Churches by the Ministers There are many circumstances required by Canonists and Casuists and Lawyers to determine of promulgation which no man ever applied to Scripture which is the formal object of our Faith and to the particular doctrines which compose our Religion If bare promulgation a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words were sufficient requisites to make a Religion accepted what Religion almost could be false Or how was not Arianisme of old how is not the Council of Trent now true If Grammatical meaning in our History be equipollent to literal and opposed to figurative how then is not Transubstantiation not to mention other tenets how is not it credible If a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words be the standard by which faith is to be regulated or measured is not the Natural man capable hereof though incapable of the things appertaining to God 1 Cor. 2.14 In a Synod holden in a Council before Constantine Helena where it was disputed whether the Iewish law or the Christian should be preferred Craton the Philosopher who would not possess any worldly goods Zenosimus who never received Present from any one in the time of his Consulship were appointed for judges With which doth accord that saying of Gerson the learned Chancellour of Paris There was a time when without any rashness or prejudice to faith the controversies of faith were referred to the judgment of pagan Philosophers who presupposing the faith of Christ to be such as it was confessed to be however they did not believe it yet they knew what would follow by evident and necessary consequence from it Thus it was in the Council of Nice as is left unto us upon record So likewise Eutropius a pagan Philosopher was chosen judge betwixt Origen and the Marcionites who were condemned by him Is it not recorded that the Devils believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 they are qualified with all our Virtuoso requires to be Religious yet sure He will not say they are so Where is that exceeding great and hyperbolical grace of God by which true converts are induced unto and fixed in the Christian Religion what needed the Apostle to pray for the Ephesians thus That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the father of glory might give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned that they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power Why did he pray of God for any more then that he would make them good Grammar-scholars and give them a common apprehension In what language must this promulgation be made In the vulgar Latine If none but ordinary words must be the ingredients of our Religion and Symbols what must become of the words Essentia Persona Hypostasis the first second and fifth Articles of our Church and the Athanasian Creed what of justification mediator imputed righteousness Grace new birth and regeneration and many such words that have a place in our Confession Must we all turn Nicodemus's who must be the judge of words ordinary some words being ordinary with the learned which are not so to the ignorant and illiterate where is the Authority of the Church in controversies of faith avowed by our Church Artic. 20. if a common apprehension be that according to which controversies of faith must be decided Should a man demand of our Virtuoso according to what is here laid down what is the formal object of his faith or why he believes the Protestant religion here in England established I doubt the Answer would not be satisfactory nor agreeable to the Church of this Nation which should be shaped thereupon If Religion must not be the subject of Disputations we must receive it implicitely we must not try any thing nor in order to our holding it fast consider and dispute what is good but what promulgated such an Assent is the reasonable sacrifice which we must offer up and this that reason of our faith which we must be ready to give to all that ask us Oh foolish and not more generous Beraeans that durst controvert this Religion and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so which the first missionaries promulgated and therefore believed because they found the truth of the doctrine confirmed by the holy writers Act. 17.12 13. Why did Christ dispute with the Doctors in the temple both hearing them and asking questions why did he argue with the Sadduces about the resurrection why did Paul dispute at Athens with the Iews and devout persons and sometimes in the school of Tyrannus what mean those argumentations in the word of God by which the principal points of our Religion are evinced Besides if Faith be not a blind assent if we must hear and understand Math. 15.10 if we must search the Scriptures John 5.39 if an understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be requisite that we may know him that is true 1 Iohn 5.20 If we must take heed how we hear Luc. 8.18 If we must prove all things 1 Thes. 5.21 and try the spirits whether they be of God 1 Ioh. 4.1 If the very nature of faith be such that it cease to be what it is if it be not discursive it not being an adherence to principles self-evident but an Assent grounded upon Divine Revelation so that it necessarily involves in it this Syllogisme Whatsoever God revealeth is true But God hat revealed this or that Ergo. If this be true how can it be said that Religion ought not to be the subject of disputations but by one who thinks the owning thereof to be needless and that faith is but empty talk If it be certain Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt if there be any such thing as Conscience which is a Syllogism and defined Applicatio generalis notitiae ad particulares actus if there be any such thing as those practical argumentations by which Believers apply unto themselves particularly the general promises of the Gospel it is manifest that there must be Disputes Whereas he sayes that Religion should not stand in need of disputes me thinks it is a reflection upon the Divine Providence which so ordered the condition of mankind that disputes are unavoidable as Heresies are who introduced Faith amongst the intellectual Habits and made it an Assent firme certain but destitute of scientifical evidence who made us but to know in part and to see even that but as it were in a glasse the consequent of which mixture of light and shade knowledg and ignorance is disputatiou and fallibility Alphonso King of Portugal professed that if he had assisted God Almighty at the Creation he could have amended
culpable Schismaticall and damnable 2. Secondly that He represents the case so as if some of the Reformed Churches onely did forbeare all Communion with them 3. Thirdly That the grand occasion of the differences betwixt those of the reformed religion and the Papists was that the Bishops of Rome did assume an Infallibility and a Soveraigne dominion over our Faith 4. Fourthly That notwithstanding this usurped infallibility of the Bishops of Rome their assuming a soveraigne dominion over our Faith yet we may give them that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and famous a Church and to decline this is to run into an extreame 5. Fifthly That the Church of Rome according to its present establishment and under that constitution wherein the first Reformers found it may be denominated a Church Ancient Famous and that upon those accounts for none other are mentioned possibly there doth belong a respect unto it or an obligation to communicate therewith 6. Sixtly That such a respect or exterior communion may be entertained with Rome and yet we incurre no danger of Superstition The first Proposition is Impious Blasphemous and Offensive to all Protestant eares It condemnes the Reformation carryed on by the Evangeliques abroad and in the Church of England as culpable guilty of an extreame and there is so much of Schisme justly charged on us as there is of extremity in our procedure It subverts all those Laws which are now in force whereby all Communion with Popish Offices and Sacraments celebrated in a different way from that of the Church of England is prohibited to us upon penalty of being imprisoned six months without bayl for the first offense for the second twelve months and for the third during life upon 5 and 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. 3. The second Proposition is notoriously false there being no Reformed Church no not of the Lutherans but hath constantly held themselves obliged to forbear all Communion with the modern Bishops and Church of Rome Besides it carries a most dangerous insinuation in it as if the Reformed Churches were divided upon this point the contrary whereof is manifest out of the Harmony of Confessions so that such as abet this Popish compliance want not their Assertors even to the repute of most of the Reformed Churches and such as disclaim it are the lesse considerable for number and authority having onely the concurrence of some of the Reformed Churches How pernicious an intimation this is amongst ignorant persons and such as are unacquainted with the state of Religion a study much out of fashion now let any man judg and withall remember that the Church of England is of the number of those reflected upon here Who are they that pretend to forsake the Churches corruptions and not her external Communion Some there be that say they have not left the Church but onely her corcorruptions some that they have not left the Communion but the corruptions of it meaning the internal communion of it and conjunction with it by faith and obedience which disagree from the former onely in the manner of speaking for he that is in the Church is in this kind of Communion with it and he that is not in this internal communion is not in the Church Some perhaps that they left not your external communion in all things meaning that they left it not voluntarily being not fugitivi sed fugati as being willing to joyn with you in any act of piety but were by you necessitated and constrained to do so because you would not suffer them to do well with you except they would do ill with you Now to do ill that you may do well is against the will of God which to every good man is an high degree of necessity But for such Protestants as pretend that de facto they forsook your corruptions and not your external communion that is such as pretend to communicate with you in your Confessions and Liturgies and participation of Sacraments I cannot but doubt very much that neither you nor I have ever met with any of this condition Postremò addit Rex magnum se quidem crimen judicare defectionem ab Ecclesia sed huic crimini affinem se esse aut Ecclesiam suam penitus pernegat Non enim fugimus aiebat ejus Majestas sed fugamur Scit verò tua illustris Dignitas ut qui optimè quà m multi quà m praestantes pietate ac doctrinâ viri ab annis minimùm quingentis Reformationem Ecclesiae in capite membris optârint Quà m graves bonorum Regum ac Principum quaerelae sint saepe auditae statum Ecclesiae suis temporibus lamentantium Quid profuit â—ihil enim eorum ad hanc diem videmus esse emendatum quae correctionis egere cum primis censebantur Quare non veretur Ecclesia Anglicana nè candidis aestimatoribus in hac separatione Donatistis simile quid fecisse videatur Illi gratis sine ullâ causâ Ecclesiam Catholicam gentium cunctarum assensu comprobatam cujus neque fidem neque disciplinam culpare poterant deseruerunt Angli ab ea Ecclesia NECESSITATE DIRA COGENTE Secessionem fecerunt quam innumeri populi Christiani veram Catholicam universalem esse non concedunt ut modestissimè dicam quámque in dogmatis fidei disciplinae formâ multùm variâsle ab antiquâ multa assuisse nova vetustis mala bonis etiam è vestris Scriptores quà m plurimi ingenuè dudum sunt confessi verò notius jam est universo mundo quà m ut possit quisquam vel negare vel etiam ignorare Adde quod jugum Romanae servitutis ita durum per aliquot retro secula erat experta Ecclesia Anglicana novis subinde vexationibus inauditis angariis atque exactionibus supra hominum fidem cruciata ut vel illa sola causa apud Judices non iniquos à Schismatis suspicione ut loquitur Augustinus de Donatistis iniquae discissionis posse videatur ipsam liberare Non enim proâ—ectò Angli à charitate fraternâ animi causâ dissilierunt ut Donatistae neque ut decem tribus populi Iudaici metu impendentis mali quod nondum premebat sed post plurium seculorum patientiam post exantlatas inenarrabiles aerumnas onus intolerabile cui ferendo pares ampliùs non erant neque permittebat conscientia subductis cervicibus tandem excuslerunt From hence as also from our Laws our Thirty nine Articles and Homilies t is manifest that the Church of England is in the number of those that separate from the communion of the Church and Bishops of Rome and that for such important reasons as justifie the action from being causelesse or culpable though amongst all the Reasons alledged by K. Iames in that Letter of Causabon's or in our Laws or other Controvertists I do not find that reckoned for any motive of that great rupture much lesse for the principal or sole one which is
serve him according to the Law Galat. 4.9 10 11. or to worship the true God by way of Images Rom. 1.21 22 23. Amidst such nice difficult and perillous considerations who can wonder if Men be more scrupulous about Divine than Humane Laws and the active complyance therewith who can blame the sober disputers who work out their salvation with fear and trembling who cannot rest in a bare Promulgation who fear least sometimes the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words may not alwayes be the mind of God who may use Greek words Hellenistically or as Hebraisms and use the language of one Countrey with relation to the Idioms customs sentiments of another who can conceive that the course of our Historian will produce in a Christian that Faith which must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that t is fitting for us to neglect and slight all those means which our Divines have alwayes agreeably to S. Austin inculcated for the discovery of the will of God in holy Scripture the knowledge whereof joyned with Obedience constitutes the Religion of a Christian. But further it is observable that our Virtuoso passeth in this Paragraph ab hypothesi ad thesin and having spoken before of Christianity he here speaks indefinitely as if no Religion were to be the subject of Disputations which condemnes the Original of the Gospel and the propagation of it where a different Religion is setled it justifies the Turks Paynims as well as forreign Papists in their sentiments though they be without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world Ephes. 2.12 To conclude the Censure upon this place I desire our Historian not to introduce Law-termes yet to be scrupulous about the Scholastick and Transcendental notions pag. 354. nor to think Christianity injured by being carried into the Schools of our Divines any more then of old into the Schools of the Prophets the Church and Schools are not opposite though distinct amongst us a Divine may be and is found in holy places without doing unseemly much less apostatising 'T is his duty to be able to convince gainsayers and the Schools do but qualifie him for that work Shew us how the Divines of the Church of England have carryed Religion captive from the Church into the Schools Is not the Word of God there the Rule and formal object of faith Are the Scriptures so immured up there that they are banished from their proper place However this Objection might be made against the Papists who deprive the layity of the Scriptures binde their Church to the Latine version yet 't is a Calumny to impute this to the Church of England and yet that seems touched in this insinuation if not only aimed at for all that discourse of our Vertuoso is to shew that the constitution of the R. S. will not prejudice the established Religion and Church of England Shew me the defaults of our Liturgy Articles Homilies Canons whereby it should appear that our Divines have very much corrupted the substance of their own knowledge as yet I as little believe it as I do that the Israelites lost their Religion with the Arke unto the Philistines and that Samuel and others not Idolaters had lost all Piety as long as that discontinued I read how a Woman said That the Glory of Israel was departed 1 Sam. 4.21 But I never heard that all their Religion was lost at that time before now nor do I understand what connexion there was betwixt the Arke and the Religion of the Israelites so as that the absence of the former should extinguish the later They were religious before the Arke was made and there is not any ground in the Text to imagine that Samuel lost all sense of Religion during that Interval but rather to the contrary The generality of the Israelites had been wicked and Idolatrous serving Baalim and Ashtaroth after the decease of Joshuah Judg. 2.11 1 Sam. 7.3 4. but that they did rather amend than grow worse during their overthrow and the seven Months absence of the Arke appears by the History Besides the Prophets and other Israelites that were not Idolaters in Samaria were deprived of the Arke yet 't is manifest they did not loose their Religion 1 Kings 19.18 I shall conclude this Animadversion with one Note that the Arians long ago to overthrow the Council of Nice and the Catholick faith made use of this pretext which our Virtuoso pursues here and elsewhere more than once in the History They desired that the uncouth words of Homousios Hypostasis c. might be forborn as not to be found in Scripture nor to be understood Evitant Homusion atque Homoeusion quia nusquam scriptum sit And because the answer of S. Hilary will justifie the Church of England in her Articles in her Liturgy and in her Scholastick controversies I shall set that down Oro vos ne ubi pax conscientiae est ibi pugna sit suspicionum Inane est calumniam verbi pertimescere ubi res ipsa cujus verbum est non habeat difficultatem Displicet unquam in Synodo Nicena Homusion esse susceptum Hoc si cui displicet necesse est placeat quod ab Arianis est negatum Si propter negantium impietatem pia tum fuit intelligentia confitentium quaero cur hodie convellatur quod tum piè susceptum est quia impiè negabatur Si piè susceptum est cur venit constitutio pietatis in crimen quae impietatem piè per ea ipsa quibus impiabatur extinxit Under the Emperour Constantius there was a Decree made that the word Homusios and such other terms as fill the Athanasian Creed should be laid aside and disused as which with their novelty and difficulty did very much distract and puzzle the Church this the Arians gained and it proved an infinite advantage to the growth of that Heresie the restoring of those transcendental notions Scholastick terms did resettle that Peace in the Church which could not be effected by the prohibiting of them and acquiescing in the Grammatical meaning of plain words Nolo verba quae non scripta sunt dici Hoc tandem rogo quis Episcopis jubeat quis Apostolicae praedicationis vetet formam Dic prius si rectè dici putas Nolo adversum nova venena novas medicamentorū comparationes Nolo adversum novos hostes nova bella Nolo adversum novas insidias consilia recentia Si enim Ariani haeretici ideò idcirco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hodie evitant quia priùs negaverunt nonne tu hodie idcircò refugis ut hi nunc quoque denegent Novitates vocum sed prophanas devitari jubet Apostolus Tu cur Pias excludis It is but too apparent that those in our dayes who joyn with the Arians in decrying new words and such as are not in Scripture who think that Christianity ought not to
that considers the pretences upon which the Dominion of the Pope and his Supremacy is founded by the Roman Courtiers For though neither did the French Church nor other Bishops ever intend to submit unto several superstitious and destructive tenets that the Papacy and Canonists urge yet into what dangers some are fallen and ensnared and others are threatned to be involved is manifest and all this from too great tendernesse in point of Ecclesiastical Communion It is manifest from the mutability and frailty of humane nature and the usual effect thereof upon temptations that where such a power or Sovereignty is lodged it may be applied to the introducing of Superstitious and Idolatrous practices Thus Ieroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin they perhaps innocently complied with that Sovereignty when Orthodox and he misimploying it diverted them from the true worship of God So Nebuchadnezar one day erects an Idol and appoints all upon pain of death to worship it by and by commands all to worship the God of the three children Thus Darius makes a Decree that none shall put up any prayer or petition to God but onely to the King for thirty dayes the transgressor being to be cast into the Lyon's denne How many think we by holding Communion with a Prince owning such a power were by those Caprichio's ingaged not into the peril of but actual Superstition and Idolatry Nor are the Papal pretenses lesse the Canonists and Decretals ascribing unto him a power even to alter the Christian faith and not onely to enlarge it that He and Christ have but one Tribunal that He is God that if He vary from the Scripture and Christianity t is to be presumed that God Almighty hath changed his mind with such expression heretofore the Papal Letters and Canonists were stuffed and what danger there is from our Historian's communion of Superstition and Idolatry appears from the Determinations that have been made about Transubstantiation and the consequent worship and superstitions about that Breaden God In fine for I will not insist upon so notorious a point since the Councill of Constance could determine and involve others in a superstitious and impious compliance that non obstante notwithstanding any thing in the Scripture to the contrary the Communion in one kind should be celebrated T is strange for any man to say that there is no danger in communicating with one pretending to such a power though not yet abusing it there being so evident instances of fact to the contrary If there were no other argument for the continuance and advancing of the study of Philology and all ancient Learning and Church History the horror of this Assertion of our Virtuoso is such that no Protestant of the Church of England can otherwise but assent thereunto now Any man that understands the controversies betwixt the Papists and Protestants and contests about Image worship and several other Papal Superstitions and Idolatries which have hapned in Greece Germany France Spain and England of old and later dayes betwixt those of the Roman Catholick Communion will never assent to our Author's opinion or free him from the imputation of grosse and intolerable ignorance The second Question Whether it be possible for any Protestant of the Church of England to communitate with the present Church of Rome in her tenets and Ecclesiastical offices without danger of Superstition is easily determin'd by considering the nature of Ecclesiastical communion which I explained in the beginning and the nature and grounds of our separation from Rome and Reforming our selves No man can hold such an assertion but he must desert the Thirty nine Articles wherein the invocation of Saints and Image worship prayers in an unknown Tongue the five additional Sacraments Communion under one kâ—nd Transubstantiation worshipping of the Hoste are all condemned Nay the last additional Rubrique declares it to be express Idolatry to worship the Bread Now the actual acknowledging of all these superstitions and errours the actual complying with such as relate to practice is so required of all such as hold communion with the Church of Rome that none can remain therein without being sensible thereof so that either our Virtuoso understood not what it was to communicate with the Romanists or was ignorant what Superstition and Idolatry are when he writ this passage But so much hath been said by me in the foregoing passages in vindication of our Church for departing from the Romish Communion and our Laws together with other Ecclesiastical constitutions are so positive and severe against all such Communion that I need not insist hereon further but leave it to the Consideration of my Superiours and of those that are skilled in the Laws of the Land How consonant this passage of our Historian is thereunto how pernicious towards the subversion of the established Religion and how far punishable it being a notorious endeavour to withdraw the King's Majesties subjects from the Religion established to the Romish Religion Histor. R. S. pag. 349. He the Natural and Experimental Philosopher will be led to admire the wonderful contrivance of the Creation and so to apply and direct his praises aright which no doubt when they are offer'd up to Heaven from the mouth of one that hath well studied what he commends will be more suitable to the Divine Nature than the blind Applauses of the Ignorant This was the first service that Adam perform'd to his Creator when he obeyed him in mustering and naming and looking into the nature of all Creatures This had been the onely Religion if men had continued innocent in Paradise and had not wanted a Redemption THe former part of this passage is contrary to the Analogy of Faith and Scripture in that it makes the acceptablenes of mens prayers to depend more or less on the study of Natural Philosophy Whereas the Apostle suspends the acceptablenes of all Prayers unto God in being made unto him in the name and for the mediation of Christ Iesus applied by faith Hebr. 10.19 20 21 22. Having therefore Brethren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Iesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vaile that is to say his flesh and having an High priest over the house of God let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Here is not any mention how that Experimental Philosophie doth render any prayers more suitable to God than those of the lesse curious this knowledg is no where in the new or old Testament so far recommended unto us as that without this qualification the Saints should be said to offer up the blind applauses of ignorant persons Particularly I do not find this circumstance endeared unto us by that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.2 Though I have the gift of Prophesy and understand all Mysteries and all knowledg and though I have
all faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no charirity I am nothing Certainly no prayers were ever more suitable to the mind of God than those which the first Christians poured out when it was true to say Yee see your calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise 1 Cor. 1.26 27. It was not intended of the Virtuosi Except ye become like one of these ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It may not be perhaps amisse to insert here the Article of our Church concerning works before Iustification this new way of rendring our praises I do not perceive that our Experimentator is ever likely to say any prayers more acceptable to God being not mentioned in the Doctrine of the Church of England Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve a grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin Thus for ought I can find by our Church and the Scripture though our Experimental Philosopher study the Creation never so much and never so well and so that is from those contemplations form his Hymnes and Panegyriques He will not come to be more acceptable to God than another who with humility and reverence studies well the Scripture and seeks to be accepted in and through the merits of Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Who thinks that though the Heavens declare the handiworks of God and that rains and fruitful seasons may witnesse for him yet that the Divine nature will be still incomprehensible all humane language and thoughts beneath his Majesty that the word of God is that whither Christ sends us to search that God best speaks concerning himself that a Psalm of David the Te Deum or Magnificat in a blind and ignorant but devout Christian will be better accepted than a Cartesian Anthymne In the latter part t is something more than is revealed in Scripture to say that the first service Adam perform'd to his Creator consisted in naming for it is contrary to the text that Adam mustered them together The Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the ayr and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them Gen. 2.19 and looking into the nature of all creatures T is very probable that there passed some other acts of worshipping and glorifying his Creator before upon his first original and when he received that positive commandement relating to the forbidden fruit nay t is unimaginable that it should be otherwise The subsequent clause if it relate onely to the study of the nature of all creatures as it seems to do is an assertion such as never fell from any Divine No man ever taught that Adam's fall which was a breach of his religious duty towards God was a deficiency from the study of Experimental Philosophie or that he was not ejected paradise for the breach of a positive command but for not minding the cultivation of the Garden and natural curiosities I never heard that this was that sin for which death passed upon all men nor this the transgression wherein Eve was the first I would willingly have constrained my self so as to carry on the relation of these words beyond those immediately preceding them but I find it too far a fetch It is true our Author doth acknowledg elsewhere that there are principles of natural Religion which consists in the acknowledgment and worship of a Deity and also that the study of Nature will teach an Experimentator to worship that wisdom by which all things are so easily sustained But these passages are too remote from this place to have any influence upon the text and the words that follow next argue for me herein viz. This was the first service that Adam perform'd to his Creator when he obey'd him in mustering and naming and looking into the nature of all creatures This had been the onely Religion if men had continued innocent in paradise and had not wanted a Redemption Of this the Scripture makes so much use that if any devout man shall reject all Natural Philosophie he may blot Genesis and Job and the Psalms and some other books out of the Canon of the Bible From whence it seems manifest that our Virtuoso so represents the matter as if Natural and Experimental Philosophie not Natural Theology had been the Religion of Paradise nor doth he mention any thing of the obligation Adam had to fulfill the Moral Law or obey the positive occasional precepts or to believe the incident Revelations with which his Creator might acquaint him Histor. R. S. pag. 355. Religion ought not to be the subject of Disputations it should not stand in need of any devises of reason It should in this be like the temporal Laws of all Countreys towards the obeying of which there is no need of Syllogismes or Distinctions nothing else is necessary but a bare promulgation a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words Nor ought Philosophers to regret this divorce seeing they have almost destroyed themselves by keeping Christianity so long under their guard by fetching Religion out of the Church and carrying it captive into the Schools they have made it suffer banishment from its proper place and they have withall very much corrupted the substance of their own knowledg They have done as the Philistins by seising of the Ark who by the same action deprived the people of God of their Religion and also brought a plague amongst themselves THis Paragraph is a congeries of grosse untruths tending to the dishonour of God and the destruction of the Protestant Religion as introducing of a Popish implicit faith or something which is in effect the same but attended with more ridiculous circumstances For our Historian would oblige us to receive our Religion upon trust or bare promulgation but neither tels us what promulgation is nor what opinion we are to have of the Promulgator I have met with disputes amongst Polemical Divines about the proposal of things to be believed when that is sufficiently done and so as to oblige the party concern'd unto assent and belief but Promulgation bare promulgation is a new term and such as never was heard of in the Divinity-Schools It is a Law-terme and very dubious sometimes Acts are legally promulgated when passed in Parlament and recorded there Sometimes they are also printed sent to the Sheriffs and posted up in the Market-places Sometimes they are read in the
the fabrick of the world Our Historian in this passage insinuates almost as much had he been amongst the first Promulgators of Christianity I cannot also conceive but that He condemnes all Sermons Expositions Homilies Ceremonies and all those rational contrivances by which the Church hath endeavoured gently to gain upon the Affections and Opinions of men in that he asserts that Religion should not stand in need of any devises of men Religion should in this be like the Temporal Laws of all Countries towards the obeying of which there is no need of Syllogismes or Distinctions nothing else is necessary but a bare promulgation a common apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words That there may be have been in some Countries Temporal Laws to the obeying which there is no need of Syllogismes or Distinctions I am ready to grant but to say it hath been so in all Countries is such an Assertion as becomes not an English-man nor one that understands the Civil Law or that even of the Iews No Lawes in a Government not Despotick ever were so contrived to all circumstances that to the obeying of them there would not need any Syllogismes or Distinctions In our Nation t is notorious nor is it so facile a thing to determine what is included in the extent of a Law what influence the preamble and title have upon the subsequent Act a Common Apprehension and sense enough to understand the Grammatical meaning of ordinary words will not carry a man through without Cowel's Dictionary Spelman's Glossary and many other Law books so as to understand the meaning of our Lawes and as to their being in force how many Arguments are there about that when the obligation of the Law ceaseth whether discontinuance or the ceasing of those motives which give being to a Statute or the introducing of a contrary Law without repealing the former expresly do abrogate any Statute An infinite of Controversies daily arising shew that Syllogismes and Distinctions are necessary to our Temporal Laws being understood and executed But perhaps our Virtuoso may propose a new regulation of Law and Gospell too but till that be effected I am sure his Assertion is false But if the case in Temporal Laws were such as t is represented as it is not but in Seignoral Monarchies yet were there great reason for men to be more solicitous about their Religion or Spiritual Lawes than about the Civil and Municipal That Scripture which subjects us to the Civil Magistrate for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 bids us first to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousnesse Math. 6.33 and rather to fear him that can kill the body and soul than him that can onely kill the Body Matth. 10.28 Luc. 12.4 5. If the person whose Majesty is offended be greater if the penalties be more horrid upon the violation of the true Religion than upon transgression of the Civil and Municipal Laws men are to be excused for being more solicitous inquisitive and disputatively searching into the will of God to see what enterferes with and what is conformable to the will of the Magistrate where their Commands are repugnant it is better to obey God than Man Act. 4.19 As much as God is above any ordinance of man and an Essential underived Majesty above secondary and communicated power 1 Pet. 2.13 as much as the soul and its welfare is above the body so different ought to be our concernes about these two obligations For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and loose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Matth. 16.26 He that a sinner hath to do with is a jealous God and a consuming fire It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth John 4.23 24. Therefore a Christian must with Syllogismes Distinctions Humility and Prayer soberly search into his heart and examine that he erre not in the Object of his Religion or the manner of his worship and obedience or in the frame of spirit which is requisite to them that worship the true God He must be satisfied about the lawfulnes of each action a bare Imperial command though promulgated will not ingender in him a pious plerophory who knows that such Edicts have no direct and immediate influence upon the conscience that they are not in themselves a sufficient Rule of action for then the Command of an earthly Sovereign were alwaies to be obeyed actively and a disobedience to the decrees of Ieroboam Manasseh and Nebuchadnezzar were criminal though we do submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to King as supreme or unto inferiour Governours 1 Peter 2.13 Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But this hinders not a Christian from disputing piously the commands of his Superiour and paying him an Obedience meerly passive where he cannot act without sinning against God No Christian was ever obliged to think every Decree of his Iudg to be just or every penalty inflicted righteously but since a Christian's concern is not much in this world either as to life or goods since his stay on Earth is but a deprival of greater and more stable happiness since whatever any Humane Law can bereave him of a thousand casualties may take from him since he is forbid to set his heart on things below to turn the other cheek being buffeted on the one and to give up his coat after his cloak is taken away from him he is very indifferent in the transactions of this world neque Cassianus neque Nigrianus He is of a passive temper his Eye is alwayes fixed on his Lord that compliance which he permits and enjoyns he readily payes and in other cases patiently submits but still considers still acts or suffers out of a principle of faith and holynesse without which it is impossible to please God without which every performance is sinful Hebr. 11.6 Rom. 14.23 True Religion is not onely directed to God and the Father but seeks an interest in Christ Iesus who pronounceth I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth unto the father but by me Iohn 14.6 Through him we have accesse by one spirit unto the Father Ephes. 2.18 A general knowledg of a Deity will not satisfie God where a man is not sollicitous about further discoveries or where accessional improvements may be attained we ought not to acquiesce in the first rudiments not alwayes to be Babes and pursue milk in stead of stronger meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all 1 Tim. 4.15 No more will a general intention to serve God content Him if his worship be not celebrated in a right manner Since the Gospell t is impiety to
be confined to any Methodical Creeds or Articles but be left in that latitude of phrase wherein the Scriptures have delivered it 't is manifest that they look with indifferency on the things signified by those words and forms 't is manifest that they make way for growing Atheisme and Socinianisme 't is manifest that they overthrow the Constitutions of the Church of England whose Articles make use of those significant terms transmitted from the Fathers to our Schools and subvert the Basis of our Religion as it is represented in our Laws to consist of an owning of three Creeds and four Councils besides the Holy Scripture Thus primo Elizabethae cap. 1. The four General Councils are mentioned after the Scripture Canonical and that is to be adjudged Heresie which hath been adjudged ordered and determined to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scripture or by the first four General Councils The same is averr'd by King James in his Letter Rex Ecclesia Anglicana quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica quum admittant And that King challengeth the Title of Catholick as due to him Qui tria Ecclesiae Symbola Concilia quatuor Oecumenica prima agnosceret This is evident to all that know any thing of our Church and 't is as manifest and whosoever writes otherwise repugnes to our Laws and whatever he subscribes unto or professeth is no true Son of the Church established in England Histor. R. S. pag. 362. The grounds whereon the Church of England proceeds are different from those of the Separists and also of the Church of Rome and they are no other but the Rights of the Civil power the imitation of the first uncorrupt Churches and the Scriptures expounded by Reason This last clause is so far from being true that 't is directly contrary to the constitutions of our Church and better becomes a Socinian from Poland or Amsterdam then a Divine of our Church not that I say that our Church did ever expound the Scripture against Reason but that our Church did never relie upon Reason as it is opposed to Authority of the Ancient Fathers in the determining of the will of God revealed in Scripture If the Historian meant nothing else but that the actions of men are alwayes rational and that the assent we yield to any thing is never so blind and implicite as to be destitute of all motives and inducements thereunto so that we resign our selves up to Authority upon the score of Reason If he meant no more then this why doth he speak in the language rather of a Socinian than a Protestant This expression is dangerous as it is worded because the Socinians may derive advantage from it and the Orthodox may think and find themselves injured especially in these times when the Socinians multiply upon us by it amongst the unwary as if there were no use of the Fathers but that we were without researching of Antiquity to consult the grounds of Reason such as are commonly found in men and bred in them either Naturally or from the contemplation of the ordinary course of things Physical and Moral in this World Whence what confusion will arise when all holy Sobriety is cast of any man knows who hath but inquired into the controversies of these last Centuries when the Scripture hath not been made by men the Rule of Faith or formal object thereof but only accommodated to the phansies and imaginations of prejudicate prepossessed men Upon this account the Church of England hath by her Canon in which she follows the Council in Trullo tied her Doctors as much as the Council of Trent does to expound Scriptures according to the sense of the Ancient Fathers This Bishop Taylor avows in the Introduction to his second Dissuasive This Doctor Heylyn in his Cyprianus Anglicus pag. 52. doth aver and I shall here set down the Canon of our Church Concilium Trullanum sive Synodus quinisexta Canon 19. edit per Francisc. Ioverium Parisiis A. D. 1555. Quod oportet eos qui praesunt Ecclesiis in omnibus quidem diebus sed praecipuè Dominicis omnem Clerum populum docere pietatis ac rectae religionis eloquia ex divinâ Scripturâ colligentes intelligentias judicia veritatis non transgredientes jam positos terminos vel divinorum patrum traditionem Sed si ad Scripturam pertinens controversia aliqua excitata fuerit ne eam aliter interpretentur quà m quomodò Ecclesiae luminaria doctores ex suis scriptis exposuerunt majorem ex iis laudem assequantur quà m si quae à se dicuntur componant Liber Canonum quorundam Londini 1571. Concionatores Inprimis verò videbunt nequid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiosè teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi Testamenti quodque ex illâ ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Thus K. Charles I. in his third Paper to Mr. Henderson If the practice of the Primitive Church and the universal consent of the Fathers be not a convincing Argument when the Interpretation of Scripture is doubtful I know nothing for if this be not then of necessity the interpretation of private spirits must be admitted the which contradicts S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.20 Is the Mother of all Sects and will if not prevented bring these Kingdoms into confusions Histor. R. S. pag. 414 415. The Wit that may be borrowed from the Bible is magnificent and as all other Treasures of Knowledge it contains inexhaustible This may be used and allowed without any danger of Profaneness The ancient Heathens did the same They made their Divine Ceremonies the chief subject of their phansies By that means their Religions had a more awfull impression became more popular and lasted longer in force than else they would have done And why may not Christianity admit the same thing if it be practised with sobriety and reverence What irreligion can there be in applying some Scripture-expressions to Naturall things Why are not the one rather exalted and purified then the other defiled by such applications The very Enthusiasts themselves who are wont to start at such wit as Atheistical are more guilty of its excesses then any other sort of Men for whatever they alledge out of the Historical Prophetical or Evangelical writings and apply it to themselves their Enemies or their Country though they call it the mind of God yet it is nothing else but Scripture-comparison and similitude It is to be observed that this passage is inserted into a discourse concerning Wit as it discovers it selfe in the ordinary conversation and writings of the Railleurs and is founded on certaine images as our Historian phraseth it which are generally known and are able to bring a strong and a sensible impression on the mind It is an Humour that hath generally possessed the Gallantilloes of this age whereby they endeavour to recommend