kneele at the Communion would bee Holy That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismatickes before God SInce the time that I could understand the Dispute about If the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been Religion when it was demanded on the behalf of the Church of Rome Where was your Church before Luthers time The Answer hath always been Even where it is now The answer was That it is the same Church that it was A Church which was sick and is now cured Which was corrupted and now is cleared of her Corruptions This answer supposeth that the Church of Rome was a true Church when that Change which wee call Reformation was made And therefore granteth as it hath always been granted that so it is at present For it cannot bee questioned that it is the same Church now which then it was Though the Council of Trent may have encreased the corruption of it And upon these terms all dispute of choice in Religion comes to trial upon this issue Whether the change that is made hath restored that which was in the beginning or not An issue not to be tried but by going to trial upon the particulars in which the change consisteth But are wee all content to goe to tryal upon this issue It If the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church were good that wee did understand one another whether wee bee agreed upon it or not For if wee bee then may wee expect to build Solomons Temple without any noise If not wee shall bee the Builders of Babel Wee shall never understand one anothers Language For of a truth there is another reason alleged for the breach between us and the Church of Rome to wit that the Pope is Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters If this pretense bee true wee need not seek farther for the reason of the distance Wee are to owne the Separation for our own Act and to glorie in it For it is done by Gods expresse Command Come out of her my People As to the Jewes in the Captivity of Babylon so to the Christians in the Apocalypse If it bee the Church of Rome that Babylon there signifieth But if this plea bee good it may bee inconsistent with that which the former plea supposeth And though wee cannot goe to trial upon the truth of it without going to trial upon the particulars in difference Yet it is necessary to provide that wee contradict not our selves It is necessary also to consider the importance and consequence of it Whether the reason of the distance amount to so heavy a charge or not It is necessary that wee understand our selves whether wee admit the consequence of our own supposition or not And indeed it concernes us to the purpose Wee all beleeve If â—o â—isible Church thâ—n no sinne of Schismâ— one Catholicke Church for an Article of our Creed upon which the hope of our Common Salvation hangeth If any man be allowed to say I beleeve it not I must be allowed to say I must not bee of that Church in which hee is allowed â—o say it It were good to understand Whether the Unity of the Church out of which no man is saved bee the Visible Unity of those that communicate in the Offices of Gods Service Or whether it be enough that being invisibly United to Christ they are invisibly United to one another by Christ For if the Visible Unity of the Church be not founded by God then is there no crime of Schisme in breaking that Unity But onely of Heresy in breaking it upon an errour in the Faith If there bee such an Unity And therefore such a crime in breaking it Care would bee had that wee ground not our selves in this state of Separation upon that which will render us accessory to it Now I do not doubt that whosoever hath gone about or Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot bee the Head of a Church shall goe about to perswade the Jewes that hee is the Christ whom they expect must needs ipso facto bee Antichrist For the word signifies no more than one that pretends to bee Christ in opposition to the true Christ And therefore to Christians who beleeve in the true Christ a false Christ and an Antichrist are both one And S. John 1 John II. 18 22. IV. 3. II John 7. signifies nothing else by that name but those whom our Saviour calls false Christs Mat. XXIV 24. Mark XIII 22. And therefore hee that pretendeth to bee such a Prophet and a Prince as the Jewes expected that their Christ should bee in opposition to the true Christ in whom Christians beleeve As hee is a false Christ so is hee Antichrist For there is no other mention of Antichrist in all the Scriptures but this Other Scriptures are onely supposed to speak of Antichrist But presumption without evidence must not bee taken for truth I do not doubt then that Mahomet is really Antichrist Though the Mahumetans expected no Christ Because hee is the author of a Law which they take for Gods Law And of a power founded upon that Imposture As the Jewes expect that their Christ shall restore Moses Law and the power which God first founded upon it But neither can the Jewes Antichrist nor the Mahumetans Antichrist bee Idolaters without rooting up the Alcoran or the Law of Moses which was not the way to win either the Jewes or those whom Mahomet had to do with Notwithstanding I believe Manicheus was Antichrist and an Idolater both I believe he taught the Idolatry of the Persians in his two Gods the principles one of good the other of evil He pretended indeed to come from Christ as having his Spirit And therefore sent out his twelve Apostles as our Lord Christ had sent his But yet that he brought in his own new Law instead of Christianity no man that knows his positions can doubt And is not hee Antichrist that pretends to do what Christ indeed hath done Therefore I deny not that the Pope may bee Antichrist though the Papists bee Idolaters But I do not grant that the Pope can bee Antichrist granting the Church of Rome to bee a true Church For to bee a ttue Church presupposes the profession of so much Christianity as is necessary to the salvation of all Christians But the salvation of no Christian can stand with the profession of a false Christ And therefore granting the Pope to be Antichrist they that own him can bee no Church So this plea will bee inconsistent with the former which supposeth the Church of Rome a true Church when the Separation fell out As for the charge of Idolatry it is at present alleged in Bar Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to kneel at the Communion would be Holy
bee allowed to forejudge my opinion because it makes our Reconcilement with the Church of Rome easier then they would have it For if division in the Church without evident and valuable cause bee a sin to God it will certainly bee the sin of the Kingdom to bear them out in it by stating our Reformation upon undue grounds For the terms of it must needs bee according to the grounds of it which being either invisible or inconsiderable in comparison of the benefits of Unity must needs translate some part of the blame to rest upon that side which exceeds And therefore to excuse my freedom in publishing that Why it ought to bee declared which follows Let no man grudge me this Plea for my self at the day of Judgement that being convicted that our agreement cannot bee acceptable to God but upon the consequence of those two suppositions according to that which follows I am not at rest till I have said it Could there bee peace had by compounding the Interest of two parties without providing for the Interest of our common Christianity in those two Articles what joy could a Christian expect of that which should bee purchased at so unconscionable a Rate Here is nothing said but that which hath been said when Arbitrary power might have made it a pretense for Persecution had the Interest of Usurpers allowed it It is a short view of that which I have published heretofore presented to those that may desire to see in one prospect what is the true consequence of it in the composing of those differences that remain still on foot And the danger of being involved in the Crime of Schisme before God obligeth me to declare that opinion which being not declared may render me lyable to that charge in Gods sight Therefore there is no offense to Superiors in declaring it The The declaring of it no offense to Superiors Lawes of Kingdoms go by a Rule that is made of such metal as may bend and be fitted to the body which they are to rule Only they are to aim at an inflexible Rule of Gods truth which is the Inheritance of every Christian And therefore he that sees it made crooked is bound to set it straight This is not to say what publique Authority should do but what it should intend to do A thing necessary to bee said when there bee those who would have it intend that which it ought not to do In fine the difficulty and danger of our case seems to supersede for the present the Rule of Obedience in the Church CHAP. V. Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Vnity of the Church as for the truth of the Scriptures The Church founded upon the Power of the Keyes The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Lawes of it The Law which endoweth the Church with Consecrated Goods How the Vnity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures How in the Old Testament Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Unity of the Church aâ— for the truth of the Scriptures I Say then that the Unity of the Church signifies nothing unless it signifie the Visible Unity of Communion in the outward offices of Gods Service Not onely the Invsible Unity of the heart in Faith and Charity Unless the Church bee founded by God for an outward Society Visible to the common reason of man Not onely for an Invisible Number the Unity whereof onely his own Invisible Wisdom inwardly designeth And I say it because I conceive I have proved it by the same evidence upon which wee accept the Scriptures for the Word of God Upon which wee hold our common Christianity For I have shewed that wee believe the Scriptures for the Scriptures the matter of Faith for the Motives of Faith there related That is wee hold those things which the Scriptures relate sufficient to oblige all the people of God afore Christ to bee Jewes All the people of the world after Christ to bee Christians This in the nature of a reason obliging a man to bee a Christian For in the nature and kind of an effective cause I do not suppose much less grant that any thing is sufficient much less effectual without Gods Spirit â—ut if an Unbeliever should ask mee why I believe that to bee true which being true I grant sufficient to oblige mee to believe It will not serve my turn to say that I find it written in the Scripture So long as the question is why I believe the Scripture My answer must bee that the consent of all Christians in submitting to the Gospel which they would not have done had they not known the motives to bee true for which they did it assures mee as much that they are true as if I had seen the things done which moved them to believe Especially being as much convicted by the light of Reason and Nature that Christianity goes beyond Judaisme for advancing the Service of God and goodness as that Judaisme goes beyond the Religion either of Pagans or Mahumetans For this being the reason why wee believe that must bee The Church founded upon the Power of the Keyâ—s alleged by all that will allege any reason to Unbelievers It must needs have the same force in evidencing the sense that wee allow it in evidencing the credit of the Scriptures If the consent of all Christians in submitting to Christianity upon Motives recorded in the Scriptures assure mee that they are true And therefore the Scriptures the Word of God and Christianity the onely Religion by which wee can bee saved Then the consent of all Christians in owning the obligation of holding Visible Communion with the Church is to assure mee that it is Gods Ordinance For the act or the acts of our Lord upon which the Church is founded I allege the Power of the Keyes described by the effect of binding and loosing and to that effect granted to St. Peter Mat. XVI 18 19 To the Disciples assembled after the Resurrection John XX. 19-23 in the terms of remitting and retaining sinne To the Church Mat. XVIII 15-18 in the same terms as to St. Peter to the effect of rendring him that obeys not a Heathen man or a Publican to him that would bee a Christian Here you have a certain Power deposited with certain Persons the effect whereof is Visible in the succession of Person deriving the authority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons which are here trusted with it And in the maintenance of Visible Communion amongst true Christians by excluding the false It is true Haereticks and Schismaticks exclude themselves out of the Church For they would bee the Church themselves if they could tell how But it is the authority of the Church that obligeth Christians to avoid them as the Jewes to whom our Lord spake did then avoid Heathen men and Publicans And it obligeth by declaring them Haereticks and Schismaticks I know there bee those that would have the imputation of
Haeresie and Schisme to bee now meer Bug-bears to fright children with But would any of them owne any of the Sects which were shut out of the Church for Haereticks or Schismaticks from the time of our Lord till the time of Constantine for true Christians Whether they would or they would not is not considerable For if all good Christians then did then did all good Christians owne the Visible Unity of the Church And there is as great a consent of Christians in the Visible Unity of the Church as in the truth of Christianity saving this difference That all Christians good and bad true and false agree in the truth of Christianity Onely those that are neither Haereticks nor Schismaticks in the Unity of the Church Let no man mistake this evidence as if so great a truth The Unity of the Church Visible by the Lawes of it were read onely in two or three Texts of Scripture They who take upon them to argue of such matters as these ought to know that the Lawes of all Commonwealths when first they are founded are the wills of their Rulers according to that measure of Power whereby they Rule Therefore if our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successours with the Rule of his Church hee trusts them also to make Lawes for the Ruling of it Provided that they tend to inforce not to avoid those Lawes which hee in person hath left them as Christians For Disciples that is Christians hee left them actually Not actually Members of his Church as not yet actually formed though virtually founded in the Power of the Keyes which hee left his Disciples These Lawes are as Visible as the Lawes of any Kingdom or Commonwealth that is or ever was are Visible I do not owne the Popes Canon Law to have the force of obliging us For I maintain a great deal of Usurpation in the Power by which it was made as well as a great deal of abuse in making the Law given by our Lord of no effect by the matter of it But I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to bee said of that Canon Law whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople now governs in the Eastern Church to bee derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successours governed the Primitive Church in Unity And this no less evident then the Christianity of this time is to bee derived from the Christianity of that time For as the present Law of the Church is but the corruption of the Primitive no more is the present Christianity whether of the Reformation or of the Church of Rome but the corruption of the Primitive For why shall I make nice to say it pretending all Reformation to be nothing but the restoring of Primitive Christianity And to that end of such Lawes in the Church as may bee the means to restore it Among those Lawes there is one which obliging those who The Law which endoweth the Church with Consecrated goods have given up themselves to God for Christians to give up their goods to maintain the Assemblies of the Church for the Service of God wherein the Communion of the Church consisteth estateth the Power of dispensing the maintenance thereof upon the Rulers of the Church This provision how little soever notice many take of it who pretend to understand the Scriptures began first in our Lord and the Disciples that attended upon him continually For it is evident by the Gospels that those Disciples which did not attend upon him continually furnished by their contributions a stock whereupon they subsisted Judas you know was trusted with it and was the first that committed Sacrilege in robbing the poor of Church goods For the poor could not have attended upon the Doctrine of our Lord had they not been provided for by the richer of his Disciples And the goods of the Church are still the patrimony of the poor for the same reason that being provided for they may attend upon Gods service Therefore the reason was the same when the Christians at Jerusalem gave up their lands and their goods to maintain the Church in contitinual attendance upon the Service of God When the Corinthians maintained their Feasts of Love When the Christians afterwards built those Churches and laid those lands to them which Eusebius saith being pulled down and confiscated by Diocletian were restored by Constantine When Christian Kingdoms and States by a civil Law indowed the Church with Tithes and Glebes and Mansions A thing as general as Christianity no People no Country being known where the Church was ever setled without maintenance estated upon it by the Church it self at the least if not by the Law of the Country over and above The form of Government in every Commonwealth is stated How the Unity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures upon certain powers wherein Sovereignty consisteth which Lawyers and Philosophers call sometimes Jura majestatis Here you have in the Governors of the Church the power of admitting into and excluding out of the Church The power of giving Lawes to the Church The power of dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church And in fine the power of propagating these rights to their successours Whereby it pretendeth not to bee a Commonwealth Because Christianity pretendeth to maintain Civil power and the right of this World in the same hands and upon the same terms which it findeth But it appeareth to bee a Visible Society founded by God under the name of the Catholick Church upon the command of holding communion therewith to which hee obligeth all Christians And all those Scriptures of the New Testament that mention any of these rights signifie no less when the meaning of them is measured by that Rule without which there is no means to determine the sense of any Scripture that is questionable And the same is signified by those Scriptures which mention sometimes several Churches sometimes one Church containing all Christians and all Churches For the parts that is particular Churches being Visible Bâ—dies the Whole must needs bee understood to bee a Visible Church The practice of all Christians owning an obligation in point of Right to maintain the powers which the Scriptures for the most part only mention as mater of Fact determines them to signifie more then they express As for the Scriptures of the Old Testament the calling of the How in the Old Testament Gentiles to bee one new people of God with the Jewes that should beleeve is but foretold in them by Prophesie And therefore the Visible Unity of the Church consisting of them cannot bee otherwise declared in them then by that correspondence in which the Church answereth the antient people of God The Unity thereof was the Unity of a Commonwealth maintaining it self by force of Armes in the possession of the Land of promise in which God had placed them upon condition to live by his Law The Unity of the Church consisting
they who should receive them worthily might bee filled with his Grace The common prayers of the Church that is of those who were admitted to Communion with the Church were always made at the Altar or Communion-Table in the action of the Sacrament Reason good How can Christians think their prayers so effectual with God as when they are presented at the Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ crucified the Representation whereof to God in heaven makes his Intercession there so acceptable Especially by those who maintain the Covenant of their Christianity contracted at their Baptisme by communicating in the Eucharist Here then that is at the celebrating of the Eucharist prayers The prayer of Oblation instituted by St. Paul and the â—ater of it supplications and intercessions were made for all estates in the Church and for their respective necessities For the averting of all Gods Judgements for the obtaining of all his blessings For publique Powers and their Ministers for the Governors and Ministers of the Church high and low for publique Peace and prosperity for the Seasons and Fruits of the Year for the Sick and Distressed for the helps of Gods Grace in all parts of that Christianity which wee profess passing by daily offenseâ— for particular occasions of interceding with God which each particular Congregation may have And there bee good and sufficient witnesses the Author of the Commentary upon St. Paul to Timothy under St. Ambrose his name the Author de Vocatione Gâ—ntium St. Augustine and Pope Caelestine in his Epistle ad Gallos that this was the practice of the whole Church and that in obedience to St. Pauls instructions to Timothy 1 Tim. II. 1-6 And this confirmes my opinion that St. Paul ordering prayers supplications intercessions and thanksgiâ—ings for Kings and all in authority means that prayers supplications and intercessions bee made for Kings and the rest at Thanksgiving that is when the Eucharist is celebrated For that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of antient Christians signifies the celebrating of the Eucharist I have produced plentiful evidence However the antient Chuch manifestly signifieth that they did offer their Oblations out of which the Eucharist was consecrated with an intent to intercede with God for publique or private necessities And that out of an opinion that they would bee effectual alleging the Sacrifice of Christ crucified then present which renders Christs intercession effectual for us And this is the true ground why they attributed so much to this Commemoration of the Sacrifice which makes nothing for the effect of it in private Masses but more then will bee valued for the frequenting of the Holy Eucharist The Consecration ended always with the Lords Prayer The Lords Prayer at theâ— Eucharist Which confirms my opinion that St. Paul when he saith How shall the unlearned say Amen to thy thanksgiving 1 Cor. XIV 16. means that Amen which came after the Lords Prayer taking Thanksgiving there for celebrating the Eucharist For there is nothing so generally evident in Antiquity as the beginning of the Consecration at Sursum corda or lift up your hearts And the ending of it with the Lords Prayer and the Doxology which in my opinion being so frequented upon this occasion by the licentiousness of Copyists in time came to bee crouded into the Text of the Scripture For it is manifest enough that the most considerable Copies do not own it But the Common Prayers for all estates as it seems sometimes The Place for the Common Prayers went before the Consecration sometimes came after it For I am to seek for evidence in the Records of the Latine Church importing that they came after the Consecration And yet I have made it evident that they were used of old by the Latine Church at celebrating of the Eucharist though now not found in the present Latine Mass And the Liturgy of the Church of Alexandria and the Aethiopick depending upon that Church have them before the Consecration But the best and most Greekish Forms and Authorities agreeing therewith make them come after it CHAP. XVI Difference in the state of Souls departed in Grace before Judgement The antient Church never prayed to remove them out of Purgatory To what purpose they were remembred at the Eucharist The Saints departed pray for the Militant Church Of Prayers to the Saints departed No Common Prayer in the Pulpit by Gift but in a set form at the Communion-Table Apostolical Graces subject to Order Of the Graces of the Spirit in St. Paul and the Original of Letanies The Prayers of the Eucharist how prescribed by the Apostles Prayers of the Reformed Churches in the Pulpit but by a form The effect of the Long Parliament Prayers by the Spirit ONe point of these prayers I must speak to here in particular Difference in the state of Souls departed in Grace before Judgment To wit the Commemoration of the dead for which the Mass is now pretended by the Church of Rome a Sacrifice for quick and dead to what effect the Scripture expounded by the practice of the whole Church may bee thought to allow it I have shewed out of the Revelation that the souls of Mâ—rtyrs appearing before the Throne of God in the Court of the Tabâ—rnacle to wit in the Jerusalem which is above The Throne appears to St. John indeed but is to bee understood in the Holy of Holies and therefore is not seen in the Couâ—t of the Tabernacle But those 144000 that were sealed and preserved from the destruction of Jerusalem appear not in the Court of the Tabernacle but on Mount Sion a place of inferior holiness And sing not the Martyrs song but are only able to learn it which no body else could do Sufficient Arguments of difference in the State of blessed souls though all beneath that which the Resurrection promiseth which all of them earnestly desire Suppose the place bee the third Heavens suppose that it is called Paradise because of necessity it answers the Figure of the earthly Paradise suppose that in respect of the Saints that dyed under the Law it is called Abrahams bosome There may bee inferior Mansions in the mean time before the Rusurrection for souls of inferior holiness though they depart in the State of Grace For how oft do the Apostles signifie a sollicitous expectation of the Day of Judgement in those whom they suppose to dye Christians A thing which can by no means stand with the estate of those that are before the Throne of God praising him day and night in the Court of the Tabernacle And therefore St. Ambrose and St. Augustine had great reason to follow the fourth Book of Esdras written without doubt by a very antient Christian though not authorized by the Church placing the generality of souls departed in the state of Grace in certain secret receptacles signifying no more then the unknown Condition of their estate For the practice of the Church in interceding for them at the
never appear I grant that there were miraculous Graces under the Apostles Apostolical Graces subject to Order which St. Paul directs the use of in ministring the prayers of the Church But that all Ministers had them they who require an ordinary Gift in all Ministers to that purpose cannot prove Much less that this ordinary Gift is to succeed those miraculous graces in all Ministers For even then St. Paul saith that the Spirits of the Prophets were to bee subject to the Prephets because God is not the God of confusion but of order And therefore charges all that pretended to such graces to acknowledg the Grace of an Apostle in him and to bee subject to the Orders which there hee gives out If the immediate inspirations of Gods Spirit were so dispensed that inferiors could presume nothing to the prejudice of Order against Superiors upon that pretense Much more now that Christianity is setled and the Unity of the Church a part of it are the Gifts of inferiors to bee ruled by the gifts of Superiors that Order in which Unity consisteth may bee preserved Of the Graces of the Spirit in St. Paul and the Original of Litanies St. Paul saith that the Spirit maketh intercession for the Saints with groans unutterable And St. Chrysostome saith thereupon that they who had these Miraculous Graces being imployed to minister the prayers of the Church did offer them to God with those deep sighs and groans which could hardly express what the Spirit suggested But addeth that the Deacon did the same in his time And this is visibly true by all that remains of the Liturgy in the Records of the Church It is evident that though the Bishop or Priest celebrating the Eucharist did offer the Common Prayers which I have described yet the Deacon also indited the same to the people from point to point as you have it to this day in our English Litanies the people answering from point to point Lord have mercy or some such acclamation as our Litanies do direct So far is the Catholique Church from the Maxime now pretended that the Priest alone is the mouth of the people in their prayers And the sighs and groans of that deep devotion which St. Paul saith the Spirit then moved and St. Chrysostome that the people answering the Deacon then expressed the form of our Litanies now containeth and expresseth And indeed those prayers which the Deacon indited are called Litanies in divers of the antient Liturgies Shewing that our Litanies are but a Transcript of them for the use of other occasions besides the Celebration of the Eucharist And Smectymnuus may remember how much they mistook Justine Martyr thinking hee had said that the Minister prayed thus according to his Gift Who saith indeed that hee prayed with all his might to wit with all the Devotion he could use Which devotion as it is not to bee found in their Pulpit Prayers pretending to apply the Gift to the present occasion so it visibly breathes in the Litanies through all occasions of Gods Church When miraculous Graces failed the prayers of the Church The Prayers of the Eucharist how prescribed by the Apostles were not to fail And the Apostles having delivered that which I have said to the Church whosoever was authorized to celebrate the Eucharist both must bee and easily might bee instructed how hee should discharge that Office There is so much agreement both for mater and manner in that which remains of it in the Records of the Church as to justifie those that affirm it to bee received by Tradition from the Apopostles Thus was the Forme prescribed from the beginning In time abuses might come For what Rule can there bee in humane business that shall not bee subject to abuse Therefore the African Canon which I spake of Orders that Bishops should confer the Forms which they used to wit through their Dioceses with their fellow Bishops Other Canons succeeding that the same Form should bee used throughout every Province In time the Church of Rome obtained that the Form thereof should bee received all over the West Wee see in the mean time what this pretense of Gifts tends Prayers of the Reformed Churches in the Pulpit but by a form to Even to shut the Eucharist out of doors or to confine it to thrice a year in case there bee company which case may bee so managed that a man need not bee tied to celebrate the Eucharist all his life time This is the satisfaction the Church hath for their withholding the Eucharist so many years from those that could not indure the ignorance malice and insolence of their Buckram Triers I grant that Calvins Reformation brings the Common Prayers from the Altar into the Pulpit And by that means confines the Communion to four times a year But are wee to follow Calvin in that wherein the whole Church of God is against Calvin Wherein the Rule of this Church and the Law of the Kingdom agrees with the whole Church against Calvin Was it the way to reform the abuse of private Masses to shut out the Communion excepting four times a year It must bee said that it was not the Reforming but the Deforming of the Church And the reforming thereof consists in restoring the Eucharist into the place that it ought to hold among the Offices of the Church So that the Communion thereof may bee most generally and continually frequented by Christians most prepared But Calvin dreamed of no Gifts all the while The Form of Common Prayer is as much prescribed according to Calvin as according to the Church of England though it bee read in the Pulpit It is the new Gospel of the Long Parliament that setup the The effect of the Long Parliament Prayers by the Spirit pretense of praying by the Spirit the Gift whereof is now claimed for every Ministers privilege in bar to Gods Church Though it bee manifest that the greatest part have no such gift so to minister the Offices of the Church as may bee to the discharge of the people the honour of God and of Christianity yet the Law of the Land must bee changed as supposing that which wee see is not The weaknesses and Imperfections the Falshoods the Blasphemies the Slanders the Sedition the Schisme that wee have known vented in such prayers oblige us to conclude that there is no such Gift in all Ministers At least not of Gods Spirit And therefore that wee must not forsake Gods Church changing the Form that is ruled by the Patern thereof and the Eucharist to boot for the Arbitrary prayers that every Ministers Gift shall vent in the Pulpit CHAP. XVII The Lords Day observed by the Authority of the Church Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with Ministring the Sacraments Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Ceremonies signifying by institution
sinner exact of himself that Penance which the Church would or ought to impose But whether all sinners can bee brought to know what that is or knowing to impose it upon themselves let the common reason of Christians judge They that assure them of pardon and the favour of God without it whether it bee themselves or their false teachers plainly they murther their souls The Church of Rome in making the Keys of the Church the necessary means for pardon of all sin that voids the Grace of Baptisme goes beyond the bounds of truth In procuring a Law that all submit to it once a year goes not beyond the bounds of Justice It were to bee wished that the abuses of that Law might be cured without taking it away For if it bee the power of the Keys that makes the Church the Church It will bee hard to shew the face of a Church where the blessing of the Church and the Communion of the Eucharist is granted and yet no power of the Keys at all exercised Nay it will appear a lamentable case to consider how simple innocent Christians are led on till death in an opinion that they want nothing requisite for the obtaining and assuring of the pardon of their sins when it is as manifest that they want the Keys of the Church as it is manifest that the Keys of the Church are not in use for that purpose St. James ordaineth that the Presbyters of every Church Of anointing the sick according to S. James pray for the sick with a promise of pardon for their sins This supposeth them qualified by submitting their sins to the Keys of the Church which the Presbyters do manage The promise belongs not to the Office of Presbyters upon other terms Hee requireth them also to anoint the sick with oyl promising Recovery upon it Not to all that should bee anointed For Christians then should not dye if true Christians But as the Disciples of our Lord had used it to evidence their Commission to the World So was the manifestation of Gods Spirit residing in the Church granted for the benefit of his Church Neither is there any cause why the same benefit should not bee expected but the decay of Christianity in the Church In the mean time the forgiveness of sin according to St. James comes by the Keys of the Church Recovery of health from the prayers of it So the Unction of the sick is to recover health not to prepare for death as the Church of Rome now useth it But supposing the health of the soul restored by the Keys of the Church All the pretenses for Divorce of lawful Mariages all the incestuous Mariage of Christiaâ—â— not to bee Ruled by Moses Law Contracts all the unchristian solemnizing of Christian Wedlock which the blessed Reformation hath authorized are to bee attributed to one mistake that the Mariage of Christians stands by the Law of Moses not by the Gospel of Christ Our Presbyterians in their Confession of Faith duely prohibit Mariage in those degrees of alliance which are prohibited in blood But out of Leviticus if they will prove it their word must serve for our warrant that this is the sense If Man and Wife bee one flesh then is a Man as neer his Wifes Kin as his own But man and wife are not one flesh by Moses Law licensing plurality of wives and divorce though by the Law of Paradise It was dispensed with after the Flood and not revived but by our Lord. That Divorce and plurality of wives was not restrained but by the Gospel it is impudence to Dispute much more to deny The Mariage of the Niece with the Uncle of the half blood hath puzzled all them that would make it unlawful by Moses Law The Mariage of a Christian with two Sisters successive will bee as hard to condemn by the same Granting the premises all these Disputes cease Mariage is the Bond of one with one not to bee dissolved till death by the Law of Christ not by the Law of Moses Whether Adultery dissolve the Bond or not I leave it disputable for the present as I find it Mariage with a Pagan was void by Moses Law St. Paul enables Christians to hold to it Therefore hee refers them not to the Law Christianity improves Moses Law in all things Therefore Christians cannot be regulated by Moses Law in Matrimonial causes Therefore in the prohibiting of degrees as well as of divorce For Moses Law prohibits more then that Law which the Children of Noah received after Flood had done It were better to restrain all that which the present Canon Law restrains then that the incests of the late licentious times should bee tolerated For the present Canon Law restrains not much more then the Greek Church restrains But if the Authority thereof bee not binding by reason of the Usurpations of the Church of Rome yet to depart from the Canons of the Whole Church and of those times which wee acknowledg would bee a departure from the whole Church Hee that would bar the Cross in Baptisme for fear it should Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers bee taken for a Sacrament what would hee say to St. Ambrose that cals it down right a Sacrament I know not what hee would say I know what hee should do Hee should understand St. Ambrose by St. Ambrose when hee makes a Kiss to bee a Sacrament as a Religious sign of that Religious Affection which Kinsfolk professed to their neer Kinsfolk whom in his time they saluted with a Kiss to signifie that as St. Ambrose declareth At this rate St. Pauls holy kiss must needs bee a Sacrament For it was a Religious signe of that charity which Christians professed to Christians when they were to receive the Communion with them At this rate it is no marvel that there are found seven Sacraments in the Fathers For there are more then seven to bee found if there bee as many Sacraments as Ceremonies instituted by the Church If this bee true the discharging of instituted Ceremonies The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie instituted Ceremonies will bee a Defection from Gods Church If Confirmation Ordination and Penance bee Offices in which the Church is indebted to God and to his Church If the effect of them bee of such consequence that they have been always solemnized with the Imposition of hands that Ceremony shall bee enough to make them Sacraments at this rate and yet no neerer to Baptisme and to the Eucharist then that reason of the difference which I have setled will allow Nay let the prayers of the Church for the recovery of the sick who submit to the Keys of the Church bee solemnized with anointing a thing fit enouâ—h to bee done may but the ground upon which and the intent to which it is done appear and that shall bee a Sacrament and yet the want of it no more prejudice to salvation then the disusing of the Kiss of peace which
Scripture that hee is to depend upon the Pulpit for resolution in it where it is easie as St. Gregory Nazianzene answered St. Jerome about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke to make you believe by the pleasing delivery of Language that you have satisfaction and yet when you come to seek where it lies remain in as much doubt as before And if you hackney out Ministers to two Sermons a Sabbath the people must not expect that from them in private which they cannot expect from the Pulpit But if it bee thought part of the instruction due to Gods people to make the Laws of the Church and of the State and the proceedings of publick Government a subject for the Pulpit In which as I said it is not possible for particular Christians to bee satisfied by all the Inquiry they can make in private then what may come to pass I need say to no man that hath seen what hath come to pass amongst us I let pass less abuses of vain-glory priding it self in the volubility rather then Eloquence of Language and rendring more able Curates not so ready speakers contemptible to their people and the like In which regard it may many times bee questioned whether the gifts of praying and preaching which wee hear so much of bee Gifts of Gods Spirit which ordinarily suppose Christianity or of the evil spirit which always put it to flight For all that I have said of the bad effects of Preaching is to bee understood much more of those prayers whereby evil doctrine is repeated to God for a blessing of his Spirit upon it For Christian people being weakly superstitious as the generality of all people are are apt to place the bond of that Religion wherein they think themselves tied to God in that which they see and hear alleged to God in so reverend postures That Form of Service which wee hitherto use hath well deserved What Order of Service the continual Communion will require all that hath been said in defense of it being assaulted by violent hands even in those parts in which it ought to bee inviolable Nevertheless professing as I do that the restoring of the continual Communion is such a point of Reformation that the Church is not to bee at rest till it bee brought to effect I must not stick to declare what will bee requisite to render our Communion Service useful to that purpose I have said that the word Lituâ—gy is proper to signifie nothing else but that form of Service which the Communion is celebrated with But I have shewed alsâ— that those prayers for all states and conditions of men in Christs Church which are contained in our Litanies are to bee offered up to God at the celebrating of it And seeing it was at the Reformation and is at present a Law in the Church of Rome that all Christians should bee present at Mass all Sundays and Festivals And that Reformation consists in restoring the Communion It seemeth to me that the pretense of Reformation is not made good till the present provision bee brought to effect that the Eucharist bee celebrated all Sundays and Festivals in all Churches and Chappels And so that all Christians may bee tied to bee present that they may bee brought as neer as the Church ought to bring them to communicate Supposing this the intent of the Church How should it bee attained without two Assemblies every Sunday and Holy-day-morning in all Churches For let never Sabbatarians hope to make us so perfect Jewes as to bring us to dress no meat on Sundays If they could a Parish can never bee all at Church at once The order of the Church never becomes the Church till it demonstrate a care of all Christian souls a like Between the hours of eight and twelve there is time enough for two Assemblies For who would wish that either of them should last above an hour The Liturgy is an Office consisting of Psalmâ— and Lessons intermixed with Hymns and of the Eucharist which the common Prayers for all states conditions and necessities in the Church are to bee offered up to God with Now though that which wee call the first Service bee compleat for the intent of it yet I must needs find it too long for this purpose to allow time both for the Eucharist and for the iâ—struction of the people which I do not intend to exclude out of those Assemblies which I confine to an hour And how easie were it to frame for this purpose an Order of Psalms and Lessons according to the order of the whole Church Which requires that the Epistles bee read after the Old Testament and the Gospels after them as in our Communion Service the Gospel comes next afore the Creed For there would bee room for brief Lessons out of the Law and Historical Books out of the Sapiential Books and Prophets And after for the Epistles and Gospels which not onely wee but the Lutherans as well as the Church of Rome do now use with Hymns between each according to the Canon of Laodicea received by the Whole Church This is the place for the instruction of the people according What form of Instruction this Order will require to the order of the whole Church And truly the greater and more solemn Assemblies may bee capable of edifying by learned and eloquent Sermons which the generality of Parish Churches the edification whereof the Church iâ— to study are very little the better for And the endless number of strifes that arise about the Scripture and variety of judgments fansies and interests in what is fit to bee preached make the design of Homilies necessary rather to restrain the abilities of Indiscreet Preachers then to help the inabilities of unlearned Preachers Only that they bee so framed as to contain a course of familiar instruction in the whole body of Christian Doctrine not concerning Faith alone but all the chief duties of Christians which these that wee have do not satisfie though not unfit for the time when they were set forth And being so framed Though it bee all one to the edification of the Church whether the mater of them bee delivered by word of mouth as every Minister can best insinuate it into the minds of his hearers or as it may bee couched word for word in writing yet will it bee absolutely necessary for the instruction of all preserving the Unity of the Whole that the Ordinary have account not only negatively that nothing bee taught the people contrary to the form But positively that the whole mater of it bee taught the people in such time as the Law shall determine to bee repeated again and again for the certain proficience of all For it must not avail to say that the people will not come to Church unless they may bee entertained there with variety Unless the people bee content to bee conducted by that which is best to save their souls though it please not their fansies it shall
weight and consequence the want of Charity will lye on that side which shall refuse that reason which had it condescended to those mistakes might have been redressed How much more when there is no other choice left but either to continue at the distance under which wee were borne or to give our selves up to the will of those who not having given satiâ—faction in the trust which they undertake condescend to no terms of better assurance for the future And truly though the sin of Schisme hinder salvation more What Schisme destroyeth the salvation of what persons by instances of the most notable Schismes then any other sin because it involveth the body of the Church and so hindreth the salvation of more yet is there no cause to think that all who are involved in the state of Schisme are involved in the sin of it The less cause there is for it the greater breach of charity by it Therefore the greater the more visible the causes are of that change which occasions it the less is to bee imputed to them that follow such causes Especially to private Christians when such causes are as visible on the one side as the interest of each mans salvation is visible to the contrary on the other side Besides I said afore that Schisme in the Church is the same which Civil War in the state of the World Now though War cannot bee just on both sides for the heads and causes of it yet for those that follow their heads in causes too difficult for private persons to judge it will bee no guilt of bloud to follow that authority which appears to them Visible Which if it bee true as it is evidently reasonable there will no question remain that there may bee salvation on both sides of a Schisme The Schismes of the Novatians Montanists Donatists Meletians and perhaps divers others were grounded upon such causes as the Unity of the Church did no less visibly outweigh then the consent thereof to the contrary was visible Notwithstanding so long as the Faith remained intire as it doth not appear that they disbelieved from their beginning any thing necessary for the salvation of all to bee believed and the Offices of Gods Service were ministred by them according to the Order of the Church as not differing about any of them I should bee as loth to condemn all the partizans as to excuse the causes of them to or from eternal death How much more in the Schismes of the Luciferians of that at Antiochia between Meletius and Paulinus of that between Rome and Constantinople in the cause of Acacius and perhaps in others in which there was onely breach of Communion upon some discontent in the governing of maters in the Church without either difference of Faith or in the Offices of Gods service I confess Pope Gelasius de vinculo anâ—thematis in the cause of Acacius takes it for granted all along that the want of Communion with the Church of Rome rendred all liable to that curse which Christians by failing of the duty of Christians either as Christians or as members of the Church do incurre upon the sentence of the Church But hee who admitteth that constitution of the Church which I maintain will not easily admit the sentence of a part suppose all the West engaged in the Act of the Church of Rome able to damn all the Christians of the East that adhered only to the successors of Acacius not being able to redress his miscarriage which his successors themselves owned not Rather is the Church of Rome to answer God for the souls that miscarried by maintaining the breach open beyond that which the good of Christendom required Nay I cannot condemn the opinion of those who allow a possibility of salvation in the Sects of the Nestorians in the East and the Jacobites in the South notwithstanding that they stand divided from the Church upon occasion of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon which it imbraceth For it is possible that they may understand the terms of their distance in such a sense as may very well stand with the Decrees of those Councils So that the difference being occasioned by personal discontents though it were mortal to those who brought it to pass yet may it not bee so to those that know not how to help it if it occasion not the want of means necessary to salvation otherwise But this is not to say that these parties are not bound to concur to the visible Unity of Gods Church by communion in the Offices of his service Should they profess themselves free from an obligation concerning all Christians as members of the Church I would not excuse those that take upon them to continue such breaches because they know not that which they should know But those that are only sufferers in such breaches I should not exclude from the hope of salvation upon that account not wanting otherwise that which is necessary to the salvation of all Christians which the divisions of the Church must needs render very difficult for the greatest part to obtain This I would say much more of the Schisme between the Greek and Latine Church being well assured that there is no such defect in the Faith of the Greek Church as may warrant the Latine Church to sentence them for Haereticks And as for Schisme that the Latine Church by undertaking more then one part of the Church can undertake without the consent of the other in maters of common concernment hath the greater hand in it whatsoever the truth bee of the Disputes that occasion it And therefore it is much to bee lamented that the See of Rome should pursue no other terms of reuniting those distressed and persecuted Churches unto it self but those of absolute submission to the dictates thereof without why or wherefore Not being afraid to raise them persecution by unbelievers that they may bee necessitated to that submission which will increase their persecution from their Sovereigns Seeing then that we have so many instances of Schismes which exclude not the hope of salvation especially for those that are sufferers in them that is for private Christians How far ought wee to bee from yielding to the unreasonable demands of the Missionaries charging the Schisme upon the Reformation whereof the abuses which they maintain are the onely true cause For though it was always and still is a very difficult thing to see the true point of Resormation so as to bring those that feel the abuses to consent in it yet the abuses being both visible and palpable the faults committed by the mistaking of it will bee imputable to those that will condescend to no reason as well as to those who proceed to a change without due information in the ground and measure of it And therefore upâ—n that account there can bee no bar to the salvation of private Christians that are no actors but sufferers in such breaches though the misunderstanding of the due ground and measure
of the difference must needs occasion the Ioss of infinite souls by hindring them of the means that is truly necessary for the salvation of Christian This is that which I said afore that Schisme as War may Difficulty of salvation on both sides the Reformation remaining unpersect bee unjust on both sides The charge of which injustice as it will lye upon those which are actors in it and causes of it having power to abate it and not imploying the same to so good a purpose so it leaves a possibility of salvation for both sides And that is no more then hath been said from the beginning of our Reformation by all that allow the Church of Rome a true Church But that difficulty of attaining salvation on both sides which the Schisme inflameth will bee imputable to those that maintain the extreams taking offense at the due ground and termes of composing it And this I confess câ—eates a question upon that which remains for our Ecclesiastical Laws to redress For if they inforce not the due use of the Power of the Keys so great a part of the conduct of Christian souls to salvation and that it is not to bee inforced without restoring Discipline in the Clergy How shall it bee visible that a simple Papist sins in being a Recusant How shall hee that invites him to bee no Recusant assure him of means of salvation visibly sufficient How shall the State bee enabled to inflict upon him the legal penalties of his Recusancy upon other crimes For it is manifest that from those whom the Civil Law of the Land qualifies for the Cure of souls without any ground of pretense that they do concur to the true intent of the Church in ministring the power of the Keys there is not the least appearance for any hope of that help which the Office professeth Indeed alleging on the other side those abuses in private Penance that neglect of publick Penance which the Church of Rome alloweth wee allege a sufficient reason for a change without the authority of it And a possibility of salvation notwithstanding a defect in redressing the same But this possibility will consist in the more then ordinary diligence of private Christians considering the snares which division multiplieth and labouring to supply themselves in that wherein the publick Order of the Church provided by God to supply them of it saileth of the effect which God intendeth A consideration which though the late distraction made it more visible yet will always remain in force till the due ground and measure of Reformation take effect It will bee worth the while to instance this in the Cure of An instance herâ—of in the Cure of sâ—ulâ— departing according to the Order in force souls departing this life according to the Order in force In the beginning of Christianity some sins were questionable in some parts of the Church whether curable by the Keys of the Church or not The Schisme of Novatianus pretended for the ground of it the re-admitting of Apostates As that of Montanus in part the re-admitting of Adulterers But before all were come to agreement in it the same severity had been practised in the Church without Schisme They lest such persons to Gods mercy They engaged not the Church in warranting them pardon The Council of Nicaea seems to have put an end to all difformity in the case There is no mention of denying the Eucharist upon the bed of death after that But supposing publick sinners admitted to publick Penance thereby to give proof of the sincerity of their repentance And binding them over to the remainder of their Penance escaping death Some Canons go so low as to release sin without revealing it upon condition of undergoing the Penance it shall require being revealed in case hee survive The Church of Rome chargeth all Priests of absolve all at the point of death which it alloweth not all to do otherwise As for the Reservation of Penance they who require Penance not to qualifie for pardon but to satisfie the debt of temporal pain that remains after pardon I suppose doe upon that account turn it over to Purgatory But they from whom as I said afore there is no appearance for any hope of that help which the Keys of the Church ministred according to the Order of the Church do hold forth what can wee expect of them towards the preparing of him that lies on the bed of sickness for his passage For the comfort which all pretend to give in that estate may bee imagined to consist in assuring salvation to all that once were assured of it to all that think themselves sure of it by believing it not by their Christianity without which there is no assurance of it If men bee not â—o much Fanaticks perhaps hee assureth them of pardon trusting in the merits of Christ for it Let him see his sin let him renounce his own merits let him trust in the mâ—ritâ— of Christ which hee is sure are of more virtue and value then his sin and the business is done Not considering what the Gospel requireth to give a man interest in the merits of Christ What it requireth of him who shall have forfeited that interest by grievous sin What hee hath done for the mortisying of that concupiscence for the appeasing of that wrath of God for the preventing of that sin for the future whereby hee may formerly have committed that forfeiture Certainly it is no good sign in this Case that our people are so willing to have the Minister pray by them but so unwilling to hear of the Communion because they know it requires them to take account of themselves Nay it is oddes that it is condescended to at the warning of the Curate who must needs let slip the anthority of his Office in requiring account of him that expects comfort from him by offering all that hee is able to give before the account is tendered In the mean time how shall hee who prays onely by the sick and leaves him so as prepared for his passage who absolves him of all sin without being satisfied that hee hath mortified that hee will mortifie any in case he survive rest satisfied that hee hath done his Office and not dismissed his patient insufficiently prepared for so terrible a voyage Especially being satisfied that there are two Keys in the Church as to Christians That it is to loose no sin but that which it bound afore loosing him that appears to bee alive because it bound him when hee appeared to bee dead afore That the Blessing of the Church the Communion of the Eucharist and the Burial of Christians ought to siâ—nifie some reasonable presumption in the Church that they depart in Gods peace to whom it alloweth the same But where is that presumption when hee that is convicted of a capital crime shall bee able to demand the Communion of his Curate without further satisfaction And perhaps have his action of the Case against him
greatness of the Pope for which they will have him to bee Antichrist stands as well by Usurping upon the Bishops as upon the Crown And therefore it was a spice of madness in our Puritans to proceed upon their example to Ordination without and against their Bishops either by Presbyters or by Congregations Whereas they who could not obtain Ordination from Bishops because they professed the Reformation might more justly think themselves tied to proceed neglecting that which they could not have But trusting in the mercy of God that seeing the abuses of the Church were gross and visible and palpable the zeal of Gods House which carried men to Reforme them before they were agreed upon all that was to bee restored instead of them renders the Reformation imperfect as it is effectual to salvation notwithstanding that they may have failed in maters of less consequence Especially considering that particular Christians who are not able to judge of the publick concernments of the Church may bee able to see the abuses thereof and to reform their own lives and conversations by that conduct which an imperfect Reformation may furnish Not doubting in the mean time that this imperfection is the loss of an innumerable number of souls as well as the abuses of the Church of Rome are And therefore thinking my self tyed to say so that all publick persons of what quality soever in Church or Commonwealth in all the several quarters of Christendom may bee stirred up to consider how much it concerns their discharge at the day of judgement that the Reformation bee reduced to that Rule and that measure in every point which the ground and reason of Reformation evidenceth For then shall wee not need to apprehend any nullity upon unavoidable neglect of Canonical proceeding when the restoring of Christianity which all Canons presuppose and tend to maintain justifieth the defect of it in one for obtaining the end of it in all acts of the Church And this would bee the best ground for hope if yeâ— there bee any hope leâ—t to propagate it through all Christendome by the consent of the See of Rome to the reuniting of the Church upon such terms as that ground and reason requireth The Printer to the Reader IT is thought fit to reprint herewith two short Discourses of the same Author to the same purpose The one concerning the Establishment pretended by the late Vsurpation That hee might not seem now to disown it Though using it with that liberty which all men use in new Editions of their own Writings The other because it toucheth more briefly some of those Heads which are more perfectly though Summarily comprized in the Premises being published to that purpose upon His Majesties happy return in July 1660. A Letter concerning the present State of Religion amongst us Vnder the Act of Establishment prosecuted by the Ordinances constituting the Triers and Commissioners for ejecting of Scandalous Ministers Sir I Have perused the Ordinance for ejecting of Scandalous Ministers and finding it likely enough to send you a Pastor that shall have no authority from the Church have thought it necessary for me to give you the reasons of that opinion which I declared unto you that in that case you ought not in conscience to acknowledge such a one for your Pastor by going to hear him preach and seeming to joyn in his Prayers much less to receive the Eucharist at his hands if such a one shall bee so audacious as to celebrate it This that I may do I must first propose the Case as it is stated by those Acts which pretend to settle Religion among us For first the Act whereby the present Government is established declareth that the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures shall be held forth as the publick profession of these Nations And that such as profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ though diâ—fering from this profession in doctrine worship or discipline shall bee protected in the exercise of their Religion excepting Popery and Pâ—elacy and those who under the profession of Christ hold forth and practise licentiousness In prosecution hereof an Ordinance is issued forth giving commission to certain persons named in it to examine and try all that have come into possession of Churches since April 13. 1653. all that have augmentations from Parliament all that shall pretend to come into Churches that shall bee void But they are to try them by no other Rule then the Certificate of three godly Neighbours one at least a Minister concerning their conversation in godliness upon their own knowledge and the judgment of five Commissioners that the Grace of God is in their hearts and that they are fit to preach In further prosecution hereof issues forth this Ordinance whereby no man is made scandalous for his judgement but hee that is liable to the Act against Blasphemy of August 9. 1653. And with him is ranked hee who shall frequently and publickly have used the Service since Christmas 1653. Whereby it appeareth that those who have declared their perseverance in the Religion which they have hitherto professed by reading the Service are therefore counted scandalous But those that can pass the trial proposed are thereby qualified in Law to bee Pastors of Parishes And consequently to succeed those that adhere to the Christianity which hitherto they have professed being cast out by the Commissioners for ejecting of scandalous Ministers In the first place then I say that the effect of these Laws is to nullifie and make void one Article of the Creed which hitherto wee profess To wit the belief of one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church This word Church may signifie two things First onely the whole number of Christians Secondly a Communion and Corporation of those that profess true Christianity founded by the will of God and the ministery of our Lord Christ and his Apostles That Christians when they profess to believe the Catholick Church do not mean the first sense that there is in the world a number of men that profess to bee Christians it is manifest because all Christians hope to bee saved by their Faith but they cannot hope to bee saved by believing that which they see Now all men see that there is such a company of men in the world Therefore when they say they believe the Catholick Church as part of that Faith whereby they hope to bee saved they do not profess to believe that there is such a company of men but that there is a Corporation of true Christians excluding Haereticks and Schismaticks and that they hope to bee saved by this Faith as being members of it And this is that which the stile of the holy Cathelick and Apostolick Church signifies as distinguishing the Body of true Christians to wit so far as profession goes from the Conventicles of Haereticks and Schismaticks For this title of Catholick would signifie nothing if Haereticks and Schismaticks were not barred the Communion of the Church And let no man imagine that
Keyes viz. that of loosing but bind not as pronouncing absolution without injoyning of Penance The discipline of Geneva they magnifie indeed as they find it described by Bodine in his method of Histories But they distinguish not whether they mean the civil discipline which the Laws of that State inforce or that which the Power of the Keys exercised there according to Calvine doth constitute For the Civil Law of a Christian State especially no bigger then that of Geneva may settle such a discipline over the outward man as may restrain from the outward act of sin without mortifying the inward man to the inward love of God The late Usurpers Army wee have seen well disciplined against the ordinary vices of the Camp Who appearing now to have been then enemies to their Country are thereby discovered not to have followed the reward of Christiens but of Souldiers And the Laws of Christian States by the means of Christianity which they maintain may reach to the mortifying of sin and the quickning of righteousness at the heart But of themselves being Civil Laws and proposing no further reward or punishment then that good which a mans Country signifies they reach no further then the outward man for the better or for the worse Nor is it of any greater consequence to Christianity that the outward act of sin or virtue is repressed or incouraged by the rewards and penalties of Civil Laws But when the discipline of the Church takes place hee who forfeiteth his Christianity by gross sin that is notorious forfeiteth also Communion with the Church and recovereth it not till the presumption bee no less notorious that hee hath recovered his Christianity Now Communion with the Church is the consequence of our Baptisme which intitleth us to life everlasting Therefore it is not duly forfeited without forfeiting the effect of Baptisme our right to life everlasting So our right to heaven depending upon the Communion of the Church the discipline of the Church must needs reach the inward man as effectually as any outward application can reach the heart which is invisible For the presumption is grounded upon visible works of Penance the effects of that invisible disposition without which they could not bee constantly brought forth Whether or no this discipline bee visible at Geneva I will not pronounce This I undertake that comparing the Doctrine of Calvine with their Orders they need not set a value upon the Power of the Keys exercised according to his Doctrine in comparison of the same exercised according to their own Orders So that supposing not granting that the Laws of the Church of England being the Laws of the primitive Catholick Church are to bee changed for conformity with the Reformed Churches it followeth not therefore that they are to bee changed for those of the Churches reformed according to Calvine Certainly the receiving of the Communion kneeling having been one of the Orders of their Reformation from the beginning and so stifly insisted upon by them in Poland they that pretend to change the Law of England in that point for conformity with the Reformation think they have not men but beasts to deal with The Church of England in the Commination against sinners hath declared a great zeal for the renewing of that antient discipline of Penance which was in force in the primitive Church And certainly the Church of England is not the Church of England but in Name till the power of Excommunication bee restored unto it which there was not nor ever can bee sufficient cause to take from any Church But the discipline of Penance though depending upon the Power of Excommunication is as much to bee preferred bâ—â—ore it as it is more desirable to bring men to the Church then to shut them out of it If prejudice and faction have not more to do in the pretenses of this time then the truth of Christianity and zeal to advance it it is a point that cannot bee neglected in any deliberation of Reforming the Church I cannot render a more visible reason why so godly a zeal in those that first prescribed our Reformation to the restoring of Penance hath not been improved by their successors then the partialities which sprung up in it like tares in the wheat and have now prevailed to choke even the power of Excommunication wherein the being of a Church consisteth And though many sinnes of this Nation may bee alleged for the cause why God hath taken this sharp revenge upon us yet can no reason bee so proper why hee should permit the hedge of the Church to bee cast down for all Sects to devour and tread his Vinâ—yard under foot by suffering the power of Excommunication to bee taken from it as the neglect of improving it in and to the discipline of Penance True it is not only all capital but all infamous crimes whereof men are convicted by Law are thereby notorious and require this discipline no less then those which the Law of this Land punisheth not otherwise then by Penance And if the Church did make a difference among those that dye by publick Justice owning only those who approve their desire to undergo regular Penance in case they might survive then were this discipline visible no visible crime escaping it For all capitall and infamous crimes that are not actually punished with death must by that reason remain unreconciled to the Church though free of the Law till Penance bee done And seeing crimes that are not known cannot bee cured upon easier terms then those that are would not the judgement of the Law authorizing the Church in the cure of known sins move even them that believe their Christianity no further then it is authorized by Law to submit invisible sinnes to the same cure For what is it but the slighting of this cure that makes mens sinnes fester and rankle inwardly and break out into greater and greater excesses And therefore to debate of Ceremonies and words in the service and May-poles and Sabbath days journeyes not considering the Power of the Keyes upon which the Church is founded and the restoring of the same is to neglect a consumption at the heart pretending only to cure the hair or the nails Now if any of our Sects insist upon a pretense that deserves to bee insisted upon far bee it from us to cast off the consideration of it because they have unduely separated from the Church for it Our Anabaptists it is known infist upon two points The baptizing of Infants and that by sprinkling not by dipping In both they have neglected St. Peters Doctrine That Baptisme saveth us not the laying aside of the filth of our flesh but the answer of a good conscience to God For were the profession of Christianity celebrated by the Sacrâ—â—â—nt of Baptisme believed to bee that which saveth us men would not go to baptize them as not baptized who by their profession which they acknowledge by seeking the Communion of the Church are under that bond which intitleth them to the Salvation of Christians Nor can there bee any greater presumption then the voiding of Baptisme so celebrated that they expect Salvation upon other terms But in making void Baptisme ministred by sprinkling alone without dipping they neglect St. Peter again when hee maketh the Baptisme that saveth not to consist in cleansing the flesh but in a due profession of Christianity signifying this to bee the principal that onely the accessory Ceremony which it is solemnized with And therefore they are to acknowledge this difference by acknowledging Baptisme so ministred to bee good and valid not void But this being acknowledged well may they insist that it is unduely ministred For it is evident that neitheâ— the Scripture nor the practise of the whole Church can by any means allow the sprinkling of water for Baptisme though the pouring on of water in case of necessity bee allowed Nor doth the Law of the Church of England allow any more then pouring water upon a Child that is weak commanding therefore dipping otherwise And therefore this Law being much weakned by the tenderness of Mothers and Friends supposing all Infants weak which the Law supposeth not and by undue zeal for Forreign Fashions ought to bee revived and brought into use by all Ordinaries that there may remain no colour for such an offense And therefore reparation is to bee made for the sacrilege of the late Wars in destroying the Fonts of Baptisme in Churches and bringing in Christening out of Basins by force I cannot say that I have touched all that is fit to bee touched But I hope I have said nothing but that which followeth upon the ground which I have justified That which is proposed and is not so justified seems to demand the consent of those who propose it as able to hold the Church divided if they bee not contented But that calls to mind a reason on the other side that men use to get a stomack with eating in such cases The due measure is not the satisfying of mens appetites but the improvement of our common Christianity FINIS Faults Escaped thus Amended Pag. 7. line 2. mistakes Point mistakes p. 40. l. 32. none read now p. 49. l. 16. Church p. Church p. 60. l. 36. Lawes r. Land p. 79. l. 14. of the Judgement r. of Judgement p. 84. l. 34. Trihes r. Tribes p. 90. l. 10. Praedestinarians r. Praedestinatians l. 12. West p. West p. 108. l. 33. Bishop Priest and Deacon p. Bishop Priest and Deacon p. 112. l. 14. Service p. Service p. 134. l. 12. all these r. those p. 143. l. 34. he performing r. the p. p. 145. l. 15. Hierachy r. Hierarchy p. 157. l. 24. prescribled r. prescribed l. 29 30. the the Power r. the P. p. 158. l. 6. Memoral r. Memorial p. 173. l. 37. Order r. Orders p. 179. l. 29. leave r. bear p. 189. l. 31. which r. with p. 201. l. 25. Church p. Church
JUST WEIGHTS AND MEASURES That is The present STATE of RELIGION Weighed in the BALANCE and Measured by the STANDARD of the SANCTUARY According to the Opinion of HERBERT THORNDIKE LONDON Printed by J. M. for J. Martin J. Allestry and T. Dicas and are to be sold at the sign of the Bell in St. Paul's Church-yard 1662. TO ALL Christian Readers I Have heard that in the time of our Late Troubles the Presbyterians were put to nonplus by the Fanatickes demanding of them a ground in the Scripture for a National Church I let pass that mistake of both parties which the term of National involveth For the state of the Question must needs concern that part of the Church which every respective Sovereignty containeth Now one Sovereignty may contain several Nations As there are two in this Kingdom of England But wee need not marvel that they could give no answer to a demand which their own Title allowed them no ground to answer Had they believed the Creed which they thrust out of the Church and that Article of it which professeth one Catholick Church they might have had an answer to it But such a one as would have destroyed the pretense of their Presbyteries For were the Unity of the Church which that Article professeth meerly Invisible with God by Communion in his Spirit the Usurpers of Sovereign Power might make Presbyteries Churches by as good a Title as that by which they make themselves Sovereigns But the Unity which that Article professeth is Visible with that Church which is or ought to bee always one and the same from our Lord and his Apostles by Communion in the Offices of Gods Service especially the Eucharist to distinguish it from Haeresies and Schismes whom the Title of Catholick visibly distinguisheth from the Church That Title the Presbyteries cannot pretend to because it is as visible that their authority is derived from the Long Parliament and their own consent as it is visible that the authority of the Whole Church is derived from our Lord and his Apostles For the Unity of the Church is not derived from Constantine but from our Lord and his Apostles and the Law imposed by them upon all Christians to maintain Communion among themselves upon those terms which the Common Christianity supposed in the said Communion may allow Whereby the Church is Visible by being Catholick It is manifest by what Title and therefore upon what terms Constantine first in the Empire and after him all Christian Powers in their respective Sovereignties doe make Religion a Law to their Subjects For being to bee baptized and made a member of the Church by the act of the Church If all Christians by their Baptisme do consecrate themselves to the service of God in his Church then must hee also by being baptized consecrate the Power of the Empire to the maintenance of that Christianity into which hee was baptized part whereof is the Unity of the Catholick Church And as the effect of this obligation is visible in bringing the World into the Church So is it a visible advantage for the Church that the profession thereof is a Law to Christian States by the rewards and penalties whereby it is inacted For when all are constrained to bee Christians according to the Laws of the Land so much the more will bee Christians according to the Laws of God and of his Church And as it is evident that without such Laws Unity in Religion will not prevail in the World which cannot prevail with the help of them No less manifest is it that without Unity Christianity will soon come to nothing He that considers the decay which a little time of disunion hath visibly made in the Christianity of this Kingdom is past cure by reasoning if he question this consequence This is that Principle which must justifie the Reformation which wee profess by maintaining the due bounds and terms and measure of it This is that which must reunite the parties which hitherto are at distance if wee will have them united to the purpose of saving souls out of satisfaction in the Laws which they are to execute not only to the purpose of publick peace for hope or fear of the rewards and penalties which they are inacted with This is that which must secure the Conscience of the Kingdom that those rewards and penalties will bee allowed as for the service of God at the great day of judgment And how much this concerns the present Case now that Religion is to bee re-established by the Law of the Land it is manifest enough Let the Presbyterians submit to the due terms upon which the Fanaticks may be acknowleged members of this Church as acknowleging the Covenant of Baptisme for the condition of holding the State of Gods Grace and the Recusants shall stand bound to own the Faith of this Church for the Faith of the Catholick Church Let the Laws of this Church bee Ruled by the Laws of the Catholick Church in those times which hee that owneth one Catholick Church from the beginning cannot disown and all shall appear bound to bee of this Church as visibly the same Church with that which was from the beginning For the Church is Visible by the Laws of it And therefore if the Laws bee the same the Church is visibly the same And all that are not of it shall bee evidently liable to such penalties as belong to them that disobey those Laws of their Country which the common Christianity requireth Let no man then marvel that being setled in this opinion upon all the consideration which our long distractions have allowed me time to take I am not afraid to publish this brief view of it referring my self for proof of the particulars to that which I have published heretofore Let it not seem strange that I deliver it some times with that resolution and assurance which seems to admit no contradiction to it For though the Faith of Gods Church bee always the same yet I profess of my self that the Laws of this Church are to bee Ruled by the Laws of the primitive Church with that allowance which the difference of the present time and that state of Christianity which it hath introduced from that which then was may require And by professing this I do really and not only for a formality submit my self to the authority of Superiors as well as to the judgment and censure of every Christian For how far the present times are capable of those Rules which all times are to go by that would bee one and the same Church with that which was from the beginning I take not upon me to judge as belonging to the account of Superiors Nay before I have done you shall see I compromise my Opinion it self and not only my own proceeding according or not contrary to it to the authority of Superiors and to better judgement And therefore let it be lawful to plead for the improving of the Laws of this Church so long
as it is lawful to plead for the abolishing of the Laws of this Kingdom For as it is manifest that our Ecclesiastical Laws are the Laws of the Kingdom So would I not open my mouth for improving them were it not to make them the Laws of Gods only true Church THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. IF the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been If the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church If no Visible Church then no sin of Schisme Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot bee the Head of a Church Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to kneel at the Communion would bee Holy That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God pag. 2 CHAP. II. The supposition of Antichrist and Idolatry prejudicial to the truth The supposition of one Visible Church the ground of Communion as well within the Reformation as in the whole Church What the Romish Missionaries get by the charge of Haeresie and the pretense of Infallibility What we get by the charge of Idolatry and Antichrist Immoderate charges vain on both sides The charge of Schisme on both sides moderate as to the Church The sin of Schisme as to God horrible The Schisme of the Donatists in charging the Catholicks to bee Apostates The sad consequences of that Schisme 8 CHAP. III. They that hold by One Visible Church are to own the consequences of it Nothing to bee changed but upon that ground Wee cannot bee the same Church with that which was otherwise Though that which shall be setled will find advocates Civil Laws of Religion to bee changed till this Rule bee attained The beginning and rise of our differences The present state of them What terms of agreement with the Presbyterians wee ought to allow The Laws of the Primitive Church the Standard of all change Our present Case is â—ot the Case of our Forefathers The Acts of Henry VIII no Acts of our Forefathers in Religion Imperfection of Laws in Religion no imputation to our Forefathers The pretense of tender Consciences is no Rule It serves Papists as well as Puritans 15 CHAP. IV. Erastians can acknowledge no Visible Church founded by God Their opinion inableth Sovereigns to persecute Gods truth by Gods Law Persecuting the truth is the use of a Power which no Sovereign can have If any Sovereign may punish for the Religion which hee professeth then are Subjects bound to renounce Christ if the Sovereign command it No offense but charity in declaring the true ground of reconcilement or punishment Why it ought to bee declared The declaring of it no offense to Superiors 24 CHAP. V. Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Vnity of the Church as for the truth of the Scriptures The Church founded upon the Power of the Keys The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Laws of it The Law which endoweth the Church with consecrated Goods How the Vnity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures How in the Old Testament 29 CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disâ—â—â—ing Hâ—reticks and Schismaticks The breaches that have come to pasâ— evidence the same 35 CHAP. VII Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of Vnity absolute of Schismes How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God reforming without the Church of Rome 45 CHAP VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schism The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church 49 CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Predestination to Glory destructive to Christianity Justifying Faith includeth the profession of Christianity The Nature of Faith according to the Scriptures sheweth the same So doth the state of that Question which St. Paul disputeth The conseâ—â— of the Church â—erein with the ground of it The sense of this Church 54 CHAP. X. Why Justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ Of Justification according to the Council of Trent Of Justification according to Socinus Wherein his Hâ—resie consisteth How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Vpon what grounds hee is to bee refuted The helps of Grace granted iâ— consideration of Christs obedienâ—â— And therefore they infer Original Sin by the fall of Adam Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth That the state of Grace is forfeited by hainous sin The danger of the contrary Position according to the ground of it 63 CHAP. XI What Law of God it is that may bee fulfilled by a Christian Of doing more then Gods Law requireth Whether our Lord gave a New Law or not Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian Works Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his Posterity Wherein Original Sin consisteth What Original Righteousness signifieth What good the Vnregenerate are able to do by the Law of Nature 73 CHAP. XII Vpon what terms that which is possible may become future The difference between necessity antecedent and consequent The difference between freedom from necessity and from bondage Freedom from necessity always requireth indetermination not always indifference The Object determineth the Will saving the freedom of it Whence the certainty of future contingencies ariseth How this appears in the Scriptures God no cause of sin according to the Scriptures Concerning the middle knowledg of God 80 CHAP. XIII No absolute Predestination to Glory Predestination to Grace absolute How Glory is the end of Grace In what terms the Faith of the Church standeth as concerning this point 86 CHAP. XIV Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church How Anabaptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church Their Error in rebaptizing for want of dipping What concerns Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist How the Elements are consecrated into the body and bloud of Christ according to Gregory Nyssene The consequence hereof in the Errors concerning the Eucharist How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods service 91
to the Law of this Kingdom and the effect of it that the Worship of the Host in the Papacy is Idolatry Therefore wee must not receive the Communion kneeling if wee would bee commended for breaking the Brazen Serpent with Hezekiah I say nothing to the consequence though it were easie enough to say That the people committed Idolatry to the brazen Serpent till that very day 2 Kings XVIII 4. And to allege the Practice of the Catholick Church Who while there was appearance of offense did not make use of Idol Temples for Churches But when the offense began to cease As in the time of Honorius common reason obliged them to do it Let them pursue the consequence of their own reason That is let them mete by their own Standard and then they must pull down all the Churches in the Kingdom I shall prefer the wisdom of St. Gregory of Rome by whom this Nation received Christianity Ordering the Pagan Festivals of our Ancestors to bee converted to the Assemblies of Christians For if Christianity sanctifie not all times places and gestures that may pretend in common reason to advance the service of God Wherein differeth it from Judaisine For in Judaisme the day the place the circumstance prescribed by the Law sanctified that action to bee the service of God which it had been abominable to tender God for his service at another time or in another place or otherwise As rest on the seventh day of the Week dwelling in a Booth at the Feast of Tabernacles was the service of God according to the Law of Moses But to pretend to serve God thereby at another time had been to usurpe upon God and his power which gave the Law On the contrary the service of God according to Christianity sanctifieth all times all places all gestures all circumstances that can pretend to express to procure to advance that attention of mind that devotion of spirit wherewith Christians profess to worship God in spirit and truth Otherwise the Kingdom of God must consist in making a difference of meats and drinks in despite of St. Paul And for the same reason of times and places and gestures not for unity in the service of God or increase of devotion as all reason requireth But as the Subject matter wherein the service of God according to Christianity consisteth But I set aside this consequence though I could not let it That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church pass without setting this mark upon it The assumption who will undertake to prove Who will take upon him to shew us that the worship of the Host in the Papacy is Idolatry They who grant the Church of Rome to bee a true Church and salvation to bee had in it and by it may if they see cause spare contradicting those that take it for granted before it bee proved But they cannot take it for granted themselves A Church is a company of Christians And all Christians profess the true Christ And all that profess the true Christ profess the true God And professing the true God if they believe that which they profess they cannot honour any creature as they honour God For they profess that there is only one true God And that there is infinite distance between him and all creatures so that they cannot esteem any creature to bee God And therefore they cannot so honour any creature as if it were God Christianity supposeth the belief of one true God and the being of the Church supposeth Christianity It took away Idolatry in point of Fact which Judaisme could not do though it shewed reason enough to take it away And therefore let no man think it easie for a Church to build up that either by express Law or by silent Custom which the profession upon which it is built destroyeth Let us bee as careful as you please that Idolatry which is put out at the great gate of the Church get in at no back-door of it The true God of Israel and our Lord Christ might bee Idols to them that professed not one true God If they who profess the true Christ can bee bred in such ignorance as not to acknowledg the difference between God and his creature all their Religion may come to bee Idolatry in Gods sight however the Church bee obliged to esteem it For certainly some Witches commit Idolatry to the Devil though there bee Witches of all Religions And so there may bee Idolaters of all Religions supposing that men may act contrary to that which they profess But that is not the question which wee have in hand when wee Dispute Whether wee are to forsake the Church of Rome as Idolaters or not For it is the publique profession thereof that wee are to forsake Wee are not to forsake it for the actions of private persons contrary to that which they publiquely profess Now they which profess the only true Christ and therefore the only true God do necessarily profess to detest all Idolatry which the profession of Christianity effectively rooted out of the World wheresoever it prevailed And so doth the Church of Rome still as seriously profess as they who charge them to bee Idolaters And therefore cannot easily bee convinced to profess Idolatry For without expressly renouncing this profession they cannot expressly bee Idolaters without renouncing it by such consequence as may convince common reason that they contradict themselves and renounce all of them that which all of them profess they cannot bee Idolaters by consequence And therefore it is not easie to make it appear to common reason that they are Idolaters And so that wee are to forsake them as Idolaters because then it must appear to common reason that so great a part of Christendom doth by their profession contradict that which themselves profess They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismatickes before God And what will they that stand upon this plea say to me who pretend to have proved that the nature of Idolatry consisteth in that which I have said And therefore that the Papists are not by their Common profession Idolaters Can they pretend so much charity to me as to have attempted the answering of my Reasons and the rectifying of my mistakes Or will they shew me who hath answered them and so that they need not be troubled for me If they will not bee tied to this would they have the Law of the Land changed upon a supposition which I have destroyed and they cannot pretend to have restored Nay would they have it changed to no better effect then to make me and all that are satisfied with the Reasons which I have advanced Schismaticks in the sight of God allowing and consenting to the change that shall be made for their sake This were indeed an incomparable piece of charity to purchase peace and unity with them at the charge of answering for all the mischiefes which our Schisme with
the Church of Rome produceth For in plain terms we make our selves Schismaticks by grounding our Reformation upon this pretense For on the one side wee profess the Separation to have been our intent not a consequence of the Reformation by the fault of the Church of Rome in not complying with it Because wee give such a Reason for it as if be true wee cannot without renouncing our Christianity hold communion with those whom wee charge with it Whereas Reformation is indeed and alwayes was the thing intended Division in the Church which it hath occasioned is the crime of those that refuse to come in to it upon such terms as the common Christianity requireth On the other side this cause which would bee more then sufficient to justifie Separation did it appear to be true Charges the mischiefes of the Schisme upon those that proceed upon it before it be as evident as the mischiefes are which they run into upon it So that should this Church declare that the change which wee call Reformation is grounded upon this supposition I must then acknowledg that wee are the Schismaticks For the cause not appearing to me as hitherto it hath not and I think will never be made to appear to me the separation and the mischiefes of it must be imputed to them that make the change And as they who justifie the Reformation by charging the Pope to bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters So on the other side they who overcharge the Reformation to bee Haeretickes make themselves thereby Schismatickes before God CHAP. II. The supposition of Antichrist and Idolatry prejudicial to the truth The supposition of one Visible Church the ground of Communion as well within the Reformation as in the whole Church What the Romish Missionaries get by the charge of Haeresie and the pretense of Infallibility What we get by the charge of Idolatry and Antichrist Immoderate charges vaine on both sides The charge of Schisme on both sides moderate as to the Church The sin of Schisme as to God horrible The Schisme of the Donatists in charging the Catholickes to bee Apostates The sad consequences of that Schisme FUrther as I began to say before supposing for Disputes The supposition of Antichrist and Idolatry prejudicial to the truth sake but not granting for truth that the Pope is Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters And that thereupon wee are to have no communion with the Church of Rome are not the particulars to bee decided by the same Reasons and therefore upon the same termes as if neither the Pope were Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters For this being clear beyond Dispute what do wee gain by a supposition so impossible to bee set in the light of competent evidence Even that which wee see is come to pass An unchristian rather then an unreasonable apprehension That the further wee run from them the neerer wee shall come to the truth of Christianity Whereas wee are to take no less heed that wee run not beyond the Church of God The Unity whereof if it bee indeed ordained by God is ordained to no other purpose then to render the true bounds of Christianity that is the means of salvation visible to all Christians For the truth of the particulars in difference stands where it would stand whether the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters or not But they that believe them so must needs thereupon incline to believe them further from the truth then indeed they will appear to bee if it bee not true And therefore must needs have a hand in the Schisme in departing further from them then they ought to do He that takes the Pope for Antichrist and the Papists for Idolaters can never weigh by his own Weights and mete by his own Measures till he hate Papists worse then Jewes or Mahumetans who cannot be Idolaters which some but few of them profess to do Is not he that runs from Rome with this Opinion in danger to forget the Proverb Ita fugias ne praeter casam and run by the door of Gods Church Now suppose wee can have no Communion with the Church The supposition of one Visible Church the ground of Communion as well within the Reformation as in the whole Church of Rome because it appeareth that the Pope is Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters Yet ought wee to hold Communion with all Christendom besides that own not Antichrist nor his Idolatries I say if the Visible Unity of the Church appear to bee the Ordinance of God in the next place to holding the truth of Christianity we shall stand obliged to hold Communion with the rest of the Church But this Communion cannot bee maintained without an express profession that the Visible Unity of the Church is the express will of God and his Ordinance though the will of man render it frustrate This profession it is that obligeth all to stand to those grounds and those termâ— upon which it is to bee maintained Whatsoever differences may arise to render it questionable And it is the not acknowledging of thâ—se grounds that hath made way for those Divisions which have succeeded within the Reformation in several parts of it For as they have all proved incurable for want of this Principle of Unity So it is not possible that ours which have come to pass in the last place should be cured upon any other principle of Christianity to the salvation of souls however the benefit of publique peace may prevail to keep them from doing that mischief in the World which they have done The truth is they of the Church of Rome have overcharged What the Romish Missionaries get by the charge of Hâ—reâ—ie and the pretense of Infallibility us in calling us Haereticks Taking that charge to signifie division upon matter of Faith But they that would have the Pope Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters have revyed it upon them and taken their Revenge beyond the bounds of blameless defense For the profession of Idolatry necessarily signifies utter Apostasie from Christianity to Paganisme There is nothing else known by the name of Idolatry in the Scriptures By which they must prove if they do prove them Idolaters For the Idolatry of the Gnostickes which I am confident is mentioned in divers Texts of the New Testament may well bee accompted the Idolatry of the Pagans though pretending to bee Christians Because they did not stick to exercise the same Idolatries with the Pagans when occasion was offered though they had their own Idolatries besides whether peculiar to their several Religions or as Magicians This is the reason of that which I said before that wee need not Dispute which side is the true Church if wee can prove them Idolaters But it is to be feared that the Romish Missionaries do advantage themselves more by the pretense of Haeresie then they by the pretense of Idolatry or Antichrist For having obtained this great truth that there is no salvation out of Gods Church and then
of all Nations and maintaining all Sâ—ates in their rights of this World pretendeth not to any power of this World to maintain it self by It becometh Visible by the free will of Christians beleeving it a piece of their Christianity to live die members of one Visible Church The Unity of the Jews State tending to a temporal end of enjoying the Land of promise answereth not the invisible unity of Christian souls but the Visible Unity of a Catholick Church according to that rate in which the Law answers the Gospel And so is this point of Christianity no less clearly delivered by the Old Testament then other points of the Christian Faith are CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The forme of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same FOr though all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves of all Christians bee not onely sufficiently but abundantly contained in the Scriptures yet how clearly there laid down depends upon the purpose for which God declares that hee gave the several parts of it It is manifest that God intended to vaile the New Testament in the Old and to reveal the Old Testament by the New Therefore Christianity cannot bee clearly delivered in the Old Testament Till our Lord was to leave the world hee declared not the condition of Christianity by which wee are saved Hee declared not that which hee declared when hee was to leave the world to wit that it was thenceforth to consist in undertaking to profess the Faith of the Holy Trinity and to live by Christs precepts though ones life lye upon it For he declared not the promise of sending the Holy Ghost till hee was ready to leave the world And therefore the Baptisme of Christ by which Christians do make that prosession which saveth us was not instituted till his departure And though our Lord had clearly preached the precepts of Christian life from the beginning yet is the Visible estate of his Mystical Body the Church as well as the invisible estate of particular members darkly figured and typified not only by the parables of the Gospel but as well by that which befell him as by that which he did during the time of his preaching Therefore neither is Christianity clearly delivered by the Gospels To them to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles the substance of Christianity must needs bee known for they had been made Christians upon the professing of it But their Epistles therefore suppose it and therefore cannot pretend to deliver it Besides the greatest part of them is spent in proving that wee are saved by Christianity out of the Old Testament And therefore by that correspondence in which the Law answers the Gospel the Church the Synagogue and the Kingdom of Heaven the Land of promise And though our Lord opened his Disciples hearts thus to understand the Scriptures yet are not all that shall bee saved able to make out this correspondence the professing and performing of that Christianity whereby they are saved not requiring it Therefore neither are the Apostles writings clear in things necessary to salvation but supposing the knowledg of that Christianity whereby wee are saved nor absolutely clear but to those that are able to make out that correspondence Without this limitation it is not to bee granted that all things necessary to salvation are clear to all that seek salvation by the Scriptures alone For what mark is there extant in the Scripture to distinguish that which is necessary to salvation from that which is not Nor is there any inconvenience in all this to them that are Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture content to lay prejudice aside and to see that which they cannot but see For it will appear by the writings of the Apostles that they committed the Doctrine of Christianity to them whom they trusted with the founding and governing of the Church for the instructing of them that were to bee baptized and formed into Churches whereof the whole Church was to consist So that as they to whom the Apostles writ having received their Christianity from those that were so trusted were to limit the meaning of their writings within that Faith which they had received So is all interpretation of Scripture still to bee confined within that which the Church from the beginning hath received by their hands Which is not to make any man lord of any mans Faith For this Tradition of the Faith is before the very being of the Church Because whosoever became a Christian and so a member of the Church it is supposed that hee undertaketh the same And therefore being in force before there bee any Church it cannot depend upon any authority to bee claimed by the Church And the evidence for it is the same ground into which the reason of beleeving resolveth The consent of all Christians Which as it could not have been preserved and obtained had it not been required to make a man a member of that Church which by professing it stood visibly distinct from all that profess iâ— not So since as much as is necessary to salvation hath been already declared by the consent of the Church to confine all interpretation of Scripture within that which all the Church every where at all times hath received can make no man lord over the Faith of the Church But there is a vast distance between this Tradition of Faith Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions and other Traditions which may have proceeded from that authority and trust for founding the Church which our Lord left with his Apostles and they with the Church For that being the condition upon which all Christians are saved remains alwaies the same neither to bee encreased nor diminished till the Worlds end But the productions of Ecclesiastical power vested in the Apostles and their successours can bee no more then the limiting of circumstances according to which the publick Service of God is to bee performed and those powers exercised which God hath granted the Church for the maintaining of Unity in serving God according to that Christianity which our Lord teacheth Christianity is concerned in them but two waies The first when they are so far from advancing the service of God which Christianity requireth that it is impaired and destroyed by corruption in them The second when a part of the Church proceedeth to a change in them upon pretense that
so it is though indeed it bee otherwise The first is the plea of the Reformation against the Church of Rome The second the plea of the Church of Rome against them as to this point of Traditions And the issue is the same that is to bee tried between the Church of England and those that stand at this distance from it For the Unity of the Church being a part of the common Christianity the breach of it will bee chargeable upon that side which makes such a change as the rest have not reason to embrace If the pretense thereof bee either not evident or not sufficient the fault is in them If both in those who refuse to joyn in iâ— The Rules and Customs and Rites of the Church which are called Traditions are not commanded because good but are good because commanded And therefore even the Traditions of the Apostles being of this kind may cease to oblige by the change that may-succeed in the state of the Church for which they are provided Instances hereof recorded in the Scriptures have been produced They therefore that break from the Church upon any point The difference between Haeresic and Schisme of the Tradition of Faith which is before the Church as being requisite to make a man a member of the Church are properly called Haereticks For if they only disbeleeve in the heart they may bee counted Haereticks to God but that is nothing to the Church of which wee now speak But they that will not stand to the authority of the Church in maters subject to it are Schismaticks For those things to which the authority of the Church extendeth are the mater of Schisme Not that this difference is alwaies observed For many times the name of Haeresie extendeth to all Sects which mans choise not the will of God createth But because there is that difference visible in the mater of Christianity which many times appropriateth the common name of Haeresie to the most eminent that Separate upon mater of Faith These things are here premised to make way for the evidence which I tender for the Visible Unity of the Church from the consent of all Christians Hee that sticketh at any point of it may have recourse to the proofe which I have made in due place taking all therefore here for granted But I will advance another assumption tending â—o set the The dependence of Churches evidâ—nâ—eth the Unity of the Whole Church same evidence in better light by stating the form in which the whole Church from the Apostles hath alwaies been governed without repeating the proofes whereby it appeareth A Church then in the sense of all Christians before the Reformation is the Body of Christians contained in a City and the Territory of it For the Government of such a one the respective Authority of the Apostles conveyed by the overt act of their Ordination was visibly vested in a Bishop in a number of Presbyters for his advice and assistance and in Deacons attending upon them and upon the executing of their Orders I say the respective authority of the Apostles because as less Cities are subject to greater in Civil Government so have the Churches of less Cities alwaies depended upon Churches of greater Cities throughout Christendom Rome Alexâ—ndria Antiochia were from the beginning of Christianity visible heads of these great resorts in Church Government which the Council of Nâ—câ—â— made subject to them by Canon Law for the future The eminence of other Cities over their inferiour Churches appears in the Records of the Church as soon as there is any mention of them to make it appeaâ— In these Churches and in the Governors of them the whole Authority of the Apostles was vested For they constituted the Church In process of time the Government of the Roman Empire The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire was moulded anew under Constantine otherwise then it had been by Augustus But this new model was designed by Adrian It made the chief Cities of the chief quarters of the Empire the Residences of the chief Commanders of the Armies with civil Jurisdictions respective Which civil Jurisdictions Constanâ—ine left them when hee took from them their commands over the Armies Carthage for Africk Milane for Italy that part which was not under Rome Triers for Gaule Thessalonica for Illyricum Ephesus for Asia Caesarea Cappadociae for Pontus the pre-eminence of the Churches is as visible over the Churches of their inferiour Cities in the records of the Church as the pre-eminence of the Cities in the records of the Empire And according the course of all humane affairs must not this pre-â—minence of necessity bee further limited enlarged or abated in process of time whether by written Law or by silent custom For the effect hereof I present to your consideration the Canons of the Council of Sardica whick I take to bee the greatest advantage that ever lawfully and by regular means accrewed to the Church of Rome toward that greatness which since it hath irregularly obtained For it is visible that they were the means to extend the superiority thereof over Illyricum which continued till the Eastern Empire having the Church of Rome in jealousie laid that whole Jurisdiction under the Church of Constantinople The encrease of which Church upon the seating of the Empire at that City the ground which I allege for the superiority of all Churches as it hath been unjustly opposed by the Church of Rome so it is justly owned by those who protest against the Usurpation of it They that would except Britaine out of this Rule upon the No exception to bee made to it for the British Church act of the Welsh Bishops refusing Austine the Monke for their head should consider that St. Gregory setting him over the Saxon Church which hee had founded according to Rule transgressed the Rule in setting him over the Welsh Church For the Canon of the Apostles maintains every Nation to bee governed by their own Bishop Which the Welsh had reason then to insist upon because of the jealousie which appeared from the Saxons of their incroaching upon the Nation if their Bishop should bee owned for the head of the Welsh Church Setting this case aside the rest of that little remembrance that remains concerning the British Church testifies the like respect from it to the Church of Rome as appears from the Churches of Gaule Spain and Africk of which there is no cause to doubt that they first received their Christianity from the Church of Rome And if so they did then is there reason to conclude that they owed it the respect which was due to their Mother Church But that they either owed it or shewed it the respect of a Subject to the Sovereign which none is challenged none at all As for Illyricum which shewed the same respect after the Council of Sardica it cannot bee thought to have owed it before because it received not Christianity Episcopacy by this formâ—
inviolable in all opinions And the Church a standing â—ynod from Rome Hereby it may appear that the Visible Unity of the Church must stand or fall with Episcopacy And therefore no marvel that it should not bee acknowledged by them who acknowledg not Episcopacy For the soul of this unity consisting in the resort of inferiour Churches to superiours and in the correspondence of parallel Churches neither can this resort nor this correspondence ever appear to have been had and exercised but between Bishops as heads in behalf of their Churches Whether by a treaty of Bishops personally assembled in Council or by correspondence between Bishops by means of their Presbyters Deacons or inferiour Clergy good intelligence were preserved between Churches towards the maintaining of communion in the whole it maters not The Church in the form which I state is a standing Synod able by consent of the chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole In all the records of the Church let them shew me one Presbyter that ever answered for his Church to the rest of the Church at least in his own name for if in the name of and by Commission from his Bishop it is for my turn and let them take all And therefore though Episcopacy must needs bee declared for part of Gods Law by the Scriptures understood as the consent of the Church directeth against which no Scripture can bee rightly understood yet supposing the Church Visible by Gods Law I have enough to make them Schismatickes that oppose it though I should make Episcopacy no part of Gods Law but introduced by consent of the whole Church For that part which submitteth not to the consent of the Whole in maters which Gods Law referreth to the Whole for the preservation of that unity which it enacteth are justly to bee taken for those that violate the Unity which Gods Law enacteth Epecially in a Law of that consequence as one of those Rights wherein the chief power of the Church consisteth It is strange to see how fondly men argue that Presbyters have the power of the Keys which made the Apostles Apostles Therefore much more are they equal to Bishops As if they could not have that power in private maters between God and the conscience of particular Christians Reserving the same power for the Bishops peculiar in things which being publick concern the Body of each Church For in the cause of Arius this power was in the Council of Nicaea and in no less Had Athanasius of Alexandria or Alexander of Constantinople loosed him whom the Synod had bound though at the instance of Constantine they had been sinners to God and to his Church in violating the Unity thereof which hee hath made more inviolable then any temporal endowment of it How far are wee now from having evidenced the Visible Unity of Gods Church to bee a part of the common Christianity The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes supposing these things proved the proofes whereof have no way been insringed Haeretickes are condemned by themselves saith Paul because they know they forsake that profession upon which they were baptized members of the Church But it is Titus that is to refuse them The Church avoids them because the Bishop finds them incorrigible If other Bishops and their Churches duely informed from Titus do the like then is the Visible Unity of the Church visible in their proceedings If they do not the like then must they break communion with Titus and his Church by a perpetual Rule of the Church holding all Excommunicate that shall acknowledge an Excommunicate person to bee a member of the Church But wee read of no breach in the Church for any of those whom the Church hath declared Haeretickes Except what shall by and by bee excepted Thus far all the Church owneth the Visible Unity of the Church As for Schisme how many occasions of it have been prevented The difference about keeping Easter the difference about rebaptizing Haeretickes Many other differences have threatned breaches in the Church which have been prevented through the conduct of Christian Prelates Other divisions that have come to pass have been re-united sometimes sometimes not The communion of the Church of Sardinia with the rest of the Western Churches stood interrupted by the discontents of Lucifer Archbishop there And therefore I conceive for his time and no more The Church of Antiochia stood divided within it self under two Bishops for a mater of threescore years till by the intercession of the West as well as of the East it was re-united The East under Constantinople stood divided from the West under Rome upon the cause of Acacius for some seventy years till the Church of Rome was satisfied How long the Schism of Montanus lasted for at the first it was but a Schisme if wee judge by Tertullian who is the best record that remains of it I say not It seems to have turned into an Haeresie first and then to nothing as other Haeresies have done The Schisme of the Novatians for it was no more seems to have returned to the Church by pieces And so that of the Meletians The Donatists seem to have continued till Africk was overrun by the Mahumetans In all these breaches what signifies the attribute of one Catholick Church but a Visible Unity opposite to so many visible Apostasies St. Austine saith that if a stranger asked an Haeretick or Schismatick the way to the Catholick Church hee durst not shew him the way to his own Church because the title was not questionable Not meerly because the Catholick had more belonging to it as some would have us judge of Religion by counting Noses but as Optatus saith quia rationalis ubique diffusa because the due reason why men are Christians swayed men to stand to the unity of the Church all over The undue reason that moved men to break with it prevailed but here and there At all hands discounting Haeretickes and Schismatickes whom they that follow do seldom approve so many Christians so many witnesses of one Catholick Church which by being Catholick was alwaies and must needs bee Visible And thus far wee have the same evidence for one Visible Church as for the rest of Christianity After the Council of Ephesus the reputation of Nestorius held The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same entire in the East notwithstanding the Decree of the Council The Records of the Church have preserved us no intelligence how or by what means Those that write of the Wars of the holy Land afterwards represeut us the Nestorians in the East so numerous as might well stumble those that pretend to decide the Controversie of Religion by the Poll in our Western parts But whether the breach stood upon the opinion or upon the person of Nestorius is more then I am able to decide For in Aegypt likewise after many troubles about the Council of Chalcedon and the condemning of their
Bishop Dioscorus by it at length these Churches are counted Jacobites from the name of one Jacobus Zanzalus or little Jacob of Syria who is said to have taught them the position of Eutyches condemned by that Council Whether so or whether a fond zeal for the reputation of Dioscorus hath served to divide that people from the Church upon a meer difference in terms the breach still continues and the Abyssines depending alwaies upon the Church of Alexandria are said to continue in it Since that what breach of intercourse and communion hath fallen out between the Greek and Latine Church or upon what cause and how far it continues I need not relate But there can bee no question that it disposed these Western parts to that breach which the Reformation hath made Within the Reformation I need not speak of the Division between the Calvinists on the one side and the Lutherans in the Empire the Arminians in the Law Countries on the other side I am only this to demadn did ever any of these parties declare that the Visible Unity which these breaches interrupt is not Gods Ordinance That one of the Parties is not always guilty to God for the mischief of Schisme That Christian charity is not highly concerned in violating that Communion which Christianity enacteth Until the dregs of our times I do not know that it was ever Disputed that Christians are not bound to bee members of one and the same Visible Church I have already said that the Reformation was not made by common consent I must now acknowledg futher that it proceeded not expresly upon the profession of one Visible Church though neither denying nor questioning the same No marvel then if in all things it bee not confined to the consequences of it And therefore no marvel that dissentions have fallen out in it No marvel that they who dare not look so clear a principle in the face can wrangle out the salvation of souls upon pety scruples which the admitting of it must needs presently disperse CHAP. VII Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of Vnity absolute of Schisme How wee are visibly one with the onely Church of God Reforming without the Church of Rome AS for the Church of England where Episcopacy stands Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth setled by the Law of the Land as well as by the Law of God and the right of goods consecrated to the Service of God by investing them upon his Church is maintained by the same Are we not to fear the curse of God if in all things of Religion wee mete not by the same Standard if wee weigh not by the same Weights Can wee pretend to weigh by the same Weights unless wee admit the whole Faith and all the Lawes of the Catholick Church Unless wee confine the Reformation to the restoring of that which hath been without introducing that which cannot appear to have been Men see new fanfies every day in the Scriptures which the same man sees not to morrow another man never sees The Profâ—ssion of Faith the Rules of Government the Rites of Gods service are the things that must make a Church a part or no part of the Whole Church For if the Church bee a Visible Body it must bee visible by the Lawes which it useth And if it bee to continue one and the same Body from the first to the second coming of our Lord the Lawes of it will necessarily change as the Lawes of all Bodies do but the authority whence they proceed must needs continue the same If corruption and abuse bee to bee Reformed and those in whom the authority visibly resteth agree not Restoring that which was you have the Authority of the Apostles and their successours for the reviving of their acts Introducing that which was not you go by the spirit of the Fanatickes the dictate whereof appears not in the Scriptures by the consent of the Church In fine mater of Faith is to the worlds end the same that the whole Church hath always from the beginning professed If you impose more the Church of Rome will have a better pretense then you can have namely a better claim to the authority of the Church For it is an imposture to induce any man to think that professing Christianity they can renounce the Scriptures The issue is and will bee whether you or the Church shall be judge Untill you distinguish between the present Church and the Whole Church not contesting the Faith of the present Church so far as it holds with the Whole But in mater of Church Law which for the reason that hath been said is necessarily changeable though the difference of times and the estate of things will not indure the restoring of Primitive Discipline yet shall it bee easie thereby to discern what is abated for Unities sake what is rejected because the Catholick Church and the Lawes of it are not owned And upon these terms it will bee easie to answer all demands No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church not only here but at the great day of Judgement at which otherwise the account cannot bee clear They that would have it thought that the mischiefs which wee have seen have not been acted for nothing would have the Law of the Kingdom in mater of Religion changed to give them content without considering what cause wee give the Church of Rome to take us for Schismatickes balking the Whole Church that wee may bee reconciled to those that have broken from us For supposing for the present though not granting that all Papists are Idolaters and the Pope Antichrist The Unity of the Church is nevertheless as it hath been proved a part of Christian truth Nor can Papists bee Idolaters or the Pope Antichrist for beleeving any thing which the Whole Church beleeveth for commanding or for practicing that which the Whole Church hath commanded or practiced Nay not for that which the Whole Church of any age hath allowed part of the Church to practice For God forbid it should bee said which it were senseless to imagine that part of the Christian World should own part of it for Christians being indeed Idolaters and Partizans of Antichrist The Church must have been utterly lost in that case and the Reforming of it must not bee the mending of the old Church but the making of a new Church Yet is it not enough for these men to allege the antient Church in any particular They must weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Standard if they will not fall under Gods curse They that stand not to the consent of the Church in all things answer themselves when they allege it Nay they may invite us to bee Schismatickes for their sakes in that for which they truly allege the antient
Church A justifiable nay a commendable custom of the antient Church may come out of use without any violence any fraud any purpose to defeat that pious intent to which such a custom was instrumental They who had rather break with the Church of Rome then comply with a change which the change of time and the state of things by time hath brought to pass should bee in my opinion Schismatickes But what if our Fanatickes should bee content silently to return into the communion of this Church as Presbyterians What if it appear that they are Bullion Haeretickes for the positions they profess though not stamped by conviction and contumacy succeeding and the Declaration of the Church upon that It will not then bee clear how wee shall wipe off that imputation to which wee shall bee liable by the perpetual Rule of Gods Church for receiving and communicating with those that have stamped themselves Schismatickes as Schismatickes those that have declared themselves Bullion Haeretickes as Bullion Haeretickes without any ground to presume that they are changed Certainly wee cannot allege the Catholick Church for our selves but it will rise in judgementagainst us when wee stick not to it What condition wee fall into if wee submit to the Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of unity absolute of Schisme of Rome upon terms of conquest it is manifest enough For wherein the Pope hath not limited his own authority by the Council of Trent wee render our selves to the mercy of it Missionaries shall have done a great effect if they perswade us that wee are Schismatickes unless wee return to those abuses which wee see with our eyes which wee handle with our hands they are so evident and so gross Well may they perswade simple Christians that they must first resolve which is the true Church and then what is true and what is false in Religion by that which the Church so resolved teaches This is a great deal the shorter way then to justifie the particulars which by this means they impose upon them And if wee render our selves upon these terms what remains but that wee admit whatsoever the Pope shall impose for the future though wee know that the Power of the Whole Church extends not to it Which how shall wee answer at the Day of Judgement either for our selves or those that depend upon us And yet I have shewed that the Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And hee that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that pre-eminence the only reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I count not my self tied to justifie Henry the VIII in disclaiming all such pre-eminence when it was enough for his purpose to disown it as not extending to his case For by the regular constitution of the Church which I have described if the Pope excommunicate any man injustly he does it in his own wrong hee excommunicates himself thereby from all that shall adhere to him whom hee excommunicates His advantage is only this If more adhere to the chief Church then to the less For which though there bee regularly a presumption yet if Usurpation appear either in sentencing or in the mater or in the effect of the sentence hee that exceeds his authority breaks it upon him that exceeds not like the waves of the sea against a rock But of the Usurpations of that Church wherein they consist How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God Reforming without the Church of Rome and by what means effected in due place that the difference may bee Visible between the infinite and the regular power of the Pope In the mean time what I have said of this point I must say of all maters in difference That as the Church of Rome cannot hinder us of restoring our selves to the Primitive Right of the Church by which a Christian Kingdom duely may maintain the Service of God neither consenting to the abuses which other Churches maintain nor breaking with them in other maters so are wee to go no further then the consent of the Church will bear us out For if we make new and private conceits of the Scripture and the sense of it Law to the Church which wee Reform wee found a new Church upon that Christianity which the only Church of God never owned But if wee only restore that which by abuse of time may appear to have come to decay wee impe and ingraffe the Church which wee Reform into that only Church which they that Reformed not succeed For how should wee depart from Unity with that Church the authority whereof wee follow in the change which wee make If therefore wee are to bee without offense to Jewes and Gentiles and to the Churches of God as St. Paul commands then are wee to bee without offense also to the Church of Rome Now it is no offense to the Church of Rome that wee build Unity among our selves upon an opposition to the abuses of it But if upon an opposition to that which it holdeth from the Whole Church wee give them cause to take us for Schismatickes as not reverencing in her the Whole Church which wee are bound to hold with CHAP. VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schisme The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the Conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church UPon these terms the choice of Religion would become What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church more clear which otherwise must become far more doubtful by the setling of our present differences For I grant it a thing too difficult for every Christian that is concerned to chuse his Communion to try the particulars in controversie by the consent of the Church But I maintain the same difficulty in trying which Church it is that preacheth the true Word of God and rightly and duly administreth the Sacraments which others would have the marks of the true Church For without trying the particulars in Controversie how shall it appear where the Word is preached where the Sacraments are ministred as they should bee And how shall they bee tryed but by the Scriptures expounded according to the consent of the Church As for them that would have us take the decree of the present Church to bee Infallible they are first to tell us upon whose credit wee take that Infallibility For you see wee believe not the present Church that it is the Church to wit founded by God Wee accept it upon the consent of the whole Church Neither is any thing Infallible in Christianity but upon the same ground It is not the decree of the present Church but the witness and agreement of the
Whole Church that renders any thing Infallible Now it is true every Christian hath the Judgment of discretion in the choice of Religion in point of fact That is to say supposing the division or rather the divisions that are on foot in the Church But in point of Right it ought to bee otherwise God having provided the Unity of the Church on purpose that simple Christians might not bee put to so hard a choice For when the Catholick Church was so Visibly distinct from all Sects that a Sectary would have been laughed at had hee called his own Church the Catholick Church of that City Willfully must hee perish that should forsake that Church which hee could not mistake But in our case what avails it to allege the Title of Catholick while the ground of the Title remains disputable Especially the division between the Greek and Latine Church having rendred it almost insignificant afore And the number of Protestants as I said of Nestorians rendring it questionable where the signification will light Seeing therefore that the malice of man by dividing the The duty of all estates for the re-uniting of Schisme Church rendreth it Invisible as hard to bee seen though not Invisible as not possible to bee seen What remaineth but that all publick persons and whosoever is interessed in the divisions of the Church understand and consider what account they owe for the Souls that must needs miscarry by the divisions which they maintain wheu they need not For how shall hee bee clear that professes not a desire of condescending to all that which truth will allow on either side for the advantage of peace on both sides And seeing neither side can make peace without the consent of both but either may have truth alone What remaineth but that all Reformation bee confined within those bounds which the Faith and the Law of the Catholick Church fixeth For though they that profess and intend to Reforme by that Rule may fail in applying their Rule to some matters Though seeing what the Rule requires they may bee fain to abate of it because the Body which they intend to regulate is not capable of the strict Rule Yet it is a reasonable ground of confidence for a single heart that the right Rule is expresly professed to bee intended For though in all divisions the parties acknowledging One Visible Church must needs hold the one the other Schismaticks unless they will bear the blame of the division themselves Yet is there no appearance in reason that God will take them for Schismaticks that follow so fair a profession in general though it may not come to effect in some particular And this is the only way to provide a clear discharge for the The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church maters Secular Power that is Sovereign in establishing such a Reformation by Law to the people of it and enacting the same with such priviledges and penalties as Christianity either alloweth or requireth For it is manifest from the premises that the Church by Gods Law is Judge in the matter of all Lawes according to which Religion is to be enacted by any Sovereign Yet is the Sovereign Power Judge also of their Judgment as not only it self a Member of the Whole Church and Heir to all right which the Unity thereof intitleth any Christian to but as Protector of the Church and of the Faith and Lawes of it That is as Protector of all Subjects within the Church of the respective Dominions in all right which the Law of the Church in the Dominion thereof setleth And therefore bound to judge whether that which the Church either of the respective Dominion or united with the same shall determine bee such as the Uuity of the Whole Church either alloweth or requireth or not For it is onely the Sovereign Power that can enact it for a Law upon all the Subjects thereof to the effect of Secular priviledges or penalties And seeing the Faith and Communion of the Church is the inheritance of the Secular Power that is Christian It is manifest that hee is trusted for his Subjects in matter of Religion to no purpose if hee bee to trust the Church at large in the matter of his Office And yet Gods Law having provided the Church to limit all matters questionable upon the constitution of the Church It is also manifest that all Secular Power is to suppose the Faith of the Church as always the same from the beginning And the Lawes in being as acts of the same authority which was founded by God in the Whole Church from the beginning before any Secular Power was Christian Which if it protect not why is it Christian I say it is bound to acceâ—t them for such in case it appear not by the Faith and the Lawes of the Whole Church that they are otherwise And in that case though the Secular Power be Judge for it self yet the Church and the Law of the Church is the Rule by which it is to judge As for that which present necessity requireth â—o be restored or setled a new for the Church respective to every Sovereignty It is also maniâ—est that the Secular Power both may and ought to see the Church under it to do their Office Knowing that it is their Office as to preserve the Faith which is always the same So to maintain Unity by suiting the Laws which are to be with those which have been from the beginning Whereof common reason in all publick Powers is a competent Judge I need say nothing that Secular Powers may and are to see that under pretense of Ecclesiastical Power or Jurisdiction their own rights bee not invaded having said That the power of the Church produceth no Secular effect But as the enacting of the Church Lawes with Secular priviledges and penalties is onely the effect of Secular Power So is it accountable to God alone for the use of it And as the Unity of the whole Church must needs bee concerned How the Conscience of Sovâ—reign Power 〈…〉 in the Lawes of the Church respective to this or that Sovereignty So is it not possible that any Sovereign should bee Judge in the concernments of those that are not his Subjects The divisions of Christendome which I alleged afore make full evidence for this For what need further dispute about Religion were Subjects as Subjects by Gods Law bound to stand to the will of their Sovereigns in that which concerns them as Christians This shews how much Sovereigns are concerned for their discharge to God to seek the peace of Christendome For if as at present it cannot bee had upon just terms it is not the opinion of this or that Divine It is not the opinion of any person whatsoever not acting in a quality capable by the constitution of the Church to oblige the Church respective to the Sovereign Much less is it his personal skill in matters of Religion though as great as any mans that
will bee condemned for it There is therefore a third signification of Faith in holy Scripture comprizing the outward act of professing as well as the inward act of beleeving And supposing this outward act of profession limited by the positive Law of the Gospel to the Sacrament of Baptism According to which signification the antient Church counted not Christians Fideles faithful or beleevers till they were baptized This is in the middle between the other two For as belief goes before it so it is the ground of the trust and confidence of a Christian And this therefore is that which all those Scriptures that ascribe the promises of the Gospel to Faith make properly justifying Faith For according to the use and custom of all Languages they are ascribed to belief bya Metonymy of the cause going before to trust and confidence by a Metonymy of the effect following upon it But this will not hold till we pitch upon that which comes between both as that which qualifieth a Christian for those premises When therefore the belief of Christs Gospel causes a man to take up Christs Cross in Baptisme then hath he that Faith which justifieth though that which prepares to it and that which insues upon it are honoured with the same attribute for being so neer of kindred to it But the consideration of the question which St. Paul disputeth So doth the State of that question which St. Paul disputeth visible in the writings of the Apostles suffereth no doubt of his meaning when hee argueth that Faith alone justifieth It is as clear as the Sun at noon that all his Dispute is with those Christians who having submitted to the Gospel could not conceive that the Law had no hand in justifying them whom they saw live according to the Law And that by the direction of that Apostles themselves for the gaining of the Jews A thing which they dispensed with for a long time till St. Paul was constrained to declare against it as rooting up the necessity of Christianity and salvation by it alone That this is the state of the Question all the New Testament after the Gospels is witness And therefore to be justified by Faith alone is with St. Paul to bee justified by Christianity alone And whereas they were all assured that salvation was to bee had under the Law he shews every where that the Fathers who were justified before or under the Law were not justified by the Law but by the Gospel that was vailed under it notas Jews but as Christians And therefore that the Gentiles which turned Christians were saved by the same Grace as beleeving Jews For as no works which they were able to do by the light and strength of Nature were able to bring those that were without the Law to the state of Gods Grace no more could the outward observation of Moses Law by those works which meer nature was able to produce as tending no further then the temporal reward of the Laws of Canaan expresly promised by Moses Law render men acceptable to God for the reward which Christians expect in the world to come But by Hegâ—sippus in Eusebius wee understand that the Gnosticks teaching that the bare profession of Christianity without bearing the Cross for the performing of it was enough to save those that should attain to the secrets which they taught debauched and deflowred the Church of Jerusalem as soon as St. James was dead And therefore seeing that could not bee done in a moment wee have cause to think that they went to work in his life time The consideration whereof shews that St. James in arguing that a Christian is justified by works and not by Faith alone intended to teach that the profession of Christianity justifieth not when it is not performed And therefore St. Paul intended the same in arguing that a Christian is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law To wit that hee is justified by professing Christianity so cordially and with so good a conscience as to perform it And for this sense of the Scriptures there is as current and as The consent of the Church herein with the ground of it general a consent of all the whole Church as for Christianity it self the life and soul whereof standeth in it Shew me any Author approved in the Church that ever allowed salvation without Baptisme when it could bee had when it could not the profession of him that desiveth it is as clear as if his flesh were cleansed that compriseth not the taking up of Christs Cross by professing Christianity in the nature and virtue of justifying Faith that opposeth that Faith which alone justifieth to any other works then those of Moses Law But there is no such thing to bee shewed This is every where to bee shewed in all writings any way allowed by the Church that the justification of a Christian dependeth upon the performance of that which hee professeth And the Promises of the Gospel which hee attaineth by undertaking to live as a Christian upon the good works whereby hee performeth the same And the honour of Christianity cannot stand otherwise There is no sin which it cleanseth not The reason is because there is no righteousness to which it obligeth not Hee who beleeveth that our Lord Christ tendereth salvation upon condition of beleeving and living as a Christian cannot expect that which hee tendereth without returning that which hee requireth But hee that is overtaken in sin by this Faith can do no more for the present then undertake so to beleeve and so to live for the future Thereby hee undertakes all righteousness for the future And by undertaking â—â— is translated from the state of damnation for sin to the state of salvation by grace Which if hee attain without undertaking if hee retain without performing then doth not Gods glory appeaâ— by his Gospel But there is no thing so particular to this purpose as those sayings whereby the Fathers declare that a Christian is justified by Faith alone in case he dye upon his Baptisme If he survive then that hee is justified by the works whereby his profession is performed Of which sayings having produced a considerable number I am by them to measure the meaning of all the rest of their writings The Articles of this Church setting forth justification by The sense of this Church Faith alone for a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort for the sense of it refer us to the Homily upon that subject I will not say that my Position is laid down in that Homily For there are many Passages of it which shew them that penned it no way clear in that point Yet there are divers sentences of the Fathers alleged in it which cannot bee understood to other purpose and other passages well agreeing with it But in the Church Catechisme and in the Office of Baptisme it is so clearly laid down as will serve for ever to silence any other sense And
qualifying for everlasting life That is as they expresly include it not so they may bee said to exclude it Though on the other side as they expresly exclude it not so they may bee said to include it But Socinus hath plainly taken up diverse Articles of the Haeresie of Pelagius affirming that Adam must have dyed though hee had not sinned and that Christ came not to cure any sin that by his fall is become Original to his Posterity Or to procure any Grace which Original sin rendreth necessary to make us good Christians But only to assure the World by his Doctrine and by his example that God will make good his Message if wee fail not on our side And having thus excluded the consideration of his merit either in declaring the Gospel or in performing it what necessity remained why he should bee God This is the Pedigree of this Haeresie complicated of the Haeresies of Pelagius and Paulus Sâ—mosatenus as this later of the Haeresies of Ebion and Artemas and of Sabellius For as Liberatus Arch-deacon of Carthage hath well observed in his Abridgement of the Troubles of Nestorius and Eutyches Samosatenus denying the God-head of Christ with Ebion and Artemas as concerning the Holy Ghost must of necessity say with Sabellius as Socinus doth that hee is the virtue and efficacy that is to say a meer notional attribute of the Fathers God-head In the mean time Socinus excluding satisfaction by Christs How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Obedience hath expresly excluded all imputation of it being the immediate consequence of satisfaction and the effect of it in order of reason but in nature and being the same thing with it Now it appears by the body of his Doctrine that hee had conceived a deep dislike of the opinion which I count Haeresie that placeth justifying Faith in beleeving a mans self to bee predestinated to life from everlasting And therefore understood the imputation of Christs righteousness as that opinion must needs understand it Namely that men are reconciled to God by the death of Christ their sins being pardoned before they bee done and they adopted to the glory they shall one day have without consideration of any condition qualifying for it Which uo man of common reason will take to bee the sense of St. Bernard or other learned Divines of the Church of Rome that have allowed imputation to righteousness And therefore it will bee necessary to distinguish a two-fold sense in the imputation of Christs obedience and the satisfaction which it followeth to wit according to the effect to which it is thought that satisfaction is made and imputed or put to account For in the opinion which I call Haeresie the merits of Christ are immediately imputed to them for whom they were intended for righteousness and life everlasting But in the Faith of Gods Church Christs sufferings are immediately imputed to mankind because in consideration of them God declares himself ready to bee reconciled with all that turn good Christians and accordingly makes good the promises of his Gospel to them performing their Christianity So that in the sense which Socinus rejecteth which is the sense of our Fanatickes imputation as well as satisfaction is immediate and personal in the sense of the Church mediate and real or causal because it is immediately to no further effect then of procuring the Gospel to the effect of salvation by the means of that Christianity which it requireth Had Socinus considered the consequence of this distinction Upon what grounds bee is to bee refuted hee would never have put himself upon the task of confining all that is said in the New Testament of Redemption Reconciliation and Propitiation by Christ and by his bloud to the effect of assuring us that God will stand to the Gospel which hee publisheth Hee would never have wrested the signification of all sacrifices and types figuring our Lord Christ and his death in the Old Testament to intend no more then the inducing of us to that Christianity which hee preached in confidence of that Grace which hee for his obedience is advanced to bestow Hee would never have declared against the Faith of the Holy Trinity out of a presumption that the salvation of Christians is provided for setting aside the God-head of our Lord Christ and the satisfaction at which his obedience is valuable in consideration of it In fine hee would not have transgressed the Faith of the Church had hee understood it But having before condemned the Pope for Antichrist and the Papists for Idolaters and derived this Apostacy of the Whole Church from the very death of the Apostles no marvel that hee would not bee confined to the Faith of the Church that hee could not see the ground of it No marvel that hee oversaw the prosession of the Faith of the Church by being baptized in the condition of our salvation knowing that hee transgressed the Rule of that Faith No marvel that they who see him in the wrong in refuting him and his followers are sometimes worsted in a true cause because they consider not that the punishment of Christ for our sins may so bee understood as to make the reward of Christianity due before and therefore without the performing of it Whereas understanding his sufferings to concern immediately no particular mans person but the common cause of mankind The immediate effect thereof is the procuring of a new Law for God to proceed with us by Which Law being set on foot upon the fall of Adam was first fully revealed by the Gospel of Christ The Original Law which man in his original uprightness was subject to remaining still the Rule of Righteousness according to those terms which the Gospel declareth Though for the effect of taking vengeance on us abrogated or dispensed with in consideration of Christs obedience Now those helps of Grace which the Gospel tendreth for The helps of Grace granted in consideration of Christs obedience the undertaking and performing of that Christianity which it requireth are also granted in consideration of Christs merits and sufferings put to our account That is the helps of preventing Grace or the actual motions of Gods Spirit without which the Gospel were a meer abuse supposing original sin upon the common account of mankind The helps of following Grace or the habitual endowment of Gods Spirit upon the personal account of him that is saved by Baptisme But both kinds presuppose that the coming of the second Adam was to repair the breach which the first Adam had made Both condemn the Haeresie of Pelagius which Socinus in some Articles of it reviveth And indeed to deny bodily death to bee the effect of Adams sin what is it else but to deny the Resurrection of the flesh to bee the effect of Christs righteousness For though it is the power of his God-head that shall raise them again who shall rise to shame Yet if it bee the Spirit of holiness which
raised Christ from the dead that shall raise the mortal bodies in which it dwelt here up to life is it not the sin which the fall of Adam brought into the world that first brought in death after it The same Spirit of holiness it is that our Lord according to promise sent his Disciples in his own stead and sent it with visible signs of his presence to make his word effectual in them first and by them to the conversion of the Nations And this means as no Christian can deny to bee sufficient to oblige all the world to bee Christians So there can bee nothing wanting on Gods part to render it effectual with those that embrace it For it is manifest that the Grace of God works the conversion of all by shewing the world sufficient reason to bee Christians A thing which can by no means bee done but by shewing them that they are the causes of their own damnation if they bee not They that are convicted hereof it is sure would bee perswaded by concupiscence not to act according to that conviction were there no more then conviction of reason to turn the ballance But when Gods Spirit manageth the motives of Christianity which it self provideth for this conviction consisteth in the works whereby God hath made good the preaching of our Lord and his Apostles what can bee wanting to the efficacy of it And this is signified in the Old Testament by ascribing the conquest of the promised Land to God and not to the strength or valour of his people So that wheresoever wee find that they are delivered out of their enemies hands by Gods assistance there wee are assured that the powers of darkness are not to bee overcome by Christians but by Gods Grace And the inclinations of mans heart to evil from the Mothers And therefore they inferre Original Sin by the Fall of Adam womb the frailty of humane flesh and the mortality thereof are so expresly delivered in the Old Testament that the Jewes themselves do acknowledge the effect of Adams transgression in them Neither is it possible to give any account of any necessity for the coming of our Saviour otherwise For whatsoever can bee required to convict the world that the tender of the Gospel shall bee made good to all that embrace or preserve it might have been as well without the death of the Son of God as by it Therefore the consent of the Church in this point hath been evidenced against Pelagius not only by the custome of baptizing Infants but by the Ceremonies which they were baptized with signifying the ejecting of the evil Spirit to make way for Gods Spirit Not that it was a Law from the beginning that all children of Christian Parents should be baptized Infants For it is evident that they thought it better to bee baptized at mans age Because then they are more able to understand what they undertake But because they never did presume of the Salvation of any that dyed unbaptized And therefore since the world came to profess Christianity and that the care and zeal either of Parents or Ministers could not so well bee trusted for the preventing of death by procuring Baptisme for Infants especially with that reverence which the Sacrament requireth it hath been agreed upon by the silent practise of Christendome to baptize all while they are Infants And this consent whoso infringeth in the overt act of Schisme which hee committeth hee involveth a presumption of Haeresie against himself For what could move a man to such an outrage who did believe that profession which saveth a Christian to include in it the Sacrament of Baptisme And thus it remaineth evident that it is a Covenant of unspeakable Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth Grace on Gods part which his Gospel bringeth notwithstanding that it requireth upon the condition of our Salvation that wee live and dye Christians First as tendring the assistance of Gods Spirit as well to undertake as to perform And then having performed as tendring a reward which our performance cannot challenge And both in consideration of Christ whose merits and sufferings are free pure meer Grace before all helps of Grace which they have purchased for us It is a thing prodigious and deplorable to consider that they That the state of Grace is forfeited by heinous sin who would bee Reformers of the Church should notwithstanding all this think it no state of Grace that can become forfeit by sin As if because without daily sin Christians do not live therefore that reconcilement with God were no reconcilement that can become void by gross and heinous sin But till that which hath been said of Justification and that Faith which alone justifieth bee destroyed there can bee no pretense for so dangerous a doctrine That which is granted upon a condition faileth with it And it must bee a secret which the Old and New Testament hath not revealed that shall make good our title to Heaven though wee make not good that Christianity which intitleth us to it And therefore when S. Paul is perswaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. VIII 28. hee supposeth us to bee such as hee describeth all along the Chapter afore Such as hee found himself resolved to bee Such as live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Of such hee might well bee perswaded that nothing should separate them from the love of God in Christ Knowing the helps of Gods All-sufficient Grace to bee promised all that so live not to fail till they receive them in vain Whence S. John saith that hee who is born of God sinneth not because the Vnction which hee hath from God abideth in bim and teacheth him all things 1 John II. 20. 27. III. 9. hee supposeth him that is born of God to bee the Son of God who shall bee no Son of God if hee sinne such sins as hee means And therefore hee supposeth this Vnction to abide in him which abideth not in them that sinne When our Lord saith to the Samaritane John IV. 14. that whoso drinketh of the water which hee shall give shall never thirst any more hee supposeth that the water which hee giveth is not vomited up again hee opposeth this water so drunk to the water of Jacobs Well which did make room for thirst in time Whereas this water so drunk shall spring up to life everlasting All Haeresies have the superficial sound of some Texts of Scripture to set against the whole stream of Scripture and the current Doctrine of it Hee that considers how much of the Old and New Testament that which I have said of Justification involveth will think it reason to measure the meaning of two or three Texts by that not to rack all the rest to the length of these As for the sense of the Church seeing the consent thereof is evident in the condition upon which wee are justified It is a part of
madness for any man that believes the Unity thereof to imagine that any Doctor that held with that Unity can bee found to teach otherwise S. Augustine is remarkable The stress lyes upon him and upon those Books the occasion whereof is to enquire how it comes to pass that so many that had attained to the state of Gods grace do not dye in it But though I admire at the wilfulness with which this mistake The danger of the contrary Position according to the ground of it is maintained against all Christendom Old and New but those who follow Calvin Yet I value the dangeâ— of it to the Salvation of him that hath it according to the opinion of Justification which it is joyned with For if it come from an assurance of a mans Praedestination As if such a one being once justified cannot incurre the state of damnation by any sin Taking that opinion for an Haeresie I must needs take this for a Position destructive to Salvation It is otherwise with those that make Repentance to go before justifying Faith For it is true that if a man have no ground that hee is reconciled to God till his first conversion hee can have no ground that hee is reconciled to God of any sin that hee falls into afterwards till hee have performed his Repentance And therefore they contradict themselves if they imagine that being actually in the state of damnation a man may have that trust in God which justifying Faith signifies before hee turn from his sin by Repentance But the worse Divines the better Christians And the truth which they hold suffereth not the venim of that opinion which is indeed inconsistent with the same to operate CHAP. XI What Law of God it is that may bee fulfilled by a Christian Of doing more then Gods Law requireth Whether our Lord gave a New Law or not Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian Works Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his Posterity Wherein Original Sin consisteth What Original Righteousness signifieth What good the Vnregenerate are able to do by the Law of Nature BUt this Resolution perfectly reconcileth two of those Controversies What Law of God iâ— is that may bee fulfilled by a Christian which wee have with the Church of Rome about Justification and the points annexed to it That of the possibility of fulfilling Gods Law for a Christian And that of satisfying for sin and of meriting Grace or Glory by the good works of a Christian For it is certain that the Law which God gave Adam in Paradise as having created him in his Original Uprightness can never bee fulfilled by the Grace which the death of Christ tendreth in this bondage under Original Sin But if wee speak of the New Law which the Gospel of Christ enacteth S. James calleth it the Law of liberty S. Paul the Law of the Spirit of life it is evident by the premises that if it bee not fulfilled then is Christ dead in vain then do wee receive his Grace in vain and cannot bee saved but are still in our sins For every Covenant every contract is a Law to the parties And though God need not contract with his creature which hee may give Law to at pleasure Yet if hee condescend to treat and to contract with man hee intends not to abuse him by contracting for that which cannot come to effect Therefore hee doth not contract with him upon condition that hee shall not sinne who born in Original Sin sinneth daily But upon condition that if hee fall into sin hee return by repentance and blotting out his former sin by works meet for repentance proceed in newness of life for the future And upon these terms the Original Law of Righteousness in Paradise doth not become void but continueth in force for the regulating of the righteousness which Christians are to live by and to aim at Whether or no inhaunsed in consideration of that great Grace of God bringing Salvation to all which hath appeared by the Gospel above that measure which the Original Righteousness of Paradise required I dispute not yet But the Law of Moses upon these terms will be the reviving of the Original Law of Paradise as to the effect of attaining and holding the Land of Canaan a figure correspondent as well to the earthly as to the heavenly Paradise by that outward obedience which the letter of the Ceremonial and Judicial Law required And upon these terms the Thief upon the Cross dying in the state of Grace fulfilled Gods Law Fulfilling all that which the Covenant of Grace required of him for his Salvation in that estate And if there bee such a thing as Repentance effectual to Salvation upon the bed of death which the Rules of the Church do not warrant us to presume of though they oblige us not to despair of it Then hee who is effectually converted to God upon his last bed of death hath fulfilled Gods Law As for going beyond the Law by works of Supererogation Oâ— doing more then Gods Law requireth It is easie to see that according to the premises hee that cannot do what Gods Original Law requires cannot do more But it is as easie to see that some circumstances may conduce to the performance of our Christianity that are no part of it And therefore the Vow of Baptisme binds not to them If Marriage stand with Christianity what Christian is forbidden Marriage Yet single life is the safer way to perfection in Christianity So is the profession of the Clergy and all the means of further retirement from the world then the taking up of Christs Cross signifies And the Grace which our Lord and S. Paul after him ownes in them that do this is not a peculiar temper of the body obliging him that hath it to live single and him that hath it not to marry But a singular zeal to wave that which God makes lawful for us that wee may the better come to his Kingdom Which when it proceeds with a single eye proposing to it self nothing of this world but the means of attaining to the world to come Well may wee bee assured of Gods help to perform it by virtue of that promise which the Common Christianity challengeth intending nothing but the effect of it I do believe further that wee who live under the Gospel Whether our Law give a New Law or nâ—t are tyed to a higher degree of goodness then those who lived under the Law were as for the condition of continuing in the state of Gods Grace And that this is the best reason for many actions of holy persons sometimes not condemned sometimes commended in the Old Testament which notwithstanding agree not with that perfection which our Lord by his Sermon in the mountain preacheth To wit that either they were accepted by God in that estate or at least might stand with the state of his Grace But this is not to say that our Lord by those Precepts which hee
there delivers introduces a New Law which obliged not under the Old Testament For I have shewed that under it the Fathers were saved as Christians that is by worshipping God in Spirit and truth But that there was a two-fold sense in Moses Law And that by keeping it according to the Letter they held the Land of Promise according to the Spirit though in a less measure then the Gospel requires they attained the world to come The Satisfaction and Merit of good works done by Christians Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian works may bee understood to bee grounded either upon their intrinsick value or upon that mark which the Gospel of Christ stampes them with in consideration of Christs merits and sufferings But that intrinsick value at which they are valued by those who make them worth life everlasting upon terms of commutative justice rises upon the account of Gods Spirit by the Grace whereof they are done And the Grace of Gods Spirit is not granted but in consideration of our Lord Christ and his obedience And therefore this intrinsick value is meerly imaginary even in the opinion of them that advance it unless they will needs contradict themselves For the value of our Lords obedience is necessarily extrinsick to us to whose account it redoundeth only by imputation of Grace And therefore there is no intrinsick value of Christian works supposing the Gospel to bee that which I have said For being performed by virtue of Gods Grace they cannot bee acceptable to the effect of salvation but by the same Grace But the merit or the satisfaction which is ascribed unto them being grounded upon that Grace bringing salvation to all which hath appeared by the Gospel it is not possible to imagine what it can derogate from the merits and satisfaction of our Lord Christ It is true men may forget their own grounds as I have said that they do who would have the works of Christians to merit heaven upon terms of commutative justice And forgetting themselves they may contradict themselves ascribing that for debt to them that do them which is not due but upon the account of Christs obedience But still the worse Divines the better Christians For the truth which they profess if they profess it not in vain shall bee an Antidote against that pride destructive to the humility of a Christian which the opinion of a mans own merit produceth Whereas they who exclude all consideration of our works from the great trial of the Day of Judgement do thereby exclude Christianity out of the heart as they do the Creed out of the Church Whereas they who suppose gross and hainous sins to bee pardoned before they see the fruits of Repentance in works of mortification by extraordinary exercises of devotion with fasting and almes do contribute as much as their allowance signifies to the murther of that soul which might have been cured had not their authority made men believe that there needs no such cure There is an opinion crept into the Church of Rome on the other side that imperfect sorrow for that sin which by Confession is submitted to the Keys of the Church serves to cure such sin how great soever And that Penance is enjoyned to redeem the debt of temporal punishment to bee paid in Purgatory if not here as remaining due when the guilt is done away Whereas the works of mortification are but the exercise and the performance of that contrition which the Gospel requires to qualifie a man for pardon of his sin And therefore the authority of the Church cannot supply the want of that condition which the Gospel requireth in him that seeks forgiveness But only procure it by excluding him from the Communion that shall refuse the cure which the Church prescribeth Now this is an opinion which that Church allows but enjoyns not And therefore whether there bee more danger there by this opinion or by the other extreme where all works of mortification are cried down for superstitious I leave to the conscience of discreet Christians The Catholique Church hath used the terms of satisfaction and Merit in a true sense and to a good purpose and it were easie to shew that the same sense is allowed though not enjoyned by the Church of Rome even since the Council of Trent were this the place I have said that the obedience of the second Adam is not immediately Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his posterity imputed to any particular mans account but first to the common account of mankind and to the account of particular persons as they are qualified for it by being good Christians And now I must say accordingly that the disobedience of the first Adam is not imputed immediately to the damnation of any particular but to the bondage of all â—is posterity For no man shall bee condemned at the last day but for the works which hee shall bee found to have done in the body And for what hee shall then bee condemned for the same God decreed that hee should bee condemned from everlasting So being become slaves to sin we are ransomed by Christ But as this ransome intitleth us not to life till wee embrace the terms of it neither doth this bondage damn us till wee beome parties to it by our sins If this bee true then doth not Original sin consist in the Imputation of Adams sin to his posterity as Catharinus held at the Council of Trent with great applause And indeed I need not dispute that God cannot in justice punish one man for another mans sin because you see the posterity of the first Adam according to the flesh is punished for his sin no otherwise then it is rewarded for the second Adam and for his righteousness The interest of our common Christianity is safe so long as the necessity of Christs coming and the reason of it for the cure of the breach which Adam made remains evident and unmoveable Nor is there any difficulty in resolving the nature of Original Wherein Original Sin consisteth Sin That should drive us to this novelty All sin is an act or an habit that faileth of that measure which Gods Law requires Original Sin hath only this peculiar that giving the like inclination as other habits do it is not contracted by custom but by birth Call this inclination to that which Gods Law forbiddeth Concupiscence and you have expressed the whole nature of Original Sin For calling it concupiscence you make it to bee the want of Original Righteousness But you express over and above what it is that succeedeth in mankind born in Original Sin instead of Original Righteousness to wit that disorder in our inclinations which concupiscence signifieth The Question only remains whether Original uprightness What Original Righteousness signifieth shall signifie only Innocence or supernatural Grace over and above For it may bee supposed that man was created at the first only to the happiness of this life upon condition
against Churches and Synods against Synods in the cause Always that Council decreed nothing for St. Austine against the redemption of all mankind and the will of God that all bee saved And Prosper his Apologist and the Author de Vocatione Gentium much more writing about the same time have asserted both Condemning thereby the late zele of Jonseinus for St. Austine if not his hatred of the Jesuites who thinking to overbear all Dispute in the point by his authority and reasons hath not been afraid to maintain him in those Articles And therefore hath given the Dominicans whom his opinion seems to comply so much with just occasion to joyn themselves against him with the Jesuites But his opinion will prove a nihil dicit That of Arminius as it necessarily opposes absolute Predestination to Glory so it stands very well with absolute Predestination to Grace Because it derives the Efficacy of Grace from that Congruity which as Gods foresight discovers so his Providence uses And therefore the discreetest of his adversaries at the Synod of Dort the English and those of Breme owned the redemption of mankind and the will of God that all bee saved Those that will not do the same must resolve upon Predetermination And that I grant is not destructive to Christianity in the Dominicans though of it self it bee destructive Because holding free will they contradict themselves in it and so have an Antidote against it But in our Fanatickes that take justifying Faith to bee the assurance of Predestination and the Covenant of Grace a meer Promise of God to those that have that assurance it is down-right Haerefie And though the Presbyterians do not profess to hold it yet so long as they distinguish not themselves from the Fanatickes but Communieate with them they will bee Haeretickes themselves by the perpetual Rule of the Church which makes them Haeretickes to the Church that Communicate with Haeretickes and Schismatickes that Communicate with Schismatickes CHAP. XIV Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church How Anabaptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church Their Error in rebaptizing for want of dipping What concerns Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist How the Elements are consecrated into the body and bloud of Christ according to Gregory Nyssene The consequence hereof in the Errors concerning the Eucharist How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods service IF it bee part of a mans Christianity to bee a Member of Gods Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church Church then is a Christian sometimes concerned as a Christian sometimes as a Member of the Church For that which concerns him as a Member of the Church arises from the Constitution of the Church as the effect of that power which God hath endowed his Church with Whereas that which concerns him as a Christian concerns him before the being of the Church Though the consent of the Church in it bee the means to bring it into evidence Whatsoever is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all Christians is of this kind And whatsoever proceedeth from the power of the Church as the effect of it is not necessary to bee known for the salvation of all Christians It is necessary for all Christians to know that they are to live and dye Members of Gods Church And therefore to conform themselves to the order of it But that this order is for the best it neither concerneth them to know nor to enquire provided it bee sufficient for the salvation of all and enjoyn nothing destructive to the salvation of any This is the next obligation to that which concerneth a Christian as a Christian The Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Eucharist were instituted How Anabâ—ptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church by our Lord in person before hee left the World So was also the Power of the Keys consisting in admitting to them and excluding from them Upon this Power hee founded his Church leaving the forming of it to his Apostles whom he trusted it with by virtue of the same It seems therefore that these Sacraments concern Christians as Christians and not only as Members of the Church I have shewed how Baptisme concerns the salvation of all Christians Whereby it appears what presumption of Haeresie there is in the Sect of the Anabaptists For did they think the profession of Christianity to bee the condition in consideration whereof all that are baptized are saved they could not take that Baptisme of the Church for void whereby there can bee no doubt that a Christian is obliged to the profession of a Christian Because they believe not the condition of salvation to bee the Covenant of Baptisme therefore they make it void being received before knowledg Whereas the greater question is whether the Church bee obliged to take their Baptisme for Baptisme or not For though the School make good all Baptisme ministred in due mater and form of words yet the Church never declared this general reason why it alloweth the Baptisme of those Haeretickes whom it did not rebaptize Because they were baptized with the due form of words But only appointed such and such Haeretickes to bee baptized as voiding the Baptisme which they received from Haeretickes others to bee received with imposition of hands Now of those Haeresies whose Baptisme the Church alloweth to bee valid though unlawful none did ever question the Article of one Baptisme for remission of fin which they that own not Christianity for the condition of salvation do destroy So did the Gnostickes and their Baptisme ought to bee void They who agree in their opinion though not in the grounds of it how is the Church tyed to allow their Baptisme But because the Church is not tyed to make it void and to baptize them again returning to the Profession of the true Faith Let it suffice that it appeareth hereby how necessary this found profession is for the restoring not only of Anabaptists but of all other Sects that distinguish not themselves from them to the Church They have indeed another pretense for rebaptizing For Their Errour in re-baptizing for â—aâ—â— of dipping that they may dip the whole body they will leave the Church to Baptize in Rivers Would they do this did they think the profession which is made with a good Conscience to bee that which saveth in Baptism as the Apostle teacheth The order of this Church requireth dipping so it bee warily done And certainly if it bee not the cleansing of the flesh it is not the indangering of life that saveth Now when sprinkling is used instead of dipping without regard to the danger of the Child in regard to a wrong opinion in the point or to the causeless tendernerness of Mothers and Friends especially of the womankind though
the Sacrament bee not void not being ministred as it ought to bee the offense is given by him that so ministreth it As the performance of Christianity is necessary for the Salvation What câ—nâ—â—râ—â— Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist of him that first attained the state of Salvation by undertaking Christianity So is the Sacrament of the Eucharist necessary for the Salvation of him that is come to the state of Salvation by the Sacrament of Baptisme Which if it bee true then is it necessary for the Church to profess and for all Christians to know and believe that the benefit of the Eucharist depends upon the sincerity of that resolution wherewith hee that receiveth it stands to his Christianity And on the other side that so doing hee fails not of the Body and Blood of Christ in that Sacrament and by consequence of his Spirit which it conveyeth If therefore the Unity of the Church bee a part of the Common Christianity Then is it necessary to this effect that it bee celebrated in the Unity of Gods Church For otherwise no man need to argue that it is void that it is celebrated and received to no effect seeing it is celebrated and received to so bad effect as to make all that come to it guilty of Christs Body and Blood I claim further that seeing it can bee no sound part of Gods How the Elements are consecrated into the body and blood of Christ according to Gregory Nâ—ssene Church that observeth not all the Lawes of Gods Whole Church If the Eucharist bee not consecrated by that means by which the Church from the beginning hath always consecrated the Eucharist then it is not celebrated in the Unity of Gods Church Now I conceive I have shewed that the Church from the beginning did not pretend to consecrate by these bare words This is my Body this is my Blood as Operatory in changing the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ But by that Word of God whereby hee hath declared the Institution of this Sacrament and commanded the use of it And by the execution of this command Now it is executed and hath always been executed by the Act of the Church upon Gods Word of Institution praying that the Holy Ghost coming down upon the present Elements may make them the Body and Blood of Christ Not by changing them into the nature of flesh and blood As the bread and wine that nourished our Lord Christ on earth became the flesh and blood of the Son of God by becoming the flesh and blood of his Manhood hypostatically united to his Godhead saith S. Gregory Nyssene But immediately and ipso facto by being united to the Spirit of Christ that is his Godhead For the flesh and blood of Christ by Incarnation the Elements by Consecration being united to the Spiâ—it that is the Godhead of Christ become both one Sacramentally by being both one with the Spirit or Godhead of Christ to the conveying of Gods Spirit to a Christian This Doctrine of S. Gregory Nyssene grounded upon the form The consequence hereof in the Errours concerning the Eucharist of Consecrating used by the Whole Church seems to mee to make good all that the Ancient Fathers have taught concerning this Sacrament Whereas no other terms are able to do the same And that without entring into any dispute concerning the substance of the Elements But securing first that which the common Salvation requireth in the Sacrament to wit the receiving of the flesh and blood of Christ by it by imputing the presence of them to the Consecration not to the Faith of him that receives It condemns the Errour of Transubstantiation making the change mystical and immediate upon the coming of Gods Spirit to the Elements the nature of them remaining But it condemns Consubstantiation for no less For what needs the flesh and blood of Christ fill the same dimensions which the substance of the Elements possesseth both being united with his Spirit And truly they that invite the Lutherans to their Communion professing Consubstantiation must not make Transubstantiation an Errour in the foundation of Faith if they will weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures But if the Errour of the Fanaticks when they make the assurance of a mans Praedestination to bee justifying Faith bee an Errour in the Foundation of Faith as I have shewed that it is Then it is an Errour in the Foundation of Faith to take the Eucharist to bee a meer sign to confirm that Faith And the flesh and blood of Christ to bee present in the Eucharist not by the Faith of the Church whereby the Consecration is made and done but by this Faith in him that receives And therefore this Errour being enough to render the Sacraments no Sacraments which are celebrated professing it the Word no Word of God that teacheth to celebrate such Sacraments the Churches no Churches that profess it or communicate with them that profess it My Inference is unavoidable That to justifie this Church a Member of Gods onely true Church they ought not to bee re-admitted into it without expresly acknowledging The Christianity which wee undertake by the Sacrament of Baptisme to bee the condition of the Covenant of Grace If the consecrated Elements bee the flesh and blood of Christ How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses then are they the sacrifice of Christ crucified upon the Cross For they are not the flesh and blood of Christ as in his body while it was whole but as separated by the passion of his Cross Not that Christ can bee sacrificed again For a Sacrifice being an Action done in succession of time cannot bee done the second time being once done because then it should not have been done before But because the Sacrifice of Christ crucified is represented commemorated and applyed by celebrating and receiving the Sacrament which is that Sacrifice They of the Church of Rome that would make the breach wider then it is do but justifie the Reformation by forcing any other reason of a Sacrifice out of the Scripture expounded by the consent of Gods Church And they which stumble at the Altar and the Priesthood which this Sacrifice inferreth plainly they invite us to renounce the Whole Church of God with the Church of Rome for their sakes And how much Christianity they will leave us when that is done who will undertake Thus much for certain upon these terms the virtue of this Sacrifice is not to bee applyed by the secret and private intent of the Priest directing his action to the benefit of living or dead whether present or absent whether concurring to the celebrating and receiving of it or not so much as thinking themselves concerned so to do It is not applyed but by the devotion of them who either receive it when they are bound to receive or concurre to the celebrating of it when they are not whether Priests or People
And therefore there is no ground for private Masses by granting the Eucharist to bee in this nature a Sacrifice But can any man say that it is not the principal Office of The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods Service Christian Assemblies That it ought not to bee frequented upon all the chief occasions for the Assemblies of Gods Church That the ordinary work for which wee meet all Lords days and other days if on other days wee ought ordinarily and solemnly to meet is a Sermon with an arbitrary Prayer before or after it That they who take the pains to minister the same are to bee excused of celebrating the Eucharist or ministring the prayers of the Church which it is to bee celebrated with unless it bee three or four times a year and much more of reading the Scriptures or praising God upon Davids Psalter and the Hymns of the Church I confess Calvins Reformation is much after that form And all the arâ— of the Blessed Reformation here pretended hath been to impose it for a Law upon this Kingdom without once pleading that it is for the best But so grosly prejudicial to the Service of God and the Common Christianity that it were injurious to fear that a Christian Kingdom can suffer such an Imposture derogating far more from the perpetual Custome of Gods Whole Church then it can from the present Law of this Kingdom That therefore I may make way to the determining of that which remains most questionable amongst us What is the best form of Service which the Church of this Kingdom can worship God with I must in the first place lay down that Rule by which all Reformation of Lawes Ecclesiastical is to bee directed together with the ground of it CHAP. XV. The ground that determines the Form of our Service The Offices of which the Service is to consist Of the Vse of the Psalmes Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocrypha What Preaching it is that the Scripture commendeth There may be Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching The difference between the second Service in the Ancient Church and our Communion Service The general Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist The Prayer of Oblation instituted by S. Paul and the matter of it The Lords Prayer at the Eucharist The Place for the Common Prayers THat ground upon which the form of our Service is to bee The ground that determines the Form of ouâ— Service determined is to determine all that remains to bee determined in matter of Religion by Law of this Kingdom The true sense of the Scripture is not to bee had but out of the Records of Antiquity especially of Gods ancient people fâ—â—st and then of the Christian Church The obligation of that sense upon the Church at this time is not to bee measured against the primitive practice of the Whole Church The Reformation of the Church is nothing but the restoring of that which may appear to have been in force especially since Christianity hath been protected by the Lawes of the Empire Because the greatest difference between the primitive time of Christianity and this is the difference between the state of Persecution and of Protection by the Law of this Kingdom It is therefore necessary that both sides professing the Reformation should agree upon the true ground of Reformation and so upon the Rule which that ground will maintain and evidence that is to submit all that is in question to the visible practise of the primitive times before those abuses were brought in which the Reformation pretendeth to restore For if God have founded a Visible Church which all this supposes then cannot the Pope bee Antichrist nor the Church of Rome Idolaters for any thing which the practise of the Primitive Church justifieth And seeing the Church is Visible by the Lawes of it there can no Church bee visibly one with that which was from the beginning but by ruling it self by the same Lawes so far as the state of the Bodies for which they are made is the same That which shall bee said concerning the form of our Service is an instance hereof The sense of the Scriptures which have been alleged shall appear to agree with the primitive order of Gods Church The reviving of the order is the point of Reformation in this particular allowing for avoiding just offense in altering the Law of the Kingdom without necessary cause as the wisdom of Superiours shall find requisite I must now suppose that the Offices of Gods Service for The Offices of which the Service is to consist which the Church of God assembleth ordinarily and solemnly are the praises of God the instruction of the people in the duties of their Christianity whether by reading the Scriptures or by handling the same And lastly the Common Prayers of the Church especially those which the Eucharist is to bee celebrated with And this Order which I put them in here is that which the Church from the beginning hath always observed The Psalter of David in the first place hath been so generally Oâ— the use of the Psalms frequented by the Whole Church for the Instrument to make the Praises of God sound forth that it ought not now to bee questioned as questioned it is visibly enough by any that would pretend to bee of Gods Church The order of reading the Psalms which the Law of this Kingdom requires is admitted because they are part of the Scripture But all endeavours used that no devotion of the people bee exercised by it The Psalms in Rhime must engross that Wee have seen a Civil War in the time whereof these Psalms in Rhime being crowded into the Church by meer sufferance and so used without order of Law have been employed on both sides to brand the adverse party with the marks which the Psalms set upon the enemies of David and of Gods People that is of Christ and of Christians More freely by them who sang them at the head of their Armies to that purpose I hope those ways do not please at present And therefore say freely that the disorder ought not to continue Some of our Fanaticks I know have torn them out of their Bibles They thought themselves not concerned in them though David were The Jewes though they allow many of them to belong to the Messias would not have them belong to our Lord Christ But the Church uses them supposing them all fulfilled in Christ and Christians whether particular souls or the body of his Church Upon this Account they are the exercise of Christian Devotions But not the Psalms in Rhime The musick of them hath proved too hard for the people to learn in an hundred years And yet no way more commendable then the Rhimes themselves are And repeating a little in much time The tunes used in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches are easie to learn and serve that Order which Law setleth for Devotion not for reading
them as Scripture The order for reading the Scripture appears necessary by the Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocryphâ— jealousies of this time For were it arbitrary how obvious would it bee to deprave publick or private proceedings by Lessons chosen on purpose That the Books called Apocrypha are not the Writings of Prophets inspired is agreed Though those Writings are properly called Apocrypha which the Church authorizeth not to bee read Whereas these being always read in the Church are therefore properly called Ecclesiastical by Rufinus The chief objections against them resolve into some passages that seem not to agree with the Doctrine of the New Testament But so that the like are found in the Old The Fact of Razias the Proceeding of Judith the Lye of Tobits Angel are the greatest blocks of offense Not considering the Fact of Jael or that of Sampson or the Lyes that seem to bee rewarded under the Law If offense bee taken at them why not at these But it is no offense to good Christians because good Christians do not presume the Law and the Gospel to bee both one And therefore are content to know their duty under the Gospel letting that which agreeth not therewith in the Old Testament pass without offense In the mean time it is evident that the Doctrine of Christianity beginneth to bee discovered in them more clearly then it stands discovered in the Law and the Prophets Hereupon the Wisdom of the Primitive Church imployed them for the instruction of the Catâ—câ—umeni that were yet but learners of Christianiny And therefore wee are to insist upon the use of them for edification of the Church in the better understanding of the manners and good works of Christians much abased by those who would put these Books to silence But the whole Church having always used them to lay them aside now were not to restore the Church but to build a new one As concerning the necessity of preaching so effectually set What Preaching it is that the Scripture câ—mmendeth forth by the Scriptures there is utterly a mistake in the meaning of them That preaching which the Scripture maketh absolutely necessary to salvation is the publishing of the Gospel to those that know it not The instruction of Christians in their duty is called teaching in the Scripture I have made evidence of this difference The Apostles Commission is to teach them whom they have baptized all that the Lord had commanded them The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power But if wee call the teaching of Christians preaching then it must bee such for mater and for manner both as may indeed convict Christians of the duty of Christians and that not in the opinion of him that preacheth but according to the Doctrine of the Church Whosoever thinketh himself tâ—ed to Preach that which the Church tyes him not to Preach not tyed to Preach that which it tyeth him to preach is in a fair way to edifie the people to ruine by improving an undue zeal to the dividing of the Church In the mean time the Church preacheth without Sermons by There may bee Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching the Psalms and the Scriptures and by that order in which it provideth that they bee read Besides all those Forms in which it prescribeth the Offices of Gods Service to bee performed Which if they contain all that is necessary generally and probably to the salvation of all Christians supposing them duly Catechized in those things which the salvation of all and which their particular estate requires they that never heard many Sermons may have heard more and better preaching then hundreds and thousands of Sermons dangerous if not destructive to salvation a thing which experience proves more then possible can furnish them who shall do nothing but run from Sermons to Sermons I grant it was a just complaint at the Reformation that the people were not taught their duty But I do not grant either that they cannot bee taught their duty without two Sermons every Lords day Or that they are like to bee taught their duty by two Sermons every Lords day It is not possible to have men for all Churches fit to preach twice a day to the edifying of the people It will not bee possible to maintain their preaching such as may bee accompted an Office of Gods service In the antient Church for divers hundred years all that The difference between the second Service in the antient Church and our Communion Service were admitted to stay all this while that is till the Sermon were done were not to bee present at the Eucharist were not to communicate As Converts not baptized as the relapsed as the possessed by unclean spirits in which ranck the Lunaticke the Epilepticke the Frantick were accounted And reason good for they were not to communicate at least till death And yet they were not to bee dismissed without the prayers of the Church Prayers fitting their several estates for their proficience or for their recovery that they might come to communicate I will not here undertake that all which remained did always communicate though I doubt not I may undertake that the rule of the Church required them always to communicate For when the world was come in to the Church the Rule that prevailed in time of persecution there is no marvel that it could not then prevail By St. Chrysostome alone it appears sufficiently that the Rule was well enough known but not in force even in his time So when they that might not communicate were dismissed they that would not communicate remained nevertheless For the Eucharist was not to bee set aside for their negligence This is the difference between the first and second Service which is not the same with our Communion Service For the first Service ended when the prayers of the Church began Our Communion Service is that which is properly called the Liturgy in Greek Namely the Office which the Eucharist is to bee celebrated with That which goes before the Offertory belongs not properly to the second Service according to the Primitive Form For the presenting of the Elements was always every where the beginning of it The prayers of the Church began with Thanksgiving to God The General Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist for making man and setting him over the creatures for taking care of him after his Fall teaching the Patriarches giving the Law sending the Prophets and when all this did not the effect required for sending our Lord Christ From this Thanksgiving both the Action of the Sacrament and the consecrated Elements are still called the Eucharist And it is called a Preface in a very antient African Canon to wit to the consecration of the Elements which followed Which as I said before is nothing else but a prayer that God would send the Holy Ghost upon the present Elements and make them the Body and Blood of Christ that
Celebration of the Eucharist is so general and so antient that it cannot bee thought to have come in upon imposture but that the same aspersion will seem to take hold of the Common Christianity But to what effect this Intercession was made that is indeed The antient Church never Prayed to remove them out of Purgatory the due point of difference For they who think that the antient Church prayed and do themselves pray for the removing of them from a place of Purgatory pains into perfect happiness by the clear sight of God offend against the Antient Church as well as against the Scripture both ways For Justine Martyr makes it a part of the Gnosticks Haeresie that the soul without the body is in perfect happiness They indeed held it because they denyed the Resurrection But the Church therefore believing the Resurrection believes no perfect happiness of the Soul before it And the great consent of the Antient Church in this point is acknowledged by divers learned Writers in the Church of Rome Neither is the consent of it less evident in this That there is no translating of Souls into a new estate before the great Tryal of the general Judgement In the mean time then what hinders them to receive comfort To what purpose they were remembred at the Eucharist and refreshment rest and peace and light by the visitation of God by the consolation of his Spirit by his good Angels to sustain them in the expectation of their tryal and the anxieties they are to pass through during the time of it And though there bee hope for those that are most sollicitous to live and dye good Christians that they are in no such suspense but within the bounds of the heavenly Jerusalem yet because their Condition is uncertain and where there is hope of the better there is fear of the worse therefore the Church hath always assisted them with the prayers of the living both for their speedy tryal which all blessed souls desire and for their easie absolution and discharge with glory before God together with the accomplishment of their happiness in the receiving of their bodies Now all Members of the Church Triumphant in Heaven The Saints departed pray for the Militant Church according to the degree of their favour with God abound also with love to his Church Militant on earth And though they know not the necessities of particular persons without particular Revelation from God yet they know there are such necessities so long as the Church is Militant on earth Therefore it is certain both that they offer continual prayers to God for those necessities and that their prayers must needs bee of great force and effect with God for the assistance of the Church Militant in this warfare Which if it bee true the Communion of Saints will necessarily require that all who remain sollicitous of their tryal bee assisted by the prayers of the living for present comfort and future rest That the living beg of God a part and Interest in the benefit of those Prayers which they who are so neer to God in his Kingdom tender him without ceasing for the Church upon earth As for prayers for the translating of Souls out of Purgatory the beginning of their coming into the Church is visible And so is the coming in of those prayers which call upon the Of Prayers to the Saints departed Saints departed by name in any publique Office of Devotion in the Church The voluntary devotions of private persons most of them ignorant and carnal are no Argument of the Original and general practice of the Church And there is no mark of these invocations till Processions were frequented with Litanies which consisted most an end of them and could not bee in use before the time of Constantine but were not in use till a good while after it The abuse hath encreased so far especially in addresses to the blessed Virgin that the same things are desired of them and in the same terms in which they are desired of God even in the holy Scripture That the appearance of Devotion to the Mother is visibly and outwardly no less then to the Son So that were there not a profession of that Church extant contradicting the proper sense of such prayers and forcing them that address them unless they will contradict themselves to abate their own meaning and to expound them to signifie no more then obtaining that of God which they are desired to grant of themselves they could not bee excused of Idolatry But can by no means be excused for leading simple Christians upon a Praecipice of such horrible danger by encouraging both them and those that teach them such devotions For did not carnal Superstition hope for temporal blessings from such voluntary applications wiâ—hout that promise of God which the condition of our Christianity engageth how should a Christian bee induced to go about by a Saint that hath immediate access to God to the same effect That which hath been said of the Primitive Liturgy barreth No Common Prayer in the Pulpit by Gift but in a set form at the Communion Table the pretense of this time requiring the Liturgy setled by Law of this Kingdom to bee changed upon a ground never heard of in the Church for 1600 years That every Minister whether meaning Bishop Priest and Deacon or Priest only is to have a gift in praying and that his people ought to pray that which his gift furnisheth and not that which the Church prescribeth And to the end that such gifts may be used that no Minister be tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year and that in case hee have convenient company But that they whose age and infirmity enables them not to preach and pray thus in the Pulpit reading the Service over and above bee not tied to minister the Service prescribed Now would I have those that demand this to shew me that ever the prayers for which the Church meeteth were made in the Pulpit for 1500 years after Christ I know I have alleged a prayer of St. Ambrose before his Sermon I know there is a passage of St. Augustine alleged to the same purpose But neither of them signifies any more then a prayer to God to bless them in their preaching The Common Prayers of the Church are another thing even that which I have said The common prayers of the Church on all ordinary and solemn Assemblies were made at the Altar because the Eucharist was held always and ought to bee held always the principal Office of Gods service for which Christians ought to assemble more frequently then there can bee either ability or opportunity for preaching And that which I have said of the Primitive Liturgy is full evidence hereof For I have shewed a set form of it which these men return a non inventus of to his Majesties Commission but that ever there was any Prayer of the people used in the Pulpit will
necessary in Gods Service What kinde of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies THe determining of times and places and persons by The Lords Day observed by the authority of the Church which and at which of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Form and order according to which the service of God is to be celebrated is the Office and therefore is within the power of the Church The substance of Christianity wherein salvation consisteth was determined by our Lord in person to his Apostles That which hee trusted them with was the regulating of his Church supposing the same Christianity that God might bee served by the Assemblies of such as might appear to profess it That which he trusted the Apostles with the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the Apostles saving the personal Gift of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles rendring their Acts blameless in that estate for which they were made though not sufficient for all estates of the Church Otherwise the power of the whole Church is the power of the Apostles and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the Acts of it Because the Unity of the Church is equally concerned in them and the substance of Christianity in neither of both This discovereth the Superstition of that Imposture which is pretended by deriving the Obligation of the Lords Day from the Jewish Sabbath For what reason can endure that the Church should bee bound to keep the first day of the week by that Precept which tyed the Synagogue to keep the last day of the week Seeing then the Obligation of it is to bee derived from the Act of the Apostles that is from the power of the Church For being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect if the premises bee true it is the same Obligation that tyes all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church whether Fasting days or Festivals The Example of the Primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hierome and others of the Fathers affirming that the Church should and would serve God continually in publick could the business of the world stand with it And therefore that order is to bee accounted most Christian that provides most opportunity for frequenting the publick service of God If this were considered it would appear a meer Imposture Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed to demand that the Lords day bee celebrated with Sermons morning and evening and arbitrary prayers to usher them in and out treading underfeet all other times set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such Offices as it enjoyneth If wee weigh by our own Weights and mete by our own Measures not only the mysteries of our Lords dispensatiâ—n in the Flesh but the memories of his Apostles and Saints not only the time of Lenâ— and the Wednesdays and Fridays But the time of Advent the Evens of Festivals the Ember and Râ—gation dayes once appointed to that purpose must still bee solemnized for the Festivals and Fasts of Gods Church To set a peculiar mark upon the Lords Day as if the time of it were more obliging then other time that is appointed to the same purpose is to change the day but to retain the Jews Superstition as Calvin most truely hath told them who in other things commit Idolatry to his Opinion But wherein he follows the whole Church in this point and in the state of souls before the Resurrection bid him farewell The Case is the same in the qualities of places as well as of How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with ministring the Sacraments persons For the exercise of Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom there must bee places where all must meet they must bee limitted by the authority of the Church they must not bee balked for other places of mens private choise but by those that are willing to bee charged with Schisme for doing it They that quarrel the Bishops power in all other things must call this also in question when they mean to weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures They are very studious to confound the difference between Priests and Deacons by having all called Ministers being a Term that may serve all Orders ministring those Offices which the Church enableth them to minister But they who would impose this sense upon the stile of Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that all and no other but they who are ordained to Preach are ordained also to Baptize and celebrate the Eucharist must bee told that this is an Imposture till they shew better reason for it then hitherto hath been shewed For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason that the power of celebrating the Eucharist is convertible with the power of the Keys qualifying all Christians for the Eucharist which in the Bishop onely extendeth to publick causes concerning his whole Church or Diocese But in all Presbyters to private Causes wherein it may bee questionable between God and the Conscience whether a Christian bee qualified for the Eucharist or not As for the Sacrament of Baptisme that as the Bishop only allows it in any case that may bee questionable so the ministring of it may come to a Deacon in the Priests absence nay to a Lay-man rather then that any Child should dye unbaptized Neither is the Office of preaching restrained either to Priests or Deacons alone by any other authority then that of Gods whole Church Which being once passed in the Case by the general Custom and Practice of it it must bee the greatest Sacrilege in the World that is the Sacrilege of Schisme to transgress it The respect due to the memories of the Apostles and other Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Saints and Martyrs of Christ is a reason sufficient to determine the time and place for the service of God To question that they are not just occasions for the consecrating of Festivals and of Churches to the service of God in honour of their memories is a just presumption that men seek to bee saved by some other Christianity then that which their Doctrine and their Blood planted But their names and the Festivals and the Churches that bear their names are but circumstances determining that service to bee acceptable to God which is performed in the Unity of his Church the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose No more are the Utensils and Ornaments of Churches the Vessels in which the Sacraments are celebrated But they who think it Superstition that these things should bee set apart from Vulgar use and reserved only for Gods service plainly commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations in it For it is manifest that Consecration was in force not only by the Law of Moses but before it under the Law of nature as the
Fathers call it under those precepts which God gave Noah after the Flood as the Jews will have it And therefore it tended not only to figure Christ to come but to maintain the service of God and that reverence which it ought to bee performed with What colour can there bee that the Consecrations that were in force by the Law were figurative of Christ to come And the Sacrilege of Judas as well as of Ananias and Sapphira remain unquestionable because the subsistence of the Church upon Oblations consecrated to that purpose from the beginning is as visible as the Church As for the sense of the Catholique Church from the beginning hee that believes the Unity thereof cannot question it They therefore that have the Impudence to make that Superstition which the people of God both before and since Christ have always used for the service of God do they not commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations which they prefer so far before all the world besides Indeed the solemnity of Consecration requires a further question of Ceremonies in the service of God whether or no they be for the advantage of Gods service whether or no it bee in the power of the Church to determine them for that purpose For the solemnity of Consecrations passes not without Ceremonies Wee have this character of the Presbyterians published for Ceremonies fignisying by institution necessary in Gods service their advantage That they allow the natural expressions of Reverence and devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer as also those meer circumstances of decency and order the omission whereof would make the service of God either not decent or less decent but Ceremonies of instituted mystical signification they allow not But are not the mysteries of Christianity the Incarnation Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ things instituted by God not determined by nature Is not the signifying of them whereby they come to Remembrance the means to procure and to encrease that Reverence and Devotion which wee are to attend the service of God with and the inward affection which it expresseth And why not then Ceremonies instituted to signifie things which Gods Grace not nature determineth Shall it be Christianity to believe the Institution of things above nature for our salvation by Gods Grace and shall it bee prejudicial to Christianity to institute the means of procuring that Reverence and Devotion which the Remembrance of them in the publick service of God requireth shall the worship of God by Christians be tyed to signifie no more then nature directeth Jews Mahometans and Pagans to signifie by it Compare this new Gospel with the perpetual practice of Gods people whether before or after the Law whether before or after Christ And you shall easily see that it cannot bee accounted Superstition but by those that commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations Let the signification bee that which natural reason is able to What kind of signification requisite interpret in all sorts of Christians and whether they allow it to bee called Mystical or not they must allow it as properly Religious that is as tending to advance that Devotion which the Religion of a Christian signifieth in the point of Gods service And truely I do not nor doth this Church to my knowledg allow the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome the siâ—nification whereof is not to bee understood by all sorts of Christians but require books of learning to interpret their significations They that serve God in a Language unknown to the people do accordingly when they serve him with Ceremonies which they cannot understand Allowing it Reformation to serve God in English I allow it Reformation to cut off the Superfluity of such Ceremonies as stealing the nourishment of Devotion from the heart wherein God hath placed his service And therefore I think it reason to submit to this Issue whether or no the Ceremonies in question bee according to the use of the Primitive Church which the Reformation pretendeth or should pretend to restore For I find that in the Primitive and Good Times of Christianity the Church was far enough from seeking such abstruse and far fetched significations And that is a visible Rule which the common profession of Reformation determines But I allow no man to allege the use of the Primitive Church grown out of use long before the Reformation in bar to any Ceremony now setled by Law not weighing by the same Weights nor meting by the same Measures in all other things It is neither good conscience in them nor would bee in the Publick to change a Law of the Land upon a pretense which they that allege will not stand to in another Case But is it enough for Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies which Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies nature teacheth to allow order and decency in circumstances Have they debauched this wretched people to such horrible prophaness and irreverence that they can think fit to pray sitting on their seats to such barbarous confusion that they can think every mans own fansie the best order to exercise the Liberty of Christians in Gods service and now think to satisfie with allowing the contrary What shall the Church gain by reconciling them if having contributed so much to the destruction of order they contribute not more then so to the restoring of it but that must bee the care of Superiors I will only mention the sign of the Cross a Ceremony of so much reverence and so general use in the whole Church of God from the beginning that nothing but the difficulty of recalling it preserving Unity among our selves can excuse this Church for not restoring it in many other Offices But to put it out of the Office of Baptisme would bee to condemn the Whole Church of God without giving satisfaction to them who having obtained the silencing of it in Consecrating the Eucharist according to the Liturgy under Edward VI. have thereby been encouraged to demand so much more CHAP. XVIII Offices which the Fathers call Sacraments for their Ceremonies Why the Bishop only Confirmeth The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void The necessity of Penance The observation of Lent and the Vse of it The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sin Of anointing the sick according to S. James Mariage of Christians not to bee Ruled by Moses Law Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie Instituted Ceremonies BUt for the justifying of Ceremonies why should I allege Offices which the Fathers call Sacramenâ—s for their Ceremonies any thing but those Offices of the Church which the Fathers have called Sacraments as well as Baptism and the Eucharist I conceive I have alleged so sufficient a reason for the difference between those two and the rest that slaunder it self cannot undertake to blast my meaning in that point For things
necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Christians are by that mark for ever distinguished from things necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Members of the Church Because the Salvation of private Christians is concerned in not understanding the intent of the former sort But in the latter sort cannot bee concerned by not understanding the intent of them but by violating that Order and Unity of the Church which the Regular Use of them serveth to maintain That which I am to say of them here consists of two points That they are Ofâ—â—ces necessary to bee â—inistred to all Christians concerned in them And that they are to bee solemnized with those Ceremonies for which they are without any cause of offense called Sacraments by the Fathers of the Church How necessary iâ— it that those that are baptized Infants when Why the Bishop only Confirmeth they come to discretion and to receive the Eucharist should give account of the hope that is in them and undertake their Christianity upon which it is grounded For hee hath not this hope to God hee appeareth not to the Church to have it but upon these terms And thus far the parties seem content But why should not Presbyters Confirm as well as Bishops that can baptize and celebrate the Eucharist which is more to the Salvation of Christians By Commission from Bishops that they may do it is a point very disputable The practise of the Greek Church in the case is not new Besides some appearance of the like under S. Gregory in the West But that serves not the turn They must have the Catechising of them after their mode and make the grounds of Salvation what they please and not what the Church appointeth So the Answer is easie For neither is Baptism or the Eucharist ministred but by authority from the Bishop And to Catechize beside that Form which the Church allowes is to sow the seed of everlasting dissention in matter of Faith Hee that thinks there was a Reason why S. Peter and S. John should come to Confirm those whom the Deacon S. Philip had baptized can never want a reason why the Bishop alone should do it For hee cannot minister the means of Salvation alone But the Faith and the Unity of his Church with the rest is not to bee preserved without him Therefore the Gift of the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth dependeth upon the Bishops blessing because it dependeth upon the Unity of the Church Therefore Haereticks and Schismaticks who by departing from the Unity of the Church barre themselves of the effect of their Baptism being received with the Bishops blessing in the Primitive Church were justly thought to recover their Title to it If Ordination were taken for the conveying of publick Authority The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it to minister the Offices of Gods Church by the act of those that have received by their Ordination authority to propagate the same there would bee no mervail that S. Paul should suppose a Grace received by Timothy through the laying on of his hands or the hands of the Presbytery For if the profession of Christianity inferre the Grace of Baptism shall not the profession of that Christianity which the state of the Clergy in general or that particular degree to which every man is ordained importeth inferre the Grace which the discharge of it requireth What is there to hinder it but the want of sincerity in undertaking that which the Order that a man undertakes requires him to undertake This is that which renders those Prayers of the Church of no effect as to God whereby the power is effectually conveyed as to the Church In the mean time shall not those Prayers bee solemnized with Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void due Ceremony by which so great a Power in the Church is conveyed Now seeing Presbyters never received by their Ordination authority to ordain others seeing no Word of God gives it them seeing all the Rules of the Whole Church take it from them The Attempt of our Presbyters in Ordaining without and against their Bishops must needs bee void and to no effect but that of Schisme in dividing of the Church upon so unjust a Cause They could not receive the Power of the Keyes from them that had nothing to do to give it And therefore in celebrating the Eucharist they do nothing but profane Gods Ordinance Therefore the lawful Ordaining of them is not re-ordaining but Ordination indeed instead of that which was only so called If a Christian after Baptism fall into any grievous sin voiding The necessity of Penance the effect of Baptism can it fall within the sense of a Christian to imagine That hee can bee restored by a Lord have mercy upon mee No it must cost him hot tears and sighs and groans and extraordinary prayers with fasting and almes to take Revenge upon himself to appease Gods Wrath and to mortifie his Concupiscence If hee mean not to leave an entrance for the same sin again If his sin bee notorious so much the more Because hee must then satisfie the Church that hee doth what is requisite to satisfie God that is to appease his wrath and to recover his Grace The Church may bee many ways hindred to take account of notorious sin But the power of the Keyes which God hath trusted it with is exercised only in keeping such sinners from the Communion till the Church bee so satisfied And for this Exercise the time of Lent hath always been deputed The observation of Leâ—â— and the use of it by the Church The Fast before the Feast of the Resurrection stands by the same Law by which that stands For the Feast was from the beginning the end of the Fast So the Lent-Fast and the keeping of the Lords day stand both upon the same authority For the Lords day is but the Remembrance of the Resurrection once a week It doth not appear that the Fast was kept forty days from the beginning That it was kept before Easter whensoever Easter was kept that is from the time of the Apostles it doth appear The baptizing of Converts the restoring of the Relapsed and the preparing of all by extraordinary Devotion to solemnize the Resurrection was the work of it Did this Church desire the restoring of this Order and yet disowne Lent Daniel abstained from pleasant meat when hee fasted The Jewes forbad all that comes of the Vine on the day of Attonement The Whole Church of God always forbore Flesh and Wine when they fasted And shall our Licentiousness make the difference of meats superstitious Then let the late Parliament Fasts bee Reformation that provided a good break-fast to fast with and heard a Sermon as well after Dinner as before If Sin bee not notorious there is no cause why it should not The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sins bee pardoned without help from the Church supposing that the
the whole Church is more destructive to the substance of Christianity then all that corruption which the Reformation pretendeth to cure But to confining our sense of the Scripture our opinions in mater of Doctrine and the Laws which wee demand within that which the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church may appear to require wee are half the way onward to the point of Reformation having the ground and the reason and therefore the measure and the terms of it The mistake of the Schools and of the Council of Trent after The Fanaticks further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome the Schools in the nature of Justification and the effect of infused righteousness to which they ascribe it is no way destructive to Christianity No more is the opinion of satisfaction and merit in the good works of Christians so long as it is grounded upon Gods promise which they that inflame that opinion to the highest in the Church of Rome must acknowledg to come into consideration whether they will or not As for the merit of Grace by the works which a natural man is able to do commonly called meritum congrui as that which is fit for God to give though not for the worth of the works It is indeed an Errour of greater danger but never was general in the School and now generally disallowed so far it was always from being enjoyned by the Church But what is this in comparison of that furious Doctrine that the assurance of a mans Predestination is justifying Faith In which the opinion of absolute Predestination to Glory and of Gods predetermining a man to do all that hee doth is twisted together with an Enthusiasme that wee are justified and made the children of God by being assured hereof by his Spirit Not supposing any condition of Christianity in consideration of which it is had and by the knowledg whereof it is assured us For they that believe that Gods predetermination is the reason and the ground of freedom in mans Will and of contingence in the effects of it supposing freedom and contingence do thereby bar the ill consequence of their own mistake But hee that can think himself assured of that which the Gospel promiseth not being assured that hee performeth the Christianity which by his Baptisme hee undertaketh why should hee hold himself tied why should hee study and endeavour himself to perform it Nay holding his Christianity and the Scriptures which The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility teach it by the same dictate of the Spirit which assures his salvation upon those terms why should hee not hold that which Christianity and the Scriptures teach not with the same devotion and assurance which he accepteth the Scriptures and his Christianity with Why should hee not with the Gnostickes and Mahomet and the Mannichees place his salvation in that which the Spirit teacheth him beside and above the Scriptures allowing Christianity for proficients The same consequence takes hold in some measure of those who believe the Infallibility of the present Church For making the sentence thereof the only reason of believing they tye themselves to accept whatsoever it shall decree for mater of Faith and therefore concerning their salvation as much as it concerns their salvation to believe the holy Trinity Indeed there is not so much danger for them For the persons on whom they repose themselves for the Church being persons of that interest in the World which cannot stand with the open corrupting of Christianity The fear is that they may authorize those corruptions which the coming of the World into the Church shall make popular Not that they shall think it for their interest to change that which it is not popular to change In the mean time having shewed the point of Reformation The point of Truth in the middle between both by shewing the point of truth whereby all that the Reformation disputes with the Church of Rome is cleared namely that that Faith which moveth to undertake Baptism is the Faith which alone justifieth I have shewed withal that the express profession hereof is that which must clear us from all impuâ—ation of the Schism with the Church of Rome and of compliance with any Fanaticks that have taught the opposite Haeresie being by such profession excluded from all liberty of teaching it for the future They who take justifying Faith to bee Confidence in God through our Lord Christ do commit the mistake which I have shewed And if they go farther to think that by being assured of Gods Grace they can never dye cut of that estate they may indeed think themselves tyed to return to God by Repentance But may they not easily bee deluded to neglect it thinking themselves certain before hand that they shall do it Which if it bee considered the danger of the mistake will appear no less then that which the Doctrine of the Council of Trent threatneth As for the Question between mans free Will and Gods Praedestination How Salvation is concerned in the matter of Free Will and Grace and Grace taking it by it self as not complicated and twisted with the other concerning justifying Faith the difficulty of it being so great as it is the true resolution of it which is the reconcilement of Grace with free Will can by no means seem to concern the substance of Faith necessary to bee held for the Salvation of all Christians But the denying either of mans free Will or Gods free Grace may and certainly doth concern it And therefore the second Council of Orange having determined as well that no man is appointed by God to death and therefore to sin as that whosoever perseveres until Death is appointed by God unto effectual Grace there appears no necessity why the Church should run any hazard of division by decreeâ—ng farther in the Point which wee see come to pass in the United Provinces having that decree received of old by the Western Church to settle the bounds of necessary Truth Nor is there any other means of settle the necessity of Baptism Salvation concerned in the Sacramentâ— â—pon the same terms and of the Holy Eucharist but the profession of this truth for the sense of our Creed in the Article of one Baptism for the remission of sâ—ns the neglect whereof hath occasioned not only the Sects of our Anabaptists Qâ—akers and other Enthusiasts and Fanaticks but hath given Sâ—cinus ground enough to count Baptism indifferent And some of our Fanaticks to think it a meer mistake that any man was ever baptized with water to make him a Christian since the ceasing of Moses Law and Johns Baptism As for the Sacrament of the Eucharist that which concerneth Salvation in it is manifest admitting the Premises Namely that they who make good or revive the Covenant of their Baptism in receiving it shall receive the body and blood of Christ and by consequence his Spirit hypostatically united to the
against the conflict of Death with the spiritual enemies of the Soul For though the Church ordaining Prayer for bodily health can by no means forget the health of the Soul if it mean to remember the Common Christianity Yet appeareth it nevertheless what ground and occasion the Institution of S. James pretendeth And so it appeareth what dependence the Unction of the Sick holdeth upon the Communion of the Eucharist As for the Marriage of Christians if it bee under a peculiar rule by virtue of the Common Christianity and that the interest of the Church in allowing of Marriages is grounded upon the same It is far from any imputation of abuse that the Church of Rome celebrateth the same at the Eucharist For seeing our Christianity is particularly concerned in the duties of Marriage How should the Grace of God enabling to discharge the said duties bee expected but by reviving the obligation of our Common Christianity which the receiving of the Eucharist signifieth I will not undertake to clear the See of Rome from all abuse of Ecclesiastical Power in multiplying the Impediments of Marriage as beyond necessity so beyond the Interest of Christianity and in dispensing in them again for favour or for reward as having been prohibited for no better reason then this That Power appears most in that which there is least reason for On the other side dispensing in those degrees which the Law of Moses prohibiteth and therefore Christianity ought to bee farther from allowing It seemeth to stretch the Power of the Church beyond the bounds of it And thus it appeareth first what relation these Offices hold with the Eucharist and the Communion of it and then what is the point of Reformation in which the voiding of those abuses standeth On the other side they that now are content with Confirmation The Reformation pretended no lâ—ss abuse on the other side so they may have the giving of it themselves and the Catechizing of them that receive it after their mode not distinguishing themselves from the Fanaticks cannot bee presumed to Catechise according to the Christianity of Gods Church But in as much as they Usurpe unto themselves authority without their Bishops and against them they cannot make Members of Gods Church by the Confirmation which so they may give So they bar the gift of Gods Spirit which Baptisme promiseth a Christian as a Christian by barring the Unity of Gods Church Again Ordaining all whom they Ordain to one and theâ— same Office of Preaching the Word and Ministring the Sacraments First they usurpe the power of Ordaining which they never received any authority by their Ordination to exercise And that in despite of their Bishops as seducing the people from the way of salvation which by their Ordinations they pretend to teach So receiving no Power of the Keys by their Usurpation they receive no power to celebrate the Eucharist but only to commit sacrilege by profaning so high an Ordinance And then they tread under foot the Hierachy of Bishops Priests and Deacons in despite of the whole Church dividing the authority of their Bishops among themselves but abolishing the Order of Deacons by confounding the title of Ministers common to all three Orders for ministring their several Offices with that sense in which the lowest Order are called Deacons for ministring to Bishops and Priests in their Offices As for the power of the Keys which is not that which God left his Church unless the effect of it bee the binding and loosing of sin It is plain enough that under pretense of taking away the scandal of notorious sin they would have power to shame and domineer over their neighbours overtaken with sin but without pretense of curing their sin for the condition upon which they are restored Such Discipline goes no further then the outward man and the restraining of him from sin for shame of the world The presumption of a voluntary change in the inward man for hope of Gods Grace by the Sacrament of the Eucharist must bee the effect of the Keys of Gods Church As for this power in sin that is not notorious what do they pretend more then their Preaching Which whether it bee such as shows the cure of sin let their diligence in Preaching mortification witness And yet whether every Christian can learn or will bee induced meerly by Preaching to use that mortification which is requisite let them that are able judge But what visiting of the sick do they pretend but to pray by them or comfort them without ever entring into the ground of their comfort upon examination of the conscience The blessing of Mariage they have reserved to the Church but upon an ungrounded presumption that the Mariage of Christians is to bee ruled by the Law of Moses The insufficience whereof being discerned by the people when they were loose from the Law of the Land hath occasioned all the incests and other disorders of the late times In the mean time whereas all these Offices are either provided to bring Christians to the Eucharist or to bee celebrated with the Eucharist It is demanded that godly Ministers bee not tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year It should rather bee demanded how they come to bee counted godly Ministers that demand this I shall not need to say how the point of Reformation is The point of Reformation in the mean between both found through which the line of it is to pass in these particulars Confirmation fitteth for the Eucharist by the profession of Christianity and by being a Member of Gods Church Ordination giveth some degree in the Clergy above the people and therefore supposeth the profession of retiring from the world more then other Christians undertake to do The Eucharist conveyeth Gods Spirit for the performing of this profession sincerely and resolutely made Both requiring the Unity of the Church both are to bee ministred by that authority without which nothing is to bee done in each Church The reconciling of notorious sin is the Bishops peculiar The Priest hath authority to cure that which is made known to him But this authority is not arbitrary in either of both The rigor of antient Discipline by the Canons of the Church is quite out of force But in these lees and dregs of Christianity which now wee draw there is some reasonable ground to presume upon that a sinner is resolved to live a good Christian for the future Let that bee limited and the power of the Keys will have effect in barring the sinner from the Communion till the presumption bee visible in him But to what shall the Keys of the Church reconcile him when the Eucharist is celebrated but thrice a year To what purpose is the visiting of the sick but that upon such presumption they may have the Eucharist to maintain them in the great journey which they are going The duty of Mariage among Christians depends wholly upon this supposition that God gives the maried an
bee but a Church in name that shall bee Ruled by the fansies of those whom it is to Rule And when the interest of publick peace so visibly concurreth with the interest of saving souls it will hardly become the profession of a Christian Kingdom not to trust God for the success of that which is designed upon so Christian considerations This is the place where the first Service ended and the second Of that which goes before the Preface in our Communion Service began in the antient Church The Creed follows after the Sermon in Dionysius who writing a little before the Council at Chalcedon is the first that mentions it in the Service Hee calls it an Hymn and wee may call it the Catholick Hymn glorifying God for the substance of Christianity with his whole Church That which wee call the second Service following immediately hereupon was nothing but the Eucharist and the prayers of the Church which it is to bee celebrated with And that is the reason why I do not think our Communion Service sufficient for those Assemblies in which the first is too long to hee used For the Office ought to consist of Psalmes and Lessons with Hymnes interposed of an instruction and of the Eucharist with the prayers which it is celebrated with Now it hath been always the use of Christs Whole Church even from the Apostles to offer at the Eucharist both the Bread and Wine which it is to bee consecrated of and also what their hearts moved them to contribute for the maintenance of Gods Service And therefore the Prayer for the whole state of Christs Church is here proper in regard of those that offer to that purpose the rest that offer not concurring with their prayers to that effect for which they offer The confession of sins afore the Eucharist is seen in some of the antient Liturgies nor do I find it questioned on any hand as either unseasonable or not requisite in this Action The Decalogue and Answers which since Q. Elizabeths time wee begin the Communion Service with seem more proper to be placed here to branch forth the particulars of those sins which wee confess For the Commandments are certain heads to which men may refer the sins for which they ask pardon and grace to avoid them But there is great reason why they are not found in the Service of the antient Church The reason is because the Decalogue is proper to the Law and unproper to Christianity and it is a sad effect hereof which wee see For it is certain and manifest that the Sabbatarian error hath had the rise or increase from the construction which ignorant Preachers have made of the prayer for remission of sins against this fourth Commandment which the Church prescribeth Nor have I ever found any authority of the Church for using the Decalogue for the Rule by which the sins of Christians are to bee ranked but only in some late Offices of those ages which wee who profess the Reformation are not to own After the confession of sins the General Preface which follows Of the Prefaces and the Prayers of Consecration after Sursum corda would bee inlarged with thanksgiving to God for making the World and man for not forsaking man having forsaken him when hee was made Lord of his Creatures but first sending the Fathers to reclaim their several Ages then giving the Law and the Prophets to instruct his own people in his service And when these means took not the effect which hee sought for sending his Son to redeem and reconcile us to him by the death of his Cross After this the Proper Prefaces and the Seraphims Hymn are of too antient and general use in the Catholick Church to bee omitted without a mark of Apostasie from the devotion of it which they express The Prayer which wee consecrate with seemeth agreeable to the intent of Gods Church but more agreeable in that form which the first Book of Edward the VI. revived by the Scotish Liturgy prescribeth And that Memorial or Prayer of Oblation which is there prescribled to follow immediately after the Consecration is certainly more proper there then after the Communion ending with the Lords Prayer and the Peace after that For this is the form of the whole Church so constant and so uniform that I am thereby perswaded that the close of it For thine is the Kingdom the the Power and the Glory for ever and ever being alwaies frequented by the Church either in terms or in substance in this place upon that occasion afterwards came to bee put into the Copies of St. Matthews Gospel For it is well enough known how many antient Copies and Commentaries have it not But there is not any of the antient Liturgies that hath not some form of Doxology in this place either in the same terms or to the same purpose And seeing it is manifest that the Kiss of Peace is an Apostolical custom and used in the Western Church before the Communion though before the Consecration in other places though the Ceremony bee set aside in regard of the change of times and customs it should not seem burthensome that the Christianity is remembred which it expresseth But if my Opinion might pass I would not rest contented Of the Prayer of Oblation and the place of it herewith I would enlarge this Memoral with all the Principal heads of our Litanies which might seem to comprize the necessities of all estates and conditions in the Church according to that measure which the Time would allow For this would bee the offering of Christs sacrifice upon the Crosse for the necessities of all Christian people which the whole Church of Christ hath alwaies frequented from the beginning without any pretense of sacrificing him again no reason requiring any more then to commemorate that sacrifice And here would there bee room for all private and publick necessities as well of the Church and Kingdom of the Diocese Province and Country and the respective Governours thereof as of the Congregration and of any particular member of it and that according to such Order as the Ordinary may find cause to give in cases that do indeed require a provision for the Time The antients celebrating the Eucharist every day had by that means daily opportunity of interceding for particular necessities according to St. Pauls order for such intercessions the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth They that consider not the defect which follows upon the decay of this order are ready to impute the defect that is found of forms of intercession for particular occurrences to the prescribing of set forms by the Church not allowing the arbitrary fansies of Curates But hee that hath known the manifold folly malice that our London Pulpits have vented taking upon them to intercede for what occasions they think fit in what form they please will find it absolutely necessary to redeem the scorne that our profession suffers from such disorders by
banishing those Prayers out of the Pulpit And because the Communion will not bee renewed so frequent as to meet with all those occasions which in the Antient Church it did serve for It must needs bee a Christian design to enlarge the first and daily Service with such forms as may serve for most of such occasions preventing the offenses which have been For the hope of prevailing with God for that which presseth particular persons is the charity of the Congregation in equally desiring the necessities of all Christians When the Eucharist was celebrated upon some particular occasion according to the custom of the antient Church it appears that the general form was throughly observed the particular occasion only mentioned The Eloquence whereby the Church hoped to prevail which God was the devotion and unity which it celebrated the Sacrament with But I must by no means leave this place till I have paid Of the Commemoration of the dead in particular the debt which I owe to the opinion which I have premised and openly profess again and again that wee weigh not by our own Weights nor mete by our own Measures if believing one Catholick Church and enjoying Episcopacy and the Church Lands upon that account wee recal not the memorial of the Dead as well as of the living into this Service There is the same ground to believe the communion of Saints in the prayers which those that depart in the highest favour with God make for us in the prayers which wee make for those thaâ— depart in the lowest degree of favour with God that there iâ— for the common Christianity namely the Scriptures interpreted by the perpetual practise of Gods Church Therefore there is ground enough for the faith of all Christians that those Prayers are accepted which desire God to hear the Saints for us to send the deceased in Christ rest and peace and light and refreshment and a good trial at the day of Judgement and accomplishment of happiness after the same And seeing the abating of the first form under Edward VI hath wrought no effect but to give them that desired it an appetite to root up the Whole what thanks can wee render to God for escaping so great a danger but by sticking firm to a Rule that will stick firm to us and carry us through any dispute in Religion and land us in the haven of a quiet conscience what troubles soever wee may pass through in maintaining that the Reformation of the Church will never bee according to the Rule which it ought to follow till it cleave to the Catholick Church of Christ in this particular Why the Communion Service at the Communion Table when no Eucharist I am not to expect that this Proposition will take effect because some points of it will seem to bee only one mans opinion though it shall never bee that one mans opinion further then it appears to be the visible Order of the whole Church from the beginning or the necessary consequence thereof in this estate For the Church of Rome obliging all to hear Mass all Sunday and Holyday-mornings and the Reformation of the Abuses which wee protest against in the Mass consisting in restoring the Eucharist the Reformation will not bee able to justifie it self in this point till there bee a provision that all may communicate as they ought to do And for the commemoration of the dead in the Oblation though the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth do silence it yet under Edward the VI. it was retained And they who were gratified afterwards by silencing it do now demand as for Reformation that the Eucharist bee not imposed upon tender consciences for fear they should not have room enough for their arbitary Sermons and Prayers which they can never secure the Church that they shall agree with the Profession of it What they will demand next for Reformation how shall it appear For the standard of tender consciences is as invisible as that of Venners spirit that made the rising for King Jesus And having a visible Rule in the consent of the Whole Church it will bee either want of skill or want of charity not to distinguish the remembrance of the dead which the Whole Church hath alwaies frequented from the opinion of Purgatory and the custom of praying to the Saints which succeeding Ages have added But in the mean time the reason is visible why the Communion Service is to bee said at the Communion Table notwithstanding tender consciences which perhaps many that mean well do not perceive If Christian people being seduced by perverse Teachers cannot bee made sensible of their duty in frequenting the Communion the Church is not to forbear calling them to it and putting them in mind of it Weesee there are those who will needs bee Ministers of the Word and Sacraments that have ministred no Communion to their Churches in so many years Instead of taking shame upon them for such abominable contempt of Christianity this mischief is now imagined for a Law when a Law is demanded by which tender consciences may not bee tied to celebrate the Eucharist once in many years Take away the Communion Service from the Communion Table and what mark shall remain of the duty that lies upon the publick to reduce the Law of the Catholick Church which is Gods Law into force What hope of reducing it if the mark bee once blotted out So much it concerns to hold up a daily Protestation of the Right and Duty of the Church and a Contestation with all publick persons in the Church and State to bend the utmost of their endeavours to redeem such an inconsequence and indecorum in Gods Service as the silencing of the principal Office in it And wee are alive at this day by Gods goodness to call God and man to witness that if Order bee not taken in so great a concernment the fault will bee chargeable on those that do not their parts towards it at the great day of Judgement But if my Proposition may not hope for effect in the next A secondary Propâ—sition according to present Law place I shall wish that all Curates would agree in that which by Law they may do so far as I know the Law Or rather that all Ordinaries would agree to impose it upon them That is to divide the Service of God on Sunday and Holiday Mornings into two Assemblies as it stands divided into two Services That all Housholders may stand accountable for their whole Families to see that they serve God in the Church all Sunday and Holiday Mornings as before the Reformation all people were obliged to do For though by the present Law there is not provision for all Christians to communicate Yet is there Order for the Service of God by Psalms and Lessons mixed with Hymns and by the Common Prayers of the Church perfectly summed up in the Litanies And they who shall have performed it shall have celebrated the Lords day or Festival with
Rome in honouring the Saints and their Reliques or Images without making our selves obnoxious to the Jews for any reason to do it with For Christianity having put Idolatry to flight which the Law never pretended to do It is not to bee imagined that the having of Images can make a man take those things for God which they represent so long as the belief of Christianity is alive at the heart For neither was it Idolatry though it were a breach of this Commandment for a Jew to have such Images as were forbidden by their Elders not taking that for God which they represented But what honour of Saints departed or what signs of that honour Christianity may require what furniture or ceremonies the Churches of Christians and the publique worship of God in them may require now all the World professes Christianity and must honour the Religion which they profess this the Church is at freedom to determine by the word of God expounded according to the best agreement of Christians For neither is it obliged by the second Council of Nicaea or the violent proceedings of the Church of Rome which have brought it into force in these Western parts nor to the excesses of the adverse parties in the East which made the setting up and reverencing of Images in Churches to bee Idolatry without sufficient ground in the Scriptures for it Confining the literal intent of the Decalogue to those gross Of the third Commandment sins by which all Jews were to understand that the interest of the Nation in the Land of Promise must become forfeited as all reason requireth the taking of Gods name in vain in the third Commandment is in plain terms to swear that which is false as the Chaldee Paraphrase renders it But a Christian takes up Gods name in professing Christianity And when the World sees him do any thing that agreeth not with his profession without doubt hee takes it up in vain For there never was any true Israelite in whom was no guile that worshipped God in spirit and truth but hee might then understand that hee took Gods name in vain if professing the worship of the only true God hee should live like those that worshipped Idols Much more a Christian knowing that hee is bound to direct all his actions to the end of Gods glory and service out of obedience to his declared will must needs know that he shall not bee guiltless to God if they bee not suitable to the profession which hee weareth It is questioned how God blessed and sanctified the seventh What the sanctifying â—f the Sabbath signifieth day at the creation of all things the keeping of the Sabbath being first commanded after the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt For some would have it understood by a Prolepsis or figure of anticipation that God in consideration of his resting from all his Works on the seventh day when hee gave the Law made that day the Sabbath Others think that hee sanctified it from the beginning for a day of his Service though the rest which the Jews were commanded sitting still all the Sabbath came in force from the giving of the Law And truly the memory of the seven days of the week which hath been preserved among all nations who cannot bee thought to have learned any matter of Religion from the Jews seems to intimate a Tradition of the creation remaining among them But it is to bee considered that when Idolatry prevailed the worship of the seven Planets was a prime part of it and Astrology which appropriates the seven days of the week to them a great means of propagating the same And therefore the memory of the creation being obliterated by the superstition which the Devil had graffed upon it the observations of Heathen people are rather to bee imputed to this then to that And otherwise there is nothing in the Scripture to answer Tertullian with demanding of the Jews which of the Fathers before the Law kept the Sabbath But howsoever if wee bee Christians wee must not question that the blessing which God hallowed the seventh day with is the rest of Christs body in the grave on that day by which that rest from the travel of sin and the punishment of it which Christianity professeth and promiseth was purchased for Christians For upon this ground all the time of the Gospel is that Sabbath which the Jewish Sabbath signified And the fulfilling of the fourth Commandment is the rest of a Christian from all his own works all the days of his life Not that I doubt that under the Law the day was to bee set apart for the Offices of Gods Service but because there are other precepts of the Law Num. XXVIII Levit. XXIII by which that is provided for By virtue of which precepts according to the correspondence between the Law and Gospel not only the first day of the week is set aside by the Apostles for the service of God instead of the seventh day which the Jews observe but also other days of Assemblies being appointed by the Church are to bee observed by Gods people for the same reason as the seventh For even the seventh day it self was observed and was to bee observed by Christians for the same reason so long as the custom of the Church required them to observe it for that purpose Besides the letter of the Law having forbidden any work upon the seventh day common reason would serve without any precept of the Law to infer that they ought to meet for the service of God which his people had always professed when they had nothing else to do Otherwise it is true which Origen so often chargeth that they could not assemble without some breach upon the strict sense of that command not to stir out of their place on that day And this sitting still is as properly sanctifying the day as the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a hâ—ifer sprinkling the pollutâ—d sanctifieth to the purity of the flesh according to the Epistle to the Hebrews IX 13. So the keeping of this Commandment under the Gospel is the serving of God all the days of a mans life as our Catechisme expoundeth it When the fifth Commandment promiseth long life to them The meaning of the fifth as to Christians that honour Father and Mother will any man say that this promise is made to Christians that profess to take up Christs Cross and to lay down their lives for Christ If hee do let him say what Land it is which Christians are promised If it bee not the Land of the living which the Land of Canaan figureth Wherefore it is manifest that the honours due to the King and all Civil Powers under him are due by the letter of this precept as properly comprized in the name of Father according to the use of that language The obedience also due to the Elders of the Synagogue is by the Metaphorical signification of the word Mother standing for
of these Order in Reading the Lessons in singing the Psalms in attending on the person of the Bishop and the Orders of their Superiorâ— in the ministry of Ecclesiastical Offices was most commonly but an exercise for the time The exercise of their humility their meekness and patience their sobriety and content in a mean condition living upon some small pittance which the stock of the Church was able to allow without prejudice to the poor was that which made them fit to bee advanced to higher degrees The study of the Scriptures was the imployment of the time that remained to spare from their attendance upon these Ministeries For as for other studies while Idolatry continued in credit in the World it was generally suspected for scandalous to study the learning which Idolaters had brought forth True it is many of them not being book-learned or otherwise content with so Religious a poverty and living sometimes by The conversation of the Clergy and the use of Church goods their hand-work that they might charge the Church the less as well as upon their pittances looked not after higher degrees Others imbracing a Religious life and having means for their support thought it a scandal to their profession to receive any thing from the Church knowing that what they spared must come to the poor And generally innumerable of all Orders especially Bishops and Priests taking upon them their Orders gave up their estates to charitable uses For it was scandalous for those that gave them not up to live otherwise then those that had nothing to maintain them but the allowance of the Church did live But to increase their estates out of Church goods was a thing which the Canons not only prohibited but made void For all Canons from the Canon of the Apostles to those at this day in force in the Church of Rome disable the Clergy to dispose of Church goods by last Will and Testament The authorizing of the Clergy to Marry brought in upon consideration of very great necessity must needs derogate from the obligation of this Rule in point of Conscience For it must needs infer a Right to provide for Wives and Children which the Church alloweth out of Church goods But it can by no means abrogate the same without altering the State of the Clergy professing retirement from the World beyond other Christians without extinguishing the Interest of the poor in the goods of the Church both of them subsisting by Gods Law and therefore by no means to bee extinguished And therefore it is requisite that the Maried Clergy content themselves with a sober maintenance and provision for themselves and the disposing of their Children in the World without converting the goods of the Church to raise them estates For it is utterly a mistake to think that Church goods were provided to the end that the Clergy might equal the port of their parallel Rankes in the Laity in expense It is much against the intent of the Canons that the Clergy should maintain familiarity with the Laity by correspondences in entertainments or other occasions of promiscuous conversation such as their Office bringeth not forth For that Hospitality which Parsonages and other Benefices are chargeable with is not the entertainment of their equals among the Laity but the providing for the distressed wayfarers or those that are from home upon such occasions as charity requireth to support besides the casual necessities of the poor either at home that would attend upon the service of God but that their honest labour will not bear them out in it or abroad that appear to bee in present distress whatsoever the occasion may bee that puts them to try the charity of Christians In fine there is nothing more contrary to the profession of the Clergy then too great indifference in conversing with the Laity of what rank soever For the authority which ought to bee in them for the advising exhorting instructing and reproving of all sorts of People whom their ranks may call them to converse with upon occasions which their Office either breedeth or alloweth stands upon this ground that voluntary familiarity engages them not any way to approve those actions which they should rather discountenance And this was the ground for the Rule of promoting the The ground for promotions to higher degrees Clergy to higher degrees and in fine to the Bishopricks of their respective Churches For it is true by the leave of the Bishop being dismissed they might hold their degree in another Church But the expectation of being promoted lay in the trial that they gave of themselves and in their merit from their own Church No man could pretend any thing to it in any other Church Regularly How much the translating of Bishops is against the Rule of the Primitive Church appears by Constantines commending Eusâ—bius of Caesarea for refusing the See of Antiocbia by the reproaches extant of the other Eusebius the supporter of Arius for removing from Berytus to Nicomedia True it is it was dispensed in upon great occasions But every privilege is an exception to a Law Always the service which every one did his Church was that which intitled him to the nomination of the Clergy to the suffrage or approbation of the people to the consent of the Suffragant Bishops and especially of the Metropolitane This was and will bee always the Catholick form of electing Bishops The interest of the Crown is well enough consistent with it providing a Negative for it that any man may bee refused whom the Crown shall not approve The dependence of the People upon their Bishops which the interest of Christianity necessarily requires cannot bee maintained otherwise The means to bring this education of the Clergy and by consequence the discipline grounded upon it out of use is The Universities may be serviceable to some part of this Discipline said to bee the erecting of Universities in these Western parts of Christendom For this was without question a far shorter way to the knowledge of the Scriptures the Canons and the Rites and Customs of the Church But it was the way also to loose that gravity that sobriety that abstinence and meekness upon which the credit of the Clergy with the people had been raised And by that time or rather long before corruption in the chief Guides of the Church must needs have rendred inferior degrees conformable It is not my meaning to insist upon the restoring of the antient Discipline which nothing but the wisdom of Gods Spirit and Tradition from the Apostles could have furnished the simplicity of the Primitive Christians with The Discipline of the Universities may bee serviceable to the Church may it be recovered from that licentiousness and disobedience which Anarchy hath privileged in youth I insist upon that which I have proposed already though no heed is given to it The general Rule of the Church to found Bishopricks in Cities was not every where observed in England Some Dioceses are so
reduce the severity of the antient Canons which the Church of Rome it self hath abated to secret Penance And yet supposing the premises it will bee necessary to follow them in such a form as the World at present may bear Not referring the measure of trial to bee required for the verifying of a mans conversion to the discretion of a Curate or a Parish but referring it to the Bishop and to those whom hee shall discharge his burthen upon in the Cathedral Church in those Colleges which I have proposed or in the Diocese And yet it seems necessary to refer the witnessing of the effect to the Curate and to the Parish For what can bee more reasonable then to presume of a good effect when they that see a mans daily conversation attest it As for the measure it will bee a great work for the Synods of the Provinces to agree upon such a form as the Legislative Power of the Kingdom may find cause to authorize and put in force Which were it effected it would not seem unreasonable to trust particular Ministers with the cure of secret sins having a Rule before their eyes to direct their proceeding I say it would seem reasonable supposing the premises supposing the Clergy lived in that respect to their Superiors in that exercise of their Deacons degree in that sobriety furnishing discretion in valuing mens actions which their people may have ground to trust their souls with For at the present the blessed Reformation having so far perswaded the People that the Minister hath nothing to do but to preach till they bee sure of their salvation who will marvel that they regard not those who detest such impostures Nor would this bee less benefit to the publick Peace and the quiet of Superiors even the Sovereign Who must bee content to have their actions scanned in the Pulpit till there bee a course whereby their people may bee conducted in those things which the Pulpit cannot nor ought to decide The Scottish Presbyters have made us understand how well they understand the bounds of Ecclesiastical Power how much they desire to attempt upon the Secular as well in the Pulpit as in the Consistory And where this great Ordinance for the cure of sin and the salvation of souls is not duly maintained just is it with God to make the neglect of it the seed of publick troubles The maintenance whereof would contribute as much to the publick Peace as to the salvation of souls CHAP. XXV Gods mercies and judgements require the perfecting of the Reformation which wee profess The restoring of the Ecclesiastical Laws is not the restoring of the Church Yet are wee not therefore chargeable with Schisme by the Church of Rome What Schisme destroys the Salvation of what persons by instances in the most notable Schismes Difficulty of Salvation on both sides the Reformation remaining unperfect An instance hereof in the Cure of souls departing by the Order in force A Supplication for a full Debate of all maters in difference The ground of Resolution one Catholick Church the first and chief point of the Debate The consequence of it in Vniting the Reformed Churches An instance in the having of Images in Churches An Objection for the Church of Rome answered That which excuseth the Reformed Churches excuseth not our Schismaticks Gods mercies and judgments require the perfecting of the Reformation which wee profess IT will not become a good Christian to think much that these things are called upon at this time before this Church bee restored to the benefit of the Laws which the Order thereof is to bee established and inforced It will not become any such to say That the same complaint might have been made while the Church of England was the Church of England and before the late breaches in it And therefore might bee spared when all ought to thanke God that wee may bee as wee were For the incomparable mercy that God hath shewed in restoring the Laws with the Crown and the Church with both would leave a mark of ingratitude upon him whosoever having nothing to say against the truth nothing against the great weight and high consequence of the premises should not think it worth the pains for all Estates of the Church and Kingdom to endeavour the redressing of them Especially the profession of Reformation obliging all that think Christians bound to stand to that which they profess not to rest in that which our predecessors had obtained by the first attempt of it For notwithstanding the great difficulties which the extream factions of Papists and Puritans in Church and State had cast in the way of all right endeavours to perfect the Reformation begun according to the true ground and measure of it Wee see what a severe account it hath pleased God to take of all Estates in the Kingdom for laying aside the thought of perfecting that which in so high a point as that of Penance they had acknowledged to bee defective I do not intend to say that the Sacrileges committed under Henry VIII had no hand in this account For there is no such mark to glorifie Gods providence with as when it is visible that the punishment springs out of the sin Nor is there any mean more visible towards the advancing of that confusion which wee have seen then the applying of the endowment of Churches to common uses being found at the dissolution by the irregular Power of the Papacy in the hands of Monasteries But of that guilt the Crown and Kingdom seems to stand in a good measure discharged by restoring that part which the Church stood invested of by the same title as wee see they have done to the due property in such a rate as the publick peace might indure As for private persons that stand invested of the like goods by the like Title there is reason to hope that their account redoundeth not to the account of the Kingdom in the sight of God notwithstanding that the Law alloweth them to use their own conscience in owning or disowning their Title For where the Unity of the Church seemeth to bee concerned it hath been always the practice of the Church to forbear the use of the Keys and to admit those to the Communion whose actions it intendeth not to warrant leaving them to answer God for the same knowing that the Church warranteth them not The Church of Rome in Q. Maries days followed this patern reconciling this Kingdom to the Communion thereof without restitution of that wrong which it claimed to bee done under Henry VIII But if the Kingdom bee liable to an account for the sin of particular persons in detaining Church goods and by that means hindring the salvation of Christian people Shall wee not think that the neglect of perfecting the Reformation begun though obstructed by the difficulty which I have alleged is and ought to bee taken for the ground of that reckoning which God hath made with us And therefore that wee are not
the consent of the Church That is within those bounds wherein the agreement thereof may appear For the setling of those terms upon which the Fanaticks are either to bee disowned by the Presbyterians or owned by this Church As it must proceed upon that supposition so it will render their Recusancy as concerning all the consequence of that issue visibly punishable in those that refuse to give or take satisfaction upon so just terms And the consequence of the same supposition in bounding that which is questionable in the Laws of this Church to the justifying of the Reformation which it pretendeth will leave it without excuse in other maters For the bounds of that distance which wee are to hold with the Church of Rome being the subject of distance among our selves As it is not possible to determine them but upon that supposition So they will oblige all Christians to that penalty which the Laws of a Christian Kingdom are able to inflict upon those that disobey them being made by virtue of the common Christianity As for my self it shall bee a great pleasure to me to compromise all that I have said either of the Faith or Laws of the Church to the issue of such a trial For there is no reason why I should think it a disparagment to my age not to have seen the due consequence of such a principle in so many maters of so doubtful dispute better then such a number of Divines or either side as must bee imployed in such a debate can make it to appear to those whose authority must conduct and govern it That one principle remaining firme which this Church can never disown if it weigh always by the same Wâ—ights and meâ—e by the same Measures it shall bee much pleasure to me to see any mistake of mine in the consequence of it brought to light having a good hope to God that so innocent an inquiry upon so just a principle in a cause so difficult and so concerning will serve to excuse any such mistake in his presence The same will serve to difference the liberty which I use in publishing this from the licentiousness of those who band themselves against the Lawes of their Country they are sure without those terms for submission to them upon which themselves cannot deny that they shall bee the Laws of Gods Church in it Especially seeing I compromise as many hours of study as much follicitude of thought as due a course of inquiry into the grounds of the mater in question as the most of my quality can have imployed to the like purpose since the beginning of our troubles And seeing this liberty must bee my plea at the great judgment of God for any thing wherein I may have ministred mine Office according to that measure which those Laws will inforce in which the best of my own private judgement requires an amendment The consequence of the same in Uniting the Reformed Churches And the acknowledgement of this Principle puts an end to another motion concerning the uniting of all Reformed Churches of all that are called Protestants against the Church of Rome whether this trial proposed come to an issue or not For it is manifest that before the issue of such a trial with them as among our selves all union with them upon account of Religion is but mutual toleration providing that no breach succeed or that none bee made wider then presently it is by the disclaiming of Communion between the parties And that is to bee referred to the wisdom of Superiors the terms which wee our selves ought to insist upon being secured by the express profession of that Principle whereof they are all but the consequences Wee are to stand to Luthers appeal to a Council that should judge by the Scriptures alone limiting the interpretation of the Scriptures as the Rule to judge by to the consent of the Church as the evidence for the bounds of it Had this limitation been expressed in their proceedings at home as it cannot bee said ever to have been disclaimed in their proceedings abroad with Calvinists there had been sufficient ground for preventing not only the particular breach between them but the general breach with the Church of Rome There had been no cause why both parties of Reformed and Catholick might not have continued one Church both Reformed and Catholick Since so great distances are come to pass As it is in vain to expect an union without agreeing first upon the Principle of it So it will not bee safe to maintain Communion upon toleration of differences on foot without protestation for that Principle which must maintain our own Christianity leaving them to themselves and to God in all maters of difference If this Union bee demanded upon the account of common defense against the Powers which own the Church of Rome which seems to bee the inâ—ent of those that would try the cause of Religion by the sword The same protestation will bear out all Christian Powers in point of conscience The interest of their good and the good of their Subjects being provided for by their wisedom For the maters in difference being acknowledged by securing the principle upon which they are to bee decided It will always be in their power to joyn for the maintenance of those Laws whereby the Reformation is setled in their respective Sovereignties Without undertaking for the justice of any Laws but those which each Sovereignty is to answer for because it makes them And the effect of this reservation will bee of great consequence to the retaining of that Christianity which is left us For this limitation will exclude all Power of joyning for the maintenance of Subjects in attempting the Reformation of Religion or the maintenance of the same by force against the Will of their Sovereigns The oversight of which provision in actions of State imputed to the supposition of Religion when they might as well have been intitled to causes of Civil Right hath had a very visible hand in the troubles which we have seen And is the more carefully to bee avoided for the future because the pretense is upon all occasions so studiously advanced by those that have been active in the same I have maintained the lawfulness of having Images in An instance in the having of Images in Churches Churches Now considering the distance between lawful and necessary I find it not amiss to declare by this instance upon what terms the Rule which I have proposed of reducing all customs of this Church to that estate in which wee find them practised during the primitive times of the Catholick Church may bee serviceable to the purpose of Unity amongst our selves For there is so little mention of Images in Churches during neer four hundred years after Christ for increase of devotion for instruction of the unlearned or for the ornament of Churches that it may well bee demanded as for the consequence of that Rule that the use of them though lawful may
bee surceased in Churches And accordingly I do acknowledge that comparing the benefit reasonably to bee expected from the use of them with the abuse to which experience hath discovered them to bee subject I see no cause why the use of them might not bee forborn upon such a reason as might bee effectual to unite us in a Rule bounding the Reformation which wee profess upon the ground of the common Christianity in all particulars The reason is because the having of them is not a necessary mean to that instruction or devotion which is proposed for the end of them and on the other side is acknowledged by all the Reformation to have been the occasion of abuse the preventing whereof will require that care and diligence which the forbearing of them will spare But seeing it hath appeared no breach upon Christianity to have them in Churches and that the abuse which may reasonably bee apprehended by having them to the purposes specified is of no consequence in comparison with that benefit which the Unity of the Church procureth It will never bee lawful to enjoyn this forbearance without declaring that it signifieth not that they are held unlawful Or that wee hold our selves bound to depart from Unity with the Church rather then indure them For seeing the Lutherans do use them in a great measure for the reasons specified If the uniting of us with the rest of the Reformation upon the due ground and terms hitherto required should depend upon a reasonable compliance in that particular it is manifest that it would bee a sufficient reason to oblige us to the same And therefore much more if a general re-union with the Church of Rome should come to depend upon such a compliance The consequence of this instance may bee the means to inform those that are capable what the reason of Unity may oblige us to abate of that which wee take to bee for the best in maters of less consequence that the unvaluable benefit of it may bee obtained in this estate when the protection of Sovereign Powers renders the Unity of the Church so necessary so effectual to the salvation of all For on the other side the interruption of it is that which renders that same salvation questionable by the difficulty which it createth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Christian by the impossibility rather then the difficulty which it procureth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Member of the Church which the breach of Unity alloweth not due conduct to understand To fortifie the necessity of the proposition that I An Objection for the Church of Rome answered make I will here propose an objection in behalf of the Church of Rome against the validity of our Ordinations which I have always taken to have weight and difficulty in it though others do not seem to value it For the answering of this Objection will help to justifie the Offense to bee taken and not given that may come by the liberty which here I use The succession of our Bishops deriveth it self by Ordination of three Bishops which the Canon of the Apostles authorizeth but the Canon of Nicâ—a requireth farther the consent of the Bishops of each Province Whereby it appeareth that Ordination by two or three Bishops is allowed by the Canon of the Apostles upon presumption that the Suffragants of each Province concur in allowing the Act of their fellows Which presumption ceaseth in our case Because it is manifest that the greatest part of the Suffragants did not consent to the Consecration of our Bishops but declared against it being therefore displaced by the Power of the Sword deciding for the lesser part against the greater which the Rule of the Church inableth not to do Whereupon it is argued that the Secular Power was not able to authorize our Reformation as Patron of the Church and the Canons of it To fortifie the Objection I allege the case of Novatianus who was consecrated Bishop of Rome by three Bishops and yet his Consecration was Schismatical because against Cornelius Consecrated by sixteen So the Ordination of Majorinus that was first consecrated Bishop of Carthage against Caecilianus for a head to the Schisme of the Donatists was justly counted Schismatical though it was made by a number more then sufficient of Bishops duely Ordained Which I doubt not may bee found in other Schismes I answer that the Novatians had nothing to charge the Church with but the readmitting of those that had fallen away in time of persecution upon Penance The Donatists nothing but that they who had ordained Caecilianus were Apostates Though they were proved to bee otherwise by several trials which they would never rest satisfied with As for all the rest though both Sects followed the Faith and the Orders of the Catholick Church yet they both rebaptized all those whom they reduced to themselves from the Communion of it as counting all the Church Apostates for communicating with those whom they counted Apostates Is this our case do wee find no fault with the Doctrine or with the Laws of the Church of Rome wherein Sovereigns might find themselves bound to right both themselves and their Subjects notwithstanding the dissent of the Church of Rome For though the Rule of succession by Ordination of Bishops bear them not out in it though the Unity of the Church regularly depend upon the force of that Rule yet seeing the Unity of the Church fails of the end for which God ordaineth it unless it preserve the Christianity which it supposeth intire as well in the publick service of God as in the profession and conversation of Christians it ought not to bee taken for a departure from that Unity that it is restored without that authority which regularly is provided to preserve it For the consent of all other Estates of the Kingdom in that ground and upon those terms which are to take place before the authority of those that dissent will abundantly justifie the validity of those Ordinations which declare an intent of ministring the Office according to the due ground and terms which they suppose And therefore it will not bee so visible when that ground and those terms are not so visible And upon these terms are the Christian people of this Kingdom bound to own and to authorize them in their Orders notwithstanding that the greater part of the Suffragants refused them their concurrence to the same And if the change that is made bee such in maters of greatest weight the case will bee the same though it fail of the Rule in some maters of less consequence And upon these terms I admit the plea of the Reformation That which excuseth the Reformed Churches extendeth not to our Schismâ—tickâ— that succession of Doctrine is of more consequence then succession of persons Not allowing their mistake in thinking the Order of Bishops the supporters of Antichrist For it is evident to him that will use his five senses that the
the Schisme which the Reformation hath made between us and the Church of Rome hath dissolved the obligation of being members of the Church If that change which is called Reformation preserve not such a Church as ought to bee acknowledged for a true member of the whole or Catholick Church it is no Reformation but the destruction of Christianity Now when these Laws inable Souldiers and Justices of the Peace as well as those that call themselves Ministers to make publick Preachers as well such as have received no Ordination from the Church as those that have It is manifest that all difference between Clergy and People is by them dissolved and made void And by consequence the Corporation of the Church which grounds and creates all the difference which hitherto by all Christians hath been received between these two qualities True it is that for the present as well those who have lawful authority to officiate the publick Service of God by Ordination from the Church are admitted to or maintained in their Benefices by these Laws as those that have none Though it bee well enough known that those who have such authority do pretend to act by virtue of it and not by this Law further then as by submitting to it they remove that force which hinders their right otherwise gotten to take effect But it is as true that supposing this Law to continue an age none such can remain And when none such remains then there shall bee no Church in England but by equivocation of words if the premises bee true And therefore those that acknowledge such as have no other authority but from this power for their Pastors cannot consequently profess to believe one Catholick Church nor hope for salvation by being members of it For supposing for the present though not granting that the power which makes these Laws is from God yet can it not bee pretended to bee from our Lord Christ and his Apostles And therefore this authority derived from it cannot bee derived from any act of theirs constituting the Church and enabling it to give this authority by acknowledging whereof Christians presume that they are members of the Church Now that you may see why the belief of Christs Church is an Article of our Creed I say further that you cannot acknowledg such men for your Pastors because you are not secured by these Laws that they are not Haereticks For seeing the Act of Establishment pretends only to hold forth the Christian Religion centained in the Scriptures and that all the Haerefies that are this day in the world do maintain themselves to profess the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures it is manifest that these Laws provide not that they shall not bee Haereticks which are sent you for Pastors Here I must not complain that whereas all that profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ though differing from the profession held forth are protected in the exercise of their Religion Popery and Praelacy are excepted though it cannot bee denied that both profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ Nor that those who hold the profession established by the Laws under which wee were born are refused that protection which is tendred Socinians enemies of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ who manifestly profess Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures and Faith in God by Jesus Christ For my business is not to say what they that made these Laws should have done instead of making them but what you are to do now they are made But if it bee answered that those that make these Laws repose trust in them to whom they grant these Commissions that they will not take any to bee godly men that are Haereticks To this I say that will not serve your turn for several reasons For those that profess all that this law requires them to profess that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ and the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures cannot bee judged ungodly for whatsoever they profess besides by any power derived from this Law but an arbitrary power to bee exercised at the will of the Commissioners And how are you assured that no Haeretick shall obtain a certificate of three Neighbours and so answer their demands that they shall think him in Gods grace However you are not warranted to trust your salvation and the salvation of those that depend on you either upon the judgement of these Commissioners or of them that make the Laws If it be demanded why the Secular Power and the Commissioners thereof are not as well to bee trusted with the salvation of the people as those that may pretend authority from the Church the answer is ready That when you acknowledge a Pastor sent by the Church you neither trust his person nor the person of him that sends him but the Laws which the Church hath received from our Lord and his Apostles For limiting his profession and undertaking to exercise the function which hee receiveth according to them hee bâ—comes thereby qualified for his charge But hee who acknowledges no such Laws because hee acknowledges no Catholick Church destroys the trust you are to have in those whom you acknowledge your Pastors that they are not Haereticks And here I must not fail to give you notice that those Presbyterians and Independents who having departed from the Church of England upon pretense of erecting Presbyteries and Congregations do now make themselves Commissioners to execute these Laws which destroy both Presbyteries and Congregations have thereby destroyed the ground of all trust which the Church might have had in them for conduct in Christianity For what profession can it bee presumed that they will stand to when they stand not to that for which they have destroyed the Unity of this Church which is the reason why Haereticks and Schismaticks though they may bee re-admitted to the Communion of the Church upon repentance yet by the Rules of the Catholick Church cannot bee re-admitted to bee of the Clergy For these Apostasies make them uncapable of that trust which the Church must necessarily repose in the Clergy That you may see this is not for nothing I say further that that there is among us a damnable Haeresie of Antinomians or Enthusiasts formerly when Puritans were not divided from the Church of England known by the name of Grindletons and Etonists These do believe so to bee saved by the free Grace of God by which Christ died for the Elect that true faith is nothing but the revelation hereof and by consequence that all their sins past present and to come being remitted by this Grace to repent of sin or to contend against it is the renouncing of Gods free grace and saving faith Another opinion there is which I cannot say the Presbyteans hold or require to bee held but in regard their Confession of Faith and Catechisme disclaimes it not and therefore allows them that hold it to bee of their Faction may well bee said to maintain it That for a
man to believe that hee is predestinate to life and that Christ died for him is that faith which alone justifieth a Christian Whether of these opinions is the better or the worse or what is the difference between them let the parties dispute This I say that allowing the merits and satisfaction of Christ to the Elect for remission of sins and a title to everlasting life in no consideration but of their persons it is more reasonable to say that they can never become guilty of sin then that the remission of their sins and their right to life should depend upon the knowledge of their predestination revealed by Faith For nothing is true because it is believed but believed because it is true And therefore I say that both of these opinions are destructive to that foundation of faith which the Church of England teacheth when in the Office of Baptisme and the beginning of the Catechisme it requireth all that are baptized not only to profess the Faith of Christ but to renounce the flesh the world and the devil and to fight with them till death for the keeping of Gods Commandments assuring them hereupon that they are regenerate and adopted Gods children by his Grace in Christ For hee that is saved by undertaking and persevering in this cannot bee saved by believing that hee is absolutely predestinate to life without it For I must say that it is one thing to bee absolutely predestinate to life another thing to bee predestinate to life by being absolutely predestinate to persevere till death For hee that is predestinate to life by being absolutely predestinate to persevere in the Covenant of Grace till death is predestinate to life in consideration of the Covenant of Grace in which hee is predestinate to persevere And whether a man can bee absolutely predestinate to presevere in it of his own free choise or not is that which remains in dispute among Divines which I suppose not here to bee either true or false But to say that a man is absolutely predestinate to life and to say that hee is predestinate to life in consideration of the Covenant of Grace which must bee the act of his own free choice is to say express contradictions And to say that a man is predestinate to life without consideration of the Covenant of Grace is to destroy the Covenant of Grace and the hope of salvation which is meerly imaginary if not grounded upon it Seeing then that the trial upon which these Commissioners proceed is their marks of predestination whether they bee true or false not supposing the Covenant of Grace the undertaking of it and persevering in it I say that you are no way secured by these Laws that the Triers themselves much less those whom they shall send you are not complices of this damnable Haeresie I must not forget to advise you that Dell one so far of this Haeresie that he is thought to have written the Book called the Doctrine of Baptismes against Baptisme it self is now and is acknowledged by these Commissioners Master of a Colledge in the University whereof several fellows have been notorious Preachers of this Haeresie who cannot bee acknowledged a member of the Church by any good Christian The like I allege in regard of the Sect of the Anabaptists In which point I must suppose two things First that the Christian Faith supposeth Original sin Secondly that without Baptisme there is no cure for it And this depends upon the premises that there is no absolute predestination without consideration of the Covenant of Grace which Baptisme executing cureth it For whatsoever our Lord meant when hee said unless ye bee born again of water it is manifest that though no man can become a true Christian without the operation of the Holy Ghost yet the habitual gift and indowment of the Holy Ghost dwelling in a man is not granted but in consideration of his entring into the said Covenant and that this gift is the only cure of Original sin There is then no necessity of shewing an express precept in Scripture that all Infants bee baptized or that the Church from the Apostles time did Baptize all while they were Infants If the Christian Faith suppose Original sin if no cure for that but by the Covenant of Grace if no execution of that Covenant but the Baptisme of the Church unless where the outward act is prevented by inevitable necessity after the inward desire thereof was sufficiently resolved and declared then is this necessity a constraining precept and hath been so reputed by the Church ever since the Apostles Which always hath taken order not that all should bee baptized Infants but that no Infant should die unbaptized For the diligent watch over all occasions that might carry Infants out of the world unbaptized observed by the Church from the beginning though neglected since demonstrateth no legal assurance of the salvation of such as should die unbaptized Whatsoever might bee presumed of Gods goodness over and above what hee declareth But as for those that shall become obliged and engaged to the Covenant of Grace by being consecrated to God through the act of the Church thereby obliging it self to shew them the truth of Christianity which obligeth all to whom it is shewed the necessity aforesaid together with the practise of the Church is a legal presumption of the cure of Original sin and the opening of Paradise which it only shutteth If therefore our Anabaptists do not believe Original sin they are Pelagian Haereticks If believing it they believe notwithstanding that it is cured by Predestination without the Covenant of Grace they fall into the Haeresie premised And voiding the Baptisme which they received of the Church they seem to renounce the Christianity which it inacteth but manifestly they render their own Baptisme void of effect towards God For they who rebaptize upon a ground that allows Salvation by Gods Predestination revealed by Faith without undertaking and persevering in the Covenant of Grace cannot pretend to baptize into the Covenant of Grace that is into the profession of the true Faith and of fighting against sin until death under the same Seeing then that the necessity of Baptisme cannot bee denied but upon such a ground as voideth the Covenant of Grace and seeing the Triers are either Anabaptists themselves or complices in the same Commission with Anabaptists whereof there are divers in these Commissions it is evident that by these Laws you are no ways secured of having Anabaptists for your Pastors who are expressly Schismaticks forsaking the Church for that which the Church always did and by consequence of the premised reasons Haereticks As the Baptisme of those men whom they pretend to send you for Pastors is by this reason void of effect So the Eucharist which they may pretend to celebrate will bee void of the effect of a Sacrament toward you but not void of the crime of Sacrilege towards God The reasons are two The first because those who
have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practice of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacrilege in consecrating the Eucharist For though the name of Ministers signifies no more then Deacons and that it is truly Sacrilege for Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist Yet they whom they call Ministers if Ordained were Ordained Priests with power to celebrate the Eucharist For they call them Ministers to impose upon the World an opinion which they cannot prove by the Scripture That they are the only Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and being of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to bee the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to bee made by the consecration before which they were only Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the same and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must bee presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to bee guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ as not distinguishing a sign of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the now pretended Reformation of Religion in England That the Church is not to assemble for the Service of God but when there is Preaching This seems to stand upon a very gross mistake of those passages of the Apostles writings which declare the necessary means of salvation to consist in hearing the Gospel preached As if they were meant of Sermons in the Pulpit which are onely made to those that are already Christians not of publishing the Gospel to those that knew it not afore convincing them that it is true and instructing them wherein it consists Or as if those that are already Christians wanted any thing necessary to salvation supposing them to persevere in the Christianity which they have professed Not as if their Christianity did not oblige them to hear Sermons when the authority of the Church assures them to bee without offense But because the Offices of publick Prayers and the Praises of God especially in celebrating the blessed Eucharist are the end of all that instruction in Christianity which Christians receive from the Church and therefore all Preaching subordinate to the same as the means to the End And because they may bee daily so frequented without offense and to the increase of the reverence due to Christianity as the experience of our time shows that Preaching cannot bee The second is that the first day of the week called Sunday is the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment A mistake so gross that it may well serve for an instance what Faction can do with men that are sober otherwise That God by commanding the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week to wit that day on which hee ended the Creation of the world and for that very reason commanding it should bee thought to command Christians to keep the first day of the week on which hee began the Creation and our Lord Christ arose from the dead That is that the same words of the same Commandment in writing should oblige Jews to rest on the Saturday which oblige Christians to rest on the Sunday is a thing which when this fit of frenzie shall bee past us will scarse bee believed that ever any man would believe True it is this first day hath been observed in and ever since the Apostles time but not by virtue of that Law which their Office was to declare expired and out of date but by the Act of their own authority whereby they gave Laws to Christs Church Let us now only compare the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of Prayer and the Praises of God established by the Order of the Church of England together with the more solemn service of Lords days and Festivals with a bare Sermon upon Sundays ushered in and out with a Prayer of every mans own conceit setting aside the Haeresie and false Doctrine the Faction and Schism the Blasphemy and Slander the ridiculous Follies which this Sermon and Prayer may and which wee have known them contain I say comparing these together the Reformation pretended is and ought to bee accounted the abomination of desolation in comparison of that Order which it destroyeth And therefore upon this account alone those who not being invested with that ordinary Power by which the Church is inabled to correct abuses in the Church shall usurp the Power of the Church to introduce this disorder are thereby Schismaticks themselves and those that acknowledge them for their Pastors complices of Schismaticks It will bee said that these Laws will bee amended as it was many times said awhile since that the Parliament would settle a Ministery To this I say that those who shall bee sent you by virtue of these Laws have every way as good authority as any the Power that made these Laws joyned with a Parliament can give to them that are not otherwise qualified by the authority of the Church That is that this Power and the power of a Parliament together though advising with Divines can do no more then this Power with advise of those Divines which it useth hath done Because both are Secular and able to make men their Ministers to maintain the Interest of that Government which their Power constituteth but not Ministers of the Church to maintain the Interest of that Faith and Service of God which it is trusted with If it bee said that in most parts of the Reformation those from whom the Ministery is propagated had not received by their Ordination Power to ordain others For answer I suppose That the abuses crept into the Church were so great that particular Churches that is part of the whole might and ought to reform themselves without consent or concurrence of the whole I suppose that though there bee in the Church a succession of persons indued with authority in behalf of it as well as of Faith and of Rules or Laws Yet the
succession of persons is of less consideration being subordinate to the succession of Faith and Laws as the means to the end And then I say that supposing a necessity of Ordaining because they who refused the Reformation would not Ordain to that purpose And supposing the Reformation to bee that which God requireth There is cause to presume that the intent which those that agree in it declare supplies by Gods goodness that nullitie which the want of Power to Ordain would otherwise infer For those mistakes of less consequence which humane weakness must needs commit in a work of such weight as it were malice in man to justifie so it may well bee thought mercy in God to excuse This presumption there is that the Churches thus constituted are true Churches And the Offices ministred by persons thus qualified effectual to convey the Grace of God to Christian people But wee suppose in our case that Presbyterian Ordinations tend no more to the exercise of true Christianity then of that which the Church of England hitherto professeth And wee see with our eyes that the authority that maketh them destroyeth it self by destroying the authority of their Bishops from whom it claimeth And therefore to imagine that an Assembly of Divines by being lawfully Ordained to the office of Priests or Deacons according to the Laws of the Church of England can by Commission from the Secular Power make Ordinations which the Laws under which they were Ordained forbid is to imagine that God can inable man to sin or that a Sovereign Power can authorize the Subject to rebell against it self And therefore though the qualities of persons to bee sent you for Pastors may bee otherwise limited by Acts which Parliaments may make yet these qualities not being derived from the authority of the Apostles founding the Church by any act of the Church but from Secular Power and Commission issued from it make them no more Ministers of the Church that are made by Assemblies of Divines and Presbyteries then those that are made by Commission of Triers and for ejecting scandalous Ministers That is both of them being by their creation Schismaticks and their profession not clearing them of misprision of Haeresie they can no more bee acknowledged by those that pretend to adhere to the Church of England then Belial by Christ or darkness by light Hereby then you may conclude how to receive those whom the Presbyterians may send you for Pastors by any change in the Secular Power For I charge not them that they do not believe the Church which they would bee themselves I acknowledge that they secure you from all Sects but themselves But in as much as they maintain Predestination to life onely in consideration of what Christ hath already done or suffered for the Elect in so much I say that they do not nor can Baptize into the Cross of Christ that is to say into the hope of Salvation in consideration of the Covenant of Baptisme For that which is absolutely due as salvation is due to the elect by the gift of Gods Predestination cannot bee burthened with any condition of Christianity afterwards Nor can hee who is once sure to bee saved without that condition which Baptism inacteth bee bound to fight against the flesh the world and the Devil for the keeping of Gods Commandments under the profession of the Christian Faith for the obtaining of that which hee is sure of before And therefore their Baptisme is no effectual Baptisme before God if Baptisme received in the Church of England bee such that is to say it is no Baptisme but by Equivocation of words in as much as the obligation of a mans Christianity is not declared or understood to take hold of him by virtue of it For seeing the hope of salvation which Christians have by their Baptisme is grounded upon the condition of their Christianity that Baptisme which promiseth salvation without providing for this condition is no Baptisme but by equivocation of words I say further that the change which they call Reformation visibly tends to introduce that monstrous imposture of two Sermons every Sabbath in stead of the daily and ordinary service of God together with the more solemn service of God upon Festivals and Lords days and other extraordinary occasions which the Church of England with the whole Church of God from the beginning hath maintained so far as there was means to maintain it I will not here insist upon the order of Bishops and their chief power in their Dioceses as of Divine Right that is instituted and introduced by the Apostles Let the Presbyterians think themselves privileged to erect Altar against Altar upon so desperate a Plea as now they insist upon that the Presbyteries are rather of divine right then the chief Power of Bishops in their Dioceses I insist now only that this Power of the Bishops was not against Gods Law which every man must grant me that acknowledges a Church in England from the Reformation till now In this case they who to introduce this Christianity and this publick exercise of it transgressing that authority to which they were called by the visible act of the Church of England take upon them to share that Power from which they had their authority among themselves and to execute it by consent among themselves in their several precincts cannot bee said to constitute a Church by virtue of any act of the Apostles or any authority derived from such act but by virtue of their own act as all Apostates and usurpers do That is to say that they do not constitute such a Church by being a member whereof a man may reasonably assure himself of salvation upon any principle of Christianity but such a Church as is indeed no Church unless it bee by equivocation of terms but a conventicle of Schismaticks with the misprision of the Haeresie aforesaid And therefore their Priesthood is no Priesthood their Eucharist is no Eucharist unless it bee by equivocation of words but Sacrilege against Gods Ordinance Besides that what is requisite to the consecration of the Eucharist or wherein it consists they seem to bee as secure of and as little to regard as the most ignorant of those Sects into which the once common name of Puritans stands divided at this time Neither is it in any Secular Power though never so unquestionable to cure these nullities and incapacities in the pretense upon which they take upon them to bee a Church Though for the present they are not so much as authorized to the world by any privilege or penalty enacted by any Secular Power but only protected by that which now possesseth Whereby the world may see that there is nothing but their own usurpation and the consent of those whom they have debauched to their Schisme for them to subsist by under the pretense of a Church And that they will by virtue of their Original bee as malignant to any Secular Power that shall not maintain and
authorize them as ever they were to that which they have destroyed to introduce this shadow of a Church If it bee objected that your Estates will bee liable to penalties that may bee enacted against those that withdraw from the exercise of the Religion publickly held forth To this I have no answer but that wee are to obey God rather then man to prefer the next world before this and to bear Christs Cross if wee expect his kingdom Only thus much I must observe that these Laws proceed from a profession that it is not lawful to force mens Consciences in matter of Religion by penalties And therefore though the Praelatical party are not protected in the exercise of their Religion yet cannot they bee punished for it but by denying that which is declared upon the publick Faith Besides acknowledging the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures and professing-faith in God by Jesus Christ they are as much qualified for protection as those that are protected by the Act of Establishment And not to allow the exercise of that Religion the profession whereof is not disallowed seems to bee to forbid men to bee Christians who are not forbidden to bee such Christians and to expose them to popular tumult contrary to the publick peace whom no Law punishes If the Papists continue nevertheless liable to former penalties perhaps it is because they are reputed Idolaters But because these laws and the profession from whenâ— they proceed may change I must confess you cannot follow my advise but that your estate may become questionable Neither would I give it could I assure you of the kingdom of heaven otherwise If you demand what means I can shew you to exercise your Religion withdrawing from the means which these Acts provide I answer that there are hitherto every where of the Clergie that adhere to the Church who will find it their duty to see your infants Christned your children Catechised the Eucharist communicated to all that shall withdraw from Churches forcibly possessed by them whom you own not for Pastors And if they cannot continually minister to you so dispersed the ordinary Offices of Gods Service you have the Service of God according to the Order of the Church you have the Scriptures to read for part of it you have store of Sermons manifestly allowed by the Church to read you have Prayers prescribed for all your own necessities and the necessities of the Church To serve God with these in private with such as depend upon you and are of the same judgement with you leaving out what belongs to the Priests Office to say I do to the best of my judgement believe an acceptable sacrifice to God which you cannot offer at the Church in such case And though I censure not my brethren of the Clergie that think fit to complie with the power which wee are under in holding or coming by their Benefices I suppose in respect to their flocks rather then to their fruits yet if they believe themselves and their flocks to bee members of the Church of England they must needs believe those flocks that acknowledge such Pastors to bee members of no Church and therefore acknowledge you and own your departure and declare themselves to their own flocks and instruct them to do the like when the like case falls out And so the refusing to hear the voice of strangers will unite us to make a flock under those whom wee acknowledge our lawful Pastors I have found my self pressed to Print Copies hereof for mine own use thereby to declare thus much of my judgement to you and to the rest of my friends because the consequence of owning such men for your Pastors will bee to make us members of several Churches Which must disable me to do any office of a Clergie man towards you unless it bee the prosecuting of this by shewing you further reasons to justifie what I say here and to reduce you to it Though it shall alwaies bee my studie faithfully to serve my friends in all Offices of civility And I hope they will consider what appearance there is that any thing should move me to make my self liable to so much harm as the publick declaring of this opinion will make me liable to but the discharge of my conscience to God and them as the case shall require me to discharge it The due Way of composing the differences on Foot preserving the Church According to the Opinion of HERBERT THORNDIKE I Have found my self obliged by that horrible confusion in Religion which the late War had introduced to declare the utmost of mine opinion concerning the whole point of Religion upon which the Western Church stands divided into so many parties And now finding no cause to repent me of doing it can find no cause why I should not declare the consequence of it in setling of that which remains of our differences For middle waies to so good an end are now acceptable meerly as middle waies and tending to drive a bargain without pretending that they ought to bee admitted How much more an expedient pretending necessity from reasons extant in publick and not contradicted The chief ground that I suppose here because I have proved it at large is the meaning of that Article of our Creed which professeth one Catholick Church For either it signifies nothing or it signifies that God hath founded one Visible Church that is that he hath obliged all Churches and all Christians of whom all Churches consist to hold visible communion with the Whole Church in the visible offices of Gods publick service And therefore I am satisfied that the differences upon which wee are divided cannot bee justly setled upon any terms which any part of the Whole Church shall have just cause to refuse as inconsistent with the unity of the Whole Church For in that case wee must needs become Schismaticks by setling our selves upon such Laws under which any Church may refuse to communicate with us because it is bound to communicate with the Whole Church True it is that the foundation of the Church upon these terms will presuppose the intire profession of Christianity whether concerning Faith or Manners For otherwise how should those Offices in which all the Church is to communicate bee counted the service of God according to Christianity And this profession is the condition upon the undergoing whereof all men by being baptized and made Christians are also admitted to communion with the Church as members of it But nothing can make it visible to the common reason of all men what communion they are to resort unto for their Salvation but the visible Communion of all parts of the Church which having been maintained for divers ages of the Church is now visibly interrupted by the Reformation and before by the breach between the Greek and Latin Church And therefore though it bee visible to reason rightly informed what communion a man is to imbrace for his Salvation yet it is not now
visible to the common reason of all men that seek it If this bee true then no power of the Church can extend so far as to make any thing a part of the common Christianity which was not so from the beginning but it must needs extend so far as to limit and determine all maters in difference so as the preservation of Unity may require And therefore the Unity of all parts supposing the profession of Christianity whole and intire we shall justly bee chargeable with the crime of Haeresie if wee admit them to our communion who openly disclaim the Faith of the whole Church or any part of it For those are justly counted Haereticks as to the Church by the Canons of the Church that communicate with those who profess Haeresie though no Haereticks as to God not believing it themselves But the Unity of all parts being subordinate and of inferiour consideration to the Unity of the Whole wee shall justly bee chargeable with the crime of Schisme if wee seek Unity within our selves by abrogating the Laws of the Whole as not obliged to hold communion with it I confess I am convicted that as things stand wee are not to expect any reason from the Church of Rome and those who hold communion with it in restoring the unity of the Church upon such Laws as shall render the means of Salvation visible to all that use them as they ought And this and only this I hold to bee the due ground upon which wee are inabled to provide an establishment of Unity in Religion among our selves as heretofore a Reformation in Religion for our selves without concurrence of the Whole But if wee should think our selves at large to conclude our selves without respect to the Faith and Laws of the whole Church wee may easily bring upon our selves a just imputation of Haereticks for communicating with Haereticks but a juster of Schismaticks if wee abrogate the Laws of the whole Church to obtain Unity among our selves as declaring thereby that we are not content to hold Unity with the Whole unless a part may give Law to the Whole So far am I from that madness which hath had a hand in all our miseries of thinking the right measure of Reformation to stand in going as far as it is possible from the Church of Rome For were it evidenced as it neither is nor ever will bee evidenced that the Pope is Antichrist and all Papists by their profession Idolaters yet must wee either rase the Article of one Catholick Church out of our Creed or confess that the Pope can neither bee Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters for or by any thing which is common to them with the Whole Church I know some will think it strange that the Pope should excommunicate us on Maundy-Thursdays that wee should swear in the Oath of Supremacy that no forreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction or Authority Ecclesiastical in this Kingdom and yet wee bee subject to do such Acts for which the Church of Rome may justly renounce communion with us But the word ought in that Oath is Indicative and not Potential not deberet but debet For it were a contradiction for the Church of England to pray for the Catholick Church and the unity thereof and yet renounce the Jurisdiction of the whole Church and the General Council thereof over it self King James of excellent memory acknowledgeth the Pope to bee Patriarch of the West that is Head of the general Council of the Western Churches And the right R. Father in God Thomas L. B. of Winchester under Q. Elizabeth in his answer to the Seminaries Apology being demanded why wee own him not so in effect answereth bluntly but truly because hee is not content with the right of a Patriarch For should hee disclaim the pretense of dissolving the bond of Allegiance should hee retire to the privilege of a Patriarch in seeing the Canons executed the Schisme would lie at our door if wee should refuse it Now if they curse us while wee pray for the Unity of the whole Church is it not the case of the Catholicks with the Donatists For these rebaptized them whom those had baptized whited over the inside of their Churches when they became possessed of them scraped over their Altars being Tables of wood in detestation of them as Apostates and persecutors while the Catholicks called them brethren and acknowledged them rightly baptized and received them that were converted from that Schism in their respective Orders The Unity of the Church is of such consequence to the salvation of all Christians that no excess on one side can cause the other to increase the distance but they shall bee answerable for the souls that perish by the means of it And therefore not departing from the opinion which I have declared concerning the terms upon which all parties ought to reconcile themselves until I shall have reason showed me why I should do it I shall now go no further then the maters that are actually questioned among us not extending my discourse to points that may perhaps more justly become questionable then some of those which have come into dispute Professing in the beginning that I believe they may and ought to bee setled by a Law of the Kingdom obliging all parties beside Recusant But that the mater of that Law ought to bee limited by the consent and Authority of the Church respective to this Kingdom And withall that I think it ought to be held and shall for mine own part hold it an act meerly ambulatery and provisional for the time For though there is no hope of reconcilement with the Church of Rome as things are yet is there infinite reason for all sides to abate of their particular pretensions for the recovering of so incomparable a benefit as the Unity of the Whole If ever it shall please God to make the parties appear disposed to it Now the errors which wee are to shut out if wee will recover the Unity of a Visible Church that is of Gods Whole Church are two in my judgement First though some things have been disputed in other parts from whence the same consequence may bee inferred yet England is the place and ours the times which first openly and downright have maintained that there is no such thing as a Church in the nature of one visible Communion founded by God But it is maintained by several parties among us upon several grounds For some do not or will not understand that there can bee any Ecclesiastical power founded by that act of God which foundeth Christianity where there is Secular Power founded also by those acts of God whereby hee authorizeth and inforceth all just Sovereignties Though all times all parts all Nations of Christendom since Constantine profess to maintain the Church in that power in which they found it acknowledged by Christians when hee first undertook to maintain that Christianity which hee professed all this must bee taken either for meer
hypocrisie or meer nonsense Others there are that do not think themselves obliged to the unity of Gods Church upon far different Principles There are of our Enthusiasts such as are themselves every one a Church to themselves and by themselves as being above Ordinances and the Communion of the Church provided only for proficients But all Independent Congregations make the same profession and are manifestly grounded upon the same For how can they imagine themselves members of one visible Church who profess that they cannot bee obliged to hold communion with any Congregation but their own And yet with favour the same consequence insuing upon so different pretenses there must bee some supposition common to both upon which both do ground themselves And it is easily visible what that is Both opinions must suppose that a man may bee heir to Christs Kingdom and indowed with Gods Spirit without being or before hee bee a member of Gods Church And the Independents indeed do manifestly profess that knowing themselves and others to bee Gods children and indowed with his Spirit they are in a capacity to joyn in Ecclesiastical Communion with those whom they know to bee such So they become members of a Church being Gods children before without considering how they shall bee members of the Whole Church The others are satisfied that by being members of a State which professeth Christianity they are also members of that one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which by our Creed wee profess to believe A ground which holdeth accidentally so long as that State constituteth a visible member of the Whole or the Catholick Church But not imaginable to serve the turn when States differ in point of Christianity and may every day appeal to force whether is the true Church and whether the false For is it not manifest that the professions of the Lutherans the Calvinists the Greeks the Abyssines are protected by Sovereign powers as well as the profession of the Church of Rome or the Church of England Is it not manifest that the Powers that profess them maintain them respectively to bee Gods truth Why then do wee dispute any longer which is the true Religion and which is the false if it bee enough for Christians to resolve all the doubt they can have concerning Religion into the command of their Sovereigne only professing Christianity Is it not manifest that Sovereigns do use to punish their Subjects that conform not to their Laws concerning Religion but follow that Religion which is in force under other Sovereignties Is it possible to imagine that Subjects can bee obliged by one and the same will of God to follow contrary Religions under several Sovereigns Or that Sovereigns can bee inabled by one and the same Law of God to punish their Subjects for serving God according to contrarie professions True it is Subjects that suffer in a good cause shall bee gainers thereby gaining Heaven by their losses of this world But what shall become of the Sovereigns that persecute them being in a good cause Or how shall not some of them bee persecuted in a good cause who are persecuted in contrary causes I know not whether this peremptory difficulty was the cause But I am sure recourse hath been had to a more desperate answer that every Subject is bound to profess the Religion of his Sovereign yea though it in join him to renounce Christ with his mouth remaining bound all the while to believe in him with his heart and that by this belief hee shall bee saved as a Christian Neither is this position tenable but upon this answer nor doth this answer import any less then the utter renouncing of Christianity I know that in the Records of the antient Church those who only professed to believe Christianity who were called Catecbumeni or Scholars to the Church are sometimes called by the name of Christians But I know withall that they were never counted in the state of Salvation till they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity by being adimtted to the Sacrament of Baptisme I know also that this Baptisme though it was not counted void when it was Ministred in due form yet it was never counted effectual to Salvation but when a man is baptized into the true Faith and that in the Unity of Gods Church For though the names of Haereticks and Schismaticks have been made only Bug-bears to fright children with in this time of our troubles yet so long as Christianity continues those that separate themselves from the Church upon pretenses concerning the substance of Faith shall bee properly counted Haereticks But if the cause concern not the substance of Christianity Schismaticks And therefore Christianity consisting not only in believing or purposing with the heart but also in professing with the mouth first sincerelie then the true Faith and lastly by being baptized hee that professeth himself free to renounce his Christianity as far as the mouth hath effectively renounced it because hee hath effectively drawn back that promise upon condition whereof hee was baptized of professing Christianity to the death And truly if every Christian State bee the Church of God within the territories thereof then cannot all Churches concur to make up that one Visible Church of God which our Creed professeth For there is nothing more evidently true then the saying of Plato that all States are naturally enemies one to another especially those that are borderers And this enmity in our daies consisteth visibly in those differences of Religion upon which the neighbour Sovereignties of Christendom are now at distance It is therefore no way imaginable how all Christian States should concur to make up that one visible Church whereinto by being baptized wee obtain the spiritual and eternal privileges of Christians But that it is the profession of the whole Rule of Christianity that makes any people or State a part of the Visible Church being governed by such rules in the exercise of Gods service as may make it the same Society with that which was once unquestionably Gods Church or part of it For otherwise how should the Visible Church continue one and the same from the first to the second coming of our Lord And here you have the second point of our differences For all our Sects under the title of Gods free grace do maintain that the promises of the Gospel and our right in them depends not upon the truth of mens Christianity As if God were not free enough of his Grace if hee should reserve himself a duty of being served as by Christians upon those whom he tenders life everlasting to upon such terms It is no new thing in England to hear of those who profess that God sees not nor can see any sin in his elect So that in their opinion there is no mortal sin but repentance because that must suppose that a man thought himself out of the state of grace by the sin whereof hee repents I think I am duly informed of a
Malefactor dying upon the Gallows that professed to the strengthening of his brethern that hee had overcome all temptation to repentance acknowledging that since his being in prison hee had been strongly moved to repent And that one of Hackets three conspirators when hee was come to himself continued to profess that hee thought himself in the state of Gods Grace all the while But I will go no further then the words which I have quoted in another place out of a Pamphlet written to satisfie the God lie party in Wales being offended at the late Usurpers proceedings which allegeth that wee are not to bee judged at the last day either by our Works or by our Faith but by Gods everlasting purpose concerning each of us by virtue whereof Christ being alive at the heart the violation of all his engagements to them by usurping â—over them as over others made no difference in his estate towards God Whosoever writ this I think I am duly informed that himself caused it to bee published But I am certain that to the everlasting infamie of a Christian Nation if reparation bee not made it is supposed to bee the sense of all the Godly in it And to the same effect my memory assures me to have read in one of his speeches That there are at this day inspirations of Gods Spirit besides the Scriptures though not against the Scriptures Now certainly that which a man hath by virtue of the Scriptures that is of Christianity can by no means bee understood to bee besides the Scriptures And certainly hee that presumeth upon any motion of Gods Spirit not supposing Christianity that is not supposing the Scriptures may by the same reason presume of his own salvation not supposing that hee believes and lives as a Christian The same is the consequence of a Position I will not say injoined by any party but notoriously allowed among us That justifying Faith consisteth in believing that a man is one of them that are predestinate whom God sent our Lord Christ to redeem and none else For how can hee think himself obliged to make good the profession of a Christian who thinks himself assured of all that hee can attain to by so doing not supposing it Indeed it may bee said that our Antinomians and Enthusiasts and other Sects among us whom no conceit without this could have seduced to their several frenzies do think themselves justified from everlasting by Gods decree to send Christ for that purpose whereas this opinion dateth Justification from the instant that God revealeth the said decree by his Spirit in which revelation they think that justifying Faith confisteth And certainly there can bee no reason why God receiving men into Grace only in consideration of Christs obedience should suspend their reconcilement upon that knowledge of his purpose which hee giveth them by Faith For what can bee more unreasonable than that God should justifie a man by revealing to him that hee is justified But the opinion is not the less destructive to Christianity because it is the more unreasonable Now it is possible that the effect of this position may bee stifled and become void in some by reason of other truths which contradict the same indeed and yet are believed by them not seeing the consequence of their own perswasions But those who besides this position do pertinaciously hold absolute predestination to Glory those I maintain are in an errour destructive to Christianity that is in an Haeresiâ— And therefore this Doctrine being such it is no way enough that it is no way injoined to bee taught but it is requisite that it bee disclaimed by those that pretend to recover the Unity of a Visible Church For there can bee no Church where any thing destructive to Christianity which the being of the Church supposeth is notoriously allowed to bee taught Now between these two points of our differences I am to observe a vast difference For this latter is necessary for all Christians to know as being the principle of all those actions which being just for the mater of them must render the men acceptable to God in order to life everlasting And therefore hee that thinketh hee can bee regenerate or justified or the child of God or indowed with Gods Spirit not supposing that hee undertakes and performs the profession of a Christian renounces the Article of his Creed concerning one baptisme to remission of sins But the being of Gods Visible Church consisteth in that Unity which ariseth upon the agreement of all Christians to hold Communion in the visible Offices of Gods service And therefore though it bee an Article of our Creed to believe one Catholick Church yet can it not concern the salvation of every particular Christian to understand the nature of that Society or Corporation which the bond of this Unity createth Nay even they who are best seen in that Government by which this Unity is preserved may well fail in comprehending the reason thereof by reflecting their discourse upon it In the mean time it is necessary for all that believe their Creed to think themselves tied by this Article to maintain the Unity of the Church according to their estate That is for every ones part not to bee accessory to any Schisme that dissolveth it And therefore to deny the crime of Schisme is to deny this Article The consequence of this observation will bee the difference which the Church hath reason to use in reconciling parties at distance from it to the Unity thereof according to the difference of those pretenses upon which they are at distance For those who have only disputed against the being of the Church upon misunderstanding the right of Secular Power which they think the being of the Church inconsistent with shall bee sufficiently reunited to the Church by conforming to the Law by which the Church is and was and may bee established For that there ought to bee provision against such disputes for the future it concerns not me to give warning Only where willfullness hath proceeded so far in maintaining a false position as to make no bones of denying Christianity and teaching Atheism by obliging to renounce Christ if the Sovereign command it it concerneth the Christianity of the Nation to see reparation made But where the Haeretical positions mentioned afore have notoriously been maintained especially where Congregations have been framed and used for the exercise of Religion upon pretense of them there will it bee absolutely necessarie that they bee expresly renounced and disclaimed either by persons in particular or in Body by Congregations To this head I reduce all Anabaptists and Congregations of Anabaptists Those of the fifth Monarchy and Congregations of the fifth Monarchy Quakers and Congregations of Quakers Nay all Independent Congregations in my opinion ought to bee reduced under this measure Not only because their profession is grounded upon the denial of one visible Church But because they suppose themselves children of God and indowed with his Spirit before
those whom they have already promoted to the judgment of the Church for the condition upon which they are to Minister which without doâ—bt is the principal they should insist upon the accessorie which is the form and solemnity by which the power is visibly conveyed And thus I think the second great difficulty concerning their Ordinations may bee composed Now supposing these great difficulties set aside the composing of our first differences about the Order of Bishops and the Service cannot seem difficult it the parties bee content to give up their ingagements to the advantage which the Christianity of the Nation may have by it For what reasonable Christian can think much to acknowledg that by reason of those partialities which at length have produced this Schisme the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land are capable of amendment in those two points On the other side doth not dear experience tell all parts that the change of them by force though it must bee called Reformation if the Law of the Land call it so yet is not likely to bee that which it is called Besides consider the kindness which his Majesties return and Gods goodness that hath over-ruled mens hearts in it hath bred in all parties consenting to it For can wee have this before us and not hope that it will bee enough to subdue all prejudices and animosities to the interest of our common Christianity Had the peace of the Church never been questioned it might bee charity in a discreet Christian not to call it into question by proposing what might bee amended because the hope of amendment might not countervail the danger of that peace But now that Unity is not to bee had without setling of agreement in maters of difference to propose what may seem best for the Communitie of Gods Church in the cure of our breaches is not to give offense but to take it away I will therefore premise here one consideration which I mean to assume for a supposition to ground that which I shall propose to this purpose It shall contain that which I observe in the New Testament and the primitive practice Gods Church pointing out the meaning of it concerning the difference between the Clergy and People in all Churches and the ground of it For though the edict of our Lord in the Gospel bee peremptory that who so forsaketh not all things cannot bee my Disciple that is a Christian For they who were other whiles called Disciples were called Christians at Antiochia as wee read in the Acts yet common reason evinceth that all Disciples professed not to forsake the World which wee all profess to forsake at our Baptisme according to the same rate For wee see by the Gospel that the voluntary oblations of those who followed our Lord ministring to him made a stock of money which Judas was trusted with for charitie to the poor after that his followers were provided for But it is against the evidence of common sense to imagine that all those who professed to follow Christ and to bee his Disciples were provided for out of this Stock It is true our Lord Promiseth in the Gospel that whosoever shall forsake kindred or wife or house or goods for the Gospel shall receive an hundred fold here and in the World to come life everlasting A thing visibly fullfilled in the primitive state of the Church when whosoever was persecuted for Christianity all Christians acknowledged themselves bound to provide for his support Neither can it bee said how S. Pauls saying that godliness hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come could bee otherwise fullfilled when those who had undertaken Christs Cross were subject to powers that did or might persecute Christianity at their pleasure But though all Christians in case of persecution are bound by their Baptisme to leave all they have that they may carry Christs Cross him Yet it was something more that S. Peter meant when hee said Lord wee have left all to follow thee what shall wee have For though a Net and a Fisher-boat were no great thing to leave yet so firm a faith as to forsake a mans whole course of living casting himself upon the word of Christ for his very being whether here or in the World to come is sutable to the promise that follows of sitting upon XII Tbrones to judge the XII Tribes of Israel The Christians of Jâ—rusalem who parted with their Estates that the Disciples might bee maintained in their daily attendance upon Gods service cannot bee said to have obtained thereby any common rank in the Church But it must be said that quitting their former course and state of living by quitting the means of maintaining it they became from thenceforth either of the Clergy or of the poor which were always maintained out of the stock of the Church For by S. Pauls instructions to Timothy 1 Tim. V. it appeareth that those Widows which were imployed and maintained by the Church for the common necessities of it were to be taken out of such as were destitute of means to live otherwise Herewith agreeth an infinite number of examples in the primitive Church of Godly Bishops Priests and others of the Clergy who taking upon them such professions devested themselves of their worldly goods whether applying them to the property or only to the use of the Church as reserving themselves power to dispose of them in favour of friends or kindred at their death And from the same reason and ground proceed all the Canons whereby it was provided that they should not dispose of the Church goods to such uses at death but of their own well and good For whatsoever their estates were though they renounced them not yet it became necessary for them to live as others of the Clergy lived who were generally poor when they were promoted and therefore professed to content themselves with meer necessaries because the Church goods of which they lived were due to the maintenance of the poor as well as of the Clergy From whence wee may see what truth there is in those sayings of the Fathers which make the precepts of our Lord in his Sermon upon the mount maters of Counsel For if all Christians bee to leave all things that they may follow Christ it is certain that they are commanded and not only advised to turn the other cheek to quit a mans Coat to him that takes away his Cloak to undergo the rest of those precepts whereby our Lord describeth the duty of a Christian provided they bee so understood as the maintenance of a mans estate in the World and the obligations which it inferreth even by virtue of that Christianity which alloweth the same will require But if there bee another estate in the Church of Disciples which profess of follow Christ leaving the imployment of the world for that purpose and therefore to forbear the pleasures and profits thereof accordingly That strict Rate and that high degree in which they
profess to leave the world to follow Christ must needs bee meer mater of Counsel because no man is commanded to undertake that estate but invited to it for the securing of his Salvation who knows hee may be saved without it Whereby it appears that this estate imports a profession of abstinence from the pride the revenge the lusts and pleasures of the world as well as from the riches of it as well of the humility the patience the continence the meekness and obedience of our Lord as of the mean estate in which hee lived But that for the means to compass this end it imports first a profession of renouncing the rank estate which every man holds in the world and of dedicating himself to the service of the Church and that imployment which tends to the common good of Christians If it should bee inferred from hence that the state of the Clergy importing the forsaking of the World at this extraornary Rate must therefore import the profession of single life as some of the Church of Rome would have it The answer is that it will not follow And the instance is peremptory That the Apostles themselves who thus left the world did not profess it And if by undertaking the Clergy a man was not obliged to renounce his goods As appears by those Canons which inable the Clergy to dispose of them at death much less doth that estate import a profession of single life being more difficult to perform then to live as a Clergy man upon the Church goods For it is possible for them who have wives to live as if they had them not according to S. Paul No otherwise then it is possible for them who have the dispensing of Church goods to use them as if they used them not The reason of single life for the Clergy is firmly grounded by the Fathers and Canons of the Church upon the precept of S. Paul forbidding man and wife to part unless for a time to attend upon Prayer For Priests and Deacons being continually to attend upon occasions of celebrating the Eucharist which ought continually to be frequented if others bee to abstain from the use of Marriage for a time for that purpose then they always And this is the reason that prevailed so far even in the primitive times that the instances which are produced to the contrary during those times seem to argue no more then dispensation in a Rule which had the force of a Law when an exception took not place That is when those that were thought necessary for the service of the Church thought not fit to tye themselves to live single But this profession was evidently the ground for that discipline which was used all over the Church in breeding youth from tender years to such a strict course of life as only use and custom is able to render agreeable to mans nature And to this education and discipline all the authority and credit of the Clergy over the people is to bee imputed the dissolution whereof is the true occasion of the miseries which wee have seen For did the people think themselves tyed to depend upon the Clergy for their instructions to admit their admonitions and reproofs in mater of Religion that is did the discipline and education of the Clergy maintain them in that authority with the people it is not possible that the pride which hath been seen in setting up new Religions and giving new Laws to the Church should take place But this authority is not to bee preserved without retirement from the world that is from conversation with the People of what ranke or degree soever whether upon pretense of profit or pleasure And therefore being once lost by the debauches of the Clergy before the Reformation it is not to be restored without restoring the ground of it the said education and discipline nor by consequence the Reformation to bee counted compleat otherwise Supposing always the Reformation to bee the restoring of that Church which hath bee not the building of that which hath not been The same education and discipline is by the express Canons of the Church the ground of that title upon which promotion is due to the Clergy in their respective Churches For what is more against the Rules of the Church then to take such men for Priests and Bishops of such Churches as men know not how they behaved themselves in lower degrees Those that talk of the Interest of the People in Ecclesiastical promotions without supposing this ground do allege nothing but their own dreams to bring their own dreams to pass Having this premised I must needs say I see no manner of inconvenience in that which the Presbyterians pretend for the cheif cause of their distance that is the concurrence of Presbyters with their Bishops in Ordinations and the Jurisdiction of the Church provided it bee setled in that form which being grounded upon the Rule of the Catholick Church may tend to restore and advance the common Christianity Now I take the Rule of the Church to bee as evidently this as the common Christianity is evident that every City with the Territory thereof bee the feat and content of a Church For though it hath been used with so much difference in several parts and times of the Church that those Countries which some whiles and some where might have been cast into fourscore Churches have other whiles and elsewhere been cast into four yet these are but exceptions to a Rule which the Law saith do not destroy but confirm it For in maters concerning the Whole the Unity of the Whole may as well bee preserved by the concurrence of four as of fourscore The Churches that is according to this Rule the Dioceses of England have been constituted and distinguished upon occasion of the Sovereignties in which and by consent whereof the Christianity of the Nation was first planted Hee that considers with half an eye shall easily see how the conversion of Kent of the East and South and West Saxons of the East Angles and Mercians and lastly of Northumberland produced the foundation of English Churches For of the British foundations in the West parts of the Island from the two Forths to the Lands end the same account is to bee kept the Dominion of the Britains being for some time divided into several Sovereignties Hee that is convicted of this truth which no man can bee convicted of but hee that considereth the case But who so considereth the case must needs stand convict of it will easily grant me that when the Monarchy prevailed and England came to bee divided into Counties the General Rule of the Church would have required another course to have been observed For had the Head Town of every County been made the Seat of a Church containing that County no man that surveys the division of the Roman Empire into Churches made without the secular Power as before Constantine will deny That the division so made would have been more
correspondent to the primitive forme tending to the Unity of the Whole But let no man think that for the love of such a correspondence I have any itch to call in question the Unity of the Whole The alteration is great and must needs produce a great motion to ingraffe it into the Laws of the Kingdom And therefore I am not of opinion to change the Law for hope of amendment with so much appearance of danger to the being of the Whole But I am of opinion that it would bee easie to erect Presbyteries that is Colleges of Presbyters in all Shire Towns which have no Cathedral Churches for the Ecclesiastical Government of the respective Counties with and under the Bishops And that so the Rule of the Church would bee set on work to the best effect and purpose For those Towns have commonly Churches altogether unprovided of means through the horrible sacrileges that have passed and yet in common reason agreeing with the wisdom of Gods Spirit from whence the Rule of Episcopacy issued ought to bee Nurseries of Christianity to the respective Counties And that intent cannot so well bee brought to effect as by planting the wisest and those that have most of the Clergy in their lives in the most eminent places with authority next to the Chief over their respective bounds By the ministery of such persons the Offices of Gods service might so bee performed in the chief places as might be a patern for their Country Churches to follow These Presbyters might grow up by education in that discipline of the Clergy which I have recommended upon the experience of the whole Church They might live a Collegiate life in common exercising a care and inspection over Inferiours together with the charge of instructing or seeing them instructed in the Scriptures The Canon of the whole Church confining all degrees of the Clergy to their respective Churches might bee revived by their means The superseding whereof being certainly one of the irregularities of the Papacy hath conduced much to the dissolution of Discipline in the Church For in conscience how can hee that is obliged to any Church give account of himself to another to which the first is not subordinate And therefore though the Presbyteries which I propose bee not Churches yet may they take account of their respective Clergy and render it to their Bishops The promotion of inferiour Orders belonging unto their account may procced upon the account which they give The censures that are requisite to pass in foro exteriori may pass them in the first instance and from them being transmitted to the Bishop bee either inacted or voided Always with right of appeal to the Synod of the Province in cases of weight and in the intervals thereof to their Deputies To which purpose and in which nature the High Commission ought to bee revived For as it is by no means to bee allowed that the Bishops negative bee any way questioned So is it no way fit that the consent of Bishop and Presbyters both bee concluded in one and the same instance As for those Dioceses which are concluded within only one County there I suppose I need not say that the Chapter of the Cathedral are by inheritance this Presbytery Now these Colleges of Presbyters consisting of those only that shall have run the whole course of their lives in the education and discipline of the Clergy is there any possible pretense of burthen upon them if the condition of single life should bee required to qualifie them for their places For this were not to tye any man to single life seeing who will may go forth and bee provided of a Country Church But it were to maintain the discipline of the Clergy in the most eminent places wherein there is a course proposed to them who imbrace it of ending their days in it And the course of a Collegiate life which I propose seemeth a sufficient means and advantage to overcome those temptations which in these days may seem too difficult for all the Clergy to undergo As for the means of supporting these Presbyteries wherein the Gure of all Parishes within the Shire Towns is provided for and included It is no difficulty to him that considers with conscience that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to bee for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to bee for the good of tâ—e Diocese And this I am now bold to profess though Superiors do not go before in it because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in several instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a Divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of Superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to bee buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the Offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of Grace For I presume it is not nor can bee supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of Grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalms of David and other Hymns of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to bee celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalms of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed with regard to it Whereby they
overthrow the foundation of Christianity standing upon this supposition that the Old Testament is the figure and shadow of the New and that Christ hath the key of the writings as well as of the house of David For seeing Christ and his mysticall Body the Church are all one the meaning and intent of the Psalms cannot concern Christ but it must end in his Church But seeing the Church is but shadowed in the Psalms being part of the Old Testament I can expect no dispute of the necessity of other Hymns composed under Christianity in the solemnizing of Gods publick service And seeing the question on foot concerns the setling of the form of Gods service by a Law of the Kingdom there can remain no dispute concerning the necessity of a setled Order in reading the Scriptures and using the Psalms and Hymns of the Church Nor do I know any man sincerely professing the Reformation that could which not wish with all his heart that the whole order and form to bee setled with the circumstance of the same might bee according to the primitive simplicity and naked plainness of the antient Church supposing the difference between the state in which the Church lived under persecution and now that being protected by the secular Power it receiveth all the World to take part in the service of God For what difference this will infer in the Order and Rule of Gods service to bee inacted by a Law of this Kingdom common reason and the perpetual practise of Gods Church together with the precedents recorded in Scripture must bee admitted to Witness These things supposed no man doubts that the form of service now in force by the Law of this Land may bee acknowledged capable of amendment without disparagement either to the wisdom of the Church that prescribed or of the Nation that inacted it For what positive Law of man is there that is not Nay what arrogance can it bee in a particular person having bestowed more consideration upon it then it is possible that thoâ—e who had the framing of it should have leisure to do to think that hee knows some particulars in which it might bee mended For neither doth it follow that it is better to endanger the spoyling of it by calling it in question then to let it rest as it is And that particular person whosoever hee is that should think his own opinion necessary to bee followed without compromising it to the publick would justly incur the mark of arrogance Since therefore that this is the time for such a debate if any change bee pretended and that the reasons mentioned afore are of sufficient consideration to oblige all sides to prefer unity before prejudice what remains but that either it bee left intire in that State wherein it stands or that nothing bee changed without sufficient debate of reason upon the whole what is fit to bee changed what not But one thing I must here expresly stand upon because the form of Gods service which hath been usurped during the Schisme protesteth against the Law in force I acknowledge that the whole Reformation protesteth against the insufficience and defects of the Church of Rome in the course which it taketh for the instruction of Christian people in the duties of their Christianity against the abuses there practised in celebrating the Eucharist without any pretense of a Communion in private Masses and in serving God in a Language which the people understand not For these abuses are a principal part of the ground for that change which wee justly maintain to bee Reformation The boldness of those that opposed it being come to such a height as openly to maintain that it concerneth not Christian people to know or to mind what is done at the Mass being the ordinary service of God for which they come to Church or what is said But that the intention of the Priest is enough to apply the sacrifice of Christ to all that are present which they think it doth no less to them that are absent and therefore leave us unsatisfied why people should come to Church who need do nothing but say their Paters and their Aves These abuses I do acknowledge But bee the World my witness and all that know what hath passed for the mater of Religion in the World was it ever protested by those who demanded Reformation in the Church that the Eucharist ought to bee celebrated but four times or twelve times in the year That by Gods Law there ought to bee two Sermons every Sunday in every Church That other Festivals beside the Sunday and set times of Fasting ought not to bee solemnized with the service of God That the Church doors ought not to bee open but when there is preaching Take the primitive practice of the Church along with the Scripture and they shall tell you another tale that Prayer and the praises of God is the more principal end of Christian Assemblies then Preaching The reason is unanswerable For the one is the end the other the means That the celebration of the Eucharist is the most principal Office of Gods service under Christianity is no less evident For other Offices are common to Judaisme this consisting most in Prayers consists of those Prayers which are proper to Christianity that is to those causes wherein our Salvation consisteth And can there bee question how frequent it ought to bee Shall not the practice of the whole Church from the beginning decide the question if any remain The single life of the Clergy prevailed for this end that they might bee always ready to celebrate the Eucharist say the Fathers and the Canons which I alleged afore It is a question in Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis whether every man ought to communicate every day or not But therefore no question that it ought to bee celebrated every day that who so would might communicate In conscience would they bee bound to Preach every day that are so much for Preaching After the reading of the Scripture follows the Sermon and after that the Eucharist This is the primitive order of the whole Church at that solemn service when the Eucharist on Fasting-days in the Evening on other days before Noon was Celebrated After the Scriptures were read the people were taught their duty out of them A thing necessary and possible Not that every Curate should bee bound to declame by the Glass But that hee should bee bound to instruct his Parish out of the Scriptures which are read If hee bee tyed to Preach as often as the Church door opens the Church door must bee shut because no sides can hold out so oft as Christians ought to meet for Gods service I call the World to witness Is it not as much a work of lungs and sides as an Office of Gods service which takes up the time of their Church Assemblies Is not the way opened by this means to declame of publick Government in Church and State to intertain the Hearers For
alas should men confine themselves to that which the generality of their audience might edifie by in their Christianity the Trade would bee obstructed For let mee freely say the undoubted truth of the common Christianity which no Sermons ought to exceed because they pretend the edification of the generality of Christians is contained in so narrow a compass that no eloquence much less the eloquence of all that must come into the Pulpit can change the seasoning and serving of it so as to make it agreeable to mens palats without fetching in mater impertinent if not destructive to the common Christianity And the same is for more peremptory reason to bee said of arbitrary Prayers For the very posture of him that pretendeth to prefer the devotions of Gods people to the Altar which is above strongly impresseth upon the hearts of simple Christians an opinion that thereby they discharge to God the duty which hee requires at their hands Which if the mater of those Prayers be such as the common Christianity requires they may do indeed But if it be possible that Rebellion Slander Nonsense and Blasphemy may bee the mater of them as well as Christianity then is it not Religion but Superstition which such devotions exercise Nor can that Kingdom stand excused to God which shall gratifie that licentiousness whereof they see the effect before their eyes All reason of Christianity concurres with the practise of the whole Church to witness that the interest of Christianity requires the service of God to bee maintained and exercised daily yea hourly were it possible not only by particular Christians but by Assemblies of Christians so far as the business of the World will give leave and as there is means to maintain mens attendance upon it There may come abuse in the order the form the mater of that which is tendred to God for his Service But in stead of reforming those abuses to take away the means the Rule the obligation of such meetings is meer Sacrilege in destroying under pretense of Reforming Gods Church And though I charge no such design upon those who maintain the obligation of the Sabbath to consist in two Sermons yet I do maintain it is manifest to common reason that the form which that opinion introduceth necessarily tends to that effect Strange it is that a Nation capable of sense in an age improved by learning should bee intangled with the superstition of so vain an imagination that God by the same fourth Commandment should oblige both Jews to keep the Saturday and Christians the Sunday Especially no man daring to maintain that both were or are tyed to the same measure of resting And therefore though rather then cross the stream of such a superstition For let no man think that all superstition can bee shut out of Gods Church there may bee reason to live conformable to the Rules which such superstition produceth Yet provided that the Ecclesiastical Laws of England agreeing with the Laws of the Whole Church bee not abated so as to stick an evident mark of Schisme upon the Church of England For the Law that is recommending the celebration of the Eucharist upon all Sundays and Festivals but commanding the Service to bee used as well on Festivals and Fasting days as upon Sundays besides the week days at the publick Assemblies of respective Congregations To change this Order for two Sermons on the Sunday alone what is it but to renounce the whole Church for the love of those that have divided from the Church of England upon causes common to it with the whole Church They that would have the Reformation of the Church to bee indeed that which the Law of the Land calleth it should first provide a course to bee established for Law by which all Christian souls who have equal interest in the commonsalvation might serve God in publick all Sundays and Festivals For seeing there was a course in Law before the Reformation for all servants as well as others to bee at Mass all Sundays and Festivals And the Church was inabled to require account of it at their hands It will not bee Reformation to abrogate the abuses of the Mass till a course bee taken that all Christians may frequent that which shall appear to bee indeed the service of God instead of the Mass Let no Preachers flatter themselves with an opinion that they shall ever make Christians so perfectly Jews as to perswade them to dress no meat on the Sundays If Servants must stay at home to dress meat on Sundays and for other occasions they must stay at home besides that will not the way to repair that breach bee to injoyn several Assemblies in all Parish Churches upon all Sunday mornings that several Persons of several Estates and qualities may have opportunity to attend the publick service of God at several hours of the same Sundays and Holy-days For though I understand very well that this would impose upon the Church that is upon my brethren of the Clergy a greater burthen than an afternoons meal of a Sermon which all men know is furnished of the cold meat of the forenoon yet it is necessary that the World should bee cleared of this imposture that reigneth that two Sermons every Sunday is the due way of keeping the Sabbath among Christians or of advancing Gods publick service I will not here dispute that the Lent-Fast was instituted by the Apostles But this I maintain to bee evident that the Fast afore the Resurrection of Christ is and was as antient as the Feast of his Resurrection and that more antient then the keeping of all Lords days in the year being meerly the reflection of that one all the weeks of the year Nor will any man that knows what hee says ever question that the inlarging of it to forty days is a just Law voluntarily undertaken by the Whole Church not to bee condemned without the like mark of Schisme For since the World is come into the Church is there not manifest reason that more time should bee taken for the expiating of more sins which are the sins of more people to prepare as well the Elder to renew their Christianity by communicating at Easter as the younger to bee confirmed and come first to the Communion at Easter now they are baptized Infants Which in former ages was the time of their first coming to Baptism As for the Wednesdays and Fridays if wee shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees And if it bee evident as evident it is that the Scribes and Pharisees prescribed Mundays and Thursdays for days of less solemn Assemblies then the Sabbath How shall wee enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if in despite of the whole Church which hath hitherto used Wednesdays and Fridays in lieu of Mundays and Thursdays used by the Synagogues wee void the Law of England by which they are in force Of the Ceremonies the same