Holy Ghost it must be understood of the Father for when the Father is named with Christ sometimes he is called God simply and sometimes God the Father This Argument from the Threefold Salutation appears yet stronger in the Words in which St. Iohn addresses himself to the Seven Churches in the beginning of the Revelations Rev. 1.4 5. Grace and Peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ. By the Seven Spirits must be meant one or more Persons since he wishes or declares Grace and Peace from them Now either this must be meant of Angels or of the Holy Ghost There are no where Prayers made or Blessings given in the Name of Angels This were indeed a worshipping them against which there are express Authorities not only in the other Books of the New Testament but in this Book in particular Nor can it be imagined that Angels could have been named before Iesus Christ So then it remains that Seven being a Number that imports both Variety and Perfection and that was the Sacred Number among the Iews this is a Mystical Expression which is no extraordinary thing in a Book that is all over mysterious And it imports one Person from whom all that variety of Gifts Administrations and Operations that were then in the Church did flow And this is the Holy Ghost But as to his being put in order before Christ as upon the supposition of an Equality the going out of the common order is no great matter so since there was to come after this a full Period that concerned Christ it might be a natural way of Writing to name him last Against all this it is objected That the Designation that is given to the first of these in a Circumlocution that imports Eternity shews that the Great God and not the Person of the Father is to be meant But then how could St. Iohn writing to the Churches wish them Grace and Peace from the other Two A few Verses after this the same Description of Eternal Duration is given to Christ and is a strong Proof of his Eternity and by consequence of his Divinity So what is brought so soon after as a Character of the Eternity of the Son may be also here used to denote the Eternal Father These are the Chief Places in which the Trinity is mentioned all together I do not insist on that contested Passage of St. Iohn's Epistle There are great doubtings made about it 1 Joh. 5.7 The main ground of doubting being the Silence of the Fathers who never made use of it in the Disputes with the Arians and Macedonians There are very considerable things urged on the other hand to support the Authority of that Passage yet I think it is safer to build upon sure and undisputable grounds So I leave it to be maintained by others who are more fully persuaded of its being Authentical There is no need of it This matter is capable of a very full Proof whether that Passage is believed to be a part of the Canon or not It is no small Confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine that we are certain it was universally received over the whole Christian Church long before there was either a Christian Prince to support it by his Authority or a Council to establish it by Consent And indeed the Council of Nice did nothing but declare what was the Faith of the Christian Church with the addition only of the Word Consubstantial For if all the other Words of the Creed settled at Nice are acknowledged to be true that of the Three Persons being of one Substance will follow from thence by a just consequence We know both by what Tertullian and Novatian writ what was the Faith both of the Roman and the African Churches From Irenaeus we gather the Faith both of the Gallican and the Asiatick Churches And the whole proceedings in the Case of Samosatenus that was the solemnest business that past while the Church was under Oppression and Persecution give us the most convincing Proof possible not only of the Faith of the Eastern Churches at that time but of their Zeal likewise in watching against every Breach that was made in so Sacred a part of their Trust and Depositum These things have been fully opened and enlarged on by others to whom the Reader is referred I shall only desire him to make this Reflection on the state of Christianity at that time The Disputes that were then to be managed with the Heathens against the Deifying or Worshipping of Men and those extravagant Fables concerning the Genealogies of their Heroes and Gods must have obliged the Christians rather to have silenced and supprest the Doctrine of the Trinity than to have owned and published it So that nothing but their being assured that it was a Necessary and Fundamental Article of their Faith could have led them to own it in so publick a manner since the Advantages that the Heathen would have taken from it must be too visible not to be soon observed The Heathens retorted upon them their Doctrine of a Man's being a God and of God's having a Son And every one who engaged in this Controversy framed such Answers to these Objections as he thought he could best maintain This as it gave the Rise to the Errors which some brought into the Church so it furnishes us with a Copious Proof of the common Sense of the Christians of those Ages who all agreed in general to the Doctrine though they had many different and some very Erroneous ways of explaining it among them I now come to the special Proofs concerning each of the Three Persons But there being other Articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghost the Proofs of these Two will belong more properly to the Explanation of those Articles Therefore all that belongs to this Article is to prove that the Father is truly God but that needs not be much insisted on for there is no dispute about it None deny that he is God many think that he is so truly God that there is no other that can be called God besides him unless it be in a larger sense of the word And therefore I will here conclude all that seems necessary to be said on this first Article on which if I have dwelt the longer it was because the stating the Idea of God right being the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the Key into every part of it this was to be done with all the Fulness and Clearness possible In a word to recapitulate a little what has been said The liveliest way of framing an Idea of God is to consider our own Souls which are said to be made after the Image of God An attentive Reflection on what we perceive in our selves will carry us further than any other thing whatsoever to form just and true Thoughts of God We perceive what Thought is but
belong'd to it but challenging a great many that were flatly denied and rejected Such as the right of receiving Appeals from the African Churches in which reiterated Instances and a bould Claim upon a Spurious Canon pretended to be of the Council of Nice were long pursued but those Churches asserted their Authority of ending all matters within themselves In all this Contest Infallibility was never claimed no more than it had been by Victor when he excommunicated the Asian Churches for observing Easter on the Fourteenth Day of the Moon and not on the Lord's-Day after according to the Custon of the Roman as well as of other Churches When Pope Stephen quarrelled with St. Cyprian about the rebaptizing of Hereticks Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24 25. Cypr. Ep. 74 75. Firmil Con. Sard. C. 3 7. Cyprian and Firmilian were so far from submitting to his Authority that they speak of him with a freedom used by Equals and with severity that shewed they were far from thinking him Infallible When the whole East was distracted with the Disputes occasioned by the Arian Controversy there was so much Partiality in all their Councils that it was decreed That Appeals should be made to Pope Iulius and afterwards to his Successors though here was an occasion given to assert this Infallibility if it had been thought on yet none ever spoke of it Great Reverence was paid to that Church both because they believed it was founded by St. Peter and St. Paul and chiefly because it was the Imperial City for we see that all other Sees had that degree of Dignity given them which by the Constitution of the Roman Empire was lodged in their Cities And so when Byance was made the Imperial City and called New Rome though more commonly Constantinople it had a Patriarchal Dignity bestowed on it and was in all things declared equal to Old Rome only the point of Rank and Order excepted This was decreed in two General Councils the Second and the Fourth Con. Constant Can. 3. Con. Chalced C 28. in so express a manner that it alone before equitable Judges would fully shew the Sense of the Church in the Fourth and Fifth Century upon this Head When Pope Liberius condemned Athanasius and subscribed to Semi-Arianism this was never considered as a New Decision in that matter so that it altered the the state of it No use was made of it nor was any Argument drawn from it Liberius was universally condemned for what he done and when he repented of it and retracted it he was again owned by the Church We have in the Sixth Century a most undeniable Instance of the Sense of the whole Church in this matter Pope Honorius was by the Sixth General Council condemned as a Monothelite and this in the presence of the Popes Legates and he was anathematized by several of the succeeding Popes It is to no purpose here to examine whether he was justly or unjustly condemned it is e nough that the Sense both of the Eaâ—tern and Western Church appeared evidently in that Age upon these two Points That a Pope might be a Heretick and that being such he might be held accursed for it Con. Sinuess An. 303. Tom. 1. Conc. And in that time there was not any one that suggested that either he could not fall into Heresy since our Saviour had prayed that St. Peter's Faith might not fail or that if he had fallen into it he must be left to the Judgment of God but that the Holy See according to the Fable of P. Marcellin could be judged by no body The Confusions that followed for some Ages in the Western Parts of Europe more particularly in Italy gave occasion to the Bishops of Rome to extend their Authority The Emperors at Constantinople and their Exarchs at Ravenna studied to make them sure to their Interests yet still asserting their Authority over them The new Conquerors studied also to gain them to their side and they managed their matter so dextrously that they went on still increasing and extending their Authority till being much straitned by the Kings of the Lombards they were protected by a new Conquering Family that arose in France in the Eighth Century who to give Credit both to their Usurpation of that Crown and to the extending their Dominions into Italy and the assuming the Empire of the West did both protect and enrich them and enlarged their Authority the greatness of which they reckoned could do them no hurt as long as they kept the Confirmation of their Election to themselves That Family became quickly too feeble to hold that Power long and then an Imposture was published of a Volume of the Decretal Epistles of the Popes of the first Ages in which they were represented as acting according to those high Claims to which they were then beginning to pretend Those Ages were too blind and too ignorant to be capable of searching critically into the truth of this Collection it quickly passed for â—urrent and though some in the beginning disputed it yet that was soon born down and the Credit of that Work was established It furnished them with Precedents that they were careful enough not only to follow but to outdo Thus a Work which is now as universally rejected by the Learned Men of their own Body as spurious as it was then implicity taken for genuine gave the chief Foundation during many Ages to their unbounded Authority And this furnishes us with a very just Prejudice against it That it was managed with so much Fraud and Imposture to which they added afterwards much Cruelty and Violence the two worst Characters possible and the least likely to be found joined with Infallibility For it is reasonable enough to apprehend that if God had lodged such a Privilege any where that he would have so influenced those who were the Depositaries of it that they should have appeared somewhat like that Authority to which they laid Claim and that he would not have forsaken them so that for above Eight hundred Years the Papacy as it is represented by their own Writers is perhaps the worst Succession of Men that is to be found in History But now to come more close to prove what is here asserted in this part of the Article If all those Doctrines which were established at Trent and that have been confirmed by Popes and most of them brought into a new Creed and made parts of it are found to be gross Errors or if but any one of them should be found to be an Error then there is no doubt to be made but that the Church of Rome hath erred So the Proof brought against every one of these is likewise a proof against their Infallibility But I shall here give one Instance of an Error which will not be denied by the greater part of the Church of Rome They have now for above Six hundred Years asserted That they had an Authority over Princes not only to convict and
publickly but the Inconveniences of that appearing and particularly many of those sins being Capital instead of a publick there was a private Confession practised The Bishops either attended upon these themselves or they appointed a Penitentiary Priest to receive them All was in order to the executing the Canons and for keeping up the Discipline of the Church Bishops were warranted by the Council of Nice to excuse the severity of the Canons as the occasion should require The Penitents went through the Penance imposed which was done publickly the Separation and Penance being visible even when the sin was kept secret and when the time of the Penance was finished they received the Penitents by Prayer and Imposition of Hands into the Communion of the Church and so they were received This was all the Absolution that was known during the first Six Centuries Penitents were enjoyned to publish such of their secret Sins as the Penitentiary Priest did prescribe This happened to give great Scandal at Constantinople Socr. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. when Nectarius was Bishop there for a Woman being in a Course of Penance confessed publickly that she had been guilty of Adultery committed with a Deacon in the Church It seems by the Relation that the Historian gives of this matter that she went beyond the Injunctions given her but whether the fault was in her or in the Penitentiary Priest this gave such offence Thirteen Passages out of him cited and explained by Daille de Conf. l. 4. c. 25. that Nectarius broke that Custom And Chrysostom who came soon after him to that See speaks very fully against secret Confession and advises Christians to confess only to God yet the practice of secret Confession was kept up elsewhere but it appears by a vast number of Citations from the Fathers both in different Ages and in the different Corners of the Church that though they pressed Confession much and magnified the value of it highly yet they never urged it as necessary to the Pardon of Sin or as a Sacrament they only prest it as a mean to compleat the Repentance and to give the Sinner an Interest in the Prayers of the Church This may be positively affirmed concerning all the Quotations that are brought in this matter to prove that Auricular Confession is necessary in order to the Priest's Pardon and that it is founded on those Words of Christ Whose sins ye remit c. that they prove quite the contrary that the Fathers had not the sense of it but considered it either as a mean to help to the compleating of Repentance or as a mean to maintain the Purity of the Christian Church and the Rigour of Discipline In the Fifth Century a Practice begun which was no small step to the ruin of the Order of the Church Penitents were suffered instead of the Publick Penance that had been formerly enjoyned to do it secretly in some Monastery or in any other private place in the presence of a few good Men and that at the discretion of the Bishop or the Confessor at the end of which Absolution was given in secret This was done to draw what Professions of Repentance they could from such Persons who would not submit to settled Rules This Temper was found neither to lose them quite nor to let their Sins pass without any Censure But in the Seventh Century all Publick Penance for secret Sins was taken quite away Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury is reckoned the first of all the Bishops of the Western Church that did quite take away all publick Penance for secret Sins Another piece of the ancient Severity was also slackned for they had never allowed Penance to Men that had relapsed into any sin tho' they did not cut them off from all hope of the Mercy of God yet they never gave a second Absolution to the Relapse This the Church of Rome has still kept up in one Point which is Heresy a Relapse being delivered to the Secular Arm without admitting him to Penance The Ancients did indeed admit such to Penance but they never reconciled them Yet in the decay of Discipline Absolution came to be granted to the Relapse as well as to him that had sinned but once About the end of the Eighth Century the Commutation of Penance began and instead of the ancient Severities Vocal Prayers came to be all that was enjoyned so many Paters stood for so many Days of fasting and the rich were admitted to buy off their Penance under the decenter Name of giving Alms. The getting many Masses to be said was thought a Devotion by which God was so much honoured that the Commuting Penance for Masses was much practised Pilgrimages and Wars came on afterwards and in the Twelfth Century the Trade was set up of selling Indulgences By this it appears that Confession came by several steps into the Church that in the first Ages it was not heard of that the Apostacies in time of Persecution gave the first rise to it all which demonstrates that the Primitive Church did not consider it as a thing appointed by Christ to be the Matter of a Sacrament It may be in the Power of the Church to propose Confession as a mean to direct Men in their Repentance to humble them deeper for their Sins and to oblige them to a greater strictness But to enjoyn it as necessary to obtain the Pardon of Sin and to make it an indispensable Condition and indeed the most indispensable of all the parts of Repentance is beyond the Power of the Church for since Christ is the Mediator of this New Covenant he alone must fix the necessary Conditions of it In this more than in any thing else we must conclude that the Gospel is express and clear and therefore so hard a Condition as this is cannot be imposed by any other Authority The Obligation to Auricular Confession is a thing to which Mankind is naturally so little disposed to submit and it may have such consequences on the Peace and Order of the World that we have reason to believe that if Christ had intended to have made it a necessary part of Repentance he would have declared it in express Words and not have left it so much in the dark that those who assert it must draw it by Inferences from those Words Whose Sins ye remit c. Some things are of such a nature that we may justly conclude that either they are not at all required or that they are commanded in plain terms As for the good or evil Effects that may follow on the obliging Men to a strictness in Confession that does not belong to this matter If it is acknowledged to be only a Law of the Church other considerations are to be examined about it but if it is pretended to be a Law of God and a part of a Sacrament we must have a Divine Institution for it otherwise all the advantages that can possibly be imagined in it without that are only so many
doing that may draw others who have not such clear Notions to do it after his Example they being still in doubt as to the Lawfulness of it then he gives Scandal that is he lays a stumbling-block in their way if he does it unless he lies under an Obligation from some of the Laws of God or of the Society to which he belongs to do it In that case he is bound to obey and he must not then consider the Consequences of his Actions of which he is only bound to take care when he is left to himself and is at full liberty to do or not to do as he pleases This explains the Notion of Scandal as it is used in the Epistles For there being several doubts raised at that time concerning the Lawfulness or Obligation of observing the Mosaical Law and concerning the Lawfulness of eating Meats offered to Idols no general Decision was made that went through that matter the Apostles having only decreed that the Mosaical Law was not to be imposed on the Gentiles but not having condemned such as might of their own accord have observed some parts of that Law Scruples arose about this and so here they gave great Caution against the laying a Stumbling-block in the way of their Brethren Ver. 13. But it is visible from this that the fear of giving Scandal does only take place where matters are free and may be done or not done But when Laws are made and an Order is settled the fear of giving Scandal lies all on the side of Obedience For a man of weight and Authority when he does not obey gives Scruples and Jealousies to others who will be apt to collect from his Practice that the thing is unlawful He who does not conform himself to settled Orders gives occasion to others who see and observe him to imitate him in it and thus he lays a Scandal or Stumbling-block in their way and all the sins which they commit through their excessive Respect to him and imitation of him are in a very high degree to be put to his account who gave them such occasion of falling The Second Branch of this Article is against the Unalterableness of Laws made in matters indifferent and it asserts the Right of every National Church to take care of it self That the Laws of any one Age of the Church cannot bind another is very evident from this That all Legislature is still entire in the hands of those who have it The Laws of God do bind all men at all times but the Laws of the Church as well as the Laws of every State are only Provisions made upon the present state of things from the fitness or unfitness that appears to be in them for the great Ends of Religion or for the Good of Mankind All these things are subject to alteration therefore the Power of the Church is in every Age entire and is as great as it was in any one Age since the days in which she was under the Conduct of men immediately Inspired So there can be no unalterable Laws in matters indifferent In this there neither is nor can be any Controversy An obstinate adhering to things only because they are antient when all the ends for which they were at first introduced do cease is the limiting the Church in a point in which she ought still to preserve her Liberty She ought still to pursue those great Rules in all her Orders of doing all things to Edification with Decency and for Peace The only question that can be made in this matter is Whether such general Laws as have been made by greater Bodies by General Councils for instance or by those Synods whose Canons were received into the Body of the Canons of the Catholick Church whether these I say may be altered by National Churches Or whether the Body of Christians is so to be reckoned one Body that all the Parts of it are bound to submit in matters indifferent to the Decrees of the Body in general It is certain that all the Parts of the Catholick Church ought to hold a Communion one with another and mutual Commerce and Correspondence together but this difference is to be observed between the Christian and the Iewish Religion that the one was tied to one Nation and to one place whereas the Christian Religion is universal to be spread to all Nations among People of different Climates and Languages and of different Customs and Tempers and therefore since the Power in indifferent matters is given the Church only in order to Edification every Nation must be the proper Judg of that within it self The Roman Empire though a great Body yet was all under one Government and therefore all the Councils that were held while that Empire stood are to be considered only as National Synods under one Civil Policy The Christians of Persia India or Ethiopia were not subject to the Canons made by them but were at full liberty to make Rules and Canons for themselves And in the Primitive Times we see a vast diversity in their Rules and Rituals They were so far from imposing general Rules on all that they left the Churches at full liberty Even the Council of Nice made very few Rules That of Constantinople and Ephesus made fewer And though the Abuses that were growing in the Fifth Century gave occasion to the Council of Calcedon to make more Canons yet the number of these is but small so that the Tyranny of subjecting particular Churches to Laws that might be inconvenient for them was not then brought into the Church The Corruptions that did afterwards overspread the Church together with the Papal Usurpations and the New Canon Law that the Popes brought in which was totally different from the old one had worn out the remembrance of all the Antient Canons so it is not to be wondred at if they were not much regarded at the Reformation They were quite out of practice and were then scarce known And as for the Subordination of Churches and Sees together with the Privileges and Exemptions of them these did all flow from the Divisions of the Roman Empire into Dioceses and Provinces out of which the Dignity and the Dependances of their Cities did arise But now that the Roman Empire is gone and that all the Laws which they made are at an end with the Authority that made them it is a vain thing to pretend to keep up the Antient Dignities of Sees since the Foundation upon which that was built is sunk and gone Every Empire Kingdom or State is an entire Body within it self The Magistrate has that Authority over all his Subjects that he may keep them all at home and hinder them from entring into any Consultations or Combinations but such as shall be under his Direction He may require the Pastors of the Church under him to consult together about the best methods for carrying on the Ends of Religion but neither he nor they can be bound to stay for
the Scriptures Ibid. The Form of Swearing among the Jews 394 Our Saviour's words and St. James's against all Swearing explained 395 When Oaths may be lawfully taken 396 The End of the Table of the Contents AN EXPOSITION OF THE XXXIX ARTICLES OF THE Church of England TITLE Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishops and Byshops of both Provinces and the whole Cleargie in the Convocation holden at London in the yeare of our Lorde GOD 1562. according to the computation of the Church of Englande for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion Put forth by the Queens authoritie The INTRODUCTION THE Title of these Articles leads me to consider 1. The Time the Occasion and the Design of Compiling them 2 dly The Authority that is stampt upon them both by Church and State and the Obligation that lies upon all of our Communion to Assent to them and more particularly the Importance of the Subscription to which the Clergy are obliged As to the 1 st It may seem somewhat strange to see such a Collection of Tenets made the Standard of the Doctrine of a Church that is deservedly valued by reason of her Moderation This seems to be a departing from the Simplicity of the First Ages which yet we pretend to set up for a Pattern In those times the owning the Belief of the Creeds then received was thought sufficient And when some Heresies had occasioned great Enlargements to be made in the Creeds the Third General Council thought fit to set a Bar against all further Additions and yet all those Creeds one of which goes far beyond the Ephesine Standard make but One Article of the Thirty nine of which this Book consists Many of these do also relate to subtile and abstruse Points in which it is not easy to form a clear Judgment and much less can it be convenient to Impose so great a Collection of Tenets upon a whole Church to Excommunicate such as affirm any of them to be erroneous and to reject those from the Service of the Church who cannot Assent to every one of them The Negative Articles of No Infallibility No Supremacy in the Pope No Transubstantiation No Purgatory and the like give yet a further Colour to Exceptions since it may seem that it was enough not to have mentioned these which implied a tacit rejecting of them It may therefore appear to be too rigorous to require a positive condemning of those Points for a very high degree of Certainty is required to affirm a Negative Proposition In order to the explaining this matter it is to be confessed that in the beginnings of Christianity the Declaration that was required even of a Bishop's Faith was conceived in very general Terms There was a Form setled very early in most Churches This St. Paul in one place calls The Form of Doctrine that was delivered in another place The Form of Sound Words Rom. 6.17 1 Tim. 4.6 6 3. 2 Tim. 1.13 which those who were fixed by the Apostles in particular Churches had received from them These words of his do import a Standard or fixed Formulary by which all Doctrines were to be examined Some have inferred from them that the Apostles delivered that Creed which goes under their Name every where in the same Form of Words But there is great reason to doubt of this since the first Apologists for Christianity when they deliver a short Abstract of the Christian Faith do all vary from one another both as to the Order and as to the Words themselves which they would not have done if the Churches had all received one setled Form from the Apostles They would all have used the same Words and neither more nor less It is more probable That in every Church there was a Form setled which was delivered to it by some Apostle or Companion of the Apostles with some Variation of which at this distance of time considering how defective the History of the First Ages of Christianity is it is not possible nor very necessary for us to be able to give a clear Account For Instance In the whole Extent or Neighbourhood of the Roman Empire it was at first of great Use to have this in every Christian's mouth That our Saviour suffered under Pontius Pilate because this fixed the Time and carried in it an Appeal to Records and Evidences that might then have been searched for But if this Religion went at first far to the Eastward beyond all Commerce with the Romans there is not that reason to think that this should have been a part of the shortest Form of this Doctrine it being enough that it was related in the Gospel These Forms of the several Churches were preserved with that Sacred Respect that was due to them This was esteemed the Depositum or Trust of a Church which was chiefly committed to the keeping of the Bishop In the First Ages in which the Bishops or Clergy of the several Churches could not meet together in Synods to examine the Doctrine of every new Bishop the Method upon which the Circumstances of those Ages put them was this The New Bishop sent round him and chiefly to the Bishops of the more Eminent Sees the Profession of his Faith according to the Form that was fixed in his Church And when the Neighbouring Bishops were satisfied in this they held Communion with him and not only owned him for a Bishop but maintained such a Commerce with him as the state of that Time did admit of But as some Heresies sprung up there were Enlargements made in several Churches for the condemning those and for excluding such as held them from their Communion The Council of Nice examined many of those Creeds and out of them they put their Creed in a fuller Form The Addition made by the Council of Constantinople was put into the Creeds of some particular Churches several Years before that Council met So that though it received its Authority from that Council yet those Fathers rather confirmed an Article which they found in the Creeds of some Churches than made a New one It had been an unvaluable Blessing if the Christian Religion had been kept in its first Simplicity The Council of Ephesus took care that the Creed by which men profess their Christianity should receive no new Additions but be fixed according to the Constantinoplitan Standard yet they made Decrees in Points of Faith and the following Councils went on in their steps adding still new Decrees with Anathematisms against the contrary Doctrines and declaring the Asserters of them to be under an Anathema that is under a very heavy Curse of being totally excluded from their Communion and even from the Communion of Jesus Christ. And whereas the New Bishops had formerly only declared their Faith they were then required besides that to declare That they received such Councils and rejected such Doctrines together with such as favoured them who were sometimes meâ—tioned by
therefore to such Arguments as may be well insisted upon and maintained The Canon of the New Testament as we now have it is fully proved from the Quotations out of the Books of the New Testament by the Writers of the First and Second Centuries such as Clemens Ignatius Iustin Irenaeus and several others Papias who conversed with the Disciples of the Apostles is cited by Eusebius in confirmation of St. Matthew's Gospel which he says was writ by him in Hebrew Lib. 3. Hist. c 39. c. 25. He is also cited to prove that St. Mark writ his Gospel from St. Peter's Preaching which is also confirmed by Clemens of Alexandria not to mention later Writers Irenaeus says St. Luke writ his Gospel according to St. Paul's Preaching Eus. l. 2. Hist. c. 15. which is supported by some Words in St. Paul's Epistles that relate to Passages in that Gospel yet certainly he had likewise other Vouchers those who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word though the whole might receive its full Authority from St. Paul's Approbation St. Iohn writ later than the other Three so the Testimonies concerning his Gospel are the fullest and the most particular Lib. 3. cap. 11. Irenaeus has laboured the Proof of this matter with much Care and Attention He lived within an Hundred years to St. Iohn and knew Policarp that was one of his Disciples After him come Tertullian and Origen who speak very copiously of the Four Gospels Tert. l. 4. cont Mar. cap. 1. Orig. apud Eus. lib. 6. cap. 25. and from them all the Ecclesiastical Writers have without any doubting or Controversy acknowledged and cited them without the least shadow of any Opposition except what was made by Marcion and the Manichees Next to these Authorities we appeal to the Catalogues of the Books of the New Testament that are given us in the Third and Fourth Centuries by Origen a Man of great Industry and that had examined the State of many Churches by St. Athanasius by the Council of Laodicea and Carthage Athan. in Synops. Conc. cap. 60. Carth. 3. c. 47. and after these we have a constant Succession of Testimonies that do deliver these as the Canon universally received All this laid together does fully prove this Point and that the more clearly when these Particulars are considered 1. That the Books of the New Testament were read in all their Churches and at all their Assemblies so that this was a Point in which it was not easy for men to mistake 2 dly That this was so near the Fountain that the Originals themselves of the Apostles were no doubt so long preserved 3 dly That both the Iews as appears from Iustin Martyr and the Gentiles Dial. cum Trypho as appears by Celsus knew that these were the Books in which the Faith of the Christians was contained 4 thly That some question was made touching some of them because there was not that clear or general knowledge concerning them that there was concerning the others yet upon fuller enquiry all acquiesced in them No doubt was ever made about Thirteen of St. Pauls Epistles because there were particulaâ— Churches or Persons to whom the Originals of them were directed Tertul. de Presc cap. â—6 But the Strain and Design of that to the Hebrews being to remove their Prejudices that high one which they had taken up against St. Paul as an Enemy to their Nation was to be kept out of view that it might not blast the good Effects which were intended by it yet it is cited oftner than once by Clemens of Rome And though the Ignorance of many of the Roman Church who thought that some Passages in it favoured the Severity of the Novatians Orig. Ep. ad African Orig. Exhort ad Martyr Eusec Hist. lib. 6. c. 20. Hieron Ep. ad Dardan Cyr. Catech 4. that cut off Apostates from the hopes of Repentance made them question it of which mention is made both by Origen Eusebius and Ierome who frequently affirm that the Latin Church or the Roman did not receive it yet Athanasius reckons both this and the Seven General Epistles among the Canonical Writings Cyril of Ierusalem who had occasion to be well informed about it says that he delivers his Catalogue from the Church as she had received it from the Apostles the Ancient Bishops and the Governors of the Church and reckons up in it both the Seven General Epistles and the Fourteen of St. Paul So does Ruffin and so do the Councils of Laodicea and Carthage Apud Hieron Tom. 4. the Canons of the former being received into the Body of the Canons of the Universal Church Can. 60. Can. 47. Irenaeus Origen and Clemens of Alexandria cite the Epistle to the Hebrews frequently Some question was made of the Epistle of St. Iames Iren. l. 3. c. 38. Orig. l. 3. 7. con Cels. Dial. con Marc. Ep. ad Afric Clem. Alex. Ignat. Ep. ad Ephe. Orig. Hom. 13. in Genes Eus. Hist. l. 2. c. 22. l. 3. c· 24 27. Hieron Pref. in Ep. Jac. Orig. cont Marcion Firmil Ep. 75. ap Cypr. Eus. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. the Second of St. Peter the Second and Third of St. Iohn and St. Iude's Epistle But both Clemens of Rome Ignatius and Origen cite St. Iame's Epistle Eusebius says it was known to most and read in most Christian Churches The like is testified by St. Ierom. St. Peter's Second Epistle is cited by Origen and Firmilian and Eusebius says it was held very useful even by those who held it not Canonical But since the First Epistle was never questioned by any the Second that carries so many Characters of its Genuineness such as St. Peter's Name at the Head of it the mention of the Transfiguration and of his being an Eye-witness of it Iren. l. 1. c. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. Tertul. de Carne Chr. c. 24. Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 24. Tertul. de cultu faem are evident Proofs of its being writ by him The Second and Third Epistles of St. Iohn are cited by Irenaeus Clemens and Dennis of Alexandria and by Tertullian The Epistle of St. Iude is also cited by Tertullian Some of those General Epistles were not addressed to any particular Body or Church that might have preserved the Originals of them but were sent about in the nature of Circular Letters so that it is no wonder if they were not received so early and with such an Unanimity as we find concerning the Four Gospel's the Acts of the Apostles and Thirteen of St. Paul's Epistles These being first fixed upon by an unquestioned and undisputed Tradition made that here was a Standard once ascertained to judge the better of the rest So when the matter was strictly examined so near the Fountain that it was very possible and easy to find out the Certainty of it then in the beginning of the Fourth Century the Canon was settled and universally agreed to
Testimony that Christ and his Apostles gave to those Books as they were then received by the Iewish Church to whom were committed the Oracles of God Now it is not so much as pretended that ever these Books were received among the Iews or were so much as known to them None of the Writers of the New Testament cite or mention them neither Philo nor Iosephus speak of them Iosephus on the contrary says they had only 22 Books that deserved belief but that those which were written after the time of Artaxerxes were not of equal credit with the rest And that in that Period they had no Prophets at all The Christian Church was for some Ages an utter Stranger to those Books Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to give him a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament took a Journey on purpose to the East to examine this matter at its Source And having as he says made an exact Enquiry he sent him the Names of them just as we receive the Canon of which Eusebius says that he has preserved it Euseb. hist l. 4. c. 26. because it contained all those Books which the Church owned Origen gives us the same Catalogue according to the Tradition of the Iews who divided the Old Testament into 22 Books In Psal. 1. according to the Letters of their Alphabet Athanasius reckons them up in the same manner to be 22 and he more distinctly says that he delivered those In Synop. as they had received them by Tradition In Eppasch and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ because some presumed to mix Apocryphal Books with the Divine Scriptures And therefore he was set on it by the Orthodox Brethren in order to declare the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition and believed to be of Divine Inspiration It is true he adds That besides these there were other Books which were not put into the Canon but yet were appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who first come to be instructed in the way of Piety And then he reckons up most of the Apocryphal Books Here is the first mention we find of them as indeed it is very probable they were made at Alexandria by some of those Iews who lived there in great Numbers Both Hilary and Cyril of Ierusalem give us the same Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the Tradition of the Ancients Cyril says That all other Books are to be put in a Second Order Catech. 4. Gregory Nazienzen reckons up the 22 Books and adds that none besides them are genuine The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Ierom in several of his Prefaces And that which should determine this whole matter is Can. 59. and 60. That the Council of Laodicea by an express Canon delivers the Catalogue of the Canonical Books as we do decreeing that these only should be read in the Church Now the Canons of this Council were afterwards received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church so that here we have the concurring sense of the whole Church of God in this matter It is true the Book of the Revelation not being reckoned in it this may be urged to detract from its Authority But it was already proved that that Book was received much Earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures so the design of this Canon being to establish the Authority of those Books that were to be read in the Church the darkness of the Apocalypse making it appear reasonable not to read it publickly that may be the reason why it is not mentioned in it as well as in some later Catalogues Here we have four Centuries clear for our Canon in Exclusion to all Additions It were easy to carry this much further down and to shew that these Books were never by any express definition received into the Canon till it was done at Trent And that in all the Ages of the Church even after they came to be much esteemed there were divers Writers and those generally the most learned of their time who denied them to be a part of the Canon At first many Writings were read in the Churches that were in high reputation both for the sake of the Authors and of the Contents of them though they were never lookt on as a part of the Canon Can. 47. Such were Clemens's Epistle the Books of Hermas the Acts of the Martyrs besides several other things which were read in particular Churches And among these the Apocryphal Books came also to be read as containing some valuable Books of Instruction besides several Fragments of the Iewish History which were perhaps too easily believed to be true These therefore being usually read they came to be reckoned among Canonical Scriptures For this is the reason assigned in the Third Council of Carthage for calling them Canonical because they had received them from their Fathers as Books that were to be read in Churches And the word Canonical was by some in those Ages used in a large sense in opposition to spurious so that it signified no more than that they were genuine So much depends upon this Article that it seemed necessary to dwell fully upon it and to state it clearly It remains only to observe the Diversity between the Articles now Established and those set forth by K. Edward In the latter there was not a Catalogue given of the Books of Scripture nor was there any distinction stated between the Canonical and the Apocryphal Books In those there is likewise a Paragraph or rather a Parenthesis added after the words proved thereby in these words Although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as Pious and conducing unto Order and Decency Which are now left out because the Authority of the Church as to matters of Order and Decency which was only intended to be asserted by this Period is more fully explained and stated in the 35 th Article ARTICLE VII Of the Old Testament The Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil-Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Commonwealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the Obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward's Articles laid together Only the Nineteenth of King Edward's has these words after Moral Wherefore they are not to be heard which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the
all impure Desires being enjoined as indispensably necessary for without holiness no man can see the Lord. And thus every thing relating to this Article is considered and I hope both explained and proved ARTICLE VIII Of the Three Creeds The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture ALthough no doubt seems to be here made of the Names or Designations given to those Creeds except of that which is ascribed to the Apostles yet none of them are named with any exactness Since the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and all that follows it is not in the Nicene Creed but was used in the Church as a part of it for so it is in Epiphanius In Anchoreto before the Second General Council at Constantinople and it was confirmed and established in that Council Only the Article of the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Son was afterwards added first in Spain Anno 447. which spread it self over all the West So that the Creed here called the Nice Creed is indeed the Constantinopolitan Creed together with the Addition of Filioque made by the Western Church That which is called Athanasius's Creed is not his neither â—or as it is not among his Works so that great Article of the Christian Religion having been settled at Nice and he and all the rest of the Orthodox referring themselves always to the Creed made by that Council there is no reason to imagine that he would have made a Creed of his own besides that not only the Macedonian but both the Nestorian and the Eutychian Heresies are expresly condemned by this Creed and yet those Authorities never being urged in those Disputes it is clear from thence that no such Creed was then known in the World as indeed it was never heard of before the Eighth Century and then it was given out as the Creed of Athanasius or as a Representation of his Doctrine and so it grew to be received by the Western Church perhaps the more early because it went under so great a Name in Ages that were not Critical enough to judge of what was genuine and what was spurious There is one great difficulty that arises out of several Expressions in this Câ—â—ed in which it is said That whosover will be saved must believe it That the Belief of it is necessary to Salvation and that such as do not hold it pure and undefiled shall without doubt perish everlastingly Where many Explanations of a Mystery hard to be understood are made indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is affirmed That all such as do not so believe must perish everlastingly To this two Answers are made 1. That it is only the Christian Faith in general that is hereby meant and not every Period and Article of this Creed so that all those severe Expressions are thought to import only the necessity of believing the Christian Religion But this seems forced for the words that follow And the Catholick Faith is do so plainly determine the sâ—gnification of that word to the Explanation that comes after that the word Catholick Faith in the first Verse can be no other than the same word as it is defined in the third and following Verses so that this Answer seems not natural 2. The common Answer in which the most Eminent Men of this Church as far as the Memory of all such as I have known could go up have agreed is this That these Condemnatory Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the Means of Instruction offered to them have rejected them and have stifled their own Convictions holding the Truth in Unrighteousness and chusing darkness rather than light Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ by which God and Man were so united as to make one Person together with the other Doctrines that follow these are those Anathâ—maes denounced Not so as if it were hereby meant that every man who does not believe this in every tittle must certainly perish unless he has been furnished with sufficient means of conviction and that he has rejected them and hardned himself against them The Wrath of God is revealed against all sin and the wages of sin is Death So that every Sinner has the Wrath of God abiding on him and is in a state of Damnation yet a sincere Repentance delivers him out of it even though he lives and dies in some sins of Ignorance which though they may make him liable to damnation so that nothing but true Repentance can deliver him from it yet a general Repentance when it is also special for all known sins does certainly deliver a man from the guilt of unknown sins and from the Wrath of God due to them God only knows our hearts the degrees of our knowledge and the measure of our obstinacy and how far our Ignorance is affected or invincible and therefore he will deal with every man according to what he has received So that we may believe that some Doctrines are necessary to Salvation as well as that there are some Commandments necessary for Practice and we may also believe that some Errors as well as some Sins are exclusive of Salvation all which imports no more than that we believe such things are sufficiently revealed and that they are necessary Conditions of Salvation but by this we do not limit the Mercies of God towards those who are under such darkness as not to be able to see through it and to discern and acknowledge these Truths It were indeed to be wished that some express Declaration to this purpose were made by those who have Authority to do it But in the mean while this being the Sense in which the Words of this Creed are universally taken and it agreeing with the Phraseology of the Scripture upon the like occasions this is that which may be rested upon And allowing this large Explanation of these severe words the rest of this Creed imports no more than the Belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity which has been already proved in treating of the former Articles As for the Creed called the Apostles Creed there is good reason for speaking so doubtfully of it as the Article does since it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them None of the first Writers agree in delivering their Faith in a certain Form of Words every one of them gives an Abstract of his Faith in Words that differ both from one another and from this Form From thence it is clear that there was no common Form delivered to all the Churches And if there had been any Tradition after the Times of the Council of Nice of such a Creed composed by the Apostles the Arians
the subsequent Bull does instead of confirming their Decrees derogate much from them For to pretend to confirm them imports that they wanted that Addition of Authority which destroys the supposition of their Infallibility since what is Infallible cannot be made Stronger And the pretending to add strength to it implies that it is not Infallible Human Constitutions may be indeed so modelled that there must be a joint Concurrence before a Law can be made And though it is the last consent that settles the Law yet the previous consents were necessary steps to the giving it the Authority of a Law And thus it is not to be denied but that as to the Matters of Government the Church may cast her self into such a Model that as by a Decree of the Council of Nice the Bishops of a Province might conclude nothing without the consent of the Metropolitan so another Decree might even limit a General Council to stay for the consent of one or more Patriarchs But this must only take place in Matters of Order and Government which are left to the disposal of the Church but not in Decisions about Matters of Faith For if there is an Infallibility in the Church it must be derived from a special Grant made by Christ to his Church And it must go according to the Nature of that Grant unless it can be pretended that there is a Clause in that Grant empowering the Church to dispose of it and model it at pleasure For if there is no such power as it is plain there is not then Christ's Grant is either to a single person or to the whole Community If to a single Person then the Infallibility is wholly in him and he is to manage it as he thinks best For if he calls a Council it is only an act of his humility and condescension to hear the Opinions of many in different Corners of the Church that so he may know all that comes from all Quarters It may also seem a prudent way to make his Authority to be the more easily born and submitted to since what is gently managed is best obeyed But after all these are only prudential and discreet Methods The Infallibility must be only in him if Christ has by the Grant tied him to such a Succession Whereas on the other hand if the Infallibility is granted to the whole Community or to their Representatives then all the Applications that they may make to any one See must only be in order to the Execution of their Decrees like the Addresses that they make to Princes for the Civil Sanction But still the Infallibility is where Christ put it It rests wholly in their Decision and belongs only to that And any other Confirmation that they desire unless it be restrained singly to the Execution of their Decrees is a Wound given by themselves to their own Infallibility if not a direct disclaiming of it When the Confirmation of the Council is over a new Difficulty arises concerning the receiving the Decrees And here it may be said That if Christ's Grant is to the whole Community so that a Council is only the Authentical Declarer of the Tradition the whole Body of the Church that is possessed of the Tradition and conveys it down must have a right to examine the Decision that the Council has made and so is not bound to receive it but as it finds it to be conformable to Tradition Here it is to be supposed that every Bishop or at the least all the Bishops of any National Church know best the Tradition of their own Church and Nation And so they will have a right to re-examine things after they have been judged in a General Council This will intirely destroy the whole Pretension to Infallibility And yet either this ought to have been done after the Councils at Arimini or the second of Ephesus or else the World must have received Semi-Arianism or Eutychianism implicitly from them It is also no small prejudice against this Opinion That the Church was constituted the Scriptures were received many Heresies were rejected and the Persecutions were gone through in a course of Three Centuries in all which time there was nothing that could pretend to be called a General Council And when the Ages came in which Councils met often neither the Councils themselves who must be supposed to understand their own Authority best nor those who writ in defence of their Decrees who must be supposed to be inclined enough to magnify their Authority being of the same side neither of these I say ever pretended to argue for their Opinions from the Infallibility of those Councils that Decreed them They do indeed speak of them with great Respect as of Bodies of Men that were guided by the Spirit of God And so do we of our Reformers and of those who prepared our Liturgy But we do not ascribe Infallibility to them and no more did they Nor did they lay the stress of their Arguments upon the Authority of such Decisions they knew that the Objection might have been made as strong against them as they could put the Argument for them And therefore they offered to wave the Point and to appeal to the Scripture setting aside the Definitions that had been made in Councils both ways To conclude this Argument If the Infallibility is supposed to be in Councils then the Church may justly apprehend that she has lost it For as there has been no Council that has pretended to that Title now during 130 Years so there is no great probability of our ever seeing another The Charge and Noise the Expectations and Disappointments of that at Trent has Taught the World to expect nothing from one They plainly see that the management from Rome must carry every thing in a Council Neither Princes nor People no nor the Bishops themselves desire or expect to see one The Claim set up at Rome for Infallibility makes the demand of one seem not only needless there but to imply a doubting of their Authority when other methods are lookt after which will certainly be always unacceptable to those who are in possession and act as if they were Infallible Nor can it be apprehended that they will desire a Council to Reform those abuses in Discipline which are all occasioned by that Absolute and Universal Authority of which they are now possessed So by all the Judgments that can be made from the State of Things from the Interests of Men and the last Managemnt at Trent one may without a Spirit of Prophecy conclude That Christendom puts on a new Face there will be no more General Councils And so here Infallibility is at an end and has left the Church at least for a very long Interval It remains that those Passages should be considered that are brought to support this Authority Christ says Tell the Church and if he neglects to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen Mat. 18.17 and a Publican
7. he who will read the History and Acts of the Nicene Council will find enough to incline him to a very bad Opinion both of the Men and of their Doctrine though he were ever so much inclined to think well of them Aquin. To. 1. quaest 25. dispuâ— 54. Sect. 2. After all though that Council laid the Foundation of Image-worship yet the Church of Rome has made great Improvements in it since Those of Nice expressed a detestation of an Image made to represent the Deity they go no higher than the Images of Christ and the Saints whereas since that time the Deity and the Trinity have been represented by Images and Pictures and that not only by connivance but by Authority in the Church of Rome Bellarmine Suarez and others Bellarm. de Imag. l. 2. c. 8. Suarez M. 3. Ysambert de Mist. Incarn ad quaest 25. dis 3. Vasquez in 3 Aquin. disp 103. c. 3. Cajetan in 3. Aquin. quaest 25. A. 3. prove the Lawfulness of such Images from the general practice of the Church Others go further and from the caution given in the Decree of the Council of Trent concerning the Images of God do infer that they are allowed by that Council provided they be decently made Directions are also given concerning the use of the Image of the Trinity in Publick Offices among them In a word all their late Doctors agree That they are lawful and reckon the calling that in question to be not only rashness but an error and such as have held it unlawful to make such Images were especially condemned at Rome December 17. 1690. The varieties of those Images and the boldness of them are things apt to give horror to modest Minds not accustomed to such Attempts It must be acknowledged that the Old Emblematical Images of the Egyptians and the grosser ones now used by the Chineses are much more instructing and much less scandalous Figures Con. Nic. 2. Act. 7. Act. 6. As the Roman Church has gone beyond the Nicene Council in the Images that they allow of so they have also gone beyond them in the degrees of the Worship that they offer to them At Nice the Worship of Images was very positively decreed with Anathema's against those who did it not A bare Honour they reckoned was not enough They thought it was a very valuable Argument that was brought from those words of Christ to the Devil Câ—n. Nâ—c Act. 5. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve that here Service is only appropriated to God but not Worship Among the Acts of Worship they reckon the Oblation of Incense and Lights and the reason given by them for all this is because the Honour of the Image or Type passes to the Original or Prototype So that plain and direct Worship was to terminate on the Image it self Durâ—n in Sâ—nâ—en l. 3. 〈◊〉 9. qu. 〈…〉 15. And Durandus passed for little less than a Heretick because he thought that Images were worshipped only improperly and abusively because at their presence we call to mind the Object represented by them which we worship before the Image as if the Object it self were before us The Council of Nice did plainly assert the direct Worship of Images but they did as positively declare That they meant only that it should be an honorary Adoration and not the true Latria which was only due to God And whatever some Modern Representers and Expositors of the Roman Doctrine may say to soften the harshness of the Worship of Images it is very copiously proved both from the Words of the Council of Nice Con. Nic. Act. 2. and from all the Eminent Writers in that Communion ever from the time of Aquinas Aquin. 3. p. q. 25. Art 3. See to the same purpose Alex. Hales Bonaventure Ricardus de Media villa palud Almans Bâ—el Summa Angelica and mâ—ny more cited by Bishop Stilligfleet 's Defence of the Charge of Idolatry Part. 2. Chap. 2. and of the Modern Schoolmen and Writers of Controversy that direct Worship ought to be offered to the Image it self This reserve of the Latria to God being an evident proof that all inferior Acts of Worship were allowed them But this reserve does no way please the later Writers for Aquinas and many from him do teach that the same Acts and Degrees of Worship which are due to the Original are also due to the Image they think an Image has such a relation to the Original that both ought to be worshipped in the same Act and that to Worship the Image with any other sort of Acts is to Worship it on its own account which they think is Idolatry Whereas others adhering to the Nicene Doctrine think that the Image is to be worshipped with an inferior Degree that otherwise Idolatry must follow So here the danger of Idolatry is threatned of both sides and since one of them must be chosen thus it will follow that let a Man do what he can he must commit Idolatry according to the Opinion of some very Subtile and Learned Men among them The Council of Trent did indeed decline to give a clear Decision in this Matter Con. Trid. Sess. 25. and only decreed that due Worship should be given to Images but did not determine what that due Worship was And though it appears by the Decree that there were Abuses committed among them in that Matter yet they only appoint some Regulations concerning such Images as were to be suffered and that others were to be removed but they left the Divines to fight out the Matter concerning the due Worship that ought to be given to Images They were then in hast and intended to offend no Party and as they would not justifie all that had been said or done concerning the Worship of Images so they would condemn no part of it See Bishop Stillingfleet ut Supra yet they confirmed the Nicene Council and in particular made use of that Maxim of theirs that the Honour of the Type goes to the Prototype Pont. Rom. Ordo ad Recip Imper Rubri and thus they left it as they found it So that the Dispute goes on still as hot as ever The Practice of the Roman Church is express for the Latria to be given to Images and therefore all that write for it do frequently cite that Hymn Crux Ave spes unica auge piis justitiam In benedictione novae Crucis Rogamus te Domine Sancte Pater Omnipotens sempiterne Deus ut digneris benedicere hoc lignum Crucis tuae ut sit Remedium Salutare generi humano sit Soliditas fidei profectus bonorum operum Redemptio animarum sit Solamen protectio ac tutela contra saeva jacula Inimicorum Per Dom. Sanctificetur lignum istud in nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs sancti benedictio illius ligni in quo membra sancta Salvatoris suspensa sunt sit in isto ligno ut
apprehended but by such as have been at the pains to go through one of the ungratefullest pieces of Study that can be well imagined and have read the Productions of those Ages The understanding the Scriptures or Languages or History were not so much as thought on Some affected Homilies or Discantings on the Rituals of the Church full of many very odd Speculations about them are among the best of the Writings of those Times They were easily imposed on by any new Forgery witness the Reception and Authority that was given to the Decretal Epistles of the Popes of the first Three Centuries which for many Ages maintained its credit tho' it was plainly a Forgery of the Eighth Century and was contrived with so little Art that there is not in them colour enough to excuse the ignorance of those that were deceived by it As it is an easie thing to mislead ignorant multitudes so there is somewhat in Incredible Opinions and Stories that is suited to such a state of Mankind and as Men are apt to fancy that they see Sprights especially in the Night so the more of darkness and unconceivableness that there is in an Opinion it is the more properly calculated for such times The Ages that succeeded were not only times of Ignorance but they were also times of much Corruption The Writers of the Fourth and Fifth Century give us dismal Representations of the Corruptions of their times and the scandalous unconstancy of the Councils of those Ages is too evident a proof of what we find said by the Good Men of those days But things fell lower and lower in the succeeding Ages It is an amazing thing that in the very Office of Consecrating Bishops Examinations are ordered concerning those Crimes the very mention of which give horrour De Coitu cum Masculo cum Quadrupedâ—bus The Popes more particularly were such a Succession of Men that as their own Historians have described them nothing in any History can be produced that is like them The Characters they give them are so monstrous that nothing under the authority of unquestioned Writers and the Evidence of the Facts themselves could make them credible But that which makes the Introduction of this Doctrine appear the more probable is that we plainly see the whole Body of the Clergy was every where so Influenced by the management of the Popes that they generally entred into Combinations to subject the Temporalty to the Spiritualty and therefore every Opinion that tended to render the Persons of the Clergy Sacred and to raise their Character high was sure to receive the best entertainment and the greatest incouragement possible Nothing could carry this so far as an Opinion that represented the Priest as having a Character by which with a few words he could make a God The Opinion of Transubstantiation was such an Engine that it being once set on foot could not but meet with a favourable reception from those who were then seeking all possible colours to give credit to their authority and to advance it The numbers of the Clergy were then so great and their contrivances were so well suited to the credulity and superstition of those times that by Visions and wonderful Stories confidently vouched they could easily infuse any thing into weak and giddy Multitudes Besides that the Genius of those Times led them much to the love of Pomp and Shew they had lost the true Power and Beauty of Religion and were willing by outward Appearances to balance or compensate for their great Defects But besides all those general Considerations which such as are acquainted with the History of those Ages know do belong to them in a much higher Degree than is here set forth There are some Specialities that relate to this Doctrine in Particular which will make the Introduction of it appear the more Practicable This had never been condemned in any former Age for as none condemn Errors by Anticipation or Prophesy so the Promoters of it had this Advantage that no formal Decision had been made against them It did also in the outward sound agree with the Words of the Institution and the Phrases generally used of the Elements being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ Outward sound and appearance was enough in Ignorant Ages to hide the Change that was made The step that is made from believing any thing in General with an indistinct and confused Apprehension to a determined way of explaining it is not hard to be brought about The People in General believed that Christ was in the Sacrament and that the Elements were his Body and Blood without troubling themselves to Examine in what Manner all this was done So it was no great step in a dark Age to put a particular Explanation of this upon them And this Change being brought in without any visible Alterations made in the Worship it must needs have passed with the World more easily For in all Times visible Rites are more minded by the People than speculative Points which they consider very little No Alterations were at first made in the Worship the Adoration of the Host and the Processions invented to Honour it came all afterwards Greg. Doâ—râ—t Lib. â— Tit. 42. cap. 10. Honorius IV. who first appointed the Adoration does not pretend to Found it on ancient Practice Only he commands the Priests to tell the People to do it And he at first enjoined only an Inclination of the Head to the Sacrament But his Successor Gregory IX did more resolutely Command it and ordered a Bell to be rung at the Consecration and Elevation to give notice of it that so all those who heard it might kneel and join their Hands and so Worship the Host. The first Controversy about the Manner of the Presence arose incidentally upon the Controversy of Images The Council at Constantinople decreed that the Sacrament was the Image of Christ in which the substance of Bread and Wine remained Those at Nice how furiously soever they fell upon them for calling the Sacrament the Image of Christ yet do no where blame them for saying that the substance of Bread and Wine remained in it For indeed the Opinion of Damascene and of most of the Greek Church was That there was an Assumption of the Bread and Wine into an Vnion with the Body of Christ. The Council of Constantinople brought in their Decision occasionally that being considered as the setled Doctrine of the Church whereas those of Nice did visibly Innovate and Falsify the Tradition For they affirm as Damascene had done before them that the Elements weâ—e called the Antitypes of Christ's Body only before they were consecrated but not after it Which they say none of the Fathers had done This is so notoriously False that no Man can pretend now to justify them in it since there are above twenty of the Fathers that were before them who in plain words call the Elements after Consecration the Figure and Antitype of Christ's
delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme And he ordered that the incestuous person at Corinth should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus Certainly a Vicious indulgence to Sinners is an encouragement to them to live in Sin whereas when others about them try all methods for their Recovery and Mourn for those Sins in which they do perhaps Glory and do upon that withdraw themselves from all Communication with them both in Spirituals and as much as may be in Temporals likewise this is one of the last means that can be used in order to the reclaiming of them Another Consideration is the Peace and the Honour of the Society S. Paul wished that they were cut off that troubled the Churches Gal. 5.12 Great care ought to be taken that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed and to give no occasion to the Enemies of our Faith to reproach us as if we designed to make Parties to promote our own Interests and to turn Religion to a Faction Excusing such as adhere to us in other things though they should break out into the most scandalous Violations of the greatest of all the Commandments of God Such a behaviour towards Excommunicated persons would also have this further good Effect It would give great Authority to that Sentence and fill mens minds with the Awe of it which must be taken off when it is observed that men converse familiarly with those that are under it These Rules are all founded upon the Principles of Societies which as they associate upon some common designs so in order to the pursuing those must have a power to separate themselves from those who depart from them In this Matter there are Extremes of both hands to be avoided Some have thought that because the Apostles have in general declared such persons to be accursed 1 Cor. 16.22 or under an Anathema who preach another Gospel and such as love not the Lord Iesus to be Anathema Maranatha which is generally understood to be a total cutting off never to be admitted till the Lord comes that therefore the Church may still put men under an Anathema for holding such unsound Doctrines as they think make the Gospel to become another in part at least if not in whole and that she may thereupon in imitation of another practice of the Apostles deliver them over unto Satan casting them out of the protection of Christ and abandoning them to the Devil Reckoning that the cutting them off from the Body of Christ is really the exposing them to the Devil who goes about as a Roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour But with what Authority soever the Apostles might upon so great a matter as the changing the Gospel or the not loving the Lord Iesus denounce an Anathema yet the applying this which they used so seldom and upon such great occasions to every Opinion after a Decision is made in it as it has carried on the Notion of the Infallibility of the Church so it has laid a Foundation for much Uncharitableness and many Animosities It has widened Breaches and made them incurable And unless it is certain that the Church which has so decreed cannot err it is a bold assuming of an Authority to which no fallible Body of men can have a Right That delivery unto Satan was visibly an act of a miraculous Power lodged with the Apostles For as they struck some blind or dead so they had an Authority of letting loose Evil Spirits on some to haunt and terrify or to punish and plague them that a desperate Evil might be cured by an extreme Remedy And therefore the Apostles never reckon this among the Standing Functions of the Church Nor do they give any Charge or Directions about it They used it themselves and but seldom It is true that S. Paul being carried by a just zeal against the Scandal which the incestuous person at Corinth had cast upon the Christian Religion did adjudg him to this severe degree of Censure But he judged it and did only order the Corinthians to publish it as coming from him with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ That so the thing might become the more publick and that the effects of it might be the more conspicuous The Primitive Church that being nearest the Fountain did best understand the Nature of Church-Power and the Effects of her Censures thought of nothing in this matter but of denying to suffer Apostates or rather scandalous persons to mix with the rest in the Sacrament or in other parts of Worship They admitted them upon the profession of their Repentance by an imposition of Hands to share in some of the more general parts of the Worship and even in these they stood by themselves and at a distance from the rest And when they had passed through several Degrees in that state of Mourning they were by steps received back again to the Communion of the Church This agrees well with all that was said formerly concerning the Nature and the Ends of Church-Power Which was given for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10.8 This is suitable to the designs of the Gospel both for preserving the Society pure and for reclaiming those who are otherwise like to be carried away by the Devil in his snare This is to admonish Sinners as Brethren and not to use them as Enemies Whereas the other method looks like a power that designs Destruction rather than Edification especially when the Secular Arm is called in and that Princes are required under the Penalties of Deposition and losing their Dominions to extirpate and destroy and that by the cruellest sort of Death all those whom the Church doth so Anathematize We do not deny but that the form of denouncing or declaring Anathemas against Heresies and Hereticks is very Antient. It grew to be a Form expressing horror and was applied to the Dead as well as to the Living It was understood to be a cutting such Persons off from the Communion of the Church if they were still alive they were not admitted to any Act of Worship if they were dead their Names were not to be read at the Altar among those who were then commemorated But as heat about Opinions encreased and some lesser matters grew to be more valued then the weightier things both of Law and Gospel so the adding Anathemas to every point in which men differed from one another grew to be a common practice and swelled up at last to such a pitch that in the Council of Trent a whole Body of Divinity was put into Canons and an Anathema was fastened to every one of them The delivering to Satan was made the common Form of Excommunication an Act of Apostolical Authority being made a Precedent for the standing practice of the Church Great Subtilties were also set on foot concerning the force and
Saviour's words Ibid. The discourse Joh. 6. explained 312 It can only be understood spiritually 313 Bold Figures much used in the East Ibid. A plain thing needs no great proof 314 Of unworthy Receivers and the effect of that sin 315 Of the effects of worthy receiving Ibid. Of Foederal Symbols 316 Of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Ibid. Of the like Phrases in Scripture 317 Of our Sense of the Phrase Real Presence Ib. Transubstantiation explained 318 Of the words of Consecration 319 Of the Consequences of Transubstantiation Ibid. The grounds upon which it was believed 320 This is contrary to the Testimony of all our Faculties both Sense and Reason Ibid. We can be sure of nothing if our Senses do deceive us 321 The Objection from believing Mysteries answered 322 The end of all Miracles considered Ibid. Our Doctrine of a Mystical Presence is confessed by those of the Church of Rome 323 St. Austin's Rule about Figures Ibid. Presumptions concerning the belief of the Ancients in this matter 324 They had not that Philosophy which this Doctrine has forced on the Church of Rome 325 This was not objected by Heathens 326 No Heresies or Disputes arose upon this as they did on all other Points 327 Many new Rituals unknown to them have sprung out of this Doctrine Ibid. In particular the adoring the Sacrament 328 Prayers in the Masses of the Saints inconsistent with it Ibid. They believed the Elements were Bread and Wine after Consecration Ibid. Many Authorities brought for this 329 Eutychians said Christ's Humanity was swallowed of his Divinity 330 The Fathers argue against this from the Doctrine of the Eucharist Ibid. The Force of that Argument explained 331 The Fathers say our Bodies are nourished by the Sacrament Ibid. They call it the Type Sign and Figure of the Body and Blood of Christ 332 The Prayer of Consecration calls it so 333 That compared with the Prayer in the Missal Ibid. The progress of the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence 334 Reflection on the Ages in which it grew 335 The occasion on which it was advanced in the Eastern Church 336 Paschase Radbert taught it first 337 But many wrote against him Ibid. Afterwards Berengarius opposed it 338 The Schoolmen descanted on it Ibid. Philosophy was corrupted to support it 339 Concerning Consubstantiation Ibid. It is an Opinion that may be born with 340 The Adoration of the Eucharist is Idolatry Ibid. The Plea against that considered Ibid. Christ is not to be worshipped though present 341 Concerning reserving the Sacrament Ibid. Concerning the Elevation of it 342 ARTICLE XXIX 343 THE wicked do not receive Christ Ibid. The Doctrine of the Fathers in this Point Ibid. More particularly St. Austin's 344 ARTICLE XXX 345 THE Chalice was given to all Ibid. Not to the Disciples as Priests Ibid. The breaking of Bread explained 346 Sacraments must be given according to the Institution Ibid. Nâ— Arguments from ill consequences to be admitted unless in cases of necessity 347 Concomitance a new Notion Ibid. Vniversal practice for giving the Chalice Ibid. The case of the Agrarii 348 The first beginning of taking away the Cup Ibid. The Decree of the Council of Constance 349 ARTICLE XXXI 350 THE term Sacrifice of a large signification Ibid. The Primitive Christians denied that they had any Sacrifices Ibid. The Eucharist has no virtue but as it is a Communion 351 Strictly speaking there is only one Priest and one Sacrifice in the Christian Religion 352 The Fathers did not think the Eucharist was a Propitiatory Sacrifice 353 But call it a Sacrafice in a larger sense Ibid. Mâ—sses without a Communion not known then 354 None might be at Mass who did not communicate Ibid. The Importance of the Controversies concerning the Eucharist 355 ARTICLE XXXII 356 NO Divine Law against a Married Clergy Ibid. Neither in the Old or New Testament but the contrary 357 The Church has not Power to make a perpetual Law against it Ibid. The ill consequences of such a Law 358 No such Law in the first Ages Ibid. When the Laws for the Celibate began 359 The practice of the Church not uniform in it Ibid. The progress of these Laws in England 360 The good and the bad of Celibate balanced Ibid. It is not lawful to make Vows in this matter 361 Nor do they bind when made Ibid. Oaths ill made are worse to be kept 362 ARTICLE XXXIII 363 A Temper to be observed in Church Discipline Ibid. The necessity of keeping it up Ibid. Extremes in this to be avoided 364 Concerning the delivering any to Satan Ibid. The Importance of an Anathemea 365 Of the effect of Church-Censures Ibid. What it is when they are wrong applied 366 The causless jealousy of Church-Power Ibid. How the Laity was once taken into the exercise of it 367 The Pastors of the Church have Authority Ibid. Defects in this no just cause of Separation 368 All these brought in by Popery Ibid. A Correction of them intended at the Reformation 369 ARTICLE XXXIV 370 THE Obligation to obey Canons and Laws Ibid. The great Sin of Schism and Disobedience 371 The true Notion of Scandal Ibid. The fear of giving Scandal no warrant to break established Laws 372 Human Laws are not unalterable Ibid. The Respect due to Ancient Canons 373 The Corruptions of the Canon Law Ibid. Great Varieties in Rituals Ibid. Every Church is a compleat Body 374 ARTICLE XXXV 375 THE occasion of compiling the Homilies Ibid. We are not bound to every thing in them Ibid. But only to the Doctrine 376 This illustrated in the Charge of Idolatry Ib. What is meant by their being necessary for those times Ibid. ARTICLE XXXVI 377 THE occasion of this Article Ibid. An Explanation of the words Receive ye the Holy Ghost 378 ARTICLE XXXVII 379 QVeen Elizabeth's Injunction concerning the Supremacy Ibid. The Popes Vniversal Iurisdiction not warranted by any of the Laws of Christ 380 Nor acknowledged in the first Ages 381 Begun on the occasion of the Arian Controversy Ibid. Contested in many places 382 The Progress that it made Ibid. The Patriarchal Authority founded on the division of the Roman Empire sunk with it 383 The Power exercised by the Kings of Judah in Religious Matters Ibid. That is founded on Scriptures 384 Practised in all Ages Ibid. And particularly in England 385 Methods used by Popish Princes to keep the Ecclesiastical Authority under the Civil Ibid. The Temporal Power is over all persons 386 And in all causes Ibid. The Importance of the Term Head 387 The Necâ—ssity of Capital Punishments Ibid. The measure of these 388 The Lawfulness of War Ibid. Our Saviour's words explained Ibid. In what cases War is juâ—t 389 Warranted by the Laws of God 390 How a Subject may serve in an unlawful War Ibid. ARTICLE XXXVIII 391 COncerning Property and Charity Ibid. The Proportion of Charity to the Poor 392 ARTICLE XXXIX 393 THE Lawfulness of Oaths proved Ibid. From Natural Religion and
Name This increased daily We have a full Account of the special Declaration that a Bishop was obliged to make in the First Canon of that which passeth for the Fourth Council of Carthage But while by reason of new Emergencies this was swelling to a vast Bulk General and more Implicit Formularies came to be used the Bishops declaring that they received and would observe all the Decrees and Traditions of Holy Coâ—â—cils and Fathers And the Papacy coming afterwards to carry every thing before it a Formal Oath that had many loose and indefinite words in it which were very large and comprehensive was added to all the Declarations that had been formerly established The Enlargements of Creeds were at first occasioned by the Prevarications of Hereticks who having put Senses favouring their Opinions on the simpler Terms in which the First Creeds were proposed it was thought necessary to use more express words This was absolutely necessary as to some Points for they being obliged to shew that the Christian Religion did not bring in that Idolatry which it condemned in Heathens it was also necessary to state this matter so that it should appear that they worshipped no Creature but that the Person to whom all agreed to pay Divine Adoration was truly God And it being found that an Equivocation was used in all other words except that of the same Substance they judged it necessary to fix on it besides some other words that they at first brought in but which were afterwards made more doubtful by the Glosses that were put on them At all times it is very necessary to free the Christian Religion from the Imputation of Idolatry but this was never so necessary as when Christianity was engaged in such a Struggle with Paganism And since the main Article then in dispute with the Heathens was Idolatry and the Lawfulness of worshipping any besides the Great and Eternal God it was of the last Importance to the Christian Cause to take care that the Heathens might have no reason to believe that they worshipped a Creature There was therefore just reason given to secure this main Point and to put an end to Equivocation by establishing a Term which by the Confession of all Parties did not admit of any It had been a great Blessing to the Church if a Stop had been put here and that those nice Descantings that were afterwards so much pursued had been more effectually discouraged than they were But men ever were and ever will be men Factions were formed and Interests were set up Hereticks had shewed so much Dissimulation when they were low and so much Cruelty when they prevailed that it was thought necessary to secure the Church from the Disturbances that they might give them And thus it grew to be a Rule to enlarge the Doctrines and Decisions of the Church So that in stating the Doctrines of this Church so copiously our Reformers followed a Method that had been used in a course of many Ages There were besides this common Practice two particular Circumstances in that time that made this seem to be the more necessary One was That at the breaking out of that Light there sprang up with it many impious and extravagant Sects which broke out into most violent Excesses This was no extraordinary thing for we find the like happened upon the first spreading of the Gospel many detestable Sects grew up with it which tended not a little to the defaming of Christianity and the obstructing its Progress I shall not examine what Influence Evil Spirits might have both in the one and the other Bâ—t one visible occasion of it was That by the first Preaching of the Gospel as also upon the opening the Reformation an Enquiry into the Matters of Religion being then the Subject of mens Studies and Discourses many men of warm and ill-govern'd Imaginations presuming on their own Talents and being desirous to signalize themselves and to have a Name in the World went beyond their Depth in Sâ—udy without the necesâ—ary degrees of Knowledge and the yet more necessary dispositions of Mind for arriving at a right understanding of Divine Matters This happening soon after that the Reformation was first set on foot those whose Corruptions were struck at by it and who both hated and persecuted it on that account did not fail to lay hold of and to improve the Advantage which these Seâ—ts gave them They said That the Sectaries had only spoke out what the rest thought and at last they held to this That all Sects were the Natural Consequences of the Reformation and of shaking off the Doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church To stop those Calumnies the Protestants in Germany prepared that Confession of their Faith which they offered to the Diet as Ausburg and which carries its name And after their Example all the other Churches which separated from the Roman Communion published the Confessions of their Faith both to declare their Doctrine for the Instruction of their own Members and for covering them from the Slanders of their Adversaries Another reason that the first Reformers had for their descending into so many Particulars and for all these Negatives that are in their Confessions was this They had smarted long under the Tyranny of Popery and so they had reason to secure themselves from it and from all those who were leavened with it Those here in England had seen how many had complied with every Alteration both in King Henry and King Edward's Reign who not only declared themselves to have been all the while Papists but became bloody Persecutors in Q. Mary's Days Therefore it was necessary to keep all such out of their Body that they might not secretly undermine and betray it Now since the Church of Rome owns all that is positive in our Doctrine there could be no Discrimination made but by condemning the most important of those additions that they have brought into the Christian Religion in express words It is true that in Matters of Fact or in Theories of Nature it is not safe to affirm a Negative because it is seldom possible to prove it yet the Fundamental Article upon which the whole Reformation and this our Church depends is this That the whole Doctrines of the Christian Religion are contained in the Scripture and that therefore we are to admit no Article as a part of it till it is proved from Scripture This being laid down and well made out it is not at all unreasonable to affirm a Negative upon an Examination of all those places of Scripture that are brought for any Doctrine and that seem to favour it if these are found not at all to support it but to bear a different and sometimes a contrary sense to that which is offered to be proved by them So there is no weight in this cavil which yet may look plausible to such as cannot distinguish common Matters from Points of Faith This may serve in general to justify the largeness and the
Deuteronomy The First Book of Chronicles Ecclesiastes or Preacher Ioshua The Second Book of Chronicles Cantica or Song of Solomon Iudges The First Book of Esdras Four Prophets the greater Ruth The Second Book of Esdras Twelve Prophets the less And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet it doth not apply them to Establish any Doctrine Such are these following The Third Book of Esdras The Fourth Book of Esdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Iudith The rest of the Book of Esther The Book oâ— Wisdom Iesus the Son of Syrach Baruch the Prophet The Song of the Three Children The History of Susanna Of Bel and the Dragon The Prayer of Manasses The First Book of Maccabees The Second Book of Maccabees All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonical IN this Article are Two important Heads and to each of them a proper consequence does belong The First is That the Holy Scriptures do contain all things necessary to Salvation The Negative Consequence that ariseth out of that is That no Article that is not either Read in it or that may not be proved by it is to be required to be believed as an Article of Faith or to be thought necessary to Salvation The Second is The settling the Canon of the Scripture both of Old and New Testament and the consequence that arises out of that is The rejecting the Books commonly called Apocryphal which though they may be Read by the Church for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners yet are no part of the Canon nor is any Doctrine to be Established by them After the main Foundations of Religion in General in the belief of a God or more specially of the Christian Religion in the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are laid down The next Point to be settled is What is the Rule of this Faith where is it to be found and with whom is it lodged The Church of Rome and We do both agree that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration Those of that Communion acknowledge That every thing which is contained in Scripture is true and comes from God but they add to this That the Books of the New Testament were occasionally written and not with the design of making them the full Rule of Faith but that many things were delivered Orally by the Apostles which if they are faithfully Transmitted to us are to be received by us with the same Submission and Respect that we pay to their Writings And they also believe That these Traditions are conveyed down infallibly to us and that to distinguish betwixt true and false Doctrines and Traditions there must be an infallible Authority lodged by Christ with his Church We on the contrary affirm That the Scriptures are a compleat Rule of Faith and that the whole Christian Religion is contained in them and no where else and although we make great use of Tradition especially that which is most Ancient and nearest the Source to help us to a clear understanding of the Scriptures yet as to Matters of Faith we reject all Oral Tradition as an incompetent mean of conveying down Doctrines to us and we refuse to receive any Doctrine that is not either expresly contained in Scripture or clearly proved from it In order to the opening and proving of this it is to be considered what God's design in first ordering Moses and after him all Inspired Persons to put things in Writing could be it could be no other than to free the World from the Uncertainties and Impostures of Oral Tradition All Mankind being derived from one common Source it seems it was much easier in the first Ages of the World to preserve the Tradition pure than it could possibly be afterwards There were only a few things then to be delivered concerning God as That he was one Spiritual Being That he had Created all things That he alone was to be Worshipped and Served the rest relating to the History of the World and chiefly of the first Man that was made in it There were also great advantages on the side of Oral Tradition the first men were very long-liv'd and they saw their own Families spread extreamly so that they had on their side both the Authority which long Life always has particularly concerning Matters of Fact and the credit that Parents have naturally with their own Children to secure Tradition Two Persons might have conveyed it down from Adam so Abraham Methuselah lived above Three hundred years while Adam was yet alive and Sem was almost an hundred when he died and he lived much above an hundred years in the same time with Abraham according to the Hebrew Here is a great period of Time filled up by Two or Three Persons And yet in that Time the Tradition of those very few things in which Religion was then comprehended was so Universally and Intirely corrupted that it was necessary to correct it by immediate Revelation to Abraham God intending to have a peculiar People to himself out of his Posterity commanded him to forsake his Kindred and Country that he might not be corrupted with an Idolatry that we have reason to believe was then but beginning among them We are sure his Nephew Laban was an Idolater And the danger of mixing with the rest of Mankind was then so great that God ordered a Mark to be made on the Bodies of all descended from him to be the Seal of the Covenant and the Badge and Cognisance of his Posterity By that distinction and by their living in a wandring and unfixed manner they were preserved for some time from Idolatry God intending afterwards to settle them in an Instituted Religion But though the Beginnings of it I mean the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was one of the most amazing things that ever happened and the fittest to be Orally conveyed down the Law being very short and the Circumstances in the delivery of it most astonishing and though there were many Rites and several Festivities appointed chiefly for the carrying down the Memory of it though there was also in that dispensation the greatest advantage imaginable for securing this Tradition all the main Acts of their Religion being to be performed in one Place and by men of one Tribe and Family as they were also all the Inhabitants of a small Tract of Ground of one Language and by their Constitutions oblig'd to maintain a constant Commerce among themselves They having further a continuance of Signal Characters of God's Miraculous Presence among them such as the Operation of the Water of Jealousy the Plenty of the Sixth Year to supply them all the Sabbatical Year and tilâ— the Harvest of the following Year Together with a Succession of Prophets that followed one another either in a constant course or at least soon after one another but
The Stile and Matter of the Revelation as well as the designation of Divine given to the Author of it gave occasion to many Questions about it Clemens of Rome cites it as a Prophetical Book Clem. in Ep. ad Coâ— Justin cont Tryphon Irenaeus l 5. c. 30. Eus. Hist. l. 4. c. 24 26. l. 5. c. 18. l. 7. c. 27. Iustin Martyr says it was writ by Iohn one of Christ's Twelve Apostles Irenaeus calls it the Revelation of St. Iohn the Disciple of our Lord writ almost in our own Age in the End of Domitian's Reign Melito writ upon it Theophilus of Antioch Hyppolitus Clemens and Dennis of Alexandria Tertullian Cyprian and Origen do cite it And thus the Canon of the New Testamentseems to be fullymade outbythe concurrent Testimony of the several Churches immediately after the Apostolicaltime Here it is to be observed that a great difference is to be made between all this and the Oral Tradition of a Doctrine in which there is nothing fixed or permanent so that the whole is only Report carried about and handed down Whereas here is a Book that was only to be copied out and read publickly and by all Persons between which the difference is so vast that it is as little possible to imagine how the one should continue pure as how the other should come to be corrupted There was never a Book of which we have that reason to be assured that it is genuine that we have here There hapned to be constant Disputes among Christians from the Second Century downward concerning some of the most important Parts of this Doctrine and by both sides these Books were appealed to And though there might be some Variations in Readings and Translations yet no question was made concerning the Canon or the Authenticalness of the Books themselves unless it were by the Manichees who came indeed to be called Christians by a very enlarged way of speaking since it is justly strange how men who said that the Author of the Universe and of the Mosaical Dispensation was an Evil God and who held that there were Two Supreme Gods a Good and an Evil one how such men I say could be called Christians The Authority of those Books is not derived from any Judgment that the Church made concerning them but from this That it was known that they were writ either by men who were themselves the Apostles of Christ or by those who were their Assistants and Companions at whose Order or under whose Direction and Approbation it was known that they were written and published These Books were received and known for such in the very Apostolical Age it self so that many of the Apostolical men such as Ignatius and Polycarp lived long enough to see the Canon generally received and settled The suffering and depressed state of the First Christians was also such that as there is no reason to suspect them of Imposture so it is not at all credible that an Imposture of this kind could have passed upon all the Christian Churches A man in a Corner might have forged the Sibylline Oracles or some other Pieces which were not to be generally used and they might have apâ—â—ared soon after and Crâ—dit might have been given too easily to a Book or Writing of that kind But it cannot be imagined that in an Age in which the belief of this Doctrine brought men under great Troubles and in which Miracles and other extraordinary Gifts were long continued in the Church that I say either False Books could have been so early obtruded on the Church as True or that True Books could have been so vitiated as to lose their Original Purity while they were so universally read and used and that so soon or that the Writers of that very Age and of the next should have been so generally and so grosly imposed upon as to have cited Spurious Writings for True These are things that could not be believed in the Histories or Records of any Nation Though the Value that the Christians set upon these Books and the constant use they made of them reading a parcel of them every Lord's Day make this much less supposable in the Christian Religion than it could be in any other sort of History or Record whatsoever The early spreading of the Christian Religion to so many remote Countries and Provinces the many Copies of these Books that lay in Countries so remote the many Translations of them that were quickly made do all concur to make the Impossibility of any such Imposture the more sensible Thus the Canon of the New Testament is fixed upon clear and sure Grounds From thence without any further Proof we may be convinced of the Canon of the Old Testament Christ does frequently cite Moses and the Prophets he appeals to them and though he charged the Iews of that time chiefly their Teachers and Rulers with many Disorders and Faults yet he never once so much as insinuated that they had corrupted their Law or other Sacred Books which if true had been the greatest of all those Abuses that they had put upon the People Our Saviour cited their Books according to the Translation that was then in Credit and common Use amongst them When one asked him which was the great Commandment he answered How readest thou And he proved the chief things relating to himself his Death and Resurrection from the Prophecies that had gone before which ought to have been fulfilled in him He also cites the Old Testament Luke 24.44 by a Threefold Division of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms according to the Three Orders of Books into which the Iews had divided it The Psalms which was the first among the Holy Writings being set for that whole Volume St. Paul says That to the Iews were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 He reckons that among the chief of their Privileges but he never blames them for being unfaithful in this Trust and it is certain that the Iews have not corrupted the chief of those Passages that are urged against them to prove Jesus to have been the Christ. So that the Old Testament at least the Translation of the LXX Interpreters which was in common use and in high esteem among the Iews in our Saviour's time was as to the main faithful and uncorrupted This might be further urged from what St. Paul says concerning those Scriptures which Timothy had learned of a Child these could be no other than the Books of the Old Testament Thus if the Writings of the New Testament are acknowledged to be of Divine Authority the full Testimony that they give to the Books of the Old Testament does sufficiently prove their â—uthority and Genuineness likewise But to carry this matter yet further Moses wrought such Miracles both in Egypt in passing through the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness that if these are acknowledg'd to be true there can be no question made of his being sent of God and authorized by
not true No consequences can be worse than the Corruption that is in the World and the Damnation that follows upon sin and yet God permits it because he has made us free Creatures Nor can any reason be given why we should be less free in the use of our understanding than we are in the use of our Will or why God should make it to be less possible for us to fall into Errors than it is to commit Sins The Wrath of God is as much denounced against Men that hold the Truth in unrighteousness as against other Sins Rom. 1.18 24 26. 2 Thes. 2.11 and it is reckoned among the heaviest of Curses to be given up to strong delusions to believe a lye Upon all these reasons therefore it seems clear that our Understandings are left free to us as well as our Wills and if we observe the Stile and Method of the Scriptures we shall find in them all over a constant Appeal to a Man's Reason and to his Intellectual Faculties If the mere dictates of the Church or of Infallible Men had been the resolution or foundation of Faith there had been no need of such a long Thread of Reasoning and Discourse as both our Saviour used while on Earth and as the Apostles used in their Writings We see the way of Authority is not taken but Explanations are offered Proofs and Illustrations are brought to convince the Mind which shews that God in the clearest Manifestation of his Will would deal with us as with reasonable Creatures who are not to believe but upon Persuasion and are to use our Reasons in order to the attaining that Persuasion And therefore upon the whole matter we ought not to believe Doctrines to be true because the Church teaches them but we ought to search the Scriptures and then according as we find the Doctrine of any Church to be true in the Fundamentals we ought to believe her to be a true Church and if besides this the whole Extent of the Doctrine and Worship together not only with the essential parts of the Sacraments but the whole Administration of them and the other Rituals of any Church are pure and true then we ought to account such a Church true in the largest Extent of the word true and by consequence we ought to hold Communion with it Another question may arise out of the first words of this Article concerning the Visibility of this Church Whether it must be always Visible According to the distinction hitherto made use of the resolution of this will be soon made There seem to be Promises in the Scriptures of a perpetual Duration of the Christian Church I will be with you always Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 even to the end of the world And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church The Iewish Religion had a Period perfixed in which it was to come to an end but the Prophecies that are among the Prophets concerning the new Dispensation seem to import not only its Continuance but its being continued still Visible in the World But as the Iewish Dispensation was long continued after they had fallen generally into some very gross Errors so the Christian Church may be Visible still though not Infallible God may preserve the Succession of a true Church as to the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith in the World even though this Society should fall into Error So a Visible Society of Christians in a true Church as to the Essentials of our Faith is not controverted by us We do only deny the Infallibility of this true Church And therefore we are not afraid of that Question Where was your Church before Henry the Eighth We Answer It was where it is now here in England and in the other Kingdoms of the World only it was then corrupted and it is now pure There is therefore no sort of Inconvenience in owning the constant Visibility of a constant Succession and Church of true Christians true as to the Essentials of the Covenant of Grace though not true in all their Doctrines This seems to be a part of the Glory of the Messias and of his Kingdom That he shall be still visibly worshipped in the World by a Body of Men called by his Name But when Visibility is thus separated from Infallibility and it is made out that a Church may be a true Church though she has a large Allay of Errors and Corruptions mixed in her Constitution and Decisions there will be no manner of Inconvenience in owning a constant Visibility even at the same time that we charge the most eminent part of this Visible Body with many Errors and with much Corruption So far has the first part of this Article been treated of From it we pass to the second which affirms That as the other Patriarchal and Apostolical Churches such as Ierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so the Church of Rome has likewise erred and that not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith It is not questioned but that the other Patriarchal Churches have erred both that where our Saviour himself first taught and which was governed by two of the Apostles successively and those which were founded by St. Peter in Person or by Proxy as Church History represents Alexandria and Antioch to have been Those of the Church of Rome by whom they are at this day condemned both of Heresy and Schism do not dispute this Nor do they dispute that many of their Popes have led bad and flagitious Lives They deny not that the Canons Ceremonies and Government of the Church are very much changed by the Influence and the Authority of their Popes But the whole question turns upon this Whether the See of Rome has erred in matter of Faith or not In this those of that Communion are divided Some by the Church or See of Rome mean the Popes personally so they maintain That they never have and never can fall into Error Whereas others by the See of Rome mean that whole Body that holds Communion with Rome which they say cannot be tainted with Error and these separate this from the Personal Infallibility of Popes for if a Pope should err they think that a General Council has Authority to proceed against him and to deprive him And thus though he should err the See might be kept free from Error I shall upon this Article only consider the first Opinion reserving the Consideration of the second to the Article concerning General Councils As to the Popes their being subject to Error that must be confessed unless it can be proved that by a clear and express Privilege granted them by God they are excepted out of the common condition of Human Nature It is further highly probable that there is no such Privilege since the Church continued for many Ages before it was so much as pretended to and that in a time when that See was not only claiming all the Rights that
otherwise too indiscreet a Rigor might have pulled down that which ought to have been built up If in a broken state of things a common Consent ought to be much endeavoured and staid for this is much more necessary in a regular and settled time with relation to the Civil Authority under whom the whole Society is put according to its Constitution But it can never be supposed that the Authority of the Pastors of the Church is no other than that of a Lawyer or a Physician to their Clients who are still at their liberty and are in no sort bound to follow their directions In particular Advices with relation to their private Concerns where no general Rules are agreed on an Authority is not pretended to and these may be compared to all other Advices only with this difference That the Pastors of the Church watch over the Souls of their people and must give an account of them But when things are grown into Method and general Rules are settled there the consideration of Edification and Unity and of maintaining Peace and Order are such sacred Obligations on every one that has a true regard to Religion that such as despise all this may be well look'd on as Heathens and Publicans and they are so much worse than they as a secret and well-disguised Traytor is much more dangerous than an open professed Enemy And though these Words of our Saviour of telling the Church may perhaps not be so strictly applicable to this matter in their primary sense Matt. 18.17 as our Saviour first spoke them yet the Nature of things and the Parity of Reason may well lead us to conclude That though those Words did immediately relate to the composing of private differences and of delating intractable persons to the Synagogues yet they may be well extended to all those publick Offences which are injuries to the whole Body and may be now applied to the Christian Church and to the Pastors and Guides of it though they related to the Synagogue when they were first spoken It is therefore highly congruous both to the whole Design of the Christian Religion and to many Passages in the New Testament that there should be Rules set for censuring Offenders that so they may be reclaimed or at least ashamed and that others may fear And as the final Sentence of every Authority whatsoever must be the cutting off from the Body all such as continue in a wilful disobedience to the Laws of the Society so if any who call themselves Christians will live so as to be a Reproach to that which they profess they must be cut off and cast out for if there is any sort of Power in the Church it must terminate in this This is the last and highest act of their Authority it is like Death or Banishment by the Civil Power which are not proceeded to but upon great occasions in which milder Censures will not prevail and where the general good of the Society requires it So casting out being the last Act of Church-Power like a Parent 's disinheriting a Child it ought to be proceeded in with that slowness and upon such considerations as may well justify the Rigor of it A wilful Contempt of Order and Authority carries virtually in it every other Irregularity because it dissolves the Union of the Body and destroys that Respect by which all the other ends of Religion are to be artained and when this is deliberate and fixed there is no other way of proceeding but by cutting off those who are so refractory and who set such an ill Example to others If the Execution of this should happen to fall under great Disorders so that many scandalous Persons are not censured and a promiscuous multitude is suffered to break in upon the most Sacred Performances this cannot justify private Persons who upon that do withdraw from the Communion of the Church For after all that has been said the Divine Peecept is to every man to try and examine himself and not to try and censure others All Order and Government are destroyed if private Persons take upon them to judg and censure others or to separate from any Body because there are Abuses in the use of this Authority Private Confession in the Church of Rome had quite destroyed the Government of the Church and superseded all the Antient Penitentiary Canons and the Tyranny of the Church of Rome had set many Ingenious Men on many subtle Contrivances either to evade the Force of those Canons to which some regard was still preserved or to maintain the Order of the Church in opposition to the Appeals that were made to Rome And while some pretended to subject all things to the Papal Authority others studied to keep up the Antient Rules The Encroachments that the Temporal and Spiritual Courts ware making upon one another occasioned many Disputes which being managed by such subtle men as the Civilians and Canonists were all this brought in a great variety of Cases and Rules into the Courts of the Church So that instead of the first Simplicity which was evident in the Constitution of the Church not only for the first Three Centuries but for a great many more that came afterwards there grew to be so much Practice and so many Subterfuges in the Rules and manner of proceeding of those Courts that the Church has long groaned under it and has wished to see that effected which was designed in the beginnings of the Reformation The Draught of a Reformation of those Courts is still extant that so instead of the Intricacies Delays and other Disorders that have arisen from the Canon Law we might have another short and plain Body of Rules which might be managed as antiently by Bishops with the Assistance of their Clergy But though this is not yet done and that by reason of it the Tares grow up with the Wheat we ought to let them grow together till the great Harvest comes or at least till a proper Harvest may be given the Church by the Providence of God in which the good may be distinguished and separated from the bad without endangering the Ruin of all which must certainly be the effect of Peoples falling indiscreetly to this before the time ARTICLE XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private Iudgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as one that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of weak Brethren Every
the concurrence of other Churches In the way of managing this every Body of Men has somewhat peculiar to it self and the Pastors of that Body are the properest Judges in that matter We know that the several Churches even while under one Empire had great varieties in their Forms as appears in the different Practices of the Eastern and Western Churches And as soon as the Roman Empire was broken we see this Variety did increase The Gallican Churches had their Missals different from the Roman And some Churches of Italy followed the Ambrosian But Charles the Great in compliance with the desires of the Pope got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own Missals and to receive the Roman which he might the rather do intending to have raised a New Empire to which a Conformity of Rights might have been a great Step. Even in this Church there was a great Variety of Usages which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy when the Nation was subdivided into several Kingdoms It is therefore suitable to the Nature of Things to the Authority of the Magistrate and to the Obligations of the Pastoral Care That every Church should act within her self as an entire and independent Body The Churches owe only a Friendly and Brotherly Correspondence to one another but they owe to their own Body Government and Direction and such Provisions and Methods as are most likely to promote the great Ends of Religion and to preserve the Peace of the Society both in Church and State Therefore we are no other way bound by Antient Canons but as the same reason still subsisting we may see the same cause to continue them that there was at first to make them Of all the Bodies of the World the Church of Rome has the worst Grace to reproach us for departing in some Particulars from the Antient Canons since it was her ill Conduct that had brought them all into desuetude And it is not easy to revive again Antiquated Rules even though there may be good reason for it when they fall under that tacit Abrogation which arises out of a long and general disuse of them ARTICLE XXXV Of Homilies The Second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the Former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the Time of Edward the Sixth and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the People The Names of the Homilies 1. Of the right use of the Church 2. Against Peril of Idolatry 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4. Of Good Works First Of Fasting 5. Against Gluttony and Drunkenness 6. Against Excess of Apparel 7. Of Prayer 8. Of the Place and time of Prayer 9. That common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known tongue 10. Of the reverent estimation of God's Word 11. Of Alms-doing 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 13. Of the Passion of Christ. 14. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 17. For the Rogation-days 18. Of the state of Matrimony 19. Of Repentance 20. Against Idleness 21. Against Rebellion AT the time of the Reformation as there could not be found at first a sufficient Number of Preachers to instruct the whole Nation so those that did comply with the changes which were then made were not all well-affected to them so that it was not safe to trust this matter to the Capacity of the one side and to the Integrity of others Therefore to supply the Defects of some and to oblige the rest to teach according to the Form of sound Doctrine there were two Books of Homilies prepared the first was published in King Edward's time the second was not finished till about the time of his Death so it was not published before Queen Elizabeth's time The Design of them was to mix Speculative Points with Practical matters Some explain the Doctrine and others enforce the Rules of Life and Manners These are plain and short Discourses chiefly calculated to possess the Nation with a Sense of the Purity of the Gospel in opposition to the Corruptions of Popery and to reform it from those crying Sins that had been so much connived at under Popery while men knew the Price of them how to compensate for them and to redeem themselves from the Guilt of them by Masses and Sacraments by Indulgences and Absolutions In these Homilies the Scriptures are often applied as they were then understood not so critically as they have been explained since that time But by this Approbation of the two Books of Homilies it is not meant that every Passage of Scripture or Argument that is made use of in them is always convincing or that every Expression is so severely worded that it may not need a little Correction or Explanation All that we profess about them is only that they contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine This ratheâ— relates to the main Importance and Design of them than to every Passagâ— in them Though this may be said concerning them That considering thâ— Age they were written in the Imperfection of our Language and some lesser Defects they are Two very extraordinary Books Some of them arâ— better writ than others and are equal to any thing that has been writ upon those Subjects since that time Upon the whole matter every one whâ— subscribes the Articles ought to read them otherwise he subscribes a Blank he approves a Book implicitely and binds himself to read it as he may be required without knowing any thing concerning it This Approbation is not to be stretched so far as to carry in it a special Assent to every Particular in that whole Volume but a man must be persuaded of the main of the Doctrine that is taught in them To instance this in one particular since there are so many of the Homilies that charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry and that from so many different Topicks no man who thinks that Church is not guilty of Idolatry can with a good Conscience subscribe this Article That the Homilies contain a good and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times for according to his sense they contain a false and an uncharitable Charge of Idolatry against a Church that they think is not guilty of it and he will be apt to thâ—nk that this was done to heighten the Aversion of the Nation to it Therefore any who have such favourable thoughts of the Church of Rome are bound by the force of that Persuasion of theirs not to sign this Article but to declare against it as the authorizing of an Accusation against a Church which they think is ill grounded and is by consequence both unjust and uncharitable By necessary for these times is not to be meant
David or Solomon when the Iews were once lawfu◠〈◊〉 â—ubjects and the Christians owed the same Duty to the Emperors 〈◊〉 â—eathen that they paid them when Christian. The Relations of Nature such as that of a Parent and Child Husband and Wife continue the same that they were whatsoever mens Persuasions in matters of Religion may be So do also Civil Relations Master and Servant Prince and Subject they are neither increased nor diminished by the Truth of their Sentiments concerning Religion All Persons are subject to the Prince's Authority and liable to such Punishments as their Crimes fall under by Law Every Soul is subject to the higher Powers Neither is Treason less Treason because spoke in a Pulpit or in a Sermon It may be more Treason for that than otherwise it would be because it is so publick and deliberate and is delivered in the way in which it may probably have the worst effect So that as to persons no great difficulty can lye in this since every Soul is declared to be subject to the higher powers As to Ecclesiastical Causes it is certain That as the Magistrate cannot make void the Laws of Nature such as the Authority of Parents over their Children or of Husbands over their Wives so neither can he make void the Law of God That is from a Superior Authority and cannot be dissolved by him Where a thing is positively commanded or forbid by God the Magistrate has no other Authority but that of executing the Laws of God of adding his Sanctions to them and of using his utmost Industry to procure Obedience to them He cannot alter any part of the Doctrine and make it to be either truer or falser than it is in it self nor can he either take away or alter the Sacraments or break any of those Rules that are given in the New Testament about them because in all these the Authority of God is express and is certainly superior to his The only question that can be made is concerning Indifferent things For instance in the Canons or other Rules of the Church How far they are in the Magistrate's Power and in what Cases the Body of Christians and of the Pastors of the Church may maintain their Union among themselves and act in opposition to his Laws It seems very clear that in all matters that are indifferent and are determined by no Law of God the Magistrates Authority must take place and is to be obeyed The Church has no Authority that she can maintain in opposition to the Magistrate but in the executing the Laws of God and the Rules of the Gospel In all other things as she acts under his Protection so it is by his Permission But here a great distinction is to be made between two Cases that may happen The one is When the Magistrate acts like one that intends to preserve Religion but commits Errors and Acts of Injustice in his Management The other is When he acts like one that intends to destroy Religion and to divide and distract those that profess it In the former case every thing that is not sinful of it self is to be done in compliance with his Authority not to give him Umbrage nor provoke him to withdraw his Protection and to become instead of a Nursing Father a Persecutor of the Church But on the other hand when he declares or it is visible that his design is to destroy the Faith less regard is to be had to his Actions The People may adhere to their Pastors and to every Method that may fortify them in their Religion even in opposition to his Invasion Upon the whole matter the Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Matters among us is expressed in this Article under those Reserves and with that Moderation that no just Scruple can lye against it and it is that which all the Kings even of the Roman Communion do assume and in some Places with a much more unlimited Authority The Methods of managing it may differ a little yet the Power is the same and is built upon the same Foundations And though the Term Head is left out by the Article yet even that is founded on an Expression of Samuel's to Saul as was formerly cited It is a Figure and all Figures may be used either more loosely or more strictly In the strictest sense as the Head communicates Vital Influences to the whole Body Christ is the only Head of his Church he only ought to be in all things obeyed submitted to and depended on and from him all the Functions and Offices of the Church derive their Usefulness and Virtue But as Head may in a Figure stand for the Fountain of Order and Government of Protection and Conduct the King or Queen may well be called The Head of the Church The next Paragraph in this Article is concerning the Lawfulness of Capital Punishments in Christian Societies It has an appearance of Compassion and Charity to think that men ought not to be put to death for their Crimes but to be kept alive that they may repent of them Some both Antients and Moderns have thought that there was a Cruelty in all Capital Punishments that was inconsistent with the Gentleness of the Gospel But when we consider that God in that Law which he himself delivered to the Iews by the hand of Moses did appoint so many Capital Punishments even for Offences against Positive Precepts we cannot think that these are contrary to Justice or true Goodness since they were dictated by God himself who is eternally the same unalterable in his Perfections This shews that God who knows most perfectly our Frame and Disposition knows that the love of Life is planted so deep in our Natures and that it has such a Root there that nothing can work so powerfully on us to govern and restrain us as the fear of Death And therefore since the main thing that is to be considered in Government is the Good of the whole Body and since a feeble Indulgence and Impunity may set mankind loose into great Disorders from which the Terror of severer Laws together with such Examples as are made on the Incorrigible will naturally restrain them it seems necessary for the preservation of Mankind and of Society to have recourse sometimes to Capital Punishments The Precedent that God set in the Mosaical Law seems a full Justification of such Punishments under the Gospel The Charity which the Gospel prescribes does not take away the Rules of Justice and Equity by which we may maintain our Possessions or recover them out of the hands of violent Aggressors Only it obliges us to do that in a soft and gentle manner without Rigor or Resentment The same Charity though it obliges us as Christians not to keep up Hatred or Anger in our Hearts but to pardon as to our own parts the Wrongs that are done us yet it does not oblige us to throw up the Order and Peace of Mankind and abandon it to the Injustice and
Customs of those Climates and Nations to this day that are very different from our own A Third degree of Inspiration might be when there were no discoveries of Future Events to be made but good and holy Men were to be inwardly excited by God to compose such Poems Hymns and Discourses as should be of great use both to give men clearer and fuller apprehensions of Divine things and also insensibly to charm them with a pleasant and exalted way of Treating them And if the Providence of God should so order them in the management of their Composures that it may afterwards appear that Predictions were intermixed with them yet they are not to be called Prophets unless God had revealed to them the mystical intent of such Predictions So that though the Spirit of God Prophesied in them yet they themselves not understanding it are not be accounted Prophets Of this last sort are the Books of the Psalms Iob Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. According to the different Order of these Inspirations was the Old Testament divided into Three Volumes The Inspiration of the New Testament is all to be reduced to the first sort except the Revelation which is purely and strictly Prophetical The other parts of the New Testament are writ after a softer and clearer Illumination and in a Style suitable to it Now because Enthusiasts and Impostors may â—alsly pretend to Divine Commissions and Inspirations it is necessary both for the undeceiving of those who may be mis-led by a hot and ungoverned Imagination and for giving such an Authority to men truly Inspired as may distinguish them from false Pretenders that the man thus Inspired should have some evident Sign or other either some miraculous Action that is visibly beyond the Powers of Nature or some particular discovery of somewhat that is to come which must be so expressed that the accomplishment of it may shew it to be beyond the Conjectures of the most sagacious By one or both of those a Man must prove and the World must be convinced that he is sent and directed by God And if such men deliver their Message in Writing we must receive such Writings as Sacred and Inspired In these Writings some parts are Historical some Doctrinal and some Elenchtical or Argumentative As to the Historical part it is certain that whatsoever is delivered to us as a matter truly transacted must be indeed so But it is not necessary when Discourses are reported that the Individual words should be set down just as they were said it is enough if the effect of them is reported Nor is it necessary that the Order of Time should be strictly observed or that all the Conjunctions in such Relations should be understood severely according to their Grammatical meaning It is visible that all the Sacred Writers write in a diversity of Style according to their different Tempers and to the various Impressions that were made upon them In that the Inspiration left them to the use of their Faculties and to their previous Customs and Habits The design of Revelation as to this part of its Subject is only to give such Representations of Matters of Fact as may both work upon and guide our belief But the Order of Time and the strict words having no influence that way the Writers might dispose them and express them variously and yet all be exactly true For the Conjunctive Particles do rather import that one passage comes to be related after another than that it was really transacted after it As to the Doctrinal parts that is the Rules of Life which these Books set before us or the Propositions that are offered to us in them we must entirely acquiesce in these as in the Voice of God who speaks to us by the means of a Person whom he by his Authorizing him in so wonderful a manner obliges us to hear and believe But when these Writers come to Explain or Argue they use many Figures that were well known in that Age But because the Signification of a Figure is to be taken from common use and not to be carried to the utmost extent that the words themselves will bear we must therefore enquire as much as we can into the Manner and Phraseology of the time in which such Persons lived which with Relation to the New Testament will lead us far And by this we ought to govern the Extent and Importance of these Figures As to their Arguings we are further to consider that sometimes they Argue upon certain Grounds and at other times they go upon Principles acknowledged and received by those with whom they dealt It ought never to be made the only way of proving a thing to found it upon the concessions of those with whom we deal yet when a thing is once truly proved it is a just and usual way of confirming it or at least of silencing those who oppose it to shew that it follows naturally from those Opinions and Principles that are received among them Since therefore the Iews had at the time of the writing of the New Testament a peculiar way of Expounding many Prophecies and Passages in the Old Testament it was a very proper way to convince them to alledge many places according to their Key and Methods of Exposition Therefore when Divine Writers argue upon any point we are always bound to believe the Conclusions that their Reasonings end in as parts of Divine Revelation But we are not bound to be able to make out or even to assent to all the Premises made use of by them in their whole extent unless it appears plainly that they affirm the Premises as expresly as they do the Conclusions proved by them And thus far I have laid down such a Scheme concerning Inspiration and Inspired Writings as will afford to such as apprehend it aright a Solution to most of these difficulties with which we are urged on the account of some passages in the Sacred Writings The laying down a Scheme that asserts an immediate Inspiration which goes to the Stile and to every Tittle and that denies any Error to have crept into any of the Copies as it seems on the one hand to raise the Honour of the Scriptures very highly so it lies open on the other hand to great difficulties which seem insuperable in that Hypothesis whereas a middle way as it settles the Divine Inspiration of these Writings and their being continued down genuine and unvitiated to us as to all that for which we can only suppose that Inspiration was given so it helps us more easily out of all difficulties by yielding that which serves to answer them without weakening the Authority of the whole I come in the last place to examine the Negative Consequence that arises out of this Head which excludes those Books commonly called Apocryphal that are here rejected from being a part of the Canon And this will be easily made out The chief reason that presses us Christians to acknowledge the Old Testament is the