which it professeth to use the Canon Law which it adopteth till time shew the way of amending those particulars which time shall shew that the Reformation pretended requires to be changed For instance we know that since Henry VIII it is not the custom to take any degree in Canon Law Notwithstanding the Law of the Land adopteth the Canon Law And accordingly we all know that Graduates in the Civil Law of the Romans are priviledged by the Ecclesiastical Law of the Kingdom I would fain have any of them that would wear the Face and the Conscience of a good Christian and a good English man both Give me a reasonable Account of these their Tenures waving that which I here set forth for them whom they will think too bold with their Freehold for it For my part who am no mans foe but my own in publishing my Opinion thus freely upon this Exigent I think I do good service to them with my Country to set forth this Account why and how the Roman Laws deserve to be adopted into the Laws of the Kingdom Namely that the Popes Canon Law which is already adopted may be limited within those Bounds with the Roman Laws And by consequence the Primitive Canons of the Church which the Roman Laws acknowledge and inforce do either prescribe or allow I would make a further Offer of introducing the Roman Laws both into the Study of the Law of the Land and into Authority in our Courts of Equity And of reconciling thereby the Cross-Interests of the Professions upon competence of Jurisdictions But though I must needs have that Opinion my self which I can see nothing against seeing much for it yet I will trouble no man with an Opinion which neither my Profession obliges me nor my skill inables me to make out It shall be enough for me to observe that they shall deserve to be counted Professors of the Roman Laws that are trusted to minister the Canon Laws by those Bounds which the Roman Laws allow As for the Concurrence of that Jurisdiction which is proper to the Clergy by Gods Law and that which is resumed by the Crown to be ministred by the Professors of the Roman Laws I do acknowledge it cannot be ended but by Appeals The issue whereof whither it ought to resort when it is time to say it will be then time to say also how these Interests are reconcileable In the mean time Episcopacy being owned by the Law of the Kingdom and the Law of God both to be that which the whole Church from the beginning acknowledgeth I think I do my Country and the Church of God in it no disservice to propose a plaister large enough for the Sore of it that shall come within the bounds which I have proposed For the Chapters of Cathedral Churches are by their Birth-right Counsellors to the Bishops and Assistants in his whole Office The Archdeacon his Minister and principal Commissary Those by the Rule first set on foot by the Apostles and observed always by the Church of planting Cathedral Churches in Cities and making the Churches planted in Cities Cathedral Churches for the Government of all Christendom within the Territories of those Cities This being by his Order Ministerial to them as well as to the Bishop when both have part in the same Office And here I place the hinge upon which I hang the Reconcilement of the presumed Interest of the Presbyterians with the true Interest of the Clergy Supposing the Conference proposed to have taken effect and produced a Request of both Parties to the Legislative Power of the Kingdom to make a Law of those particulars upon which they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come to agreement to be received and to exercise their Ministry For the Office of the Clergy being separated from the Interest of the Crown by an Act of the Kingdom And the Professors of the Roman Laws trusted to manage this Interest in behalf of the Subject Only assisting the Clergy in that part of the Jurisdiction proper to the Church which will concern the Interest of Subjects as Members of the Church as well as the Office of the Clergy What shall hinder them the Presbyterians as well as the rest of the Clergy to exercise the Zeal which they have always professed towards the Reforming of the conversation of the People in assisting that Discipline as well over the Inserior Clergie as the People which the Chapters of Cathedral Churches and the Archdeacons shall by the Bishop and under the Bishop be trusted with For what need all this hinder the Prerogative of the Bishops Negative Vote when as there will be more to do under him then hands will be found for reserving to him those causes which he would chuse to reserve For that will be found no more then requisite to preserve his Prerogative that nothing be done without him when nothing is done without him but that which he shall chuse to be eased in He that knows what the Hierarchy signifies must needs understand that the same means which preserved the Whole Church in Vnity so far and wide for place so long for time as Unity prevailed in the Church and Christianity with it and by it knows that the same must be used to preserve Unity in the Church of this Kingom The Question being how to Reform it so that it may continue a Member of the Whole CHAP. XXIV Some Principal Canons to be restored in our present State FOr let no man think that any Law can be effectual to this purpose till the Case be stated which the Law is provided for We are in the State of Schism in spite of our teeth Though we are to clear our selves of the crime of Schism upon the Terms setled which cannot clear us if it be possible that any other should clear us King Henry the VIII had reason to declare that he and his Kingdom should have nothing to do with the Pope that Excommunicated him for his Divorce So many Popes having discharged the Subjects of Princes Excommunicate of their Allegiance But to make good the Protestation that he intended no further change in Religion I need not say what he did to give succeeding Popes occasion to recal the folly of that Pope which Excommunicated him by a timely Reconcilement In the mean time the way to preserve the Kingdom in Peace was to have nothing to do with the See of Rome But had he been so well advised as to have maintained his Divorce upon the terms which I plead for What could the Pope have said to that Code of Canons which Pope Adrian the I. sent to Charles the Great which I would have this Church to owne For it concludes with a Synod of the Province of Rome under Pope Gregory the II. which pronounces Anathema to whosoever shall marry his deceased Brothers Wife Let Julius II. Pope that dispensed with Henry the VIII and his Marriage with the Lady Katherine of Spain have bethought himself how to
was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation
man is not subject to God Such are the Invocations of Saints the Worshipping of their Reliques and Images the Pilgrimages and Indulgences commended or commanded by the See of Rome And such they may be owned to be by him that dare not undertake them to be that Idolatry that was punishable with death by the Law of Moses And being such it will be punishable in all who for an undue respect to the See of Rome will not have their fellow-subjects freed from superstitious customs Nor obey the Laws of their Country that give them this freedom But if this be the due Reason for which it is punishable the same Reason will render them punishable who think they serve God by running into Conventicles in despite of the Laws of God and their Country For what is that but a pretense of paying the debt of Religion which Christianity makes due to God by worshipping an Idol of their own setting up That is as I said afore by worshipping God according to an Imagination of their own erecting and not according to that which the common Christianity requires And thus I am come to the Conclusion which I intended without disputing whether or no the Papists by their Religion do exercise that Idolatry which is punishable by death in Moses Law For if capital Penalty lye not in our Case If it be agreed upon that they are punishable upon the same Ground for which the other sort of Recusants are punishable then is the way clear before me to proceed to declare what Penalties both sorts of Recusants are to be or may be punished with Supposing our Reformation confined within those Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church either determine or allow CHAP. XXVIII All that take Arms against the Soveraign to Reform Religion may be liable to Capital Punishment BUt if the Papists cannot be liable to capital punishment as Idolaters neither can they be liable to it as limbs of Antichrist The name of Antichrist is a challenge of Soveraign Power Because the name of Christ is so Signifying a Prince and a Prophet raised and setled by Gods immediate Word which is the Soveraign Title For Antichrist can signifie nothing but a counterfeit Christ One that pretends to be Christ and is not Our Lord Christ being the Messias which the Fathers and Prophets from the beginning expected But the Soveraignty of Christ is declared by himself to be a meer Spiritual Soveraignty which all the Jews even the Apostles before our Lords death expected to be a temporal Kingdom And therefore whososoever it is that groundeth Soveraignty upon Christianity though he be not Antichrist for that yet is he the enemy of all Christian States for it And so are the Subjects of all Christian States that think themselves free of their Allegiance to Princes or States Excommunicated by the Pope And upon this account I deny not that Papists may become liable to capital punishment or to banishment with confiscation Which seems to be of the two the greater punishment But this neither common to all Papists nor proper to Papists alone For that this is not the Faith of all Papists I need no more then the distance between the Secular Priests and the Jesuits here to prove And that it is not proper to Papists alone I need no more then the Scottish Covenant and the troubles of the three Kingdoms upon it to prove And therefore it is a thing absolutely necessary to make those Penalties just which the Laws inflict upon the Papists that they distinguish between the Cause of Religion common to all and the Cause of them that make it a point of Religion to violate their Allegiance to a Soveraign deposed by the Pope Nay it will be necessary in point of Justice to impose the same Penalties upon all of all Religions that may think themselves discharged of their Allegiance upon any account of Religion whatsoever It is manifest that they who take Arms against their Soveraign to reform Religion do ground themselves upon the Title of Religion and think themselves tyed by their Christianity to do it As they who take Arms against their Prince deposed by the Pope think themselves tyed in Christianity to execute his Sentence Those whom the people follow in reforming Religion against the will of their Soveraign Those they make as much Judges in reforming Religion as the other do the Pope And all that refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath that they will neither lead nor follow any man in reforming Religion without his Authority deserve to be out of the protection of that Sword which he weareth not in vain They fall into the Case of the Jews expecting the Messias For when they imagine that he is come they will think themselves dispensed with by their Religion for any Bond of Allegiance But Christian Princes and States are not wont so far as I know to think themselves secured by the Oath of Jews Let this be a difference which they make between Jews and Christians to take the Oath of their Christian Subjects for security of their Allegiance Because true Christianity obliges all good Christians to bear Allegiance to their Soveraigns not to be dispensed with upon any account of Christianity Notwithstanding we see that there are those that count themselves the best Christians that do think themselves dispensed with in their Allegiance upon divers and several accounts of their Christianity But let this Kingdom having had tryal of contrary pretenses think it self bound to declare the same Penalties against the same Crimes And able to impose the utmost Penalties upon all that shall refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath of their Allegiance And since the allowance which the Law makes in understanding the Oath of Supremacy evidences that it may be understood in a sense offensive in point of Religion let it be thought time to antiquate the old and to inact a new form that may tye all Subjects as Subjects without pretense of offending any Religion by condemning all Religions that make difficulty to undertake it for irreligious CHAP. XXIX What Penalties the Protection of Religion requires NOw I am to say how far Christian Powers are to punish Hereticks and Schismaticks For it is too late for me to say that they may punish their Conventicles having declared the reason why they may do it And being now only to draw the consequence of that reason how far they are to do or may do it Here I must first marvel at our Independents some of whom have disputed in very good earnest that it is not lawful for Civil Powers to impose Penalties upon Religion Whereas the World knows that there never was any such Religion in the World as that of Independents before the planting of New England And that since those that framed Independent Congregations there upon a Covenant whereby they renounce One Catholick Church and One Baptism for Remission of Sins have not only banished Antinomians and put Quakers to
can have Power to introduce any thing for Reformation in the Church but that which the Consent of the Whole Church either injoyneth or alloweth Not as if the least Tittle of Scripture were not enough to warrant that which it injoyneth to be the Reformation of the Church But whereas the sense of the Scripture is that which remains questionable not the Authority of it that nothing can be the true sense of the Scripture which the Consent of the Whole Church contradicteth And therefore that though there be an appearance of truth in such a sense yet it is not for a Christian Kingdom to inact it for Law till it be duely debated And that being done it will infallibly appear in all which in most things appeareth already that the Consent of the Whole Church cannot contradict the true sense of the Scripture And that it is nothing else but not knowing the one or the other that makes it seem otherwise If the Scripture it self is not nor can be owned for Gods Word but by the Consent of Gods people from the beginning attesting the Motives of Faith related in the Scripture to have been infallibly done by submitting to the Faith which they inforce Then must the same Consent be of force to assure common reason that the Faith and the Laws wherein the whole Church agrees came from the Authority setled by God not by any Consent of all Christians to fall from that which they Profess And therefore though a Kingdom may force the Subjects thereof to call that Reformation which they inact yet they can never make it Reformation in that sense which the Salvation of Christians requires if it be not within these bounds It may be called Reformation to signifie a New form but it can never be Reformation to signifie that form which should be unless it signifie the form that hath been in Gods Church For that being One and the same from the first to the second Coming of Christ can authorize no other form then that which it may appear to have had from the beginning CHAP. IX That it cannot be done without the Synods of this Church ANd therefore it being granted on both sides that the Soveraign Power of Christian Kingdoms and States proceeding duely obligeth the Subjects to submit to the Reformation of the Church and cannot exact Legal Penalties of them which refuse upon any other Terms I do except in the second place that it ought to proceed in all Reformation by and upon the Authority of this Church That is of the Synods For what doth the whole Church agree in so Visibly as in this That the Authority which God hath instituted in his Church should give Laws to his Church And how can a Christian Kingdom promise themselves Gods blessing upon such Acts as they have no Power nor Right from God to do For granting there is such a thing as a Catholick Church it is not possible that any Christian Kingdom which must be a part of it should have Power to inact any thing Prejudicial much less destructive to the Whole to the Visible Being which is the Visible Communion of it And therefore the Faith and the Laws of the whole being the Condition under which the parts are to communicate no Christian Kingdom can have Power from God to give New Laws in Religion to the Subjects thereof which the Church of the Kingdom warranteth not to be according to the Laws of the whole Church If any thing may appear to have been in force in the Primitive Church and by the abuse of succeeding times to have become void I do not deny that the Secular Power may Reform the Church by restoring it though the Church should refuse their Consent to it The reason is because the Church would be without help if there were no Lawful way to restore the decays of it Which we agree have come to pass without the consent of them that are chargeable for the decay of it Now the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church are the Birth-right of all Christians Purchased by undertaking to Profess one Catholick Church at their Baptism And Christian Powers are to protect their Christian Subjects in their Birth-right And the Authority of the present Church is not seen in the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church For it is meer matter of Fact what they are The evidence whereof praeexistent to the Authority of the present Church cannot be understood to require or to presuppose it And therefore the Authority of the Church cannot be violated by reducing the Faith and the Laws of the Primitive Church into force Nevertheless in regard that which is decayed can seldom be restored without determining new Bounds which the present state of the Church requires It is manifestly the Office of the Church to determine the same Nor can it be done by Christian Powers of this World without assuming to themselves that Authority in which they are to maintain the Church For though Soveraign Power hath Soveraign Right in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical yet is it capable of no Ecclesiastical Power or Right But is to maintain those that have it by the Laws of the Church in the use of it If any thing were done at the Reformation setting aside the Synods of this Church which I am here neither to deny nor to acknowledge it must be justified upon this Account that they refused the Authority of the Whole Church in authorizing the Reformation of this Church If any thing now may appear to be demanded upon the same Account let the Authority of the Synods be passed by for their punishment if they hinder the Reformation of the Church by refusing it But that cannot appear till it may appear First that the matter demanded ought to have the force of Law in the Church having been of force and since decayed by the injury of time or corruption of men Secondly that it is of such weight that Religion is like to have more advantage by restoring it then the Vnity of the Church shall suffer by violating the Regular Authority of the Church What thanks I shall have of my LL. the Bishops for this I know not For I deny that they themselves can have any Authority in the Case that shall not be confined within the same bounds But it is not possible for him that is the most jealous of the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters to say what danger there can be to this Crown in securing the Conscience of the Kingdom by the Authority of the Church For the acknowledging of those Bounds which the Authority of the Church is confined to as well in respect of Soveraign Power in the Dominions whereof it subsisteth as of the rest of the Church leaveth no Plea for it to Vsurp either upon the Crown or upon the Christian Subjects of it And all this I claim by S. Paul where he commandeth all Christians to abide in that state in which they are called
Regeneration be altered in the Liturgy and Rubricks of it For this point is an instance how easily the substance of Faith necessary to Salvation may be questioned or abated or renounced by a Clause of such an Act. I grant it is clearly S. Pauls Opinion S. Peters Opinion our Lord Christs Opinion the Opinion of Gods whole Church Be it the Opinion of those whose Opinion is our Faith But he that would have it no more then Opinion must teach us a new Faith No Remission of Sins but by Baptism Entring us into the Covenant of Grace which the Vow of Baptism inacteth Entring us into the Church into which the Sacrament of Baptism introduceth Abate the Covenant which the Sacrament of Baptism inacteth and how shall a Christian be regenerate Abate the mention of it in the Service and where will be the Faith which this Church with the Whole Church hitherto professeth Shew me any Christian that ever questioned it till it was questioned what was to be Reformed in the Church and let it be abated Could Pelagius have questioned it his Heresie had not so easily been quelled He that travelled all the Church from Britain to Jerusalem had he found any Church any received Doctor of any Church that durst maintain Salvation due by the Covenant of Grace to any man that dyes unbaptized he had made the Church more work then he did No Baptism no Original sin no Cure for Original sin but Baptism no Salvation without the Cure They that think to confute Anabaptists abating this point of Faith no marvel if they make Anabaptists when they make men think that the Church hath no better Reason to confute them with then they will use Some perhaps that are not so well taught as they should be may think it unagreeable with Christianity that Salvation should depend upon a Bodily act as the washing of Baptism and that in the Power not of him that is Baptized but of the Church or of him that is to minister in behalf of the Church But S. Peter hath answered this Objection by distinguishing two things in Baptism 1 Pet. III. 21. the one the washing of the Body which saves not The other the Answer that is made out of a good Conscience to the Examination tendered him that is Baptized whether he will undertake Christianity or not And this saves if S. Peter say true And what account can any Christian give himself to ground the hope of his Salvation upon but 〈◊〉 Christianity which the Gospel tendreth which Baptism inacteth Or what can be necessary to Salvation if the ground of the hope thereof be not This is that one ground which overthroweth both those Heresies in which I said all the erroneous Doctrines of that Confusion which we have seen do resolve The Profession which we make at our Baptism is the Condition on our part upon which the Promise of the Covenant of Grace becomes due on Gods part The Profession so made nothing can defeat the hope of a Christian but the transgressing of it Being transgressed nothing can repair this hope but the restoring of it All Arts to disguise this Faith all over the Scripture signifie nothing but the hope of Salvation without living the life of Christians I will hope whatsoever Fanaticks or Atheists would have that there was never any intent to demand so great an Apostasie from the Faith to be inacted by a Law of the Kingdom I will hope much more that had it been demanded it would have been rejected with that indignation which so great Apostasie deserveth But I am glad and give God hearty thanks that I have lived to the day when I may and do testifie to my Country and to the Church of God in it that he who should demand of them to renounce this point must demand of them to unchurch themselves and to be for the future that which the See of Rome would have us to be CHAP. XVIII Conference for Satisfaction is Forbearance BUt is there then no effect of S. Pauls precept in our Case Can we break the Unity of the Church without breading the Charity of Christians Or can particular Christians be tyed to forbear one another and Christian Powers not be tied to cause both to do the same Here is indeed the Hinge upon which the truth turns and resolves all questions and clears all difficulties which must and will intangle the World in confusion upon the account of Christianity till it be owned Christian Powers may constrain their Subjects that profess Christianity to be Christians and punish them if they be not But they must protect them for their Subjects though they be not The reason of this hath not been declared by the Reformation though they have just cause to complain and do as they have cause complain of the See of Rome for authorizing capital Penalties upon Hereticks Under that name they comprize also Schismaticks And Schismaticks in their language as also in the language of all that claim the Authority of the Church signifies all that maintain Communion apart though the Cause make the Crime before God But if S. Paul have Reason when he commands every Christian to continue in the Estate in which he was called to be a Christian then can no mans Life or Estate become forfeit for not being a Christian And much less for not being Orthodox but an Heretick If the Life or Estates of Subjects should Eschete to the Soveraign for not being Christians that temporal Dominion of Soveraigns must be founded upon the Grace they have to be Christians All such Right S. Paul disclaims and discharges But shall Soveraign Power that is Christian be therefore disabled to give Law to Subjects professing Christianity That is our Case the whole Kingdom professing Christianity though the Whole cannot so properly be said to profess the Reformation For the Reformation setled by Law we see is refused as well by those that separate from it for a Reformation of their own as by those that adhere to the See of Rome Shall the Soveraign then lose the Right that all Christian Soveraigns have of giving Law to their Subjects in point of Religion because he is a Christian Or shall the Subject by being a Christian stand obliged to the Laws of his Soveraign commanding him to stand to the Christianity which he professeth Suppose the Christianity commanded to be Visible before Christian Powers command it and you inable their Laws to oblige their Subjects Not supposing it you cannot say how the Laws of Soveraign Powers should oblige Christian Subjects seeing the Papacy as well as the Reformation maintained by Christian Soveraigns For by the same Reason for which the Subjects of those Powers that maintain the Reformation are tied to their Laws by the same Reason should the Subjects of those that maintain the Papacy be obliged to obey the Laws by which they maintain it There can be no Reason for a difference if that which they maintain be not Visible before the
Church as one of the Articles of our Creed professes indowed by God with a Right in and over the same And therefore I do not attribute the cause of our divisions to it as unjust but as indefinite and unlimited And I instance in the Tenure of our Ecclesiastical Courts Which by a branch of this Law are declared to be the Kings Courts and the Judges of them the Kings Judges A thing necessarily following upon the Resumption of the Rights of the Crown usurped by the See of Rome into the Crown But which hath turned so great dissatisfaction in the establishment of Religion by the Law of this Land because the Right of the Church in that part of their Jurisdiction which necessarily ariseth from the Founding of the Church by our Lord Christ hath not been reserved to the Church by express Provision of Law Thereupon followed another Law which gave the Judges of these Courts the Priviledge of being Married At such time as the Law of the Land allowed not the Clergy to Marry And by consequence made them no Clergy-men whom the Law owned for the Kings Judges of these Courts Exempting them thereby from the Canonical Obedience which they of Clergy owe their Bishops And leaving their Ministring of the Laws in their respective Jurisdiction to their own discretion as well against as without the consent of their Bishops It is true they subsist by Patents granted by their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Dignities indowed with Jurisdictions But the Law having declared them the Kings Judges I refer it to Judgment whether it were any marvel that the Bishops and other Dignities with Jurisdiction should discharge themselves of their Jurisdiction upon such Judges as the Law had qualified rather then cross the Law in taking them upon their own charge Part whereof in ministring the Power of the Keys and in correcting the inferior Clergie is essential and necessary to the Office which Ordination makes the Clergy Bishops and Presbyters capable of For it is resolved upon by the Sages of our Laws that such a Patent being granted for term of life the Patentee is inabled to exercise the whole Jurisdiction without and against the consent of him that grants it and shall be maintained against him in so doing by the Law of the Land I am neither to blame nor to excuse them that have not done their utmost to redeem the Office which we are consecrated to a capacity of managing out of that Possession which the Law of the Land thus ingageth For it is granted and it is to be granted that the Church cannot pardon sin As if it could pardon him that is not qualified for pardon Or keep him from pardon that is But the Church pardons sin by bringing him to be qualified for pardon that is not And declaring him pardoned that is If we were Fanaticks and believed no Condition of pardon but only to imagine that we are pardoned There would be no Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keys of the Church to manage If we believed as some understand the Council of Trent That sin is pardoned by submitting it to the Keys of the Church And that the mortification of the flesh serves only to redeem the temporal Penalty remaining due when the sin is pardoned A Lay Judge having knowledge might manage the Keys of the Church as well as a Priest But because a notorious sinner becomes qualified for pardon when the Concupiscence is mortified which his sin gratifies And because he undergoes his Mortification because he cannot have the Communion otherwise Therefore are they only that consecrate the Eucharist to judge whether he be qualified or not and to give or refuse him that which they consecrate And Commutation of Penance when it supposes not the inward contrition of the heart performed by outward mortification of the flesh is but the betraying of that Soul to damnation whom it admits to Communion not being qualified for it True it is nothing hinders him that is discharged of Excommunication to become qualified by his own private endeavours But God would never have founded his Church upon the Power of the Keys if the Office thereof were only not to hinder and not also to procure notorious sinners to be fit for Communion with the Church And that to procure must be the Office of those who by the Foundation of the Church are to judge who is fit and who not If therefore the Law of the Land provide not that that Office of the Church may be in force to that effect for which the Power of the Keys is given them that consecrate the Eucharist Is it any marvel that the Judgment and Vengeance of God should lye so heavy upon the Land professing Reformation and not inabling that which it professeth to take place My present business therefore is now to say That the Interests which cause our Divisions are so far imputable to these Laws as without the Reforming of the Laws they cannot be cured Two of these Interests I name contradictory the one to the other in their Pretenses For what doth the World complain of but of the abuse of Excommunication daily imployed to inforce the contentious Jurisdiction of these Courts Never imployed to the correction of sin and recalling of sinners Which being the Office of those that receove the Power of the Keys by Ordination cannot be exercised by the Laity without Sacriledge Now granting that the Usurpation of the See of Rome or the Indulgence of Christian Princes and States have procured or granted to the Clergy a larger Jurisdiction then their Office required It would have been no Inconvenience that the whole Jurisdiction should be inforced by Excommunication signifying imprisonment by the Law of the Land If a difference had been made between the proper Jurisdiction of the Church and the Accessory For in this part of it it is an oppression to Christian Subjects that they should be barred the Communion for maintaining themselves and their Right by Law in matters of any Right of this World Though the Clergy were Judges by the Law of the Land But it would be no oppression to them that the Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts should be inforced by imprisonment which Excommunication might signifie by the Law of the Land without signifying a Bar to the Communion of the Eucharist if these were duely distinguished In the mean time the whole indowment of the Church in a manner being irrecoverable by these Courts without Excommunication the scandal of these Jurisdictions becomes a Popular Plea to strip the Clergy of their maintenance Tyths being no farther paid then it please Frantick Fanaticks or contentious neighbours to do right of good will Knowing that Excommunication being odious Imprisonment is not like easily to follow upon it I said that there is another Interest on foot upon a Pretense contradictory to this And I mean that which vulgar Professors of the Laws of the Land set up to themselves out of these scandals To reduce the whole
for want of due abilities and they will find cause I doubt not to prefer the Whole Church before a late Party and abate the Sermon to restore the Eucharist Especially seeing the Law of this Land must be changed to bear out what others have done though it is manifest they never gave any reason for it They will see cause to think that the best Preaching is that which may fit the people for the Eucharist by understanding the Covenant of Baptism and the importance of daily renewing and restoring it by Communion in the Eucharist The other Instance shall be the Psalms that are sung in Cathedral Churches but allowed to be read where there is not company to sing them For it is plain enough what excuses are made and what indeavours used to silence this part of Gods Service and to turn the Psalms which this Church with the Whole Church appointeth for devotion into Lessons of Instruction only Hence all the Plea against the Old Translation with points all the indeavors to crowd in the Psalms in Rhime instead of the Psalter and all use which the Church hath always made of it But did not partiality and faction prevail over that Reason which all Christendom before the Reformation hath always owned there could be no question of using the Psalter of David for an Instrument to tune the devotion of Christian people by transforming the expressions of David unto our Lord Christ in the first place and according to the Figure of Christ to the Whole Church first and then to every particular member of it He that hath learnt this from the Whole Church will never think it reason to put this part of Gods Service to silence whosoever they be that desire or desing it He will rather indeavour to reduce the singing of them into Parish Churches being evidently so much easier then the singing of the Psalms in Rhime But howsoever retain the reading of them by Antiphones and not quench the Spirit of God which breatheth forth that transformation whereof I spake Having thus instanced I will not propose the Ground upon which I maintain that all Reformation is to proceed for the condition of the Conference which I propose I will think it a point of that Forbearance which S. Paul commandeth the Romans not to insist upon those terms which the Authority of the Apostles doth inforce Because I see him not insist upon the Authority of an Apostle with them but having infallibly proved his ground of Justification by Faith alone forbear the consequence of it charging the Romans to hold that indifferent whatsoever his Authority so grounded declareth such yet charging them to forbear those that for all his Authority and Reasons understood it not For I believe verily that his reason and mine is the very same Namely to keep both Parties in the Unity of one Church a Member of the Whole Hoping that by Gods blessing upon the advantages which the communication of the Faithful one with another and with their Clergy affordeth those that are now most keenly set against these little things that are excepted at in the Act of Uniformity may by that condescension which the Interest of Christianity obliges all Parties to come to understand the only Principle of Reformation and Unity both The Authority of the Catholick Church in all things not determined by Gods Law which is only the Gospel under this time of Christianity And I set before them to that purpose the example of the Jews Who for all the Forbearance commanded by S. Paul having stopped their ears at all his charms with the Unity of the Church have forfeited the Faith hitherto irrecoverably For being fully perswaded that without this Principle it is not possible either for this Church or for any part of the Reformation long to subsist Can I fear any less then the utter loss of Religion for my dearest Country and for the dearer Church of God in it CHAP. XXVII How Recusants may or may not be punished as Idolaters IT remains that I say what Penalties this Position makes competent to those that refuse the Reformation thus limited A thing easie for me to do having declared the Ground upon which the refusing of Christianity is punishable Which the Reformation hitherto hath not been able to do The Position of punishing Hereticks capitally is generally decryed by them And yet we see Servetus and Gentilis put to death at Geneva and Bern and others elsewhere If because sentenced for Hereticks by them that put them to death Why should not the Powers that adhere to the Church of Rome execute the Sentence thereof upon those whom they pronounce Hereticks If because so sentenced by the Primitive Church in which we both agree Why owne we not the Primitive Church in the rest as well as in that If because they that gave the Sentence are competent Judges in Religion What remains but that contrary Sentences be executed by the Sword and Religion be no otherwise judged But supposing Religion and the Church and the sense of the Scripture Visible so far as the preserving of Unity requires Christian Powers must both protect Subjects in their Civil as well as natural being though not true Christians and yet punish them for not being true Christians Only if they pretend freedom from Allegiance by Christianity and we know it is false Christianity that so pretends there will be also fit time to declare why they may be capitally punished But those who declare the Pope Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters in the exercise of their Religion have not declared what Penalty is competent to their Idolatry And yet till that be cleared we are in the clouds This difficulty I find my self able to look in the face without ever disputing whether the Papists by their Religion are bound to commit Idolatry or not The Law of Moses indeed seems to shew that by the Law of Nature Idolaters may be put to death for their Idolatry For there is no appearance that the Law of God would have injoyned that which the Law of Nature allows not But the Case is otherwise under Christianity then under the Law of Moses The people of Israel held the Land of Promise upon Condition not to suffer any other God to be worshipped within the Bounds of it but the true God that gave it them upon those terms Therefore they committed a forfeit whensoever they suffered Idolatry in it But the Gospel was preached to the Roman Empire consisting of two Religions of Jews and Gentiles Maintaining the State of the World upon the same terms which it found saving that which if they imbraced the Faith they must voluntarily change When therefore the Soveraign Power of the Empire came to profess the Faith and thereupon an obligation to maintain and propagate it by all means which the Right of Soveraign Power furnishes they could not answer God for the right use of their Power using any other means then the Interest of Christianity allows They might
have confiscated Estates where they might have taken away lives But that would have made the meekness which Christianity pretendeth to appear that Hypocrisie of our Sects Who are always humble always for Toleration till they get the Power into their own hands To shut up the Temples of Idols and to forbid Sacrifices was no more then to suppress that Sacriledge which the light and Law of Nature discovereth If any of the Imperial Laws make it death to sacrifice it is to be understood upon presumption that those Sacrifices were Inquiries into the life of the Prince or of their enemies To constrain them to be Christians by Penalties had been to make them counterfeit Christians Besides the Nations that bordered upon the Empire were all Idolaters And Christianity pretended to convert them as well as the Empire If the Emperors had punished their Subjects being Gentiles for being Idolaters must not the Neighbour Nations have persecuted the Christians their Subjects for being Christians The reason of the difference between the Law and the Gospel in this behalf is that which S. Austin giveth why the Law of Moses voids the Marriages of Jews with Gentiles Whereas S. Paul advises those that â—…ned Christians being married to Idolaters to continue in Wedlock with them desiring it S. Austins reason is this That the Law tendring only temporal promises expresly which Gentiles as well as Jews might did injoy in this world thought it too hard a temptation to trust a Jew in Wedlock with a Gentile by whâ—… he might be in danger to be seduced to prosperous Idolatry Whereas Christianity upon the advantage of the world to come assured by the Preaching of our Lord and his Apostles challengeth all other Religions as unable to resist it when it is performed as well as professed So that to suffer Idolaters in conversing with Christians was but the allowing of opportunity for the converting of Idolaters I think I have cause to make this an argument ad hominem that our Sectaries themselves cannot nor do require the Penalty of Idolatry by Moses Law upon Papists They that remember the time when the late Q. Mother of Royal memory came over do know what infusions the Pulpits then made into the minds of the people of the curse of God hanging upon the Nation for His Majesties Marriage The pretense was wholly upon the Law of Moses Which as I have shewed is not to the purpose among Christians But indeed those prognostications were no other then the Prophesies of the Devils Oracles among the Gentiles Foretelling the mischiefs which they intended or desired to do themselves This being a sufficient reason why the same pretense is not now on foot because it cannot be plausible after so dear experience of the mischief it tends to I think I am to take advantage of it in behalf of Truth and Justice That no Party can pretend the Penalty of Moses Law to lye in our Case Supposing not granting the Papists to be Idolaters according to Moses Law And is not the Case the same between the Reformation and the See of Rome At least it is so if the Reformation be that which it pretendeth For then the advantage must needs be so Visible that to allow conversation between the Professions that are at such distance is but to allow the means of bringing all Popish Recusants to Church when the Reformation is that which it pretendeth I grant that it falls out to be otherwise in our experience For they that are converted to the See of Rome at this time are converted by this miscarriage that they venture themselves into dispute with those which they are not able to deal with But the miscarriage is accidental Because of the Divisions within our selves arising from hence that our Reformation owneth not the Bounds which it requireth For by this means the Clergy of this Church is in contempt with their Flock and private Christians venture themselves into dispute with Recusants that is with their Priests without trusting their Pastors or acquainting them with what they do Which if they did do in due time such occasions would be opportunities of reducing Recusants to Church Besides to pursue the Idolatry of the See of Rome supposing not granting that so it is what would it be but to draw the Sword on both sides to try the quarrel of Religion with And therefore Soveraign Powers cannot give God account that they use the Right he gives them over Papists their Subjects pursuing them to the Penalty of Moses Law as Idolaters There is another reason for the same that appears now and then in the disputes of them that maintain the Religion of the See of Rome to be Idolaters For they have many times found themselves obliged to grant that their Idolatry is another kind of Idolatry then that which is prohibited and punished with death by the Law of Moses And if so it must be another kind of Penalty that belongs to it Now I suppose S. Paul says true that Covetousness is Idolatry and that there be those that make their Belly their God And whosoever understands the difference between the Old and the New Testament will allow that S. Hierom understood it Who in his Commentaries upon the Prophets makes all that they the Prophets say against the Idolatry of the ten Tribes to belong to the Heresies and Schisms of Christians and all Hereticks and Schismaticks to be Idolaters in the mystical sense of the Old Testament under the New Which is no more then our Lord says of the Samaritans That they worshipped they knew not what At such time when it was well enough known that the Samaritans were no Idolaters worshipping the only true God of Israel For certainly though all Superstition be not Idolatry yet all Idolatry is Superstition Because the chief of Superstitions is Idolatry All Superstitions stand upon the same ground as Idolatry and aim at the same mark Man is sensible by that Conscience which the light of Nature creates that one true God is to be worshipped And that as himself shall require not as his Creature is willing to allow And being therefore sensible that Concupiscence allows him not that Service which Conscience requires they are willing to pay him in Coin of their own stamping Usurping the Prerogative of his Soveraignty even in that whereby they pretend to pay their Allegiance Is there any other sourse of Idolatry but this For is it not reasonable to think that men can satisfie themselves and put off the Gods they have made themselves with that which the jealous God the true God will not be served with And therefore Religion teaches that Idolatry is the Worship of the Devil Not only because he teaches it But because he holds the Opinion of a God by corresponding with Idolaters in their Idolatries And what is all Superstition but redeeming the Service of God in Spirit and Truth by the service of our Bodies or Estates which may be done when the inward
death But have imposed a Penalty of five shillings a Lords-day upon all that come not to hear their Sermons For though this Penalty is not strictly exacted at present yet it lyes at present Whereby the greater part of His Majesties Subjects in that Plantation are not only hindred from exercising the Religion injoyned by the Laws of this Kingdom But also their Children dye unbaptized themselves live and dye without the Communion of the Eucharist and in fine their Souls are murthered by this Tyranny of their misbelieving fellow-fellow-Subjects Whether all this by their Fatent or by Vsurpation I leave to those that may redress it to judge But if the Protection of Religion and of the Church lye in maintaining those Rights which the Soveraign Power finds the Church possest of when it undertakes the Profession of Christianity And all the Right of the Church which it hath by the meer consent of those that voluntarily undertake Christianity resolves into Excommunication Then is not the Church protected in the Rights of it by Christian Powers unless their Laws inable the Excommunication of the Church to lay hold on all their Subjects Nor can any inconvenience follow hereupon Because the Excommunication of the Church when it is protected by the Civil Power can never proceed but upon Causes which the Law allows Now ther are two sorts of Excommunicate persons according to the Premises One are they that Excommunicate themselves the other they that are Excommunicated by the Church For though they Excommunicate themselves yet because they are to be avoided by the Flock from whence they depart when they Excommunicate themselves they are to be held as if they were Excommunicate by the Church Now if they who thus Excommunicate themselves should be under no Penalty of Civil Power for so doing I would fain know what that Protection which Christian Powers must needs owne to the Christianity which themselves profess can avail it For if the Church Excommunicate those that perform not the Christianity which they profess and the Excommunicate be free to run into the Conventicles of those that Excommunicate themselves whowill care for performing the Christianity which he professeth Or how shall the Church and Religion subsist when no man need to care for performing the Christianity which he professeth This is the danger which is come so near to bring this Church to nothing at this time On the one side all Papists Excommunicate themselves on the other side all that run into Conventicles The Papists we all know are under Penalties grievous enough If we speak of that part which doth not decline their Allegiance As for those that do I have already set the consideration of them aside And yet there is this Apology for the severity of those Laws That they do take off the Penalty of perpetual imprisonment which by the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom introduced under the Papacy lyes against all that are Excommunicate And therefore is to lye against all that Excommunicate themselves If there be a reason why such severe Laws should be in force against them can any that wears the face of a man say why the other sort of Recusants should be free from all Penalties I think the World is sensible hereof in the suspension of the Penal Laws against the Recusants Which under his late Majesty was charged with such violent jealousies and now passes without discontent because there is neither conscience nor shame to levy those Penalties upon them and none upon the Conventicles In the mean time Atheism Prophaneness Blasphemy Apostasie Heresie shelter themselves under the Communion of the Church which the Laws protect and will needs be of that Religion which they may profess and need not perform And how long this Church can continue this Church upon those terms let those judge whom it concerns My business is only this That if those that Excommunicate themselves be under no Penalty those that are Excommunicate by the Church need not care that they are Excommunicate And so the Church is not protected because the Excommunication of the Church is not in force That is it is no Penalty to be Excommunicate to all that can think it is none And therefore unless it draw a Penalty of this World after it that all may have occasion to avoid the Penalty of the World to come by avoiding the Penalty of this World the Church is not protected It may be thought that the Church is protected nevertheless by the Priviledge of receiving the Tyths of those that decline it and of the Trust it manages of dispensing Church-goods And this is indeed part of the Penalty by which they redeem their Recusancy In as much as they are put to maintain the Religion which they invent Church-goods though they be Publick goods yet being originally affected to the maintenance of that Church which the Law protecteth But that being a Penalty of their own choice satisfies not the Protection of the Religion which the Kingdom professeth until the Law make it a disgrace and a degree of Infamy to stand Excommunicate whether by themselves or by the Church And seeing all Discipline even that of the Clergy ends in Excommunication To maintain the Revenue and let go Discipline would be to sell Religion for the Revenue of the Church For what would this be but a tempting of the debauched into the Service of the Church when there is no Discipline to restrain their debauches The complaints of this time shew this to be a Persecution which the Sects of the time bring upon the Church For Discipline is released for fear to stir and for hope to gain Sectaries and the fault is laid upon the Clergy that suffer in the releasing of Discipline But Christian Powers are bound not only not to persecute the Church themselves but not to suffer Sects to persecute it And to avoid trouble by releasing Discipline may be the way to find it in the means of avoiding it Certainly till Excommunication which is the utmost resort of all Discipline be in force we cannot say we have a Church but only because we have Laws by which it ought to be in force And because we hope to have Laws by which it will be in force Men may amuse themselves with the instance of the Vnited Provinces which they say flourish in trade and riches by maintaining all Religions But the question is of Religion not of Trade nor Riches If it could be said that their Religion is improved with their Trade the example were considerable But they that would restore and improve the Religion that flourished in England thirty years ago must not take up with the base Alloy of that which is seen in the Vnited Provinces Nor is this a reproach to them but a truth of Gods Word that Religion and Trade cannot be both at once at the height Besides there is a Religion of the State in the Vnited Provinces and other Religions are tolerated there because they were in being before
the State was setled or contributed to the setling of it upon expectation of being tolerated in their Religions when it should be setled But when the Vnited Provinces were in danger to break in pieces upon a Dispute in Religion in the year 1618. and when the point of Religion was decided by the point of that Sword which decided by the point of that Sword which inabled the States General to give Law to the States of Holland Let him that now may see more Aprons then Clokes come from their Arminian Gongregations tell me whether the point were decided by a Penalty or not But let him tell me also whether it had not been better to have decided it no further then the Catholick Church had decided it then to indanger the Reformation as now it is in danger by admitting the Socinians into Communion with the Arminians in case the Penalty should prove insufficient As for the Discourses that threaten the transporting of Estates upon Penalties for Religion and that would incourage strangers to plant and improve Trade here Who knows not that the Conventicles now Usurped were first erected by the late War And therefore must be presumed to cherish the pretense of it And how easie is it for those that inact Penalties for Religion to provide that it be for no mans ease to declare himself an enemy to his Country Nor let any man think that strangers are affected in Religion as those at home are who pretend by Religion to give Law to their Country The dissensions on foot among us may well discourage them from planting among us to improve Trade with us The improving of the Reformation and the setling of it would be but an incouragement to them to pass by those frivolous pretenses which carry us to these frantick distances In the mean time be it considered that Independency which was not in rerum natura at the planting of New England being once setled there by the pretense which their Patent or Patents gave became so fruitful that within twenty years they were able to cut off their Prince For. all that love truth must acknowledge that they were Independents that did that horrible Act. And then consider how you would hope to have it restrained if S. Pauls precept of avoiding Sectaries that Excommunicate themselves be not in force by Canonical Penalties upon them that are to avoid And by temporal Penalties upon them that are to be avoided For conversing together otherwise then for Trade and Commerce experience shews that infection is unavoidable And therefore the Protection which the Kingdom owes the Religion which it professeth necessarily requires not only that it be maintained at the Charge of the Schismaticks in it For as that is the proper Penalty for them to redeem their Recusancy with So is it the Justice which they owe their fellow-fellow-Subjects whom they have hitherto kept in that Aegyptian Bondage And this Reason will extend the same obligation to all other Plantations and Residences of English To wit that if they be suffered to live in another Religion there account may be taken of them here that they be not admitted to Communion here without renouncing that which they lived in there That they be not suffered there without maintaining the Religion professed here It extends also to French and Dutch and all Forreign Churches that for Trade or otherwise may be allowed to plant here For either they hold Communion with this Church or not If not it must be Penal both for those of this Church to Communicate with them and for them to admit those of this Church If so yet so long as there is cause of jealousie there must be provision that neither Church be declined upon any pretense of such jealousie I will here add one thing before I make an end Because it may be demanded how the Law of the Land may make Excommunication turn to disgrace and to some degree of Infamy The answer is Let the Law of the Land provide that no man may have Christian Burial that is be buried in Consecrate ground and with the Office of the Church but he whom his Curate knows to have received the Communion within the year And I believe the most part of them that Excommunicate themselves will return of themselves But then it must be provided and the Bishop must be inabled by Law to discharge that Curate of Office and Benefice that shall falsifie his trust in that point Now give me leave to demand whether the Church be under Protection or under Persecution If the Curate be not inabled by Law to refuse Christian Burial to those of whose Salvation he can give no account because they withdraw themselves from his Cure CHAP. XXX The Condition of reconciling Recusants BUt this not all There is one point yet behind For whensoever the Church Excommunicates for notorious and scandalous sin to restore him that is so Excommunicate to Communion would be to murther his Soul and Christianity both at once not supposing some proportionable presumption of amendment in him that is restored This therefore must hold as the Reason of it holds in those that Excommunicate themselves In the reconciling of Hereticks and Schismaticks to the Church And this the practice of the Whole Church of God from the beginning shews them that are willing to understand the reason of it before they tread that Authority under foot which the common Christianity obliges all to follow Shew me any Heresie or Schism ever restored to the Church without renouncing the same and I will confess that the Church it self turned Heretick or Schismatick from the same date Only there is a difference to be put between Heresie and Schism and other Personal Crimes For I see no reason why we should not call other Crimes Personal in opposition to Heresie and Schism Because we call it not Heresie or Schism till Scparation be made A false Belief in Fundamentals is Heresie before God a Resolution to divide the Church is Schism before God both destructive to Salvation before Separation be made But Separation is the disease we pretend to cure without prejudicing the health of Gods Church And therefore should Separation be made to maintain a Profession that Simony for example or Sacriledge or any other deadly Crime is no sin the Party so formed would be ipso facto an Heresie Personal Crimes then must be restored to Communion upon presumption of Personal Conversion from the same But Heresies and Schisms becoming Bodies by professing an Ingagement may be re-united to the Church in Body renouncing the Separation in which they stood ingaged For there is reasonable presumption that the Leaders would not renounce if they did not repent them of it As for the People that only follows and leads not it is most true and just to maintain that Heresie and Schism is a Bar to Salvation though we allow hope of Salvation to the simple that follow malicious Leaders out of invincible ignorance It is therefore no
blemish to the Church to receive them as they departed in company of their Leaders For their Salvation is provided for when the Bar is removed The experience of our Case makes this considerable At His Majesties Return it was inacted that such Usurpers as were possessed of dead Places should hold without inquiring whether Ordained or not Whereby it might seem to them that found no fault with their own Title that the Law of the Kingdom owned their Ordinations to be good But without cause For the Kingdom being then under that Force which was not as yet removed a thing manifest enough The Church not being yet restored the retaining of them which I am neither to justifie nor to blame was nothing but the induring of that Force upon Part rather then call in question the Whole But hereupon they that had got this colour for their Possession were not like to disowne that Ordination which the Law of the Land had seemed thus far to owne So the way was paved for the Schism on foot by refusing the Act of Uniformity when they were imployed without reconciling themselves to the Church by foregoing their Schism Some may think that I abate more then this for their sakes when I allow them Satisfaction by Conference yea and Laws to be changed for their satisfaction if just cause may appear But it is no more then I would allow Popish Recusants to justifie the Penalties that will be always necessary because they prefer the Authority of the See of Rome forbidding all Treaty of Religion without it before the common Christianity requiring Reformation in the Christianity of the Kingdom For do not they deserve those Penalties who refuse to assist their Country in a work so concerning the common Salvation upon just terms This I am sure supposing satisfaction there can be no difficulty in departing from Vsurped Ordinations and from the Schism grounded upon the same And therefore it is only the solemnity of Renouncing that is abated and the Irregularity that is pardoned And that by the example of the first Great Council in the Case of the Meletians And that because they renounce not the Catholick Church but acknowledge a National Church Which they cannot acknowledge upon due grounds but they must acknowledge the Catholick Church And therefore I say not the same of the Independents Who are Banded into a Profession destructive to it upon a Covenant For that Covenant is it that must be expresly and formally renounced before they can be capable of Communion with the Church And much more of Orders To grant them Communion otherwise is to make the Church guilty of their Schism which it alloweth And so to give Popish Recusants a just cause to refuse Communion with it As for other Sects of Antinomians Anabaptists and the like When any man knows upon what Grounds they Excommunicate themselves and how far they are Banded into Sects it will then be no difficult thing to say how they are to be Reconciled so as their Schisms and Heresies may be duely Renounced A thing which must be considered in those that were Presbyterians before they broke into Conventicles For since that came to pass who shall warrant that they have been guided by none but such as have Presbyterian Orders Or that they stand now to that Religion which the Rebellion once made Law to the Kingdom Which if they do not who shall warrant or how shall the Church be satisfied that they do depart from their Schisms with their Leaders And indeed the Independents though they be Banded into a Sect by a Covenant yet if once they be disbanded who shall answer for them that they will follow their Leaders And all this by virtue of the Sacriledge whereby they all betray the Authority of the Church and with it the Christian Faith to the Will of their People to debauch them into the same Schism with themselves Which if it be considered perhaps it will appear that the Forbearance which I have granted can for this reason extend no further then to the Persons of those that deserted their Churches rather then submit to the Act of Uniformity Nor shall it trouble me if my Opinion be found to come to no more For the Opinions of private persons are to content themselves with declaring what may be Leaving them that are concerned to judge what is But as for the way of Reconciling those which shall be converted to the Church in that the Apostolical Wisdom of the Primitive Catholick Church is of necessity to take place For Schism or Heresie being the Bar to the effect of Baptism which is the Gift of the Holy Ghost And the renouncing of it being the removing of that Bar It follows that all that shall return are to be reconciled by Confirmation as always they were reconciled to the Primitive Catholick Church This were easier done could it be presumed that all would follow their Leaders But if that cannot be presumed if they must be reconciled one by one yet is that no more than the work of an Episcopal Visitation from Parish to Parish A thing practised and usual in the Church after the building of Parish-Churches in the worst of those times in which the Canons which I have commended took place But now as for Quakers we are no more to reckon them among Christians then the Gnosticks and Manichees of Old then the Mahumetans at present For they do openly owne the Dictate of their own Spirits to be as much the Word of God as the Scriptures And that is as much as serves to create all such new Sects as acknowledging the Scriptures so far as they please introduce the pretenses of their own Revelations where they think fit For when the private Spirit is equalled with Gods Word the last Dictate as in mens last Wills must of necessity take place Only this difference That whereas Gnosticks Manichees Mahumetans followed or do follow their Leaders Spirit Quakers follow every one their own And therefore are the more contemptible and the more reducible whensoever a course shall be established Certainly did they see that they cannot be reconciled but as so many Renegades they would bethink themselves before they went on in their madness Especially did the Law set before them that this their Position is not reconcileable to Civil Trust Always obliging them to the most desperate Acts of Treason and violence to their Country that they can imagine their own Spirit to dictate Upon which account it cannot be beyond the merit of their madness that they are made servi poenae by Law as the Roman Laws call it That is that they are transported to work in the Plantations For they that take upon them to impose upon their Country that the Offices of common Civility are Acts of Idolatry What is not to be expected from their madness who as the Case is dare pretend that it ought to be Law to all Christians But since the Law is to provide for such People it is manifest that it is to provide that they may not fail of the trust which the Church and Kingdom enters into with those whom they receive to Communion but that they must fail of the Civil Trust of Subjects That is that their Testimonies be not receivable in Law that they be disabled to sue at Law that they be disabled to make Wills or to get by Wills or any thing else within the effect of Civil Trust And this must also be the Penalty of the Leviathan and all that have or may follow him either into Apostasie or Atheism For they who declare themselves at freedom to forswear the Christian Faith can never be held by any bond of Civil Trust It must also be the Penalty of all Sects that may relapse after they may have been reconciled At least in that Proportion which that part of the Faith which their respective Sect denieth holds to the whole Profession of Christianity which Apostacy and Atheism destroy at once For it may be a Question why the Kingdom should be counted a Christian Kingdom if the Laws of it set not some mark of Infamy or Disgrace upon the enemies of Christianity according to the Rate of their Enmity Which only the inforcing of Excommunication by the Laws can do FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall A Blow at Modern Sadducism in some Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft To which is added The Relation of the Famed Disturbance by the Drummer in the House of M. Mompesson With some Reflections on Drollery and Atheism Plus ultra or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the days of Aristotle Octavo A Loyal Tear drop'd on the Vault of our late Martyr'd Soveraign in an Anniversary Sermon on the day of his Murther Quarto All three by Jos Glanvill A. M. and Rector of Bath The Triumphs of Rome over Despised Protestancy Written by Bishop Hall Octavo A Sermon preached before the Peers Octob. 10. 1666. being the Fast-day for the late Fire By Seth Lord Bishop of Oxon. Quarto The Practice of Serious Godliness Affectionately recommended and directed in some Religious Counsels of a Pious Mother to her dear Daughters 12º A Discourse of Subterranean Treasure By a Member of the Royal Society 12º The General Assembly A Sermon by Francis Fullwood D. D. Quarto Forty Sermons by Anthony Farindon B. B. Fol. Rea's Flora Ceres Pomona Fol. Episcopacy Apostolical or a Consent of the Forreign Churches to the Discipline of the Church of England Written by Bishop Moreton and published with a long Preface by Henry Yelverton Baronet Octavo A Discourse of the Use of Reason in the Assairs of Religion against the present Opinions of the Sects of this Age. Quarto A Private Conference between a RICH ALDERMAN and a poor Country Vicar made publick wherein is discoursed the Obligation of Oaths which have been imposed on the Subjects of England with other matters relating to the present State of Affairs