furnished with Instructions to perswade the People from praying to Saints or for the Dead from adoring Images from Vse of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Dirges praying in unknown Languages and from some other like things whereunto a long Custom had wrought a Religious Observation and for defect of Preachers Homilies were appointed to be publickly read in Churches aiming to the very same End Some other offering to maintain these Ceremonies were either punished or forced to recant Edmond Boner Bishop of London was committed Prisoner to the Fleet for refusing to receive these Injunctions Stephen Gardiner was likewise committed first to the Fleet afterwards to the Tower for that he had openly preached that it were well these Changes in Religion should be stayed until the King were of Years to govern by himself This the People apprehending worse than it was either spoken or meant a Question began to be raised among them whether during the King's Minority such Alterations might lawfully be made or no. For the like Causes Tonstal Bishop of Duresm and Heath Bishop of Rochester were in like sort committed to Prison All these being then and still continuing famous for Learning and Judgment were dispossessed of their Bishopricks but no Man was touched in Life Hereupon a Parliament was held in the first Year of the King Thus far Sir John a learned and religious Knight Doctor of Law and a wise and wary Historian This Parliament was summoned to meet Nov. 4. 1547. when now had passed but nine Months and some odd Days of this King's Reign And all this while could there be no Convocation because no Parliament Therefore all this which was a considerable Advance to the Reformation was done without the Consent of a lower House of Convocation for there was none either higher or lower called But it may be said Sir John writes liker a Civil than Ecclesiastical Historian putting things of the same Nature together but not punctually concerning himself as to their respective Date We will take therefore next the eldest of the Ecclesiastic Historians which report the Transactions of this Reign namely Fox and from him we have these Steps of Proceeding in the Reformation First saith he By the single Authority of King and Council was appointed a general Visitation by certain learned discreet and worshipful Personages his Commissioners in that Behalf divided into several Companies assigned to the several Diocesses appointing to every Company one or two learned Preachers which at every Session should in their Preaching instruct the People in the true Doctrine of Christ The Order for this Visitation issued Sept. 1. 1547. Secondly That these Commissioners might be more orderly in their Business there were delivered to them by the same Authority certain Injunctions and Ecclesiastical Orders drawn out by the King 's learned Council which they should both enquire of and also in his Majesty's Behalf command to be observed by every Person to whom they did severally appertain within their Circuits This saith Dr. Heylin the King might do by his own Authority as his Father had done c. An. 1536. In those Injunctions to omit Matters of less Moment it is required that every Ecclesiastical Person having Cure of Souls should take down and destroy all such Images as had heretofore been abused by Pilgrimage or Offerings that they should not suffer any Lights or other idolatrous Oblations to be made before any Image that on every Holy-day having no Sermon in their Church they should immediately after the Gospel read distinctly in the Pulpit the Lord's Prayer the Belief and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue And although the Mass was then still by Law retained yet was it enjoined that at every High Mass the Sayer or Singer thereof should openly and distinctly read the Gospel and the Epistle in English and on every Holy-day and Sunday at Mattins one Chapter of the New Testament in English also That for avoiding Contention Processions should be laid down and the Priests and Clerks should kneel in the midst of the Church and there distinctly sing or read the Letany in English set forth by the Authority of King Henry the VIIIth And further that they should see provided and set up in some most convenient and open Place of every their several Churches one great Bible in English and one Book of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Gospels in English Also that the People might reverently without any Argument or Contention read and hear the same at such times as they listed And to mention no more of the Injunctions Homilies set forth by the King's Authority were enjoined the Curates to be read every Sunday and when the Homily was read the Prince and Hours to be omitted Thirdly Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops only by the Commissioners in their Visitations to be committed to the said Bishops with Charge to be inviolably kept and observed upon Pain of the King's Majesty's Displeasure And this Visitation was held and the Injunctions executed according to Order Fourthly During the Time says Fox that the Commissioners were occupied abroad in their Circuits about the speedy and diligent Execution of these godly and zealous Orders and Decrees of the King and his Council his Majesty caused a Parliament to be summoned Nov. 4. in the same first Year of his Reign wherein all the bloody Laws in point of Religion were repealed And here according to Dr. Burnet comes in a Convocation which Hist of Refor Par. 2. p. 27 c neither Mr. Fox nor Sir John Hayward nor Sir Richard Baker nor any other Historian that I have seen mentioneth but I most readily admit for Truth what the reverend Person reports Let us see then according to this exacter Historian what the Convocation did as to the Reformation or otherwise First The lower House of Convocation presented four Petitions to the Bishops That according to the Statute made in the Reign of the late King there might be Persons impowered for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws Secondly That according to the antient Custom of the Nation and the Tenor of the Bishops Writ to the Parliament the inferiour Clergy might be admitted again to sit in the House of Commons or that no Acts concerning Matters of Religion might pass without the Sight and Assent of the Clergy Thirdly That since divers Prelates and other Divines had been in the late King's time appointed to alter the Service of the Church and had made some Progress in it that this might be brought to its full Perfection Fourthly That some Consideration might be had for the maintenance of the Clergy the first Year they came into their Livings in which they were charged with the first Fruits to which they added a Desire to know whether they might safely speak their Minds about Religion without the Danger of any Law Thus Dr. Burnet As to the first of these Petitions all
that Infallibility or those Words Some have maintained whatever their Judgment is now I know not nor must concern my self if they use to contradict themselves Some I say have maintained that there is no infallible Judg on Earth nor any need of one being we have as far as is necessary to Salvation an infallible Rule the Scriptures of Truth Suppose then as to the forementioned Place we should take some such ample wide or large Sense as this The Joys and Glories of Heaven the good things which God has prepared for them that love him we could never have known without Divine Revelation nor should ever have had a Sense Relish and Perswasion of without a Work of Illumination and Conviction upon our Minds or more generally without other Aids and Assistances of Grace This well enough sutes with the Text and thus much is sufficient to conclude hence for Salvation or to any Intent of holy Life and this all Protestants will acquiesce in at least none will contradict Why may not we stop then here in this general This restraining of the Word of God from that LATITVDE and Generality and the Vnderstandings of Men from that Liberty wherein Christ and the Apostles left them is and has been the only Foundation of all the Schisms in the Church and that which makes them immortal Mr. Chilling worth Ch. IV. n. 16. Sense without affixing any of those particular Senses to the Text that is Is it not best to leave it in its full Latitude without restraining the word Spirit Further I would be clearly for expressing some fixed true Sense of all controverted Texts in such Words as Hereticks cannot pervert but for two or three Reasons one already mentioned namely that I cannot always be sure which Sense is most truly affix'd and being I am not or cannot be so a second Reason will be that by expressing such Sense in such Words and fixing it to Scripture so that now such Sense should become the Sense of Scripture it being as we know the Sense of Scripture which is the true Faith not meerly the Pag. 7. Words I should fear by this means Mens changing Faith or which is much the same changing Scripture And a third Reason which is as urgent as all the rest is I do not know nor does it appear that any Man knows no nor that any Church or Council ever have known where to find such Words which Hereticks cannot pervert I could assign many Words from time to time pitch'd upon to prick the Fingers of Hereticks and guard the Faith but I will content my self Pag. 5. with two neither of which Mr. Dean can pretend to be unacquainted with they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Personae These we know have been long thought fit Terms to fix the Sense of Scriptures But are they Words which Hereticks cannot pervert or are they not more equivocal and so more pervertable than most of the usual Terms in Scripture The first indeed is several times used singularly in the Greek of the New Testament and rendred constantly by the old Interpreter Substantia but by many Moderns and particularly by our Translators two or three ways Three times that now occur to me by Confidence 2 Cor. 9. 4. and ch 11. 17. Heb. 3. 14. yet in the first of these Places Beza tells us it might have been rendred in hoc fundamento gloriationis which is near the first and natural Import of the Word And Castellio renders it in hâc materiâ Erasmus in hoc argumento which we may fitly english in this Subject of Boasting Once viz. Heb. 11. 1. by Substance which is its Philosophical Acceptation And once by Person which I may call the Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Acceptation of the Word affixed to this Place by Theophilact as it is said by Authority of Gregory Nissen but I have neither by me to consult After all notwithstanding we no where read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture though frequently in the Fathers Suppose then we take this Term Three Hypostases to fix the Sense of that Text There are three that bear Witness in Heaven c. Are there now no more Homonymies of it that yet we have seen Yes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Budaeus is almost the same as Existence and Evil has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both which he gives good Authority Again Nicephorus Callistus tells us The Word is scarce in use amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist lib. 10. cap. 15. in Sentent lib. 1. Dist 23. Antients in any certain Signification but the Moderns have frequently used it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per totam secularium scholam are the same says Estius Now all the World knows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although used ordinarily by Aristotle for his Predicament of Substance yet more properly signifies Essence or Nature Three Hypostases then may be interpreted three Essences or Natures and under this Term may Tritheism it self in its worse Sense lurk Nor are there wanting those who tell us this very Term led Philoponus into his Heresy Further Bellarmine will have it that Hypostasis properly signifies Substantiam primam which In Controv. de Christo is not necessarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Person but may be any meaner Animate or even an Inanimate individual I could add yet two or three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. ubi supr more Significations of this Word out of the above-mentioned Nicephorus Callistus who vouches good Authority for the meanest of them which I will not here set down lest the Dean should say I teach People to ridicule the Trinity in their Prayers when I only report the Words of approved Authors to caution others against unadvised and obnoxious Terms But it is plain from what I have said this Term is further from fixing the Sense of Scripture than the Terms of Scripture Next as to the word Persona though that Word be now upon the Authority above-mentioned by Beza brought in and justly too into our modern Translations yet it was true in Aquinas's time and since that too that it was neither in Old nor New Testament used touching God Nomen persona in Scripturis veteris vel novi Testamenti non invenitur dictum de Deo 1. q. 29. â— 3. And when used plurally as the former it must be acknowledged an Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Word sound out as the other for â—ixing if possible the Sense of Scripture to use the Dean's Phrase and does it do it The Dean no doubt knows what Laurentius Valla a Critick but no Socinian says of its Congruity in this Point And it is too trite a Subject to reckon up all its Homonymies I will only remind that it is taken in one Sense in humanis for a single Substance separate and by it self in another in divinis for such a
the Communion of the regular establish'd Church which yet he is far from contemning or censuring Suppose I say a Person to be of such Character and Circumstances shall we dare to say this Man's Faith is not sufficient to his Salvation because we our selves perhaps have more Faith and are justly perswaded more is necessary to our own Salvation In all Likelihood he endangers himself to be excluded from Heaven who takes upon him to exclude such I am far from denying that Men ought to grow up to Perfection in all Faith and Knowledg that is to endeavour to comprehend and believe as near as they are able all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven or all revealed Truths built upon that one Foundation Jesus Christ and him crucified But we know how vastly the Superstructure is increased the Compass of Scripture even of the New Testament is large the Difficulty of understanding it at this Distance great the Lights which we have by Fathers and Doctors various and by their Variety many times dazling and confounding one another nay even whole Churches in Doctrinals very contrary to one another and at least one and that the greatest of them all for the maintaining her Grandeur has designedly with all the Arts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4. 14. and Methods of Deceit new modell'd the whole Frame of Christian Doctrine and not stuck in a sort to corrupt even Scripture it self by imposing on the World her corrupt Translation and in many Points corrupter Sense of it for infallible Truth and the only sure way to Heaven in which Impositions of hers all Protestants agree many Points to be fallacious and destructive Now these being and having been the Circumstances of the present Age and indeed of many late Ages is it not the constant Doctrine of all Reformed Churches that every Person should with Prayer Humility and Study of the Truth proposing unto himself the Holy Scripture for his Rule judg for himself And must not every Man believe what is the Result of his Judgment or what in Conscience according to Scripture he judgeth Truth Now perhaps sundry Points which particular Doctors yea which Churches have differently determined and which some of them pretend to be of Faith an honest inquisitive Man cannot perceive the Holy Ghost to have determined at all nor does he find them in the Apostles Creed the old Standard or Leiger-Roll of Fundamentals Nay further examining them according to the Analogy or Proportion of Faith that is comparing them with undoubted Fundamentals he cannot resolve which Opinion bears most Proportion or is most certain In this Case what shall the Man do For my own part I can see nothing more proper and safe than to take the Matter in that Latitude wherein the Scripture delivered it Had not learned Men differently interpreted and imbroiled the Text perhaps I should never have perceived any more than one Sense of it even that in which I now take it But having seen their Glosses I am sensible the Text will admit several Interpretations and which of them was designed by the Holy Ghost I know not I disbelieve none of them nor will I as far as able in my Practice act contrary to what either or any of them enforces I submit intirely to the Authority of God in all Here 's my negative Belief I will not divide the Christian Church nor take Part with them that do divide it but hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace maintain Christian Charity with all Christian People and esteem all them to be Christians who are content to walk or who without the Contradiction of a disorderly Life profess to walk by that Rule which I own namely Holy Scripture This is the Latitude I plead for and from which I think I never shall be driven But there being but one Faith there can be no more Latitude in Faith §. 12. than there is in an Vnit This is a Subtilty indeed and no doubt a stabbing Argument against the People of the long Name as some are pleased to stile many conformable moderate Persons But are there not as many sorts of Vnits as there are of Vnities And did Mr. Dean never hear in Philosophy of an Vnity of Composition which is so far from excluding Parts that it supposes them Or in Arithmetick did he never hear of Integrals and what minute Parts thereof Artists can make No Latitude in an Unit Yes and in the one Faith too especially as by the one Faith we understand what Churches and Doctors have now made it Have we not whole Systems of Opinions now adays made up into Confessions of Faith Certainly all controverted Points in Christian Doctrine can no more be maturely determined and the stated Truth distinctly be believed by all Men than all Christian Perfection be by all equally attained There are those to whom it is given in an ampler and more peculiar measure to know the Mystery of the Kingdom Though all may have the same Scripture or Body of revealed Religion all have not the same natural Sagacity and Judgment the same Education and Advantages of Improvement the same Leisure and Opportunity for Search and Application of Mind Some and that far the greatest Numbers of Christians can only understand the common Christianity repent of their Sins and in Well-doing depend upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus for Life everlasting Others leaving that is not stopping at those the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ the alone true Foundation go on unto Perfection So that there is a measure of Faith as well as of other Christian Perfections And God is doubly the Author of a Latitude in Faith 1 In revealing his Truth in such Terms as admit of a Latitude of Conception 2 In giving to Men as he sees fit such measures of Knowledg and Perswasion as leaves them in an higher or lower Degree of Faith and even of Holiness And accordingly in our Father's House there are many Mansions Nor can any Man with Reason gainsay these things Now though this be far from thinking it indifferent what Men believe Pag. 9. or whether they believe any thing or not yea faralso from believing what we please yet I confess it is believing as by Grace we are able I must conceive as I can and judg as I can and believe as I can too And neither I nor any Man alive who believes any thing can believe all that dictating Men will impose upon them The Authority of the Church it is true is of great Weight and will go very far to the determining any sober Man's Judgment in a case where Evidences on both sides are perfectly equal that is alike probable or alike uncertain But the Faith we owe to the Church and that we owe to God are very different All the Churches or Councils in the World can never make that an Article of Faith which God has not made so He who alone can bestow Salvation has alone