and holy lives in the World whereby God might be glorified and themselves qualified through the grace of God to partake of higher degrees of glory in the World to come there being good reason to judge that the Apostles Martyrs and eminent Servants of God in this life have a more excellent glory in the other World where all that enter in have perfect joy 6. Obj. 4. This position placeth a great efficacy in Order to Salvation in an outward action of man baptizing yea rather more than in the Grace of God and Predestination Since it must be supposed that many who were in a state of Salvation by their Baptism do yet finally perish and therefore also all those who assert perseverance in a state of Grace must disown this opinion of Baptismal saving regeneration Tertul. de Bapt. c. 2. Ans 1. That it is certain that some outward actions of men not as they are their actions but as they onclude the tenders of the grace of God and are his institutions or as they bear respect to the Grace and Promise of God may be greatly available to our Salvation such were the Apostles Preaching and such is the due Administration of Sacraments and he who will dispute against the efficacious vertue of these things as means of Grace must oppose also the saving benefits of the Gospel and of the institution of Christ And the advantage by this Ordinance of Baptism is that it is a performance on mans part of what the Covenant of Grace requireth concerning Infants and that it is on Gods part an Ordinance of Grace and therefore the benefits by Baptism do flow from the Grace and Promise of God and ought not to be considered in opposition thereto and even the advantage of baptized Infants dying in their Infancy is the fruit of the grace of God and Predestination Wardi Thes n. 36. 2. The Question about Perseverance is well observed by Dr. Ward to be distinct from this present subject for to persevere in the Infant-regeneration which is chiefly relative is no sufficient qualification for the acceptance of the adult in whom another kind of regeneration by inward real conversion and gracious qualifications and exercises is necessary and of whom the Question of Perseverance is in the same place declared to be understood Thes Salm. de Persever th 39. Ibidem and to the same purpose writeth Amyraldus also And whereas Infant Baptism receiveth the person to be under the Covenant of Grace it is justly asserted by Dr. Ward that even those who after Baptism live in wickedness do continue acquitted and discharged from the Original guilt of the first Covenant and that bringing destruction upon themselves under the Gospel they do perish altogether for the breach of the second Covenant or for not performing the conditions of Christianity which they undertook in Baptism which also was asserted by S. Augustine Thes n. 35. Fulgentius Prosper and the African Synods which are by him there produced SECT VI. Of the notion of visible regeneration in Baptism 1. There is another Notion of Baptismal Regeneration to be considered That Baptism doth certainly admit persons into Communion with the Church of Christ and to visible Membership with him and that every baptized person whether he be adult or Infant hath thereupon such titles belonging to him that he is to be called regenerate a Child of God a Member of Christ upon the account of his being then admitted into the Christian Society and being received by Baptism to the profession of Christianity and under the Covenant of Grace whereby he is visibly such And this opinion as it referreth to the adult doth also acknowledge that Baptism is to them a means of Grace and of Spiritual Regeneration unto Salvation when they come to it duly prepared with those gracious qualifications which are necessary to the receiving the saving benefits of Gods Covenant and also as it is well improved by their future holy exercises of life Indeed there are some men who allow no spiritual efficacy to the Ordinance of Baptism as an instrument of grace but this is an opinion so contrary to the nature of a Sacrament and to the general Doctrine of the Ancients and the Protestant Churches that it deserveth to be earnestly exploded 2. This notion as it is extended to Infants as understanding them in this sense to be regenerated in Baptism was embraced by some in our Church from King Edwards Reign and seemeth probably favoured by some expressions of Bishop Whit-gift Answ to the Appeal c. 12. and is more particularly expressed by Bishop Carlton and divers others Nor doth the entertaining this way of explication necessarily deny the saving Regeneration of all baptized Infants For though some few persons have inconsiderately uttered hard expressions against many dying baptized Infants as that multi infantes damnantur cum baptismo such words do appear at least so unadvised and ungrounded that I presume it will be ordinarily acknowledged by them who embrace this notion to be neither safe nor charitable to imitate them But most others who proceed this way though they come not so far as to embrace it as a Doctrine that all baptized Infants in the Church are in a state of Salvation yet because they know of nothing wanting towards their Salvation they conclude that it is at least very hopeful to God-ward and that the Church by the judgment of Charity must acknowledge them all in a justified estate 3. Bishop Carlton declareth himself to this purpose Vbi supraâ— That young Children baptized are delivered from Original sin we doubt not and if they dye before they come to the practice of actual sins they shall be saved and that Children baptized are put into the state of Salvation I make no doubt of it but saith he this we must believe ex judicio charitatis Which Phrase of believing by the judgment of Charity which some have thought improper is I conceive the same with those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.7 Charity believeth all things that is where there is nothing that can determine us to the contrary Christian Charity requireth us to entertain the most favourable apprehension and to judge and hope the best And that Rubrick That Children baptized dying before they commit actual sins are undoubtedly saved may according to this notion be acknowledged as certainly true of Children indefinitely without denying it to be true universally And they who entertain these apprehensions do acknowledge that all baptized Infants or others are regenerated and justified Sacramento tenus or they are visibly such so far as concerneth their profession and the application of the means of grace and they may be affirmed to be such according to the usual language of the Holy Scriptures concerning Sacraments and the dispensation of the grace of God 4. And this notion as it is very true so it is made use of and manifestly allowed in our Liturgy in the office for them who are
baptized in riper years where every person then baptized is said to be regenerated and graffed into the body of Christs Church to be born again and made an heir of everlasting Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and to have now by Baptism put on Christ being made a Child of God and of the Light Yet it is not hereby intended to be dogmatically declared that every adult person receiving Baptism is thereby in a certain state of Salvation because true Faith and Repentance which some such persons may possibly want is in them necessary in order to the spiritual efficacy of the Sacraments and is so acknowledged by the Doctrine of our Church Artic. 27. For as our Articles declare that those who receive Baptism rightly are thereby as by an instrument graffed into the Church and obtain remission of sins so they also assert concerning Sacraments Artic. 25. that in such only who worthily receive the same they have a wholesom effect and operation 5. Agreeable hereto are the frequent expressions of the ancient Church in which it was ordinarily and truly delivered that Baptism without true Faith and Repentance cannot avail to the salvation of the adult nor put them into a present justified state And though some words in S. Augustine by way of dispute and inquiry do incline to the contrary yet that that was none of his fixed judgment was sufficiently observed by the Master of the Sentences Sent. l. 4. Dist 4. b. Aug. Cont. Liter Petit l. 1. c. 23. S. Augustine proveth that Baptism is inwardly of no profit to some from the example of Simon Magus and from the same instance S. Hierome concludeth Hier. in Ezek. 16. that he who doth not receive Baptism with a compleat Faith is indeed baptized with water sed nequaquam baptizatus est in salutem but is in no wise baptized unto salvation Cyril Hieros Procatach and Cyrill of Hieru expresseth him who cometh with his body to Baptism and not with his heart to be nothing profited And this must needs be acknowledged for truth because the performance of the conditions of the Covenant of grace by the adult can in no respect be confined to Baptism only 6. Yet these Writers did ordinarily acknowledge both universally concerning all persons baptized and particularly concerning any adult person that they had put on Christ and were made his Members and were regenerated by the Holy Ghost and born again with other such like expressions S. Augustine saith Cont. Donat l. 5. c. 24. Men put on Christ either ad Sacramenti perceptionem so far as concerneth the receiving the Sacrament or usque ad vitae sanctificationem as far as reacheth to the sanctification of life which is admitted by P. Lombard who inferreth thence that all persons who receive Baptism put on Christ Cyril telleth every one of those adult persons who came to be baptized Cyr. Catech 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost will seal your Souls According to the expression of Rabanus any baptized person à Christo Christianus vocatur De instit Cleric l. 1. c. 1. Dei Patris Ecclesiae matris noscitur esse filius is called from Christ a Christian and is known to be a Child of God his Father and of the Church his Mother and Clemens Alexandrinus accounteth all who are admitted into the Church of Christ to be called Members of Christ whose body is the Church and towards them who indulge themselves in Carnal practices and pleasures Strom. l. 7. he indulgeth himself in this fanciful expression to esteem them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. But above all the language which the holy Scripture useth is to be observed which as it oft speaketh of Children of God and such like Phrases concerning them who are inwardly renewed by a divine life which it every where requireth as of absolute necessity so upon account of visible admission to the Church and profession of the Faith it oft applyeth the like expressions towards every person received into the Church So 1. Gal. 3.27 S. Paul declareth as many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ 2. Concerning baptized persons being Members of Christ and graffed into his body the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 12.13 We are all baptized into one body and v. 27. Ye are the body of Christ and Members in particular Which words respect every one in the Church of Corinth who are required from this argument because they are members of Christs body to consult not themselves but the benefit of the whole Church and to consider the different proportions of several Members And when he useth this Argument against Fornication 1. Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid he doth no doubt thereby disswade every person who had undertaken Christianity from that filthy sin because by his Baptism his body was dedicated to be a Member of Christ And to this may be added what our Saviour speaketh Joh. 15.2 of a branch in him that beareth not fruit 8. V. Sect. 9. n. 5. 3. Concerning the titles of being regenerated born again and being the Children of God we may observe that even those circumcised Members of the Jewish Church who denyed the holy one and the just and killed the Prince of life Act. 3.14 15. Act. 3.25 and who as yet had not repented nor were converted v. 19. were yet called the Children of the Covenant which God made with Abraham And of those Jews for whom the Apostle had great sorrow and continual heaviness and for whom he could wish himself accursed from Christ he saith Rom. 9.4 that to them pertaineth the adoption By which expressions it is meant that they were visibly Children of the Covenant by undertaking it and that they were under the tenders and external priviledges of adoption and under the visible means of the spiritual benefits thereof Under the Christian profession the Apostle expressing to his Galatians the difference between being under the legal Covenant which gendreth to bondage Adv. Marc. l. 5. c. 4. Ch. 4.24 and the Evangelical Covenant which bringeth forth them that are free or between Judaismus and Christianismus as Tertullian speaketh saith that the Jerusalem which is above that is the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel Doctrine as Illyricus rightly glosseth is the Mother of us all Illyr Gloss in Loc. v. 26. and we are the Children of the promise v. 28. Which things are mentioned as titles of priviledge which their undertaking the Gospel profession did receive them unto And when the Apostle telleth them Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus it is evident from his scope that by faith is there understood the Gospel dispensation of Faith undertaken by them in opposition to the Law and that those who by Baptism are admitted to the profession of the Christian Faith are called the
that such Confirmation with Imposition of hands might be restored 9. But it remaineth to be inquired how the Church can certifie the persons confirmed by the sign of Imposition of hands of Gods favour and gracious goodness towards them For the answering of which waving other considerations I shall observe two things First that as this imposition of hands is a testimony of admitting persons to a higher rank of Christian Professors who ratifie their baptismal Covenant by their own action intimating also an approbation of this profession it includeth the power of the Keys whereby the Officers of the Church are enabled by Gods authority to declare particularly his favour and gracious goodness to them who embrace the conditions of Christianity and to direct them thereunto and to this purpose was Imposition of hands on the Penitents at divers times used in the ancient Church And to testifie Gods gracious acceptance either by our words or actions of mens undertaking the exercise of Christianity is a thing greatly different from the tendering the divine grace of Gods Covenant as exhibited by any sign as a means to convey the same which is the proper nature of a Sacrament 10. Secondly This Imposition of hands is a sign of a Benediction in Gods name from the Officer of Gods Church The Levites and especially the Priests under the Law were required to bless the people in the name of God Deut. 10.8 1 Chron. 23.13 which blessing was performed in a way of benedictory prayer or supplication Numb 6.23 and this blessing in Gods name was a testimony of Gods giving his blessing to them supposing them not to render themselves uncapable thereof Num. 6.27 The external testimony of their general blessing all the people Targ. Jonath in Num. 6.23 was most probably by lifting up their hands towards them as is declared by one of the Chaldee Paraphrasts and is observed by Baronius Baron Annal Eccl. An. 34. n. 220. and we have an instance of this Rite attending the Priestly benediction Lev. 9.22 and our Saviour made use of the same Luk. 24.50 But in their solemn particular benedictions in the Old Testament they used Imposition of hands of which we have an example Gen. 48.14.16 in Jacobs blessing the Sons of Joseph this Rite was also used in their Ordination of their Elders and the constant use hereof in the particular benedictions by persons of great eminency among the Jews is reasonably esteemed the cause why the Jews brought little Children to Christ that he might put his hands on them and pray Mat. 19.13 Gret in Mat. 19.13 And from the frequent practice of this Rite Junius and Tremellius have ventured to admit a Paraphrase into their Translation concerning the Priestly benediction wherein they express the use of Imposition of hands in Num. 6.27 which can only be allowed concerning particular benedictions The end and design of imposition of hands in benediction 〈…〉 voc 〈◊〉 Jâ—n in Num. 6. c. 7. is declared by Ravanellus to be in testimony of the help favour and grace of God to be given to him who receiveth imposition of hands and Junius saith by this sign they were to testifie to the people Gods grace which are Phrases much like those in this Prayer at Confirmation in our Liturgy Yet this Rite was only a sign of Gods favour in this use with respect to the Benediction or Prayer for that person supposing and hoping him to be duly qualified for the receiving the benefit therein desired and therefore is of no Sacramental nature 11. Now â—lessing including nothing Ceremonial and peculiar to the Law and the Ministry of the Old Testament is very suitable to the Gospel which is in an especial manner a Dispensation of Blessing And this benediction or praying 〈◊〉 for Gods blessing was the 〈…〉 designed in this Apostolical 〈◊〉 of hands with prayer and from their time this use hath been continued in the Christian Church as hath been shewed and it would be a strange unreasonable and uncharitable thing if those who come to renew their baptismal Covenant might not receive the Churches blessing in Gods name with prayer for their Christian growth and perseverance And the dignity of Office in the Church chiefly giving authority to bless according to that rule of the Apostle Heb. 7.7 without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater this solemn benediction at Confirmation hath thereupon been justly reserved to the Bishop or chief Officer of the Church by whom alone it was performed in the time of S. Cyprian and S. Hierom. 12. Confirmation in our use thereof is called by Bishop Whitgift Bishop Whitg Defence p. 785. Eccl. Pol. l. 5. Sect. 66. The Bishops benediction by laying on of hands by Mr. Hooker This special benediction the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation and when Confirmation was restored in Scotland in the fourth Article of the Assembly of Perth it was declared concerning children who had been catechized that the Bishop should bless them with prayer for the increase of their knowledge and the continuance of Gods heavenly grace with every one of them And the ancient Confirmation was accounted a Benediction by Tertullian Tertul. de Bapt. c. 8. Conc. Eliber c. 77. and a Benediction of the Bishop by the Council of Elvira And since the Gospel-dispensation is a Ministration of Blessing and the great blessing of the Gospel is to receive the promise of the Spirit Gal. 3.14 This benedictory prayer upon a solemn occasion for the grace and strength of that Spirit was suitably accompanied in the practice of the Apostles and the Christian Church with the ancient and proper token of benediction the Imposition of hands 13. Presbyt Except p. 29. But it hath been urged that the Articles of our Church declare imposition of hands in Confirmation to be a corrupt imitation of the Apostles practice and that Confirmation hath no visible sign appointed by God Artic. 25. and therefore Imposition of hands cannot therein certifie children of Gods favour and gracious goodness towards them and thus contradictions are injuriously imposed upon the Church The words of the Article to which they refer are these Article 25. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extreme Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible sign or Ceremony ordained of God The sense of the former part of which words is That the Church of Rome accounting Confirmation Penance Orders and Extreme Vnction for proper Sacraments of the Gospel their errour herein proceedeth from their corrupting those things which were practised by the Apostles but their esteeming Marriage to be a Sacrament is a mis-representing a state of life allowed in the
Scripture to be a Gospel-Sacrament 14. The latter clause of those words of the Article do manifestly alike deny Confirmation and Ordination to have any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God or that God hath not appointed in them any such properly Sacramental sign as Baptism and the Lords Supper hath For in both these the Imposition of hands is immediately a representation of a benediction and of being thereby received into a higher degree among Christians by the ministerial power of the Church and though further grace from God is needful in this higher degree and humble and devout persons may receive grace from God suitable to whatsoever state he calleth them yet grace is in these cases to be expected in the use of Prayer and from the Promises of Gods assistance to and presence with his people and his Ministry but not immediately from God by the use of Imposition of hands as an outward sign whereby that grace is directly exhibited and conveyed and moreover proper Sacraments are seals of Gods whole Covenant and means whereby he conveyeth both pardoning and satisfying grace And I further add that the acknowledging the sign of Imposition of hands in Confirmation not to have any divine institution or immediate command hindreth not its being of Apostolical practice and that in the use thereof we may both follow the example of the Apostles and certifie Gods favour and gracious goodness to persons confirmed according as is above expressed SECT IV. Of the Ring in Marriage And the Conclusion 1. The Ring was by the old Nonconformists called a Sacramental Sign and a new Sacrament and others since have expressed some fear lest the use of these words with the delivery of the Ring In Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost should favour them who account Marriage a Sacrament But if this was an intimation of a Sacrament a last Will and Testament beginning In the Name of God c. and being signed and sealed must be accounted a Sacrament And even among the Romanists who esteem Marriage for a Sacrament the Ring is not fixed upon for the sign or matter thereof but some fix upon the persons contracting others upon all those words and actions whereby consent is signified others as Estius speaketh doubt which of these to close with Bellarm. de Matrim Sacr. c. 6. and Bellarmine admitteth them both 2. Now though Marriage be in some sense a Religious Constitution as having its original institution from God yet both the nature of this society and the end of it speak it a civil state of Gods appointment even as the state of Government and Subjection is and therefore as other civil contracts are established by words of consent ordinarily attended with real signs or tokens as with us some Livery and Seisin is used in the passing over an Estate and by the general consent of the World an Earnest attendeth ordinary Bargains so by a large consent of Nations hath a Ring been thought fit to establish the Matrimonial contract as a pledge or earnest thereof Whence it was an ordinary custom among the Jews to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ring of Espousing the manner of its use among the modern Jews is expressed by Buxtorfe in his Synagogua Judaica Syn. Jud. c. 28. and the ancient practice thereof is mentioned in the Talmud in Kiddushin Buxt Lex Radbin in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among the ancient and laudable customs of the Roman Empire Tertul. Apol c. 6. Tertullian reckoneth this for one that women then wore gold only on that one finger quem sponsus oppignorasset annulo pronubo where the Bridegroom had put the pledge of the Matrimonial Ring Baron An. 57. n. 51. and Pamelius upon that place of Tertullian and Baronius also observeth the like use of the Ring to be expressed by Pliny to which purpose also are the words of Juvenal who describing Marriage saith Et digitis pignus fortasse dedisti Juven Sat. 6. and Theosebius in Photius calleth the Ring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conjoyner of conjugal society But though the use of this Rite in Marriage was very ancient Tertul. de Idolatr c. 16. even among the Pagan Nations Tertullian assureth us it was no part of their Paganism saith he Neque annulus neque conjunctio maritalis de alicujus idoli honore descendit but this pledge and other common earnests were prudently used long before the time of Christ and are still continued under Christianity 3. And that the principal use of this Rite is under the Christian state continued to be an earnest of this Matrimonial Contract is not only manifest from those ancient ritual words mentioned by Durantus Durandus and many others Annulo suo subarravit me sibi Dominus but from S. Augustin Aug. Tr. 2. in 1. Ep. Johan who calleth it arram sponsi the pledge or earnest of the Husband and the same intent hereof is expressed in several testimonies cited in Gratians Decretum c. 30. q. 5. c. nostrates Foeminae V. Gloss in c. 27. q. 2. si quis And in our Liturgy the giving and receiving a Ring is declared to be a pledge of the Vow and Covenant made between the persons who enter upon this state of Marriage And whereas these words In the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost have some relation to the pledge of Wedlock by the Ring in our Office of Marriage as it is a testimony of consent to the Covenant of Marriage the sense and design thereof is to express thus much That this Contract of Marriage in the Church is undertaken with respect to the Rules of the Christian Doctrine and the Institution of God concerning Marriage and by Authority therefrom and in Subjection thereunto and that by reason of this institution the expressed consent of the persons contracting must stand firm and inviolable and therefore it is fitly and solemnly declared to be In the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in that being now joyned together by God no man can put them asunder 4. But besides this principal end of the Ring the delivery thereof did also include a giving authority to the Wife to command and take care of the goods of the house and the provisions which the ancient Romans usually sealed and hence the Ring given in Marriage was a Seal-ring Paed. l. 3. c. 11. Thus Clemens Alexandrinus calleth it a Ring of Gold given to the Woman but not for ornament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to set a seal upon what requireth safe custody and in the same Chapter he saith that the care of the house is fitly committed to the Wife and those who have no wives may use the Seal-ring themselves So he expresseth this ancient usage of giving a Seal-ring which may also not improbably be designed in the comprehensiveness of Tertullians language Tertull. ad Vxor l. 2. c 9. by his Phrase of
49. And that good man as both Ruffinus and himself relate when the Church was like to be embroiled upon his account cryed out in the words of Jonah Naz. Cann de Vit. sua If this tempest be for me take me up and cast me into the Sea and the disturbance shall be at an end And his readiness by all effectual means to promote Peace together with his eloquent discourses to that purpose had such an influence upon the concord of the second General Council and the Churches good Baron Annal An. 381. n. 55. that Baronius thinketh that thereupon the very place where that Council sate and these speeches were made did bear the name of Concordia in after times which was an evidence how highly Concord was then valued Indeed it becometh a builder to repair and cement the breaches in the Church which is the House of God but he who would widen and encrease them goeth the way to make the whole to fall and it may be that part may be first in its ruins which he least desireth 7. Besides this the dreadful ruins of Kingdoms and Countries which are sometimes the consequents of Church divisions are enough to awaken and deeply affect them who are not senseless and past feeling to beware thereof He who readeth the History of the Turks and of the Eastern Empire may see that the Christians State divisions founded upon or fomented by discords in the Church laid the foundation on which the Turks erected their Dominion in those places which was the rooting out their publick Christian profession And the last words of the Old Testament acquaint us that the continuance of dissentions provoketh God to smite the Earth with a Cherem or a dreadful Curse which includeth an irrecoverable devoting Prol de Bel. Jud. and Josephus relateth that the divisions of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation exposed them to the desolation brought upon them by the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bar. An. 303. n. 29. And it is observed by Baronius that the dissentions in Africa raised by the Donatists were the occasion of the great calamities there sustained first from the Vandals and after than from the Arabians to the destruction of the Country and the almost final ruine there both of the other Christians and of the Donatists themselves 8. Amongst plenty of other instances it becometh us to be most affected as we were most concerned with the much Christian bloud unchristianly shed in England as a sad consequent of these contentions We made our selves an example to Foreigners who took notice that Apud Anglos integro seculo de Ecclesiae regimine controversia violenter agitata est ad status usque publici convulsionem that the violent motions and disturbances in England about Ecclesiastical controversies wrought us into a convulsive and distracted State And we who are nearest home ought to be if we be not most sensible and apprehensive of this which others at a distance could not but observe with some amazement The Lord grant that we may at length learn to mind the ways of Peace and discern the danger and guilt of needless running into divisions 9. The breaking the Churches Peace is peculiarly sinful when without any just and necessary grounds contentions run so high as to appear in open Schism and separation which hath been long designed and is too much practised by many opposers of Conformity And though it be and must be asserted that separation is both lawful and necessary and therefore free from the sin of Schism where Communion upon a right understanding cannot be kept without sin yet even the Writings of many Non-Conformists as well as of others do express and aggravate the sin of unnecessary separation and the Canons of the ancient Church declare very severely against it Can. Ap. 31. Conc. Carth. c. c. 100. Besides Conc. Ancyr c. 18. Gang. c. 6. Antioch c. 5.2 Carth. c. 9. Trull c. 31. Such separation is condemned as ambition and tyranny in the Canons called the Apostles as a destructive Sacrilegious sin in the African Code as a sin which excludeth from the Kingdom of Heaven by Ignatius Ign. ad Philad Cont. Helv. c. 22. and it is censured to enclude a contempt of true Religion by the Helvetick confession 10. It is a known and approved sentence of Dionysius Alexandrinus Eus Eccl. Hist l. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That to suffer Martyrdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than to divide the Church by Schisms is not less glorious then to be a Martyr for resusing to offer Sacrifice unto Idols Cyp. de Vnit Eccles And S. Cyprian asserteth that the sin of breaking the Churches peace by Schism is in divers respects more hainous than the sin of those lapsed Christians who in the time of persecution yielded to offer Sacrifice to Idols Because the former bewailed his miscarriage and by repentance sought for pardon from God and communion with his Church his straights and dangers were the occasion of his sin and though he miscarried himself he did not perswade others to do the like and he might afterwards be honoured as a Martyr whereas the latter was swelling and pleasing himself in his sin did disturb oppose and reject the Church his sin was his of his own free and voluntary choice and he also beguiled and ensnared others And all this was expressed by both these ancient Writers with peculiar reference to the Novatian Schism which them made a breach in the Churches Vnity about matters of Discipline without denying any Articles of the Faith Ibidem And S. Cyprian proceedeth so far as to declare that if the man who soweth discord in the Church should lay down his life in the defence of the name of Christ the stain of his sin could not be wiped out that is so as to render him honoured in the Church by the stream of his bloud but as he goeth on inexpiabilis gravis est culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur 〈◊〉 adv And the same thing is by Optatus urged against the Donatists Parm. l. 3. and is approved by divers others as being grounded on the words of S. Paul If I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it presiteth me nothing And from hence we may discern that in those Primitive times when the vital heat of Piety within was able to prevail against the fiercest flames of Persecution without this duty of minding the Churches Unity had a mighty commanding force upon the Consciences of Christians and they accounted unnecessary divisions and Schisms to be unchristian practices and dreadful sins 11. Nor can such separation be otherwise accounted of then a great evil which general experience manifesteth ordinarily to eat out Christian love and doth most directly and openly oppose that Christian Vnity which as the following Section will evidence the Gospel commandeth the relation of Membership in the Christian Society requireth and our blessed Saviour earnestly
and affectionately recommended and hath naturally such other dangerous attendants as have been above observed to be the result of the breach or want of the Churches Peace This sin is to the Church what Sedition is to the State the most manifest and direct means to hinder its Government and to destroy that Society which is best preserved in true Vnity and of which as Christ himself hath so every Christian ought to have a tender regard It is to the body of Christ what disjointing is to the body of man it hindreth the actions of the body and the usefulness of the members to each other it weakneth the whole and causeth pain and anxious grief to those other members which are not senseless and is ordinarily accompanied with swelling tumours in the part ill-affected and out of order 12. And as it self is contrary to Gods Commandment so its influence promoteth all manner of sin and is called by Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an original of evils Ign. Ep. ad Smyrn For besides the evils above mentioned which accompany this sin as it includeth a breach of the Churches Peace it is apt to prevail with the Separatist to so much impiety as to place much of his Religion in that which is his sin viz. his unwarrantable separation and it is oft if not ordinarily attended with so great uncharitableness as to be pleased with respect to the interest of their party in hearing if not speaking evil concerning others who withstand them It promoteth prosaneness and disadvantageth Religion in others by rendring censures and admonitions of the Church when they are administred the less efficacious upon the offenders who are the more ready to conclude that it is no great shame or danger to be excluded from that Society of Christians from which many who profess Religion do exclude themselves And upon this and other easily discernable accounts it is a probable occasion of remisness in the exercising discipline which would be more enforced and enlivened by a more general Union whereby also divers obstacles and impediments would be removed Athan. Synops in 1. Ep. ad Cor. Thus Athanasius was of opinion that the Corinthian divisions were the cause why the incestious person was not rejected SECT IV. Some false Conceptions of Schism refuted 1. But because there are some notions or rather misrepresentations of this sin of Schism designed to excuse many from the guilt thereof whom the rules of Christianity do envolve under it I shall endeavour to discover the insufficiency of such Plaisters either to cover or cure so great and dangerous wounds as the deep rents made in the Church to which they are applyed 2. A first false Conception of Schism A first Notion is the natural result of the New-England Independant Principles of Church-Communion They assert expresly Ans to 32. Qu. quo 4. that Baptism neither maketh nor admitteth any to be members of the Church and call it the opinion of Papists and Anabaptists that we enter into the Church by Baptism But they assert the foundation of Church-Society to be laid in their Church-Covenant which is a particular contract among themselves binding themselves to God and one to another to live in Christian Society with that particular Congregation to which they join themselves by this contract Apol. for Chur. Coven p. 3 5 15. And this Church-Covenant is they say the Constitutive form of a Church and joining in it is that which maketh a particular person a member of a Church And from hence it may be easily infered that there can be no duty of holding and therefore no sin of Schism in withdrawing or neglecting Communion where they have not made this engagement by that particular Covenant 3. But this notion of the Vnion and Communion of the Church doth confine it to such strait limits as to exclude in a manner all Christians of all ages from Church Society but themselves and is thereby uncharitable and no stranger to Schism and can not consist with the full and due sense of the Churches Catholicism for the ancient Church did never account the obligation to Christian Communion to be so narrow a thing as only to respect a particular Congregation and therefore never framed any such particular Covenant This is also directly contrary to S. Paul who as an argument to Union and against Schism saith 1 Cor. 12 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and teacheth us that we are baptized into Christ Rom. 6.3 and thereby are planted together in the likeness of his death v. 5. and that they who are baptized into Christ do put on Christ Gal. 3.27 Which Scriptures do sufficiently express that by our Baptism as we undertake the Christian life so we thereby are admitted to be members of the Church or body of Christ and are engaged as members to Vnity therein and to continue in Communion therewith Whereas if this notion was admitted the grounds for the being and Vnion of the Church which the Scriptures lay down together with the Apostolical and Primitive practice must be accounted as insufficient and the necessary support of its being and Union must be derived from this late invention All which things are sufficient to manifest the errour of this opinion and to shew that there may be a sinful breach of the Vnity of the Church among them who never entred into that Church Covenant 4. A second Notion Dr. Owen of Love Church Peace c. 3. But one of that way of our own Nation treating of Schism and separation acknowledgeth Baptism to give Relation to or entrance into the Catholick Church visible but still owneth a particular contract or joint consent among themselves to be the only bond for external Ecclesiastical Communion in a particular Church or as he expresseth it to be that wherein the Vnion of such a Church doth consist which will be hereafter further considered N. 19 20. Dr. Owen's Review of Schism ch 8 9. And he giveth us this representation of Schism That the sin of Schism doth not consist in the want of or breach of external Vnity by separation but in the want of internal Vnity by needless divisions of judgment in a particular Congregation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith is used 1 Cor. c. 1.11 Hence these assertions are laid down 1. That the departing of any man or men from any particular Church as to the Communion peculiar to such a Church is no where in Scripture called Schism nor is so in the nature of the thing it self 2. One Church refusing to hold that Communion with another which ought to be between them is not Schism properly so called 5. But if we here consider the matter or thing it self we must enquire whether Christian Religion doth allow needless separations in the Christian Church And surely he must have strange thoughts of the earnest commands and frequent arguments for Christian Unity who supposeth them to regard only an inward
soul and life is moulded according to the form of the Christian Doctrine and brought into a conformity to the Image of God Aug. de Trin. l. 14. c. 17. and so S. Augustine distinguisheth them Renovatio saith he quae fit ad imaginem Dei non momento uno fit sicut momento uno fit illa in baptismo renovatio remissione omnium peccatorum And even this benefit of Infant Baptism is vouchsafed by the Holy Ghost for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 And it must needs be the work of God and of his Grace to accept an Infant born under Original sin into his favour or as S. Augustine expresseth it Aug. Retract l. 1. c. 13. By the grace of God the guilt of all sins that are past is pardoned in them who are baptized into Christ which is done by the Spirit of Regeneration and in the Adult their will is cured by the Spirit of Faith and Charity 4. Now that all baptized Infants are savingly regenerated is asserted upon such Arguments as these 1. Because Baptism doth evidence every person rightly baptized according to Gods will to be received by the will of God to be under the terms of the Covenant of Grace but he who is rightly received to be under the Covenant of Grace is in the favour of God if the conditions of that Covenant on his part be performed nor doth any thing exclude him from that favour besides the sinning against or the breach of those conditions But Original sin of which alone Infants are guilty was supposed to be the state under which man lay when the Covenant of Grace was tendered to him and so is no breach of the conditions of that Covenant but may be pardoned by the benefits thereof And no condition can be assigned to be performed on mans part by or concerning an Infant born in the Church more than is encluded in its being baptized which I shall further clear when I shall treat of the condition of believing which is generally propounded even as the being circumcised was of old the performing the condition of Gods Covenant by the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.7 10 11 12 14. faith and obedience being also necessary in persons adult But that Baptism doth admit the person baptized aright to be under the terms of the Covenant of Grace is manifest because they are baptized into Christs body 1 Cor. 12.13 They are baptized into Christ and have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And are baptized into the death of Christ Rom. 6.3 and even Circumcision it self was a seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 5. 2. The Gospel Doctrine and the holy Sacraments do convey saving benefits to them who received them aright and are partakers of them with due qualifications That Infants born in the Church are fitly qualified to receive Baptism is not only manifest from the general practice of the Church from the Apostles times in baptizing Infants but also from the favour of God expressed towards them in the Covenant of Grace and in that Circumcision was administred to Infants which was a Seal of the Covenant of Grace And as the Gospel Doctrine bringeth Salvation to him who rightly receiveth it and the Lords Supper tendereth Christ and remission of sins to the worthy partakers thereof so even Baptism conveyeth saving benefits to them who receive it with due qualification hence S. Paul calleth in the washing of regeneration by which God saved us Tit. 3.5 S. Peter commanded them who were pricked in their hearts to repent and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Act. 2.37 38. and Ananias directed Paul to be baptized and wash away his sins Act 22.16 Which places both shew that Baptism doth convey remission of sins to them who are qualified aright to receive it and also that they who were under a due preparation to receive remission of sins by Baptism were not partakers thereof without Baptism And indeed no adult person is ordinarily capable of remission but by joyning inward faith and repentance with outward Baptism as is expressed Mar. 16.16 Act. 2.38 Baptism being the instituted Ordinance wherein they must declare repentance in coming to Christ and profess faith in accepting the Gospel and receive gracious Union with Christ Wherefore since Baptism doth bring the due receiver thereof into a saving estate infants must also be acknowledged due receivers of Baptism and rightly admitted thereto 6. 3. Christ hath appointed his word and Sacraments as the ordinary means of Salvation to the Members of his Church Eph. 5.26 That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word But infants dying in infancy are capable of no other Ordinance of Christ but Baptism and therefore that is to them the only means of Salvation And it seemeth injurious to the grace of God to imagine that he appointeth any only means which is ineffectual to the end though it be complyed with as much as is possible it should be by them who make use thereof but the infant state can admit no more but that they should be passive recipients both of this Ordinance â—â—d of Divine Grace and therefore thereby 〈…〉 obtain Salvation Now that Baptism is designed to be a means of Salvation besides the Scriptures above-mentioned is expressed by S. Peter 1. Pet 3.21 who saith that Baptism now saveth us And whereas that Apostle presently addeth that it is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but that answer of a good Conscience towards God he doth not thereby look off from the Sacrament of Baptism to something else as a means of Salvation but he thereby declareth that this Christian Sacrament is not as the Jewish Purifications only a putting away the filth of the flesh but it is a professed engaging of man to God or to the Covenant of Grace 7. 4. If baptized Infants born in the Church be not in their Baptism in a state of Salvation it will be hard to shew what benefit any Infant dying in his Infancy can enjoy thereby Now to assert that they have no benefit by Baptism would be to render that Ordinance to them useless and of no effect which the Scriptures do declare to be of a saving nature and to enclude a being buried with Christ Col. 2.12 Now if it be said that by Baptism they become members of Christ what advantage can this be to them if this Membership doth not enclude the favour of God and a state of Salvation If it be said that it may be hoped that God will save the baptized infant this indeed may be hoped with confidence if Baptism bring them into a state of salvation but if Baptism supposing always the Grace of God tendred therein do not enstate them in salvation them must they be saved only by Gods extraordinary grace not by the ordinary grace of his promise to them who embrace aright the means of salvation or by the grace
of God in the Ordinance of Baptism and therefore this Salvation would not be an advantage slowing from their Baptism But if it be said that by Baptism the Covenant of grace is sealed to such Infants we must here further consider that Gods Covenant by reason of his faithfulness goodness and Soveraignty cannot be sealed as mens Covenants are to make it firm and binding when it would otherwise be void and of no force Wherefore there remain two ways whereby the Sacraments as they are on Gods part Seals of the Covenant of Grace may be of great advantage unto us the one is as they give further assurance of the priviledges of that Covenant for our comfort but of this benefit these infants are not capable partly because the receiving this comfort requireth the exercise of judgment and consideration and partly because the evident sureness of Gods Covenant can be no cause of consolation to them unless we admit that there is some ordinary means appointed of God whereby they may attain the blessings so assured the other way of advantage is by the benefits of Gods Covenant being sealed or surely conveyed as the present interest and priviledge of the persons rightly receiving these Seals and in this way which encludeth saying regeneration infants are indeed capable of receiving wonderful benefit thereby 8. 5. And omitting other arguments even the Prayers of the Church with faith and confidence upon the other grounds above-mentioned not doubting but earnestly believing that God will favourably receive those infants and embrace them with the arms of his mercy doth give further assurance of forgiveness of sin and a state of salvation for baptized Infants For God who hath declared his favour towards them and encluded them in his Covenant doth direct 1. Joh. 5.16 that if any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and shall give life for them that sin not unto death and this general command encludeth Gods gracious answer to such Prayers and Prayer which is a general means to obtain Grace is used for the obtaining saving benefits in Baptism with the greater encouragement because the blessings prayed for are tendred in this Ordinance and by Gods promise unto Infants who receive Baptism To this purpose S. Augustine saith that remission of sins in Baptism is obtained per orationem De Bapt. cont Don. l. 3. c. 18. i. e. per columbae gemitum by the Prayers and groans of them who live in Peace Love and Vnity and our Church in the Prayer before the words of the Gospel in the Baptismal Office urgeth Gods promise Ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find c. the usefulness and benefit of Prayer being here the same in Baptism as it is in the most religiously prepared person for receiving the benefits of the Communion SECT IV. The Doctrine of the ancient and divers Reformed Churches herein observed 1. In observing the Doctrine of the ancient Church Conc. Milev c. 2. I shall begin with Councils The Council of Milevis condemned those who denyed infants to be baptized for the remission of sin or who asserted that they did not draw that original sin from Adam which is purged by the laver of regeneration and they declare that by the rule of the Catholick Church Infants are baptized for the remission of sin that that may be cleansed by regeneration which was derived by generation And this Canon of Milevis is the more considerable Conc. Carth. c. 124. because it was taken into the African Code and with that-Code was confirmed by the sixth General Council Conc. Trul. c. ◠The sixth general Council in another Canon requireth that those infants should be baptized without any scruple concerning whom there can be no sufficient testimony given that they were baptized before Conc. Trul. c. 84. and this it enjoineth lest such scruple should deprive them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Baptismal purging for sanctification Conc. Constant And whereas the Creed of the second general Council expresseth a belief of one Baptism for the remission of sins the Council of Milevis above mentioned avoucheth Conc. Mil. ubi supra those expressions to have been always so understood in the Church as to acknowledge that baptized Infants did thereby obtain actual pardon and remission And that African Synod whose Epistle is extant amongst S. Austins Works declared Aug. Ep. 90. that whosoever shall deny that little Children are delivered from perdition and do obtain Eternal Salvation by the Baptism of Christ let him be an Anathema 2. If we consult the ancient Fathers it is beyond all contradiction evident that real remission and regeneration of all baptized Infants is acknowledged by S. Aug. Ep. 23. de peccat Merit Remis l. 2. c. 28. passim by Optatus Advers Parm. l. 5. Fulgentius de fide ad Petr. c. 30. by Prosper and generally by the suceeding Writers of the Church But some have pretended Gatak de Bapt. Infant vi effic p. 268. that this position sprung from their eager opposition of the Pelagians who denied Children to be guilty of original sin for the removing of which pretence it will be requisite to give some testimony of the judgment of the Ecclesiastical Writers who lived before the appearing of the Pelagian tares S. Cyprian night two hundred years before Pelagius did not only express the mighty sensible efficacy of his own Baptism for conferring Grace to him in his Epistle to Donatus but in his Epistle to Fidus he declareth that Infants by their Baptism do obtain the grace and favour of God Cyp. Ep. 59. and the remission of their sins and several expressions of that Epistle do intimate that this is the end for which they are baptized and comparing the state of an Infant coming to Baptism with an adult person embracing Christianity and the true Faith he doth in this respect prefer the state of the Infant because ad remissam peccatorum hoc ipso facilius accedit c. he doth upon this account the more readily obtain the remission of sins because the sins forgiven to him were not his own acts but anothers or Original sin Orig. in Luc. Hom. 14. Origen in his Homilies upon S. Luke which were undoubtedly his and translated by S. Hierome saith that Children are baptized for the remission of sins but saith he of what sins and when did they sin and a little after answereth that by the Sacrament of Baptism nativitatis sordes the sins and defilements with which they were born are laid aside and for this cause saith he little ones are baptized for unless a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot see the Kingdom of God The same Doctrine is also asserted by Nazianzen in his 40th Oration Naz. Orat. 40. as the comparing some things not far from the beginning with others towards the middle thereof will manifest and this he
with the engagement to love submission and acceptance of the heart and since there are different degrees of Faith in several adult Christians and different acts of Faith relating to the object thereof in the Jewish and Christian Church it will be sufficient that the Faith which referreth to Infants have only some general agreement in its notion with the Faith of the adult Now since the Faith of the adult is an acceptance of the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel Doctrine with a submission thereunto which in their state requireth an active exercise of the whole Soul Mind and Will when an Infant is said to believe this must consist in such an acceptance of and submission to the Gospel as his State is capable of which is Passively Thus by being baptized he accepteth Christ and the Covenant of Grace being united to and made a Member of that Church which holdeth Christ as the head and the Gospel Covenant as the ground of Hope or if Baptism cannot be obtained its being designed may be here considerable and hereby according to their capacities Infants do enter upon a profession and acceptance of the Christian Faith which their sureties declare and themselves stand obliged to owne when they come to years of understanding To this purpose in S. Aug. Infans vocatur fidelis Aug. Ep. 23. non rem ipsam mente annuendo sed Sacramentum percipiendo and in Gratian Credere est infantibus baptizari or they become believers by being baptized into the Faith and thus S. Aug. giveth an account of the Custom of the Church declaring Infants at their Baptism to believe that is to undertake the profession of the Faith and this he calleth saluberrimae consuetudinis rationem an account of a very good Custom 3. Obj. 2. If Infants be savingly regenerated by being baptized then must Infants dying without Baptism be excluded from Salvation Ans 1. Though it be certain that S. Aug. Fulgentius Prosper Isidoms Hispalensis Alcuinus and the whole stream of later Writers before the reformation do pass a sad sentence upon unbaptized Infants yet even then some and those none of the meanest Cassand de Bapt. Inf. did strive against the stream as Biel Gerson Cajetau with some others noted by Cassander And it hath been ordinarily acknowledged in the Christian Church that where Baptism could not be obtained adult persons exercising Christian Graces Cont. Don. l. 4. c. 22. might obtain Salvation without it even besides the case of Martyrdom this was asserted by S. Augustin largely defended by S. Bernard Bern. Ep. 78. Lib. 4. Dist 4. Amb. de Obit Valent and the Master of the sentences with his School is encluded in S. Ambrose his hopes of Valentinian the Younger who died without that Baptism which he designed and desired and is proved by the instance of the Thief upon the Cross And hence it will follow that though Baptism be an instrument of Salvation yet it is not in all Cases of absolute necessity thereunto 2. There is cause to hope well of those dying Infants who cannot obtain Baptism because the mercy and goodness of God may account them according to their capacity passively to accept of the Covenant of Grace by being born in a Church and of Parents who designed them for Communion with Christ and the embracing Christianity Rivetus ubi supra n. 8 9. Wardi Resp ad Gat. n. 18. Of the happy state of such Infants Rivet and Dr. Ward doubt not though this latter expresseth his less degree of confidence where Baptism is wanting through the neglect or contempt of the Parents yet it must of necessity be acknowledged that there is greater certainty of the Salvation of Infants baptized than of those who dye without Baptism because the Ordinances of Christ ought by no means to be looked upon as useless for salvation and the promise made to Christians and their Seed is upon condition of their acceptance of the Covenant of Grace Act. 2.38 39. as was also the promise to the Seed of Abraham Gen. 17.7 14. 4. Obj. 3. If Infants be savingly regenerated by Baptism it would be an excellent piece of Charity to baptize Pagan Infants and even to murder baptized Infants because many of these do afterwards by irreligion or debauchery expose themselves to eternal damnation but the former is opposite to Christianity and the other to humanity Ans There can be no act of Charity but what is every way conformable to Christian duty and is no way injurious to the interests of men and therefore the actions mentioned in this objection are far from being charitable Because 1. To baptize Pagan Infants continuing with them under their education would be to abuse Gods Ordinance by administring it to subjects not duly qualified according to the will of God and therefore no saving benefit could be expected thereby to such Infants because as Mr. Hooker expresseth it Eccles Pol. l. 5. n. 57. Sacraments are not physical but moral instruments of Salvation which unless we perform as the Author of Grace requireth they are unprofitable 2. To take Pagan Infants from them forcibly and unjustly that they may be baptized and educated in Christianity is no right act of Christian Charity for though those particular persons might obtain that Salvation by embracing the Christian life and doctrine which they cannot enjoy in the pursuance of Pagan Idolatry yet such actions being against the right of their Parents and thereby contrary to that justice and innocency which Christianity recommendeth would greatly tend to the prejudice of the name of Christ in the World 3. Pagan Infants undertaken to be brought up in Christianity and as it were adopted into Christian Families have by reason of that intended education a right to Christian Baptism as Abrahams Servants bought with money had to Circumcision with all others born in his House and if such an Infant dye so soon as it hath received Baptism yet Fulgentius declareth him factum esse haeredem Dei Fulg. de Ver. Praed l. 1. c. 12. cohaeredem Christi that he is made an Heir of God and joint Heir with Christ 5. As to the other part of this Objection Though it be certain whatever we judge of Baptismal regeneration that it had been better for every wicked man never to have lived to commit those hainous sins for which the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience yet there can be no more horrid and uncharitable action attempted in the World than the murdering baptized Infants which would be a wicked acting against the holy command of God and extreamly opposite to the meekness and goodness of Christianity and such practices would tend to the ruin and extinguishing of the present Church of God and to render Christianity abhorred in the World to the prejudice of many thousands of Souls and to the prejudice of these Infants both in the loss of their lives and in hindring them of the opportunity of exercising pious
doth also add to the honour of that holy estate and therefore it may well be mentioned as a further excellency of that holy relation that God hath consecrated it to such an excellent mystery that in it is signified and repented the spiritual Marriage and Vnity between Christ and his Church SECT IX Of the Communion of the sick and the Office for Burial 1. The Communion of the sick is very allowable because the dying state may need the best supports of Christian Faith the highest encouragements of Divine Grace and the chief means to strengthen hope all which is encluded in this Ordinance of the Lords Supper it being a pledge and assurance yea a tender from Christ of mercy and forgiveness to them who truly repent and believe And though the celebrating this holy Communion in private places Conc. Laod. c. 58. standeth condemned in ordinary cases by the ancient Canons Conc. Nic. c. 13. yet in this extraordinary Case sick or dying persons were ordinarily allowed to receive it and the Council of Nice doth well approve of the sick persons desire thereof And though it be sufficiently proved by Albaspinus that the Viaticum frequently given to dying Penitents did not always enclude the Eucharist yet it is manifest that they did frequently partake thereof 4. Conc. Carth. c. 76 78. as is expressed not only in the Canons of the fourth Council of Carthage but in the more ancient testimony of Dionysius Alexandrinus Eus Hist Eccles l. 6. c. 36. 2. Divers Protestant Churches besides our own Rat. Disc c. 3. have retained the use thereof and amongst them the Bohaemian Syn. Petric Sect. 5. the Polonian with the consent of the Ministry of the three several Confessions Form Visit Aegr in Bucer and that of Strasburgh as it was in Bucers time And though this was not practised at Geneva Calv. de quibusd Ritib Aug. 12. 1561. Calv. Oleviano Cal. Dec. 1563. yet Calvin did in several places and even towards the end of his life testifie his allowance thereof and also that there were divers weighty causes which constrained him to judge that it ought not to be denied 3. But against this it is objected that some persons who have led vitious lives may earnestly desire the Communion in their sickness and yet not be truly penitent for their sins and therefore cannot worthily partake of those holy Mysteries To which I answer that even in this Case Christian Charity must encline to the more favourable part and since man hath no certain evidences to judge of sincere repentance the infallible discerning thereof must be reserved to the judgment of God And if this person hath lived vainly and exorbitantly the Minister may acquaint him with the nature if need be of true Faith and Repentance and the necessity thereof both to a dying Man and to a Communicant and if he appear so far as is in him desirous to practise and exercise those Christian Graces and to obtain the help of Jesus Christ and his Grace to deny him this Sacrament would be to deny him a testimony in Gods name that he will upon these conditions bestow grace and remission of sins and to shut up the means of Grace and remission from a Sinner who seeketh after it and certainly it cannot agree with the Ministers Office to reject those persons who in a dying state declare they would come to Christ And in the strict times of Primitive Discipline he was thought worthy to be deposed from his Ministry who either rejected or did not receive any Sinner upon his return and a peculiar Charity towards dying persons was expressed in divers ancient Canons 4. In the Office for Burial several expressions are misliked as being thought unmeet to be spoken of every person dying in the Churches Communion Where a first expression to be considered is That Almighty God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the Soul of the person departed When yet we cannot assert that every person dying in our Communion is eternally saved Ans Besides what may be said of the judgment of Charity the wise man telleth us Eccl. 12.7 that the Spirits of dying men return to God who gave them that is to be disposed of according to his righteousness and our Church in this place acknowledgeth the mercy of God through the grace of Christ who now hath the Keys of Hell and Death that dying persons do not forthwith go into the power of the Devil who had the power of Death Heb. 2.14 but do immediately go into the hands of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to be disposed of by him according to the promises and conditions of the Gospel Covenant This is that which all Christians must acknowledge to flow from the great mercy of God towards man and that this is the sense intended in this place I am induced to believe because in the ancient Offices of Burial they magnified the Divine Power whereby the unjust and tyrannous power of the Devil was overcome and our Lord receiveth us Dioniss de Eccles Hier. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto his peculiar and most righteous judgment Yet even this sense doth express a general and firm confidence of the future happy state of all them who heartily embrace the Christian Faith and life as being consequent upon the gracious mediation and Soveraign Dominion of Jesus our Saviour 5. And whereas this Office calleth the deceased person Our Brother and Our dear Brother these Phrases may undoubtedly be applyed to every person who professing Christianity dyeth in the Churches Communion And that extensive sense of those words is sufficiently warranted by the use thereof in Scripture when it commands us to love our Brother not to put a stumbling block before our Brother not to defraud our Brother 1. Thes 4.6 to forgive our Brother Mat. 18.34 and when it speaketh of the Brother that walketh disorderly 2. Thes 3.6 and of admonishing him as a Brother v. 14. and of thy Brother trespassing against thee and if he hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother Chrys in Heb. 11. Hom. 25. Mat. 18.15 and if any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator 1. Cor. 5.11 from which place S. Chrysostom observeth that every Christian man baptized by the laver of regeneration is there called a Brother Tertullian in a general sense as they are men alloweth even the Heathen to be accounted Brethren Apol. c. 39. though they be Mali fratres evil Brethren but in a more special sense he so esteemeth of all Christians Praep. Evang l. 1. c. 4. who acknowledge one God the Father and much to the same purpose writeth Eusebius Cyr. Hier. Praef. And Cyril telleth all those who gave up their names to Christianity that they become the Sons and Daughters of one Mother V. Albasp Obs l. 1. c. 19. So that this manner of expression in this Office is the same which the Scriptures and
the ancient Fathers have ordinarily used or it is approved by those Writings which only are of Divine Authority and by those which are in the Church of greatest humane Authority 6. The expression of his being a dear Brother doth only enclude a respect suitable to a Brotherly relation and expresseth that the Members of the Church of Christ had real desires of the welfare of such persons as are received into its Communion 7. That clause in committing the body to the ground in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life doth so evidently express the Faith and Hope of the general resurrection wherein all Christians are concerned when as it followeth he shall change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body that it cannot reasonably be understood with a particular restriction to the party deceased but it declareth that while this object of mortality is before our eyes the Faith of the Resurrection to Life remaineth fixed upon our hearts 8. When we give thanks to God that he hath delivered this our Brother out of the miseries of this sinful World it must be considered that the enâ—ling all troubles and miseries is an act of Gods mercy and ought to be so acknowledged though some men by their own neglect of the Christian life deprive themselves of the benefits thereof as the goodness of God in his patience ought to be owned though some aggravate their own misery by the mis-emprovement thereof And some regard may be had in this expression to the Christian hope of the future estate which is the more quickned by every instance of our present frailty And both this and the former expressions may be used with a particular confidence of the eternal bliss of any holy person deceased and with the exercise of the judgment of Charity in its proper object 9. There is only one expression in the latter Prayer which encludeth particularly our favourable thoughts of the person departed when we pray that we may rest in him as our hope is this our Brother doth In the use of which Phrase we may well express different degrees of hope according to the different evidences of Piety in several distinct persons But even where men were vitious in their lives there may be in ordinary cases some degree of hope that they knowing and professing the truth might at last become truly penitent though we have no evidence thereof For some degree of hope doth not enclude so much as the judgment of Charity and it may be exercised where ever we cannot certainly determine the contrary Yet if there should be any such extraordinary case where not so much as any degree of hope can be admitted it is far more desireable that this expression should be omitted in that singular case alone which would be very rarely found than that all ordinary expressions of the hopefulness of them who depart this life in Communion with so excellent a Church as this is should be expunged and disclaimed For as this would be an undertaking extreamly groundless and deeply uncharitable so the very sound thereof may be enough to affright Pagans from Christianity and Papists from the Reformation if our selves did not allow ordinarily any hopes of the happy estate of the Members of our Church 10. Yet that this may not be misunderstood and mis-emproved when it is applyed to such persons who have been wanting in the practice of due strictness of Christian life and too much swerved from the holy Rules and Doctrines delivered in the Gospel and received by our Church we ought to consider that this expression of hope is no encouragement to any others to be guilty of the like neglects For the bare expression of hope is below any degree of evidence and only expresseth that our judgments and understandings cannot conclude it absolutely certain that he was finally impenitent though his state may appear extreamly hazardous And whosoever liveth wickedly and dyeth without sufficient repentance of which god can certainly judge where man cannot it will be no advantage to him in the other World that his name was mentioned in the Church with some degree of hope or as the Author of the Constitutions expresseth it Const Apol. lib. 8. c. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the state of such a person is not the less miserable because frail men are not endued with that infallible judgment whereby they can conclude it utterly desperate 11. The Charity of the ancient Christian Church in expressing their hope of them who dyed in their Communion is very manifest and it is a great mistake which some have entertained that through the strictness of their Discipline no persons had their names honourably mentioned by the Church with hopes of their future happiness but such who had lived altogether free from any apparent sinfulness of life or had given severe testimonies of a strict amendment Indeed some rigorous Canons neither of general practice nor of long continuance in the Church would not allow some offenders whatsoever repentance they manifested to be reconciled to the Church or admitted to its Communion throughout their whole life no nor at the hour of death and yet these Canons have been conceived only to make them perpetual Poenitentes so that after their death their oblations were received or they all who were admitted as such Penitents were then owned among them who had relation to the Church Albasp Obs l. 2. c. 4. and of whom it had hope but amongst the ordinary rules of Primitive Discipline these were generally admitted 1. That whosoever came under any censure of the Church Cyp. Ep. 54. Can. Apost 52. whatsoever his crime was he might upon his supplication be admitted to be one of the Poenitentes or to be under the rules of penance 4. Con. Carth. c. 74. and the not admitting him hereto was accounted an heinous crime because non fas est Ecclesiam pulsantibus â—laudi 2. That if any of these Poenitentes were under dangerous sickness or approaching death Cyp. Ibidem Conc. Nicen c. 13. Ancyr can 6. Araus can 3. 4. Carth. c. 77. it was requisite they should be then admitted to the peace of the Church and its Communion 3. That even they who being under censure did only in the time of dangerous sickness desire to be admitted Penitents might thereupon forthwith be both admitted Penitents and receive reconciliation and Communion Conc. Araus c. 2. Leo. Ep. 91.4 Carth. c. 76. This is a consequent from the two former and is encluded in the Canon of Ancyra now mentioned and is manifest by divers other particular testimonies and it was grounded upon this reason because as Leo expresseth it we cannot limit the times nor determine the measures of Gods mercy 4. That all who were so received into the Church Dion de Eccles Hier. c. 7. with others who died in its Communion Cyp. Ep. 10. and even Penitents who dyed without the opportunity of obtaining
disciplinary reconciliation Con. Nic. c. 13. had the memories of their names recommended in the Churches Prayers 4. Carth. c. 79. as persons of whom it hoped well which is I suppose intended by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Council of Nice though it be otherwise understood by the Greek Canonists and in Albaspinus his explicaton Conc. Arel 2. c. 12. THE SECOND BOOK CONCERNING CEREMONIES AND Ecclesiastical Constitutions CHAP. I. The lawful use of some Ceremonies in the Christian Church asserted SECT I. What we are here to understand by Ceremonies 1. AMong all the things appointed in our service there is nothing against which a heavier charge is drawn up than against the Ceremonies as they are ordinarily called common custom herein making use of a word which admittedâ— great variety and latitude of sense and signification For 1. The word Ceremonia Ceremony primarily encludeth the general exercise of all publick Religious Worship and Piety Scal. in Fest for as Scaliger noteth Ceremonia was as much as Sanctimonia being derived from Cerus which in the old â—atin signifieth the same with Sanctus and Serâ—â—us hath been observed to declare that omnia Sacra apud Latinos Ceremoniae dicuntur and to this purpose the old Constitutions of the twelve Tables declared Leg. 12. Tab. De Sacerdot officio Sacerdotum duo genera sunto unum quod praesit Ceremoniis sacris c. intending thereby all sacred actions of Religious service and in this large sense is this word sometimes used by some later Writers Luth. de piis Cerem servand Bucer Censur c. ultim as Luther and Bucer 2. This word sometimes among the ancient Christian Writers peculiarly expresseth the most solemn visible Symbols of the Grace of God in which sense also in the Augustan Saxon and Witemberg Confessions and the Apology of the Church of England the two New Testament Sacraments are called Ceremonies and Bishop Saunderson resolveth the sum or main Contents of the Gospel into these three things De Obl. Cors Prael 4. Sect. 32. the Mysteries of Faith to be believed the holy Ceremonial and Ecclesiastical Institutions and the maral Precepts Bishop Whitg Tr. 2. c. 1. And these Bishop Whitgist calleth substantial Ceremonies which a â— of the substance of Religion 3. This word sometimes encludeth all such practices as bear any external respect unto Religion whence some have called Holy-days by the name of Ceremonies and Gotofredus probably supposeth that fasting at least with some other external observations is so called in those words of the Code of Justinian Cod. Justin l. 3. Titl 12. Sect. 6. Quadraginta diebus qui auspicio Ceremoniarum Paschale tempus anticipant c. 4. In this present enquiry by Ceremonies must be understood some particular external and visible actions and circumstances which are not instituted by God but are in themselves things indifferent and are appointed in the Church for order and decency 2. And there is a vast difference between the things called Ceremonies in the Church of England and the chief part of those things which by an aequivocal use of the same word we commonly call Ceremonies in the Jewish Constitutions under the Mosaical Law For those Jewish Ceremonies which consisted in their Sacrifices Purifications or the proper Levitical and Temple worship were such things as used aright with respect to the Messias were the way and means whereby Gods acceptance was obtained and his grace and favour vouchsafed and did partake of a Sacramental nature and were not amiss by Durandus called the Sacramentalia Rational div Offic. Prooem Sect. 7. and did also prefigure Christ to come in the flesh And upon this account no such rites as these could ever be appointed or lawfully used but such only as were established by a divine Institution nor might they be any longer observed than that institution did either enjoin or warrant and allow them and hence both S. Aug. Ep. 19. Augustine and S. Hierome do justly and vehemently condemn and censure the observation of these things among Christians And of this nature was the whole paedagogy of the Mosaical Constitutions jointly considered and every branch thereof so far as it encludeth an owning of Judaism as the way of Gods acceptance especially Circumcision Sacrifice and such like services of the Jewish Temple the observing of which under the Gospel since the clear manifestation of Christianity would be to deny Christ to become in the flesh and to close with that as a way of obtaining grace from God and finding favour with him which is contrary to his will and standeth for ever abrogated by the Gospel And hence it may appear that he who would charge the use of all Ecclesiastical Rites appointed for Order and the promoting reverence in the service of God as if it encluded the same with reducing the Ceremonial Law of the Jews might with a fairer plea of reason accuse all use of Seals or Ornamental Engravings to be a forging and counterfeiting the Kings Broad Seal and thereby to be deeply criminal 3. Yet it may be observed as a truth though in be not necessary for the just defence of any of those things commonly called Ceremonies in our Church that there were many particular things in the Ceremonial Law which singly taken and by themselves did only include some rational provisions and comely and fit Constitutions and had nothing in themselves which did necessarily restrain them to the Judaical state and such things where there is no design of any Jewish signification may lawfully be still made use of under the Gospel as still retaining what conveniency or decency they would have had if they had never been included in the Jewish Constitutions The appointment of the Jewish Tabernacle in the Wilderness is no sufficient ground to conclude it a sin for such Christians who sojourn in deserts and have minds far from Judaizing to build an House with boards for the place of their Christian Assemblies nor is the building our Churches with hewen stone to be censured as unlawful because such were the materials of Solomons Temple nor is it unlawful to use Vessels of Silver and Gold at the administring the Communion because such were the Vessels of the Tabernacle and the Temple and the like may be said of Tithes and some other things To this purpose Bucer determined in his Epistle to Alasco and P. Martyr to Bishop Hooper and Bishop Saunderson observeth De Oblig Cons Pral 4. Sect. 29. that all Ceremonials are not to be alike accounted of but those which concern order and decency are with prudence to be separated from those which prefigured Christ to come and that prudent Casuist well resolved that those things Which concerned order and decency are not now simply unlawful yet may they be many times inexpedient as they become dangerous by their scandal 4. And it is acknowledged and declared that the things with us called Ceremonies are in themselves
matters of Faith and that the Scripture could not be a sufficient Rule For Faith and Holy Life unless it enclude a determination of all prudential circumstances that none should be ordered in the Church which are not there appointed To decry all such things as Vnlawful because in our Church there hath been much strife and contention about them to the breach of the Churches Peace may appear to be a very weak argument from observing that both the Jewish and the Apostolical and Primitive Christian Churches and several Lutheran Churches of late have enjoyed a very peaceable state together with such Ecclesiastical Constitutions but the more manifest cause of strife and contention is from misunderstanding in some and from want of humility and obedience in others and these persons have found matter sufficient for them to make a breach of the Churches Peace in other points besides Ceremonies 2. As to that Objection that the allowing any Authority for the appointing such things in the Church will leave its power in a boundless and unlimited state if this was of any force it would equally oppose all other commanding Authority in every superior relation in the World And as secular Rules have Authority to make Laws for the Peace and Order of Kingdoms but not to exercise oppression nor to change the nature of Good and Evil nor to make any divine Precepts so Rulers in the Church are allowed to direct and appoint what tendeth to good order and decency but may not deliver any thing as Gods command which is not nor alter any of his Precepts and Institutions nor to enjoin things needlesly burdensom How the allowing some Ceremonies in the Christian Church is a quite different thing from the reducing the Ceremonial law of the Jews hath been shewed in the first Section of this Chapter Wherefore I now come to examine the Scripture evidence which some plead against Ecclesiastical Rites and Constitutions 3. Obj. 1. The sin of Nadab and Abihu for which fire came out from the Lord and devoured them was their offering strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Lev. 10.1 2. And this is supposed by them who urge this Objection to be only an outward rite or circumstance of worship in making use of that fire in the service of God which was not enjoined and about which he had made no determination Ans 1. Cypr. Ep. 73. de Vnit Eccl. It was much more truly acknowledged of old that the sin of Nadab and Abihu was that what they did was Dei traditione contempta Iren. adv Haer. l. 5. c. 44. in despite of what God had declared to the contrary and therefore their sin hath been frequently parallel'd with the sin of Corah Dathan and Abiram And whereas the Scripture declareth their sin to be a doing that which God commandeth them not that Phrase in the holy Scriptures which I commanded them not doth not denote gods having enjoined nothing about that particular action but ordinarily by a Meiosis intimateth Gods having severely prohibited it Thus God declared their building high places of Tophet and of Baal to burn their Sons and their Daughters to be things he commanded them not Jer. 7.31 Jer. 19.5 and the same expression is used concerning committing Adultery with their Neighbours Wives and speaking lying words in the name of the Lord Jer. 29.23 and concerning the serving other Gods and worshipping the Sun Moon and the Host of Heaven Dent. 17.3 all which things were vehemently forbidden in the Law of God Wherefore some have thought that the sin of Nadab and Abihu consisted in Offring strange Incense Fag in loc which God had expresly forbidden Ex. 30.9 Which opinion is declared by Fagius and doubtless this was the judgment of Josephus though the ordinary Copies of Josephus express it to be their Offring other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifices than Moses had commanded Joseph Ant. l. 3. c. 10. but that it should be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incense is manifest by comparing Josephus with the Hebrew and the Septuagint Others have observed that before that time God had appointed Aaron only and not his Sons to offer any incense unto him and therefore it might be an act of great presumption in them and when Corah presumed to invade the Priests Office to offer incense botht he Samaritan Version and the Septuagint reading the Hebrew with a little variation of the points in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 16.37 called that which he offered strange fire And some others have thought them so boldly irreverent as against the command of God to thrust themselves into the holy of holies This is collected by some of the Jewish Doctors from Lev. 16.1 2 3. and is admitted by Junius Jun. in Lev. 10.1 4. Ans 2. But admitting that their sin consisted in making use of that fire which God did not allow we must further assert with Munster that God having caused fire miraculously to consume the Sacrifice uon the Altar Lev. 9.24 and commanded that the fire upon the Altar should be continually burning to wit for the use of Gods service and should never go out Lev. 6.12 13. their offering other fire was an opposing of Gods command For if any should imagine that when God had commanded incense to be offered which must be offered with fire he did leave it undetermined what fire they should make use of and that in this case the choice of any sort of fire because it was not commanded was a grievous sin this would represent the holy and righteous will of God as contradictory to it self and as inevitably forcing the Priests to be guilty of sin because upon this unreasonable supposition their offring incense with fire which was their duty and commanded of God must necessarily be accounted a sin and displeasing to God And if such positions were admitted they will bring after them a numerous train of manifest absurdities and contradictions as that the Priest ought as God had commanded to burn wood upon his Altar but might in no wise make use of any sort or kind of wood to that purpose because God had not particularly enjoined it and the like may be said of the kind of Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper and of divers other things under the time of Christianity 5. Obj. 2. God commanded Deut. 12.32 Whatsoever I command you observe and do thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Ans 1. That these words do properly condemn on the one hand superstition of the making any thing a part of Religion and the Law of God which indeed is not and on the other hand want of Religious reverence in neglecting obedience to what God had enjoined and commanded But that divers things referring to the worship of God were allowably under the Jâ—â—â—sh despensation ordered as matters 〈…〉 expediency by humane prudeâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—ve in a former Section given suâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—mony and if such appointment 〈…〉 been
complyance to the mind of others to neglect due reverence to God or Rules of order in the Church of God is not allowable And there lieth a much higher obligation upon us to please others where we are engaged thereto by the bond of justice subjection and obedience than where we are only enclined thereto by the influence of love and common kindness whence the Child or Servant who will provoke his Father or Master by acts of disobedience contrary to his duty meerly to please other persons acteth irregularly and sinfully and upon the same account he who will displease and disobey his Rulers and Governours whether Civil or Ecclesiastical to gratifie other persons of inferiour capacity acteth contrary to Christian duty 4. Secondly The Plea of scandal must then necessarily be ill used when what is undertaken under pretence of avoiding offence doth it self become the greater offence In the Case mentioned in the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians there was no giving offence to the Jews Gentiles or the Church of God by their present forbearance of any sort of meat under the circumstances in which they then were and therefore this forbearance out of charity to others became a duty But when S. Peter and Barnabas at Antioch did for a time forbear to eat with the Gentiles which seemingly encluded an urjust censure of the way of Christianity as it was embraced among the Gentiles and was like to be a great offence to the Gentiles this action though undertaken out of an appearance of charitable respect to the Jews that they might not be offended was sinful and contrary to the Gospel And upon the like account the disobeying Ecclesiastical Constitutions but of respect to some other persons while it encludeth an appearance of ungrounded censuring of our Rulers who appointed them and the Church who practiseth them and a want of care of its order Peace and Unity besides other ill consequents above expressed is not allowable nor can it be justified by the rules of Religion but by the bad example of neglect of duty it giveth the greatest occasion of offence 5. And if any persons shall in such a case take offence so far as to distast the Religious worship of God V. Tertullian de Virgin Vel. c. 3. because others observe established Orders this is an offence taken but not given For in matters indifferent and left altogether to our liberty he who without any care of his Brothers good acteth what he knoweth will occasion him to fall is guilty of a scandal against the rule of charity but he who acteth nothing but what is his duty lawfully commanded by his superiour or undertaken with respect to the greater good and order of the Church is guilty of no scandal nor breach of charity though others may take occasion to fall thereby 22 ae qu. 43. Art 2. It is well resolved by Aquinas that every scandal or offence encludeth sin that which is a scandal given or an active scandal is the sin of him who giveth the occasion but the scandal taken or the passive scandal is the sin of him only who taketh the occasion to fall Thus there were divers things which our Saviour spake and did at which the Pharisees were offended the sin of which must be charged upon themselves in being alienated thereby from the Doctrine of Christ 6. Thirdly The duty of forbearing the use of some things lawful and expedient because others account them sinful hath likewise peculiar respect to that case when the erring persons have not had sufficient opportunity of being fully instructed and stedfastly established in the truth Thus in the time of the Apostles when the Doctrine of the Gospel was first divulged the Jews could not be presently satisfied concerning the liberty and freedom of Christians from the rites of the law of Moses and many of the Gentiles were not so firmly established in all the Doctrines of Christianity that they might not be led aside by mistaking the practices of other Christians and in such cases the use of things lawful and indifferent must be restrained from the consideration of others weakness But where there hath been sufficient means and opportunity for better instruction if some still retain their erroneous opinions they who understand the truth are not obliged in this case to forbear their practising according to their true principles in matters of indifferency and Christian liberty because this practice is in this case a profession of truth against errour and the forbearance thereof may frequently be interpreted a complyance with errour Vrsin Loc. Theol in 3m. Prac. And it is truly observed by Vrsin that it is scandalum datum in rebus adiaphoris errores in animis infirmorum confirmare to add confirmation to erroneous opinions in the minds of the weak about indifferent things is a giving offence or being guilty of an active scandal Upon this account though our Saviour knew that his heating and commanding the man who was healed to take up his bed on the sabbath day his eating with Publicans and Sinners and his Disciples eating with unwashen hands were things in the highest manner offensive to some of the Jews he practised and allowed these things in opposition to the Scribes and Pharisees who in their censures of him proceeded upon erroneous and corrupt Doctrines vented by them for divine dictates 7. But it may deserve a more full enquiry whether Ecclesiastical Constitutions and legal Injunctions may be allowed concerning things which either are or may become matter of dispute and opposition Commis Papers passim because this is a thing which is in the substance of it much insisted upon In order to the resolution hereof I shall assert 1. The peace and Vnity of a Church which must both respect the Union of its members among themselves and with the Vniversal Church is of so great value that to that end it would be very desirable that any particular constitution about matters meerly indifferent should be altered where peace with a well ordered state of the Church can only by that means be firmly secured because the principal end of them is to promote Unity order and edification 8. Assert 2. Where minds are prone to raise disputes and entertain prejudices and jealousies about matters of Gods worship the most innocent things cannot be long secured from being opposed and scrupled For in this case when men of greater parts do without just cause propound doubts and arguments against a thing which may easily be done about any subject men of lesser understanding if they have also unsetled and unestablished minds are apt either out of weakness of judgment to take their fallacies to be solid reasons or from the earnestness of their affections to esteem such persons to be the ablest and faithfullest guides And he who observeth the World will discern that there is scarce any truth of Religion even in matters most Fundamental which hath not been disputed and opposed by men
this Apostolical Decree together with other Christian Precepts did bind the Gentile Christians to all the same observations And it might also have been said that the forbidding bloud seemed a Rite peculiarl typical of Christ to come it being forbidden to the Jews upon this account because God had then appointed it to be the means of making an atonement upon the Altar Lev. 17.10 11 12. But notwithstanding these things which are far from solid arguments and yet to an indifferent person may possibly seem as plausible as many exceptions used by some men in other Cases that Apostolical Sanction was both lawful and honourable yea though it concerned things indifferent and was established as many think by that Ecclesiastical authority which they committed to their Successors in the Church 15. Arg. 3. Because there are many Cases where somewhat is necessary in genere to be determined and yet every particular under that general is lyable to the like inconvenience of opposition Here I shall chuse to give a Foreign instance of that great unnecessary dispute about the use of leavened or unleavened bread at the Eucharist where the one sort is necessary to be determined before the administration or otherwise the Ordinance it self must be omitted This hath occasioned so great contest between the Greek Church who with the Ruthenick or Russian contend for Leavened bread and the Latin who would allow none other but unleavened bread Maxim Margunius in Dialogâ— adv Lat. Humbertus in Baron Tom. 11. in Appendice Rup Tuitien de Div. Offic. l. 1. c. 22. that they of the Greek Church have nick named the Latines Azymitas and give this difference as one account why they refused Communion with them and did at Constantinople denounce an Anathema upon the use of Unleavened bread The Latin Church did give many testimonies of its like fierceness for the use of Unleavened Bread only so far that Leo the Ninth undertook in this quarrel to excommunicale Michael the Patriarck of Constantinople The main grounds of this controversie waving some frivolous things mentioned in Gemma Animae Rupertus Tiâ—tiensis Durandux Casaub in Baron Exerc 16. and other Ritualists are these 1. The Greek Church in a peculiar notion as Casaubon relateth their opinion from Cedrenus and Xanthopulus think that Christ did eat the Passover and institute the Lords Supper the day before the Jews kept their Passover Durand Ration l. 4. c. 41. n. 10. and therefore they suppose he used leavened bread But though divers Christian Writers as Scaliger Casauhon Grotius Hospinian Kellet and others both ancient and modern referred to by them Hieroz P. 1. lib. 2. â— 50. have thought that Christ did not eat the Passover the same day with the Jews yet even that opinion is opposed by many others and the arguments for it are fully answered by Bocharius And however the strict prohibitions both of the Law Ex. 12.18 Num. 9.11 Maccoth c. 3. Sect. 2. Deut. 16.3 and of the Talmud against eating the Passover at any time with leavened bread are evidences sufficient that this sort of bread was not used by our Saviour 2. The Greek Church also urgeth that unleavened bread was one of the Ceremonial institutions of the Law of Moses Can. Ap. 70. Conc. Laod. c. 38. Con. Trul. c. 11. and several ancient Canons of the Greek Church have forbidden them to have so much Communion with the Jews as to eat of their unleavened bread as a Jewish Rite and Maximus Margunius a late Writer and Bishop of that Church out of a strange disgust supposeth that he smelleth the savour of many ancient Heresies in Vnleavened bread 16. So that here is a Case where some determination is necessary to the due order and the regular administration of Gods Ordinance where either leavened or unleavened Bread must be received both these have been hotly opposed the one side seeming to be favoured by the institution of Christ and the other by the abrogation of the law but neither of their arguments are conclusive against the lawfulness of the others practice In like manner to administer the Sacraments and other publick Offices with a form of Prayer may be opposed and scrupled by some and to perform this without a form may as reasonably be disliked by others And an Unform appointed gesture at the Sacrament and a decent fixed habit for Ministers may be suspected by some who are ready to take all occasions for suspition and the want of these things are deemed irreverent and disorderly and therefore unlawful by others Both the French and Dutch as well as other Protestant Churches have these things determined though both in the habit and gesture they differ from us and from each other and yet there may be objections and pretences of dislike raised against those particular habits and gestures as well as against ours as may in another place be shewed Wherefore either some things which may become or have been matters of dispute may lawfully be ordered by Ecclesiastical Authority or else there can be no security for the orderly exercise of Religion 17. To these arguments it may be added that the prudence of the Church would appear very contemptible to its adversaries if either its rules or practices about matters of order should be as mutable and various as the uncertain and different thoughts of suspicious or scrupulous persons 18. And the practice of all the Protestant Churches who defended their established Orders both against Anabaptists and other opposers thereof do manifest their general judgment in this particular And amongst other Churches when divers persons especially the Flacians raised vehement disputes and contentions both against the Doctrine and the Ecclesiastical Ordinations or as Reuterus expresseth it Quirin Reuterus in Praefat. praefix Vrsini Oper. de rebus quibusdam externis received in the Reformation of the Palatinate Frideric the third in his Confessession of Faith contained in his last Will and Testament and received among the Corpus or Syntagma Confessionum declareth how he had with good success withstood these oppositions and maketh it in that his last Testament his principal admonition to his Sons after him to beware of such persons Casimir in Praef. Conf in Corp Conf. in Vrsin Vol. 3. in fol. with other earnest expressions both of his and of his Son Casimire 19. And besides all this this position that nothing may be established or imposed about which any persons pretend scruple is destructive of it self or inconsistent with it self For as its natural result tendeth to promote an Vniversal toleration of all practices and opinions about which any persons may pretend Conscience which would enclude all manner of Sects and Heresies so the urging such a toleration where Governours either of Church or state judge as they have reason to do that it would be sinful in them to admit it and countenance it is not only to undertake to impose upon their Governours what is scrupled and opposed by
contended for amongst us I shall observe that this hath been many ways also grosly abused First it was the ordinary gesture of worship in the Romish Pagan Idolatry The ancient laws of their Pagan worship required ut adoraturi sedeant which as Plutarch affirmeth Plut. in Numa was appointed by Numa Pompilius and Tertullian informeth us that at their Gentile solemnities even in his time they worshipped their images sitting Tertul. de Orat. c. 12. adoratis sigillaribus suis residendo 11. And in the Romish Church it is by some asserted and appeareth very probable that the Pope himself at some solemnities receiveth the Eucharist sitting When the Emperour receiveth his Coronation their Master of Ceremonies telleth us that at the time of Mass the Pope with the Emperour following him in the place of a Sub-Deacon goeth to the Altar whence Pontifex ad sedem eminentem communicaturus revertitur Sacr. Cerem l. 1. Sect. 5. Cap. 3. the Pope who at that time doth himself celebrate goeth to his seat of eminency therein to receive the Communion And a Book called the Quench-Coal written many years since as an Answer to Dr. Heylins Coal from the Altar produceth this testimony from William Thomas in his History of Italy who declared himself an eye witness thereof in the year 1547. that the Altar in the Cathedral Church of Rome Quench Coal p. 12. even in the time of Mass when the Pope received the Sacrament was standing in the midst of the Quire and the Pope sitting in a Chair of State about it And Didoclavius telleth us which is the only instance he produceth out of any History for sitting at the Sacrament and he may be mistaken in that that the Benedictine Monks receive the Sacrament sitting upon the Thursday before Easter Altar Damasc c. 10. and yet I suppose if his observation be true he will not imagine that they receive it with less adoration of the Host than other Papists do 12. And sitting at the Sacrament hath yet been much more abused by the Arians in Poland as their Synods called the Socinians who as denying the Divinity of Christ In Synodis Cracoviens Petricoviens Wlodislav Toruniens in Corp. Confessionum and not giving due reverence to him were the first Authors known to those Churches of this sitting gesture upon which account the Churches both of the Bobaemian Augustan and Helvetick Confessions residing in Poland and Lithuania disclaimed the use of that gesture though they esteemed it lawful in it self as being upon this occasion scandalous Wherefore to assert that every gesture grosly abused by others ought to be utterly relinquished is not only contrary to truth and to the practice of the Church of England but is herein opposite to the use of all the reformed Churches and it would make void Christs institution of the Sacrament by admitting no gesture to be lawful to communicate therein 13. Yet that we may discern the various working of mens minds in their arguments against this kneeling gesture and how copiously every thing affordeth matter to them who will take up with any thing we may observe Div. Right of Ch. Gov. Ch. 2. q. 1. p. 195. that as kneeling is sometimes disliked as having been Idolatrously abused so sitting is sometimes pleaded for as being the gesture practised and allowed by Christ because it was the gesture say they in the Idols Temple Thus Mr. Rutherford in these strange expressions undertaketh to prove that Christ did sit at the Lords Supper because sitting at the Idols Table 1 Cor. 8.10 declareth that in Religious Feasts sitting was ordinary and a sign indicant of honouring the spiritual Lord of the Banquet and a religious Communion with the Lord of the Feast was hence signified 14. Another thing urged against kneeling at the Sacrament Obj. 5. Rutherf Divine Right of Ch. Govern Ch. 1. Qu. 5. Sect. 1 3. which of the others is most strange and uncharitable is this that kneeling at the Sacrament is Idolatry and is parallel with worshipping god by an Image and even with the Pagan Idolatry it self upon this ground Altar Damasc c. 10 p. 801. because to kneel before any Creature as a memorative object of God though there be no intention of giving divine adoration to that Creature is Idolatry in the opinion of some men 15. Ans 1. This rash position tendeth to make the Jews worshipping God before the Ark or mercy Seat and before the Temple at Jerusalem or the Tabernacle in the Wilderness to have been equally Idolatrous with the serving Jeroboams Calves or worshipping Baal which was so far from that great sin that it was then a necessary duty of Religion And the cause of this gross mistake is the want of considering the vast difference of worshipping a false God or making use of a memorative object to represent the likeness of the divine being which is contrary to his nature and forbidden by his Precepts and of using such a memorative object in worship as is to be a memorial of the Covenant and grace of God and Christ and his Communion with us being to that end appointed and instituted as a remembrance of him If these things be not accounted vastly different it must be concluded not very considerable whether we do things appointed of God or forbidden of him and things agreeable to the nature of God or apposite thereto And besides this to worship God alone making use of such memorative objects as an help thereto which do properly call to our minds Gods mighty works and glorious Attributes is far from being either Idolatrous or blameable If a pious man taking a view of the mighty works of Gods Creation or any part thereof should upon this sight be put in mind of the power and wisdom of their Creator and thence should glorify admire and worship not the Creature but God alone such actions are not evil but devout and religious 16. 2. This assertion is of so dangerous consequence as to disown this holy Sacrament from being an Ordinance of Christian worship and to hinder the principal duties therein to be performed For it is directly contrary to the duties of this Sacrament to condemn the worshipping of Christ as sinful at the view of this memorial of Christs Death in this Sacrament when Christians here ought to magnifie his grace mercy and love to glorifie him for the wonderful Salvation and Atonement effected by his Death to implore his grace and spirit with all the blessings and benefits of the New Testament to acknowledge him and submit to him as our only Soveraign Lord with other such like which are proper actions of our worshipping and inwardly adoring him And it is unreasonable as well as uncharitable where these inward acts of Religion are necessary and a duty to condemn the outward expression thereof as either Idolatrous or any was sinful being directed to him who is Lord both of our Souls and Bodies 17. And though some mens
confess him who was crucified let the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sign of the Cross be confidently made upon the forehead with the finger Catech. 13. Amalar. de Eccl. Offic. l. 3. c. 18. And Amalarius saith we believe that we shall be saved by him who was crucified of whose name the Jews are ashamed and therefore we make the sign in our forehead which is the seat of shame And to this purpose the use of this sign by some of the Souldiers under Julian is accounted in Theodoret to be an expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Christian profession Theod. Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 16. And indeed when-ever the ancient Christians used this sign publickly especially when any one signed himself therewith it always included a profession of Christ yet since through the blessing of God we live not among the Gentiles or Jews who oppose the name of Christ and have other sufficient visible signs of professing the faith of Christ in publick Assemblies of the Church the use of this Rite to this end is no way needful to be continued amongst us but because it is liable to the same danger with what I mention in the following particular the disuse hereof is useful and commendable in the present state of the Church 3. Secondly This sign was most frequently used as an expression of hope and and trust in Christ crucified and of confidence in him expectation of blessing from him and supplication unto God by him To this purpose both Latine and Greek Writers have paralleled this with Moses lifting up his hands when Israel was engaged with Amalek which was a manifestation of devout application to God and holy considence in him De Cor. Mil. c. 3. Ad Vxor l. 2. c. 5. Chrys ad pop Ant. Hom. 21. And this use of this sign was anciently very common in the actions of life even in retirement and privacy as is expressed by Tertulian Thus S. Chrysostom directed the Christian when he went abroad that he might be in safety under the divine protection to disclaim the Devil and express his adhering to Christ with using the sign of the Cross When Julian after his Apostacy was affrighted and terrified while he sought to consult with the Devil as a remedy against his fears he signed himself with the sign of the Cross Naz. Orat. 3. which Nazianzen expresseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words shew his use of that sign to be a declaration of flying for aid and expecting help from Christ whom he persecuted Upon this account this sign was sometimes anciently used in the working Miracles as is expressed by Nazianzen Epiphanius and other Fathers as a visible testimony of confidence in Christ which Casaubone well expresseth Casaub Exerc. 13. in Baron n. 33. Opem à Christo petiit facto signo crucis quod Primitivae Ecclesiae fuit symbolum ejus fiduciae quam in Christo cruce ipsius passione ponebant And whereas this sign was long since used in every sacramental administration and some expressions of the Ancients have mentioned spiritual aid and grace to be conveyed per signum crucis by the use of this sign they hereby only meant that these benefits flowed from Christs Passion and were obtained by a Religious application unto him as Cassander asserteth Cassand in Hymn Eccles p. 220. Haud dubiè nil aliud significare volebant quam omnem tutelam salutem in morte Christi esse constitutam sacramenta omnia vim atque efficaciam suam non aliunde quam à morte Christi haurire In like manner the Christian Emperours from Constantine and downwards made use of the Banner of the Cross as an expression of their trust in Christ crucified and the same is related by Bede Bed Eccl. Histl l. 3. c. 2. concerning Oswaldus in England in his engagement against the Britains 4. Yet because this sign which hath been grosly abused to superstition by placing an operative vertue and essicacy in the meer outward use thereof would in this ordinary practice be still very liable to the same abuse by many persons or to be so misunderstood by others because they cannot upon every such action declare their intent and end in that usage as is done in our Liturgy when it maketh use of the Cross in Baptism therefore the disuse of this outward sign as an expression of Christian confidence in order to the avoiding of that which is properly scandal the producing corruption in Religion and the sin of man which is therein included is altogether as reasonable and fit as was the ancient forbearance of the Love-kiss and the Agapae upon the same account 5. Thirdly The sign of the Cross as also generally made upon the foreheads of them who were received unto the Church Hence in the instruction of the Catechumeni Aug. de Catech. Rudib. c. 20. they were every one of them told at their due time Passionis crucis signo in fronte hodie signandus es omnesque Christiani signantur that he must then be signed in the forehead with the sign of the Cross according to the manner of all Christians And that this sign was constantly attendant upon the admission of members in the regular administrations of the Church is declared by S. Augustin upon John Tr. in Johan 118. and the same usage is reckoned by S. Basil among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas de Spir. Sanct. c. 27. or the fixed Laws and Constitutions of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when S. Cyprian saith Cyp. de Vnit Eccles in fronte signantur qui Dominum promerentur he thereby meaneth that they who are though worthy to be admitted to Christianity are so signed in their foreheads 6. The intent of this sign in this use thereof was that the Church did hereby solemnly testifie those persons having relation to the Christian society to stand obliged to mainain the Christian profession and life and so far as concerned her authority did hereby dedicate or engage them thereto and charge and require them to be mindful thereof and this was a token to admonish them that they must not be ashamed to confess the Christian Faith and to fight under Christs Banner and to serve and honour him Upon this account the sign of the Cross was ordinarily called Signum or Signaculum Dei by the Latine Writers and by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal or mark whereby these persons were declared to be set apart to God so far as the Church had any right over Cyp. Ep. 56. or interest in them of her communion Thus those words of S. Cyprian Muniatur frons ut signum Dei incolume servetur do exhort to Christian constancy and resolution that they might thereby keep inviolable what was intended by this sign on their forehead which engaged them thereto Aug. in Psal 85. And when S. Austin checketh the Donatists who confined the Kingdom of