sinner exact of himself that Penance which the Church would or ought to impose But whether all sinners can bee brought to know what that is or knowing to impose it upon themselves let the common reason of Christians judge They that assure them of pardon and the favour of God without it whether it bee themselves or their false teachers plainly they murther their souls The Church of Rome in making the Keys of the Church the necessary means for pardon of all sin that voids the Grace of Baptisme goes beyond the bounds of truth In procuring a Law that all submit to it once a year goes not beyond the bounds of Justice It were to bee wished that the abuses of that Law might be cured without taking it away For if it bee the power of the Keys that makes the Church the Church It will bee hard to shew the face of a Church where the blessing of the Church and the Communion of the Eucharist is granted and yet no power of the Keys at all exercised Nay it will appear a lamentable case to consider how simple innocent Christians are led on till death in an opinion that they want nothing requisite for the obtaining and assuring of the pardon of their sins when it is as manifest that they want the Keys of the Church as it is manifest that the Keys of the Church are not in use for that purpose St. James ordaineth that the Presbyters of every Church Of anointing the sick according to S. James pray for the sick with a promise of pardon for their sins This supposeth them qualified by submitting their sins to the Keys of the Church which the Presbyters do manage The promise belongs not to the Office of Presbyters upon other terms Hee requireth them also to anoint the sick with oyl promising Recovery upon it Not to all that should bee anointed For Christians then should not dye if true Christians But as the Disciples of our Lord had used it to evidence their Commission to the World So was the manifestation of Gods Spirit residing in the Church granted for the benefit of his Church Neither is there any cause why the same benefit should not bee expected but the decay of Christianity in the Church In the mean time the forgiveness of sin according to St. James comes by the Keys of the Church Recovery of health from the prayers of it So the Unction of the sick is to recover health not to prepare for death as the Church of Rome now useth it But supposing the health of the soul restored by the Keys of the Church All the pretenses for Divorce of lawful Mariages all the incestuous Mariage of Christiaâ—â— not to bee Ruled by Moses Law Contracts all the unchristian solemnizing of Christian Wedlock which the blessed Reformation hath authorized are to bee attributed to one mistake that the Mariage of Christians stands by the Law of Moses not by the Gospel of Christ Our Presbyterians in their Confession of Faith duely prohibit Mariage in those degrees of alliance which are prohibited in blood But out of Leviticus if they will prove it their word must serve for our warrant that this is the sense If Man and Wife bee one flesh then is a Man as neer his Wifes Kin as his own But man and wife are not one flesh by Moses Law licensing plurality of wives and divorce though by the Law of Paradise It was dispensed with after the Flood and not revived but by our Lord. That Divorce and plurality of wives was not restrained but by the Gospel it is impudence to Dispute much more to deny The Mariage of the Niece with the Uncle of the half blood hath puzzled all them that would make it unlawful by Moses Law The Mariage of a Christian with two Sisters successive will bee as hard to condemn by the same Granting the premises all these Disputes cease Mariage is the Bond of one with one not to bee dissolved till death by the Law of Christ not by the Law of Moses Whether Adultery dissolve the Bond or not I leave it disputable for the present as I find it Mariage with a Pagan was void by Moses Law St. Paul enables Christians to hold to it Therefore hee refers them not to the Law Christianity improves Moses Law in all things Therefore Christians cannot be regulated by Moses Law in Matrimonial causes Therefore in the prohibiting of degrees as well as of divorce For Moses Law prohibits more then that Law which the Children of Noah received after Flood had done It were better to restrain all that which the present Canon Law restrains then that the incests of the late licentious times should bee tolerated For the present Canon Law restrains not much more then the Greek Church restrains But if the Authority thereof bee not binding by reason of the Usurpations of the Church of Rome yet to depart from the Canons of the Whole Church and of those times which wee acknowledg would bee a departure from the whole Church Hee that would bar the Cross in Baptisme for fear it should Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers bee taken for a Sacrament what would hee say to St. Ambrose that cals it down right a Sacrament I know not what hee would say I know what hee should do Hee should understand St. Ambrose by St. Ambrose when hee makes a Kiss to bee a Sacrament as a Religious sign of that Religious Affection which Kinsfolk professed to their neer Kinsfolk whom in his time they saluted with a Kiss to signifie that as St. Ambrose declareth At this rate St. Pauls holy kiss must needs bee a Sacrament For it was a Religious signe of that charity which Christians professed to Christians when they were to receive the Communion with them At this rate it is no marvel that there are found seven Sacraments in the Fathers For there are more then seven to bee found if there bee as many Sacraments as Ceremonies instituted by the Church If this bee true the discharging of instituted Ceremonies The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie instituted Ceremonies will bee a Defection from Gods Church If Confirmation Ordination and Penance bee Offices in which the Church is indebted to God and to his Church If the effect of them bee of such consequence that they have been always solemnized with the Imposition of hands that Ceremony shall bee enough to make them Sacraments at this rate and yet no neerer to Baptisme and to the Eucharist then that reason of the difference which I have setled will allow Nay let the prayers of the Church for the recovery of the sick who submit to the Keys of the Church bee solemnized with anointing a thing fit enouâ—h to bee done may but the ground upon which and the intent to which it is done appear and that shall bee a Sacrament and yet the want of it no more prejudice to salvation then the disusing of the Kiss of peace which
they bee members of Gods Church That is setting aside their Baptism and the Covenant which is solemnly inacted by it between God and each soul And though I do refer my self to the wisdom of Superiors in what form this reconciliation bee solemnized yet I must express my opinion thus far that there can bee none so fit as that which the wisdom of the Catholick Church from the beginning hath alwaies frequented By granting them the blessing of the Church with Imposition of hands renouncing for their part their several Sects and Errors That is by the praiers of the Church for the Spirit of God to rest upon them who have barred their baptism from giving it by opposing the peace of the Church which now they retire unto For how shall the Unity of the Church bee secured but by declaring them who violate the same accursed of God Nor let it bee thought that our Sectaries of their own accord retiring themselves unto the Communion of this Church it will bee requisite for the Church to admit them without taking notice of any thing that hath passed For neither is it to bee presumed that they who have made their own wills their Law for so many years will so much as profess conformitie to the Rule of the Church And if they did profess it there is no reason to think that they should stand to it having a dispensation dormant of the Spirit to stand to their profession as the interest of their faction shall require So their coming to Church would bee only an advantage for them to infect others And how should that Communion bee counted a Church which intertains Haereticks as Haereticks and Schismaticks as Schismaticks that is without renouncing positions destructive to the Faith without obliging themselves for the future to hold Unity with the Church Certainly there is no just answer for this if the Church of Rome should object it for the reason why they refuse to hold communion with us Certainly St. Augustine when hee was charged by the Donatists that the Church received their Apostates without rebaptizing them and in their respective Orders could have had no answer if he had not had this That the Church received them not as Donatists but as converted from being Donatists they not refusing to profess so much Certainly it may bee and perhaps is justifiable for the Secular Power to grant them the exercise of their Religion in private places of their own providing under such moderate penalties as the disobeying of the Laws of a mans Country might require For persecution to death for that cause the whole Reformation condemneth in the Church of Rome And I conceive there is no reason for that which will not condemn persecution to banishment But this would require the like moderation to bee extended to Recusants of the Church of Rome True it is in mine opinion those Papists that think themselves tied by the Bull of Pius V. against Queen Elizabeth or that they may bee tied by the like Acts of his Successors against hers are justly liable to the utmost of penalties as professed enemies to their Country But besides that it is manifest that all Papists are not of that opinion which the said Bull presupposeth The State may easier be secured of Papists against all such power in the Pope then of our Sectaries against that dispensation to their Allegiance which the pretense of Gods Spirit may import when they please And whereas it is manifest that many Papists hold against those equivocations and reservations which destroy all confidence of the Sovereign in his Subjects allegiance How shall a State bee secured against that infamous falsehood of the late Usurper in any man that pretends Gods Spirit upon his terms which I mentioned afore Besides the Recusants being for the most part of the good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves whereas the Sectaries being people of mean qualitie for the most part cannot bee presumed to stand upon their reputation so much So if they cannot bee tolerated in the exercise of their Religion it must bee provided upon what terms they may bee received by the Church And by that which hath been said it may appear what my opinion will require of the Presbyterians for the condition of reconciling our selves into one Church again Namely in the first place their submission to the Act or Decree or Order according to which the Sectaries ought to bee tied to renounce the damnable positions which they have notoriously set on foot For if they should refuse this what reason could bee alleged why they should bee counted Strangers to that infection which they will not exclude As for the other Article of the Creed concerning one Visible Church it is evident that they cannot belong to that Church supposing the Premises For it is evident that there was a time when the whole Church was governed by Bishops and that not against Gods Law for then there had remained no Church And therefore for them to break the Unity of the Church upon pretense of governing this Church by Presbyters is to break Unity unless a part may give Law to the whole which who so do are for so doing Schismaticks And the Church of Rome would have due cause to cast us off for Schismaticks if wee should admit this pretense But this is a point the knowledg whereof cannot belong to the substance of Christianity for the reason alleged before And therefore I do not think the Church tied to exact the express profession of it or the disclaiming of the error that is opposite to it On the other side the Church maintaining the Ordinations of Presbyters alone to bee meer nullities in themselves can never own their Ordinations without renouncing the Catholick Church yet may it consent in the persons upon their consent to the order which shall bee established for the future And indeed what can they challenge by the meer consent of certain Presbyters which the Ministers of Congregations may not pretend to by the consent of their respective Congregations And yet I suppose both parties are agreed not to own them in that Power which the celebration of the Eucharist importeth Let any man that is capable to judge of such maters think upon the madness of the Lancashire Presbyterians without prejudice Of whom I am duly informed that they caused those who were ordained only Deacons in the Church of England to do the office of Presbyters which they had no title to in celebrating the Eucharist And tell me what reason there can bee excluding the Ordinations of the Congregations to admit the usurpations of the Presbyterians As for the form and solemnity in which the consent of the Church to their Ordinations shall bee celebrateed therein I refer my self to the wisdom of Superiors Thinking it would bee a great impertinence in the Presbyterians if finding a necessity of submitting
against Churches and Synods against Synods in the cause Always that Council decreed nothing for St. Austine against the redemption of all mankind and the will of God that all bee saved And Prosper his Apologist and the Author de Vocatione Gentium much more writing about the same time have asserted both Condemning thereby the late zele of Jonseinus for St. Austine if not his hatred of the Jesuites who thinking to overbear all Dispute in the point by his authority and reasons hath not been afraid to maintain him in those Articles And therefore hath given the Dominicans whom his opinion seems to comply so much with just occasion to joyn themselves against him with the Jesuites But his opinion will prove a nihil dicit That of Arminius as it necessarily opposes absolute Predestination to Glory so it stands very well with absolute Predestination to Grace Because it derives the Efficacy of Grace from that Congruity which as Gods foresight discovers so his Providence uses And therefore the discreetest of his adversaries at the Synod of Dort the English and those of Breme owned the redemption of mankind and the will of God that all bee saved Those that will not do the same must resolve upon Predetermination And that I grant is not destructive to Christianity in the Dominicans though of it self it bee destructive Because holding free will they contradict themselves in it and so have an Antidote against it But in our Fanatickes that take justifying Faith to bee the assurance of Predestination and the Covenant of Grace a meer Promise of God to those that have that assurance it is down-right Haerefie And though the Presbyterians do not profess to hold it yet so long as they distinguish not themselves from the Fanatickes but Communieate with them they will bee Haeretickes themselves by the perpetual Rule of the Church which makes them Haeretickes to the Church that Communicate with Haeretickes and Schismatickes that Communicate with Schismatickes CHAP. XIV Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church How Anabaptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church Their Error in rebaptizing for want of dipping What concerns Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist How the Elements are consecrated into the body and bloud of Christ according to Gregory Nyssene The consequence hereof in the Errors concerning the Eucharist How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods service IF it bee part of a mans Christianity to bee a Member of Gods Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church Church then is a Christian sometimes concerned as a Christian sometimes as a Member of the Church For that which concerns him as a Member of the Church arises from the Constitution of the Church as the effect of that power which God hath endowed his Church with Whereas that which concerns him as a Christian concerns him before the being of the Church Though the consent of the Church in it bee the means to bring it into evidence Whatsoever is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all Christians is of this kind And whatsoever proceedeth from the power of the Church as the effect of it is not necessary to bee known for the salvation of all Christians It is necessary for all Christians to know that they are to live and dye Members of Gods Church And therefore to conform themselves to the order of it But that this order is for the best it neither concerneth them to know nor to enquire provided it bee sufficient for the salvation of all and enjoyn nothing destructive to the salvation of any This is the next obligation to that which concerneth a Christian as a Christian The Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Eucharist were instituted How Anabâ—ptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church by our Lord in person before hee left the World So was also the Power of the Keys consisting in admitting to them and excluding from them Upon this Power hee founded his Church leaving the forming of it to his Apostles whom he trusted it with by virtue of the same It seems therefore that these Sacraments concern Christians as Christians and not only as Members of the Church I have shewed how Baptisme concerns the salvation of all Christians Whereby it appears what presumption of Haeresie there is in the Sect of the Anabaptists For did they think the profession of Christianity to bee the condition in consideration whereof all that are baptized are saved they could not take that Baptisme of the Church for void whereby there can bee no doubt that a Christian is obliged to the profession of a Christian Because they believe not the condition of salvation to bee the Covenant of Baptisme therefore they make it void being received before knowledg Whereas the greater question is whether the Church bee obliged to take their Baptisme for Baptisme or not For though the School make good all Baptisme ministred in due mater and form of words yet the Church never declared this general reason why it alloweth the Baptisme of those Haeretickes whom it did not rebaptize Because they were baptized with the due form of words But only appointed such and such Haeretickes to bee baptized as voiding the Baptisme which they received from Haeretickes others to bee received with imposition of hands Now of those Haeresies whose Baptisme the Church alloweth to bee valid though unlawful none did ever question the Article of one Baptisme for remission of fin which they that own not Christianity for the condition of salvation do destroy So did the Gnostickes and their Baptisme ought to bee void They who agree in their opinion though not in the grounds of it how is the Church tyed to allow their Baptisme But because the Church is not tyed to make it void and to baptize them again returning to the Profession of the true Faith Let it suffice that it appeareth hereby how necessary this found profession is for the restoring not only of Anabaptists but of all other Sects that distinguish not themselves from them to the Church They have indeed another pretense for rebaptizing For Their Errour in re-baptizing for â—aâ—â— of dipping that they may dip the whole body they will leave the Church to Baptize in Rivers Would they do this did they think the profession which is made with a good Conscience to bee that which saveth in Baptism as the Apostle teacheth The order of this Church requireth dipping so it bee warily done And certainly if it bee not the cleansing of the flesh it is not the indangering of life that saveth Now when sprinkling is used instead of dipping without regard to the danger of the Child in regard to a wrong opinion in the point or to the causeless tendernerness of Mothers and Friends especially of the womankind though
comes without peradventure from the Apostleâ— As for Mariage the solemnity of the blessing the Ring the Sacrament of the Eucharist which according to the custom of the whole Church it ought to bee ministred with will easily make it a Sacrament though Imposition of hands which is said still to bee used in some Eastern Churches bee not used at all in the West So the effect and consequence of these Offices will oblige the Church always to keep them in use though the Church of Rome makes them Sacraments But that sense in which the antient Church makes them Sacraments serves only to justifie the power of instituting Ceremonies in the Church CHAP. XIX The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Eucharist though it were What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches Mutual forbearance which St. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere Tender Consciences are to submit to Superiors THey who give the honour proper to God to his creature are The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Idolaters They that worship the Host give the honour due to God to his creature This is taken for a Demonstration that the worship of the Host is Idolatry But will any Papist acknowledg that hee honours the Elements of the Eucharist or as hee thinks the Accidents of them for God Will common reason charge him to honour that which hee believeth not to bee there A Pagan that honours the Sun for God believes him to bee God And therefore another Pagan may as well believe another creature to bee God Both Idolaters for thinking the Godhead to bee in one or more creatures But those greater Idolaters who thought that the Godhead to which they took men whether living or dead or other creatures to bee advanced was inclosed in their Images consecrated to the worship of them Hee that worships the Host believes our Lord Christ to bee the only true God hypostatically united to our flesh and blood Which being present in the Eucharist in such a manner as it is not present every where there is due occasion to give it that Worship in the Eucharist which the Godhead in our manhood is to bee worshipped with upon all due occasions Thus wee say hee was worshipped in the Antient Church that believed the Elements to bee present And they were no Idolaters They that worship the Host do not believe that they remain Nay they say they must bee flat Idolaters if they bee there Zeal to their opinion makes them say more then they should say But if they were there they would not take them for God and therefore they would not honour them for God And that is it not saying that they should bee Idolaters if the Elements did remain that must make them Idolaters They that believe not Transubstantiation have cause to forbear Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Euchâ—rist though it were the Ceremony But forbear kneeling at receiving the Eucharist in an Age that is taught already to sit at their prayers and who wâ—ll warrant that all the prayers of the Church shall not come in a short time to hearing the Minister exercise his Gift and censuring him for it Were worshipping the Host Idolatry Christianity using the gesture of kneeling to signifie the worship of Christ were enough to sanctifie it to Gods service And this they must grant who serve God in Churches which the Mass hath been used in taking the Mass for Idolatry as they do In fine Jews and Mahumetans are bound to take the Worship oâ— the Host for Idolatry For they will needs take the worship of the Holy Trinity for no less But they who know that the Godhead of Christ is the reason for which his flesh and blood is worshipped in the Eucharist cannot take that Worship for Idolatry because his flesh and blood is not present in the Eucharist as they who worship it there think it is For they know that the flesh and blood of Christ is no Idol to Christians wheresoever it is worshipped Whether or no having Images in Churches bee a breach of What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth the second Commandment can bee no more question then whether or no to have any Images bee a breach of it For it must forbid Images in Churches because it forbids all Images If it bee interpreted to forbid onely Idols that is Images of false Gods it must bee proved that all Images in Churches are Idols before it bee proved that they are forbidden by it It is far more reasonable to say that the Cherubims the Brazen Serpent the Bulls and other Images in Solomons Temple were no breaches of it Then to say that God did dispense with his own Precept in those cases having no appearance of any Dispensation in the Scripture in which the Precept and the seeming breach are both recorded But it is manifest that the Jews allow some kind of Imagery and I doubt not but the Mahumetans do the like And it is manifest that the publique authority of that Nation or Religion could never dispense in that which Gods Law had prohibited But it is manifest on the contrary that it did and might restrain that which Gods Law had licensed to set an hedge about the Law and keep the people further from breaking it Now their restraints tye not Christians but Jews And therefore it is manifest that the Church is tyed no further then there can appear danger of Idolatry Which if it bee so heightned beyond appearance as to involve the Church in the crime of it chargeth the Schisme that may come by that means upon those that so inhanse it Now granting that Epiphanius and the Council of Elvira did hold all Images in Churches dangerous for Idolatry of Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry which there is appearance it is manifest that they were afterwards admitted all over And there might bee jealousie of offense in having Images in Churches before Idolatry was quite rooted out of which afterwards there might bee no appearance But no manner of appearance that Images in History should occasion Idolatry to those Images in them that hold them the Images of Gods creatures such as are those Images which represent Histories of the Saints out of the Scriptures or other relations of unquestionable credit The second Council of Nicaea seems to have brought in or authorized addresses to solitary Images of Saints placed upon Pillars to that purpose whereof there is much mention in the Records of it But to the Images of Saints there can bee no Idolatry so long as men take them for Saints that is Gods creatures Much less to the Images of our Lord. For it is the honour of our Lord and not of his Image Whereas they who thought their false Gods to dwell in their Images which thought made them Idols
is to bee understood Not because it can bee within the compass of common reason to imagine that the same Ceremonies have continued from the time that the Church was persecuted into holes and caves of the Earth to this time in which the question is of setling Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom It were want of common understanding to think that the same could serve But because so few and so innocent as wee use cannot bee condemned without condemning not only Gods whole Church but also Gods antient people who will evidently bee found in the same cause One thing hath been cast forth in barre to all this which wee must not swallow whole unless wee mean to impose upon our selves It is the pretense of complying with the Reformed Churches For it is evident that there are four forms of Reformation extant One according to Luther another according to Calvine the third is that of the Church of England and in the last place though first for time because least known and protected by no Sovereign I name that the Union in Bohemia For wee are to know that the followers of John Husse having sent Deputies to the Council of Basil they accorded to reunite the Nation upon four Articles The chief whereof was the Communion in both kinds They that stood to the accord are to this day called thereupon Calixtini or sub utraque in Latine But another part of those that were at distance thinking themselves betrayed by their Deputies in that accord proceeded to settle themselves in a form of Religion and the service of God by that which they held the pure truth of God in all points that had been disputed The Emperour Ferdinand 1. King of Bohemia having subdued his subjects there that rose with the Protestants in Germany cast a good part of these out of the Country who finding shelter in Polonia and Prussia there planted and propagated their form till the troubles of our time when by the Emperours victory in Bohemia and the late troubles in Poland they seem to bee at a low ebbe though they impute it to the decay of their first discipline They that would reform the Church of England professing already that Reformation which it found best will they not first show us reason why wee are to leave Luther for Calvine For if they mean his form when they talk of conforming us to the reformed Churches because of the Scots Presbyteries they must have better arguments then either the learning or the Christianity of the Scottish Presbyterians will yield to perswade us They say those that framed the Reformation in England being bred under Melancthon among the Lutherans followed them much an end in the order and form which they prescribed But is that any reason for any change before it appear which is in the right I freely profess I find Melancthon the better learned and the more Christian spirit But the Church of England which in divers points differeth from both why should it bee thought to follow either for any reason but as either agrees with the Catholick Church And for that I prefer the Unity of Bohemia before both For they had the rule of Vincentius given them to take their measure by the consent of the Catholick Church and those things which have always and every where been professed and practised in it And had they done nothing but what is justifiable by that Rule I should not blame them for that which I blame in them most But where they agree not with Luther and Calvine wherein do they not agree with the Church of England In particular they sent all over the World to inform themselves of a visible succession of Bishops whose profession was such that they might derive the Ordination of Bishops for their Churches from their hands They took the superstitions of the Greeks to bee such that they could not own it from them In that think they were in the wrong For I doubt not the Greeks would have granted them Ordination only under the profession of the Catholick Church and that had been enough But thinking themselves in a strait of necessity they chose twelve by lots And hearing that the Waldenses lived in Austria under Bishops deriving their succession from the time of Constantine and therefore from the Apostles they sent them thither to bee Ordained protesting against their weakness in going to Mass for fear The protestation was admitted and the persons ordained Bishops Now I take not upon me to maintain the truth of that information concerning the succession of these Bishops whereupon they proceeded But they being reasonably perswaded of it and not knowing how to proceed otherwise through a mistake or an exigent which they could not overcome and setling themselves upon an innocent presumption why should the effect of these Ordinations seem questionable For under these Bishops they have subsisted from that day to this And with what conscience is it demanded for conformity to the Reformation that wee acknowledge them Priests who are ordained against Bishops If wee do not wee shall condemn those Reformed Churches which have no Bishops Is it the fashion that a man quit his cloke because his fellow hath none Or is it any thing else to renounce a good Title because they cannot plead it There was a good expedient in the antient Church to refer things to God which could not bee decided without a breach in the Church Let their zeal against the abuses of the Church of Rome bee counted pardonable with God which caused them to think the Order of Bishops a support of Antichrist when as the Papacy is visibly raised upon the rights of Bishops which it ingrosseth Let the difficulty of procuring Ordinations and having Bishops render them excusable to God Those that are ordained by Presbyters against Bishops on purpose to set up Altar against Altar how can wee count them ordained refusing the concurrence of the Church to their Ordinations They that would tye us to comply with the Reformation are first to show us that the Unity of Bohemia is no part of it And that their Reformation is not to bee preferred either before that of Luther or that of Calvine For can wee acknowledge the Ordinations of Presbyters against their Bishops and not condemn them that sought all over the World for Bishops to ordain them Bishops that the Bishops so ordained might ordain them Presbyters But not only in this prime point of our differences but also in the difference of the Clergy from the people in the three Orders of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the mater of Justification and the Eucharist of Confirmation and Penance of the Festivals and Fasts of the Church and of divers Orders and institutions of less consequence their profession agreeth with the antient Church and the Church of England where it departeth from both Luther and Calvine In the mater of Penance though with much humility they tell the Lutherans roundly they have but one of the
CHAP. XV. The ground that determines the Form of our Service The Offices of which the Service is to consist Of the Vse of the Psalms Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocrypha What Preaching it is that the Scripture commendeth There may bee Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching The difference between the second Service in the Antient Church and our Communion Service The general Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist The Prayer of Oblation instituted by St. Paul and the matter of it The Lords Prayer at the Eucharist The place for the Common Prayers 97 CHAP. XVI Difference in the state of Souls departed in Grace before Judgement The antient Church never prayed to remove them out of Purgatory To what purpose they were remembred at the Eucharist The Saints departed pray for the Militant Church Of prayers to the Saints departed No Common Prayer in the Pulpit by Gift but in a set form at the Communion-Table Apostolical Graces subject to Order Of the Graces of the Spirit in St. Paul and the Original of Litanies The Prayers of the Eucharist how prescribed by the Apostles Prayers of the Reformed Churches in the Pulpit but by a form The effect of the Long Parliament Prayers by the Spirit 105 CHAP. XVII The Lords Day observed by the Authority of the Church Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with Ministring the Sacraments Times places peâ—sons and things consâ—crated to Gods Service under the Gospel Câ—reâ—oâ—ieâ— signifying by institution nâ—â—â—ssary in Gods Service What kind of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Cerâ—monies 112 CHAP. XVIII Offices which the Fathers call Sacraments for their Ceremonies Why the Bishop only Confirmeth The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giâ—ing it Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void The necessity of Penancâ— The observation of Lent and the Vse of it The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sin Of anointing the sick according to St. James Mariage of Christians not to â—ee Ruled by Moses Law Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie Instituted Ceremonies 118 CHAP. XIX The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Eucharist though it were What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches Mutual forbearance which St. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere Tender consciences arâ— to submit to Superiors 125 CHAP. XX. The Declaration of V. Eliz. enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy What further ambiguity that Oath involveth What scandal the taking of it in the true sense ministreth That this Oath ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religion that abridge Allegiance The extent of secular Power in Reforming the Church 131 CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makâ—s the breacâ— unrâ—concileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanaticks further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How sâ—lvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Pâ—ritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome 136 CHAP. XXII The present State of the Question concerning our Service The Reformation pretended abominable Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it What Order of Service the continual Communion will require What form of Instruction this Order will require Of that which goes before the Preface in our Communion Service of the Prefaces and the Prayer of Consecration Of the Prayer of Oblalation and the place of it Of the Commâ—â—â—oration of the dead in particular Why the Communion Service at the Communion-Table when no Eucharist A secondary Proposition according to present Law 150 CHAP. XXIII How the Law distinguishes Moral Precepts from Positive How the spiritual sense of the Decalogue concerns Christians The meaning of the First Commandment in this sense The extent of the Second Commandment Of the Third Commandment What the sanctifying of the Sabbath signifieth The meaning of the Fifth as to Christians The meaning of the five last according to Christianity 164 CHAP. XXIV That no Clergy man ought to bee of more Dioceses then one Of inferior Orders in the Clergy and their Offices The conversation of the Clergy and the use of Church goods The ground for promotions to higher degrees The Vniversities may bee serviceable to some part of this Discipline Reasons for it Publick fame of sin to bâ—e purged by Ecclesiastical process Sinners convict by Law not to communicate before Penance The Cure of notorious sin the Bishops Office The Church not Reformed without restoring Penance Publick or Private What means there is left for the restoring of it 172 CHAP. XXV Gods mercies and judgements require the perfecting of the Reformation which wee profess The restoring of the Ecclesiastical Laws is not the restoring of the Church Yet are wee not therefore chargeable with Schisme by the Church of Rome What Schisme destroys the Salvation of what persons by instances in the most notable Schismes Difficulty of Salvation on both sides the Reformation remaining unperfect An instance hereof in the Cure of souls departing by the Order in force A Supplication for a full Debate of all maters in difference The ground of Resolution one Catholick Church the first and chief point of the Debate The consequence of it in Vniting the Reformed Churches An instance in the having of Images in Churches An Objection for the Church of Rome answered That which excuseth the Reformed Churches excuseth not our Schismaticks 184 A Letter concerning the present State of Religion amongst us Vnder the Act of Establishment prosecuted by the Ordinances constituting the Triers and Commissioners for ejecting of Scandalous Ministers 207 The due Way of composing the differences on Foot preserving the Church According to the Opinion of Herbert Thornedike 223 JUST Weights Measures CHAP. I. If the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been If the Pope be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church If no Visible Church then no sinne of Schisme Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot be the Head of a Church Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to
to the Law of this Kingdom and the effect of it that the Worship of the Host in the Papacy is Idolatry Therefore wee must not receive the Communion kneeling if wee would bee commended for breaking the Brazen Serpent with Hezekiah I say nothing to the consequence though it were easie enough to say That the people committed Idolatry to the brazen Serpent till that very day 2 Kings XVIII 4. And to allege the Practice of the Catholick Church Who while there was appearance of offense did not make use of Idol Temples for Churches But when the offense began to cease As in the time of Honorius common reason obliged them to do it Let them pursue the consequence of their own reason That is let them mete by their own Standard and then they must pull down all the Churches in the Kingdom I shall prefer the wisdom of St. Gregory of Rome by whom this Nation received Christianity Ordering the Pagan Festivals of our Ancestors to bee converted to the Assemblies of Christians For if Christianity sanctifie not all times places and gestures that may pretend in common reason to advance the service of God Wherein differeth it from Judaisine For in Judaisme the day the place the circumstance prescribed by the Law sanctified that action to bee the service of God which it had been abominable to tender God for his service at another time or in another place or otherwise As rest on the seventh day of the Week dwelling in a Booth at the Feast of Tabernacles was the service of God according to the Law of Moses But to pretend to serve God thereby at another time had been to usurpe upon God and his power which gave the Law On the contrary the service of God according to Christianity sanctifieth all times all places all gestures all circumstances that can pretend to express to procure to advance that attention of mind that devotion of spirit wherewith Christians profess to worship God in spirit and truth Otherwise the Kingdom of God must consist in making a difference of meats and drinks in despite of St. Paul And for the same reason of times and places and gestures not for unity in the service of God or increase of devotion as all reason requireth But as the Subject matter wherein the service of God according to Christianity consisteth But I set aside this consequence though I could not let it That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church pass without setting this mark upon it The assumption who will undertake to prove Who will take upon him to shew us that the worship of the Host in the Papacy is Idolatry They who grant the Church of Rome to bee a true Church and salvation to bee had in it and by it may if they see cause spare contradicting those that take it for granted before it bee proved But they cannot take it for granted themselves A Church is a company of Christians And all Christians profess the true Christ And all that profess the true Christ profess the true God And professing the true God if they believe that which they profess they cannot honour any creature as they honour God For they profess that there is only one true God And that there is infinite distance between him and all creatures so that they cannot esteem any creature to bee God And therefore they cannot so honour any creature as if it were God Christianity supposeth the belief of one true God and the being of the Church supposeth Christianity It took away Idolatry in point of Fact which Judaisme could not do though it shewed reason enough to take it away And therefore let no man think it easie for a Church to build up that either by express Law or by silent Custom which the profession upon which it is built destroyeth Let us bee as careful as you please that Idolatry which is put out at the great gate of the Church get in at no back-door of it The true God of Israel and our Lord Christ might bee Idols to them that professed not one true God If they who profess the true Christ can bee bred in such ignorance as not to acknowledg the difference between God and his creature all their Religion may come to bee Idolatry in Gods sight however the Church bee obliged to esteem it For certainly some Witches commit Idolatry to the Devil though there bee Witches of all Religions And so there may bee Idolaters of all Religions supposing that men may act contrary to that which they profess But that is not the question which wee have in hand when wee Dispute Whether wee are to forsake the Church of Rome as Idolaters or not For it is the publique profession thereof that wee are to forsake Wee are not to forsake it for the actions of private persons contrary to that which they publiquely profess Now they which profess the only true Christ and therefore the only true God do necessarily profess to detest all Idolatry which the profession of Christianity effectively rooted out of the World wheresoever it prevailed And so doth the Church of Rome still as seriously profess as they who charge them to bee Idolaters And therefore cannot easily bee convinced to profess Idolatry For without expressly renouncing this profession they cannot expressly bee Idolaters without renouncing it by such consequence as may convince common reason that they contradict themselves and renounce all of them that which all of them profess they cannot bee Idolaters by consequence And therefore it is not easie to make it appear to common reason that they are Idolaters And so that wee are to forsake them as Idolaters because then it must appear to common reason that so great a part of Christendom doth by their profession contradict that which themselves profess They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismatickes before God And what will they that stand upon this plea say to me who pretend to have proved that the nature of Idolatry consisteth in that which I have said And therefore that the Papists are not by their Common profession Idolaters Can they pretend so much charity to me as to have attempted the answering of my Reasons and the rectifying of my mistakes Or will they shew me who hath answered them and so that they need not be troubled for me If they will not bee tied to this would they have the Law of the Land changed upon a supposition which I have destroyed and they cannot pretend to have restored Nay would they have it changed to no better effect then to make me and all that are satisfied with the Reasons which I have advanced Schismaticks in the sight of God allowing and consenting to the change that shall be made for their sake This were indeed an incomparable piece of charity to purchase peace and unity with them at the charge of answering for all the mischiefes which our Schisme with
they who believe no salvation out of Gods Church are to change nothing for other reasons then such as the Visible Unity of it may justifie in case it appear to bee founded by God For that Principle as it is evidence in maters of Faith questionable Wee cannot bee the same Church with that which was otherwise amongst us so it is the Standard in mater of Church Law to measure the distance between the true point of Reformation and the present Church of Rome by that which is visible in the Catholique Church allowing for that difference which the change of time may have brought forth They that find themselves bound by this principle to bee visibly one and the same Church with the Catholick will find it easie to impe and to ingraffe the Faith and Lawes of this Church into the Original and Catholick Faith and Lawes of Gods whole Church by this Rule But impossible to make us visibly the same Church with it upon other Terms I do no ways doubt that though a change should bee made Though that which shall bee sâ—tled will find advocates for the worse which God forbid there would bee found men to maintain it For the Lawes of Kingdoms and Common-wealths are of great force to frame the opinions and manners of particular persons And that in mater of Religion in this Estate where Christianity is setled by the Lawes of Sovereignties And the Church goods which are now recovered out of the hands of Usurpers must then bee the reward of those that shall have most to say for the Lawes that shall bee made And therefore while wee are upon this plea for our selves against the Church of Rome I find it no unreasonable freedome that I take to set forth the consequence of it in the change that is or may bee pretended I know it is a Maxime necessary to the quiet of all States Civil Lawes of Religion to bee changed till this Rule bee attained that Lawes are not to bee changed for hope of amendment But it is no less necessary to enter an Exception to it for those Lawes by which the Reformation is to bee setled in several Sovereignties of Christendom For if the Visible Unity of the Church bee Gods Ordinance then they ought all to have been made of necessity ambulatory as provisions only for the time and not to bee taken for setled till all had been agreed upon a Rule whereby Communion might bee maintained amongst them all whatsoever differences might fall out any where And I am well assured that they could never have attained any such Provision without supposing the Visible Unity of the whole Church the grounds and consequences of which Supposition being taken for Gods Ordinance first brought it to pass And having attained it I am well perswaded that the breach between the Reformation and the Church of Rome could not have subsisted Now that several Sovereignties have made their several changes without communicating with one another that is as not tyed to the Visible Unity of the Whole it is become infinitely more difficult to unite them without expressely agreeing in this principle then it would bee to unite all agreeing in it For the grounds and consequences of it would bee necessarily the Scale to balance and the Standard to measure all differences They who for the present are not divided about Religion The beginning and rise of our differences as wee are may perhaps think these considerations too far fetched to trouble themselves with Wee that cannot make up the present breaches without new provisions are onely to advise whether wee will trust God and our Lord Christ with the success weighing by our own Weights and meting by our own Measures For our case is evidently this The Reformation under Edward VI. raised a party against it not as preferring Luther before Calvin but as preferring Unity with the Catholick Church before difference from the present Church of Rome The Relation of the troubles at Francford published by the Puritans shews that they were as much divided about obedience to their Sovereign persecuting the Reformation which they professed as about obedience to their Bishops and the power of erecting Churches of themselves When the Bull of Pius V. against Queen Elizabeth came forth the Papists who from the beginning of her Reign had outwardly conformed to the exercise of Religion established by her Lawes withdrawing themselves in obedience to the Bull got thereby the name of Recusants About the same time they that rested not content with the Reformation established appearing in a party got themselves the name of Puritans Whereby it appeareth that the Jealousie of the State upon the other party together with the hatred of the people against it for the persecutions under Queen Mary gave them boldness and opportunity to shew themselves and success to make them considerable That abatement of the Forme setled under Edward VI. which to content them had been made under Queen Elizabeth gave them appetite to demand more The Recusants in the mean time as consenting to the attempts that were made against the person of the Sovereign and the State by virtue of that Bull because in mater of Religion they all gave obedience to it were involved in such penalties as the severity of the Lawes occasioned by the hainousness of those attempts provided Thus passed the time on till the same appetite animated The present state of them by the Credit of the late Parliament helped the pretenses thereof for reforming the Government to set three Kingdomes upon pretense of Religion also on the Fire of one Civil Warre For the Irish Rebellion which the example of the Scottish Commotion had brought forth falling in with the one party though not so heartily as the new Insurrection of Scotland with the other made the breach wider by uniting all into two parties The quarrel being decided they who pretended no more for the Warre but Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies brought in a new Confession of Faith and new Catechismes as well as a Directory and an Ordinance for Church-Government The sword that had decided the quarrel it seems was to make good the difference without pleading the Word for the trial of it In the mean time I will not say that those damnable Doctrines preached by the Sects which the Warre had brought forth are the necessary consequences of the Doctrine brought in of new And of the difference between it and that which was before But this I will say that there is no Visible difference between the Presbyterians and the Phanatickes These sheltring themselves under the quality of those whensoever the Law forbids their peculiar Assemblies And I say farther that if there bee such a thing as a Catholick Church all the Phrensies of the Phanaticks are justly imputable to those that distinguish not themselves from Phanaticks But admit them to their Communion as Phanaticks Upon this account I use the name of Puritans though seeming a term of
Haeresie and Schisme to bee now meer Bug-bears to fright children with But would any of them owne any of the Sects which were shut out of the Church for Haereticks or Schismaticks from the time of our Lord till the time of Constantine for true Christians Whether they would or they would not is not considerable For if all good Christians then did then did all good Christians owne the Visible Unity of the Church And there is as great a consent of Christians in the Visible Unity of the Church as in the truth of Christianity saving this difference That all Christians good and bad true and false agree in the truth of Christianity Onely those that are neither Haereticks nor Schismaticks in the Unity of the Church Let no man mistake this evidence as if so great a truth The Unity of the Church Visible by the Lawes of it were read onely in two or three Texts of Scripture They who take upon them to argue of such matters as these ought to know that the Lawes of all Commonwealths when first they are founded are the wills of their Rulers according to that measure of Power whereby they Rule Therefore if our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successours with the Rule of his Church hee trusts them also to make Lawes for the Ruling of it Provided that they tend to inforce not to avoid those Lawes which hee in person hath left them as Christians For Disciples that is Christians hee left them actually Not actually Members of his Church as not yet actually formed though virtually founded in the Power of the Keyes which hee left his Disciples These Lawes are as Visible as the Lawes of any Kingdom or Commonwealth that is or ever was are Visible I do not owne the Popes Canon Law to have the force of obliging us For I maintain a great deal of Usurpation in the Power by which it was made as well as a great deal of abuse in making the Law given by our Lord of no effect by the matter of it But I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to bee said of that Canon Law whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople now governs in the Eastern Church to bee derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successours governed the Primitive Church in Unity And this no less evident then the Christianity of this time is to bee derived from the Christianity of that time For as the present Law of the Church is but the corruption of the Primitive no more is the present Christianity whether of the Reformation or of the Church of Rome but the corruption of the Primitive For why shall I make nice to say it pretending all Reformation to be nothing but the restoring of Primitive Christianity And to that end of such Lawes in the Church as may bee the means to restore it Among those Lawes there is one which obliging those who The Law which endoweth the Church with Consecrated goods have given up themselves to God for Christians to give up their goods to maintain the Assemblies of the Church for the Service of God wherein the Communion of the Church consisteth estateth the Power of dispensing the maintenance thereof upon the Rulers of the Church This provision how little soever notice many take of it who pretend to understand the Scriptures began first in our Lord and the Disciples that attended upon him continually For it is evident by the Gospels that those Disciples which did not attend upon him continually furnished by their contributions a stock whereupon they subsisted Judas you know was trusted with it and was the first that committed Sacrilege in robbing the poor of Church goods For the poor could not have attended upon the Doctrine of our Lord had they not been provided for by the richer of his Disciples And the goods of the Church are still the patrimony of the poor for the same reason that being provided for they may attend upon Gods service Therefore the reason was the same when the Christians at Jerusalem gave up their lands and their goods to maintain the Church in contitinual attendance upon the Service of God When the Corinthians maintained their Feasts of Love When the Christians afterwards built those Churches and laid those lands to them which Eusebius saith being pulled down and confiscated by Diocletian were restored by Constantine When Christian Kingdoms and States by a civil Law indowed the Church with Tithes and Glebes and Mansions A thing as general as Christianity no People no Country being known where the Church was ever setled without maintenance estated upon it by the Church it self at the least if not by the Law of the Country over and above The form of Government in every Commonwealth is stated How the Unity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures upon certain powers wherein Sovereignty consisteth which Lawyers and Philosophers call sometimes Jura majestatis Here you have in the Governors of the Church the power of admitting into and excluding out of the Church The power of giving Lawes to the Church The power of dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church And in fine the power of propagating these rights to their successours Whereby it pretendeth not to bee a Commonwealth Because Christianity pretendeth to maintain Civil power and the right of this World in the same hands and upon the same terms which it findeth But it appeareth to bee a Visible Society founded by God under the name of the Catholick Church upon the command of holding communion therewith to which hee obligeth all Christians And all those Scriptures of the New Testament that mention any of these rights signifie no less when the meaning of them is measured by that Rule without which there is no means to determine the sense of any Scripture that is questionable And the same is signified by those Scriptures which mention sometimes several Churches sometimes one Church containing all Christians and all Churches For the parts that is particular Churches being Visible Bâ—dies the Whole must needs bee understood to bee a Visible Church The practice of all Christians owning an obligation in point of Right to maintain the powers which the Scriptures for the most part only mention as mater of Fact determines them to signifie more then they express As for the Scriptures of the Old Testament the calling of the How in the Old Testament Gentiles to bee one new people of God with the Jewes that should beleeve is but foretold in them by Prophesie And therefore the Visible Unity of the Church consisting of them cannot bee otherwise declared in them then by that correspondence in which the Church answereth the antient people of God The Unity thereof was the Unity of a Commonwealth maintaining it self by force of Armes in the possession of the Land of promise in which God had placed them upon condition to live by his Law The Unity of the Church consisting
of all Nations and maintaining all Sâ—ates in their rights of this World pretendeth not to any power of this World to maintain it self by It becometh Visible by the free will of Christians beleeving it a piece of their Christianity to live die members of one Visible Church The Unity of the Jews State tending to a temporal end of enjoying the Land of promise answereth not the invisible unity of Christian souls but the Visible Unity of a Catholick Church according to that rate in which the Law answers the Gospel And so is this point of Christianity no less clearly delivered by the Old Testament then other points of the Christian Faith are CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The forme of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same FOr though all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves of all Christians bee not onely sufficiently but abundantly contained in the Scriptures yet how clearly there laid down depends upon the purpose for which God declares that hee gave the several parts of it It is manifest that God intended to vaile the New Testament in the Old and to reveal the Old Testament by the New Therefore Christianity cannot bee clearly delivered in the Old Testament Till our Lord was to leave the world hee declared not the condition of Christianity by which wee are saved Hee declared not that which hee declared when hee was to leave the world to wit that it was thenceforth to consist in undertaking to profess the Faith of the Holy Trinity and to live by Christs precepts though ones life lye upon it For he declared not the promise of sending the Holy Ghost till hee was ready to leave the world And therefore the Baptisme of Christ by which Christians do make that prosession which saveth us was not instituted till his departure And though our Lord had clearly preached the precepts of Christian life from the beginning yet is the Visible estate of his Mystical Body the Church as well as the invisible estate of particular members darkly figured and typified not only by the parables of the Gospel but as well by that which befell him as by that which he did during the time of his preaching Therefore neither is Christianity clearly delivered by the Gospels To them to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles the substance of Christianity must needs bee known for they had been made Christians upon the professing of it But their Epistles therefore suppose it and therefore cannot pretend to deliver it Besides the greatest part of them is spent in proving that wee are saved by Christianity out of the Old Testament And therefore by that correspondence in which the Law answers the Gospel the Church the Synagogue and the Kingdom of Heaven the Land of promise And though our Lord opened his Disciples hearts thus to understand the Scriptures yet are not all that shall bee saved able to make out this correspondence the professing and performing of that Christianity whereby they are saved not requiring it Therefore neither are the Apostles writings clear in things necessary to salvation but supposing the knowledg of that Christianity whereby wee are saved nor absolutely clear but to those that are able to make out that correspondence Without this limitation it is not to bee granted that all things necessary to salvation are clear to all that seek salvation by the Scriptures alone For what mark is there extant in the Scripture to distinguish that which is necessary to salvation from that which is not Nor is there any inconvenience in all this to them that are Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture content to lay prejudice aside and to see that which they cannot but see For it will appear by the writings of the Apostles that they committed the Doctrine of Christianity to them whom they trusted with the founding and governing of the Church for the instructing of them that were to bee baptized and formed into Churches whereof the whole Church was to consist So that as they to whom the Apostles writ having received their Christianity from those that were so trusted were to limit the meaning of their writings within that Faith which they had received So is all interpretation of Scripture still to bee confined within that which the Church from the beginning hath received by their hands Which is not to make any man lord of any mans Faith For this Tradition of the Faith is before the very being of the Church Because whosoever became a Christian and so a member of the Church it is supposed that hee undertaketh the same And therefore being in force before there bee any Church it cannot depend upon any authority to bee claimed by the Church And the evidence for it is the same ground into which the reason of beleeving resolveth The consent of all Christians Which as it could not have been preserved and obtained had it not been required to make a man a member of that Church which by professing it stood visibly distinct from all that profess iâ— not So since as much as is necessary to salvation hath been already declared by the consent of the Church to confine all interpretation of Scripture within that which all the Church every where at all times hath received can make no man lord over the Faith of the Church But there is a vast distance between this Tradition of Faith Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions and other Traditions which may have proceeded from that authority and trust for founding the Church which our Lord left with his Apostles and they with the Church For that being the condition upon which all Christians are saved remains alwaies the same neither to bee encreased nor diminished till the Worlds end But the productions of Ecclesiastical power vested in the Apostles and their successours can bee no more then the limiting of circumstances according to which the publick Service of God is to bee performed and those powers exercised which God hath granted the Church for the maintaining of Unity in serving God according to that Christianity which our Lord teacheth Christianity is concerned in them but two waies The first when they are so far from advancing the service of God which Christianity requireth that it is impaired and destroyed by corruption in them The second when a part of the Church proceedeth to a change in them upon pretense that
so it is though indeed it bee otherwise The first is the plea of the Reformation against the Church of Rome The second the plea of the Church of Rome against them as to this point of Traditions And the issue is the same that is to bee tried between the Church of England and those that stand at this distance from it For the Unity of the Church being a part of the common Christianity the breach of it will bee chargeable upon that side which makes such a change as the rest have not reason to embrace If the pretense thereof bee either not evident or not sufficient the fault is in them If both in those who refuse to joyn in iâ— The Rules and Customs and Rites of the Church which are called Traditions are not commanded because good but are good because commanded And therefore even the Traditions of the Apostles being of this kind may cease to oblige by the change that may-succeed in the state of the Church for which they are provided Instances hereof recorded in the Scriptures have been produced They therefore that break from the Church upon any point The difference between Haeresic and Schisme of the Tradition of Faith which is before the Church as being requisite to make a man a member of the Church are properly called Haereticks For if they only disbeleeve in the heart they may bee counted Haereticks to God but that is nothing to the Church of which wee now speak But they that will not stand to the authority of the Church in maters subject to it are Schismaticks For those things to which the authority of the Church extendeth are the mater of Schisme Not that this difference is alwaies observed For many times the name of Haeresie extendeth to all Sects which mans choise not the will of God createth But because there is that difference visible in the mater of Christianity which many times appropriateth the common name of Haeresie to the most eminent that Separate upon mater of Faith These things are here premised to make way for the evidence which I tender for the Visible Unity of the Church from the consent of all Christians Hee that sticketh at any point of it may have recourse to the proofe which I have made in due place taking all therefore here for granted But I will advance another assumption tending â—o set the The dependence of Churches evidâ—nâ—eth the Unity of the Whole Church same evidence in better light by stating the form in which the whole Church from the Apostles hath alwaies been governed without repeating the proofes whereby it appeareth A Church then in the sense of all Christians before the Reformation is the Body of Christians contained in a City and the Territory of it For the Government of such a one the respective Authority of the Apostles conveyed by the overt act of their Ordination was visibly vested in a Bishop in a number of Presbyters for his advice and assistance and in Deacons attending upon them and upon the executing of their Orders I say the respective authority of the Apostles because as less Cities are subject to greater in Civil Government so have the Churches of less Cities alwaies depended upon Churches of greater Cities throughout Christendom Rome Alexâ—ndria Antiochia were from the beginning of Christianity visible heads of these great resorts in Church Government which the Council of Nâ—câ—â— made subject to them by Canon Law for the future The eminence of other Cities over their inferiour Churches appears in the Records of the Church as soon as there is any mention of them to make it appeaâ— In these Churches and in the Governors of them the whole Authority of the Apostles was vested For they constituted the Church In process of time the Government of the Roman Empire The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire was moulded anew under Constantine otherwise then it had been by Augustus But this new model was designed by Adrian It made the chief Cities of the chief quarters of the Empire the Residences of the chief Commanders of the Armies with civil Jurisdictions respective Which civil Jurisdictions Constanâ—ine left them when hee took from them their commands over the Armies Carthage for Africk Milane for Italy that part which was not under Rome Triers for Gaule Thessalonica for Illyricum Ephesus for Asia Caesarea Cappadociae for Pontus the pre-eminence of the Churches is as visible over the Churches of their inferiour Cities in the records of the Church as the pre-eminence of the Cities in the records of the Empire And according the course of all humane affairs must not this pre-â—minence of necessity bee further limited enlarged or abated in process of time whether by written Law or by silent custom For the effect hereof I present to your consideration the Canons of the Council of Sardica whick I take to bee the greatest advantage that ever lawfully and by regular means accrewed to the Church of Rome toward that greatness which since it hath irregularly obtained For it is visible that they were the means to extend the superiority thereof over Illyricum which continued till the Eastern Empire having the Church of Rome in jealousie laid that whole Jurisdiction under the Church of Constantinople The encrease of which Church upon the seating of the Empire at that City the ground which I allege for the superiority of all Churches as it hath been unjustly opposed by the Church of Rome so it is justly owned by those who protest against the Usurpation of it They that would except Britaine out of this Rule upon the No exception to bee made to it for the British Church act of the Welsh Bishops refusing Austine the Monke for their head should consider that St. Gregory setting him over the Saxon Church which hee had founded according to Rule transgressed the Rule in setting him over the Welsh Church For the Canon of the Apostles maintains every Nation to bee governed by their own Bishop Which the Welsh had reason then to insist upon because of the jealousie which appeared from the Saxons of their incroaching upon the Nation if their Bishop should bee owned for the head of the Welsh Church Setting this case aside the rest of that little remembrance that remains concerning the British Church testifies the like respect from it to the Church of Rome as appears from the Churches of Gaule Spain and Africk of which there is no cause to doubt that they first received their Christianity from the Church of Rome And if so they did then is there reason to conclude that they owed it the respect which was due to their Mother Church But that they either owed it or shewed it the respect of a Subject to the Sovereign which none is challenged none at all As for Illyricum which shewed the same respect after the Council of Sardica it cannot bee thought to have owed it before because it received not Christianity Episcopacy by this formâ—
inviolable in all opinions And the Church a standing â—ynod from Rome Hereby it may appear that the Visible Unity of the Church must stand or fall with Episcopacy And therefore no marvel that it should not bee acknowledged by them who acknowledg not Episcopacy For the soul of this unity consisting in the resort of inferiour Churches to superiours and in the correspondence of parallel Churches neither can this resort nor this correspondence ever appear to have been had and exercised but between Bishops as heads in behalf of their Churches Whether by a treaty of Bishops personally assembled in Council or by correspondence between Bishops by means of their Presbyters Deacons or inferiour Clergy good intelligence were preserved between Churches towards the maintaining of communion in the whole it maters not The Church in the form which I state is a standing Synod able by consent of the chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole In all the records of the Church let them shew me one Presbyter that ever answered for his Church to the rest of the Church at least in his own name for if in the name of and by Commission from his Bishop it is for my turn and let them take all And therefore though Episcopacy must needs bee declared for part of Gods Law by the Scriptures understood as the consent of the Church directeth against which no Scripture can bee rightly understood yet supposing the Church Visible by Gods Law I have enough to make them Schismatickes that oppose it though I should make Episcopacy no part of Gods Law but introduced by consent of the whole Church For that part which submitteth not to the consent of the Whole in maters which Gods Law referreth to the Whole for the preservation of that unity which it enacteth are justly to bee taken for those that violate the Unity which Gods Law enacteth Epecially in a Law of that consequence as one of those Rights wherein the chief power of the Church consisteth It is strange to see how fondly men argue that Presbyters have the power of the Keys which made the Apostles Apostles Therefore much more are they equal to Bishops As if they could not have that power in private maters between God and the conscience of particular Christians Reserving the same power for the Bishops peculiar in things which being publick concern the Body of each Church For in the cause of Arius this power was in the Council of Nicaea and in no less Had Athanasius of Alexandria or Alexander of Constantinople loosed him whom the Synod had bound though at the instance of Constantine they had been sinners to God and to his Church in violating the Unity thereof which hee hath made more inviolable then any temporal endowment of it How far are wee now from having evidenced the Visible Unity of Gods Church to bee a part of the common Christianity The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes supposing these things proved the proofes whereof have no way been insringed Haeretickes are condemned by themselves saith Paul because they know they forsake that profession upon which they were baptized members of the Church But it is Titus that is to refuse them The Church avoids them because the Bishop finds them incorrigible If other Bishops and their Churches duely informed from Titus do the like then is the Visible Unity of the Church visible in their proceedings If they do not the like then must they break communion with Titus and his Church by a perpetual Rule of the Church holding all Excommunicate that shall acknowledge an Excommunicate person to bee a member of the Church But wee read of no breach in the Church for any of those whom the Church hath declared Haeretickes Except what shall by and by bee excepted Thus far all the Church owneth the Visible Unity of the Church As for Schisme how many occasions of it have been prevented The difference about keeping Easter the difference about rebaptizing Haeretickes Many other differences have threatned breaches in the Church which have been prevented through the conduct of Christian Prelates Other divisions that have come to pass have been re-united sometimes sometimes not The communion of the Church of Sardinia with the rest of the Western Churches stood interrupted by the discontents of Lucifer Archbishop there And therefore I conceive for his time and no more The Church of Antiochia stood divided within it self under two Bishops for a mater of threescore years till by the intercession of the West as well as of the East it was re-united The East under Constantinople stood divided from the West under Rome upon the cause of Acacius for some seventy years till the Church of Rome was satisfied How long the Schism of Montanus lasted for at the first it was but a Schisme if wee judge by Tertullian who is the best record that remains of it I say not It seems to have turned into an Haeresie first and then to nothing as other Haeresies have done The Schisme of the Novatians for it was no more seems to have returned to the Church by pieces And so that of the Meletians The Donatists seem to have continued till Africk was overrun by the Mahumetans In all these breaches what signifies the attribute of one Catholick Church but a Visible Unity opposite to so many visible Apostasies St. Austine saith that if a stranger asked an Haeretick or Schismatick the way to the Catholick Church hee durst not shew him the way to his own Church because the title was not questionable Not meerly because the Catholick had more belonging to it as some would have us judge of Religion by counting Noses but as Optatus saith quia rationalis ubique diffusa because the due reason why men are Christians swayed men to stand to the unity of the Church all over The undue reason that moved men to break with it prevailed but here and there At all hands discounting Haeretickes and Schismatickes whom they that follow do seldom approve so many Christians so many witnesses of one Catholick Church which by being Catholick was alwaies and must needs bee Visible And thus far wee have the same evidence for one Visible Church as for the rest of Christianity After the Council of Ephesus the reputation of Nestorius held The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same entire in the East notwithstanding the Decree of the Council The Records of the Church have preserved us no intelligence how or by what means Those that write of the Wars of the holy Land afterwards represeut us the Nestorians in the East so numerous as might well stumble those that pretend to decide the Controversie of Religion by the Poll in our Western parts But whether the breach stood upon the opinion or upon the person of Nestorius is more then I am able to decide For in Aegypt likewise after many troubles about the Council of Chalcedon and the condemning of their
Church A justifiable nay a commendable custom of the antient Church may come out of use without any violence any fraud any purpose to defeat that pious intent to which such a custom was instrumental They who had rather break with the Church of Rome then comply with a change which the change of time and the state of things by time hath brought to pass should bee in my opinion Schismatickes But what if our Fanatickes should bee content silently to return into the communion of this Church as Presbyterians What if it appear that they are Bullion Haeretickes for the positions they profess though not stamped by conviction and contumacy succeeding and the Declaration of the Church upon that It will not then bee clear how wee shall wipe off that imputation to which wee shall bee liable by the perpetual Rule of Gods Church for receiving and communicating with those that have stamped themselves Schismatickes as Schismatickes those that have declared themselves Bullion Haeretickes as Bullion Haeretickes without any ground to presume that they are changed Certainly wee cannot allege the Catholick Church for our selves but it will rise in judgementagainst us when wee stick not to it What condition wee fall into if wee submit to the Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of unity absolute of Schisme of Rome upon terms of conquest it is manifest enough For wherein the Pope hath not limited his own authority by the Council of Trent wee render our selves to the mercy of it Missionaries shall have done a great effect if they perswade us that wee are Schismatickes unless wee return to those abuses which wee see with our eyes which wee handle with our hands they are so evident and so gross Well may they perswade simple Christians that they must first resolve which is the true Church and then what is true and what is false in Religion by that which the Church so resolved teaches This is a great deal the shorter way then to justifie the particulars which by this means they impose upon them And if wee render our selves upon these terms what remains but that wee admit whatsoever the Pope shall impose for the future though wee know that the Power of the Whole Church extends not to it Which how shall wee answer at the Day of Judgement either for our selves or those that depend upon us And yet I have shewed that the Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And hee that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that pre-eminence the only reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I count not my self tied to justifie Henry the VIII in disclaiming all such pre-eminence when it was enough for his purpose to disown it as not extending to his case For by the regular constitution of the Church which I have described if the Pope excommunicate any man injustly he does it in his own wrong hee excommunicates himself thereby from all that shall adhere to him whom hee excommunicates His advantage is only this If more adhere to the chief Church then to the less For which though there bee regularly a presumption yet if Usurpation appear either in sentencing or in the mater or in the effect of the sentence hee that exceeds his authority breaks it upon him that exceeds not like the waves of the sea against a rock But of the Usurpations of that Church wherein they consist How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God Reforming without the Church of Rome and by what means effected in due place that the difference may bee Visible between the infinite and the regular power of the Pope In the mean time what I have said of this point I must say of all maters in difference That as the Church of Rome cannot hinder us of restoring our selves to the Primitive Right of the Church by which a Christian Kingdom duely may maintain the Service of God neither consenting to the abuses which other Churches maintain nor breaking with them in other maters so are wee to go no further then the consent of the Church will bear us out For if we make new and private conceits of the Scripture and the sense of it Law to the Church which wee Reform wee found a new Church upon that Christianity which the only Church of God never owned But if wee only restore that which by abuse of time may appear to have come to decay wee impe and ingraffe the Church which wee Reform into that only Church which they that Reformed not succeed For how should wee depart from Unity with that Church the authority whereof wee follow in the change which wee make If therefore wee are to bee without offense to Jewes and Gentiles and to the Churches of God as St. Paul commands then are wee to bee without offense also to the Church of Rome Now it is no offense to the Church of Rome that wee build Unity among our selves upon an opposition to the abuses of it But if upon an opposition to that which it holdeth from the Whole Church wee give them cause to take us for Schismatickes as not reverencing in her the Whole Church which wee are bound to hold with CHAP. VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schisme The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the Conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church UPon these terms the choice of Religion would become What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church more clear which otherwise must become far more doubtful by the setling of our present differences For I grant it a thing too difficult for every Christian that is concerned to chuse his Communion to try the particulars in controversie by the consent of the Church But I maintain the same difficulty in trying which Church it is that preacheth the true Word of God and rightly and duly administreth the Sacraments which others would have the marks of the true Church For without trying the particulars in Controversie how shall it appear where the Word is preached where the Sacraments are ministred as they should bee And how shall they bee tryed but by the Scriptures expounded according to the consent of the Church As for them that would have us take the decree of the present Church to bee Infallible they are first to tell us upon whose credit wee take that Infallibility For you see wee believe not the present Church that it is the Church to wit founded by God Wee accept it upon the consent of the whole Church Neither is any thing Infallible in Christianity but upon the same ground It is not the decree of the present Church but the witness and agreement of the
necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Christians are by that mark for ever distinguished from things necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Members of the Church Because the Salvation of private Christians is concerned in not understanding the intent of the former sort But in the latter sort cannot bee concerned by not understanding the intent of them but by violating that Order and Unity of the Church which the Regular Use of them serveth to maintain That which I am to say of them here consists of two points That they are Ofâ—â—ces necessary to bee â—inistred to all Christians concerned in them And that they are to bee solemnized with those Ceremonies for which they are without any cause of offense called Sacraments by the Fathers of the Church How necessary iâ— it that those that are baptized Infants when Why the Bishop only Confirmeth they come to discretion and to receive the Eucharist should give account of the hope that is in them and undertake their Christianity upon which it is grounded For hee hath not this hope to God hee appeareth not to the Church to have it but upon these terms And thus far the parties seem content But why should not Presbyters Confirm as well as Bishops that can baptize and celebrate the Eucharist which is more to the Salvation of Christians By Commission from Bishops that they may do it is a point very disputable The practise of the Greek Church in the case is not new Besides some appearance of the like under S. Gregory in the West But that serves not the turn They must have the Catechising of them after their mode and make the grounds of Salvation what they please and not what the Church appointeth So the Answer is easie For neither is Baptism or the Eucharist ministred but by authority from the Bishop And to Catechize beside that Form which the Church allowes is to sow the seed of everlasting dissention in matter of Faith Hee that thinks there was a Reason why S. Peter and S. John should come to Confirm those whom the Deacon S. Philip had baptized can never want a reason why the Bishop alone should do it For hee cannot minister the means of Salvation alone But the Faith and the Unity of his Church with the rest is not to bee preserved without him Therefore the Gift of the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth dependeth upon the Bishops blessing because it dependeth upon the Unity of the Church Therefore Haereticks and Schismaticks who by departing from the Unity of the Church barre themselves of the effect of their Baptism being received with the Bishops blessing in the Primitive Church were justly thought to recover their Title to it If Ordination were taken for the conveying of publick Authority The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it to minister the Offices of Gods Church by the act of those that have received by their Ordination authority to propagate the same there would bee no mervail that S. Paul should suppose a Grace received by Timothy through the laying on of his hands or the hands of the Presbytery For if the profession of Christianity inferre the Grace of Baptism shall not the profession of that Christianity which the state of the Clergy in general or that particular degree to which every man is ordained importeth inferre the Grace which the discharge of it requireth What is there to hinder it but the want of sincerity in undertaking that which the Order that a man undertakes requires him to undertake This is that which renders those Prayers of the Church of no effect as to God whereby the power is effectually conveyed as to the Church In the mean time shall not those Prayers bee solemnized with Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void due Ceremony by which so great a Power in the Church is conveyed Now seeing Presbyters never received by their Ordination authority to ordain others seeing no Word of God gives it them seeing all the Rules of the Whole Church take it from them The Attempt of our Presbyters in Ordaining without and against their Bishops must needs bee void and to no effect but that of Schisme in dividing of the Church upon so unjust a Cause They could not receive the Power of the Keyes from them that had nothing to do to give it And therefore in celebrating the Eucharist they do nothing but profane Gods Ordinance Therefore the lawful Ordaining of them is not re-ordaining but Ordination indeed instead of that which was only so called If a Christian after Baptism fall into any grievous sin voiding The necessity of Penance the effect of Baptism can it fall within the sense of a Christian to imagine That hee can bee restored by a Lord have mercy upon mee No it must cost him hot tears and sighs and groans and extraordinary prayers with fasting and almes to take Revenge upon himself to appease Gods Wrath and to mortifie his Concupiscence If hee mean not to leave an entrance for the same sin again If his sin bee notorious so much the more Because hee must then satisfie the Church that hee doth what is requisite to satisfie God that is to appease his wrath and to recover his Grace The Church may bee many ways hindred to take account of notorious sin But the power of the Keyes which God hath trusted it with is exercised only in keeping such sinners from the Communion till the Church bee so satisfied And for this Exercise the time of Lent hath always been deputed The observation of Leâ—â— and the use of it by the Church The Fast before the Feast of the Resurrection stands by the same Law by which that stands For the Feast was from the beginning the end of the Fast So the Lent-Fast and the keeping of the Lords day stand both upon the same authority For the Lords day is but the Remembrance of the Resurrection once a week It doth not appear that the Fast was kept forty days from the beginning That it was kept before Easter whensoever Easter was kept that is from the time of the Apostles it doth appear The baptizing of Converts the restoring of the Relapsed and the preparing of all by extraordinary Devotion to solemnize the Resurrection was the work of it Did this Church desire the restoring of this Order and yet disowne Lent Daniel abstained from pleasant meat when hee fasted The Jewes forbad all that comes of the Vine on the day of Attonement The Whole Church of God always forbore Flesh and Wine when they fasted And shall our Licentiousness make the difference of meats superstitious Then let the late Parliament Fasts bee Reformation that provided a good break-fast to fast with and heard a Sermon as well after Dinner as before If Sin bee not notorious there is no cause why it should not The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sins bee pardoned without help from the Church supposing that the
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
same to enable them to perform it To which purpose it must needs bee requisite that this tender bee attributed not to the Faith of him that receives though the tender must needs become frustrate without it but to the Faith of the Church and the act of that Faith in executing the order of our Lord and deputing the Elements to bee the body and blood of Christ by Consecration before the receiving of them This who so holds shall neither bee engaged either to Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation nor yet to hold either of both destructive to the Salvation of them that are bred in them holding that which is necessary to Salvation Namely the renewing of the Covenant of Baptism in and by Communion in the holy Eucharist As for them who abhorring Transubstantiation communicate with Consubstantiation It is enough that I say as afore that they weigh not by their own weights nor mete by their own measures For how is it more destructive to the Grace of the Sacrament that the body and blood of Christ is thought from the Consecration the subject of the accidents of those Elements that once were then that they should possess the same dimensions which the substance of the Elements filleth And that not by virtue of the Consecration but of the Hypostatical Union of the flesh and blood of Christ with his God-head But the errour of the Sacramentaries taking this Sacrament for a meeâ— sign to confirm a mans Faith leaving it indifferent whether consecrated or not leaves it also indifferent whether used or not though the Socinians only owne the consequence But if the Faith which it confirmeth bee thought to bee the assurance of a mans Praedestination then involveth in the Haeresie of the Fanaticks The abuses of the Church of Rome in Confirmation As for the rest of those Ordinances which the Church of Rome counteth Sacraments as well as Baptism and the Eucharist though not to the like effect It is manifest that they tend all of them to a wholesome Communion in the Holy Eucharist Confirmation was for many hundred years given after Baptism before receiving the Eucharist which was to bee received by those that were baptized upon their Baptism If the Bishop himself baptized them as usually hee did baptize those that were baptized in the Mother-Church at the usual times of Easter and Whitsontide then did hee Confirm them immediately If they were baptized in their Parishes which fetched Chrisme from the Mother-Church on Maundy Thursday in token of the license to baptize which they had from the Bishop they were brought to the Mother-Church to bee Confirmed A manifest sign of that which I said That Confirmation is reserved to the Bishop because his authority it is that must allow the baptized to bee of the number of the Church For whereas the Gift of the Holy Ghost promised in Baptism depends never the less upon the continuing of the Baptized Members of Gods Church Is it strange that the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth a Christian as a Christian should bee given him again by Confirmation as a Member of Gods Church when hee that believes and lives as a Christian otherwise cannot have the Holy Ghost unless hee continue in the Church over and above Now that all are baptized Infants how necessary it is that Confirmation should pass upon them before they come to receive the Eucharist I need not dispute Boâ—h sides acknowledging that as well the tryal of their knowledge as the exacting of their profession in Christianity is a thing due unto them from the Church And therefore in the Church of Rome where this substance of the Office is not provided for it is little more then a shadow Professing Unity with the Church by seeking the Bishops blessing but neglecting the reason for which the Unity of the Church is provided by God for the Salvation of a Christian to wit the exacting and allowing of his Christianity All Ordination tends to the Celebration and Communion of In the other fâ—ur Offices the Eucharist As well that of Bishops to the intent that they may Ordain the other Orders And that of Deacons that they may wait upon the Celebration of it As that of Priests that receiving the Power of the Keyes to warrant the effect of it they may therefore have power to celebrate it Whereby it may appear how great an abuse it is to this Ordinance in the Church of Rome that a Priest is Ordained to sacrifice for quick and dead Understanding for the dead to deliver their Souls from Purgatory pains to the sight of Gods face But for the lâ—ving That all that assist or assist not so the Priest intend them though they mind not what is done much less understand or assist it with their devotions by virtue of the work done have the Sacrifice of Christs Cross applyed to them to such effect as the Priest shall intend Whereas the celebrating of Ordination with the Communion of the Eucharist signifieth plain enough That the Grace of ministring aright the Office which they receive depends upon the Christianity which they profess to receive it with by communicating in the Eucharist As well as the effect of it upon the Christianity of those to whom they shall minister the same As for the ministring of the Keyes of the Church in Penance whether publick in notorious sins or private for the assuring of those which are not notorious that they have right to the Eucharist you see it tends still to Communion in it And you may as easily see how great is the abuse of this Ordinance in the Church of Rome when it is taught That submitting to the Keyes of the Church by Confession turneth imperfect sorrow for sin or as some say sorrow for the guilt of punishment not for the offense of God which they call attrition into contriâ—iâ—n which is that sorrow which intitleth to forgiveness Whereas the power of the Keyes is ordained to procure this sorrow by barring a sinner from the Communion till it appears that hee hath it not that submitting to the Keyes ipso facto hee hath it And upon this abuse there hangs a second that when the sinner undertaking the Penance enjoyned to make his conversion appear is thereupon admitted to the Communion before the performing of it for which there may bee many reasonable occasions though not according to the Primitive Rule the performing of it is thought and said not to pretend the qualifying of him for pardon but the redeeming of temporal pains remaining due after â—in is pardoned and therefore to be paid in Purgatory if not satisfied here Things whereof there is no mark in the Faith and Practise of the Catholick Church The Unction of the sick I have shewed to bee only an appendage of the Ministry of the Keyes in that estate tending to the recovery of bodily health And therefore called extream Vnction by abuse in the Church of Rome as if the intent of it were to prepare
against the conflict of Death with the spiritual enemies of the Soul For though the Church ordaining Prayer for bodily health can by no means forget the health of the Soul if it mean to remember the Common Christianity Yet appeareth it nevertheless what ground and occasion the Institution of S. James pretendeth And so it appeareth what dependence the Unction of the Sick holdeth upon the Communion of the Eucharist As for the Marriage of Christians if it bee under a peculiar rule by virtue of the Common Christianity and that the interest of the Church in allowing of Marriages is grounded upon the same It is far from any imputation of abuse that the Church of Rome celebrateth the same at the Eucharist For seeing our Christianity is particularly concerned in the duties of Marriage How should the Grace of God enabling to discharge the said duties bee expected but by reviving the obligation of our Common Christianity which the receiving of the Eucharist signifieth I will not undertake to clear the See of Rome from all abuse of Ecclesiastical Power in multiplying the Impediments of Marriage as beyond necessity so beyond the Interest of Christianity and in dispensing in them again for favour or for reward as having been prohibited for no better reason then this That Power appears most in that which there is least reason for On the other side dispensing in those degrees which the Law of Moses prohibiteth and therefore Christianity ought to bee farther from allowing It seemeth to stretch the Power of the Church beyond the bounds of it And thus it appeareth first what relation these Offices hold with the Eucharist and the Communion of it and then what is the point of Reformation in which the voiding of those abuses standeth On the other side they that now are content with Confirmation The Reformation pretended no lâ—ss abuse on the other side so they may have the giving of it themselves and the Catechizing of them that receive it after their mode not distinguishing themselves from the Fanaticks cannot bee presumed to Catechise according to the Christianity of Gods Church But in as much as they Usurpe unto themselves authority without their Bishops and against them they cannot make Members of Gods Church by the Confirmation which so they may give So they bar the gift of Gods Spirit which Baptisme promiseth a Christian as a Christian by barring the Unity of Gods Church Again Ordaining all whom they Ordain to one and theâ— same Office of Preaching the Word and Ministring the Sacraments First they usurpe the power of Ordaining which they never received any authority by their Ordination to exercise And that in despite of their Bishops as seducing the people from the way of salvation which by their Ordinations they pretend to teach So receiving no Power of the Keys by their Usurpation they receive no power to celebrate the Eucharist but only to commit sacrilege by profaning so high an Ordinance And then they tread under foot the Hierachy of Bishops Priests and Deacons in despite of the whole Church dividing the authority of their Bishops among themselves but abolishing the Order of Deacons by confounding the title of Ministers common to all three Orders for ministring their several Offices with that sense in which the lowest Order are called Deacons for ministring to Bishops and Priests in their Offices As for the power of the Keys which is not that which God left his Church unless the effect of it bee the binding and loosing of sin It is plain enough that under pretense of taking away the scandal of notorious sin they would have power to shame and domineer over their neighbours overtaken with sin but without pretense of curing their sin for the condition upon which they are restored Such Discipline goes no further then the outward man and the restraining of him from sin for shame of the world The presumption of a voluntary change in the inward man for hope of Gods Grace by the Sacrament of the Eucharist must bee the effect of the Keys of Gods Church As for this power in sin that is not notorious what do they pretend more then their Preaching Which whether it bee such as shows the cure of sin let their diligence in Preaching mortification witness And yet whether every Christian can learn or will bee induced meerly by Preaching to use that mortification which is requisite let them that are able judge But what visiting of the sick do they pretend but to pray by them or comfort them without ever entring into the ground of their comfort upon examination of the conscience The blessing of Mariage they have reserved to the Church but upon an ungrounded presumption that the Mariage of Christians is to bee ruled by the Law of Moses The insufficience whereof being discerned by the people when they were loose from the Law of the Land hath occasioned all the incests and other disorders of the late times In the mean time whereas all these Offices are either provided to bring Christians to the Eucharist or to bee celebrated with the Eucharist It is demanded that godly Ministers bee not tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year It should rather bee demanded how they come to bee counted godly Ministers that demand this I shall not need to say how the point of Reformation is The point of Reformation in the mean between both found through which the line of it is to pass in these particulars Confirmation fitteth for the Eucharist by the profession of Christianity and by being a Member of Gods Church Ordination giveth some degree in the Clergy above the people and therefore supposeth the profession of retiring from the world more then other Christians undertake to do The Eucharist conveyeth Gods Spirit for the performing of this profession sincerely and resolutely made Both requiring the Unity of the Church both are to bee ministred by that authority without which nothing is to bee done in each Church The reconciling of notorious sin is the Bishops peculiar The Priest hath authority to cure that which is made known to him But this authority is not arbitrary in either of both The rigor of antient Discipline by the Canons of the Church is quite out of force But in these lees and dregs of Christianity which now wee draw there is some reasonable ground to presume upon that a sinner is resolved to live a good Christian for the future Let that bee limited and the power of the Keys will have effect in barring the sinner from the Communion till the presumption bee visible in him But to what shall the Keys of the Church reconcile him when the Eucharist is celebrated but thrice a year To what purpose is the visiting of the sick but that upon such presumption they may have the Eucharist to maintain them in the great journey which they are going The duty of Mariage among Christians depends wholly upon this supposition that God gives the maried an
interest in one anothers body which cannot bee dissolved but by death Therefore it is celebrated with the Eucharist that they who mary with the resolution of Christians may bee enabled by the Spirit of God which the Sacrament promiseth to perform the same The charge of Superstition upon the Church of Rome is to The Superstitions of the Church of Rome bee justified by many particulars in tendring those things to God for his service wherein his service consisteth not In the first place the multiplying of Masses for the quick and for the dead without any pretense of the concurrence of a Congregation to the action much less of any Communion At this rate it matters not much in what language it is performed seeing there is no mans devotion required to assist the Priest in it The like is seen in the Vows of Pilgrimages and in the visiting of divers Churches for the gaining of Indulgences For had men nothing else in mind then that Service which is acceptable to God in all places why should they think themselves more acceptable to God for the travel which they undergo that they may perform it far from home whereby they forgo that opportunity for it which they know without bettering the mind which were it as it might bee would find means to better it self every where But there appears in it a carnal affection to the Memories of Saints out of a carnal affection to the things of thiâ— world wherein carnal men hope to bee assisted by the Saints in recompense of their voluntary devotions though Christianity allows them not the confidence to seek them at Gods hands The same is to bee said of an innumerable number of things that Monastical Orders observe nay of the overvaluing of the estate it self of continence or retirement from the world Which being no part of Christianity but a help and an opportunity for that wherein it consisteth satisfieth outside Christians with that which Pagans can do the outward work without that inward disposition which only Christianity formeth All these and many more observations which they set innocent Christians on work about must needs speak them superstitious notwithstanding that there is always in them a pretense of serving God according to Christianity For the more straw and chaff the less grain and where the intention of the mind is spent upon the shell of Christianity there can it not have strength to bring the kernel of it to ripeness The Ceremonies wherewith they overcharge the publick service of the Church are of the same nature For they that understand not the meaning of them and therefore distinguish them not from the Office which God accepteth must needs put that to the account of his service which is but the means to procure it But what shall wee say to them who think they oblige us The Superstitions of the Puritans when they allow the people to kneel to lift up their eyes and to hold up their hands at their Prayers Do they not think they oblige Almighty God in serving him without any other sign of reverence It is not possible that they should stand upon it to the disquiet of the Church if they did not Did they not take it for the service of God that the same Houses should bee Common and Holy Stables and Churches the same Vessels Chalices and drinking Cups the same Tables Altars and dining Bords it is not possible that they should trouble the Church about it as they do But it is plain enough that they serve him without reverence or devotion because they think so To these men all set times of fasting all the estate of continence all obedience to Superiors all works of Mortification and Penance stand suspected for Superstitious They would not think themselves far enough from the Papists if they should do the good works of Christians For fear of private Masses the Eucharist must bee celebrated thrice a year And wee must have the Opus operatum of a Sermon in exchange for the Opus operatum of a Mass But this is not reforming of Religion It is stocking up the Vineyard of the Church instead of Pruning it I need not say what is Reformation and at what point it stands The distance from the extreams makes the mean visible The truth is there will bee necessarily superstition in all Religions so long as the Church hath chaff and corn in it For they that are sensible of that obligation to God which they are not willing to discharge will always discharge themselves to God upon that which they are content to do for his service but which hee is not content with because it signifieth not the obedience of the inward man which hee requireth Not that there must needs bee Superstition in using things indifferent of themselves much less in using such as in reason may serve to advance attention and devotion in Gods Service But because as there may bee Superstition in using them So there is Superstition in thinking that by forbearing them a man does God service But to think Schisme acceptable to God rather then use them is without doubt as great superstition as any the Church of Rome teacheth Having shewed why the Church of Rome cannot bee charged Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist with Idolatry I may from thence infer that the Pope cannot bee Antichrist I do not grant that either St. Paul in the second Chapter of his second Epistle to the Thessalonians or St. John in the Apocalypse speaks any thing of Antichrist But hee that exalts himself above all that is called God as St. Paul speaketh there must bee one that should make himself God according to the Idolatry of the Pagans And the fornication which the Whore of Babylon in the Apocalypse makes the Nations drunk with is necessarily the same Idolatry Therefore if the Pope teach no such Idolatry hee cannot prove Antichrist either by St. John or St. Paul The Fathers have thought that both of them prophesie of such a one as shall indeed bee a false Christ if ever there shall bee such a one Because hee shall impose a new Religion as from God upon all whom hee shall seduce But St. Johns Catholick Epistles where Antichrist is mentioned do not signifie that any such is to come And therefore wee are not tied to their opinion in the interpretation of a Prophesie which is no mater of Faith But though the Pope bee not Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters How it is just to Reforme without the See of Rome yet I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason why this Kingdom and Church of England might and ought to Reform Religion without and against the consent of the Church of Rome supposing that which seems to bee manifest by all that hath followed that the Church of Rome would never have condescended to any such change And the Unity of the Church determining the measure and the bounds of Reformation they must needs be the same indeed as they
Scripture that hee is to depend upon the Pulpit for resolution in it where it is easie as St. Gregory Nazianzene answered St. Jerome about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke to make you believe by the pleasing delivery of Language that you have satisfaction and yet when you come to seek where it lies remain in as much doubt as before And if you hackney out Ministers to two Sermons a Sabbath the people must not expect that from them in private which they cannot expect from the Pulpit But if it bee thought part of the instruction due to Gods people to make the Laws of the Church and of the State and the proceedings of publick Government a subject for the Pulpit In which as I said it is not possible for particular Christians to bee satisfied by all the Inquiry they can make in private then what may come to pass I need say to no man that hath seen what hath come to pass amongst us I let pass less abuses of vain-glory priding it self in the volubility rather then Eloquence of Language and rendring more able Curates not so ready speakers contemptible to their people and the like In which regard it may many times bee questioned whether the gifts of praying and preaching which wee hear so much of bee Gifts of Gods Spirit which ordinarily suppose Christianity or of the evil spirit which always put it to flight For all that I have said of the bad effects of Preaching is to bee understood much more of those prayers whereby evil doctrine is repeated to God for a blessing of his Spirit upon it For Christian people being weakly superstitious as the generality of all people are are apt to place the bond of that Religion wherein they think themselves tied to God in that which they see and hear alleged to God in so reverend postures That Form of Service which wee hitherto use hath well deserved What Order of Service the continual Communion will require all that hath been said in defense of it being assaulted by violent hands even in those parts in which it ought to bee inviolable Nevertheless professing as I do that the restoring of the continual Communion is such a point of Reformation that the Church is not to bee at rest till it bee brought to effect I must not stick to declare what will bee requisite to render our Communion Service useful to that purpose I have said that the word Lituâ—gy is proper to signifie nothing else but that form of Service which the Communion is celebrated with But I have shewed alsâ— that those prayers for all states and conditions of men in Christs Church which are contained in our Litanies are to bee offered up to God at the celebrating of it And seeing it was at the Reformation and is at present a Law in the Church of Rome that all Christians should bee present at Mass all Sundays and Festivals And that Reformation consists in restoring the Communion It seemeth to me that the pretense of Reformation is not made good till the present provision bee brought to effect that the Eucharist bee celebrated all Sundays and Festivals in all Churches and Chappels And so that all Christians may bee tied to bee present that they may bee brought as neer as the Church ought to bring them to communicate Supposing this the intent of the Church How should it bee attained without two Assemblies every Sunday and Holy-day-morning in all Churches For let never Sabbatarians hope to make us so perfect Jewes as to bring us to dress no meat on Sundays If they could a Parish can never bee all at Church at once The order of the Church never becomes the Church till it demonstrate a care of all Christian souls a like Between the hours of eight and twelve there is time enough for two Assemblies For who would wish that either of them should last above an hour The Liturgy is an Office consisting of Psalmâ— and Lessons intermixed with Hymns and of the Eucharist which the common Prayers for all states conditions and necessities in the Church are to bee offered up to God with Now though that which wee call the first Service bee compleat for the intent of it yet I must needs find it too long for this purpose to allow time both for the Eucharist and for the iâ—struction of the people which I do not intend to exclude out of those Assemblies which I confine to an hour And how easie were it to frame for this purpose an Order of Psalms and Lessons according to the order of the whole Church Which requires that the Epistles bee read after the Old Testament and the Gospels after them as in our Communion Service the Gospel comes next afore the Creed For there would bee room for brief Lessons out of the Law and Historical Books out of the Sapiential Books and Prophets And after for the Epistles and Gospels which not onely wee but the Lutherans as well as the Church of Rome do now use with Hymns between each according to the Canon of Laodicea received by the Whole Church This is the place for the instruction of the people according What form of Instruction this Order will require to the order of the whole Church And truly the greater and more solemn Assemblies may bee capable of edifying by learned and eloquent Sermons which the generality of Parish Churches the edification whereof the Church iâ— to study are very little the better for And the endless number of strifes that arise about the Scripture and variety of judgments fansies and interests in what is fit to bee preached make the design of Homilies necessary rather to restrain the abilities of Indiscreet Preachers then to help the inabilities of unlearned Preachers Only that they bee so framed as to contain a course of familiar instruction in the whole body of Christian Doctrine not concerning Faith alone but all the chief duties of Christians which these that wee have do not satisfie though not unfit for the time when they were set forth And being so framed Though it bee all one to the edification of the Church whether the mater of them bee delivered by word of mouth as every Minister can best insinuate it into the minds of his hearers or as it may bee couched word for word in writing yet will it bee absolutely necessary for the instruction of all preserving the Unity of the Whole that the Ordinary have account not only negatively that nothing bee taught the people contrary to the form But positively that the whole mater of it bee taught the people in such time as the Law shall determine to bee repeated again and again for the certain proficience of all For it must not avail to say that the people will not come to Church unless they may bee entertained there with variety Unless the people bee content to bee conducted by that which is best to save their souls though it please not their fansies it shall
reduce the severity of the antient Canons which the Church of Rome it self hath abated to secret Penance And yet supposing the premises it will bee necessary to follow them in such a form as the World at present may bear Not referring the measure of trial to bee required for the verifying of a mans conversion to the discretion of a Curate or a Parish but referring it to the Bishop and to those whom hee shall discharge his burthen upon in the Cathedral Church in those Colleges which I have proposed or in the Diocese And yet it seems necessary to refer the witnessing of the effect to the Curate and to the Parish For what can bee more reasonable then to presume of a good effect when they that see a mans daily conversation attest it As for the measure it will bee a great work for the Synods of the Provinces to agree upon such a form as the Legislative Power of the Kingdom may find cause to authorize and put in force Which were it effected it would not seem unreasonable to trust particular Ministers with the cure of secret sins having a Rule before their eyes to direct their proceeding I say it would seem reasonable supposing the premises supposing the Clergy lived in that respect to their Superiors in that exercise of their Deacons degree in that sobriety furnishing discretion in valuing mens actions which their people may have ground to trust their souls with For at the present the blessed Reformation having so far perswaded the People that the Minister hath nothing to do but to preach till they bee sure of their salvation who will marvel that they regard not those who detest such impostures Nor would this bee less benefit to the publick Peace and the quiet of Superiors even the Sovereign Who must bee content to have their actions scanned in the Pulpit till there bee a course whereby their people may bee conducted in those things which the Pulpit cannot nor ought to decide The Scottish Presbyters have made us understand how well they understand the bounds of Ecclesiastical Power how much they desire to attempt upon the Secular as well in the Pulpit as in the Consistory And where this great Ordinance for the cure of sin and the salvation of souls is not duly maintained just is it with God to make the neglect of it the seed of publick troubles The maintenance whereof would contribute as much to the publick Peace as to the salvation of souls CHAP. XXV Gods mercies and judgements require the perfecting of the Reformation which wee profess The restoring of the Ecclesiastical Laws is not the restoring of the Church Yet are wee not therefore chargeable with Schisme by the Church of Rome What Schisme destroys the Salvation of what persons by instances in the most notable Schismes Difficulty of Salvation on both sides the Reformation remaining unperfect An instance hereof in the Cure of souls departing by the Order in force A Supplication for a full Debate of all maters in difference The ground of Resolution one Catholick Church the first and chief point of the Debate The consequence of it in Vniting the Reformed Churches An instance in the having of Images in Churches An Objection for the Church of Rome answered That which excuseth the Reformed Churches excuseth not our Schismaticks Gods mercies and judgments require the perfecting of the Reformation which wee profess IT will not become a good Christian to think much that these things are called upon at this time before this Church bee restored to the benefit of the Laws which the Order thereof is to bee established and inforced It will not become any such to say That the same complaint might have been made while the Church of England was the Church of England and before the late breaches in it And therefore might bee spared when all ought to thanke God that wee may bee as wee were For the incomparable mercy that God hath shewed in restoring the Laws with the Crown and the Church with both would leave a mark of ingratitude upon him whosoever having nothing to say against the truth nothing against the great weight and high consequence of the premises should not think it worth the pains for all Estates of the Church and Kingdom to endeavour the redressing of them Especially the profession of Reformation obliging all that think Christians bound to stand to that which they profess not to rest in that which our predecessors had obtained by the first attempt of it For notwithstanding the great difficulties which the extream factions of Papists and Puritans in Church and State had cast in the way of all right endeavours to perfect the Reformation begun according to the true ground and measure of it Wee see what a severe account it hath pleased God to take of all Estates in the Kingdom for laying aside the thought of perfecting that which in so high a point as that of Penance they had acknowledged to bee defective I do not intend to say that the Sacrileges committed under Henry VIII had no hand in this account For there is no such mark to glorifie Gods providence with as when it is visible that the punishment springs out of the sin Nor is there any mean more visible towards the advancing of that confusion which wee have seen then the applying of the endowment of Churches to common uses being found at the dissolution by the irregular Power of the Papacy in the hands of Monasteries But of that guilt the Crown and Kingdom seems to stand in a good measure discharged by restoring that part which the Church stood invested of by the same title as wee see they have done to the due property in such a rate as the publick peace might indure As for private persons that stand invested of the like goods by the like Title there is reason to hope that their account redoundeth not to the account of the Kingdom in the sight of God notwithstanding that the Law alloweth them to use their own conscience in owning or disowning their Title For where the Unity of the Church seemeth to bee concerned it hath been always the practice of the Church to forbear the use of the Keys and to admit those to the Communion whose actions it intendeth not to warrant leaving them to answer God for the same knowing that the Church warranteth them not The Church of Rome in Q. Maries days followed this patern reconciling this Kingdom to the Communion thereof without restitution of that wrong which it claimed to bee done under Henry VIII But if the Kingdom bee liable to an account for the sin of particular persons in detaining Church goods and by that means hindring the salvation of Christian people Shall wee not think that the neglect of perfecting the Reformation begun though obstructed by the difficulty which I have alleged is and ought to bee taken for the ground of that reckoning which God hath made with us And therefore that wee are not
weight and consequence the want of Charity will lye on that side which shall refuse that reason which had it condescended to those mistakes might have been redressed How much more when there is no other choice left but either to continue at the distance under which wee were borne or to give our selves up to the will of those who not having given satiâ—faction in the trust which they undertake condescend to no terms of better assurance for the future And truly though the sin of Schisme hinder salvation more What Schisme destroyeth the salvation of what persons by instances of the most notable Schismes then any other sin because it involveth the body of the Church and so hindreth the salvation of more yet is there no cause to think that all who are involved in the state of Schisme are involved in the sin of it The less cause there is for it the greater breach of charity by it Therefore the greater the more visible the causes are of that change which occasions it the less is to bee imputed to them that follow such causes Especially to private Christians when such causes are as visible on the one side as the interest of each mans salvation is visible to the contrary on the other side Besides I said afore that Schisme in the Church is the same which Civil War in the state of the World Now though War cannot bee just on both sides for the heads and causes of it yet for those that follow their heads in causes too difficult for private persons to judge it will bee no guilt of bloud to follow that authority which appears to them Visible Which if it bee true as it is evidently reasonable there will no question remain that there may bee salvation on both sides of a Schisme The Schismes of the Novatians Montanists Donatists Meletians and perhaps divers others were grounded upon such causes as the Unity of the Church did no less visibly outweigh then the consent thereof to the contrary was visible Notwithstanding so long as the Faith remained intire as it doth not appear that they disbelieved from their beginning any thing necessary for the salvation of all to bee believed and the Offices of Gods Service were ministred by them according to the Order of the Church as not differing about any of them I should bee as loth to condemn all the partizans as to excuse the causes of them to or from eternal death How much more in the Schismes of the Luciferians of that at Antiochia between Meletius and Paulinus of that between Rome and Constantinople in the cause of Acacius and perhaps in others in which there was onely breach of Communion upon some discontent in the governing of maters in the Church without either difference of Faith or in the Offices of Gods service I confess Pope Gelasius de vinculo anâ—thematis in the cause of Acacius takes it for granted all along that the want of Communion with the Church of Rome rendred all liable to that curse which Christians by failing of the duty of Christians either as Christians or as members of the Church do incurre upon the sentence of the Church But hee who admitteth that constitution of the Church which I maintain will not easily admit the sentence of a part suppose all the West engaged in the Act of the Church of Rome able to damn all the Christians of the East that adhered only to the successors of Acacius not being able to redress his miscarriage which his successors themselves owned not Rather is the Church of Rome to answer God for the souls that miscarried by maintaining the breach open beyond that which the good of Christendom required Nay I cannot condemn the opinion of those who allow a possibility of salvation in the Sects of the Nestorians in the East and the Jacobites in the South notwithstanding that they stand divided from the Church upon occasion of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon which it imbraceth For it is possible that they may understand the terms of their distance in such a sense as may very well stand with the Decrees of those Councils So that the difference being occasioned by personal discontents though it were mortal to those who brought it to pass yet may it not bee so to those that know not how to help it if it occasion not the want of means necessary to salvation otherwise But this is not to say that these parties are not bound to concur to the visible Unity of Gods Church by communion in the Offices of his service Should they profess themselves free from an obligation concerning all Christians as members of the Church I would not excuse those that take upon them to continue such breaches because they know not that which they should know But those that are only sufferers in such breaches I should not exclude from the hope of salvation upon that account not wanting otherwise that which is necessary to the salvation of all Christians which the divisions of the Church must needs render very difficult for the greatest part to obtain This I would say much more of the Schisme between the Greek and Latine Church being well assured that there is no such defect in the Faith of the Greek Church as may warrant the Latine Church to sentence them for Haereticks And as for Schisme that the Latine Church by undertaking more then one part of the Church can undertake without the consent of the other in maters of common concernment hath the greater hand in it whatsoever the truth bee of the Disputes that occasion it And therefore it is much to bee lamented that the See of Rome should pursue no other terms of reuniting those distressed and persecuted Churches unto it self but those of absolute submission to the dictates thereof without why or wherefore Not being afraid to raise them persecution by unbelievers that they may bee necessitated to that submission which will increase their persecution from their Sovereigns Seeing then that we have so many instances of Schismes which exclude not the hope of salvation especially for those that are sufferers in them that is for private Christians How far ought wee to bee from yielding to the unreasonable demands of the Missionaries charging the Schisme upon the Reformation whereof the abuses which they maintain are the onely true cause For though it was always and still is a very difficult thing to see the true point of Resormation so as to bring those that feel the abuses to consent in it yet the abuses being both visible and palpable the faults committed by the mistaking of it will bee imputable to those that will condescend to no reason as well as to those who proceed to a change without due information in the ground and measure of it And therefore upâ—n that account there can bee no bar to the salvation of private Christians that are no actors but sufferers in such breaches though the misunderstanding of the due ground and measure
the consent of the Church That is within those bounds wherein the agreement thereof may appear For the setling of those terms upon which the Fanaticks are either to bee disowned by the Presbyterians or owned by this Church As it must proceed upon that supposition so it will render their Recusancy as concerning all the consequence of that issue visibly punishable in those that refuse to give or take satisfaction upon so just terms And the consequence of the same supposition in bounding that which is questionable in the Laws of this Church to the justifying of the Reformation which it pretendeth will leave it without excuse in other maters For the bounds of that distance which wee are to hold with the Church of Rome being the subject of distance among our selves As it is not possible to determine them but upon that supposition So they will oblige all Christians to that penalty which the Laws of a Christian Kingdom are able to inflict upon those that disobey them being made by virtue of the common Christianity As for my self it shall bee a great pleasure to me to compromise all that I have said either of the Faith or Laws of the Church to the issue of such a trial For there is no reason why I should think it a disparagment to my age not to have seen the due consequence of such a principle in so many maters of so doubtful dispute better then such a number of Divines or either side as must bee imployed in such a debate can make it to appear to those whose authority must conduct and govern it That one principle remaining firme which this Church can never disown if it weigh always by the same Wâ—ights and meâ—e by the same Measures it shall bee much pleasure to me to see any mistake of mine in the consequence of it brought to light having a good hope to God that so innocent an inquiry upon so just a principle in a cause so difficult and so concerning will serve to excuse any such mistake in his presence The same will serve to difference the liberty which I use in publishing this from the licentiousness of those who band themselves against the Lawes of their Country they are sure without those terms for submission to them upon which themselves cannot deny that they shall bee the Laws of Gods Church in it Especially seeing I compromise as many hours of study as much follicitude of thought as due a course of inquiry into the grounds of the mater in question as the most of my quality can have imployed to the like purpose since the beginning of our troubles And seeing this liberty must bee my plea at the great judgment of God for any thing wherein I may have ministred mine Office according to that measure which those Laws will inforce in which the best of my own private judgement requires an amendment The consequence of the same in Uniting the Reformed Churches And the acknowledgement of this Principle puts an end to another motion concerning the uniting of all Reformed Churches of all that are called Protestants against the Church of Rome whether this trial proposed come to an issue or not For it is manifest that before the issue of such a trial with them as among our selves all union with them upon account of Religion is but mutual toleration providing that no breach succeed or that none bee made wider then presently it is by the disclaiming of Communion between the parties And that is to bee referred to the wisdom of Superiors the terms which wee our selves ought to insist upon being secured by the express profession of that Principle whereof they are all but the consequences Wee are to stand to Luthers appeal to a Council that should judge by the Scriptures alone limiting the interpretation of the Scriptures as the Rule to judge by to the consent of the Church as the evidence for the bounds of it Had this limitation been expressed in their proceedings at home as it cannot bee said ever to have been disclaimed in their proceedings abroad with Calvinists there had been sufficient ground for preventing not only the particular breach between them but the general breach with the Church of Rome There had been no cause why both parties of Reformed and Catholick might not have continued one Church both Reformed and Catholick Since so great distances are come to pass As it is in vain to expect an union without agreeing first upon the Principle of it So it will not bee safe to maintain Communion upon toleration of differences on foot without protestation for that Principle which must maintain our own Christianity leaving them to themselves and to God in all maters of difference If this Union bee demanded upon the account of common defense against the Powers which own the Church of Rome which seems to bee the inâ—ent of those that would try the cause of Religion by the sword The same protestation will bear out all Christian Powers in point of conscience The interest of their good and the good of their Subjects being provided for by their wisedom For the maters in difference being acknowledged by securing the principle upon which they are to bee decided It will always be in their power to joyn for the maintenance of those Laws whereby the Reformation is setled in their respective Sovereignties Without undertaking for the justice of any Laws but those which each Sovereignty is to answer for because it makes them And the effect of this reservation will bee of great consequence to the retaining of that Christianity which is left us For this limitation will exclude all Power of joyning for the maintenance of Subjects in attempting the Reformation of Religion or the maintenance of the same by force against the Will of their Sovereigns The oversight of which provision in actions of State imputed to the supposition of Religion when they might as well have been intitled to causes of Civil Right hath had a very visible hand in the troubles which we have seen And is the more carefully to bee avoided for the future because the pretense is upon all occasions so studiously advanced by those that have been active in the same I have maintained the lawfulness of having Images in An instance in the having of Images in Churches Churches Now considering the distance between lawful and necessary I find it not amiss to declare by this instance upon what terms the Rule which I have proposed of reducing all customs of this Church to that estate in which wee find them practised during the primitive times of the Catholick Church may bee serviceable to the purpose of Unity amongst our selves For there is so little mention of Images in Churches during neer four hundred years after Christ for increase of devotion for instruction of the unlearned or for the ornament of Churches that it may well bee demanded as for the consequence of that Rule that the use of them though lawful may
bee surceased in Churches And accordingly I do acknowledge that comparing the benefit reasonably to bee expected from the use of them with the abuse to which experience hath discovered them to bee subject I see no cause why the use of them might not bee forborn upon such a reason as might bee effectual to unite us in a Rule bounding the Reformation which wee profess upon the ground of the common Christianity in all particulars The reason is because the having of them is not a necessary mean to that instruction or devotion which is proposed for the end of them and on the other side is acknowledged by all the Reformation to have been the occasion of abuse the preventing whereof will require that care and diligence which the forbearing of them will spare But seeing it hath appeared no breach upon Christianity to have them in Churches and that the abuse which may reasonably bee apprehended by having them to the purposes specified is of no consequence in comparison with that benefit which the Unity of the Church procureth It will never bee lawful to enjoyn this forbearance without declaring that it signifieth not that they are held unlawful Or that wee hold our selves bound to depart from Unity with the Church rather then indure them For seeing the Lutherans do use them in a great measure for the reasons specified If the uniting of us with the rest of the Reformation upon the due ground and terms hitherto required should depend upon a reasonable compliance in that particular it is manifest that it would bee a sufficient reason to oblige us to the same And therefore much more if a general re-union with the Church of Rome should come to depend upon such a compliance The consequence of this instance may bee the means to inform those that are capable what the reason of Unity may oblige us to abate of that which wee take to bee for the best in maters of less consequence that the unvaluable benefit of it may bee obtained in this estate when the protection of Sovereign Powers renders the Unity of the Church so necessary so effectual to the salvation of all For on the other side the interruption of it is that which renders that same salvation questionable by the difficulty which it createth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Christian by the impossibility rather then the difficulty which it procureth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Member of the Church which the breach of Unity alloweth not due conduct to understand To fortifie the necessity of the proposition that I An Objection for the Church of Rome answered make I will here propose an objection in behalf of the Church of Rome against the validity of our Ordinations which I have always taken to have weight and difficulty in it though others do not seem to value it For the answering of this Objection will help to justifie the Offense to bee taken and not given that may come by the liberty which here I use The succession of our Bishops deriveth it self by Ordination of three Bishops which the Canon of the Apostles authorizeth but the Canon of Nicâ—a requireth farther the consent of the Bishops of each Province Whereby it appeareth that Ordination by two or three Bishops is allowed by the Canon of the Apostles upon presumption that the Suffragants of each Province concur in allowing the Act of their fellows Which presumption ceaseth in our case Because it is manifest that the greatest part of the Suffragants did not consent to the Consecration of our Bishops but declared against it being therefore displaced by the Power of the Sword deciding for the lesser part against the greater which the Rule of the Church inableth not to do Whereupon it is argued that the Secular Power was not able to authorize our Reformation as Patron of the Church and the Canons of it To fortifie the Objection I allege the case of Novatianus who was consecrated Bishop of Rome by three Bishops and yet his Consecration was Schismatical because against Cornelius Consecrated by sixteen So the Ordination of Majorinus that was first consecrated Bishop of Carthage against Caecilianus for a head to the Schisme of the Donatists was justly counted Schismatical though it was made by a number more then sufficient of Bishops duely Ordained Which I doubt not may bee found in other Schismes I answer that the Novatians had nothing to charge the Church with but the readmitting of those that had fallen away in time of persecution upon Penance The Donatists nothing but that they who had ordained Caecilianus were Apostates Though they were proved to bee otherwise by several trials which they would never rest satisfied with As for all the rest though both Sects followed the Faith and the Orders of the Catholick Church yet they both rebaptized all those whom they reduced to themselves from the Communion of it as counting all the Church Apostates for communicating with those whom they counted Apostates Is this our case do wee find no fault with the Doctrine or with the Laws of the Church of Rome wherein Sovereigns might find themselves bound to right both themselves and their Subjects notwithstanding the dissent of the Church of Rome For though the Rule of succession by Ordination of Bishops bear them not out in it though the Unity of the Church regularly depend upon the force of that Rule yet seeing the Unity of the Church fails of the end for which God ordaineth it unless it preserve the Christianity which it supposeth intire as well in the publick service of God as in the profession and conversation of Christians it ought not to bee taken for a departure from that Unity that it is restored without that authority which regularly is provided to preserve it For the consent of all other Estates of the Kingdom in that ground and upon those terms which are to take place before the authority of those that dissent will abundantly justifie the validity of those Ordinations which declare an intent of ministring the Office according to the due ground and terms which they suppose And therefore it will not bee so visible when that ground and those terms are not so visible And upon these terms are the Christian people of this Kingdom bound to own and to authorize them in their Orders notwithstanding that the greater part of the Suffragants refused them their concurrence to the same And if the change that is made bee such in maters of greatest weight the case will bee the same though it fail of the Rule in some maters of less consequence And upon these terms I admit the plea of the Reformation That which excuseth the Reformed Churches extendeth not to our Schismâ—tickâ— that succession of Doctrine is of more consequence then succession of persons Not allowing their mistake in thinking the Order of Bishops the supporters of Antichrist For it is evident to him that will use his five senses that the
the Schisme which the Reformation hath made between us and the Church of Rome hath dissolved the obligation of being members of the Church If that change which is called Reformation preserve not such a Church as ought to bee acknowledged for a true member of the whole or Catholick Church it is no Reformation but the destruction of Christianity Now when these Laws inable Souldiers and Justices of the Peace as well as those that call themselves Ministers to make publick Preachers as well such as have received no Ordination from the Church as those that have It is manifest that all difference between Clergy and People is by them dissolved and made void And by consequence the Corporation of the Church which grounds and creates all the difference which hitherto by all Christians hath been received between these two qualities True it is that for the present as well those who have lawful authority to officiate the publick Service of God by Ordination from the Church are admitted to or maintained in their Benefices by these Laws as those that have none Though it bee well enough known that those who have such authority do pretend to act by virtue of it and not by this Law further then as by submitting to it they remove that force which hinders their right otherwise gotten to take effect But it is as true that supposing this Law to continue an age none such can remain And when none such remains then there shall bee no Church in England but by equivocation of words if the premises bee true And therefore those that acknowledge such as have no other authority but from this power for their Pastors cannot consequently profess to believe one Catholick Church nor hope for salvation by being members of it For supposing for the present though not granting that the power which makes these Laws is from God yet can it not bee pretended to bee from our Lord Christ and his Apostles And therefore this authority derived from it cannot bee derived from any act of theirs constituting the Church and enabling it to give this authority by acknowledging whereof Christians presume that they are members of the Church Now that you may see why the belief of Christs Church is an Article of our Creed I say further that you cannot acknowledg such men for your Pastors because you are not secured by these Laws that they are not Haereticks For seeing the Act of Establishment pretends only to hold forth the Christian Religion centained in the Scriptures and that all the Haerefies that are this day in the world do maintain themselves to profess the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures it is manifest that these Laws provide not that they shall not bee Haereticks which are sent you for Pastors Here I must not complain that whereas all that profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ though differing from the profession held forth are protected in the exercise of their Religion Popery and Praelacy are excepted though it cannot bee denied that both profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ Nor that those who hold the profession established by the Laws under which wee were born are refused that protection which is tendred Socinians enemies of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ who manifestly profess Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures and Faith in God by Jesus Christ For my business is not to say what they that made these Laws should have done instead of making them but what you are to do now they are made But if it bee answered that those that make these Laws repose trust in them to whom they grant these Commissions that they will not take any to bee godly men that are Haereticks To this I say that will not serve your turn for several reasons For those that profess all that this law requires them to profess that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ and the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures cannot bee judged ungodly for whatsoever they profess besides by any power derived from this Law but an arbitrary power to bee exercised at the will of the Commissioners And how are you assured that no Haeretick shall obtain a certificate of three Neighbours and so answer their demands that they shall think him in Gods grace However you are not warranted to trust your salvation and the salvation of those that depend on you either upon the judgement of these Commissioners or of them that make the Laws If it be demanded why the Secular Power and the Commissioners thereof are not as well to bee trusted with the salvation of the people as those that may pretend authority from the Church the answer is ready That when you acknowledge a Pastor sent by the Church you neither trust his person nor the person of him that sends him but the Laws which the Church hath received from our Lord and his Apostles For limiting his profession and undertaking to exercise the function which hee receiveth according to them hee bâ—comes thereby qualified for his charge But hee who acknowledges no such Laws because hee acknowledges no Catholick Church destroys the trust you are to have in those whom you acknowledge your Pastors that they are not Haereticks And here I must not fail to give you notice that those Presbyterians and Independents who having departed from the Church of England upon pretense of erecting Presbyteries and Congregations do now make themselves Commissioners to execute these Laws which destroy both Presbyteries and Congregations have thereby destroyed the ground of all trust which the Church might have had in them for conduct in Christianity For what profession can it bee presumed that they will stand to when they stand not to that for which they have destroyed the Unity of this Church which is the reason why Haereticks and Schismaticks though they may bee re-admitted to the Communion of the Church upon repentance yet by the Rules of the Catholick Church cannot bee re-admitted to bee of the Clergy For these Apostasies make them uncapable of that trust which the Church must necessarily repose in the Clergy That you may see this is not for nothing I say further that that there is among us a damnable Haeresie of Antinomians or Enthusiasts formerly when Puritans were not divided from the Church of England known by the name of Grindletons and Etonists These do believe so to bee saved by the free Grace of God by which Christ died for the Elect that true faith is nothing but the revelation hereof and by consequence that all their sins past present and to come being remitted by this Grace to repent of sin or to contend against it is the renouncing of Gods free grace and saving faith Another opinion there is which I cannot say the Presbyteans hold or require to bee held but in regard their Confession of Faith and Catechisme disclaimes it not and therefore allows them that hold it to bee of their Faction may well bee said to maintain it That for a
have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practice of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacrilege in consecrating the Eucharist For though the name of Ministers signifies no more then Deacons and that it is truly Sacrilege for Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist Yet they whom they call Ministers if Ordained were Ordained Priests with power to celebrate the Eucharist For they call them Ministers to impose upon the World an opinion which they cannot prove by the Scripture That they are the only Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and being of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to bee the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to bee made by the consecration before which they were only Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the same and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must bee presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to bee guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ as not distinguishing a sign of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the now pretended Reformation of Religion in England That the Church is not to assemble for the Service of God but when there is Preaching This seems to stand upon a very gross mistake of those passages of the Apostles writings which declare the necessary means of salvation to consist in hearing the Gospel preached As if they were meant of Sermons in the Pulpit which are onely made to those that are already Christians not of publishing the Gospel to those that knew it not afore convincing them that it is true and instructing them wherein it consists Or as if those that are already Christians wanted any thing necessary to salvation supposing them to persevere in the Christianity which they have professed Not as if their Christianity did not oblige them to hear Sermons when the authority of the Church assures them to bee without offense But because the Offices of publick Prayers and the Praises of God especially in celebrating the blessed Eucharist are the end of all that instruction in Christianity which Christians receive from the Church and therefore all Preaching subordinate to the same as the means to the End And because they may bee daily so frequented without offense and to the increase of the reverence due to Christianity as the experience of our time shows that Preaching cannot bee The second is that the first day of the week called Sunday is the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment A mistake so gross that it may well serve for an instance what Faction can do with men that are sober otherwise That God by commanding the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week to wit that day on which hee ended the Creation of the world and for that very reason commanding it should bee thought to command Christians to keep the first day of the week on which hee began the Creation and our Lord Christ arose from the dead That is that the same words of the same Commandment in writing should oblige Jews to rest on the Saturday which oblige Christians to rest on the Sunday is a thing which when this fit of frenzie shall bee past us will scarse bee believed that ever any man would believe True it is this first day hath been observed in and ever since the Apostles time but not by virtue of that Law which their Office was to declare expired and out of date but by the Act of their own authority whereby they gave Laws to Christs Church Let us now only compare the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of Prayer and the Praises of God established by the Order of the Church of England together with the more solemn service of Lords days and Festivals with a bare Sermon upon Sundays ushered in and out with a Prayer of every mans own conceit setting aside the Haeresie and false Doctrine the Faction and Schism the Blasphemy and Slander the ridiculous Follies which this Sermon and Prayer may and which wee have known them contain I say comparing these together the Reformation pretended is and ought to bee accounted the abomination of desolation in comparison of that Order which it destroyeth And therefore upon this account alone those who not being invested with that ordinary Power by which the Church is inabled to correct abuses in the Church shall usurp the Power of the Church to introduce this disorder are thereby Schismaticks themselves and those that acknowledge them for their Pastors complices of Schismaticks It will bee said that these Laws will bee amended as it was many times said awhile since that the Parliament would settle a Ministery To this I say that those who shall bee sent you by virtue of these Laws have every way as good authority as any the Power that made these Laws joyned with a Parliament can give to them that are not otherwise qualified by the authority of the Church That is that this Power and the power of a Parliament together though advising with Divines can do no more then this Power with advise of those Divines which it useth hath done Because both are Secular and able to make men their Ministers to maintain the Interest of that Government which their Power constituteth but not Ministers of the Church to maintain the Interest of that Faith and Service of God which it is trusted with If it bee said that in most parts of the Reformation those from whom the Ministery is propagated had not received by their Ordination Power to ordain others For answer I suppose That the abuses crept into the Church were so great that particular Churches that is part of the whole might and ought to reform themselves without consent or concurrence of the whole I suppose that though there bee in the Church a succession of persons indued with authority in behalf of it as well as of Faith and of Rules or Laws Yet the
succession of persons is of less consideration being subordinate to the succession of Faith and Laws as the means to the end And then I say that supposing a necessity of Ordaining because they who refused the Reformation would not Ordain to that purpose And supposing the Reformation to bee that which God requireth There is cause to presume that the intent which those that agree in it declare supplies by Gods goodness that nullitie which the want of Power to Ordain would otherwise infer For those mistakes of less consequence which humane weakness must needs commit in a work of such weight as it were malice in man to justifie so it may well bee thought mercy in God to excuse This presumption there is that the Churches thus constituted are true Churches And the Offices ministred by persons thus qualified effectual to convey the Grace of God to Christian people But wee suppose in our case that Presbyterian Ordinations tend no more to the exercise of true Christianity then of that which the Church of England hitherto professeth And wee see with our eyes that the authority that maketh them destroyeth it self by destroying the authority of their Bishops from whom it claimeth And therefore to imagine that an Assembly of Divines by being lawfully Ordained to the office of Priests or Deacons according to the Laws of the Church of England can by Commission from the Secular Power make Ordinations which the Laws under which they were Ordained forbid is to imagine that God can inable man to sin or that a Sovereign Power can authorize the Subject to rebell against it self And therefore though the qualities of persons to bee sent you for Pastors may bee otherwise limited by Acts which Parliaments may make yet these qualities not being derived from the authority of the Apostles founding the Church by any act of the Church but from Secular Power and Commission issued from it make them no more Ministers of the Church that are made by Assemblies of Divines and Presbyteries then those that are made by Commission of Triers and for ejecting scandalous Ministers That is both of them being by their creation Schismaticks and their profession not clearing them of misprision of Haeresie they can no more bee acknowledged by those that pretend to adhere to the Church of England then Belial by Christ or darkness by light Hereby then you may conclude how to receive those whom the Presbyterians may send you for Pastors by any change in the Secular Power For I charge not them that they do not believe the Church which they would bee themselves I acknowledge that they secure you from all Sects but themselves But in as much as they maintain Predestination to life onely in consideration of what Christ hath already done or suffered for the Elect in so much I say that they do not nor can Baptize into the Cross of Christ that is to say into the hope of Salvation in consideration of the Covenant of Baptisme For that which is absolutely due as salvation is due to the elect by the gift of Gods Predestination cannot bee burthened with any condition of Christianity afterwards Nor can hee who is once sure to bee saved without that condition which Baptism inacteth bee bound to fight against the flesh the world and the Devil for the keeping of Gods Commandments under the profession of the Christian Faith for the obtaining of that which hee is sure of before And therefore their Baptisme is no effectual Baptisme before God if Baptisme received in the Church of England bee such that is to say it is no Baptisme but by Equivocation of words in as much as the obligation of a mans Christianity is not declared or understood to take hold of him by virtue of it For seeing the hope of salvation which Christians have by their Baptisme is grounded upon the condition of their Christianity that Baptisme which promiseth salvation without providing for this condition is no Baptisme but by equivocation of words I say further that the change which they call Reformation visibly tends to introduce that monstrous imposture of two Sermons every Sabbath in stead of the daily and ordinary service of God together with the more solemn service of God upon Festivals and Lords days and other extraordinary occasions which the Church of England with the whole Church of God from the beginning hath maintained so far as there was means to maintain it I will not here insist upon the order of Bishops and their chief power in their Dioceses as of Divine Right that is instituted and introduced by the Apostles Let the Presbyterians think themselves privileged to erect Altar against Altar upon so desperate a Plea as now they insist upon that the Presbyteries are rather of divine right then the chief Power of Bishops in their Dioceses I insist now only that this Power of the Bishops was not against Gods Law which every man must grant me that acknowledges a Church in England from the Reformation till now In this case they who to introduce this Christianity and this publick exercise of it transgressing that authority to which they were called by the visible act of the Church of England take upon them to share that Power from which they had their authority among themselves and to execute it by consent among themselves in their several precincts cannot bee said to constitute a Church by virtue of any act of the Apostles or any authority derived from such act but by virtue of their own act as all Apostates and usurpers do That is to say that they do not constitute such a Church by being a member whereof a man may reasonably assure himself of salvation upon any principle of Christianity but such a Church as is indeed no Church unless it bee by equivocation of terms but a conventicle of Schismaticks with the misprision of the Haeresie aforesaid And therefore their Priesthood is no Priesthood their Eucharist is no Eucharist unless it bee by equivocation of words but Sacrilege against Gods Ordinance Besides that what is requisite to the consecration of the Eucharist or wherein it consists they seem to bee as secure of and as little to regard as the most ignorant of those Sects into which the once common name of Puritans stands divided at this time Neither is it in any Secular Power though never so unquestionable to cure these nullities and incapacities in the pretense upon which they take upon them to bee a Church Though for the present they are not so much as authorized to the world by any privilege or penalty enacted by any Secular Power but only protected by that which now possesseth Whereby the world may see that there is nothing but their own usurpation and the consent of those whom they have debauched to their Schisme for them to subsist by under the pretense of a Church And that they will by virtue of their Original bee as malignant to any Secular Power that shall not maintain and
visible to the common reason of all men that seek it If this bee true then no power of the Church can extend so far as to make any thing a part of the common Christianity which was not so from the beginning but it must needs extend so far as to limit and determine all maters in difference so as the preservation of Unity may require And therefore the Unity of all parts supposing the profession of Christianity whole and intire we shall justly bee chargeable with the crime of Haeresie if wee admit them to our communion who openly disclaim the Faith of the whole Church or any part of it For those are justly counted Haereticks as to the Church by the Canons of the Church that communicate with those who profess Haeresie though no Haereticks as to God not believing it themselves But the Unity of all parts being subordinate and of inferiour consideration to the Unity of the Whole wee shall justly bee chargeable with the crime of Schisme if wee seek Unity within our selves by abrogating the Laws of the Whole as not obliged to hold communion with it I confess I am convicted that as things stand wee are not to expect any reason from the Church of Rome and those who hold communion with it in restoring the unity of the Church upon such Laws as shall render the means of Salvation visible to all that use them as they ought And this and only this I hold to bee the due ground upon which wee are inabled to provide an establishment of Unity in Religion among our selves as heretofore a Reformation in Religion for our selves without concurrence of the Whole But if wee should think our selves at large to conclude our selves without respect to the Faith and Laws of the whole Church wee may easily bring upon our selves a just imputation of Haereticks for communicating with Haereticks but a juster of Schismaticks if wee abrogate the Laws of the whole Church to obtain Unity among our selves as declaring thereby that we are not content to hold Unity with the Whole unless a part may give Law to the Whole So far am I from that madness which hath had a hand in all our miseries of thinking the right measure of Reformation to stand in going as far as it is possible from the Church of Rome For were it evidenced as it neither is nor ever will bee evidenced that the Pope is Antichrist and all Papists by their profession Idolaters yet must wee either rase the Article of one Catholick Church out of our Creed or confess that the Pope can neither bee Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters for or by any thing which is common to them with the Whole Church I know some will think it strange that the Pope should excommunicate us on Maundy-Thursdays that wee should swear in the Oath of Supremacy that no forreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction or Authority Ecclesiastical in this Kingdom and yet wee bee subject to do such Acts for which the Church of Rome may justly renounce communion with us But the word ought in that Oath is Indicative and not Potential not deberet but debet For it were a contradiction for the Church of England to pray for the Catholick Church and the unity thereof and yet renounce the Jurisdiction of the whole Church and the General Council thereof over it self King James of excellent memory acknowledgeth the Pope to bee Patriarch of the West that is Head of the general Council of the Western Churches And the right R. Father in God Thomas L. B. of Winchester under Q. Elizabeth in his answer to the Seminaries Apology being demanded why wee own him not so in effect answereth bluntly but truly because hee is not content with the right of a Patriarch For should hee disclaim the pretense of dissolving the bond of Allegiance should hee retire to the privilege of a Patriarch in seeing the Canons executed the Schisme would lie at our door if wee should refuse it Now if they curse us while wee pray for the Unity of the whole Church is it not the case of the Catholicks with the Donatists For these rebaptized them whom those had baptized whited over the inside of their Churches when they became possessed of them scraped over their Altars being Tables of wood in detestation of them as Apostates and persecutors while the Catholicks called them brethren and acknowledged them rightly baptized and received them that were converted from that Schism in their respective Orders The Unity of the Church is of such consequence to the salvation of all Christians that no excess on one side can cause the other to increase the distance but they shall bee answerable for the souls that perish by the means of it And therefore not departing from the opinion which I have declared concerning the terms upon which all parties ought to reconcile themselves until I shall have reason showed me why I should do it I shall now go no further then the maters that are actually questioned among us not extending my discourse to points that may perhaps more justly become questionable then some of those which have come into dispute Professing in the beginning that I believe they may and ought to bee setled by a Law of the Kingdom obliging all parties beside Recusant But that the mater of that Law ought to bee limited by the consent and Authority of the Church respective to this Kingdom And withall that I think it ought to be held and shall for mine own part hold it an act meerly ambulatery and provisional for the time For though there is no hope of reconcilement with the Church of Rome as things are yet is there infinite reason for all sides to abate of their particular pretensions for the recovering of so incomparable a benefit as the Unity of the Whole If ever it shall please God to make the parties appear disposed to it Now the errors which wee are to shut out if wee will recover the Unity of a Visible Church that is of Gods Whole Church are two in my judgement First though some things have been disputed in other parts from whence the same consequence may bee inferred yet England is the place and ours the times which first openly and downright have maintained that there is no such thing as a Church in the nature of one visible Communion founded by God But it is maintained by several parties among us upon several grounds For some do not or will not understand that there can bee any Ecclesiastical power founded by that act of God which foundeth Christianity where there is Secular Power founded also by those acts of God whereby hee authorizeth and inforceth all just Sovereignties Though all times all parts all Nations of Christendom since Constantine profess to maintain the Church in that power in which they found it acknowledged by Christians when hee first undertook to maintain that Christianity which hee professed all this must bee taken either for meer
those whom they have already promoted to the judgment of the Church for the condition upon which they are to Minister which without doâ—bt is the principal they should insist upon the accessorie which is the form and solemnity by which the power is visibly conveyed And thus I think the second great difficulty concerning their Ordinations may bee composed Now supposing these great difficulties set aside the composing of our first differences about the Order of Bishops and the Service cannot seem difficult it the parties bee content to give up their ingagements to the advantage which the Christianity of the Nation may have by it For what reasonable Christian can think much to acknowledg that by reason of those partialities which at length have produced this Schisme the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land are capable of amendment in those two points On the other side doth not dear experience tell all parts that the change of them by force though it must bee called Reformation if the Law of the Land call it so yet is not likely to bee that which it is called Besides consider the kindness which his Majesties return and Gods goodness that hath over-ruled mens hearts in it hath bred in all parties consenting to it For can wee have this before us and not hope that it will bee enough to subdue all prejudices and animosities to the interest of our common Christianity Had the peace of the Church never been questioned it might bee charity in a discreet Christian not to call it into question by proposing what might bee amended because the hope of amendment might not countervail the danger of that peace But now that Unity is not to bee had without setling of agreement in maters of difference to propose what may seem best for the Communitie of Gods Church in the cure of our breaches is not to give offense but to take it away I will therefore premise here one consideration which I mean to assume for a supposition to ground that which I shall propose to this purpose It shall contain that which I observe in the New Testament and the primitive practice Gods Church pointing out the meaning of it concerning the difference between the Clergy and People in all Churches and the ground of it For though the edict of our Lord in the Gospel bee peremptory that who so forsaketh not all things cannot bee my Disciple that is a Christian For they who were other whiles called Disciples were called Christians at Antiochia as wee read in the Acts yet common reason evinceth that all Disciples professed not to forsake the World which wee all profess to forsake at our Baptisme according to the same rate For wee see by the Gospel that the voluntary oblations of those who followed our Lord ministring to him made a stock of money which Judas was trusted with for charitie to the poor after that his followers were provided for But it is against the evidence of common sense to imagine that all those who professed to follow Christ and to bee his Disciples were provided for out of this Stock It is true our Lord Promiseth in the Gospel that whosoever shall forsake kindred or wife or house or goods for the Gospel shall receive an hundred fold here and in the World to come life everlasting A thing visibly fullfilled in the primitive state of the Church when whosoever was persecuted for Christianity all Christians acknowledged themselves bound to provide for his support Neither can it bee said how S. Pauls saying that godliness hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come could bee otherwise fullfilled when those who had undertaken Christs Cross were subject to powers that did or might persecute Christianity at their pleasure But though all Christians in case of persecution are bound by their Baptisme to leave all they have that they may carry Christs Cross him Yet it was something more that S. Peter meant when hee said Lord wee have left all to follow thee what shall wee have For though a Net and a Fisher-boat were no great thing to leave yet so firm a faith as to forsake a mans whole course of living casting himself upon the word of Christ for his very being whether here or in the World to come is sutable to the promise that follows of sitting upon XII Tbrones to judge the XII Tribes of Israel The Christians of Jâ—rusalem who parted with their Estates that the Disciples might bee maintained in their daily attendance upon Gods service cannot bee said to have obtained thereby any common rank in the Church But it must be said that quitting their former course and state of living by quitting the means of maintaining it they became from thenceforth either of the Clergy or of the poor which were always maintained out of the stock of the Church For by S. Pauls instructions to Timothy 1 Tim. V. it appeareth that those Widows which were imployed and maintained by the Church for the common necessities of it were to be taken out of such as were destitute of means to live otherwise Herewith agreeth an infinite number of examples in the primitive Church of Godly Bishops Priests and others of the Clergy who taking upon them such professions devested themselves of their worldly goods whether applying them to the property or only to the use of the Church as reserving themselves power to dispose of them in favour of friends or kindred at their death And from the same reason and ground proceed all the Canons whereby it was provided that they should not dispose of the Church goods to such uses at death but of their own well and good For whatsoever their estates were though they renounced them not yet it became necessary for them to live as others of the Clergy lived who were generally poor when they were promoted and therefore professed to content themselves with meer necessaries because the Church goods of which they lived were due to the maintenance of the poor as well as of the Clergy From whence wee may see what truth there is in those sayings of the Fathers which make the precepts of our Lord in his Sermon upon the mount maters of Counsel For if all Christians bee to leave all things that they may follow Christ it is certain that they are commanded and not only advised to turn the other cheek to quit a mans Coat to him that takes away his Cloak to undergo the rest of those precepts whereby our Lord describeth the duty of a Christian provided they bee so understood as the maintenance of a mans estate in the World and the obligations which it inferreth even by virtue of that Christianity which alloweth the same will require But if there bee another estate in the Church of Disciples which profess of follow Christ leaving the imployment of the world for that purpose and therefore to forbear the pleasures and profits thereof accordingly That strict Rate and that high degree in which they
correspondent to the primitive forme tending to the Unity of the Whole But let no man think that for the love of such a correspondence I have any itch to call in question the Unity of the Whole The alteration is great and must needs produce a great motion to ingraffe it into the Laws of the Kingdom And therefore I am not of opinion to change the Law for hope of amendment with so much appearance of danger to the being of the Whole But I am of opinion that it would bee easie to erect Presbyteries that is Colleges of Presbyters in all Shire Towns which have no Cathedral Churches for the Ecclesiastical Government of the respective Counties with and under the Bishops And that so the Rule of the Church would bee set on work to the best effect and purpose For those Towns have commonly Churches altogether unprovided of means through the horrible sacrileges that have passed and yet in common reason agreeing with the wisdom of Gods Spirit from whence the Rule of Episcopacy issued ought to bee Nurseries of Christianity to the respective Counties And that intent cannot so well bee brought to effect as by planting the wisest and those that have most of the Clergy in their lives in the most eminent places with authority next to the Chief over their respective bounds By the ministery of such persons the Offices of Gods service might so bee performed in the chief places as might be a patern for their Country Churches to follow These Presbyters might grow up by education in that discipline of the Clergy which I have recommended upon the experience of the whole Church They might live a Collegiate life in common exercising a care and inspection over Inferiours together with the charge of instructing or seeing them instructed in the Scriptures The Canon of the whole Church confining all degrees of the Clergy to their respective Churches might bee revived by their means The superseding whereof being certainly one of the irregularities of the Papacy hath conduced much to the dissolution of Discipline in the Church For in conscience how can hee that is obliged to any Church give account of himself to another to which the first is not subordinate And therefore though the Presbyteries which I propose bee not Churches yet may they take account of their respective Clergy and render it to their Bishops The promotion of inferiour Orders belonging unto their account may procced upon the account which they give The censures that are requisite to pass in foro exteriori may pass them in the first instance and from them being transmitted to the Bishop bee either inacted or voided Always with right of appeal to the Synod of the Province in cases of weight and in the intervals thereof to their Deputies To which purpose and in which nature the High Commission ought to bee revived For as it is by no means to bee allowed that the Bishops negative bee any way questioned So is it no way fit that the consent of Bishop and Presbyters both bee concluded in one and the same instance As for those Dioceses which are concluded within only one County there I suppose I need not say that the Chapter of the Cathedral are by inheritance this Presbytery Now these Colleges of Presbyters consisting of those only that shall have run the whole course of their lives in the education and discipline of the Clergy is there any possible pretense of burthen upon them if the condition of single life should bee required to qualifie them for their places For this were not to tye any man to single life seeing who will may go forth and bee provided of a Country Church But it were to maintain the discipline of the Clergy in the most eminent places wherein there is a course proposed to them who imbrace it of ending their days in it And the course of a Collegiate life which I propose seemeth a sufficient means and advantage to overcome those temptations which in these days may seem too difficult for all the Clergy to undergo As for the means of supporting these Presbyteries wherein the Gure of all Parishes within the Shire Towns is provided for and included It is no difficulty to him that considers with conscience that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to bee for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to bee for the good of tâ—e Diocese And this I am now bold to profess though Superiors do not go before in it because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in several instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a Divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of Superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to bee buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the Offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of Grace For I presume it is not nor can bee supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of Grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalms of David and other Hymns of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to bee celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalms of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed with regard to it Whereby they