of the Holy Scripture our Church rather doth take for granted than prove too laboriously or uncertainly § 9. All immoderate extravagancies concerning interpretation of Holy Scripture avoided by our Church § 1. WHereas Moderation hath its name and being from the equal measures observed by it the first instance of the Moderation of our Church is most properly to be taken from the right rule and measure in Religion which this Church of ours constantly receives and holds close to by which she is safely preserved from all undue extremes having to her self the same rule and measure of her Moderation which the universal Church of Christ in all Ages hath had such a rule as is beyond all exception and is of undeniable Authority namely the Holy Scriptures which are the same right and just measure by which she measures out to others and desires to be measured by her self in whatever she receives and delivers out as matter of Faith and required practice in the necessary parts of Religion and the worship of God Whereas next to the extreme of them who have no Religion nor no Rule the vanity and extravagance of those is very notorious who set up themselves to be their own Rule which is done in the pretences of infallibility on one hand and enthusiasm on the other between that Rock and this Gulf the Moderation of our Church doth safely conduct its own judgment and practice and all that follow her In the Sixth Article of Religion see how our Church doth own the perfection of Holy Scripture as a Rule Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation and the reason why the Church of England doth require her self to be acknowledged of her own a Canon 3. 1603. as a true and Apostolical Church is because she teacheth and maintains the Doctrine of the Apostles and in the fourth Canon the Church censures all Impugners of the worship of God and whosoever shall affirm her Form containeth any thing in it repugnant to the Scriptures In the 36. Canon Article 2. All who are to subscribe are willingly and ex animo to affirm That the Book of Common-Prayer and of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of God and Article 3. That he acknowledgeth all and every of the 39. Articles to be agreeable to the word of God In the 19th Article of Religion The visible Church of Christ is defined a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance And in the ordering of Bishops and Priests it is asked Be you perswaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all Doctrine required of necessity for eternal Salvation through Faith in Jesu Christ And are you determined with the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your Charge and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal Salvation but that you shall be perswaded may be concluded and proved by the Scriptures The Answer is I am so perswaded and have so determined by Gods grace In the 20th Article of Religion it is declared It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to Gods word written neither to expound one place that it be repugnant to another From all which passages and many more which might be repeated out of the Monuments of our Church it is evident that as our Church is formed in her whole Constitution with an uniform respect to this Rule and hath framed her Articles Liturgy Homilies and Orders thereby so it doth require her self to be acknowledged in those but in subordination to this Rule and measure as before and superiour to it self which doth manifest the exceptions of many of the Separation to be very unreasonable who seem to give such deference to the Holy Scriptures and at the same time renounce Communion with the Church of England which doth so religiously hold to the Sacred Scriptures of which our Church in union with the whole Church of God is a sure Keeper a faithful Witness a zealous Defender and a most sober Interpreter § 2. The Moderation of the Church of England further appears in avoiding the extremes of those who take away from the true perfection of Scripture and of others who seem officiously to add thereunto Of the first sort of those who detract from the true perfection of Scripture are they who frame an additional Canon of their own as the Church of Rome doth who declares that the Apocryphal Writings and Traditions of men are nothing inferiour nor less Canonical than the Sovereign dictates of God as well for the Confirmation of doctrinal points pertaining to Faith as for ordering of Life and Manners and that both the one and the other ought to be embraced with the same affection of Piety and received with the like religious Reverence b Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decr. 1. not making any difference between them Thus as it is in the second part of the Homily of good works Christ reproved the Laws and Traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees because they were set up so high as though they had been equal with Gods Laws and above them They worship Me in vain that teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men For you leave the Commandments of God to keep your own Traditions Yet He meant not thereby to overthrow Mens Commandments for He Himself was obedient to the Princes and their Laws made for good order On the other extreme They of the Separation among us are busy to attribute to the Holy Scriptures such a perfection as God never intended them namely particularly to determine of all actions of Mankind and every matter of order and decency in Religion Between these two see by how even a thred our Church divides the controversy first asserting the real perfection of Scriptures as a Rule to be as much as need to be to be as great a perfection as God hath given it in order to its end namely to guide our belief and practice in things needful to Salvation Article 20. Besides the same namely Gods word written ought not the Church to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation and in the same Article It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to Gods word written Yet the Article begins thus The Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and hath Authority in controversies of Faith Wherein according to an accurate Moderation the Church doth behave itself in attributing to the Holy Scriptures their just and full perfection On the other hand our Church doth thankfully accept of that Christian Liberty which God hath left her and indeed which he hath given all particular Christians according to their
measures namely leave to determine their particular actions according to the general Rule of Holy Scriptures and sometimes of Prudence where other Laws are not given to determine their Liberty And indeed this Article of the sufficiency of the Scriptures and the use of them as a Rule is the very dividing point at which those of the Separation on either hand leave our Church and her Moderation at once For those who are ready on one hand to receive all Traditions which the Church of Rome can offer with affection and reverence equal to the written word of God so that as it is in our Homily c Homily of good works 3 d. Part. The Laws of Rome as they said were to be received of all men as the four Evangelists No Moderation can contain the extravagancies such belief leads them to On the other hand to accept of no appointment for outward order and government in the Church or Kingdom but what is set out in the express word of God for the direction of every particular action under pretence of defending Christian Liberty is verily so gross and unreasonable a Pharisaical confining it that this principle is the first Sanctuary of ignorance and disobedience in most of our Separatists who under an immoderate pretence to Religion and the honour of Scriptures really offer great abuse and disservice to both as it is a real abuse to a person though of honour to give him Titles which do not belong to him so it is an occasion to Atheists and prophane persons captiously to detract from the true perfection of Holy Writings when they find attributed to them such Titles as are false and imaginary We must take heed saith the judicious Hooker d Eccles Pol. l. 3. §. 8. lest in attributing to Scripture more than it can have the incredibility of that do cause even those things which it hath most abundantly to be less reverently esteemed On this foundation of our Churches Moderation in what she judgeth concerning the perfection of Holy Scripture both the Protestant and the Christian Religion is established For as Bishop Sanderson saith e Pref. to his Sermons The main Article of the Protestant Religion is The Holy Scriptures are a perfect Rule of Faith and manners so the very mystery of Puritanism is That no man may with a safe Conscience do any thing for which there may not be produced either command or example in Scripture § 3. We are to note the Moderation of the Church in her judgment of the letter and sense of Holy Scripture and in the use of such consequences as are duly drawn from thence Whereas the Romanists 1. look on the letter of Holy Scripture but as so many dead and unsensed Characters f Richworth's Dialogues J. S. Sure-footing of variable and uncertain signification g Niâ— Cusâ—nus Card. Ep. 7. ad â—â—hem 2. They make the sense of Scripture entirely depend on the Authority of their Church h V. Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decret de usu S. Scr. 3. They presume the Church of Rome only can make authentick all the Books of Holy Scripture i Nullum Capitulum nullusque liber Canonicus habetur absque illius authoritate Greg. 7. Dict. 16. in Concil Rom. and by her sole Authority is to determine which are to be Canonical 4. They will not allow the clear consequences of Scripture to prove any matter of doctrine k V. Discourse upon a Conference Apr. 3. 1676. In these as in many other instances our Sectaries generally agree with the Romanists 1. They also make the Holy Scripture a dead Letter without their interpretation 2. In making the sense which they vouch to be the Word of God 3. Such Scriptures as seem to serve their turn they allow others they reject 4. The clear consequences from Holy Scriptures against them they cast by as only the results of carnal reason Between these two opposers of Holy Scripture at present there appears this difference instead of an external infallible Interpreter on one side the other sets up the witness of their own private spirit for an infallible interpreter also When time serves They that make the difference can compromise it Amidst these extremes observe we the Wisdom and Moderation of the Church of England 1. It gives all due honour to the Letter of Holy Writ referring her self and her Sons chiefly to the Originals l V. B. of Homilies passim Caeterùm in lectione D. Scripturarum si quae occurrerint ambigua vel obscura in V. Test earum interpretatio ex fonte Hebraicae veritatis petatur in N. autem Graeci codices consulantur Reform Leg. Eccles de fide Cathol c. 12. using all care in keeping the Letter of Holy Scripture and preserving the Originals and setting them forth correctly and translating them as faithfully as may be 2. The sense of Scripture our Church accounteth chiefly as Scripture viz. The Word of God therein The mind of God being thought by our Church to consist not in words but in sense For is the Kingdom of God words and syllables m Translators of the Bible Pres 3. The clear consequences in Scripture are in our Church accounted a good proof in matters of doubtful Doctrine Whatsoever is not read therein nor proved thereby is not to be required saith our sixth Article Wherefore Mr Chillingworth n Chillingworth 's Pref. § 28. did not without reason thus declare I profess sincerely I believe all those Books of Scripture which the Church of England accounts Canonical to be the infallible word of God I believe all things evidently contained in them or even probably deducible from them o Simpliciter necessaria Rex appellat quae vel expressè Verbum Dei praecipit vel ex verbo Dei necessaria Consequentiâ vetus Ecclesia elicuit Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr § 4. In our Church no one Version nor more are made equal much less superiour to the original Nothing is declared authentick but what is judged truly and originally so Although the Church of Rome hath declared the vulgar Translation to be only the authentick Scripture p Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Decr. 2. according to which all points in Question are to be decided and though the same in our Church hath been convinced by sundry learned men of some imperfections yet wherein it is most faithfully performed the innovations of Popery even from thence may be sufficiently manifested Other ancient Versions and Translations which have been of Holy Scripture our Church is so far from rejecting or undervaluing that it hath made great use of them and doth constantly acknowledge their usefulness and doth esteem them according to their antiquity and the approbation they have had in the Church of God Yea in the worst of our late times when the true Church of England was most of all accused of Popery and opposition to the Scriptures then were sundry learned and religious Sons of the Church diligently
As to those among us who are most moderate it may be wisht they will afford their own Example in what they allow in Discourse and that they would labour as effectually to prevail on those who depend on their Judgments and Example § 3. Whereas many of our Dissenting Brethren profess they desire the Interest of Jesus Christ may be promoted and that sanctity of Life and the pure Worship of God and the Communion of Saints and the Edification of the Church and the Reformed Protestant Religion may be maintained and encreased and in all Debates they appeal to the Holy Scriptures and many of them say they are desirous to rectify Mistakes and to lay aside all prejudice and passion and partiality and profess they desire their Judgments and Practices may be guided in the ways of Truth and Peace Supposing all this if we meet with such as will admit what follows into fair consideration I should think it the most proper means by some such degrees as follow to bring them if it be possible to understand the good Constitution of things among us 1. By letting such by clear Instances see how unmoveably we hold the Faith and Doctrine of Christ delivered in Holy Scripture which together with the whole Church of God the Church of England doth keep inviolably witness unto them faithfully and so constantly appeal to as the only perfect Rule of Faith and Manners V. Ch. 4. 2. Since the best and most useful sort of Moderation is that which governs us as we ought in the real Practice of Vertue and Goodness whereunto tend all the Moderation of the Laws and the Doctrine and Discipline of God's Church yet which is a lamentable thing to consider this is most silently past over and scarce known by the Name at that same time that a huge clamour is rais'd among us for Moderation in Religion in which all that are concerned may know and understand that the great Design and Desire of our Church is to promote holiness of Life Among us all may not only be as holy as they will but that they may be so they are assisted and encouraged most earnestly by the Laws and Constitutions and Offices and Councils of our Church which if they were rightly understood would be known uniformly to tend to no less 3. Such may consider that all the appointed means of Grace and Salvation are by our Church publicly and amply taken care of as duly and effectually as may be 4. In a Church where substantial Piety is so truly procured throughout the whole Constitution it might at least mitigate the great offence taken to consider what is more largely shewed Ch. 8. That our Church never did own her very few Ceremonies any other than accidental and mutable Circumstances for Order and Comeliness-sake but never asserted them any essential or necessary part of God's Worship Such may also consider the Rules of reasonable behaviour and submission to the Church as are moderately laid down Chap. 6. § 10. 5. Because our Dissenters by their dividing from us seem to endanger very much the Interest of the Reformed Religion which they appear so zealous to uphold Let them be pleased to consider the real danger of their being acted by Romish Agents and Incendiaries while they take the second direct course to destroy this reformed Establishment among us as is more particularly considered in Chap. 17. 6. Such may do well to consider truly those easy and proper Consequences which follow the Consideration of the Church being a Society with relation to a Christian Kingdom as ours is from whence sundry special Obligations may be inferred to bind every one who calls himself Christian to maintain the Peace and union of such a Society especially if we look on the Church as a Society formed by God himself and therefore common Christians are not to look upon themselves as Spiritual Governors as if they had any power in themselves to constitute new Bounds or new Extents to its Being or Authority but are to think they have an easier and safer task quietly to accept and obey that which is constituted by lawful Authority in all things not repugnant to the revealed Will of God And since every one's being of the Church doth suppose their duty to communicate in those Sacraments and Holy Offices which are appointed as a public Sign before God and Man that we do confess Christ Jesus and is an evidence of our holding communion with God's Church and that we are obedient to the Laws of this Society and the Government thereof in that fixed part of the Church we live in it follows that we are obliged unto the Peace of this Church by the intent of our Baptismal Vow when we were incorporated as Members of Christ's Body the Church And we are bound to maintain the same Peace of this Society of the Church as we live in a Christian Kingdom where the Religion of the Kingdom is so great a part of its Laws Upon which account Schism renders the safety of Kingdoms very hazardous beside that it looseth the Bands of all Friendship Sacred and Civil and breeds enmity among nearest Relations and Neighbours It tends exceedingly to the dishonour of the Public Laws and opens a gap to the most dissolute making void the exercise and effect of the Discipline of the Church upon the scandalous which otherwise to the prophane World would prove terrible as an Army with Banners It is the only way any can take to destroy all being of a Visible Church to corrupt her Doctrine and destroy her Power and is so great a sin as Martyrdom it self cannot expiate it Such do as much as they can make void the Design of our Blessed Saviour Who died that be might gather into one the Children of God that are scattered abroad 11 S. John 52. the night before our Lord was betrayed when he instituted the Sacrament of Unity How fervently did he pray for the Peace of the Church 17 S. John 11. Holy Father keep through thy own Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as I am one V. 21. That they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me Whereas these Schisms which we have tend to weaken or take away the greatest outward Witness we have of the truth of Holy Scriptures and of our very Christianity namely the Testimony of God's Church from the beginning and do expose our most excellent Religion to the contempt and entertainment of Atheists The sad account for which let them beware of who make it their idle business to defame the Church in her Holy Offices and alienate all whom they can from her Communion Let them pretend what they will in the mean time to intimate Communion with God they indeed take away the Unity of the Church as much as in them lies but in effect they take it away from themselves and they cut themselves off from Communion with the rest of the
5. In her Orders also for dispensing the Holy Scripture to all within her Communion § 6. In governing the reading of the Scripture and communing on the same § 7. In her judgment of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books § 8. The Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture our Church rather doth take for granted than prove too laboriously or uncertainly § 9. All immoderate extravagancies concerning interpretation of Holy Scripture avoided by our Church p. 48 Chap. V. Of the Moderation of the Church in applying the Rule of Faith to it self § 1. Avoiding extremes on either hand in relation to the authority of the Vniversal Church § 2. The Decrees of Councils § 3. The Testimony of the Fathers § 4. Other Traditions § 5. Our Churches own Testimony § 6. The use of Reason § 7. The Testimony of the Spirit § 8. Of the testimony and operation of the Holy Spirit the judgment of our Church according to great Moderation more largely declared p. 77 Chap. VI. The Moderation of the Church in its judgment of Doctrines § 1. Our Church doth wisely distinguish between what is necessary for Salvation and what is not § 2. Her Articles are few § 3. Which are generally exhibited not as Articles of Faith but consent Concerning subscription § 4. Our Articles are propounded so as to avoid unnecessary controversy § 5. The wise Moderation of the Kings of England in their Injunctions to Preachers and Orders taken to preserve Truth Vnity and Charity § 6. The Controversies of the late Age are well moderated by the determinations of our Church § 7. As our Church requires our consent in nothing contrary to sense or reason so it hath also contain'd it self from immoderate curiosity in treating of venerable mysteries § 8. Our Church doth not insist upon such kinds of certainty as others without just cause do exact § 9. Doctrines are so propounded to those in our Churches Communion as not to render useless their own reasons and judgments The reasonableness of which is proved and the Objections answered § 10. The use which we are all allowed of our private judgments is requir'd to be menag'd with a due submission to the Church The duty of which submission is laid down in sundry Propositions p. 114 Chap. VII Of the Moderation of our Church in what relates to the worship of God § 1. Our Prayers are not mingled with controversy § 2. They are framed according to a most grave and serious manner with moderate variety and proper length § 3. In the zeal of Reformation our Church did not cast off what was good in it self § 4. In all our Churches there are the same Rules § 5. Common Prayers for the vulgar required in English To Ministers and Scholars a just and moderate liberty allowed § 6. The obligation of the Church leaves the method of private Devotions to a general liberty § 7. Of the Moderation of the Church in appointing her hours and times of Prayer § 8. In her use and judgment of Sermons § 9. In what is required of people with reference to their Parish Church § 10. The excellent Moderation of the Church in her Orders for the reverent reading of Divine Service and Consecrating the Sacraments in such a voice as may be heard § 11. In her Form and use of Catechizing § 12. The interest of inward and outward worship are both secured according to an excellent Moderation in our Church § 13. The Moderation of the Church in what relates to Oaths p. 166 Chap. VIII Of the Moderation of the Church in relation to Ceremonies § 1. In the Ceremonies of our Church which are very few and those of great antiquity simplicity clear signification and use our Church avoids either sort of superstition § 2. They have constantly been declared to be in themselves indifferent and alterable but in that our Church avoids variableness is a further proof of its Moderation § 3. They are professed by the Church to be no part of Religion much less the chief nor to have any supernatural effect belonging to them § 4. Abundant care is taken to give plain and frequent reasons and interpretations of what in this nature is enjoined to prevent mistakes § 5. The Moderation of our Church even in point of Ceremonies compar'd with those who have raised so great a dust in this Controversy § 6. Many innocent Rites and usages our Church never went about to introduce and why § 7. The Obligation of our Church in this matter is very mild § 8. The Moderation of our Church in her appointment of Vestments § 9. The Benedictions of our Church are according to great Piety and Wisdom ordered § 10. The Moderation of our Church in her appointments of Gestures § 11. Of the respect which is held due to places and things distinguished to Gods Service our Church judgeth and practiseth according to an excellent Moderation p. 201 Chap. IX Of the Moderation of our Church with respect to Holy-Days namely both the Feasts and Fasts of the Church § 1. The Feasts of the Church are few and those for great reason chose with care to avoid the excesses of the Romanists § 2. The further behaviour of the Church in her Feasts most useful and prudent § 3. We celebrate the memory of Saints but of none whose existence or sanctity is uncertain § 4. The excellent ends of our Churches honour to Saints are set down § 5. That they are Festivally Commemorated not out of opinion of worship or merit or absolute necessity thereof to Religion § 6. Our Church runs not into any excess in any Prayer to Saints § 7. Nor with reference to Images § 8. Whether our Church in any of these practices be justly charged of Popery by those who Canonize among themselves those who are of uncertain sanctity § 9. The Moderation of our Church in its honour given to Angels § 10. And to the Blessed Virgin § 11. Our Church hath taken great care that a special honour be had to the Lords Day and that the Lords Day nor any other Festival be abused to Luxury and Impiety § 12. The Moderation of the Church with reference to its Musick and Psalmody § 13. The Moderation of our appointed Fast The Lenten or Paschal Fast how far Religious by the Precept of the Church p. 234 Chap. X. Of the Moderation of the Church in reference to the Holy Sacraments § 1. The Moderation of our Church raiseth no strife about words relating thereunto § 2. Her Moderation in what is asserted of the number of Sacraments § 3. In that her Orders for the Administration of the Sacraments are most suitable to the ends of their appointments § 4. In that our Church doth not make the benefit of the Sacraments to depend upon unrequired conditions In reference to Holy Baptism § 1. Our Church doth make nothing of the essence of Baptism but the use of the invariable Form § 2. The Moderation of our Church toward Infants unbaptized
of means to the neglect of another Because there are so many Arguments which may sufficiently satisfy any of their Authority because some are convinced by some others by others We are encouraged in our Church to receive the Holy Scriptures as the word of God both from inward and outward motives both of divine and moral consideration But for our greater certainty and safety in a matter of so great concern our Church doth not lay the weight of so great a cause on slight or uncertain Foundations as the infallibility of the Church much less demonstration from the evidence of oral tradition or the testimony only of the Divine Spirit held by some so absolutely necessary to convince every one of the Divine Authority of Scriptures that without such an inward testimony there can be no kind of certainty whatsoever The Moderation of our Church excellently governs her judgment herein neither refusing the just Authority of Gods true Church nor denying any necessary influence of the Holy Spirit of God according to which Moderation guiding our selves we shall have occasion elsewhere to justify the real certainty of our Faith ch 6. § 8. In convincing also those of the Authority of Holy Scripture who do deny the same the wisdom and temper of our Church prudently hath omitted a twofold medium as improper to confute obstinate Adversaries The one is of proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures by Scriptures themselves which though it be a sufficient proof among them who have received them as divine yet to others it can never stop the objection from returning infinitely if the objector please to be dissatisfied The other method is alledging the Testimony of the Spirit for though the Church of God hath the Holy Spirit yet those that dispute this point may not have the Spirit neither can any ones saying so be a proper Argument to convince another Thirdly Our Church avoids the Circle of proving the Scripture by the Church and the Church by the Scriptures again because our Church doth first acknowledge the Holy Scriptures as superiour to it self o Article 6. 20. as one of the first principles of its Doctrine and against those who deny that principle of the Holy Scriptures veracity it doth dispute no otherwise than by reasons convincing the certainty of Tradition But as Archbishop Laud in his Preface against Fisher takes notice While one Faction cries up the Church above the Scripture and the other the Scripture to the neglect of the Church According to Christs Institution the Scripture where it is plain should guide the Church and the Church where there is doubt should expound the Scripture § 9. Whereas many run into very immoderate extravagancies concerning the interpretation of Holy Scripture our Church contains it self within very wise and just proportions in its judgment and practice concerning this matter 1. Concerning Holy Scripture it doth own what the Ancient Fathers p S. Chrys Hom. 3. in â— Thess S. Aug. in Ps 8. V. Second Part of the Homily of the knowledge of H. Scrip. have testified That what is absolutely necessary unto Salvation of all either for knowledge or practice is so fair and intelligible and plain to be understood of any that there needs no interpreter of the meaning of the sense to them who understand the words 2. For the understanding other places in Holy Scripture which are more obscure our Church doth suppose and acknowledge plentiful means allowed of God both to the Church and by and in the Church to all particular persons as much as is necessary that such places be understood For those which are mysterious and intricate are for the curious and wise to enquire into They are not the repositories of Salvation but instances of labour and occasions of humility and arguments of mutual forbearance and an endearment of reverence and adoration as the Archbishop of Spalato and our Bishop Taylor use to speak Such means for the interpretation of Scripture are the ordinary assistances of the Holy Spirit of God The instructions of the Church the use of our Reason especially in comparing one Scripture with another which excellent means of finding out the sense of Holy Writ our Church her self doth often use and recommends the same to those of her Communion according to the ancient practice of the Church Yet if we speak properly we do not call the Scripture the interpreter of it self nor properly a Judge of matter of Faith q S. Scripturam Judicem qui sentiunt rectè sentiunt sed siguratè â—oquuntur Gro. de Impâ—rio sum pot Though it be the Rule according to which the judgment which is of Doctrines is made and in Analogy with which Interpretations of Scripture also are to be govern'd But because of the danger of the vulgars being misled our Church doth send them frequently to their Pastors and Ministers for publick instruction and private advice and counsel and inferiour Ministers it refers to their Bishop r Exhortation to the Holy Communion Canon 53. The same method our Church directs for resolution of doubts which may arise referring to the Liturgy Preface concerning the Service of the Church Forasmuch as nothing can be so plainly set forth but doubts may arise in the use and practice of the same to appease all such diversity if any arise and for the resolution of all doubts concerning the manner how to understand do and execute the things contained in this Book the parties that so doubt shall alway resort to the Bishop of the Diocess who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same And if the Bishop be in doubt he may send for the resolution thereof to the Archbishop 3. Our Church doth not attribute more or less authority to the means of interpreting Scripture or any part thereof than God hath given it for that purpose and here the Moderation of the Church might be illustrated from the manifold extravagancies others have run into in this matter on all sides 1. Some make the Holy Spirit of God the only immediate interpreter of Scripture unto all persons whatsoever that at any time understand any thing thereof Others run into another extreme of slighting the illumination and assistance of the Holy Spirit 2. Some assert the Church of Rome only to have an infallible and absolute Authority herein others deny both the Church Universal and all parts thereof all authority to teach those under her Discipline or interpret any Scripture to them 3. Some have maintained that the publick Magistrate is the only interpreter of Scripture others deny him any kind of authority over or about the Church 4. There are those who make humane reason the only interpreter of Scripture Others reject all use of reason in divine matters Among these and many more extravagancies of men The Moderation of our Church keeps on one hand from the Tyranny of those who make such Authorities the Rule of interpreting Scripture which
and establishing Truth and Peace with all freedom from prejudice and passion hath appeared throughout the whole frame of our Liturgy Articles and Homilies and Constitutions and Versions we have of Holy Scripture any who are sincere themselves may easily acknowledg if they will truly consider the same For as our Homily of Holy Scripture saith Without a single Eye pure Intent and good Mind nothing is allowed before God And in the Homily of Prayer earnest complaint is made of such as would deface the plain and simple Religion of Christ In pursuance of these sincere designs of Piety Truth Peace and Order the Moderation of our Church in her Reformation will the more certainly appear founded in Justice If we consider 1. Our Church hath not made Truth to submit to her Authority but hath chearfully and sincerely submitted her self to Truth She hath not had a weight and a weight to buy the Truth by one and to sell it by another but hath judged of all Truth and the degrees of its necessity by the Standard which God hath given his Church namely the Holy Scriptures the only Rule of her Faith So in rejection of Error our Church hath bin impartial to either extreme 2. Our Church holds no such Doctrines as necessarily or by consequence overthrow a good Life and the practice of Devotion For this we must say for the Constitution of our Church The Vices among us are in no wise the Consequences of our Doctrines Neither have we any such Moderation among us to reconcile the pleasures and profits of Sin with the hope of happiness hereafter subjecting the most divine things to most vile purposes which tends to make the World believe that Christian Religion is a cheat and its Priests the most vile Imposters of any Whatever the scandalous opinions and practices of the Adversaries of our Church have done to the great hindrance of the conversion of many and the injury of Christianity Our Church of England gives no offence to Jew or Greek Mahumetan or Heathen 3. Our Church hath not squared the frame of its Ecclesiastical Policy by the ends of Secular Grandure or external Pomp as if she could put off Christianity to put on worldly Glory and as if we believed in such a Messias as the Jews expected rather than in the crucified Jesus whose Kingdom is not of this World And here rather than stay the Reader too long I commit to his reflection how the peculiar Doctrines of the Roman Church tend to the encrease of their Power or their Patrimony * Non est amplius Ecclesia sed Respublica quaedam humana sub Papa Monarchiâ temporali Spalatensis in profect Consil rather than that Interest of the Christian Religion which the whole constitution of our Church is framed first to regard Here might properly be considered the intolerable Charge which the Moderation of our Church justly saves us in that expence which unjustly follows Popery The one Doctrine of Purgatory will cost any one very dear upon the belief of it How many Indulgences Masses Jubilees c. must be paid for ¶ V. Fullers Eccl. hist ad an H. 8. 27. V. Romish Horse-leach V. Brutum fulmen Tanti videlicet nobis constitit âmicitia urbis Romae Apol. Eccl. Angl. § 160. 4. Our Church by its Moderation hath been far from driving on any corrupt designs Whereas the Moderation of the Romish Church hath been always noted very artificial Whence they have moderate explications for the doubtful Indulgences for the soft Austerities for the soure Legends for the credulous Visions for the Enthusiast fair interpretations for what may seem harsh a mild sence for their turn and a strict sense also to keep up the Authority of their Church fair and goodly Baits to entangle Proselytes but when they are engaged they may find themselves caught with a bearded Hook Even such sometime is the seeming Moderation and Self-denial which is cherished in our Sectaries by those who actuate them that so they may more effectually divide and propagate such Division Whereas those who are truly principled according to the Moderation of our Church are made to be more constant and consistent to themselves and to Truth not to turn to one hand of Popery nor to the other hand of Enthusiasm in any sinful compliance which rather than admit if the case requires they can suffer Martyrdom as did sundry of the first Compilers of our Common-prayer-book and many since even in the late times and all kinds of Sufferings beside 5. The Moderation also of our Church in its Reformation thus founded in Justice hath caused her to avoid such Corruptions as render the Sincerity of others very doubtful We have not by Arts and devised Subtilties gone about to palliate nor by Power and Authority to uphold any Errors whatsoever nor promoted Ecclesiastical Policy by gratifying the corrupt inclinations of Men Neither the Doctrines nor Policy of our Church are kept up by pious or impious Frauds equivocations of Oaths false Miracles pretended Revelations counterfeit Reliques Forgeries and Expurgation of Books devotional Ignorance exquisite Arts of defaming our Adversaries and sometime extream Cruelty This Justice in which the Moderation of our Church is founded makes those of our Church careful to take and heedful to keep our Oaths and Vows whereas among the Romanists easy dispensations dissolve those sacred Bands of Society What think we saith our Homily of good works ¶ â—2 Part. of those that vow Chastity and yet as is very moderately expressed how their Vows are kept it is more honest to pass over in silence They vow Poverty and yet their Possessions and Riches are equal to those of Princes under pretence of Obedience to their Fathers in Religion by their Rules and Canons they are made free from the Obedience of their natural Father and Mother According to the same principle of Justice governing our Church the forms and practices of our Church do not contradict our general Rules of Faith because we believe in the Holy Trinity therefore we do not worship Saints and Angels because we believe the Holy Catholic Church therefore we believe not in the Church of Rome 6. The same Moderation of the Church founded in Justice hath governed her Reformation in using or rejecting things indifferent which have bin abused The Wisdom and Moderation of our Church having bin far from judging that things which have been abused to ill purposes can never be lawfully or profitably used which principle might lay waste all Ecclesiastical or Civil Societies of any good Orders and Appointments for there is nothing so good but either hath bin or is capable to be abused very grosly Wherefore our Church doth well distinguish between what is abused by the fault of ill Men * Si quid vitil accessâ—t vitium tellatur râ—s verò restituatâ—r concordia â—latur Wicelii Meth. Concord c. 5. and what in the nature of the thing it self tends to promote such an abuse
nearer are they coming to them sundry ways as in opposite Errors the Causes may be commonly the same Thus Arch-Bishop Laud * Pref. of the Conference against Fisher observed The Rigid Professors on either side have quite leaped over the Mean and have bin rigid the other way as Extremity it self and is a very natural motion For a Man is apt to think he can never run far enough from that which he once begins to hate Of which sort the several Factions and Interests among us have bin continually like the Friars at the Council of Trent who were always watchful and zealous to maintain their peculiar Doctrines among which extremes our Church if she might be listened to would reduce all to a due temper upon surer and more reasonable Foundations than the Bishops at that Council laboured to do 3. As our Laws by one name call both sorts of Separatists Recusants so our Romanists and Sectaries behave themselves much alike The one have their private Masses the other their Conventicles both contrary to the Laws of our Kingdom and our Church Both the Romanists and the Separatists join in requiring a License for the Exercise of their Religion in private Houses 4. Both our Romanists and Sectaries by encreasing our Divisions help with joint force to make a general Toleration necessary which would give the Romanists the greatest advantage they can desire They both supplicate with equal earnestness to be tolerated whereas the Principles of each lead them not to tolerate others 5. Their pretences to all mildness and gentleness are equally supple and assuring but how mild they are when they are uppermost odious experience testifies so that Instances of their extreme Rigors which are most known need not be enumerated We need not call on the Inquisition to testify to the Rigors of the Romanists nor look into all the Severities of the Disciplinarians who have bin known to inflict Censures for a suspicion of Covetousness a superfluity in Raiment for dancing at a Wedding for using their Liberty in their Recreations and have kept others as well as themselves from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper upon uncharitable Accounts It hath bin observed where the Discipline in Scotland was established the People had a high Commission in every Parish and groan'd under the Arbitrary Decrees of Ignorant Governors If there arose a private Jar between the Parent and the Child the Husband and the Wife these Domestical Judges must know it Formerly and lately among some they have bin scarce allowed in Conscience to marry without the consent of the Teacher or when they have it hath bin matter of complaint 6. It hath bin already observed at large Chap. 13. § 58. how both the Romanists and the Separatists agree in their groundless and unjust accusing the Government of Persecution like the Donatists of old who cried out Persecution when they most of all had afflicted the Catholics The Romanists have their dire Anathema's and heavy Censures the Separatists their cruel Maranatha's and preach Damnation most of all against them that differ from them especially if they be of the Church's side 7. Nevertheless both sorts can very easily give out Indulgences to their own Parties God sees no sin in his Children say some Sectaries Which is a greater Bribe to be of their Party than any can be found in the Penitentiary Tax for Sins as they are sold at Rome 8. When the Papists and the Separatists have bin at a loss that they cannot justify their Proceedings by the Laws of God or Man then they meet in one common Sanctuary whereby they are bold to sanctify the most extravagant Practices pretending Providence for their Warrant Thus Pope Pius 5. in his Speech in the Consistory of Cardinals at Rome after the murder of King Hen. 3. of France sundry times in one Oration he magnifies the Exploit of that wretched Zealot as brought about by the special Providence of God * Non nisi Dei opt Max. particulari Providentiâ dispositione perpetratum The same impudence or ignorance others have used to defend such Practices as no Laws Divine or Humane could justify sheltring them under the wide pretence of Providence which hath bin well call'd †Answer to Mr. Jenkins p. 16. Regiment politicum fundatur in extraordinarià Dei Providentiâ Ibid. p. 15. A fine pliable Principle it will lap about your finger like Barbary Gold 9. The Romanists enlarge their Creed in sundry Articles without belief of which there is no Salvation and very many Separatists deliver their peculiar Doctrines as absolutely necessary to a state of Salvation tho among the divided Sects many of them are contrary one to another They both often stuff their Prayers and their Chatechisms with Matters of doubtful Controversy and in maintaining the same they are alike too dogmatical 10. We need not here prove what is so well known namely the mean Opinion which the Romanists have of Holy Scriptures supposing they receive their Authority from the Pope yet receiving their own Traditions with equal affection and reverence The Separatists by casting off to another extreme the real Authority and Testimony of God's Church which hath bin all along the Keeper the Witness the Defender the Interpreter of Holy Scriptures by degrees many of our Separatists have come to throw off the Holy Scriptures as a Rule of Faith and Manners The Romanists they add their own Traditions to the Word of God and many Sectaries call their Teaching and their Impulses the Word of God which often is quite contrary thereunto The Romanists set up the Pope for an Infallible Interpreter many of the Separatists account the Private Spirit an Infallible Interpreter V. Ch. 4. § 3. 11. The Romanists pretend that Miracles and extraordinary Gifts have not ceased but are still necessary Signs of a true Church It is also the very height of Enthusiam to hold as many of our Separatists do That Immediate Revelations from God and extraordinary Illapses from the Holy Spirit are necessary and common among all the Faithful Which Pretences lying obvious to an easy Confidence cannot easily be wrested from such as will hold them to their own destruction 12. The Romanists assert an implicit Faith which is determinately resolved into the authority of their Leaders Whether the like is ever required by the Leaders generally of Factions among us I do not now enquire But however that the same is granted by their Followers appears most evident For when many can give no reason for what they hold they keep close to their Ring-leaders and move and change with them generally and how much the Authority of the Persons they have in admiration governs them more than any sway of Argument is daily experienced And whereas a due regard on this side the implicit Faith of the Romanists is due to Governors V. Ch. 6. § 9 10. toward such how scrupulous delicate and wary are they not to say disregardful but in following their Masters of
be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person and Life are so much the same that they cannot be more if we compare Lessius Suarez Bellarmine and many other Jesuits and Mr. White of Obedience and Government with Knox and Buchanan and many other Republicans since wherein both sorts as Rivals seem to deal with the People as some Gallants do by foolish Women flatter them so long into a pride and conceit of themselves so great that at length they become intolerable and ungovernable Of this sort were the Discourses in the Council of Basil related by Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope who could not contain from highly commending * Quem Sermonem sic doctè sie verificè sic suaviter disputarit Commentar de gestis Concil Bas in Fascic rer expe◠fol 4. the Bishop of Burgen for his admirably vilifying the Power of Kings Thus the worst of our Enthusiasts and of the Romanists agree in that Character of the Pharisees They mightily employed their Powers to oppose Kings †Jos Antiq l 17. c. 3. So true is the observation of King Charles the First ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 15. of some Protestants They seem to have learned and to practise the worst Principles of the Papists And of both the Lord Bishop of Salisbury The Bigot and Jesuited Romanist the frighted and transported Reformist have bin Authors of the most horrible Treasons and Rebellions 20. I need not here particularly relate how many Doctrines of the Romanists tend to dissolve the very Bonds of Relative Duty one toward another as in their Monastical Vows absolving People from their Oaths and Allegiance and Faith with Hereticks c. How do many Principles of our Enthusiasts and Separatists tend to destroy the Relation of King and Subject Bishop and People Their very Divisions how do they alienate the minds of Christians one from another Tho they ought to belong to the same moderate Church are Subjects of the same most Gracious King are of the same Protestant and Reformed Interest beside the danger they bring to themselves and their Families by their pernicious and destructive Separation so many and more might be the Instances of their loosing the Bonds of Relative Duty § 8. Among other Sects it would grieve any one to behold so many seduced into the silly Herd of Quakers a Sect into which the very dregs of Heresy and Schism seem to have bin drein'd as it were into one Common Shore In the inventing and propagating which even Satan and the Jesuit seem to have club'd their utmost Art possessing them with an evil Spirit of Delusion which they call the Light within them according to which what is most contrary to Holy Scriptures and Right Reason and the testimony and judgment of the whole Church and the prudent command of Governors and the sence and custom of wise and pious Men must pass for an extraordinary illumination from God merely on the credit of their own saying so This one Enthusiastical Conceit of the Light within and Opinion of such Revelation from God is the most unhappy contrivance and suggestion that can be to lift up silly People above a possibility of being contradicted by any sober Principles of Scripture or Reason or regular Authority fitted to possess such with a lusty pride and bewitched conceit of themselves an incorrigible moroseness and obstinacy an intolerable censoriousness a sordid scorn of whatever is in just place above them and wonderfully disposeth such for Popery for when once they are sufficiently divided from our Church the Work is sufficiently done Then if any arch-Emissary from Rome will come with Visions and Revelations and a shew of extreme Authority and humor this People still in their outragious clamours against our Church especially if they will fall a quaking and groaning intolerably and appear in the Streets as some have done soundly be-dunged with Calumny and Filth such may make some People believe any Romish Tenets as Revelations from God That they have bin wrought and acted unto this by the common Authors of our Divisions is such plain attested matter of Fact that I suppose few considering Persons question it Some long since took notice that in the Northern Parts where there abounded most Popish Priests and Recusants there this upstart Sect of Quakers first sprung up sending thence their Emissaries two by two into other quarters of the Kingdom as the unclean Beasts entred the Ark by Couples beside which many Reasons confirm the same 1. The effect in that Spirit of Division and Delusion which so succesfully obtains among them to break in pieces the Peace and Order of the Church unto which of all Sects these are the most Antipodes to 2. There are none whose Tenets more tend to destroy the Holy Scripture as a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners instead of which and in opposition to the same they set up the Suggestions of their Light within them which they call the Word the only Guide unto Perfection * Perfectos se appellantes semina electionis De Valentinianis Iren. l. 1. which they and the Romanists pretend the one even unto supererogation of Merits the other to be above all need of confession of sin 3. None come so near the Papists in the matter of an infallible Judg of Doctrines 4. The Light within them is very much like the Enthusiasms of the Romanists as Dean Stillingfleet hath set them forth in the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome 5. They join with the severest Romanists in their reproaching the Offices and Orders of our Church and especially villfying her Clergy whom they would have by all means to vow wilful Poverty 6. By refusing all Oaths their Allegiance is left uncertain to the King which is the main thing such Papists would have 7. The King's Supremacy is left unacknowledged which is another principal preparation for the owning of the Pope's Supremacy 8. In that they refuse to assist their Prince in his Wars and pretend they hold it unlawful for any to fight By that Principle they not only take away the Power and Sword of the Magistrate and leave the King and Country undefended that none can live in peace and safety and consequently that Opinion leads to overthrow the very being of the whole Kingdom But the Pope also serves his Design by them being sure that so many as there are of that Sect so many will never oppose him by Arms Whereas they who bind can also loose and the same Agent can be able to stir up their Spirit of Zeal also which the longer it hath bin contained will be the more furious a Specimen and taste of which fury we experience in the keen violence of their Tongues which are as a very sharp Sword upon sundry slight occasions And when once they shall be assured that the Lord hath delivered a People to slaughter then Down Dagon then they will pretend they must be the Sampsons and like Pope Pius 5. in his
copulata S. Cypr l. 4. Ep. 9. Hierom and others of the Fathers fitly call the Church a Company united to their Pastor For the Administration of the power of the Church cannot belong to the body of this Society considered complexly but to those Officers in it whose care and charge is to have a peculiar over-sight and inspection over the Church and to redress the disorders in it Wherefore the Church is not improperly exprest by the Clergy which may be justly counted the Church representative that as S. Cyprian saith Every act of the Church may be governed by its Rulers g Vt omnis actus Ecclesie per praepositos suos gubernâ—tur S. Cypr. Ep. 27. For when we speak of the Church making Laws we must mean the governing part of the Church * Duâ— dub l. 3. ch 4. p. 589. In the form of Church Policy presented to the Parliament in Scotland 1578. by Andrew Melvill h V. Spots Hist l. 6. p. 289. it was agreed That sometime the Church was taken for them that exercise the spiritual Function in particular Congregations More certain it is that the Form of Christs Church is that outward disposition and order of superiour and inferiour communicating mutually to the conservation of the whole body and the edification and encrease of every member thereof Eph. 4. 15 16. Col. 2. 19. And in those things which concern the outward form and manner of Government in a National Church where the King is supreme in all Causes and over all Persons many matters necessarily and properly belong to the disposition of the supreme Power the people exhibiting their consent by the King upon these and the like good Foundations The third Canon declares the Church of England a true and Apostolical Church and the ninth Canon declares the same the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostles Rules in the Church of England upon which account the Authors of Schisms in the same Canon are censured and the 139th Canon of the Church concerning the Authority of National Synods doth thus declare Whosoever shall affirm that the sacred Synod of this Nation in the name of Christ and by the Kings Authority assembled is not the true Church of England by Representation Let him be Excommunicated and not restored till he repent and publickly revoke that wicked Error § 2. Having now explained what is meant by Moderation and what by the Church of England we may more intelligibly proceed in justifying the Moderation of the Church of England of which some inartificial proofs may be premised The first of which may be the Confession and acknowledgments of our Adversaries on both sides Yea if the scattered Concessions which have been made by our Adversaries at sundry times and upon divers occasions should be gathered together in a bundle there is scarce any judgment or practice or constitution of our Church but hath been acknowledged sometime by some or others of them as reasonable and moderate Yea there is scarce any extravagance among themselves but hath been also confest and decryed by several of their own Communion so great is the force of truth upon the minds of men at some times when they are in a free humour to disclose themselves and it might make a very pleasant and useful Collection to have these well gathered and set together particularly they have in their lucid intervals acknowledged the Moderation of our Church sometime as really convinced thereof Notwithstanding saith one who left our Communion De Cressy 's Exomolog c. 9. the English Church hath been more moderate and wary than publickly to pretend to such a private spirit and by consequence hath left a latitude and liberty for them in her Communion to renounce it as many of the most Learned among them have done Another of them speaks thus of the Church of England k Conference between a Prot. and a Papist 1673. p. 6 7 8. I believe her Moderation hath preserved what may one day yet much help to close the breach betwixt us We observe that she and peradventure she alone has preserved the face of a continued mission and uninterrupted Ordination Then in Doctrines her Moderation is great In those of greatest concern hath exprest her self very warily In Discipline she preserves the Government by Bishops but above all we prize her aversion from Fanaticism and that wild error of the private spirit with which it is impossible to deal from this obsurdity the Church of England desires to keep her self free She holds indeed that Scripture is the Rule of controversy but she holds withal That it is not of private interpretation for she is for Vincentius his method But I see that moderate counsels have been discountenanced on both sides Others of the same denomination have appeared to acknowledge the Moderation of our Church but it is manifest they have done it upon design using that acknowledgment only as an Art either to Proselyte some uncertain ones of our Communion or else to divide us thinking by their publick owning our Moderation thereby to render us more odious to those of another immoderate extreme Yet the generality of both extreme adversaries join together in reproaching us for this Moderation and by their immoderateness in so doing do also justify the Moderation of our Church Thus do the great Bigots of the Church of Rome and the rigid Disciplinarians and other Novellists in their zeal count all merciful Moderation lukewarmness l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Med. 12. Wherefore these apply to us what the Spirit said to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea m Vid. Mr. Henderson 's 1. 2d. Paper Collegium Laodicensium est senatus Moderatorum hominum Brightman in Apocal. c. 3. p. 105. Antitypum est nostra nimirum Anglicana ibid. p. 101. Rev. 3. 16. Because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spue thee out of my mouth reproaching commonly our Moderation by the name of neutrality and want of zeal n Cesset igitur Anglia Medietatem suam quae mera neutralitas est sub titulo prudentiae moderationis palliare potiâ—â— serve resipiâ—ce Parker de Eccl. Pol. l. 1. c. 25. and when some temperate interpretations have been offered the Romanists o Scio enim ejusmodi Modificationes ubi aliquid temperatum offerebatur nihil aliud esse quà m Satanae dolos c. Ep. c. Bellarm ad Archipresb Anglic. they have received them with invidious reflexions lest any of their Company should be won over to us by the Moderation of our Church In the mean while none persue the Church of England upon this account so much as the rigid and severe of either extreme the hot heads among the Romanists with their Anathema's and the other Zelots with their Curse ye Meroz Whereas the learned men of other reformed Churches have not only observed frequently and admired the Moderation of our Constitution as Dr Durel in his View of the Reformed
for reading the holy Scripture is made agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers and a great deal more profitable and commodious It is more profitable because there are left out many things whereof some are untrue some uncertain some vain and superstitious and nothing is ordained to be read but the very pure word of God the holy Scriptures or that which is agreeable to the same and that in such a language and order as is most easy and plain for the understanding both of the Readers and the hearers It is also more commodious both for the shortness thereof and for the plainness of the order and that the rules be few and easy Since the Reformation those who love not to be contain'd in any good bounds when they read the Bible chuse to do it out of all Canonical Order or generally snap upon the Chapters fortuitously or affect for their most common reading the most difficult Books and Chapters The wisdom of our Church hath provided that the Old Testament may be read out every Year once f Tale aliquid audio esse nunc in Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ in quâ Psalterium singulis mensibus al solvitur totum utrumque Testamentum unico anno continuatâ lectione percurritur Vtinam reliquae Ecclesiae reformatae c. Spalaâ—ensis l. 7. c. 12. All the Psalms once every Month and the New Testament thrice every Year g V. The Order how the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read Yet with this Moderation some difficult and very mysterious places are excepted Yet so that the Church declares Though the rehearsal of the Genealogies and Pedigrees of the Fathers be not so much to the edification of the plain ignorant people Yet there is nothing so impertinently uttered in all the whole Book of the Bible but may serve to spiritual purpose in some respect to all such as will bestow their labours to search out the meaning h Homily of certain places of Scripture 2d Part. Thus manifest is it that our Church doth really intend edification in her Institutions and can the wit of man i B. Jer. Taylor Pref. to his Collection of Offices conceive a better temper and expedient than this of the Church of England that such Scriptures only and principally should be laid before them in daily Offices which contain in them all the mysteries of our Redemption and all the Rules of good Life That the people of the Church may not complain that the Fountains of our Salvation are stopt from them nor the Rulers of the Church that the mysteriousness of Scripture is abused And further to prevent the inconvenience of the vulgars use of Scripture there was a wholsome Injunction of Queen Elizabeth k 1559 §. 37. fit here to be mentioned That no man should talk or reason of Holy Scripture rashly or contentiously nor maintain any false doctrine or errour but shall commune on the same when occasion is given reverently humbly and in the fear of God for his comfort and better understanding For as it is in the Homily against contention Too many there be which upon Ale-benches and other places delight to set forth certain Questions not so much pertaining to edification as to Vain-glory whence they fall to chiding and contention With reference to which Injunction it was that some Bishops in their Articles of enquiry had this for a Question Whether any were known in their Diocese who profaned the Holy Scripture in Table-talk which was captiously misunderstood by many in their intemperate heats against the Bishops as if they thereby did forbid all sober Conference on any places of Holy Scripture whereas the Injunction of the Queen which ought still to have effect should reasonably interpret their enquiry which certainly was the ground thereof Besides many of those Bishops themselves when Masters of Colledges in the Universities observed and caused to be observed those Statutes which in most Colledges require reading of Scripture at Meals Ordering that Communication which is thereon to be such as in the Queens Injunction was before-mentioned § 7. Our Church according to great wisdom hath received such Books as Canonical of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church l 39. Article 6. Scio tamen Vualdensem tenere quod declarandi approbandi Libros sacros sit in serie Patrum omnium fidelium ab Apostolis succedentium Fr. S. Clara. ad Artic. Confess Angl. 6. rejecting what truly are not of the Canon which the Church of Rome thrusts in of its own head and doth not leave out any which are as many have done in other times and places In relation to those Books whose Title is the Apocrypha the Moderation of our Church expresseth an excellent temper 1. In that in their Title as of uncertain Writings they are distinguisht from Canonical 2. All the Apocryphal Books are not recommended to be read in the Church 3. Nor on all days particularly not on the Lords Day as such 4. Those our Church doth use together with other Canonical Scripture as it plainly and publickly declares in her sixth Article of Religion and as St Hierom saith m S. Hier. Pres ad â—ild V. Eâ—â—phan c. 〈◊〉 for example of life and instruction of manners as Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians and other such Writings were read in the ancient Church n Sunt alii libri qui leguntur quidem sed nonscribuntur in Canone H. de S. Vic. Cap. 6. de scripturis c. but doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine as if they had such authority alone by themselves Our Church indeed doth prefer them before any other Ecclesiastical or private Writings because of the many excellent and sacred instructions in them for which good and religious use which may be made of them by all we do them the honour to bind them up with our Bibles though we make them not of equal authority thereby or of divine inspiration as we do not also either the English Meeter of the Psalms or the Epistle of the Translators of the Bible § 8. The Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures our Church according to great wisdom doth rather take for granted than labour much to prove such an undoubted principle of Religion justly supposing there is no reason either to question that the Church hath surely received those Divine Oracles or surely delivered them and therefore our sixth Article speaks of them as of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church Our Church justly thus supposing immediately therefore applies her self in an Exhortation to a diligent reading the Holy Scriptures Homily 1. and so long as those of her Communion are by any just means convinced of their authority our Church according to a great Moderation leaves it to the Providence of God by what particular arguments of the many which lie before us we may come to this satisfaction Not causing the satisfaction of any to depend upon one sort
never were so appointed And on the other from the wild inordinacy of them who make their own private principle whatsoever it be the rule of Scripture interpretation Among all wisely making use of and asserting and recommending such means as are given for the conveyance or interpretation or both for the conveying and interpreting of Divine Writ Something further of which will more distinctly appear in the next Chapter CHAP. V. Of the Moderation of the Church in applying the Rule of Faith to it self § 1. Avoiding extremes on either hand in relation to the authority of the Vniversal Church § 2. The Decrees of Councils § 3. The Testimony of the Fathers § 4. Other Traditions § 5. Our Churches own Testimony § 6. The use of Reason § 7. The Testimony of the Spirit § 8. Of the testimony and operation of the Holy Spirit the judgment of our Church according to great Moderation more largely declared § 1. THE Moderation of the Church of England appears very great in her due applying this Rule of Faith to her self wisely and fitly making use of all those Instruments which are most proper and useful in conveying to us that Rule or which are most subservient to the right understanding our Rule avoiding either extreme of those who attribute too much or too little to those instruments of conveyance and interpretation Such as the Authority of the Universal Church The Decrees of Councils The Testimony of the Fathers Other Traditions The Witness of our own particular Church Right Reason alone The Testimony of the Spirit To all and every of these enumerated instruments either of certain conveyance or interpretation of Scripture our Church gives their due place and esteem according to their influence and use and no more which must needs demonstrate a great deal of Wisdom and Moderation in the judgment of the Church 1. The Universal Church it self is no where by the Church of England made the Rule of her Faith but a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ Art 20. Yet the judgment of the Catholick Church of Christ was always by the Church of England held in greatest veneration next unto the testimony of the Spirit of God himself because of those famous Promises made by Christ himself to the Church which we read of in the New Testament Yea in the Old Testament The Prophecies concerning the Messias and concerning the Church and the Ministers of the Church always are join'd together as I have sometime heard a great Prelate of our Church teach us And because whatever Arguments we have for the truth of Holy Scriptures as thanks be to God we have many beside yet also from the witness and keeping of the Church a Ecclesia non discernit sed niâ—a traditioni legitimae testatur quae sint Canonicae Scripturae Spalatens l. 7. ch 1. we receive the Holy Scriptures themselves and in the sixth Article In the name of Holy Scriptures the Church doth understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority there was never any doubt in the Church So that as the Archbishop of Spalato hath it we have recourse to the Church not as to an Authoritative Judge but as to a Treasure and Repository b Haec sunt quae Patres intra Canonem concluserunt Haec nobis à Patribus tradita S. Hieron Ruffinus in which the Canonical Books and all things necessary to Salvation are preserved by faithful Tradition Wherefore the Catholick Church it self is called not a Judge nor a Rule c Credo Ecclisiam credo Ecclesiae per Eâ—clesiam Non diâ—imus credo in Ecclesiam â—â—t credo in Ecclesiâ— Ep-Esâ—enâ— but more truly a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ and for interpretation of Scripture and for our help in judging of Doctrines according to our Rule the Church of England values above all others the Judgment of the Catholick Church so far forth as we can attain the testimony of the Catholick Church by such instruments as are approved and undoubted For though d Second Diâ—â—native against Popery l. 1. â— 1. If by Catholick you mean all particular Churches in the World then though truth doth infallibly dwell amongst them yet you can never go to School to them all to learn it in such questions as are curious and unnecessary and by which the Salvation of Souls is not promoted Yet we know that in the Primitive Time the Christian Church was in a less compass and more undivided Wherefore if such matters which are most essential to the being and well-being of the Church are both delivered from that time and with their conveyance have been approved by the Church in common ever since If the Church may be a sure instrument of conveyance of the Books of Holy Scripture why not also of such matters wherein all so well agree from the first and do in no sort thwart the Tradition of the Holy Scripture it self Wherefore in the Canon set forth in our Church with the Articles of Religion 1571. it is caution'd That nothing be at any time taught either to be held or believed upon the account of Religion but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament which the Catholick Fathers and antient Bishops have gathered from thence Which Golden Rule of our Church I find twice extoll'd by the Illustrious Grotius once e De imp sum potesta c. 6. §. 9. p. 181. in these words I cannot but commend that famous Canon of the Church of England That c. And again in one of his Epistles f Apologiâ— Eccl. Anglicanae Accessimus verò ad illam Ecclesiam in quâ omnia castè reverenter quantum nos assequâ— potâ—imus proximè ad priscorum temporum rationem §. 118. Inde enim putavimus restaurationem petendâ—m esse unde prima Religionis initia ducta essent §. 150. He takes occasion from this Canon of the Church to say He wonders any should deny In England they attribute more to the ancient Church than they do in France The form also of profession in the admission of Professors in Divinity in the University because it doth very fully express the sense of the Church of England I repeat the tenour thereof I from my heart do embrace and receive all the Holy Canonical Scripture in the Old and New Testament comprehended and all those things which the true Church of Christ Holy and Apostolick subject to the word of God and governed by the same doth reject I reject whatsoever it holds I hold Concerning the Church of England in this matter hear we what the Learned Casaubon hath declared in an Epistle to Heinsius g Ep. Ecclesiasticae p. 345. This saith he is my judgment Whereas there will and can be but one true Church we are not hastily to recede from those Doctrines of Faith which the consent of all the ancient Catholick Church hath approved and whereas I own no other Foundation of true
principal motives why we rejected the Papacy was the constant Tradition of the Vniversal Church § 5. Concerning our Churches own Testimony Her Modesty and Moderation hath been always exemplary so far from assuming the Title of Catholick to her self only as St Austin tells us the Arians did and since them the Romanists c S. Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincen. That she hath counted it a sufficient honour to be an humble and nevertheless for that eminent Member of the Universal Church and with her a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ and though she vindicates to her self an authority to interpret the Holy Scripture within the bounds of her own Discipline for the edification of her own Family in Truth and Love and also asserts to her self an Authority in Controversies of Faith Article 20. namely for the avoiding diversities of opinions and for the establishing consent touching true Religion yet I cannot well omit to observe the wise modesty of our Church in her asserting her own authority in Controversies of Faith which expression I may have leave to illustrate from such another instance of Wisdom and Moderation in the recognition required to be made of the Kings Supremacy in our subscription according to the 36. Canon and in our Prayers wherein we acknowledge Him Supreme Governour of this Realm in all Causes and over all Persons It is not said over all Causes as over all persons forasmuch as in some Causes Christian Kings do not deny some spiritual power of Gods Church distinct from its temporal Authority which yet refers to the King as their Supreme Keeper Moderator and Governour Even so the Church declares her Authority in Controversies of Faith not that the Church of England or any other Church no not the Universal Church hath power to make any thing which is in controversy matter of Faith which God hath not so made The Church owns that she hath no power against the truth but for the truth Neither may it expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Article 20. But she hath power to declare her own sense in the Controversy and that I may express my own meaning in better words than my own d Pref. of Bishop Sparrow's Collection of Eccl. Records c. To determine which part shall be received and profest for truth by her own Members and that too under Ecclesiastical penalty and censure which they accordingly are bound to submit to not as an infallible verity but as a probable truth and rest in her determination till it be made plain by as great authority that this her determination is an error or if they shall think it so by the weight of such reasons as are privately suggested to them yet are they still obliged to silence and peace where the decision of a particular Church is not against the Doctrine of the Vniversal Not to profess in this case against the Churches determination because the professing of such a controverted truth is not necessary but the preservation of the peace and unity of the Church is is not to assert infallibility in the Church but authority Wherefore Mr Chilingworth e Chilingw Pres §. 28. had very just reason to declare Whatsoever hath been held necessary to salvation either by the Catholick Church of all Ages or by the consent of Fathers measured by Vincentius Lirinensis his Rule or is held necessary either by the Catholick Church of this Age or by the consent of Protestants or even by the Church of England That against the Socinians and all others whatsoever I do verily believe and embrace Whereas the Pope and Church of Rome do challenge to themselves an authority supreme over all Causes and Persons by their Infallibility by which they exclude all others from their peace and themselves from emendation Neither are their followers much in the way thereunto by what Card. Bellarmine doth assert of this supreme Authority If the Pope saith he f C. Bellarm de Pontif. Ro. l. 4. c. 5. should err in commanding any Vices or forbidding any Vertues The Church is bound to believe those Vices are good and those Vertues are evil unless it would sin against Conscience g In bono sensu dedit Christus Petro potestatem saciendi de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccatum c. Bell. c. 31. in Barklaium However in his Recognitions h Locuti sumus de actibus dubiis viâ—tâ—tum aut vitiorum Recogn operum c. B. p. 19. he minceth the matter in a distinction of doubtful and manifest Vices and Vertues O Blessed Guides of Souls How did the Illustrious Cardinal miss being Canoniz'd for that glorious Sentence and to help him for a Miracle to qualify him for an Apotheosis why did not some cry out of it So many words so many Miracles Thus many of the Romanists make the Pope such a Monarch in the Church as Mr Hobbs doth his Prince in the State i Hobbesius de Cive c. 7. art 26. c. 12. art 1. The interpretation of Holy Scripture the right of determining all Controversies to fix the rules of good and evil just and unjust honest and dishonest doth depend on his authority in the power of whom is the chief Government But this Doctrine is as bad Philosophy as that of the Cardinals is Divinity Among these excesses let us not forget the Moderation of our Church which holds she may revise what hath slipt from her wherefore in her 19. Article she declares As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred a charge agreeable to the Moderation of our Church considering what might have been further said which by the same proportions of reason she supposeth true of her self and of all others viz. That they are fallible and may erre § 6. Of the use of Reason with Reference to divine matters there may be elsewhere occasions in this Treatise to discourse * Ch. 6. §. 9 10. Yet here it is to be observed our Church doth not make its own reason a rule of Faith nor the sole Interpreter of Scripture much less the reason of private men yet because mankind hath no reasonable expectation of Miracles especially when ordinary means are sufficient and abounding and because the Holy Spirit of God in the testimony of his Church hath all along certainly conveyed to us the sense of many places beside That what is most needful to be heeded is very plain our Church doth allow and suppose rational mens perceiveing the sense of Scripture by the due use of their understanding which practice must also necessarily engage such to a high regard of what was anciently received in the Catholick Church For as nothing is held among us more agreeable to reason than our Religion so in expounding our Religion and in interpreting Scripture our Church makes use of the best and the truest reasons as is manifest in what she declares and enjoins and
encourageth also those other helps which are any ways useful to the better understanding the sense of Holy Scripture as namely the knowledge of Tongues Arts and Sciences and whatever else may improve the industry and sincerity of the enquirer Because as our Homily saith k Hom. of Com. Pr. and Sacraments No man cometh to the knowledge of Tongues otherwise than by diligent and earnest study and elsewhere l Hom. of the peril of Idolatry 2. Part. The Church taking notice how the worshipping of Images came in times of ignorance negligence and barbarity laments the wasts made on learning by the Goths and Vandals and Hunns They burning Libraries so that learning and true Religion went to wrack and decayed incredibly Wherefore the Church of England hath been always a bountiful and careful cherisher and Patron of our Famous Vniversities as They have been and are most dutiful and zealous observers of the Church And because our Church governs it self according to such just measures in the Interpretation and Exposition of Scripture we see she doth neither practise nor encourage the turning of Holy Scripture into Cabala's and Allegory as too many have precariously and groundlesly done according to the humour of their own imaginations our Church observing that Moderation which St Austin commends m De Civ Dei l. 17. c. 3. when he blames some for one extreme that will allow no type or signification in things done and recorded and others who contend all things in Scripture recorded have their Allegorical Interpretation n Mihi multùm errare videntur qui nullas res gestas aliquid aliud praeter id quod eo modo gesta sunt significare arbitrantur it a multùm audere qui prorsus ibi omnia significationibus allegoricis involuta esse contendunt Erasin Eccles l. 3. Nunquam dubia aenigmatum intelligentia ad autoritatem dogmatum proficere S. Hieron in Mat. 13. even the Doctrines of Catholick Faith which in his Epistle to Vincentius he calls a grievous piece of impudence to hold yet as Erasmus in his Ecclesiastes adds It is not fit to doubt of such Types and Allegories which Canonical Scripture have revealed to us § 7. Though the Moderation of the Church shews it self in that it doth not vain-gloriously boast of the Spirit yet it may well consist with her excellent modesty to believe of her self That in the interpretation of Holy Scripture she hath such an assistance of the Spirit of God as is promised to the Church in general The Church of England being a true part thereof subject to and governed by the word of God upon which account in 139. Canon it requires That the sacred Synod of this Nation in the name of Christ and by the Kings Authority assembled be acknowledged the true Church of England by Representation and it may be presumed That where the lawful representative of the Church is gathered together rightly the assistance of Gods Spirit is not wanting wherefore it argues immoderate presumption in them who receive with impious scorn our Confession of our undoubted hope that the Church of England hath the testimony of the Spirit of God in her interpretation of Scripture and yet these depravers of the Scripture o Qui ingenium suum faciunt Ecclesiae sacramenta S. Hier. Ep. 9. shall with glorious assurance affirm to themselves and their Complices the wonderful illapses and impulses of the divine Spirit when at the same time they contradict the Holy Catholick Church p Neque id defendere velim contra consensum antiquitatis spiritum qui Ecclesiae corpus Quod si mecum in rebus aliis caveant ilii jam spiritus ille privatus Ecclesiae Divisor perdet fascini sui efficaciam Grotius ad Riv. art 1. and themselves and when also many pretenders to a double portion of the Spirit have acted as the eldest Sons of Belial Whereas indeed the testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of the faithful themselves for the interpreting Holy Scripture and determining doubtful matters hath been more often urged than understood yea if we could suppose it was not a precarious assertion to be sure it is an improper method to convince Gainsayers yet to those who are out of Communion with the Church it must needs be a most uncertain and insufficient testimony § 8. Many we know there have been and are who pretend to such extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit as were peculiar to the first Ages of the Church thus doth the Church of Rome as did the Donatists of old make such miraculous testimonies the necessary sign of a true Church and somewhat like both these are the Enthusiasts of our late age who would make the priviledges of the Holy Spirit special and singular to their enclosures affirming a particular inspiration of the Spirit absolutely necessary To convey into our minds the sense and interpretation of Holy Scripture To assure all Christians of the certainty of their Salvation To furnish them with words and petitions in Prayer To convince any of the authority of Holy Scriptures and the certainty of Faith Our Church declares q Homily for Whit-sunday 2d Part. It is not the part of a Christian under pretence of the Holy Ghost to bring in his own dreams and phantasies into the Church for such blaspheme and bely the Holy Ghost whereas the proper office of the Holy Ghost is not to institute and bring in new Ordinances contrary to the doctrine before taught the doing of which the Homily declares is the sign of a false Church and of such as are deceivers It is to be acknowledged that the discourses concerning the operation and testimony of the Spirit are liable to many difficulties but The principal conclusions which are rightly made in this matter I suppose may be truly made out to be the sense of our Church declared in her own words 1. For interpretation of Holy Scripture the reason why our Church holds such extraordinary illumination not necessary is because r 2d Homily of Scripture All things necessary for our Salvation are plain to understand that is as the Homilies deliver to such as use the means and so far as their explicite knowledge is required For our Church doth speak of the illumination of the Spirit and interpretation of Scripture as generally joined with the use of means When any apply their minds to the study of the Scripture to hear read and search thus God openeth the dark things of Scripture unto faithful people It cannot be saith St Chrysostom that such should be left without help When our Homily mentions the Holy Ghost inspiring the true meaning of the Scripture it adds to them that with humility and diligence do search therefore which clause is not to be left out as it is by the Author of the Scriptures genuine interpreter p. 5. Those that thus thankfully chearfully and diligently hear read meditate and ruminate on Holy Scripture such have the sweet juice
and Peace in the Church Our Church hath wisely distinguished between what is necessary absolutely and what only in some circumstances is necessary to Salvation Those things saith the Homily a 2d Part of the Homily of Scriptures that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every mans duty is to learn them and as for dark mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them till such time as it shall please God to open those things unto them b Hom. 1. If it shall require to teach any truth or to do any thing requisite for our Salvation All those things saith St Chrysostom we may learn plentifully of the Scripture And in the 19. Article of the Church The Preaching of the pure word of God and the Administration of the Sacraments are made indispensable notes of the visible Church namely in all things that of necessity are requisite to the same and the 8th Article declares The three Creeds ought throughly to be believed and received for that they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture where our Church gives the reason of her Faith and sheweth her earnestness in contending for it But the Moderation of our Church contains her self within the bounds of what is before made necessary The principal and essential points of the Doctrine of Salvation such as are fit to make up the unity of the Faith and constitute a Church are no other among us than what Christ and his Apostles at first made necessary which also the ancient Church received as necessary unto Baptism and for distinction of Heresy which fundamental Maxims of Christian Science are frequently and plainly repeated in Scripture and by our Church were first of all insisted on at the reformation of our Church as we see in the Institution of a Christian Man 1537. in the first Injunctions of our Kings and our Form of Catechism Whereas the Catechisms and Systems which have been set up in opposition to the Catechism and Articles of the Church of England have abounded with many doubtful and unnecessary definitions yet so insisted upon by some as if the Hinges of the Gate of Heaven turn'd upon those Propositions whereby many have agreed with Pope Pius the Fourth who by his Bull set out the Apostles Creed in a larger Edition of about as many more Articles without belief of which is declared no Salvation c Extra quam Nemo salvus esse potest Bulla Pii quarti super formâ Juramenti professionis fidei sub finem Concilii Trid. Unto such a strange Circumference is the body of their unnecessary belief extended whereas the Religion of our Church tends to the Center Which distinction of things necessary from what was not so King James according to the sense of our Church declares of great use to lay a foundation for the publick peace of the Church d Vt de necessariis conveniat omnis opera insumatur in non-necessariis libertati Christianae locus Rex Jacobus ad Card. Perr and of particular mens minds and the furtherance of true Faith and Piety § 2. Those Articles which are delivered by our Church for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion 1. They are few especially those of positive Doctrine and the other negative positions were necessary to assert our liberty from the abuses and encroachments of the Romanists in their contrary affirmatives few if we consider either the time or the occasion of their being framed it being just about the meeting at Trent made it necessary for our Church to declare her sense of many Doctrines for the better satisfaction and directions of her Sons and to testify her equal conditions of Communion Especially also if we consider the cruel number of Articles which either the Westminster Divines or the Trent Councellors have imposed on their followers e Bishop â—ramball fol. p. 1018. Indeed the Romanists do call our Religion a negative Religion because in all the Controversies between us and them we maintain the negative that is we go as far as we dare or can with warrant from holy Scriptures and the Primitive Church and leave them in their excesses or those inventions which they themselves have added but in the mean while they forget that we maintain all those Articles and truths which are contained in any of the ancient Creeds of the Church which I hope are more than negative The Church of England saith Archbishop Laud f Archbishop Laud against Fisher 5. 14. comes far short of the Church of Romes severity whos 's Anathema's are not for 39. Articles but for very many more above one hundred in matter of Doctrine and that in many points as far remote from the foundation though to the far greater rack of Mens Consciences they must be all Fundamental if that Church have determined them Whereas the Church of England never declared that every one of her Articles are fundamentals in the Faith For it is one thing to say no one of them is superstitious or erroneous and quite another to say every one of them is fundamental Besides the Church of England prescribes only to her own Children and by those Articles provides but for her peaceable consent in those Doctrines of truth but the Church of Rome severely imposeth on all the World her Doctrine and that under pain of damnation § 3. These Articles of Religion are generally exhibited as Articles of Peace and consent not as Articles of Faith and Communion and as such they are propounded to all the Communicants in our Church g Schisin guarded p. 150. Bishop Lanies Sermons p. 48. in general For the avoiding Diversities of Opinions as the Title of the Articles is Not such a consent as Curcellaeus h Curcellaeus Religionis Christianae Institut C. 15. means where he supposeth some in the dregs of the Age of the Reformation obtrude their Confessions and Catechisms as a secondary rule if not of truth yet of consent such as ought to be urged only to an infallible truth 't is likely he might know many who did so But the consent designed to be established by our Articles is such a consent as may keep the Peace of our Church undisturbed according to the sense of the fifth Canon Where the Prohibition is directed against such as should speak against the 39. Articles as superstitious and erroneous such as may not with a good Conscience be subscribed to Whosoever shall hereafter affirm i Quicunque in posterum affirmabit c. Ecclesiae Anglic. Canon 5. not as the Council of Trent k Si quis contrà senserit Anathema sit Concil Trid. de peccato Originis directs its Anathema against those that shall so much as think diversly Wherefore our Church no where delivers our Articles as necessary to be believed neither by vertue of their own necessity or her own Command as several with Bishop Bramhall have noted For which reason subscription unto them is
Bull against Queen Elizabeth they will cry out God hath set them over all Princes and Nations to pluck up and destroy and to scatter to plant and to build They will presently be for binding Kings in Chains and our Nobles in Fetters of Iron that the Saints may rule and that the mountain of his Holiness may be exalted 9. In the mean while they have among them such a political and artificial dependence on their principal Leaders and the administration of their Body is cast into such a method for communication of News and * Tantum vaferrimi veteratores ex solâ correspondentiâ utilitatem ad unioâ—em tuendam sentiunt Hospin de Jesuitis l. 4. intelligence of their Affairs and Interests as we may be sure is contrived and menaged and directed by more subtil Wits than their own being so very like the same method which the Agents of Rome use themselves for the propagation and disposition of their Matters To mention nothing now further of their Agreements with the severest Emissaries of Rome in their pretences to all mortification of Spirit and mildness In their pretences to extraordinary and miraculous Gifts in their many kinds of Superstitions and Pharisaicalness in their clamours also of Persecution in their grievous Anathema's and Curses they use against us too like the Roman Curses by Bell Book and Candle which sheweth what is the Light within them § 9. It might be no difficult thing to shew some of those steps and degrees by which some commonly advance to Popery who separate from Communion with our Church The first step to Division is When what is amiss in Government and Governours in Church or State is set forth to the full advantage of dissatisfaction as may make withal the most lamentable out-cry that may be unto which there shall never be wanting arch and cunning Instruments who by all plausible means shall stir up the humour and Passions and Zeal of the People under such pretences as shall most inflame and excite them Then in the next place are made such immoderate pretences to Purity and profession of Saintship as when poor simple People experience upon trial the same to be false and not to answer their expectation they run and seek from one Sect to another till they come to be Quakers and so as we see in the next preparation to Popery 3. Having thus cast off all Forms as dangerous and unlawful being raised to expect every-where the effects of a Spirit extraordinary they are made so Enthusiastical 't is hard to contain them within ordinary bounds till they arrive at the perfection of Enthusiasm the Light within 4. By the way we must note there is no one Principle which hath bin the Original of all this Enthusiasm and Division more than that Nothing is lawful to be done but for which there is an express Example or Precept in the Scripture Which attributing to the Holy Scriptures that Perfection which is beside the end of them doth tend by consequence to take away the true perfection of them which they have which hath bin considered in the 4th Chapter which hath bin found true for all these sub-divisions of Sects have tended in the conclusion to cast off Holy Scripture as a Rule By the consequences of this Principle is come to pass what Arch-Bishop Whitgift and Hooker and others foretold If Puritanism should prevail it would soon draw in Anabaptism From them we have had Quakers and Seekers and other Sects which divide us and are ready to destroy us and to bring in Popery as it were at the back door I may not dissemble my own fears saith Bishop Sanderson * Pref. to his Serm V. Arch. Bp. Laud's dying Speech if things still go on as they have hitherto proceeded the application that some have made of that passage John 11. 48. The Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation will prove but a true Prophecy and Popery will over-run all at the last 5. But when they are run out of all possibility of pretending any Scripture to justify their Actions they then warrant them by Providence and such a necessity as God hath called them unto by extraordinary Revelations and Impulses which in the next remove comes to be Light within them 6. And when once they are off from our legal Establishments what can stop the Divisions of several Sects from ending in confusion and being made a prey of by designing Men whose business is when the Public is on fire to make out their Spoils And who think we are most cunning and industrious to make the advantage by all this but they whose greatest Business and industrious Design is to have our Church ruined Who make use of our Divisions to cry up also the necessity of an Infallible Judg of Controversy The Infallible private Spirit is a fair preparation thereunto and when they have broken and discredited the Authority of our Church they have that taken away which gives them most hinderance and opposition § 10. What hath bin in so many Instances proved is most agreeable 1. To the Art Industry and Design of the Romanists to make use of the Prejudices and Passions the divided Principles and Interests of Men to serve their purposes which are by any means whatsoever to multiply Proselytes and enlarge their Party Wherefore the Thesis of Bishop Bramhall out of Nilus was worthy such an Assertor That the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it hath bin usurped in our Native Country was either the Procreant or Conservant Cause or both Procreant and Conservant of all the Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World * Bp. Br. Gro. Rel. p. 74. 2. This is no more than what is agreeable to most common experience since the Reformation and hath bin noted with great authority and remark In the Preamble of the Act of Parliament 27. Hen. 8. 1536. The Public Authority of the Kingdom took notice how many of the Pope's Emissaries were practising up and down the Kingdom and persuading the People to acknowledg his pretended Authority In the Homily against Rebellion it is observed That the Bishops of Rome by the Ministry of their disguised Chaplains creep into Houses in Laymens Apparel and raise Rebellion The same Comenius relates was practised by them in the Bohemian Church †Admiscebant se personati quidam qui Papa causam promoturi dissentines mutuas promovebant Histor §. 36. Our English History tells us of sundry seditious Motions soon after and about the time of the Reformation which received their Impressions and Continuance from the influence of Romish Agents as * V. Acts and Monuments p. 1086. 1087 1306. in the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and Devonshire Commotions and Rebellions which were actuated by Monks Priests and Papists And how the like Game hath bin played ever since especially from the beginning of our Troubles in England Scotland Ireland c. Mr. Fowlis gives sundry proofs in