accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
that the Church founded the Rite of baptizing Infants upon the Tradition of the Apostles or what wise men that ever sided with the Reformation ever observed that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture inforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of baptizing Infants upon them Cardinal Perron indeed being about to prove the insufficiency of the written Word and to establish the necessity of unwritten Traditions brings among other things Infant Baptism as an instance of a point that may be proved by Tradition and not by Scripture Adv. Reg. Mag. Brit. p. 571. but Bellar. lib. 1. de Sacram. Bapt. cap. 9. disputes for Paedobaptism and that by such arguments as are taken out of Scripture which he saith Nullâ ratione solvi nullâ arte eludi possunt Laud To the Baptism of children I add the Communion of women Id. ibid. Pacif. Do you then think that the Communion of women cannot be proved out of Scripture as well as out of Tradition I believe there is no express instance of a woman receiving the Sacrament but we have reasons grounded on Scripture that make it the duty of women as well as men and it would be perversness seeing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth a woman as well as a man to affirm that both sexes are not included But let us to the Controversie of Episcopacy Are all Ordinations invalid which are done by meer Presbyters without a Bishop what think you of the Reformed Churches Laud For my part I know not what to think the question hath been so often asked with so much violence and prejudice and we are so bound by publick interest to approve all they do that we have disabled our selves to justifie our own Episcop asser p. 190. Supposing that Ordination by a Bishop is necessary for the Vocation of Priests and Deacons and therefore for the founding and perpetuating of a Church either God hath given to all Churches opportunity and possibility of such Ordinations and then necessity of the contrary is but mockery or if he hath not given such possibility then there is no Church there to be either built or continued but the Candlestick is presently removed Id. p. 193. Pacif. Our Church did alway retain Episcopacy and so she might have done still had not Bishops been more faulty then ever Episcopacy was But that Ordinations by meer Presbyters were not valid was never affirmed by our Church or any of her eminent members but rather the contrary which will appear if we consider that the transmarine Churches have alway been acknowledged as true Chnrches and their Ordinations justified and maintained to be valid against the oppugners of them by our English Controversie Writers and Professors Dr. Holland Dr. Willet Dr. Field Dr. Downham Mr. Mason If at any time any ordained by meer Presbyters were made Bishops in our Church their Ordination by Presbyters was supposed to be valid and was not renewed at least not till of late years but what think you of Bishops being made Lords and taking secular employment Laud It was not in naturâ rei unlawful for Bishops to receive an Office of secular employment St. Pauls tent making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as sitting in a secular Tribunal is against the Office of a Bishop Episc. Asserted p. 352. The same Author in sundry following pages much endeavoureth to prove that Bishops may take upon them the affairs of Secular Interest Pacif. Bishops taking upon them secular affairs hath been alway exclaimed against by our Divines as well Prelates as others that have been sensible of the charge of souls committed to them this it will not be amiss to exemplifie in several ages John Wickliffe in the raign of Edw. 3. taught That Popes Cardinals Bishops might not Civiliter Dominari absque mortali peceato and that no Prelate ought to have any Prison to punish offenders and that no King should impose upon any Bishop or Curate any secular matter for then both the King and Clerk should be Proditor Jesu Christi Wals. in R. 2. p. 205. William Swinderby also a Professor in Rich. 2. time held That the more Lordship a Priest hath the neerer he is to Antichrist and that the Priests of the old Law were forbidden Lordship and that Christ himself refused and forbad his Priests Lordship saying Reges Gentium c. the Kings of the Heathen bear rule c. but you shall not so do Acts and Mon. p. 451 453. Tindall in his works p. 124. writes That it was a shame of all shames and a monstrous thing that Bishops should deal in civil causes and p. 140. What names have they My Lord Bb. my Lord Archbishop if it please your Lordship if it please your Grace Bishop Hooper in his Comment on the Commandments hath these words p. 184 185. Edit. 1548. look upon the Apostles chiefly and upon all their Successors for the space of 400. years and then thou shalt see good Bishops and such as diligently applyed that painful office ofa Bishop to the glory of God and honour of the Realms they dwelt in though they had not so much upon their heads as our Bishops have yet had they more within their heads as the Scriptures Histories testifie for they applyed all the wit they had unto the Vocation Ministry of the Church whereunto they were called our Bishops have so much wit they can rule and serve as they say in both States of the Church and also in the civil Policy when one of them is more then any man is able to satisfie let him do always his best diligence If he be so necessary for the Court that in Civil Causes and giving of good counsel he cannot be spared let him use that Vocation and leave the other for it is not possible he should do both well And a great oversight it is of the Princes and higher Powers of the earth thus to charge them with two burdens when none of them is able to bear the least of them both they be the Kings Subjects and meet for his Majesty to choose the best for his Court that be of the Realm but then they must be kept in their Vocation to preach only the Word of God and not to put themselves or be appointed by others to do things that belong not to a Bishops Vocation I will not now relate the speeches of old holy Father Latimer to the same purpose though far exceeding any that have been yet mentioned because they are many and may be easily seen in his Sermon of the Plough But now that we are on the business of Church-government What think you of the persons commonly called Lay-Elders Laud Lay Judges of Causes Ecclesiastical as they are unheard of in Antiquity so they are neither named in Scripture nor receive from thence any instructions for their deportment in their imaginary office and therefore may be remanded to the place from whence they came
Students not only privately within the Colledg walls but also publickly in the Schools Thus runs the decree extant Libro senioris procuratoris B. fol. 35. A. Decretum Convocationis Anno Domini 1579. Jan. 27. ad extirpandam haeresin quamcunque ad informandam juventuntem in verâ pietate Vetus statutum contra Haereticos perverse de Christianâ fide sentientes renovandum in usum revocandum duximus additâ hac explanatione Ad extirpandam Haeresin quamcunque ad informandam in verâ pietate juventutem Libros hosce legendos censemus statuimus viz. Catechismum Alexandri Nowelli majorem Lat. aut Graec. Vel Catechismum Johannis Calvin Lat. Gr. aut Hebr. vel Elementa Christianae Religionis Andreae Hyperii Vel Catechesin Heidelbergensem pro captu auditorum arbitrio legentium 2. His adiungi possunt Henrici Bullingeri Catechismus pro adultis Institutiones Calvini vel Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae vel articuli Religionis in Synodo Londinensi Latine conscripti autoritate regia editi cum explicatione locorum Communium testimoniis è sacra scriptura aut interdum è patribus desumptis Ad primam lectionem Juniores ad secundam provectiores omnes nullo gradu insignitos astringi volumus 3. Catechismos omnes sanae huic doctrinae contrarios aliosque libros superstitiosos Papisticos legi haberi penitus interdicimus 4. Hanc legendi interpretandi provinciam demandamus privatim Tutoribus publice alicui Catechistae in singulis Collegiis Aulis per praefectos assignando 5. Quo Decretum hoc diligenter inviolate observetur examen habeatur domi per Catechistam aut etiam Praefectos in Academiâ singulis anni terminis per Procancelarium adhibitis praeleetoribus sacrae Theologiae qui à studiosis convocatis profectus rationem exigant 6. Si quis discentium aut docentium negligentior ant alioqui culpabilis deprehendatur judicio praefectorum aut si opus sit Procancellarii corrigatur puniatur I would fain know how it came to pass that there 's no mention of this Decree in our new Statutes if our late Grandees did not steere a course quite contrary to our old Protestant Divines Nor do I know any ground that the Articles of our Church and Calvins Institutions which this Decree joyned together should now with so much Zeal be put asunder Laud Private Opinions heretofore especially if countenanced by some eminent Name were looked on as the publick resolution of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those Opinions which by the Artifice of some men had been fastned on her Dr. Crackanthorp when he was commanded to make answer to the Archbishop of Spalato his Consilium redeundi chose rather to defend those Lutheri Calvini dogmata which had been charged upon this Church in the Bishops Pamphlet then to assert this Church to her genuine Doctrine They that went otherwise to work were like to speed no better in it or be otherwise requited for their honest Zeal then to be presently exposed to the publick envy and made the common subject of reproach and danger So that I must needs look upon it as a bold attempt as the times then were in Bishop Mountague of Norwich in his answer to the Popish Gagger and the two Appellants to lay the Saddle on the right Horse to sever or discriminate the opinions of particular men from the received and authorized Doctrines of the Church of England to leave the one to be maintained by their private fautors and only to defend and maintain the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that could easily contemn the cryes and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of ruine which that performance drew upon him To such an absolute Authority were the Writings and Names of some men advanced by their diligent followers that not to yield obedience to their ipse dixits was a crime unpardonable It is true King James observed the inconvenience and prescribed a remedy sending instructions to the Universities bearing date Jan. 18. 1616. wherein it was directed among other things That young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long on Compendiums and Abbreviations making them the ground of their studie And I conceive That from that time forwards the names and reputations of some leading men of the foraign Churches which till then did carry all before them did begin to lessen Divines growing every day more willing to free themselves from that servitude vassalage to which the authority of those names had enslaved their judgements But so that no man had the courage to make such a general assault against the late received opinions as Bishop Mountague though many when the ice was broken followed gladly after him Dr. Heylin Preface to Theologia Veterum Pacif. You have given me a large account how as you conceive Calvin Bullinger c. came to decrease but such as is no way satisfactory for 1. It is gratis dictum that the reading of Fathers Councils c. will make any one abate his esteem of any Orthodox Cystem 2. It is no way probable that King James should by his instructions in An. 1616. design the hindering of the Calvinian Doctrines who appeared so very zealous An. 1618. against the Tenets of Arminius who did contradict Calvin in those points which of all others held by him are most liable to exception 3. Nor is it any way probable that if any Calvinistical or Lutheran Dogmata had been super-induced to the Articles of our Church which had the least seeming contrariety to them that none should be either acute enough to discern such superseminations or couragious enough to pull up such tares but only Richard Mountague B. D. Had he only learned to deny himself had the spirit of courage and resolution departed from all the English Clergy and rested upon him alone Sure I am that Dr. Forbes of Edenburgh leaveth this Mr. Mountague under this censure that he too much complyed with Calvinism in the point of justification Propter puritanorum undique strepentium clamores nescio quomodo refugerit ad distinctionem Forbes de Justif. lib. 2. c. 5. 4. 'T is scarce credible if Mr. Mountague had only separated chaffe from the wheat and distinguished only the received Doctrines of the Church from some busie Puritans private Opinions that he should have been so severely censured for his Book by the Parliament and confuted by some Divines of great note and learning and as conformable as himself particularly by his Reverend and much Reverenced Diocesan And Archbishop Abbot in his
But God forbid our Church should have any Doctrines good and wholesome for some times and not for others Laud If there be any difference betwixt us about the sense and meaning of any Clause or Period in Articles Lyturgy Homilies how shall that difference be decided Pacif. It is scarce to be supposed that our Church in her publick Records of Doctrine should use any so great obscurity as that we should if we are unprejudiced need an Interpreter but if there be any need of an Interpreter who fitter then such Martyrs as had an hand in composing of the Articles in King Edw. the 6th his Time or elselived then and were well acquainted with the mind and judgment of the Composers and such Divines as lived and were famous in the beginning of Q Eliz. when the Articles were confirmed and let me tell you it will be a strong presumption that a Doctrine is contrary to the Church if it be contrary to the professed tenents of all or most of those eminent Divines by whose help she did at first recover her self out of Popish darkness Laud How little our old Martyrs did favour the Calvinians in the five points appears plainly by a Book entituled An Historical Narration composed by one who was famous in K. Edw. dayes and Q. Eli. and a voluntary exile for Religion in the raign of Q. Mary Partif Are you not ashamed to call him a famous Divine who created such disturbances in the raign of Q. Eliz. and K. Ed. whose Book is put into the Catalogue of Popish Pamphlets by Dr. Fulke in his answer to Bristow of the reprinting of which A. Laud was so much ashamed that at his tryal he durst not own it but averred that he had put his Chaplain out of his place for putting such a cheat on the world I might rather infer that the English Martyrs were no favourers of Arminianisme because in the late A. Bishops Time the Professor of Mathematicks in Gresham was troubled for but permitting an Almanack in which some Popish canonized Saints names were expunged and the names of some of our own English Martyrs that were Saints indeed put in their room and because by Dr. Bray Pochlintons Altare Christianum was licenced in which how bitter a passage is used against our old Martyrs and Confessors may be seen in the Recantation imposed upon that Doctor Laud It may be the passage might refer to John Wickliffe and such as he and if so I know no reason why it should be recanted for though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his Field more Tares then Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines for they who have consulted the Works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklesiana writ by Harpssield will tell us that Wickliffe among many other errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread 2. That Priest have no more authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawfulito christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine Service in 7. That buryings in Church-yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holy-dayes ordained and instituted by the Church are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient to believe though a man do no good works 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally That God never gave grace or knowledg to a great Person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same Dr. Heyl. Cert Epist. p. 151. Pacif. Whether these things are collected out of Wald. and Harpssield I neither know nor have leisure now to examine I find the same things charged and charged in the very same words upon those who indeavoured reformation in King H. the 8th his dayes about Anno. 1536. as may be seen in Mr. Tho. Fuller's History lib. 5. p. 209. 210. 211. I believe those were then slandered and so I think is Wick. if Wald. and Harps have charged all those things upon him for the proof of this let what Dr. James hath collected in his Wick Conformity be consulted for that industrious Scholar hath made it appear out of the Writings of Dr. Wickly that he held no community of goods but what all good Christians hold by a Christian Charity not as touching the right Title and possession as the Anabaptists now and a certain bald Priest in his time did hold And so far was he from holding that good Faith alone would save a man without good Works that he is charged by Walden to have held the Doctrine of merits though very falsly as appears by many passages in his Commentaries upon the Psalms He held vocal confession to a Priest not to be necessary in case a man were truly contrite and sorrowful for his sin with full purpose of amendment unless the party offending do find himself very much grieved in which case he counselleth him to repair unto a Priest that hath cunning and good living But let us joyn issue on the terms formerly propounded What think you of the Church of Rome Laud It may be you account it a piece of Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church Pacif. I account it no Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church for it was so esteemed by Dr. John Reynolds Chamier Junius Gisbertus Voetius Ludovicus Capellus and his fellow Professor Amyraldus all very learned men and far enough from doting either upon Ceremonies or Prelacy indeed they will much disadvantage themselves in dealing with the Papist about the visibility of the Church who shall affirm that Rome is not a true Church but you know the Pope is made by Romanists to be the Church The Pope ought to tell it to the Church that is to himself saith Bellarmine Do you judg this Pope to be the Antichrist Laud Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeal no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outragious Tyranny and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce the Pope is that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition The Synod of Gapp in France made it a Point of their belief and concluded it peremptorily to be so but who can find it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England what Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it what Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be
professed or have imposed penalty upon repugnants of non-consentients unto it Ap. p. 143. There is no such Doctrine concerning Antichrist in the Book of Articles or in any other publick Monument or Record of the Church of England but the contrary rather and this appeareth by a prayer at the end of the 2d Homily for Whitsunday viz. That by the mighty power of the H.G. the comfortable Doctrine of Christ may be truly preached truly received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdome of Antichrist Dr. Pet. Heylin Res. Pet. p. 133. Pacif. There 's scarce any opinion more generally received and owned by Divines that wish well to our reformation then this that the Pope is the Antichrist but I 'le not contend by their testimonies but by passages which I have excerpted out of the Homilies Tom. 1. p. 17. edit. 1623. Justification is not the office of man but of God or man cannot make himself righteous by his own works neither in part nor in whole for that were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God p. 38. Honour be to God who did put light in the heart of his true faithful Minister of most famous memory K. H. 8th and gave him the knowledg of his word and an earnest affection to seek his Glory and to put away all such superstitious and Pharisaical Sects by Antichrist invented p. 70. For our Saviour Christ and St. Peter teach most earnestly obedience to Kings but the Bishop of Rome teacheth that they are under him are free from all burdens and charges of the Common-wealth and obedience toward their Prince most clearly against Christs Doctrine and St. Peters He ought therefore rather to be called Antichrist and the successor c. See more of the like nature and purport collected by Dr. Bernard See also the Prayer made for the Fifth of November Laud If a Controversie were referred by the Church or an Heresie to be corrected in the Church which touched the case of the Catholick Church it could not be put over more fitly to any one man by the Church representative in a Council then unto the Pope first Bishop of Christendom of greatest not of absolute power among Bishops Answ. to Gagg p. 29. Pacif. Never did the Church of England call the Pope first Bishop of Christendom nay she censures him for his bold usurpation of such a title Part. 2. Hom. p. 214 215. And he that thinks the Pope to be the fittest to refer a controversie he must bring us to such a Pope as I think did never sit in the See of Rome But it may be you and I have not the same thoughts of the dangerousness of Popery Laud It is a hard case that we shall think all Papists and Anabaptists and Sacramentaries to be fools and wicked persons certainly among all these Sects there are very many wise men and good men as well as erring and although some zeals are so hot and their eyes so inflamed with their ardors that they do not think their adversaries look like other men yet certainly we find by the results of their discourses that they are men that speak and make Syllogisms and use Reason and read Scripture and although they do no more understand all of it then we do yet they endeavour to understand as much as concerns them even all they can even all that concerns repentance from dead works and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Dr. Taylor Epist. Dedic. to Liberty of Pro. p. 9 10. Pacif. A little charity will serve a man to think there are wise men and good men among Sacramentaries and Anabaptists but I do not like your joyning together of Papists Anabaptists Sacramentaries nor do I think that the learned Papists such are all they that can speak and make Syllogisms do endeavour to understand as much as concerns them or all that they can for an easie endeavour will inform them That their Church hath been and is mistaken in many points of great concernment and if she hath been mistaken she is not infallible Laud We have no other help in the midst of our distractions and disunions but all of us to be united in that common term which as it does constitute the Church in its being such so it is the medium of the Communion of the Saints and that is the Creed of the Apostles and in all other things an honest endeavour to find out what truths we can and a charitable and mutual permission to others that disagree from us and our opinions Ibid. p. 33. Pacif. I like it well that the Apostles Creed should be had in reverence but sure there are Articles necessary to salvation that are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} contained in that Symbole Laud None of those who hold the Creed entire can perish for want of necessary Faith neither are we obliged to make our Articles more particular and minute then the Creed for since the Apostles and indeed our Blessed Lord himself promised Heaven to them who believed him to be the Christ that was to come into the world and that he who believes in him should be partaker of the Resurrection and Life Eternal he will be as good as his word yet because this Article was very general and a Complexion rather then a Proposition the Apostles and others our Fathers in Christ did make it more explicite and though they have said no more then what lay entire and ready formed in the bosome of the great Article yet they made their extracts to great purpose and absolute sufficiency and therefore there needs no more deductions or remoter consequences from the great Article than the Creed of the Apostles Liber Prop. p. 12. Pacif. In this you must allow me to differ from you and so do all that wish well to the reformed Protestant Religion the secinians such a wretched sort of men that Grotius before Crellius had tampered with him counted not worth the name of Hereticks would fain be called and received as Christians because they receive and embrace the Apostles Creed Vid. Jonam Schlict apud Hora. Sosci confut p. 255 256. and yet they deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ they deny his satisfaction to Divine Justice for the sins of his people they deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person or else they make him to be but a finite created Person Hear Smalius contra Frantz Disp. 119. De Ecclesiâ p. 280. Apage istam puerilem tractandi homines pios cordatos rationem In Symbolo ait docenter tres personae Trinitatis In quonam Si aliud ostendat quam Apostolicum quod vocant tanquam humanum Commentum ridebo illud respuam si Apostolicum nego in eo doceri tres Trinitatis Personas Docetur quidam in eo patrem esse Filium Spiritum Sanctum in eos ut hoc concedam
is a demonstration that their soul hath nothing in it that 's Idolatrical if their confidence and fancyful opinion hath engaged them upon so great mistake yet the will hath nothing in it but what is a great enemy to Idolatry Et-nihil ardet in inferno niso propria voluntas Liber Prop. p 258. Pacif. Belike then if any man can make a shift to be so ignorant as to think that the Sun is God and so give Divine Adoration to the Sun he shall be no Idolater I think that the will of the Papists hath something in it that is no great enemy to Idolatry and had they not been wilful in so absurd an opinion so much reason hath been offered against it that they must needs before this time have recanted such a senseless Tenent Laud Although they have done violence to all Philosophy and the reason of man and undone and cancelled the Principles of two or three Sciences to bring in this Article yet they have a Divine Revelation whose Literal and Grammatical sense if that were intended would warrant them to do violence to all the Sciences in the Circle and indeed that Transubstantiation is openly and violently against Natural Reason is no argument to make them disbelieve who believe the Mysterie of the Trinity in all those niceties of Explication which are in the School and which now a dayes pass for the Doctrine of the Church with as much violence to the principles of Natural and Supernatural Philosophy as can be imagined to be in the point of Transubstantiation Liber Prop. p. 258 Pacif. Here 's as fair quarter for the Socinians as could be wished that the niceties of the School as you are pleased to call them about the Trinity are as contrary to the principles of natural and supernatural Philosophy as Transubstantiation Prove this and our New Arians will thank you prove it and I 'le never more believe the Mistery of the Trinity For I am sure God the first Truth did never command or oblige any one to believe that which offers violence to the principles of natural and supernatural Philosophy but I confess I have a long time been offended at some passages that I have met with in sundry Divines who call themselves Protestants Dr. Laurence in his Sermon before the King le ts us know That as he doth not like those who say Christ is bodily present in the Sacrament so he likes not those who say his body is not there because Christ saith t is there and St. Paul saith it is there and the Church of God say ever 't is there and that truly and substanlially and essentially These words though I think they may be expounded to a good sense yet they do malè sonare and should not be used nor know I what made men so much delight to call our Sacrament a Sacrifice or the Communion Table an Altar or our Ministers Priests especially seeing Dr. Heylin hath told us that it is no improper Sacrifice no improper Altar Sure I am our Church never took pleasure in calling it an Altar never made any injunction the Table should be placed Altarwise nay Queen Elizabeths injunctions made the first year of her raign do appoint That the holy Table in every Church be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and so to stand saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be distributed at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the same holy Table to be placed where it stood before And Bishop Jewel doth peremptorily maintain That the Communion Table ought to stand in the middle of the Church among the people and not Altarwise against the wall Reply to Harding And as I could never satisfie my self about placing the Table Altarwise so neither could I ever satisfie my self about bowing to the Altar why should we more bow towards the empty Table or Altar more then towards the empty Pulpit from whence the word is wont to be preached to us or towards the Bible or towards the Font Laud The Altar is the greatest place of Gods residence upon earth I say the greatest yea greater than the Pulpit for there 't is hoc est Corpus meum but in the Pulpit 't is at most but hoc est Verbum meum and a greater reverence no doubt is due to the Body then to the Word of our Lord and so in relation answerable to the Throne where his Body is usually present then to the Seat where his Word useth to be proclaimed and God keep it there at his Word for as too many use the matter 't is hoc est verbum Diaboli in too many places witness Sedition and the like to it A. Laud his Speech in the Star-Chamber Pacif. If this be all you can say I shall never be troubled that bowing towards the Altar is disused for when you say that in the Altar 't is hoc est Corpus meum either you mean that it is the Body of Christ in a gross carnal way or in a spiritual Sacramental way if in a gross carnal way you shall excuse me if I cannot swallow that opinion in defiance and detestation of which our Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes did lose their lives If you mean only in a Sacramental way is not the bloud of Christ and whole Christ and so by consequence his Body exhibited and represented to us in Baptism as well as in the Supper Why then were men enjoyned rather to worship towards the Table or the Eucharistical Bread then towards the Baptismal water or the Baptistery Besides when there was no Sacrament there was upon the Table or Altar neither the Body of Christ nor any sacred Symbole of Christ nay if there were a Sacrament yet I hope the Bread was not in any sense the Body of Christ till it was consecrated by the Word and Prayer but as I take it we were bound to bow towards the Table not only when there was a Sacrament and after the consecration of the Elements but at all times And when the Sacrament was administred in private houses might not it be said that there it was hoc est Corpus meum and yet I trow men were not under obligation to bow towards that Table upon which the Bread did stand when it was consecrated This sufficiently invalidateth your argument and therefore I need not further ask whether that honor which you expressed by bowing towards the Altar were civil or divine and religious though which soever part you should choose you would run into most grievous absurdities and inconveniences What are your thoughts of Invocation of Angels and Saints departed this life Laud Perhaps there is no such great impiety in
even the lake of Gehenna and so to the place of the neerest Denomination Epis. Asser. p. 379. Pacif. Your wit lying in the affinity of sound betwixt Geenna and Geneva is much like that of Campian Elizabeth and Jezabel But as for Lay-Elders I am not much solicitous about them thinking the Church may be well enough without them only I cannot think they are so destitute of all Antiquity and Scripture as you imagine that of 1 Tim. 5. 17. hath more for Lay-Elders than many places in Scripture urged by our Bishops have for Episcopacy Dr. Whitgist is said to have these words That he knoweth that the Primitive Church had in every Church certain Seniors to whom the Government of the Congregation was committed and in a Book against Mar-Prelate subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester Lincoln and London it is affirmed That the Government by Elders was used under the Law and practised under the Gospel by the Apostles though not fit for our times Though afterwards repenting this plain Confession they caused certain words importing the contrary to be printed in a sheet of Paper which paper was pasted in all the books of the first impression to cover and conceal the former assertion This I take on the Testimony of an Author who so printed in Queen Elizabeths time in a Tract called A Petition directed to her most Excellent Majesty but Mr. Nowel is plain in his Catechism in Latine p. 155. Edit. 1570. Grotius also acknowledgeth that Geneva did not first institute these Officers but only restored them nor may it be amiss for the learned Reader to consult about this point of Elders Bodins Method cap. 6. p. 245. Le ts on to the third Commandment Land Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain This our blessed Saviour repeating expresseth it thus It hath been said to them of old Thou shalt not forswear thy self to which Christ adds out of Numb. 30. 2. But thou shalt perform thy Oaths unto the Lord the meaning of the onewe are taught by the other We must not Invocate the Name of God in any promise in vain i. e. with a lie this is to take the Name of God i. e. to useit to take it into our mouths for vanity i. e. according to the perpetual stile of Scripture for a lie and this is to be understood only in promises for so Christ explains it out of the Law Thou shalt perform thy Oaths for lying in judgement which is also with an Oath or taking Gods Name for a witness is forbidden in the ninth Commandment Grand Exemp part 2. p. 114. Pacif. At this rate indeed write Maldonate and the Composer of the Racovian Catechism but without any reason for it is gratis dictum that our Lord doth repeat or give the sense of the third Commandment Exod. 20. 7. It is more probable that he intends those words Levit. 19. 12. As for the words in the third Commandment they have alway been so interpreted by Protestant Commentators as to forbid not only false swearing but vain swearing yea all irreverent use of the Name of God whether with an Oath or without an Oath So the Catechism in King Edward the 6ths raign so Bishop Hooper in his Exposition of the Decalogae so the Common Church Catechism so the Homily part 1. p. 45 46. No one that hath but a smattering skill will deny {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sometime to signifie mendacium or falsum but it doth also signifie gratis in vanum as often if not more often The LXX Exod. 20. 7. render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Aquila {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yet I can more easily excuse this if you will but acknowledge that vain and unnecessary Oaths were unlawful to the Jews as well as us Laud By the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear by an oath that implyed not Idolatry or the belief of a false God I say any grave or prudent oath when they spake a grave truth And it was lawful for the Jews in ordinary entercourse to swear by God so they did not swear to a lye to which also swearing to an impertinence might be reduced by a proportion of reason for they that swear by him shall be commended saith the Psalmist Psal. 63. 11. And swearing to the Lord of hosts is called speaking the Language of Canaan Isa. 19. 18. Great Exem part 2. p. 114. Pacif. This is Theology that a sober Heathen would startle at How do you prove that by the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear an Oath when they spake a grave truth Doth any Scripture say so Do the more sage sort of profane Writers say so or do not all rather say who have not blinded Natural Conscience That it is not lawful to swear in the gravest matter if a man may be credited without an oath or if his oath be not like to be an end of strife Or what man who knows that God was alway tender of his Name and Glory canthink that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse They did ordinarily swear but it was not lawful so to do The son of Sirach reproves it Heathens condemn it it is indeed said They that swear by him shall glory Psal. 63. 11. but it is not said They that swear by him in ordinary entercourse shall glory if they should they would glory in their shame As for the place Isa. 19. 18. it proves not that swearing to the Lord in ordinary entercourse is speaking the Language of Canaan but it is a Prophecy only of the calling of Egypt that sundry of that Nation should make the same Profession and Confession of Faith that Gods people did and that they should by solemn Oath engage themselves to depend on the living Lord alone How doth this prove that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse or that their ordinary communication ought not to be yea yea and nay nay as well as ours Pass we on to the fourth Law of the Decalogue Laud There was nothing Moral in it but that we do Honour to God for the Creation and to that and all other purposes of Religion separate and hallow some portion of our time Great Exem part 2. p. 119. Pacif. Surely this is the way to rob us of one of the laws of the Decalogue for either the fourth Commandment is moral for a determinate time or for nothing at all some time being moral by the other Commandments and it would be strange that the Church of England should appoint this fourth Commandment to be publickly read and teach her members to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and yet think it had only that latent morality you speak of if the fourth Commandment be not in force in the words of it according to their literal and Grammatical