the Book of Tobit by which saith one of them we give too much countenance to the Church of Rome and supplant Canonical Scripture c. Now to see how very little reason is for this Objection let it be observed 1. That our Church always calls these Books Apocryphal and thereby sufficiently distinguisheth them from the Canonical and her self from Popery 2. In the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion she declares That she reads them for example of Life and instruction of Manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine 3. All our Divines that have written upon this Subject especially Reynolds and Cosins have so Learnedly and unanswerably baffled the Papists that they have never thought good to reply to them 4. Our Church hath taken so great care in this matter to avoid giving offence that several of these Books are never Read in the Church at all as the Maccabees Books of Esdras Prayer of Manasseh and the famous Fifth Chapter of Tobit about him and his Dog which hath been left out of our Church from the beginning of King James the 1st almost an 100 Years the other Books that are ordered to be Read in the Church are never read on Sundays but only Week-days Now our Church in allowing of them sometimes to be Read doth much better agree with the Primitive Church than she would if they were shut quite out for 't is certain that they publickly Read them Athanasius or the Author of the Synopsis calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not received into the Canon but read in the Church Ruffinus in Symb. Alii libri sunt qui non Canonici sed Ecclesiastici a majoribus appellati sunt Tobit Judeth c. quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesia voluerunt non tamen Professi ad Authoritatem fidei confirmandam i. e. There are Books which are not Canonical but Ecclesiastical as Tobit Judeth c. all which are read in the Church but not produced to confirm any Article of Faith Which is exactly agreeable to the words of St. Hierom in his Preface to his Commentary upon Proverbs and which are quoted and approved of by our Church in the Thirty Nine Articles Gregorius Magnus in Moral l. 19. c. 13. Art 6 may speak for the succeeding Ages where he calls these Books though not Canonical yet published for the Edification of the Church That they were Read in the African Churches appears from one of the Carthaginian Councils at which St. Austine was present 3 Carthag Can. 47. That they have been all along read in the Western Churches appears from Isidore de Eccles Off. Rabanus de instit Cler. c. And lastly the Lectionarius published by Pamelius and which goeth under the name of St. Hierom and hath been of great Use and Authority in the Western Churches gives an account of particular days when particular places of the Apocryphal Books were appointed to be read in the Church As to the Greek Church besides the author of the Synopsis already mention'd Origene in his Epistle to Affricanus saith that the history of Susannah was read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Church of Christ And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Churches make use of the book of Tobit And as to their present practice besides their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 printed at Venice A. D. 1596. which contains their several lessons for the whole year and hath several taken out of the Apocrypha we have the express authority of one that lived amongst them Mr. Rycaut in his History of the Greek Church p. 372. In the Greek Church they receive the Apocryphal Books as we do in England In the Ethiopick Churches they read the Athcpocryphal Books as appears from Ludolfus's History of those Churches and lastly by the works of Hippolytus Origen St. Chrysostome St. Hierome Theodore◠Asterius Leo Magnus and others it appears that the Fathers not only wrote Comments upon these books but frequently preach'd upon them and took their Texts thence not to mention that Conradus Pellican Drusius and some other Reformed Divines have without any offence wrote comments upon them as upon other parts of the Bible If from this general agreement of all the Christian Churches in the World we consider in the last place the judgment of the Reformed Churches we shall find them also agree with us 1. For the Lutheran Churches they gerally use them as we do and Alsted in Theol. Pol. p. 287. gives this account of them that they are sacri secundum quid populare quadam ratione merito proxime a vere divinis locum obtinere possunt i. e. that they are in a sense sacred and deserve the next place to the Canonical Scriptures And Chemnitius in examen post 1. de ser can speaking of the Apocryphal Books saith A fidelibus in Ecclesiis leguntur i. e. they are read by the Orthodox in the Churches And then for the Churches of the Calvinists first hear Calvin himself in Psychopannichia Melius nos decent sacrae literae corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam i. e. the holy Writings teach us better that the corruptible body oppresseth the Soul And yet those Sacred Writings are the book called the Wisdom of Solomon from whence that sentence is taken Conradus Pelicanus in his preface to his Comments upon the Apocryphal Books saith of them that they are Ecclesiastici ac Biblici in Ecclesia Catholica ab Apostolorum temporibus fuerint cum reverentia lecti i. e. these books are read in the Church and bound up with our Bibles and have with reverence been read in all Christian Churches from the very time of the Apostles and he was a famous Professor at Zurich Lud. Capellus in Thes Salm. expresly approves of the Declaration of our Church in her 39 Articles and saith that profit may come to the Church by their being read publickly and so they were read in the Primitive times for the instruction of manners Episcopius Professor at Leyden in Tom. 2. Part. 2. p. 75. though the Apocryphal Books cannot serve to confirm an Article of Faith yet may profitably be read in ' the Church And indeed of the Dutch Churches we have their solemn judgment declared in the Synod of Dort Art 6. We make a difference betwixt the Canonical and Apocryphal Books which last are the 3d and 4th of Esdras Tobit Judeth c. which the Church may read and take instructions in them agreeable to Canonical Scripture The Bibles of Holland Geneva and other reformed Churches have these books printed Quere in Deodats Ju 〈…〉 Bibles and bound up with the Canonical as we have and in the Preface to the Apocryphal Books they commend the very sentences of Ruffinus and St. Hierom which declare for the publick reading of them in the Churches And the like is done by the Publishers of the Harmony of the Confessions of all the Reformed Churches Printed at Geneva and lastly the Reformed Churches of
France in their Book of Discipline p. 391. have this rule Les livres de la Bible soit Canonique ou autres ne seront transformez en Comedies ou Tragedies i. e. the books of the Bible whether Canonical or others shall not be used in Plays in which Words they first call these Apocryphal books part of the Bible and then take care that they be not prophaned And thus it 's evident that all the Primitive and Purer Ages of the Church all the Eastern Western and African Churches all the Lutheran and Calvinistical Churches beyond Sea do either read these books publickly in their Churches or very expresly approve of it nor is there any one instance of any Reformed Church that since the Reformation read them publickly as we have done but still continues to do so and our English Dissenters are condemned by all the Churches in the World in leaving them out of their Bibles who were the first body of Christians as far as I can find that ever did so To make this the more evident I shall here give a Catalogue of the publick large Bibles of all the Countries I could meet with in all which upon examination I find the Apocryphal added for the same intent as in ours viz. For the Example of Life and the Instruction of Manners A Catalogue of Bibles Printed with the Apocrypha English with Archbishop Cranmer's Preface Lond. 1541. By Coverdale Lond. 1550. By Command of Q. Eliz. Lond. 1578. Welch Lond. 1588 Scotch Edenburgh 1596. English translated by Wicliff a M. S. with a Prologue in which are these words Holy Church readeth Judeth and Toby and the Books of Maccabees but receiveth not them among Holy Scriptures so the Church readeth the two Books Ecclesiastici and Sapience to edify the People not to confirm the Authority of Teaching Bohemian 1613. Danish at Copenhagen 1550. French at Geneva 1588 At Amsterdam 1669 German 1604 Of Luther's Translation Heidelberg 1617 Dutch at Frankfurt 1580 Armenian at Amsterdam 1666 Spanish by Protestants Amsterdam 1602. Hungarian by the Protestant Bishops of Hungary at Hannover and Oppenheim 1608 Muscovitish at Ostrogoth 1581 Italian by Deodate 1607 Latin by Castalion dedicated to King Edward the 6th Bas 1573 By Junius dedicated to William Prince of Orange 1592 By Robert Stephens Paris 1540 Critici Sacri 9 Tomis Lond. 1666 Hebrew Polyglott 〈◊〉 Lond. 1567 Septuagint Syrtach Vulgar Latin And indeed amongst all the Bibles which I have seen I find them only left out in the Spanish Bible examin'd by the Inquisitors printed at Ferara 1553 and that of New-England in the Virginian Tongue printed at Cambridge in New-England 1663. So that if to comply with our English Dissenters we must strike out these Apocryphal books I know no Bibles we shall follow but that of the Inquisitors of Spain and the Commissioners of New-England And to conclude this head I shall put down these five observations First That no Papist ever made use of this as an Argument that our Church own'd these Books as Canonical so that there could be no feal ground for this objection Secondly That there neither is nor ever was any one Christian Church in the whole World that had set Lessons appointed for every day in the year as we have but some of them were taken out of the Apocrypha Thirdly That no one foreign Church whatsoever did ever declare themselves offended with the Church of England in this matter but as I have shewed generally approve it Fourthly That these very persons who complain of our reading Apocryphal Chapters for Lessons make no complaint of having Hymns printed in their Bibles before and after Davids Psalms in meeter and being frequently used in the Church instead of them Which is agreeable to the practice of Holland where that Church before Sermon sings a Hymn composed by one John Wittenhaven as we do any one of our Psalms Fifthly That the great Promoters of this objection do not stop here but urge it to the laying aside Sermons and Homilies as not being within the Canon yea and the Scripture and Lessons themselves and as we have reason to fear laying aside all publick service whatsoever T. C. in his admonition p. 221. would have no Homilies read in the Church because nothing but the voice of God and holy Scriptures should sound in his Church and this will destroy Sermons and Preaching also The Author answered by Bishop Nicolson in his Apology p. 184. is angry with our Church for reading two Lessons and would have but one And that Lesson also is in danger by the Author of the Letter to the Convocation p. 21. where he proposeth the leaving out the first Lesson in the Afternoon upon short days and in Country Parishes to read Prayers without Lessons So that upon the whole however it seems to some a small to others a reasonable matter I do not say to leave out for then that should have been done at first but to reject the Apocryphal Lessons yet in this we shall separate from the Primitive the Eastern Western and African Churches from most of the Reformed Churches we must alter the 39 Articles of Religion which have been so generally received and applauded for they declare that the Church doth read them We must alter our Apologies and Canons for there Canon 30. Juells Apol. p. 170. it 's declared that it was so far from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy France Spain Germany and other Churches in all things which they hold and practis'd that as the Apology of the Church of England confesseth it only departed from them in those particular points wherein they were faln both from themselves in their ancient integrity and from the Apostolical Churches To this agreeth the Apology for Protestants by a French Divine and translated A. D. 1681. p. 23. As to the reproach cast upon our first Reformers it is one of the greatest injustices in the world for nothing can be clearer from their own writings than that it was never their intent to subvert the ancient Government of the Church nor to abolish those Religious Rites and Holy Ceremonies which the piety of the primitive Christians had introduced but only to take away the abuses of them So that in making unnecessary changes in these things we shall destroy the very foundation and principle of the Reformation And that this rule is properly applied to the matter in hand is evident from the declaration of our Church at the beginning of the Liturgy where the reading of the Lessons as is appointed is called a godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers Upon all which accouuts it is evident that we ought not to consent to the taking away the Apocryphal Lessons and that the Reformed Churches do not desire it of us Secondly As to the Rules and Tables for finding Easter great objections have been raised against our Church
ordained by Presbyters as is evident from that very Place in the Life of Bishop Bramhall from whence this Author quotes a Passage and what he did for Peace Sake was only this That in some of their Certificates of their being ordained by him he declared That this New Ordination did not destroy their former Orders if they had any c. And it s abundantly evidently that that Bishop did re-ordain many of them To the last of these three ways I return no Answer because he himself doth not tell us what it was that was proposed in the Bill of Union The second was the principal Method insisted on and that is Hypothetical Re-ordination in which the Office of Ordination was to be omitted and the Person kneeling before a Bishop the Bishop was to say If thou art not already Ordained I Ordain thee or else in these Words I pray God that thou be ordained c. And this is justified by the Instance of Hypothetical Baptism To all which I reply 1. That the Presbyterians the Persons we are to satisfy have already declared against Hypothetical Ordination so the Presbyterians at the Savoy in their Petition for Peace p. 2. We earnestly beseech you that Re-ordination whether Absolute or Hypothetical be not made necessary for the future Exercise of our Ministry now to grant them what they have already declared against is no probable way to the Union pretented 2. Hypothetical Baptism is of Two sorts 1 st When 't is not known that the Child hath had any pretended Baptism with Water in the name of the Trinity and then the case is not the same as this Of such hypothetical Rebaptization the 5th Council of Carthage c. 3. is to be understood where they commend the Words of Leo Iteratum dici non potest quod nescitur ess factum i. e. That cannot be said to be repeated which was never known to be done The 2d is when all that hath been done is exactly known but the authority of the Persons Baptizing or Authenticalness of what is done is called in question and in this case the Presbyterians do not allow of Hypothetical Baptism witness the Synops pur Theol. p. 617 Neque Baptismus conditionalis probandus est qui a Pontificiis observari solet i. e. neither do we approve of Hypothetical Baptism which is used by the Papists for they to gain respect to their own Church endeavour to perswade such other Christians as are admitted into their Church to be hypothetically Rebaptized of which we have one famous instance in the Church of the Abyssines reported by Ludolfus in Hist Aethiop l. 3. c. 6. Patres Societatis Habessinos omnes promiscue rebaptizaverunt sub conditione tamen si videlicet prior Baptismus non rite fuisset peractus quae res magnam illis invidiam conflavit i. e. The Jesuites rebaptized all the Habessines with this condition namely if their former Baptism was not rightly performed which thing occasioned great troubles against them Which troubles he reports cap. 13. The Habessines hated them for nothing more than their repeating of their Baptism as if before that they had been Heathens and Publicans And is it not evident that Hypothetical Re-ordination will produce the same troubles here when by this very Act our Church plainly supposeth that they were not ordained before But to make all this matter plain I will first set down the opinion of the English Presbyterians then the opinion of the Foreign Reformed Churches 1. For our English Presbyterians T. C. the Ringleader of that Party having been ordained by a Bishop is said to have renounced his orders and taken new orders from Presbyters in Scotland The Presbyterians reordained Mr. John Cuningham formerly ordained Priest by the Bishop of Galloway Ravil rediv. p. 29. A whole Synod of the Puritans at Coventry A. D. 1588 June 10 condemned Ordination by Bishops as unlawful and farther declared the very calling of Bishops unlawful Bancroft's Engl. Scotizing p. 86. T. C. in his Admonition p. 127 desires the Bishops to be laid aside from ordaining Ministers and to bring in the true Election by the Congregation And in his Prayer before his Sermon at Banbury printed in the Life of Archbishop Whitgift p. 47. O Lord give us grace and power all as one Man to set our selves against the Bishops Apologetical Narrative It s a sin to take Episcopal Orders or to own the Authority of Bishops And to mention no more in the Solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterians of both Nations swore to the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. the government of the Church by Bishops And accordingly in Scotland the Presbyterians have generally persecuted all those that had Episcopal Ordination 2. For the Foreign Reformed Churches observe 1sit That the Churches of Denmark and Norway are governed by Two Archbishops and Fourteen Bishops The Churches of Swedeland are governed by One Archbishop and Six Bishops the Churches of Hungary and Transylvania are governed by Bishops the Reformed Churches of Bohemia have a succession of Bishops as we in England Pass we next to the Reformed Churches of Germany which are in effect governed by Bishops whom they call Superintendants Their Office is described in the Harmony of Confess p. 227. to visit Parochial Ministers to preside in Synods to examine and ordain Persons fit for the Ministry c. To which agreeth Carpzovins Jurisp Eccl. l. 1. Comenius in Annot. ad rat disc fratr Bohem. where he observes that St. Hierom calls a Bishop Superintendant in Armenia the Bishop is called Martabet which signifieth Superintendant saith Rycaut Hist of Arm. Churches p. 392. And Zanchy saith that the Protestants have Bishops and Archbishops but that instead of good Greek Names they call them by bad Latine ones Superintendants and general Superintendants And when in the Book of Policy A. D. 1581. for the Kingdom of Scotland the Office of Superintendants is described it is in these Words Imprimis The Superintendant of Orkney his Diocess shall be the Isles of Orkney c. The Superintendant of Rosse his Diocess shall be Rosse c. The Superintendant of Edenbrough his Diocess shall be c. The Superintendant of Glascow his Diocess c. In all Ten Superintendants for that Kingdom Then follows the Function and Power of the Superintendant He shall plant and erect Churches order and appoint Ministers Visit c. See the Proceedings at Perth p. 14 15. And in all such Churches where they have Superintendants there is no Ordination allowed but by them An Account of the Persecuted in Scotland p. 58. There is not a falser Proposition in the World than that the Inclinations of the generality of the People in Scotland are against Episcopacy and let us have a Poll for it when they will and you shall quickly see the Demonstration Of the Vulgus the Commonalty not a Third Man throughout the whole Kingdom is a Presbyterian And of Persons of better Quality and Education not a Thirteenth In all the Country on
the North of Tay thre never was above Three or Four Meeting-Houses and these too very little frequented At Perth where a Presbyterian Minister hath got the Church not One in Ten go to hear him not one of the Magistrates The like at Cowpar in Fife at st Andrews Sterling Burnt-Island c. Even in Edenbrough the Presbyterian Ministers are not so much frequented as the Regular Clergy Whatever Friends the Presbyterians there had a Year or Two agoe they arethis day diminished by a Third the People have enough of their Cant and are weary of their Sermons 2. Those Reformed Churches that are not governed by Bishops earnestly desire them To this purpose the Scottish Forbs in his Irenicum Printed A. D. 1629 p. 202 hath these Words Such was the condition of Protestants in many Foreign Parts that being forced by utmost necessity they allowed Presbyters to ordain they heartily wish'd that they might be ordained by Bishops but when they could not obtain that of the Bishops without wicked conditions c. nor could the prohibition of Popish Bishops hinder their Ordination from being valid since in those Countries the Presbyters and Pastors had the chief power over the Christian i. e. Reformed Churches This they did not out of any contempt of the antient Canons but out of absolute necessity as appears from the Apology of the Protestants for the Consession at Ausburg Art 14. We have often testified that we earnestly desire to retain the ancient Ecclesiastical Politie and degrees in the Church but the Bishops i. e. Popish compel our Priests to renounce their Doctrine c. Wherefore in some Places this Politie is destroyed which we heartity desired to keep this we declare before God and the World that it should not be imputed to us that we have no Bishops When at the Synod of Dort an English Bishop had set forth the usefulness of being governed by Bishops for repressing Heresy and Schism c. the President of the Synod made answer Nos non samus adeo felices i. e. We are not so happy Peter Moulin in his Preface to his Fathers Answer to Perron tells us that the want of Bishops in the French Church was the necessity of their condition that they desire the same Government we have in England if they might be so happy When they moved Cardinal Richlieu to allow them Bishops he flatly denied it them They could never get of the Civil Power a toleration of Bishops their Politick Statesmen would never give way to it nothing hath been more eagerly opposed by the Pope and his Creatures than that the Protestants should have Bishops The Apology for Protestants written by a French Divine p. 60. This may suffice to satisfy the Scruples of those that take offence at Episcopal Government we have cleared the Point of Episcopacy p. 62. The Ordination of Priests ought to be without all dispute the Bishops work p. 63. The Superiority of Bishops to Pastors has continued from the very time of the Apostles or their Disciples as is already made appear And therefore in England the Papists have always laboured the Destruction of our Bishops as zealously and heartily as the Presbyterians themselves That virulent Papist Sanders in his Book de Schism Angl. p. 167 confesseth that nothing would more gratify the Church of Rome than the pulling down of Bishops Deans and Prebendaries in England And Parsons in his Book of the Reformation of England see Moral Pract. of the Jes p. 313 proposeth this as the necessary Method to bring England to the Romish Religion And Cardinal Barbarini was so sensible of this that he said he could be contented that there were none of their Priests in England so there were no Bishops Dr. Stillingfleet Pref. to the Unreason of Separation p. 9. The Papists returned their Thanks to the Rump Parliament for having delivered them from the Tyranny of the Bishops Christian Moderator p. 32. And that the Papists had a chief Hand in pulling down our Bishops in England is confessed by Albius in his Exegesis p. 145. If Papists may not be believed in this matter I hope Mr. Baxter may and he declares in his Grotian Religion p. 95. That the Papists had a Hand in casting out our Bishops I shall end this undoubted Truth with the words of Two Eminent Persons of the Church of England Sir Henry Yelverton in his Preface p. 9. It 's now sufficiently known what wonder the casting out of Bishops was to the Reformed Churches abroad and what publick Triumph to the Roman Conclave Bishop Sanderson in his first Preface to his Sermons It 's well known what rejoycing the Vote against Bishops brought to the Romish Party how in Rome itself they sang their Io Paeans upon the Tidings of it and said Triumphantly now is the day ours now is the fatal blow given to the Protestant Religion in England Upon which account we have great reason to believe that the Romanists have used their utmost endeavours to hinder the Reformed of France from having Bishops as they heartily desired 3. Let us see what opinion the Eminent Divines of the Foreign Reformed Churches have of our English Bishops 1st Calvin in his Book de neces ref If they will give us such an Hierarchy in which the Bishops do not refuse to be subject to Christ have him for their only head i. e. in opposition to the Pope and be united to the truth of the Gospel then if there be any that do not reverence such Bishops and submit to them I confess there is no Anathema which they do not deserve and in his Epistle to the Duke of Somerset c. he commends our English Bishops as such 2d Bucer de Regno Christi We see by the perpetual Observation of the Church from the Apostles time that it pleased the Holy Ghost to have one Person set over the Presbyters to have the care of the Church and govern it and therefore he is called a Bishop And again in his Works p. 565. These Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons have ever been in the Church by the appointment of the Holy Ghost And again in resp protest apud Goldast Tom. 2. which Bucer was the Author of How much mischief the Reformed Churches have suffered for want of Bishops no one can easily find Words to express Forbs p. 132. 3d. Beza in Ep. p. 18. Speaking of Bishops Priests and Deacons adds the Holy Ghost appointed those Orders Contra Sarav ad 518. Art 3. If England continue to keep her Bishops and Arch-Bishops let her enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I wish they may always have And again If there be any that reject all sort of Episcopacy God forbid that any but Mad Men should joyn with them 4th Spanheim in Epist ad dub Evang. Vol. 3. At Geneva they have a great esteem for the English Bishops and daily pray for their Prosperity 5th Le Moyne from Leyden published by Dr. Stillingfleet p. 405. As for the