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
that the Church of Rome is Gods Church which as I said in the beginning hath always been granted how easie is it to infer That there is no salvation but in Communion with the Church of Rome For how many of them whom they deal with can distinguish a Church from the Church or give a Reason how God having founded one Church it may nevertheless stand so divided that salvation may be had on both sides Which Reason being once overseen the Infallibility of the present Church is swallowed ipso facto and all the Decrees of the Council of Trent must down with the same assurance as the H. Trinity Nor need you distinguish between Haeresie and Schisme when once the Church shall have pronounced Thus save they the labour of proving Transubstantiation Purgatory Prayers to Saints Latine Service the half Communion and other points of difference all of them too tough to bee overcome All of them are clearly gained by the prejudice which men have imposed upon themselves that the Church which enjoyns them cannot erre Whereas nothing can bee more evident then that which I proposed at the beginning That it cannot be tryed which side is the true Church but by going to tryal upon the particulars in difference But they who charge the Pope to be Antichrist and the Papists What wee get by the charge of Idolatry and Antichrist Idolaters the higher their charge the more to do must they have to perswade common reason that so great a part of mankind should expect to besaved by professing to contradict that which themselves profess And suppose that a prejudicate zeal can transport a man to think the wisest people upon earth those that Govern the See of Rome and all those whom their wisdom carries along so far out of their wits as to contradict by their profession that which themselves profess When all this is done every Text of the Scripture that cannot bee expounded to this supposition will bee a peremptory bar to their pretense And how much is there of the Apocalypse it self that is acknowledged not to bee fulfilled as yet in that sense how much of the rest of the Scripture that cannot without violence be reconciled to it And when a Novice grounded upon this supposition is forced from his ground upon Remonstrance of such Reasons How ready is he to fall into the snare of the Missionaries Whether or not this be the reason of that which wise men have observed that the passage from the one extream to the other is more easie and frequent amongst us then from the mean to the extream let men of discretion judge Let not them lead the people by the Nose to believe that they can prove their supposition when they cannot and then expect that it be maintained by them that own the Church of Rome for a true Church And therefore must contradict themselves if they maintain it It is then Achitophels Counsail that hath prevailed on both Immoderate charges vaine on both sides sides For make the quarrel irreconcileable and nothing but Conquest must end it But what joy have they of their expectation on either side In all troubles of Christendom since Luthers time what gaping hath there been for the sack of Rome and the downfall of the Pope upon a Prophesie ten for one more probably fullfilled in the sack of Rome by the Gothes and Vandals many hundred years ago And all the Civil blood all that abominable desolation in Religion which wee have seen our late Usurper seemeth to have accompted meer godliness in order to that work which God had designed him for as he thought himself inspired to believe Nay did not some of the Reformation prick up their ears and begin to think well of his Christianity for that works sake And yet this expectation hath not been more vain then the deep designes of the See of Rome to reduce the Reformation to the obedience thereof by conquest do now after a long tryal appear desperate for the future Now if the parties be willing to abate of their charges as they have reason to do there is a way for both to come off with credit For the charge of Haeresie naturally shrinks into the Measure of Schisme whensoever they shall be pleased to explain themselves And they seem to do it at least as many of them as now insist upon the charge of Schisme Let our people follow their example and extend the Idolatry they charge them with to all Superstition And I will undertake to find them Idolaters in all professions Namely all those that commit Idolatry to their own imaginations As for the mutual imputation of Schisme it is a civil and a The charge of Schisme on both sides moderate as to the Church moderate challenge in comparison of those For Schisme is nothing but civil War in the Church And in civil Wars as in all Wars though it be rather impossible then difficult to name a War that shall be just on both sides yet it is easie to find a War that is unjust on both sides St. Augustine commends the saying of one in his time that declaimed upon the Rape of Lucrece Mira res said he duo fuerunt Adulterium â—â—us commisit A strange thing that a man lying with a woman only the one should commit Adultery I will not compare War with Adultery which carries sin in the name of it For I will not say that all War is sin But he that can look upon the mischiefes either of civil War in the World or of Schisme in the Church with the heart of a Christian will not think strange that both sides should bee Schismaticks to God though only one part can bee Schismaticks to the Church For when the cause may bee visibly decided as in the Schisme of the Donatists then the one side are Schismaticks the other is the Church But when it cannot as perhaps it will prove between the Reformation and the Church of Rome then if the blame of the Schisme fall on both sides both sides shall bee Schismaticks to God neither to the Church But though I make it a moderate charge as to the Church The sinne of Schisme as to God horrible when one side challenges the other to bee Schismaticks Yet as to God the sin of Schisme is of an horrible tincture For an Haeretick or an Apostate in the sight of God destroys only his own soul But he that causeth division in the Church either peremptorily destroys or probably hinders the salvation of all that are parties to it So the Authors of Schisme must answer for all the souls that perish by it How the means of salvation depend upon the Unity of the Church is a thing that must appear by proving that God hath ordained it for that purpose But if so it prove then may every man see how heavy a charge the crime of Schisme will prove in Gods sight The mischief of Haeresie will lye in the Schisme which it
they who believe no salvation out of Gods Church are to change nothing for other reasons then such as the Visible Unity of it may justifie in case it appear to bee founded by God For that Principle as it is evidence in maters of Faith questionable Wee cannot bee the same Church with that which was otherwise amongst us so it is the Standard in mater of Church Law to measure the distance between the true point of Reformation and the present Church of Rome by that which is visible in the Catholique Church allowing for that difference which the change of time may have brought forth They that find themselves bound by this principle to bee visibly one and the same Church with the Catholick will find it easie to impe and to ingraffe the Faith and Lawes of this Church into the Original and Catholick Faith and Lawes of Gods whole Church by this Rule But impossible to make us visibly the same Church with it upon other Terms I do no ways doubt that though a change should bee made Though that which shall bee sâ—tled will find advocates for the worse which God forbid there would bee found men to maintain it For the Lawes of Kingdoms and Common-wealths are of great force to frame the opinions and manners of particular persons And that in mater of Religion in this Estate where Christianity is setled by the Lawes of Sovereignties And the Church goods which are now recovered out of the hands of Usurpers must then bee the reward of those that shall have most to say for the Lawes that shall bee made And therefore while wee are upon this plea for our selves against the Church of Rome I find it no unreasonable freedome that I take to set forth the consequence of it in the change that is or may bee pretended I know it is a Maxime necessary to the quiet of all States Civil Lawes of Religion to bee changed till this Rule bee attained that Lawes are not to bee changed for hope of amendment But it is no less necessary to enter an Exception to it for those Lawes by which the Reformation is to bee setled in several Sovereignties of Christendom For if the Visible Unity of the Church bee Gods Ordinance then they ought all to have been made of necessity ambulatory as provisions only for the time and not to bee taken for setled till all had been agreed upon a Rule whereby Communion might bee maintained amongst them all whatsoever differences might fall out any where And I am well assured that they could never have attained any such Provision without supposing the Visible Unity of the whole Church the grounds and consequences of which Supposition being taken for Gods Ordinance first brought it to pass And having attained it I am well perswaded that the breach between the Reformation and the Church of Rome could not have subsisted Now that several Sovereignties have made their several changes without communicating with one another that is as not tyed to the Visible Unity of the Whole it is become infinitely more difficult to unite them without expressely agreeing in this principle then it would bee to unite all agreeing in it For the grounds and consequences of it would bee necessarily the Scale to balance and the Standard to measure all differences They who for the present are not divided about Religion The beginning and rise of our differences as wee are may perhaps think these considerations too far fetched to trouble themselves with Wee that cannot make up the present breaches without new provisions are onely to advise whether wee will trust God and our Lord Christ with the success weighing by our own Weights and meting by our own Measures For our case is evidently this The Reformation under Edward VI. raised a party against it not as preferring Luther before Calvin but as preferring Unity with the Catholick Church before difference from the present Church of Rome The Relation of the troubles at Francford published by the Puritans shews that they were as much divided about obedience to their Sovereign persecuting the Reformation which they professed as about obedience to their Bishops and the power of erecting Churches of themselves When the Bull of Pius V. against Queen Elizabeth came forth the Papists who from the beginning of her Reign had outwardly conformed to the exercise of Religion established by her Lawes withdrawing themselves in obedience to the Bull got thereby the name of Recusants About the same time they that rested not content with the Reformation established appearing in a party got themselves the name of Puritans Whereby it appeareth that the Jealousie of the State upon the other party together with the hatred of the people against it for the persecutions under Queen Mary gave them boldness and opportunity to shew themselves and success to make them considerable That abatement of the Forme setled under Edward VI. which to content them had been made under Queen Elizabeth gave them appetite to demand more The Recusants in the mean time as consenting to the attempts that were made against the person of the Sovereign and the State by virtue of that Bull because in mater of Religion they all gave obedience to it were involved in such penalties as the severity of the Lawes occasioned by the hainousness of those attempts provided Thus passed the time on till the same appetite animated The present state of them by the Credit of the late Parliament helped the pretenses thereof for reforming the Government to set three Kingdomes upon pretense of Religion also on the Fire of one Civil Warre For the Irish Rebellion which the example of the Scottish Commotion had brought forth falling in with the one party though not so heartily as the new Insurrection of Scotland with the other made the breach wider by uniting all into two parties The quarrel being decided they who pretended no more for the Warre but Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies brought in a new Confession of Faith and new Catechismes as well as a Directory and an Ordinance for Church-Government The sword that had decided the quarrel it seems was to make good the difference without pleading the Word for the trial of it In the mean time I will not say that those damnable Doctrines preached by the Sects which the Warre had brought forth are the necessary consequences of the Doctrine brought in of new And of the difference between it and that which was before But this I will say that there is no Visible difference between the Presbyterians and the Phanatickes These sheltring themselves under the quality of those whensoever the Law forbids their peculiar Assemblies And I say farther that if there bee such a thing as a Catholick Church all the Phrensies of the Phanaticks are justly imputable to those that distinguish not themselves from Phanaticks But admit them to their Communion as Phanaticks Upon this account I use the name of Puritans though seeming a term of
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Psalms Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocrypha What Preaching it is that the Scripture commendeth There may bee Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching The difference between the second Service in the Antient Church and our Communion Service The general Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist The Prayer of Oblation instituted by St. Paul and the matter of it The Lords Prayer at the Eucharist The place for the Common Prayers 97 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 Litanies 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 105 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 peâ—sons and things consâ—crated to Gods Service under the Gospel Câ—reâ—oâ—ieâ— signifying by institution nâ—â—â—ssary in Gods Service What kind of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Cerâ—monies 112 CHAP. XVIII Offices which the Fathers call Sacraments for their Ceremonies Why the Bishop only Confirmeth The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giâ—ing it Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void The necessity of Penancâ— 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 St. James Mariage of Christians not to â—ee Ruled by Moses Law Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie Instituted Ceremonies 118 CHAP. XIX The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Eucharist though it were What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches Mutual forbearance which St. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere Tender consciences arâ— to submit to Superiors 125 CHAP. XX. The Declaration of V. Eliz. enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy What further ambiguity that Oath involveth What scandal the taking of it in the true sense ministreth That this Oath ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religion that abridge Allegiance The extent of secular Power in Reforming the Church 131 CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makâ—s the breacâ— unrâ—concileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanaticks further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How sâ—lvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Pâ—ritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome 136 CHAP. XXII The present State of the Question concerning our Service The Reformation pretended abominable Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it What Order of Service the continual Communion will require What form of Instruction this Order will require Of that which goes before the Preface in our Communion Service of the Prefaces and the Prayer of Consecration Of the Prayer of Oblalation and the place of it Of the Commâ—â—â—oration of the dead in particular Why the Communion Service at the Communion-Table when no Eucharist A secondary Proposition according to present Law 150 CHAP. XXIII How the Law distinguishes Moral Precepts from Positive How the spiritual sense of the Decalogue concerns Christians The meaning of the First Commandment in this sense The extent of the Second Commandment Of the Third Commandment What the sanctifying of the Sabbath signifieth The meaning of the Fifth as to Christians The meaning of the five last according to Christianity 164 CHAP. XXIV That no Clergy man ought to bee of more Dioceses then one Of inferior Orders in the Clergy and their Offices The conversation of the Clergy and the use of Church goods The ground for promotions to higher degrees The Vniversities may bee serviceable to some part of this Discipline Reasons for it Publick fame of sin to bâ—e purged by Ecclesiastical process Sinners convict by Law not to communicate before Penance The Cure of notorious sin the Bishops Office The Church not Reformed without restoring Penance Publick or Private What means there is left for the restoring of it 172 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 184 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 207 The due Way of composing the differences on Foot preserving the Church According to the Opinion of Herbert Thornedike 223 JUST Weights Measures CHAP. I. If the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been If the Pope be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church If no Visible Church then no sinne of Schisme Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot be the Head of a Church Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to
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
buried in silence do not weigh by their own Weights nor mete by their own Measures The pretense of Reformation under Edward VI. excuses much defect in the forme of proceeding by the mater which it introduced They might make use of that which had been done to another intent Wee are not to measure their Actions by the Actions of them which were guided by other reasons In fine to maintain other mens Actions is to make our selves Imperfection of Lawes in Religion no imputation to our Forefathers accessory to their sins in doing them The Church of Rome standing to that which they received from their Forefathers stand but to that corruption to which that State of Religion which the Apostles brought in hath degenerated by tract of time That our Forefathers should not at once see or seeing should not at once be able to restore all that was decayed is no Imputation to men not pretending infallibility Why they have not since proceeded to restore the rest I have shewed evident reason in the contrary Factions of Papists and Puritans and the effects of them which our times have seen They themselves profess an imperfection in not restoring of Penance a mater of such consequence that all the judgements of God which wee have suffered may justly bee imputed to it And therefore the necessity of this time requiring a change the introducing of that which never was for the contenting of men instead of restoring that which was and therefore ought to bee will bee the sin of the Nation the declaring of this will bee the discharge of him that is so perswaded As for the Plea of tender Consciences to him that considers The pretense of tender Consciences is no Rule our Case in which it is made it will easily appear to bee a Saddle for all horses A pair of Stirrups to bee lengthned or shortned to all statures For wee are tyed to this supposition The Law is to bee re-established according to which God must bee served by the Church of England for the future And to pretend tenderness of Conscience against the Law of the Church and Kingdom is to proclaim disobedience to all Lawes that are not made by them who allege it For why may not any Law meet with tender consciences if some do And tenderness of conscience is a thing invisible which no Law can take for granted on any side But supposing the Unity of the Church ordained by God to forbear those Lawes which it requireth because tenderness of conscience may bee alleged against them is to offend the whole rather then a part For the same might have been alleged against any Law of Gods Church So there could have been no such thing as a Visible Church if that plea could have served mens turns And why should not a Papist have a tender conscience as well It serves Papists as well as Puritans as a Puritan Why should not the one expect to bee free from the penalties which the Lawes assign to those that refuse them as well as the other to have right to the rewards which they assign to those that imbrace them both professing the same reason though the one only makes a noise with pleading it If it bee said that English Papists are not considerable in comparison with English Puritans It is to bee considered how great a part of Christendom is engaged in the cause of English Papists How small a part of the Reformation is engaged in the cause of English Puritans In the mean time it is the Papists that are under the penalties of the Lawes Which Puritans are scandalized that they may not make And certainly no man can truely have a tender conscience in this case but he who for his part labours that neither Papists may have cause to continue Papists nor Puritans to continue Puritans But the conscience of the Kingdom that is our hope of Gods blessing or our fear of his vengeance will bee concerned to the life in it CHAP. IV. Erastians can acknowledg 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 THat which hath been said of Henry the VIII and his Acts Erastians can acknowledg no Visible Church founded by God sheweth That Acts of Parliament cannot bee the Measure of Religion though they should bee the Fense and the Bulwark of it Let me now upon this occasion conjure our Brethren the Presbyterians to lay to heart the unknown danger which this time threatneth the evident mischiefe which it produceth It was a complaint visibly just in the late Usurpers time that while one side was for this Religion another for that they that were for no Religion would prove the strongest side Presbyterians contest with their Prelates who shall give Law to the Church that is who shall bee the Church They are desirous to have authority in point of Fact without and against their Prelates which they will never make out any title to in point of right but from their Prelates They beleeve all the while that the Church is founded by God and all the rights upon which it is founded of Right And yet can find in their hearts to stand wrangling out the time while they grow the greatest party that would have no Church at all and by consequence no Christianity Wee call them Erastians because the disputes of our times have made it evident that if no Excommunication as he pretended then no Church Yet it is not to bee granted that he ever saw through the consequences of his own Position or would have held no Excommunication had he thought it would infer no Church I will not say the learned Selden saw not the consequence For why should I speak of the opinion of a man that was too wise to declare it I am sure he mistook the state of the Question when beginning to declare his opinion in the point of Excommunication for hee never argued for any part of his opinion till hee published his Books de Synedriis hee defined Excommunication to bee a censure inferring a civil penalty For it was evident that all his Adversaries deriving the power of Excommunication from the Apostles must deny any civil effect of Excommunication which they knew it could not have before Constantine This opinion is liable to an objection visible enough For if Their opinion inableth Sovereigns to persecute Gods truth by Gods Law it were true then all Subjects all private Christians would stand bound in conscience to profess that Religion which the Sovereign power enacteth by the Lawes which it giveth Which if it were so in
vain do wee Dispute whether the Papists the Prelatick or the Puritans bee in the right Whatsoever Religion the Law of the Land shall establish shall bee that which God enjoyneth And the Sovereign shall bee able in point of conscience to punish those that refuse it whether right or wrong though it cannot be denyed that as Christendom is at present divided some Subjects must needs bee punished for the right I know but one that hath looked this objection in the face His first Answer was that they that are punished for the right Religion shall bee gainers by their sufferings they shall have their share in the reward of Martyrs This is the Answer that Julian the Apostate made the Christians complaining of their sufferings under him Therefore it is evident that a Christian must not allege it For if he that suffers shall have a Martyrs reward what reward shall he that punisheth have but a Persecutors So a Christian Sovereign for using the power that God gives him shall have a Persecutors reward If it bee said No marvel Because he uses it amiss not because Persecuting the truth is the use of a Power which no Sovereign can have he goes beyond the bounds of it Either God hath enacted the contrary of that which the Sovereign enjoyneth or not If not then is that which the Sovereign enjoyneth contrary to no Law of God And therefore it obligeth the Subject If so then cannot the Sovereign Power enjoyn it And therefore it is extended beyond the bounds of it in that case Again either abusing his power by enacting that Religion which he ought not he obligeth his Subject in conscience to God to profess and to exercise the Religion which he enacteth or not If not then must the Subject for the security of his conscience bee Judge whether the Sovereign abuse his power or not If so then as before wee Dispute about Religion to no purpose For every man is bound to that which the Law of his Country enacteth Nay there will be no reason why Christians under the Turk shall not live as Mahumetans For the quality of a Christian is one and the same in the Subject as in the Sovereign And therefore there can appear no reason why it should give the one the right by the Act of his Will to oblige the will of the other which an undoubted Sovereign a Pagan or a Mahumetan hath not And indeed he hath answered otherwise since Namely That a man is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth if the Sovereign command it For hee shall bee saved by beleeving in him with the heart the same time which is all that his Christianity requireth This Answer is plain English But it comes to this point That a Christian is saved by the inward act of Faith If any Sovereign may punish for the Religion which hee professeth then are Subjects bound to renounce Christ if the Sovereign command it without the outward By beleeving without professing There is another that intended it seems to shew the late Usurper by what right hee might protect both Presbyteries and Congregations dealing with others according to his Interest He supposeth that a Christian being justified by his Faith is at his choise to make himself the member either of an Independent Congregation or of one that shall associate it self into a Presbytery with others Whereupon the Sovereign supposing both of them to bee the Godly party must needs finde himself bound to protect them both He saith not by what right he could punish those for their Religion whom hee took not for the Godly party By what right hee could hinder them in the free profession and exercise of their Religion which indeed is a greater punishment then a Christian neither Haeretick nor Schismatick can bee bound to endure But hee need not tell him by what right hee could exclude them from belonging to the Godly party Those whose Religion cannot stand with Usurpation cannot seem Godly to Usurpers In the mean time as you see this Author stands upon the same ground with his fellow that a Christian is justified by the inward act of Faith without the outward by beleeving without professing Only hee saith by beleeving before hee profess the other though hee profess the contrary of that which he beleeveth But neither of both hath offered to say either that the Will of the Sovereign is by Gods Law the Rule of Religion to the will of the Subject which hee is to answer God by at the day of Judgement Or that Gods Law can allow the Sovereign to punish the Subject for that Religion which it enableth not the Sovereign to oblige his Subject to profess All must come to this point that a Christian is bound to renounce Christ if his Sovereign command it For if a Christian bee bound in conscience to obey whatsoever his Sovereign commandeth in point of Religion then if the Great Turke command his Subjects to renounce Christ they are bound to obey it Which whether it bee not a position for Macchiavellian Atheists that make no more of Christianity then of an expedient to Govern people in peace I leave to all that are capable to judge Thus much for certain he that thinks himself tyed to renounce his Christianity if his Sovereign command him is no longer a Christian As having recalled the Vow of his Baptisme to profess Christ until death And this is that which I conjure our Brethren the Presbyterians to lay to heart That the visible growth of this opinion by their continuing this distance upon trifles threatens to render them that would have no Religion at No offense but charity in declaring the true ground of reconcilement or punishment all the strongest side In this open and stiff opposition of four Religions though not distinguished into four Communions Recusants Prelatickes Puritans and Erastians For I oversee the Fanatiques as swallowed back into the belly of the Presbyterians shall it bee a crime shall it bee an offense for me to say what point of Christianity in my poor opinion reconciles all to unity that admit Gods truth That beleeving two Articles of our Creed One Catholick and Apostolick Church and one Baptism for remission of sins if wee beleeve that they signifie any thing wee are all bound to submit all partialities to that which they signifie Not as if Recusants depending upon a Forain communion and the head of it that shows no inclination to Unity upon terms of Gods truth were likely to take notice of one mans poor opinion concerning the consequences of common principles But because wee are our selves so far chargeable to God for our Schisme with the Church of Rome and the mischiefes of it as wee neglect those consequences And because the Justice of the Kingdom in the penalties of all Recusancy may easily bee rendred visible if wee keep close to them but not possibly otherwise As for those that make the Pope Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters can they
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
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
though that which the Clergy subscribeth bee as it ought to bee a wholsome Doctrine to wit if soundly understood yet that by which Christian people are saved ought to bee that which the Offices of the Church and the instruction which it proposeth contain 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 Hieresie consisteth How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Vpon what grounds hee is to bee refuted The helps of Grace granted in consideration of Christs obedience 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 NOw I confess there is another opinion of justifying Faith Why justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ in which I find nothing of any consequence that is destructive of Christianity Namely that which placeth justifying faith in trust and confidence of Gods mercy through Christ For this opinion necessarily supposeth Repentance to go before justifying Faith And Repentance understanding it to bee the Repentance of one that turns from all sin to all Righteousness such as is the Repentance of him that first turneth Christian signifies as much as the undertaking of Christianity Only it signifies this resolution in the way not in the end not made but in making in fieri not in facto esse But understanding the Repentence of a Christian turning from some particular sin to God according to the obligation of his Christianity his being justified of that sin or from that sin will of necessity require and presuppose his Repentance of that sin Notwithstanding because this opinion expresseth onely the inward act of Faith to bee the condition that qualifieth a Christian for the promises of the Gospel though it doth not exclude the profession of the outward man I have laid it aside not only as not true for the reasons that I have gsven already but as not sufficiently expressing the condition of the Covenant of Grace For it is therefore the means to continue those everlasting Disputes about Justification by Faith alone which the very mention of the outward act of profession limited for the manner of it to the Sacrament of Baptisme utterly extinguisheth As for the Decree of the Council of Trent seeming to confine Of Justification according to the Council of Trent the justification of a Christian to the infusion of habitual righteousness into that soul which being truly contrite for the sense of sin and the offense of God by it resolves for the love of God above all to live as a Christian for the future professing so much by being baptized It is liable to a two-fold challenge First for excluding the positive act of Gods Law which the Gospel enacteth by accepting the righteousness of a Christian as a condition sufficiently qualifying for the Promises of the Gospel by Gods original justice Secondly for excluding the imputation of Christs obedience from the consideration in which a Christian is justified and saved and in a word intitled to the Promises of the Gospel A thing which that Council need not have done For it is manifest that Pighius Gropper Cardinal Contarine Cassander and many others the best studied in Luthers controversies of all that communion had owned and embraced it for the Doctrine of St. Bernard and divers other highly approved Authors Besides that including the Sacrament of Baptisme that is the outward act of professing Christianity in the condition upon which a Christian is justified it is not possible to exclude either the act of Gods positive will to which the Gospel engageth him or the consideration of Christs obedience from the same And including the consideration of them the justification of a Christian will of necessity consist in the gracious account of God accepting of him that is chargeable with sin for righteous though it presupposes in him that habituall righteousness whereby he resolves to live and dye a good Christian And therefore they also not excluding expresly that which they do not expresly include the worse Divines they would bee as to this opinion the better Christians they are that is the less they depart from the right Rule of Faith And indeed the Haeresie of Socinus which hath appeared Of justification according to Socinus since that Council gives cause to believe that the imputation of Christs righteousness to the justifying of a Christian which the Reformation for good reasons insisted upon was not distinctly understood between the parties as it ought to have been Hee maketh the belief of Christianity to bee that Faith which alone justifieth in this regard because hee that beleeves it to bee true must needs find himself obliged for his salvation to live and dye a good Christian Which had been a very good reason why justification should not be ascribed to Faith alone For if a man bee saved by living and dying a good Christian indeed not by finding himself obliged so to do then is hee justified by undertaking to profess Christsanity and not by beleeving it though by beleeving it hee is obliged so to do But as for the profession of Christianity I do not marvel that hee who intended to bring in a new Christianity should make no reckoning of it in the condition upon which a Christian is saved For it is the Christianity of the Catholick Church which he that will be saved must profess if hee mean to bee saved by professing true Christianity And therefore the profession of one Catholick Church is a part of it And therefore hee hath found the true consequence of his own position when hee makes no more of Baptisme then of an indifferent ceremony which the Church may use or not at pleasure For how should any man make any more of Baptisme that allows salvation before it and therefore without it Otherwise Socinus is free enough in ascribing the effect of justifying not to the worth of that Faith which beleeveth or of that Christianity to which it resolveth But to the meer grace of God of his own free goodness sending by Christ salvation to mankind overtaken in sin upon the condition of their Christianity for the future The venim of his Haeresie lies in excluding the consideration Wherein his Haeresic consisteth of the obedience and sufferings of Christ either from the reason for which God Grants the grace that makes men good Christians or for which hee rewards their Christianity with the life of the world to come The Decree of the Council of Trent fully acknowledgeth the consideration of Christs merits in the helps of grace without which wee are not good Christians But in as much as it maketh Christians righteous before God by their habitual righteousness insomuch and so far must it needs exclude the consideration thereof from the condition
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
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
comes without peradventure from the Apostleâ— As for Mariage the solemnity of the blessing the Ring the Sacrament of the Eucharist which according to the custom of the whole Church it ought to bee ministred with will easily make it a Sacrament though Imposition of hands which is said still to bee used in some Eastern Churches bee not used at all in the West So the effect and consequence of these Offices will oblige the Church always to keep them in use though the Church of Rome makes them Sacraments But that sense in which the antient Church makes them Sacraments serves only to justifie the power of instituting Ceremonies in the Church CHAP. XIX The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Eucharist though it were What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches Mutual forbearance which St. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere Tender Consciences are to submit to Superiors THey who give the honour proper to God to his creature are The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Idolaters They that worship the Host give the honour due to God to his creature This is taken for a Demonstration that the worship of the Host is Idolatry But will any Papist acknowledg that hee honours the Elements of the Eucharist or as hee thinks the Accidents of them for God Will common reason charge him to honour that which hee believeth not to bee there A Pagan that honours the Sun for God believes him to bee God And therefore another Pagan may as well believe another creature to bee God Both Idolaters for thinking the Godhead to bee in one or more creatures But those greater Idolaters who thought that the Godhead to which they took men whether living or dead or other creatures to bee advanced was inclosed in their Images consecrated to the worship of them Hee that worships the Host believes our Lord Christ to bee the only true God hypostatically united to our flesh and blood Which being present in the Eucharist in such a manner as it is not present every where there is due occasion to give it that Worship in the Eucharist which the Godhead in our manhood is to bee worshipped with upon all due occasions Thus wee say hee was worshipped in the Antient Church that believed the Elements to bee present And they were no Idolaters They that worship the Host do not believe that they remain Nay they say they must bee flat Idolaters if they bee there Zeal to their opinion makes them say more then they should say But if they were there they would not take them for God and therefore they would not honour them for God And that is it not saying that they should bee Idolaters if the Elements did remain that must make them Idolaters They that believe not Transubstantiation have cause to forbear Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Euchâ—rist though it were the Ceremony But forbear kneeling at receiving the Eucharist in an Age that is taught already to sit at their prayers and who wâ—ll warrant that all the prayers of the Church shall not come in a short time to hearing the Minister exercise his Gift and censuring him for it Were worshipping the Host Idolatry Christianity using the gesture of kneeling to signifie the worship of Christ were enough to sanctifie it to Gods service And this they must grant who serve God in Churches which the Mass hath been used in taking the Mass for Idolatry as they do In fine Jews and Mahumetans are bound to take the Worship oâ— the Host for Idolatry For they will needs take the worship of the Holy Trinity for no less But they who know that the Godhead of Christ is the reason for which his flesh and blood is worshipped in the Eucharist cannot take that Worship for Idolatry because his flesh and blood is not present in the Eucharist as they who worship it there think it is For they know that the flesh and blood of Christ is no Idol to Christians wheresoever it is worshipped Whether or no having Images in Churches bee a breach of What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth the second Commandment can bee no more question then whether or no to have any Images bee a breach of it For it must forbid Images in Churches because it forbids all Images If it bee interpreted to forbid onely Idols that is Images of false Gods it must bee proved that all Images in Churches are Idols before it bee proved that they are forbidden by it It is far more reasonable to say that the Cherubims the Brazen Serpent the Bulls and other Images in Solomons Temple were no breaches of it Then to say that God did dispense with his own Precept in those cases having no appearance of any Dispensation in the Scripture in which the Precept and the seeming breach are both recorded But it is manifest that the Jews allow some kind of Imagery and I doubt not but the Mahumetans do the like And it is manifest that the publique authority of that Nation or Religion could never dispense in that which Gods Law had prohibited But it is manifest on the contrary that it did and might restrain that which Gods Law had licensed to set an hedge about the Law and keep the people further from breaking it Now their restraints tye not Christians but Jews And therefore it is manifest that the Church is tyed no further then there can appear danger of Idolatry Which if it bee so heightned beyond appearance as to involve the Church in the crime of it chargeth the Schisme that may come by that means upon those that so inhanse it Now granting that Epiphanius and the Council of Elvira did hold all Images in Churches dangerous for Idolatry of Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry which there is appearance it is manifest that they were afterwards admitted all over And there might bee jealousie of offense in having Images in Churches before Idolatry was quite rooted out of which afterwards there might bee no appearance But no manner of appearance that Images in History should occasion Idolatry to those Images in them that hold them the Images of Gods creatures such as are those Images which represent Histories of the Saints out of the Scriptures or other relations of unquestionable credit The second Council of Nicaea seems to have brought in or authorized addresses to solitary Images of Saints placed upon Pillars to that purpose whereof there is much mention in the Records of it But to the Images of Saints there can bee no Idolatry so long as men take them for Saints that is Gods creatures Much less to the Images of our Lord. For it is the honour of our Lord and not of his Image Whereas they who thought their false Gods to dwell in their Images which thought made them Idols
must needs honour them with the honour proper to God though in so doing they honoured indeed the Devil that brought in Idols Nay the Council it self though it acknowledg that the Image it self is honoured by the honour given to that which it signifieth before the Image yet it distinguisheth this honour from the honour of our Lord. And therefore teacheth not Idolatry by teaching to honour Images though it acknowledg that the Image it self is honoured when it need not For indeed and in truth it is not the Image but the Principal Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches that is honoured by the honour that is said to be done to the Image because it is done before the Image The Furniture and Utensils of the Church were honoured in the Spotless times of the Church as consecrated to Gods service though the honour of them being uncapable of honour for themselves was manifestly and without any scruple the honour of God But Images so long as they were used to no further intent then the Ornament of Churches the remembrance of holy Histories and the raising of devotion thereby as at the first they were used by the Church came in the number of things consecrated to Gods service And that Council was never of force in the West till the usurped power of the Pope brought it in by force Nor did the Western Church when it refused the Council discharge the having of Images in Churches upon those reasons and to those purposes which I have declared So far they remain still justifiable For hee that sees the Whole Church on the one side and only Calvin on the other side hath hee not cause to fear that they who make them Idolaters without cause will themselves appear Schismaticks in the sight of God for it For what are they else who please themselves in a strange kind of negative superstition that they cannot serve God if they serve him with visible signes of reverence who hate the Images because they hate the Saints themselves and their Christianity And therefore that it bee not thought that we are tyed to those terms of distance which ignorant Preachers drive their Factions with It is necessary to declare the grounds of truth though it displease St. Paul writing to the Romans that were partly Jews Mutual forbearance which S. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere partly Gentiles converted to Christianity as appears by the whole Epistle forbids them to condemn or despise one another for making conscience of things meats and times hee expressâ—th forbidden by the Law or for using them without difference Hence it is now argued that nothing can bee imposed upon any Christian which out of tenderness of conscience hee may think it against Gods Law for him to do The Answer is by denying the consequence And the reason because it is a particular order of St. Paul to that Church for the present estate of it at that time And therefore it doth not follow that the Church can make no Law For it could make no Law if it were enough to discharge any man that it is against his conscience to obey The evidence for this reason is this because it appears that the Apostles did order otherwise in the same cause when the case was not the same For it is manifest that the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem had made an Act in Council commanding the Gentiles that were converted to Christianity to abstain from Fornication and things offered in sacrifice to Idols from things strangled and from blood In fine from those things from which strangers that were licensed by the Law to live in the Land of promise were hound to abstain And might not those converted Gentiles have scrupled whether or no it were lawful for them to bee so far Jews had not the authority of the Apostles been sufficient to put an end to their scruples But it is manifest likewise that when St. Paul differed with St. Peter at Antiochia about the necessity of compliance with the Jews for Gentiles turned Christians hee did forbid and must needs forbid his followers to shew this compliance lest by that means hee might hold them in an opinion of the necessity of the Law for the salvation of Christians Here were contrary Provisions with force of Law in that very case wherein St. Paul commands only mutual forbearance at Rome in that estate wherein he writ his Epistle And if St. Paul were in the right which they who take his writings for Scripture do not doubt then were St. Peters followers bound to obey him notwithstanding any tenderness in their consciences And hee commands Tit. I. 10-15 to stop the mouths of those Deceivers of the Circumcision that would not have all things pure to the pure because their own consciences were defiled Notwithstanding that they must needs have followers that were touched in conscience to think those things unlawful which the Law allowed not And their teachers mouths being stopped were the hearers at their choise whether they would follow them or not Whereby it appears that Inferiors are to follow the Judgment Teâ—der coâ—sciences are to submit to Superiâ—urs of Superiors in matters subject to the power of Superiors notwithstanding the scruples of their own consciences to the contrary And that the reason why the Romans are forbidden to condemn commanded to forbear one another is because St. Paul thought it not meet to order any thing else in the business during that estate Seeing that hee ordereth otherwise in it for other estates So that all that remains is whether the matter in question â—ee within the power of Superiors or not In which there can bee no doubt amongst us the matters in question being acknowledged indifferent in themselves And therefore capable to signifie that which Christianity not only alloweth but requireth And certainly there is no Law whether Ecclesiastical or Civil that errour may not scruple at as inconsistent with a good conscience Why should not I beleeve that a Quaker is really touched in conscience that hee ought not to pay his Tithes though in obedience to the Law of the Land as well as a Presbyterian that hee ought not to receive the Communion kneeling For I see many of the Church of Rome suffer for denying the Right of a Prince excommunicate by the Pope though it bee matter of Civil Law Therefore if hee that graspes too much is in the way to gripe nothing then an exception that lies against all Law will do no effect against a few Ceremonies of this Church CHAP. XX. The Declaration of V. Eliz. enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy What further ambiguity that Oath involveth What scandal the taking of it in the true sense ministreth That this Oath ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religion that abridge Allegiance The extent of secular Power in Reforming the Church THe Usurpation of temporal power by the Pope upon the The Declaration of V. Eliz.
enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy pretense of the pre-eminence of his Church in Ecclesiastical matters hath given this Crown just occasion to declare it self Supreme Head or Supreme Governour for the kingdom of heaven is not in word but in power as St. Paul saith in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil But the capacity of several senses in words that signifie humane matters capable of so great a Latitude by their nature seemeth to have Produced out of this Act a Sect of Erastians very dangerous to Christianity As immediately denying any Ordinance of God for the Visible Unity of his Church which is an Article of our Creed but by consequence shewing all how they may enjoy the benefit of Civil Law in a State that professes Christianity without beleeving any more of Christianity then they please This capacity was restrained in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign by her Injunctions by the Articles of Religion by an Act of Parliament not to signisie the abolishing or the disclaiming of Ecclesiastical power in part or in whole And to such effect that it is acknowledged now in books written on purpose by one party of Recusants that they may freely take the Oath of Supremacy saving the scruple that may remain of offending those Recusants who think that they may not take it And I can by no means marvel at it For they who do openly profess that unlimited obedience to the Pope in Ecclesiastical maters which hee requireth how can they swearing the Oath of Supremacy bee thought to abjâ—â—e his Ecclesiastical power in England the words of the Oath being restrained by Law to disclaim only the Temporal effect of it But it is manifest that not only the unlimited power of the Pope What further ambiguity that Oath involveth but all authority of a General Council of the Western Churches whereof the Pope is and ought to bee the chief member according to the premises may justly seem to bee disclaimed by other words of the same Oath And that Whereas the Pope usurped not only upon the Crown but upon the Clergy of this Kingdom all those Usurpations are by the Act of Resumption under Hâ—nry the VIII invested in the Crown So that when the Oath declares to maintain all Rights and Pre-eminences annexed to the Crown you may understand that maintenance which a Subject owes his Sovereign against those that pretend to force his claims from him But you may also understand that maintenance which a Divine owes the Truth in asserting the Title of the Crown to all rights vested in it Which hee that believes that some rights of the Church are invested in the Crown ought not to undertake Though as a Subject for preserving the State of his King and Country hee bee tyed to maintain all the claims of the Crown against all the enemies of it Now if an Oath required by the Sovereign Power bear two What scanâ—al the takiâ—g of it in the true sense ministreth senses in the proper signification of the Words which is more ordinary then it is believed the Subject may undergo it in that sense which truth and right warranteth And so in regard the Pope not content with his Regular authority in the Church pretends Temporal power in disposing of the Dominiâ—nâ— which hee disclaims Communion with besides absolute power in materâ— of Religion it is lawful to swear that hee ought to have no manner of power in this Kingdom as things stand tiâ—l hee depart from claims so unjust But there is appearance that the misunderstanding of it hath produced an Opinion destructive to one Article of the Creed to the being of any Visible Church as founded by God And besides it is not possible that all they who are called to this Oath by Law can ever bee able to distinguish that sense wherein they ought from that wherein they ought not to take it And therefore of necessity the Law gives great offense and that offense is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods vengeance upon it Which though all are involved in yet in the other world the account will lye upon them that may change it and do not Now it is manifest that all Recusants believe not the Popes That this Oatâ— ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religiâ—n that abridge Allegiance Temporal Power nor think themselves bound to execute such Acts as the Bull of Pius quintus against Queen Elizabeth Those that do not how should they bee liable to capital punishment which the Law in some cases inflicts For how should they bee taken for the enemies of their Country otherwise On the contrary I have shewed by the Troubles of Franckford in the beginning of the Reformation that there was then the same difference of opinion amongst them that held with the Reformation about obedience to Sovereigns obeying the Church of Rome And that the same difference of opinion was the cause of the late Troubles appeareth by the aspersion of Popery upon his late Majesty alleged to justifie the War against him Whereby it appeareth that they of that opinion do undergo the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance as provided only against the See of Rome and the claims of it Thinking themselves enabled notwithstanding the same to limit their Allegiance to that which their Religion shall allow And therefore there is great Reason why the Kingdom should enact a new Oath extending the Original Allegiance of all Subjects to all cases in which experience hath shewed or reason may foresee that Religion may bee pretended to abridge the Obligation of Allegiance This I am encouraged here to declare by the late Act of the Kingdom of Scotland establishing for the future the form of an Oath whereby the obligation of Allegiance iâ— extended to the renouncing not only of any claim for the See of Rome but of all pretenses whatsoever whether upon the account of Religion or of civil Right of abridging the obligation of it For though I neither maintain nor find fault with the terms which it useth yet the agreement and the difference between the case of both Kingdoms as it evidenceth to all the necessity so it determineth to them that are to understand the State of both the agreement and the difference of that which ought to bee provided And seeing it is the true consequence of the common Christianity that enables the Kingdom to do this because supposing as it doth the State of this World it cannot extend to the altering of it there is great reason why a Divine should bee allowed to say it not entring upon other considerations wherein Religion is not concerned For in the next place to the bringing in of a new Provision the conscience of the Kingdom is best discharged the Scandals that may bee occasioned removed the wrath of God prevented or appeased by the secular Powers allowing these interpretations to pass without contradiction that may enable all estates to depose it
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
same to enable them to perform it To which purpose it must needs bee requisite that this tender bee attributed not to the Faith of him that receives though the tender must needs become frustrate without it but to the Faith of the Church and the act of that Faith in executing the order of our Lord and deputing the Elements to bee the body and blood of Christ by Consecration before the receiving of them This who so holds shall neither bee engaged either to Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation nor yet to hold either of both destructive to the Salvation of them that are bred in them holding that which is necessary to Salvation Namely the renewing of the Covenant of Baptism in and by Communion in the holy Eucharist As for them who abhorring Transubstantiation communicate with Consubstantiation It is enough that I say as afore that they weigh not by their own weights nor mete by their own measures For how is it more destructive to the Grace of the Sacrament that the body and blood of Christ is thought from the Consecration the subject of the accidents of those Elements that once were then that they should possess the same dimensions which the substance of the Elements filleth And that not by virtue of the Consecration but of the Hypostatical Union of the flesh and blood of Christ with his God-head But the errour of the Sacramentaries taking this Sacrament for a meeâ— sign to confirm a mans Faith leaving it indifferent whether consecrated or not leaves it also indifferent whether used or not though the Socinians only owne the consequence But if the Faith which it confirmeth bee thought to bee the assurance of a mans Praedestination then involveth in the Haeresie of the Fanaticks The abuses of the Church of Rome in Confirmation As for the rest of those Ordinances which the Church of Rome counteth Sacraments as well as Baptism and the Eucharist though not to the like effect It is manifest that they tend all of them to a wholesome Communion in the Holy Eucharist Confirmation was for many hundred years given after Baptism before receiving the Eucharist which was to bee received by those that were baptized upon their Baptism If the Bishop himself baptized them as usually hee did baptize those that were baptized in the Mother-Church at the usual times of Easter and Whitsontide then did hee Confirm them immediately If they were baptized in their Parishes which fetched Chrisme from the Mother-Church on Maundy Thursday in token of the license to baptize which they had from the Bishop they were brought to the Mother-Church to bee Confirmed A manifest sign of that which I said That Confirmation is reserved to the Bishop because his authority it is that must allow the baptized to bee of the number of the Church For whereas the Gift of the Holy Ghost promised in Baptism depends never the less upon the continuing of the Baptized Members of Gods Church Is it strange that the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth a Christian as a Christian should bee given him again by Confirmation as a Member of Gods Church when hee that believes and lives as a Christian otherwise cannot have the Holy Ghost unless hee continue in the Church over and above Now that all are baptized Infants how necessary it is that Confirmation should pass upon them before they come to receive the Eucharist I need not dispute Boâ—h sides acknowledging that as well the tryal of their knowledge as the exacting of their profession in Christianity is a thing due unto them from the Church And therefore in the Church of Rome where this substance of the Office is not provided for it is little more then a shadow Professing Unity with the Church by seeking the Bishops blessing but neglecting the reason for which the Unity of the Church is provided by God for the Salvation of a Christian to wit the exacting and allowing of his Christianity All Ordination tends to the Celebration and Communion of In the other fâ—ur Offices the Eucharist As well that of Bishops to the intent that they may Ordain the other Orders And that of Deacons that they may wait upon the Celebration of it As that of Priests that receiving the Power of the Keyes to warrant the effect of it they may therefore have power to celebrate it Whereby it may appear how great an abuse it is to this Ordinance in the Church of Rome that a Priest is Ordained to sacrifice for quick and dead Understanding for the dead to deliver their Souls from Purgatory pains to the sight of Gods face But for the lâ—ving That all that assist or assist not so the Priest intend them though they mind not what is done much less understand or assist it with their devotions by virtue of the work done have the Sacrifice of Christs Cross applyed to them to such effect as the Priest shall intend Whereas the celebrating of Ordination with the Communion of the Eucharist signifieth plain enough That the Grace of ministring aright the Office which they receive depends upon the Christianity which they profess to receive it with by communicating in the Eucharist As well as the effect of it upon the Christianity of those to whom they shall minister the same As for the ministring of the Keyes of the Church in Penance whether publick in notorious sins or private for the assuring of those which are not notorious that they have right to the Eucharist you see it tends still to Communion in it And you may as easily see how great is the abuse of this Ordinance in the Church of Rome when it is taught That submitting to the Keyes of the Church by Confession turneth imperfect sorrow for sin or as some say sorrow for the guilt of punishment not for the offense of God which they call attrition into contriâ—iâ—n which is that sorrow which intitleth to forgiveness Whereas the power of the Keyes is ordained to procure this sorrow by barring a sinner from the Communion till it appears that hee hath it not that submitting to the Keyes ipso facto hee hath it And upon this abuse there hangs a second that when the sinner undertaking the Penance enjoyned to make his conversion appear is thereupon admitted to the Communion before the performing of it for which there may bee many reasonable occasions though not according to the Primitive Rule the performing of it is thought and said not to pretend the qualifying of him for pardon but the redeeming of temporal pains remaining due after â—in is pardoned and therefore to be paid in Purgatory if not satisfied here Things whereof there is no mark in the Faith and Practise of the Catholick Church The Unction of the sick I have shewed to bee only an appendage of the Ministry of the Keyes in that estate tending to the recovery of bodily health And therefore called extream Vnction by abuse in the Church of Rome as if the intent of it were to prepare
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
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
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
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