in by every one of them singly and subscribed with their own hands all which I have perused these following persons Thomas Arch Bishop of Canterbury Edward Arch-bishop of Yorke the Bishop of Rochester Edmund Bishop of London Robert Bishop of Carlisle Dr. George Day Dr. Thomas Robertson Dr. I. Redmayne Dr. Edward Leighton Dr. Symon Matthew Dr. William Tresham Dr. Richard Cozen Dr. Edgeworth Dr. Owen Oglethorp Dr. Thyrleby These all gave in their several resolutions in papers to the Questions propounded with their names subscribed a far more prudent way then the confusion of verbal and tedious disputes all whose judgements are accurately summed up and set down by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury himself Their resolutions contain distinct answers to several Sets of questions propounded to them The first Set contained several Questions about the Mass about the instituting receiving nature celebration of it and whether in the Mass it be convenient to use such speech as the people may understand whether the whole were fit to be translated or only some part of it with several other questions of the same nature The second Set is more pertinent to our purpose wherein are 17 Questions proposed to be resolved Ten of them belong to the number of Sacraments the other 7. concern Church Government The Questions are these Whether the Appostells lacking a higher power as in not having a Christian-King among them made Bishoppes by that necessity or by auctorite given them of God Whether Bishops or Priests were first and if the Priests were first then the Priest made the Bishop Whether a Bishop hath auctorite to make a Priest by the Scripture or no and whether any other but onely a Bishop may make a Priest Whether in the New Testament be required any consecration of a Bishop and Priest or onely appointeinge to the office be sufficient Whether if it fortuned a Prince Christien lerned to conquer certen domynyons of Infidells having non but the temporall lerned men with him it be defended by Gods Law that be and they should preche and teche the word of God there or no and also make and constitute Priests or noe Whether it be forefended by Goddes Law that if it so fortuned that all the Bishopps and Priests were dedde and that the word of God shuld there unpreached the Sacrament of baptisme and others unministred that the King of that region shulde make Bishoppes and Priests to supply the same or noe Whether a Bishop or a Priest may excommunicate and for what crimes and whether they only may excommunicate by Goddes Law These are the questions to which the answers are severally returned in distinct papers all of them bound together in a large Volume by Archbishop Cranmer and every one subscribed their names and some their seals to the Papers delivered in It would be too tedious a work to set down their several opinions at large only for the deserved reverence all bear to the name and memory of that most worthy Prelate and glorious Martyr Archbishop Cranmer I shall set down his answer distinctly to every one of these questions and the answers of some others to the more material questions to our purpose To the 9. Q. All Christian Princes have committed unto them immediately of God the holle cure of all their subjects as well concerning the administration of Goddes word for the cure of soul as concerning the ministration of things Political and civil governaunce And in both theis ministrations thei must have sundry ministers under them to supply that which is appointed to their several office The Cyvile ministers under the Kings Majesty in this realme of England be those whom yt shall please his highness for the tyme to put in auctorite under him as for example the Lord Chancellour Lord Treasurer Lord Greate Master Lord privy seal Lord Admyral Mayres Shryves c. The Ministers of Gods wourde under his Majesty be the Bishops Parsons Vicars and such other Priests as be appointed by his highnes to that ministration as for example the Bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Duresme the Bishop of Winchester the Parson of Wynwicke c. All the said officers and ministers as well of th' one sorte as the other be appointed assigned and elected in every place by the Laws and orders of Kings and Princes In the admission of many of these officers bee diverse comely ceremonies and solemnities used which be not of necessity but only for a good order and semely fashion For if such offices and ministrations were committed without such solemnitye thei were nevertheles truely committed And there is no more promise of God that grace is given in the committing of the Ecclesiastical office then it is in the committing of the Cyvile In the Apostles time when there was no Christien Princes by whose authority Ministers of Gods Word might be appointed nor synnes by the sword corrected there was no remedie then for the correction of vice or appoynteinge of ministers but onely the consent of Christien multitude amonge themselfe by an uniforme consent to follow the advice and perswasion of such persons whom God had most endued with the spirit of wisdome and counsaâ—le And at that time for as much as Christian people had no sword nor Governer among them thei were constrained of necessity to take such Curates and Priests as either they knew themselfes to bee meet thereunto or else as were commended unto them by other that were so replete with the spirit of God with such knowledge in the profession of Christ such wisdome such conversation and counsell that they ought even of very conscience to give credit unto them and to accept such as by theym were presented And so some tyme the Appostles and other unto whom God had given abundantly his spirit sent or appointed Ministers of Gods word sometime the people did chose such as they thought meete thereunto And when any were appointed or sent by the Appostles or other the people of their awne voluntary will with thanks did accept them not for the supremitie Imperie or dominion that the Apostells had over them to command as their Princes or Masters but as good people readie to obey the advice of good counsellours and to accept any thing that was necessary for their edification and benefit The Bishops and Priests were at one time and were not two things but both one office in the beginning of Christs Religion A Bishop may make a Priest by the Scriptures and so may Princes and Governours alsoe and that by the auctoritie of God committed them and the people alsoe by their election For as we reade that Bishops have done it so Christien Emperours and Princes usually have done it And the people before Christien Princes were commonly did elect their Bishops and Priests In the New Testament he that is appointed to be a Bishop or a Priest needeth no consecration by the Scripture for election or appointeing thereto
sufficient for Communion with a Church which are sufficient for eternal salvation And certainly those things are sufficient for that which are laid down as the necessary duties of Christianity by our Lord and Saviour in his Word What ground can there be why Christians should not stand upon the same terms now which they did in the time of Christ and his Apostles Was not Religion sufficiently guarded and fenced in them Was there ever more true and cordial Reverence in the Worship of God What Charter hath Christ given the Church to bind men up to more then himself hath done or to exclude those from her Society who may be admitted into Heaven Will Christ ever thank men at the great day for keeping such out from Communion with his Church whom he will vouchsafe not onely Crowns of Glory to but it may be aureolae too if there be any such things there The grand Commission the Apostles were sent out with was onely to teach what Christ had commanded them Not the least intimation of any Power given them to impose or require any thing beyond what himself had spoken to them or they were directed to by the immediate guidance of the Spirit of God It is not Whether the things commanded and required be lawfull or no It is not Whether indifferencies may be determined or no It is not How far Christians are bound to submit to a restraint of their Christian liberty which I now inquire after of those things in the Treatise its self but Whether they do consult for the Churches peace and unity who suspend it upon such things How far either the example of our Saviour or his Apostles doth warrant such rigorous impositions We never read the Apostles making Lawes but of things supposed necessary When the Councel of Apostles met at Ierusalem for deciding a Case that disturbed the Churches peace we see they would lay no other burden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides these necessary things Acts 15. 29. It was not enough with them that the things would be necessary when they had required them but they looked on an antecedent necessity either absolute or for the present state which was the onely ground of their imposing those commands upon the Gentile-Christians There were after this great diversities of practice and varieties of Observations among Christians but the Holy Ghost never thought those things fit to be made matters of Lawes to which all parties should conform All that the Apostles required as to these was mutuall forbearance and condescension towards each other in them The Apostles valued not indifferencies at all and those things it is evident they accounted such which whether men did them or not was not of concernment to Salvation And what reason is there why men should be so strictly tied up to such things which they may do or let alone and yet be very good Christians still Without all Controversie the main in-let of all the Distractions Confusions and Divisions of the Christian World hath been by adding other conditions of Church-Communion then Christ hath done Had the Church of Rome never taken upon her to add to the Rule of Faith nor imposed Idolatrous and superstitious practises all the injury she had done her self had been to have avoyded that fearful Schisme which she hath caused throughout the Christian World Would there ever be the less peace and unity in a Church if a diversity were allowed as to practices supposed indifferent yea there would be so much more as there was a mutual forbearance and condiscension as to such things The Unity of the Church is an Unity of love and affection and not a bare uniformity of practice or opinion This latter is extreamly desireable in a Church but as long as there are several ranks and sizes of men in it very hardly attainable because of the different perswasions of mens minds as to the lawfulness of the things required and it is no commendation for a Christian to have only the civility of Procrustes to commensurate all other men to the bed of his own humour and opinion There is nothing the Primitive Church deserves greater imitation by us in then in that admirable temper moderation and condescension which was used in it towards all the members of it It was never thought worth the while to make any standing Laws for Rites and Customs that had no other Original but Tradition much less to suspend men her his communion for not observing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Sozomen tells us They judged it and that very justly a foolish and frivolous thing for those that agree in the weighty matters of Religion to separate from one anothers communion for the sake of some petty Customs and Observations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Churches agreeing in the same Faith often differ in their Rites and Customes And that not only in different Churches but in different places belonging to the same Church for as he tells us many Cities and Villages in Egypt not onely differed from the Customes of the Mother-Church of Alexandria but from all other Churches besides in their publick Assemblies on the Evenings of the Sabbath and receiving the Eucharist after dinner This admirable temper in the Primitive Church might be largely cleared from that liberty they allowed freely to dissenters from them in matters of practice and opinion as might be cleared from Cyprian Austine Ierome and others but that would exceed the bounds of a Preface The first who brake this Order in the Church were the Arrians Donatists and Circumcellians while the true Church was still known by his pristine Moderation and sweetness of deportment towards all its members The same we hope may remain as the most infallible evidence of the conformity of our Church of England to the Primitive not so much in using the same rites that were in use then as in not imposing them but leaving men to be won by the observing the true decency and order of Churches whereby those who act upon a true Principle of Christian ingenuity may be sooner drawn to a complyance in all lawfull things then by force and rigorous impositions which make men suspect the weight of the thing it self when such force is used to make it enter In the mean time what cause have we to rejoyce that Almighty God hath been pleased to restore us a Prince of that excellent Prudence and Moderation who hath so lately given assurance to the World of his great indulgence towards all that have any pretence from Conscience to differ with their Brethren The onely thing then seeming to retard our peace is the Controversie about Church-Government an unhappy Controversie to us in England if ever there were any in the World And the more unhappy in that our contentions about it have been so great and yet so few of the multitudes engaged in it that have truly understood the matter they have so eagerly contended about For the state of the controversie as it concerns
ad ordinem ad decorum ad aedificationem Ecclesiae pro co tempore pertinentibus And in the next Section Novimus enim Deum nostrum Deum esse Ordinis non confusionis Ecclesiam servari ordine perdi autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua de causa multos etiam diversos non solum olim in Israele verum etiam post in Ecclesia ex Iudaeis Gentibus collecta ministrorum ordines instituit eandem etiam ob causam liberum reliquit Ecclesiis ut plures adderent vel non adderent modo ad aedificationem fieret He asserts it to be in the Churches power and liberty to add several orders of Ministers according as it judgeth them tend to edification and saith he is far from condemning the Course of the Primitive Church in erecting one as Bishop over the Presbyters for better managing Church Affairs yea Arch-Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs as instituted by the Primitive Church before the Nicene Council he thinks may be both excused and defended although afterward they degenerated into Tyranny and Ambition And in his Observations upon his Confession penned chiefly upon the occasion of the exceptions of Magnus quidam Vir some will guess who that was taken at the free delivery of his mind concerning the Polity of the Primitive Church he hath expressions to this purpose That what was unanimously determined by the Primitive Church without any contradiction to Scripture did come from the Holy Spirit Hinc fit saith he ut quae sint hujuscemodi ea ego improbare nec velim nec audeam bona conscientia Quis autem ego sim qui quod tota Ecclesia approbavit improbem Such things saith he as are so determined I neither will nor can with a safe Conscience condemn For who am I that I should condemn that which the whole Church of God hath approved A Sentence as full of judgement as modesty And that he might shew he was not alone in this opinion he produceth two large and excellent Discourses of Martin Bucer concerning the Polity of the ancient Church which he recites with approbation the one out of his Commentaries on the Ephesians the other de Disciplina Clericali whereby we have gained another Testimony of that famous and peaceable Divine whose judgement is too large to be here inserted The same opinion of Zanchy may be seen in his Commentaries upon the fourth Command wherein he asserts no particular Form to be prescribed but onely general Rules laid down in Scripture that all be done to Edification speaking of the Originall of Episcopacy which came not dispositione Divina but consuetudine Ecclesiastica atque ea quidem minime improbanda neque enim hunc ordinem prohibuit Christus sed potius regulam generalem reliquit per Apostolum nt in Ecclesia omnia fiant ad edificationem It is then most clear and evident that neither Bucer Chemnitius or Zanchy did look upon the Church as so bound up by any immutable Form of Church-Government laid down in Scripture but it might lawfully and laudably alter it for better edification of the Church For these Learned Divines conceiving that at first in the Church there was no difference between Bishop and Presbyter and commending the Polity of the Church when Episcopacy was set in a higher order they must of necessity hold that there was no obligation to observe that Form which was used in Apostolical times Our next inquiry is into the opinion of the French Church and the eminent Divines therein For Calvin and Bâ—zÌ„a we have designed them under another rank At present we speak of those who in Thesi assert the Form of Church-Government mutable The first wee meet with here who fully layes down his opinion as to this matter is Ioh. Fregevil who although in his Palma Christiana he seems to assert the Divine right of Primacy in the Church yet in his Politick Reformer he asserts both Forms of Government by equality and inequality to be lawful And we shall the rather produce his Testimony because of the high Character given of him by the late Reverend Bishop Hall Wise Fregevil a deep head and one that was able to cut even betwixt the League the Church and State His words are these As for the English Government I say it is grounded upon Gods Word so far forth as it keepeth the State of the Clergy instituted in the Old Testament and confirmed in the New And concerning the Government of the French Church so far as concerneth the equality of Ministers it hath the like foundation in Gods Word namely in the example of the Apostles which may suffice to authorize both these Forms of Estate albeit in several times and places None can deny but that the Apostles among themselves were equal as concerning authority albeit there were an Order for their precedency When the Apostles first planted Churches the same being small and in affliction there were not as yet any other Bishops Priests or Deacons but themselves they were the Bishops and Deacons and together served the Tables Those men therefore whom God raiseth up to plant a Church can do no better then after the examples of the Apostles to bear themselves in equal authority For this cause have the French Ministers planters of the Reformed Church in France usurped it howbeit provisionally reserving liberty to alter it according to the occurrences But the equality that rested among the Bishops of the primitive Church did increase as the Churches increased and thence proceeded the Creation of Deacons and afterwards of other Bishops and Priests yet ceased not the Apostles equality in authority but they that were created had not like authority with the Apostles but the Apostles remained as Soveraign Bishops neither were any greater then they Hereof I do inferr that in the State of a mighty and peaceable Church as is the Church of England or as the Church of France is or such might be if God should call it to Reformation the State of the Clergy ought to be preserved For equality will be hurtful to the State and in time breed confusion But as the Apostles continued Churches in their equality so long as the Churches by them planted were small so should equality be applyed in the planting of a Church or so long as the Church continueth small or under persecution yet may it also be admitted as not repugnant to Gods Word in those places where already it is received rather then to innovate anything I say therefore that even in the Apostles times the state of the Clergy increased as the Church increased Neither was the Government under the bondage of Egypt and during the peace of the Land of Canaan alike for Israelites had first Iudges and after their state increased Kings Thus far that Politique Reformer Whose words are so full and pertinent to the scope and drift of this whole Treatise that there is no need of any Commentary to draw them to my sense The