the Lord and Giver of Life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son who with the Father and the Son is together Worshipped and Glorified who spake by the Prophets And I believe One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church the Communion of Saints One Baptism for Remission of Sins and Remission of Sins after Baptism by the Discipline of the Church duly executed the Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting in the World to come Moreover I believe That the Article of the Belief of the Holy Catholick Church was put into the Ancient Creeds and placed immediately after those of the Holy Trinity for special Reasons and as a Matter of the next greatest * Note It is the Kingdom of Christ in this World tho' not of this World a great Favour deign'd to Mankind a great Obligation to Unity Unanimity and Charity for all Schismaticks are Mutiniers and Rebels and all in a State of Schism in a State of Rebellion and the Sin of Schism in the Church is a greater Sin than the Sin of Rebellion in a Civil State tho' both may much vary according to several Circumstances Importance to be believed confessed and observed in Order to the rest 2. That this Holy Catholick Church is a Sacred Society formed into One Body by the Ministery of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ according to a General Commission and Special Instructions received from Him under the Conduct of his Spirit and Special Providence who promised to be with them alway even to the end of the World that is with them and their Successours regularly Succeeding in their Seats the Churches founded by them and others constituted by their Successours and that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it 3. That the Form and Government of this Great Body the Holy Catholick Church by Presbyters Bishops Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs was not any Humane Project or Invention or Casual thing but what was designed by the Wisdom of God as necessary for the Constitution Preservation and Government of it in and as One Intire Body and was so formed by the Apostles and their Successors by the Special Instructions and Directions of our Saviour and under the Conduct of the Spirit and Special Providence of God who had prepared the Roman Empire for a kind of Mould to form it in and wherein it received its compleat Formation by degrees in a very Natural manner 4. That there was some * This is granted by Dr. Barrow upon Conviction of Scripture divers Reasons and Authority of Fathers who generally seem to countenance it Tr. of Supr Lond. 1680. p. 46 48. Special Privilege at least of a Primacy partly given to St. Peter and which he held under our Saviour among the rest of the Apostles in our Saviour's Life-time and partly designed for him afterwards as is very observable in various Instances in the Histories of the Gospel and in divers Speeches and Actions many of them Mystical of our Saviour and was commonly believed by the Ancient Christians And that the like Priviledge as that which he held among the Apostles was by the Design and Order of Almighty God to continue in his Successors in the Church †Note Those glorious Predictions concerning the Church of Christ viz. Conversion of Nations and Subjection of Secular Powers have in no part of the Catholic Church been so eminently and even literally fulfilled as in the particular Church of Rome of Rome among the rest of the Bishops that Place being ordered by the Divine Wisdom as most fit for the Chief Seat in our Saviour's Kingdom the Church which had been occupied by the Enemy as the chief Seat in the Empire who was then to be cast out and Possession to be taken for our Saviour by his two chief Apostles as his Deputies And that such Privilege of the chief Seat hath been acknowledged by the Ancient Christians and in all after-Ages and was never denied or questioned but upon Claim or Usurpation of more than due 5. That this Sacred Society being of Special Divine Institution the Government thereof is much more the Ordinance of God than any Civil Authority in the World whatever and Disobedience thereunto a greater Sin and the Coercive Power of the Church by Excommunication duly exercised a greater Punishment than any the Civil Authority can inflict 6. That tho' both the Sacred and the Civil Power be the Ordinance of God yet the Sacred is the more Excellent in respect of the Author of its Constitution and Specification of it s more immediate relation to Him who is the Supream Being of its End of the Subject being a Sacred Society and of the Amplitude of the Society being Catholick diffused over all the World and in respect of the Extent of its Coercive Power to exclude out of the Kingdom of Christ and from the Privileges thereof And that all civil Authority ought to be Subject and Subservient to it both being very consistent and each having Means proper and sufficient to maintain its own Rights but they both ought to be mutually assistent to the Service of the Supream Lord of all and to each other in order thereunto 7. That if any Civil Authority presume to oppress any part of this Sacred Society by Persecution Usurpation or any Restraint or Impediment of the Free Exercise of the Right or Authority belonging to it or Duty incumbent upon it all such Presumption is Sacrilege and Impiety against God and just Cause for any other civil Authority to ingage for the Relief of it And upon Complaint to the Metropolitan Primate or Patriarch as Occasion may be He with a competent Number of others upon * What Qu. Eliz. did by Advice of her Privy Council in assisting the Scotch French and Dutch against their respective Soveraigns may much more be done by any others upon so Solemn Sacred Consultation and Resolution by open War on behalf of the Oppressed Consultation in Synod or by Letters may proceed to Sentence against the Offender and that justly and solemnly declared and signified to other Metropolitants and Bishops they may either leave it so to the Judgment of Almighty God or admonish other civil Authorities of it as may be judged most proper or necessary according to the Circumstances of the Case 8. That because nothing is more destructive to certain Right than Misuse †Such is that Doctrine which Dr. Barrow saith he contests against p. 30. §. 13 14. But in the next §. he saith there are great store of Divines of the Roman Communion who contract that Power into a narrower compass So that tho' he strains as much as he can the Reader is deceived who thinks he hath confuted or opposeth all Supremacy in the Pope Claim of more than is due or by a wrong Title and false or insufficient Proofs possibly ill Use and ill Defence may have so obscured the Lustre of this Right in the Church that
for Christians as were any or all the Sacrifices of the Jews for them that therein is performed the most Solemn and Peculiar part of the true Christian Worship that accordingly it hath been held in great Veneration and much frequented with great Reverence and Devotion by a great Number of Saints and all the most Holy Christians in all Ages that the Opposition which hath been raised against both Name and Thing hath been raised through the Malice and by the subtile Energy or Operation of the Devil and that to deny the same is Heresie and to abolish out of the Publick Liturgy of any Church what doth import any thing of an unbloody Sacrifice Sacrilege and Anti-Christian Impiety v. Dan. 8.31 14. That the Commemoration of the Saints in the most Solemn Christian Worship is a common Practice of the whole Catholick Church of great Antiquity and immemorial Prescription without any known Beginning of very commendable Observation for the Communion of Saints which we profess to believe an Act of Charity Honour and Respect to them well-pleasing to God and beneficial â—â— our selves in rendring Thanks to God for them with Prayers for our selves that we may follow their Example and have Communion Part and Society with them and a part in the Benefit of their Prayers and that to put that out of the Service savours of a Complication of very evil Humours as Superstition Arrogance Contempt of the Authority of the Catholick Church Affectation of Reformation Contention and malicious Reflection of Odium upon others and Separation from the Mystical Body of Christ of which they were most illustrious Members through the Delusion and Instigation of the wicked Anti-Christian Spirit who being overcome by them through Christ dwelling in them abhor all Acts of Affection and Respect to them and that their Triumphs should be celebrated to the Honour of Christ who is honoured in them and for whose Sake all is performed to them 15. Of this I have lately printed a Discourse dedicated to the Lord Chancellour and Judges That Prayers for the Dead departed in the Communion of the Church in this Solemn Worship is also a Practice of the whole Catholick Church of as great Evidence of Apostolical Authority as part of the Holy Scripture it self and other things believed and observed by those who oppose it Innocent Inoffensive Charitable Desirable opposed only upon the same Principles Motives Humours and Instigations with that last mentioned 16. That in the Holy Eucharist there is a Divine Change of the Elements from common Bread and common Wine by the Descent of the Holy Spirit at the Prayer of the Church whereby they are consecrated not by a meer Separation for a Sacred use but by an actual Sanctification and made the Body and Blood of Christ inriched with a Divine Power and Virtue for the Sanctification of the duly disposed Communicants But I cannot say a Transubstantiation because I find no Catholick Tradition for that in the vulgar Sense but rather the contrary as appears by that of Ireaeus duabus rebus constans coelesti terrena and the like in Theodoret and others nor doth it seem necessary or necessarily implyed in any words of our Saviour recorded in the Gospel tho' Cyril of Hierusalem Nyssen and some others may seem to favour it But if there be any proper Explication of it to a Sense truly Catholick I conceive it becomes not any private Person to contend with Authority about a Word only the vulgar sense of Transubstantiation I cannot subscribe to and doubt it is Scandalous and prejudicial to the Interest of the Kingdom of Christ especially to make it a Term of Communion 17. That for Communion in one kind in publick Assemblies and denial of the Cup to the Laity there is no Appearance of â—â—y Catholick Authority but the quite contrary for above 1000 years even in the Latin Church and in all other Churches to this Day Nor was it introduced at first upon any good Deliberation and Consultation of the Clergy but as evil Customs and Abuses crep in insensibly That for any part of the Church to presume to impose it upon all National and Provincial Churches who have Authority to order such things as are lawful in themselves as they see most expedient for their own People seems to savour of great Arrogance unjust Usurpation and an Occasion of Disturbance in the Peaceful Kingdom of Christ Men of Wit and Parts may say much for any thing But in such matters it is good to consider whom we have to do with lest we betray our own Souls and the Church too which we pretend to serve by our Unfaithfulness to it as well as to our Lord to some Divine Judgment It is fit the Church it self should give Example to all if there be Occasion of Humiliation and giving Glory to God I can submit for Peace sake and out of respect to Authority to what I cannot approve but that will aggravate the Sin of those who abuse the Authority committed to them 18. That the Custom of attending at Mass without Communicating is not of any truly Catholick Usage or Authority but contrary to the most ancient Canons of the Church to the common Practice of the first Ages and to the earnest Exhortations of most Eminent Persons * It is very remarkable that the great Confusions in the Greek Churches and Decays of true Piety in the Latin soon issued after their Neglect of frequent Communion began as if by a special and appropriated Judgment of God To be prelent and not communicate was anciently one soâ—t of Penance both of the Greek and Latin Churches proceeded from Decays of Devotion at first and hath produced greater seems to savour of Disrespect to our Saviour and to be very prejudicial to his People being an implicit refusal of Communion and Confirmation of the Holy Covenant with him which is implicitly comprehended in the Act of Communion and an inconsiderate and ingrateful Neglect of a most Holy and effectual Means of Grace most graciously offered to them so that as by what was last mentioned they are deprived of part by this they are defrauded of the whole And in both the Subtilty of the Serpent is much to be suspected 19. Nothing seems more likely to have provoked so severe a Judgment of God upon this Church by Hen. 8. than the Severities before-exercised upon People for what was commended in and by the ancient Christians Reading and Teaching the Scriptures c. in a Language they understood That to keep the Publick Offices of the Church and the Holy Scriptures in a Language not understood by the People hath no Apostolical or true Catholick Authority but is directly contrary to both was at first the Effect of that Alteration of Languages which Wars and other Occurrences produced not only in the Latin but Greek Churches also and is still so continued in both and others besides which were it through Negligence seems hardly excusable much less
have been falsly charged and wronged in divers things Effects a Form of Godliness but little of the Power much Talk of Religion but little of the tâ—ue Works much in the Head but little in the Heart some Beginnings some little Progress but rarely any thing brought to Perfection or more compleat than the Chickens which are said to be hatched in some artificial Stoves which tho' otherwise brought to Maturity are all maimed in one part or other and generally Decays of Piety and Virtue even from the beginning such as made Luther complain That since the Gospel was preached in its Purity as he called it People were grown worse than under the Papacy And certainly if we come to Comparison as to the Fruits one Disciple of Ignatius Loyola since Luther Francis Xavier a Missioner of the Pope produced more true Evangelical Fruits in the compass of Ten Years or little more in Conversion of Infidels and more illustrious Evidences of a Divine Power with him than all the Reformers put together ever since Luther began to this day which is a great Divine Attestation both to his Order and to the Authority by which he was sent and the more considerable in respect of the Time the very time of the pretended Reformation as if ordered on purpose by the Divine Providence for an Evidence of the Difference of the Spirits by which the two Works were promoted And if we consider the Effects in respect of the Church of Rome I believe they will not upon a just Examination appear to have been better in those who on pretence of Reformation have made the Separation than in the Church they have gone out of and that there wants nothing but a more compleat Reformation of the Churches of the Roman Communion for a final Demonstration by an end of this pretended Reformation that it was no other than a temporary Judgment for Correction of what was amiss in the Church 30. That among all the pretended Reformations it may be a question Whether any was introduced with greater Wickedness or settled at last with greater Faults than this of the Church of England how much soever magnified by such as have or expect Preferments in it But to pass by the wicked Practices first to hector and terrifie with false Accusations and Pretences Wolsey out of his Life then the rest of the Clergy into a Recognition of an Antichristian Supremacy and Subjection of the Rights of the Church to the Will of a wicked Tyrant then the Superiors of the Religious Houses to surrender all their Goods and Estates and then by like Practices to get all confirmed by Act of Parliament partly hectoring and partly bribing and ingaging the Nobility and Gentry with the Spoils into a Compliance with the most horrible Sacrilege and Devastation of the Goods and Estates of the Religious of which ten Thousand at a time were turned out and put to shift for themselves with Forty Shillings and a Gown a piece besides all this the Guilt of which may still remain there are these Monstrous Faults the Effects of that Wickedness still remaining in the Constitution of this Reformed Church 1. As to the Government a Sacrilegious Usurpation upon the Rights of the Church in the Nomination of Bishops Deans Prebends c. with a prophane Mockery or Abuse of a Mock Election of Persons imposed upon them and in holding Synods and making and executing Canons and Constitutions all continued in the Power of the Prince by Act of Parliament and given up by the Clergy So that if we have Bishops as they are called they are neither Canonically chosen nor are permitted or dare to exercise any Authority of a National Church And should we have a Deist Infidel or one ill affected to Christianity what a Church might here be expected in a few Years 2. It is a mutinous Body actually separated from the great Body of the Kingdom of Christ the Catholick Church and hath no actual Communion with any Church which is not broken off from that Body or which is regularly and orderly by Succession of Presbyters descended from the Apostles 3. As to the Worship the Publick Liturgy has been so curtelled and disordered by Cranmer and a secret Faction in the principal part that they have abolished not only the Commemoration of the Saints and Prayers for the Dead but even the Prayer at the Consecration for the Descent of the Holy Spirit and whatever might import any thing of Oblation of the Commemorative Sacrifice of our Saviour's Passion which hath always been reputed the Principal most Solemn and Peculiar part of the Christian Worship throughout the whole Catholick Church 4. As for the Discipline if we have Bishops they are so awed by the Civil Authority on the one side with Prohibitions and hampered by their Chancellours on the other that there is little left for them to exercise of the proper Authority of a Diocesian Church but they bear the blame of those Scandals they cannot remedy 5. But after all it may be a Question Whether we have Bishops that is true Christian Bishops at all or only a sort of State Bishops without any true Spiritual and Apostolical Authority or other than what was derived from the King and dependent â—pon him These things being so I thought it my Duty to make this Profession of Faith and Declaration That I Disclaim Renounce and Detest that Horrible Sacrilege of the Dissolution of the Monasteries that greater Sacrilege of Vsurpation by the Civil Authority of the Rights of the Church instituted by Divine Authority the Sacrilegious Corruptions of the Liturgy the Erastian Heresie of Cranmer the Condemnation and Execution of the Right-Reverend Bishop Fisher Sir Thomas More and the rest who suffered in Person and the Condemnation and Deprivation of the Clergy who suffered in their Rights and Estates for Denying Contradicting or Refusing to Swear to the pretended Supremacy of the Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Matters and all Laws Statutes c. which restrain the free Exercise of the Christian Discipline or any Rites of the Church or were intended to establish confirm or authorize any of the Sacrileges Usurpations Corruptions or Condemnations aforesaid as wicked unjust and Schismatical and contrary to the Law of God and to one of the chief Fundamental Principles of the Laws of this Land and that I do sincerely and heartily desire an actual Communion as there may be occasion with all Churches under the Government of a regular Succession of Bishops and Presbyters from the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and in actual Communion with the Catholick Church and desire it particularly with the Church of France being the next so qualified and in order thereunto do hereby for my part humbly make a Publick Tender thereof FINIS