not err in discharging their Commission and the Terms of the Covenant of Grace being thus settled by them all who were to succeed them were also empowered to go on with the Publication of this Pardon and of those glad Tidings to the World So that whatsoever they declared in the Name of God conform to the Tenor of that which the Apostles were to settle should be always made good We do also acknowledge that the Pastors of the Church have in the way of Censure and Government a Ministerial Authority to remit or to retain Sins as they are Matters of Scandal or Offence tho' that indeed does not seem to be the meaning of those Words of our Saviour and therefore we think that the power of pardoning and retaining is only declaratory so that all the exercises of it are are then only effectual when the Declarations of the Pardon are made conform to the Conditions of the Gospel This Doctrine of ours how much soever decried of late in the Roman Church as striking at the Root of the Priestly Authority yet has been maintained by some of their best Authors and some of the greatest of their School-men Thus we have seen upon what reason it is that we do not conclude from hence that Auricular Confession is necessary in which we think that we are fully confirmed by the Practice of many of the Ages of theChristian Church which did not understand these words as containing anObligation to Secret Confession It is certain that the Practice and Tradition of the Church must be relied on here if in any thing since there was nothing that both Clergy and Laity were more concerned both to know and to deliver down faithfully than this on which the Authority of the one and the Salvation of the other depended so much Such a Point as this could never have been forgot or mistaken many and clear Rules must have been given about it It is a thing to which Humane Nature has so much repugnancy that it must in the first forming of Churches have been infused into them as absolutely necessary in order to Pardon and Salvation A Church could not now be formed according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome without very full and particular Instructions both to Priests and People concerning Confession and Absolution It is the most intricate Part of their Divinity and that which the Clergy must be most ready at In Opposition to all this let it be considered that though there is a great deal said in the New Testament concerning Sorrow for Sin Repentance and Remission of Sins yet there is not a Word said nor a Rule given concerning Confession to be made to a Priest and Absolution to be given by him There is indeed a Passage in St. Iames's Epistle relating to Confession but it is to one another not restrained to the Priest James 5.16 as the Word rendred Faults seems to signify those Offences by which others are wronged in which case Confession is a degree of Reparation and so is sometimes necessary but whatever may be in this it is certain that the Confession which is there appointed to be made is a thing that was to be mutual among Christians and it is not commanded in order to Absolution but in order to the procuring the Intercessions of other good Men and therefore it is added and Pray for one another By the words that follow that ye may be healed joyned with those that went before concerning the Sick it seems the Direction given by St. Iames belongs principally to Sick Persons and the conclusion of the whole Period shews That it relates only to the private Prayers of good Men for one another The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much So that this place does not at all belong to Auricular Confession or Absolution Nor does there any Prints appear before the Apostacies that happened in the Persecution of Decius of the Practice even of confessing such heinous Sins as had been publickly committed Then arose the famous contests with the Novatians concerning the receiving the lapsed into the Communion of the Church again It was concluded not to exclude them from the hopes of Mercy or of Reconciliation yet it was resolved not to do that till they had been kept at a distance for some time from the Holy Communion at last they were admitted to make their Confession and so they were received to the Communion of the Church This time was shortned and many things were past over to such as shewed a deep and sincere Repentance and one of the Characters of a true Repentance upon which they were always treated with a great distinction of Favour was if they came and first accused themselves This shewed that they were deeply affected with the Sense of their Sins when they would not bear the load of them but became their own Accusers and discovered their Sins There are several Canons that make a difference in the degrees and time of the Penance between those who had accused themselves and those against whom their Sins were proved A great deal of this strain occurs often in the Writings of the Fathers which plainly shews that they did not look on the necessity of an Enumeration of all their Sins as commanded by God Otherwise it would have been enforced with Considerations of another nature than that of shortning their Penance The first occasion that was given to the Church to exercise thisDiscipline was from the frequent Apostacies into which many had lapsed during the Persecutions and when these went off another sort of Disorders began to break in upon the Church and to defile it Great numbers followed the Example of their Princes and became Christians but a mixed Multitude came among them so that there were many Scandals amongst that Body which had been formerly remarkable for the purity of their Morals and the strictness of their Lives It was the chief business of all those Councils that met in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries to settle many Rules concerning the degrees and time of Penance the Censures both of the Clergy and Laity the Orders of the Penitents and the Methods of receiving them to the Communion of the Church In some of those Councils they denied Reconciliation after some sins even to the last though the general Practice was to receive all at their Death Dallaeus de Confessione Morinus de Poenitentia but while they were in a good state of Health they kept them long in Penance in a publick Separation from the Common Priviledges of Christians and chiefly from the Holy Sacrament and under severe Rules and that for several Years more or fewer according to the Nature of their Sins and the Characters of their Repentance of which a free and unextorted Confession being one of the chief this made many prevent that and come in of their own accord to confess their sins which was much encouraged and magnified Confession was at first made
Testament answered 84 Concerning the various Readings 85 The nature and degrees of Inspiration 86 Concerning the Historical parts of Scripture 87 Concerning the Reasonings in Scripture 88 Of the Apocryphal Books 89 ARTICLE VII 91 NO difference between the Old and New Testament Ibid. Proofs in the Old Testament of the Messias 92 In the Prophets chiefly in Daniel 94 The Proofs all summed up 95 Objections of the Jews answered 96 The hopes of anotheâ— Life in the Old Testament 97 Our Saviour proved the Resurrection from the words to Moses 98 Expiation of Sin in the Old Dispensation 99 Sins then expiated by the Blood of Christ Ibid. Of the Rites and Ceremonies among the Jews 100 Of their Iudiciary Laws 101 Of the Moral Law Ibid. The Principles of Morality 102 Of Idolatry 103 Concerning the Sabbath Ibid. Of the Second Table 104 Of not coveting what is our Neighbours 105 ARTICLE VIII 106 COncerning the Creed of Athanasius Ibid. And the condemning Clauses in it Ibid. Of the Apostles Creed 107 ARTICLE IX 108 DIfferent Opinions concerning Original Sin Ibid. All men liable to Death by it 109 A Corruption spread through the whole Race of Adam Ibid. Of the state of Innocence 110 Of the effects of Adam's Fall 111 God's Iustice vindicated 112 Of the Imputation of Adam's Sin 113 St. Austin's Doctrine in this Point 114 This is opposed by many others Ibid. Both sides pretend their Doctrines agree with the Article 116 ARTICLE X. 117 THE true Notion of Liberty Ibid. The Feebleness of our present state 118 Inward Assistances promised in the New Covenant 119 The effect that these have on men 120 Concerning Preventing-Grace Ibid. Of its being efficacious or universal 121 ARTICLE XI 122 COncerning Iustification Ibid. Concerning Faith 123 The differences between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in this Point 124 The conditions upon which men are justified 126 The use to be made of this Doctrine 127 ARTICLE XII 128 THE necessity of Holiness Ibid. Concerning Merit 129 Of the defects of Good Works Ibid. ARTICLE XIII 131 ACTIONS in themselves good yet may be sins in him who does them Ibid. Of the Seventh Chapter to the Romans 132 This is not a total Incapacity Ibid. ARTICLE XIV 133 Oâ— the great extent of our Duty Ibid. No Counsels of Perfection 134 Many Duties which do not bind at all times Ibid. It is not possible for man to supererogate 135 Objections against this answered 136 The steps by which that Doctrine prevailed 137 ARTICLE XV. 138 CHrist's spotless Holiness Ibid. Of the Imperfections of the best men 139 ARTICLE XVI 140 COncerning Mortal and Venial Sin Ibid. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Ibid. Of the Pardon of Sin after Baptism 141 That as God forgives the Church ought also to forgive 142 Concerning Apostacy and sin unto Death 143 ARTICLE XVII 145 THE state of the Question 146 The Doctrine of the Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians Ibid. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the Socinians 147 This is a Controversy that arises out of Natural Religion Ibid. The History of this Controversy both in ancient and modern times 148 The Arguments of the Supralapsarians 152 The Arguments of the Sublapsarians 158 The Arguments of the Remonstrants 159 They affirm a certain Prescience 161 The Socinians Plea 164 General Reflections on the whole matter 165 The advantages and disadvantages of both sides and the faults of both 166 In what both do agree 167 The sense of the Article 168 The Cautions added to it Ibid. Passages in the Liturgy explained 169 ARTICLE XVIII 171 PHilosophers thought men might be saved in all Religions Ibid. So do the Mahometans Ibid. None are saved but by Christ 172 Whether some may not be saved by him who never heard of him Ibid. None are in Covenant with God but through the knowledge of Christ 173 But for others we cannot judge of the extent of the Mercies of God Ibid. Curiosity is to be restrained 174 ARTICLE XIX 175 WE ought not to believe that any are Infallible without good Authority Ibid. Iust prejudices against some who pretend to it 176 No Miracles brought to prove this Ibid. Proofs brought from Scripture 177 Things to be supposed previous to these Ibid. A Circle is not to be admitted Ibid. The Notes given of the true Church 178 These are examined Ibid. And whether they do agree to the Church of Rome 179 The Truth of Doctrine must be first settled Ibid. A Society that has a true Baptism is a true Church 180 Sacraments are not annulled by every Corruption Ibid. We own the Baptism and Orders given in the Church of Rome 181 And yet justify our separating from them Ibid. Objections against private judging 182 Our Reasons are given us for that end Ibid. Our Minds are free as our Wills are 183 The Church is still Visible but not Infallible Ibid. Of the Popes Infallibility 184 That was not pretended to in the first Ages Ibid. The Dignity of Sees rose from the Cities 185 Popes have fallen into Heresy Ibid. Their Ambition and Forgeries Ibid. Their Cruelty 186 The Power of deposing Princes claimed by them as given them by God Ibid. This was not a Corruption only of Discipline but of Doctrine 187 Arguments for the Popes Infallibility 188 No Foundation for it in the New Testament Ibid. St. Peter never clâ—imed it 189 Christ's words to him explained Ibid. Of the Kâ—ys of the Kingdâ—m of Hâ—â—vâ—n 190 Of binding and loosing Ibid. ARTICLE XX. 192 OF Church Power in Rituals Ibid. The Practice of the Jewish Church 193 Changes in these sometimes necâ—ssary Ibid. The Practice of the Ap stles 194 Sâ—bjâ—cts must obey in lawful things Ibid. But Superiâ—rs must not impose too much 195 The Church has Authority though not Infallible Ibid. Great Respâ—ct due to her Decisions 196 But no absâ—lute Submâ—ssion Ibid. The Church is the Depâ—sitary of the Scriptures 197 The Church of Rome run in a Circle Ibid. ARTICLE XXI 199 COuncils cannot be called but by the Consent of Princes Ibid. Tâ—e first were called by the Roman Emperors Ibid. Afterwards the Popes called them 200 Then some Councils thought on methods to fix their meeting Ibid. What makâ—s a Council to be General Ibid. What numbers are necessary 201 Hâ—w thâ—y must he cited Ibid. Nâ— Rules given in Scripture concerning their Constitution Ibid. Nazianzen's Complaints of Councils 202 Councils have been câ—ntrary to one another Ibid. Disâ—rders and Intriguâ—s in Councils Ibid. They judgâ— not by Inspiration Ibid. The Churches may examine their proceedings and judge of them 203 Concerning the Popes Bull confirming them Ibid. Thâ—y have an Authority but not absolute Ibid. Nâ—r do they need the Popes Bulls 204 The several Churches know their Traditions best Ibid. The Fathers do argue for the truth of the decisions but not from their authority Ibid. No prospect of another General Council 205 Popes are jealous of them Ibid. And the World expects little from them Ibid. Concerning the words
Saviour's words Ibid. The discourse Joh. 6. explained 312 It can only be understood spiritually 313 Bold Figures much used in the East Ibid. A plain thing needs no great proof 314 Of unworthy Receivers and the effect of that sin 315 Of the effects of worthy receiving Ibid. Of Foederal Symbols 316 Of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Ibid. Of the like Phrases in Scripture 317 Of our Sense of the Phrase Real Presence Ib. Transubstantiation explained 318 Of the words of Consecration 319 Of the Consequences of Transubstantiation Ibid. The grounds upon which it was believed 320 This is contrary to the Testimony of all our Faculties both Sense and Reason Ibid. We can be sure of nothing if our Senses do deceive us 321 The Objection from believing Mysteries answered 322 The end of all Miracles considered Ibid. Our Doctrine of a Mystical Presence is confessed by those of the Church of Rome 323 St. Austin's Rule about Figures Ibid. Presumptions concerning the belief of the Ancients in this matter 324 They had not that Philosophy which this Doctrine has forced on the Church of Rome 325 This was not objected by Heathens 326 No Heresies or Disputes arose upon this as they did on all other Points 327 Many new Rituals unknown to them have sprung out of this Doctrine Ibid. In particular the adoring the Sacrament 328 Prayers in the Masses of the Saints inconsistent with it Ibid. They believed the Elements were Bread and Wine after Consecration Ibid. Many Authorities brought for this 329 Eutychians said Christ's Humanity was swallowed of his Divinity 330 The Fathers argue against this from the Doctrine of the Eucharist Ibid. The Force of that Argument explained 331 The Fathers say our Bodies are nourished by the Sacrament Ibid. They call it the Type Sign and Figure of the Body and Blood of Christ 332 The Prayer of Consecration calls it so 333 That compared with the Prayer in the Missal Ibid. The progress of the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence 334 Reflection on the Ages in which it grew 335 The occasion on which it was advanced in the Eastern Church 336 Paschase Radbert taught it first 337 But many wrote against him Ibid. Afterwards Berengarius opposed it 338 The Schoolmen descanted on it Ibid. Philosophy was corrupted to support it 339 Concerning Consubstantiation Ibid. It is an Opinion that may be born with 340 The Adoration of the Eucharist is Idolatry Ibid. The Plea against that considered Ibid. Christ is not to be worshipped though present 341 Concerning reserving the Sacrament Ibid. Concerning the Elevation of it 342 ARTICLE XXIX 343 THE wicked do not receive Christ Ibid. The Doctrine of the Fathers in this Point Ibid. More particularly St. Austin's 344 ARTICLE XXX 345 THE Chalice was given to all Ibid. Not to the Disciples as Priests Ibid. The breaking of Bread explained 346 Sacraments must be given according to the Institution Ibid. Nâ— Arguments from ill consequences to be admitted unless in cases of necessity 347 Concomitance a new Notion Ibid. Vniversal practice for giving the Chalice Ibid. The case of the Agrarii 348 The first beginning of taking away the Cup Ibid. The Decree of the Council of Constance 349 ARTICLE XXXI 350 THE term Sacrifice of a large signification Ibid. The Primitive Christians denied that they had any Sacrifices Ibid. The Eucharist has no virtue but as it is a Communion 351 Strictly speaking there is only one Priest and one Sacrifice in the Christian Religion 352 The Fathers did not think the Eucharist was a Propitiatory Sacrifice 353 But call it a Sacrafice in a larger sense Ibid. Mâ—sses without a Communion not known then 354 None might be at Mass who did not communicate Ibid. The Importance of the Controversies concerning the Eucharist 355 ARTICLE XXXII 356 NO Divine Law against a Married Clergy Ibid. Neither in the Old or New Testament but the contrary 357 The Church has not Power to make a perpetual Law against it Ibid. The ill consequences of such a Law 358 No such Law in the first Ages Ibid. When the Laws for the Celibate began 359 The practice of the Church not uniform in it Ibid. The progress of these Laws in England 360 The good and the bad of Celibate balanced Ibid. It is not lawful to make Vows in this matter 361 Nor do they bind when made Ibid. Oaths ill made are worse to be kept 362 ARTICLE XXXIII 363 A Temper to be observed in Church Discipline Ibid. The necessity of keeping it up Ibid. Extremes in this to be avoided 364 Concerning the delivering any to Satan Ibid. The Importance of an Anathemea 365 Of the effect of Church-Censures Ibid. What it is when they are wrong applied 366 The causless jealousy of Church-Power Ibid. How the Laity was once taken into the exercise of it 367 The Pastors of the Church have Authority Ibid. Defects in this no just cause of Separation 368 All these brought in by Popery Ibid. A Correction of them intended at the Reformation 369 ARTICLE XXXIV 370 THE Obligation to obey Canons and Laws Ibid. The great Sin of Schism and Disobedience 371 The true Notion of Scandal Ibid. The fear of giving Scandal no warrant to break established Laws 372 Human Laws are not unalterable Ibid. The Respect due to Ancient Canons 373 The Corruptions of the Canon Law Ibid. Great Varieties in Rituals Ibid. Every Church is a compleat Body 374 ARTICLE XXXV 375 THE occasion of compiling the Homilies Ibid. We are not bound to every thing in them Ibid. But only to the Doctrine 376 This illustrated in the Charge of Idolatry Ib. What is meant by their being necessary for those times Ibid. ARTICLE XXXVI 377 THE occasion of this Article Ibid. An Explanation of the words Receive ye the Holy Ghost 378 ARTICLE XXXVII 379 QVeen Elizabeth's Injunction concerning the Supremacy Ibid. The Popes Vniversal Iurisdiction not warranted by any of the Laws of Christ 380 Nor acknowledged in the first Ages 381 Begun on the occasion of the Arian Controversy Ibid. Contested in many places 382 The Progress that it made Ibid. The Patriarchal Authority founded on the division of the Roman Empire sunk with it 383 The Power exercised by the Kings of Judah in Religious Matters Ibid. That is founded on Scriptures 384 Practised in all Ages Ibid. And particularly in England 385 Methods used by Popish Princes to keep the Ecclesiastical Authority under the Civil Ibid. The Temporal Power is over all persons 386 And in all causes Ibid. The Importance of the Term Head 387 The Necâ—ssity of Capital Punishments Ibid. The measure of these 388 The Lawfulness of War Ibid. Our Saviour's words explained Ibid. In what cases War is juâ—t 389 Warranted by the Laws of God 390 How a Subject may serve in an unlawful War Ibid. ARTICLE XXXVIII 391 COncerning Property and Charity Ibid. The Proportion of Charity to the Poor 392 ARTICLE XXXIX 393 THE Lawfulness of Oaths proved Ibid. From Natural Religion and
Holy Ghost it must be understood of the Father for when the Father is named with Christ sometimes he is called God simply and sometimes God the Father This Argument from the Threefold Salutation appears yet stronger in the Words in which St. Iohn addresses himself to the Seven Churches in the beginning of the Revelations Rev. 1.4 5. Grace and Peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ. By the Seven Spirits must be meant one or more Persons since he wishes or declares Grace and Peace from them Now either this must be meant of Angels or of the Holy Ghost There are no where Prayers made or Blessings given in the Name of Angels This were indeed a worshipping them against which there are express Authorities not only in the other Books of the New Testament but in this Book in particular Nor can it be imagined that Angels could have been named before Iesus Christ So then it remains that Seven being a Number that imports both Variety and Perfection and that was the Sacred Number among the Iews this is a Mystical Expression which is no extraordinary thing in a Book that is all over mysterious And it imports one Person from whom all that variety of Gifts Administrations and Operations that were then in the Church did flow And this is the Holy Ghost But as to his being put in order before Christ as upon the supposition of an Equality the going out of the common order is no great matter so since there was to come after this a full Period that concerned Christ it might be a natural way of Writing to name him last Against all this it is objected That the Designation that is given to the first of these in a Circumlocution that imports Eternity shews that the Great God and not the Person of the Father is to be meant But then how could St. Iohn writing to the Churches wish them Grace and Peace from the other Two A few Verses after this the same Description of Eternal Duration is given to Christ and is a strong Proof of his Eternity and by consequence of his Divinity So what is brought so soon after as a Character of the Eternity of the Son may be also here used to denote the Eternal Father These are the Chief Places in which the Trinity is mentioned all together I do not insist on that contested Passage of St. Iohn's Epistle There are great doubtings made about it 1 Joh. 5.7 The main ground of doubting being the Silence of the Fathers who never made use of it in the Disputes with the Arians and Macedonians There are very considerable things urged on the other hand to support the Authority of that Passage yet I think it is safer to build upon sure and undisputable grounds So I leave it to be maintained by others who are more fully persuaded of its being Authentical There is no need of it This matter is capable of a very full Proof whether that Passage is believed to be a part of the Canon or not It is no small Confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine that we are certain it was universally received over the whole Christian Church long before there was either a Christian Prince to support it by his Authority or a Council to establish it by Consent And indeed the Council of Nice did nothing but declare what was the Faith of the Christian Church with the addition only of the Word Consubstantial For if all the other Words of the Creed settled at Nice are acknowledged to be true that of the Three Persons being of one Substance will follow from thence by a just consequence We know both by what Tertullian and Novatian writ what was the Faith both of the Roman and the African Churches From Irenaeus we gather the Faith both of the Gallican and the Asiatick Churches And the whole proceedings in the Case of Samosatenus that was the solemnest business that past while the Church was under Oppression and Persecution give us the most convincing Proof possible not only of the Faith of the Eastern Churches at that time but of their Zeal likewise in watching against every Breach that was made in so Sacred a part of their Trust and Depositum These things have been fully opened and enlarged on by others to whom the Reader is referred I shall only desire him to make this Reflection on the state of Christianity at that time The Disputes that were then to be managed with the Heathens against the Deifying or Worshipping of Men and those extravagant Fables concerning the Genealogies of their Heroes and Gods must have obliged the Christians rather to have silenced and supprest the Doctrine of the Trinity than to have owned and published it So that nothing but their being assured that it was a Necessary and Fundamental Article of their Faith could have led them to own it in so publick a manner since the Advantages that the Heathen would have taken from it must be too visible not to be soon observed The Heathens retorted upon them their Doctrine of a Man's being a God and of God's having a Son And every one who engaged in this Controversy framed such Answers to these Objections as he thought he could best maintain This as it gave the Rise to the Errors which some brought into the Church so it furnishes us with a Copious Proof of the common Sense of the Christians of those Ages who all agreed in general to the Doctrine though they had many different and some very Erroneous ways of explaining it among them I now come to the special Proofs concerning each of the Three Persons But there being other Articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghost the Proofs of these Two will belong more properly to the Explanation of those Articles Therefore all that belongs to this Article is to prove that the Father is truly God but that needs not be much insisted on for there is no dispute about it None deny that he is God many think that he is so truly God that there is no other that can be called God besides him unless it be in a larger sense of the word And therefore I will here conclude all that seems necessary to be said on this first Article on which if I have dwelt the longer it was because the stating the Idea of God right being the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the Key into every part of it this was to be done with all the Fulness and Clearness possible In a word to recapitulate a little what has been said The liveliest way of framing an Idea of God is to consider our own Souls which are said to be made after the Image of God An attentive Reflection on what we perceive in our selves will carry us further than any other thing whatsoever to form just and true Thoughts of God We perceive what Thought is but
an Oral Tradition which they themselves had not put in writing They do sometimes refer themselves to such things as they had delivered to particular Churches but by Tradition in the Apostles days and for some Ages after it is very clear that they meant only the conveyance of the Faith and not any unwritten Doctrines They reckoned the Faith was a sacred depositum which was committed to them and that was to be preserved pure among them But it were very easy to shew in the continued Succession of all the first Christian Writers That they still Appealed to the Scriptures That they Argued from them That they Condemned all Doctrines that were not contained in them and when at any time they brought human Authorities to justify their Opinions or Expressions they contented themselves with a very few and those very late Authorities So that their design in vouching them seems to be rather to clear themselves from the Imputation of having innovated any thing in the Doctrine or in the ways of expressing it than that they thought those Authorities were necessary to prove them by For in that case they must have taken a great deal more pains than they did to have followed up and proved the Tradition much higher than they went We do also plainly see that such Traditions as were not founded on Scripture were easily corrupted and on that account were laid aside by the succeeding Ages Such were the Opinion of Christ's Reign on Earth for a Thousand years The Saints not seeing God till the Resurrection The necessity of giving Infants the Eucharist The Divine Inspiration of the 70 Interpreters besides some more important Matters which in respect to those Times are not to be too much descanted upon It is also plain That the Gnosticks the Valentinians and other Hereticks began very early to set up a Pretension to a Tradition delivered by the Apostles to some particular persons as a Key for understanding the secret meanings that might be in Scripture in opposition to which both Irenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. I. 3. c. 1 2 3 4 5. Tertul. de presc Cap. 20 21 25 27 28. make use of Two sorts of Arguments The one is the Authority of the Scripture it self by which they confuted their Errors The other is a Point of Fact That there was no such Tradition In asserting this they appeal to those Churches which had been founded by the Apostles and in which a Succession of Bishops had been continued down They say in these we must search for Apostolical Tradition This was not said by them as if they had designed to establish Tradition as an Authority distinct from or equal to the Scriptures But only to shew the falshood of that pretence of the Hereticks and that there was no such Tradition for their Heresies as they gave out When this whole Matter is considered in all its parts such as 1 st That nothing is to be believed as an Article of Faith unless it appears to have been Revealed by God 2 dly That Oral Tradition appâ—ars both from the Nature of Man and the Experience of former Times to be an incompetent conveâ—er of Truth 3 dly That some Books were written for the conveyance of those Matters which have been in all Ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred 4 thly That the Writers of the First Ages do always Argue from and Appeal to these Books And 5 thly That what they have said without Authority from them has been rejected in succeeding Ages the Truth of this Branch of our Article is fully made out If what is contain'd in theScripture in express words is theObject of our Faith then it will follow That whatsoever may be proved from thence by a just and lawful consequence is also to be believed Men may indeed Err in framing these Consequences and Deductions they may mistake or stretch them too far but though there is much Sophistry in the World yet there is also true Logick and a certain Thread of Reasoning And the sense of every Proposition being the same whether expressed always in the same or in different words then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture is an Object of Faith tho it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture and every just Inference from it must be as true as the Proposition it self is Therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article That was the Method of all the Anciâ—nt Hereticks Christ and his Apostles Argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them and so did all the Fathers and therefore so may we do The great Objection to this is That the Scriptures are dark That the same place is capable of different Senses the Literal and the Mystical And therefore since we cannot understand the true Sense of the Scripture we must not Arguefrom it but seek for an Interpreterofit on whom we may depend All Sects Argue from thence and fancy that they find their Tenets in it And therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred Truth since so many do err that follow it In Answer to this it is to be considered That the Old Testament was delivered to the whole Nation of the Iews that Moses was read in the Synagogue in the hearing of the Women and Children that whole Nation was to take their Doctrine and Rules from it All Appeals wâ—re made to the Law and to the Prophets among them And though the Propâ—â—cies of the Old Testament were in their Stile and whole Contexture dark and hard to be understood yet when so great a Question as this Who was the true Messias came to be examined the proofs urged for it were Passages in the Old Testament Now the Question was How these were to be understood No Appeal was here made to Tradition or to Church-Authority but only by the Enemies of our Saviour Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense and in the consequences that arose out of them They did in that Appeal to the rational Faculties of those to whom they spoke The Christian Religion was at first delivered to poor and simple Multitudes who were both illiterate and weak the Epistles which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament were Addressed to the whole Churches to all the Faithful or Saints that is to all the Christians in those Churches These were afterwards read in all thâ—ir Assemblies Upon this it may reasonably be asked Were these Writings clear in that Age or were they not If they were not it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole Body and how they came to be received and entertained as they were It is the End of Speech and Writing to make things to be understood and it is not supposable That Men Inspired by the Holy Ghost either could not or would
a Foederal State of Salvation but Christians To them is given the Covenant of Grace and to them the promises of God are made and offered So that they have a certainty of it upon their performing those conditions that are put in the promises All others are out of this Promise to whom the Tidings of it were never brought but yet a great difference is to be made between them and those who have been invited to this Covenant and admitted to the outward Profession and the common Privileges of it and that yet have in effect rejected it These are under such positive denunciations of Wrath and Judgment that there is no room left for any charitable Thoughts or Hopes concerning them So that if any part of the Gospel is true that must be also true that they are under Condemnation Joh. 3.19 for having lov d darkness more than light when the Light shone upon them and visitâ—d them But as for them whom God has left in Darkness they are certainly out of the Covenant out of those Promises and Declarations that are made in it So that they have no Foederal Right to be saved neither can we affirm that they shall be saved But on the other hand they are not under those positive denunciations because they were never made to them Therefore since God has not declared that they shall be damned no more ought we to take upon us to damn them Instead of stretching the severity of Justice by an Inference we may rather venter to stretch the Mercy of God since that is the Attribute which of all others is the most Magnificently spoken of in the Scriptures So that we ought to think of it in the largest and most comprehensive manner But indeed the most proper way is for us to stop where the Revelation of God stops And not to be wise beyond what is written but to leave the secrets of God as Mysteries too far above us to examine or to sound their depth We do certainly know on what terms we our selves shall be saved or damned And we ought to be contented with that and rather study to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling than to let our minds run out into uncertain Speculations concerning the Measures and the Conditions of God's uncovenanted Mercies We ought to take all possible care that we our selves come not into Condemnation rather than to define positively of others who must or who must not be condemned It is therefore enough to fix this according to the Design of the Article That it is not to free Men to chuse at pleasure what Religion they will as if that were left to them or that all Religions were alike which strikes at the Foundation and undermines the Truth of all Revealed Religion None are within the Covenant of Grace but true Christians and all are excluded out of it to whom it is offered who do not receive and believe it and live according to it So in a word all that are saved are saved through Christ but whether all these shall be called to the Explicite Knowledge of him is more than we have any good ground to affirm Nor are we to go into that other Question Whether any that are only in a state of Nature live fully up to its Light This is that about which we can have no certainty no more than whether there may be a Common Grace given to them all proportioned to their State and to the Obligations of it This in general may be safely believed That God will never be wanting to such as do their utmost endeavours in order to the saving of their Souls But that as in the Case of Cornelius an Angel will be sent and a Miracle be wrought rather than that such a Person shall be left to perish But whether any of them do ever arrive at that state is more than we can determine and it is a vain attempt for us to endeavour to find it out ARTICLE XIX Of the Church The Uisible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith THIS Article together with some that follow it Relates to the Fundamental difference between us and the Church of Rome They teaching that we are to judge of Doctrines by the Authority and the Decisions of the Church whereas we affirm That we are first to examine the Doctrine and according to that to judge of the Purity of a Church Somewhat was already said on the Sixth Article relating to this matter What remains is now to be considered The whole Question is to be reduced to this Point Whether we ought to Examine and Judge of Matters of Religion according to the Light and Faculty of judging that we have or if we are bound to submit in all things to the Decision of the Church Here the matter must be determined against private Judgment by very express and clear Authorities other wise the other side proves it self For we having naturally a Faculty of judging for our selves and using it in all other things this freedom being the greatest of all our other Rights must be still asserted unless it can be made appear that God has in some things put a Bar upon it by his Supreme Authority That Authority must be very express if we are required to submit to it in a Point of such vast Importance to us We do also see that Men are apt to be mistaken and are apt likewise willingly to mistake and to mislead others and that particularly in matters of Religion the World has been so much imposed upon and abused that we cannot be bound to submit to any sort of persons implicitely without very good and clear grounds that do assure us of their Infallibility Otherwise we have just reason to suspect that in matters of Religion chiefly in Points in which Human Interests are concerned Men may either through Ignorance and Weakness or Corruption and on Design abuse and mislead us So that the Authorities or Proofs of this Infallibility must be very express since we are sure no Man nor Body of Men can have it among them but by a Privilege from God and a Privilege of so extraordinary a nature must be given if at all in very plain and with very evident Characters since without these Human Nature cannot and ought not to be so tame as to receive it We must not draw it from an Inference because we think we need it and cannot be safe without it That therefore it must be so because if it were not so great Disorder would arise from the want of it This is certainly a wrong way of arguing
condemn them of Heresy and to proceed against them with Church-Censures but that they had a Power to depose them to absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and to transfer their Dominions to such Persons as should undertake to execute their Sentences Tâ—is they have often put in execution and have constantly kept up their 〈…〉 it to this day It will not serve them to get clear here to say That these were the violent Practices of some Popes What they did in many particular Instances may be so turned off and left as a Blemish on the Memories of some of them But the Point at present in question is Whether they have not laid Claim to this as a Right belonging to their See as a part of St. Peter's Authority descended to them Whether they have not founded it on his being Christ's Vicar who was the King of kings and Lord of lords Dict Papâ—e l. 1. Ep. Greg. 7. Post Ep. 55. Extravag de Major Obâ—d c 1. to whom all power in heaven and in earth was given Whether they have not founded it on Ieremy's being set over nations and kingdoms to root out pluck down and to destroy and on other places of Scripture not forgetting that the first Words of the Bible are In the beginning and not In the beginnings from which they inferred That there is but one Principle from whence all Power is derived And that God made two great lights the Sun to rule by day which they applied to themselves This I say is the Question Whether they did not assume this Authority as a Power given them by God As for the applying it to particular Instances to those Kings and Emperors whom they deposed that is indeed a personal thing Whether they were guilty of Heresy or of being favourers of it or not And whether the Popes proceeded against them with too much Violence or not The Point now in Question is Whether they declared this to be a Doctrine that there was an Authority lodged with their See for doing such things and whether they alledged Scripture and Tradition for it Conc. Lat. 3. cap. 27. Conc. Lat. 4. Can. 3. Con. Lug. Now this will appear evident to those who will read their Bulls In the Preambles of which those Quotations will be found as some of them are in the Body of the Canon Law And it is decreed in it that the belief of this is absolutely necessary to Salvation This was pursued in a Course of many Ages General Councils as they are esteemed among them have concurred with the Popes both in General Decrees assâ—rting this power to be in them and in special Sentences against Princes This became the universally-received Doctrine of those Ages No Vniversity nor Nation declaring against it not so much as one Divine Ciâ—â—â—lian Canonist or Casuist writ against it as Card. Perron truly said Câ—rd Perron Harangueau tiers estat It was so certainly believed that those Writers whom the deposed Princes got to undertake their defence do not in any of their Books pretend to call the Doctrine in General in question Two things were disputed One was Whether Popes had a direct power in Temporals over Princes so that they were as much subject to them as Feudatory Princes were to their Superior Lords This to which Boniface the 8th laid claim was indeed contradicted The other Point was Whether those particulars for which Princes had been deposed such as the giving the Investitures to Bishopricks were Heresies or not This was much contested But the power in the case of manifest Heresy or of favouring it to Depose Princes and Transfer their Crowns to others was never called in Question This was certainly a definition made in the Chair ex Cathedra For it was addrest to all their Community both Laity and Clergy Plenary Pardons were bestowed with it on those who executed it The Clergy did generally preach the Croisades upon it Princes that were not concerned in him that was deposed gave way to the publication of those Bulls and gave leave to their Subjects to take the Cross in order to the Executing of them And the People did in vast Multitudes gather about the Standarts that were set up for leading on Armies to Execute them while many Learned Men writ in defence of this Power and not one Man durst write against it This Argument lies not only against the Infallibility of Popes but against that of General Councils likewise And also against the Authority of Oral Tradition For here in a Succession of many Ages the Tradition was wholly changed from the Doctrine of former times which had been That the Clergy was subject to Princes and had no Authority over them or their Crowns Nor can it be said That that was a Point of Discipline for it was founded on an Article of Doctrine Whether there was such a power in the Popes or not The Prudence of Executing or not Executing it is a Point of Discipline and of the Government of the Church But it is a Point of Doctrine Whether Christ has given such an Authorityto St. Peter and his followers And those Points of Speculation upon which a great deal turns as to practice are certainly so important that in them if in any thing we ought to expect an Infallibility For in this case a Man is distracted between two contrary Propositions The one is That he must obey the Civil Powers as set over him by an Ordinance of God so that if he resist them he shall receive in himself Damnation The other is That the Pope being Christ's Vicar is to be obeyed when he Absolves him from his former Oath and Allegiance and that the new Prince set up by him is to be obeyed under the pain of Damnation likewise Here a Man is brought into a great strait and therefore he must be guided by Infallibility if any thing So the whole Argument comes to this Head that we must either believe that the Deposing Power is lodged by Christ in the See of Rome or we must conclude with the Article that they have Erred and by Consequence That they are not Infallible For the Erring in any one Point and at any one Time does quite destroy the Claim of Infallibility Before this Matter can be concluded we must consider what is brought to prove it What was laid down at first must be here remembred That the Proofs brought for a thing of this Nature must be very express and clear A Privilege of such a sort against which the appearances and prejudices are so strong must be very fully made out before we can be bound to believe it Nor can it be reasonable to urge the Authority of any Passages from Scripture till the Grounds are shewn for which the Scriptures themselves ought to be believed Those who think that it is in general well proved That there must be an Infallibility in the Church conclude from thence that it must be in the Pope For if
common and that openly and fairly For if every good Man that prays earnestly to God for the Assistance and Direction of his Spirit has reason to look for it much more may a Body of Pastors brought together to seek out the Truth in any point under debate look for it if they bring with them sincere and unprejudiced Minds and do pray earnestly to God In that case they may expect to be directed and assisted of Him But this depends upon the Purity of their Hearts and the Earnestness of their Endeavours and Prayers When any Synod of the Clergy has so far examined a Point as to settle their Opinions about it they may certainly decree that such is their Doctrine And as they judge it to be more or less important they may either restrain any other Opinion or may require positive Declarations about it either of all in their Communion or at least of all whom they admit to minister in Holy Things This is only an Authority of Order for the maintaining of Union and Edification And in this a Body does no more as it is a Body than what every single Individual has a right to do for himself He examines a Doctrine that is laid before him he forms his own Opinion upon it and pursuant to that he must judge with whom he can hold Communion and from whom he must separate When such Definitions are made by the Body of the Pastors of any Church all Persons within that Church do owe great respect to their Decision Modesty must be observed in descanting upon it and in disputing about it Every Man that finds his own thoughts differ from it ought to examine the Matter over again with much attention and care freeing himself all he can from Prejudice and Obstinacy with a just distrust of his own Understanding and an humble respect to the Judgment of his Superiors This is due to the considerations of Peace and Union and to that Authority which the Church has to maintain it But if after all possible methods of Enquiry a Man cannot master his Thoughts or make them agree with the Publick Decisions his Conscience is not under Bonds Since this Authority is not absolute nor grounded upon a promise of Infallibility This is a Tenet that with Relation to National Churches and their Decisions is held by the Church of Rome as well as by us For they place Infallibility either in the Pope or in the Universal Church But no Man ever dreamt of Infallibility in a particular or National Church And the Point in this Article is only concerning particular Churches for the Head of General Councils comes in upon the next That no Church can add any thing as necessary to Salvation has been already considered upon the Sixth Article It is certain that as we owe our hopes of Salvation only to Christ and to what he has done for us so also it can belong only to him who procured it to us to fix the Terms upon which we may look for it Nor can any Power on Earth clog the offers that he makes us in the Gospel with new or other Terms than those which we find made there to us There can be no dispute about this For unless we believe that there is an Infallible Authority lodged in the Church to explain the Scripture and to declare Tradition and unless we believe that the Scriptures are both obscure and defective and that the one must be helped by an Infallible Commentary and the other supplied by an Authentical Declarer of Tradition we cannot ascribe an Authority to the Church either to contradict the Scripture or to add necessary conditions of Salvation to it We own after all That the Church is the Dispositary of the whole Scriptures as the Iews were of the Old Testament But in that Instance of the Iews we may see that a Body of Men may be faithful in the Copying of a Book exactly and in the handing it down without corrupting it and yet they may be mistaken in the true meaning of that which they preserve so faithfully They are expresly called the keepers of the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 And are no where reproved for having attempted upon this Depositum And yet for all that Fidelity they fell into great Errors about some of the most Important parts of their Religion which exposed them to the rejecting the Messias and to their utter ruin The Church's being called the Witness of Holy Writ is not to be resolved into any Judgment that they pass upon it as a Body of Men that have Authority to Judge and give Sentence so that the Canonicalness or the Uncanonicalness of any Book shall depend upon their Testimony But is resolv'd into this that such Successions and Numbers of Men whether of the Laity or Clergy have in a course of many Ages had these Books preserved and read among them so that it was not possible to corrupt that upon which so many Men had their Eyes in all the Corners and Ages of Christendom And thus we believe the Scripture to be a Book written by inspired Men and delivered by them to the Church upon the Testimony of the Church that at first received it knowing that those great Matters of Fact contained and appealed to in it were true And also upon the like Testimony of the succeeding Ages who Preserved Read Copied and Translated that Book as they had received it from the first The Church of Rome is guilty of a manifest Circle in this Matter For they say they believe the Scriptures upon the Authority of the Church And they do again believe the Authority of the Church because of the Testimony of the Scripture concerning it This is as false reasoning as can be imagined For nothing can be proved by another Authority till that Authority is first fixed and proved And therefore if the Testimony of the Church is believed to be sacred by virtue of a Divine Grant to it and that from thence the Scriptures have their Credit and Authority then the Credit due to the Church's Testimony is Antecedent to the Credit of the Scripture And so must not be proved by any passages brought from it otherwise that is a manifest Circle But no Circle is committed in our way who do not prove the Scriptures from any supposed Authority in the Church that has handed them down to us But only as they are vast Companies of Men who cannot be presumed to have been guilty of any Fraud in this matter it appeared further to be morally impossible for any that should have attempted a Fraud in it to have executed it When therefore the Scripture it self is proved by Moral Arguments of this kind we may according to the strictest Rules of Reasoning examine What Authority the Scripture gives to the Pastors of the Church met in lesser or greater Councils ARTICLE XXI Of the Authority of General Councils General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of
God nor do we erect Altars upon which we Sacrifice to Martyrs but to one God only do we offer to the God of Martyrs and our God at which Sacrifice they are named in their Place and Order as Men of God who in confessing Him have overcome the World but they are not invocated by the Priest that Sacrifices It seems â—he Form of Praying for the Saints mentioned in the Constitutions was not used in the Churches of Africk in St. Austin's Time He says very positively That they did not pray for them but did praise God for them And he says in express words Let not the Worship of dead Men be any part of our Religion they ought so to be honoured that we may imitate them Aug. de vera Rel. c. 55. but not worshipped God was indeed prayed to in the Fifth Century to hear the Intercession of the Saints and Martyrs but there is a great difference between Praying to God to favour us on their account and praying immediately to them to hear us The Praying to them imports either their being every where or their knowing all things and as it is a blasphemous Piece of Idolatry to ascribe that to them without a Divine Communication so it is a great Presumption in any Man to fancy that they may be prayed to and to build so many parts of Worship upon it barely upon some probabilites and inferences without an express Revelation about it For the Saints may be perfectly happy in the enjoyment of God without seeing all things in him nor have we any reason to carry that farther than the Scripture has done But as the Invocating of Martyrs grew from a calling to them at their Memories to a general calling to them in all places so from the Invocating Martyrs they went on to pray to other Saints yet that was at first ventured on doubtfully and only in Funeral Orations where an address to the dead Person to pray for those that were then honouring his Memory might perhaps come in as a figure of pompous Eloquence in which Nazianzen one of the first that uses it did often give himself a very great compass yet he and others soften such Figures with this If there is any sense or knowledge of what we do below From Prayers to God to receive the Intercessions of Martyrs and Saints it came in later Ages to be usual to have Litanies to them and to pray immediately to them but at first this was only a desire to them to pray for those who did thus Invocate them Ora pro nobis But so impossible is it to restrain Superstition when it has once got head and has prevailed that in conclusion all things that were asked either of God or Christ came to be asked from the Saints in the same humility both of Gesture and Expression in which if there was any difference made it seemed to be rather on the side of the B. Virgin and the Saints as appears by the Ten Ave's for one Pater and that humble Prostration in which all fall down every day to worship her The Prayer used constantly to her Maria Mater gratiae Mater miserecordiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe is an immediate acknowledgment of her as the giver of these things such are Solve vincla reis profer lumen caecis with many others of that nature The Collection of these swells to a huge bulk Iure Matris impera Redemptori is an allowed Address to her not to mention an infinity of most scandalous ones that are not only tolerated but encouraged in that Church Altars are consecrated to her honour and to the honour of other Saints but which is more the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered up to her honour and to the honour of the Saints And in the Form of Absolution the pardon of Sins the increase of Grace and eternal Life are prayed for to the Penitent by the vertue of the Passion of Christ and the Merits of the B. Virgin and of all the Saints The pardon of Sins and eternal Life are also prayed for from Angels Angelorum concio sacra Archangelorum Turma inclyta nostra diluant jam peccata praestando supernam Coeli gloriam Many strains of this kind are to be found in the Hymns and other publick Offices of that Church And though in the late Corrections of their Offices some of the more scandalous are left out yet those here cited with a great many more to the same purpose are still preserved And the Council of Trent did plainly intend to connive at all these things for they did not restrain the Invocation of Saints only to be an Address to them to pray for us which is the common disguise with which they study to cover this matter But by the Decree of the Council the flying to their help and assistance as well as to their Intercession is encouraged Which shews that the Council would not limit this part of their Devotion to a bare Ora pro nobis that might have seemed flat and low and so it might have discouraged it therefore they made use of words that will go as far as Superstition can carry them So that if the Invocating them if the making Vows to them the Dedicating themselves to them if the flying to them in all distresses in the same acts and in the same words that the Scriptures teach us to fly to God with and if all the studied honours of Processions and other pompous Rites towards their Images that are invented to do them honour if I say all this does amount to Idolatry then we are sure they are guilty of it since they honour the creature not only besides but in the full extent of that Phrase more than the Creator Rom. 1.25 And now let us see what is the Foundation of all these Devotions against which we bring Arguments that to speak modestly of them are certainly such that there should be matters of great weight in the other Scale to balance them Nothing is pretended from Scripture nor from any thing that is genuine for above Three hundred and fifty years after Christ. In a word the practice of the Church since the end of the Fourth Century and the Authority of Tradition of Popes and Councils must bear this Burden These are Consequences that do not much affect us for though we pay great respect to many great Men that flourished in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries yet we cannot compare that Age with the Three that went before it Those great Men give us a sad account of the Corruptions of that time not only among the Laity but the Clergy and their being so flexible in matters of Faith as they appeared to be in the whole course of the Arian Controversy gives us very just reason to suspect the practices of that Age in which the protection and encouragements that the Church received from the first Christian Emperors were not improved to the best advantage
the Ancients as the only Viaticum of Christians in their last Passage With them we give that and no more Thus it appears upon what Reason we reject those Five Sacraments though we allow both of Confirmation and Orders as Holy Functions derived to us down from the Apostles and because there is a visible Action in these though in strictness that cannot be called a Sacrament yet so the thing be rightly understood we will not dispute about the Extent of a Word that is not used in Scripture Marriage is in no respect to be called a Sacrament of the Christian Religion tho' it being a State of such Importance to Mankind we hold it very proper both for the Solemnity of it and for Imploring the Blessing of God upon it that it be done with Prayers and other Acts of Religious Worship But a great difference is to be made between a pious Custom begun and continued by publick Authority and a Sacrament appointed by Christ. We acknowledge true Repentance to be One of the great Conditions of the New Covenant but we see nothing of the Nature of a Sacrament in it And for Extreme Unction we do not pretend to have the Gift of Healing among us and therefore we will not deceive the World by an Office that shall offer at that which we acknowledge we cannot do Nor will we make a Sacrament for the Good of the Soul out of that which is mentioned in Scripture only as a Rite that accompanied the curing the Diseases of the Body The last Part of this Article concerning the Use of the Sacraments consists of Two Parts the First is Negative that they are not ordained to be gazed on or to be carried about but to be used And this is so Express in the Scripture that little Question can be made about it The Institution of Baptism is go preach and baptize And the Institution of the Eucharist is take eat and drink ye all of it Which Words being set down before those in which the Consecrating them is believed to be made This is my body And this is my blood and the Consecratory Words being delivered as the Reason of the Command take eat and drink nothing can be more clearly exprest than this that the Eucharist is consecrated only that it may be used that it may be eat and drunk The Second Part of this Period is that the Effect of the Sacraments comes only upon the Worthy receiving of them of this so much was already said upon the first Paragraph of this Article that it is not necessary to add any more here The pretending that Sacraments have their Effect any other way is the bringing in the Doctrine and Practice of Charms into the Christian Religion And it tends to dissolve all Obligations to Piety and Devotion to a Holiness of Life or a Purity of Temper When the being in a Passive and perhaps Insensible State while the Sacraments are applied is thought a Disposition sufficient to give them their Vertue Sacraments are federal Acts and those visible Actions are intended to quicken us so that in the use of them we may raise our inward Acts to the highest Degrees possible but not to supply their Defects or Imperfections Our Opinion in this Point represents them as means to raise our Minds and to kindle our Devotion whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome represents them as so many Charms which may heighten indeed the Authority of him that Administers them but do extinguish and deaden all true Piety when such helps are offered by which the worst Men living and dying in a bad State may by a few faint Acts and perhaps by none at all of their own be well enough taken care of and secured But as we have not so learned Christ so neither dare we corrupt his Doctrine in its most vital and essential Parts ARTICLE XXVI Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers which hinder not the Effect of the Sacraments Altho in the Uisible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometime the Evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet for as much as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christ's and do Minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving the Sacraments Neither is the Effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their Wickedness Nor the Grace of God's Gifts diminished from such as by Faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be Effectual because of Christ's Institution and Promise although they be ministred by Evil Men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of Evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their Offences and finally being found Guilty by just Iudgment to be deposed THE occasion that was given to this Article was the heat of some in the beginnings of the Reformation who being much offended at the publick Scandal which was given by the enormous Vices that were without any Disguise practised by the Roman Clergy of all Ranks did from thence revive the conceit of the Donatists who thought that not only Heresy and Schism did invalidate Sacred Functions but that personal Sins did also make them void It cannot be denied but that there are many Passages in St. Cyprian that look this Way and which seem to make the Sacraments depend as much on the good State that he was in who administred them as the Answer of their other Prayers did In the Progress of the Controversy with the Donatists they carried this Matter very far and considered the Effect of the Sacraments as the Answer of Prayers So since the Prayers of a wicked Man are Abomination to God they thought the Vertue of these Actions depended wholly on him that officiated Against this St. Augustin set himself very zealously He answered all that was brought from Cyprian in such a manner that by it he has set us a Pattern how we ought to separate the just Respect that we pay the Fathers from an Implicite receiving of all their Notions If this Conceit were allowed of it must go to the secret Thoughts and inward State in which he is who officiates for if the Sacraments are to be considered only as Prayers offered up by him then a Man can never be sure that he receives them Since it is impossible to see into the Hearts or know the Secrets of Men. Sacraments therefore are to be considered as the publick Acts of the Church and though the Effect of them as to him that receives them depends upon his Temper his Preparation and Application yet it cannot be imagined that the Vertue of those federal Acts to which Christians are admitted in them the Validity of them or the Blessings that follow them can depend on the secret State or Temper of him that Officiates Even in the case of publick Scandals though
effect of Church-Censures The straining this matter too high has given occasion to extremes on the other hand If a man is condemned as an Heretick for that which is no Heresy but is an Article founded on the Word of God his Conscience is not at all concerned in any such Censure Great Modesty and Decency ought indeed to be shewed by private persons when they dispute against publick Decisions But unless the Church is Infallible none can be bound to implicit Faith or blind Submission Therefore an Anathema ill founded cannot hurt him against whom it is thundred If the Doctrine upon which the Censures and Denunciations of the Church are grounded is true and if it appears so to him that sets himself against it he who thus despises the Pastors of the Church despises Christ In whose Name and by whose Authority they are acting But if he is still under Convictions of his being in the right when he is indeed in the wrong then he is in a state of Ignorance and his Sins are Sins of Ignorance and they will be judged by that God w ho knows the sincerity of all mens Hearts and sees into their secretest Thoughts how â—ar the Ignorance is wilful and affected and how far it is sincere and invincible And as for those Censures that are founded upon the Proofs that are made of certain Facts that are scandalous either the person on whom they are charged knows himself to be really guilty of them or that he is wronged either by the Witnesses or the Pastors and Judges If he is indeed guilty he ought to consider such Censures as the Medicinal Provisions of the Church against Sin He ought to submit to them and to such Rebukes and Admonitions to such publick Confessions and other Acts of Self-Abasement 2 Tim. 2.26 by which he may be recovered out of the snare of the Devil and may repair the publick Scandal that he has brought upon the Profession of Christianity and recover the honour of it which he has blemisht as far as lies in him This is the submitting to those that are over him and the obeying them as those that watch for his soul and that must give an account of it But if on the other hand Heb. 13.17 any such person is run down by Falshood and Calumny he must submit to that Dispensation of God's Providence that has suffered such a load to be laid upon him He must not betray his Integrity he ought to commit his way to God and to bear his burden patiently Such a Censure ought not at all to give him too deep an inward concern For he is sure it is ill founded and therefore it can have no effect upon his Conscience God who knows his Innocence will acquit him though all the World should condemn him He must indeed submit to that separation from the Body of Christians But he is safe in his secret Appeals to God who sees not as man sees but judges righteous Judgment And such a Censure as this cannot be bound in Heaven In the pronouncing the Censures of the Church great care and tenderness ought to be used for men are not to be rashly cut off from the Body of Christ nothing but a wilful Obstinacy in Sin and a deliberate Contempt of the Rules and Orders of the Church can justify this Extremity Scandalous Sinners may be brought under the Medicinal Cure of the Church and the Offender may be denied all the Privileges of Christians till he has repaired the Offence that he has given Here another Extreme has been run into by men who being jealous of the Tyranny of the Church of Rome have thought that the World could not be safe from that unless all Church-Power were destroyed They have thought that the Ecclesiastical Order is a Body of Men bound by their Office to preach the Gospel and to offer the Sacraments to all Christians but that as the Gospel is a Doctrine equally offered to all in which every man must make the particular Application of the Promises the Comforts and the Terrors of it to himself as he will answer it to God so they imagin that the Sacraments are in the same promiscuous manner to be offered to all Persons and that every man is to try and examine himself and so to partake of them but that the Clergy have no Authority to deny them to any Person or to put marks of distinction or of Infamy on men And that therefore the Antient Discipline of the Church did arise out of a mutual Compromise of Christians who in times of Misery and Persecution submitted to such Rules as seemed necessary in that state of things but that now all the Authority that the Church hath is founded only on the Law of the Land and is still subject to it So that what Changes or Alterations are appointed by the Civil Authority must take place in bar to any Laws and Customs of the Church how Antient or how Universal soever they may be In answer to this it is not to be denied but that the degrees and extent of this Authority the methods and the management of it were at first framed by common consent In the times of Persecution the Laity who embraced the Christian Religion were to the Church instead of the Magistrate The whole concerns of Religion were supported and protected by them and this gave them a Natural Right to be consulted with in all the decisions of the Church The Brethren were called to join with the Apostles and Elders in that great Debate concerning the Circumcision of the Gentiles which was settled at Ierusalem and of such Practices we find frequent mention in St. Cyprian's Epistles The more Eminent among the Laity were then naturally the Patrons of the Churches But when the Church came under the Protection of Christian Princes and Magistrates then the Patronage and Protection of it fell to them upon whom the Peace and Order of the World depended Yet though all this is acknowledged we see plainly that in the New Testament there are many general Rules given for the Government and Order of the Church Timothy and Titus were appointed to ordain to admonish and rebuke and that before all The Body of the Christians is required to submit themselves to them and to obey them which is not to be carried to an indefinite and boundless degree but must be limited to that Doctrine which they were to teach and to such things as depended upon it or tended to its Establishment and Propagation From these general Heads we see just grounds to assert such a Power in the Pastors of the Church as is for Edification but not for Destruction and therefore here is a Foundation of Power laid down though it is not to be denied but that in the application of it such Prudence and discretion ought to be used as may make it most likely to attain those Ends for which it is given A general Consent in time of Persecution was necessary
Magistratibus REgia Majesâ—as in hoc Angliae regno ac caeteris ejus dominiis summam habet potestatem ad quam omnium statuum hujus regni sive illi Ecclesiastici sint sive civiles in omnibus causis suprema gubernatio pertinet nulli externae jurisdictioni est subjecta nec esse debet Cum Regiae Majestati summam gubernationem tribuimus quibus titulis intelligimus animos quorundam calumniatorum offendi non damus Regibus nostris aut verbi Dei aut Sacramentorum administrationem quod etiam Injunctiones ab Elizabetha Regina nostra nuper editae apertissime testantur Sed eam tantum praerogativam quam in sacris Scripturis a Deo ipso omnibus piis Principibus videmus semper fuisse attributam hoc est ut omnes status atque ordines fidei suae a Deo commissos sive illi Ecclesiastici sint sive civiles in officio contineant conâ—umaces ac delinquentes gladio civili coerceant Romanus pontifex nullam habet jurisdictionem in hoc regno Angliae Leges Regni possunt Christianos propter capitalia gravia crimina morte punire Christianis licet ex mandato Magisâ—ratus arma portare justa bella administrare De illicita bonorum communicatione FAcultates bona Christianorum non sunt communia quoad jus possessionem ut quidam Anabaptisâ—ae falso jactant debet tamen quisque de his quae possidet pro facultatum ratione pauperibus eleemosynas benigne distribuere De jure jurando QUemadmodum juramentum vanum temerarium a Domino nostro Jesu Christo Apostolo ejus Jacobo Christianis hominibus interdictum esse faâ—emur 〈◊〉 â—hrisâ—ianorum Religionem minime prohibere censemus quin jubente magistratu in causa fidei charitatis jurare liceat modo id fiat juxta Prophetae doctrinam in justitia in judicio veritate Confirmatio Articulorum HIC liber antedictorum Articulorum jam denuo approbatus est per assensum consensum Serenissimae Reginae Elizabethae Dominae nostrae Dei gratia Angliae â—raâ—ciae Hiberniae Reginae defensoris fidel c. retinendus per totum Regnum Angliae exequendus Qui Articuli lecti sunt denuo confirmati subscriptione D. Archiepiscopi Episcoporum superioris domus totius Cleri inferioris domus in Convocatione Anno Domini 1571. THE TABLE of the Contents INâ—roduction Page 1 Hâ—resies gave the Rise to larger Articles Ibid. A Form of Doctrine settled by the Apostles 2 Bâ—shops sent râ—und them a Declaration of their Faith Ibid. These were afterwards enlarged 3 This dâ—ne at the Council of Nice Ibid. Mâ—ny wild Sects at the beginning of the Reformation 4 And many complying-Papists put them on framing this Collection Ibid. The Articles set out at first by the King's Authority 5 A Question whether they are only Articles of Peace or of Dâ—ctrine 6 They bind the Consciences of the Clergy Ibid. The Laity only bound to Peace by them 7 The Subscription to them imports an Assent to them and not only an acquiescing in them 8 But the Articles may have different Senses and if the Words will bear them there is no Prevâ—rication in subscribing them so Ibid. This illustrated in the Third Article 9 The various Readings of the Articles collated with the MSS. Ibid. An Account of those various Readings 16 ARTICLE I. 17 THat there is a God proved by the Consent of Mankind Ibid. Oâ—j 1. Some Nations do not believe a Deity This is answered 18 Obj. 2. It is not the same Belief among them alâ— This is answered Ibid. The Visible World proves a Deity 19 Time nor Number cannot be Eternal nor Infinite Ibid. Moral Arguments to prove that the World had a Beginning 20 Such a Regular Frame could not be fortuitâ—us Ibid. Objection from the Production of Insects answered 21 Argument from Miracles well attested 22 Argument from the Idea of God examined Ibid. God is Eternal and necâ—ssarily exists 23 The Vnity of the Deity Ibid. God is without Body 24 Outward Manifâ—stations only to declare his Presence and Authority 25 No successive Acts in God 26 Question concerning God's immanent Acts Ibid. God has no Pâ—ssions 27 Phrases in Scripture of these explained Ibid. Some Thoughts concerning the Power and Wisdom of God 28 True Ideas of the Goodness of God Ibid. Of Creation and Annihilation 30 Of the Providence of God 31 Objections against it answered 32 Whether God does immediately produce all things 33 Thought and Liberty not proper to Matter 34 Whether Beasts think or are only Machines Ibid. How Bodies and Spirits are united 35 The Doctrine of the Trinity 36 Whether revealed in the Old Testament or not 37 The Doctrine stated Ibid. Argument from the Form of Baptism 38 Other Arguments for it 39 This was received in the First Ages of Christianity 40 Some Attempt to the stating true Ideas of God 41 ARTICLE II. 43 CHrist how the Son of God Ibid. Argument from the Beginning of St. John's Gospel 44 Reflections on the state of the World at that time 45 Arguments from the Epistle to the Philippians Ibid. Other Arguments complicated 46 Argument from Adoration due to him 47 The Silence of the Jews proves this was not then thought to be Idolatry by them 49 Argument from the Epistle to the Hebrews 50 God and Man in Christ made one Person 51 An Account of Nestorius's Doctrine 52 The Truth of Christ's Resurrection Ibid. Christ was to us an Expiatory Sacrifice 53 An Account of Expiatory Sacrifiâ—eâ— 54 The Agonies of Christ explained 55 ARTICLE III. 56 RUffin first published this in the Creed Ibid. Several Senses put on this Article 57 A Local Descent into Hell Ibid. What may be the true sense of the Article 58 ARTICLE IV. 59 THE Proof of Christ's Resurrection Ibid. The Jews in that Time did not disprove it 60 Several Proofs of the Incredibility of a Forgery in this matter 61 The Nature and Proof of a Miracle 62 What must be ascribed to good or evil Spirits 63 The Apostles could not be imposed on Ibid. Nor could they have imposed on the World 64 Of Christ's Ascension 65 Curiosity in these matters taxed Ibid. The Authority with which Christ is now vested 66 ARTICLE V. 68 THE senses of the word Holy Ghost Ibid. It stands oft for a Person 69 Curiosities to be avoided about Procession Ibid. The Holy Ghost is truly God 70 ARTICLE VI. 71 THE Controversy about Oral Tradition 72 That was soon corrupted Ibid. Guarded against by Revelation 73 Tradition corrupted among the Jews 74 The Scripture appealed to by Christ and the Apostles 75 What is well proved from Scripture 76 Objections from the darkness of Scripture answered 77 No sure guard against Error nor against Sin 78 The Proof of the Canon of the Scripture 79 Particularly of the New Testament 80 These Books were early received 81 The Canon of the Old Testament proved 82 Concerning the Pentateuch 83 Objections against the Old
Tell the Church Ibid. Hâ—w the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 206 Christ's Promise I am with you alway even to the end of the world Ibid. Of that It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Ibid. Some Generâ—l Councils have ereed 207 ARTICLE XXII 217 THE Dâ—ctrine of Purgatory Ibid. Sins once pardâ—ned are not punished 218 Vnlâ—ss with chastisements in this life 219 No state of satisfaction aftâ—r death Ibid. No mention made of that in Scripture 220 But it is plain to the contrary 221 Different Opinions among the Ancients Ibid. The Original of Purgatory 222 A pâ—ssâ—ge in Maccabees considered Ibid. A pâ—ssâ—ge in the Epistle to the Corinthians câ—nsidered 223 The prâ—gress â—f the â—elief of Purgatory 2â—4 Prayers for the dead among the Ancients 225 Endâ—wments for redeeming out of Purgâ—toâ—y 226 Whether these ought to be sacred or nâ—t 227 The Doctrine of Pardons and Indulgences 228 It is only the excusing from Penance 229 Nâ— Foundation for it in Scripâ—ure Ibid. General Rules concerning Idolatry 230 Of the Iâ—olatry of Hâ—athens 231 Laws given to the Jews against it Ibid. The Expostulâ—â—ions of the Prophets 232 Concerning the Golden Calf Ibid. And The Calves at Dan and Bethel 233 The Ap stles opposed all Idolatry Ibid. St. Paul at Athens and to the Romans 334 The sense of the Primitive upon it 235 The first use of Images among Christians Ibid. Pictures in Churches for Instruction 236 Were afterwards worshipped Ibid. Contests abâ—ut that Ibid. Images of the Deity and Trinity 237 On what theWorship of Images terminates 238 The due Worship settled by the Council at Trent Ibid. Images consecrated and how 239 Arguments for worshipping them answered Ibid. Arguments against the use or worship of Images 240 The worship of Relicks 241 A due regard to the Bodies of Martyrs Ibid. The progress of Superstition Ibid. No warrant for this in Scripture 242 Hezekiah broke the Brazen Serpent Ibid. The memorable passage concerning the Body of St. Polycarp 243 Fables and Forgeries prevailed Ibid. The Souls of the Martyrs believed to hover about their Tombâ— 244 Nothing of this kind objected to the first Christians Ibid. Disputes between Vigilantius and St. Jerom 245 No Invocation of Saints in the Old Testament 246 The Invocating Angels condemned in the New Tâ—stament 247 No Saints invocated Christ only Ibid. No mention of this in the three first Ages 248 In the Fourth Martyrs invocated Ibid. The progrâ—ss that this made 249 Scandalous Offices in the Church of Rome Ib. Arguments against this Invocation 2â—0 An Apology for those who begun it Ibid. The Scandal given by it 251 Arguments for it ansâ—ered 252 Whethâ—r the Saints see all things in God Ib. This no part of the Communion of Saints 253 Prayers ought to be directed only to God Ib. Revealed Religion designed to deliver the World from Idolatry 254 ARTICLE XXIII 255 A Succâ—ssiâ—n of Pastors ought to be in the Church Ibid. 〈◊〉 was settlâ—d by the Apostles 256 And must continue to the end of the World Ibid. It was settlâ—d in the first Age of the Church 257 The danger of mâ—ns taking to themselves this Authority without a due Vocation Ibid. The difference between means of Salvation and precâ—pts for orders sake 258 What is lawful Authority Ibid. What may be done upon extraordinary occasions 259 Necessity is above Rules of Order Ibid. The High Priests in â—ur Saviour's time 260 Baptism by Women 261 ARTICLE XXIV 262 THE chief end of worshipping God Ib. The Practice of the Jews 263 Rules given by the Apostles Ibid. The Prâ—ctice â—f the Church 264 Arguments for Worship in an unknown Tongue answered Ibid. ARTICLE XXV 266 DIfference between Sacraments and Rites Ibid. Sacraments do not imprint a Character 267 But are not mere Ceremâ—nies 268 What is necessary to constitute a Sacrament 269 That applied to Baptism Ib. And to the Eucharist 270 No meâ—tion of seven Sacraments before Peter Lombard Ibid. Confirmation no Sacrament Ibid. How practised among us Ibid. The use of Chrism in it is new 271 Oyl early used in Christian Rituals Ibid. Bishops only consecrated the Chrism 272 In the Greek Church Presbyters appliâ—d it Ibid. This used in the Western Church but condemned by the Popes Ibid. Disputes concerning Confirmation 273 Concerning Penance Ibid. The true Notion of Repentance Ibid. Confâ—ssion not the matter of a Sacrament 274 The use of Confession Ibid. The Priâ—st's Pardon Ministerial 275 And restrained within bounds Ibid. Auricular Confâ—ssion not necessary 276 Not commanded in the New Testament Ibid. The beginnings of it in the Church 277 Many Canons about Penance Ibid. Confession forbid at Constantinople 278 The ancient Dâ—scipline slâ—ckâ—n'd Ibid. Confâ—ssion may be advised but not commanded 279 The good and bad effâ—cts it may have Ibid. Of Contrition and Attrition 280 The ill effects of the Doctrine of Attrition Ibid. Of doing the Penance or Satisfaction 281 Concerning sorrow for sin Ibid. Of the ill effects of hasty Absolutions 282 Of Fasting and Prayer Ibid. Of the Form I absolve thee 283 Of Hâ—ly Orders 284 Of the ancient Form of Ordinations Ibid. Of delivering the Vessels 285 Orders no Sacrament Ibid. Whether Bishops and Priests are of the same Order 286 Of Marriage Ibid. It can be no Sacrament 287 Intention not necessary Ibid. How Marriage is called a Mystery or Sacrament 288 Marriage dissolved by Adultery Ibid. The Practice of the Church in this matter 289 Of Extreme Vnction Ibid. St. James's words explained 290 Oyl much used in ancient Rituals 291 Pope Innocent's Epistle considered Ibid. Anointing used in order to Recovery 292 Afterwards as the Sacrament of the dying 293 The Sacraments are to be used Ibid. And to be received worthily 294 ARTICLE XXVI 295 SAcraments are not effectual as Prayers are Ibid. Of the Doctrine of Intention 296 The ill consâ—quences of it 297 Of a just Severity in Discipline Ibâ—d Particularly towards the Clergy 298 ARTICLE XXVII 299 COncerning St. John's Baptism Ibid. The Jews used Baptism Ibid. The Christian Baptism 300 The difference between it and St. John's Ib. The necessity of Baptism 301 It is a Precept but not a Mean of Salvation Ibid. Baptism unites us to the Church 302 It also saves us Ibid. St. Peter's words explained 303 St Austin's Doctrine of Baptism Ibid. Baptism is a Foederal Stipulation 304 In what sense it was of more value to preach than to baptize Ibid. Of Infant-Baptism 305 It is grounded on the Law of Nature Ibid. And the Law of Moses and warranted in the New Testament Ibid. In what sense Children can be holy 306 It is also very expedient Ibid. ARTICLE XXVIII 308 THE change made in this Article in Queen Elizabeth's time Ibid. The Explanation of our Doctrine 309 Of the Rituals in the Passover Ibid. Of the words This is my Body 310 And This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood Ibid. Of the horror the Jews had at Blood 311 In what sense only the Disciples could understand our
the Scriptures Ibid. The Form of Swearing among the Jews 394 Our Saviour's words and St. James's against all Swearing explained 395 When Oaths may be lawfully taken 396 The End of the Table of the Contents AN EXPOSITION OF THE XXXIX ARTICLES OF THE Church of England TITLE Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishops and Byshops of both Provinces and the whole Cleargie in the Convocation holden at London in the yeare of our Lorde GOD 1562. according to the computation of the Church of Englande for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion Put forth by the Queens authoritie The INTRODUCTION THE Title of these Articles leads me to consider 1. The Time the Occasion and the Design of Compiling them 2 dly The Authority that is stampt upon them both by Church and State and the Obligation that lies upon all of our Communion to Assent to them and more particularly the Importance of the Subscription to which the Clergy are obliged As to the 1 st It may seem somewhat strange to see such a Collection of Tenets made the Standard of the Doctrine of a Church that is deservedly valued by reason of her Moderation This seems to be a departing from the Simplicity of the First Ages which yet we pretend to set up for a Pattern In those times the owning the Belief of the Creeds then received was thought sufficient And when some Heresies had occasioned great Enlargements to be made in the Creeds the Third General Council thought fit to set a Bar against all further Additions and yet all those Creeds one of which goes far beyond the Ephesine Standard make but One Article of the Thirty nine of which this Book consists Many of these do also relate to subtile and abstruse Points in which it is not easy to form a clear Judgment and much less can it be convenient to Impose so great a Collection of Tenets upon a whole Church to Excommunicate such as affirm any of them to be erroneous and to reject those from the Service of the Church who cannot Assent to every one of them The Negative Articles of No Infallibility No Supremacy in the Pope No Transubstantiation No Purgatory and the like give yet a further Colour to Exceptions since it may seem that it was enough not to have mentioned these which implied a tacit rejecting of them It may therefore appear to be too rigorous to require a positive condemning of those Points for a very high degree of Certainty is required to affirm a Negative Proposition In order to the explaining this matter it is to be confessed that in the beginnings of Christianity the Declaration that was required even of a Bishop's Faith was conceived in very general Terms There was a Form setled very early in most Churches This St. Paul in one place calls The Form of Doctrine that was delivered in another place The Form of Sound Words Rom. 6.17 1 Tim. 4.6 6 3. 2 Tim. 1.13 which those who were fixed by the Apostles in particular Churches had received from them These words of his do import a Standard or fixed Formulary by which all Doctrines were to be examined Some have inferred from them that the Apostles delivered that Creed which goes under their Name every where in the same Form of Words But there is great reason to doubt of this since the first Apologists for Christianity when they deliver a short Abstract of the Christian Faith do all vary from one another both as to the Order and as to the Words themselves which they would not have done if the Churches had all received one setled Form from the Apostles They would all have used the same Words and neither more nor less It is more probable That in every Church there was a Form setled which was delivered to it by some Apostle or Companion of the Apostles with some Variation of which at this distance of time considering how defective the History of the First Ages of Christianity is it is not possible nor very necessary for us to be able to give a clear Account For Instance In the whole Extent or Neighbourhood of the Roman Empire it was at first of great Use to have this in every Christian's mouth That our Saviour suffered under Pontius Pilate because this fixed the Time and carried in it an Appeal to Records and Evidences that might then have been searched for But if this Religion went at first far to the Eastward beyond all Commerce with the Romans there is not that reason to think that this should have been a part of the shortest Form of this Doctrine it being enough that it was related in the Gospel These Forms of the several Churches were preserved with that Sacred Respect that was due to them This was esteemed the Depositum or Trust of a Church which was chiefly committed to the keeping of the Bishop In the First Ages in which the Bishops or Clergy of the several Churches could not meet together in Synods to examine the Doctrine of every new Bishop the Method upon which the Circumstances of those Ages put them was this The New Bishop sent round him and chiefly to the Bishops of the more Eminent Sees the Profession of his Faith according to the Form that was fixed in his Church And when the Neighbouring Bishops were satisfied in this they held Communion with him and not only owned him for a Bishop but maintained such a Commerce with him as the state of that Time did admit of But as some Heresies sprung up there were Enlargements made in several Churches for the condemning those and for excluding such as held them from their Communion The Council of Nice examined many of those Creeds and out of them they put their Creed in a fuller Form The Addition made by the Council of Constantinople was put into the Creeds of some particular Churches several Years before that Council met So that though it received its Authority from that Council yet those Fathers rather confirmed an Article which they found in the Creeds of some Churches than made a New one It had been an unvaluable Blessing if the Christian Religion had been kept in its first Simplicity The Council of Ephesus took care that the Creed by which men profess their Christianity should receive no new Additions but be fixed according to the Constantinoplitan Standard yet they made Decrees in Points of Faith and the following Councils went on in their steps adding still new Decrees with Anathematisms against the contrary Doctrines and declaring the Asserters of them to be under an Anathema that is under a very heavy Curse of being totally excluded from their Communion and even from the Communion of Jesus Christ. And whereas the New Bishops had formerly only declared their Faith they were then required besides that to declare That they received such Councils and rejected such Doctrines together with such as favoured them who were sometimes meâ—tioned by
hovering about it but that it was translated into the Seats of departed Souls All these Three Senses differ very much from one another and yet they are all Senses that are Literal and Grammatical so that in which of these soever a man conceives the Article he may Subscribe it and he does no way prevaricate in so doing If men would therefore understand all the other Articles in the same largeness and with the same equity there would not be that occasion given for unjust Censure that there has been Where then the Articles are conceived in large and general words and have not more special and restrained terms in them we ought to take that for a sure Indication that the Church does not intend to tie men up too severely to particular Opinions but that she leaves all to such a liberty as is agreeable with the Purity of the Faith And this seems sufficient to explain the Title of the Articles and the Subscriptions that are required of the Clergy to them The last thing to be setled is the true Reading of the Articles for there being some small diversity between the Printed Editions and the Manuscripts that were signed by both Houses of Convocation I have desired the assistance both of Dr. Green the present Worthy Master of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge and of some of the Learned Fellows of that Body That they would give themselves the trouble to collate the Printed Editions and their Manuscripts with such a scrupulous exactness as becomes a Matter of this Importance which they were pleased to do very minutely I will set down Both the Collations as they were transmitted to me beginning with that which I had from the Fellows four Years ago These words said to be left out are found in the Original Articles Sign'd by the Chief Clergy of Both Provinces now extant in the Manuscript Libraries of C.C.C.C. in the Book call'd Synodalia but distinguish'd from the rest with Lines of Minium which Lines plainly appear to have been done afterwards because the Leaves and Lines of the Original are exactly numbred at the end which number without these Lines were manifestly false In the Original these words only are found Testamentum vetus novo contrarium non est quandoquidem c. The Latin of the Original is Et quanquam renatis credentibus nulla propter Christum est condemnatio This Article is not found in this Original This is not found This is not found This Article agrees with the Original but these words The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith suppos'd to begin the Article are not found in any part thereof In the fourteenth Line of this Article immediately after these words But yet have not like nature with Baptism and the Lord's Supper follows quomodo nec penitentia which being mark'd underneath with Minium is left out in the Translation This Article agrees with the Original as far as these words and â—ath given occasion to many Superstitions where follows Christus in coelum ascendens corpori suo immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit humanae enim naturae veritatem juxta Scripturas perpetuo retinet quam uno definito loco esse non in multa vel omnia simul loca diffundi oportet quum igitur Christus in coelum sublatus ibi usque ad finem faeculi sit permansurus atque inde non aliunde ut loquitur Augustinus venturus sit ad judicandum vivos mortuos non debet quisquam fidelium carnis ejus sanguinis realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel profiteri These words are mark'd and scrawl'd over with Minium and the words immediately following Corpus tamen Christi datur accipitur manducatur in coena tantum coelesti spirituali ratione are inserted in a different Hand just before them in a line and half left void which plainly appears to be done afterwards by reason the same Hand has alter'd the first number of Lines and for Viginti quatuor made quatuordecem The Three last Articles Viz. The 39th Of the Resurrection of the Dead the 40th That the Souls of men do neither perish with their Bodies neque otiosi dormiant is added in the Original And the 42d That all shall not be saved at last are found in the Original distinguish'd only with a Marginal Line of Minium But the 41st of the Millenarians is wholly left out The number of Articles does not exactly agree by reason some are inserted which are found only in King Edward's Articles but none are wanting that are found in the Original ARTICLE III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell· AS Christ Died for us and was Buried so also it is to be believ'd That he went down into Hell For his Body lay in the Grave till his Resurrection but his Soul being separate from his Body remain'd with the Spirits which were detainâ—d in Prison that is to say in Hell and there preached unto them ARTICLE VI. The Old Testament is not to be rejected as if it were contrary to the New but to be retained Forasmuch c. ARTICLE IX And although there is no Condemnation to them that believe and are Baptiz'd c. ARTICLE X. Of Grace The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by Him doth c. ARTICLE XVI Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is then committed when c. ARTICLE XIX All men are bound to keep the Precepts of the Moral Law although the Law given from God c. ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Words written c. ARTICLE XXVI Of the Sacraments Sacraments Ordain'd of Christ c. ARTICLE XXIX Of the Lord's Supper The Supper of the Lord's is not only a Sign of c. Corpus Christi Col. Feb. 4 th 1695 6. UPON Examination we judge these to be all the material differences that are unobserv'd between the Original Manuscripts and the B. of Salisbury's Printed Copy Witness our Hands Io. Iaggard Fellow of the said College Roh Mosse Fellow of the said College Will. Lunn Fellow of the said College After I had procured this I was desirous likewise to have the Printed Editions Collated with the Second Publication of the Articles in the Year 1571. in which the Convocation reviewed those of 1562. and made some small Alterations And these were very lately procured for me by my Reverend Friend Dr. Green which I will set down as he was pleased to communicate them to me Note MS. stands for Manuscript and Pr. for Print Art 1. MS. and true God and he is everlasting without Body  Pr. and true God everlasting without Body Art 2. MS. but also for all actual sins of men  Pr. but also for actual sins of men Art 3. MS. so also it
is to be believed  Pr. so also is it to be believed Art 4. MS. Christ did truly arise again  Pr. Christ did truly rise again  MS. until he return to judge all men at the last day  Pr. until he return to judge men at the last day Art 6. MS. to be believed as an Article of the Faith  Pr. to be believed as an Article of Faith  MS. requisite as necessary to Salvation  Pr. requisite or necessary to Salvation  MS. In the name of holy Scripture  Pr. In the name of the holy Scripture  MS. but yet doth it not apply  Pr. but yet doth not apply  MS. Baruch  Pr. Baruch the Prophet  MS. and account them for Canonical  Pr. and account them Canonical Art 8. MS. by most certain warranties of Holy Scripture  Pr. by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture Art 9. MS. but it is the fault  Pr. but is the fault  MS. whereby man is very far gone from his original righteousness  Pr. whereby man is far gone from original righteousness  MS. in them that be regenerated  Pr. in them that are regenerated Art De Gratia non habetur in MS. Art 10. MS. a good will and working in us  Pr. a good will and working with us Art 14. MS. cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety  Pr. cannot be taught without arrogancy and iniquity  MS. we be unprofitable Servants  Pr. we are unprofitable Servants Art 15. MS. sin only except  Pr. sin only excepted MS. to be the Lamb without spot  Pr. to be a Lamb without spot  MS. but we the rest although baptized and born again in Christ yet we all offend  Pr. but all we the rest although baptized and if born in Christ yet offend Art De Blasphemia in Sp. Sanct. non est in MS. Art 16. MS. wherefore the place for Penitence  Pr. wherefore the grant of Repentance Art 17. MS. so excellent a benefit of God given unto them be called according  Pr. so excellent a benefit of God be called according  MS. as because it doth fervently kindle their love  Pr. as because it doth frequently kindle their love Art Omnes Obligantur c. non est in MS. Art 18. MS. to frame his life according to the Law and the light of Nature  Pr. to frame his life according to that Law and the light of Nature Art 19. MS. congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word  Pr. congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word Art 20. MS. The Church hath Power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of Faith And yet   These words are not in the Original MS.  MS. ought it not to enforce any thing  Pr. it ought not to enforce any thing Art 21. MS. and when they be gathered together forasmuch  Pr. and when they be gathered forasmuch Art 22. MS. is a fond thing vainly invented  Pr. is a fond thing vainly feigned Art 24. MS. in a Tongue not understanded of the People  Pr. in a Tongue not understood of the People Art 25. MS. and effectual signs of grace and God's good will towards us  Pr. and effectual signs of grace and God's will towards us  MS. and extream annoyling  Pr. and extream unction Art 26. MS. in their own name but do minister by Christ's Commission and authority  Pr. in their own name but in Christ's and do minister by his Commission and authority  MS. and in the receiving of the Sacraments  Pr. and in the receiving the Sacraments MS. and rightly receive the Sacraments  Pr. and rightly do receive the Sacraments Art 27. MS. from others that be not christned but is also a sign  Pr. from others that be not christned but it is also a sign  MS. forgiveness of sin and of our adoption  Pr. forgiveness of sin of our adoption Art 28. MS. to have amongst themselves  Pr. to have among themselves  MS. the bread which we break is a partaking Communion of the body of Christ.  Pr. the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Thrist  MS. and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking Communion of the blood of Christ.  Pr. and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.  MS. or the change of the Substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ's body and blood cannot be proved by holy Writ but is repugnant  Pr. or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the supper of the Lord cannot be proved by holy Writ but it is repugnant  MS. but the mean whereby the body of Christ is received  Pr. and the mean whereby the body of Christ is received  MS. lifted up or worshipped  Pr. lifted up and worshipped Art 31. MS. is the perfect redemption  Pr. is that perfect redemption  MS. to have remission of pain or guilt were forged Fables  Pr. to have remission of pain and guilt were blasphemous Fables Art 33. MS. that hath authority thereto  Pr. that hath authority thereunto Art 34. MS. diversity of countries times and mens manners  Pr. diversity of countries and mens manners  MS. and be ordained and appointed by common autority  Pr. and be ordained and approved by common authority  MS. the consciences of the weak brethren  Pr. the consciences of weak brethren Art 35. MS. of Homilies the Titles whereof we have joined under this Article do contain  Pr. of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain  MS. wholesome Doctrine and necessary for this time as doth the former book which was set forth  Pr. wholesome Doctrine necessary for these times as doth the former book of Homilies which were set forth MS. and therefore are to be read in our Churches by the Ministers diligently plainly and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people  Pr. and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the people  MS. ministred in a tongue known  Pr. ministred in a known tongue Art De Libro Precationum c. non est in MS. Art 36. MS. in the time of the most noble K. Edward the Sixth  Pr. in the time of Edward the Sixth  MS. superstitious or ungodly  Pr. superstitious and ungodly Art 37. MS. whether they be Ecclesiastical or not  Pr. whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil  MS. the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended  Pr. the minds of some dangerous folks to be offended  MS. we give not to our Princes  Pr. we give not our Princes  MS. or of Sacraments  Pr. or of the
Sacraments  MS. the Injunctions also lately set forth  Pr. the Injunctions also set forth  MS. and serve in the Wars  Pr. and serve in lawful Wars Art 38. MS. every man oughteth of such things  Pr. every man ought of such things Art 39. Edw. 6. qui sequuntur non sunt in MS. WE Th' archbishops and Bishops of either Province of this Realm of England lawfully gathered together in this Provincial Synod holden at London with Continuations and Prorogations of the same do receive profess and acknowledge the xxxviii Articles before written in xix Pages going before to contain true and sound doctrine and do approve and ratify the same by the subscription of our hands the xi â—h day of May in the year of our Lord 1571. and in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth by the Grace of God of England France and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith c. the thirteenth Matthue Cantuar. Rob. Winton Jo. Heref. Richarde Ely Nic. Wigorn. Jo. Sarisburien Edm. Roffen N. Bangor Ri. Cicestren Thom. Lincoln Willhelmus Exon. From these Diversities a great difficulty will naturally arise about this whole Matter The Manuscripts of Corpus Christi are without doubt Originals The hands of the Subscribers are well known they belonged to Archbishop Parker and were left by him to that College and they are Signed with a particular care for at the end of them there is not only a Sum of the number of the Pages but of the Lines in every Page And though this was the Work only of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury yet the Archbishop of York with the Bishops of Duresme and Chester Subscribed them likewise and they were also Subscribed by the whole Lower House But we are not sure that the like care was used in the Convocation Anno 1571. for the Articles are only Subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Ten Bishops of his Province nor does the Subscription of the Lower House appear These Articles were first Printed in the Year 1563. conform to the present Impressions which are still in use among us So the Alterations were then made while the thing was fresh and well known therefore no Fraud nor Artifice is to be suspected since some Objections would have been then made especially by the great Party of the Complying Papists who then continued in the Church They would not have failed to have made much use of this and to have taken great advantages from it if there had been any occasion or colour for it and yet nothing of this kind was then done One Alteration of more Importance was made in the Year 1571. Those words of the 20 th Article The Church hath power to Decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith were left out both in the Manuscripts and in the Printed Editions but were afterwards restored according to the Articles Printed Anno 1563. I cannot find out in what Year they were again put in the Printed Copies They appear in two several Impressions in Queen Elizabeth's Time which are in my hands It passes commonly that it was done by Archbishop Laud and his Enemies laid this upon him among other things That he had corrupted the Doctrine of this Church by this addition but he cleared himself of that as well he might and in a Speech in the Star-Chamber appealed to the Original and affirmed these words were in it The true account of this difficulty is this When the Articles were first setled they were Subscribed by Both Houses upon Paper but that being done they were afterward Ingrossed in Parchment and made up in Form to remain as Records Now in all such Bodies many Alterations are often made after a minute or first Draught is agreed on before the matter is brought to full Perfection so these Alterations as most of them are small and inconsiderable were made between the time that they were first Subscribed and the last Voting of them But the Original Records which if extant would have cleared the whole matter having been burnt in the Fire of London it is not possible to Appeal to them yet what has been proposed may serve I hope fully to clear the difficulty I now go to consider the Articles themselves ARTICLE I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity There is but one living and true God everlasting without bodie parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodness the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible and in the unity of this godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost THE Natural Order of Things required That the First of all Articles in Religion should be concerning the Being and Attributes of God For all other Doctrines arise out of this But the Title appropriates this to the Holy Trinity because that is the only part of the Article which peculiarly belongs to the Christian Religion since the rest is Founded on the Principles of Natural Religion There are Six Heads to be Treated of in order to the full opening of all that is contained in this Article 1. That there is a God 2. That there is but One God 3. Negatively That this God hath neither Body Parts nor Passions 4. Positively That he is of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 5. That he at first Created and does still Preserve all things not only what is Material and Visible but also what is Spiritual and Invisible 6. The Trinity is here Asserted These being all Points of the highest consequence it is very necessary to state them as clearly and to prove them as fully as may be The First is That there is a God This is a Proposition which in all Ages has been so universally received and believed some very few Instances being only assigned of such as either have denied or doubted of it that the very consent of so many Ages and Nations of such different Tempers and Languages so vastly remote from one another has been long esteemed a good Argument to prove that either there is somewhat in the Nature of Man that by a secret sort of Instinct does dictate this to him or that all Mankind has descended from one common Stock and that this belief has passed down from the first Man to all his Posterity If the more Polite Nations had only received this some might suggest that wise men had introduced it as a mean to govern human Society and to keep it in order Or if only the more barbarous had received this it might be thought to be the effeâ—t of their Fear and their Ignorance but since all Sorts as well as all Ages of men have received it this alone goes a great way to assure us of the Being of a God To this Two things are Objected 1 st That some Nations such as Sâ—ldania Formosa and some in America have been discovered in these last Ages that seem to acknowledge no
Body The Third is concerning his Ascension and Continuance in Heaven And the Fourth is concerning his returning to judge all men at the Last Day These things are all so expresly affirmed and that in so particular a manner in the New Testament that if the Authority of that Book is once well proved little doubting will remain concerning them It is punctually told in it That the Body of Christ was laid in the Sepulchre That a Stone was laid to the Mouth of it That it was rolled away and upon that Christ arose and left the Death-Cloaths behind him That those who viewed the Sepulchre saw no Body there That in the same Body Christ shewed himself to his Disciples so that they all knew him he talked with them and they did eat and drink with him and he made Thomas feel to the Print of the Nails and Spear It is as plainly told That the Apostles look'd on and saw him ascend up to Heaven and that a Cloud received him out of their sight It is also said very plainly that he shall come again at the Last Day and judge all men both the Quick and the Dead So that if the Truth of the Gospels is once fully proved it will not be necessary to insist long upon the special Proof of these Particulars Somewhat will only be necessary to be said in Explanation of them The Gospel was first Preached and soon after put in Writing in which these Particulars are not only delivered but are set forth with many Circumstances relating to them The Credit of the Whole is put on that Issue concerning the Truth of Christ's Resurrection so thar the overthrowing the Truth of That was the overturning the whole Gospel and struck at the Credit of it all This was transacted as well as first published at Ierusalem where the Enemies of it had all possible Advantages in their hands their Interest was deeply concerned as well as their Malice was much kindled at it They had both Power and Wealth in their hands as well as Credit and Authority among the People The Romans left them at full liberty as they did the other Nations whom they conquered to order their own Concerns as they pleased And even the Romans themselves began quickly to hate and persecute the Christians They became the Objects of Popular Fury as Tacitus tells us The Romans look'd upon Christ as one that set on the Iews to those Tumults that were then so common among them as Suetonius affirms Which shews both how ignorant they were of the Doctrine of Christ and how much they were prejudiced against it Yet this Gospel did spread it self and was believed by great multitudes both at Ierusalem and in all Iudea and from thence it was propagated in a very few Years to a great many remoteCountries Among all Christians the Article of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was always look'd on as the Capital one upon which all the rest depended This was attested by a considerable number of men against whose Credit no Objection was made who affirmed that they all had seen him and conversed frequently with him after his Resurrection that they saw him ascend up into Heaven and that according to a Promise he had made them they had received extraordinary Powers from him to work Miracles in his Name and to speak in divers Languages This last was a most amazing Character of a Supernatural Power lodged with them and was a thing of such a nature that it must have been evident to every man whether it was true or false So that the Apostles relating this so positively and making such frequent Appeals to it that way of proceeding carries a strong and undeniable Evidence of Truth in it These Wonders were gathered together in a Book and published in the very Time in which they were transacted The Acts of the Apostles were writ two Years after St. Paul was carried Prisoner to Rome and St. Luke begins that Book with the mention of the Gospel that he had formerly writ as that Gospel begins with the mention of some other Gospels that were writ before it Almost all the Epistles speak of the Temple of Ierusalem as yet in being of the Iews as then in Peace and Prosperity hating and persecuting the Christians every where They do also frequently intimate the Assurance they had of a great Deliverance that was to happen quickly to the Christians and of terrible Judgments that were to be poured out on the Iews which was soon after that accomplish'd in the most signal manner of any thing that is recorded in History These things do clearly prove That all the Writings of the New Testament were both Composed and Published in the Age in which that Matter was transacted The Iews who from all the places of their Dispersion went frequently to Ierusalem to keep the great Festivities of their Religion there had occasion often to examine upon the place the Truth of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and of the Effusion of the Holy Ghost Yet even in that Infancy of Christianity in which it had so little visible Strength no Proof was so much as ever pretended in opposition to those great and essential Points which being Matters of Fact and related with a great Variety of Circumstances had been easily confuted if there had been any ground for it The great Darkness at the time of Christ's Death the rending the Veil of the Temple in two as well as what was more publick the renting of the Rocks at his death His being laid in a new Sepulchre and a Watch being set about it and the Watchmen reporting That while they slept the Body of Christ was carried away The Apostles breaking out all of the sudden into that variety of Tongues on Pentecost the Miracles that they wrought and the proceedings of the Sanhedrim with them were all things so publickly done that as the discovery of Falshood in any one of these was in the power of the Iews if any such was so That alone had most effectually destroyed the Credit of this Religion and stopt its Progress The Writings of the New Testament were at that time no Secrets they were in all mens hands and were copied out freely by every one that desired it We find within an Hundred Years after that time both by the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna by Iustin and Irenaeus not to mention Clemens of Rome who lived in that time or Ignatius and Polycarp who lived very near it That the Authority of these Writings was early received and submitted to That they were much read and well known and that they began very soon to be read at the Meetings of the Christians for Worship and were esteemed by the several Churches as the great Trust and Depositum that was lodged with them So that though by the Negligence of Copiers some small Variations might happen among some of the Copies yet as they do all agree in the main and most signally in
Deuteronomy The First Book of Chronicles Ecclesiastes or Preacher Ioshua The Second Book of Chronicles Cantica or Song of Solomon Iudges The First Book of Esdras Four Prophets the greater Ruth The Second Book of Esdras Twelve Prophets the less And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet it doth not apply them to Establish any Doctrine Such are these following The Third Book of Esdras The Fourth Book of Esdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Iudith The rest of the Book of Esther The Book oâ— Wisdom Iesus the Son of Syrach Baruch the Prophet The Song of the Three Children The History of Susanna Of Bel and the Dragon The Prayer of Manasses The First Book of Maccabees The Second Book of Maccabees All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonical IN this Article are Two important Heads and to each of them a proper consequence does belong The First is That the Holy Scriptures do contain all things necessary to Salvation The Negative Consequence that ariseth out of that is That no Article that is not either Read in it or that may not be proved by it is to be required to be believed as an Article of Faith or to be thought necessary to Salvation The Second is The settling the Canon of the Scripture both of Old and New Testament and the consequence that arises out of that is The rejecting the Books commonly called Apocryphal which though they may be Read by the Church for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners yet are no part of the Canon nor is any Doctrine to be Established by them After the main Foundations of Religion in General in the belief of a God or more specially of the Christian Religion in the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are laid down The next Point to be settled is What is the Rule of this Faith where is it to be found and with whom is it lodged The Church of Rome and We do both agree that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration Those of that Communion acknowledge That every thing which is contained in Scripture is true and comes from God but they add to this That the Books of the New Testament were occasionally written and not with the design of making them the full Rule of Faith but that many things were delivered Orally by the Apostles which if they are faithfully Transmitted to us are to be received by us with the same Submission and Respect that we pay to their Writings And they also believe That these Traditions are conveyed down infallibly to us and that to distinguish betwixt true and false Doctrines and Traditions there must be an infallible Authority lodged by Christ with his Church We on the contrary affirm That the Scriptures are a compleat Rule of Faith and that the whole Christian Religion is contained in them and no where else and although we make great use of Tradition especially that which is most Ancient and nearest the Source to help us to a clear understanding of the Scriptures yet as to Matters of Faith we reject all Oral Tradition as an incompetent mean of conveying down Doctrines to us and we refuse to receive any Doctrine that is not either expresly contained in Scripture or clearly proved from it In order to the opening and proving of this it is to be considered what God's design in first ordering Moses and after him all Inspired Persons to put things in Writing could be it could be no other than to free the World from the Uncertainties and Impostures of Oral Tradition All Mankind being derived from one common Source it seems it was much easier in the first Ages of the World to preserve the Tradition pure than it could possibly be afterwards There were only a few things then to be delivered concerning God as That he was one Spiritual Being That he had Created all things That he alone was to be Worshipped and Served the rest relating to the History of the World and chiefly of the first Man that was made in it There were also great advantages on the side of Oral Tradition the first men were very long-liv'd and they saw their own Families spread extreamly so that they had on their side both the Authority which long Life always has particularly concerning Matters of Fact and the credit that Parents have naturally with their own Children to secure Tradition Two Persons might have conveyed it down from Adam so Abraham Methuselah lived above Three hundred years while Adam was yet alive and Sem was almost an hundred when he died and he lived much above an hundred years in the same time with Abraham according to the Hebrew Here is a great period of Time filled up by Two or Three Persons And yet in that Time the Tradition of those very few things in which Religion was then comprehended was so Universally and Intirely corrupted that it was necessary to correct it by immediate Revelation to Abraham God intending to have a peculiar People to himself out of his Posterity commanded him to forsake his Kindred and Country that he might not be corrupted with an Idolatry that we have reason to believe was then but beginning among them We are sure his Nephew Laban was an Idolater And the danger of mixing with the rest of Mankind was then so great that God ordered a Mark to be made on the Bodies of all descended from him to be the Seal of the Covenant and the Badge and Cognisance of his Posterity By that distinction and by their living in a wandring and unfixed manner they were preserved for some time from Idolatry God intending afterwards to settle them in an Instituted Religion But though the Beginnings of it I mean the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was one of the most amazing things that ever happened and the fittest to be Orally conveyed down the Law being very short and the Circumstances in the delivery of it most astonishing and though there were many Rites and several Festivities appointed chiefly for the carrying down the Memory of it though there was also in that dispensation the greatest advantage imaginable for securing this Tradition all the main Acts of their Religion being to be performed in one Place and by men of one Tribe and Family as they were also all the Inhabitants of a small Tract of Ground of one Language and by their Constitutions oblig'd to maintain a constant Commerce among themselves They having further a continuance of Signal Characters of God's Miraculous Presence among them such as the Operation of the Water of Jealousy the Plenty of the Sixth Year to supply them all the Sabbatical Year and tilâ— the Harvest of the following Year Together with a Succession of Prophets that followed one another either in a constant course or at least soon after one another but
above all the Presence of God which appeared in the Cloud of Glory and in those Answers that were given by the Urim and Thummim all which must be confessed to be advantages on the side of Tradition vastly beyond any that can be pretended to have been in the Christian Church Yet notwithstanding all these God commanded Moses to write all their Law as the Ten Commandments were by the Immediate Power or Finger of God writ on Tables of Stone When all this is laid together and well considered it will appear That God by a particular Oeconomy intended then to secure Revealed Religion from the doubtfulness and uncertainties of Oral Tradition It is much more reasonable to believe That the Christian Religion which was to be spread to many remote Regions among whom there could be little Communication should have been fixed in its first beginnings by putting it in Writing and not left to the looseness of Reports and Stories We do plainly see That though the methods of knowing and communicating Truth are now furer and better fixed than they have been in most of the Ages which have passed since the beginnings of this Religion yet in every Matter of Fact such additions are daily made as it happens to be Reported and every Point of Doctrine is so variously stated that if Religion had not a more assured bottom than Tradition it could not have that Credit paid to it that it ought to have If we had no greater certainty for Religion than Report we could not believe it very firmly nor venture upon it So in order to the giving this Doctrine such Authority as is necessary for attaining the great ends proposed in it the conveyance of it must be clear and unquestionable otherwise as it would grow to be much mixed with Fable so it would come to be looked on as all a Fable Since then Oral Tradition when it had the utmost Advantages possible of its side failed so much in the conveyance both of Natural Religion and of the Mosaical we see that it cannot be relied on as a certain method of preserving the Truths of Revealed Religion In our Saviour's Time Tradition was set up on many occasions against him but he never submitted to it On the contrary he reproached the Iews with this That they had made the Laws of God of no effect by their Traditions Mat. 15.3 6 9. Joh. 5.39 and he told them That they worshipped God in vain when they taught for Doctrines the Commandments of men In all his Disputes with the Pharisees he appealed to Moses and the Prophets he bade them search the scriptures for in them said he ye think ye have eternal life and they testify of me Ye think is by the Phraseology of that time a word that does not refer to any particular Conceit of theirs but imports That as they thought so in them they had Eternal Life Our Saviour justifies himself and his Doctrine often by words of Scripture but never once by Tradition We see plainly That in our Saviour's Time the Tradition of the Resurrection was so doubtful among the Iews that the Sadducees a formed Party among them did openly deny it The Authority of Tradition had likewise imposed two very mischievous Errors upon the strictest Sect of the Iews that adhered the most firmly to it The one was That they understood the Prophecies concerning the Messias sitting on the Throne of David literally They thought that in imitation of David he was not only to free his own Country from a Foreign Yoke but that he was to subdue as David had done all the Neighbouring Nations This was to them a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence so their adhering to their Traditions proved their ruin in all Respects The other Error to which the Authority of Tradition led them was their preferring the Rituals of their Religion to the Moral Precepts that it contained This not only corrupted their own Manners while they thought that an Exactness of Performing and a Zeal in Asserting not only the Ritual Precepts that Moses gave their Fathers but those Additions to them which they had from Tradition that were accounted hedges about the Law That this I say might well excuse or atone for the most heinous Violations of the Rules of Justice and Mercy But this had yet another worse effect upon them while it possessed them with such prejudices against our Saviour and his Apostles when they came to see that they set no value on those practices that were recommended by Tradition and that they preferred pure and sublime Morals even to Mosaical Ceremonies themselves and set the Gentiles at liberty from those observances So that the ruin of the Iews their rejecting the Messias and their persecuting his followers arose chiefly from this Principle that had got in among them of believing Tradition and of being guided by it The Apostles in all their Disputes with the Iews make their Appeals constantly to the Scriptures they set a high Character on those of Berea for examining them and comparing the Doctrine that they preached Act. 17.11 with them In the Epistles to the Romans Galatians and Hebrews in which they pursue a thread of Argument with relation to the Prejudices that the Iews had taken up against Christianity they never once argue â—rom Tradition but always from the Scriptures They do not pretend only to disparage Modern Tradition and to set up that which was more Ancient They make no such distinction but hold close to the Scriptures When St. Paul sets out the Advantages that Timothy had by a Religious Education he mentions this That of a Child he had known the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3 15 16. which were able to make him wise unto Salvation through Faith which was in Christ Iesus That is the Belief of the Christian Religion was a Key to give him a right understanding of the Old Testament and upon this occasion St. Paul adds All Scripture that is the whole Old Testament is given by Divine Inspiration or as others render the words All the divinely Inspired Scripture is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The New Testament was writ on the same design with the Old that as St. Luke expresses it We might know the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed â—uk 1.4 John 20 31. These things were written saith St. Iohn that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name When St. Peter knew by a special Revelation that he was near his End he writ his Second Epistle 2 Pet. 1 15. that they might have that as a mean of keeping those things always in remembrance after his death Nor do the Apostles give us any hints of their having left any thing with the Church to be conveyed down by
Testimony that Christ and his Apostles gave to those Books as they were then received by the Iewish Church to whom were committed the Oracles of God Now it is not so much as pretended that ever these Books were received among the Iews or were so much as known to them None of the Writers of the New Testament cite or mention them neither Philo nor Iosephus speak of them Iosephus on the contrary says they had only 22 Books that deserved belief but that those which were written after the time of Artaxerxes were not of equal credit with the rest And that in that Period they had no Prophets at all The Christian Church was for some Ages an utter Stranger to those Books Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to give him a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament took a Journey on purpose to the East to examine this matter at its Source And having as he says made an exact Enquiry he sent him the Names of them just as we receive the Canon of which Eusebius says that he has preserved it Euseb. hist l. 4. c. 26. because it contained all those Books which the Church owned Origen gives us the same Catalogue according to the Tradition of the Iews who divided the Old Testament into 22 Books In Psal. 1. according to the Letters of their Alphabet Athanasius reckons them up in the same manner to be 22 and he more distinctly says that he delivered those In Synop. as they had received them by Tradition In Eppasch and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ because some presumed to mix Apocryphal Books with the Divine Scriptures And therefore he was set on it by the Orthodox Brethren in order to declare the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition and believed to be of Divine Inspiration It is true he adds That besides these there were other Books which were not put into the Canon but yet were appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who first come to be instructed in the way of Piety And then he reckons up most of the Apocryphal Books Here is the first mention we find of them as indeed it is very probable they were made at Alexandria by some of those Iews who lived there in great Numbers Both Hilary and Cyril of Ierusalem give us the same Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the Tradition of the Ancients Cyril says That all other Books are to be put in a Second Order Catech. 4. Gregory Nazienzen reckons up the 22 Books and adds that none besides them are genuine The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Ierom in several of his Prefaces And that which should determine this whole matter is Can. 59. and 60. That the Council of Laodicea by an express Canon delivers the Catalogue of the Canonical Books as we do decreeing that these only should be read in the Church Now the Canons of this Council were afterwards received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church so that here we have the concurring sense of the whole Church of God in this matter It is true the Book of the Revelation not being reckoned in it this may be urged to detract from its Authority But it was already proved that that Book was received much Earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures so the design of this Canon being to establish the Authority of those Books that were to be read in the Church the darkness of the Apocalypse making it appear reasonable not to read it publickly that may be the reason why it is not mentioned in it as well as in some later Catalogues Here we have four Centuries clear for our Canon in Exclusion to all Additions It were easy to carry this much further down and to shew that these Books were never by any express definition received into the Canon till it was done at Trent And that in all the Ages of the Church even after they came to be much esteemed there were divers Writers and those generally the most learned of their time who denied them to be a part of the Canon At first many Writings were read in the Churches that were in high reputation both for the sake of the Authors and of the Contents of them though they were never lookt on as a part of the Canon Can. 47. Such were Clemens's Epistle the Books of Hermas the Acts of the Martyrs besides several other things which were read in particular Churches And among these the Apocryphal Books came also to be read as containing some valuable Books of Instruction besides several Fragments of the Iewish History which were perhaps too easily believed to be true These therefore being usually read they came to be reckoned among Canonical Scriptures For this is the reason assigned in the Third Council of Carthage for calling them Canonical because they had received them from their Fathers as Books that were to be read in Churches And the word Canonical was by some in those Ages used in a large sense in opposition to spurious so that it signified no more than that they were genuine So much depends upon this Article that it seemed necessary to dwell fully upon it and to state it clearly It remains only to observe the Diversity between the Articles now Established and those set forth by K. Edward In the latter there was not a Catalogue given of the Books of Scripture nor was there any distinction stated between the Canonical and the Apocryphal Books In those there is likewise a Paragraph or rather a Parenthesis added after the words proved thereby in these words Although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as Pious and conducing unto Order and Decency Which are now left out because the Authority of the Church as to matters of Order and Decency which was only intended to be asserted by this Period is more fully explained and stated in the 35 th Article ARTICLE VII Of the Old Testament The Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil-Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Commonwealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the Obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward's Articles laid together Only the Nineteenth of King Edward's has these words after Moral Wherefore they are not to be heard which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the
had certainly put the chief strength of their Cause on this That they adhered to the Apostles Creed in opposition to the Innovations of the Nicene Fathers There is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apostles or that it was of any great Antiquity since Ruffin was the first that published it It is true he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia but that was so late that neither this nor the other Creeds have any Authority upon their own account Great Respect is indeed due to things of such Antiquity and that have been so long in the Church but after all we receive those Creeds not for their own sakes nor for the sake of those who prepared them but for the sake of the Doctrine that is contained in them because we believe that the Doctrine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures and chiefly that which is the main Intent of them which is to assert and profess the Trinity therefore we do receive them tho we must acknowledge that the Creed ascribed to Athanasius as it was none of his so it was never established by any General Council ARTICLE IX Of Original or Birth-Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the Offspring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into the World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the Desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess That Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled the next thing that was to be done was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion and that first with relation to all Christians as they are single Individuals for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church which is carried on from the Nineteenth to the End In all that has been hitherto explained the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind In this and in some that follow there has been a greater diversity of Opinion but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us But because the Foundation of those Decrees and the Necessity of those Assistances are laid in the Sin of Adam and in the Effects it had on Mankind therefore thâ—se Controversies begin on this Head The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying That Adam's Sin was Personal That by it as being the first Sin it is said that Sin entred into the World But that as Adam was made mortal â—om 5 1â— and had died whether he had sinned or not so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire and that every man is punished for his own sins and not for the sin of another to do otherwise they say seems contrary to Justice not to say Goodness In opposition to this Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one either Man or Sin ver 1â— Death is said to have reigned by one and by one man's offence and many are said to be dead through the offence of one All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam's Sin and that in him as well as in all others Death was the Wages of Sin so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam as true Christians bear the Image of the second Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness 1 Cor 15.49 and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ So it seems to follow from thence that there is somewhat both transferred to us and conveyed down throughMankind by the first Adam and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death from which we should have been freed if Adam had continued in his first state and that by virtue of the Tree of Life Gen. 3.22 in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases and relieve against all Accidents while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament through the words said after Adam's sin as the reason of driving him out of Paradise lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree that could so fortify and restore Life as to give Immortality These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye is to be taken literally and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death This Subjection to Death and to the Fear of it brings men under a slavish Bondage many Terrors and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit which they think is a great Punishment and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race and by this they are made sinners that is treated as guilty Persons and severely punished This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons And we see in the common methods of Providence that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers most men that come under a very ill habit of Body transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam's Body that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much and might though by a slower operation certainly brought on death at the last Our being thus adjudged to Death and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality they think may be well called the wrath of
We must be then well assured in whom this great Privillege is vested before we can be bound to acknowledge it or to submit to it So here a great many things must be known before we can either argue from or apply those Passages of Scripture in which it is pretended that Infallibility is promised to the Church And if private Judgment is to be trusted in the Inquiries that arise about all these particulars they being the most important and most difficult matters that we can search into then it will be thought reasonable to trust it yet much further It is evident by their proceeding this way that both the Authority and the Sense of the Scriptures must be known antecedently to our acknowledging the Authority or the Infallibility of any Church For it is an Eternal Principle and Rule of Reason never to prove one thing by another till that other is first well proved Nor can any thing be proved afterwards by that which was proved by it This is as impossible as if a Father should beget a Son and should be afterwards begotten by that Son Therefore the Scriptures cannot prove the Infallibility of the Church and be afterwards proved by the Testimony of the Church So the one or the other of these must be first settled and proved before any use can be made of it to prove the other by it The last way they take to find out this Church by is from some Notes that they pretend are peculiar to her such as the Name Catholick Antiquity Extent Bellar. Contr. Tom 2. l. 4. Duration Succession of Bishops Vnion among themselves and with their Head Conformity of Doctrine with former times Miracles Prophecy Sanctity of Doctrine Holiness of Life Temporal Felicity Curses upon their Enemies and a constant Progress or Efficacy of Doctrine together with the Confession of their Adversaries And they fancy that wheresoever we find these we must believe that Body of Men to be Infallible But upon all this endless Questions will arise so far will it be from ending Controversies and settling us upon Infallibility If all these must be believed to be the Marks of the Infallible Church upon the account of which we ought to believe it and submit to it then two Enquires upon every one of these Notes must be discussed before we can be obliged to acquiesce in the Infallibility First Whether that is a true Mark of Infallibility or not And next Whether it belongs to the Church which they call Infallible or not And then another very intricate Question will arise upon the whole Whether they must all be found together or How many or which of them together will give us the entire Characters of the Infallible Church In discussing the Questions Whether every one of these is a true Mark or not no use must be made of the Scriptures for if the Scriptures have their Authority from the Testimony or rather the Decisions of the Infallible Church no use can be made of them till that is first fixed Some of these Notes are such as did not at all agree to the Church in the best and purest Times for then she had but a little Extent a short-liv'd Duration and no Temporal Felicity and she was generally reproached by her Adversaries But out of which of these Topicks can one hope to fetch out an Assurance of the Infallibility of such a Body Can no Body of Men continue long in the constant Series and with much Prosperity but must they be concluded to be Infallible Can it be thought that the assuming a Name can be a Mark Why is not the Name Christian as solemn as Catholick Might not the Philosophers have concluded from hence against the First Christians That they were by the confession of all Men the true Lovers of Wisdom since they were called Philosophers much more unanimously than the Church of Rome is called Catholick If a Conformity of Doctrine with former times and a Sanctity of Doctrine are Notes of the Church these will lead men into Enquiries of such a nature that if they are once allowed to go so far with their private Judgment they may well be suffered to go much further Some Standard must be fixed on by which the Sanctity of Doctrine may be examined they must also be allowed to examine what was the Doctrine of former times and here it will be natural to begin at the first times the Age of the Apostles It must therefore be first known what was the Doctrine of that Age before we can examine the Conformity of the present Age with it A Succession of Bishops is confessed to be still kept up among corrupted Churches An Union of the Church with its Head cannot be supposed to be a Note unless it is first made out by some other Topicks That this Church must have a Head and that he is Infallible For unless it is proved by some other Argument That she ought to have a Head she cannot be bound to adhere to him or to own him and unless it is also proved that he is Infallible she cannot be bound absolutely and without restrictions to adhere to him Holiness of Life cannot be a Mark unless it is pretended that those in whom the Infallibility is are all holy A few holy men here and there are indeed an Honour to any Body but it will seem a strange Inference That because some few in a Society are eminently holy that therefore others of that Body who are not so but are perhaps as eminently vicious should be Infallible Somewhat has been already said concerning Miracles The pretence to Prophecy falls within the same Consideration The one being as wonderful a Communication of Omniscience as the other is of Omnipotence For the Confession of Adversaries or some Curâ—es on them these cannot signifie much unless they were Universal Fair Enemies will acknowledg what is good among their Adversaries But as that Church is the least apt of any Society we know to speak good of those who differ from her so she has not very much to boast as to others saying much good of her And if Signal Providences have now and then happened these are such things and they are carried on with such a depth that we must acquiesce in the Observation of the wisest Men of all Ages That the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong Eccl. 9.11 But that time and chance happeneth to all things And thus it appears That these pretended Notes instead of giving us a clear Thread to lead us up to Infallibility and to end all Controversies they do start a great variety of Questions that engage us into a Labyrinth out of which it cannot be easy for any to extricate themselves But if we could see an end of this then a new set of Questions will come on When we go to examine all Churches by them Whether the Church of Rome has them all And if she alone has them so that no
not true No consequences can be worse than the Corruption that is in the World and the Damnation that follows upon sin and yet God permits it because he has made us free Creatures Nor can any reason be given why we should be less free in the use of our understanding than we are in the use of our Will or why God should make it to be less possible for us to fall into Errors than it is to commit Sins The Wrath of God is as much denounced against Men that hold the Truth in unrighteousness as against other Sins Rom. 1.18 24 26. 2 Thes. 2.11 and it is reckoned among the heaviest of Curses to be given up to strong delusions to believe a lye Upon all these reasons therefore it seems clear that our Understandings are left free to us as well as our Wills and if we observe the Stile and Method of the Scriptures we shall find in them all over a constant Appeal to a Man's Reason and to his Intellectual Faculties If the mere dictates of the Church or of Infallible Men had been the resolution or foundation of Faith there had been no need of such a long Thread of Reasoning and Discourse as both our Saviour used while on Earth and as the Apostles used in their Writings We see the way of Authority is not taken but Explanations are offered Proofs and Illustrations are brought to convince the Mind which shews that God in the clearest Manifestation of his Will would deal with us as with reasonable Creatures who are not to believe but upon Persuasion and are to use our Reasons in order to the attaining that Persuasion And therefore upon the whole matter we ought not to believe Doctrines to be true because the Church teaches them but we ought to search the Scriptures and then according as we find the Doctrine of any Church to be true in the Fundamentals we ought to believe her to be a true Church and if besides this the whole Extent of the Doctrine and Worship together not only with the essential parts of the Sacraments but the whole Administration of them and the other Rituals of any Church are pure and true then we ought to account such a Church true in the largest Extent of the word true and by consequence we ought to hold Communion with it Another question may arise out of the first words of this Article concerning the Visibility of this Church Whether it must be always Visible According to the distinction hitherto made use of the resolution of this will be soon made There seem to be Promises in the Scriptures of a perpetual Duration of the Christian Church I will be with you always Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 even to the end of the world And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church The Iewish Religion had a Period perfixed in which it was to come to an end but the Prophecies that are among the Prophets concerning the new Dispensation seem to import not only its Continuance but its being continued still Visible in the World But as the Iewish Dispensation was long continued after they had fallen generally into some very gross Errors so the Christian Church may be Visible still though not Infallible God may preserve the Succession of a true Church as to the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith in the World even though this Society should fall into Error So a Visible Society of Christians in a true Church as to the Essentials of our Faith is not controverted by us We do only deny the Infallibility of this true Church And therefore we are not afraid of that Question Where was your Church before Henry the Eighth We Answer It was where it is now here in England and in the other Kingdoms of the World only it was then corrupted and it is now pure There is therefore no sort of Inconvenience in owning the constant Visibility of a constant Succession and Church of true Christians true as to the Essentials of the Covenant of Grace though not true in all their Doctrines This seems to be a part of the Glory of the Messias and of his Kingdom That he shall be still visibly worshipped in the World by a Body of Men called by his Name But when Visibility is thus separated from Infallibility and it is made out that a Church may be a true Church though she has a large Allay of Errors and Corruptions mixed in her Constitution and Decisions there will be no manner of Inconvenience in owning a constant Visibility even at the same time that we charge the most eminent part of this Visible Body with many Errors and with much Corruption So far has the first part of this Article been treated of From it we pass to the second which affirms That as the other Patriarchal and Apostolical Churches such as Ierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so the Church of Rome has likewise erred and that not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith It is not questioned but that the other Patriarchal Churches have erred both that where our Saviour himself first taught and which was governed by two of the Apostles successively and those which were founded by St. Peter in Person or by Proxy as Church History represents Alexandria and Antioch to have been Those of the Church of Rome by whom they are at this day condemned both of Heresy and Schism do not dispute this Nor do they dispute that many of their Popes have led bad and flagitious Lives They deny not that the Canons Ceremonies and Government of the Church are very much changed by the Influence and the Authority of their Popes But the whole question turns upon this Whether the See of Rome has erred in matter of Faith or not In this those of that Communion are divided Some by the Church or See of Rome mean the Popes personally so they maintain That they never have and never can fall into Error Whereas others by the See of Rome mean that whole Body that holds Communion with Rome which they say cannot be tainted with Error and these separate this from the Personal Infallibility of Popes for if a Pope should err they think that a General Council has Authority to proceed against him and to deprive him And thus though he should err the See might be kept free from Error I shall upon this Article only consider the first Opinion reserving the Consideration of the second to the Article concerning General Councils As to the Popes their being subject to Error that must be confessed unless it can be proved that by a clear and express Privilege granted them by God they are excepted out of the common condition of Human Nature It is further highly probable that there is no such Privilege since the Church continued for many Ages before it was so much as pretended to and that in a time when that See was not only claiming all the Rights that
belong'd to it but challenging a great many that were flatly denied and rejected Such as the right of receiving Appeals from the African Churches in which reiterated Instances and a bould Claim upon a Spurious Canon pretended to be of the Council of Nice were long pursued but those Churches asserted their Authority of ending all matters within themselves In all this Contest Infallibility was never claimed no more than it had been by Victor when he excommunicated the Asian Churches for observing Easter on the Fourteenth Day of the Moon and not on the Lord's-Day after according to the Custon of the Roman as well as of other Churches When Pope Stephen quarrelled with St. Cyprian about the rebaptizing of Hereticks Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24 25. Cypr. Ep. 74 75. Firmil Con. Sard. C. 3 7. Cyprian and Firmilian were so far from submitting to his Authority that they speak of him with a freedom used by Equals and with severity that shewed they were far from thinking him Infallible When the whole East was distracted with the Disputes occasioned by the Arian Controversy there was so much Partiality in all their Councils that it was decreed That Appeals should be made to Pope Iulius and afterwards to his Successors though here was an occasion given to assert this Infallibility if it had been thought on yet none ever spoke of it Great Reverence was paid to that Church both because they believed it was founded by St. Peter and St. Paul and chiefly because it was the Imperial City for we see that all other Sees had that degree of Dignity given them which by the Constitution of the Roman Empire was lodged in their Cities And so when Byance was made the Imperial City and called New Rome though more commonly Constantinople it had a Patriarchal Dignity bestowed on it and was in all things declared equal to Old Rome only the point of Rank and Order excepted This was decreed in two General Councils the Second and the Fourth Con. Constant Can. 3. Con. Chalced C 28. in so express a manner that it alone before equitable Judges would fully shew the Sense of the Church in the Fourth and Fifth Century upon this Head When Pope Liberius condemned Athanasius and subscribed to Semi-Arianism this was never considered as a New Decision in that matter so that it altered the the state of it No use was made of it nor was any Argument drawn from it Liberius was universally condemned for what he done and when he repented of it and retracted it he was again owned by the Church We have in the Sixth Century a most undeniable Instance of the Sense of the whole Church in this matter Pope Honorius was by the Sixth General Council condemned as a Monothelite and this in the presence of the Popes Legates and he was anathematized by several of the succeeding Popes It is to no purpose here to examine whether he was justly or unjustly condemned it is e nough that the Sense both of the Eaâ—tern and Western Church appeared evidently in that Age upon these two Points That a Pope might be a Heretick and that being such he might be held accursed for it Con. Sinuess An. 303. Tom. 1. Conc. And in that time there was not any one that suggested that either he could not fall into Heresy since our Saviour had prayed that St. Peter's Faith might not fail or that if he had fallen into it he must be left to the Judgment of God but that the Holy See according to the Fable of P. Marcellin could be judged by no body The Confusions that followed for some Ages in the Western Parts of Europe more particularly in Italy gave occasion to the Bishops of Rome to extend their Authority The Emperors at Constantinople and their Exarchs at Ravenna studied to make them sure to their Interests yet still asserting their Authority over them The new Conquerors studied also to gain them to their side and they managed their matter so dextrously that they went on still increasing and extending their Authority till being much straitned by the Kings of the Lombards they were protected by a new Conquering Family that arose in France in the Eighth Century who to give Credit both to their Usurpation of that Crown and to the extending their Dominions into Italy and the assuming the Empire of the West did both protect and enrich them and enlarged their Authority the greatness of which they reckoned could do them no hurt as long as they kept the Confirmation of their Election to themselves That Family became quickly too feeble to hold that Power long and then an Imposture was published of a Volume of the Decretal Epistles of the Popes of the first Ages in which they were represented as acting according to those high Claims to which they were then beginning to pretend Those Ages were too blind and too ignorant to be capable of searching critically into the truth of this Collection it quickly passed for â—urrent and though some in the beginning disputed it yet that was soon born down and the Credit of that Work was established It furnished them with Precedents that they were careful enough not only to follow but to outdo Thus a Work which is now as universally rejected by the Learned Men of their own Body as spurious as it was then implicity taken for genuine gave the chief Foundation during many Ages to their unbounded Authority And this furnishes us with a very just Prejudice against it That it was managed with so much Fraud and Imposture to which they added afterwards much Cruelty and Violence the two worst Characters possible and the least likely to be found joined with Infallibility For it is reasonable enough to apprehend that if God had lodged such a Privilege any where that he would have so influenced those who were the Depositaries of it that they should have appeared somewhat like that Authority to which they laid Claim and that he would not have forsaken them so that for above Eight hundred Years the Papacy as it is represented by their own Writers is perhaps the worst Succession of Men that is to be found in History But now to come more close to prove what is here asserted in this part of the Article If all those Doctrines which were established at Trent and that have been confirmed by Popes and most of them brought into a new Creed and made parts of it are found to be gross Errors or if but any one of them should be found to be an Error then there is no doubt to be made but that the Church of Rome hath erred So the Proof brought against every one of these is likewise a proof against their Infallibility But I shall here give one Instance of an Error which will not be denied by the greater part of the Church of Rome They have now for above Six hundred Years asserted That they had an Authority over Princes not only to convict and
Courts and Councils about their Gates by the Gates of Hell may be understood the Designs and Contrivances of the Powers of Darkness which should never prevail over the Church to root it out and destroy it for the Word rendred prevail does signify an intire Victory This only imports That the Church should be still preserved against all the Attempts of Hell but does not intimate that no Error was ever to get into it Mat. 3.2 Mat. 4.17 By the words Kingdom of Heaven generally through the whole Gospel the Dispensation of the Messias is understood This appears evidently from the words with which both St. Iohn Baptist and our Saviour begun their Preaching Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And the many Parables and Comparisons that Christ gave of the Kingdom of Heaven can only be understood of the Preaching of the Gospel This being then agreed to the most natural and the least forced Exposition of those words must be that St. Peter was to open the Dispensation of the Gospel The proper use of a Key is to open a Door And as this agrees with these words He that hath the Key of the House of David that openeth and no man shutteth Rev. 3.7 Luk. 11.51 and shutteth and no man openeth and with the Phrase of the Key of Knowledge by which the Lawyers are described for they had a Key with Writing-Tables given them as the Badges of their Profession So it agrees with the accomplishment of this promise in St. Peter who first opened the Gospel to the Iews after the wonderful Effusion of the Holy Ghost And more eminently when he first opened the Door to the Gentiles preaching to Cornelius and Baptizing him and his Houshold to which the Phrase of the Kingdom of Heaven seems to have a more particular relation This Dispensation was committed to St. Peter and seems to be claimed by him as his peculiar Privilege in the Council at Ierusalem This is a clear and plain sense of these words For those who would carry them further and understand by the Kingdom of Heaven our Eternal Happiness must use many distinctions otherwise if they Expound them literally they will ascribe to St. Peter that which certainly could only belong to our Saviour himsâ—lf Though at the same time it is not to be denied but that under the figure of Keys the power of Discipline and the Conduct and Management of Christians may be understood But as to this all the Pastors of the Church have their share in it nor can it be appropriated to any one Person As for that of binding and loosing and the confirming in Heaven what he should do in Earth whatever it may signify it is no special Grant to St. Peter For the same words are spoken by our Saviour elsewhere to all the Apostles So this is given equally to them all The words binding and loosing are used by the Iewish Writers in the sense of affirming or denying the Obligation of any Precept of the Law that might be in dispute So according to this common Form of Speech and the sense formerly given to the words Kingdom of Heaven the meaning of these words must be That Christ committed to the Apostles the Dispensing his Gospel to the World by which he Authorized them to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to give other Laws to the Christian Church which they should do under such visible Characters of a Divine Authority impowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was also ratifyed in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a clear sense which agrees with the whole Design of the Gospel But whatsoever their sense may be it is plain that there was nothing given peculiarly to St. Peter by them which was not likewise given to the rest of the Apostles Nor do these words of our Saviour to St. Peter import any thing of a Successive Infallibility that was to be derived from him with any distinction beyond the other Apostles Unless 〈◊〉 were a Priority of Order and Dignity and whatever that was there is 〈◊〉 so much as a hint given that it was to descend from him to any See or Succession of Bishops As for our Saviour's praying that St. Peter's Faith might not fail And his restoring him to his Apostolical Function by a thrice repeated charge Feed my sheep feed my lambs that has such a visible Relation to his fall Luk. 22.31 John 21.15 16 17. and to his denying him that it does not seem necessary to enlarge further on the making it out or on shewing that these words are capable of no other Signification and cannot be carried further The Importance of this Argument rather than the Difficulty of it has made it necessary to dwell fully upon it So much depends upon it and the Missionaries of the Church of Rome are so well Instructed in it that it ought to be well considered for how little strength soever there may be in the Arguments brought to prove this Infallibility yet the colours are specious and they are commonly managed both with much Art and with great Confidence ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church The Church hath Power to decree Rights or Ceremonies and Authority in Matters of Faith And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation THIS Article consists of Two parts The first asserts a Power in the Church both to decree Rites and Ceremonies and to judge in matters of Faith The second limits this Power over matters of Faith to the Scriptures so that it must neither contradict them nor add any Articles as necessary to Salvation to those contained in them This is suitable to some Words that were once in the Fifth Article but were afterwards left out instead of which the first words of this Article were put in this place according to the Printed Editions tho they are not in the Original of the Articles signed by both Houses of Convocation that are yet extant As to the first part of the Article concerning the Power of the Church either with relation to Ceremonies or Points of Faith the dispute lies only with those who deny all Church-Power and think that Churches ought to be in all things limited by the Rules set in Scripture and that where the Scriptures are silent there ought to be no Rules made but that all Men should be left to their Liberty And in particular That the appointing new Ceremonies looks like a reproaching of the Apostles as if their Constitutions had been so defective that those defects
ought to maintain the Unity of the Body and the Decency and Order that is necessary for Peace and mutual Edification Therefore since there is not any one thing that Christ has enjoined more solemnly and more frequently than Love and Charity Union and Agreement amongst his Disciples since we are also required to assemble our selves together Heb 10.25 to constitute our selves in a Body both for worshipping God jointly and for maintaining of Order and Love among the Society of Christians we ought to acquiesce in such Rules as have been agreed on by common Consent and which are recommended to us by long Practice and that are established by those who have the lawful Authority over us Nor can we assign any other Bounds to our Submission in this Case than those that the Gospel has limited We must obey God rather than Man Acts 5.29 Matth. 22.21 and we must in the first place render to God the things that are God's and then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's So that if either Church or State have power to make Rules and Laws in such matters they must have this Extent given them That till they break in upon the Laws of God and the Gospel we must be bound to obey them A Mean cannot be put here either they have no Power at all or they have a Power that must go to every thing that is not forbid by any Law of God This is the only measure that can be given in this matter But a great difference is here to be made between those Rules that both Church and State ought to set to themselves in their enacting of such matters and the Measures of the Obedience of Subjects The only question in the point of Obedience must be Lawful or Unlawful For Expedient or Inexpedient ought never to be brought into question as to the point of Obedience since no Inexpediency whatsoever can balance the breaking of Order and the dissolving the Constitution and Society This is a Consideration that arises out of a Man's apprehensions of the fitness or usefulness of things in which though he might be in the right as to the antecedent fitness of them and yet even there he may be in the wrong and in common modesty every Man ought to think that it is more likely that he should be in the wrong than the Governors and Rulers of the Society yet I say allowing all this it is certain that Order and Obedience are both in their own nature and in their Consequences to be preferred to all the particular considerations of Expediency or Inexpediency Yet still those in whose Hands the making of those Rules is put ought to carry their Thoughts much further They ought to consider well the Genius of the Christian Religion and therefore they are to avoid every thing that may lead to Idolatry or feed Superstition every thing that is apt to be abused to give false Ideas of God or to make the World think that such Instituted Practices may balance the Violation of the Laws of God They ought not to overcharge the Worship of God with too great a Number of them The Rites ought to be grave simple and naturally expressive of that which is intended by them Vain Pomp and indecent Levity ought to be guarded against and next to the Honour of God and Religion the Peace and Edification of the Society ought to be chiefly considered Due regard ought to be had to what Men can bear and what may be most suitable to the present State of the whole and finally a great Respect is due to Ancient and Established Practices Antiquity does generally beget Veneration and the very changing of what has been long in use does naturally startle many and discompose a great part of the Body So all Changes unless the Expediency of making them is upon other Accounts very visible labour under a great prejudice with the more staid Sort of Men for this very Reason because they are Changes But in this matter no certain or Mathematical Rules can be given Every one of these that has been named is capable of that Variety by the diversity of Times and other Circumstances that since Prudence and Discretion must Rule the use that is to be made of them that must be left to the Conscience and Prudence of every Person who may be concerned in the Management of this Authority He must Act as he will Answer it to God and to the Church for he must be at liberty in applying those general Rules to particular Times and Cases And a Temper must be observed We must avoid a sullen adhering to things because they were once settled as if Points of Honour were to be maintained here and that it look'd like a reproaching a Constitution or the Wisdom of a former Age to alter what they did since it is certain that what was wisely ordered in one Time may be as wisely chang'd in another As on the other hand all Men ought to avoid the Imputations of a desultory Levity as if they loved Changes for Changes sake This might give occasion to our Adversaries to triumph over us and might also fill the Minds of the weaker among our selves with Apprehensions and Scruples The next particular Asserted in this Article is That the Church hath Authority in Matters of Faith Here a Distinction is to be made between an Authority that is absolute and founded on Infallibility and an Authority of Order The former is very formally disclaimed by our Church but the second may be well maintained tho' we Assert no Unerring Authority Every single Man has a Right to search the Scriptures and to take his Faith from them yet it is certain that he may be mistaken in it It is therefore a much surer way for Numbers of Men to Meet together and to Examine such Differences as happen to arise To consider the Arguments of all Hands with the Importance of such Passages of Scripture as are brought into the Controversy and thus to enquire into the whole Matter in which as it is very natural to think that a great Company of Men should see further than a less Number so there is all Reason to expect a good Issue of such Deliberations if Men proceed in them with due Sincerity and Diligence If Pride Faction and Interest do not sway their Councils and if they seek for Truth more than for Victory But what abuses soever may have crept since into the publick Consultations of the Clergy the Apostles at first met and consulted together upon that Controversy which was then moved concerning the Imposing the Mosaical Law upon the Gentiles They ordered the Pastors of the Church to be able to convince Gainsayers Titus 1.9 3.10 and not to reject a Man as an Heretick till after a first and a second Admonition The most likely method both to find out the Truth and to bring such as are in Error over to it is to consult of these Matters in
Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things Ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures THERE are two Particulars setled in this Article The one is The power of calling of Councils at least an Assertion that they cannot be called without the Will of Princes The other is The Authority of general Councils that they are not Infallible and that some have erred And therefore the Inference is justly made That whatever Authority they may have in the Rule and Government of the Church their Decisions in matters necessary to Salvation ought to be examined by the Word of God and are not to be submitted to unless it appears that they are conform to the Scripture The first of these is thus proved Clergymen are Subject to their Princes according to these words Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers If they are then Subject to them they cannot be obliged to go out of their Dominions upon the Summons of any other their Persons being under the Laws and Authority of that Country to which they belong This is plain and seems to need no other Proof It is very visible how much the Peace of Kingdoms and States is concerned in this Point For if a Foreign Power should call their Clergy away at pleasure they might be not only left in a great destitution as to Religious Performances but their Clergy might be practised upon and sent back to them with such Notions and upon such Designs that chiefly supposing the Immunity of their Persons they might become as they often were in dark and ignorant Ages the Incendiaries of the World and the Disturbers and Betrayers of their Countries This is confirmed by the Practice of the first Ages after the Church had the Protection of Christian Magistrates In these the Roman Emperors called the First General Councils which is expresly mentioned not only in the Histories of the Councils but in their Acts where we find both the Writs that Summoned them and their Letters sometimes to the Emperors and sometimes to the Churches which do all set forth their being Summoned by the Sacred Authority of their Emperors without mentioning any other In calling some of these Councils it does not appear that the Popes were much consulted And in others we find Popes indeed supplicating the Emperors to call a Council but nothing that has so much as a shadow of their pretending to an Authority to summon it themselves This is a thing so plain and may be so soon seen into by any Person who will be at the pains to turn to the Editions of the first Four General Councils made by themselves not to mention those that followed in the Greek Church that the Confidence with which it has been asserted That they were summoned by the Popes is an Instance to shew us that there is nothing at which men who are once engaged will stick when their Cause requires it But even since the Popes have got this matter into their own hands though they summon the Council yet they do not pretend to it nor expect that the World would receive a Council as General or submit to it unless the Princes of Christendom should allow of it and consent to the Publication of the Bull. So that by reason of this Councils are now become almost unpracticable things When all Christendom was included within the Roman Empire then the calling of a Council lay in the Breast and Power of one Man and during the Ages of Ignorance and Superstition the World was so subjected to the Popes Authority that Princes durst seldom oppose their Summons or deny their Bishops leave to go when they were so called But after the scandalous Schism in the Popedom in which there were for a great while Two Popes and at last Three at a time Councils began to pretend that the Power of Governing the Church and of censuring depriving and making of Popes was radically in them as Representing the Vniversal Church So they fell upon Methods to have frequent Councils and that whether both Popes and Princes should oppose it or not for they declared both the one and the other to be fallen from their Dignity that should attempt to hinder it Yet they carried the Claim of the Freedom of Elections and of the other Ecclesiastical Immunities so high that all that followed upon this was That the Popes being terrified with the Attempts begun at Constance and prosecuted at Basil and Pisa took pains to have Princes of their side and then made Bargains and Concordates with them by which they divided all the Rights of the Church at least the Pretensions to them between themselves and the Princes Matters of Gain and Advantage were reserved to the See of Rome but the Points of Power and Jurisdiction were generally given up to the Princes The Temporal Authority has by that means prevailed over the Spiritual as much as the Spiritual Authority had prevailed over the Temporal for several Ages before Yet the Pretence of a General Council is still so specious that all those in the Roman Communion that do not acknowledge the Infallibility of their Popes do still support this Pretension That the Infallibility is given by Christ to his Church and that in the Interval of Councils it is in the Community of the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and that when a Council meets then the Infallibility is lodged with it Acts 15.28 according to that It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs. The first thing to be settled in every Question is the meaning of the Terms So we must begin and examine what makes a General Council Whether all the Bishops must be present in Person or by Proxy And what share the Laity or the Princes that are thought to represent their People ought to have in a Council It is next to be considered Whether a General Citation is enough to make a Council General were the appearance of the Bishops ever so small at their first opening It is next to be considered Whether any come thither and Sit there as representing others and if Votes ought to be reckoned according to the Numbers of the Bishops or of the others who Depute and send them And whether Nations ought to Vote in a Body as Integral Parts of the Church or of every single Bishop by himself And finally Whether the Decisions of Councils must be Unanimous before they can be esteemed Infallible Or whether the Major Vote though exceeding only by One or if some greater Inequality is necessary such as Two Thirds or any other Proportion That there may be just cause of raising Scruples upon every one of these is apparent at first View
the subsequent Bull does instead of confirming their Decrees derogate much from them For to pretend to confirm them imports that they wanted that Addition of Authority which destroys the supposition of their Infallibility since what is Infallible cannot be made Stronger And the pretending to add strength to it implies that it is not Infallible Human Constitutions may be indeed so modelled that there must be a joint Concurrence before a Law can be made And though it is the last consent that settles the Law yet the previous consents were necessary steps to the giving it the Authority of a Law And thus it is not to be denied but that as to the Matters of Government the Church may cast her self into such a Model that as by a Decree of the Council of Nice the Bishops of a Province might conclude nothing without the consent of the Metropolitan so another Decree might even limit a General Council to stay for the consent of one or more Patriarchs But this must only take place in Matters of Order and Government which are left to the disposal of the Church but not in Decisions about Matters of Faith For if there is an Infallibility in the Church it must be derived from a special Grant made by Christ to his Church And it must go according to the Nature of that Grant unless it can be pretended that there is a Clause in that Grant empowering the Church to dispose of it and model it at pleasure For if there is no such power as it is plain there is not then Christ's Grant is either to a single person or to the whole Community If to a single Person then the Infallibility is wholly in him and he is to manage it as he thinks best For if he calls a Council it is only an act of his humility and condescension to hear the Opinions of many in different Corners of the Church that so he may know all that comes from all Quarters It may also seem a prudent way to make his Authority to be the more easily born and submitted to since what is gently managed is best obeyed But after all these are only prudential and discreet Methods The Infallibility must be only in him if Christ has by the Grant tied him to such a Succession Whereas on the other hand if the Infallibility is granted to the whole Community or to their Representatives then all the Applications that they may make to any one See must only be in order to the Execution of their Decrees like the Addresses that they make to Princes for the Civil Sanction But still the Infallibility is where Christ put it It rests wholly in their Decision and belongs only to that And any other Confirmation that they desire unless it be restrained singly to the Execution of their Decrees is a Wound given by themselves to their own Infallibility if not a direct disclaiming of it When the Confirmation of the Council is over a new Difficulty arises concerning the receiving the Decrees And here it may be said That if Christ's Grant is to the whole Community so that a Council is only the Authentical Declarer of the Tradition the whole Body of the Church that is possessed of the Tradition and conveys it down must have a right to examine the Decision that the Council has made and so is not bound to receive it but as it finds it to be conformable to Tradition Here it is to be supposed that every Bishop or at the least all the Bishops of any National Church know best the Tradition of their own Church and Nation And so they will have a right to re-examine things after they have been judged in a General Council This will intirely destroy the whole Pretension to Infallibility And yet either this ought to have been done after the Councils at Arimini or the second of Ephesus or else the World must have received Semi-Arianism or Eutychianism implicitly from them It is also no small prejudice against this Opinion That the Church was constituted the Scriptures were received many Heresies were rejected and the Persecutions were gone through in a course of Three Centuries in all which time there was nothing that could pretend to be called a General Council And when the Ages came in which Councils met often neither the Councils themselves who must be supposed to understand their own Authority best nor those who writ in defence of their Decrees who must be supposed to be inclined enough to magnify their Authority being of the same side neither of these I say ever pretended to argue for their Opinions from the Infallibility of those Councils that Decreed them They do indeed speak of them with great Respect as of Bodies of Men that were guided by the Spirit of God And so do we of our Reformers and of those who prepared our Liturgy But we do not ascribe Infallibility to them and no more did they Nor did they lay the stress of their Arguments upon the Authority of such Decisions they knew that the Objection might have been made as strong against them as they could put the Argument for them And therefore they offered to wave the Point and to appeal to the Scripture setting aside the Definitions that had been made in Councils both ways To conclude this Argument If the Infallibility is supposed to be in Councils then the Church may justly apprehend that she has lost it For as there has been no Council that has pretended to that Title now during 130 Years so there is no great probability of our ever seeing another The Charge and Noise the Expectations and Disappointments of that at Trent has Taught the World to expect nothing from one They plainly see that the management from Rome must carry every thing in a Council Neither Princes nor People no nor the Bishops themselves desire or expect to see one The Claim set up at Rome for Infallibility makes the demand of one seem not only needless there but to imply a doubting of their Authority when other methods are lookt after which will certainly be always unacceptable to those who are in possession and act as if they were Infallible Nor can it be apprehended that they will desire a Council to Reform those abuses in Discipline which are all occasioned by that Absolute and Universal Authority of which they are now possessed So by all the Judgments that can be made from the State of Things from the Interests of Men and the last Managemnt at Trent one may without a Spirit of Prophecy conclude That Christendom puts on a new Face there will be no more General Councils And so here Infallibility is at an end and has left the Church at least for a very long Interval It remains that those Passages should be considered that are brought to support this Authority Christ says Tell the Church and if he neglects to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen Mat. 18.17 and a Publican
scandalous Parts Such as the Worship of subordinate Gods and of Images These are the chief Grounds upon which we separate from the Roman Communion Since we cannot have fellowship with them unless we will join in those Acts which we look on as direct violations of the First and Second Commandment God is a jealous God and therefore we must rather venture on their Wrath how burning soever it may be than on his who is a consuming Fire ARTICLE XXIII Of Ministring in the Congregation It is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Office of publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lord's Uineyard WE have two particulars fixed in this Article The First is against any that shall assume to themselves without a lawful Vocation the authority of dispencing the things of God The Second is the defining in very general Words what it is that makes a lawful Call As to the First it will bear no great difficulty We see in the old Dispensation that the Family the Age and the Qualifications of those that might serve in the Priesthood are very particularly set forth In the New Testament our Lord called the Twelve Apostles and sent them out He also sent out upon another occasion Seventy Disciples And before he left his Apostles He told them that as his Father had sent him so he sent them John â—â— 2â— Which seems to Import that as he was sent into the World with this among other Powers that he might send others in his Name so he likewise empowered them to do the same And when they went planting Churches as they took some to be Companions of Labour with themselves so they appointed others over the particular Churches in which they fixed them Such were Epaphras or Epaphroditus at Colosse Timothy at Ephesus and Titus in Crete To them the Apostles gave Authority Otherwise it was a needless thing to write so many directions to them in order to their conduct They had the Depositum of the Faith 2 Tim. 1.13 with which they were chiefly entrusted Concerning the succession in which that was to be continued we have these Words of St. Paul The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 2.12 1 Tim. â— c. who shall be able to teach others also To them directions are given concerning all the different Parts of their Worship Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks and also the keeping up the decency of the Worship and the not suffering of Women to Teach like the Women Priests among the Heathen who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick Fury To them are directed all the Qualifications of such as might be made either Bishops or Deacons They were to examine them according to these and either to receive or reject them All this was directed to Timothy that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 1 Tim. â— 1 3 17 19 22. He had Authority given him to Rebuke and Entreat to Honour and to Censure He was to Order what Widows might be received into the Number and who should be refused He was to receive Accusations against Elders or Presbyters according to directed Methods and was either to Censure some or to lay Hands on others as should agree with the Rules that were set him And in conclusion he is very solemnly charged 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 2.15 2 Tim. 4.2 5. to keep that which was committed to his Trust. He is required rightly to divide the word of truth to preach the word to be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort and to do the work of an Evangelist and to make full proof of his ministry Some of the same things are charged upon Titus whom St. Paul had left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting Tit. 1.5 9 13. and to ordain Elders in every City Several of the Characters by which he was to try them are also set down He is charged to rebuke the people sharply and to speak the things that became sound doctrine He is instructed concerning the Doctrines which he was to Teach and those which he was to Avoid and also how to Censure an Heretick He was to admonish him twice Tit. 3.10 and if that did not prevail he was to reject him by some publick Censure These Rules given to Timothy and Titus do plâ—inly Import that there was to be an Authority in the Church and that no Man was to assume this Authority to himself according to that Maxim that seems to be founded on the Light of Nature as well as it is set down in Scripture as a standing Rule agreed to in all Times and Places No Man taketh this honour to himself Heb. 5.4 but he that is called of God as was Aaron St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians did reckon up the several Orders and Functions Rom. 12.6 7 8. 1 Cor. 12.28 Eph. 4.11 12 13 16. that God had set in his Church and in his Epistle to the Ephesians he shews that these were not transient but lasting Constitutions For there as he reckons the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers as the Gifts which Christ at his Ascension had given to Men so he tells the Ends for which they were given For the perfecting the Saints by Perfecting seems to be meant the initiating them by Holy Mysteries rather than the compacting or putting them in joint For as that is the proper Signification of the Word so it being set first the other things that come after it make that the strict Sense of Perfecting that is Compleating does not so well agree with the Period for the work of the Ministry the whole Ecclesiastical or Sacred Services for the edifying the Body of Christ to which instructing exhorting comforting and all the other Parts of Preaching may well be reduced and then the duration of these Gifts is defined 'Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man This seems to Import the whole State of this Life We cannot think that all this belonged only to the Infancy of the Church and that it was to be laid aside by her when she was farthâ—r advanced For when we consider that in the Beginnings of Christianity there was so liberal an Effusion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon such great Numbers who had very extraordinary Credentials Miracles and the Gift of Tongues to prove their Mission it does not seem so necessary in such a
Time or rather for the sake of such a Time only to have setled those Functions in the Church and that the Aposâ—les should have ordained Elders in every Church Those extraordinary Gifts that were then Acts 14.23 without any authoritative Settlement might hâ—ve served in that Time to have procured to Men so qualified all due Regards We have therefore much better Reason to Conclude that this was setled at that Time chiefly with respect to the following Ages which as they were to fall off from that Zeal and Purity that did then reign among them so they would need Rule and Government to maintain the Unity of the Church and the Order of sacred Things And for that Reason chiefly we may conclude that the Apostles setled Order and Government in the Church not so much for the Age in which they themselves lived as once to establish and give credit to Constitutions that they foresaw would be yet more necessâ—ry to the succeeding Ages This is confirmed by that which is in the Epistle to the Hebrews both concerning those who had ruled over them and those who were then their Guides Heb. 13.7 17. 1 Pet. 5.2 3. St. Peter gave directions to the Elders of the Churches to whom he writ how they ought both to feed and govern the flock and his charging them not to do it out of Covetousness or with Ambition insinuates that either some were beginning to do so or that in a Spirit of Prophecy he foresaw that some might fall under such Corruptions This is hint enough to teach us that though such things should happen they could furnish no Argument against the Function Abuses ought to be corrected but upon that pretence the Function ought not to be taken away If from the Scriptures we go to the first Writings of Christians we find that the main subject of St. Clemens and St. Ignatius Epistles is to keep the Churches in order and union in subjection to their Pastors and in the due subordination of all the Members of the Body one to another After the first Age the thing grows too clear to need any further proof The Argument for this from the standing Rules of Order of Decency of the Authority in which the Holy things ought to be maintained and the care that must be taken to repress Vanity and Insolence and all the extravagancies of light and ungoverned Fancies is very clear For if every Man may assume Authority to Preach and Perform Holy Functions it is certain Religion must fall into disorder and under contempt Hot-headed Men of warm Fancies and voluble Tongues with very little knowledge and discretion would be apt to thrust themselves on to the Teaching and Governing others if they themselves were under no Government This would soon make the publick Service of God to be loathed and break and dissolve the whole Body A few Men of livelier Thoughts that begin to set on foot such ways might for some time maintain a little credit yet so many others would follow in at that breach which they had once made on publick Order that it could not be possible to keep the Society of Christians under any method if this were once allowed And therefore those who in their heart hate the Christian Religion and desire to see it fall under a more general contempt know well what they do when they encourage all those Enthusiasts that destroy order hoping by the credit which their outward appearances may give them to compass that which the others know themselves to be too obnoxious to hope that they can ever have credit enough to persuade the World to Whereas those poor deluded Men do not see what Properties the others make of them The Morals of Infidels shew that they hate all Religions equally or with this difference that the stricter any are they must hate them the more the root of their quarrel being at all Religion and Virtue And it is certain as it is that which those who drive it on see well and therefore they drive it on that if once the publick Order and the National Constitution of a Church is dissolved the strength and power as well as the order and beauty of all Religion will soon go after it For humanly speaking it cannot subsist without it I come in the next place to consider the Second Part of this Article which is the Definition here given of those that are lawfully Called and Sent This is put in very general words far from that Magisterial stiffness in which some have taken upon them to dictate in this matter The Article does not resolve this into any particular Constitution but leaves the matter open and at large for such accidents as had happened and such as might still happen They who drew it had the state of the severalChurches before their Eyes that had been differently reformed and although thâ—ir own had been less forced to go out of the beaten path than any other yet they knew that all things among themselves had not gone according to those Rules that ought to be sacred in Regular times Necessity has no Law and is a Law to it self This is the difference between those things that are the means of Salvation and the Precepts that are only necessary because they are Commanded Those things which are the means such as Faith Repentance and new Obedience are indispensable they oblige all Men and at all times alike because they have a natural influence on us to make us fit and capable Subjects of the Mercy of God But such things as are necessary only by virtue of a Command of God and not by virtue of any real Efficiency which they have to reform our Natures do indeed oblige us to seek for them and to use all our endeavours to have them But as they of themselves are not necessary in the same order with the first so much less are all those methods necessary in which we may come at the regular use of them This distinction shall be more fully enlarged on when the Sacraments are Treated of But to the matter in hand That which is simply necessary as a mean to preserve the Order and Union of the Body of Christians and to maintain the Reverence due to holy things is that no Man enter upon any part of the holy Ministry without he be Chosen and Called to it by such as have an Authority so to do that I say is fixed by the Article But Men are left more at liberty as to their Thoughts concerning the subject of this lawful Authority That which we believe to be Lawful Authority is that Rule which the Body of the Pastors or Bishops and Clergy of a Church shall settle being met in a Body under the due Respect to the Powers that God shall set over them Rules thus made being in nothing contrary to the Word of God and duly executed by the particular Persons to whom that care belongs are certainly the Lawful Authority Those are the Pastors
of the Church to whom the care and watching over the Souls of the People is committed and the Prince or Supreme Power comprehends virtually the whole Body of the People in him Since according to the Constitution of the Civil Government the Wills of the People are understood to be concluded by the Supreme and such as are the subject of the Legislative Authority When a Church is in a state of Persecution under those who have the Civil Authority over her then the People who receive the Faith and give both protection and encouragement to those that labour over them are to be considered as the Body that is Governed by them The natural effect of such a state of things is to satisfy the People in all that is done to carry along their consent with it and to consult much with them in it This does not only arise out of a necessary regard to their present circumstances but from the Rules given in the Gospel of not Ruling as the Kings of the several Nations did nor lording it or carrying it with a High Authority over God's Heritage which may be also rendred over their several lots or portions But when the Church is under the Protection of a Christian Magistrate then he comes to be in the stead of the whole People for they are concluded in and by him he gives the Protection and Encouragement and therefore great regard is due to him in the exercise of this Lawful Authority in which he has a great share as shall be explained in its proper place Here then we think this Authority is rightly lodged and set on its proper Basis. And in this we are confirmed because by the Decrees of the first General Councils the concerns of every Province were to be setled in the Province it self and it so continued till the Usurpations of the Papacy broke in every where and disordered this Constitution Through the whole Roman Communion the chief Jurisdiction is now in the Pope only Princes have laid checks upon the extent of it and by Appeals the Secular Court takes Cognizance of all that is done either by the Pope or the Clergy This we are sure is the effect of Usurpation and Tyranny Yet since this Authority is in fact so setled we do not pretend to Annul the Acts of that Power nor the Missions or Orders given in that Church because there is among them an Order in Fact though not as it ought to be in Right On the other hand when the Body of the Clergy comes to be so Corrupted that nothing can be trusted to the Regular decisions of any Synod or Meeting called according to their Constitution then if the Prince shall select a peculiar Number and commit to their care the Examining and Reforming both of Doctrine and Worship and shall give the Legal Sanction to what they shall offer to him we must confess that such a Method as this runs contrary to the established Rules and that therefore it ought to be very seldom put in practice and never except when the greatness of the occasion will balance this Irregularity that is in it But still here is an Authority both in Fact and Right for if the Magistrate has a Power to make Laws in Sacred Matters he may order those to be prepared by whom and as he pleases Finally if a Company of Christians find the publick Worship where they live to be so defiled that they cannot with a good Conscience join in it and if they do not know of any place to which they can conveniently go where they may Worship God purely and in a regular way if I say such a Body finding some that have been Ordained though to the lower Functions should submit it self intirely to their Conduct or finding none of those should by a common Consent desire some of their own Number to Minister to them in Holy things and should upon that beginning grow up to a Regulated Constitution though we are very sure that this is quite out of all Rule and could not be done without a very great Sin unless the necessity were great and apparent yet if the Necessity is real and not feigned this is not Condemned nor Annulled by the Article for when this grows to a Constitution and when it was begun by the Consent of a Body who are supposed to have an Authority in such an extraordinary case whatever some hotter Spirits have thought of this since that time yet we are very sure that not only those who Penned the Articles but the Body of this Church for above half an Age after did notwithstanding those Irregularities acknowledge the Foreign Churches so Constituted to be true Churches as to all the Essentials of a Church though they had been at first irregularly formed and continued still to be in an imperfect state And therefore the general words in which this part of the Article is framed seem to have been designed on purpose not to exclude them Here it is to be considered that the High Priest among the Iews was the chief Person in that Dispensation not only the chief in Rule but he that was by the Divine Appointment to Officiate in the chief act of their Religion the yearly Expiation for the Sins of the whole Nation which was a solemn renewing their Covenant with God and by which Atonement was made for the Sins of that People Here it may be very reasonably suggested that since none besides the High Priest might make this Atonement then no Atonement was made if any other besides the High Priest should so Officiate To this it is to be added that God had by an express Law fixed the High Priesthood in the Eldest of Aaron's Family and that therefore though that being a Theocracy any Prophet empowered of God might have transferred this Office from one Person or branch of that Family to another yet without such an Authority no other Person might make any such change But after all this not to mention the Maccabees and all their Successors of the Asmonean Family as Herod had begun to change the High Priesthood at pleasure so the Romans not only continued to do this but in a most mercenary manner they set this sacred Function to sale Here were as great Nullities in the High Priests that were in our Saviour's time as can be well imagined to be For the Iews keeping their Genealogies so exactly as they did it could not but be well known in whom the Right to this Office rested and they all knew that he who had it purchased it yet these were in Fact High Priests and since the People could have no other the Atonement was still performed by their Ministry Our Saviour owned Caiaphas the Sacrilegious and Usurping High Priest John 11.51.18.22 23. and as such he Prophesied This shews that where the necessity was real and unavoidable the Iews were bound to think that God did in consideration of that dispense with his own Precept This may be a just
Voice Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever which shews that all did understand the Service When the Syriac Tongue became more familiar to them the Iews had their Prayers in Syriac and they did read the Law in their Synagogues in Greek when that Language was more familiar to them when they read the Law in Greek we have reason to believe that they prayed likewise in it In the New Testament we see the Gift of Tongues was granted to enable the Apostles and others to go every where preaching the Gospel and performing Holy Functions in such a Language as might be understood The World was amaz'd when every Man heard them speak in his own Language One of the general Rules given by St. Paul with relation to the Worship of God is Let every thing be done to Edification Since then the speaking either to God in the Name of the People or to the People in the Name of God in an unknown Tongue can edify no Person then by this Rule it is to be understood to be forbidden When some who had the Gift of Tongues did indiscreetly shew it in the Church of Corinth St. Paul was so offended at that and thought it would appear to the World so undecent as well as unfruitful that he bestows a whole Chapter upon it and tho' a great part of the Discourse is against the pretending to teach the People in an unknown Tongue which yet is not near so bad as the reading the Word of God to them in a Tongue not understood by them it being much more important that the People should understand the words of the living God than the Expositions of Men yet there are many Passages in that Chapter that belong to Prayer The reason of the thing is common to both since unless the words were understood they who uttered them spoke only to the Air and how should it be known what was spoken For if the meaning of the Voice was not known they would be Barbarians to one another As to Prayer he says If I pray in an unknown tongue 1 Cor. 14.14 my spirit that is the Inspiration or Gift that is in me prayeth but my understanding that is my rational Powers is unfruitful Verse 15. and therefore he concludes that he will both Pray and give Thanks with the Spirit and with the understanding also he will do it in such a manner that the Inspiration with which he was acted and his rational Powers should joyn together The reason given for this seems evident enough to determine the whole matter Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit Verse 16. how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest For thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified In which Words it is plain that the People even the most unlearned among them were to joyn in the Prayers and Praises and to testify that by saying Amen at the conclusion of them And in order to their doing this as became reasonable Creatures it was necessary that they should understand what that was which they were to confirm by their Amen It is also evident that St. Paul judged that the People ought to be edified by all that was said in the Church and so he says a little after this Let all things be done to edifying After such plain Authorities from Scripture supporting that which seems to be founded on the Light of Nature Verse 26. we need go no farther to prove that which is mainly designed by this Article The Custom of the Primitive Church is no less clear in this Point As the Christian Religion was spread to different Nations so they all worshipped God in their own Tongue The Syriac the Greek and the Latin were indeed of that extent that we have no particular History of any Churches that lay beyond the compass of those Languages but there was the same reason for putting the Worship of God in other Languages that there was for these That which is drawn from the Three Languages in which the Title on our Saviour's Cross was written is too trifling a thing to deserve an Answer As if a humour of Pilate's were to be considered as a Prophetical Warrant what he did being only designed to make that Title to be understood by all who were then at Ierusalem There are very large Passages both in Origen and St. Basil which mention every Tongues praising of God Cont Celsum l. 8. p. 402. Ep. 63. ad Neoces and that the Gospel being spread to many Nations he was in every Nation praised in the Language of that Nation This continued so long to be the practice even of the Latin Church that in the Ninth Century when the Slavons were converted it was considered at Rome by Pope Iohn VIII in what Language they should be allowed to Worship God Johan 8. Ep. 247. Concil Tom. 9. And as is pretended a Voice was heard Let every Tongue confess to God upon which that Pope writ both to the Prince and to the Bishop of the Slavons allowing them to have their Publick Service in their own Tongue But in the other Parts of the Western Church the Latin Tongue continued to be so universally understood by almost all sorts of People till the Tenth or Eleventh Century that there was no occasion for changing it and by that time the Clergy were affecting to keep the People in Ignorance and in a blind dependance upon themselves and so were willing to make them think that the whole business of reconciling the People to God lay upon them and that they were to do it for them A great part of the Service of the Mass was said so low that even they who understood some Latin could not be the better for it in an Age in which there was no printing and so few Copies were to be had of the Publick Offices The Scriptures were likewise kept from the People and the Service of God was filled with many Rites in all which the Clergy seemed to design to make the People believe that these were sacred Charms of which they only had the Secret So that all the Edification which was to be had in the Publick Worship was turned to Pomp and Shew for the Diversion and Entertainment of the Spectators In defence of this Worship in an unknown Tongue the main Argument that is brought is the Authority and Infallibility of the Church which has appointed it and since she ought to be supposed not to have erred therefore this must be believed to be lawful We are not much moved with this especially with the Authority of the later Ages Con. Trid. Câ—â—p 8. Sâ—ll 22. so the other Arguments must be considered which indeed can scarce be called Arguments The Modern Tongues change so fast that they say if the Worship were in them it must either be often changed or
Arguments to perswade us that there is somewhat that is highly necessary to the Purity of Christians of which Christ has not said a Word and concerning which his Apostles have given us no Directions We do not deny but it may be a mean to strike Terror in People to keep them under awe and obedience it may when the management of it is in good hands be made a mean to keep the World in Order and to guide those of weaker Judgments more steadily and safely than could be well done any other way In the use of Confession when proposed as our Church does as matter of Advice and not of Obligation we are very sensible many good ends may be attained but while we consider those we must likewise reflect on the mischief that may arise out of it especially supposing the greater part both of the Clergy and Laity to be what they ever were and ever will be depraved and corrupted The People will grow to think that the Priest is in God's stead to them that their telling their sins to him is as if they confessed them to God they will expect to be easily discharged for a gentle Penance with a speedy Absolution and this will make them as secure as if their Consciences were clear and their Sins pardoned so the remedy being easy and always at hand they will be encouraged to venture the more boldly on Sin It is no difficult matter to gain a Priest especially if he himself is a bad Man to use them tenderly upon those occasions On the other hand corrupt Priests will find their account in the dispensing this great Power so as to serve their own ends They will know all Peoples Tempers and Secrets and how strict soever they may make the Seal of Confession to draw the World to trust to it yet in Bodies so knit together as Communities and Orders are it is not possible to know what use they may make of this Still they know all themselves and see into the weakness the passions and appetites of their People This must often be a great snare to them especially in the supposition that cannot be denied to hold generally true of their being bad Men themselves Great advantages are hereby given to infuse fears and scruples into Peoples minds who being then in their tenderest Minutes will be very much swayed and wrought on by them A bad Priest knows by this whom he may tempt to any sort of Sin And thus the good and the evil of Confession as it is a general Law upon allMens Consciences being weighed one against the other and it being certain that the far greater part of Mankind is always bad we must conclude that the evil does so far preponderate the good that they bear no comparison nor proportion to one another The matter at present under debate is only Whether it is one of the Laws of God or not And it is enough for the present purpose to shew that it is no Law of God upon which we do also see very good reason why it ought not to be made a Law of the Church both because it is beyond her Authority which can only go to matters of Order and Discipline as also because of the vast inconveniences that are like to arise out of it The next part of Repentance is Contrition which is a sorrow for Sin upon the motives of the Love of God and the hatred of Sin joined with a renovation of Heart This is that which we acknowledge to be necessary to compleat our Repentance but this consisting in the temper of a Man's Mind and his inward acts it seems a very absurd thing to make this the matter of a Sacrament since it is of a Spiritual and Invisible nature But this is not all that belongs to this head The Casuists of the Church of Rome have made a distinction between a perfect and an imperfect Contrition the imperfect they call Attrition which is any sorrow for Sin tho' upon an inferior motive such as may be particular to one act of Sin as when it rises from the loss or shame it has brought with it together with an act formed in detestation of it without a resolution to sin any more Such a sorrow as this is they teach does make the Sacrament effectual and puts a Man in a state of Justification tho' they acknowledge that without the Sacrament it is not sufficient to Justify him Trid. Sess. 14. c. 4. This was setled by the Council of Trent We think it strikes at the root of all Religion and Vertue and is a reversing of the design for which Sacraments were Instituted which was to raise our Minds to a high pitch of Piety and to exalt and purify our Acts. We think the Sacraments are profaned when we do not raise our Thoughts as high as we can in them To teach Men how low they may go and how small a measure will serve turn especially when the great and chief Commandment the consideration of the Love of God is left out seems to be one of the greatest corruptions in practice of which any Church can be guilty A slackness in Doctrine especially in so great a Point as this in which human nature is under so fatal a biass will always bring with it a much greater corruption in practice This will indeed make many run to the Sacrament and raise its value but it will rise upon the ruins of true Piety and Holiness There are few Men that can go long on in very great sins without feeling great remorses these are to them rather a Burthen that they cannot shake off than a Vertue Sorrow lying long upon their thoughts may be the beginning of a happy change and so prove a great blessing to them all which is destroyed by this Doctrine For if under such uneasy thoughts they go to Confession and are Attrite the Sacrament is valid and they are Justified Then the uneasiness goes off and is turned into joy without their being any thing the better by it They return to their Sins with a new calm and security because they are taught that their Sins are pardoned and that all Scores are cleared Therefore we conclude that this Doctrine wounds Religion in its Vitals and we are confirmed in all this by what appears in Practice And what the best Writers that have lived in that Communion have said of the abuses that follow on the Methods in which this Sacrament is managed among them which do arise mainly out of this Part of their Doctrine concerning Attrition All that they teach concerning those Acts of Attrition or even Contrition is also liable to great abuse in Practice for as a Man may bring forth those Acts in Words and not be the better for them So he may force himself to think them which is nothing but the framing an inward Discourse within himself upon them and yet these not arising genuinely from a new Nature or a change of Temper such Acts can
these are of no Value being only Inventions to deceive Men and to expose Religion to Mockery But even severe and afflicting Fasting if done only as a Punishment which when it is over the Penance is believed to be compleated gives such a low Idea of God and Religion that from thence Men are led to think very slightly of Sin when they know at what price they can carry it off Such a continuance in Fasting in order to Prayer as humbles and depresses Nature and raises the Mind is a great mean to reform the World but Fasting as a prescribed Task to expiate our Sins is a scorn put upon Religion Prayer when it arises from a serious Heart that is earnest in it and when it becomes habitual is certainly a most effectual mean to reform the World and to fetch down Divine Assistances But to appoint so many vocal Prayers to be gone through as a Task and then to tell the World that the running through these with few or no inward Acts accompanying them is Contrition or Attrition this is liker a Design to root out all the Impressions of Religion and all sense of that Repentance which the Gospel requires than to promote it This may be a Task fit to accustom Children to but it is contrary to the true Genius of Religion to teach Men instead of that reasonable Service that we ought to offer up to God to give him only the Labour of the Lips which is the Sacrifice of Fools Prayers gone through as a Task can be of no value and can find no acceptation in the sight of God And as St. Paul said that if he gave all his goods to the poor and had not Charity he was nothing 1 Cor. 13 1 2. So the greatest profusion of Alms-giving when done in a mercenary Way to buy off and to purchase a Pardon is the turning of God's House from being a house of prayer to be a den of thieves Upon all these Reasons we except to the whole Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome as to the Satisfaction made by doing Penance And in the last place we except to the Form of Absolution in these Words I Absolve thee We of this Church who use it only to such as are thought to be near Death cannot be meant to understand any thing by it but the full Peace and Pardon of the Church For if we meant a Pardon with relation to God we ought to use it upon many other occasions The Pardon that we give in the Name of God is only declaratory of his Pardon or supplicatory in a Prayer to him for Pardon In this we have the whole Practice of the Church till the Twelfth Century universally of our side All the Fathers all the ancient Liturgies all that have writ upon the Offices and the first Schoolmen are so express in this Matter that the thing in Fact cannot be denied Morinus has published so many of their old Rituals that he has put an end to all doubting about it In the Twelfth Century some few began to use the Words I Absolve thee Yet to soften this Expression that seemed New and Bold some tempered it with these Words in so far as it is granted to my frailty and others with those Words as far as the accusation comes from thee and as the pardon is in me Yet this Form was but little practised So that William Bishop of Paris speaks of the Form of Absolution as given only in a Prayer and not as given in these Words I Absolve thee He lived in the beginning of the Fourteenth Century so that this Practice though begun in other Places before that Time yet was not known long after in so publick a City as Paris But some Schoolmen begun to defend it as implying only a declaration of the Pardon pronounced by the Priest And this having an air of more Authority and being once justified by Learned Men did so universally prevail that in little more than sixty Years time it became the universal Practice of the whole Latin Church So sure a thing is Tradition and so impossible to be changed as they pretend when within the compass of one Age the new Form I Absolve thee was not so much as generally known and before the end of it the old Form of doing it in a Prayer with Imposition of Hands was quite worn out The Idea that arises naturally out of these words is that the Priest pardons Sins and since that is subject to such abuses and has let in so much corruption upon that Church we think we have reason not only to deny that Penance is a Sacrament but likewise to affirm that they have corrupted this great and important Doctrine of Repentance in all the Parts and Branches of it Nor is the matter mended with that Prayer that follows the Absolution The Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ Rituale Romanum de sacr poeniten the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and all the good that thou hast done and the evil that thou hast suffered be to thee for the remission of Sins the increase of Grace and the reward of eternal Life The third Sacrament rejected by this Article is Orders which is reckoned the sixth by the Church of Rome We affirm that Christ appointed a Succession of Pastors in different Ranks to be continued in his Church for the Work of the Gospel and the Care of Souls and that as the Apostles setled the Churches they appointed different Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons And we believe that all who are dedicated to serve in these Ministries after they are examined and judged worthy of them ought to be separated to them by the Imposition of Hands and by Prayer These were the only Rites that we find practised by the Apostles For many Ages the Church of God used no other therefore we acknowledge that Bishops Priests and Deacons ought to be blest and dedicated to the HolyMinistry by Imposition of Hands and Prayer And that then they are received according to the Order and Practice setled by the Apostles to serve in their respective Degrees Men thus separated have thereby Authority to perfect the Saints or Christians that is to perform the Sacred Functions among them to minister to them and to build them up in their most Holy Faith And we think no other Persons without such a Separation and Consecration can lawfully touch the Holy Things In all which we separate the Qualifications of the Functions from the inward Qualities of the Person the one not at all depending on the other The one relating only to the Order and the good Government of the Society and the other relating indeed to the Salvation of him that Officiates but not at all to the Validity of his Office or Service But in all this we see nothing like a Sacrament Here is neither Matter Form nor Institution here is only Prayer The laying on of Hands is only a gesture in Prayer
oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up All hitherto is one Period which is here closed The following words contain new matter quite of a different kind and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him It appears clearly that this was intended for the recovery of the sick Person which is the thing that is positively promised the other concerning the pardon of Sins comes in on the by and seems to be added only as an accessary to the other which is the principal thing designed by this whole matter Therefore since Anointing was in order to healing either we must say that the Gift of healing is still deposited with the Elders of the Church which no body affirms or this Oil was only to be used by those who had that special Gift and therefore if there are none now who pretend to have it and if the Church pretends not to have it lodged with her then the Anointing with Oil cannot be used any more and therefore those who use it not in order to the recovery of the Person delaying it till there is little or no hope left use not that Unction mentioned by St. Iames but another of their own devising which they call the Sacrament of the dying It is a vain thing to say that because saving and raising up are sometimes used in a Spiritual sense that therefore the saving the sick here and that of the Lord 's raising him up are to be so meant For the forgiveness of sin which is the Spiritual Blessing comes afterwards upon supposition that the sick Person had committed sins The saving and raising up must stand in opposition to the sickness so since all acknowledge that the one is Literal the other must be so too The supposition of sin is added because some Persons upon whom this Miracle might have been wrought might be eminently Pious and if at any time it was to be applied to ill Men who had committed some notorious sins perhaps such sins as had brought their sickness upon them these were also to be forgiven In the use of miraculous Powers those to whom that Gift was given were not empowered to use it at pleasure they were to feel an inward Impulse exciting them to it and they were obliged upon that firmly to believe that God who had given them the Impulse would not be wanting to them in the execution of it This confidence in God was the faith of Miracles Matth. 21.21 of which Christ said If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seâ—d ye shall say to this mountain remove hence to yonder place and nothing shall be impossible unto you 1 Cor. 13.2 Of this also St. Paul meant when he said If I have all faith So from this we may gather the meaning of the prayer of faith and the anointing with Oil that if the Elders of the Church or such others with whom this Power was lodged felt an inward Impulse moving them to call upon God in order to a miraculous Cure of a sick Person then they were to anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord That is by the Authority that they had from Christ to heal all manner of Diseases And they were to Pray believing firmly that God would make good that inward motion which he had given them to work this Miracle and in that case the effect was certain the sick Person would certainly recover for that is absolutely promised Every one that was sick was not to be Anointed unless an Authority and Motion from Christ had been secretly given for doing it but every one that was Anointed was certainly healed Christ had promised that whatsoever they should ask in his name â—ohâ— 14 1â— he would do it His Name must be restrained to his Authority or pursuant to such secret Motions as they should receive from him This is the Prayer of Faith here mentioned by St. Iames it being an earnest application to God to join his Omnipotent Power to perform a wonderful Work to which a Person so divinely qualified felt himself inwardly moved by the Spirit of Christ. The supposition of the sick Persons having committed sins which is added shews that sometime this vertue was applied to Persons of that eminent Piety that though all Men are guilty in the sight of God yet they could not be said to have committed sins in the sense in which St. Iohn uses the phrase signifying by it either that they had lived in the habits of sin or that they had committed some notorious sin But if some should happen to be sick who had been eminent Sinners and those sins had drawn down the Judgments of God upon them which seems to be the natural meaning of these words if he have committed sins then with his bodily Health he was to receive a much greater Blessing even the Pardon of his Sins And thus the Anointing mentioned by St. Iames was in order to a miraculous Cure and the Cure did constantly follow it so that it can be no president for an Extreme Unction that is never given till the recovery of the Person is despaired of and by which it is not pretended that any Cure is wrought The Matter of it is Oil Olive Blessed by the Bishop the Form is the applying it to the Five Senses with these words Per hanc Sacram Vnctionem Rituale Rom. Con Trid. Seâ—s 14. suam piissimam Misericordiam Indulgeat tibi Deus quicquid peccasti per visum auditum olfactum gustum tactum The proper word to every Sense being repeated as the Organ of that Sense is Anointed It is Administred by a Priest and gives the final Pardon with all necessary assistances in the last Agony Here is then an Institution that if warranted is matter of great Comfort and if not warranted is matter of as great Presumption Cons. Apost l. 3. c. 16. l. 7. cap. 42 44. Tertul. de bapt c. 10. Cypr. Ep. 70. â—lem Alex. paedag l. 11. c. 8. Dionys. Areop de Eccles. hier c. 7 8. In the first Ages we find mention is made frequently of Persons that were Cured by an Anointing with Oil Oil was then much used in all their Rituals the Catechumens being Anointed with Oil before they were Baptized besides the Chrism that was given after it Oil grew also to be used in Ordinations and the dead were Anointed in order to their Burial So that the ordinary use of Oil on other occasions brought it to be very frequently used in their Sacred Rites yet how customary soever the practice of Anointing grew to be we find no mention of any Unction of the sick before the beginning of the Fifth Century This plainly shews that they understood St. Iames's words as relating to a miraculous Power and not to a Function that was to continue in the Church and to be esteemed a Sacrament That earliest mention of it by Pope Innocent
unless we do thus believe It were not suteable to the Truth and Holiness of the Divine Nature to void a Covenant so solemnly made and that in favour of wicked men who will not be reformed by it So Faith is the certain and necessary Mean of our Salvation and is so put by Christ since upon our having it we shall be saved as well as damned upon our not having it On the other hand the nature of a Ritual Action even when commanded is such that unless we could imagine that there is a Charm in it which is contrary to the Spirit and Genius of the Gospel which designs to save us by reforming our Natures we cannot think that there can be any thing in it that is of it self effectual as a Mean therefore it must only be considered as a Command that is given us which we are bound to obey if we acknowledge the Authority of the Command But this being an Action that is not always in our power but is to be done by another it were to put our Salvation or Damnation in the power of another to imagine that we cannot be saved without Baptism and therefore it is only a Precept which obliges us in order to our Salvation and our Saviour by leaving it out when he reversed the words saying only he that believeth not without adding and is not Baptized shall be damned does plainly insinuate that it is not a Mean but only a Precept in order to our Salvation As for the Ends and Purposes of Baptism St. Paul gives us two the one is that we are all baptized into onâ— body we are made members one of another 1 Cor. 12.13 We are admitted to the Soâ—â—â—ty of Christians and to all the Rights and Priviledges of that Body which is the Church And in order to this the outward action of Baptism when regularly gone about is sufficient We cannot see into the sincerity oâ— mens Hearts Outward Professions and regular Actions are all that fall under mens Observation and Judgment But a second End of Baptism is Internal and Spiritual Of this St. Paul speaks in very high terms when he says that God has saved us according to his mercy Tit. 3.5 by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost It were a strange perverting the design of these words to say that somewhat Spiritual is to be understood by this washing of regeneration and not Baptism when as to the word save that is here ascribed to it St. Peter gives that undeniably to Baptism and St. Paul elsewhere in two different places Rom. 6. Col. 2. makes our Baptism to represent our being dead to sin and buried with Christ and our being risen and quickned with him and made alive unto God which are words that do very plainly import Regeneration So that St. Paul must be understood to speak of Baptism in these words here then is the inward effect of Baptism It is a death to sin and a new life in Christ in imitation of him and in conformity to his Gospel So that here is very expresly delivered to us somewhat that rises far above the Badge of a Profession or a Mark of difference That does indeed belong to Baptism it makes us the visible Members of that one Body into which we are Baptized or admitted by Baptism but that which saves us in it which both deadens and quickens us must be a thing of another nature If Baptism were only the receiving us into the Society of Christians there were no need of saying I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It were more proper to say I Baptize thee in the Name or by the Authority of the Church Therefore these august words that were dictated by our Lord himself shew us that there is somewhat in it that is Internal which comes from God that it is an admitting men into somewhat that depends only on God and for the giving of which the authority can only be derived by him But after all this is not to be believed to be of the nature of a Charm as if the very act of Baptism carried always with it an inward Regeneration Here we must confess that very early some Doctrines arose upon Baptism that we cannot be determined by The words of our Saviour to Nicodemus were expounded so as to import the absolute necessity of Baptism in order to Salvation for it not being observed that the Dispensation of the Messias was meant by the Kingdom of God but it being taken to signifie Eternal Glory that expression of our Saviour's was understood to import this that no Man could be saved unless he were Baptized so it was believed to be simply necessary to Salvation A natural consequence that followed upon that was to allow all Persons leave to Baptize Clergy and Laity Meâ— and Women since it seemed necessary to suffer every Person to do that without which Salvation could not be had Upon this these hasty Baptisms were used without any special Sponsion on the part of those who desired it of which it may be reasonably doubted whether such a Baptism be true in which no Sponsion is made and this cannot be well answered but by saying that a general and an implied Sponsion is to be considered to be made by their Parents while they desire them to be Baptized Another Opinion that arose out of the former was the mixing of the outward and the inward effects of Baptism It being believed that every Person that was born of the Water was also born of the Spirit and that the renewing of the Holy Ghost did always accompany the washing of Regeneration And this obliged St. Austin as was formerly told to make that difference between the regenerate and the predestinated for he thought that all who were Baptized were also regenerated St. Peter has stated this so fully that if his words are well considered they will clear the whole matter He after he had set forth the miserable state in which Mankind was under the figure of the Deluge in which an Ark was prepared for Noah and his Family says upon that The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us 1 Pet. 3 21. Upon which he makes a short digression to explain the nature of Baptism not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer or the Demand and Interrogation of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ who is gone into Heaven The meaning of all which is that Christ having risen again and having then had all power in heaven and in earth given to him he had put that vertue in Baptism that by it we are saved as in an Ark from that miserable state in which the world lies and in which it must perish But then he explains the way how it saves us that it is not as a Physical action as it washes away the filthiness of the flesh
apprehended but by such as have been at the pains to go through one of the ungratefullest pieces of Study that can be well imagined and have read the Productions of those Ages The understanding the Scriptures or Languages or History were not so much as thought on Some affected Homilies or Discantings on the Rituals of the Church full of many very odd Speculations about them are among the best of the Writings of those Times They were easily imposed on by any new Forgery witness the Reception and Authority that was given to the Decretal Epistles of the Popes of the first Three Centuries which for many Ages maintained its credit tho' it was plainly a Forgery of the Eighth Century and was contrived with so little Art that there is not in them colour enough to excuse the ignorance of those that were deceived by it As it is an easie thing to mislead ignorant multitudes so there is somewhat in Incredible Opinions and Stories that is suited to such a state of Mankind and as Men are apt to fancy that they see Sprights especially in the Night so the more of darkness and unconceivableness that there is in an Opinion it is the more properly calculated for such times The Ages that succeeded were not only times of Ignorance but they were also times of much Corruption The Writers of the Fourth and Fifth Century give us dismal Representations of the Corruptions of their times and the scandalous unconstancy of the Councils of those Ages is too evident a proof of what we find said by the Good Men of those days But things fell lower and lower in the succeeding Ages It is an amazing thing that in the very Office of Consecrating Bishops Examinations are ordered concerning those Crimes the very mention of which give horrour De Coitu cum Masculo cum Quadrupedâ—bus The Popes more particularly were such a Succession of Men that as their own Historians have described them nothing in any History can be produced that is like them The Characters they give them are so monstrous that nothing under the authority of unquestioned Writers and the Evidence of the Facts themselves could make them credible But that which makes the Introduction of this Doctrine appear the more probable is that we plainly see the whole Body of the Clergy was every where so Influenced by the management of the Popes that they generally entred into Combinations to subject the Temporalty to the Spiritualty and therefore every Opinion that tended to render the Persons of the Clergy Sacred and to raise their Character high was sure to receive the best entertainment and the greatest incouragement possible Nothing could carry this so far as an Opinion that represented the Priest as having a Character by which with a few words he could make a God The Opinion of Transubstantiation was such an Engine that it being once set on foot could not but meet with a favourable reception from those who were then seeking all possible colours to give credit to their authority and to advance it The numbers of the Clergy were then so great and their contrivances were so well suited to the credulity and superstition of those times that by Visions and wonderful Stories confidently vouched they could easily infuse any thing into weak and giddy Multitudes Besides that the Genius of those Times led them much to the love of Pomp and Shew they had lost the true Power and Beauty of Religion and were willing by outward Appearances to balance or compensate for their great Defects But besides all those general Considerations which such as are acquainted with the History of those Ages know do belong to them in a much higher Degree than is here set forth There are some Specialities that relate to this Doctrine in Particular which will make the Introduction of it appear the more Practicable This had never been condemned in any former Age for as none condemn Errors by Anticipation or Prophesy so the Promoters of it had this Advantage that no formal Decision had been made against them It did also in the outward sound agree with the Words of the Institution and the Phrases generally used of the Elements being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ Outward sound and appearance was enough in Ignorant Ages to hide the Change that was made The step that is made from believing any thing in General with an indistinct and confused Apprehension to a determined way of explaining it is not hard to be brought about The People in General believed that Christ was in the Sacrament and that the Elements were his Body and Blood without troubling themselves to Examine in what Manner all this was done So it was no great step in a dark Age to put a particular Explanation of this upon them And this Change being brought in without any visible Alterations made in the Worship it must needs have passed with the World more easily For in all Times visible Rites are more minded by the People than speculative Points which they consider very little No Alterations were at first made in the Worship the Adoration of the Host and the Processions invented to Honour it came all afterwards Greg. Doâ—râ—t Lib. â— Tit. 42. cap. 10. Honorius IV. who first appointed the Adoration does not pretend to Found it on ancient Practice Only he commands the Priests to tell the People to do it And he at first enjoined only an Inclination of the Head to the Sacrament But his Successor Gregory IX did more resolutely Command it and ordered a Bell to be rung at the Consecration and Elevation to give notice of it that so all those who heard it might kneel and join their Hands and so Worship the Host. The first Controversy about the Manner of the Presence arose incidentally upon the Controversy of Images The Council at Constantinople decreed that the Sacrament was the Image of Christ in which the substance of Bread and Wine remained Those at Nice how furiously soever they fell upon them for calling the Sacrament the Image of Christ yet do no where blame them for saying that the substance of Bread and Wine remained in it For indeed the Opinion of Damascene and of most of the Greek Church was That there was an Assumption of the Bread and Wine into an Vnion with the Body of Christ. The Council of Constantinople brought in their Decision occasionally that being considered as the setled Doctrine of the Church whereas those of Nice did visibly Innovate and Falsify the Tradition For they affirm as Damascene had done before them that the Elements weâ—e called the Antitypes of Christ's Body only before they were consecrated but not after it Which they say none of the Fathers had done This is so notoriously False that no Man can pretend now to justify them in it since there are above twenty of the Fathers that were before them who in plain words call the Elements after Consecration the Figure and Antitype of Christ's
whether formally or substantially or some other way Some Schoolmen thought that the Matter of Bread was destroyed but that the Form remained to be the Form of Christ's Body that was the Matter of it Others thought that the Matter of the Elements remained and that the Form only was destroyed But that to which many inclined was the Assumption of the Elements into an Union with the Body of Christ or a hypostatical Union of the eternal Word to them by which they became as truly a Body to Christ as that which he has in Heaven Yet it was not the same but a different Body Stephen Bishop of Autun was the First that fell on the Word of Transubstantiation Amalric in the beginning of the Thirteenth Century denied in express Words the corporal Presence De Sacram Altaris c. 13. He was condemned in the Fourth Council of the Lateran as an Heretick and his Body was ordered to be taken up and burnt And in opposition to him Transubstantiation was decreed Yet the Schoolmen continued to offer different Explanations of this for a great while after that But in conclusion all agreed to explain it as was formerly set forth It appears by the crude Way in which it was at first explained that it was a Novelty And that Men did not know how to mould and frame it but at last it was licked into shape the whole Philosophy being cast into such a Mould as agreed with it And therefore in the present Age in which that Philosophy has lost its Credit great Pains are taken to suppress the New and freer Way of Philosophy as that which cannot be so easily subdued to support this Doctrine as the Old one was And the Arts that those who go into the New Philosophy take to reconcile their Scheme to this Doctrine shew that there is nothing that subtile and unsincere Men will not venture on For since they make Extension to be of the Essence of Matter and think that Accidents are only the Modes of Matter which have no proper being of themselves it is evident that a Body cannot be without its Extension and that Accidents cannot subsist without their Subject so that this can be in no sort reconciled to Transubstantiation And therefore they would willingly avoid this special Manner of the Presence and only in General assert that Christ is corporally Present But the Decrees of the Lateran and Trent Councils make it evident that Transubstantiation is now a Doctrine that is bound upon them by the Authority of the Church and of Tradition And that they are as much bound to believe it as to believe the corporal Presence it self Thus the going off from the Simplicity in which Christ did deliver the Sacrament and in which the Church at first received it into some sublime Expressions about it led Men once out of the way and they still went farther and farther from it Pious and Rhetorical Figures pursued far by Men of heated Imaginations and of inflamed Affections were followed with Explanations invented by colder and more designing Men afterwards and so it increased till it grew by degrees to that which at last it settled on But after all if the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence had rested only in a Speculation tho' we should have judged those who held it to be very bad Philosophers and no good Criticks yet we could have endured it if it had rested there and had not gone on to be a matter of practice by the Adoration and Processions with every thing else of that kind which followed upon it for this corrupted the Worship The Lutherans believe a Consubstantiation and that both Christ's Body and Blood and the Substance of the Elements are together in the Sacrament That some explain by an Vbiquity which they think is communicated to the Human Nature of Christ by which his Body is every where as well as in the Sacrament Whereas others of them think that since the words of Christ must needs be true in a literal sense his Body and Blood is therefore in the Sacrament but in with and under the Bread and Wine All this we think is ill grounded and is neither agreeable to the words of the Institution nor to the nature of things A great deal of that which was formerly set forth in defence of our Doctrine falls likewise upon this The Vbiquity communicated to the Humane Nature as it seems a thing in it self impossible so it gives no more to the Sacrament than to every thing else Christ's Body may be said to be in every thing or rather every thing may be said to be his Body and Blood as well as the Elements in the Sacrament The impossibility of a Bodies being without extension or in more places at once lies against this as well as against Transubstantiation But yet after all this is only a Point of Speculation nothing follows upon it in practice no Adoration is offered to the Elements and therefore we judge that Speculative Opinions may be born with when they neither fall upon the Fundamentals of Christianity to give us false Ideas of the Essential parts of our Religion nor affect our practice and chiefly when the Worship of God is maintained in its Purity for which we see God has expressed so particular a concern giving it the Word which of all others raises in us the most sensible and the strongest Ideas calling it Iealousie that we reckon we ought to watch over this with much caution We can very well bear with some Opinions that we think ill grounded as long as they are only matters of Opinion and have no Influence neither on Mens Morals nor their Worship We still hold Communion with Bodies of Men that as we judge think wrong but yet do both live well and maintain the Purity of the Worship of God We know the great design of Religion is to govern Men's Lives and to give them right Ideas of God and of the Ways of Worshipping him All Opinions that do not break in upon these are things in which great forbearance is to be used large Allowances are to be made for Mens Notions in all other things and therefore we think that neither Consubstantiation nor Transubstantiation how ill grounded soever we take both to be ought to dissolve the Union and Communion of Churches But it is quite another thing if under either of these Opinions an Adoration of the Elements is taught and practised This we believe is plain Idolatry when an Insensible piece of Matter such as Bread and Wine has Divine Honours paid it when it is believed to be God when it is called God and is in all respects Worshipped with the same Adoration that is offered up to Almighty God This we think is gross Idolatry Many Writers of the Church of Rome have acknowledged that if Transubstantiation is not true their Worship is a strain of Idolatry beyond any that is practised among the most depraved of all the Heathens The only excuse that
Marriage of most of the Reformers was urged as an ill Character both of them and of the Reformation as a Doctrine of Libertinism that made the Clergy look too like the rest of the World and involved them in the common Pleasures Concerns and Passions of Human Life The Appearances of an Austerity of Habit of a Severity of Life in watching and fasting and of avoiding the common Pleasures of Sense and the Delights of Life that was on the other side did strike the World and inclined many to think that what ill consequences soever Celibate produced yet that these were much more supportable and more easy to be reformed than the ill consequences of an unrestrained Permission of the Clergy to marry In treating this matter we must first consider Celibate with relation to the Laws of Christ and the Gospel and then with relation to the Laws of the Church It does not seem contrary to the Purity of the Worship of God or of Divine Performances that Married Persons should officiate in them since by the Law of Moses Priests not only might marry but the Priesthood was tied to descend as an Inheritance in a certain Family And even the High-Priest who was to perform the great Function of the Annual Atonement that was made for the Sins of the whole Iewish Nation was to marry and he derived to his Descendants that Sacred Office If there was so much as a remote unsutableness between a Married State and Sacerdotal Performances we cannot imagine that God would by a Law tie the Priesthood to a Family which by consequence laid an Obligation on the Priests to marry When Christ chose his Twelve Apostles some of them were married men we are sure at least that St. Peter was so that he made no distinction and gave no preference to the unmarried Our Saviour did no where charge them to forsake their Wives nor did he at all represent Celibate as necessary to the Kingdom of Heaven or the Dispensation of the Gospel He speaks indeed of some that brought themselves to the state of Eunuchs for the sake of the Gospel Matth. 19.10 11 12. but in that he lest all men at full liberty by saying Let him receive it that is able to receive it so that in this every man must judg of himself by what he finds himself to be That is equally recommended to all Ranks of men as they can bear it St. Paul does affirm That Marriage is honourable in all and to avoid Uncleanness he says It is better to marry than to burn and so gives it as a Rule Heb. 13.4 1 Cor. 7.9 That every man should have his own Wife Among all the Rules or Qualifications of Bishops or Priests that are given in the New Testament particularly in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus there is not a word of the Celibate of the Clergy but plain Intimations to the contrary 1 Tim. 3.2 4 5 12. That they were and might be married That of the Husband of one Wife is repeated in different places Mention is also made of the Wives and Children of the Clergy Rules being given concerning them and not a word is so much as insinuated importing that this was only tolerated in the beginnings of Christianity but that it was afterwards to cease On the contrary the forbidding to marry is given as a Character of the Apostacy of the later times 1 Tim. 4.3 1 Cor. 9.5 We find Aquila when he went about preaching the Gospel was not only married to Priscilla but that he carried her about with him Not to insist on that Privilege that St. Paul thought he might have claimed of carrying about with him a Sister and a Wife as well as the other Apostles And thus the first Point seems to be fully cleared That by no Law of God the Clergy are debarr'd from Marriage There is not one word in the whole Scriptures that does so much as hint at it whereas there is a great deal to the contrary Marriage being then one of the Rights of Human Nature to which so many reasons of different sorts may carry both a wise and a good man and there being no positive Precept in the Gospel that forbids it to the Clergy the next question is Whether it is in the Power of the Church to make a perpetual Law restraining the Clergy from Marriage It is certain that no Age of the Church can make a Law to bind succeeding Ages for whatsoever Power the Church has she is always in possession of it and every Age has as much Power as any of the former Ages had Therefore if any one Age should by a Law enjoin Celibate to the Clergy any succeeding Age may repeal and alter that Law For ever since the Inspiration that conducted the Apostles has ceased every Age of the Church may make or change Laws in all matters that are within their Authority So it seems very clear that the Church can make no perpetual Law upon this Subject In the next place it may be justly doubted Whether the Church can make a Law that shall restrain all the Clergy in any of those Natural Rights in which Christ has left them free The adding a Law upon this Head to the Laws of Christ seems to assume an Authority that he has not given the Church It looks like a pretending to a strain of Purity beyond the Rules set us in the Gospel and is plainly the laying a Yoke upon us which must be thought Tyrannical since the Author of this Religion who knew best what Human Nature is capable of and what it may well bear has not thought fit to lay it on those whom he sent upon a Commission that required a much greater Elevation of Soul and more Freedom from the Entanglements of Worldly or Domestick Concerns than can be pretended to be necessary for the standing and settled Offices in the Church Therefore we conclude That it were a great Abuse of Church-Power and a high Act of Tyranny for any Church or any Age of the Church to bar men from the Services in the Church because they either are married or intend to keep themselves free to marry or not as they please This does indeed bring the Body of the Clergy more into a Combination among themselves it does take them in a great measure off from having separated Interests of their own it takes them out of the Civil Society in which they have less concern when they give no Pledges to it And so in Ages in which the Papacy intended to engage the whole Priesthood into its Interests against the Civil Powers as the Immunity and Exemptions of the Clergy made them safe in their own Persons so it was necessary to free them from any such Incumbrances or Appendages by which they might be in the Power or at the Mercy of Secular Princes This joined with the belief of their making God with a few words by the virtue of their Character and of their forgiving
somewhat in our Natures that will always struggle the harder because they are restrained It is certain that every man who dedicates himself to the Service of God ought to try if he can dedicate himself so entirely to it as to live out of all the Concerns and Entanglements of Life If he can maintain his Purity in it he will be enabled thereby to labour the more effectually and may expect both the greater Success here and a fuller Reward hereafter But because both his Temper and his Circumstances may so change that what is an advantage to him in one part of his Life may be a snare and an Incumbrance to him in another part of it he ought therefore to keep this matter still in his own power and to continue in that Liberty in which God has left him free that so he may do as he shall find it to be most expedient for himself and for the work of the Gospel Therefore it is to be concluded That it is unlawful either to impose or to make such Vows And supposing that any have been engaged in them more perhaps out of the Importunity or Authority of others than their own choice then though it is certainly a Character of a man that shall dwell in God's holy Hill That though he swears to his own hurt yet he changes not he is to consider whether he can keep such a Vow without breaking the Commandments of God Psal. 15.4 or not If he can then certainly he ought to have that regard to the Name of God that was called upon in the Vow and to the Solemnities of it and to the Scandals that may follow upon his breaking it that if he can continue in that state without sinning against God he ought to do it and to endeavour all he can to keep his Vow and preserve his Purity But if after he has used both Fasting and Prayer he still finds that the obligation of his Vow is a snare to him and that he cannot both keep it and also keep the Commandments of God then the two Obligations that of the Law of God and that of his Vow happening to stand in one anothers way certainly the lesser must give place to the greater Matth. 14.9 Matth. 15.5 Herod's Oath was ill and rashly made but worse kept when for his Oath 's sake he ordered the Head of Iohn the Baptist to be cut off Our Saviour condemns that practice among the Iews of vowing that to the Corban or Treasure of the Temple which they ought to have given to their Parents and imagining that by such means they were not obliged to take care of them or to supply them The obligation to keep the Commandments of God is indispensible and antecedent to any Act or Vow of ours and therefore it cannot be made void by any Vow that we may take upon us And if we are under a Vow which exposes us to Temptations that do often prevail and that probably will prevail long upon us then we ought to repent of our rashness in making any such Vow but must not continue in the observation of it if it proves to us like the taking Fire into our Bosom or the handling of Pitch A Vow that draws many Temptations upon us that are above our strength to resist them is certainly much better broken and repented of than kept So that to conclude Celibate is not a matter fit to be the Subject either of a Law or a Vow every man must consider himself and what he is able to receive He that marries does well but he that marries not does better ARTICLE XXXIII Of Excommunicate Persons how they are to be avoided That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and Excommunicate ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the Faithful as a Heathen and a Publican Until he be openly reconciled by penance and be received into the Church by a Iudge that hath Authority thereunto ALL Christians are obliged to a strict purity and Holiness of Life And every private man is bound to avoid all unnecessary familiarities with Bad and Vicious men Both because he may be insensibly corrupted by these and because the World will be from thence disposed to think that he takes pleasure in such Persons and in their Vices What every single Christian ought to set as a Rule to himself ought to be likewise made the Rule of all Christians as they are constituted in a Body under Guides and Pastors And as in general severe Denunciations ought to be often made of the Wrath and Judgments of God against Sinners so if any that is called a Brother that is a Christian lives in a course of Sin and Scandal they ought to give warning of such a Person 1 Cor. 5.11 to all the other Christians that they may not so much as eat with him but may separate themselves from him In this private persons ought to avoid the Moroseness and Affectation of saying Stand by for I am holier than thou If one is overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 then those who are spiritual ought to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Every one considering himself lest he be also tempted Excessive Rigor will be always suspected of Hypocrisy and may drive those on whom it falls either into Despair on the One hand or into an Unmanageable Licentiousness on the Other The Nature of all Societies must import this That they have a Power to maintain themselves according to the Design and Rules of their Society A Combination of men made upon any bottom whatsoever must be supposed to have a Right to exclude out of their Number such as may be a Reproach to it or a Mean to dissolve it And it must be a main part of the Office and Duty of the Pastors of the Church to separate the Good from the Bad to warn the Unruly and to put from among them wicked persons There are several Considerations that shew not only the Lawfulness but the Necessity of such a Practice First That the Contagion of an ill Example and of bad Practices may not spread too far to the corrupting of others Evil communications corrupt good manners Their Doctrines will eat and spread as a Gangrene 2 Tim. 2.17 2 Thess. 3.14 And therefore in order to the preserving the purity of those who are not yet corrupted it may be necessary to note such persons and to have no company with them A Second Reason relates to the persons themselves that are so separated that they may be ashamed Jude 23 v. 1 Cor. 5.2 5 7. 2 Cor. 2.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 1.20 That they may be thus pulled out of the fire by the terror of such a proceeding which ought to be done by Mourning over them Lamenting their Sins and Praying for them The Apostles made use even of those extraordinary Powers that were given to them for this end St. Paul
delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme And he ordered that the incestuous person at Corinth should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus Certainly a Vicious indulgence to Sinners is an encouragement to them to live in Sin whereas when others about them try all methods for their Recovery and Mourn for those Sins in which they do perhaps Glory and do upon that withdraw themselves from all Communication with them both in Spirituals and as much as may be in Temporals likewise this is one of the last means that can be used in order to the reclaiming of them Another Consideration is the Peace and the Honour of the Society S. Paul wished that they were cut off that troubled the Churches Gal. 5.12 Great care ought to be taken that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed and to give no occasion to the Enemies of our Faith to reproach us as if we designed to make Parties to promote our own Interests and to turn Religion to a Faction Excusing such as adhere to us in other things though they should break out into the most scandalous Violations of the greatest of all the Commandments of God Such a behaviour towards Excommunicated persons would also have this further good Effect It would give great Authority to that Sentence and fill mens minds with the Awe of it which must be taken off when it is observed that men converse familiarly with those that are under it These Rules are all founded upon the Principles of Societies which as they associate upon some common designs so in order to the pursuing those must have a power to separate themselves from those who depart from them In this Matter there are Extremes of both hands to be avoided Some have thought that because the Apostles have in general declared such persons to be accursed 1 Cor. 16.22 or under an Anathema who preach another Gospel and such as love not the Lord Iesus to be Anathema Maranatha which is generally understood to be a total cutting off never to be admitted till the Lord comes that therefore the Church may still put men under an Anathema for holding such unsound Doctrines as they think make the Gospel to become another in part at least if not in whole and that she may thereupon in imitation of another practice of the Apostles deliver them over unto Satan casting them out of the protection of Christ and abandoning them to the Devil Reckoning that the cutting them off from the Body of Christ is really the exposing them to the Devil who goes about as a Roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour But with what Authority soever the Apostles might upon so great a matter as the changing the Gospel or the not loving the Lord Iesus denounce an Anathema yet the applying this which they used so seldom and upon such great occasions to every Opinion after a Decision is made in it as it has carried on the Notion of the Infallibility of the Church so it has laid a Foundation for much Uncharitableness and many Animosities It has widened Breaches and made them incurable And unless it is certain that the Church which has so decreed cannot err it is a bold assuming of an Authority to which no fallible Body of men can have a Right That delivery unto Satan was visibly an act of a miraculous Power lodged with the Apostles For as they struck some blind or dead so they had an Authority of letting loose Evil Spirits on some to haunt and terrify or to punish and plague them that a desperate Evil might be cured by an extreme Remedy And therefore the Apostles never reckon this among the Standing Functions of the Church Nor do they give any Charge or Directions about it They used it themselves and but seldom It is true that S. Paul being carried by a just zeal against the Scandal which the incestuous person at Corinth had cast upon the Christian Religion did adjudg him to this severe degree of Censure But he judged it and did only order the Corinthians to publish it as coming from him with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ That so the thing might become the more publick and that the effects of it might be the more conspicuous The Primitive Church that being nearest the Fountain did best understand the Nature of Church-Power and the Effects of her Censures thought of nothing in this matter but of denying to suffer Apostates or rather scandalous persons to mix with the rest in the Sacrament or in other parts of Worship They admitted them upon the profession of their Repentance by an imposition of Hands to share in some of the more general parts of the Worship and even in these they stood by themselves and at a distance from the rest And when they had passed through several Degrees in that state of Mourning they were by steps received back again to the Communion of the Church This agrees well with all that was said formerly concerning the Nature and the Ends of Church-Power Which was given for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10.8 This is suitable to the designs of the Gospel both for preserving the Society pure and for reclaiming those who are otherwise like to be carried away by the Devil in his snare This is to admonish Sinners as Brethren and not to use them as Enemies Whereas the other method looks like a power that designs Destruction rather than Edification especially when the Secular Arm is called in and that Princes are required under the Penalties of Deposition and losing their Dominions to extirpate and destroy and that by the cruellest sort of Death all those whom the Church doth so Anathematize We do not deny but that the form of denouncing or declaring Anathemas against Heresies and Hereticks is very Antient. It grew to be a Form expressing horror and was applied to the Dead as well as to the Living It was understood to be a cutting such Persons off from the Communion of the Church if they were still alive they were not admitted to any Act of Worship if they were dead their Names were not to be read at the Altar among those who were then commemorated But as heat about Opinions encreased and some lesser matters grew to be more valued then the weightier things both of Law and Gospel so the adding Anathemas to every point in which men differed from one another grew to be a common practice and swelled up at last to such a pitch that in the Council of Trent a whole Body of Divinity was put into Canons and an Anathema was fastened to every one of them The delivering to Satan was made the common Form of Excommunication an Act of Apostolical Authority being made a Precedent for the standing practice of the Church Great Subtilties were also set on foot concerning the force and
otherwise too indiscreet a Rigor might have pulled down that which ought to have been built up If in a broken state of things a common Consent ought to be much endeavoured and staid for this is much more necessary in a regular and settled time with relation to the Civil Authority under whom the whole Society is put according to its Constitution But it can never be supposed that the Authority of the Pastors of the Church is no other than that of a Lawyer or a Physician to their Clients who are still at their liberty and are in no sort bound to follow their directions In particular Advices with relation to their private Concerns where no general Rules are agreed on an Authority is not pretended to and these may be compared to all other Advices only with this difference That the Pastors of the Church watch over the Souls of their people and must give an account of them But when things are grown into Method and general Rules are settled there the consideration of Edification and Unity and of maintaining Peace and Order are such sacred Obligations on every one that has a true regard to Religion that such as despise all this may be well look'd on as Heathens and Publicans and they are so much worse than they as a secret and well-disguised Traytor is much more dangerous than an open professed Enemy And though these Words of our Saviour of telling the Church may perhaps not be so strictly applicable to this matter in their primary sense Matt. 18.17 as our Saviour first spoke them yet the Nature of things and the Parity of Reason may well lead us to conclude That though those Words did immediately relate to the composing of private differences and of delating intractable persons to the Synagogues yet they may be well extended to all those publick Offences which are injuries to the whole Body and may be now applied to the Christian Church and to the Pastors and Guides of it though they related to the Synagogue when they were first spoken It is therefore highly congruous both to the whole Design of the Christian Religion and to many Passages in the New Testament that there should be Rules set for censuring Offenders that so they may be reclaimed or at least ashamed and that others may fear And as the final Sentence of every Authority whatsoever must be the cutting off from the Body all such as continue in a wilful disobedience to the Laws of the Society so if any who call themselves Christians will live so as to be a Reproach to that which they profess they must be cut off and cast out for if there is any sort of Power in the Church it must terminate in this This is the last and highest act of their Authority it is like Death or Banishment by the Civil Power which are not proceeded to but upon great occasions in which milder Censures will not prevail and where the general good of the Society requires it So casting out being the last Act of Church-Power like a Parent 's disinheriting a Child it ought to be proceeded in with that slowness and upon such considerations as may well justify the Rigor of it A wilful Contempt of Order and Authority carries virtually in it every other Irregularity because it dissolves the Union of the Body and destroys that Respect by which all the other ends of Religion are to be artained and when this is deliberate and fixed there is no other way of proceeding but by cutting off those who are so refractory and who set such an ill Example to others If the Execution of this should happen to fall under great Disorders so that many scandalous Persons are not censured and a promiscuous multitude is suffered to break in upon the most Sacred Performances this cannot justify private Persons who upon that do withdraw from the Communion of the Church For after all that has been said the Divine Peecept is to every man to try and examine himself and not to try and censure others All Order and Government are destroyed if private Persons take upon them to judg and censure others or to separate from any Body because there are Abuses in the use of this Authority Private Confession in the Church of Rome had quite destroyed the Government of the Church and superseded all the Antient Penitentiary Canons and the Tyranny of the Church of Rome had set many Ingenious Men on many subtle Contrivances either to evade the Force of those Canons to which some regard was still preserved or to maintain the Order of the Church in opposition to the Appeals that were made to Rome And while some pretended to subject all things to the Papal Authority others studied to keep up the Antient Rules The Encroachments that the Temporal and Spiritual Courts ware making upon one another occasioned many Disputes which being managed by such subtle men as the Civilians and Canonists were all this brought in a great variety of Cases and Rules into the Courts of the Church So that instead of the first Simplicity which was evident in the Constitution of the Church not only for the first Three Centuries but for a great many more that came afterwards there grew to be so much Practice and so many Subterfuges in the Rules and manner of proceeding of those Courts that the Church has long groaned under it and has wished to see that effected which was designed in the beginnings of the Reformation The Draught of a Reformation of those Courts is still extant that so instead of the Intricacies Delays and other Disorders that have arisen from the Canon Law we might have another short and plain Body of Rules which might be managed as antiently by Bishops with the Assistance of their Clergy But though this is not yet done and that by reason of it the Tares grow up with the Wheat we ought to let them grow together till the great Harvest comes or at least till a proper Harvest may be given the Church by the Providence of God in which the good may be distinguished and separated from the bad without endangering the Ruin of all which must certainly be the effect of Peoples falling indiscreetly to this before the time ARTICLE XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private Iudgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as one that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of weak Brethren Every
particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rights of the Church ordained only by mens Authority so that all things be done to edifying THIS Article consists of two Branches The first is That the Church hath Power to appoint such Rites and Ceremonies as are not contrary to the Word of God and that private Persons are bound to conform themselves to their Orders The second is That it is not necessary that the whole Church should meet to determine such maters the Power of doing that being in every National Church which is fully empowr'd to take care of it self and no Rule made in such matters is to be held unalterable but may be changed upon occasion As to the first it hath been already considered when the first words of the Twentieth Article were explained There the Authority of the Church in matters indifferent was stated and proved It remains now only to prove That private Persons are bound to conform themselves to such Ceremonies especially when they are also enacted by the Civil Authority It is to be considered That the Christian Religion was chiefly designed to raise and purify the Nature of man and to make Human Society perfect now Brotherly Love and Charity does this more than any one Virtue whatsoever It raises a man to the Likeness of God it gives him a Divine and Heavenly Temper within himself and creates the tenderest Union and firmest Happiness possible among all the Societies of Men. Our Saviour has so enlarged the Obligation to it as to make it by the Extent he has given it a great and new Commandment by which all the World may be able to know and distinguish his Followers from the rest of Mankind And as all the Apostles insist much upon this in every one of their Epistles not excepting the shortest of them so St. Iohn who writ last of them has dwelt more fully upon it than upon any other Duty whatsoever Our Saviour did particularly intend that his Followers should be associated into one Body and join together in order to their keeping up and inflaming their mutual Love and therefore he delivered his Prayer to them all in the Plural to shew that he intended that they should use it in a Body He appointed Baptism as the way of receiving men into this Body and the Eucharist as a joint Memorial that the Body was to keep up of his Death For this end he appointed Pastors to teach and keep his Followers in a Body And in his last and longest Prayer to the Father he repeats this That they might be one That they might be kept in one Body and made perfect in one in five several Expressions Joh. 17.11 21 22 23. which shews both how necessary a part of his Religion he meant this should be and likewise intimates to us the danger that he foresaw of his Followers departing from it which made him intercede so earnestly for it One Expression that he has of this Union shews how entire and tender he intended that it should be for he prayed that the Union might be such as that between the Father and himself was The Apostles use the Figure of a Body frequently to express this Union than which nothing can be imagined that is more firmly knit together and in which all the parts do more tenderly sympathize with one another Upon all these considerations we may certainly gather That the dissolving this Union the dislocating this Body and the doing any thing that may extinguish the Love and Charity by which Christians are to be made so happy in themselves and so useful to one another and by which the Body of Christians grows much the firmer and stronger and shines more in the World that I say the doing this upon slight grounds must be a Sin of a very high nature Nothing can be a just Reason either to carry men to it or justify them in it but the imposing on them unlawful Terms of Communion for in that case it is certain that we must obey God rather than man that we must seek Truth and Peace together Acts 24.16 and that the rule of keeping a good Conscience in all things is laid thus To do it first towards God and then towards man So that a Schism that is occasioned by any Church's imposing unlawful Terms of Communion lies at their door who impose them and the Guilt is wholly theirs But without such a necessity it is certainly both in its own nature and in its consequences one of the greatest of Sins to create needless Disturbances in a Church and to give occasion to all that alienation of Mind all those rash Censures and unjust Judgments that do arise from such Divisions This receives a very great Aggravation if the Civil Authority has concurred by a Law to enjoyn the Observance of such indifferent things for to all their lawful Commands we owe an Obedience not only for fear but for conscience sake since the Authority of the Magistrate is chiefly to be imployed in such matters Rom. 13.3 As to things that are either commanded or forbidden of God the Magistrate has only the Execution of these in his hands so that in those his Laws are only the Sanctions and Penalties of the Laws of God The Subject-matter of his Authority is about things which are of their own nature indifferent but that may be made fit and proper means for the maintaining of Order Union and Decency in the Society And therefore such Laws as are made by him in those things do certainly bind the Conscience and oblige the Subjects to Obedience Disobedience does also give Scandal to the weak Scandal is a Block or Trap laid in the way of another by which he is made to stumble and fall So this Figure of giving Scandal or the laying a stumbling-block in our Brother's way is applied to our doing of such Actions as may prove the occasions of Sin to others Every man according to the influence that his Example or Authority may have over others who do too easily and implicitely follow him becomes thereby the more capable of giving them Scandal that is of drawing them after him to commit many Sins And since men are under Fetters according to the Persuasions that they have of things he who thinks a thing sinful does sin if he does it as long as he is under that apprehension because he deliberately ventures on that which he thinks offends God even while he doubts of it or makes a distinction between Meats for the word rendered doubts Rom. 14.23 signifies also the making a difference he is damned that is self-condemned as acting against his own sense of things if he does it Another ma n that has larger Thoughts and clearer Ideas may see that there is no sin in an Action about which others may be still in doubt and so upon his own account he may certainly do it But if he has reason to believe that his
the concurrence of other Churches In the way of managing this every Body of Men has somewhat peculiar to it self and the Pastors of that Body are the properest Judges in that matter We know that the several Churches even while under one Empire had great varieties in their Forms as appears in the different Practices of the Eastern and Western Churches And as soon as the Roman Empire was broken we see this Variety did increase The Gallican Churches had their Missals different from the Roman And some Churches of Italy followed the Ambrosian But Charles the Great in compliance with the desires of the Pope got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own Missals and to receive the Roman which he might the rather do intending to have raised a New Empire to which a Conformity of Rights might have been a great Step. Even in this Church there was a great Variety of Usages which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy when the Nation was subdivided into several Kingdoms It is therefore suitable to the Nature of Things to the Authority of the Magistrate and to the Obligations of the Pastoral Care That every Church should act within her self as an entire and independent Body The Churches owe only a Friendly and Brotherly Correspondence to one another but they owe to their own Body Government and Direction and such Provisions and Methods as are most likely to promote the great Ends of Religion and to preserve the Peace of the Society both in Church and State Therefore we are no other way bound by Antient Canons but as the same reason still subsisting we may see the same cause to continue them that there was at first to make them Of all the Bodies of the World the Church of Rome has the worst Grace to reproach us for departing in some Particulars from the Antient Canons since it was her ill Conduct that had brought them all into desuetude And it is not easy to revive again Antiquated Rules even though there may be good reason for it when they fall under that tacit Abrogation which arises out of a long and general disuse of them ARTICLE XXXV Of Homilies The Second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the Former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the Time of Edward the Sixth and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the People The Names of the Homilies 1. Of the right use of the Church 2. Against Peril of Idolatry 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4. Of Good Works First Of Fasting 5. Against Gluttony and Drunkenness 6. Against Excess of Apparel 7. Of Prayer 8. Of the Place and time of Prayer 9. That common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known tongue 10. Of the reverent estimation of God's Word 11. Of Alms-doing 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 13. Of the Passion of Christ. 14. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 17. For the Rogation-days 18. Of the state of Matrimony 19. Of Repentance 20. Against Idleness 21. Against Rebellion AT the time of the Reformation as there could not be found at first a sufficient Number of Preachers to instruct the whole Nation so those that did comply with the changes which were then made were not all well-affected to them so that it was not safe to trust this matter to the Capacity of the one side and to the Integrity of others Therefore to supply the Defects of some and to oblige the rest to teach according to the Form of sound Doctrine there were two Books of Homilies prepared the first was published in King Edward's time the second was not finished till about the time of his Death so it was not published before Queen Elizabeth's time The Design of them was to mix Speculative Points with Practical matters Some explain the Doctrine and others enforce the Rules of Life and Manners These are plain and short Discourses chiefly calculated to possess the Nation with a Sense of the Purity of the Gospel in opposition to the Corruptions of Popery and to reform it from those crying Sins that had been so much connived at under Popery while men knew the Price of them how to compensate for them and to redeem themselves from the Guilt of them by Masses and Sacraments by Indulgences and Absolutions In these Homilies the Scriptures are often applied as they were then understood not so critically as they have been explained since that time But by this Approbation of the two Books of Homilies it is not meant that every Passage of Scripture or Argument that is made use of in them is always convincing or that every Expression is so severely worded that it may not need a little Correction or Explanation All that we profess about them is only that they contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine This ratheâ— relates to the main Importance and Design of them than to every Passagâ— in them Though this may be said concerning them That considering thâ— Age they were written in the Imperfection of our Language and some lesser Defects they are Two very extraordinary Books Some of them arâ— better writ than others and are equal to any thing that has been writ upon those Subjects since that time Upon the whole matter every one whâ— subscribes the Articles ought to read them otherwise he subscribes a Blank he approves a Book implicitely and binds himself to read it as he may be required without knowing any thing concerning it This Approbation is not to be stretched so far as to carry in it a special Assent to every Particular in that whole Volume but a man must be persuaded of the main of the Doctrine that is taught in them To instance this in one particular since there are so many of the Homilies that charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry and that from so many different Topicks no man who thinks that Church is not guilty of Idolatry can with a good Conscience subscribe this Article That the Homilies contain a good and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times for according to his sense they contain a false and an uncharitable Charge of Idolatry against a Church that they think is not guilty of it and he will be apt to thâ—nk that this was done to heighten the Aversion of the Nation to it Therefore any who have such favourable thoughts of the Church of Rome are bound by the force of that Persuasion of theirs not to sign this Article but to declare against it as the authorizing of an Accusation against a Church which they think is ill grounded and is by consequence both unjust and uncharitable By necessary for these times is not to be meant
says Receive the Holy Ghost And in this sense and with this respect the use of these Words may be well justified ARTICLE XXXVII Of Civil Magistrates The Queen's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil-doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with Death for heinous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars THIS Article was much shorter as it was published in King Edward's time and did run thus The King of England is Supreme Head in Earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland Then followed the Paragraph against the Pope's Jurisdiction worded as it is now To which these Words were subjoined The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God wherefore we must obey him not only for fear of Punishment but also for Conscience sake In Queen Elizabeth's time it was thought fitting to take away those Prejudices that the Papists were generally infusing into the minds of the People against the term Head which seemed to be the more incongruous because a Woman did then reign therefore that was left out and instead of it the words chief Power and chief Government were made use of which do signify the same thing The Queen did also by her Injunctions offer an Explanation of this matter for whereas it was given out by those who had complied with every thing that had been done both in her Father and in her Brother's time but that resolved now to set themselves in opposition to her That she was assuming a much greater Authority than they had pretended to She upon that ordered that Explanation which is referred to in the Article and is in these words For certainly Her Majesty neither doth nor ever will challenge any Authority other than that was challenged and lately used by the said Noble Kings of famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth which is and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Sovereignty and Rule over ail manner of Persons born within these her Realms Dominions and Countries of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any Superiority over them And if any Person that hath conceived any other sense of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this Interpretation Sense or Meaning Her Majesty is well pleased to accept every such in that behalf as her good and obedient Subjâ—cts and shall acquit them of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take the same Oath Thus this matter is opened as it is both in the Article and in the Injunctions In order to the treating regularly of this Article it is First To be proved That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms 2 dly That our Kings or Queens have it And 3 dly The Nature and Measures of this Power and Government are to be stated As for the Pope's Authority though it is now connected with the Infallibility yet it was pretended to and was advanced for many Ages before Infallibility was so much as thought on Nor was the Doctrine of their Infallibility ever so universally received and submitted to in these Western Parts as was that of their Universal Jurisdiction They were in possession of it Appeals were made to them They sent Legates and Bulls every where They granted Exemptions from the ordinary Jurisdiction and took Bishops bound to them by Oaths that were penned in the Form of Oaths of Fealty or Homage This was the first Point that our Reformers did begin with both here and every where else that so they might remove that which was an insuperable Obstruction till it was first taken out of the way to every step that could be made toward a Reformation They laid down therefore this for their Foundation That all Bishops were by their Office and Character equal and that every one of them had the same Authority that any other had over that Flock which was committed to his Care And therefore they said that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority according to the Constitution in which the Churches were settled by the Apostles but over the City of Rome And that any further Jurisdiction that any Antient Popes might have had did arise from the Dignity of the City and the Customs and Laws of the Empire As for their deriving that Authority from St. Peter it is very plain that the Apostles were all made equal to him and that they never understood our Saviour's Words to him as importing any Authority that was given to him over the rest since they continued to the last while our Saviour was among them disputing which of them should be the greatest The Proposition that the Mother of Iames and Iohn made Mat. 20.21 ver 24. ver 26. in which it was evident that they likewise concurred with her shews that they did not apprehend that Christ had made any Declaration in favour of St. Peter as by our Saviour's Answer it appears that he had not done otherwise he would have referred them to what he had already said upon that occasion By the whole History of the Acts of the Apostles it appears that the Apostles acted and consulted in common without considering St. Peter as having any Superiority over them He was called to give an account of his Baptizing Cornelius and he delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem without any strain of Authority over the rest Acts 11.2 3. Acts 15.7 ver 14 19. Gal. 2 7 8. ver 11. St. Paul does expresly deny that the other Apostles had any Superiority or Jurisdiction over him and he says in plain words that he was the Apostle of the Vncircumcision as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision and in that does rather claim an advantage over him since his was certainly the much wider Province He
withstood St. Peter to his Face when he thought that he deserved to be blamed and he speaks of his own line and share as being subordinate in it to none And by his saying that he did not stretch himself beyond his own Measure 2 Cor. 10.14 he plainly insinuates that within his own Province he was only accountable to him that had called and sent him This was also the Sense of the Primitive Church That all Bishops were Brethren Collegues and Fellow-Bishops And though the Dignity of that City which was the Head of the Empire and the Opinion of that Church's being founded by St. Peter and St. Paul created a great Respect to the Bishops of that See which was supported and encreased by the eminent Worth as well as the frequent Martyrdoms of their Bishops yet St. Cyprian in his time as he was against the suffering of any Causes to be carried in the way of a Complaint for Redress to Rome so he does in plain words say That all the Apostles were equal in Power De Unit Eccles. and that all Bishops were also equal since the whole Office and Episcopate was one entire thing of which every Bishop had a compleat and equal share It is true he speaks of the Vnity of the Roman Chureh and of the Union of other Churches with it but those words were occasioned by a Schism that Novatian had made then at Rome he being elected in opposition to the Rightful Bishop So that St. Cyprian does not insinuate any thing concerning an Authority of the See of Rome over other Sees but speaks only of their Union under one Bishop and of the other Churches holding a Brotherly Communion with that Bishop Through his whole Epistles he treats the Bishops of Rome as his Equals with the Titles of Brother and Collegue In the first General Council the Authority of the Bishops of the great Sees is stated as equal Conc. Nic. Can. 6. The Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch are declared to have according to Custom the same Authority over the Churches subordinate to them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about that City This Authority is pretended to be derived only from Custom and is considered as under the Limitations and Decisions of a General Council Soon after that the Arian Heresy was so spread over the East that those who adhered to the Nicene Faith were not safe in their numbers Ep. 10. ad Greg. and the Western Churches being free from that Contagion though St. Basil laments that they neither understood their matters nor were much concerned about them but were swelled up with Pride Athanasius and other oppressed Bishops fled to the Bishops of Rome as well as to the other Bishops of the West it being natural for the oppressed to seek Protection wheresoever they can find it And so a sort of Appeals was begun and they were authorized by the Council of Sardica But the ill effects of this Con. Sard. Can. 3 7 Con. Constant Can. 3. if it should become a Precedent were apprehended by the Second General Council in which it was decreed That every Province should be governed by its own Synod and that all Bishops should be at first judged by the Bishops of their own Province and from them an Appeal was allowed to the Bishops of the Diocess whereas by the Canons of Nice no Appeal lay from the Bishops of the Province But though this Canon of Constantinople allows of an Appeal to the Bishops of every such Division of the Roman Empire as was known by the name of Diocess yet there is an express Prohibition of any other or further Appeal which is a plain repealing of the Canon at Sardica And in that same Council it appears upon what the Dignity of the See of Rome was then believed to be founded For Constantinople being made the Seat of the Empire and called New Rome the Bishops of that See had the same Privileges given them that the Bishops of Old Rome had except only the Point of Rank which was preserved to Old Rome because of the Dignity of the City This was also confirmed at Chalcedon in the middle of the Fifth Century Con. Chalced Can. 28. This shews that the Authority and Privileges of the Bishops of Rome were then considered as arising out of the Dignity of that City and that the Order of them was subject to the Authority of a General Council Conc. Afric cap. 101. 1â—5 Epâ—st ad Bonifac. Celâ—st The African Churches in that time knew nothing of any Superiority that the Bishops of Rome had over them They condemned the making of Appeals to them and appointed that such as made them should be excommunicated The Popes who laid that matter much to heart did not pretend to an Universal Jurisdiction as St. Peter's Successors by a Divine Right they only pleaded a Canon of the Council of Nice but the Africans had heard of no such Canon and so they justified their Independence on the See of Rome Great Search was made after this Canon and it was found to be an Imposture So early did the See of Rome aspire to this Universal Authority and did not stick at Forgery in order to the compassing of it In the Sixth Century when the Emperor Mauritius continued a Practice begun by some former Emperors to give the Bishop of Constantinople the Title of Universal Bishop Greg. Ep. Lib. 4. Ep. 32 34 36 38 39. Lib. 6. Ep. 24 28 30 31. Lib. 7. Ep. 70. Pelage and after him Gregory the Great broke out into the most Pathetical Expressions that could be invented against it he compared it to the Pride of Lucifer and said That he who assumed it was the forerunner of Antichrist and as he renounced all Claim to it so he affirmed that none of his Predecessors had ever aspired to such a Power This is the more remarkable because the Saxons being converted to the Christian Religion under this Pope's direction we have reason to believe that this Doctrine was infused into this Church at the first Conversion of the Saxons yet Pope Gregory's Successor made no exceptions to the giving himself that Title against which his Predecessor had declaimed so much But then the Confusions of Italy gave the Popes great Advantages to make all new Invaders and Pretenders enlarge their Privileges since it was a great accession of Strength to any party to have them of their side The Kings of the Lombards began to lye heavy on them but they called in the Kings of a new conquering Family from France who were ready enough to make new Conquests and when the Nomination of the Popes was given to the Kings of that Race it was natural for them to raise the Greatness of one who was to be their Creature so they promoted their Authority which was not a little confirmed by an Impudent Forgery at that time oâ— the Decretal Epistles of the first Popes in
the Bishops against one another The Emperors called General Councils by their Summons they sate in them and confirmed their Decrees This was the constant Practice of the Roman Emperors both in the East and in the West When the Church came to fall under many lesser Sovereignties those Princes continued still to make Laws to name Bishops to give Investitures into Benefices to call Synods and to do every thing that appeared necessary to them for the good Government of the Church in their Dominions When Charles the Great was restoring those things that had fallen under much disorder in a course of some ignorant and barbarous Ages and was reviving both Learning and good Government he published many Capitulars a great part of them relating to Ecclesiastical matters nor was any exception taken to that in those Ages The Synods that were then held were for the greatest part mixt Assemblies in which the Temporalty and the Spiritualty sate together and judged and decreed of all matters in common And it is certain that such was the Sanhedrim among the Iews in our Saviour's time it was the Supreme Court both for Spirituals and Temporals In England our Princes began early and continued long to maintain this part of their Authority The Letters that are pretended to have passed between King Lucius and Pope Eleutherius are very probably Forgeries but they are antient ones and did for many Ages pass for true Now a Forgery is generally calculated to the Sense of the Age in which it is made In the Pope's Letter the King is called God's Vicar in his Kingdoms and it is said to belong to his Office to bring his Subjects to the holy Church and to maintain protect and govern them in it Both Saxon and Danish Kings made a great many Laws about Ecclesiastical matters and after the Conquest when the Nation grew into a more united Body and came to a more settled Constitution many Laws were made concerning these matters particularly in opposition to those Practices that favoured the Authority that the Popes were then assuming such as Appeals to Rome or Bishops going out of the Kingdom without the King's leave King Alfred's Laws were a sort of a Text for a great while they contain many Laws about Sacred matters The exempting of Monasteries from Episcopal Jurisdiction was granted by some of our Kings at first William the Conqueror to perpetuate the Memory of his Victory over Harold and to endear himself to the Clergy founded an Abbey in the Field where the Battel was fought called Battel-Abbey And in the Charter of the Foundation in imitation of what former Kings had done in their Endowments this Clause was put It shall be also free and quiet for ever from all subjection to Bishops or the dominion of any other Persons This is an Act that does as immediately relate to the Authority of the Church as any one that we can imagine The Constitutions of Clarendon were asserted by both King and Parliament and by the whole Body of the Clergy as the Antient Customs of the Kingdom These relate to the Clergy and were submitted to by them all Becket himself not excepted though he quickly went off from it It is true the Papacy got generally the better of the Temporal Authority in a course of several Ages but at last the Popes living long at Avignon together with the great Schism that followed upon their return to Rome did very much sink in their Credit and that stopped the Progress they had made before that time which had probably subdued all if it had not been for those Accidents Then the Councils began to take heart and resolved to assert the Freedom of the Church from the Papal Tyranny Pragmatick Sanctions were made in several Nations to assert their Liberty That in France was made with great Solemnity In these the Bishops did not only assert their own Jurisdiction independent in a great measure of the Papacy but they likewise carried it so far as to make themselves Independent on the Civil Authority particularly in the point of Elections This disposed Princes generally to enter into Agreements with the Popes by which the matter was so transacted that the Popes and they made a division between them of all the Rights and Pretensions of the Church Princes yielded a great deal to the Popes to be protected by them in that which they got to be reserved to themselves Great Restraints were laid both on the Clergy and likewise on the See of Rome by the Appeals that were brought into the Secular Courts from the Ordinary Judgments of the Ecclesiastical Courts or from the Bulls or Powers that Legates brought with them A distinction was found that seemed to save the Ecclesiastical Authority at the same time that the Secular Court was made the Judg of it The Appeal did lye upon a pretence that the Ecclesiastical Judg had committed some Abuse in the way of proceeding or in his Sentence So the Appeal was from that Abuse and the Secular Court was to examine the matter according to the Rules and Laws of the Church and not according to the Principles or Rules of any other Law But upon that they did either confirm or reverse the Sentence And even those Princes that acknowledg the Papal Authority have found out distinctions to put such Stops to it as they please and so to make it an Engine to govern their People by as far as they think fit to give way to it and to damn such Bulls or void such Powers as they are afraid of Thus it is evident That both according to Scripture and the Practice of all Ages and Countries the Princes of Christendom have an Authority over their Subjects in matters Ecclesiastical The reason of things makes also for this for if any Rank of men are exempted from their Jurisdiction they must thereby cease to be Subjects And if any sort of Causes Spiritual ones in particular were put out of their Authority it were an easy thing to reduce almost every thing to such a relation to Spirituals that if this Principle were once received their Authority would be very precaâ—ious and feeble Nothing could give Princes stronger and juster Prejudices against the Christian Religion than if they saw that the effect of their receiving it must be the withdrawing so great a part of their Subjects from their Authority and the putting as many Checks upon it as those that had the Management of this Religion should think fit to restrain it by In a word all mankind must be under one Obedience and one Authority It remains that the Measures and the Extent of this Power be right stated It is certain First That this Power does not depend upon the Prince's Religion Whether he is a Christian or not or whether he is of â— true or false Religion or is a good or a bad man By the same Tenure that he holds his Sovereignty he holds this likewise Artaxerâ—â—◠〈◊〉 it as well as either
David or Solomon when the Iews were once lawfu◠〈◊〉 â—ubjects and the Christians owed the same Duty to the Emperors 〈◊〉 â—eathen that they paid them when Christian. The Relations of Nature such as that of a Parent and Child Husband and Wife continue the same that they were whatsoever mens Persuasions in matters of Religion may be So do also Civil Relations Master and Servant Prince and Subject they are neither increased nor diminished by the Truth of their Sentiments concerning Religion All Persons are subject to the Prince's Authority and liable to such Punishments as their Crimes fall under by Law Every Soul is subject to the higher Powers Neither is Treason less Treason because spoke in a Pulpit or in a Sermon It may be more Treason for that than otherwise it would be because it is so publick and deliberate and is delivered in the way in which it may probably have the worst effect So that as to persons no great difficulty can lye in this since every Soul is declared to be subject to the higher powers As to Ecclesiastical Causes it is certain That as the Magistrate cannot make void the Laws of Nature such as the Authority of Parents over their Children or of Husbands over their Wives so neither can he make void the Law of God That is from a Superior Authority and cannot be dissolved by him Where a thing is positively commanded or forbid by God the Magistrate has no other Authority but that of executing the Laws of God of adding his Sanctions to them and of using his utmost Industry to procure Obedience to them He cannot alter any part of the Doctrine and make it to be either truer or falser than it is in it self nor can he either take away or alter the Sacraments or break any of those Rules that are given in the New Testament about them because in all these the Authority of God is express and is certainly superior to his The only question that can be made is concerning Indifferent things For instance in the Canons or other Rules of the Church How far they are in the Magistrate's Power and in what Cases the Body of Christians and of the Pastors of the Church may maintain their Union among themselves and act in opposition to his Laws It seems very clear that in all matters that are indifferent and are determined by no Law of God the Magistrates Authority must take place and is to be obeyed The Church has no Authority that she can maintain in opposition to the Magistrate but in the executing the Laws of God and the Rules of the Gospel In all other things as she acts under his Protection so it is by his Permission But here a great distinction is to be made between two Cases that may happen The one is When the Magistrate acts like one that intends to preserve Religion but commits Errors and Acts of Injustice in his Management The other is When he acts like one that intends to destroy Religion and to divide and distract those that profess it In the former case every thing that is not sinful of it self is to be done in compliance with his Authority not to give him Umbrage nor provoke him to withdraw his Protection and to become instead of a Nursing Father a Persecutor of the Church But on the other hand when he declares or it is visible that his design is to destroy the Faith less regard is to be had to his Actions The People may adhere to their Pastors and to every Method that may fortify them in their Religion even in opposition to his Invasion Upon the whole matter the Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Matters among us is expressed in this Article under those Reserves and with that Moderation that no just Scruple can lye against it and it is that which all the Kings even of the Roman Communion do assume and in some Places with a much more unlimited Authority The Methods of managing it may differ a little yet the Power is the same and is built upon the same Foundations And though the Term Head is left out by the Article yet even that is founded on an Expression of Samuel's to Saul as was formerly cited It is a Figure and all Figures may be used either more loosely or more strictly In the strictest sense as the Head communicates Vital Influences to the whole Body Christ is the only Head of his Church he only ought to be in all things obeyed submitted to and depended on and from him all the Functions and Offices of the Church derive their Usefulness and Virtue But as Head may in a Figure stand for the Fountain of Order and Government of Protection and Conduct the King or Queen may well be called The Head of the Church The next Paragraph in this Article is concerning the Lawfulness of Capital Punishments in Christian Societies It has an appearance of Compassion and Charity to think that men ought not to be put to death for their Crimes but to be kept alive that they may repent of them Some both Antients and Moderns have thought that there was a Cruelty in all Capital Punishments that was inconsistent with the Gentleness of the Gospel But when we consider that God in that Law which he himself delivered to the Iews by the hand of Moses did appoint so many Capital Punishments even for Offences against Positive Precepts we cannot think that these are contrary to Justice or true Goodness since they were dictated by God himself who is eternally the same unalterable in his Perfections This shews that God who knows most perfectly our Frame and Disposition knows that the love of Life is planted so deep in our Natures and that it has such a Root there that nothing can work so powerfully on us to govern and restrain us as the fear of Death And therefore since the main thing that is to be considered in Government is the Good of the whole Body and since a feeble Indulgence and Impunity may set mankind loose into great Disorders from which the Terror of severer Laws together with such Examples as are made on the Incorrigible will naturally restrain them it seems necessary for the preservation of Mankind and of Society to have recourse sometimes to Capital Punishments The Precedent that God set in the Mosaical Law seems a full Justification of such Punishments under the Gospel The Charity which the Gospel prescribes does not take away the Rules of Justice and Equity by which we may maintain our Possessions or recover them out of the hands of violent Aggressors Only it obliges us to do that in a soft and gentle manner without Rigor or Resentment The same Charity though it obliges us as Christians not to keep up Hatred or Anger in our Hearts but to pardon as to our own parts the Wrongs that are done us yet it does not oblige us to throw up the Order and Peace of Mankind and abandon it to the Injustice and