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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44196	The judgment of the late Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, of the nature of true religion, the causes of its corruption, and the churches calamity by mens additions and violences with the desired cure : in three discourses / written by himself at several times ... ; humbly dedicated to the honourable judges and learned lawyers ... by the faithful publisher, Richard Baxter ; to which is annexed the judgment of Sir Francis Bacon ... and somewhat of Dr. Isaack Barrows on the same subject.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H247; ESTC R11139	41,043	77

End of Religion with the greatest Philosophers and Clerks in the World Upon what hath been said we may therefore Conclude 1. That there is not nor indeed may not be any great difficulty in the attaining of a true saving Knowledge of Christian Religion 2. That the Duties of Christian Religion are not of so vast an Extent but the Knowledge of them may be also attained by an Ordinary Capacity willing to Learn 3. That Considering that God Almighty is never wanting with his Grace to Assist those that sincerely endeavour and Desire to Obey him and Serve him it is not so Difficult a Business to perform an Evangelical Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel I say an Evangelical Obedience though not a Perfect Obedience an Obedience that is Sincere though many times Weak and failings which nevertheless are forgiven and their Sincere though Imperfect Obedience accepted by Almighty God through the Merits and Intercession of Christ and our own Humiliation and sincere Repentance for our failings And 4. That when all is done in this Belief and this Obedience Consists our Christian Religion This is the One thing Necessary the Magnum Oportet which is of highest Concernment and greatest Importance to Mankind But now if we do but look about us in the World and observe and consider the Matters wherein Men for the most part do place Religion we shall find quite another kind of Rate and Nature of Religion than what Christ Instituted or intended and yet all vailed and shrowded under the Name of Christian Religion and greater weight and stress laid upon them than upon the True Real grand Imports of Christian Religion 1. I shall begin with the Subtilties of great Scholars Schoolmen and Scholastick Divines These have turned Christian Religion into a most Curious and difficult Speculation and that which was designed by Christ Jesus as a plain Direction to every Capacity to be a Guide to a Righteous Holy and Sober Life here and to attain Everlasting Life hereafter they have made a meer exercise of Wit and a Piece of greater subtilty than the abstrusest Philosophy or Metaphysicks And this they have done principally these ways 1. By Disputes about Questions that as they are not in themselves Necessary to be known so they are in their own Nature Impossible for Humane Understandings to determine As for instance many if not all the Points controverted between the Arminians and Calvinists as touching the manner of the Decrees of God what kind of Influence he hath upon the Wills of men The manner of the Divine Knowledge of things Future Contingent or Possible The Resistability or Irrisistability of Divine Grace The Nature of Eternity and Infinitude and Indivisibility The manner of the Existence of the Three Persons in the Vnity of Essence The Nature of Angels and Spirits the Manner and Degrees and Method of their knowledge of things their several Ranks and Orders and infinite more Speculations and Disputes of things that do not in their own Nature fall under the discovery of a Humane Understanding by the ordinary Course of Ratiocination and are impossible to be known further than they are distinctly revealed by Almighty God and as it were industriously kept Secret by Almighty God because they are not of use to Mankind to be known It is far more possible for a Child of three years old to have a true Conception of the most abstruse Points in Philosophy or in the Mystical Reasons of State or Politick Government of a Kingdom than for the Wisest man that ever was without Revelation from God to have any tollerable Conception or Notion of things of this Nature with any tollerable Certainty or Evidence 2. Again there are other Points disputed which are of a lower allay and yet not to be distinctly known without more clear Revelation than we yet have of it nor yet of any Necessity for us distinctly to know As for instance Concerning the Nature and Manner of Transmission of Original Sin How far the sins of immediate or remote Parents affect their Posterity with Guilt or Punishment The Origination of the Humane Soul How far the Efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ was intentionally for all Men Concerning the Means of Communication thereof to Infants Ideots and the invinsible Ignorant What is the real Consequence of Baptism of Infants or its Omission How far the Will of man is Operative to his Conversion or Perseverance Wherein the formal Nature of Justification Consists How far forth Faith singly is sufficient for it without Sanctification and Habitual Holiness at last and how far forth the Sincere Love of God by a person invinsibly ignorant of many or most Points of Christian Religion is sufficient thereunto Concerning the Estate of the separate Soul before the last Judgment and how far it enjoys the Beatifical Vision before the Resurrection Disputes touching these and the like difficult Questions have blown up mens Fancies with Speculations instead of filling their Hearts with the true and genuine Effects of Christian Religion It is true that Physicians and Naturalists do and may make Inquiries into the Method and Progress of Generation and Digestion and Sanguification and the motions of the Chile the Blood the Humours For 1. They have means of access to the discovery thereof by Dissection and Observation And 2. It is of some use to them in their Science and the Exercise thereof But when all is done a man of a sound Constitution digests his Meat and his Blood Circulates and his several Vessels and Intrails perform their offices though he know not distinctly the Methods of their Motions and Operations But these Speculations above-mentioned in Points of Divinity as they are not possible to be distinctly determined with any certainty so they are of little use to be known If the heart be seasoned with the true knowledge of the things that are revealed and with the Life of the Christian Religion and the love of God it will be effectual enough to order his Life and bring him to Everlasting Happiness though he be not like an exquisite Anatomist acquainted with a distinct Comprehension or Knowledge of the several difficult Inquiries of this Nature Believe what is required by the Word of God to be believed and do your Duty as by that Word is directed so that the Life of Religion and the love of God be once set on foot in the Soul and there nourished and commit your self to the Faithfulness and Goodness of God and this will be effectual to the great End of Religion though all these Disputes be laid aside 3. Again A Third mischief of Scholasticks is in relation to Practicks 1. Some Casuistical Divines have so distinguished concerning Religious External Duties that they have left little Practical Religion or Morality in the World and by their subtle curious Distinctions have made almost every thing Lawful and with the Pharisees in the time of our Saviour have made void the Laws of God and of Man also by

coetera The rather because the silencing of Ministers on this occasion is in this scarcity of good Preachers a punishment that lighteth on the people as well as on the party And for the Subscription it seemeth to me in the Nature of a Confession and therefore more proper to bind in the Unity of Faith and to be urged rather for Articles of Doctrine than for Rites and Ceremonies and Points of outward Government For howsoever publick Considerations and Reasons of State may require Uniformity yet Christian and Divine Grounds look chiefly upon Unity See what he saith pag. 191. for A. Bishop Grindals way of Lectures to young Ministers to teach them to preach well And p. 192 of the abuse of Excommunication An Animadversion of the Transcriber Qu. Why was this great man so much against Bishops deputing their proper work to Chancellours Commissaries Officials c. Ans. It 's easie to conjecture I. Tho' he thought the accidental Modes of Church-Government mutable and humane yet most Christians with him judge that the Essentials of Church Office are of Divine Institution and therefore fixed on the proper Officers And that no Lay-man may by Deputation administer Sacraments or the Church Keyes II. And so he would not have Lay-men and the Clergie confounded as if there were nothing proper to the Pastoral Office lest it teach the Laity Sacrilegious Usurpation The Office is nothing but a conjunction of Obligation and Authority to do the works And if a Lay-man have these two he is a Bishop III. The very confounding of the Bishops Office and the Presbyters seemeth so ill to many that they think even a Presbyter Archdeacon or Chancellor may not be deputed to the work of the Bishop because that maketh him a Bishop much less may a Lay-man IV. Many would not have the King or Civil Magistrate made properly a Bishop and so the Offices Confounded But say they If commissioning another to Judge by the Keyes or to administer Sacraments be proper to a Bishop then Kings and Magistrates are Bishops for they may send and Commission other men to do all this V. The Bishops personal doing of all his own proper Office-works would answer almost all that the moderate Nonconformists desire in Church Government For then 1. The Keyes we hope would be used in a Sacred serious manner with due Admonition Instruction Exhortation Prayer c. which might melt a Sinner into Repentance 2. And then Experience would fully satisfie the Diocesans that they must needs have Bishops under them or besides them at least in every great Town with the adjoining Parishes For by that time they had duely Confirmed all before Communicating and had examined exhorted and judged the many hundred Scandalous Persons that in a Diocess would be presented I 'le warrant you they would be glad of the help of many And though perhaps Church-Wardens would not present all that come not to Church in the Parishes where many Score thousands keep away for want of room or on that pretence yet good Ministers would present more than now they do when they saw it would tend to a sacred use of the Keyes and mens repentance Bucer's desire of Parish Discipline would be sure more performed which would end most Church Controversies VI. And this would bring in many Nonconformists who now stand out because they dare not make a Covenant an Oath never in their places to endeavour any alteration of Church Government because they think Lay Chancellours use of the Keyes decretively unlawful And dare not swear Obedience to such Ordinances nor yet own the Omission of Discipline which the paucity of Bishops unavoidably inferreth while a Diocess hath but one Experience would certainly cure that VII And it moveth some that we yet meet with few Bishops that will defend lay Chancellours decretive use of the Keyes but seem to wish it were reformed VIII And the Chancellours and Civilians have little reason to be offended with my Lord Verulam and such men For he would allow them the probate of Wills and Matrimonial Cases and all that belongeth to an Official Magistrate that hath his Office from the King And no doubt would consent that they have a moderate Power by mulcts to constrain men to submit to their Courts instead of the use of Excommunications and Absolutions They say this is otherwise in Scotland now And yet they are sworn not to endeavour any alteration of Church Government And I hope none will be angry with this Learned great man for the blame which he layeth on the Bishops usage of the Non-Conformists even before the present Canons were made Since 1. His Letters shew him to have been a man extraordinarily humbling himself both to the Queen and to the Bishops 2. And the most approved Historians tell us to our great grief that such things have been no wonders and rarities these thirteen hundred years It is holy and credible men that tell us how St. Martin notwithstanding all his Miracles and holiness was used by the Synods of Bishops in his time for being so strict of life and so much against the using of the Sword against the Priscilian Gnostick Hereticks And it is as holy and credible men that tell us how St. Theophilus Alexander a Patriarch envyed and used his Superior Patriarch holy Chrysostome and even long studied his ruine And how another called St. Epiphanius seditiously came out of Cyprus and affronted him at Constantinople in his own Church requiring him irregularly before all the People to Curse Origen or his Writings as if the Bishop of the Isle of Man should come and magisterially impose this on the Bishop of London or Canterbury in the Congregation where he preach'd They tell us how readily the Synods of Bishops Condemned Chrysostome because the Emperour and Empress were against him And if so excellent and holy a man whose language and life excelled them all could not escape condemnation twice over and that in the Age of the Church which is predicated for the very best and happiest that ever was since the days of Christ If the Primacy among all the four Eastern Patriarchs and his own rare Parts and holiness and innocency could not secure him from ejection and banishment from a famous Christian Emperour and the Convocations of Bishops that envyed his holiness and parts If when he was banished his stable constant flock that would not renounce him were made Conventiclers and named Joannits as a note of Schifmatical Separatists while those that turned to the next possessour were called the Church If another Saint of greatest Learning Name and Power resisted the very restoring of his name when he was dead saying the Canons were not to be broken to satisfie the Schismatical Joannits whom nothing will satisfie and that it would discourage the Conformists I mean St. Cyril of Alexandria why should it be thought that men far inferiour to Chrysostome that live not in so pure an Age should by the Clergie stream and power be much like