All the greater Bodies of those who divide from our Constitutions have some Rituals of their own so the Dispute in this must only be concerning the degrees and extent of this Power For if any Authority is allowed it will not be easy to fix any other Bounds to it but this that it must not invade the Divine Authority nor do any thing beyond the Rules and Limits set in the Scriptures for if there is the least degree of Authority in the Church the grounds upon which it is founded must carry it to every thing that cannot be proved to be unlawful Bare unfitness though it ought to be a Consideration of great weight when such things are deliberated about yet when they are once concluded can be no reason for disobeying them since the fitness of Order and the decency of Unity and Obedience is certainly of much more value than any special unfitness that can be supposed to be in any particular Instance So that one of these two must be admitted either that the Pastors of the Church have no sort of Authority even in the smallest Circumstances but are limited by the Rules of the Scripture and can only execute them strictly and not go beyond them in a title or this Authority must go to every thing that is lawful On that I will dwell no longer here the fuller discussion of this matter belonging to another Discourse It is a natural Consequence of the Authority given to the Pastors of the Church That they having declared and fixed their Doctrine and having setled Rules for their Rituals may excommunicate such as either do not live according to the Rules of their Religion which are a main part of their Doctrine or do not obey the Constitutions of their Society Excommunication in the Strictness of things is only the Churches refusing to receive a person into her Communion now as every Private man is the Master of his own Actions it is clear that every Body of Men must also be the Masters of theirs And thus though Excommunication in some respects is declaratory it being a solemn denunciation of the Judgments of God according to the tenor of the Gospel against persons who live in an open violation of some one or more of its Laws so it is also an authoritative Act by which a Church refuses to communicate with such a Person In this it is true Churches ought to make the terms of Communion with them as large and extensive as may consist with the Rules of Religion and of Order but after all they having a Power over themselves and their own Actions must be supposed to be likewise cloathed with a Power to communicate with other Persons or not to do it as they shall see cause in which great difference is to be made between this Power in it self and the use and management of it for any Abuses whether true or only pretended though they may well be urged to procure a proper Reformation of them yet cannot be alledged against the Power it self which is both just and necessary It is not so very clear to state the Subordination in which the Church is to be put under the Civil Power and how far all Acts of Church Power are subject to the Laws and Policies of those States to which the several Churches do belong It is certain that the Magistrate's being a Christian or not does not at all alter the Case that has only a relation to his own salvation for his Authority is the same whatever his Belief may be in matters of Religion His design to protect or to destroy Religion alters the Case more sensibly for the regards to that Protection and to the Peace and Order that follow upon it together with the Breaches and Disorders that might follow upon an ill understanding between Church and State are matters of Such Consequence that it is not only meer Prudence which may give perhaps too strong a Bias to carnal Fears and Policies but the Rules of Religion which oblige the Church to study to preserve that Order and Protection which is one of the chief Blessings of the Society and a main Instrument of doing much good Great difference is to be made between an Authority that acts with a visible design to destroy Religion and another that intends to protect it but that errs in its conduct and does often restrain the Rules of Order and impose hard and uneasy things Certainly in the latter much is to be born with that may be otherwise uneasy because the main is stil safe and private slips when endured and submitted to can never be compared to those publick disorders that a rigid maintaining of that which is perhaps in it self good must occasion But when the design is plain and that the Conduct of the Civil Powers goes against the Truth of Religion either in whole or in any main Article of it then the Body of the Christians of that State ought to fortify themselves by maintaining their Order and their other Rules in so far as they are necessary to their preservation Upon the whole matter it does not appear that the Church has any Authority to act in opposition to the State but meerly in those things in which the Religion that she professes is plain and positive so that the Question comes to be really this Whether is it better to obey God than Man There the Rule is clear and the Decision is soon made So when the Church acts meerly in obedience to Rules and Laws laid down in Scripture such as in declaring the Doctrine in administring the Sacraments and maintaining the setled Officers of the Church she is upon a sure Bottom and must cast her self upon the Providence of God whatever may happen and still obey God but in all things that have arisen out of ancient Customs and Canons in every thing where she has not a Law of God to support her I do not see any Power she has to act in opposition to Law and to the Supreme Civil Authority In this the constant practice of the Iews is no small Argument whos 's Sanhedrin that was a Civil Court and the Head of their State did give Rules and Orders which their Priests were bound to obey when not contrary to the Law of God We are sure this was the Rule in our Saviour's time and it was never censured nor reproved by him nor by the Apostles The Argument is also strong that is drawn from the constant practice of the Church from the time that she first had the protection of the Civil Authority till the times of the Papal Domination in which we find the Emperours all along making Laws concerning all the Administrations of the Church we find them receiving Appeals in all Church matters which they appointed such Bishops as hapned to be about their Courts to examine This was like our Court of Delegates for the Bishops who judged those matters did not act according to Canon or by the Ecclesiastical
been so overcome by the men of Labour and Learning that even the Church that boasts of Infallibility would have made a small progress without their Endeavours And why should we imagine that a Religion which we feel to be so hard in practice should be made so easy in the speculative part that we should be in no danger and need no Industry to understand it A Promise of the Spirit is indeed pretended that the Church should be thereby guided into all Truth But it is to be consider'd that this Promise was made personally to the Apostles who were Inspir'd and so were infallibly guided which appears more plainly from the following words and he shall shew you things to come that is clearly a promise of the Spirit of Prophesy to which since no Body of men can now pretend they cannot claim the other neither for both must go together according to the force of those works Nor is there any reason from those words to conclude that this any more than the Inspiration of the Apostles was to descend to others after them or if any will through a parity of Reason think that this was to continue in the Church why should it not belong to every Christian and not be confin'd to any Body or Succession of men especially since those who think that the same parity will hold as to the other effects of the Spirit promis'd there of its dwelling in them of bringing things to their remembrance of giving them Confort Peace Ioy and Victory over the World and that these do descend to others after the Apostles do believe that they belong to all Christians and are not to be contracted to a small number Now if all the other promises were to descend thus why not this of being led into all Truth as well as the rest For all promises even tho express'd in positive words do carry a condition naturally in them so that when this promise is believ'd to belong to all Christians yet it is not absolute but supposes men's using their utmost Endeavours with an honest and good Mind in which case no man can deny but that whether that promise was specially meant to them or not yet it shall be so far accomplish'd in them that they shall be left in no Error that shall be fatal to them but that either they shall be deliver'd from it or that it shall be forgiven them since it is inconsistent with the Notion of infinite Goodness that any man should perish who is doing all he can in order to his Salvation If it be said That Error does disturb the Peace and Order of the Church beyond what is to be apprehended from Sin Error runs men into parties and out of those Factions do arise which break not only the Peace of the Church but the whole order of the World and the Quiet of Civil Society whereas Sin does only harm to those who are guilty of it or to a few who may be corrupted by their ill example But to this it is to be answer'd That Sin does naturally much more mischief to Mankind than Error he that errs if he is not Immoral with it is quiet and peaceable in his Error therefore still the greatest mischief is from Sin which corrupts men's Natures through its own Influence And the mischief that Error does procure arises chiefly from the pretensions to Infallibility or something that is near a-kin to it for if men were suffer'd to go on in their Errors with the same undisturbed quiet that they have for most of their sins they would probably be much quieter in them since Sin of its nature is a much fiercer thing than a point of Speculation can be suppos'd to be but if men apprehend Inquisitions or other Miseries upon the account of their Opinions then they stand together and combine for their own Defence and Preservation so that it is not from the Errors themselves but from the methods of treating them that all those Convulsions have arisen which have so violently shaken Churches and Kingdoms But the last and Main thing that is urg'd on this Head is That no private Understanding is strong enough to find out Truth in all the points of Religion that it is an indecent and an insolent thing for private men for Tradesmen perhaps or for Women to pretend to expound Scripture or to judge in points of Religion This feeds Pride and self-conceit beyond any thing that can be imagin'd whereas a Spirit of Submission and Humility of thinking others particularly Superiours wiser than our selves has so great a resemblance to the Spirit of the Gospel and seems to agree so well with the design of this Religion that we must believe it to be a part of it This is indeed specious but after all it is to be consider'd that God has made us of such a nature that our apprehensions of things must determine us whether we will or not and it is not likely that God would make us as he has done and yet at the same time so limit our Faculties that they should not be imploy'd in the Matters of Religion We naturally love Freedom and we believe things the more firmly the more profoundly we have inquir'd into them when we come to be once fully satisfi'd about them when we find our selves oft call'd on in the Scriptures to search them to prove all things to try the Spirits when we see a great part of the New Testament was directed to whole Churches to all the Saints that is to the whole Body of the Christians when so much of it is writ in the Style of one that argues that descends from that Apostolical Authority by which he might have commanded those he writes to to receive and rest in his Decisions and that lays things in their natural Connexions and Consequences before those he writes to we see in that such an appeal to their Reasons and that even in the Age of Miracles in which there was another sort of Characters of the Divine Commission that render'd the Apostles Infallible when I say this Appeal was made to their Reasons and Understandings at that time it seems much more reasonable that in the succeeding Ages men should have a right to imploy their Faculties in finding out the Sense and examining the Books of the New Testament Here let us consider the state of every Iew at that time and see if this reasoning for Authority and Infallibility was not then as strong to keep him in Judaism There was a Controversy between the Apostles and the Sanhedrim whether Iesus was the Messias or not A decision of this was in a great measure to be made from the Prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Messias which were urg'd by the Apostles but the Rabbies the Scribes and Pharisees put other senses on these Now what was a private Iew to do Must he take upon him to judge so intricate a Controversy Must he pretend to be wiser than all the Doctors
one another in such cases The one is not to set a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another man's way that is not to use our liberty in such instances or on such occasions as may draw other men to act in imitation of us against their own Consciences This is the true notion of giving scandal or the laying a trap in the way of another by which he may fall or be catched And this every man is to avoid when it is free for him to act or not as he pleases for in that case only he is under this obligation and caution since otherwise if he is determined by any Law Divine or Humane he must go on and do his duty without considering what consequences may happen upon it for which he is not accountable since he is not at liberty to dispose of himself but is concluded by a higher Authority The other Rule is That we ought as much as may be to avoid doing any thing that may grieve other Christians which is said to be walking uncharitably since we ought to have such regard even to the tenderness and weakness of our Brethren as not to do such things as may wound or trouble them still under the former supposition that we are fully at our own liberty and under no law nor obligation to the contrary These are the Rules laid down by St. Paul which when well considered and rightly understood will give a great light into this whole Controversy By these it will appear that even the Apostles themselves who might have assumed a higher strain of Authority yet had great regards to the frailties of those they governed And although most of these Positions and Rules do suppose men to be in a state of an unrestrained liberty so that they do not belong to our case in which Laws and Constitutions have already determined us yet they ought still to have great weight with those that are not concluded by Laws and all such as may have the making or reviewing of Laws under their care and deliberation But I have opened this matter more fully than was perhaps necessary to my present purpose which only required that I should clear some Passages in St. Paul's Epistles that are applied to the Points now under examination though they do not at all belong to them since all that is in St. Paul relates only to such things as were entirely left to mens own liberty and in which it was free to them to act which way soever they pleased which are not at all applicable to established rules setled by Law and recommended by Ancient practice It is true that no Age of the Church since the Apostles days can make Laws for succeeding Ages since the Pastors of every Age have the same Authority that the Pastors of any precedent Age had after the times of Inspiration Whatever was done in a former Age may be altered in a subsequent one And therefore all those Rules of the subordination of Churches one to another being taken from the disposition of the Roman Empire Europe being now totally moulded into another frame are now at the discretion of Princes to cotinue or change them at their pleasure And all the Rituals of the Church are in the power of every Age to alter or continue them as they shall see cause but till they are altered they bind not by reason of any Authority that former Ages had over the present but because the present Age by not repealing former Rules and Canons does tacitly and interpretatively confirm and renew them For if the Pastors of the present Age in concurrence with and a due subordination to the Civil Powers have an Authority to make Laws or Canons in such matters they have likewise a power to continue such as were made in any former Age and they are presumed and in Law taken to do that till they repeal them I have now gone through the general Plea that is brought against our Constitutions from general Topicks and have I hope shewed that there is no force in any part of it I come next to consider such things as are objected more specially to several particulars in our Constitution They except to the Government of the Church because of the different Ranks of Bishop Priest and Deacon whereas the Scriptures use Bishop and Priest so promiscuously that from thence it seems reasonable to infer that they are one and the same Function and that there ought to be but two Ranks Bishop and Diacon in the Church But those who object this have really among them but one Function and Order since they have no Diacons in the sense of St. Paul's Epistles who are a Degree of Men dedicated to the Service of God out of which as any served well in it they were advanced to a superior Degree and were ever esteemed a Sacred Order of Men. There are none such among those who urge this Matter against us The Promiscuous use of Names does not prove the Offices the same The Apostles are called sometimes Deacons or Ministers and so are their Companions in Labour for the term Diacon signifying any one that Ministred It was not then appropriated to the lowest Order no more than Presbyter was to the second for the Apostles call themselves sometimes Deacons so that from hence an Argument might be drawn as well to prove that Deacons are equal in Rank to the highest Order of Bishops We plainly see That God setled three Orders of Officers in the Iewish Temple We see also in their Synagogues that there were three different Ranks taken probably from the Model of the Temple We see our Saviour chose twelve Apostles and afterwards Seventy Disciples having in that no doubt a regard both to the numbers of their Tribes and of their Sanhedrin We plainly see that during the Apostles lives the governing and ordering of the Church was in them yet they constituted some in their Name to govern a large extent of Churches and by their Epistles to these it is plain That the Power of governing those Churches and of ordaining new Officers in them belonged to them they being the Persons to whom that trust was committed with solemn Charges given them for it by the Apostles We plainly see two distinct Orders of Bishop and Deacon as two Sacred Functions that were to labour in the work of the Gospel and we find by the short Epistles in the beginnings of the Revelation that there was one Man who had the Immediate Charge of those Churches to whom every thing relating to them is addressed as to a Person that was accountable for the rest and that by consequence must be suppos'd to have an Authority over them We see immediately after the days of the Apostles that all the Churches were cast into one Mould of Bishop Priest and Diacon This taking place every where and that at a time when no Meetings of the Clergy could be held to establish any such Form and that no
the Holy Ghost fell visibly on Cornelius and his Friends Can any man forbid water that those should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And with this he settled the minds of those who were a little offended at that action This shews that no pretence to a high dispensation of the Spirit can evacuate that Precept since on the contrary an evidence of the giving the Holy Ghost was pleaded as an Argument for baptizing Nor does any one passage in which Baptism is mentioned in the New Testament limit it to that time and intimate that it belonged only to the beginnings of Christianity or that it was to determine when it was more fully setled so that this with the constant practice of all succeeding Ages without a shadow of any Exception must conclude us as to this Point Our Saviour did also appoint the other Sacrament to be continued in remembrance of him by which St. Paul says we shew forth his death till he come Now these words cannot be understood of any supposed inward and spiritual coming since the most signal coming in that sense was the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and yet after that time the Apostles continued to practice it and delivered it to the Churches as a Precept still obligatory till Christ should come If then we ought still to remember him and shew forth his death if it is the Communion of his Body and Blood if it is the new Covenant in his Blood for the remission of sins then as long as these things are Duties incumbent on us so long we must be under the obligation of eating that Bread and drinking that Cup. Further If Christ has left different Gifts to different Orders of men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangeliste and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for edifying the Body of Christ till we come unto a perfect man and are no more in danger of being tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of doctrine These words do plainly import That as long as mankind is under the frailties of this present state and in this confused Scene that some of these Orders must still be continued in the Church and that those Rules and Preceps given to Timothy and Titus concerning such as were to be ordained Bishops or Elders that is Priests and Diacons were to be lasting and standing Rules for indeed if the design had not been to establish that Order for the succeeding Ages there was less need of it in that in which there was such a plentiful Measure of the Spirit poured out upon all Christians that such Functions in that time might have been well spared if it had not been for this that they were then to be setled under the Patronage if I may so speak of the Apostles themselves from whom they were to receive an Authority which how little necessary soever it might seem in that wonderful time yet was to be more needed in the succeeding Ages Therefore we may well conclude That whatsoever was ordered concerning those Offices or Officers of the Church in the first Age was by a stronger parity of reason to be continued down through all the Ages of the Church and in particular if in that time in which Women received the Gifts of the Holy Ghost so that some prophesied and others laboured much in the Lord that is in the Gospel yet St. Paul did in two different Epistles particularly restrain them from teaching or speaking in the Church to which he adds That it was a shame for Women to speak in the Church that is it might turn to be a reproach to the Christian Religion and furnish Scoffers with some colours of exposing it to the scorn of the Age. This was to be much more strictly observed when all those extraordinary Characters that might seem to be exemptions from common Rules did no longer continue As for those distinctions into which they have cast themselves of the Hat and the denying Titles and speaking in the singular Thou and Thee it is to be considered That how unfit soever it be and how unbecoming Christians to be conformed to this world yet it rather lessens than heightens the great Idea that the world ought to have of the Christian Religion when it states a diversity among men about meer Trifles Our Saviour and his Apostles complied as much in all innocent Customs as they avoided all sinful ones Honour to whom honour is due is a standing Duty and though the bowing the Body and falling prostrate are postures that seem liker Idolatry and more abject in their nature than the Hat yet the very Prophets of God paid these respects to Kings Outward Actions or Gestures signify only what is entended to be expressed and what is generally understood by them so that what is known to be meant only for a piece of Civil respect can never be stretched to a Religious respect and though that abject homage under which the Iewish Rabbies had brought their Disciples and which they had exprest in Titles that imported their profound submission to them was reproved by our Saviour yet we see that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir or Lord was then used as commonly as we now do since Mary Magdalen called him whom shee took for a Gardener Sir or Lord. And St. Paul gave Festus the Title which belonged to his Office it being the same that Claudius Lysias gave Felix who certainly was not wanting in that and that being the Title of men of Rank St. Luke adresses both his Books to Thephilus designing him in one ofthem in the same manner Words signify nothing of themselves as they are meer sounds but according to the signification in which men agree to use them so if the speaking to one man in the plural number is understood only as a more respectful way of treating him then the plural is in this case really but a singular Indeed these things scarce deserve to be so narrowly lookt into The Scruple against Swearing is more important both to them and to the Publick They have indeed the appearance of a plain Command of our Saviour's against all manner of Swearing which is repeated by St. Iames but this must be restricted to their communication according to the words that follow since we find Swearing not only commanded in the Old Testament but practised in the New The Apostles swear at every time they say God is witness and more solemnly when God is called for a record upon their Soul The Angel of God lifts up his hand and swears by him that lives for ever and ever God swears by himself and an Oath for confirmation that is for affirming any matter is the end of all Controversy We find our Saviour himself answered upon Oath when adjured by the High Priest to tell If he was the
particular that he who had been on other occasions the forwardest of them all and who had been warned by our Saviour of his danger and so was by consequence on his guard and less likely to fall had yet upon a remote apprehension of danger with repeated Oaths denied that he knew him Now he who through fear will deny a truth is much more like upon the same or a greater danger to discover a falshood This being the state of that matter let us now see how we can possibly imagine the Apostles who knew what effects fear had so lately upon themselves and who had also seen to what a degree one of them might he corrupted could so far trust either themselves or one another in such a matter in which they had reason to believe that the Iews who had gone so far with their Master would spare neither arts nor violenee to fetch out the Secret Besides that to venture on an Imposture which goes so much against Human Nature and which naturally strikes Men with fears and jealousies Men must be long practised to boldness and must have made such essays upon themselves and upon one another as to think they are secure of all that are in the Confidence But let us pass over all this and then see how the matter when resolved on could have been managed Either they were to steal away the Body of Christ or to leave it in the Sepulchre If they had left it all must have broke out immediately the bare exposing the Body must have confuted all that they could have said so it must be supposed that they carried it away Now how this could be done when a Watch was set when the Moon shone bright and such numbers of Men were wandring about in every corner is not easie to be imagined Some persons to a considerable number must be imployed if it had been to be carried to any distance and they could not think themselves safe if it had been laid near the place of the Sepulchre Some trace or print must have remained if they had broke ground which they must have expected would have been looked for and being found out would have discovered all not to mention the natural horror that all Men have at the handling dead Bodies even in what is necessary for their burial but most of all Iews who by their Law became defiled to a high degree by it But suppose the dead Body so disposed of that they apprehended to hear no more news of it how is it to be imagined that those frequent Apparitions of our Saviour's particularly that in Galilee to Five hundred at once which is appealed to while many of them were yet alive could have been manageed Here then we have first twelve Witnesses against whom no just exception lies even to feed suspicion who affirm a matter of fact and call in many others as their Vouchers to support their Testimony They stand to it to the last tho' they suffered much for it and could not possibly gain any thing by it and yet are supposed by Infidels to contrive and stick to a Forgery meerly to perswade the World to Vertue and Purity and to Sincerity and Truth which they begin with a train of falshood and deceit without any other visible Bait but their love to their dead Master that they might magnifie him and give him a lasting Name and wipe off the reproach of his infamous Death by this bold Contrivance of theirs A Man that can suppose all this to be possible will suppose any thing and shews that he has no regards so much as to the colours of Truth but will advance any thing rather than be beaten out of his Infidelity But to follow this matter more home a part and a great one of the History of the Gospel is That ten days after our Saviour ascended up into Heaven in the sight of his Apostles which with Infidels will pass for a part of the contrivance they received such extraordinary Illapses and Powers from Heaven in consequence to the Promises that our Saviour had made them that they were enabled to work Miracles and to speak with divers Tongues and the first essay of this appeared at the next Festival of the Iews in which Ierusalem was again filled not only with all the Iews of Iudea but also with those of the dispersion who from all Quarters were come up at Pentecost from the East as far as from Persia and Media from the West as far as from Rome and Libia from the South as far as from Arabia and from the North as far as from Parthia and many Provinces of Asia the Less and from several Islands as well as from the Continent Here was an astonishing thing to see unlettered men all of the sudden break out in speaking of Languages in which they had no sort of Education or Practice Fevers or Enthusiastical Heats may inflame men so far as to make them speak those Languages which they understand tho' they are not otherwise ready at them for the Prints being already in their Brains a strong exaltation of their Spirits may fetch those out much better than they themselves in a cooler and more sedate state could have done but where there are no previous Impressions no heat whatsoever can fetch out that which is not within Now as this was the most necessary of all other things to qualifie men to execute their Commission of going to teach all Nations in which they must have made a very slow progress if they must have learned the Language of every Countrey to which they were to go so it was the most signal of all others and as was formerly hinted at was that which must have been presently discover'd if it had not been notoriously and unquestionably true With these Powers and those Languages the Apostles went every where and promised to confer the like gifts on those that should receive and believe their Gospel And in the Epistles which they writ afterwards to those Churches even when their Authority was called in question they appealed to the gifts of the Holy Ghost conferred by their means so that either these things were notoriously true or they must have been despised as the most assuming and impudent of all Impostors These were their Credentials that procured them a hearing and as men were disposed to eternal Life so they received and entertained their Message Thus we have seen by a great variety of Considerations which this matter presents to us that not only there is no colour of Reason to incline a man to think that the Apostles designed to impose upon the World but that there is all possible Reason to the contrary to persuade us that they were in no respect capable of projecting any such thing nor of effecting it if they had intended it The 2 d. Supposition of Infidelity is That they themselves might have been deceived by two or three designing persons who might have imposed upon them
be One and in what respects they are Three By explaining a Mystery can only be meant the shewing how it is laid down and revealed in Scripture for to pretend to give any further account of it is to take away its Mysteriousness when the manner how it is in it self is offered to be made intelligible In this too many both Ancients and Moderns have perhaps gone beyond due bounds while some were pleased with the Platonical Notions of Emanations and a Fecundity in the Divine Essence For we have footsteps of a Tradition as Ancient even among Heathens as any we can trace up which limited the Emanations to Three And these thought there was a Production or rather an Eduction of two out of the first In the same manner that some Philosophers thought that Souls were propagated from Souls and the figure by which this was explain'd being that of one Candle's being lighted at another this seems to have given the rise to those words Light of Light It is certain many of the Fathers fell often into this conceit and in this way of explaining this matter they have said many things which intimate that they believed an inequality between the Persons and a Subordination of the Second and Third to the First So that by the same Substance or Essence they do in many places express themselves as if they only meant the same Being in a general Sense as all human Souls are of the same Substance that is the same order or sort of Beings and they seemed to entitle them to different operations not only in an Oeconomical way but thought that one did that which the other did not This was indeed more easily to be apprehended but it seemed so directly to assert Three Gods which was very contrary to many most express Declarations both in the Old and New Testament in which the Unity of the Deity is so often held forth that therefore others took another way of explaining this making it their Foundation that the Deity was one Numerical Being They then observed that the Sun besides his own Globe had an Emanation of Light and another of Heat which had different Operations and all from the same Essence and that the Soul of Man had both Intellection and Love which flowed from its Essence So they conceiv'd that the primary Act of the Divine Essence was its Wisdom by which it saw all things and in which as in an inward Word it designed all things This they thought might be called the Son as being the Generation of the Eternal Mind while from the Fountain-Principle together with this inward Word there did arise a Love that was to issue forth and that was to be the Soul of the Creation and was more particularly to animate the Church And in this Love all things were to have Life and Favour This was rested on and was afterwards dressed up with a great deal of dark nicety by the Schools and grew to be the Universally received Explanation Tho many have thought that the term Son did not at all belong to the Blessed Three but only to our Saviour as he was the Messias the Iews having had that Notion of the Messias that as he was to be the King of Israel so he was to be the Son of God We find Nathanael addressed himself thus to him and when the High-Priest adjur'd our Saviour to tell if he was the Messias he knits these two together Art thou-the Christ the Son of the most High God which shews that they did esteem these two as one and the same thing Now some Criticks do apprehend that since in many places the term Son of God has manifestly a relation to Christ as the Messias there is in this an Uniformity in the whole Scripture Style so that every where by the phrase Son of God we are to understand Iesus as the Messias in which the human Nature being the first Conception they conceive that all the places importing an Inferiority of the Son to the Father have no difficulty in them since they are only to be understood of Iesus as the Messias but that the Divine Principle that was in him is in the strictness of Speech to be called as St. Iohn does the Word So that by this if true all the Speculations concerning an Eternal Generation are cut off in the strict sense of the words tho in a larger sense every emanation of what sort soever may be so called These and a great deal more of this kind that might be further branched out and enlarged upon are the Explanations that Divines have offered at upon this Mystery But it may be justly questioned whether by these they have either made it to be better understood or to be more firmly believed or whether others have not taken advantage to represent those subtilities as dregs either of AEones of the Valentinians or of the Platonical Notions which last being in so high and just a Reputation among the Greeks it is plain that many of the Ancients thought it was no small service to the Christian Religion to shew a great Affinity between it and Plato's Theology and it being long before these Theories were well stated and setled it is no wonder if many of the Fathers have not only differed from one another but even from themselves in speaking upon this Argument While men go about to explain a thing of which they can frame no distinct Idea it is very natural for them to run out into a vast Multiplicity of words into great length and much darkness and confusion Many improper Similies will be urged and often impertinent reasonings will be made use of All which are the unavoidable Consequences of a man's going about to explain to others that which he does not distinctly understand himself This in general is the sum of the Received Doctrine That as there is but One God so in that undivided Essence there are Three that are really different from one another and are more than only three Names or three outward Oeconomies and that the Second of these was in a most intimate and unconceivable manner united to a perfect Man so that from the Human and Divine Nature thus united there did result the Person of the Messias who was both God and Man Here new Subtilties have been found out to state the formal Notion of a Person which was supposed to consist in a special Subsistence so that it has been thought that the Human Nature in Christ had no special Subsistence of its own tho it was not easy to explain this Notion since if Subsistence belonged to the Human Nature it might seem that it was not perfect if it had not a proper Subsistence A Hypostatical Union was proposed as a term fit to explain this by that is to say the Human Nature was believed to subsist by the Subsistence of the Word but it was not easy to make this the more intelligible by offering a Notion full as unintelligible as it self to explain it
respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since
Faculties since these passages and that which necessarily relates to them will lead a man into the understanding of the hardest parts of the whole New Testament If this method is let go they must prove the Infallibility of the Church by Arguments drawn from some other Visible Characters by which a man is to be convinc'd that God has made her Infallible If there were such eminent ones as the gift of Tongues Miracles or Prophecies that did visibly attest this here were a proof that were solid indeed It were the same with that by which we prove the Truth of the Christian Religion But then these Miracles must be as uncontestedly and evidently proved they must also belong to this point that is they must be Miracles publickly done to prove the truth of this Assertion But to this Appeal they will not stand what use soever they may make of it to amuse the weaker and the more credulous The Character of an uninterrupted Succession from the days of the Apostles is neither an easier nor a surer one since other Churches whom they condemn have it likewise nor can it be search'd into by a private man unless he would go into that Sea of examining the History the Records and Succession of Churches This is an Enquiry that has in it Difficulties vastly greater and more insuperable than all those that they can object to us If they will appeal to the vast Extent of a Church that so many Nations and Societies agree in the same Doctrine and are of one Communion this will prove to be a dangerous point for in the state in which we see Mankind Numbers make a very bad Argument It were to risque the Christian Religion too much to venture on a Poll with the Mahometans In some Ages the Semi-Arrians had the better at numbers and it is a question if at this day those that are within or without the Roman Communion make the greatest body Nor must a man be put to chuse his Religion by such a laborious and uncertain way of Calculation To plead a continuance in the same Doctrine that was at first deliver'd to the Church by the Apostles is to put the matter upon a more desperate issue For as no man can hope to see to the end of this so it lets a man in into all Controversies when he is to compare the present Doctrine with that which was deliver'd by the Apostles Let then any Character be assign'd that shall oblige a man to believe the Church Infallible and it will soon appear very evidently that the searching into that must put the world on more difficult Enquiries than any of those that we are pressed with and that in the issue of the whole the determination must be resolv'd into a private Judgment Another Difficulty follows close upon this which is In what Church this Infallibility is to be found Suppose a man was born in the Greek Church at any time since the IX Century how shall he know that he must seek the Infallibility in the Roman Communion and that he cannot find it in his own He plainly sees that the Christian Religion began in the Eastern parts and by every step that he makes into History he clearly discerns that it flourished for many Ages most eminently there but now that there is a breach between them and the Latins he cannot judge to which Communion he is to adhere without he examines the Doctrine for both have the outward Characters of a Succession of Martyrs and Bishops of Numbers and an appearance of continuing in the same Doctrine only with this difference that the Greeks have the advantage in every one of these they have more Apostolical Churches I mean founded by the Apostles than the Latins and they have stuck more firmly with fewer Additions and Innovations to their Ancient Rituals than the Latins have done How can he then decide this matter without examining the grounds of their difference and making a private Judgment upon a private Examination of the Scriptures or other Authorities If it be said that the present depress'd and ignorant state of those Churches makes it now very sensible that there can be no Infallibility among the Easterns To this it is to be answer'd that I have put the case all-along from the 9th Century downward In many of those Ages the Greeks were under as good Circumstances and had as fair an appearance as the Latins had if not better for the outward appearances of the Roman Communion in the next Centuries the 10th and 11th are not very favourable even by the Representation that their own Writers have made of them and if we must judge of the Infallibility of a Church by outward Characters it may be urg'd with great shews of Reason that a Church which under all its Poverty and Persecutions does still adhere to the Christian Religion has so peculiar a Character of bearing the Cross and of living in a constant state of Sufferings that if Infallibility be in the Church as a favour and priviledge from God and not as the effect of human Learning and other Advantages I should sooner believe the Greek Church Infallible than any other now in the World But when these difficulties are all got over there remain yet new and great ones Suppose one is satisfi'd that it is in the Roman Church he must know where to find it without this it is of no more use to him than if one should tell a hungry man that there is food enough for him without directing him where to seek for it he must starve after all that general Information if he has not a more particular direction And therefore it seems very absurd to affirm that the believing of Infallibility is an Article of Faith but that the proper Subject in whom it rests is not likewise an Article of Faith This is the general Tenet of the whole Roman Communion who that they may maintain their Union notwithstanding their difference in this do all agree in saying that the subject of this Infallibility is not a matter of Faith This destroys the whole pretension for all the Absurdities of no end of Controversies of private Judgment and every man's expounding the Scriptures do return here and the whole design of Infallibility is defeated For how can a man be bound to submit to this in any one Instance or to receive any proposition as coming from an Infailible Authority if he does not know who has it Thus according to that Maxim of Natural Logick that a Conclusion can have no certainty beyond that which was in both the Premises if it is not certain with whom the Infallibility dwells as well as that there is an Infallibility in the Church all the noise about it will be quite defeated and of no use If a man had many Medecines of which one was an Infallible Cure of such or such Diseases can it be suppos'd that he would communicate these to the World and tell that one of them
was infallible without specifying which of these was the infallible one There are some things that look so extravagant that really it is an absurd thing to suppose them of which this seems to be evidently one That God should have left an Infallibility to his Church and not have declar'd with whom this the greatest of all Trusts to which probably many would pretend was lodged So that this which is the general Doctrine of the whole Roman Communion has an absurdity in it that cannot be reconcil'd to common sense and reason Many among them put it in the whole diffusive body of all Christians to which purpose the words of Vincentius Lirinensis are perpetually repeated but after all this is only to abuse people for if the sense of the Church in all Places and Ages must be sought for here come endless enquiries and some of them cannot possibly be made the History of many Ages and Churches being lost If this is made the Standard as the labour becomes Infinite so after all it resolves into private Judgment since every man must judge as he sees cause and must collect the sense of Ages and Churches from Authors which as they are often both dark and defective so he must understand them as well as he can by his own Judgment and Observation unless some Infallible Expounder or Declarer of their Sense is set up and then the Infallibility is translated from hence to the Expounder And indeed it is so hard to trace a great many points of Controversy thro even the first and best Ages that the Church must fall under great Difficulties if this Hypothesis is assum'd for maintaining the Infallibility And when all is done we see by the performances of the Writers of Controversy that both sides think they can justify themselves by the Ancient Fathers as well as by the Scriptures So that all these Absurdities that are urg'd against apealing to the Scriptures or arguing from them as that to which all Hereticks do fly and in which they shelter themselves will return here with the more force because these Writings are much more Voluminous and are writ in a much more entangl'd and darker Style so that these two Objections lie against this way That it is both vast if not impossible as to the performance of it and next that after all the pains that can be taken in it it is of no use for private Judgment will still remain so that Controversies cannot be ended in this way Others are for the diffusive Church of the present Age and put Infallibility there for they reckon thus That every Age of the Church believes as the former Age believ'd till this is carried up to the Apostles themselves This is to resolve all matters into Oral Tradition and to suppose It infallible and indeed if we can believe that the generality of Christians have in all Ages been wise honest and cautious and that the generality of the Clergy have in all Ages been faithful and inquisitive we may rely upon this and so believe an Infallibility But at the same time and upon this Supposition we shall have no occasion for it since if Mankind could be brought to such a pitch of Reformation there would be no Controversies and so no need of a Judge to decide them Infallibly But if we will admit that which we see to be true and know to have been true in all Ages that men are apt to be both ignorant and careless of Religion that they go easily into such Opinions as are laid before them by men of Authority and Reputation and that they have a particular liking to superstitious Conceits to outward Pomp and to such Doctrines as make them easy in their ill practices then the supposition of every Age's believing nothing but that which it learn'd from the former falls quite to the ground If we can also imagine that the Clergy have been always careful to examine Matters and never apt to add explanations or enlargements even in their own favours or if on the contrary we see a gross Ignorance running through whole Ages if we find the Clergy to have been ambitious and quarrelsome full of Intrigues and Interests then all this general specious prejudice in favour of Oral Tradition vanishes to nothing All this will be easier to be conceiv'd if we state aright the difference between those times and our own Now Printing has made Learning cheap and easy the disposition of Posts the commerce of Letters the daily publication of Gazettes and Journals fill the World with the knowledge of such things as are now in agitation But when all was to be learn'd from Manuscripts Knowledge was both dear and difficult and the methods of communicating with the rest of the World were both slow and often broken so that this thread of Oral Tradition will not prove a sure Guide There is an humour in men to add to most things as they pass through their hands if it were but an Illustration which seems not only innocent but sometimes necessary Those Enlargements would very naturally be soon consider'd as parts of the Doctrine and to these in a constant gradation new Additions might still be made and Inferences from Illustrations would in conclusion become parts of their Doctrine If I did not limit my self in this Discourse it were easy to apply this both to the Doctrines of Redeeming out of Purgatory to those of praying for the dead or invocating Saints and the worship of Images It is confest by the Assertors of this Hypothesis that the whole face of the Latin Church is chang'd both in her Worship and Discipline tho these are more sensible things than points of meer Speculation which in dark Ages could not be much minded whereas the other are more visible and make a more powerful Impression besides that all those changes arise out of some new Opinions to which they related and on which they are founded A change then that is confess'd to be made in the one does very naturally carry us to believe that a change was also made in the other We do all plainly see that some Traditions that come very near the Age of the Apostles and that seem to be Expositions of some parts of the New Testament were chang'd in other Ages The belief of Christ's reigning a Thousand years on earth is one of these for which tho it is now laid aside in that Church there is another face of a Venerable Tradition than for most of their Doctrines We see a practice that was very Ancient and that continu'd very long which arose out of the Exposition of those words Except ye eat my Flesh and drink my Blood ye have no life in you by which Infants were made partakers of the Eucharist was afterwards chang'd in that Church tho it is much less easy to think how that should be done than almost how any other should be brought about for those words being understood of an Indispensible necessity of the
Sacrament to Salvation and all Parents having naturally a very tender Concern for their Children nothing but an absolute Authority against which no man durst so much as whisper could have brought the world to have parted with this It were easy to carry this to many other Instances and to shew that not only Ritual Traditions but Doctrinal ones such as were found on Explanations of passages of Scripture have varied It were perhaps too invidious to send men to Petavius to find in him how much the Tradition of the several Ages has vari'd in the greatest Articles of the Christian Doctrine It is no less certain that Origen laid down a Scheme with relation to the Liberty of man's Will and the Providence of God that came to be so universally receiv'd by the Greek Church that both Nazianzen and Basil drew a sort of System out of his Doctrine in which those Opinions were asserted and large Quotations were gather'd out of him explaining them with most of the Difficulties that do arise out of them and as this Book had not only Origen's own Authority to support it but likewise that of those two great Men who compil'd it so it passed down and was the uncontested Doctrine of the Greek Church But St. Austin being engag'd into Disputes with Pelagius fram'd a new System that had never been thought of before him and yet the Worth and Labours of that Father gave it so a vast Reputation that this was look'd on in several Ages as the Doctrine of the Church and Learning vanishing at that time the Roman Empire being then over-run by Barbarians his Book came to be so much read and so universally receiv'd that it gave no small suspicion if any one oppos'd his Tenets yet Cassian who was a Greek and was form'd in their Notions writ a Book of Conferences which contain'd the Precepts of a Monastick State of life that were digested in so good a method and writ with so true an Elevation that it is perhaps one of the best Books that the Ancients have left us This came to be held in such Esteem that all the Monks read it with a particular Attention and Regard In it the Doctrine of Origen and the Greek Church was so fully set forth that this and perhaps this alone kept up a secret opposition to St. Austin's Doctrine tho that came to receive a vast strengthening from Aquinas and the Schoolmen that follow'd him and yet at the time that Luther and Calvin in opposition to the Church of Rome built much upon St. Austin's Authority almost all all that writ against them argu'd according to the Sentiments of the Greek Church but those of Louvain and the Orders of the Dominicans and Augustinians did so maintain St. Austins and Aquinas's Doctrine that tho it was not liked because it seem'd to be too near theirs who were to be condemn'd as Hereticks yet the Council of Trent seem'd still to stick to St. Austin Since that time the Iesuits Order who tho they at first set up for St. Austin's Doctrine yet since have chang'd their minds and taken themselves to the other side have by their Influence both at Rome and in other Courts so chang'd the Sense of the greater part of that Church that it is plain tho St. Austin's Name is too great to be openly disparaged yet they are now generally in the contrary Hypothesis This I only instance to shew that in Speculative Points it is no hard matter to make multitudes go from one Opinion to another and to alter the Tradition of the Church that is to bring one Age of the Church to think otherwise than another did But after all Oral Tradition cannot be set up as the Judge of Controversies much less as the living and speaking Judge it is no real being nor do we know where to find it The Tradition of one Body among them differs from another as in the point of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin in which an Opinion has been lately started which is now receiv'd into all their Rituals and has given occasion to many Acts of Worship and publick Devotions which is most expresly contrary to all Ancient Tradition and yet is become now so Sacred that the whole Dominican Order feels no small Inconvenience by their being oblig'd as the Followers of Aquinas to maintain the contrary The Traditions of one Nation are question'd by another particularly in this important Point of the Subject of this Infallibility It is also impossible for any man to find this out must he suspend his Opinion till he has gone round the Church to ask every man what he was bred to This as it could not be suffer'd so it could not be so fully found out as to put a man in the way to end all Controversies in this a private Judgment must again come in For tho it were granted that Oral Tradition is a Rule to judge Controversies by it can never be pretended that it is the living and speaking Iudge that must determine them I come now to the two more receiv'd Opinions in this matter the one puts it in a General Council and the other puts it in the Pope and both the one and the other pretend that the Church Representative is in them As for the pretence of some who seem to make a Third party and believe it to be in a Council confirm'd by the Pope this is only a plausible way of putting it wholly in the Pope for if the Definitions of a Council have no Infallibility in them till the Pope's Consent and Approbation is given then it is plain that all the Infallibility is in him and that he only chuses to exert it in that solemn way For either Christ gave it to St. Peter and his Successors or he gave it not if he gave it not that pretension is out of doors if he gave it to them we plainly see no Limitations in the grant and whatsoever Rules or Methods may have become authoris'd by Practice and Custom they are only Ecclesiastical Constitutions but can never be suppos'd to limit Christ's Grant or to give any share of it to others It will be to no purpose to object here That as some Constitutions our own in particular are so fram'd that the Legislative Authority tho it flows only from the King yet is limited to such a Method that it cannot be exerted but with the Concurrence of Lords and Commons so it may be also in the Church and thus the Pope can only use his Infallibility in Concurrence with a General Council or at least that both together are Infallible But tho human Societies may model themselves as to their Legislation which way they will this will only prove that as to the Government and Administration of the Church she may put her self into such a method as may be thought most regular and expedient and thus the Council of Nice limited the Bishops of a Province to do nothing without the
consent of the Metropolitan yet whatever may be done in subâ—ltern Bodies where things that are done amiss may be rectifi'd by Appeals the Supream and last Resort must be left to the full freedom in which Christ has constituted his Church It must be further consider'd That Infallibility is not like ordinary Jurisdiction or Legislation which may be moulded according to the conveniences of Society it is a Priviledge which if the Church has it at all she has it by an immediate Grant from Heaven and so she must enjoy and apply it according to the Ten or of that Grant and she cannot expect to have it continu'd to her but as she observes the nature of the Grant Indeed if it were given her at large to be modell'd and lodg'd as she pleases there might be a power in her to limit the use of it to such forms as should be least liable to Exception or Abuse But either it is granted to a single person or to the body in general If it is granted to a single person then he and he only has it He may indeed if he pleases in order to his being better inform'd or obey'd call a General Council but their proceedings are only preparatory to his using the Infallibility which is singly in himself Nor can the Divine Grant be limited as to the exercise or use of it all such Rules must still be at the Pope's discretion On the other hand If the Grant is given to the Community of the Pastors then the Infallibility must be in them and cannot be limited or supposed to stay for the Consent of any one Bishop for whatsoever regard may he had to any one man by reason of the Dignity of his See or his other Circumstances yet still this must be but a point or form of human Prudence for the Infallibility must be where Christ has placed it and cannot be transferr'd from thence or be put any where else So unless it is said that Christ has put this Infallibility between Pope and Council in so express a manner as all Constitutions do which are under a mixed Legislation which is not pretended then it must be lodged either in a General Council or in the Pope and cannot be in both This then is to be examin'd in the next place I begin therefore to examine the Plea for the Infallibility of Councils It is at first no small prejudice against this Opinion that the Church was Constituted and had continu'd 300. years before any thing that has the shadow of a General Council was call'd so if an infallible Judge of Controversies be necessary to the Church here we see she subsisted in her hardest times in which she was the most distrest both by Heresies and Persecutions without one We also see that she has been these last 130. years without one tho there are warm Disputes among them both in Speculative and Practical Doctrines both sides reproaching one another with Heresy and as there is little prospect of a Council neither the Court of Rome nor the Courts of other Princes who have among them taken away all the Primitive and Canonical Rights of the Church which an honest Council must desire to regain being concern'd ever to have one So if a Council were necessary it is not very easy to see how it should be brought together During the Greatness of the Roman Empire it was in the Emperor's power to have brought the Bishops together at his pleasure but now this depends upon the Pope who summons them having obtain'd the consent of the Princes of Christendom which is subdivided into many different Soveraignties This Matter depending then so entirely upon the See of Rome there is no reason to look for one from them for they pretending to have the Infallibility in themselves should very much derogate from that if they summon'd a Council for a decision in Doctrinal Matters they being in possession of judging these at Rome And as for Matters of Discipline except we can imagine that they will be content to part with that Authority which they have assum'd over all Sees and Churches and over all the Canons of the Church we cannot see reason to fancy that they will ever call one If they should the consent of all Soveraigns must likewise be obtain'd for it being a part of the Civil Authority to keep Subjects within the Princes Dominions they cannot be oblig'd to send their Bishops and Divines to a Council unless they please This is a power which seems to belong to them it is certain they claim it and very probably would put it in execution if that matter came to be contested So here are very great Contingencies to be conquer'd before a General Council can be brought together Now it is not very likely that Christ should have left so great and so necessary a power to his Church by which all Controversies must be judged which yet must be at the mercy of so many Accidents before it can be brought to work and that the bringuing together of those Councils should depend so entirely upon them against whose Pretensions or Usurpations it seems to be most necessary But to go more closely to this Opinion If the Infallibility lies in a General Council it is first necessary that we know who are the Members that must constitute this Council whether the Laity have a right to be in it and to Judge or not We find the Brethren as well as the Elders join'd with the Apostles in that first Council to which all subsequent Councils pretend they have succeeded and whose Style It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us is one of the Foundations of this Authority Why then are the Brethren or the whole Church that is Lay Christians whom even the Apostles tho Inspir'd took to consult and judge with them Why I say are they now excluded It is also probable that by Elders or Presbyters are to be meant those to whom that name was afterwards appropriated why then are they shut out In a word If by a Divine Grant Infallibility belongs to a General Council we have a just Right to ask for a Definition of the Council by the same Authority otherwise we may ascribe Infallibility to those to whom God never meant to give it Must this Council consist of all the Bishops of the Christian Church For tho this is both unreasonable and scarce possible yet if the Infallibility is given in common to the Pastors and Bishops of the Church then it will be hard to shut out any from it if because of their distance their Age or their Poverty they cannot come to it and if tho a general Summons is pretended to give all men a right to come yet it is certain that only a few of those who have lived at a distance have come even in the best Ages those few will either be men of a greater degree of Wealth of Heat or of Health and will be probably men pickt out
no wonder if he raises the Authority and the Priviledges of the Church to a vast height Yet after all these were not his setled thoughts for he goes off from them whensoever he has an eye on his Disputes against the Pelagians for the System which he had framed in those Points could not bear with any other Notion of the Church but that of the persons predestinated to whom all the Promises belonged And thus whatever he himself asserts in his zeal against the Donatists comes to be thrown down when the Pelagians are in his view so we see from hence how much deference is due to his Authority in this Point The last head relating to this whole matter is to explain in what the Authority of the Church does consist what it is both in matters of Faith and Discipline As to matters of Faith it is certain that every Body of men is bound to study to maintain its own Order and Quiet and must be authoris'd to preserve it otherwise it cannot long continue to be one Body This binds the Body of Christians yet much more who are strictly charged to love one another to worship God with one heart and mouth to be of the same mind and judgment to assemble themselves together and to withdraw from all such as cause divisions or corrupt the great Trust of the Faith committed to their keeping It must be therefore a great part of the duty of those that are bound to feed the flock to observe when any begin to broach new Opinions that they may confirm the weak and stop the mouths of gainsayers which as the Apostles themselves did during their own lives so by the charges that they gave to the Churches in their Epistles and more fully by those given to Timothy and Titus it appears that a main part of their Care and Authority was to be employ'd that way When therefore any new Doctrines are started or when there arise Disputes about any part of Religion the Pastors of the Church ought to consider whether or not it is in a matter of any great consequence in which the Faith or Lives of men may be concerned If the point is not of a great importance it is a piece of wisdom to connive at lesser matters and to leave men to a just freedom in things where that freedom is not like to do hurt only even there care is to be taken to keep men in temper that they become not too keen in the management of their Opinions and that they neither disturb the Peace of the Church nor State upon that account If the matters appear to be great either in themselves or in the consequences that are like to follow upon them then the Pastors of the Church ought to consider them with an equal and impartial mind they ought to here Parties fully and weigh their Arguments carefully they ought to examine the sense of the Scriptures and of the best times of the Church upon those Heads and finally to give Sentence In which two things are to be considered the one is That great regard is due to a Decision made by a Body of men who seem to have acted without prejudice or interest For I confess it will be very hard to maintain such a respect for a Company in which matters are carried with so much Artifice and Intrigue as even Cardinal Palavicini represents in the management of the Council of Trent where Bishops were caressed or threatned well paid or ill used as they gave their Voices Such a proceeding as this will rather inflame than allay the opposition but a fair and equitable a just and calm way of examining matters of dispute will naturally beget a respect even in such as cannot yield a submission to their Decrees After all it must be confessed That no Man can be bound to a blind Submission unless we suppose an Infallibility to be in the Church yet Private Men owe to Publick Decisions when decently made a due respect they ought to distrust their own judgments and examine the matter more accurately But if they are still convinc'd that the Decision is wrong they are bound to persist in their own thoughts only they ought to oppose modestly to consider well the Importance of Order and Peace and whether their Opinion even suppose it true is worth the Noise that may be made about it or the Disorders that may follow upon it After all If they are still convinced that their Opinions are true and that they relate to the indispensible Duties of Religion or the necessary Articles of Christianity they must go on as they will answer it to God upon the sincerity of their Hearts and the fulness of their Convictions So that the Definitions of the Church may have very good Effects even when it is not pretended that they are Infallible Another thing to be consider'd in those Decisions is That though they are not Infallible yet they may have Authority in this respect That they are the established Doctrine of such a Body of Christians who will have no other to be taught among them and will admit none to be of their Body or at least to be a Teacher among them who is not of the same mind In this it is certain great Tenderness and Prudence is to be used and the natural liberty of Mankind is not to be too much limited But yet as any Man may fix and declare his own Opinion so certainly by a much greater parity of reason any Society or Body of Men may declare their Opinions and so far fix them as to exclude all other Doctrines and the Favourers of them from being of their Body or from bearing any Office in it So that though such Decisions do not enter into Mens Consciences nor bind them further than as they are convinced by the Reasons and Authorities upon which they are founded yet they may have a vast influence on the Order and Peace of Churches and States As to Rituals it is certain that there are many little Circumstances and Decencies that belong to the Worship of God the Order of Religious Assemblies and their Administrations and that in these the Pastors of a Church by the Natural Right that all Societies have to keep themselves in order must have a Power to determine all things of this nature This becomes yet clearer in the Christian Societies from the Rules that the Apostles gave to the Churches To do all things in Order and for the ends of Edification and Peace There is not one of the Rules laid down in Scripture concerning the Sacraments or the Officers of the Church to which many Circumstances do not belong now either these must be all left to every Man's liberty which must needs create a jarring disagreement in the several parts of this Body that would both breed confusion and look very ridiculous and absurd or there must be an Authority in the Pastors of the Church to meet together and to settle these by mutual consent
next to examine the Pretences for disjointing this Union among our selves and see whether the main Body among us I mean our Church has imposed unlawful terms of Communion on her Members for if that is true we by so doing have broke this Union or whether any who have separated from us have not done it upon less binding Considerations for then they have broken the Union This I will manage with all possible fairness and without the least reflection on Persons and Parties I will state their grounds and put their Arguments with the utmost force that I can apprehend belongs to them and when I have weighed them I will leave the whole matter to an Impartial consideration The first point in which every man must fix his thoughts is that it is not free to him to chuse to which Body he will join himself as it is free to him to chuse in which Parish he will settle himself for since all Parishes make but one Communion and Church the one cannot be compared to the other And if all that was said before is true then certainly it is not lawful for any man to break the Union of the Body unless he is persuaded that it cannot be maintained but upon unlawful terms Therefore except a man is under this persuasion he sins if he departs from the Union of the Body But since Conscience is a word that may be used in the following part of this Discourse its true notion ought to be well setled which is according to the natural signification of the word in all Languages an inward persuasion founded upon some reason apprehended to be true concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a thing By this it will appear that a bare aversion or dislike to a thing without any reason on which that dislike is grounded cannot be called Conscience since things with which we are not acquainted or that are uncouth to us which we have often heard spoken against are disliked by us through a habit or prejudice conceived against them but unless this is founded upon some reason that appears to us true drawn either from the nature of things or from the Scriptures it is not Conscience I do not say that every man under these Convictions must be able to maintain those his Reasons to others to be just and good for then a better Arguer who can silence him should be able to alter his Conscience But though he cannot answer Objections yet as long as his Persuasion appears to be well grounded to himself such a man is still under the bonds of his Conscience I am not now to examine how far an erring Conscience obliges or at least excuses it is enough to have stated in general the true Notion of Conscience by which every man that does not intend to deceive himself may certainly know whether he is really under the persuasions of Conscience or if he is only guided by Humour Conceit or the power of Education and Prejudice The main Foundation out of which most of the Objections against some of the Terms of our Communion are rais'd is this That the Church is only empower'd to execute those Rules and Orders that are set Christians in the Scriptures That the pretending to add to these is to accuse the Scripture as defective That all Additions to those Rules set us in Scripture are Superstitious Usages That they impose a yoke upon us and so deprive us of our Christian Liberty That if some Rites may be added others upon the like reasons may be also added to these and so on without bounds as in Fact it appears That when the Church went once off from the first simplicity in which the Apostles deliver'd the Christian Religion to the World and that new Rites were invented to beautify the Worship these Additions did at last swell up to that intolerable height in which they are now in the Church of Rome In Religious Matters it is not enough according to St. Paul's Rule that a thing is lawful it must also be expedient But for that pretended expediency which is alledged for some Rites that they are expressive and significant it is rather an Argument against them for a significant Ceremony is of the nature of a Sacrament the common definition of which that it is a visible sign of an invisible Grace agreeing to it and certainly the appointing Sacraments is above the power of the Church and can belong only to Iesus Christ who is its Head and Founder But all this is in appearance the stronger if Rites so enjoin'd have been abus'd to Idolatry and are parts of an Idolatrous Worship To retain these is to conform our selves to it tho the Scriptures command us to come out from among all such and not to be conformable to them Hezekiâ— broke the Brazen Serpent tho a Memorial of a signal Miracle in which it had been in some sort an Instrument yet when even that was abus'd to Idolatry a good King broke it to pieces This will hold stronger against things that are but of human Institution That they ought to be taken away how innocent soever they may be in themselves after they are grosly abus'd To keep up the use of such things is to scandalize and offend the weaker Christians tho St. Paul lays great weight upon this and charges all Christians not to lay a stumbling-block in one anothers way he calls the doing otherwise the destroying a weak Brother and in conclusion since St. Paul said whatsoever is not of faith is sin these Rites therefore not being warranted from Scripture cannot be of Faith the Object of which is a Divine Revelation they must therefore be sinful And thus I have set down all the Branches of the Plea against Ceremonies with as much advantage as I can imagine belongs to them I go therefore in the next place to take it to pieces and to examine the strength of the whole and of every part of this Reasoning that as must be acknowledg'd wants not fair and specious colours The main stress lies upon this Whether the Church in her Rituals is so limited to the Scriptures that she has no power to add any thing to what is prescribed in them Great difference is to be made between matters of Doctrine Rules of Life Foederal Acts together with the other Acts of Worship which are parts of the New Covenant or conditions of it and some Ritual Appointments such as the Circumstances of those Instituted Acts the forms for the Solemn Acts of Worship together with some other Institutions which are helps to Devotion and do fix or raise the attention For the former sort it is confess'd That Christ and his Apostles having deliver'd this Religion to the World it must continue in the same state in which they setled it without additions or variations but since all instituted Actions must be determined by the Circumstances of persons places times words and postures these must be all manag'd with such
Infants and the coldness of these Climates since such a manner might endanger their lives and we know that God loves mercy better than sacrifice this form of baptizing is as little used by those who separate from us as by our selves If we consider only the words of the Scripture without regarding the subsequent practice of the Church we see reason enough to imagine that the washing of feet should be kept up in the Church We have our Saviour's practice for it and words that seem to import an obligation on us to wash one anothers feet together with the moral use and signification of it that it ought to teach us Humility From all these things this Inference seems just That according to the practices of those who divide from us the Church must be suppos'd to have an Authority to adjust the Forms of our Religion in those parts of them that are meerly Ritual to the Taste to the Exigencies and Conveniencies of the several Ages and Climates I say in things that are meerly Ritual for I do not think that these Instances can justify a Church that should alter any main part of a Foederal Rite instituted by Christ such as the giving the Chalice in the Sacrament since this Institution is deliver'd with so particular a Solemnity and in express words is appointed to be continu'd till Christ's second coming and the Cup is given as a Seal of the New Covenant in his blood for the remission of sins which therefore all are requir'd to drink We are to consider that in matters that are meerly Ritual unless we suppose that Charms are ti'd to particular Rites there could be no other design in them but to secure some good purpose or to keep off some bad practice by those outworks If then the state of Mankind does so alter that what is good in one Age is liable to abuse mistake or superstition in another there must be suppos'd to be a power in the Pastors of the Church to alter or add as they see real occasions or good warrants for it Outward appearances work much on Mankind things that look light must dissipate men's Thoughts as much as graver methods do recollect them Dancing in the praises of God would look very wild now but in other Ages it had a better effect Since therefore the Christian Religion was to last to the end of the World and to be spread to very different Climates and since there is no special Rubrick of Forms digested in it since there is also no Limitation put upon the Church in this point but rules are given that sound very much to the contrary of doing all things that tend to Order Edification and Peace this great prejudice seems to be fully taken off and answer'd Nor do such Institutions lead to Superstition but rather to the contrary Superstition in its strict Notion is a baseness of mind that makes us fear without cause and over-value things too much imagining that there is more in them than really there is If things that are ritual were unalterable there might be from thence more occasion given to Superstition according to the conceit of the Iews who thinking that their Rites were unalterable came to fancy from thence that there was a real value in them which upon their own account render'd men the more acceptable to God Superstition is more effectually beat down by the opinion of the alterableness of all external forms according to the different Exigencies of times and places since this shews that Rites are only matters of Order and Decency which have no real value in them because they are alterable If any grow superstitious in the observance of them this is an abuse to which all things even the most Sacred the Sacraments themselves are liable It can as little be said That these Rules in Ritual Matters are Impositions on our Christian Liberty they are rather the exercise of a main part of it which is our not being tied up so strictly by a Law of Commandments as the Iews were The Notion of Liberty as it is stated by St. Paul is the Exemption under which Christians were brought from the Precepts of the Mosaical Law for those who asserted the standing Obligations of that Law were bringing Christians under a heavy Yoke in opposition to which the Apostles asserted their Liberty But it is likewise a true piece of Liberty and a very necessary one for the Societies of Christians to have among them a power of of using or forbearing to use such external things as do either advance or obstruct the main ends of Religion That some Churches may abuse and that others have abused this Authority by carrying it too far and imposing too great a load of external performances is not to be denied The number of them may become a vast burden and a distraction rather than a help towards the main Design of Religion Ludicrous Rites begetâ— prophaneness and Pompous ones and undue gaity But the apprehension of an abuse in the extent of an Authority cannot justify the quarrelling at a few Rites when it is visible there is no disposition to swell or encrease them If every year were producing some new Rite or other there might be good ground to fear that there would be no end of such Impositions but this cannot be appli'd to our Circumstances It is also a question whether in case that there were indeed too many Rites enjoin'd every one of which were innocent in it self so that no special Objection lay against any one but against them all as too many whether I say in such a case private persons were not oblig'd rather to bear their burden than by shaking it off to rend the Body and disturb the Peace and Order of the Church It seems they ought rather to bear it The Rulers of a Church have indeed much to answer for who press her too hard with burdens that are both useless and heavy to be born but the obligations to Peace seem to conter-ballance this inexpediency For tho private persons must judge for themselves whether things requir'd of them are lawful or unlawful and must act accordingly yet Expediency or Inexpediency is only to take place in cases in which they are entirely at their own disposal and where the rules of Prudence or Charity can only determine them But where the quiet and order of the Body is concern'd Publick orders and determinations being interpos'd they are not to depart from those upon their conceiving them inexpedient for it is certainly more inexpedient and mischievous to break Publick Order than it can possibly be to practice any Rite which perhaps if left free to us might seem not expedient and were better let alone The expediency of Forms and Rites is a very proper Subject of publick Consultations and those who are concern'd in them will have much to answer for to God if they do not weigh this together with all that counterbalances it very critically but
in a setled state of things exceptions to the expediency of them can never justify the interrupting the Order and Quiet of the Society On of the chief of these Expediences is that those Rites have a real tendency to make good Impressions on peoples minds that they put those who practice them in mind of their duty so that there is some good signification in them The objection against Significant Ceremonies as being of the nature of Sacraments will appear to be founded on a great mistake If we state a little the difference between the signifying or expressing some part of our duty with such proper acts of our minds as do become the occasion and the signifying some blessing that is offered or conveyed to us by God in the use of that Action The former is far from the nature of a Sacrament and indeed is only a mute way of speaking For actions as well as words may become instituted Signs to express our thoughts But indeed if we should fancy that such Rites did offer or convey into our minds those things that are signifi'd by them as a foederal Institution to which a Divine Vertue were annexed this were to consider them as Sacraments the Institution of which is unquestionably beyond the power of the Church but it is quite another thing when Rites are appointed as means only to raise in our minds suitable and corresponding thoughts To instance this in one particular If we pretended that by the use of the Cross in Baptism a divine vertue were conveyed to the Person baptized that deadned him more entirely to the World and wrought him up to a greater conformity to Christ then here were a new Sacrament set up which could not be justified But when it is only meant as an exhibiting the form of the Cross of Christ to put us in mind of our obligation to imitate him and to suffer for him here is only a Rite that speaks to us in an â—ction which is explained by the words that accompany it It is more important which is urged from the abuse of Rites to Idolatrous Practices This was the first objection that was started among us against the Habits in the Worship of God and had without doubt a very plausible appearance since a great part of the Mosaical Law seemed to be the establishing many Rites merely to put them in a great opposition to the Gentiles and to set them at the vastest distance possible from their Idolatrous or Magical Practices Yet at the same time many others of those Instituted Rites are by some very Learned Men proved to have been taken from other Practices of the same Idolaters that were more innocent in themselves tho abused as the rest of their Rites were to Idolatry The Iews had certainly very much corrupted their Religion by the addition of many Rites and by their over valuing those Additions And yet two of these were made use of by our Saviour to be the Sacraments of his Church But besides this a great difference is to be made between Rites that were in their first use invented for the pomp of Idolatry and were in their first use applied to it and those which had been in use long before those Idolatrous Practices begun and were afterwards applied to them In these last if their abuse is taken away and the first and simple usage is revived this seems to be no compliance with either Idolatry or Superstition To go on with the former Instance we find the Primitive Christians used the making a Cross in the Air or upon their Bodies on many occasions afterwards when a Divine Vertue was fancied to accompany that Ritual Action it was used in Baptism as a sort of Incantation for with the use of it the Devil was adjured to go out of the person that was to be baptized such an usage made it a Sacramental and a Superstitious Action and if it had been still retained in that form as it was in the first Reformation of our Liturgy in King Edward the VIth's time I do not see how it could have been justified but since it had been an ancient Form to use the Sign of the Cross the Church might well have retained this in some of her Rites and it belonged to none of them so properly as to the Initiatory Sacrament in which the first use of it was retained and the succeeding abuse was laid aside Since also we find that the Primitive Christians received the other Sacrament in the posture in which they prayed to God and since the posture in which all our Prayers are now made is kneeling it might be very proper to go through this whole Office from beginning to end in the posture of Prayer But this could not be so well excused if the posture were left free till the Consecration and if then only kneeling were required this were indeed to continue a practice that had been abused by Idolatry which could not be justified So that the abuse of Forms may require the altering them from that method in which they were abused but cannot import an obligation to abstain wholly from the use of them in another method It may be a very just matter for a publick deliberation whether such things ought to be retained they being freed from such Abuses or not On the one hand The People who are apt to be much struck with a total change of outward Forms especially when that is suddenly made may be more easily brought about if the Alterations are not too sensible but that some things seem to remain to which they had been accustomed and for which they retained a value Now since Mankind is so weak that some lesser Frailties ought to be indulged while more Criminal ones are not to be spared here was a very specious ground to persuade the continuance of those Rites and that the rather because we find the Apostles themselves complied with the Iews in Instances of a much higher nature They circumcised some they observed Iewish Rites and to the Iews they became Iews as they became all things to all men St. Paul took vows on him and went to the Temple to be purifi'd which could not be done but with a Sacrifice And though he still stood upon the exemption of the Gentiles from the obligations of their Law yet he himself together with other born Iews complied with them in their Observances Now when it is considered that these were typical Laws that were accomplished by the coming of our Saviour and that the Iews pleaded still for the continuance of them so that it was indeed the main controversy of that time it will appear that the compliance of the Apostles in such things was liable to much juster Objections than any that can be brought against obedience to Constitutions that are about things of their own nature innocent and indifferent But yet we see the Apostles judged that as long as the Temple stood and that God's Wrath was not yet poured out on
Laws of Princes were made to Enact it and no Men of Authority could so early and so universally have brought such a change into the Order of the Church when there was nothing to tempt any to affect Preheminence Labour and Sufferings being all that then follow'd this Superiour Rank and yet within less than one Century after the days of the Apostles we do plainly see that this was the Constitution even of those Churches that had been gathered and setled by the Apostles themselves Among whom so visible a thing as the Order in which they had put the Church could not possibly be soon forgotten and this was not complain'd of by the Sects of those days particularly the Montanists that had so fair an appearance by their praying and fasting so much that not only Tertullian was drawn away by it but even the Church seems to have taken a Tincture from some of their Methods whether in imitation of them or on design to out-do them is not so easy to determine yet nothing of this kind was ever objected as if the Church had by the Authority given to Bishops departed from the Apostolical Customs Now I will acknowledge that a bare practice tho very Ancient such as the giving the Eucharist to Infants without a colour for it in Scripture ought not to conclude us but when there is a great deal in Scripture that looks favourably to a thing tho the proof from the words alone should not seem full and positive and when the first Writings and clearest Practices of the Ages that immediately follow'd confirms such an Exposition then we have all that is possible for us to pretend to for giving a fixed and determinate sense to such passages From all this then it is clear that we are now upon the same Constitution as to the main on which the Apostles setled the Churches and that we have all the reason that a thing of this nature is capable of to conclude That the distinction of Bishop Priest and Deacon was setled by the Apostles themselves and is related to by many places in the New Testament The division of the World into Diocesses larger or narrower as well as of Parishes some being excessively large and others as unreasonably small does not a whit alter the nature of the thing in it self since tho' it were to be desir'd that Parishes were nearer an equality in point of Labour and Cure yet this is an Inconvenience that we must bear and not disturb the Church by seeking undue Remedies for it So such Disorders as a length of time a corruption of Manners a change of Governments and Civil Policies has brought into a Constitution may put it out of our Power to procure the Redress of many things that yet will as little warrant a renting the Body or dividing the Church upon any such account as it would justify the lazy Sloth of such as may bring things to a better State and yet do not set about it nor do heartily endeavour it Another head of Objections is to set-forms of Prayer in general as a stinting of the Spirit of Prayer of which mention is often made in the New Testament and which ought to have scope given to it since it is a mean to rouze up and quicken heavy minds which become flat when accustom'd to a constant form of Words that render both the Clergy lazy and the People Dead But when it is consider'd that every Man's words become a form to which all the rest of the Assembly is limited the question then lies naturally between the sudden conceptions of one Man who is often young rash without Judgment and who always speaks on the sudden and between a form well digested and prepared by a Body of wise and good Men Since then the People must be under a Form it may seem much more reasonable that they should be under such a form than under the other and that the rather since we see Moses David and the Prophets of old gave the Jewish Church so many forms both for Prayers and Praises We know that in our Saviour's time the Iews had a stated Liturgy of their own which our Saviour was so far from blaming that he himself prescribed his Disciples a Form and compos'd it out of theirs laying together so many Petitions drawn out of their Prayers as answer'd his end in appointing his own And Praises seeming to be the sublimest Acts of Worship in which the Soul ought to arise to its highest Elevation it is not easily accountable why so much excitation should be required in Prayer while Men are left to be still flat and formal in their Praises It is not to be deni'd but that among the extraordinary Gifts that follow'd the wonderful Effusion of the Holy Ghost one was That Men were Inspir'd to offer up such Prayers to God as comprehended the necessities of whole Congregations it appearing in those Prayers that the Spirit in him that pray'd searched all their Hearts and so did prompt him with groanings that were unutterable and it thus appearing that the Spirit or Inspiration which moved any to pray in this sort searched all things every Man finding the sense of his own Heart thus open'd together with suitable Intercessions it was from thence evident that this was the Spirit of God making Intercession for the Saints in the mouth and words of the Inspir'd Person This being a plain account of those words of Praying in or by the Spirit and well agreeing with every thing said concerning it in the New Testament it is a great mistake if we in these days should expect any such Assistances from God So that now a readiness of new or tender Expressions in Prayer is an effect of a quickness of Thought a liveliness of Imagination together with a good Memory much conversant in Scripture-Phrases and long practised in that way All things by a long use grow flat to minds that are not seriously awaken'd but extemporary Prayers do rather kill than feed true Devotion since they must be hearkened to as Discourses which is a distraction to him that Prays after them whereas those accustom'd to set-forms have only the things themselves that their Devotion relate to in their view so they are certainly less tempted to distraction than they must be who follow the other way Those sudden starts that are given to the mind by soft Words and melting Images of things may be according to the different Compositions of Men more or less useful to them in their secret Exercises but they ought not to be let in upon publick Assemblies which being made up of a great variety of Tempers must be entertain'd only with such Devotions that suit with all their Conditions and do equally quadrate to all their necessities and thus it is not only natural but necessary for all Men who will maintain Order in their Worship and will frame it in so diffus'd an extent as to take all equally within it that they have
set and stated Forms and these ought to be cast into the plainest and most comprehensive simplicity possible since that is always suited to all Mankind whereas Men are vastly diversifi'd in every thing that is lively or fanciful Such a way of Worship ought neither to be unreasonably long nor excessively short The length must be proportion'd to what the greater part of Mankind can bear it ought also to be so diversifi'd that Mens minds be not kept too long at any one part of it or their Bodies in any one posture and there should be as great a compass in it for taking in the several Acts and Offices of Devotion as may be and in all these respects it may be safely affirmed That our Forms have as few defects are as little liable to Objections and are indeed as perfect not only as the Forms or Liturgies of any Church that we know of Ancient or Modern but are as perfect as we can in reason expect in any thing that came from Men not immediately inspir'd Any small exceptions that may be made as they do all admit of very good Answers so can never be put in the Ballance with the Peace and Order of the Church and the Edification that the Members of our Body might receive from such Pure and Spirital Devotions If Men grow too languid and flat in them even this is much more supportable than the gross Affections and the scandalous Indecencies that are so common to say no worse in the tumultuary way Man is indeed so made that he grows soon corrupt and Dead in what method so ever he is put but as Mankind bears the longest and the most generally with common food and is less disgusted at the continuance of it than it would be with more chosen Delicacies which would become much sooner nauseous than simpler Nourishment so it may be positively affirm'd that grave and well-compos'd Devotions fitly diversifi'd and often broken as ours are have not only Reason and Authority clearly on their side but have great Advantages in them and few disadvantages to ballance those They are such as are proper for us to offer up to God they have in them all the Gravity and Solemnity that becomes a Religious Assembly they comply with our very Infirmities and give us such breathings as may be necessary for loose and vagrant minds and they carry in them the whole Complex of a Religious Service So in going that round with due degrees of Attention we are sure we offer up to God the several Branches of that Reasonable Service or Rational Worship that we owe him The more particular exceptions lie chiefly against our forms in the two Sacraments The Anabaptists object our not Dipping when we Baptize which was not only the practice of Christ and his Apostles but seems to be recommended by the Mystical Allusions made to the being Buried in the Water and the being again Raised up out of it as was formerly observ'd Indeed if we could think that a Divine Vertue follow'd the application of the Water only to the parts washed with it so that there were a sort of a Charm in it we must acknowledge our Baptism to be defective but since Water is only us'd as an Emblem of the Purity of our Religion it seems in the nature of things to be all one whether the Person Baptized is put into the Water or if the Water is put upon him The design of Baptism is a Foederal Sponsion upon which Water is to be us'd with a determined form of words and when these are observed all that is primarily intended in it is observed nor will Allusions made to the Rites with which this was at first managed prove that those ought to be perpetual these being only devout and instructive Thoughts offer'd upon the occasion of such forms Yet after all our Church is so little liable to censure in this matter that the Rule given in the Rubrick is first for Dipping Sprinking is only allowed of so that tho it comes to be more commonly practised yet no Person that desires it in the form of Dipping can be denied it among us since it is the form that is chiefly favoured by the Rubrick tho the practice runs in a current the other way There is a more important Scruple rais'd upon Infant Baptism since the Persons mention'd to be Baptized in the Scriptures were all of Age capable to answer and promise for themselves and since by the Institution of Baptism the making of Men Disciples is set before it and the Teaching them to observe all that Christ hath Commanded comes immediately after it both these seem to be Characters importing that they should be of an Age capable of Instruction since They only can make the answer of a good Conscience So that the Baptizing upon a Vow or Promise made by another seems to be a new sort of Foederal Sponsion not instituted by Christ and by consequence not warranted by the Gospel Nor will the Argument from Circumcision appear conclusive when it is consider'd that Females not being capable of it that Rite seems rather to have been a national Mark to distinguish them as Abraham's Posterity from other Nations than a Rite relating to the Blessings of a future state But to all this we must answer That since our Saviour took Baptism from the Iews it being visible that they were not at all surprized at St. Iohn Baptist's Baptizing they only questioning him upon his Mission and Authority for it we have reason to conclude that he took it from them as they practised it And we find by their Writings that when any Proselytes came over to their Religion they not only Baptized them but also their Children This being their practice and our Saviour making no Exceptions as to this Particular but saying words that plainly favour it Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God or the Gospel-dispensation this is no small Argument for it But that which seems to determine the matter is the resolution that St. Paul gives in a Case that must have been very common in those days when one of the married Parties was converted to Christianity the other remaining still in Infidelity he determines that the Husband ought not to put away the Wife nor the Wife leave the Husband and the reason he adds is That there was a Communication of Sanctification from the believing to the unbelieving Party which descended to their Children who should be otherwise Vnclean but now they were Holy Now it is to be consider'd that in the New Testament Holy or Saint and a Christian stand promiscuously for one another and the word Holy can only signify either a real inward Holiness or a Holiness of dedication in which sense all things appropriated to God are said to be Holy A Believer could not Communicate a real Holiness either to the unbelieving Yoke-fellow or to the Issue since that is
personal and cannot be derived or descend The only Holiness that he could derive was a right to consecrate the common Issue to God which is in some sort a Sanctifying of one another This is a plain and natural meaning of these words and tho they should not seem to imâ—port it so necessarily but that other glosses might be put upon them yet the early practice of the Church mention'd by Irenaeus Tertullian and most copiously by St. Cyprian seems to be a sure Commentary upon them this being a ritual and visible thing in which we may much more safely have recourse to Tradition than in matters of Doctrine it being here remembred That a Practice without warrant in Scripture is not to be so regarded as a Practice that seems to have favourable if not clear warrants for it in Scripture This also agrees with the natural Order of the World Children being put in the power of their Parents by the Laws of Nature who considering their Incapacity must act in their Name and may both procure Rights and Priviledges to them and also lay ties and engagements upon them It is then suitable to the extent of the mercy of God in the Gospel that Parents may offer up their Children to Christ that they may be tied by them to his Religion and received into the blessings and privileges of it When this whole matter is thus laid together I doubt not but the lawfulness of Infant-Baptism will evidently appear and if it is Lawful then according to what was at first made out the Church may oblige all her Members to it The Practice of having Sponsors being but an increase of the security given for the Person 's Education in Christianity the care of the Parents being supposed as already bound upon them by their natural Relation to their Children and it being a great mean if well managed of knitting Neighbours together in new and Christian Bonds all Exceptions to such a Custom seem very ill-grounded and their answering so positively in the Name of the Child does according to the nature of all Acts in the Name of Infants import only that as far as in them lies care shall be taken that the Infant shall make good those engagements in due time Our affirming so positively That all Children who are Baptized and die before they grow to be capable of committing any actual Sin are certainly saved does not only agree with the Idea's of the infinite goodness of God but also with this declaration That the Promises of the Gospel are made to all Christians and to their Children The most general Scruple against our Form in Baptism remains yet to be discussed That we have added to it the Sign of the Cross which is a piece of Popish Superstition Indeed if we use it as was formerly observed as they do with an adjuration of the Devil to go out and not to presume to violate the Sign of the Cross if we breathed cross-ways and pretended by that to infuse Divine Virtues and Blessings here were just objections for in so doing we should assume a power to make Sacraments and to affix Divine Powers to Institutions of our own Therefore nothing of this being retained among us all the Papistical and Superstitious use of the Cross in Baptism is thrown out But since the Primitive Christians did so glory in the Cross that in stead of being ashamed of the Reproach of it they used it upon most occasions Our Reformers designing to restore Primitive Christianity thought that though the abuse of this to so much Superstition made them supercede the frequent practice of it yet in this first initiation to Christianity it was reasonable to use it once for all but with words that shewed they retained none of the Superstitious Conceits of Popery and meant only thereby to own the receiving all Christians into the Doctrine of the Cross and to an obligation to follow Christ bearing his Cross. And thus it is plain that this practice is in it self not only innocent but decent and that there were very plausible Reasons to say no more for enjoining it so that the not using it is the disobeying a just Authority in a lawful Injunction Kneeling in the Eucharist seems not only liable to an imputation of Idolatry but is also under this further prejudice that it is in none of the Ancient Rituals On the contrary we have all reason to believe that for many Ages they did communicate standing since all kneeling in Churches on Sundays or in the time between Easter and Whitsunday was esteemed a crime in Tertullian's time and was forbidded by a Canon of the Council of Nice This Being that of all the Objections raised against us that touches in the tenderest part since this is the great Symbole of the Union of Christians and that in which most formally the Communion of the Church consists it will be necessary to examine it very narrowly It is then first to be considered that outward Actions do signify only that which by a general consent or an express declaration is agreed on as their sense and importance Kneeling to Kings is understood to be only the highest Act of Civil Respect and therefore it is liable to no imputation of Idolatry Therefore if there is an express declaration made of the importance of this Action that it is neither an Adoration of the Bread and Wine nor of the Person of Christ as supposed Corporally present but only a worshipping of God in the acknowledgment of the great Blessings there exibited to us then this Posture cannot be stretched beyond this express Declaration nor is this that kneeling which is enjoined by the Church of Rome for that is only a falling down at the Elevation in acknowledgment of the miraculous change then made Whereas ours is a continued posture of Prayer in which we continue during the whole Office So that Kneeling as used by us does in many respects differ from the Knoeling used in the Church of Rome As for that specious Pretence That in the Primitive times they did not kneel at the receiving the Sacrament it is only an appearance of a Reason In the Primitive times they had a notion of Kneeling as an abject Posture which only became Penitents or the times of fasting They thought that upon other occasions standing in Prayer had an appearance of faith and confidence in God and agreed with those comfortable assurances and that joy to which we are called in the Gospel And therefore those who were in the full peace of the Church were to stand up at Prayers which was most indispensably observed on Sundays and the Fifty days from Easter to Pentecost But standing was then their posture of Prayer so they received the Sacrament in the posture appropriated to Prayer and it were easy to shew from those wery Fathers who mention standing as the posture in which the Eucharist was received that they did consider it as a posture of Adoration and so required all
Christians to adore as they received it Now in a course of many Ages this difference of several degrees in Prayer and the postures proper to them is quite worn out so that kneeling is become the common posture of all Prayer whatsoever Therefore we receiving in a posture of Prayer do in that follow the constant practice of all Christians in all the best Ages Kneeling is a matter merely ritual and being now grown the common Rite expressing our humility in Prayer we do not depart from the Spirit and Intentions of the Primitive Church since we receive the Eucharist in our posture of prayer as they did in theirs The plausible Exception to all this is That since our Saviour did institute this Sacrament at a Table after Supper it is a needless departing from his Practice and the Pattern that he hath left us to receive it in any other posture If this Objection had any force it should oblige us to receive leaning along according to the posture of sitting at table in those days and if we must adhere to the Circumstances of the Institution the time after Supper and the place an upper room will be as obligatory upon us as the Posture since all these things are of the same order and value But to go to the bottom of this Objection and to shew by a clear parity the just reason of departing from our Saviour's practice in this particular It is to be remembred That when Moses gave out the Institution of the Paschal Festivity he limited that people by express words to a posture They were to eat it with their loins girt and their shoos on their feet with staves in ther hands thus ready to march There is nothing in the Institution that gives the least hint as if this was not meant to be a lasting Precept So here is much more than a bare Example a Precept given in very plain words without any limitation of time And yet when the Israelites were setled in the Land of Canaan at rest and no more obliged to march this change of their Circumstances did from the natural suitableness of things bring on a change in this part of that Festivity They sate about their Tables or rather leaned and so they did eat the Lamb in that lazy posture that expressed the Rest which God had given them And we are sure that in this they committed no error since our Saviour himself justified their practice by conforming to it So here more than a bare practice an express Institution in a ritual matter is changed by a Church that in all such things seems to have been much more tied up to the letter of their Law than the Christian Church is yet a great alteration in their Circumstances made them conclude that this ought to be altered and in that they did right Now if we will apply this to the Christian Passover Christ being in a state of Humiliation and in the form of a Servant institutes it and does it in a familiar posture of Equality with his Disciples at Table but gives no rule how as to that particular it ought to be observed for the future as Moses had done Afterwards a vast change happens in his visible Condition he is raised from the dead and exalted up into Heaven Upon this change therefore with relation to his Human nature that was vastly more important than that which had happenened to the Iews when they were brought into the Land of Promise it seems to have been highly congruous to that practice of the Iews with which the first Christians could not be unacquainted for them to have changed the posture from the appearance of Familiarity to that of Respect and to have brought it to the Posture which they use in Prayer and their other Devotions And this I think is a full answer to every thing that can be objected to our Posture in Receiving Another exception some have to our Administration of this Sacrament That there is no previous examination of those who are admitted to it that a promiscuous multitude comes without any notice given or enquiry made after them tho we are commanded to note such as walk disorderly and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed nay with Brethren that is Christians who live scandalously not so much as to eat To this it is to be answer'd That a great difference is to be made between a Church that lies yet under some defects which she laments and cannot get them to be effectually supplied and a Church that is viciously faulty and blamable in any thing she does If the acts of Church-Communion are in themselves lawful and good so that particular persons are obliged to nothing that can be made appear to be unlawful it can be no reason for them to separate from it because other things are not done which perhaps are fitting and may seem necessary But a further distinction is to be made between things commanded by a Divine Precept and such things as are only recommended by the Practice and Rules of the Church St. Paul does only prescribe this That every man examine himself but does not impose it upon any to examine others and the true Importance of the word render'd Examine is Approve that is Let a man so consider himself as to see whether he is approved of by his own Conscience but this gives no other person an Authority to search into examine or approve such us come to the Sacrament There is therefore no Rule given in the New Testament for any such previous enquiry it was indeed a very Ancient and is upon very many accounts a good and useful practice so to do But how criminal soever a defect in obeying a Divine Law may be it can be no such matter not to observe even the ancientest Rules of the Church that after all do rest only upon a human Authority Those rules concerning scandalous persons belong to the Body in general and if there should be Errors and male-Administrations the Body or rather its Pastors when in a Body are accountable for that and not the the Individuals of the Society who cannot be further concern'd in them than to lament such defects and to use their best endeavours to help them to be redressed so this can never justify a separation because there may be erroneous or scandalous men in a Society who are too much connived at St. Paul finds great fault with many Errors some bad Practices and Scandals among the Corinthians yet tho in one case he thunders a severe Sentence upon a more eminently scandalous man he never so much as insinuates that the rest of the body should separate themselves from those erroneous or irregular men On the contrary he presses the Obligations to Unity most vehemently on the Corinthians tho that was the Church which he charged the most severely of all others both with Errors Disorders in Worship and scandalous Practices It was no wonder If after