of the Church the Ministration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies but also the Doctrine and Religion set out by King Edw. VI. to be more pure and according to Gods word than any other used in England these thousand Years c. § 4. In all the Churches of this Kingdom Cathedral and Parochial the Church now hath moderately appointed the same Rules and Cautions and the same use among us every where and those few in number plain and easy to be understood f The Preface to the Common-Prayer Book Whereas the Rubricks and Orders of the Church of Rome are so innumerable intricate and various that scarce an Apprentiship may suffice to learn the practice of them which whether it suit with the simplicity of the Christian Gospel may without difficulty be judged Among us an easy Calendar is prefixt with few Canons and Prescriptions and those very intelligible wherein according to an excellent Moderation the People have their parts for excitation sake and to unite their affections although no where in what is properly ministerial § 5. The Moderation of our Church is sufficiently known to the whole World in requiring our Common Prayers to be in the vulgar tongue for the general benefit of all According to our 24. Article It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayer in the Church or to administer the Sacraments in a tongue not understood of the people Which Article is further confirmed and proved in the Homilies especially in that of Common-Prayer and Sacraments from the nature and end of Prayer Resolving also As for the time since Christ till that usurped power of Rome begun to spread it self and to enforce all the Nations of Europe to have the Romish Language in admiration it appeareth by the consent of the most ancient and learned Writers there was no strange tongue used in the Congregation of Christians Yet for the same reason that common people should have their Prayers in English among us those who have been educated in sufficient learning are allowed to use them in another tongue as in Vniversities and Colleges The use of the Latin Form of Prayers is also commended to the Ministers of the Church of England by Queen Elizabeth's Letters Dated April 6. 1560 g Bishop Sparrow's Collection and also the first Rubrick before the Preface of Ceremonies In all which the Moderation of our Church doth comply as the Queens Letters doth express it with the necessity of those who do not understand other tongues and the desire of those who de § 6. Notwithstanding the Church hath provided most excellent Prayers for the use of private devotion upon all general occasions and what is readily and properly applicable to more occasions particular yet the Moderation of the Church hath not thought fit any where to bind all who are of her Communion to the use of her Common Prayers in private Families or Closets The Rubrick which enjoins All Priests and Deacons to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly is set down with great Moderation Not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause In the Family or in Visitation of the sick if the particular condition of the one or the other do require it and in private and in the Closet It is not supposed by our Church but that every one may ask their own wants in what form of words he shall think fit h Dr Hammonds Pract. Cat. of Prayer The Consideration of which Liberty indulged by the Church caused I suppose another excellent Writer i Dr Patricks Devout Christian Preface thus also to express himself It is possible also that some may judge this whole work to be but a needless labour since they have the Book of Common Prayers at hand which they can use at home as well as at the Church With these persons I shall not contend but only deliver my opinion freely about this matter which is that the reverence due to that Book will be best preserved by employing it only in the publick Divine Service or in the private where there is a Priest to officiate However the design of it is not to furnish the people with Prayers for all those particular occasions wherein devout Souls would make their requests known to God and the constant opinions of pious Divines in this and other Churches we see by their Writings hath been that other Books of Prayers are necessary for the flock of Christ beside their publick Liturgy Though in the choice of such Prayers as are so accommodate to the occasions of humane Life and such Cases as are incidental to the spiritual needs and circumstances of Christian people there hath been sometimes wished some further advice and recommendation made common by Authority The 55. Canon thus directs That before all Sermons Lectures and Homilies Preachers and Ministers shall move the people to join with them in this Form or to this effect as briefly as conveniently they may in hunc aut similem modum The Title in the Latine Canons is Precationis formula à concionatoribus in Concionum suarum ingressu imitanda In the English Canons the Title is A Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermon From all which I only note That the Moderation of the Church is certain and undoubted But the disagreeing variety in practice consequent thereon whether it be so convenient it remains for Superiours to judge § 7. Although some of the ancient Christians used the distinction of Hours of Prayer which at first was thought orderly and useful as a voluntary task and determining of the Christian Liberty of those who profess Gods Service is perfect freedom Yet our Church considering the common employment of most and the natural infirmities of all hath appointed and required only a daily Sacrifice of Morning and Evening Service as of constant observance not excluding but inviting other voluntary oblations of a sincere Devotion to God according to our leisure and opportunity But our Church doth no where countenance the novelties of those that put any trust in the bare recital only of a few Prayers k Dr Cosins of the antient times of Prayer or place any vertue in the Bedroll or certain number of them at such and such hours notwithstanding many of the said Prayers are also directed otherwise than Prayers should be § 8. Although according to the judgment of the Church and in truth the entire worship of God is complete in the Divine Service of the Church even as among the Jews Sacrifices Prayers and Thanksgivings made up the entire notion of Divine Worship so under the Gospel the Sacrifices of Prayer and Thanksgiving do absolutely compleat the worship of God yet our Church judgeth according to an excellent temper of the use and necessity of Sermons acknowledging their great use as occasion requires to convince reprove to excite and comfort
the Bishop remits the guilt of Sins the Prince compels the Bishop exhorts he governs by Necessity but we by Counsel So it is in the Injunction of King Edward the 6th 1547. unto those who have the Cure of Souls They ever gently and charitably Exhorting and in his Majesties Name strictly charging and Commanding c. So in the 3 d. Canon 1640. the sacred Synod earnestly intreats and exhorts the Reverend Judges c. § 2. As our Church doth lawfully assert her own Spiritual Power entire and inherent in the Church so she hath always exercised her power in all Subordination to the Right of Princes * V. Institution of a Christian Man p. 49. V. Homily of Obedience And constantly acknowledging that whatsoever Power beside Spiritual the Church or its Church-Men have she receives the same entirely from the favour of our Kings wherefore our Bishops have exercised no Jurisdiction in foro Externo within this Realm but such as hath been granted unto them by the Successive Kings of England Neither have challenged †Non enim dominandi cupidine imperant sed Officio consulendi nec principandi superbiâ sed providendi misericerdia S. Aug. de Civ D. c. 14. any such Jurisdiction belonging to them by any inherent right or title in their Persons or Callings but only by emanation and derivation from the Royal Authority Now the regular exercise of a derived Power is so far from destroying or any way diminishing that Original Power from whence it is derived as that it rather confirmeth and establisheth the same ¶ Bishop Sanderson of Episc not prejudic to Regal Power Wherefore the Institution of a Christian Man calls The Power of Orders a Moderate Power subject determined and restrained § 3. As the Interests of the Kingdom and Church are excellently accommodated in our Constitution of Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws under one Supreme Governour so the Moderation of the Church hath tempered her self very justly between those pretences on one hand who have insisted on their Pleas of Spiritual Right to the real diminution of Soveraign Power And those on the other hand who resolve the exercise of all the inward Power of the Church into the sole will and arbitrary power of the Civil Magistrates according to Erastus and the Leviathan-Author who thus delivers himself The Monarch hath authority not only to Preach Pag. 297. which perhaps no Man will deny but also to Baptize and Administer the Sacraments of the Lord's Supper and to consecrate both Temples and Pastours to God's Service Wherefore our 37 Article declares We give not our Princes V. Canon 1. 2 36. V. Q Eliz. Admonition the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments which thing the Injunctions set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie 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 rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal Which Article of our Church is agreeable also to the judgment of some Bishops concerning the King's Supremacy in the Raign of King Henry the 8th Other places of Scripture declare the highness and excellency of Christian Princes Authority and Power The which of a truth is most high for he hath Power and Charge generally over all as well Bishops as Priests as other The Bishops and Priests have charge over Souls within their own Cures power to minister Sacraments and to teach the Word of God To the which Word of God Christian Princes knowledg themselves subject and in case the Bishops be negligent it is the Christian Princes office to see them do their duty Which sheweth Ex MSS. Dr. Stilling-fleet V. Collect. of Rec. Hist of Reform l. 3. p. 177. that Objection against the Oath of Supremacy is groundless which supposeth that the King is therein made not more a Political than a Spiritual Head of the Church * V. Camdens Eliz. p. 26. 39. Bishop Bramhal to M. Militier p. 37. V. Instit of Chri. Man p. 50. Which the Kings of England have constantly and openly disavowed to the whole World renouncing all claim to such Power and Authority Tho the regulating and ordering that Power in sundry Circumstances concerning the outward exercise thereof in foro externo the godly Kings of England have thought to belong to them as in the right of their Crown and have accordingly made Laws concerning the same even as they have done also concerning other Matters appertaining to the Religion and Worship of God § 4. Which being well considered we have great reason to observe and extol the excellent and pious Moderation of our Kings of England who never challenged to themselves the exercise of the pure Spiritual Power of the Church but left it entirely to the Bishops as the lawful Successors of the Apostles Which more fully appears from the Proclamation in the 13th Year of King Charles the First of blessed Memory according to the Certificate of the Right Reverend Judges under their Hands July 1. 1637. Wherein it was declared That Processes may issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bishops c. The Censures also of the Church are confirmed by the Law of the Kingdom * 1 R. Ellz. c. 2. And the behaviour of the Church to the King sheweth the same Exemplary Moderation For the Ecclesiastical Censures are with all due subordination to the Supreme Power secular used Because all external jurisdiction coercive is by Law declared and by the Clergy acknowledged to be wholly and entirely derived from the King as the sole fountain of all Authority of external jurisdiction whether Spiritual or Temporal within this Realm In other Matters tho the substance of the Power it self be immediately from God and not from the King as those of Preaching Ordaining Absolving c. Yet are they so subject to be inhibited limited or otherwise regulated in the outward exercises of that Power by the Laws and Customs of the Land as that the whole execution thereof still depends on the Regal Authority * Bishop Sanderson l. praedict p. 32 33. Altho then the Church knoweth it self to be a Society in its own nature distinct unto which the 19 Article most properly refers yet as very often now it is the unspeakable happiness of the Church to be entertain'd within the Protection of Supreme Powers secular so however the Church of England very justly declares for the Right of Kings to be preserved Inviolable as well as the just Power of the Church and the real Interest of the People Yea all these Interests with that of Religion in the first place our Church with great Moderation and Wisdom preserves entire and distinct All which among the Romanists and other Modellers are miserably confounded or destroyed § 5. Other Sects among us do some way or other deny the King's Supremacy
Her sound and charitable judgment of such as die after Baptism § 3. In some necessary cautions referring to the administration of Baptism § 4. Referring also to the susceptors § 5. In what is required of them who administer that Sacrament In reference to the Holy Supper of our Lord § 1. The same is with us celebrated in both kinds § 2. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation is rejected by our Church not running to the other extreme of denying a real presence of Christ in the Sacrament § 3. The Moderation of our Church in complying with the necessity of the Age but not with the Church of Rome and others who require their people to communicate not so much as thrice a year § 4. Participation of the Holy Supper required after Confirmation but not after the rigid Examinations of some or the auricular Confessions of others Neither is it made a private banquet § 5. In our Church there is not to be a Communication of the Eucharist without Communicants The Moderation of the Church in other Rubricks referring to the Holy Communion p. 272 Chap. XI Of the Moderation of the Church in reference to other Rights and Usages § 1. The Moderation of the Church in its Judgment and use of Confirmation § 2. Concerning Matrimony allowing her Clergy to marry affording opportunity of voluntary celibacy in our Vniversities according to a commendable moderation Vndue degrees of Marriages and some particular Times forbid c. § 3. In reference to Holy Orders 1. The Moderation of the Church in her Consecrating Ministers 2. In taking care to have them be as they ought to be both before and after Ordination with good effect 3. Yet if not so great as is desired why the Church ought not to be accused 4. In retaining such Orders of Ministers in the Church as are Primitive 5. The Moderate Judgment of the Church concerning such as have been ordain'd in the Church of Rome and elsewhere 6. Our Church endeavours to preserve all due regard to what-ever is consecrated to God 7. The Power of the Keys asserted in our Church with due moderation § 4. Of Penance 1. The Moderation of our Church between those who sleight Penance and those who explain it extravagantly 2. The Confession of our Church which is required is suitable to the design of Repentance 3. The Seal of Confession in our Church is as sacred as it ought to be 4. The use of External Penance in our Church according to due Moderation 5. The use of Absolution in our Church maintained according to a just temper § 5. For Visitation of the Sick 1. The worthy care of the Church therein and some Instances of its Moderation referring thereunto 2. Our Churches care for preparing those who are of her Communion for Death without extreme Vnction in use in the Church of Rome 3. Many Instances of the Moderation of the Church referring to the Burial of the Dead p. 289 Chap. XII Of the Moderation of our Church in what concerns the Power of the Church § 1. The Moderation of our Church owns the Power of the Church to be only Spiritual § 2. All other Power which Ecclesiastical Persons receive is readily acknowledged entirely depending on the favour of our Kings § 3. The Interests of the Kingdom and the Church are excellently accommodated in our Constitutions which is not done in other Models § 4. The pious Moderation of our Kings preserving their own rightful Supremacy and leaving to the Church the exercise of their Spiritual Power acknowledged by our Church § 5. The just Right of Kings shamefully invaded by other Sects pretending Divine Right Concerning which Claim the Moderation of our Church observed § 6. The dutiful Moderation of our Church in asserting Monarchy The first Canon 1640. justified § 7. All Interests of Humane Society especially of Subjects Allegiance in our Church abundantly secured which is not done by those in separation from her § 8. The Ordinances of our Church are framed with great Mildness and Moderation § 9. The same compared with the mild Obligation which Cardinal Bellarmine pretends the Church of Rome lays upon those of her Communion § 10. Sundry Instances of our Church's great regard to Equity p. 331 Chap. XIII Of the Moderation of the Church and Kingdom referring to the Administration of Publick Laws towards Offenders § 1. The occasion of that Mistake which is concerning the unlawfulness of Coercion in cases which concern Religion § 2. It may be very well consistent with the Moderation of the Church besides her own Censures to approve and sometimes desire such Coercion § 3. The Vse thereof in many Cases relating to Religion the undeniable Right of the Christian Magistrate § 4. Some of the chief Objections hereunto Answered § 5. Sundry proper Instances of the great Gentleness and most indulgent Care of our Church toward all its Members § 6. The Moderation of the Church and Kingdom not without their requisite and just Bounds § 7. The Recourse which our Church desires may be made to the Secular Arm is not but upon urgent and good Occasion § 8. Our Government defended from unjust Clamours of Persecution of the Romanists on one side and the Separatists on the other § 9. The Kings of England since the Reformation and especially his present Majesty Glorious Examples of this Moderation The effect of this Moderation yet much desired and wanted p. 353 Chap. XIV Of the general Moderation of our Church toward all that differ from her and are in error § 1. Our Church takes universal care to satisfy and reconcile those who differ from her Particularly our Domestick Dissenters to whom sundry Concessions have been made § 2. Our Church is not forward to denounce Curses against those who are not of the same Judgment with her § 3. Our Church doth not judge all according to the Consequences of their Doctrines § 4. In refusing an adverse Party Our Church gives an excellent Example not to use odious Names § 5. Our Church useth great care to preserve and restore peace § 6. The Moderation of the Church gives it a singular advantage to convince Dissenters upon right and proper Principles § 7. The Moderation of our Church doth incomparably qualify Her to arbitrate and reconcile the present differences of the Christian Churches § 8. A Supposition laid down of the most possible means of Reconciling a Protestant and such a Romanist as lays aside Infallibility and that the Church of England hath done her part in what was fit toward any just Reconciliation § 9. An Answer to that common Calumny of the Separatists that our Governours in the Church of England have more peace and reconciliation for Papists than for the most moderate Protestant Dissenters p. 385 Chap. XV. Of the Moderation of the Church toward other Churches and Professions of Men. § 1. In that Vniversal Concord which our Church hath maintained with all so far as lawfully and usefully it may § 2. Her protesting
Churches hath plentifully instanced but so far forth as they judge the same Moderation found among themselves they seem to mention it with a great joy p Retinemus ex singulis regiminibus exquisitam temperaturam J. A. Comenius de Ord. Eccl. apud Bohem. and count the same worthy of imitation q Atque hîc Commemorare libet ad Exemplum quantâ sapientiâ quantoque temperamento compositae fuerint precationum formulae quibus Gall. Genev. utuntur Amyrald de secess ab Eccl. Rom. p. 225. § 3. Wherefore the most general and inartificial but most plain proof of the Moderation of our Church such a proof as is sufficient to evince the whole enquiry is the consideration of the condition of our Church among her Adversaries that is as the 7. Canon 1640. hath it between the groundless suspicions of the weak and the aspersions of the malicious r Pref. to the Liturgy conc Cerem between those addicted to their old Customs and the new-fangled who would innovate all things the Church of England hath been a patient sufferer And as the true Religion hath always been tryed by real persecution of its extreme Adversaries and thereby hath become more approved and more glorious so by the wonderful Providence of God this temper and Constitution of the Church of England hath had its Essayes in two very refining Tryals 1. Immediately after the Reformation in its persecution from those of the Romish Communion and lately in its second Tryal from other Domestick Adversaries from both which sufficient proofs the Moderation of our Church may be known unto all 'T is a hard condition The Church of England professeth the ancient Catholick Faith and yet the Romanist condemns her of Novelty in her Doctrine She practiseth Church Government as it hath been in use in all Ages and places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Separatist condemns her for Anti-Christianism in her Discipline The plain truth is she is betwixt these two Factions as between two Milstones And it is very remarkable that while both these press hard upon the Church of England both of them cry out upon Persecution t Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher Pref. among whom she is placed as an humble representation of her Blessed Saviour for as he was Crucified amidst Criminals so the Church of England hath most constantly suffered betwixt such Factions and Sects of Men as have run into the utmost extremes from the judgment and practices of the Universal Church of Christ such are the Romanists and other Sectaries and Schismaticks amongst us Thus Manasseh vexed Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh and both against Judah Is 9. 21. Thus Herod and Pontius Pilate otherwise at variance became Friends to be but the worse Enemies to our Saviour thus both the Jews and Gentiles opposed the Christian Religion and afterward the later Jews and the Circumcellions joined against the Catholick Christians and since Judaism and Gentilism have been overcome by the light of the Gospel the corruption of the Christian Religion hath arisen from its own Professors which is the corruption of Christianity into Popery and other Sects amongst us for what is best in it self is worst when corrupted and as the Christian Religion is the perfection of other Philosophies so these corruptions of Christianity have in them much of the very dregs of Judaism and the worst imitation of Gentilism And now how earnestly do the several Factions from Rome and the whole gang of Sects among us oppose our Church whose wise Moderation and excellent Constitution do place her amidst such extremes Between the Ignes fatui pretenders to new lights on one hand and the Boutfeaus the male-contented Incendiaries on the other hand Between both these we must be served as the Guests of Procrustes t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Theseo were in his famous Bed the Romanists think us too short and deficient in most of our measures and therefore they would needs have us stretcht if not upon the rack the Sectaries count us redundant in many superfluities and would fain have us cut precisely according to their Models so their mutual testimony rightly applyed may thus far be accepted that indeed we are guilty of neither extreme but really do bear the Test to be in the golden Mean To this purpose the Excellent Hammond begins his Preface to his View of the Directory There is no surer evidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which to discern the great excellency of Moderation in that Book of the Liturgy of the Church of England and so the apportionateness of it to the end to which it was designed than the experience of these so contrary fates which it hath constantly undergone betwixt the Persecutors on both extreme parts the Assertors of the Papacy on the one side and the Consistory on the other The one accusing it of Schism the other of compliance The one of departure from the Church of Rome the other of remaining with it Like the poor Greek Church our Fellow Martyr devoured by the Turk for too much Christian Profession and damn'd by the Pope for too little It being the dictate of natural reason in Aristotle That the middle vertue is most infallibly known by this that it is accused by either extreme as guilty of the other For as S. Greg. Nazianzen in his third Oration of Peace u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Whatsoever is peaceable and moderate doth suffer much of both the extremes and either is despised or resisted of which sort while we are now who blame what is amiss we therefore are placed as in a seat of strife and envy and no wonder if we are bruised in pieces between both Neither is there any more certain Argument of the equal and just Constitution of the Church of England than that the Factions among us are so ready to join with the Romanists in the very same accusations It follows now that we give more particular instances of the real Moderation of the Church CHAP. IV. Of the Moderation of our Church in respect to her Rule of Faith § 1. In holding to her true and just measure as is proved from her Articles and Canons and other Monuments of the Church § 2. In her avoiding the extremes of those who take away from the due perfection of Holy Scripture and of others who seem officiously to add thereunto § 3. In her judgment of the letter and sense of Scripture and in the use of such consequences as are duly drawn from thence § 4. In reference to the Versions and Translations of Holy Scripture several instances of Moderation in our Church § 5. In her Orders also for dispensing the Holy Scripture to all within her Communion § 6. In governing the reading of the Scripture and communing on the same § 7. In her judgment of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books § 8. The Divine Authority
and Peace in the Church Our Church hath wisely distinguished between what is necessary absolutely and what only in some circumstances is necessary to Salvation Those things saith the Homily a 2d Part of the Homily of Scriptures that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every mans duty is to learn them and as for dark mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them till such time as it shall please God to open those things unto them b Hom. 1. If it shall require to teach any truth or to do any thing requisite for our Salvation All those things saith St Chrysostom we may learn plentifully of the Scripture And in the 19. Article of the Church The Preaching of the pure word of God and the Administration of the Sacraments are made indispensable notes of the visible Church namely in all things that of necessity are requisite to the same and the 8th Article declares The three Creeds ought throughly to be believed and received for that they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture where our Church gives the reason of her Faith and sheweth her earnestness in contending for it But the Moderation of our Church contains her self within the bounds of what is before made necessary The principal and essential points of the Doctrine of Salvation such as are fit to make up the unity of the Faith and constitute a Church are no other among us than what Christ and his Apostles at first made necessary which also the ancient Church received as necessary unto Baptism and for distinction of Heresy which fundamental Maxims of Christian Science are frequently and plainly repeated in Scripture and by our Church were first of all insisted on at the reformation of our Church as we see in the Institution of a Christian Man 1537. in the first Injunctions of our Kings and our Form of Catechism Whereas the Catechisms and Systems which have been set up in opposition to the Catechism and Articles of the Church of England have abounded with many doubtful and unnecessary definitions yet so insisted upon by some as if the Hinges of the Gate of Heaven turn'd upon those Propositions whereby many have agreed with Pope Pius the Fourth who by his Bull set out the Apostles Creed in a larger Edition of about as many more Articles without belief of which is declared no Salvation c Extra quam Nemo salvus esse potest Bulla Pii quarti super formâ Juramenti professionis fidei sub finem Concilii Trid. Unto such a strange Circumference is the body of their unnecessary belief extended whereas the Religion of our Church tends to the Center Which distinction of things necessary from what was not so King James according to the sense of our Church declares of great use to lay a foundation for the publick peace of the Church d Vt de necessariis conveniat omnis opera insumatur in non-necessariis libertati Christianae locus Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr and of particular mens minds and the furtherance of true Faith and Piety § 2. Those Articles which are delivered by our Church for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion 1. They are few especially those of positive Doctrine and the other negative positions were necessary to assert our liberty from the abuses and encroachments of the Romanists in their contrary affirmatives few if we consider either the time or the occasion of their being framed it being just about the meeting at Trent made it necessary for our Church to declare her sense of many Doctrines for the better satisfaction and directions of her Sons and to testify her equal conditions of Communion Especially also if we consider the cruel number of Articles which either the Westminster Divines or the Trent Councellors have imposed on their followers e Bishop â—ramball fol. p. 1018. Indeed the Romanists do call our Religion a negative Religion because in all the Controversies between us and them we maintain the negative that is we go as far as we dare or can with warrant from holy Scriptures and the Primitive Church and leave them in their excesses or those inventions which they themselves have added but in the mean while they forget that we maintain all those Articles and truths which are contained in any of the ancient Creeds of the Church which I hope are more than negative The Church of England saith Archbishop Laud f Archbishop Laud against Fisher 5. 14. comes far short of the Church of Romes severity whos 's Anathema's are not for 39. Articles but for very many more above one hundred in matter of Doctrine and that in many points as far remote from the foundation though to the far greater rack of Mens Consciences they must be all Fundamental if that Church have determined them Whereas the Church of England never declared that every one of her Articles are fundamentals in the Faith For it is one thing to say no one of them is superstitious or erroneous and quite another to say every one of them is fundamental Besides the Church of England prescribes only to her own Children and by those Articles provides but for her peaceable consent in those Doctrines of truth but the Church of Rome severely imposeth on all the World her Doctrine and that under pain of damnation § 3. These Articles of Religion are generally exhibited as Articles of Peace and consent not as Articles of Faith and Communion and as such they are propounded to all the Communicants in our Church g Schisin guarded p. 150. Bishop Lanies Sermons p. 48. in general For the avoiding Diversities of Opinions as the Title of the Articles is Not such a consent as Curcellaeus h Curcellaeus Religionis Christianae Institut C. 15. means where he supposeth some in the dregs of the Age of the Reformation obtrude their Confessions and Catechisms as a secondary rule if not of truth yet of consent such as ought to be urged only to an infallible truth 't is likely he might know many who did so But the consent designed to be established by our Articles is such a consent as may keep the Peace of our Church undisturbed according to the sense of the fifth Canon Where the Prohibition is directed against such as should speak against the 39. Articles as superstitious and erroneous such as may not with a good Conscience be subscribed to Whosoever shall hereafter affirm i Quicunque in posterum affirmabit c. Ecclesiae Anglic. Canon 5. not as the Council of Trent k Si quis contrà senserit Anathema sit Concil Trid. de peccato Originis directs its Anathema against those that shall so much as think diversly Wherefore our Church no where delivers our Articles as necessary to be believed neither by vertue of their own necessity or her own Command as several with Bishop Bramhall have noted For which reason subscription unto them is
disposition to swallow all Poysons and are liable to the guilt not only of their first solitary error but all which are consequent thereon whereas those who use a sober examination after they are convinced of one error will be more cautious of others and the truth they come to of choice and judgment is also more praise-worthy and more tenible I should swell this head into too great a bulk if I should enumerate the sundry places wherein our Blessed Lord and his Holy Apostles did stir up and provoke the industry of the Christian Disciples to search discern prove try examine what they received lest at any time they were seduced by false Prophets The same admonitions and method have the ancient Fathers of the Church persued Both which would be endless here to recite Indeed all sorts of perswasions of men seem to confess the necessity of first convincing the reason and judgment of what is to be received as truth And therefore the Romanists use so many motives of credibility to induce belief of their Church in which if once the Proselyte is caught they serve him as the Chaldees did King Zedekiah after they had taken him Captive they put out his Eyes c Caeco judicio imperata facere quantumvis ea blasphema sint atque impia Apol. Eccl. Anglic. §. 138. 2 Kings 25. 7. Where indeed the mystery we are sure is certainly declared and delivered by God there we ought to captivate not only our imaginations but our reasons to the obedience of Faith not staying for a connexion of the parts of the Proposition to be believed by Scientific evidence which Mr Sergeant makes his Sure-footing But where we are not assured of the matter of fact of the Divine Revelation nor otherwise understand the reasons for such an assent No one can put off humane nature so far as to believe what they please d Nullus credit aliquid verum esse quia vult credere id esse verum nam non est in potestate hominis sacere aliquid apparer◠intellectui suo verum quando voluerit Picus Mirandula Indeed it is the great honour of our Church that it doth not testify nor require attestation unto any thing but where some good reason why we do so is sufficiently manifest which right as she maintains toward others so she vindicates the same to her self namely of examining what is offered to her under the venerable name of the Catholick Church and if need be of reforming any abuses or errors within the bounds of its own Discipline and so separating the pretious from the vile which power of examining Doctrines being forbid by the Church of Rome to her Sons seems to prevent the first occasion and means of Reformation e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Eutychianis inter Athanasii opera Consulatur integer Tractatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and renders her even incorrigible in her errors and corruptions and remaining so irreconcilable But some do Object That if we allow a right of private judgment it will be a direct means to establish among us an enthusiastic private Spirit which will rely upon its own judgment to the despising all others and if all may use a private judgment why may they not follow it and profess it Then you open a Window to all Divisions and Heresies and render the Church useless and all her Guides We Answer It is one thing to use our Faculties of discerning in a discreet manner which includes all due Reverence to all those instruments which God and the Church have given us for our direction and conduct and another thing to rely on our own prudence to wrest the Scripture to our own sense as the Council of Trent f Nemo prudentiae suae innixus S. Scripturam ad suos sensus contorqueat Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Decr. 2. speaks which the Church of England first of all detests Article 20. Every private person being here required to hear and obey the publick reason of our Church Which being also clear and true can allow the being searcht into and for that purpose she desires but her Sons to open their own Eyes Wherefore the sober use of our own faculties ought not to be called a private Spirit which judgeth according to the general notices of Truth and Good and the common sense of Mankind and the judgment also of the Church such a Spirit is the Candle of the Lord. Not an evil Spirit nor a Spirit of Innovation nor Dissention nor a Spirit of Pride nor Temptation as many of the Church of Rome blazon it As for the growth of Schisms and Heresies from the use of such a private judgment as the Church allows Which Objection was anciently made against the Christian Religion as of old by Celsus to Origen l. 3. Unto which was answered That where any thing was received which was very excellent such differences were common as among the Philosophers and Jews so among Christians but These now who make the Objection generally those of the Romish Communion yet know that though they carry as well as they can an outward shew of unity to their people they have as great divisions as any are And though indeed the corruption of good things is greatest by the abuse of ill men This ill consequence through the Vice of some ought not to take away the common right of all no more than the contentions which arise from the Laws should be thought to render them dangerous to be proclaimed The Christian Religion of it self is sufficient to keep all from error or vice if all men would comply with its wholsome and pacific Decrees as Arnobius g Quòd si omnes omnino salutaribus ejus pacificisque decretis aurem vellent accommodare paulisper non fastu supercilio Luminis suis potius sensibus quà m illius Comminationibus crederent universus jamdudum orbis mitiora in opera conversis usibus ferri tranquillitate mollissimâ degeret in Concordiam salutarem incorruptis foederum sanctionibus conveniret Arnobius l. 1. long since hath delivered And the Church in observance hereof doth procure her own Peace as much as may be in that all are bound not to publish their private sense to the detriment of publick Peace and by her Censures hath a power of repressing publick Dissenters and in case of doubt arising our Church wisely sends the parties so doubting to their Superiours h Preface concerning the Service of the Church And whereas Gods true Religion is but one the profession of which Article 19. and no other Article 18. is absolutely necessary to the being of Gods Church and therein to our Salvation Blessed be God in our Church there is abundant care taken of Gods Holy Religion both by the Laws of the Kingdom and Church for the instruction and government of its members unto edification and peace and every one may be satisfied in his Conscience and Judgment of the Religion he professeth Yet This
Christian people Let Archbishop Laud be heard for once by those who have doubted his judgment in this matter l Archbishop Laud §. 16. Num. 31. I ever took Sermons and do still to be the most necessary Expositions and applications of Holy Scripture and a great ordinary means of Salvation To the same purpose Hooker's Eccles Pol. l. 2. § 22. Neither hath the Church of God ever had any where more useful practical and judicious Preachers than those who with the Church of England have thus ingenuously and equally judged of the use and necessity of Preaching on one hand esteeming its real use and benefit on the other hand not judging it the chief exercise of Religion and the worship of God nor allowing that for the hearing of a Sermon which spends its Life in its Birth as Mr Hooker saith the Prayers of the Church should be slighted neglected or mangled m In concione solâ totum fermè Divini cultûs ritum collocant non tales erant antiquae piae Synaxes Ar. Spalat l. 7. c. 12. At the Conference at Hampton-Court the Bishop of London humbly desired his Majesty That there might be a praying Ministry among us it being now come to pass that men think it the only duty of Ministers to spend their time in the Pulpit I confess saith he in a Church newly to be planted Preaching is most necessary not so in one long established that Prayer should be neglected I like saith King James your motion exceeding well and dislike the Hypocrisy of our time who place all Religion in the Ear. At the very dawning also of the Reformation Preaching was also especially useful and few were exercis'd therein and had a right skill therein which made the Institution of a Christian man set out 1537. because of the difficulty thereof say Surely the office of Preaching is the chief and most principal office whereunto Priests or Bishops be called by the authority of the Gospel though by Preaching there might be meant the Annunciation of the Gospel which is done by lively reading of the Scriptures and in sundry other Ministerial Offices Wherefore in the Church of England we have the lively Oracles of the Holy Scriptures declared and read among us n Coimus ad divinam Literarum commemorationem Tert. Apol. We have Catechising and Expositions on the Church Catechism We have also excellent Homilies too much despised for their plainness yet the same which Bucer o Quid illi qui non sustineant audire erectis animis cupidis tam breves easque tam salutares Homilias totas Censura M. Buceri magnify'd as short and wholsome Sermons not only for the help of non-Preaching Ministers but withal a pattern and as it were a boundary for the Preaching Ministers as King James hath it in his Directions 1623. of which how modestly and moderately doth the Church her self speak in its 35. Article That they contain a Godly and wholsome Doctrine necessary for these times We have also the Lives and Counsels of the Church's Ministers which are living Sermons too p Vereor nè pancae extant inregno vivae conciones Calv. Ep. 87. So that among us we have all sorts of Preaching if the commonness of it did not make it despised Great care also is taken for other Sermons too q Canon 45 46. Rubrick after the Nicene Creed Yea our Church hath used all possible means that the Preaching of her Ministers may be useful and as they ought to be as appears from the exhortations which are made at the Ordinations of Bishops Priests and Deacons and the subscriptions which are made before the Bishops which are also incomparably enforced by r V. librum quorundam Canonum 1597. Can. 50. C. 54. Q. Elizabeth's Articles for doctrine and Preaching 1554. their Majesties directions from time to time as hath been instanced Ch. 6. § 5. Notwithstanding many are of the mind with those in Scotland who esteemed the Directions of King James to Preachers to be Limiting of the Spirit of God ſ Spotswood History of Scotland ad an 1622. What would they have thought of the Proclamation of King Edw. VI. which inhibited all Preaching throughout the Kingdom that the Clergy might apply themselves unto Prayer The Copy of which Inhibition is in Fuller's Church History t Fuller 's History Ec. ad an 1548. 2 Ed. 6. In the Preface to the Directory we see the Prelates accused for the crime of making Preaching inferiour to the Common-Prayer which charge contains a fallacy like that of a complex Interrogation For our Liturgy doth not exclude but suppose and require Preaching and doth contain in its daily Offices sundry sorts of real Preaching beside Among professed Christians ought Preaching to contend with Prayer either as to the necessity of it or dignity when Prayer is our duty to God immediately and doth suppose people already instructed In the Notes on the view of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Law u P. 3. Ch. 4. §. 3. it is very well concluded All this while we should not detract any thing from Preaching considering our selves to live under a State so maturely composed and so throughly advised and setled in the Faith it would be expected that we should so far moderate our opinion of Preaching as that our magnifying thereof may no way tend to the discredit or disadvantage of most necessary Prayer Our Church doth not admit to the Office of Preaching any but who are ordained and licensed thereunto Yet our Church doth allow such kind of Sermons as we call in the Colleges Common places for the training up of Candidates in Divinity and for their tryal of skill before competent Judges The Moderation in our Church is further known in that among us its Ministers are not expected nor do they endeavour to take the people in their Preaching by mysterious non-sense or by storm and sensible noises and uncouth tones and grimaces whereby a tumult and confusion is rais'd in the animal passions scaring weak people almost out of their wits and common sense just as the Valentinian Hereticks x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 4. used hard words and thundring noises in their Conventicles to cause astonishment in the people y Nihil tam facile quà m vilem plebeculam indoctam concionem linguae volubilitate decipere quae quicquid non intellexit plus miratur S. Hier. ad Nepotian Ep. 3. Our design is otherwise by a rational and sober surrender of their minds to gain our Hearers to truth and goodness Whence it follows that among such as Mr Hooker well notes z Eccles Pol. l. 5. §. 2. The vigour and efficacy of Sermons do grow from certain accidents which are not in them but in their maker his gesture his zeal his motion of body inflexion of voice c. Here it is not improper also to justify the Moderation and good reason our Church hath for the distinction it hath
same with hath been much encreased by the extravagant practices of the Church of Rome in their Benedictions 1. To make way for their Exorcisms antecedent to their Benedictions they seem to suppose worse of Gods Creation than they need as if the Devil had such interest and possession in the salt and water and what else they commonly exorcise Sometimes they are as prodigal of their Blessings as at other times of their Curses imprinting thereby a servile and superstitious dread upon the minds of men whereby they suck no small advantage 2. By their multitude of Ceremonies they seem unavoidably to confound the People and divert their minds from the true author and cause of blessing How many Crossings and sprinklings with Holy-Water Incensings Exorcisms variety of actions of the Bishops and Priests frequent shifting of Vestments many utensils and materials do they make requisite Whereas the Church of England doth in a modest and solemn manner make use of that Commission it hath to dispense by its Ministers the Divine Blessing in the name of God because the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. Being 1. Very careful to make her people plainly sensible from whom the Benediction by Prayer doth proceed 2. Our Church doth carefully declare the Divine Promises as they are made that the people may take more effectual care to be duly qualifyed for the Divine Blessing 3. Our Church doth not hold any Mediator for the Divine Blessing but what God hath appointed neither Saint nor Angel but only Jesus Christ our Lord. 4. Our Church doth rightly suppose its Ministers have authority given them to declare and pronounce the Divine Promises of blessing with the conditions of receiving the same and that they have a special Commission given them to pray for Gods people and bless them as the Priests under the Law had Commission to bless the people in the name of God Numbers 6. 22. Deut. 10. 8. 1 Chron. 23. 13. Which practice had nothing Ceremonial in it and peculiar to the Law Wherefore Christ put his hands upon the little Children and blessed them S. Mat. 19. 13. and Commanded his Apostles and Ministers to bless his people S. Mat. 10. 13. S. Luke 10. 5. and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. Wherefore for the dignity of the Episcopal Office the Church doth especially delegate that Power and Commission to her Bishops for Confirmation with imposition of Hands and in Ordination of Ministers c. Neither do our Religious Kings in our Church refuse the Benedictions of the Churches Ministers either as Christians or as Kings at their Coronations Yea our Church indeed ascribes more to Blessing and Prayer than the Church of Rome doth for by Blessing and Prayer our Church holds the Bread and Wine in the Holy Eucharist to be Consecrated which the Roman Priests do not till those words be pronounced Hoc est enim Corpus meum And here I cannot but add what the Archbishop of Spalato truly observed of the constant and ordinary blessing at Meals in England according to pious and Christian practice Blessings saith he y 〈◊〉 Erâ— Sâ—areâ—◠〈◊〉 §. 2â— and thanksgivings at the Tables of the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Laity at no time and upon no occasion omitted I never saw with such Religion and Piety performed as in England Yea among those of the Church of England the laudable Christian Custom is maintained of Parents blessing their Children and of Childrens humbly asking their Parents blessing whereby the authority of the Parent is maintained and each are put in mind of their respective obligation The same laudable custom is used to our Bishops To which may be added that the laudable Customs commonly in use in our Church as they are few which are generally received so are they such as are very suitable to this Moderation here commended But the Church z Canon 42. 36. 10 declares only such Customs to be laudable which are not contrary to the word of God or the Prerogative Royal. § 10. As the wisdom of our Church doth account it a reasonable service to offer up our Bodies a holy and acceptable sacrifice in the worship of God So she requires such reverend and becoming Gestures as are proper to betoken the awful thoughts of our minds Wherefore at our Prayers we are injoined meekly to kneel upon our Knees and at the Absolution also and repeating the Ten Commandements and at receiving imposition of hands because the same are accompanied with Holy Prayers and at our receiving the Holy Supper of our Lord the same being the most suitable posture to testify and promote our Humility our Thankfulness and our Reverent Worship of God To express also our Joy and praise of God as at the Psalms and to witness our stedfast and resolved and solemn profession of our Faith as at the Belief we use the posture of standing and also at the Gospels to express our outward Reverence to the Holy Scriptures especially because they generally contain the actions and words of our Blessed Saviour But in tender regard to the weakness and infirmity of many Christians such is the Moderation of our Church she alloweth sitting at the longer Lessons and Sermons and at the Epistles in accommodation to the reasonable ease of people after their long kneeling before § 11. Of that respect which is due to Churches and places for the Divine Worship and Service our Church hath determined according to great Moderation and Truth Keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 27. Moreover saith the Homily the Church or Temple is counted or called holy yet not of it self but because Gods people resorting thereunto are holy and exercise themselves in holy and heavenly things Wherefore though our Church is most religiously careful that the incommunicable honour due unto God be attributed unto no Creature else yet because the inward honour due to God ought to express it self as well outwardly as it can therefore whatsoever is appropriate to the peculiar service of God our Church requires should be used with such a difference and distinction as may set forth our due and singular Reverence of God It is easy to note how the extreme of superstitious curiosity hath crept into the Church of Rome in so much that it may well vye with the Jewish for multitude and niceness of observances a just Volume would not contain the curious scruples of their nice observances in their Vestments Consecrations Sacramental Rites and indeed in the whole carriage of their religious devotions but surely I fear these are not more faulty in the one extreme than many Christians are in the other who place a kind of holiness in a slovenly neglect Who are apt to higgle with the Almighty and in a base niggardliness pinch him in the allowances of his Service b Of Holy decency in the worship
to confess to a Priest as his Judge next to God all and singular their Mortal Sins which they can possibly recollect even the most secret with all their Circumstances or else they had as good do nothing as the Council saith * Qui verò secus saciunt nihil Divinae bonâ—tati pâ—r Sacerdoâ—em remittendum propoâ—unt Conc. Trid. de Confes c. 5. which Confession with Contrition and Satisfaction are with them the matter of Penance and the form is the word of Absolution from the Priest which make up their entire Sacrament Whereas our Anxietate Circumstantiarum torturâ— conscientiarum sublata Wicel Method Concord c. 6. Church doth suppose the nature of true Penitence doth consist in true change Quam conscientiae carnisicinam nemo moderatus approbat Cassander ad Artic. 11. 28 H. 8. of Mind and effectual amendment of Life which when it is sincere there will be so much of the rest as In confessione sacerdotali catholici quoque Moderationem aliquam postulant Wicelius in viâ Regia p. 360. is useful In the Convocation 1536 at the first dawning of the Reformation it was determined That perfect Penance which Christ required consisteth of three parts Contrition Confession and Amendment of former Life and a new obedient Reconciliation to the Laws and Will of God The same is earnestly enforced in our Homilies Bishop Bramhal very compendiously enumerated the Romanists abuses of Confession In tricking it up in the Robes of a Sacrament by obtruding a particular and plenary enumeration of all Sins to Man as absolutely necessary to Salvation by Divine Institution by making it with their Commutations a remedy rather for the Confessor's Purse than the Confitent's Soul As Chaucer observed He knew how to impose an easie Penance where he could look for a good Pittance by making it a Picklock to know the secrets of States and Families By absolving before they enjoyn Ecclesiastical satisfaction by reducing it to a customary Formality as it were but the Pag. 975. fol. concluding an old Score to begin a new § 2. Our Church doth declare the necessity of such a Confession as is useful to the purposes of true Repentance That is when Confession to the Minister of God may be useful for Spiritual Advice and for the quieting of any ones Conscience in order to a good Life or happy Death And particularly in order to the fruitful receiving the holy Communion * V. Exhortation to the H. C. In K. Edward 6. time in the order of the Communion the Exhortation was thus And if there be any of you whose Conscience is troubled and grieved at any time lacking Comfort and Counsel let him come unto me or to some other discreet and learned Priest taught in the Law of God and confess his open Sin and Grief secretly that he may receive such Ghostly Counsel that his Conscience may be relieved †Liberum 〈◊〉 administrum habeat ab illo levationem aegritudinis accipiat Reform leg Eâ—cl de div Off. c. 7. and that of us as a Minister of God and of his Church he may receive Comfort and Absolution to the satisfaction of his Mind and avoiding all scruple and doubtfulness Requiring such as shall be satisfi'd with a general Confession not to be offended with them that do use to their further satisfying the auricular and secret Confession to the Priest nor those also which think needful or convenient for the quietness of their own Consciences particularly to open their sins unto God and the general Confession to the Church But in all these things to follow and keep the Rule of Charity and every Man to be satisfi'd with his own Conscience not judging other Mens Minds or Acts whereas he hath no warrant of God's Word for the same So much the Spirit of Moderation did move in our Church from the first of the Reformation and was perfected in what after was ordered * Absit repetendi Confessionem superstitio absit anxietas enumerandi commissa circumstantias Erasm de amab Eccl. Concord Homily of Rep. 2. part If any Men do find themselves troubled saith the Homily they may repair to some godly learned Man c. But it is against true Liberty that any Man should be bound to the numbring of his Sins as has been used heretofore in the time of Ignorance In the mean while how slanderously are we reported by the Romanists in the Recantation some of them made for Anton. de Dom. § 25. thus speaking of the Men of the Church of England Amongst them scant ever saw I any Reformation For the most part all care of Conscience is cast away They are not except some few troubled with any scruples for Adulteries Robberies or Deceiving their Neighbours For they have wickedly abolisht Auricular Confession Indeed such Auricular Confession as is in practice in the Roman Church †Scire volunt secreta domus atque inde timeri the Church of England hath utterly rejected it being devised to pry into the secrets of Governments and such private Circumstances of Actions which to unvail is neither the Interest of private Persons nor of Priests It is more plain * Homily of Rep. 2. p. saith our Homily that this Auricular Confession hath not its warrant of God's Word else it had not been lawful for Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople ¶ Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 16. upon just occasion to have put it down Yet the same Homily earnestly commends to us Confession of our Sins before God and one to another for reconciliation of Offences and to the Minister of God for his Ghostly Counsel and Absolution and publickly in case of publick Scandal § 3. Whereunto may be added for the Honour of our Church's Moderation that it observes the Seal of Confession as sacredly as Reason or Religion can possibly permit yet forbids not the disclosure in case of Murder or Treason but in those particulars leaves us entire in our Obedience to the Common Laws of the Kingdom Of which see we what our Church delivers in its 113. Canon If any Man confess his secret and hidden Sins to the Minister for the unburthening of his Conscience and to receive Spiritual Consolation and ease of Mind from him We do straightly charge and admonish the said Minister that he do not at any time reveal and make known to any Person whatsoever any Crime or Offence so committed to his trust and secrecy * Cujus rigidam necessitatem qud apud vos obtinet Eccl. Aug. molliendam putavit Rem ipsam neque sustulit c. IS Casaub ad Frontod p. 129. except they be such Crimes as by the Law of this Realm his own Life may be called in question under pain of Irregularity For as H. Garnet whom the Romanists will have a Martyr for their Sacrament of Confession confessed himself It is not fitting that the Lives of Princes should depend upon the private Nicety of any
with the like the Articles of K. Edward 6. call Blind Devotion There is not consecrating and reconciling Church-Yards with so many Ceremonies and opinion of Efficacy and Necessity as in the Church of Rome ¶ V Form of Consecration of Churches Bishop Sparr Collect. 1675. The Bells which sound at Funerals among us are not appointed for any Superstition †Centum gravam 50. or to drive away Spirits from the Grave And because by Death all are made equal therefore all have the same Office for Burial All amongst us are deposited in the same general place of the Earth * Redditur Terrae Corpus ita locatum quasi operimento Matris obdusitur Cic. de leg l. 2. In other Circumstances Respect and Distinction is permitted according to the Custom of the Country and the condition of the Person deceased The Moderation of our Church is the same with that of the Christian Religion as it also leaves all Nations to their proper Usages and doth not oppose any Civil Laws or indifferent Customs of this or of any other Kingdom As it is observable That God himself tho he forbid the People of Israel ¶ Lev. 19. 28. Deut. 14. 1. to cut themselves or make any baldness upon themselves for the Dead or printing any Marks upon themselves which were the practices of that Idolatrous Nation Yet in such ancient Customes they had those which were Innocent referring to the manner of their Burial were permitted the same notwithstanding they had them from the Egyptians and other Heathen Nations Whereunto even also the Burial of our Blessed Lord Jesus was Conformable of which it is Recorded †John 19 4â— They took the Body of Jesus and wound it in Linnen with the Spices as the manner of the Jews is to Bury Among whom as hath been noted * Bishop â—earson on the Creed notes on Expos Art 4. there was a kind of Law that they should use no other Grave-clothes Notwithstanding it is all one ¶ Tabésne Cadavera solvat Aut rogus aut refert Capit omnia tellus Quae genuit coelo tegitur qui non habit urnam to our Bodies whether they are deposited in Linnen or in Woollen with Spices or without in the Earth or in any other Element whether we lie in S. Innocent's Church-yard where the Bodies soon consume or in the Sands of Egypt where they last longer or under the Moles of Adrianus And if the Minds of some seem uneasie in relation to one way of Burial more than another it convinceth us how great Tyrants Custom and Imagination are and perhaps in no Instance can it be confirmed more than in the late alteration referring to Burial Concerning which St. Austin's Comment might be of use †S. Aug. de Doct. Chr. l. 3. V. de civita Dei l. 1. c. 13. The Evangelist saith he doth seem to me not in vain to have said As the manner of the Jews is to Bury for so unless I am deceived he admonisheth in such offices of Piety which are exhibited to the Dead The Custom of every Nation is to be observed Wherefore our Church of England always leaves the Government of the Kingdom to have its Reasons to it self in what it appoints Instructing her Sons also how little soever the Matters are from thence to receive the greater honour of Obedience And because at so solemn a Providence as is the death of our Friends if some well-disposed Persons finding their Minds then more lifted up to the desires of Heaven and become more mortified to the World would take an opportunity of seriously commemorating the Death of our Lord who by Death overcame Death and opened the Gate of Heaven unto all Believers Therefore there is a brief peculiar appointment for the Celebration of the Holy Supper of the Lord at Funerals * Peculiaria quaedam in funeribus c. R. Eliz. V. Bishop Sparows Collections appointed 1560 with a Collect Epistle and Gospel which bears a part of the Reformed Liturgy which here is taken notice of as a proof how refined every part thereof is from Romish Superstition The like Instance of Inoffensive Moderation may be the public Office appointed by Q. Elizabeth for the Commemoration of Benefactors which is used in our Colleges and Vniversities which doth testify what worthy care we have of the memory of the deserving tho deceased and also doth shew how much purged these honourable Offices are from Superstition CHAP. XII Of the Moderation of our Church in what concerns the Power of the Church § 1. The Moderation of our Church owns the Power of the Church to be only Spiritual § 2. All other Power which Ecclesiastical Persons receive is readily acknowledged entirely depending on the favour of our Kings § 3. The Interests of the Kingdom and the Church are excellently accommodated in our Constitutions which is not done in other Models § 4. The pious Moderation of our King 's preserving their own rightful Supremacy and leaving to the Church the exercise of their Spiritual Power acknowledged by our Church § 5. The just Right of Kings shamefully invaded by other Sects pretending Divine Right Concerning which Claim the Moderation of our Church observed § 6. The dutiful Moderation of our Church in asserting Monarchy The first Canon 1640. justified § 7. All Interests of Humane Society especially of Subjects Allegiance in our Church abundantly secured which is not done by those in separation from her § 8. The Ordinances of our Church are framed with great Mildness and Moderation § 9. The same compared with the mild Obligation which Cardinal Bellarmine pretends the Church of Rome lays upon those of her Communion § 10. Sundry Instances of our Church's great regard to Equity § 1. THe Church of England always hath confessed That the Power of the Church is only Spiritual and Ministerial for the Head the Authority the Conversation of the Church is in Heaven Hence it is that the Appointments of the Church are not called Laws but Canons or Rules by which the Moderation of the Church rather leads than compels Yea In matter of Canons the Bishops and Clergy do but propound such Constitutions as they think useful and when they have done send them to his Majesty who perusing and approving them puts Life into them and of dead Propositions makes them Canons so are they the King's Canons not the Clergies * Bishop Hall's Remains p. 430. And the Inflictions Ecclesiastical the Church her self doth not call Punishments but Censures for Temporal Punishments are for Vengeance Spiritual for Discipline ¶ Bishop Lany on 1 Thess 4. 11. The Temporal Judg except he be Supreme in many things cannot pardon the Ecclesiastical Judg cannot but pardon upon Repentance as our Church doth express it self in the Canons if the Offender revoke that his wicked Error To this purpose St. Chrysostom †St. Chrys Homil 4. in Isaiam speaks The King remits the guilt of Bodies
is a Court of Faculties constituted on purpose to grant in many Cases not repugnant to the Law of God * Camden Britan. p. 110. a Dispensation of some Canons And if the Ecclesiastical Senate among the Disciplinarians might for the greater good of the Church dispence with a Rigid Law why Altare Damasc p. 85. may not the same be done in a Christian Kingdom by such Authority as the King and the Laws have constituted And we count it a great Moderation in our Establishment that there is amongst us a right of Appeal allowed in case of unjust Censure And the Moderation of our Public Government hath been such that Permissions which have been sometime known upon occasion were never allowed to make void the Laws of the Kingdom or the Church It may be added that in the separation and division of Causes which is made between our Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts as excellent Proportions and Measures are observable so instead of all is that the Rules of Ecclesiastical Practice are with all reserve and subordination to the Laws of the Kingdom For our Church useth no other voluntary Jurisdiction than what is established or confirmed and limited by the Statute or Municipal Law For the execution of which and to correct the Excesses and Defects which shall be found among the Ministers or People and to promote Piety Righteousness and Sobriety of Life and Conversation there are among us frequent Visitations appointed and practised by the Bishops and Arch-Deacons CHAP. XIII Of the Moderation of the Church and Kingdom referring to the Administration of Public Laws towards Offenders § 1. The occasion of that Mistake which is concerning the unlawfulness of Coercion in cases which concern Religion § 2. It may be very well consistent with the Moderation of the Church besides her own Censures to approve and sometimes desire such Coercion § 3. The Vse thereof in many Cases relating to Religion the undeniable Right of the Christian Magistrate § 4. Some of the chief Objections hereunto Answered § 5. Sundry proper Instances of the great Gentleness and most indulgent Care of our Church toward all its Members § 6. The Moderation of the Church and Kingdom not without their requisite and just Bounds § 7. The Recourse which our Church desires may be made to the Secular Arm is not but upon urgent and good Occasion § 8. Our Government defended from unjust Clamours of Persecution of the Romanists on one side and the Separatists on the other § 9. The Kings of England since the Reformation and especially his present Majesty Glorious Examples of this Moderation The effect of this Moderation yet much desired and wanted § 1. AS the nature of Moderation hath been Explained Ch. 1. The most proper Instances thereof are such as shew the Gentleness and Mildness of the Church with reference to such Censures and Punishments as are used and approved by Her Which is most necessary to be observed because the most general but groundless Objection against the Moderation of our Church hath been upon this Occasion Which if we truly consider ariseth either from a mistake in Judgment that all Coercion in matter of Religion is unlawful or else from an Impression which on the Phancy and Affection of easie and soft Dispositions hath been made from the Complaints of several to whom whatever looks like Penalty is commonly irksome and very unpleasing especially if it happens that they are guilty of the same wherefore they seem in haste to fly unto Religion as their Sanctuary against Punishment as if God's Religion and His Church had different Altars among us therefore I doubt not but when the Prejudice against the former Mistake is taken off Religion and the Church will appear to have the same Interest and the Moderation of the Church may be fairly acknowledged § 2. For the distinct understanding what is right in this Case we may first Consider how far toward this Coercion the Church can move of it self 1. We cannot but acknowledg the Church as a Society established by our Lord Christ and which was necessary to the being of a Church had Rulers therein appointed with Authority and Power to effect the necessary Ends of Government Which could not be without a power of Discipline to Rebuke Article 33 and Censure and Exclude from such a Society those who will not observe its just Laws Which proceeding was suitable to the Apostolical Practice and Command with relation to Offenders and agreable to what was practised among the Jews in their Synagogues the common Reasons of which are perpetually the same Namely that such a Community and Fellowship as the Church is be maintained in Unity Peace and Purity since without these no such Society can subsist and that such Offenders may if possible be reduced and amended who are bound to submit to such Censures by virtue of their own first Consent which was the Condition of being admitted to partake of the Privileges of such a Communion But in that general Contempt which is cast on Sacred things through the grievous Corruption of the Age since many are insensible of their Duty and Relation to the Church as Members and also are apt to despise the Church and her Spiritual Discipline Therefore the Church in a Christian Kingdom being in other Circumstances than considered alone by it self receiving thereby Defence in the exercise of its Power so far that many times the Christian Magistrate is pleased to add to the Spiritual Censures of the Church if need be such outward and sensible Punishments as may touch the Bodies or Goods or Temporal Interests of such Delinquents In such a case the Church hath reason to accept of such Defence and to approve also and defend the same civil Animadversions on Offenders since they are very lawful and useful and worthy a Christian Magistrate § 3. He being appointed of God for the punishment of Evil-doers and to execute Wrath on them Since they on whom the Church rightly inflicts her Censures are Evil-doers therefore such also the more they undervalue the Censures of the Church the more justly are they the subjects of the Civil Magistrates Punishment And since Offences which affront the Majesty of Heaven are of the highest Nature the more Religious a Magistrate is the more care he will take to see such Punished And since Christian Magistrates owe that duty to God from whom alone they receive their Power and Soveraignty they are therefore especially to take care of Religion and Common Reason and Experience instructs us This cannot be done unless such Laws are guarded with Sanctions of Punishments that so They may be indeed a Terror to those who will break the Peace and Order of the Church Especially when the Peace of the Church hath so great an Influence on the Peace of the Public State or Kingdom Which when it is Christian the Religion of the Kingdom is the chief part of its Laws This is the use of no other Power than what
the Kings of Israel and Judah had And in Christian Kingdoms * Cod. l. 1. Tit. 1. hath been used ever since any Kings have become Christian for the real good of the Church whose Members with all thankful acknowledgment have approved the same As hath often appeared from sundry Testimonies of the Ancients which need not be repeated since the several Sects which oppose our Church in this Matter make use of the same Power to the utmost when they can come to it As ¶ Thorndike Forbear of Penal ch 29. The Independent Congregations in New-England have not only Banished the Antinomians and put Quakers to Death but have imposed a Penalty of Five Shillings a day upon all that come not to hear their Sermons And as the Synod of Dort said There is no Order no Peace in the Church where it may not be lawful to the Church to judg of its own Members and retain within due bounds their Licentious Humours * Vt vaga ingenia coerceat intra debitos limites We know God commended Abraham because he would command his Children and his Houshold after him to keep the Way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. And People of different Persuasions do not question but it is reasonable for Parents to correct their Children when they absent themselves from such Teaching as they order them and when they refuse to reade or hear what concerns Divine Matters in the way they judge fitting And shall not the Power of the Supreme Magistrate have the like effect for the good Order of the Church § 4. But many Object First Nothing ought to be so voluntary as Religion And indeed Religion ought to be most free even the choice of our Mind otherwise it cannot be our reasonable and acceptable Service But Penalties say they make that to be Servile which ought to be most Free To which may be Answered That all Acts of Vertue are to be free likewise and it is indeed more Noble to observe good Laws for the love of Goodness than the fear of Punishment But sometime Fear is the beginning of Wisdom and if Men will not willingly observe such good Laws the suffering Punishment is a less bondage than the slavery of Sin All Christian Duty ought to be free and voluntary but if Men are voluntarily Vitious Heretical and Schismatical the Christian Magistrate may Act religiously voluntarily to Punish them even because they wilfully do what is evil when they might have freely Acted what was good Which offence is the more aggravated in Matters of Religion therefore for any to make Religion their excuse for irregular practices is to turn Religion and the Church into a Sanctuary of Wickedness Irreligion and Heresies have their sensual baits and temptations which fear of punishment wholsomely prevents and usefully takes away 2. Others Object That no Man can be compelled to believe for Belief must follow the evidence of things to the Understanding T is true The Rules of the Christian Church do not allow Force as a means to bring any to believe * Sed nec Religionis est cogere Religionem quaeisuscipi sponâ—e debet non vs. Tertul. ad Scapulam But those who have professed that they do believe and thereby have become Members of the Christian Society within a Christian Kingdom and so ought to be Obedient to the Laws and Orders thereof If such by their speeches and behaviour say and do what tends to destroy that Society and disturb its Peace and Order when by the execution of good Laws the pravity of their Minds as it betrays it self by disorderly speeches and actions is corrected it may be a proper means to reduce such to a better Mind which may be the more thereby prepared to entertain a sound belief When speculative Errors become voluntary they become sinful and are springs of Vice and therefore as the interest of the Public may be concerned so they properly may come under the animadversion of Laws Yet we may take notice that the case is quite different between either Infidels or weak Christians and those who have been taught the Christian Religion Who call themselves Christians and profess themselves of the Society of Believers Who presume of themselves that they are far above the rank of Ignorant or weak People When these disturb the common Peace of the Church and are in danger to infect others When the same disorder in the Church hath a dangerous influence on the Peace of the Kingdom Such from the Nature and Laws of Christian Society deservedly come under the Censure of the Church and the Punishment of the Civil Laws especially in a Christian Kingdom And it is a great Blessing if such can by any means be reduced It is but what is necessary and what is a great work of Charity as our Homily hath it 3. Others pretend they ought not to be punished while they follow their Conscience But in answer What if such a Conscience shall cast off all Subjection must therefore all Execution of Laws be unlawful And they may so do if they will by the same Reason Again What if any call that by the awful name of Conscience which is their Prejudice their false Judgment of things caused by the irregular inclination of their wills Shall that excuse them from their manifest Christian Duty When they ought to inform their Consciences right And also as of necessity be obedient for Conscience sake The Conscience therefore of any who are punished for their Disobedience cannot render that Punishment unjust when the Laws themselves are good and the execution of those Punishments upon them are according to those Laws 4. Many will say That Counsels and gentle Instructions are a surer and better way to prevail And it is very true and God forbid but they should be in their due place used But if they will not prevail they are left the more inexcusable who notwithstanding are captious of exceptions against their Governours to justifie their own Schism Others frequently appeal to experience of the inefficacy of Punishments to these ends and that they rather confirm than root out the persuasions they strike at And this also may be very true when such Penalties are either executed very unconstantly or in excess either to a degree of Injustice or Cruelty And when the due ends and measures of Punishments are not observed whereas moderate and sober Punishments are justly thought proper to awaken the minds of Offenders into due consideration and regard of their Duty But none can ever reasonably think that it will conduce to the peace of the World for any to do as they list And whereas it is frequently objected That the omissions of Forms and Ceremonies is more severely punished than greater Faults How greater said Bishop Lany before the King Our Earthly Tribunals are not erected to anticipate the Day of Judgment to try Men according to the proper measure of their Guilt but for a particular End and Vse therefore in some
second the loud Clamour ¶ Quid juvant leges aequissimae ubi dominantur Domini dixissem Tyranni legum administri executores Altar Damas P. 579. Notwithstanding Our Edicts and Statutes made for their restraint are such as serve only to awake them and cause them to consider the innocence of that Cause for refusal of Communion in which they endure as they suppose great Losses Those who are sent over by them either for the retaining the already perverted or perverting others are either returned by us back again to them who dispatch them to us or without any wrong unto their Persons or danger to their Lives suffer an easie restraint which only hinders them from dispersing their Poyson they brought and had they not been stickling in our State Businesses and medling with our Prince's Crown there had not a drop of their Blood fallen to the Ground * Tâ—t conjurationes machinationes rebelliores publicae in illo Regno ortae sunt ut illae non solum fuerint justae sed etiam Moderatae poenae delin quentium Ad R. Eliz. Rex Jac. in Apologià Quod me de Catholicorum persecutione calumnià ntur nunquam probari potest quenquam Conscientiae causà Religionis ergo me regnante hactenus vel morte mulctatum fuisse vel in mortis periculo versari Rex Jacobus ibid. Yet they traduce our Judiciary Proceedings against them for sanguinary and violent striving to persuade other Nations that such as have suffered by Course of public Justice for Religion sake only and not for Treason have Died ¶ M. Hales of dealing with erring Christians And the less wonder that these Penal Laws are not taken away until those Principles be fully renounced which gave occasion to them Yet this may be noted of the Moderation of our Government in not suffering the Course of our Law to proceed but when the apprehension of danger hath been great 2. As to most of our other Separatists Who seeth not their Hypocrisie who would make the World believe they are persecuted when with too much Lenity they are punished for their intolerable contempt of good Laws It is to be doubted what these Men will do when Persecution cometh indeed who make now so much of nothing ¶ Arch-Bishop Whitgift answer to Admon 1572. The Moderation of our Church in this matter Bishop Sanderson †Bishop Sanderson's judgment in one View thus also defends Our Church it is well known hath not always used that Rigour she might have done Where she hath been forced to proceed as far as Deprivation she hath ordinarily by her fair slow and compassionate proceeding therein sufficiently manifested her unwillingness thereunto and declared her self a Mother every way indulgent enough to such ill nurtured Children as will not be ruled by Her 2. Those that are suspended or deprived suffer it but justly for their obstinacy and contempt For however they would bear the World in hand that they are the only Persecuted ones and that they suffer for their Consciences yet in truth they do but abuse the Credulity of the simple therein And herein as in many other things jump with the Papists whom they would seem above all others most abhorrent from For as Seminary Priests and Jesuits give it out they suffer for Religion when the truth is they are justly executed for their prodigious Treasons and felonious or treacherous Practices against lawful Princes and States So the Brethren pretend they are persecuted for their Consciences when they are indeed but justly censured for their obstinate and pertinacious contempt of lawful Authority 'T is well known the Quakers were hanged in New-England Yet To these who so much cry out Persecution saith the Friendly Debate Are Pag. 218. Part. 1. you not allowed to worship God just as you please in your own Families May not some of your Neighbours joyn with you For shame do not complain of Persecution who are so kindly used * Si ea quae per misericordissimam disciplinam patiuntur comparentur sactis quae furiâ—sa temeritate committunt quis non videat qui magis Persecutores vocandi sunt S. Aug. Ep. 167. who endeavour'd in such a manner to oppose others The Common Prayer was never imposed with such Rigour as the Directory was * M. Dryden's Ep. Ded. 1678. We have already all the Liberty which Free-born Subjects can enjoy and all beyond is but License But if it be Liberty of Conscience which they pretend the Moderation of our Church is such that its Practice extends not to the severity of Persecution and its Discipline is withal so easie that it allows more freedom to dissent then any of the Sects would allow it In the mean while what right can be pretended by these Men to attempt Innovations in Church or State Who made them Trustees or to speak in their own Language the Keepers of the Liberties of England Wherefore if a perfect pattern of dealing with Erring Christians were to be sought there were not any like unto this of ours which as it takes not to it self liberty of Cruelty so it leaves not any the liberty of destroying their own Souls in the error of their Lives ¶ M. Hales of Erring Christians § 9. Here humble thankfulness and duty binds us to make mention of the most glorious examples of Princely Moderation which the Christian World ever hath exhibited namely the Moderation of our Kings which have been since the Reformation which gives a great Lustre to the subject here treated of Of whom those have been most fortunate to whom belongs that Character which was given of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. Anton. l. 1. §. 16. He had skill and knowledg when Rigour and Extremity and when Remisness and Moderation Neque multâ asperitate exulcerentur subditi nec nimiâ benignitate solvantur Gregor M. de Curà Pastor was in season Or as King James's Phrase to the Parliament 1622. was when the Spur and when the Bridle was to be used The very Enemies of Q. Elizabeth among the Romish Faction could not but confess that Her Laws and Procedings were very mild and merciful ¶ Watson's Quodlibets p. 303. V. Fowlis Hist of Popish Treasons l. 7. c. 2. c. And yet how very often did they Treasonably attempt against her Life Neither did her Indulgence sufficiently prevail with the other sort of Recusants to conform as the Queen by all means did desire That wise King James in his Basilicon †Pag. 31. earnestly from our dear-bought Experience warned his Son that his Mildness and Lenity found in Scotland little effect and the loss of his thanks was all his reward And in his Raign of the Romanists in England Isaac Casaubon asked Fronto Ducaeus * An illa divina in negotio Religionis Moderatio quicqam apud vestros profuit p. 73. Whether the King 's Divine Moderation in business of
of England with great Moderation doth profess other reformed Churches generally return to us Which the 30 Canon refers to where it saith This Resolution and Practice of our Church namely not to forsake and reject other Churches only as they depart from the Apostolical Churches particularly with relation to the use of the Cross in Baptism hath bin allowed and approved by the Censure on the Common-Prayer-Book in King Edw. 6. days and by the Harmony of Confessions of later years And it was King James his advice to his Divines to hold a good correspendence with the Neighbour Reformed Churches but saith the King * V. in Apol. Ep. Lectori Non est mihi ingenium in alienâ Rep. curiosum I am resolved to leave other Churches to their liberty And so also K. Charles I. †His Majesty's third Paper to Mr. Henderson As I am no Judg over the Reformed Churches so neither do I censure them § 4. As a special note of our Churche's Moderation we must not forbear to instance her excellent Behaviour and Charity toward the afflicted Greek Church to whom as she hath opportunity she hath testified a great commiseration a most pious affection and a great esteem See the Homily against the peril of Idolatry wherein our Church doth frequently deplore the thraldom of the noble Empire of Greece to the Turk I must needs profess said Arch-Bishop Laud * § 9. p. 26. Vt videant hi qui facilè de haeresi pronuntiant quà m facilè etiam ipsi errent intelligant non esse tam leviter de haeresi pronuntiandum Alph. à Castro Contr. Haer. l. 3. f. 93. that I wish heartily as well as others that those distressed Men had bin more moderately dealt with tho they think diversly from us than they have bin by the Church of Rome C. Bellarmine having delivered that three of their Councils have declared her guilty of Heresy Let the Church of Rome answer for her self if she can for her trampling upon the poor Greek Church as she lies in the Dust and branding her with Heresy for her Doctrine of Procession as cruelly as her Turkish Masters burn their half Moons on the Bodies of those whom they enslave But our Church is not so uncharitable as to define it a Heresy for any to maintain That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son tho we maintain as great a Truth that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son but this makes no breach of Communion among us the difference only arising from inadequation of Languages which notwithstanding we agree in the main of this Article * Animadversions on Naked Truth p. 7. Such lastly is the moderation of our Church toward the Greek Church that some of the Greek Bishops and Priests are allowed among us the celebrating Holy Mysteries according to their own Rites * In unâ fide nihil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo diversa Greg. 1. Ep. 41. § 5. Other Churches have not bin by the Church of England despised if in sundry Instances they have not arrived unto her perfection in purity of Doctrine and order of Discipline With other Churches she doth not contend for Title or understanding of Mysteries nor boasts of the Spirit nor calls her self in distinction from other true Churches the Catholic Church as of old the Arians did Lastly The Guides of our Church never challenged to themselves Infallibility Altho our Church of England hath had the peculiar happiness of a Monarchical Reformation and retains the blessing of Episcopal Government yet such is the Moderation of our Church she imputes the want of the same in other Reformed Churches not so much to any fault of those Churches themselves but rather attributes it to the Injury of the Times * Non culpâ vestrâ abesse Episcopatum sed injuria temporum Ep. Winton Ep. 3. Molinaeo Eos coegerit dura necessitas Saravia Our Church also thankfully commemorates those Acknowledgments which the Reformed Churches have frequently made of our Moderation and happy Constitution And altho we remember when it was commonly objected to us That the Pastors of the Reformed Churches abroad took our Conformity to be a Sin Sure the useful labour of D. Jo. Durell hath for ever silenced that vain reproach Who to the whole World in plain and open Testimonies hath now long since * 1662. illustrated the Conformity of the Reformed Churches abroad to our Church of England In matters of Ceremony subordination of Pastors use of set Forms and Liturgie Holy-Days set Times of Fasting magnificent Churches Organs Surplice Church-Ornaments Cross in Baptism receiving the Communion kneeling c. Who hath also proved by Testimonies the practice of those of the Reformed Churches joining with us in our Publick Worship by the advice of their Pastors either when they come over into England or in such of our Congregations as are in their Countries If it happens that any Member of the Reformed Churches speak against the Reformed Church of England he is censured for it by their Synod The Ministers of the Reformed Churches abroad blame those that refuse to Conform to the Church of England when occasion is offered and hold them for Schismatics and are scandalized at them Those few Reformed Churches which want Subordination of Ministers approve the Episcopacy of the Church of England * Certuâ— est mihi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anglicanam item morem imponendi adolescentibus in memoriam Baptismi aâ—toritatem Episcoporum Presbyteria ex soles Pastoribus compâ—siâ—a mulâ—à que alia ejusmodi satis congruere institutis veâ—ustâ—oris Ecclesiae à quibus in Gallià Belgio recessum negare non possumus Grotius Eâ— ad Boâ—t and wish they had the same and would esteem it a singular felicity All which sheweth the amity and good correspondence and concord that is between our Church of England and other Protestant Churches and also justifies exceedingly the excellent Moderation of our Church Indeed our Church of England deserves better the name of Catholic both for her Catholic Charity and especially for that she maintains her Communion upon the Foundations and Principles of Christian Religion both with the Western and Eastern Churches whom the Church of Rome excommunicates from the society of the Mystical Body of Christ limiting the Church to Rome and such places as depend upon it As the Donatists did of old to Afric separating her self also from the Communion of the Churches of Graecia Russia Armenia and all the Protestant Churches Much greater is her Schism for refusing to be a fellow-Member with other Churches in the Vniversal Church of Christ and challenging to be the Head the Root the Fountain of all other Churches * Bishop Bramhals Works p. 990. ¶ Necessity of Reformation p. 145 Yet because they still keep to the main Fundamentals we do not exclude them from the Catholic Church tho by their hard and rigid Censures and Excommunication of us
As to those among us who are most moderate it may be wisht they will afford their own Example in what they allow in Discourse and that they would labour as effectually to prevail on those who depend on their Judgments and Example § 3. Whereas many of our Dissenting Brethren profess they desire the Interest of Jesus Christ may be promoted and that sanctity of Life and the pure Worship of God and the Communion of Saints and the Edification of the Church and the Reformed Protestant Religion may be maintained and encreased and in all Debates they appeal to the Holy Scriptures and many of them say they are desirous to rectify Mistakes and to lay aside all prejudice and passion and partiality and profess they desire their Judgments and Practices may be guided in the ways of Truth and Peace Supposing all this if we meet with such as will admit what follows into fair consideration I should think it the most proper means by some such degrees as follow to bring them if it be possible to understand the good Constitution of things among us 1. By letting such by clear Instances see how unmoveably we hold the Faith and Doctrine of Christ delivered in Holy Scripture which together with the whole Church of God the Church of England doth keep inviolably witness unto them faithfully and so constantly appeal to as the only perfect Rule of Faith and Manners V. Ch. 4. 2. Since the best and most useful sort of Moderation is that which governs us as we ought in the real Practice of Vertue and Goodness whereunto tend all the Moderation of the Laws and the Doctrine and Discipline of God's Church yet which is a lamentable thing to consider this is most silently past over and scarce known by the Name at that same time that a huge clamour is rais'd among us for Moderation in Religion in which all that are concerned may know and understand that the great Design and Desire of our Church is to promote holiness of Life Among us all may not only be as holy as they will but that they may be so they are assisted and encouraged most earnestly by the Laws and Constitutions and Offices and Councils of our Church which if they were rightly understood would be known uniformly to tend to no less 3. Such may consider that all the appointed means of Grace and Salvation are by our Church publicly and amply taken care of as duly and effectually as may be 4. In a Church where substantial Piety is so truly procured throughout the whole Constitution it might at least mitigate the great offence taken to consider what is more largely shewed Ch. 8. That our Church never did own her very few Ceremonies any other than accidental and mutable Circumstances for Order and Comeliness-sake but never asserted them any essential or necessary part of God's Worship Such may also consider the Rules of reasonable behaviour and submission to the Church as are moderately laid down Chap. 6. § 10. 5. Because our Dissenters by their dividing from us seem to endanger very much the Interest of the Reformed Religion which they appear so zealous to uphold Let them be pleased to consider the real danger of their being acted by Romish Agents and Incendiaries while they take the second direct course to destroy this reformed Establishment among us as is more particularly considered in Chap. 17. 6. Such may do well to consider truly those easy and proper Consequences which follow the Consideration of the Church being a Society with relation to a Christian Kingdom as ours is from whence sundry special Obligations may be inferred to bind every one who calls himself Christian to maintain the Peace and union of such a Society especially if we look on the Church as a Society formed by God himself and therefore common Christians are not to look upon themselves as Spiritual Governors as if they had any power in themselves to constitute new Bounds or new Extents to its Being or Authority but are to think they have an easier and safer task quietly to accept and obey that which is constituted by lawful Authority in all things not repugnant to the revealed Will of God And since every one's being of the Church doth suppose their duty to communicate in those Sacraments and Holy Offices which are appointed as a public Sign before God and Man that we do confess Christ Jesus and is an evidence of our holding communion with God's Church and that we are obedient to the Laws of this Society and the Government thereof in that fixed part of the Church we live in it follows that we are obliged unto the Peace of this Church by the intent of our Baptismal Vow when we were incorporated as Members of Christ's Body the Church And we are bound to maintain the same Peace of this Society of the Church as we live in a Christian Kingdom where the Religion of the Kingdom is so great a part of its Laws Upon which account Schism renders the safety of Kingdoms very hazardous beside that it looseth the Bands of all Friendship Sacred and Civil and breeds enmity among nearest Relations and Neighbours It tends exceedingly to the dishonour of the Public Laws and opens a gap to the most dissolute making void the exercise and effect of the Discipline of the Church upon the scandalous which otherwise to the prophane World would prove terrible as an Army with Banners It is the only way any can take to destroy all being of a Visible Church to corrupt her Doctrine and destroy her Power and is so great a sin as Martyrdom it self cannot expiate it Such do as much as they can make void the Design of our Blessed Saviour Who died that be might gather into one the Children of God that are scattered abroad 11 S. John 52. the night before our Lord was betrayed when he instituted the Sacrament of Unity How fervently did he pray for the Peace of the Church 17 S. John 11. Holy Father keep through thy own Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as I am one V. 21. That they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me Whereas these Schisms which we have tend to weaken or take away the greatest outward Witness we have of the truth of Holy Scriptures and of our very Christianity namely the Testimony of God's Church from the beginning and do expose our most excellent Religion to the contempt and entertainment of Atheists The sad account for which let them beware of who make it their idle business to defame the Church in her Holy Offices and alienate all whom they can from her Communion Let them pretend what they will in the mean time to intimate Communion with God they indeed take away the Unity of the Church as much as in them lies but in effect they take it away from themselves and they cut themselves off from Communion with the rest of the
Body and by being dissevered from the Body how it is possible they should retain Communion with the Head of that Body God only knows to whose infinite Mercy we leave them It is seriously and heartily to be wished that the Duty and Benefits of Communion with the Church were duly considered by all and the many more grievous Mischiefs of Schism than have bin here mentioned and in reference to our Church of England in particular as certainly her Moderation is a great aggravation of the Schisms which are so I suppose it a most true observation and deserves the common consent of all That the only Reason why our Church is not more generally embraced and admired is because the Purity of its Doctrine the Sobriety of its Devotion the Moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not impartially and calmly examin'd and more generally understood Wherefore we wish that by God's Grace working love in all the hearts of those who do not understand consider so much they would yet consent to what the Peaceful and Holy Nazianzen declares in one of his Orations of Peace Thus saith he I resolve it is not good to be more indifferent than is meet nor too hot either through levity to be carried about with every one nor by disorder to separate from all when the manifest things of wickedness require our compliance then we are to contest with Fire and Sword rather than partake of their Leven But when only a suspicion of evil seizeth on our minds then Moderation and Condescention are more advisable rather than make a separation from others we relate unto as Members Wherefore let us embrace each other and be sincerely one and imitate our Blessed Mediatour who by his Blood hath reconciled all things and made peace Let us say to our Common Father Behold thy Sons gathered into One. Unto which I must add what the same Father from those Dissentions which were in the Church did conceive namely a great dread lest thereby Antichrist * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should come upon them on suddain taking advantages of their Discord It would be well if modest and quiet Persons could at length be convinced of the happiness of having and holding to a Rule †Pulchrum est tenere mensuram officii S Ambros offic l. 1. c. 10. And what a blessing it is to have every thing for their Spiritual use so readily and so well prepared to their hand and admit which we are in no wise forced here to affirm that sundry Orders might be much better Nevertheless whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same Thing 3 Phil. 13. In Matters of Indifferency the best way of cementing the ¶ Fracturam verò ligamen astringit cum culpam disciplina deprimit sed gravius scissuram sentiat si hanc immoderatiùs ligamenta constringant inter haec solicit a circumspectione providendum ne aut districtio rigida aut pietas sit remissa Greg. Mag. de cura past in part 2. c. 5. Fractions is unite the Parts in the Authority for then the Question is but one namely Whether the Authority shall be obeyed or not * Lib. of Prophec §. 17. Me thinks the Interest of the Christian Religion to free it from so great a scandal the Honour of the Kingdom and their Native Country and the Laws and the private Interest of themselves and their Families where greater Interest and Engagement with a Party and Prejudices do not hinder should prevail at length with more to embrace the Reconciliation of the Church which the best and wisest every-where have done convinced of the Moderation of our Church and the rest remain so divided and shattered among themselves only united by their common prejudice against the Church having had their mouths over and over stopt by solid Arguments and a palpable demonstration of their falsities and incongruities which have bin posted up to the World to their unanswerable conviction or else they have bin laught out of their ridiculous follies by them who have had a laudable art in so doing * Ingenuo culpam defigere ludo Persius Sat. 5. § 4. And indeed since the Church of England suffers so exceedingly between such extreme Adversaries which hath bin a great proof of her great Moderation no wonder if such as desire to maintain the even tenour of uniform Principles partake of the same hard measure with our Church †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. Wherefore for our calmly defending what is real Moderation we may surely expect to be accused as immoderate and to be suspected by either extreme of the number of their opposite Adversaries against which chance perhaps there is no Remedy Wherefore the sincerity of our Purpose and the goodness of our Cause we hope will support us For it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord Blessed be God we have yet the advantage of so excellent a Reformed Church on our side So the worthy Translators of the English Bible in their Epistle to King James comforted themselves If on the one side we shall be traduced by Popish Persons or if on the other side we shall be maligned by self-conceited Brethren who run thâ—ir own ways and give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves and hammered on their Anvil we may rest secure supported by the truth and innocency of a good Conscience For my own part I profess my self a lover and admirer of true Moderation and I hope I have observed the due measures of it * Moderatus sum Ipse mihi quantâ—â—â— licâ—it non quod Ipâ—â— de â—oâ—is â—erueâ—inâ— sed quid nostros Homines decedâ— spectavi Suâ—liv pref de Monach. in what I have writ with relation to either extreme And hâ—re I crave leave to repeat the dying words of the right Reverend Bishop Sanderson and to use them solemnly as my own As I do profess that I have lived so I desire and by the Grace of God resolve to die in the Communion of the Catholic Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most material Points of both conformable to the Faith and Practice of the Godly Church of Christ in the Primitive and purer times I do firmly believe Led so to do not so much from the force of Custom and Education to which the greatest part of Mankind owe their particular different Persuasions in Religion as upon the clear evidence of Truth and Reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the Grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on one hand and V. Bishop Sanderson's
Religion had prevailed one whit among them K. Charles the First was so great an example of Moderation in Judgment and Practice that as his Character is in his Life He pursued Moderation in spite of the Malignity of the Times Yet he was made a Royal Martyr rather than he would betray the Church to either of its Enemies on either extreme The Moderation and Clemency of his present Majesty hath appeared to all the World as the most radiant Lustre of his Crown And yet it may be an astonishment to the most moderate Men to consider how unaccountable the rage of the Jesuits and some other Romanists have been toward a Prince of such Divine Clemency and wonderful Grace even to those of their Communion And how little the more peaceable and orderly and complying the greatest part of our other Dissenters have been notwithstanding all that Forgiveness and Moderation and Favour wherewith he hath crowned both sorts of Enemies by heaping of Coals of Fire on their Heads Where do we see either of them generally the more melted down into greater Humility and Observance Or the more inflamed in a passionate sense of the excellency of that Moderation which from the King and the Church they have so much experienced * Ne Regum quidem mansuetudine abuti consultum est non ignorant illi vires suas Erasm de amab Eccl. Concord What Re-condescention hath been made by them for all the Indulgences of his Majesty from first to last Julian the Apostate was honoured as a wondrous Moderate Prince because he permitted the Sectaries then their Liberty in Religion And Valentinian ¶ Valentinianus hoc Moderamine principatus inclaruit qâ—ò◠inter Religionum diversitates Medius steâ—it neque ut hoc coleretur imperavit aut illud Am Marcellinus the Emperour was in those days counted Moderate because he stood middle and indifferent as we may say between God and Baal that is to any sort of Worship But the Christian Moderation of our Kings hath been so well temper'd I cannot express it but in some of their own words To any number of our Loving Subjects we very willingly Comply with the advice of the Parliament that some Law be made for the exemption of tender Consciences Provided that this Ease be attempted and pursued with that Modesty Temper and Submission that in the mean time the peace and quiet of the Kingdom be not disturbed The decency and comliness of God's Service discountenanced nor the pious sober and devout Actions of those Reverend Persons who were the first Labourers in the blessed Reformation be scandal'd and defam'd * His Majest Declaration 1641. So cool a Moderation methinks should have tempered and prevented the growing Flame Or since it might have been extinguished by that Act of Grace among many others which connived at their private Meetings to the number of Five c. which if only Conscience rightly so called was the reason in the Case might have contented any sober Dissenters But in that unhappy was Alexander the Great ¶ Aestuat Infelix angusto limite mundi He swelled the more for being Confin'd Nevertheless what Thuanus said in his Epistle to K. Henry 4th of France hath been much more true in our Case among us You Sir have graciously restored them to their Houses and Goods and most of them you have adorn'd with Primary Dignities supposing that by degrees their Hatreds being assuaged and that Concord which you have decreed being more conveniently established among those that were at Enmity thereby chearfulness being returned to their Minds what in Religion is best and what is most ancient may be discern'd * Vt ex eorum quiete aliorum adhuc in Schismate positorum Corda flectantur Greg. M. l. 7. Ep. 97. c. Yet notwithstanding all the Moderations which have been used the Romanists have gone on in their Serpentine way of Insidiousness And the Sectaries also have been like the deaf Adder which will not hear the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely But we may not wonder if the favours and bounties of Princes cannot make them be thought so much as Moderate with some sorts of Romanists such as are of Suarius's †Praetered favores beneficia quae Catholicâ—s se contulisserefert parvi momenti sunt ad excusandam Persecutionem non enim Religionis causâ illis faveâ—e vel potius cum illis dissimulare incepit sed obrationes politicas ut in principio Regni sui omnes sibi aliquo modo conciliaret Et fortasse illis blanditiis honoribus eorum animos luâ—rari cupiebat Quod si ita est id non excusatio sed poâ—ius pars augmentum Persecutionis censenda est Suarii Def. l. 6. c. 10. de Persecutione Anglic. mind who treating of the English Persecution under King James argueth very Scholastically His pursuing them with Favours and Benefits to be even one great part and aggravation of their Persecution That being only a politic kind of dissimulation by blandishments and honours to gain upon their minds O the favours of good Princes sometimes ill-placed thus to be commented on and requited CHAP. XIV Of the general Moderation of our Church toward all that differ from her and are in error § 1. Our Church takes an universal care to satisfy and reconcile those who differ from her Particularly our Domestic Dissenters to whom sundry Concessions have been made § 2. Our Church is not forward to denounce Curses against those who are not of the same Judgment with her § 3. Our Church doth not judg all according to the Consequences of their Doctrines § 4. In refusing an adverse Party Our Church gives an excellent Example not to use odious Names § 5. Our Church useth great care to preserve and restore peace § 6. The Moderation of the Church gives it a singular advantage to convince Dissenters upon right and proper Principles § 7. The Moderation of our Church doth incomparably qualify Her to arbitrate and reconcile the present differences of the Christian Churches § 8. A Supposition laid down of the most possible means of Reconciling a Protestant and such a Romanist as lays aside Infallibility and that the Church of England hath done her part in what was fit toward any just Reconciliation § 9. An Answer to that common Calumny of the Separatists that our Governors in the Church of England have more peace and reconciliation for Papists than for the most moderate Protestant Dissenters § 1. ALthough the lenity and benignity of our Church toward those who differ from her even toward Offenders hath sufficiently appeared from what hath bin already delivered Yet moreover in an universal care to satisfy all who differ from Her and to reconcile them to Truth and to Her self Our Church hath been always ready to give an Apology and Reason of Her Faith and Practice Particularly Our Domestic Dissenters have less reason to except because Our Church hath wisely and