was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation
to the Church dispersed over the face of the whole earth Again the Eastern Christians that are thought to come from Nestorius the Southern Christians under Prester John that maintain the memory of Dioscorus and condemn the fourth Council of Chalcedon cannot be admitted to be Catholicks by any man that owneth the four Councils But in regard it appeareth not that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches though they owne the memory of their persons and in regard there is cause enough to presume that they would with all their hearts be reunited to the Church did not the See of Rome refuse all terms of Re-union that include not the infinite power which it challengeth they cannot be included within the Catholick Church without reserving a liberty to exclude them whensoever in point of Faith it shall appear that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches As for the Canons of the Church it was never neceslary to the maintenance of Communion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary that several Customs should be held by the same Authority Which is to say That the same Authority instituted several Customs which they thought to be for the best in several times and in several places For so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the Acts of it be agreeable to Gods Law or not how should Unity be maintained This is the Reason of that which I said even now that the Fathers do not agree in any thing but in the Faith and the Laws of the Church For it is manifest that they could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if Gods Law had been infringed by it Seeing therefore it is manifest that there are certain Canons and Customs known to have been the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church owned by this Church it followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to Gods Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church So it is not my intent to say that the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church ought to be in force And that there is no other means to restore Unity in the Church But that nothing can cause a Breach in the Church that hath Authority from the Primitive Church And that nothing can have Authority in the present Church that infringeth the Authority of the Primitive Church as if Gods Law were destroyed by any Act of it Further there are two points in the Title and Cause of the late War Episcopacy and Sacriledge wherein the Cause of the Crown hath been so united to the Cause both of this and of the Catholick Church that I may well say that to disowne the same Cause in other points alike Primitive and Catholick would be to deny the Conclusion admitting the Premises Or to keep divers weights and measures in the same Budget The Plea for Episcopacy and for Consecrate Goods hath made out so much evidence for it self that it hath helped to recover the Laws of the Kingdom And shall not the Laws of the Kingdom so recovered maintain the same Plea in all other things For the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as it never subsisted but in the consent of Bishops so was it never maintained but out of Consecrate Goods CHAP. VI. What Errours have followed because it is not so expresly BUt I do freely acknowledge that though this Church hath many Obligations to owne this Principle for their Rule yet it is not formally and expresly inacted by those Laws of the Land whereby Religion and the Rights of the Church are established For I do further claim that the want of inacting and inforcing it and driving it home to the true Consequence in every point is the Cause and Sourse not only of the disorders which divers pitiful plaisters have been tendred to cure But of all disorders imperfections and decays of Religion which have succeeded upon the Reformation having been made without limiting those bounds And that the present disorders in Religion are the Symptoms of a common disease which all men are offended with but cannot be cured without recourse to the Unity of the Catholick Church and the terms of it wherein that health of Christianity consisteth which all division impeacheth I do therefore freely acknowledge that I find two positions to be the sourse of all those Excentrical Opinions in Religion which caused that Confusion upon the issue of the War that helped to make way for his Majesties happy Return The first is that there is no Condition for the Covenant of Grace That there is no Contract in it but a meer Promise The second is that there is no such thing as a Visible Church instituted by God But that men are first Children of God by Faith then members of a Church of free choice Of these Positions the one necessarily dependeth upon the other For the Faith of the whole Church from the beginning requires Baptism to Salvation And therefore includeth it in that Faith which alone justifieth And by consequence requires that justifying Faith cannot be understood without that Profession of Faith which a man maketh at his Baptism And this will necessarily infer a Church therefore Visible because Catholick For it is agreed upon by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism That is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated being given in the form of the Church yet is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Now it is not my intent to say that these two Positions were expresly and formally professed by Companies distinguishing themselves from others by Ecclesiastical Communion in the Profession Which is the true signification of an Heresie in the eye of the Church But the Positions I maintain to be Heresies in so much that if there were such Companies they must of necessity be taken for Heresies in the account of the Church And my Reason is clear For it is acknowledged by the whole Church clearly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel that the taking up of his Cross is a necessary condition to Salvation Now since our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is evident that ever since we take up Christs Cross when we undertake at our Baptism to lay down our lives rather then deny the Faith of Christ or transgress his Commandments And since this Promise is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church it cannot be available to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the Promise deposited with it If any man ask whom I can charge
can have Power to introduce any thing for Reformation in the Church but that which the Consent of the Whole Church either injoyneth or alloweth Not as if the least Tittle of Scripture were not enough to warrant that which it injoyneth to be the Reformation of the Church But whereas the sense of the Scripture is that which remains questionable not the Authority of it that nothing can be the true sense of the Scripture which the Consent of the Whole Church contradicteth And therefore that though there be an appearance of truth in such a sense yet it is not for a Christian Kingdom to inact it for Law till it be duely debated And that being done it will infallibly appear in all which in most things appeareth already that the Consent of the Whole Church cannot contradict the true sense of the Scripture And that it is nothing else but not knowing the one or the other that makes it seem otherwise If the Scripture it self is not nor can be owned for Gods Word but by the Consent of Gods people from the beginning attesting the Motives of Faith related in the Scripture to have been infallibly done by submitting to the Faith which they inforce Then must the same Consent be of force to assure common reason that the Faith and the Laws wherein the whole Church agrees came from the Authority setled by God not by any Consent of all Christians to fall from that which they Profess And therefore though a Kingdom may force the Subjects thereof to call that Reformation which they inact yet they can never make it Reformation in that sense which the Salvation of Christians requires if it be not within these bounds It may be called Reformation to signifie a New form but it can never be Reformation to signifie that form which should be unless it signifie the form that hath been in Gods Church For that being One and the same from the first to the second Coming of Christ can authorize no other form then that which it may appear to have had from the beginning CHAP. IX That it cannot be done without the Synods of this Church ANd therefore it being granted on both sides that the Soveraign Power of Christian Kingdoms and States proceeding duely obligeth the Subjects to submit to the Reformation of the Church and cannot exact Legal Penalties of them which refuse upon any other Terms I do except in the second place that it ought to proceed in all Reformation by and upon the Authority of this Church That is of the Synods For what doth the whole Church agree in so Visibly as in this That the Authority which God hath instituted in his Church should give Laws to his Church And how can a Christian Kingdom promise themselves Gods blessing upon such Acts as they have no Power nor Right from God to do For granting there is such a thing as a Catholick Church it is not possible that any Christian Kingdom which must be a part of it should have Power to inact any thing Prejudicial much less destructive to the Whole to the Visible Being which is the Visible Communion of it And therefore the Faith and the Laws of the whole being the Condition under which the parts are to communicate no Christian Kingdom can have Power from God to give New Laws in Religion to the Subjects thereof which the Church of the Kingdom warranteth not to be according to the Laws of the whole Church If any thing may appear to have been in force in the Primitive Church and by the abuse of succeeding times to have become void I do not deny that the Secular Power may Reform the Church by restoring it though the Church should refuse their Consent to it The reason is because the Church would be without help if there were no Lawful way to restore the decays of it Which we agree have come to pass without the consent of them that are chargeable for the decay of it Now the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church are the Birth-right of all Christians Purchased by undertaking to Profess one Catholick Church at their Baptism And Christian Powers are to protect their Christian Subjects in their Birth-right And the Authority of the present Church is not seen in the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church For it is meer matter of Fact what they are The evidence whereof praeexistent to the Authority of the present Church cannot be understood to require or to presuppose it And therefore the Authority of the Church cannot be violated by reducing the Faith and the Laws of the Primitive Church into force Nevertheless in regard that which is decayed can seldom be restored without determining new Bounds which the present state of the Church requires It is manifestly the Office of the Church to determine the same Nor can it be done by Christian Powers of this World without assuming to themselves that Authority in which they are to maintain the Church For though Soveraign Power hath Soveraign Right in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical yet is it capable of no Ecclesiastical Power or Right But is to maintain those that have it by the Laws of the Church in the use of it If any thing were done at the Reformation setting aside the Synods of this Church which I am here neither to deny nor to acknowledge it must be justified upon this Account that they refused the Authority of the Whole Church in authorizing the Reformation of this Church If any thing now may appear to be demanded upon the same Account let the Authority of the Synods be passed by for their punishment if they hinder the Reformation of the Church by refusing it But that cannot appear till it may appear First that the matter demanded ought to have the force of Law in the Church having been of force and since decayed by the injury of time or corruption of men Secondly that it is of such weight that Religion is like to have more advantage by restoring it then the Vnity of the Church shall suffer by violating the Regular Authority of the Church What thanks I shall have of my LL. the Bishops for this I know not For I deny that they themselves can have any Authority in the Case that shall not be confined within the same bounds But it is not possible for him that is the most jealous of the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters to say what danger there can be to this Crown in securing the Conscience of the Kingdom by the Authority of the Church For the acknowledging of those Bounds which the Authority of the Church is confined to as well in respect of Soveraign Power in the Dominions whereof it subsisteth as of the rest of the Church leaveth no Plea for it to Vsurp either upon the Crown or upon the Christian Subjects of it And all this I claim by S. Paul where he commandeth all Christians to abide in that state in which they are called
Regeneration be altered in the Liturgy and Rubricks of it For this point is an instance how easily the substance of Faith necessary to Salvation may be questioned or abated or renounced by a Clause of such an Act. I grant it is clearly S. Pauls Opinion S. Peters Opinion our Lord Christs Opinion the Opinion of Gods whole Church Be it the Opinion of those whose Opinion is our Faith But he that would have it no more then Opinion must teach us a new Faith No Remission of Sins but by Baptism Entring us into the Covenant of Grace which the Vow of Baptism inacteth Entring us into the Church into which the Sacrament of Baptism introduceth Abate the Covenant which the Sacrament of Baptism inacteth and how shall a Christian be regenerate Abate the mention of it in the Service and where will be the Faith which this Church with the Whole Church hitherto professeth Shew me any Christian that ever questioned it till it was questioned what was to be Reformed in the Church and let it be abated Could Pelagius have questioned it his Heresie had not so easily been quelled He that travelled all the Church from Britain to Jerusalem had he found any Church any received Doctor of any Church that durst maintain Salvation due by the Covenant of Grace to any man that dyes unbaptized he had made the Church more work then he did No Baptism no Original sin no Cure for Original sin but Baptism no Salvation without the Cure They that think to confute Anabaptists abating this point of Faith no marvel if they make Anabaptists when they make men think that the Church hath no better Reason to confute them with then they will use Some perhaps that are not so well taught as they should be may think it unagreeable with Christianity that Salvation should depend upon a Bodily act as the washing of Baptism and that in the Power not of him that is Baptized but of the Church or of him that is to minister in behalf of the Church But S. Peter hath answered this Objection by distinguishing two things in Baptism 1 Pet. III. 21. the one the washing of the Body which saves not The other the Answer that is made out of a good Conscience to the Examination tendered him that is Baptized whether he will undertake Christianity or not And this saves if S. Peter say true And what account can any Christian give himself to ground the hope of his Salvation upon but 〈◊〉 Christianity which the Gospel tendreth which Baptism inacteth Or what can be necessary to Salvation if the ground of the hope thereof be not This is that one ground which overthroweth both those Heresies in which I said all the erroneous Doctrines of that Confusion which we have seen do resolve The Profession which we make at our Baptism is the Condition on our part upon which the Promise of the Covenant of Grace becomes due on Gods part The Profession so made nothing can defeat the hope of a Christian but the transgressing of it Being transgressed nothing can repair this hope but the restoring of it All Arts to disguise this Faith all over the Scripture signifie nothing but the hope of Salvation without living the life of Christians I will hope whatsoever Fanaticks or Atheists would have that there was never any intent to demand so great an Apostasie from the Faith to be inacted by a Law of the Kingdom I will hope much more that had it been demanded it would have been rejected with that indignation which so great Apostasie deserveth But I am glad and give God hearty thanks that I have lived to the day when I may and do testifie to my Country and to the Church of God in it that he who should demand of them to renounce this point must demand of them to unchurch themselves and to be for the future that which the See of Rome would have us to be CHAP. XVIII Conference for Satisfaction is Forbearance BUt is there then no effect of S. Pauls precept in our Case Can we break the Unity of the Church without breading the Charity of Christians Or can particular Christians be tyed to forbear one another and Christian Powers not be tied to cause both to do the same Here is indeed the Hinge upon which the truth turns and resolves all questions and clears all difficulties which must and will intangle the World in confusion upon the account of Christianity till it be owned Christian Powers may constrain their Subjects that profess Christianity to be Christians and punish them if they be not But they must protect them for their Subjects though they be not The reason of this hath not been declared by the Reformation though they have just cause to complain and do as they have cause complain of the See of Rome for authorizing capital Penalties upon Hereticks Under that name they comprize also Schismaticks And Schismaticks in their language as also in the language of all that claim the Authority of the Church signifies all that maintain Communion apart though the Cause make the Crime before God But if S. Paul have Reason when he commands every Christian to continue in the Estate in which he was called to be a Christian then can no mans Life or Estate become forfeit for not being a Christian And much less for not being Orthodox but an Heretick If the Life or Estates of Subjects should Eschete to the Soveraign for not being Christians that temporal Dominion of Soveraigns must be founded upon the Grace they have to be Christians All such Right S. Paul disclaims and discharges But shall Soveraign Power that is Christian be therefore disabled to give Law to Subjects professing Christianity That is our Case the whole Kingdom professing Christianity though the Whole cannot so properly be said to profess the Reformation For the Reformation setled by Law we see is refused as well by those that separate from it for a Reformation of their own as by those that adhere to the See of Rome Shall the Soveraign then lose the Right that all Christian Soveraigns have of giving Law to their Subjects in point of Religion because he is a Christian Or shall the Subject by being a Christian stand obliged to the Laws of his Soveraign commanding him to stand to the Christianity which he professeth Suppose the Christianity commanded to be Visible before Christian Powers command it and you inable their Laws to oblige their Subjects Not supposing it you cannot say how the Laws of Soveraign Powers should oblige Christian Subjects seeing the Papacy as well as the Reformation maintained by Christian Soveraigns For by the same Reason for which the Subjects of those Powers that maintain the Reformation are tied to their Laws by the same Reason should the Subjects of those that maintain the Papacy be obliged to obey the Laws by which they maintain it There can be no Reason for a difference if that which they maintain be not Visible before the
to have been decayed and depraved in the Faith and Laws of the then present Church We have a Reformation established by certain Laws of the Kingdom which all men know how great a part of the Kingdom declineth because the See of Rome disclaimeth it And therefore the question is what that Law should be that may oblige Recusants to the Reformation which we profess For division in Religion can never so deprave mens senses as to punish them for refusing that which they are not obliged to embrace And yet who would have the Kingdom to establish that Reformation which they would not have it inact by competent Penalties Now such is our Case that since the afflictions which this Nation hath been visited with have revived the humor of departing into Conventicles Independents and Fanaticks decline Communion with this Church as much as Recusants And if we will speak properly to be understood according to the Laws we must distinguish them by the addition of Popish or Fanatick Recusants Whereupon the question arises what Penalties are competent to the one to the other whether the same or diverse For as there can be no Law if there can be no Penalties to enact it with So there can be no Penalty unless the Legislative Power be Judge of the Cause why the Parties decline the Law and may secure them in Conscience that they ought not to decline it Can any Christian Power punish the disobeying of that Law concerning which it cannot secure the Consciences of them that obey But there is a further difficulty in our Case in regard of the Presbyterians Who whatsoever they may do or may have done since the time of disorder have always pretended to the service of the Church so far from disclaiming Communion with it For grant they do usurp the liberty of Conventicles to hold their People at the more distance from being reduced to Law their pretense is not to be obnoxious to the Law for violating it but to make the Law obnoxious to themselves by reforming it Suppose we them then comprehended with the Clergy whose Authority is included in the present Laws in the same Priviledge of ministring in and to the Church Our Case is not stated till we consider that which all Pulpits ring of that no Religion stands to be the Religion of the Kingdom The Case was like to come to this when Cromwell first usurped For then it began to appear that this would be the fruit of his Course in maintaining all Parties in the Religions which the licentiousness of the War had allowed them to exercise The Laws having recovered possession and the dispute remaining by what Penalties to be exercised whether any or none whether those that are or what others I need not say that there is any Profession of Atheism which could never be professed among the very Gentiles This I say that whosoever favours it will necessarily shelter himself under the Law professing that which it maintaineth And therefore that it is to come into the state of our Case in which Forbearance is demanded for tender Consciences how it is to be limited That those who have No Religion if any such should be may not have the Benefit of it So the question now in hand is of the same consequence as if it were demanded upon what terms the Reformation of the Church is to be stated For whatsoever comes to debate the question will always be how far we ought to depart from the Church of Rome The other part of the question What Penalties the Reformation duly stated may or is to be inacted with will depend upon this for the greater part of it For what can render the subject of this Kingdom liable to Penalty for not obeying the Law which our Reformation is established with but that he is first bound in conscience to embrace the Reformation and to do the duty of a Christian according to it Only what Penalties and how great or or how grievous it is to be or may be inacted with This will further require the reason which makes it the duty of Christian States to joyn in Reforming the Church CHAP. II. That a private Person may be obliged to declare in it THis is that which obliges a private person as I am to declare his Opinion when so great a concernment of his Conscience is at stake For who could ever think the Reformation could stand were not the Clergy obliged as the Law obliges them every one in his place to reduce Recusants to the Church Or how should they either do this or stand obliged to do it if the Reason upon which the Reformation and the Law by which it is stated proceeds inable them not to convince them that they are bound in Conscience to embrace it These hundred years hath the dispute been on foot Very nigh so long it is since the Bull of Pius V. acquited the Subjects of the Kingdom of their Allegiance to Q. Elizabeth The Government being then jealous of that Party those that had appeared before in the Troubles of Francford to challenge a share in the Government of the Church thought this the time to set their pretensions on foot It is to be seen by Camdens Annals that when the Recusants first forbore coming to Church about that time did this Party begin to be known by the name of Puritans Ever since that time did these embers lye raked up in deceitful ashes still most appearing when the State was most solicitous till at length the Party appeared in Arms against the late King and prevailing in those Arms became divided into those several Parties which remain united in the Plea for tender Consciences For the Laws recovering by His Majesties return the same embers which it was then thought fit to rake up again in the same deceitful ashes upon the first rub have flamed out again to demand Law to justifie that which they usurp by way of Fact against Law Both pleading that their Consciences cannot be subject to any Law in the Case and that Christianity hath not wherewith to clear up those doubts against which if they proceed they are damned It must therefore needs be said that the present Laws have been justified beyond all contradiction that may pretend any thing to be commanded by the Laws which Gods Law forbids So that the demand of new Laws seems to be a demand that the Conclusion be contradictory to that which is inferred by the Premises And what should Weakness demand of Reason that is to give Law but inconsequence Only let not inconsequence in Reason draw mischief upon us in effect We have hitherto answered the demand Where was your Church before Luther That it was where it is The same Church Reformed which was decayed and depraved afore Neither can we ever answer otherwise till we renounce our Creed and deny that One Holy Catholick Church which we must be saved by believing and by continuing in the Vnity of it Depart we once from
Christendom have something else to do then to imploy the forces of their Dominions to that purpose And that if it prove for the Interest of some of them at some times it will prove not to be for the Interest of others at the same or other times Of which Interest as they are indeed and in Conscience to give account to God and not to the See of Rome so that they will ever make the See of Rome the Judge of them what appearance can there be So it is time of the day for them to hearken to Reason whether they regard God and Religion or Interest and themselves But is not our Case the same Or are not we transported as far with the conceit that they are limbs of Antichrist and Idolaters as they are with the conceit that we are Hereticks and Schismaticks Have we not as long expected when the Kings would joyn to strip the Whore of Babylon naked as they when they would joyn to reduce the Hereticks by force And is it not yet time of the day for us whatsoever opinion those that imploy their time in searching the meaning of a Prophesie may have at least to make it no Principle of our Profession nor to maintain Separation upon the Account of it Knowing that were the Pope twenty times Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters he can never be Antichrist nor they Idolaters for any thing that the consent of the Catholick Church either alloweth or injoyneth So that whatever become of any Prophesie in Gods Word and the sense of it the bounds of Reformation will be the very same And he will be no less an Heretick or a Schismatick that makes the Pope Antichrist or the Papists Idolaters for doing or believing any thing which the Church from the beginning hath injoyned or allowed to be believed or to be done then if he pretended no Prophesie to prove it If ever any people had cause to reflect upon the sad consequences of this conceit we are they that shall find no probable reason to impute the mischiefs of the late Vsurpation to but the hope of fulfilling this sense of this Prophesie It is a vain thing to think that a man who believed no God could Act a counterfeited Religion throughout as we have seen the Usurper do He that could hope to be saved either without Faith or without good Works by having Christ alive at the Heart why should not he think that all the foul way he went through was the Service of God having intended to strip the Whore of Babylon by his means Neither Manichaeus nor Mahomet nor any Enthusiast can be barred of the like aim with this if once he make his private Spirit parallel to the Scripture For that which the same Authority last dictates as in Wills and Testaments must take place I say not that this is the Case of those that interpret this Prophesie of the See of Rome I believe they follow their Reason in expounding Scripture by Scripture But if their Reason be not the Reason of Religion the Reason of that Christianity which we all have Interest in the private Spirit that follows it may take all for Gods Service though never so wicked that is done in prosecution of it In the mean time Division increasing among us as it does I think I gratifie our selves and not the See of Rome in proposing that truth which reconciles the Interest of Reformation to the Interest of Vnity in the Church For in Civil War as Schism is nothing but a Civil War in the Church that Party that divides is the likely to Ruine And though the first hopes of the See of Rome have proved addle yet if our Divisions prevail they must needs have fresh hopes to prevail by our Divisions CHAP. VIII That it is the Duty of this Kingdom and of all Christian Soveraignties ANd therefore I must freely profess my opinion without any manner of hope that ever the See of Rome will abate any thing of their rigour Though the Reformation should content themselves with these terms For I find by the proceeding of former times that it is their Maxime to stand to that which they have once done And to mark those Popes to posterity that have abated any thing from the rigour of their Predecessors For being arrived at this Greatness by this Rigour and obstinacy in all Pretenses right or wrong they will always think themselves obliged in Reason of State not to yield so much as the Cup in the Eucharist Though the Council of Trent leave it in the Popes Power to grant it Because granting that any thing is and hath been amiss who shall secure them that nothing more shall be questioned then is indeed amiss when we see no point in Religion remain unquestioned some time or some where Not considering all the While that this Rigor is the cause of Division and Division the cause of these Questions And that the Reason of Reformation being owned on both sides there is a Ground restored for Confidence that they who accept of it will stand to those Bounds which it setleth But if the See of Rome can have no Power against the Whole Church Much less can any other Church or any part of the Church or any Secular Power that protecteth it make that to be Reformation which the Whole Church alloweth not Or secure their Subjects Consciences of the Salvation they seek in exercising their Christianity according to their Laws but by confining the Reformation which they maintain within those Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church either require or allow Now how can the Interest of the Nation be secured without due ground for hope of Gods blessing upon that which shall be done How can there be ground to expect Gods blessing till it appear how all Subjects of this Kingdom shall stand discharged at the day of Judgment following that form which the Kingdom inacteth rather then that which the See of Rome requireth For there are other Christian Princes and Soveraignties that command their Subjects to obey the See of Rome whose Subjects must as well stand discharged to God upon the same Plea as the Subjects of Reformed Princes and States And how shall the Consciences of them that make Laws be secured if they cannot secure the Consciences of them for whom they are made Or how can Gods blessing be expected if this security cannot be evidenced It is not yet time to ask how those that allow not the Reformation upon these Terms should be punished Because there are that pretend that no punishment can be inflicted for disobeying any Law of the Kingdom by which Religion is setled But it is time to say that they make it a very ridiculous thing for the Legislative Power to make Laws for the Kingdom which they can inact by no Penalty And how shall this difficulty be voided but by demanding nothing but that which Christianity will require of all Christians That no Christian Kingdom
the Law It seems they were only forbidden by the Law to go to the feasts which they the Gentiles made of their Sacrifices lest they should worship their Gods as they that invited them did Exod. XXXIII 15. and as they did with the Madianites Numb XXV 2. The forbearing of Idolaters meat was a hedge to the Law that they might be the further off from transgressing it But brought in under the Prophets and observed by the more Religious And the Jews have reason when they tell us that Nehemiah was dispensed with for drinking the wine of the Gentiles because he was Cup-bearer to the King Whereby it appears that S. Paul leaves it to the Charity of every Christian to use his freedom so sparingly as not to offend a weak Christian But under the Law it became a Rule that all the strong should forbear that which might possibly offend the weak And therefore when the Apostles at Jerusalem injoyn those that were converted of Gentiles to abstain from meats sacrificed to Idols they do forbid them to eat such meats even materially And command them to make inquiry for conscience sake as the Jews used to do and as converted Gentiles did in the Land of Promise For the Ordinance of Acts XV. 23. addresseth only to the Churches of Judaea and to those which Paul and Barnabas being sent from Antiochia had founded in Cilicia and the parts adjacent Acts XIII 2 3 14 XIV 26. XV. XIV 4. The reason of this difference is manifest by the words of S. Paul 1 Cor. XII 2. Ye know ye were Gentiles carried after these dumb Idols as ye were led Whereas Paul and Barnabas addressed first to the Jews and founded Churches of them for the greatest part So that the hopes of winning the Jews remaining the dispensation was to take place But the Church of Rome consisted of Gentiles as well as of Jews whereas in the Church of Corinth there is no account at all had of the Jews And therefore the forbearance required at Corinth is out of fear of Idolatry at Rome of Apostasie CHAP. XII The present Case of this time stated HAving thus stated the Case in which S. Paul ordereth this forbearance let us state our Case in which it is demanded by consequence But that cannot be done but out of the premises We must suppose the Church of England a member of the whole Church desires to Reform it self because the rest of the Church will not joyn in the same work But desires to continue a member of the whole Church and not to give any cause of interrupting Unity by improving Christianity I know some of them that demand Toleration do not allow any such thing as a Church of England when they are understood For how should they owne any Right of Soveraign Powers to give Law to the Church of their Dominions that allow them no Right to punish the transgression of such Laws But the Case must be stated upon the Terms proposed nevertheless as to those that acknowledge National Churches Excepting for those that make this Plea when we see time This only I think would be said that the Church of England is not now to be Reformed but having been Reformed is now questioned as if the Reformation of it were not yet perfect And therefore the boldness is taken by a private person of my condition to give an Opinion what is most wanting in the Reformation of it Because it cannot be said what is unduely demanded until it may be said what is due to be done But it must be remembred that the demand is made in behalf of those that had made a Schism in the Church of England by Ordaining or being Ordained Presbyters by Presbyters without and against the will of their Bishops In behalf of those it hath been demanded that their Ordinations may stand valid and good and the persons inabled by the Law of the Land to minister the Offices of their Orders and to be trusted with the Cure of Souls by their Bishops And not only so but it hath been further demanded that some of those Laws by which Religion is setled in the Kingdom be repealed for their sakes That they may have no pretense to scruple the Office of the Ministry Not that it is now said as for this hundred years it hath been said that the Laws which they would have repealed are against Gods Law And that therefore they cannot yield them obedience But that the Ministers or People that will follow them have a doubt in Conscience which they cannot be cleared of that it is not Lawful for them to yield them obedience and that they cannot do it without sinning and incurring damnation by doing against their Consciences And this is also the Case in which those that acknowledge no Church of England no Right in Christian Powers to give Law to the Church within their own Dominions do demand liberty to separate from the Church into their private Conventicles Protesting that they cannot hold Communion with the Church setled by the Laws of the Land No not though Reformed to the content of those hitherto mentioned And pretending the same reason from S. Paul that they should incur sin and damnation doing it in that doubt which they cannot be cleared of CHAP. XIII The Mistake which causeth Weakness in our Case THe Case thus stated I must in the first place ask both Parties whether they do think in their Consciences that S. Paul had not shewed the Jews at Rome that were become Christians sufficient reason to clear them of the doubts they had concerning their obligation to the Law of Moses that they were indeed free of it and ought to be free of those doubts I suppose they will think it fit to say that though S. Paul injoyn them to forbear one another so long as they did not understand their freedom yet that they might understand it and were bound to understand it For is there any man so little a Christian now that the time of forbearance is past that there is no more hope to gain the Jews by compliance without making our selves Jews as to make a question of offending a Jew by not abating the Profession of his Christianity The consequence whereof is all that I demand If S. Paul would have the Jews forborn that the provocation which they might meet with might not move them to dislike their Christianity certainly he held them to be under a light which obliged them not to dislike it Otherwise he should not have done the work which he pretends to do by this Epistle to shew the Law to be void because Salvation comes only by Faith And certainly there can be nothing more opprobrious to Christianity then that which is pleaded for abatement in the present Laws That the weak are not under a light inabling them to see those things to be lawful which indeed and to the strong may be lawful and appear such For how could this doubt be cleared if a weak
come clear of this Anathema the Authority of the See of Rome being intire For K. Henry the VIII or at least for his Kingdom it was and is enough that so long as he owned the Authority of that See he must needs be troubled in conscience at that Marriage by which he must needs incur it preferring the former Act of a Council under Gregory the II. Pope before a Bull of Julius the II. Pope dispensing in an Anathema of the said Council For as the Primitive Canons are to be preferred in Church-Law before the loosness of succeeding Ages being still further from the Apostles So the Act of the Council under the Regular Power of the Pope is to be preferred before a Bull which now passeth without the Consistory as the Popes personal Act after the unlimited absolute Power of the Pope hath taken place As for King Edward the VI. professing the Reformation and protesting it as he did so that the See of Rome could have no pretense of correspendence without owning it themselves there succeeds the necessity of a State of Schism upon the Excommunication following The Crime of Schism remaining on that side that Excommunicates for vindicating and restoring the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church This being the state of our Case and the Laws of the Whole Church and the Faith thereof necessary to the Title that must justifie Reformation without the Consent of the Whole Is it not manifest to all Understandings that the Law by which this State is to be Governed must be such a Provision as the Laws of the Whole Church inable a part of it to make for it self in the Case And therefore we must affirm as many of us as would have no share in the Schism as to God being thus secured that to the Church we are not chargeable with it That there is nothing to hinder such a Provision but the misunderstanding of them And that we see not what the Consequence of our own Profession requires A reason that presses me so hard that I do willingly expose my self to the displeasure of all that shall find themselves disgusted with this freedom Only to give my self the satisfaction of publishing it whatsoever displeasure it procure me As being satisfied that there is no other cure for our present distempers For in the first place it must be said that it is in vain to talk of Regular Government by the Canons of the Church without restoring the liberty of Synods to the respective Provinces Not as if the Church needed any abatement in the Act of Henry the VIII which forbiddeth making and perhaps advising of Canons to be made without the Assent of the Crown But because the World knows it was the Usurped Legatine Power that had brought Synods to nothing by Usurping upon the Ordinary And therefore it is but Justice in the Crown finding the Right of Synods the Subjects thereof Usurped by the See of Rome to restore it to the Subjects upon whom the Usurpation had been made The Supremacy of the Crown being sufficiently provided for by the said Act And the force of all Acts of Synods depending upon the Legislative Power of the Kingdom In the next place it is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church unto Regular Government without restoring the Liberty of chusing Bishops and the Priviledge of injoying them to the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocese I say not depriving the Crown of the due Interest of a Negative to any Person to be promoted a Bishop in any instance of his Promotion God forbid it should come into my thought But the Supremacy being so provided for so evident is the Right of the Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be governed that I need mark no other Reason for the neglect of Episcopacy but the neglect of it For the neglect of Cathedral Churches but the neglect alienation of their Office under and with their Bishops This for certain had not the See of Rome introduced so much disorder in the creating of Bishops that we have not yet cured it we should have heard of it with both ears from their Advocates And if I may credit a person of unquestionable credit his late Majesty was so convinced hereof when he was at Oxford that he offered to part with it if a way were shewed how to do it As for the translating of Bishops which done as it is of course must needs render the Office unfruitful to their People As no man can deny that there ought to be a course for dispensing in the Canon for publick good So cannot this pretense of publick good come to effect unless it be maintained by the Office of Synods to whom the State of the Church vindicates the Right of it That which I said afore of Appeals belongs to this place For what Law can provide that in Causes reserved to the Bishop parties shall rest content always with his sentence Or whether can Ecclesiastical Causes resort from him but to the Synod of the Province Again what Christian Kingdom could ever prevent a mixture of Causes That is a concurrence of Interest between the Soveraign Power and the Office of the Church Or what danger can be imaginable to this Crown in doing Right to the Church Having only its own Subjects to deal with Or what can be more ready to receive Appeals of this Nature then a Commission of Judges delegate as well by the Synods as by the Crown for the expedition of such Causes in which the pretense of the Subject as well as the Interest of Religion may be concerned As for matter of Faith Having admitted all that hath been decreed within the time of the six truly General Councils I dare say that there is nothing that the See of Rome can charge upon the Socinians or Anabaptists or any Sect of our Fanaticks that is not condemned in the Arians Pelagians or other Sects which the Whole Church hath condemned during that time So that there can be no cause why Christianity should not be maintained by the Reformation during this State of Schism but neglecting the true consequence of that which we our selves profess CHAP. XXV Two Laws more necessary to the Reformation of the Church THese are the principal points in the Canons of the Whole Church which the Profession of Reforming the Church obliges us to restore There are two points more the one concerning the People the other the Inferior Clergy which till they be restored our Reformation cannot be that which it pretendeth That all who shall be convicted in Law of capital or infamous Crimes stand Excommunicate ipso facto and if Execution pass be deprived of Christian Burial unless they reconcile themselves to the Church Unless the Law make this good how should the Kingdom be counted a Christian Kingdom For if scandalous Crimes that are notorious be allowed Communion with the Church how can it