their Church is not concerned that they should understand it But St. Paul was as we read 1 Cor. xiv 14. If I pray saith he in an Unknown tongue my Spirit prays but my Understanding is unfruitful But I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Understanding also Again verse 16. How shall he that stands in the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he Understands not what thou sayest Again verse 9. In the Church I had rather speak five words with my Understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an Unknown tongue These are plain Texts of Scripture which the Roman Church evidently transgressing does wisely no doubt to keep the Scriptures from the Reading or Understanding of her people For otherwise it could be no great comfort to them to find how directly she goes against as well the Precepts as the Practice of the Apostles I shave shewn that she doth it not only in One or a few Instances But in Many and those of the greatest note In all the Notes that the Apostles have given us of a true Christian Church Having given this account of her that calls her self the Catholic Church Having shewn how far she is removed from this Church in my Text I shall not pass any judgment upon her as she peremptorily doth upon others damning all that are not of her Communion Better leave that to God and they will find so at the last day Only being as she is I think we have all reason to beware of her to thank God that we are at this distance from her to bless her for her curses that have caused that distance to Pray for her and her Children that they may be purged from their Errors And till then to Watch and Pray for our selves and to put it at least in our Private Litany it shall alway be in mine from Popery good Lord deliver us Let us next consider our own Church and when I say our own I know you all understand me that I speak of the Church of England in the first place and proportionably of all other Reformed Churches And this I say If any Church which holds the same Doctrine which retains the same Government which partakes the same Sacraments and the same Worship of God as they did in the Apostles times be a true Apostolical Church We are bound to bless God who hath placed us where we are who hath made us Members of such a Church which hath all those Characters so entire and so visible in it First for Doctrine we profess to believe the Holy Scriptures which I have shewn have been antiently thought to contain the whole Doctrine of the Apostles We acknowledg for Canonical Scriptures neither less nor more than all those Books whose Authority is undoubted in the Church We profess the same Faith and no more than all Christians have professed in all Ages namely that which is briefly comprized in the Apostles Creed explained in the Creeds called the Nicen and that of Athanasius and proved in every Article or Point by the Holy Scriptures taken in that sense which is both most evident in the words and which hath been approved by the consent of the Universal Church Secondly for the Government of our Church as to the Constitution of it it is according to the Scripture rules and Primitive patterns And for the Exercise of it It goes as far as the looseness of the Age will bear If this hath weakened the Discipline of our Church we know the same looseness hath the same effect elsewhere even in those Churches of the Roman Communion And it had no less in the Church of Corinth in the Apostles times For the persons that are emploied in the Ministery They are such as are lawfully called to it they are Consecrated and Ordained for that purpose and that according to the Scripture and Canons of the Universal Church They are such as wholly attend on this very thing in the Apostles words And for our Church of England I may add without prejudice to any other we can derive the Succession of our Bishops from the Apostles as high as most Churches can even of them in the Roman Communion Thirdly for our Sacraments we use the same and no other than those which Christ expresly left to his Church I mean which he both Instituted and Commanded us to use Which can be said of no other than only Baptism and the Lords Supper Lastly For our Public Worship we have cause to bless God that has given us such a Liturgy in which according to all the measures we have of the Apostles we can see nothing but what as to the Substance is Theirs And our most malicious Enemies can tell us of no other ill they see in it but only this that the Words of it are Ours The Ministration of this Worship and of these Sacraments is in a Language understood by all those that are concerned in them They can all say Amen to their Prayers It is performed with such Rites as are not against the word of God but are agreeable to it being only for order and decency And we use them not as necessary in themselves but in obedience to the Authority which every Church hath over its own Members We do according to Saint Cyprians rule condemn or judg no other Church We separate from none any otherwise than by purging our selves from those things which we believe to be Corruptions and Errors to which end several of those Articles were framed to be subscribed by our own Clergy without imposing them on any other In all these respects our Church holds a Communion or hath done nothing to break it with any other National Church no not with those of the Roman Communion and is not only what they deny a true Member but what they are not a Sound member of that one Holy Catholic Church which was from the beginning and which will be to the end of the world The last thing is having proved we have a true Church to persuade you First to continue in it stedfastly And Secondly in the Belief and Practice of those things by which it appears to be a true Church And Lastly to profit by them and so to adorn our Holy Religion with a Holy and good Conversation First to persuade you to continue stedfastly in this Church it is enough if you are convinced that you cannot mend your selves by any Change Who would not desire to continue where he is well Who would not stick to that which is the best he can chuse Who would needlesly run the danger of any loss Especially of losing himself which is the greatest loss that is possible and yet That we have reason to expect from the just indignation of God if we shall reject the great
Apostles unless it had been also delivered in writing and unless those writings had been brought down to our Hands And blessed be God! there was such a Delivery in the Books of the New Testament In which Books the Apostles bearing witness as they do to the Scriptures of the Old Testament that they were Written by Divine Inspiration and that they are able to make us wise to Salvation through Faith in Iesus Christ and delivering the Faith in Iesus Christ as they do in their own writings to the end that all men may believe on him to Eternal life Therefore in these Books of the Old and New Testament together we have a Standard of the Apostles Doctrine and we have not the like for any other than what is written in these Books Here is all that we can surely call the Doctrine of the Apostles unless we know more than the Fathers of the Primitive Church They through whose hands this Doctrine must pass before it could come into ours knew nothing but what they had in the Scriptures This was constantly their Standard and Rule of all things in the words of St. Chrysostom Who says again All things that are necessary are plain and manifest in the Scriptures So St. Austin says All things that belong to Faith or Life are to be found in plain places of Scripture St. Basil saith Believe those things that are written inquire not into things that are not written St. Ierom Non credimus quia non legimus we believe no more than we â—ead In like manner say many other of the Fathers And though they did sometimes quote the Apostles Traditions for Ritual things yet in matters of Faith if they prove any thing from Tradition it is either the Written Tradition of Scripture of if Unwritten 't is no other than the Creed as it were easie to shew in many Instances And withal they believed there was nothing in the Creed but what they could prove from the Scriptures and they did prove it from the Scriptures upon occasion in every Particular So that in their Judgment it is not only a sufficient but the only Measure of the Doctrin of the Apostles And by this we may judg as to matter of Doctrin who are and who are not Members of the Apostolical Church The next Character is this that they continued in the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fellowship a word that has diverse senses in Scripture In this place it seems to be the same as Society They were in the Apostles Society or Communion Now to continue in their Society considering what they were men deputed by Christ for the Government of his Church it could be no other than to continue as Members of that Body which Christ put under their Government But how can any be so now they being dead so many Ages since and their Government so long since expired with them No their Government is not expired though they are For it was to continue till the end of the World So that according to the common saying among the Jews Whosoever one sends being as himself So our Saviour having sent the Apostles saith Whosoever receives you receives me In like manner whosoever were sent by the Apostles were as themselves And whosoever continued in their Fellowship were in the Fellowship of the Apostles Now their Government is declared to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Bishopric And in this Office they were equal among themselves as our Saviour describes them sitting on twelve Thrones and judging the twelve Tribes of Israel It is observable that this was after his Promise to St. Peter Mat. xvi 16 c. Which Promise I consider by the way because 't is so much pressed by the Romanists to prove a Power which Christ had given St. Peter over the rest of the Apostles If Christ had truly given it we must then have considered whether St. Peter left any Successors in that Power And if so why not St. Iohn the Apostle by Survivance why not the Bishop of the undoubted Mother-Church at Ierusalem Why not the Bishop of some other City where the Scripture has assured us that St. Peter Preacht rather than of Rome where if he did preach we have not a word of it in Scripture These and sundry more such Questions would have risen upon that Hypothesis of such a Power given to S. Peter But it is out of Question that the Apostles never so understood those words of Christ. They knew of no Power that was promised to St. Peter more than to themselves in that Text. For after this they were at strife among themselves who should be chief After this they disputed it again and again and Christ chid them every time but never told them I have promised it to Peter Nay it appears that Christ did not intend it by his open Declarations to the contrary That it should not be among them as in Secular Kingdoms and Monarchies It appears more plainly in the fulfilling of his Promise For he both ordained the rest with S. Peter without any Difference And when they all together had received the Holy Ghost in this Chapter St. Peter stood up with the eleven ver 14. And upon him and them Christ built his Church even all these who continued not only in his but in the Fellowship of all the Apostles Now if all the Apostles were equal in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Government then it is certain that their Successors must be so in like manner Though one must have Precedence before other for Order's sake as St. Peter had usually among the Apostles when they were together And though one may be above others in the same National Church as all Primats are by Human Laws Yet none by the Law of God hath Authority over others I say none among their Successors any more than among the Apostles themselves So St. Cyprian declares oftentimes in his Writings Not to mention the like as I might from many other of the Fathers Now the Bishops in after times in their several Churches were undoubtedly held to be the Successors of the Apostles We have as great a consent among the Antients for this as we have for the Observation of the Lord's Day And it is evident from the Primitive Writers that they lookt upon Communion with their Bishops as Communion with the very Apostles They held it the Duty of every Christian to obey them in Spiritual things They held it the Duty of every Bishop to govern and feed his own Flock To attend to that only and not to usurp upon his Brethren But all as occasion served to do all good Offices one for another and to join their endeavours for the common Concernments of the Church And for them so to govern the Church and for the People to live under their Government in Spiritual things This was to
for that Prayer above-mentioned in Canon Missae Commem pro defunctis they first left out those words All thy Servants and All thy Hand-maids and Prayed thus Lord remember Them who have gone before us as it standeth in Ed. Pamelii p. 182. But the word Them extending to Saints as well as others they altered it again Remember Lord thy Servants and Hand-maids N. and N. who are gone before us But still the end of that Prayer remains as it was Grant All that rest in Christ a place of refreshing and of light and peace we humbly beseech thee They that Made this Prayer did not believe that the Saints were already in Heaven and therefore they knew not the Foundation of these Prayers to Saints that are now used in the Roman Church a p. 24 29 30. b 2 Tim. i. 18. St. Paul prays for Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that Day that is at the day of Judgment He might well be living when St. Paul made that Prayer c Conc. Trent Sess. 25. That the Souls which are kept there in Purgatory are profited by the Prayers of the Faithful Bellarm. de Purg. lib. 2. c. 38. It is certain that the Prayers of the Church do not profit the Blessed nor the Damned but only them that live in Purgatory Azor. Instit. Moral Tom. I. lib. 8. c. 20. Neque vero saith the Greeks pray for the dead but Certainly neither for the Blessed nor for the Damned which were plainly Absurd and Impious The truth is the Greeks prayed for the Blessed even for the Virgin Mary and the Apostles And so did the Antient Roman Church in those Offices which the present Roman Church hath both corrupted and misapplyed d In the Mass for the dead there is not the name of Purgatory nor it doth not appear that the Church thought of any such thing The Hymn is wholely of the day of Judgment The Prayers are for deliverance at that Day and if they are for any thing else it is nothing but what is asked for All the Faithful as much as for any person The Lessons and Sequences are all concerning the Resurrection There is not among them One Text of those Many that are brought for the proof of Purgatory except only 2. Mac. xii 43. Which according to the Roman Doctrine should be rather for 〈◊〉 than for Purgatory But indeed it relates to neither but as the Office intends it to the Resurrection a They are agreeable enough to several of those opinions concerning the state of Souls which are mentioned before p. 29. Note a. b See p. 55 56. c Miss pro defunct Oâ—â—ertorium Lord Iesus deliver the souls of All Faithful 〈◊〉 from the Pains of Hell that they may not fall into darkness But that the standard-bearer St. Michael may carry them into eternal light Ibid. The Prayer in the Obits We pray thee for the soul of thy Servant N. that thou wouldest not deliver it into the hands â—f the Enemy noâ— fâ—rget it for ever but command it to be received by thy Holy Angels and be led to the land of the Living That he may come to rejoyce in the Society of thy Saints So Miss Sarum That he may not suffer Eternal pains but pâ—ssess Eternal joys So the Old Roman But the New has changed Eternal into Infernal as being more for the sense of the present Church d Ib. Tractus Absolve O Lord the Souls of all the Faithful deceaâ—t from every bâ—nd of their sins and by the 〈◊〉 if thy Grace let them obtain to escape the Iudgment of Vengeance and to enjoy the blessedness of Eternal Light Ib. Post-communion among the diverse Prayers O Lord the soul of this thy servant from every bond of his sins that in the glory of the Resurrection he being Raised again may have refreshment among thy Saints and 〈◊〉 ones a Câ—â—nc Trâ—nt Sess. 25. dâ—cr Of Purgatâ—ry Let the Bishops take care that the suffrages of the living Faithful vâ—â— the Sacrifices of Misses and Prayers c. which have been usually made for the Faithful deceased be made according to the Ordinance of the Church a See p. 20. Note d. b For their Saints whom they make sharers with Christ in their Prayers and pray to God to be heard for their Merits and Intercession not a few of the Persons themselves are meer Fictions as St. Christopher St. Parnel St. Catherine St. Winâ—frid St. Vrsula and her eleven thousand companions Most of the others are of doubtful Authority and Some for ought they can know and as they have reason to fear are Damned Souls as Pope Steven Pope Marcelâ—â—nus Pope Felix II St. Thomas Becket St. Deminie But of the true Saints not a few of their stories are Fables as those of the Immuculate Conception Presentation and Assumption of the Virgin Mary of the Apparition of St. Michael May S. Of the Martyrdoms of some Apostles Of almost all the Antient Popes Of St. Denis and his fellows c. Add the Tales of St. Peters chains August 1. Of the Dedication of the Laterâ—n and the Vatican Churches Novemb. 9. and 18. c Conc. Trent Sess. 22. cap. 8. It hath seemed to the Fathers not to be expedient that every where Mass should be said in the Vulgar Tongue There is an Order indeed that oftentimes between the Masses some body should expound Somthing to the people of what is read to them in the Mass. Suppose some part of the Gospel or the like But that will not make them able to join with him that reads it And Bellarmin saith in those Mysteries there are Many things which Ought to be secret meaning I suppose that the People Ought not to understand them Bellar. de Verbo Dei I. II. c. 15. Septimâ— a Gun-powder Treason Edit 1679. p. 1â—9 Fâ—r from the year Eliz. 1. unto 11. all Papists came to our Church and Service without Scruple But when 〈◊〉 the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus was come and published wherein the Queen was accursed and deposed and her Subjects discharged of their Obedience and Oath yea Cursed if they did obey her Then did they all fâ—râ—â—with refrain the Church then would they have no more society with us in Prayer a 3â— Art Art 6. b See p. 10. Note â— c. c lb. Art 6. And this is proved in Bishop Cousins Book of the Canon of the Scripture d Art 8. e Office of Baptism Wilt thou be Baptized in this Faith I will f This alone was enough to make one a Catholic in the times of the Christian Emperors Cod. Theodos. lib. XVI Edicta de Fide Catholicà a Canon Anno 1571. of Preâ—â—â—ers We are obliged under pain of Excommunication to teach nothing but what is agreeable to the Old and New Testament and what the Catholic Fathers and Antient Bishâ—ps have gathered out of that very Doctrin Statut. 1. Eliz. 1. We judg all those things to be Heresie which were declared so by the four General Councils therein following the Judgment of the Antient Church See Aelfrics Saxon Canon 33. There were four Councils for defence of the Faith against Haereties There were many 〈◊〉 since that time but these four were the most firm b Art S. c See the Commination d 1 Cor. i. 11 12. and v. 2 c. and see Clemens Epistle to the Corinthians e Art 23. and Offices of Ordination a Proved by Mason in his Book de Minist Angl. b Rom. xiii 6. c Mason Ibid. and Bramhal of Succession d Art 25. e Art 24. f 1 Cor. xiv 16. a Art 20. b 1 Cor. xiv 40. c Art 34. and Preâ—aâ—es before the Liturgy d Cypâ—â—â— Epist. â—2 p. 151. 〈…〉 Carthag de 〈◊〉 Bapt. P. 353. e Anno 1603. Can. 3â— the Church of England declares that she was so far from being willing to depart from the Churches of Italy France Spain Germany c. in all things that she knew they held and Observed that she disserted from those Churches in thâ—se Articles Only in which they first fell away â—â—th from their own former Integrity and also from the Apostolical Churches from which they had their Original a Matth. xxiv 23. Mar. xiii 21. b John vi 68. c 2 Tim. i. 13. d Jude verse 3. a 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. b Verse 15. c Heb. xiii 17. d Heb. x. 25. e Rom. vi 5. a 1 Cor. xi 26. b 2 Pet. iii. 18. a Heb. xii 14. a Heb. vi 9.