of all Nations and maintaining all Sâ—ates in their rights of this World pretendeth not to any power of this World to maintain it self by It becometh Visible by the free will of Christians beleeving it a piece of their Christianity to live die members of one Visible Church The Unity of the Jews State tending to a temporal end of enjoying the Land of promise answereth not the invisible unity of Christian souls but the Visible Unity of a Catholick Church according to that rate in which the Law answers the Gospel And so is this point of Christianity no less clearly delivered by the Old Testament then other points of the Christian Faith are CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The forme of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disowning Haeretickes and Schismatickes The breaches that have come to pass evidence the same FOr though all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves of all Christians bee not onely sufficiently but abundantly contained in the Scriptures yet how clearly there laid down depends upon the purpose for which God declares that hee gave the several parts of it It is manifest that God intended to vaile the New Testament in the Old and to reveal the Old Testament by the New Therefore Christianity cannot bee clearly delivered in the Old Testament Till our Lord was to leave the world hee declared not the condition of Christianity by which wee are saved Hee declared not that which hee declared when hee was to leave the world to wit that it was thenceforth to consist in undertaking to profess the Faith of the Holy Trinity and to live by Christs precepts though ones life lye upon it For he declared not the promise of sending the Holy Ghost till hee was ready to leave the world And therefore the Baptisme of Christ by which Christians do make that prosession which saveth us was not instituted till his departure And though our Lord had clearly preached the precepts of Christian life from the beginning yet is the Visible estate of his Mystical Body the Church as well as the invisible estate of particular members darkly figured and typified not only by the parables of the Gospel but as well by that which befell him as by that which he did during the time of his preaching Therefore neither is Christianity clearly delivered by the Gospels To them to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles the substance of Christianity must needs bee known for they had been made Christians upon the professing of it But their Epistles therefore suppose it and therefore cannot pretend to deliver it Besides the greatest part of them is spent in proving that wee are saved by Christianity out of the Old Testament And therefore by that correspondence in which the Law answers the Gospel the Church the Synagogue and the Kingdom of Heaven the Land of promise And though our Lord opened his Disciples hearts thus to understand the Scriptures yet are not all that shall bee saved able to make out this correspondence the professing and performing of that Christianity whereby they are saved not requiring it Therefore neither are the Apostles writings clear in things necessary to salvation but supposing the knowledg of that Christianity whereby wee are saved nor absolutely clear but to those that are able to make out that correspondence Without this limitation it is not to bee granted that all things necessary to salvation are clear to all that seek salvation by the Scriptures alone For what mark is there extant in the Scripture to distinguish that which is necessary to salvation from that which is not Nor is there any inconvenience in all this to them that are Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture content to lay prejudice aside and to see that which they cannot but see For it will appear by the writings of the Apostles that they committed the Doctrine of Christianity to them whom they trusted with the founding and governing of the Church for the instructing of them that were to bee baptized and formed into Churches whereof the whole Church was to consist So that as they to whom the Apostles writ having received their Christianity from those that were so trusted were to limit the meaning of their writings within that Faith which they had received So is all interpretation of Scripture still to bee confined within that which the Church from the beginning hath received by their hands Which is not to make any man lord of any mans Faith For this Tradition of the Faith is before the very being of the Church Because whosoever became a Christian and so a member of the Church it is supposed that hee undertaketh the same And therefore being in force before there bee any Church it cannot depend upon any authority to bee claimed by the Church And the evidence for it is the same ground into which the reason of beleeving resolveth The consent of all Christians Which as it could not have been preserved and obtained had it not been required to make a man a member of that Church which by professing it stood visibly distinct from all that profess iâ— not So since as much as is necessary to salvation hath been already declared by the consent of the Church to confine all interpretation of Scripture within that which all the Church every where at all times hath received can make no man lord over the Faith of the Church But there is a vast distance between this Tradition of Faith Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions and other Traditions which may have proceeded from that authority and trust for founding the Church which our Lord left with his Apostles and they with the Church For that being the condition upon which all Christians are saved remains alwaies the same neither to bee encreased nor diminished till the Worlds end But the productions of Ecclesiastical power vested in the Apostles and their successours can bee no more then the limiting of circumstances according to which the publick Service of God is to bee performed and those powers exercised which God hath granted the Church for the maintaining of Unity in serving God according to that Christianity which our Lord teacheth Christianity is concerned in them but two waies The first when they are so far from advancing the service of God which Christianity requireth that it is impaired and destroyed by corruption in them The second when a part of the Church proceedeth to a change in them upon pretense that
as it is lawful to plead for the abolishing of the Laws of this Kingdom For as it is manifest that our Ecclesiastical Laws are the Laws of the Kingdom So would I not open my mouth for improving them were it not to make them the Laws of Gods only true Church THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. IF the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been If the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church If no Visible Church then no sin of Schisme Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot bee the Head of a Church Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to kneel at the Communion would bee Holy That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God pag. 2 CHAP. II. The supposition of Antichrist and Idolatry prejudicial to the truth The supposition of one Visible Church the ground of Communion as well within the Reformation as in the whole Church What the Romish Missionaries get by the charge of Haeresie and the pretense of Infallibility What we get by the charge of Idolatry and Antichrist Immoderate charges vain on both sides The charge of Schisme on both sides moderate as to the Church The sin of Schisme as to God horrible The Schisme of the Donatists in charging the Catholicks to bee Apostates The sad consequences of that Schisme 8 CHAP. III. They that hold by One Visible Church are to own the consequences of it Nothing to bee changed but upon that ground Wee cannot bee the same Church with that which was otherwise Though that which shall be setled will find advocates Civil Laws of Religion to bee changed till this Rule bee attained The beginning and rise of our differences The present state of them What terms of agreement with the Presbyterians wee ought to allow The Laws of the Primitive Church the Standard of all change Our present Case is â—ot the Case of our Forefathers The Acts of Henry VIII no Acts of our Forefathers in Religion Imperfection of Laws in Religion no imputation to our Forefathers The pretense of tender Consciences is no Rule It serves Papists as well as Puritans 15 CHAP. IV. Erastians can acknowledge no Visible Church founded by God Their opinion inableth Sovereigns to persecute Gods truth by Gods Law Persecuting the truth is the use of a Power which no Sovereign can have If any Sovereign may punish for the Religion which hee professeth then are Subjects bound to renounce Christ if the Sovereign command it No offense but charity in declaring the true ground of reconcilement or punishment Why it ought to bee declared The declaring of it no offense to Superiors 24 CHAP. V. Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Vnity of the Church as for the truth of the Scriptures The Church founded upon the Power of the Keys The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Laws of it The Law which endoweth the Church with consecrated Goods How the Vnity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures How in the Old Testament 29 CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disâ—â—â—ing Hâ—reticks and Schismaticks The breaches that have come to pasâ— evidence the same 35 CHAP. VII Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of Vnity absolute of Schismes How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God reforming without the Church of Rome 45 CHAP VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schism The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church 49 CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Predestination to Glory destructive to Christianity Justifying Faith includeth the profession of Christianity The Nature of Faith according to the Scriptures sheweth the same So doth the state of that Question which St. Paul disputeth The conseâ—â— of the Church â—erein with the ground of it The sense of this Church 54 CHAP. X. Why Justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ Of Justification according to the Council of Trent Of Justification according to Socinus Wherein his Hâ—resie consisteth How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Vpon what grounds hee is to bee refuted The helps of Grace granted iâ— consideration of Christs obedienâ—â— And therefore they infer Original Sin by the fall of Adam Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth That the state of Grace is forfeited by hainous sin The danger of the contrary Position according to the ground of it 63 CHAP. XI What Law of God it is that may bee fulfilled by a Christian Of doing more then Gods Law requireth Whether our Lord gave a New Law or not Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian Works Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his Posterity Wherein Original Sin consisteth What Original Righteousness signifieth What good the Vnregenerate are able to do by the Law of Nature 73 CHAP. XII Vpon what terms that which is possible may become future The difference between necessity antecedent and consequent The difference between freedom from necessity and from bondage Freedom from necessity always requireth indetermination not always indifference The Object determineth the Will saving the freedom of it Whence the certainty of future contingencies ariseth How this appears in the Scriptures God no cause of sin according to the Scriptures Concerning the middle knowledg of God 80 CHAP. XIII No absolute Predestination to Glory Predestination to Grace absolute How Glory is the end of Grace In what terms the Faith of the Church standeth as concerning this point 86 CHAP. XIV Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church How Anabaptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church Their Error in rebaptizing for want of dipping What concerns Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist How the Elements are consecrated into the body and bloud of Christ according to Gregory Nyssene The consequence hereof in the Errors concerning the Eucharist How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods service 91
Haeresie and Schisme to bee now meer Bug-bears to fright children with But would any of them owne any of the Sects which were shut out of the Church for Haereticks or Schismaticks from the time of our Lord till the time of Constantine for true Christians Whether they would or they would not is not considerable For if all good Christians then did then did all good Christians owne the Visible Unity of the Church And there is as great a consent of Christians in the Visible Unity of the Church as in the truth of Christianity saving this difference That all Christians good and bad true and false agree in the truth of Christianity Onely those that are neither Haereticks nor Schismaticks in the Unity of the Church Let no man mistake this evidence as if so great a truth The Unity of the Church Visible by the Lawes of it were read onely in two or three Texts of Scripture They who take upon them to argue of such matters as these ought to know that the Lawes of all Commonwealths when first they are founded are the wills of their Rulers according to that measure of Power whereby they Rule Therefore if our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successours with the Rule of his Church hee trusts them also to make Lawes for the Ruling of it Provided that they tend to inforce not to avoid those Lawes which hee in person hath left them as Christians For Disciples that is Christians hee left them actually Not actually Members of his Church as not yet actually formed though virtually founded in the Power of the Keyes which hee left his Disciples These Lawes are as Visible as the Lawes of any Kingdom or Commonwealth that is or ever was are Visible I do not owne the Popes Canon Law to have the force of obliging us For I maintain a great deal of Usurpation in the Power by which it was made as well as a great deal of abuse in making the Law given by our Lord of no effect by the matter of it But I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to bee said of that Canon Law whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople now governs in the Eastern Church to bee derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successours governed the Primitive Church in Unity And this no less evident then the Christianity of this time is to bee derived from the Christianity of that time For as the present Law of the Church is but the corruption of the Primitive no more is the present Christianity whether of the Reformation or of the Church of Rome but the corruption of the Primitive For why shall I make nice to say it pretending all Reformation to be nothing but the restoring of Primitive Christianity And to that end of such Lawes in the Church as may bee the means to restore it Among those Lawes there is one which obliging those who The Law which endoweth the Church with Consecrated goods have given up themselves to God for Christians to give up their goods to maintain the Assemblies of the Church for the Service of God wherein the Communion of the Church consisteth estateth the Power of dispensing the maintenance thereof upon the Rulers of the Church This provision how little soever notice many take of it who pretend to understand the Scriptures began first in our Lord and the Disciples that attended upon him continually For it is evident by the Gospels that those Disciples which did not attend upon him continually furnished by their contributions a stock whereupon they subsisted Judas you know was trusted with it and was the first that committed Sacrilege in robbing the poor of Church goods For the poor could not have attended upon the Doctrine of our Lord had they not been provided for by the richer of his Disciples And the goods of the Church are still the patrimony of the poor for the same reason that being provided for they may attend upon Gods service Therefore the reason was the same when the Christians at Jerusalem gave up their lands and their goods to maintain the Church in contitinual attendance upon the Service of God When the Corinthians maintained their Feasts of Love When the Christians afterwards built those Churches and laid those lands to them which Eusebius saith being pulled down and confiscated by Diocletian were restored by Constantine When Christian Kingdoms and States by a civil Law indowed the Church with Tithes and Glebes and Mansions A thing as general as Christianity no People no Country being known where the Church was ever setled without maintenance estated upon it by the Church it self at the least if not by the Law of the Country over and above The form of Government in every Commonwealth is stated How the Unity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures upon certain powers wherein Sovereignty consisteth which Lawyers and Philosophers call sometimes Jura majestatis Here you have in the Governors of the Church the power of admitting into and excluding out of the Church The power of giving Lawes to the Church The power of dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church And in fine the power of propagating these rights to their successours Whereby it pretendeth not to bee a Commonwealth Because Christianity pretendeth to maintain Civil power and the right of this World in the same hands and upon the same terms which it findeth But it appeareth to bee a Visible Society founded by God under the name of the Catholick Church upon the command of holding communion therewith to which hee obligeth all Christians And all those Scriptures of the New Testament that mention any of these rights signifie no less when the meaning of them is measured by that Rule without which there is no means to determine the sense of any Scripture that is questionable And the same is signified by those Scriptures which mention sometimes several Churches sometimes one Church containing all Christians and all Churches For the parts that is particular Churches being Visible Bâ—dies the Whole must needs bee understood to bee a Visible Church The practice of all Christians owning an obligation in point of Right to maintain the powers which the Scriptures for the most part only mention as mater of Fact determines them to signifie more then they express As for the Scriptures of the Old Testament the calling of the How in the Old Testament Gentiles to bee one new people of God with the Jewes that should beleeve is but foretold in them by Prophesie And therefore the Visible Unity of the Church consisting of them cannot bee otherwise declared in them then by that correspondence in which the Church answereth the antient people of God The Unity thereof was the Unity of a Commonwealth maintaining it self by force of Armes in the possession of the Land of promise in which God had placed them upon condition to live by his Law The Unity of the Church consisting
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
if hee refuse it The Curate indeed stands excused by the Law as to his Superiours and to the Church But what will the Law what will the Church what will the Curate say for themselves at the great judgement of God if it appear that a soul perishes by this defect in the Law according to the which hee ministers his Office And a Recusant in this case may say with truth that those abuses which I have taxed the Church of Rome for allowing it commandeth not That hee may possibly meet with one that is not tainted with those novelties of Doctrine But will deal faithfully with his soul in that exigent And therefore may hope that he sinneth not in continuing a Recusant out of hope for that help in this point which hee cannot expect by conforming And therefore that his sin not being visible to him in this point the penalties of Recusancy at least in this regard are inflicted without cause A Supplication for a full debate of all maters in difference Had I not proceeded thus far in setting forth what the justifying of the Reformation which wee profess will require I had not set forth the ground of that most humble supplication which I advance upon it together with a most earnest adjuration if it bee lawful for Inferiors in any case possible to adjure their Superiors to and of all Estates whom the forming of the Laws of Religion in this Kingdom may any way concern by the bowels of Gods mercies in Christ by the bitter passion of his Cross by the merit of his sufferings by that â—hope of salvation which they furnish all Christians with And if the good of this World bee of any consideration after so high concernments by the hope of his Majesties long and prosperous Reign over us by the blessing of his return by the peace which wee enjoy through the same not to think the restoring of Religion by the Laws of this Kingdom the work of one sitting of Parliament or Synod Not to think that a work of that consequence and difficulty can bee concluded and made up by any Laws that may presently bee provided by any humane wisdom Not to think the Laws presently provided so fixed for eternity that further endeavours for the perfecting of so great a work should bee thought derogatory to the authority of Law In fine according to that which I said in the beginning to think the Laws that may presently bee provided ambulatory and provisional till all possible means shall have been tried to put so great a work beyond all imputation of any visible offense Not thinking any pains a burthen that may shew reasonable hope of a good issue to so high a purpose For as there is just cause to think that there remains very much means to bee imployed with such a hope So the time now seems proper now that there is appearance of the restoring of the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land for imploying the same For the means to bee imployed will consist in a just and full debate of reason upon principles agreed upon between the parties tending to reduce them unto agreement in such things as remain in difference This debate may well seem dangerous to peace not supposing any authority to govern it within the due bounds and to direct it unto the due purpose But supposing as wee must needs suppose all parties liable to that authority which the Law of the Land authorizes because that is acknowledged by all parties neither can the Secular Power allow thsoe whom it owns for Governors of the Church less then to govern and direct all dispute tending to satisfie all that question the Ecclesiastical Law of the Kingdom Nor need they desire more for a reasonable ground of hope for good success There can bee no ground to expect that they who openly profess the Laws of Religion to bee the sins of them that make them can think their duties discharged to God by being instrumental in the executing of them to the intent to them that make them They must needs think themselves bound in conscience to deprave and to pervert the effect of them to their own intent in an infinity of particulars which no diligence of Government can prevent or meet with But when upon full and just debate it shall appear that a change is refused them meerly because they can shew no sufficient reason for it upon those grounds which the common Christianity obliges the parties to acknowledge condescending to all that they can shew such reason for how can it bee imagined that any prejudice or engagement that may bee so honourably quitted will prevail above God and their Country to a defiance of them that carry not the Sword in vain I consess I can hope for no good end of any such Dispute The ground of resolution the being of the Catholick Church the first and chief point of the debate without supposing that sense of the Article concerning one Catholick Church which hath carried me through this discourse for the Principle upon which all mater in debate is to bee tried Nor can I take it for a supposition which they do admit of themselves But I suppose first that the misunderstanding of that which it demandeth being once cleared the truth of it will bee so evident by that reason which must satisfie for the truth of the common Christianity that all shall bee convinced of it by that which they allege for themselves as being the consequence of their own allegations Then I suppose further that it is the first point to bee tried as that which in effect contains more then half the trial of all the rest Which had it been agreed upon might have prevented all breaches And without agreeing upon it leaves all Dispute in Religion endless and without hope of conviction or satisfaction on this side or on that It is not indeed to bee expected that Recusants will ever become a party to such an action though no way concerned in conscience not to own those whom their Sovereign appointeth for Governors of such a debate Not because there would bee any appearance that thereby they should own them for their Superiors But because wee find them not disposed to own the obligation of their Christianity requiring them to concur to it upon those terms to bee more antient then any obligation of their spiritual Superiors to the contrary For if the Unity of the Church take place before the authority of any Superiors provided for the maintenance of it then is every Christian obliged to the due ground and terms of it before the authority of Superiors And therefore cannot refuse them tendered by a part though refused by a greater part And therefore cannot refuse that trial which is the due means to bring them to light though his Superiors refuse it And therefore their refusal can bee no bar to the effect of the action once grounded upon a supposition inforcing the trial by the Scriptures expounded by
greatness of the Pope for which they will have him to bee Antichrist stands as well by Usurping upon the Bishops as upon the Crown And therefore it was a spice of madness in our Puritans to proceed upon their example to Ordination without and against their Bishops either by Presbyters or by Congregations Whereas they who could not obtain Ordination from Bishops because they professed the Reformation might more justly think themselves tied to proceed neglecting that which they could not have But trusting in the mercy of God that seeing the abuses of the Church were gross and visible and palpable the zeal of Gods House which carried men to Reforme them before they were agreed upon all that was to bee restored instead of them renders the Reformation imperfect as it is effectual to salvation notwithstanding that they may have failed in maters of less consequence Especially considering that particular Christians who are not able to judge of the publick concernments of the Church may bee able to see the abuses thereof and to reform their own lives and conversations by that conduct which an imperfect Reformation may furnish Not doubting in the mean time that this imperfection is the loss of an innumerable number of souls as well as the abuses of the Church of Rome are And therefore thinking my self tyed to say so that all publick persons of what quality soever in Church or Commonwealth in all the several quarters of Christendom may bee stirred up to consider how much it concerns their discharge at the day of judgement that the Reformation bee reduced to that Rule and that measure in every point which the ground and reason of Reformation evidenceth For then shall wee not need to apprehend any nullity upon unavoidable neglect of Canonical proceeding when the restoring of Christianity which all Canons presuppose and tend to maintain justifieth the defect of it in one for obtaining the end of it in all acts of the Church And this would bee the best ground for hope if yeâ— there bee any hope leâ—t to propagate it through all Christendome by the consent of the See of Rome to the reuniting of the Church upon such terms as that ground and reason requireth The Printer to the Reader IT is thought fit to reprint herewith two short Discourses of the same Author to the same purpose The one concerning the Establishment pretended by the late Vsurpation That hee might not seem now to disown it Though using it with that liberty which all men use in new Editions of their own Writings The other because it toucheth more briefly some of those Heads which are more perfectly though Summarily comprized in the Premises being published to that purpose upon His Majesties happy return in July 1660. A Letter concerning the present State of Religion amongst us Vnder the Act of Establishment prosecuted by the Ordinances constituting the Triers and Commissioners for ejecting of Scandalous Ministers Sir I Have perused the Ordinance for ejecting of Scandalous Ministers and finding it likely enough to send you a Pastor that shall have no authority from the Church have thought it necessary for me to give you the reasons of that opinion which I declared unto you that in that case you ought not in conscience to acknowledge such a one for your Pastor by going to hear him preach and seeming to joyn in his Prayers much less to receive the Eucharist at his hands if such a one shall bee so audacious as to celebrate it This that I may do I must first propose the Case as it is stated by those Acts which pretend to settle Religion among us For first the Act whereby the present Government is established declareth that the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures shall be held forth as the publick profession of these Nations And that such as profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ though diâ—fering from this profession in doctrine worship or discipline shall bee protected in the exercise of their Religion excepting Popery and Pâ—elacy and those who under the profession of Christ hold forth and practise licentiousness In prosecution hereof an Ordinance is issued forth giving commission to certain persons named in it to examine and try all that have come into possession of Churches since April 13. 1653. all that have augmentations from Parliament all that shall pretend to come into Churches that shall bee void But they are to try them by no other Rule then the Certificate of three godly Neighbours one at least a Minister concerning their conversation in godliness upon their own knowledge and the judgment of five Commissioners that the Grace of God is in their hearts and that they are fit to preach In further prosecution hereof issues forth this Ordinance whereby no man is made scandalous for his judgement but hee that is liable to the Act against Blasphemy of August 9. 1653. And with him is ranked hee who shall frequently and publickly have used the Service since Christmas 1653. Whereby it appeareth that those who have declared their perseverance in the Religion which they have hitherto professed by reading the Service are therefore counted scandalous But those that can pass the trial proposed are thereby qualified in Law to bee Pastors of Parishes And consequently to succeed those that adhere to the Christianity which hitherto they have professed being cast out by the Commissioners for ejecting of scandalous Ministers In the first place then I say that the effect of these Laws is to nullifie and make void one Article of the Creed which hitherto wee profess To wit the belief of one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church This word Church may signifie two things First onely the whole number of Christians Secondly a Communion and Corporation of those that profess true Christianity founded by the will of God and the ministery of our Lord Christ and his Apostles That Christians when they profess to believe the Catholick Church do not mean the first sense that there is in the world a number of men that profess to bee Christians it is manifest because all Christians hope to bee saved by their Faith but they cannot hope to bee saved by believing that which they see Now all men see that there is such a company of men in the world Therefore when they say they believe the Catholick Church as part of that Faith whereby they hope to bee saved they do not profess to believe that there is such a company of men but that there is a Corporation of true Christians excluding Haereticks and Schismaticks and that they hope to bee saved by this Faith as being members of it And this is that which the stile of the holy Cathelick and Apostolick Church signifies as distinguishing the Body of true Christians to wit so far as profession goes from the Conventicles of Haereticks and Schismaticks For this title of Catholick would signifie nothing if Haereticks and Schismaticks were not barred the Communion of the Church And let no man imagine that