Conduct and Government yet the Premises last mentioned being considered there can be no great prejudice to the Commonwealth or Civil Affairs thereby Distinctly we shall weigh both of them 1. For the Former If the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing as was mentioned before and of such a nature as altho at first of godly intent and purpose devised yet at length turned to Vanity and Superstition and burdening mens Consciences without cause c. as we our selves acknowledge See Preface to the Common-Prayer Book and of the same condition are most of those Impositions which have proved burthensom to the Nation a long time I say if so the not imposing of these things cannot be prejudicial to Church or State. Not to the Church If these directions for Gospel-worship in the external Circumstances of it were not reduced into Canons and Injunctions but left where they are to be taken up in practice according to the light of the Age as are Gospel-Duties of greater consequence Those Scriptures by which States profess themselves to be guided in forming these Ecclesiastical Lawes are intrusted also in the hands of the Gospel-Ministers for their conduct and direction in ordering Gospel Affairs who have gifts and assistances from it in such a measure and degree as cannot be expected in the ablest Statesman as such And the Ecclesiastical Lawes are never so well ordered by Civil Powers as when they consult with and take advice and directions from the Ministers of the Gospel about them To advise new Rites and Ceremonies saith Bishop Bilson is not the Princes Vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures commend and as the Bishops and Pastors of the place shall advise of Suprem p. 226 2. If there were no such severe Injunctions about the Forms and Modes of Gospel-Worship I speak not of such Duties of Religion in which mens natures are principled 1. The Nation would not hereby suffer in respect of its Civil concerns but the Wealth and Trade would be much more prosperous the things being small in themselves and do become great only upon the account of their being injoyned and the greatness of Penalties annexed being of great Concernment to the State that is to the great prejudice thereof as hath been apparent in many years sad Experience What is it of moment to the Common-wealth for the quickening of Trade keeping up of Rents c. or any particular man's concern as Civil that men kneel or not at the Sacrament Crossing or not Crossing in Baptism 2. For the other as dispensing with all Penalties annexed to Ecclesiastical Lawes where these Penalties are removed yet these Lawes remain as Councels and Advertisements and being consulted by the learned Clergy in their Synods and commended are useful in the Administration of Worship This is as much as ever was done by the Apostles when Churches were in their greatest Purity who endeavoured not so much to establish an external Uniformity as to preserve Christian Liberty If it be said they had then no Christian Magistrates We say the Kingdom of Christ must come into a Nation before it be Christian and if it be so defective in its first address for want of such Magistrate and of the means we put so great an esteem upon for the reducing a People how will the People ever become Christian And on the other side if the Gospel hath a sufficiency in it self without borrowing to subdue a Pagan Nation to Christianity much easier it is being such to preserve them orderly and regular Christians Paul having instructed and councelled left his People free and to act by the Perswasion of their own hearts Rom. 14.5 One man esteemeth one day above another another man esteemeth every day alike let every man be perswaded in his own mind That was but a Councel or Advertisement in the Act for Conformity in 18 Eliz. given to the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they would endeavour to perform their Duties in execution of the Act it was indeed very solemn coming from the Queens Majesty The Lords Temporal and all the Commons in the Present Parliament and in God's Name and as they will answer before God for such Evils and Plagues as may be Punishments for the neglect hereof There hath been no want of obedience hereunto by the Bishops being fully perswaded in their hearts thereof as their Duty of which if they had not been so perswaded the severest Penalties would or ought to have been in vain King James orders throughout the Kingdom that the Afternoons Exercise each Lord's-Day be spent in examining Children in their Catechism instead of Preaching this is only commended as the most convenient and laudable way in teaching of the Church of England and that such Preachers be most encouraged and approved of and how readily was this immediately practised throughout the Nation and is continued in many places unto this day In the Establishment of Vniformity 2º Edw. 6. a Liberty was left in respect to Ceremonies to practise or omit them according as men were perswaded in their hearts By the Synod held 1640. some Rites and Ceremonies there mentioned were heartily commended by them to the serious Consideration of all good People as an ancient and laudable Custome of the Primitive Church in the purest times and notwithstanding all this extolling those Rites which indeed was as much as can be said for any of our Ceremonies the Cannon concludes thus in the practice or omission of this Rite we desire that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is that they who use the Liberty despise not them which use it not and they who use it not condemn not those that use it Canon 7. 1640. And this their Councel and Commending hath not been in vain but received and submitted unto throughout by those who were so perswaded of these Rites as they have commended them And so would it have been in respect of other the Rites of our Church And the free submission in practise of a Rite tho but from a fewer number of Grave and Pious Persons would have advanced the esteem of such Ceremonies in the Opinions of others much more than the forced submission of greater multitudes 2. As a further Answer let us consider the Nature of the Crime with respect to the Penalties the Crime as expressed in our Lawes is a wilful and obstinate or contemptuous omission as in 19 Eliz. c. 2o. in the Act for Vniformity where these words wilful and obstinate I would think are not descriptive and to be understood reduplicative as an aggravation and as if all omissions must of necessity proceed from wilfulness and obstinacy but distinctive and to be understood Specificative some omissions being from wilfulness and contempt but there may be omissions that are not so and being not so full under the Penalties as killing a man and wilful Murther c. That the words of that Act 1º
is not then to dispense with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Lawes too great a trust to be reposed in any one hand In Answer I shall endeavour something to unfold 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Nation 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. How much Religion c. The moment and weight of a Matter in our Deliberation hath its proportion either as under an absolute or respective Consideration Wisdom is better than Riches in it self absolutely but not in respect to the support of present life The knowledge of God and Divine things is better than to know the virtue of Drugs and Plants but not so in respect to the study of Physick So Religion and the Worship of God is the chiefest and better part in it self considered but in its respective Considerations as to the faculty of a particular Person to Community of men for the advance of Civil Affairs there are other qualifications and inducements of greater Consequence and more directly and immediately tending to the being or well-being thereof That there be no mistake in this great Concernment I further distinguish There cometh under the Notion of Religion the Holiness and Righteousness that is of the Moral Law Principles whereof are in all mens natures and attended in their actings by a natural Conscience 2. Gospel Duties directed and ordered by a supernatural light no footsteps or Principles whereof are found in us For the former Religion in that first sense as the Knowledge of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our dealings c. are such things wherein the well-being of Kingdoms and Commonwealth is much concerned But Religion as it stands in exerting supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commands of Christ as the other the Commands of God Jo. 15. such as Faith Repentance Sacraments Discipline and the like Gospel-Ordinances In the Duties under these Heads considered and as distinct from Moral Duties there is little or nothing directly and immediately contributed by them to mens Civil interests further then where these supernatural Vertues are planted in mens Minds the Moral Duties of Piety and Honesty do more plentifully abound and are in exercise As those Morals do more immediately concern the Commonwealth so the Lawes thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Lawes under Penalties and incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State is judged most conducing to the welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries 't is otherwise for as they contribute not to us in our Civil Government otherwise than as before-mentioned so is there little contributed by the Wisdom or Authority of any State advantagious to the Gospel but Protection or being a defence upon the Glory Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Chaist the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commands which is all the Power we give to Princes Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers c. but Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first ordained and appointed but to return If Adam had stood all Common-wealths had been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised and since the fall you have had well-governed Kingdoms and States among Turks Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular persons in Commerce another man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any other Civil concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a man I deal with be unjust ly steal c. my worldly interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this or exercise Faith on Christ for forgiveness and humble himself I am neither gainer nor loser in my Civil concern Now it is Gospel-Worship and gospel-Gospel-Religion we profess in this Nation If then the Duties themselves performed are of no greater onsequence in respect to Persons with whom we converse or the Civil State where we live the Modes Forms and Ceremonies of such Worship cannot be of such moment or trust in the manage of them And let me add much less can there be any such special advantage or detriment to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external form of Worship or Government that one should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention and from an alteration whereof we should be so much deterred which evidently appears in this how prosperous and flourishing hath this Nation been in their Civil concerns under Episcopacy Set Liturgies Ceremonies c. and as great Prosperity in other Christian States where these have altogether been disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Officers that they contribute no more to the settling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no edge to cut off mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Lawes and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Lawes in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the trust whereof may be placed in the hand of a Wife and Prudent Prince Again there is Liberty of an after-Judgement to be made by him that is to practise in whatever is in the concerns of Religion commanded by men Thence such Lawes require not such simple and peremptory obedience if conformable to those rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect unto God as well as Man if otherwise that then ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostles claimed Acts 5.29 Now altho Matters of Religion and the Concernment of it be great things considered in it self and accordingly is the trust yet what of it falleth under the hand of a Civil Power is neither in it self nor in its trust so great Because the greatness of this trust sticks generally in mens minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the will of one man to remove this or the like stumbling block we will suppose failings in the management of the trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refufe either by himself or Parliament to enjoyn any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Externals in the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. Suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to a full Liberty in the observance of them and call these high defects and failings in
they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countrys and Mens manners So that nothing be ordained against God's Word It is granted that even these Ecclesiastical Lawes ought to be conformable to the Word of God and to these general Rules laid down in the Scripture for ordering the Worship and Service of God in the Churches as let all things be done decently and to edification Give no offence to Jew or Gentile and the like but not to be mens mere inventions That distinction which some would make of things against or contrary and what is according to the Word of God as they apply the one to matters of Faith the other to matters of Order is a distinction without a difference there is more wit than truth in that interpretation of Christ's words He that is not with me is against me and in another place He that is not against me is with me applying one to matters of Faith the other to matters of Order There is no such distinction to be made but Rites Ceremonies and matters of Order ought to be according to God's Word as well as matters of Faith. Magistrates are to judge circa res Ecclesiasticas de iis si fidei sint dogmata vel ritus Ceremeniae earumque veritatem equitatem juxta verbi divini normam Mocket de Pol. Eccl. Anglicanae cap. 30. And the Power of the King stands not in forming new Articles of Faith or formes of Religion and such as were Jeroboam's Calves but in defending and propagating that Faith and Religion of which God in the Scripture is the undoubted Author faith Mason of Bishops cap. 5. It is evident those holy men our first Reformers made no such distinction but that all should be done according to God's Word laying before them these general Rules in Scripture even in retaining that which hath been so offensive for of the retaining Ceremonies there is this account given by them viz. because they appertain to Edification whereunto all things done in the Church as the Apostle teacheth ought to be referred And our Liturgy saith thus There is nothing to be read but the very pure Word of God and the Holy Scriptures or that which is evidently grounded upon the same Preface to the Common-Prayer God be thanked saith good King Edw. 6. we know both by his word what is fit to be reformed and have amended c. The Bishop of Rome and his Jurisdiction is taken away and abolished because is had no ground or establishment in the Lawes of God. Injunct Ed. 6. So Pil grimages Offerings Beads Images are done away being works devised by man fancy and beside Scripture It is convenient thus distinctly to have insisted upon what we term Religion or Matters Ecclesiastical according to that sense in which the Civil Magistrate assumes to himself the ordering hereof and what influence and authority the Scriptures have or ought to have in these Rites of the Church and matters of Orders as well as matters of Faith. For hereby it appears whence it is mens Consciences are more concerned in these Lawes than in other municipal Lawes of the Nation and their not being free to submit to these Ecclesiastical Lawes when not formed according to God's Word is no evidence of that Seditious spirit that kicks against all Lawes 2. There is a necessity and that of much greater importance Provision be made of Dispensations c. as occasion shall be of Lawes Ecclesiastical than Civil In Matters of Religion and the Service of God 1. Multitudes there are of loose and prophane Persons and in respect to such neither are the Lawes in themselves nor in the execution of them severe enough 2. Against POPISH Recusants the Lawes have been severe enough yet in the Execution great Moderation 3. There are those and blessed be God great numbers who are not only Orthodox in Faith but of unblameable life in the greater things of the Law and Gospel These have faln under most fevere Lawes and of late with greatest severity put in execution and would be utterly ruined if there be no means of relaxation It is in the behalf of these I argue this Necessity of Indulgence and from these and the like Considerations 1. There is a greater proneness in conscientious men to scruple and to be doubtful in their obedience to the Ecclesiastical than to the Civil Lawes of a Nation as before 2. The great difficulty in forming Lawes wherein mens Consciences are immediately concerned so as not to dissatisfie some if not many 3. If those Lawes be not according to Scripture in the apprehensions of those that are to obey whatever they are in themselves it 's our Sin if we obey it 's not so in Civil commands 4. It is not of so ill consequence for us to yield obedience to a Civil as to an Ecclesiastical Law if ill constituted by the State. 5. From what is found in a manner peculiar in these our Ecclesiastical Lawes and the administration of them many ways prejudicial to the subject there is a necessity some such provision be found on our behalf of this kind 1. The real doubts and scruples about our obedience in these Ecclesiastical Matters cannot but be more and greater than in other Lawes A man of the greatest knowledge in these things knoweth but in part and the most men have but a parcel in this part It is true the Principles and the greater matters of Religion are in great perspicuity laid down in Scripture which gives knowledge to the Simple but these matters of Circumstance and external order we have for the most part in the generals only and hints from Examples and Customs of the Apostolical Churches in the interpre terpretation whereof the most learned find difficulties and are divided Now the want of Knowledge is the ground of scruple and doubts in our practice 1 C. 8.7 For the working of Conscience is from the ultimate resolution of the practical understanding and hence it is that the same Practice may be not only scrupled but a Sin to one man that is not to another upon the account of different apprehensions There may notwithstanding be integrity and sincerity in both and therefore they are tenderly to be dealt with as the Apostle requires which you read in Rom. 14. 2. A great difficulty there is to form Ecclesiastical Lawes they being to be the same where uniformity is much stood upon for a whole Nation so as not to leave grounds of dissatisfaction to many mens apprehensions being various thorough the degrees of Light in so much as that may be Sin to one man which is a liberty to another of a greater degree of light A little is next to nothing and what is indifferent is nearest in likeness to moral Good or Evil. Hence so frequent mistakings And as it is with particular Persons so may it be with a Society or Company of men one true Church in these things differing from another and
limiting or enlarging the exercise of their Power in these Matters Ecclesiastical but rather recognizing and confirming what hath been ordered by them as in 5 Eliz. and in Car. 2. in the Act of Vniformity and many other instances might be tendered CHAP. IV. Of Objections against this Power and the exerting thereof with Answer thereunto THere are Reasonings possibly tending another way the Objections obvious I shall now mention having diverse material Considerations pertinent to a more full and clear stating this Case which might have been produced in the body of this Discourse but are reserved rather to this place partly because we find this vulgar way of DIALOGVE lets in Knowledge with less difficulty and what is required by way of a Question engageth him that proposeth with greater attention to observe what is said in the Answer Quest If such a Power be in the King may it not be thence inferred that be hath Power over the Consciences of Men Answ 1 There is nothing in this Power or the execution of it but only taking off Restraints as to the outward Duties which the Law requireth and the pressing such things upon it as are contrary to its light and dictates And the Power which Protects Conscience in its external actions and takes off all fear and Impositions from it is so far from being a Power over the Consciences of men that it is a necessary requisite for acting of its own Power in obedience unto God. Neither 2. doth it follow that if the King may suspend the Execution of Ecclesiastical Lawes that in the like cases he may make such Lawes for the Suspension of Lawes belongs to the executive but the making of them to the Legislative Power which are distinct and in the making of Lawes with Penalties annexed the Liberties Estates and Lives of the Subject are concerned but in the suspension of those Lawes no man is damaged in what is secured to him Quest If such a Prerogative be in the King what need Ecclesiastical Lawes be transacted and established by Parliament Answ 1 That if His Majesty is pleased in these Affairs at any time to take in the Advice and Assent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament it doth not alwayes evidence His Majesty's Power as insufficient of it self for such actings Such a favour may proceed from a Condescention upon the account of a more popular Acceptance that our hands may be fastened more firmly in obedience to those Lawes and Commands in the forming whereof they have been assistant Take it answered in His Majesty's own words Declar. of 26. Dec. 1662. to concur with us in making some such Act as may enable us to exercise with a more universal satisfaction that Power of DISPENSING which we conceive to be INHERENT in us or as also it is by the above-named Learned Judge Hobart expressed These Statutes and the like were made saith he to put things in ordinary form and to ease the Sovereign of labour but not to derogate from his Power Answ 2 Powers sufficient in themselves may joyn and in such conjunction remain entire as Powers Cumulative and not Privative as is evident from what is said in the Statute of 31º H. 8. cap. 10. The King 's most Excellent Majesty tho it appertained to his Prerogative Royal to give Honour as shall seem to his Wisdom he is nevertheless pleased and contented for an Order to be had c. by this High Court of Parliament that it shall be enacted by the Authority of the same self-distinct from that capacity wherein he stands in conjunction with his Subjects as their Head in that respect being in a higher Region above and in a greater distance from those Interests upon the account whereof his Subjects are many times divided and Publick Edicts become formed according to the prevalency of a greater Party to the prejudice of others which are his Loyal Subjects Also by Wisdom and Prudence there is a ballance by which the Tranquillity of a Nation is happily preserved and one Party not over-born by the other having this Power to Mitigate and Dispense as hath been discoursed with what in his Wisdom with Advice of his Council shall seem equal Quest 3 But hath not the King's Prerogative been limitted in our Lawes are there not some things which he cannot dispense with no not with a non obstante Answ I grant it and in several Cases 1. He may by special words in the Statute bind up himself from making any use of his Prerogative 2. In what is malum in se in respect of Impiety or Vnrighteousness 3. When such Dispensations are destructive to the great ends of a Common-wealth common Justice the Proprieties of men c. 1. To the first His Majesty or any of his Predecessors hath not at any time in any Statute or Law that concerns these Ecclesiastical Matters by any such special words bound up himself but rather the contrary as in those two Acts wherein more especially our affair lyeth that of Vniformity where that Dispensation with that Statute granted to Strangers by sole Prerogative-Authority is justify'd In the Act. 22º Car. 2. by the Proviso there inserted the Parliament seems to induce His Majesty's assent in the recognizing his Prerogative so expresly in that Act as if they spoke thus Tho this Act be very severe yet if it be found prejudicial or not to attain the end for which we judge such severity to be requisite It is an Ecclesiastical Affair and your Majesty may when you please disperse or exempt Persons from it for we intend not to abridge your Royal Prerogative 2. There is nothing transacted in these Affairs by the Civil Magistrate and as depending on his Authority but such Matters as in the sense of our Law are things materially indifferent and therefore not mala in se they do not bind the Conscience of the Subject in the nature of them considered in themselves Queen Eliz. Advertisements 1569. Preface The keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking a Common Order c. of Ceremonies why some are c. So that these Precepts concerning Ecclesiastical Matters oblige not in their own Nature as what is either bonum or malum but as Prohibited or Commanded 3. Civil Rights and Claims and Temporal things only are the immediate and intrinsick concern and interest of all Commonwealths Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ If the just Claim of a Prince may not be interrupted upon the account he is of this or that Religion and Perswasion nor may a Subject be justly Banished Imprisoned Confiscated or ruined upon the meer account of Religion or because his Conscience is not cast into the same mould with the Prince or present Establishment It is Popery to deny Allegiance to Prince or Protection to a Subject upon the account of any such difference Quest Religion and the Worship of God being the great Concern of a Nation