AN EXPOSITION OF THE Thirty-nine Articles OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND Written by GILBERT Bishop of SARVM The Second Edition Corrected LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for RI. CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCC AN EXPOSITION OF THE Thirty-nine Articles TO THE KING SIR THE Title of Defender of the Faith the Noblest of all those which belong to this Imperial Crown that has received a New Lustre by Your MAJESTY's carrying it is that which You have so Gloriously acquired that if Your MAJESTY had not found it among them what You have done must have sâ—cured it to Your Self by the Best of all Claims We should be as much ashamed not to give it to Your MAJESTY as we were to give it to Those who had been fatally led into the Design of Overturning That which has been beyond all the Examples in History preserved and hitherto maintained by Your MAJESTY The Reformation had its greatest Support and Strength from the Crown of England while Two of Your Renowned Ancestors were the Chief Defenders of it in Foreign Parts The Blood of England mixing so happily with Theirs in Your Royal Person seemed to give the World a sure Prognostick of what might be look'd for from so Great a Conjunction Your MAJESTY has outdone all Expectations and has brought Matters to a State far beyond all our Hopes But amidst the Lawrels that adorn You and those Applauses that do every where follow You Suffer me GREAT SIR in all Humility to tell You That Your Work is not yet done nor Your Glory compleat till You have employed that Power which God has put in Your hands and before which nothing has been able hitherto to stand in the supporting and securing This Church in the bearing down Infidelity and Impiety in the healing the Wounds and Breaches that are made among those who do in common profess this Faith but are unhappily disjointed and divided by some Differences that are of less Importance And above all things in the raising the Power and Efficacy of this Religion by a suitable Reformation of our Lives and Manners How much soever mens Hearts are out of the Reach of Human Authority yet their Lives and all outward Appearances are governed by the Example and Influences of their Sovereigns The effectual pursuing of these Designs as it is the greatest of all those Glories of which Mortals are capable so it seems to be the only thing that is now wanting to finish the Brightest and Perfectest Character that will be in History It was in order to the Promoting these Ends that I undertook This Work which I do now most humbly lay before Your MAJESTY with the Profoundest Respect and Submission May God Preserve Your MAJESTY till You have gloriously finished what You have so wonderfully carried on All that You have hitherto set about how small soever the Beginnings and Hopes were has succeeded in Your Hands to the Amazement of the whole World The most desperate Face of Affairs has been able to give You no Stop Your MAJESTY seems Born under an Ascendant of Providence and therefore how low soever all our Hopes are either of raising the Power of Religion or of Vniting those who profess it yet we have often been taught to despair of nothing that is once undertaken by Your MAJESTY This will secure to You the Blessing of the present and of all succeeding Ages and a full Reward in that Glorious and Immortal State that is before You To which That Your MAJESTY may have a Sure though a Late Admittance is the Daily and most Earnest Prayer of May it please Your MAJESTY Your Majesty's most Loyal most Obedient and most Devoted Subject and Servant GI SARUM C. G. THE PREFACE IT has been often reckoned among the things that were wanting That we had not a full and clear Explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles which are the Sum of our Doctrine and the Confession of our Faith The Modesty of some and the Caution of others may have obliged them to let alone an Undertaking that might seem too assuming for any man to venture on without a Command from those who had Authority to give it It has been likewise often suggested That those Articles seemed to be so plain a Transcript of S. Austin's Doctrine in those much disputed Points concerning the Decrees of God and the Efficacy of Grace that they were not expounded by our Divines for that very reason since the far greater Number of them is believed to be now of a different Opinion I should have kept within the same bounds if I had not been first moved to undertake this Work by that Great Prelate who then sate at the Helm And after that determined in it by a Command that was Sacred to Me by Respect as well as by Duty Our Late Primate lived long enough to see the Design finished He read it over with an Exactness that was peculiar to him He imployed some Weeks wholly in perusing it and he correctâ—d it with a Care that descended even to the smallest matters and was such as he thought became the Importance of this Work And when that was done he returned it to me with a Letter and that as it was the last I ever had from him so gave the Whole such a Character that how much soever that might raise its Value with true Judges yet in Decency it must be suppressed by me as being far beyond what any Performance of mine could deserve He gave so favourable an account of it to our Late BLESSED QUEEN that She was pleased to tell me She would find leisure to read it And the last time that I was admitted to the honour of waiting on Her She commanded me to bring it to Her But She was soon after that carried to the Source to the Fountain of Life in whose Light she now sees both Light and Truth So great a Breach as was then made upon all our hopes put a stop upon this as well as upon much greater Designs This Work has lien by me ever since But has been often not only reviewed by my self but by much better Judges The late most Learned Bishop of Worcester read it very carefully He marked every thing in it that he thought needed a review and his Censure was in all points submitted to He expressed himself so well pleased with it to my self and to some others that I do not think it becomes me to repeat what he said of it Both the Most Reverend Archbishops with several of the Bishops and a great many Learned Divines have also read it I must indeed on many accounts own That they may be inclined to favour me too much and to be too partial to me yet they looked upon this Work as a thing of that Importance that I have reason to believe they read it over severely And if some small Corrections may be taken for an Indication that they saw no occasion for greater ones I had this likewise from several
says Receive the Holy Ghost And in this sense and with this respect the use of these Words may be well justified ARTICLE XXXVII Of Civil Magistrates The Queen's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil-doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with Death for heinous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars THIS Article was much shorter as it was published in King Edward's time and did run thus The King of England is Supreme Head in Earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland Then followed the Paragraph against the Pope's Jurisdiction worded as it is now To which these Words were subjoined The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God wherefore we must obey him not only for fear of Punishment but also for Conscience sake In Queen Elizabeth's time it was thought fitting to take away those Prejudices that the Papists were generally infusing into the minds of the People against the term Head which seemed to be the more incongruous because a Woman did then reign therefore that was left out and instead of it the words chief Power and chief Government were made use of which do signify the same thing The Queen did also by her Injunctions offer an Explanation of this matter for whereas it was given out by those who had complied with every thing that had been done both in her Father and in her Brother's time but that resolved now to set themselves in opposition to her That she was assuming a much greater Authority than they had pretended to She upon that ordered that Explanation which is referred to in the Article and is in these words For certainly Her Majesty neither doth nor ever will challenge any Authority other than that was challenged and lately used by the said Noble Kings of famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth which is and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Sovereignty and Rule over ail manner of Persons born within these her Realms Dominions and Countries of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any Superiority over them And if any Person that hath conceived any other sense of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this Interpretation Sense or Meaning Her Majesty is well pleased to accept every such in that behalf as her good and obedient Subjâ—cts and shall acquit them of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take the same Oath Thus this matter is opened as it is both in the Article and in the Injunctions In order to the treating regularly of this Article it is First To be proved That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms 2 dly That our Kings or Queens have it And 3 dly The Nature and Measures of this Power and Government are to be stated As for the Pope's Authority though it is now connected with the Infallibility yet it was pretended to and was advanced for many Ages before Infallibility was so much as thought on Nor was the Doctrine of their Infallibility ever so universally received and submitted to in these Western Parts as was that of their Universal Jurisdiction They were in possession of it Appeals were made to them They sent Legates and Bulls every where They granted Exemptions from the ordinary Jurisdiction and took Bishops bound to them by Oaths that were penned in the Form of Oaths of Fealty or Homage This was the first Point that our Reformers did begin with both here and every where else that so they might remove that which was an insuperable Obstruction till it was first taken out of the way to every step that could be made toward a Reformation They laid down therefore this for their Foundation That all Bishops were by their Office and Character equal and that every one of them had the same Authority that any other had over that Flock which was committed to his Care And therefore they said that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority according to the Constitution in which the Churches were settled by the Apostles but over the City of Rome And that any further Jurisdiction that any Antient Popes might have had did arise from the Dignity of the City and the Customs and Laws of the Empire As for their deriving that Authority from St. Peter it is very plain that the Apostles were all made equal to him and that they never understood our Saviour's Words to him as importing any Authority that was given to him over the rest since they continued to the last while our Saviour was among them disputing which of them should be the greatest The Proposition that the Mother of Iames and Iohn made Mat. 20.21 ver 24. ver 26. in which it was evident that they likewise concurred with her shews that they did not apprehend that Christ had made any Declaration in favour of St. Peter as by our Saviour's Answer it appears that he had not done otherwise he would have referred them to what he had already said upon that occasion By the whole History of the Acts of the Apostles it appears that the Apostles acted and consulted in common without considering St. Peter as having any Superiority over them He was called to give an account of his Baptizing Cornelius and he delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem without any strain of Authority over the rest Acts 11.2 3. Acts 15.7 ver 14 19. Gal. 2 7 8. ver 11. St. Paul does expresly deny that the other Apostles had any Superiority or Jurisdiction over him and he says in plain words that he was the Apostle of the Vncircumcision as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision and in that does rather claim an advantage over him since his was certainly the much wider Province He
the Scriptures Ibid. The Form of Swearing among the Jews 394 Our Saviour's words and St. James's against all Swearing explained 395 When Oaths may be lawfully taken 396 The End of the Table of the Contents AN EXPOSITION OF THE XXXIX ARTICLES OF THE Church of England TITLE Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishops and Byshops of both Provinces and the whole Cleargie in the Convocation holden at London in the yeare of our Lorde GOD 1562. according to the computation of the Church of Englande for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion Put forth by the Queens authoritie The INTRODUCTION THE Title of these Articles leads me to consider 1. The Time the Occasion and the Design of Compiling them 2 dly The Authority that is stampt upon them both by Church and State and the Obligation that lies upon all of our Communion to Assent to them and more particularly the Importance of the Subscription to which the Clergy are obliged As to the 1 st It may seem somewhat strange to see such a Collection of Tenets made the Standard of the Doctrine of a Church that is deservedly valued by reason of her Moderation This seems to be a departing from the Simplicity of the First Ages which yet we pretend to set up for a Pattern In those times the owning the Belief of the Creeds then received was thought sufficient And when some Heresies had occasioned great Enlargements to be made in the Creeds the Third General Council thought fit to set a Bar against all further Additions and yet all those Creeds one of which goes far beyond the Ephesine Standard make but One Article of the Thirty nine of which this Book consists Many of these do also relate to subtile and abstruse Points in which it is not easy to form a clear Judgment and much less can it be convenient to Impose so great a Collection of Tenets upon a whole Church to Excommunicate such as affirm any of them to be erroneous and to reject those from the Service of the Church who cannot Assent to every one of them The Negative Articles of No Infallibility No Supremacy in the Pope No Transubstantiation No Purgatory and the like give yet a further Colour to Exceptions since it may seem that it was enough not to have mentioned these which implied a tacit rejecting of them It may therefore appear to be too rigorous to require a positive condemning of those Points for a very high degree of Certainty is required to affirm a Negative Proposition In order to the explaining this matter it is to be confessed that in the beginnings of Christianity the Declaration that was required even of a Bishop's Faith was conceived in very general Terms There was a Form setled very early in most Churches This St. Paul in one place calls The Form of Doctrine that was delivered in another place The Form of Sound Words Rom. 6.17 1 Tim. 4.6 6 3. 2 Tim. 1.13 which those who were fixed by the Apostles in particular Churches had received from them These words of his do import a Standard or fixed Formulary by which all Doctrines were to be examined Some have inferred from them that the Apostles delivered that Creed which goes under their Name every where in the same Form of Words But there is great reason to doubt of this since the first Apologists for Christianity when they deliver a short Abstract of the Christian Faith do all vary from one another both as to the Order and as to the Words themselves which they would not have done if the Churches had all received one setled Form from the Apostles They would all have used the same Words and neither more nor less It is more probable That in every Church there was a Form setled which was delivered to it by some Apostle or Companion of the Apostles with some Variation of which at this distance of time considering how defective the History of the First Ages of Christianity is it is not possible nor very necessary for us to be able to give a clear Account For Instance In the whole Extent or Neighbourhood of the Roman Empire it was at first of great Use to have this in every Christian's mouth That our Saviour suffered under Pontius Pilate because this fixed the Time and carried in it an Appeal to Records and Evidences that might then have been searched for But if this Religion went at first far to the Eastward beyond all Commerce with the Romans there is not that reason to think that this should have been a part of the shortest Form of this Doctrine it being enough that it was related in the Gospel These Forms of the several Churches were preserved with that Sacred Respect that was due to them This was esteemed the Depositum or Trust of a Church which was chiefly committed to the keeping of the Bishop In the First Ages in which the Bishops or Clergy of the several Churches could not meet together in Synods to examine the Doctrine of every new Bishop the Method upon which the Circumstances of those Ages put them was this The New Bishop sent round him and chiefly to the Bishops of the more Eminent Sees the Profession of his Faith according to the Form that was fixed in his Church And when the Neighbouring Bishops were satisfied in this they held Communion with him and not only owned him for a Bishop but maintained such a Commerce with him as the state of that Time did admit of But as some Heresies sprung up there were Enlargements made in several Churches for the condemning those and for excluding such as held them from their Communion The Council of Nice examined many of those Creeds and out of them they put their Creed in a fuller Form The Addition made by the Council of Constantinople was put into the Creeds of some particular Churches several Years before that Council met So that though it received its Authority from that Council yet those Fathers rather confirmed an Article which they found in the Creeds of some Churches than made a New one It had been an unvaluable Blessing if the Christian Religion had been kept in its first Simplicity The Council of Ephesus took care that the Creed by which men profess their Christianity should receive no new Additions but be fixed according to the Constantinoplitan Standard yet they made Decrees in Points of Faith and the following Councils went on in their steps adding still new Decrees with Anathematisms against the contrary Doctrines and declaring the Asserters of them to be under an Anathema that is under a very heavy Curse of being totally excluded from their Communion and even from the Communion of Jesus Christ. And whereas the New Bishops had formerly only declared their Faith they were then required besides that to declare That they received such Councils and rejected such Doctrines together with such as favoured them who were sometimes meâ—tioned by
Name This increased daily We have a full Account of the special Declaration that a Bishop was obliged to make in the First Canon of that which passeth for the Fourth Council of Carthage But while by reason of new Emergencies this was swelling to a vast Bulk General and more Implicit Formularies came to be used the Bishops declaring that they received and would observe all the Decrees and Traditions of Holy Coâ—â—cils and Fathers And the Papacy coming afterwards to carry every thing before it a Formal Oath that had many loose and indefinite words in it which were very large and comprehensive was added to all the Declarations that had been formerly established The Enlargements of Creeds were at first occasioned by the Prevarications of Hereticks who having put Senses favouring their Opinions on the simpler Terms in which the First Creeds were proposed it was thought necessary to use more express words This was absolutely necessary as to some Points for they being obliged to shew that the Christian Religion did not bring in that Idolatry which it condemned in Heathens it was also necessary to state this matter so that it should appear that they worshipped no Creature but that the Person to whom all agreed to pay Divine Adoration was truly God And it being found that an Equivocation was used in all other words except that of the same Substance they judged it necessary to fix on it besides some other words that they at first brought in but which were afterwards made more doubtful by the Glosses that were put on them At all times it is very necessary to free the Christian Religion from the Imputation of Idolatry but this was never so necessary as when Christianity was engaged in such a Struggle with Paganism And since the main Article then in dispute with the Heathens was Idolatry and the Lawfulness of worshipping any besides the Great and Eternal God it was of the last Importance to the Christian Cause to take care that the Heathens might have no reason to believe that they worshipped a Creature There was therefore just reason given to secure this main Point and to put an end to Equivocation by establishing a Term which by the Confession of all Parties did not admit of any It had been a great Blessing to the Church if a Stop had been put here and that those nice Descantings that were afterwards so much pursued had been more effectually discouraged than they were But men ever were and ever will be men Factions were formed and Interests were set up Hereticks had shewed so much Dissimulation when they were low and so much Cruelty when they prevailed that it was thought necessary to secure the Church from the Disturbances that they might give them And thus it grew to be a Rule to enlarge the Doctrines and Decisions of the Church So that in stating the Doctrines of this Church so copiously our Reformers followed a Method that had been used in a course of many Ages There were besides this common Practice two particular Circumstances in that time that made this seem to be the more necessary One was That at the breaking out of that Light there sprang up with it many impious and extravagant Sects which broke out into most violent Excesses This was no extraordinary thing for we find the like happened upon the first spreading of the Gospel many detestable Sects grew up with it which tended not a little to the defaming of Christianity and the obstructing its Progress I shall not examine what Influence Evil Spirits might have both in the one and the other Bâ—t one visible occasion of it was That by the first Preaching of the Gospel as also upon the opening the Reformation an Enquiry into the Matters of Religion being then the Subject of mens Studies and Discourses many men of warm and ill-govern'd Imaginations presuming on their own Talents and being desirous to signalize themselves and to have a Name in the World went beyond their Depth in Sâ—udy without the necesâ—ary degrees of Knowledge and the yet more necessary dispositions of Mind for arriving at a right understanding of Divine Matters This happening soon after that the Reformation was first set on foot those whose Corruptions were struck at by it and who both hated and persecuted it on that account did not fail to lay hold of and to improve the Advantage which these Seâ—ts gave them They said That the Sectaries had only spoke out what the rest thought and at last they held to this That all Sects were the Natural Consequences of the Reformation and of shaking off the Doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church To stop those Calumnies the Protestants in Germany prepared that Confession of their Faith which they offered to the Diet as Ausburg and which carries its name And after their Example all the other Churches which separated from the Roman Communion published the Confessions of their Faith both to declare their Doctrine for the Instruction of their own Members and for covering them from the Slanders of their Adversaries Another reason that the first Reformers had for their descending into so many Particulars and for all these Negatives that are in their Confessions was this They had smarted long under the Tyranny of Popery and so they had reason to secure themselves from it and from all those who were leavened with it Those here in England had seen how many had complied with every Alteration both in King Henry and King Edward's Reign who not only declared themselves to have been all the while Papists but became bloody Persecutors in Q. Mary's Days Therefore it was necessary to keep all such out of their Body that they might not secretly undermine and betray it Now since the Church of Rome owns all that is positive in our Doctrine there could be no Discrimination made but by condemning the most important of those additions that they have brought into the Christian Religion in express words It is true that in Matters of Fact or in Theories of Nature it is not safe to affirm a Negative because it is seldom possible to prove it yet the Fundamental Article upon which the whole Reformation and this our Church depends is this That the whole Doctrines of the Christian Religion are contained in the Scripture and that therefore we are to admit no Article as a part of it till it is proved from Scripture This being laid down and well made out it is not at all unreasonable to affirm a Negative upon an Examination of all those places of Scripture that are brought for any Doctrine and that seem to favour it if these are found not at all to support it but to bear a different and sometimes a contrary sense to that which is offered to be proved by them So there is no weight in this cavil which yet may look plausible to such as cannot distinguish common Matters from Points of Faith This may serve in general to justify the largeness and the
Sacraments  MS. the Injunctions also lately set forth  Pr. the Injunctions also set forth  MS. and serve in the Wars  Pr. and serve in lawful Wars Art 38. MS. every man oughteth of such things  Pr. every man ought of such things Art 39. Edw. 6. qui sequuntur non sunt in MS. WE Th' archbishops and Bishops of either Province of this Realm of England lawfully gathered together in this Provincial Synod holden at London with Continuations and Prorogations of the same do receive profess and acknowledge the xxxviii Articles before written in xix Pages going before to contain true and sound doctrine and do approve and ratify the same by the subscription of our hands the xi â—h day of May in the year of our Lord 1571. and in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth by the Grace of God of England France and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith c. the thirteenth Matthue Cantuar. Rob. Winton Jo. Heref. Richarde Ely Nic. Wigorn. Jo. Sarisburien Edm. Roffen N. Bangor Ri. Cicestren Thom. Lincoln Willhelmus Exon. From these Diversities a great difficulty will naturally arise about this whole Matter The Manuscripts of Corpus Christi are without doubt Originals The hands of the Subscribers are well known they belonged to Archbishop Parker and were left by him to that College and they are Signed with a particular care for at the end of them there is not only a Sum of the number of the Pages but of the Lines in every Page And though this was the Work only of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury yet the Archbishop of York with the Bishops of Duresme and Chester Subscribed them likewise and they were also Subscribed by the whole Lower House But we are not sure that the like care was used in the Convocation Anno 1571. for the Articles are only Subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Ten Bishops of his Province nor does the Subscription of the Lower House appear These Articles were first Printed in the Year 1563. conform to the present Impressions which are still in use among us So the Alterations were then made while the thing was fresh and well known therefore no Fraud nor Artifice is to be suspected since some Objections would have been then made especially by the great Party of the Complying Papists who then continued in the Church They would not have failed to have made much use of this and to have taken great advantages from it if there had been any occasion or colour for it and yet nothing of this kind was then done One Alteration of more Importance was made in the Year 1571. Those words of the 20 th Article The Church hath power to Decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith were left out both in the Manuscripts and in the Printed Editions but were afterwards restored according to the Articles Printed Anno 1563. I cannot find out in what Year they were again put in the Printed Copies They appear in two several Impressions in Queen Elizabeth's Time which are in my hands It passes commonly that it was done by Archbishop Laud and his Enemies laid this upon him among other things That he had corrupted the Doctrine of this Church by this addition but he cleared himself of that as well he might and in a Speech in the Star-Chamber appealed to the Original and affirmed these words were in it The true account of this difficulty is this When the Articles were first setled they were Subscribed by Both Houses upon Paper but that being done they were afterward Ingrossed in Parchment and made up in Form to remain as Records Now in all such Bodies many Alterations are often made after a minute or first Draught is agreed on before the matter is brought to full Perfection so these Alterations as most of them are small and inconsiderable were made between the time that they were first Subscribed and the last Voting of them But the Original Records which if extant would have cleared the whole matter having been burnt in the Fire of London it is not possible to Appeal to them yet what has been proposed may serve I hope fully to clear the difficulty I now go to consider the Articles themselves ARTICLE I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity There is but one living and true God everlasting without bodie parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodness the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible and in the unity of this godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost THE Natural Order of Things required That the First of all Articles in Religion should be concerning the Being and Attributes of God For all other Doctrines arise out of this But the Title appropriates this to the Holy Trinity because that is the only part of the Article which peculiarly belongs to the Christian Religion since the rest is Founded on the Principles of Natural Religion There are Six Heads to be Treated of in order to the full opening of all that is contained in this Article 1. That there is a God 2. That there is but One God 3. Negatively That this God hath neither Body Parts nor Passions 4. Positively That he is of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 5. That he at first Created and does still Preserve all things not only what is Material and Visible but also what is Spiritual and Invisible 6. The Trinity is here Asserted These being all Points of the highest consequence it is very necessary to state them as clearly and to prove them as fully as may be The First is That there is a God This is a Proposition which in all Ages has been so universally received and believed some very few Instances being only assigned of such as either have denied or doubted of it that the very consent of so many Ages and Nations of such different Tempers and Languages so vastly remote from one another has been long esteemed a good Argument to prove that either there is somewhat in the Nature of Man that by a secret sort of Instinct does dictate this to him or that all Mankind has descended from one common Stock and that this belief has passed down from the first Man to all his Posterity If the more Polite Nations had only received this some might suggest that wise men had introduced it as a mean to govern human Society and to keep it in order Or if only the more barbarous had received this it might be thought to be the effeâ—t of their Fear and their Ignorance but since all Sorts as well as all Ages of men have received it this alone goes a great way to assure us of the Being of a God To this Two things are Objected 1 st That some Nations such as Sâ—ldania Formosa and some in America have been discovered in these last Ages that seem to acknowledge no
the Cathedrals of England were openly married And when Dunstan who had engaged King Edgar to favour the Monks in opposition to the married Clergy pressed them to forsake their Wives they refused to do it and so were turned out of their Benefices and Monks came in their places Nor was the Celibate generally imposed on all the Clergy before Gregory the Seventh's time in the end of the Eleventh Century He had great designs for subjecting all Temporal Princes to the Papacy and in order to that he intended to bring the Clergy into an entire dependence upon himself and to separate them wholly from all other Interests but those of the Ecclesiastical Authority And that he might load the married Clergy with an odious Name he called them all Nicolaitans Though the accounts that the Antients give us of that Sect say nothing that related to this matter But a name of an ill sound goes a great way in an Ignorant Age. The Writers that lived near that time condemn this severity against the married Clergy as a new and a rash thing and contrary to the mind of the holy Fathers and they tax his rigor in turning them all out Yet Lanfranc among us did not impose the Celibate generally on all the Clergy but only on those that lived at Cathedrals and in Towns He connived at those who served in Villages Anselm carried it farther and imposed it on all the Clergy without exception Yet he himself laments that unnatural Lusts were become then both common and publick Of which Petrus Damiani made great complaints in Gregory the Seventh's time Bernard in a Sermon preached to the Clergy of France says it was common in his time and then even Bishops with Bishops lived in it The Observation that Abbot Panormitan made of the progress of that horrid Sin led him to wish that it might be left free to the Clergy to marry as they pleased Pius the Second said that there might have been good reasons for imposing the Celibate on the Clergy but he believed there were far better reasons for leaving them to their liberty As a remedy to these more enormous Crimes Dispensations for Concubinate became so common that instead of giving scandal by them they were rather considered as the Characters of Modesty and Temperance In such Concubinary Priests the World judged themselves safe from Practices on their own Families When we consider those effects that followed on the imposing the Celibate on the Clergy we cannot but look on them as much greater evils than those that can follow on the leaving it free to them to marry It is not to be denied but that on the other hand the effects of a freedom to marry may be likewise bad That State does naturally involve men in the cares of Life in Domestick Concerns and it brings with it Temptations both to Luxury and Covetousness It carries with it too great a disposition to heap up Wealth and to raise Families and in a word it makes the Clergy both look too like and live too like the rest of the World But when things of this kind are duly balanced ill effects will appear on both hands Those arise out of the general Corruption of Human Nature which does so spread it self that it will corrupt us in the most innocent and in the most necessary practices There are Excesses committed in Eating Drinking and Sleeping Our depraved Inclinations will insinuate themselves into us in our best Actions Even the publick Worship of God and all Devotion receive a taint from them But we must not take a way those Liberties in which God has left human Nature free and engage men to Rules and Methods that put a Violence upon Mankind This is the less excusable when we see in Fact what the consequences of such restraints have been for many Ages Yet after all though they who marry do well yet those who marry not do better provided they live chast and do not burn That man who subdues his Body by fasting and Prayer by Labour and Study and that separates himself from the concerns of a Family that he may give himself wholly to the ministry of the Word Acts 6.4 and to Prayer that lives at a distance from the Levities of the World and in a course of native modesty and unaffected severity is certainly a burning and shining Light He is above the World free from cares and designs from aspirings and all those restless Projects which have so long given the World so much scandal And therefore those who allow themselves the liberty of Marriage according to the Laws of God and the Church are indeed engaged in a state of many Temptations to which if they give way they lay themselves open to many Censures and they bring a Scandal on the Reformation for allowing them this Liberty if they abuse it It remains only to consider how far this matter is altered by Vows how far it is lawful to make them and how far they bind when they are made It seems very unreasonable and tyrannical to put Vows on any in matters in which it may not be in their power to keep them without sin No Vows ought to be made but in things that are either absolutely in our power or in things in which we may procure to our selves those Assistances that may enable us to perform them We have a federal Right to the Promises that Christ has made us of inward Assistances to enable us to perform those Conditions that he has laid on us and therefore we may vow to observe them because we may do that which may procure us Aids sufficient for the execution of them But if men will take up Resolutions that are not within those necessary Conditions they have no reason to promise themselves such Assistances And if they are not so absolutely Masters of themselves as to be able to stand to them without those helps and yet are not sure that they shall be given them then they ought to make no Vow in a matter which they cannot keep by their own Natural Strength and in which they have not any Promise in the Gospel that assures them of Divine Assistances to enable them to keep it This is therefore a tempting of God when men pretend to serve him by assuming a stricter Course of Life than either he has commanded or they are able to go through with And it may prove a great Snare to them when by such rash Vows they are engaged into such a state of Life in which they live in constant Temptations to Sin without either Command or Promise on which they can rest as to the execution of them This is to lead themselves into Temptation in opposition to that which our Saviour has made a Petition of that Prayer which he himself has taught us Out of this great distractions of Mind and a variety of different Temptations may and probably will arise and that the rather because the Vow is made there being
the Bishops against one another The Emperors called General Councils by their Summons they sate in them and confirmed their Decrees This was the constant Practice of the Roman Emperors both in the East and in the West When the Church came to fall under many lesser Sovereignties those Princes continued still to make Laws to name Bishops to give Investitures into Benefices to call Synods and to do every thing that appeared necessary to them for the good Government of the Church in their Dominions When Charles the Great was restoring those things that had fallen under much disorder in a course of some ignorant and barbarous Ages and was reviving both Learning and good Government he published many Capitulars a great part of them relating to Ecclesiastical matters nor was any exception taken to that in those Ages The Synods that were then held were for the greatest part mixt Assemblies in which the Temporalty and the Spiritualty sate together and judged and decreed of all matters in common And it is certain that such was the Sanhedrim among the Iews in our Saviour's time it was the Supreme Court both for Spirituals and Temporals In England our Princes began early and continued long to maintain this part of their Authority The Letters that are pretended to have passed between King Lucius and Pope Eleutherius are very probably Forgeries but they are antient ones and did for many Ages pass for true Now a Forgery is generally calculated to the Sense of the Age in which it is made In the Pope's Letter the King is called God's Vicar in his Kingdoms and it is said to belong to his Office to bring his Subjects to the holy Church and to maintain protect and govern them in it Both Saxon and Danish Kings made a great many Laws about Ecclesiastical matters and after the Conquest when the Nation grew into a more united Body and came to a more settled Constitution many Laws were made concerning these matters particularly in opposition to those Practices that favoured the Authority that the Popes were then assuming such as Appeals to Rome or Bishops going out of the Kingdom without the King's leave King Alfred's Laws were a sort of a Text for a great while they contain many Laws about Sacred matters The exempting of Monasteries from Episcopal Jurisdiction was granted by some of our Kings at first William the Conqueror to perpetuate the Memory of his Victory over Harold and to endear himself to the Clergy founded an Abbey in the Field where the Battel was fought called Battel-Abbey And in the Charter of the Foundation in imitation of what former Kings had done in their Endowments this Clause was put It shall be also free and quiet for ever from all subjection to Bishops or the dominion of any other Persons This is an Act that does as immediately relate to the Authority of the Church as any one that we can imagine The Constitutions of Clarendon were asserted by both King and Parliament and by the whole Body of the Clergy as the Antient Customs of the Kingdom These relate to the Clergy and were submitted to by them all Becket himself not excepted though he quickly went off from it It is true the Papacy got generally the better of the Temporal Authority in a course of several Ages but at last the Popes living long at Avignon together with the great Schism that followed upon their return to Rome did very much sink in their Credit and that stopped the Progress they had made before that time which had probably subdued all if it had not been for those Accidents Then the Councils began to take heart and resolved to assert the Freedom of the Church from the Papal Tyranny Pragmatick Sanctions were made in several Nations to assert their Liberty That in France was made with great Solemnity In these the Bishops did not only assert their own Jurisdiction independent in a great measure of the Papacy but they likewise carried it so far as to make themselves Independent on the Civil Authority particularly in the point of Elections This disposed Princes generally to enter into Agreements with the Popes by which the matter was so transacted that the Popes and they made a division between them of all the Rights and Pretensions of the Church Princes yielded a great deal to the Popes to be protected by them in that which they got to be reserved to themselves Great Restraints were laid both on the Clergy and likewise on the See of Rome by the Appeals that were brought into the Secular Courts from the Ordinary Judgments of the Ecclesiastical Courts or from the Bulls or Powers that Legates brought with them A distinction was found that seemed to save the Ecclesiastical Authority at the same time that the Secular Court was made the Judg of it The Appeal did lye upon a pretence that the Ecclesiastical Judg had committed some Abuse in the way of proceeding or in his Sentence So the Appeal was from that Abuse and the Secular Court was to examine the matter according to the Rules and Laws of the Church and not according to the Principles or Rules of any other Law But upon that they did either confirm or reverse the Sentence And even those Princes that acknowledg the Papal Authority have found out distinctions to put such Stops to it as they please and so to make it an Engine to govern their People by as far as they think fit to give way to it and to damn such Bulls or void such Powers as they are afraid of Thus it is evident That both according to Scripture and the Practice of all Ages and Countries the Princes of Christendom have an Authority over their Subjects in matters Ecclesiastical The reason of things makes also for this for if any Rank of men are exempted from their Jurisdiction they must thereby cease to be Subjects And if any sort of Causes Spiritual ones in particular were put out of their Authority it were an easy thing to reduce almost every thing to such a relation to Spirituals that if this Principle were once received their Authority would be very precaâ—ious and feeble Nothing could give Princes stronger and juster Prejudices against the Christian Religion than if they saw that the effect of their receiving it must be the withdrawing so great a part of their Subjects from their Authority and the putting as many Checks upon it as those that had the Management of this Religion should think fit to restrain it by In a word all mankind must be under one Obedience and one Authority It remains that the Measures and the Extent of this Power be right stated It is certain First That this Power does not depend upon the Prince's Religion Whether he is a Christian or not or whether he is of â— true or false Religion or is a good or a bad man By the same Tenure that he holds his Sovereignty he holds this likewise Artaxerâ—â—◠〈◊〉 it as well as either
Sin was like Armour of Proof by which they were invulnerable and by consequence capable of undertaking any thing that might be committed to them But this may well recommend such a Rule to a Crafty and Designing Body of Men in which it is not to be denied that there is a deep and refined Policy yet we have not so learned Christ nor to handle the Word of God or the Authority that he has trusted to us deceitfully As for the Consequences of such Laws Inconveniences are on both hands As long as men are corrupt themselves so long they will abuse all the Liberties of Human Nature If not only common Lewdness in all the kinds of it but even brutal and unnatural Lusts have been the visible Consequences of the strict Law of Celibate and if this appears so evident in History that it cannot be denied we think it better to trust Human Nature with the lawful use of that in which God has not restrained it than to venture on that which has given occasion to Abominations that cannot be mentioned without horror As for the Temptation to Covetousness we think it is neither so great nor so unavoidable upon the one hand as those monstrous ones are on the other It is more reasonable to expect Divine Assistances to preserve men from Temptations when they are using those Liberties which God has left free to them than when by pretending to a Purity greater than that which he has commanded they throw themselves into many Snares It is also very evident that Covetousness is an effect of Mens Tempers rather than of their Marriage since the Instances of a ravenous Covetousness and of a restless Ambition in behalf of mens Kindred and Families hath appeared as often and as scandalously among the Vnmarried as among the Married Clergy From these general Considerations concerning the Power that the Church has to make either a Perpetual or an Universal Law in a thing of this kind I shall in the next place consider in short What the Church has done in this matter In the first Ages of Christianity Basilides and Saturninus and after them both Montanus and Novatus and the Sect of the Encratites condemned Marriage as a state of Libertinism that was unbecoming the Purity required of Christians Against those we find the Fathers asserted the Lawfulness of Marriage to all Christians without making a difference between the Clergy and the Laity It is true the appearances that were in Montanus and his Followers seem to have engaged the Christians of that Age to strain beyond them in those things that gave them their Reputation Many of Tertullian's Writings that Criticks do now see were writ after he was a Montanist which seems not to have been observed in that Age carry the matter of Celibate so high that it is no wonder if considering the Reputation that he had a Bias was given by these to the following Ages in favour of Celibate Yet it seemed to give great and just Prejudices against the Christian Religion if such as had come into the Service of the Church should have forsaken their Wives It is visible how much Scandal this might have given and what matter of Reproach it would have furnished their Enemies with if they could have charged them with this That men to get rid of their Wives and of the Care of their Families went into Orders that so under a pretence of a higher degree of Sanctity they might abandon their Families Therefore great care was taken to prevent this They were so far from requiring Priests to forsake their Wives that such as did it upon their entring into Orders were severely condemned by the Canons that go under the name of the Apostles They were also condemned by the Council of Gangra in the Fourth Century and by that of Trullo in the Seventh Age. There are some Instances brought of Bishops and Priests who are supposed to have married after they were ordained but as there are only few of those so perhaps they are not well proved It must be acknowledged that the general practice was that men once in Orders did not marry But many Bishops in the best Ages lived still with their Wives So did the Fathers both of Gregory Nazianzen and of St. Basil. And among the Works of Hilary of Poictiers there is a Letter writ by him in his Exile to his Daughter Abra in which he refers her to her Mothers Instruction in those things which she by reason of her Age did not then understand which shews that she was then very young and so was probably born after he was a Bishop Some proposed in the Council of Nice Socr. Hist. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 12. That the Clergy should depart from their Wives but Paphnutius though himself unmarried opposed this as the laying an unreasonably heavy Yoke upon them Heliodorus a Bishop the Author of the first of those Love-Fables that are now known by the name of Romances being upon that account accused of too much Levity did in order to the clearing himself of that Imputation move that Clergy-men should be obliged to live from their Wives Which the Historian says they were not tied to before for till then Bishops lived with their Wives So that in those days the living in a married state was not thought unbecoming the Purity of the Sacred Functions A single Marriage was never objected in bar to a mans being made Bishop or Priest They did not indeed admit a man to Orders that had been twice married but even for this there was a distinction If a man had been once married before his Baptism and was once married after his Baptism that was reckoned only a single Marriage for what had been done when in Heathenism went for nothing And Ierome speaking of Bishops who had been twice married but by this Nicety were reckoned to be the Husbands of one Wife says The number of those of this sort in that time could not be reckoned and that more such Bishops might be found than were at the Council of Arimini Canons grew to be frequently made against the Marriage of those in Holy Orders but these were positive Laws made chiefly in the Roman and African Synods and since those Canons were so often renewed we may from thence conclude that they were not well kept When Synesius was ordained Priest he tells in an Epistle of his That he declared openly that he would not live secretly with his Wife as some did but that he would dwell publickly with her and wished that he might have many Children by her In the Eastern Church the Priests are usually married before they are ordained and continue afterwards to live with their Wives and to have Children by them without either Censure or Trouble In the Western Church we find mention made both in the Gallican and Spanish Synods of the Wives both of Bishops and Priests and they are called Episcopae and Presbyterae In the Saxon times the Clergy in most of