Ordination is void Surely S. Paul that commands Christians to be without offense to the Jews and Gentiles as well as to the Church commands them also to be without offense to Papists And will not we have those that would be inabled to consecrate the Eucharist by such a Law to shew us how to satisfie the Papists that such Orders are good At least those that by their sufferings have preserved Ordination by Bishops Let them at least be satisfied of the Validity of Ordination without Bishops At least let no man impose upon them that they cannot yield the Forbearance which S. Paul requires for tender Consciences unless they receive the Sacrament consecrated by Lay-men That is by those whose Ordination they believe to be utterly void CHAP. XV. That the Orders of the Reformed Churches are not void because these are NOw I am to look an Objection in the face which at a distance seems to admit of no Answer but if it be a little considered will appear to have neither Reason nor Religion at the bottom of it It is said that hereby we shall make void the Ordinations of the Reformed Churches of France and others Reformed according to Calvin And so make them no Churches Here we agree that it was necessary for the French as well as for our selves to Reform themselves That it was necessary for all to Reform themselves unto the Form of the Primitive Catholick Church I say not we do agree I say that till we do agree there remains no hope of Unity because no Rule for Reformation in the Church But to the Objection Who hath the Conscience to think or the Face to say that if Ordinations made by Presbyters against their Bishops be void Then Ordinations made by Presbyters where they could not be had by Bishops are void For that is the difference of the Cases It is manifest that the Bishops of this Church when they Ordain Presbyters Ordain them to Minister their Office according to the Laws That is under their Bishops And can any man imagine that hereby they give them Power to Ordain others to Minister their Office by what Laws they please themselves And had the French demanded of their Bishops to Ordain them Presbyters that should Minister their Office according to the Reformation does any man think they would have done it So the necessity of Reforming which we all agree in made the Ordinations of the Reformed Churches The Pride and Presumption which causeth all Heresie and Schism usurping Authority never received made the Ordinations of our Presbyters And shall they be as valid as those All that can be questioned is how it may appear that it was not of choice but of necessity that they imbraced that way of setling and propagating their Reformation which they imbraced And for that we have sufficient Presumption from the Albigenses Who secretly Reforming themselves under the See of Rome did certainly do it by the Authority of Bishops who propagated their Order by Ordinations This may be proved by other testimonies if need be But it is sufficient that the Case of the Bohemians is so well known They having resolved exactly to Reform themselves and having chosen the Persons whom they would have for their Bishops were at a stand how to compass their succession from the Apostles by having them Ordained by Bishops In this nonplus they understood that there were in Austria of the Albigenses that kept secret Communion among themselves under their Bishops notwithstanding that publickly to avoid the Laws they went to Mass To them they sent their Bishops elect protesting against their dissembling but desiring Ordination for their Bishops which thus were propagated And this may well seem to be the Reason why they that Reformed in the Empire according to Luther in the name of whom Melancthon hath offered to be subject to their own Bishops admitting the Reformation set up such a Form of Episcopacy as they could of themselves For they had cause to think that the Bohemians had not advantaged themselves enough by that Ordination which they had been able to procure For it is to be noted that they the Bohemians had sent all over the World to learn how to get such Ordination as might authorize their Ministry according to the Reformation which they pretended And are not we hereupon to presume that the French by these degrees finding a necessity of balking the Authority of the Episcopacy which they were under did think themselves thereupon free to cast themselves into that Form which they use For if it be said That by this time they had profited beyond their Predecessors in discovering the Whore of Babylon that they found Episcopacy to be the Body of Antichrist and therefore renounced it It will appear by many Reasons that this cannot serve the turn First how can the common sense of men endure to believe that the Pope is Antichrist by reason of that Greatness which it is certain and evident that he hath attained by Usurping the Rights of his inferiour Bishops And yet those inferiour Bishops be the Body of Antichrist by suffering those Usurpations which they cannot help Secondly it is manifest that they who should hold this Plea could not pretend by virtue of their Orders received from the Bishops of this Church to Ordain Presbyters Unless they would say that they may have their Authority from Antichrist This Plea therefore must remain for the Independents to authorize them that think themselves in the State of Grace before they are members of the Church to make their their Congregations Churches and Usurp the Authority of Apostles in Ordaining their own Ministers Lastly it appeareth sufficiently that very many learned and religious persons of those Churches have not only approved the Episcopacy here setled But have wished the benefit of it to themselves Whereby it is manifest that those Churches cannot owne this Reason when another so far from it is owned by their principal Members I have another Reason to alledge which weighs as much with me as all these And that is the Communion which hath always been used between this Church and the Reformed Churches For should they hold Communion with us and yet think our Ordinations authorized by Antichrist how could they expect to be believed so grosly contradicting themselves And therefore though I must not take upon me either to justifie or to condemn their Ordinations Averring on one side that they are not according to Rule Seeing on the other side that they are owned by my Superiors yet I must acknowledge that there are very great Reasons to hope and to presume that God accepteth of their Ordinations though not made according to Rule In consideration of the necessity that drove them to it and of the Reformation which they were used to propagate Whereas those that Vsurp the Power of the Keys and the Consecrating of the Eucharist by virtue of Ordinations made in despite of those Bishops from whom they have all the Authority which
be a Church Conviction which is the Act of the Law making the Crime notorious how can Christianity be protected and the Church not able to renounce them that renounce it by their deeds The increase of sin so flagrant in this Nation since the War began makes the necessity of this Law flagrant I was speaking of the Leviathan that Monster of a Christian that with one Book allowed by the Act of Oblivion because the Doctrine was not damned when the Person was pardoned hath introduced that Deluge of Atheism and Prophaneness which we are ready to be drowned with Let Publick Justice have the convicting of the Blasphemies which he hath taught if the Church be not in Case to bear the envy of such a trust But to account for such a crime by a pecuniary mulct is to sell our Christianity at the price at which it is defied Unless Infamy follow and Excommunication to bring it on farewel Christianity which compoundeth with Apostasie The Father of the Sect thinks I believe that he hath as good Right to the Communion as the rest of His Majesties Subjects Who though he should profess Penitence for his crime could not be believed having given the World warning that he may be bound to say and to swear that which he doth not believe What course but this to suppress the Vanity of committing Murther under the name of a Duel For in all Common-wealths where mens memory is not liable to Infamy sin is not out of countenance In that which is Christian what can be infamous if to forfeit Communion with the Church be not As for Adultery what punishment hath this Kingdom left for it Or how shall it be counted a Christian Kingdom having none Be the tryal of it as Civil Interest shall require If it pass without Excommunication though the Law of the Land lay no hold on it what can clear the Kingdom of the expectation of Gods vengeance By consequence hereof they that are convicted of Simony in Civil Justice must remain Irregular to the Church That is though their Ordination can never be void yet their persons must remain incapable of any trust which their Clergy should make them capable of And why should not the Priviledge of their Clergy cease and they remain Excommunicate for such a Crime The other Law concerning the Clergy is the confining of every one to one Diocese Which is but the Restoring of that Order which the See of Rome had disordered on purpose to ingage in the disorders of it all that they obliged by such Priviledges For the Priviledges reserved to the Crown Nobility and Bishops whereby the abuse is but displaced will not be considerable in comparison with the Reformation which it hindreth It seems strange to those that find themselves Interested that two Benefices with Cure should be allowed in one Diocese not in several Dioceses though at less distance But the Law cannot be understood to allow all that it forbids not Because there may be Reason why the Publick good will not allow the forbidding of that which is left to the Conscience of particular persons Were all Benefices restored to that Provision which the Cures might require perhaps Priviledges of Pluralities might be extinguished In the mean time is it not enough that whatsoever the Quality be the Office of Priest and Deacon is relative to their Respective Bishops that no man can be answerable to one Bishop for a Charge in which he is answerable to another for the same Which if it hold not in one and the same Diocese the Reason of the difference is both sufficient and evident Always the Ground being laid that the Reformation of the Church is to be Ruled by the Canons of the Primitive Church there can be no more question in this then is in any thing where the Primitive Institution is as Visible as the decay and abuse But this will principally concern Archdeacons and the Dignified Clergy which are to bear a part in the Bishops Office For how should they be charged with that which they are not charged to execute CHAP. XXVI Of Forbearance due or not due in two Instances I Have proposed a Conference I have determined that all is to be tryed by the agreement of the Catholick Church But if we stay till the Parties agree to that there must be no Conference What have we to overcome this difficulty with Considering how the necessity of losing all Religion presses all Parties and considering how slight the pretenses of dissatisfaction at the Act of Uniformity are though I cannot depart from my claim that the Reformation cannot duely be made but by and to that Pattern yet I see it may be laid aside in the Tryal not supposing that the Will of God is declared by it But if the advantage be not allowed which the consent of Christendom from the beginning hath in the judgment of common Reason above any Opinion of this time or any Party pretending Reformation what course can they hold that have not reasonable Creatures to deal with For how can they be counted reasonable that prefer their own Reason before the Reason of Christendom Or how shall they distinguish their private Spirits from the Enthusiasms of Fanaticks that insist upon those Interpretations and Consequences of Scripture which had any man seen before them the Church had never been as it hath been In fine the Case being stated I see no cause to apprehend any obstinacy in the Parties to prefer any faction or partiality before Reason so manifested and so concerning the common Christianity I will insist upon two Instances All the World knows that one of the abuses which made the necessity of Reformation most appear was that of private Masses where the Eucharist was celebrated and the people did not communicate It is as well known that the Reformation according to Calvin contents it self with four Communions a year but no Assembly without Preaching The Church of England hath aimed at the Communion every Lords-day and Holy-day at Sermons as frequent as can be had so as to maintain the reverence due to Religion to Preaching and to the Church What question can there be in Religion that the Eucharist is the principal Office of Religious Assemblies What pretense of Reformation in restoring Preaching by silencing the Eucharist It will be said that there is fear of prophaning so Religious an Office But where is Reformation if it make not the people fit for it The Papists say Private Masses are not commanded they would have the people communicate and incourage them to it But what do they do to bring them to it Surely more then they do that silence the Eucharist for the Sermon That are not contented till so much Preaching be commanded that they know the Eucharist must be silenced Let them think what abilities are requisite to maintain so frequent Preaching that there shall be no time for the Eucharist Let them think of the Scandals that must needs fall out
blemish to the Church to receive them as they departed in company of their Leaders For their Salvation is provided for when the Bar is removed The experience of our Case makes this considerable At His Majesties Return it was inacted that such Usurpers as were possessed of dead Places should hold without inquiring whether Ordained or not Whereby it might seem to them that found no fault with their own Title that the Law of the Kingdom owned their Ordinations to be good But without cause For the Kingdom being then under that Force which was not as yet removed a thing manifest enough The Church not being yet restored the retaining of them which I am neither to justifie nor to blame was nothing but the induring of that Force upon Part rather then call in question the Whole But hereupon they that had got this colour for their Possession were not like to disowne that Ordination which the Law of the Land had seemed thus far to owne So the way was paved for the Schism on foot by refusing the Act of Uniformity when they were imployed without reconciling themselves to the Church by foregoing their Schism Some may think that I abate more then this for their sakes when I allow them Satisfaction by Conference yea and Laws to be changed for their satisfaction if just cause may appear But it is no more then I would allow Popish Recusants to justifie the Penalties that will be always necessary because they prefer the Authority of the See of Rome forbidding all Treaty of Religion without it before the common Christianity requiring Reformation in the Christianity of the Kingdom For do not they deserve those Penalties who refuse to assist their Country in a work so concerning the common Salvation upon just terms This I am sure supposing satisfaction there can be no difficulty in departing from Vsurped Ordinations and from the Schism grounded upon the same And therefore it is only the solemnity of Renouncing that is abated and the Irregularity that is pardoned And that by the example of the first Great Council in the Case of the Meletians And that because they renounce not the Catholick Church but acknowledge a National Church Which they cannot acknowledge upon due grounds but they must acknowledge the Catholick Church And therefore I say not the same of the Independents Who are Banded into a Profession destructive to it upon a Covenant For that Covenant is it that must be expresly and formally renounced before they can be capable of Communion with the Church And much more of Orders To grant them Communion otherwise is to make the Church guilty of their Schism which it alloweth And so to give Popish Recusants a just cause to refuse Communion with it As for other Sects of Antinomians Anabaptists and the like When any man knows upon what Grounds they Excommunicate themselves and how far they are Banded into Sects it will then be no difficult thing to say how they are to be Reconciled so as their Schisms and Heresies may be duely Renounced A thing which must be considered in those that were Presbyterians before they broke into Conventicles For since that came to pass who shall warrant that they have been guided by none but such as have Presbyterian Orders Or that they stand now to that Religion which the Rebellion once made Law to the Kingdom Which if they do not who shall warrant or how shall the Church be satisfied that they do depart from their Schisms with their Leaders And indeed the Independents though they be Banded into a Sect by a Covenant yet if once they be disbanded who shall answer for them that they will follow their Leaders And all this by virtue of the Sacriledge whereby they all betray the Authority of the Church and with it the Christian Faith to the Will of their People to debauch them into the same Schism with themselves Which if it be considered perhaps it will appear that the Forbearance which I have granted can for this reason extend no further then to the Persons of those that deserted their Churches rather then submit to the Act of Uniformity Nor shall it trouble me if my Opinion be found to come to no more For the Opinions of private persons are to content themselves with declaring what may be Leaving them that are concerned to judge what is But as for the way of Reconciling those which shall be converted to the Church in that the Apostolical Wisdom of the Primitive Catholick Church is of necessity to take place For Schism or Heresie being the Bar to the effect of Baptism which is the Gift of the Holy Ghost And the renouncing of it being the removing of that Bar It follows that all that shall return are to be reconciled by Confirmation as always they were reconciled to the Primitive Catholick Church This were easier done could it be presumed that all would follow their Leaders But if that cannot be presumed if they must be reconciled one by one yet is that no more than the work of an Episcopal Visitation from Parish to Parish A thing practised and usual in the Church after the building of Parish-Churches in the worst of those times in which the Canons which I have commended took place But now as for Quakers we are no more to reckon them among Christians then the Gnosticks and Manichees of Old then the Mahumetans at present For they do openly owne the Dictate of their own Spirits to be as much the Word of God as the Scriptures And that is as much as serves to create all such new Sects as acknowledging the Scriptures so far as they please introduce the pretenses of their own Revelations where they think fit For when the private Spirit is equalled with Gods Word the last Dictate as in mens last Wills must of necessity take place Only this difference That whereas Gnosticks Manichees Mahumetans followed or do follow their Leaders Spirit Quakers follow every one their own And therefore are the more contemptible and the more reducible whensoever a course shall be established Certainly did they see that they cannot be reconciled but as so many Renegades they would bethink themselves before they went on in their madness Especially did the Law set before them that this their Position is not reconcileable to Civil Trust Always obliging them to the most desperate Acts of Treason and violence to their Country that they can imagine their own Spirit to dictate Upon which account it cannot be beyond the merit of their madness that they are made servi poenae by Law as the Roman Laws call it That is that they are transported to work in the Plantations For they that take upon them to impose upon their Country that the Offices of common Civility are Acts of Idolatry What is not to be expected from their madness who as the Case is dare pretend that it ought to be Law to all Christians But since the Law is to provide for such People it is manifest that it is to provide that they may not fail of the trust which the Church and Kingdom enters into with those whom they receive to Communion but that they must fail of the Civil Trust of Subjects That is that their Testimonies be not receivable in Law that they be disabled to sue at Law that they be disabled to make Wills or to get by Wills or any thing else within the effect of Civil Trust And this must also be the Penalty of the Leviathan and all that have or may follow him either into Apostasie or Atheism For they who declare themselves at freedom to forswear the Christian Faith can never be held by any bond of Civil Trust It must also be the Penalty of all Sects that may relapse after they may have been reconciled At least in that Proportion which that part of the Faith which their respective Sect denieth holds to the whole Profession of Christianity which Apostacy and Atheism destroy at once For it may be a Question why the Kingdom should be counted a Christian Kingdom if the Laws of it set not some mark of Infamy or Disgrace upon the enemies of Christianity according to the Rate of their Enmity Which only the inforcing of Excommunication by the Laws can do FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall A Blow at Modern Sadducism in some Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft To which is added The Relation of the Famed Disturbance by the Drummer in the House of M. Mompesson With some Reflections on Drollery and Atheism Plus ultra or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the days of Aristotle Octavo A Loyal Tear drop'd on the Vault of our late Martyr'd Soveraign in an Anniversary Sermon on the day of his Murther Quarto All three by Jos Glanvill A. M. and Rector of Bath The Triumphs of Rome over Despised Protestancy Written by Bishop Hall Octavo A Sermon preached before the Peers Octob. 10. 1666. being the Fast-day for the late Fire By Seth Lord Bishop of Oxon. Quarto The Practice of Serious Godliness Affectionately recommended and directed in some Religious Counsels of a Pious Mother to her dear Daughters 12º A Discourse of Subterranean Treasure By a Member of the Royal Society 12º The General Assembly A Sermon by Francis Fullwood D. D. Quarto Forty Sermons by Anthony Farindon B. B. Fol. Rea's Flora Ceres Pomona Fol. Episcopacy Apostolical or a Consent of the Forreign Churches to the Discipline of the Church of England Written by Bishop Moreton and published with a long Preface by Henry Yelverton Baronet Octavo A Discourse of the Use of Reason in the Assairs of Religion against the present Opinions of the Sects of this Age. Quarto A Private Conference between a RICH ALDERMAN and a poor Country Vicar made publick wherein is discoursed the Obligation of Oaths which have been imposed on the Subjects of England with other matters relating to the present State of Affairs
A DISCOVRSE OF THE FORBEARANCE OR THE PENALTIES Which a Due REFORMATION REQUIRES BY H. THORNDIKE One of the Prebends of Westminster Church LONDON Printed by J. M. for James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall 1670. THE PREFACE ARistotle and Experience teacheth us that no Positive Law can provide for all the Cases that may arise upon the Terms of it Religion indeed in General is a Moral Vertue But the true Religion that bringeth Salvation is a Positive Constitution of Gods Grace requiring the Condition of Christianity to qualifie for the Promise of life everlasting But upon several Terms heretofore under the Law of Nature and Moses and now under the Christian Faith The Church of Christ in all Ages hath been constrained to provide new Decrees and seek new Laws for the quenching of new Heresies and Schisms They that ever hoped to do that by an Act of Comprehension which the Act of Uniformity hath not done would have proved themselves deceitful Workers They would have made many Breaches by stopping of One. That which I am able to propound I confess is rather possible than probable For were it so far advanced as to be inacted for a Law of the Kingdom I should never believe that it would take effect unless the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church might be received to give Bounds to all emergent Disputes No more then I can believe that the Reformation will ever prevail after one Breach in Germany after another since in the United Provinces and these last here amongst us unless we unite our selves upon the same Principle Whether I have said enough to prove it well grounded or not I must refer that to Judgment But he that excuses me not in such an innocent Proposition as this How would he have Almighty God to excuse me if having attained this Resolution I should not declare the Consequence of it in our present Case Especially considering the Duty which the Law of the Land justly and necessarily imposes upon all of my Order to Reduce Recusants to Church For there are now two sorts of Recusants And those that are bound to reduce them must do it upon such Reasons that by reducing the one sort they drive not the other sort from Church Let them that have more skill then I shew how it can be done without imploying my Principle I that am resolved it can by no other means be done must declare my Resolution though I were to suffer for it Which from a Christian Kingdom I cannot do One thing I have adventured upon my own Head Granting that the Government of the Church was Regular till after the sixth General Council And so that the the Acts of the Church before that time are effects of it But that is not to say that the Corruption of the Church which we Protest against and Reform began not till that time Religion began to be corrupted earlier in some and later in other Points But this Corruption had not the force of Law till after that time And especially till the Vsurpation of the See of Rome It is enough that there is difference Visible in any Point between that which was from the beginning according to the Scriptures and that which was when the Reformation was attempted That which can be made out hereof will serve to cramp both sorts of Recusants That which cannot should be no cause of difference He that reduces the sense of the Scripture within the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church warrants the Penalties of Recusants Let the Laws do their Office and make it a Disgrace to be out of the Church And then we may expect to see the Blessing of God upon his own Ordinance But without restoring Discipline without Canons and Laws to restore it without the Office of the Synods in providing those Canons let no man think that temporal Penalties will serve to do the business For though there can be no reason sufficient for violating the Vnity of the Church yet if the dissatisfaction that hath caused it resolve into a defect of the Laws it can no more be ended without redressing the Laws then a Disease can be cured without taking away the Cause of it Errata PAg. 10. lin 13. r. Prophesies sent since the Ground o Salvation was declared is p. 17. l. 5. the Church read this Church p. 20. l. 27. the Article of this Church r. the Law of this Kingdom p. 22. l. 3. Christians r. Christian p. 25. l. 27. decay r. decays p. 36. l. 1. or to be believed to r. to be believed or to p. 42. l. 29. Laws r. Law p. 63. l. 20. the best r. their best p. 99. l. 28. Churches r. Church p. 109. l. 28. making r. and making p. 113. l. 5. Christs r. Christ p. 121. l. 12. which r. of whom p. 125. l. 21. to come to r. come to p. 151. l. 17. Idolaters r. Idolatry p 153. l. 18. Invocations r. Invocation p. 263. l. 16. these r. those OF THE FORBEARANCE OR PENALTIES Which a due Reformation requires CHAP. I. The Case in which forbearance is pretended for weak Consciences IT is a long time that the forbearance due to tender Consciences hath been alledged for the means to restore Unity in this Church And certainly were the Case stated in which S. Paul prescribed it to the Church of Rome that so it might be drawn into Consequence in our Case the Scripture must needs produce that which would be of advantage for Peace without prejudice to Truth But when the bare Phrase of Scripture is tossed up and down in the discourse of them that care not to understand either the Reason upon which it is grounded or the Effect to which it sorteth no marvel to see the decay of Religion proceed from the abuse of the Scripture We need not the Heresies of the Primitive Times even the abominable Villanies of the Gnosticks to tell us what irreligious pretenses may be set forth in Scripture Phrase Our own Fanaticks would furnish sport enough with the fooleries which they pretend as from Gods Spirit because they can deliver their non-sense in the Phrase of Scripture could such irreligious madness move any thing but the compassion and lamentation of Christians It is enough for my purpose that unless the Precept of the Apostle be limited to that consequence which the reason of the Case will produce the two-edged Sword of the holy Scripture may prove an edge tool to cut their shins with who take upon them and have not the skill to handle it For the state of the Case to which S. Paul speaks I will say no more at present but this That he prescribeth only to the Church of Rome at that time when the care was not to loose the Jews by winning the Gentiles to be Christians There could then be no question of establishing a National Church by the Law of a Kingdom which Church and which Kingdom shall by that Law reform that which it protesteth
to have been decayed and depraved in the Faith and Laws of the then present Church We have a Reformation established by certain Laws of the Kingdom which all men know how great a part of the Kingdom declineth because the See of Rome disclaimeth it And therefore the question is what that Law should be that may oblige Recusants to the Reformation which we profess For division in Religion can never so deprave mens senses as to punish them for refusing that which they are not obliged to embrace And yet who would have the Kingdom to establish that Reformation which they would not have it inact by competent Penalties Now such is our Case that since the afflictions which this Nation hath been visited with have revived the humor of departing into Conventicles Independents and Fanaticks decline Communion with this Church as much as Recusants And if we will speak properly to be understood according to the Laws we must distinguish them by the addition of Popish or Fanatick Recusants Whereupon the question arises what Penalties are competent to the one to the other whether the same or diverse For as there can be no Law if there can be no Penalties to enact it with So there can be no Penalty unless the Legislative Power be Judge of the Cause why the Parties decline the Law and may secure them in Conscience that they ought not to decline it Can any Christian Power punish the disobeying of that Law concerning which it cannot secure the Consciences of them that obey But there is a further difficulty in our Case in regard of the Presbyterians Who whatsoever they may do or may have done since the time of disorder have always pretended to the service of the Church so far from disclaiming Communion with it For grant they do usurp the liberty of Conventicles to hold their People at the more distance from being reduced to Law their pretense is not to be obnoxious to the Law for violating it but to make the Law obnoxious to themselves by reforming it Suppose we them then comprehended with the Clergy whose Authority is included in the present Laws in the same Priviledge of ministring in and to the Church Our Case is not stated till we consider that which all Pulpits ring of that no Religion stands to be the Religion of the Kingdom The Case was like to come to this when Cromwell first usurped For then it began to appear that this would be the fruit of his Course in maintaining all Parties in the Religions which the licentiousness of the War had allowed them to exercise The Laws having recovered possession and the dispute remaining by what Penalties to be exercised whether any or none whether those that are or what others I need not say that there is any Profession of Atheism which could never be professed among the very Gentiles This I say that whosoever favours it will necessarily shelter himself under the Law professing that which it maintaineth And therefore that it is to come into the state of our Case in which Forbearance is demanded for tender Consciences how it is to be limited That those who have No Religion if any such should be may not have the Benefit of it So the question now in hand is of the same consequence as if it were demanded upon what terms the Reformation of the Church is to be stated For whatsoever comes to debate the question will always be how far we ought to depart from the Church of Rome The other part of the question What Penalties the Reformation duly stated may or is to be inacted with will depend upon this for the greater part of it For what can render the subject of this Kingdom liable to Penalty for not obeying the Law which our Reformation is established with but that he is first bound in conscience to embrace the Reformation and to do the duty of a Christian according to it Only what Penalties and how great or or how grievous it is to be or may be inacted with This will further require the reason which makes it the duty of Christian States to joyn in Reforming the Church CHAP. II. That a private Person may be obliged to declare in it THis is that which obliges a private person as I am to declare his Opinion when so great a concernment of his Conscience is at stake For who could ever think the Reformation could stand were not the Clergy obliged as the Law obliges them every one in his place to reduce Recusants to the Church Or how should they either do this or stand obliged to do it if the Reason upon which the Reformation and the Law by which it is stated proceeds inable them not to convince them that they are bound in Conscience to embrace it These hundred years hath the dispute been on foot Very nigh so long it is since the Bull of Pius V. acquited the Subjects of the Kingdom of their Allegiance to Q. Elizabeth The Government being then jealous of that Party those that had appeared before in the Troubles of Francford to challenge a share in the Government of the Church thought this the time to set their pretensions on foot It is to be seen by Camdens Annals that when the Recusants first forbore coming to Church about that time did this Party begin to be known by the name of Puritans Ever since that time did these embers lye raked up in deceitful ashes still most appearing when the State was most solicitous till at length the Party appeared in Arms against the late King and prevailing in those Arms became divided into those several Parties which remain united in the Plea for tender Consciences For the Laws recovering by His Majesties return the same embers which it was then thought fit to rake up again in the same deceitful ashes upon the first rub have flamed out again to demand Law to justifie that which they usurp by way of Fact against Law Both pleading that their Consciences cannot be subject to any Law in the Case and that Christianity hath not wherewith to clear up those doubts against which if they proceed they are damned It must therefore needs be said that the present Laws have been justified beyond all contradiction that may pretend any thing to be commanded by the Laws which Gods Law forbids So that the demand of new Laws seems to be a demand that the Conclusion be contradictory to that which is inferred by the Premises And what should Weakness demand of Reason that is to give Law but inconsequence Only let not inconsequence in Reason draw mischief upon us in effect We have hitherto answered the demand Where was your Church before Luther That it was where it is The same Church Reformed which was decayed and depraved afore Neither can we ever answer otherwise till we renounce our Creed and deny that One Holy Catholick Church which we must be saved by believing and by continuing in the Vnity of it Depart we once from
these terms of our Reformation what shall we plead with a good Conscience to bring Recusants to Church It will be said that the Pope is Antichrist and the Church of Rome all I Idolaters that there can be no question of abandoning Idolatry and Antichrist But is there no question of holding the true Faith of continuing a true Church parting with Idolatry and Antichrist Were Papists Idolaters and the Pope Antichrist a thousand times the Reason and the Rule of Reforming the Church would be where it is and will require that it be so Reformed as to continue a Member of one Catholick Church as it was unreformed saving the Unity which cannot be held without the consent of those that will not be reformed Not that I grant the pretense of Idolatry and Antichrist Or that I intend to dispute against it at present being a question too large to be voided by so short a Discourse as this But that to ground our Reformation and Salvation upon the interpretation of Prophesies is a thing without the compass of Reason to do And also a departure from that Plea upon which our Reformation is hitherto stated Having therefore placed my business and spent my time in considering the Controversies which the Reformation hath occasioned Because the Disputes we have among our selves concern nothing but how far we are to depart from the Church of Rome I thought my self tyed in Conscience to publish the Resolution I had attained both under the danger that might be expected from the late Usurpation and at His Majesties happy return So that the publishing of my Opinion in the Case at this time in dispute is but a declaration of the consequences that have ensued because a palliative cure hath not served the turn If they that break Unity in the Church have liberty to plead for their their Conventicles which they Vsurp against Law why should not my Opinion expect a favourable Audience Protesting before God that how advantagious soever I think it to the Salvation of Souls yet I do not desire that it should take place but by the free Act of this Church and Kingdom CHAP. III. That the Rule of Reformation is the Catholick Church IN the first place therefore I hold my self bound in Conscience upon this occasion freely to declare to my Superiours That there is no Power in this Church and Kingdom to reform it self in matter of Religion but only by that Form and to that Form which may appear to have been held by the whole Primitive Church before the Corruption came in which we pretend to Reform And the reason hereof is unanswerable being immediately grounded upon the Article of our Creed whereby we profess to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church For if there be such a thing in the world then must there be one Catholick Faith the Profession whereof is the condition of Communion with it And one and the same Laws the violating whereof is the forfeiture of the same And here I crave leave to call all Canons all Customs of the Church whether concerning the Rites of Gods Service or other Observations whether delivered in writing or received by silent Vse and Practice by one and the same general name of Laws of the Church Only that I may be the better understood Being therefore well assured that the Church cannot be Catholick but it needs must be Visible Because it cannot be Catholick till it may be Visibly distinguished from Heretick and Schismatick both I must also infer that it can never be Visible till it become Catholick That is the only way to justifie that which hath been always pretended that this Church is the same that it was before Luthers time For as the Church had never been Catholick had it been confined to one Nation as the Synagogue was So I do believe that it had never been called Catholick had there not been Heresies and Schisms before it was so called It had been One Church of all Nations by virtue of the Conversion of the Gentiles When Heresies sprung up as Tares among the Corn then was it called Catholick for distinctions sake It was visible that the true Faith was spread all over Heresies and Schisms prevailed but here and there where they were raised So if an Heretick or Schismatick were asked the way to the Catholick Church he durst not have shewed the way to his own saith S. Austin Nor is it a question to be asked a Christian why the true Church should be Catholick The answer being so obvious that it was Aposiolick Say why the Faith preached by the Apostles prevailed why the Communion setled by their Authority whereas Heresies and Schisms were known but here and there and you have said why the True Church was Catholick We that profess the Reformation are agreed that this provision of Gods goodness is no Promise of God against mans malice That corruption may become Catholick for the present Age though not from the Apostles This is the common ground of Reforming the Church If the measure and bounds which it limiteth were also common all our divisions were at an end Nor can any private Spirit expounding the Scripture without these bounds derogate from it It is a sufficient prejudice against any Interpretation of Scripture that it standeth not with the Faith and with the Laws of the Primitive Church S. Paul challengeth the prophets at Corinth to shew themselves Spiritual men by submitting to his Orders Having said that the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets and inferring that all their Spirits are to be subject to his being an Apostle 1 Cor. XIV 32 36 37. The same is the Case to the Worlds end the promise of our Lord Behold I am with you to the worlds end being made to the Apostles and to all that should be Christs Disciples and learn of the Apostles to do all that he hath commanded Mat. XXVIII 19 20. For who can think he continueth in the Doctrine of the Apostles departing from their Authority in any thing subject to their Authority Or what is not subject to their Authority excepting that which our Lord had commanded before he gave them their Authority His own Commands being the condition of Salvation Their Authority the means provided to inable us to attain it by observing and learning his Commands So as it is Heresie to depart from the Faith which they preached so is it Schism to depart from the Authority which they left in the Church till the Worlds end Were not the Catholick Church a Warrant to particular Churches they could not Reform themselves without the consent of the Whole But seeing abuses are and were Visible at the Reformation it is necessary to grant that particular Churches and secular Powers by whose Laws they subsist may restore that which may appear to have been decayed But it is also necessary to say that Reformation is the Restoring of that which was not the introducing of that which was not CHAP. IV. That
to the Church dispersed over the face of the whole earth Again the Eastern Christians that are thought to come from Nestorius the Southern Christians under Prester John that maintain the memory of Dioscorus and condemn the fourth Council of Chalcedon cannot be admitted to be Catholicks by any man that owneth the four Councils But in regard it appeareth not that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches though they owne the memory of their persons and in regard there is cause enough to presume that they would with all their hearts be reunited to the Church did not the See of Rome refuse all terms of Re-union that include not the infinite power which it challengeth they cannot be included within the Catholick Church without reserving a liberty to exclude them whensoever in point of Faith it shall appear that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches As for the Canons of the Church it was never neceslary to the maintenance of Communion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary that several Customs should be held by the same Authority Which is to say That the same Authority instituted several Customs which they thought to be for the best in several times and in several places For so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the Acts of it be agreeable to Gods Law or not how should Unity be maintained This is the Reason of that which I said even now that the Fathers do not agree in any thing but in the Faith and the Laws of the Church For it is manifest that they could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if Gods Law had been infringed by it Seeing therefore it is manifest that there are certain Canons and Customs known to have been the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church owned by this Church it followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to Gods Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church So it is not my intent to say that the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church ought to be in force And that there is no other means to restore Unity in the Church But that nothing can cause a Breach in the Church that hath Authority from the Primitive Church And that nothing can have Authority in the present Church that infringeth the Authority of the Primitive Church as if Gods Law were destroyed by any Act of it Further there are two points in the Title and Cause of the late War Episcopacy and Sacriledge wherein the Cause of the Crown hath been so united to the Cause both of this and of the Catholick Church that I may well say that to disowne the same Cause in other points alike Primitive and Catholick would be to deny the Conclusion admitting the Premises Or to keep divers weights and measures in the same Budget The Plea for Episcopacy and for Consecrate Goods hath made out so much evidence for it self that it hath helped to recover the Laws of the Kingdom And shall not the Laws of the Kingdom so recovered maintain the same Plea in all other things For the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as it never subsisted but in the consent of Bishops so was it never maintained but out of Consecrate Goods CHAP. VI. What Errours have followed because it is not so expresly BUt I do freely acknowledge that though this Church hath many Obligations to owne this Principle for their Rule yet it is not formally and expresly inacted by those Laws of the Land whereby Religion and the Rights of the Church are established For I do further claim that the want of inacting and inforcing it and driving it home to the true Consequence in every point is the Cause and Sourse not only of the disorders which divers pitiful plaisters have been tendred to cure But of all disorders imperfections and decays of Religion which have succeeded upon the Reformation having been made without limiting those bounds And that the present disorders in Religion are the Symptoms of a common disease which all men are offended with but cannot be cured without recourse to the Unity of the Catholick Church and the terms of it wherein that health of Christianity consisteth which all division impeacheth I do therefore freely acknowledge that I find two positions to be the sourse of all those Excentrical Opinions in Religion which caused that Confusion upon the issue of the War that helped to make way for his Majesties happy Return The first is that there is no Condition for the Covenant of Grace That there is no Contract in it but a meer Promise The second is that there is no such thing as a Visible Church instituted by God But that men are first Children of God by Faith then members of a Church of free choice Of these Positions the one necessarily dependeth upon the other For the Faith of the whole Church from the beginning requires Baptism to Salvation And therefore includeth it in that Faith which alone justifieth And by consequence requires that justifying Faith cannot be understood without that Profession of Faith which a man maketh at his Baptism And this will necessarily infer a Church therefore Visible because Catholick For it is agreed upon by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism That is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated being given in the form of the Church yet is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Now it is not my intent to say that these two Positions were expresly and formally professed by Companies distinguishing themselves from others by Ecclesiastical Communion in the Profession Which is the true signification of an Heresie in the eye of the Church But the Positions I maintain to be Heresies in so much that if there were such Companies they must of necessity be taken for Heresies in the account of the Church And my Reason is clear For it is acknowledged by the whole Church clearly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel that the taking up of his Cross is a necessary condition to Salvation Now since our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is evident that ever since we take up Christs Cross when we undertake at our Baptism to lay down our lives rather then deny the Faith of Christ or transgress his Commandments And since this Promise is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church it cannot be available to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the Promise deposited with it If any man ask whom I can charge
with these Positions which I cannot shew to have been Professed by Visible Bodies I discharge my self upon a number of Pamphlets of the time of that Confusion which was called the Blessed Reformation wherein free Grace was made to be the pardon of sin before it is done Justification to be the Revelation of predestination to Glory and no sin to be seen in Gods Elect. One particularly which I have cause to believe was printed by Cromwells own Appointment because it answered a Petition of Welsh Fanaticks which charged him to depart from his Principles answers expresly that the Principle of Salvation is neither Faith nor good Works but Christ living in the heart and abiding there whatever Principles the Godly may change And for the Church have we not seen our Independent Congregations or do we not see them in New-England refuse Baptism to all that will not take the Covenant which they appoint themselves to take and owne no other Churches but such Congregations I suppose no man in his right senses will imagine that there can be a Catholick Church consisting in the Communion of all such Congregations Or that there can be any Faith to give Law to their Communion who have the Law in their own hand to be to morrow Socinians if they please Or any other Sect that allows Independent Congregations For the Socinians may seem to have the Eldership of New-England for Independent Congregations On the other side do we not see the Leviathan that Monster of a Christian openly Profess that he is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth if his Soveraign command Though still bound to believe in him at the heart So utterly perswaded that there is no such thing as a Church of Gods Ordinance But only by the Act of Soveraign Powers within the respective Dominions of each of them That he had rather renounce his Baptism and so the Benefit of it then owne any Creed or any Catholick Church CHAP. VII That it is for the Interest of the Reformation as much as of the See of Rome HAving therefore observed upon due consideration as I hope that all the Errours which have had Vogue during our late Confusions are reducible to these two Positions destructive to two Articles of our Creed that Profess one Catholick Church and one Baptism for remission of Sins I am still led by the same Consideration to think my self tyed in Conscience freely to Profess that where these two Positions clearly renounced and the sense of those two Articles duely established and received by all Parties that owne the same Creed the Re-union of the whole Church must needs follow For the Power of the whole Church being so stated as to presuppose the whole condition of our Salvation and to extend only to the determining of those things which may promote edification in it without endangering the Unity of the Church why should not I think that there is found by the consent of the whole Church from the beginning so clear a resolution of all that is disputed to maintain Separation concerning the Condition of the Covenant of Grace that it cannot be refused by the Parties owning the common Faith There is great cause to fear that notwithstanding the mischiefs we feel by our own Divisions some would think it still a greater mischief that the Whole Church should be re-united Though upon just Terms and such as must needs re-unite our selves But if the Christian Religion oblige us to do men good against their will He that demands nothing but the Right Vnderstanding of two Articles in the Creed to the Re-uniting of Christendom intends the greatest Charity that those who love Division can receive Whether his demand be sufficient to do his Work or no he must leave it to the World to judge For it is to be acknowledged that when the Condition of our Salvation is setled and all that causes Division upon the Account of it there remains besides very many Disputes concerning Publick Orders as well in the Offices of the Church as in the publick Government of it and the Interest as well of the State as of the Church in the same But let not therefore those that love not Unity pretend Difficulty For they shall find such Principles laid to the determining of them all in the Visible Laws of that one Church which cannot continue One but by owning the same that the due bounds of Reformation cannot escape them that will not decline the thred and the grain of these grounds And yet in all this no man declines the Scripture for the only Rule of Faith But he that refuses the See of Rome for Judge in the Sense of it which is all that remains in question may well crave leave to decline the Judgment of any private Spirit not confined within the bounds which the Visible consent of the Church determineth Not as if the sense of the Scripture were not more and more to be discovered which is indeed discovered every day more and more But because the true sense of it will always fall within the compass of that which the Church hath always received I am very well perswaded that the See of Rome will never hear of any Terms of Reconcilement so long as they see our Divisions increase But I am very well assured that the Divisions of the Reformation can never be Re-united so as to prevent the like for the future but upon that Ground which being received will serve to re-unite the Whole Church There can never be One Visible Faith One Visible Church upon any other terms There can be no such sin as Heresie to violate Faith as Schism to violate Charity upon other terms And therefore it is out of Love to the Reformation that I insist upon such a Principle as may serve to re-unite us with the Church of Rome Being well assured that we can never be well re-united with our selves otherwise That not only the Reformation but the Common Christianity must needs be lost in the Divisions which will never have an end otherwise And he that can take measure how much of it is lost in thirty years time since these Troubles began even among them that inclose the Name of Saints and the Godly to themselves will easily believe that it hath not long to live unless Division be put to death And yet the vain hopes of the Parties ever since the Division may make it appear that both have Reason enough to be reconciled They of the See of Rome have long expected a hundred and fifty years or thereabouts that those Christian Princes that have looked upon the Reformation as dangerous to the Peace of their Dominions should give them assistance to reduce all that Protest against the abuses thereof by force of Arms to submit to their Will Which would be to make that Will the Law of Religion as well to themselves as to those that should be so reduced But the experience of so much time evidences that the Powers of
can have Power to introduce any thing for Reformation in the Church but that which the Consent of the Whole Church either injoyneth or alloweth Not as if the least Tittle of Scripture were not enough to warrant that which it injoyneth to be the Reformation of the Church But whereas the sense of the Scripture is that which remains questionable not the Authority of it that nothing can be the true sense of the Scripture which the Consent of the Whole Church contradicteth And therefore that though there be an appearance of truth in such a sense yet it is not for a Christian Kingdom to inact it for Law till it be duely debated And that being done it will infallibly appear in all which in most things appeareth already that the Consent of the Whole Church cannot contradict the true sense of the Scripture And that it is nothing else but not knowing the one or the other that makes it seem otherwise If the Scripture it self is not nor can be owned for Gods Word but by the Consent of Gods people from the beginning attesting the Motives of Faith related in the Scripture to have been infallibly done by submitting to the Faith which they inforce Then must the same Consent be of force to assure common reason that the Faith and the Laws wherein the whole Church agrees came from the Authority setled by God not by any Consent of all Christians to fall from that which they Profess And therefore though a Kingdom may force the Subjects thereof to call that Reformation which they inact yet they can never make it Reformation in that sense which the Salvation of Christians requires if it be not within these bounds It may be called Reformation to signifie a New form but it can never be Reformation to signifie that form which should be unless it signifie the form that hath been in Gods Church For that being One and the same from the first to the second Coming of Christ can authorize no other form then that which it may appear to have had from the beginning CHAP. IX That it cannot be done without the Synods of this Church ANd therefore it being granted on both sides that the Soveraign Power of Christian Kingdoms and States proceeding duely obligeth the Subjects to submit to the Reformation of the Church and cannot exact Legal Penalties of them which refuse upon any other Terms I do except in the second place that it ought to proceed in all Reformation by and upon the Authority of this Church That is of the Synods For what doth the whole Church agree in so Visibly as in this That the Authority which God hath instituted in his Church should give Laws to his Church And how can a Christian Kingdom promise themselves Gods blessing upon such Acts as they have no Power nor Right from God to do For granting there is such a thing as a Catholick Church it is not possible that any Christian Kingdom which must be a part of it should have Power to inact any thing Prejudicial much less destructive to the Whole to the Visible Being which is the Visible Communion of it And therefore the Faith and the Laws of the whole being the Condition under which the parts are to communicate no Christian Kingdom can have Power from God to give New Laws in Religion to the Subjects thereof which the Church of the Kingdom warranteth not to be according to the Laws of the whole Church If any thing may appear to have been in force in the Primitive Church and by the abuse of succeeding times to have become void I do not deny that the Secular Power may Reform the Church by restoring it though the Church should refuse their Consent to it The reason is because the Church would be without help if there were no Lawful way to restore the decays of it Which we agree have come to pass without the consent of them that are chargeable for the decay of it Now the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church are the Birth-right of all Christians Purchased by undertaking to Profess one Catholick Church at their Baptism And Christian Powers are to protect their Christian Subjects in their Birth-right And the Authority of the present Church is not seen in the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church For it is meer matter of Fact what they are The evidence whereof praeexistent to the Authority of the present Church cannot be understood to require or to presuppose it And therefore the Authority of the Church cannot be violated by reducing the Faith and the Laws of the Primitive Church into force Nevertheless in regard that which is decayed can seldom be restored without determining new Bounds which the present state of the Church requires It is manifestly the Office of the Church to determine the same Nor can it be done by Christian Powers of this World without assuming to themselves that Authority in which they are to maintain the Church For though Soveraign Power hath Soveraign Right in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical yet is it capable of no Ecclesiastical Power or Right But is to maintain those that have it by the Laws of the Church in the use of it If any thing were done at the Reformation setting aside the Synods of this Church which I am here neither to deny nor to acknowledge it must be justified upon this Account that they refused the Authority of the Whole Church in authorizing the Reformation of this Church If any thing now may appear to be demanded upon the same Account let the Authority of the Synods be passed by for their punishment if they hinder the Reformation of the Church by refusing it But that cannot appear till it may appear First that the matter demanded ought to have the force of Law in the Church having been of force and since decayed by the injury of time or corruption of men Secondly that it is of such weight that Religion is like to have more advantage by restoring it then the Vnity of the Church shall suffer by violating the Regular Authority of the Church What thanks I shall have of my LL. the Bishops for this I know not For I deny that they themselves can have any Authority in the Case that shall not be confined within the same bounds But it is not possible for him that is the most jealous of the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters to say what danger there can be to this Crown in securing the Conscience of the Kingdom by the Authority of the Church For the acknowledging of those Bounds which the Authority of the Church is confined to as well in respect of Soveraign Power in the Dominions whereof it subsisteth as of the rest of the Church leaveth no Plea for it to Vsurp either upon the Crown or upon the Christian Subjects of it And all this I claim by S. Paul where he commandeth all Christians to abide in that state in which they are called
they can challenge by their Orders what pretense is there to imagine that there can be any such Crime as Schism if this be not it That God should bless that which is done by such gross Vsurpation as this is And when all this is said it remains free for me to say That there is no other way to restore and to preserve Vnity within the Reformation but by establishing and maintaining Episcopacy in that Authority which it hath always had for the determining of differences Nor maintain that Authority but by confining it within the Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church do limit As for the Fanaticks which make our Orders void because the Pope is Antichrist and the Mass Idolatry whence our Bishops received and where they exercised their Orders I will only consider the Case of the Donatists forejudged by the whole Church They pleaded in point of fact that Caecilianus was Ordained by Apostates A thing which the Church was so clear in that the African Bishops offered to give up their Sees if it were proved But besides in point of Right had it been proved and Caecilianus owned by the Church because it did not appear or because they thought the Canons ought to be dispensed with for Unities sake those that Ordained Caecilianus having repented of their Apostacy shall we imagine that the Church was lost by owning those that had been Apostates and their Ordinations The Donatists are branded for Hereticks and Schismaticks maintaining all the Laws of the Church but that of Unity And shall Lay-Christians presuming to authorize Lay-Christians to consecrate the Eucharist and set up Churches be esteemed less then Hereticks and Schismaticks Let those that pretend to Unity find that Forbearance which a favourable construction of their actions signifies But Charity to the sound obligeth to take the profession of Schismaticks in the worst sense which if we do the making of Independent Congregations Churches will be the denying of One Catholick Church and the making of them Hereticks that do it CHAP. XVI That changing the Laws for the Weak is not Forbearance BUt if it be a thing absurd in common sense to allow them their Orders much more absurd will it be to change the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land for their sakes Which is nothing else but to purchase their Ministry at the price of our Religion which the Ecclesiastical Laws contain Here we must distinguish two questions For it may be lawful for Christian people to live by those Laws which it was not lawful for Superiors in Church and State to make A thing evident to all that believe that it was possible for our Ancestors before the Reformation to be saved under the abuses of the Church of Rome But our question is whether or no the Laws of Superiors injoyn that which Gods Law forbids Inferiors to do Otherwise it is pernicious to all Government that Inferiors should take upon them to judge the Acts of Superiors But if the matter of the Law be within the Power that makes it to require an Exception for tender Consciences is to say that there is no Power in the World to give any Law to those tender Consciences Was there ever any Heresie any Schism any Religion pretending Christianity that did not alledge Scripture for themselves Did ever any man alledge it that would not be thought to be touched at the heart with it What is there for a Christian to doubt at where the Exception of tender Consciences lyes not Or how shall we that agree against the See of Rome but agree not in the terms and grounds of Reformation be tryed in the sense of the Scripture Can any man imagine that S. Paul intended to destroy his own Authority of giving Law to the Church which he exercised when he ordered the Jews and Gentiles at Rome to forbear one another Or is this Authority dead with the Apostles What Church then can there be alive if there be no Authority deriyed from the Apostles to give Law to it But the Authority is not questioned so it provide for weak Consciences Episcopacy will be owned if the Secular Power will force it to take them for their Presbyters whose Ministry they cannot give account to God of Being both authorized and exercised by Laws made without and against their Authority This no Christianity can justifie Christianity maintains the Estates of the World in all the Right they had when they became Christians And cannot justifie it self to the World otherwise How should the World receive it upon other terms But if the World stand upon the same terms having received Christianity as afore then must Christianity and the Church continue in the same Rights which it had before the World received it No exception to be allowed but as afore If it appear that the Faith and Laws of the Primitive Church be decayed Not if it seem to private Spirits that the Scripture is not fulfilled In the mean time is it for the honour of the Religion we profess that Weakness which at the best is negative ignorance in truth perhaps wilful ignorance should give Law to it Is it reason that they who have failed to destroy both Church and Kingdom should give Law to both As if a Child should govern the House because he will be framfold and disquieted otherwise Surely it is that which the Emperor said to his Niece Put as tibi injuriam fieri nisi imperas But is that the way to have Peace in Religion When Inferiors shall be made to tread upon the necks of their Superiors they will be so modest for the future as to stay there They will be content to have their Doctrine regulated by them as the Law of the Kingdom requires Or they will think fit that the Bishops be content with their Revenues and leave them to Preach what they please Surely they that can carry the dispute of a hundred years wherein the Bishops had so visibly the better that Club-law was found requisite to get the advantage will not lay down the Cudgels here So they that agree in conforming to the Laws differing every day in that which the Law determines not the Recusants on both sides may make hay in the heat of our Contentions and profit more by such a Law then by the War which destroyed this Church But especially the Atheists who have profited so well under these Contentions as to make that visible which was but foreseen under the Usurper That no Religion would in time stand to be the Religion of the Kingdom They having the Priviledge of the Laws and not liable to any Infamy when the differences maintained make Religion contemptible shall have cause to thank all that shall have done their work by solliciting such Laws CHAP. XVII Of the Opinion of Regeneration by Baptism ONe point I must not pass over in silence which hath been named for a point to be changed That all passages seeming to determine the Opinion of Baptismal
Law maintain it I suppose it will not be though a good Plea at the day of Judgment for a Subject to say that he was either Protestant or Papist because his Soveraign was so Now Christianity can be Visible by no other means but because it is the Visible Profession of the Visible Church If it become Invisible by differences betwixt Parties it must be in Soveraign Powers to bring the Parties to tryal Provided that there be no tryal but by the Visible Church This is the Forbearance that may be extended by Pastors and may be required by the Soveraign in our Case For the present dissension shews that the Reformation was well begun indeed but not perfected Does not the World know that there was an Act in force for nominating Commissaries to Reform the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Kingdom I am not to say why this Act took no effect I think I have said it when I have observed the rise of the Puritan Party and the seeds of the late War sowed in the beginning of Recusancy But I am to say it could not have taken good effect without taking in the Principle which I maintain What could be more just and discreet then to appoint Commissaries in equal number of Bishops Divines Civil and Common Lawyers But what could have had force but that which had been done to restore and maintain the Faith and Laws of the Primitive Church There are very great Reasons why those that desire to serve the Church should be satisfied in all that this Exception will allow There can be no Reason why more should be allowed To bring them into dispute with their Pastors is to put the Authority of the Church to compromise To compromise any Law of the Kingdom to dispute of Divines upon this Principle is no more then to oblige either Popish or Fanatick Recusants either to stand to the Result or to suffer Penalties competent to their disobedience and the hazard which the Publick Peace runneth when the Peace of Religion is disturbed If that which hath been pretended be all that is intended That some small things are scrupled Let the Legislative Power be satisfied that the preservation of Religion and of the Authority of the Church in which the preservation of Religion consisteth is only sought The Interest of the Parties to give and to receive mutual satisfaction is so great that if there can be ever hope of Peace by dispute this is the time and ours the Case wherein to hope for it CHAP. XIX Probability of recovering the Presbyterians FOr I cannot have so hard an opinion of men whose zeal for the advancement of Discipline in the Church I have always esteemed as to think them resolved to ruine the Common Christianity without hope of doing their own business seeing this to be the unavoidable consequence of holding up the difference on foot rather then taking up with so much of their own Pretensions as the State of the Catholick Church will allow Let them consider in the first place the Recusancy of the Fanaticks as well as those of the Church of Rome What hope their Principles can give them either to make their Recusancy punishable by the Law of the Land or to reduce them by convicting them of that sense of the Scripture which they only allow themselves to convict them with I set aside for the present those Prophesies of Daniel and the Revelation by which they pretend the Pope to be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters For I must argue in due place that the Recusancy of the Papist cannot be punishable by Law upon this Account But how will they either reduce the Recusancy of the Papist by those punishments which the Recusancy of the Fanaticks must suffer or give the Kingdom God and the World a Reason for the why not which the best of them is here challenged to undertake Then let them consider the wantonness of these times and the wits of them that think it good sport to call in question the foundation of Christianity upon the belief of Original sin by introducing the praeexistence of Souls That think it but sport to make ready their studies in Divinity for the Pulpit by Episcopius his Works denying Original sin both name and thing and making the Faith of the Holy Trinity unnecessary to Salvation Or rather by the Works of the Socinians collected and united together in Holland on purpose to prepare us for the same Apostasie to Socinianism which they are in so much danger of there Let them consider what hope they have to make the Vniversities good Presbyterians that have sowed the seeds of this danger in them by the dissatisfaction they had of their Doctrine when they were in Possession there Then let them tell me what we shall say to the Papists to perswade them to come to Church when as they shall say that they cannot be secured that their Curate is no Socinian or Origenist For the Arminian Congregations in Holland having admitted the Socinians into their Communion and the Canon of the Church making all Socinians in the eye of the Church that Communicate with Socinians how shall they be secured against those that take their Doctrine from the Socinians Or from them who communicate with Socinians Besides let them but remember the time when they had the Ball at their Foot an Ordinance of Parliament for setting up their Presbyteries And how much they gained upon the People whom they had disordered out of all Ecclesiastical Government when they came to be at what they would be at I think they will be at so great despair of reducing the World to their intent having nothing in the Law of the Land to favour it that they will think that they have cause to thank God of a good opportunity to bring them off from an ingagement in which they are like to gain so little by hazarding the common Christianity As for the Clergy of this Church I suppose there is none of them so little a Christian as to repute it a loss to the Party to see their Adversaries capable of that trust in the Church and those rewards of it which they have suffered for themselves For if the necessity of the Kingdom hath required an Act of Oblivion much more must the necessity of Religion which cannot be attained without a cordial conspiring of those that are to manage it inforce a mixture of Interest And that being considered let any man tell me how that can be made but by a Third in which all are alike Interessed That is by owning the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church whereby the Papist is either reduced or left punishable as the Fanatick CHAP. XX. The Cure by repairing the Revenue of the Church BUt all this is but a Cure for the Symptom Should such a Conference take effect the Cause of the disease would remain intire For the Cause of our Divisions is not these differences which are too inconsiderable to produce so incomparable a
mischief as that of Schism It rises and is fomented by those Interests which the imperfection of two Laws of Henry VIII hath created So that the Reformation is no way obliged to answer for them Only if it refuse not to mend them now that time hath discovered the mischiefs which they have produced I call them two Laws not as if they were comprised in two Acts of Parliament but because they concern one of them the indowment the other the Rights of the Church We all know that when the Monasteries were given to the Crown the indowment of those Churches which had been impropriated to those Monasteries was transferred by the Crown into those hands that could not Officiate the Cure of Parishes as the Monasteries by some of their Members or by their Vicars had done And though the Right of the Crown which could be no more then the Monasteries had could not abate the Original Right of the Bishop in setling a reasonable portion upon the Vicarages yet in the hands of those that claim under the Crown it hath appeared so strong that such Vicarages are generally impoverished But where the Cure lay upon the Covent there there now remains no indowment no Provision for the Cure of Souls Which falls out most in Cities and places that were most frequented with Monasteries as well as with People What the consequence hereof hath been it is plain enough Even a sort of Mungrel Clergie of Lecturers Who being Authorized by the Bishops Orders and License but payed by the People to supply the Office of Preaching which the Benefices of the Church were not able to maintain Like a Pack of Dogs that are ruled by the Huntsman that seeds them and sets them a work not by the Master that provides for them No marvel that they owne not the Bishops for Judge of their Preaching whether according to the Law or not He that sees not that this was the sourse of the late War of him is the Proverb that says No man so blind as he that will not see And the worst is that so great a part of the Gentry as have shared with the Crown in the spoils of the Monasteries think it their Interest to hold up that Party which they think would justifie their Title in point of Conscience Whereas it is found by experience that those very Preachers that would Reform the Church by force of the People would question their Tenure as soon as they saw themselves in condition to do it Now I intend not here to dispute that foundations to intents of false Religion as for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory are ipso facto forfeit to the true God himself hath recommended this Course to the Church in the Case of the Censers of Core Dathan and Abiram which he challenges for his own to the use of the Altar though consecrated to the use of their Schism But the Christian Emperors of the Primitive Churches inacting those Penalties upon the Conventicles of Hereticks and Schismaticks which we read in the last Book of Theodosius his Code the fifth Title de Haereticis have confiscated the places where they met in nine Laws and forfeited them to the Church in five Whereby it appears that the Primitive Church living under those Laws did not think that goods so consecrated do of necessity eschete to the Church My present purpose obliges me only to suppose that the Tithes which all the world saw that they had been consecrated to God for maintaining the Cures of the Parishes These if there be any such thing as a Church could not be alienated from it without Sacriledge But I say not therefore that they can never be held bona side Which is that which makes the jealousie incurable in those that find their Estates consist much of them And yet I undertake not to warrant generally the holding of them Only think that in some particulars it may be warrantable For when they are come into such hands that the support of Estates depends necessarily upon them and that by mean contracts and originally such as had in them no ill Faith I say not I can warrant them I think they may be warrantable Now I know there may be an Act of Oblivion done by the Church as well as by the Kingdom And the Church of Rome knew it well enough when they reconciled this Kingdom under Q. Mary without restoring these Possessions By the same Reason for which Hereticks and Schismaticks were always dispensed with for Canonical Penalties leaving the Pardon to God that the Unity of the Church might be recovered By the same may the Church leave all to their own Consciences not warranting their pardon from God neither yet refusing them the Communion as unpardonable But alas what would this Act do in our Case did the whole Clergy understand themselves tyed in Conscience by it not so much as to mention much less to reproach any such Tenure So long as the mischief once done remains unprovided for by the Law which gives the Title and Possession the contradiction between the Canonical and Popular Interests can never cease But if the Kingdom consider that it was an Act of Parliament that did the wrong they must necessarily find that nothing but an Act of Parliament can repair it And if the People consider that a Parliament may transgress the trust which they repose in them which of necessity may come to pass unless we make the Parliament infallible and the Pope not they will easily find that a Parliament cannot repair the wrong that a former Parliament hath done but upon the Charge of the people For Church-goods under Christianity cease not to be the Goods of the People though the Church be trusted with managing them being founded by God for that purpose And he that admits of the necessity of all this will find it no considerable Charge for the whole Kingdom to furnish contribution necessary for the founding and indowing of Churches requisite for the Resort and Cures of all Assemblies requisite for a Reformation regulated by the Primitive Church And if this be one Cause of our Divisions and that the Kingdom cannot be counted a Christian Kingdom till it take a course in it let no man marvel to see the Judgments of God in our Divisions when he sees the Sin of the Kingdom continue And if this were considered the discourses that walk up and down in all Assemblies of relieving the Publick Charge by seizing the pitiful remainder of the Church-Revenue would appear to be as they are the productions of Atheism not of pity to the peoples purses CHAP. XXI By limiting and restoring Ecclesiastical Discipline THe other Law concerning the Right of the Church in the Supremacy of the Crown over all Persons and in all Causes as well Fcclesiastical as Civil may seem to extinguish the Right of the Church over the same Persons and in the same Causes Which could not be called Ecclesiastical if there were no such thing as a
Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts under the Jurisdiction of the Laws of the Land and those Courts that minister the same This Interest espouseth the Opinion which voids the Article of our Creed that professes One Catholick Church making Excommunication and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction founded by our Lord Christ a meer Imposture declareth it uncapable of any Sacriledge to be committed in the using of it In the mean time the Clergy whose Interest is no ways concerned in the Scandals which the Ecclesiastical Courts may give Further then as they are hindred by the said Courts to cure their Scandals by the due Use of their own Office do suffer not only the Scandals which are done under colour of their Patents But even the affronts of the Ecclesiastical Courts themselves Receiving Appeals from the Censure of their Bishops upon the Clergy For a few examples serving the Bishops not to imploy that Jurisdiction which is so easily affronted it must be acknowledged that the debauches of the Clergy are come to that height that till they be Reformed Reformation is not duely pretended against the See of Rome CHAP. XXII The ground of the proper Interest of the Church BUt perhaps there be those that are perswaded by the Leviathan that a Church is nothing else but a Christian Common-wealth And that the Civil Power thereof which is Soveraign hath full Right to injoyn whatsoever it please for the Christian Religion exacting what Penalties it please of Recusants There be others besides the Leviathan that have maintained some branches of the same Opinion but he is the only man that hath looked the whole Question in the Face with this Answer I will but relate the Issue which his own Resolution hath driven him to and leave him to Judgment For having objected to himself in his Latine Book de Cive that which is obvious to all Understandings That then a Christian may be justly punished for his Christianity He answers that it is no inconvenience that he should Because by suffering he purchases an abundant reward I know not whether any man told him or whether himself took notice that this was the answer of Julian the Apostate making himself sport with the complaints of the Christians That they were beholding to him for the Kingdom of Heaven which they gained by suffering his Persecutions But that it was not for the credit of his doctrine to bring Christian Princes into the predicament of Julian the Apostate And therefore upon second thoughts his Leviathan answers That a Subject is bound to obey all that his Soveraign commands in Religion whether he be Christian or not Insomuch that if he command him to renounce Christ he is bound to do it with his mouth and shall be saved believing in him with his heart nevertheless This answer shews the necessary issue of this Opinion That he who holds it if he be as bad as his word is as necessarily an Apostate as Julian the Apostate The hope of Salvation and the Right of Communion with the Church lyes not only in the heart which believes to righteousness but in the mouth which professeth to Salvation The Profession which is made at our Baptism is a Condition without which it cannot be had It is the taking up of Christs Cross which the Gospel requireth He that declares himself free in any Case whatsoever to renounce Christs though he hath not done it hath declared himself free of the Bond which he entred into at his Baptism And as he is no more a Christian to God no more should he be to the Church If further he say As the Propositions first maintained and afterwards recanted by his late Disciple at Cambridge do import That there is no difference between good and bad before Civil Power that is Soveraign inact it Then must it be said further that he is properly an Atheist For if God govern not the World if he reward not the good if he punish not the bad though man do not pardon me God and all good Christians if I repeat Blasphemy that it may never more be repeated then is he not God Particularly if Civil Power can oblige a man to say or swear that which he means not there remains not that Ground for Civil Society which the Heathen themselves whom nevertheless S. Paul truly calls Atheists maintained For what Ground for Civil trust if there be no Law before Civil trust to punish the falsifying of it Let him that considers this Consequence necessary upon all Opinions that distinguish not the matter of Ecclesiastical Law consequent to the State and Constitution of the Church from the Force it hath to be a Law of the Kingdom by the Act of the Kingdom I say let him answer in Conscience whether those Laws by which the Rights of the Crown Usurped by the See of Rome are Resumed into it did proceed upon this Opinion or not For my part I remember very well a solemn Protestation which one of them makes that the intent was not to innovate any thing in Religion by vindicating the Rights of the Crown And therefore do infer that none of them can be understood to extinguish the Rights of Religion concurrent with the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters which it doth not distinguish Knowing how difficult it is to distinguish between them As not knowing that ever the ground upon which they are to be distinguished was delivered till now But there is an Act of the V. of Q. Elizabeth by which that abatement in the sense of the Supremacy of the Crown in Church-matters which had been declared by her Injunctions from the beginning of her Raign to prevent misconstructions was made a Law of the Land This Act because it undertaketh not to limit the Supremacy by distinguishing the Interest of the Crown from the Interest of the Church for the difficulty of satisfying all Consciences gives the Subject leave to declare the sense in which he takes that Oath reserving to himself that which Religion requires a Christian to reserve for the Church Which was not the sense of them that believed no Catholick Church no Visible Right of it And by vertue of this Declaration it is that my self have undertaken to declare that limitation which the Catholick Church requireth For how many Prelates and Divines of this Church King James of excellent Memory in particular have done the same But it is no other then that which the Canons of K. James declare when they describe this Supremacy to be the same which the Godly Kings of Gods Ancient People which the Roman Emperors of the Primitive times before that corruption came in which we Protest against did exercise Here have you the due bounds of this Supremacy setled by Law upon the true ground of it For it is manifest that it cannot be derived from the Rights of the Kings of Gods Ancient People alone Because there could be no Catholick Church before the calling of the Gentiles But the Empire imbracing the Faith when the Church
was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation
for want of due abilities and they will find cause I doubt not to prefer the Whole Church before a late Party and abate the Sermon to restore the Eucharist Especially seeing the Law of this Land must be changed to bear out what others have done though it is manifest they never gave any reason for it They will see cause to think that the best Preaching is that which may fit the people for the Eucharist by understanding the Covenant of Baptism and the importance of daily renewing and restoring it by Communion in the Eucharist The other Instance shall be the Psalms that are sung in Cathedral Churches but allowed to be read where there is not company to sing them For it is plain enough what excuses are made and what indeavours used to silence this part of Gods Service and to turn the Psalms which this Church with the Whole Church appointeth for devotion into Lessons of Instruction only Hence all the Plea against the Old Translation with points all the indeavors to crowd in the Psalms in Rhime instead of the Psalter and all use which the Church hath always made of it But did not partiality and faction prevail over that Reason which all Christendom before the Reformation hath always owned there could be no question of using the Psalter of David for an Instrument to tune the devotion of Christian people by transforming the expressions of David unto our Lord Christ in the first place and according to the Figure of Christ to the Whole Church first and then to every particular member of it He that hath learnt this from the Whole Church will never think it reason to put this part of Gods Service to silence whosoever they be that desire or desing it He will rather indeavour to reduce the singing of them into Parish Churches being evidently so much easier then the singing of the Psalms in Rhime But howsoever retain the reading of them by Antiphones and not quench the Spirit of God which breatheth forth that transformation whereof I spake Having thus instanced I will not propose the Ground upon which I maintain that all Reformation is to proceed for the condition of the Conference which I propose I will think it a point of that Forbearance which S. Paul commandeth the Romans not to insist upon those terms which the Authority of the Apostles doth inforce Because I see him not insist upon the Authority of an Apostle with them but having infallibly proved his ground of Justification by Faith alone forbear the consequence of it charging the Romans to hold that indifferent whatsoever his Authority so grounded declareth such yet charging them to forbear those that for all his Authority and Reasons understood it not For I believe verily that his reason and mine is the very same Namely to keep both Parties in the Unity of one Church a Member of the Whole Hoping that by Gods blessing upon the advantages which the communication of the Faithful one with another and with their Clergy affordeth those that are now most keenly set against these little things that are excepted at in the Act of Uniformity may by that condescension which the Interest of Christianity obliges all Parties to come to understand the only Principle of Reformation and Unity both The Authority of the Catholick Church in all things not determined by Gods Law which is only the Gospel under this time of Christianity And I set before them to that purpose the example of the Jews Who for all the Forbearance commanded by S. Paul having stopped their ears at all his charms with the Unity of the Church have forfeited the Faith hitherto irrecoverably For being fully perswaded that without this Principle it is not possible either for this Church or for any part of the Reformation long to subsist Can I fear any less then the utter loss of Religion for my dearest Country and for the dearer Church of God in it CHAP. XXVII How Recusants may or may not be punished as Idolaters IT remains that I say what Penalties this Position makes competent to those that refuse the Reformation thus limited A thing easie for me to do having declared the Ground upon which the refusing of Christianity is punishable Which the Reformation hitherto hath not been able to do The Position of punishing Hereticks capitally is generally decryed by them And yet we see Servetus and Gentilis put to death at Geneva and Bern and others elsewhere If because sentenced for Hereticks by them that put them to death Why should not the Powers that adhere to the Church of Rome execute the Sentence thereof upon those whom they pronounce Hereticks If because so sentenced by the Primitive Church in which we both agree Why owne we not the Primitive Church in the rest as well as in that If because they that gave the Sentence are competent Judges in Religion What remains but that contrary Sentences be executed by the Sword and Religion be no otherwise judged But supposing Religion and the Church and the sense of the Scripture Visible so far as the preserving of Unity requires Christian Powers must both protect Subjects in their Civil as well as natural being though not true Christians and yet punish them for not being true Christians Only if they pretend freedom from Allegiance by Christianity and we know it is false Christianity that so pretends there will be also fit time to declare why they may be capitally punished But those who declare the Pope Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters in the exercise of their Religion have not declared what Penalty is competent to their Idolatry And yet till that be cleared we are in the clouds This difficulty I find my self able to look in the face without ever disputing whether the Papists by their Religion are bound to commit Idolatry or not The Law of Moses indeed seems to shew that by the Law of Nature Idolaters may be put to death for their Idolatry For there is no appearance that the Law of God would have injoyned that which the Law of Nature allows not But the Case is otherwise under Christianity then under the Law of Moses The people of Israel held the Land of Promise upon Condition not to suffer any other God to be worshipped within the Bounds of it but the true God that gave it them upon those terms Therefore they committed a forfeit whensoever they suffered Idolatry in it But the Gospel was preached to the Roman Empire consisting of two Religions of Jews and Gentiles Maintaining the State of the World upon the same terms which it found saving that which if they imbraced the Faith they must voluntarily change When therefore the Soveraign Power of the Empire came to profess the Faith and thereupon an obligation to maintain and propagate it by all means which the Right of Soveraign Power furnishes they could not answer God for the right use of their Power using any other means then the Interest of Christianity allows They might
have confiscated Estates where they might have taken away lives But that would have made the meekness which Christianity pretendeth to appear that Hypocrisie of our Sects Who are always humble always for Toleration till they get the Power into their own hands To shut up the Temples of Idols and to forbid Sacrifices was no more then to suppress that Sacriledge which the light and Law of Nature discovereth If any of the Imperial Laws make it death to sacrifice it is to be understood upon presumption that those Sacrifices were Inquiries into the life of the Prince or of their enemies To constrain them to be Christians by Penalties had been to make them counterfeit Christians Besides the Nations that bordered upon the Empire were all Idolaters And Christianity pretended to convert them as well as the Empire If the Emperors had punished their Subjects being Gentiles for being Idolaters must not the Neighbour Nations have persecuted the Christians their Subjects for being Christians The reason of the difference between the Law and the Gospel in this behalf is that which S. Austin giveth why the Law of Moses voids the Marriages of Jews with Gentiles Whereas S. Paul advises those that â—…ned Christians being married to Idolaters to continue in Wedlock with them desiring it S. Austins reason is this That the Law tendring only temporal promises expresly which Gentiles as well as Jews might did injoy in this world thought it too hard a temptation to trust a Jew in Wedlock with a Gentile by whâ—… he might be in danger to be seduced to prosperous Idolatry Whereas Christianity upon the advantage of the world to come assured by the Preaching of our Lord and his Apostles challengeth all other Religions as unable to resist it when it is performed as well as professed So that to suffer Idolaters in conversing with Christians was but the allowing of opportunity for the converting of Idolaters I think I have cause to make this an argument ad hominem that our Sectaries themselves cannot nor do require the Penalty of Idolatry by Moses Law upon Papists They that remember the time when the late Q. Mother of Royal memory came over do know what infusions the Pulpits then made into the minds of the people of the curse of God hanging upon the Nation for His Majesties Marriage The pretense was wholly upon the Law of Moses Which as I have shewed is not to the purpose among Christians But indeed those prognostications were no other then the Prophesies of the Devils Oracles among the Gentiles Foretelling the mischiefs which they intended or desired to do themselves This being a sufficient reason why the same pretense is not now on foot because it cannot be plausible after so dear experience of the mischief it tends to I think I am to take advantage of it in behalf of Truth and Justice That no Party can pretend the Penalty of Moses Law to lye in our Case Supposing not granting the Papists to be Idolaters according to Moses Law And is not the Case the same between the Reformation and the See of Rome At least it is so if the Reformation be that which it pretendeth For then the advantage must needs be so Visible that to allow conversation between the Professions that are at such distance is but to allow the means of bringing all Popish Recusants to Church when the Reformation is that which it pretendeth I grant that it falls out to be otherwise in our experience For they that are converted to the See of Rome at this time are converted by this miscarriage that they venture themselves into dispute with those which they are not able to deal with But the miscarriage is accidental Because of the Divisions within our selves arising from hence that our Reformation owneth not the Bounds which it requireth For by this means the Clergy of this Church is in contempt with their Flock and private Christians venture themselves into dispute with Recusants that is with their Priests without trusting their Pastors or acquainting them with what they do Which if they did do in due time such occasions would be opportunities of reducing Recusants to Church Besides to pursue the Idolatry of the See of Rome supposing not granting that so it is what would it be but to draw the Sword on both sides to try the quarrel of Religion with And therefore Soveraign Powers cannot give God account that they use the Right he gives them over Papists their Subjects pursuing them to the Penalty of Moses Law as Idolaters There is another reason for the same that appears now and then in the disputes of them that maintain the Religion of the See of Rome to be Idolaters For they have many times found themselves obliged to grant that their Idolatry is another kind of Idolatry then that which is prohibited and punished with death by the Law of Moses And if so it must be another kind of Penalty that belongs to it Now I suppose S. Paul says true that Covetousness is Idolatry and that there be those that make their Belly their God And whosoever understands the difference between the Old and the New Testament will allow that S. Hierom understood it Who in his Commentaries upon the Prophets makes all that they the Prophets say against the Idolatry of the ten Tribes to belong to the Heresies and Schisms of Christians and all Hereticks and Schismaticks to be Idolaters in the mystical sense of the Old Testament under the New Which is no more then our Lord says of the Samaritans That they worshipped they knew not what At such time when it was well enough known that the Samaritans were no Idolaters worshipping the only true God of Israel For certainly though all Superstition be not Idolatry yet all Idolatry is Superstition Because the chief of Superstitions is Idolatry All Superstitions stand upon the same ground as Idolatry and aim at the same mark Man is sensible by that Conscience which the light of Nature creates that one true God is to be worshipped And that as himself shall require not as his Creature is willing to allow And being therefore sensible that Concupiscence allows him not that Service which Conscience requires they are willing to pay him in Coin of their own stamping Usurping the Prerogative of his Soveraignty even in that whereby they pretend to pay their Allegiance Is there any other sourse of Idolatry but this For is it not reasonable to think that men can satisfie themselves and put off the Gods they have made themselves with that which the jealous God the true God will not be served with And therefore Religion teaches that Idolatry is the Worship of the Devil Not only because he teaches it But because he holds the Opinion of a God by corresponding with Idolaters in their Idolatries And what is all Superstition but redeeming the Service of God in Spirit and Truth by the service of our Bodies or Estates which may be done when the inward
man is not subject to God Such are the Invocations of Saints the Worshipping of their Reliques and Images the Pilgrimages and Indulgences commended or commanded by the See of Rome And such they may be owned to be by him that dare not undertake them to be that Idolatry that was punishable with death by the Law of Moses And being such it will be punishable in all who for an undue respect to the See of Rome will not have their fellow-subjects freed from superstitious customs Nor obey the Laws of their Country that give them this freedom But if this be the due Reason for which it is punishable the same Reason will render them punishable who think they serve God by running into Conventicles in despite of the Laws of God and their Country For what is that but a pretense of paying the debt of Religion which Christianity makes due to God by worshipping an Idol of their own setting up That is as I said afore by worshipping God according to an Imagination of their own erecting and not according to that which the common Christianity requires And thus I am come to the Conclusion which I intended without disputing whether or no the Papists by their Religion do exercise that Idolatry which is punishable by death in Moses Law For if capital Penalty lye not in our Case If it be agreed upon that they are punishable upon the same Ground for which the other sort of Recusants are punishable then is the way clear before me to proceed to declare what Penalties both sorts of Recusants are to be or may be punished with Supposing our Reformation confined within those Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church either determine or allow CHAP. XXVIII All that take Arms against the Soveraign to Reform Religion may be liable to Capital Punishment BUt if the Papists cannot be liable to capital punishment as Idolaters neither can they be liable to it as limbs of Antichrist The name of Antichrist is a challenge of Soveraign Power Because the name of Christ is so Signifying a Prince and a Prophet raised and setled by Gods immediate Word which is the Soveraign Title For Antichrist can signifie nothing but a counterfeit Christ One that pretends to be Christ and is not Our Lord Christ being the Messias which the Fathers and Prophets from the beginning expected But the Soveraignty of Christ is declared by himself to be a meer Spiritual Soveraignty which all the Jews even the Apostles before our Lords death expected to be a temporal Kingdom And therefore whososoever it is that groundeth Soveraignty upon Christianity though he be not Antichrist for that yet is he the enemy of all Christian States for it And so are the Subjects of all Christian States that think themselves free of their Allegiance to Princes or States Excommunicated by the Pope And upon this account I deny not that Papists may become liable to capital punishment or to banishment with confiscation Which seems to be of the two the greater punishment But this neither common to all Papists nor proper to Papists alone For that this is not the Faith of all Papists I need no more then the distance between the Secular Priests and the Jesuits here to prove And that it is not proper to Papists alone I need no more then the Scottish Covenant and the troubles of the three Kingdoms upon it to prove And therefore it is a thing absolutely necessary to make those Penalties just which the Laws inflict upon the Papists that they distinguish between the Cause of Religion common to all and the Cause of them that make it a point of Religion to violate their Allegiance to a Soveraign deposed by the Pope Nay it will be necessary in point of Justice to impose the same Penalties upon all of all Religions that may think themselves discharged of their Allegiance upon any account of Religion whatsoever It is manifest that they who take Arms against their Soveraign to reform Religion do ground themselves upon the Title of Religion and think themselves tyed by their Christianity to do it As they who take Arms against their Prince deposed by the Pope think themselves tyed in Christianity to execute his Sentence Those whom the people follow in reforming Religion against the will of their Soveraign Those they make as much Judges in reforming Religion as the other do the Pope And all that refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath that they will neither lead nor follow any man in reforming Religion without his Authority deserve to be out of the protection of that Sword which he weareth not in vain They fall into the Case of the Jews expecting the Messias For when they imagine that he is come they will think themselves dispensed with by their Religion for any Bond of Allegiance But Christian Princes and States are not wont so far as I know to think themselves secured by the Oath of Jews Let this be a difference which they make between Jews and Christians to take the Oath of their Christian Subjects for security of their Allegiance Because true Christianity obliges all good Christians to bear Allegiance to their Soveraigns not to be dispensed with upon any account of Christianity Notwithstanding we see that there are those that count themselves the best Christians that do think themselves dispensed with in their Allegiance upon divers and several accounts of their Christianity But let this Kingdom having had tryal of contrary pretenses think it self bound to declare the same Penalties against the same Crimes And able to impose the utmost Penalties upon all that shall refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath of their Allegiance And since the allowance which the Law makes in understanding the Oath of Supremacy evidences that it may be understood in a sense offensive in point of Religion let it be thought time to antiquate the old and to inact a new form that may tye all Subjects as Subjects without pretense of offending any Religion by condemning all Religions that make difficulty to undertake it for irreligious CHAP. XXIX What Penalties the Protection of Religion requires NOw I am to say how far Christian Powers are to punish Hereticks and Schismaticks For it is too late for me to say that they may punish their Conventicles having declared the reason why they may do it And being now only to draw the consequence of that reason how far they are to do or may do it Here I must first marvel at our Independents some of whom have disputed in very good earnest that it is not lawful for Civil Powers to impose Penalties upon Religion Whereas the World knows that there never was any such Religion in the World as that of Independents before the planting of New England And that since those that framed Independent Congregations there upon a Covenant whereby they renounce One Catholick Church and One Baptism for Remission of Sins have not only banished Antinomians and put Quakers to
death But have imposed a Penalty of five shillings a Lords-day upon all that come not to hear their Sermons For though this Penalty is not strictly exacted at present yet it lyes at present Whereby the greater part of His Majesties Subjects in that Plantation are not only hindred from exercising the Religion injoyned by the Laws of this Kingdom But also their Children dye unbaptized themselves live and dye without the Communion of the Eucharist and in fine their Souls are murthered by this Tyranny of their misbelieving fellow-Subjects Whether all this by their Fatent or by Vsurpation I leave to those that may redress it to judge But if the Protection of Religion and of the Church lye in maintaining those Rights which the Soveraign Power finds the Church possest of when it undertakes the Profession of Christianity And all the Right of the Church which it hath by the meer consent of those that voluntarily undertake Christianity resolves into Excommunication Then is not the Church protected in the Rights of it by Christian Powers unless their Laws inable the Excommunication of the Church to lay hold on all their Subjects Nor can any inconvenience follow hereupon Because the Excommunication of the Church when it is protected by the Civil Power can never proceed but upon Causes which the Law allows Now ther are two sorts of Excommunicate persons according to the Premises One are they that Excommunicate themselves the other they that are Excommunicated by the Church For though they Excommunicate themselves yet because they are to be avoided by the Flock from whence they depart when they Excommunicate themselves they are to be held as if they were Excommunicate by the Church Now if they who thus Excommunicate themselves should be under no Penalty of Civil Power for so doing I would fain know what that Protection which Christian Powers must needs owne to the Christianity which themselves profess can avail it For if the Church Excommunicate those that perform not the Christianity which they profess and the Excommunicate be free to run into the Conventicles of those that Excommunicate themselves whowill care for performing the Christianity which he professeth Or how shall the Church and Religion subsist when no man need to care for performing the Christianity which he professeth This is the danger which is come so near to bring this Church to nothing at this time On the one side all Papists Excommunicate themselves on the other side all that run into Conventicles The Papists we all know are under Penalties grievous enough If we speak of that part which doth not decline their Allegiance As for those that do I have already set the consideration of them aside And yet there is this Apology for the severity of those Laws That they do take off the Penalty of perpetual imprisonment which by the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom introduced under the Papacy lyes against all that are Excommunicate And therefore is to lye against all that Excommunicate themselves If there be a reason why such severe Laws should be in force against them can any that wears the face of a man say why the other sort of Recusants should be free from all Penalties I think the World is sensible hereof in the suspension of the Penal Laws against the Recusants Which under his late Majesty was charged with such violent jealousies and now passes without discontent because there is neither conscience nor shame to levy those Penalties upon them and none upon the Conventicles In the mean time Atheism Prophaneness Blasphemy Apostasie Heresie shelter themselves under the Communion of the Church which the Laws protect and will needs be of that Religion which they may profess and need not perform And how long this Church can continue this Church upon those terms let those judge whom it concerns My business is only this That if those that Excommunicate themselves be under no Penalty those that are Excommunicate by the Church need not care that they are Excommunicate And so the Church is not protected because the Excommunication of the Church is not in force That is it is no Penalty to be Excommunicate to all that can think it is none And therefore unless it draw a Penalty of this World after it that all may have occasion to avoid the Penalty of the World to come by avoiding the Penalty of this World the Church is not protected It may be thought that the Church is protected nevertheless by the Priviledge of receiving the Tyths of those that decline it and of the Trust it manages of dispensing Church-goods And this is indeed part of the Penalty by which they redeem their Recusancy In as much as they are put to maintain the Religion which they invent Church-goods though they be Publick goods yet being originally affected to the maintenance of that Church which the Law protecteth But that being a Penalty of their own choice satisfies not the Protection of the Religion which the Kingdom professeth until the Law make it a disgrace and a degree of Infamy to stand Excommunicate whether by themselves or by the Church And seeing all Discipline even that of the Clergy ends in Excommunication To maintain the Revenue and let go Discipline would be to sell Religion for the Revenue of the Church For what would this be but a tempting of the debauched into the Service of the Church when there is no Discipline to restrain their debauches The complaints of this time shew this to be a Persecution which the Sects of the time bring upon the Church For Discipline is released for fear to stir and for hope to gain Sectaries and the fault is laid upon the Clergy that suffer in the releasing of Discipline But Christian Powers are bound not only not to persecute the Church themselves but not to suffer Sects to persecute it And to avoid trouble by releasing Discipline may be the way to find it in the means of avoiding it Certainly till Excommunication which is the utmost resort of all Discipline be in force we cannot say we have a Church but only because we have Laws by which it ought to be in force And because we hope to have Laws by which it will be in force Men may amuse themselves with the instance of the Vnited Provinces which they say flourish in trade and riches by maintaining all Religions But the question is of Religion not of Trade nor Riches If it could be said that their Religion is improved with their Trade the example were considerable But they that would restore and improve the Religion that flourished in England thirty years ago must not take up with the base Alloy of that which is seen in the Vnited Provinces Nor is this a reproach to them but a truth of Gods Word that Religion and Trade cannot be both at once at the height Besides there is a Religion of the State in the Vnited Provinces and other Religions are tolerated there because they were in being before
the State was setled or contributed to the setling of it upon expectation of being tolerated in their Religions when it should be setled But when the Vnited Provinces were in danger to break in pieces upon a Dispute in Religion in the year 1618. and when the point of Religion was decided by the point of that Sword which decided by the point of that Sword which inabled the States General to give Law to the States of Holland Let him that now may see more Aprons then Clokes come from their Arminian Gongregations tell me whether the point were decided by a Penalty or not But let him tell me also whether it had not been better to have decided it no further then the Catholick Church had decided it then to indanger the Reformation as now it is in danger by admitting the Socinians into Communion with the Arminians in case the Penalty should prove insufficient As for the Discourses that threaten the transporting of Estates upon Penalties for Religion and that would incourage strangers to plant and improve Trade here Who knows not that the Conventicles now Usurped were first erected by the late War And therefore must be presumed to cherish the pretense of it And how easie is it for those that inact Penalties for Religion to provide that it be for no mans ease to declare himself an enemy to his Country Nor let any man think that strangers are affected in Religion as those at home are who pretend by Religion to give Law to their Country The dissensions on foot among us may well discourage them from planting among us to improve Trade with us The improving of the Reformation and the setling of it would be but an incouragement to them to pass by those frivolous pretenses which carry us to these frantick distances In the mean time be it considered that Independency which was not in rerum natura at the planting of New England being once setled there by the pretense which their Patent or Patents gave became so fruitful that within twenty years they were able to cut off their Prince For. all that love truth must acknowledge that they were Independents that did that horrible Act. And then consider how you would hope to have it restrained if S. Pauls precept of avoiding Sectaries that Excommunicate themselves be not in force by Canonical Penalties upon them that are to avoid And by temporal Penalties upon them that are to be avoided For conversing together otherwise then for Trade and Commerce experience shews that infection is unavoidable And therefore the Protection which the Kingdom owes the Religion which it professeth necessarily requires not only that it be maintained at the Charge of the Schismaticks in it For as that is the proper Penalty for them to redeem their Recusancy with So is it the Justice which they owe their fellow-Subjects whom they have hitherto kept in that Aegyptian Bondage And this Reason will extend the same obligation to all other Plantations and Residences of English To wit that if they be suffered to live in another Religion there account may be taken of them here that they be not admitted to Communion here without renouncing that which they lived in there That they be not suffered there without maintaining the Religion professed here It extends also to French and Dutch and all Forreign Churches that for Trade or otherwise may be allowed to plant here For either they hold Communion with this Church or not If not it must be Penal both for those of this Church to Communicate with them and for them to admit those of this Church If so yet so long as there is cause of jealousie there must be provision that neither Church be declined upon any pretense of such jealousie I will here add one thing before I make an end Because it may be demanded how the Law of the Land may make Excommunication turn to disgrace and to some degree of Infamy The answer is Let the Law of the Land provide that no man may have Christian Burial that is be buried in Consecrate ground and with the Office of the Church but he whom his Curate knows to have received the Communion within the year And I believe the most part of them that Excommunicate themselves will return of themselves But then it must be provided and the Bishop must be inabled by Law to discharge that Curate of Office and Benefice that shall falsifie his trust in that point Now give me leave to demand whether the Church be under Protection or under Persecution If the Curate be not inabled by Law to refuse Christian Burial to those of whose Salvation he can give no account because they withdraw themselves from his Cure CHAP. XXX The Condition of reconciling Recusants BUt this not all There is one point yet behind For whensoever the Church Excommunicates for notorious and scandalous sin to restore him that is so Excommunicate to Communion would be to murther his Soul and Christianity both at once not supposing some proportionable presumption of amendment in him that is restored This therefore must hold as the Reason of it holds in those that Excommunicate themselves In the reconciling of Hereticks and Schismaticks to the Church And this the practice of the Whole Church of God from the beginning shews them that are willing to understand the reason of it before they tread that Authority under foot which the common Christianity obliges all to follow Shew me any Heresie or Schism ever restored to the Church without renouncing the same and I will confess that the Church it self turned Heretick or Schismatick from the same date Only there is a difference to be put between Heresie and Schism and other Personal Crimes For I see no reason why we should not call other Crimes Personal in opposition to Heresie and Schism Because we call it not Heresie or Schism till Scparation be made A false Belief in Fundamentals is Heresie before God a Resolution to divide the Church is Schism before God both destructive to Salvation before Separation be made But Separation is the disease we pretend to cure without prejudicing the health of Gods Church And therefore should Separation be made to maintain a Profession that Simony for example or Sacriledge or any other deadly Crime is no sin the Party so formed would be ipso facto an Heresie Personal Crimes then must be restored to Communion upon presumption of Personal Conversion from the same But Heresies and Schisms becoming Bodies by professing an Ingagement may be re-united to the Church in Body renouncing the Separation in which they stood ingaged For there is reasonable presumption that the Leaders would not renounce if they did not repent them of it As for the People that only follows and leads not it is most true and just to maintain that Heresie and Schism is a Bar to Salvation though we allow hope of Salvation to the simple that follow malicious Leaders out of invincible ignorance It is therefore no