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A45585
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An humble essay toward the settlement of peace and truth in the church, as a certain foundation of lasting union by Sir Edward Harley.
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Harley, Edward, Sir, 1624-1700.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H777; ESTC R11056
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25,032
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42
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the Judaising Christians Crisost Ora. prima adv Judaeos that the most devout Severities if not commanded by God are no better then Debaucheries That only being pleasing and acceptable to God which is commanded by God And that which is most plausible and venerable according to Humane Opinion if not commanded by God is most vile and impious Lord Bishop of Hereford's Epist to a Friend concerning Popery Accordingly a Reverend Prelat Sums up all in this Conclusion I will in the worship of God do only that which his Will tells me is acceptable to his Divine goodness Therefore to say Though the Rites and Ceremonies be indifferent and insignificant yet when once commanded by Authority 't is hainous to disobey it is a real Conviction of Sacrilegious abuse of Authority to enforce Humane Constitutions Rival with the Divine Law in Matters of Religion which is to set Man's Post Ezok. 43.8 by God's Post against which Crime God denounces severe Judgment But from what Authority doth the Command proceed If from the the Church the Articles of our Religion teach that things ordained even by General Councels as necessary to Salvation Art 20.21 1572. have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture If it be replied these are not ordained as necessary to Salvation but to Uniformity The Answer is clear and certain because the Connexion between the means and the end is indissoluble therefore whatsoever is Ordained as necessary to Church-Communion the means of Salvation unless Salvation may be had out of the Church is Ordained as necessary to the End it self Salvation and the Command being not taken out of the Holy Scripture is no Law therefore there cannot be any Transgression But if urged as a Law Civil or Municipal it hath no more Obligation upon Conscience then the Statute forbiding to eat Flesh in Lent 5 Eliz. R. c. 5. which expresly provides whoever shall declare it to be the Service of God shall be punished as a spreader of False News that is as Guilty against the Law of Premunire The Civil Magistrate is Ordained of God and Invested with the high Prerogative to be Custos and vindex utriasque Tabule but not with any power to alter or abrogate any Command of God or any Ordinance of Divine Worship or to enjoy any other Condition of Church Communion then is expressed in the Gospel It is not in the power of any no not by the Universal consent of Mankind so to change the Nature and Signification of any Acts of Worship as either by applying to a Creature what is peculiar to God or by Instituting any Devotion to God not by him required Dr. Stillingfleet's def of discourse concerning Idolatry c. page 259. 260. It being as was before Observed a Principle of Natural Religion to Worship God only according to his own appointment for Worship not at all Commanded by God is not Worship but Fancy Aug. De Conson Evang. L. 1. cap. 18. and can have no Obligation upon Conscience which in performances of Religion is the grossest Contradiction We must be taught by God what is due Honour to God For as it is Crimen laesae Majestatis Hibar De Trini Lib. 5. p. 54. not only to perform Allegiance to another Person then the King but to Make or Constitute ex proprio Motu a Law for the Acts or Circumstances of Allegiance to be tendred to the King because thereby is directly Invaded the Supreme Athority So to apply Acts of Divine Worship to a Creature and to address to God in Worship by any Rite or Ceremony of Humane Invention both include Blasphemy because thereby is taken away from God the Peculiarity of his Dominion and Excellence whereby he is God alone For as the Sovereign Prerogative of making Laws of Civil Government is not Transferable to any Subject much less may any Creature usurp the incomunicable Attribute of Divine Auchority to make Laws of Religious Worship This happy Priviledge belongs to the Magistrate that what is already a Divine Law Dr. Stillingfleet's Irenic Page 44. he may Enact to be a Law of the Land and require the Observance of what was before in Conscience Obligatory and Animadvert upon the Offenders The Princes of the Hethen World might well be allowed to make and unmake their Religious Rites because Invented and Authorised only by themselves and thence many of them proceeded to receive even the Flattery of their own Apotheosis But every sober Mind judges all such Assentation to be as a great Offence to the Divine Majesty who will not allow the giving his Honour to another so a real Contumely and mock Honour to any Prince to Invest him with Divine Authority 'T is no less sinful now by a new Mode of Deification to place the Magistrate in the Throne of Christ who only hath Supreme Right to make the Laws by which Kings Reign It is therefore worthy the Consideration of all Christian Princes that the very making Laws for Religious matters not commanded by God shakes the greatest Prop of Thrones Conscience of Duty which in such a Case hath no Obligation Dan. 6.22 Therefore Daniel when cast inro the Lyons Den for breaking the irreversisible Law of Darius tells the King that God had delivered him from the Lyons forasmuch as he was Innocent before God and had committed no offence against the King which could not be true if the Decree of the King had been Lawful Jer. 27.6.7.8 God gave to Nebuchadnezzar absolute Dominion over all the World threatning Destruction to whatsoever Nation would not Obey him Notwithstanding it was Holy and Pious not to Obey him when his Command was otherwise then the Command of God For pure and undefiled Religion which Obliges to Obey the Magistrate in all matters of Civil Policy forbids Obedience in Matters of Religion not warranted by God's Word and Commands to suffer rather then sin This from the Apostles days until now hath been the Epidemical Motive to persecute the Disciples of Christ because they do contrary to the Decrees of Caesar Acts 17.7 Gregi Nazi Ora Prima con Julian Upon which account Nasiansen objects against Julian the Apostate the Contrivance of this Pestilent Mischief against the Christians that whereas it was the general Custom and not refused by Christians to perform a Civil Reverence to the Statues and Images of the Emperors upon which also were usually Engraven Representations of some Triumph or Magnificence of the Emperor Julian instead thereof with his own Image caused to be Engraven the Idols he worshiped Thereby either to ensnare the Christians into Idolatry if they Reverenced his Image or if they refused to expose them for doing contrary to the Imperial Decrees generally observed by Christians The like Device hath been long Practised to enforce Humane Rites and Ceremonies and stablish Hierarchich Policy in the Church by procuring from Princes Laws
'T is sadly a Lamentation and God in mercy grant it may not be so any more that the same signs are commanded by one Church as Symbolically significant and in testimony of Odoration and by another Church declared to be insignificant Mat. 2.24 and without any adorable respect yet in both Churches those Rites are Constituted Conditions of Communion though never made so by Christ But Servants that dare to turn their Ministry into Dominion Acts 17.31 and beat and kill their fellow servants must expect their doom designed them by the Lord when he comes to Judge the World in Righteousness The Authority of the Church is pretended for this That Name is highly venerable therefore to abuse it is the greater crime 'T is an Article of Faith to believe a Holy Catholick Church but heinous is the offence to subborn the Name of the Church to destroy the next Article The Communion of Saints without which the Notion of a Church is empty and unprofitable The Holy Catholick Church is the Body of Christ Col. 1.18 the Spouse of Christ Eph. 5.2 Gal. 4.26 't is the Heavenly Jerusalem which is free Heb. 12.22 which is the only Mother of us all Out of this Church there is no Salvation for whoever is a Member of Christs Body Eph. 5.23 to such and only to such Christ is a Saviour Of this Body every vissible Christian Church is an integral Part or Member Visible Church Act. 19. The Articles of Religion describe a visible Church to be a Congregation of faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duely Ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisit to the same Wich such a Church Christ hath promised to be alway even to the end of the World Rom. 3.2 the Authority with which our Lord invested the Christian Church being the same as before to the Jewish that unto them are committed the Oracles of God Mat. 28.20 that is according to his express Commission the teaching to observe all things whatsoever our Lord commanded This is the great Charter of the Churches Liberties and Power Here is no pretence for any Jurisdiction to make other conditions of Communion then of constitution The conditions constitutive of a Church are sufficient for Salvation the End and Perfection of every true Church therefore they are sufficient for the Title of every Member to admission and continuance in the Church This was all was required by Christ and his Apostles Acts 19.31 whereby the Churches were ed fied walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied The first trouble to the Church within it self was from the atempt to subvert the Foundation of Christianity by introducing other conditions of Church Communion then Christ appointed Acts 15.24 but that was remedied by the direction of the Holy Ghost in the first Council at Jerusalem The contrary Practice to which in after Ages hath been the great occasion of the confusion and ruine of most of the Christian Churches and still remains like the Womans bloody Issue that wasted all her substance an incurable disease So that it may be truely affirmed the impiety of the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks who reckoned and practised the grossest Immoralities as things indifferent proved less mischeivous to the Christian World then the rigorous exacting and imposing in different things as necessary Upon which account on one side sprang Separations and Schisms and on the other most bloody and inhumane Persecutions for it is convenient that commands not Authorised by right Reason should be enforced with rage and cruelty The conditions therefore and Articles of Peace as they are called in the Church ought not to be any other then such as as are necessary to Salvation Because the Belief and Practice of every Church most be as Homogeneal as are in all Beings Life and Operation According to this rule of Divine Truth the Church of England reformed it self from Popery and upon all occasions justifies the Reformation Because the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the making the Foundaations of its Being and the grounds of its Communion adaequate So that only these things which ought to be owned by all Christian Societies as necessary to Salvation on which the Being of the Catholick Church depends ought to be the necessary conditions of Church Communion Consequently the proper cause of Schism lies in transgressing those Bounds which observed might through Divine goodness conciliat the universal Peace of Christendome That according to the same Evidence by which the Reformed Churches condemn the Romanists for imposing the Belief of things as necessary to Salvation which are not necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church There ought not be imposed conditions of Uniformity upon any Member of the Church which were not antecedently necessary for the Being and Unity of the Church the later Imposition being eventually Equivalent with the former because they exclude from the means of Salvation 'T is Murther to mix Poyson with the Diet of the Family and almost as cruel to constrain the Table to any Meat or Sauce against which there is Antipathy Must he starve that cannot Eat Champignons with his Capon Poyson and Famine determine alike How uncharitable then are they who abhor the Roman Poyson yet debar those of the same Houshold of Faith from the Bread of Life by the mixture of some unnecessary Rites their weakness suppose cannot digest They that like Champignons may Eat as they please but 't is inhospitable and barbarous to force them upon those that conceit them Toad-stools It is the Peace and Entertainment of every Civil Table to allow the indisputable Liberty of Tasts and Appetites and to require Uniformity in Eating and Drinking would be most slavish Imposition to disorder and confound Mankind How much worse may any presume to disturb the Table of the Lord the Freedom of which as well as the bounty is the Purchase of his own Blood Nor was there any such custome in the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 The Primitive Church continued stedfast in the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice according to which standing fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free only necessary things were commanded things indifferent in their Nature being as they ought left indifferent in use and Practice For it is only the Divine Prerogative and not in the power of any Creature to change the Nature of things to be practised in the Worship of God so as to require what is in it self indifferent to be used necessarily as condition of Church Communion The Divine Method to restore and preserve the Churches Peace is to command things necessary and to leave things indifferent to the Arbitrary description of every Christian to perform or not perform as shall seem conducible to present edification Thus Timothy was voluntarily Circumcised by St. Paul Acts 16.3