never were so appointed And on the other from the wild inordinacy of them who make their own private principle whatsoever it be the rule of Scripture interpretation Among all wisely making use of and asserting and recommending such means as are given for the conveyance or interpretation or both for the conveying and interpreting of Divine Writ Something further of which will more distinctly appear in the next Chapter CHAP. V. Of the Moderation of the Church in applying the Rule of Faith to it self § 1. Avoiding extremes on either hand in relation to the authority of the Vniversal Church § 2. The Decrees of Councils § 3. The Testimony of the Fathers § 4. Other Traditions § 5. Our Churches own Testimony § 6. The use of Reason § 7. The Testimony of the Spirit § 8. Of the testimony and operation of the Holy Spirit the judgment of our Church according to great Moderation more largely declared § 1. THE Moderation of the Church of England appears very great in her due applying this Rule of Faith to her self wisely and fitly making use of all those Instruments which are most proper and useful in conveying to us that Rule or which are most subservient to the right understanding our Rule avoiding either extreme of those who attribute too much or too little to those instruments of conveyance and interpretation Such as the Authority of the Universal Church The Decrees of Councils The Testimony of the Fathers Other Traditions The Witness of our own particular Church Right Reason alone The Testimony of the Spirit To all and every of these enumerated instruments either of certain conveyance or interpretation of Scripture our Church gives their due place and esteem according to their influence and use and no more which must needs demonstrate a great deal of Wisdom and Moderation in the judgment of the Church 1. The Universal Church it self is no where by the Church of England made the Rule of her Faith but a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ Art 20. Yet the judgment of the Catholick Church of Christ was always by the Church of England held in greatest veneration next unto the testimony of the Spirit of God himself because of those famous Promises made by Christ himself to the Church which we read of in the New Testament Yea in the Old Testament The Prophecies concerning the Messias and concerning the Church and the Ministers of the Church always are join'd together as I have sometime heard a great Prelate of our Church teach us And because whatever Arguments we have for the truth of Holy Scriptures as thanks be to God we have many beside yet also from the witness and keeping of the Church a Ecclesia non discernit sed niâ—a traditioni legitimae testatur quae sint Canonicae Scripturae Spalatens l. 7. ch 1. we receive the Holy Scriptures themselves and in the sixth Article In the name of Holy Scriptures the Church doth understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority there was never any doubt in the Church So that as the Archbishop of Spalato hath it we have recourse to the Church not as to an Authoritative Judge but as to a Treasure and Repository b Haec sunt quae Patres intra Canonem concluserunt Haec nobis à Patribus tradita S. Hieron Ruffinus in which the Canonical Books and all things necessary to Salvation are preserved by faithful Tradition Wherefore the Catholick Church it self is called not a Judge nor a Rule c Credo Ecclisiam credo Ecclesiae per Eâ—clesiam Non diâ—imus credo in Ecclesiam â—â—t credo in Ecclesiâ— Ep-Esâ—enâ— but more truly a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ and for interpretation of Scripture and for our help in judging of Doctrines according to our Rule the Church of England values above all others the Judgment of the Catholick Church so far forth as we can attain the testimony of the Catholick Church by such instruments as are approved and undoubted For though d Second Diâ—â—native against Popery l. 1. â— 1. If by Catholick you mean all particular Churches in the World then though truth doth infallibly dwell amongst them yet you can never go to School to them all to learn it in such questions as are curious and unnecessary and by which the Salvation of Souls is not promoted Yet we know that in the Primitive Time the Christian Church was in a less compass and more undivided Wherefore if such matters which are most essential to the being and well-being of the Church are both delivered from that time and with their conveyance have been approved by the Church in common ever since If the Church may be a sure instrument of conveyance of the Books of Holy Scripture why not also of such matters wherein all so well agree from the first and do in no sort thwart the Tradition of the Holy Scripture it self Wherefore in the Canon set forth in our Church with the Articles of Religion 1571. it is caution'd That nothing be at any time taught either to be held or believed upon the account of Religion but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament which the Catholick Fathers and antient Bishops have gathered from thence Which Golden Rule of our Church I find twice extoll'd by the Illustrious Grotius once e De imp sum potesta c. 6. §. 9. p. 181. in these words I cannot but commend that famous Canon of the Church of England That c. And again in one of his Epistles f Apologiâ— Eccl. Anglicanae Accessimus verò ad illam Ecclesiam in quâ omnia castè reverenter quantum nos assequâ— potâ—imus proximè ad priscorum temporum rationem §. 118. Inde enim putavimus restaurationem petendâ—m esse unde prima Religionis initia ducta essent §. 150. He takes occasion from this Canon of the Church to say He wonders any should deny In England they attribute more to the ancient Church than they do in France The form also of profession in the admission of Professors in Divinity in the University because it doth very fully express the sense of the Church of England I repeat the tenour thereof I from my heart do embrace and receive all the Holy Canonical Scripture in the Old and New Testament comprehended and all those things which the true Church of Christ Holy and Apostolick subject to the word of God and governed by the same doth reject I reject whatsoever it holds I hold Concerning the Church of England in this matter hear we what the Learned Casaubon hath declared in an Epistle to Heinsius g Ep. Ecclesiasticae p. 345. This saith he is my judgment Whereas there will and can be but one true Church we are not hastily to recede from those Doctrines of Faith which the consent of all the ancient Catholick Church hath approved and whereas I own no other Foundation of true
all other matters referring to that Sacrament and all the other five Sacraments also in every thing referring to Faith and Doctrine and Rites agree in heart and confession of mouth with all things received in the Roman Church and all the decrees of that Council made or to be made exhibiting all duty to the Pope as the universal Bishop of the Church c. Such gainful and advantageous bargains will they be sure to make for themselves and the keeping up their usurpations before they will allow any concession or mitigate any extreme rigour in their most unwarrantable practises or they will not fail to annex such conditions as shall render their concessions ineffectual § 2. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation which the Church of Rome receives as an Article of Faith absolutely and simply necessary to Salvation and propounds it to be received by all under a terrible Anathema y Conc. Trid. Sess 13. Can. 2. is by our Church plainly denied as contrary both to Holy Scriptures and all testimonies of venerable antiquity and as a doctrine liable to grievous consequences z V. Hist. Transubst à Jo. Dunelmensi which judgment of our Church may appear to them that peruse our Articles 28 29. Order of Communion Rubricks Homilies several Statutes of the Land particularly the late Statute wherein is provided that all that are in office do declare that they do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever yet such is the accurate Moderation of the Church of England in avoiding one error it runs not into other extremes for in the Office of the Holy Communion in the Church Catechism in the Apology for the Church of England is asserted the real presence a Archbishop Vsher's Serm. 18 Febr. 1620. of Christ in the Sacrament according to Scripture and the judgment b Patres dehortantur à quaestione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hâc piâ Moderatione si Rex Eccl. Angl. utuntur quae invidia R. Jac. ad C. Per. of the Church of God but the particular mode and manner thereof any otherwise than that it is spiritual mystical and sacramental the Church of England according to the same Rule and practice of the Catholick Church doth not too curiously pry into or search See Ch. 5. § 6. § 3. As the Church of England doth earnestly and passionately invite and expostulates with those of her Communion to frequent the Holy Sacrament as in the exhortations before the Holy Communion in the Conclusion of the Homily of the place and time of Prayer and in Q. Eliz. Articles for Doctrine and Preaching all Ministers are required to excite the people to often and devout receiving the Holy Communion c V. Librum quorundam Canonum 1571. Jam vero singulis mensibus coenam celebrari maximè nobis placeret Calvin Ep. p. 452. and in Colleges and Collegiate Churches the Holy Communion is required to be administred every Sunday unless there be reasonable cause to the contrary d V. Rubr. 4. after H. C. Canon 23. V. Rubr. 8. after H. C. Canon 21. 1003. Rubr. 8. after H. C. and on the first or second Sunday of every month So also the Church of England doth lay its general Command according to great Moderation in requiring every one thrice at least every year to Communicate e Qui in nataii D. Paschate Pentecosle non Communicant Catholici non credantur Conc. Agath Can. 18. well tempering her Injunction in accommodation to the necessity of the Age between the earnest practice of devotion which was in the Primitive Church f Quando Domini nostri adhuc calebat cruor fervebat recens in credentibus fides S. Hieron ad Demetr Ep. 8. when they commonly Communicated at least every Lords Day and Festival and between the remissness of the Church of Rome g Dolemus tantam Christianorum incuriam ut semel tantùm in anno sumant c. Concil Rhem. 1583. which expresly requires all of her Communion to celebrate but once every Year h In Pentecoste rarior est Communio ideo fortasse Concilium Tridentinum hoc tempore nuptias solennes fieri permisit C. Bellarm. de Matrim Sacram. l. 1. c. 31. and the followers of the Directory who for many years together lamentably neglected the administration and participation of the Eucharist i V. Coena q. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. S. Eccl. Angl. Vindic. c. 3. as beside our own memory Mr Prin often testifies and the History of the Times soon after the Reformation tell us of some who from adoring the Elements fell to contemn them wherefore there issued out a Proclamation k Fuller's Eccl. His P. 387. concerning the irreverent talking of the Sacrament § 4. As our Church offers the Holy Eucharist only to those who have given due testimony of their knowledge and Christian belief in having been confirmed by the Bishop l V. Rubr. after Confirm Injunctions of King Edw. 6. Canon 29. So it requires that none be admitted Godfathers or Godmothers at Christening or Confirmation but such as have received the Holy Communion Yet because S. Paul remits every particular Christian to a Self-examination without any order either to Minister or Lay-Elder to exclude any from the Holy Communion upon their Examination therefore the Moderation of our Church is such it doth not depress adult Christians below the order of persons first to be Catechiz'd requiring them to such rigid Examinations as have been sometime used like the auricular Confessions of the Romanists among which Examiners of the adult Professors the being of a party hath been too often the note of preparation for their Church Communion Neither doth our most moderate Church judge any uncapable of the Sacraments whom she judgeth not unworthy of her Communion m Homily of the Sacrament We must take heed saith the Homily lest of the Memory it be made a Sacrifice lest of a Communion it be made a private eating Wherefore as the redemption of our Lord is offered to all that do not wilfully reject so great grace so is the Holy Communion in our Church to all that are not unfit to receive it And such as are the Church is not wanting to admonish and forewarn n V. Exhorta and Admon before the H. C. and takes all due care to provide against their intrusion as the general corruption of mankind now doth admit according to the Rubrick and Canon o Canon 26. concerning Notorious Offenders On which Bishop Andrews his note was Our Law will not suffer the Minister to judge any man a notorious offender but him who is so convinced by some legal sentence § 5. Our Church of England doth not admit any private Masses p Conc. Trid. Sess 22. Can. 8. 39 Artic. 31. Hom. of Sacr. which in
of England with great Moderation doth profess other reformed Churches generally return to us Which the 30 Canon refers to where it saith This Resolution and Practice of our Church namely not to forsake and reject other Churches only as they depart from the Apostolical Churches particularly with relation to the use of the Cross in Baptism hath bin allowed and approved by the Censure on the Common-Prayer-Book in King Edw. 6. days and by the Harmony of Confessions of later years And it was King James his advice to his Divines to hold a good correspendence with the Neighbour Reformed Churches but saith the King * V. in Apol. Ep. Lectori Non est mihi ingenium in alienâ Rep. curiosum I am resolved to leave other Churches to their liberty And so also K. Charles I. †His Majesty's third Paper to Mr. Henderson As I am no Judg over the Reformed Churches so neither do I censure them § 4. As a special note of our Churche's Moderation we must not forbear to instance her excellent Behaviour and Charity toward the afflicted Greek Church to whom as she hath opportunity she hath testified a great commiseration a most pious affection and a great esteem See the Homily against the peril of Idolatry wherein our Church doth frequently deplore the thraldom of the noble Empire of Greece to the Turk I must needs profess said Arch-Bishop Laud * § 9. p. 26. Vt videant hi qui facilè de haeresi pronuntiant quà m facilè etiam ipsi errent intelligant non esse tam leviter de haeresi pronuntiandum Alph. à Castro Contr. Haer. l. 3. f. 93. that I wish heartily as well as others that those distressed Men had bin more moderately dealt with tho they think diversly from us than they have bin by the Church of Rome C. Bellarmine having delivered that three of their Councils have declared her guilty of Heresy Let the Church of Rome answer for her self if she can for her trampling upon the poor Greek Church as she lies in the Dust and branding her with Heresy for her Doctrine of Procession as cruelly as her Turkish Masters burn their half Moons on the Bodies of those whom they enslave But our Church is not so uncharitable as to define it a Heresy for any to maintain That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son tho we maintain as great a Truth that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son but this makes no breach of Communion among us the difference only arising from inadequation of Languages which notwithstanding we agree in the main of this Article * Animadversions on Naked Truth p. 7. Such lastly is the moderation of our Church toward the Greek Church that some of the Greek Bishops and Priests are allowed among us the celebrating Holy Mysteries according to their own Rites * In unâ fide nihil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo diversa Greg. 1. Ep. 41. § 5. Other Churches have not bin by the Church of England despised if in sundry Instances they have not arrived unto her perfection in purity of Doctrine and order of Discipline With other Churches she doth not contend for Title or understanding of Mysteries nor boasts of the Spirit nor calls her self in distinction from other true Churches the Catholic Church as of old the Arians did Lastly The Guides of our Church never challenged to themselves Infallibility Altho our Church of England hath had the peculiar happiness of a Monarchical Reformation and retains the blessing of Episcopal Government yet such is the Moderation of our Church she imputes the want of the same in other Reformed Churches not so much to any fault of those Churches themselves but rather attributes it to the Injury of the Times * Non culpâ vestrâ abesse Episcopatum sed injuria temporum Ep. Winton Ep. 3. Molinaeo Eos coegerit dura necessitas Saravia Our Church also thankfully commemorates those Acknowledgments which the Reformed Churches have frequently made of our Moderation and happy Constitution And altho we remember when it was commonly objected to us That the Pastors of the Reformed Churches abroad took our Conformity to be a Sin Sure the useful labour of D. Jo. Durell hath for ever silenced that vain reproach Who to the whole World in plain and open Testimonies hath now long since * 1662. illustrated the Conformity of the Reformed Churches abroad to our Church of England In matters of Ceremony subordination of Pastors use of set Forms and Liturgie Holy-Days set Times of Fasting magnificent Churches Organs Surplice Church-Ornaments Cross in Baptism receiving the Communion kneeling c. Who hath also proved by Testimonies the practice of those of the Reformed Churches joining with us in our Publick Worship by the advice of their Pastors either when they come over into England or in such of our Congregations as are in their Countries If it happens that any Member of the Reformed Churches speak against the Reformed Church of England he is censured for it by their Synod The Ministers of the Reformed Churches abroad blame those that refuse to Conform to the Church of England when occasion is offered and hold them for Schismatics and are scandalized at them Those few Reformed Churches which want Subordination of Ministers approve the Episcopacy of the Church of England * Certuâ— est mihi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anglicanam item morem imponendi adolescentibus in memoriam Baptismi aâ—toritatem Episcoporum Presbyteria ex soles Pastoribus compâ—siâ—a mulâ—à que alia ejusmodi satis congruere institutis veâ—ustâ—oris Ecclesiae à quibus in Gallià Belgio recessum negare non possumus Grotius Eâ— ad Boâ—t and wish they had the same and would esteem it a singular felicity All which sheweth the amity and good correspondence and concord that is between our Church of England and other Protestant Churches and also justifies exceedingly the excellent Moderation of our Church Indeed our Church of England deserves better the name of Catholic both for her Catholic Charity and especially for that she maintains her Communion upon the Foundations and Principles of Christian Religion both with the Western and Eastern Churches whom the Church of Rome excommunicates from the society of the Mystical Body of Christ limiting the Church to Rome and such places as depend upon it As the Donatists did of old to Afric separating her self also from the Communion of the Churches of Graecia Russia Armenia and all the Protestant Churches Much greater is her Schism for refusing to be a fellow-Member with other Churches in the Vniversal Church of Christ and challenging to be the Head the Root the Fountain of all other Churches * Bishop Bramhals Works p. 990. ¶ Necessity of Reformation p. 145 Yet because they still keep to the main Fundamentals we do not exclude them from the Catholic Church tho by their hard and rigid Censures and Excommunication of us
Body and by being dissevered from the Body how it is possible they should retain Communion with the Head of that Body God only knows to whose infinite Mercy we leave them It is seriously and heartily to be wished that the Duty and Benefits of Communion with the Church were duly considered by all and the many more grievous Mischiefs of Schism than have bin here mentioned and in reference to our Church of England in particular as certainly her Moderation is a great aggravation of the Schisms which are so I suppose it a most true observation and deserves the common consent of all That the only Reason why our Church is not more generally embraced and admired is because the Purity of its Doctrine the Sobriety of its Devotion the Moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not impartially and calmly examin'd and more generally understood Wherefore we wish that by God's Grace working love in all the hearts of those who do not understand consider so much they would yet consent to what the Peaceful and Holy Nazianzen declares in one of his Orations of Peace Thus saith he I resolve it is not good to be more indifferent than is meet nor too hot either through levity to be carried about with every one nor by disorder to separate from all when the manifest things of wickedness require our compliance then we are to contest with Fire and Sword rather than partake of their Leven But when only a suspicion of evil seizeth on our minds then Moderation and Condescention are more advisable rather than make a separation from others we relate unto as Members Wherefore let us embrace each other and be sincerely one and imitate our Blessed Mediatour who by his Blood hath reconciled all things and made peace Let us say to our Common Father Behold thy Sons gathered into One. Unto which I must add what the same Father from those Dissentions which were in the Church did conceive namely a great dread lest thereby Antichrist * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should come upon them on suddain taking advantages of their Discord It would be well if modest and quiet Persons could at length be convinced of the happiness of having and holding to a Rule †Pulchrum est tenere mensuram officii S Ambros offic l. 1. c. 10. And what a blessing it is to have every thing for their Spiritual use so readily and so well prepared to their hand and admit which we are in no wise forced here to affirm that sundry Orders might be much better Nevertheless whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same Thing 3 Phil. 13. In Matters of Indifferency the best way of cementing the ¶ Fracturam verò ligamen astringit cum culpam disciplina deprimit sed gravius scissuram sentiat si hanc immoderatiùs ligamenta constringant inter haec solicit a circumspectione providendum ne aut districtio rigida aut pietas sit remissa Greg. Mag. de cura past in part 2. c. 5. Fractions is unite the Parts in the Authority for then the Question is but one namely Whether the Authority shall be obeyed or not * Lib. of Prophec §. 17. Me thinks the Interest of the Christian Religion to free it from so great a scandal the Honour of the Kingdom and their Native Country and the Laws and the private Interest of themselves and their Families where greater Interest and Engagement with a Party and Prejudices do not hinder should prevail at length with more to embrace the Reconciliation of the Church which the best and wisest every-where have done convinced of the Moderation of our Church and the rest remain so divided and shattered among themselves only united by their common prejudice against the Church having had their mouths over and over stopt by solid Arguments and a palpable demonstration of their falsities and incongruities which have bin posted up to the World to their unanswerable conviction or else they have bin laught out of their ridiculous follies by them who have had a laudable art in so doing * Ingenuo culpam defigere ludo Persius Sat. 5. § 4. And indeed since the Church of England suffers so exceedingly between such extreme Adversaries which hath bin a great proof of her great Moderation no wonder if such as desire to maintain the even tenour of uniform Principles partake of the same hard measure with our Church †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. Wherefore for our calmly defending what is real Moderation we may surely expect to be accused as immoderate and to be suspected by either extreme of the number of their opposite Adversaries against which chance perhaps there is no Remedy Wherefore the sincerity of our Purpose and the goodness of our Cause we hope will support us For it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord Blessed be God we have yet the advantage of so excellent a Reformed Church on our side So the worthy Translators of the English Bible in their Epistle to King James comforted themselves If on the one side we shall be traduced by Popish Persons or if on the other side we shall be maligned by self-conceited Brethren who run thâ—ir own ways and give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves and hammered on their Anvil we may rest secure supported by the truth and innocency of a good Conscience For my own part I profess my self a lover and admirer of true Moderation and I hope I have observed the due measures of it * Moderatus sum Ipse mihi quantâ—â—â— licâ—it non quod Ipâ—â— de â—oâ—is â—erueâ—inâ— sed quid nostros Homines decedâ— spectavi Suâ—liv pref de Monach. in what I have writ with relation to either extreme And hâ—re I crave leave to repeat the dying words of the right Reverend Bishop Sanderson and to use them solemnly as my own As I do profess that I have lived so I desire and by the Grace of God resolve to die in the Communion of the Catholic Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most material Points of both conformable to the Faith and Practice of the Godly Church of Christ in the Primitive and purer times I do firmly believe Led so to do not so much from the force of Custom and Education to which the greatest part of Mankind owe their particular different Persuasions in Religion as upon the clear evidence of Truth and Reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the Grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on one hand and V. Bishop Sanderson's
kind of Protestation and proof also of the Moderation of our Church That if our Dissenting Brethren will but please to come near and view such fair and open testimonies as I have enumerated some sympathy with so just a temper may help to cool some of those Calentures to asswage and allay some of those unreasonable disorders which have discomposed the minds of many at present adverse to our Peace That while so remarkable a part of our Churches beauty appears from such a lifting up of her Veil so gentle and chearful an aspect may we hope win over some of those into better esteem of our Communion whom any Symmetry can affect whom any Moderation can overcome if they are not already irreconcilable that so the mildness and gentleness of our Church may no longer aggravate their separation with so much the more injustice unthankfulness and disingenuity even as the Moderation of our Church and Government renders the attempts of such Romanists as are concerned in them not only more scandalous and pernicious but most impious horrid and execrable As for others among us who sometime have appeared weary of their contests however unsetled hovering as it were in some motions for Union and frequently are toiling themselves in tedious contemplations of new Plots and Schemes of Government framing to themselves Idea's not very Platonical for peace and settlement I conceive a seasonable conviction among such of the real Moderation of our Church might save some of them their grievous labours for the future for how deficient they generally have been they themselves have shewed and if our Church is very moderate already I need not say they have been very superfluous There are indeed those who are still requiring that the Protestant Profession among us be setled in a due Latitude whereas we sincerely think the very thing desired is already the true temperament of our Church and such also as in no sort encourageth any indifferency or neutrality in Religion nor offers any such Principles to her Sons as allows them Proteus or Vertumnus like to be susceptible of divers shapes and forms in Religion as our Adversaries who do not understand our Church do suspect whereas the more any are fixed according to the right Principles of our Church the truer and firmer Protestants such are we shall manifestly prove and the more any are such the more truly moderate they are and their designs for peace must needs be the most discreet of any and the more to purpose So great a blessing I confess is less to be hoped for so long as the Masters of Factions have got such a mighty Dominion over the minds of their followers and have so far entangled them in their own passions and prejudices neither is it any wonder that noise and passion and hardy confidence iced over with some sanctimonious pretences can engage the affections of the vulgar more than ingenuity and real Moderation and when once this humour obtains of disaffecting what is setled with a lust after Novelties if what some love to call the pattern in the Mount should slide down from Heaven in the midst of them it would not continue long in favour and therefore no wonder if the Church of England is antiquated among such who are for new Modes in Ecclesiastical matters to gratify their sickly phansies and most divided interests While this affection is thus cherisht and thus kept up the mischief on 't is as when we preach such Doctrines as the duty of Communion with the Church and the like they generally are most absent whom the same concerns most so all testimonies which are brought in the cause of Gods Church are seldom taken notice of by such whom they are most proper to convince among the Romanists and the Separatists the Keepers of the peoples understandings not suffering them to peruse what may awaken or enlighten them and the more proper any thing is for that purpose the more industrious are they slily to stifle the reputation of such endeavours However I think it but just to vindicate unto publick authority the same fair interpretations which all private persons would gladly have for what they say or do and where the Church hath given mild interpretations on purpose for the general satisfaction of all it is but reasonable to make recognition of the same and when they are perversly wrested fairly to set them forth and certainly it is our duty to consider publick appointments which oblige us with all respect to their true ends and measures equally represented and it may be thought but a debt of gratitude for us to acknowledge such Liberties and Indulgences as we enjoy and to defend from malignant detractions the just wisdom of the Church in its excellent poise between undue extremes And so long as I have uprightly designed so just a duty the easy foresight of many ignorant or malicious exceptions hath not dasht me out of countenance but excited me and the more because I hope I have not only endeavoured to set forth the Moderation of the Church but to imitate the same In so much that where any thing is spoken to our Adversaries in our own defence I hope it hath not taken example from their own intemperate heats and since the Son of Syrach hath bid us Eccl. 37. 11. Not consult with a coward in matters of war nor with an envious man of unthankfulness nor with an unmerciful man touching kindness we despair to communicate advice of the Churches mildness with those who are of unmerciful tempers themselves therefore the more need we have all as well as we can to confirm one another in the recognition of those Virtues which justify the wisdom of our Church and afford our selves greater satisfaction in our Conformity although some are continually of such disturbed Spirits uneasy to themselves and morose they can seldom allow any time to reflect chearfully and thankfully upon the blessings they enjoy however they may give us leave to delight our selves in the serious contemplation of such proportions and measures as in the frame of our Church are most observable Which cannot but afford a rare and serious pleasure as well as use as it must be very delightful to behold any imitation of the Divine Wisdom which hath made all things in number weight and measure which governs the World and all his Creatures according to unsearchable measures of Righteousness and Equity who dispenseth all things sweetly and easily The more any Civil or Ecclesiastical Governments partake of such proportions it cannot but afford a fine and delicate reflection to find them out and admire them Such is the lovely prospect which we cannot but with delight take on the goodly frame and constitution of our Church of England Suitable to the rare temper of our excellent Monarchy we live under and the most benign disposition of our Laws which give very much to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 27. subjects industry liberty and happiness and yet reserve
Gospel Ch. 1. v. 7. But unto them of Philippi also was this grace given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake v. 29. § 3. Thus it is evident that this Exhortation of S. Paul here to Moderation is indeed directed by him absolutely to the patient and suffering sort of Christians Which let those take notice of especially who affect so much to be counted the suffering party which if they are who call themselves so then the Apostle speaks more to them than any Let your Moderation be known unto all d Of this perhaps they may be better satisfied from Mr. Pools Synopsis Criticorum De afflictionibus hîc agitur Zanch. Ver. Er. Bez. c. But it is the cause only makes the Martyr Some may suffer indeed justly as a due reward of their deeds through their own ill will Others according to the will of God 1 S. Pet. 4. 16 19. when they have done nothing amiss S. Luke 23. 41. and this I take to be the real Case of the Church of England Wherefore we seriously wish they would present themselves real examples of the thing it self who make so much noise of the word We may heartily wish they who seem so earnest for Moderation would consider whether it seems not agreeable to that equal temper of mind recommended in the Text for all to be disposed to interpret every thing to the best and to go as far as they can for peace and unity in the Church and compliance with what is enjoin'd I wish such would please to consider and read the words in their true sense with any of those Versions which are given of them Let your equity e Bez. Castell Your gentleness f Trem. Dr. Ham. Your patient mind g Our old English Tr. Erasm Par. Your taking all in good part h Bez Com. Your reasonable Conversation i S. Ambr. Your modesty k Vulg. Lat. S. Hier. Your giving way one to another l Erasmus Your Moderation be known unto all § 4. That we may the more clearly understand the Moderation of our Church we will further inquire into their false notions of Moderation who so vehemently seem to require it in our Church which requiries are made either to private persons or to those in authority 1. When private persons are called upon to let their Moderation be known unto all men They as far as they know their own minds themselves and are not averse to declare it in their writings and other expressions of their meaning undeniable by Moderation would have 1. Either an Indifferency whether they do or do not what is required or 2. They mean an Omission of what is appointed or 3. They understand by it the doing quite contrary When appeal for Moderation is made to Governours by Moderation they would understand either 1. A forbearance of the execution of Laws especially which relate to matters Ecclesiastical or 2. An abolition of them or 3. An utter alteration of Government So that all the burden for Moderation relates to the remission of the obligation and observance of the Laws especially of the Church and their whole sense of Moderation doth contain many odd suppositions particularly that the conditions of our Communion are very unlawful very immoderate and inexpedient Wherefore if in the following discourse we make it appear that the entire constitution of our Church doth exhibite as great Moderation and as equal temper as any Church in the Christian World doth or ever did since the Primitive Times we shall justify our Constitutions from those exceptions mentioned and a thousand times as many more as they can raise For supposing at present which afterward I shall plainly demonstrate that the conditions of our Communion are not unlawful and that the appointments of the Church as they are and what relates thereunto are very moderate then it will plainly and necessarily follow 1. That an indifference in doing or not doing what is required or an omission of what is matter of duty or doing quite contrary must needs be so far from Moderation that it will appear to be a great affront to the authority of a well-setled Kingdom and Church and the more moderate this is the higher will be the aggravation of their crime 2. As to the forbearance of the execution of such Laws I shall only say thus much That if for political considerations Superiours should give way at any time to such a forbearance it may not be unseasonable to consider as among the Jews there were some things permitted or tolerated not for their own goodness but because of the hardness of the hearts of the people So when Constitutions equal in themselves are remitted in consideration only of the weakness of the people the people ought to be instructed of the reason they have to be humbled for their own imperfection that they may not glory in their shame lest they go on to take heart against the Laws and accustom themselves to frowardness 3. As to change or abolition of Laws I only here touch upon what hereafter will be more amply shew'd That the Moderation of our Church is such that she always hath publickly profest That the Rites of the Church and particular forms of worship are in their own nature indifferent and mutable And it is notorious matter of fact among us that the Church hath often made those alterations which occasion hath required and for the same reasons can do the like again 4. As to an utter alteration of the Government which some there are would look at as a prime point of Moderation I should be very injurious to truth if I should not observe That some who begin with but desires of Moderation never leave till they end in the utter subversion and extirpation of what they declare themselves averse from which renders this undertaking more necessary Thus King Charles I. m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Med. 11. took notice of some Reformers who by vulgar clamours and assistance did demand not only Toleration of themselves in their vanity novelty and confusion but also abolition of Laws against them and a total extirpation of that Government whose Rights they have a mind to invade Lastly To take their words in the most mild sense not for an absolute change of the entire Government but for such an alteration of the Laws as seems to be meant by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation as it is sometimes taken for a correction of the Laws by Equity Most known unto all it may be that the Church of England never refuseth this But in cases of such mitigations and remissions as are called for we must consider there is generally supposed either an unjust sentence or some rigour of the Law or some great inconvenience attending All which the wisdom of Government will not hastily and at every motion determine especially when such alterations are challenged as matter of
Churches hath plentifully instanced but so far forth as they judge the same Moderation found among themselves they seem to mention it with a great joy p Retinemus ex singulis regiminibus exquisitam temperaturam J. A. Comenius de Ord. Eccl. apud Bohem. and count the same worthy of imitation q Atque hîc Commemorare libet ad Exemplum quantâ sapientiâ quantoque temperamento compositae fuerint precationum formulae quibus Gall. Genev. utuntur Amyrald de secess ab Eccl. Rom. p. 225. § 3. Wherefore the most general and inartificial but most plain proof of the Moderation of our Church such a proof as is sufficient to evince the whole enquiry is the consideration of the condition of our Church among her Adversaries that is as the 7. Canon 1640. hath it between the groundless suspicions of the weak and the aspersions of the malicious r Pref. to the Liturgy conc Cerem between those addicted to their old Customs and the new-fangled who would innovate all things the Church of England hath been a patient sufferer And as the true Religion hath always been tryed by real persecution of its extreme Adversaries and thereby hath become more approved and more glorious so by the wonderful Providence of God this temper and Constitution of the Church of England hath had its Essayes in two very refining Tryals 1. Immediately after the Reformation in its persecution from those of the Romish Communion and lately in its second Tryal from other Domestick Adversaries from both which sufficient proofs the Moderation of our Church may be known unto all 'T is a hard condition The Church of England professeth the ancient Catholick Faith and yet the Romanist condemns her of Novelty in her Doctrine She practiseth Church Government as it hath been in use in all Ages and places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Separatist condemns her for Anti-Christianism in her Discipline The plain truth is she is betwixt these two Factions as between two Milstones And it is very remarkable that while both these press hard upon the Church of England both of them cry out upon Persecution t Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher Pref. among whom she is placed as an humble representation of her Blessed Saviour for as he was Crucified amidst Criminals so the Church of England hath most constantly suffered betwixt such Factions and Sects of Men as have run into the utmost extremes from the judgment and practices of the Universal Church of Christ such are the Romanists and other Sectaries and Schismaticks amongst us Thus Manasseh vexed Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh and both against Judah Is 9. 21. Thus Herod and Pontius Pilate otherwise at variance became Friends to be but the worse Enemies to our Saviour thus both the Jews and Gentiles opposed the Christian Religion and afterward the later Jews and the Circumcellions joined against the Catholick Christians and since Judaism and Gentilism have been overcome by the light of the Gospel the corruption of the Christian Religion hath arisen from its own Professors which is the corruption of Christianity into Popery and other Sects amongst us for what is best in it self is worst when corrupted and as the Christian Religion is the perfection of other Philosophies so these corruptions of Christianity have in them much of the very dregs of Judaism and the worst imitation of Gentilism And now how earnestly do the several Factions from Rome and the whole gang of Sects among us oppose our Church whose wise Moderation and excellent Constitution do place her amidst such extremes Between the Ignes fatui pretenders to new lights on one hand and the Boutfeaus the male-contented Incendiaries on the other hand Between both these we must be served as the Guests of Procrustes t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Theseo were in his famous Bed the Romanists think us too short and deficient in most of our measures and therefore they would needs have us stretcht if not upon the rack the Sectaries count us redundant in many superfluities and would fain have us cut precisely according to their Models so their mutual testimony rightly applyed may thus far be accepted that indeed we are guilty of neither extreme but really do bear the Test to be in the golden Mean To this purpose the Excellent Hammond begins his Preface to his View of the Directory There is no surer evidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which to discern the great excellency of Moderation in that Book of the Liturgy of the Church of England and so the apportionateness of it to the end to which it was designed than the experience of these so contrary fates which it hath constantly undergone betwixt the Persecutors on both extreme parts the Assertors of the Papacy on the one side and the Consistory on the other The one accusing it of Schism the other of compliance The one of departure from the Church of Rome the other of remaining with it Like the poor Greek Church our Fellow Martyr devoured by the Turk for too much Christian Profession and damn'd by the Pope for too little It being the dictate of natural reason in Aristotle That the middle vertue is most infallibly known by this that it is accused by either extreme as guilty of the other For as S. Greg. Nazianzen in his third Oration of Peace u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Whatsoever is peaceable and moderate doth suffer much of both the extremes and either is despised or resisted of which sort while we are now who blame what is amiss we therefore are placed as in a seat of strife and envy and no wonder if we are bruised in pieces between both Neither is there any more certain Argument of the equal and just Constitution of the Church of England than that the Factions among us are so ready to join with the Romanists in the very same accusations It follows now that we give more particular instances of the real Moderation of the Church CHAP. IV. Of the Moderation of our Church in respect to her Rule of Faith § 1. In holding to her true and just measure as is proved from her Articles and Canons and other Monuments of the Church § 2. In her avoiding the extremes of those who take away from the due perfection of Holy Scripture and of others who seem officiously to add thereunto § 3. In her judgment of the letter and sense of Scripture and in the use of such consequences as are duly drawn from thence § 4. In reference to the Versions and Translations of Holy Scripture several instances of Moderation in our Church § 5. In her Orders also for dispensing the Holy Scripture to all within her Communion § 6. In governing the reading of the Scripture and communing on the same § 7. In her judgment of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books § 8. The Divine Authority
of the Holy Scripture our Church rather doth take for granted than prove too laboriously or uncertainly § 9. All immoderate extravagancies concerning interpretation of Holy Scripture avoided by our Church § 1. WHereas Moderation hath its name and being from the equal measures observed by it the first instance of the Moderation of our Church is most properly to be taken from the right rule and measure in Religion which this Church of ours constantly receives and holds close to by which she is safely preserved from all undue extremes having to her self the same rule and measure of her Moderation which the universal Church of Christ in all Ages hath had such a rule as is beyond all exception and is of undeniable Authority namely the Holy Scriptures which are the same right and just measure by which she measures out to others and desires to be measured by her self in whatever she receives and delivers out as matter of Faith and required practice in the necessary parts of Religion and the worship of God Whereas next to the extreme of them who have no Religion nor no Rule the vanity and extravagance of those is very notorious who set up themselves to be their own Rule which is done in the pretences of infallibility on one hand and enthusiasm on the other between that Rock and this Gulf the Moderation of our Church doth safely conduct its own judgment and practice and all that follow her In the Sixth Article of Religion see how our Church doth own the perfection of Holy Scripture as a Rule Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation and the reason why the Church of England doth require her self to be acknowledged of her own a Canon 3. 1603. as a true and Apostolical Church is because she teacheth and maintains the Doctrine of the Apostles and in the fourth Canon the Church censures all Impugners of the worship of God and whosoever shall affirm her Form containeth any thing in it repugnant to the Scriptures In the 36. Canon Article 2. All who are to subscribe are willingly and ex animo to affirm That the Book of Common-Prayer and of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of God and Article 3. That he acknowledgeth all and every of the 39. Articles to be agreeable to the word of God In the 19th Article of Religion The visible Church of Christ is defined a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance And in the ordering of Bishops and Priests it is asked Be you perswaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all Doctrine required of necessity for eternal Salvation through Faith in Jesu Christ And are you determined with the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your Charge and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal Salvation but that you shall be perswaded may be concluded and proved by the Scriptures The Answer is I am so perswaded and have so determined by Gods grace In the 20th Article of Religion it is declared It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to Gods word written neither to expound one place that it be repugnant to another From all which passages and many more which might be repeated out of the Monuments of our Church it is evident that as our Church is formed in her whole Constitution with an uniform respect to this Rule and hath framed her Articles Liturgy Homilies and Orders thereby so it doth require her self to be acknowledged in those but in subordination to this Rule and measure as before and superiour to it self which doth manifest the exceptions of many of the Separation to be very unreasonable who seem to give such deference to the Holy Scriptures and at the same time renounce Communion with the Church of England which doth so religiously hold to the Sacred Scriptures of which our Church in union with the whole Church of God is a sure Keeper a faithful Witness a zealous Defender and a most sober Interpreter § 2. The Moderation of the Church of England further appears in avoiding the extremes of those who take away from the true perfection of Scripture and of others who seem officiously to add thereunto Of the first sort of those who detract from the true perfection of Scripture are they who frame an additional Canon of their own as the Church of Rome doth who declares that the Apocryphal Writings and Traditions of men are nothing inferiour nor less Canonical than the Sovereign dictates of God as well for the Confirmation of doctrinal points pertaining to Faith as for ordering of Life and Manners and that both the one and the other ought to be embraced with the same affection of Piety and received with the like religious Reverence b Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decr. 1. not making any difference between them Thus as it is in the second part of the Homily of good works Christ reproved the Laws and Traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees because they were set up so high as though they had been equal with Gods Laws and above them They worship Me in vain that teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men For you leave the Commandments of God to keep your own Traditions Yet He meant not thereby to overthrow Mens Commandments for He Himself was obedient to the Princes and their Laws made for good order On the other extreme They of the Separation among us are busy to attribute to the Holy Scriptures such a perfection as God never intended them namely particularly to determine of all actions of Mankind and every matter of order and decency in Religion Between these two see by how even a thred our Church divides the controversy first asserting the real perfection of Scriptures as a Rule to be as much as need to be to be as great a perfection as God hath given it in order to its end namely to guide our belief and practice in things needful to Salvation Article 20. Besides the same namely Gods word written ought not the Church to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation and in the same Article It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to Gods word written Yet the Article begins thus The Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and hath Authority in controversies of Faith Wherein according to an accurate Moderation the Church doth behave itself in attributing to the Holy Scriptures their just and full perfection On the other hand our Church doth thankfully accept of that Christian Liberty which God hath left her and indeed which he hath given all particular Christians according to their
measures namely leave to determine their particular actions according to the general Rule of Holy Scriptures and sometimes of Prudence where other Laws are not given to determine their Liberty And indeed this Article of the sufficiency of the Scriptures and the use of them as a Rule is the very dividing point at which those of the Separation on either hand leave our Church and her Moderation at once For those who are ready on one hand to receive all Traditions which the Church of Rome can offer with affection and reverence equal to the written word of God so that as it is in our Homily c Homily of good works 3 d. Part. The Laws of Rome as they said were to be received of all men as the four Evangelists No Moderation can contain the extravagancies such belief leads them to On the other hand to accept of no appointment for outward order and government in the Church or Kingdom but what is set out in the express word of God for the direction of every particular action under pretence of defending Christian Liberty is verily so gross and unreasonable a Pharisaical confining it that this principle is the first Sanctuary of ignorance and disobedience in most of our Separatists who under an immoderate pretence to Religion and the honour of Scriptures really offer great abuse and disservice to both as it is a real abuse to a person though of honour to give him Titles which do not belong to him so it is an occasion to Atheists and prophane persons captiously to detract from the true perfection of Holy Writings when they find attributed to them such Titles as are false and imaginary We must take heed saith the judicious Hooker d Eccles Pol. l. 3. §. 8. lest in attributing to Scripture more than it can have the incredibility of that do cause even those things which it hath most abundantly to be less reverently esteemed On this foundation of our Churches Moderation in what she judgeth concerning the perfection of Holy Scripture both the Protestant and the Christian Religion is established For as Bishop Sanderson saith e Pref. to his Sermons The main Article of the Protestant Religion is The Holy Scriptures are a perfect Rule of Faith and manners so the very mystery of Puritanism is That no man may with a safe Conscience do any thing for which there may not be produced either command or example in Scripture § 3. We are to note the Moderation of the Church in her judgment of the letter and sense of Holy Scripture and in the use of such consequences as are duly drawn from thence Whereas the Romanists 1. look on the letter of Holy Scripture but as so many dead and unsensed Characters f Richworth's Dialogues J. S. Sure-footing of variable and uncertain signification g Niâ— Cusâ—nus Card. Ep. 7. ad â—â—hem 2. They make the sense of Scripture entirely depend on the Authority of their Church h V. Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decret de usu S. Scr. 3. They presume the Church of Rome only can make authentick all the Books of Holy Scripture i Nullum Capitulum nullusque liber Canonicus habetur absque illius authoritate Greg. 7. Dict. 16. in Concil Rom. and by her sole Authority is to determine which are to be Canonical 4. They will not allow the clear consequences of Scripture to prove any matter of doctrine k V. Discourse upon a Conference Apr. 3. 1676. In these as in many other instances our Sectaries generally agree with the Romanists 1. They also make the Holy Scripture a dead Letter without their interpretation 2. In making the sense which they vouch to be the Word of God 3. Such Scriptures as seem to serve their turn they allow others they reject 4. The clear consequences from Holy Scriptures against them they cast by as only the results of carnal reason Between these two opposers of Holy Scripture at present there appears this difference instead of an external infallible Interpreter on one side the other sets up the witness of their own private spirit for an infallible interpreter also When time serves They that make the difference can compromise it Amidst these extremes observe we the Wisdom and Moderation of the Church of England 1. It gives all due honour to the Letter of Holy Writ referring her self and her Sons chiefly to the Originals l V. B. of Homilies passim Caeterùm in lectione D. Scripturarum si quae occurrerint ambigua vel obscura in V. Test earum interpretatio ex fonte Hebraicae veritatis petatur in N. autem Graeci codices consulantur Reform Leg. Eccles de fide Cathol c. 12. using all care in keeping the Letter of Holy Scripture and preserving the Originals and setting them forth correctly and translating them as faithfully as may be 2. The sense of Scripture our Church accounteth chiefly as Scripture viz. The Word of God therein The mind of God being thought by our Church to consist not in words but in sense For is the Kingdom of God words and syllables m Translators of the Bible Pres 3. The clear consequences in Scripture are in our Church accounted a good proof in matters of doubtful Doctrine Whatsoever is not read therein nor proved thereby is not to be required saith our sixth Article Wherefore Mr Chillingworth n Chillingworth 's Pref. § 28. did not without reason thus declare I profess sincerely I believe all those Books of Scripture which the Church of England accounts Canonical to be the infallible word of God I believe all things evidently contained in them or even probably deducible from them o Simpliciter necessaria Rex appellat quae vel expressè Verbum Dei praecipit vel ex verbo Dei necessaria Consequentiâ vetus Ecclesia elicuit Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr § 4. In our Church no one Version nor more are made equal much less superiour to the original Nothing is declared authentick but what is judged truly and originally so Although the Church of Rome hath declared the vulgar Translation to be only the authentick Scripture p Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Decr. 2. according to which all points in Question are to be decided and though the same in our Church hath been convinced by sundry learned men of some imperfections yet wherein it is most faithfully performed the innovations of Popery even from thence may be sufficiently manifested Other ancient Versions and Translations which have been of Holy Scripture our Church is so far from rejecting or undervaluing that it hath made great use of them and doth constantly acknowledge their usefulness and doth esteem them according to their antiquity and the approbation they have had in the Church of God Yea in the worst of our late times when the true Church of England was most of all accused of Popery and opposition to the Scriptures then were sundry learned and religious Sons of the Church diligently
Religion than the Holy and Divine inspired Scriptures with Melancthon and the Church of England I wish all Doctrines of Faith were brought to us derived from the Fountain of Scripture by the Channels of Antiquity otherwise what end will there be of innovation And thus our King James of Happy Memory did declare in the words of St Austin That what could be proved the Church held and observed from its first beginning to those Times That to reject He did not doubt to pronounce to be an insolent piece of madness So that the counsel and judgment of the Church of England seems to be moderated according to the Sentence of St Hierom in his Epistle to Minerva My purpose is to read the Ancients to prove all to hold fast what is good and never to depart from the Faith of the Catholick Church and conformably King Charles I. h His Majesties fifth Paper to Mr. Henders My Conclusion is That albeit I never esteemed any Authority equal to the Scriptures yet I do think the unanimous consent of the Fathers and the universal practice of the Primitive Church to be the best and most authentical Interpreters of Gods word For who can be presumed to understand the Doctrine and practice of the Christian Religion better than those who lived in the first and purest times Wherefore i Of Heresy §. 14. Dr Hammond reckons it among the piè Credibilia that a truly general Council cannot erre § 3. And because the Catholick Church is and hath been so much divided and the Monuments of the ancient Church Universally accepted do contain but a few determinations Therefore the Church of England moderately remits her Sons to the first four general Councils as in the 28th year of K. Henry 8. k Fullers Eccl. Hist ad An. 1536. it was Decreed That all ought and must utterly refuse and condemn all those opinions contrary to the said Articles contained in the three Creeds contained in the four Holy Councils that is to say in the Council of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and all other since that time in any point consonant to the same So in the Institution of a Christian Man set forth 1537. and approved by the Convocation 1543. 't is there said A true Christian man ought and must condemn all those opinions contrary to the twelve Articles of the Creed which were of a long time past condemned in the four Holy Councils that is to say c. Isaac Casaubon also in the name of King James to Cardinal Perron saith l Primo R. Eliz. c. 1 The King and the Church of England do admit the four first Oecumenical Councils and following the judgment of the Church the Law of the Kingdom doth declare m Dicimus Ecclesiam Britannicam adeò venerari Concilia generalia ut speciali statuto caverit nè quisquam spirituali jurisdictione praeditus praesumat censuras suas Ecclesiasticas aliter distringere vel administrare aut quicquam Haereticum pronunciare quod non à scripturis Canonicis quatuor Conciliis generalibus aut alio quocunque Concilio pro tali judicatum fuerit J. B. de antiq libertate Eccl. Brit. Thes 4. That none however Commission'd shall in any wise have authority or power to order or determine or adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresy but only such as heretofore have been determin'd ordered or adjudged to be Heresy by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four general Councils or any of them or by any other general Council wherein the same was declared Heresy by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be ordered judged or determined to be Heresy by the Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Clergy in their Convocation Thus the authority of the four first general Councils are placed by our Church in the superiour order of Tradition forasmuch as Spalatensis according to St Austin n A plenariis Conciliis tradita Quarum est in Ecclesiâ salubrâ—â—ima authoritas S. Aug. Ep. 118. speaks of such Councils they have obtained a wholsom authority because from the Apostolick Declarations faithfully received they have explained the Holy Scriptures and beside because they have been approved by the Universal Church which with great reason contradicts what Curcellaeus p Curcell Rel. Christianae Instit l. 1. c. 15. hath delivered to depreciate the honour even of the first four Oecumenical Councils So that Mr Cressy in Answer to Dr Pierce might very well cite the Protestant acknowledgments of the Authority of Councils as that of Ridley Acts and Mon. p. 1288. Councils indeed represent the Vniversal Church and being so gathered together in the name of Christ they have the promise of the gift and guiding of the Spirit into all truth To the same purpose are named Bishop Bilson Hooker Potter c. Instead of all these he might have owned if he had pleased the judgment of our Church it self giving all due honour to general and Provincial Councils whose wholsome Decrees she hath accepted and imitated Yea our Church maintains the right of Provincial Synods taken away by the See of Rome q Tertullianus veneratur Provinciale Concilium quasi esset Oecumenicam assentiente sc universali vel iis decernentibus secundùm universale quomodo fit repraesentatio totius nominis Christiani virtualiter tota Ecclesia Neither is this honour diminisht by the further Moderation which our Church hath shown in not taking those for Councils or general Councils which are not such as neither the Council of Florence nor Lateran nor of Trent and we know that our Articles though they are very moderately framed are many of them directly oppos'd to those of Trent being in those points of Doctrine wherein the Church of Rome hath departed from the Catholick Church and made her Doctrines of design more than truth the unjust conditions of Communion A truly free and general Council we look upon as the best expedient on Earth for composing the differences of the Christian World if it might be had but we cannot endure to be abused by meer names of Titular Patriarchs but real Servants and Pensioners of the Popes with Combinations of interested parties instead of general Councils r Dr. Stillingfleet's first Part of an Answer c. 284. When Pope Paul III. call'd a Council then to be held at Mantua and King Henry VIII refusing thither to send He defended his Protestation in a Letter to the Emperour and other Christian Princes 1538. In which the King declares t Acts and Monuments p. 11â—2 Truly as our Forefathers invented nothing more holy than general Councils used as they ought to be so there is almost nothing that may do more hurt to the Christian Faith and Religion than general Councils if they be abused to lucre to gains to the establishment of errors And verily we suppose that it ought not to be called a General
principal motives why we rejected the Papacy was the constant Tradition of the Vniversal Church § 5. Concerning our Churches own Testimony Her Modesty and Moderation hath been always exemplary so far from assuming the Title of Catholick to her self only as St Austin tells us the Arians did and since them the Romanists c S. Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincen. That she hath counted it a sufficient honour to be an humble and nevertheless for that eminent Member of the Universal Church and with her a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ and though she vindicates to her self an authority to interpret the Holy Scripture within the bounds of her own Discipline for the edification of her own Family in Truth and Love and also asserts to her self an Authority in Controversies of Faith Article 20. namely for the avoiding diversities of opinions and for the establishing consent touching true Religion yet I cannot well omit to observe the wise modesty of our Church in her asserting her own authority in Controversies of Faith which expression I may have leave to illustrate from such another instance of Wisdom and Moderation in the recognition required to be made of the Kings Supremacy in our subscription according to the 36. Canon and in our Prayers wherein we acknowledge Him Supreme Governour of this Realm in all Causes and over all Persons It is not said over all Causes as over all persons forasmuch as in some Causes Christian Kings do not deny some spiritual power of Gods Church distinct from its temporal Authority which yet refers to the King as their Supreme Keeper Moderator and Governour Even so the Church declares her Authority in Controversies of Faith not that the Church of England or any other Church no not the Universal Church hath power to make any thing which is in controversy matter of Faith which God hath not so made The Church owns that she hath no power against the truth but for the truth Neither may it expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Article 20. But she hath power to declare her own sense in the Controversy and that I may express my own meaning in better words than my own d Pref. of Bishop Sparrow's Collection of Eccl. Records c. To determine which part shall be received and profest for truth by her own Members and that too under Ecclesiastical penalty and censure which they accordingly are bound to submit to not as an infallible verity but as a probable truth and rest in her determination till it be made plain by as great authority that this her determination is an error or if they shall think it so by the weight of such reasons as are privately suggested to them yet are they still obliged to silence and peace where the decision of a particular Church is not against the Doctrine of the Vniversal Not to profess in this case against the Churches determination because the professing of such a controverted truth is not necessary but the preservation of the peace and unity of the Church is is not to assert infallibility in the Church but authority Wherefore Mr Chilingworth e Chilingw Pres §. 28. had very just reason to declare Whatsoever hath been held necessary to salvation either by the Catholick Church of all Ages or by the consent of Fathers measured by Vincentius Lirinensis his Rule or is held necessary either by the Catholick Church of this Age or by the consent of Protestants or even by the Church of England That against the Socinians and all others whatsoever I do verily believe and embrace Whereas the Pope and Church of Rome do challenge to themselves an authority supreme over all Causes and Persons by their Infallibility by which they exclude all others from their peace and themselves from emendation Neither are their followers much in the way thereunto by what Card. Bellarmine doth assert of this supreme Authority If the Pope saith he f C. Bellarm de Pontif. Ro. l. 4. c. 5. should err in commanding any Vices or forbidding any Vertues The Church is bound to believe those Vices are good and those Vertues are evil unless it would sin against Conscience g In bono sensu dedit Christus Petro potestatem saciendi de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccatum c. Bell. c. 31. in Barklaium However in his Recognitions h Locuti sumus de actibus dubiis viâ—tâ—tum aut vitiorum Recogn operum c. B. p. 19. he minceth the matter in a distinction of doubtful and manifest Vices and Vertues O Blessed Guides of Souls How did the Illustrious Cardinal miss being Canoniz'd for that glorious Sentence and to help him for a Miracle to qualify him for an Apotheosis why did not some cry out of it So many words so many Miracles Thus many of the Romanists make the Pope such a Monarch in the Church as Mr Hobbs doth his Prince in the State i Hobbesius de Cive c. 7. art 26. c. 12. art 1. The interpretation of Holy Scripture the right of determining all Controversies to fix the rules of good and evil just and unjust honest and dishonest doth depend on his authority in the power of whom is the chief Government But this Doctrine is as bad Philosophy as that of the Cardinals is Divinity Among these excesses let us not forget the Moderation of our Church which holds she may revise what hath slipt from her wherefore in her 19. Article she declares As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred a charge agreeable to the Moderation of our Church considering what might have been further said which by the same proportions of reason she supposeth true of her self and of all others viz. That they are fallible and may erre § 6. Of the use of Reason with Reference to divine matters there may be elsewhere occasions in this Treatise to discourse * Ch. 6. §. 9 10. Yet here it is to be observed our Church doth not make its own reason a rule of Faith nor the sole Interpreter of Scripture much less the reason of private men yet because mankind hath no reasonable expectation of Miracles especially when ordinary means are sufficient and abounding and because the Holy Spirit of God in the testimony of his Church hath all along certainly conveyed to us the sense of many places beside That what is most needful to be heeded is very plain our Church doth allow and suppose rational mens perceiveing the sense of Scripture by the due use of their understanding which practice must also necessarily engage such to a high regard of what was anciently received in the Catholick Church For as nothing is held among us more agreeable to reason than our Religion so in expounding our Religion and in interpreting Scripture our Church makes use of the best and the truest reasons as is manifest in what she declares and enjoins and
and Peace in the Church Our Church hath wisely distinguished between what is necessary absolutely and what only in some circumstances is necessary to Salvation Those things saith the Homily a 2d Part of the Homily of Scriptures that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every mans duty is to learn them and as for dark mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them till such time as it shall please God to open those things unto them b Hom. 1. If it shall require to teach any truth or to do any thing requisite for our Salvation All those things saith St Chrysostom we may learn plentifully of the Scripture And in the 19. Article of the Church The Preaching of the pure word of God and the Administration of the Sacraments are made indispensable notes of the visible Church namely in all things that of necessity are requisite to the same and the 8th Article declares The three Creeds ought throughly to be believed and received for that they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture where our Church gives the reason of her Faith and sheweth her earnestness in contending for it But the Moderation of our Church contains her self within the bounds of what is before made necessary The principal and essential points of the Doctrine of Salvation such as are fit to make up the unity of the Faith and constitute a Church are no other among us than what Christ and his Apostles at first made necessary which also the ancient Church received as necessary unto Baptism and for distinction of Heresy which fundamental Maxims of Christian Science are frequently and plainly repeated in Scripture and by our Church were first of all insisted on at the reformation of our Church as we see in the Institution of a Christian Man 1537. in the first Injunctions of our Kings and our Form of Catechism Whereas the Catechisms and Systems which have been set up in opposition to the Catechism and Articles of the Church of England have abounded with many doubtful and unnecessary definitions yet so insisted upon by some as if the Hinges of the Gate of Heaven turn'd upon those Propositions whereby many have agreed with Pope Pius the Fourth who by his Bull set out the Apostles Creed in a larger Edition of about as many more Articles without belief of which is declared no Salvation c Extra quam Nemo salvus esse potest Bulla Pii quarti super formâ Juramenti professionis fidei sub finem Concilii Trid. Unto such a strange Circumference is the body of their unnecessary belief extended whereas the Religion of our Church tends to the Center Which distinction of things necessary from what was not so King James according to the sense of our Church declares of great use to lay a foundation for the publick peace of the Church d Vt de necessariis conveniat omnis opera insumatur in non-necessariis libertati Christianae locus Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr and of particular mens minds and the furtherance of true Faith and Piety § 2. Those Articles which are delivered by our Church for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion 1. They are few especially those of positive Doctrine and the other negative positions were necessary to assert our liberty from the abuses and encroachments of the Romanists in their contrary affirmatives few if we consider either the time or the occasion of their being framed it being just about the meeting at Trent made it necessary for our Church to declare her sense of many Doctrines for the better satisfaction and directions of her Sons and to testify her equal conditions of Communion Especially also if we consider the cruel number of Articles which either the Westminster Divines or the Trent Councellors have imposed on their followers e Bishop â—ramball fol. p. 1018. Indeed the Romanists do call our Religion a negative Religion because in all the Controversies between us and them we maintain the negative that is we go as far as we dare or can with warrant from holy Scriptures and the Primitive Church and leave them in their excesses or those inventions which they themselves have added but in the mean while they forget that we maintain all those Articles and truths which are contained in any of the ancient Creeds of the Church which I hope are more than negative The Church of England saith Archbishop Laud f Archbishop Laud against Fisher 5. 14. comes far short of the Church of Romes severity whos 's Anathema's are not for 39. Articles but for very many more above one hundred in matter of Doctrine and that in many points as far remote from the foundation though to the far greater rack of Mens Consciences they must be all Fundamental if that Church have determined them Whereas the Church of England never declared that every one of her Articles are fundamentals in the Faith For it is one thing to say no one of them is superstitious or erroneous and quite another to say every one of them is fundamental Besides the Church of England prescribes only to her own Children and by those Articles provides but for her peaceable consent in those Doctrines of truth but the Church of Rome severely imposeth on all the World her Doctrine and that under pain of damnation § 3. These Articles of Religion are generally exhibited as Articles of Peace and consent not as Articles of Faith and Communion and as such they are propounded to all the Communicants in our Church g Schisin guarded p. 150. Bishop Lanies Sermons p. 48. in general For the avoiding Diversities of Opinions as the Title of the Articles is Not such a consent as Curcellaeus h Curcellaeus Religionis Christianae Institut C. 15. means where he supposeth some in the dregs of the Age of the Reformation obtrude their Confessions and Catechisms as a secondary rule if not of truth yet of consent such as ought to be urged only to an infallible truth 't is likely he might know many who did so But the consent designed to be established by our Articles is such a consent as may keep the Peace of our Church undisturbed according to the sense of the fifth Canon Where the Prohibition is directed against such as should speak against the 39. Articles as superstitious and erroneous such as may not with a good Conscience be subscribed to Whosoever shall hereafter affirm i Quicunque in posterum affirmabit c. Ecclesiae Anglic. Canon 5. not as the Council of Trent k Si quis contrà senserit Anathema sit Concil Trid. de peccato Originis directs its Anathema against those that shall so much as think diversly Wherefore our Church no where delivers our Articles as necessary to be believed neither by vertue of their own necessity or her own Command as several with Bishop Bramhall have noted For which reason subscription unto them is
not required of any Lay-person whatsoever meerly in order to his Communion with our Church Although the Church of Geneva l A quibus discedere neque Ministris nequeâ—ivibus liceret Beâ—a in vita Calvini urgeth subscription not of the Ministers only but the people m Extet forma quaedam Doctrinae ad quam omnes Episcopi Parochi jure-jurando astringantur ut nemo ad munus Ecclesiasticum admittatur nisi spondeat Calvin ad Angl. Protect There is perfectly another reason why subscription is required of all who receive the priviledge of degrees in our Universities and in Case of factious Appellants n Canon 98. who are inhibited unless they first subscribe and especially of the Ministers of the Church o Discrimen latum est inter verbi Ministros plebeios homines quos Ministri informant Testis enim est historia Ecclesiastica non per plebeios sed potiâ—s per Clericos introductas esse haereses Schismata Forbesius in Irenico l. 2. c. 12. namely because she may be as secure as she can of them to whom she commits so great a trust in the instruction of the people Wherefore of them who are entrusted with the Ministry of the Church it is required that they disavow all obligations and opinions to break the Peace of the Church and that they assent to the use of those things which are for the unity of Christians in this Kingdom among themselves which is no more than the Law of Nature hath granted every Society which the Church hath in all Ages practised and which our Adversaries themselves did use For the p Vi. Disc of Toler Sect. 13. Presbyterians required a subscription to their solemn League and the Independants had their Church Government Therefore in that our Church takes all the security she can by Sponsors at Baptism and by subscription of Ministers is a proof of her wisdom and great care of her own especially among us where the Ministers of the Church have blessed be God another Tenure than in Holland during the precarious pleasure of their Pay-Masters Beneficed men among us having a Freehold and not to be turned out but in a legal way upon great cause deserving Neither is subscription required by our Church of its Ministers unless they can do it willingly and ex animo nor unless they can with freedom of mind assent and consent to the uniform practice of the Church This if they cannot do with a quiet mind they are left free by the Church to enjoy a laical indulgence which is very large and exceeding bountiful As for dissatisfaction or weakness what said King James q Conference at Hampton Court How long will such Brethren be weak Are not 45 years sufficient r Qui decennali disciplinâ nondum usqueâ—o prosecerunt ut tam faciles in Theologiá quaestiones intelligant non possunt apti esse ad sustinendum onus pastorale in Eâ—clesiâ Dei Forbes Iren l. 2. c. 12. to grow strong in Some of them are strong enough if not Head-strong But I wonder there should be such earnest Recusants to subscription of the followers of Calvin among us whenas he to the English Protector writes thus 'T is fit to look after the desultory humour of them who would have too much lawful to themselves The door is to be shut to curious doctrines and one expedite means for that purpose is if there were a summary of doctrine received of all which all may follow in Preaching to the observing of which all Bishops and Parish Priests may be bound by an Oath that no one may be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Office unless he first engage that he will keep inviolate that consent of Doctrine And so for Catechism And as to a Form of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites I very much approve that there be a constant Form extant from which it may not be lawful for the Pastors in their Functions to depart in regard of the simplicity and unskillfullness of some and that the consent of the Churches among themselves may more certainly be manifest Lastly to prevent the desultory levity of those who affect Novelties And in his Epistle to Farellus Å¿ Calv. Ep. 87. Calvin writes It always prevail'd in the Church which was decreed in ancient Synods That those who would not be subject to the Laws of Common Discipline should be dismissed from their Function § 4. The very frame of the Articles shews the great Moderation and Wisdom of the Church they being propounded on purpose so as to avoid unnecessary controversy propounded not with a Laodicean indifference or lukewarmness in what we ought to contend for t Parkers Eccles Pol. l. 1. c. 25. as some charge our Church with It is not meant here or elsewhere by Moderation such a Latitude which Bishop Taylor saith u Ductor Dub. l. 3. â— 4. §. 23. hath something of craft but very little of ingenuity which can only serve the ends of peace and external Charity or a fantastick Concord but not the ends of truth and holiness and Christian simplicity It is not meant here as if our Articles were framed like the dubious Oracles of Delphos that the Subscribers might understand them which way they please like a shoe for every foot as if they were to deceive by ambiguous terms x Conference at Hamp C. p. 15. The Judicious Bishop Sanderson y Pax Ecclesiae p. 52. in his directions for the Peace of the Church lays down this as the first That particular Churches would be as tender as may be in giving their definitions and determinations especially where there may be admitted a Latitude of dissenting without prejudice done either to the substance of the Catholick Faith or to the tranquillity of the Church or to the Salvation of the dissenter In which respect the Moderation of the Church of England is much to be commended and to be preferred not only before the Roman Church which with unsufferable tyranny bindeth all her Children upon pain of Damnation to all her determinations even in those points which are no way necessary to Salvation but also before sundry other Reformed Churches who have proceeded further than this Church hath done It is a sufficient proof of the sincerity of our Church if what it hath declared and intended to declare hath a true clear and certain meaning and her Articles do surely conduce to peace if it appear all agree in the true usual literal meaning But in respect of what is not intended to be declared by them z King Charles I. Declaration 1630. published with the Articles If even in these curious points in which the present differences lye most men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England for them then may be infer'd what the Right Reverend Bishop of Chester hath said a No necessity of Reformation of the Doctrine of the Church of England 1660. This rather gives a Testimony of
the great Wisdom and Moderation of the Church which in points doubtful and controverted hath propounded only that which no sober man can make matter of doubt or subject of controversy As in the 16th Article 't is said Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost Now certainly this is in it self a most sound certain infallible plain and perspicuous Doctrine and being so the want of liberty to interpret one term of it deadly sin cannot render it doubtful for interpret it which way you will either all sins are deadly or say all sins are not deadly it will be equally true that every deadly sin is not the sin against the Holy Ghost In the like manner whether we may fall from grace totally and finally which hath a great doubt Without any question After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given of that there hath never been any question In the third Article of Christs descent into Hell b Compare the Articles of K. Edw. 6. 1552. and those of 1562. The Church purposely hath waved all the Controversies thereof and plainly propounded the Article c Hujus Articuli verum genuinum sensum neque Apostoli â—â—â—dideruâ—â— neque Ecclesia definivit Rem itaque credimus modum nescimus Archiep. Spalat l. 7. c. 12. §. 125. In the 17th Article there is not one word of the horrible decree of absolute reprobation rather in the close of the Article there is a wholsome caution against extreme curiosity Furthermore we must receive Gods promises as they are set forth to us in Holy Scriptures and in our doings That will of God is to be followed which is expresly declared to us in the word of God and in the Homilies our Church d 2d Part of the Homily of falling from God takes notice of some who Hearing the loving and large promises of Gods mercy and so not conceiving a right Faith thereof make those promises larger than ever God did c. So evident is it that the Church of England was intent on Peace and Edification of her Sons Wherefore the Articles of the Protestant Church in the Infancy thereof were drawn up in general terms foreseeing that posterity would grow up to fill the same meaning that these holy men did prudently discover that differences in judgment would unavoidably happen in the Church and were loth to unchurch any and drive them off from an Ecclesiastical Communion for petty differences which made them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take in all who differing in branches meet in the root of the same Religion e Historia quinque articularis Part 2. Ch. 8. So that I think the modest survey of Naked Truth f p. 4. did not fly one jot too high when he saith It cannot be denied but the Articles of our Church were compiled with the highest discretion and Moderation that ever was used by un-inspired men so that it is a most unreasonable charge on the Church of England to say she has tyrannically imposed many unnecessary conditions on her Members in point of Faith and Doctrine so large a Scope is left in our Church for mutual charity and the enquiries of the studious Bishop Bramhall was far from one of those which some called Latitudinarians yet he saith g Fair Warning Ch. 1. If it were not for this Disciplinarian humour which will admit no Latitude h Sunt ergo res aliquae ita comparatae ut benignam sibi interpretationem suo quodam jure concedi postulent quae sc non sit interclusa verborum angustiis sed cum quodam ut Ciceronis verbo utar Laxamento liberior De Juram oblig prael 2. §. 8. in Religion but makes each nicety a fundamental and every private opinion an Article of Faith which prefers particular errours before general truths I doubt not but all reformed Churches would easily be reconciled Wherefore in such points which may be held diversly of divers men salvâ fidei compage I i Chilingworth Pref. §. 28. would not take any mans liberty from him and humbly beseech all men that they would not take mine from me k Non per difficiles quaestiones nos Deus ad beatam vitam vocat S. Hilar. l. 10. de Trin. Sunt quidem nonnullae quaestiones è curiosis inquietis hominibus excitatae etiam doctis piis viris negotium faciunt in his ea Moderatio adhibenda c. Spalat de officio pii viri And here I think the Judgment of l Jur. praedest p. 21. Bishop Andrews may fitly be repeated as most agreeable with the Moderation of our Church I truly ingenuously confess I have followed the counsel of St Austin These mysteries which I cannot unfold I admire them shut and therefore for these sixteen years since I was made Priest I neither publickly nor privately have disputed nor Preacht of them and now I had rather hear than speak of them And truly since it is a slippery place and hath on either side its Precipices and since these places of St Paul are always esteemed among those which are hard to be understood and many of the Clergy are neither fit to explain them nor many of the people can be idoneous hearers I would e'ne perswade silence enjoin'd on both sides and truly I judge it more expedient that our people be taught to seek their Salvation in the plain way of a holy and upright life than in the hidden paths of the divine Counsels into which too curious inspection use to cause giddiness in their Heads and mists before their Eyes § 5. In persuance of the same design of the Church for Peace and Moderation it is very proper here to mention the seasonable and wise Declarations and Injunctions of our Kings of England to Preachers and all others to keep them within the bounds of the same peaceful Moderation In the Injunctions of King Edw. VI. 1547. Of Sermons It is injoin'd That they shall purely and sincerely declare the word of God and in the same exhort their hearers to the works of Faith Mercy and Charity especially prescribed and commanded in Holy Scripture In Queen Elizabeth's Articles for Doctrine and Preachers They are admonished to use sobriety and discretion in teaching the people namely in matters of controversy and to consider the gravity of their office and to foresee with diligence the matters which they shall speak to utter them to the edification of the Audience King James Jan. 18. 1616. sent instructions to the Universities That young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils and Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long on Compendiums and Abbreviations making them the ground of their study August 4. 1623. In his Letter to the Archbishop Whereas divers
fitly moderate in these disputes which not long since very much exercised Christendome as for instance when the Homilies declare Justification is not the office of man but of God only which we receive of him by his free mercy and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son Yet our Faith in Christ as it were saith unto us It is not I that take away your sins but it is Christ only nevertheless by Faith we embrace the promise of Gods mercy Such a Faith whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his Commandments Justification by Faith only freely and without works is spoken to take away clearly all merit of works as being unable to deserve our justification at Gods hand and thereby doth express the weakness of man and the goodness of God Yet the true lively and Christian Faith is no dead vain or unfruitful thing but a thing of perfect vertue and of wonderful operation and working and strength bringing forth all good motions and good works therefore let us by such vertues as spring out of Faith shew our Election to be sure and stable In such and many like passages are known the excellent Wisdom and Moderation of our Church particularly as we have seen attributing unto good works no more nor no less than what is consistent with the grace of the Gospel declaring most earnestly against the Roman opinion of merit by them and yet according as K. Edward's and Q. Elizabeth's Injunctions have it doth recommend Charity and Hospitality as a true worshipping of God And albeit the Romanists have much vaunted in this particular it hath not been doubted but the Church of England since the Reformation hath as great Monuments of Charity as ever were before under Papacy in the same compass of time and place so truly doth the publick Exhortation to the Contribution of St Paul's building conclude Our adversaries of Rome may be convinced that our Piety is as generous and charitable as theirs but would not be so arrogant and presumptuous and whilst we disclaim the merit yet we most stedfastly believe the obligation and necessity of good works How far our Sectaries are deficient in this matter it shall not be our business here to enquire nor to repeat how slightly and reprochfully they have spoken against the truth in this matter It may suffice to observe from what hath been said Nothing hath more vindicated the Doctrine of the Gospel the Grace of God and merits of our Saviour and established the necessity of a good life and prepared us for a comfortable death than the doctrine of our Church rightly understood wherein she hath delivered her self from all those fond opinions on which the Church of Rome and other have founded their peculiar Doctrines which have disquieted and confounded so many Christians and disturbed the Church Insomuch that some who have been otherwise much addicted to their own suppositions yet in many matters of controversy have readily acknowledged the Moderation of our Church The Presbyterian Brethren in their first Paper of Proposals to his Majesty say We take it for granted that there is a firm agreement between our Brethren and us in doctrinal truths of the Reformed Religion and in the substantials of divine worship Very famous saith Dr Tully through the whole World is the most prudent Moderation of the Church of England in her definitions of Faith in which surely to all she offers her self in so equal a poise that she can afford no offence to sober minds and lovers of truth nor doth she give any occasion of cavilling to slight and petulant dispositions of which in our Age there is such a swarm And Sancta Clara saith The English Confession goes on safely within this Latitude neither binding its followers to one side or other but freely leaves these matters of Controversy to Scholastic disputation § 7. As of Doctrines some are plain others mysterious and as our Church requires consent in nothing contrary to sense and reason so also she hath always contained her self from immoderate curiosity even in treating of mysteries using good caution and yet not so much as to become sceptical making good search for her own and others satisfaction as is fit and yet not too much so as to run into extreme or nice curiosity Of such mysteries as are revealed our Church hath faithfully declared those which God hath made requisite for us to know so far forth as is necessary yet such Moderation is used in the manner of declaring them that she hath prudently kept to the form of sound words in holy Scripture and the Declarations of the ancient Church not disclaiming the use of such expressions which the authority of the first Councils and the great consent of the learned have received while the words follow the thing it self delivered in Holy Scripture though in so many syllables perhaps there not set down which are not introduced into our Church to corrupt primitive simplicity but to prevent the double meaning which others have invented for other Scripture expressions and as our Church doth not intermeddle with what is above humane enquiry n First Part of the Sermon for Rogation Week It shall better suffice us in low humility to reverence the Divine Majesty which we cannot comprize than by overmuch curious searching to be over-charged with the glory so it doth not determine in those things which are as I may say below its enquiry namely in things unnecessary to be known o Quod legit Ecclesia Angl. piè credit quod non legit pari pietate non inquirit Rex Jac. ad C. Perr § 8. In giving a reason of our hope and in convincing our selves or others of the truth of matters of Faith and Christian Doctrine our Church doth not insist upon such kind of certainties as others without reason do exact The point of certainty is a nice step which is taken in the first consideration of Religion and of great consequence wherefore we cannot but observe the great Moderation and care of our Church 1. Resolving the first motive and reason of believing into the Testimony of God only submitting all rational enquiries unto the Divine Testimony when once there is assurance that the same testimony is Divine our Church doth not make nor suppose that there can be made by any humane Judgment a measure of what is incomprehensible 2. Our Church doth accept and use such rational evidences as God hath given us as the means of being assured of the certainty that the Revelations which we receive as Divine are such Because the Divine Testimony is not immediate to us nor necessary it should be so but is conveyed to the assent of the understanding by some proper and just evidence The ordinary way of knowledge allow'd us is the conviction of our judgments and reasons concerning the truth of the Proposition we assent to which conviction is made by such proper arguments as may sufficiently induce our belief now though there
of the Church the Ministration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies but also the Doctrine and Religion set out by King Edw. VI. to be more pure and according to Gods word than any other used in England these thousand Years c. § 4. In all the Churches of this Kingdom Cathedral and Parochial the Church now hath moderately appointed the same Rules and Cautions and the same use among us every where and those few in number plain and easy to be understood f The Preface to the Common-Prayer Book Whereas the Rubricks and Orders of the Church of Rome are so innumerable intricate and various that scarce an Apprentiship may suffice to learn the practice of them which whether it suit with the simplicity of the Christian Gospel may without difficulty be judged Among us an easy Calendar is prefixt with few Canons and Prescriptions and those very intelligible wherein according to an excellent Moderation the People have their parts for excitation sake and to unite their affections although no where in what is properly ministerial § 5. The Moderation of our Church is sufficiently known to the whole World in requiring our Common Prayers to be in the vulgar tongue for the general benefit of all According to our 24. Article It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayer in the Church or to administer the Sacraments in a tongue not understood of the people Which Article is further confirmed and proved in the Homilies especially in that of Common-Prayer and Sacraments from the nature and end of Prayer Resolving also As for the time since Christ till that usurped power of Rome begun to spread it self and to enforce all the Nations of Europe to have the Romish Language in admiration it appeareth by the consent of the most ancient and learned Writers there was no strange tongue used in the Congregation of Christians Yet for the same reason that common people should have their Prayers in English among us those who have been educated in sufficient learning are allowed to use them in another tongue as in Vniversities and Colleges The use of the Latin Form of Prayers is also commended to the Ministers of the Church of England by Queen Elizabeth's Letters Dated April 6. 1560 g Bishop Sparrow's Collection and also the first Rubrick before the Preface of Ceremonies In all which the Moderation of our Church doth comply as the Queens Letters doth express it with the necessity of those who do not understand other tongues and the desire of those who de § 6. Notwithstanding the Church hath provided most excellent Prayers for the use of private devotion upon all general occasions and what is readily and properly applicable to more occasions particular yet the Moderation of the Church hath not thought fit any where to bind all who are of her Communion to the use of her Common Prayers in private Families or Closets The Rubrick which enjoins All Priests and Deacons to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly is set down with great Moderation Not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause In the Family or in Visitation of the sick if the particular condition of the one or the other do require it and in private and in the Closet It is not supposed by our Church but that every one may ask their own wants in what form of words he shall think fit h Dr Hammonds Pract. Cat. of Prayer The Consideration of which Liberty indulged by the Church caused I suppose another excellent Writer i Dr Patricks Devout Christian Preface thus also to express himself It is possible also that some may judge this whole work to be but a needless labour since they have the Book of Common Prayers at hand which they can use at home as well as at the Church With these persons I shall not contend but only deliver my opinion freely about this matter which is that the reverence due to that Book will be best preserved by employing it only in the publick Divine Service or in the private where there is a Priest to officiate However the design of it is not to furnish the people with Prayers for all those particular occasions wherein devout Souls would make their requests known to God and the constant opinions of pious Divines in this and other Churches we see by their Writings hath been that other Books of Prayers are necessary for the flock of Christ beside their publick Liturgy Though in the choice of such Prayers as are so accommodate to the occasions of humane Life and such Cases as are incidental to the spiritual needs and circumstances of Christian people there hath been sometimes wished some further advice and recommendation made common by Authority The 55. Canon thus directs That before all Sermons Lectures and Homilies Preachers and Ministers shall move the people to join with them in this Form or to this effect as briefly as conveniently they may in hunc aut similem modum The Title in the Latine Canons is Precationis formula à concionatoribus in Concionum suarum ingressu imitanda In the English Canons the Title is A Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermon From all which I only note That the Moderation of the Church is certain and undoubted But the disagreeing variety in practice consequent thereon whether it be so convenient it remains for Superiours to judge § 7. Although some of the ancient Christians used the distinction of Hours of Prayer which at first was thought orderly and useful as a voluntary task and determining of the Christian Liberty of those who profess Gods Service is perfect freedom Yet our Church considering the common employment of most and the natural infirmities of all hath appointed and required only a daily Sacrifice of Morning and Evening Service as of constant observance not excluding but inviting other voluntary oblations of a sincere Devotion to God according to our leisure and opportunity But our Church doth no where countenance the novelties of those that put any trust in the bare recital only of a few Prayers k Dr Cosins of the antient times of Prayer or place any vertue in the Bedroll or certain number of them at such and such hours notwithstanding many of the said Prayers are also directed otherwise than Prayers should be § 8. Although according to the judgment of the Church and in truth the entire worship of God is complete in the Divine Service of the Church even as among the Jews Sacrifices Prayers and Thanksgivings made up the entire notion of Divine Worship so under the Gospel the Sacrifices of Prayer and Thanksgiving do absolutely compleat the worship of God yet our Church judgeth according to an excellent temper of the use and necessity of Sermons acknowledging their great use as occasion requires to convince reprove to excite and comfort
given which are allowed with which such may be contented as in some cases where some present resolution and practice is required in other matters of less concern where an indifferent variety is allowed but more instances there are of what is left to the discretion of the Ordinary n See the Preface concerning the Service of the Church Canon 53. Second Rubrick before the Preface of the Ceremonies Admon to Min. Eccles before the second Part of the Homilies Sundry Rubricks § 11. Having spoken of the Moderation and Wisdom of the Church in what relates to Sermons because Catechising o Canon 59. 1603. Lib. quor Canonum 1571. is an useful sort of Preaching I cannot but note the Moderation of the Church in framing such a Form of Catechism as the ancient Fathers p S. Aug. de Catechizandis rudibus S. Ambros de iis qui S. Mysteriis initiantur commended So full and comprehensive is the Exposition of the foundations of our Religion and yet without those curious questions which are not needful to trouble the green heads of those who are to be Catechised however which are not to be set forth as fundamental This was the excellent judgment of King James q Conference at Hampton-Court who approved of one uniform Catechism in the fewest and plainest affirmative terms that may be all curious and deep questions being avoided not like the ignorant Catechisms in Scotland set out by every one who was the Son of a good Man Thus the judicious r Pax Ecclesiae p. 54. Bishop Sanderson for the Peace of the Church and to preserve Unity and Charity his third direction is That Catechisms should not be farced with School points and private tenets but contain only clear and undoubted Truths Whereas the Church of Rome and many other Sects have stuft their Catechisms with some of their private opinions even so much that sometimes their Catechisms are not only to contain the sums of Christianity but they are the distinctive notes of their party in maintaining which some of them place so great a part of Religion and therefore no wonder if according to their great wisdom in other things they enamel their Catechisms with what is to them so pretious I shall only here add what Dr Hammond saith of this our Church Catechism ſ Vindication of the ancient Liturgy of the Church of England §. 40. If we would all keep our selves within that Moderation and propose no larger Catalogue of Articles to be believed by all than the Apostles Creed as 't is explain'd in our Catechism and lay greater weight upon the Vow of Baptism and all the Commands of God as they are explain'd by Christ and only add the Explication and use of the Sacraments in those commodious and most intelligible expressions and none other which are there set down I should be confident there would be less hating and damning one another more Piety and Charity and so true Christianity among Christians and Protestants than hitherto hath been met with § 12. This Chapter ought not to be dismissed before we take notice how the interest both of the inward and outward worship of God is according to a just Moderation secured in our Church For 1. In all the Instructions and Precepts of the Church Her designs and intent appear very sincere to promote the worship of God according to his Will Wherefore our Church makes none else partakers of the Divine Worship as neither Saints nor Angels nor the Blessed Virgin The Ceremonies as will be further shewed are not held by our Church as any part of the Divine Worship but only outward signs and helps of Devotion Our Church lays also greatest stress upon the inward affection and intention of the mind as the most necessary and principal part of the Divine Worship as that which only can render all outward expressions of our Honour of God acceptable Because in the affection of the Heart is the consummation of all moral goodness t Actus exterior nihil addit bonitatis aut malitiae actui interiori nisi per accidens D. Tho. 1. 2◠q. 20. Art 4. especially in the worship of God For the best Being is to be served with the most excellent operations of our best Faculties Therefore God who is the most Excellent most Infinite and most pure Spirit must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth in due regard to which just consideration all the Offices of our Church are framed so as to promote chiefly a due sense of God and of the Divine Attributes a Heavenly and spiritual disposition of Mind a real and unaffected Piety a sincere and hearty Devotion For as the Homily saith u Of Holy Scripture first Part. Without a single eye pure intent and good mind nothing is allowed for good before God But notwithstanding the inward worship of the Heart is held most necessary and principal in our Church is instantly required the outward worship of God also as in all acts of outward as well as inward obedience in many of which the affection cannot be sincere without the outward exercise of such acts when they can be performed as in consecrating also a just portion of our time and Estates to the honour of God the humble service of our bodies reverend gestures and behaviour which are but proper and fit to encrease in our selves and others the inward honour of God also In respect to both these parts of worship those who duly honour God may be fitly denominated devout persons But the probable reason why many who call themselves Saints do disdain the name of Devout is because the Attribute of Devotion seems to intimate also the outward reverent behaviour of body as the necessary Companion of the inward integrity of the mind which outward reverence such judge too meanly of Lastly In our Church the worship of God is supposed to proceed not so much from a principle of fear and dread as of love and thankfulness Whereas some in a way to overthrow all Religion have given out That the fear of God is only the dread men have of some unknown arbitrary and uncontroulable power Such a fear they suppose the only motive to the worship of God the only foundation and bond of Justice An Experiment taken up to keep men obedient to Laws The Moderation of our Church governs it self very justly in this matter accounting the due fear of the Soveraignty and power of God very useful to the good as well as the bad to make all heedful and careful in their duty Therefore in the Office of Commination as in many other places also the threats of God against impenitent Sinners are by our Church denounced Yet the first and the chief reason of our worship of God is frequently owned in the Offices of our Church and supposed to be a sense of the Infinite Divine Excellencies and his constant bounty and benefits and gracious goodness to mankind especially in our Lord Jesus
our Church reformed Scintilla Altaris That to avoid excess of Dedications wherein others are too burthensome she sometimes uniteth two of the Apostles at once in one Festivity as S. Simon and Jude S. Philip and James § 8. The more immoderate is their reproach who brand our reformed Church for being guilty of Popery only because the memory of the just among us is blessed f Coâ—â—mus Martyres cultu dilectionis non servitutis S. Aug. c. Faus l. 22. Notwithstanding those very exceptors are really like the Romanists Canonizing and Sainting one another for being of some particular humour and faction in this for one that they will not keep a Festival or remember an Apostle with honour Indeed in the Church of Rome they have Canonized the worst of men and let any one tell the difference when many of those others Saint each other and affect no other Title but of your Holiness And here let any equal and intelligent Christians judge whether those who hold Communion with the Church of God notwithstanding sundry infirmities and failings ought not and may not more properly according to the stile of Scripture to be called Saints than those who separate from the outward Communion of Gods Church although they usurp the name peculiarly to themselves And here we cannot but observe the Modesty of those in Communion with the Church of England which is true Christian Moderation They never were so forward to rush suddenly as it were into the Holy of Holies in calling themselves and one another absolute Saints but rather while they are in their way and Pilgrimage chuse to be honoured with more modest titles even as Pythagoras in all Ages hath been commended for his Moderation in laying aside the great name of Wife and chose rather to be called a Lover of Wisdom § 9. The same Moderation which our Church useth toward Saints she observeth likewise with respect to the Holy Angels Yea indeed great is the modesty and sober wisdom of our Church in that it is no where excessively curious nor positive in determining of the nature actions knowledge number Orders or special Guardianship of Angels Our Church doth not deny that there is a distinct Order of Angels but no where takes upon her to show how those Orders are disposed But avoiding the extreme of those who are stupidly insensible of the conduct of Holy Angels the Church of England doth glorify God for their Creation for their admirable order and Ministry and affection to us we pray to God we may imitate their readiness and chearfulness in praising and serving him and ministring daily for the good of others yet our Church hath always held the Angels to be in the number of those who worship and not of those who are worshipped and for us to worship those who are themselves worshippers would be such a voluntary humility as is sinful namely to address our selves to such substitutes as God no where hath appointed to receive his peculiar honour g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. c. Cels l. 8. Neque Invocationibus Angelicis sed 〈◊〉 purè manifestè Orationes dirigens ad Dominum qui omnia sâ—it Iren. l. 2. c. 57. which the Synod of Laodicea A. D. 364. calls Idolatry § 10. The like Moderation doth our Church excellently well observe in the honour she gives to the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary so highly favoured of God as to be the Mother of our Lord whom our Church celebrates and always humbly calls her Blessed And as it is in the Institution of a Christian man set forth by the Convocation 1537. We may worthily say she is the most blessed of all other Women h Maria Mater Domini principatum inter Mulieres tenuit S. Aug. Scrm. 136. Hanc ego Christi Matrem veneror sed non illi Divae modò sed Deae nomen tribuens R. Jac. Apol. pro Jur. Honor Reginae judicium diligit Virgo Regia falso non eget honore de B. V. Mariâ S. Bernard Ep. 174. and we no where doubt but she is highly graced in Heaven as she received a most special priviledge upon Earth But our Church doth no where believe that she had an immaculate conception which the Romanists celebrate with an Holy-day on purpose Neither doth our Church believe she was ever raised from the dead and assumed into Heaven which they solemnize with another Festival Neither did Erasmus i Erasm Ecclesiastes l. 2. without cause admire how it came to pass they salute the Mother of Christ with more Religion than they invoke Christ himself or the Holy Spirit calling her the Fountain of all Grace and sundry expressions they use of the like affiance in the authority and merit of the Blessed Virgin to succour help and save Sinners as may be seen in the Rosary and Psalter and specially Litanies to the Virgin Mary k V. Consult Cassandr Art 20. p. 140. Jube Filio c. Cùm vix aliud in toto choro sit alienius à scripturis sanctis quod cum Evangelio Christi atque doctrinâ Apostolicâ perditiùs pugnet Wicelius de abusu Eccl. p. 392. In their form of auricular Confession they are taught thus to begin l Manuale Confessionum Cap. 10. p. 128. I Confess to the Omnipotent God to the Blessed Mary always Virgin c. and when they enter into their Monasteries they vow themselves to God and the Blessed Virgin and in all things they are so superdevout m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Virgin that an Oath by her is accounted most sacred and any of the Festivals may be sooner expunged than that of her Assumption into Heaven and although they prohibite the Bible yet they freely suffer sundry Books of Devotion to the Virgin Mary in the Mother tongue § 11. Our Church hath taken great care that a special honour be had to the Lords Day and that neither the Lords Day nor any other Festival be abused to Luxury or impiety n Haeccine solemnes dies decent quae alios non decent Tertull. Ita Festa moderanda ut neque nimia neque tam flagitiosè profanentur Bucer Censur c. 26. It appears from the Offices in our Liturgy the Rubricks Canons Homilies and Statutes of the Land and Injunctions of our Kings since the Reformation that there hath been a first and special care taken for the Holy Celebration of Sunday or Lords Day wherein we are equal to any Church among the Reformed o Vi. D. Crackenthorp Defens Eccl. Aug. c. 54. The other Festivals being over-ruled that in a Concurrence of Offices they may not disturb its Solemnity the very religious observation of which is earnestly also perswaded in our Homilies and especially in the 13. Canon with which agree the Injunctions of K. Edw. 6. and Q. Eliz. requiring p Coimus in coetum ut Deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes coimus ad Divinarum literarum commemorationem
fidem sanctis vocibus pascimus spem erigimus fiduciam figimus c. Tertull Apol. All manner of persons within this Church of England that from henceforth they celebrate and keep the Lords Day commonly called Sunday and other Holy-days according to Gods holy will and pleasure and the Orders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf that is in hearing of the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same in reconciling themselves charitably to their neighbours where displeasure hath been in oftentimes receiving the Holy Communion of the body and blood of Christ in visiting of the poor and sick and using all good and sober Conversation Much to the same purpose is largely insisted on in the Homily of place and time of Prayer All persons saith the late Statute q Car. 2. 29. shall on every Lords Day apply themselves to the observation of the same by exercising themselves in the duties of Piety and true Religion publickly and privately and no Tradesman shall do or exercise any worldly labour c. Works of necessity and Charity only excepted r Cunctarum artium officia venerabili die solis quiescant l. 3. Cod. Tit. de Feriis Which Statute of the Kingdom seems to have taken its Rule of Moderation from our excellent Homilies Which do reprove those who ride Journeys buy and sell and make all days alike who profane such holy times by pride and other excesses Albeit the same Homily declares the Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter Ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as it was given to the Jews Å¿ Audimus apud Bohemos exoriri novum Judaeorum genus Sabbatarios appellant qui tantâ superstitione servant sabbatum ut si quid eo die inciderit in câ—â—lum nolint eximere Erasm de amab Concord as touching forbearing of work and labour in time of necessity and so the Injunctions of King Edw. 6. and Queen Eliz. § 20. conclude Notwithstanding all Parsons Vicars and Curates shall teach and declare unto their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet Conscience after Common-Prayer in time of Harvest labour upon the Holy and Festival Days and save that thing which God hath sent So by King Edw. 6. it was ordered that the Lords of the Council should upon every Sunday attend the publick affairs of the Realm The Church also and the Laws of the Kingdom have taken the same wise care to set such Holy-Dayes in every term t Taceat apparitio advocatio delitescat nihil â—odem die sibi vendicat scena theatralis l. 3. Cod. Tit. de feriis V. Act for abrogation of Holy-dayes 1536. R. Hen 8. V. R. H. 8. Injunctions Hist of Reform Collection of Records l. 3. p. 161. Legum conditores festos instituerunt dies ut ad hilaritatem homines publicè cogerentur tanquam necessarium laboribus temperamentum Sen. de Tranquill. c. 15. that beside the ordinary Vacations there may be some days of respite from secular businesses and contests of Law for the exercises of Peace Charity and Devotion So careful have our Laws in Church and Kingdom been to avoid profaneness on one hand and on the other hand all sorts of superstition that is either Heathenish or Jewish usages as such For as the Homily of Prayer earnestly blames them who abuse holy times and places with intolerable superstitions as hath been in use in the Church of Rome so on the other hand it doth not countenance those opinions which tend to establish among us such observances as were peculiar to the Jews After the recital of the fourth Commandment in the Decalogue our Church prays That our hearts be inclin'd to keep that Law therein rightly acknowledging a moral equity that Christians should observe such a proportion of time as hath been the practice of the Church in which time all impediments to sacred and religious duties publick or private are to be avoided according to the equity of the Divine Law and the Precept of Gods Church The Moderation of our Church in its judgment of the Lords Day Bishop Bramhall hath observed from the Homily of the Church as concurrent with his own judgment u Discourse of the Sabbath or Lords Day p. 932. 1. That the Homily denieth not the Lords Day the name of Sabbath That it finds no Law of the Sabbath Gen. 23. That the Homily finds no seventh Day Sabbath before Moses his time The Homily gives no power to the fourth Commandement as it was given to the Jews to oblige Christians but only as it was and so far as it was a Law of nature The Homily makes the first day of the week to signify the Lords Day The Homily makes the end of changing the Weekly Festival of the Church to have been in honour of Christs Resurrection The Homily derives the Lords Day down from the Ascension of Christ immediately But the Homily doth express that p. 916. the fourth Commandment doth not bind Christians over-streightly Not to the external Ceremonies of the Sabbath not to the rigorous part of it to forbear all work As to the question By what authority this change was made I find no cause to doubt saith the Bishop but that it was made by the authority of Christ that is by divine authority 'T is true we find no express precept recorded in Holy Scripture for the setting a-part the first day of the Week for the service of God Neither is it necessary that there should be an express Precept for it founded in Holy Scripture to prove it to be a divine right The perpetual and universal practice of the Catholick Church including all the Apostles themselves is a sufficient proof of the divine right of it that at least it was an Apostolical Institution and Ordinance not temporary but perpetual § 12. With the Festivals it may not be improper to join the notice of the Moderation of our Church in reference to her Musick and Psalmody wherein the Constitution of our Church sheweth us the true temper of Religion which as it is the most serious so it is the most pleasant of all performances and is most suited to the nature temper and condition of man in which joy and sorrow have a very interchangeable interest therefore S. James saith Is any afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing Psalms Jam. 3. 13. Accordingly in our Church Prayer and praise fill up the measures of Divine Worship and can there be any performance more pleasant than to join with and imitate the Heavenly Host in the high praises of God Neither doth our Church judge it enough for us to make melody in our hearts to the Lord but doth require us to serve God also with our x Omnes affectus spiritûs nostri pro sua diversitate habent proprios modos in voce cantu quorum occultâ
and others that do not hold with them they do very much hazard their right and title to the said Catholic Church as much as by any thing CHAP. XVI Of the Moderation of the Church of England in her Reformation § 1. The Reformation of our Church as it had just grounds and was by just Authority so it was managed with due Moderation the Idea of our Reformation having bin impartial § 2. The whole manner of it so far as concerned our Church was with great temper § 3. She separated from the Romish Errors not from their Persons any more than needs must § 4. Our Charity exceeds that of the Church of Rome which denys Salvation to all who are not of her Communion § 5. The Preparation of our Church to submit to the Church Vniversal saves us from Schism § 6. The Reformation of our Church was the more Christian because not fierce but well governed § 7. Albeit the Moderation of our Church seems to have enraged her Adversaries yet because of this Moderation our Church is the better prepared to survive Persecution § 8. The Moderation of our Church in her Reformation was founded on Rules of absolute Justice as in sundry great Instances is made to appear § 1. THe moderate and orderly Reformation of the Church of England Bishop Bramhall well calls the Terror and Eye-sore of Rome * Answer to the Bp. of Chalcedon p. 244. because of 3 Conditions of a lawful Reformation well agreeing thereto viz. Just Grounds Sufficient Authority Due Moderation 1. Just Grounds Under which head I shall not take too large a compass to illustrate the Moderation of our Reformation either from the manifold Usurpations and Corruptions of the Church of Rome at that time nor from the invidious task of looking into the extreme Rigors of any other Models of Reformation Neither is it here necessary to reflect more particularly on Matters of Fact historically relating hereunto which have bin copiously set forth by a multitude of Writers both Ecclesiastical and Civil which abundantly justify this Reformation both in its Causes and Proceedings clearly manifesting how this Church was justified therein from the unjust conditions of Communion which the Church of Rome peremptorily insisted upon 2. That it might have Just Authority the said Reformation was manag'd by the Guides and Governors of the Church and was confirmed by Supream Authority and so in every particular was as legal as any Reformation could or ought to be as doth sufficiently appear from Matter of Fact recounted in the Histories and Monuments thereof Wherein the Princes acted their parts and the Clergie theirs they calling together the Bishops and others of the Clergie to consider of what might seem worthy Reformation and the Clergie did their part for being called together by Regal Power they met in a National Synod of 62 and the Articles were agreed on and were afterward confirmed by Acts of State and Royal Assent * Arch-Bp Laud §. 24. Any Reformation otherwise than Regular is as much against the Principles of our Church as any one can wish and had the Doctrine of our Homilies bin well regarded it might have prevented much mischief consequent on later Reformations Lest any Persons upon colour of destroying Images make any stir or disturbance in the Common-Wealth it must always be remembred that the redress of such public Enormities pertaineth to the Magistrates and such as are in Authority and not to private Persons In the Homilies against wilful Rebellion is set forth at large the sufficient reason of our Church's Reformation viz. the Intolerable Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome To the same purpose * Angli necessitate dirâ cogente secessionem fecerunt Casaub ad C. Per. the Apologie of the Church of England doth express it self more largely than need be repeated We did nothing rashly or insolently for the sake of any worldly pleasure or advantage but upon great advice and deliberation we shook off a Yoke which we had no obligation to endure †Postermò ab illo decessimus cui obstrecti non eramus ejusque jugum ac tyrannidem excussimus Apol. Eccl. Angl. §. 150 159 160 c. The Church of England did but behave her self as became a free Church enjoying the Rights of a Patriarchal See according to the Rules of the Universal Church it reformed it self when it had high need For as King Henry the 8th said in his last Letter to the Pope Better is it in the middle way to return than always to run forth head-long and do ill 3. The Due Moderation of our Reformation will appear if we consider 1. The Idea or Form of our Reformatation was neither taken from Luther nor Calvin as the Romanists love to speak of us * Impia mysteria instituta ad Calâ—ini praescriptum Bulla Pii 5. contra R. Elizab. Calvinicas aliquot deprecationes substituit De Schism Angl. p. 165. In illis Angliae legiâ—us quae alios actus Sacrilegos ut Participationem Calvinianae coenae similes Communicationes in eorum ritibus praecipiunt Suraii Def. l. 6. c. 11. nor from any other but from the Holy Scriptures according to the use of the Primitive Church which were only its measures according to which our Church practis'd the part of the Elective Philosopher and chose what she thought most agreeable among the rest she seemeth to come nearest the Augustan Confession and the Consultation of Herman Arch-Bishop of Colon which was also set forth in English 1548. Among others that have reformed their Churches I have often saith Saravia admired the wisdom of those who restored the true Worship of God to the Church of England who so temper'd themselves that they cannot be reproved for having departed from the Ancient and Primitive Custom of the Church of God and that Moderation they have used that by their Example they have invited others to reform and deterred none * Sarav Desins Praef. * Ea omnia sublata sunt quae nimium onerosa operosa sunt Lud Capel inter Thes Salmur 6. Between those who were loth to bid adieu to their Ceremonies and others whose Reformation had no bounds our Godly Reformers compiled the excellent Model of our Liturgie in so moderate and well-temper'd a Mode as neither part had Alliance of D. off c. 1. just cause to think themselves agrieved †So that the Church of England appears faithfully to have practised the same counsel which P. Gregory the Great gave unto Austin the Monk when he was sent over into England From all Churches chuse whatsoever things are Pious and Religious whatsoever things are Right and being gathered into one bundle commend them to the Minds of the English for their use ¶ B. Greg. Epistol ex registro l. 12. indic 7. For having laid their Ground that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation Artic. 6. They do upon that * Huic Basi Reformationem Britannicam niti
as is evident from the Preface to the Liturgy concerning Ceremonies Wherein our Church gives account why some Ceremonies were put away namely because so far abused by the Superstition of some and Avarice of others others were retained which our Church judged were not like in time to come to be abused as the others have bin †Preface concerning Ceremonies And as our 30 Canon hath it The abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it Wherefore the design of our Church in its excellent Reformation was sincerely to remove what did in its own nature tend to corruption and to retain what might be useful when corrected and reformed from the abuse Thus Zanchy did lay down The true way of reforming was not to root out every thing that was found in the Church of Rome but to reject what was fit to be rejected and to preserve what was fit to be preserved 7. The same Justice governing our Moderation sheweth it self to the Church of Rome also not denying what is true of Her that she professeth a true Faith in the form of Baptism and the three Creeds which she receiveth and professeth to own the Holy Scriptures and to hold to the four first general Councils and the ancient Fathers Many things in Order and Government she hath very excellent and likewise in some of their Devotions But how much she hath in her superfluous Additionals built upon good Foundations Gold Silver Hay Stubble and the like is no where better distinguished than in what our Church of England hath rejected and in what she hath retained and how far the peculiar Doctrines and Practices of the Roman Church do contradict the other part of what they retain in common with us and tend to destroy the same hath bin frequently also shewed in such Writings as are approved by our Church A signal instance of this Moderation of our Church of England is * V. Canon 30. 1603. it never denied that a true Church might be found in the Romish Communion however corrupted and unsound which Moderation the learned Mede †Mede Ep. 77. hath noted peculiar to the Church of England namely To maintain that the Roman Church much more the Greek Church erreth not in the Articles we account Fundamental because explicitely they profess them however in their Assumenta they implicitely and by consequent subvert them for which as Bishop Bramhal saith ¶ Answer to Bishop of Chalc. p. 364. our Charity frees us from Schism But a Church that holds the Foundation may grosly and dangerously erre in their Exposition which is the condition of the Church of Rome * Arch-B Laud against Fisher p. 320. Yet we do not declare that we have any new Faith or new Religion but the same only necessarily and well reformed from those superfluous Additions and Luxuriances which might have endangered our Religion if they had not bin corrected which was performed wisely in our Reformation without destroying all root and branch namely by reserving such things as are good and only lopping off such excrescencies as might and ought to be spared and in our censures of them our Church doth wisely distinguish between what was appointed of sincere intention at first and what hath bin since of manifest corruption neither are we altogether ignorant when most of those innovations and corruptions were introduced and generally by what degrees and occasions they encreased tho we may very well judg of errors and corruptions albeit we could not fix the time of their creeping into the Church which to speak more particularly of requires a very mature consideration Yet notwithstanding Casaubon had good reason to say The denying the Church of Rome Necessity of Reformation p. 145. the being of a Church which some Protestants rashly and ignorantly rigidly and uncharitably have done hath been a great hinderance of Reformation and I verily believe the opinion most Papists are kept in that the Religion of Protestants is a new Religion is not of little force to make them averse from it to this day CHAP. XVII Of the Moderation of our Church in avoiding all undue Compliances with Popery and other sorts of Phanaticism among us § 1. Notwithstanding our Reformation is the most of any opposite to Popery how it hath bin the craft of the Roman Agents to raise of it such a suspicion of Popery as hath bin artificially made a very unhappy Instrument of the Divisions which are from our Church § 2. How the great Labours of our Bishops and our Clergie remaining the most impregnable defence of the Reformation hath stir'd up the more earnest opposition of the Church of Rome to our Church § 3. The vain and ungrateful jealousies of our Separatists and Enthusiasts are the more unjust because they have appeared really acted by that Interest not in intention but in event § 4. Therefore it is a most seasonable work at this time to cast open those Masquerades § 5. Some Moderate Cautions here inserted to prevent any unkind Mistakes § 6. Some Objection to such an undertaking here answered § 7. That our Separatists and Enthusiasts generally more or less do conspire in fact albeit not in intent with the Romanists instanced as a Specimen in twenty Particulars § 8. Particularly how the Quakers are one with the Papists how ignorantly soever in sundry Instances § 9. By what steps and degrees these Progresses commonly are made toward Popery by such as separate from Communion with our Church § 10. What hath bin said confirmed by other rational Proofs § 11. Some further Reasons why the Clergie and faithful Sons of our Church cannot be thought thus concerned in so much as an Eventual Conspiracy § 12. An easy Divination of the Consequences of these things if a due sense of these Matters be rejected when so fairly and often recommended to the common notice of all with a sincere and affectionate close to such as this Address most doth concern § 1. NOtwithstanding our Church of England hath bin by the most wise and Learned Men Foreign and Domestic acknowledged the very excellent part of the Reformation yet how often hath she bin reproached with most unjust Censures of undue compliance with Popery It being one of the known Policies of the Romish Factors to cause their Agents among our selves whom they use for the overthrow of our Church to cry out Popery at the same time they most of all serve the Papal Interest themselves Wherefore that the Romanists may use the Separatists with the more unperceivable disguise and success to undermine our Constitution these also have bin inspired to blast with the Name of Popery what is rightly established in our Church Hence is it that the Writings and private Insinuations of Dissenters are full of this Charge in a joint design to disgrace our Communion and to exasperate other Protestants against us Some of those Exceptors running to such an excess of Rigour as to count Churches Bells God-fathers Churching
not to be thought unlawful For many are forward to cry out of sundry Appointments among us as Jewish As the use of Churches Music separate Persons Places and Things for the Holy Service of God Churching of Women Tythes Holy-days and Times decent Vestments c. wherein our Church useth its Christian Liberty to take or leave such Institutions as are free for us the Reason remaining generally the same to us and them and others Yet which is contrary to the Rule of right Reason and due Moderation the very same Persons where the Reason remains not the same to Jews and Christians but quite contrary are apt to Judaise in practice properly Mosaical and which were shadows of good things to come * V. Compassionate enquiry p. 69. 8. Because the Precepts we meet with in the New Testament concerning Moderation Condescention bearing Infirmities are plainly given to private Persons and many times in relation to their own Passions and with a clear reference to their having not as yet time or opportunity of being sufficiently instructed Therefore all good Christians are to have a care lest any indisposition or ill-temper of Mind or Phancy prevail with them against a positive and certain Duty which is a Rule of true Moderation 9. As Christian Moderation guides and inclines us with all compassion and affection to pity the Seduced whose Education and Company and the Authority of those they admire too blameably notwithstanding governs their weakness into dislike of what is publicly ordered however with meekness we desire to instruct such who oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to acknowledgment of the Truth So for such who are driven aside by Interest Love of Faction or other corrupt Designs Albeit we grieve for them and pray for their better mind Yet it is no breach of Christian Moderation if for the Peace of the Church for the Honour of the Laws for the Safety of Others and that all their Souls may be saved in the Day of the Lord we do wish the Gensures of the Church in full force and vigour for their seasonable reducement and emendation 10. True Moderation which governs it self according to Truth will not suffer any to pretend to that Union among themselves which really they know they have not I think nothing might help some to a sense of their unreasonable opposition to the Church of England and their unadvisedness therein more than if they themselves would please to reflect on the Variety and Contradiction which is among themselves one to another * Inde furor vulgo quod numina vicinorum Odit uterque locus quûm solos credat habendos Esse Deos quos ipse colit Juven Sat. 15. However all Dissenters would seem to be united in the great numbers every Party boasts of But because it is impossible to comprehend the variety of all Sects look we for Instance but upon the Presbyterian Brethren and see among them the mild and the rigid and the subdivision of these into sundry Classes and Forms of them Some have professed they adhere to the Scripture and the Catholic consent of Antiquity Grand Debate p. 61. as described by Vincentius Lirinensis Whether others prefer the judgment of one of the Masters of their Assemblies equal to most of the Ancient Fathers I should not offend many of them to declare Some take it for granted there is a firm agreement between us in 1. Paper to his Majesty Doctrinal Truths of the Reformed Religion expressed in the Articles Homilies Others contend for a necessity of Reformation even of the Doctrine of the Church of England Some among them hold our Liturgy Unlawful others only Inexpedient Some not inexpedient in some Offices but in others Others can join with all our Forms of Liturgy but cannot use them Some could use them if Grand Debate p. 61. there was a convenient conjunction of the Liturgie mixt with their own Conceptions interposed which they have thought would be a well-temper'd means to the common constitution of most Some can use them but not subscribe them others can subscribe to the use but not assent and consent to the use of them Some who will not themselves consent are content their Sons should be brought up to be wiser Others when they advise or give leave to any to conform gravely desire them to do it as their Burden Some Brethren of the same denomination among themselves disapprove of those very Offices and Constitutions which others of them allow and yet like others better In so much that we may count those who are satisfied to oppose the dissatisfied in many things among themselves So concerning Ceremonies the Presbyterian Brethren while they do not deny their practice to be lawful they declare of others Some think them flatly 2. Paper to his Majesty unlawful some inconvenient some think them unlawful in themselves and others but inconvenient Thus in the Nosotrophium of the old Philosopher who undertook to â—ure all Calentures by bathing Patients under Water some were up to the Chin some to the Middle some to the Knees So it is amongst the Enemies of the Sacred Order of Episcopacy some endure not the Name and they indeed deserve to be over head and ears Some will have them all one in Office with Presbyters as they first were in Name and they had need bath up to the Chin but some stand shallower and grant a litle distinction a precedency perhaps for Order-sake but no preheminence in Regiment no superiority of Jurisdiction Others by all means would be thought to be quite through in behalf of Bishops Order and Power such as it is but call for a reduction to the Primitive State and would have all Bishops like the Primitive but because by this means they think to impair their Power they may endure to be up to the Ankles Their Error indeed is less and their Pretence fairer but the use they make of it of very ill consequence Thus those who are for Parity in the Church have great disparities and very disproportionate Measures in their own immoderations in many other Matters as well as these mentioned You may as Grand Debate p. 91. well think to make a Coat for the Moon as was the Phrase of the Presbyterian Brethren as reconcile most of them one to another Who since they are so inconsistent among themselves are less to be credited against the Church And here it might also be proved at large how the most of the Dissenting Brethren of the same denomination often change many of their Principles within a few years especially the Dissenters of the former times seem'd to have a greater sense of the Moderation of our Church and used a fairer compliance than many have done since under greater Indulgence for they came generally to our Common-Prayers and Holy Sacraments To say nothing of other Differences which will not please our Brethren to mention as well as they love the old Nonconformists
same with hath been much encreased by the extravagant practices of the Church of Rome in their Benedictions 1. To make way for their Exorcisms antecedent to their Benedictions they seem to suppose worse of Gods Creation than they need as if the Devil had such interest and possession in the salt and water and what else they commonly exorcise Sometimes they are as prodigal of their Blessings as at other times of their Curses imprinting thereby a servile and superstitious dread upon the minds of men whereby they suck no small advantage 2. By their multitude of Ceremonies they seem unavoidably to confound the People and divert their minds from the true author and cause of blessing How many Crossings and sprinklings with Holy-Water Incensings Exorcisms variety of actions of the Bishops and Priests frequent shifting of Vestments many utensils and materials do they make requisite Whereas the Church of England doth in a modest and solemn manner make use of that Commission it hath to dispense by its Ministers the Divine Blessing in the name of God because the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. Being 1. Very careful to make her people plainly sensible from whom the Benediction by Prayer doth proceed 2. Our Church doth carefully declare the Divine Promises as they are made that the people may take more effectual care to be duly qualifyed for the Divine Blessing 3. Our Church doth not hold any Mediator for the Divine Blessing but what God hath appointed neither Saint nor Angel but only Jesus Christ our Lord. 4. Our Church doth rightly suppose its Ministers have authority given them to declare and pronounce the Divine Promises of blessing with the conditions of receiving the same and that they have a special Commission given them to pray for Gods people and bless them as the Priests under the Law had Commission to bless the people in the name of God Numbers 6. 22. Deut. 10. 8. 1 Chron. 23. 13. Which practice had nothing Ceremonial in it and peculiar to the Law Wherefore Christ put his hands upon the little Children and blessed them S. Mat. 19. 13. and Commanded his Apostles and Ministers to bless his people S. Mat. 10. 13. S. Luke 10. 5. and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. Wherefore for the dignity of the Episcopal Office the Church doth especially delegate that Power and Commission to her Bishops for Confirmation with imposition of Hands and in Ordination of Ministers c. Neither do our Religious Kings in our Church refuse the Benedictions of the Churches Ministers either as Christians or as Kings at their Coronations Yea our Church indeed ascribes more to Blessing and Prayer than the Church of Rome doth for by Blessing and Prayer our Church holds the Bread and Wine in the Holy Eucharist to be Consecrated which the Roman Priests do not till those words be pronounced Hoc est enim Corpus meum And here I cannot but add what the Archbishop of Spalato truly observed of the constant and ordinary blessing at Meals in England according to pious and Christian practice Blessings saith he y 〈◊〉 Erâ— Sâ—areâ—◠〈◊〉 §. 2â— and thanksgivings at the Tables of the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Laity at no time and upon no occasion omitted I never saw with such Religion and Piety performed as in England Yea among those of the Church of England the laudable Christian Custom is maintained of Parents blessing their Children and of Childrens humbly asking their Parents blessing whereby the authority of the Parent is maintained and each are put in mind of their respective obligation The same laudable custom is used to our Bishops To which may be added that the laudable Customs commonly in use in our Church as they are few which are generally received so are they such as are very suitable to this Moderation here commended But the Church z Canon 42. 36. 10 declares only such Customs to be laudable which are not contrary to the word of God or the Prerogative Royal. § 10. As the wisdom of our Church doth account it a reasonable service to offer up our Bodies a holy and acceptable sacrifice in the worship of God So she requires such reverend and becoming Gestures as are proper to betoken the awful thoughts of our minds Wherefore at our Prayers we are injoined meekly to kneel upon our Knees and at the Absolution also and repeating the Ten Commandements and at receiving imposition of hands because the same are accompanied with Holy Prayers and at our receiving the Holy Supper of our Lord the same being the most suitable posture to testify and promote our Humility our Thankfulness and our Reverent Worship of God To express also our Joy and praise of God as at the Psalms and to witness our stedfast and resolved and solemn profession of our Faith as at the Belief we use the posture of standing and also at the Gospels to express our outward Reverence to the Holy Scriptures especially because they generally contain the actions and words of our Blessed Saviour But in tender regard to the weakness and infirmity of many Christians such is the Moderation of our Church she alloweth sitting at the longer Lessons and Sermons and at the Epistles in accommodation to the reasonable ease of people after their long kneeling before § 11. Of that respect which is due to Churches and places for the Divine Worship and Service our Church hath determined according to great Moderation and Truth Keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 27. Moreover saith the Homily the Church or Temple is counted or called holy yet not of it self but because Gods people resorting thereunto are holy and exercise themselves in holy and heavenly things Wherefore though our Church is most religiously careful that the incommunicable honour due unto God be attributed unto no Creature else yet because the inward honour due to God ought to express it self as well outwardly as it can therefore whatsoever is appropriate to the peculiar service of God our Church requires should be used with such a difference and distinction as may set forth our due and singular Reverence of God It is easy to note how the extreme of superstitious curiosity hath crept into the Church of Rome in so much that it may well vye with the Jewish for multitude and niceness of observances a just Volume would not contain the curious scruples of their nice observances in their Vestments Consecrations Sacramental Rites and indeed in the whole carriage of their religious devotions but surely I fear these are not more faulty in the one extreme than many Christians are in the other who place a kind of holiness in a slovenly neglect Who are apt to higgle with the Almighty and in a base niggardliness pinch him in the allowances of his Service b Of Holy decency in the worship
Orders in its own Constitution hath an excellent temper between an Ecclesiastical Monarchy which the Church of Rome asserts in making it self the Mother and Mistress of other Churches and its Bishop Supreme Monarch over all the Bishops and Churches and between such Democracy and Populacy as is held in the Independent and Presbyterian parity * Retiâ—emuâ— ex singulis regiminibus exquisitam temperaturam J. A. Comenius Moravus de ord Eccl. apud Bohemos In our Government by Bishops succeeding the Apostles which also was Aristocratical they having all a fulness of Order and Power among themselves ¶ Omnes Episcopi ejusdem meriti ejusdem sacerdotii S. Hier. ad Evagr. a succession of Pastours our Church doth not refuse because derived for a time in the same Chanel with the Roman Bishops After the same manner saith Bishop Jewel we are chosen invested confirmed admitted if they were deceived in any thing we succeeded in their Place not in their Error Of the real Moderation of our Episcopacy Mounsieur Amyrald may speak for us because of many he may more readily be heard The Bishops of the Amyraldi Irenic p. 196. Church of England because they neither acknowledg the Authority of the Roman Pontif nor do they assume to themselves any right or power over the Consciences of Men nor over the Truth of Christ and in all other things they most earnestly maintain the same Doctrine with us against the Errors of the Papists Cavendum ne Scyllae fugâ in Carybdi incidamus Neve rigor nimius Vatinianum in Episcopos odium eò imprudentes adigat ut veters Ecclesiae dicam scribanius Sam. Bochart Ep. 8. ad Episc Winton Anabaptists Socinians and others We think therefore in somethings they are to be born with if there be any thing in that Order which doth not altogether suit to our Humour § 4. As our Church doth not approve of the Roman Tonsures Rasures Vnctions in the imitation of the Jews so she hath cast out of its form of Ordination all those superstitious Rites used in the Church of Rome Neither hath any of her Consecrations * Instit of a Chri. Man 1537. any thing that is of it self Superstitious or Vngodly ¶ 39. Articles 36. Yet so moderate is our Church toward the Church of Rome That 1. It allows it to have not only the Essentials of a true Church but of Ordination also 2. Although it hath only the Ancient and Apostolical Rites of Imposition of Hands and Prayer and accepts of the form of Ordination used by our Lord as most suitable and best Nevertheless it doth not hold all those Ordinations void which have been made in some other form of Words 3. It imitates the Moderation of the whole Catholic Church in being against the Rebaptizing of any who have had the Essentials of Baptism And also against the Re-ordination of those who keep the Essentials of Ordination and of such Churches where Bishops cannot be had we use all Moderation of Judgment * Bishop Bramhal's Vindicat. p. 29 31. Yet where our Constitution requires Ordination by Bishops it is at liberty not to make use of their Ministry who peremptorily refuse the Ordination of our Bishops ¶ Non opus est Reâ—pub Eocive qui parere nescit M. Curius Valer. Max. l. 6. c. 3. Neque Ecclesia opus est iis qui spretis Episcopis suis c. V. Vindic. S. Eccl. Angl. c. 6. Or who would in a settled Church and Kingdom set up a Church Government in opposition to the Bishops who ordained them before § 5. Our Church doth endeavour to preserve to its Bishops Priests and Deacons all due Honour and regard sutable to their several Ministries and Orders Having the right of a Revenue which is for the most part a convenient provision for its Clergy above some others of the Reformation Yet not only below the Pompousness of the Roman Church but much inferiour in proportion to the Provision God made the Priests and Levites among the Jews As our Church observes an excellent Moderation in reference to things peculiarly devoted unto God equally abhorring Idols and Sacrilege And whatsoever is sanctified to the peculiar Service of God our Church Orders should be used in a sutable manner So in reference to Persons consecrated to the holy Service of God a worthy care is taken by the very constitution of our Government in Kingdom * 1 R. Eliz. c. 2. ¶ 8 R. Eliz. c. 1. and Church to secure their Office and Persons from such contempt as might render their Religious Performances more useless and unprofitable to the Church and might discourage the worthy industry of those who should devote themselves entirely to a Function so honourable in it self King Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth enjoyn'd that Whereas many indiscreet Q Eliz. Injunction §. 28. Persons do at this Day uncharitably contemn and abuse Priest and Ministers of the Church yet for as much as their Office and Function is appointed of God The King's Majesty willeth and chargeth all his loving Subjects that they use them charitably and reverently for their Office and Administration sake especially such as labour in setting forth God's holy Word And for the more remarkableness of the Moderation of our entire Constitution may be considered what Dr. Heylin makes out at large in his Treatise for undeceiving the People in point of Tithes 1657. Never was any Clergy maintained with less Charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England No Man paying any thing of his own toward the Maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-Offering § 6. Because our Church asserts to its Ministry all just Effect See Art 33. It makes the power of the Keys not only Declarative and Doctrinal but Authoritative of which more in the next Section of this Chapter Yet our Churchmen do not boast as some of the Church of Rome do often of a Power Ascendant over the awful Presence of God and the glorified Body of Christ in Heaven as if they made him corporally and immediately present in the Eucharist upon their secret pronouncing of Hoc est enim Corpus meum * V. Missale Rom. Neither doth our Church of England ascribe to the power of Priests the bringing Spirits out of Purgatory in their Suffrages for the Dead Nor doth our Church hold any true Propitiatory Sacrifice for Dead or Living to be offered up in the Mass because that would derogate from the sufficiency of Christ's Priesthood Neither De Sacram ord can 1. doth it define its Priesthood by the action only of such a Sacrifice as doth the Council of Trent § 4. Our Church behaves it most moderately between the two extremes of those who slight all due Penance and of those who explain it differently from the true nature of it The Council of Trent declares it of necessity by Divine Right for every one of both Sexes once a Year
in Matters Ecclesiastical either claiming a power of Jurisdiction over him or pleading a privilege of Exemption from under him The Papists do it both ways in their several Doctrines of the Pope's Supremacy and of the exemption of the Clergy The Presbyterians claiming to Ibid. p. 42 43. their Consistories as full and absolute Spiritual Jurisdiction over Princes with power even to Excommunicate them if they shall see cause for it as the Papists challenge to belong to the Pope And the Independents exempting their Congregations from all Ecclesiastical subjection to them in as ample a manner as the Papists do their Clergy whereas the English Protestant Bishops and Regular Clergy as becometh good Christians and good Subjects do neither pretend to any Jurisdiction over the Kings of England nor withdraw their subjection from them but acknowledg them to have Soveraign power over Can. 1. 1640. them as well as over their other Subjects and in all matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal Which considerations verifie what hath been often formerly declared Namely That whereas now we are governed by Canon and Civil Laws dispensed here by 26 Ordinaries easily responsible for any deviation from the Rule of Laws conceive should we be exposed to the meer Arbitrary Government of a numerous Presbytery who together with their Ruling Elders will arise to near forty thousand Church-Governors among us they with their adherents must needs bear so great a sway that they will not easily be reducible and not consistent with Monarchy And for the Title of Divine Right those of the Episcopacy rather purposely decline the mentioning of it as a term subject to mis-construction Or else so interpret it as not of necessity to import any more than an Apostolical Institution and is pleaded by them with more calmness and moderation and with less derogation from Regal Dignity than by any other of the three § 6. As the most excellent form of Government in our Kingdom most graciously and bountifully protects the Church so the Church doth all she can to acknowledg the favour by asserting our Monarchy which is but truly performed in Canon 1. 1640. if we throughly consider the same Since then there hath been spread abroad an Insinuation that the said Canon did immoderately extol the Divine Right of Kings as if no other Form but Monarchy could in other States be lawful or of God's Ordinance because the Canon saith The most High and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right I may have leave to vindicate the same with all submission where it is due Where I conceive the words the most High and sacred Order of Kings may be justly and reasonably interpreted First and especially of Monarchies and also of All those Supreme Powers under what Form or Name soever they are called in such places as they are lawfully Constituted Which doubtless are as the Canon proceeds The Ordinance of God founded in the Primitive Laws of Nature which Supreme Rulers are often exprest by the general Name of Kings And because of the Pre-eminence and Excellence of Monarchy above all other Forms the Denomination of the Order of Supreme Powers may not improperly follow the more noble and excellent part Especially in a Kingdom where that is our only lawful Form it is properly and truly so affirmed that the High and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right as being ordained of God Himself which just interpretation of the Canon is according to our Homily * V. Homily of Obedience Take away Kings Princes Rulers and Magistrates Judges and such Estates of God's Order and no Man shall ride or go by the way unrobbed Blessed be God that we in this Realm of England feel not the horrible Calamities which they undoubtedly suffer that lack this godly Order c. Which the same Homily expresseth by the Name of Kings or other Supreme Officers that is the Higher Powers as ordained of God And that the Canon means no other by the Denominations of Kings may be fairly gathered out of the following words of the Canon wherein ¶ V. 39 Articles 37. with excellent Moderation in opposition to the Usurpations of the Church of Rome and other Sectaries what is there set down is most true of all Rightful Supreme Powers secular § 7. The Moderation of our Church doth not favour any Doctrines or Practices which are prejudicial to the safety of Humane Society in general or this or any other Rightful State or Kingdom in particular It doth no where pretend to remit the Divine Laws or dispense with Oaths or transfer the Right of Kingdoms but leaves them without any imminution or change as it finds them * Apol. Eccl. Anglic. §. 67. But ¶ Homily of wilful Rebellion 5 part p. 374. after that ambition and desire of Dominion entred once into Ecclesiastical Ministers and that the Bishop of Rome being by the Order of God's Word none other than the Bishop of that one See and Diocess and never yet well able to govern the same did by intollerable ambition challenge not only to be the Head of all the Church dispersed through the World but also to be Lord of all the Kingdoms of the World he became at once the Spoiler and Destroyer both of the Church and of the Christian Empire and all Christian Kingdoms as an Vniversal Tyrant over all In so much that * Pag. 380. There is no Country in Christendom which hath not been over-sprinkled with the blood of Subjects by rebellion against their natural Soveraigns stirred up by the same Bishops of Rome ¶ Pag. 383. Would to God we might only reade and hear out of the Histories of old and not also see and feel these new and present Oppressions of Christians rebellion of Subjects c. being procured in these our Days as in times past by the Bishop of Rome and its Ministers †Pag. 382. by the ministery of his disguised Chaplains creeping into Houses c. * Pag. 361. What a Religion is this that such Men by such means would restore may easily be judged Contrariwise our Church of England requires all of its Communion to give the King such security of their Allegiance and Fealty as may be a sufficient security to his Government Which security V. Homily of Obed. part 2. is with great Moderation exacted in our Realm Nevertheless Pope Vrban 8 in the Year 1626 by his Bull bearing date May 30. forbad all Roman Catholics to take the Oath of Allegiance And since the happy Restauration of his Majesty when several of his Subjects of the Papal profession offered by Oaths wherein the Supremacy is wholly wav'd to assure their Duty and Obedience the Pope and his Agents look'd upon this Overture as an Apostacy from him that is from the Christian Faith and persecuted all those who were concerned in the Proposal * Diff. between the Church and Court of Rome p. 30. of which see the Controversial Letters and
last Will. Walton in his Life the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable on themselves respectively It is the Church of England in its legal Constitution which I defend and not the Assertions and Practices of particular Persons Neither have I undertaken to commend the Church in all her equal Constitutions nor shewn all the Proportions and Instances of her Moderation neither have I illustrated the same from all the extremes and immoderate extravagances of other Professions in Religion which would have bin a boundless and an infinite task But if I have made out this excellent Vertue to be truly conspicuous in our Church If I have fairly wrested out of our Adversary's hands that glorious Calumny in which so many have cheared and vaunted themselves in their fond Hopes strange Demands and very dismantled Confidences That our Church is devoy'd of all true Moderation I am sure I have done reason to our most indulgent Mother to defend her from the imputation of unjust Rigour which our Church justly disdains as in her 8th Canon Whosoever shall affirm that their pretended Schismatical Church hath a long time groaned under the burden of certain Grievances imposed upon them by the Church of England let them be Excommunicate § 5. But whereas some forward to censure will be apt to judg of our justifying the Moderation of the Church as an endeavour to prevent any Reformation or Union such may consider That admit our Superiors should think fit to remit or at any time change any thing in our present Order The so doing doth not necessarily infer that our Constitution is not very moderate as it is For Concessions which are for the future ought not to be an accusation of the Church in what is past But may our sins never bring upon us such a wretched condition of the Church when every one shall judg he hath a right to think and speak in Religion what he pleaseth * In liberâ Repub. unicuique sentire quae velit quae sentiat liberè dicere Tractat. Theologo Pol. Unto this state of things or unto Popery those hasten us whether they know it or no who are in no wise satisfyed with the Moderation of our Church How far our present establishment may be any way moderated to compass a more general and lasting uniformity we hope if ever there should be occasion God will guide our Governors to determin but I am sure as the present Moderation of the Church is most justifiable so I suppose the change may more easily be allow'd when ever the generality of Dissenters shall be agreed and resolv'd of their own Reasons among themselves In the mean while if any will undertake to disprove the Proposition which this Treatise principally doth ovince Namely That the great Moderation of the Church of England doth rightly argue those who are in separation from the same to be the more unjust and guilty in their Schism * Et refellere sine pertâ—nacâ—â refelli sine iracunâ—iá paraâ—i sumus Tuscul 9. l. 2. I hope such will menage their Exceptions with respect to the Rules of Moderation especially as they have bin laid down in the second paragraph of this Chapter Neither I conceive is it enough to excuse their Schism nor to render our Church so immoderate as not to be communicated with for any to give some Instances which according to some Judgments they would have otherwise since it is most impossible to have any constitution of things free from all manner of exception and also against the most perfect things great enmities may be raised for want of equally considering the Principles Rules and Ends for which those things were established Neither is it enough to except against what is faulty in particular Persons when the same is no vice of the public Constitution Sure then it may be judged a very unreasonable manner of sundry sorts of Men answering such Discourses as pinch them namely by catching at some little scattered parts of the Skirts and Margent of the Cause Or when they cannot by unbiassed Reasons have victory in their Contest then they readily fall off to Personal Matters which in no sort tend to the Merits of any Cause and by these methods they hope to buoy up the Party which is the main thing they generally aim at § 6. Such was the Moderation of our Church when she had any hopes to reduce any of the Romish Profession unto our Communion she left out of the Public Litany that Clause From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestible Enormities Good Lord deliver us Yet it may be very proper now to make the same our Petition here adjoining thereunto another seasonable Prayer of Isaac Casaubon's O Lord Jesu preserve this Church of England and give a sound mind to those Nonconformists who deride the Rites and Ceremonies of it * Faxit Deus ut ad sanâ—orem mentem redeant Amen Lud. Capellus Thes 51. Salmur de moresis in Angliâ And since I have named the Learned Casaubon 't is most suitable here also to add some of his words to King James * Exercit. in Baron Ep. Dâ—d Sir You have a Church in these Kingdoms partly so framed of old and partly by great labours of late so restored that now no Church whatsoever comes nearer than yours to the form of the Primitive flourishing Church having taken just the middle way between those that offended in excess and defect In which Moderation the Church of England hath obtein'd this first of all that those very Persons who envyed her happiness yet by comparing one with the other have bin compelled to praise Her As for any of those who think it their Interest to decry the Moderation of our Church We wish first that the Roman Church would once take advice of her own Cassander * De nimio â—â—origore aliquid remâ—â—â—ant Ecclesiae paci aliquid concedant Consult ad Artic. 7. To remit of their immoderate rigour and hearkning to the Admonitions of Pious Men would set themselves to correct manifest abuses according to the Rule of Divine Scripture and of the Primitive Church from which they have swerved And that those of the other extreme would practise the Counsel which * Vt vos ultra modum rigidos esse nolim ita rursus altos monitos esse cupio ne sibi in suâ inscitiá nimis placeant Ep. 200. Calvin gave the English Brethren at Frank fort As I would not saith he have you beyond measure rigid so again the rest I desire they will be advised not to please themselves too excessively in their own ignorance * Offâ—â—sions suae modum statuere nesciunt nam ubi Dominus clementiam exigit omissâ illâ totos se immoderatae severitati tradunt Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 1. For I suppose that according to the best Reason it may be made out very probable that as the overthrow of Popery may as probably be wrought by the growth of its own rigour and immoderate claims as any way we can imagin †Inde exitium imminere Pontificiâ— imperio A. Sall. votum prâ—pace so if any thing in the mean while endanger the Protestant Reformed Interest it will be the immoderate behaviour of those of the Separation in their Schism against our Church Between both taking auspicious hopes from the Moderation of our Church We trust its Constitution being most Primitive will be also most lasting ¶ Eâ— demùm tuta est potentia quae viribus suis modum imponâ—t Val. Max. de Animi Moder l. 4. c. 1. in the esteem of the Church Universal and in the approbation of wise and good Christians And while our Church continues thus moderate it must needs argue the Separation which is from it to be the more unequal and sinful For the same Moderation which exonerates the Church of England from the guilt of Schism with respect to the Romanists doth aggravate also the Schism of other Separatists and however some dissenting Brethren while they remain drencht in their Tinctures will not be forward to acknowledg the Moderation of our Church yet we are assured that nothing would more tend to bring People in love with happy Peace and blessed Order nothing would contribute more to the quieting Mens Minds to reconcile all Parties and to accommodate the most and greatest differences which are among us than a right and full persuasion of the excellent Temper and Constitution of our Church I cannot close a Treatise of the Moderation of the Church of England more properly than with some of the mild and pathetical Soliloquies of our late Blessed Martyr King Charles I. Most merciful God stir up all Parties pious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 19. 16. Ambitions to overcome each other with Reason Moderation and such self-denial as becomes those who consider that our mutual Divisions are our common Distractions and the Vnion of all is every Man's chiefest Interest Keep Men in a pious Moderation of their Judgments in Matters of Religion Give us wisdom to amend what is amiss within us and there will be less to mend without us Evermore defend and deliver thy Church from the Effects of blind Zeal and over-bold Devotion Glory to God in the highest on Earth Peace Good Will toward Men. FINIS
the Church of Rome are multiply'd without Communicants out of which they suck no small advantage q Minuatur ingens turba quotidiè missantium propter saginandum aqualiculum duntaxat Wicelii Meth. Concord c. 5. whereas our Church in great Moderation appoints the Sacraments to be freely administred without any charge for their ministration and also at every Celebration there is required a convenient number of Communicants r 2d Rubr. after H. C. Rubr. before Com. for sick Last Rubr. after H. Com. for the sick as in the Communion for the sick Å¿ 2d Rubr. after the H. C. for the sick Canon 71. 1603. there are always to be three or two at the least except in case of contagion And in case that those who sincerely desire to Communicate are lawfully hindred the Moderation and wisdom of our Church hath prescribed a most pious instruction for the sick person such as may at once most exceedingly satisfy and comfort CHAP. XI Of the Moderation of the Church in reference to other Rites and Usages § 1. The Moderation of the Church in its Judgment and use of Confirmation § 2. Concerning Matrimony allowing her Clergy to marry affording opportunity of voluntary celibacy in our Vniversities according to a commendable moderation Vndue degrees of Marriages and some particular Times forbid c. § 3. In reference to Holy Orders 1. The Moderation of the Church in her Consecrating Ministers 2. In taking care to have them be as they ought to be both before and after Ordination with good effect 3. Yet if not so great as is desired why the Church ought not to be accused 4. In retaining such Orders of Ministers in the Church as are Primitive 5. The Moderate Judgment of the Church concerning such as have been ordain'd in the Church of Rome and elsewhere 6. Our Church endeavours to preserve all due regard to what-ever is consecrated to God 7. The Power of the Keys asserted in our Church with due moderation § 4. Of Penance 1. The Moderation of our Church between those who sleight Penance and those who explain it extravagantly 2. The Confession of our Church which is required is suitable to the design of Repentance 3. The Seal of Confession in our Church is as sacred as it ought to be 4. The use of External Penance in our Church according to due Moderation 5. The use of Absolution in our Church maintained according to a just temper § 5. For Visitation of the Sick 1. The worthy care of the Church therein and some Instances of its Moderation referring thereunto 2. Our Churches care for preparing those who are of her Communion for Death without extreme Vnction in use in the Church of Rome 3. Many Instances of the Moderation of the Church referring to the Burial of the Dead § 1. OUr Church in its judgment and use of Confirmation holds a just Moderation between those who reject the use of it and others who make it a proper * Conc. Tri. Sess 7. Can. 1. de Confir Sacrament It being received as a holy and useful Rite perpetually expedient tho not of necessity to * V. Instit of a Christian Man Salvation With which our Church doth not join Chrism or Unction as in Baptism also we use not Oil there being no mention of either in Scripture or in Primitive Antiquity for such purposes Neither is the baptized Person brought Hic mos fuit ut Christianorum puert-coram Episcopo sisterentur Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 19 § 4. Laudo restitutam in purum usum velim ib. V. Bez. in Hebr. c. 6. to Confirmation till every such a one be of competent years of understanding solemnly to take upon him the obligation entred into in Baptism which being duly performed the Bishop doth impose his Hands on every of them with Prayer and Blessing Which is the order of our Church for the honour and dignity of Episcopacy according to primitive and ancient †Qui in Ecclesiis baptizantur praeposito Ecclesiae offeruntur S. Cypr. ad Jovin practice Altho such is the moderation of our Church that its Presbyters are taken into some society with the Bishop generally in those Ministeries Neither is any in our Professio baptizatorum infantium per susceptores facta in puberibus unà congregatis solemni ritis renovetur VVicelii Meth. Concord c. 4. Canon 60. 61. 1603. Church to be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as they are confirmed or be ready and desirous to be confirmed So wisely moderate is our Church to accept of a true preparation and sincere desire of Confirmation when in some cases it cannot be had either through the lamentable neglect of those who ought to * Si in hoc Eâ—iscoporum negligentia peccatum est hactenus negligentia damnetur nâ—n id quod per se bonum est VVicelii Meth. Concord c. 8. perform it or those who should desire it be performed It was a discipline of the Helvetians to forbid the Bannes of Marriage to such as could not give a good account of their Catechism which soon made all who had a mind to Marriage to be very diligent in learning their Lessons by heart And by a Canon of a * Conc. Bituricens 1584. Council in France None were to be admitted to the Eucharist or †Nec enim alia adversus foediss ignorantiam via restabat nisi Maritalis tori sit is in subsidium Vocaretur Hammondus de Confirm c. 2. §. 11. Matrimony but such who had been Confirmed The same if well lookt into is indeed a Canon also of our ¶ A Book of certain Canons 1571. English Church Especially they shall warn young Folks not only Men but also Women that it is provided by the Laws That none of them may either receive the Holy Communion or be married or undertake for a Child in Baptism except they before have learned the Principles of Christian Religion and can fitly and aptly answer to all the parts of the Catechism Neither is this Rite among us degenerated into a practice of meer Gain and Covetousness as Spalatensis complain'd of the Church of * De Rep. Eccl. l. 5. c. 12. Rome where Confirmation with Chrism is made such a Sacrament as they think confers a greater Grace than the true Sacrament of †V. Chem. Exam. de Confirm p. 69. Baptism But the Moderation of the Church hath restored the Ancient Primitive Rite of Imposition of Hands which for many hundred years hath been extruded from the Romish Confirmation by other superstitious ¶ Libertas Eccles l. 2. c. 4. §. 3. Ceremonies § 2. The Moderation of the Church of England in what relates to Marriage chiefly appears in that it esteems Matrimony honourable in * Dei Ordinationem nulla lex humana nullum votum potest tollere Conf. Aug. all and particularly also in Priests and Ministers of the Church and to make Vows of perpetual Virginity