renounce all doctrines and practices of Rebellion sedition or Schism I believe not that subjects may take up Arms or use any force or conspiracy to violate the Rights Authority or Persons of those in supreme Power over them I believe not that by any Laws of God or Man the Bishop of Rome hath the right of Governing all the world or all Christian Kings and Kingdomes nor the King or Kingdome of England in particular in matters secular or religious Nor that it is the duty of this Kingdome or the King to subject themselves unto him and obey him Nor that the said Bishop of Rome hath any true authority or right to impose oaths on Kings or other temporal Lords or otherwise oblige them to judge their subjects to be Hereticks who deny the Popes universal Supremacy over all the Churches on earth or who deny that the universal Church hath any Visible Head but Christ or who believe that the truly consecrated Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper remain true Bread and Wine after the Consecration or that believe they are not to be adored as their God nor the Wine to be denyed to the Laity communicating Nor may the Pope oblige Kings or any others to exterminate burn or kill or punish any such as hereticks nor excommunicate Kings or temporal Lords for not doing it nor depose them being excommunicated nor give their Kingdomes or Dominions to others nor authorize any to kill them or to raise arms against them and to invade their Countreys by hostility Nor hath he right or authority to forbid Kingdomes or Countreys the publick celebration of Gods worship or holy Christian Communion Nor to oblige any Rulers or others to destroy any as Hereticks or judge them such because they are so judged by the Pope or Councils And I believe not that the Clergy are exempted from obedience to the Secular Powers or from being judged and punished by them by any Laws of God or any valid Laws of man not made or consented to by the said Powers And I unfeignedly believe that if any Pope or Council how great soever do decree or assert any of these things which I have hereby renounced and disclaimed or shall hereafter decree or assert any of them they err and sin against God in so doing and are not to be believed therein nor do oblige any thereby to obey them And all this I profess as in the sight of God my Judge without fraud or dissimulation in the sincerity of my heart THe errours which men should be restrained from preaching or propagating are innumerable and not necessary to be all put into a subscribed or professed renunication so they be actually forborn I will recite part of a Catalogue of false and doubtful dangerous points not fit to be published by preachers I. Of the nature and acts of God 1. The God is corporeal or material 2. That God is essentially only in Heaven or in some finite space 3. That God hath parts and is divisible 4. That God hath the parts or shape of humane bodies head face eyes hands feet c. properly so called 5. That God is the Universe or whole world or that he is meerly or properly the soul of the world as his body and so but a part of the world 6. That God or any essential of God is really new changeable or finite 7. The God can suffer hurt or hath proper real grief and passion 8. That God knoweth not all that hath been is or will be and all that is intelligible 9. That Gods own essential perfection goodness and love is not the ultimate and chief object of mans love to be loved chiefly for himself as most amiable and above our selves and all things created but that he is only or chiefly to be loved as our Benefactor or as good to the creature And so that man is Gods end and his own chief and ultimate end and not God mans chief and ultimate end 10. That God is the first and chief or any proper cause of sin or that God doth by efficient premotion as the first cause predetermine every mans mind will tongue and members to every forbidden act that is done as it is determined to and specifyed by the object with all its forbidden circumstances and modes and so to every lie perjury hatred of God and goodness murder c. that is committed 11. That God ruleth the world only as an engine by physical motion and doth not rule any free agents by moral means as precepts prohibitions promises c. in any acts saving as these are parts of his physically necessitating motion 12. That God may or ever doth lie or by his inspiration or his works of nature or providence necessitate innocent persons de facto or oblige any as a duty to believe that which is false 13. That God hath so committed the affairs of this world to Angels or any creatures or natural means as not to mind them or particularly govern and dispose of them himself 14. That God is essentially or virtually absent from the effects which he causeth 15. That God hath not power to do any more or otherwise than he doth though he would 16. That Gods will is not the fountain and the measure of all created good or that things are not good because they are willed by God 17. That Gods proper and absolute will desire and decree may be disappointed and not come to pass 18. That somewhat of or in the creature may be a true or proper cause of somewhat not only relative but real in God or make a real change on God 19. That God hath no vindictive or punishing and no rewarding justice 20. That God may be formally conceived of and comprehended by man and not only known analogically and as in a glass II. Of the Blessed Divine Trinity 1. That there are three Gods or three divine essences or substances 2. That the Trinity are but Three Names of God or three relations of him to the creature 3. That they are Three parts of God 4. That the three Persons are one God only in specie as Abraham Isaac and Jacob are One man because they have but one humane sort of nature 5. That one person in the Trinity is in time or dignity before or after other or greater or less than other 6. That in the Trinity there are three Fathers three Sons or three Holy Ghosts 7. That the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory or impossible to be true 8. That it is unnecessary to be believed or preached 9. That there are no Impressions or notes of the Trinity on the soul of man or any other known works of God 10. That the works of Creation Redemption or Sanctification are no more eminently or otherwise ascribed in Scripture to any one Person in the Trinity than to the other That Creation is no otherwise ascribed to the Father than to the Son and Holy Ghost nor Redemption to the Son than to
Spirit and sufficient Rule 23. That men must believe the Scripture without reason for their believing it or must believe it to be Gods word without seeking any proof that it is his word 24. That it is meritorious to believe the Scripture to be Gods word without knowing any proof or reason of it this being an infused faith and proof making it but acquired 25. That we must believe Gods word no further than we have evidence of truth from the nature of the matter revealed 26. That Mahomet is the Paraclet promised by Christ V. Of the Creation 1. That this world was from eternity and not made in time 2. That an evil God made this earth or a middle God between the perfect God and the evil one As old Hereticks variously spake 3. Or that such an evil or middle God made the body of man 4. Or that such an evil or middle agent made the woman 5. That God made sin and death and disorder before sin deserved them 6. That when God had made this world he left it to the Government of certain Angels who fell and necessitated man to fall 7. That the World is Gods body and he the Soul of it and no more 8. That the world came by chance or by a fortuitous conflux of atomes and was not made by Gods wise and powerful word or action 9. That there is nothing in the world but matter and motion and the various shapes of matter caused by motion or at least nothing but God and matter and motion and its modal effects 10. That the world is Infinite as being made by that infinite God who made it as great and good as he was able and therefore infinite in his own similitude VI. Of Angels and Spirits and Heaven 1. That men can certainly tell the space number and order of all the celestial regions orbs or spaces and the number of Angels or when the first were made 2. That this world or earth was made by Angels only 3. That the fallen Angels were necessitated by God to sin and to tempt man 4. That God hath so left to Angels the Government of this world as not to govern it himself save by such leaving all to their free contingent action 5. That all that which scripture ascribeth to the Holy Ghost is done only by Angels 6. That we may know which are our Guardian Angels 7. That men may choose their own guardian Angels or spirits 8. That we must pray to Angels though we see them not or have no special notice when they hear us 9. That Angels lusted after women and begat Giants of them before the deluge 10. That they fight with each other for the government of the Kingdoms of this world even the good Angels among themselves VII Of Man as man in his nature and first state 1. That mans soul is God or part of God 2. Or is only a part or act of an universal soul of the world and is no singular or individual substance in each one 3. That the soul is but a quality motion or action of a higher agent 4. That the soul is mortal and dieth with the body being either annihilated or asleep or sunk into a meer potentia or hath no knowledge will sense or action or is swallowed up in the universal soul so as to lose its proper or numerical existence 5. That mans soul is of the same species as the bruits 6. That mans spirit only is immortal and continueth after death but not his soul 7. That mans soul or spirit was from eternity 8. That it was made before this earth and sinned in a former body and was thrust for punishment into this body and world 9. That the souls departed of men are sent back into beasts or at least into other men and so are oft born 10. That mens souls are fallen Angels 11. That Adams soul was made first male and female before it was incorporate 12. That Adams body was the cloathing that God made him after he sinned having no body before 13. That neither soul nor body was made after Gods image as Epiphanius ill affirmeth 14. That mans Vital faculty Intellect and Will are but accidents of his soul 15. That the soul is moved but as an engine by an extrinsick cause and hath not any Essential self-moving form or power 16. That no man can do more or less or otherwise than he doth because God as the first mover necessitateth all his actions 17. That the will hath no habits but a meer power and liberty 18. That Adam and Eve had no holiness or holy inclination to love God as God and to obey him but a meer neutral possibility 19. That Adam had not help or strength sufcient or necessary power to have forborn his first sin 20. That man was made only to be an inhabitant of earth as Angels are of heaven and is not capable of an higher habitation VIII Of sin Original and subsequent 1. That God is as much the Cause of all sin as he is of darkness and such other privations and that he made Adam sin or that he irresistibly predetermineth every ones will to every forbidden act which it doth 2. That the Devil irresistibly necessitated Adam to sin and so some superior cause did the Devils 3. That sin is not only the occasion of much good but a proper cause and as such is decreed willed and caused by God 4. That God made a Covenant with Adam that if he sinned all that came of him should be reputed sinners farther than they were really seminally in him and by natural in-being and derivation were partakers of his guilt and corruptions and so that God made them sinners by his arbitrary imputation when naturally they were not so 5. That Original sin necessitateth every sin of omission or act which ever after followeth in the world 6. That sin being a meer privation all are by nature deprived of all moral good and so all are equally evil and as bad as those in hell notwithstanding any thing that the Redeemer hath done to prevent it 7. That infants have no Original sin no guilt of Adams sin and no sinful pravity of nature 8. That Infants have no participation of guilt of any nearer parents sin but Adams only and God doth not inflict any punishment on children for their fathers sin because of their derived guilt by nature 9. That therefore Infants have no need of a Saviour to suffer for their sin nor of a pardon 10. That Infants need not the Holy Ghost to sanctifie them by killing any sinful pravity or inclination in them 11. That sin was not the cause of death 12. That sin deserveth not hell or an everlasting punishment IX Of Redemption and the Covenant of grace made to Adam and Noah 1. That God made no promise Covenant or gift of grace to Adam after his fall 2. That God made the Covenant of grace only to Adam and the elect and not to all mankind in him
and in the Mâ—nâ—thelites Error and a great part for Image-worship and as now many Churches of the Protestants agree in Consubstantiation and Church-Images and many in rejecting Prelacy and many in asserting it but all agree not in any of these though the eldest sort of Episcopacy for ought appeareth almost all in many ages did acknowledge and agree in But yet that which never united the Universal Church but tended to discord will have everywhere usually no better a tendency § II. Yet I have before enumerated divers Particulars which are needful and useful to the Concord of a particular Church which are not so to the Universal As that all the Members have the same Numerical Pastors the same Translation of the Scriptures read to them the same Versions and Tunes of Psalms when they meet together the same place and day and hour of meeting Because these in the nature of the thing are necessary to Concord and avoid Discord and Confusion And if divers Churches associated or all in a Kingdom or divers Kingdoms can agree in the same convenient modes and circumstances as the same Translation of the Bible so far as they have one language the same day of Easter Anniversarily to Commemorate Christs Resurrection as they do weekly on the same first day and some such like it will be laudable so it be done by voluntary consent as a thing of convenience and not of necessity and without tyrannizing over one another or persecuting or despising those that differ or turn it into an Engine of Rents and Schism by making it necessary to their communion which is the unhappy end of most humane impositions of indifferent unnecessary things He that thinketh he hath hit on the fittest Ceremonies â—ites or Modes is seldom ever content with liberty to use them but he must force all others if he can to his way and take away the liberty of all that differ from him We see it by sad experience that men think their Forms and Ceremonies cast out if all may not be compelled to use them though many think them sinful and they had rather have none of them than have them upon terms of meer liberty lest they be disgraced by the disuse or contradiction of those that do forbear theâ— And such men are never content with Union and Concord in Gods own Institutions and in circumstances that are in genere necessary § III. But some men are stiff in the Schismatical Opinion that though Churches of many Kingdoms may charitably differ in Ceremonies and indifferent things yet none in the same Kingdoms should be suffered so to differ of which I spake before But 1. Christ hath given us no such different measures of our Charity Forbearance or Communion 2. The old Churches were quite of another mind as Socrates and Sozomen shew in several instances And it is known that in the same Empire every Bishop had power to use his own Liturgy and other Modes as I instanced in the Canon that requireth every man to bring his Form first to the Synod to be tryed and in the contention between Basil and the Church of Neocesarea and the strife about Gregories and Ambrose's Liturgy and such like 3. It was the Pastors and People of the same Church of Rome that St. Paul giveth the Precepts of Forbearing and Receiving Dissenters in things indifferent to And still mark that he wrote not only to the Laity but to the Rulers as is evident and therefore forbiddeth them such narrowing impositions being himself also a chief Pastor an Apostle and so declareth his own judgment as one that would himself make no such uncharitable impositions § IV. We deny not but some Churches have a while continued in laudable Concord notwithstanding such ensnaring Impositions But 1. It hath been but for a time and this Worm hath fretted them and it hath ended in their great detriment at least 2. And it was not by these means but by better causes notwithstanding these diseases so that as we answer the Question Whether a Papist may be saved so do we answer the Question Whether such Churches may have prosperous Concord viz. 1. If the Essentials of Christianity in Papists and of Communion in such Churches be practically held so as to be more powerful than their Contraries 2. But not by their Contraries but by overcoming them one may be saved and the other have peace even as we answer the Question Whether a Man may live that taketh Poyson or hath the Leprosie 1. Not if it be prevalent according to its malignant nature 2. But yea if it be overcome by natural strength or medicine § V. Chillingworth our powerfullest Disputant against the Papists hath fully laid down the true Principles of Christian Concord and the Causes of Schism even the making more necessary to Salvation or Communion than is necessary indeed And the famous Hales though too bold and sometime going a step too far hath said more against these true Causes of Schism with great Truth and Reason than the Authors of it can well bear But wisdom is justified of all her children CHAP. XI The Severity and Force of Magistrates denying necessary Toleration and punishing the Refusers of unnecessary uncertain suspected things will never procure Church Vnity and Concord but in time increase Divisions § I. HAles of Schism speaking of having two Bishops in a Diocess saith pag. 223. Neither doth it any way savor of Vice or Misdemeanor instancing in Austin's doing it ignorantly their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily and wantonly go about to infringe it The most pious and wise Church Historians extoll the two peaceable Bishops of Constantinople that quietly bore the Novatian Bishops by them and geâ—tâ—y reduced Chrysostom's Followers the Joannites and dâ—spraise Nestorius and such other turbulent Prelates that persecuted them on pretence of zeal against Error and some of them proved more erroneous themselves § II. This crying out for the drawing of the Sword against those that differ in unnecessary things 〈◊〉 a great dishonour to the persons that tell men how conscious they are of their own insufficiency for their proper work and a reproach to the power of the Keys as if it signified nothing without the Sword And in all Ages Men of Ambition and Insufficienâ—â—y and Uncharitableness have been thus calling to the Magistrate to do all when yet in general claim they have set themselves far above him as being for the Soul when he is but for the Body § III. But Experience hath still confuted them and that which one Age or year thus built the next hath ordinarily pull'd down Not but that orthodox pious Princes are an unspeakable blessing to the Church and the want of such are ordinary causes of sin distraction and misery But such must know and do their proper work and not serve the pride and humor of ambitious ignorant Clergymen nor be their Lictors or Executioners nor lend them the Sword to execute their wills § IV. Constantine defended the
of the Countreys and the Judges of all Christians even in secular affairs And when one Sophronius or few others opened the case rightly to them they either understood it not or bawl'd it down and set up a cry Away with the Hereticks The Eutychians following Cyril spake uâ—ntly and said Christ had two natures before the union and but one after because united and union maketh one of two But it is apparent as Derodon hath proved that Cyril and so his ignorant followers did not think that Christs humane nature did exist before the union and so that ever they were divided but that in order of nature the existence is intelligible before the union and so that they were but one as being undivided not denying them to be still distinguishable and so to be what Nestorius and the Orthodox meant by two as being distinct but not divided § 25. And Derodon hath also proved that Cyril and so the Eutychians when they called them One did mean One person mistaking the sense of the word Nature and meaning by Nature the same that the Orthodox meant by Person And so the opening of two words would have ended all their Controversie and proved that they meant the same thing and knew it not that is 1. distinguishing between One undivided and One undistinguished 2. Opening what they meant by Nature and Person But alas this was no work for those famous General Councils but to cry out Anathema to Nestorius Anathema to Eutyches Anathema to Dioscorus Holy Leo Holy Cyril c. these were their arguments And Dioscorus as bad as his adversaries or worse excommunicated Leo the Bishop of Rome and went the Anathematizing way And so much of Religion was placed in cursing one another that there were scarce any Bisops in the world that were not cursed by one another § 26. VI. And the difference between the Greeks and Latines about the words hypostases Personae had almost come to the same extremity When Hierome himself that liked â—ot three hypostases was accused of heresie and was fain to fly to his baptismal Creed for refuge and to prove that he was a believer because he was baptized But one wiser than the rest had the unusual good success as to convince them that by the two words it was the same thing that they meant and did not know it § 27. VII The next calamitous Anathematizing fell out about the owning or disowning of the Council of Chalcedon because of the foresaid Nestorian and Eutychian quarrels And so doleful was the case that it became the test of the Orthodox in one Countrey to Curse or Anathematize that Council and in another to Curse all that did not receive it Especially when one Emperour was for one side and the next for another the Cursing varyed accordingly for the most part § 28. But that which added grievously to the Calamity was that the same Bishops that under one Emperour cursed the Council under the next cursed those that owned it not and thus most scandalously anathematized themselves even one party this year and another the next I say nothing but what Binius and Baronius and such others say § 29. VIII The next sad Anathematizing was about the Monothelites They that said that Christ had but One Will and One Operation were cursed as Monothelite hereticks and they that said He had two were cursed by the Monothelites And these were no narrow petty Sects but Emperours and great General Councils were for them Binius saith that the Council of Constantinople called Quin sextum that made the Trull Canons were Monothelites and yet that they were the same Bishops that had constituted the fifth Council so that those also were Monothelites And in the reign of Philippicus he saith a Council of the Monothelites was so great that there were besides the rest Innumerable Bishops out of the East And these and their adversaries kept on the cursing trade of Religion one side cursing under one Emperour and the contrary under the next § 30. And O doleful case even these also seem fully to me to contend about nothing but bare words and really agreed and did not know it partly following the stream for worldly interest and partly having not skill enough to explicate ambiguous words and state the Controversie Who knoweth not that ever read any Metaphysicks how many senses the word One or Vnity hath and how the same thing in several respects may be said to be One or Two And was this discussed in any of these Councils Which where and when 1. Two things may concur to one effect where say the subtilest Philosophers materially they are two causes but formally and properly but one All set together make but one cause being ejusdem generis and are but many parts of that one cause though many things And so some called Christs Wills One as being but One cause in these School-mens sense of the same effect For the Deity operateth only per essentiam and hath no effect in God himself 2. And as Voluntas and operatio signifie the Internal principle of the effect no one can doubt but Christ had two for the Divine essential Will and the humane faculty or Act were not the same principle or thing But Objectively they are One that is The Divine Nature or principle and the humane do will the same thing and contradict not one another 3. And the Controversie is the same as the former with the Eutychians Christ hath but One Will as opposite to Divisions One as not divided but Two as intellectually distinguishable Two as denominated à principiis from two natures one as 1. from One person and 2. as undivided and 3. as terminated on One object I doubt not but had this been thus opened to them all the sober men would have said we are all agreed in it And yet this wordy difference maketh the name of an Anathematized heresie to this day § 31. IX The next cursing difference arose about â— question whether Christs body on earth was corruptible or no O the unhappy spirit of self conceited anathematizing Prelates The affirmers were called corrupticolae and reproached as blasphemers of the Christ and the worshippers of that which was corruptible The denyers were called Phantasiasticks and made hereticks the affirmers getting the last prevailing vote And alas the Emperour Justinian out of his great zeal for the honour of Christ proved one of the hereticks and is so branded to this day yea and persecuted the corrupticolas as hereticks Where will hereticating cursing and persecuting stop or end And yet one word of just distinction had ended all this had it been duly used and received Christs Body was potentially and as to the natural quality of flesh lyable to or capable of corruption But not actually corrupted and not corruptible in respect to Gods decree that it should not actually corrupt And yet even holy Hilary Pictav held not only this errour but somewhat more His words are so bad
I am loth to cite them § 32. X. The next lamentable Schism and Cursing arose from the Decree of the Constantinopolitan Council de tribus capitulis The Cursing one another for owning or not owning the Council of Chalcedon still continuing and Learned Theodoret with Theodore of Mopsuest and Ibas having been formerly by Dioscorus Ephesine Council condemned and deposed as Nestorian hereticks and the Council of Chalcedon having restored them upon their just subscriptions a crafty Eutychian perswaded the Emperour that he might reconcile all the Eutychians to the Council of Chalcedon if he would but condemn some ill words in the writings of these three Bishops which the Emperour called a General Council together presently to do The one half the Bishops absent thought this was a condemning in part of the Chalcedon Council And Vigilius Bishop of Rome being then at Constantinople refused to subscribe and after excommunicated Menna the Patriarch The Emperour caused him to be dragg'd through the streets by a rope to reconcile him The flames of the Church were by this Council much increased and by condemning three dead mens writings the living were more engaged in a doleful war At last Pope Vigilius consented to the Council whereupon a great part even of the Western Churches and Italy separated from and renounced the Pope and chose them another Patriarch at Aquileia to be their chief Church-Ruler in his stead And this continued about an hundred years till Sergius reconciled them so far was the universal Church even then from taking the Pope or Church of Rome for the Head or any essential part of the Church-Universal And all this was about the Exposition of some doubtful words in three mens writings And can any sober man now think that the right or wrong Exposition of every mans or those three mens writings was a thing that salvation lyeth on or that these are the terms of Christianity and Church-membership § 33. It would be but matter of shame and sorrow to go on and add the later and more shameful instances of Anathematizing especially about Images several Emperours and Councils hereticating each other What an Engine the Pope and Prelates made Cursing men from Christ to get dominion over Emperours and Kings to subdue Kingdoms and to turn Love and peace into wrath and wars and bloodshed and pernicious divisions To recite their damning of Loyalty under the name of the Henrician heresie their damning all that about Transubstantiation renounced not the belief of all their senses and rational perception of sensate things and that renounced not also the belief of all the sound mens senses in the world and consequently the belief of God as he is the God of Nature making his revelation to our understandings by our senses making it necessary to salvation to take God for the deceiver of the senses or apprehensions by sensation of all the world How they have decreed the burning or exterminating of all others that do not thus believe Transubstantiation and deposing temporal Lords that will not exterminate them and absolving their Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance and giving their dominions to others Did I but recite to you how ridiculously they hereticated Gilbert Porretane and some other learned men and how such exposed the Councils of Bishops to scorn by detecting their ignorance by some questions which they could not answer should I tell you what work their long and numerous Schisms and two or three Popes at once made for the great Councils of Constance and Basil and also what work those Councils made themselves it might melt the heart of a lover of Christianity into grief and tears § 34. I conclude this that the hereticating and Cursing men for doubtful words or want of skill in aptness of expressions yea or for errours which consist with saving faith in Christ is so far from being a means of the Churches good that it hath been the grand engine of Satan to exercise Tyranny excite hatred and Schism and Rebellions and do most lamentable mischiefs in the world and therefore carefully to be avoided § 35. II. And what I have said of words I may partly say of actions Anathematizing men for doubtful actions or for such faults as consist with true Christianity and continued subjection to Jesus Christ is a sinful Church-dividing means § 36. More particularly I shall shew after in the third part of this book that it is not all the same things that make a man uncapable of present Communion in this or that single or particular Church or in a compound Church Diocesane Metropolitane Provincial or National or Imperial which make him uncapable of continuing in the Universal Church Much less doth every continued disobedience to a Bishops or Councils Canons or Commands make him Excommunicable from the Church Universal § 37. But most abominable was it in the Roman Popes and Prelates to shut up all Churches interdict whole Kingdoms and excommunicate the innocent people because a King displeased them or denyed them subjection or obedience And as old Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln in his Epistle to Pope Innocent IV. recorded by Matth. Paris truly tells them It is the work of Satan and next Antichristianity one of the greatest sins in all the world thus to silence Christs Ministers and hinder the preaching of the Word of God and the exercise of his publick Worship Which it concerneth all unjust Silencers to consider § 38. But yet somewhat more tyrannical and abominable is it for one man the Bishop of Rome to damn all the Church of Christ on earth that will not be his Subjects as the Vicar-General of Christ and own his Usurpation and so to cut off and damn the far greatest part of the Christian world But the best is procul à Jove procul à fulmine the remote Churches feel it not and do but deride it and to the nearer parts his thunderbolt doth not kill all so many nor kindle so many fagots as once it did nor is any one ever the more condemned by God for such Papal condemnations § 39. But when I speak of particular Church-Communion I shall shew that there is some lawful suspension called by some the Minor excommunication which cuts not a man off from Communion with any Church much less from the universal or from Christ § 40. Not approving of or practising a doubtful or indifferent humane form of Liturgy or ceremony or circumstance or mode is no just cause of cutting off a man from the Universal Church Because notwithstanding that he may be a true Christian and a member of Christ and his Church and therefore must not falsly be declared to be none § 41. Not taking this or that man to be ones Bishop or Pastor who is obtruded yea or justly set over that Church nor yet particular acts of disobedience to him meerly as such are no good proofs that a man is no true Christian or member of Christ and his Church and therefore are no just cause
lay more stress or an outward act of man and point of order than he doth § 26. 3. And as to the Nature and Use of the thing Order is for the sake of the thing ordered and the persons for whose good it is And therefore not to be set against them § 27. 4. And Christ himself hath oft taught us this way of judging When he bids us Go learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And when he oft reproveth Jews and Samaritans for striving about circumstances setting them against spiritual worshipping of God And when he saith The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath And Paul when he saith All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos and Let all be done to Edification All which tell us that the End is a certain Canon to the means and to be preferred and that Morals must be preferred before Rituals and Rituals never set against them And methinks they should be of this mind that deny the Scripture to have unchangeably fixed all Rituals and yet confess that Morals are fixedly determined § 28. 5. And even Popes have been taken for Popes upon Election before Consecration And Arch-bishops with us have no superiours to Consecrate them but such Inferiours as promise them obedience at their own Consecration § 29. X. To the tenth question There be some called Erastians who hold the King to be so mixta persona like Melchizedeck as that he is also the chief Priest and hath the chief power of Ordination and that he might administer the Sacraments if he would and that his Appointment is an Ordination which the people are bound by reception of the person to consent to There are others that think that though the investing act must be performed by a Bishop yet he is bound by the Kings choice and command to do it as a Minister of God and the King But as I never saw either of these well proved so very few comparatively receive them and therefore they will never unite the Churches And Christs giving the power of the Keys himself to the Apostles and their Successours in the Ministry seemeth to me to contradict them Sure I am that Christs Church hath not thus been founded or edified And yet Magistrates have a great and honourable part even in the Government of the Church I speak not for all those Popish Councils and Canons which nullifie all Ordinations of Bishops either chosen or presented by Civil Rulers or Great men that are Secular nor of those that pronounce even a Pope an Usurper that is so introduced But of the Councils and practice of the sounder ages that were still against this 2. However if Clergy and people were proved to be bound to Consent to whomsoever the Prince shall choose yet till they do consent he is no Bishop to them You may could that be proved prove them culpable for not consenting but not prove him their Bishop as the Scripture and all Church custome and Canons and Reason shew § 30. XI To the eleventh case I answer That the Priests or people sin who disobey a lawful command of the King and not otherwise But sin or not sin it nullifieth not the Ordination or Priesthood meerly that it is against the will of the Prince All the Bishops and Priests in the world or most were made against the will of Princes for three hundred years And Christ gave the Keyes to other hands § 31. XII and XIII To the twelfth and thirteenth cases I answer together If a heretick whose denyal of an essential of Christianity is notorious and maketh him equal to an Apostate ordain his Act is null as without all authority And the mans Priesthood or Episcopacy is null if he have not a sufficient cause and proof of it besides or without this The same I say of one excommunicate for such a cause But if the Heresie be only a schism or some lower errour consistent with Christianity and Priesthood or the excommunication only on such a cause then the ordination in sensu passivo is not null meerly on that account that it was done by such a heretick or excommunicate man As is commonly agreed on But yet if this Bishop or Presbyter be ordained by a heretick or excommunicate man of a lower order to this or that particular Church caeteris paribus the people may see reason to refuse him and consent to another that hath a better ordination unless in a Church so corrupted that the Ordainers and Excommunicators authority is not to be regarded and help up which hath too oft faln out But regularly none ought to ordain a man to any Church before the election or consent of the flock though it may serve ad esse officii if the consent come after But if three Bishops ordain one man to be Bishop of such a Church and three others ordain another to the same that is the true Bishop quoad esse which the Church to which he is ordained doth accept by their consent before or after Yea though it were the worser party of Bishops that ordained that man § 32. As to the point of successive-right-ordination uninterrupted from the Apostles I hope afterward in due place to prove that to the Church universal such there hath been de facto in all the necessary parts But that to any particular Church or any individual persons ministry such uninterrupted course of ordination in being notice or proof is utterly unnecessary and that the Papacy hath no such to shew § 33. To conclude To the Being of the true Relation of a Bishop or Presbyter is necessary only 1. The Subject which is a Qualified Christian man sufficiently notified and offered 2. The Fundamentum Relationis Christs Law or Charter giving him his power and obliging him to his work 3. The mutual consent of Pastor and flock in the Relation to a particular Church is partly Dispositio subjecti and partly as it is Gods means a modus fundandi or conditio tituli 4. The Terminus of one ordained to the gathering of Churches sine titulo or not to any particular Church is objectively first men unconverted to be called and next men converted to be edified and as Effects the work to be done and the good to be done by it And in those ordained to particular Churches it is the work and the effect on them 5. The Correlate is 1. Christ to whom we are related as his Ministers as the efficient of our office 2. The people to whom we are related as the end and that 1. we are Ministers to the world to be converted 2. To the Universal Church to be edified 3. and mostly to particular Churches to be guided 6. The Relatum then is such a person Authorized and obliged to Teach Worship and Rule under Christ the Prophet Priest and King of the Church the foresaid flocks or Christians to the foresaid ends § 34. II. So much for what is necessary to the Being of the sacred
the Father and the Holy Ghost nor Sanctification Consolation and Sealing to the Holy Ghost than to the Father and the Son and so that they are not hence relatively distinguishable to us and by us at all III. Of the Person of Jesus Christ 1. That Christ is but a Creature or not eternal or not of the same Divinâ— Essence as is the Father 2. That Christ hath no humane created soul but the Divine nature was to his body instead of a soul 3. Or that a superangelical created nature united to his Divine nature was instead of a humane soul to his body 4. That Christs body was not derived from the Virgin Mary but only passed through her as water through a Channel 5. That the Mother of Christ alone was as much the cause of his soul and body as our Fathers and Mothers both are of ours 6. That the Virgin Mary was not the Mother of him that was God and man 7. That she was the Mother and actual cause or procreator of the Godhead and of Christ as God 8. That Jesus Christ was two Persons a Divine and Humane 9. That he had not two distinguishable natures viz. the Divine and Humane 10. That he had not two distinguishable understandings wills and operations 11. That the Body of Jesus Christ was incorruptible in and by its own nature and constitution and not only by its union with the Deity and by Gods will decree and preservation 12. That he was begotten by Joseph or some other man 13. That Christs humane nature soul or body suffered no real pain nor was capable of suffering any 14. That he was not of the line of David after the flesh 15. That he had original sin guilt or vitiosity 16. That Christ is not now God and man in heaven 17. That the Glorified Body of Christ is now formally flesh and blood so called univocally as ours having the same formal constitutive essence 18. That every Priest maketh Bread and Wine by the Consecration in the Eucharist to become no longer Bread and Wine but the very Body Flesh and Blood of Christ or that God so maketh it or the Priests speaking those words And so that all the consecrated Bread and Wine since Christs days till now are made Christ's flesh and blood and yet his flesh and blood no whit increased 19. That all believers are by union part of the Natural Person of Christ 20. That the humane nature of Christ is now the Godhead or is become a proper part of the second Person in the Trinity as such And here presumptuous men must take great heed of medling too far some Scholastick Divines say It is errour to say that Christs humane nature is a Part of his person because his Person was perfect from eternity and the Divinity cannot be a Par. of any thing Others say that It is erroâ— to say that the Humane nature is no part of Christ 〈◊〉 seeing it is no part of the Divine Essence or nature therefore it is a part of his person Others say that it is only an Accident of Christ some think that if it were not for fear of the clamours of Ignorant Hereticaters that will call it Nestorianism it were soundest and safest to say that the word Person is equivocal And that as it is taken for the second eternal person in the Trinity the humane nature is no part of it But as it is taken Relatively for the Person of the Mediator the humane nature is a part And so that Christ hath two persons but not univocally but equivocally so called IV. Of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Scriptures 1. That the Holy Ghost is but a creature or not God of the same essence with the Father and the Son 2. That the Holy Ghost is but the Angelical nature or species and as the diabolical nature and many Devils are called singularly the Devil so the many Angels are called the Holy Spirit 3. That the Immortal part of man called his Spirit is the essence of the Holy Ghost 4. That the Holy Ghost as operative on man is not a valid witness of the truth of Christ and Christianity in the world 5. That the Holy Ghost did not impregnate the Virgin Mary or that Christ was not conceived by him 6. That Adam had not the Holy Ghost or true Holiness 7. That the Prophets spake not by the Holy Ghost Or that their prophecies are of Private interpretation that is objectively to be interpreted of such private persons and things as they immediately spake of and which were but types of Christ or grace 8. That the Holy Ghost in the Prophets was not the Spirit of the Redeemer and sent by him 9. That the miracles of Christ and his Apostles were not wrought by the Holy Ghost 10. That the Holy Ghost may set the seal of true uncontrolled miracles to a lie 11. That the Canonical Scriptures were not indited by the Holy Ghost as infallible records of the Divine will 12. That they are but for a time till a perfecter Law is made called The Law of the Spirit 13. That they are imperfect without the supplement of Roman Tradition as part of the Rule of faith and life 14. That they were but occasional writings never intended for the universal law or rule of faith and holy living 15. That there are in the true original as they came from the Apostles some errours 16. That in the present received Originals there is any errour inconsistent with true saving faith and practice 17. That we are not bound to believe the Holy Scriptures to be Gods word but by the authoritative proposal of the Church of Rome that is A general Council subject to the Pope or called or approved by him as authorized thereto by Christ or that we must believe that the Pope or Council are authorized by Christ before we are bound to believe in Christ himself 18. That the Scriptures are not intelligible in necessary things till the Church Council Pope or Fathers expound them to us 19. That the Scriptures have no such imâ—â—ss or excellency by which they manifest themselves to be of God supposing necessary conveyance and ministerial explication 20. That we must not understand any text of Scripture but as the consent of ancient Fathers expoundeth it 21. That the Spirit now given to Poâ—â— Councils or to individual Christians is as much the Rule of faith and life as 〈◊〉 holy Scriptures or that the Spirit is not given now to us 〈◊〉 to teach us to understand believe love and practise Gods word indited by the more emmenâ— inspiration of the Apostles and Prophets â—ut also to inspire us as infallibly to know more than is revealed in the Scripture and that as needful to Salvation Or that it is not so much the Spirit extraordinarily inspiring the Apostles as the Spirit as inspiring ourselves which is every mans rule of faith and life 22. That the Light which is in Heathens Infidels and all men is this
Subjects that are not of their religion or may compell all to those ways of worshipping God which they shall judge best be they right or wrong 6. That Gods Laws are not obligatory to Kings and Kingdomes 7. That Princes or people may preferr their worldly interest before the interest of Religion Souls and God or may set them in opposition against it 8. That Princes must imprison or otherwise punish such as are excommunicated and not absolved by the Clergy without knowing whether the cause be just or unjust by their own exploration 9. That Princes may break Oaths and Covenants when their interest requireth it 10. That subjects have no liberty or propriety in any thing either life wives children or estates but what is at the meer will of Princes to dispose of as they please 11. That it is lawful for subjects to disobey the authority and commands of the higher powers because Christ hath freed us from subjection to men 12. That all Governing authority is originally in the people and by them given to Rulers on what terms they please 13. That therefore the people may depose any Princes where they see cause or may call them to their bar and judge and punish them having themselves the highest governing power 14. That if Princes injure the people the people may therefore rebel take arms against them and depose them 15. Contrarily that no people may defend their lives houses or posterity nor the chastity of their wives by resisting any Tyrants or against the will of Rulers that have no true authority to destroy them 16. That subjects may break their oaths of allegiance whenever their own worldly ends require it or if the Pope disoblige them 17. That if one King wrong another the wronged King may destroy all the others innocent subjects 18. That no war is lawful 19. That it is lawful to defame and dishonour Princes if they are sinners though the contempt tend to disable them from necessary government 20. That none but sanctified persons have true Governing power or dominion 21. That children are bound to obey their parents subjects their Princes and servants their Masters in nothing but what they think is wisely or justly commanded them though it be good or lawful in it self 22. That Parents may not teach children forms of Catechism or prayer nor command them any duty which the child will but say is against his Conscience nor restrain him from any sin which he pleadeth Conscience for 23. That Christian Parents in want may â—ell their Children for slaves to Idolaters or Infidels for supply 24. That Children may disobey their parents in any matters of Religion if the Pope Bishop or Priest so command them XIX Of Duties to our equals or neighbours as such 1. That no man is bound to love another but for his own sake and so far as he is beneficial to him 2. That we are not bound to do another a greater good to the least hurt to our selves 3. That men are not bound to love and preferr the common good of multitudes of their Countrey or the world before their own commodities or lives 4. That no killing of malefactors is lawful by laws and judgement 5. That it is lawful to kill our enemies for meer private revenge or to prevent some evil to our selves though they are innocent 6. That it is lawful to have many wives at once 7. That it is lawful to put away wives or for wives to depart whenever their fleshly or worldly interest seemeth to require it 8. That it is lawful to commit adultery at least by the husband or wives consent 9. That fornication is no sin or no great sin 10. That it is lawful when our need doth urge us to rob steal defraud or oppress others 11. That restitution or reparation is no duty 12. That it is no sin to deceive another by borrowing when we are unable and unlikely to repay and do conceal this 13. That it is not a duty for them that are able to labour in some lawful useful calling for their own maintenance and the common good 14. That it is lawful to lie for our commodity when it hurts not others 15. That it is lawful by backbiting slandering and false witness to disgrace our enemies or be revenged on them 16. That it is lawful for Judges knowingly or rashly to pass unjust judgement against the innocent or just and for advocates or others to promote it 17. That it is lawful for the poor to covet other mens goods and for men to desire and endeavour to draw from others whatever seemeth desirable or needful to our selves 18. That it is no sin to love the world flesh and life better than God Christ grace and glory 19. That it is no sin to be discontent and impatient in our sufferings nor a duty to deny our fleshly pleasure profit or reputation and life for God and for spiritual and everlasting benefits 20. That it is no duty to love our enemies forgive wrongs and forbear each other in their infirmities and provocations XX. Of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell 1. That the souls of believers go not to Christ and happiness nor the souls of the wicked to misery before the Resurrection of the body at the last judgement 2. That there is no Resurrection of the body at least of the wicked or of Infants 3. That Christ will not come in glory to judge the world 4. That we shall not be judged according to what we have done in the body 5. That the faithful shall not be justified and judged to life everlasting 6. That the wicked shall not be condemned to hell or everlasting punishment with the Devils but without holiness men may see God and be saved 7. That no man can know that he hath certain right to Salvation 8. That there is a fire of Purgatory where those that after shall be saved must make penal satisfaction for some of their sins and from which the Popes pardons and masses and other mens merits may deliver souls 9. That the justified shall not live in Glory with God and Jesus Christ and the Angels and the triumphant Church 10. That there is an aereal life of trial before the final judgement where the justified and wicked souls shall again live under conditions of yet winning or losing their heavenly glory 11. That the Devils and damned shall all be delivered at last and either be saved or have another life of tryal And the Glory of the blessed also will have an end and they must by revolution be tryed in flesh here again 12. That it is not a duty to seek first the Kingdome of God and its righteousness and lay up a treasure in heaven and there have our hearts and conversations and thence to fetch our motives and our chiefest hopes and comforts under all the sufferings of this transitory life and the expectation of our certain change THis or such a Catalogue of dangerous doctrines is not to be
I. THere need not much more be said of this it is already proved That Christ himself hath in his Law made the terms of the Union and Communion of his Members As the same Nature that formeth all our members in the womb is also the placer and uniter of them Therefore that which is contrary to Christs terms yea which is none of them cannot prove the true terms and means of Concord § II. Indeed no man ought to be Excommunicated otherwise than by Ministerial Declaration and Judgment how far he hath first departed from Union and cut off or Excommunicated himself An impenitent Fornicator Drunkard Persecutor doth cut off himself from the favor of God and his part in Christ and the rights of his true Church Therefore the Pastors may declare that he doth so And if it become a Controversie either de facto whether he be such an one or de jure whether this be true the Pastors are the proper Judges so far as to resolve the Consciences of the Flock whether they must avoid that man or communicate with him And this I think the Rational Mr. Hales would not have denied though in his Treatise of the Keyes he asserteth only a Declarative and denieth a Judicial Power For his Reasons shew that he only meant that the Church hath no efficient Judgment to cut off any man from Christ or his Body further than he first cuts off himself And far be it from any Friend of the Church to say That it is the Bishops Office to undo Souls and to separate any from Christ save only by declaring and judging that they wilfully separate themselves and therefore requiring the People to avoid them and binding them over to answer their sin at the Bar of God The rest is the Devils work and the impenitent Sinners and not the Pastors of the Church § III. And what is said against the Magistrates unseasonable force will mostly hold against such undue Excommunication 1. If the person believe that he is cast out for not forsaking his duty to God he will rejoyce that he is counted worthy to suffer for righteousness sake remembring that Christ said They shall cast you out of their Synagogues And this will bring no man to Repentance § IV. And 2. Then the Pastors will fall under the imputation of Tyranny and Persecution and be taken to be Haters and Hinderers of Conscionable men and grievous Wolves that devour the Flock § V. And 3. The Parties Excommunicate will think that this doth not excuse them from the duty of worshipping God and therefore they will assemble by themselves for such worship and there they will think That they are a better Church than those that cast them out and perhaps may Excommunicate their Excommunicaters as the Bishop of Alexandria and Constantinople have done by the Bishop of Rome Or more likely despise their Censure and go on unless the Sword be drawn to suppress them to which only such Excommunicaters use finally to trust And then what will follow I have shewed before § VI. And indeed we need no greater proof of the ineffectualness of Excommunication in such cases than the open confession of the Users of it who if they have not an Act for Horning as they call it in Scotland or to imprison the Excommunicate or punish him by the Sword confess that their Sentence will be contemned which is most true § VII Yet sad Experience further assureth us That Papal Anathematizings yea and those of General Councils have been no small cause of Schism Confusions and Rebellions The History of this would fill a Volume Alas what did the Councils of Ephesus Constantinople Chalcedon and many others by their Anathemas The state of Syria Egypt and Abassia c. of those called Jacobites and Nestorians tells us to this day And these Thunderbolts have been the Popes great Engines to beat down Kings and batter Kingdoms It is the admiration of the world next to the success of ignorant Mahomet That a company of old Usurpers many of them successively being notoriously wicked men and so judged by Councils and their most flattering Historians should conquer Christian Kingdoms and Empires by sitting at home and â—ursing men and telling them St. Peter is angry with them and will keep them out of Heaven if they be not obedient to the Pope But men that will be the Slaves of Sin deserve to have their Reason so forsaken to make themselves the Slaves of Subjects § VIII Yet we are far from thinking That just Excommunication is of no use God would not have the Church of Christ to seem no better than the world it is a Society gathered out of the world by the sanctifying Word and Spirit and as holy devoted to the most holy God And he would have the Church Visible to be visibly the womb of the Triumphant Church or the Sheepfold of Christ containing such as have a seeming or visible right to salvation however Hypocrites do intrude And therefore the Keys of the Church should be much of Kin to the Keys of Heaven so that he that is taken in or shut out may seem to the Christian judgment of probability to be taken into or shut out of a right to salvation And therefore as impenitent wicked men should not be deluded in vain hopes by being received to Church Communion so neither should godly men for pardoned or tolerable infirmities be shut out of the Church while God continueth their visible Title to salvation much less a Lay-Chancellor or a Bishop Excommunicate Christs Members for not paying their Fees or for not kneeling at the Sacraments or for not submitting to unnecessary Impositions or for holding such Things unlawful or such like This way will never heal our breaches or unite the Churches CHAP. XIII Any One Vnlawful Vncertain Doctrine Oath Covenant Profession Subscription or Practice so imposed as necessary to Communion will be a dividing Engine § I. THis is proved in what is said before For a Conscionable Man will not wilfully and deliberately commit One Sin to save his Liberty Estate or Life though many Sins be worse For he that wilfully commits one virtually committeth many And as St. James saith Breaketh the whole Law § II. Yea though the matter of the Sin seem little a Believer will not think it a little Sin to do it deliberately and stand to it by Covenant consent The high places among the Jews seemed no great matter but a good man would not have Covenanted never to endeavor any Reformation of them § III. A peaceable Man will live quietly in a Church that hath many Sins and Errors but he dare not deliberately own or justifie the least I should communicate with no Church on earth if I thought all the Ministers or Peoples Sins yea all the Faults in their Prayers or Doctrine or Discipline were made mine by it I will live peaceably with a Church that hath a faulty Doctrine Liturgy and Discipline in Things Tolerable as