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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44196	The judgment of the late Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, of the nature of true religion, the causes of its corruption, and the churches calamity by mens additions and violences with the desired cure : in three discourses / written by himself at several times ... ; humbly dedicated to the honourable judges and learned lawyers ... by the faithful publisher, Richard Baxter ; to which is annexed the judgment of Sir Francis Bacon ... and somewhat of Dr. Isaack Barrows on the same subject.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H247; ESTC R11139	41,043	77

their Traditions and Distinctions So that Religion towards God and all Righteousness and Sobriety is so thin and narrow and subtile that by their Doctrine of Probability and Casuistical Distinctions all the Bones thereof are loosned It would be too long to give Instances in particular The late Velitations in France between some of the Popish Priests and Jesuites furnish the World with instances enough of this kind 2. The Second Instance is this The turning of the greatest part of Religion into Politick Contrivances for attaining or upholding Power Wealth or Interest There have been Instances many in this kind among Secular Princes and States This was the act of Jeroboam to set up Idolatrous Religion in Samaria for preventing a return of the Ten Tribes to the House of David And we may observe it in most of the Religion established by Heathenish Princes which was so ordered to accomodate their Interest though to the extreme corrupting of Natural Religion But there is not so eminent an Instance thereof in the whole World as that of the Ecelesiastical State of the Church of Rome who have corrupted as much as in them lies the most pure and innocent Religion that ever the world knew namely the Christian Religion by distorting it to Ends of Wealth and Power and appendicating to it certain new Doctrines and Practices meerly to those Ends. And not only so but have laid the greatest weight of Religion in the Observation of these Politick Appendicatims so that a man that either questions or not observes these Politick Additaments runs as severe a Censure and Danger among them as he that denies the most unquestionablePrinciples of Christian Religion Such are their Doctrines of the Popes Supremacy the Popes Infallibility the necessity to Salvation to be of the Romish Church the Adoration of Images Saints de parted and Angels the Veneration of Reliques the Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences and the Church Treasury of redundant Merits the Doctrine and Practice of Dispensations and Indulgences their Canonization of Saints their Pilgrimages numerous Ceremonies Theatrical Spectacles their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and divers other Superadditions and Appendications to Christian Religion which any person not captivated by them may with half an eye perceive to be invented and continued meerly for the support of the Grandure of an Universal Monarchy which they miscall The Church and for the amassing of Wealth and Power for the support of it as might most easily be evinced by the particular Examination of all those Politick Appendixes And yet let any man observe it he shall find as great a fervour for the upholding of these Doctrines and Practices and as great a jealousie of the least breach made upon them as if the whole Concern of Christian Religion and the Salvation of Souls lay in their Belief and Observance 3. The third Instance is in relation to the Forms of Church Government and Ceremonies That Ecclesiastical Government is necessary for the preservation of Religion is evident to any reasonable and considerate man and that the Episcopal Government constituted in England is a most excellent Form of Ecclesiastical Government and exceeds all other Forms of Ecclesiastical Government may be easily evinced and that it is the best adapted to the Civil Government in this Kingdom is visible to any intelligent person And yet I do not think that the Essence of Christian Religion Consists in this or any other particular Form of Government It is a great help to the preservation of it in its Purity and Unity and may be well called Sepimentum Religionis Christianoe as the Jews call their Oral Traditions Sepimentum Legis the Fence of the Law But a man may be a good and excellent Christian under this or any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government nay in such places where possibly there is no settled Form of Ecclesiastical Government established But if we observe many persons in the world we shall find some so highly devoted to this or that particular Form of Government as if all the weight of Christian Religion lay in it Though the wise and sober sort of Conformists know and profess this yet there be some rash people that will presently Un-church all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas which are not under Episcopal Government That if they see a man otherwise of Orthodox Principles of a Pious and Religious life yet if scrupling some Points of Ecclesiastical Government though peaceable they will esteem him little better than a Heathen or Publican a Schismatick Heretick and what not On the other side if they see a man of great fervour in asserting the Ecclesiastical Government observant of External Ceremonies though otherwise of a loose and dissolute life yet they will be ready to applaud him with the Stile of a Son of the Church and upon that account over-look the Miscarriages of his life as if the Essence and Life of Christian Religion lay in the bare asserting of the best Form of Ecclesiastical Government On the other side there is as great an Extremity of the other hand there are many indiscreet persons as well Divines as others that having either by their Education or by Conversation with Dissenters or possibly to gain a Party taken upon them the Patronage or Asserting of some other Form of Church-Government either Presbyterian or Independant or some thing fram'd by their own invention presently cry down the Established Government of the Church as Antichristian or Popish and cry up that which they have thus espoused as the only true Christian Regiment instituted by Christ and presently among them and their Followers this is made the discriminative Mark of a True Christian. If they see a man Conformable to the Established Government tho' he be pious sober and truly Religious yet they despise and neglect him censure him as a Formalist and without the Power of Godliness But if a man will but revile the Established Government and be bold against it cry it down and cry up the New Institution into which they are listed tho' the man be Covetous Uncharitable Hard-hearted Proud Impetuous and possibly otherwise Loose in his Conversation yet such a man shall be cherished applauded and cryed up for a Saint a Precious Man and Zealous for the Truth And although Decent Ceremonies that are for the Preservation of the Dignity of Religion and to keep due Order and Regularity are not Essential Parts of Christianity nor were ever so esteemed by wise and sober men and yet are of use and convenience in the Church nevertheless we may easily observe among men the same Extremes as are before noted some placing the whole weight of Religion in their strict Observance and making them the principal if not the only Badge of a Son of the Church hateing and despising those that scruple any thing in them or that do not come up in every punctilio to their Observance though they be otherwise sound in the Principles of Faith pious and strict in their lives just and honest

ill Effects 1. It maketh differences unreconcileable 2. It disadventages their Cause and Persons that use them with sober men 3. It exposeth Religion it self to the derisiof Atheists and increaseth such More of this evil with a Concluding Counsel to use more Temperance Prudence and Moderation in Contests about the Circumstantials of Religion p 20. 21. The Contents of the Additional Testimonies 1 THe Lord Bacons words in his Advertisement of the Controversies of the Church of England 2. His words in his Considerations for better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England Lest the Reader accuse me of omitting any part I had rather he would read all those two Treatises himself than those Scraps 3 Animadversions of the Transcriber 4. Some passages of Doctor Isaack Barrow PART I. OF RELIGION The Ends and Uses of it and the Errors of Men touching it TRUE Religion is the greatest Improvement Advantage and Priviledge of Humane Nature and that which gives it the noblest and highest Pre-eminence above other visible Creatures We may observe in many Bruit Beasts and Birds admirable Instincts Dexterities and Sagacities and in some of them some dark resemblances of Reason or Ratiocination But Religion is so appropriate to the Humane Nature that there are scarce any sort of Men but have some Religion Nor do the most subtle or sagacious Bruits afford any signs thereof as communicated to their Natures It is one of the chiefest Mercies and Blessings that Almighty God hath afforded to the Children of Men and that which signally manifests his Providential Care towards and over them that in all Ages and among all Nations he hath given to them some Means and Helps to discover unto them though in different Degrees some principal Sentiments of true Religion 1. By the secret Characters and Impressions and Structures thereof in their Minds and Consciences 2. By his Glorious and admirable Works commonly called the Works of Nature 3. By signal Providences and Providential Regiment of the World 4. By raising up Men in all Ages of great Wisdom Observation and Learning which did instruct the more ignorant in this great Concernment the Rudiments of Natural Religion 5. By Traditionary Transmission of many important Truths and Directions of Life from Ancestors to their Posterity and others Though in process of time evil Customs and evil Men did in a great measure impair and corrupt the Sentiments and Practices of Men notwithstanding these helps Therefore the same Mercy and Goodness of God for the preservation and propagation of the true Religion was pleased to substitute a more fixed and permanent means namely the Holy Scriptures or Divine Revelations committed to Writing in the Books of the Old and New Testament Though the Religion delivered in both Testaments be in substance the same yet the true Religion was more fully and plainly and distinctly delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament together also with some additional Instructions for the better preservation and propagation thereof to Mankind and divers additional Evidences to prove and manifest the truth of this Religion to procure its belief and acceptation As the Birth Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Jesus the great Reformer of the Jewish and great Institutor of the Christian Religion so called from Christ that taught and asserted it The Christian Religion is the most perfect Rule of our Duty to God our selves and others and was designed principally for these Great Ends. 1. To restore to the Glorious God the Honour Duty and Obedience of his Creature Man teaching him to Know to Glorifie and Serve his Creator to be Thankful to him to submit to his Will to obey his Law and Command to be thankful for his Mercies to acknowledge him in all his ways to call upon him to Worship him to depend upon him to walk sincerely in his sight to admire and adore his Greatness and Goodness in all his works especially in the great work of the Redemption of Mankind by his Son Christ Jesus 2. To inable Man to attain everlasting Happiness the perpetual Vision of the Glorious God and to fit and prepare him to be a partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and Glory 3. To compose and settle Mankind in such a decent and becomingrectitude order and deportment in this World as may be suitable to the Existence of a Reasonable Nature and the Good of Mankind Which consistsprincipally in a double relation 1. To a Mans self Sobriety 2. To others which consists in those two great Habits or Disposition beneficent to Mankind viz. Righteousness or Justice and Charity or Love and Beneficence These three Great Ends are succinctly delivered Tit. 2. 11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Here we have these three Ends of Christian Religion 1. Godliness or our Duty to God 2. Salvation or our own everlasting Happiness 3. Sobriety Righteousness which also includeth Charity a part of Evangelical Righteousness And because Christian Religion was intended and instituted for the good of Man-kind whether Poor or Rich Learned or Unlearned Simple or Prudent Wise or Weak it was fitted with such plain easie and evident Directions both for things to be known and things to be done in order to the attainment of the End for which it was designed that might be understood by any Capacity that had the ordinary and common use of Reason or Humane Understanding and by the common assistance of the Divine Grace might be practised by them The Credenda or things to be known or believed as simply necessary to those Ends are but few and intelligible briefly delivered in that Summary of Christian Religion usually called the Apostles Creed The Agenda or things to be done or forborn are those few and excellent Precepts delivered by Christ and his Apostles in that little Book of the New Testament and yet even the tenth part of that little Book will contain all the Precepts of Christian Duty and Obedience contained in that Book And in brief the Baptismal Covenant as it is contained in the Liturgy and Explanation thereof in the Church Catechism used among us together with the Precepts of the Decalogue contain in effect a Summary or brief Epitome of our Christian Duty And certainly it was necessary and becoming the Wisdom of the most Wise God that that Religion and Doctrine which equally concerned Men of all Kinds and Capacities should be accordingly accommodated as might be useful for all If the Doctrine or Precepts of Christian Religion should have been delivered in over sublime or seraphical expressions in high Rhetorical Raptures in intricate and subtile Phrases or Stile or if it should have been surcharged with multitude of particulars it would have been like a Sealed Book to the far greatest part of Mankind who yet were equally concerned in the Business and

so as it may be grateful to the Sense Make us Gods that may go before us And this is the chief original of Idolatry and also of Superstition 2. There are other Superadditions that come even from the accidental Inclinations of men to some special matter which they value and love and that they carry over into Religion and many times mingle with it As for the purpose take a man greatly admiring natural Philosophy he will be apt to mingle and qualifie Religion with Philosophical Notions Many of those things of Aristotle that are harshly and dishonourably asserted concerning the Diety are from his tenacious adhering to certain Philosophical Positions that he had fixed upon Behmen who was a great Chymist resolves almost all Religion in Chymistry and frames his Conceptions of Religion suitable and conformable to Chymical Notions Socinus and his Followers being great Masters of Reason and deeply learned in matters of Morality mingle almost all Religion with it and form Religion purely to the Model and Platform of it Many great Phisicians that have much observed the Constitutions of Mans Body have figured to themselves Notions of the Soul conformable to the Results of their Observations in the Body And as thus in these sorts of men so again men of Metaphysical and Notional Brains and Education as the Schoolmen they have conformed Religion and their Notions concerning it to Metaphysicks and indeed have made that which is and ought to be the common Principle for the actuating of all men yea even of the meanest Capacities to be a meer Collection of Subtilties far more abstruse than the most intricate and sublimated Humane Learning whatsoever Again take a Polititian or States-man and he shall most easily conform Religion to State Policy and make it indeed a most excellent and incomparable Engine for it and nothing else And if we narrowly look upon the Method and System of Religion as it is formed by the Romish Hierarchy it is a most exquisite piece of Humane Policy and every thing therein suited with most exquisite Art and Prudence for the support of the Grandure and Interest of that State This hath mingled with the Christian Religion the Popes Infalliability and Supremacy his Power of Pardoning and Dispensing his Keys of Heaven and Hell his Purgatory and Indulgences and Images and Adorations of them his Reliques and Pilgrimages and canonizing of Saints and a thousand such kind of stuff most incomparably fitted to mens Passions and Affections and so to support that most artificial and methodical Fabrick of the Popish State for indeed it is no other And if we look into other Kingdoms and Places we shall easily find that Religion is so stated and ordered as may best conduce to the peace order wealth and amplitude of every Kingdom for wise Politicians finding that Religion hath a great impression on mens minds and therefore if it be not managed by the Policy of state may prove an unruly Business if it be contemperated with Mixture prejudicial to the State and that it may be a most excellent Engine if it can be managed and actuated for the Benefit of the state do add to it much of their own that it may be managed upon occasion and they dress up Religion with State Policy whereby in truth it becomes nothing else but a meer piece of Humane Policy under the Name of Religion And on the other side those either politick or discontented Spirits that would put a Kingdom into Blood and Confusion do mingle Discontents and Fancies and Imaginations Suspicions and Frowardness with Religion and call this confused mixture of Phancies and Passions Religion and manage and brandish this Weapon with mighty disadvantage to that State which they oppose For it is most apparent that as nothing hath so great an impulsion upon men as that which comes under the apprehension of Religion in as much as it concerns the greatest good even their Everlasting Souls and Happiness so nothing is of so universal Concernment as this and therefore like to attract the most Followers for every man hath not an Estate to care for but every man hath a Soul to care for and hence it is that scarce any great Contest between Princes hath happened in these latter years nor scarce any Commotion in a State but Religion is owned on all sides and God and his Cause and his Church owned on on all hands and therefore still the scramble is for Religion and who shall keep the Opinion of Religion most firm to them and therefore they on all hands infuse into the thing they call Religion those things that may most probably and politickly hold to their Party Again in Contest among Clergymen every one Trims and Orders Religion in that Dress that may most make it their own and secure it to themselves Take the Popish Clergiemen hold what you will if you hold not the Supremacy and Vicariot of the Pope all the rest of your Religion is not worth a rush Come to the Reformed Episcopal Clergy as to the Popes Supremacy they disclaim it but if you acknowledge not Episcopal Government if you swear not Canonical Obedience to your Ordinary if you submit not to the Liturgie and Ceremcnies and Vestments and Musick used in the Church you are at best a Schismatick Again come to the Presbyterian Clergy they will tell you Episcopal Government is Romish and Superstitious and their Ceremonies and Usages Antichristian Usurpations but if you mean to be of a warrantable Religion you must submit to the Presbyterian Government as truly Apostolical Come to the Independent he declaims against both the former and tells you that the true Conformity to Apostolical Order is in the Congregational way Take the Anabaptist and he tells you all the former are vain and irreligious unless you will be rebaptized and listed in their Church Again in Points of Doctrine as well as Discipline it is most plain that Tenents are professed or decryed for distinction of Parties witness the Contest between the Arminian Party and the Calvinistical Party which are only used as Methods on either side to attract Proselytes and distinguish Parties And in these and the like distinctions of Parties and Professions the Superstructions and Additions are in a manner incorporated and grafted into Religion and in effect give the only Denomination to it according to the various Interests and Affections of Parties when in truth the main business of these and the like Additions and Superstructions are but Policies to distinguish and fortifie and increase Parties 3. The re are some Superadditions to Religion that though I do not think they are to be condemned yet are carefully to be distinguished from the true and natural Life of Religion and so long as they are kept under that apprehension they may if prudently applyed and managed do good But if either they are imprudently instituted imprudently applyed or inconfiderately over-valued as if they were Religion they may and many times do harm and such are

them are Holy and Good so yet if Saint John were to indite an Epistle to the Church of England as he did to them of Asia it would sure have the Clause Habeo adversus te pauca And he saith pag. 183. That there should be one Form of Discipline in all Churches and that imposed by necessity of a commandment and prescript out of the word of God It is a matter Volumes have been compiled of and therefore cannot receive a brief redargution I for my part do confess that in revolving the Scriptures I could never find any such thing but that God had left the like liberty to the Church Government to be varied according to the Time and Place and Accidents which nevertheless his high and Divine Providence doth Order and dispose For all Civil Governments are restrained from God unto the General Grounds of Justice and Manners But the Policies and Forms of them are left free So that Monarchies and Kingdoms Senates and Seigniories Popular States and Communalties are lawful and where they are planted ought to be maintained inviolate So likewise in Church matters the Substance of Doctrine is immutable And so are the General Rules of Government But for Rites and Ceremonies and for the particular Hierarchies Policies and Discipline of Churches they be left at large And therefore it is good that we return to the ancient bounds of Unity in the Church of God which was One Faith One Baptism and not One Hierarchy One Discipline And that we observe the League of Christians as it is penned by our Saviour which is in substance of Doctrine this He that is not withus is against us But in things Indifferent and of Circumstance this He that is not against us is with us In these things so as the General rule be observed That Christs flock be fed That there be a succession in Bishops and Ministers which are the Prophets of the New Testament That there be a due and reverent use of the Power of the Keyes That those that preach the Gospel live of the Gospel That all things tend to Edification That all things be done in order and with decency and the like The rest is left to Holy Wisdom and spiritual discretion of the Master-Builder and Inferior Builders in Christs Church As it is excellently alluded by that Father that noted that Christs Garment was without Seam and yet the Churches Garment was of divers Colours And setsdown as a rule In veste varietas sit scissura non sit Pag. 134. For the Government of Bishops I for my part not prejudging the Presidents of other reformed Churches do hold it warranted by the Word of God and by the Practice of the ancient Church in the better times and much more Convenient for Kingdoms than Parity of Ministers and Government by Synods But there be two Circumstances in the Administration of Bishops wherein I confess I could never be satisfyed The One The sole exercise of their Authority The other The Deputation of their Authority For the first The Bishop giveth Orders-alone Excommunicateth alone Judgeth alone This seemeth to be a thing almost without Example in good Government and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in the degenerate and corrupt time We see the greatest Kings and Monarchs have their Councils There is no Temporal Court in England of the higher sort where the Authority doth rest in one person The Kings-Bench the Common-pleas and the Exchequer are Benches of a certain Number of Judges The Chancellor of England hath the Assistance of twelve Masters of the Chancery c. The like is to be found in all well-govern'd Commonwealths abroad where the Jurisdiction is more dispersed As in the Court of Parliament of France and in other places No man will deny but the Acts that passe the Bishops Jurisdiction are of as great importance as those that pass the Civil Courts For mens Souls are more precious than their Bodies or Goods And so are their Good-names Bishops have their infirmities and have no exception from that general Malediction pronounced against all Men living Voe Soli nam si occident c. Nay we see that the first Warrant in Spiritual Causes is directed to a Number Dic Ecclesioe which is not so in Temporal Matters Ab initio non fuit sic For the second Point which is the Deputation of their Authority I see no perfect nor sure ground for that neither Being somewhat different from the Examples and Rules of Government The Bishop exerciseth his Jurisdiction by his Chancellour and Commissary Official c. We see in all Laws in the world Offices of Confidence and Skill cannot be put over and exercised by Deputy except it be specially contained in the Original Grant And in that Case it is dutiful And for experience there was never any Chancellour of England made a Deputy There was never any Judge in any Court made a Deputy The Bishop is a Judge and of a high nature whence cometh it that he should depute Considering that all Trust and Confidence is personal and inherent and cannot nor ought not be transposed Surely in this again Ab initio non fuit fic But it is probable that Bishops when they gave themselves too much to the glory of the world and became Grandees in Kingdoms and great Counsellours to Princes then did they delegate their proper Jurisdictions as things of too inferior Nature for their Greatness And then after the similitude of Kings and Count Palatines they would have their Chancellours and Judges But the Example of Kings and Potentates giveth no good defence For the Reason why Kings administer by their Judges tho' themselves are supream Judges are two The One because the Offices of Kings are for the most part of Inheritance And it is a Rule in all Laws that offices of inheritance are rather matters that ground in Interest than in Confidence for as much as they may fall upon Women upon Infants upon Lunaticks and Idiots Persons uncapable to execute Judicature in person And therefore such Offices by all Laws might ever be exercised and administred by delegation The second reason is because of the Amplitude of their Jurisdictions c. There is a third reason tho' not much to the present purpose that Kings either in respect of the Common-wealth or of the Greatness of their own Patrimonies are usually Parties in Suites And then their Judges stand indifferent between them and their Subjects But in the Case of Bishops none of these Reasons hold For first their Office elective and for life and not patrimonial or hereditary An Office meerly of Confidence Science and Qualification c. See the rest Page 185 186. The Cap and Surplice since they be things in their Nature indifferent and yet by some held Superstitious and that the Question is between Science and Conscience it seemeth to fall within the compass of the Apostles Rule which is that the stronger do descend and yield to the weaker c. lege