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
enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy pretense of the pre-eminence of his Church in Ecclesiastical matters hath given this Crown just occasion to declare it self Supreme Head or Supreme Governour for the kingdom of heaven is not in word but in power as St. Paul saith in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil But the capacity of several senses in words that signifie humane matters capable of so great a Latitude by their nature seemeth to have Produced out of this Act a Sect of Erastians very dangerous to Christianity As immediately denying any Ordinance of God for the Visible Unity of his Church which is an Article of our Creed but by consequence shewing all how they may enjoy the benefit of Civil Law in a State that professes Christianity without beleeving any more of Christianity then they please This capacity was restrained in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign by her Injunctions by the Articles of Religion by an Act of Parliament not to signisie the abolishing or the disclaiming of Ecclesiastical power in part or in whole And to such effect that it is acknowledged now in books written on purpose by one party of Recusants that they may freely take the Oath of Supremacy saving the scruple that may remain of offending those Recusants who think that they may not take it And I can by no means marvel at it For they who do openly profess that unlimited obedience to the Pope in Ecclesiastical maters which hee requireth how can they swearing the Oath of Supremacy bee thought to abjâ—â—e his Ecclesiastical power in England the words of the Oath being restrained by Law to disclaim only the Temporal effect of it But it is manifest that not only the unlimited power of the Pope What further ambiguity that Oath involveth but all authority of a General Council of the Western Churches whereof the Pope is and ought to bee the chief member according to the premises may justly seem to bee disclaimed by other words of the same Oath And that Whereas the Pope usurped not only upon the Crown but upon the Clergy of this Kingdom all those Usurpations are by the Act of Resumption under Hâ—nry the VIII invested in the Crown So that when the Oath declares to maintain all Rights and Pre-eminences annexed to the Crown you may understand that maintenance which a Subject owes his Sovereign against those that pretend to force his claims from him But you may also understand that maintenance which a Divine owes the Truth in asserting the Title of the Crown to all rights vested in it Which hee that believes that some rights of the Church are invested in the Crown ought not to undertake Though as a Subject for preserving the State of his King and Country hee bee tyed to maintain all the claims of the Crown against all the enemies of it Now if an Oath required by the Sovereign Power bear two What scanâ—al the takiâ—g of it in the true sense ministreth senses in the proper signification of the Words which is more ordinary then it is believed the Subject may undergo it in that sense which truth and right warranteth And so in regard the Pope not content with his Regular authority in the Church pretends Temporal power in disposing of the Dominiâ—nâ— which hee disclaims Communion with besides absolute power in materâ— of Religion it is lawful to swear that hee ought to have no manner of power in this Kingdom as things stand tiâ—l hee depart from claims so unjust But there is appearance that the misunderstanding of it hath produced an Opinion destructive to one Article of the Creed to the being of any Visible Church as founded by God And besides it is not possible that all they who are called to this Oath by Law can ever bee able to distinguish that sense wherein they ought from that wherein they ought not to take it And therefore of necessity the Law gives great offense and that offense is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods vengeance upon it Which though all are involved in yet in the other world the account will lye upon them that may change it and do not Now it is manifest that all Recusants believe not the Popes That this Oatâ— ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religiâ—n that abridge Allegiance Temporal Power nor think themselves bound to execute such Acts as the Bull of Pius quintus against Queen Elizabeth Those that do not how should they bee liable to capital punishment which the Law in some cases inflicts For how should they bee taken for the enemies of their Country otherwise On the contrary I have shewed by the Troubles of Franckford in the beginning of the Reformation that there was then the same difference of opinion amongst them that held with the Reformation about obedience to Sovereigns obeying the Church of Rome And that the same difference of opinion was the cause of the late Troubles appeareth by the aspersion of Popery upon his late Majesty alleged to justifie the War against him Whereby it appeareth that they of that opinion do undergo the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance as provided only against the See of Rome and the claims of it Thinking themselves enabled notwithstanding the same to limit their Allegiance to that which their Religion shall allow And therefore there is great Reason why the Kingdom should enact a new Oath extending the Original Allegiance of all Subjects to all cases in which experience hath shewed or reason may foresee that Religion may bee pretended to abridge the Obligation of Allegiance This I am encouraged here to declare by the late Act of the Kingdom of Scotland establishing for the future the form of an Oath whereby the obligation of Allegiance iâ— extended to the renouncing not only of any claim for the See of Rome but of all pretenses whatsoever whether upon the account of Religion or of civil Right of abridging the obligation of it For though I neither maintain nor find fault with the terms which it useth yet the agreement and the difference between the case of both Kingdoms as it evidenceth to all the necessity so it determineth to them that are to understand the State of both the agreement and the difference of that which ought to bee provided And seeing it is the true consequence of the common Christianity that enables the Kingdom to do this because supposing as it doth the State of this World it cannot extend to the altering of it there is great reason why a Divine should bee allowed to say it not entring upon other considerations wherein Religion is not concerned For in the next place to the bringing in of a new Provision the conscience of the Kingdom is best discharged the Scandals that may bee occasioned removed the wrath of God prevented or appeased by the secular Powers allowing these interpretations to pass without contradiction that may enable all estates to depose it
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
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
bee allowed to forejudge my opinion because it makes our Reconcilement with the Church of Rome easier then they would have it For if division in the Church without evident and valuable cause bee a sin to God it will certainly bee the sin of the Kingdom to bear them out in it by stating our Reformation upon undue grounds For the terms of it must needs bee according to the grounds of it which being either invisible or inconsiderable in comparison of the benefits of Unity must needs translate some part of the blame to rest upon that side which exceeds And therefore to excuse my freedom in publishing that Why it ought to bee declared which follows Let no man grudge me this Plea for my self at the day of Judgement that being convicted that our agreement cannot bee acceptable to God but upon the consequence of those two suppositions according to that which follows I am not at rest till I have said it Could there bee peace had by compounding the Interest of two parties without providing for the Interest of our common Christianity in those two Articles what joy could a Christian expect of that which should bee purchased at so unconscionable a Rate Here is nothing said but that which hath been said when Arbitrary power might have made it a pretense for Persecution had the Interest of Usurpers allowed it It is a short view of that which I have published heretofore presented to those that may desire to see in one prospect what is the true consequence of it in the composing of those differences that remain still on foot And the danger of being involved in the Crime of Schisme before God obligeth me to declare that opinion which being not declared may render me lyable to that charge in Gods sight Therefore there is no offense to Superiors in declaring it The The declaring of it no offense to Superiors Lawes of Kingdoms go by a Rule that is made of such metal as may bend and be fitted to the body which they are to rule Only they are to aim at an inflexible Rule of Gods truth which is the Inheritance of every Christian And therefore he that sees it made crooked is bound to set it straight This is not to say what publique Authority should do but what it should intend to do A thing necessary to bee said when there bee those who would have it intend that which it ought not to do In fine the difficulty and danger of our case seems to supersede for the present the Rule of Obedience in the Church 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 Keyes The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Lawes 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 Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Unity of the Church aâ— for the truth of the Scriptures I Say then that the Unity of the Church signifies nothing unless it signifie the Visible Unity of Communion in the outward offices of Gods Service Not onely the Invsible Unity of the heart in Faith and Charity Unless the Church bee founded by God for an outward Society Visible to the common reason of man Not onely for an Invisible Number the Unity whereof onely his own Invisible Wisdom inwardly designeth And I say it because I conceive I have proved it by the same evidence upon which wee accept the Scriptures for the Word of God Upon which wee hold our common Christianity For I have shewed that wee believe the Scriptures for the Scriptures the matter of Faith for the Motives of Faith there related That is wee hold those things which the Scriptures relate sufficient to oblige all the people of God afore Christ to bee Jewes All the people of the world after Christ to bee Christians This in the nature of a reason obliging a man to bee a Christian For in the nature and kind of an effective cause I do not suppose much less grant that any thing is sufficient much less effectual without Gods Spirit â—ut if an Unbeliever should ask mee why I believe that to bee true which being true I grant sufficient to oblige mee to believe It will not serve my turn to say that I find it written in the Scripture So long as the question is why I believe the Scripture My answer must bee that the consent of all Christians in submitting to the Gospel which they would not have done had they not known the motives to bee true for which they did it assures mee as much that they are true as if I had seen the things done which moved them to believe Especially being as much convicted by the light of Reason and Nature that Christianity goes beyond Judaisme for advancing the Service of God and goodness as that Judaisme goes beyond the Religion either of Pagans or Mahumetans For this being the reason why wee believe that must bee The Church founded upon the Power of the Keyâ—s alleged by all that will allege any reason to Unbelievers It must needs have the same force in evidencing the sense that wee allow it in evidencing the credit of the Scriptures If the consent of all Christians in submitting to Christianity upon Motives recorded in the Scriptures assure mee that they are true And therefore the Scriptures the Word of God and Christianity the onely Religion by which wee can bee saved Then the consent of all Christians in owning the obligation of holding Visible Communion with the Church is to assure mee that it is Gods Ordinance For the act or the acts of our Lord upon which the Church is founded I allege the Power of the Keyes described by the effect of binding and loosing and to that effect granted to St. Peter Mat. XVI 18 19 To the Disciples assembled after the Resurrection John XX. 19-23 in the terms of remitting and retaining sinne To the Church Mat. XVIII 15-18 in the same terms as to St. Peter to the effect of rendring him that obeys not a Heathen man or a Publican to him that would bee a Christian Here you have a certain Power deposited with certain Persons the effect whereof is Visible in the succession of Person deriving the authority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons which are here trusted with it And in the maintenance of Visible Communion amongst true Christians by excluding the false It is true Haereticks and Schismaticks exclude themselves out of the Church For they would bee the Church themselves if they could tell how But it is the authority of the Church that obligeth Christians to avoid them as the Jewes to whom our Lord spake did then avoid Heathen men and Publicans And it obligeth by declaring them Haereticks and Schismaticks I know there bee those that would have the imputation of
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
so it is though indeed it bee otherwise The first is the plea of the Reformation against the Church of Rome The second the plea of the Church of Rome against them as to this point of Traditions And the issue is the same that is to bee tried between the Church of England and those that stand at this distance from it For the Unity of the Church being a part of the common Christianity the breach of it will bee chargeable upon that side which makes such a change as the rest have not reason to embrace If the pretense thereof bee either not evident or not sufficient the fault is in them If both in those who refuse to joyn in iâ— The Rules and Customs and Rites of the Church which are called Traditions are not commanded because good but are good because commanded And therefore even the Traditions of the Apostles being of this kind may cease to oblige by the change that may-succeed in the state of the Church for which they are provided Instances hereof recorded in the Scriptures have been produced They therefore that break from the Church upon any point The difference between Haeresic and Schisme of the Tradition of Faith which is before the Church as being requisite to make a man a member of the Church are properly called Haereticks For if they only disbeleeve in the heart they may bee counted Haereticks to God but that is nothing to the Church of which wee now speak But they that will not stand to the authority of the Church in maters subject to it are Schismaticks For those things to which the authority of the Church extendeth are the mater of Schisme Not that this difference is alwaies observed For many times the name of Haeresie extendeth to all Sects which mans choise not the will of God createth But because there is that difference visible in the mater of Christianity which many times appropriateth the common name of Haeresie to the most eminent that Separate upon mater of Faith These things are here premised to make way for the evidence which I tender for the Visible Unity of the Church from the consent of all Christians Hee that sticketh at any point of it may have recourse to the proofe which I have made in due place taking all therefore here for granted But I will advance another assumption tending â—o set the The dependence of Churches evidâ—nâ—eth the Unity of the Whole Church same evidence in better light by stating the form in which the whole Church from the Apostles hath alwaies been governed without repeating the proofes whereby it appeareth A Church then in the sense of all Christians before the Reformation is the Body of Christians contained in a City and the Territory of it For the Government of such a one the respective Authority of the Apostles conveyed by the overt act of their Ordination was visibly vested in a Bishop in a number of Presbyters for his advice and assistance and in Deacons attending upon them and upon the executing of their Orders I say the respective authority of the Apostles because as less Cities are subject to greater in Civil Government so have the Churches of less Cities alwaies depended upon Churches of greater Cities throughout Christendom Rome Alexâ—ndria Antiochia were from the beginning of Christianity visible heads of these great resorts in Church Government which the Council of Nâ—câ—â— made subject to them by Canon Law for the future The eminence of other Cities over their inferiour Churches appears in the Records of the Church as soon as there is any mention of them to make it appeaâ— In these Churches and in the Governors of them the whole Authority of the Apostles was vested For they constituted the Church In process of time the Government of the Roman Empire The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire was moulded anew under Constantine otherwise then it had been by Augustus But this new model was designed by Adrian It made the chief Cities of the chief quarters of the Empire the Residences of the chief Commanders of the Armies with civil Jurisdictions respective Which civil Jurisdictions Constanâ—ine left them when hee took from them their commands over the Armies Carthage for Africk Milane for Italy that part which was not under Rome Triers for Gaule Thessalonica for Illyricum Ephesus for Asia Caesarea Cappadociae for Pontus the pre-eminence of the Churches is as visible over the Churches of their inferiour Cities in the records of the Church as the pre-eminence of the Cities in the records of the Empire And according the course of all humane affairs must not this pre-â—minence of necessity bee further limited enlarged or abated in process of time whether by written Law or by silent custom For the effect hereof I present to your consideration the Canons of the Council of Sardica whick I take to bee the greatest advantage that ever lawfully and by regular means accrewed to the Church of Rome toward that greatness which since it hath irregularly obtained For it is visible that they were the means to extend the superiority thereof over Illyricum which continued till the Eastern Empire having the Church of Rome in jealousie laid that whole Jurisdiction under the Church of Constantinople The encrease of which Church upon the seating of the Empire at that City the ground which I allege for the superiority of all Churches as it hath been unjustly opposed by the Church of Rome so it is justly owned by those who protest against the Usurpation of it They that would except Britaine out of this Rule upon the No exception to bee made to it for the British Church act of the Welsh Bishops refusing Austine the Monke for their head should consider that St. Gregory setting him over the Saxon Church which hee had founded according to Rule transgressed the Rule in setting him over the Welsh Church For the Canon of the Apostles maintains every Nation to bee governed by their own Bishop Which the Welsh had reason then to insist upon because of the jealousie which appeared from the Saxons of their incroaching upon the Nation if their Bishop should bee owned for the head of the Welsh Church Setting this case aside the rest of that little remembrance that remains concerning the British Church testifies the like respect from it to the Church of Rome as appears from the Churches of Gaule Spain and Africk of which there is no cause to doubt that they first received their Christianity from the Church of Rome And if so they did then is there reason to conclude that they owed it the respect which was due to their Mother Church But that they either owed it or shewed it the respect of a Subject to the Sovereign which none is challenged none at all As for Illyricum which shewed the same respect after the Council of Sardica it cannot bee thought to have owed it before because it received not Christianity Episcopacy by this formâ—
Church A justifiable nay a commendable custom of the antient Church may come out of use without any violence any fraud any purpose to defeat that pious intent to which such a custom was instrumental They who had rather break with the Church of Rome then comply with a change which the change of time and the state of things by time hath brought to pass should bee in my opinion Schismatickes But what if our Fanatickes should bee content silently to return into the communion of this Church as Presbyterians What if it appear that they are Bullion Haeretickes for the positions they profess though not stamped by conviction and contumacy succeeding and the Declaration of the Church upon that It will not then bee clear how wee shall wipe off that imputation to which wee shall bee liable by the perpetual Rule of Gods Church for receiving and communicating with those that have stamped themselves Schismatickes as Schismatickes those that have declared themselves Bullion Haeretickes as Bullion Haeretickes without any ground to presume that they are changed Certainly wee cannot allege the Catholick Church for our selves but it will rise in judgementagainst us when wee stick not to it What condition wee fall into if wee submit to the Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of unity absolute of Schisme of Rome upon terms of conquest it is manifest enough For wherein the Pope hath not limited his own authority by the Council of Trent wee render our selves to the mercy of it Missionaries shall have done a great effect if they perswade us that wee are Schismatickes unless wee return to those abuses which wee see with our eyes which wee handle with our hands they are so evident and so gross Well may they perswade simple Christians that they must first resolve which is the true Church and then what is true and what is false in Religion by that which the Church so resolved teaches This is a great deal the shorter way then to justifie the particulars which by this means they impose upon them And if wee render our selves upon these terms what remains but that wee admit whatsoever the Pope shall impose for the future though wee know that the Power of the Whole Church extends not to it Which how shall wee answer at the Day of Judgement either for our selves or those that depend upon us And yet I have shewed that the Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And hee that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that pre-eminence the only reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I count not my self tied to justifie Henry the VIII in disclaiming all such pre-eminence when it was enough for his purpose to disown it as not extending to his case For by the regular constitution of the Church which I have described if the Pope excommunicate any man injustly he does it in his own wrong hee excommunicates himself thereby from all that shall adhere to him whom hee excommunicates His advantage is only this If more adhere to the chief Church then to the less For which though there bee regularly a presumption yet if Usurpation appear either in sentencing or in the mater or in the effect of the sentence hee that exceeds his authority breaks it upon him that exceeds not like the waves of the sea against a rock But of the Usurpations of that Church wherein they consist How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God Reforming without the Church of Rome and by what means effected in due place that the difference may bee Visible between the infinite and the regular power of the Pope In the mean time what I have said of this point I must say of all maters in difference That as the Church of Rome cannot hinder us of restoring our selves to the Primitive Right of the Church by which a Christian Kingdom duely may maintain the Service of God neither consenting to the abuses which other Churches maintain nor breaking with them in other maters so are wee to go no further then the consent of the Church will bear us out For if we make new and private conceits of the Scripture and the sense of it Law to the Church which wee Reform wee found a new Church upon that Christianity which the only Church of God never owned But if wee only restore that which by abuse of time may appear to have come to decay wee impe and ingraffe the Church which wee Reform into that only Church which they that Reformed not succeed For how should wee depart from Unity with that Church the authority whereof wee follow in the change which wee make If therefore wee are to bee without offense to Jewes and Gentiles and to the Churches of God as St. Paul commands then are wee to bee without offense also to the Church of Rome Now it is no offense to the Church of Rome that wee build Unity among our selves upon an opposition to the abuses of it But if upon an opposition to that which it holdeth from the Whole Church wee give them cause to take us for Schismatickes as not reverencing in her the Whole Church which wee are bound to hold with CHAP. VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schisme The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the Conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church UPon these terms the choice of Religion would become What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church more clear which otherwise must become far more doubtful by the setling of our present differences For I grant it a thing too difficult for every Christian that is concerned to chuse his Communion to try the particulars in controversie by the consent of the Church But I maintain the same difficulty in trying which Church it is that preacheth the true Word of God and rightly and duly administreth the Sacraments which others would have the marks of the true Church For without trying the particulars in Controversie how shall it appear where the Word is preached where the Sacraments are ministred as they should bee And how shall they bee tryed but by the Scriptures expounded according to the consent of the Church As for them that would have us take the decree of the present Church to bee Infallible they are first to tell us upon whose credit wee take that Infallibility For you see wee believe not the present Church that it is the Church to wit founded by God Wee accept it upon the consent of the whole Church Neither is any thing Infallible in Christianity but upon the same ground It is not the decree of the present Church but the witness and agreement of the
can serve for his discharge to God Hee is answerable to God notwithstanding any such advise for any wrong that the priviledges and penalties otherwise enacted may do But maintaining first the express profession of the Rule hitherto established bounding all Reformation of the present Church by that which the consent of the Whole Church either alloweth or requireth Then maintaining them in their Office whose Office it is to forme that which his act must make Law to his Subjects There will need no more for his discharge to God then the use of that Judgment which God hath endowed him with to discern whether the Rule which hee protecteth bee duly applyed to that which hee enacteth or not For as no reason can bee excused to God transgressing that which it seeth So in things doubtful to preferre any reason before that which God trusteth in the matter of such trust is to render a mans self accountable to God for that wrong which may bee done for which otherwise those that are trusted by God should bee accountable CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Praedestination 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 consent of the Church herein with the ground of it The sense of this Church BUt I must now profess that the weightiest point in re-uniting Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church the breaches of Religion in this Church is the Condition upon which the Fanaticks may bee either reconciled to it or shut out of it whether with free exercise of their several Sects or under certain penalties as Recusants I see that they are not afraid to pretend a further liberty of Publick Preachers even since the Lawes of this Land were in force For I find that such of them as are not Ministers of Congregations do notwithstanding stile themselves Publick Preachers Which is nothing else then to pretend that authority from the Secular Power which they had by the late Usurpation to seduce as many of his Majesties Subjects as they can to their Conventicles But that I will say nothing of because I make certain account that whensoever wee come to any settlement in Religion they will find that their pretense to bee vain That which I insist upon is that which I conceive I have proved that the positions which they notoriously challenge are down-right Haeresie wanting only conviction to produce either conversion or contumacy and the declaration of the Church upon the same For it is notorious that they challenge the present endowment of Gods Spirit and the certainty of Salvation for the future upon no further consideration then of their persons As not depending upon the Christianity which they either profess or perform So far they are from acknowledging that it dependeth upon their being Members of Gods Church by living according to that Christianity which it professeth For because they think themselves Members of Christ before they bee Members of Gods Church Therefore they think themselves enabled by God to divide the Church in infinitum And that the Conventicles of their Congregations are Churches to the same effect with those which were founded by the Apostles Though they profess not the Faith though they renounce the Unity of one Visible Church Therefore they openly allow those who maintain that God can see no sin in his Elect That their sins are pardoned from everlasting before they bee done That God shall not judge by our works but by his own decrees That there are Inspirations of the Holy Ghost without the Word though not against it for dear Members of Christ and the cream of Christians And hence comes the everlasting divisions which they maintain For to renounce those bounds which the Faith of the Church and the Unity thereof fixeth is enough to commend them to all parties that do so for the Godly In fine the whole fry of this errour resolves it self in two Positions That God praedestinateth to Salvation meerly in consideration of mens persons and not of any Christianity which they shall bee found to have professed and performed And that the knowledge of this Praedestination revealed by the Word and sealed by the Spirit immediately not supposing the Christianity which they profess and perform is that Faith which only justifieth I cannot say that the Presbyterians do expresly profess these How their Positions destroy the Faith Positions For they have an express Confession of their Faith which expresseth them not But seeing them in all occasions of publick confusion render themselves considerable by these Fanaticks as being of one and the same party I must take it for granted that they think their Profession reconcileable with these Positions Especially knowing how many particular Divines and Preachers of that party have maintained the same Namely all that maintain justifying Faith and the Knowledge and Assurance of a mans Salvation without and before Repentance I do not then say that the belief of absolute Praedestination is Haeresie in the sight of God Because it may bee held with other positions which are an antidote to the venime of it as being really contradictory to it Which contradiction did those that hold it perceive they could not hold it For this contradiction suffers not the consequence of Haeresie to take effect But both positions together I have maintained to bee down-right Haeresie Neither have I been shewed or of my self discovered any reason sufficient to think otherwise And therefore I must continue to weigh by my own Weights and to mete by my own Measures For that the ground and substance of Christianity is utterly Absolute Praedestination to Glory destructive to Christianity inconsistent with the Decree which they imagine is manifest if any thing can bee manifest in Christianity Because if there were any such Decree then could not men be judged at the last day as judged they shall bee by their works There is no Decree of God that shall not bee executed If God decree from everlasting to give glory and torment for everlasting without consideration of mens works then must hee without such consideration give it in time For otherwise hee should not execute that which hee decrees And indeed such a Decree can no way bee undefeasible as all Gods Decrees must bee Unless God determine and move every man to every thing that hee doth every moment of his life upon the account whereof hee shall bee saved or damned And that before his own will determine or move it self But if God should so determine and move mans will then would the tender of the Gospel bee a meer abuse and a mockery Inviting mankind to Salvation upon a Condition which unless God determine and move him to perform hee cannot If hee do hee cannot but perform The justice of Gods proceedings at
will bee condemned for it There is therefore a third signification of Faith in holy Scripture comprizing the outward act of professing as well as the inward act of beleeving And supposing this outward act of profession limited by the positive Law of the Gospel to the Sacrament of Baptism According to which signification the antient Church counted not Christians Fideles faithful or beleevers till they were baptized This is in the middle between the other two For as belief goes before it so it is the ground of the trust and confidence of a Christian And this therefore is that which all those Scriptures that ascribe the promises of the Gospel to Faith make properly justifying Faith For according to the use and custom of all Languages they are ascribed to belief bya Metonymy of the cause going before to trust and confidence by a Metonymy of the effect following upon it But this will not hold till we pitch upon that which comes between both as that which qualifieth a Christian for those premises When therefore the belief of Christs Gospel causes a man to take up Christs Cross in Baptisme then hath he that Faith which justifieth though that which prepares to it and that which insues upon it are honoured with the same attribute for being so neer of kindred to it But the consideration of the question which St. Paul disputeth So doth the State of that question which St. Paul disputeth visible in the writings of the Apostles suffereth no doubt of his meaning when hee argueth that Faith alone justifieth It is as clear as the Sun at noon that all his Dispute is with those Christians who having submitted to the Gospel could not conceive that the Law had no hand in justifying them whom they saw live according to the Law And that by the direction of that Apostles themselves for the gaining of the Jews A thing which they dispensed with for a long time till St. Paul was constrained to declare against it as rooting up the necessity of Christianity and salvation by it alone That this is the state of the Question all the New Testament after the Gospels is witness And therefore to be justified by Faith alone is with St. Paul to bee justified by Christianity alone And whereas they were all assured that salvation was to bee had under the Law he shews every where that the Fathers who were justified before or under the Law were not justified by the Law but by the Gospel that was vailed under it notas Jews but as Christians And therefore that the Gentiles which turned Christians were saved by the same Grace as beleeving Jews For as no works which they were able to do by the light and strength of Nature were able to bring those that were without the Law to the state of Gods Grace no more could the outward observation of Moses Law by those works which meer nature was able to produce as tending no further then the temporal reward of the Laws of Canaan expresly promised by Moses Law render men acceptable to God for the reward which Christians expect in the world to come But by Hegâ—sippus in Eusebius wee understand that the Gnosticks teaching that the bare profession of Christianity without bearing the Cross for the performing of it was enough to save those that should attain to the secrets which they taught debauched and deflowred the Church of Jerusalem as soon as St. James was dead And therefore seeing that could not bee done in a moment wee have cause to think that they went to work in his life time The consideration whereof shews that St. James in arguing that a Christian is justified by works and not by Faith alone intended to teach that the profession of Christianity justifieth not when it is not performed And therefore St. Paul intended the same in arguing that a Christian is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law To wit that hee is justified by professing Christianity so cordially and with so good a conscience as to perform it And for this sense of the Scriptures there is as current and as The consent of the Church herein with the ground of it general a consent of all the whole Church as for Christianity it self the life and soul whereof standeth in it Shew me any Author approved in the Church that ever allowed salvation without Baptisme when it could bee had when it could not the profession of him that desiveth it is as clear as if his flesh were cleansed that compriseth not the taking up of Christs Cross by professing Christianity in the nature and virtue of justifying Faith that opposeth that Faith which alone justifieth to any other works then those of Moses Law But there is no such thing to bee shewed This is every where to bee shewed in all writings any way allowed by the Church that the justification of a Christian dependeth upon the performance of that which hee professeth And the Promises of the Gospel which hee attaineth by undertaking to live as a Christian upon the good works whereby hee performeth the same And the honour of Christianity cannot stand otherwise There is no sin which it cleanseth not The reason is because there is no righteousness to which it obligeth not Hee who beleeveth that our Lord Christ tendereth salvation upon condition of beleeving and living as a Christian cannot expect that which hee tendereth without returning that which hee requireth But hee that is overtaken in sin by this Faith can do no more for the present then undertake so to beleeve and so to live for the future Thereby hee undertakes all righteousness for the future And by undertaking â—â— is translated from the state of damnation for sin to the state of salvation by grace Which if hee attain without undertaking if hee retain without performing then doth not Gods glory appeaâ— by his Gospel But there is no thing so particular to this purpose as those sayings whereby the Fathers declare that a Christian is justified by Faith alone in case he dye upon his Baptisme If he survive then that hee is justified by the works whereby his profession is performed Of which sayings having produced a considerable number I am by them to measure the meaning of all the rest of their writings The Articles of this Church setting forth justification by The sense of this Church Faith alone for a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort for the sense of it refer us to the Homily upon that subject I will not say that my Position is laid down in that Homily For there are many Passages of it which shew them that penned it no way clear in that point Yet there are divers sentences of the Fathers alleged in it which cannot bee understood to other purpose and other passages well agreeing with it But in the Church Catechisme and in the Office of Baptisme it is so clearly laid down as will serve for ever to silence any other sense And
qualifying for everlasting life That is as they expresly include it not so they may bee said to exclude it Though on the other side as they expresly exclude it not so they may bee said to include it But Socinus hath plainly taken up diverse Articles of the Haeresie of Pelagius affirming that Adam must have dyed though hee had not sinned and that Christ came not to cure any sin that by his fall is become Original to his Posterity Or to procure any Grace which Original sin rendreth necessary to make us good Christians But only to assure the World by his Doctrine and by his example that God will make good his Message if wee fail not on our side And having thus excluded the consideration of his merit either in declaring the Gospel or in performing it what necessity remained why he should bee God This is the Pedigree of this Haeresie complicated of the Haeresies of Pelagius and Paulus Sâ—mosatenus as this later of the Haeresies of Ebion and Artemas and of Sabellius For as Liberatus Arch-deacon of Carthage hath well observed in his Abridgement of the Troubles of Nestorius and Eutyches Samosatenus denying the God-head of Christ with Ebion and Artemas as concerning the Holy Ghost must of necessity say with Sabellius as Socinus doth that hee is the virtue and efficacy that is to say a meer notional attribute of the Fathers God-head In the mean time Socinus excluding satisfaction by Christs How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Obedience hath expresly excluded all imputation of it being the immediate consequence of satisfaction and the effect of it in order of reason but in nature and being the same thing with it Now it appears by the body of his Doctrine that hee had conceived a deep dislike of the opinion which I count Haeresie that placeth justifying Faith in beleeving a mans self to bee predestinated to life from everlasting And therefore understood the imputation of Christs righteousness as that opinion must needs understand it Namely that men are reconciled to God by the death of Christ their sins being pardoned before they bee done and they adopted to the glory they shall one day have without consideration of any condition qualifying for it Which uo man of common reason will take to bee the sense of St. Bernard or other learned Divines of the Church of Rome that have allowed imputation to righteousness And therefore it will bee necessary to distinguish a two-fold sense in the imputation of Christs obedience and the satisfaction which it followeth to wit according to the effect to which it is thought that satisfaction is made and imputed or put to account For in the opinion which I call Haeresie the merits of Christ are immediately imputed to them for whom they were intended for righteousness and life everlasting But in the Faith of Gods Church Christs sufferings are immediately imputed to mankind because in consideration of them God declares himself ready to bee reconciled with all that turn good Christians and accordingly makes good the promises of his Gospel to them performing their Christianity So that in the sense which Socinus rejecteth which is the sense of our Fanatickes imputation as well as satisfaction is immediate and personal in the sense of the Church mediate and real or causal because it is immediately to no further effect then of procuring the Gospel to the effect of salvation by the means of that Christianity which it requireth Had Socinus considered the consequence of this distinction Upon what grounds bee is to bee refuted hee would never have put himself upon the task of confining all that is said in the New Testament of Redemption Reconciliation and Propitiation by Christ and by his bloud to the effect of assuring us that God will stand to the Gospel which hee publisheth Hee would never have wrested the signification of all sacrifices and types figuring our Lord Christ and his death in the Old Testament to intend no more then the inducing of us to that Christianity which hee preached in confidence of that Grace which hee for his obedience is advanced to bestow Hee would never have declared against the Faith of the Holy Trinity out of a presumption that the salvation of Christians is provided for setting aside the God-head of our Lord Christ and the satisfaction at which his obedience is valuable in consideration of it In fine hee would not have transgressed the Faith of the Church had hee understood it But having before condemned the Pope for Antichrist and the Papists for Idolaters and derived this Apostacy of the Whole Church from the very death of the Apostles no marvel that hee would not bee confined to the Faith of the Church that hee could not see the ground of it No marvel that hee oversaw the prosession of the Faith of the Church by being baptized in the condition of our salvation knowing that hee transgressed the Rule of that Faith No marvel that they who see him in the wrong in refuting him and his followers are sometimes worsted in a true cause because they consider not that the punishment of Christ for our sins may so bee understood as to make the reward of Christianity due before and therefore without the performing of it Whereas understanding his sufferings to concern immediately no particular mans person but the common cause of mankind The immediate effect thereof is the procuring of a new Law for God to proceed with us by Which Law being set on foot upon the fall of Adam was first fully revealed by the Gospel of Christ The Original Law which man in his original uprightness was subject to remaining still the Rule of Righteousness according to those terms which the Gospel declareth Though for the effect of taking vengeance on us abrogated or dispensed with in consideration of Christs obedience Now those helps of Grace which the Gospel tendreth for The helps of Grace granted in consideration of Christs obedience the undertaking and performing of that Christianity which it requireth are also granted in consideration of Christs merits and sufferings put to our account That is the helps of preventing Grace or the actual motions of Gods Spirit without which the Gospel were a meer abuse supposing original sin upon the common account of mankind The helps of following Grace or the habitual endowment of Gods Spirit upon the personal account of him that is saved by Baptisme But both kinds presuppose that the coming of the second Adam was to repair the breach which the first Adam had made Both condemn the Haeresie of Pelagius which Socinus in some Articles of it reviveth And indeed to deny bodily death to bee the effect of Adams sin what is it else but to deny the Resurrection of the flesh to bee the effect of Christs righteousness For though it is the power of his God-head that shall raise them again who shall rise to shame Yet if it bee the Spirit of holiness which
there delivers introduces a New Law which obliged not under the Old Testament For I have shewed that under it the Fathers were saved as Christians that is by worshipping God in Spirit and truth But that there was a two-fold sense in Moses Law And that by keeping it according to the Letter they held the Land of Promise according to the Spirit though in a less measure then the Gospel requires they attained the world to come The Satisfaction and Merit of good works done by Christians Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian works may bee understood to bee grounded either upon their intrinsick value or upon that mark which the Gospel of Christ stampes them with in consideration of Christs merits and sufferings But that intrinsick value at which they are valued by those who make them worth life everlasting upon terms of commutative justice rises upon the account of Gods Spirit by the Grace whereof they are done And the Grace of Gods Spirit is not granted but in consideration of our Lord Christ and his obedience And therefore this intrinsick value is meerly imaginary even in the opinion of them that advance it unless they will needs contradict themselves For the value of our Lords obedience is necessarily extrinsick to us to whose account it redoundeth only by imputation of Grace And therefore there is no intrinsick value of Christian works supposing the Gospel to bee that which I have said For being performed by virtue of Gods Grace they cannot bee acceptable to the effect of salvation but by the same Grace But the merit or the satisfaction which is ascribed unto them being grounded upon that Grace bringing salvation to all which hath appeared by the Gospel it is not possible to imagine what it can derogate from the merits and satisfaction of our Lord Christ It is true men may forget their own grounds as I have said that they do who would have the works of Christians to merit heaven upon terms of commutative justice And forgetting themselves they may contradict themselves ascribing that for debt to them that do them which is not due but upon the account of Christs obedience But still the worse Divines the better Christians For the truth which they profess if they profess it not in vain shall bee an Antidote against that pride destructive to the humility of a Christian which the opinion of a mans own merit produceth Whereas they who exclude all consideration of our works from the great trial of the Day of Judgement do thereby exclude Christianity out of the heart as they do the Creed out of the Church Whereas they who suppose gross and hainous sins to bee pardoned before they see the fruits of Repentance in works of mortification by extraordinary exercises of devotion with fasting and almes do contribute as much as their allowance signifies to the murther of that soul which might have been cured had not their authority made men believe that there needs no such cure There is an opinion crept into the Church of Rome on the other side that imperfect sorrow for that sin which by Confession is submitted to the Keys of the Church serves to cure such sin how great soever And that Penance is enjoyned to redeem the debt of temporal punishment to bee paid in Purgatory if not here as remaining due when the guilt is done away Whereas the works of mortification are but the exercise and the performance of that contrition which the Gospel requires to qualifie a man for pardon of his sin And therefore the authority of the Church cannot supply the want of that condition which the Gospel requireth in him that seeks forgiveness But only procure it by excluding him from the Communion that shall refuse the cure which the Church prescribeth Now this is an opinion which that Church allows but enjoyns not And therefore whether there bee more danger there by this opinion or by the other extreme where all works of mortification are cried down for superstitious I leave to the conscience of discreet Christians The Catholique Church hath used the terms of satisfaction and Merit in a true sense and to a good purpose and it were easie to shew that the same sense is allowed though not enjoyned by the Church of Rome even since the Council of Trent were this the place I have said that the obedience of the second Adam is not immediately Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his posterity imputed to any particular mans account but first to the common account of mankind and to the account of particular persons as they are qualified for it by being good Christians And now I must say accordingly that the disobedience of the first Adam is not imputed immediately to the damnation of any particular but to the bondage of all â—is posterity For no man shall bee condemned at the last day but for the works which hee shall bee found to have done in the body And for what hee shall then bee condemned for the same God decreed that hee should bee condemned from everlasting So being become slaves to sin we are ransomed by Christ But as this ransome intitleth us not to life till wee embrace the terms of it neither doth this bondage damn us till wee beome parties to it by our sins If this bee true then doth not Original sin consist in the Imputation of Adams sin to his posterity as Catharinus held at the Council of Trent with great applause And indeed I need not dispute that God cannot in justice punish one man for another mans sin because you see the posterity of the first Adam according to the flesh is punished for his sin no otherwise then it is rewarded for the second Adam and for his righteousness The interest of our common Christianity is safe so long as the necessity of Christs coming and the reason of it for the cure of the breach which Adam made remains evident and unmoveable Nor is there any difficulty in resolving the nature of Original Wherein Original Sin consisteth Sin That should drive us to this novelty All sin is an act or an habit that faileth of that measure which Gods Law requires Original Sin hath only this peculiar that giving the like inclination as other habits do it is not contracted by custom but by birth Call this inclination to that which Gods Law forbiddeth Concupiscence and you have expressed the whole nature of Original Sin For calling it concupiscence you make it to bee the want of Original Righteousness But you express over and above what it is that succeedeth in mankind born in Original Sin instead of Original Righteousness to wit that disorder in our inclinations which concupiscence signifieth The Question only remains whether Original uprightness What Original Righteousness signifieth shall signifie only Innocence or supernatural Grace over and above For it may bee supposed that man was created at the first only to the happiness of this life upon condition
of living according to the Innocence in which hee was created And there are that have maintained this though not denying that God intended to reward this exercise of his innocence with a call to an higher estate The Fathers indeed are of another mind Moved perhaps by the mystery of Christ and his Church which hee discovereth in his mariage with his own flesh Gen. I. 24. Eph. V. 31. For this seems to make Adam a Prophet endowed with Gods Spirit But hee that should not think it necessary that Adam should understand the mystical sense of his own words would not bee tied to that consequence In the mean time the common Christianity and the ground of salvation seems to remain unmoveable granting That by advancing the Covenant of Grace which was set on foot in Paradise so soon as God promised the seed of the woman to dissolve the works of the Serpent God calleth mankind to an estate of supernatural Grace And though it may bee disputed whether it could stand with the holiness of God and the purity of his work to have made man in an estate of meer nature that is subject to concupiscence without supernatural Grace to restrain the effect of it yet could it not stand with his justice creating man to supernatural happiness and therefore liable to Damnation transgressing the supernatural Righteousness which it must require to create him without supernatural Grace necessary to the performing of the said righteousnesse To fortifie that which hath been said I am not to omit that What good the unregenerate are able to do by the Law of Nature which St. Paul seemeth expresly to teach Rom. II. 12-16 That they who are not under Gods positive Law shall bee judged at the last day by the Law of Nature Which if it bee so then shall they not bee condemned for Original Sin It is not necessary that Christianity should give account why God thought good to suffer Adam to bee seduced by the Apostate Angels and mankind to bee born in bondage to sin why hee suffered the greatest part of it to bee overcome with Idolatry after hee had set the Covenant of Grace on foot It is enough that hee found it for his glory to give sin this entrance into the World which hee meant to encounter with that Grace which his Gospel revealeth Leaving that which it revealeth not to bee unfolded at the Day of the Judgement In the mean time if they who know not Gods Law are judged by the Law of Nature They are not judged by the Covenant of Grace though given all mankind in Paradise because by corruption of sin they were grown strangers to it Much less therefore by the Original Righteousness of Paradise supplied by the Covenant of Grace Now the corrupt inclination of concupiscence extinguisheth not the light of nature which by discovering the difference between that which is good because it is honest and that which is only pleasant or profitable condemneth the neglect of that for either of these Man is sensible of his own worth and the wrong that hee doth it when hee preferreth profit or pleasure before the obligation which it inferreth And therefore there can no question remain that hee is able notwithstanding Original Sin to do that which is good for a right reason and a good intent For the reason of profit or pleasure doth not always drown and swallow up the reason of that which is just and honourable Therefore hee who makes not the world to come his end may do that which is truly good for honesties sake and the satisfaction of loving it as it deserveth But because concupiscence which the world is infected with procureth daily occasions of opposition between right and interest and those such as call in question the worldly estate of him that should resolve to prefer the right in all things therefore is not the natural man able to resolve upon God for the end of all his doings His corrupt inclinations betray the judgement whereby hee alloweth that which is best to the interest of his profit or pleasure Now whether those actions which are done upon good grounds and for a good purpose but by a man that maketh not God the end of all his doings are to bee counted sins or not I will not Dispute Thus much appeareth that they who are to bee judged by the Law of Nature do not always transgress the Law of Nature For how should they bee judged by that Law which they cannot chuse but transgress CHAP. XII Vpon what terms that which is possible may become futurG 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 THis being the estate in which the Gospel overtaketh mankind Upon what terms that which is possible may become future the Question concerning the concurrence of mans free will to the works of Gods free Grace is that which remains And the resolving of it lies in resolving by what means and upon what account that which is of it self only possible becomes future How it becomes certain that such a thing shall bee which of it self only may bee For that which is possible and no more is of it self a meer nothing That which only may bee is not Only it signifies withall that there is something that is able to reduce it to effect or being But that which is future signifieth here not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only that which as yet is not but that which hereafter shall bee And that imports a certain being for that time Seeing then that nothing cannot reduce it self to being The Question is what it is that renders it certain to bee for the time when it shall bee For all that God can do is absolutely possible And God can do whatsoever can bee done God cannot deny himself And that hee should do if contradictories should bee true or things that destroy one another subsist both at once Accordingly whatsoever God sees is certain and God sees whatsoever shall bee so whatsoever shall bee is certain though wee know not what it is Now I have said that it becomes not certain by any decree or motion of God whereby hee determines the will of man and moves it to do whatsoever it doth before it move or determine it self at least in order of nature Priority in order of nature signifieth this that the motion of free will doth necessarily depend and shall necessarily follow upon the precedent determination and motion of God But things are said to bee necessary two ways some are The difference between necessity antecedent and consequent absolutely necessary The necessity whereof lies
And therefore there is no ground for private Masses by granting the Eucharist to bee in this nature a Sacrifice But can any man say that it is not the principal Office of The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods Service Christian Assemblies That it ought not to bee frequented upon all the chief occasions for the Assemblies of Gods Church That the ordinary work for which wee meet all Lords days and other days if on other days wee ought ordinarily and solemnly to meet is a Sermon with an arbitrary Prayer before or after it That they who take the pains to minister the same are to bee excused of celebrating the Eucharist or ministring the prayers of the Church which it is to bee celebrated with unless it bee three or four times a year and much more of reading the Scriptures or praising God upon Davids Psalter and the Hymns of the Church I confess Calvins Reformation is much after that form And all the arâ— of the Blessed Reformation here pretended hath been to impose it for a Law upon this Kingdom without once pleading that it is for the best But so grosly prejudicial to the Service of God and the Common Christianity that it were injurious to fear that a Christian Kingdom can suffer such an Imposture derogating far more from the perpetual Custome of Gods Whole Church then it can from the present Law of this Kingdom That therefore I may make way to the determining of that which remains most questionable amongst us What is the best form of Service which the Church of this Kingdom can worship God with I must in the first place lay down that Rule by which all Reformation of Lawes Ecclesiastical is to bee directed together with the ground of it CHAP. XV. The ground that determines the Form of our Service The Offices of which the Service is to consist Of the Vse of the Psalmes Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocrypha What Preaching it is that the Scripture commendeth There may be Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching The difference between the second Service in the Ancient Church and our Communion Service The general Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist The Prayer of Oblation instituted by S. Paul and the matter of it The Lords Prayer at the Eucharist The Place for the Common Prayers THat ground upon which the form of our Service is to bee The ground that determines the Form of ouâ— Service determined is to determine all that remains to bee determined in matter of Religion by Law of this Kingdom The true sense of the Scripture is not to bee had but out of the Records of Antiquity especially of Gods ancient people fâ—â—st and then of the Christian Church The obligation of that sense upon the Church at this time is not to bee measured against the primitive practice of the Whole Church The Reformation of the Church is nothing but the restoring of that which may appear to have been in force especially since Christianity hath been protected by the Lawes of the Empire Because the greatest difference between the primitive time of Christianity and this is the difference between the state of Persecution and of Protection by the Law of this Kingdom It is therefore necessary that both sides professing the Reformation should agree upon the true ground of Reformation and so upon the Rule which that ground will maintain and evidence that is to submit all that is in question to the visible practise of the primitive times before those abuses were brought in which the Reformation pretendeth to restore For if God have founded a Visible Church which all this supposes then cannot the Pope bee Antichrist nor the Church of Rome Idolaters for any thing which the practise of the Primitive Church justifieth And seeing the Church is Visible by the Lawes of it there can no Church bee visibly one with that which was from the beginning but by ruling it self by the same Lawes so far as the state of the Bodies for which they are made is the same That which shall bee said concerning the form of our Service is an instance hereof The sense of the Scriptures which have been alleged shall appear to agree with the primitive order of Gods Church The reviving of the order is the point of Reformation in this particular allowing for avoiding just offense in altering the Law of the Kingdom without necessary cause as the wisdom of Superiours shall find requisite I must now suppose that the Offices of Gods Service for The Offices of which the Service is to consist which the Church of God assembleth ordinarily and solemnly are the praises of God the instruction of the people in the duties of their Christianity whether by reading the Scriptures or by handling the same And lastly the Common Prayers of the Church especially those which the Eucharist is to bee celebrated with And this Order which I put them in here is that which the Church from the beginning hath always observed The Psalter of David in the first place hath been so generally Oâ— the use of the Psalms frequented by the Whole Church for the Instrument to make the Praises of God sound forth that it ought not now to bee questioned as questioned it is visibly enough by any that would pretend to bee of Gods Church The order of reading the Psalms which the Law of this Kingdom requires is admitted because they are part of the Scripture But all endeavours used that no devotion of the people bee exercised by it The Psalms in Rhime must engross that Wee have seen a Civil War in the time whereof these Psalms in Rhime being crowded into the Church by meer sufferance and so used without order of Law have been employed on both sides to brand the adverse party with the marks which the Psalms set upon the enemies of David and of Gods People that is of Christ and of Christians More freely by them who sang them at the head of their Armies to that purpose I hope those ways do not please at present And therefore say freely that the disorder ought not to continue Some of our Fanaticks I know have torn them out of their Bibles They thought themselves not concerned in them though David were The Jewes though they allow many of them to belong to the Messias would not have them belong to our Lord Christ But the Church uses them supposing them all fulfilled in Christ and Christians whether particular souls or the body of his Church Upon this Account they are the exercise of Christian Devotions But not the Psalms in Rhime The musick of them hath proved too hard for the people to learn in an hundred years And yet no way more commendable then the Rhimes themselves are And repeating a little in much time The tunes used in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches are easie to learn and serve that Order which Law setleth for Devotion not for reading
Celebration of the Eucharist is so general and so antient that it cannot bee thought to have come in upon imposture but that the same aspersion will seem to take hold of the Common Christianity But to what effect this Intercession was made that is indeed The antient Church never Prayed to remove them out of Purgatory the due point of difference For they who think that the antient Church prayed and do themselves pray for the removing of them from a place of Purgatory pains into perfect happiness by the clear sight of God offend against the Antient Church as well as against the Scripture both ways For Justine Martyr makes it a part of the Gnosticks Haeresie that the soul without the body is in perfect happiness They indeed held it because they denyed the Resurrection But the Church therefore believing the Resurrection believes no perfect happiness of the Soul before it And the great consent of the Antient Church in this point is acknowledged by divers learned Writers in the Church of Rome Neither is the consent of it less evident in this That there is no translating of Souls into a new estate before the great Tryal of the general Judgement In the mean time then what hinders them to receive comfort To what purpose they were remembred at the Eucharist and refreshment rest and peace and light by the visitation of God by the consolation of his Spirit by his good Angels to sustain them in the expectation of their tryal and the anxieties they are to pass through during the time of it And though there bee hope for those that are most sollicitous to live and dye good Christians that they are in no such suspense but within the bounds of the heavenly Jerusalem yet because their Condition is uncertain and where there is hope of the better there is fear of the worse therefore the Church hath always assisted them with the prayers of the living both for their speedy tryal which all blessed souls desire and for their easie absolution and discharge with glory before God together with the accomplishment of their happiness in the receiving of their bodies Now all Members of the Church Triumphant in Heaven The Saints departed pray for the Militant Church according to the degree of their favour with God abound also with love to his Church Militant on earth And though they know not the necessities of particular persons without particular Revelation from God yet they know there are such necessities so long as the Church is Militant on earth Therefore it is certain both that they offer continual prayers to God for those necessities and that their prayers must needs bee of great force and effect with God for the assistance of the Church Militant in this warfare Which if it bee true the Communion of Saints will necessarily require that all who remain sollicitous of their tryal bee assisted by the prayers of the living for present comfort and future rest That the living beg of God a part and Interest in the benefit of those Prayers which they who are so neer to God in his Kingdom tender him without ceasing for the Church upon earth As for prayers for the translating of Souls out of Purgatory the beginning of their coming into the Church is visible And so is the coming in of those prayers which call upon the Of Prayers to the Saints departed Saints departed by name in any publique Office of Devotion in the Church The voluntary devotions of private persons most of them ignorant and carnal are no Argument of the Original and general practice of the Church And there is no mark of these invocations till Processions were frequented with Litanies which consisted most an end of them and could not bee in use before the time of Constantine but were not in use till a good while after it The abuse hath encreased so far especially in addresses to the blessed Virgin that the same things are desired of them and in the same terms in which they are desired of God even in the holy Scripture That the appearance of Devotion to the Mother is visibly and outwardly no less then to the Son So that were there not a profession of that Church extant contradicting the proper sense of such prayers and forcing them that address them unless they will contradict themselves to abate their own meaning and to expound them to signifie no more then obtaining that of God which they are desired to grant of themselves they could not bee excused of Idolatry But can by no means be excused for leading simple Christians upon a Praecipice of such horrible danger by encouraging both them and those that teach them such devotions For did not carnal Superstition hope for temporal blessings from such voluntary applications wiâ—hout that promise of God which the condition of our Christianity engageth how should a Christian bee induced to go about by a Saint that hath immediate access to God to the same effect That which hath been said of the Primitive Liturgy barreth No Common Prayer in the Pulpit by Gift but in a set form at the Communion Table the pretense of this time requiring the Liturgy setled by Law of this Kingdom to bee changed upon a ground never heard of in the Church for 1600 years That every Minister whether meaning Bishop Priest and Deacon or Priest only is to have a gift in praying and that his people ought to pray that which his gift furnisheth and not that which the Church prescribeth And to the end that such gifts may be used that no Minister be tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year and that in case hee have convenient company But that they whose age and infirmity enables them not to preach and pray thus in the Pulpit reading the Service over and above bee not tied to minister the Service prescribed Now would I have those that demand this to shew me that ever the prayers for which the Church meeteth were made in the Pulpit for 1500 years after Christ I know I have alleged a prayer of St. Ambrose before his Sermon I know there is a passage of St. Augustine alleged to the same purpose But neither of them signifies any more then a prayer to God to bless them in their preaching The Common Prayers of the Church are another thing even that which I have said The common prayers of the Church on all ordinary and solemn Assemblies were made at the Altar because the Eucharist was held always and ought to bee held always the principal Office of Gods service for which Christians ought to assemble more frequently then there can bee either ability or opportunity for preaching And that which I have said of the Primitive Liturgy is full evidence hereof For I have shewed a set form of it which these men return a non inventus of to his Majesties Commission but that ever there was any Prayer of the people used in the Pulpit will
necessary in Gods Service What kinde of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies THe determining of times and places and persons by The Lords Day observed by the authority of the Church which and at which of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Form and order according to which the service of God is to be celebrated is the Office and therefore is within the power of the Church The substance of Christianity wherein salvation consisteth was determined by our Lord in person to his Apostles That which hee trusted them with was the regulating of his Church supposing the same Christianity that God might bee served by the Assemblies of such as might appear to profess it That which he trusted the Apostles with the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the Apostles saving the personal Gift of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles rendring their Acts blameless in that estate for which they were made though not sufficient for all estates of the Church Otherwise the power of the whole Church is the power of the Apostles and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the Acts of it Because the Unity of the Church is equally concerned in them and the substance of Christianity in neither of both This discovereth the Superstition of that Imposture which is pretended by deriving the Obligation of the Lords Day from the Jewish Sabbath For what reason can endure that the Church should bee bound to keep the first day of the week by that Precept which tyed the Synagogue to keep the last day of the week Seeing then the Obligation of it is to bee derived from the Act of the Apostles that is from the power of the Church For being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect if the premises bee true it is the same Obligation that tyes all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church whether Fasting days or Festivals The Example of the Primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hierome and others of the Fathers affirming that the Church should and would serve God continually in publick could the business of the world stand with it And therefore that order is to bee accounted most Christian that provides most opportunity for frequenting the publick service of God If this were considered it would appear a meer Imposture Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed to demand that the Lords day bee celebrated with Sermons morning and evening and arbitrary prayers to usher them in and out treading underfeet all other times set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such Offices as it enjoyneth If wee weigh by our own Weights and mete by our own Measures not only the mysteries of our Lords dispensatiâ—n in the Flesh but the memories of his Apostles and Saints not only the time of Lenâ— and the Wednesdays and Fridays But the time of Advent the Evens of Festivals the Ember and Râ—gation dayes once appointed to that purpose must still bee solemnized for the Festivals and Fasts of Gods Church To set a peculiar mark upon the Lords Day as if the time of it were more obliging then other time that is appointed to the same purpose is to change the day but to retain the Jews Superstition as Calvin most truely hath told them who in other things commit Idolatry to his Opinion But wherein he follows the whole Church in this point and in the state of souls before the Resurrection bid him farewell The Case is the same in the qualities of places as well as of How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with ministring the Sacraments persons For the exercise of Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom there must bee places where all must meet they must bee limitted by the authority of the Church they must not bee balked for other places of mens private choise but by those that are willing to bee charged with Schisme for doing it They that quarrel the Bishops power in all other things must call this also in question when they mean to weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures They are very studious to confound the difference between Priests and Deacons by having all called Ministers being a Term that may serve all Orders ministring those Offices which the Church enableth them to minister But they who would impose this sense upon the stile of Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that all and no other but they who are ordained to Preach are ordained also to Baptize and celebrate the Eucharist must bee told that this is an Imposture till they shew better reason for it then hitherto hath been shewed For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason that the power of celebrating the Eucharist is convertible with the power of the Keys qualifying all Christians for the Eucharist which in the Bishop onely extendeth to publick causes concerning his whole Church or Diocese But in all Presbyters to private Causes wherein it may bee questionable between God and the Conscience whether a Christian bee qualified for the Eucharist or not As for the Sacrament of Baptisme that as the Bishop only allows it in any case that may bee questionable so the ministring of it may come to a Deacon in the Priests absence nay to a Lay-man rather then that any Child should dye unbaptized Neither is the Office of preaching restrained either to Priests or Deacons alone by any other authority then that of Gods whole Church Which being once passed in the Case by the general Custom and Practice of it it must bee the greatest Sacrilege in the World that is the Sacrilege of Schisme to transgress it The respect due to the memories of the Apostles and other Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Saints and Martyrs of Christ is a reason sufficient to determine the time and place for the service of God To question that they are not just occasions for the consecrating of Festivals and of Churches to the service of God in honour of their memories is a just presumption that men seek to bee saved by some other Christianity then that which their Doctrine and their Blood planted But their names and the Festivals and the Churches that bear their names are but circumstances determining that service to bee acceptable to God which is performed in the Unity of his Church the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose No more are the Utensils and Ornaments of Churches the Vessels in which the Sacraments are celebrated But they who think it Superstition that these things should bee set apart from Vulgar use and reserved only for Gods service plainly commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations in it For it is manifest that Consecration was in force not only by the Law of Moses but before it under the Law of nature as the
Fathers call it under those precepts which God gave Noah after the Flood as the Jews will have it And therefore it tended not only to figure Christ to come but to maintain the service of God and that reverence which it ought to bee performed with What colour can there bee that the Consecrations that were in force by the Law were figurative of Christ to come And the Sacrilege of Judas as well as of Ananias and Sapphira remain unquestionable because the subsistence of the Church upon Oblations consecrated to that purpose from the beginning is as visible as the Church As for the sense of the Catholique Church from the beginning hee that believes the Unity thereof cannot question it They therefore that have the Impudence to make that Superstition which the people of God both before and since Christ have always used for the service of God do they not commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations which they prefer so far before all the world besides Indeed the solemnity of Consecration requires a further question of Ceremonies in the service of God whether or no they be for the advantage of Gods service whether or no it bee in the power of the Church to determine them for that purpose For the solemnity of Consecrations passes not without Ceremonies Wee have this character of the Presbyterians published for Ceremonies fignisying by institution necessary in Gods service their advantage That they allow the natural expressions of Reverence and devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer as also those meer circumstances of decency and order the omission whereof would make the service of God either not decent or less decent but Ceremonies of instituted mystical signification they allow not But are not the mysteries of Christianity the Incarnation Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ things instituted by God not determined by nature Is not the signifying of them whereby they come to Remembrance the means to procure and to encrease that Reverence and Devotion which wee are to attend the service of God with and the inward affection which it expresseth And why not then Ceremonies instituted to signifie things which Gods Grace not nature determineth Shall it be Christianity to believe the Institution of things above nature for our salvation by Gods Grace and shall it bee prejudicial to Christianity to institute the means of procuring that Reverence and Devotion which the Remembrance of them in the publick service of God requireth shall the worship of God by Christians be tyed to signifie no more then nature directeth Jews Mahometans and Pagans to signifie by it Compare this new Gospel with the perpetual practice of Gods people whether before or after the Law whether before or after Christ And you shall easily see that it cannot bee accounted Superstition but by those that commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations Let the signification bee that which natural reason is able to What kind of signification requisite interpret in all sorts of Christians and whether they allow it to bee called Mystical or not they must allow it as properly Religious that is as tending to advance that Devotion which the Religion of a Christian signifieth in the point of Gods service And truely I do not nor doth this Church to my knowledg allow the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome the siâ—nification whereof is not to bee understood by all sorts of Christians but require books of learning to interpret their significations They that serve God in a Language unknown to the people do accordingly when they serve him with Ceremonies which they cannot understand Allowing it Reformation to serve God in English I allow it Reformation to cut off the Superfluity of such Ceremonies as stealing the nourishment of Devotion from the heart wherein God hath placed his service And therefore I think it reason to submit to this Issue whether or no the Ceremonies in question bee according to the use of the Primitive Church which the Reformation pretendeth or should pretend to restore For I find that in the Primitive and Good Times of Christianity the Church was far enough from seeking such abstruse and far fetched significations And that is a visible Rule which the common profession of Reformation determines But I allow no man to allege the use of the Primitive Church grown out of use long before the Reformation in bar to any Ceremony now setled by Law not weighing by the same Weights nor meting by the same Measures in all other things It is neither good conscience in them nor would bee in the Publick to change a Law of the Land upon a pretense which they that allege will not stand to in another Case But is it enough for Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies which Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies nature teacheth to allow order and decency in circumstances Have they debauched this wretched people to such horrible prophaness and irreverence that they can think fit to pray sitting on their seats to such barbarous confusion that they can think every mans own fansie the best order to exercise the Liberty of Christians in Gods service and now think to satisfie with allowing the contrary What shall the Church gain by reconciling them if having contributed so much to the destruction of order they contribute not more then so to the restoring of it but that must bee the care of Superiors I will only mention the sign of the Cross a Ceremony of so much reverence and so general use in the whole Church of God from the beginning that nothing but the difficulty of recalling it preserving Unity among our selves can excuse this Church for not restoring it in many other Offices But to put it out of the Office of Baptisme would bee to condemn the Whole Church of God without giving satisfaction to them who having obtained the silencing of it in Consecrating the Eucharist according to the Liturgy under Edward VI. have thereby been encouraged to demand so much more CHAP. XVIII Offices which the Fathers call Sacraments for their Ceremonies Why the Bishop only Confirmeth The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void The necessity of Penance The observation of Lent and the Vse of it The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sin Of anointing the sick according to S. James Mariage of Christians not to bee Ruled by Moses Law Instituted Ceremonies are Sacraments with the Fathers The Ceremonies of these Offices justifie Instituted Ceremonies BUt for the justifying of Ceremonies why should I allege Offices which the Fathers call Sacramenâ—s for their Ceremonies any thing but those Offices of the Church which the Fathers have called Sacraments as well as Baptism and the Eucharist I conceive I have alleged so sufficient a reason for the difference between those two and the rest that slaunder it self cannot undertake to blast my meaning in that point For things
comes without peradventure from the Apostleâ— As for Mariage the solemnity of the blessing the Ring the Sacrament of the Eucharist which according to the custom of the whole Church it ought to bee ministred with will easily make it a Sacrament though Imposition of hands which is said still to bee used in some Eastern Churches bee not used at all in the West So the effect and consequence of these Offices will oblige the Church always to keep them in use though the Church of Rome makes them Sacraments But that sense in which the antient Church makes them Sacraments serves only to justifie the power of instituting Ceremonies in the Church CHAP. XIX The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Eucharist though it were What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches Mutual forbearance which St. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere Tender Consciences are to submit to Superiors THey who give the honour proper to God to his creature are The worship of the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Idolaters They that worship the Host give the honour due to God to his creature This is taken for a Demonstration that the worship of the Host is Idolatry But will any Papist acknowledg that hee honours the Elements of the Eucharist or as hee thinks the Accidents of them for God Will common reason charge him to honour that which hee believeth not to bee there A Pagan that honours the Sun for God believes him to bee God And therefore another Pagan may as well believe another creature to bee God Both Idolaters for thinking the Godhead to bee in one or more creatures But those greater Idolaters who thought that the Godhead to which they took men whether living or dead or other creatures to bee advanced was inclosed in their Images consecrated to the worship of them Hee that worships the Host believes our Lord Christ to bee the only true God hypostatically united to our flesh and blood Which being present in the Eucharist in such a manner as it is not present every where there is due occasion to give it that Worship in the Eucharist which the Godhead in our manhood is to bee worshipped with upon all due occasions Thus wee say hee was worshipped in the Antient Church that believed the Elements to bee present And they were no Idolaters They that worship the Host do not believe that they remain Nay they say they must bee flat Idolaters if they bee there Zeal to their opinion makes them say more then they should say But if they were there they would not take them for God and therefore they would not honour them for God And that is it not saying that they should bee Idolaters if the Elements did remain that must make them Idolaters They that believe not Transubstantiation have cause to forbear Christianity would sanctifie kneeling at the Euchâ—rist though it were the Ceremony But forbear kneeling at receiving the Eucharist in an Age that is taught already to sit at their prayers and who wâ—ll warrant that all the prayers of the Church shall not come in a short time to hearing the Minister exercise his Gift and censuring him for it Were worshipping the Host Idolatry Christianity using the gesture of kneeling to signifie the worship of Christ were enough to sanctifie it to Gods service And this they must grant who serve God in Churches which the Mass hath been used in taking the Mass for Idolatry as they do In fine Jews and Mahumetans are bound to take the Worship oâ— the Host for Idolatry For they will needs take the worship of the Holy Trinity for no less But they who know that the Godhead of Christ is the reason for which his flesh and blood is worshipped in the Eucharist cannot take that Worship for Idolatry because his flesh and blood is not present in the Eucharist as they who worship it there think it is For they know that the flesh and blood of Christ is no Idol to Christians wheresoever it is worshipped Whether or no having Images in Churches bee a breach of What Images the second Commandment forbiddeth the second Commandment can bee no more question then whether or no to have any Images bee a breach of it For it must forbid Images in Churches because it forbids all Images If it bee interpreted to forbid onely Idols that is Images of false Gods it must bee proved that all Images in Churches are Idols before it bee proved that they are forbidden by it It is far more reasonable to say that the Cherubims the Brazen Serpent the Bulls and other Images in Solomons Temple were no breaches of it Then to say that God did dispense with his own Precept in those cases having no appearance of any Dispensation in the Scripture in which the Precept and the seeming breach are both recorded But it is manifest that the Jews allow some kind of Imagery and I doubt not but the Mahumetans do the like And it is manifest that the publique authority of that Nation or Religion could never dispense in that which Gods Law had prohibited But it is manifest on the contrary that it did and might restrain that which Gods Law had licensed to set an hedge about the Law and keep the people further from breaking it Now their restraints tye not Christians but Jews And therefore it is manifest that the Church is tyed no further then there can appear danger of Idolatry Which if it bee so heightned beyond appearance as to involve the Church in the crime of it chargeth the Schisme that may come by that means upon those that so inhanse it Now granting that Epiphanius and the Council of Elvira did hold all Images in Churches dangerous for Idolatry of Reverencing of Images in Churches is not Idolatry which there is appearance it is manifest that they were afterwards admitted all over And there might bee jealousie of offense in having Images in Churches before Idolatry was quite rooted out of which afterwards there might bee no appearance But no manner of appearance that Images in History should occasion Idolatry to those Images in them that hold them the Images of Gods creatures such as are those Images which represent Histories of the Saints out of the Scriptures or other relations of unquestionable credit The second Council of Nicaea seems to have brought in or authorized addresses to solitary Images of Saints placed upon Pillars to that purpose whereof there is much mention in the Records of it But to the Images of Saints there can bee no Idolatry so long as men take them for Saints that is Gods creatures Much less to the Images of our Lord. For it is the honour of our Lord and not of his Image Whereas they who thought their false Gods to dwell in their Images which thought made them Idols
must needs honour them with the honour proper to God though in so doing they honoured indeed the Devil that brought in Idols Nay the Council it self though it acknowledg that the Image it self is honoured by the honour given to that which it signifieth before the Image yet it distinguisheth this honour from the honour of our Lord. And therefore teacheth not Idolatry by teaching to honour Images though it acknowledg that the Image it self is honoured when it need not For indeed and in truth it is not the Image but the Principal Of honouring Images and of having them in Churches that is honoured by the honour that is said to be done to the Image because it is done before the Image The Furniture and Utensils of the Church were honoured in the Spotless times of the Church as consecrated to Gods service though the honour of them being uncapable of honour for themselves was manifestly and without any scruple the honour of God But Images so long as they were used to no further intent then the Ornament of Churches the remembrance of holy Histories and the raising of devotion thereby as at the first they were used by the Church came in the number of things consecrated to Gods service And that Council was never of force in the West till the usurped power of the Pope brought it in by force Nor did the Western Church when it refused the Council discharge the having of Images in Churches upon those reasons and to those purposes which I have declared So far they remain still justifiable For hee that sees the Whole Church on the one side and only Calvin on the other side hath hee not cause to fear that they who make them Idolaters without cause will themselves appear Schismaticks in the sight of God for it For what are they else who please themselves in a strange kind of negative superstition that they cannot serve God if they serve him with visible signes of reverence who hate the Images because they hate the Saints themselves and their Christianity And therefore that it bee not thought that we are tyed to those terms of distance which ignorant Preachers drive their Factions with It is necessary to declare the grounds of truth though it displease St. Paul writing to the Romans that were partly Jews Mutual forbearance which S. Paul enjoyneth the Romans not enjoyned elsewhere partly Gentiles converted to Christianity as appears by the whole Epistle forbids them to condemn or despise one another for making conscience of things meats and times hee expressâ—th forbidden by the Law or for using them without difference Hence it is now argued that nothing can bee imposed upon any Christian which out of tenderness of conscience hee may think it against Gods Law for him to do The Answer is by denying the consequence And the reason because it is a particular order of St. Paul to that Church for the present estate of it at that time And therefore it doth not follow that the Church can make no Law For it could make no Law if it were enough to discharge any man that it is against his conscience to obey The evidence for this reason is this because it appears that the Apostles did order otherwise in the same cause when the case was not the same For it is manifest that the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem had made an Act in Council commanding the Gentiles that were converted to Christianity to abstain from Fornication and things offered in sacrifice to Idols from things strangled and from blood In fine from those things from which strangers that were licensed by the Law to live in the Land of promise were hound to abstain And might not those converted Gentiles have scrupled whether or no it were lawful for them to bee so far Jews had not the authority of the Apostles been sufficient to put an end to their scruples But it is manifest likewise that when St. Paul differed with St. Peter at Antiochia about the necessity of compliance with the Jews for Gentiles turned Christians hee did forbid and must needs forbid his followers to shew this compliance lest by that means hee might hold them in an opinion of the necessity of the Law for the salvation of Christians Here were contrary Provisions with force of Law in that very case wherein St. Paul commands only mutual forbearance at Rome in that estate wherein he writ his Epistle And if St. Paul were in the right which they who take his writings for Scripture do not doubt then were St. Peters followers bound to obey him notwithstanding any tenderness in their consciences And hee commands Tit. I. 10-15 to stop the mouths of those Deceivers of the Circumcision that would not have all things pure to the pure because their own consciences were defiled Notwithstanding that they must needs have followers that were touched in conscience to think those things unlawful which the Law allowed not And their teachers mouths being stopped were the hearers at their choise whether they would follow them or not Whereby it appears that Inferiors are to follow the Judgment Teâ—der coâ—sciences are to submit to Superiâ—urs of Superiors in matters subject to the power of Superiors notwithstanding the scruples of their own consciences to the contrary And that the reason why the Romans are forbidden to condemn commanded to forbear one another is because St. Paul thought it not meet to order any thing else in the business during that estate Seeing that hee ordereth otherwise in it for other estates So that all that remains is whether the matter in question â—ee within the power of Superiors or not In which there can bee no doubt amongst us the matters in question being acknowledged indifferent in themselves And therefore capable to signifie that which Christianity not only alloweth but requireth And certainly there is no Law whether Ecclesiastical or Civil that errour may not scruple at as inconsistent with a good conscience Why should not I beleeve that a Quaker is really touched in conscience that hee ought not to pay his Tithes though in obedience to the Law of the Land as well as a Presbyterian that hee ought not to receive the Communion kneeling For I see many of the Church of Rome suffer for denying the Right of a Prince excommunicate by the Pope though it bee matter of Civil Law Therefore if hee that graspes too much is in the way to gripe nothing then an exception that lies against all Law will do no effect against a few Ceremonies of this Church CHAP. XX. The Declaration of V. Eliz. enableth Recusants to take the Oath of Supremacy What further ambiguity that Oath involveth What scandal the taking of it in the true sense ministreth That this Oath ought to bee inlarged to all pretenses in Religion that abridge Allegiance The extent of secular Power in Reforming the Church THe Usurpation of temporal power by the Pope upon the The Declaration of V. Eliz.
the whole Church is more destructive to the substance of Christianity then all that corruption which the Reformation pretendeth to cure But to confining our sense of the Scripture our opinions in mater of Doctrine and the Laws which wee demand within that which the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church may appear to require wee are half the way onward to the point of Reformation having the ground and the reason and therefore the measure and the terms of it The mistake of the Schools and of the Council of Trent after The Fanaticks further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome the Schools in the nature of Justification and the effect of infused righteousness to which they ascribe it is no way destructive to Christianity No more is the opinion of satisfaction and merit in the good works of Christians so long as it is grounded upon Gods promise which they that inflame that opinion to the highest in the Church of Rome must acknowledg to come into consideration whether they will or not As for the merit of Grace by the works which a natural man is able to do commonly called meritum congrui as that which is fit for God to give though not for the worth of the works It is indeed an Errour of greater danger but never was general in the School and now generally disallowed so far it was always from being enjoyned by the Church But what is this in comparison of that furious Doctrine that the assurance of a mans Predestination is justifying Faith In which the opinion of absolute Predestination to Glory and of Gods predetermining a man to do all that hee doth is twisted together with an Enthusiasme that wee are justified and made the children of God by being assured hereof by his Spirit Not supposing any condition of Christianity in consideration of which it is had and by the knowledg whereof it is assured us For they that believe that Gods predetermination is the reason and the ground of freedom in mans Will and of contingence in the effects of it supposing freedom and contingence do thereby bar the ill consequence of their own mistake But hee that can think himself assured of that which the Gospel promiseth not being assured that hee performeth the Christianity which by his Baptisme hee undertaketh why should hee hold himself tied why should hee study and endeavour himself to perform it Nay holding his Christianity and the Scriptures which The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility teach it by the same dictate of the Spirit which assures his salvation upon those terms why should hee not hold that which Christianity and the Scriptures teach not with the same devotion and assurance which he accepteth the Scriptures and his Christianity with Why should hee not with the Gnostickes and Mahomet and the Mannichees place his salvation in that which the Spirit teacheth him beside and above the Scriptures allowing Christianity for proficients The same consequence takes hold in some measure of those who believe the Infallibility of the present Church For making the sentence thereof the only reason of believing they tye themselves to accept whatsoever it shall decree for mater of Faith and therefore concerning their salvation as much as it concerns their salvation to believe the holy Trinity Indeed there is not so much danger for them For the persons on whom they repose themselves for the Church being persons of that interest in the World which cannot stand with the open corrupting of Christianity The fear is that they may authorize those corruptions which the coming of the World into the Church shall make popular Not that they shall think it for their interest to change that which it is not popular to change In the mean time having shewed the point of Reformation The point of Truth in the middle between both by shewing the point of truth whereby all that the Reformation disputes with the Church of Rome is cleared namely that that Faith which moveth to undertake Baptism is the Faith which alone justifieth I have shewed withal that the express profession hereof is that which must clear us from all impuâ—ation of the Schism with the Church of Rome and of compliance with any Fanaticks that have taught the opposite Haeresie being by such profession excluded from all liberty of teaching it for the future They who take justifying Faith to bee Confidence in God through our Lord Christ do commit the mistake which I have shewed And if they go farther to think that by being assured of Gods Grace they can never dye cut of that estate they may indeed think themselves tyed to return to God by Repentance But may they not easily bee deluded to neglect it thinking themselves certain before hand that they shall do it Which if it bee considered the danger of the mistake will appear no less then that which the Doctrine of the Council of Trent threatneth As for the Question between mans free Will and Gods Praedestination How Salvation is concerned in the matter of Free Will and Grace and Grace taking it by it self as not complicated and twisted with the other concerning justifying Faith the difficulty of it being so great as it is the true resolution of it which is the reconcilement of Grace with free Will can by no means seem to concern the substance of Faith necessary to bee held for the Salvation of all Christians But the denying either of mans free Will or Gods free Grace may and certainly doth concern it And therefore the second Council of Orange having determined as well that no man is appointed by God to death and therefore to sin as that whosoever perseveres until Death is appointed by God unto effectual Grace there appears no necessity why the Church should run any hazard of division by decreeâ—ng farther in the Point which wee see come to pass in the United Provinces having that decree received of old by the Western Church to settle the bounds of necessary Truth Nor is there any other means of settle the necessity of Baptism Salvation concerned in the Sacramentâ— â—pon the same terms and of the Holy Eucharist but the profession of this truth for the sense of our Creed in the Article of one Baptism for the remission of sâ—ns the neglect whereof hath occasioned not only the Sects of our Anabaptists Qâ—akers and other Enthusiasts and Fanaticks but hath given Sâ—cinus ground enough to count Baptism indifferent And some of our Fanaticks to think it a meer mistake that any man was ever baptized with water to make him a Christian since the ceasing of Moses Law and Johns Baptism As for the Sacrament of the Eucharist that which concerneth Salvation in it is manifest admitting the Premises Namely that they who make good or revive the Covenant of their Baptism in receiving it shall receive the body and blood of Christ and by consequence his Spirit hypostatically united to the
against the conflict of Death with the spiritual enemies of the Soul For though the Church ordaining Prayer for bodily health can by no means forget the health of the Soul if it mean to remember the Common Christianity Yet appeareth it nevertheless what ground and occasion the Institution of S. James pretendeth And so it appeareth what dependence the Unction of the Sick holdeth upon the Communion of the Eucharist As for the Marriage of Christians if it bee under a peculiar rule by virtue of the Common Christianity and that the interest of the Church in allowing of Marriages is grounded upon the same It is far from any imputation of abuse that the Church of Rome celebrateth the same at the Eucharist For seeing our Christianity is particularly concerned in the duties of Marriage How should the Grace of God enabling to discharge the said duties bee expected but by reviving the obligation of our Common Christianity which the receiving of the Eucharist signifieth I will not undertake to clear the See of Rome from all abuse of Ecclesiastical Power in multiplying the Impediments of Marriage as beyond necessity so beyond the Interest of Christianity and in dispensing in them again for favour or for reward as having been prohibited for no better reason then this That Power appears most in that which there is least reason for On the other side dispensing in those degrees which the Law of Moses prohibiteth and therefore Christianity ought to bee farther from allowing It seemeth to stretch the Power of the Church beyond the bounds of it And thus it appeareth first what relation these Offices hold with the Eucharist and the Communion of it and then what is the point of Reformation in which the voiding of those abuses standeth On the other side they that now are content with Confirmation The Reformation pretended no lâ—ss abuse on the other side so they may have the giving of it themselves and the Catechizing of them that receive it after their mode not distinguishing themselves from the Fanaticks cannot bee presumed to Catechise according to the Christianity of Gods Church But in as much as they Usurpe unto themselves authority without their Bishops and against them they cannot make Members of Gods Church by the Confirmation which so they may give So they bar the gift of Gods Spirit which Baptisme promiseth a Christian as a Christian by barring the Unity of Gods Church Again Ordaining all whom they Ordain to one and theâ— same Office of Preaching the Word and Ministring the Sacraments First they usurpe the power of Ordaining which they never received any authority by their Ordination to exercise And that in despite of their Bishops as seducing the people from the way of salvation which by their Ordinations they pretend to teach So receiving no Power of the Keys by their Usurpation they receive no power to celebrate the Eucharist but only to commit sacrilege by profaning so high an Ordinance And then they tread under foot the Hierachy of Bishops Priests and Deacons in despite of the whole Church dividing the authority of their Bishops among themselves but abolishing the Order of Deacons by confounding the title of Ministers common to all three Orders for ministring their several Offices with that sense in which the lowest Order are called Deacons for ministring to Bishops and Priests in their Offices As for the power of the Keys which is not that which God left his Church unless the effect of it bee the binding and loosing of sin It is plain enough that under pretense of taking away the scandal of notorious sin they would have power to shame and domineer over their neighbours overtaken with sin but without pretense of curing their sin for the condition upon which they are restored Such Discipline goes no further then the outward man and the restraining of him from sin for shame of the world The presumption of a voluntary change in the inward man for hope of Gods Grace by the Sacrament of the Eucharist must bee the effect of the Keys of Gods Church As for this power in sin that is not notorious what do they pretend more then their Preaching Which whether it bee such as shows the cure of sin let their diligence in Preaching mortification witness And yet whether every Christian can learn or will bee induced meerly by Preaching to use that mortification which is requisite let them that are able judge But what visiting of the sick do they pretend but to pray by them or comfort them without ever entring into the ground of their comfort upon examination of the conscience The blessing of Mariage they have reserved to the Church but upon an ungrounded presumption that the Mariage of Christians is to bee ruled by the Law of Moses The insufficience whereof being discerned by the people when they were loose from the Law of the Land hath occasioned all the incests and other disorders of the late times In the mean time whereas all these Offices are either provided to bring Christians to the Eucharist or to bee celebrated with the Eucharist It is demanded that godly Ministers bee not tied to celebrate the Eucharist above thrice a year It should rather bee demanded how they come to bee counted godly Ministers that demand this I shall not need to say how the point of Reformation is The point of Reformation in the mean between both found through which the line of it is to pass in these particulars Confirmation fitteth for the Eucharist by the profession of Christianity and by being a Member of Gods Church Ordination giveth some degree in the Clergy above the people and therefore supposeth the profession of retiring from the world more then other Christians undertake to do The Eucharist conveyeth Gods Spirit for the performing of this profession sincerely and resolutely made Both requiring the Unity of the Church both are to bee ministred by that authority without which nothing is to bee done in each Church The reconciling of notorious sin is the Bishops peculiar The Priest hath authority to cure that which is made known to him But this authority is not arbitrary in either of both The rigor of antient Discipline by the Canons of the Church is quite out of force But in these lees and dregs of Christianity which now wee draw there is some reasonable ground to presume upon that a sinner is resolved to live a good Christian for the future Let that bee limited and the power of the Keys will have effect in barring the sinner from the Communion till the presumption bee visible in him But to what shall the Keys of the Church reconcile him when the Eucharist is celebrated but thrice a year To what purpose is the visiting of the sick but that upon such presumption they may have the Eucharist to maintain them in the great journey which they are going The duty of Mariage among Christians depends wholly upon this supposition that God gives the maried an
the Synagogue derived from the terms of this precept But according to the correspondence between Christianity and Judaism God is our Father and our Mother is the Church And therefore as in temporal and civil things hee is a rebell that honours not the King so in matters of Religion hee is an Apostate from the Church that honours not the commands of it within those bounds which the command of God limiteth And thus the sive first Commandments according to the method of Christianity abridging an infinite number of Jewish Observations into one very weighty precept enjoyn every one of them the whole duty of a Christian to God the acknowledging and worshipping of the only true God extending it self to living as a Christian to resting from the works of the old Adam and to the honour of God by keeping his Commandments as they are delivered to us by his Church The four Precepts that follow are under one and the same consideration The meaning of the five last according to Christianity in this place Murther Adultery Theft and false Witness are things that either take away or abridge the interest of particular Jews in the Land of Promise And if the publique were accessory to the multiplying of them accordingly the publique interest thereof in Gods promises must needs become questionable Among Christians seeing these are crimes which cannot consist with any interest in the world to come the very first motions of them are commanded to bee suppressed and mortified And certainly whosoever was inwardly a Jew in spirit did understand himself bound to abstain from them not for fear of punishment but for love of goodness which love the love which Christ hath prevented us with advanceth to that height which Christianity professeth But this obligeth us to assign the last Commandment a meaning by it self distinct from all that which is prohibited by the former precepts And truly hee that finds not the peculiar Law of the Jews in the prohibition of coveting another mans wife must bee strangely transported with prejudice For Adultery being prohibited afore coveting another mans wife cannot bee understood but by sowing seeds of dissentions and other ways of inticing whereby a man may seek to make another mans wife his own by the Law of the Jews which allowed a man to put away a wife that pleased him not And therefore the rest of the precept must bee weighed in the same Balance to forbid any way of fraud or force whereby a man may make his neighbours goods his own Therefore the mater of this precept is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark X. 13. And the Jews reduce the precepts of not coveting or lusting under the title of rapine and oppression as you may see in Maimoni And therefore whether you restrain St. Pauls thou shalt not covet Rom. VII 7. to that which this precept forbiddeth or enlarge it to that which is forbidden by the other four Christians are by this precept forbidden to entertain any motion of lust towards that which is another mans And St. Austines observation that the sum of the Law is comprized in the first precept commanding the love of God and the last forbidding concupiscence is fully verified understanding the love of God to bee commanded by all the five precepts comprising all of them the whole duty of a Christian to God But the Love of a mans Neighbour by the other five forbidding any lust toward a mans own advantage by another mans disadvantage And so you see what a Christian prays for in praying to God to have mercy upon him for any thing wherein hee hath offended against any precept of his Law for the past and to give him Grace to keep it for the future In particular for the fourth Commandment that if hee will pray as a Christian should pray hee must pray to God to have mercy upon him in whatsoever hee hath not rested from the works of the first Adam begging Grace to do it for the future CHAP. XXIV That no Clergy man ought to bee of more Dioceses then one Of inferior Orders in the Clergy and their Offices The conversation of the Clergy and the use of Church goods The ground for promotions to higher degrees The Vniversities may bee serviceable to some part of this Discipline Reasons for it Publick fame of sin to bee purged by Ecclesiastical process Sinners convict by Law not to Communicate before Penance The Cure of notorious sin the Bishops Office The Church not Reformed without restoring Penance Publick or Private What means there is left for the restoring of it I Have yet two particulars to mention both much to bee desired That no Clergy man ought to bee of more Dâ—oâ—eses then one for the justifying of that Reformation which wee profess The one is an express Canon of the Whole Church concerning the discipline of the Clergy The other is an evident consequence of the like Canon in this estate when Religion is setled by the Law of the Kingdom concerning the discipline of the People The former is the Restoring of that Canon of the Whole Church which confineth all Orders of the Clergy to their respective Churches In the Language of this time it signifieth the voiding of all Privileges to hold Church preferment in more Dioceses then one It is the evident consequence of that Order which the Whole Church hath derived from the Act of the Apostles themselves constituting several Cities and the Territories thereof the seats of several Churches and their Dioceses It is manifest that this Order was in force though in a diverse measure in divers Countries from the beginning all over Christendom And that with the like respect to the Churches of Mother Cities in all Provinces It is also manifest that the Canon grounded upon this Order was in force till the Usurpation of the See of Rome seeking Benefices for their creatures all over Christendom authorized the dissolving of it by privileges the greatest benefit whereof themselves enjoyed So that the surceasing of it being an abuse of the Papacy our professing of Reformation requires the restoring of it But the restoring of it will signifie more then the terms of Of inferior Orders in the Clergy and their Offices it express It will infer the restoring of some part of that antient Discipline of the Clergy upon which the credit and authority thereof with and over the People from the beginning of Christianity was grounded It is well enough known how very antiently how very generally inferior Orders of Clergy were instituted by the Church under the Hierarchy founded by the Apostles for a sense to St. Pauls Rule that no Novice should bee Ordained For when Christianity was propagated all over then those that had lived meer Lay-men all their lives might as well bee counted Novices in Christianity compared with them that were grown up from their youth in these inferior Orders as those that were newly converted to Christianity in St. Pauls time The imployment
weight and consequence the want of Charity will lye on that side which shall refuse that reason which had it condescended to those mistakes might have been redressed How much more when there is no other choice left but either to continue at the distance under which wee were borne or to give our selves up to the will of those who not having given satiâ—faction in the trust which they undertake condescend to no terms of better assurance for the future And truly though the sin of Schisme hinder salvation more What Schisme destroyeth the salvation of what persons by instances of the most notable Schismes then any other sin because it involveth the body of the Church and so hindreth the salvation of more yet is there no cause to think that all who are involved in the state of Schisme are involved in the sin of it The less cause there is for it the greater breach of charity by it Therefore the greater the more visible the causes are of that change which occasions it the less is to bee imputed to them that follow such causes Especially to private Christians when such causes are as visible on the one side as the interest of each mans salvation is visible to the contrary on the other side Besides I said afore that Schisme in the Church is the same which Civil War in the state of the World Now though War cannot bee just on both sides for the heads and causes of it yet for those that follow their heads in causes too difficult for private persons to judge it will bee no guilt of bloud to follow that authority which appears to them Visible Which if it bee true as it is evidently reasonable there will no question remain that there may bee salvation on both sides of a Schisme The Schismes of the Novatians Montanists Donatists Meletians and perhaps divers others were grounded upon such causes as the Unity of the Church did no less visibly outweigh then the consent thereof to the contrary was visible Notwithstanding so long as the Faith remained intire as it doth not appear that they disbelieved from their beginning any thing necessary for the salvation of all to bee believed and the Offices of Gods Service were ministred by them according to the Order of the Church as not differing about any of them I should bee as loth to condemn all the partizans as to excuse the causes of them to or from eternal death How much more in the Schismes of the Luciferians of that at Antiochia between Meletius and Paulinus of that between Rome and Constantinople in the cause of Acacius and perhaps in others in which there was onely breach of Communion upon some discontent in the governing of maters in the Church without either difference of Faith or in the Offices of Gods service I confess Pope Gelasius de vinculo anâ—thematis in the cause of Acacius takes it for granted all along that the want of Communion with the Church of Rome rendred all liable to that curse which Christians by failing of the duty of Christians either as Christians or as members of the Church do incurre upon the sentence of the Church But hee who admitteth that constitution of the Church which I maintain will not easily admit the sentence of a part suppose all the West engaged in the Act of the Church of Rome able to damn all the Christians of the East that adhered only to the successors of Acacius not being able to redress his miscarriage which his successors themselves owned not Rather is the Church of Rome to answer God for the souls that miscarried by maintaining the breach open beyond that which the good of Christendom required Nay I cannot condemn the opinion of those who allow a possibility of salvation in the Sects of the Nestorians in the East and the Jacobites in the South notwithstanding that they stand divided from the Church upon occasion of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon which it imbraceth For it is possible that they may understand the terms of their distance in such a sense as may very well stand with the Decrees of those Councils So that the difference being occasioned by personal discontents though it were mortal to those who brought it to pass yet may it not bee so to those that know not how to help it if it occasion not the want of means necessary to salvation otherwise But this is not to say that these parties are not bound to concur to the visible Unity of Gods Church by communion in the Offices of his service Should they profess themselves free from an obligation concerning all Christians as members of the Church I would not excuse those that take upon them to continue such breaches because they know not that which they should know But those that are only sufferers in such breaches I should not exclude from the hope of salvation upon that account not wanting otherwise that which is necessary to the salvation of all Christians which the divisions of the Church must needs render very difficult for the greatest part to obtain This I would say much more of the Schisme between the Greek and Latine Church being well assured that there is no such defect in the Faith of the Greek Church as may warrant the Latine Church to sentence them for Haereticks And as for Schisme that the Latine Church by undertaking more then one part of the Church can undertake without the consent of the other in maters of common concernment hath the greater hand in it whatsoever the truth bee of the Disputes that occasion it And therefore it is much to bee lamented that the See of Rome should pursue no other terms of reuniting those distressed and persecuted Churches unto it self but those of absolute submission to the dictates thereof without why or wherefore Not being afraid to raise them persecution by unbelievers that they may bee necessitated to that submission which will increase their persecution from their Sovereigns Seeing then that we have so many instances of Schismes which exclude not the hope of salvation especially for those that are sufferers in them that is for private Christians How far ought wee to bee from yielding to the unreasonable demands of the Missionaries charging the Schisme upon the Reformation whereof the abuses which they maintain are the onely true cause For though it was always and still is a very difficult thing to see the true point of Resormation so as to bring those that feel the abuses to consent in it yet the abuses being both visible and palpable the faults committed by the mistaking of it will bee imputable to those that will condescend to no reason as well as to those who proceed to a change without due information in the ground and measure of it And therefore upâ—n that account there can bee no bar to the salvation of private Christians that are no actors but sufferers in such breaches though the misunderstanding of the due ground and measure
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
bee surceased in Churches And accordingly I do acknowledge that comparing the benefit reasonably to bee expected from the use of them with the abuse to which experience hath discovered them to bee subject I see no cause why the use of them might not bee forborn upon such a reason as might bee effectual to unite us in a Rule bounding the Reformation which wee profess upon the ground of the common Christianity in all particulars The reason is because the having of them is not a necessary mean to that instruction or devotion which is proposed for the end of them and on the other side is acknowledged by all the Reformation to have been the occasion of abuse the preventing whereof will require that care and diligence which the forbearing of them will spare But seeing it hath appeared no breach upon Christianity to have them in Churches and that the abuse which may reasonably bee apprehended by having them to the purposes specified is of no consequence in comparison with that benefit which the Unity of the Church procureth It will never bee lawful to enjoyn this forbearance without declaring that it signifieth not that they are held unlawful Or that wee hold our selves bound to depart from Unity with the Church rather then indure them For seeing the Lutherans do use them in a great measure for the reasons specified If the uniting of us with the rest of the Reformation upon the due ground and terms hitherto required should depend upon a reasonable compliance in that particular it is manifest that it would bee a sufficient reason to oblige us to the same And therefore much more if a general re-union with the Church of Rome should come to depend upon such a compliance The consequence of this instance may bee the means to inform those that are capable what the reason of Unity may oblige us to abate of that which wee take to bee for the best in maters of less consequence that the unvaluable benefit of it may bee obtained in this estate when the protection of Sovereign Powers renders the Unity of the Church so necessary so effectual to the salvation of all For on the other side the interruption of it is that which renders that same salvation questionable by the difficulty which it createth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Christian by the impossibility rather then the difficulty which it procureth of observing the duty of a Christian as a Member of the Church which the breach of Unity alloweth not due conduct to understand To fortifie the necessity of the proposition that I An Objection for the Church of Rome answered make I will here propose an objection in behalf of the Church of Rome against the validity of our Ordinations which I have always taken to have weight and difficulty in it though others do not seem to value it For the answering of this Objection will help to justifie the Offense to bee taken and not given that may come by the liberty which here I use The succession of our Bishops deriveth it self by Ordination of three Bishops which the Canon of the Apostles authorizeth but the Canon of Nicâ—a requireth farther the consent of the Bishops of each Province Whereby it appeareth that Ordination by two or three Bishops is allowed by the Canon of the Apostles upon presumption that the Suffragants of each Province concur in allowing the Act of their fellows Which presumption ceaseth in our case Because it is manifest that the greatest part of the Suffragants did not consent to the Consecration of our Bishops but declared against it being therefore displaced by the Power of the Sword deciding for the lesser part against the greater which the Rule of the Church inableth not to do Whereupon it is argued that the Secular Power was not able to authorize our Reformation as Patron of the Church and the Canons of it To fortifie the Objection I allege the case of Novatianus who was consecrated Bishop of Rome by three Bishops and yet his Consecration was Schismatical because against Cornelius Consecrated by sixteen So the Ordination of Majorinus that was first consecrated Bishop of Carthage against Caecilianus for a head to the Schisme of the Donatists was justly counted Schismatical though it was made by a number more then sufficient of Bishops duely Ordained Which I doubt not may bee found in other Schismes I answer that the Novatians had nothing to charge the Church with but the readmitting of those that had fallen away in time of persecution upon Penance The Donatists nothing but that they who had ordained Caecilianus were Apostates Though they were proved to bee otherwise by several trials which they would never rest satisfied with As for all the rest though both Sects followed the Faith and the Orders of the Catholick Church yet they both rebaptized all those whom they reduced to themselves from the Communion of it as counting all the Church Apostates for communicating with those whom they counted Apostates Is this our case do wee find no fault with the Doctrine or with the Laws of the Church of Rome wherein Sovereigns might find themselves bound to right both themselves and their Subjects notwithstanding the dissent of the Church of Rome For though the Rule of succession by Ordination of Bishops bear them not out in it though the Unity of the Church regularly depend upon the force of that Rule yet seeing the Unity of the Church fails of the end for which God ordaineth it unless it preserve the Christianity which it supposeth intire as well in the publick service of God as in the profession and conversation of Christians it ought not to bee taken for a departure from that Unity that it is restored without that authority which regularly is provided to preserve it For the consent of all other Estates of the Kingdom in that ground and upon those terms which are to take place before the authority of those that dissent will abundantly justifie the validity of those Ordinations which declare an intent of ministring the Office according to the due ground and terms which they suppose And therefore it will not bee so visible when that ground and those terms are not so visible And upon these terms are the Christian people of this Kingdom bound to own and to authorize them in their Orders notwithstanding that the greater part of the Suffragants refused them their concurrence to the same And if the change that is made bee such in maters of greatest weight the case will bee the same though it fail of the Rule in some maters of less consequence And upon these terms I admit the plea of the Reformation That which excuseth the Reformed Churches extendeth not to our Schismâ—tickâ— that succession of Doctrine is of more consequence then succession of persons Not allowing their mistake in thinking the Order of Bishops the supporters of Antichrist For it is evident to him that will use his five senses that the
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
alas should men confine themselves to that which the generality of their audience might edifie by in their Christianity the Trade would bee obstructed For let mee freely say the undoubted truth of the common Christianity which no Sermons ought to exceed because they pretend the edification of the generality of Christians is contained in so narrow a compass that no eloquence much less the eloquence of all that must come into the Pulpit can change the seasoning and serving of it so as to make it agreeable to mens palats without fetching in mater impertinent if not destructive to the common Christianity And the same is for more peremptory reason to bee said of arbitrary Prayers For the very posture of him that pretendeth to prefer the devotions of Gods people to the Altar which is above strongly impresseth upon the hearts of simple Christians an opinion that thereby they discharge to God the duty which hee requires at their hands Which if the mater of those Prayers be such as the common Christianity requires they may do indeed But if it be possible that Rebellion Slander Nonsense and Blasphemy may bee the mater of them as well as Christianity then is it not Religion but Superstition which such devotions exercise Nor can that Kingdom stand excused to God which shall gratifie that licentiousness whereof they see the effect before their eyes All reason of Christianity concurres with the practise of the whole Church to witness that the interest of Christianity requires the service of God to bee maintained and exercised daily yea hourly were it possible not only by particular Christians but by Assemblies of Christians so far as the business of the World will give leave and as there is means to maintain mens attendance upon it There may come abuse in the order the form the mater of that which is tendred to God for his Service But in stead of reforming those abuses to take away the means the Rule the obligation of such meetings is meer Sacrilege in destroying under pretense of Reforming Gods Church And though I charge no such design upon those who maintain the obligation of the Sabbath to consist in two Sermons yet I do maintain it is manifest to common reason that the form which that opinion introduceth necessarily tends to that effect Strange it is that a Nation capable of sense in an age improved by learning should bee intangled with the superstition of so vain an imagination that God by the same fourth Commandment should oblige both Jews to keep the Saturday and Christians the Sunday Especially no man daring to maintain that both were or are tyed to the same measure of resting And therefore though rather then cross the stream of such a superstition For let no man think that all superstition can bee shut out of Gods Church there may bee reason to live conformable to the Rules which such superstition produceth Yet provided that the Ecclesiastical Laws of England agreeing with the Laws of the Whole Church bee not abated so as to stick an evident mark of Schisme upon the Church of England For the Law that is recommending the celebration of the Eucharist upon all Sundays and Festivals but commanding the Service to bee used as well on Festivals and Fasting days as upon Sundays besides the week days at the publick Assemblies of respective Congregations To change this Order for two Sermons on the Sunday alone what is it but to renounce the whole Church for the love of those that have divided from the Church of England upon causes common to it with the whole Church They that would have the Reformation of the Church to bee indeed that which the Law of the Land calleth it should first provide a course to bee established for Law by which all Christian souls who have equal interest in the commonsalvation might serve God in publick all Sundays and Festivals For seeing there was a course in Law before the Reformation for all servants as well as others to bee at Mass all Sundays and Festivals And the Church was inabled to require account of it at their hands It will not bee Reformation to abrogate the abuses of the Mass till a course bee taken that all Christians may frequent that which shall appear to bee indeed the service of God instead of the Mass Let no Preachers flatter themselves with an opinion that they shall ever make Christians so perfectly Jews as to perswade them to dress no meat on the Sundays If Servants must stay at home to dress meat on Sundays and for other occasions they must stay at home besides that will not the way to repair that breach bee to injoyn several Assemblies in all Parish Churches upon all Sunday mornings that several Persons of several Estates and qualities may have opportunity to attend the publick service of God at several hours of the same Sundays and Holy-days For though I understand very well that this would impose upon the Church that is upon my brethren of the Clergy a greater burthen than an afternoons meal of a Sermon which all men know is furnished of the cold meat of the forenoon yet it is necessary that the World should bee cleared of this imposture that reigneth that two Sermons every Sunday is the due way of keeping the Sabbath among Christians or of advancing Gods publick service I will not here dispute that the Lent-Fast was instituted by the Apostles But this I maintain to bee evident that the Fast afore the Resurrection of Christ is and was as antient as the Feast of his Resurrection and that more antient then the keeping of all Lords days in the year being meerly the reflection of that one all the weeks of the year Nor will any man that knows what hee says ever question that the inlarging of it to forty days is a just Law voluntarily undertaken by the Whole Church not to bee condemned without the like mark of Schisme For since the World is come into the Church is there not manifest reason that more time should bee taken for the expiating of more sins which are the sins of more people to prepare as well the Elder to renew their Christianity by communicating at Easter as the younger to bee confirmed and come first to the Communion at Easter now they are baptized Infants Which in former ages was the time of their first coming to Baptism As for the Wednesdays and Fridays if wee shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees And if it bee evident as evident it is that the Scribes and Pharisees prescribed Mundays and Thursdays for days of less solemn Assemblies then the Sabbath How shall wee enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if in despite of the whole Church which hath hitherto used Wednesdays and Fridays in lieu of Mundays and Thursdays used by the Synagogues wee void the Law of England by which they are in force Of the Ceremonies the same