THE PREFACE BEcause the Doctrines of the Church are as by some wittingly mis-related so by many others ignorantly mistaken the Author thought it might be useful for the informing of those who are withheld from professing Truth only because they do not know it not because they hate it or prefer some secular interest before it to draw up some brief Catholick Theses as well negative as affirmative extending to most of the principal Points of Controversy between the Roman and Reformed Churches In which Theses he Professeth 1 That there is not any thing wittingly denied that is affirmed by any allowed Council 2 Nor any thing affirmed that is in any such Council denied Nor 3 any thing affirmed or denied here but what if not in Council yet in some Catholick Writers uncensured by the Church may be shewed to be so and all to be bounded within such a Latitude of Opinion as the Church indulgeth For the more evidencing whereof such Propositions as he conjectured might be by some less read and experienced any way doubted of whether acknowledged and received by Roman-Catholicks He hath confirmed either with the Testimonies of approved Catholick Divines or which might have more weight with some Readers the Concessions of Learned Protestants leaving only so many of these Theses unguarded as he presumed their own Perspicuity would secure But here 1 The Author pretends not that all is comprehended in these Theses which hath been delivered by Councils in all these Points because this he thought both too tedious a Task and needless since the main Points are here comprised and the intelligent Reader will discern That many of those omitted may be readily inferred by necessary consequence from those here expressed and since he who in these concurs with the Church's Judgment must needs so much reverence it as easily in the rest to resign himself to it Nor 2 doth he pretend that no Catholick Author of good esteem delivers the contrary to any Proposition here set down i. e. such of them as have not been the Determinations of Councils For the Church herein allows a Latitude of Opinions and he thought it sufficient to his Purpose to shew that none to be esteemed true Sons of the Church Catholick and right Professors of her Faith need to be of any other Perswasion then this here delivered and not that all are or must be of it And strange it were for any on this account only to desert the Church because he can produce some persons in it that hold a thing he conceives false or unreasonable whilst the same Mother indulgeth him to hold only that which he thinks rational and true For any therefore to gather a Body of such Testimonies except those of Councils against any of these Theses is labour lost so long as he cannot produce some obligation laid upon all to conform to such Opinions or follow such a Party and so long as the Church equally spreads her lap to all those who think or say otherwise Nay further could he produce some Catholick Author of good repute affirming the contrary to something here said to be the Doctrine or Faith of the Church or something here said to be contrary to it yet neither is this conceived to the purpose unless his saying it is so proves it to be so For a learned Author possibly for the greater reputation of his Doctrine may be too facile to entitle the Church to it either as supposing it deducible by some necessary consequence from some Decree thereof or as contracting the words of such a Decree to a more particular sense than the Council intended them or indeed had light either from Scripture or Tradition Apostolical precisely to determine and sometimes so it hath hapned that contrary opinions have both of them urged the same Church Decree couched only in more general Expressions as deciding the Controversy their own way But it is here reasonably desired That such Conciliary Decree it self be produced and well examined and those Authors put in the other Scale who are here shewed to maintain that to be well consistent with or also to be the Church's Doctrine which some others perhaps may pronounce contrary to it It not being the Author's Design in this Collection to shew that Roman Catholicks agree in all things here said but that none to be true Roman Catholicks need to hold or say any thing otherwise By this to remove out of the way that great Scandal and Stumbling-block of well-inclined but mis-informed Protestants who apprehend that such gross Errors in Faith and Manners as no sober and rational Christian can with a good Conscience subscribe are not only held and tolerated in the Roman Church but also by it imposed The Author hath also endeavoured in these Theses to descend so far to several particulars and circumstantials as that the intelligent may easily discern them applicable to the solution of most doubts such as are material and to the explanation of his meaning where to some Readers seeming ambiguous or obscure and they may serve them for a Comment or Exposition on most he hath written wherein his principal Design hath ever been Truth always preserved Unity and the Peace of the Church of God a design which can never be compleated whilst new Writings still succeed the former till by the Divine Mercy these present Dissensions arrive unto their just period CATHOLICK THESES On several Chief HEADS of CONTROVERSY HEAD I. Concerning the Church Her being a Guide 1. More General Concerning the Church her being a Guide 1. CAtholicks do affirm That our Saviour's gracious Promises of Indefectibility Matt. 16.18 19 -28.19 20. Jo. 14 16.26.-16.13 comp Act. 15-28 -1 Jo. 5.20.27 Matt. 18.20 comp 17 18. 1. Tim. 3 15 -2 Tim. 2.19 comp 16 17. Eph. 4.11.13 made to his Church are so to be understood not only that his Church shall never fail or fall away as to Doctrine or Manners if she do her duty as some expound them But also that his Church shall never fail to do her duty for what is necessary to Salvation and that these his words are not an hypothetical but absolute Prediction that his Church shall never fail 2. That such Promises belong to the Church Catholick as a Guide 3. That this indefectibility of the Church as a Guide doth extend to an inerrability as in all Fundamentals in which if it errs it is no more a Church So in all other points the contrary Tenents to which are dangerous to Salvation For there seemeth to be no reasonable ground of a Restraint of our Saviour's Promises made indefinitely narrower then this 4. Amongst the several ways whereby the Church Catholick may deliver her Judgment as a Guide whether by Messengers Communicatory Letters or Councils that consent of judgment or those Councils which are the most universal as the times and places are capable thereof and which are the most dignified also with the presence of the most eminent Church Magistrates convening therein
Laodicea Council of Trent Sess 4. under Paul the Third ratified in full Council Sess ult under Pius and accepted by all the Western Churches save the Reformed Or according to St. Austine's Rule De Doctrina Christiana 2. l. 8. c. In Canonicis autem Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quam plurimum authoritatem sequatur Inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habent Epistolas i. e. communicatorias ab illis Ecclesus Apostolicis accipere meruerunt or the more and more dignified Churches Catholick have received and used for such 5. There is no more assent or belief required upon Anathema by any Council concerning those Books of the Canon which the Reformed call in question than this Ut pro Sacris Canonicis suscipiantur So Council Trid. Sess 4. Si quis libros ipsos c. pro Sacris Canonicis non susceperit Anathema sit But these words by some imposed upon that Council See Bishop Consin § 81. p. 103. Si quis omnes libros pari Pietatis affectu reverentia veneratione pro Canonicis non susceperit Anathema sit are not found there Next Concerning the Sufficiency of this Canon of Scripture as a Rule or that which contains in it the matter of the Christian Faith Concerning the sufficiency of the holy Scriptures for the Rule of Faith 1. Catholicks concede the holy Scriptures to contain all those Points of Faith that are simply necessary by all persons to be believed for attaining Salvation α to contain them either in the conclusion it self or in the Principles from which it is necessarily deduced And contend that out of the Revelations made in the Scriptures as expounded by former Tradition the Church from time to time defines all such points except it be such Practicals wherein the question is only whether they be lawful for the deciding of which lawfulness it is enough if it can be shewed that nothing in Scripture as understood by Antiquity is repugnant to them 2. But 2dly The sense rather then the letter being God's word they affirm that all such Points are not so clearly contained in the words of Scripture as that none can mistake or wrest the true sense of those words 3. And therefore 3dly They affirm the Church's Tradition or traditive Exposition of these words of Scripture necessary for several Points to be made use of for the discerning and retaining the true sense which under those words is intended by the Holy Ghost and was in their teaching delivered by the Apostles to their Successors wherein yet they make not the Tradition or delivering of this Sense but the Sense delivered that is the Scripture still for these Points their Rule or that which contains the matter of their Faith the oral expression or exposition thereof being only the same thing with its meaning or sense and why are the Scriptures quoted by them but because the matter is there contained 4. They contend that there are many things especially in the governing of the Church in the Administration of the Sacraments and other sacred Ceremonies which ought to be believed and practised or conformed to that are not expresly set down in the Holy Scriptures but left in the Church by Apostolical Tradition and preserved in the Records of Antiquity and constant Church-custome in several of which Protestants also agree with them in the same Belief and Practice β And amongst these Credends extra Scripturas is to be numbred the Article concerning the Canon of Scripture γ α S. Thom. 22.1 q. art 9. primus ad primum Art 10. ad primum In Doctrina Christi Apostolorum he means scripta veritas fidei est sufficienter explicata Sed quia perversi homines Scripturas pervertunt ideo necessaria fuit temporibus procedentibus explicatio fidei contra insurgentes errores Bellarm. de verbo Dei non scripto 4. l. 11. c. Illa omnia scripta sunt ab Apostolis quae sunt omnibus simpliciter necessaria ad salutem The main and substantial points of our Faith saith F. Fisher in Bishop White p. 12. are believed to be Apostolical because they are written in Scripture γ See Dr. Feild 4. l. 20. c. Dr. Taylor Episcopacy asserted § 19. Reasons of the University of Oxford against the Covenant published 1647. p. 9. Where they speak on this manner Without the consentient judgment and practice of the Universal Church the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly expressed for Lex currit cum Praxi We should be at a loss in sundry Points both of Faith and Manners at this day firmly believed and securely practised by us when by the Socinians Anabaptists and other Sectaries we should be called upon for our Proofs As namely sundry Orthodoxal Explications concerning the Trinity and Co-equality of the Persons in the God-head against the Arians and other Hereticks the number use and efficacy of Sacraments the Baptizing of Infants National Churches the Observation of the Lord's Day and even the Canon of Scripture it self γ Dr. Field 4. l. 20. c. We reject not all Tradition for first we receive the number and names of the Authors of Books Divine and Canonical as delivered by Tradition Mr. Chillingworth 1. l. 8. c. When Protestants affirm against Papists that Scripture is A Perfect Rule of Faith their meaning is not that by Scripture all things absolutely may be proved which are to be believed For it can never be proved by Scripture to a Gain-sayer That the Book called Scripture is the word of God HEAD V. Concerning the perpetual use and necessity in all Ages of New Determinations and Definitions in matter of Faith to be made by the Church Concerning the necessity of the Church in several Ages her making new Definitions in matter Faith 1. IT is granted by Catholicks That all Points of Faith necessary to be known explicitly by every one for attaining Salvation are delivered in the Scriptures or other evident Tradition Apostolical or also all those of speculative Faith so necessary delivered in the Apostles Creed 2. Granted also That the Church Governours since the time of our Saviour and his Apostles have no power to Decree or impose any new Doctrine as of Faith or to be believed as a Divine Truth which was not a Divine Truth formerly revealed either explicitly in the like terms as they propose it or implicitly at least in its necessary principles and premises out of which they collect it Nor have power to decree or impose any new thing as of necessary Faith or necessary to be believed to Salvation that is necessary absolutely to be by all persons whatever some of whom may be blamelesly ignorant of what the Church hath defined after such Decree known or believed explicitely with reference to attaining salvation which was not so necessarily formerly 3. Yet notwithstanding this Catholicks affirm that there are many divine truths which are not explicitely and in terminis delivered in the Scriptures Apostles Creed
accusaverit Of which Canon thus Dr. Field p. 518. Patriarchs were by the Order of the 8th General Council Can. 17. to confirm the Metropolitans subject unto them either by the imposition of hands or giving the Pall. And l. 5. c. 37. p. 551. ' Without the Patriarchs consent none of the Metropolitans subject unto them might be ordained And what they bring saith he proves nothing that we ever doubted of For we know the Bishop of Rome hath the right of confirming the Metropolitans within the Precincts of his own Patriarchship as likewise every other Patriarch had And thus Bishop Bramhal Vindic. c. 9. p. 259. c. What power the Metropolitan had over the Bishops of his own Province the same had a Patriarch over the Metropolitans and Bishops of sundry Provinces within his own Patriarchate And afterwards Wherein then consisteth Patiarchal Authority In ordaining their Metropolitans or confirming them δ. δ Bishop Carleton in his Treatise of Jurisdiction Regal and Episcopal 4. c. p. 42. § 14 External Jurisdiction is either definitive or mulctative Authority definitive in matters of Faith and Religion belongeth to the Church Mulctative power is understood either as it is with coaction i. e. using Secular force or as it is referred to Spiritual Censures As it standeth in Spiritual Censures it is the right of the Church and was practised by the Church when without Christian Magistrate and since But coactive Jurisdiction was always understood to belong to the Civil Magistrate whether Christian or Heathen Ibid. 1. c. p. 9. As for Spiritual Jurisdiction standing in Examination of Controversies of Faith judging of Heresies deposing of Hereticks Excommunications of notorious and stubborn offenders Ordination of Priests and Deacons Institution and Collation of Benefices and Spiritual Cures this we reserve entire to the Church which Princes cannot give to nor take from the Church And by this Power saith he 4. c. p. 39. without Coaction the Church was called Faith was planted Devils were subdued the Nations were taken out of the power of darkness the world reduced to the obedience of Christ by this Power without coactive Jurisdiction the Church was governed for 300 years together But if it be enquired what was done when the Emperors were Christian and when their coactive Power came in The Emperors saith he p. 178. never took upon them by their Authority to define matters of Faith and Religion that they left to the Church But when the Church had defined such Truths against Hereticks and had deposed such Hereticks then the Emperors concurring with the Church by their Imperial Constitutions did by their coactive Power give strength to the Canons of the Church § 15 Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church 4. c. p. 234. The Power of the Church is so absolute and depending on God alone that if a Sovereign professing Christianity should forbid the profession of that Faith or the Exercise of those Ordinances which God hath required to be served with The judgment of which Faith and Ordinances what they are Protestants also affirm to belong to the Clergy or even the Exercise of that Ecclesiastical Power which shall be necessary to preserve the Unity of the Church it must needs be necessary for those that are trusted with the Power of the Church not only to disobey the Commands of the Sovereign but to use that Power which their Quality in the Society of the Church gives them to provide for the subsistence thereof without the assistance of Secular Powers A thing manifestly supposed by all the Bishops of the ancient Church in all those actions wherein they refused to obey their Emperors seduced by Hereticks refused to obey them in forbearing to teach still and publish the Catholick Doctrine when prohibited by them and to suffer their Churches to be regulated by them to the prejudice of Christianity Which actions whosoever justifies not he will lay the Church open to ruine whensoever the Soveraign Power is seduced by Hereticks And such a difference falling out i. e. between Prince and Clergy in Church matters as that to particular persons it cannot be clear who is in the right It will be requisite saith he for Christians in a doubtful case at their utmost perils to adhere to the Guides of the Church against their lawful Sovereign tho to no other effect than to suffer if the Prince impose it for the Exercise of their Christianity and the maintenance of the Society of the Church in Unity See the same Author Epilog 1. l. 19. c. The contents whereof touching this subject he hath briefly expressed thus That that Power which was in the Churches under the Apostles can never be in any Christian Sovereign That the interest of Secular Power in determining matters of Faith presupposeth the Society of the Church and the Act of it And there he giveth reasons why the Church is to decide matters of Faith rather than the State supposing neither to be infallible Ibid. c. 20. p. 158. he saith That he who disturbs the Communion of the Church remains punishable by the Secular power to inflict temporal penalties not absolutely because it is Christian but upon supposition that this temporal power maintaineth the true Church And afterward That the Secular Power is not able of it self to do any of those Acts which the Church i.e. those who are qualified by and for the Church are qualified by vertue of their Commission from Christ to do without committing the sin of Sacrilege in seizing into its own hands the Powers which by God's Act are constituted and therefore consecrated and dedicated to his own service not supposing the free Act of the Church without fraud and violence concurring to the doing of it Now among the Acts and Powers belonging to the Church which he calls a Corporation by divine right and appointment he names these 1. l. 16. c. p. 116. The Power of making Laws within themselves and then I suppose of publishing them made among all the Subjects of the Church in whatever Princes Dominions else why make them of electing Church Governors of which see 3. l. 32. c. p. 398. and of Excommunicating and 3. l. 32. c. p. 385. The Power to determine all matters the determination whereof is requisite to maintain the Communion of Christians in the service of God and the Power to oblige Christians to stand to that determination under pain of forfeiting that Communion The Power of holding Assemblies which must be by meeting together in some place or other and by some Church Authority calling them Of which he speaks thus 1. l. 8. c. p. 53. I must not omit to alledge the Authority of Councils and to maintain the Right and Power of holding them and the obligation which the Decrees of them regularly made is able to create to stand by the same Authority of the Apostles And afterward I that pretend the Church to be a Corporation founded by God upon a Priviledge of holding visible Assemblies for the common Service
Controversies of Faith to a General Council and the supreme Power of Spiritual Censures which are coactive only in the Court of Conscience and suitably in the interval of General Councils he must allow to National Synods the same Judicature and Censures abstracting from the Prince Ibid. p. 92. he saith We see the Primitive Fathers did assemble Synods and make Canons before there were any Christian Emperors And then may not they do the same still Both assemble Synods as the Apostles did at Jerusalem Act. 15. And make Canons and then also publish them made as the Apostles did when an Heretical Prince concurreth not with or also opposeth them Provided that there be no apparent danger to the Prince or State of any Sedition by such meeting But they had no coactive Power to compel any man against his will This therefore is the Power which Emperors when become Christian and her Subjects bring in and add to the Church without taking away from it any of that Power which before from Christ's time it was possessed of under Heathen Princes The Summe is He challengeth for the Prince only a double coactive Power with his temporal Sword which is either executed by himself or committed to the Church Governors one for constraining of the Laity to the obedience of the Church the other of the inferior Clergy to the obedience of their Superiors in all Spiritual matters § 18 The same saith Dr. Fern Answer to Champny 9. c. p. 284. It is a mistake that the Prince by his supreme Power in Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things is made supreme Judge of Faith and Decider of all Controversies thereunto belonging and may ordain what he thinks fit in matters of Religion Who also in his Discourse of Presbytery and Episcopacy p. 19. Grants That no Secular Prince can justly prohibit within his Dominions the exercise of Ordination and of Judicature so far as the Keys left by Christ in his Church do extend nor prohibiting is to be obeyed and Christ's Substitutes herein being denied the assistance of the Civil Power are to proceed without it And Exam. Champny p. 290. saith That the Bishops and chief Pastors of the Church are the immediate proper and ordinary Judges in defining and declaring what the Laws of Christ be for Doctrine and Discipline That they have a coercive Power in a spiritual restraint of those that obstinately gain-say So Dr. Fern. § 19 Mason de Ministerio Anglicano 3. l. 3. c. asketh the Question Quis enim nostrum unquam affirmavit Principes in causes Fidei Religionis supremos esse Cognitores Judices De hac a Cardinale Bellarmino aliis Pontificiis Ecclesiae Anglicanae illata injuria sic olim conquestus est Doctissimus Whitakerus c. § 20 Dr. Field Of the Church p 667. The State of the Christian Church the good things it enjoyeth and the felicity it promiseth being Spiritual is such that it may stand tho not only forsaken but greatly oppressed by the great men of the world And therefore it is by all resolved on That the Church hath her Guides and Rulers distinct from them that bear the Sword and that there is in the Church a Power of convocating these her Spiritual Pastors to consult of things concerning her welfare tho none of the Princes of the world do favour her And p. 81. Touching Errors of Faith or Oberrations in the performance of God's worship and service saith he There is no question but that Bishops and Pastors of the Church to whom it pertaineth to teach the Truth are the ordinary and fittest Judges and that ordinarily and regularly Princes are to leave the judgment thereof unto them And below We do not attribute to our Princes with their Civil Estates power newly to adjudge any thing to be Heresy without the concurrence of the State of their Clergy but only to judge in those matters of Faith that are resolved on i. e. in former Councils according to former resolutions And the same much what is said by Dr. Heylin Reformation Justified p. 80 81. in affirming That if the Reformation be in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined in such manner i. e. in a General Council or in a particular Council universally received The King only with a few of his Bishops and learned Clergy tho never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted By these Expressions the Reformation allowed to Christian Princes seems only of Errors first declared such either by the Resolutions of former lawful Councils or of a new lawful Council of Clergy first had which will easily be granted them Provided that Councils be understood in their due Subordinations and according to their due votes not the Decree of some inferior Synod preferred by such Prince to the Decree of a Superior nor the vote of a Minor part in a Synod or of some Clergy out of it before that of a Major part But if they mean the Princes taking the Guidance of some Council against a Superior or of some part of the Clergy opposed by a Major this is only deluding the Reader and in effect granting nothing § 21 Again thus Dr. Field of the entring of any person into or his Deposition from the Ecclesiastical Ministry Ibid. p. 681. It is resolved that none may ordain I add or force the Clergy to ordain any to serve in the work of Ministry but the Spiritual Pastors and Guides of the Church 2dly That none may judicially degrade or put any one lawfully admitted from his Degree and Order but they alone else had the Secular Magistrate no other Power yet if he may place and displace Clergy at his pleasure within his Dominions he may hereby advance or depress what Sect of Religion what Doctrines what Discipline he pleaseth Next of the Power of the Prelates of the Church to call Councils independently on Princes p. 668. It is evident saith he that there is a Power in Bishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs to all Episcopal Provincial National and Patriarchal Synods and that neither so depending on nor subject to the Power of Princes but that when they are Enemies to the Faith they may exercise the same without their consent and privity and subject them that refuse to obey their Summons to such punishments as the Canons of the Church do prescribe in cases of such contempt or wilful negligence To which may be added that of Bishop Bilson Government of Christ's Church 16. c. When the Magistrate doth not regard but rather afflict the Church as in times of Infidelity and Heresy who shall then assemble the Pastors of any Province to determine matters of doubt or danger To which Question he Answers The Metropolitan When they are Enemies to the Faith saith Dr. Field I understand him either when Enemies to the Christian Faith as Heathen Princes or if Christian
must needs be also the most supreme Guide of Christians 5. That therefore no inferior or subordinate Person or Synod when they are known to oppose this Supreme may be taken by particular Persons for their Guide in Spiritual matters 6. Nor yet a minor part of the Fathers in these supreme Councils differing from the rest or out of these Councils a minor part of Christian Churches opposing the rest may be followed as our Guide For so notwithstanding these Guides appointed us we are left in the same uncertainty for our way as if we had none except only when all of them unanimously agree and if of two parties opposite it is left to us to choose which we will to guide us it is all one for those points wherein these differ as if we were left to guide our selves HEAD II. Concerning the Church Catholick of several Ages her being equally this Guide Concerning the Church Catholick of several Ages her being equally this Guide 1. IT is affirmed That the Church Catholick of every Age since the Apostles and consequently the Church Catholick of this present Age hath the same indefectibility in Truth and authority in Goverment as that of any other Both these Indefectibility and Authority being as necessary for the preserving of Christianity in one Age as in another and that our Saviour's Promise of Indefectibility is made good to the Church Catholick of every Age taken distinctly Else his Promise that the Church of all Ages should not fail would sufficiently be verified if that of any one Age hath not failed 2. From hence it is gathered That the present Catholick Church of any Age can never deliver any thing contrary to the Church of former Ages in necessary matters of Faith or Manners 3. Supposing that in matters not so necessary the Catholick Church of several Ages should differ yet that the former having no more Promise of not erring herein then the later therefore a Christian hath no greater security of the not erring of the one then of the other and therefore ought to acquiesce in the Judgment of the present under whose regency and guidance God hath actually placed him 4. If for the performance of Christian Obedience there be any necessity to have such Points as these first decided viz. What former Councils have been lawful and obliging and what unlawful What are fundamental and necessary Points of Faith and what not necessary What is the Doctrine of the Ancient Church in such and such Controversies And what is the true sense of the Fathers Writings or of a Councils Decree If these I say or so far as these are necessary to be known by him it follows that in these a Christian ought also to submit to the Resolutions of the present Church Catholick so far as it hath or shall decide them unto him i. e. to the Resolution of the supremest Authority thereof that he can arrive to and herein to acquiesce For thus far he is secure that in things necessary she cannot misguide him And it seems unreasonable That when she is appointed his unfailable Guide in all Points necessary See Num. 1. Head 1. He not she should undertake to judge what Points are necessary and what not for this is in effect to choose himself in what particular Points she shall guide him and in what not Unreasonable when he is obliged to obey her Councils that He not she should decide of those Councils which are lawful and ought to be owned by her for this is in effect to choose what Councils he pleaseth to command his obedience and exclude the rest Unreasonable when he is to learn of her what is the Doctrine and true Sense of the Holy Scriptures that He not she should judge what is the Doctrine of Antiquity or the true sense of former Fathers or Councils and wherein the present Church accords with or departs from them i. e. that she that is his Judge in greater Matters may not be so in the less HEAD III. Concerning the necessary Tradition of the former Ages of the Church for all the Points of Faith that are taught in the present Concerning the necessary Tradition of the former Ages of the Church for all the points of Faith that are taught in the present 1. CAtholicks grant That every Article of Faith is to all later Ages derived either in express terms or in its necessary Principles from the times of the Apostles 2. And consequently That no Article of Faith can be justly received in any later Age which was not acknowledged as such in all the former i. e. either in express terms or in its Principles 3. But 3 it is not hence necessary that every Article of Faith professed in a later Age be professed also in express Terms in the former 4. Nor 4 that all those Articles that are professed by a former Age must needs be found in those Writers we have of the same Age For all their Writings are not now extant nor all that they professed necessarily written but only such things of which the Suppression of Sects instruction of the times or the Author 's particular design ministred occasion 5. As that Rule of Vincentius Lerinensis is allowed most true Illud tenendum quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est So this Nihil tenendum nisi quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est especially as it is restrained to and required to be shewed and verified in the Writers of former Ages and in these not in respect of Principles of Faith but all the deductions too is affirmed most erroneous and such as if the omnibus and semper be not confined to the Members only of the Catholick Communion one particular Church or Person in any Age Heretical will void the Catholick Faith HEAD IV. So also concerning the Canonical Scriptures Concerning the Canon of Scripture 1. CAtholicks do profess That as the Church Governors or General Councils can make no new Article of Faith See H. 5. Num. 2. So neither new Canon of Holy Scripture and that no Book can be part of these Holy Scriptures now which hath not been so always since the Apostles days But notwithstanding this 2. It must be granted 1 That in some former Ages and Churches fewer Books have been acknowledged and received as the Canon of Scripture than in some other later Churches and Ages and some Books by some in some Ages doubted of which now all accept 3. That where any such doubt ariseth the Governours of the Church have Power and Authority and that not more in one Age than in another to decide and declare what particular Books are to be esteemed and received as Canonical and descending to Posterity as such from the Apostles times and what not 4. All those Books are received by Catholicks as Canonical which the most or more General Councils See the Council in Trullo Can. 2. accepting the Council of Carthage as well as of
Christian Faith Nor yet the Church entring into any State take away any of the Civil Rights or Authority thereof which is given to the Governours of this State by God and which it was justly possessed of before the Church entred into it Takes away I say none of these Rights where Persons or Things formerly Civil do not by their Dedication to God become Sacred Nor the Church callenge any Temporal Right or Authority as to the use of the Secular Sword which the State doth not first invest it with α And That therefore these two Bodies may always without any jealousy most peaceably consist together Because the Principles of Christianity do most entirely secure and preserve all the Secular Rights of Princes And because in leaving only to Princes the use of the Temporal Sword the Church can never in any difference that happens be the invading but only the suffering Party § 2 2. Therefore 2dly in consequence hereof They hold That the Subordinations of Ecclesiastical Government such as are necessary for the exclusion of Heresies and Schisms and conservation of the Churches Unity Uniformity and Peace throughout several Nations And these which are instituted by Christ or his Apostles or are afterward established in the Church Catholick by Ecclesiastical Canons made by the chief Representative thereof I mean such Canons as can no way be justly pretended to do any wrong to the Civil Government They hold That such Subordinations of Church-Government cannot justly be changed nor the observance of such Constitutions be abrogated or prohibited by any Secular Supreme Christian or Heathen within their own Dominions § 3 3. Since it is clear That Christ sent his Ministers to preach the Gospel and do other meerly Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Offices in all Nations and in those Nations too then as now under some Supreme Civil Governor which Offices also those Ministers did accordingly perform for three hundred years tho the said Governors prohibited and opposed them So for Example the Apostles and other Church-Governors in those times assembled themselves in a Council at Jerusalem to consult and give orders throughout the Churches concerning the Abrogation of former Legal Ceremonses So St. Paul in those times gave Commission to Timothy for the of the Christian Church in Ephesus to Titus for the governing those in Creet to ordain Clergy thro the Cities there and in these Provinces to receive Accusations hear Witnesses promulgate the Doctrines formerly received silence False-teachers excommunicate Offenders c. 1 Tim. 1.3 5.19 2. Tim. 2.2 Tit. 1.5.11 3.10 And so he gave order also to them to hold publick Assemblies 1. Cor. 5.4 Heb. 10.25 for the common Worship of God and for the exercising of the forenamed Acts. And so the Successors of these first Church Governors also used the same authority for those three first Centuries in all dominions distributed into several Provincial and Parochial or Diocesan Governments tho the Secular Powers frequently resisted imprisoned executed the Church Officers for it These things therefore thus granted and allowed hence they infer that as a Heathen Prince cannot justly prohibit all Christian Clergy so neither can a Christian Prince amongst this Clergy justly prohibit all those whom only these Ecclesiastical Magistrates do judge Orthodox and worthy from professing and publishing the Orthodox Faith and otherwise officiating in Divine matters within his Dominions Else as where the Prince is Heathen Christianity cannot be propagated in his Territories against Infidelity so where the Christian Prince happens to be Heretical suppose an Arian as the Emperour Constantius was the Truth of Christianity cannot be preserved in his dominions against Heresy or where he Schismatical the Unity of the Churches Communion cannot be preserved against the Sects in his dominion For Confirmation of these three preceedent Theses see at large the Protestant Concessions in letter δ. To which is annexed an Answer to all their Pleas and Defences made by them for a lawful Reformation of Ecclesiastical Persons and Matters by the Secular Power § 4 4 Consequently to the Precedents seeing that as there are many temporal Jurisdictions descending on the Church originally from the Secular Power so there are also other spiritual Jurisdictions primitively belonging to and exercised by the Church and held from the donation of our Lord such as the forementioned viz. To hold publick Religious Assemblies to promulgate the Doctrines formerly delivered to administer the Sacraments of the Church to receive Accusations hear Witnesses in point of Heresy and Schism to bind absolve to silence False-teachers excommunicate obstinate Offenders and that in all Nations and within any Princes Dominions whatever They accordingly affirm 1. That no Secular Power can bestow or derive their spiritual Jurisdictions on any person but that to be in such dominions by any person lawfully executed these must first be conferred on him by the Clergy 2dly That the act only of some inferior Clergy against their Canonical Superiors or of the minor part of Clergy against the major can be no legitimate act of the Clergy for conferring such spiritual Jurisdictions but the contrary to it is so § 5 And hence 5ly They gather That tho Princes for the greater security of their Civil Government and the many secular obligations which the Church hath to them may nominate and present to the Clergy and Ecclesiastical Magistrates such persons as they think most meet to receive from the Church these spiritual Jurisdictions within their dominions yet if any Secular Power should possess such person of these Jurisdictions in any Province either by his own sole authority or by the concurrence of some inferior Clergy or minor part of such Province whom the major part of the Clergy of such Province or the due Ecclesiastical Superiors to whom according to Church Canons the conferring of such Jurisdiction doth belong to judge uncapable or unfit and therefore refuse the collation of them on such a subject They affirm such an Act of the Prince or Clergy assisting him to be unlawful and that it must needs open a way to all Heresy and Schism and dissolve the Faith and Unity of the Church Catholick Neither can any such Person so introduced tho he be validly ordained justly exercise such spiritual Jurisdictions neither do all such people as know receive any salvifical benefit by his unlawful administration to them of the Church's Sacraments or at least of the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution by reason of a defect of a right disposition in the Suscipients and the great guilt they contract in applying themselves to such a Person unless this be done in a case of necessity when there is no Catholick Clergy to repair to for such Offices So had Novatianus ordained and adhered to by three or four Bishops been upon this setled by a Christian Emperor in the Apostolick Chair against Cornelius ordained and confirmed in these Jurisdictions by all the rest of the Body of the Roman Episcopal Clergy yet Novatianus would no less for this
Heathen Emperors even against their frequent Edicts yet which could not then have been lawfully so used if any of these had encorached on Civil Rights in any of which Civil Rights the Heathen Prince might claim as much lawful Power as the Christian can And also which we find still continued by the Church under Christian Emperors without asking their leave to Decree such things or substituting their Decrees to their Authority or depending on their consent only with humbly desiring their assistance yet so as without it resolved to proceed in the Execution thereof as under Heathen of which we have many Experiments under the Christian Emperors when these Arian yet which things the Church could not lawfully have done were any of these entrenching upon the Princes Right now at least when Christian For Example the 6th Canon of Nice and 5th Canon of Constantinopolitan Council and 3d 4th 7th 17th Canon of Concil Sardic concerning the Subordinations and Appeals of Clergy would have been an usurpation of an unjust Authority if the Subordination of Episcopal Sees and Erecting of Patriarchs had belonged to the Prince When also we find them excluding Princes tho Christian and Catholick either from the judging in matters of Faith and from prohibiting here that any such Spiritual Food to use Bishop Andrews Expression Resp ad Apol. p. 332. should be set before their Subjects of which themselves first did not like the tast which surely is judging of the good or evil of such food or judging in meerly Ecclesiastical causes in any way of opposition or review of the Churches Decrees I mean the most supreme that may be had in it § 31 For these review the Canons mentioned but now and see that much noted Expostulation of St. Ambrose 2. l. Epist. 13. ad Valentin with the Emperor Valentinian presuming to examine Church Controversies and calling them before his Tribunal Quando audisti Clementissime Imperator in causa fidei Laicos de Episcopo judicasse Not Quando audisti imberbem necdum baptizatum ex matris arbitrio pendentem as Bishop Andrews Resp ad Apol. c. 1. p. 29. and others explain it but Quando auaisti Laicum applicable to any Secular Prince de Episcopo judicasse or if Bishop Andrews will dedisse idoneos cognitores i. e. if they such as Valentinian shall choose for idoneos if these chosen be not Bishops or Bishops of Valentinian's appointment and not his Canonical Superiors but then these Canonical Superiors are given for the Bishops Judges not by Vulentinian but by the Church But else who cannot see clearly that dare idoneos cognitores i. e. such as the Emperor thinks fit which Bishop Andrews pleads for as the Emperors right and ipse Imperator judicare which St. Ambrose denies comes all to one The same Father goes on Quis est qui abnuat in causa fidei in causa in-quam fidei Episcopos solere de Imperatoribus Christianis non Imperatores de Episcopis judicare Pater tuus vir Deo favente maturioris aevi dicebat Non est meum judicare inter Episcopos c. And thus St. Athanasius Ep. and Solitar vitam agent Expostulates with Constantius interposing as to the Churches Definitions about Arianisme and her Canons about judging and censuring of Bishops opposing such Bishops as he took for Enemies of the Divine Truth and countenancing those inferior Ecclesiastical Synods which he fancied to be in the right against the Superior and against the Canons Quando a condito aevo auditum est quod judicium Ecclesiae authoritatem suam ab Imperatore accepit aut quando unquam hoc a small number of Bishops joined with Constantius pro judicio agnitum est Plurimae ante-hac Synodi fuere multa judicia Ecclesiae habita sunt Sed neque Patres â—istiusmodi res Principi persuadere conati sunt nec Princeps se in rebus Ecclesiasticis curicsum praehuit And see his complaints following That he did abrogare Canones in decernendo Principem facere Episcoporum praesidere judiciis Ecclesiasticis which he calls there Abominatio Desolationis And the Reverend Hosius President in the Council of Nice writes to this Prince on the same manner Ibid. p. 456. Reformida diem Judicit ne te misceas Ecclesiasticis neque nobis in hoc genere praecipe sed potius ea a nobis disce Tibi Deus imperium commisit nobis quae sunt Ecclesiae concredidit neque igitur fas est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tu thymiamatum sacrorum potestatem habes Imperator Nefas est enim as Theodosius see Conc. Ephesin writ to the 3d General Council when he sent Candidianus thither for the Preservation of Peace and Order but not ut cum quaestionibus controversiis quae circa fidei dogmata incidunt quicquam commune haberet qui Sanctissimorum Episcoporum Catalogo ascriptus non est illum Ecclesiastieis negotiis consultationibus sese immiscere § 32 Where note that the Contest of these Bishops with these Emperors is for their judging these Ecclesiastical matters where they had no power to judge not for judging them when having a lawful power not rightly for this later these Princes would easily have denyed as all secular Princes that oppose the Church do but could not so the former And who doth not see which is safer to trust the Bishop or Princes with the last Cognizance of Divine things And how much it concerns Christianity that Princes be not made as Bishop Andrews would have them Resp ad Bell. Apol. p. 332 the Discussers of the Clergy's Definitions whether contra legem Christi and the last Tasters of the Food prepared by the Pastors for Christ's Sheep that as this appears to them sweet or bitter good or bad so they may allow or forbid it to be ministred to their Subjects Constantius was the first of the Christian Emperors that assumed this pregustation and that he took for sweet and good proved very Poison to his Subjects and at last ended in Mahometanisme Mean-while no doubt but Princes may assist all the Churches Consults with their secular power may call them preside in them for keeping of Order restraining the Tumultuous and Refractory and seeing that particulars perform what the whole declares to be their duty as the only Supreme's there and elsewhere of all coactive Power This Right none can deny them Hitherto from § 14. I have collected and considered the Protestant Concessions in Confirmation of the Church's Rights in her Ecclesiastical judgments and other proceedings in pure Spirituals which are declared to be independent on and unrepeable by the secular power and I have given you greater store of them than at first I intended § 33 Now by these their Concessions one would think the door were shut fast enough against any pretended Reformation at any time entring into the Church by the secular Authority opposed to the Ecclesiastical Yet seeing that after this several pretentions are made and that not only
by others but the same Authors as it were unhappily distracted and divided between two powerful Leaders Interest and Truth to bring in Alterations in Religion against the standing Church Authority chiefly by this way namely a Superintendency or Supremacy therein of the secular power either proceeding against all or at most joined with some inferior against the superior Clergy or some lesser against a much major part the judgment of which superior's and major part do canonically conclude the whole I think it necessary in this a matter of so great consequence to gather all those Pleas and Defences of any weight which I have met with in these Writers whereon they build the lawfulness of their Reformation by the secular Arm and to shew the invalidity of them § 34 To this purpose then I find them to alledge on the other side as if they had forgot all they had already conceded See Dr. Fern Answer to Champny p. 300. That the secular Sovereign Power is to be satisfied or as it is there § 21. to have it by Demonstration of Truth evidenced to him that what is propounded as Faith and Worship is according to the Law of Christ before he use or apply his Authority to the publick establishment of it Ibid. p. 294. And this in respect of his duty to God whose Laws and Worship he is bound to establish by his own Laws within his Dominions and is accountable for it if he do it amiss Thus Dr. Fern. Well But may the Clergy at least publish that Faith and Worship which they judge to be according to the Law of Christ in his Dominions without him Or may not the Prince also establish something as the Law of Christ when it is as he conceives evidenced to him to be so by some other without or against the Clergy or only with some minor or inferior part of them when opposed by the superior and major i. e. by the Canonical Ecclesiastical Judge The first of these is denied by him the later affirmed For saith he Ibid. p. 308. General Councils being the greatest and highest means of direction which Kings can have in matters of Religion but still with the limitation quatenus docent legem Christi of which I suppose the Prince must judge it being possible that the major part should be swayed by Factions or worldly Interest Therefore Kings and Emperors saith he may have cause given them upon Evidence of things unduly carried to use their supreme power for forbidding of their Decrees And Ibid. 2. c. p. 73. The Sovereign Prince is not bound in the way of Prudence always to receive his directions from a vote in Synod especially when there is just cause of fear that the most of them that should meet are apparently obnoxious to factious Interests And p. 72. If the Prince by the law of God stands bound to establish within his own Dominions whatsoever is evidenced to him by faithful Bishops and Learned Men of the Church to be the Law of Christ shall he not perform his known duty till the Vote of a major part of a Synod give him leave to do it Where also p. 295. he approves the Concession of the Clergy under King Henry the Eighth In binding themselves by Promise in Convocation in verbo Sacerdotis not to exact or promulge or execute any new Canons or Constitutions without the King's assent Here you see the Clergy's power so tied up that they can publish no Christian Doctrine to the People that is to Christ's Flock which they do not first evidence to the Prince and have for such publication his consent but on the other side whatever is any way evidenced to the Prince he may publish without and against their consent and yet they not he are made by these men the ordinary Judges in Spiritual matters § 35 Now here suppose the Prince receives the Directions of some Clergy men in any thing he doth yet since the Clergy is a subordinate and well regulated Government and these his Spiritual Directors oppose the main Body he is not here directed by that Clergy that ought to be his Judge but those that are against it Yet still some reason were there in this if the Prince could always be certain in his Evidence so as not to mistake i. e. to think something evidenced to him when indeed it is not and again to think other things not sufficiently evidenced when they are so there were less hazard in leaving Church matters thus to his disposal But since things are much otherwise and evidencing Truths to any one by reason of different Understandings Education Passions and Interest is a thing very casual so that what is easily evidenceable to another may happen not to be so to the Sovereign Power when not patient enough to be informed when misled and prepossessed by a Faction when not so capable as some others by defect of nature or learning and facile to be perswaded by the last Speaker c. to what an uncertain and mutable Condition are Church Affairs reduced when the Function of the Clergy depends on such Evidences made to the Prince 2. § 36 Next they urge That in regard that the Clergy may many ways fail and miscarry in delivering Christ's Laws and the Truth of the Gospel If in matters already determined by our Lord and his Apostles or Laws given to the Church by injury of time the Practice become contrary to the Law the Sovereign Power being bound to protect Christianity is bound to employ it self in giving strength first to that which is ordained by our Lord and his Apostles By consequence if those with whom the Power of the Church is trusted i.e. that Body of the Clergy whose Acts conclude the whole else if only some other Clergy miscarry this Body serves the Prince for their correction shall hinder the restoring of such Laws the Sovereign Power may and ought by way of penalty to such persons to suppress their power that so it may be committed to such as are willing to submit to the superior Ordinance of our Lord and his Apostles Thus Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church p. 273. § 37 Now here to omit that such suppositions and fears that the Clergy taken in the largest capacity and supremest judgments to which the Prince is to repair when lower are suspected shall fail at any time in the delivering to Christians all necessary Truths are groundless of which see what hath been said in the first Discourse concerning the Guide in Controversies § 6. c. And Second Discourse § 12. c. what reasonable man is there hearing this that will not presently ask Who shall judge whether that be indeed a Law ordained by our Lord or his Apostles which the Prince would introduce or restore and which the Succession of the Clergy opposeth Which Clergy surely will never confess such to be a Law of our Lord but always will profess the contrary Nay will say That the Succession of the Clergy