c. which is so much disliked by some is sufficiently vindicated from Battology or a vain and superstitious multiplying of words in the foregoing Section N. 11. To which I shall here add these considerations 1. That it seemeth unreasonable and partial that they who allowed themselves in the conclusion of their own Prayers to use that Doxology To whom Christ with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory frequently four or five times in the same Assembly should undertake to determine Except of Presbyt p. 16. that this other Doxology more expresly acknowledging divine glory eternally due to all the three persons of the Trinity is unsit to be used more than once in the Morning and once in the Evening 2. That since in all our Christian service and especially in Hymns and Psalms of praise it is our duty to give glory to the holy Trinity it cannot be blamable to express that with our mouths which is at that time the most fit and proper exercise of our minds 3. That it is manifest from divers passages of the Psalms and other Scriptures as 2. Chr. 5.13 Ch. 7.3 Ch. 20.21 Ezr. 3.11 Jer. 33.11 That with their Hymns or Psalms the Jews ordinarily used some such Doxology as this Hallelujah or praise ye the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Delph Phoenic c. 6. Hence it is probably conjectured that preparation to the Paeanism among the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had its original being the corruption of Hallelujah And from this use of the Jews the Arabian Church their Neighbours did probably derive their practice of expressing Hallelujah at the end of every Psalm as appeareth in the Arabick version of the psalms who also make use of this Doxology to the three persons distinctly which is expressed in the Arabickversion at the end of every tenth Psalm but was probably in practice at the end of every Psalm And that the Western Church used this Doxology Glory be to the Father Cassian Col. l. 1. c. 8. and at the end of every Psalm we have the testimony of Cassian for about thirteen hundred years since Wherefore since this is of so ancient original in the Christian Church so agreeable to the practice of the Jewish Church approved by the Holy Scriptures and a practice so reasonable in it self it may be piously used but not justly blamed in our Liturgy 2. The reading the Athanasian Creed to some though not the generality of Non-Conformists who heartily owne the doctrine of the Trinity hath been thought a matter not free from difficulty For that Creed expressing what must be believed of every one who would be saved doth contain deep mysteries as for instance that the Son is not made nor created but begotten and that the Holy Ghost is neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding Now since believing things as necessary to Salvation is not an assent to the use of Phrases and expressions but to the sense contained in them it must enclude that there is some difference understood between what is affirmed and what is denied But the difference between the Eternal Generation and Eternal Procession being a Mystery where the greatest Divines see but darkly they are justly affraid to condemn all persons as uncapable of Salvation who cannot reach to so high a pitch 3. But here it is to be considered that in that Creed commonly called the Athanasian there are some things contained and expressed as necessary points of Faith and other things for a more clear and useful explication of the truth though they be not of equal necessity to be understood adn believed even by the meanest capacities Thus if we first consider the contexture of that Creed the Faith declared necessary concerning the Trinity is thus expressed in the begining thereof The Catholick Faith is this that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance After this followeth an explication useful to set forth the true Christian Doctrine which beginneth For there is one person of the Father c. after which explication the same necessary doctine to be known and believed is thus again expressed pressed and distinguished from that explication in these words So that in all things as is aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped he therefore who will be saved must thus think of the Trinity So that the acknowledging and worshipping the Trinity of persons and Vnity of Godhead is that which only is declared necessary in the former part of that Creed and this must be acknowledged necessary since we are baptized into the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and we must believe and worship according as we are baptized 4. What is contained in this consideration is the more clear both with reference to the instance mentioned and to the Vnion of the two natures in Christ by this following observation viz. That our Church doth both here and in her Articles evidently receive the Athanasian Creed and yet from the manner of using the Apostles Creed in the form of Baptisin as containing the profession of that Faith into which we are baptized in the Catechism as containing all the Articles of the Christian Faith and in the Visitation of the sick as being a rule to try whether he believe as a Christian man should or not it is manifest that no more is esteemed in our Church of necessity to salvation for all men to believe than that only which is contained and expressed in the Apostles Creed 5. I proceed to consider some expressions in the Litany In the way to which I shall only reflect upon that objection which if it had not been mistaken had been very inconsiderable framed by Mr. Cartwright against the Litany in General That it being chiefly a deprecatory Prayer against evils was framed by Mamertus Bishop of Vienna or rather Vienne in France upon a special occasion of the calamities of that Country This was a very strange and gross mistake for the Litaniae which were ordered by Mamertus were days of supplication in Rogation Week which days were called Litania minor triduanae Litaniae and by some Litania major Alcuin de Div. offic Tit. dieb Rogat Amal. de Eccl. Offic. l. 1. c. 37. Stra. de Reb. Eccl. c. 28. Mur. c. 57. as is manifest from Aleuinus Amalarius Strabo Mictologus Rupertus Tintiensis Johannes Beleth besides other latter ritualists and the French Historians especially Gregorius Turonensis who all mention what Mamertus did in appointing days of Prayer which were called Litaniae to be yearly observed for the obtaining Gods mercy in their distress occasioned by wild Beasts and frequent Earthquakes But that deprecatory Prayers which are called Litanies also and were so called by S. Basil and were of so great use in the stationary days of the ancient Church should have their original from Mimertus
Libertas Ecclesiastica OR A DISCOURSE Vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England especially in its LITVRGY and WORSHIP And manifesting their agreeableness with the Doctrine and practice both of Ancient and Modern Churches By WILLIAM FALKNER Preacher at St. Nicholas in Lyn Regis LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1674. IMPRIMATUR Jan. 23. 167â— â— Sam. Parker TO The most Reverend Father in God Gilbert by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please your Grace YOur Grace being a Person of such singular Eminency in the Church of England I humbly crave leave to present to your hands this following Discourse which contains a Vindication of the Publick Worship of our Church from those Exceptions which by Dissenters have been made against it And the main Design of this Treatise being to promote Christian Vnity by representing the evil consequences of such unnecessary Discords and Schisms and the great unreasonableness of those pretences which have been alledged for their Justification it will nâ—t I hope be judged incongruous that it should address it self to your Grace whose high Office in the Church tendeth to advance the Vnity thereof and entitleth you to the publick Patronage of Peace and Truth I cannot doubt your Graces approbation of this design which is at all times useful but more especially in this present Juncture of Affairs if God please to grant success which is my earnest prayer For as all good men who prefer Truth and the sincere practice of Piety before their own prejudices wills and passions cannot but approve of such honest endeavours to rectifie mistakes and compose the minds of men to peace so all who are pious and wise cannot but discern a greater necessity and a more particular obligation at this time to silence all these little janglings and quarrels if they have any respect to the main interest and concerns of the Reformed Profession And I hope My Lord that the late Alarum we had from our common Enemies may open mens eyes to see the mischief of rending the Church into so many Factions and may dispose them to receive just and reasonable satisfaction And though what hath been excellently performed by former Writers upon this Subject be sufficiently satisfactory yet my labour herein may not be wholly useless considering the humour of this Age which is more apt to read new Books than to seek for old ones But though the cause I have undertaken deserves your Graces Patronage yet my own personal defects might justly have discouraged me from presenting this discourse to one of so high Dignity and so great a Judgment had not the cause it self been so good that it needed no Art and Colours to set it off but is sufficiently justified when it is rightly represented and understood and your Graces Candour and Clemency so well known as to encourage me to hope for a favourable Acceptance which is the only thing I beg in this humble Address unto your Grace favourably to accept of this small Present from him who unfeignedly prayeth for your Graces prosperity and is intirely devoted to the service and interest of Truth and Peace and Humbly honoureth your Grace with all due Observance W. Falkner THE PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader THE design of this discourse being to remove or at least to allay those fierce contentions about the external forms of worship to which we owe all those unhappy Schisms which good men so heartily bewail it was necessary in order to this end to rectifie those mistakes and prejudices which abuse well-minded men who have not throughly consider'd things and to correct those corrupt passions that quarrelsom and contentious humour which perverts others To these two causes we owe most of our present disorders it is too evident what hand the latter of these has had in them while divers Persons wanting a due sense of the evil and danger of these discords and a due regard to the Peace and Unity of the Church have been too zealous and forward to maintain and promote such dissensions thereby to serve the Interest of their own parties and to oppose the settlement of the Church upon sure and lasting principles now I had no other way of dealing with these men but to convince them of the great evil of such contentions and how much it is the duty of every Christian to study Peace and Unity For there is nothing more evident than that mens minds are strangely byassed by their affections and Interests and clouded by passion and therefore while they are so peremptorily resolved upon their way while they are so fond of their own Inventions while they are devoted to the service of a Party and account those men their Enemies who should rule and govern them and inform them better there is no expectation that reason and argument should prevail with them And if those arguments which I have made use of for this purpose should be effectual to calm the passions of men and to work in them a Christian and peaceable temper of mind I can easily foretel the success of my following discourse the design of which is to rectifie those mistakes and misapprehensions which some men labour under which either concern the particular Rites and offices of our Church or the General rule of duty or Ecclesiastical liberty by which the Church must be directed and guided in matters of order The first hath occasion'd various exceptions against some Rites and Ceremonies and particular passages in our forms of Prayer and I have spent great part of this Treatise in answering such objections by which I hope it will appear what little reason there is to disturb the Peace of the Church and to separate from our Communion upon such pretences Concerning the General Rule which ought ever to be observed in the Church about matters of order there are some who will allow nothing except some few circumstances to be determined by the Authority of the Church unless it be directly enjoined by a particular divine Institution and for a more plausible colour they reject all such rules of order or regular administration under the terms of unscriptural conditions of Communion But in answer to this I have made it appear to be an unjust and unreasonable exception against the establisht order of any Church that there are some things determined and appointed by the Authority of Superiours which have always been accounted of an Indifferent nature and are indeed the proper matters of Ecclesiastical Liberty And I hope I have abundantly proved to the satisfaction of all sober inquirers that prudent and well ordered Ecclesiastical Constitutions and appointments for the promoting order and decency and the advancement of Religion and Piety are very allowable and unblameable nay that it is impossible that
Lord besides Jesus Christ and from that from which its promises tend to secure us the curse and wrath to come and thereby from Hell and Death But it was S. Peters Doctrine that we should obey every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake as free Conf. Ch. 20. Sect. 4. 1 Pet. 2.13 16. And it was truly expressed in the Assemblies Confession That they who upon pretence of Christian Liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical resist the Ordinance of God And as for those strange spirited men who account the practising things indifferent to be the worse because they are enjoined they are guided by such dangerous Principles of false imaginary Liberty as would teach Children and Servants that things otherwise lawful are sinfully performed when they are commanded by their Parents and Masters 8. Ruth Introd to Doctr of Scandal But Mr. Rutherford objecteth that the nature of things indifferent are not capable of being enjoined by a Law For saith he what wise man will say the Church may make a law that all men should cast stones into the water or as he in another place instanceth that a man should rub his beard Whether these and other such like words proceeded from gross mistake of the Question about things Indifferent or from wilful misrepresentation thereof to please the humours of scornful men I cannot affirm For things called Indifferent in this Question are not such as can tend to no good but are a mispending time when purposely undertaken as a designed business and enclude also such a levity and vanity as is inconsistent with gravity and seriousness and much more with Religious Devotion But the things here called matters indifferent are such where many things singly taken are in their general nature useful but because no one of them is particularly established by any Divine Law the appointing any one in particular is called the determination of a thing Indifferent because some other might have been lawfully appointed Thus the use of one special form of Prayer prescribed not condemning all others as unlawful is the use of an indifferent thing to an useful end And the ordering some proper Hymns or Psalms of praise for the glorifying God and decent gestures of reverence in Gods service and the appointing a fit translation of the Bible for publick use and a particular visible sign of Christian profession are things of good use but are called Indifferent because these particular things are not so established by Divine Precepts but that some other Prayers Hymns Gestures Translation or token of profession might have been without sin and breach of any particular divine commands chosen and appointed in the Church and the like may be said of other things So that such things as these which may manifestly have a profitable use where they are observed without misunderstanding and prejudice but are no special matters enjoined by any Divine Laws immediately given from God himself are the most proper and most accountable matter for Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions and are fit to be ordered by those who are invested with Power and Authority especially when the particular things so established may be peculiarly recommended upon good considerations of Antiquity or manifest usefulness 9. But some have further Questioned whether things concerning the Church and the order thereof may be established by secular Sanctions the transgression of which is attended with civil penalties This Authority hath been exercised by the most Religious Kings and Rulers of Israel in the Old Testament who were therefore commended in the Holy Scriptures and also by the Christian Emperours as appears by their Laws in the Codex and Novellae and by divers Kings of our own and Foreign Nations in former times it is acknowledged by the Articles of our Church Article 37. and by the Doctrine and practice of the ancient Church is established by our Laws and hath been defended by divers good Writers concerning the Kings Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical But some there are both at home and abroad joining herein with the Spirit of the Anabaptists who have undertaken to deny the lawfulness of any such proceedings under pretence of advancing Christianity thereby and of pleading for due liberty in matters of Religion but their grounds and reasons on which they build are not strong enough to bear the weight they lay upon them 10. For they who tell us that the use of such civil Laws and penalties tendeth to declare that the motives and arguments of the Gospel are weak and insufficient to recommend the Christian truth and preserve the order of the Church without the help of the secular power do seem not to consider that Treasons Murders Adulteries Thefts and Perjuries with other great crimes are vehemently prohibited by the Precepts of Christ and yet are upon good grounds punished by the power of the Sword which is also Gods Authority not because of any insufficiency of the arguments propounded by the Doctrine of Christ but because the corruptness of many mens Spirits is such that divers persons are prone to overlook the most weighty motives and arguments which are of an Heavenly and spiritual nature when they are more affected with sensible things of much less concernment 11. And as for them who say that all temporal laws and penalties about Church matters will never make men truly Religious but may make them Hypocrites and cause them to profess and practice what they do not heartily approve this is manifestly untrue for though I grant that these means have sometimes accidentally this ill effect upon some men yet even Laws ad Penalties rightly dispensed are a proper and effectual means in themselves to make men seriously and rightly Religious Aug. Ep. 48. This effect as S. Augustine upon his own knowledge declareth they obtained both in his own Church and divers other African Churches where many of the Donatists from thence took occasion seriously to consider and embrace the truth and rejoiced that by this means they were brought to the right knowledge thereof And thus all well-ordered Government in a Realm or Family the encouraging what is good and the discountenancing errours prophaneness and all disorders by great men or others may have this accidental ill consequence upon some men that it may occasion them hypocritically to pretend to be better than they are out of affection of applause and designs of advantage yet these things being duties as the Magistrates care to promote Religion is also they ought not to be neglected because they may possibly be abused 12. And whereas some urge that in the Apostolical times which were the best there were no secular sanctions or outward penalties used in matters of Religion they might also have observed that Kings and Emperours were then no countenancers favourers nor yet Professoes of Christianity which is not to be a pattern for succeeding times when it must be esteemed a blessing to the Church
to have Kings her nursing Fathers and a duty to all Rulers upon earth to acknowledge their subjection to Jesus Christ And yet even in the Apostles times there were corporal punishments miraculously inflicted to awaken men to mind the practice and careful exercise of Christianity not only in the particular instances of Saul going to Damascus of Ananias and Sapphira and of Elymas but the delivering a person to Satan hath been ordinarily observed to enclude with the sentence of the Church a giving him over to some outward bodily calamities to be inflicted on him by the evil spirit of which a particular instance is given concerning the Servant of Stilico Paulin in Vit. Ambr. prope fin by Paulinus in the life of S. Ambrose 13. But that this Question may be resolved we must note 1. That it concerneth only secular authority when it is rightly informed in these matters of Religion about which such Laws are established For according to the Rules of Conscience as no authority upon earth may lawfully countenance or join in the profession of an errour so neither may it by commands constitutions or penalties design to advance it But it is as unreasonable that the use of secular authority to advance what is good and commendable should hence be condemned as that the holy action of Abraham Gen. 18.19 commanding his Children to keep the way of the Lord should be disliked because it is certainly unlawful for any Parents to command and enjoin their Children to entertain sin and embrace errour For it is every mans duty to close with that which is good and to favour and prefer it but it is his sin to oppose it or to make use of his interest in the behalf of that which is evil 2. Bishop Whitgifts Defence of his Ex. to Magist ion fin Nor is this Question about the lawfulness of designing the ruine and destruction of any persons only because they err in matters of Religion which is a thing by no means allowable and not only the use of Fire and Faggot for pretended Heresie but the inflicting capital punishments for the sole crimes even of real Heresie or notorious errours in Religion have been sufficiently disclaimed by the great defenders of our Political and Ecclesiastical Constitutions 14. 3. To establish such Laws backed with penalties about good and useful matters Ecclesiastical which may be a proper and fit motive respect being had by the prudence of Superiours to the nature of the things enjoined and to the temper of the persons to be dealt with to excite men to consider and mind their duty is not only allowable but it is the natural result of Rulers discountenancing evil designing their subjects good being careful of the Churches welfare and of serving God in the use of their authority and is contained under that Apostolical Rule Rom 13.4 If thou do that which is evil be affrâ—â—d of the power But if any shall to word that outward punishments are no way useful to direct mens minds to a sense of their duty he must contradict the common experience of a considerable part of Mankind and must disclaim any advantage for amendment of life from paternal correction the constitution of Magistracy and divers providential chastisements of God against the frequent expressions of holy Scripture And he must also undertake to assert that the condition of Israel was not better when all the people engaged themselves to the service of God moved by the zeal for true Religion in their Kings attended with their denouncing temporal punishments on them who neglected or refused than when every one 〈◊〉 and professedly walked in the 〈◊〉 of his own heart 15. And whereas several expressions 〈◊〉 Writers speak against the use of external force in matters of Religion divers of them are intended against the Pagan or Heretical powers oppressing the truth others against over-rigorous severities and extremities towards some persons under errour some were the expressions of those who were themselves abetters of Schism as Socretes was and there are some few expressions of others who were men of greater affection than consideration whose words may be over-ballanced both by reason and other Authorities SECT III. Of Ecclesiastical Constitutions about things scrupled 1. That such things which some persons scruple oppose and dispute against may be practised without sin by them who discern and are well satisfied of their lawfulness is a thing that needeth not much proof For if this be denyed Christianity must be accounted a state of bondage where every mans mistaken apprehensions would lay an obligation on the Consciences of others Wherefore in that Case when some Christians judged it unlawful to eat all sorts of meat S Paul allowed him who discerned his liberty to make use thereof Rom. 14.2 6. Yet because both in that Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and in 1 Cor. 10. he giveth command to Christians to beware of grieving and offending their brethren the general case of Scandal in things Indifferent will in this place come under some consideration concerning which it may be sufficient to observe three things 2. First That the offending others prohibited in those places by the Apostle consisted not in displeasing others only but in performing such actions which tended to occasion some to fall from Christianity or others not to embrace it This sense of these Precepts Right of the Church c. 4. is observed as a thing manifest by Mr. Thorndike Thus S. Paul declareth the using liberty about things offered to Idolls so as to be a stumbling block to the weak 1 Cor. 8 9. to consist in emboldning them towards the Idol v. 10. whereby the weak Brother perisheth v. 11. And though the Apostle sometimes mentioneth this sin of offending others under the name of grieving them Rom. 14.15 he thereby intendeth an occasioning them to disgust the Christian Religion and therefore in the same verse commandeth Destroy not him with thy meat c. And when he recommendeth in this Case the pleasing of others it is in designing their profit that they may be saved 1 Cor. 10.33 Yet it must be further acknowledged that according to the expressions of other Scriptures it is a sinful scandal or giving offence when any one by the use of his liberty doth knowingly induce others to the commiting any sin being under no obligation to determine this use of his liberty for according to S. Hierome that is scandal where a man dicto vel facto occasionem rui nae cuiquam dederit 3. But the meer displeasing or grieving others about matters indifferent is not always a sin for our Saviour himself greatly grieved his Apostles when he told them that one of them should betray him but as yet concealed the man Mat. 26.21 22. Yet Christianity will not allow a morose and pievish temper but directeth men to be loving amicable and kind and to be ready to please others where duty or prudence do not otherwise engage us but out of