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
A DISCOVRSE OF THE FORBEARANCE OR THE PENALTIES Which a Due REFORMATION REQUIRES BY H. THORNDIKE One of the Prebends of Westminster Church LONDON Printed by J. M. for James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall 1670. THE PREFACE ARistotle and Experience teacheth us that no Positive Law can provide for all the Cases that may arise upon the Terms of it Religion indeed in General is a Moral Vertue But the true Religion that bringeth Salvation is a Positive Constitution of Gods Grace requiring the Condition of Christianity to qualifie for the Promise of life everlasting But upon several Terms heretofore under the Law of Nature and Moses and now under the Christian Faith The Church of Christ in all Ages hath been constrained to provide new Decrees and seek new Laws for the quenching of new Heresies and Schisms They that ever hoped to do that by an Act of Comprehension which the Act of Uniformity hath not done would have proved themselves deceitful Workers They would have made many Breaches by stopping of One. That which I am able to propound I confess is rather possible than probable For were it so far advanced as to be inacted for a Law of the Kingdom I should never believe that it would take effect unless the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church might be received to give Bounds to all emergent Disputes No more then I can believe that the Reformation will ever prevail after one Breach in Germany after another since in the United Provinces and these last here amongst us unless we unite our selves upon the same Principle Whether I have said enough to prove it well grounded or not I must refer that to Judgment But he that excuses me not in such an innocent Proposition as this How would he have Almighty God to excuse me if having attained this Resolution I should not declare the Consequence of it in our present Case Especially considering the Duty which the Law of the Land justly and necessarily imposes upon all of my Order to Reduce Recusants to Church For there are now two sorts of Recusants And those that are bound to reduce them must do it upon such Reasons that by reducing the one sort they drive not the other sort from Church Let them that have more skill then I shew how it can be done without imploying my Principle I that am resolved it can by no other means be done must declare my Resolution though I were to suffer for it Which from a Christian Kingdom I cannot do One thing I have adventured upon my own Head Granting that the Government of the Church was Regular till after the sixth General Council And so that the the Acts of the Church before that time are effects of it But that is not to say that the Corruption of the Church which we Protest against and Reform began not till that time Religion began to be corrupted earlier in some and later in other Points But this Corruption had not the force of Law till after that time And especially till the Vsurpation of the See of Rome It is enough that there is difference Visible in any Point between that which was from the beginning according to the Scriptures and that which was when the Reformation was attempted That which can be made out hereof will serve to cramp both sorts of Recusants That which cannot should be no cause of difference He that reduces the sense of the Scripture within the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church warrants the Penalties of Recusants Let the Laws do their Office and make it a Disgrace to be out of the Church And then we may expect to see the Blessing of God upon his own Ordinance But without restoring Discipline without Canons and Laws to restore it without the Office of the Synods in providing those Canons let no man think that temporal Penalties will serve to do the business For though there can be no reason sufficient for violating the Vnity of the Church yet if the dissatisfaction that hath caused it resolve into a defect of the Laws it can no more be ended without redressing the Laws then a Disease can be cured without taking away the Cause of it Errata PAg. 10. lin 13. r. Prophesies sent since the Ground o Salvation was declared is p. 17. l. 5. the Church read this Church p. 20. l. 27. the Article of this Church r. the Law of this Kingdom p. 22. l. 3. Christians r. Christian p. 25. l. 27. decay r. decays p. 36. l. 1. or to be believed to r. to be believed or to p. 42. l. 29. Laws r. Law p. 63. l. 20. the best r. their best p. 99. l. 28. Churches r. Church p. 109. l. 28. making r. and making p. 113. l. 5. Christs r. Christ p. 121. l. 12. which r. of whom p. 125. l. 21. to come to r. come to p. 151. l. 17. Idolaters r. Idolatry p 153. l. 18. Invocations r. Invocation p. 263. l. 16. these r. those OF THE FORBEARANCE OR PENALTIES Which a due Reformation requires CHAP. I. The Case in which forbearance is pretended for weak Consciences IT is a long time that the forbearance due to tender Consciences hath been alledged for the means to restore Unity in this Church And certainly were the Case stated in which S. Paul prescribed it to the Church of Rome that so it might be drawn into Consequence in our Case the Scripture must needs produce that which would be of advantage for Peace without prejudice to Truth But when the bare Phrase of Scripture is tossed up and down in the discourse of them that care not to understand either the Reason upon which it is grounded or the Effect to which it sorteth no marvel to see the decay of Religion proceed from the abuse of the Scripture We need not the Heresies of the Primitive Times even the abominable Villanies of the Gnosticks to tell us what irreligious pretenses may be set forth in Scripture Phrase Our own Fanaticks would furnish sport enough with the fooleries which they pretend as from Gods Spirit because they can deliver their non-sense in the Phrase of Scripture could such irreligious madness move any thing but the compassion and lamentation of Christians It is enough for my purpose that unless the Precept of the Apostle be limited to that consequence which the reason of the Case will produce the two-edged Sword of the holy Scripture may prove an edge tool to cut their shins with who take upon them and have not the skill to handle it For the state of the Case to which S. Paul speaks I will say no more at present but this That he prescribeth only to the Church of Rome at that time when the care was not to loose the Jews by winning the Gentiles to be Christians There could then be no question of establishing a National Church by the Law of a Kingdom which Church and which Kingdom shall by that Law reform that which it protesteth
to the Church dispersed over the face of the whole earth Again the Eastern Christians that are thought to come from Nestorius the Southern Christians under Prester John that maintain the memory of Dioscorus and condemn the fourth Council of Chalcedon cannot be admitted to be Catholicks by any man that owneth the four Councils But in regard it appeareth not that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches though they owne the memory of their persons and in regard there is cause enough to presume that they would with all their hearts be reunited to the Church did not the See of Rome refuse all terms of Re-union that include not the infinite power which it challengeth they cannot be included within the Catholick Church without reserving a liberty to exclude them whensoever in point of Faith it shall appear that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches As for the Canons of the Church it was never neceslary to the maintenance of Communion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary that several Customs should be held by the same Authority Which is to say That the same Authority instituted several Customs which they thought to be for the best in several times and in several places For so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the Acts of it be agreeable to Gods Law or not how should Unity be maintained This is the Reason of that which I said even now that the Fathers do not agree in any thing but in the Faith and the Laws of the Church For it is manifest that they could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if Gods Law had been infringed by it Seeing therefore it is manifest that there are certain Canons and Customs known to have been the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church owned by this Church it followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to Gods Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church So it is not my intent to say that the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church ought to be in force And that there is no other means to restore Unity in the Church But that nothing can cause a Breach in the Church that hath Authority from the Primitive Church And that nothing can have Authority in the present Church that infringeth the Authority of the Primitive Church as if Gods Law were destroyed by any Act of it Further there are two points in the Title and Cause of the late War Episcopacy and Sacriledge wherein the Cause of the Crown hath been so united to the Cause both of this and of the Catholick Church that I may well say that to disowne the same Cause in other points alike Primitive and Catholick would be to deny the Conclusion admitting the Premises Or to keep divers weights and measures in the same Budget The Plea for Episcopacy and for Consecrate Goods hath made out so much evidence for it self that it hath helped to recover the Laws of the Kingdom And shall not the Laws of the Kingdom so recovered maintain the same Plea in all other things For the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as it never subsisted but in the consent of Bishops so was it never maintained but out of Consecrate Goods CHAP. VI. What Errours have followed because it is not so expresly BUt I do freely acknowledge that though this Church hath many Obligations to owne this Principle for their Rule yet it is not formally and expresly inacted by those Laws of the Land whereby Religion and the Rights of the Church are established For I do further claim that the want of inacting and inforcing it and driving it home to the true Consequence in every point is the Cause and Sourse not only of the disorders which divers pitiful plaisters have been tendred to cure But of all disorders imperfections and decays of Religion which have succeeded upon the Reformation having been made without limiting those bounds And that the present disorders in Religion are the Symptoms of a common disease which all men are offended with but cannot be cured without recourse to the Unity of the Catholick Church and the terms of it wherein that health of Christianity consisteth which all division impeacheth I do therefore freely acknowledge that I find two positions to be the sourse of all those Excentrical Opinions in Religion which caused that Confusion upon the issue of the War that helped to make way for his Majesties happy Return The first is that there is no Condition for the Covenant of Grace That there is no Contract in it but a meer Promise The second is that there is no such thing as a Visible Church instituted by God But that men are first Children of God by Faith then members of a Church of free choice Of these Positions the one necessarily dependeth upon the other For the Faith of the whole Church from the beginning requires Baptism to Salvation And therefore includeth it in that Faith which alone justifieth And by consequence requires that justifying Faith cannot be understood without that Profession of Faith which a man maketh at his Baptism And this will necessarily infer a Church therefore Visible because Catholick For it is agreed upon by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism That is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated being given in the form of the Church yet is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Now it is not my intent to say that these two Positions were expresly and formally professed by Companies distinguishing themselves from others by Ecclesiastical Communion in the Profession Which is the true signification of an Heresie in the eye of the Church But the Positions I maintain to be Heresies in so much that if there were such Companies they must of necessity be taken for Heresies in the account of the Church And my Reason is clear For it is acknowledged by the whole Church clearly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel that the taking up of his Cross is a necessary condition to Salvation Now since our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is evident that ever since we take up Christs Cross when we undertake at our Baptism to lay down our lives rather then deny the Faith of Christ or transgress his Commandments And since this Promise is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church it cannot be available to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the Promise deposited with it If any man ask whom I can charge
Christendom have something else to do then to imploy the forces of their Dominions to that purpose And that if it prove for the Interest of some of them at some times it will prove not to be for the Interest of others at the same or other times Of which Interest as they are indeed and in Conscience to give account to God and not to the See of Rome so that they will ever make the See of Rome the Judge of them what appearance can there be So it is time of the day for them to hearken to Reason whether they regard God and Religion or Interest and themselves But is not our Case the same Or are not we transported as far with the conceit that they are limbs of Antichrist and Idolaters as they are with the conceit that we are Hereticks and Schismaticks Have we not as long expected when the Kings would joyn to strip the Whore of Babylon naked as they when they would joyn to reduce the Hereticks by force And is it not yet time of the day for us whatsoever opinion those that imploy their time in searching the meaning of a Prophesie may have at least to make it no Principle of our Profession nor to maintain Separation upon the Account of it Knowing that were the Pope twenty times Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters he can never be Antichrist nor they Idolaters for any thing that the consent of the Catholick Church either alloweth or injoyneth So that whatever become of any Prophesie in Gods Word and the sense of it the bounds of Reformation will be the very same And he will be no less an Heretick or a Schismatick that makes the Pope Antichrist or the Papists Idolaters for doing or believing any thing which the Church from the beginning hath injoyned or allowed to be believed or to be done then if he pretended no Prophesie to prove it If ever any people had cause to reflect upon the sad consequences of this conceit we are they that shall find no probable reason to impute the mischiefs of the late Vsurpation to but the hope of fulfilling this sense of this Prophesie It is a vain thing to think that a man who believed no God could Act a counterfeited Religion throughout as we have seen the Usurper do He that could hope to be saved either without Faith or without good Works by having Christ alive at the Heart why should not he think that all the foul way he went through was the Service of God having intended to strip the Whore of Babylon by his means Neither Manichaeus nor Mahomet nor any Enthusiast can be barred of the like aim with this if once he make his private Spirit parallel to the Scripture For that which the same Authority last dictates as in Wills and Testaments must take place I say not that this is the Case of those that interpret this Prophesie of the See of Rome I believe they follow their Reason in expounding Scripture by Scripture But if their Reason be not the Reason of Religion the Reason of that Christianity which we all have Interest in the private Spirit that follows it may take all for Gods Service though never so wicked that is done in prosecution of it In the mean time Division increasing among us as it does I think I gratifie our selves and not the See of Rome in proposing that truth which reconciles the Interest of Reformation to the Interest of Vnity in the Church For in Civil War as Schism is nothing but a Civil War in the Church that Party that divides is the likely to Ruine And though the first hopes of the See of Rome have proved addle yet if our Divisions prevail they must needs have fresh hopes to prevail by our Divisions CHAP. VIII That it is the Duty of this Kingdom and of all Christian Soveraignties ANd therefore I must freely profess my opinion without any manner of hope that ever the See of Rome will abate any thing of their rigour Though the Reformation should content themselves with these terms For I find by the proceeding of former times that it is their Maxime to stand to that which they have once done And to mark those Popes to posterity that have abated any thing from the rigour of their Predecessors For being arrived at this Greatness by this Rigour and obstinacy in all Pretenses right or wrong they will always think themselves obliged in Reason of State not to yield so much as the Cup in the Eucharist Though the Council of Trent leave it in the Popes Power to grant it Because granting that any thing is and hath been amiss who shall secure them that nothing more shall be questioned then is indeed amiss when we see no point in Religion remain unquestioned some time or some where Not considering all the While that this Rigor is the cause of Division and Division the cause of these Questions And that the Reason of Reformation being owned on both sides there is a Ground restored for Confidence that they who accept of it will stand to those Bounds which it setleth But if the See of Rome can have no Power against the Whole Church Much less can any other Church or any part of the Church or any Secular Power that protecteth it make that to be Reformation which the Whole Church alloweth not Or secure their Subjects Consciences of the Salvation they seek in exercising their Christianity according to their Laws but by confining the Reformation which they maintain within those Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church either require or allow Now how can the Interest of the Nation be secured without due ground for hope of Gods blessing upon that which shall be done How can there be ground to expect Gods blessing till it appear how all Subjects of this Kingdom shall stand discharged at the day of Judgment following that form which the Kingdom inacteth rather then that which the See of Rome requireth For there are other Christian Princes and Soveraignties that command their Subjects to obey the See of Rome whose Subjects must as well stand discharged to God upon the same Plea as the Subjects of Reformed Princes and States And how shall the Consciences of them that make Laws be secured if they cannot secure the Consciences of them for whom they are made Or how can Gods blessing be expected if this security cannot be evidenced It is not yet time to ask how those that allow not the Reformation upon these Terms should be punished Because there are that pretend that no punishment can be inflicted for disobeying any Law of the Kingdom by which Religion is setled But it is time to say that they make it a very ridiculous thing for the Legislative Power to make Laws for the Kingdom which they can inact by no Penalty And how shall this difficulty be voided but by demanding nothing but that which Christianity will require of all Christians That no Christian Kingdom
they can challenge by their Orders what pretense is there to imagine that there can be any such Crime as Schism if this be not it That God should bless that which is done by such gross Vsurpation as this is And when all this is said it remains free for me to say That there is no other way to restore and to preserve Vnity within the Reformation but by establishing and maintaining Episcopacy in that Authority which it hath always had for the determining of differences Nor maintain that Authority but by confining it within the Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the whole Church do limit As for the Fanaticks which make our Orders void because the Pope is Antichrist and the Mass Idolatry whence our Bishops received and where they exercised their Orders I will only consider the Case of the Donatists forejudged by the whole Church They pleaded in point of fact that Caecilianus was Ordained by Apostates A thing which the Church was so clear in that the African Bishops offered to give up their Sees if it were proved But besides in point of Right had it been proved and Caecilianus owned by the Church because it did not appear or because they thought the Canons ought to be dispensed with for Unities sake those that Ordained Caecilianus having repented of their Apostacy shall we imagine that the Church was lost by owning those that had been Apostates and their Ordinations The Donatists are branded for Hereticks and Schismaticks maintaining all the Laws of the Church but that of Unity And shall Lay-Christians presuming to authorize Lay-Christians to consecrate the Eucharist and set up Churches be esteemed less then Hereticks and Schismaticks Let those that pretend to Unity find that Forbearance which a favourable construction of their actions signifies But Charity to the sound obligeth to take the profession of Schismaticks in the worst sense which if we do the making of Independent Congregations Churches will be the denying of One Catholick Church and the making of them Hereticks that do it CHAP. XVI That changing the Laws for the Weak is not Forbearance BUt if it be a thing absurd in common sense to allow them their Orders much more absurd will it be to change the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land for their sakes Which is nothing else but to purchase their Ministry at the price of our Religion which the Ecclesiastical Laws contain Here we must distinguish two questions For it may be lawful for Christian people to live by those Laws which it was not lawful for Superiors in Church and State to make A thing evident to all that believe that it was possible for our Ancestors before the Reformation to be saved under the abuses of the Church of Rome But our question is whether or no the Laws of Superiors injoyn that which Gods Law forbids Inferiors to do Otherwise it is pernicious to all Government that Inferiors should take upon them to judge the Acts of Superiors But if the matter of the Law be within the Power that makes it to require an Exception for tender Consciences is to say that there is no Power in the World to give any Law to those tender Consciences Was there ever any Heresie any Schism any Religion pretending Christianity that did not alledge Scripture for themselves Did ever any man alledge it that would not be thought to be touched at the heart with it What is there for a Christian to doubt at where the Exception of tender Consciences lyes not Or how shall we that agree against the See of Rome but agree not in the terms and grounds of Reformation be tryed in the sense of the Scripture Can any man imagine that S. Paul intended to destroy his own Authority of giving Law to the Church which he exercised when he ordered the Jews and Gentiles at Rome to forbear one another Or is this Authority dead with the Apostles What Church then can there be alive if there be no Authority deriyed from the Apostles to give Law to it But the Authority is not questioned so it provide for weak Consciences Episcopacy will be owned if the Secular Power will force it to take them for their Presbyters whose Ministry they cannot give account to God of Being both authorized and exercised by Laws made without and against their Authority This no Christianity can justifie Christianity maintains the Estates of the World in all the Right they had when they became Christians And cannot justifie it self to the World otherwise How should the World receive it upon other terms But if the World stand upon the same terms having received Christianity as afore then must Christianity and the Church continue in the same Rights which it had before the World received it No exception to be allowed but as afore If it appear that the Faith and Laws of the Primitive Church be decayed Not if it seem to private Spirits that the Scripture is not fulfilled In the mean time is it for the honour of the Religion we profess that Weakness which at the best is negative ignorance in truth perhaps wilful ignorance should give Law to it Is it reason that they who have failed to destroy both Church and Kingdom should give Law to both As if a Child should govern the House because he will be framfold and disquieted otherwise Surely it is that which the Emperor said to his Niece Put as tibi injuriam fieri nisi imperas But is that the way to have Peace in Religion When Inferiors shall be made to tread upon the necks of their Superiors they will be so modest for the future as to stay there They will be content to have their Doctrine regulated by them as the Law of the Kingdom requires Or they will think fit that the Bishops be content with their Revenues and leave them to Preach what they please Surely they that can carry the dispute of a hundred years wherein the Bishops had so visibly the better that Club-law was found requisite to get the advantage will not lay down the Cudgels here So they that agree in conforming to the Laws differing every day in that which the Law determines not the Recusants on both sides may make hay in the heat of our Contentions and profit more by such a Law then by the War which destroyed this Church But especially the Atheists who have profited so well under these Contentions as to make that visible which was but foreseen under the Usurper That no Religion would in time stand to be the Religion of the Kingdom They having the Priviledge of the Laws and not liable to any Infamy when the differences maintained make Religion contemptible shall have cause to thank all that shall have done their work by solliciting such Laws CHAP. XVII Of the Opinion of Regeneration by Baptism ONe point I must not pass over in silence which hath been named for a point to be changed That all passages seeming to determine the Opinion of Baptismal
mischief as that of Schism It rises and is fomented by those Interests which the imperfection of two Laws of Henry VIII hath created So that the Reformation is no way obliged to answer for them Only if it refuse not to mend them now that time hath discovered the mischiefs which they have produced I call them two Laws not as if they were comprised in two Acts of Parliament but because they concern one of them the indowment the other the Rights of the Church We all know that when the Monasteries were given to the Crown the indowment of those Churches which had been impropriated to those Monasteries was transferred by the Crown into those hands that could not Officiate the Cure of Parishes as the Monasteries by some of their Members or by their Vicars had done And though the Right of the Crown which could be no more then the Monasteries had could not abate the Original Right of the Bishop in setling a reasonable portion upon the Vicarages yet in the hands of those that claim under the Crown it hath appeared so strong that such Vicarages are generally impoverished But where the Cure lay upon the Covent there there now remains no indowment no Provision for the Cure of Souls Which falls out most in Cities and places that were most frequented with Monasteries as well as with People What the consequence hereof hath been it is plain enough Even a sort of Mungrel Clergie of Lecturers Who being Authorized by the Bishops Orders and License but payed by the People to supply the Office of Preaching which the Benefices of the Church were not able to maintain Like a Pack of Dogs that are ruled by the Huntsman that seeds them and sets them a work not by the Master that provides for them No marvel that they owne not the Bishops for Judge of their Preaching whether according to the Law or not He that sees not that this was the sourse of the late War of him is the Proverb that says No man so blind as he that will not see And the worst is that so great a part of the Gentry as have shared with the Crown in the spoils of the Monasteries think it their Interest to hold up that Party which they think would justifie their Title in point of Conscience Whereas it is found by experience that those very Preachers that would Reform the Church by force of the People would question their Tenure as soon as they saw themselves in condition to do it Now I intend not here to dispute that foundations to intents of false Religion as for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory are ipso facto forfeit to the true God himself hath recommended this Course to the Church in the Case of the Censers of Core Dathan and Abiram which he challenges for his own to the use of the Altar though consecrated to the use of their Schism But the Christian Emperors of the Primitive Churches inacting those Penalties upon the Conventicles of Hereticks and Schismaticks which we read in the last Book of Theodosius his Code the fifth Title de Haereticis have confiscated the places where they met in nine Laws and forfeited them to the Church in five Whereby it appears that the Primitive Church living under those Laws did not think that goods so consecrated do of necessity eschete to the Church My present purpose obliges me only to suppose that the Tithes which all the world saw that they had been consecrated to God for maintaining the Cures of the Parishes These if there be any such thing as a Church could not be alienated from it without Sacriledge But I say not therefore that they can never be held bona side Which is that which makes the jealousie incurable in those that find their Estates consist much of them And yet I undertake not to warrant generally the holding of them Only think that in some particulars it may be warrantable For when they are come into such hands that the support of Estates depends necessarily upon them and that by mean contracts and originally such as had in them no ill Faith I say not I can warrant them I think they may be warrantable Now I know there may be an Act of Oblivion done by the Church as well as by the Kingdom And the Church of Rome knew it well enough when they reconciled this Kingdom under Q. Mary without restoring these Possessions By the same Reason for which Hereticks and Schismaticks were always dispensed with for Canonical Penalties leaving the Pardon to God that the Unity of the Church might be recovered By the same may the Church leave all to their own Consciences not warranting their pardon from God neither yet refusing them the Communion as unpardonable But alas what would this Act do in our Case did the whole Clergy understand themselves tyed in Conscience by it not so much as to mention much less to reproach any such Tenure So long as the mischief once done remains unprovided for by the Law which gives the Title and Possession the contradiction between the Canonical and Popular Interests can never cease But if the Kingdom consider that it was an Act of Parliament that did the wrong they must necessarily find that nothing but an Act of Parliament can repair it And if the People consider that a Parliament may transgress the trust which they repose in them which of necessity may come to pass unless we make the Parliament infallible and the Pope not they will easily find that a Parliament cannot repair the wrong that a former Parliament hath done but upon the Charge of the people For Church-goods under Christianity cease not to be the Goods of the People though the Church be trusted with managing them being founded by God for that purpose And he that admits of the necessity of all this will find it no considerable Charge for the whole Kingdom to furnish contribution necessary for the founding and indowing of Churches requisite for the Resort and Cures of all Assemblies requisite for a Reformation regulated by the Primitive Church And if this be one Cause of our Divisions and that the Kingdom cannot be counted a Christian Kingdom till it take a course in it let no man marvel to see the Judgments of God in our Divisions when he sees the Sin of the Kingdom continue And if this were considered the discourses that walk up and down in all Assemblies of relieving the Publick Charge by seizing the pitiful remainder of the Church-Revenue would appear to be as they are the productions of Atheism not of pity to the peoples purses CHAP. XXI By limiting and restoring Ecclesiastical Discipline THe other Law concerning the Right of the Church in the Supremacy of the Crown over all Persons and in all Causes as well Fcclesiastical as Civil may seem to extinguish the Right of the Church over the same Persons and in the same Causes Which could not be called Ecclesiastical if there were no such thing as a