to it Ceremonies and Acts of Religion as having some relation to religious Actions yet he expresly distinguishes between the Parts of Worship and the external Adjuncts and Instruments of it and therefore does not call our Ceremonies Acts of Worship as that signifies a part of God's immediate Worship but in a more lax sense to include all external Adjuncts and Solemnities of Worship And therefore the Church of England never had any occasion to justifie her Worship by such distinctions as the Church of Rome has invented of Primary and Secondary Essential and Accidental Proper and Improper Worship whereby they endeavour to justifie that Worship they pay to Saints and Angels and Images which we have no use of because we Worship none but God. And our Author is a very pleasant Man who would justifie the Worship of Images under the Notion of Ceremonies surely the Church of England is not agreed with them here too for we know no such Ceremonies as are the Objects of Worship and that an Image is in the Church of Rome we use some indifferent and significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God but we do not worship our Ceremonies III. The AGREEMENT ABOUT IMAGE-WORSHIP THIS will be Answered in a few Words He forms his Argument from a Passage in the Answer to Papists protesting against Protestant Popery and from another in the Discourse against Transubstantiation p. 21. and from the Ceremony of Kneeling at the receiving the Lords Supper The Answerer says that to pay the External Acts of Adoration to or before or in Presence of a Representative Object of Worship as Representing is the very same thing In the Discourse against Transubstantiation it is observed That the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence of Christ was started upon occasion of the Dispute about the Worship of Images in opposition whereto the Synod of Constantinople about the Year of Christ 750. did argue thus That our Lord having left us no other Image of Himself but the Sacrament in which the Substance of the Bread is the Image of his Body we ought to make 〈◊〉 other Image of our Lord. In Answer to this Argument the second Council of Nice in the Year 787. did Declare That the Sacrament after Consecration is not the Image and Antitype of Christs Body and Blood but is properly his Body and Blood. And then the Church of England has enjoyned Bowing or Kneeling at the Reception of the Lords Supper for a Signification of our humble and grateful Acknowledgments of the Benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers and for avoiding such Prophanation and Disorder in the Holy Communion as might otherwise ensue From these Premises our Author thus Argues So that Kneeling is Expressive of the inward Reverence of the Heart to Christ and so is an Act of Religious Adoration the Kneeling then before the Sacramental Signs is the same with Kneeling to them Bowing before them is the same with Bowing to them a Worshipping before them the same with giving a Religious Worship to them Which sufficiently shews that in one great Instance the Church of England retains the same kind of Image Worship with the Roman-Catholicks and so far are we agreed with them In very good time But there is one thing yet remains to be proved which he has conveniently dropt And that is That the Church of England owns the Sacramental Bread to be the Image of Christ and the Representative Object of Worship This he knew he could not prove and therefore says nothing of it for it does not follow that because the Council of Constantinople affirmed that the Sacramental Bread is the Image of Christ's Body therefore the Church of England teaches so I am sure that Author say no such thing and if we should allow it in some Sense to be the Image as that signifies the Sacramental Figure of Christ's Body Does it hence follow that it is the Representative Object of Worship And thus his To and before and in Presence is all lost because the Bread according to the Doctrine of the Church of England is no Representative Object of Worship and therefore we neither Bow To nor before nor in Presence of the Bread as a Representative Object and therefore the Answer that Author gave that we do not Kneel to the Sacrament but receive it Kneeling is a very good Answer still Thus I have considered all his Pretences of Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome which they are as unfortunate at as they are at Representing And methinks it Argues some distrust of their Cause that they dare not down-right defend it but are forced either to represent it away almost into Protestant Heresy or to shelter themselves in their Agreement with a Protestant Church but the better way is to turn Protestants themselves and then we will own our Agreement with them THE END Books lately Printed for Will. Rogers THE Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented in Answer to a Book intituled A Papist Misrepresented and Represented c. Quarto An Answer to a Discourse intituléd Papists protesting against Protestant Popery being a Vindication of Papists not Misrepresented by Protestants And containing a particular Examination of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condem his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in the Articles of Invocation of Saints Worship of Images occasioned by that Discourse Quarto An Answer to the Amicable Accommedation of the Difference between the Representer and the Answerer Quarto A View of the whole Controversie between the Representer and the Answerer with an Answer to the Representer's last Reply in which are laid open some of the Methods by which Protestants are Misrepresented by Papists Quarto The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared as to Scripture Reason and Tradition in a new Dialogue between a Protestane and a Papist the first Part Wherein an Answer is given to the late Proofs of the Antiquity of Transubstantiation in the Books called Consensut Veterum and Nubes Testium c. Quarto The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared as to Scripture Reason and Tradition in a new Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist the Second Part Wherein the Doctrine of the Trinity is shewed to be agreeable to Scripture and Reason and Transubstantiation repugnant to both Quarto An Answer to the Eighth Chapter of the Representer's Second Part in the first Dialogue between him and his Lay-Friend Of the Authority of Councils and the Rule of Faith. By a Person of Quality With an Answer to the Eight Theses laid down for the Tryal of the English Reformation in a Book that came lately from Oxford Ser Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet p. 281 c. Defence p. 572. Tert. de Bapt. c. 17. Barrow Supremacy p. 189 c. Quarto Hieron ad Marcel Ep. 54. Vindicat. p. 15. 217. Vindic. p. 162. Ibid. p. 157. Agreement Pag. 7. Vind. P. 36. See Vindication of the Defence p. 329 c. Episcopatus unus est cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur Cypr. de unitate See the Defence p. 208. c. Unus Episcopatus Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus Cypr. ad Antonian Ep. 52. Pam. Quando Ecclesia quae Catholica una est scissa non sit neque divisa sed fit utique connexa cohaerentium sibi invicem Sacerdotum glutino copu lata Cytr Ep. 69. ad Florentium Pupianum Cypr. ad Ste phan Ep. 67. Vindic. p. 124 c. Episcopi nec potestatem habere potest nec honorem qui Episcopatus nec unitatem tenere voluit nec pacem Cypr. ad Anton. Ep. 52. Agreement p. 13. Vindic. p. 195. 196. Vindic. p. 396. Maximè cùm jampridem nobiscum cum omnibus omnino Episcopis in toto mundo constitutis etiam Cornelius Collega noster decreverit Cypr. cp 68. Pam. Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio formatarum in unâ communionis societate concordat Opt. l. 2. See Vindicat. p. 131. c. Cassand Consult de pontifice Rom. Agreem p. 18. c. Marcae per Archiepiscopum Burdegalensem Regis nomine imperatur ut adversus â—â—nc libellum Optati Galli scribut sed ea mâ—thodo ne libertates Ecclesiae â—â—llicanae quas per latus non occultè petebat Optatus aliquam paterentur injuriam quinimo id sedulo ageret ut omnes intelligerent libertates illas nihil â—etrahere de reverentia quae debetur Romanae sedi quam prâ— cunctis semper nationibus 〈◊〉 constantissimè retinuerunt Baluz vita Petr. de Mar. Agreement p. 33. Offendit tamen quis crederet hic liber Romana ingenia nullam aliam ob causam ut Marca existimabat quà m quòd in fronte operis admoneret hîc agi de libertatibus ecclesiae Gallicanae Unde Romanis quorum aures teneritudine quâ—dam plus trahuntur promptum suit sibi persuadere illum libertati ecclesiasticae adversari qui de libertatibus ecclesiae Gallicanae proh nefas agebat ex professo Baluz in vita Petri de Marca p 9. Agreement p. 61. The Catholick Hierarchy p. 77. Agree p. 62. Hierar p. 77. Agree p. 65. Hierar p. 77. Agreem p. 67. Cath. Hierar p. 79. Agreement p. 61. Cath. Hierar p. 80 81. Agree p. 74. Hierar p. 83. Cypr. Ep. 55. ad Cornelium Agreem p. 77. c. Cath. Hier. p. 85. c. Agreem p. 80. Cath. Hier. p. â—7 Agreem p. 81. Cath. Hier. p. 87. Agreem p. 84. Cath. Hier. p. 89. Vetus trat decrâ—tum Ne 〈◊〉 Deus ab Imperatore consecraretur nisi a Senatâ— probatus Apud vos de humano arbitratu Divinitas peâ—sitatur nisi homini Deus 〈◊〉 Deus nonerit homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit Tert. Apol. p. 6. Paris 1664. Agreem p. 85. Cath. Hier. p. 8â— Agreem p. 87. Cath. Hier. p. 92. Agreem p. 36. Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent B. 7. P. 570 c. Agreem p. 47. Agreem p. 50. Covel's modest Examination c. 6. p. 55. Ibid. p. 56. P. 58. Agreem p. 48. Answer to Papists Prot. p 81.
among us are better known by the name of Arminian Controversies now suppose they thought fit to give a latitude of Sense in their defining these Controversies have they positively defined nothing Has not the Church of Rome in express terms decreed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation of worship of Saints and images of the Adoration of the Host of Seven Sacraments of Purgatory c. And has not the Church of England as positively determined against them And where is the agreement then between the Two Churches The truth is there cannot be a worse thing said of any Church than what this Author charges both upon the Church of England and the Church of Rome that they purposely penn'd their Decrees in such loose terms that men of different Opinions might expound them to their own sense Which is to make a show of deciding a Controveesy with an intention all the while to leave it undecided which is such a juggle as unbecomes the Sincerity of a Christian Church There may be a great many nice Philosophical disputes which a wise Church may think necessary to leave undecided but there never can be any good reason instead of determining Controversies to lay the foundation of endless disputes between the Members of the same Communion by doubtful and ambiguous expressions And therefore I absolutely deny that the Church of England has done this or ever intended to do it She has indeed used that temper and moderation in those Articles which relate to the Five points as only to determine what is substantial in them and necessary to be believed by all Christians without deciding those Niceties whereon the Controversie between the Calvinist and the Arminian turns and therefore both of them may subscribe these Articles because the Controversies between them are determined on neither side and the appeasing such heats as may be occasioned by those Disputes is left to the prudence of Governours which was thought a better way than a positive decision of them This I think I could make appear were it a proper place for it and therefore have always thought that the Church of England was wronged on both sides while both the Calvinist and Arminian have forced her to speak their own sense when she intended to speak neither And no man can blame this conduct who remembers that this is only a reviving that old Philosophical dispute about Necessity and Fate which always has been a dispute and is likely to continue so and though these different Opinions have very different effects on our minds and form very different apprehensions in us of Almighty God which may be a just reason to prefer one before the other yet they are both consistent with the belief of all the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity as I have shewed at large in that Book to which this Author so often refers But now the Church of Rome has truly used this art which this Author charges her with such a latitude of expression and ambiguous terms as might satisfie their differing Divines that the cause was determined on their side when there was no other way to end their disputes and allay their heats and that in many concerning points too as any one may see who reads Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent and if this be intolerable in a fallible Church it is much more intolerable in a Council which pretends to Infallibility Certainly they distrusted their own Authority either did not believe themselves to be Infallible or knew that their Divines did not think them so for otherwise the Authority of the Council might have over-ruled their Disputes and there had been no need of cheating them into an assent But what expectation is there that the decrees of those men should be Infallible who so often intended to decree nothing This is a Mystery which I suppose our Author would not so freely have confessed at another time but it was necessary to allow this latitude of sense in the Decrees of the Trent Council now to bring off Mr. De Meaux and the Representer who do indeed expound the Decrees of the Council to a great latitude of sense But it is not a little matter will help them out the latitude of one side of the Line will not do but it must reach from Pole to Pole. There is another ingenious confession of this Author which is worth the noting That among the Romanists about the great Doctrine of Predetermination there are the Durandists Dominicans Jansenists Molinists and Scotists that very much differ in Opinion and yet are still of the same Church and yet these are the men that quarrel at the reformation because there are differing Opinions among them when there are the same Disputes among themselves managed with as great heat and contention These are the men who tell us that we must have an infallible Judg to end our disputes when an infallible Pope and infallible Councils dare not undertake to end theirs but as for what he adds that there are in the Church of England Calvinists Arminians Socinians and Antinomians who subscribe the same Articles of Religion as terms of Unity and Peace As for Calvinists and Arminians I will grant they may both subscribe our Articles whether any Socinians do I know not no more than they know when a secret Iew or one who does not believe Transubstantiation is receiv'd into holy Orders by them but I am sure an honest Socinian cannot subscribe our Articles unless he can subscribe the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds but this was only designed to propagate that groundless calumny That the Divines of the Church of England are infected with Socinianism Having thus as well as he could delivered himself from ingaging in that Dispute about our agreement in doctrinal Points which he knew he could make nothing of he says He will confine himself to the agreement there is between both Churches about Government and Worship and threatens to show how we have disputed against Dissenters upon Roman-Catholick Principles both in proving their Obligation to Communion with us and in vindicating the terms of our Communion from being sinful This is what he undertakes to prove and we are bound to hear him Answer to SECT 1. Concerning the Church of Englands Closure with a Roman Catholick Principle about the Government of the Church in proving the Dissenter to lie under an Obligation of holding Communion with her AND now we are come to the main seat of the Controversy about Catholick communion which our Author has very dexterously improved into Catholick Power and Empire I need give him no hard words to expose his manifest and wilful prevarications in this matter will be thought hard enough if he be capable of blushing Now to make this as visible as the light I shall 1. Shew wherein he pretends the Agreement between the Two Churches consists that is between my principles of Communion and the Church of Rome for I am the only person here concerned and if I cannot
ought to do so so this Author thinks But suppose they do not think so Are they ever the nearer Popery though their Principles be the same if their Conclusions are as distant as Protestancy is from Popery If they be so well disposed to a Cassandrian Peace I pray What hinders it Won't they receive us upon these terms What Not after all their softning representations to invite men into the bosom of the Church When they are so fond of all new Converts will they reject the Cassandrian Divines of the Church of England When he adds That his Majesty will admit of no such accomodations any one would suspect that these poor Cassandrians had been suing for reconciliations and had been rejected that the mollifying character of a Papist truly represented and the Bishop of Condom's Exposition of the Catholick Faith which is as soft though not so honest as Cassanders consultation would not now be allowed of at Court and all for the sake of that more glorious design of Liberty of Conscience But why might not Cassandrians be reconciled to the Church and Dissenters have their Liberty too This Prefacer does not tell his Story well he has Forehead enough but wants somewhat within Well but it was necessary in this present juncture to put some check to the insulting Talk of the Clergy who would be thought to be the only Champions against Popery That the Clergy of the Church of England have industriously and successfully opposed the Corruptions of the Church of Rome will be acknowledged by all but Papists and they feel it to their cost but that they are the only Champions against Popery I assure you is not pleasing to them for they would be very glad to see their dissenting Brethren put to their helping Hand and be as industrious to preserve those from Popery who have a Veneration for their Authority as we are and upon these terms we could heartily forgive them all their former unjust imputations of Popery to us but that our Popish Adversaries find it necessary in this juncture to give some check to this Popery-opposing Clergy I do not wonder and I believe no body will tho methinks the best way of giving a check to their Brags had been to confute their Books and they had work enough before them had they liked this way for I can tell them a great many Books which they have never answered yet and I beleive never will I am sure never can to any purpose But they come too late to perswade people now that we are Papists especially when they are so open-hearted as to tell all the World what their design is for if we were Papists no man will believe that they would be the first men who would discover us it may be they may know some few Cassandrian Church-men but those they keep to themselves yet and leave others to guess at them But what Check does he intend to give to this Insulting Talk of the Clergy A very terrible one truly for from this Essay it is pretty evident That the Church of England must either freely declare that as to the particulars instanced in she is agreed with the Romanist and that the Controversie lies only between the Church of Rome and the Protestant Dissenter or she must honestly renounce the Principles she has cleav'd unto when any of her Sons wrote against the Nonconformists and confess that she has been persecuting them for their firm adherence to Protestant Doctrines This is to triumph before the Victory as our Author will quickly find but however for my part I am glad it is no worse for I do not see how this will much humble us with relation to our Disputes against Popery Should I find any Principles that ever I have maintain'd against Dissenters give any advantage to Popery I would certainly conclude them to be false and make no scruple at all to renounce them for that which is false cannot follow from that which is true and how great a humiliation soever this were a man might dispute heartily against Popery still and let them but lay the charge of Persecution upon this issue which I grant is the true and fair state of the Case for Persecution is only for Righteousness sake and if our Dissenters were in the right I will readily grant that those who made or executed those Laws against Dissenters who had any hand or heart in it were guilty of Persecution There may be unreasonable severities used upon other accounts but every man who suffers for following his Conscience is not therefore persecuted but he who suffers for being in the right for believing and doing what God commands The next discovery this Essay makes is this That ever since the breach between the Church of England and the Protestant Dissenter has had its being we have left us uothing but the Name the Shadow of a Protestant Church of England and that so far as she differs from the Dissenter she agrees with the Roman Catholick How glad would these Gentlemen be to have none thought Protestants but Dissenters who in this present juncture are a more gentile and better natur'd sort of Protestants than this Shadow of the Church of England which haunts them like a Ghost or Spectre But when did the Church of England commence such a mere Name and Shadow Ever since the breach with the Protestant Dissenter But is not the Church of England the same now that it was before that breach And if it were a good substantial Protestant Church then How comes it to be a Shadow now Suppose what he says were true That as far as we differ from the Protestant Dissenter we agree with the Roman Catholick The Church of England may be never the worse Protestant Church for that which is placed in the middle between two Extreams the Dissenter and the Papist The Church of England Reformers never made a mere Opposition to the Church of Rome the Rule of their Reformation but Reformed only those abuses of the Church of Rome which needed a Reformation and when this Prefacer can prove that we have not Reformed enough we will Reform again for we are not obstinate against convictions and never think it too late to Reform however if as far as we differ from the Dissenter we are Roman Catholicks yet certainly as far as we agree with the Dissenter we are not and that is enough to make us somewhat more than the Shadow of a Protestant Church For we agree with them in our opposition to the Popes Supremacy as will presently appear to Infallibity to Transubstantiation to the Sacrifice of the Mass to the Adoration of the Host to the Worship of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary to the Worship of Images to Prayers in an unknown Tongue to the denying People the use of the Bible to the Five new Popish Sacraments to Indulgencies Purgatory Prayers for the Dead the Merit of Works and such like Popish Innovations and Corruptions and to oppose
human Capacity may mistake and Err and so did St Peter but not fundamentally yet as Supream Head in his Catholick Capacity quatenus in Cathedra Catholica comparative to all inferior subordinate Pastors he hath a kind of Infallibility which is a Power intrusted in him by the Catholick Church to pass a final Iudgment of Determination in all Causes and Controversies to be a Ne plus ultra to all Appeals and Litigations in the Church So that in the first place he is not infallible in his human Capacity and yet he founds his Infallibility on his Wisdom Holiness and Justice which are human and personal Perfections In his publick Capacity he would have him Infallible in the Chair but yet it is but a comparative Infallibility which is none at all Then his Infallibility is not an Infallibility in judging but a Power to make a final Determination whether it be right or wrong and any Man might have this Power as well as the Pope especially since he is not entrusted with this Power by Christ but by the Catholick Church that is too only by the Church of Rome for no other Church entrusts him with it and thus he quits all Divine Claims to Infallibility and the Pope is no more Infallible than the Church can make him by entrusting him with a final decision of Controversies at all Adventures And therefore he adds We are not bound to believe his Iudgment is infallibly true but are to subscribe to it as the last because we can have no further and higher Appeal on Earth That is we must subscribe to it whether we believe it true or not which is an admirable sort of Infallibility Thus he says the English Clergy Subscribe the 39 Articles not that they believe them as they commonly say to be true and Orthodox but because they be the last Resolutions of the Church of England in those Points they sit down satisfied to subscribe them as Instrumenta pacis unitatis but indeed Maxime emcolumenti by which what he means cannot guess but am very much of his Mind that upon the same ground were there no other reason of Subscriptions they may subscribe to the Council of Trent But this is a Scandal on the Clergy of the Church of England we subscribe to the Truth of the Doctrines and for my part I would not subscribe did I not think them true and this is false with reference to the Church of Rome which Anathematizes all Persons who do not own and acknowledge and believe all the Articles of the Council of Trent However Infallibility is at a low ebb in the Church of Rome when they can exact Submissions and Subscriptions onely upon Protestant Principles who pretend to no Infallibility at all I have examined this Argument a little more at large to make him sensible how dangerous a thing it is to write after an Independent Copy for had any man intended to have burlesqued Infallibility as possibly his Author from whom he Transcribes did he could not have done it more effectually than by such Principles as these 6. His sixth Argument in Catholick Hierarchy the seventh for he has dropt one from the Nature of the Church which he made an Introduction of and there it has been considered is that this Catholick Headship is inseparable from an Ecclesiastical Body made up of subordinate Pastors and Churches may be abundantly evidenced from these following enumerated Church necessities The necessity 1. Of a Catholick judgment of Schism 2. Of a Catholick interpretation of Scriptures 3. Of a Catholick determination of Ceremonies for order and decency 4. For a Catholick composure of Forms of Prayer 5. For a Catholick Canonization of Saints 6. A Catholick Call and Convention of Councils Oecumenic Which are Word for Word the Argument of the Independent Author I shall briefly consider them all 1. The necessity of a Catholick judgment of Schism i. e. that there should be some Judges who are Schismaticks for otherwise 1. Patriarchal or National Churches may be Schismatical and no competent remedy found for the said Schism 2. There can be no determination of a Schism from the Catholick Church nor any proportionate punishment of it For a Patriarch or National Primate cannot be judicially proceeded against but by an Oecumenic Pastor which I think is the same with the first for a National Schism must be a Schism from the Catholick Church or none since National Churches among us depend on no foreign Patriarchs 3. Because superiour Churches are to judge the inferiour no particular Church has an absolute definitive Power in it self but there lies an Appeal against it to the Catholick Church and Pastor Which instead of proving that there is such a Catholick Pastor supposes that there is one for else there can lie no Appeal to him 4. That particular Churches will never agree about Schism but the very disputes about Schism will make Schisms without end Now suppose a man should turn the Tables and prove by this Argument that there is no Catholick Pastor nor Catholick Judge of Schism because there are and always have been Schisms in the Christian Church which it is impossible there should be did the Church know of such a Catholic Judge For how could there be any such dispute about Schism if there were such a Judge If you say that it is the not owning such a Judge which makes the Schisms That may be true but it is true also that it is a sign the Christian World does not know of any such Judge for if they did they would own him and put an end to their Schisms If it be necessary there should be such a Catholick Judge of Schism I am sure it is necessary he should be known or else as Experience testifies the disputes about such a Judge will make more Schisms than such an unknown and disputable Judge can ever end Now since there either is no such Catholick Judge of Schism or he is not sufficiently know to all Christians methinks it proves that there is no need of such a Catholick Judge of Schism for there is as much need â—e should be known in order to put an end to Schisms as that there should be such a Judge and if the necessity of ending Schisms proves that there should be such a Judge I am sure the continuance of Schisms proves as plainly that he is not known because he cannot end them It is ridiculous to imagine that there should be any such thing as Schism were there a known Oecumenical Pastor and Judge and it is as ridiculous to prove that there is such a Judge from the necessity of such a Judge to end Schisms when it is demonstrable from the continuance of these Schisms that the Christian World knows of no such Judge And it is very strange that Christ should appoint such a Judge and not take care that he should be known Good Arguments must convince Schismaticks in this World and Christ will judge them in
the next and I know of no other Catholick Iudgment of Schism 2. From the necessity of a Catholick Resolution of difficult and dubious places of Scripture For the Scripture is not of private Interpretation and there are great inconveniences in leaving Scripture to the Interpretation of private men or particular though National Churches But let the inconveniences be what they will the same Argument returns again that if there be such an Infallible Interpreter of Scripture he ought to be known and that there are such disputes about the Interpretation of Scripture proves that the Christian World do not own such a Catholick Interpreter and therefore that they know nothing of him And there is another Argument that there is no such Catholick Interpreter of Scripture because we have no such Catholick Interpretation And what is the Christian World the better for a Catholick Interpreter if he does not Interpret And yet in the Church of Rome it self we have no Expositions of Scripture but from private and fallible men The truth is the Pope and his Councils have Expounded plain Scriptures to a dubious difficult unintelligible sence but never that I know of made any Text easie and intelligible which was difficult before To expound Scripture is to make us understand it not to impose upon our Faith without understanding and therefore this is not so much an act of Authority as of skill and judgment any man who can so explain Scripture to me as to make me understand it shall gain my assent but no Authority is sufficient to make me assent without understanding And yet such a Catholick Expositor our Author would set up whose Authority shall make me grant that to be the sence of Scripture which his Reasons and Arguments cannot perswade me of But all reasonable Creatures must understand for themselves and Christ no where commands us to believe that to be the sence of Scripture which we cannot understand to be so I know no necessity that all Christians should agree in the Interpretation of all difficult Texts of Scripture there is enough in Scripture plain to carry men to Heaven and as for more difficult and obscure Texts they are for the improvement of those who can understand them and need no such Catholick Expositor because it is not necessary that all men should understand them Most of the Controversies of Religion especially between us and the Church of Rome are about Texts of Scripture easie enough to be understood and an honest teachable mind would sooner end our Controversies than his Catholick Expositor 3. Another necessity for an Oecumenic Pastor is A necessity of a Catholick Determination of Decency and Order i. e. That the same Rites and Ceremonies for decency and order should be observed in all Christian Churches all the World over Now I know no necessity of this and that which is not necessary it self cannot make an Oecumenic Pastor necessary De facto there have been diversity of Rites in the Christian Church in all Ages thus it was in St. Augustine's time as appears from his Epistle to Ianuarius 118 and then either there was no Catholick Pastor or he did not think such a Catholick Uniformity of Rites necessary None of the Fathers ever condemn such a diversity as this but exhort all Christians to conform to the innocent Customs and Ceremonies of the Church where they came though different from the Customs of their own Church which St. Austine tells us in that Epistle was the Advice of St. Ambrose And when Pope Victor Excommunicated the Asian Churches for their different Custom in observing Easter Irenoeus and other Bishops did vehemently oppose him in it and therefore either did not believe him to be the Catholick Pastor or did not think that the Catholick Pastor ought to impose an Uniformity of Rites upon all Churches The Decency of Worship is nothing else but to perform the external acts of Worship in such a manner as may express our Reverence and Devotion for God And therefore since there are no Catholick signs of Decency there can be no Catholick Uniformity in these matters The decency of Garments Postures Gestures differ in several Countries and so do the Expressions of Honour and Reverence And therefore such external Rites being onely for external Decency and having no Sacredness by Institution may vary with the different Customs and Usages of Countries We must Worship God in a decent manner this all Christian Churches are bound to and this they do when they Worship God in such a manner as among them signifies Reverence and Honour But says our Author then one Church will esteem this or that thing decent in the Worship of God which another reckons absurd Then say I they are as absurd as Country People are who gaze at Foreigners and laugh at their exotick Habits and think every thing ridiculous which differs from their own Customs But this Uniformity is lost in the Catholick Church where it 's most necessary to be had An Uniformity in external Rites is not necessary in the Catholick Church and it may be cannot be had But why is it necessary there should be uniformity then in particular National or Diocesan Churches Ans. Because it is fit and decent that those who Worship God in the same Assemblies should Worship him in the same manner and to do otherwise would contradict the publick decency of the Worship Every Bishop as being the Supreme Governour of his own Church and Diocess has Authority to appoint the decent Rites of Worship in it and when all the Bishops of a Nation are united into one National Body they may consent in some common Rites of Worship for the National Church since the Usages and Customs of the same Nation the Rules of Decency and the expressions of Honour and Reverence are the same which gives an account what Churches have this Power to determine the Decencies and Order in Ceremonies every Bishop has an original Right to do this for his own Church but as a National Combination of Bishops to govern their several Churches by a mutual Consent is of great use so when they are united into a National Body it is much more decent that they should agree upon an Uniformity of Rites for the National Church but there is not the same reason that this should extend to Foreign Churches much less to the whole World both because these Combinations of Bishops are limited to National Churches and the Customs of different Countries change and vary 4ly The necessity of a Catholick Canonization of Saints for supposing a necessity of a due Observation of Saints Days which the Church of England hath always insisted on and pleaded for it is to be enquired who or what Church Canonized the Saints c. The Church of England indeed does observe some Festivals in commemoration of the Saints but she needs no Oecumenick Pastor to Canonize them She observes the Festivals of no Saints but such as the Christian
World acknowledge to be so without the Popes Canonization and the use she makes of Saints needs no Canonization which is only to bless God for them and to excite our selves to an imitation of their Vertues not to build Temples and Altars to them or to Worship them with religious Honours as our Mediators and Advocates This Canonization of Saints was a strange kind of Argument from a pretended Independent and it is such an Argument as I thought at this time of day a Romanist himself would have been ashamed of For pray what Authority has the Church to Canonize Saints and who gave her this Authority Such Consecrations and Canonizations indeed were in practice in Pagan Rome and Tertullian sufficiently scorns them for it He tells us that there was an ancient Decree that the Emperor should not Consecrate any God without the approbation of the Senate for the Emperor in those days was the Pontifex Maximus or the Oecumenick Priest. This the Father says was to make Divinity depend upon human Votes and unless the God pleases Men he shall not be a God how applicable this is to the Canonization of Saints let our Author judge and tell me whether there were any such practice known in the Christian Church in Tertullian's days To Canonize a Saint to be sure is to Vote him into Heaven and if the Oecumenick Pastor has this Authority he is somewhat more than the Head of the visible Church on Earth for his Power extends to the invisible Church too 5ly The necessity of a Catholick composure of Church Prayers i. e. That the same Liturgie should be used in all Christian Churches which never was practised in former Ages and no need it should be We prefer a Liturgie before private and extempore Prayers we think it most Uniform that a National Church should use the same Liturgie but if every Bishop who is the Supream Governour of his own Church should have a Liturgie of his own I see no hurt in it if it be a true Christian Liturgie and neither corrupt the Christian Faith nor Worship When he can give me one wise reason why the whole Christian World must use the same Liturgie and that there must of necessity be an Oecumenick Pastor to compose this Liturgie I will consider it farther His harangue about our charging Dissenters with Schism does not relate to this matter For setting aside the Civil Authority whereby our Liturgie is confirmed their Schism does not consist in using another Liturgie for they use none but in separating from the Communion of their Bishop who has Authority to appoint what Liturgie shall be used in his Church For the Liturgie being agreed on in Convocation makes it an Act of the Church confirmed by the Authority and Consent of all the Bishops besides the concurrent Votes and Suffrages of the inferior Clergy And if every particular Bishop have Authority to appoint what Form of Prayer shall be used in his Church all the Bishops of England may agree in the same Liturgie and those who deny obedience to their Bishops and separate from them upon such accounts are guilty of Schism But where there is no such subjection and obedience owing as there is none between particular Bishops and distinct National Churches they may make Liturgies and Forms of Prayer for themselves and are accountable to no Body else for it 6thly His last necessity for an Oecumenick Pastor is for calling convening and dissolving Oecumenical Councils Now if there be no such absolute necessity of Oecumenical Councils if they may and have been called by Emperors if they may meet together of themselves by Mutual Agreement then there is no necessity of an Oecumenical Pastor for this purpose But such an Assembly he says must be a Church Assembly or else it can claim no Power in the Church and all Church Assemblies are of right convened by the Pastor of the said Church in which it is as in a Diocess the Clergy is convened by the Authoritative Call of the Bishop This is the force of his whole Argument wherein there are two things supposed which we desire him to prove 1. That an Oecumenical Council is not for Mutual Advice but for direct Acts of Authority and Government 2. That a Council receives its Authority from an Authoritative Call when he has proved these two Propositions his Argument may deserve a new Consideration AN ANSWER To SECTION II. CONCERNING The Agreement between the Two Churches about some of their Imposed Terms of Communion their Ministry Ceremonies and Image-Worship 1. The MINISTRY HAving answered all their Pretences of Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome concerning one Supream Oecumenical Pastor what remains will give me no great trouble and I shall give my self and my Readers no more than needs must 1. The first Agreement is about the Ministry unto which all are required to submit which is the same with that of Roman-Catholicks and maintained by the same Arguments that is concerning the Divine Institution of Bishops and subject Presbyters Now this charge we own that we do acknowledge the Divine Right of Episcopacy and that Presbyters by the Institution of their Office are subject to Bishops and if the Roman-Catholicks own this we agree with them in it and so we will in any thing else that is true and think it no injury to our cause for we do not think our selves bound to renounce what is true only that we may differ from Roman-Catholicks and yet the mischief is that in despight of his Title and design he will not suffer us to agree with them here but endeavour to prove that we do not agree with them Thus he tells us 1. Touching the difference there is between a Bishop and a Presbyter as amongst the Papists some held that they were of the same order differing only in degree and others that they were of distinct Orders so among our Clergy I perceive our Author has a mind to be a Protestant at last by his crying our Clergy there were some who in King James the First days asserted that Bishops and Presbyters were of the same Order but now it is carried for their being of two distinct Orders but what is this to the Agreement of the two Churches that there are Divines in each Church which differ about this Point If neither Church have determined this then they agree onely in not determining it but if it were the Currant Doctrine in the Council of Basil that Bishops and Priests are of the same Order and it be the avowed Doctrine of the Church of England that Bishops are a distinct and superior Order then I think the two Churches do not agree about this Point And our Author himself takes care to prove that we are not agreed For the Romanists he says do not so much stick to the Divine Right of the Episcopal Order as to hold that without a Violation of the Divine Law a Presbyter cannot
I am sure he can't then the Reader knows what to judge of him and his Argument too As for the Controversie between the Church of England and Dissenters about the use of Ceremonies in Religion it is nothing to our present Dispute and though our Author has a mind to revive these Disputes among us he shall not draw me into it It is sufficient we dispute against them and against the Church of Rome upon very different Principles Against them we defend the lawful use of indifferent Rites and Ceremonies in Religious Worship though there be no express command for it in the Word of God if they serve the ends of Order and Decency which are expresly commanded Against the Romanists we never object that their Ceremonies have no Divine Institution that they are not commanded but either that they are forbid or that they are so numerous that they are very burdensom or that they are abused to superstitious purposes or that the signification of them is so dark and obscure that they are of no use in Religion Which is best expressed in the words of our Church Concerning Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained Of such Ceremonies as be used in the Church and have had their beginning by the Institution of man and therefore our Church from the beginning never quarrel'd with Ceremonies because they had not a Divine Institution Some at first were of godly intent and purpose devised and yet at length turned to vanity and superstition some entred into the Church by undiscreet devotion and such a zeal as was without knowledge and for because they were winked at in the beginning they grew daily to more and more abuses which not onely for their unprofitableness but because they have much blinded the People and obscured the glory of God are worthy to be cut away and clean rejected other there be which although they have been devised by man yet it is thought good to reserve them still as well for a decent Order in the Church for the which they were first devised as because they pertain to Edification whereunto all things done in the Church as the Apostle teacheth ought to be referred With a great deal more to the same purpose which every body may see who will turn to the beginning of his Common-Prayer-Book And yet I deny not but our first Reformers might as we do at this day condemn all Uninstituted Worship and condemn several practices of the Church of Rome under that Notion such as Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images c. but she never took her Ceremonies to be any acts or parts of Worship but only some Adjuncts and external Circumstances for the decent and orderly performanee of Religious Worship And to say as this Author does that the Dissenters did at last prove to the conviction of the Church of England Clergy that the controverted Ceremonies were parts of external Worship and that we were forced to fall in with the Roman Catholick in denying that Uninstituted Worship is False Superstitious and Idolatrous to speak softly is not true The Dissenters themselves never thought that external Circumstances were parts of Worship but endeavoured to prove that our Ceremonies were not meet Circumstances of Worship but Sacraments but I never heard of any Divine of the Church of England that allowed them to be so or that thought they had proved it What the sense of the present Clergy is may be learned as from a great many other excellent Books so especially from The Case of indifferent Things and The Church of England's Symbolizing with the Church of Rome Which are in the Collection of Cases lately Written for the satisfaction of Dissenters when the Government thought fit for other reasons to require a vigorous execution of those Laws against them which had lain Dormant for some time To show the World at that time what persecuting Spirits they were of they used their utmost diligence both by private Conferences and publick Writings managed with all the softness and tenderness that any Dispute is capable of to satisfie their Scruples and thereby to prevent their Sufferings which could be prevented no other way and let our Author try his skill if he pleases to find out in those Cases such an Agreement as he pretends between the Church of England and the Church of Rome which I believe he may as soon do as find out that persecuting Spirit in them he so much talks of unless good Arguments and soft Words may pass for a Persecution But Dr. Covel he says calls Ceremonies the external Act of Religion I grant he does so and I think it a very loose definition of a Ceremony But then we must consider that he plainly enough tells us what kind of Acts of Religion our Ceremonies are that they are only to make the Act of Devotion to be more Solemn and that Solemnity is in some measure a necessary adjunct to all publick Service And if Solemnity be but an Adjunct and Ceremonies but for Solemnity they cannot be in a strict Notion Acts of Religion but Adjuncts of publick Worship And as he calls them The Hedges of Devotion and thô not the principal Points yet as some of the Fathers call them the Second intention of the Law intermediate means not to be despised of a better and more religious Service Which plainly enough shows what distinction he made between Ceremonies strictly so called and Acts of Worship And therefore he tells us that there are Three Acts of Religion 1. The Internal which is the willing desire to give unto God his due Worship and Honour 2. The External Answering to this which is no otherwise good or commendable than that it vertuously serveth to this end 3. The commanded Act that is the Act of every Vertue ordained by Religion to God's Honour The Second which is the external Act and includes the whole external Worship he calls Ceremonies not as Ceremony now signifies among us the external Decencies and Solemnities of Worship but as it was anciently used to signifie all external Worship And therefore he afterwards distinguishes between these Ceremonies That 1. Some were for Iustification such as the Law commanded in place whereof afterwards sacceeded those that were for Ornament and to signifie such Vertues as were requisite in those Parties that rightly used them These are those Ceremonies which before he told us were only external Solemnities and in some measure necessary Adjuncts of Worship which are the only Ceremonies in dispute among us and the Dissenters which he calls Adjuncts and Solemnities as we do He adds 3. Some are parts of the immediate Worship as Sacrifice Prayer Adoration and such like some only dispose as Fasting austere Living some are only Instruments as Churches Altars Chalices and all those which religiously being separated serve only to make the Worship more Solemn and that Solemnity more Holy. So that thô he calls the whole external Worship and every thing that belongs