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
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
or express Tradition Apostolical but only educible de novo by most necessary and certain consequence from those which are so delivered which are necessary to be determined and delivered by the Church of later Ages when contrary Errors happen to appear 4. Accordingly they affirm That upon the appearance of several such dangerous Errors the Church did lawfully in the four first General Councils make and deliver some new Definitions in matters of Faith new taken in the sense expressed above Num. 2. did lawfully enlarge the former Creed and require assent or belief in the sense explained above Num. 3. unto these new Definitions under pain of Anathema 5. They maintain that all such dangerous Errors have not appeared within the times of the four first General Councils nor those Councils defined all divine Truths contrary to such Errors and therefore that the Church in later Ages may use against these her Authority to do the same things in her following Councils as in the four first 6. And consequently that it is not reasonable to require of the Church that her Definitions be shewed I say not in their necessary Principles on which she grounds them but in their formal Terms either in the Scriptures or her four first Councils or in the now extant Writings of the first Ages 7. Nor necessary that every explicite Tradition Apostolical and Principle that hath descended to the Church of later Ages most certainly thro all the former must therefore be shewed to be asserted or mentioned in the Writers of the former especially where these very few HEAD VI. Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities 1. CAtholicks maintain a due Subordination both of Ecclesiastical Persons among themselves viz. Of Presbyters to Bishops Bishops to Metropolitans Metropolitans to Primates Primates to Patriarchs And of Ecclesiastical Synods viz. Diocesan to Provincial Provincial to Patriarchal Patriarchal to General 2. They willingly grant That any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may lawfully make Definitions in matters of Faith Reformations of Errors and Manners and other Ecclesiastical Constitutions for it self without the concurrence or conjuncture at the same time of any other Church or Synod therewith But 3ly They deny that any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may make such Determinations or Constitutions contrary to those of any present or former Authority or Synod or maintain them made contrary to such Synod present or future reversing them to which Authority either Divine or Ecclesiastical Constitution hath made them Subordinate For without destroying Government no Ecclesiastical Law can be dissolved but by the same or an equal Power to that which made it nor can a part suppose a Church Arian or Donatist as it thinketh meet from time to time free it self from the Acts of the whole especially in such things wherein it can shew in it self no particular difference or disparity from the rest of the whole And therefore 4ly They affirm that when Ecclesiastical Persons or Synods happen to oppose one another Christian Obedience is still due only to the Superiour HEAD VII Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy 1. THE Catholick Church here on Earth is but one united State and Body which all seem to confess in that when any separation is made every side endeavours to remove the cause thereof from themselves And it cannot reasonably be denyed that All the Christian Churches in the world are capable of a Monarchical Government under one Bishop as well as several Nations under one Emperor or Secular Prince and that such Government much conduceth to the Church's Peace and to the preventing and suppression of Heresies and Schisms 2. Catholicks perswaded therein both by the Scriptures and Tradition do acknowledge 1. That St. Peter was made by Christ President and Head of the College of the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Jo. 21.15 being compared with Gal. 2.7 And 2dly That the Bishop of Rome is his Successor in such Supremacy as likewise Successor to St. Paul the Great Apostle of the Gentiles in that See wherein the two great Apostles last resided anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sedes Apostolica And 3dly That this Bishop hath by Divine Right or if it were only by Ecclesiastical Constitution and by ancient Tradition and Custome it were sufficient committed to him a Supreme Authority over the Universal Church of Christ here on Earth in the calling of Councils and in the approving and confirming their Definitions before they can be universally obligatory and in taking care in the Intervals of such Councils of the due execution and observance of their Decrees and in receiving Appeals from all parts of the Church in some matters of greater concernment And 4ly That as no temporal Power may lawfully change or annul any Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Decrees made concerning the Government of the Church or other matters meerly Spiritual so neither may such temporal Power in particular abrogate this Ecclesiastical Authority tho it were only conferred on the Bishop of Rome by the Church so far as using a Jurisdiction meerly Spiritual in Matters that are so 3dly They willingly confess That the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority cannot dispense with any Divine Law now without such Dispensation obliging but only with Ecclesiastical Laws Nor hath any Power over Princes or their Subjects in Temporal matters but only in Spiritual over all those whether Princes or Subjects who are Members of the Church 4ly That there is no Decree of the Church or Council obliging any to maintain this Supreme Magistrate of the Church to be infallible in his Decrees nor on the other side just cause for any therefore to withdraw their obedience to his Decrees because they hold him not infallible HEAD VIII Lastly Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council IN which the Supreme Judgment of this united Body is placed 1. It is not necessary to the composition of a lawful General Council that all the Clergy of the Christian world be assembled therein or all the Bishops of this Clergy or amongst the Bishops some sent thither the Delegates by the rest from all particular Churches professing Christianity For 1 upon these terms the four first Councils cannot be allowed General 2 Again Thus it would be in the power of any particular Church in detaining its Bishops to hinder the Being and the Benefit of a General Council 3 Again Heretical or Schismatical Churches being no part of the Church Catholick the absence of their Bishops hinders not but that the representative of the Church Catholick in such Council may be still compleat 2. The Presence of the Delegated Bishops of all particular Catholick Churches or Provinces is not necessary in such Council to denominate it lawfully General it being provided that all are called to it and none that come excluded because this Absence of some may either be necessitated from
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