be a Church Conviction which is the Act of the Law making the Crime notorious how can Christianity be protected and the Church not able to renounce them that renounce it by their deeds The increase of sin so flagrant in this Nation since the War began makes the necessity of this Law flagrant I was speaking of the Leviathan that Monster of a Christian that with one Book allowed by the Act of Oblivion because the Doctrine was not damned when the Person was pardoned hath introduced that Deluge of Atheism and Prophaneness which we are ready to be drowned with Let Publick Justice have the convicting of the Blasphemies which he hath taught if the Church be not in Case to bear the envy of such a trust But to account for such a crime by a pecuniary mulct is to sell our Christianity at the price at which it is defied Unless Infamy follow and Excommunication to bring it on farewel Christianity which compoundeth with Apostasie The Father of the Sect thinks I believe that he hath as good Right to the Communion as the rest of His Majesties Subjects Who though he should profess Penitence for his crime could not be believed having given the World warning that he may be bound to say and to swear that which he doth not believe What course but this to suppress the Vanity of committing Murther under the name of a Duel For in all Common-wealths where mens memory is not liable to Infamy sin is not out of countenance In that which is Christian what can be infamous if to forfeit Communion with the Church be not As for Adultery what punishment hath this Kingdom left for it Or how shall it be counted a Christian Kingdom having none Be the tryal of it as Civil Interest shall require If it pass without Excommunication though the Law of the Land lay no hold on it what can clear the Kingdom of the expectation of Gods vengeance By consequence hereof they that are convicted of Simony in Civil Justice must remain Irregular to the Church That is though their Ordination can never be void yet their persons must remain incapable of any trust which their Clergy should make them capable of And why should not the Priviledge of their Clergy cease and they remain Excommunicate for such a Crime The other Law concerning the Clergy is the confining of every one to one Diocese Which is but the Restoring of that Order which the See of Rome had disordered on purpose to ingage in the disorders of it all that they obliged by such Priviledges For the Priviledges reserved to the Crown Nobility and Bishops whereby the abuse is but displaced will not be considerable in comparison with the Reformation which it hindreth It seems strange to those that find themselves Interested that two Benefices with Cure should be allowed in one Diocese not in several Dioceses though at less distance But the Law cannot be understood to allow all that it forbids not Because there may be Reason why the Publick good will not allow the forbidding of that which is left to the Conscience of particular persons Were all Benefices restored to that Provision which the Cures might require perhaps Priviledges of Pluralities might be extinguished In the mean time is it not enough that whatsoever the Quality be the Office of Priest and Deacon is relative to their Respective Bishops that no man can be answerable to one Bishop for a Charge in which he is answerable to another for the same Which if it hold not in one and the same Diocese the Reason of the difference is both sufficient and evident Always the Ground being laid that the Reformation of the Church is to be Ruled by the Canons of the Primitive Church there can be no more question in this then is in any thing where the Primitive Institution is as Visible as the decay and abuse But this will principally concern Archdeacons and the Dignified Clergy which are to bear a part in the Bishops Office For how should they be charged with that which they are not charged to execute CHAP. XXVI Of Forbearance due or not due in two Instances I Have proposed a Conference I have determined that all is to be tryed by the agreement of the Catholick Church But if we stay till the Parties agree to that there must be no Conference What have we to overcome this difficulty with Considering how the necessity of losing all Religion presses all Parties and considering how slight the pretenses of dissatisfaction at the Act of Uniformity are though I cannot depart from my claim that the Reformation cannot duely be made but by and to that Pattern yet I see it may be laid aside in the Tryal not supposing that the Will of God is declared by it But if the advantage be not allowed which the consent of Christendom from the beginning hath in the judgment of common Reason above any Opinion of this time or any Party pretending Reformation what course can they hold that have not reasonable Creatures to deal with For how can they be counted reasonable that prefer their own Reason before the Reason of Christendom Or how shall they distinguish their private Spirits from the Enthusiasms of Fanaticks that insist upon those Interpretations and Consequences of Scripture which had any man seen before them the Church had never been as it hath been In fine the Case being stated I see no cause to apprehend any obstinacy in the Parties to prefer any faction or partiality before Reason so manifested and so concerning the common Christianity I will insist upon two Instances All the World knows that one of the abuses which made the necessity of Reformation most appear was that of private Masses where the Eucharist was celebrated and the people did not communicate It is as well known that the Reformation according to Calvin contents it self with four Communions a year but no Assembly without Preaching The Church of England hath aimed at the Communion every Lords-day and Holy-day at Sermons as frequent as can be had so as to maintain the reverence due to Religion to Preaching and to the Church What question can there be in Religion that the Eucharist is the principal Office of Religious Assemblies What pretense of Reformation in restoring Preaching by silencing the Eucharist It will be said that there is fear of prophaning so Religious an Office But where is Reformation if it make not the people fit for it The Papists say Private Masses are not commanded they would have the people communicate and incourage them to it But what do they do to bring them to it Surely more then they do that silence the Eucharist for the Sermon That are not contented till so much Preaching be commanded that they know the Eucharist must be silenced Let them think what abilities are requisite to maintain so frequent Preaching that there shall be no time for the Eucharist Let them think of the Scandals that must needs fall out
with these Positions which I cannot shew to have been Professed by Visible Bodies I discharge my self upon a number of Pamphlets of the time of that Confusion which was called the Blessed Reformation wherein free Grace was made to be the pardon of sin before it is done Justification to be the Revelation of predestination to Glory and no sin to be seen in Gods Elect. One particularly which I have cause to believe was printed by Cromwells own Appointment because it answered a Petition of Welsh Fanaticks which charged him to depart from his Principles answers expresly that the Principle of Salvation is neither Faith nor good Works but Christ living in the heart and abiding there whatever Principles the Godly may change And for the Church have we not seen our Independent Congregations or do we not see them in new-New-England refuse Baptism to all that will not take the Covenant which they appoint themselves to take and owne no other Churches but such Congregations I suppose no man in his right senses will imagine that there can be a Catholick Church consisting in the Communion of all such Congregations Or that there can be any Faith to give Law to their Communion who have the Law in their own hand to be to morrow Socinians if they please Or any other Sect that allows Independent Congregations For the Socinians may seem to have the Eldership of New-England for Independent Congregations On the other side do we not see the Leviathan that Monster of a Christian openly Profess that he is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth if his Soveraign command Though still bound to believe in him at the heart So utterly perswaded that there is no such thing as a Church of Gods Ordinance But only by the Act of Soveraign Powers within the respective Dominions of each of them That he had rather renounce his Baptism and so the Benefit of it then owne any Creed or any Catholick Church CHAP. VII That it is for the Interest of the Reformation as much as of the See of Rome HAving therefore observed upon due consideration as I hope that all the Errours which have had Vogue during our late Confusions are reducible to these two Positions destructive to two Articles of our Creed that Profess one Catholick Church and one Baptism for remission of Sins I am still led by the same Consideration to think my self tyed in Conscience freely to Profess that where these two Positions clearly renounced and the sense of those two Articles duely established and received by all Parties that owne the same Creed the Re-union of the whole Church must needs follow For the Power of the whole Church being so stated as to presuppose the whole condition of our Salvation and to extend only to the determining of those things which may promote edification in it without endangering the Unity of the Church why should not I think that there is found by the consent of the whole Church from the beginning so clear a resolution of all that is disputed to maintain Separation concerning the Condition of the Covenant of Grace that it cannot be refused by the Parties owning the common Faith There is great cause to fear that notwithstanding the mischiefs we feel by our own Divisions some would think it still a greater mischief that the Whole Church should be re-united Though upon just Terms and such as must needs re-unite our selves But if the Christian Religion oblige us to do men good against their will He that demands nothing but the Right Vnderstanding of two Articles in the Creed to the Re-uniting of Christendom intends the greatest Charity that those who love Division can receive Whether his demand be sufficient to do his Work or no he must leave it to the World to judge For it is to be acknowledged that when the Condition of our Salvation is setled and all that causes Division upon the Account of it there remains besides very many Disputes concerning Publick Orders as well in the Offices of the Church as in the publick Government of it and the Interest as well of the State as of the Church in the same But let not therefore those that love not Unity pretend Difficulty For they shall find such Principles laid to the determining of them all in the Visible Laws of that one Church which cannot continue One but by owning the same that the due bounds of Reformation cannot escape them that will not decline the thred and the grain of these grounds And yet in all this no man declines the Scripture for the only Rule of Faith But he that refuses the See of Rome for Judge in the Sense of it which is all that remains in question may well crave leave to decline the Judgment of any private Spirit not confined within the bounds which the Visible consent of the Church determineth Not as if the sense of the Scripture were not more and more to be discovered which is indeed discovered every day more and more But because the true sense of it will always fall within the compass of that which the Church hath always received I am very well perswaded that the See of Rome will never hear of any Terms of Reconcilement so long as they see our Divisions increase But I am very well assured that the Divisions of the Reformation can never be Re-united so as to prevent the like for the future but upon that Ground which being received will serve to re-unite the Whole Church There can never be One Visible Faith One Visible Church upon any other terms There can be no such sin as Heresie to violate Faith as Schism to violate Charity upon other terms And therefore it is out of Love to the Reformation that I insist upon such a Principle as may serve to re-unite us with the Church of Rome Being well assured that we can never be well re-united with our selves otherwise That not only the Reformation but the Common Christianity must needs be lost in the Divisions which will never have an end otherwise And he that can take measure how much of it is lost in thirty years time since these Troubles began even among them that inclose the Name of Saints and the Godly to themselves will easily believe that it hath not long to live unless Division be put to death And yet the vain hopes of the Parties ever since the Division may make it appear that both have Reason enough to be reconciled They of the See of Rome have long expected a hundred and fifty years or thereabouts that those Christian Princes that have looked upon the Reformation as dangerous to the Peace of their Dominions should give them assistance to reduce all that Protest against the abuses thereof by force of Arms to submit to their Will Which would be to make that Will the Law of Religion as well to themselves as to those that should be so reduced But the experience of so much time evidences that the Powers of
the Law It seems they were only forbidden by the Law to go to the feasts which they the Gentiles made of their Sacrifices lest they should worship their Gods as they that invited them did Exod. XXXIII 15. and as they did with the Madianites Numb XXV 2. The forbearing of Idolaters meat was a hedge to the Law that they might be the further off from transgressing it But brought in under the Prophets and observed by the more Religious And the Jews have reason when they tell us that Nehemiah was dispensed with for drinking the wine of the Gentiles because he was Cup-bearer to the King Whereby it appears that S. Paul leaves it to the Charity of every Christian to use his freedom so sparingly as not to offend a weak Christian But under the Law it became a Rule that all the strong should forbear that which might possibly offend the weak And therefore when the Apostles at Jerusalem injoyn those that were converted of Gentiles to abstain from meats sacrificed to Idols they do forbid them to eat such meats even materially And command them to make inquiry for conscience sake as the Jews used to do and as converted Gentiles did in the Land of Promise For the Ordinance of Acts XV. 23. addresseth only to the Churches of Judaea and to those which Paul and Barnabas being sent from Antiochia had founded in Cilicia and the parts adjacent Acts XIII 2 3 14 XIV 26. XV. XIV 4. The reason of this difference is manifest by the words of S. Paul 1 Cor. XII 2. Ye know ye were Gentiles carried after these dumb Idols as ye were led Whereas Paul and Barnabas addressed first to the Jews and founded Churches of them for the greatest part So that the hopes of winning the Jews remaining the dispensation was to take place But the Church of Rome consisted of Gentiles as well as of Jews whereas in the Church of Corinth there is no account at all had of the Jews And therefore the forbearance required at Corinth is out of fear of Idolatry at Rome of Apostasie CHAP. XII The present Case of this time stated HAving thus stated the Case in which S. Paul ordereth this forbearance let us state our Case in which it is demanded by consequence But that cannot be done but out of the premises We must suppose the Church of England a member of the whole Church desires to Reform it self because the rest of the Church will not joyn in the same work But desires to continue a member of the whole Church and not to give any cause of interrupting Unity by improving Christianity I know some of them that demand Toleration do not allow any such thing as a Church of England when they are understood For how should they owne any Right of Soveraign Powers to give Law to the Church of their Dominions that allow them no Right to punish the transgression of such Laws But the Case must be stated upon the Terms proposed nevertheless as to those that acknowledge National Churches Excepting for those that make this Plea when we see time This only I think would be said that the Church of England is not now to be Reformed but having been Reformed is now questioned as if the Reformation of it were not yet perfect And therefore the boldness is taken by a private person of my condition to give an Opinion what is most wanting in the Reformation of it Because it cannot be said what is unduely demanded until it may be said what is due to be done But it must be remembred that the demand is made in behalf of those that had made a Schism in the Church of England by Ordaining or being Ordained Presbyters by Presbyters without and against the will of their Bishops In behalf of those it hath been demanded that their Ordinations may stand valid and good and the persons inabled by the Law of the Land to minister the Offices of their Orders and to be trusted with the Cure of Souls by their Bishops And not only so but it hath been further demanded that some of those Laws by which Religion is setled in the Kingdom be repealed for their sakes That they may have no pretense to scruple the Office of the Ministry Not that it is now said as for this hundred years it hath been said that the Laws which they would have repealed are against Gods Law And that therefore they cannot yield them obedience But that the Ministers or People that will follow them have a doubt in Conscience which they cannot be cleared of that it is not Lawful for them to yield them obedience and that they cannot do it without sinning and incurring damnation by doing against their Consciences And this is also the Case in which those that acknowledge no Church of England no Right in Christian Powers to give Law to the Church within their own Dominions do demand liberty to separate from the Church into their private Conventicles Protesting that they cannot hold Communion with the Church setled by the Laws of the Land No not though Reformed to the content of those hitherto mentioned And pretending the same reason from S. Paul that they should incur sin and damnation doing it in that doubt which they cannot be cleared of CHAP. XIII The Mistake which causeth Weakness in our Case THe Case thus stated I must in the first place ask both Parties whether they do think in their Consciences that S. Paul had not shewed the Jews at Rome that were become Christians sufficient reason to clear them of the doubts they had concerning their obligation to the Law of Moses that they were indeed free of it and ought to be free of those doubts I suppose they will think it fit to say that though S. Paul injoyn them to forbear one another so long as they did not understand their freedom yet that they might understand it and were bound to understand it For is there any man so little a Christian now that the time of forbearance is past that there is no more hope to gain the Jews by compliance without making our selves Jews as to make a question of offending a Jew by not abating the Profession of his Christianity The consequence whereof is all that I demand If S. Paul would have the Jews forborn that the provocation which they might meet with might not move them to dislike their Christianity certainly he held them to be under a light which obliged them not to dislike it Otherwise he should not have done the work which he pretends to do by this Epistle to shew the Law to be void because Salvation comes only by Faith And certainly there can be nothing more opprobrious to Christianity then that which is pleaded for abatement in the present Laws That the weak are not under a light inabling them to see those things to be lawful which indeed and to the strong may be lawful and appear such For how could this doubt be cleared if a weak
blemish to the Church to receive them as they departed in company of their Leaders For their Salvation is provided for when the Bar is removed The experience of our Case makes this considerable At His Majesties Return it was inacted that such Usurpers as were possessed of dead Places should hold without inquiring whether Ordained or not Whereby it might seem to them that found no fault with their own Title that the Law of the Kingdom owned their Ordinations to be good But without cause For the Kingdom being then under that Force which was not as yet removed a thing manifest enough The Church not being yet restored the retaining of them which I am neither to justifie nor to blame was nothing but the induring of that Force upon Part rather then call in question the Whole But hereupon they that had got this colour for their Possession were not like to disowne that Ordination which the Law of the Land had seemed thus far to owne So the way was paved for the Schism on foot by refusing the Act of Uniformity when they were imployed without reconciling themselves to the Church by foregoing their Schism Some may think that I abate more then this for their sakes when I allow them Satisfaction by Conference yea and Laws to be changed for their satisfaction if just cause may appear But it is no more then I would allow Popish Recusants to justifie the Penalties that will be always necessary because they prefer the Authority of the See of Rome forbidding all Treaty of Religion without it before the common Christianity requiring Reformation in the Christianity of the Kingdom For do not they deserve those Penalties who refuse to assist their Country in a work so concerning the common Salvation upon just terms This I am sure supposing satisfaction there can be no difficulty in departing from Vsurped Ordinations and from the Schism grounded upon the same And therefore it is only the solemnity of Renouncing that is abated and the Irregularity that is pardoned And that by the example of the first Great Council in the Case of the Meletians And that because they renounce not the Catholick Church but acknowledge a National Church Which they cannot acknowledge upon due grounds but they must acknowledge the Catholick Church And therefore I say not the same of the Independents Who are Banded into a Profession destructive to it upon a Covenant For that Covenant is it that must be expresly and formally renounced before they can be capable of Communion with the Church And much more of Orders To grant them Communion otherwise is to make the Church guilty of their Schism which it alloweth And so to give Popish Recusants a just cause to refuse Communion with it As for other Sects of Antinomians Anabaptists and the like When any man knows upon what Grounds they Excommunicate themselves and how far they are Banded into Sects it will then be no difficult thing to say how they are to be Reconciled so as their Schisms and Heresies may be duely Renounced A thing which must be considered in those that were Presbyterians before they broke into Conventicles For since that came to pass who shall warrant that they have been guided by none but such as have Presbyterian Orders Or that they stand now to that Religion which the Rebellion once made Law to the Kingdom Which if they do not who shall warrant or how shall the Church be satisfied that they do depart from their Schisms with their Leaders And indeed the Independents though they be Banded into a Sect by a Covenant yet if once they be disbanded who shall answer for them that they will follow their Leaders And all this by virtue of the Sacriledge whereby they all betray the Authority of the Church and with it the Christian Faith to the Will of their People to debauch them into the same Schism with themselves Which if it be considered perhaps it will appear that the Forbearance which I have granted can for this reason extend no further then to the Persons of those that deserted their Churches rather then submit to the Act of Uniformity Nor shall it trouble me if my Opinion be found to come to no more For the Opinions of private persons are to content themselves with declaring what may be Leaving them that are concerned to judge what is But as for the way of Reconciling those which shall be converted to the Church in that the Apostolical Wisdom of the Primitive Catholick Church is of necessity to take place For Schism or Heresie being the Bar to the effect of Baptism which is the Gift of the Holy Ghost And the renouncing of it being the removing of that Bar It follows that all that shall return are to be reconciled by Confirmation as always they were reconciled to the Primitive Catholick Church This were easier done could it be presumed that all would follow their Leaders But if that cannot be presumed if they must be reconciled one by one yet is that no more than the work of an Episcopal Visitation from Parish to Parish A thing practised and usual in the Church after the building of Parish-Churches in the worst of those times in which the Canons which I have commended took place But now as for Quakers we are no more to reckon them among Christians then the Gnosticks and Manichees of Old then the Mahumetans at present For they do openly owne the Dictate of their own Spirits to be as much the Word of God as the Scriptures And that is as much as serves to create all such new Sects as acknowledging the Scriptures so far as they please introduce the pretenses of their own Revelations where they think fit For when the private Spirit is equalled with Gods Word the last Dictate as in mens last Wills must of necessity take place Only this difference That whereas Gnosticks Manichees Mahumetans followed or do follow their Leaders Spirit Quakers follow every one their own And therefore are the more contemptible and the more reducible whensoever a course shall be established Certainly did they see that they cannot be reconciled but as so many Renegades they would bethink themselves before they went on in their madness Especially did the Law set before them that this their Position is not reconcileable to Civil Trust Always obliging them to the most desperate Acts of Treason and violence to their Country that they can imagine their own Spirit to dictate Upon which account it cannot be beyond the merit of their madness that they are made servi poenae by Law as the Roman Laws call it That is that they are transported to work in the Plantations For they that take upon them to impose upon their Country that the Offices of common Civility are Acts of Idolatry What is not to be expected from their madness who as the Case is dare pretend that it ought to be Law to all Christians But since the Law is to provide for such People it is manifest that it is to provide that they may not fail of the trust which the Church and Kingdom enters into with those whom they receive to Communion but that they must fail of the Civil Trust of Subjects That is that their Testimonies be not receivable in Law that they be disabled to sue at Law that they be disabled to make Wills or to get by Wills or any thing else within the effect of Civil Trust And this must also be the Penalty of the Leviathan and all that have or may follow him either into Apostasie or Atheism For they who declare themselves at freedom to forswear the Christian Faith can never be held by any bond of Civil Trust It must also be the Penalty of all Sects that may relapse after they may have been reconciled At least in that Proportion which that part of the Faith which their respective Sect denieth holds to the whole Profession of Christianity which Apostacy and Atheism destroy at once For it may be a Question why the Kingdom should be counted a Christian Kingdom if the Laws of it set not some mark of Infamy or Disgrace upon the enemies of Christianity according to the Rate of their Enmity Which only the inforcing of Excommunication by the Laws can do FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall A Blow at Modern Sadducism in some Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft To which is added The Relation of the Famed Disturbance by the Drummer in the House of M. Mompesson With some Reflections on Drollery and Atheism Plus ultra or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the days of Aristotle Octavo A Loyal Tear drop'd on the Vault of our late Martyr'd Soveraign in an Anniversary Sermon on the day of his Murther Quarto All three by Jos Glanvill A. M. and Rector of Bath The Triumphs of Rome over Despised Protestancy Written by Bishop Hall Octavo A Sermon preached before the Peers Octob. 10. 1666. being the Fast-day for the late Fire By Seth Lord Bishop of Oxon. Quarto The Practice of Serious Godliness Affectionately recommended and directed in some Religious Counsels of a Pious Mother to her dear Daughters 12º A Discourse of Subterranean Treasure By a Member of the Royal Society 12º The General Assembly A Sermon by Francis Fullwood D. D. Quarto Forty Sermons by Anthony Farindon B. B. Fol. Rea's Flora Ceres Pomona Fol. Episcopacy Apostolical or a Consent of the Forreign Churches to the Discipline of the Church of England Written by Bishop Moreton and published with a long Preface by Henry Yelverton Baronet Octavo A Discourse of the Use of Reason in the Assairs of Religion against the present Opinions of the Sects of this Age. Quarto A Private Conference between a RICH ALDERMAN and a poor Country Vicar made publick wherein is discoursed the Obligation of Oaths which have been imposed on the Subjects of England with other matters relating to the present State of Affairs
Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts under the Jurisdiction of the Laws of the Land and those Courts that minister the same This Interest espouseth the Opinion which voids the Article of our Creed that professes One Catholick Church making Excommunication and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction founded by our Lord Christ a meer Imposture declareth it uncapable of any Sacriledge to be committed in the using of it In the mean time the Clergy whose Interest is no ways concerned in the Scandals which the Ecclesiastical Courts may give Further then as they are hindred by the said Courts to cure their Scandals by the due Use of their own Office do suffer not only the Scandals which are done under colour of their Patents But even the affronts of the Ecclesiastical Courts themselves Receiving Appeals from the Censure of their Bishops upon the Clergy For a few examples serving the Bishops not to imploy that Jurisdiction which is so easily affronted it must be acknowledged that the debauches of the Clergy are come to that height that till they be Reformed Reformation is not duely pretended against the See of Rome CHAP. XXII The ground of the proper Interest of the Church BUt perhaps there be those that are perswaded by the Leviathan that a Church is nothing else but a Christian Common-wealth And that the Civil Power thereof which is Soveraign hath full Right to injoyn whatsoever it please for the Christian Religion exacting what Penalties it please of Recusants There be others besides the Leviathan that have maintained some branches of the same Opinion but he is the only man that hath looked the whole Question in the Face with this Answer I will but relate the Issue which his own Resolution hath driven him to and leave him to Judgment For having objected to himself in his Latine Book de Cive that which is obvious to all Understandings That then a Christian may be justly punished for his Christianity He answers that it is no inconvenience that he should Because by suffering he purchases an abundant reward I know not whether any man told him or whether himself took notice that this was the answer of Julian the Apostate making himself sport with the complaints of the Christians That they were beholding to him for the Kingdom of Heaven which they gained by suffering his Persecutions But that it was not for the credit of his doctrine to bring Christian Princes into the predicament of Julian the Apostate And therefore upon second thoughts his Leviathan answers That a Subject is bound to obey all that his Soveraign commands in Religion whether he be Christian or not Insomuch that if he command him to renounce Christ he is bound to do it with his mouth and shall be saved believing in him with his heart nevertheless This answer shews the necessary issue of this Opinion That he who holds it if he be as bad as his word is as necessarily an Apostate as Julian the Apostate The hope of Salvation and the Right of Communion with the Church lyes not only in the heart which believes to righteousness but in the mouth which professeth to Salvation The Profession which is made at our Baptism is a Condition without which it cannot be had It is the taking up of Christs Cross which the Gospel requireth He that declares himself free in any Case whatsoever to renounce Christs though he hath not done it hath declared himself free of the Bond which he entred into at his Baptism And as he is no more a Christian to God no more should he be to the Church If further he say As the Propositions first maintained and afterwards recanted by his late Disciple at Cambridge do import That there is no difference between good and bad before Civil Power that is Soveraign inact it Then must it be said further that he is properly an Atheist For if God govern not the World if he reward not the good if he punish not the bad though man do not pardon me God and all good Christians if I repeat Blasphemy that it may never more be repeated then is he not God Particularly if Civil Power can oblige a man to say or swear that which he means not there remains not that Ground for Civil Society which the Heathen themselves whom nevertheless S. Paul truly calls Atheists maintained For what Ground for Civil trust if there be no Law before Civil trust to punish the falsifying of it Let him that considers this Consequence necessary upon all Opinions that distinguish not the matter of Ecclesiastical Law consequent to the State and Constitution of the Church from the Force it hath to be a Law of the Kingdom by the Act of the Kingdom I say let him answer in Conscience whether those Laws by which the Rights of the Crown Usurped by the See of Rome are Resumed into it did proceed upon this Opinion or not For my part I remember very well a solemn Protestation which one of them makes that the intent was not to innovate any thing in Religion by vindicating the Rights of the Crown And therefore do infer that none of them can be understood to extinguish the Rights of Religion concurrent with the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters which it doth not distinguish Knowing how difficult it is to distinguish between them As not knowing that ever the ground upon which they are to be distinguished was delivered till now But there is an Act of the V. of Q. Elizabeth by which that abatement in the sense of the Supremacy of the Crown in Church-matters which had been declared by her Injunctions from the beginning of her Raign to prevent misconstructions was made a Law of the Land This Act because it undertaketh not to limit the Supremacy by distinguishing the Interest of the Crown from the Interest of the Church for the difficulty of satisfying all Consciences gives the Subject leave to declare the sense in which he takes that Oath reserving to himself that which Religion requires a Christian to reserve for the Church Which was not the sense of them that believed no Catholick Church no Visible Right of it And by vertue of this Declaration it is that my self have undertaken to declare that limitation which the Catholick Church requireth For how many Prelates and Divines of this Church King James of excellent Memory in particular have done the same But it is no other then that which the Canons of K. James declare when they describe this Supremacy to be the same which the Godly Kings of Gods Ancient People which the Roman Emperors of the Primitive times before that corruption came in which we Protest against did exercise Here have you the due bounds of this Supremacy setled by Law upon the true ground of it For it is manifest that it cannot be derived from the Rights of the Kings of Gods Ancient People alone Because there could be no Catholick Church before the calling of the Gentiles But the Empire imbracing the Faith when the Church
was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation