applyed that pollution and impiety may be worn or wrought out and a good use may be found without offence And although divers Constitutions and Ordinances in use in our Church were made at first under the Papal authority yet they being such as were not repugnant to the Word of God nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and some others of those Canons and Constitutions having been purged from superstition they appear full of sincerity and equity and so were indenized and made English by our Church and States in Parliament and are now in that regard no more to be abandoned then Wheat because it is said to be invented by the goddess Ceres or many excellent laws of the Romans set out at first by Painims and by cruel persecutors of the Christian faith and are since made of excellent use over all Christendome * Philosophi meximi Platonici siqua fortè vera fidei nostrae accommoda dixerunt non solùm formidan de non sunt sed ab ils etiam tenquam injuflis possessoribus in usum nostrum vendicanda August de Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. De bono necessario usu dectrinae alierum rerum Paganorum Gemilium Socrates Eccl. bist lib. 3. c. 14. But let the Lawgiver or Magistrate be never so careful to satisfie erroneous or tender consciences he shall never cut out his work to fit every mans conscience or humour yet when as things injoyned by lawful authority are in themselves indifferent and without just exception or that the matter hangeth even or doubtful the weight of Authority must turn the scale between the Magistrate and the man of a weak conscience lest the Magistrate by neglecting his duty bring a scorn upon his authority and suffer a scandal to be given unto all others For although the tender conscience hath cast judgement on the thing as simply unlawful and just cause may be for a time to give him respite to rectifie his conscience yet still doth his tender conscience draw him upon the rock of disobedience and contempt of Authority and giving ill example and scandal from all which the following of his tender conscience cannot excuse him especially if he be in an errour neither any other pretence if he may find the means to rectifie his conscience for he is not then led by invincible ignorance which as the Schoolmen say is purae negationis but rather by a supine negligence or an affected ignorance which is termed pravae dispositionis Through ignorance Eph. 4.18 saith the Apostle Which is in them because of the blindness of their hearts having their understanding darkned Distinguendum est an pro certo sciat homo an conscientia pulsat animum ex credulitate probabili discreta an ex credulitate levi temeraria Cap. 44. Decretal de sentent excom ne contra legem vel contra judicium conscientiae committat offensam Alberic Gentil alii Insipida est consciemia quae rationis scientiae salem non habet non debet quis sibi de eo facere conscientiam quod non potest explicare secundum rationem veri constantis judicii nec conscientia dubia est conscientia alià s cum dubitare de omnibus possit ctiam de indubitatis ae etiam sine ratione quid est quod dici dubium non possit Into these perplexities do men fall and often draw others by fostering and cherishing of an errour whereby they seem to take as fast hold of the errour as the errour doth of them and so they fall into the number of those who do erre in their hearts and not onely in their heads If our Christian liberty which ought to be subordinate to charity we ought to moderate and restrain rather then offend the weak consciences of others we ought certainly to indure in things of their own nature indifferent the restraint of our liberty by Lawful authority unto which we must be obedient for conscience sake faith the Apostle rather then to offend the Law and violate the Peace of the Church Qui contra pacem Ecclesiae sunt si dignitatem aut cingulum militare habeant nudentur eis si sint privati nobiles Causa 24. quast 1. c. 32. suarum substantiarum proscriptionem patiantur si sint ignobiles non solum in corpore verberentur sed exilio perpetuo castigentur If we look for a Church where there are no scandals given to mens consciences neither any inperfections and defects we must go out of the world for we shall find none but only the triumphant Church in heaven There may be a true Church where there are imperfections so as the essential marks and properties thereof are not wanting If amongst the Corinthians the Church did remain in respect of the Ministery of the word and Sacraments notwithstanding their Sects and corruptions and which was worst many of them had even in derision the doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Corin. 15. Galat. 1. 6.4.11 If also amongst the Galatians great backsliders and full of corruptions the Apostle acknowledged a Church wherein salvation might be had he would certainly have condemned such men as our new Professors who for much slighter causes make a separation and break the peace of the Church upon dislike of all Ceremonies and discipline that is not of their own invention The Apostles delivered not express and particular order for all Church Government but left most of it to be accommodated to the times and occasions as might best serve for edification and the Service of God And so touching Ordinances and customes in the Church which men ought to observe and those who are contentious and given to innovations the Apostle taketh them off with this saying We have no such customes neither the Churches of God In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit divina Scriptura mos populi Dei instituta majorum prolege tenenda sunt sieut praevaricatores divinarum legum â—t D. August Decret Gratian. Distinct 11. c. 7. Qui etiam dat hanc regulam ut quae consuetudines non sunt contra fidem neque contra bonos more 's et habent aliquid ad exhorte tionem vita melioris ubicunque institui videmus non solùm non improbemus sed etiam laudando imitando sectemur Epistola ejus ad Januarium ita contemptores Ecclesiasticarum consuetudinum coercendi sunt But these innovators are not ruled by any customes and Lawes but such as please them They still urge without bringing any proof that nothing should be established in the Church which is not expresly commanded in the Word of God and that their Presbyterian discipline is onely of divine right wherein they deal unjustly in requiring express Texts of Scripture from us which is not needfull whereas they in their own cause obtrude upon us peremptorily things they call necessary for which they cannot bring any positive express or probable warrant out of
the external Government of a Church and yet salvation may be had there and that Church may stand without it Moreover although the constitutions of men are not of force in themselves to bind the conscience yet do men sin in wilfully disobeying such Laws and constitutions as are by Lawful Authority established when they can shew no other cause for their disobedience but their conscience neither bring any warrant out of Gods Word In the supposed purest reformed Chuches there are some Ceremonies enjoyned Psalm 29. and are not without punishment contemned and some must be if we will serve God in the beauty of holiness Calvin alloweth such Ceremonies as tend to the perspicuity of doctrine as being prositable allusions and iliustrations and having divine significations such Ceremonies saith he as are paucae numero observatione faciles significatione praestantissimae In the ministry of the Church there ever have been some Ceremonies ordained for order and decency and also for signification Ceremonies tending to edification signisie moral duties and works are signified Such rights and Ceremonies as are not repugnant to Gods Word neither apt to lead men into superstition and to will-worship but serving to edification and decent service so as the Church be not burthened with the multitude of them nor the essence of Religion placed in them although some of them have been in part used by Pagans or Papists lest upon such restraint we press too much servitude upon the Church We cannot take in too many helps for our performance of Religious duties for the exaltation of Gods glory and goodness for the more decency in his service for the manifestation of our duty of thankfulness and for the furtherance of our devotion so as Superstition and Will-worship be restrained And in all this if men should be left to their own wills the Church of God would alwayes be perplexed and grieved and the peace thereof dislurbed with infinite Scandals both given and taken A great evil it were that order and decency should break the Communion of Saints which hath been so piously instituted for the preservation thereof and the increase of devotion and the manifestation of our thankfulness to God for all his benefits They ought to find other causes for their dislike of Ceremonies then because some of them were used in time of Popery The Reformed Churches retain some things used in the Romane Church And they use the Churches which not onely the Papists enjoyed but some Churches which had been Temples of the Pagan gods If they quarrel with our Ceremonies because they were used in the Roman Church without any other reason they are like those who hate men for other mens sake or because of the company wherein they find them They will not consider that those things which have been superstitiously abused may be made useful for the service of God Judges 6. who did command the wood of the Grove dedicated to Baal to serve for the use of his Sacrifice And Jericho an accursed City all in it was to be destroyed by fire Joshua 6. but the silver and gold the vessels of brass and iron were put into the House of God Constantine and other Christian Emperours abolished Paganism and made it death to worship their gods yet they preserved their Temples and other things L. 3. 1.4 Cod. de Pagenis as appeareth by the Imperial Law Sacnisicia templorum prohibemus publicorum operum ornamenta servari jubemus festos conventus civium communemque omnium laetitiam non patimur submoveri unde absque ullo sacrificio superstitione damnabili exhiberi Populorum voluptates secundum veterem consuetudinem ac ministrarietiam festa convivia quando exigunt publica vota decernimus Neither ought we to abolish our fellivals in memory of our Saviours Nativity Resurrection and of Pentecost because they are vestigia legis antiquae Mosaicae and seem to be borrowed from the Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies The verses and sayings of the Heathen Poets dedicated to the Muses and to their gods not onely holy men but also the Apostles used not so that our faith faith the Apostle 1 Corinth 2. should stand in the wisedom of men but in the power of God The use of humane learning is not to be contemned by those who would be reputed learned in Divinity qui liberales illas artes imbiberunt carum subsidio adjuti longè altiùs provehuntur ad imrospicienda divinae sapientiae arcana * Calvin Inslit lib. 1. c. 5. n. 2. Ad intelligentiam sacrarum Scripturarum secularium peritia liberaltum Artium est necessaria Distinclio 37. Quicquid de ordine temperum transactorum indicat historia gentiumplutimum nos adjuvat ad sanctos libros intelligendos quaecunque de locorum situ naturaque animalium lignorum herbatum â—liorumve corporum scripta sunt sendimque cognitionem valere ad aenigmata soripturarum solvenda docuimns August de Doctâ—ina Christiana lib. 2. Jalianus Apostata interdixit Christianis usu Poeticae Rhetoricésque ac Philosophicarum artium nempropriis inquit ut inproverbio est pennis configimur ex nost is enim libris aima copiunt quis but in bello adversus nos utantur Theodoreti Ecclos hist l. 4. c. 8. An ipse non est Ecclesiam persecutus qui Christianos liberales artes dosere discere ve â—uit August lib. 18. c. 52. de Civit. Dei Licet à ciuore abstinuit non Christianorum corpora occidere sed ex corum animis Christum revellere miris artibus technisque attentabas quod est genus persequendi omnjum efficacissimum porniciocissimum Ita effecium est ut plures hac calamitate abcesseriot ab Ecclefia quem ulla alia superiore Lud. Vives We ought to take heed of those who under colour of Incorformity with the Church of Rome and of their desire of the utter extirpation of all reliques of Popery seek to set dissension in the Church and to root up some of the most effectual means which beareth up the state of Religion and the pillars thereof and so make way to prophanation and to Atheisme to enter and build upon the ruines of the Church Our Rites and Ceremonies by law established in the Church of England were not such as did peculiarly belong to this or that Sect but were the antient Rites and ceremonies of the Church of Christ and we have still the same reason for the use of them and the same interest in them that our fore-fathers had That our Rites and Ceremonies which we have common with the Church of Rome are scandalous in their nature and institution they cannot make appear neither do they endeavour it more then by their general clamour which implyeth nothing That some Rites and Ceremonies we retain which have been polluted yea and some peradventure instituted at first for and unto that thing which was evil although they can prove yet in tract of time and by prudent qualifications
Gods word or from thence to be probably deduced and inferred They catch at every Text of Scripture as their fancy leadeth them according to the old and usual course of Hereticks and Schismaticks to prove their own and destroy the old Church Government without any consideration of the Expositions of the Antient Fathers or Modern Divines or any regard how wilfully they pervert and abuse the Word of God as those who have largely and learnedly handled these points have made appear * S. Hierome sheweth us such men in his time qui quicquid dixerint boc legem Dei putant nec scire dignantur quid Prophetae quid Apostoli senserint sed ad sensum suum incorgtua aptant testimonia quasi grande sit non vitiosissimum docendi genus depravare sententias ad voluntatem suam Scripturam trahere repugnantem Epist ad Paulinum The unlearnd and unstable wrest the Scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But seeing they deal thus with the Scripture it cannot be expected they should regard humane Laws neither the power given by God to Kings and to his Church and to make such Laws as carry with them both a directive and a coercive power Such Laws and Constitutions I mean as are in no respect repugnant to Gods word but are deduced from the general rules thereof and grounded upon the varranty left by our Saviour and his Apostles as â—uides and limits for the Church in all ages Humane lawes are measures saith Aquinas in respect of men whose actions they direct and govern and these measures have their higher rules by which they are to be measured which are the laws of God and nature Those Laws therefore have the essential parts and properties of the best positive Lawes which the Lawes of God do approve and are such as are extracted from the light and law of Nature and the common and demonstrable precepts thereof most agreeable to common equity and are most necessary for the preservation of the peace and welfare of the Church and Common-wealth It is therefore a false and dangerous doctrine of theirs that it is not in the power of the Church or State to restrain and bar men by Lawes from their liberty which God hath granted unto them no more then it is to take away the yoak which God hath laid upon them and to countermand that which he hath expresly injoyned They may find a difference between the liberty granted us by God and nature which is restrainable and the eternal precepts of God which are immutable By this doctrine the power of government is so restrained and so weakened as that the frame and pillars thereof are shaken and the difference almost taken away between the things of greatest weight precisely defined and injoyned by the Word of God to be observed alwayes as are those which the Schoolmen call his negative precepts and those other things of less moment which have little or nothing of precise and perpetual commandment but more of liberty granted unto men by God and nature and yet not exempted from the power of the Church or Magistrate to alter or restrain according to special occasions and variations of times In this miserable age wherein we live we are to deal with men such as the antient times never produced men who rest not upon the disobedience of Princes and contempt of Laws Divine and humane but teach and practise the introducing of new orders and discipline in the Church and State by sire and sword and do destroy those men and their estates who joyn not with them Men who gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood Psalm 94.21 Such men are not to be found save in the time of Antichrist mentioned by the Prophet who shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and laws Daniel 7.25 The doctrine of the Gospel much less the Discipline of the Church ought not by such means in any case to be brought in or established Apud Christianam disciplinam magìs occidi liceret Tertul. Bernard quà m occidere non est religionis cogere religionem Religion saith Saint Austin is planted and preserved by instructing more then by commanding by admonishing more then by threatning 2 Corin. 1 24 Cap de Judaeis Dijlinct 45. Not that we saith Saint Paul have dominion over your faith Praecipit sancta Synodus nemini ad credendum vim inferri cui enim vult Dous miseretur quem vult indurat The sword availeth little with the souls of men unless to destroy them together with their bodies and to make men desperate or dissemblers in Religion and when they find opportunity to fall into rebellion as there are many examples The old just and necessary Edicts made by the best Christian Emperours against Hereticks and those who were of a contrary religion to that which was publickly received and established were but Civil and Political Lawes for the tranquillity of the State and People quae pacis perturbatorum pervicaciâ exasperanda sunt parentium et obtemperantium bono temperandaet moderanda sunt Thuan Epiff in prin ipio Hist and this K. James declared when he set forth the oath of Allegeance Those Imperial edicts did not punish men for their diversity of religion neither gave them toleration their scope and end was not to inforce the conscience D. Hieronym but to preserve the Peace Aliae sunt Leges Caesarum aliae sunt Leges Christi alind Papinianus Epist 48. 50. aliud Paulus noster docet And yet Saint Austin doth allow of the punishment of some hereticks by pecuniary mulcts or banishment as being not repugnant to Christian lenity and sheweth that many of the Donatists were by the terror of Laws and edicts brought to the Catholick Faith and to unity in the worship and service of God D. Bernard ser 66. super Cant. Aliqui meliùs procul dubio coercentur gladio illius videlicèt qui non sine causa gladium portat Rom cap. 13. quà m ut in suum errorem multos trajicere permittantur Some discreet coercion may oftentimes necessarily be used towards those who contemn or neglect the service of God and the preaching of his word the means of salvation The parable of the marriage feast saith Luke 14. compel them to come in that my house may be filled Melius est cum severitate diligere quà m cum lenitate decipere Auguslin Parcere alienis peccatis quae dedocere objurgare debemus hoc est propter quaedam cupiditatis vincula non propter Charitatis officia But in the antient times of Christianity such means were not used as might make Hereticks Schismaticks more obstinate then docible through the preposterous proceedings of the Magistrates and Ministers of justice in the execution of penal Lawes used rather as snares for gaining of money and pecuniary mulcts imposed rather as prices