without these Holy Exercises 2. Let the exercise of Religion be performed with hearty and serious Devotion even with Fasting and solemn Humiliation and Prayer these are Duties directed by the Prophet Joel in the latter part of this Verse of my Text to express our hearty turning unto God And the Church doth particularly at this time call upon us to mind these Holy Exercises they are Duties useful at all times and are excellent qualifications to dispose us aright for the obtaining the Pardon of our own Sins as they include the practice of Humility Piety Faith and Repentance Amongst the Jews the solemn day of Atonement and Remission was a day of devout Fasting and Afflicting their Souls And after S. Paul had been stricken down to the Ground as he went toward Damascus after he had Fasted three days and Prayed Ananias was then sent to him by our Saviour that he might arise and be Baptized and wash away his Sins Acts 9.9 11 17 18. ch 22.16 At this time the methods of God's Providence do eminently require our more than ordinary diligence in these Duties for the averting his Judgments and the preserving us and our Posterity from Ruine and Misery Let those who have been Vicious and Disobedient engage herein with Reformation and Amendment of Life And let the most Pious Men also undertake it with the greatest seriousness even in them it is an exercise of Repentance as indeed the whole practice of Christianity is for the Christian Life is a turning to God from whom sinful Man had estranged himself and the whole thereof is described by Repenting and turning to God and doing works meet for Repentance and the Repentance undertaken therein is not only in some short transitory acts but it taketh in the whole course of a Christian Progress These devout Performances of the best Men are of great use for obtaining publick Blessings from God And it cannot be supposed that the Religious Addresses of Moses or Josiah who were Men of great Piety should be less acceptable to God or less effectual for the good of Man than the Repentance of Ahab or Manasseh or of the Ninevites But let these things be done with true uprightness and sincerity of Heart and then our Blessed Saviour hath assured them who so fast and pray in secret that their Heavenly Father will reward them openly But withall that these Duties may be pleasing to God it is necessary that they be accompanied with those other things which I have before pressed Fasting and Prayer in the neglect of Peace and Unity and of Holiness and Piety is as the sacrificing an unclean thing far from being approved of God and this is the account the Prophet Isaiah gives why God would not accept these very performances of the Jews Behold saith he ye fast for Strife and Debate and to smite with the Fist of wickedness Wherefore now let us take the advice in the Text and resolve on the pious practice thereof especially in these particulars I have insisted on For the further enforcing of which I shall in concluding observe three things First That it was God's own direction in these words of Joel This was indeed immediately given to the Jews but the Apostle tells us Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our Learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scripture might have hope That which God thinks fit to advise us it is our Wisdom to practise For when the Policy of Wise Men may be outwitted and all sinful contrivances will encrease danger the Counsel of God that will stand and as Wisdom speaks Prov. 1.33 Whoso hearkneth to me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from the fear of Evil. Secondly Reflect again on the case in which this was directed Besides the terribleness of the Armies which were to come against them in the former Verses of this second Chapter of Joel God lets them know that he himself was like to be on their Enemies side against them v. 11. The Lord shall utter his Voice before his Army The Prophet Joel was sent to make Proclamation of God's Controversy with them but though this was declared by a Message from God it was not so absolutely determined but that there was still an Help and Remedy reserved if they would make use thereof by turning to God with all their heart In like manner when Jonas was sent to Nineveh to declare that within forty days it should be destroyed upon its Repentance it was spared And the Prophet Jeremy assures us that at what instant God shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy if that Nation turn from their Evil he will repent of the Evil that he thought to do unto them No case is so bad but if this course be made use of it will appear hopeful Thirdly Consider the greatness of the effect I observed before that in this Prophecy from this Text forward are contained Promises of Deliverance The effect was also answerable to these Promises Indeed the precise time of Joel's Prophecy is not certain It is thought both by the Jewish writers and by Ancient Fathers that his time was contemporary with that of Hosea and this Prophecy in all probability must be dated before the latter part if not before the beginning of Hezekiah's Reign and accordingly Grotius seems very reasonably to understand the beginning of this Chapter to refer to Sennacherib's Army which invaded Judah this Army here mentioned was indeed called the Northern Army Joel 2.20 but this expression might well enough agree to the Assyrian Army as may appear from Zeph. 2.3 He will stretch out his hand against the North and destroy Assyria Now at this time the Sins of Judah were great and many especially under Ahaz their Condition was low and despised and their Enemy was potent proud and insolent yet upon the Pious Reformation of Judah under Hezekiah and their earnest Religious Addresses to God their Enemies proud Designs were wholly blasted and themselves ruined and the blessing of God came down upon Judah and Jerusalem And God grant that we may take that course that we may enjoy the Blessing of God and have it ever continued to these Churches and Realms even until the coming again of our Blessed Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory and Praise now and evermore Amen A SERMON Preached on S. Mat. 5.20 For I say unto you That except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven RELIGION and Righteousness is so suitable to and perfective of the Nature of Man that it hath been thereupon recommended by the wisest Men and greatest Philosophers It is of such concernment for humane Society that all Lawgivers and Governours have thought it necessary to prohibit and restrain the Violation thereof And it carrieth so much of the Image
the Papists do call the Godhead by And concerning the eternal generation of the Son of God it is there said Thou art one with the Papists in thy Doctrine in this thing who in one of their Creeds do affirm That Christ is God begotten before all Worlds when he was begotten as to his Sonship and Manhood and in time brought forth and manifest amongst the Sons of men Thus the most excellent truths may be misrepresented under odious names and by erroneous persons be called Popish 7. Secondly Their disparaging the Holy Scriptures which are the Rule of the Christian Faith and Religion The Scriptures contain the Prophetical and Apostolical Doctrine and this Doctrine is so certain and full that if an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel S. Paul denounceth him to be accursed But their denying the Scriptures to be the word of God though they admit them to contain truth and their setting up the Light within them as their great Rule both which are done frequently in their Writings and Conferences is that which tends to undermine the Authority of the Divine Writings and to substitute another rule which is very defective various and uncertain and of dangerous consequence For if we consider men as they truly are the Light within them is the light of Reason and natural Conscience with those improvements of knowledge and understanding which the Christian Revelation hath made in the minde and sentiments of men Now though this be very considerable and needful to be attended to yet to make this and not the Holy Scripture the main Rule and Guide in matters of Christian Faith and life is to prefer the light of Nature with the advantages it hath from Christian converse and Oral Tradition or the delivery of truth from one to another according to the thoughts opinions and judgements of men though mixed with many errors and much uncertainty before the infallible and unerring direction of the Holy Spirit in the Divine Scriptures And while the Scribes and Pharisees disparaged the Scriptures in preferring the Traditions of their Elders and the Romish Church doth much to the same purpose this Position of this Novel Sect is rather more unaccountable than either of those other practices For though they established mistaken false and erroneous Rules yet the things dictated thereby were approved by the joint consideration of many select men whom they esteemed men of greatest understanding while this way directs every man how corrupt and erroneous soever his mind may be to set up his own thoughts and apprehensions to be a sufficient Rule and Guide And this must suppose every mans own conceptions to be infallible though they be never so contrary to one another or to the Divine Revelation 8. But if we consider the followers of this Sect according to the pretences of many of them the Light within them must have chief respect to some Enthusiastick motions and impulses Such things were pretended to by the * Theod. Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 10. Messalians and other Hereticks of old But besides what may be said against such pretences in general the manifest falshood of them is in these particular cases apparent from the plain errors they assert contrary to the sure Doctrine of Christianity And to set up any Enthusiastick rule of Religion includeth a disparaging the Revelation of Christ and his Apostles which is the right instruction in the true Christian Religion and this is ordinarily also blasphemous against God in falsly making him the author of such errors by vainly pretending inspiration which are evidently contrary to what he hath truly revealed by Christ and his Gospel 9. Thirdly Their disowning Christs special Institutions to wit the establishing the Communion of his true Catholick Church and his Ministry and the Holy Sacraments Their disregard to the Communion of the Christian Church and their frequent reproaches against it and the Ministers thereof are very notorious But I shall here chiefly insist on what concerns the Sacraments which Holy institutions they generally disuse and against the use of these their Teachers have both spoken and written Now this is a thing so evil and of such dangerous consequence that besides the disobedience to what our Lord hath constituted and commanded by his plain precepts they hereby reject those things which the Gospel appoints to be eminent means of Communion and Union with the Church and Body of Christ Such things are both the Sacraments both that of Baptism and that of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 12.13 chap. 10.16 17. And this Union and Communion according to the ordinary method of the Gospel Dispensation is necessary to Membership with the Catholick Church And the disowning and rejecting these things is the refusing the means of grace which God hath appointed for the conveying the blessings of his Covenant and particularly the remission of sins to such persons who by performing the other conditions of the Covenant are duly qualified for the receiving the same in the use of these administrations Act. 22.16 Mat. 26.28 Our Lord appointed Baptism to be a part of the condition of obtaining salvation Mar. 16.16 He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved And the ancient Christians had such an high esteem thereof that Tertullian begins his Book de Baptismo on this manner Foelix Sacramentum aquae quia ablutis delictis pristinae caecitatis in vitam aeternam liberamur Happy Sacrament of Baptism because the faults of our former blindness being washed away we are set free unto eternal life And our Lord hath declared that except we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 and hath appointed the Holy Communion to be an eminent and peculiar way of eating his Body and drinking his Blood And what then can be said for them who grossly neglect and especially for them who declare against and totally reject these Sacred Institutions And if under the Old Testament God was so highly displeased with him who neglected Circumcision as to denounce him to be cut off from his people Gen. 17.14 and declared that they who attended not on the Passeover should bear their sin Num. 9.13 he cannot be pleased with the violating those Institutions which are of an higher nature being established by the Son of God himself under the Gospel 10. Fourthly The Doctrine of perfection as held by them who declare themselves throughly free from sin For this undermines all penitential exercises which take in the great part of the true Christian life and makes void confession of sin and sorrow for it together with prayer and application to the Sacrifice of Christ for remission and a diligent care of amendment We acknowledge and assert that every pious Christian doth overcome the power of sin so that he doth not serve it but lives in the practice of good Conscience towards God and man This is such a life that the Holy Scriptures speak much of the excellency and real holiness and purity thereof
who appointed not this kind of Covenanting established the Christian Church in that way of Unity that it was one Church but these have ordered this method for the dividing it 20. Secondly This casts a disparagement on Christs Institution of Baptism as if this Ordinance of his was not sufficient and effectual for the purposes to which he appointed it whereof one was the receiving Members into his Church and the Communion thereof The Scriptures declare Christians to be Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.12 and that they who are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and therefore by this Sacramental Ordinance members are received into fellowship with Christ and communion with his Church But these expressions in the Assembly-confession of (i) Conf. c. 27. n. 1. Sacraments being Instituted to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the World And of Baptism being ordained by Christ for the solemn admission of the party Baptized into the visible Church are rejected and left out in the declaration of Faith by them of the Congregational way And we are told by the New England Independents that (k) Answ to 32. Qu. to qu. 4. they do not believe that Baptism doth make men members of the Church and they there say strangely enough that Christ Baptized but made no new Church Wherefore when Christ appointed Baptism to receive members of his Church this Covenant which he never appointed is by them set up thus far in the place and room of it 21. Thirdly By making this Covenant the only right ground of Church-fellowship they cast a high reflexion on the Apostolical and Primitive Churches who neither practised nor delivered any such thing as if the Apostolical Model must give place to theirs and those first Churches must not be esteemed regularly established But this Covenant managed in the dividing way is somewhat like the practice of Novatus who hath been ever reputed guilty of great Schism who ingaged his followers by the most solemn Vow that they should never forsake him nor return to Cornelius their true Bishop only his Covenant had not a peculiar respect to a particular Congregation But this bond of their own promise and vow was intended to keep them in that separation which the more solemn Vow of Baptism and undertaking Christianity ingaged them to reject And it is a great mistake to imagine that the former ought to take place against the latter or that men may bind themselves to act against the will of God and that thenceforth they ought not to observe it 22. Fourthly The confinement of Church-membership to a single Congregation entred under such a particular Covenant is contrary to several plain duties of Christianity For according to this notion the peculiar offices of Brotherly Love as being members one of another and that Christian care that follows thereupon it limited to a narrow compass together with the exercise of the Pastoral care also which ought to be inlarged to all those professed Christians with whom we do converse And it is of dangerous and pernicious consequence that the duties of love and being helpful to one another and provoking to love and good works upon account of our membership with the Church visible though these things be in practice too much neglected should be straitned by false and hurtful notions and opinions It was none of the least miscarriages of the Jews that when God gave them that great Commandment to love their Neighbour as themselves they should satisfie themselves in the performing this duty with a much more restrained sense of the word Neighbour than the Divine Law intended And it must not be conceived that false imaginations concerning the bounds of the Church and fellowship therein will be esteemed in the sight of God a sufficient discharge from the duties he requires men to perform to others nor will this be a better excuse under Christianity than the like mistake was under Judaism 23. Thirdly I shall consider their placing the chief Ecclesiastical power and authority in the Body of the people or the members of the Church To this purpose by some of them we are told that (m) Answ to 32. Qu. to Q. 14. in Peter and the rest the Keys are committed to all Believers who shall join together in the same confession according to the Ordinance of Christ and they give the people the power of (n) Answ to Qu. 15. censuring offenders even Ministers themselves if they be such And on this account at least in part I suppose the Congregational Churches in their Declaration of Faith omitted the whole Chapter of (o) Ch. 30. Church censures contained in the Assembly's Confession in which they had declared the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to be committed to the Church Officers Now besides that the way of Government and Censure by the major Vote of the people hath been the occasion of much confusion in some of their Congregations that which I shall particularly insist on is the great sin of intruding upon any part of the Ministerial Authority or neglecting due regard or reverence thereto How plain is it in the Scripture that the Apostles governed and ordered the state of the Christian Church and that Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches did and were to do the like It was to the Apostles as chief Officers of the Christian Church that Christ declared Joh. 20.23 whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained and Matt. 18.18 whatsoever yet shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose in Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And by these and such like words the power of inflicting Censures and receiving to and conferring of the priviledges of the Church as well as of dispensing all those Ordinances whereby the grace of God and remission of sins are particularly tendered are appropriated to the Officers of the Church as part of their Office 24. In this plain sense were these Christian Laws generally understood by the Primitive Church which practised accordingly which they who read the ancient Canons must necessarily confess And the same is manifest from the particular Writers of the first Ages For instance even (p) Cyp. Ep. 27. S. Cyprian from what our Lord spake to S. Peter of the power of the Keys and of binding and loosing infers the Episcopal honour and that every act of the Church must be governed by those Prefects or Superiors And from those words and what our Saviour spake to his Apostles Jo. 20. about remitting sins he concludes that only the Governours in the Church (q) Ep. 73. can give remission of sins And when Rogatianus a Bishop complained to Cyprian concerning a Deacon who behaved himself contumeliously towards him S. Cyprian commends his humility in addressing himself to him (r) Ep. 65. when he had himself power by virtue of his Episcopacy and the
Offices it is the Ministry of Reconciliation II. The Persons to whom this Ministry is committed that is to Vs III. The Divine Authority by which it is founded I. The Nature and Excellency of this Ministry And because it is an holy Function committed to some particular Persons by God himself the main Business thereof cannot consist in speaking or doing such Things as may be said or done by other Men but in the discharge of a special Office And an Office tho it requireth Abilities in them who undertake it yet is chiefly conveyed by Commission and Authority It is possible that Corah or some other of his Company might be as well acquainted with the Rites of Sacrificing and the way of ordering the Incense as Aaron and his Sons were but if they not being called of God thereto will invade the Priesthood they must bear their Sin Wherefore I design to discourse here of the chief and proper Charge and Business of the Gospel-Ministry which must include the Dignity thereof And here I shall shew 1. What is contained in it in four Heads 2. What must be rejected from it 1. As God's Officers they are to prepare Persons for receiving the Blessings of the Gospel And because the Wrath of God will come on the Children of Disobedience and the way to be happy is by the Faith of Christ and becoming holy and good the Officers of the Christian Church by a peculiar Authority are publickly to declare the Doctrines of Faith and the great Certainty and Evidence thereof to make Men well-grounded Christians and the Directions and Rules of holy Life together with the great Motives which tend to persuade the practice of them They are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers and the Instruction of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears as anciently as from Justin Martyr to be one part of their publick Performances in the Church Just Mart. Apol. 2. And the Practice hereof is commended in the Scriptures and the ancient Writers as early as Ignatius exhorting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Polycarp to exhort and persuade all Men for their Salvation And these Instructions are to be accounted of greater moment because delivered by those to whom God hath granted his Commission as the declaring the Law or giving a Charge by a Judg or particular Officer is more than the Discourse of a private Person The Flock of Christ ought to have such a respect to the Shepherds he hath appointed as to think it their Duty to be taught and guided by them Since our Saviour declared not only concerning his Apostles but even of the Seventy Mat. 10.40 He who heareth you heareth me and more generally with a Note of Remark concerning all those who are sent by him Luke 16.16 Joh. 13.20 that he who receiveth them receiveth him To this Head also belongeth another part of Ministerial Power in preparing Men for God's Blessing which was more remarkably exercised under the vigour of Primitive Discipline in enjoining particular Rules for and examining the Probation-State of the Catechumeni who from Paganism embraced Christianity and of them who for their Offences came under the then severe Discipline of Penitents This Authority the Apostle made use of in this Epistle concerning the Incestuous Corinthian 2 Cor. 2.6 7. declaring his Grief and Punishment to have been sufficient and this was Baron an 57.1 58.36 Illyr Praefat. ad Ep. Pauli as both Baronius and Illyricus think in the next Year after the Sentence of his Excommunication was inflicted And besides the present Interest of Ministerial Power with respect to Rules of open Discipline it is of great use for them who have exposed their Souls to great Dangers and also for disquieted Minds in such Cases as press their Consciences to take the particular Counsel of their Guides whom God hath appointed to watch for their Souls Heb. 13.17 Which might be a great Help to secure some from their growing Perplexities and others from running on in Viciousness or turning aside unto Delusions 2. This Function contains an Authority from God to receive Persons under the Terms of Reconciliation and to bless them in God's Name As they are Stewards of the Mysteries of God they have a peculiar Right to dispense to his People his holy Sacraments as signal Pledges of his Grace and Favour Hereupon they who receive Baptism at their hands being duly qualified for it receive thereby Remission of Sins become Members of Christ and Heirs of Salvation And as St. Paul was directed to be baptized and wash away his Sins so the Christian Church hath generally acknowledged Baptism to be Acts 22.16 Clem. Alex. Paed. l. 1. c. 6. as Clemens Alexandrinus expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laver to make us clean from our Sins And the ordinary dispensing Baptism is a proper Act of the Ministerial Power both in that Christ gave commission to his Apostles to baptize and especially because this is a particular Exercise of the Keys in receiving Members into the Church of Christ and is also the dispensing the Symbol of Remission of Sins which is included under that Commission of Christ Whose soever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them John 20.23 In the Holy Communion also the pious and penitent Christian receiveth at the hands of him who by his Office dispenseth it the Mystical Body and Blood of Christ and a Testimony of God's Favour and Blessing And because this Sacrament is the Application of Christ's Sacrifice offered for the Remission of Sins a devout humble and penitent Person doth hereby receive Pardon to which purpose St. Ambrose Qui manducaverit hoc corpus De Sacrament l. 4. c. 5 6. fiet ei remissio peccatorum And again Debeo illum Sanguinem semper accipere ut semper mihi peceata dimittantur Which Words speak the receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in this Sacrament to include Remission of Sins And the dispensing and consecrating this holy Sacrament must needs be proper to the special Officers of the Christian Church since no Man without God's particular Authority can dispense and consecrate the Pledges of his Grace and of Remission of Sins as tendred from him The pronouncing Absolution by them to whom the Gospel giveth this Authority doth also from God tender and apply Remission of Sins to the Pious and Contrite by virtue of our Saviour's Words Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted but by no means to the Disobedient and Neglectful The Augustine Confession declareth Absolution to be highly esteemed quia est Vox Dei mandato Dei pronunciatur Conf. August cap. de Confes as being the Voice of God and pronounced by his Command In like manner the giving a Benediction or Blessing by them whether generally in the Publick Service or more particularly in some special Offices is an Application of the Blessing of God by his Authority unto the pious Christian Numb 6.27 but not to
and sutably our Saviour after his Resurrection gave his Apostles the authority of remitting and retaining Sins which phrase also immediately respecteth not Persons but Things but yet binding in this sense must include an authoritative declaring the Practices of Men to be so far Evil as to deprive the offending Persons of their Christian Priviledges 2. These words will also imply that the Officers of the Church are intrusted to bind and continue or to loose and discharge the observation of Penitential Rules and accordingly the Apostle saith to whom you forgive any thing I forgive it also in the Person of Christ 2 Cor. 2.10 And even this severe part of Ecclesiastical Power is for Edification not Destruction both to the whole Church and to the Offender that through Repentance his Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord and so is properly included under the Ministry of Reconciliation The general result of all I have said is That the Office of the Ministry is of very high and great importance and such persons who have a low esteem thereof if they have any reverence for their Saviour let them seriously consider whether he who is Truth and Goodness can be thought to use such high expressions in this case as to declare his giving them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and that what they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and such like to impose upon the World which he came to guide and save and upon his Church which he so dearly loves with empty sounds of great things which signify little or nothing What a mighty sense had the Primitive Christians of this power of the Keys when the Penitent Offenders under censure undertook according to some Canons the strict observation of Penance Conc. Ancyr c. 16. Elib c. 2 7 47 63. Valent. cap. 3. sometimes for 20 or 30 years and even to the end of their Life that they might obtain Absolution and the Peace of the Church and its Communion And under this severe Discipline as Tertullian describes it by the name of their Exomologesis de Poenit. c. 9. they did ly in Sackcloth and Ashes they never used such Cloaths or Diet as might appear pleasant they frequently exercised themselves in Fasting Prayers and Tears crying to God day and night and among other things they made humble Supplication even upon their Knees unto the Members of the Church and fell down prostrate before its Officers it being their custom Presbyteris advolvi charis Dei adgeniculari And all this was done in the greatest degree while the Church was under persecution from the Civil Power But that which they apprehended and which I doubt not to be true Exam. Conc. Trid. de Poeni is that as Chemnitius expresseth it Christus est qui per ministerium absolvit peccata remittit it is Christ who gives Absolution by his Ministry viz. where they proceed according to his Will And as under the Law he who trespassed beside the amendment of his fault and restitution either in things Sacred or Civil was to have recourse to the Trespass-Offering for obtaining the Mercy of God even so under the Gospel he who performs the other conditions of Christianity ought where it may be had to apply himself also to the Ministerial power of remitting Sin and the receiving this Testimony together with that of a good Conscience upon a Christian Penitent Deportment is next to the great Absolution by Christ the greatest encouragement for Peace and Comfort Only I must here add which I desire may be particularly observed that the principal way of ministerial dispensing Remission of Sins and other Blessings of the Gospel to them who fall not under gross enormities and the censures of the Church though performed also in its degree in Doctrine and other Benedictions and Absolutions is chiefly done by Administring the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to persons duly qualified And it is one of the miscarriages of the Roman Church that they take too little notice of this advantage in receiving the Holy Eucharist and do inordinately advance their Sacrament of Penance so far into its place as to be esteemed the only Sacrament after Baptism wherein may be obtained remission of Sins Wherefore I conceive that as that Man who being converted to Christianity doth profess the Doctrine and embrace the practice thereof in other things but wholly omitteth Christian Baptism doth thereby deprive himself of the ordinary visible Testimony of God's favour and runs himself upon the needless hazard of hoping to find acceptance by extraordinary Grace in the neglect of the ordinary means thereof even so is it with those adult persons who being otherwise piously disposed do ordinarily neglect the attendance upon the Lord's Supper which is particularly appointed of God to be a means of conveying and applying the benefits of Christ's Holy Sacrifice for remission of Sins and other blessings of the Covenant to them who are worthy and meet to receive the same And if this which to me seemeth a great Truth was duly heeded the frequent attendance upon the Holy Communion and other Services of God would be as it was in the Primitive Times generally looked on as a Duty of very great importance in Persons adult and resolving upon a true Christian course of life Having asserted the nature and excellency of the Ministerial Power it will be necessary also to disclaim and reject from it these two things 1. That the Ministry of Reconciliation is not appointed to offer in the Mass a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God for the Quick and the Dead and herewith must be rejected also the Power of effecting Transubstantiation St. Chrysostom truly asserteth Chrysost in 2 Cor. 2.5 That it is not the same thing which is done by Christ i. e. in reconciling us by his Sacrifice and by his Ministry But the Priestly Authority according to the Romish Ordination Pontif. Rom. is chiefly placed in this proper Power of Sacrificing their Form being Accipe potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo c. And all the Orders of their Ministry have some proper thing appointed for them which relateth to this Sacrifice of the Mass That is properly Ordo Th. Mor. l. 5. Tr. 9. c. 1. saith F. Layman where there is gradus potestatis ad peragendum Missae Sacrificium or a degree of Power to perform something about the Sacrifice of the Mass Much to the same purpose is in many other Writers and even in the Roman Catechism ad Parcchos in which as also in the Council of Trent it self Cat. ad Par. de Ord. Sacr. Concil Trid. Sess 23. cap. 2. their Priesthood is reckoned as the highest of their seven Orders partly upon this account and partly because this Notion serveth further to advance the Dignity and Eminency of the Pope But there is no such Sacrifice of the Mass in the Religion of our Saviour Indeed here it must be granted and asserted that the
defamed as acting by Beelzebub Nor was this wicked and blasphemous slander only some rash sudden unadvised words of some inconsiderable persons but the Pharisees saith S. Matthew Mat. 9.34 and the Scribes saith S. Mark Mar. 3.22 passed this censure upon him and what was thus spoken at one time was repeated and declared again at another Mat. 12.24 And we may discern by this instance how easily the greatest calumnies may be propagated by a zealous and eager party from one age to another and from one place to another For the Jews in after ages still embraced for truth this impudent falshood which is taken into their (u) v. Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 12.24 Talmud which contains a collection of the main body of their Traditions and Opinions And this wicked and contumelious aspersion of our Lord though contrary to the highest evidence was also endeavoured to be spread abroad among the Pagan Gentiles insomuch that (w) Orig. cont Cels l. 1. Eus Dem. Ev. l. 3. c. 6. divers Christian Writers thought fit to refell the same and to shew the manifest contradiction which this carried to the piety of our Saviours Religion to the nature of his precepts to the works which he did and to the Spirit and practice of his followers all which include a manifest opposition to the evil one 18. At other times they charged him with being a Samaritan and having a Devil and being a Samaritan Joh. 8.48 The name of Samaritan was fixed on him to promote a popular hatred The Samaritans rejected the true worship of God at Jerusalem and depraved and corrupted Religion and oft manifested a great hatred towards the Jews They frequented Mount (x) Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 6. Gerazim as the place of their Worship in opposition to Jerusalem and their despising the true Worship of God at Jerusalem is observed in the (y) Hor. Heb. in Joh. 4.20 Talmud and sufficiently in the holy Scripture it self And for the countenancing their depraved worship the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch as it is now extant hath corrupted the law and hath put in the word Gerazim in the place of Ebal where God commanded an Altar to be made and Sacrifice to be offered Deut. 27.4 5 6 7 8. Now the name of a Samaritan being odious to the Jews they call our Saviour a Samaritan not as if they thought he was so by his birth for they admitted him to the Jewish worship as a Jew and knew his nearest relations to be Jews but they would hereby declare that he had equally corrupted Religion and deserved to be as much hated as the Samaritans were And to this purpose was he thus aspersed though his custome was to attend the Jewish Synagogues Luk. 4.16 and he carefully served God according to the precepts of his Law But as if this foul calumny was not sufficient they further added that he had a Devil or that he in whom alone the Godhead dwelt bodily was possessed by the evil one And this wicked slander was intended to raise the highest prejudice of the people against him and to keep them far enough from being directed by him And therefore they said Joh. 10.20 he hath a Devil and is mad why hear ye him 19. And it may be observed And in like manner our Reformation Bishops and Ministry have been aspersed with Popery how the carriage of many men among us towards his Ministers the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England doth too nearly resemble this behaviour which I have mentioned of the Jews towards our Lord himself Certainly one of the great works the Devil contrives to uphold in this last Age of the World is the gross corruption of Popery Our Clergy and Bishops were very instrumental in the Reformation and casting out of Popery those of our Church Preach and Write against Popery so as to make the clearest discovery of the falseness of their doctrine and the sin of their practices These have confuted and baffled them the most effectually and with most convictive evidence These have plainly laid open in the face of the world the folly evil and mischief of many considerable things asserted and maintained by the Church of Rome and have thereby raised the indignation of the Romanists themselves who look upon these men to be their most formidable adversaries and they are indeed the great bulwark against Popery And yet because these men are not so weak and rash as to run beyond the bounds of truth and sobriety into other unreasonable errors they must needs be clamoured on as friends to Popery And other men who talk indeed against Popery with great noise and are real and earnest in what they say and some few of them have done useful service herein by many who are indeed eager against it but most of them speak with much weakness and many mistakes whereby they give great advantage to their adversaries these must be accounted the chief and main enemies to Popery when for the generality of them the Romanists themselves have no great fear of the Writings and Arguments of such opposers And from these our excellent Reformation meets with virulent censures 20. I doubt not as many Jews were against the Devil but among the Jews in our Saviours time there were many besides him and his Disciples who talked much against the Devil and did indeed hate him though in many things through their misguided zeal they greatly served his interest And that the Jews had some among them who sometimes cast out Devils is not to be doubted from what we read in the Scripture of the Jewish Exorcists and of our Saviours appeal to the Pharisees Mat. 12.27 By whom do your children cast them out (z) Antiq. l. 8. c. 2. de bel l. 7. c. 25. Josephus takes some notice of their Exorcisms but what he writes is of such a nature concerning the driving away Devils by some Herbs and charms that they who pretended to act against the evil one by these methods did seem rather to comply with him But that some of the Jews both before and after the coming of our Lord did cast out evil Spirits by the power and in the name of the God of Abraham and the God of Israel is asserted and acknowledged by (a) Justin adv Tryph. Iren. adv Haeres l. 2. c. 5. Justin Martyr Irenaeus and other ancient Christian Writers But their undertaking was far from being sufficient to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Satan nor were they always successful and effectual in lesser cases When the Sons of Sceva a Jew and chief of the Priests undertook to cast out a Devil the evil Spirit prevailed against them and they were not able to stand before him But it was he whom the Jews aspersed as complying with the Devil who did abundantly more against him than they all were able to do and he spoiled principalities and powers 21. And besides all this though the singular and sinless
eremo Serm. 26. S. Austin's name observes that this sin hath much of spiritual leprosie in it it is dangerous to the soul and greatly defiles it it is apt to infect others and renders the person unfit for common Society and God was pleased to punish it in Miriam with leprosie in her body 26. The Reproacher by publick Censure shut out of the ancient Church When the strict rules of Christian discipline were exercised he who defamed reproached or reviled others was to be cast out of the Church by a publick censure which is an evidence that the Christian Church accounted this sin to forfeit the priviledges of Christianity and that the persons who commit it and live in the practice of it deserve not to be esteemed members of the Body of Christ And that amongst other great sinners the reviler railer or reproacher is worthy to be separated from the Christian Society is declared by the Apostle himself 1 Cor 5.11 For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle there useth is of that extent as to include all who utter contentious contumelious and defaming words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being oft used by the (y) Septuag in Exod. 17.2 7. Num. 20.3 13. Septuagint to answer the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which relates to strife and contention and takes in all contentious reproaching words According to the disciplinary rules received in this Kingdom many hundred years since offenders of this nature especially if they defamed or spake contumeliously (z) in 2. lib. Poenitent Egbert n. 21 c 29. in Spelmar Conc. Vol. 1. against their Superiors were to come under the rules of penance In like manner in the Eastern Church in ancient times (a) in Regul brev Resp 26. S. Basil adjudgeth both him who slandereth his Neighbour and him also who should comply with him or give ear unto him to deserve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be separated and cut off from Ecclesiastical communion And it was more anciently decreed in the Western Church that those who should spread abroad reproaches or libels against others should be under an Anathema according to the Sentence of the Council of (b) Conc. Elib c. 52. Eliberis All which shews how odious this sin hath been reputed and how much abhorred and condemned in the Christian Church 27. And in the holy Scriptures when the Psalmist declares the qualifications necessary for him who shall dwell in Gods Holy Hill and threatned with exclusion out of Gods Kingdom or who shall be owned a true member of his Church here and have an entrance into his glory hereafter this is part of his description Psal 15.1 3. He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his Neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour To this S. James his words are agreeable Chap. 1.26 If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue that mans Religion is vain S. Paul also assures us that revilers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 and our Lord himself saith concerning him who speaketh contumeliously to his Brother that he shall be in danger of Hell fire Mat. 5.22 28. Now he who considers what God is and what are the excellencies of his Kingdom and with eternal destruction cannot account it any light Sentence to be eternall excluded from his glory and presence as the fallen Angels are If this be not enough the desperate misery of all wicked doers who shall be refused entrance thereinto will make the stoutest heart to tremble and will change the most brisk and jolly temper into doleful weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth When they shall be under the astonishing sence of the divine wrath the infinite pains expressed by the fire which shall not be quenched the perplexing torment of a terribly awakened conscience and the worm that never dies this will be an unspeakably dismal state To which may be added the amazing presence and Society of the Devil and his Angels and other damned persons expressing their sad out-cries and terrors and the overwhelming sense of an hopeless and unpitied condition and all this to abide in those black and frightful regions of darkness to all eternity 29. and with an heavy degree of future misery and vengeance And yet in the midst of this unspeakable and endless destruction and torment the Scripture which declareth the rule according to which God will denounce his Sentence tells us that those who reproach and speak evil of Superiors are of the number of those sinners who must expect the highest degree of judgment and severity at the great day 2 Pet. 2.9 10. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government presumptuous are they self willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities Where we see despising dominion or Government and speaking evil of dignities is part of the description of those whom God will chiefly punish And to such persons will belong those other expressions of being presumptuous and self-willed for such they must be who will be so insolent as to despise what God hath set over them and forgetting their own station to reproach them who are in Authority And though the former clause of this Verse concerning them who walk after the flesh in the (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lust of uncleanness or defilement may very well be understood concerning them who practise adultery fornication and lasciviousness yet even this clause also may not improperly be applyed to this sin against which I am particularly discoursing For it is evident from Rom. 13.13 14. Gal. 5.16 17 18 19 20. 1 Pet. 2.11 12 13. and other places of Scripture that the passions of men and the expressions and unruliness of them which are contained in reproaching are included under the phrase of the lusts of the flesh and that this sin I am treating of is defiling is manifest from the former part of this Chapter Now the direful vengeance of God doth infinitely go beyond the severest executions which can be contrived by men And all men ought to have a serious sense of this and all holy and godly men have so When (d) Martyr Polycarpi Polycarp was threatned by the Proconsul first to be torn in pieces by cruel wild Beasts and when this moved him not he was told he should be burnt with fire unless he would depart from the Christian Religion it was reasonably and wisely as well as piously replyed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thou threatenest that fire which burns for an hour and then goes out but thou considerest not the fire of the future Judgment and the eternal punishment which is reserved for the wicked This is that we all ought to fear as most dreadful and to avoid
various methods and sometimes in a more strange and extraordinary manner Thus the wrath of (c) Jos Ant. Jud. l. 11. c. 8. Alexander who went against Jerusalem with the Spirit of an enraged enemy was fully appeased to the admiration of those who accompanied him when he met Jaddus the High Priest in his Priestly Garments and remembred that before he came out of Macedonia such a person in that habit appeared to him and encouraged him in his enterprize And when a Diploma was signed to create trouble to the Bohemian Church when Maximilian the second was Emperour 1565 (d) Comen Historiolae 109. Comenius acquaints us that he who carried it going over the Bridge of Danubius without the Gates of Vienna the Bridge at that instant broke and though this person was taken up dead by some Fishers the Diploma was never seen after and thereby that Church enjoyed rest and peace And for the preservation and security of his Church in the time of its greatest oppositions he raised up a Constantine and in the same age soon removed a Julian And we have had instances of Gods care towards the Reformation of our Church in defeating many oppositions contrived against it and our Religious Princes and in restoring it again to its former establishment after our late troubles and also in ordering the Reign of Queen Mary to be short and that she should have no issue and that after her there should be a succession of many excellent Princes 35. Ans 3. 3. Religion was never more opposed than when Christ was Crucified Religion can never be opposed with greater enmity and malicious designs than it was when our Saviour suffered Yet then he reviled not nor allowed S. Peters rashness but left us his example for our imitation The Church of God upon earth was never without the enmity of the evil one and those whom he could engage against it but at sometimes their opposition is more vehement than at others When our Lord was crucified the Devil entered into Judas to effect it the Jews aimed utterly to root out the Christian name The power of the Jewish Church and Sanhedrin was then engaged against it and gained both Herod and Pilate into a compliance with them And there were great oppositions against Religion even fiery trials 1 Pet. 4.12 When yet S. Peter requires Christians to follow the example of our Lords patience and meekness and to reverence Superiours But with us blessed be God our Laws establish the true Religion our Clergy defend it and press the practice of it and our Prince whom God preserve upholds the profession of it But the Primitive Christians who lived under Pagan Rulers who persecuted the Church behaved themselves with more honourable respect towards them than many now do towards those Christian Governours and Spiritual Guides who encourage and promote Christianity 36. 4. True zeal hath respect to all duty Ans 4. True zeal for Religion is of excellent use and very desirable but it consists in pious and holy living not in passionate and sinful speaking And it must be uniform in minding all the parts of duty which are incumbent on us But they who are careless and negligent in great and plain duties can have no true love and conscientious regard to Religion and therefore no zeal for it but it is something else which they miscall by that name True zeal will put men on diligent constant and devout attendance on Gods publick worship and the holy Sacraments upon solicitous thoughts and care for the Churches peace and Union upon all the exercises of piety to God and of righteousness charity meekness and due obedience to man And particularly both with respect to the happiness of another world and a comfortable estate in this it will oblige men to curb the rashness and sin of their words and expressions according to that advice of the Psalmist and the Apostle S. Peter 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it 37. Wherefore let every person uncharitable reproaches against all men to be avoided as he values his own happiness and as he would approve himself a true Disciple of Christ beware of this sinful behaviour of slandering or reproaching others And not the speaker only but he that heareth such things with delight is guilty of the same uncharitableness and in like manner serves his own sinful passions and gives encouragement to the practice and spreading of this vice S. (e) Bern. de modo bene vivendi Bernard therefore well adviseth all men to avoid a detractor as a Serpent who casteth forth his poyson because besides his own sin he who willingly gives ear to him becomes guilty also To the same purpose S. Austin S. Hierome and others who sometimes speak of the contumelious ear or that mens ears as well as their tongues may render them justly chargeable with the sin of reproaching He that in this case speaks rashly or uncharitably or that entertains such expressions with pleasure must ordinarily intend a prejudice to another and a blemish to his reputation and this very intention speaks some degree of malice or ill-will contained in this sin and sometimes a very high degree thereof But the main hurt and mischief fal's upon the offender himself being contained in his sin and consequent upon it He like the man whose Spirit is so far envenomed as to take poyson in his mouth to spit it at another is in a direct way to ruine himself whatsoever prejudice the other may sustain by him So S. (f) Hier. in Ps 119. Hierome declared detrahimus illi illi non nocemus sed nostras interficimus animas we speak unworthily of another but the main dammage doth not fall upon him but we destroy our own souls 38. and repented of Let all those therefore who have been guilty of this transgression heartily repent thereof that they may find mercy with God But it must be considered that repentance in matters of injury to men by word or deed doth not only require a desisting from the further practice of the sin with due sorrow for the former miscarriage but also a careful undertaking to make satisfaction for the injury done It is therefore here requisite that the offender do readily freely and ingenuously retract what hath been spoken amiss and vindicate him who hath been injuriously aspersed and also endeavour that his future kindness towards him may be equivalent to his past unkindness And the man who refuseth this is as far from integrity as he who wrongs his Neighbour in his Possession or Estate is from honesty if he only forbear the repeating new acts of theft fraud or violence but still detains without restitution what he injuriously possessed himself of which of right belongeth to another man 39. A candid
things plainly obvious and manifest And in this case it is nothing of uncharitable and passionate reproaching which is contrary to the example of Christ but an exercise of sobriety and charity and a following his example to war against those hurtful evils which spread themselves in the world and to speak of those principles which are mischievous with dislike and detestation For though our Lord had a great kindness for the Jewish Nation yet their ill temper and their forsaking the true guidance of the Law made him rebuke them with sharpness and declare against them as an evil and crooked generation To discover the evil of ill designing men and false Doctrines is useful and good And if the manifest and prevailing errors of men which are dangerous to others might not be prudently exposed and solidly declared against many excellent and famous writings of the most eminent Fathers against the Gentiles the Jews and divers Heresies and Schisms which have hitherto been honoured and accounted useful in the Church of God must now be thought fit for nothing more than to be censured by an Index expurgatorius or to be ranked among prohibited Books Indeed persons who are concerned in the guilt are sometimes apt to be so far provoked at the just reproof and censure of their opinions or practices as to cry out upon it as if it were reviling or railing or to speak as the Lawyer did to our Saviour Luk. 11.45 thus saying Thou reproachest us also But our Lord did not think fit to desist from a free and needful declaration against evil how unacceptable soever it was to the offending persons as appears sufficiently from the Answer he returned to those words v. 46. And for others to do the like is both a faithful discharge of conscience towards God and the performing a work which is very useful and charitable unto men Thus he that gives a plain and true discourse in a time of mortality of the nature and danger and of the right and sure methods of prevention and cure for the diseases that then reign performs a work which if it be made good use of may preserve some and recover others from those distempers which may otherwise be fatal to them But as no diseases are so bad as those which defile and infect the minds and souls of men so here as (e) Basil Regul fus disp Resp 46. S. Basil truly affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that makes a covering for sin and that which is evil makes preparation for the death of the diseased person 4. It is evident that in the Holy Scriptures the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles and other Officers in the Ministery of the New were to reprove and declare against prevailing evils In this case Isaiah was commanded to cry aloud and lift up his voice like a trumpet and shew the people their transgressions Isai 58.1 and Titus was required to rebuke the Cretians sharply Sinful practices and corrupt Principles are such real blemishes to those that cherish them that they cannot be laid open without reflecting some degree of disparagement upon them even as light it self brings a discredit to things uncomely and represents the loathsomness of what is noysome and deformed But there are some rules necessary to be observed Rules to be observed in speaking against those who deserve censure which ought to guide and govern our discourse concerning what is amiss among men in the world And it may be noted that in most cases there is greater caution to be used in speaking of the principles or actions of particular men as charging them therewith than of the openly avowed evil practices or opinions of any party or sort of men in a general consideration of them Because the former doth more especially refer to the persons towards whom we are bound to exercise charity but the latter doth most directly respect things and there is no charity due to falshood transgression and sin and personal actions may be more easily misapprehended and misrepresented than what is publickly owned by any party But in both these cases the difference between sinful reproaching and rash and uncharitable evil speaking on the one hand and an useful and sober reproof and censure and declaring against evil on the other hand lyeth in three things viz. in the respect they bear 1. To certain truth 2. To sobriety 3. To charity 5. First The first Rule is certain truth A just Censure is ever founded on certain and evident truth but the reproacher oft declares that evil for truth which is either in it self false or to him doubtful and only suspected But whoso layes that to the charge of others of which he hath no certain evidence becomes a false witness And false reporting or asserting that against another as true which is not certainly known to be so is in matters of ordinary conversation among men a crime much of the same nature with the same miscarriage of a witness in a Court of Judicature concerning matters of justice and right For in both of these is contained what (f) Phil. de Decal p. 763 764. Philo more particularly expresseth of the latter that truth which ought to be sacred and is as the light of the Sun which gives a right and clear prospect of things is hereby violated and things are disguised in the dark whereby others are misguided into a wrong judgment and are thence involved in a miscarriage and wrong and injury is done to the person concerned And whereas it is requisite for him who attempts any thing both to have sufficient knowledge thereof and to be a person of integrity whose testimony deserves credit he who will venture to declare things as true upon jealous suspicions doth miscarry in both these and is therefore wanting in the latter because he faileth in the former And such a person doth offend both against charity and truth 6. It was part of the description of those evil men 2 Pet. 2.12 that they spake evil of the things they understood not The venting uncertain jealousies and suspicions are oft-times of mischievous consequence For they frequently spread like wildfire Suspicions on plausible pretences not sufficient and are entertained as things certain upon slender appearances of proof and in publick affairs they sometimes become dangerous if not fatal to Church and State Nor is it sufficient to excuse such persons from sin if they proceed upon some seeming plausible probabilities which are mistaken and misapprehended by them Those Jews might seem to have some colour for what they laid to our Saviours charge who declared him to have said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it in three dayes Mat. 26.61 Yet these persons misunderstanding or misapplying what he said concerning the Temple of his Body are called false witnesses v. 60. And therefore it becometh rash men who let loose their tongues many times upon no greater evidence or probability than
found in them And it is considerable that the ancient Bishops of Rome owned not nor claimed any such Authority nor was any such given to them by the Primitive Church To this purpose it may be observed from (l) Epiph. Her 42. Epiphanius that when Marcion being excommunicated by his own Father a pious Bishop for his debauchery went to Rome and desired there to be received into Communion he was told there by those Elders yet alive who were the Disciples of the Apostles that they could not receive him without the permission of his Reverend Father there being one Faith and one Concord they could not act contrary to their Fellow Ministers And this was agreeable to the Rules and Canons of the ancient Church whereby it was ordained (m) Can. Ap. 12. that if any excommunicate person should be received in another City whither he should come not having commendatory Letters he who received him should be himself also under excommunication And the novel Romish Notion of all other Bishops so depending on the Roman as to derive their power and authority from him is so contrary to the sense of the ancient Church that (n) Hieron Ep. ad Evagrium S. Hierome declares ubicunque fuerit Episcopus five Romae five Eugubii ejusdem meriti ejusdem est sacerdotii omnes Apostolorum successores sunt wheresoever there was a Bishop whether at Rome or at Gubio he is of the same worth and the same Priesthood they are all Successors of the Apostles 20. and prejudicial to other Churches and to Religion it self However the Romish Church upon this encroachment and false pretence claims a power to receive appeals from any other Churches And this oft proves a great obstacle to the Government and discipline of those Churches and an heavy and burdensome molestation to particular persons by chargeable tedious and dilatory prosecutions and is a method also of exhausting the treasures of other Churches and Kingdoms to gratifie ambitious avarice But even the (o) c. 6. qu. 3. scitote Canon Law declares the great reasonableness that every Province where there is ten or eleven Cities and a King should have a Metropolitan and other Bishops and that all causes should be judged and determined by them among themselves and that no Province ought to be so much debased and degraded as to be deprived of such a Judicature Indeed the Canon Law doth here for the sake of the Roman See exempt such cases from this judgement where those who are to be judged enter an appeal which is much different from the appeal the ancient Church allowed (p) Conc. Constant c. 6. to a more General Council after the insufficient hearing of a Provincial one But in truth this right of ordering and judging what is fit in every Province is not only the right of that particular Church or Country or Kingdom but where they proceed according to truth and goodness it is the right of God and the Christian Religion which is above all contrary authority of any other and ought not to be violated thereby And appeals from hence (pp) Cod. ean Eccl. Afr. c. 28. The Romanists Schismatical even to Rome were anciently prohibited in Africa 21. And the Schismatical uncharitableness of them at Rome towards other Churches deserves here to be mentioned This widens divisions and discords and perpetuates them by declaring an irreconcileable opposition to peace and truth They excommunicate them as Hereticks who discerning their right and their duty will not submit themselves to their usurpations and embrace their errors and to them they hereupon deny the hopes of Salvation Thus they deal with them who stedfastly hold to the Catholick faith and to all the holy rules of the Christian life and practice delivered by the Apostles and received by the Primitive Church and who also embrace that Catholick charity and Unity that they own Communion with all the true and regular members of the Christian Church and would with as much joy communicate with the Roman Church her self if she would make her Worship and Communion and the terms of it free from sin as the Father in the Gospel embraced his returning Son But this is the crime of such Churches that while they hold fast the Apostolical Faith and Order they reject the novel additional doctrines introduced by the Church of Rome and they submit not to her usurped authority in not doing what in duty to God they ought to do in imbracing the right wayes of truth 22. Their unjust excommunications hurt not others But the excommunicating such persons and Churches doth no hurt to them who undeservedly lie under this unjust censure but the effect of the censure may fall on them who thus excommunicate For they who reject the Communion of them who are true and orderly Members of the Church Catholick do divide themselves from that Communion To this sense is that received rule (q) c. 24. qu. 3. c. si habes c. certum illicita excommunicatio non laedit eum qui notatur sed eum à quo notatur and this was declared by (r) in Balsamon p. 1096. Nicon to be agreeable to the Canons And the excellency and power of the true Catholick Doctrine and the purity thereof is so much to be preferred before the authority of any persons whomsoever who oppose it that that which the ancient Canons (ſ) Conc. Sardic c. 17. established was very fit and just that if any Bishops and consequently any other persons were ejected from their own Churches or suffered any censures unjustly for their adhering to the Catholick Faith and profession they ought still to be received in other Churches and Cities with kindness and love And whereas there were Canons of the Church which allowed not Bishops to reside in other Churches and Dioceses these Fathers at Sardica dispense with that Rule in such a case as this and thereby declare their fense to be That the observation of Canonical establishments must give place where the higher duties of respect to the Christian Faith and Charity were concerned 23. but only themselves When the Scribes and Pharisees condemned the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for Heresie and cast them who received it out of the Church the Christians were nevertheless the true members of the Church but they who rejected them were not so And when the Donatists would allow none but their own party to belong to the Church they thereby cast themselves out of the Catholick Communion as Schismaticks And when they at Rome so far follow their steps as to confine the Christian Communion to themselves or to a particular Church especially such an one as so greatly swerves from the truth and purity of the Christian Religion Sect. II. this is in effect to deny that Article of our Creed concerning the Holy Catholick Church And since Charity and Vnity are of so great concernment in Christianity on that account also they are none
of the best members of the Church who are so far from them as all of the Romish Communion are obliged to be and are thereby guilty of heinous sin and of that which is greatly scandalous to Christianity SECT II. The Doctrines maintained in the Church of Rome and the Constitutions therein established are great hindrances to holiness of life and true devotion in Religion and comply very far with Wickedness and Debauchery 1. I Shall now come to consider that there are such doctrines asserted by the Church of Rome and such practices established therein as are plain obstacles and hindrances to a holy life Holiness and purity are suitable to the nature of God and agreeable to the end of Christ's coming into the World to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Obstacles in the Roman Church to an holy life Tit. 2.14 This is a compliance with his Gospel which is a doctrine according to Godliness and his Church which he founded is an holy Catholick Church And therefore nothing can be of God and Christ which is not agreeable to true goodness and piety but that must be contrary to God and Christianity which is opposite to holiness and a godly life But that the Church of Rome doth declare such Doctrines as undermine piety and holiness and establishes such constitutions and practices as are highly prejudicial thereunto I shall manifest by some particular instances And here I shall consider 2. 1. In their Doctrine of Attrition and Absolution First Their Doctrine of Absolution This is such that it sooths men in their sins and thereby takes away the weighty Motive and Argument to holiness of life which is from the necessity thereof to avoid the wrath of God and endless perdition and to obtain the favour of God and everlasting salvation For this Church and the Writers thereof do generally teach that attrition though without contrition is a sufficient disposition or qualification for the receiving Priestly absolution and that persons so qualified and thereupon absolved are in a safe state as to the avoiding eternal damnation and the future enterance into everlasting happiness Now contrition includes a grief for and hatred of sin as it is an offence of God with a purpose and resolution not to go on in the practice of evil and this is conjoined with a chief love to God But attrition is a grief for sin in such a manner that it is not produced from nor containeth in it the chief love of God and goodness And when divers wayes are either asserted or disputed of by many Casuists concerning the difference between Attrition and Contrition Mart. Becanus speaks with much plainness and I think with truth when he tells us (a) Part. 3. Tr. 2. c. 35. Qu. 1. that contrition includes aversion from sin and conversion to God which is in loving him above all and that this principle of the love of God which includes consequently hatred of sin and turning from it is that thing in which contrition essentially differs from attrition and that all other differences or wayes of distinguishing them are either to be rejected as false or may be spared as being of little or no use 3. Now some Writers of the Romish Communion especially in former Ages have been of opinion that contrition is necessary to justification But this assertion is declared by (b) Tom. 4. Disp 3. Qu. 8. Punct 3. Gr. de Valentia to be sententia his presertim temporibus vix tolerabilis such an one as especially in these times is scarce fit to be tolerated And he calls the other the common opinion This (c) Bell. de poenit l. 2. c. 18. Bellarmine takes for granted and Becanus declares (d) ubi sup Qu. 6. omnes fatentur contritionem non esse necessariam in Sacramento Poenitentiae that all acknowledge that Contrition is not necessary in the Sacrament of Penance And these Writers and many others affirm the Council of Trent to have declared thus much And that Council plainly enough determines that Contrition (e) Sess 13 de poenitentia cap. 4. is a grief of mind for sin already committed with a purpose to do so no more and that this which encludes a hatred of the past evil life and the beginning of a new life when it hath Charity joined with it doth reconcile man to God before the actual receiving the Sacrament of Penance if there be a desire to partake thereof But then it adds concerning another sort of sorrow from the foulness of the sin or the fear of punishment ex peccati turpitudine vel ex supplicii metu and of this that Council determines that it cannot bring a sinner to justification without the Sacrament of Penance but it doth dispose him to obtain the favour of God in the Sacrament of Penance A bad life encouraged hereby Now the result of all this according to the plainest sense their own Authours give is that if a wicked man ready to go out of the world shall be troubled when he apprehends the foulness of his sins lest he should go to Hell which is attrition and shall then send to the Priest and receive Absolution this man though his bea rt be not turned from sin to God and to a love of him and of goodness will according to this loose Doctrine go out of the world in the favour of God and in a justified state And thus much is pretended to be effected by vertue of the Sacrament of Penance and Priestly Absolution 4. Now it is to be acknowledged that the true Ministerial Absolution is very profitable being in an eminent manner contained in dispensing the holy Sacraments and is of much greater weight than many men account it to be to them that believe and truly repent or to them who sincerely perform the conditions of the Gospel Covenant but no pretence of Absolution must be admitted to make void these conditions And it may be granted that in the Roman Church in some Societies there are rules of severity directed to them who are disposed to seriousness but this their Doctrine of Absolution takes off all necessity of observing any such rules or any vows whereby they obliged themselves to any duties or exercises of perfection so far as concerns the fear of God as to the interest of an eternal state And this Doctrine opens a gap to all licentiousness of life contrary to the rules of Christianity and all good conscience by the security it pretends to give of eternal happiness to wicked and debauched men who amend not their lives nor forsake their sins If this be truth then are all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel made void as they are Motives to the necessary duties of holiness and piety 5. Holiness of Christianity undermined hereby By such arts as this all the great precepts of Religion are made of none effect in order to salvation For if against
an act of detestation of sin in which he hath no thought of his future course of life But this notion of Contrition I shall not pursue nor yet those others in their Casuistical Writers whereby they very rarely allow such affirmative precepts as that great one of loving God to oblige us to exercise any act of love to him which is much consequent upon their usual assertions concerning Attrition For my intention is to wave many things declared by considerable Doctors and mainly to insist on those which have the publick allowance and establishment of the Church 10. Secondly Another obstacle to a pious life 2. Of their prohibiting the common use of the Scriptures which I shall consider is the debarring the people of the best guide and help to piety which is the use of the Holy Scriptures The Divine Scriptures are by the Fathers oft called the Letters and Messages which God sends to men to invite them to him and guide them in their way and then surely they to whom and for whom they are sent ought to know and read them both out of Reverence to God and out of respect to themselves (n) de Tempore Serm. 112. S. Austin observes this double benefit in reading the holy Scriptures that they teach us knowledge and right understanding and that they carry men off from the vanities of the world unto the love of God and observes how greatly efficacious they are to the promoting piety in very great numbers and that they were designed for our Salvation 11. The Scriptures greatly promote piety These Scriptures were written by the inspiration of God and contain the sure rule for Faith and Life and were so accounted of in the ancient Church Herein is comprized the Will and Counsel of God declared by the Holy Ghost himself And the precepts and holy rules there proposed the promises declared the threatnings denounced the judgements executed on the disobedient and the blessings bestowed on the obedient are great incitements to piety and are of the greater force and weight as they are contained in the Scriptures because the Divine Authority goes along with every one of them And the end for which they were written is for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 And the punishments there recorded which were inflicted on evil doers were for ensamples and written for our admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 These holy Books the Primitive Christians were not denied the use of and they so highly esteemed this priviledge that rather than they would deliver up these Books to their persecutors the best Christians chose to undergo the utmost torments and sufferings and of such (o) Baron Annal. Ecc. An. 302. n. 22. Baronius observes that there was numerus prope infinitus eorum qui ne codices sacros traderent lubentissimo animo mortem oppetiverunt almost an infinite number of those who with the greatest readiness of mind chose death rather than to deliver up the Holy Books And they who did deliver them were accounted grievous offenders and called Traditores the name given to Judas who betrayed our Lord and of these as (p) Advers Parm. l. 1. Optatus saith there were many of all ranks both Laicks and Clergy 12. The use of the Scriptures is of such excellent advantage to promote piety and the happiness of men that the Psalmist under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit declares the blessed and good man to delight himself in the law of the Lord and to meditate therein day and night Psal 1.2 And this makes him so to increase and be fruitful in good works that v. 3. he is resembled to a tree planted by the rivers of water which brings forth his fruit in due season And the excellent use of this Divine Law is described Psal 19 7-11 in converting the soul making wise the simple and other great benefits Yea they are of such manifold and compleat use for the good of man that the Apostle declares them able to make one wise unto Salvation and to be profitable for doctrine reproof correction and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. And they have that mighty efficacy to prevail on the hearts and consciences of men that our Lord acquaints us that they who would not hear Moses and the Prophets would not be perswaded though one arose from the dead Luke 16.31 13. But the Romish Church prohibits the use of the Scripture to the generality of their Communion as is manifest from the Index of prohibited Books (q) Conc. Trident Sess ult prope sin which was ordered by the Council of Trent and was compleated about the end of that Council but the confirmation thereof was referred to the Pope by the Decree of that Council and it was approved by the Authority of Pius the Fourth In this (r) Indic Reg. 4. How far vulgar Translations are prohibited in the Roman Church Index it is declared That since it is manifest by experience that if the Holy Bible in the Vulgar Tongue be permitted generally without distinction there would thence from the rashness of men more hurt arise than advantage in this matter it must be left to the judgement of the Bishop or Inquisitor that with the advice of the Parish Priest or Confessor he may grant to them the reading of the Bible in the Vulgar Tongue translated by Catholick Authors whom they shall understand may receive by such reading not hurt but increase of faith and piety which faculty they should have in writing But whosoever without such a faculty shall presume to read or to have them may not obtain the absolution of their sins unless they first deliver their Bibles to the Ordinary And then follows the penalty of the Bookseller who shall sell or otherwise procure such Bibles to them who have not a faculty And from this Index the substantial part of this rule is expressed in (Å¿) Panstrat Cath. Tom. 1. l. 10. c. 1. Chamier and somewhat more at large in the Book of t Jacobus Ledesima the Jesuit (e) Ledes c. 15. De scripturis divinis quavis lingua non legendis and is mentioned in some English Writers It is therefore condemned as a very heinous and mortal crime without all these cautions to have or read a Bible in the Vulgar tongue though it be in a version of their own And if it be considered how liable to censure and dislike the use of such Bibles are in the Romish Communion as their own Writers declare it may thence be concluded that many zealous Papists will be backward to desire any such thing which others must not expect to obtain And upon further consideration of what difficulties may be expected in the gaining this faculty and the procuring the consent of those by whose authority and with whose advice it must be obtained any reasonable man
Son to rejoice at his having murdered his Father when he was drunk because of the great riches thence accrewing to him by Inheritance (c) Prop. 17. It is sufficient to have an act of faith once in the life time (d) Prop. 24. To call God to witness to a light lie is not so great irreverence that for it he either will or can damn a man Now such horrid Positions as these and many others in the same Decree deserve the severest Censure and it may amaze any one that such things should be asserted by those who take upon them to instruct others in the Principles and Practices of Christianity And what wretched lives may they lead whose practices are directed by such Guides 36. Now though these Positions are condemned to be at least scandalous and pernicious in practice and therefore all persons are in that Decree strictly forbidden to practise upon them and all who shall maintain them are declared to be under the Sentence of Excommunication Yet this very Sentence is too kind and favourable to the Authors of these Positions upon a threefold account First In that such impious and irreligious Doctrines were not condemned as false wicked blasphemous or heretical but only as at least scandalous and pernicious in practice which is but a very mild Censure of these Doctrines themselves and speaks no more against them than is declared against some other positions contained in the same Decree which are not so abominable For instance (e) Prop. 19. That the will cannot effect that the assent of faith should be more firm in it self than the weight of the reasons which move to that assent do deserve and (f) Prop. 42. That it is not usury to require something besides the Principal as being due out of benevolence and gratitude but only when it is demanded as due out of justice For whatsoever may be said against these Positions it is a gentle and easie Censure of the other to put them in the same rank with these and under no heavier condemnation Secondly In that the authours of these unchristian Doctrines and those who till the time of this Decree have taught them and maintained them are not by this nor so far as I can learn by any other Decree brought under any publick censure which may embolden and encourage others to vent other wicked Principles against common morality in time to come though but with a little variation from the same Thirdly In that the Books in which these wicked Principles are contained and owned are not by this Decree and I think by no other prohibited to be read no not so far as the holy Scriptures themselves are under a prohibition SECT III. Those Doctrines and Practices are publickly declared and asserted in the Church of Rome and are by the Authority thereof established which are highly derogatory to the just honour and dignity of our Saviour Sect. III 1. Dishonour done to Christ THose practices and opinions which vilifie the dignity and authority of Christ are infamous and bring a deserved dishonour upon the authours of them and on them who embrace them And as he is worthy of all glory so his Church and the members thereof are deservedly zealous of his honour But herein the Romanists miscarry which I shall manifest in some particulars 2. by Invocating Saints First In their prayers and supplications to Saints and Angels their practice herein being not consistent with the honour due to our Lord as our Advocate and Intercessor This invocation of Saints is declared by (a) Sess ult the Council of Trent to be good and profitable And in the Oath enjoined by Pius the Fourth (b) in Bull. Pli 4. to be taken of all the Clergy a profession is required that the Saints are to be worshipped and invocated and in the publick Offices of the Romish Church both in their prayers and more especially and fully in their hymns supplications for all manner of Heavenly blessings are put up unto them (c) Cassand Consult de Cult Sanct. Cassander indeed tells us that these things are not done for any such intent as if praying to them should be thought simply necessary to salvation And in the same discourse he declares that they did not adjoin the Saints as if God either could not or would not hearken and shew mercy unless they be intercessors for it But it is well known that his mild and moderate expressions are displeasing to the greater part of that Church And however though the error in Doctrine is the greater when that is declared necessary which is not so the error in practice is not the less if in doing that which is on other accounts blameable it be declared not necessary to be done 3. Now the blessed Jesus is constituted of God and confidence in their intercession and merits our Advocate and Intercessor that we may in his name and through him draw nigh to God And it is part of his Kingly authority and headship over his Church to dispense those blessings for which we seek unto God in his name and he is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Act. 5.31 But in many Books of Devotion used and approved by the Church of Rome their addresses are much more frequent to Saints and sometimes to Angels and especially and most frequently to the Blessed Virgin than to our Lord and Saviour himself and to these they apply themselves that by them they may find acceptance with God and that by their merits they may obtain help grace and blessing And even the title of intercessor and advocate also is oft-times given to them both in the more ancient Offices and in the present Roman Breviary together with expressions of trust and confidence in their merits frequently joined with them On S. Andrew's day they (d) in Missal sec us Sarum in Brev. pray with respect to him Sit apud te pro nobis perpetuus intercessor that he may be with thee for us a perpetual Intercessor And the blessed Virgin is stiled (e) Br. Rom. ad complet a Vesp Trin. our Advocate And they some times with respect to a Saint use such expressions as these in their addresses to God Ejus intercedentibus meritis ab omnibus nos absolve peccatis (f) ibid. Com. Confess Pont. Absolve us from all our sins through the intercession of his merits And with respect to Pope Nicholas both in the present Roman Breviary and in the Office secundum usum Sarum which was most in use in this Kingdom before the Reformation is a prayer for the sixth of December that by his merits and prayers we may be freed from the fire of Hell And of this nature numerous instances may be given And such like expressions concerning the Saints and applications to them encroached so far upon our Saviours Intercession and being our Advocate that with respect hereto Cassander says of
these things But that which is here to be enquired and examined is Whether the Sacrament of the Eucharist ought not according to the institution of Christ and by his authority to be administred in both kinds 15. That Christ did institute this Sacrament against Christs Institution in both kinds of Bread and Wine is so plain from the words of its Institution that this is acknowledged in the (d) Ubi sup c. 1. Council of Trent And that he gave a particular command to all Communicants to receive the Cup seems plainly owned in one of the Hymns of the Roman Church (e) Sacris c. in Brev. Ro. in festo Corp. Christ Dedit fragilibus corporis ferculum Dedit tristibus sanguinis poculum Dicens Accipite quod trado vasoulum Omnes ex eo bibite Sic Sacrificium istud instituit He gave the entertainment of his body to the Frail to the Sad he gave the Cup of his blood saying Take this Cup which I deliver drink ye all of it Thus did he institute that Sacrifice These expressions have a particular respect to that Command concerning the Cup Matt. 26 27. Drink ye all of it And it may be further observed that those words in the Institution Do this in remembrance of me are a Precept which hath special respect to the receiving both the kinds both the Bread and the Cup. For though I acknowledge these words Do this to establish the whole Institution that as (f) Cyp. Ep. 63. S. Cyprian expresseth their sense ut hoc faciamus quod fecit Dominus ab eo quod Christus docuit fecit non recedatur that we should do what our Lord did and should not depart from what Christ taught and did Yet these words have a more especial regard to the distribution or participation of the Sacrament For Do this c. in S. Luke and S. Paul comes in the place of take eat c. in S. Matt. and S. Mark and in these words of S. Paul Do this as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me the words as oft as ye drink it do plainly import thus much that the Command do this in that place doth peculiarly respect the receiving the Cup. 16. This Institution of Christ was anciently even in the Church of Rome acknowledged to be so fair a Rule to all Christians that from hence (g) de Consecrat di 2. c. 7. Cum omne Pope Julius undertook to correct the various abuses which had in some places been entertained Insomuch that he declares against delivering the Bread dipt in the Cup upon this reason because it is contrary to what is testified in the Gospels concerning the Master of truth who when he commended to his Apostles his Body and his Blood Seorsum panis seorsum calicis commendatio memoratur his Recommendation of the Bread and of the Cup is related to be each of them separate and distinct And that the Apostolical Church did give the Cup to the Laity is plain from the Apostles words to the Corinthians where he useth this as an Argument to all particular Christians against communicating in any Idolatrous Worship 1 Cor. 10.21 ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils And the same will appear manifest from other expressions hereafter mentioned And the Council of Trent (h) Sess 21. c. 2. owns that from the beginning of Christianity the Sacrament was given in both kinds But they following much the steps of the Council of Constance account neither the Institution of Christ nor the practice of the ancient Church to be in this case any necessary guide but they declare the custom then received to be changed upon just reasons 17. But that the Argument from the Institution and Command of Christ might be eluded and a Mist cast before the Sun divers Romanists and particularly (i) de Euchar l. 4. c. 25. which binds all Communicants Bellarmine declare that Christs command drink ye all of it was given to the Apostles only and not to all Communicants To which I answer 1. That the Apostles at the time of the Institution of this Sacrament were not consecrating but communicating and therefore the Command given to them as receiving the Sacrament is a rule for Communicants Which binds all Communicants and can by no reason be restrained to the consecrating Priest And indeed the ancient Church made no such distinction in this case between Priest and People but acknowledged as (k) Chrys Hom. 18. in 2 Epist ad Corinth S. Chrysostome expresseth it that the same Body is appointed for all and the same Cup And agreeable hereunto are the Articles of the Church of England which declare (l) Art 30. that both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament by Christ's Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike 2. That this device would serve as effectually if it were considerable to take away the Bread with the Cup from the people that so no part of Christ's Institution should belong to them 3. The Command of Christ with the reason annexed Matt. 26.27 28. Drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins doth give sufficient light to discern to whom this Precept is designed to wit to all them who desire to partake in the Communion of the blood of the New Testament for the Remission of sins and that is to all Communicants in that Sacrament 4. S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.25 26. plainly applys Christ's Command concerning the Cup to all who come to the Holy Communion in that after the rehearsal of that part of the Institution concerning the Cup he immediately says to the Corinthians For as oft as yet eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death till he come And he re-inforceth this Command of partaking of the Cup indefinitely to all who are to Communicate v. 28. Let a Man not only the Priest examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. 18. But here the Council of Trent acquaints us with a claim of the Churches authority and power in the Sacrament (m) Ubi sup c. 2. in dispensatione Sacramentorum salva illorum substantia statuere vel mutare to appoint and change things in dispensing the Sacraments still preserving their substance And they seem to intimate that the Communion in both kinds No power of the Church can take away the Cup from the People is not of the substance of the Sacrament because whole Christ and all necessary grace is contained under one kind But 1. If by being of the substance of the Sacrament we mean all that is enjoined by Christ's Precept and is necessary for the right administration of the Sacrament according to his Institution The use of both kinds is proved to be of this nature and therefore to change this
is not within the Churches authority 2. They may as well say that whole Christ is in one kind and therefore there needs no consecration of the Cup as that therefore there needs no distribution And so the Cup may be wholly rejected with as much Piety as the Laity are now deprived of it 3. What is contained in the Sacrament is contained in it according to the Will of Christ and his Institution and thereby the Bread is the Communion of the body of Christ and the Cup is the Communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And (n) Ration l. 4. c. 54. n. 13. Durandus did truly assert that the blood of Christ is not Sacramentally in the Host because the Bread signifies the Body and not the Blood So he with somewhat more to this purpose And this is the more considerable because in the Holy Eucharist the death of Christ is represented and in the Cup his Blood as shed And Gelasius who was once Bishop of Rome when he heard that some received the Bread only and not the Cup declared what then it seems was Catholick Doctrine at Rome that they must either receive the whole Sacrament or be rejected from the whole because (o) de Consec Dist c. 2. comperimus divisio unius ejusdem mysterii sine grandi Sacrilegio non potest provenire the dividing one and the same Sacrament cannot be without grand Sacriledge Which words contain a more full and plain censure of what since his time is practised in the Church of Rome than can be evaded by the strained and frivolous Interpretations either of Gratian of Binius or Baronius And we have also much greater authority than his For besides what I have above mentioned this use of the Cup was part of what S. Paul received of the Lord and delivered to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11 23-25 and it was matter of praise in the Corinthians that they kept the ordinances as he delivered them v. 2. 19. And what is asserted in the Council of Trent that the Church had just reason to order the Communion in one kind and what others say that it is more profitable to Christians and contains an honour and reverence to that Ordinance must suppose that their wisdom is greater than our Saviour's who did not know or consider with so much prudence as they do what is fit to be appointed and established in his Ordinance And since the Holy Ghost declared both the Bread and the Cup to be appointed to shew forth Christs death till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 they must therefore be both used to this purpose until his second coming and then no power was left to any Church to alter and change this institution And whilst some pretend reverence to God and this Sacrament in taking away the Cup from the people it would be considered that there can be no honour to God in acts of disobedience But if pretences of honouring God in acts of disobedience could render actions commendable Sauls Sacrificing must have passed for a pious attempt and the Doctrine of the Pharisees for the observing their vow of Corban must have been esteemed a Religious assertion 20. A third Instance I shall consider Of the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass is their pretending to offer a proper expiatory Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which is derogatory to Christs own Priestly oblation whereby he once offered himself a compleat Sacrifice of expiation But the (p) Sess 22. c. 2. Council of Trent declares that in the Mass is Sacrificium verè propitiatorium a truly propitiatory Sacrifice and that it is offered both for the sins punishments and other necessities of the living Christians and also for the dead in Christ who are not fully purged And it pronounced an Anathema against him who shall say in missa non offerri Deo verum proprium sacrificium that in the Mass is not offered to God a true and proper Sacrifice or that it ought not to be offered for the quick and the dead And they declare it to be the very same Sacrifice which was offered upon the Cross And the (q) Catech. ad paroch jux dec Trid. p. 247. Roman Catechism saith that this Sacrifice of the Mass doth not only contain an efficacious meriting but a satisfying also and even as Christ by his passion did both merit and satisfie So they who offer this Sacrifice do satisfie And the Council of (r) Anath 3. Trent will have it offered for satisfactions 21. Now it is acknowledged that that perfect Sacrifice which Christ himself once offered is lively represented and eminently commemorated in the holy Communion and the benefits thereof are there received by the worthy Communicant and on this account this Sacrament especially is a Christian Sacrifice in a large sense The Eucharist how a Christian Sacrifice as that Jewish Feast was called the Passeover as it was a memorial and representation of the original Passeover when the destroying Angel passed by the Houses of the Israelites And it may be called a Sacrifice as it contains the performance of such a chief part of service and worship to God as renders them who do it aright pleasing and acceptable to God And therein we present our selves to God with our homage and oblations and our praises and supplications that we and the whole Church may obtain remission of sins and all other benefits of Christs passion And such great actions of Religion are in a more large sense though not in a strict sense frequently called Sacrifices both in the holy Scriptures as in Psal 51.17 Rom. 12.1 Phil. 4.18 Heb. 13.15 16. 1 Pet. 2.5 and frequently in the Fathers as may be shewed from Justin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus and divers others But this sense is so far from satisfying the Council of Trent that it pronounceth (ſ) ubi sup an Anathema against him who shall say it is only a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving or a commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and not a propitiatory Sacrifice 22. Now that there is not nor can be in the Sacrament a proper Sacrificing Christ's Body and Blood to make expiation for the sins of men may appear from four Considerations Cons 1. Christ's once offering himself a Sacrifice Cons 1. The Sacrifice of the Mass derogates from the death and pussion of Christ was so compleat that it neither needs nor admits of any reiterating or that this or any other propitiatory or expiatory Sacrifices should be again offered This is observed by the Apostle to be one excellency of the Sacrifice of Christ once offered above the legal Sacrifices that whereas by reason of the imperfection of them the Priests offered oftentimes the same Sacrifices Christ by one offering had fully perfected his work and the Apostle therefore expressly saith he should not offer himself often Heb. 9.25 26 27 28. chap. 10 10-14 (t) de Missa l.
to be High Priests or Priests of that order which himself is and that it is the person of Christ who offers and not of the Minister then indeed there is a fit Priest for the Sacrifice But then it must be proved which can never be that Christ in his own person undertakes this Office in every Mass and then it must also be granted that no man in the Church of Rome can pretend any more to offer this Sacrifice than he can pretend to be the person of Christ 31. Wherefore (h) de Mis l. 2. c. 4. Bellarmine gives us their sense to this purpose The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered by Christ by the Church and by the Minister but in a different manner Christ offers it by a Priest a man as his proper Minister the Church offer as the people offer by their Priest so Christ offers by an inferior the Church by a superior the Minister offers as a true but ministerial Priest Now this pretends an authority from Christ but the Office of performing this Sacrifice to be in the Priest And to this purpose the Council of Trent (i) Sess 22. both declares Christ to have commanded his Apostles and their successors in the Priesthood that they should offer this Sacrifice and also bestow one of their rash Anathema's on him who shall say that Christ did not make his Apostles Priests or did not ordain that they should offer his Body and Blood when he said Do this in remembrance of me But as there is no expression in these words of Christ or any other to shew that he instituted his Apostles and their Successors to be such Priests as to offer a proper propitiatory Sacrifice so it appears that the state of the Gospel doth not admit of any person but only Christ himself to offer his own Body and Blood as a proper and compleat propitiatory Sacrifice since none else are or can be of that Office of Priesthood to which it belongs to offer this Sacrifice nor is any other capable of performing the necessary Rites thereof 32. Cons 4. The great effects of Christs Sacrifice cannot be attributed to any repeated Sacrifice Cons 4. The great benefits from the merits of Christs Sacrifice are wholly procured by that one offering of himself when he died and gave himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and now lives for ever to pursue the ends thereof And therefore there neither can nor need be any other propitiatory Sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood For that Sacrifice of Christ which was offered by himself and made satisfaction for sin did thereby obtain the grace and gave a compleat and abiding sanction to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that through his name all who believe and obey may through his mediation receive remission of sins and all other blessings of the Covenant Now the Eucharist as a Sacrament confirms the benefits of this Covenant and exhibits the blessings thereof But the Eucharist cannot now since the death of Christ give such a Sanction and establishment to the new Covenant that from it that Covenant should receive its sureness and validity as it did from Christ's real Sacrifice nor are any new terms of grace superadded to that But the validity of the new Covenant is supposed in the administration of the Eucharist And Christs own offering obtained to himself that high exaltation whereby he can give repentance and remission of sins and is a continual Intercessor and Advocate and therefore lives to execute his own last Will and Testament and to bestow the benefits of that propitiatory Sacrifice which he hath offered Now these which were the great things procured by his Sacrifice have such a peculiar respect to his own offering himself that it is impossible they should have any dependance upon any after-celebration of the Eucharist especially when this Sacrament must have its vertue from that new Covenant established and from the exaltation of Christ And since by that Sacrifice Christ is a propitiation for the sins of the whole World there is need of no renewed expiatory Sacrifice to extend or apply the benefits thereof to particular persons which is sufficiently done in the Eucharist as a Sacrament and in other Ministerial administrations dispensing in Gods name and by his authority the blessings of the new Covenant to pious penitent and believing persons 33. I might here also observe that (k) Barrad Conc. Evang. Tom. 4. l. 3. c. 16. some of the Romanists themselves declare that Christ doth not merit in the Sacrament of the Eucharist because the state of heavenly Glory in which he is excludes merit but here are presented to God the infinite merits of his death on the Cross Now if this be true and the reason given for it is not inconsiderable it must needs exclude any propitiatory Sacrifice from the Eucharist But I shall further observe that those admirable acts of the obedience of Christ in the wonderful humiliation of his life and death and submitting himself according to his Fathers will to suffer even the death of the Cross were of high value for the making his propitiatory Sacrifice which himself offered available in the sight of God to procure his blessing to man But now since our Lord sits at Gods right hand there is no such further humiliation nor need there be since what he once did was of such unspeakable merit and worth to give any new merits of like nature to renewed proper propitiatory Sacrifices But the merits of his life and death are of infinite and sufficient vertue And whereas Christ neither appointed that there should be nor declared that there is any proper propitiatory Sacrifice in the Eucharist he who can think against plain evidence that in the first celebration of the Eucharist Christ offered himself a proper propitiatory Sacrifice and consequently that he died really the night before he was crucified and was dead when his Disciples heard him speak and conversed with him alive hath a mind and belief of a fit size to receive this and several other strange Doctrines of the Church of Rome But besides what I have here said if Transubstantiation be a Doctrine contrary to truth of which I shall discourse in the (l) Sect. 4. n. 14-25 next Section the foundation of the Proper Propitiatory Sacrifice is thereby removed 34. Of additional Doctrines in the Church of Rome To these Instances I may further add that the Romish Church superadding to the Christian Religion many new Doctrines as necessary points of Faith doth hereby also derogate from the authority of our Saviour For this casts a disparagement upon his revelation Christ and his Apostles made a full declaration of the Christian Doctrine insomuch that whosoever shall teach any other Doctrine is under the Apostolical Anathema Gal. 1.8 9. which (m) Cont. lit Petil. l. 3. c. 6. S. Austin extends so far as to apply that Anathema to him whosoever he be who shall teach any
did own himself to be the most high God and as Irenaeus relates (y) Iren. adv Haeres l. 1. c. 20. that it was he who appeared as the Son amongst the Jews and descended as the Father in Samaria and came as the Holy Spirit in other Nations and they who were his followers both in Samaria Rome and other Nations did worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief God as (z) Justin Apol. 1. Justin Martyr affirms and (a) Eus Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 13. gr Eusebius from him Now if it should be supposed that the Gnosticks should own the true God and that there is no other God besides him and should therefore design to give Divine honour to him alone but should be perswaded that he was incarnate in Simon Magus and thereupon should worship him with Divine honour this could not excuse them herein from being Idolaters And whereas Montanus and the propagators of his Heresie did declare him to be the Paraclete as is oft expressed in Tertullian and is affirmed also by divers Catholick Writers as (b) Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 14. Eusebius (c) Basil ad Amphil. c. 1. Basil and others or as (d) de Consec dist 4. c. Hi vero Gregory expresseth it that he was the Holy Ghost if any of his followers professing Divine Worship to be due only to the True God and the three persons of the glorious Trinity should upon a presumptive delusion believe that the Holy Ghost was imbodied in Montanus and thereupon yield to him that Divine Worship which is due to the Holy Ghost this could not excuse them from Idolatry 29. Assert 2. All Idolatry is not equally heinous Assert 2. In Idolatry which is in its nature a great and grievous sin all the acts and kinds thereof in misplacing proper Divine Worship are not equally heinous and abominable There is a great difference from the temper of the persons whence acts proceding from sudden surprize from weakness of understanding or from great fear are not of so high a guilt as those which proceed from carelesness of duty neglect of instruction or contempt of God or wilful enmity against the true Religion There is also difference in the acts of worship which I mentioned n. 27. as also from the plyableness of temper to be drawn from them and the resolved obstinacy of persisting in them And there is a difference also with respect to the object to which Divine Worship is given whence the worshipping of Baal or the Gods of other Nations in opposition to the God of Israel was more heinous than the Idolatry of Jeroboams Calves because it included a professed departing from the true God and the worshipping of Simon Magus was the more abominable as including a following him and consequently rejecting the fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion But the Idolatry of the Calves was not of so high a nature nor did it utterly exclude the ten Tribes from all relation to the Church of God though even this would exclude those persons who designedly espoused it or who perversely or negligently joined in it from the blessing of God 30. Assert 3. All misplacing Divine honour upon an undue object which is Idolatry is a very great sin Assert 3. All sorts thereof are greatly evil To suppose that ignorance and mistake should be any sufficient plea or excuse is to reflect upon the goodness and wisdom of God as if even under the Christian revelation he had not sufficiently directed men in so important a duty as to know the object of Divine adoration or whom we are to worship And how little any misunderstanding upon the grounds laid down by the Romanists is like in this case to be available for their excuse I shall manifest by proposing another case which may well be esteemed parallel hereunto As our Saviour said concerning the Eucharistical Bread This is my Body so there is a greater plenty of expressions in the Scriptures which are as plausible to confer Divine honour upon pious Christians They are said to be partakers of the Divine Nature to be born of God The Remish Adoration of the Host parallel'd to be renewed after the Image of God and that God dwelleth in them and that Christ is formed in them and is in them and that they are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and with respect to them he said to Saul why persecutest thou me and he will say to others I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat c. and the Spirit of God dwells in them Now if from such expressions as these any sort of men should give Divine Worship to every Saint in pursuance of that fond notion of some Fanatick heads that they are Godded with God and Christed with Christ and consequently to those in Heaven as well as to those on Earth and thereby multiply the objects of Divine Adoration really beyond all the Polytheism of the Gentiles I doubt not but they of the Church of Rome would account this abominable Idolatry Nor would they think it sufficient here to be pretended that these worshippers own only one true God and give Divine Worship to the Saints only because they believe them to receive a new Divine Nature in becoming Saints and to put on Christ and to be changed into the nature and substance of that one God and though this may seem as contrary to sense and reason as Transubstantiation doth they therefore believe it because God hath said it if their manifestly mistaken sense of Scripture be allowed and they can confidently rely on his word And if we compare these two together the grace of the Sacrament is very excellent but it is that which is to be communicated to the communion of Saints and conferred upon them But the nature of the pious Christian is so much advanced above that of the Sacramental elements that that must be confessed to be true which was affirmed by Bishop Bilson (e) Differ of Christ Subject Unchr Rebel Part. 4. p. 713. that Christian men are members of Christ the Bread is not Christ abideth in them and they in him in the Bread he doth not he will raise them at the last day the Bread he will not they shall reign with him for ever the Bread shall not But these and such like words we mention not as having any low thoughts of the Holy Sacrament but as owning the truth of the Sacramental elements remaining in their created substances and even these we duly reverence as set apart to an holy use and purpose but we most highly value the great blessings of the Gospel and the spiritual presence of Christ which though it be tendred in the Sacramental elements yet being the invisible grace of the Sacrament is to be distinguished from the visible sign thereof To this we have our eye chiefly in the Sacrament according to that ancient admonition (f) Cyp. de Orat. Dom. sursum
Cypr. a Carthaginian Council of eighty seven Bishops did unanimously declare their judgment for the baptizing Hereticks who returned to the Church which was contrary to what the Bishop of Rome had determined And that this Council did sit after Cyprian had received the Epistle and Judgment of Stephen Bishop of Rome is observed by (x) Argum. Ep. Cyp. 73. Pamelius Now though all these Bishops were in an error in accounting the Baptism of all Hereticks to be null and that they ought generally to be Baptized when they returned to the Church yet it cannot be supposed that they were so obstinately resolved in their error as to reject the infallible evidence of truth When many of these very Bishops who lived to understand their error did as (y) Dial adv Lucifer S. Hierome testifies disclaim and reject it and that Cyprian himself did so as did also those parts of the Eastern Church who adhered to Firmilian is judged not improbable by S. (z) Aug. Ep. 48. Austin though it was not certain But hence it appears that since Stephen's determination was slighted and opposed by such eminent Bishops both of the Carthaginian and Eastern Church who sincerely designed to embrace the truth no such thing was then owned as the Infallibility of the Romish Bishop And if Stephen did so generally declare against the Baptizing any who returned from any Heresie whatsoever as he seems to do in the words of his Epistle cited by (a) Ep. 74. S. Cyprian si quis à quacunque Haeresi venerit ad nos c. he erred on the one hand as they did on the other and the determination of the general (b) Conc. Nic. c. 19. Council of Nice and of (c) Conc. Const c. 7. Constantinople takes the middle way requiring some sort of Hereticks who kept the substantial form of Baptism to be received upon their former Baptism and that others should be baptized when they returned to the Church 12. And the Practical judgment of the ancient Church is concerning this case sufficiently manifest in that when Heresies arose and their errors and impieties appeared necessary to be condemned and the Catholick Doctrine was necessary to be declared and confirmed by the greatest and fullest judgment which could be made in the Church this was not done by application to the particular Church of Rome only but by the summoning General Councils which with all the troublesome Journeys and expences attending them had been a very needless and vain thing if the Romish Infallibility had then been owned And in the four first General Councils the Bishop of Rome was personally present in none of them nor was his particular Sanction thought necessary to confirm them but they were all held in the Eastern parts of the Church and all of them desired and obtained the Imperial Confirmation with respect to their external force and effect And the (d) v Crackenthorp's Vigilius Dormitans None infallible who oppose the Doctrine of Christ and contradict themselves fifth General Council was managed perfectly contrary to the mind and sense of Vigilius then Bishop of Rome 13. Fourthly Since so many Doctrines and Practices are asserted in the Church of Rome which are plainly contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles of which several instances are given in this Chapter that Church ought not nor cannot be owned infallible by those who own the Holy Scriptures and Christ and his Apostles to be so Besides this I might add that the Romish Bishops themselves have oft some of them at one time contradicted what others of them at other times have affirmed The Constitution of Boniface the Eighth was revoked by (e) Clement in l 3. Tit. 17. c. 1. Clemens the Fifth as scandalous and dangerous And I above observed that regal Supremacy in temporals is owned by Innocentius the Third but is disowned in the stile of many Bulls of Deposition by other Popes But there needs no other testimony against any pretended Infallibility than its being contradicted in what it delivers by that evidence which is certainly infallible And there can scarce be a greater imposture and delusion than such a false pretence as this which is designed both as a prop to uphold the whole bulk and fabrick of Popery and a contrivance to raise a very high veneration thereof 14. Secondly Of Indulgences and the pretence of freeing souls from Purgatory thereby I shall consider the pretended power of securing offenders from Purgatory or releasing their souls out of it partly by the Priests Masses and chiefly by the Popes Indulgences and being interested thereby in that treasure of the Church which he hath power to dispense For the Romanists tell us that as there is in sin a fault and in mortal sins an obligation to eternal punishment which is discharged in the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution so there is an obligation to temporal punishment even in venial sins and if this be not sufficiently undergone in this life by way of satisfaction it must be made up by the sufferings of Purgatory And thus a model is contrived and drawn up to shew how sinners may escape these evils of sin without amendment Now sin indeed is of that pernicious and hurtful nature in every respect that by reason of it God sometimes punisheth persons and Families even after true repentance and receiving the person into his particular favour and such were the judgements on Davids House after his Murther and Adultery And I esteem the practices of sin and vice to be so hurtful that though they be sincerely repented of if that repentance and the fruits of it be not very exemplary they will make abatements in the high degrees of the future reward And strict penitential exercises ought to be undertaken by all Penitents for greater offences according to the quality of their transgressions This in the ordinary discipline of the ancient Church was performed before the Church gave Absolution which oft included the severe exercises of divers years and this was the Exomologesis oft mentioned in Tertullian and Cyprian And if in danger of death such penitents were reconciled who had not compleated their penitential exercises (f) Conc. Nic. c. 13.4 Conc. Carth. c. 76. the Canons required that if they recovered these must afterwards be performed And these things were testimonies of their abhorrence of the sin their high value for the favour of God and the priviledges and Communion of the Church and that they had exercised themselves to undergo difficulties and severities rather than to forfeit them 15. But concerning the Romish Purgatory though God never revealed any such thing nor did the ancient Church believe it I shall not here engage in that dispute but shall only observe that this fiction of temperal punishment of sin in Purgatory is somewhat unequal since the body which is so great a partaker in and promoter of the sin is wholly freed from all these punishments and rests quietly in its
grave whilst the soul is left alone to undergo all those pains And if the pretence of freeing offenders from great sufferings in Purgatory be a fictitious thing it serves the ill designs of undermining holiness and true Christianity and tends to raise a great admiration of the Popes power in them that believe it and to engage those to the Romish Church who can please and satisfie themselves with the thoughts of such Indulgences 16. Now for the right understanding this I shall take notice of so much as is needful to be considered out of their own approved Authors Layman saith (g) Theol. Mor. l. 5. Tr. 7. c. 1. n. 1. this indulgence is a remitting temporal punishment which is due to God out of the Sacrament by the application of the satisfaction of Christ and the Saints and is (h) ibid. n. 4. a free forgiving the punishment to be undergone in Purgatory for sins committed or a commutation thereof into some light thing by the mercy of God And (i) ibid. c. 3. n. 1. that a plenary Indulgence doth dismiss all the pains for sins which are to be punished in Purgatory And M. Becanus saith (k) Sum. Th. Part. 3. Tr. 2. c. 28. q. 2. Defunctis indulgentiae conceduntur c. Indulgences are granted to those who have depaerted this life in that the Pope applies to them so much of the Churches treasury as is sufficient to compensate the punishment they should undergo in Purgatory And this Treasury consists of the Sufferings of Christ which are infinite and the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Apostles and Saints which was more than was needful for their own sins And Bellarmine having laid this as a foundation on which Indulgences depend (l) de Indulg l. 1. c. 2. that there is a treasure in the Church and (m) ibid. c. 3. that the Church can apply this treasure further declares that such Indulgences do set men free (n) ibid. c. 7. à reatu poenae non solum coram Ecclesia sed coram Deo from the guilt of punishment not only before the Church but also before God and that the plenary and most full Indulgences do extend (o) ibid. c. 9. ad remissionem totius poenitentiae quae à Deo exigipossit to the remitting all that penance which can be required by God Nor do these Indulgences avail only according to their Doctrine to remit Penances which are injoined in Confession or other wise but (p) Laym ubi supr c. 3. n. 2. ad omnes poenas etiam non injunctas se extendunt they reach to all Penances or punishments even to such as are not enjoined and that an Indulgence (q) ibid. n. 1. Bell. ubi sup c. 9. for one year or for seven years is a remitting so much punishment as would be taken off by the Penitential exercises of one year or of seven years 17. Now First I shall observe how this by rendring a holy life unnecessary tends to oppose the great design of the Gospel and to render it ineffectual These under mine true piety of life For the precepts of the Gospel are the indispensable Laws of Christs Kingdom which he will have observed or else will say to such workers of iniquity as will not obey his Gospel depart from me I never knew you And the judgment to come the punishments of another world and the manifold promises of the Gospel are all laid down as powerful Motives in the Religion of our Saviour that men may be holy here that so they may be happy hereafter But how is all this enervated and made void if Attrition with Absolution will (r) v. Sest 3. n. 1. c. free sinners from the stain and fault of their sin and from eternal punishment and when no further danger or evil can remain but some temporal pains these may be discharged either by the exercises of some injoined penances or without them by the kindness and favour of an Indulgence and all this may be done without any real exercises of mortification or an holy life Indeed the Romish Writers require that the person who receives the benefit of an Indulgence should be in a state of grace but then they also assert that Absolution with the Sacrament of Penance is sufficiect for this And some of the forms of Indulgences express this condition si cordis oris egerint poenitentiam if they shall practice repentance in heart and word but then their Doctors acknowledge this done by Attrition in the Sacrament of Penance and Confession 18. There is indeed some act of Obedience required to be performed by the person who will interest himself in the benefit of these discharges from punishment but they usually are of little or no concern at all with respect to true inward and serious piety Sometimes indeed the saying over some particular prayer is enjoined but even the bare visiting some place is also sufficient to obtain plenary Indulgence of which nature I shall mention two instances The one is that mentioned by (ſ) Boil de Indulg l. 1. c. 12. Bellarmine that whosoever shall stand before the doors of S. Peters Church at Rome when the Pope pronounceth his solemn blessing at Easter doth receive a plenary Indulgence but this as the Cardinal there tells us is no light thing being useful to profess the Faith concerning the Head of the Church ad honorem sedis Apostolicae qui est finis illius Indulgentiae and to promote the honour of the Apostolical See which is the end of that Indulgence Which last words are somewhat unwarily plain The other Instance I shall mention is the visiting the Church of the Lady at Laureto to which after some Indulgences had been granted by Benedict XII Martin V. and Nicholas V. and some other Popes (t) Horat. Tursellin Lauretan Hist l. 5 c. 20. Clemens VIII so far enlarged these Indulgences that he bountifully granted the pardon of all their sins to all persons who at any time of the year shall orderly go to visit the Cell of the Virgin at Laureto Now if any man can truly think that such acts as these can so reconcile God to man as to take off all his displeasure to offenders he must be a man so far of no Religion as to have no serious sense of the nature of God and this is that state to which such methods tend to bring men 19. Secondly Indulgences are a contrivance of gain It may be observed that this contrivance includes in it a design of Covetousness and loving the wages of Unrighteousness and cannot be excused from being Simoniacal and the feigned imparting to others an interest in the pretended treasury of satisfactions in the Church is really made use of as a colour whereby they increase their own treasuries of wealth Indeed (u) 70 Decret l. 3. Tit. 14. c. 1. the selling Indulgences or any Spiritual thing is declared against but the inriching themselves by them
is not and how far the methods they use can be called selling I shall not be curious to dispute Their Authors grant that a Priest is bound (w) M. Bec. Sum. Th. P. 3. Tr. 2. c. 25. p. a. qu. 10 12. ratione stipendii upon account of his stipend specially to offer and apply the Sacrifice to him that gave the stipend applying to him also illam portionem satisfactionis that portion of satisfaction which that Priest hath a power to distribute And in their Indulgences there hath been oft expressed the Condition of raising moneys if that were to be imployed in the regaining the Holy Land or the subduing Hereticks or enemies of the Roman Church To which purpose in the Bull of Innocentius the Third to promote an expedition into the Holy Land to those who should give moneys according to their ability (x) Urspergens Chr. p. 329. he grants full pardon of all their sins and to them who would also go in person over and above in retributione justorum aeternae salutis pollicemur augmentum he promiseth an increase of eternal happiness in the reward of the just And these are very great and liberal proposals especially being assured upon such terms as may be performed by men destitute of true and serious piety But that which is most to be considered is what is ordinarily practised and generally known to be intended and designed in the grants of these Indulgences especially when they are annexed to certain places as to the Lateran and Laureto and many others For those persons are not accounted to come regularly and in such a manner as is proper for such as expect to receive such great benefits unless they bring along with them such oblations as are suitable to their state Of this nature Horatius Tursellinus throughout his five Books of the History of the Cell and Church of Laureto takes notice of divers instances of Princes Cardinals Noble men and Women Cities and divers persons of great fame who when they came in peregrination thither some of them offered golden Crosses and Crowns rich Rings and Shrines bedecked with costly Jewel and other things of great worth and value of which by reason of the high worth and value of them he gives at least two hundred particular instances when others also offered according to their ability coming thither in a daily concourse The like kind of devotions are upon the same account paid at Rome upon the like occasion especially every twenty fifth year being the year of Jubilee and in other places also though not in so high a degree 20. Besides the gainfulness of this contrivance and a method to raise an high admiraetion of the Papal power which was unknown to the Primitive Ages it is hugely adapted to advance the high esteem of the Papal power in all them who promise themselves any advantage thereby For if our Saviour was justly and greatly admired for healing diseases and casting Devils out of the Bodies they possessed and the Angel's opening the Prison doors and bringing forth S. Peter was deservedly esteemed a work of wonder how admirable must the power of the Pope be accounted who by a word speaking can secure thousands from or bring them out of the pains and Prison of Purgatory and hath its effect upon the souls of men and at such an unknown a distance Indeed some of their Authors speak doubtfully of the Popes power in Purgatory telling us that (y) Laym Theol. Mar. l. 5. Tr. 7. c. 7. n. 1 3. he can give Indulgences to them certainly to wit by offering to God satisfactions for them per modum suffragii with prayers that he will deliver their fouls but that this hath no certain and infallible effect and God is not bound to do what he requires since this case is not within the Papal Jurisdiction for quicquid solveris fuper terram whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth gives limits to the Jurisdiction of the Pope But others speak confidently of the effect and (z) de Ind. l. 1. c. 14. Bellarmine's doubt whether Indulgences are profitable to the dead ex justitia condigno out of justice and desert or whether it be ex benignitate Dei solum ex congruo out of Divine benignity only and from congruity Both these ways neither of which the Cardinal dare reject do render the Popes Authority admirable and if the latter way could be proved true so far as it imports what the Pope doth herein to be highly favoured of God which it cannot be so long as the Gospel Covenant is in force I should account this more available than the pretence of desert and proper worth But notwithstanding these differences in their notions they who doubt of the certain effect of Indulgences to deceased persons to deliver them out of Purgatory acknowledge their efficacy whilst applied to living persons to keep them from it and account the other at least very likely 21. It is also a Politick Contrivance Indulgences out of policy reserved to the Pope alone to reserve the pretence of this Authority to the Pope alone to set free souls out of Purgatory For if there were any such thing as Purgatory and any such Treasury in the Church of Satisfactions and any power left to the Church to dispense these at pleasure to them who want a share in them in all which the Roman Church runs into strange exorbitancies there can be no reason to appropriate this power to the Pope unless we will call a device of Policy to exalt the dignity of the Roman See a Reason Their Writers grant that other Bishops may give to the living some Indulgences but this (a) Laym ubl sup c. 4. n. 2. to the souls departed and with respect to Purgatory they make peculiar to the Pope And both their private Authors and the Bulls of Indulgence themselves found this Authority in the power of binding and loosing and of remitting and retaining sins which indeed contains an excellent and great authority which deserves to be better understood but is grossly abused in the Roman Church and therefore in this special case every Priest hath as much a right to claim this authority as the Pope himself since he can do altogether as much in this case The order of Priesthood is acknowledged to be the highest order in the Ecclesiastical Offices by the great Patrons of the Papal power and is so declared in (b) de Ord. Sacram. p. 323. the Roman Catechism they grant the Priest to have a power to offer propitiatory Sacrifices for the quick and the dead and own him to have such a power of absolution as thereby to put persons with Attrition into a state of grace and to deliver them from eternal destruction and give them a title to eternal life But that the power of delivering souls out of Purgatory by the Benefit of Indulgences may still be reserved to the Pope they of the Church of Rome declare that the
separating party can justifie it self it must be able to plead truly and manifest that the Church from which it departs is so corrupt in Doctrine or Worship that it cannot Communicate therewith without sin and that its differing from it is founded upon its casting off such things as are really sinful and evil still retaining and embracing all such things as are true and good even all the rules of Faith and Life and due Order which the Christian Religion doth direct and include 3. Beginning with the Quakers I might take notice of their want of ordinary civil and courteous behaviour and outward expressions of reverence to Governours when Christianity injoins kindness humility courteousness and the due expressions of them to all men and honourable respect to be given to Superiors I might also mention their condemning the use of an Oath even in judicial proceedings which if rightly undertaken is an act of Religion in a solemn acknowledging the Omniscience and righteousness of God and is the most effectual way for the discovery of truth the maintaining justice preserving rights and ending strife But waving very many blameable errors received amongst them I shall insist on four things which their Teachers have both in their Writings and Discourses vigorously asserted which are of such a nature that those who embrace these Principles and practise according to them may well be esteemed to be as far from true Christianity as any persons who pretend to the name of Christians Yet in so wild and Enthusiastick a Sect I do not undertake to give assurance that they in all things do all of them hold the same opinions but do hope some of them may be drawn off from some of these evil Doctrines and Positions Here I shall observe 4. First Their denial of and casting reproachful expressions upon the Holy and Glorious Trinity The acknowledging the Trinity is a great part of the Christian Faith our Creed directing us to believe in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord and in the Holy Ghost And (d) Conc. Nicen Constantinopol the two first General Councils of the Christian Church were in a good part imployed in vindicating and asserting this Doctrine against the Arian and Macedonian Heresie And this Christian Faith is not only contained in and plainly deduced from the Holy Scriptures but is summarily expressed in that form of Christian Baptism which our Saviour established when he commanded his Apostles to Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And this Baptismal form which the Holy Scriptures express is so considerable a testimony to the Doctrine of the Trinity that many of those Hereticks who denied the Trinity thought themselves concerned not to own this generally established form of Christian Baptism but boldly undertook to innovate and change that form our Lord had ordained and his Church from him (e) Just Mart. Apol. 2. Tert. de Bapt. c. 6. 13. had universally received Upon this account (f) Sozom. Hist l. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eunomius altered the Baptismal form not Baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost but into the death of Christ And amongst the Arians who owned not the Son to be co-eternal and of the same substance with the Father the form of Baptism was perverted and (g) Theod. Lect. Collect. l. 2. Theodorus Lector relates concerning an Arian Bishop who Baptized into the Name of the Father by the Son and in the Holy Ghost And before these when Paulus Samosatenus denied the Divinity of Christ his followers the Paulianists were injoined by the Council of (h) Conc. Nlc. c. 19. Nice to be re-baptized since the Baptismal form by them used (i) v. Justel in Cod. Ecel c. univ 19. was not into the Holy Trinity which he did not acknowledge And that one God in Trinity in whom the members of the Catholick Christian Church believed and into whose Name they were Baptized he is the object of the Christian Worship and Service and with one heart doth that Church give glory to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost but they who disown the Trinity cannot be expected to perform this Worship and Service thereto 5. But besides what might be cited out of some of the Quakers Books against the Trinity I shall take the liberty to give a little account of what my self hath formerly been concerned in Almost three and twenty years since some of the chief Quakers being busie in these parts two of their Principal Teachers sent to me Nine Questions or Positions rather challenging me to dispute with them the first of which was against the three Persons of the Deity and the other took in all those things I here discourse of against the Quakers with more also I then accepted this challenge and we went through all these nine in three days discourse In the first day they plainly declared themselves against the three Persons of the Trinity much as they had done about the same time in their Conference with (k) The Quaker disarm'd Mr. Smith at Cambridge At that time in the Year 1659 I had the opportunity of charging George Whitehead in the presence of George Fox and as great a number of other Witnesses as the specious room in which we were could contain with as horrid and blasphemous words against the Trinity as I ever read or heard of which were contained in a Book written by him and three other Quakers against one Mr. Tounsend which was Intituled Ishmael and his Mother cast out I even tremble to write the words which the licentiousness of those times gave way to (l) Ishmael c. p. 10. The three Persons which thou wouldst divide out of one like a Conjurer are denied and thou shut up with them in perpetual darkness for the Lake and the Pit But he neither did nor could deny that this wicked assertion was written and published by him and his Companions and the same thing was urged against him out of the same Book at the Conference at Cambridge 6. Sometime after this as if they had a mind to shew themselves particularly zealous in the opposition of the Holy Trinity I received a paper (m) Directed to them that affirm that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead and that the Father is the first and the Word the second and the Spirit the third and that the second was begotten as to his Godhead of Five Queries containing very many branches under them wholly levelled against the Doctrine of the Trinity and subscribed by George Whitehead and George Fox And after I had returned an Answer to these I received another large paper containing a long Harangue against the Holy Trinity with George Whitehead's name alone subscribed In this paper which I have by me it is declared That to call three distinct persons in the Trinity are Popish terms and names
and its freedom from sin And the ancient Ecclesiastical Writers give large and high commendations thereof Polycarp saith (n) Ep. ad Philip. p. 16. that he who hath charity is free from all sin which hath some affinity with those words of the Apostle Rom. 13.8 he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law And Origen speaks of the Christian man as being pure from sin (o) Cont. Cels l. 3. p. 148 149. and having left off to sin which is of like nature with not continuing any longer therein Rom. 6.2 as having departed from a vicious wicked and impure life And the Christian life is a perfect life as it greatly outdoth the practice of evil men and is in it self excellent and contains a resemblance of God Mat. 5 44-48 and as it is guided by the fear of God and directed to the eschewing evil and doing what is just and good Job 1.1 Psal 37.37 11. And every true Christian doth and must perform all the necessary conditions in the Gospel-Covenant for acceptance with God and obtaining Salvation or otherwise he can never be saved And the practice of Faith and true holiness the subduing lusts and evil affections and being renewed after God is included in these conditions But the terms and conditions of the Gospel-Covenant are not the same thing but must be differently considered from the rules of duty which the Gospel injoins For a constant practice of every duty towards God and man and a careful performance of every moral precept without any transgression thereof is injoined more highly under the Gospel than ever it was before But the conditions of the Gospel-Covenant are upon more mild and gentle terms of grace than were contained under the foregoing Dispensations for they admit and approve true uprightness and sincerity of obedience though there may some failings and imperfections attend it and they allow of repentance and promise mercy and pardon to those offenders who are truly penitent So that the rules of duty considered in their large extent do so far shew what we are obliged to perform that whensoever we fail in the least part thereof we thereupon need the benefit of the pardoning mercy of God and the atonement and expiation of our Saviour to which when we discern our failing in the exercise of self-reflexion we are to apply our selves according to the directions of the Gospel with a pious and penitent behaviour But the great and necessary conditions of the Gospel and the Covenant of grace contain those things which are of such indispensable necessity to be performed and observed by us that the mercy of God will never accept of those who neglect them nor will it pardon the omission thereof Such conditions under the Gospel Revelation are the embracing the Christian Faith the diligent exercise of a holy life and under the sense of our failings an humble address to God through Christ for his mercy pardon and supplies of further grace with penitential exercises 12. And in the best of men who exercise themselves diligently in piety and the discharge of a good conscience there may be many things wherein they fail and come short of the exact performance of what they ought to do And therefore our Saviour taught his Disciples ordinarily to pray forgive us our Trespasses and appointed that petition to be part of that prayer which he directed and commanded them to use Upon which words of the Lords Prayer (p) Cyp. de Orat. Dom. S. Cyprian observes how every one is hereby taught and instructed that he offends every day when he is commanded daily to pray for the pardon of his sins And he observes also how constant a need every person hath of seeking for and obtaining pardon for his failings in that upon this account our Lord urgeth the necessity of our constant care of forgiving others because otherwise our heavenly Father will not forgive us and therefore he gives this as a rule to be always practised whensoever we pray Mark 11.25 When ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses And from the consideration of the Lords Prayer (q) Aug. Ep. 89. S. Austin well observes that if the Christian state here were so far perfect as to be free from all offences our Saviour would never have taught such a Prayer to his Church to be constantly used by his Disciples when they pray and even by the Apostles themselves And in the Institution of the Lords Supper our Saviour tendred the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood to be received by Christians in the continued administration of that Ordinance for the remission of sins All which doth manifest that Christian life and Gospel-obedience which is accepted upon the conditions of the Covenant of grace is not an absolute sinless obedience though it doth include a real purity of heart and integrity of conversation And the pious Christian is sometimes called perfect with respect to that excellency to which he hath attained Phil. 3.15 16. and yet at the said time in a different sense is not acknowledged to be perfect Phil. 3.12 by reason of the defects which are still remaining Hence the Holy Scriptures oft speak to this purpose that in many things we offend all and that there is no man that lives and sins not and that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 13. And we further assert and acknowledge that in the Christian state there is also a perfection by way of comparison in them who have arrived to greater degrees and a more eminent height and growth in Christian graces and vertues than others and this excellent state is very desirable and ought to be diligently endeavoured by every pious man But no such persons either will or can truly say that henceforth they have no need of any interest in the mercy of God for the forgiving their failings or in the benefits of Christ's Merits and Sacrifice for obtaining thereby pardon and remission But (r) Ep. ad Eph. p. 18. Philad p. 41. Ed. Vos Ignatius when ready to lay down his life by Martyrdom acknowledged his imperfection And (Å¿) Paed. l. 1. c. 2. Clemens Alexandrinus describes the Christian that his failings must be as little as is possible and he must strive against all disorders of affections and disown all customs of sin and it is an excellent thing to be free from all fault but this is the state of God The imperfections of such men as Asa and Job and others who are called perfect are noted in the Scripture And that same Epistle in which S. John speaks so much of him that is born of God that he sins not as having rejected a vicious and evil life and being set free from the service thereof he also declares against him who saith he hath no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 directs confession of sin v. 9. and speaking concerning
Communion thereof and therefore is deeply Schismatical and unpeaceable For they who assert those not to be owned right members of the Church who were Baptized in their infancy unless they be Baptized again do and must maintain that those Churches can be no true Churches of Christ whose members were Baptized only in their infancy and thereupon pass that heavy and unjust Censure upon the generality of all Christian Churches since the time of the first founding them that they are no true Churches Hence they are put upon rejecting the Communion of the true Catholick Christian Church and the setting up for new Churches in an high opposition to Charity and Unity and in an open and avowed practice of Universal Schism To this purpose Bullinger Calvin Zanchy Beza and other Protestant Writers have complained greatly of Anabaptists as laying a foundation of all disorder and confusion Indeed they described those Anabaptists they wrote of not only to hold this erroneous Opinion concerning Baptism it self but to be Enthusiasts and undervalue the Holy Scriptures to ingage in such Libertinism as to disallow the just authority of Magistrates and the setled Government of the Church to imbrace the Principles of Antinomianism with practices suitable thereto with other hurtful errors hence the Anabaptists were by (y) Explic. Catech. Par. 2. Qu. 74. Vrsin called a Sect quae sine dubio à Diabolo est excitata monstrum est execrabile ex variis haeresibus blasphemiis conflatum which saith he without doubt was raised by the Devil and is an execrable Monster made up of various Heresies and Blasphemies But this Principle of theirs concerning Baptism is such that thereby they cut themselves off from the Church or Body of Christ and its Communion and involve themselves in a very heavy sin and dangerous condition 16. And whatsoever may have any usefulness towards piety and goodness which any of these men may seem to aim at in a way of error and with a various mixture of other things hurtful and evil is provided for by us if good rules be carefully practised in a better manner and in a way of truth That every man ought to make Religion his own act and make a free and voluntary profession thereof and yield his hearty consent to ingage himself therein and in the practice thereof we assert to be very necessary in persons who are of age and capacity of understanding And though Infants cannot do this in their infant state yet their future obligation is then declared on their behalf and when they come to a sufficient age they are certainly bound to believe and to do what in their Baptism was promised and declared in their names And this is afterwards solemnly promised by themselves when in their younger years they are confirmed and they likewise in a sacred manner ingage themselves hereto when at a fuller age they receive the holy Communion and it would be of great advantage to the Church of God and the holy exercises of piety if these two offices were more generally seriously and devoutly attended upon Men also oblige themselves to the faith and duties of Religion by their whole profession of Christianity and all those acts whereby they own and declare themselves Christians and particularly in joining in all duties of Christian Worship Sect. IV. and professing the Creed or Christian Faith and the performance of what is thus undertaken runs through the whole practice of the Christian life The result of what I have said concerning Anabaptism is that the miscarriages therein contained are of a very great and weighty nature it being no small evil and sin to offend greatly against the truth and withal to confine and derogate from the grace of the Gospel-Covenant and the due extent of the Christian Church besides the comfort and incouragement of Christian Parents and to be so injurious to Infants as to deny them those means of grace which they have a right to partake of and which are useful to their Spiritual and eternal welfare in neglecting also what God establisheth and keeping off Infants from that solemn ingagement to God which he requireth and to undermine the very foundations of Peace and Unity in the Church SECT IV. Of Independents 1. IN discoursing of Independency and the Practices and Principles thereof I shall not search after all things that might be spoken to since in several things the Independents or Congregational Men differ from one another and alter their own Sentiments and it was the profession of those five chief Persons who espoused this Cause in the time of our Civil Wars and Confusions (a) Apologet. Narration not to make their present judgments and practices a binding Law to themselves for the future And therefore I shall consider only some things which are mainly essential to the Congregational way and are the chief distinguishing Characters of that Party and the things they mainly urge and contend for And I shall shew that these things are so far from being desirable or warrantable that they are chargeable with much evil And here I shall treat of three things First Of single Congregagations and the power thereof not being subject to any Superiour Government in the Church Secondly Of their gathering Churches out of Christian Churches by separation and modelling these by a particular Covenant with a private Congregation Thirdly Their placing the Governing Power and Authority of the Church in the People or major Vote of the Members of their Church 2. First Their asserting single Congregations not to be subject in matters of Ecclesiastical Order and Government to any higher Authority among men than what is exercised by themselves This is that Principle which denominates this party Independents Indeed some of themselves did at sometimes express their dislike of this Name and the Authors of the Apologetical Narration above mentioned called it the proud and insolent Title of Independency But as this Name is ordinarily owned by the Congregational men as in the end of their Preface to their Declaration of their Faith at the Savoy and very frequently elsewhere so the Answer to the Thirty two Questions from New England gives this account of it (b) Answer to 14. Qu. We do confess the Church is not so Independent but that it ought to depend on Christ but for dependency on men or other Churches or other subordination unto them in regard of Church-Government or power we know not of any such appointed by Christ in his Word And this they speak concerning a particular Congregation And whilst we assert that such Congregations ought to be under the inspection of Bishops or Superiour Governours in the Church and under the Authority of publickly established Rules and Canons of the Church and under the Government also of Princes and Secular Sanctions they of this way own no such higher Governing Power and Authority above that of a single Congregation 3. Concerning the Civil Magistrate they declare him bound (c) Decl. of
subject besides that of this particular Congregation 6. But First This is contrary to what the Holy Scriptures declare and all the ancient Churches of God agreeably thereto have practised concerning the right order and Government of the Church What is more evident in the Scriptures than that the several Churches of Christians were under the Authority and Government of the Apostles themselves which is sufficient to manifest that it was no Institution nor intendment of Christ that particular Churches should not be subject to any Superior Ecclesiastical Authority Nor was such Governing Authority peculiar to the Apostles themselves but was by them thought requisite to be committed to the care of others Hence for instance Titus was in Crete appointed by Saint Paul to ordain Elders in every City and to set in order the things which were wanting Tit. 1.5 and other expressions of his Governing or Episcopal power are contained in divers expressions of that Epistle But it must be a strange strength of imagination that can inable any man to conceive that when Crete was a Country almost three hundred miles in length and so greatly peopled that it was very anciently called Hecatompolis as having a hundred great places or Cities within its Territories and Titus was to ordain Elders in every City yet all these should make up but one particular Congregation unto which the power of Titus should be confined 7. And concerning the Authority of Councils it is manifest that upon occasion of some Judaizing Teachers disturbing the Christian Church at Antioch the Council at Jerusalem Act. 15. met together and gave their authoritative decision concerning Circumcision and other Jewish Rites not to be imposed on the Gentile Christians any further than they particularly injoined This may well be called a General Council since it not only pronounced a decisive determination concerning the Universal Church expressing what the Gentiles were not to admit or were obliged to practise and on what terms the Jews were bound to admit and not scruple Communion with the Gentiles but also had in it such persons who being Apostles had an undoubted universal Authority over the whole Church And whereas the decision of the Apostles themselves alone and their Authority had been of it self abundantly sufficient to lay an obligation upon the Christian Church in that particular case the Apostles notwithstanding this took in with them the Elders of the Church to debate and consider of this matter Act. 15.6 which is a sufficient evidence that the Apostles did allow such Elders or Church-Officers as they established in the Church to have a power in Councils to order and determine what related to the affairs of the Church by Synodical Authority for otherwise the Apostles would never have joyned them with themselves to this purpose 8. And S. Paul was so forward and zealous to require a general obedience to the decision of this Council that in his Ministry he delivered to the Cities where he preached the decrees for to keep which were ordained of the Apostles and Elders which were at Jerusalem Act. 16.4 And here that expression of his delivering these Decrees as not only ordained of the Apostles but of the Apostles and Elders also deserves to be considered as thereby laying a more clear and manifest foundation for the Authority of future Synods and Councils of the Officers and Bishops of the Christian Church And it may be further observed that case in which S. Paul rebuked S. Peter Gal. 2. was his not acting according to the rules of this Council and a complying further with the Jewish Rites and the favourers of the Circumcision than was here determined and not being ready to own that liberty of the Gentile Church which was contained in this Synodical decision 9. And consonant hereunto the ancient Christian Churches did all along greatly reverence the authoritative decision of Catholick Councils and Synods the Canons of which are so well known to all men of ordinary reading that he must be a man greatly ignorant of Ecclesiastical affairs who knows nothing of them And in several General and Provincial Councils and in those Canons particularly taken into that ancient Code called the Canons of the Apostles or into the Codes of the Universal Church of the Western Church or the African Church many things were established by them for the peace unity and order of the Church and especially for the promoting purity therein and the degrees of the punishment by suspension deposition excommunication and the continuance thereof upon the offenders are there plainly determined to be a Rule for the several Churches to act by And in these ancient Councils when there was great occasion for such heavy sentences the most eminent Officers or the Bishops of those most renowned places in the Christian Church were deposed or excommunicated by their Synodical Authority and not by their own particular Church Thus was Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch deposed by the Council at Antioch Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople by the General Council of Ephesus and Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria by the General Council of Chalcedon to which multitudes of other instances may be given And in particular Churches the great and eminent authority fixed in Bishops though the Canons allowed but one Bishop in the greatest City with its precincts is sufficient to shew that the particular Congregations in that City had no such Independency of power and Government So that this branch of Independency opposeth the Apostolical order and the constant practice and sense of all primitive Christian Churches from the Apostles 10. Secondly This notion of Independency lays a foundation for perpetual confusion and division in the Church and subverts the precepts for Christian Unity For according to this Principle so far as concerns power and authority any company of men may set up for themselves apart and multiply Sects and distinct Communions and none having any Superior Government over them these parties and divisions may be perpetuated and subdivided to the scandal and Reproach of Christianity and no way left for any authority in the Christian Church to check and redress them So that this notion is perfectly fitted to serve the interest of Schism and discord and to heighten and increase but is as fully opposite to the Unity and honour of the Christian Religion For if we should admit for the present the scanty and imperfect notion of Schism which Dr. O. (p) Review of Sch. against Mr. Cawdr c. 8 9. hath framed that it is needless divisions of judgement and discord in a particular Congregation when departing from it is no Schism if the guilty party should so far unchristianly foment such discords as to deserve the censure of that Church and shall withal proceed so far as openly to separate and depart from it they have by this means according to this notion after a strange and admirable manner set themselves free and clear both from sin and censure For when they have thus openly separated from
dividing principle and practice can be justified before Christ himself For if Christ will say to them who neglect to express kindness and respect to the rest of his members In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me Matt. 25.45 May not they fear lest they hear the same who rashly and unjustly cast contempt reproach and disrespect upon that Church which he owneth as his and disown and reject its Communion 15. But this which they call gathering of Churches by taking to themselves those who either were or ought to have been under other Guides and Governours of the Church in a different but more justifiable way and order is indeed a making divisions in a setled Church and separations from it And this practce of division and separation is so greatly displeasing to the Holy Spirit of God that there are many earnest and vehement expressions in the Holy Scriptures against it To which purpose the Apostle beseecheth the Romans to mark them who cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine they had received and avoid them Rom. 16.17 even them who by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple Against such separations the ancient and Primitive Christians were very zealous as I have noted in (u) Libert Eccles B. 1. C. 1. Sect. 3. another place and so are also the generality of the Protestant Writers 16. Such a way of separation which in the phrase and language of the ancient Christians was expressed by a Presbyter contemning his own Bishop and having a separate Congregation and erecting another Altar or different Communion as to Sacramental administrations was severely censured in those early times of Christianity In that most ancient (x) Can. Ap. 31. collection of Canons such a Presbyter and as many of the Clergy as joined with him were sentenced to be deposed and the Laity to be Excommunicated after admonition The Code of Canons of the Universal Church further determine concerning a Presbyter or Deacon who shall thus separate (y) Cod. Can. Eccl. Univ. c. 85. that his deposition shall be without any way of return to his former honour and dignity in the Church and that if he persist in disturbing the Church he should be reduced by the Secular Power as being seditious And the African Code in this case declare (z) Cod. Eccl. Afr. c. 10 11. that such a Presbyter should be ejected from his place and that he should be anathematized and the inflicting this double punishment which was not usual in the Church for a single crime shews of how heinous a nature this offence was then accounted when the Primitive rules of discipline were received 17. Amongst such Protestant Writers as are most in esteem with our Dissenters Calvin asserts it to be certain (a) Calv. in 1 Cor. 11.9 that this stone is continually moved by the Devil that he might break the Unity of the Church and he purposely opposeth and smartly condemneth (b) Inst l. 4. c. 1. in Ps 26.5 all separation from a true Church where the Holy Sacraments are duly administred and the true rule of Religion is imbraced The (c) Synops pur Theol. Disp 40. n. 37 41 42. Leyden Professors account the erecting separate Assemblies in the breach of Communion by them who hold the foundation of the Faith and agree with the Church therein upon occasion of external indifferent Rites or particular miscarriages in manners to be properly Schismatical and that this is one of the works of the flesh and renders a Society impure and that it is not lawful to hold Communion with such a Schismatical Church to which purpose they urge many Texts of Scripture And Zanchy treating largely hereof doth (d) Zanch. Miscel de Eccles c. 7. particularly undertake to maintain that though there be some diversity of Doctrine but in things not fundamental though different ways of Rites and Ceremonies though there be vices in Ministers or corruptions in people or want of due care in rejecting offenders from the Communion he that shall separate from a true Church upon these pretences shall not saith he escape the wrath of God and ira Dei manet super illum the wrath of God abides upon that person 18. How far such separations from our Church are made use of by the Romanists to serve their interest might be shewed of many of their Authors But I shall content my self here to observe what was noted by one of our own (e) Camd. Annal. Eliz. an 1583. learned Historians Mr. Camden concerning the time of Queen Elizabeth That when in her Reign some of the Ministry in dislike of the Liturgy Order and Government of the Church templa adire recusarent plane schisma facerent did refuse to come to our publick Worship and manifestly made a Schism this was done Pontificiis plaudentibus multosque insuas partes pertrahentibus quasi nulla esset in Ecclesia Anglicana Vnitas the Papists rejoicing at it and drawing away many to their party as if there were no Vnity in the Church of England 19. I shall now examine their particular Covenant whereby they ingage themselves to walk together as constant members of that particular Society or Congregation to which they join themselves Now this Covenant in a way of separation is no other but a bond of division and was to that purpose invented by the Brownists And that it was their practice is (f) Apol. for Ch. Cov. p. 41 42 43 44. acknowledged by the Churches in New England Against which such things as these may be justly alledged 1. That this contradicts another of their avowed Positions That nothing not instituted of Christ ought to be received or submitted to as terms of Communion with a Church and some of them more largely declare that (g) Answer to 32. Qu. qu. â—8 particular Churches have no power to make Laws for themselves or their members but to observe the Laws of Christ and if any Church presume further they go beyond their Commission and it would be sin to be subject to such Laws But such a particular contract with a single Congregation especially a separating one was never any part of Christs Institution But because this other opinion of theirs is also erroneous it is of greater concernment to observe that this way of Covenanting is opposite to the Institution of Christ in that by division and separation it breaks the Unity of the Christian Church which Christ hath established to be one Church and one Body But the dividing the Church into several Independent Societies which is contrary to what the Institution of Christ appointeth is so much designed by this Covenant that some of themselves tell us (h) ibid. Answ to Qu. 8. without this kind of Covenanting we know not how it would be avoided but all Churches would be confounded into one Now this is as much as to say that Christ and his Apostles
here we enquire not for rational evidence to prove them true Here then we can be no more said to build our faith on the Rule of Tradition than publick Justice can be said to be administred by the Rule of Tradition when Cases are decided by Acts of Parliament which have been successively delivered from one Age to another But as he hath hitherto builded on a mistake to imagine that we have no way to prove Scripture the Word of God but only by considering the Letter of Scripture in it self so in the end of § 3. he supposeth that we must be able to satisfie all seeming contradictions in Scripture before we can own it to be Gods Word But cannot every ordinary Christian both humbly and truly acknowledge that in things delivered by God there may be many things above his understanding to comprehend and above his apprehension to reconcile which yet may be in themselves both true and good In this doing we have the same ground to believe Scripture to be Gods Word which S. Austin had in his forsaking Manicheism who makes this Confession to God Confes lib. 6. c. 5. Thou didst perswade me that they were to be blamed not who believed thy Books which almost in all Nations thou hast established on so great authority but who believed them not Therefore when we were unable by evident reason to find out truth and for this cause had need of the authority of the holy Scriptures I now began to believe that thou wouldst by no means have given to that Scripture so excellent authority throughout all Lands unless thou wouldst that thou shouldst be believed by it and that thou shouldest be sought by it Now the absurdities which used to offend me I referred to the height of the Mysteries Ad § 4. To the second Objection concerning the number of the Books of holy Scripture I shall first enquire What ground the Vulgar have to own all the Books received by Protestants and particularly by the Church of England as Canonical to be the divinely inspired Scriptures or the Word of God Now they may safely and with good ground receive all these Books because they are so owned by the same above-mentioned Tradition or delivery of all Churches as they received them from the beginning nor was there ever in the Church any doubt of the Books we receive of the Old Testament or of any of the Evangelists or of the most of the Epistles And though there was some doubt at some time in some places concerning some few Books yet these doubts were never general nor did they in any place continue but were check'd by known consent in the beginning of Christianity of which S. Hierom speaks ad Dardanum Ep. 129. We receive them following the authority of ancient Writers Now that all these Books have been alwayes thus delivered by the Catholick Church as the Word of God the Vulgar hath sufficient reason to acknowledge since it hath the same certainty with the way of delivering so many preserved Records by the agreement of such multitudes of Societies which is a much more certain way than Oral Tradition of Christs Doctrine as was shewed n. 6. This delivery of these Books is commonly asserted by the present Age and by men of greatest knowledge amongst the Protestants nor at this time doth the Roman Church reject any of them Though indeed S. Hierom tells us That in his time the Latin Custom did not receive the Epistle to the Hebrews amongst Canonical Scriptures in his Commentaries upon Isa 6. and Isa 8. and elsewhere Which Eusebius also takes notice of Eccl. Hist lib. 3. c. 3. lib. 6. c. 21. So that the Roman Church was not then the most faithful preserver of what was delivered in the Church Catholick which did acknowledge this and the other Scriptures by which they are sufficiently delivered to us and by which S. Hierom did receive even this Epistle as he particularly writes in the above-mentioned Epistle ad Dardanum Now being secure of these Books we are sure that we have safe delivery of all necessary truth required to salvation for as it is observable that concerning the Doctrine of Jesus Christ no other Church nor the present Roman Church doth pretend to any other Book of Scripture in the New Testament so S. Luke chap. 1. hath assured us that in his Gospel are written what things are necessary to be believed as the Christian Faith So that hitherto it appears how common Christians may know enough for their salvation and yet further they knowing all these Books to be of God can thence conclude that whatever is declared in them is true and what ever is condemned there is false or evil and by this means they may attain much knowledge And though these vulgar Christians may safely be unacquainted with the Controversie concerning the Apocryphal Books as is evident from what is above said and men of greater learning and knowledge for whom the tryal of all Controversies is a more proper work are and may be fully certain concerning it by their fully perceiving what was the Jewish and Christian Churches Tradition in this point yet the vulgar may possibly be sufficiently satisfied that none of those Books are part of the Scriptures divinely inspired For since they can understand from men of knowledge and learning that none of those Books were received in the Jewish Church to whom the Oracles of God were committed Nor were they any of them generally received as of divine inspiration and for proof of Doctrines by the Catholick Christian Church they may thence conclude that it is as safe for them not to own them as such as it was for the Catholick Christian Church and the Jewish Church whom neither Christ nor his Apostles charged with any sin and corruption in this particular And likewise they may see that they have as little reason to be guided by the particular Romish Church in opposition to the Church Catholick concerning these Books as S. Hierom had concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews especially since they of Rome have not fixedly kept and declared the same Books at all times for Scripture Thus we have a certainty of the Canon of Scripture which Protestants own for their Rule but this Discourser cannot but know that concerning Traditions which he makes his Rule neither the vulgar Papists nor yet the learned can certainly know in all points how many and which are truly such which hath occasioned great disputes and high contests amongst them of the Romish Church Ad § 5. To the third Objection concerning the preserving of the Originals I answer That it is not necessary for the vulgar either to know or enquire concerning the Originals it is enough for him to have evidence that the Scriptures remain entire though he know not what Language was their Original But if it be enquired how every one may know that these Scriptures are preserved entire and how they who have any apprehensions of the Original may
what this Authour calls his deep consideration as it hath no rational foundation so it hath not the advantage to be one of his own Church Traditions and shews there may be something delivered for truth which was not so received And of the same nature are almost all his Arguments against Scriptures being the Rule of Faith § 3. He further adds That the material causes to conserve these Characters are lyable to innumerable contingencies but mans mind by its immateriality is in part freed from Physical mutability and here we may with reason hope for an unalterableness and an unerrableness if there be a due proposal which must necessarily effect the sense These words are more monstrous than rational it is as much as in plain English to tell his Reader that having an immaterial soul he can never forget any thing that he either saw or heard distinctly and that when he hath read a Book observingly all the words and letters may be more exactly known from him by the impressions upon his mind than by viewing the Printed or Written Copy it self And yet all this will not serve his turn unless it be supposed that these immaterial souls must alwaies continue in the World or that what was by them received must thence necessarily in the same manner be continued on others Who sees not that this is as much against common sense as if he had said That because man hath an immaterial soul he may flie up to the Sun and Moon and fixed Stars at his pleasure Was Man of the nature of Angels without his gross Body its beyond the skill of this Authour to prove that nothing could be forgotten or blotted out of his mind that is once known especially considering that he is a sinner and even the Writers of his own Church do conceive that sinning Angels lost much knowledge by their sin But man is a Creature of another mold and letters and words and things are preserved in his memory by material impressions and every man knows they may be forgiven yea this Authour in this Book oft forgets and contradicts himself Do not all mankind appear sufficiently convinced that words or characters are more surely preserved in paper or writing than in mens memories in that what they would have faithfully kept they commit to writing and enter it upon Record Had the Jews been of this Authours opinion they would not have desired Ezra to have read the Law of Moses out of a Book Neh. 8.1 but to have spoken it out of the impressions of his own mind yet he would have been a more safe deliverer of Moses than the Church of Rome can shew for other Scripture Yea it is plain and self-evident that the Church of Rome agree with the rest of mankind to acknowledge writing upon some material subject a more sure way of preservation of things than the minds of men for they write the Acts of their Councils and Statutes of their Societies and yet these things are as much or more spoken of amongst them as the Scriptures are and so more like to be preserved in their immaterial minds yea they write or print their Creed Prayers Lessons and their whole Liturgy and have them read in their Churches when by this Authors Argument the best way to have these things preserved intire is to have them uttered from the memories of the Priests and others in the Church and not to mind the Writing or Printing at all as not being in it self certain The Roman Church know that mens minds are slippery and apt to forget something in their Liturgy if it were not written and that others would take the boldness to alter it and vary from it if they had no written Rule and shall writing be the best preservative for all other things and not for the words of the Scriptures and the truths therein contained I remember Salmeron tho' a Jesuit hath among the rest of his prolegemena one which is Proleg 25. Why the Scriptures were written and he declares as every one who designs to speak truth would do that it was that thence men may most surely know truth whereas the memories of men are very slippery and uncertain and S. Austin assigns a like cause of the Original of Letters de Doctr. Christiana lib. 2. c. 4. Nor can I imagine for what end the Church of Rome prints Copies of the Bible if they did not think that by those printed Copies the Scriptures might be known and preserved And as if it was not sufficient absurdity without any colour of solid reason to contradict the experience of all civiliz'd Nations he at once opposeth even the wisdom of God himself also who commanded the King of Israel to write him a Copy of the Law in a Book and read therein all the daies of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God Deut. 17.19 20. Yea he commands Moses to write for a memorial in a Book Exod. 17.14 Yea Isaiah is commanded Isai 30.8 Write it before them in a Table and note it in a Book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever And though God himself declares this the way of keeping the memorial of things this Authour rejects this way and closeth with the uncertain way of mans frail memory § 4. He tells us That as there are some simple vulgar actions unmistakeable yet there are compound actions as the transcribing of a whole Book consisting of myriads of words single letters and stopps and the several actions over each of these are so short and cursory that humane diligence cannot attend to every of them Yet he grants that this may be done with care enough if there be diligent Examiners This Objection speaks against the common sense of every one who can write for it tells him that no man can possibly keep to the sense or words he intends in writing a Letter or such like though he hath a Copy before him For he who can write a page with due care may by the continuance of the same diligence write a sheet and if he want nothing else but what concerns his writing he may with the same care write a Book What extraordinary art hath this Discourser that he could write his Book intelligibly and the Printers print it so can none do the like He cannot be ignorant that these things may be done by common diligence and all men who understand writing acknowledge that Deeds and all Records may be exemplified and faithfully transcribed if there be had due care about it That there hath been such care about Scripture I shall shew in answer to his next Paragraph And I suppose he is not so self-conceited as to think that other men may not use as much care in writing Letters or Words as himself doth or can But if this little Argument of many little actions not being capable of due attention was considerable it would concern this Authour to find a way how the Papists may
eighth Century and many other cases Now before the determination of such a Council it is not evident which are the true deliverers from the way of Tradition since both parties contend for their own delivery and no other Rule of Trial must be admitted according to this Discourser but delivery or Tradition and upon the former considerations it appears that the best deliverers may be the fewest And this may be as uncertain after a Council since there is nothing else to ascertain us but the vote of a major part which in many Councils hath certainly been the worser part and maintained Heresie and therefore so it may be in others where there can be no evidence given to the contrary And by Determinations of Councils the lesser part and their Adherents are determined to reject their way of delivery and receive the other and by this means the lesser number which may be in the truth must disclaim their own sense and judgment to submit to the judgment of others which may be in the wrong and so the true Tradition may be lost Yet that it may appear more evident how vain the pretence to demonstration in this Discourse is I shall applie his way of demonstrating to some other cases which it will fit as well as Romish Tradition It is certain that after Moses the true Doctrine was dispersed among the Jews and after Noah who was a Preacher of righteousness amongst his Sons they had the greatest hopes and fears to ingage them to this truth and these are the causes of actual will and the truths are knowable therefore both Gentile Tradition from Noah and Jewish from Moses were indefectible according to this Discourser's Principles and so the true Religion may at this time be found either among Gentiles or Jews Yea it was certain that Gods will was declared to Adam and Eve in Paradise and to the Angels that fell before their fall and they had the greatest hopes and fears to perswade them to keep to this will of God knowing that obeying it was their happiness and deserting it their ruine these hopes and fears are the causes of actual will and the duties themselves both knowable and practicable and they had no corrupt inclinations to sway them therefore according to this demonstrator Adam and Eve and all the Angels did continue in their obedience The same way of demonstration would prove that never any Heresies could either be broached or by many be received in the Christian Church But in these cases who sees not that it will be answered that either the truths of God declared were not sufficiently heeded or else the causes of hope and fear were not sufficiently applied and at all times acknowledged and observed and that in such cases there was a corruption either in belief or in practice but then every eye will see that this might as well be imagined in the Romish Church as in any other company of men So that he hath made it as clear that the Romish Tradition is indefectible as that the Gentile and Jewish Traditions were and are and as certain as it is that there is no Devil or fallen Angel and no fall of man and consequently no sin in the World and no Heresie ever in the Christian Church But here it is needful to do this Authour that right as to observe his unusual modesty that he intitles this Discourse not a demonstration but an indeavouring to demonstrate § 6. He speaketh to this purpose If any shall object Original Corruption indisposeth Parents wills since Christs Doctrine was intended to be an Antidote for that Original malice to say it is universally applied and preserves none good is to question Christs wisdom and many thousands Martyrs and Confessors did hereby overcome the declivity of their wills Again nature cannot incline all to this sort of sin to teach their Children what they think will damn them but most strongly carries them to the contrary To this I may in the first place observe that neglects of duty might be if there had been no Original corruption as was in Adam in Paradise and in the Angels where was no antecedent sinful inclination but they were only capable of sinning Yet I assert there is more danger by Original corruption and its prevalency both as to the Will and Understanding Now Christs Doctrine is indeed a poise or Antidote against this yet this is first where this Doctrine is carefully entertained and retained but not so that there should be no fear of its being retained in any Church S. Paul did not nourish needless fears for his Corinthians who had this Doctrine lest their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ nor were they untrue complaints of his Galatians Chap. 3.1 Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth And we Protestants can discern nothing to shew that this Doctrine must needs be otherwise a poise in the Romish Church than in the Corinthian or Galatian Secondly where this Doctrine is retained it is a poise against Original corruption in a considerable degree yet not so as to remove all imperfections proceeding from Original sin which may hinder right delivery of all truth for though in some excellent persons there be a willingness to deliver truth yet there may be some mistake even in holy Martyrs and Confessors The Church of Rome as well as we own Cyprian as a Saint and Martyr and yet acknowledge him to have erred and most Africans then with him in delivering that they who were Baptized by Hereticks ought to be rebaptized so that in following good men there may be mistake but they are more like to err if they be bad as many certainly are But concerning his last clauses it is no way necessary to suppose that to invalidate Tradition Parents must design to teach Children what they think will damn them we suppose very many may design truth and good who yet may be in error yet there may be others who through prevalency of corruption in themselves may design to corrupt the truth and may teach their Children so and all this out of that Principle that prevails with men to wicked lives which is not a design to damn themselves but a design to gratifie their evil affections S. Paul 2. Cor. 2.17 speaks of many who corrupt the word of God and S. Peter foretells of others who shall bring in damnable Heresies and we know the Jews did teach their Children to worship Baalim most probably this was not out of design to damn them however we know no demonstrations to prove that Romanists have higher affections to their Children naturally than Jews had or that when there is danger of truth being corrupted in the Christian Church they of the Romish should be exempted from liableness to that danger § 7. He thus proceeds If any object the fickle nature of the will he answers Good is the object of the will Now infinite goods and harms sufficiently proposed are
read such a Position in a Book as that I hear or see other things in converse in the world Now since what is thus delivered by Protestants to their Children is so delivered because it appears to be the Scripture-Doctrine this is an establishing and holding to not a rejecting and throwing by the Scripture as a Rule But while we own Scripture as a Rule there is no more reason why Protestants should tolerate men to contradict what is plainly and evidently deducible from Scripture under pretence of holding to it as a Rule than there is that in a case of Rebellion one who is to indeavour to suppress the rebellion should be suffered to assault the King when he plainly appears to be the King under pretence that he took him to be a Rebel Yet as to matters not fully clear in Scripture Protestants do allow differences of Opinion if managed peaceably and that it may appear that we are not violent prosecutors of our own apprehensions only because they are so the Laws of England condemn nothing for Heresie but that which was so declared by one of the four first General Councils But what he intimates of obliging to act that is if with good conscience to hold as themselves do makes me think he designs chiefly to reflect upon prudential constitutions such as are amongst us the Oaths of Obedience and Supremacy and matters of Liturgy and Conformity But in none of these things do Protestants desert this Principle of Scripture being the Rule of Faith For Protestants who hold this assertion never intended to exclude the use of prudential Rules and Constitutions for the advantage both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Societies but such Constitutions they neither own nor press as matters of Faith nor as Gods Commands in themselves necessary to salvation In this case if Protestant Rulers oblige to nothing as prudential orderly and decent but what they are well satisfied that it is lawful according to Gods word and agreeable thereunto and for other ends expedient and not needlesly burthensome which appears the common case of all Protestant Churches they no way swerve from Scripture-Rule Yea if here any Protestant Rulers should err and urge as lawful decent and prudential what is indeed sinful and evil in this case they sin and practically swerve from the true Rule as men do in all acts of sin and mistakes of judgement but they do in no wise intentionally disown this Rule of Scripture since they hold fast this as a firm Principle that if any thing which they require to be practised as lawful can be fully manifested to be against Scripture they will rather reject that Constitution than oppose the Scripture and will acknowledge that their Subjects ought to obey the Scripture rather than such commands But he tells us That these Dissenters from Protestants do guide themselves to their best capacity by the Scriptures Letter which is the Rule their persecutors Protestants who punish them for not obeying taught them and made use of themselves when they brake from the Romish Church I answer 1. It is much to be feared that many who dissent from the Protestant Churches in these matters prudential do not act according to their best capacities but some from passion and self-will some from the applause of a party others from pride and a sinful resolution not to disown what they once unadvisedly and erroneously took up 2. Yet I doubt not but very many who dissent from the prudential Rules of the Protestant Churches or particularly of the Church of England do act according to the best light they have of Scripture truth yet have they not the same reasons and grounds to justifie them that Protestants have to justifie themselves in departing from Popery for we rejected Popery not only because we could not discern whether it was lawful or not by the Scripture-Rule but because in matters plain in Scripture we did clearly discern it sinful by clear Scripture-evidence which plain evidence Dissenters from the Church of England cannot have nor can they pretend it unless it be rashly under passion or preconceived prejudice But for those who act according to the best light they have from Scripture which will suppose them willing to be better informed we Protestants no way dislike but highly approve of their Rule and of them for designing to follow it so far as we can discern such persons And as the Protestant Doctrine asserts that all things necessary to salvation are plain in Scripture so we doubt not but these persons and all other who according to their best capacities close with the Faith there delivered and practise the duties there required are in the way to salvation nor can they err in matters fundamental But still they may err in some other matters and particularly about the lawfulness of some things prudential nor did Protestants ever assert that they who designed to follow Scripture to the best of their light could in nothing be subject to error where they have not a discovery of clear evidence which in all things all inquirers may possibly not attain Yet I must further declare that if this design of following Scripture according to mens best capacity were more followed and all passions prejudices and unchristian suspicions laid aside amongst all Dissenters the number of them who dissent from the Protestant Churches upon the best light of Scripture they have would in a short time be reduced to a very few 3. Where in any case such persons as these are punished it is not for designing to follow Scripture but for not obeying some prudential lawful commands in a case where their mistake is the cause of their not obeying not is it any more a condemning their design to follow Scripture than in Civil Laws and Constitutions when any one is impleaded in a Court because he for want of good Counsel acts what he by mistake thinks to be according to Law but is cast as not having acted according to the Law the Judge should be thought to punish this man unjustly because he designed obedience to the Law yea to punish him for designing this obedience to the Law Some such inconveniences as these are like to be in Civil things while men are liable to mistakes and something is capable of being mistaken but these things concern not at all the Rule of Faith or the rejecting the Scripture from being the Rule of Faith From what hath been said it is easie to vindicate the Protestants from the following self-contradictions he chargeth upon Hereticks The first of which is to reform upon pretence of Scriptures Letter being the Rule and afterwards in practice to desert that Rule in their carriage towards others This Rule Protestants desert not since they propound nothing to be assented to by any as a matter of Faith but what they judge certainly evident in Scripture nor require they any thing to be practised as orderly but what they discern or judge not contrary to Scripture 2. Nor
Elements for the Communion were usually offered to God to be set apart for a sacred Use and that all Christian Worship being in a large sence the offering spiritual Sacrifices to God so is especially the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper because therein is eminently a Commemoration of the only Sacrifice of Christ with a peculiar Address unto God thereby and it and the Benefits thereof are mystically represented and exhibited therein And in this sence it is ordinarily called a Sacrifice and a commemorating Sacrifice in ancient Writers and Liturgies But the Romish Church not satisfied herewith in the Trent-Assembly thundreth an Anathema against them who deny their Mass to be verum proprium Sacrificium Concil Trid. Seff 22. Can. 1 3. a true and proper Sacrifice and to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead for Sins Punishments c. And they assert that the Elements being properly transubstantiated Christ doth in this sence yield himself to be sacrificed per Sacerdotes sub signis immolandum Ibid. cap. 1 2. and that this is as compleatly a Sacrifice for Sin as that he himself once offered and the very same solâ offerendi ratione diversa And Bellarmine dares to say of this Sacrifice of the Mass Bellarm. in Expos Doctr. Christ de Poenitent Mundum Deo reconciliat it reconciles the World to God But this their Sacrifice is contrary to the Doctrine of the Scripture and derogatory to the Honour of Christ's Oblation in that it was the Excellency of his Sacrifice above the Aaronical Ones that there is no place for the daily Offering and Repetition thereof Heb. 7.27 Chap. 10.10 11 12 14.18 Chap. 9.25 26 28. since by one Offering once made he hath perfectly accomplished the End of Sacrificing as the Apostle largely asserteth nor can he die any more And their Transubstantiation on which this is founded carrieth so plain Contradictions to the Evidence of Sense the Principles of Reason and the plain Assertions of Scripture and is attended with such numerous and palpable Absurdities that the general Belief of such a thing by those of the Romish Communion may be placed among the chief Miracles really wrought in that Church And the Sacrifice of Christ was on this account expiatory in that by the Satisfaction he made to his Father he so far appeased his Wrath and procured his Favour towards Man as to obtain the Terms Grace and Blessings of the New Covenant Wherefore if the very same Sacrifice be really offered in every Mass it must be to the same end and then not only the Redemption of Man must be there made but the original Sanction of the Gospel-Covenant must be then and not before established Besides this as the High-Priest who offered the Expiatory Sacrifice under the Law must enter with the Blood thereof into the Holy of Holies So the Apostle acquaints us that Christ who is an High-Priest and an High-Priest after the Order of Melchisedec offering himself as an Expiation for Sin must by his Blood-enter into the holy Place not made with hands even into Heaven it self Wherefore no Man can undertake properly to offer this Sacrifice but such an High-Priest who with the Blood thereof doth enter into Heaven it self Heb. 9.11 12 23 24 and not still abide upon Earth 2. We must reject all Power of reconciling any adult Persons unto God who do not perform the other Conditions of the Gospel-Covenant If Simon Magus receive Baptism in Hypocrisy he doth not receive Remission of Sins but is in the Bond of Iniquity and the Devil may enter into him who taketh the holy Communion unworthily as he entred into Judas He that comes to receive Reconciliation without pious care of serious Repentance is as the Man under the Law who came to be purified but brings an unclean thing with him before the Lord which is a kind of bidding Defiance to the Holiness of God and the Purity of his Worship Now the Church of England declares in her Liturgy that Christ hath left a Power to his Church to absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him And that he is the merciful Receiver of all true penitent Sinners and most willing to pardon us if we come unto him with faithful Repentance if we will submit our selves to him and from henceforth walk in his Ways with much more to that purpose But in the Romish Church where they make such a distinction between Contrition and Attrition as that the latter is an imperfect Grief which doth not include the Love of God above all nor doth always take in with it a Detestation of Sin as the former doth their Doctors out of a strange Looseness of Principles assert the Duty of Contrition very rarely to oblige any Man And even the Council of Trent favoureth that Position Sess 14. cap. 4. That Attrition with the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution is sufficient to please God concerning which the Generality of their Authors speak much more plain and many of them urge the Authority of this Council This is called by Valentia receptissimum Axioma a most received Maxim and tho there are some Doctors Greg. de Val. Tom. 4. Disp 7. Qu. 8. Punct 3. who require Contrition as needful with that Sacrament he saith this is Sententia vix tolerabilis an Assertion that may hardly be tolerated Filiucius who was Professor in the Jesuits College at Rome and the Pope's Penitentiary asserteth Filiuc Tr. 6. c. 8. n. 197. Ex vi justitiae ad Deum c. That upon account of doing what in Justice we owe to God he that hath Attrition with the Sacrament is not bound in Duty to be contrite no not in the hour of Death Indeed he there saith that upon account of Charity to God or themselves Men may be bound to be contrite viz. if they would secure themselves tho they should miss the Sacrament of Penance or would do more for God than he requireth Filiuc Tr. 7. c. 6. n. 14. M. Canus de Poenit. Relect. 4. But in another place he tells us That enough is done to satisfy the Duty of Repentance by Attrition with the Sacrament And Canus asserteth Deus nihil amplius exigit God requires no more than either Contrition without the Sacrament or Attrition with the Sacrament To the same purpose also speaketh Becanus and Greg. de Valentia denieth it to be needful with the Sacrament Becan Schol. Th. part 3. c. 35. qu. 6. to have any such Disposition which is putata Contritio or which they suppose to be Contrition But is this a Doctrine suitable to the Purity of God and the holy Jesus that Men may all their Life-time be so like to Devils as not to have any single Act of Hatred against Sin or of Love of God above all things and yet by a few Words of the Priest as strange a thing as the Power of Transubstantiating be transformed into Saints but without any
Preach the Gospel to every Creature So that this was not a singular Authority committed to St. Peter but he was first made choice of to have a right understanding of the extent of his Commission And it is not to be doubted but that Authority which did belong to all the Apostles of leading Men to the Church receiving them into it governing them in it and excluding them from it doth contain the chief part of the power of the Keys 3. To us not only to the Apostles but even to other Officers of the Church as Bishops and Priests or Presbyters is given this Ministry of Reconciliation for if we consider the nature of this Office the Ministry of Reconciliation or which is all one the Ministry of the Gospel must not cease till the end of it in the Salvation of Men be accomplished And our Saviour both promiseth his Presence and Authority to be with his Ministry unto the end of the World and establisheth them in his Church till we all come in the Unity of the Faith Mat. 28.20 Eph. 4.14 and Knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect Man And we may further observe That in writing this second Epistle to the Corinthians it is manifest from the Inscription thereof that Timothy therein joined with S. Paul Now though he was no Apostle nor a Companion of St. Paul till after the Council of Jerusalem as appears from the History of the Acts yet he here as well as St. Paul hath a share in the Ministry of Reconciliation That Timothy was the first Bishop of Ephesus is generally declared by the Ancient Writers Eusebius attesteth it Eus Hist l. 3. c. 4. and besides others this was expressed by Leontius in the great Council of Chalcedon Conc. Chalc. Action 11. there being then preserved an exact Record and Catalogue of the Bishops of that Church And though Learned Men herein disagree and there is manifest difficulty in fixing the Chronology it is greatly probable from comparing the Epistles to Timothy with the History of the Acts that he was not yet made Bishop of Ephesus when this Epistle to the Corinthians was written And this might then give some fair probability from the instance of Timothy that that Order of Priest or Presbyter as distinct from a Bishop was of an Apostolical and therefore a Divine Original But because several difficulties too large to be here discussed must be obviated for the clearing this particular I shall rather fix upon another Consideration which may be sufficient to perswade the same It is very evident from the History of the Acts and some expressions in the Epistles that for several years after the famous Church of Ephesus was founded by St. Paul Timothy the first Bishop there was usually with St. Paul in his Journeys or by his Command in other places Now it may be acknowledged that the chief Government and power of Censure in several Churches was for some time reserved in the hands of the Apostles themselves though at a distance as is evident from the Epistles to the Corinthians it was concerning the Church of Corinth But he who shall think that in all this time they had no Church-Officer fixed amongst them in that great Church of Ephesus to administer the Holy Communion and celebrate other needful Ministerial Performances must account the Apostles to have had no great care of the Churches they planted nor the Churches to have had any great zeal for the Religion they embraced which no Man can judg who hath any knowledg of the Spirit of that Primitive Christianity But if they had in the Church of Ephesus other fixed Officers distinct from the Bishop to celebrate the Holy Communion and other necessary acts of ordinary Ministration then must the Order of Presbyters be of as early original in the Church as the History of the Acts and then the ordaining Elders in every Church must take in those who are distinctly called Priests or Presbyters To this I add that the Office of Presbyter includeth an Authority to tender in God's Name remission of Sins and as from him to exhibit to his Church the Sacramental Symbols of his Grace and upon that account no such Office could ever have its Original from any lower than Apostolical and Divine Authority 4. To us in different Ranks and Orders in the Church not in a parity and equality Here is S. Paul an Apostle and Timothy in an Order inferiour to him When Christ was upon Earth he appointed the Apostles and the Seventy and when he Ascended he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers And though most of these were Officers by an extraordinary Commission which are ceased yet when Timothy was fixed at Ephesus where there then were Presbyters as I have shewed the chief power of Government and the care of Ordination was intrusted in his hands singly as is manifest and hath been oft observed from the Epistles to Timothy The like appears concerning Titus as also that the chief care of the Churches of Asia was in the hands of the Angels of those Churches If we consult the Ancient state of the Church this chief Government in a single Person or Bishop in those ancient times took place as far as Christianity it self reached Besides what may be said from particular Writers 1 Can. Ap. 2. Can. Nic. 19. the first General Council of Nice and the more ancient Code called the Canons of the Apostles do both of them not only frequently mention as distinct Offices the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon but also express this distinction between Bishop and Presbyter 1. 2 Can. Ap. 1. Can Nic. 4. 3 Can. Ap. 15 31 32 38. Conc. Nic. c. â— That the peculiar power of Ordaining doth reside in the Bishop 2. That he receiveth his Episcopal Office by a special Ordination thereto 3. That he hath a particular power of governing and censuring the Laiety and other Clergy And he who shall consider that many things in the Scripture may receive considerable Light from understanding the custom of the Jews and even of the Gentiles must needs acknowledg that an account of the practice and customs of the Christian Church may lead us to the true sense of those expressions of Scripture which have relation thereto especially since no Man without this help can give a satisfactory account of the distinct work and business of those ordinary Church-Officers which are particularly mentioned in Scripture Wherefore I doubt not but according to the Scripture and the Universal practice of the ancient Church throughout the World the power of the Keys and of remitting and retaining Sins which takes in the whole Office of the Ministry is in some eminent parts of it wholly reserved to Bishops while other parts thereof are dispensed by Priests and some by Deacons Ignat. ad Smyr Tert. de Bapt. c. 17. yet so that these ever acted with submission to the Bishop as is asserted by Ignatius and Tertullian
of God in it that all his Revelations to the Patriarchs and Prophets and especially that by the Holy Jesus to the Christian Church do greatly insist upon it When the Gentile World went greatly astray by their abominable Idolatries and their gross Impurities even in their pretendedly Religious Rites the Doctrine of the Gospel appears to turn them from the Power of Satan unto God When the Jews had been under a lower Dispensation our Lord gives his Disciples more excellent Rules and enlargeth the Precepts of the Moral Law as was truly asserted by Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus St. Augustine and other ancient Writers And why should it be thought strange that Lawgiver should add to the Precepts already given and extend them further who established many new Duties such as to believe the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Faith to perform many religious Services in his Name and with an eye to him to attend on the Gospel-Sacraments to reverence the Christian Ministry and the Power of the Keys and to own and embrace Communion with the diffusive Catholick Church in all Nations He laid new Obligations upon his Disciples concerning Divorce and the changing the Zeal of Elias into Christian Meekness And it is but reasonable to expect that under the Instructions and Motives of Christianity there should be required greater Measures of the Love of God and Goodness But when the Jewish Church had in their Principles and Practices grosly degenerated from the great Design of the Law and many Corruptions were introduced our Lord protests against them and gives his Disciples this Admonition That their Righteousness must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees The Pharisees were the strictest Sect of the Jews at that time the Scribes were their chief Teachers and Guides their Righteousness here intended was what was according to the Rules and Doctrines they delivered and received Against that Leaven of Doctrine our Lord warned his Disciples Mat. 16.12 The out-doing and exceeding this Righteousness is so necessary that it is enjoined under this severe Sanction That otherwise we can in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is a Phrase peculiar to St. Matthew among all the Penmen of the Scripture but hath been observed not to be unusual in the Talmud Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 3.3 and other Jewish Writers It sometimes expresseth in this Evangelist the Kingdom of Christ in his Church on Earth but in this place and others the Kingdom of Glory and eternal Happiness But if any should think these Words directly to assert that none whose Righteousness exceeds not that of the Pharisees and their Teachers the Scribes can be true Members of the Christian Church and Christ's Kingdom upon Earth he must consequently acknowledg that they cannot be Heirs of Heaven Yet these Pharisees were not so wholly irreligious but that they attended the Temple and Synagogues made many Prayers seem'd to have a great Veneration for the Law and a Zeal for the Honour of the God of Israel They were not so grosly dissolute and debauched as to give themselves up to Uncleanness Intemperance and all Unmercifulness but they condemned Adultery fasted and gave Alms. Wherefore it may be needful to enquire I. What were the Miscarriages in their Righteousness and wherein must we exceed them if ever we attain to Happiness II. How stands the Case of those Societies who chiefly pretend to Christianity as to their exceeding or not exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees III. What is the Result of these Enquiries I. Touching their Miscarriages and Defects 1. They placed much Righteousness in their being a peculiar Party and maintaining a kind of Separation They were a particular Sect having and needlesly affecting singular Practices and Opinions different from the other Jews and such as were not enjoined in the Law of Moses The Name Pharisee is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate and divide and themselves were distinguished into seven sorts as the Jewish Writers tell us They did not indeed withdraw themselves from the Synagogue or Temple Publick-Worship since as Josephus saith Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever referred to God both Prayer and other parts of Worship were much ordered by their Model But concerning the Synagogue-Worship there is probable Evidence that the several chief Sects among the Jews and therefore the Pharisees as one of them had their distinct Assemblies And it is certain the Pharisees did reject the best of Men from their Synagogue-Communion meerly for doing their necessary Duty in professing upon the fullest Divine Testimony that Jesus was the Christ and becoming his Followers And in the Temple-Worship the Pharisees were guilty of a kind of Separation under an appearance of Communion For since the daily Sacrifice in the Temple was a Burnt-Offering and therefore appointed for Expiation and Atonement Num. 28.3 the Devotions of them who attended at the Temple at the Hours of Prayer and Sacrifice ought to be conformable thereunto but the Pharisees Prayer there as our Saviour describes it had nothing in it of humble Supplication for God's Mercy and Favour but he thanks God he was not as other Men. And this Spirit of Division was so much the worse in them because it was founded in an high Conceit and great Confidence of their own Righteousness though they had little reason for it and in a contempt of others But now such a proud Temper is inconsistent with Christianity which makes Humility a necessary Qualification for the obtaining everlasting Life And Divisions and Separations are so unaccountable for the Members of the same Body the Church to be engaged in that the Doctrine of Christ gives us frequent Precepts earnest Exhortations and pressing Arguments to Peace and Unity and plainly expresseth the great Danger of Misery in the neglect thereof When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Contests fierce Heats and Divisions are reckoned among those Works of the Flesh which exclude from the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. can any think the great Discords in the Church unconcerned herein when the Concord of Christians is here chiefly enjoined and the Neglect thereof is every way exceeding hurtful and when all these very Expressions are used by St. Paul to set forth the Divisions of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.3 And therefore where-ever Rents or Schisms in the Church are Works of the Flesh as they must be when they are the Product of Pride Self-will or voluntary Disobedience to or Neglect of the Precepts of Peace and Unity they are destructive The Ancient Church charged an high Guilt upon these Practices Cypr. ep 76. ◠St. Cyprian accounts Schism greatly to deprive Men of the Hope of Christianity And St. Austin maintains against the Donatists that their Separation was as great a Sin as that of the Traditores who gave up the Scriptures into the hands of their Persecutors with which Crime the
such circumstances as I forbear to mention And the consideration of this temper may give us some account of the great eagerness and restless earnestness of these erring Parties in propagating their particular Interests 3. Concerning the aiming to gain the applause and favour of Men in the neglect of Duty Our Church in its Rules of Doctrine lays the same stress upon all Duties to God or Man that the Gospel of our Saviour doth without yielding to the Humours of the Profane the Debauched or the Turbulent and Unruly The Romanists suit themselves to all Dispositions they have severe Rules in some of their Regular Societies for the more Serious but they take great care to gratify Wicked and Debauched Persons also with as much Liberty as they can well desire Their Casuists generally declare That an act of Attrition or such Sorrow for Sin as is not accompanied with hatred against it or the true Love of God is at last sufficient with Absolution to remove the guilt of Sin and secure them from Eternal Death But if temporal Punishment remains for them this can only bring them to Purgatory and here they may have considerable help from Indulgences and the Treasury of the Church which are dispensed for Ave-Maries and other Prayers visiting certain places having Masses said for their Souls and by other works without their becoming really holy and good And besides this their feigned Miracles and Revelations their pretended power of Transubstantiating of dispensing the Treasury of Merits in the Church and of justifying them who are not contrite by Absolution seem methods contrived to gain admiration from the People And other Sects make their Interests and seek Reputation by popular Arts and often by promoting or conniving at Uncharitableness Mens high Conceits of themselves and a Temper averse from Unity and Obedience which are things of a very evil Nature And some of their chief Teachers acknowledg that in some things they act against their own Judgments in compliance with their People 4. Concerning Superstitious urging those things as parts of Religion which are not such Our Church owneth no necessary Article of Faith but what is in our Creed nor any Doctrines of Christianity but what are deducible from the Holy Scriptures Our Constitutions for Decency and Rules of Order are established only as such and are withal innocent useful few and agreeing to Primitive Christianity But at Rome a great part of their Religion as they make it consists in acknowledging many things to be de Fide which are neither contained in the Scriptures agreeing with them nor acknowledged in the ancient Church in entertaining various false Doctrines and pretended Traditions with equal reverence to the Holy Scriptures and in using divers Rites as operative of Divine Aid and Grace which God never appointed to that end Our other dividing Parties are too nigh the Pharisaical Doctrine concerning the Obligation of their voluntary Vow against their Duty to Superiours And many of them lay a Doctrinal Necessity either upon disowning Episcopal Authority which hath so great a Testimony of Apostolical Appointment Or in being against Forms of Prayer at least such wherein the People vocally join or in condemning as sinful innocent Appointments decent Ceremonies and suitable Gestures And those who own not these Positions nor condemn our Worship as sinful and yet divide from us must assert other Positions for Doctrines which are equally erroneous and dangerous For if their Principles be agreeable to their Practice they must assert that Men may break the Churches Peace and expose it to the greatest hazards gratify its Enemies and disobey Authority which are great Sins to maintain an opposition to those things which themselves dare not charge with any Sin But this is to aver such Doctrine to be from God which is contrary to his Religion his Nature and his Will and are but the Precepts of Men and it is to strain at a Gnat but swallow a Camel Now if to counterfeit the Seal or Coin or falsely to pretend to the Authority of an Earthly Prince be greatly culpable can it be otherwise to stamp a Divine Impression on things which God disowns 5. Concerning Obedience and Submission to Superiors this Duty is regularly enjoined in our Church both with respect to Private Relations Spiritual Guides and Civil Rulers In the Romish Church there is strict Obedience required in their several Orders to the Superiors thereof in the Laiety to the Clergy and in all to the Pope But this is so irregular that thereby the natural Honour to Parents is much discharged and St. Peter's Precept of Honouring the King is under the name of his Vicar changed into such Positions as when occasion serves may encourage the Deposing and Murdering him And among other Dissenters their Divisions as they are circumstantiated are ipso facto such visible Testimonies of their want of Submission to their Ecclesiastical and Civil Governours that nothing need be added And it is known there were some of these Parties whose Principles allowed them to take Arms against their King and who exposed his Royal Person to Violence and Death 6. Concerning a loose and licentious Life Our Church requires a Sincere Holy Exercise and presseth all the Precepts of our Saviour and the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel and enjoineth the careful observation of our Baptismal Vow But in the Romish Church he that considers the immoral looseness of the Jesuits and other Casuists may wonder that such things should be owned by Men of any Religion much more of them who profess the Christian Religion For instance By our Saviour's Doctrine to love God with all the heart is the great and first Commandment But Azorius asserts Azor. Tom. 1. l. 9. c. 4. That it is hard to fix any time when this Precept of Loving God doth oblige to any exercise thereof with respect to it self but only when it is necessary to Repentance And he roundly saith We are not obliged to any exercise of Love to God when we attain to the use of Reason nor at the receiving any Sacrament not at Confession nor at the approach of Death Filiuc Tr. 22. c. 9. Filiucius thinks this Opinion probable and therefore safe by their Doctrine of Probability but prefers another Opinion which is but little better That we are bound to act Love to God at the time of Death and in some other extraordinary cases if they happen and that ordinarily Men ought to exercise an act of Love to God at least once in five years But I am amazed to think how sparing such Men were of inward Religious Devotion and what Strangers to it And for the practice of Repentance which is another great Duty of our Religion Though Contrition which includes an hating and forsaking Sin and turning to God be acknowledged of good use by them yet Filiucius saith Fil. Tr. 6 c 8. n. 196 197 and 208. Men are not obliged to acts of Contrition every year but once in