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
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
THE MODERATION OF THE Church of England Considered As useful for allaying the present distempers which the indisposition of the Time hath contracted BY TIMOTHY PULLER D. D. Pref. to the Book of Com. Pr. It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England ever since the first compiling her publick Liturgy to keep the Mean between the two Extremes In which review we have endeavoured to observe the like Moderation LONDON Printed by J. M. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXIX NISI DOMINUS ADFUISSET NOBIS 24 Psl 1. Prâ—â— Ieus Simpl MODE BATION Printed for Rich Chiswell in St Pauls Church yard ANIMO ET FIDE The Right honble Francis North Baron of Guilford 1703 TO THE MOST REVEREND Father in GOD WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop OF CANTERBURY Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please your Grace THis Essay for the Vindication of Our Church addresseth in just Gratitude to Your Archiepiscopal See with this assurance that the Moderation of the Church of England oweth it self as much to the wisdom and admirable temper of Your Graces Predecessors as to any one thing whatsoever next to the most Divine and supreme influences which so signally govern'd them and the rest of our first Reformers to follow incomparably the sage advice which Gregory the Great anciently sent to Your Predecessor Austin of Canterbury That of the divers usages of several Churches he should chuse what was most religious and right for the use of the English for said that Bishop of Rome things are not to be loved for the sake of a place but places for the sake of good things according to which determination of that Learned and Pious Father it may be easy now to decide What Church whose Primates which Constitution deserves our love and honour most unless any will prefer that which is extravagantly corrupt before what is most moderately and excellently reformed Your Grace best knows how that Brotherly * Novit Fraternitas tua c. B. Greg. Ep. ex Registro l. 12. Indic 7. c. 3. sort of Communication was generally preserved in the Church by other Patriarchs even with the Bishops of Rome so long as these were Examples of the same Moderation with S. Gregory who with a Primitive Roman Courage protested against the insolency of their stiling themselves Universal which well enough agrees with the Solecism of those who call only themselves Catholicks Before which novel kind of Phantastries 't is well known such as Boniface the Martyr the Apostle of the Germans as Baronius mentions * Ad an 726. n. 58. Tom. 9. mutually desired advice not only from Rome but of the Primates of England And whereas even since the first Reformation there have been Archbishops of Canterbury who have not only with wondrous success govern'd and defended Our Church from both sorts of Adversaries but have testified to the Equity of Her Rubricks with their own Blood when we consider what kind of adverse parties were the Authors of Their Martyrdom even the same who have given the Reformed Church of England Her two most extreme refining Tryals We must acknowledge them in the direct succession with Your Grace to be not only the Glorious Instruments but also the most famous Witnesses and Proofs of the Moderation of our Church who bear the first Names in Her Dipticks and deserve here first with Reverence to be mentioned to Your Grace who also for your inviolable adherence to the Church in spite of sufferings must hereafter be celebrated among Her Confessors There may be some account why in this Argument such an undertaking as this were it more worthy should especially desire Your Patronage not only in humble deference to the Authority Your Grace doth sustain in our Church to the universal joy and serious triumph of all whose affections have not been depraved with Schism and ill nature but in a more immediate reference because to Your special Archiepiscopal Prerogative belongeth the peculiar right and faculty of those dispensations which are a part of the Equity of our Church and her liberal benignity in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath been always honoured as a most venerable part of Her Laws Since therefore unto Your Clemency is so suitably committed in this publick Constitution the Custody of our Churches Indulgence and Benignity The Moderation of the Church with more than usual confidence returns to Your Grace for what her Casuists calls Inculpata Tutela and fears not now to be denied since Clemency is not only the Dignity of Your Title but Your Nature Neither is Your Primacy in our Church more eminent than Your Moderation is exemplary and known unto all Which I presume only to mention to borrow from thence a most Reverend Lustre and Life to the Noble Truth I have defended And so far as I have not improperly now asserted the Cause of the Church in which You preside I am sure not to sink in my trust of being supported by Your Graces good acceptance of the sincere undertaking of May it please Your Grace Your most obliged humble and dutiful Servant TIMO PULLER TO THE READER IF ever the practice of Moderation as well as any discourse thereon were seasonable it may be supposed now when for ought we know the lasting happiness of the Kingdom and the Church may depend immediately upon this rare and desirable temper acknowledged of all most excellent Yet it is a most unaccountable mystery of our present condition that notwithstanding the late surprizing discoveries have had nothing more notorious than that the chief design of the Jesuit Faction among the Romanists hath been the utter subversion of the present established Church of England nevertheless they who call themselves our Protestant Dissenters cannot be induced to come into entire union with our excellent reformed Church but rather chuse to unite with those Romanists in many of their unreasonable Cavils One of the methods which they who are Principals or Accessories in our Divisions for our extirpation have used hath been to engage the outcry in popular appeals concerning Persecution or Moderation This word and thing it self hath indeed much in it which is very Divine and therefore the more likely to be made use of with design by those who have used the most holy things to the most unhallowed purposes But I suppose the Experience which the late Age hath taught us will not so presently be out of print in our minds as to make us remit all our caution against the rigours of both extremes however they bear the same goodly pretences and unite in the same reproach of our Church Wherefore in sincere desire to assist the truth and equity of our Churches cause as well as to awaken if I may be so happy some into a more intimate sense of our common real interest I thought it an act of Justice as well as duty to enter some
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
duty and when they cannot be done without a publick acknowledgment of some great errour or sin before admitted n See the Proclamation of K. Edw. 6. for the authorizing an Uniformity of Common-Prayer Wherefore such Concessions are not properly admitted without great reasons moving thereunto because of the publick honour of Laws in them concerned Lest also the frequent change of publick Laws encourage the mutable vulgar in their common unreasonable levity and desire of Innovation Lest well-setled Order and the common Peace be disturbed and lest good men be discouraged in their regular obedience therefore Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation doth not in such like Cases encourage alterations especially when there is no end of gratifying such sick phancies and where it is not agreed between the parties complaining what they would have relieved This would be to expose the dignity of the Church and of Constitutions setled by such long prescription to the scorn of every bold dissenter which can have no other effect but to encourage them in their Schism and heap contempt upon our selves when we prostitute Law and authority to such affronts Vnless our dissenters had the humility and the honesty to confess they had been mistaken and were now resolved to go as far towards the repairing of breaches as their Consciences could allow and did propose a clear Scheme of what they would submit to and on what terms they would again enter into the Communion of the Church then I am confident such candid dealing would find an entertainment beyond what they can justly hope for o Modest Survey of Naked Truth CHAP. III. Of Moderation with respect to the Church of England § 1. What is to be understood by the Church of England § 2. The Moderation of our Church frequently confessed by her Adversaries sometime truly sometime upon design but most often our Church is reproached and opposed for her Moderation by each sort of Adversaries § 3. From the joint opposition made against our Church by her Adversaries on either hand is taken the chief inartificial proof of her Moderation § 1. TReating of the Moderation of the Church of England some will not be ashamed to ask what is meant by the Church of England a V. Reasons for the necess of Reform p. 3. 'T is pretty odd that in a setled Church as ours is such a question should be so confidently made as it is by some who while they ask it may be members of it if they please But because this Treatise is so immediately concerned in this question I shall make the answer more clear from all exceptions if I come thereunto by some steps The Church in general is a select Society that is of such as are called out of the World to the worship of God b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coetus evocatorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex Strom. l. 7. This Society is either that invisible Company of all the faithful throughout the World who are inwardly and really holy known unto God Or is the Society of those who confess Christ before men and by this visible profession of the true Faith have right to the Sacraments and other priviledges of their spiritual Community especially those which are a necessary and publick sign before God and Man that such do confess Christ Jesus For God who is the alone searcher of hearts hath left only this presumption for the rule of mortal men that the visible profession of the Faith should give right to the outward priviledges of the Church without granting which even the true members of the invisible Church could never communicate in any outward Society which all that call themselves Christians are oblig'd to do and therefore the nineteenth Article of our Religion begins thus The visible Church is a Congregation of faithful people c. In every moderate Constitution as I show ours is the Rule obtains Every one is presumed to be good till the contrary appears in a lawful manner Wherefore that visible Company of faithful people who here under the Dominion of our Sovereign Lord the King call themselves Christians and profess the Faith of Christ which he defends They are the Church of England c Hooker 's Eccl. Pol. l. 3. §. 1. For as the main body of the Sea being one yet within divers Precincts hath divers names so the Catholick Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every one of which is termed a Church within it self so the name of Church is given betokening severally as the Church of Corinth Ephesus England and the like d Multas quidem Ecclesias tamen unam modò unaquaeque intra seipsam cum universali adeoque cum omnibus ejus partibus servat Catholicam unitatem Forbesi Iren. l. 2. c. 20. But to come to the head of the exception which commonly is this If the Church be a Congregation of faithful people as the Article defines the visible Church How comes the determination of the Convocation the Orders of the Bishops to be lookt upon as the appointments of the Church which are also governed by the will of the King What of all this is the Church of England In answer hereunto let such take notice that the people among us do bear as great a part as they ought in what is constituted in our Church whether they will own it or no For where the consent of the people is not actually required it is either included in the Laws of the Land by which they are governed or in the will of the King to whom beside his own power over the Church in his own Kingdoms which is very great in many Cases they have made over their right e Refertur ad universos quod publicè fit per majorem partem ff de reg ju ad sect refertur whatever it is themselves and frequently by their Ecclesiastical Governours they also consent to what is constituted in the Church For we must remember what our Article expresseth That the Church is a Congregation of faithful people as it there follows according to Gods Ordinance We must also remember that the Church in its beginning did not form it self neither did it ordain or appoint its own Rulers For Christ gave some Apostles Pastors Teachers Eph. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Yea they had their power given them somewhat before the Church was formed Mat. 28. 18 19. to shew that they were not to depend upon the people for their power Whatever voluntary condescensions were made by the heads of Ecclesiastical Communion in the tender beginnings of the Church to oblige them more firmly in their Christian Fellowships yet all rights of Administration of the spiritual power of the Church did always properly belong to the Rulers of the Church within their own limits So S. Ignatius Cyprian f Cum Ecclesia quae Catholica una est connexa cobaerentium sibi invicem sacerdotum glutine
Council where alone those men are heard which are determined for ever in all points to defend the Popish party and to arm themselves to fight in the Bishop of Romes quarrel though it were against God and the Holy Scriptures It is no general Council neither ought it to be called general where the same men be only Advocates and Adversaries defending his Primacy born by the ignorance of the World nourished by the ambition of the Bishops of Rome defended by places of Scripture falsly understood Neither secondly is our Churches honour to general Councils lessened because she declares they are not infallible as in our 21. Article of Religion When they be gathered together Forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not governed with the spirit and word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining to God wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture t Itaque legantur Concilia quidem Cum honore sed interim ad scripturam piam certam rectamque regulam examinentur Reform leg Eccl. c. 14. Notwithstanding they are not infallible yet for the establishing consent King James may be presumed to declare the sense of our Church of the use of such Councils lawfully assembled Come saith He u Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr put it to the Issue allow a free general Council which may not depend upon the arbitrary will of one man and the Church of England is prepared to give a Reason of its Faith For even anciently it was a great complaint in the Church as the Fond of all their mischiefs x Nilus Archiep Thesâ—al l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Controversies were not determined after the Primitive Rite and manner § 3. Concerning the Testimony of the Fathers the Church of England hath observed the same wise Moderation in her judgment and use of them also no where judging of them as unliable to error according to the arguing of the 21. Article Because they are but men and sometimes have erred in things pertaining to God neither hath our Church any where swallowed their errors through the Veneration of their Piety and Antiquity Yet because of their Proximity to the Apostolick times and the just authority in the Church which for their Learning and Piety they have obtained and all along hath been given them Our Church in her Monuments gives a great deference to their judgment testimony and practice In the 31. Canon Forasmuch as the ancient Fathers of the Church led by the example of the Apostles appointed c. We following their Holy and Religious Example do Constitute and Decree Canon 32. According to the judgment of the ancient Fathers and the practice of the Primitive Church We do Ordain Canon 33. It hath been long since provided by many Decrees of ancient Fathers That c. According to which Examples we do Ordain Canon 60. Forasmnch as it hath been a solemn ancient and laudable Custom in the Church of God continued from the Apostles time That c. We will and appoint So in the 30. Canon The lawful use of the Cross in Baptism is explained from the practice of the Primitive Times And in King Edw. VI. Proclamation before the Common Prayer Book the reason for our Forms and Rites is justified from the practice of the Primitive Church and in the Preface concerning the Service of the Church Here you have an Order for Prayer and reading the Holy Scripture much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers and in many other places where they are named and where they are not named The footsteps of their ancient Piety have very discernable impressions throughout the whole Constitution of our Church Wherefore as it is in the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws of England as was intended y Reform leg Eccles Angl. c. 15. Let the Authority and Reverence be continued to the Ancient and Orthodox Fathers but such as may be subject to the determination truth and authority of the Holy Scriptures For always the ancient Fathers z Neque enim quorumlibet disputationes quamvis Catholicorum laudatorum hominum velut seripturas Canonicas habere debemus ut nobis non liceat salvâ Honorificentiâ quae illis debetur hominibus aliquid in eorum seriptis improbare Talis ego sum in scriptis aliorum Tales volo esse intellectores meorum S. Aug. Ep. 3. V. Ep. 19. ad S. Hier. Chilingw Pref. §. 25. themselves refused any other kind of honour or respect frequently admonishing the Reader that he admit their opinions or interpretations but so far as he sees them agree with the Holy Writings So that since Protestants are bound by Canon to follow the ancient Fathers whosoever doth so with sincerity it is utterly impossible he should be a Papist And indeed the Reverence of the Church of England to the ancient Fathers as it is most regular and well govern'd so it is most uniform and constant whereas nothing is more ordinary with the Romanists than when they are prest and urg'd by the authority of the ancient Fathers against them to depreciate their testimonies and add some scurvy false insinuations concerning them as hath been often observed of C. Baronius Bellarmine Stapleton and others Whereas the constant Reverence of the Church of England to the ancient Fathers is such that the Romanists cannot but acknowledge it very often as De Cressy a Exomolog p. 102. 135. saith Indeed the Protestants in England make honourable mention of the Fathers They profess greater Reverence to Antiquity than any other Sect whatsoever § 4. There are many things of excellent use in themselves which come to be suspected and reproached because of the abuse they have had in the Roman Church Of which Tradition may be a great instance Because the Church of Rome hath made Tradition equal if not superiour to Holy Scripture therefore others run to the other extreme of undervaluing all kind of good and lawful Tradition not considering that Holy Scripture is Tradition Recorded And forgeting that in the Church of God one great proof of the integrity of the Canon of Holy Scripture it self hath been always Tradition which these men so confidently despise There are also some Traditions not contrary to the Holy Scripture which if they be rightly qualify'd have and ought to have great authority with us Wherefore upon all occasions is celebrated among us that famous passage of Vincentius Lirinensis b Vinc. Lir. adv Haer. c. 3. Whatsoever is universally delivered which every where which always which of all is believed that is accounted as indubitable and certain We receive not saith Bishop Bramhall to M. Militiere your upstart Traditions nor unwritten Fundamentals but we admit genuine universal Apostolical Traditions And we are so far from believing Tradition without allowing the Papacy That one of the
young Students by reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach many times unprofitable seditious and dangerous Doctrines to the scandal of the Church He injoin'd That none under a Bishop or Dean do presume to preach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Vniversality Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace But rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and a good Life which are all the subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies That no Preacher of any denomination whatsoever shall presume to fall into bitter invectives and undecent railings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd by their Text free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of the Adversaries King Charles of Blessed Memory set forth with the Articles a Declaration 1630. wherein he required thus In these curious and unhappy differences which have for so many hundred years in different times and places exercised the Church of Christ We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes shut up in Gods promises as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scriptures and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England It is to be wisht that all the Directions concerning Preachers in the several Kings Reigns since the Reformation were Imprinted on the minds of all the Clergy and others especially His present Majesties Directions Dated October 14. 1662. Which among other great reasons inducing were set forth because of the extravagance of sundry young Divines who took upon them in their popular Sermons to handle the deep points of Gods Eternal Counsels and Decrees and other fruitless controversies serving rather to amuse than profit the hearers which is done for the most part and with greatest confidence by such persons as least understand them Therefore they are admonisht not to spend their time in the search of such abstruse and speculative notions However that they presume not positively and doctrinally to determine anything concerning the same And for the edifying the people in Faith and Godliness That they in their ordinary Sermons insist chiefly on Catechetical Doctrines wherein are contained all the necessary and undoubted verities of Religion declaring withal unto their Congregations what Influences such Doctrines ought to have into their Lives and Conversations and stirring them up effectually as well by their Examples as their Doctrines to the practice of such religious and moral duties as are the proper results of the said Doctrines as Self-denial Contempt of the World Humility Patience Meekness Temperance Justice Mercy Obedience and the like and to a detestation c. And because these licentious times have corrupted Religion in the very roots and foundations That where there is an Afternoons Exercise it be especially spent either in explaining some part of the Church Catechism or what may conduce to the Exposition of the Liturgy and Prayers of the Church as occasion shall be offered The only cause they grew into contempt among the people being this that they were not understood The subscription for University Preachers in the University of Cambridge keeps its Subscribers within the same bounds and by the way I may note the Moderation and Excellent temper of our Vniversities at this time Having known for many Years together in Cambridge there have seldom been disputed in our Schools those Controversies which in the Age before did so much divide both Foreign Churches and ours and also our Vniversities themselves of our other Vniversity I am assured the same from my most Reverend Diocesan the Lord Bishop of Lincoln Having mentioned our Vniversities I conceive a very proper proof of the Moderation of our Church of England may be taken from the general practice in our Universities those noble Seminaries of the Church where among the Theses which are disputed in the Divinity Schools commonly one is given to assert our Church against the Romanists the other to defend our Church against other Sectaries The care of very many of our Bishops hath been also the same as may appear from one of their Exemplars of Subscription I have set it down in the Margent m Ego Curatus cui licentia praedicandi verbum Dei concedenda est sacras literas purè sincerè tractabo easque prudenti simplicitate populo exponam nec in sermonibus meis de rebus jam constitutis suscitabo Controversias nec spargam contentiones neque innovationem ullam doctrinâ vel Ceremoniis suadebo V. 1. Vol. Episcopii praes Praevorstii de concionibus because of its excellent use In the Instructions of King James 1618. to the Divines He sent over to the Synod of Dort One was That they should advise the Ministers of those Churches that they do not deliver in the Pulpit to the people those things for ordinary Doctrines which are the highest points of Schools and not fit for vulgar capacity but are disputable on both sides and that they carry themselves with that advice moderation and discretion as became them c. After all these great Testimonies of Moderation in our Church it is proper to mention what we meet with in the Pacific Dr Hammonds Discourse of Gods Grace and Decrees § 24. This I suppose the reason both of our Churches Moderation in framing the Article of Predestination and of our late Kings Declaration in silencing the debate of the Question For if by these methods the Church could but have prevailed to have the Definitions of the several pretenders forgotten All men contenting themselves as our Article prescribes with the Promises of God as they are declared in Scripture the turmoil and heat and impertinence of disputes had been prevented which now goes for engagement in Gods cause And blessed be God the design of the Churches Moderation and of our Gracious King the Churches Moderatour and Governour hath thus far had excellent effect in the Church and our Universities that for a long time there hath been a great silence from that noise and learned squabble which sometimes formerly disturbed the Churches Peace so that now we may be more at leisure without prejudice and passion to review and admire the wise and excellent determinations of our Church § 6. To shew how well the Controversies of the late Age have been moderated by our Church might deserve a just Treatise by it self But our Church seems to observe the same advice which King James gave to the Divines going over to Dort 1618. In case of opposition between any over-much addicted to their own opinions their endeavours should be that certain Positions be moderately laid down which may tend to the mitigation of heat on both sides Our Church throughout hath done the same thing as might be instanced at large in the Controversies between us and the Romanists and between others also Indeed the Articles and especially the Homilies do copiously and
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
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
Churches Moderation The Ceremonies of our Church are but very few and those of great antiquity simplicity decency and clear signification hardly to be wrested to the prejudice of inward piety wherefore they are neither unprofitable nor burdensome of which they are charged in the Preface to the Directory Our Church avoiding extreams on one hand of the Church of Rome a Concil Trid. Sess 7. Can. 13. whose Ceremonies are so cumbersome for their number b Quia ad aures ipsorum totius sermè orbis justissimae querelae pervenerint de moderandâ corrigendâ onerosâ multitudine quorundam rituum Chemnit Examen ib. p. 34. that they make no end of commanding and forbidding till they come to the other extremity of moroseness of which humour St Austin c S. Aug. Ep. 118. in express words complains Religion which God in his mercy hath made free with few and clear Sacraments is made more burdensome than ever was the Jewish Wherefore our Church is most careful lest by any excess of Ceremonies Religion should be any wise obscured and by outward and sensible things the minds of people should be diverted to the neglect of what is inward and spiritual Therefore our Church in its Preface of Ceremonies why some be abolished complains That the excessive number of Ceremonies was so great and many of them so dark that they did more confound and darken than declare and set forth Christs benefits unto us On the other hand our Church avoids that other kind of superstition of those that consider not the frame of men nor the use and experience of having some Rites for comeliness and edification d V. Pref. to the Liturgy and for exciting Piety and Devotion in the publick worship of God Let me for the sake of those who rather will accept such a truth from Mr Perkins e Reformed Catholick 7. §. of Traditions repeat his words We hold that the Church of God hath power to prescribe Ordinances Rules or Traditions touching time and place of Gods worship and touching order and comliness to be used in the same and in this regard Paul 1 Cor. 11. 2. commendeth the Church of Corinth for keeping his Traditions and Acts 15. 29. the Council at Jerusalem decreed that the Churches of the Gentiles should abstain from blood and from things strangled this Decree is termed a Tradition and this kind of Traditions whether made by general or particular Synods we have a care to maintain and observe these Caveats being remembred f Ritus pauci numero sine sumptu minimè graves Grot. in Cassand Artic. 15. 1. That they prescribe nothing childish or absurd to be done 2. That they be not imposed as any part of Gods worship 3. That they be severed from superstition or opinion of merit Lastly That the Church of God be not burdened with the multitude of them And indeed a worthy instance of the prudent Moderation of the Church of England is that in her reformation from Rome she hath delivered her self from such an Endless g Europae Speculum p. 3. multitude of Superstitions and Ceremonies enough to take up a great part of a mans life to gaze on and peruse a huge sort of which are so childish and unsavoury that as they argue great silliness and rawness in their inventors so can they naturally bring no other than disgrace and contempt to those exercises of Religion wherein they are stirring Yet after the fashion of a modest and prudent Matron though our Church doth not appear tawdry drest with too great a variety of ill placed cost yet doth she endeavour always to appear discreet and comely in her attire On purpose retaining some Rites in respect to the practice of the antient Church and to vindicate her self from the imputation of moroseness and not to side with the other extreme of those who in the exercise of their Religion affect carelessness and neglect of any good Form The Church of England doth retain some Ceremonies in her Offices thereby also to vindicate real Christian Liberty namely the publick liberty of Gods Church one part of which as Bucer in the beginning of the Reformation well noted is for the Church to chuse its own Rites and also to vindicate the Liberty of private Christians who by the Orders of the Church have their choice directed for their own edification and the better order of Divine things For Diversity of Ceremonies in divers Churches do serve to testify the Christian Liberty and doth greatly conduce to teach the true judgment of Ceremonies namely that all men by this diversity may understand That those things which are not delivered in Holy Scripture are not necessary to Salvation but may be altered as the time and circumstance of edification doth require h Sprint's Necessity of Conformity in case of Deprivation p. 115. It a Forbesius in Irenico l. 1. c. 7. Harmon Confess p 194. Which reason of them though it hath been frequently repeated yet hath not sufficiently been taken notice of by those who pretend to be such Assertors of Christian Liberty who fall foul into another servile and unquiet sort of Superstition Yet when we consider the horrid stiff superstition of such Precisians whom the Moderation of the Church of England in point of Ceremonies doth affright We cannot think them so moped but others appear to have run into a greater excess of madness when we behold the exceeding number of Ceremonies and observances which the Roman Rubricks appoint in their Rituals Missals and Pontifical c. We may bless our selves who within the Communion of our Church are freed from such a bondage more grievous than the Jewish especially since their Rites many of which are so ridiculous and trifling i Vi. Pontificale Rom. de Ecclesiae Dedicatione p. 237. Vi. Rituale Rom. in absolvendo excommunicatum jam mortuum c. k Quando primò Clericis barbae tondentur dici debet Pontifice sedente cum mitrâ Antiphona Sicut Ros Hermon c. Pontificale p. 550. are not only approved but required by the Council of Trent under the pain of Anathema l Conc. Trid. Sess 7. Can. 13. and that for surer notice repeated in the first page of their Ritual Wherefore as Plutarch well saith of Religion it hath its place between contempt of divine things on one hand and superstition on the other So the Moderation of our Church is excellently tempered to keep Christians from Enthusiasm in one extreme and from what some call Rituality on the other m D. H. Mori Ethic. c. 5. p. 105. Of our Churches care in this last particular Bishop Taylor thus endeavours to satisfie some Consciences There is reason saith he to celebrate and honour the wisdom and prudence of the Church of England which hath in all her Offices retained but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance or Apostolical practice and that is the Cross in Baptism which
For removing all scruple and for sufficient caution against all Popish Superstition First The Church of England since the abolishing of Popery hath ever held and taught and so doth hold and teach that the sign of the Cross x Nec nos pâ—det Crucifixi sed in parte ubi pudoriâ— signum est signum Crucis habemus S. Aug. in Psal 30. S. Cypr. Ep. 56. used in Baptism is no part of the substance of the Sacrament neither doth add to the vertue or perfection of Baptism 2. That the Infant baptized is by vertue of Baptism y Crucis Ceremonia in baptismace retiâ—etur explicatur in Constitutionibus Londini 1604. â—ot adhibitis cautionibus ut S. Sancti figni reverentia omnino aboleri potius quam confirmari videatur Thuanus Pontificius ad an 1604. before it be signed with the sign of the Cross received into the Congregation of Christs Flock as a perfect member thereof and not by any power ascribed to the sign of the Cross And that no invisible grace or vertue is annexed to the sign All Popish error and superstition being purged from the use of it and reduced in the Church of England to the primary institution of it For which reason also lest any mysterious operation should be thought imputed to the sign of the Cross King James and King Charles I. and now King Charles II. have forborn the use of that sign at the Healing z Alliance of Divine Offices ch 8. though therewith it was used in the Reigns of King Edw. 6. and Queen Elizabeth So great a Moderation and condescension have the Kings of England used as well as the Church for the healing of the minds as well as the bodies of their People In the 18th Canon with great wisdom and Moderation is procured all decent orderly reverent and attentive behaviour in time of Divine Service a Erunt itaque recti moderatique gestus qui possunt servire purae Religioni Christi Buceri Cens c. 5. Canon 111. where for kneeling at Confession Supplication and Prayers standing up at the Belief paying a due lowly Reverence when in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned b Injunction Queen Elizabeth §. 52. are added the Reasons of the Canon viz. Testifying by these outward Ceremonies and Gestures their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus c Quae sanè Devotio plus afficitur ergâ— nomen Jesu quia nomen ipsum significat nobis nostram salutem Arch. Spalat l. 7. c. 12. §. 49. de Repub. Eccl. Christ the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the World in whom alone all the mercies and promises of God to mankind for this Life and the Life to come are fully and wholly comprised c. d Hooker's Eccles Pol. l. 5. â— â—0 Which harmless Ceremonies as no man is constrained to use so we know no reason any of them should withstand Against Infidels Jews and Arrians who derogate from the honour of Jesus Christ such Ceremonies are most profitable In the Canons 1640. with all Moderation possible the Church did declare it self concerning the scituation of the Holy Communion Table lest any should esteem it otherwise than a figurative Altar e See Dr. Cudworth of the true Notion of the Lords Supper as thereon was had a Commemoration of that full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the whole World Wherefore in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth according to the advice of Bucer it was to be so placed that the Minister might more conveniently be heard f Q. Eliz. Injunction fâ—r Tables in the Church â—uceri censura Inter opera Angl. â— 457. And because of Gods Majesty the obeysance which was only recommended had so great an allay of Moderation that the Conclusion of the Canon is very memorable to our purpose In the practice or omission of this Rite we desire that the rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is That they which use this Rite despise not them who use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it g Hîc igitur nullus alium dijudicet Vescens non insultet abstinentibus abstinentes non condemnent vescentes Erasm de amabili Eccl. Concordiâ p. 18. The same words his Majesty King Charles II. inserted in one of his Royal Proclamations So far was this from being to be counted one of the Ceremonies of the Church as the Naked Truth calls it Of this bodily Reverence of God in his Church the Government is so moderate God grant it be not loose there-while That no man is constrained no man question'd only religiously call'd upon O come let us worship kneel and fall down before God our Maker h Archbishop Lauds Speech in the Star-Chamber § 5. So that in our Church as our worship of God is suitable to solid and rational Devotion so in the appointments of our Church which refer to the Administration of the same our Church appears neither to affect vain gaieties nor outward splendor nor such luxuriant expressions as are suited to feed the humours and boundless fancies of men Retaining what is reverent and becoming yet rejecting what is superstitious in sundry Consecrations Benedictions and Exorcisms which are in use in the Roman Church which mild and wise Moderation of our Church renders their humours more unaccountably foolish and obstinate who are so peremptory in their Non-Conformity to the Orders of our Church Since there is no Church in the World which hath all its Offices and Sacraments so administred conformably to the best Precedents in words understood without any mixture of dangerous or superstitious encroachments and with that gravity decency and solemnity which befits the service of God as Dean Lingard whom for love and honour to his memory I name in a Sermon of his before the King i July 26. 1668. Yet of these men who are so impatient of Ceremonies upon publick Order I cannot but note what hath been often observed k See Friendly Debate p. 221. Of the many Ceremonies ordained in the taking of the Covenant 1646. That many of them use two Ceremonies for one after their own fancies as not only their emphatick looks antick actions odd postures but further they require of their Disciples some things of a Ceremonial nature as special marks of admission into their parties It is Religion with many of them not to give the Title of Saint but to their own people And many think no Prayer acceptable unless it be very long especially before Sermon and that no Sermon neither except it be in the Pulpit As Aristotle observed of the necessity of Laws in every Society so the use of Ceremonies and Order may be further proved at large for that all Factions how different soever do frame to themselves some peculiar modes and figures of practice in which they are so strict
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
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
with the like the Articles of K. Edward 6. call Blind Devotion There is not consecrating and reconciling Church-Yards with so many Ceremonies and opinion of Efficacy and Necessity as in the Church of Rome ¶ V Form of Consecration of Churches Bishop Sparr Collect. 1675. The Bells which sound at Funerals among us are not appointed for any Superstition †Centum gravam 50. or to drive away Spirits from the Grave And because by Death all are made equal therefore all have the same Office for Burial All amongst us are deposited in the same general place of the Earth * Redditur Terrae Corpus ita locatum quasi operimento Matris obdusitur Cic. de leg l. 2. In other Circumstances Respect and Distinction is permitted according to the Custom of the Country and the condition of the Person deceased The Moderation of our Church is the same with that of the Christian Religion as it also leaves all Nations to their proper Usages and doth not oppose any Civil Laws or indifferent Customs of this or of any other Kingdom As it is observable That God himself tho he forbid the People of Israel ¶ Lev. 19. 28. Deut. 14. 1. to cut themselves or make any baldness upon themselves for the Dead or printing any Marks upon themselves which were the practices of that Idolatrous Nation Yet in such ancient Customes they had those which were Innocent referring to the manner of their Burial were permitted the same notwithstanding they had them from the Egyptians and other Heathen Nations Whereunto even also the Burial of our Blessed Lord Jesus was Conformable of which it is Recorded †John 19 4â— They took the Body of Jesus and wound it in Linnen with the Spices as the manner of the Jews is to Bury Among whom as hath been noted * Bishop â—earson on the Creed notes on Expos Art 4. there was a kind of Law that they should use no other Grave-clothes Notwithstanding it is all one ¶ Tabésne Cadavera solvat Aut rogus aut refert Capit omnia tellus Quae genuit coelo tegitur qui non habit urnam to our Bodies whether they are deposited in Linnen or in Woollen with Spices or without in the Earth or in any other Element whether we lie in S. Innocent's Church-yard where the Bodies soon consume or in the Sands of Egypt where they last longer or under the Moles of Adrianus And if the Minds of some seem uneasie in relation to one way of Burial more than another it convinceth us how great Tyrants Custom and Imagination are and perhaps in no Instance can it be confirmed more than in the late alteration referring to Burial Concerning which St. Austin's Comment might be of use †S. Aug. de Doct. Chr. l. 3. V. de civita Dei l. 1. c. 13. The Evangelist saith he doth seem to me not in vain to have said As the manner of the Jews is to Bury for so unless I am deceived he admonisheth in such offices of Piety which are exhibited to the Dead The Custom of every Nation is to be observed Wherefore our Church of England always leaves the Government of the Kingdom to have its Reasons to it self in what it appoints Instructing her Sons also how little soever the Matters are from thence to receive the greater honour of Obedience And because at so solemn a Providence as is the death of our Friends if some well-disposed Persons finding their Minds then more lifted up to the desires of Heaven and become more mortified to the World would take an opportunity of seriously commemorating the Death of our Lord who by Death overcame Death and opened the Gate of Heaven unto all Believers Therefore there is a brief peculiar appointment for the Celebration of the Holy Supper of the Lord at Funerals * Peculiaria quaedam in funeribus c. R. Eliz. V. Bishop Sparows Collections appointed 1560 with a Collect Epistle and Gospel which bears a part of the Reformed Liturgy which here is taken notice of as a proof how refined every part thereof is from Romish Superstition The like Instance of Inoffensive Moderation may be the public Office appointed by Q. Elizabeth for the Commemoration of Benefactors which is used in our Colleges and Vniversities which doth testify what worthy care we have of the memory of the deserving tho deceased and also doth shew how much purged these honourable Offices are from Superstition CHAP. XII Of the Moderation of our Church in what concerns the Power of the Church § 1. The Moderation of our Church owns the Power of the Church to be only Spiritual § 2. All other Power which Ecclesiastical Persons receive is readily acknowledged entirely depending on the favour of our Kings § 3. The Interests of the Kingdom and the Church are excellently accommodated in our Constitutions which is not done in other Models § 4. The pious Moderation of our King 's preserving their own rightful Supremacy and leaving to the Church the exercise of their Spiritual Power acknowledged by our Church § 5. The just Right of Kings shamefully invaded by other Sects pretending Divine Right Concerning which Claim the Moderation of our Church observed § 6. The dutiful Moderation of our Church in asserting Monarchy The first Canon 1640. justified § 7. All Interests of Humane Society especially of Subjects Allegiance in our Church abundantly secured which is not done by those in separation from her § 8. The Ordinances of our Church are framed with great Mildness and Moderation § 9. The same compared with the mild Obligation which Cardinal Bellarmine pretends the Church of Rome lays upon those of her Communion § 10. Sundry Instances of our Church's great regard to Equity § 1. THe Church of England always hath confessed That the Power of the Church is only Spiritual and Ministerial for the Head the Authority the Conversation of the Church is in Heaven Hence it is that the Appointments of the Church are not called Laws but Canons or Rules by which the Moderation of the Church rather leads than compels Yea In matter of Canons the Bishops and Clergy do but propound such Constitutions as they think useful and when they have done send them to his Majesty who perusing and approving them puts Life into them and of dead Propositions makes them Canons so are they the King's Canons not the Clergies * Bishop Hall's Remains p. 430. And the Inflictions Ecclesiastical the Church her self doth not call Punishments but Censures for Temporal Punishments are for Vengeance Spiritual for Discipline ¶ Bishop Lany on 1 Thess 4. 11. The Temporal Judg except he be Supreme in many things cannot pardon the Ecclesiastical Judg cannot but pardon upon Repentance as our Church doth express it self in the Canons if the Offender revoke that his wicked Error To this purpose St. Chrysostom †St. Chrys Homil 4. in Isaiam speaks The King remits the guilt of Bodies
the Bishop remits the guilt of Sins the Prince compels the Bishop exhorts he governs by Necessity but we by Counsel So it is in the Injunction of King Edward the 6th 1547. unto those who have the Cure of Souls They ever gently and charitably Exhorting and in his Majesties Name strictly charging and Commanding c. So in the 3 d. Canon 1640. the sacred Synod earnestly intreats and exhorts the Reverend Judges c. § 2. As our Church doth lawfully assert her own Spiritual Power entire and inherent in the Church so she hath always exercised her power in all Subordination to the Right of Princes * V. Institution of a Christian Man p. 49. V. Homily of Obedience And constantly acknowledging that whatsoever Power beside Spiritual the Church or its Church-Men have she receives the same entirely from the favour of our Kings wherefore our Bishops have exercised no Jurisdiction in foro Externo within this Realm but such as hath been granted unto them by the Successive Kings of England Neither have challenged †Non enim dominandi cupidine imperant sed Officio consulendi nec principandi superbiâ sed providendi misericerdia S. Aug. de Civ D. c. 14. any such Jurisdiction belonging to them by any inherent right or title in their Persons or Callings but only by emanation and derivation from the Royal Authority Now the regular exercise of a derived Power is so far from destroying or any way diminishing that Original Power from whence it is derived as that it rather confirmeth and establisheth the same ¶ Bishop Sanderson of Episc not prejudic to Regal Power Wherefore the Institution of a Christian Man calls The Power of Orders a Moderate Power subject determined and restrained § 3. As the Interests of the Kingdom and Church are excellently accommodated in our Constitution of Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws under one Supreme Governour so the Moderation of the Church hath tempered her self very justly between those pretences on one hand who have insisted on their Pleas of Spiritual Right to the real diminution of Soveraign Power And those on the other hand who resolve the exercise of all the inward Power of the Church into the sole will and arbitrary power of the Civil Magistrates according to Erastus and the Leviathan-Author who thus delivers himself The Monarch hath authority not only to Preach Pag. 297. which perhaps no Man will deny but also to Baptize and Administer the Sacraments of the Lord's Supper and to consecrate both Temples and Pastours to God's Service Wherefore our 37 Article declares We give not our Princes V. Canon 1. 2 36. V. Q Eliz. Admonition the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments which thing the Injunctions set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal Which Article of our Church is agreeable also to the judgment of some Bishops concerning the King's Supremacy in the Raign of King Henry the 8th Other places of Scripture declare the highness and excellency of Christian Princes Authority and Power The which of a truth is most high for he hath Power and Charge generally over all as well Bishops as Priests as other The Bishops and Priests have charge over Souls within their own Cures power to minister Sacraments and to teach the Word of God To the which Word of God Christian Princes knowledg themselves subject and in case the Bishops be negligent it is the Christian Princes office to see them do their duty Which sheweth Ex MSS. Dr. Stilling-fleet V. Collect. of Rec. Hist of Reform l. 3. p. 177. that Objection against the Oath of Supremacy is groundless which supposeth that the King is therein made not more a Political than a Spiritual Head of the Church * V. Camdens Eliz. p. 26. 39. Bishop Bramhal to M. Militier p. 37. V. Instit of Chri. Man p. 50. Which the Kings of England have constantly and openly disavowed to the whole World renouncing all claim to such Power and Authority Tho the regulating and ordering that Power in sundry Circumstances concerning the outward exercise thereof in foro externo the godly Kings of England have thought to belong to them as in the right of their Crown and have accordingly made Laws concerning the same even as they have done also concerning other Matters appertaining to the Religion and Worship of God § 4. Which being well considered we have great reason to observe and extol the excellent and pious Moderation of our Kings of England who never challenged to themselves the exercise of the pure Spiritual Power of the Church but left it entirely to the Bishops as the lawful Successors of the Apostles Which more fully appears from the Proclamation in the 13th Year of King Charles the First of blessed Memory according to the Certificate of the Right Reverend Judges under their Hands July 1. 1637. Wherein it was declared That Processes may issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bishops c. The Censures also of the Church are confirmed by the Law of the Kingdom * 1 R. Ellz. c. 2. And the behaviour of the Church to the King sheweth the same Exemplary Moderation For the Ecclesiastical Censures are with all due subordination to the Supreme Power secular used Because all external jurisdiction coercive is by Law declared and by the Clergy acknowledged to be wholly and entirely derived from the King as the sole fountain of all Authority of external jurisdiction whether Spiritual or Temporal within this Realm In other Matters tho the substance of the Power it self be immediately from God and not from the King as those of Preaching Ordaining Absolving c. Yet are they so subject to be inhibited limited or otherwise regulated in the outward exercises of that Power by the Laws and Customs of the Land as that the whole execution thereof still depends on the Regal Authority * Bishop Sanderson l. praedict p. 32 33. Altho then the Church knoweth it self to be a Society in its own nature distinct unto which the 19 Article most properly refers yet as very often now it is the unspeakable happiness of the Church to be entertain'd within the Protection of Supreme Powers secular so however the Church of England very justly declares for the Right of Kings to be preserved Inviolable as well as the just Power of the Church and the real Interest of the People Yea all these Interests with that of Religion in the first place our Church with great Moderation and Wisdom preserves entire and distinct All which among the Romanists and other Modellers are miserably confounded or destroyed § 5. Other Sects among us do some way or other deny the King's Supremacy
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
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
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
my own part be content to meet them in the mid-way so that all Novelties might be renounced on either side Which passage I find cited by Cressie's Answer to Dr. Pierce adding thus See the condescence of this great King The want of such Moderation makes the Church of Rome so irreconcilable as it is V. Ch. 13. § 7. § 6. It was the Speech of a wise Bishop concerning too suddain a Convert I do not well like a Man that tells me so presently he hath changed a whole Religion at once even so our Reformation was perfected by just degrees and being more moderate 't is hoped it is the more durable Dr. Hammond hath largely vindicated the honest policy of the Church of England for compliance only so far as was innocent I cannot imagine saith he but Liturgie Moderation and Charity may be able to bring in as fair a shole of Proselytes to convert as many Papists to us or at least confirm Protestants as an Ordinance for sequestration of all their Goods and Halter and Directory will be able to do I know what we justly call Moderation there are some will stile a halting between God and Baal * Altare Damas P. 558. a Laodicean luke-warmness of Reformation as hath bin they say matter of continual complaint to the Godly of this Nation * Mr. Henderson to K. Ch. I. Whereas certainly a fierceness and extremity in Reformation is as great reason of complaint for as Dr. Pierce hath it The Tepida quaedam temperatura Parker de Pol. Eccl. l. 1. c. 25. way to convince a Papist is to accuse them in measure of their Corruptions a Puritanical opposition confirms a Papist and makes him conclude he is Orthodox because he conquers Thus Bishop Sanderson ¶ V. Pref. to his Sermons observed that some promote the Interest of Rome and betray the Protestant Cause by mistaking the Question Wherefore let it be always remembred that our Church hath admirably imitated our blessed Saviour's Reformation which was a quiet and peaceable and orderly Reformation He did not pull down before he had another frame of Order instituted He did not destroy all before him as some Reformers do who love to run to the other extreme sundry Instances are often * Dr. Ham. view of the Director §. 43. given that our Lord made no more alteration than was necessary neither was his Reformation wrought by force of Arms with great noise and violence but it was gentle and according to great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation as became the Prince of Peace and the great Law-giver of his Church Somewhat the like Apology was made at the beginning of the Reformation It was said that as our Saviour did not reveal all things to his Disciples till they were able to bear them and as the Apostles did not of a suddain abolish all the Rites of Judaism but for some time to gain the Jews complyed with them and went to the Temple and offered Sacrifices So the People were not to be driven in this change The Clergie must be brought out of their Ignorance by degrees but to drive furiously and to do all at once might have spoiled the whole Design Therefore these slow steps were thought the surer and better Method * Hist of Reform l. 3. p. 219 But soon after the excellent frame of our Constitution was made more perfect considering which Doctor Cressy may be thought to owe a Penance for his Exomologesis where he saith of the English Church By the just judgment of God she had only power given her to destroy the Temple of God but not so much as to lay one stone towards the raising up another in the place of it †C. 55. §. ◠§ 7. This Moderation of our Church hath made it the great envy of the Church of Rome and the chiefest Object of its despite But of all places said a wise Writer * Europa Speculum Quarto p. 214 215. their Desires and Attempts to recover England have bin always and still are the strongest which altho in their more sober Moods sundry of them will acknowledg to have bin the only Nation that took the right way of justifiable Reformation in comparison of other who have run head-long rather to a tumultuous Innovation so they conceive it whereas that alteration which hath bin in England was brought in with peaceable and orderly proceeding by general consent of the Realm representatively assembled in Parliament a great part of their own Clergie according and conforming themselves thereunto no Luther no Calvin the square of our Faith The succession of Bishops and vocation of Ministers continued the Dignity and State of the Clergie preserved the more ancient usages of the Church not cancelled In sum no humour of affecting Contrariety but a charitable endeavour rather of Conformity with the Church of Rome in whatsoever they might not gain-saying to the express Law of God which is the only way of meet Reformations thereby the fitter to be an Vmpire to the rest Of all places in the World they desire most to recover this making full account that the rest would soon follow But to as high a Tide as they are risen in their desires thereof to as low an Ebb are they fallen in their Hopes being less now I perceive than ever having seen her Majesty so often and miraculously preserved their Treasons discovered their Excommunications vanished their Armies defeated their Books answered their chief Champions discouraged And we hope this Moderation of our Church may still with God's wonderful Providence preserve her * Vis consilii expers mole ruit suâ Vim temperatam Dii provehunt in majus and it hath not bin thought improbable that their immoderate asserting of the Authority of the Pope and their Severities to such as differ from them will some time or other awaken if not themselves yet such an understanding in others as may prove a truer Mother of Devotion than the Ignorance they cherish Bishop Bramhall therefore had good reason to say of the Romanists They fear our Moderation more than the violent opposition of others ¶ Fol. p. 957. § 8. This Moderation being the great praise of our Reformation I cannot but compare the effects of this Moderation in our Reformation by some of the Rules and Measures of Justice which a right Moderation always supposeth Which Justice also is considered as due to God and his Truth and hath appeared in the sincere endeavours of our Church for the advancing the true honour of Almighty God the suppression of Superstition * Pref. to Injunctions yet procuring of Reverence to God's Holy Mysteries and Sacraments †Pref. to the Liturgy Avoiding diversities of Opinions and establishing consent about true Religion ¶ Title of the Articles Preventing Factions and Schisms a Act for Uniform Preface How much Primitive simplicity and most discernable intent at the Glory of God and Edification of Men
of Women Burial-Service the Gloria Patri to come under the name of Popery Altho by no Instance was it ever made to appear That our Church agrees with the Romanist in any thing contrary to Scripture and the practice of the Primitive Church As she is truly also most remov'd from Fanaticism neither using nor encouraging any Enthusiastic way of Religion nor allowing any resisting of Authority under any Religious Pretences whatsoever Any one may be convinced that no formed Church in the Christian World is more truly Protestant than is the Church of England nor any which all things compared less compromiseth with Rome If they will but consider in our Articles Liturgy Canons Constitutions Practice Oaths of Supremacy c. how firmly our Church preserves and enforceth the Reformation Yea the Canons of 1640 did excellently take care for the suppressing the growth of Popery Canon 3. 6. and also of Socinianism Canon 4. Which Seeds of Socinianism have bin scattered amongst our Sectaries and have of late had great growth amongst them Yet nevertheless if such Friends as they should slip into greater Heresy so long as they are with them in the Schism there is a special respect due to them rather than to the close adherents of the Church of England who because they run not into the madness of their extremes and are not outragious too in that madness they are forward to clamour against our Church it self as Popish and turn their own silly Surmises into powerful Calumnies Neither do those who reproach our Constitution sufficiently call to mind what hath bin done all along since the Reformation by our Kings of England and the great Councils of the Kingdom and the Orders of the Church and the Industry of our Bishops for the suppression of the growth of Popery § 2. But as a sufficient Evidence that our Church according to its establishment doth in no sort favour Popery They must be very disingenuous and wanting to Truth who will not readily acknowledg that the Labours of our Bishops and our Conformable Clergy remain the most impregnable defence of the Reformation For who I pray have more strenuously and constantly opposed the Innovations and immoderate Extravagancies of the Church of Rome than our Bishops and the Learned Men in firm Communion with our Church even since Queen Mary's days when some were Martyrs and Confessors and whose Writings but theirs who have held firm Communion with our Church remain as the constant Bullwark of our Protestant Reformation Wherefore the Romanists keenest displeasure * Immortale odium nunquam sanabile vulnus Ardet adhuc Combos Tentyra Juven Sat. 15. and jealousie hath bin always against the Church of England because from Her they have always received as forcible repulses as any As nothing doth more stir up the anger of a Zealous Enemy than the equal behaviour of those they malign and a moderate carriage doth sometime provoke their sharpest hatred So certainly nothing hath more stir'd up the jealousy of the Romanists than the excellent temper which is observed in our Churche's Constitution 'T is for the sake of this poor Church alone said our most noble Lord Chancellor †that the March 6. 1678. State hath bin so much disturbed It is her Truth and Peace her Decency and Order which they labour to undermine and pursue with so restless a malice And since they do so it will be necessary for us to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that only wander from it As for those of our Separatists who have sometimes menaged Debates with the Romanists the cunning Adversary commonly lets them alone for how seldom do we see a Romanist write against or oppose a Nonconformist and be in much earnest against him Not merely because he thinks such inconsiderable but because these are doing their Work for them as fast as they can * Hoc Ithacuâ— velit Magno mercentur Atrida Whereas those Contests which have bin menaged upon the Principles of our Church's Reformation have given the Romanists greatest awe and have always exercised their utmost strength § 3. Wherefore those of the Separation who have bin concerned in these Clamours and Surmises of our Church favouring Popery have acted therein as appears first very falsly and then very imprudently in reproaching so excellent a Reformation and by joining with them in their opposing our Church they strengthen the hands of the Romanists whom they pretend to oppose to the great scandal of the Christian Religion and great mischief to the true Protestant Interest Which caused Bishop Morton in his Epistle to the Nonconformists to tell them Beside their notorious Scandals given to the Church of God it self of their breaking the Hedg of Peace and opening the Gap for the wild Bore out of the Romish Forest to enter in and root out that goodly Vine which many Pauls industrious Bishops many Apollo's faithful Martyrs have planted and watered Even as Josephus * notes the Divisions of the Jews laid †Prol. ad bel Jud. them open to their overthrow And by their several Divisions which they help to propagate among us they join with the Romanists in endeavouring to overthrow and destroy our Constitution While they are crumbling into Factions biting and devouring one another a vigilant Adversary who is intent upon his advantage and opportunities may when he spieth his time over-master them with much more ease and less resistance †Bishop Sanderson's Preface to his Sermons Ad rerum momenta cliens seseque daturus Victori And the more unreasonable and vehement they are in their clamours the more they help the Roman Engineer to confound and overturn Therefore Arch-Bishop Whitgift ¶ Arch-Bp Whitgift Answ to the Admon p. 55. See his Letter to Q. Eliz. Fuller's Hist l. 9. now above a hundred years since said I am persuaded you and they do the Pope great good Service and he would not miss you for any thing For what is his desire but to have this Church of England which he hath cursed utterly defaced and discredited to have it by any means over-thrown if not by Foreign Enemies yet by Domestic Dissention And what apter Instruments could he have for that purpose than you who under pretended Zeal overthrow what others have built under colour of Purity seek to bring in Deformity under cloâ—e of Equality would usurp as great Tyranny and Lofty lordliness over your Parishes as ever the Pope of Rome over the whole Church Which also was the judgment of the University of Oxford 1603. Verily these Men are like Sampson 's Foxes they have their heads severed indeed the one sort looking toward the Papacy the other to the Presbytery but they are tied together by the Tails with Fire-brands between them to the injury of the Church Who would ever have thought said Bishop Bancroft 1588 in a Sermon at St. Pauls that we should ever have lived
to have heard any Protestants reprove our Religion It must be confessed we have escaped the Lion's Mouth but have fallen into a Den of Dragons our Enemies are those of our own house § 4. Wherefore according to a most sober Judgment it may be thought a proper means to awaken such to see their Error in the evil Consequences of their Separation if some of the most earnest among them would please sincerely and faithfully to consider now how oft they have bin made use of as meer Tools and Instruments to Purposes the utmost reaches of which they did not know but may now if they will but reflect And it might reasonably be hoped that many would repent of their vain and scandalous Jealousies and may for the time to come refrain such false and foolish Accusations of our Church if they please but impartially to consider how many Sectaries among us which seem with greatest Zeal and least Knowledg to run into the furthest extreme from Popery have not only serv'd the Design of what they appear averse from but indeed have still a very great sympathy with them in their Principles and Practices and do but charge us with what they are most guilty of in Fact themselves § 5. But before we enter upon this undertaking to shew how those who are in separation from our Church do really conspire with the Romanists To prevent any mistake let it be remembred First That we do not deny that most of our Dissenters do openly demonstrate a very zealous and undoubted abhorrence of Popery their real purpose in which is not here questioned but believed * Sunt alii qui etiamsi non spiritu Aegyptiaco dolo moliuntur reditum ad Papismum at incuriae latae culpae reatum tamen incurrunt Alt. Damasc p. 558. For such is our Charity for those who are generally seduced we count it indeed the unhappiness of their Error that many of them do entertain such Principles as are agreeing with Popery but we do not charge upon them the knowledg of or consent to the Consequences of their own Principles but conclude they are sown in their minds not by their own direct choice so much as by the slight of Men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive 2ly Among the diversities of Sects thus influenced we acknowledg it most manifest that some are more acted than others by far * hâc in re scilicet unâ multùm dissimiles ad caetera penè gemellî Horat. l. 1. Ep. 10. Nevertheless all that are in separation from our Church in that their very division from us do actually joyn with the Romanists to strengthen their hands and weaken the Interest of our established Reformation more or less And I suppose it may be taken for granted that generally they who raise most clamour against our Church as guilty of Popery they most of all others will appear most actuated by the Roman interest 3ly And since of late especially some of the worst Principles of Popery have appeared among us most manifest from such most notorious practices as are the very proper Consequences of their generally approved Doctrines It may be judged most seasonable even at this time that all sincere Persons be awakened to see whither those Divisions naturally lead in which so many have bin engaged whose interest they serve whom they join with and are acted by how ignorant soever they are thereof Especially since of late there hath bin so much discovery made that the overthrow of the Church of England hath bin all along one of the principal aims of the Conspiracies of our Adversaries and that they have endeavoured to effect the same by what our Separatists call Liberty of Conscience tho God preserve our Liberty and our Conscience from such Snares so artificially laid by the Romanists who have made most use of the Dissatisfactions and Oppositions of our Domestic Dissenters to compass their intended Designs Thus Thuanus tho of the Roman Communion declares in his History of the Gun-Powder Treason here in England * Rejecto libello supplice pro Libertate Conscientiae oblato The first design of their Conspiracy began upon the Papists Petition for Liberty of Conscience being rejected § 6. But because many are huge concern'd to shift off the conviction of this great Truth if any say Oh now is the time for Protestants to be united against the Common Adversary and why is such a distinction kept up between Church-men and Separatists Very true why is there who hath made and continued the difference Wherefore the proper means for consolidation of such an Union among all true Protestants among us which is most earnestly desired by us is for our Separatists to come off from such their Divisions as are still designed for the overthrow of our Church especially since the Presbyterian Brethren well observed That a more firm union and consent of all Grand Debate p. 3. 1661. such as well in Worship as in Doctrine would greatly strengthen the Protestant Interest against all those Dangers and Temptations which our Intestine Divisions and Animosities do expose us unto from the Common Adversary 2. For them also to forsake such Principles and Behaviours as serve the Interest of the Roman Church and peaceably to return into Communion with our most moderate Church which is ready to over-look what is past if it may be secure of their Communion for the time to come But never let it be thought that our Church will ever come into their Schism or that we will go about to sail to Rome by a side-wind of Separation § 7. And now to prove the forementioned Proposition That our Separatists I do not say all alike nor that any sort agree in all these Instances following but more or less do conspire in Fact however not in intent with the Romanists One single proof of the whole might be sufficient namely from their separating and dividing from such a Church as ours is which Division is the main Art and Counsel and Design of the Roman Engineer * Vâ—que facilius Catholici Sectarios opprimere possint variis obductis causis artibus alios ab aliis ut divellant occasiones captandae Jo. Paul Windeck de extirp Haeres Antidoto and from their constant and common business which is by Reproaches much alike to vilify and deprave our Church in all its Constitutions and Offices and especially they jointly labour to vilify our Clergy calling them Ministers of Satan †Clero Anglicano nihil putidius Campianus Jesuita and Baal's Priests c. Which beside that it is a cursed unjust and ingrateful practice so a more acceptable Work our Separatists could never do for the Church of Rome 2. As they serve the Romanists now by their Practices so may they more hereafter by their Opinions for so many Points as they are off from our ¶ See the 8 9 Parag of this Chap. Church so much the
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