Oxford-Paraphrast has fully and learnedly made out in his Annotations on the 2 Thess Chap. 2. not contented to justifie our Separation from the Church of Rome upon the account of Innovations Corruptions and imposing them as necessary Conditions of Communion and so becoming guilty of causal Schism they have represented all the Members of that Church both Pastors and People both in Doctrin and Practice guilty of Heathenish and worse than the most sottish Heathenish Idolatry so foul a Charge and so injurious to that Charity which the Church of England hath always been renown'd for that I hope the Authors of it may have Grace to retract and make satisfaction for that Scandal which is thereby given even to our common Christianity And I have always wondred how it ever could enter into the heart of any man to believe and publickly maintain that so great a number of Christian Professors eminent for Learning and Austerity of Life could be guilty of so damnable an Apostasie concerning the mischiefs of this Charge take the Judgment of the Learned Thorndike in the last words of the first Chapter of his just Weights and Measures And as they who justifie the Reformation by charging the Pope to be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters so on the other side they who over-charge the Reformation to be Hereticks make themselves thereby Schismaticks before God We hope no ingenuous Person though an Adversary will think the worse of the true Sons of the Church of England for the uncharitable Opinions of some particular Men descended perhaps from dissenting Parents educated in dissenting Times and who never yet sufficiently conquered the Prejudices of their Education if they had they would not maintain such Erastian Positions as these viz. That Christ never appointed any particular Form of Church-Government but left it arbitrary and dependent on the Civil State That Christ Jesus is not to be preach'd if the Magistrate and the Law of the Country forbid it That the King has a Power to execute all Pastoral Offices devolve it on others with many others of the like dangerous consequence which that valiant Champion of Church-Power Mr. Lowth has charg'd upon them and learnedly made good the Charge whereas concerning the last of these Positions neither his present M. nor any of his Predecessors by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy ever thought themselves indow'd with any other Power but that of Nursing Fathers neither do's the true sence of the Oath invest the Civil Magistrate with any other power in Spiritual Matters than what is purely external and coercive if Bishop Bramhal and others may be thought of equal Authority with the Authors there tax'd let them consider in this very juncture of time the consequence of their own Positions and then lay their hands upon their mouths and be for ever after silent or if they please to look backward let them consider what mischiefs the Fathers of the Church had brought upon themselves had they been of this Opinion when Julian and Constantius reign'd had they spent as much time in defending the Church of England as they have in opposing the Church of Rome they would have prov'd themselves as good Subjects to the Father of their Country and as dutiful Sons to their Mother the Church had they given a true account of ancient Church-Government instead of imbroyling us with Irenicum's and Weapon-salves they had purchas'd as much Renown to themselves and more Benefit to Christ's Catholick Church then might we hope to see the Mischiefs of Separation display'd without a Preface of such Concessions as manifestly tend to the destruction of Vniformity and if it be a sign of a luke-warm and ungenerous temper to desert a Friend in affliction that cruel juncture of time in which those Concessions were made does no ways extenuate the Presumption for it deserves no milder a Name for any private Doctor let his Fame he never so great to assume to himself a more than Papal Power to dictate ex Cathedra prescribe to the Church and unfix what has been establisht by her venerable Authority generally receiv'd and approv'd by all her true Subjects then might we not despair to behold and admire the Beauty of the Church of England in all her heights of Decency and Order her Doctrins believ'd her Liturgies daily frequented her Sacraments frequently celebrated her Rubricks duly observ'd her neglected Discipline restored her Censures dreaded her Governours religiously obey'd then might we not despair to see our Controversies in Religion manag'd with all due deference to the Authority of ancient Fathers and Councils general Tradition and the consent of the Catholick Church and consequently with a design to maintain universal Truths rather than our own private Opinions to confute mens Errors rather than expose their Persons and a return of that Christian Spirit which enobled the Writings of Cassander Grotius Forbes and many other Illustrious Conciliators the decay whereof hath widen'd our Breaches and obstructed that Vnion which ought to be the earnest desire endeavor of every good Christian If the Church of England do's not flourish as much in our days as ever it did since the first Reformation the fault must be in our selves since His Majesty in his gracious Declaration has past his Royal Word for the preservation of the Government both of Church and State as it is now by Law established and we cannot in Honor or Duty require more since his Word has always been as Sacred and inviolable to him as his Person and Prerogative ought to be to us wherefore instead of somenting needless Fears and Jalousies concerning our Religion which even in a Coffee-House is dangerous but from the Pulpit do's naturally rise into Disorders and Tumults the people are to be taught the Duties of Submission Humility and Obedience to their Governors both Civil and Spiritual that as Religion is not to be propagated by Force so neither is it lawful to take up Arms against lawful Authority in defence of it they are to be instructed in the Duties of Passive Obedience and non-resistance from the Doctrines of the Scripture the Principles of the Church of England and the Practice of the Primitive Christians when under the severest Persecutions In the same Declaration He is pleas'd further to add That He knows the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy and the Members of it have shew'd themselves good and loyal Subjects therefore he will always take care to defend and support it so that out of his abundant Goodness and Clemency he has confirmed his Word by the surest Tyes of Interest and Princely Gratitude It pleased the Almighty in whose hands are the Fate of the greatest of Potentates to call to Heaven his dearest Brother and to leave him the deepest Mourner in the Nation in that very period of time when they might have promis'd themselves a secure enjoyment of earthly Blessings for had not that glorious Monarch like Moses by an invincible Patience and Magnanimity
THE AUTHORITY OF Church-Guides Asserted in a SERMON Preach'd before our Late GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN King CHARLES II. At Whitehall Octob. 17. 1675. By Miles Barne D. D. Fellow of St. Peters Colledge in Cambridge and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Late MAJESTY Published by His Majesty's Special Command The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Richard Green Bookseller in Cambridge 1685. The Preface to the Reader Reader THIS Sermon being the last which I had the Honor to preach before our late Gracious Sovereign of blessed and immortal Memory and having been so well approv'd of by Him that I receiv'd his Commands twice for the printing of it and his Defence of it after it was published I now again present to publick View yet not without some apprehension of danger for if notwithstanding the Royal Command and Defence of that Sagacious Prince I could not at that time escape the severe strokes of some Potent Men who from the very moment it was first preach'd by secret Arts endeavour'd my ruine and became my Enemies for no other reason but because I told them the truth I have little reason to expect better usage now being to my unspeakable grief destitute of that Royal Patronage The Design of it is to vindicate that Church-Authority which our Lord before he went into his far Country in a most solemn manner conferr'd upon his Apostles and which was to descend upon their Successors and to be continued in the Governors and Guides of the Church unto the end of the World to lessen if not render useless this Sacred Authority especially that part of it which consists in expounding the Scriptures in teaching and guiding the Flock some modern Divine for reasons best known to themselves have advanc'd the Perspicuity of Scripture to that degree that not only the less difficult part thereof but even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves are become easie and intelligible to every Mechanick Reader And it may seem strange that this pretended Clearness of Scripture unknown to those Illustrious Fathers who writ in the first and succeeding Ages of Christianity who with indefatigable Labour painful Watchings and incessant Recourse to the Spirit of Truth endeavoured to explain the deep Mysteries thereof should never be discovered until these last Centuries and then made use of to usher in and support those pestilent Schisms which happened in the Western Churches and is indeed set as a fatal Bar to frustrate all the Methods of Re-union and yet stranger that these Discoverers should be so wilfully blind as not to discern that nothing is more clearly reveal'd or more expresly set down in Holy Writ than the Authority here contended for if the infallible and concurrent Testimony of the Evangelists may be thought of any moment in the case God forbid the Bread of Life should be denied to the Children of the Gospel Covenant but whether the great Master of the Houshold has not appointed Spiritual Fathers to be the Stewards and Dispensers of this Heavenly Food or left the Children to be their own Carvers ought to have been more maturely consider'd for this Bread of Life which is the Word of God is by St. Paul compar'd to a two-edged Sword and if that be put into the hands of unskilful Managers it may prove both fatal to themselves and destructive to others I shall not here trouble you with a review of those Complaints occasioned by the dire Heresies which soon followed upon the first Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue since the Divine Writings cannot be translated into too many Languages and since after the Translation the Supreme Authority might have hindred the mischiefs which insued by restraining the promiscuous reading of them and indulging that Priviledge to those only who should be licens'd thereunto by the Governours of the Church But certainly those men had no very good Design nor a due Honour for the Divine Oracles who first expos'd their mysterious meaning to the Judgment of every vulgar Capacity and yet I would willingly entertain so much Charity for them as to believe the first Inventors did not foresee the dangerous Consequences of their own Principle for from hence it naturally follows in the First place That there is no necessity of Church-Guides for directing Christians in necessary Faith Secondly From hence follows a contempt of their Function at least as to this part of it for who will regard that Authority which is made useless Thirdly An Innundation of all those wild Opinions which either Malice or Ignorance can betray men into Fourthly The multiplying of Sects and Heresies without any due Means left for the suppressing them since every sincere Endeavourer may equally plead the Truth of Scripture in justification of his Opinion This one Principle has turned our Jerusalem which was once a City at Vnity within it self into a Babel not of Languages but what is worse a Confusion of the grossest Errors which ever infested the Church since the Foundation of Christianity and since Latitudinism in Principles is evermore accompanied with Libertinism in Practice Schism in the Church begets Sedition in the Monarchy and an Erastian in the one proves a Republican in the other To this one Principle may be chiefly ascrib'd all the Fatal mischiefs of the late unnatural Wars and the dreadful Confusions intended by the last Fanatick Conspiracy which we so narrowly escap'd that we can scarce yet think our selves secure from the danger of it for since the Translation of the Bible into our Language and the promiscuous Reading of it what Schismatick ever wanted a Text of his own interpreting to countenance his Schism or Rebel to authorize his Rebellion The Peace and Vnity of the Catholick Church ought to be dearer to every good Christian than the greatest temporal Blessings or even Life it self How far this has been obstructed by the envenom'd Writings and Erastian Principles of some modern Controvertists I wish we had not too just cause to lament and that in their Transports of indiscreet Zeal and even inhuman◠Passions they had not wounded the Catholick through the sides of the Roman Church for not contented t◠throw off an Vniversal Supremacy unduly challenged by St. Peter's Successors as the Prerogative of the first Apostolical See they have denied that Primacy of Order that Exordium Unitatis which is both consistent with St. Cyprian's Hoc erant utique caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis c. allow'd by the most genuine Sons of the Church of England and which is necessary for the supporting the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and without which that Vnity of the Church which the Holy Father so earnestly contends for cannot so well be preserv'd not contented with this Degradation of his Holiness they have proceeded further and made him the Antichrist the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition notwithstanding all the Phaenomena of the Apocalyptical false Prophet do so exactly agree to Mahomet as the ingenious
that we have to deal with men of such a sceptical Genius as that they do not only inquire into the Grounds and Reasons of our Faith but moreover deny our very Creed with whom a Treatise of Humane Reason is of more Force than the Revelation of St. John the Divine To the Consideration of these Men I offer Two Things which I judge most proper I. First The Answer which Origen made to Celsus when 't was objected by that Calumniator against the Christians that their Religion was built on a very sandy Foundation which durst not undergo the Test of Reason but commanded its Converts not to Examine but Believe and their Faith should Save them In part he owns the Objection but wisely retorts it upon his Adversary by telling him that the Philosophers were the greatest Dictators in the World Witness the Ipse dixit of Pythagoras that their Systems contain'd some such secret Dogmata which their Disciples swallowed solely upon the Credit of their Masters And if the Masters of the Wisdom of this World which is either Foolishness or at best but Science falsly so called required so great submission from their Scholars how much greater is to be given to those Doctrines which are contain'd in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles who were Taught of God and spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost II. Secondly I urge the Authority of my Lord Bacon whose if any methinks should be admitted by these Virtuosi in Religion The Divine Prerogative saith he extends it self to the whole Man and requires not only Obedience from our Wills but Submission from our Understandings And therefore as we are bound to obey the Divine Law though our Wills reluct never so much against it so are we obliged to believe whatsoever God hath reveal'd though never so improbable to our Understandings For if we believe no more than what we can demonstrate to be true we do not believe the Truth deliver'd for the Authors sake but the Author for the Truths sake and so we pay no more Respect to the Oracles of God than we do to the Writings of Men though never so much suspected by us The Faith which justified Abraham was conversant in a matter incredible to Reason And therefore the higher the Mysteries of Religion are above our Reason the greater is the exercise and triumph of our Faith and the Honour done unto God in Believing To conclude this Point Great is the use of Reason in Religion both as to the manner of interpreting the Scriptures and the deducing true Consequences and wholesom Conclusions from thence and if it be wholly suppress'd our Religion will degenerate into Superstition we shall be so far from paying God a Reasonable Service that we shall offer Him the Sacrifice of Fools But then it must be kept to a due temper for if it be not managed by prudent Guides 't is apt to grow wild and extravagant to hurry us on to a Belief of the Foulest Impostures to a Practice of the Grossest Impieties which either the prevalency of the World the domineering Enmity of the Flesh or the implacable Malice of Satan can propound to be believed or practis'd II. The second Reason of private Mens falling into Error is their Instability in not adhering to their Guides but forsaking them to go astray in the intricate paths of Error and Deceit Heresie being nothing else but an Excision from and Disobedience to the Church in points of Faith And therefore the Apostle pronounceth an Heretick Self-condemned one who hath want only chosen to himself those Opinions for an obstinate Defence whereof after full and plain means of Conviction he justly falls under the Censures of the Church is Excommunicated the Assembly of the Saints and so without Repentance and Reconciliation continues in a very dangerous estate if that of Heathens and Publicans be acknowledg'd such Not in vain then are those frequent Cautions against Falling away those repeated Admonitions to Perseverance those earnest Exhortations to hold fast the Profession and contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd those so much inculcated Commands of obeying those who are set Over us in the Lord Heb. 13.7 Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow Ver. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls For in vain may those men commit themselves to the immediate Assistance of God who neglect to hear his Guides and violate His Commandments in hopes to procure His help and favour For from that very moment of time they cease to be Members of the Holy Catholick Church they are become Out-lawries in a Gospel-sense they have lost the Protection of the Heavenly King and they lay under the Deprivation of the Benefits belonging to the Subjects of that Jerusalem which is above And what wonder if being in this forlorn condition the Tempter take his advantage lead them into the Wilderness and there present to their disturb'd Fancies false Schemes of Religion suggest unworthy apprehensions of God and whatsoever is by him thus suggested is by them mistaken for new Light and holy Inspirations And because this Spirit of Delusion dares put forth among Christians no Doctrines but such as pretend to be founded on the Scriptures to this purpose they are wrested and tortur'd their Scope is mistaken their Sense abused their Periods miserably mangled their whole Design perverted to countenance every Wild Opinion which either a capricious Fancy can imagine or a malicious Wit invent And from hence it comes to pass that we have as many several sorts of Christians as there are different Humors or Interests of men and the Gospel with St. Paul though in a quite contrary sense is become all things unto all men And having made thus bold with the Scriptures it cannot be expected that they should deal more modestly with any Authority inferiour to that the most ancient Traditions must now give place to new Discoveries The Consent of the Catholick Apostolick Church be born down by the Dictates of a private I might say familiar Spirit Whereas there is all the reason in the World to believe that the Apostles best knew the mind of their Master that they faithfully and fully communicated their knowledge to their Successors and so by certain steps and degrees we may arrive at this fundamental Truth That as the Church is the most faithful Keeper so the most authentick Expositor of Scripture Which fairly ushers in my third and last Consideration That for the preventing Mistakes from rising and suppressing Errors when risen 'T is the duty of Private Men to submit their Judgments in matters of Religion to the Determinations of those whom God hath Constituted to be their Spiritual Guides and Governours unless it manifestly appear That such Determinations are contrary to Gods Word And this I shall assert very briefly both from the Qualifications of the Persons who