the Church of England Of Homilies THE Second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth and therefore we judge to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly as they may be understood by the People Of the Names of the Homilies Of the right use of the Church Against peril of Idolatry c. The Presbyterians Do generally own the Truth of these Homilies nor do utterly disallow their being read in publick Assemblies provided it tend not to occasion Sloath and neglect of Gifts and the Divine assistance in Ministers nor hinder the greater Edification which the People might reap by the Word Preached unto them The Papists Do utterly Condemn a very great part of the Doctrine contained in these Homilies too tedious here to enumerate But the same will appear to any one that reads them and is at all acquainted with Popish Tenets The six and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers THE Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests aud Deacons lately set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and ordering neither hath it any thing that of it self is Superstitious and Ungodly And therefore whoever are Consecrated or Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we Decree all such to be rightly lawfully and orderly Consecrated and Ordered The Presbyterians Do not deny the Ordination of the Church of England to be in it self lawful so as to esteem all those so Ordained not to be lawful Ministers of Christ The Papists Whoever taketh upon him to Preach to Administer the Sacraments c. and is not ordered by a true Catholick Bishop to be a Curate of Souls Parson Bishop c. is a Thief and Murderer of Souls Rhem. Annot. on John 10. 1. 1. Protestant Ministers and Preachers have no due mission For all their mission from the beginning of their Reformation was either the Inspiration of a Spirit they know not what or the Commission of a Child Edward the Sixth whom they called Supream Head of the Church and from whose Kingly Power all Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil they affirm'd did flow See Fox Tom. 2. anno 1546 in King Edward the Sixth Or the Letters Patents of a Woman Queen Elizabeth to whom they were pleas'd to Attribute the like Superiority and Power See Statut. anno primo Elizab. cap. 1. or the Illicite and Invalid ordination or mission of or by one Story an Apostate Monk who Ordained their first Bishops at the Nags-head in Cheapside in Q. Eliz. time See Christopherus de Sacro Bosco if they have any better let them prove it in the mean time let them know we value not a Straw Masons old new Records produc'd in the year 1613 which was a matter of 50 years after the thing now mentioned was Sacrilegiously and Invalidly done and most disgracefully and shamefully cryed down but those could not give them any Spiritual Authority Power or right to Preach For according to that received Maxim of the Law no Man can give more Right than he himself hath Cook l. 1. Therefore c. 2. Moreover a Bishop is to be Ordained by two or three Bishops Counc Apostol Can. 1. And a Priest and likewise a Deacon and the rest of the Clergy by a Bishop Ibid. Can. 2. Conc. Trid. Sess 23. Can. 7. But this Apostolical and needful manner of ordination or mission they never yet had For they rejected it quite and brought in an Heretical fashion in its stead in Edward the Sixths time Neither if they were willing could they have For as I said before their Bishops from the beginning of their Reformation had no other Ordination Consecration or Mission than the Commission of the King or Queens Pleasure For the Sacrilegious Illicite and invalid Ordination of or by Story which was the first pretended Holy mission of Protestants in England and from whence they hitherto derive their orders it was not worth a straw witness the fore mentioned Canons of the Apostolica Council c. And consequently their pretended Holy Orders thence derived are not worth a Pins Head Therefore they are not true Preachers what are they then Forsooth Intruders Wolves and Murderers Sons of Belial false Prophets and Priests of Baal which is their Heresie Rebellion and Stubbornness against the Church Thus that railing Rabshekah but the falsity of all such clamours was long since demonstrated by the Learned Mason in his Treatise of the Ordination of Bishops and Priests in the Church of England The seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of the Civil Magistrate THE Kings Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other his Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical in all Causes doth appertain nor is not nor ought to be Subject to any Forreign Jurisdiction where we attribute to the Kings Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some dangerous Folks to be offended He give not to our Princes the Ministring of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the In junctions also lately set forth by Eliz. our Queen do most plainly testifie But that only Prerogative which we les to have been goven always to all Godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and Evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with Death for hainous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandement of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars The Presbyterians God the Supream Lord and King of all the World hath Ordained Civil Magistrates to be under him over the People for his own Glory and the publick good and to this end hath armed them with the power of the Sword for the defence and incouragement of them that are good and for the punishment of Evil doers The Civil Magistrate may not assume to himself the Administration of the Word and Sacraments or the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven yet he hath Authority and it is his duty to take order that Unity and Peace be preserv'd in the Church and that the Truth of God be kept pure and intire that all Blasphemies and
so full of Terror The four and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of the Traditions of the Church IT is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the Diversity of Countries times and Mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private Judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be Rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Every particular and National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority so that all things be done to edifying The sense of this Article is explain'd by the Learned and Painful Mr. Rogers in his Comment on his 39 Articles Publisht in King James time and Attested in the Title-page to have been perused and by the Lawful Authority of the Church of England allowed to be Publick pag. 198. in the Words following Of Ceremonies and Traditions repugnant to the Word of God there be two sorts whereof some are of things meerly Impious and Wicked such was the Israelites Calf and Nebuchadnezzars Idol and be the Papistical Images Reliques Agnus Dei's and Crosses to which they give Divine Adoration These and such like be all flatly forbidden Others are of things by God in his Word neicommanded nor forbidden as of eating and not eating Flesh of wearing and not wearing some Apparel of keeping and not keeping some days Holy by abstinence from Bodily labour c. The which are not to be observed of any Christian when for sound Doctrine it is delivered that such Works do either merit Remission of Sins or be the acceptable Service of God or do more please than the observation of the Laws prescribed by God himself or necessarily to be done insomuch as they are damn'd who do them not We must therefore have always in mind that we are bought with a price and therefore may not be the Servants of Men and that no humane Constitution in the Church doth bind any Man to break the least Commandement of God The Presbyterians Use has obtain'd that those things be call'd Humane Traditions which are Establisht by Men for the Worship of God not grounded on any Warrant from his Word against these it is that we contend and not against Holy and Useful Constitutions of the Church which tend to preserve either Discipline or Honesty or Peace Our Lord has so faithfully comprehended and so plainly told the whole sum of true Righteousness and all the parts of his Worship that in those things he alone is to be heard but because he would not particularly prescribe every thing that we are to observe in external Discipline and Ceremonies since he foresaw the same would depend upon the condition of times nor did judge that one form would agree with all Ages we therefore ought to have recourse to the General Rules by him laid down that by the same all things which the necessity of the Church should require be exacted and therefore herein he did not expresly deliver any thing both because neither are those things necessary to Salvation and that they may variously be accommodated according to the manner of Nation and Age for the edification of the Church and as the profit of the Church requires We may as well change and abrogate those that have been used and institute new ones though we ought not frequently and on slight Causes recur to Innovation but what is prejudicial what is tending to Edification Charity will best judge which if in such Cases we suffer to be Moderatrix all will be safe And whatsoever things shall be instituted according to this Rule it is the Duty of Christian people with a Conscience still free and without superstition but yet with a pious and ready inclination to Obedience and Peace to observe not to contemn or with supine negligence omit much less ought they with Pride and Obstinacy openly to violate them Thus Calvin whose whole 10 Chapters on this Subject in the 4th Book of his Institutes whence these few sentences are briefly drawn is well worthy perusual and I conceive enough to satisfie any unprejudiced Reader That he intirely agrees with the true sense of the Church of England in this Article God alone is Lord of the Conscience and hath left it free from the Doctrines and Commandements of Men which are in any thing contrary to his Word or beside it in matters of Faith and Worship so that to believe such Doctrines or to obey such Commands out of Conscience is to betray true liberty of Conscience and the requiring of an implicite Faith and an absolute and blind obedience is to destroy Liberty of Conscience and Reason also They who upon pretence of Christian Liberty do practice any Sin or cherish any Lust do thereby destroy the end of Christian Liberty which is that being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies we may serve the Lord without Fear in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life And because the Power which God hath Ordained and the Liberty which Christ hath purchased are not intended by God to destroy but mutually to uphold and preserve one another They who upon pretence of Christian Liberty shall oppose any Lawful Power or the Lawful exercise of it whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical resist the Ordinance of God and for their publishing such practices as are contrary to the light of Nature or to the known Principles of Christianity whether concerning Faith Worship or Conversation or to the power of Godliness or such erroneous Opinions or Practices as either in their own Nature or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them are destructive to the external Peace and Order which Christ hath Established in the Church they may lawfully be called to account and proceeded against by the Censures of the Church and by the Power of the Civil Magistrate The Papists If any one shall say That the received and approved Rites of the Church Catholick may be contemned or at pleasure omitted by the Ministers without Sin or that they may by any Pastour of Churches be chang'd into any new ones Let him be Accursed Now that the Church of Rome prescribes and observes a vast multitude of Rites and Ceremonies too tedious here to be specified not only besides but contrary to Gods Word and without any real profit to the Church of Christ is notorious yet Durandus Rationale Liber Ceremoniarum and such like Popish Authors expresly obtrude their Trumpery as both necessary and unalterable The five and thirtieth Article of
no longer they may remain in an Implicite Faith but read Consider and with understanding embrace what they before out of Compliance or Custom rather than Judgment seem'd to own and adhere to 2. There are many too That in words detest Popery yet not being throughly grounded in the Doctrines of the Church of England nor acquainted with those of the Church of Rome may be in danger of mistaking the one for the other and by Jacob's voice be deluded into Esau's hands and imbibe Poison unawares unless fortified against it by some such discriminating Antithesis 3. Hereby will appear the malice and falshood of these suggestions That the Dissenters stand at as great a distance from and are as much opposite to the legally Established Church of England as the Papists a mischievous conceit promoted by the Jesuites and other Factors for the See of Rome on purpose to divide and weaken us and consequently thereby to accomplish at last their own ends which are utterly to subvert and destroy all the Professors of the Reformed Religion whether Episcopal Presbyterial or under what ever other Denomination 4. I know not what could better tend to uniting us at least in affection amongst our selves than this demonstration That in the main and all essential Doctrinal points we are already agreed and since the other matters in Controversie are acknowledged to be indifferent what occasion is there for all this heat and violence unless the lesser our differences are the greater still must be our Animosities and Contentions about them 5. I do not despair but this small Treatise may be profitable to weak Capacities for instructing them in Fundamentals of Christian Religion since it contains a general Systeme of Faith rendered the more intelligible by the variety of Expressions though concurrent Sense of the Church-men and Protestant-Dissenters on the one side and the apparent Contradictions of the Papists on the other For Contraria juxta se posita magis Elucescunt contraries aptly compared illustrate each other Thus much for the End and general Intention of this Work As to the manner how it is perform'd I could indeed have wisht it might have come from some abler Hand whose Skill might have rendered it more useful and his Name more acceptable to the publick But rather a Mite than no Offering at all for the Churches Peace I have done what my small Reading and interrupted Leisure would permit and need only Advertise the Reader that here he shall find 1. The Nine and Thirty Articles of the Church of England agreed upon and Establisht Anno 1562. and never since altered but required by Law to be subscribed unto by all Ministers of our Church faithfully recited Verbatim and Printed in a different Letter 2. The Doctrines of those commonly called Presbyterians comprehending the Body of our Dissenters produc'd from the Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines in the late Times and their Catechism and the Institutions of Mr. John Calvin 3. The Tenets of the Church of Rome delivered either in the Words of the Council of Trent or those of their great Champion Cardinal Bellarmine and the Annotations of their Colledge of Rhemes on the New Testament Other of their Authors sometimes but sparingly are Cited and never any but what are allowed by them and known to speak according to the common Dictates of that Church I knew not where to seek more Authentick Testimonies of each Parties Sentiments and can without Injury to Truth aver That I have not wilfully baulk'd added to detracted from or in any kind perverted the Sense of either side but fairly stated their Doctrines in their own words And generally without Reflections or Animadversions unless only where the matter is such that it could not justly be omitted Some may expect to have had added in a Fourth Comparison certain Notions advanc'd of late years by some Divines amongst us that seem to thwart these Articles of their Mother-Church which at their Ordination they solemnly subscribed But as the same have in part been already noted by others so my desire is rather to bring Balm than Vinegar to the too gaping wounds of the Church and without giving any such Exasperation shall hope That those Gentlemen will see and repent of such their Mistakes At least since Rectum est Index sui Obliqui A streight Line is the measure both of it self and of that too which is crooked I cannot despair but when once People are brought throughly to understand the Doctrines of the Church of England grounded on the Holy Scriptures without or contrary to which no Church in the World has any power to impose any Articles of Faith They will easily be able to discover such Aberrations and refuse them with a just Abhorrence though never so speciously obtruded But because there is such a noise raised and such heaps of Durt continually thrown on the memory of poor Mr. Calvin and those called Presbyterians whereby they would inflame us both to hardships towards dissenting Protestants at home and set us at odds with most of the Reformed Churches abroad I shall for the Information of the Vulgar Reader give a brief account here what esteem our Ancestors of the Church of England heretofore had both of John Calvin and those Neighbouring Churches and the Testimonies I shall avouch shall be of undoubted Authority both for Dignity and Learning The Reverend and Pious Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Chichester in a Book Intituled An Examination of those things wherein the Author of the late APPEAL holdeth the Doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the Doctrines of the Church of England Printed anno 1626 and Dedicated to King Charles the First p. 217 hath these Words Though the Church of England be the best Reformed Church yet it is not the only Reformed Church and it might seem no good Providence in us to stand so by our selves as to reject and disdain the Consent of other Churches though they do not agree with us in Discipline It is observed by Eusebius That Polycrates and Irenaeus did both reprove Victor because for matters of Ceremonies he was too much offended with other Churches which otherwise agreed with him in Doctrine Irenaeus doth admonish him That the ancient Bishops of Rome before Victor did keep Unity and Consent with the Eastern Bishops though in Ceremonies there was difference between them Omnes isti cum in Observantia vararierent inter semetipsos nobiscum semper pacifici fuerant Euseb l. 5. cap. 24. All those that varied in Observances yet were always peaceable both amongst themselves and with us He saith there also That the Dissonance in Ceremonies need not break the Consonance in Faith with those Churches which do not agree with us in Ceremonies if we seek the peace of the Churches that profess the same Doctrine or strugling as more like one sleeping than dying leaving with that noble Roman Aemilius Poverty with Honour to his Friends his Library and