as it is lawful to plead for the abolishing of the Laws of this Kingdom For as it is manifest that our Ecclesiastical Laws are the Laws of the Kingdom So would I not open my mouth for improving them were it not to make them the Laws of Gods only true Church THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. IF the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been If the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church If no Visible Church then no sin of Schisme Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot bee the Head of a Church Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to kneel at the Communion would bee Holy That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God pag. 2 CHAP. II. The supposition of Antichrist and Idolatry prejudicial to the truth The supposition of one Visible Church the ground of Communion as well within the Reformation as in the whole Church What the Romish Missionaries get by the charge of Haeresie and the pretense of Infallibility What we get by the charge of Idolatry and Antichrist Immoderate charges vain on both sides The charge of Schisme on both sides moderate as to the Church The sin of Schisme as to God horrible The Schisme of the Donatists in charging the Catholicks to bee Apostates The sad consequences of that Schisme 8 CHAP. III. They that hold by One Visible Church are to own the consequences of it Nothing to bee changed but upon that ground Wee cannot bee the same Church with that which was otherwise Though that which shall be setled will find advocates Civil Laws of Religion to bee changed till this Rule bee attained The beginning and rise of our differences The present state of them What terms of agreement with the Presbyterians wee ought to allow The Laws of the Primitive Church the Standard of all change Our present Case is â—ot the Case of our Forefathers The Acts of Henry VIII no Acts of our Forefathers in Religion Imperfection of Laws in Religion no imputation to our Forefathers The pretense of tender Consciences is no Rule It serves Papists as well as Puritans 15 CHAP. IV. Erastians can acknowledge no Visible Church founded by God Their opinion inableth Sovereigns to persecute Gods truth by Gods Law Persecuting the truth is the use of a Power which no Sovereign can have If any Sovereign may punish for the Religion which hee professeth then are Subjects bound to renounce Christ if the Sovereign command it No offense but charity in declaring the true ground of reconcilement or punishment Why it ought to bee declared The declaring of it no offense to Superiors 24 CHAP. V. Wee have the same evidence for the Visible Vnity of the Church as for the truth of the Scriptures The Church founded upon the Power of the Keys The Vnity of the Church Visible by the Laws of it The Law which endoweth the Church with consecrated Goods How the Vnity of the Church is signified by the Scriptures How in the Old Testament 29 CHAP. VI. How far the Scriptures are clear to bee understood of themselves Tradition limiteth the sense of the Scripture Difference between the Tradition of Faith and Ritual Traditions The difference between Haeresie and Schisme The dependence of Churches evidenceth the Vnity of the Whole Church The form of this dependence throughout the Roman Empire No exception to bee made to it for the British Church Episcopacy by this form inviolable in all Opinions And the Church a standing Synod The Church Visible by disâ—â—â—ing Hâ—reticks and Schismaticks The breaches that have come to pasâ— evidence the same 35 CHAP. VII Reformation to bee bounded by that wherein the Visible Church agreeth No change without regard to the Rules of the Catholick Church Regular authority in the Church of Rome the means of Vnity absolute of Schismes How wee are visibly one with the only Church of God reforming without the Church of Rome 45 CHAP VIII What means God hath provided private Christians to discern the true Church The duty of all Estates for the Re-uniting of Schism The ground and extent of Secular Power in Church Matters How the conscience of Sovereign Power is discharged maintaining the Church 49 CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Predestination to Glory destructive to Christianity Justifying Faith includeth the profession of Christianity The Nature of Faith according to the Scriptures sheweth the same So doth the state of that Question which St. Paul disputeth The conseâ—â— of the Church â—erein with the ground of it The sense of this Church 54 CHAP. X. Why Justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ Of Justification according to the Council of Trent Of Justification according to Socinus Wherein his Hâ—resie consisteth How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Vpon what grounds hee is to bee refuted The helps of Grace granted iâ— consideration of Christs obedienâ—â— And therefore they infer Original Sin by the fall of Adam Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth That the state of Grace is forfeited by hainous sin The danger of the contrary Position according to the ground of it 63 CHAP. XI What Law of God it is that may bee fulfilled by a Christian Of doing more then Gods Law requireth Whether our Lord gave a New Law or not Of the Satisfaction and Merit of Christian Works Original Sin is not Adams sin imputed to his Posterity Wherein Original Sin consisteth What Original Righteousness signifieth What good the Vnregenerate are able to do by the Law of Nature 73 CHAP. XII Vpon what terms that which is possible may become future The difference between necessity antecedent and consequent The difference between freedom from necessity and from bondage Freedom from necessity always requireth indetermination not always indifference The Object determineth the Will saving the freedom of it Whence the certainty of future contingencies ariseth How this appears in the Scriptures God no cause of sin according to the Scriptures Concerning the middle knowledg of God 80 CHAP. XIII No absolute Predestination to Glory Predestination to Grace absolute How Glory is the end of Grace In what terms the Faith of the Church standeth as concerning this point 86 CHAP. XIV Duty of a Christian as a Christian and as a Member of the Church How Anabaptists deny the Faith how they are to bee reconciled with the Church Their Error in rebaptizing for want of dipping What concerns Salvation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist How the Elements are consecrated into the body and bloud of Christ according to Gregory Nyssene The consequence hereof in the Errors concerning the Eucharist How the Eucharist a Sacrifice and yet no ground for private Masses The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods service 91
raised Christ from the dead that shall raise the mortal bodies in which it dwelt here up to life is it not the sin which the fall of Adam brought into the world that first brought in death after it The same Spirit of holiness it is that our Lord according to promise sent his Disciples in his own stead and sent it with visible signs of his presence to make his word effectual in them first and by them to the conversion of the Nations And this means as no Christian can deny to bee sufficient to oblige all the world to bee Christians So there can bee nothing wanting on Gods part to render it effectual with those that embrace it For it is manifest that the Grace of God works the conversion of all by shewing the world sufficient reason to bee Christians A thing which can by no means bee done but by shewing them that they are the causes of their own damnation if they bee not They that are convicted hereof it is sure would bee perswaded by concupiscence not to act according to that conviction were there no more then conviction of reason to turn the ballance But when Gods Spirit manageth the motives of Christianity which it self provideth for this conviction consisteth in the works whereby God hath made good the preaching of our Lord and his Apostles what can bee wanting to the efficacy of it And this is signified in the Old Testament by ascribing the conquest of the promised Land to God and not to the strength or valour of his people So that wheresoever wee find that they are delivered out of their enemies hands by Gods assistance there wee are assured that the powers of darkness are not to bee overcome by Christians but by Gods Grace And the inclinations of mans heart to evil from the Mothers And therefore they inferre Original Sin by the Fall of Adam womb the frailty of humane flesh and the mortality thereof are so expresly delivered in the Old Testament that the Jewes themselves do acknowledge the effect of Adams transgression in them Neither is it possible to give any account of any necessity for the coming of our Saviour otherwise For whatsoever can bee required to convict the world that the tender of the Gospel shall bee made good to all that embrace or preserve it might have been as well without the death of the Son of God as by it Therefore the consent of the Church in this point hath been evidenced against Pelagius not only by the custome of baptizing Infants but by the Ceremonies which they were baptized with signifying the ejecting of the evil Spirit to make way for Gods Spirit Not that it was a Law from the beginning that all children of Christian Parents should be baptized Infants For it is evident that they thought it better to bee baptized at mans age Because then they are more able to understand what they undertake But because they never did presume of the Salvation of any that dyed unbaptized And therefore since the world came to profess Christianity and that the care and zeal either of Parents or Ministers could not so well bee trusted for the preventing of death by procuring Baptisme for Infants especially with that reverence which the Sacrament requireth it hath been agreed upon by the silent practise of Christendome to baptize all while they are Infants And this consent whoso infringeth in the overt act of Schisme which hee committeth hee involveth a presumption of Haeresie against himself For what could move a man to such an outrage who did believe that profession which saveth a Christian to include in it the Sacrament of Baptisme And thus it remaineth evident that it is a Covenant of unspeakable Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth Grace on Gods part which his Gospel bringeth notwithstanding that it requireth upon the condition of our Salvation that wee live and dye Christians First as tendring the assistance of Gods Spirit as well to undertake as to perform And then having performed as tendring a reward which our performance cannot challenge And both in consideration of Christ whose merits and sufferings are free pure meer Grace before all helps of Grace which they have purchased for us It is a thing prodigious and deplorable to consider that they That the state of Grace is forfeited by heinous sin who would bee Reformers of the Church should notwithstanding all this think it no state of Grace that can become forfeit by sin As if because without daily sin Christians do not live therefore that reconcilement with God were no reconcilement that can become void by gross and heinous sin But till that which hath been said of Justification and that Faith which alone justifieth bee destroyed there can bee no pretense for so dangerous a doctrine That which is granted upon a condition faileth with it And it must bee a secret which the Old and New Testament hath not revealed that shall make good our title to Heaven though wee make not good that Christianity which intitleth us to it And therefore when S. Paul is perswaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. VIII 28. hee supposeth us to bee such as hee describeth all along the Chapter afore Such as hee found himself resolved to bee Such as live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Of such hee might well bee perswaded that nothing should separate them from the love of God in Christ Knowing the helps of Gods All-sufficient Grace to bee promised all that so live not to fail till they receive them in vain Whence S. John saith that hee who is born of God sinneth not because the Vnction which hee hath from God abideth in bim and teacheth him all things 1 John II. 20. 27. III. 9. hee supposeth him that is born of God to bee the Son of God who shall bee no Son of God if hee sinne such sins as hee means And therefore hee supposeth this Vnction to abide in him which abideth not in them that sinne When our Lord saith to the Samaritane John IV. 14. that whoso drinketh of the water which hee shall give shall never thirst any more hee supposeth that the water which hee giveth is not vomited up again hee opposeth this water so drunk to the water of Jacobs Well which did make room for thirst in time Whereas this water so drunk shall spring up to life everlasting All Haeresies have the superficial sound of some Texts of Scripture to set against the whole stream of Scripture and the current Doctrine of it Hee that considers how much of the Old and New Testament that which I have said of Justification involveth will think it reason to measure the meaning of two or three Texts by that not to rack all the rest to the length of these As for the sense of the Church seeing the consent thereof is evident in the condition upon which wee are justified It is a part of
though that which the Clergy subscribeth bee as it ought to bee a wholsome Doctrine to wit if soundly understood yet that by which Christian people are saved ought to bee that which the Offices of the Church and the instruction which it proposeth contain CHAP. X. Why Justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ Of Justification according to the Council of Trent Of justification according to Socinus Wherein his Hieresie consisteth How the misunderstanding of Satisfaction and Imputation occasioned it Vpon what grounds hee is to bee refuted The helps of Grace granted in consideration of Christs obedience And therefore they infer Original Sin by the fall of Adam Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth That the state of Grace is forfeited by hainous sin The danger of the contrary Position according to the ground of it NOw I confess there is another opinion of justifying Faith Why justifying Faith is not trust in God through Christ in which I find nothing of any consequence that is destructive of Christianity Namely that which placeth justifying faith in trust and confidence of Gods mercy through Christ For this opinion necessarily supposeth Repentance to go before justifying Faith And Repentance understanding it to bee the Repentance of one that turns from all sin to all Righteousness such as is the Repentance of him that first turneth Christian signifies as much as the undertaking of Christianity Only it signifies this resolution in the way not in the end not made but in making in fieri not in facto esse But understanding the Repentence of a Christian turning from some particular sin to God according to the obligation of his Christianity his being justified of that sin or from that sin will of necessity require and presuppose his Repentance of that sin Notwithstanding because this opinion expresseth onely the inward act of Faith to bee the condition that qualifieth a Christian for the promises of the Gospel though it doth not exclude the profession of the outward man I have laid it aside not only as not true for the reasons that I have gsven already but as not sufficiently expressing the condition of the Covenant of Grace For it is therefore the means to continue those everlasting Disputes about Justification by Faith alone which the very mention of the outward act of profession limited for the manner of it to the Sacrament of Baptisme utterly extinguisheth As for the Decree of the Council of Trent seeming to confine Of Justification according to the Council of Trent the justification of a Christian to the infusion of habitual righteousness into that soul which being truly contrite for the sense of sin and the offense of God by it resolves for the love of God above all to live as a Christian for the future professing so much by being baptized It is liable to a two-fold challenge First for excluding the positive act of Gods Law which the Gospel enacteth by accepting the righteousness of a Christian as a condition sufficiently qualifying for the Promises of the Gospel by Gods original justice Secondly for excluding the imputation of Christs obedience from the consideration in which a Christian is justified and saved and in a word intitled to the Promises of the Gospel A thing which that Council need not have done For it is manifest that Pighius Gropper Cardinal Contarine Cassander and many others the best studied in Luthers controversies of all that communion had owned and embraced it for the Doctrine of St. Bernard and divers other highly approved Authors Besides that including the Sacrament of Baptisme that is the outward act of professing Christianity in the condition upon which a Christian is justified it is not possible to exclude either the act of Gods positive will to which the Gospel engageth him or the consideration of Christs obedience from the same And including the consideration of them the justification of a Christian will of necessity consist in the gracious account of God accepting of him that is chargeable with sin for righteous though it presupposes in him that habituall righteousness whereby he resolves to live and dye a good Christian And therefore they also not excluding expresly that which they do not expresly include the worse Divines they would bee as to this opinion the better Christians they are that is the less they depart from the right Rule of Faith And indeed the Haeresie of Socinus which hath appeared Of justification according to Socinus since that Council gives cause to believe that the imputation of Christs righteousness to the justifying of a Christian which the Reformation for good reasons insisted upon was not distinctly understood between the parties as it ought to have been Hee maketh the belief of Christianity to bee that Faith which alone justifieth in this regard because hee that beleeves it to bee true must needs find himself obliged for his salvation to live and dye a good Christian Which had been a very good reason why justification should not be ascribed to Faith alone For if a man bee saved by living and dying a good Christian indeed not by finding himself obliged so to do then is hee justified by undertaking to profess Christsanity and not by beleeving it though by beleeving it hee is obliged so to do But as for the profession of Christianity I do not marvel that hee who intended to bring in a new Christianity should make no reckoning of it in the condition upon which a Christian is saved For it is the Christianity of the Catholick Church which he that will be saved must profess if hee mean to bee saved by professing true Christianity And therefore the profession of one Catholick Church is a part of it And therefore hee hath found the true consequence of his own position when hee makes no more of Baptisme then of an indifferent ceremony which the Church may use or not at pleasure For how should any man make any more of Baptisme that allows salvation before it and therefore without it Otherwise Socinus is free enough in ascribing the effect of justifying not to the worth of that Faith which beleeveth or of that Christianity to which it resolveth But to the meer grace of God of his own free goodness sending by Christ salvation to mankind overtaken in sin upon the condition of their Christianity for the future The venim of his Haeresie lies in excluding the consideration Wherein his Haeresic consisteth of the obedience and sufferings of Christ either from the reason for which God Grants the grace that makes men good Christians or for which hee rewards their Christianity with the life of the world to come The Decree of the Council of Trent fully acknowledgeth the consideration of Christs merits in the helps of grace without which wee are not good Christians But in as much as it maketh Christians righteous before God by their habitual righteousness insomuch and so far must it needs exclude the consideration thereof from the condition
JUST WEIGHTS AND MEASURES That is The present STATE of RELIGION Weighed in the BALANCE and Measured by the STANDARD of the SANCTUARY According to the Opinion of HERBERT THORNDIKE LONDON Printed by J. M. for J. Martin J. Allestry and T. Dicas and are to be sold at the sign of the Bell in St. Paul's Church-yard 1662. TO ALL Christian Readers I Have heard that in the time of our Late Troubles the Presbyterians were put to nonplus by the Fanatickes demanding of them a ground in the Scripture for a National Church I let pass that mistake of both parties which the term of National involveth For the state of the Question must needs concern that part of the Church which every respective Sovereignty containeth Now one Sovereignty may contain several Nations As there are two in this Kingdom of England But wee need not marvel that they could give no answer to a demand which their own Title allowed them no ground to answer Had they believed the Creed which they thrust out of the Church and that Article of it which professeth one Catholick Church they might have had an answer to it But such a one as would have destroyed the pretense of their Presbyteries For were the Unity of the Church which that Article professeth meerly Invisible with God by Communion in his Spirit the Usurpers of Sovereign Power might make Presbyteries Churches by as good a Title as that by which they make themselves Sovereigns But the Unity which that Article professeth is Visible with that Church which is or ought to bee always one and the same from our Lord and his Apostles by Communion in the Offices of Gods Service especially the Eucharist to distinguish it from Haeresies and Schismes whom the Title of Catholick visibly distinguisheth from the Church That Title the Presbyteries cannot pretend to because it is as visible that their authority is derived from the Long Parliament and their own consent as it is visible that the authority of the Whole Church is derived from our Lord and his Apostles For the Unity of the Church is not derived from Constantine but from our Lord and his Apostles and the Law imposed by them upon all Christians to maintain Communion among themselves upon those terms which the Common Christianity supposed in the said Communion may allow Whereby the Church is Visible by being Catholick It is manifest by what Title and therefore upon what terms Constantine first in the Empire and after him all Christian Powers in their respective Sovereignties doe make Religion a Law to their Subjects For being to bee baptized and made a member of the Church by the act of the Church If all Christians by their Baptisme do consecrate themselves to the service of God in his Church then must hee also by being baptized consecrate the Power of the Empire to the maintenance of that Christianity into which hee was baptized part whereof is the Unity of the Catholick Church And as the effect of this obligation is visible in bringing the World into the Church So is it a visible advantage for the Church that the profession thereof is a Law to Christian States by the rewards and penalties whereby it is inacted For when all are constrained to bee Christians according to the Laws of the Land so much the more will bee Christians according to the Laws of God and of his Church And as it is evident that without such Laws Unity in Religion will not prevail in the World which cannot prevail with the help of them No less manifest is it that without Unity Christianity will soon come to nothing He that considers the decay which a little time of disunion hath visibly made in the Christianity of this Kingdom is past cure by reasoning if he question this consequence This is that Principle which must justifie the Reformation which wee profess by maintaining the due bounds and terms and measure of it This is that which must reunite the parties which hitherto are at distance if wee will have them united to the purpose of saving souls out of satisfaction in the Laws which they are to execute not only to the purpose of publick peace for hope or fear of the rewards and penalties which they are inacted with This is that which must secure the Conscience of the Kingdom that those rewards and penalties will bee allowed as for the service of God at the great day of judgment And how much this concerns the present Case now that Religion is to bee re-established by the Law of the Land it is manifest enough Let the Presbyterians submit to the due terms upon which the Fanaticks may be acknowleged members of this Church as acknowleging the Covenant of Baptisme for the condition of holding the State of Gods Grace and the Recusants shall stand bound to own the Faith of this Church for the Faith of the Catholick Church Let the Laws of this Church bee Ruled by the Laws of the Catholick Church in those times which hee that owneth one Catholick Church from the beginning cannot disown and all shall appear bound to bee of this Church as visibly the same Church with that which was from the beginning For the Church is Visible by the Laws of it And therefore if the Laws bee the same the Church is visibly the same And all that are not of it shall bee evidently liable to such penalties as belong to them that disobey those Laws of their Country which the common Christianity requireth Let no man then marvel that being setled in this opinion upon all the consideration which our long distractions have allowed me time to take I am not afraid to publish this brief view of it referring my self for proof of the particulars to that which I have published heretofore Let it not seem strange that I deliver it some times with that resolution and assurance which seems to admit no contradiction to it For though the Faith of Gods Church bee always the same yet I profess of my self that the Laws of this Church are to bee Ruled by the Laws of the primitive Church with that allowance which the difference of the present time and that state of Christianity which it hath introduced from that which then was may require And by professing this I do really and not only for a formality submit my self to the authority of Superiors as well as to the judgment and censure of every Christian For how far the present times are capable of those Rules which all times are to go by that would bee one and the same Church with that which was from the beginning I take not upon me to judge as belonging to the account of Superiors Nay before I have done you shall see I compromise my Opinion it self and not only my own proceeding according or not contrary to it to the authority of Superiors and to better judgement And therefore let it be lawful to plead for the improving of the Laws of this Church so long
kneele at the Communion would bee Holy That which the Church of Rome professeth is not Idolatry if it bee a true Church They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismatickes before God SInce the time that I could understand the Dispute about If the Church of Rome bee a true Church Reformation is the restoring of that which hath been Religion when it was demanded on the behalf of the Church of Rome Where was your Church before Luthers time The Answer hath always been Even where it is now The answer was That it is the same Church that it was A Church which was sick and is now cured Which was corrupted and now is cleared of her Corruptions This answer supposeth that the Church of Rome was a true Church when that Change which wee call Reformation was made And therefore granteth as it hath always been granted that so it is at present For it cannot bee questioned that it is the same Church now which then it was Though the Council of Trent may have encreased the corruption of it And upon these terms all dispute of choice in Religion comes to trial upon this issue Whether the change that is made hath restored that which was in the beginning or not An issue not to be tried but by going to trial upon the particulars in which the change consisteth But are wee all content to goe to tryal upon this issue It If the Pope bee Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters the Church of Rome no true Church were good that wee did understand one another whether wee bee agreed upon it or not For if wee bee then may wee expect to build Solomons Temple without any noise If not wee shall bee the Builders of Babel Wee shall never understand one anothers Language For of a truth there is another reason alleged for the breach between us and the Church of Rome to wit that the Pope is Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters If this pretense bee true wee need not seek farther for the reason of the distance Wee are to owne the Separation for our own Act and to glorie in it For it is done by Gods expresse Command Come out of her my People As to the Jewes in the Captivity of Babylon so to the Christians in the Apocalypse If it bee the Church of Rome that Babylon there signifieth But if this plea bee good it may bee inconsistent with that which the former plea supposeth And though wee cannot goe to trial upon the truth of it without going to trial upon the particulars in difference Yet it is necessary to provide that wee contradict not our selves It is necessary also to consider the importance and consequence of it Whether the reason of the distance amount to so heavy a charge or not It is necessary that wee understand our selves whether wee admit the consequence of our own supposition or not And indeed it concernes us to the purpose Wee all beleeve If â—o â—isible Church thâ—n no sinne of Schismâ— one Catholicke Church for an Article of our Creed upon which the hope of our Common Salvation hangeth If any man be allowed to say I beleeve it not I must be allowed to say I must not bee of that Church in which hee is allowed â—o say it It were good to understand Whether the Unity of the Church out of which no man is saved bee the Visible Unity of those that communicate in the Offices of Gods Service Or whether it be enough that being invisibly United to Christ they are invisibly United to one another by Christ For if the Visible Unity of the Church be not founded by God then is there no crime of Schisme in breaking that Unity But onely of Heresy in breaking it upon an errour in the Faith If there bee such an Unity And therefore such a crime in breaking it Care would bee had that wee ground not our selves in this state of Separation upon that which will render us accessory to it Now I do not doubt that whosoever hath gone about or Antichrist may bee an Idolater but cannot bee the Head of a Church shall goe about to perswade the Jewes that hee is the Christ whom they expect must needs ipso facto bee Antichrist For the word signifies no more than one that pretends to bee Christ in opposition to the true Christ And therefore to Christians who beleeve in the true Christ a false Christ and an Antichrist are both one And S. John 1 John II. 18 22. IV. 3. II John 7. signifies nothing else by that name but those whom our Saviour calls false Christs Mat. XXIV 24. Mark XIII 22. And therefore hee that pretendeth to bee such a Prophet and a Prince as the Jewes expected that their Christ should bee in opposition to the true Christ in whom Christians beleeve As hee is a false Christ so is hee Antichrist For there is no other mention of Antichrist in all the Scriptures but this Other Scriptures are onely supposed to speak of Antichrist But presumption without evidence must not bee taken for truth I do not doubt then that Mahomet is really Antichrist Though the Mahumetans expected no Christ Because hee is the author of a Law which they take for Gods Law And of a power founded upon that Imposture As the Jewes expect that their Christ shall restore Moses Law and the power which God first founded upon it But neither can the Jewes Antichrist nor the Mahumetans Antichrist bee Idolaters without rooting up the Alcoran or the Law of Moses which was not the way to win either the Jewes or those whom Mahomet had to do with Notwithstanding I believe Manicheus was Antichrist and an Idolater both I believe he taught the Idolatry of the Persians in his two Gods the principles one of good the other of evil He pretended indeed to come from Christ as having his Spirit And therefore sent out his twelve Apostles as our Lord Christ had sent his But yet that he brought in his own new Law instead of Christianity no man that knows his positions can doubt And is not hee Antichrist that pretends to do what Christ indeed hath done Therefore I deny not that the Pope may bee Antichrist though the Papists bee Idolaters But I do not grant that the Pope can bee Antichrist granting the Church of Rome to bee a true Church For to bee a ttue Church presupposes the profession of so much Christianity as is necessary to the salvation of all Christians But the salvation of no Christian can stand with the profession of a false Christ And therefore granting the Pope to be Antichrist they that own him can bee no Church So this plea will bee inconsistent with the former which supposeth the Church of Rome a true Church when the Separation fell out As for the charge of Idolatry it is at present alleged in Bar Though it were Idolatry to worship the Host yet to kneel at the Communion would be Holy
can serve for his discharge to God Hee is answerable to God notwithstanding any such advise for any wrong that the priviledges and penalties otherwise enacted may do But maintaining first the express profession of the Rule hitherto established bounding all Reformation of the present Church by that which the consent of the Whole Church either alloweth or requireth Then maintaining them in their Office whose Office it is to forme that which his act must make Law to his Subjects There will need no more for his discharge to God then the use of that Judgment which God hath endowed him with to discern whether the Rule which hee protecteth bee duly applyed to that which hee enacteth or not For as no reason can bee excused to God transgressing that which it seeth So in things doubtful to preferre any reason before that which God trusteth in the matter of such trust is to render a mans self accountable to God for that wrong which may bee done for which otherwise those that are trusted by God should bee accountable CHAP. IX Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church How their Positions destroy the Faith Absolute Praedestination to Glory destructive to Christianity Justifying Faith includeth the profession of Christianity The Nature of Faith according to the Scriptures sheweth the same So doth the state of that Question which St Paul disputeth The consent of the Church herein with the ground of it The sense of this Church BUt I must now profess that the weightiest point in re-uniting Difficulty in receiving the Fanaticks into this Church the breaches of Religion in this Church is the Condition upon which the Fanaticks may bee either reconciled to it or shut out of it whether with free exercise of their several Sects or under certain penalties as Recusants I see that they are not afraid to pretend a further liberty of Publick Preachers even since the Lawes of this Land were in force For I find that such of them as are not Ministers of Congregations do notwithstanding stile themselves Publick Preachers Which is nothing else then to pretend that authority from the Secular Power which they had by the late Usurpation to seduce as many of his Majesties Subjects as they can to their Conventicles But that I will say nothing of because I make certain account that whensoever wee come to any settlement in Religion they will find that their pretense to bee vain That which I insist upon is that which I conceive I have proved that the positions which they notoriously challenge are down-right Haeresie wanting only conviction to produce either conversion or contumacy and the declaration of the Church upon the same For it is notorious that they challenge the present endowment of Gods Spirit and the certainty of Salvation for the future upon no further consideration then of their persons As not depending upon the Christianity which they either profess or perform So far they are from acknowledging that it dependeth upon their being Members of Gods Church by living according to that Christianity which it professeth For because they think themselves Members of Christ before they bee Members of Gods Church Therefore they think themselves enabled by God to divide the Church in infinitum And that the Conventicles of their Congregations are Churches to the same effect with those which were founded by the Apostles Though they profess not the Faith though they renounce the Unity of one Visible Church Therefore they openly allow those who maintain that God can see no sin in his Elect That their sins are pardoned from everlasting before they bee done That God shall not judge by our works but by his own decrees That there are Inspirations of the Holy Ghost without the Word though not against it for dear Members of Christ and the cream of Christians And hence comes the everlasting divisions which they maintain For to renounce those bounds which the Faith of the Church and the Unity thereof fixeth is enough to commend them to all parties that do so for the Godly In fine the whole fry of this errour resolves it self in two Positions That God praedestinateth to Salvation meerly in consideration of mens persons and not of any Christianity which they shall bee found to have professed and performed And that the knowledge of this Praedestination revealed by the Word and sealed by the Spirit immediately not supposing the Christianity which they profess and perform is that Faith which only justifieth I cannot say that the Presbyterians do expresly profess these How their Positions destroy the Faith Positions For they have an express Confession of their Faith which expresseth them not But seeing them in all occasions of publick confusion render themselves considerable by these Fanaticks as being of one and the same party I must take it for granted that they think their Profession reconcileable with these Positions Especially knowing how many particular Divines and Preachers of that party have maintained the same Namely all that maintain justifying Faith and the Knowledge and Assurance of a mans Salvation without and before Repentance I do not then say that the belief of absolute Praedestination is Haeresie in the sight of God Because it may bee held with other positions which are an antidote to the venime of it as being really contradictory to it Which contradiction did those that hold it perceive they could not hold it For this contradiction suffers not the consequence of Haeresie to take effect But both positions together I have maintained to bee down-right Haeresie Neither have I been shewed or of my self discovered any reason sufficient to think otherwise And therefore I must continue to weigh by my own Weights and to mete by my own Measures For that the ground and substance of Christianity is utterly Absolute Praedestination to Glory destructive to Christianity inconsistent with the Decree which they imagine is manifest if any thing can bee manifest in Christianity Because if there were any such Decree then could not men be judged at the last day as judged they shall bee by their works There is no Decree of God that shall not bee executed If God decree from everlasting to give glory and torment for everlasting without consideration of mens works then must hee without such consideration give it in time For otherwise hee should not execute that which hee decrees And indeed such a Decree can no way bee undefeasible as all Gods Decrees must bee Unless God determine and move every man to every thing that hee doth every moment of his life upon the account whereof hee shall bee saved or damned And that before his own will determine or move it self But if God should so determine and move mans will then would the tender of the Gospel bee a meer abuse and a mockery Inviting mankind to Salvation upon a Condition which unless God determine and move him to perform hee cannot If hee do hee cannot but perform The justice of Gods proceedings at
will bee condemned for it There is therefore a third signification of Faith in holy Scripture comprizing the outward act of professing as well as the inward act of beleeving And supposing this outward act of profession limited by the positive Law of the Gospel to the Sacrament of Baptism According to which signification the antient Church counted not Christians Fideles faithful or beleevers till they were baptized This is in the middle between the other two For as belief goes before it so it is the ground of the trust and confidence of a Christian And this therefore is that which all those Scriptures that ascribe the promises of the Gospel to Faith make properly justifying Faith For according to the use and custom of all Languages they are ascribed to belief bya Metonymy of the cause going before to trust and confidence by a Metonymy of the effect following upon it But this will not hold till we pitch upon that which comes between both as that which qualifieth a Christian for those premises When therefore the belief of Christs Gospel causes a man to take up Christs Cross in Baptisme then hath he that Faith which justifieth though that which prepares to it and that which insues upon it are honoured with the same attribute for being so neer of kindred to it But the consideration of the question which St. Paul disputeth So doth the State of that question which St. Paul disputeth visible in the writings of the Apostles suffereth no doubt of his meaning when hee argueth that Faith alone justifieth It is as clear as the Sun at noon that all his Dispute is with those Christians who having submitted to the Gospel could not conceive that the Law had no hand in justifying them whom they saw live according to the Law And that by the direction of that Apostles themselves for the gaining of the Jews A thing which they dispensed with for a long time till St. Paul was constrained to declare against it as rooting up the necessity of Christianity and salvation by it alone That this is the state of the Question all the New Testament after the Gospels is witness And therefore to be justified by Faith alone is with St. Paul to bee justified by Christianity alone And whereas they were all assured that salvation was to bee had under the Law he shews every where that the Fathers who were justified before or under the Law were not justified by the Law but by the Gospel that was vailed under it notas Jews but as Christians And therefore that the Gentiles which turned Christians were saved by the same Grace as beleeving Jews For as no works which they were able to do by the light and strength of Nature were able to bring those that were without the Law to the state of Gods Grace no more could the outward observation of Moses Law by those works which meer nature was able to produce as tending no further then the temporal reward of the Laws of Canaan expresly promised by Moses Law render men acceptable to God for the reward which Christians expect in the world to come But by Hegâ—sippus in Eusebius wee understand that the Gnosticks teaching that the bare profession of Christianity without bearing the Cross for the performing of it was enough to save those that should attain to the secrets which they taught debauched and deflowred the Church of Jerusalem as soon as St. James was dead And therefore seeing that could not bee done in a moment wee have cause to think that they went to work in his life time The consideration whereof shews that St. James in arguing that a Christian is justified by works and not by Faith alone intended to teach that the profession of Christianity justifieth not when it is not performed And therefore St. Paul intended the same in arguing that a Christian is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law To wit that hee is justified by professing Christianity so cordially and with so good a conscience as to perform it And for this sense of the Scriptures there is as current and as The consent of the Church herein with the ground of it general a consent of all the whole Church as for Christianity it self the life and soul whereof standeth in it Shew me any Author approved in the Church that ever allowed salvation without Baptisme when it could bee had when it could not the profession of him that desiveth it is as clear as if his flesh were cleansed that compriseth not the taking up of Christs Cross by professing Christianity in the nature and virtue of justifying Faith that opposeth that Faith which alone justifieth to any other works then those of Moses Law But there is no such thing to bee shewed This is every where to bee shewed in all writings any way allowed by the Church that the justification of a Christian dependeth upon the performance of that which hee professeth And the Promises of the Gospel which hee attaineth by undertaking to live as a Christian upon the good works whereby hee performeth the same And the honour of Christianity cannot stand otherwise There is no sin which it cleanseth not The reason is because there is no righteousness to which it obligeth not Hee who beleeveth that our Lord Christ tendereth salvation upon condition of beleeving and living as a Christian cannot expect that which hee tendereth without returning that which hee requireth But hee that is overtaken in sin by this Faith can do no more for the present then undertake so to beleeve and so to live for the future Thereby hee undertakes all righteousness for the future And by undertaking â—â— is translated from the state of damnation for sin to the state of salvation by grace Which if hee attain without undertaking if hee retain without performing then doth not Gods glory appeaâ— by his Gospel But there is no thing so particular to this purpose as those sayings whereby the Fathers declare that a Christian is justified by Faith alone in case he dye upon his Baptisme If he survive then that hee is justified by the works whereby his profession is performed Of which sayings having produced a considerable number I am by them to measure the meaning of all the rest of their writings The Articles of this Church setting forth justification by The sense of this Church Faith alone for a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort for the sense of it refer us to the Homily upon that subject I will not say that my Position is laid down in that Homily For there are many Passages of it which shew them that penned it no way clear in that point Yet there are divers sentences of the Fathers alleged in it which cannot bee understood to other purpose and other passages well agreeing with it But in the Church Catechisme and in the Office of Baptisme it is so clearly laid down as will serve for ever to silence any other sense And
with judgement as well as with truth and righteousness Wee have this evidence for that which I say that the authorities of those Divines of this Church that have declared the sense of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alleged by the Papists themselves to infer that the mater of it is lawful as capable of the sense which they declare Now the bounds of Reformation being visible by the Faith The extent of Secular Power in Reforming the Church and the Laws of the Catholique Church the extent of Secular power in Ecclesiastical maters and over Ecclesiastical persons and therefore in the reforming of them preserving Ecclesiastical power in persons that have it by the founding of the Church from God cannot remain invisible For in the first place there can bee no question That the Sovereign as a Sovereign is to maintain his own Rights by such means as hee finds meet against all Usurpations under pretense of the Church and the authority of it For the common Christianity assureth him that all such Usurpations are contrary to it And besides as a Christian Sovereign it is his Inheritance to bee a Member of the Church and a Protector of all his Subjects in the same right Therefore all Christian Sovereigns are born Advocates and Patrons of the Faith and of the Rights of the Whole Church And if by lapse of time they bee gone to decay if by any express Act they have been infringed it lyes in them to restore their Subjects and themselves to those Rights being brought into evidence by the authority and crâ—dit of the whole Church But seeing the determining of the mater of Ecclesiastical Law as well as of Controversies of Faith belongs to those that have authority in the Church by the foundation of it Of necessity the fitting of the present Laws of every Church to those which the whole Church hath been ruled by from the beginning as the difference which may appear in the State of those bodies to which they were given shall require will by vertue of Gods Law belong to those that have such authority by the Foundation of the Church And upon these terms the right of Secular power in Church maters is accumulative and not destructive to the Rights of the Church And upon these terms only the Sovereign is justifiable at the great Day of Judgment in things that may bee done amiss in reforming the Church CHAP. XXI The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church The Fanatickes further from the truth of Christianity then the Church of Rome The consequence of their principle worse then that of Infallibility The point of Truth in the middle between both How salvation is concerned in the mater of Free Will and Grace Salvation concerned in the Sacraments upon the same terms The abuses of the Church of Rome in the five Sacraments The Grace of Ordination The Reformation pretended no less abuse on the other side The point of Reformation in the mean between both The Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Superstitions of the Puritans Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist How it is just to Reform without the See of Rome ANd upon Supposition of the premises for which I conceive The pretense of Infallibility makes the breach unreconcileable I have produced competent evidence I proceed to take the Balance in hand and to put the Extreams into the Scales that I may put it to the conscience of all that are resolved to prefer truth before Faction or prejudice where the point of Reformation lyes upon terms of right And how neer the publique Powers of this Kingdom are bound to come to it in this Case when an Uniformity in Religion is to bee setled by Law for the Church of England In the first place then the Infallibility of the present Church is to bee held â—or an Errour of pernicious consequence in the Church of Rome For it submits all the parts of Christianity to the passion and interest of persons that shall bee for the present in power to sway those maters wherein the whole Church is concerned It is a thing manifest in the world that though that which concerns all in point of Religion is to bee treated by all yet that which is treated by all is concluded always by the authority of a few So things passed when Councils were frequented The Freedom of Councils being interrupted and the present Church accepted for Infallible the See of Rome will of necessity bee the present Church And the passions and interests thereof will have as much power in maters of Religion as those passions and interests can allow and stand with What the effect thereof may bee I need not argue to those that profess the Reformation upon that account Only thus far they may seem excusable that there is no Act with force of Law tying all of that profession to maintain it Infallibility may bee claimed for the whole Church And that is true And it may bee claimed for the present Church which is false They that pretend to reduce us to the Church of Rome would spoil their own market if they should distinguish thus Therefore they plead Infallibility without distinguishing On the other side there is as much difference between the So doth the pretense of perspicuity in the Scripture sufficiency of the Scripture for the salvation of all and the clear evidence of all that is necessary to bee known for the salvation of all to all in the Scriptures The one is as true and the other as false as the Infallibility of the present Church is false and the Infallibility of the whole Church is true And to appeal to the Scriptures alone when the sense of them only is questionable is to declare that wee will submit to no other trial but our own sense As they who declare the present Church infallible can never depart from any thing which once it hath declared For it is manifest that they who appeal to the Scriptures The Trial must suppose the Catholick Church alone having before this appeal declared themselves in the points of difference between the Reformation and the Church of Rome do declare themselves tyed in conscience to stand to that sense of the Scripture upon which they ground their opinion in the maters of difference What means then can remain to bring that to a Trial which causes division upon these terms but to acknowledge one Catholick Church which our Creed professeth And by consequence to submit our sense of all Scripture that remains in question all difference in Doctrine all Laws of the Church to bee determined according to the sense and practice of the whole Church that is within the bounds of it For to proceed to divide the Church still into more and more parties and Communions till wee have lost the sense of any obligation to hold communion with
hypocrisie or meer nonsense Others there are that do not think themselves obliged to the unity of Gods Church upon far different Principles There are of our Enthusiasts such as are themselves every one a Church to themselves and by themselves as being above Ordinances and the Communion of the Church provided only for proficients But all Independent Congregations make the same profession and are manifestly grounded upon the same For how can they imagine themselves members of one visible Church who profess that they cannot bee obliged to hold communion with any Congregation but their own And yet with favour the same consequence insuing upon so different pretenses there must bee some supposition common to both upon which both do ground themselves And it is easily visible what that is Both opinions must suppose that a man may bee heir to Christs Kingdom and indowed with Gods Spirit without being or before hee bee a member of Gods Church And the Independents indeed do manifestly profess that knowing themselves and others to bee Gods children and indowed with his Spirit they are in a capacity to joyn in Ecclesiastical Communion with those whom they know to bee such So they become members of a Church being Gods children before without considering how they shall bee members of the Whole Church The others are satisfied that by being members of a State which professeth Christianity they are also members of that one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which by our Creed wee profess to believe A ground which holdeth accidentally so long as that State constituteth a visible member of the Whole or the Catholick Church But not imaginable to serve the turn when States differ in point of Christianity and may every day appeal to force whether is the true Church and whether the false For is it not manifest that the professions of the Lutherans the Calvinists the Greeks the Abyssines are protected by Sovereign powers as well as the profession of the Church of Rome or the Church of England Is it not manifest that the Powers that profess them maintain them respectively to bee Gods truth Why then do wee dispute any longer which is the true Religion and which is the false if it bee enough for Christians to resolve all the doubt they can have concerning Religion into the command of their Sovereigne only professing Christianity Is it not manifest that Sovereigns do use to punish their Subjects that conform not to their Laws concerning Religion but follow that Religion which is in force under other Sovereignties Is it possible to imagine that Subjects can bee obliged by one and the same will of God to follow contrary Religions under several Sovereigns Or that Sovereigns can bee inabled by one and the same Law of God to punish their Subjects for serving God according to contrarie professions True it is Subjects that suffer in a good cause shall bee gainers thereby gaining Heaven by their losses of this world But what shall become of the Sovereigns that persecute them being in a good cause Or how shall not some of them bee persecuted in a good cause who are persecuted in contrary causes I know not whether this peremptory difficulty was the cause But I am sure recourse hath been had to a more desperate answer that every Subject is bound to profess the Religion of his Sovereign yea though it in join him to renounce Christ with his mouth remaining bound all the while to believe in him with his heart and that by this belief hee shall bee saved as a Christian Neither is this position tenable but upon this answer nor doth this answer import any less then the utter renouncing of Christianity I know that in the Records of the antient Church those who only professed to believe Christianity who were called Catecbumeni or Scholars to the Church are sometimes called by the name of Christians But I know withall that they were never counted in the state of Salvation till they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity by being adimtted to the Sacrament of Baptisme I know also that this Baptisme though it was not counted void when it was Ministred in due form yet it was never counted effectual to Salvation but when a man is baptized into the true Faith and that in the Unity of Gods Church For though the names of Haereticks and Schismaticks have been made only Bug-bears to fright children with in this time of our troubles yet so long as Christianity continues those that separate themselves from the Church upon pretenses concerning the substance of Faith shall bee properly counted Haereticks But if the cause concern not the substance of Christianity Schismaticks And therefore Christianity consisting not only in believing or purposing with the heart but also in professing with the mouth first sincerelie then the true Faith and lastly by being baptized hee that professeth himself free to renounce his Christianity as far as the mouth hath effectively renounced it because hee hath effectively drawn back that promise upon condition whereof hee was baptized of professing Christianity to the death And truly if every Christian State bee the Church of God within the territories thereof then cannot all Churches concur to make up that one Visible Church of God which our Creed professeth For there is nothing more evidently true then the saying of Plato that all States are naturally enemies one to another especially those that are borderers And this enmity in our daies consisteth visibly in those differences of Religion upon which the neighbour Sovereignties of Christendom are now at distance It is therefore no way imaginable how all Christian States should concur to make up that one visible Church whereinto by being baptized wee obtain the spiritual and eternal privileges of Christians But that it is the profession of the whole Rule of Christianity that makes any people or State a part of the Visible Church being governed by such rules in the exercise of Gods service as may make it the same Society with that which was once unquestionably Gods Church or part of it For otherwise how should the Visible Church continue one and the same from the first to the second coming of our Lord And here you have the second point of our differences For all our Sects under the title of Gods free grace do maintain that the promises of the Gospel and our right in them depends not upon the truth of mens Christianity As if God were not free enough of his Grace if hee should reserve himself a duty of being served as by Christians upon those whom he tenders life everlasting to upon such terms It is no new thing in England to hear of those who profess that God sees not nor can see any sin in his elect So that in their opinion there is no mortal sin but repentance because that must suppose that a man thought himself out of the state of grace by the sin whereof hee repents I think I am duly informed of a