necessary in Gods Service What kinde of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies THe determining of times and places and persons by The Lords Day observed by the authority of the Church which and at which of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Form and order according to which the service of God is to be celebrated is the Office and therefore is within the power of the Church The substance of Christianity wherein salvation consisteth was determined by our Lord in person to his Apostles That which hee trusted them with was the regulating of his Church supposing the same Christianity that God might bee served by the Assemblies of such as might appear to profess it That which he trusted the Apostles with the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the Apostles saving the personal Gift of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles rendring their Acts blameless in that estate for which they were made though not sufficient for all estates of the Church Otherwise the power of the whole Church is the power of the Apostles and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the Acts of it Because the Unity of the Church is equally concerned in them and the substance of Christianity in neither of both This discovereth the Superstition of that Imposture which is pretended by deriving the Obligation of the Lords Day from the Jewish Sabbath For what reason can endure that the Church should bee bound to keep the first day of the week by that Precept which tyed the Synagogue to keep the last day of the week Seeing then the Obligation of it is to bee derived from the Act of the Apostles that is from the power of the Church For being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect if the premises bee true it is the same Obligation that tyes all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church whether Fasting days or Festivals The Example of the Primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hierome and others of the Fathers affirming that the Church should and would serve God continually in publick could the business of the world stand with it And therefore that order is to bee accounted most Christian that provides most opportunity for frequenting the publick service of God If this were considered it would appear a meer Imposture Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed to demand that the Lords day bee celebrated with Sermons morning and evening and arbitrary prayers to usher them in and out treading underfeet all other times set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such Offices as it enjoyneth If wee weigh by our own Weights and mete by our own Measures not only the mysteries of our Lords dispensatiâ—n in the Flesh but the memories of his Apostles and Saints not only the time of Lenâ— and the Wednesdays and Fridays But the time of Advent the Evens of Festivals the Ember and Râ—gation dayes once appointed to that purpose must still bee solemnized for the Festivals and Fasts of Gods Church To set a peculiar mark upon the Lords Day as if the time of it were more obliging then other time that is appointed to the same purpose is to change the day but to retain the Jews Superstition as Calvin most truely hath told them who in other things commit Idolatry to his Opinion But wherein he follows the whole Church in this point and in the state of souls before the Resurrection bid him farewell The Case is the same in the qualities of places as well as of How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with ministring the Sacraments persons For the exercise of Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom there must bee places where all must meet they must bee limitted by the authority of the Church they must not bee balked for other places of mens private choise but by those that are willing to bee charged with Schisme for doing it They that quarrel the Bishops power in all other things must call this also in question when they mean to weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures They are very studious to confound the difference between Priests and Deacons by having all called Ministers being a Term that may serve all Orders ministring those Offices which the Church enableth them to minister But they who would impose this sense upon the stile of Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that all and no other but they who are ordained to Preach are ordained also to Baptize and celebrate the Eucharist must bee told that this is an Imposture till they shew better reason for it then hitherto hath been shewed For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason that the power of celebrating the Eucharist is convertible with the power of the Keys qualifying all Christians for the Eucharist which in the Bishop onely extendeth to publick causes concerning his whole Church or Diocese But in all Presbyters to private Causes wherein it may bee questionable between God and the Conscience whether a Christian bee qualified for the Eucharist or not As for the Sacrament of Baptisme that as the Bishop only allows it in any case that may bee questionable so the ministring of it may come to a Deacon in the Priests absence nay to a Lay-man rather then that any Child should dye unbaptized Neither is the Office of preaching restrained either to Priests or Deacons alone by any other authority then that of Gods whole Church Which being once passed in the Case by the general Custom and Practice of it it must bee the greatest Sacrilege in the World that is the Sacrilege of Schisme to transgress it The respect due to the memories of the Apostles and other Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Saints and Martyrs of Christ is a reason sufficient to determine the time and place for the service of God To question that they are not just occasions for the consecrating of Festivals and of Churches to the service of God in honour of their memories is a just presumption that men seek to bee saved by some other Christianity then that which their Doctrine and their Blood planted But their names and the Festivals and the Churches that bear their names are but circumstances determining that service to bee acceptable to God which is performed in the Unity of his Church the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose No more are the Utensils and Ornaments of Churches the Vessels in which the Sacraments are celebrated But they who think it Superstition that these things should bee set apart from Vulgar use and reserved only for Gods service plainly commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations in it For it is manifest that Consecration was in force not only by the Law of Moses but before it under the Law of nature as the
necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Christians are by that mark for ever distinguished from things necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Members of the Church Because the Salvation of private Christians is concerned in not understanding the intent of the former sort But in the latter sort cannot bee concerned by not understanding the intent of them but by violating that Order and Unity of the Church which the Regular Use of them serveth to maintain That which I am to say of them here consists of two points That they are Ofâ—â—ces necessary to bee â—inistred to all Christians concerned in them And that they are to bee solemnized with those Ceremonies for which they are without any cause of offense called Sacraments by the Fathers of the Church How necessary iâ— it that those that are baptized Infants when Why the Bishop only Confirmeth they come to discretion and to receive the Eucharist should give account of the hope that is in them and undertake their Christianity upon which it is grounded For hee hath not this hope to God hee appeareth not to the Church to have it but upon these terms And thus far the parties seem content But why should not Presbyters Confirm as well as Bishops that can baptize and celebrate the Eucharist which is more to the Salvation of Christians By Commission from Bishops that they may do it is a point very disputable The practise of the Greek Church in the case is not new Besides some appearance of the like under S. Gregory in the West But that serves not the turn They must have the Catechising of them after their mode and make the grounds of Salvation what they please and not what the Church appointeth So the Answer is easie For neither is Baptism or the Eucharist ministred but by authority from the Bishop And to Catechize beside that Form which the Church allowes is to sow the seed of everlasting dissention in matter of Faith Hee that thinks there was a Reason why S. Peter and S. John should come to Confirm those whom the Deacon S. Philip had baptized can never want a reason why the Bishop alone should do it For hee cannot minister the means of Salvation alone But the Faith and the Unity of his Church with the rest is not to bee preserved without him Therefore the Gift of the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth dependeth upon the Bishops blessing because it dependeth upon the Unity of the Church Therefore Haereticks and Schismaticks who by departing from the Unity of the Church barre themselves of the effect of their Baptism being received with the Bishops blessing in the Primitive Church were justly thought to recover their Title to it If Ordination were taken for the conveying of publick Authority The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it to minister the Offices of Gods Church by the act of those that have received by their Ordination authority to propagate the same there would bee no mervail that S. Paul should suppose a Grace received by Timothy through the laying on of his hands or the hands of the Presbytery For if the profession of Christianity inferre the Grace of Baptism shall not the profession of that Christianity which the state of the Clergy in general or that particular degree to which every man is ordained importeth inferre the Grace which the discharge of it requireth What is there to hinder it but the want of sincerity in undertaking that which the Order that a man undertakes requires him to undertake This is that which renders those Prayers of the Church of no effect as to God whereby the power is effectually conveyed as to the Church In the mean time shall not those Prayers bee solemnized with Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void due Ceremony by which so great a Power in the Church is conveyed Now seeing Presbyters never received by their Ordination authority to ordain others seeing no Word of God gives it them seeing all the Rules of the Whole Church take it from them The Attempt of our Presbyters in Ordaining without and against their Bishops must needs bee void and to no effect but that of Schisme in dividing of the Church upon so unjust a Cause They could not receive the Power of the Keyes from them that had nothing to do to give it And therefore in celebrating the Eucharist they do nothing but profane Gods Ordinance Therefore the lawful Ordaining of them is not re-ordaining but Ordination indeed instead of that which was only so called If a Christian after Baptism fall into any grievous sin voiding The necessity of Penance the effect of Baptism can it fall within the sense of a Christian to imagine That hee can bee restored by a Lord have mercy upon mee No it must cost him hot tears and sighs and groans and extraordinary prayers with fasting and almes to take Revenge upon himself to appease Gods Wrath and to mortifie his Concupiscence If hee mean not to leave an entrance for the same sin again If his sin bee notorious so much the more Because hee must then satisfie the Church that hee doth what is requisite to satisfie God that is to appease his wrath and to recover his Grace The Church may bee many ways hindred to take account of notorious sin But the power of the Keyes which God hath trusted it with is exercised only in keeping such sinners from the Communion till the Church bee so satisfied And for this Exercise the time of Lent hath always been deputed The observation of Leâ—â— and the use of it by the Church The Fast before the Feast of the Resurrection stands by the same Law by which that stands For the Feast was from the beginning the end of the Fast So the Lent-Fast and the keeping of the Lords day stand both upon the same authority For the Lords day is but the Remembrance of the Resurrection once a week It doth not appear that the Fast was kept forty days from the beginning That it was kept before Easter whensoever Easter was kept that is from the time of the Apostles it doth appear The baptizing of Converts the restoring of the Relapsed and the preparing of all by extraordinary Devotion to solemnize the Resurrection was the work of it Did this Church desire the restoring of this Order and yet disowne Lent Daniel abstained from pleasant meat when hee fasted The Jewes forbad all that comes of the Vine on the day of Attonement The Whole Church of God always forbore Flesh and Wine when they fasted And shall our Licentiousness make the difference of meats superstitious Then let the late Parliament Fasts bee Reformation that provided a good break-fast to fast with and heard a Sermon as well after Dinner as before If Sin bee not notorious there is no cause why it should not The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sins bee pardoned without help from the Church supposing that the
inviolable in all opinions And the Church a standing â—ynod from Rome Hereby it may appear that the Visible Unity of the Church must stand or fall with Episcopacy And therefore no marvel that it should not bee acknowledged by them who acknowledg not Episcopacy For the soul of this unity consisting in the resort of inferiour Churches to superiours and in the correspondence of parallel Churches neither can this resort nor this correspondence ever appear to have been had and exercised but between Bishops as heads in behalf of their Churches Whether by a treaty of Bishops personally assembled in Council or by correspondence between Bishops by means of their Presbyters Deacons or inferiour Clergy good intelligence were preserved between Churches towards the maintaining of communion in the whole it maters not The Church in the form which I state is a standing Synod able by consent of the chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole In all the records of the Church let them shew me one Presbyter that ever answered for his Church to the rest of the Church at least in his own name for if in the name of and by Commission from his Bishop it is for my turn and let them take all And therefore though Episcopacy must needs bee declared for part of Gods Law by the Scriptures understood as the consent of the Church directeth against which no Scripture can bee rightly understood yet supposing the Church Visible by Gods Law I have enough to make them Schismatickes that oppose it though I should make Episcopacy no part of Gods Law but introduced by consent of the whole Church For that part which submitteth not to the consent of the Whole in maters which Gods Law referreth to the Whole for the preservation of that unity which it enacteth are justly to bee taken for those that violate the Unity which Gods Law enacteth Epecially in a Law of that consequence as one of those Rights wherein the chief power of the Church consisteth It is strange to see how fondly men argue that Presbyters have the power of the Keys which made the Apostles Apostles Therefore much more are they equal to Bishops As if they could not have that power in private maters between God and the conscience of particular Christians Reserving the same power for the Bishops peculiar in things which being publick concern the Body of each Church For in the cause of Arius this power was in the Council of Nicaea and in no less Had Athanasius of Alexandria or Alexander of Constantinople loosed him whom the Synod had bound though at the instance of Constantine they had been sinners to God and to his Church in violating the Unity thereof which hee hath made more inviolable then any temporal endowment of it How far are wee now from having evidenced the Visible Unity of Gods Church to bee a part of the common Christianity The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes supposing these things proved the proofes whereof have no way been insringed Haeretickes are condemned by themselves saith Paul because they know they forsake that profession upon which they were baptized members of the Church But it is Titus that is to refuse them The Church avoids them because the Bishop finds them incorrigible If other Bishops and their Churches duely informed from Titus do the like then is the Visible Unity of the Church visible in their proceedings If they do not the like then must they break communion with Titus and his Church by a perpetual Rule of the Church holding all Excommunicate that shall acknowledge an Excommunicate person to bee a member of the Church But wee read of no breach in the Church for any of those whom the Church hath declared Haeretickes Except what shall by and by bee excepted Thus far all the Church owneth the Visible Unity of the Church As for Schisme how many occasions of it have been prevented The difference about keeping Easter the difference about rebaptizing Haeretickes Many other differences have threatned breaches in the Church which have been prevented through the conduct of Christian Prelates Other divisions that have come to pass have been re-united sometimes sometimes not The communion of the Church of Sardinia with the rest of the Western Churches stood interrupted by the discontents of Lucifer Archbishop there And therefore I conceive for his time and no more The Church of Antiochia stood divided within it self under two Bishops for a mater of threescore years till by the intercession of the West as well as of the East it was re-united The East under Constantinople stood divided from the West under Rome upon the cause of Acacius for some seventy years till the Church of Rome was satisfied How long the Schism of Montanus lasted for at the first it was but a Schisme if wee judge by Tertullian who is the best record that remains of it I say not It seems to have turned into an Haeresie first and then to nothing as other Haeresies have done The Schisme of the Novatians for it was no more seems to have returned to the Church by pieces And so that of the Meletians The Donatists seem to have continued till Africk was overrun by the Mahumetans In all these breaches what signifies the attribute of one Catholick Church but a Visible Unity opposite to so many visible Apostasies St. Austine saith that if a stranger asked an Haeretick or Schismatick the way to the Catholick Church hee durst not shew him the way to his own Church because the title was not questionable Not meerly because the Catholick had more belonging to it as some would have us judge of Religion by counting Noses but as Optatus saith quia rationalis ubique diffusa because the due reason why men are Christians swayed men to stand to the unity of the Church all over The undue reason that moved men to break with it prevailed but here and there At all hands discounting Haeretickes and Schismatickes whom they that follow do seldom approve so many Christians so many witnesses of one Catholick Church which by being Catholick was alwaies and must needs bee Visible And thus far wee have the same evidence for one Visible Church as for the rest of Christianity After the Council of Ephesus the reputation of Nestorius held The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same entire in the East notwithstanding the Decree of the Council The Records of the Church have preserved us no intelligence how or by what means Those that write of the Wars of the holy Land afterwards represeut us the Nestorians in the East so numerous as might well stumble those that pretend to decide the Controversie of Religion by the Poll in our Western parts But whether the breach stood upon the opinion or upon the person of Nestorius is more then I am able to decide For in Aegypt likewise after many troubles about the Council of Chalcedon and the condemning of their
against the conflict of Death with the spiritual enemies of the Soul For though the Church ordaining Prayer for bodily health can by no means forget the health of the Soul if it mean to remember the Common Christianity Yet appeareth it nevertheless what ground and occasion the Institution of S. James pretendeth And so it appeareth what dependence the Unction of the Sick holdeth upon the Communion of the Eucharist As for the Marriage of Christians if it bee under a peculiar rule by virtue of the Common Christianity and that the interest of the Church in allowing of Marriages is grounded upon the same It is far from any imputation of abuse that the Church of Rome celebrateth the same at the Eucharist For seeing our Christianity is particularly concerned in the duties of Marriage How should the Grace of God enabling to discharge the said duties bee expected but by reviving the obligation of our Common Christianity which the receiving of the Eucharist signifieth I will not undertake to clear the See of Rome from all abuse of Ecclesiastical Power in multiplying the Impediments of Marriage as beyond necessity so beyond the Interest of Christianity and in dispensing in them again for favour or for reward as having been prohibited for no better reason then this That Power appears most in that which there is least reason for On the other side dispensing in those degrees which the Law of Moses prohibiteth and therefore Christianity ought to bee farther from allowing It seemeth to stretch the Power of the Church beyond the bounds of it And thus it appeareth first what relation these Offices hold with the Eucharist and the Communion of it and then what is the point of Reformation in which the voiding of those abuses standeth On the other side they that now are content with Confirmation The Reformation pretended no lâ—ss abuse on the other side so they may have the giving of it themselves and the Catechizing of them that receive it after their mode not distinguishing themselves from the Fanaticks cannot bee presumed to Catechise according to the Christianity of Gods Church But in as much as they Usurpe unto themselves authority without their Bishops and against them they cannot make Members of Gods Church by the Confirmation which so they may give So they bar the gift of Gods Spirit which Baptisme promiseth a Christian as a Christian by barring the Unity of Gods Church Again Ordaining all whom they Ordain to one and theâ— same Office of Preaching the Word and Ministring the Sacraments First they usurpe the power of Ordaining which they never received any authority by their Ordination to exercise And that in despite of their Bishops as seducing the people from the way of salvation which by their Ordinations they pretend to teach So receiving no Power of the Keys by their Usurpation they receive no power to celebrate the Eucharist but only to commit sacrilege by profaning so high an Ordinance And then they tread under foot the Hierachy of Bishops Priests and Deacons in despite of the whole Church dividing the authority of their Bishops among themselves but abolishing the Order of Deacons by confounding the title of Ministers common to all three Orders for ministring their several Offices with that sense in which the lowest Order are called Deacons for ministring to Bishops and Priests in their Offices As for the power of the Keys which is not that which God left his Church unless the effect of it bee the binding and loosing of sin It is plain enough that under pretense of taking away the scandal of notorious sin they would have power to shame and domineer over their neighbours overtaken with sin but without pretense of curing their sin for the condition upon which they are restored Such Discipline goes no further then the outward man and the restraining of him from sin for shame of the world The presumption of a voluntary change in the inward man for hope of Gods Grace by the Sacrament of the Eucharist must bee the effect of the Keys of Gods Church As for this power in sin that is not notorious what do they pretend more then their Preaching Which whether it bee such as shows the cure of sin let their diligence in Preaching mortification witness And yet whether every Christian can learn or will bee induced meerly by Preaching to use that mortification which is requisite let them that are able judge But what visiting of the sick do they pretend but to pray by them or comfort them without ever entring into the ground of their comfort upon examination of the conscience The blessing of Mariage they have reserved to the Church but upon an ungrounded presumption that the Mariage of Christians is to bee ruled by the Law of Moses The insufficience whereof being discerned by the people when they were loose from the Law of the Land hath occasioned all the incests and other disorders of the late times In the mean time whereas all these Offices are either provided to bring Christians to the Eucharist or to bee celebrated with the Eucharist It is demanded that godly Ministers bee not tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year It should rather bee demanded how they come to bee counted godly Ministers that demand this I shall not need to say how the point of Reformation is The point of Reformation in the mean between both found through which the line of it is to pass in these particulars Confirmation fitteth for the Eucharist by the profession of Christianity and by being a Member of Gods Church Ordination giveth some degree in the Clergy above the people and therefore supposeth the profession of retiring from the world more then other Christians undertake to do The Eucharist conveyeth Gods Spirit for the performing of this profession sincerely and resolutely made Both requiring the Unity of the Church both are to bee ministred by that authority without which nothing is to bee done in each Church The reconciling of notorious sin is the Bishops peculiar The Priest hath authority to cure that which is made known to him But this authority is not arbitrary in either of both The rigor of antient Discipline by the Canons of the Church is quite out of force But in these lees and dregs of Christianity which now wee draw there is some reasonable ground to presume upon that a sinner is resolved to live a good Christian for the future Let that bee limited and the power of the Keys will have effect in barring the sinner from the Communion till the presumption bee visible in him But to what shall the Keys of the Church reconcile him when the Eucharist is celebrated but thrice a year To what purpose is the visiting of the sick but that upon such presumption they may have the Eucharist to maintain them in the great journey which they are going The duty of Mariage among Christians depends wholly upon this supposition that God gives the maried an
succession of persons is of less consideration being subordinate to the succession of Faith and Laws as the means to the end And then I say that supposing a necessity of Ordaining because they who refused the Reformation would not Ordain to that purpose And supposing the Reformation to bee that which God requireth There is cause to presume that the intent which those that agree in it declare supplies by Gods goodness that nullitie which the want of Power to Ordain would otherwise infer For those mistakes of less consequence which humane weakness must needs commit in a work of such weight as it were malice in man to justifie so it may well bee thought mercy in God to excuse This presumption there is that the Churches thus constituted are true Churches And the Offices ministred by persons thus qualified effectual to convey the Grace of God to Christian people But wee suppose in our case that Presbyterian Ordinations tend no more to the exercise of true Christianity then of that which the Church of England hitherto professeth And wee see with our eyes that the authority that maketh them destroyeth it self by destroying the authority of their Bishops from whom it claimeth And therefore to imagine that an Assembly of Divines by being lawfully Ordained to the office of Priests or Deacons according to the Laws of the Church of England can by Commission from the Secular Power make Ordinations which the Laws under which they were Ordained forbid is to imagine that God can inable man to sin or that a Sovereign Power can authorize the Subject to rebell against it self And therefore though the qualities of persons to bee sent you for Pastors may bee otherwise limited by Acts which Parliaments may make yet these qualities not being derived from the authority of the Apostles founding the Church by any act of the Church but from Secular Power and Commission issued from it make them no more Ministers of the Church that are made by Assemblies of Divines and Presbyteries then those that are made by Commission of Triers and for ejecting scandalous Ministers That is both of them being by their creation Schismaticks and their profession not clearing them of misprision of Haeresie they can no more bee acknowledged by those that pretend to adhere to the Church of England then Belial by Christ or darkness by light Hereby then you may conclude how to receive those whom the Presbyterians may send you for Pastors by any change in the Secular Power For I charge not them that they do not believe the Church which they would bee themselves I acknowledge that they secure you from all Sects but themselves But in as much as they maintain Predestination to life onely in consideration of what Christ hath already done or suffered for the Elect in so much I say that they do not nor can Baptize into the Cross of Christ that is to say into the hope of Salvation in consideration of the Covenant of Baptisme For that which is absolutely due as salvation is due to the elect by the gift of Gods Predestination cannot bee burthened with any condition of Christianity afterwards Nor can hee who is once sure to bee saved without that condition which Baptism inacteth bee bound to fight against the flesh the world and the Devil for the keeping of Gods Commandments under the profession of the Christian Faith for the obtaining of that which hee is sure of before And therefore their Baptisme is no effectual Baptisme before God if Baptisme received in the Church of England bee such that is to say it is no Baptisme but by Equivocation of words in as much as the obligation of a mans Christianity is not declared or understood to take hold of him by virtue of it For seeing the hope of salvation which Christians have by their Baptisme is grounded upon the condition of their Christianity that Baptisme which promiseth salvation without providing for this condition is no Baptisme but by equivocation of words I say further that the change which they call Reformation visibly tends to introduce that monstrous imposture of two Sermons every Sabbath in stead of the daily and ordinary service of God together with the more solemn service of God upon Festivals and Lords days and other extraordinary occasions which the Church of England with the whole Church of God from the beginning hath maintained so far as there was means to maintain it I will not here insist upon the order of Bishops and their chief power in their Dioceses as of Divine Right that is instituted and introduced by the Apostles Let the Presbyterians think themselves privileged to erect Altar against Altar upon so desperate a Plea as now they insist upon that the Presbyteries are rather of divine right then the chief Power of Bishops in their Dioceses I insist now only that this Power of the Bishops was not against Gods Law which every man must grant me that acknowledges a Church in England from the Reformation till now In this case they who to introduce this Christianity and this publick exercise of it transgressing that authority to which they were called by the visible act of the Church of England take upon them to share that Power from which they had their authority among themselves and to execute it by consent among themselves in their several precincts cannot bee said to constitute a Church by virtue of any act of the Apostles or any authority derived from such act but by virtue of their own act as all Apostates and usurpers do That is to say that they do not constitute such a Church by being a member whereof a man may reasonably assure himself of salvation upon any principle of Christianity but such a Church as is indeed no Church unless it bee by equivocation of terms but a conventicle of Schismaticks with the misprision of the Haeresie aforesaid And therefore their Priesthood is no Priesthood their Eucharist is no Eucharist unless it bee by equivocation of words but Sacrilege against Gods Ordinance Besides that what is requisite to the consecration of the Eucharist or wherein it consists they seem to bee as secure of and as little to regard as the most ignorant of those Sects into which the once common name of Puritans stands divided at this time Neither is it in any Secular Power though never so unquestionable to cure these nullities and incapacities in the pretense upon which they take upon them to bee a Church Though for the present they are not so much as authorized to the world by any privilege or penalty enacted by any Secular Power but only protected by that which now possesseth Whereby the world may see that there is nothing but their own usurpation and the consent of those whom they have debauched to their Schisme for them to subsist by under the pretense of a Church And that they will by virtue of their Original bee as malignant to any Secular Power that shall not maintain and
correspondent to the primitive forme tending to the Unity of the Whole But let no man think that for the love of such a correspondence I have any itch to call in question the Unity of the Whole The alteration is great and must needs produce a great motion to ingraffe it into the Laws of the Kingdom And therefore I am not of opinion to change the Law for hope of amendment with so much appearance of danger to the being of the Whole But I am of opinion that it would bee easie to erect Presbyteries that is Colleges of Presbyters in all Shire Towns which have no Cathedral Churches for the Ecclesiastical Government of the respective Counties with and under the Bishops And that so the Rule of the Church would bee set on work to the best effect and purpose For those Towns have commonly Churches altogether unprovided of means through the horrible sacrileges that have passed and yet in common reason agreeing with the wisdom of Gods Spirit from whence the Rule of Episcopacy issued ought to bee Nurseries of Christianity to the respective Counties And that intent cannot so well bee brought to effect as by planting the wisest and those that have most of the Clergy in their lives in the most eminent places with authority next to the Chief over their respective bounds By the ministery of such persons the Offices of Gods service might so bee performed in the chief places as might be a patern for their Country Churches to follow These Presbyters might grow up by education in that discipline of the Clergy which I have recommended upon the experience of the whole Church They might live a Collegiate life in common exercising a care and inspection over Inferiours together with the charge of instructing or seeing them instructed in the Scriptures The Canon of the whole Church confining all degrees of the Clergy to their respective Churches might bee revived by their means The superseding whereof being certainly one of the irregularities of the Papacy hath conduced much to the dissolution of Discipline in the Church For in conscience how can hee that is obliged to any Church give account of himself to another to which the first is not subordinate And therefore though the Presbyteries which I propose bee not Churches yet may they take account of their respective Clergy and render it to their Bishops The promotion of inferiour Orders belonging unto their account may procced upon the account which they give The censures that are requisite to pass in foro exteriori may pass them in the first instance and from them being transmitted to the Bishop bee either inacted or voided Always with right of appeal to the Synod of the Province in cases of weight and in the intervals thereof to their Deputies To which purpose and in which nature the High Commission ought to bee revived For as it is by no means to bee allowed that the Bishops negative bee any way questioned So is it no way fit that the consent of Bishop and Presbyters both bee concluded in one and the same instance As for those Dioceses which are concluded within only one County there I suppose I need not say that the Chapter of the Cathedral are by inheritance this Presbytery Now these Colleges of Presbyters consisting of those only that shall have run the whole course of their lives in the education and discipline of the Clergy is there any possible pretense of burthen upon them if the condition of single life should bee required to qualifie them for their places For this were not to tye any man to single life seeing who will may go forth and bee provided of a Country Church But it were to maintain the discipline of the Clergy in the most eminent places wherein there is a course proposed to them who imbrace it of ending their days in it And the course of a Collegiate life which I propose seemeth a sufficient means and advantage to overcome those temptations which in these days may seem too difficult for all the Clergy to undergo As for the means of supporting these Presbyteries wherein the Gure of all Parishes within the Shire Towns is provided for and included It is no difficulty to him that considers with conscience that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to bee for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to bee for the good of tâ—e Diocese And this I am now bold to profess though Superiors do not go before in it because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in several instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a Divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of Superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to bee buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the Offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of Grace For I presume it is not nor can bee supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of Grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalms of David and other Hymns of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to bee celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalms of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed with regard to it Whereby they
of all Nations and maintaining all Sâ—ates in their rights of this World pretendeth not to any power of this World to maintain it self by It becometh Visible by the free will of Christians beleeving it a piece of their Christianity to live die members of one Visible Church The Unity of the Jews State tending to a temporal end of enjoying the Land of promise answereth not the invisible unity of Christian souls but the Visible Unity of a Catholick Church according to that rate in which the Law answers the Gospel And so is this point of Christianity no less clearly delivered by the Old Testament then other points of the Christian Faith are CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The forme of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same FOr though all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves of all Christians bee not onely sufficiently but abundantly contained in the Scriptures yet how clearly there laid down depends upon the purpose for which God declares that hee gave the several parts of it It is manifest that God intended to vaile the New Testament in the Old and to reveal the Old Testament by the New Therefore Christianity cannot bee clearly delivered in the Old Testament Till our Lord was to leave the world hee declared not the condition of Christianity by which wee are saved Hee declared not that which hee declared when hee was to leave the world to wit that it was thenceforth to consist in undertaking to profess the Faith of the Holy Trinity and to live by Christs precepts though ones life lye upon it For he declared not the promise of sending the Holy Ghost till hee was ready to leave the world And therefore the Baptisme of Christ by which Christians do make that prosession which saveth us was not instituted till his departure And though our Lord had clearly preached the precepts of Christian life from the beginning yet is the Visible estate of his Mystical Body the Church as well as the invisible estate of particular members darkly figured and typified not only by the parables of the Gospel but as well by that which befell him as by that which he did during the time of his preaching Therefore neither is Christianity clearly delivered by the Gospels To them to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles the substance of Christianity must needs bee known for they had been made Christians upon the professing of it But their Epistles therefore suppose it and therefore cannot pretend to deliver it Besides the greatest part of them is spent in proving that wee are saved by Christianity out of the Old Testament And therefore by that correspondence in which the Law answers the Gospel the Church the Synagogue and the Kingdom of Heaven the Land of promise And though our Lord opened his Disciples hearts thus to understand the Scriptures yet are not all that shall bee saved able to make out this correspondence the professing and performing of that Christianity whereby they are saved not requiring it Therefore neither are the Apostles writings clear in things necessary to salvation but supposing the knowledg of that Christianity whereby wee are saved nor absolutely clear but to those that are able to make out that correspondence Without this limitation it is not to bee granted that all things necessary to salvation are clear to all that seek salvation by the Scriptures alone For what mark is there extant in the Scripture to distinguish that which is necessary to salvation from that which is not Nor is there any inconvenience in all this to them that are Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture content to lay prejudice aside and to see that which they cannot but see For it will appear by the writings of the Apostles that they committed the Doctrine of Christianity to them whom they trusted with the founding and governing of the Church for the instructing of them that were to bee baptized and formed into Churches whereof the whole Church was to consist So that as they to whom the Apostles writ having received their Christianity from those that were so trusted were to limit the meaning of their writings within that Faith which they had received So is all interpretation of Scripture still to bee confined within that which the Church from the beginning hath received by their hands Which is not to make any man lord of any mans Faith For this Tradition of the Faith is before the very being of the Church Because whosoever became a Christian and so a member of the Church it is supposed that hee undertaketh the same And therefore being in force before there bee any Church it cannot depend upon any authority to bee claimed by the Church And the evidence for it is the same ground into which the reason of beleeving resolveth The consent of all Christians Which as it could not have been preserved and obtained had it not been required to make a man a member of that Church which by professing it stood visibly distinct from all that profess iâ— not So since as much as is necessary to salvation hath been already declared by the consent of the Church to confine all interpretation of Scripture within that which all the Church every where at all times hath received can make no man lord over the Faith of the Church But there is a vast distance between this Tradition of Faith Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions and other Traditions which may have proceeded from that authority and trust for founding the Church which our Lord left with his Apostles and they with the Church For that being the condition upon which all Christians are saved remains alwaies the same neither to bee encreased nor diminished till the Worlds end But the productions of Ecclesiastical power vested in the Apostles and their successours can bee no more then the limiting of circumstances according to which the publick Service of God is to bee performed and those powers exercised which God hath granted the Church for the maintaining of Unity in serving God according to that Christianity which our Lord teacheth Christianity is concerned in them but two waies The first when they are so far from advancing the service of God which Christianity requireth that it is impaired and destroyed by corruption in them The second when a part of the Church proceedeth to a change in them upon pretense that
Whole Church that renders any thing Infallible Now it is true every Christian hath the Judgment of discretion in the choice of Religion in point of fact That is to say supposing the division or rather the divisions that are on foot in the Church But in point of Right it ought to bee otherwise God having provided the Unity of the Church on purpose that simple Christians might not bee put to so hard a choice For when the Catholick Church was so Visibly distinct from all Sects that a Sectary would have been laughed at had hee called his own Church the Catholick Church of that City Willfully must hee perish that should forsake that Church which hee could not mistake But in our case what avails it to allege the Title of Catholick while the ground of the Title remains disputable Especially the division between the Greek and Latine Church having rendred it almost insignificant afore And the number of Protestants as I said of Nestorians rendring it questionable where the signification will light Seeing therefore that the malice of man by dividing the The duty of all estates for the re-uniting of Schisme Church rendreth it Invisible as hard to bee seen though not Invisible as not possible to bee seen What remaineth but that all publick persons and whosoever is interessed in the divisions of the Church understand and consider what account they owe for the Souls that must needs miscarry by the divisions which they maintain wheu they need not For how shall hee bee clear that professes not a desire of condescending to all that which truth will allow on either side for the advantage of peace on both sides And seeing neither side can make peace without the consent of both but either may have truth alone What remaineth but that all Reformation bee confined within those bounds which the Faith and the Law of the Catholick Church fixeth For though they that profess and intend to Reforme by that Rule may fail in applying their Rule to some matters Though seeing what the Rule requires they may bee fain to abate of it because the Body which they intend to regulate is not capable of the strict Rule Yet it is a reasonable ground of confidence for a single heart that the right Rule is expresly professed to bee intended For though in all divisions the parties acknowledging One Visible Church must needs hold the one the other Schismaticks unless they will bear the blame of the division themselves Yet is there no appearance in reason that God will take them for Schismaticks that follow so fair a profession in general though it may not come to effect in some particular And this is the only way to provide a clear discharge for the The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church maters Secular Power that is Sovereign in establishing such a Reformation by Law to the people of it and enacting the same with such priviledges and penalties as Christianity either alloweth or requireth For it is manifest from the premises that the Church by Gods Law is Judge in the matter of all Lawes according to which Religion is to be enacted by any Sovereign Yet is the Sovereign Power Judge also of their Judgment as not only it self a Member of the Whole Church and Heir to all right which the Unity thereof intitleth any Christian to but as Protector of the Church and of the Faith and Lawes of it That is as Protector of all Subjects within the Church of the respective Dominions in all right which the Law of the Church in the Dominion thereof setleth And therefore bound to judge whether that which the Church either of the respective Dominion or united with the same shall determine bee such as the Uuity of the Whole Church either alloweth or requireth or not For it is onely the Sovereign Power that can enact it for a Law upon all the Subjects thereof to the effect of Secular priviledges or penalties And seeing the Faith and Communion of the Church is the inheritance of the Secular Power that is Christian It is manifest that hee is trusted for his Subjects in matter of Religion to no purpose if hee bee to trust the Church at large in the matter of his Office And yet Gods Law having provided the Church to limit all matters questionable upon the constitution of the Church It is also manifest that all Secular Power is to suppose the Faith of the Church as always the same from the beginning And the Lawes in being as acts of the same authority which was founded by God in the Whole Church from the beginning before any Secular Power was Christian Which if it protect not why is it Christian I say it is bound to acceâ—t them for such in case it appear not by the Faith and the Lawes of the Whole Church that they are otherwise And in that case though the Secular Power be Judge for it self yet the Church and the Law of the Church is the Rule by which it is to judge As for that which present necessity requireth â—o be restored or setled a new for the Church respective to every Sovereignty It is also maniâ—est that the Secular Power both may and ought to see the Church under it to do their Office Knowing that it is their Office as to preserve the Faith which is always the same So to maintain Unity by suiting the Laws which are to be with those which have been from the beginning Whereof common reason in all publick Powers is a competent Judge I need say nothing that Secular Powers may and are to see that under pretense of Ecclesiastical Power or Jurisdiction their own rights bee not invaded having said That the power of the Church produceth no Secular effect But as the enacting of the Church Lawes with Secular priviledges and penalties is onely the effect of Secular Power So is it accountable to God alone for the use of it And as the Unity of the whole Church must needs bee concerned How the Conscience of Sovâ—reign Power 〈…〉 in the Lawes of the Church respective to this or that Sovereignty So is it not possible that any Sovereign should bee Judge in the concernments of those that are not his Subjects The divisions of Christendome which I alleged afore make full evidence for this For what need further dispute about Religion were Subjects as Subjects by Gods Law bound to stand to the will of their Sovereigns in that which concerns them as Christians This shews how much Sovereigns are concerned for their discharge to God to seek the peace of Christendome For if as at present it cannot bee had upon just terms it is not the opinion of this or that Divine It is not the opinion of any person whatsoever not acting in a quality capable by the constitution of the Church to oblige the Church respective to the Sovereign Much less is it his personal skill in matters of Religion though as great as any mans that
can serve for his discharge to God Hee is answerable to God notwithstanding any such advise for any wrong that the priviledges and penalties otherwise enacted may do But maintaining first the express profession of the Rule hitherto established bounding all Reformation of the present Church by that which the consent of the Whole Church either alloweth or requireth Then maintaining them in their Office whose Office it is to forme that which his act must make Law to his Subjects There will need no more for his discharge to God then the use of that Judgment which God hath endowed him with to discern whether the Rule which hee protecteth bee duly applyed to that which hee enacteth or not For as no reason can bee excused to God transgressing that which it seeth So in things doubtful to preferre any reason before that which God trusteth in the matter of such trust is to render a mans self accountable to God for that wrong which may bee done for which otherwise those that are trusted by God should bee accountable CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Praedestination to Glory destructive to Christianity Justifying Faith includeth the profession of Christianity The Nature of Faith according to the Scriptures sheweth the same So doth the state of that Question which St Paul disputeth The consent of the Church herein with the ground of it The sense of this Church BUt I must now profess that the weightiest point in re-uniting Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church the breaches of Religion in this Church is the Condition upon which the Fanaticks may bee either reconciled to it or shut out of it whether with free exercise of their several Sects or under certain penalties as Recusants I see that they are not afraid to pretend a further liberty of Publick Preachers even since the Lawes of this Land were in force For I find that such of them as are not Ministers of Congregations do notwithstanding stile themselves Publick Preachers Which is nothing else then to pretend that authority from the Secular Power which they had by the late Usurpation to seduce as many of his Majesties Subjects as they can to their Conventicles But that I will say nothing of because I make certain account that whensoever wee come to any settlement in Religion they will find that their pretense to bee vain That which I insist upon is that which I conceive I have proved that the positions which they notoriously challenge are down-right Haeresie wanting only conviction to produce either conversion or contumacy and the declaration of the Church upon the same For it is notorious that they challenge the present endowment of Gods Spirit and the certainty of Salvation for the future upon no further consideration then of their persons As not depending upon the Christianity which they either profess or perform So far they are from acknowledging that it dependeth upon their being Members of Gods Church by living according to that Christianity which it professeth For because they think themselves Members of Christ before they bee Members of Gods Church Therefore they think themselves enabled by God to divide the Church in infinitum And that the Conventicles of their Congregations are Churches to the same effect with those which were founded by the Apostles Though they profess not the Faith though they renounce the Unity of one Visible Church Therefore they openly allow those who maintain that God can see no sin in his Elect That their sins are pardoned from everlasting before they bee done That God shall not judge by our works but by his own decrees That there are Inspirations of the Holy Ghost without the Word though not against it for dear Members of Christ and the cream of Christians And hence comes the everlasting divisions which they maintain For to renounce those bounds which the Faith of the Church and the Unity thereof fixeth is enough to commend them to all parties that do so for the Godly In fine the whole fry of this errour resolves it self in two Positions That God praedestinateth to Salvation meerly in consideration of mens persons and not of any Christianity which they shall bee found to have professed and performed And that the knowledge of this Praedestination revealed by the Word and sealed by the Spirit immediately not supposing the Christianity which they profess and perform is that Faith which only justifieth I cannot say that the Presbyterians do expresly profess these How their Positions destroy the Faith Positions For they have an express Confession of their Faith which expresseth them not But seeing them in all occasions of publick confusion render themselves considerable by these Fanaticks as being of one and the same party I must take it for granted that they think their Profession reconcileable with these Positions Especially knowing how many particular Divines and Preachers of that party have maintained the same Namely all that maintain justifying Faith and the Knowledge and Assurance of a mans Salvation without and before Repentance I do not then say that the belief of absolute Praedestination is Haeresie in the sight of God Because it may bee held with other positions which are an antidote to the venime of it as being really contradictory to it Which contradiction did those that hold it perceive they could not hold it For this contradiction suffers not the consequence of Haeresie to take effect But both positions together I have maintained to bee down-right Haeresie Neither have I been shewed or of my self discovered any reason sufficient to think otherwise And therefore I must continue to weigh by my own Weights and to mete by my own Measures For that the ground and substance of Christianity is utterly Absolute Praedestination to Glory destructive to Christianity inconsistent with the Decree which they imagine is manifest if any thing can bee manifest in Christianity Because if there were any such Decree then could not men be judged at the last day as judged they shall bee by their works There is no Decree of God that shall not bee executed If God decree from everlasting to give glory and torment for everlasting without consideration of mens works then must hee without such consideration give it in time For otherwise hee should not execute that which hee decrees And indeed such a Decree can no way bee undefeasible as all Gods Decrees must bee Unless God determine and move every man to every thing that hee doth every moment of his life upon the account whereof hee shall bee saved or damned And that before his own will determine or move it self But if God should so determine and move mans will then would the tender of the Gospel bee a meer abuse and a mockery Inviting mankind to Salvation upon a Condition which unless God determine and move him to perform hee cannot If hee do hee cannot but perform The justice of Gods proceedings at
enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy pretense of the pre-eminence of his Church in Ecclesiastical matters hath given this Crown just occasion to declare it self Supreme Head or Supreme Governour for the kingdom of heaven is not in word but in power as St. Paul saith in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil But the capacity of several senses in words that signifie humane matters capable of so great a Latitude by their nature seemeth to have Produced out of this Act a Sect of Erastians very dangerous to Christianity As immediately denying any Ordinance of God for the Visible Unity of his Church which is an Article of our Creed but by consequence shewing all how they may enjoy the benefit of Civil Law in a State that professes Christianity without beleeving any more of Christianity then they please This capacity was restrained in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign by her Injunctions by the Articles of Religion by an Act of Parliament not to signisie the abolishing or the disclaiming of Ecclesiastical power in part or in whole And to such effect that it is acknowledged now in books written on purpose by one party of Recusants that they may freely take the Oath of Supremacy saving the scruple that may remain of offending those Recusants who think that they may not take it And I can by no means marvel at it For they who do openly profess that unlimited obedience to the Pope in Ecclesiastical maters which hee requireth how can they swearing the Oath of Supremacy bee thought to abjâ—â—e his Ecclesiastical power in England the words of the Oath being restrained by Law to disclaim only the Temporal effect of it But it is manifest that not only the unlimited power of the Pope What further ambiguity that Oath involveth but all authority of a General Council of the Western Churches whereof the Pope is and ought to bee the chief member according to the premises may justly seem to bee disclaimed by other words of the same Oath And that Whereas the Pope usurped not only upon the Crown but upon the Clergy of this Kingdom all those Usurpations are by the Act of Resumption under Hâ—nry the VIII invested in the Crown So that when the Oath declares to maintain all Rights and Pre-eminences annexed to the Crown you may understand that maintenance which a Subject owes his Sovereign against those that pretend to force his claims from him But you may also understand that maintenance which a Divine owes the Truth in asserting the Title of the Crown to all rights vested in it Which hee that believes that some rights of the Church are invested in the Crown ought not to undertake Though as a Subject for preserving the State of his King and Country hee bee tyed to maintain all the claims of the Crown against all the enemies of it Now if an Oath required by the Sovereign Power bear two What scanâ—al the takiâ—g of it in the true sense ministreth senses in the proper signification of the Words which is more ordinary then it is believed the Subject may undergo it in that sense which truth and right warranteth And so in regard the Pope not content with his Regular authority in the Church pretends Temporal power in disposing of the Dominiâ—nâ— which hee disclaims Communion with besides absolute power in materâ— of Religion it is lawful to swear that hee ought to have no manner of power in this Kingdom as things stand tiâ—l hee depart from claims so unjust But there is appearance that the misunderstanding of it hath produced an Opinion destructive to one Article of the Creed to the being of any Visible Church as founded by God And besides it is not possible that all they who are called to this Oath by Law can ever bee able to distinguish that sense wherein they ought from that wherein they ought not to take it And therefore of necessity the Law gives great offense and that offense is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods vengeance upon it Which though all are involved in yet in the other world the account will lye upon them that may change it and do not Now it is manifest that all Recusants believe not the Popes That this Oatâ— ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religiâ—n that abridge Allegiance Temporal Power nor think themselves bound to execute such Acts as the Bull of Pius quintus against Queen Elizabeth Those that do not how should they bee liable to capital punishment which the Law in some cases inflicts For how should they bee taken for the enemies of their Country otherwise On the contrary I have shewed by the Troubles of Franckford in the beginning of the Reformation that there was then the same difference of opinion amongst them that held with the Reformation about obedience to Sovereigns obeying the Church of Rome And that the same difference of opinion was the cause of the late Troubles appeareth by the aspersion of Popery upon his late Majesty alleged to justifie the War against him Whereby it appeareth that they of that opinion do undergo the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance as provided only against the See of Rome and the claims of it Thinking themselves enabled notwithstanding the same to limit their Allegiance to that which their Religion shall allow And therefore there is great Reason why the Kingdom should enact a new Oath extending the Original Allegiance of all Subjects to all cases in which experience hath shewed or reason may foresee that Religion may bee pretended to abridge the Obligation of Allegiance This I am encouraged here to declare by the late Act of the Kingdom of Scotland establishing for the future the form of an Oath whereby the obligation of Allegiance iâ— extended to the renouncing not only of any claim for the See of Rome but of all pretenses whatsoever whether upon the account of Religion or of civil Right of abridging the obligation of it For though I neither maintain nor find fault with the terms which it useth yet the agreement and the difference between the case of both Kingdoms as it evidenceth to all the necessity so it determineth to them that are to understand the State of both the agreement and the difference of that which ought to bee provided And seeing it is the true consequence of the common Christianity that enables the Kingdom to do this because supposing as it doth the State of this World it cannot extend to the altering of it there is great reason why a Divine should bee allowed to say it not entring upon other considerations wherein Religion is not concerned For in the next place to the bringing in of a new Provision the conscience of the Kingdom is best discharged the Scandals that may bee occasioned removed the wrath of God prevented or appeased by the secular Powers allowing these interpretations to pass without contradiction that may enable all estates to depose it
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
large that the Cathedral Churches cannot bee made serviceable under the Bishop to the Government of the Whole Diocese If Colleges of Presbyters were erected in all the Head Towns of Counties the youth of the Counties that pretend to the Clergy restoring this Canon must bee under the inspection of the same If before their going to the University they were listed under them as expecting imployment and maintenance under them that is within the County then must they make account to approve their conversations and studies to them as having no other way to live in that estate to which they addict themselves As for the course of finding imployment and maintenance for them I will go no further to particulars then I have done It is enough that the intention should bee the restoring of the Primitive Canons as the estate of this time will require or allow It would bee no small gain that by restoring this Canon Reasons for it the complaint of pluralities would bee silenced For that persons whose abilities and trust are approved to the Bishop by information of the said Presbyters should have the care of more then one Church would bee no more inconvenience then that those Presbyters have a care of the County the Bishop of the Diocese Always supposing that the incumbent upon the Cure and the rate of his maintenance bee allowed or rather constituted by the Bishop to whom that right originally belongs I will say no more to justifie this Proposition but this That hee who is obnoxious to several Churches that is to several Dioceses either as to the duty of Governing or of being Governed can by no means bee accountable to both according to that account which the constitution of the Catholick Church requireth of every Order and Degree of the Clergy And again that seeing all exemptions privileging against the Ordinary Rule and Government of the Church are the effects and consequences of the Papacy and the Usurpations thereof that the Reformation which wee profess cannot bee justified in it self though in comparison it may abate of the abuse which went afore without restoring a Rule of such consequence Buâ— all this while it is no part of my intent that those who are presently possessed by the Law of the Land should bee presently destituted But that a course bee prouided for the future to which the world may bee disposed by degrees In the second place for the justifying of our Reformation Publick fame of sin to bee purged by Ecclesiastical process and towards restoring the Discipline of Penance it is requisite that all Malefactors convicted by Law of capital or infamous crimes or others of as great malice to God though not so destructive to Civil Society should stand Excommunicate when their lives and liberties are saved till they satisfie the Church of their conversion to God The Law of this Land providing no other trial for sins of uncleanness but that of the Ecclesiastical Courts hath hitherto enabled them to proceed to the trial of publick scandals by deposing witnesses ex officio Which according to the rest of the ignorance and malice of the blessed Reformation hath been construed for an Usurpation upon the liberties of Christian people For it is manifest that under the Old Testament the Rulers of Gods antient people were able every one within the Sphere of his authority to oblige all men to answer upon Oath in any thing wherein they should adjure them to answer For upon this account our Lord himself beeing subject to the Law answered the adjuration of the High Priest And the Levitical Law prescribeth a trespass Offering for him who being adjured to speak his knowledge in any business should conceal it This the Jews extend to the adjurations of private persons if made in open Court But there is no question that the Princes and Judges of that People each in the mater of his Office obliged their Inferiors to answer their knowledg So that they were perjured ipso facto concealing that which they knew of any mans cause Under the Gospel it is evident that the Bishop in Consistory with his Presbyters did try all scandals in the Church by summoning all persons within the Diocese to witness their knowledge And that to this effect That if any man were detected to have concealed his knowledge hee became thereby liable to Penance as for a heinous sin And Constantine the Great authorizing by an Act of the Empire yet extant the Sentences of Bishops in all causes that should bee brought to them by consent of parties gives this reason for it Because their authority was able presently to discover that which Civil Courts could not bring to light by tedious suits Whereby it appeareth that all Christians found themselves tied to answer the truth which their Pastors summoned them to declare for discharge of their conscience Christianity being corrupted by the coming of the World into the Church it might become requisite that the generality of this authority should bee restrained within such bounds as emergent abuses might oblige the Law to provide But when a Power so neerly concerning Christianity is cried down for an Usurpation upon the Church it appeareth that Christianity is at a low ebbe if they who understand so little in the Scriptures or in maters concerning the Church dare undertake to Reform it Adultery is one of the sins which the antient Church in some places durst not warrant forgiveness And therefore did not restore Aulterers to the Communion no not at the point of death If the Law therefore provide no other trial for it but by the Christian Court to take away that means of trial which the Church inheriteth of Gods antient people is in some measure to authorize adultery in a Christian Kingdom That is to call down Gods vengeance upon it Rather it should bee provided that inquisition after all scandals upon publick fame might bee authorized upon terms fit to prevent abuses though not for civil punishment which the Christian Court should have nothing to do with yet for the bringing of sin under Penance And therefore much more that sinners which are become â—â—torious Sinners convict â—y â—â—w nâ—â—â—â— Communicate bâ—fore Penance by conviction in Court according to the Civil Law of the Land ought not to bee admitted to the Communion wiâ—hoâ—â— satisfying the Church by performing fit Penance that God is satisfied And the Curate indeed seemeth to bee enabled by the present Law to refuse all such the Communion much more If hee bee able to refuse those that seem scandalous till they bee tried And if hee do not what he is able to do must answer God for the soul which hee poysoneth by giving him the Eucharist who barres himself the effect of it His Repentance not being manifest as his sin is But if the Law will not leave out the Curate in refusing him till hee have satisfied The choice is hard for him that hath a family to forfeit his Benefice by
if hee refuse it The Curate indeed stands excused by the Law as to his Superiours and to the Church But what will the Law what will the Church what will the Curate say for themselves at the great judgement of God if it appear that a soul perishes by this defect in the Law according to the which hee ministers his Office And a Recusant in this case may say with truth that those abuses which I have taxed the Church of Rome for allowing it commandeth not That hee may possibly meet with one that is not tainted with those novelties of Doctrine But will deal faithfully with his soul in that exigent And therefore may hope that he sinneth not in continuing a Recusant out of hope for that help in this point which hee cannot expect by conforming And therefore that his sin not being visible to him in this point the penalties of Recusancy at least in this regard are inflicted without cause A Supplication for a full debate of all maters in difference Had I not proceeded thus far in setting forth what the justifying of the Reformation which wee profess will require I had not set forth the ground of that most humble supplication which I advance upon it together with a most earnest adjuration if it bee lawful for Inferiors in any case possible to adjure their Superiors to and of all Estates whom the forming of the Laws of Religion in this Kingdom may any way concern by the bowels of Gods mercies in Christ by the bitter passion of his Cross by the merit of his sufferings by that â—hope of salvation which they furnish all Christians with And if the good of this World bee of any consideration after so high concernments by the hope of his Majesties long and prosperous Reign over us by the blessing of his return by the peace which wee enjoy through the same not to think the restoring of Religion by the Laws of this Kingdom the work of one sitting of Parliament or Synod Not to think that a work of that consequence and difficulty can bee concluded and made up by any Laws that may presently bee provided by any humane wisdom Not to think the Laws presently provided so fixed for eternity that further endeavours for the perfecting of so great a work should bee thought derogatory to the authority of Law In fine according to that which I said in the beginning to think the Laws that may presently bee provided ambulatory and provisional till all possible means shall have been tried to put so great a work beyond all imputation of any visible offense Not thinking any pains a burthen that may shew reasonable hope of a good issue to so high a purpose For as there is just cause to think that there remains very much means to bee imployed with such a hope So the time now seems proper now that there is appearance of the restoring of the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land for imploying the same For the means to bee imployed will consist in a just and full debate of reason upon principles agreed upon between the parties tending to reduce them unto agreement in such things as remain in difference This debate may well seem dangerous to peace not supposing any authority to govern it within the due bounds and to direct it unto the due purpose But supposing as wee must needs suppose all parties liable to that authority which the Law of the Land authorizes because that is acknowledged by all parties neither can the Secular Power allow thsoe whom it owns for Governors of the Church less then to govern and direct all dispute tending to satisfie all that question the Ecclesiastical Law of the Kingdom Nor need they desire more for a reasonable ground of hope for good success There can bee no ground to expect that they who openly profess the Laws of Religion to bee the sins of them that make them can think their duties discharged to God by being instrumental in the executing of them to the intent to them that make them They must needs think themselves bound in conscience to deprave and to pervert the effect of them to their own intent in an infinity of particulars which no diligence of Government can prevent or meet with But when upon full and just debate it shall appear that a change is refused them meerly because they can shew no sufficient reason for it upon those grounds which the common Christianity obliges the parties to acknowledge condescending to all that they can shew such reason for how can it bee imagined that any prejudice or engagement that may bee so honourably quitted will prevail above God and their Country to a defiance of them that carry not the Sword in vain I consess I can hope for no good end of any such Dispute The ground of resolution the being of the Catholick Church the first and chief point of the debate without supposing that sense of the Article concerning one Catholick Church which hath carried me through this discourse for the Principle upon which all mater in debate is to bee tried Nor can I take it for a supposition which they do admit of themselves But I suppose first that the misunderstanding of that which it demandeth being once cleared the truth of it will bee so evident by that reason which must satisfie for the truth of the common Christianity that all shall bee convinced of it by that which they allege for themselves as being the consequence of their own allegations Then I suppose further that it is the first point to bee tried as that which in effect contains more then half the trial of all the rest Which had it been agreed upon might have prevented all breaches And without agreeing upon it leaves all Dispute in Religion endless and without hope of conviction or satisfaction on this side or on that It is not indeed to bee expected that Recusants will ever become a party to such an action though no way concerned in conscience not to own those whom their Sovereign appointeth for Governors of such a debate Not because there would bee any appearance that thereby they should own them for their Superiors But because wee find them not disposed to own the obligation of their Christianity requiring them to concur to it upon those terms to bee more antient then any obligation of their spiritual Superiors to the contrary For if the Unity of the Church take place before the authority of any Superiors provided for the maintenance of it then is every Christian obliged to the due ground and terms of it before the authority of Superiors And therefore cannot refuse them tendered by a part though refused by a greater part And therefore cannot refuse that trial which is the due means to bring them to light though his Superiors refuse it And therefore their refusal can bee no bar to the effect of the action once grounded upon a supposition inforcing the trial by the Scriptures expounded by
the Schisme which the Reformation hath made between us and the Church of Rome hath dissolved the obligation of being members of the Church If that change which is called Reformation preserve not such a Church as ought to bee acknowledged for a true member of the whole or Catholick Church it is no Reformation but the destruction of Christianity Now when these Laws inable Souldiers and Justices of the Peace as well as those that call themselves Ministers to make publick Preachers as well such as have received no Ordination from the Church as those that have It is manifest that all difference between Clergy and People is by them dissolved and made void And by consequence the Corporation of the Church which grounds and creates all the difference which hitherto by all Christians hath been received between these two qualities True it is that for the present as well those who have lawful authority to officiate the publick Service of God by Ordination from the Church are admitted to or maintained in their Benefices by these Laws as those that have none Though it bee well enough known that those who have such authority do pretend to act by virtue of it and not by this Law further then as by submitting to it they remove that force which hinders their right otherwise gotten to take effect But it is as true that supposing this Law to continue an age none such can remain And when none such remains then there shall bee no Church in England but by equivocation of words if the premises bee true And therefore those that acknowledge such as have no other authority but from this power for their Pastors cannot consequently profess to believe one Catholick Church nor hope for salvation by being members of it For supposing for the present though not granting that the power which makes these Laws is from God yet can it not bee pretended to bee from our Lord Christ and his Apostles And therefore this authority derived from it cannot bee derived from any act of theirs constituting the Church and enabling it to give this authority by acknowledging whereof Christians presume that they are members of the Church Now that you may see why the belief of Christs Church is an Article of our Creed I say further that you cannot acknowledg such men for your Pastors because you are not secured by these Laws that they are not Haereticks For seeing the Act of Establishment pretends only to hold forth the Christian Religion centained in the Scriptures and that all the Haerefies that are this day in the world do maintain themselves to profess the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures it is manifest that these Laws provide not that they shall not bee Haereticks which are sent you for Pastors Here I must not complain that whereas all that profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ though differing from the profession held forth are protected in the exercise of their Religion Popery and Praelacy are excepted though it cannot bee denied that both profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ Nor that those who hold the profession established by the Laws under which wee were born are refused that protection which is tendred Socinians enemies of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ who manifestly profess Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures and Faith in God by Jesus Christ For my business is not to say what they that made these Laws should have done instead of making them but what you are to do now they are made But if it bee answered that those that make these Laws repose trust in them to whom they grant these Commissions that they will not take any to bee godly men that are Haereticks To this I say that will not serve your turn for several reasons For those that profess all that this law requires them to profess that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ and the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures cannot bee judged ungodly for whatsoever they profess besides by any power derived from this Law but an arbitrary power to bee exercised at the will of the Commissioners And how are you assured that no Haeretick shall obtain a certificate of three Neighbours and so answer their demands that they shall think him in Gods grace However you are not warranted to trust your salvation and the salvation of those that depend on you either upon the judgement of these Commissioners or of them that make the Laws If it be demanded why the Secular Power and the Commissioners thereof are not as well to bee trusted with the salvation of the people as those that may pretend authority from the Church the answer is ready That when you acknowledge a Pastor sent by the Church you neither trust his person nor the person of him that sends him but the Laws which the Church hath received from our Lord and his Apostles For limiting his profession and undertaking to exercise the function which hee receiveth according to them hee bâ—comes thereby qualified for his charge But hee who acknowledges no such Laws because hee acknowledges no Catholick Church destroys the trust you are to have in those whom you acknowledge your Pastors that they are not Haereticks And here I must not fail to give you notice that those Presbyterians and Independents who having departed from the Church of England upon pretense of erecting Presbyteries and Congregations do now make themselves Commissioners to execute these Laws which destroy both Presbyteries and Congregations have thereby destroyed the ground of all trust which the Church might have had in them for conduct in Christianity For what profession can it bee presumed that they will stand to when they stand not to that for which they have destroyed the Unity of this Church which is the reason why Haereticks and Schismaticks though they may bee re-admitted to the Communion of the Church upon repentance yet by the Rules of the Catholick Church cannot bee re-admitted to bee of the Clergy For these Apostasies make them uncapable of that trust which the Church must necessarily repose in the Clergy That you may see this is not for nothing I say further that that there is among us a damnable Haeresie of Antinomians or Enthusiasts formerly when Puritans were not divided from the Church of England known by the name of Grindletons and Etonists These do believe so to bee saved by the free Grace of God by which Christ died for the Elect that true faith is nothing but the revelation hereof and by consequence that all their sins past present and to come being remitted by this Grace to repent of sin or to contend against it is the renouncing of Gods free grace and saving faith Another opinion there is which I cannot say the Presbyteans hold or require to bee held but in regard their Confession of Faith and Catechisme disclaimes it not and therefore allows them that hold it to bee of their Faction may well bee said to maintain it That for a
have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practice of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacrilege in consecrating the Eucharist For though the name of Ministers signifies no more then Deacons and that it is truly Sacrilege for Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist Yet they whom they call Ministers if Ordained were Ordained Priests with power to celebrate the Eucharist For they call them Ministers to impose upon the World an opinion which they cannot prove by the Scripture That they are the only Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and being of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to bee the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to bee made by the consecration before which they were only Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the same and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must bee presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to bee guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ as not distinguishing a sign of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the now pretended Reformation of Religion in England That the Church is not to assemble for the Service of God but when there is Preaching This seems to stand upon a very gross mistake of those passages of the Apostles writings which declare the necessary means of salvation to consist in hearing the Gospel preached As if they were meant of Sermons in the Pulpit which are onely made to those that are already Christians not of publishing the Gospel to those that knew it not afore convincing them that it is true and instructing them wherein it consists Or as if those that are already Christians wanted any thing necessary to salvation supposing them to persevere in the Christianity which they have professed Not as if their Christianity did not oblige them to hear Sermons when the authority of the Church assures them to bee without offense But because the Offices of publick Prayers and the Praises of God especially in celebrating the blessed Eucharist are the end of all that instruction in Christianity which Christians receive from the Church and therefore all Preaching subordinate to the same as the means to the End And because they may bee daily so frequented without offense and to the increase of the reverence due to Christianity as the experience of our time shows that Preaching cannot bee The second is that the first day of the week called Sunday is the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment A mistake so gross that it may well serve for an instance what Faction can do with men that are sober otherwise That God by commanding the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week to wit that day on which hee ended the Creation of the world and for that very reason commanding it should bee thought to command Christians to keep the first day of the week on which hee began the Creation and our Lord Christ arose from the dead That is that the same words of the same Commandment in writing should oblige Jews to rest on the Saturday which oblige Christians to rest on the Sunday is a thing which when this fit of frenzie shall bee past us will scarse bee believed that ever any man would believe True it is this first day hath been observed in and ever since the Apostles time but not by virtue of that Law which their Office was to declare expired and out of date but by the Act of their own authority whereby they gave Laws to Christs Church Let us now only compare the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of Prayer and the Praises of God established by the Order of the Church of England together with the more solemn service of Lords days and Festivals with a bare Sermon upon Sundays ushered in and out with a Prayer of every mans own conceit setting aside the Haeresie and false Doctrine the Faction and Schism the Blasphemy and Slander the ridiculous Follies which this Sermon and Prayer may and which wee have known them contain I say comparing these together the Reformation pretended is and ought to bee accounted the abomination of desolation in comparison of that Order which it destroyeth And therefore upon this account alone those who not being invested with that ordinary Power by which the Church is inabled to correct abuses in the Church shall usurp the Power of the Church to introduce this disorder are thereby Schismaticks themselves and those that acknowledge them for their Pastors complices of Schismaticks It will bee said that these Laws will bee amended as it was many times said awhile since that the Parliament would settle a Ministery To this I say that those who shall bee sent you by virtue of these Laws have every way as good authority as any the Power that made these Laws joyned with a Parliament can give to them that are not otherwise qualified by the authority of the Church That is that this Power and the power of a Parliament together though advising with Divines can do no more then this Power with advise of those Divines which it useth hath done Because both are Secular and able to make men their Ministers to maintain the Interest of that Government which their Power constituteth but not Ministers of the Church to maintain the Interest of that Faith and Service of God which it is trusted with If it bee said that in most parts of the Reformation those from whom the Ministery is propagated had not received by their Ordination Power to ordain others For answer I suppose That the abuses crept into the Church were so great that particular Churches that is part of the whole might and ought to reform themselves without consent or concurrence of the whole I suppose that though there bee in the Church a succession of persons indued with authority in behalf of it as well as of Faith and of Rules or Laws Yet the