Churches by the Ministers There are many circumstances required by Canonists and Casuists and Lawyers to determine of promulgation which no man ever applied to Scripture which is the formal object of our Faith and to the particular doctrines which compose our Religion If bare promulgation a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words were sufficient requisites to make a Religion accepted what Religion almost could be false Or how was not Arianisme of old how is not the Council of Trent now true If Grammatical meaning in our History be equipollent to literal and opposed to figurative how then is not Transubstantiation not to mention other tenets how is not it credible If a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words be the standard by which faith is to be regulated or measured is not the Natural man capable hereof though incapable of the things appertaining to God 1 Cor. 2.14 In a Synod holden in a Council before Constantine Helena where it was disputed whether the Iewish law or the Christian should be preferred Craton the Philosopher who would not possess any worldly goods Zenosimus who never received Present from any one in the time of his Consulship were appointed for judges With which doth accord that saying of Gerson the learned Chancellour of Paris There was a time when without any rashness or prejudice to faith the controversies of faith were referred to the judgment of pagan Philosophers who presupposing the faith of Christ to be such as it was confessed to be however they did not believe it yet they knew what would follow by evident and necessary consequence from it Thus it was in the Council of Nice as is left unto us upon record So likewise Eutropius a pagan Philosopher was chosen judge betwixt Origen and the Marcionites who were condemned by him Is it not recorded that the Devils believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 they are qualified with all our Virtuoso requires to be Religious yet sure He will not say they are so Where is that exceeding great and hyperbolical grace of God by which true converts are induced unto and fixed in the Christian Religion what needed the Apostle to pray for the Ephesians thus That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the father of glory might give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned that they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power Why did he pray of God for any more then that he would make them good Grammar-scholars and give them a common apprehension In what language must this promulgation be made In the vulgar Latine If none but ordinary words must be the ingredients of our Religion and Symbols what must become of the words Essentia Persona Hypostasis the first second and fifth Articles of our Church and the Athanasian Creed what of justification mediator imputed righteousness Grace new birth and regeneration and many such words that have a place in our Confession Must we all turn Nicodemus's who must be the judge of words ordinary some words being ordinary with the learned which are not so to the ignorant and illiterate where is the Authority of the Church in controversies of faith avowed by our Church Artic. 20. if a common apprehension be that according to which controversies of faith must be decided Should a man demand of our Virtuoso according to what is here laid down what is the formal object of his faith or why he believes the Protestant religion here in England established I doubt the Answer would not be satisfactory nor agreeable to the Church of this Nation which should be shaped thereupon If Religion must not be the subject of Disputations we must receive it implicitely we must not try any thing nor in order to our holding it fast consider and dispute what is good but what promulgated such an Assent is the reasonable sacrifice which we must offer up and this that reason of our faith which we must be ready to give to all that ask us Oh foolish and not more generous Beraeans that durst controvert this Religion and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so which the first missionaries promulgated and therefore believed because they found the truth of the doctrine confirmed by the holy writers Act. 17.12 13. Why did Christ dispute with the Doctors in the temple both hearing them and asking questions why did he argue with the Sadduces about the resurrection why did Paul dispute at Athens with the Iews and devout persons and sometimes in the school of Tyrannus what mean those argumentations in the word of God by which the principal points of our Religion are evinced Besides if Faith be not a blind assent if we must hear and understand Math. 15.10 if we must search the Scriptures John 5.39 if an understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be requisite that we may know him that is true 1 Iohn 5.20 If we must take heed how we hear Luc. 8.18 If we must prove all things 1 Thes. 5.21 and try the spirits whether they be of God 1 Ioh. 4.1 If the very nature of faith be such that it cease to be what it is if it be not discursive it not being an adherence to principles self-evident but an Assent grounded upon Divine Revelation so that it necessarily involves in it this Syllogisme Whatsoever God revealeth is true But God hat revealed this or that Ergo. If this be true how can it be said that Religion ought not to be the subject of disputations but by one who thinks the owning thereof to be needless and that faith is but empty talk If it be certain Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt if there be any such thing as Conscience which is a Syllogism and defined Applicatio generalis notitiae ad particulares actus if there be any such thing as those practical argumentations by which Believers apply unto themselves particularly the general promises of the Gospel it is manifest that there must be Disputes Whereas he sayes that Religion should not stand in need of disputes me thinks it is a reflection upon the Divine Providence which so ordered the condition of mankind that disputes are unavoidable as Heresies are who introduced Faith amongst the intellectual Habits and made it an Assent firme certain but destitute of scientifical evidence who made us but to know in part and to see even that but as it were in a glasse the consequent of which mixture of light and shade knowledg and ignorance is disputatiou and fallibility Alphonso King of Portugal professed that if he had assisted God Almighty at the Creation he could have amended
serve him according to the Law Galat. 4.9 10 11. or to worship the true God by way of Images Rom. 1.21 22 23. Amidst such nice difficult and perillous considerations who can wonder if Men be more scrupulous about Divine than Humane Laws and the active complyance therewith who can blame the sober disputers who work out their salvation with fear and trembling who cannot rest in a bare Promulgation who fear least sometimes the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words may not alwayes be the mind of God who may use Greek words Hellenistically or as Hebraisms and use the language of one Countrey with relation to the Idioms customs sentiments of another who can conceive that the course of our Historian will produce in a Christian that Faith which must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that t is fitting for us to neglect and slight all those means which our Divines have alwayes agreeably to S. Austin inculcated for the discovery of the will of God in holy Scripture the knowledge whereof joyned with Obedience constitutes the Religion of a Christian. But further it is observable that our Virtuoso passeth in this Paragraph ab hypothesi ad thesin and having spoken before of Christianity he here speaks indefinitely as if no Religion were to be the subject of Disputations which condemnes the Original of the Gospel and the propagation of it where a different Religion is setled it justifies the Turks Paynims as well as forreign Papists in their sentiments though they be without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world Ephes. 2.12 To conclude the Censure upon this place I desire our Historian not to introduce Law-termes yet to be scrupulous about the Scholastick and Transcendental notions pag. 354. nor to think Christianity injured by being carried into the Schools of our Divines any more then of old into the Schools of the Prophets the Church and Schools are not opposite though distinct amongst us a Divine may be and is found in holy places without doing unseemly much less apostatising 'T is his duty to be able to convince gainsayers and the Schools do but qualifie him for that work Shew us how the Divines of the Church of England have carryed Religion captive from the Church into the Schools Is not the Word of God there the Rule and formal object of faith Are the Scriptures so immured up there that they are banished from their proper place However this Objection might be made against the Papists who deprive the layity of the Scriptures binde their Church to the Latine version yet 't is a Calumny to impute this to the Church of England and yet that seems touched in this insinuation if not only aimed at for all that discourse of our Vertuoso is to shew that the constitution of the R. S. will not prejudice the established Religion and Church of England Shew me the defaults of our Liturgy Articles Homilies Canons whereby it should appear that our Divines have very much corrupted the substance of their own knowledge as yet I as little believe it as I do that the Israelites lost their Religion with the Arke unto the Philistines and that Samuel and others not Idolaters had lost all Piety as long as that discontinued I read how a Woman said That the Glory of Israel was departed 1 Sam. 4.21 But I never heard that all their Religion was lost at that time before now nor do I understand what connexion there was betwixt the Arke and the Religion of the Israelites so as that the absence of the former should extinguish the later They were religious before the Arke was made and there is not any ground in the Text to imagine that Samuel lost all sense of Religion during that Interval but rather to the contrary The generality of the Israelites had been wicked and Idolatrous serving Baalim and Ashtaroth after the decease of Joshuah Judg. 2.11 1 Sam. 7.3 4. but that they did rather amend than grow worse during their overthrow and the seven Months absence of the Arke appears by the History Besides the Prophets and other Israelites that were not Idolaters in Samaria were deprived of the Arke yet 't is manifest they did not loose their Religion 1 Kings 19.18 I shall conclude this Animadversion with one Note that the Arians long ago to overthrow the Council of Nice and the Catholick faith made use of this pretext which our Virtuoso pursues here and elsewhere more than once in the History They desired that the uncouth words of Homousios Hypostasis c. might be forborn as not to be found in Scripture nor to be understood Evitant Homusion atque Homoeusion quia nusquam scriptum sit And because the answer of S. Hilary will justifie the Church of England in her Articles in her Liturgy and in her Scholastick controversies I shall set that down Oro vos ne ubi pax conscientiae est ibi pugna sit suspicionum Inane est calumniam verbi pertimescere ubi res ipsa cujus verbum est non habeat difficultatem Displicet unquam in Synodo Nicena Homusion esse susceptum Hoc si cui displicet necesse est placeat quod ab Arianis est negatum Si propter negantium impietatem pia tum fuit intelligentia confitentium quaero cur hodie convellatur quod tum piè susceptum est quia impiè negabatur Si piè susceptum est cur venit constitutio pietatis in crimen quae impietatem piè per ea ipsa quibus impiabatur extinxit Under the Emperour Constantius there was a Decree made that the word Homusios and such other terms as fill the Athanasian Creed should be laid aside and disused as which with their novelty and difficulty did very much distract and puzzle the Church this the Arians gained and it proved an infinite advantage to the growth of that Heresie the restoring of those transcendental notions Scholastick terms did resettle that Peace in the Church which could not be effected by the prohibiting of them and acquiescing in the Grammatical meaning of plain words Nolo verba quae non scripta sunt dici Hoc tandem rogo quis Episcopis jubeat quis Apostolicae praedicationis vetet formam Dic prius si rectè dici putas Nolo adversum nova venena novas medicamentorū comparationes Nolo adversum novos hostes nova bella Nolo adversum novas insidias consilia recentia Si enim Ariani haeretici ideò idcirco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hodie evitant quia priùs negaverunt nonne tu hodie idcircò refugis ut hi nunc quoque denegent Novitates vocum sed prophanas devitari jubet Apostolus Tu cur Pias excludis It is but too apparent that those in our dayes who joyn with the Arians in decrying new words and such as are not in Scripture who think that Christianity ought not to
be confined to any Methodical Creeds or Articles but be left in that latitude of phrase wherein the Scriptures have delivered it 't is manifest that they look with indifferency on the things signified by those words and forms 't is manifest that they make way for growing Atheisme and Socinianisme 't is manifest that they overthrow the Constitutions of the Church of England whose Articles make use of those significant terms transmitted from the Fathers to our Schools and subvert the Basis of our Religion as it is represented in our Laws to consist of an owning of three Creeds and four Councils besides the Holy Scripture Thus primo Elizabethae cap. 1. The four General Councils are mentioned after the Scripture Canonical and that is to be adjudged Heresie which hath been adjudged ordered and determined to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scripture or by the first four General Councils The same is averr'd by King James in his Letter Rex Ecclesia Anglicana quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica quum admittant And that King challengeth the Title of Catholick as due to him Qui tria Ecclesiae Symbola Concilia quatuor Oecumenica prima agnosceret This is evident to all that know any thing of our Church and 't is as manifest and whosoever writes otherwise repugnes to our Laws and whatever he subscribes unto or professeth is no true Son of the Church established in England Histor. R. S. pag. 362. The grounds whereon the Church of England proceeds are different from those of the Separists and also of the Church of Rome and they are no other but the Rights of the Civil power the imitation of the first uncorrupt Churches and the Scriptures expounded by Reason This last clause is so far from being true that 't is directly contrary to the constitutions of our Church and better becomes a Socinian from Poland or Amsterdam then a Divine of our Church not that I say that our Church did ever expound the Scripture against Reason but that our Church did never relie upon Reason as it is opposed to Authority of the Ancient Fathers in the determining of the will of God revealed in Scripture If the Historian meant nothing else but that the actions of men are alwayes rational and that the assent we yield to any thing is never so blind and implicite as to be destitute of all motives and inducements thereunto so that we resign our selves up to Authority upon the score of Reason If he meant no more then this why doth he speak in the language rather of a Socinian than a Protestant This expression is dangerous as it is worded because the Socinians may derive advantage from it and the Orthodox may think and find themselves injured especially in these times when the Socinians multiply upon us by it amongst the unwary as if there were no use of the Fathers but that we were without researching of Antiquity to consult the grounds of Reason such as are commonly found in men and bred in them either Naturally or from the contemplation of the ordinary course of things Physical and Moral in this World Whence what confusion will arise when all holy Sobriety is cast of any man knows who hath but inquired into the controversies of these last Centuries when the Scripture hath not been made by men the Rule of Faith or formal object thereof but only accommodated to the phansies and imaginations of prejudicate prepossessed men Upon this account the Church of England hath by her Canon in which she follows the Council in Trullo tied her Doctors as much as the Council of Trent does to expound Scriptures according to the sense of the Ancient Fathers This Bishop Taylor avows in the Introduction to his second Dissuasive This Doctor Heylyn in his Cyprianus Anglicus pag. 52. doth aver and I shall here set down the Canon of our Church Concilium Trullanum sive Synodus quinisexta Canon 19. edit per Francisc. Ioverium Parisiis A. D. 1555. Quod oportet eos qui praesunt Ecclesiis in omnibus quidem diebus sed praecipuè Dominicis omnem Clerum populum docere pietatis ac rectae religionis eloquia ex divinâ Scripturâ colligentes intelligentias judicia veritatis non transgredientes jam positos terminos vel divinorum patrum traditionem Sed si ad Scripturam pertinens controversia aliqua excitata fuerit ne eam aliter interpretentur quà m quomodò Ecclesiae luminaria doctores ex suis scriptis exposuerunt majorem ex iis laudem assequantur quà m si quae à se dicuntur componant Liber Canonum quorundam Londini 1571. Concionatores Inprimis verò videbunt nequid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiosè teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi Testamenti quodque ex illâ ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Thus K. Charles I. in his third Paper to Mr. Henderson If the practice of the Primitive Church and the universal consent of the Fathers be not a convincing Argument when the Interpretation of Scripture is doubtful I know nothing for if this be not then of necessity the interpretation of private spirits must be admitted the which contradicts S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.20 Is the Mother of all Sects and will if not prevented bring these Kingdoms into confusions Histor. R. S. pag. 414 415. The Wit that may be borrowed from the Bible is magnificent and as all other Treasures of Knowledge it contains inexhaustible This may be used and allowed without any danger of Profaneness The ancient Heathens did the same They made their Divine Ceremonies the chief subject of their phansies By that means their Religions had a more awfull impression became more popular and lasted longer in force than else they would have done And why may not Christianity admit the same thing if it be practised with sobriety and reverence What irreligion can there be in applying some Scripture-expressions to Naturall things Why are not the one rather exalted and purified then the other defiled by such applications The very Enthusiasts themselves who are wont to start at such wit as Atheistical are more guilty of its excesses then any other sort of Men for whatever they alledge out of the Historical Prophetical or Evangelical writings and apply it to themselves their Enemies or their Country though they call it the mind of God yet it is nothing else but Scripture-comparison and similitude It is to be observed that this passage is inserted into a discourse concerning Wit as it discovers it selfe in the ordinary conversation and writings of the Railleurs and is founded on certaine images as our Historian phraseth it which are generally known and are able to bring a strong and a sensible impression on the mind It is an Humour that hath generally possessed the Gallantilloes of this age whereby they endeavour to recommend
A CENSVRE UPON CERTAINE PASSAGES Contained in the HISTORY OF THE Royal Society As being Destructive to the ESTABLISHED RELIGION and CHURCH of ENGLAND Parque novum fortuna videt concurrere Bellum Atque virum Oxford Printed for Ric. Davis A. D. 1670. TO THE REVEREND Dr IOHN FELL D. D. Dean of Christ-Church SIR I Offer these Papers unto you not to implore your Patronage but to acknowledge your Favours Had my leasure or abilities qualified me for a greater performance it had been tendered unto you with the same readiness This veneration I bear not to the Ranke you hold in the Church or University but to your Merit and in you I at once honour a Learning above this age and a Piety becoming the best Permit me to be just to so real worth and grateful for your constant civilities to me and I shall no way Interest your Person in this Quarrel 'T is enough that I defend Truth and the Church of England and that whatever else I have atchieved I intermedled with nothing but what 't was necessary to be undertook by some body This none can dispute who understands the Politicks of our Nation upon what foundations the publick Tranquillity is suspended Let them that will question the prudence of this action I am satisfied in the profession of a Wisdome that is first pure and then peaceable I am perfectly Your humble Servant HENRY STUBBE Warwick Feb. 16. 1669. A Censure on certain passages in the History of the Royall Society It is Naturall to mens minds when they perceive others to arrogate more to themselves then is their share to deny them even that which else they would confesse to be their right And of the truth of this we have an instance of farre greater concernment then that which is before us And that is in Religion it selfe For while the Bishops of Rome did assume an Infallibility and a Sovereigne Dominion over our Faith the Reformed Churches did not only justly refuse to grant them that but some of them thought themselves obliged to forbear all communion with them and would not give them that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and so famous a Church and which might still have been allowed it without any danger of Superstition BEfore I come to resolve and parcell out this impious and pernicious paragraph into severall Propositions it is requisite that I premise two Observations the first is that by Communion here is not meant Civill commerce and the performance of those mutuall offices by which societies in generall or Trading is carried on or Humanity alone is relieved no Reformed Church ever denyed this to the Romanists But the Communion here treated of is Ecclesiasticall and consists not only in the acknowledging of such as are communicated with to be members of the universall Church of Christ built upon a right foundation and holding either no errours or such as do not overthrow the fundamentals but in resorting to the same Church assemblies and celebrating devoutly the same offices or Prayers Ceremonies and Sacraments and this is to be done interchangeably so that each upon occasion resort unto the Churches of the other joyn in the celebration of the same Liturgies or publike prayers participatiō of the same Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is more particularly termed the Cōmunion was alwaies accounted the tessera or mark of Church-fellowship The truth of this Observation appeares from that notion which all ages have had of Church-communion which is agreeable hereunto To owne any number or association of men to be a part of the Church Catholique and yet not to resort to the same religious offices amounts not to Church-Communion since All Excommunication cuts not off from the body of Christ but from outward or exteriour Communion with a visible Church thus when Chrysostome separated himselfe from the followers of Meletius and of Paulinus though he did acknowledge both Churches to be Orthodox yet is it said that He communicated with neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither doth it amount to an Ecclesiasticall communion if a man be present at the religious Assemblies and offices of another Church if so be he do it not upon a religious account nor devoutly joyne therewith thus when Elijah was present at the Sacrifice and worship of Baal he did not communicate with those Idolaters 1 Kings 18.26 27. Thus Lyranus Cajetanus and other Casuists excuse Naaman for bowing upon a Civill account in the house of Rimmon and allow the case of a Christian slave which waited on her Mistresse to the Sarracen worship and bore up her traine but did not joyne in the Mahometan Service thus the Protestant Divines as Sleidan and the History of the Council of Trent informe us resolved that it was lawfull for the Protestant Princes to pay a civill attendance on the German Emperour even at Masse in the Royall Chappell These things therefore amount not unto Church-communion But the joyning religiously in the same Church-worship and particularly in celebrating the Lords Supper together and this is to be done interchangeably for otherwise onely the one side can be said to communicate with the other not vice versâ Thus when the Papists did resort to our Churches in the beginning of the Reigne of Qu. Elizabeth and joyned in the same prayers and participation of Sacraments with the Church of England it might justly be said that they did hold communion with us but since the Lawes then in force did prohibit the Protestants to be present at or joyne in any publique Service or administration of Sacraments where other ceremonies then what were inacted by the Church of England should be used it is manifest that the Church of England did not communicate with the Papists The second Observation is that our Historian in this Paragraph doth make use of the words communion and respect as equipollent and Synonymous otherwise there is no apodosis no sense in the saying Some of them thought themselves obliged to forbear all communion with them and would not give them that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient so famous a Church If respect be a terme of a lesser import then communion then might those Reformed Churches decline all Exteriour communion with the Church of Rome justly and without blame and yet retain a respect and kindnesse such as Christians may and ought to beare to the excommunicate to the Heathens and Publicans and in which there is no danger of Superstition though in this Exteriour communion there be evident perill not only of Superstition but Idolatry 1. These things being premised my first Animadversion shall be That the Comparison betwixt men denying to such as usurp too much even their due rights and those that separate in case of religious usurpations is so carryed on by the Historian that to forbeare all communion with the Church and Bishops of Rome is represented as an extreame opinion and consequently as
culpable Schismaticall and damnable 2. Secondly that He represents the case so as if some of the Reformed Churches onely did forbeare all Communion with them 3. Thirdly That the grand occasion of the differences betwixt those of the reformed religion and the Papists was that the Bishops of Rome did assume an Infallibility and a Soveraigne dominion over our Faith 4. Fourthly That notwithstanding this usurped infallibility of the Bishops of Rome their assuming a soveraigne dominion over our Faith yet we may give them that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and famous a Church and to decline this is to run into an extreame 5. Fifthly That the Church of Rome according to its present establishment and under that constitution wherein the first Reformers found it may be denominated a Church Ancient Famous and that upon those accounts for none other are mentioned possibly there doth belong a respect unto it or an obligation to communicate therewith 6. Sixtly That such a respect or exterior communion may be entertained with Rome and yet we incurre no danger of Superstition The first Proposition is Impious Blasphemous and Offensive to all Protestant eares It condemnes the Reformation carryed on by the Evangeliques abroad and in the Church of England as culpable guilty of an extreame and there is so much of Schisme justly charged on us as there is of extremity in our procedure It subverts all those Laws which are now in force whereby all Communion with Popish Offices and Sacraments celebrated in a different way from that of the Church of England is prohibited to us upon penalty of being imprisoned six months without bayl for the first offense for the second twelve months and for the third during life upon 5 and 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. 3. The second Proposition is notoriously false there being no Reformed Church no not of the Lutherans but hath constantly held themselves obliged to forbear all Communion with the modern Bishops and Church of Rome Besides it carries a most dangerous insinuation in it as if the Reformed Churches were divided upon this point the contrary whereof is manifest out of the Harmony of Confessions so that such as abet this Popish compliance want not their Assertors even to the repute of most of the Reformed Churches and such as disclaim it are the lesse considerable for number and authority having onely the concurrence of some of the Reformed Churches How pernicious an intimation this is amongst ignorant persons and such as are unacquainted with the state of Religion a study much out of fashion now let any man judg and withall remember that the Church of England is of the number of those reflected upon here Who are they that pretend to forsake the Churches corruptions and not her external Communion Some there be that say they have not left the Church but onely her corcorruptions some that they have not left the Communion but the corruptions of it meaning the internal communion of it and conjunction with it by faith and obedience which disagree from the former onely in the manner of speaking for he that is in the Church is in this kind of Communion with it and he that is not in this internal communion is not in the Church Some perhaps that they left not your external communion in all things meaning that they left it not voluntarily being not fugitivi sed fugati as being willing to joyn with you in any act of piety but were by you necessitated and constrained to do so because you would not suffer them to do well with you except they would do ill with you Now to do ill that you may do well is against the will of God which to every good man is an high degree of necessity But for such Protestants as pretend that de facto they forsook your corruptions and not your external communion that is such as pretend to communicate with you in your Confessions and Liturgies and participation of Sacraments I cannot but doubt very much that neither you nor I have ever met with any of this condition Postremò addit Rex magnum se quidem crimen judicare defectionem ab Ecclesia sed huic crimini affinem se esse aut Ecclesiam suam penitus pernegat Non enim fugimus aiebat ejus Majestas sed fugamur Scit verò tua illustris Dignitas ut qui optimè quà m multi quà m praestantes pietate ac doctrinâ viri ab annis minimùm quingentis Reformationem Ecclesiae in capite membris optârint Quà m graves bonorum Regum ac Principum quaerelae sint saepe auditae statum Ecclesiae suis temporibus lamentantium Quid profuit â—ihil enim eorum ad hanc diem videmus esse emendatum quae correctionis egere cum primis censebantur Quare non veretur Ecclesia Anglicana nè candidis aestimatoribus in hac separatione Donatistis simile quid fecisse videatur Illi gratis sine ullâ causâ Ecclesiam Catholicam gentium cunctarum assensu comprobatam cujus neque fidem neque disciplinam culpare poterant deseruerunt Angli ab ea Ecclesia NECESSITATE DIRA COGENTE Secessionem fecerunt quam innumeri populi Christiani veram Catholicam universalem esse non concedunt ut modestissimè dicam quámque in dogmatis fidei disciplinae formâ multùm variâsle ab antiquâ multa assuisse nova vetustis mala bonis etiam è vestris Scriptores quà m plurimi ingenuè dudum sunt confessi verò notius jam est universo mundo quà m ut possit quisquam vel negare vel etiam ignorare Adde quod jugum Romanae servitutis ita durum per aliquot retro secula erat experta Ecclesia Anglicana novis subinde vexationibus inauditis angariis atque exactionibus supra hominum fidem cruciata ut vel illa sola causa apud Judices non iniquos à Schismatis suspicione ut loquitur Augustinus de Donatistis iniquae discissionis posse videatur ipsam liberare Non enim proâ—ectò Angli à charitate fraternâ animi causâ dissilierunt ut Donatistae neque ut decem tribus populi Iudaici metu impendentis mali quod nondum premebat sed post plurium seculorum patientiam post exantlatas inenarrabiles aerumnas onus intolerabile cui ferendo pares ampliùs non erant neque permittebat conscientia subductis cervicibus tandem excuslerunt From hence as also from our Laws our Thirty nine Articles and Homilies t is manifest that the Church of England is in the number of those that separate from the communion of the Church and Bishops of Rome and that for such important reasons as justifie the action from being causelesse or culpable though amongst all the Reasons alledged by K. Iames in that Letter of Causabon's or in our Laws or other Controvertists I do not find that reckoned for any motive of that great rupture much lesse for the principal or sole one which is
the fabrick of the world Our Historian in this passage insinuates almost as much had he been amongst the first Promulgators of Christianity I cannot also conceive but that He condemnes all Sermons Expositions Homilies Ceremonies and all those rational contrivances by which the Church hath endeavoured gently to gain upon the Affections and Opinions of men in that he asserts that Religion should not stand in need of any devises of men Religion should in this be like the Temporal Laws of all Countries towards the obeying of which there is no need of Syllogismes or Distinctions nothing else is necessary but a bare promulgation a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words That there may be have been in some Countries Temporal Laws to the obeying which there is no need of Syllogismes or Distinctions I am ready to grant but to say it hath been so in all Countries is such an Assertion as becomes not an English-man nor one that understands the Civil Law or that even of the Iews No Lawes in a Government not Despotick ever were so contrived to all circumstances that to the obeying of them there would not need any Syllogismes or Distinctions In our Nation t is notorious nor is it so facile a thing to determine what is included in the extent of a Law what influence the preamble and title have upon the subsequent Act a Common Apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words will not carry a man through without Cowel's Dictionary Spelman's Glossary and many other Law books so as to understand the meaning of our Lawes and as to their being in force how many Arguments are there about that when the obligation of the Law ceaseth whether discontinuance or the ceasing of those motives which give being to a Statute or the introducing of a contrary Law without repealing the former expresly do abrogate any Statute An infinite of Controversies daily arising shew that Syllogismes and Distinctions are necessary to our Temporal Laws being understood and executed But perhaps our Virtuoso may propose a new regulation of Law and Gospell too but till that be effected I am sure his Assertion is false But if the case in Temporal Laws were such as t is represented as it is not but in Seignoral Monarchies yet were there great reason for men to be more solicitous about their Religion or Spiritual Lawes than about the Civil and Municipal That Scripture which subjects us to the Civil Magistrate for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 bids us first to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousnesse Math. 6.33 and rather to fear him that can kill the body and soul than him that can onely kill the Body Matth. 10.28 Luc. 12.4 5. If the person whose Majesty is offended be greater if the penalties be more horrid upon the violation of the true Religion than upon transgression of the Civil and Municipal Laws men are to be excused for being more solicitous inquisitive and disputatively searching into the will of God to see what enterferes with and what is conformable to the will of the Magistrate where their Commands are repugnant it is better to obey God than Man Act. 4.19 As much as God is above any ordinance of man and an Essential underived Majesty above secondary and communicated power 1 Pet. 2.13 as much as the soul and its welfare is above the body so different ought to be our concernes about these two obligations For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and loose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Matth. 16.26 He that a sinner hath to do with is a jealous God and a consuming fire It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth John 4.23 24. Therefore a Christian must with Syllogismes Distinctions Humility and Prayer soberly search into his heart and examine that he erre not in the Object of his Religion or the manner of his worship and obedience or in the frame of spirit which is requisite to them that worship the true God He must be satisfied about the lawfulnes of each action a bare Imperial command though promulgated will not ingender in him a pious plerophory who knows that such Edicts have no direct and immediate influence upon the conscience that they are not in themselves a sufficient Rule of action for then the Command of an earthly Sovereign were alwaies to be obeyed actively and a disobedience to the decrees of Ieroboam Manasseh and Nebuchadnezzar were criminal though we do submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to King as supreme or unto inferiour Governours 1 Peter 2.13 Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But this hinders not a Christian from disputing piously the commands of his Superiour and paying him an Obedience meerly passive where he cannot act without sinning against God No Christian was ever obliged to think every Decree of his Iudg to be just or every penalty inflicted righteously but since a Christian's concern is not much in this world either as to life or goods since his stay on Earth is but a deprival of greater and more stable happiness since whatever any Humane Law can bereave him of a thousand casualties may take from him since he is forbid to set his heart on things below to turn the other cheek being buffeted on the one and to give up his coat after his cloak is taken away from him he is very indifferent in the transactions of this world neque Cassianus neque Nigrianus He is of a passive temper his Eye is alwayes fixed on his Lord that compliance which he permits and enjoyns he readily payes and in other cases patiently submits but still considers still acts or suffers out of a principle of faith and holynesse without which it is impossible to please God without which every performance is sinful Hebr. 11.6 Rom. 14.23 True Religion is not onely directed to God and the Father but seeks an interest in Christ Iesus who pronounceth I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth unto the father but by me Iohn 14.6 Through him we have accesse by one spirit unto the Father Ephes. 2.18 A general knowledg of a Deity will not satisfie God where a man is not sollicitous about further discoveries or where accessional improvements may be attained we ought not to acquiesce in the first rudiments not alwayes to be Babes and pursue milk in stead of stronger meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all 1 Tim. 4.15 No more will a general intention to serve God content Him if his worship be not celebrated in a right manner Since the Gospell t is impiety to