingdom in Peace was to have nothing to do with the See of Rome But had he been so well advised as to have maintained his Divorce upon the terms which I plead for What could the Pope have said to that Code of Canons which Pope Adrian the I. sent to Charles the Great which I would have this Church to owne For it concludes with a Synod of the Province of Rome under Pope Gregory the II. which pronounces Anathema to whosoever shall marry his deceased Brothers Wife Let Julius II. Pope that dispensed with Henry the VIII and his Marriage with the Lady Katherine of Spain have bethought himself how to
come clear of this Anathema the Authority of the See of Rome being intire For K. Henry the VIII or at least for his Kingdom it was and is enough that so long as he owned the Authority of that See he must needs be troubled in conscience at that Marriage by which he must needs incur it preferring the former Act of a Council under Gregory the II. Pope before a Bull of Julius the II. Pope dispensing in an Anathema of the said Council For as the Primitive Canons are to be preferred in Church-Law before the loosness of succeeding Ages being still further from the Apostles So the Act of the Council under the Regular Power of the Pope is to be preferred before a Bull which now passeth without the Consistory as the Popes personal Act after the unlimited absolute Power of the Pope hath taken place As for King Edward the VI. professing the Reformation and protesting it as he did so that the See of Rome could have no pretense of correspendence without owning it themselves there succeeds the necessity of a State of Schism upon the Excommunication following The Crime of Schism remaining on that side that Excommunicates for vindicating and restoring the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church This being the state of our Case and the Laws of the Whole Church and the Faith thereof necessary to the Title that must justifie Reformation without the Consent of the Whole Is it not manifest to all Understandings that the Law by which this State is to be Governed must be such a Provision as the Laws of the Whole Church inable a part of it to make for it self in the Case And therefore we must affirm as many of us as would have no share in the Schism as to God being thus secured that to the Church we are not chargeable with it That there is nothing to hinder such a Provision but the misunderstanding of them And that we see not what the Consequence of our own Profession requires A reason that presses me so hard that I do willingly expose my self to the displeasure of all that shall find themselves disgusted with this freedom Only to give my self the satisfaction of publishing it whatsoever displeasure it procure me As being satisfied that there is no other cure for our present distempers For in the first place it must be said that it is in vain to talk of Regular Government by the Canons of the Church without restoring the liberty of Synods to the respective Provinces Not as if the Church needed any abatement in the Act of Henry the VIII which forbiddeth making and perhaps advising of Canons to be made without the Assent of the Crown But because the World knows it was the Usurped Legatine Power that had brought Synods to nothing by Usurping upon the Ordinary And therefore it is but Justice in the Crown finding the Right of Synods the Subjects thereof Usurped by the See of Rome to restore it to the Subjects upon whom the Usurpation had been made The Supremacy of the Crown being sufficiently provided for by the said Act And the force of all Acts of Synods depending upon the Legislative Power of the Kingdom In the next place it is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church unto Regular Government without restoring the Liberty of chusing Bishops and the Priviledge of injoying them to the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocese I say not depriving the Crown of the due Interest of a Negative to any Person to be promoted a Bishop in any instance of his Promotion God forbid it should come into my thought But the Supremacy being so provided for so evident is the Right of the Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be governed that I need mark no other Reason for the neglect of Episcopacy but the neglect of it For the neglect of Cathedral Churches but the neglect alienation of their Office under and with their Bishops This for certain had not the See of Rome introduced so much disorder in the creating of Bishops that we have not yet cured it we should have heard of it with both ears from their Advocates And if I may credit a person of unquestionable credit his late Majesty was so convinced hereof when he was at Oxford that he offered to part with it if a way were shewed how to do it As for the translating of Bishops which done as it is of course must needs render the Office unfruitful to their People As no man can deny that there ought to be a course for dispensing in the Canon for publick good So cannot this pretense of publick good come to effect unless it be maintained by the Office of Synods to whom the State of the Church vindicates the Right of it That which I said afore of Appeals belongs to this place For what Law can provide that in Causes reserved to the Bishop parties shall rest content always with his sentence Or whether can Ecclesiastical Causes resort from him but to the Synod of the Province Again what Christian Kingdom could ever prevent a mixture of Causes That is a concurrence of Interest between the Soveraign Power and the Office of the Church Or what danger can be imaginable to this Crown in doing Right to the Church Having only its own Subjects to deal with Or what can be more ready to receive Appeals of this Nature then a Commission of Judges delegate as well by the Synods as by the Crown for the expedition of such Causes in which the pretense of the Subject as well as the Interest of Religion may be concerned As for matter of Faith Having admitted all that hath been decreed within the time of the six truly General Councils I dare say that there is nothing that the See of Rome can charge upon the Socinians or Anabaptists or any Sect of our Fanaticks that is not condemned in the Arians Pelagians or other Sects which the Whole Church hath condemned during that time So that there can be no cause why Christianity should not be maintained by the Reformation during this State of Schism but neglecting the true consequence of that which we our selves profess CHAP. XXV Two Laws more necessary to the Reformation of the Church THese are the principal points in the Canons of the Whole Church which the Profession of Reforming the Church obliges us to restore There are two points more the one concerning the People the other the Inferior Clergy which till they be restored our Reformation cannot be that which it pretendeth That all who shall be convicted in Law of capital or infamous Crimes stand Excommunicate ipso facto and if Execution pass be deprived of Christian Burial unless they reconcile themselves to the Church Unless the Law make this good how should the Kingdom be counted a Christian Kingdom For if scandalous Crimes that are notorious be allowed Communion with the Church how can it