with these Positions which I cannot shew to have been Professed by Visible Bodies I discharge my self upon a number of Pamphlets of the time of that Confusion which was called the Blessed Reformation wherein free Grace was made to be the pardon of sin before it is done Justification to be the Revelation of predestination to Glory and no sin to be seen in Gods Elect. One particularly which I have cause to believe was printed by Cromwells own Appointment because it answered a Petition of Welsh Fanaticks which charged him to depart from his Principles answers expresly that the Principle of Salvation is neither Faith nor good Works but Christ living in the heart and abiding there whatever Principles the Godly may change And for the Church have we not seen our Independent Congregations or do we not see them in New-England refuse Baptism to all that will not take the Covenant which they appoint themselves to take and owne no other Churches but such Congregations I suppose no man in his right senses will imagine that there can be a Catholick Church consisting in the Communion of all such Congregations Or that there can be any Faith to give Law to their Communion who have the Law in their own hand to be to morrow Socinians if they please Or any other Sect that allows Independent Congregations For the Socinians may seem to have the Eldership of New-England for Independent Congregations On the other side do we not see the Leviathan that Monster of a Christian openly Profess that he is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth if his Soveraign command Though still bound to believe in him at the heart So utterly perswaded that there is no such thing as a Church of Gods Ordinance But only by the Act of Soveraign Powers within the respective Dominions of each of them That he had rather renounce his Baptism and so the Benefit of it then owne any Creed or any Catholick Church CHAP. VII That it is for the Interest of the Reformation as much as of the See of Rome HAving therefore observed upon due consideration as I hope that all the Errours which have had Vogue during our late Confusions are reducible to these two Positions destructive to two Articles of our Creed that Profess one Catholick Church and one Baptism for remission of Sins I am still led by the same Consideration to think my self tyed in Conscience freely to Profess that where these two Positions clearly renounced and the sense of those two Articles duely established and received by all Parties that owne the same Creed the Re-union of the whole Church must needs follow For the Power of the whole Church being so stated as to presuppose the whole condition of our Salvation and to extend only to the determining of those things which may promote edification in it without endangering the Unity of the Church why should not I think that there is found by the consent of the whole Church from the beginning so clear a resolution of all that is disputed to maintain Separation concerning the Condition of the Covenant of Grace that it cannot be refused by the Parties owning the common Faith There is great cause to fear that notwithstanding the mischiefs we feel by our own Divisions some would think it still a greater mischief that the Whole Church should be re-united Though upon just Terms and such as must needs re-unite our selves But if the Christian Religion oblige us to do men good against their will He that demands nothing but the Right Vnderstanding of two Articles in the Creed to the Re-uniting of Christendom intends the greatest Charity that those who love Division can receive Whether his demand be sufficient to do his Work or no he must leave it to the World to judge For it is to be acknowledged that when the Condition of our Salvation is setled and all that causes Division upon the Account of it there remains besides very many Disputes concerning Publick Orders as well in the Offices of the Church as in the publick Government of it and the Interest as well of the State as of the Church in the same But let not therefore those that love not Unity pretend Difficulty For they shall find such Principles laid to the determining of them all in the Visible Laws of that one Church which cannot continue One but by owning the same that the due bounds of Reformation cannot escape them that will not decline the thred and the grain of these grounds And yet in all this no man declines the Scripture for the only Rule of Faith But he that refuses the See of Rome for Judge in the Sense of it which is all that remains in question may well crave leave to decline the Judgment of any private Spirit not confined within the bounds which the Visible consent of the Church determineth Not as if the sense of the Scripture were not more and more to be discovered which is indeed discovered every day more and more But because the true sense of it will always fall within the compass of that which the Church hath always received I am very well perswaded that the See of Rome will never hear of any Terms of Reconcilement so long as they see our Divisions increase But I am very well assured that the Divisions of the Reformation can never be Re-united so as to prevent the like for the future but upon that Ground which being received will serve to re-unite the Whole Church There can never be One Visible Faith One Visible Church upon any other terms There can be no such sin as Heresie to violate Faith as Schism to violate Charity upon other terms And therefore it is out of Love to the Reformation that I insist upon such a Principle as may serve to re-unite us with the Church of Rome Being well assured that we can never be well re-united with our selves otherwise That not only the Reformation but the Common Christianity must needs be lost in the Divisions which will never have an end otherwise And he that can take measure how much of it is lost in thirty years time since these Troubles began even among them that inclose the Name of Saints and the Godly to themselves will easily believe that it hath not long to live unless Division be put to death And yet the vain hopes of the Parties ever since the Division may make it appear that both have Reason enough to be reconciled They of the See of Rome have long expected a hundred and fifty years or thereabouts that those Christian Princes that have looked upon the Reformation as dangerous to the Peace of their Dominions should give them assistance to reduce all that Protest against the abuses thereof by force of Arms to submit to their Will Which would be to make that Will the Law of Religion as well to themselves as to those that should be so reduced But the experience of so much time evidences that the Powers of
Orders is nothing else but to imagine that God hath given Power to divide that is to destroy his Church For what is setting up Altar against Altar but to Usurp Power to Consecrate the Eucharist and give the Communion of it in despite of them whom they allow to have Power to do the same because they do it by Authority received from themselves In all the Records of the Church there is but one Case expresly remembred in which it can be said to have been done That fell out in Aegypt at the time when the Church was divided between the Arians and the Catholicks But before that trouble there was another division on foot about receiving back into the Church those that had fellen from the Faith in the persecution of Diocletian For Meletius Bishop of Lycopolis had proceeded to Ordain Bishops in as many Cities as he could in opposition to those Bishops that stuck to the See of Alexandria In these distractions Coluthus one of the XII Presbyters of Alexandria became the Head of a Party by himself and to propagate his Party took upon him to make Ordinations of Presbyters to Minister to those of his Sect. Aerius is the man that maintained the Authority of Bishops and Presbyters to be all one Yet do I not remember that it is any where said that Aerius took upon him to Ordain Presbyters being himself one Much less that he was able to hold up a Sect by such Ordinations Audius was a Presbyter that became the Father of one of those Sects that Epiphanius writes against But Epiphanius says expresly that he had Bishops that imbraced his Opinion and propagated his Sect by Ordination Tertullian became the Father of a Sect which continued at Carthage till S. Austines time by whom they were reduced to the Church And truly it is to be presumed that the Father of the Sect did propagate it by Ordinations made of his own Head For what should he stick at that takes upon him to divide the Church and to set up Altar against Altar But I have not found it said that he did do it Nor have I found that any Presbyter did ever undertake to do it but Coluthus At the Council of Nicaea to unite the Meletians to the Church the Bishops Ordained by him were allowed to succeed when the present Bishops should dye yet so as to be then lawfully Ordained though they had been Schismatically Ordained afore But when the Coluthians pretended the same priviledge Athanasius pleads for himself that all Coluthus his Ordinations were made void Which is thought to have been done by that Synod at Alexandria which Hosius was present at with Commission from Constantine This is the only Example of Presbyters Ordained by a Presbyter without and against his Bishop All the rest are meer conjectures which cannot stand unless we suppose the Canons of the Church were not observed because it is not recorded how they were observed Whereas all reason requires us to suppose that they were observed because they might be observed and because there followed no dissension upon their not being observed Such Ordinations then being meer nullities as presumed to be done by them that never received Authority from the Church to Ordain do further induce Irregularity by the Canons of the Church And who can deny that all reason and Conscience requires it For who can believe his Creed professing one Catholick Church and not think the Church more disobliged by Schism then by any other Crime that renders a man uncapable to be promoted to Orders Certainly if Rebellion be the Crime that is hardest to be reconciled to Civil trust then is Schism hardest to be reconciled to trust in the Church Nevertheless because Unity is to be preferred before Discipline and because experience shews that when men are taken off from an ingagement in division they prove the more trusty the more weary they were of their ingagement it hath been often practised by the Church to receive not only Schismaticks but even Hereticks also That is such as had received Orders of those that parted from the Church upon an errour in Faith in their respective Orders But always upon condition of renouncing the cause of their division Whereupon they were to receive the Blessing of the Church by Prayer with Imposition of Hands The reason was because neither is Baptism in Schism effectual to Salvation nor Ordination in Schism effectual to Grace by the Ministry of any Office in Schism But being renounced there remains no Cause why their Ministry should not be effectual to their people Their Baptism and their Ministry to their own Salvation supposing it sincerely renounced Therefore the Reason why they who are Ordained by Presbyters cannot be received in their respective Orders is peremptory Because the Schism consisting in Ordaining against Authority cannot be renounced unless the Ordination be voided For so long as the Ministry may be usurped upon such Ordination so long is the Schism on foot I do very well know that the Ordinations of Arians were allowed by S. Athanasius in a Synod at Alexandria who had made the Ordination of Ischyras by Coluthus void And I remember the high acclamation which S. Hierom applauds his Act with That thereby the world was snatched out of Satans jaws But I read that the Tertulliniasts were received into the Church not that they were received in their Orders I find difficulty made by Forreign Churches of receiving the Donatists in their Orders Notwithstanding the complaints of the African Bishops that without them they had not Clergy enough to serve the Church Hereby it is to be judged how severe this Church was with them that had received Ordination by Presbyters The Canon of the whole Church makes all Irregular Ordainers and Ordained Because they had concurred to bring back his Majesty Which was the restoring of the Laws and so of the Church the forfeiture was wholly passed by and nothing required of Ordainers more then of the Clergy Which is an utter Oblivion of the attempt made by those Ordinations And is not that a very great degree of Forbearance in our Case S. Paul when he injoyns Forbearance doth he injoyn that those who did not understand how men were saved by Faith alone that were saved under the Law should be promoted to Orders indifferently with those that did profess it That were indeed something like that which hath been demanded that Weakness should intitle to the Clergy which orderly supposes strength But does he injoyn farther that they should Minister without Orders That continuing Lay-men they should commit the Sacrilege of Usurping to Celebrate the Eucharist That if their Ordination be void by the Law of the Land there should be a new Law made to make their Ordination good and valid which was void when it was made Then must he injoyn that it be lawful for every Lay-man to celebrate the Eucharist Forasmuch as every Lay-man hath as much to do to celebrate the Eucharist as he whose
A DISCOVRSE OF THE FORBEARANCE OR THE PENALTIES Which a Due REFORMATION REQUIRES BY H. THORNDIKE One of the Prebends of Westminster Church LONDON Printed by J. M. for James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall 1670. THE PREFACE ARistotle and Experience teacheth us that no Positive Law can provide for all the Cases that may arise upon the Terms of it Religion indeed in General is a Moral Vertue But the true Religion that bringeth Salvation is a Positive Constitution of Gods Grace requiring the Condition of Christianity to qualifie for the Promise of life everlasting But upon several Terms heretofore under the Law of Nature and Moses and now under the Christian Faith The Church of Christ in all Ages hath been constrained to provide new Decrees and seek new Laws for the quenching of new Heresies and Schisms They that ever hoped to do that by an Act of Comprehension which the Act of Uniformity hath not done would have proved themselves deceitful Workers They would have made many Breaches by stopping of One. That which I am able to propound I confess is rather possible than probable For were it so far advanced as to be inacted for a Law of the Kingdom I should never believe that it would take effect unless the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church might be received to give Bounds to all emergent Disputes No more then I can believe that the Reformation will ever prevail after one Breach in Germany after another since in the United Provinces and these last here amongst us unless we unite our selves upon the same Principle Whether I have said enough to prove it well grounded or not I must refer that to Judgment But he that excuses me not in such an innocent Proposition as this How would he have Almighty God to excuse me if having attained this Resolution I should not declare the Consequence of it in our present Case Especially considering the Duty which the Law of the Land justly and necessarily imposes upon all of my Order to Reduce Recusants to Church For there are now two sorts of Recusants And those that are bound to reduce them must do it upon such Reasons that by reducing the one sort they drive not the other sort from Church Let them that have more skill then I shew how it can be done without imploying my Principle I that am resolved it can by no other means be done must declare my Resolution though I were to suffer for it Which from a Christian Kingdom I cannot do One thing I have adventured upon my own Head Granting that the Government of the Church was Regular till after the sixth General Council And so that the the Acts of the Church before that time are effects of it But that is not to say that the Corruption of the Church which we Protest against and Reform began not till that time Religion began to be corrupted earlier in some and later in other Points But this Corruption had not the force of Law till after that time And especially till the Vsurpation of the See of Rome It is enough that there is difference Visible in any Point between that which was from the beginning according to the Scriptures and that which was when the Reformation was attempted That which can be made out hereof will serve to cramp both sorts of Recusants That which cannot should be no cause of difference He that reduces the sense of the Scripture within the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church warrants the Penalties of Recusants Let the Laws do their Office and make it a Disgrace to be out of the Church And then we may expect to see the Blessing of God upon his own Ordinance But without restoring Discipline without Canons and Laws to restore it without the Office of the Synods in providing those Canons let no man think that temporal Penalties will serve to do the business For though there can be no reason sufficient for violating the Vnity of the Church yet if the dissatisfaction that hath caused it resolve into a defect of the Laws it can no more be ended without redressing the Laws then a Disease can be cured without taking away the Cause of it Errata PAg. 10. lin 13. r. Prophesies sent since the Ground o Salvation was declared is p. 17. l. 5. the Church read this Church p. 20. l. 27. the Article of this Church r. the Law of this Kingdom p. 22. l. 3. Christians r. Christian p. 25. l. 27. decay r. decays p. 36. l. 1. or to be believed to r. to be believed or to p. 42. l. 29. Laws r. Law p. 63. l. 20. the best r. their best p. 99. l. 28. Churches r. Church p. 109. l. 28. making r. and making p. 113. l. 5. Christs r. Christ p. 121. l. 12. which r. of whom p. 125. l. 21. to come to r. come to p. 151. l. 17. Idolaters r. Idolatry p 153. l. 18. Invocations r. Invocation p. 263. l. 16. these r. those OF THE FORBEARANCE OR PENALTIES Which a due Reformation requires CHAP. I. The Case in which forbearance is pretended for weak Consciences IT is a long time that the forbearance due to tender Consciences hath been alledged for the means to restore Unity in this Church And certainly were the Case stated in which S. Paul prescribed it to the Church of Rome that so it might be drawn into Consequence in our Case the Scripture must needs produce that which would be of advantage for Peace without prejudice to Truth But when the bare Phrase of Scripture is tossed up and down in the discourse of them that care not to understand either the Reason upon which it is grounded or the Effect to which it sorteth no marvel to see the decay of Religion proceed from the abuse of the Scripture We need not the Heresies of the Primitive Times even the abominable Villanies of the Gnosticks to tell us what irreligious pretenses may be set forth in Scripture Phrase Our own Fanaticks would furnish sport enough with the fooleries which they pretend as from Gods Spirit because they can deliver their non-sense in the Phrase of Scripture could such irreligious madness move any thing but the compassion and lamentation of Christians It is enough for my purpose that unless the Precept of the Apostle be limited to that consequence which the reason of the Case will produce the two-edged Sword of the holy Scripture may prove an edge tool to cut their shins with who take upon them and have not the skill to handle it For the state of the Case to which S. Paul speaks I will say no more at present but this That he prescribeth only to the Church of Rome at that time when the care was not to loose the Jews by winning the Gentiles to be Christians There could then be no question of establishing a National Church by the Law of a Kingdom which Church and which Kingdom shall by that Law reform that which it protesteth
Law maintain it I suppose it will not be though a good Plea at the day of Judgment for a Subject to say that he was either Protestant or Papist because his Soveraign was so Now Christianity can be Visible by no other means but because it is the Visible Profession of the Visible Church If it become Invisible by differences betwixt Parties it must be in Soveraign Powers to bring the Parties to tryal Provided that there be no tryal but by the Visible Church This is the Forbearance that may be extended by Pastors and may be required by the Soveraign in our Case For the present dissension shews that the Reformation was well begun indeed but not perfected Does not the World know that there was an Act in force for nominating Commissaries to Reform the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Kingdom I am not to say why this Act took no effect I think I have said it when I have observed the rise of the Puritan Party and the seeds of the late War sowed in the beginning of Recusancy But I am to say it could not have taken good effect without taking in the Principle which I maintain What could be more just and discreet then to appoint Commissaries in equal number of Bishops Divines Civil and Common Lawyers But what could have had force but that which had been done to restore and maintain the Faith and Laws of the Primitive Church There are very great Reasons why those that desire to serve the Church should be satisfied in all that this Exception will allow There can be no Reason why more should be allowed To bring them into dispute with their Pastors is to put the Authority of the Church to compromise To compromise any Law of the Kingdom to dispute of Divines upon this Principle is no more then to oblige either Popish or Fanatick Recusants either to stand to the Result or to suffer Penalties competent to their disobedience and the hazard which the Publick Peace runneth when the Peace of Religion is disturbed If that which hath been pretended be all that is intended That some small things are scrupled Let the Legislative Power be satisfied that the preservation of Religion and of the Authority of the Church in which the preservation of Religion consisteth is only sought The Interest of the Parties to give and to receive mutual satisfaction is so great that if there can be ever hope of Peace by dispute this is the time and ours the Case wherein to hope for it CHAP. XIX Probability of recovering the Presbyterians FOr I cannot have so hard an opinion of men whose zeal for the advancement of Discipline in the Church I have always esteemed as to think them resolved to ruine the Common Christianity without hope of doing their own business seeing this to be the unavoidable consequence of holding up the difference on foot rather then taking up with so much of their own Pretensions as the State of the Catholick Church will allow Let them consider in the first place the Recusancy of the Fanaticks as well as those of the Church of Rome What hope their Principles can give them either to make their Recusancy punishable by the Law of the Land or to reduce them by convicting them of that sense of the Scripture which they only allow themselves to convict them with I set aside for the present those Prophesies of Daniel and the Revelation by which they pretend the Pope to be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters For I must argue in due place that the Recusancy of the Papist cannot be punishable by Law upon this Account But how will they either reduce the Recusancy of the Papist by those punishments which the Recusancy of the Fanaticks must suffer or give the Kingdom God and the World a Reason for the why not which the best of them is here challenged to undertake Then let them consider the wantonness of these times and the wits of them that think it good sport to call in question the foundation of Christianity upon the belief of Original sin by introducing the praeexistence of Souls That think it but sport to make ready their studies in Divinity for the Pulpit by Episcopius his Works denying Original sin both name and thing and making the Faith of the Holy Trinity unnecessary to Salvation Or rather by the Works of the Socinians collected and united together in Holland on purpose to prepare us for the same Apostasie to Socinianism which they are in so much danger of there Let them consider what hope they have to make the Vniversities good Presbyterians that have sowed the seeds of this danger in them by the dissatisfaction they had of their Doctrine when they were in Possession there Then let them tell me what we shall say to the Papists to perswade them to come to Church when as they shall say that they cannot be secured that their Curate is no Socinian or Origenist For the Arminian Congregations in Holland having admitted the Socinians into their Communion and the Canon of the Church making all Socinians in the eye of the Church that Communicate with Socinians how shall they be secured against those that take their Doctrine from the Socinians Or from them who communicate with Socinians Besides let them but remember the time when they had the Ball at their Foot an Ordinance of Parliament for setting up their Presbyteries And how much they gained upon the People whom they had disordered out of all Ecclesiastical Government when they came to be at what they would be at I think they will be at so great despair of reducing the World to their intent having nothing in the Law of the Land to favour it that they will think that they have cause to thank God of a good opportunity to bring them off from an ingagement in which they are like to gain so little by hazarding the common Christianity As for the Clergy of this Church I suppose there is none of them so little a Christian as to repute it a loss to the Party to see their Adversaries capable of that trust in the Church and those rewards of it which they have suffered for themselves For if the necessity of the Kingdom hath required an Act of Oblivion much more must the necessity of Religion which cannot be attained without a cordial conspiring of those that are to manage it inforce a mixture of Interest And that being considered let any man tell me how that can be made but by a Third in which all are alike Interessed That is by owning the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church whereby the Papist is either reduced or left punishable as the Fanatick CHAP. XX. The Cure by repairing the Revenue of the Church BUt all this is but a Cure for the Symptom Should such a Conference take effect the Cause of the disease would remain intire For the Cause of our Divisions is not these differences which are too inconsiderable to produce so incomparable a
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